PUBLICK OCCURRENCES? FORREIGN and DOMESTICK? est. 1690?
It’s back, with the original newspaper’s name now gracing this Substack page.
PUBLICK OCCURRENCES Both FORREIGN and DOMESTICK was a rather short-lived newspaper. Really short-lived, as in …
One day.
I’ll be lazy and let Wikipedia explain, seeing how it appears to be the only online source on the newspaper’s exceedingly brief existence and I’d only wind up closely paraphrasing what Wikipedia says.
“Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was the first multi-page newspaper published in British colonial America….
“The first and only issue, published on Thursday, September 25, 1690, had an account of a battle waged by General Fitz-John Winthrop during the French and Indian Wars covering the brutal treatment of French prisoners of war. No second edition was ever printed because the account angered the colonial government, which ordered the immediate suspension of the paper, only four days later on September 29, 1690, and which referred to the paper as a ‘pamphlet.’ All remaining issues of the newspaper were destroyed. The order stated:
Whereas some have lately presumed to Print and Disperse a Pamphlet, Entitled, Publick Occurrences, both Forreign and Domestick: Boston, Thursday, Septemb. 25th, 1690. Without the least Privity and Countenance of Authority. The Governour and Council having had the perusal of said Pamphlet, and finding that therein contained Reflections of a very high nature: As also sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports, do hereby manifest and declare their high Resentment and Disallowance of said Pamphlet, and Order that the same be Suppressed and called in; strictly forbidden any person or persons for the future to Set forth any thing in Print without License first obtained from those that are or shall be appointed by the Government to grant the same."
By Order of the Governor and Council,— Isaac Addington, Secr.,
“After the prompt suppression of Publick Occurrences and the subsequent passage of the newspaper and printing licensing law, future prospective publishers were discouraged from establishing new newspapers until 1704.”
You know, like today. America’s old king of 1690 and his lackeys, gone; America’s new king and lackeys, every bit as “sensitive” to news, information and commentary they don’t like. That they make clear to publishers and broadcasters.
Such is the way of tyranny. Its first modern act is censorship through intimidation. And costly libel suits. I don’t expect today’s American autocrat to stop there, and neither do you.
But none of us should stop resisting tyranny. “[That] way lies madness,” said another king by the name of Lear, for it only invites more and harsher acts of oppression.
So let’s stay together as we work to return America to … America.