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The first newspaper founded in Alabama was the Madison Gazette, established at Huntsville in 1812; in 1816 its name was changed to the Alabama Republican; and in 1825 this was consolidated with the Alabamian to become the Southern Advocate. John Boardman, a Massachusetts man who allied himself with the "Aristocratic Party" of Huntsville, was editor first of the Republican and later of the Advocate. He supported Adams for the Presidency in 1824 and, though going over to Jackson in 1828, he always opposed the State Bank and its adherents.

In 1823 an opposition paper called the Democrat was founded at Huntsville. Its editor, Mr. William B. Long, of Kentucky, was a supporter of Clay. Claiming to be a leader of "the people" as opposed to "the aristocracy" and the Alabama Republican, he hotly took issue with Boardman on the question of the State Bank ; and presently came over to the support of Jackson for the Presidency. Crawford men, the Merchants' and Planters' Bank of Huntsville, and "aristocrats" in general were the particular antipathies of the Democrat; at the same time it was lenient toward those who combined the support of the State Bank with that of Adams. So bitter was its attitude toward its opponents that the successor of Long, a Mr. Andrew Wills, who had come from Virginia to Huntsville as a school teacher, was shot down on the street by a political enemy.

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