The Division of the Legislature into two or three Branches in England, was it the Product of Wisdom or the Effect of Necessity arising from the preexisting Prevalence of an odious Feudal System? … I am sorry to see … one half the Legislature [the Senate] … proudly called the UPPER HOUSE, and the other Branch, chosen by the majority of the People, degraded by the denomination of the LOWER; and giving to this upper House a Permanency of … [several] Years, and but two to the lower …
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN1884
I now think the Number of Representatives should bear some proportion to the Number of the Represented, and that the Decisions should be by the Majority of Members, not by the Majority of States.
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
AT THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, JUNE 11, 17871885
Never was any measure so thoroughly discussed as our proposed new [federal] Constitution … As to the two chambers [of the legislature], I am of your opinion that one alone would be better …
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN1886
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
AN ODE ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NEW YEAR
MAID, Liberty, for ever dear,
The simple gift our Simple Parents gave !
Hail the sweet pow’r to shed the lonely tear !
And moralize upon the Patriot’s grave;
To open Mem’ry’s precious roll,
And from its stores refresh the soul;
To view the height where philosophic bards,
Thro’ pain and toil, have bought rewards
Explor’d their way to Truth’s secluded dome;
And bade her forth, with gentle hand,
To bless some free and peaceful land
And be their arbitress for days to come …
1800 ! A Presidential election year! A year to depose His Rotundity and end America’s “Reign of Witches”!
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
At a meeting of a number of the citizens of the city of Philadelphia, pursuant to public notice on Tuesday the 24th December at the house of John Dunwoody, for the purpose of considering the propriety of addressing the Legislature in favor of an election of Electors for a President and Vice President of the United States by Districts, it was resolved that … [an] address be circulated for the signatures of the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia …
If Federalists played by the rules they established in the last presidential election, Pennsylvania would award its fifteen presidential electoral votes to the candidate who wins a statewide popular election. Fearing, however, that last October’s statewide majority for Thomas McKean will become next October’s majority for Thomas Jefferson and knowing that, despite McKean’s majority last October, a majority of counties voted for James Ross,1887 the Federalist majority in the Pennsylvania state senate is obstructing renewal of the old election law and proposes instead to divide the electoral votes between the candidates on the basis of district elections (thereby giving John Adams nine of the state’s fifteen presidential electors).1888
SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Citizens are cautioned against a petition insidiously circulating … This petition is a party maneuver … and calculated to destroy all the happy effects of the late success of republicanism in this state.
Today, James Monroe, now Governor of Virginia, writes Thomas Jefferson:
I am strongly impressed with a belief that if A[dams] puts himself in the hands of the B[ritis]h faction, an attempt will be made to carry [enforce] the Sedition Act here [in Virginia] as an electioneering trick in the course of the summer. They must be deprived of a plausible pretext in w[hi]ch case an attempt will dishonor them …1889
TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We learn … that the bill … for election districts … has been thrown out of the [Pennsylvania] lower house. A bill has been passed by the house of representatives of this state for choosing electors … in the old form by a general ticket. This has been sent up to the senate but is not expected to pass.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Among the parcels sold at Cobbett’s auction were several marked thus on the outside …
Caricatures of the Vice President
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Extract of a Sermon … preached December 29, 1799, in Christ Church and St. Peter’s, by the Rev. Mr. ABERCROMBIE, one of the assistant Ministers of said Churches. “BRETHREN … O WASHINGTON, LIVE FOR EVER ! …”
[To the President of the United States]
SIR … With grateful acknowledgment and unfeigned thanks for the personal respect and evidences of condolence expressed by Congress and yourself … MARTHA WASHINGTON
MR. FENNO, A Correspondent wishes to be informed who is the Editor of the Aurora, a newspaper published lately in this city by B. F. Bache—It has been said the Editor is one Duane—who published a pamphlet with the signature of “Jasper Dwight of Vermont,” insulting the late General Washington … A. B.
MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
While this country, by the recommendation of its Government, is paying its last honors to one of the most distinguished revolutionary Characters … it will be a pleasure to the sincere republicans to recollect similar homage to a genius, equally conspicuous in science and in politics; and the friend of WASHINGTON. When the eulogium of FRANKLIN was pronounced in the National Assembly of France, there was a profound and perfect silence … MIRABEAU EXCLAIMED … “Were it not worthy of us, gentlemen … to pay our share of that homage now rendered in sight of the universe, at once to the rights of man and to the philosopher who most contributed to extend the conquests of liberty over the face of the whole earth? …”
Today, in New York City, William Cobbett, alias Peter Porcupine, publishes a farewell issue of the Porcupine’s Gazette, including:
TO THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS GAZETTE …
I now address to you the farewell number of PORCUPINE’S GAZETTE.
Remembering, as you must, my solemn promise to quit Pennsylvania in case my old democratic Judge, MACK KEAN, should be elected Governor; and, knowing as you now do, that he is elected to that office, there are, I trust, very few of you who will be surprized to find that I am no longer in that degraded and degrading State.
My removal from Philadelphia to New-York would certainly be a sufficient apology for the suspension of my paper from the 26th of October to this time … but the renewal of this intercourse between us … cannot take place, whether now or at any future time …
I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams and my principal object was to render to his administration all the assistance in my power. I looked upon him as a stately well-armed vessel, sailing on an expedition to combat and destroy the fatal influence of French intrigue and French principles … but he suddenly tacked about [dispatching this mission to France], and I could follow him no longer …
I congratulate myself on never having, in a single instance, been the sycophant of the Sovereign People and on having persisted … in openly and unequivocally avowing my attachment to my native country and my allegiance to my King …
And now, “my dear Philadelphians” … I will, for the present, take my leave of you … I wish you joy of your new Governor … I wish you joy of your House of Assembly … and your Captain Duane and his company of volunteers … And, though last not least, I wish you joy … of your DOCTORS. [WM. COBBETT]
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It is reported that the Legislature of New Jersey have risen without being able to pass a law directing the choice of Electors of President and Vice President of the United States … The House of representatives insisted upon the electors being chosen immediately by the people … while the council [the upper chamber] contended for the old practice … of their being chosen by the Legislature.
As in Pennsylvania, Federalists in New Jersey’s state legislature won’t allow a statewide popular vote to decide who gets the state’s presidential electoral vote.1890
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
AN APPRENTICE WANTED
TO THE PRINTING BUSINESS. Enquire at this office.
Tonight, Jack Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
IN most countries it would be found that the great mass of the people are incompetent to judge of public affairs of an extensive and complex nature, and, when so deceived, incompetent to select proper officers for the management of such concerns.
This is no imputation on their understanding; for their attention is occupied with other objects. An excellent sailor may know nothing of the mechanism of a watch—nor a watchmaker of the working of a ship. The choice of a majority is therefore no test of the qualifications of a candidate.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
At a meeting of a number of the citizens of Montgomery county [Pennsylvania], held at the house of Nicholas Sweyer …
Resolved, That a Committee … draught a memorial to the Legislature of this State, soliciting that a law (directing the manner of choosing the electors of a President and Vice President) may be passed similar to those which have been heretofore on the same subject …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, Pennsylvania’s Federalist Senator James Ross (who lost to Thomas McKean in the race for Governor of Pennsylvania) proposes that the Senate consider legislation to deal with the coming presidential election. The Annals of Congress report:
On motion of Mr. Ross [Federalist, Pennsylvania], that it be, Resolved, That a committee be appointed to consider whether any, and what, provisions, ought to be made by law for deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States, and for determining the legality or illegality of the votes given for those officers in the different states …
Suppose, said he, persons should claim to be Electors who had never been properly appointed, should their vote be received? …1891
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
There has been much talk of late respecting a defection of the subscribers to the Aurora, said to have been occasioned by four testimonials of disrespect exhibited by the people who manage that paper towards the memory of the late General Washington.
MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The proceedings in the Senate of the United States of last week indicate measures of particular interest on the tapis there. Accustomed to hear little either to instruct or inform in that house, we were not prepared to take notes there during the last week; however, … we expect to be able to attend to them in subsequent stages more at large.
Our state election for electors of President and Vice President has already caused some agitation in the Pennsylvania Legislature … The party hostile to the popular interests has obtained in our state Senate a majority, and they are determined that we shall be deprived of a law … rather than have the law which the people of the state approve and call for … [A Pennsylvania member of the Senate of the United States] Mr. Ross … has brought forward in the Senate of the United States a measure expressly calculated to defeat the wishes of the people of this commonwealth … We shall attend to this alarming attempt upon the freedom of this state …
It is understood that the legislature of New-Jersey has risen without enacting a law for choosing the electors of the next President of the United States. Appearances countenance the apprehension that the legislature of Pennsylvania also may rise under like circumstances.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The United States frigate which conveyed our Commissioners to the French Republic was spoken with on the 24th of Nov. within two days sail of Cadiz, all well.
War … Today, off Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, the U.S. Navy’s 340–man, thirty-six-gun frigate Constellation pursues and fires upon the fifty-eight-gun French national ship-of-war Le Vengeance. In this engagement, thirty-eight Americans are killed or wounded. Captain Thomas Truxton reports:
Throughout these twenty-four hours, very unsettled weather, kept on our tracks beating up under Guadeloupe and at half past 7 A.M … saw a sail in the S. E … [D]iscovered she was a heavy French frigate, mounting at least 54 guns. I immediately gave orders for the yards to be slung with the chains, topsail sheet, &c. stoppered, and the ship cleared and everything prepared for action … [G]ot within hail of him at 8 P.M., hoisted our ensign, and had the candles in the battle lanterns all lighted and the large trumpet in the lee gangway ready to speak to him to demand the surrender of his ship to the U.S. of America, but he at that inst. commenced a fire from his stern and quarter guns directed at our rigging and spars. No parley being necessary, I … [gave my orders] to take good aim and fire directly into the hull of the enemy; and load principally with two round shot and now and then a stand of grape, &c … [T]hus a close and sharp action … continued until within a few minutes of 1 A. M. when the enemy’s fire was completely silenced …1892
Today, former Aurora writer Jimmy Callender distributes a powerful piece of campaign literature, the first volume (184 pages) of his new work The Prospect Before Us:1893
In the fall of 1796, when the French began their depredations, the country fell into a more dangerous juncture than almost any the old confederation ever endured. The tardiness and timidity of Mr. Washington were succeeded by the rancour and insolence of Mr. Adams. The Parisian preference of Dr. Franklin was to be revenged. The British constitution was to be defended, not only by three volumes, but by the sixteen United States …
Every feature in the conduct of Mr. Adams forms a distinct and additional evidence that he was determined, at all events, to embroil this country with France …
Think what you have been, what you are, and what, under the monarch of Massachusetts, you are likely to become. Look at Schneider flogged by the federal troops in the marketplace of Reading … Think of Duane dragged from the office of the Aurora, and of Philadelphia driven to the verge of tumult and massacre …1894
For The Prospect Before Us, Jimmy Callender will suffer the penalties of the Sedition Act.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A Salem paper (Massachusetts) calls the proposition for renewing the laws for a popular election in Pennsylvania an effort of Jacobinism—these people sometimes speak very plainly—tho’ cunning as they are no one can mistake them.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[I]nteresting events have recently taken place in France … A counter-revolutionary plot appears to have been deeply laid … The ark of the republic appears to have been tossed about … [T]he Constitution of the 3rd year was annihilated, … [Napoleon’s] Consulate established on its ruins …
The advocates of Representative Government admired the distinction of legislative power and the control of the popular over the Executive authority. They admired the plurality of the Executive, as it gave five men responsible for executive acts instead of One …
[F]eatures in the Constitution were objects of dislike, but freemen were indulgent to a system … which in its spirit and arrangement carried all the grand principles of social and human happiness into operation and laid down as its basis the immutable and eternal rights of man …
Time may yet develop new facts upon which the recent changes may be more accurately weighed …
Napoleon Bonaparte, who commands the armies of France, has seized dictatorial control of France!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PARIS … Letter from the minister for foreign affairs [of France] to the foreign ministers [of other states].
SIR, I HAVE the honour to inform you that the consuls of the French republic have taken into their hands the reins of government … REINARD
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Tom Paine, awake only at every new revolution, lately sent a bundle of constitutions to Buonaparte …
Since the French Republic is overthrown, we shall probably hear so many alarms sounded respecting the danger [to] Republican Liberty from despotic conspiracies …
After denying during many days the authenticity of the late news, the Aurora people at length believed it, because Mr. Jefferson believed it …
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PARIS … Every one is endeavouring to recollect all the circumstances by which persons might have predicted the revolution which has just taken place.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes;
The late [counter]revolution in France appears to us an unequivocal decision of the popular sentiment in favor of Royalty. The sovereign people sacrificed the old government and zealously cooperated in seating the new into power under the hopes of thereby approximating the conclusion of a peace. As peace cannot be concluded or hoped for with the dominant moonshine usurpers, there can be little doubt that a consciousness of this will lead them to reinstate their lawful monarch; or that the people, finding peace not attainable through their means, will … themselves restore their exiled King.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Hamilton’s late defence of “kiss and tell” is said to be bought up by the friends of that gentleman. Should any friend to liberty have been so fortunate as to have saved one copy, the loan of it is requested …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
Mr. Ross [Federalist, Pennsylvania], from the committee appointed the 28th of January last, reported a bill prescribing the mode of deciding elections of President and Vice President of the United States, which was read and ordered to a second reading.1895
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Several enquiries have been made at the Aurora office to know what is the nature and purpose of the Caucuses or secret meetings which have been held a few evenings past in the [United States] Senate Chamber, as if “the Aurora” must of necessity be in the secret … We candidly confess we are not in the secret on this occasion, but we shrewdly suspect what is going on …
I. Measures of intrigue, influence, and reconciliation concerning the Election for President.
II. Plans for encreasing the influence of the federal and diminishing that of the state legislatures …
The Pennsylvania state senate is preventing Pennsylvania from expressing its popular preference for Thomas Jefferson. Will the United States Senate prevent the nation from doing the same?
