Love of Power and the Love of Money … have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the Eyes of such Men a Post of Honour that shall at the same time be a Place of Profit, and they shall move Heaven and Earth to obtain it … dividing the Nation, distracting its Councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischievous Wars … But this Catastrophe, I think, may be long delay’d if, in our propos’d System, we do not sow the Seeds … by making our Posts of Honour Places of Profit …
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
AT THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION,
PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 2, 17871976
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
If Mr. Pickering has done anything which may have injured the country, as a public officer, he ought to be brought to an exemplary account …
The Editor pledges himself to the public that he is possessed of information of a highly important nature and that the present article is written expressly with a view to call the attention of the President and the public to the question; the President that he may discharge his duty by scrutiny, and the public that they may see whether justice is done.
If these things are done by the constituted authorities, then the editor will remain silent. If they are not done, then will the editor conceive himself bound to publish the facts—the substantial and damning facts—of which he is possessed.
The public will remember that no promise of this kind has ever been made in this paper which has not been duly fulfilled—that matters which no man unconcerned in public affairs could have conceived have been discovered by the Aurora—and many wicked measures frustrated by the timely interposition of this free Press.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The prospect of a French revolution gives new activity and virulence to those propagandists—Duane hisses from his retreat—Cooper, of Birmingham [England], howls a dismal threat from his den of Felons. In the opinion of Mr. Cooper, the PRESIDENT ought to ask his pardon!
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A vote was taken in the Senate of the United States on the subject of a petition and remonstrance, presented by a very respectable number of citizens of Philadelphia, in the cause of the editor of the Aurora; and as it appeared that the members of the Senate were equally divided, Mr., Jefferson, president of that body, gave the casting vote in favor of the petition and remonstrance being read … [W]e are indebted to the patriotic firmness of Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, for this important decision … Americans, is it possible that you can hesitate for one single moment who shall be your President? Jefferson gives his casting vote in favour of the rights of the people to petition for redress of grievances, and Adams praises the British monarch.
AMERICAN CITIZEN
The three citizens who were condemned under an extraordinary stretch of legal construction of the doctrines of Treason, [Pennsylvania tax protesters] Messrs. [John] Fries, Hainey and Getman, were yesterday reprieved by the President and immediately liberated …
We cannot now refrain from expressing our abhorrence of the whole proceeding in the case of these unfortunate men, a case which … flowed from the extravagant measures which gave occasion to lay an unpopular tax … The acrimony of judge Chase … does no honor to our judiciary …
John Adams’ decision to pardon John Fries and Pennsylvania’s other war-tax protesters is one more concession to the popular feeling against his war measures.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Government Offices, it is expected, will be removed in all next week …
Duane … has been so successful of late in discovering the intentions of the President … he has a strong title to credit.
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
No public event, during the administration of Mr. Adams, has excited such universal attention, or given birth to so many and various conjectures, as … the dismission of Timothy Pickering from the office of secretary of state and of James M’Henry as secretary at war …
Some suppose that altho’ (as they say) no suspicion can attach to either of the displaced secretaries of improper dispositions of the immense public sums that have passed thro’ their hands … their known, open, and manifest predilection for British interests … may have awakened the president’s suspicions …
Others … say that the President’s conduct is the stern effect of peevish despair on the result of the New York elections, fearing that he could not be again elected to office.
The following … copied from Fenno’s gazette of yesterday evening … [has] a degree of candor in it which induces us to suspect that the Moon has already begun to operate on the young man and that before the end of the week, we shall again hear of his intending to resign.
“Duane … has been so successful of late in discovering the intentions of the President … he has a strong title to credit.”
We wish to put a question to Jonathan Dayton [formerly Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and now] a member of the Senate … Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, do you or do you not hold in your possession thirty thousand dollars, the property of the good people of the United States—which was advanced to you for public purposes but which you have never returned to the proper owners for more than two years ?
Messrs. Fries, Hainey and Getman were yesterday congratulated in the public streets by hundreds of humane citizens and … by many men who have been heretofore most violent against the sinners of Democracy …
Fenno asserts that Messrs. Fries, Hainey and Getman repented before they were reprieved. The fact, however, is otherwise, for they never were guilty, much less conceived themselves so to be.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Duane in this morning’s Aurora daringly asserts in the most explicit manner that Fries, Hainey and Getman NEVER WERE GUILTY and thereby charges the Judges, Jurors, and Witnesses with the intention of committing the horrid crime of MURDER!! The sentence which was this day to be executed on Fries, Hainey, and Getman is stiled in the Aurora a PUBLIC MURDER!!!!!!!
Dr. Benjamin Franklin asked, “To put a man to Death for an offence which does not deserve Death, is it not Murder?”1977
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The war with Britain, which commenced in the year ‘75, had for its object, on the part of this country, the most pointed recriminations of monarchy. The declaration was made upon the most firm and republican ground; and its author, Mr. Jefferson, must stand in high estimation with the citizens of the United States, so long as they believe the power of the people to be superior to that of kings …
Can all this be said with truth of J. Adams? does he love liberty and genuine republicanism? does he hate monarchy and standing armies? No … in his book entitled “the Defence of the American Constitutions,” he declares the British monarchy to be the most stupendous fabric of human invention … If Adams is a lover of monarchy, [as is] to be deduced from the principles of the book, he certainly ought not to be president of the United States. If, on the contrary, Jefferson is a republican, as appears by all his writings and by all his votes in public life, he certainly deserves the public suffrage …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The close confinement of the culprits, Cooper and Duane, by affording them more leisure to scratch, has for some time past increased if possible the venom of that paper …
Mr. [James] Callender has announced, in a late number of the [Richmond, Virginia] Examiner, his intention to travel … [Probably] he designs paying a visit to the Philosopher of Monticello [Jefferson] in order to regale him … with the perusal of the second volume of the “Prospect before us.” … The following precious morceaux are extracted from that work … “The wretched timidity of Mr. Washington … had invited depredations on our shipping. His abject tameness to England, and his gross duplicity to France, had ensured the contempt of the one and the detestation of the other. It ought to have been the policy of Mr. Adams to retrace the mistakes of his predecessor …”
Tonight, a warrant issues in Virginia for the arrest of Jimmy Callender under an indictment charging that The Prospect Before Us contains a seditious libel against the President of the United States.1978
SUNDAY, MAY 25, 1800
Today, Virginia Governor James Monroe writes Thomas Jefferson,
The G[rand] Jury, of w[hi]ch McClurg was for’man, presented Callender under the Sedition Law, & [Judge] Chase drew the warrant & dispatched the Marshal instantly in pursuit of him. This was yesterday at 12, since w[hi]ch we have not heard of either … Will it not be proper for the Executive [Magistrate of Virginia] to employ counsel to defend him, and, supporting the law, give an éclat to a vindication of the principles of the State ?1979
MONDAY, MAY 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Anthony Haswell, in Vermont, is sentenced to two months’ imprisonment and 200 dollars fine for publishing an advertisement for a lottery …
It was yesterday reported about town that [Treasury Secretary] Oliver Wolcott had resigned … Among the measures of the next session of Congress will of necessity be an enquiry into the transactions of the public departments for a few years past.
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes Virginia Governor James Monroe,
I think it essentially just and necessary that Callender should be substantially defended. Whether in the first stages, by publick interference, or private contributors may be a question. Perhaps it might be as well that it should be left to the legislature who will meet in time … It is become particularly their cause and may furnish them a fine opportunity … of doing justice in another way to those whom they cannot protect without committing the publick tranquillity …1980
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The vagrant editor of the Aurora has for several days past been humbugging his asinine followers and readers with tales of caucuses or private meetings of the Federalists in the last week … What are you after doing Pat? Why you’ll surely lie yourself out of credit with the silly supporters of the Aurora! fie! fie! man, never leave your natural station, the vantage ground of general charges, scurrility and exclusive lying to descend into the plain field of facts …
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Thomas Cooper, who has lately been sentenced and imprisoned for six months, under the mild operations of the sedition law, in a letter addressed to the editor of the Aurora, has exhibited the manly firmness of the philosophic republican … Among other things, Mr. Cooper says, “I will not be the voluntary catspaw of electioneering clemency.” … The pardon of Mr. John Adams, if it should be offered to Cooper, Holt, Durell, and all the other Democrats that have been condemned under the Sedition act, would not ensure his election. It is too late—it is forever too late …
Mr. Humphreys, the father of the notorious Mr. Humphreys who, after being indicted and convicted for a most cowardly assault on the late Benjamin Franklin Bache, had his fine remitted and was commissioned by the President of the United States to carry dispatches to France—this Mr. Humphreys, the father, is a ship builder.
To him … was given the contract of building the United States frigate, a vessel that has certainly cost our country near a million dollars. This vessel of which captain Barry is the commander, has been twice out: once on a cruise and the second time with the late envoys to France.
She is returned. It is said an inquest has been held on her condition: and it is now said she has been condemned and found not seaworthy and is to be laid up. Such is the federal gratitude, and federal economy !
Today, Jimmy Callender is arrested in Virginia.1981
FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The President of the United States left town yesterday, drawn by four horses. But the federal blues did not parade to take leave. The President, we understand, will make a tour to the city of Washington before he returns to his seat in Braintree. His lady does not accompany him.
The Pickeronians are a little anxious to know what is the thing in reserve—and … expect to provoke an early discovery by flinging empty declarations at “the Aurora.” They may shew their zeal but they cannot produce the intended effect.
Mr. Jefferson in his notes on Virginia has expressed himself strongly in favour of religious toleration; the bigots took occasion to call him a deist, and that hireling, Fenno, has been ordered to … call Mr. Jefferson an atheist! …
Is every man an Atheist who does not make a public parade of his religion or who does not abuse his fellow citizen for being of a very different persuasion ? I presume we shall not have so many FAST DAYS during his Presidency … [T]hey will leave this to such church-going sinners as Mr. Fenno and his gang … who laugh at religion in private, who cant about it in public, and accuse of Atheism all those who are content to take for their motto, “By their fruits shall ye know them.” …
Fenno is finished! Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
HAVING become Proprietor of the Gazette of the United States by purchase from Mr. Fenno, I respectfully solicit the countenance and support of the present subscribers and of the Public generally …
CALEB BARRY WAYNE
From several years’ acquaintance with Mr. Wayne … I can with confidence recommend him to the countenance and encouragement of the Public. J. W. FENNO
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FENNO, as we predicted a few days ago, has indeed sold out—and is succeeded by a young man of the name of Caleb P. Wayne—of whom as yet we know nothing; we shall hope to have something to say to his praise—because he must be very dull indeed if he does not profit by the errors of his predecessor.
We shall hope, among other things, to find less folly and more consistency—more love of country and less hatred of republicanism—because the contrary (with bad company) have ruined and blasted poor Fenno.
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Porcupine, who was so warmly patronized in this city and who lately took refuge in New York, sailed for England on Tuesday last—John Ward Fenno succeeds Porcupine in the Bookselling business at New York.
A correspondent enquires whether the late apparent change in the disposition of our government towards the French republic—the dismissal of Pickering from office—the disbanding of the army, &c. are to be considered as the result of a conviction … or merely a palliative intended to operate on the minds of the people in the next election?—Also, whether the pardon of the insurgents is to be attributed to the pure lenity of the President? or to a sense of his declining popularity which he hoped to regain by this apparent lenity?—and whether it would be politic or safe to continue in office men whose conduct heretofore must excite at least a suspicion of duplicity in the present?
