About

The Advocate is the oldest newspaper published in Marietta, having published only a month earlier than the second-oldest newspaper, Helicon. The two newspapers were political rivals, as Calder’s Advocate supported the Democratic Party and the Helicon aligned itself with the Whig Party. The near-simultaneous appearance of competing newspapers in Marietta coincides with an economic boom in the area, despite Atlanta becoming the Western and Atlantic Railroad hub over Marietta. It isn’t clear why Calder originally chose to call his paper the Cherokee Advocate, since Marietta was located in the relatively new Cobb County, but Cobb County was one of ten counties formed out of seized Cherokee Native American land. Between 1843 and 1847, the paper was retitled as the Marietta Advocate, perhaps due to another contemporaneous Cherokee Advocate published by the Cherokee Nation. In 1845, Ralph McAlpin Goodman, the editor-in-chief at the Augusta Constitutionalist since 1844, purchased land near Marietta and moved to the town in 1847. The same year as his arrival, Goodman took over the editorial helm of the Marietta Advocate while Calder remained as publisher. Goodman was not associated with the Advocate for long, however, and resigned his position in the spring of 1848 due to disagreements with the area’s leading Democrats on the issue of secession; Goodman held strong unionist beliefs and would not retract his stance despite pressure from local party leaders. Goodman was recruited, due to his unionist sentiments, to be editor of the newly formed Constitutional Union in Marietta, which shared its name with a new political party in the state. The Union supported Howell Cobb for Governor, and the Advocate backed Charles J. McDonald. William H. Hunt took over Goodman’s editorial duties at the Marietta Advocate until 1851, when Simeon A. Atkinson purchased the Advocate and merged it with the Constitutional Union to form the Cherokee Georgian. The Marietta Advocate, however, reemerged in 1859 again under the proprietorship of William H. Hunt. Goodman also reappeared at this time, having purchased the Southern Statesman in 1860, and he recommenced editorializing against secession. The Southern Statesman was short-lived, and Hunt consolidated the title under his Marietta Advocate. Throughout the Civil War, the Advocate passed through several hands and even briefly circulated semi-weekly, but in the later years of the war, R. M. Goodman and Company took over ownership of the newspaper. The Advocate was forced to cease publication upon William Sherman’s arrival in 1864 and Goodman later established the Marietta Journal in 1866. The Marietta Journal became the Marietta Daily Journal and continues to publish today as Marietta’s legal organ.