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
JUST PUBLISHED AND TO BE HAD
AT THE OFFICE OF THE AURORA …
portrait of the Hon. THOMAS JEFFERSON, engraved by AKIN and HARRISON, jun. from the picture now in the Museum painted by C. W. Peale
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The civil dissensions in Pennsylvania threaten the complete disenfranchisement of the citizens at the ensuing election for President and Vice president.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18. 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MR. EDITOR, I HAVE often doubted of the necessity … of two houses of Legislature … [T]here is some reason to doubt whether we (the people) have not lost. upon the whole, by the change that took place [in the Pennsylvania constitution] about the year 1790 …
Dr. Franklin (a name no longer popular among the well-born, the well-bred, and the fashionable adherents of our present rulers) was decidedly averse to the modern doctrine of checks and balances, nor could I ever understand the theory … [A] few considerations … lead me to doubt whether we ought not to abolish or to modify the Senate of the State of Pennsylvania …
[H]ow can we justify the absurdity of appointing our [Pennsylvania] Senate for four years and our immediate representatives [in the Pennsylvania House] for one year only?
Let us look to fact. [H]as there or has there not been a considerable change in public sentiment within the last four years? and do we not see that our house of assembly does, and our senate does not, represent that change ? …
[I]t appears that a government of 2 houses has been carried on at double the expence, on the average, which the government of one branch formerly cost us …
The only argument remaining … in favour of two houses is the alleged party spirit and precipitancy of one house … But this precipitancy has never been an evil of equal magnitude with the frequency of opposition of opinion between the Senate and the public … and the obstinate adherence that has sometimes occurred [among senators] to principles and practices directly opposed to those which the majority of their constituents are known to approve. The projects of the present dispute on the election law respecting electors … are not the only proofs …
C.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In our paper of the 27th ult. we noticed the introduction of a measure into the Senate of the United States by Mr. James Ross calculated to influence and affect the approaching presidential election …
We this day lay before the public a copy of that bill as it has passed the Senate. We noticed a few days ago the Caucuses (or secret consultations) held in the Senate Chamber … We stated that intrigues for the presidential election were among the objects. We now state it as a fact … that the bill we this day present was discussed at the Caucus on Wednesday evening last …
A BILL..
SECT. I. Be it enacted … That … the Senate and House [shall] choose by ballot, in each house, six members thereof, and the twelve persons thus chosen, together with the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States … shall form a Grand Committee and shall have the power to examine and finally decide all disputes relating to the election of President and Vice President of the United States …
SECT. 5. And be it further enacted, That … [the Committee] shall sit with closed doors …
SECT. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Grand Committee shall have power to enquire, examine, decide … upon the constitutional qualifications of the Electors appointed by the different states … upon all petitions and exception against … improper means used to influence their votes or against the truth of their returns [&c.] …
SECT. 10. And be it further enacted, That on the first day of March … the grand Committee shall make their final report … stating the legal number of [electoral] votes for each person [for President and Vice President] and the number of votes which have been rejected: the report shall be a final and conclusive determination …
SECT. 11. And be it further enacted, That when the grand committee shall have been duly formed … it shall not be in the power of either house [of Congress] to dissolve the committee or to withdraw its members …
With one member of this committee (the Chief Justice) appointed by the President (subject to U.S. Senate approval) and six members of this committee appointed by the senate itself, this committee’s majority will have a monarchical and aristocratical veto on whether Thomas Jefferson becomes president!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Fenno says, “the civil dissentions in Pennsylvania threaten to complete the disenfranchisement of the citizens at the ensuing election.” This is a more candid declaration than we could have expected from that quarter—it remains, however, untold by him that his friends are the authors of these dissentions—that they are caused by a contempt of the public will … That the member of the [U.S.] Senate who that faction sought to force upon the people as governor has been the mover and author of a bill in the federal senate of the most dangerous tendency to the constitution and liberties of this state and calculated in a particular case to bring in a judge appointed by the president of the United States to be an umpire in the legislative rights of this state and on the elective rights of the people. It is candid therefore in Fenno to acknowledge that the people of Pennsylvania are in danger of being disfranchised.
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed consideration of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States.
On motion to strike out … It passed in the negative, yeas 11, nays 19 …1896
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It appears that the Bill which we published a few days ago, concerning a kind of Venetian Council of 12, proposed to be instituted to determine upon our state elections, has not yet passed the Senate of the U.S.
The republican interest in New York state are endeavoring to obtain a general election ticket as Virginia has done and as Pennsylvania has hitherto had with universal satisfaction. The people of New York, by a vast majority, are in favour of a general ticket, but by an artful course of measures steadily pursued in that as in other states, the election of legislators and other public servants is in fact carried on in a great measure by an aristocratical junto.
Federalists in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania state legislatures refuse to allow statewide popular elections to decide who gets these states’ presidential electors. They know that Thomas Jefferson could win such a statewide popular vote and have, therefore, retained the electoral choice to themselves. To alter the predictable outcome, Republicans will have to win control of the state legislatures, and the first opportunity to do so comes at the end of April, when New York holds its election for the state legislature.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A transaction in our [Pennsylvania] state legislature took place on Thursday last which exceeds even the memorable transaction in Congress upon which the Speaker Dayton forgot the dignity of his station … In the morning sitting, the [Pennsylvania] house had under consideration … the election law … Mr. Fisher … met with Dr. Logan and began to insult him … Fisher called him a damn’d puppy—Logan called him a rascal on which he received a blow in the face from Fisher. The Doctor struck at him … [S]everal blows were given by different persons …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Aurora tells us that the dissentions in the Legislature have terminated in blows; and That Doctor Logan has been beaten up and laid up by Mr. Fisher.
HARRISBURG … We are credibly informed that his Excellency Thomas M’Kean was knocked down with a brick-bat while walking the streets of Lancaster by one Moses Simons who is said to be insane. It is said his Excellency was taken up almost lifeless.
Occurrences on board the United States ship Constellation of 28 guns, under my command, Feb 1, 1800 …
[A]t half past 7, A. M…. saw a sail … I discovered … she was a heavy French frigate … I was determined to continue the pursuit … I gained a position on his weather port … [T]hus a close and as sharp an action as ever was fought commenced …
[CAPT.] THOMAS TRUXTON
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[I]t appears by the letter which we extract from Fenno’s paper from Captain Truxton that he resolved to challenge the French frigate to action …
The people of the United States have unequivocally expressed their unwillingness for offensive war. A negociation has been set on foot to procure … a fair understanding with the French nation. How comes it then that an officer, deriving his authority from the executive, from the first public servant of the people should commit such acts as violate the express will of the people … ?
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
A motion was made by MR. DAYTON [Federalist, New Jersey] that it be resolved
Resolved, That a Committee of Privileges, consisting of—members, be appointed to continue during the present session.
Ordered, That it lie for consideration until tomorrow.1897
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A prosecution has been commenced on an Eastern Printer [Anthony Haswell of the Vermont Gazette] for publishing an extract from [U.S. War Secretary] Mr. M’Henry’s letter … recommending Tories as fit persons to hold commissions in the army under a government the principles of which they hate.
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate took into consideration the motion made yesterday that a standing Committee of Privileges … be appointed …
Resolved, That a Committee of Privileges, consisting of five members, be appointed to continue during the present session.
And, on motion to agree to the motion as amended, it passed in the affirmative—yeas 22, nays 7 …
A motion was made by Mr. TRACY [Federalist, Connecticut], that it be,
Resolved, That the Committee of Privileges be, and they are hereby, directed to enquire who is the editor of the newspaper printed in the city of Philadelphia, called the General Advertiser, or Aurora, and by what means the editor became possessed of the copy of the bill … which was printed in the aforesaid newspaper, published Wednesday morning, the 19th inst … And generally to enquire the origin of sundry assertions in the same paper, respecting the Senate of the United States, and the members thereof, in their official capacity, and why the same were published …
Ordered, That this motion lie for consideration.
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of the president and Vice President of the United States; and after progress, adjourned.1898
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes Samuel Adams of Boston,
A letter from you, my respectable friend, after three & twenty years of separation, has given me a pleasure that I cannot express … Your principles have been tested in the crucible of time & have come out. You have proved that it was monarchy & not merely British monarchy you opposed. A government by representatives, elected by the people at short periods, was our object; and our maxim at that day was, “where annual election ends, tyranny begins. “Nor have our departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects …1899
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes:
It ought to be remembered that the great object with the antifederalists now is the election of Mr. Jefferson as President of the United States in opposition to Mr. Adams. As to the cause of France, they care nothing about it any farther than they can make it subservient to their own views, more especially since the late change in that government which they confessedly do not understand …
The antifederalists may preach up the virtues of their candidate, but the writer of this will consider the day on which they succeed in their election as the commencement of a revolution …
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A lawyer, whose federalism is of the highest tone, but who seldom speaks upon politics unless when he expresses the sentiments of his party, said a few evenings ago that it was in vain for the federalists to go against popular opinion while “The Aurora” was suffered to exist—to proceed in the next election or in any other measure, it was necessary first to begin with pulling down that paper—or its present Editor!!
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We learn by a citizen who remained in the gallery of the Senate after we had left it on Tuesday that a resolution was laid on the table, tending to authorize the committee of privileges to make enquiries who is the Editor of “the Aurora,” and how he came to the publication of the Bill which we gave in the paper a few days ago, concerning a committee of both houses for deciding on disputed elections and other matters which our friend could not recollect.
A free press is an alarming eye-sore to men whose actions cannot bear the test of enquiry nor admit of defense by the same medium.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THE AMERICAN ENVOYS have arrived at Lisbon.
MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES …
A Motion was made that it be Resolved, That the committee of privileges be, and they are hereby, directed to enquire who is the Editor of the news-paper printed in the city of Philadelphia, called the General Advertiser, or Aurora, and by what means the Editor became possessed of the copy of a bill [&c.] …
It is curious to see wise men searching with a lantern at noon day for a man whom they commonly see before them without the aid of spectacles.
THE CAUCUS
On Saturday Evening last, these gentlemen who heretofore met at the Senate Chamber held a meeting or Caucus at a private lodging house of one of the members of the party. We had not time to go in search of their subject, but it was suspected to have been held to consider what was best to be done with that dangerously active fellow the Editor of the Aurora and to advise certain persons thereof accordingly.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
“REPUBLICANISM”
The following … is extracted from the Kentucky Gazette …
“On Wednesday last, a considerable number of republican citizens assembled at Thomas Stephensen’s spring … [T]he following toasts were drank … 9. The memory of Gen. Washington, may his illustrious actions and services be faithfully recorded down to the year 1787, but no further …”
(Here may be seen … the confession of faith of those devoted to the principles of Jacobinism …)
A poor Maniac at Lancaster knocked Excellence [McKean] down with a brick … [T]he people who conduct the Aurora actually insinuated … a design of assassination. These things come from the same audacious miscreants who proclaim assassination to be no crime in ridding the earth of one whom they choose to call a tyrant.
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
WHAT GOOD HAVE THE REPUBLICANS DONE?
This is a question often asked by their enemies. The answer is they have saved our country from war … in the face of the most constant and foul calumny, abuse, and reproach from the great Porcupines and the little Porcupines, the British spies and hirelings, and all their Tory party in this country …
TO THE EDITOR OF THE AURORA.
SIR … [A] committee of privileges is appointed to arraign an Editor for even publishing facts which relate to a branch of the Legislature … acting in their legislative capacity …
[T]he object of the leaders of the federal party is to trample under foot those who … are advocates for representative government … Scarcely a day passes over our head without some sarcasm upon the Sovereign people, some innuendo against republican government …
LOOK OUT.
The Caucus of Saturday evening was not as numerously attended as might have been expected; nor did they sit as long as usual. [T]here was some thundering for a moment or two …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States.1900
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Some time ago Fenno exulted much at the supposed effect of the wit of that paper … [and] declared that the Democrats were sheered by it. Surely this pack of wits forgot to remember the poetical beads of the Aurora in 1796 …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
BREACH OF PRIVILEGE
The Senate took into consideration the motion made on the 26th of February last, that an inquiry be had relative to a publication in a newspaper called the “Aurora” on the 19th of the said month …
Mr. COCKE [Republican, Tennessee] said he would not suffer a measure of this kind … What did the gentleman [Mr. TRACY] mean … ? [D]id he mean to get the consent of the Senate, acting in the character of an inquest, to an acknowledgment that the editor of the Aurora had been guilty of a crime, without any inquiry whether the publication in itself was criminal, or whether, if it was criminal, the Senate, as an independent and a single branch of the Legislature, had of itself the power to define the crime and inflict the punishment? …
Mr. TRACY [Federalist, Connecticut] … The committee are desired to inquire who is the editor of the Aurora; this will appear to be a proper inquiry, for the person is not publicly known: the imprint declares the paper to be published for the heirs of Benjamin Franklin Bache, but we do not know who are the heirs. The gentleman has told us that it is no crime to publish the doings of this body; but is it nothing to publish untruths respecting the official conduct of the members of this body? is it no crime to publish a bill while before this House? But are printers at liberty to tell lies about our transactions? The Aurora says that the bill which it published had passed the Senate; this every member knows to be contrary to the fact …
Mr. COCKE [Republican, Tennessee] … supposed the resolutions considered the publications in the Aurora as criminal, otherwise they would not make this stir about them. Gentlemen have asked, are the newspapers to be permitted to go on and villify the members of the Legislature without punishment? He answered [that] the printers of papers published on their own responsibility, and if they had no authority for any scandalous assertions respecting the Senate, they could be punished in the way pointed out by law. But would the members wish to draw the printers before the House and assume the judiciary power of the courts of justice ? …1901
Today, Peggy Bache and I enter an agreement whereby I become owner and publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora. By the transaction, I have been put into conditional possession of the printing presses, types, utensils, &c. employed in conducting the newspaper … [U]ntil the purchase money … be fully paid, the presses, types, utensils, &c. are mortgaged to … Margaret …1902 This transaction assures that I, not Peggy, will be held responsible for the paper’s operation in any of the Federalist legal actions. More important, Peggy’s mortgage lien on the paper’s assets will assure that Peggy, not the Federalists, will end up with the paper’s assets (should the Federalists win a lawsuit and try to foreclose on the paper in satisfaction of their claim).
