Top of page

Notice
Special holiday hours in effect, December 2025 through January 2026. More information.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Morning Comet (Baton Rouge, La.) 1856-1856 Daily comet

View All Front Pages

About The Morning Comet (Baton Rouge, La.) 1856-1856

Founded as a French trading post in the early 18th century, Baton Rouge was part of the British and later Spanish colony of West Florida from 1763 until 1810, when, as part of the short-lived Republic of West Florida, it was annexed by the United States. In the 19th century, the town developed into the main commercial center on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi. Surrounded at that time by sugar and cotton plantations, Baton Rouge became the state capital in 1846 through the influence of rural planters desiring a more central location, even though its population was then less than 3,000, many times smaller than the state’s former capital, New Orleans.

Issued in daily and weekly editions, the Comet was one of Baton Rouge’s leading newspapers prior to 1856, when it merged with its competitor, the Baton-Rouge Gazette, to form the Daily and Weekly Gazette and Comet. George A. Pike, brother of prominent Baton Rouge landowner and businessman William S. Pike, founded the Daily Comet in 1850. It and its successor the Morning Comet were published Tuesday through Saturday in four pages and consisted primarily of advertisements that serve as a record of Baton Rouge’s commercial life during the antebellum period. The Weekly Comet, issued on Sundays, was ad-free and offered editorial viewpoints on various political, social, and commercial topics, as well as a wide selection of essays, literature, and poetry. By the mid 1850s, Pike was promoting the anti-Catholic, nativist Know Nothing Party. In the growing sectional crisis between North and South, he opposed calls for secession. Other content included news of the Louisiana state legislature and state elections, reports on miscellaneous topics from around the world, and marriage notices and obituaries.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Morning Comet (Baton Rouge, La.) 1856-1856

Other Title

  • Daily comet

Dates of Publication

  • 1856-1856

Created / Published

  • Baton Rouge, La. : G.A. Pike, 1856.

Headings

  • -  Baton Rouge (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Baton Rouge
  • -  United States--Louisiana--East Baton Rouge--Baton Rouge

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sun. and Mon.)
  • -  Vol. 13, no. 27 (Feb. 5, 1856)-v. 15, no. 83 (Dec. 27, 1856).
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Baton Rouge daily gazette
  • -  Daily gazette and comet (Baton Rouge, La. : 1856) 2163-7210 (DLC)sn 88083120 (OCoLC)17609906

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88064473

OCLC Number

  • 18102885

ISSN Number

  • 2377-8121

Preceding Titles

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.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

The Morning Comet Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge, LA), Jan. 1 1856. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88064473/.

APA citation style:

(1856, January 1) The Morning Comet Baton Rouge, La. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88064473/.

MLA citation style:

The Morning Comet Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge, LA) 1 Jan. 1856. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn88064473/.