Hezekiah Niles
Hezekiah Niles | |
|---|---|
Painting by John Wesley Jarvis, 1827 | |
| Born | October 10, 1777 Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | April 2, 1839 (aged 61) Wilmington, Delaware, United States |
| Resting place | Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery |
| Occupation | Journalist, editor, publisher |
Hezekiah Niles (October 10, 1777 – April 2, 1839), was an American editor and publisher of the Baltimore based national weekly news magazine Weekly Register, also known as Niles' Weekly Register or Niles' Register.[1] The most widely circulated magazine of its time, the Register was the nation's first weekly newsmagazine and "exerted a powerful influence on the early national discourse."[2]
Early life
Niles was born near Chadd's Ford in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to a Quaker family, although his father quit the church to fight in the American Revolutionary War. In 1777, the family fled from Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of British forces to the home of James Jefferis on the east side of the Brandywine Creek near Jefferis' Ford.[3] Niles later asserted in the Weekly Register that a Hessian soldier threatened to bayonet his mother while pregnant with him.
Niles's father died in 1791 when the signpost of his carpenter shop fell on him.[3]
Career
The family returned to Wilmington and after the war his father rejoined the Quakers. At 17, Niles apprenticed with a Philadelphia printer for three years. He then worked in Wilmington for several years, attempting to establish a printing business that went bankrupt in 1801. In 1805 he published a short-lived literary magazine called the Apollo.
Later in 1805, he moved to Baltimore, where until 1811 he edited a daily broadsheet, the Baltimore Evening Post, associated with the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1811, he issued the prospectus for the Weekly Register and had 1,500 subscribers before the first issue had been published. His book Principles and acts of the Revolution in America[4] was first published in 1822.
Niles edited and published the Weekly Register until 1836, making it into one of the most widely circulated magazines in the United States and himself into one of the most influential journalists of his day. The Niles' Weekly Register covered not only politics, but economics, science, technology, art, and literature. In the Register's discourse of politics, Niles used what he called "magnanimous disputation", trying to present the arguments of both sides fairly and objectively, a policy which has made the paper an important source for the history of the period.[5]
Peacemaking efforts between the North and South
Niles foresaw the possibility of the American Civil War as early as 1820, and published articles in the Register which suggested efforts the South could make in modernizing their economy to a form which was not fully dependent on slavery, publishing efforts which he hoped would help avoid conflict between the North and South. Southern states largely rejected these suggestions that sought to alter their economic dependence on slavery.[5][6]
Death
Niles married Anne Ogden.[3]
Later in life, Niles was afflicted by a paralytic condition and retired to Wilmington, Delaware, where he died in 1839.
Legacy
Niles, Michigan and Niles, Ohio are named for him. Niles, Illinois may also be named for him, but circumstances are unclear concerning the naming of the surrounding township in 1850.
References
- ^ Niles, Hezekiah, ed. (March–September 1823). Niles' Weekly Register. Vol. 24. Baltimore: William Ogden Niles.
- ^ Rasmussen, Frederick N. (September 4, 2011). "Hezekiah Niles a patriotic newsmagazine editor in 19th century". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
- ^ a b c Luxon, Norval Neil (1941). "H. Niles, the Man and the Editor". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 28 (1): 27–40. doi:10.2307/1886748. ISSN 0161-391X.
- ^ "Centennial offering. Republication of the Principles and acts of the revolution in America". United States Library of Congress.
- ^ a b Kovarik, Bill (2016). Revolutions in Communication. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 9781628924787.
- ^ Kovarik, Bill. "The editor who tried to stop the Civil War". Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2017.
Further reading
- Earle, W. H. (Fall 1996). "Niles' Register, 1811-1849: Window On The World". Journal of the War of 1812 and the Era 1800 to 1840. I (5). Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
- Kovarik, William (Summer 1992). "To Avoid the Coming Storm: Hezekiah Niles Weekly Register as a Voice of North-South Moderation, 1811 - 1836". American Journalism.
- Kovarik, William (2006). "Niles Register". Encyclopedia of American Journalism History. Routledge.
- Luxon, Norval (1947). Niles Weekly Register: News Magazine of the Nineteenth Century. Louisiana State University Press.
- Rasmussen, Frederick N. (September 4, 2011). "Hezekiah Niles a patriotic newsmagazine editor in 19th century". The Baltimore Sun.
- Rockman, Seth (2009). Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801890079.
- Stone, Richard G. (1933). Hezekiah Niles as an Economist. Johns Hopkins Press.
External links
- Biographical Sketch of Hezekiah Niles from The History of Chester County by Futhey and Cope (1881)
- Niles Weekly Register fulltext
- David D. Fowler, Niles' Florida. A five-volume compilation of news articles, personal letters, and anecdotes from early 19th century Florida. Thirty-eight years of Florida's history between 1811 and 1849 from the Niles' Weekly Register.
- Hezekiah Niles on Find a Grave
- Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America; or an attempt to collect and preserve some of the speeches, orations and proceedings, with sketches and remarks on men and things, and other fugitive or neglected pieces of the revolutionary period.