198
THE PRESS IN EASTON

James Cowan. First Printer of the Eastern Shore.-
Eastern, in Talbot County, became the location for Mary.
land's first printing press on the Eastern Shore.
Easton was the logical city for the first press; it
was the Maryland's "Little Capital," with the Land
Office for the Eastern Shore and the judge and regis-
ter for that office, and with the Treasury of the
Eastern Shore. The Court of Appeals for the Eastern
Shore met at Easton, as did, occasionally, the
District Court of the United States. The commodious
Courts-House was built for the accomodation of the
General Assembly, which contemplated, for a time,
holding alternate sessions in East on.¹

On June 3, 1789, James Cowan published a pros-
pectus for a newspaper to be published weekly at
Easton:

To the public.

It is of infinite importance to every free
people, that they should be accurately and
speedily informed of the measures of govern-
ment. A partial view of them would create dis-
content; an ignorance of them might terminate
in loss of liberty... the editor of the pro-
posed plan takes the liberty of observing, that
a paper established at Easton, commonly called
Talbot Courts-House, would, in a great degree,
put it in the power of the Eastern Shore to ob-
tain every public information by a ready and
cheap communication, His paper would reach the

1 Easton star. June 23, 1874.