American Aurora
Page 16
Today, Thomas Jefferson observes:
Party passions are indeed high. Nobody has more reason to know it than myself. I receive daily bitter proofs of it from people who never saw me, nor know anything of me but through Porcupine & Fenno. At this moment all the passions are boiling over, and one who keeps himself cool and clear of the contagion is so far below the point of ordinary conversation that he finds himself isolated in every society.348
Today, as the President requested, churches hold special prayer services. William Cobbett observes:
The churches were, perhaps, never so crowded on any Sunday for years past. The sermons preached by Mr. [James] ABERCROMBY … were the most animated and awful discourses ever delivered in this city …349
From his pulpit in Philadelphia’s Christ Church (across from Porcupine’s offices on Second-street), Porcupine’s friend and constant associate350 the Reverend James Abercrombie, A.M., intones:
That frantic and licentious spirit of disorder and desolation … originated in the infidelity of [France’s] Philosophers … a Voltaire … a Diderot, a Helvetius, a Rousseau …
How so infatuated an attachment to French politics and principle should so long have captivated … Americans is truly surprising … “The God whom we profess to serve is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us …” …
As the Jews of old … we are in like manner now called upon by THE FATHER AND GUARDIAN OF OUR COUNTRY, who … will continue to be, “the minister of God to us for good.” Justly elevated by the gratitude of his country … to the honorable station of CHIEF MAGISTRATE, the reiterated tributes of applause which now resound thro’ our immense Continent incontestably prove that, during his administration of the adopted government, “he hath done all things well.” …
Now to God the Father &c.351
The Aurora’s name is not omitted from today’s worship. A congregation in Medford, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, hears the Rev. David Osgood preach:
Having no other prey at present at hand, the arms of the French Republic are now stretched toward us … [T]he Aurora of Philadelphia and some other ignes fatui are so many decoys to draw us within reach of her fraternal embrace. If you would not be ravished by the monster, drive her panders from among you. The editors, patrons, and abettors of those vehicles of slander upon our government … have no longer any cloak for their guilt … Brethren, mark them who cause such dangerous divisions among us, and let them wear the stigma of reproach due to the perfidious betrayer of their country … So, O Lord God of Israel, let our enemies be turned back, disappointed and ashamed; and to thee shall be glory!
AMEN.352
Everyone is braced for violence. Tonight, it occurs. Abigail Adams:
The purport of the [two anonymous] letters was to inform the President that the French people who were in this city had formed a conspiracy with some unsuspected Americans, on the Evening of the day appointed for the fast, to set fire to the city in various parts and to Massacre the inhabitants, intreating the President not to neglect the information & the warning given … Another Letter of the same purport was sent ten days after, thrust under the door of Mr. Otis’s office. These with some Rumours of combinations got abroad, and the Mayor, Aldermen &c kept some persons upon the watch through all parts of the city, & the Governor gave orders privately to have a troop of Horse in case of need.353
Jimmy Callender:
The British gang wanted to burn [Bache’s home] … They were headed by [Federalist Joseph Thomas, who led the crowds at Dunwoody’s and James Cameron’s]; and truly the head and the tail were worthy of each other. The fast day of May 9th, 1798 was chosen for the design … Bache heard of his danger, and informed [Mr.] Hilary Baker, then mayor of the city. No notice was taken of this intimation. The jacobin [Bache], the French pensioner, was left to his fate.354
Tonight, Philadelphia Federalist leader and lawyer Joseph Thomas, brandishing a sword above his head, leads a phalanx of sword-waving Federalists toward the Aurora’s offices.355 Learning that a corps of Republican volunteers has prepared for its arrival, the mob limits itself to breaking windows in Benny’s house. Jimmy Callender:
Bache collected and armed some of his friends. The six per cent myrmidons [the Federalists] heard of his preparations, and fortunately desisted from their plan. They filled the streets with noise and alarm; but they did not hazard an attack … It was affirmed, at the time, that a large quantity of arms was lodged by the government faction in a house near the hall of congress and that, in case of disturbance, muskets and ball were to be distributed to the young citizens, as the attorney’s mob chose to call themselves …356
