The Presidential Newspaper as an Engine of Early American Political Development: The Case of Thomas Jefferson and the Election of 1800

Presidential newspapers, a form of the political newspapers that dominated mass communications for many decades in nineteenth-century America, played a crucial role in the articulation and promotion of key principles in American political thought and practice, while also promoting the political interests and strategies of their presidential sponsors. These points are illustrated in a study of how the first presidential newspaper, the Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, was used in 1800–1801 to promote Thomas Jefferson’s election and the principles of Jeffersonian Republicanism.