Albany Evening Journal

Thurlow Weed
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Born November 15, 1797
Died November 22, 1882

Thurlow Weed (November 15, 1797 – November 22, 1882) was a New York newspaper publisher, politician, and party boss. He was the principal political advisor to the prominent New York politician William H. Seward and was instrumental in the presidential nominations of William Henry Harrison (1840), Henry Clay (1844), Zachary Taylor (1848), Winfield Scott (1852), John Charles Frémont (1856) and Abraham Lincoln (1860).

Weed was born into a family of farmers in Cairo, Greene County, New York, and received little formal schooling. He spent much of his youth working on boats on the Hudson River. Although he was quite young at the time, Weed served in the War of 1812 as Quartermaster-Sergeant of the 40th Regiment, New York State Militia; after the war he ran the printing presses for the Albany Register.[1] Weed became interested in politics while working with the newspaper, and was an early supporter of DeWitt Clinton. In 1824, he was a strong supporter of the presidential bid of John Quincy Adams, and was able to use his influence to ensure Adams' victory in New York.[2] Weed himself also sought and won election that year to the New York State Assembly.[1] In the assembly, he met and befriended William H. Seward.

Weed was a vocal member of the Anti-Masonic movement. In 1825, he bought the Rochester Telegraph, but was forced out in 1828 by Masonic interests. Subsequently, he founded the Antimasonic Enquirer, which became the voice of the Antimasonic movement in New York. That year, Weed again supported John Quincy Adams and worked to align the strong anti-Masonic movement in New York with the national Adams organization. Adams' political supporters were key players in the development of the Whig Party, and that party soon absorbed the Anti-masonic movement in New York, giving Weed a new home in a more mainstream and larger political organization.

Election

In 1829, Weed was an Anti-Masonic member of the New York State Assembly, and also started production of the Albany Evening Journal, the first number was issued on March 22, 1830. The Evening Journal was first the main Anti-Masonic newspaper, and from 1834 on the main Whig paper and had in the 1840s the largest circulation of any political newspaper in the United States. After 1856, it was one of the Republican newspapers. As the Evening Journal's editor, proof reader, political manager and main reporter, he was a vocal advocate for economic development, supporting new banking measures, internal improvements such as roads and railroads, and the rest of Henry Clay's American System.

Weed skillfully blamed the Panic of 1837 on Martin van Buren and the Democrats, and in 1838, he pushed his friend and fellow Whig Seward for the governor's race, and was largely credited with Seward's victory. Seward thus owed Weed favors throughout his governorship, which increased Weed's power in the state. Weed then put the power of the New York Whig party behind William Henry Harrison's presidential bid in 1840. By this time, Weed had the power to bend the Whig party to his will. WikiPedia:Thurlow Weed