Advocate (Pittsburgh)
Front page of daily edition, 19 June 1840
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| Founder(s) | James Wilson |
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| Founded | 13 August 1832 1 October 1833 (daily) |
| Political alignment | Anti-Jacksonian, Whig |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 29 February 1844 |
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
The Advocate was a newspaper in Pittsburgh, published under several title variants from 1832 to 1844. It was the second daily newspaper issued in the city, the first being its eventual purchaser, the Gazette. Politically, the paper supported the principles of the Whig Party.
On 13 August 1832,The Pennsylvanian Advocate was started by James Wilson (paternal grandfather of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson), then of Steubenville, Ohio. He announced in his prospectus that he would promote protectionism, internal improvements, a sound currency, the independence of Congress and the preservation of the Union, which, at that time, was threatened by a faction in South Carolina and elsewhere in the South. Important to all of these missions, the editor believed, was to defeat the re-election of President Andrew Jackson.
The first few issues were printed on a weekly basis at Steubenville and sent to Pittsburgh for distribution. Very soon, Wilson had a press set up in a Pittsburgh office and began turning out a thrice-weekly edition. According to William Bayard Hale, the press was the first west of the Allegheny Mountains that could print a double-page form (one side of a whole sheet) at one impression.
Born during the Bank War, the paper met controversy early on when Jacksonian newspapers accused it of accepting payments from the United States Bank to publish pro-Bank propaganda. It was reported that a letter intended for James Wilson was mistakenly received by another man of the same name, who opened it and found a large check from Nicholas Biddle, the Bank's president. Wilson published an affidavit denying that he had been bribed or corrupted.
With the Advocate about a year old and on firm footing, Wilson returned to Steubenville, leaving the paper to be carried on by his eldest son William Duane Wilson, at first in partnership with Alfred W. Marks. Upon this change the paper issued its first daily edition under the name Pennsylvania Advocate and Pittsburgh Daily Advertiser.
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