The Texas Republican Archive

Harrison County, located in northeastern Texas along the Louisiana border, became a major regional hub for cotton during the antebellum era. Its town of Marshall was the first in Texas to have a telegraph; by the 1850s the local newspapers, including the Harrison Flag, the Star State Patriot, and the Texas Republican, had a telegraph link to New Orleans, which gave them quick access to national news. Consequently, Harrison County papers became very influential media outlets west of the Mississippi River before and during the Civil War.

By the 1850s, the county’s dependence on cotton was apparent, as was its dependence on slavery. In 1849 the Texas Republican, an influential, pro-southern newspaper established by Robert W. Loughery, was an adamant supporter of slave-owning rights, and eventually of secession. The Republican was published every Friday; subscriptions sold at $3.00, with four pages printed for most issues. Circulation extended outside Harrison County to major urban settlements in the region, including Shreveport and Mansfield in Louisiana and Jefferson and Tyler in Texas.

Following the victory of President-elect Abraham Lincoln, the Texas Republican expressed the fear that "The South is engaged in a fearful struggle for her right, and her equality and she must maintain her position, or she is lost forever." Texas was the seventh of eleven southern states to secede from the Union, forming the Confederacy. Although all of the Confederacy witnessed battle, Texas was mostly untouched by the events of the Civil War; however, the Republican published letters written by Confederate prisoners of war from Harrison County. The paper continued to publish during the war but struggled to do so consistently by 1863, due to paper shortages and labor scarcity. Consequently, the Republican reduced its page size from 29 by 43 inches and suspended publication in July 1863, though it resumed with two five-column pages on September 24, 1864.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Republican continued to struggle. The presence of federal troops made Loughery wary about publishing anything too radical that would draw attention to the paper, though he was bitterly against Reconstruction policies. In 1869, a fire destroyed the Texas Republican's offices at Marshall.