Mr. Pickering, after devoting so many years to the service of his country, has retired so poor … It would be worthy of the subject to enumerate the various services of Mr. Pickering—His services as a colonel of militia at Concord in 1774 and the consequences of his prudent retreat—his services in the quarter master’s department during the revolution, with an account of the monies paid into his hands and yet what remains unpaid of the public money on account of revolutionary services—whether interest is not fairly due to the public for monies in the hands of public servants an unusual time (and at the same time as Mr. Dayton is Timothy’s friend, it might be useful to calculate the interest on the public money in his hands since he was speaker).
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
PARIS. April 5. The commissioners for carrying on the negotiations between France and America held their first sitting [in Paris] on the third and exchanged their powers.
SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It is worthy of remark that a number of remarkable characters have lately gone or are going out of Office.
Mr. Liston, British Minister.
Mr. Porcupine, his printer.
Mr. Fenno d[itt]o
Mr. Pickering, their patron, protector, and friend …
Mr. M’Henry, Secretary at War.
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Gordon in the 3d volume of his history of the American revolution states that, on the 19th of October, 1781, the sum of two thousand one hundred and thirteen pounds six shillings sterling was paid into the hands of Timothy Pickering, Esq., the American quarter-master general at York Town in Virginia. It was the amount of Lord Cornwallis’ military chest … Ist. Who is this same Timothy Pickering, Esq.? 2d. To whom has this money been paid? 3d. When has it been paid?
Much surprize was expressed at the suddenness of the departure of Judge Chase from this city … It now appears that he … set off for Richmond to wreak vengeance on Callender. A jury conveniently packed by a federal Marshal has found a bill under the sedition law against Callender, and Judge Chase swears Callender must go to prison …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Although the notorious and infamous Callender—who has been so constantly employed for several years past in framing lies to destroy the confidence of the American people in their government—has at last been taken hold of, Duane with his usual audacity charges the Marshal with packing the jury in this case and plainly insinuates that Callender is not guilty of the crime alledged.
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Judge CHASE, the pious and religious Judge Chase, is going to Virginia where, he says, if a virtuous jury can only be collected, he’ll punish CALLENDER with a vengeance.
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court sitting in Richmond, Virginia, Judge Samuel Chase presides at the sedition trial of the Aurora’s Jimmy Callender, who fled Philadelphia and now edits the Richmond Examiner. From the trial record:
The [libelous] matter set out in the indictment was as follows:
“The reign of Mr. Adams has been one continued tempest of malignant passions. As President, he has never opened his lips or lifted his pen without threatening and scolding …” …
…………………
Judge Chase stopped Mr. Nicholas and addressed the counsel for Mr. Callender, thus:—
… [Y]ou say that … the charges in the indictment are merely opinion, and not [expressions of] facts falsely asserted … Can any man of you say that the President is a detestable and criminal man? The traverser charges him with being a murderer and a thief, a despot and a tyrant! Will you … excuse yourself by saying it is but mere opinion … ?
…………………
Mr. WIRT [counsel for Mr. Callender].—Gentlemen of the Jury, … [I]f the law of Congress under which we are indicted be an infraction of the Constitution, it has not the force of law …
Here, Judge CHASE—Take your seat, sir, if you please. If I understand you rightly, you offer an argument to the petit jury to convince them … the Sedition Law is contrary to the Constitution … Now I tell you that this is irregular and inadmissible …
Mr. WIRT.—Since then the jury have the right to consider the law and since the constitution is the law, the conclusion is syllogistic that the jury have the right to consider the Constitution.
Judge CHASE. A non sequitur, sir.
Here Mr. Wirt sat down …
…………………
After two hours, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty, upon which the court sentenced the traverser to a fine of two hundred dollars, and an imprisonment of nine months.1982
The Federalists finally jail Jimmy Callender! Judge Chase spoke with John Mason in Baltimore before the trial. John Mason:
Judge Chase asked me if I had seen [Callender’s pamphlet] the “Prospect before Us.” I replied I had not … He observed that Mr. Martin, the attorney general of Maryland, had sent it to him, and that Mr. Martin had scored the passages that were libellous, and that he should carry it to Richmond with him; and that if the commonwealth of Virginia was not utterly depraved, or that if a jury of honest men could be found there, he would punish Callender. He said he would teach the lawyers of Virginia the difference between the liberty and the licentiousness of the press.1983
Virginia lawyer John Heath also saw Judge Chase before the trial. John Heath:
I was one of the counsel at the bar but was not concerned with Callender’s case … I had occasion to apply to the court … While I was there, Mr. Randolph, the then marshal of Virginia, came in; he held a paper in his hand, and Judge Chase asked him what it was. Mr. Randolph replied that it was a pannel of the jury to try Callender. Judge Chase then asked him if he had any of those creatures or people called democrats on it. Mr. Randolph paused for a moment, and … replied that he made no discrimination. Judge Chase told him to look over the pannel; if there were any of that description, strike them off …1984
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In the primer composed for the use of American aristocrats, we shall find this Aphorism, “In Adams’ fall, we sinned all.”
[T]o what purposes [was it that] Mr. Pickering applied the 50,000 dollars drawn out of the public treasury on the 18th of April 1800 [?]
Mr. Anthony Haswell, the Editor of … the Vermont Gazette was arraigned before the circuit court of the United States, then sitting at Windsor for the District of Vermont … [T]he cause was called on, when the respondent brought forward evidence on the first count of the indictment to prove that col. Lyon was denied the privilege of pen, ink, and paper when he was first confined … On the second count, the respondent produced the certified correspondence [of] … James M’Henry, secretary of war of the United States … [which] says, in substance, there are many among those you denominate as old Tories … who, being men of probity and honor, I do not see why they should not be deemed eligible [as army officers] &c…. The attorney of the prosecution alleged that the publications were a libel against the government of the United States …
Today, U.S. Senator Gouverneur Morris of New York writes a former U.S. senator from New York, Rufus King:
[T]he thing which, in my opinion, has done the most mischief to the federal Party is the Ground given by some of them to believe that they wish to establish a monarchy.1985
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Charles Holt [of the New London Bee], a native citizen of the United States, has been tried under the Sedition Law and sentenced to pay two hundred dollars fine, and imprisoned three months. Notwithstanding the law has declared Mr. Holt a criminal, thousands of sober, prudent, industrious and respecting people in this country visit and aid him as a martyr for the righteous cause of liberty …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Pat [at the Aurora], …“May the devil as of old take the swinish multitude to a sea bathing,” is in truth the real wish of all your party, from the highest … to William Duane.
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We have repeatedly told the public that a person of the first credit in the family of the British minister in this city declared that on a certain day Fenno’s Gazette was to be enlarged and to become their paper—it was enlarged—it is not yet two months since a lady of considerable understanding and information. in the presence of Mr. Adams, said that Fenno’s was a British paper—in truth Fenno never denied the fact or contradicted our assertions—we publish the following from the Royal gazette of New-York without more than a single remark—Fenno continued to be patronized by the administration and by the Senate to the last hour that they continued in this city:
PORCUPINE’S FAREWELL
To The People Of The United States Of America
THIS is to inform all those of you, whom it may concern, that, being upon the point of returning to that “INSULAR BASTILE,” Great Britain, I have fully and legally authorized Mr. John Ward Fenno (late of Philadelphia) who is my successor in business, to make a final adjustment of all my unsettled accounts. Those who may have any demands against me will, therefore, please to present them, duly authenticated, to Mr. Fenno at No. 141 Hanover-square, New York …
You will, doubtless, be astonished that. after having had a smack of the sweets of liberty, I should think of rising from the feast; but … so it is with liberty, out of its infinite variety of sorts, it unfortunately happens that yours is perfectly the sort which I do not like …
With this I depart for that HOME where neither the moth of Democracy nor the rust of Federalism doth corrupt …
W. COBBETT. New York, 29th May, 1800
The friends of Mr. William Cobbett are informed that he sailed for England on Sunday last in the King’s Packet, Lady Arabella. He leaves behind him the regret of all true friends to America for the loss of a champion so formidable once in her behalf …
Having succeeded to his business here, I shall, at all times, be happy in executing the orders of his friends and customers …
The Gazette of the United States having become the property of Mr. Wayne, all letters or concerns relating to that establishment are referred to him.
JOHN WARD FENNO
No. 141 Hanover-Square [New York], May 31.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno offers his own farewell to readers:
In relinquishing the profession of an editor—a profession which no consideration but the hope of being able one day to boast that “I have done the State some service” could have induced me, in a period like the past, so long to continue—I have to pay some ample acknowledgments to many excellent friends … All the conjoint persecutions or rancorous malice and cowardly stupidity which I have encountered … have still left far fainter traces on my mind that the demonstrations of personal attachment … JOHN WARD FENNO
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE PRESIDENT
Is gone—what! gone? Yes!—dead?—mortally, no; politically, aye? But he has left town—How? In his coach and four with the blinds up—Ah! that’s not a new thing, he has rode in the state coach with the blinds up for a long time … Did the blues parade?—No, what! not parade nor salute him whom the people delight to honor—the rock on which the storm beats—the chief who now commands? Did the republican militia parade?—no!
We have waited, hoping to hear something said about the public money which Brigadier General Dayton has held so long in his hands.
We have waited to hear what would be said concerning Mr. Pickering—and whether Mr. Wolcott or their friends would remain silent … The latter gentleman, as Secretary of the Treasury, ought to keep correct accounts …
The Gazette of the United States, it now appears, belongs to a kind of underhand agency, ostensively belonging to Mr. Caleb Wayne—we shall use the name of the publisher in the future to designate that paper, formerly called Fenno’s, apparently with like propriety.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The President of the United States arrived at Georgetown on Tuesday noon last where he was received with every demonstration of joy … He was said to have made his entry into the city of Washington, the future seat of government of the union, on Wednesday last.
The alternate abuse offered both to Mr. Adams and Mr. Pickering in the Aurora … serves to show the base disposition of the Jacobins to divide and to destroy the Federalists … United we stand—divided we fall a prey to all the horrors which France and Ireland have experienced from the bloody fangs of the Jacobins.
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
LETTER OF JOHN FOWLER, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM … KENTUCKY, TO HIS CONSTITUENTS
The election of a republican governor to the chair of Pennsylvania was the first intimation that the citizens of America still cherished the hope of preserving peace with France; yet notwithstanding this, the war party in Congress laboured incessantly, in conjunction with the executive administration, to force upon us the dreadful conflict. Our state [Kentucky] and Virginia remained firm: and the other southern states have joined us; and the accession of Pennsylvania would have given us a preponderance at the next election, had not a majority of six men, elected in the time of delusion to the [Pennsylvania] state senate, refused to concur in passing a law to prescribe the mode of electing the President and Vice President of the United States. The election of New York has now completely turned the beam …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It is reported, but with what degree of truth we will not pretend to say, that the Old Sorceress in Race street and Duane are mutually concerned in the publication of the Aurora—and that all the predictions … in that paper are to be accounted for in this way.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The senate requested Mr. Adams to institute a suit against the Editor of the Aurora; but it will not be expected that while he continues in his present critical situation, while the prospect of his re-election still exhibits the most gloomy aspect, he will gratify the resentments of the senate. However much he may participate in them, policy will dictate their concealment until they can be exercised with less hazard. Mr. Adams is not now “The ROCK on which the storm shall beat” in vain.
EPITOME OF THE TIMES.
