222

tries in the United States, and thus it was increasingly
easy to obtain the materials for printing,

On the whole it was a peaceful and prosperous per*
iod, favorable for the growth and expansion of culture
and the arts. The Washington Spy of Elizabeth-Town
(Hagerstown), Maryland, quoted fro^n "the Centinel^tf (the
Columbian Centinel of Boston?) on June 6, 1791:

Question - What are the individual states about?
Answer - ... Maryland. Happy in the improvement
of the products of her soil, enjoys the calm
repose of increasing prosperity, and rising im-
portance ... Of the union at large. This truism
has lately been declared by an elegant writer,
that "Time and prosperity travel together", as
they respect her; and let the scrutinizing eye
pervade any direction, and it will find a verifi-
cation of the assertion.

As for the character of the publications, as the
appended bibliography will show, it was as divergent as
the growing population which the publications served.
Wroth's History of Printing in Colonial Maryland shows
that the first presses existed mainly for the record-
ing and distribution of tho laws, and tho oarly bibliog-
raphy of tho Maryland press reveals logal documents and
forms to be the principal (at times the only) output.
During the colonial period the use of the press ex-
panded constantly, and tho types of books and other
material issued locally became increasingly varied.
During the Constitutional Period, covered in Maryland
by Joseph Towne Wheeler's Maryland Press, 1776-1790,