Someone has posted the story of Orange County, FL and the klan vs. black voters in the 1920s.
Here’s a more direct example of a newspaper owner’s anti-war stance (War of 1812) having his business destroyed by a mob, as well as assisted by Baltimore militia in destroying the man’s house.
“Alexander Contee Hanson, publisher of the Federal Republican, a Federalist paper, denounced President James Madison’s declaration of war. A Baltimore mob, very much pro-war, destroyed the newspaper offices on June 22, 1812.
Hanson recruited fellow Federalists, put out another edition and was attacked in a house on Charles Street on July 28. The Federalists fired, killing a man, and soldiers eventually escorted the beleaguered Federalists to the city jail, where the mob broke in, beat them and left them for dead. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, a hero of the Revolutionary War and father of Robert E. Lee, suffered permanent injuries.”
The story is here excerpted from wikipedia: “Hanson established and edited the Federal Republican, an extreme Federalist newspaper, in Baltimore. On June 22, 1812, four days after the beginning of the War of 1812, a mob that was irritated by his articles denouncing the administration destroyed his office. On July 28, he reissued the paper from another building, where he was joined by a group of armed allies. When that building was besieged by a mob, Hanson and his group fired, killing two. On the morning of July 29, Hanson and his group surrendered to the militia and were escorted to jail. That evening, the mob stormed the jail, and Hanson was beaten and left for dead. James Lingan, a Continental Army General war hero, came to Hanson’s defense, died as a result of the violence. Hanson also received help from Revolutionary War Hero and father of Robert E. Lee, Henry Lee III, who received grave injuries. Another man John Thompson recounts being tarred and feathered by the mob and stated that the rioters brought a field gun to besiege Hanson’s house, although the arrival of the mayor and other city officials stopped it from being fired. Hanson moved the paper to Georgetown, D.C., where he published it unmolested. Hanson later moved to Rockville, Maryland. “
Light Horse Harry Lee never recovered from his several knife wounds to his abdomen (deep) and deep cuts to his face. He went to recuperate in Barbados, and died shipboard off Cumberland Island (then owned by Nathaniel Greene his wartime comrade, who offered a burial plot for his friend, next to Dungeness, Greene’s home there).
This is the history of one more flash point in American politics. In this case, a publisher of the press of the day.
Great story. I live in Baltimore and enjoyed that bit of history. Thanks