Philadelphian Margaret Morris, who lives near the State-house, will recall,
A great riot happened on … [that] evening, and hints thrown out of a design to fire the city; the light-horse were out all night, and the militia and private citizens were on guard, patrolling also, but it was passed in quiet, but we are still suspicious that the evil spirit is not wholly at rest, only lulled asleep. “Young Lightning Rod” had his house guarded by armed men, within and without, being fearful of having it pulled down. I think I never saw so many people at one time in my life as on that evening. What a world we live in, and what tumultuous times!357
From Benny’s house, the Federalist “Young Men” march toward the State-house yard, knocking down lampposts, breaking windows, and smearing mud on the statue of Benjamin Franklin at the Philadelphia Library.358 A group of thirty or forty Republicans, wearing red and blue cockades, also march toward the State-house, and, as the Gazette of the United States reports, “riots” occur between opposing groups about 6 p.m.,
the magistry sending to prison as many of those persons who did not escape either by flight or taking the [red & blue] cockades out of their hats …359
Abigail Adams:
[I]t was in the State House Garden … [T]here they had their contest which terminated by sending half a dozen to prison …360 [The encounter] was sufficient to allarm the inhabitants, and there were every where large collections of people. The light Horse were calld out & patrold the streets all night. A guard was placed before this [Presidential] House … A foreign attempt to try their strength & to awe the inhabitants was no doubt at bottom. Congress are upon an Allien Bill.361
President John Adams:
[T]he night of the fast day, the streets were crowded with multitudinous assemblies of the people, especially that before my door, and kept in order only, as many people thought, by a military patrol, ordered, I believe, by the Governor of Pennsylvania.362
Jimmy Callender:
[T]hirty lads appeared in a body in Philadelphia with French cockades … They were dispersed by the magistrates who committed some of them to prison. The federal mob were by far more numerous, more noisy, and more apparently dangerous. No attempt was made by the magistrates to reduce them to quiet …363
An anonymous eyewitness:
[U]nder color of a danger of the city being set on fire … the independent horse and light infantry companies were put in a state of requisition under the command of the militia brigadier general M’Pherson (who is also a naval officer). In the evening forty draymen and butcher boys, angry at the arrogance of the black cockades, paraded the town with blue and red cockades … In the mean while, 7 or 800 black cockades, without any orders whatsoever, collected, some with guns, others with bludgeons, with the design, as they said, of suppressing mobs, while the greatest appearance of mob was among themselves and no danger except what they might create. They were persuaded to parade by the mayor’s door as waiting for orders and from thence sent detachments to the suburbs, &c. It was two o’clock in the morning before they were persuaded finally to disperse.364
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Our city yesterday bore a very disquieting appearance. The passions of our citizens which have been artfully inflamed by war speeches and addresses, as well as threats and denunciations against the Republicans
, burst out in such a manner as to endanger the peace of the city. It was early foretold that the insidious recommendation of [Porcupine] a British printer to the youths of this city to wear a [black] cockade would be attended with disagreeable consequences. The prediction has been in a degree verified; tumultuous meetings and riots took place towards dark … The scenes of yesterday should be a warning … Another step and the yawning gulph may swallow up in inevitable ruin the fabricators of this scheme of arraying our citizens against each other as well as those against whom the destruction is intended.
It is true and lamentably true that endeavors are making to silence the freedom of opinions and the freedom of the press. The President of the United States has publicly denounced the freedom of opinion … In his answer to the address of the citizens of Newark may be found this remarkable sentence, “the delusions and misrepresentations … must be discountenanced by authority as well as by citizens at large, or they will soon produce all kinds of calamities in this Country.” … Cannot public measures bear public viewing? … [Has t]he genius of freedom mingled itself in the dust with the ashes of Franklin …? Was it to be made subservient to the will of an individual …?
