William Goddard

Early life

Goddard was born to a well-to-do family on October 10, 1740, in New London, Connecticut. He was the son of William Giles Goddard, a wealthy doctor and the postmaster of New London, and was himself once postmaster of Providence for two years. His mother was Sarah Updike Goddard, the daughter of Lodowick Updike, whose English and Dutch ancestors were among the first settlers of Rhode Island, and who was also well educated and later ran the family printing business.

Goddard had an older sister, Mary Katherine, who was involved with the family business because she was inspired by her father to become a printer. William served as an apprentice printer for six years under James Parker starting in 1755 and worked in his New Haven, Connecticut, print shop. A few months after his arrival, he was given an assignment to travel through Connecticut to determine what it would cost to set up post offices for the colonial forces during the French and Indian Wars.

Goddard later worked in Parker's printing house in New York City in 1758, where he functioned as a journeyman. Samuel Farley arrived from Bristol, England, in 1760, and the following year established the New-York American Chronicle, a newspaper for which Goddard and Charles Crouch became his journeymen in his print shop. Then, in 1762, a fire gutted Farley's print shop, destroying most of his supplies, ending his newspaper.

Goddard's father died in 1762 and soon after his mother moved the family to Providence, Rhode Island. Goddard opened his first printing office in Providence in July with a £300 loan from his mother, becoming the first printer of the city. With the help of his mother and sister, he started The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, with the first issue being printed on October 20, 1762. He competed for Rhode Island's business with Franklin's press already established in Newport. This was the only newspaper printed in Providence before 1775. Goddard was the publisher and editor of Providence's first newspaper and his friend John Carter was the printer.

As a newspaper printer and publisher, Goddard subscribed to the ideal of a free and open press. However, his commitment to the ideal was tempered; he maintained that a free and open press "does not consist in publishing all the trash which every rancorous, illiberal, anonymous scribbler" submitted to a newspaper, and that any such freedom had to be employed with a measure of discernment and a responsibility to the truth.

Career

Goddard quit the family's printing company in Rhode Island because he was not making the income that he expected. He suspended the newspaper with issue number 134 on May 11, 1765, and left his mother in charge of the business. He found a job with the New York City publisher John Holt and became a silent partner with him. After a couple of months, he returned to Providence and published on August 24, 1765, an issue of the Gazette about the controversy of the Stamp Act of 1765. The newspaper was on the verge of going out of business, until Goddard published number 135 on August 9, 1766. At that time the newspaper was published under the name of "Sarah Goddard & Company," and the Stamp Act had been repealed. Later, Goddard then sent Samuel Inslee to assist his mother in the family business, but he retired with the issue printed on September 19, 1767. His friend John Carter, who had just left Franklin's print shop in Philadelphia, became a partner with the Goddard's family business. Carter assisted in printing the weekly newspaper until, he purchased the business from them in November 1768. He became the successor of Goddard's Providence Gazette newspaper and started publishing it alone, beginning with issue of November 12, 1768. Goddard's mother died on January 5, 1770.

In 1765 Benjamin Franklin was in London as an agent for Pennsylvania. When he opposed the enactment of the Stamp Act in 1765, knowing beforehand, however, that passage of the controversial bill was inevitable, he acquiesced, while actually working for its repeal and appealing to colonial sentiment.

In the meantime the people of Pennsylvania suspected Franklin of supporting the Act. To counter the criticism aimed at Franklin over his apparent involvement in the passage of the Stamp Act William Goddard reprinted almost the entire collection of Franklin essays from London papers in the Pennsylvania Chronicle which summarized Franklin's involvement and underlying opposition to the passage of this act. The role Goddard and Franklin played through the Pennsylvania Chronicle in relation to the Stamp Act marked a significant change in Pennsylvania colonial history and its politics, as the passage of the act effected a division in the Quaker Party which had always prevailed in the Pennsylvania Assembly.

Goddard meanwhile had joined the Sons of Liberty. Goddard was an anti-imperialist and a defender of the freedom of the press. He fought both the Loyalists and the Patriot to maintain freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Just before the Stamp Act of 1765 was to take effect in November, Goddard founded The Constitutional Courant which openly criticized the act in strong language. Under the assumed name of Andrew Marvel, Goddard secretly had the newspaper printed at Woodbridge, New Jersey, in the shop of James Parker, which was released on September 21, 1765. Its release caused much alarm and controversy resulting in extensive discussion and deliberations when it was sold on the streets of New York City. It consisted primarily of two essays that bitterly condemned the stamp tax. Goddard opened a print shop in June 1766 in Philadelphia in partnership with Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton and rented one of Franklin's old print presses. Galloway was the speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and promised Goddard the government's printing jobs, and Wharton was a successful merchant.

