Tree of Liberty (newspaper)

Tree of Liberty

Front page, 13 February 1802
Type Weekly newspaper
Founder(s) John D. Israel
Founded 16 August 1800[1]
Political alignment Democratic-Republican
Language English
Ceased publication circa 1810[1]
Country United States
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Tree of Liberty, published weekly from 1800 to about 1810, was the second newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.[2]

John D. Israel established the paper and issued it from a building owned by Hugh Henry Brackenridge.[3] Israel's columns denounced Federalists and their local organ, the Pittsburgh Gazette, and promoted the Democratic-Republican principles expressed by Thomas Jefferson.[4]

With the issue of 24 December 1805, Walter Forward assumed control of the paper with the participation of his friends Henry Baldwin and Tarleton Bates.[5][6] In that time of disunity among Pennsylvania's Democratic-Republicans, the Tree sided with the moderate wing of the party supporting Governor Thomas McKean and clashed with the Commonwealth, a mouthpiece for the party's radical anti-McKean faction.[7] Abuse from the Commonwealth led to Bates assaulting that paper's editor with a whip, and finally to the death of Bates in a duel.[8]

The Tree changed hands from Forward to William Foster in April 1807[9] and continued publication for about three more years.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About The Tree of liberty". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Iacone, Audrey Abbott (Summer 1990). "Early Printing in Pittsburgh, 1786–1856". Pittsburgh History 73 (2): 68.
  3. ↑ Field 1937, p. 233.
  4. ↑ Field 1937, pp. 233, 261.
  5. ↑ Field 1937, p. 234.
  6. ↑ Van Trump & Cannon 1974, p. 310.
  7. ↑ Van Trump & Cannon 1974, pp. 310–311.
  8. ↑ Van Trump & Cannon 1974, pp. 311–314.
  9. ↑ "[untitled]". The Commonwealth (Pittsburgh). 29 April 1807. p. 2, col. 1.

References