“If we had cared to ‘cash in’ to that extent on our collateral ancestry, we could have harked back to our greatly honored and most venerable grandsire, the Independent Journal, or General Advertiser, which was published on Monday, November 17, 1783, at 32 Maiden Lane, New York.” —Journal of Commerce centennial edition, Sept. 29, 1927.

Late November 1783 was a heady time in New York City. The Revolution was finally over, the peace treaty in which England recognized the United States signed barely three months earlier. In those weeks of late fall, the last of the Redcoats and British loyalists were dribbling out of the city in defeat by ship, some for Nova Scotia, others home to England for good.

The coming weeks would see events that are permanently imprinted on American history: the triumphant arrival of George Washington, his resignation as commander in chief of the Continental Army, and his emotional farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern.

“The fact that the Independent Journal was chosen as the original medium for the publication of the Federalist Series of Essays is a mark of high distinction because the publication of this series, and what resulted from it, is the classical American example of the power of the press to mold public opinion.”

The few newspapers published in New York during the Revolution were all by this point extinct, and the Independent Journal was the first new one to be started. It began as a weekly, then went to biweekly. Its first edition contained, among other news and information, two historic documents, Washington’s farewell to the Armies of the United States and his proclamation of discharge from service of the entire Continental army. Inside the edition contained advertisements and a list of shipping arrivals.

The Journal of Commerce through the ages...

...and the original Journal of Commerce?

Initially the Independent prospered. It was selected in 1787 as the vehicle to publish 85 anonymously written essays that set forth the vision for a strong central government. This was when the Constitution was being drafted with the issue of state vs. federal authority a central issue in the debates. The essays are known today as the Federalist Papers, mostly written as it turned out by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.

In its 1927 centennial edition, the Journal of Commerce wrote, “The fact that the Independent Journal was chosen as the original medium for the publication of the Federalist Series of Essays is a mark of high distinction because the publication of this series, and what resulted from it, is the classical American example of the power of the press to mold public opinion.”

The Federalist papers were a boon to the Independent Journal, and it soon started publishing daily. It went through a series of name changes. First the word Journal was dropped, then the name was changed to the New York Gazette, then the Daily Gazette and General Advertiser. Upon the death of its owner in 1840, the paper having fallen on hard times, its plant, subscription list and belongings were sold to the Journal of Commerce, which was then renamed the Journal of Commerce and Gazette. That name that lasted less than a year before the paper was again named simply The Journal of Commerce.