203

The editor requests that all those who are in
arrears for printing, will be pleased to dis-
charge their respective debts as early as
possible.

For a number of years Cowan held to the pledges
he had given in his first issue, and conducted his
paper with the strictest impartiality; he accepted
and printed controversial articles from any religious
faith and any political party. He was an admirer of
Washington, and as party politics became more sharply
defined his predilection for the Federalist party
became more and more pronounced. With the establish-
ment of a rival paper in 1799, the Republican Star,
admittedly Republican in politics, the Maryland Herald
lecarre a Federalist organ.²²

The Herald, as it was now called, became a clear-
ing house for bitter political and other quarrels. In
1800 a violent controversy over the candidacy of John
Edmondson for the General Assembly was conducted in
its columns. In 1802 the Herald published a political
satire, in the form of a drama, entitled The Grand
Caucus. attributed to Dr. Ennalls Martin. It ridi-
culed unmercifully, all the leaders of the Republican
party in Talbot County, and it is the opinion of
Oswald Tilghman, author of the History of Talbot
County, that no piece of writing which appeared in

22 Eastern Star. June 30, 1874.