American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

  THE MANAGERS OF THE THEATRE—

  Should pay some respect to the public feeling in the selection of their music—The enthusiastic clamors and applause with which the President’s March has been called for and received for some time past should have taught the managers the impropriety of refusing it to the people until absolutely compelled to give it. As the patriotic enthusiasm increases, such an unwillingness to gratify it may be dangerous to the fiddles and the fiddlers. For the same reason it is to be hoped no more attempts will be made to grate and torture the public ear with those shouts [for] Ca Ira …

  “Ça Ira” is the great song of the French Revolution which honors Benjamin Franklin. Frenchmen remember that, when asked how America’s revolution was going, Ben Franklin frequently replied, “Ça ira. Ça ira.” (It will work out! It will work out!)267

  WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1798

  GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER

  “To the Congress of the United States, the subscribers, people of the county of Caroline and State of Virginia, beg leave to represent …

  That war is an evil … The refusal of a government to regard the invocation of the people for averting war would be sufficient to excite a suspicion that it is guided by other views than the public good, especially as though a nation seldom makes an advantage by war, a government often does. Soldiers and money, to the people the expense, to a government are the fruits of war …”

  Today, an anonymous party writes President Adams that his May 9th prayer and fasting day will be a day of murder and mayhem:

  Much respected Sir,

  There is generally so little attention paid to anonymous letters that I have little to hope, but the present occasion is so unprecedented that I cannot avoid giving way to the impulse of the moment and have therefore acted accordingly. Conscious of the rectitude of my intentions and convinced that I am barely doing my duty, I feel little repugnance at betraying the horrid designs of a barbarous set of wretches who are unworthy of the names of human beings. Know Sir, that it is the fix’d resolve of a very numerous party of Frenchmen (in conjunction with a few other unsuspected Characters) to set fire to several different parts of this City on the night of that day (in May next) which is set apart by you as a day of solemn fasting & prayer, and when the whole attention of the devoted Citizens is engaged, they intend to massacre Man, Woman & Child, save those who are friendly to their interests. More I dare not write, but let it suffice, that my information is genuine. How I came by it must for ever remain an inviolable secret, my honour is partly pledged and that will plead my excuse …

  An unfortunate misled Man

  but a real friend to America268

  Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:

  Yesterday at noon a large and respectable body of the Merchants of this city waited on the President of the United States …

  ANSWER.

  To the Merchants, Underwriters, and Traders of the City of Philadelphia.

  If the sincere sentiments of my heart toward France, which are now open before the public, had met with a similar disposition in the government of that country, we should still have pursued our neutral, impartial, and pacific course. But unhappily they have met with nothing that I can discern but a determined, though insidious spirit of hostility. The consequences are not for me to anticipate.

  JOHN ADAMS

  The Gallic Editor of the Aurora is known to be in daily and secret conference with a certain high officer in the Government (infamous for his foreign correspondence). It is supposed the fruits of this republican connection will be thrown on the parish before long for public maintenance. The brat may gasp, but it will surely die in the infamy of its parents.

  Benny Bache is meeting with Thomas Jefferson who is “infamous” for his correspondence with Philip Mazzei in Italy.

  The drama of Philadelphia is expressed in meetings. Poor Richard noted,

  Men meet, mountains never.269

  THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1798

  GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER

  John Fenno, in his paper of last evening, says that “the Gallic Editor of the Aurora is known to be in daily and secret conference with a certain high officer in government, infamous for his foreign correspondence.

  Mr. Bache has been for some days in the country. As for the officer of government, we do not pretend to know who is meant; but, as John abuses him, we presume that he must be some character eminently respectable in the eyes of honest men.

  It cannot be that John Fenno who, at an early period of life stopt payment and defrauded his creditors in Boston and who, ever since, has been the dirty tool of a dirty faction should know what the word infamy means.

  We are informed that ten memorials were on Monday read in congress against the arming of our merchantmen … Poor Johnny Fenno vilifies the subscribers of the New England memorials as Jacobins. He says that the town meetings were not regularly called, &c. &c. Let the friends of order call counter meetings and try, if they can, [to] get counter memorials.

  An address has been presented [April 13] by a Grand Jury of the District Court of the United States to the President … [T]hey neglected to inform the public … that [the grand jurors] are the creatures of the Marshall of the district and that the Marshall is the creature of the President. The address must then be viewed as an address of the President to himself. Whether such a grand jury was selected for party purposes is not mentioned … We have already seen judges [who were] appointed by the President turn preachers of certain political opinions, and now we see Grand Juries converted into party apostles.

  Benny is at Settle, the beautiful farm his father owns, about sixteen miles south of Philadelphia along the Delaware River.270 Today, Polish writer Julien Niemcewicz travels downriver with Benny’s twenty-five-year-old doctor brother, William, for a visit to the Bache farm. Niemcewicz makes note in his diary:

  I embarked with Dr. Bache on a boat which performed the office of a carriage and leaves at each flood tide for Burlington … The weather was rather fine, but the wind very weak. We enjoyed the beauty of both banks of Jersey and Pennsylvania completely at our ease … After three and a half hours we arrived at the farm of Mr. [Richard] Bache, the father. He is the husband of the daughter of [Benjamin] Franklin, celebrated American philosopher and patriot.