(The Editor of the Epitome is mistaken: the suit is already instituted.)
Peter Porcupine will observe,
The Senate proceeded [against Duane]; but the Printer, by absconding till after the session was over, avoided the punishment intended for him … The Senate was never a very popular body; it was always regarded by the great mass of the people with a jealous eye. This attempt added to its unpopularity and cast on it an odium which it will not easily wipe off …1986
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
[Adv.] MACPHERSON’S BLUES
THE Members composing the Legion will assemble without uniform at the City Hall on Thursday next at 7 o’clock P.M. on Business of importance. By Order of Brig.Gen.Macpherson
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Letters and newspapers must in future be directed to the respective officers of the Government at the City of Washington.
Tonight, at the City Hall in Philadelphia’s State-house, the “young men of Philadelphia” who compose the Macpherson’s Blues follow the President’s direction for army units to disband. At the time when the terror of faction was at the highest pitch in Philadelphia, this corps was the most active and willing to awe the people into silence and obscurity—The Theatre and every public place, even the churches, were crowded with this patriotic body—In fact the city of Philadelphia rather appeared under a military despotism than under a civil government …1987 This autumn, President Adams will pay for that despotism.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Judge Chase, when about to pass sentence on Mr. Callender, observed that his offence against the laws was great … that Mr. Callender must have known that Mr. Adams was far from deserving the character he had given him … that the American people had repeatedly confided their most important concerns and dearest interests to Mr. Adams—that he was one of the principal characters in the revolution … That Congress … appointed him as a minister, in conjunction with two others, to make the treaty which terminated the war and established our independence, and that the best parts of that treaty of peace were to be ascribed to Mr. Adams … It was to be lamented … [t]hat Callender, avowedly for electioneering purpose, had ascribed to Mr. Adams a worse character …
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
James Thomson Callender further declared … that he shall be able to prove by the evidence of Stevens Thomson Mason and William B. Giles that John Adams, president of the United States, has unequivocally avowed in conversation with them principles utterly incompatible with the principles of the present constitution of the United States … [Callender] was sentenced by Judge Chase to nine months imprisonment and to pay a fine of two hundred dollars.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
For the satisfaction of all true friends to America, the three most active and most notorious foreign emissaries, Cooper, Duane, and Callender, have all at last been punished for their audacious attempts to involve the United States in one scene of confusion and blood. This we hope will discourage those who sent them across the Atlantic from any further attempts to destroy the government and independence of the United States.
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MACPHERSON’S BLUES
We understand that the Military corps commonly called Macpherson’s Blues had a meeting on Thursday evening and that it was resolved to dissolve the association on the 17th inst …
Their rise was at a season of alarm and political ferment, … [A]n advertisement calling upon the YOUTH of Philadelphia to meet at a public tavern … was couched in singular form, for the youth were explained to comprehend those between 16 and 23 years of age … [E]ffects not to be then foreseen arose from the example set by Philadelphia, for all the continent was taught, and the eulogy bestowed by the president on these youths of 23 gave our nether world, a high opinion of this queer begotten association, and the example was followed as we have seen …
Never was l’esprit de corps more strongly manifested than in the first months of its institution by this body … [M]en of sound republican principles but weak minds were seen enrolling themselves in ranks under the apprehension of their growing power and the consequent danger; and men … were seen disgracing the memories of their fathers and the independence of their country by the elevation of the black British cockade! …
This corps, sanctioned by the President … gave a species of law to the public of this city.—Weak men feared them … The theatre—the public streets—and even the domestic sanctuary was infested with their folly or their violence …
The republican part of the community … found it necessary to guard against the accumulating danger; and as a necessary effect of this danger, the Republican militia legion was formed.
From the moment the legion first appeared under arms, the city was released from the heavy weight of just apprehension. With the growth of the militia Legion, public confidence and public security have now been restored …
The blues are now no longer a military corps … and we shall not enumerate or particularize acts of theirs which we could point out for blame. The returning sense of the country … [has] rendered it prudent in them to take the steps they have done …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Gentlemen composing the Legion of Blues have been highly honoured in the Aurora of this morning by a torrent of abuse. They are accused of wearing the British cockade—of insolence—of alarming the peaceable inhabitants &c. &c. &c. They have only to reflect on the source from whence this abuse arises;—Washington, Adams, Pickering, Hamilton, Marshall & M’Henry, with innumerable other patriots and statesmen, have all received a share of abuse in that paper.
The Editor of the Aurora … asserts with his usual vulgarity “that History is but the record of the transactions and characters of men under three words, crimes, fools, and villains.” Had he placed the word Jacobin before “History,” he had been right for once in his life, and, as it is, he has given us his character in three short words, as well as Judge Chase or any upright Judge will do it for him hereafter.
SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 1800
Today, the first standing army of the United States of America, established in 1798 under the signature of its second President, John Adams of Massachusetts, is officially disbanded! A report of celebration from North Farms, New Jersey:
The fifteenth of this instant being the day appointed by the Legislature of the Union for Disbanding the Standing Army, [three hundred of] the citizens of this vicinity … in order to manifest that joy which every true American must feel on such a happy occasion, convened … at the house of capt. Thomas Baldwin at 4 o’clock P.M. where, after partaking of a genteel and wholesome collation under a shady bower, the following [sixteen] toasts were drank, each accompanied with the discharge of musketry … 8. May it never again be in the power of the Commander in Chief of the first division of New Jersey militia to say that a standing army is raised (to use his own polite language) to keep “the people under” … 15. The virtuous and persecuted DUANE, Editor of the Aurora—May his endeavors to unveil the secret plots of a crafty aristocracy, meet the approbation and reward of his grateful country. 3 cheers …1988
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
WAYNE [in his Gazette of the United States] calls the facts which we published (and published mildly compared with the facts) ABUSE of the BLUES—but he has not shewn us that the black cockade is not the British cockade …
Great stress is laid by weak men and by wicked men upon the poverty of Mr. Callender and his being born in a foreign country, as if his poverty or his birth could alter the character and principles of JUSTICE or as if these circumstances could deprive him of a RIGHT established by the law of the land for which his enemies profess such veneration …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Caleb Wayne writes:
MACPHERSON’S BLUES
THIS legion … has afforded to the Editor of the Aurora an opportunity of retailing, with his usual asperity, a string of falsehoods designed to injure its character …
That the [Republican] militia legion has recently increased in numbers we readily admit. And that the [Federalist Macpherson’s] Blues, as part of the army of the United States, is about to be disbanded, will not be denied. It is, however, far from being honorable to the former that, during the period when the danger of foreign invasion was most imminent, their impoverished ranks displayed no more than ten or twelve to a company; or that, at a moment when the dawn of peace and security was most certain, their files should obviously augment … But even Jasper [Dwight], who thus speaks of their swelling ranks, has never been able to assemble in his forlorn corps more than 12 or fourteen soldiers …
The Blues [unlike the Republican militia legion] have never outraged the honor and dignity of their country, or bidden defiance to its laws, by marching exultantly through its streets to the war tunes of a declared and actual enemy … [W]hen on the mournful occasion of performing homage to the memory of their illustrious fellow-soldier, Washington, they behaved with decorum and obeyed with implicitness the orders of the day … Can this be observed of certain of the corps of that Legion whose respectability has been contrasted with the Blues ?
Duane calls the Black Cockade a British Cockade … [B]ut as we gained our Independence with black cockades in our hats, we shall not now give them give them up to please a wretch who was with the Enemy during the whole of our struggle for Independence and who is still a base foreign emissary.
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PUBLIC PLUNDER.
We have at length so far succeeded as to possess ourselves of a long and black series of abuses and waste of the public money …
We had some time ago stated that [former Secretary of State] Timothy Pickering had drawn on the 18th of April last the sum of 50,000 dollars from the public treasury. We now repeat the fact, and that at the time, he had in his hands unaccounted for the enormous sum of 300,000 dollars and more on the same account …
For this time we shall dismiss Mr. Pickering, because we have about FORTY other friends of regular government to bring in review …
Tomorrow we shall give Jonathan Dayton’s account at large.
Timothy Pickering superintended the federal government’s sedition actions against Benny and against me. Jonathan Dayton barred Benny and me from the House floor. It is time for them to be held to account!1989
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A Secretary of the Treasury negligent, incompetent, or corrupt, may suffer or cause the public to be robbed to an immense account … If it shall appear that the public money has been withheld from the public coffers while immense sums have been borrowed at enormous interest—if it shall appear that those who have held those public monies have been speculating in princely estates while they possessed those public monies, then if they can say: these things ought to be so … we have mistaken the true meaning of oaths, of public obligations …
Mr. Dayton was considerably indebted to the U.S…. Jonathan Dayton held in his hands a balance of Dols. 8,611 60 from the 3d March 1797, to the month of July following, and then he held in his hands the small balance of Dols. 90,917 52 from the month of July, 1799, to the 22d January, 1800, and so far as his accounts are settled at the Treasury Department, he appears still to hold in his hands the sum of Dols. 18,142 and 52 cents.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The very affectionate reception and respectable addresses which have everywhere met our venerable and vigilant President on his tour to and from Washington has greatly encreased the malignity and chagrin of the Jacobins, in consequence of which Duane has furnished a double stock of lies from his chaldron of this morning.
THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BALTIMORE, June 15. His excellency John Adams, president of the United States, arrived in town yesterday … It is regretted that business of an urgent nature required his departure so early as to induce him to decline the civilities and honors intended him by our citizens.
Yesterday departed from their political existence, the military corps called M’Pherson’s Blues—wishing not to disturb the ashes of the defunct, we wish the regenerated citizens a more peaceful and useful, durable and happy, progress thro’ the vale of life than they have experienced as soldiers.
There are two public officers in Boston who hold the handsome sum of 300,000 dollars of the public money—and one of them is a bankrupt! O rare friends of regular government!
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
More Jacobin and United Irish Arithmetic.
Duane in accounting for his nine unaccountable buckram millions, goes on thus: June 17. Timo[thy] Pickering to pocketing– 8,000,000. [June] 18. Sharp Delaney, to d[itt]o 86,000 Jonathan Dayton 320,000 [June] 19. Another Collector, 117,000 Mr. Winder, a Clerk 2,500,000 Sundry accounts in former papers 5,000,000 [Total] 16,023,000 … Query, for Jasper—how many times 16 in nine !
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The attempt in [Caleb] Wayne’s paper to disguise a vast scene of wickedness is more truly characteristic of the anglo faction than any thing we have lately seen …
Queries addressed to … Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the treasury of the United States … Why, since the month of July 1799, when you settled Jonathan Dayton’s account at the treasury, and he acknowledged a balance of 18,142 dollars and 52 cents, have you permitted that sum of the public money to remain in his hands until this day ? … [Mr. Dayton] has lately purchased 24,000 acres of land …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
By recent accounts from Virginia, the good people of that state begin to be alarmed at the late daring attempts of the Foreign Jacobins resident among us to destroy our Government; Callender is already punished by them, and they expect Pennsylvania will pay the same attention to his accomplice here …
Duane seems at last justly convicted, fully aware of his own base and contemptible situation in life, when he presumes that but one Federalist could be found to notice his innumerable absurd falsehoods, but true as this may be in general, the wretch has taken such high ground of late, in his charges against many of our most upright public officers for vast mal appropriations of the public monies, that we trust he will soon find to his cost that there will be sufficient notice taken of him by all parties. In any other country, such conduct would tend much to his final elevation; how it will end here will depend on the steps to be taken by those whom he has so basely attempted to injure …
MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We have the satisfaction to state that the president has attended to the accounts which we have published and that he has thought it his duty to go in person to the office of the treasury and direct enquiries to be made and statements to be made out of various accounts. Among others we learn that Mr. Pickering’s have been particularly attended to …
The President, we understand, arrived on Thursday afternoon at 4 o’clock P.M. at Mrs. White’s [boarding house] without any noise or the usual parade, and on Friday forenoon walked several squares of the city.
