Constantine Republican Archive

The Constantine Republican was first published in 1836 in Constantine, St. Joseph County, in southwestern Michigan. Located south of Kalamazoo and close to the Indiana border, Constantine was a small farming community first settled around 1828 and reputedly named in the early 1830s by Niles F. Smith, the proprietor of the first local store. The second issue of the Constantine Republican, published on July 20, 1836, reported in great detail on a proclamation issued by the “Boy Governor” of the Michigan Territory, Stevens Thomson Mason, to the Legislature at Detroit on the conditions set out by Congress for Michigan’s admission to statehood. These centered on settling an ongoing territorial dispute with Ohio, sometimes referred to as the “Toledo War.” While the Territorial Legislature on September 26 rejected the compromise, which included the cession to Michigan of two-thirds of what is now the Upper Peninsula from the Wisconsin Territory as “compensation” for the loss of the Toledo strip, a second “Convention of Assent” was held in December 1836 which approved the deal. As a result, Michigan was admitted into the Union, including all of the present Upper Peninsula, following the signature of the bill by President Andrew Jackson on January 26, 1837. The report on Michigan’s admission as a state was, surprisingly, not front page news in Constantine. Rather, it appeared on the second page of the February 15 issue of the Republican. The front page instead featured news about Texas, including correspondence between President Jackson and Mexican General (and former President) Santa Anna and a separate in-depth discussion of the potential terms under which the Republic of Texas could be admitted to the Union.

The focus on the Texas “question” was typical of news coverage in the Constantine Republican, which was heavily engaged with foreign affairs.  For example, the paper published a regular column titled “London: Twenty Four days later,” which reported on a range of contemporary world events including the ongoing French conquest of Algeria and the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of Great Britain.

The Democrat-supporting four-page weekly was published each Wednesday by local printer and notary Daniel Munger and his partner, a Mr. Cowdery. An annual subscription to the Republican, which originally cost $2, rose to $2.50 on November 16, 1836, with the publication of No. 20. By July 1837, Munger had become the sole printer-proprietor. The paper ceased publication on August 1, 1838, probably because Munger had moved on to his next enterprise--the White Pigeon Republican and St. Joseph County Advertiser --which began on February 6, 1839. This was quickly followed by the St. Joseph County Republican, also based in White Pigeon, Michigan, which, however, folded in 1842. Thispaper is distinct from the St. Joseph County Republican founded by D.S. Weston in 1845 in nearby Centreville, Michigan.