Today, the President’s Lady, Abigail Adams, writes her sister:
At a late festival in Kentucky, amongst a number of Jacobin toasts is one to the memory of Genll. Washington to the year 17[8]9 and no longer, by which they mean to cast a slur upon the whole of his administration of the government. But Hence, wretches, to your native dens—the bogs of Ireland, the dens of Scotland, and the outcasts of Britain.1903
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Forlorn and destitute indeed must be the condition of a party which can look with idiot admiration on the drunken blackguardisms of a Callender, the brazen impositions of a Duane … There is a difficulty in deciding which of these two classes is sunk the lowest in moral and mental degradation—the seditious Herd who worship these uncouth idols or the self-conceited nothings who court with so much avidity the foul incense of their praise.
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In the Senate yesterday, the resolution concerning the editor of the Aurora was called up and underwent some warm investigation. We were not aware of the Intention or should have attended, but we have been promised minutes of the debates and motions.
Some extraordinary doctrines were broached in the senate yesterday … on the privileges of the Senate, amounting in fact to a more arbitrary extent than any thing ever attempted in the British house of lords.
QUERIES TO A SENATOR.
1. Does the unbounded privilege of a Legislator extend to protect his public conduct from public investigation? …
The public appears anxious to learn the result of the late disgraceful violence in our state legislature—We have refrained from communication on this subject, because it is under the scrutiny of a committee …
Today, in the United States Senate, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed the consideration of the motion made on the 26th of February last, that an inquiry be had relative to a publication in a newspaper called the Aurora …
And after debate, the Senate adjourned.1904
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
IN SENATE
Yesterday, the consideration of the resolution respecting the Editor of the Aurora being called for, Mr. Pinckney read in his place two or three resolutions … on the independence of the press …
Mr. Tracy of the senate declares that in his opinion “the Aurora” is the very worst paper in the United States—“O righteous Judge !—a second Daniel !”
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate took into consideration the motion made yesterday for amending the motion … that an inquiry be had relative to a publication … in a newspaper called the Aurora … And, after debate, the Senate adjourned.1905
Today, Republican U.S. Senator Stevens Thomson Mason of Virginia writes James Madison:
Ross’s Bill for deciding on the Election of Pres[iden]dt & V P[residen]t is still before the Senate … still retaining the obnoxious principles of it …
We have been three days upon and are now discussing a resolution ag[ains]t the Editor of the Aurora for a publication of the 19th of Feby. An amendment to connect with it an equally or more offensive publication of Fenno of the 13th was rejected by the usual Vote …1906
Thomas Jefferson notes:
Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate. On the motion against the Aurora. That there is, in every legal body of men, a right of self-preservation … That the common law authorizes the proceeding proposed ag[ains]t the Aurora … That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite …1907
SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Published (DAILY) By WILLIAM DUANE, Successor of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE, at No. 112 Market Street, Philadelphia. EIGHT DOLLARS per ann.
TO SUBSCRIBERS
Those who are in arrear to this office for subscriptions and whose periods are near a close are requested to make immediate payment—as no paper will be forwarded to those who do not pay regularly, a rule necessary to the support of the liberal expenditures of a paper whose circulation is greater and more feared by the enemies of republicanism than any other in the nation.
The change in today’s masthead proclaims my new position as the paper’s publisher. Does “successor” suggest something more?
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed the consideration of the motion … that an inquiry be had relative to a publication on the 19th of said month, in a newspaper called the Aurora …
And, on the motion to agree to the original motion as amended, it was passed in the affirmative—yeas 19, nays 8 …
So it was
Resolved, That the Committee of Privileges be and are hereby directed to consider and report what measures it will be proper for the Senate to adopt in relation to the newspaper, printed in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday morning the 19th of February, 1800, called the General Advertiser, or Aurora; in which it is asserted that the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States had passed the Senate, when, in fact, it had not passed … and generally to report what measures ought to be adopted in relation to sundry expressions contained in said paper, respecting the Senate of the United States, and the members thereof, in their official capacity.1908
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes James Madison,
We have this day also decided in Senate on the motion for overhauling the editor of the Aurora. It was carried, as usual, by about 2 to 1 …
The feds begin to be very seriously alarmed about their election next fall. Their speeches in private, as well as their public and private demeanor to me, indicate it strongly. This seems to be the prospect. Keep out Pennsylv[ania], Jersey & N. York, & the rest of the states are about equally divided … [T]he event depends on the 3. middle states above men[tioned]. As to them, Pennsylvania passes no law for an election at present …
In N. York, all depends on the success of the city election which is of 12 members … which is sufficient to make the two houses joined together republican in their vote [for presidential electors] … If Pennsylvania votes, then either Jersey or New York giving a republican vote decides the election. If Pennsylv[ania] does not vote, then New York determines the election. In any event, we may say that if the city election of N. York is in favor of the Republican ticket, the issue will be republican … The election of New York being in April it becomes an early & interesting object …1909
If New York’s Republicans elect a majority to New York’s state legislature, that majority can award New York’s presidential electors to Thomas Jefferson. Because New York City has so many seats in the state legislature, New York City is critical to that majority.
MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A certain federal Senator was heard to say some days ago “If the Aurora is not blown up soon, Jefferson will be elected in defiance of every thing!”
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States and, after debate,
Ordered, That it be recommitted to the original committee, further to consider and report thereon to the Senate …1910
TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The bill for instituting a kind of tribunal to decide upon elections for President and Vice President, and about the publication of which by the Editor of this paper so much alarm has been excited in the Senate of the United States … was taken up in the Senate yesterday …
If there was nothing dangerous or hostile to the liberties of the people in this Bill, why has its publication given those who support it so much and such extraordinary alarm?
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO SUBSCRIBERS.
THE Editor respectfully requests the attention of the Patrons of “The Aurora” to the following considerations. He enters on the proprietorship of this paper without any other capital than public confidence, and personal credit, and his industry. The funds for the maintenance of this paper must, therefore, be derived wholly from itself—and as the expenditures are considerable and necessarily regular, the income must be equally punctual to secure the editor from pecuniary embarrassment …
It is for these reasons determined that no paper shall be furnished from this office to any subscriber who shall not pay up all arrears due to this office …
Four years further continuance of such measures as we have seen for four years back would … not only bring this republic closer in its resemblance to the British monarchy; but the public liberties … would be all destroyed. [T]o save us from these multiplied evils … unite all hearts in placing at the head of government the author of the declaration of independence [Thomas Jefferson].
The Argus, a republican paper published for several years in New-York by the late worthy citizen Thomas Greenleaf, has been transferred to a new proprietor and its title changed …
Bad news for Republicans! Beleaguered by Federalist sedition prosecutions, Anne Greenleaf has closed the New York Argus and sold its equipment. Without the Argus and without the New York Time Piece, New York City has no established Republican paper1911 to influence the upcoming election of state legislators (who will choose the state’s presidential electors). What role will the Aurora play? Will we distribute the Aurora free?1912 New York’s sedition trials are coming up just before the New York election. John Adams’ methods of intimidation are clear.
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
On Monday, we propose commencing a report of the recent extraordinary proceedings in the Senate concerning the Editor of this paper …
We consider the security of the press of at least equal moment with the privileges, real or assumed, of the Senate and hold ourselves bound to maintain that freedom established by the Constitution, and in the spirit of the Constitution, against every effort of an illegal or unconstitutional nature which may be made to destroy it.
We have waited in silence … the proceedings of the [United States] Senate … It remains to be seen whether the arbitrary and undefined powers of an English hereditary house of lords are to be adopted by men whose privileges the constitution has expressly defined and limited—and whether our Senate has the power to assert in their own body the various functions of accusers, judges, jurors, and executioners, in a case where they are also parties.
When the federal constitution was under consideration in 1787, the late venerable ROGER SHERMAN of Connecticut … prophetically said, “That the Senate of the United States, possessing both legislative and executive powers, was such a monster that it would swallow up and absorb every other body of the general government if it was not restrained …”
Friday the 11th of April next, the trial of CHARLES HOLT, Editor of the BEE, comes on at New Haven …
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The federalists begin to feel the imprudence … They now perceive the people awakened … Men who have been ruined for being democrats under a democratic government can now hold up their heads … But while the people are returning so rapidly in all parts of the union to … the principles of 1776 in opposition to the monarchical innovations and doctrines which have been imposed on this nation, the innovators redouble their activity for mischief …
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Witness the prosecution of Mr. [Thomas ] Adams, printer of the Boston Chronicle, the only paper in that town which was dedicated to liberty! … [T]he consequence of this verdict was that Mr. Adams was sentenced to a long imprisonment which so injured his health that he died soon after the term of his captivity expired … Mr. Frothingham of New-York … was only an assistant in the printing office of Mrs. Greenleaf, proprietess of the Argus, one of the numbers of which paper contained a paragraph stating that Alexander Hamilton was at the bottom of a plan that was on foot for purchasing the Aurora—this could not be considered a libel in any country in the world but in the eyes of a federal jury … [T]he court sentenced him to a fine and imprisonment … the happy consequence of introducing the practice of English [common] law [where truth is no defence to a libel action] amongst a free people ! … I may be found a libeller if I publish that I saw the president of the United States riding pell-mell down Market street …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Committee on Privileges makes its report:
REPORT …
WHEREAS, on the 19th day of February now last past, the Senate of the United States being in session in the city of Philadelphia … publication was made in the newspaper printed in the city of Philadelphia, called the General Advertiser or Aurora …
Resolved, That the said publication contains assertions and pretended information, respecting the Senate, and the committee of the Senate and their proceedings, which are false, defamatory, scandalous and malicious, tending to defame the Senate of the United States, and to bring them into contempt and disrepute, and to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States; and that the said publication is a daring and high-handed breach of privileges of this house.
Resolved, That William Duane, now residing in the city of Philadelphia, the editor of the said newspaper, called the General-Advertiser, or Aurora be, and he is ordered to attend at the bar of this house … to make any proper defence for his conduct …1913
MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We this day commence the debates on the extraordinary and unconstitutional measures which have been attempted in the Senate of the United States to implicate and coerce the editor of this paper. We also give the report of the committee of privileges …
At present we shall restrain the sentiments which we feel and must utter on this monstrous attempt; an attempt which no act of the Editor shall ever sanction or countenance—no apprehensions of a personal kind shall ever induce him to betray the liberties of his country, the constitutional right of free discussion, or to submit to any authority which is not authorized by the Constitution or the laws.
The people of the United States are called upon to consider this question …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
Mr. Ross, from the committee to whom was recommitted the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States, reported amendments, which were read.
Ordered, That they lie on the table.1914
TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[W]hat can the public think of a party whose impotent vengeance is directed against such men as Jefferson … and who deign to employ such wretched tools for their calumny as Fenno and Porcupine ?
Suppose the Legislature of the state of Pennsylvania do not chuse to direct the mode in which Electors for the office of President shall be chosen. What then ?
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate took into consideration the report of the Committee of Privileges on the measures … to adopt in relation to … the General Advertiser, or Aurora; and,
On motion to adopt the first resolution reported, it was agreed … that the question should be taken on the following words:
Resolved, That the said publication contains assertions and pretended information, respecting the Senate … which are false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious; tending to defame the Senate of the United States, and to bring them into contempt and disrepute, and to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States.
And on the question to adopt this part of the resolution, reported by the committee, it passed in the affirmative—yeas 20, nays 8 …1915
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THE AMERICAN ENVOYS have arrived at Lisbon and are proceeding to Paris.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Monday being the Anniversary of the Hibernian Tutelary patron, libations were poured forth … [T]he Editor, proud of the Irish blood that flows in his veins and the Irish virtues which he imbibed in that happy but politically oppressed nation … hopes that there will be comparatively few of his American fellow countrymen and citizens who will not enter into the spirit … 1. The Anniversary of St. Patrick: May it ever inspire us … 2. The Fraternity of United Irishmen … 8. The Rights of Man … 11. The Liberty of the Press; May it flourish in spite of Sedition Laws and surmount the attacks of Committees of Privilege. VOLUNTEER TOASTS … May the Aurora rise never to set … The Memory of Benjamin Franklin, and B. Franklin Bache, and the spirit of emulation in his successor …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed … in relation to a publication in the newspaper called the Aurora … and it was agreed … “that the said publication is a high breach of the privileges of this House;” and, on the question to agree thereto, as amended, it was determined in the affirmative—yeas 17, nays 11 …1916
THURSDAY. MARCH 20, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The legislature of this state adjourned sine die on Monday evening last.
