The Harrison Flag

John W. Barrett established The Harrison Flag in Marshall in late-June 1856 as the East Texas weekly voice of the nascent American Party ("Know-Nothing") movement. The party disbanded soon after an unsuccessful political campaign of that year. Barrett, however, retained the nativist motto of the party ("Americans Must Rule America") for the lifetime of his editorship of The Flag. After the Know-Nothing’s demise, Barrett brought The Flag into alliance with a loose and unorganized coalition of opponents of the dominate Democratic Party known as the Opposition. As Southern Democrats moved steadily toward possible secession from the United States over slavery issues, The Flag took a Unionist stand, eventually supporting the compromise Constitutional Union Party in 1860. Even after a Republican electoral victory, The Flag held out against immediate secession, a stand that secessionists labeled as "submissionist." Because of illness, Barrett suspended publication of The Flag in January 1861. He died in May 1862, after secession and civil war had become a reality.

William G. Barrett, John Barrett’s son, revived The Harrison Flag as a weekly in Marshall on November 15, 1865. He hired Silas D. Wood as his editor. Both men initially agreed on policies for the post-Civil War restoration of the Union as proposed by the administration in Washington. But political differences soon arose, and Wood’s editorial tenure lasted only three months. Barrett assumed the editorship. Barrett made The Flag a reliable Conservative (i.e., Democratic) organ in opposition to Republican political reconstruction of Texas. Barrett started a daily Flag in March 1868, so he retitled his weekly, The Weekly Harrison Flag. He suspended publication of the daily after only a few months but retained the name The Weekly Harrison Flag for his weekly. He continued publication of his newspaper until late 1870 when he apparently sold it to a group of investors that intended to establish a Republican paper in Marshall. This description of The Harrison Flag was contributed by Gene Forst.