Meredith was no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober.
My friends lamented my connection with him, but I was to make the best
of it.
Our first papers made a quite different appearance from any before
in the province; a better type, and better printed; but some spirited
remarks of my writing, on the dispute then going on between Governor
Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people,
occasioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talk'd of,
and in a few weeks brought them all to be our subscribers.
Their example was follow'd by many, and our number went on
growing continually. This was one of the first good effects of my
having learnt a little to scribble; another was, that the leading men,
seeing a newspaper now in the hands of one who could also handle
a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and encourage me.
Bradford still printed the votes, and laws, and other publick business.
He had printed an address of the House to the governor, in a coarse,
blundering manner, we reprinted it elegantly and correctly,
and sent one to every member. They were sensible of the difference:
it strengthened the hands of our friends in the House, and they
voted us their printers for the year ensuing.
Among my friends in the House I must not forget Mr. Hamilton,
before mentioned, who was then returned from England, and had a seat
in it. He interested himself for me strongly in that instance,
as he did in many others afterward, continuing his patronage till
his death.
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