About

George F. Randolph and William J. Bunce founded the Augusta Herald in 1799 as a weekly paper costing three dollars per year. They operated the paper as co-owners and editors and, according to the prospectus of the paper’s first July issue, intended their paper to report the latest European events, earliest domestic occurrences, and other items of various interests. Randolph sold his interest of the paper to Bunce in August, 1800, leaving Bunce the sole owner and editor of the paper for four years. The Herald was already established as having Federalist political leanings, but this ideology was further engrained with the addition of William J. Hobby as co-owner and editor in July, 1804. Hobby, Augusta’s Postmaster from 1799 to 1802, was a staunch Federalist, well-known for his 1801 civil libel suit against Jeffersonian Republicans Ambrose Day and James Hely. The Herald’s strong Federalist tendencies brought frequent editorial rivalry with Dennis Driscol, editor and owner of the Anti-Federalist Augusta Chronicle. The Augusta Herald ceased publication in 1822 as Bunce moved on to become publisher of the Constitutionalist and William J. Hobby purchased the Augusta Chronicle from George Adams and Benjamin T. Duyckinck.