Commercial Journal
{{short description|19th-century newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = Commercial Journal
| logo =
| image =
| caption =
| type = Daily and weekly (and sometimes triweekly) newspaper
| format =
| founder = J. Heron Foster, J. McMillin, J. B. Kennedy
| publisher =
| editor =
| foundation = {{Start date|1843|04|19|df=y}}
| political = {{hlist|Independent|Whig|American|Republican}}
| language = English
| ceased publication = {{End date|1861|05|08|df=y}}
| publishing_country = United States
| publishing_city = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
}}
__NOTOC__
The Commercial Journal was a mid-19th century newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Beginnings
The paper was founded as the Spirit of the Age by J. Heron Foster, J. McMillin and J. B. Kennedy on 19 April 1843, with Foster as editor.{{cite book|last=Killikelly|first=Sarah Hutchins|title=The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress|publisher=B.C. & Gordon Montgomery Company|year=1906|page=500|isbn=9783849673789 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXmloex-vr8C&pg=PA500}}{{cite news|title=The Spirit of the Age|newspaper=The Morning Chronicle|location=Pittsburgh|date=20 April 1843|at=p. 2, col. 5|quote=Messrs. Foster, M'Millin and Kennedy's new paper made its appearance yesterday ... under Mr. Foster's editorial charge.}} Both daily and weekly editions were published.{{cite web|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062110/ |title=About Spirit of the age |work=Chronicling America |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=26 January 2014}}
R. White Middleton bought the young paper in mid-1844 and edited it for less than a year until "sickness, poverty and oppression" drove him to quit.{{cite news |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Gazette |edition=Weekly |title=Editorial Change |date=5 July 1844 |at=p. 2, col. 1 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2mVTAAAAIBAJ&pg=2903%2C593296}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Gettysburg Times |title=Out of the Past |date=21 May 1945 |at=p. 4, col. 2 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19450521&id=yIMlAAAAIBAJ&pg=6827,1005755}} Foster retook the editorship for a short time before moving on and founding the Pittsburgh Dispatch.{{cite news |newspaper=Pittsburgh Morning Post |title=Editorial Change |date=14 May 1845 |at=p. 2, col. 1 |url=http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=civilwar&BaseHref=PMP/1845/05/14&PageLabelPrint=&EntityId=Ar00200&ViewMode=GIF |access-date=13 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190831/http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=civilwar&BaseHref=PMP%2F1845%2F05%2F14&PageLabelPrint=&EntityId=Ar00200&ViewMode=GIF |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}
Riddle era
In the middle of 1845, the daily title changed under new ownership to Daily Commercial Journal and Spirit of the Age,{{citation|last=Riddle|first=Robert M.|title=Prospectus|date=1845 |type=advertisement|url=https://archive.org/stream/fullaccountofgre00fost#page/n71/mode/2up}} in: {{cite book|last=Foster|first=J. Heron|title=A Full Account of The Great Fire at Pittsburgh, on the Tenth Day of April, 1845|publisher=J. W. Cook|location=Pittsburgh|year=1845|at=p. 10 of advertising appendix}} the latter half of which was eventually dropped.{{cite web|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062077/ |title=About Daily commercial journal and spirit of the age |work=Chronicling America |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=9 February 2014}} The name change signified that the paper would cater more than before to the interests of "the Manufacturer, the Farmer, and Merchant." New editor Robert M. Riddle, formerly postmaster of Pittsburgh and editor of the Advocate, promised to replace the paper's previous political neutrality with a "thorough going Whig" slant in accordance with his own party affiliation.{{cite news |newspaper=Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and Advertiser |title=[untitled] |date=30 June 1845 |at=p. 2, col. 4 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GxVRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1122%2C5278470}}
In 1853 Riddle was elected with Whig backing as mayor of Pittsburgh, which post he filled a single one-year term, at the same time continuing to manage the newspaper.{{cite book|last=Crosby|first=Nathan|title=Annual Obituary Notices of Eminent Persons who Have Died in the United States: For 1858|publisher=John P. Jewett and Company|year=1859|page=279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0wTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA279}} As the Whig Party fell apart soon afterward, Riddle and the Journal shifted support to the ephemeral American Party{{cite news|newspaper=Texas Ranger|location=Washington, TX|date=14 July 1855|title=The Know-Nothings, National Platform|at=p. 2, col. 7|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth48824/m1/2/zoom/?zoom=5&lat=7585&lon=6602&layers=BT }} before aligning with the up-and-coming Republican organization,{{cite journal|last=Howard|first=Victor B.|journal=Journal of Presbyterian History|volume=49|issue=2|date=Summer 1971|title=Presbyterians, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Election of 1856|page=141}} all the while maintaining an anti-slavery, pro-Northern stance.
File:Pittsburgh newspaper consolidation timeline.svg
The abolitionist weekly Saturday Visiter, founded by editor Jane Swisshelm in 1847, was published from the Commercial Journal office.{{cite book|last=Hoffert|first=Sylvia D.|title=Jane Grey Swisshelm: An Unconventional Life, 1815-1884|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/janegreyswisshel00hoff/page/80 80]|isbn=978-0-8078-2881-6|url=https://archive.org/details/janegreyswisshel00hoff|url-access=registration}} In 1854 it merged into the Journal's weekly edition, at the time called Family Journal, to form the Family Journal and Saturday Visiter.{{cite news|newspaper=The Family Journal and Saturday Visiter|location=Pittsburgh|date=4 February 1854|title=To Readers of the Family Journal|at=p. 3, col. 1}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette |title=The Saturday Evening Visitor [sic] |location=Pittsburgh |date=30 January 1854 |at=p. 2, col. 2 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VzJRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1253%2C1008303}} Swisshelm edited a "Visiter Department" within the merged edition. From this platform she promoted the causes of anti-slavery, temperance, and women's rights.{{cite book|last=Blue|first=Frederick J.|title=No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|location=Baton Rouge|year=2006|page=153|isbn=978-0-8071-3205-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mncLFNx67JUC&pg=PA153}}
Riddle conducted the Journal until 1858, when failing health prompted him to sell his interest to Thomas J. Bigham, who assumed editorial charge.{{cite book|editor-last=Wilson|editor-first=Erasmus|title=Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania|publisher=H.R. Cornell & Company|year=1898|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_1dcwAQAAMAAJ/page/n781 855]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_1dcwAQAAMAAJ}} Bigham was an abolitionist Republican who purportedly used his house as a refuge on the Underground Railroad.{{cite web|title=Thomas James Bigham|website=Pennsylvania General Assembly|url=http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=5068&body=S|access-date=14 May 2018}}
Consolidation
The Commercial Journal merged into Pittsburgh's oldest paper, the Gazette, at the dawn of the Civil War in 1861. The consequently titled Daily Pittsburgh Gazette and Commercial Journal explained that "Both papers have long advocated essentially the same political principles and labored in the same cause, so that their separate publication was not essential to any public or political interest, while to advertisers the union will be one of great advantage."{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette and Commercial Journal|date=9 May 1861|title=The Commercial Journal|at=p. 2|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j0ZRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1646%2C4270278}}