Coming off a series of brief and sometimes stormy newspaper editorships in South Central Pennsylvania, John McFarland established a new paper in 1824 with the express purpose of backing the candidacy of Andrew Jackson in that fall's presidential election.

[1] The first issue, published on Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh, appeared on June 22 of that year under the title Allegheny Democrat, and Farmers' and Mechanics' Advertiser.

[2] The editorial tenure of Johns was marked by an uncritical advocacy of Jackson and his policies, and hostility to the president's bête noire, the United States Bank.

He soon thereafter took a post as city alderman and for that reason offered the Democrat for sale, but with no politically compatible buyer forthcoming, retained possession of the paper and reverted it back to weekly publication.

[17][18] Smith merged the two papers to form the Pittsburgh Mercury and Allegheny Democrat and assured his readers that he would conduct it in the political spirit of its predecessors.