ABSTRACT
The first newspaper I remember was the Caledonian. It was published at St. Johnsbury, the place where the Fairbanks scales are made. The name came from that of the county, Caledonia, one of the northern tier in the little New England border State of Vermont. My father was a Whig in politics. The Caledonian was naturally of that stripe and complexion. Our nearest neighbor, a man named May, was a Democrat, and he, too, took a paper that sustained his political views. His paper became known to me about as soon as the other. It was called the North Star and was printed at Danville, a town of more importance then than now. One of these papers carried at its head a verse which I still recall. It read: Here shall the press The people’s rights maintain, Unawed by influence And unbribed by gain.
