Anxious to make the _Times_ as useful and worthy of public patronage as possible, the subscriber has associated himself with John M. Niles, Esq., a young gentleman of talent. The business will be conducted under the firm of F. D. Bolles & Co., and they hope, through their joint exertions, to render the paper acceptable to its readers.
The subject of religious rights was the main topic of discussion in this paper. A subsequent number, August 12, 1817, has a long article signed, “Roger Williams.” It is headed, “An Inquiry Whether the Several Denominations of Christians in the States Enjoy Equal Civil and Religious Privileges.”
From the “History of Hartford County,” we quote the following:—
The _Hartford Times_ was started at the beginning of the year 1817. Its publisher was Frederick D. Bolles, a practical printer, and at that time a young man full of confidence and enthusiasm in his journal and his cause. That cause was, in the party terms of the day, “TOLERATION.” First, and paramount, of the objects of the Tolerationists was to secure the adoption of a new Constitution for Connecticut. Under the ancient and loose organic law then in force, people of all forms and shades of religious belief were obliged to pay tribute to the established church. Such a state of things permitted no personal liberty, no individual election in the vital matter of a man’s religion; and it naturally created a revolt. The cry of “Toleration” arose. The Federalists met the argument with ridicule. The “Democratic Republicans,” of the Jefferson fold, were the chief users of the Toleration cry, and the _Hartford Times_ was established on that issue, and in support of the movement for a new and more tolerant Constitution. It proved to be a lively year in party politics. The toleration issue became the engrossing theme. The _Times_ had as associate editor, John M. Niles, then a young and but little known lawyer from Poquonock, who subsequently rose to a national reputation in the Senate at Washington. It dealt the Federalists some powerful blows, and enlisted in the cause a number of men of ability, who, but for the peculiar issue presented—one of religious freedom—never would have entered into party politics. Among them were prominent men of other denominations than the orthodox Congregationalists; no wonder; they were struggling for life. There was a good deal of public speaking; circulars and pamphlets were handed from neighbor to neighbor; the “campaign” was, in short, a sharp and bitter one, and the main issue was hotly contested. The excitement was intense. When it began to appear that the Toleration cause was stronger than the Federalists had supposed, there arose a fresh feeling of horrified apprehension, much akin to that which, seventeen years before, had led hundreds of good people in Connecticut, when they heard of the election of the “Infidel Jefferson” to the Presidency, to hide their Bibles—many of them in hay-mows—under the conviction that that evident instrument of the Evil One would seek out and destroy every obtainable copy of the Bible in the land.