  Mr. [Richard] Bache has completely the air of a Country Esquire, frank countenance and with a rather jovial humor. Madame by her natural wit and her conversation does not belie the origin from which she descends. We found there the whole family assembled with the exception of a little boy who was at school in Burlington. It consisted of three sons, of whom the first, Benjamin is the printer known for his opposition newspaper … The second son was the doctor [William] with whom I came, an interesting young man. The third, Louis [age nineteen], was destined to be a farmer; three girls, one of ten [Sarah] and two of marriageable age [Elizabeth, twenty-one, and Deborah, seventeen or eighteen]. They were very pretty and were neatly dressed, and nothing was more natural nor more touching than their behavior toward their parents. While one was holding his hand and leaning on her father (seated in an armchair at one time belonging to Dr. [Ben] Franklin), she was caressing him; the other was singing very well, accompanying herself on the harpsichord. The good old man joined at times his bass voice to the piping voice of his daughter …

  Mr. Bache has a farm of 270 acres divided into meadows, cultivated ground and woodland. He has five men to work it and a gardener; a Negro and one girl do the domestic service … Fish, salt beef with all sorts of vegetables made up the dinner. The mush, a kind of gruel [porridge] from Indian Corn with milk added made a healthy and frugal supper.271

  Today, Thomas Jefferson writes James Madison,

  [P]etitions to Congress against arming from the towns of Massachusetts were multiplying. They will no doubt have been immediately checked. The P. [resident]’s answer to the address of the merchants here you will see in Fenno of yesterday. It is a pretty strong declaration that a neutral & pacific cond
uct on our part is no longer the existing state of things. The vibraters in the H.[ouse] of R.[epresentatives] have chiefly gone over to the war party.272

  Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:

  MR. FENNO, The observations of Bache in the Aurora of this morning respecting the Grand Jury are worthy of himself. The wretch cannot write but to abuse—nor speak but to vilify. I would advise him not to leave his Press, for he may be assured there will be as much business shortly as he and his friend Callender can attend to. Addresses from all parts of the Union are coming forward, and it is his DUTY to attack them because they express the determination of the People to support the government—“The Grand Jury, he observes, are the creatures of the Marshall.” I was one of that body, and I assert he is a Liar.

  It would be degrading indeed if there should be a man in the United States who would hesitate for a moment [as] to whose assertion to attach the most credit, to that of any one of the late Jury or that of Benjamin Franklin Bache. I have not time just now to say as much to this man as I could wish. I will, however, recommend to him to discharge the Notes which he gave to his paper makers and which, since last October, have been laying protested in one of the Banks of this city before he says anything about Credit.

  ONE OF THE LATE GRAND JURY.

  Is it not high time to enquire who are these traitors, who have sold their country and are ready to deliver it to the French? … Look around you to those who have been the associates of these French incendiaries, their agents at meetings, at clubs, their news-writers and panegyrists … Whose houses are the resort of Frenchmen, and who are always in French company? Mark the public men who go hand in hand with French agents, who declaim against the purity of their own government and its measures, while on the other hand they set up corrupt France as a pattern of all that is excellent. These men cannot be all honest. Some of them have Judaslike accepted the price of the blood of their friends and are preparing to betray them. Let us watch them closely for when our country is at stake, when we are told by our enemies that it is already sold, suspicion becomes a virtue.

  Extract of a letter from Massachusetts … Communications from Philadelphia mention we may expect a list of traitors will soon be published … It certainly would not wound our humane feelings so much to see such criminals go to execution as the petty robber or house breaker …

  Federalist “committees of surveillance” are spying on leading Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson, Benny Bache, and George Logan.273 George Logan’s wife, Deborah, will recall,

  The dominant party scorned any longer to affect even the appearance of moderation toward their opponents. Not only the public acts of the Legislature were framed to keep them in awe … Friendships were dissolved, tradesmen dismissed, and custom withdrawn from the Republican party, the heads of which, as object of the most injurious suspicion, were recommended to be closely watched, and committees of Federalists were appointed for that purpose.

  Many gentlemen went armed that they might be ready to resent any personal aggression. In the midst of this state of things, my husband formed the project of his visit to France …274

  Republicans know their neighbors are spying on them. As Poor Richard said,

  Love thy Neighbour; yet don’t pull down your Hedge.275

  Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:

  Some musicians last night and the evening before had the audacious impudence to refuse playing the President’s March [at the New Theatre] although requested by the box and the greater part of the house. [I r]eprobate strongly the action of pelting the musicians, but [I] would have preferred the … dignified conduct of leaving the theatre and refrain going thither until the managers positively declared the President’s March should be for the future the first tune played in the house and further give assurance that those Gallic murder-shouts, Ça Ira … shall no more grate our ears.

  FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1798

  GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER

  The short administration of the present chief magistrate [Mr. Adams] … has added considerably in producing the present catastrophe … It was this speech [to Congress on last May 16th] which interposed the barrier to an adjustment of our differences with the French Republic. It was this speech which prevented the recognition of our envoys by the [French] Directory … The impolicy and intemperance of Mr. Adams may yet entail great evils upon the United States.

  Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, a Federalist congressman attacks the Aurora. The Annals of Congress report:

  Mr. ALLEN [Federalist, Connecticut], Let me add, as no contemptible engine in this business of sowing discord, dissension, and distrust of the Government, a vile incendiary paper published in this city, which constantly teems with the most atrocious abuse of all measures of the Government and its administrators. A flood of calumny is constantly poured forth against those whom the people have chosen as the guardians of the nation. The privilege of franking letters is abused in sending this paper into all parts of the country; and the purest characters are, through this medium, prostrated and laid low in the view of the people. No nation, no Government was ever so insulted. In another country, this printer and his supporters would long ago have found a fourth of September [day of judgment and execution]; and this paper is well known always to speak the sentiments of, and to be supported by, certain gentlemen in this House. These, sir, are the fruits of “the diplomatic skill of France”—these are the effects of her “means”—these are the effects of “her party in this country.”276

  As Poor Richard said,

  At this Season ‘tis no wonder

  if we have clouds, hail, rain and thunder.277

  And so we do. A visitor describes today’s weather:

  [W]e had a thunderstorm, lightening, and a deluge of rain. The thunder is more terrible here than in Europe. Its rolls spread out through the whole heaven with a din which at times imitates cannon fire, at times the rolling fire which passes from one flank to another of a large army. The whole firmament was covered with streaks of lightning; it all finished with a deluge of rain and hail.278

  Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine writes:

  No man is bound to pay the least respect to the feelings of Bache. He has outraged every principle of decency, of morality, of religion and of nature. I should have no objection to the boys’ spitting on him as he goes along the street, if it were not that I think they would confer on him too much honour …

  Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:

  In that detestable sink of pollution, Bache’s paper, the thermometer of the [Jacobin] faction, we already see apologies for French enormities … [The French] tell us … they have the “means” and the skill to prevent our making one generous effort for independence … The first attempt to exhibit their skill is displayed by their creature Bache. He has undertaken to prove that Talleyrand … was not authorized by his government to make the corrupt proposals …

  It is highly probable that this expatriated Scot [Callender], this fugitive from the pillory … has fixed his residence in Pennsylvania … for the mildness of her penal code. But let this miscreant reflect, if war is approaching … that the conduct of traitors will then be closely scrutinized.—That in this case, his worthless carcass may be destined to swell the measure of Federal despotism, as that government has not yet evinced its philanthropy by the abolition of the gallows … Mr. Adams will not retire from office… He will proceed as he has begun, and he will be supported too by all that deserve the name of Americans …

  THE FEDERALIST

  Tonight, Vice President Thomas Jefferson finds solace in the capacious rooms of Philosophical Hall, home of the American Philosophical Society.279 On the east side of the State-house park, Philosophical Hall overlooks Fifth-street, the Court House, and the Philadelphia Library. The society and the library owe their founding to Benjamin Franklin. Moreau de St. Méry observes:

  In a niche above the entrance on the front of the Philadelphia Library (op
posite the Philosophical Society) is a white marble statue of Benjamin Franklin a little larger than life size. He wears a Roman robe, and his left arm rests on several books piled on top of a column …280

  [The Philosophical] Society occupies several rooms on the first floor of a building south of the Court House. The room for meetings has a long table on the south side of which the president sits alone in a shabby armchair which Franklin had long used as a desk chair and which he himself had occupied when president of the society. On the wall behind the president is an oil painting of this venerable philosopher …281

  The American Philosophical Society meets two to four times each month. Thomas Jefferson, its president, presides. Tonight’s meeting agrees to refinance a loan originally made to the society by Benjamin Franklin and now held by Benny’s father, Richard Bache. The meeting also elects four new members, including Polish writer Julien Niemcewicz, who visited Richard Bache’s farm just yesterday.282

  SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1798

  GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER

  The following circumstance which took place at the Theatre on Wednesday Evening last may be depended on as a fact … Mr., a member of the Federalist Legislature from New Jersey, accompanied by some other gentlemen, left their seats in the boxes, came into the gallery and began to vociferate for the President’s March. The horrid noise … created some alarm in the citizens in every part of the house, who imagined these men had broken out of the Lunatic Hospital … These are Federalists, the supporters of Order and Good Government!!

  The managers of the Theatre ought to beware how they suffer the theatre to be converted to a political engine. Men of all political creeds resort there … Besides, Mr. Adams was not the choice of the people there, and to aim at thrusting him down their throats will produce something like resistance …