We further understand that he bowed very condescendingly to certain high flyers who passed him during his promenade and stopped for near ten minutes with a lady of RANK to whom he told of his “hair breadth escapes in the imminent deadly ruts” … We are very sorry that he did not meet with better roads and … had any harsh words with the commissioners or bricklayers of the city of Washington …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
We are surprized to find the assertion in the Aurora that the late Secretary of State [Pickering] has drawn 300,000 dollars … should have made some impression on the public mind; after similar falsehoods respecting the late President Washington and Secretary Hamilton have been proved by official documents. So low is the credit of that paper in Philadelphia that assertions of this sort scarcely become subjects of conversation. COM. ADV.
TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO JOHN ADAMS,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Sir, The public feel a sensible interest in the part you have taken upon your return to this city in causing an enquiry to be made into certain public accounts. They are pleased to see the bustle, assiduity, and early attendance of Mr. Wolcott at five o’clock every morning at the old treasury office … At the same time, the public would like to know how it has happened … A YORKER
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
I am compelled by the considerations and justice … to declare the recent publications in the Aurora respecting pecuniary transactions … unfounded.
The accounts of the [State] Department, while it was conducted by Colonel Pickering, have been exhibited at the Treasury, and it is expected that they will be finally settled soon after the Offices are opened in Washington …
The balances to which the publications in the Aurora refer are the aggregate amounts of sums which have been remitted to public agents …
OLIVER WOLCOTT Treasury …
The PRESIDENT of the United States left this city yesterday morning and proceeded on his journey to Massachusetts.
The public will be less surprized at the great increase of lies in the Aurora when they are told the following fact—are you not going too far ? said a more timid Jacobin to Duane.—too far, no,—replied Jasper, there are already so many prosecutions [against me] intended that I must be made a Bankrupt and take the benefit of the Act; therefore, all the new lies I publish for Electioneering or other party purposes are clear gain.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Oliver Wolcott furnishes the confession … that “the balances to which the Aurora refer are the aggregate amounts of sums which have been remitted to ministers” &c. Then it appears that the Aurora has not asserted unfounded facts—but absolutely real and acknowledged transactions. But more, Mr. Wolcott … acknowledges that they have not been yet settled …
TO THE EDITOR … Mr. Wolcott assures that … they will be “finally settled soon after the offices are opened at Washington!” Whenever they shall be finally settled, the public will be in no small degree indebted for that event to the AURORA. A CITIZEN
DEATH
It is a cause of real joy to the sincere friends of our country that on THIS DAY, the Act of Congress “CONCERNING ALIENS” expires and ceases longer to disgrace the American code of laws. As a part of that system of terror which was artfully created for political purposes by a “WOULD BE” governing faction … [W]hile the remembrance of Mr. Adams’ administration shall continue in the American mind, this act will contribute its full share to perpetuate a merited sentence of condemnation on the policy and justice of that administration.
By allowing the President to banish any would-be citizen—without a hearing—on the claim that the President “suspected” misbehavior, the “Alien Friends” Act gave the President a weapon of intimidation to silence many opposers of his administration. That law’s two-year term has ended. It won’t be renewed!
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[W]e must postpone … Jonathan Dayton’s exposition of himself until Monday next.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Duane, defeated in his other calumnies, now charges the Public Officers with receiving commissions on the subordinate agencies under the auditorship or direction of the principal heads of departments. Although it is scarcely necessary to follow this villain any further, we once more assert from authority that nothing can be further from the truth.
If any thing … could enforce the necessity of an Alien Law, it would be the exultation of Duane at its death.
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
If the assertions by Mr. Wolcott are intended to exonerate Mr. Pickering from the charges that [were] produced against him in the Aurora, it was certainly necessary that something more than vague and unintelligible assertions should have been exhibited.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
ORIGINAL LETTER FROM DR. FRANKLIN
(The following is an original … [D]iscern at once the germ of deism, the embryo of rancour against church establishments, the feverish symptoms of a malcontent; and those daring doctrines “at which both the priest and philosopher may tremble.”)
Philad. June 6th, 1753.
SIR, … “The faith you mention has doubtless its use in the world … But I wish it were more productive of good works than I have generally seen it; I mean real good works; works of kindness, charity, mercy and public spirit; not holiday keeping, sermon reading or hearing, performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men and much less capable of pleasing the Deity …”
B. FRANKLIN
Tonight, I emulate Dr. Franklin’s liberality and Benny Bache’s adoration. In a relatively private ceremony, I, a Roman Catholic, marry a courageous non-Catholic whom Jack Fenno calls “lusty”1990 and “lovely,”1991 Peter Porcupine calls “luscious,”1992 and Benny’s children call “mother.” The former Peggy Bache becomes Peggy Duane, and I become husband to Benny’s widow, stepfather to Benny’s children, and so stepfather to Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s greatgrandchildren. I am now, as nearly as I will ever be, a Bache and a Franklin!
MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MARRIED—On Saturday evening 28th. inst. by the Rev. Bishop White, Mr. WILLIAM DUANE to MRS. MARGARET HARTMAN BACHE.
To the Editor of the Aurora.
[Y]ou have in your paper of the 18th inst. ventured to impose upon the public a false statement of facts in relation to my accounts as speaker of the house of representatives … [Y]ou can never forgive [me] for having firmly discharged my duty … against you personally …
The books of the Treasury will establish beyond all doubt the truth of … my assertion, and the falsehood of yours … I must be allowed to add that your paper has become so notorious and indeed proverbial for its slanders and its falsehoods that if it had been certain that those printers who might think proper to republish your misrepresentations would have at the same time quoted their authority, I should not have thought it necessary to … answer, convinced that … it would be sufficient only to make known that it originated in “the Aurora.”
JONA: DAYTON
[NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.] We have not had it in our power to publish any information through the medium of the [Newark] Centinel which excited more General consternation and alarm than that copied from the Aurora this day and which tends to expose the abusive system practiced on our public funds …
NEWARK CENTINEL.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A FACT
From the Aurora !
Married on Saturday evening the 28th inst. by the Right Rev. Doctor White, William Duane, to Mrs. Margaret Hartman Bache, of this city!!!!!!!!!!!
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Some there are who affect to disbelieve Duane’s statement of official peculation and fraud—to such the following queries are addressed: If the statements were false, would he have published them at a time when the President and Mr. Wolcott were both in the city and could detect, expose, and punish instantly any false accusation ? Would he have not waited till the President had gone to Quincy and the Secretary to Washington? …
If they were false, would he have dared in contempt and defiance of the Sedition law to give them to the public as facts? … Mirror.
[NEW YORK] The President of the United States has passed by this city, and no parade has been made upon the occasion … N. Y. Paper.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Since the late auspicious nuptials of a happy Editor, his paper has been observed to be more than usually spiritless and vapid. A grave philosopher of my acquaintance supposes that those animal spirits which used to slash in petulance, aflame in anger, are now flowing in a new channel!
On the report of a marriage between lovely Peggy and a noted Jacobin.
Should B[ache] with Jasper clank the wedlock fetter,
O let her not her stars too sorely curse.
As there’s no hope that he will ere be better,
So there’s no fear he ever can be worse.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A NEW POLITICAL CRISS-CROSS,
For children six feet high, and upwards.
The Treasury—This is the house that Jack built.
3,000,000—This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
Tim. Pickering—This is the rat that eat the malt that laid in the house that Jack built.
Billy Duane— This is the CAT that catch’d the rat, that eat the malt, that laid in the house, that Jack built.
Sedition Law—This is the dog that snarl’d at the CAT, that catch’d the rat …
Judge Chase—This is the cow with the crumpled horn, that CHASED the dog that snarl’d at the cat, …
Mr. Adams— This is the maiden all forlorn, that FED the cow with the crumpled horn, that chased the dog, that snarled at the cat, that catch’d the rate, that eat the malt in the house that Jack built …
Baltimore Am.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Duane … is sketching a political print to be called “The Libeller Convicted, or an inside view of a Prison.”
THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Wolcott … says that “tis expected Mr. Pickering’s accounts WILL BE finally settled SOON AFTER the offices are opened at Washington.” … The question then will arise … of our sweet scented friend Brigadier General Thunder … Either the officers of the treasury must be right and Jonathan Dayton wrong. Or Jonathan Dayton right, and the treasury wrong … Did the Secretary of the Treasury know the transaction ?
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
To a Friend hurt by the notice of Duane.
You seem surprised that Jasper fly,
On you his filthy slime has scatter’d;
When a full mud cart passes by
Tis odds, my friend, that you’re bespatter’d.
FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE DEVIL TO PAY AT WASHINGTON.
Oliver Wolcott has commenced a court of Inquisition at Washington, all the clerks in the treasury offices have been interrogated by the Grand Inquisitor of Connecticut, in order to discover the men, women, and children who let the Editor of the Aurora into the secrets of public delinquents—trunks have been broken open to seek for letters, &c. &c. but alas—all has ended in confusion worse confounded; the game is up, and there is no possibility of discovering who started it, but at the Aurora Office.
This day being the anniversary of American independence, the citizens engaged in the publication of the Aurora will have to suspend their labours for the day and join in the general festival—the next number of this paper, therefore, will appear on Monday morning next.
MONDAY, JULY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENCE …
The following are among the [16] toasts … By the Rifle company, commanded by Captain Huff, assembled at the House of Thomas Khrum … 11. The memory of Benjamin Franklin Bache, who devoted his abilities to the service of his country—May they in return bear him in grateful remembrance—9 cheers. 12. The successor of Benj. Franklin Bache, Capt. Wm. Duane—6 cheers … TOASTS OF THE REPUBLICAN GREENS. At the middle Ferry, Schuylkill … 3. Franklin—The American patriarch of liberty and philosophy … 11. The memory of Benjamin Franklin Bache—a virtuous man in wicked times. VOLUNTEERS. The cat that caught the rat, that eat the malt that lay in the house that Jack built … On Friday the 4th inst., the officers of the 24th regiment of the Pennsylvania militia … assembled at Gray’s Ferry and Gardens … VOLUNTEERS. “Billy Duane—the cat that catched the rat that eat the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. 1 gun, 3 cheers.”
No news from France. Today, Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott writes Alexander Hamilton:
A great number of public men have heard the Pr. declare that he did not believe that the Fr. Govt. was sincere in making what he called the “overtures” upon which the last mission was founded. Nay more, the Pr. has declared that a Treaty was neither to be expected nor desired … at Trenton last Autumn & … that the Expulsion of the Envoys from France with circumstances of personal indignity would be favourable to the Interests of the UStates. I shall ever believe that the last mission to France was by the Pr. considered … to gain popularity at home by appearing to be desirous of peace …1993
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
To a Captain [Duane] on his hair breadth escapes
from federal hickory.
How kind has Nature unto Jasper been,
Who gave him frowning brows and dauntless mien.
A tongue to swagger, eyes to flash dismay,
And kinder still—gave legs to run away!
