Advocate (Pittsburgh)

Advocate

Front page of daily edition, 19 June 1840
Founder(s) James Wilson
Founded

13 August 1832 (1832-08-13)

1 October 1833 (daily)

Political alignment Anti-Jacksonian, Whig
Language English
Ceased publication 29 February 1844 (1844-02-29)
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Country United States
Pittsburgh newspaper consolidation timeline

The Advocate was a newspaper in Pittsburgh, published under several title variants from 1832 to 1844. It was the second daily newspaper issued in the city, the first being its eventual purchaser, the Gazette.[1][2] Politically, the paper supported the principles of the Whig Party.

History

On 13 August 1832,[3] The Pennsylvanian Advocate was started by James Wilson (paternal grandfather of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson), then of Steubenville, Ohio.[4] He announced in his prospectus that he would promote protectionism, internal improvements, a sound currency, the independence of Congress and the preservation of the Union, which, at that time, was threatened by a faction in South Carolina and elsewhere in the South.[5] Important to all of these missions, the editor believed, was to defeat the re-election of President Andrew Jackson.[6]

The first few issues were printed on a weekly basis at Steubenville and sent to Pittsburgh for distribution. Very soon, Wilson had a press set up in a Pittsburgh office and began turning out a thrice-weekly edition.[4][6][7][3][8] According to William Bayard Hale, the press was the first west of the Allegheny Mountains that could print a double-page form (one side of a whole sheet) at one impression.[4]

Born during the Bank War, the paper met controversy early on when Jacksonian newspapers accused it of accepting payments from the United States Bank to publish pro-Bank propaganda.[9][10] It was reported that a letter intended for James Wilson was mistakenly received by another man of the same name, who opened it and found a large check from Nicholas Biddle, the Bank's president.[11] Wilson published an affidavit denying that he had been bribed or corrupted.[12]

With the Advocate about a year old and on firm footing, Wilson returned to Steubenville,[5] leaving the paper to be carried on by his eldest son William Duane Wilson, at first in partnership with Alfred W. Marks.[13] Upon this change the paper issued its first daily edition under the name Pennsylvania Advocate and Pittsburgh Daily Advertiser.[5]

In keeping with its founding political views, the Advocate became an organ of the newly formed Whig Party.[14] In 1836 it absorbed another Whig paper, the weekly Statesman,[15] which had been established over thirty years earlier as the Commonwealth.[16]

Control of the paper passed in 1837 to Robert M. Riddle,[17] later to be Whig mayor of Pittsburgh and editor of the Commercial Journal. In 1839 George Parkin merged his weekly Western Emporium into the Advocate and joined Riddle as co-editor.[18] Parkin assumed full editorship the following year.[19]

The last editor-proprietor of the Advocate, Judge Thomas H. Baird, sold the paper in 1844 to be merged with the Gazette.[20] The titles of the daily editions of the two papers, Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and Daily Advocate and Advertiser, were combined as Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and Advertiser ("Advocate" was dropped to avoid confusion with two religious papers known by that name).[21] In his farewell address, Baird wrote, "Thus two of the oldest papers in the Western country will be coalesced in the support of Henry Clay and the American system. This consummation has been desired for some time, by many leading Whigs of the District, and to their wishes I have yielded."[21]

Titles and editions

The full title of the Advocate varied over time and between editions. Because of gaps in the survival of the newspaper, the following list is not necessarily complete.

Years Edition Title
1832–1833TriweeklyThe Pennsylvania Advocate[8]
1833–1834DailyPennsylvania Advocate and Pittsburgh Daily Advertiser[22]
1834–1836DailyPittsburgh Daily Advocate and Advertiser[23]
1836–1844DailyDaily Advocate and Advertiser[24]
Years Edition Title
1832WeeklyThe Pennsylvanian Advocate[3]
? (incl. 1834)WeeklyWeekly Pennsylvania Advocate[25]
1836–1839WeeklyWeekly Advocate and Statesman[26]
1839–1844WeeklyWeekly Advocate and Emporium[27]

References

  1. ↑ "The First Daily Paper in Pittsburgh". Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and Advertiser. 24 December 1845. p. 2, col. 1.
  2. ↑ "The Intellectual Life of Pittsburgh 1786–1836". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 14 (1): 16. January 1931. In 1833, [the Gazette] became the city's first daily paper.
  3. 1 2 3 "About The Pennsylvanian advocate". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Hale, William Bayard (1912). Woodrow Wilson: The Story of His Life. Doubleday, Page & Company. pp. 8–10.
  5. 1 2 3 Wilson, Erasmus, ed. (1898). Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Chicago: H.R. Cornell & Co. p. 844.
  6. 1 2 "Proposals". The Pittsburgh Gazette. 10 August 1832. p. 3, col. 5.
  7. ↑ "A Reminiscence". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 15 August 1833. p. 2, col. 1.
  8. 1 2 "About The Pennsylvania advocate". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Kehl, James A. (September–December 1948). "The Allegheny Democrat, 1833–1836". The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 31 (3–4): 79.
  10. ↑ "Treason against the People". Republican Compiler. Gettysburg, PA. 30 October 1832. p. 1, col. 5. (Citing the Pittsburgh Mercury.)
  11. ↑ "Bank Bribery". The Globe. Washington, DC. 5 October 1832. p. 2, col. 5.
  12. ↑ "Calumny Refuted". The Pittsburgh Gazette. 2 October 1832. p. 3, cols. 1–2.
  13. ↑ "[untitled]". Pennsylvania Advocate and Pittsburgh Daily Advertiser. 1 October 1833. p. 2.
  14. ↑ Wilson, Erasmus, ed. (1898). Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Chicago: H.R. Cornell & Co. pp. 781, 844–845.
  15. ↑ "The Statesman and the Advocate". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 24 February 1836. p.2, col. 1.
  16. ↑ Iacone, Audrey (Summer 1990). "Early Printing in Pittsburgh, 1786-1856". Pittsburgh History. 73 (2): 68.
  17. ↑ "Editorial Change". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 3 October 1837. p. 2, col. 2.
  18. ↑ "[untitled]". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 20 November 1839. p. 2, col. 3.
  19. ↑ "To the Readers of the Advocate". Daily Advocate and Advertiser. 19 June 1840. p. 2, col. 2.
  20. ↑ Thomas, Clarke M. Front-page Pittsburgh: two hundred years of the Post-gazette. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 63.
  21. 1 2 "[untitled]". Pittsburgh Gazette (weekly ed.). 8 March 1844. p. 1, col. 1. (from daily ed., 1 March 1844)
  22. ↑ "About Pennsylvania advocate and Pittsburgh daily advertiser". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  23. ↑ "About Pittsburgh daily advocate and advertiser". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  24. ↑ "About Daily advocate and advertiser". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  25. ↑ "About Weekly Pennsylvania advocate". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  26. ↑ "About Weekly advocate and statesman". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  27. ↑ "About Weekly advocate and emporium". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 May 2014.

 This article incorporates text from Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson (ed.), a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.

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