Pennsylvania’s legislature has adjourned without enacting a law to allow Pennsylvania to choose presidential electors and without setting a date for the state legislature to reconvene. Now what ?
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed consideration of the report of the Committee of Privileges … On motion to adopt this part of the report, as follows:
Resolved, That William Duane, now residing in the city of Philadelphia, the editor of the said newspaper called the General Advertiser, or Aurora, be and he is hereby ordered to attend the bar of this House on Monday, the 24th day of March inst. at 12 o’clock and which time he will have the opportunity to make any proper defence for his conduct in publishing the aforesaid false, defamatory, and malicious assertions and pretended information: and the Senate will the proceed to take further order on the subject …
It passed in the affirmative—yeas 18, nays 10 …1917
FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We published on Monday last the Report of the committee of privileges concerning the Editor of this paper. The Senate has been occupied several days during this week in debating two resolutions annexed thereto; in the first of which they condemn the Editor, and by the second propose to give him a trial ! ! !
On Tuesday the Senate agreed to part of the first resolution; on Wednesday to the remainder, they passed a vote that William Duane, Editor of the Aurora, be ordered to appear at their bar on Monday the 24th inst.
Upon the measures which the Senate have thus pursued, we forbear present comment. As a part of the government of his country, the Editor is under an obligation to respect them and to pay all the deference that is due to their constitutional and legal acts.
The Editor, however, owes a duty superior to that sense of respect and deference; he owes a duty to the constitution itself, to the public rights involved in him, and to his personal rights and honor.
From these superior duties no power on earth shall make him swerve; no terror—no force—no menace—no fear shall make him betray by any act of his those rights which are involved in these measures of the Senate.
By the constitution he will stand …
Some letters were published in the Aurora lately, stating the circumstances of the outrage committed … upon Dr. Logan at Lancaster in the house of assembly, for which publication an action has been instituted against the editor …
NEW YORK LEGISLATURE. March 12. In a committee of the whole on the bill directing the appointment of Electors of a President and Vice President of the United States by a general vote of the people of this state … After a pretty lengthy debate, a motion to reject the bill was carried, 59 to 54.
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
Ordered, That the Committee of Privileges prepare and lay before the Senate a form of proceedings in the case of William Duane.
The Senate took into consideration the amendments reported by the committee to the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President … and having agreed thereto, the bill was ordered to the third reading as amended.1918
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The establishment of the last new Constitution in France [giving Napoleon complete power], which appears to have been completely effected, may be justly regarded as the final extinguishment of the last glimmering spark of republicanism in Europe …
The Sovereignty of the People is an useless and impracticable delusion which almost once in every age shoots like a baleful meteor athwart the earth—leaving in its track wretchedness and ruin …
A democrat heated with the gin-fumes of an Irish feast raves about the Irish blood in his veins. One would think these wretches must have very little blood, Irish or French, in their veins when their minds are so full of it.
SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The legislatures of some of the states have availed themselves of the letter of the federal constitution to deprive the people of their votes in the choice of the electors of the president. They have retained the power to themselves, and by deriving the Presidential and the Senatorial power from the same source (the state legislatures), they have affirmed the cast, complexion, and the character of the executive magistrate and of a branch of the federal legislature … abandoning the constitutional principle of the sovereignty of the people …
ADVERTISEMENT
WHEREAS by virtue of certain articles of agreement, dated the 5th of March, 1800, between me and Margaret H. Bache, I have been put into conditional possession of the printing presses, types, utensils, &c. employed in conducting the newspaper. The AURORA, I think it right to notify the public that, until the purchase money which I have agreed to pay for the same be fully paid, the presses, types, utensils, &c. are mortgaged to and subject to a lien of said Margaret H. Bache under the articles of agreement aforesaid—And that the conveyance for carrying the said agreement into effect are or speedily will be duly recorded according to law. WILLIAM DUANE
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
MR. DAYTON [Federalist, New Jersey] from the Committee of Privileges, to whom it was referred to prepare and lay before the Senate a form of proceedings in the case of William Duane, reported in part; which report was read, amended and agreed to as follows:
When William Duane shall present himself at the bar of the House in obedience to the order of the 20th inst, the President of the Senate is to address him as follows:
1st. William Duane: You stand charged by the Senate of the United States, as editor of the newspaper called the General Advertiser, or Aurora, of having published in the same, on the 19th of February, now last past, false, scandalous, defamatory, and malicious assertions, and pretended information, respecting the said Senate …
Then the Secretary shall read the resolutions of the Senate … after which the President is to proceed as follows, viz:
1st. Have you anything to say in excuse …
2dly. If he shall make no answer, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall take him into custody …
3dly. If he shall answer, he is to continue at the bar of the House until the testimony (if any be adduced) shall be closed, and he shall retire while the Senate are deliberating …1919
SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 1800
Today, I meet with two lawyer friends, Thomas Cooper of Northumberland and Alexander James Dallas, to discuss my appearance tomorrow before the United States Senate. By subjecting me to a trial and the threat of arrest, the Senate has usurped the judicial authority of the courts and has refused to allow a challenge to its jurisdiction. It’s not clear that the Senate will allow me to be represented by counsel.
Today, following the meeting, Thomas Cooper writes Thomas Jefferson:
Mr. Dallas, Mr. Duane and myself met to day, and after analyzing the most expedient method of proceeding on our side, we determined at length on the following. That Mr. Duane wld. write you [as President of the Senate] … That Mr. Duane shd be in … the Senate without formally presenting himself till it become necessary. That if the request to be heard by Counsel should be refused … he shall not obey the call [to appear] … That on the appearance of Counsel at the bar of the house, they shall state in the outset that they mean to object to the Jurisdiction of the Senate in the present case. That if they are estopped in this, they shall expressly decline entering into any further or other defence … That Duane shall be absent [from the Senate] and kept out of the way of the Sergeant at Arms … [I]f after these proceedings, the Sergeant, whether acting by order of the house or in consequence of any proclamation … should find him [and arrest him], that he fights the question [of his arrest] by application for an habeas corpus.1920
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The notification directed to be made by the Senate [of the United States] to the Editor of “The Aurora” was delivered at this office on Friday last and twelve o’clock this day appointed for further proceedings.
Unwilling to enter into discussion pending this new and unprecedented business, we can only say to the anxious public that the Editor continues determined to maintain his constitutional and legal rights …
We hear that the bill which was committed (respecting the election of the president and vice president of the United States) will probably come on in the [U.S.] Senate this week … It is this bill that has given rise to all the questions of privilege which have lately occurred …
Today, I appear before the Senate of the United States. The Annals of Congress report:
William Duane appeared at the bar of the House, agreeably to the summons of the 22d instant …
And the charge against the said William Duane having been read, he repeated his request to be heard by counsel.
On which he was ordered to withdraw and a motion was made as follows: …
Resolved, That William Duane having appeared at the bar of the Senate and requested to be heard by counsel … he be allowed the assistance of counsel … in denial of any facts … or in excuse and extenuation of his offence …
Resolved, That … William Duane be ordered to attend at the bar of this House at 12 o’clock on Wednesday next.1921
TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The question concerning the Editor of the Aurora which has excited so much alarm in the public mind, was [yesterday] before the Senate … [A]t 12 o’clock, the Editor appeared before the Senate, when the president of the senate said as follows,
WILLIAM DUANE. You stand charged by the Senate of the United States, as Editor of the General Advertiser, or Aurora, of having published … false, scandalous, and malicious assertions and pretended information regarding the said senate … and therein to have been guilty of a high breach of the privileges of this house.
Then the secretary read the resolutions of the senate passed the 20th ult. with the preamble, after which the president proceeded as follows:
Have you anything to say in excuse or extenuation for said publication ?
To which the Editor replied as follows:
Mr. President:—Unpracticed in legal forms and dubious in this case—but willing to do everything that is consistent with propriety … I conceive it prudent to advise with men conversant in legal forms … My personal considerations in this case are nothing, but the rights of my country and fellow citizens are everything. I cannot surrender or betray them. I am willing to answer through my counsel …
The Editor was then directed to retire … After debating till four o’clock, the senate resolved … That William Duane … be allowed the assistance of counsel … who may be heard in denial of any facts charged against said Duane or in excuse and extenuation of his offence.
The Senate has allowed me to have counsel but tied my counsel’s hands. It won’t allow my lawyers to use the truth of my publications as a defense (as would be the case under the Sedition Act), and it won’t allow them to challenge the Senate’s claim of judicial authority over an ordinary citizen.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
D[uane], ‘tis said, your honor, means to leave you
Sure D[uane] could not wish so much to grieve you …
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The exterminating Senator asks—“Has the senate infringed the legal and constitutional rights of the Editor of the Aurora,” and he goes on to intimate that the Senate had a right to confine at their discretion in the cells or to levy a fine—To this question, we shall answer that the Senate have no power by the constitution or the law to deprive any man of his liberty or property …
A Federalist on coming out of the Senate on Monday was very solicitous to learn if Duane was committed—“No” replied a wag, “but the Senate are committed.”
The matter at issue in the Senate of the United States concerning the Editor of this paper will be agitated in the Senate this day at 12 o’clock. The Editor, having taken advice of counsel in this case will this morning present that advice to the Senate and govern his conduct rigidly thereby. The opinions of counsel will appear in The Aurora to-morrow.
This morning, I deliver the following letter to the Senate of the United States:
To the President of the Senate.
SIR, … [H]aving received an authenticated copy of [the senate’s] resolutions on Monday last in my case … I transmitted [them] to Messrs. Dallas and Cooper, my intended counsel, soliciting their professional aid … Their answers I have also the pleasure to inclose …
I find myself in consequence of these answers deprived of all professional assistance … I therefore … decline any further voluntary attendance upon that body and leave them to pursue such measures in this case as in their wisdom they may deem meet [suitable] …
WILLIAM DUANE1922
This afternoon, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The VICE PRESIDENT communicated a letter signed William Duane … enclosing certain papers said to be a correspondence between him and his intended counsel …
On motion that the papers referred to in the letter be read, it passed in the negative …
The order of the day was called for.
Ordered, That the Sergeant-at-Arms, at the bar of the House, do call William Duane. And the said William Duane did not appear. Whereupon,
Resolved, That as William Duane has not appeared … and has addressed a letter to the President of the Senate … his letter be referred to the Committee of Privileges to consider and report upon.1923
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A meeting was some time ago held in this city of persons principally belonging to this city and State, wherein an opinion was given that the destruction of “the Aurora” or removal of its editor was necessary for the success of the federal party at the presidential election.
This opinion was adopted, and it was determined to employ every means to break down the paper and dismay or ruin the editor. Every step taken hitherto has only tended to thwart the views of that party. But it may not be improper to apprize the public that, among other means, suits at law have been instituted which now amount to no less than NINE! some of them upon facts which the Editor is willing to perish if he does not prove.
Some of those who devised the Sedition Bill looked forward to the present period. It was hoped by that measure the danger of enquiry into the merits of public characters would be so great as to deter any man from discussion. Suits have been instituted in various parts of the union to terrify printers into silence or servility. Juries have been packed to condemn individuals where the truth was not allowed to be proved. But men are still found who dare speak the truth.
The first pretext for this persecution was the publication of a bill which had passed the senate two readings, involving the elective rights of this State. It was soon found that this was not tenable ground. Advantage was then taken of an error which the editor himself discovered and voluntarily rectified. The exposition of certain secret meetings of a party (which was the most important ground because it was provable by the evidence of several members of congress) was next seized upon.
The rest is before the public. We have now but to add the correspondence of the editor with two gentlemen of the bar, to whom he has been compelled to resort for advice.
(copy)
TO A. J. DALLAS, Esq.
SIR, I enclose you a copy of the resolution of the senate passed yesterday, and must request you would favor me by appearing with Mr. [Thomas] Cooper as my counsel to-morrow at twelve o’clock …
WILLIAM DUANE
(Mr. Dallas’s Answer)
SIR, … The Senate, having I understand charged you … proceeded without hearing you or notifying you of the charge … Before, however, any punishment shall be inflicted or any sentence pronounced, the Senate has been pleased to … allow you the assistance of counsel who may be heard in denial of any facts charged against you …
I cannot consent to act as counsel under so limited an authority. For you will at once perceive that it excludes any enquiry into the jurisdiction of the Senate … as well as any justification of the obnoxious publication by proving the truth of the facts which it contains. As to the rest, I cannot suppose that either you or your counsel would find it practicable to deny the existence of any fact which the Senate has already … examined and established. A. J. DALLAS
(Mr. Cooper’s Answer.)
SIR, … I heard sufficient of the debate yesterday (before I saw your letter) that the intent and meaning of the resolution is to preclude all argument on the jurisdiction and all the proof that might be offered in justification …
[T]o appear before a tribunal which, in a new and most important case, has prejudged you … would certainly tend to disgrace your cause and my character.
I cannot think you will be able to procure any professional assistance on such strange and unusual terms …
Where rights are undefined, and power is unlimited—where the freedom of the press is actually attacked, under whatever intention of curbing its licentiousness, the melancholy period cannot be far distant when the citizen will be converted into a SUBJECT. THOMAS COOPER
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
MR. [JONATHAN] DAYTON [Federalist, New Jersey], from the Committee of Privileges … made report as follows:
Resolved, That William Duane, editor of the General Advertiser, or Aurora, having neglected and refused to appear at the bar of this House at 12 o’clock on the 26th day of March instant … is guilty of contempt of said order and of this House, and that, for said contempt, he, the said William Duane, be taken into custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms attending this House, to be kept subject to the further orders of the Senate.