TUESDAY, JULY 8. 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
NATIONAL FESTIVITY …
Captain Potts infantry of Frankford and Kessler’s of the Northern Liberties celebrated the Anniversary of the American Independence in a wood on the left of Germantown road … The following are the [15] toasts … 14. The Cat that catch’d the Rat that eat the Malt that lay in the house that Jack built—3 guns, 9 cheers … [A] number of Republicans … assembled on the verdant shores of the Schuylkill … [T]he following toasts … 10. The memory of Dr. Benjamin Franklin—the philosopher and disinterested patriot whose services contributed so greatly to the emancipation of our country and to the establishment of her liberty and independence, the purest gratitude for his services and the sincerest veneration for his memory. 11. The memory of Benjamin Franklin Bache, he who so firmly and inflexibly supported the cause of republicanism, defying the malignant and inveterate prosecution of his political enemies, may his early tomb be honored by the veneration of freemen, and respected and reverenced by our posterity …
VOLUNTEERS.
“Surgo ut Prosim”—May the victorious sheets of the Aurora continue in the disseminating of republican sentiments and in the detecting of public defaulters.
The Editor of the Aurora, William Duane—May his zeal and ardour in the Republican Cause ever merit the warmest acknowledgments of his fellow-citizens.
The persecuted of all nations—America their asylum from their cruel oppressors …
[From the New York Royal Gazette.] Impossible as it may seem, it is a fact that the calumnies which have lately appeared in the Aurora and copied with malignant avidity into the Argus and every Jacobin paper in the United States have obtained a temporary belief, even in our own [New York] Coffee-house. Duane, with unexampled impudence, has, by descending to a detail of falsehoods, put off the fabrications for truth with those who ought to have been above the reach of such infamous artifices.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
OLIVER WOLCOTT VERSUS OLIVER WOLCOTT
At Washington, after a fruitless examination of all the trunks of the Clerks in the Treasury Offices, every Clerk suspected of Democracy was discharged a few days ago. The question therefore arises—What have they been discharged for ? Upon a suspicion of having communicated what has been published in the Aurora.—a plain case.
War … Today, in the French West Indies, the United States Navy captures another French ship. U.S. Navy Lieutenant John Shaw, in command of the twelve-gun, seventy-man schooner Enterprize, writes:
I fell in with the French privateer L’Aigle of 10 guns and 78 men—she engaged me with much spirit for 15 minutes when she lowered her colours … L’Aigle had [illegible] men killed, 3 wounded..1994
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A number of the Republican citizens of Chester County met on the Banks of the Brandy-wine [Creek] to celebrate the ever memorable 4th of July ‘76 … [16] toasts … 4. The memory of the Patriarch of the American liberties, Dr. Franklin … 15. William Duane, Editor of the Aurora.—May his talents and industry in the cause of republicanism be amply rewarded by his fellow citizens—6 cheers, and 3 volleys.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Jacobins delight in toasting a poor devil of a fugitive, whom they call “The Cat.” Quere, to which of the feline tribe has this same Cat the honour to belong? Is it a Wild Cat, a Bore Cat, or only a Puss in Boots ?
Jasper picks quarrels, when he’s drunk at night,
When sober in the morning, dares not fight;
Jasper, to shun these ills that may ensue,
Drink not at night, or drink at morning too.
Duane, they say, has wit—for what ?
For writing ?—No—for writing not.
MONDAY, JULY 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TOASTS. AT RHINE NECK (N.Y.) … By Judge Hogeboom. The Editor of the Aurora—May his types be a pillory to every rascal whose hands are soiled with public money.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It is a fact obvious to all but Jacobinical eyes that of the immense multitude of toasts which of late have choaked up the columns of the Aurora, more than half are seditious and treasonable or flagrantly immoral and flagitious.
TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PUBLIC MONEY VERSUS PUBLIC LOANS …
Mr. Steele of the treasury declares that [Delaware Loan Commissioner] John Stockton’s account was adjusted for the quarter ending the 21st of March 1800 and that “there remained due to the United States a[n unpaid] balance of 2339 dollars and 29 cents for which he will be debited at a future settlement.” …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Lost last night in a blind alley, a quatern of Gin, well distilled.—Whoever will return the precious liquor to Jasper Traitor, Esq. shall go snacks [share] in boozing!
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO WILLIAM DUANE: RAT CATCHER TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
So! You have got a title and no doubt a patent for it!—You!—Who have been abusing nearly half the nation for partiality to the manners and Customs of Great Britain … I wish I could congratulate you on this occasion; but … the King’s rat catcher never sets a trap for a large one, an old one, or a fat one … AN OLD RAT-CATCHER
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Duane was once a Jew Cloathsman in London, from which corrupt place and from which occupation his integrity expelled him, somewhere about the year 1789, when he fled to India. He passed in London under the name of Jew AINE.
THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
President Adams gave as toasts lately at Boston the following: “The proscribed Patriots Hancock and [Samuel] Adams.” But he did not give the great orb round which he moved as a satellite—Benjamin Franklin.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
To The Editor of the Gazette of the United States.
SIR, Being informed by a friend and countryman of mine (an Irish Gentleman) that there was an advertisement … a few days ago, offering a reward to any one who should return a noggin of Gin to Jasper Dwight Esq. Traytor; and conceiving … we were seen in company together late one evening at a certain public house which we are in the habit of frequenting, this is to inform you … the liquor was clubbed and fairly drunk between us.
THE LEARNED PIG
FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TOASTS ON THE FOURTH OF JULY AT NEW YORK … The founders of American freedom—9 cheers … William Duane and all the republican editors of the United States … AT STANFORD (NEW YORK) … William Duane—May he continue to scrutinize the federal accounts—And may the Aurora, aided by the Sun of Liberty, illumine our political horizon and enable the people to discover how many millions constitute the modern balance of power … AT CAROLINE (MARYLAND) … William Duane—May his efforts in the cause of liberty be crowned with success, and may they meet with (as they merit) the gratitude of his country. 3 cheers … HARRISBURGH (PENN.) … The memory of Benjamin Franklin—where Liberty dwells, there is my country. 3 cheers … The Aurora—its former and present editors, prosperity will do justice to their exertions in the cause of Liberty.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
During the lethargy which had so long oppressed the public mind of America, it was almost treason to use the name of Dr. Franklin. The hatred which Mr. Adams has always manifested toward that great man and the hatred which the British have uniformly declared might well account for so extraordinary an event—people, however, again begin to dare and think and speak of Dr. Franklin, his name once more scintillates around the joyous horizon on the national festival—this is to be accounted for in the change of public opinion as it relates to Mr. Adams and the British …
War … Today, off Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, the United States Navy’s twelve-gun, seventy-man ship Enterprize, under Navy Lieutenant John Shaw, fires on the French privateer Le Flambeau. A report:
She mounted 10 guns, had 110 men, fought 50 minutes, and had 37 men killed and wounded. The Enterprize had only 2 men slightly wounded. This prize is valuable from the quantity of plunder she had on board …1995
THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Cooper is in prison. Holt is in prison. Callender is in prison. Duane has ten or a dozen suits against him for speaking the truth. Certain proofs that these writers criticized too severely—in the opinion of their oppressors.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
An English gentleman, fatigued with the dark innuendo and involved Irishism of the Aurora, remarked that the title of that paper is a misnomer and that it ought to be called, The Midnight.
FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, STATE OF NEW JERSEY … [20] toasts … By James Lee. The memory of the last, and success to the present Editor of that enlightening paper, the Aurora …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
WHEN your correspondent remarked on the title of the paper conducted by [William Duane] the foreign assassin of General Washington’s fame, he was not apprized of the following fact in the life of the Ginguzzling Jasper [Dwight]—a fact which gives considerable congruity to the title of “Aurora” as relative to its worthy Editor.
This Gentleman, it seems, was a Peep-o’day Boy [Protestant insurgent] in Ireland, and for some of his feats in that character was furnished with a passage at the King of Great-Britain’s expence to a colony in the southern Ocean, whence, while under the care of a Jailer, he contrived an escape to the United States, where he struts a captain and shines a moralist. Such is the vagrant who, under the auspices of the Mammoth faction, has assumed the instruction of the people of the United States in politics and morality!
SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PARIS, JUNE 1. We are assured that the negociations with the ministers of the United States of America are advancing rapidly to an amicable conclusion. The Publiciste of the 27th April, announces, that “on the 30th precisely at 10 o’clock, was to be celebrated, in their temple of victory, A FETE in memory of one of the benefactors of humanity, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.”
TUESDAY, JULY 29, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[W]e judge it fit to answer … what it is to which [Jonathan] Dayton alludes in his letter wherein he charges the Editor of being actuated by personal motives … At the period when Jonathan was carrying on … speculation … the Editor reported the Debates in Congress … Wm. Smith [Federalist] of S. Carolina … directed a mean and threatening letter to the Editor, desiring that the speech of Smith should be altered … The Editor peremptorily refused to alter it from what had been actually spoken … This letter Mr. Smith laid before Mr. Dayton [who] … took upon him to interdict the Editor from taking notes in short-hand thenceforward in Congress … Dayton, soon after having established the precedent, interdicted the late Editor of the Aurora also … It is not necessary to notice how Congressional proceedings have gone to the public ever since. The faction have derived this advantage from it: having none but men who are either afraid to publish what is done or who do not discern the importance … They write speeches which they never spoke …
War … Today, off the coast of Cuba, the twenty-four-gun, 220-man U.S. Navy ship Ganges, under Lieutenant John Mullowny, fires on and captures a French cruiser. Mullowny writes the Secretary of the Navy:
I mentioned having a French cruiser confined in the harbor of Mantanzes; he came out on the morning of the 27th inst. At 3 P.M. he was descried from the mast head, when I gave chace to him; at seven in the evening … I was about half a mile from him, I fired some shot … which did some damage to the vessel and wounded three men after which he hauled his wind and run ashore, where all the crew left her. I have the schooner with me, her name is the La Fortune, of six 6 pounders and seventy men …1996
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TOASTS [ON THE 4TH OF JULY]. MIFFLIN-TOWN [PENN.] … [16] toasts … 10. The Aurora and its Editor—The terror of tories, traitors, and aristocrats; and the watchtower of our constitution … NEW-TOWN, (PENN.) … at James Thomas’s Tavern … [16] Toasts … 13. The Memory of Benj. F. Bache, 3 guns. 5 cheers. 14. Capt. Duane, the Editor of the Aurora. “Who will neither be purchased, cajoled, intimidated, nor beat into compliance with the views of designing and despotic men.” 7 guns. 7 cheers …
Tonight, I attend a dinner in my honor at the city of New York.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
By a gentleman direct from Norfolk, we are told that the Yellow Fever is raging with considerable violence …
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[U]nder the administration of so good and honest a man as Mr. Jefferson, men of every faith and clime will be happy. His whole life and all his writings prove that he is no bigot … He never canted about religion to gain popularity … He [is not] … proclaiming fasts in which the people have been excited to hate each other and an opportunity been employed to sound the alarm of war, and hue and cry against republicanism. He [is not] … playing with their credulity, superstition or fanaticism to exalt himself … Had President Adams attended less to fasting and more to the public accounts, religion and government would have been better obeyed and more respected. The paths of true piety want no political direction, and if any body of Christians revere their religion or respect their rights, they ought to guard against the insiduous arts of bigotry and hypocrisy …
This afternoon, I return from New York to Philadelphia.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
President Adams [was on July 4th] at the Old South meeting house in Boston, with the school committee, and an old tory Episcopal clergyman—hear Americans and be astonished! The Old South meeting house was made a riding-school by the British during the siege of Boston … An union of old Whig and old Tories, of church and state—of crowns and mitres …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Mr. Adams … has suffered more foul reproaches than the depraved inhabitants of Billingsgate [a London fish market] … As long as General Washington was at the head of government, he was the object … When he retired to humble life, on the very day on which that afflicting event took place, the audacious wretch who superintended the vilest newspaper that ever disgraced a free country—the Aurora, proclaimed the day as a Jubilee, a day of thanksgiving … The democrats know that they shall finally wear out the friends of government; that, one after another, they will retire from the storm which beats upon every head, and leave the constitutional barque afloat in that “tempestuous sea of liberty” which Mr. Jefferson and his party so much admire.
