This column by Daniel G. Clark about Alexander Clark (1826-1891) first appeared in the Muscatine Journal.
I may have misled regular readers to suppose Muscatine’s early editors and lawmakers were a pretty progressive bunch.
Those anti-slavery and equal-rights figures are indeed appealing historical characters, and I confess I tell less about their opponents, mainly because I’ve learned less.
Alexander Clark’s publicist—my description for editor John Mahin—allied this paper with the Republican party when it emerged in the 1850s. There was almost always a Democratic paper in town, so he faced a procession of partisan competitors over his half-century career.
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