Rhode-Island Republican Archive

The Rhode Island Republican was published weekly at Newport, Rhode Island from 1801 to 1806 by Oliver Farnsworth (1775-1859), "Printer to the State" near the coffeehouse on Thames Street in Newport, R.I. A newspaper of the same title was published in Newport from 1809-1841, but there is no known connection between the two publications. Farnsworth had come to Newport in 1798 with his sister Havila (b.1769) who worked in partnership with him until April 1799.

The paper's first masthead included a quote from George Washington: "LIBERTY is the basis, and whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the structure, under whatever specious pretext he may attempt it will merit the bitterest execration and the severest punishment that can be inflicted by his injured country."

Farnsworth had published the Guardian of Liberty at Newport from October 3, 1800, to September 26, 1801; however, after one year, he commenced publishing the Rhode Island Republican. He continued the numbering system of the Guardian of Liberty so that the first issue of the Rhode Island Republican is numbered as Volume II Number 1. Edward Field's State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century; A History (1902) speculates that the Guardian of Liberty "…was probably merged with the Republican."

Farnsworth was a native of Woodstock, Vermont. After serving an apprenticeship to the printing business in Windsor, he went to Newport, RI in 1799 where he ultimately became editor and proprietor of the Rhode Island Republican. In 1805, he returned to Vermont, but soon thereafter relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio where he opened that city's first printing office. He returned to Newport in 1857, and he died there on September 19, 1859.

The Rhode Island Republican had a break in its run in 1805, after which Noah Bisbee appears as the newspaper's publisher. In the first issue under Bisbee's editorship on October 25^th, it was noted "Owing to several accidents uninteresting to the public the delay of the publication of this paper until today has been unavoidable." Bisbee noted in the same issue that "The plan upon which this paper will in future be conducted, is liberal and independent." He continued to publish this newspaper until June 26, 1806, when publication was suspended.