The Constitutional Post

Franklin had made significant contributions to the postal system in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia from 1737 to 1753, and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774. Because of Franklin's rebellious political stances, he was dismissed from the postal service in 1774, which brought about a flurry of protests from the Americans. Among the most outspoken was Goddard, who established his Constitutional Post to give the colonists sympathetic to the revolutionary cause a private communication network free from British eyes. Officials of the British postal system at the time began opening private correspondence mail for investigating. They also were interfering with the delivery of newspapers, which was the main means of getting news to the colonies. Goddard's newspapers became a sympathizer to the Patriot cause, and the British hindered the delivery of them, even banning altogether the delivery of some. Because of this, Goddard decided to design a new post delivery system for them. He started with his first post office delivery point at the London Coffee House in Philadelphia, a meeting place for merchants which became the center of much of the political life of the city prior to and during the revolution. Goddard established another in Baltimore. Because of war time activity with few people sending mail, and mail thieves taking advantage of the instability of the war, Goddard's experiment with the new postal route proved unsuccessful.

He first made known his post office project in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser on July 2, 1774. He brought into existence 28 other post offices in several colonies. The colonies paid a subscription to Goddard for the service which was further improved with the net revenues. This became the foundation for the United States Post Office Department. A side benefit of Goddard's ideas ultimately lead to the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Goddard had hired his own post riders and created a postal system that came to be known as The Constitutional Post, which would provide mail service to the colonies between New York and Philadelphia. Goddard established a system of postal routes and post offices, which presence and use brought about the discontinuance of the British postal system. Known as Goddard's Post Offices, it was a private enterprise and competed with the British postal system. Goddard stressed the idea that the various Constitutional Post Offices should be under the jurisdiction of a central government. He ran the new mail service as a private concern. It was so efficient that the Continental Congress, on May 29, 1775, took the first step and appointed a committee headed by Franklin and worked out its organization as an independent postal establishment. It was named The Constitutional Post. On July 26, 1775, Congress officially developed the new nation's first postal system. Goddard's oversight and organization at that time was operating from New Hampshire to Georgia. Congress, needing to deal with other urgent matters, delayed Goddard's proposed plan until after the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the Spring of 1775.

American Revolution

In 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed what was referred to by the colonists as the Intolerable Acts. A bill known as the Boston Port Bill was presented at the House of Commons on March 14, 1774. The intrusive bill passed both houses of Parliament with little opposition and was signed by the King a couple of weeks later.

Among other measures the Intolerable Acts closed the port of Boston and radically altered the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Many colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in response they organized the First Continental Congress on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia to establish a representative political body to oppose such laws. When the Boston riots erupted in September 1774 over the Coercive Acts, the colonies had lost much trust of the British Crown entirely. Since most of the Colonists were born in the colonies at that time and had never seen the actual 'mother land' they had very little sentiment left for King George III or for the British authorities in the colonies. As a result, the Continental Congress was convened at Philadelphia in May 1775 to create an independent government that would represent the colonists and oppose the arbitrary rules thrust upon them by the Crown. When Benjamin Franklin began to publicly lend support for the American Revolution he was dismissed from the royal postal service which resulted in widespread protests among the colonists, where Goddard was among the most outspoken. "Constitutional" post offices, were established in Baltimore and Philadelphia the same year in which Franklin was dismissed. "Constitutional post office" was the term employed by Goddard to distinguish them from the British system that was currently in operation.

During the few years leading up to the Revolution, Goddard became well noted for the innovations he introduced to the postal system as it came to be employed in mail delivery between the various colonies. Goddard's postal system came about as the result of a series of conflicts involving his newspaper the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and the Crown Post, a postal administration and mail delivery system that was in use in the British colonies prior to the advent of American independence, under the authority of the British crown. As the idea of revolution began to surface throughout the colonies, the British began manipulating the Crown Post by blocking the mail and communications between the various colonies in an effort to prevent them from organizing with each other. The Crown also resorted to the delay or destruction of newspapers and opening and reading private mail, a form of postal censorship that the British crown considered legal. Goddard's Pennsylvania Chronicle was sympathetic to the revolutionary ideas being put forth by Benjamin Franklin and others so Goddard's publications were routinely criticized by and under the constant scrutiny of the Crown Post authorities. Franklin had just fallen from grace with the British monarchy by exposing Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson with his own letters, showing him to be in collusion with British efforts to impose more laws and taxes on the colonies in America. His involvement with the Chronicle further prompted the Crown in their dealings with Goddard's newspaper. In their effort to see the Pennsylvania Chronicle delivered, Franklin and Goddard persevered and in the midst of British scrutiny would create a separate postal system that ultimately became the postal system in use in the United States today. After the war, Goddard became involved in a controversy between Generals Charles Lee and George Washington involving the acrimonious publication of Lee's account of Washington's alleged conduct during the war.

