Louisiana and Aaron Burr 139 



capital of the Territory, and christened Knoxville, 

 in honor of Washington's Secretary of War. At 

 this town there was started, in 1791, under his own 

 supervision, the first newspaper of Tennessee, 

 known as the "Knoxville Gazette." It was four or 

 five years younger than the only other newspaper 

 of the then Far West, the "Kentucky Gazette." The 

 paper gives an interesting glimpse of many of the 

 social and political conditions of the day. In polit- 

 ical tone it showed Blount's influence very strongly, 

 and was markedly in advance of most of the similar 

 papers of the time, including the "Kentucky Ga- 

 zette" ; for it took a firm stand in favor of the Na- 

 tional Government, and against every form of dis- 

 order, of separatism, or of mob law. As with all of 

 the American papers of the day, even in the back- 

 woods, there was much interest taken in European 

 news, and a prominent position was given to long 

 letters, or extracts from seaboard papers, contain- 

 ing accounts of the operation of the English fleets 

 and. the French armies, or of the attitude of the 

 European Governments. Like most Americans, the 

 editorial writers of the paper originally sympathized 

 strongly with the French Revolution; but the news 

 of the beheading of Marie Antoinette, and of the 

 recital of the atrocities committed in Paris, worked 

 a reaction among those who loved order, and the 

 "Knoxville Gazette" ranged itself with them, taking 

 for the time being strong grounds against the 

 French, and even incidentally alluding to the In- 

 dians as being more bloodthirsty than any man 