Today, John Adams answers an address from Hartford, Connecticut:
If the designs of foreign hostility and the views of domestic treachery are now fully disclosed; … if the spirit of independent freemen is again awakened and its force is combined … it will be irresistible.365
Today, the President also answers citizens from the vicinity of Shepherd’s Town in Berkeley County, Virginia:
I had never until lately any expectation that I should live to see … the Executive authority vilified and our very existence threatened through the means of our citizens or any other with impunity …366
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes James Madison:
No bill has passed since my last [letter]. The alien bill, now before the Senate, you will see in Bache [May 8 issue] … Some of the young men who addressed the President on Monday mounted the black (or English) cockade. The next day numbers of people appeared with the tricolored (or French) cockade. Yesterday, being the fast day, the black cockade again appeared, on which the tricolour also showed itself. A fray ensued, the light horse were called in, & the city was so filled with confusion from about 6. to 10. o’clock last night that it was dangerous going out …367
Today, Abigail Adams writes her sister,
Bache is cursing and abusing daily. If that fellow … is not surpres-sed, we shall come to a civil war. I hope the Gen’ll Court of our State will take the subject up &, if they have not a strong Sedition Bill, make one.368
Today, Liz Hewson, Benny’s friend, writes:
[Benny is] very much embarrassed in his circumstance … [and] going fast to destruction.369
War measures … Today, the U.S. House of Representatives debates the bill that allows John Adams to enlist the new Federalist militias into his “provisional” army. The Annals of Congress report:
PROVISIONAL ARMY.
Mr. GALLATIN [Republican, Pennsylvania]: [said that] one of the most important powers that could be vested in Congress, viz: the power of raising an army is, by this bill, proposed to be transferred from Congress to the President. This he considered a dangerous principle …
Mr. DAYTON [Federalist, New Jersey]: The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. GALLATIN) had now boldly erected his … opposition, not merely to the Administration or to the Government, but to all effectual measures of protection, defence, and preservation; and what was the motto …? “Weakness and Submission” …
[T]he power and means of invasion … was known … [T]here were already collected upon the coasts of France, bordering upon the English channel, a numerous army … The same soldiers who were prepared to invade an island might certainly be employed [toward us] upon the Main and the same bayonets would pierce the breasts of the people inhabiting the latter as the former. Their larger transports … might transport a considerable part of them across the Atlantic and land them upon our shores … But the member from Pennsylvania [Mr. GALLATIN], aware of the possibility of the attempt, has attempted to divert the country from immediate preparation …370
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
THE FAST
Was yesterday observed in this city with all the Solemnity of a Sabbath … The spirit of faction is not, however, quite killed. Towards evening, about twenty fellows, the greatest part of them foreigners, had the impudence to go to the State House yard with French cockades in their hats … The conduct of the Associated Youth was highly praiseworthy. They all assembled with alacrity … They should now lose no time in forming themselves into companies, procuring themselves arms, and appointing commanders. It has been stupidly asserted that their hoisting of the [BLACK] COCKADE was the occasion of the fracas! Monstrous!—What! are men to carry about them no sign of their devotion to the cause of their own country … for fear of giving offence and exciting tumults!
The Youth of Lancaster have mounted the BLACK COCKADE—Bravo!—Either it must stand, or the Country falls.
VOLUNTEER CORPS.
The Youth of North and South Mulberry Ward who are desirous of forming themselves into a Uniform Volunteer Corps, are requested to meet on Friday evening, the 11th instant, at the house of J. Hardy, Swan tavern, Third-street.
CONSPIRACY OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN
(Continued from Tuesday’s paper.)
