News of the US: Week Two of January 1812
January 8: In the House of Representatives — “The Speaker laid before the House a petition of the Urseline Nuns at N. Orleans, praying that the hospital which adjoins their convent, and is in a decayed state, may be removed, and that they may be permitted to build a house there-on for the education of females–Referred.”–National Intelligencer, January 9, 1812
January 9: “The public are notified, that a meeting of the Association of Chillicothe and its vicinity for suppressing vice will be held on Thursday the 9th inst. at the Presbyterian Meeting House in this town, at two o’clock in the afternoon.”–Scioto Gazette, January 4, 1812.
January 9: “A severe snow storm was experienced at the Southward on the 9th ult. It is mentioned at Augusta Georgia, as a circumstance scarcely ever known. The snow measured from 10 to 14 inches in depth.”–Boston Weekly Messenger, February 14, 1812
January 10: From New Orleans — “The Steamboat New-Orleans, from Pittsburgh, arrived here on Friday evening last. The captain reports that she has been under way not more than 259 hours from Pittsburgh to this place, which gives about eight miles each hour.”–Richmond Enquirer, February 14, 1812
January 10: From Washington — “The Army of twenty-five thousand.–On Friday last, the Senate receded from their disagreement to the amendment to the Army Bill, insisted on by the House of Representatives. Hence the Bill awaits only the signature of the President to become a law.”–New York Spectator, January 14, 1812
January 11: From Augusta — “Siberia itself could hardly have presented a more perfect winter view, than what this place furnished on Saturday morning. . . . a large canoe was attached to a pair of horses, and with a full compliment of men, and with colours flying, went with considerable rapidity cruising up and down the streets . . . .”–Connecticut Mirror, February 17, 1812
January 12: From Columbia, S.C. — “On Friday last, a snow of unusual depth for this country, fell in this place–it commenced just at day-break, and continued without the least intermission, until a little after dark; when it measured upwards of nine inches deep.”–New York Columbian, February 8, 1812
January 12: From St. Louis — “I have just received despatches from Fort Madison, informing me that the Winebago Indians have done much mischief above the garrison. Those Indians are supposed to have been in the late action. I expect hot work in the spring, and shall endeavour to be ready for it. It is vain to suppose our difficulties are over;–the belief that they have but just commenced, is much more rational.”–Richmond Enquirer, February 18, 1812
January 13: From Washington — “The President has signed the bill for raising an army of twenty-five thousand men; and the Senate have concurred in passing the bill for appropriating one million nine hundred thousand dollars, for purchasing ordinance stores, &c.”–New York Spectator, January 17, 1812
January 13: From New Orleans — New Orleans, January 13. ” The Steamboat New-Orleans, from Pittsburgh, arrived here on Friday evening last. The captain reports that she has been under way not more than 259 hours from Pittsburgh to this place, which gives about eight miles each hour. The New-Orleans Steam Boat was built at Pittsburgh by the Ohio Steam Boat company, under the patent granted to a Mrs. Livingston and Fulton of New York. She is intended as a regular trader between this and Natchez, and will, it is generally believed, meet the most sanguine expectations of the company.”–Richmond Enquirer, February 14, 1812
January 14: Signed into law “An Act Authorising the purchase of ordnance and ordnance stores, camp equipage and other Quarter-Masters’ stores and small arms.”–National Intelligencer, January 23, 1812
January 15: In the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Massachusetts — “The answer to the Governor’s Speech was taken up; and occasioned a debate which lasted until a late hour. . . . The following was moved as an amendment, by Mr. Hooper . . . ‘The House of Representatives agree with your Excellency in opinion, that to soften the asperities of political animosity and diminish the virulence of party spirit, is one of our first and most solemn duties, as it is unquestionably our truest interest. They cannot but deeply regret, therefore, that your Excellency should have supposed it conducive to this purpose, to renew the history of former differences in sentiment, and attempt to revive feelings and distinctions, which if they ever existed, as you describe them, have been long since obliterated, and ought most unquestionably now to be forgotten.”–Salem Gazette, January 21, 1812
These excerpts are taken verbatim from various American newspapers in the University of Texas’ Bound Newspapers Archive, now in the process of being digitized and returned to safe storage in the Library Storage Facility on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus of the University of Texas in Austin. To see the current inventory of digitized files of this important historical resource, visit UT’s online Digital Repository (Library Owned Content).
For insights into the collection and the preservation process, visit researcher Mary Bowden’s blog in Viewpoint.
About the Author
Mary Bowden is a researcher working at the Texas Collections Deposit Library at the University of Texas. A little-known but invaluable treasure of U.S. history and the history of American journalism is archived in the collection of bound United States’ Newspapers at the University of Texas at Austin. The collection began more than a century ago and has been stored in recent years in the Texas Collections Deposit Library on the campus of the University of Texas. The sizeable archive is currently in the early stages of being digitized before being moved to a more climate-controlled environment at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus of the University, on the north side of Austin.