American Aurora
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This paper (the Aurora) is the great engine of all these treasonable combinations, and must be strongly supported, or it would fall long ago.
Mr. W.[illiam] CLAIBORNE [Republican, Tennessee] interrupted Mr. A.[llen] and asked him whether he did not subscribe for it, and so become one of its supporters?
I do, said Mr. A.[llen]. I take it under the rule of the House at the public expense. I take it for the purpose of seeing what abominable things can issue from a genuine Jacobinic press but this is not supporting it with my name and influence [as Thomas Jefferson does]; this is not giving it the authority of my opinions; I do not walk the streets arm-in-arm. I hold no mid-night conference. I am not daily and nightly closeted with its editor. I may say, sir, this paper must necessarily, in the nature of things, be supported by … certain great men.506
Mr. GALLATIN [Republican, Pennsylvania]: … The Gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. ALLEN) … had communicated to the House—what? … a number of newspaper paragraphs … His idea was to punish men for stating facts which he happened to disbelieve, or for enacting and avowing opinions, not criminal, but perhaps erroneous … The gentleman from Connecticut had also quoted an extract of a letter … published in last Saturday’s Aurora. The style and composition of that letter did the highest honor to its writer. It contained more information and more sense and gave more proofs than ever the Gentleman from Connecticut had displayed or could display on this floor …
This bill and its supporters suppose, in fact, that whoever dislikes the measures of the administration and of a temporary majority in Congress and shall either by speaking or writing, express his disapprobation and his want of confidence in the men now in power is seditious, is an enemy, not of Administration, but of the Constitution, and is liable to punishment. That principle, Mr. G[allatin] said, was subversive of the Constitution itself. If you put the press under any restraint in respect to the measures of the members of Government; if you thus deprive the people of the means of obtaining information of their conduct, you render in fact the right of electing nugatory; and this bill must be considered only as a weapon used by a party now in power in order to perpetuate their authority and preserve their present places …507
The House next considers a Declaration of War. The Annals report:
Mr. ALLEN [Federalist, Connecticut] laid a resolution upon the table to the following effect,
“Resolved, That a committee be appointed to consider upon the expediency of declaring, by Legislative act, the state and relation subsisting between the United States and the French Republic.”508
Today, George Washington writes a secret letter to the U.S. Secretary of War:
I do not … conceive that a desirable set [of officers for the new army] could be formed from the old Generals, some … from their opposition to the Government or their predilection to French measures …509
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, William Cobbett writes:
It is with great satisfaction that I announce to my readers the appointment of GENERAL WASHINGTON TO BE LIEUT-GENERAL AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF of the Armies of the United States. I understand that he offered his services to his country at this trying moment.
FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We are informed from New Jersey that a number of citizens were last week remanded before the Judge of the District Court of the United States for having spoken their sentiments on the subject of the President.
Johnny Fenno, the well paid tool of the anti-republican Partizans, now takes courage and says we must declare war at once.
Today, the House of Representatives continues to consider a Declaration of War. The Annals of Congress:
Mr. ALLEN [Federalist, Connecticut] then called up his resolution …
Mr. HARRISON [Republican, Virginia] … He hoped gentlemen would bring forward their declaration of War at once. He had always been and should now be opposed to war, but he wanted to put his negative upon it … Seeing, however, that no member is ready to make the declaration which has been so often spoken of, [Mr. ALLEN] should withdraw his motion …
Mr. SITGREAVES [Federalist, Pennsylvania] thought it would be proper first to go into a consideration of this resolution. We are, said he, now in a state of war …
The question on the resolution was put and negatived without a division [roll call].510
There will be no Declaration of War! Abigail Adams:
T]he people throughout the United States … called for the declaration to be made from various quarters of the union, but the majority in Congress did not possess firmness and decision enough to boldly make it …511
Did publication of Talleyrand’s letter make the difference? Is it important? With or without a Declaration of War, John Adams will have his war against France!
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law:
AN ACT
Respecting Alien Enemies
Be it enacted, &c., That whenever there shall be a declared war … or an invasion or predatory incursion … shall be perpetrated, attempted or threatened … and the President shall make a public proclamation of the event, [then] all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards … shall be liable to be apprehended, retrained, secured and removed as alien enemies …512
More war measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law,
AN ACT
Providing arms for the Militia throughout the United States.
