The Commonwealth was a weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1805 to 1818, before continuing as The Statesman until 1836. It was the city's third newspaper, and one of several in the ancestral lineage of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Origin The Commonwealth was born out of dissension in the ranks of the Democratic-Republican Party in Pennsylvania. The conflict pitted a moderate "Constitutionalist" faction (called "Quids" by opponents), supporting Governor Thomas McKean, against the "Friends of the People," who favored radical legal and judicial reform and sought to defeat the governor's re-election. Ephraim Pentland, a 20-year-old journalist who had been employed at the Aurora in Philadelphia, established the Commonwealth to give voice in Pittsburgh to the radical cause in opposition to the Quid-oriented Tree of Liberty and the Federalist-leaning Gazette. The paper first appeared on 24 July 1805 as a four-column folio sold at $3 per year. It adopted the Pennsylvania state motto — "Virtue, Liberty and Independence" — as its own. Stewart-Bates duel Pentland's columns teemed with personal abuse, which grew especially bitter following McKean's victory over Simon Snyder in the 1805 gubernatorial election. An editorial on Christmas Day bashed Tarleton Bates and Henry Baldwin, associates of the Tree of Liberty'''s nominal publisher Walter Forward, as "despicable sycophants" and "two of the most abandoned political miscreants that ever disgraced the state." Bates struck back at his detractor on the street, with two or three lashes of a cowhide whip. Pentland some time later issued a challenge to a duel, which Bates declined. In publishing his account of the affair in the Tree of Liberty, Bates gave offense to Thomas Stewart, a merchant who had carried Pentland's challenge to Bates. Stewart, after failing to receive an apology, challenged Bates, who fatefully accepted. In the duel Bates was killed on the second exchange of fire. Pentland departure, successors In 1810 Pentland left journalism to focus on his law practice and political career. The Commonwealth passed under the direction of Benjamin Brown, previously associated with the Washington, Pennsylvania Reporter. Brown, whose political views were similar to Pentland's, remained with the paper until 1814. Following Brown's departure, a succession of others carried on the Commonwealth until 1818. Members of one publishing group, upon taking charge, complained that "They have found the establishment which has fallen into their hands sickening from the neglect of its former friends, and drooping from the desertion of its old