The Pennsylvania Evening Post

[2][3][4][5] Benjamin Towne published the first issue of the Post on January 24, 1775,[6] using paper borrowed from James Humphreys without expectation of payment.

[7] The paper was supportive of the cause of the American Revolution,[6] and was the first to publish the United States Declaration of Independence, with it taking up the front page of the July 6, 1776 issue.

[8][9][10] Towne initially published his newspaper three times per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings "on half a sheet of crownpaper, in quarto."

Other loyalist papers in the city, such as Humphrey's Pennsylvania Ledger, ceased publication as the British were losing control of Philadelphia; Towne stayed.

On July 24, supporters of the Constitutional Society, led by Charles Wilson Peale, dragged Towne to a meeting and demanded the identity of Cato.