The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

by H.W. Brands

Readers needed to remember that printing was a business, not that different from any other. Smiths dealt in iron, cobblers in leather, printers in opinions. Yet this was what got the printers in trouble. “Hence arises the peculiar unhappiness of that business, which other callings are no way liable to; they who follow printing being scarce able to do any thing in their way of getting a living which shall not probably give offence to some, and perhaps to many, whereas the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, or the man of any other trade may work indifferently for people of all persuasions without offending any of them; and the merchant may buy and sell with Jews, Turks, heretics and infidels of all sorts, and get money by every one of them, without giving offence to the most orthodox.” If other tradesmen were required to vouch for the convictions of their customers, there would be little trade transacted. So with printers. “If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”