''The American Manufacturer'' was a newspaper published in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, on a mostly weekly basis from 1830 until 1842. The paper supported
Jacksonian Democratic politics and was known for its radical and provocative content. Its successor by merger was the ''
Pittsburgh Post
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Pittsburgh metropolitan area, metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspa ...
'', which by further consolidation became the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...
''.
Inception
In February, 1830,
William B. Conway issued a prospectus for a new weekly newspaper to be called ''The American Manufacturer''. He announced that the first issue would appear on March 6 of the same year, and set the subscription price at $2 per annum. Conway promised that "American Manufactures, Agriculture, and
Internal Improvement
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, s ...
, will find in him an unwavering advocate."
Conway and R. Phillips years
Upon founding the ''Manufacturer'', or at least not long thereafter, Conway associated himself with Richard Phillips in the conduct of the paper.
From the start, the paper took radical grounds in favor of political, social and religious reforms. It supported the ideas of
Frances Wright
Frances Wright (September 6, 1795 – December 13, 1852), widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, utopian socialist, abolitionist, social reformer, and Epicurean philosopher, who became a ...
, and offended the pious with its skepticism toward religious authority and practices. Conway's inflammatory views gained him among his enemies the nickname "the vile and speckled reptile."
By March 1833, Conway retired from the editorial chair and left Phillips, the junior editor, in sole charge.
Phillips continued the paper's religious irreverence. In June 1833, impugning the efficacy of religion as a means of warding off
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
, he editorialized: "Religious devotion, we say, is particularly ridiculous, and not more ridiculous than injurious." Concerning those who attended church on special fast days to pray against the disease, he said that they might be divided into two classes, "the cunning but servile sycophant of popularity, and the simple dupes who swallow all, for orthodoxy, which their preachers and leaders tell them." The paper invoked wrath from churches and rival newspapers by calling for the public celebration of the birthday of
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
. The editor of the ''
Allegheny Democrat
The ''Allegheny Democrat'' was a newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, published on a mostly weekly basis from 1824 to 1841. Founded in support of Andrew Jackson, it continued as a Democratic Party organ up to its eventual consolidation with the ...
'', regarding Paine as an "infidel," wrote, "It is to be hoped for the credit of our city that but few will participate in this abominable festival."
McDonald and T. Phillips years
In late 1836, Richard Phillips, around the time he moved west,
disposed of the ''Manufacturer'' to his brother Thomas Phillips, and Zantzinger McDonald. The newcomers proposed to launch a daily edition of the paper, which began issuing in April 1837 under the name ''Daily Commercial Bulletin and American Manufacturer''. Its
nameplate
A nameplate identifies and displays a person or product's name. Nameplates are usually shaped as rectangles but are also seen in other shapes, sometimes taking on the shape of someone's written name. Nameplates primarily serve an informat ...
displayed the first half of the title in considerably larger type than the latter half. The hostile ''
Pittsburgh Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...
'' scoffed, "In the inside, too, the name Daily Commercial Bulletin appears conspicuously, while its former odious name shuns the light of day and shrinks from the gaze of a long-insulted people."
McDonald and Phillips early on embroiled themselves with rival newspapermen. In one instance, McDonald took an editorial battle from the printed page to the office of the ''
Allegheny Democrat
The ''Allegheny Democrat'' was a newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, published on a mostly weekly basis from 1824 to 1841. Founded in support of Andrew Jackson, it continued as a Democratic Party organ up to its eventual consolidation with the ...
'', where he threatened that paper's editor with a large horse pistol. On another occasion, McDonald and Phillips were sued for libel by
Neville B. Craig of the ''Gazette'' for publishing an item by James Callan defaming Craig's character as a parent. The case would be settled a couple of years later with Phillips (McDonald having died by then) paying the necessary costs and issuing a letter of apology.
The life of the ''Bulletin'' came to an early end in January 1838, and the ''American Manufacturer'' carried on as a weekly-only publication. The ''Gazette'' gave a harsh obituary: "It seems we are to have no more lying Bulletins. That excrescence from the Manufacturer office gave the last sign of vegetation this morning. Its poisonous exhalations have ceased, and hereafter, instead of its daily deadly effusions, we are to have only weekly issues from that corrupt, and corrupting source."
McDonald's tenure with the paper must have been a short one, as he died in July 1838 at the age of 25. Thomas Phillips ended up as sole publisher.
Consolidation
In September 1842, Thomas Phillips agreed to consolidate the ''Manufacturer'' with another Democratic weekly, the ''Mercury and Democrat'', which was itself a recent merger of the ''
Pittsburgh Mercury
The ''Pittsburgh Mercury'' was a weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1811 to the early 1840s. Originally almost unpartisan, it became a mouthpiece of the Democratic-Republicans, and later of the Jacksonians and Democrats. ...
'' and the
''Weekly Pittsburgher and Allegheny Democrat''. The final issue of the ''Manufacturer'' announced that the combined establishment would issue a new Democratic daily paper, the
''Daily Morning Post'', and a less frequent edition with the same essential content called the ''Weekly Mercury and Manufacturer''. The weekly edition kept the names of its predecessors until 1848, when it was rebranded as the ''Saturday Morning Post''.
The daily ''Post'', originally co-published by Phillips, met with success after other local attempts at Democratic dailies, including that of the ''Manufacturer'' in 1837–1838, had failed in short order. After nearly 85 years of publication, the ''Post'' united with the ''Gazette Times'' (descended from the ''Manufacturers old nemesis, the ''Gazette'') to form the
''Post-Gazette''.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:American Manufacturer, The
Defunct newspapers published in Pittsburgh
Democratic newspapers (United States)
Defunct weekly newspapers
Newspapers established in 1830
Publications disestablished in 1842
1830 establishments in Pennsylvania
1842 disestablishments in Pennsylvania