Type Weekly newspaper Political alignment Democratic-Republican Ceased publication circa 1810 | Founder(s) John D. Israel Language English | |
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Founded 16 August 1800 (1800-08-16) | ||
The Tree of Liberty, published weekly from 1800 to about 1810, was the second newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. John D. Israel established the paper and issued it from a building owned by Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Israel's columns denounced Federalists and their local organ, the Pittsburgh Gazette, and promoted the Democratic-Republican principles expressed by Thomas Jefferson.
With the issue of 24 December 1805, Walter Forward assumed control of the paper with the participation of his friends Henry Baldwin and Tarleton Bates. In that time of disunity among Pennsylvania's Democratic-Republicans, the Tree sided with the moderate wing of the party supporting Governor Thomas McKean and clashed with the Commonwealth, a mouthpiece for the party's radical anti-McKean faction. Abuse from the Commonwealth led to Bates assaulting that paper's editor with a whip, and finally to the death of Bates in a duel. The Tree changed hands from Forward to William Foster in April 1807, after which it remained in publication for approximately three years.