Allegheny Democrat
Front page, 30 September 1834
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| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | John McFarland |
| Founded | 22 June 1824 |
| Political alignment | Democratic |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 24 February 1841 |
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
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 Pittsburgh Mercury.
Coming off a series of brief and sometimes stormy newspaper editorships in South Central Pennsylvania, John McFarland established a new paper in 1824 with the express purpose of backing the candidacy of Andrew Jackson in that fall's presidential election. The first issue, published on Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh, appeared on June 22 of that year under the title Allegheny Democrat, and Farmers' and Mechanics' Advertiser. After three years of promoting Jacksonism, McFarland died in 1827 at the age of 30.
Upon McFarland's death the Democrat passed to 22-year-old Leonard Shryock Johns, who would cover Jackson's ascension to the presidency in the election of 1828. The editorial tenure of Johns was marked by an uncritical advocacy of Jackson and his policies, and hostility to the president's bête noire, the United States Bank.
In late 1833, with subscriptions on the rise, Johns increased the publication frequency to semiweekly. He soon thereafter took a post as city alderman and for that reason offered the Democrat for sale, but with no politically compatible buyer forthcoming, retained possession of the paper and reverted it back to weekly publication. Eventually finding a purchaser in 1836, he retired from journalism to focus on his political and business career.
Succeeding Johns as owner and editor of the Democrat was Wilson F. Stewart, who promised to continue the paper's support of the national Democratic ticket and opposition to the accumulation of banking power. He appended "Workingmen's Advocate" to the title, indicating his sympathy for the Working Men's Party and the interests of laborers.
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