[4] He began publishing a semi-weekly newspaper, The Portland Commercial, on March 24, 1853, but it was discontinued after a short life.

[5] He was elected as a Multnomah County delegate to the Oregon Constitutional Convention,[1] held in 1857.

[4] In 1857, he was elected chief of the Portland Fire Department (established in 1854), serving for a brief period.

The Advertiser was pro-slavery[5] and, according to a 1911 account by Henry Pittock, it took a pro-secession stance after the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President in March 1861, causing the paper to lose influence in Portland, where the majority of residents were pro-Union.

McCormick subsequently moved to San Francisco, California,[1] where he became editor of the Catholic Monitor newspaper.