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  • Description is exactly "Also according to Freeman, "As for the *American Democrat,* it was founded in July of 1855. by "Messrs. Peters and [Charles L.] Wheler" with the intent of supporting the "American Platform, as adopted in Philadelphia," with Wheler as editor.

    I have been researching Charles L. Wheler for ten years and unfortunately don’t know much more about him now than I did when I started. Attempts to locate other records about him have proven extremely difficult. He was supposedly born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire, having “been engaged in several literary enterprises here which fell through,” one of which was said to have been the “abolition sheet” the *Concord Tribune,* but I haven’t located him in Concord yet. By July of 1853 Wheeler had relocated to Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) where he edited the *Western Era* newspaper, which had apparently folded up by September of 1854. That month Wheeler was one of several secretaries listed in connection with a railroad convection held at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. According to the *Tuscumbia Enquirer* Wheeler was in Franklin County, Alabama for a couple of months before the Know-Nothing Party of Lauderdale County helped him establish the *American Democrat* in Florence in July.


    Wheler was "outed" by the *Athens Herald* as a free-soiler and abolitionist and, on October 4, 1855, fled to parts unknown, apparently leaving his bills unpaid. In late September, 1855 Wheler had created a stir by questioning in the pages of the *Democrat* the legality of Lauderdale County Sheriff Robert McClanahan's stint as sheriff based on a legal technicality involving the deadline for newly-elected sheriffs to post their bond.

    What became of Wheler is a total mystery. Maury County, Tennessee editor John E. Hatcher (1828-1879) replaced Charles L. Wheeler as editor of the *Democrat.* By November 24 of 1856 the *American Democrat* had ceased publication and John Hatcher took the job as editor of the *Columbia Mirror,* in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee.""
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