[Illustration: _Some of the subjects covered in_ The Laws of the
Territory of Louisiana.]
Joseph Charless, with a background of printing experience in his
native Ireland, in Pennsylvania, and in Kentucky, became the first
man to establish a printing press west of the Mississippi River.
Meriwether Lewis, Governor of the Territory of Louisiana, was
instrumental in bringing Charless to St. Louis, the Territorial
capital, and there the printer launched his weekly newspaper, the
_Missouri Gazette_, on July 12, 1808.[67] His awareness of his place
in history is demonstrated by a copy of _Charless' Missouri & Illinois
Almanac, for 1818_, printed in 1817, which the State Department
Library transferred to the Library of Congress in August 1962. It
is inscribed: "A tribute of respect from the first Press that ever
crossed the Mississippi."[68]
The earliest example of Missouri printing in the Library of Congress
is _The Laws of the Territory of Louisiana. Comprising All Those Which
Are Now in Force Within the Same_, printed at St. Louis by Charless
with the imprint date 1808. Besides newspaper issues this was long
thought to be the first Missouri imprint. A document of April 29,
1809, appearing on p. 373 proves that it was not completed until after
that date, however, and recent authorities have relegated it to second
or third place in terms of publication date.[69]
Consisting of 376 numbered pages with a 58-page index, the book is
a compilation of the laws of 1804 and 1806-08. Those of 1804 carry
over from the compilation for the District of Louisiana, which is the
Library's earliest Indiana imprint, and the same law on slavery quoted
on p. 41, above, is among those reprinted. Typical of the later laws
is "An Act Concerning Strays," from which the following section is
presented for its incidental reference to printing:
Sec. 4. Every person taking up a stray horse, mare or
colt, shall within two months after the same is appraised,
provided the owner shall not have claimed his property
during that time, transmit to the printer of some public
newspaper printed within this territory, a particular
description of such stray or strays and the appraisment
thereof, together with the district and place of residence
certified by the clerk, or by the justice before whom such
stray was appraised, to be inserted in such paper three
weeks succesively, for the advertising of which the printer
shall receive his usual and stated price for inserting
advertisements in his newspaper.
In 1809 the _Missouri Gazette_ was still the only newspaper available
to print these advertisements.
The Library of Congress must have obtained its copy of this book
during the final quarter of the 19th century, when the "Law
Department" stamp on the title page was in use.
[Footnote 67: See David Kaser, _Joseph Charless, Printer in the
Western Country_ (Philadelphia [1963]). A printed form, surviving in
a copy dated in manuscript July 8, 1808, may have been printed by
Charless at St. Louis; see no. 1836 in _The Celebrated Collection of
Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_ (New York,
1966-69), vol. 3.]
[Footnote 68: See U.S. Library of Congress, _Quarterly Journal of
Current Acquisitions_, vol. 20 (1962-63), p. 199 and plate facing p.
197.]
[Footnote 69: See Kaser, _Joseph Charless_, p. 71-74; V. A. Perotti,
_Important Firsts in Missouri Imprints, 1808-1858_ (Kansas City,
1967), p. 1-4.]