On Motion to agree to this first resolution reported, it passed in the affirmative—yeas 16, nays 12 …
The Senate resumed the third reading of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President … And after debate, the further consideration of this bill was postponed.1924
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A foreigner by education, if not by birth, acknowledging himself to have remained in the service of a foreign power until expelled from its dominions, attached to our country neither by the ties of patriotism, connection, nor interest, with a character known only by the infamy with which it is blackened, has long been suffered to calumniate the measures of our government, to traduce the individuals of whom it is composed, and to be one of the great engines … to surrender our independence to France. When at last a feeble attempt is made to curb and punish him, he boldly bids defiance to the highest court of judicature in the country … [T]he advice to resist the authority of the Senate is as plainly to be perceived as it is cautiously expressed; the resistance actually takes place, and that body, as though awed by the boldness of such a reptile as Duane, finds it necessary to take time to collect their scattered senses, to reanimate their drooping courage, before they can resolve to enforce their constitutional right.
FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Dayton from the committee of privileges yesterday reported that the Editor should be taken into the custody of the Sergeant at Arms on a warrant to be signed by the President of the Senate; this report was agreed to …
The warrant for his apprehension stated that, for the Editor’s contempt in not obeying the order of the house which required his attendance at the bar last Wednesday, he be taken into custody of the Sergeant at Arms, and then proceeded, “These are therefore to require you James Mathers, Sergeant at Arms to the Senate of the United States, forthwith to take into your custody the body of Wm. Duane and him safely keep until further orders of the Senate; and all MARSHALS, Deputy Marshals, and all other civil officers of the United States, and every other person, are hereby required to be aiding and assisting to you in the execution thereof …”
The great question of the Constitutionality and on the passage of the bill on the Election of the President of the United States comes on THIS DAY IN SENATE.
THE EDITOR requests his friends who may wish to communicate with him to commit to writing what they wish to say under seal, and deliver at the office as usual, and they will be sure to reach him in less than 48 hours.
Today—hard as it may be to believe—I, William Duane, publisher of America’s largest newspaper, am in hiding from the Senate of the United States!
Today, in the United States Senate, the Annals of Congress report:
DISPUTED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
The Senate resumed consideration of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States …
Mr. [C.] PINCKNEY [Republican, South Carolina] addressed the chair … When Mr. P. had concluded, the question was taken on the passage of the bill, and it was determined in the affirmative—yeas 16, nays 12 …1925
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
IN THE SENATE … Mr. Mason moved to strike out the latter part of the resolution which commands all Marshals, Constables, &c. to be aiding and assisting the said sergeant at arms in the execution of his duty [to take into custody William Duane].
The question upon this motion was taken by ayes and nays, and negatived—ayes 10—noes 19.
SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[T]he period approaches when the people will have to chuse between the destruction of their liberties as a nation and the rejection of all those from public stations who have been aiding or abetting in those measures which have brought the nation and constitution into their present jeopardy …
Let the people compare the conduct of Mr. Adams … [L]et them examine the … addresses and answers during the season of terror in 1798 … These are serious considerations … [T]he people must act upon them at the approaching election or prepare themselves for the calm of despotism …
My countrymen! if you have not virtue enough to stem the torrent, determine to be slaves at once … Let not the persecution of an individual dismay you—better the Editor of the Aurora should perish than this tyranny should be established—William Duane will never desert the liberties of his country—Let the people all declare they will stand by the constitution or perish with it, “and the osiers will tremble at the breath of their creator !”
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It was an error fatal to themselves … when the French, in their revolution, determined to imitate the republic of Rome rather than the British constitution … If they had followed Montesquieu [with his checks and balances] rather than Tom Paine, how glorious, instead of disreputable, would have been the result! … How did this country improve its condition and its fame, when under the auspices of George Washington and other leading men, the people formed a constitution similar to that of England … If the federal constitution had not been adopted, the Sabbath might have been abolished, and the guillotine erected in all its horrors.
It is disgraceful to mankind that such a man as Tom Paine, an ignoramus, a drunkard, and a blasphemer, should have had so much influence among them … The restoration of the white cockade in France, the emblem of lawful authority, would still the waves of anarchy … The restoration of the king, with limited powers, in France might be highly beneficial to the United States of America as well as to other countries.
[M]en will wonder that Paine’s pamphlets were ever read, and that the pitiful proverbs of Franklin were ever popular.
The Letters of Messrs. Cooper and Dallas [concerning Duane] … were not … read in Senate; being too indecent, it was voted that they should not be read.
SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 1800
Today, Virginia Congressman John Dawson writes James Madison:
You have seen the proceedings in the case of Duane & altho you & all persons in the U.S. (including no doubt, army & navy) are called on to assist in apprehending him, he is not yet taken …1926
TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Many citizens appear surprised that Mr. Jefferson should affix his name to the extraordinary warrant issued by the majority of the Senate against the Editor of this paper. But these people do not recollect that the Constitution declares the [Senate] President shall have no vote in any case unless the Senate is equally divided. The famous Committee of Privileges reported that he ought to sign it, and a majority decided in favour of the report. The Vice President could therefore have no choice left but to sign their act, leaving upon its authors the responsibility and the odium of the act for which Mr. Jefferson is no more accountable than for the Sedition Law, or Mr. Ross’s law for regulating elections &c., a measure expressly designed to prevent Mr. Jefferson being elected President …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Monday, March 31. The bill sent from the Senate this morning, prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President was read a first time, and upon the question shall the bill have a second reading, it was carried, ayes 53 …
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
By oppressive acts towards the Editor of this paper, the authors and supporters of certain measures obtain one end at least—they defeat that activity and industry with which he personally watched over daring and dangerous measures. It was of some importance to those folks that no report could be given of several of their recent debates …
The Bill for deciding disputed elections of President, which passed the Senate on Friday, 16 to 12, demands public regard; it … goes to create a new branch in the government which can put whom they please at the head of our government. By our absence from the Senate Gallery, we are not able to report the debates …
Today, Virginia’s Senator Stevens Thomson Mason writes James Madison:
You will have seen the high handed proceedings of the Senate ag[ains]t Duane. He is not yet taken & I believe those who ordered him to be arrested wish he may not …1927
THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
To URIAH TRACEY, Senator in Congress for the State of Connecticut, SIR, I have read with singular satisfaction your speech of the 5th [of March] … on the free presses of free America … [I]t would seem that, according to the Connecticut scale of morality, falsehood and abuse issuing from the English press of [Porcupine,] an Englishman in Philadelphia, is meritorious, whilst truth from the American press established by the Grand Children of Dr. Franklin and continued by a native American is detestable. REPUBLICAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The new electoral council or college of Mr. Ross’s invention, by being left at liberty to act without rule and in secret, may be very fitly compared with the secret council of Ten at Venice of old.
Today, from Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson writes James Madison:
The Senate … have this day rejected a bill … for removing military troops from the place of election on the day of an election. You will have seen their warrant to commit Duane. They have not yet taken him …1928
Today, the United States Circuit Court for New York finds that William Durell of the upstate New York Mount Pleasant Register published a “false, scandalous, malicious and defamatory Libel of and concerning John Adams.” The court will sentence Durell to serve four months in jail, to pay a $50 fine, and, upon release, to post a $2,000 security. The Mount Pleasant Register has ceased operation.1929
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It is certainly a most interesting spectacle for the people of America to behold their rights and privileges guarded and defended by Messrs. Duane, Dallas, and Cooper against the encroachment of about thirty eminent characters [senators] chosen from various quarters of the union and associated together for constitutional purposes … [T]he above respectable triumvirate are deeply versed in all the arcana of revolutionary schemes, both foreign and domestic …
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FROM THE ALBANY REGISTER. [New York.] The late proceedings of the Senate of the United States, in relation to that zealous and undaunted advocate of the liberties of his country, the editor of the Aurora, are viewed by all unbiased men as an arbitrary stretch of power …
[T]he privileges of the Senate of the United States are derived from a written constitution or supreme law of this land, and that, it will be found, bestows no such privilege as they contend for in the case of Mr. Duane. If he has violated the law, let him be convicted and punished according to law—but let us have no unconstitutional court of inquisition.
FROM THE N[EW] L[ONDON] BEE [ Connecticut. ] The present number of this paper probably closes the editorial career of the Printer of the Bee in this state. On the 18th instant he is bound to appear at the bar of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Connecticut, then to sit at New-Haven, and to stand trial upon an indictment under the sedition law for publishing a piece in May last mitigating against the recruiting service. Situated in this predicament, he has heretofore forborne to detail the outrages of a set of men whose situation in society has protected their infamy …
Charles Holt will shortly have to close Connecticut’s only Republican newspaper, the Bee of New London.1930
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
To-morrow will be the memorable festival so long celebrated in the Christian Church, commemorating the expiation of sinners offered by the founder of the Christian faith on the Cross—the pious people of Connecticut have also appointed that day for a solemn fast and prayer—and on the same day, a political Auto da-fé [sentence of Spanish Inquisition] is to be solemnized on the person of Mr. Charles Holt, a printer [of the New London Bee], who has been accused of the barbarous and heinous act of discouraging the recruiting of a standing army, for which he is that day (that is, on Good Friday, the day of solemn fast and prayer) he is to be tried under the Sedition law!—Else wherefore breathe we in a Christian land ?
Today, from Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson writes a friend,
The bill for the election of President & V. P. passed the Senate in a much worse form than that in which Duane published it, for they struck out the clause limiting the powers of the electoral committee and [accorded] it to all subjects of enquiry. What its fate will be in the lower house we know not …
You have heard of the proceedings against Duane. The marshal has not yet been able to get hold of him. Mr. Cooper … is indicted here …1931
FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Franklin, a printer from the obscure colony of Pennsylvania, excited the admiration of the old world by the boldness of his ideas and the success of his grand experiments and discoveries … [I]n 1754, he framed that form of combination for the whole of the colonies by their Delegates which … properly assumed the name of Congress—a name and a system which was the basis of all the subsequent assemblies of the United States … but you will find not one in one hundred of our youth who know anything about him … This is a lamentable description of national degeneracy!
Today, the Adams administration brings a Sedition Act indictment against Thomas Cooper of Northumberland for a handbill Tom Cooper wrote in November (blaming John Adams for high interest rates, &c).1932 [H]aving offended the senate by the active part he took in the case of the editor of the Aurora persecuted by the senate … it was determined to crush him. He had been all the winter in Philadelphia, and every day seen in public, yet no process was taken against him until three days before the meeting of the court on the 11th … He was indicted for a pretended libel on the president in a publication of the 2d of November which was an answer to a very virulent attack made upon him by Fenno …1933 Tom Cooper’s trial begins on the 19th.
Today, the federal sedition trial of Charles Holt, publisher of the New London, Connecticut, Bee, begins at the Circuit Court in New Haven. His crime: describing John Adams’ new army as a “standing” rather than a “provisional” army. George Washington’s nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, upholds the Sedition Act and demonstrates to the jury that Holt’s publication is, in the words of an observer, “libellous beyond even the possibility of a doubt.”1934
MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Much pains are taken in the federal papers, openly and covertly with the curious and malicious view of prepossessing the public mind against the proposed “History of General Washington by Mr. Scott.” The only objection to this work, as gathered from the railings of these candid men, is that the author is a republican.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The condition of Church and State in America is such as to fill every considerate mind with the most unhappy sensations. In spite of that vanity and fastidiousness which led the Federal Convention, in founding their government, to preclude any connection … a strict and indissoluble alliance of religion to government has been ordained in the nature of things. Though formally sundered by Constitution and Laws; together they decline and together (it would seem) they are likely to perish … But here, Sir, Jacobinism is triumphant, and unless a different temper shall soon shew itself, it will soon trample underfoot all order, law, property, as it has done religion …
TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[T]he important trial of John Fries for treason is now commencing …
[U.S.] CIRCUIT COURT
The Grand Jury returned yesterday morning the following bills [of indictment] as TRUE …
| Thomas Cooper, of Northumberl. co. | libel |
| William Duane, | d[itt]o … |
| William Duane, | Misdemeanor |
| in opening and publishing letters of a foreign minister |
Though John Adams will have some difficulty in serving me with the papers (I am still in hiding from the Senate), he has ordered Timothy Pickering to reindict me under the Sedition Act (eliminating the “British influence” count which threatened to embarrass him at Norristown last October!).1935 He also has had me indicted for opening (and revealing) the dispatches of British Minister Robert Liston.
THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In the cause of liberty and the general promotion of republican sentiment … it is … in the power of every citizen to contribute … and he who does not do it, has abandoned duty …
Today, I write Jimmy Callender at the Richmond Examiner:
You will be surprised to learn that an indictment has been found against me for publishing the celebrated letters of [British Ambassador] Liston found on Sweezey … I am told they have withdrawn the indictment found against me at Norris Town last fall, predicated on an assertion concerning British influence as declared by Mr. Adams. It seems they found I had the actual letter of Mr. Adams in my possession.
Mr. Cooper, late of Manchester (you know him personally & well), is to be tried for sedition on Saturday. He pleads his own cause. He applied for a subpoena for the president yesterday. The court refused … so that we have ONE MAN above the law …
I have not been out of town, have lived in my own house, and have been several times on parade with the Legion. I keep retired only because there is no magistrate to be found who has … virtue or courage to act upon the habeas corpus right. If there was, I should take care to be arrested immediately. In the present circumstances, my only course is to defeat their malice and give a good example to others.1936
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
REPUBLICAN GREENS. ATTENTION.