BURLEIGH
The New York Gazette mentions that an entertainment had been given at Louvet’s [H]otel to William Duane, Editor of the Aurora! It is concluded, with sufficient reason, that the party, originally composed of fools, subsequently consisted of drunkards; that treasonable sentiments were uttered, blasphemous toasts given, and smutty songs encored.
It is no bad specimen of the taste of a lusty young widow that she selected, for her camarade, the captain of cock-neck’d troop.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[R]eligious and civil liberty is the inherent and inalienable right of all mankind, constituting the only basis and real foundation of human happiness …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
If we have the good luck to make a firm, lasting, and honorable peace with regicides, Duane will be appointed by apostate Talleyrand as chief cook and bottle-washer to the gang. Frenchmen will then overwhelm us …
NOVA-SCOTIA. HALIFAX. June 20. Mr. WILLIAM COBBETT has arrived here from New-York. This gentleman has disclosed such nefarious practices and horrid cruelties of the French Directory as will forever remain lasting testimonials of his resources and integrity; and his steady support of the Federal Government [in the United States] does him equal honor; and it is much to be regretted that the virulence of the Democratic Faction has constrained him to leave that boasted Land of Liberty which, if we judge from present appearances, will soon become a melancholy scene of anarchy, disorder, and civil dissentions.
NEW YORK, July 31. The public have been led to believe from the late change in the election of our State Representatives that the majority of the citizens approve of all the lies published in the Aurora. But, when we perceive how little attention is paid to the Editor of this paper, we need not be at a loss to know the sentiments of even the Democrats of this city with respect to this foreign renegado. Last evening, there was a supper given to the Aurora-man, and we learn that out of nearly 300 who were invited, not more than 25 attended on this occasion—and who were they?
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 1800
Today, in New York, Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton writes Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott:
You have doubtless seen The Aurora publication of Treasury Documents in which my name is connected … I have thought of instituting an action of slander to be tried by a struck jury against the Editor … What do you think of this ? You see I am in a very belligerent humour.1997
MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In [Federalist] Noah Webster’s Commercial Advertiser of New York, there appeared the following article: …
“ … Last evening, there was a supper given to the Aurora-man, and we learn that out of nearly 300 who were invited, not more than 25 attended on this occasion—and who were they?”
Having noticed the above, we shall notice the toasts … The Editor’s duty here [at the paper] required a short absence—unable to accept one out of every hundred of the invitations he had from the most respectable and venerable characters of that city, it was suggested that an entertainment be given by a select party—it was accordingly given. The Editor left that city on Thursday afternoon; the following is copied from the American Citizen:
“On Wednesday evening, a number of republican citizens gave an entertainment at Lovett’s hotel to William Duane, Editor of the Aurora, when the following toasts (interspersed with patriotic and social songs) were drank:
1. The people of the United States … 2. The Constitution … 3. The President, a speedy and honorable retirement from the cares of office … 6. The memory of Benjamin Franklin … 7. The Press … 10. The comptroller and auditor of the federal accounts … 14. Public opinion—The terror of wicked magistrates and the high court of appeal among free nations. 15. The Sedition Law—May the American people never place men in office whose character and conduct may require such a shield. 16. The memory of the Alien Law—May we remember it as … a conspiracy … to exclude from our shores the persecuted friends of liberty. 17. May all peculators experience the disgrace of Timothy Pickering, Jonathan Dayton, and Co.
VOLUNTEERS
By William Duane—The state of New York—May the example which she has given … be emulated and imitated in her sister states.
AFTER MR. DUANE RETIRED
William Duane—The firm and enlightened Editor of the Aurora; virtuous and undaunted in the worst of times, the friend of his country, and the scourge of her enemies.
[Federalist] Noah Webster says that, in order to give republicanism a permanent existence, the poorer class of people should be excluded from elections … If excluding a portion of the people from elections constitute the only durable basis of republicanism, then we might truly say that republicanism may mean any thing.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Many of the retainers of the Aurora Office have a very forlorn and disconsolate air. Of some the creditors are importunate, and, to others perhaps the churlish laundress has not returned the only shirt they have in the world. Alas, poor Devils, your lot is a hard one … [F]or your immediate employer, Cash must be a stranger to him, for democratic subscribers never pay and Gin is excised!
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Philadelphians have commenced their election operations—the republicans have published their tickets for candidates …
Tonight, the Gazette of the United States mocks a Republican meeting and a Philadelphian Jew, Benjamin Nones:1998
SIR, Actuated by motives of curiosity, I attended the meeting of Jacobins on Wednesday evening last at the State-house … I will endeaver to recount …
Cit F—–r. I move—hic—the readings of this here meeting be printed in the Aurora— hic—and that a suitable address be printed above it. (Carried.)
Several: adjourn, adjourn …
Cit. B—–r. Citizens before we sojourn, I will remark that I know Republicans are always pretty much harrassed for the rhino [cash], but I must detrude upon your generosity tonight by axing you launch out some of the ready for the citizen who provides for the room. I know Democrats haven’t many English Guineas amongst them but I hope they have some … and if they will j[u]st throw them into my hat as they go along, I shall be definitely obliged to them …
Citizen N[ones](the Jew.) I hopsh you will consider dat de monish ish very scarch, and besides you know Ish just come out by de Insholvent Law.
Several. Oh yes, let N[ones] pass …
AN OBSERVER
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
British influence and tory ascendancy were compared a few evenings since by a lady to,
“The closing watch of night,
Dying at the approach of light.”
Today, U.S. Senator William Bingham (Federalist, Pennsylvania) writes America’s Minister to Great Britain, Federalist Rufus Ring:
After many tedious preparatory Steps … [the Senate] at length issued their Warrant & Duane absconded. Very little Exertion was made to discover & arrest him. He appeared publicly immediately after the Session & and assumed great Consequence from his sufferings as a persecuted Patriot & Martyr to the Liberty of the Press. He elevated himself into such Notice as to be repeatedly toasted at the democratic Feasts on the 4th July. As the sedition Law contemplated this offense & attaches a Penalty to it, I thought it would have been more expedient to have sent him to the Courts …1999
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Aurora has looked very cloudy for some days. It resembles a farthing candle more than a beautiful morning. It sheds no light, and its heat, like that of the season, is dull and malignant. Of this paper, the downfall is at hand.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO MR. WILLIAM DUANE … Like many other moderate men … I have been deterred by the cry of “Jacobin,” &c. from enquiring whether “THE AURORA” rested on the broad basis of truth, upon which I now perceive it to stand … and herewith transmit the amount of subscription for one year [eight dollars].
FERDINANDO FAIRFAX,
Shannon-hill, Berkley (Vir.)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Gazette of the United States augurs the speedy downfall of “The Aurora.” The augury is but the echo of the wish … [So t]hat master Wayne should not want data to proceed, we shall give him a few of the symptoms of the approaching fall of the Aurora. NEW SUBSCRIBERS. In May 1800, 124. In June, 138. In July, 56. In August, up to the 8th, 15. [Total] 333. We only recommend to Mr. Wayne to compare this new accession with the whole subscription to the Gaz. of U.S. and let the public know the difference between the sums total.
The annexed letter was received thro’ the Post-Office yesterday. The Editor has received many such for some time past … Things at the Aurora Office are not as they have been; visitors of the above description would be sure to meet a very warm reception …
“Mr. DUANE, Be upon your guard—against the machinations of newly imported English agents, for I have heard three of them swear that your House would soon be burnt down, and yourself in it. Take this hint from one who gives it of humanity only. AMERICANUS.”
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A stupid Virginia Negro driver who dates from Shannon Hill (Berkley) has undertaken to write a letter to Duane, enclosing the price of a year’s subscription for the Country Aurora and telling him that he has “been deterred by the cry of Jacobin &c. from enquiring whether ‘the Aurora’ rested on the broad basis of truth.”
Anybody who reads this must burst into a broad laugh, and yet this Sir Ferdinando Fairfax—this knight of the woeful phiz [face]—no doubt concluded he was paying a very high compliment to the man he was addressing by insinuating that until lately he had supposed the newspaper published a pack of lies … Well, Duane takes it as a high compliment … and publishes the letter, forsooth.—This is the very first instance in which Duane ever undertook to puff himself off his own Newspaper—How so? Why he never published a single batch of 4th of July toasts, wherein “Billy Duane” was drank, for one—in the shape of himself, of a Cat or of a Rat Catcher, or some other useful beast—No ! No ! He was too modest—He never said a word about the New York feasting where he dined without about a dozen of his peers—whether Cats or Rats, no matter which, and where, “after Mr. Duane retired”—“William Duane” was toasted—No No—He was too modest!!!
MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[W]hen the constitution of the United States was formed, it was an object of the most particular care to keep the power of declaring war out of the hands of one man … [T]he people chose to keep the power of declaring war from the President, and they gave it to the Congress alone. The personal conduct of Mr. Adams, under these circumstances, merits the serious attention of the people. In a reply of his to the young men of Boston (who were full enough before, no doubt, of war and heat) Mr. Adams openly and ardently exhorts them to fly to arms.—“To arms, my young friends, to arms, especially on the ocean” are his words, as it is remembered. Congress had not then, nor have they since, declared war.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A HONEY MOON PARODY,
BY THE EDITOR OF THE AURORA
“Friend and Pitcher.”
The wealthy Feds with gold in store
Will still desire to grow richer:
Give me but these, I ask no more,
My Franklin Bride, my Lloyd, and pitcher.
My Lloyd so bare, my wife so fair
With such what Paddy can be richer,
Give me but these, a fig for care,
With my sweet bride, my Lloyd and pitcher.
In dirtiest job I’d never grieve
To toil, a Democratic ditcher,
If, that when I return at eve,
I might enjoy my bride and pitcher …
Every schoolboy in politics knows that the maintenance of a free Republic … depends upon the proper and judicious distribution of power. It is a principle upon which our ancestors have practiced successfully for many countries, in this country and England. Mr. Jefferson, in the year 1781, was so far an American in his politics and had had so little converse with the Constitution mongers of Paris that he was wholly unadulterated on this subject … Such were the sound opinions of Mr. Jefferson before he went to France.
The early French philosophers Turgot and the Girondists thought differently, and, accordingly, Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jefferson, as soon as they came in contact with them, became wonderfully converted. Hence it was that Mr. Jefferson so openly and strenuously condemned the division of Congress into two branches and professed that liberty could not be secured except by a single legislative assembly—Hence also the loud and vehement denunciations of the Senate by all the tools of faction and in all the venal newspapers in the employment of that faction and of France. Here also Mr. Jefferson’s denunciation of the Federal constitution in his letter to Mazzei where he maliciously and falsely asserts, “that Washington and the British faction … had wished to impose on them the form of the British constitution.” …
DECIUS.
