American Aurora
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Today, James Monroe writes Thomas Jefferson:
[N]othing is more obvious than that France intends not to make war on us, so that our administration has the merit exclusively of precipitating us into that state … France has been roused against us by the administration who have never lost a moment to keep her [France’s] resentment at the height by multiplying the causes of irritation daily …435
Today, volunteers swell the ranks of the Macpherson’s Blues to six hundred men. Macpherson’s Blues now controls the First Troop of City Cavalry, the Second Troop of City Cavalry, separate companies of Grenadiers, Artillery, and Riflemen, four companies of Infantry (Blues), and a Germantown infantry company.436
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The hireling Bache has this morning published a letter from the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to our envoys in Paris, dated the 18th of March last … Talleyrand says the Directory were astonished to hear America complain, when the grievances were all on the side of France!—He then goes over the old hackneyed topics of … BACHE, respecting the British Treaty … [I]t is certain that BACHE has received this letter from France or from some French agent here for the express purpose of drawing off the people from the Government, of exciting discontents, and to procure a fatal DELAY of preparation for war. The prostitute printer has announced that he has struck off an extraordinary number of the gazette … Ought not Bache to be regarded as an organ of the diplomatic skill of France? And ought such a wretch be tolerated at this time?
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Whether the Editor of the Aurora is an official agent of the French Directory or not, time will elucidate. There is, however, not a doubt that he was furnished with the State Paper published in the Aurora this morning before it was received by the Executive of the United States … —By what means can it be supposed such a paper, if it be genuine, could come into the hands of any individual in his private capacity unless by transmission from the government of France itself or from our envoys? … Can the latter be supposed to hold correspondence with Bache or his office?
MR. FENNO, What better proof do we want of the diplomatic skill of France—The document this day published in the Aurora was received the day before yesterday, in French, together with an answer from our commissioners which is voluminous. The clerks have been engaged in translating one and copying the other—But behold master Ben has a translation cut and dried …
MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The official answer of the minister of foreign affairs, Talleyrand, to the long memorial of our commissioners [envoys], which was published in the last number of the Aurora plainly shews that … Mr. Adams was highly mistaken that negotiation was at an end …
Communicated for publication in the AURORA—
GENTLEMEN, The students of William and Mary [College] regard the brooding hostilities … as forming a crisis in our political affairs which involves the future destiny of our country. Although we do not yet, by the laws of this state, possess the full power of constituents, yet … we conceive it but reasonable and just that our opinions be heard … Our wishes for a temper of pacification on the part of our government are grounded not in any juvenile predilections … but on a conviction of the injuries which would result …
Today, one of America’s three envoys to France, John Marshall, arrives back in Philadelphia. John Fenno describes his reception:
The three corps [of Philadelphia cavalry] … turned out in full uniform. The concourse of citizens in carriages, on horseback, and on foot was immense … Mr. Marshall was met by his applauding fellow-citizens about 6 miles from the city and escorted through the principal streets to the City Tavern amidst the ringing of bells and the shouts of the exulting multitude. Even in the Northern Liberties where the demos of anarchy and confusion are attempting to organize treason and death, repeated shouts of applause were given as the cavalcade approached and passed along.437
War measures … Today, at midday, President Adams receives the Macpherson’s Blues and their commandant, William Macpherson. The President addresses the assemblage:
THIS dedication of yours, in the presence of God and the world, to defend—against the attacks of arrogance, injustice, and lawless ambition—that happy system of government you have inherited from your fathers, cemented by the best blood of America and sanctioned by your own approbation, is very solemn and affecting … I am fully convinced that America must reassume the warlike character … I accept with pleasure your services …438
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law
AN ACT
Supplementary to and to amend an act, entitled
“An Act to establish an uniform rule of Naturalization,”
and to repeal the act heretofore passed on that subject.
Be it enacted, &c., That no alien shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States or any State unless … he has resided within the United States fourteen years at least …439
By prolonging the residency requirement from five to fourteen years, John Adams keeps those who are refugees from the British monarch or Robespierre’s despotism from following Jimmy Callender’s route to American citizenship. Such European democrats will remain aliens and will soon be subject to Adams’ arbitrary control.440 Adams forgets Poor Richard’s admonition,
No longer virtuous no longer free is a Maxim as true
with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth.441
Today, John Adams delivers to Congress Dispatch No. 8 from the Paris envoys, including the Talleyrand letter that Benny published two days ago.442 In the House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
MR. THATCHER [Federalist, Massachusetts] stated … It was well known that the letter of Mr. Talleyrand had already been printed in the French paper of this city, and he believed by order of the Executive Directory … [H]e saw … the Executive Directory and its agents taking extraordinary means to spread that letter …
Mr. T. CLAIBORNE [Republican, Virginia] did not understand what the gentleman meant in saying he believed certain persons are French agents.
Mr. THATCHER [Federalist, Massachusetts] said he considered the printer of the paper to which he had alluded as an agent of the French Directory, and he hoped soon to lay before the House satisfactory evidence of the fact.
