Hezekiah Niles
Hezekiah Niles (1777-1839) was born in Jefferis Ford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on October 11, 1777. Niles’ parents were both residents of Wilmington, Delaware, but they sought refuge in Jefferis Ford due to British occupation of Delaware during War of Independence. Once the war ended, the Niles family would return to their Wilmington residence. Being of Quaker descent, Niles attended the Friends Grammar School, and it was here that Niles developed a competency for writing which would assist him later in life. In 1794, at the age of seventeen, Niles left Wilmington to pursue a career in journalism. He ended up in Philadelphia, where he began an apprenticeship at a local printing office. In 1797, Niles would return to Wilmington, and equipped with the skills he acquired in Philadelphia, he would establish a publishing partnership with another local from Delaware in 1799. This business would eventually fail, however, which subsequently led Niles to seek out employment elsewhere.
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Niles would eventually relocate to Baltimore, Maryland, and, in early 1805, Niles established The Apollo or Weekly Magazine, but this venture was also short-lived and would fail not long after. Later that year, Niles would take on the editorship of the Baltimore Evening Herald. This was a partisan Democratic-Republican newspaper, as opposed to a Federalist one. Given his family’s background with British occupation, Niles was distrustful of the latent Anglophilia of the Federalists and thus became a devout follower of Jefferson. Niles remained as editor of the Evening Herald until 1811. In the same year, Niles would establish the Niles Weekly Register, which would prove far more successful than his earlier ventures. Whilst the newspaper was staunchly in favor of the American System, it would operate in a non-partizan manner, and would not endorse either political party. Even though his newspaper would maintain an image of neutrality, Niles himself would be a devout follower of Henry Clay. Niles would join Clay’s National Republican Party in 1828, before joining the Whig Party in the 1830s. Sometime in the 1810s, Niles would also form a business relationship, and eventual lifelong friendship, with Mathew Carey.
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Niles’ economic writings are voluminous, albeit quite scattered, mostly comprising his editorials published in the Niles Weekly and Niles National Register. His two most important works, however, include his Address at the Harrisburg Convention, which was a statement made on behalf of the delegates at the 1827 Harrisburg Convention; and the Journal of the Proceedings of the Friends of Domestic Industry General Convention, which represents an account and summary of the views arrived at the 1831 Friends of Domestic Industry General Convention held in New York. Both of these Conventions were attended by the leading American Protectionist writers of the time, each for the purpose of drafting a memorial to Congress. Niles was one of eight representatives from Maryland sent to the Harrisburg Convention and would be Secretary and Chairman of the Committee at the Convention held in New York. Later in life, Niles would sell the Niles Register to his oldest son and would return to Wilmington. He would later pass away on April 2, 1839, after suffering from a paralytic stroke.