Northampton, Sept. 6, 1786.
To the Public.

By the advice and encouragement of a number of Gentlemen in this County, the Subscriber has established a Printing Office in Northampton, where printing of all kinds usual in America will be performed with care and dispatch.

In a country like this, where our national character and happiness so entirely depend upon a general diffusion of knowledge among the people, the extensive advantages of such periodical publications cannot be too often explained or too highly estimated.—The United States of America owe their existence as an empire to that Superior degree of knowledge which the people at large have enjoyed and maintained through every period of their progress, from the first settlement of the country to the late revolution. In no country have the rights of mankind been more generally understood, and more rationally and systematically maintained. It is well known that the establishment of schools in every part of the country and the circulation of News-Papers, are among the principal causes which have led us to our present situation: the danger is, that the enjoyment of peace and tranquility will produce inattention to these subjects; that when the feelings exited by our troubles have subsided, our friends will sink into that indolence which is natural to such a state, our children will grow up in ignorance, and ignorance is the parent of slavery and all the national vices which mark the decline of empire.

Whatever may be the fate of the Subscriber in his attempt, the establishment of a press in this town certainly promises many advantages to this part of the country. The greater part of the extensive and flourishing counties of Hampshire and Berkshire, are much more commodiously situated to receive their communications from this office than from any other, while increasing the number of presses, in the country, will probably increase the number of readers and writers, an object to be desired by every friend of liberty and nature.

WILLIAM BUTLER.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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William Butler began publication of the Hampshire Gazette on September 13, 1786, in Northampton, Massachusetts. This article is his letter to the public about his reasons for founding the paper, "with the advice and encouragement of a number of Gentlemen in this County." Although he does not state it in this article, the mission of the newspaper was to inform the public about the issues pertaining to the ongoing actions of the Regulators and the government during the last part of 1786, which became known as Shays' Rebellion.

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