Mr. HARPER [Federalist, S. Carolina] … It had long been manifest to him that France had her secret agents in this country … and the act of Saturday was only one of the ramifications of the scheme.443
Today, Federalist U.S. Senator James Lloyd of Maryland writes George Washington,
You will, before this reaches you, have seen Talleyrand’s puny performance which was first published by Bache … Bache was in possession of Talleyrand’s note before the dispatches were received by our government but it was not known how he came by them ‘till Saturday when a Mr. Keeder told a number of Gazette men at the City Tavern that he had received a packet for Bache sealed with the seal of the minister of exterior relations … and that he had delivered the packet to Bache …
Your most obedt Servant,
James Lloyd
P.S. We shall soon declare the Treaty with France void and pass a strong act to punish Sedition. Doctor Logan left the City this morning for France. This Gov’t had information of his intentions but … we have no law by which he could be laid hold of.444
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The letter was without any doubt sent to Bache from Talleyrand himself, and its object, it is very clear, was to deceive the people … and to prepare the way for an invasion …
Doctor LOGAN is just departed for France! Recollect his connections; recollect that seditious envoys from all the Republics that France has subjugated first went to Paris and concerted measures with the despots … The whole of this business is not come to light yet … In the mean time, watch, Philadelphians, or the fire is in your houses and the couteau [knife] at your
throats.—A guard should be mounted every night in this city.— Take care; or, when your blood runs down the gutters, don’t say you were not forewarned of the danger!
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
In the beginning of last week arrived in this city Mr. Keeder from Paris, with dispatches from the French Directory to Benjamin Bache, Printer of the Aurora, under the seal of Mr. Talleyrand …
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Harper, in the House yesterday, spoke obscurely of conspiracies … Mr. Thatcher [observed] … “that he considered the French paper of this city, who had published his letter of Talleyrand, as agent of the French Directory, and he hoped soon to be able to convince the house of the fact by satisfactory evidence.“… This attack is a link in the chain of persecution by which it is attempted to injure the Aurora and muzzle the press … Mr. Thatcher’s charge against us, we say, is a base calumny: — it is false. He has promised proof in support of it … We dare him …
In conversation a few days ago, a federalist made use of this declaration: “wait, said he, ’till the sedition bill is passed and then we shall show you what we will do—we will begin first with JEFFERSON and GALLATIN, banish them and then we will take the others one by one.” This declaration ought to be proclaimed from the house top that the people may be made acquainted with the true designs of federalism.
On Saturday morning, before the House of Representatives met, the friends of order as they call themselves met in groups in different parts of the hall: “where did this Bache get the State Paper he published this morning?” No one can tell … Mr. Otis trudged away to the Secretary of State to advise him to [send] … Talleyrand’s note and our commissioners’ answer … to Porcupine and Fenno to appear in their papers of that evening. Timothy [Pickering] did not like this and observed, with a cunning look, that it would be better to give it out that the communications had been just received in cypher …
So much for Bache’s printing Talleyrand’s letter: if it had not been for this free press which is not under the direction of his Excellency, the People of America would not have known of Mr. Talleyrand’s dispatch until after they had been “committed by a declaration of war” which a Federal Representative has said they ought to be.
Z.
How did the Editor of the Aurora get M. Talleyrand’s letter [?] … (In answer … we can only at present say that it is a lie that we received the letter of Talleyrand from France. More of this in our next.)
Last Saturday afternoon, we could not avoid an immoderate fit of laughter on casting a first glance at that thing which pensioner Fenno calls the Gazette. He had been obliged … to borrow from a hostile, we scorn to say rival, print the most interesting state paper [from French Foreign Minister Talleyrand] …
Fenno … lost his patience … He [had] no less than four pieces … reviling Ben for doing himself on Saturday last what Mr. Adams could and should have done a week or ten days before.
To be sure it was a very jacobinical, democratical, anti-presidential, unconstitutional trick in the said Editor of the Aurora to let Congress and the American people into their own business. Who knows but what this production may stop or check the stream of warlike addresses and most warlike answers. It may clog the maturity of the war bills and give our hen-hearted Republican Representatives a fillip of courage in their replies …
Today, Abigail Adams writes,
[I]n any other Country, Bache & all his papers would have been seazd and ought to be here, but congress are dilly dallying about passing a Bill enabling the President to seize suspicious persons and their papers … I am weary of conjectures, so I shall say nothing of when it is probable Congress will rise. I believe they will declare war against the French first.445
Today, Benny Bache is meeting with Thomas Jefferson.446
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
THE TRAITOR-TRAP.
I have long said (and I have been joined by the public voice) that the infamous Lightening-Rod, Jun. was a hireling of and in correspondence with the Despots of France. The fact is now PROVED beyond all contradiction, and it is with infinite satisfaction that I lay the proof of it before the people of America.
[Affidavit]
AT Paris, on the 19th or 20th of March last, or soon after at Bordeaux, Mr. LEE, the gentleman who brought dispatches to government, desired me to take charge of letters addressed to different persons in America, among others one to Ben. Bache … Their size and the seal of the [French] Minister of Foreign Affairs attracted my notice … I delivered the letters at the Post Office without even suspecting their contents.
