Tree of Liberty (newspaper)

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Tree of Liberty
Tree of Liberty 1802-02-13.jpg
Front page, 13 February 1802
TypeWeekly newspaper
Founder(s)John D. Israel
Founded16 August 1800 (1800-08-16) [1]
Political alignment Democratic-Republican
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publicationcirca 1810 [1]
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
CountryUnited States

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 promoted the Democratic-Republican politics of Thomas Jefferson while denouncing Federalists and their local organ, the Pittsburgh Gazette . [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] Tensions with the Commonwealth came to a head when that paper's editor, Ephraim Pentland, wrote attacks on Bates and Baldwin. Bates retaliated by lashing Pentland with a whip, causing further confrontations that ended with Bates's death in a duel with one of Pentland's associates. [8]

The Tree changed hands from Forward to William Foster in April 1807, [9] after which it remained in publication for approximately three years. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 "About The Tree of liberty". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 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.

Bibliography