The "Amending America: Part IV" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Writing the final story about my visit to LancasterHistory.org to view the national traveling display titled "Amending America: The Bill Of Rights".  

The traveling exhibit was developed two years ago by the National Archives on the 225th anniversary of the Bill of Rights.  It has wound it's way to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is housed in the building which sits next to Wheatland, the home of former President James Buchanan.  One final display I viewed was based on the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; The guarantee of freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly and the right to petition.  It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual's religious practices.  

Lancaster's "The Journal" was printed in the building to the
left of the old car on the left side of this photo.

Also guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.  It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.  On display at the museum were original copies of Lancaster's oldest newspaper, The Journal.  

The front of the building as it appears today in Lancaster.

It is one of our nation's longest-living newspapers having begun on June 17, 1794 when it was proclaimed to be "open to all Parties, but not influenced by any!  It was one of the first to embrace freedom of speech and of the press as guaranteed in the First Amendment which had been adopted three years earlier.  Lancaster celebrated the newspaper's 224 anniversary this year.  

This Ben Franklin press is similar to
the press used to print "The Journal".

Even though it has survived that long, it wasn't the first newspaper in Lancaster.  Several German and English papers preceded it, but none survived.  It was in the Spring of 1794 that William Hamilton and Henry Wilcocks established a book-printing shop on West King Street in downtown Lancaster at Franklin's Head (The Head meaning the print shop sign was a painted portraiture of printer Ben Franklin).  To this day it still remains Lancaster's newspaper headquarters.  Wilcocks left the paper two years later, but Hamilton, who had moved to Lancaster from Philadelphia, continued with the paper until his death by insanity in 1820.  The first edition of The Journal was 500 copies which were printed by hand on a wooden "Ben Franklin" press.  

This German dictionary was printed in 1812 by Hamilton. 

The smallest movable type available at the time was used to cram as much news as possible into the four-page weekly newspaper.  Two years later, accordingly to Hamilton, two Lancaster men disliked the way The Journal attempted to influence the 1796 election and encouraged readers to drop their subscriptions.  The newspaper survived and in 1799 The Lancaster Intelligencer was founded, but later merged in 1839 with The Journal to become the Intelligencer and Journal.  In 1880, Lancaster's Republican judiciary attempted to disbar the two Lancaster lawyers who published the Intelligencer, a Democratic newspaper.  

This is Sam Lazarowitz selling the Lancaster newspaper in
downtown Lancaster's square in 1942.  He is about 100
yards from the newspaper building.

The lawyers had editorialized negatively on the court's dismissal of an alleged violation of election laws by a Republican.  They argued that no judge or court was beyond criticism.  Even thought they lost on the county level, as expected, they won before the State Supreme Court.  It was an important verdict that further led to freedom of the press.  Lancaster's newspapers were eventually combined and last year they became LNP, with ties to the original Lancaster Journal.  Next year they will celebrate 225 years of freedom of the press under the First Amendment in Lancaster.  Not many newspapers in the United States can lay claim to that record.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.