June 18, 1798
JOHN KIDDER.
Thus is the traitor caught at last! This discovery accounts for all the villain’s conduct and for the continual connection that has been kept up with him by many persons in this country. JEFFERSON was seen going into his house on the very day that the dispatches appeared … [S]hall this atrocious villain, BACHE, be tolerated? Shall he be suffered to proceed in his career of defaming the government, misleading the people, exciting them to insurrection, when it is known, when it is proved, that he acts in concert with the foreign as well as domestic enemies of his country?—My God, can any such thing as law or government exist if this is to be suffered with impunity? It may for a little while; but be assured it will not long. The French faction must be crushed, or the government here MUST FALL; choose which you please …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
AMERICANS—Beware of French Intrigue! and Of your own CITIZENS who are agents for the French!!!
WEDNESDAY. JUNE 20, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We are obliged to postpone our answer to JOHN KIDDER & to the stupid columns of the Tory prints … We wait till tomorrow to lay the whole before our readers …
George Thatcher, a member of the House … did say on the 18th inst. that he would bring … evidence that the Editor of the Aurora is a French agent; which he did not do on the 19th …
Today, Benny’s good friend Elizabeth Hewson writes her brother:
[Benny is] going fast to destruction … I am afraid very fatal consequences will attend his publishing the pieces he does.447
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Monsieur Bache … affects to be mightily offended at being called a French Agent … There can be no doubt but that, to the extent of his poor abilities, he is a French agent …
He is but a luke-warm friend who waivers in the cause of his country … “He that is not for us is against us.”
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine:
BACHE (the grandson of Old Franklin) published a LETTER … sent off from Paris the moment TALLEYRAND’S letter was delivered to our envoys there … BACHE was able to get his out first; but learning that those of the government were about to appear … he then accused the government of having had an intention to keep the dispatches a secret in order to blind the people and betray them into war!
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TALLEYRAND’S LETTER.
The following affidavit will save those that know the Editor the trouble of wading through the subjoined legal detail.
—City of Philadelphia, . On the 20th of June, 1798, personally appeared before me, Hilary Baker, Mayor of the city of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Bache; who, being duly sworn, deposed and said: That the letter signed Ch. Mau. Talleyrand and, which appeared in his newspaper, the Aurora, on Saturday last, was not received by him from France; that it was delivered to him for publication by a gentleman of this city; that he never received the letter said to have been put into the post office for him, in a piece signed John Kidder …
BENJ. FRANKLIN BACHE.—
Sworn before me, HILARY BAKER, Mayor.
I have gone through this … to show … the groundlessness of the calumnies … and to avoid satisfy
ing them as to the source from which I really had the letter. The administration, however—we doubt not—by this time have discovered whence [and] … can inform me where I shall find my [other undelivered] letter, said to be sealed with the seal of the French department of Foreign Affairs … Even if the seal should be broken or the letter defaced, I shall attribute it to accident, & never suspect them of having done either. Provided the pamphlet be whole, they will receive the thanks of THE EDITOR OF THE AURORA.
War measures … Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Edward Livingston of New York speaks against an alien bill that would allow John Adams to expel, without notice and without a hearing, any non-citizen who excites the President’s suspicions. The Annals of Congress report:
ALIENS …
Mr. [Edward] LIVINGSTON [Republican, New York], [stated that] the crime is “exciting the suspicions of the President,” but no man can tell what conduct will avoid that suspicion—-a careless word, perhaps misrepresented or never spoken may be sufficient evidence; a look may destroy; an idle gesture may insure punishment …
Judiciary power is taken from the courts and given to the executive …; the trial by jury is abolished; the “public trial” required by the Constitution is changed into a secret and worse than inquisitorial tribunal … No indictment; no jury; no trial; no public procedure; no statement of the accusation; no examination of witnesses in its support; no counsel for defence; all is dark, silence, mystery, and suspicion …
If we are ready to violate the constitution we have sworn to defend—will the people submit to our unauthorized acts? … Sir, they ought not to submit … For let no man vainly imagine that the evil is to stop here, that a few unprotected aliens are only to be affected by this inquisitorial power. The same arguments which enforce these provisions against aliens apply with equal strength to enacting them in the case of citizens … You have already been told of plots and conspiracies; and all the frightful images that were necessary to keep up the present system of terror and alarm were presented to you. But who were implicated by these dark hints—these mysterious allusions? They were our own citizens, sir, not aliens. If there is then any necessity for the system now proposed, it is more necessary to be enforced against our own citizens than against strangers; and I have no doubt that, either in this or some other shape, it will be attempted. I must ask, sir, whether the people of America are prepared for this? … Whether they are ready to submit to imprisonment or exile whenever suspicion, calumny or vengeance shall mark them for ruin? Are they base enough to be prepared for this? No sir; they will, I repeat it, they will resist this tyrannic system; the people will oppose it …