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The National Republican (1860-1888) was an American newspaper published in Washington, D.C.
The paper was founded in November 1860 upon the election of Abraham Lincoln as the first United States President from the Republican Party. It was started by newspaperman William J. Murtagh, who had been with the Abolitionist National Era, with investment from Hanscom and Weston, to be a pro-Lincoln administration paper. Though most associated with Murtagh, the paper's additional founders were Lewis Clephane, Martin Buell, and William Blanchard. Clephane later wrote that the paper was started "as a necessity, to represent the Republican Party of the city, and not with any hope of being remunerative."
Murtagh sold to Almon M. Clapp in 1877. Clapp, who had founded the Buffalo Express in 1846, had most recently been Public Printer of the United States. He owned the paper until 1880. A group headed by Elias W. Fox bought the paper in 1885 for $50,000. It was later bought by Stilson Hutchins and merged into The Washington Post in June 1888.
In 1883, Rowell's American Newspaper Directory listed the paper's estimated circulation as in the range of 3,000.