1842
The first issue of the paper on January 3, 1842, carried the following positioning statement:
“The Perpetuation of American Freedom is Our Object. American Rights Our Motto. And the American Party Our Cognomen.
This is the first day of our editorial life. We this day enter a new field of labor, with the certainty that we shall encounter most violent opposition, numberless perplexities, unceasing toil, and unmeasured abuse. But we have been accustomed to opposition, and will meet it as best we can…
Thus, then, we commence our duties, with the firm resolve that opposition shall not discourage us, perplexities shall not discompose us, toil shall not dispirit us, and abuse shall not make us violate the rules of decorum, or the rules of self-respect.”
In March the proprietors secured a new power press to enable them to print the paper not only more quickly but more legibly than could the hand press which had formerly been used.
(From Early St. Louis Newspapers, 1808-1850, a graduate dissertation by Dorothy Grace Brown, Washington University, 1931).
Promoted the National American Party. Oliver Harris and Vespasian Ellis, editors. Harris left in July of 1842, replaced by William T. Yeomans. Later that year the paper was renamed Old School Democrat and Weekly Herald.