ATTEND a meeting of the corp, TOMORROW, (Saturday 19th inst.) at your usual parade … JOHN RONEY, Lieutenant
I can’t captain my militia corps while I am hiding. Tonight, the Gazette of the United States poetically suggests I am at George Logan’s:
From the Senate D—–[uan]e flying,
As advised by Mr. D—–[alias];
Out at St[e]nt[o]n snugly lying,
Bids defiance to the gallows.
There with L—–[ogan], hatching treason,
Sowing seed on his plantation,
Brooding o’er Paine’s Age of Reason,
D—–[uan]e seeks for consolation.
Owl-like skulking, during day-light,
In a dark and gloomy garret,
Where with L—–[ogan], does he rail at,
Bingham’s caucus, like a parrot …
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
NEW HAVEN [Conn.] April 15. The Circuit Court of the United States commenced its session in this town yesterday. Mr. Holt, Editor of the (New London) Bee, we understand, is to receive his trial on Thursday.
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes Edmund Pendleton:
Duane’s and Cooper’s trials come on to-day. Such a selection of jurors has been made by the [Federalist] marshal as insures the event. The same may be said as to Fries &c … We have not yet heard the fate of Holt, editor of the Bee in Connecticut. A printer in Vermont is prosecuted for reprinting Mr. McHenry’s letter to Gen. Darke …1937
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia, Thomas Cooper goes on trial for seditious libel of the President of the United States.1938 U.S. District Court Judge Richard Peters and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase preside. The Adams administration attend in force! Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War James McHenry, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert, John Adams’ private secretary (William Shaw), and Senators Uriah Tracy (Federalist, Connecticut) and Jacob Read (Federalist, South Carolina) of the Senate Committee on Privileges all attend. Tom Cooper acts as his own lawyer, though assisted by Alexander James Dallas who represented Benny and, with Tom Cooper, helped me in my appearance before the Senate. From the trial record:
Mr. COOPER then addressed the jury as follows: …
Directly or indirectly, the public if not the private character of the President of the United States is involved in the present trial. Who nominates the judges who are to preside? the juries who are to judge of the evidence? the marshal who has the summoning of the jury? The President …
Gentlemen of the Jury, I acknowledge, as freely as any of you can, the necessity of a certain degree of confidence in the executive government of the country. But this confidence ought not to be unlimited …
But in the present state of affairs, the press is open to those who will praise, while the threats of the law hang over those who blame the conduct of the men in power …
Judge CHASE then charged the jury as follows: Gentlemen of the jury— …
It appears from the evidence that the traverser went to the house of a justice of the peace with this [seditious] paper … It was indecent to deliver such a paper to the justice of the peace … This conduct showed that he intended to dare and defy the government and to provoke them …
You will find the traverser speaking of the President in the following words: “Even those who doubted his capacity, thought well of his intentions.” This the traverser might suppose would be considered as a compliment … but I have no doubt that it was meant to carry a sting … [I]t was in substance saying of the President, “you may have good intentions, but I doubt your capacity.” …
The traverser states that, under the auspices of the President, “our credit is so low, that we are obliged to borrow money at eight per cent in time of peace.” I cannot suppress my feelings at this gross attack upon the President …
Taking this publication in all its parts, it is the boldest attempt I have known to poison the minds of the people …
This publication is evidently intended to mislead the ignorant and inflame their minds against the President and to influence their votes in the next election …
After the jury had returned with a verdict of Guilty:—
Judge CHASE. Mr. Cooper, as the jury have found you guilty … you will attend the court some time the latter end of the week—(the court appointed Wednesday).1939
MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The People of North Carolina have commenced the choice of their Electors of President and Vice President of the United States. The republican ticket, it is said, will succeed.
Today, in the United States House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
ELECTION OF PRESIDENT, &c.
Mr. HARPER [Federalist, South Carolina] moved that the Committee of the Whole should be discharged from further consideration of the bill from the Senate, respecting the election of President and Vice President … He thought some essential alterations were wanting, which could not be incorporated in the present bill in the House; he particularly referred to the powers of the Committee …
The motion was carried—yeas 54 …1940
The House of Representatives can’t accept the Ross Bill as it came down from the Senate. The bright light of the Aurora won’t allow that to happen.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THE seat of Government being about to be transferred to the City of Washington [by June 15th] …, the Subscriber … offers for sale his Printing Establishment in Philadelphia, with all the stock of materials, &c. including the right and title to the GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES …
I need not say how much I should prefer to devolve the paper upon any other character than a Jacobin … It is not without a degree of regret that I resolve to cease my labors … J. W. FENNO
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Poor Fenno is really selling off! … The actual state of Fenno’s Gazette for two years past is really a curious political subject to discuss—we can approach it upon grounds that few can conceive. The Aurora, during the first seven years of its existence, had double the circulation of Fenno’s gazette and, taken altogether, was conducted at an expence about 25 per cent less than Fenno’s paper—Benjamin Franklin Bache actually sunk fourteen thousand seven hundred dollars of his private fortune in supporting his paper.—The question thence arises … how many dollars must have been sunk in a paper of half its circulation in ten years? … [W]ho can tell whence the funds proceeded, for Fenno had no more private fortune than principle … [D]id it come out of the contingencies of our treasury or the secret service money of Great Britain ?
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
In the year 1774, when the infamous David Williams of Deistical memory resided at Chelsea in the vicinity of London, Dr. Franklin, with whom he was intimate, took refuge in his house … Here the Philosopher of Pennsylvania concocted with his pious friend the plan of a deistical and philosophical lecture … a school of vice and irreligion …
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[A] faction devoted to a foreign king and a monarchical system exists within our country …
Today, U.S. Senator Stevens Thomson Mason of Virginia writes James Madison:
The most vigorous and undisguised efforts are making to crush the republican presses and stifle enquiry as it may respect the ensuing election of P[resident] & V[ice] P[residen]t. Holt the Editor of the Bee at New London in Con[necticu]t is condemned to imprisonment for 3 months & a fine of $200. [A] Printer in N York has been fined & imprisoned I know not for what. Hazewell a printer in Vermont is indicted & will no doubt be convicted for reprinting from another paper a copy of McHenry’s letter to Genl Darke, which letter was actually published by [Secretary at War] McHenry himself in Fenno’s paper.
Thos. Cooper of Northumberland was tried and convicted on last Saturday for a libel on the Pres[i]d[en]t. A more oppressive and disgusting proceeding I never saw. Chase in his charge to the jury (in a speech of an hour) shewed all the zeal of a well fee’d Lawyer … Cooper is to receive his sentence this day …1941
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court sitting in Philadelphia, Judge Samuel Chase addresses Thomas Cooper. From the record:
Judge CHASE. Mr. Cooper, have you anything to offer to the court previous to passing sentence?
Mr. COOPER … I have been accustomed to make sacrifices to opinion, and I can make this. As to circumstances in extenuation, not being conscious that I have set down aught in malice, I have nothing to extenuate …
Judge CHASE … Mr. Cooper, you may attend here again.
Tomorrow is set for sentencing.1942
Today, John Adams proposes to his cabinet that the government start its own newspaper:
The President of the United States proposes to the heads of department a subject … of great importance to the honor, dignity and consistency of the government.
In every service of Europe, I believe, there is a gazette in the service of the government, and a printer acknowledged and avowed by it—in every regular government at least. The Gazette of France before the Revolution answered the same purpose with the London Gazette in England … This Gazette is said by lawyers and judges to be prima facie evidence in courts of justice in matters of state and of public acts of the government … It is a high misdemeanor to publish any thing as from royal authority which is not so … Addresses of the subjects, in bodies or otherwise, to the King and his answers, are considered as matters of State when published in the Gazette …1943
THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT
The new anomalous body conjured up by the genius of Mr. Ross in his famous bill has not obtained all the notice which it requires. The attempt to destroy the Editor of this paper for giving the alarm on the subject might have shewn the public what its authors and supporters contemplated … The truth is that this bill was calculated in its birth to set aside the public voice and to place in the hands of a few men—and we know what a few men in the Senate are capable of—the nomination of the chief magistrate …
Ross’s men attempted to be invested with an arbitrary power of decision by which they could, of their own uncontrouled and unaccountable will, set aside the suffrages of the people …
War … Today, off Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, the fourteen-gun, ninety-man U.S. Navy cutter Pickering captures a French privateer, l’Active, of twelve guns and sixty-two men.1944
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court sitting in Philadelphia, a record of Thomas Cooper’s trial includes:
Mr. [Thomas] Cooper attended, and the court sentenced him to pay a fine of four hundred dollars; to be imprisoned for six months, and, at the end of that period, to find surety for his good behavior, himself in a thousand, and two sureties in five hundred dollars each.1945
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Cooper has been tried and by the verdict of a jury declared guilty under the Sedition Law on Saturday last. Yesterday morning he appeared at court and was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of 400 dollars …
Republicans may rest compleatly assured that they will have every reason to be satisfied … with the whole tenor of Mr. Cooper’s conduct on the occasion. He defended his own cause throughout, without the aid of counsel.
On the 11th instant Mr. Charles Holt, Editor of the Bee of New-London, was tried at the Circuit Court New Haven under a charge under the Sedition Law for discountenancing the recruiting for a standing army. This prosecution, which in any other times would excite astonishment, was supported by the attorney general upon the extraordinary point that Mr. Holt called the provisional army a standing army! He was sentenced to be confined three months and fined 200 dollars.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The jury this morning found a verdict of GUILTY against John Fries for high treason …
SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Some of the human species display tempers like the brute species; Fenno in irascibility approaches to that of a cat. In the struggles of political dissolution, as the last effort of hatred and despair, the animal spits its ruthless venom at the memory of Dr. Franklin. Through the whole course of British influence and dependence, the name of this sage is the uniform object of their toothless rage … It is “working in his vocation” to attack Franklin. [T]he British government are said to have expended a large sum of money, and a most nefarious artifice and stretch of power to suppress the publication of Dr. Franklin’s life, for which he left materials to one of his descendants now in London.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
IN advertising the Establishment of the Gazette of the United States for sale … [i]t is my desire that propositions for the purchase (if any there may be) should be made immediately.
The paper will be sold with or without the Printing Office, and the most liberal terms given. A small sum only, in cash, will be required; and the remainder of the purchase money will be left to such arrangements that it may be paid out of the income of the Paper. J. W. FENNO.
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 1800
Tonight, the Macpherson’s Blues are active. A report:
About ten o’clock at night, several bodies of armed men were seen parading the principal streets and bustling in every direction … The armed bodies … were the federal corps called Macpherson’s Blues … About eleven o’clock … this military host was declared to be called out to search for the incorrigible fellow, the Editor of the Aurora … [T]he democrats were on the alert, and things soon after became quiet …1946
MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The public now have an additional and striking evidence of the value of a free … press in the total rejection of that odious Bill which was introduced … by Mr. Ross of this state in the Senate of the U. States. The public will judge … the conduct of the Senate towards the Editor of this paper … who dared to publish a Bill … too abominable to be countenanced by the House of Representatives. Had this Bill been suffered to be stolen through the Senate unexamined, unpublished, and unexposed, it might have escaped the attention of the public until it would have been too late, and perhaps the country would have been saddled with a secret tribunal which, by possessing one enormous power, that of actually appointing the President of the United States, could command the fortunes and the liberties of the people.
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MORE FEDERAL RIOTS
Sunday evening last was selected above all others for throwing this city into a state of alarm. About ten o’clock at night, several bodies of armed men were seen parading the principal streets and bustling in every direction. The peaceable citizens could obtain no information …
The armed bodies it appeared were the federal corps called Macpherson’s Blues …
[C]are was taken to produce incidents in abundance; it was said that a body of Insurgents from Northampton were coming into town with their pitchforks …
About eleven o’clock a new incident was turned up, and this military host was declared to be called out to search for the incorrigible fellow, the Editor of the Aurora. [T]he effect was of course such as was expected. [T]he democrats were on the alert, and things soon after became quiet … [T]he federal Marshal assumed the power of calling out the military …
It has been asserted in the House of Assembly of this state that the people are not as capable of choosing electors for President and Vice President as the Legislature on account of their want of knowledge … If the people be not capacitated to perform the business of election, what political purpose are they competent to? none at all; there is an end to republican government.
Mr. Holt, editor of [the Republican paper,] the Bee, of New London, has been sentenced to two months imprisonment and 200 dollars fine, and for what, truly the whole of the criminality was predicated upon the assertion that the President had countenanced a standing army—The Lawyers for the prosecution maintained that it was not a Standing Army but a Provisional Army; and herein lay the CRIME ! From the Bench in the case of Mr. Cooper a few days ago, Judge Chase held the same sophistry …
Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
DISPUTED ELECTIONS.
The House resolved itself into a Committee on the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States.
The bill, as amended by the select committee, provided for the appointment of a joint committee, with certain defined, but no decisive, powers.1947
The House has modified James Ross’ Senate bill to say that a joint committee may review, but cannot decide, any matters of dispute concerning the election of President and Vice President! The House will send back this enfeebled version to the Senate.
