Columbian Centinel

The Columbian Centinel (1790–1840) was a Boston, Massachusetts, newspaper established by Benjamin Russell. It continued its predecessor, the Massachusetts Centinel and the Republican Journal, which Russell and partner William Warden had first issued on March 24, 1784.[1] The paper was "the most influential and enterprising paper in Massachusetts after the Revolution."[2] In the Federalist Era, the newspaper was aligned with Federalist sentiment. Until c. 1800 its circulation was the largest in Boston, and its closest competitor was the anti-Federalist Independent Chronicle ("the compliments that were frequently exchanged by these journalistic adversaries were more forcible than polite").[3]

Russell "can be justly characterized as the Horace Greeley of his time."[4] In 1828 Russell sold the Centinel to Joseph T. Adams and Thomas Hudson, who continued publishing it.[5] In 1840, the Centinel merged with a number of other Boston papers—the Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot, the Boston Commercial Gazette, and the New-England Palladium—to form the Boston Semi-weekly Advertiser,[6] which eventually became the Boston Herald.