The Western Carolinian was founded in Salisbury on 13 June 1820, with Jacob Krider and Lemuel Bingham as editors. The western counties of North Carolina, more sparsely populated than those in the east, had long needed a newspaper to voice its desire for equal representation in the state legislature and otherwise serve its interests. Salisbury, as the region's largest city, was an ideal location for such a paper. In most antebellum political newspapers, national politics received the majority of the editorial attention, but the Western Carolinian was a leader in the movement to increase coverage of state issues. The obvious determination of western North Carolina-so forcefully confirmed on the pages of the Carolinian-led other editors to take sides on these issues, which included the establishment of a public school system and a public college in the west, internal improvements, the convening of a constitutional convention, the need for a state penitentiary, the care of the handicapped, and free suffrage for all white males. Although it changed hands and political affiliations several times, the Western Carolinian remained a strong advocate of the economic growth and political rights of western counties until it ceased publication in 1844.