Today, in the U.S. Circuit Court at Philadelphia, Judge Samuel Chase’s trial of John Fries and other Pennsylvania war-tax protesters proceeds toward its inevitable conclusion. Alexander James Dallas (John Fries’ lawyer) comments:
They [the defendants] had not the ordinary access to information, since our laws are published in English, and most of them only understood German … The assessors were sometimes interrupted in their journeys and sometimes jostled in the crowd; and the unmeaning epithets of Stamplers and Tories were rudely applied to the friends of the Government. But however censurable, where is the treason in such proceedings? A rioter and a traitor are not synonymous … Is there any actual force resorted to? No! I find the bridle of one assessor seized, and his leg laid hold of; but the man is not pulled off his horse, nor is he the least injured in his person …1948
From the trial record:
The prisoner was arraigned and pleaded not guilty … Mr. Lewis and Mr. [Alexander James] Dallas, before engaged to act for the prisoner, on account of the conduct directed by the court … withdrew their assistance; so the prisoner was left without counsel …1949
Mr. Dallas:
Judge Chase had declared that the court had made up their minds to the law relative to treason … [I]t became the subject of altercation whether we had a right to address the jury upon the law …
[Fries’ other lawyer and I] stated to the court that we were no longer his counsel …
On the first trial of Fries, we were allowed to address the jury both on the law and on the fact … We also read the statutes of Congress, particularly the first section of the act called the Sedition Law, in order to show that the legislature of the United States had declared the offence of which Fries was charged to have committed to have been only a riot …1950
From the record:
COURT. John Fries, you are at liberty to say anything you please to the jury.
PRISONER. It was mentioned that I collected a parcel of people to follow up the assessors; but I did not collect them. They came and fetched me from my house to go with them.
I have nothing to say, but leave it to the court.
JUDGE CHASE then addressed the jury as follows: …
[T]he court are of the opinion that any insurrection or rising to resist … the execution of any statute of the United States for levying or collecting taxes … under any pretence, as that the statute was unjust, burthensome, oppressive or unconstitutional, is a levying of war against the United States …
The Court are of opinion that military weapons … are not necessary to make such an insurrection or rising amount to a levying of war …
The jury retired, for the space of two hours, and brought in their verdict, GUILTY. [Sentencing will be May 2d.]1951
Today, New York begins three days of voting for state legislators who will choose the state’s presidential electors. New York’s twelve presidential electors could make Thomas Jefferson the next President of the United States.1952 The nation is watching!
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
On the trial of Mr. Holt at New-London, the federal district attorney, a northern paper says, conceded the truth of the adultery of General Hamilton which was part of the libel charged !
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Democrat hates the British government … because it has been the champion of religion and social order … It will require centuries to establish … a national spirit in the United States of America. The mixture is too heterogeneous; it is compounded of too many foul ingredients to permit any part to be proud of the whole …
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FROM THE N. Y. CITIZEN … Wm. DURRELL, late Editor of the Mount Pleasant Register … at the federal circuit court for the eastern district, held in New York, … was tried for reprinting a … Libel … [S]entence was pronounced on Wednesday the 9th inst … That he be imprisoned four months, pay a fine of 50 dollars and stand committed till the fine was paid and good security given for two years, himself in 1000 dollars and two sureties in 500 dollars each.
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia, Judge Samuel Chase imposes sentence on John Fries. From the record:
The prisoner being set at the bar, Judge CHASE, after observing to the other defendants what he had to say to Fries, would apply generally to them, proceeded:—you have already been informed that you stood convicted of the treason charged upon you …
It cannot escape observation that the ignorant and uninformed are taught to complain of taxes … and yet they permit themselves to be seduced into insurrections …
[I]t becomes you to reflect that the time you chose to rise up in arms to oppose the laws of your country was when it stood in a very critical situation with regard to France and on the eve of a rupture with that country …
What remains for me is a very painful but a very necessary part of my duty … The judgment of the law is, and this Court doth award “that you be hanged by the neck until dead.”1953
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Sentence of death has been passed on Fries, Hainey, and Getman, to be executed 23d May.
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
At the election in New York, the British faction there have used all their arts …
Extract of a letter from Chester County (Penn.), April 29th, to the Editor.
“The public in this part of the country is very much agitated in consequence of that famous Bill commonly called ROSS’s BILL—
“We hope the oppression of the Editor will not prevent the Aurora from giving us the debates …”
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
NEW YORK, May 1. ELECTION … It has been strongly declared that Thomas Jefferson, the object of the present election with the jacobins in this city, is an enemy to all religious establishments. That so very important an assertion should not rest in doubt, I quote the proof from his book … “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty Gods or NO GOD. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” And who will now dare to give his vote for this audacious howling Atheist ?
May 2. ELECTION. The poll of the election of the Senators and assemblymen in the legislature of the State … closed yesterday … The votes were not all canvassed at a late hour last evening …
Tonight, having learned that New York has elected a majority for Jefferson in the new state legislature, a caucus of New York Federalists decides to have their leader, Alexander Hamilton, urge Federalist governor John Jay to reconvene the old (holdover) state legislature (with its Federalist majority) to change the rules and award presidential electors now on the basis of district elections (each district to choose to certain number) rather than by the state legislature.1954 Dirty!
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 1800
Today, Aaron Burr and other New York Republican leaders send a letter to me at the Aurora, warning that Federalists plan to overturn Jefferson’s victory in New York.1955
MONDAY, MAY 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
By an authentic account of the Pole for members of Congress and members of the State Legislature of New York, the following appears to be the aggregate of the majorities in the several wards of the republican ticket and the federal—It will be understood that the whole of the republican ticket has been carried.
Maj … for the fedral Ticket
| 1st Ward | 72 |
| 2nd Ward | 234 |
| 3rd Ward | 187 |
| 439 |
Maj … for the Republican.
| 4th Ward | 37 |
| 5th Ward | 82 |
| 6th Ward | 468 |
| 7th Ward | 301 |
| 933 |
Clear majority for the whole
republican list. for the state Legislature, 440
Today, upset over the New York election result, John Adams fires his Secretary of War, James McHenry.1956
Today, the President’s Lady, Abigail Adams, writes her sister:
You need not write to me after the present week. It is my present intention to leave here some time next week …
I shall have a very buisy week the next. It is the last time that I shall reside in this city, and, as present appearences indicate, the last time I shall visit it; The people are led blind fold by those who will ride them without saddle but well curbed and bitted.
It is generally supposed that N[ew] York would be the balance in the … scale … N[ew] York, by an effort to bring into their assembly antifederal Men, will make also an antifederal ticket for President; and this will give all the power sought by that Party … To this purpose was … Coopers libels—with all the host of Callenders lies … A whole year we shall hear nothing else but abuse and scandel, enough to ruin & corrupt the minds and morals of the best people in the world. Out of all this will arise something which tho we may be no more, our Children may live to Rue—I hope we may be preserved from confusion, but it is much to be dreaded.1957
Today, in Windsor, Vermont, the U.S. Circuit Court opens the federal sedition trial of Anthony Haswell, publisher of Vermont’s and northern New England’s leading Republican newspaper, the Vermont Gazette at Bennington.1958 From the record of the trial:
The case being called, the District Attorney opened the case of the part of the United States. Evidence was produced to show that the passages of the indictment had been published in a newspaper called the Vermont Gazette, edited by the defendant; the first being part of an advertisement issued by a committee of Colonel [Matthew] Lyon’s friends [for a lottery to raise money for his sedition fine], the second being an extract from the Aurora …
Judge Paterson charged the jury that … it [was not] necessary that the defendant should have written the defamatory matter. It was issued in his paper, it is enough.
The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty, and the court sentenced the defendant to a fine of two hundred dollars and an imprisonment of two months.1959
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Republican faction have carried every point at New York … Republican Senators are also elected for the District, of which the city is a component part, notwithstanding there was a small majority against them in the City. Thirteen Republican members for the Districts are also elected to the lower House of Assembly by a majority of 445. The result gives a dead majority to the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, even tho’ M’Kean should not carry his point [in Pennsylvania].
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The result of the New York election must speak to the federal administration in a very emphatical manner how general and decisive the public opinion is against their measures and the baleful policy they have pursued …
[T]here is a class … of people who always adore the rising sun …
The character of Mr. Jefferson is attacked … in the federal prints of New York, and what has been the effect? … Good Mr. Secretary Hamilton … did not frighten the Democrats out of their votes. Mr. Secretary Hamilton is about to sell the copyright of his [adultery] defence (secured according to law) to John Ward Fenno, who is soon to favour the world with a new edition … By this bargain, it is probable the immaculate General, the assailant of Jefferson, will make the eleven hundred dollars which he confesses Mrs. Reynolds cost him!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The state of our country in its domestic and foreign relations has not exhibited so promising a prospect, since the establishment of the federal constitution …
Mr. Adams in his extraordinary book [the Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States] … bestowed great pains on the principle of the balance …
The balance of public opinion appears, however, to be the most effectual … It is by public opinion, addressing itself freely to the actions of men entrusted with power, that freedom can be maintained …
While writing this article, the Editor has received a letter from New York … [with] a new and extraordinary instance of the confirmed depravity of a faction …
Extract of a letter to the Editor, dated New-York, May 4th, 1800 … “Their despondency approaches to the melancholy of despair; at a party meeting held last night, it was suggested that Mr. Jay [the Governor] should immediately call the old legislature of this state together and that they should invest him with the power of chusing the Electors of President and Vice President in order to prevent the effects of the recent change in the people’s minds from taking effect. Whether this will be attempted by Mr. Jay or not is uncertain. But when it was urged that it might lead to a civil war … a person present observed that a civil war would be preferable to having Jefferson … It might suit the abandoned politics of Hamilton and Pickering …”
Today, unaware that this morning’s Aurora has revealed his plan to overturn the New York election results, Federalist party leader Alexander Hamilton writes New York Governor John Jay:
You have been informed of the loss of our Election in this City … The moral certainty … is that there will be an Anti-Federal Majority in the ensuing Legislature; and the very high probability is that this will bring Jefferson into the Chief Magistracy, unless it can be prevented by … the immediate calling together of the existing Legislature … [I]n times like these in which we live, it will not do to be over scrupulous … The calling of the Legislature will have for object the choosing of Electors by the people in Districts. This (as Pennsylvania will do nothing) will ensure a majority of votes in the United States for Federal candidates …
In weighing this suggestion, you will doubtless bear in mind that Popular Governments must certainly be overturned & while they endure prove engines of mischief …1960
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
MR. FENNO, IN your paper of the 5th of this month I have read a paragraph which reads that “the result of the election in New York ascertains the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency.” I do firmly believe this to be an erroneous prediction. I trust this country is not yet so abandoned of God.
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter from New York, May 7 th. 1800 …
Thus you see, my friend, that the eyes of our yeomanry have been opened and in spite of all the threats of the anglo-federalists, republicanism has triumphed beyond our most sanguine expectations.—
New York Governor John Jay will not accept Alexander Hamilton’s plan to overturn the New York elections. Popular opinion won’t allow it. One the most active Republicans in the New York election, Mathew Davis, explains:
The result of the election was announced on the 2d of May. On the 3d of May, in the evening, a select and confidential Federal[ist] caucus was held. On the 4th a letter was written to William Duane, editor of the Aurora, stating that it was determined by the caucus to solicit Governor Jay to convene the existing [holdover] legislature forthwith for the purpose of changing the mode of choosing electors for president and placing it in the hands of the people by districts. The effects of such a measure would have been to neutralize the State of New-York, and … would have secured to the federal party their president and vice-president. The letter was published in the Aurora of the [7th] … of May and called forth the denunciations of those Federal papers whose conductors were not in [on] the secret … One of the New-York city papers reprinted the letter, and thus closes its commentary on it:—“Where is the American who will not detest the author of this infamous lie? If there is a man to be found who will sanction this publication, he is the worst of Jacobins!”1961
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Among other wise projects, lately brought forward in Congress, is the establishment of a national library at Washington … [B]ooks be purchased … Adams’s Defence of the American Constitutions—Porcupine’s edition … The Cuckold’s Chronicle for the use of General Hamilton …
Today, still distraught over the New York election result, John Adams demands Timothy Pickering’s resignation as Secretary of State and announces his decision to disband the federal army which Alexander Hamilton now commands.1962
Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
ELECTIONS OF PRESIDENT.
A message was received from the Senate informing that House that the Senate adhere to their disagreement to the amendments to the bill prescribing the mode of deciding elections of President and Vice President of the United States, made by this House and subsequently insisted on Whereupon
Mr. HARPER moved that this House do also adhere to their disagreement to recede; which was carried, and the bill, consequently, is lost.1963
The Ross bill is defeated. The Aurora has won. Peter Porcupine will confess,
This Bill was a sweeper. It would, had it passed into law, have in reality placed the election of the President in the hands of the Senate alone. That it would be much better for the country … is certain, but … [t]o lead the sovereign people through the farce of an election when the choice was finally to be made by thirteen men, seven of whom were to be nominated by the Senate, was a departure from frankness …1964
MONDAY, MAY 12, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
ADDRESS
AT a moment when the national legislature is about to take its final departure from this city, the Editor is bound to offer … a few considerations which appear to be necessary on this occasion.
From the moment that the destinies of these states appeared to be committed on the issues of a fatal treaty [the Jay Treaty of 1795], “The Aurora,” from circumstances unpremeditated but natural, became distinguished as the national paper—here it was that the genius and the virtue of the country rallied round the principles of the revolution and republicanism; here it was that the sparks of virtue … were cherished by the grandson of that sage to whom posterity will give the first claim to the glory of establishing the American nation and liberties.
It has been confessed by the enemies, and it will not be denied by the friends, of the publication that if this paper did not solely keep from total despair the staggering spirits of the persecuted and insulted friends of the republican form of government, it contributed more to sustain those liberties and to retrain the measures and designs of the enemies of free government than any other means.