In my last, it was amply proved that this conspiracy had for its object something highly criminal … That this conspiracy is intended to aid the cause of France … [O]bserve that the closest intimacy exists between the sans-culotte French who are here, the most distinguished of the emigrated United Irishmen, and a base American printer, notoriously in the service of France … [A]ny ALIEN LAW which extends only to ALIENS of a nation committing hostilities on the United States will not reach the members of this affiliation.
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Several persons, it is said, have been … committed for wearing in their hats a red and blue ribbon … cockade. If these persons appeared disposed to be riotous or if the magistracy feared that the wearing of those ribbons might be productive of disorder, those who refused to put them by were proper subjects of the notice of the police; but so are many of those also who wear black cockades in their hats, who have indeed proceeded to actual violence by attacking the house of a citizen [the Editor] at the dead of night, threatening those whom they have been taught to consider as obnoxious …
It will no doubt be attempted to make a distinction between the two sorts of badges, the one will be called French because it bears some resemblance to it; the other American tho’ it is exactly like the British; but if the wearing of one of the cockades is permitted, the incitement to disorder will still exist, as still a distinction will be marked between our citizens—those with and those without the cockade. [T]he black cockade has been mounted on the express recommendation of [Porcupine] a printer in this city who avows himself a British subject and a royalist, and glories in their titles …
The proposals for embodying the youth of the City … is another egg from the same nest. The Adamites are not, it seems, contented with plunging their Country into foreign war, unless they can superadd a military government at home. The present proceedings of the faction are so monstrous that they must completely open the eyes of every one who is not absolutely blinded. The assertion of the President that he was not discontented with the British government before the Revolution ought to have been made more than twenty years ago, that America might have been on her guard against him.
We shall be in a precious plight if the Aristocrats in Congress get their bill past for a provisional standing army of ten thousand men: provisional, that is to say, if the President shall see them necessary, and this he infallibly will do. He wants, as he has kindly told us, to suppress opinions by authority which, without force, is a shadow, and so, when he has got the standing army
, he will then have force … This standing army, of which the black cockade men have on Monday & on Wednesday evening last given so desirable a specimen, will cost at least fifteen thousand dollars a day …
The fast [day] puzzled the Printers not a little. Most of them did not publish on that day … For our part, determined to maintain our conscience free from political fetters, we published our paper as usual; but Mr. Adams resolved not to be broken in upon and sent it to us back … He was the only one of our subscribers who so scrupulously observed the fast to send back our paper. He was determined to shew a proper respect to his own recommendation—and, who had a better right?
Word is out that Republicans are raising a private militia and that Benny has gone to the Northern Liberties to encourage attendance at Saturday’s gathering of the Tammany Society on the banks of the Schuylkill River.371
Today, John Adams writes some citizens,
I trust with you that the spirit of disunion is much diminished … but unless the spirit of libelling and sedition shall be controlled by an execution of the laws, that spirit will again increase.372
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Bache, whilst other people were observing the Fast Day yesterday (except a few Jacobins) as every good man ought to, was circulating his vehicle of lies and sedition …
Bache in his newspaper of this morning says, “it was early foretold that the insidious recommendation of a British Printer to the Youth of this city to wear a cockade would be attended with disagreeable consequences …” Bache, with his usual effrontery, ascribes to the [black cockade] badge which distinguishes Americans the tumult of Wednesday evening, when he knows that what took place was begun by persons wearing French cockades … Yet with respect to their badge he would have been silent.—No, he means that we should discard the badge which distinguishes Americans from the enemies of America. But why discard this badge? … [I]t is essential … that true Americans be distinguished from the partizans of France … Bache disseminates the atheistical principles of Paine—publishes forged letters of general Washington … endeavors to ridicule the age of our President. This same Bache … has the front to talk of the good of his country whose peace and happiness he has labored to destroy. He has sounded the lowest depth of human depravity and now exhibits to the world an example of wickedness that no man of his years ever arrived at before. Let none attempt to describe him—language is too weak—no combination of words will come so near to expressing everything that is monstrous in human nature as BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE …