[2][4] The paper reflected a nativist perspective advocating restrictions on immigration [5][6][7] and endorsed John Bell, the Constitutional Union Party candidate in the 1860 presidential election.

[15] Publishers William Wales & Co. described the Commercial as a "mercantile and political journal... to be devoted mainly to the growing interests of Maryland, in every department of commerce and industry" and "independent of cliques or parties.

"[16] This focus on Maryland interests extended to publishing national news including Reconstruction, the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and the abolition of slavery, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

[17][18] The Evening Commercial ceased publication in 1869 following the sale of publishers William Wales & Company to the Democratic Association of Baltimore.

[4] William Hinson Cole and Edward M. Yerger purchased the Commercial and began printing the Evening Journal on September 4, 1871.