Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune commenced its issue on Thursday, July 10, 1847, m third story of a building on the corner of Lake and LaSalle streets, one room being adequate for all the requirements of its limited circulation. The gentlemen who officiated at the baptismal font were Joseph K. C. Forrest, James J. Kelly, and John E. Wheeler. The nan’e Tribune was suggested by Mr. Forrest, and, after some little opposition by his co-adjutors, was adopted. The ideas that actuated that gentleman in the bestowal of the cognomen are thus enunciated by him: “The origin and establishment of the Chicago Tribune were the initiation of an entirely new departure in not only journalism, but politics, in Chicago and the Northwest. The creation of the Republican party is as much due to the establishment of the Chicago Tribune, as to any other one cause. In 1846, the two great parties that divided the country were in a peculiar and anomalous condition. The Whig party had been thoroughly defeated in the election of 1844, mainly through the disposition of its candidate, Henry Clay, to look in opposite directions or to compromise on the great issue between freedom and slavery, then gradually looming into importance, and which was finally precipitated upon the country by the results of the Mexican War. The question of the annexation of Texas, which, it was contended, would erect a ‘Gibraltar for Slavery in the South,’ was also agitating the public mind; and it certainly appeared that, from the chaos of defeated politicians and unsettled views, a party could be created embodying those principles and tenets that were the platform of the Republican party; and as a nucleus around which such a party could be formed, the name Tribune was given; and although Mr. Forrest retired from the paper on September 27, 1847, the impetus imparted by the name has aggregated, until it is the mighty enunciator of those doctrines prophetically conceived by its sponsor in 1847. It has been carried along on what may be called ‘that stream of Providence’ which so often compels men and parties to be governed by events, which once having received an impetus in a given direction, are for ever after forced to the adoption of such ends as were originally proposed and provided for them.” The first edition of the Tribune was but four hundred copies, worked off by one of the editors, as pressman, upon a Washington hand-press; but every stroke of the lever was annealing the substructure upon which was erected the power and influence that has not alone decided the fate of this city, but of the Nation. From the Tribune, that had such an humble origin, have been uttered dicta that have controlled the destinies of parties and individuals of prominence in the country, and infused the people with that patriotism which bore such glorious results in the internecine contest. In July, 1847, Mr. Kelly, owing to failing health, retired, selling his interest to Thomas A. Stewart, and was several years subsequently a successful leather merchant. Mr. Forrest dissolved his connection with the paper in September; this gentleman not alone being an editor at the time, but an unordained clergyman of the Swedenborgian denomination. Mr. Stewart, the new editor, speedily realized some of the unpleasantness attendant upon an editorial career, by receiving a challenge from Captain Bigelow, commandant of the United States vessel then stationed at this port. Mr. Stewart had editorially stated that Captain Bigelow ought to tow merchant vessels into the harbor, and the Captain, deeming such an assertion insulting to the naval dignity, sent a challenge to ” Tom ” Stewart, which he published in the paper as an item of pleasing intelligence. “The pen was mightier than the sword,” for the latter was never imbued in Mr. Stewart’s gore, and the bellicose Captain subsequently towed belated merchant vessels into Chicago harbor.