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Newspaper The St. Landry Whig (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1844-1855 Saint Landry whig / Whig de St. Landry

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About The St. Landry Whig (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1844-1855

The St. Landry Whig was founded as a campaign paper in support of Whig Party presidential candidate Henry Clay of Kentucky and his running mate Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. It was published in Opelousas, Louisiana, a small but historically significant town founded in 1720 as a French trading post. Over the next 100 years, Opelousas developed into an important regional center of the cattle and cotton trades and has been the seat of government of St. Landry Parish since 1805.

Joseph Etter was the St. Landry Whig‘s founder and first editor. Its early issues relate chiefly to the Presidential election of 1844, state politics, and tensions between the United States and Mexico over Texas, the annexation of which Etter, like many Louisiana Whigs, supported, despite Henry Clay’s opposition.

The Whig was published weekly in four pages, with two pages in English and two in French. Some articles were printed in both languages, but the French section often contains substantially different content than the English. In addition to foreign news (“nouvelles etrangères”) and miscellaneous domestic news (“faits divers”), the paper carried campaign songs, poetry, and fiction. For several months in 1844-45, the French section reprinted Le loup blanc (The White Wolf), a historical romance about a masked albino swashbuckler by the French author Paul Féval, better known as a writer of vampire novels and detective stories.

At present, no issues of the St. Landry Whig are known to survive from after 1846. Other sources indicate that in 1849 it was being edited by André Meynier, who went on to establish, in 1852, the Opelousas Courier with Joel Henri Sandoz, a Swiss immigrant. The Whig is thought to have been published until 1855 and merged with the Opelousas Patriot.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The St. Landry Whig (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1844-1855

Other Title

  • Saint Landry whig
  • Whig de St. Landry

Dates of Publication

  • 1844-1855

Created / Published

  • Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La. : Joseph Etter

Headings

  • -  Opelousas (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Opelousas
  • -  United States--Louisiana--St. Landry--Opelousas

Genre

  • Newspapers
  • Ethnic newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept. 5, 1844)-
  • -  Ceased in 1855?
  • -  Published with an additional masthead in French: Le Whig de St. Landry, -
  • -  Title varies slightly: The Saint Landry Whig,
  • -  "Whig."
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In English and French.
  • -  Opelousas patriot (Opelousas, La. : 1855) 2377-8296 (DLC)sn 86079076 (OCoLC)13169142

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations (chiefly advertisements) ; 69 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83016702

OCLC Number

  • 9992253

ISSN Number

  • 2377-9349

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The St. Landry Whig Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La. -1855. (Opelousas, LA), Jan. 1 1844. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016702/.

APA citation style:

(1844, January 1) The St. Landry Whig Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La. -1855. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016702/.

MLA citation style:

The St. Landry Whig Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La. -1855. (Opelousas, LA) 1 Jan. 1844. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83016702/.