up the situation somewhat as follows: "From all over the state
comes a unanimous demand for the nomination of .
While he is not the first choice of this newspaper, there seems to be such an overwhelming demand that the paper is forced to yield to the will of the majority. He should get the nomination and should receive the loyal support of every member of the party at the coming election." A cut-and-dried editorial in praise of the man would then be inserted in the Albany organ. This editorial would then be reprinted with other kind words of commendation by all the party organs of the State. The party voter, thus convinced of the universal demand of the man as Governor, would promptly fall in line. The party press had done its work and done it well.
PARTY PRESS IN ALBANY
Since the newspapers prior to 1830 were political mouth- pieces and were filled chiefly with political squibs and reports of stump speeches, Albany, the Capital of New York State, was an important news center. The Albany Register, established in 1788 by John and Robert Barber, was the spokesman for De- Witt Clinton. When he left office the paper soon after "went into his big ditch," the Erie Canal. It was revived, however, in 1818 by Israel W. Clark who had previously published The Watch Tower, a Democratic paper started at Cherry Valley, New York, in 1813, but removed to Cooperstown, New York, in 1814. Under his editorship it fed once again at the State printing crib.
Martin Van Buren needed some one to preach partisan gos- pel in Albany, and so with Jesse Buel in the pulpit he started The Albany Argus on January 1, 1813. Van Buren knew whereof he spoke when he asserted, in 1823: "Without a paper, thus edited at Albany, we may hang our harps on the willows. With it, a party can survive a thousand convulsions." In that year Edwin Croswell became the editor of The Argus, and while al- ways mindful of his master's voice he succeeded in injecting a literary taste and some journalistic skill into the vulgarity of the acrimonious political journalism of the time. The Argus was a member of the famous Van Buren triumvirate; its other two
