American Aurora

[JOHN ADAMS] is always an Honest Man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.

JOHN ADAMS [is] the advocate of a kingly government and of a titled nobility to form an upper house and to keep down the swinish multitude … JOHN ADAMS … would deprive you of a voice in chusing your president and senate, and make both hereditary—This champion for kings, ranks, and titles is to be your president…

BENJAMIN F. BACHE, EDITOR,
AURORA GENERAL ADVERTISER, 1790–1798⁶³⁵

Your Great Grandfather [BENJAMIN FRANKLIN] is properly thought the father of American liberty—he it was who formed the American mind and character for more than fifty years to become what America now is, one of the greatest and the only free nation in the world …

WILLIAM DUANE, EDITOR,
AURORA GENERAL ADVERTISER, 1798–1822
(IN A LETTER TO BENJAMIN BACHE’S FIRST-BORN SON)⁶³⁶

I expect soon to see a proposition to name the 18th Century the Franklinian Age, le Siècle Franklinnien … The title of “Founder of the American Empire,” which … the English newspapers give [to Dr. FRANKLIN,] does not most certainly belong to him … [T]here is such a prostitution of all Justice … to accomplish the Apotheosis of Dr. F[RANKLIN] as ought to excite the indignation of every honest man.

As long … as everyone was unanimous about the politics of America, it was not worth dividing the public opinion about a man. But as Mr. Washington has at length become treacherous even to his own fame, what was lent to him as a harmless general must be withdrawn from him as a dangerous politician … It was his country and France which gave him fame in defiance of England; and it will be his country and France which, in defiance of England, will take it away again.

BENJAMIN F. BACHE, EDITOR,
AURORA GENERAL ADVERTISER, 1790–1798⁶³⁸

Any Man who has lived long enough to be able to recollect or has read enough of the History of France … must be astonished at their claims of Gratitude; and can hear the arrogant Pretensions that we owe our Independence to them only with a Mixture of Indignation and Contempt.

[H]ad it not been for the aid received from France in men, money and ships, your cold and unmilitary conduct, as I shall show in the course of this letter, would in all probability have lost America; at least she would not have been the independent nation she now is. You slept away your time in the field till the finances of the country were completely exhausted, and you have little share in the glory of the final event. It is time, sir, to speak the undisguised language of historical truth.

THOMAS PAINE,
U.S. SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1777–1779,
IN A LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON … ON AFFAIRS PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE (PHILADELPHIA: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE,
112 MARKET ST., 1796)⁶⁴⁰

Franklin, whose fame had already opened him a free correspondence with the literati of the European continent, was with perfect wisdom dispatched to France … The father of the American liberties became the general object of respect and love … [French Foreign Affairs Minister] Vergennes, whose principles united the arbitrary policy of the French court with the refined knowledge of a country peculiarly distinguished by literature, became the social friend of Franklin … Under such fortunate auspices, the principal difficulties to the negociation were easily removed …

The great character [GEORGE WASHINGTON] was a Character of Convention … [N]orthern, middle, and southern statesmen and northern, middle, and southern officers of the army expressly agreed … to cover and dissemble all faults and errors, to represent every defeat as a victory and every retreat as an advancement, to make that Character popular and fashionable with all parties … as the central stone in the geometrical arch. There you have the revelation of the whole mystery …

[Favorable] ideas of Washington are probably entertained by the world at large; for few men were acquainted with his real character, and of those few, a very small number … will venture, except perhaps in whispers, to speak what they thought or think of his talents … [I]t was important to maintain, during the revolution, the popular opinion in his favour. Accordingly, there was no public disclosure … But is it proper that the truth should forever be concealed?

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted. That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act for the writing or publishing any libel aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the defendant … to give in evidence the truth of the matter contained in the publication …

[I]t will be some consolation to me to … do justice to them with posterity, since a gang of greater scoundrels never lived. We are to dance on [WASHINGTON’S] birth night, forsooth, and say they are great & good men, when we know they are little people.

FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY