Type | Weekly newspaper |
---|---|
Founder(s) | John D. Israel |
Founded | 16 August 1800[1] |
Political alignment | Democratic-Republican |
Language | English |
Ceased publication | circa 1810 [1] |
City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Country | United 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] 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] after which it remained in publication for approximately three years. [2]