If, in 1787, Ben Franklin had been younger, healthier, and acknowledged as the “Father of His Country” and Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine been available to join Franklin at the Federal Constitutional Convention (Jefferson and Paine were then in France), what structure of government would the nation’s three best-known democrats have led the Convention to accept? Would Jefferson now be complaining, as he does in his letter to Philip Mazzei, that the Federalists try “to draw over us the substance, as they have already done the forms, of the British government …”?2000
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MR. DUANE. I enclose for you an article which I deemed it but justice to my character to present for insertion in the Gazette of the United States in reply to some illiberalities … in that paper of the 5th inst. When I presented it to Mr. Wayne … he informed me he would not publish it … I need not say more … B. NONES
To the Printer of the Gazette of the U.S.
SIR … I am accused of being a Jew, of being a Republican: and of being poor.
I am a Jew. I glory in belonging to that persuasion, which even its opponents, whether Christian or Mohammedan, allow to be of divine origin—of that persuasion of which Christianity itself was originally founded and must ultimately rest—which has preserved its faith secure and undefiled for near three thousand years—whose votaries have never murdered each other in religious wars or cherished the theological hatred so general, so inextinguishable, among those who revile them …
I am a Republican! Thank God … I have not been so proud or prejudiced as to renounce the cause for which I fought as an American throughout the whole of the revolutionary war, in the militia of Charleston and in Polasky’s legion, … in almost every action which took place in Carolina and in the disastrous affair of Savannah … On religious grounds I am a republican. Kingly government was first conceded to … the Jewish people as a punishment and a curse … Great Britain has a king, and her enemies need not wish her the sword, the pestilence, and the famine …
I am a Jew and, if for no other reason, for that reason I am a republican … In the monarchies of Europe, we are hunted from society—stigmatized as unworthy of common civility, thrust out as it were from the converse of men; objects of mockery and insult … Among the nations of Europe, we are … citizens nowhere unless in Republics. [I]n France and in the Batavian Republic [the new French-controlled Netherlands republic] alone are we treated as men. In republics we have rights; in monarchies we live but to experience wrongs …
How then can a Jew but be a Republican? in America particularly. Unfeeling and ungrateful would he be, if he were callous to the glorious and benevolent cause of the difference between his situation in this land of freedom and among the proud and privileged law givers of Europe.
But I am poor, I am so, my family also is large, but soberly and decently brought up. They have not been taught to revile a Christian, because his religion is not so old as theirs. They have not been taught to mock … I know that to purse-proud aristocracy, poverty is a crime, but it may sometimes be accompanied with honesty, even in a Jew …
I was discharged by the insolvent act because, having the amount of my debt owing me from the French Republic, the differences between France and America have prevented the recovery of what was due to me in time to discharge my creditors. Hitherto it has been the fault of the political situation of the two countries that my creditors have not been paid; when peace shall enable me to receive what I am entitled to, it will be my fault if they are not finally paid …
This is a long defence, Mr. Wayne … The Public will now judge who is the proper object of ridicule and contempt, your facetious reporter or
Your Humble Servant,
BENJAMIN NONES.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Mr. Nones has sent a long essay to the Editor of the Aurora … He has chosen a proper vehicle for the insertion of his defence, as he calls it … [S]uch silly stuff …
A Decision for Duane.
Will’s head and his purse had a quarrel of late;
He with both came to me to decide the debate
Not great was the diff’rence—Indeed this was it—
Has my purse the most cash or my head the most wit?
I know not, cry’d I, which at present is worst,
But surely your head had the vacuum first.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The harvest calling for the timely attention of the farmer, the republican farmers and others of Chester county postponed the celebration of the 4th of July to the 1st of August, on which day the most numerous assembly of citizens that ever was seen in this county met … [D]inner being over, the following [sixteen] toasts were given … 16. The Aurora. May it never cease to shine, until the heat of its rays shall have scorched the roots of every aristocratic tree and twig in the United States. 6 cheers, 1 gun.
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes Jeremiah Moor,
[T]he right of electing & being elected … When the constitution of Virginia was formed, I was in attendance at Congress. Had I been here [in Virginia], I should probably have proposed a general suffrage … Still I find very honest men who, thinking the possession of some property necessary to give due independence of mind, are for restraining the elective franchise to property … I [however] believe we may lessen the danger of buying and selling votes by making the number of voters too great for any means of purchase. I may further say that I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches …2001
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE REPUBLICANS OF THE COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA. Fellow-citizens … In this boasted land of liberty, we behold citizens immured in prisons … for exercising the faculties of their minds and questioning the measures of a public servant! We have seen citizens, fathers of families, treated like ruffians by the military under federal authority … [W]e have seen the people of Pennsylvania rob’d of an essential right, the right to vote in the college of electors … We have beheld the most daring attempts to plunge us into war for party purposes … [W]e have seen the principles of monarchy openly avowed … republican government and the sovereignty of the people derided, and liberty and equality held up to scorn … and to cap the climax of aggression, we have beheld an attempt made to supersede the Constitution by a law of the Legislature by which the most estimable right of the people was to be transferred to a … secret committee organized by intrigue and acting without responsibility … To your posts then on the day of election—encounter your enemy with constitutional weapons … unite in a common cause— act as becomes freemen—and liberty and happiness will be your reward.
By order of the [Philadelphia Republican] Committee,
ISAAC WORRELL, Chairman
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The following note was received on Saturday by the Editor from his lawyer, and is given merely to shew how things GO ON in the STATE COURTS …
TO Mr. WILLIAM DUANE.
SIR, The following actions are marked for trial.—For trial 28 Aug.—Respublica vs. Duane, … Fisher vs. Duane, Keppele vs. Duane, Stevens vs. Duane.—1 Sept. Meirken vs. Duane
There is in New England a last legal right in the ministers of the Congregational Church to which Mr. Adams … belong[s] to exact from the members of all other Religious Societies within their congregational limits a contribution or Church tax to support them. These ministers have it in their power to seize the milk cows, working oxen, horses, and other property of a Baptist, a Mennonist, a Presbyterian, a Quaker, an Episcopalian, a Roman Catholic, a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Methodist, &c. to pay the Church Dues and to support them … President Adams … [has] not … come forward and exerted [his] abilities and influence to do away [with] so unwarrantable a law … The Congregational Church is spread over all five New England states …
It may be asked what Mr. Adams and the other New Englandmen in the general government have to do … The ready answer is, let them do as Mr. Jefferson did, in 1776, immediately on the commencement of the American revolution. Virginia then had an established church that had such exclusive rights. Mr. Jefferson (though of that established church) introduced and carried a bill in the legislature by which all religious societies were made equal to and independent of each other.
In 1792, republicans in France dethroned King Louis XVI and disestablished the Catholic Church (France’s First Estate). In 1798, republicans in Ireland sought to expel Britain’s King George III and disestablish the Church of England. In 1800, Republicans in the United States want to unseat “His Rotundity” and disestablish the Congregational Church!
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A great part of the abuse of the Administrators of the Federal Government issues from jail-birds—From Cooper, through the sewer of the Aurora; and from Callender, who dates his productions from “Richmond gaol.” Such fellows, thus situated, it is true, have prescriptive right to rail at government:
“For all goes wrong in Church and State,
Seen through perspective of the grate.”
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
NEW YORK, August 19. Capt. Gardiner, who arrived here on Saturday … informs that, at the time he left Paris, which was about the 12th of June, the negociations between our commissioners and those of the French republic were going on but somewhat retarded …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THAT arch-politician and sapient news-monger Duane has favoured the public with … intelligence from France concerning the rupture of negociations between our Envoys and the French government … Everyone knows how extremely favorable to France and oppressive to America was the treaty of 1778 made by old Franklin, and nothing could be more likely than that the French commissioners should … insist upon the unqualified renewal of that fatal treaty … and nothing could be more likely than that the American envoys were instructed to consent or to agree to no such disgraceful condition … PLUTARCH
SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 1800
This morning, from his pulpit at Philadelphia’s Christ Church (the “English” church on Second-street), Porcupine’s friend the Episcopal minister James Abercrombie sermonizes about Thomas Jefferson:
Beware—Men, Brethren, and fellow Christians—Beware of ever placing at the Head of Civil Society a man who is not an avowed Christian and an exemplary believer in our Holy Religion which … will be dishonored by such a choice … Can a Blessing from [God] be expected upon the community under such circumstances?—No, verily! but a curse may be justly expected …2002
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
An episcopal clergyman in this City who has injured not only his church but his family by his intimacy and connexion with PORCUPINE has, we understand, re-commenced his career of pulpit politics … This man … on Sunday last in his sermon several times exhorted his hearers to oppose Mr. Jefferson … Profligate men such as Porcupine and Fenno openly advocated a National Church … [H]ow superior is the toleration of our happy country over that of the established churches …
Long John Allen of Connecticut … attributed the change of public opinion on public affairs to the newspapers—Thus he speaketh—“If so much mischief can be produced by one Aurora and its underlings, what would happen provided publications of a similar tendency were scattered throughout the country?” There is much force in what Long John Allen saith, and it is hoped the republicans will attend to it.
A LETTER OF JOHN ADAMS (COPY)
Quincy, May, 1792.
DEAR SIR, … The legislature of Massachusetts last winter, upon a petition of the North Parish in Braintree, separated it from the rest of the town … and gave it the name of Quincy. By this measure, you see, they have deprived me of my title of “Duke of Braintree” … I should have been happy to see [our new British ambassador] Mr. [Thomas] Pinckney before his departure … [O]ur new ambassador has many old friends in England … [which] contributed to limit the duration of my commission [as ambassador to Britain] to three years in order to make way for themselves to succeed me … [K]nowing as I do the long intrigue and suspecting as I do much British influence in the appointment, were I in any executive department, I should take the liberty to keep a vigilant eye upon them …
JOHN ADAMS
This letter of Mr. Adams was written while the venerated general Washington was president and Mr. Adams vice-president … [I]t proves British influence …
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The author of the following interesting document is known to the Editor; several other gentlemen of the first reputation also knows the author …
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON FROM AN
OLD FELLOW SOLDIER. New York, April 25, 1795 …
SIR … Why is it that people already begin to express an uneasy solicitude for your honor? … Have you ever examined the characters by which you are surrounded? … a man … who in the Federal Convention proposed, avowed and advocated a system bearing all the strong marked features of a monarchy … who proposed early in your cabinet questions of doubt on the acknowledgment of the French republic … who invariably applied the influence of the government to shackle the freedom of the press …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THE REV. MR. ABERCROMBIE’S SERMON.
TO THE PUBLIC … [T]he SERMON which I preached on Sunday last in Christ-Church and St. Peter’s … has given rise to the calumnies … As a member of the community, I have a right to express my sentiments on subjects of a political nature, and I WILL express them. As a Christian minister, I not only have a right, but I conceive it my duty …
JAMES ABERCROMBIE
MODESTY OF AN UNITED IRISHMAN.
Duane has long been notorious for modesty. The following is the top of the climax: In this morning’s Aurora, he prefaces a letter to Gen. Washington (which he, in his usual stile, calls a Document) in the following manner—“The author is known to the EDITOR; Several OTHER GENTLEMEN ! (how long since you, citizen Equality, became a gentleman?) of the FIRST REPUTATION!!!!! (Good Luck!) also KNOWS the Author. Quere. Would it not be well for a Gentleman to be a Grammarian?
