{"id":20694,"date":"2020-07-04T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T21:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/that-time-alexander-hamilton-founded-americas-oldest-daily-newspaper\/"},"modified":"2020-07-04T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T21:01:00","slug":"that-time-alexander-hamilton-founded-americas-oldest-daily-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/that-time-alexander-hamilton-founded-americas-oldest-daily-newspaper\/","title":{"rendered":"#That time Alexander Hamilton founded America\u2019s oldest daily newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#That time Alexander Hamilton founded America\u2019s oldest daily news<\/a>paper<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean start a major daily newspaper?<\/p>\n

\u201cHamilton\u201d fans have learned a lot about America\u2019s first Treasury Secretary from Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s popular musical, which dropped Friday on Disney , that they might not have known before.<\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton was a scrapp<\/a>y immigrant from Saint Kitts and Nevis. A prolific writer, he composed 51 of the Federalist Papers, but then a scandalous affair scuttled his chances for a political future.<\/p>\n

However, many Broadway buffs don\u2019t<\/em> know about one of Hamilton\u2019s enduring achievements, which they see every day online at newsstands: He founded the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States \u2014 The New York Post.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to make a New York paper with a strong Federalist Party stance \u2014 as opposed to President Thomas Jefferson\u2019s ruling Democratic-Republican Party \u2014 Hamilton sought to raise $10,000 to fund the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamilton hoped the Post would chart a path for other Federalist newspapers and breathe life into a nearly moribund party,\u201d author Ron Chernow wrote in his biography \u201cAlexander Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton contributed $1,000 of his own money (about $20,000 when adjusted for inflation) and, legend has it, secured the rest of the cash during a meeting at Gracie Mansion downtown, which today serves as the mayor\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n

The first issue was published on Nov. 16, 1801, nearly three years before Hamilton would die in an infamous duel with Aaron Burr. Starting out, the Evening Post was merely a single sheet of paper folded in half to create four pages, according to Allan Nevins\u2019 book \u201cThe Evening Post: A Century of Journalism.\u201d Controversial journalist James T. Callender called it \u201cthe most elegant piece of workmanship that we have seen, either in Europe or America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The earliest subscribers included John Jacob Astor, the great-grandfather of millionaire real estate tycoon John Jacob Astor who died in the Titanic sinking, and Daniel D. Tompkins, who later became New York governor and vice president and is the namesake of Tompkins Square Park.<\/p>\n

The Post was not a vanity project for Hamilton, who frequently used the daily to wage vicious political battles.<\/p>\n

From December 1801 to April 1802, Hamilton wrote an 18-piece series<\/a> under the pseudonym Lucius Crassus called \u201cThe Examination\u201d attacking President Jefferson \u2014 and he didn\u2019t pull punches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Message of the President, by whatever motives it may have been dictated, is a performance which ought to alarm all who are anxious for the safety of our Government, for the respectability and welfare of our nation,\u201d he wrote in the first entry. \u201cIt makes, or aims at making, a most prodigal sacrifice of constitutional energy, of sound principle, and of public interest, to the popularity of one man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s storied history of covering local crime started early, and sadly, with the dueling death of Hamilton\u2019s son Philip at 19 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis manner on the ground was calm and composed beyond expression,\u201d wrote a Post reporter on the scene. \u201cThe idea of his own danger seemed to be lost in anticipation of the satisfaction which he might receive from the final triumph of his generous moderation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Chernow, Hamilton and The Post aimed to depoliticize the tragic killing, which was committed by a young Jeffersonian named George Eacker, who infuriated Philip with an anti-Hamilton speech. Hamilton didn\u2019t want to be blamed for his own son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Post even wrote an anti-dueling editorial in the aftermath, years before Hamilton died in the very same bloody manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cReflections on this horrid custom occur to every man of humanity,\u201d the paper said. \u201cBut the voice of an individual or of the press must be ineffectual without additional, strong, and pointed legislative interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hamilton died in 1804 and was laid to rest during a military-style funeral near Trinity Church, The Post was there to witness the final sendoff of one of the city\u2019s \u2014 and the new nation\u2019s \u2014 most celebrated and admired citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scene was enough to melt a monument of marble,\u201d The Post said of the sadness at the premature loss of a Founding Father.<\/p>\n

New York is still the greatest city in the world 218 years later, and Hamilton\u2019s New York Post keeps telling its story.<\/p>\n