Wentworth 's rivals were probably at least partially correct when they accused him of printing more news about himself than the city . This strategy appears to have been successful , since Wentworth represented Chicago in the United States Congress on and off throughout this period , and also served as mayor of Chicago twice . Lack of circulation figures for the '' Democrat '' makes it hard to know much about the paper 's audience , but it seems likely that in the 1850s their number dwindled . The staff was kept small while the number of reporters at other papers grew , and the printing presses failed to keep up with the times and other newspapers such as the '' Chicago Tribune '' ( started in 1847 ) . Wentworth , owner of the '' Democrat '' , had become by the end of the 1850s a member of the new Republican Party &mdash; a turnabout that can be said , with some oversimplification , to have resulted from the politics of the years before the American Civil War when feelings about slavery caused shifting alliances and political turmoil throughout the country . In 1861 , just before the war started , Wentworth closed the '' Democrat '' . He said he was tired from his recent term as mayor and unable to continue after the death of his assistant , David Bradley . Others speculated he did not care to invest the money it would take to modernize and adequately cover the war many expected at any moment . A more pressing cause was a $ 250,000 libel lawsuit by another of Chicago 's Old Settlers , J. Young Scammon . Scammon was angry because Wentworth had published a cartoon depicting him as a " wildcat " banker ( the fat cat in the picture wore a pair of Scammon ’s distinctive spectacles ) . Wentworth gave his subscription list to the '' Chicago Tribune '' , whose publishers induced Scammon to drop the suit in return . Wentworth ’s political career went on but his paper was gone ; although his own complete run of the paper was burned in the 1871 Chicago Fire , many issues are now available through the Chicago History Museum , Chicago Public Library , and other repositories
Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Chicago Democrat