Alexandria Gazette, Commercial and Political

• id: 11
• end_date: May 13, 1817
• frequency: Daily ex. Sun., w/variations
• lineage_id: 3
• proprietors: Samuel Snowden & John D. Simms
• start_date: October 1, 1812
• variant_number: Alexandria 02-07
• notes: The War of 1812 was a challenging period for this Federalist journal. In the summer of 1812, Snowden gradually increased the contributions of John D. Simms, Alexandria's city attorney, to his paper's political content; with the issue of October 1, 1812, he took Simms into partnership with him as the daily's senior editor; the alliance continued until shortly after war's end. War-time supply shortages, however, eventually forced the pair to reduce the paper's publication frequency from daily to thrice-weekly (October 5, 1813 to April 11, 1815); they were also compelled to suspend publication entirely for two weeks in late summer 1814 as a consequence of the British occupation of Alexandria (from August 23rd to September 8th). Simms withdrew from their partnership with the issue of March 9, 1815, leaving Snowden again in sole ownership of the paper through September 1819. His paper resumed daily publication with the April 13, 1815, issue; Snowden also dropped the phrase "Commercial & Political" from its title briefly in early 1816 (January 5th to 8th).
• lineage_title: Alexandria Gazette
• Related Bios:
  • John Douglass Simms, Sr.
  • Samuel Snowden

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