It is not only discharging a duty of private affection but an act of public justice to call to remembrance and to make known under what efforts of disinterestedness and with what sacrifices Benjamin Franklin Bache persevered to assert the cause of virtue and his country.
This country should not forget, either for the country’s honor, for the honor of republican justice, or for an example to others … how greatly the present auspicious return of the nation from delusion to a just consideration of its true happiness and interests is owing to the free and manfully conducted Press in the hands of Benjamin Franklin Bache …
In that last trying situation it was that, in a document attached to his will, specially designed to secure this paper to his country, he named the present Editor to be his successor—if in executing the trust so honorably confided to him—if in emulating the spirit and constancy of his predecessor, the present editor has obtained the same hatreds and the same friendships—if he has sustained with success and to the advantage of his country the character of the paper and justified the confidence reposed in him—even then a large share of that merit is due to him who made the choice and gave the example.
It is no longer criminal to read “The AURORA”—its subscription list is now so much encreased that with punctual payments and after employing thirteen thousand dollars annually in its unavoidable expences, it will afford a profit of 3,000 dollars a year to the proprietor and encreases daily in circulation and popularity …
The present editor undertook this arduous duty when the prospects of the country or of this establishment were not so flattering; and, under the voluntary assurances and proffers of support of the republican interest of a steady and effectual support, he also undertook the proprietorship of the paper …
Faithfully supported, the AURORA must continue to hold its accustomed rank & utility, notwithstanding the removal of the Legislature … It is the Editor’s intention to be near the Legislature at their future sittings—and to persevere in the same vigilance and industry in the public service which has already obtained for “The Aurora” the unwilling praise of its enemies and the unqualified applause of its friends.
WILLIAM DUANE
Today, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes President Adams:
I had indeed contemplated a continuance in office until the 4th of March next; when, if Mr. Jefferson were elected President (an event which, in your conversation with me last week, you considered certain) I expected to go out, of course … I do not feel it my duty to resign …1965
John Adams responds immediately:
[Y]ou are hereby discharged from any further service as Secretary of State.1966
It’s a day of celebration! Thomas Jefferson stops by the offices of the Philadelphia Aurora,1967 and I attend this afternoon’s anniversary banquet of the Republican Society of St. Tammany (guardian saint of the United States) at the great Wigwam near the Buck on the Passyunk road. When I finish my meal and depart the flower-strewn table, my fellow Republicans toast: “Brother William Duane, three cheers.”1968
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In the Senate of the United States on Saturday … Mr. Bingham presented the Remonstrance and Petition of the citizens of this city and county, &c. (lately published in the Aurora) praying the honorable Senate to reconsider the extraordinary proceedings in the case of William Duane.
We understand that Mr. Dayton was violently opposed to the permitting this remonstrance to be read—on account of the indecency of the language … complaining of the unconstitutional conduct of the servants of the people …
12 Members appeared against the reading … and 12 members in favor of it. But the President of the Senate [Mr. Jefferson] deciding in the affirmative, the remonstrance was read, to wit:
TO THE SENATE OF THE U. STATES,
THE REMONSTRANCE AND PETITION
Of the undersigned Citizens of the Republic of America, resident in … Philadelphia, respectfully Sheweth:
THAT WE … are fully persuaded that the surest safeguard of the rights and liberties of the people is the freedom of the Press …
[W]e had thought no law could be made by Congress abridging the freedom of the press. But we find by the proceedings of the Senate that the privileges of one house may effect what the constitution has forbidden …
[W]e observe in the proceedings of the senate another sedition law rising up to appall us; a sedition law that defies the counteraction of the laws of the land or the juries of our country …
We had thought that the plain and acknowledged principle of rational justice would have prevented the accusers from being also the judges, jury, and the punishers..
We … respectfully call upon the Senate to reconsider the resolutions by them adopted on the subject of privilege in the case of William Duane …
Mr. Dayton then moved the order of the day … We understand that upwards of a thousand signatures were presented on that day and as many more yesterday.
PARALLEL …
“By their works shall ye know them.” … In the third year of the Presidency of John Adams, under the Sedition Law—alias the indemnity law. [Indictments:] 1. Abijah Adams, printer of a republican paper at Boston for an alleged libel … 2. Matthew Lyon, a member of Congress from Vermont under the sedition law … 3. Anthony Haswell, a printer in Vermont, for publishing an extract of a letter written by James M’Henry, Secretary of War … recommending Tories for [army] officers … 4. Charles Holt, printer at New-London, Connecticut, for publishing moral arguments against … military establishments … 5. Thomas Frothingham, a journeyman printer at New York, for … stating that Alexander Hamilton had endeavored to destroy the Aurora … 6. Luther Baldwin of N. Jersey for wishing the wadding of a cannon fired on a day of rejoicing were lodged in the president’s posterior. 7. Benjamin Franklin Bache, Grandson of Benjamin Franklin, for publishing an article … 8. Thomas Cooper of Northumberland for publishing a number of truths about public men and measures … 9. William Duane of Philadelphia for asserting that Mr. Adams had asserted … British influence had been used under the federal Government with effect. [Also] Indicted for asserting that the British Government was a corrupt one. (N.B. These two indictments have been withdrawn, but they shall be published.) [Also] Indicted for publishing [British Minister] Liston’s Letters found on Sweezy in which it was declared that the American Government was provoking France to a war. Two or three other suits which he does not know what they relate to.
The balance of this account is immense …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
As Congress are on the eve of concluding a session … it might be well, nay, it would certainly be very well if they should, previously to rising, declare war. I think the attempt at such a measure on the part of some spirited member would have good effect. The ties by which it is sought to bind us are truly Lilliputian; war would break them …
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
ST. TAMMANY
Monday, the Anniversary festival of the tutelary SAINT of the United States of America was observed by the social or Columbian order of St. Tammany. Agreeable to annual custom, they assembled in their great Wigwam near the Buck on Passyunk road … Having lighted the great council fire and erected its standard of the orders & tribes & smoked the sacred calumet [and] … [a]fter partaking of the feast … the noise of hoarse canon was heard along with the songs, and shouts of joy, which were given with a number of toasts …
VOLUNTEERS.
By the Sachem THOMAS M’KEAN [Governor of Pennsylvania],—Peace and good government. By the Sachem Israel Israel—The Senate of the United States, may the ensuing election teach them to know and define their privileges … By other Brothers … Thomas Cooper, of Northumberland … suffering for truth under perversion of power … After Governor M’Kean, retired, his health with three guns. After he had retired—Brother William Duane, three cheers.
Today, John Adams approves and signs into law:
An Act supplementary to the act to suspend part of an act, entitled “An Act to augment the Army of the United States …”
Be it enacted, &c., That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to suspend any further military appointments …
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted. That the President of the United States shall be, and hereby is, authorized to discharge on or before the fifteenth day of June next all such officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates as have heretofore been appointed, commissioned or raised …1969
Peter Porcupine:
This bill amounted to a disbanding of the army; because it was well known that Adams, who was now laying in a provision of popularity against the ensuing election for President, would issue orders for disbanding the moment the Congress adjourned …1970
John Adams will reflect:
[T]he army was as unpopular as if it had been a ferocious wild beast let loose upon the nation to devour it. In newspapers, in pamphlets and in common conversation they were called cannibals. A thousand anecdotes, true or false, of their licentiousness were propagated and believed.1971
Jimmy Callender:
It was as clear as evidence could make it that Mr. Adams himself was the prime mover of all those military outrages which had occurred in the annals of his inestimable army. Who flogged Schneider the German printer? Soldiers in the pay of the president … Of whom did the gang consist that attacked the printer of the Aurora? They were an attachment of the same corps.1972
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
MR. BINGHAM presented an additional remonstrance and petition of a number of citizens of … Philadelphia, “praying the Senate to reconsider the resolutions by them adopted on the subject of privilege in the case of William Duane.”
And on motion that the remonstrance be read, it passed in the negative—yeas 7, nays 12 …
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be and he is hereby, authorized to pay to James Mathers, acting as Sergeant-at-Arms to the Senate, out of the contingent fund the sum of one hundred and forty dollars, for extra services [in seeking the arrest of William Duane] …
On motion that it be
Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to instruct the proper law officer to commence and carry on a prosecution against William Duane, editor of the newspaper called the Aurora, for certain false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious publications in the said newspaper … tending to defame the Senate of the United States …
It passed in the affirmative—yeas 13, nays 4 …
Ordered, That the Secretary lay an attested copy of the foregoing resolution before the President of the United States …
The PRESIDENT [of the Senate], agreeably to the joint resolution of the 12th instant, adjourned the Senate to meet again on the third Monday of November next, as the law provides.1973
Three to four thousand people have signed petitions to the United States Senate on my behalf.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
That wretched vehicle of vulgar rage and ignorance, the Aurora, exults loudly in what is deemed, by the starveling scribblers in that Gazette, a scene of delicious confusion …
Duane says his Aurora is the Government paper and that he is going to the City of Washington. He might be employed at Washington, after a manner level to his talents, in carrying hods of bricks and mortar up a ladder, but, as to printing the government paper, it is impossible that a man of his modesty and independence of spirit could seriously think of such a thing.
THE Editor of this Gazette is happy to inform his Subscribers that he has made arrangements as to be able to continue the publication of the Gazette of the United States with encreased activity and exertion.
Sensible of the important influence of Newspaper upon the public opinion, it will be studied to make this paper the vehicle of constant and steady opposition to the liberticidal designs of aspiring and restless demagogues …
The Editor and his associates will “intermit no watch against the wakeful foe” …
In pursuing their opposition to the vile faction which would place at the head of affairs an atheist and a traitor to his country, they hope to receive … the support and countenance generally of all true friends to the commonwealth as it stands …
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FENNO AGAIN
The Gazette of the United States is to live a little longer—the despair of its supporters has excited another effort, and Fenno who appears doomed to be the sport of an annual exhaustion and resuscitation, comes now forth with perfect gravity and tells his twenty-six quires [paper sets of twenty-four sheets each] of readers that he is “sensible of the importance of newspapers upon public opinion” … [&c.]
WHAT HAS THE AURORA SAID ? …
Timothy Pickering has been dismissed, James M’Henry has resigned—Alexander Hamilton has received a hint that his services will be no longer required … A motion was made by Mr. Harper in the house of representatives for the disbanding of the standing army …
Mr. [Samuel] Dexter has been nominated to the office of Secretary of the War Department … Mr. Dexter very candidly confesses that he is as well qualified for the office of feeder of the Chinese Emperor’s crocodiles as for that of Secretary at War.
Today, John Adams issues orders to his departing Secretary of War:
I request you to transmit copies of the law for reducing the twelve regiments, which passed yesterday, to Major-Generals Hamilton and Pinckney, and also to the commandants of brigades, with orders to make immediate arrangements for reducing those regiments on the fourteenth of June …1974
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Senate, previous to their adjournment yesterday afternoon, passed a resolution requesting the President of the United States to direct the Attorney General to institute a process against William Duane, Editor of the Aurora.
The Vice President of the United States left town yesterday morning.
FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
CAUCUSES
WERE held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings … at which Timothy Pickering [attended] … One measure … appears to have been a necessary consequence of this meeting, the continuation of Fenno’s paper … Fenno is again afloat, and after a simpering, sniveling course of farewell palavers about higher interests calling him to other purposes, he has come out again with the irascibility of a cat after castigation and spits forth malice with redoubled virulence and acrimony …
[Adv] REPUBLICAN GREENS.
CONFORMABLE to the resolution of the 12th instant— the corps will parade out of uniform for exercise at 6 o’clock on Monday morning next and each succeeding Monday until further orders.
WILLIAM DUANE, Captain.
Today, John Adams writes identical letters to the United States Attorney General and to the U.S. District Attorney for Pennsylvania:
I transmit to you a copy of the resolution of the Senate of the United States, passed in Congress on the 14th of this month, by which I am requested to instruct the proper law officers to commence and carry on a prosecution against William Duane, editor of a newspaper called the Aurora for certain false, defamatory, scandalous, and malicious publications in the said newspaper of the 19th of February law past, tending to defame the Senate of the United States and to bring them into contempt and disrepute and to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States. In Compliance with this request, I now instruct you, Gentlemen, to commence and carry on the prosecution accordingly.
[JOHN ADAMS]1975
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Duane gives us a pleasant list of Books … As he is to be the Government Printer, if we may believe himself … let there be procured for the use and behoof of said scapegrace;—Meditations on a Prison-life by a Convict … Gallows in Pennsylvania; the Arts of Knocking off Fetters and Escaping Dungeons … ; an essay on the best means of eluding justice; an improved plan for a gin distillery; the Liar’s vade mecum …
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Philadelphia Prison, May 16.
TO THE EDITOR.
Sir, I HEARD some days ago that my FEDERAL friends … are promoting a Petition to the President to procure a remission of my sentence …
I am not so attached to my present lodgings but I should be very glad to quit them … but I will not leave the place under the acceptance of a favor from the President Adams. Nor will I be the voluntary cats-paw of electioneering clemency. I know the late events have wonderfully changed the outward and visible signs of the politics of the [Federalist] party … But all sudden conversions are suspicious, and I hope the REPUBLICANS will be upon their guard …
THOS: COOPER.
WE understand that the President of the United States has signaled to the Executive offices that it will be necessary for them to be in the City of Washington by the 15th of June next. The President, we learn, will proceed to the City of Washington immediately.