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE REV. MR. ABERCROMBIE
In your discourse on the last Lord’s Day, you took occasion to introduce political opinions with religious topics—you called Mr. Jefferson a deist and augured the destruction of the country should he be raised to the presidential chair.
I have ever been thought to believe that the duties of the ministry of God’s holy church was to inculcate among other doctrines this sublime maxim, “Peace on earth, and good will among men.” … yet you have endeavored to arm brother against brother, you have prostituted God’s holy word to further the cause of a faction, and under the semblance of Religion, you have inculcated doctrines of which you ought to be ashamed …
[Y]ou are a free man, you are an independent citizen of a free country, you have therefore a privilege of opening your sentiments when and where you please, but, in the name of God, whose gospel you profess, never profane his temple with the mere temporal concerns of this world … [I]ntroduce not the religion of Jesus to further private ends …
VALERIUS
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
POLITICAL …
It is a fact … that the most profligate and malicious and false public newspaper that ever existed in any country and under any government is now … printed in the city of Philadelphia … This paper (since I have begun, I may as well go through with its history) has existed now about ten years altogether … A grandson of Benjamin Franklin (it is almost too notorious to tell) was the Editor of this paper for the space of eight years. This circumstance … will further explain (to such as are strangers to the influence Mr. Franklin possessed in the State of Pennsylvania) the reason why this newspaper, under the superintendance of his grandson, has been able to effect such mischief in opposing, from the beginning, the measures and systems of the federal government—Benjamin Franklin Bache, received the greater part of his juvenile education, under the immediate care and supervision of his Grandfather. He accompanied him to France when Mr. Franklin went over to negotiate the treaty of Alliance between the United States and the French Monarchy and was placed at Passy, near Paris, where his grandfather chiefly resided—here it was that young Benjamin acquired a proficiency in the French language—here he formed that invincible attachment for France and everything that was French, which early habit, united and assisted with his Grandfather’s notorious partiality for and commendation of them, must naturally inspire—He saw his old—fond and amorous Grand Sire in the habit of caressing and being caressed by the seducing females of France, and his youthful blood was doubtless often fired by scenes of tenderness and love, though his infant years were an obstacle to his participation in the full delight they were calculated to confer. After an absence of several years, young Benjamin returned to his native country. He was yet a youth and not entitled to assume the “Toga virilis.” He therefore completed his education …
With these qualifications and little previous apprenticeship to the trade did young Benjamin commence … A set of types and a printing press, which had been bequeathed to him as a legacy by his Grandfather, composed the apparatus with which he began his professional career …
The French Revolution came and it operated like an electric shock upon the Editor … A new day, in short had dawned. This was the proud and natal day of “the Aurora.” We shall mark the course he took, [ere] he sunk into the still slumbers of the silent grave.
MUTIUS SCAEVOLA
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We learn that a pretended pious christian who, on hearing that B. F. Bache was dead, wished that his soul was in hell, burning at that instant—is now advocating Mr. Abercrombie’s political sermon.
Today, from the new federal city of Washington, Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott responds to Alexander Hamilton’s letter of August 3rd:
I have attended to the publications in the Aurora. We may regret but we cannot prevent the mischiefs which these falshoods produce … [W]e may as well attempt to arrest the progress of fire in a mess of gun powder as to suppress these calumnies; they must have their course and the vindication of official characters must be left to an enquiry by Congress … Colo. Pickerings conduct will be found correct; Mr. Dayton’s incorrect …2003
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
POLITICAL …
Bache spoke and translated the French language … He always had the earliest intelligence of … the French Republic … to pass it through his newspaper to the enamored partisans of the Republic here. Civic festivals were continually advertized, and all the Sans Culottes were invited to attend the celebration. The Federal Government, but more especially President Washington, was held up to scorn and ridicule because resistance was made to the fitting out of French privateers in our ports and to the sale of French prizes …
“[T]he Aurora” continued faithful to the [French] republic in every change of her mutable condition. The federal government and all who had any share in the administration were themes of daily reproach, misrepresentation, and slander. The form no less than the manner in which the government was administered were condemned, because they approached to a resemblance of the British constitution, and because the French had adopted and were then practicing upon the model which Monsieur Franklin had always recommended and admired. It is well known that the present [two-chamber legislature, single executive] constitution of the State of Pennsylvania (which in good hands would be the most perfect system of State government in the Union) could never have been ratified in the life time of Mr. Franklin. A single democratic representative assembly was his darling theory. In no other form could the happiness of the people be promoted. Nor could the true dignity of man’s nature be displayed where the doctrine of a chief or control over his passions was an ingredient in the constitution.
From all the preceding detail of facts, some of which are merely historical, I shall draw this inference—That the ghost of Benjamin Franklin still haunts and hovers over the destinies of the federal government, that his apparition will never be allayed … and lastly that the people of this country must make their election between the alternative of abandoning the haunted castle, commonly called the federal constitution, or submit to the impertinent daily visits of a troublesome spectre, commonly called “the Aurora.”
By what strange fatality it has happened, I know not, but this is the fact, that the successor to Benjamin Franklin Bache, as Editor of the Aurora, is a British subject. Yes, Billy Duane, who was sort of an upper workman in the “Aurora office” at the time Benjamin Franklin Bache died, is a British refugee from Bengal or some other British possession in the East Indies, where he superintended and published a newspaper and whence he was suddenly compelled to depart for fear of a prosecution against him for libelling the government. Thus we see that his present occupation is no new thing to him—he was proficient in the trade when he came here …
That such a newspaper should be tolerated in the capital city of the United States is no proof that our laws are more favorable to the liberty of the press than those of other nations. On the contrary, it is proof that our laws are incompetent to restrain or suppress its daring licentiousness; and any one may venture to predict with the utmost certainty the speedy downfall of any government that tolerates such a sapping engine within its jurisdiction … To the shame of my country, be it confessed that the newspaper called “the Aurora” … enjoys more patronage both at home and abroad than any public newspaper in America …
MUTIUS SCAEVOLA
There is no question that “the ghost of Benjamin Franklin still haunts and hovers over the destinies of the federal government.” That friendly ghost, spectacles and all, presides at the Philadelphia Aurora.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Parson Abercrombie and his adherents avow a love of monarchy—they wish for an established church. Monarchy and established churches have ever been favourable to servility and hypocrisy, because the whole influence and power of the throne and the church centered in one, or a few individuals … [T]his in substance comprehends the causes which have arisen from kingly governments and the interests of churches connected with those of States.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
POLITICAL
IT is no difficult thing to account for the celebrity of “the Aurora” when we take into view the following peculiarities which distinguish it from all other newspapers. First, its origin and operation for several years under the superintendence of a grand-son of Benjamin Franklin. Secondly, its publication at Philadelphia, the capital of the United States and hitherto the Seat of Government. Third, that it is the official governmental paper of the French Republic … Fourthly, that the writers of it are chiefly foreign desperados who came or were sent here to write down the government. Fifthly, and lastly, that its present Editor is a British subject. Each of these are powerful operative causes of the success of “the Aurora” at home and abroad …
In the course of this investigation, I have attributed much importance to “the Aurora” in supposing it capable of destroying the federal Government. It is extensively circulated; it is read by all who take it and by many more who do not pay for it. It is the model and the standard for all the underling Jacobin prints throughout the country. It is copied by them. It is the “people’s paper” in the same sense that Mr. Jefferson is “the man of the people.”
It is published in the capital of the State of Pennsylvania where the Governor of the state and almost every state officer are [now] its immediate influential patrons. It is conducted with a diabolical zeal and activity, and it has also this peculiar advantage, that, whether it publishes lies or truth, the assertions are equally credited at a distance and equally assist the democratic cause.
Such is the paper called “the Aurora.”—By exposing it to the American public, “what it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be” so long as it endures, I have not been without a hope that it might be rendered odious in their sight and that some of its mischievous effects might be thereby counteracted … I shall still cherish the hope that there is yet left among us … enough attachment to the federal government and to those who administer it to secure federal majorities at the approaching election; and lastly, enough of religion to reject the creed of atheism and revolution which is daily preached as orthodox by their great High Priest William Duane, the editor of “the Aurora.”
MUTIUS SCAEVOLA.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Toleration in religion, complete and perfect, was not known, except among the Hindus, in any part of the earth before our revolution. In Pennsylvania, a few years before the revolution … even here in this city of brotherhood … Papist was a term of reproach as constant as Democrat or Jacobin in the mouth of good federalists two years ago! … In the state of Virginia before the war, a Quaker on going into that state a third time was liable to the punishment of death ! A Roman Catholic clergyman dared not to go even once within its boundary to exercise even an office of charity!
Our revolution has obliterated these impious institutions. [T]he New England states alone support intolerance. In Virginia, Mr. Jefferson has been the author and mover of those laws which put down the national church there and abolished tythes [taxes on the general population to support the church]. This is a sin for which those who deal in tythes will never forgive him; this is Mr. Jefferson’s crime in their eyes … [T]he Roman Catholics are now building a Church in Norfolk, Virginia … From this happy state of toleration, the furious zealots for the British government would bring us back to our former condition …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Extract of a letter from New England. “I understand from some of the newspapers that Mr. Abercrombie, one of your Episcopal Clergymen … has drawn down the vengeance of all the Jacobins and, among the rest, their redoubtable champion, Duane. Why Mr. Abercrombie should be attacked more than other Clergymen I cannot conceive …”
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FORGERY
A PROP FOR PARSON ABERCROMBIE
In the Philadelphia Gazette of Friday, there appeared a letter of which the following is an exact copy.
“Having heard that there were several objections to Mr. Jefferson for his disbelief in the importance of Christianity, I gave myself little trouble on a subject which, as a follower of Moses and the Old Testament, I had little to do. But since the abuse offered to Mr. Abercrombie, I have examined the merits and find that Mr. Jefferson … by making a belief of twenty Gods or even NO GOD unimportant, has struck at all religion! Therefore, Mr. Abercrombie will be considered in a COMMON CAUSE … [W]e all abhor the very name of an Atheist.
MOSES S. SOLOMONS,
Second Street, Philadelphia”
Upon the first perusal of this article, we perceived its imposture. No person of the Jewish church could object to a man who was the avowed advocate of universal toleration! No Hebrew could be hostile consistently to a man who, in the very introduction to the Declaration of Independence, declared all men equal and implores a Divine Providence. Upon examination, no person of the name of Moses S. Solomons was found in Second Street. Recourse was then had to the Hebrew church in Cherry Alley ! No such person was known there! … The Editor then applied to one of the Hebrew congregation … [T]he following certificate was obtained …
I have been for several years a Parnass (or president) to the Hebrew congregation … [N]o such man as Moses S. Solomon has ever been or is now a member of a Hebrew congregation of this city.
A MEMBER OF THE HEBREW CHURCH …
Such are the means employed by Parson Abercrombie and his gang to prop up their hypocritical profess[ion]s of religion!
Benjamin Nones (whose letter appeared in the August 13th Aurora) provided the certificate.2004
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
That “Gentleman of the first reputation” DUANE, who receives letters “admiring the ability with which L’Aurora is conducted” … has become seriously alarmed at the encreasing circulation of the Gazette of the United States. He attempts to impose a belief on his gaping readers that it has but five hundred subscribers!!! If the Advertisement for a thousand Rheams of paper per year gives him such qualms as lately discovered, we would publish a list of subscribers which should … “shake his gall bladder.”