also published numerous pamphlets and state documents. In 1823, they published John Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, one of the first comprehensive histories of the state. By the late 1820s, the Register had positioned itself as one of the state's most influential newspapers, mostly through its support of President Andrew Jackson. The paper consistently called for internal improvements, especially regarding roads, railroads, and postal service. In 1826, the paper rallied support for East Tennessee College's move to Barbara Hill, just west of Knoxville, and the following year helped revive interest in the Knoxville Female Academy. Although Brown left in 1829, future Confederate general Felix Zollicoffer joined the paper as a journeyman printer in 1831, and future Knoxville mayor W.B.A. Ramsey joined as an editor in 1835. The Whig period (1836–1859) During the presidential election of 1836, the Register abandoned Jackson when it supported Whig candidate Hugh Lawson White instead of Jackson's choice, Martin Van Buren. In 1837, Heiskell retired and sold the paper to Ramsey and Robert Craighead. Ramsey and Craighead made several changes that angered subscribers, prompting local businessman Perez Dickinson and Exeter, New Hampshire-born editor James C. Moses to establish a rival paper, the Times, with Thomas William Humes as editor. In 1839, Moses bought the Register and merged the two papers. Humes edited the merged paper until 1840, after which Moses edited the paper himself. In 1849, attorneys William G. Swan and John Hervey Crozier formed a syndicate which purchased the Register, and installed John Miller McKee as editor. That same year, William G. "Parson" Brownlow, already well known in Knoxville as publisher of the Whig, moved his paper from Jonesborough to Knoxville. Brownlow accused the owners of the Register of trying to prevent his move to the city, namely by trying to deny him advertisers, and initiated a barrage of attacks against the paper, its owners, and McKee. McKee initially brushed off Brownlow's attacks, but as they intensified, he finally began responding, touching off a lengthy editorial quarrel. Throughout the early 1850s, the Register struggled financially as the prices of paper and printing supplies continued to rise. In 1855, the cash-strapped paper was sold to the Kinslow Brothers, who installed a Brownlow ally, John M. Fleming, as editor, briefly ending its quarrel with the Whig. In 1859, however, Southern-rights advocate George Bradfield purchased the Register, and converted it into a pro-secession paper, again bringing