The Wheeling Daily Register (Wheeling, W. Va.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
4,171 issues from 1864 to 1878, published in Wheeling, West Virginia, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Daily Register of Wheeling, West Virginia was the product of 31-year-old Lewis Baker, an Ohio native who moved to Wheeling prior to the Civil War. Baker purchased the printing press of the defunct Wheeling Daily Press and published the Register‘s first issue in July 1863. Shortly afterward, Baker was joined as editor by O.S. Long and the two men guided the young newspaper throughout its turbulent early years.
Established in the midst of the Civil War, the Register reflected the staunch Democratic views of its first editor. The Register‘s views contrasted sharply with those of its cross-town rival, the Republican Daily Intelligencer and most other West Virginia newspapers. Although Baker desired Union victory, the editor fearlessly used the Register‘s editorial columns to critique the Lincoln administration’s war effort. Baker likewise thought little of the Emancipation Proclamation, believing abolition would only deepen Southern resolve.
The anti-administration views eventually landed Lewis Baker and O.S. Long in jail. In July 1864, Union General David Hunter ordered the arrest of the dissenting newspapermen, and they spent two months imprisoned in Wheeling. Baker contended that he and Long were offered their freedom if they ceased publication of the Register; they refused. Their jailing produced a local stir and the editors finally secured their release in late August. The Republican Daily Intelligencer thought the whole affair foolish, noting that Hunter’s actions…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Wheeling, West Virginia, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress