10. Americans trusted specialized newspapers in growing numbers
During the late 19th century immigration led to the emergence of not only foreign language newspapers but religious papers as well. In Boston, Irish immigrants took solace in reading Catholic newspapers, supported and published by the Church. Dioceses across the country supported Catholic newspapers, in cities such as Cincinnati, Chicago, Baltimore, and St. Louis. In the latter, the diocese published no fewer than four separate newspapers. In the antebellum years, the Catholic newspapers had a somewhat confusing editorial position, which was established more or less nationwide by the Boston Pilot, the nation’s leading Catholic newspaper. The Pilot opposed the emancipation of slaves. It opposed the abolitionists. It also opposed secession and called on Irish-Americans to support the Union. Southern Hibernian societies condemned the Pilot and its views.
Protestant societies and churches had their own newspapers as well, which in the North became almost universally abolitionist. They followed the lead of William Lloyd Garrison, which he made known internationally through his newspaper The Liberator. Protestant newspapers, besides calling for emancipation and abolition, also supported the ideas of temperance, including the national prohibition of alcohol. Some protestant papers even supported the idea of universal suffrage, considered outrageous by conservatives of the day. Abolitionist newspapers, which often read like fire and brimstone sermons, were banned in the South, where their own Protestant newspapers defended slavery, often citing the same biblical sources the abolitionists used to condemn the “peculiar institution”. On both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, readers trusted the newspapers which espoused their political and religious beliefs.