John Norvell
| John Norvell | |
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United States Senator from Michigan |
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In office January 26, 1837 – March 4, 1841 |
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| Preceded by | (none) |
| Succeeded by | William Woodbridge |
| Member of the Michigan Senate | |
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In office 1841 |
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| Member of the Michigan House of Representatives | |
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In office 1842 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 21, 1789 Danville, Kentucky, USA |
| Died | April 24, 1850 (aged 60) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Profession | Politician, lawyer, journalist, editor |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Battles/wars | War of 1812 |
John Norvell (December 21, 1789 – April 24, 1850) was a newspaper editor and one of the first U.S. Senators from Michigan.
Norvell was born in Danville, Kentucky, then still a part of Virginia, where he attended the common schools.
He was the son of Lt. Lipscomb Norvell, an officer of the Virginia Line in the American Revolutionary War and Mary Hendrick. Lipscomb Norvell was taken prisoner by the British when they captured Charleston, South Carolina in 1781 and later was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Lipscomb is buried in the Nashville City Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lipscomb descended from Captain Hugh Norvell (1666–1719), one of the original trustees of the City of Williamsburg in the 17th century and a Vestryman at Bruton Parish Church. Interestingly, Mary Norvell, Lipscomb's daughter, married James Walker, the father of William Walker (1824–1860) a soldier of fortune or filibusterer in Nicaragua in 1857.
In 1807, Norvell wrote to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson:
It would be a great favor, too, to have your opinion of the manner in which a newspaper, to be most extensively beneficial, should be conducted, as I expect to become the publisher of one for a few years.
Accept venerable patriot, my warmest wishes for your happiness.
He received a reply in which Jefferson first recommended authors to read on government and history, then issued a scathing critique of newspapers:
To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, 'by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.' Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. . . . I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.
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