Washington-Lee controversy

General Charles Lee was passed over for command of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress who on June 15, 1775, unanimously appointed George Washington to be their commander. A disappointed Lee felt that the command should have been given to him and came to publicly criticize Washington as "...a certain great man who is damnably deficient", following Washington's defeats at the battles of White Plains and Fort Washington, in the fall of 1776.

Some years later Lee had requested Goddard to publish his account of the matter. In the July 6, 1779, issue of the Maryland Journal Goddard had printed General Lee's "Some Queries, Political and Military", which consisted of a three-volume work that contained twenty-five pointed questions about the management of the war by Congress, and the conduct of George Washington in particular. The "Queries" of the court-martialed general incited a Baltimore mob led by three Continental officers who confronted Goddard on the evening of July 8, They demanded at his home that he surrender and appear in front of the Whig club. Goddard grabbed his sword and called Eleazer Oswald to his side. He insisted that he not be treated in such a manner. He agreed to meet the club members in a civilized manner at a local coffee house but was doubtful that they would accept his offer. A mob led by Colonel Samuel Smith caught up with him later and carried him away. Overwhelmed and helpless, Goddard agreed to publicly apologize for publishing Lee's attack on Washington in his paper, which Goddard later repudiated. Goddard and Oswald informed the state authorities of the mob attacks while defending Lee. They also demanded public protection for themselves and their right to freedom of the press, but ultimately had their demands rebuffed. In the July 16 issue of the Maryland Journal, they subsequently published an acrimonious account about why and how they were treated. They championed Lee's cause, printed the correspondence between Oswald and Smith, and retracted the apology that was coerced from Goddard. The long-term consequence of this episode was that Goddard and General Lee became good friends.

In September 1782, Lee, on his way to Philadelphia, stopped for a few days in Baltimore to visit the Goddards. He went on to Philadelphia, where he died October 2. It is not known exactly how the papers of General Lee came into the hands of his friend Goddard. Goddard's original plans to publish the papers never reached fruition. Knowing the controversial and critical nature of the work and that its publication was likely to cause trouble, Goddard, in a letter of May 30, 1785, wrote to Washington informing him that he had received a letter from Lee asking him to publish his work which roundly criticized Washington. Goddard enclosed a hand-written copy of the proposed title page on June 14, and later sent Washington a printed title page as part of his prospectus of Lee's projected three-volume work. The title page read: Miscellaneous Collections from the Papers of the late Major General Charles Lee. Goddard's letter to Washington from Baltimore, dated May 30, 1785, said that the Manuscript Papers of General Lee came into his hands after Lee's death, and he was taking care to prepare them for publicizing by removing offensive material. Washington, in a reply letter of June 11, 1785, to Goddard, referred to the news he had received from him objectively and wrote of his actions that were now in question. Goddard continued to publish his newspaper in Baltimore for thirteen more years and was never again harassed. After Lee died, he left Goddard a sizable portion of his estate.

Later years

Goddard's relationship with his sister Mary Katherine became strained in his last years, possibly over money issues. In January 1784, his name was added to the colophon of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser as the main editor while, his sister's name was dropped altogether. Goddard continued to be the head of the newspaper, and his sister remained in the city as a self-publisher. Goddard and his sister had published competing almanacs for 1785, which led him levying attacks at both his sister's almanac and her character. Mary sold her interest in the Maryland Journal in 1785 to Edward Langworthy that ended her business dealings with her brother and the newspaper she had assisted in establishing.

On May 25, 1785, Goddard married Abigail Angell of Johnston, Rhode Island, the daughter of Brigadier-General James Angell and Mary Mawney Angell. The wedding took place at Cranston. They had 5 children: 4 daughters and 1 son. In 1803, he left Johnston for Providence, so his children might have more educational advantages. His son William Giles Goddard graduated from Brown University in 1812 and received an appointment of Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics.

Goddard in his retirement, helped with the preparation of Isaiah Thomas's History of Printing in America (1810) and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.

He lived in Providence until his death, December 23, 1817, aged seventy-seven years. He is buried in the North Burial Ground at Providence, Rhode Island. Goddard's son William Giles Goddard wrote his father's obituary for the Rhode Island American newspaper. It contained a passage which read, "The first years of his long life were passed amid the turmoil of useful activities - the last in the bosom of domestic quiet."

Works

The Partnership: Or the History of the Rise and Progress of the Pennsylvania Chronicle (1770)

Andrew Marvell's Second Address to the Inhabitants of Philadelphia (1773)

The Prowess of the Whig Club, and the Manceuvers of Legion (1777)