The earliest extant Alabama imprint is thought to be _The Declaration
of the American Citizens on the Mobile, with Relation to the British
Aggressions. September, 1807_, which was printed "on the Mobile"
at an unspecified date. No one has yet identified the printer of
this five-page statement inspired by the _Chesapeake-Leopard_ naval
engagement. The next surviving evidence is a bail bond form dated
February 24, 1811, and printed at St. Stephens by P. J. Forster, who
is reported to have worked previously at Philadelphia.[62]
A second St. Stephens printer, Thomas Eastin, founded a newspaper
called _The Halcyon_ sometime in 1815, after Alabama newspapers had
already appeared at Fort Stoddert (1811), Huntsville (1812), and
Mobile (1813). Eastin had formerly worked at Nashville, at Alexandria,
La., and at Natchez in association with Mississippi's first printer,
Andrew Marschalk.[63] His work at St. Stephens included a 16-page
pamphlet, which is among the three or four earliest Alabama imprints
other than newspaper issues[64] and is the first specimen of Alabama
printing in the Library of Congress. Headed "To the Citizens of
Jackson County," it is signed by Joseph P. Kennedy and has on its
final page the imprint, "St. Stephens (M.T.) Printed by Tho. Eastin.
1815." Here "M.T." denotes the Mississippi Territory, which in 1817
divided into the Alabama Territory and the State of Mississippi. St.
Stephens was an early county seat of Washington County, now part of
Alabama, whereas Jackson County, to whose inhabitants the author
addresses himself, lies within the present Mississippi borders.
[Illustration: _James Madison, President of the U--States----_
"St. Stephens (M.T.) Printed by Tho. Eastin. 1815."]
Joseph Pulaski Kennedy wrote this pamphlet after an election in which
he ran unsuccessfully against William Crawford of Alabama to represent
Jackson County in the Territorial legislature.[65] His stated purpose
is to refute "malicious falsehoods ... industriously circulated"
against him before the election, foremost among them the charge that
but for him Mobile Point "would never have been retaken"; and he
summarizes his actions as an officer "in the command of the Choctaws
of the United States" during the dangerous final stage of the War of
1812 when the town of Mobile nearly fell into British hands.
The only recorded copy of this little-known pamphlet is inscribed to
"James Madison President of the U States." It owes its preservation to
its inclusion among the Madison Papers in possession of the Library of
Congress.[66]
[Footnote 62: Copies of both imprints are described under nos. 1548
and 1549 in _The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the
Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_ (New York, 1966-69), vol. 3. _The
Declaration_ was reprinted in _The Magazine of History, with Notes and
Queries_, extra no. 8 (1925), p. [45]-55.]
[Footnote 63: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _A Brief History of the First
Printing in the State of Alabama_ (Birmingham, 1931), p. 6.]
[Footnote 64: No. 4 in Historical Records Survey. American Imprints
Inventory, no. 8, _Check List of Alabama Imprints, 1807-1840_
(Birmingham, 1939); no. 3 in the section, "Books, Pamphlets, etc."
in R. C. Ellison, _A Check List of Alabama Imprints 1807-1870_
(University, Ala., 1946).]
[Footnote 65: See Cyril E. Cain, _Four Centuries on the Pascagoula_
([State College? Miss., 1953-62]), vol. 2, p. 8-9 (naming Crawford
only).]
[Footnote 66: It is in vol. 78, leaf 22. This volume, containing
printed material only, is in the Rare Book Division.]