Whig Republican Archive

Holmes County, in west-central Mississippi, was created in 1833 from land ceded in 1820 through the Second Choctaw Cession. In antebellum times, before levees were built, the western third of the county in the Yazoo-Mississippi River flood plain flooded annually and was sparsely populated; cotton plantations dominated the gently rolling hill country. The county seat of Lexington was a trading and banking center for area planters. In 1840, the town had two vociferous partisan newspapers.

Five months after its first issue, C. S. Smith sold his Whig newspaper, the Lexington Standard (1838) to Democrat William H. Hines. Hines renamed the four-page weekly the Lexington Union; this title was retained by a subsequent owner until publication ceased in 1843. Many editorials extolled Democratic ideals and denounced Whigs for misrepresenting the Van Buren administration. A December 1, 1838 item in the Lexington Union urged readers to vote for candidates who would support regulated state banks, oppose a national bank, and "who are southern in their feelings and interest." Evidence of the financial crisis gripping the nation was found in numerous editorials and the many tax collector sale notices; for example, nearly two pages of notices filled the June 18, 1842 issue. Later, news about the Republic of Texas, its possible annexation and its conflict with Mexico, predominated. In addition to political editorials, state legislative news, election results, and candidates' announcements, the Union included general interest stories, foreign news, market news, anecdotal stories and witticisms, poetry, and an occasional obituary and marriage announcement. Amid other local news, the Lexington Union reported on intellectual and social activities such as Agricultural Society meetings, the results of Jockey Club-sponsored horse races, and plays staged by the Thespian Company.

The Union frequently rebutted articles that appeared in Whig newspapers including its main rival, Lexington's Whig Republican, which appeared for just two months during the fall of 1840. In a statement of purpose, the Whig Republican's editor/proprietor Amos B. Corwine affirmed that "steady and faithful support [will be] given to the election of [Whig presidential candidates] William Henry Harrison and John Tyler . . . ." Even though the Republican was ostensibly devoted "to Agriculture, Science, the Arts, Commerce, and the politics of the day," content focused mainly on the 1840 election, with editorials, some original and others reprinted from other Whig newspapers, espousing the virtues of Harrison and denouncing his Democratic opponent Martin Van Buren. Later issues of the short-lived Whig Republican carried more non-political stories and the occasional legal notice and local advertisement.