June 13, 1980

NEW SOLIDARITY Page 11

Press Pass: Fay Sober

Mathew Carey's American Museum

Publisher Carey

In January 1787, Philadelphia printer Mathew Carey began publication of the American Museum, a monthly journal that served as the major educational vehicle for the successful effort at establishing the United States Constitution. The magazine was and is a model for the proper role of journalism in the United States, and makes a total mockery of the standard magazine rack fare in the United States today from Time to People and such pretentious vehicles of Eastern Establishment policies as Foreign Affairs. Carey began the magazine, a 100-page journal, at a crucial point in American history. The government was floundering and near bankruptcy under the Articles of Confederation. It was increasingly clear to Americas Revolutionary War leadership that a fundamental restructuring of the American government could not be postponed. Those leadersBenjamin Franklin, Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington and Alexander Hamiltonwere the moving forces behind Carey and the American Museum. Washington's commentary on the American Museum, printed in the magazine as a letter in 1789, makes the impact of Carey's project clear: "I entertain an

high idea of the utility of Periodical Publications, insomuch that I could heartily desire, copies of the Museum and Magazines, as well as common Gazettes, might be spread through every city, town and village in America. I consider such easy vehicles of knowledge, more happily calculated than any other, to preserve liberty, stimulate the industry and meliorate the morals of an enlightened and free People." Franklin Sponsors Carey Carey, a young Irish revolutionary, had been discovered in Paris at the age of 19 by Benjamin Franklin during the American Revolution. Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette took Carey under their supervision and financed both his emigration to the United States and the setting up of a printing business in Philadelphia. The American Museum was the beginning of Carey's role as a polemicist and economist of the American system. His printing operation remained the heir to Franklin's tradition for decades. In 1810, Carey began a single-handed campaign to rally the country behind the rechartering of Hamilton's National Bank. Following that, Carey published a series of his own pamphlets on economics, attacking British economic theorist Adam Smith and defining the need for a national bank, large scale industry, and internal improvements in the United States. The initiating subscribers to the magazine included Franklin, Lafayette, Washington, Hamilton, Hamilton allies Rufus King and Gouverneur Morris, and almost every political leader of that time. From its first issue the magazine was a polemic against the floundering confederacy and a spokesman for a new constitution. Thomas Paine's Common Sense was reprinted in its entirety over the first three issues. Articles like "Confederation for America, or remarks on her real situation, her interests and her policy," by Franklin; and "Address to the Freemen of America on the defects of the confederation;" both in the inaugural issue, appeared every month. After the Constitutional Convention, which Carey covered thoroughly, the Museum published the Federalist Papers as they were written, to prevent in Carey's words, "the perishable nature" of newspapers from "entailing oblivion on them." Education on Political Economy

Carey, who later emerged as a brilliant economist in his own right, used the American Museum to educate his readers on political economy. The September 1787 issue had six articles on the importance of manufacturing, while in July of that year Carey published eight articles on the importance of paper money, including a reprint of a 1764 article by Franklin. The focus of the magazine reflected Carey's commitment to manufacturing in the United States, regularly reprinting reports from the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufacturing and the Useful Arts. The commitment of the American Museum to science was in itself a reflection of the seriousness with which Carey and company took their responsibility for building the nation. Articles on cancer, lunar volcanoes, electricity, earthquakes, and, most importantly, agriculture, were everywhere. Even more amazing is that the articles were often written by the country's political leaders. The American Museum ceased publication in 1792 at least in part because its initial purpose had been served with the establishment of the Constitution and the implementation of Hamilton's economic program, but apparently as well due to harassment by the Philadelphia Post Office which made it almost impossible for Carey to get the magazine to subscribers. This column was contributed by Patrick Koechlin.