Be it enacted, &c., That there shall be provided at the charge and expense of the Government of the United States thirty thousand stand of arms which shall be deposited by order of the President of the United States at suitable places …513
Today, two Federal marshals enter the offices of the New York Time Piece and arrest its editor and co-proprietor, John Daly Burk. He is charged with seditious utterances against the President of the United States. The other Time Piece owner, Dr. James Smith, is also taken into custody. After the newsmen post bail of 2,000 dollars and provide sureties of 1,000 dollars each, Judge Hobarton frees the newsmen, pending trial. New York Republican leader Aaron Burr and Colonel Henry Rutgers are the sureties.514
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The Aurora Printer has been so hard pressed … that he has at length been obliged to confess that he is in frequent correspondence with the office of foreign affairs in France. It is said, however, by some that he will not BE HANGED.
SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
VOLUNTEER TOASTS [ON JULY 4TH] …
Republican Printers in the United States—when arraigned by the voice of calumny, may they find impartial judges and honest Jurors …
Today, unaware that John Daly Burk of the New York Time Piece was arrested yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes New York Federal District Attorney Richard Harrison:
It appears that the Editor of Time Piece is an Irishman and alien … If Burk be an alien, no man is a fitter object for the operation of the alien act.515
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law,
AN ACT
To declare the Treaties heretofore concluded with
France no longer obligatory on the United States …
Be it enacted &c. That the United States are of right, freed and exonerated from the stipulations of the treaties and of the consular conventions heretofore concluded between the United States and France …516
By signing this law which abrogates the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778 and the Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1778, John Adams commits an act of war against the Republic of France. Even without a formal Declaration of War, Adams has us at war with France!517
War … Tonight, the fighting begins! Just off Egg Harbour, New Jersey, the United States Navy’s twenty-gun, 180-man Sloop of War Delaware, under Navy Captain Stephen Decatur, fires
on, pursues, and captures a twelve-gun, seventy-man privateer schooner, La Croyable, which flies the flag of the French Republic. Captain Decatur brings his prize into the Port of Philadelphia.518 A report:
The Captain of the French privateer … seemed astonished, when he went on board of Capt. Decatur’s sloop of war, at his being taken by an American vessel, and said he knew of no war between the two republics … The Frenchman seemed to be vastly mortified at seeing his Colours hauled down and wished he had been sunk.519
MONDAY, JULY 9, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The alarm system is kept up with great spirit,—We learn from John Fenno (& for executive measures and sentiments, he stands next in authenticity to Porcupine) that John D. Burk and Dr. J. Smith [co-publishers of the Time Piece] have been arrested at New York …
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law an act which anticipates the imposition of war taxes:
AN ACT
To provide for the valuation of land and dwelling-houses and the enumeration of slaves, within the United States.
There will be a property tax, so each state must value and list the property of its inhabitants, evaluating homes, for example, on “their situation, their dimensions or area, their number of stories, the number and dimensions of their windows, the materials whereof they are built, whether wood, brick or stone, the number, description, and dimensions of the outhouses … [&c.]”520
War measures … John Adams also approves and signs into law,
AN ACT
Further to protect the commerce of the United States
Be it enacted, That the President … is hereby authorized to instruct the commanders of the public armed vessels … to subdue, seize, and take any armed French vessel … on the high seas …
Sec 2. And be it further enacted, That the President … is hereby authorized to grant to owners of private armed ships and vessels of the United States … authority for the subduing, seizing, and capturing [of] any French armed vessel …
Sec 5. And be it further enacted, That all armed French vessels … shall be forfeited and shall accrue to the owners … officers, and crew by whom such captures are made …521
We don’t have to wait for France to land soldiers on American shores! The President will commission, within the next eight months, more than 350 American privateers, carrying more than 2,700 guns, to seek out, attack, seize, and sell for profit any French merchant ship which has the misfortune to be armed.522 By year’s end, America will have more than four hundred armed vessels at sea.523
Today, Abigail Adams writes her sister,
Let the vipers cease to hiss. They will be destroyd with their own poison. Bache is in duress here …524
[T]he Delaware sloop of war, Capt. Decatur … captured a French privateer schooner of 12 guns and 70 men, close in with Egg-Harbour [New Jersey] … [S]he was obliged to surrender after a pretty long chase to the Delaware and several shot being fired at her …
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The Historian, who is to record the events of the present times, after relating the long suffering of America; the injuries and insults and cruelties she has received at hands of the perfidious French … will then say … “on the 7th of July, 1798, the first blow of that conflict, which preserved the independence of America and finally brought France to her feet, was struck by Captain STEPHEN DECATUR, who, in the sloop of War DELAWARE, attacked and brought into the Port of Philadelphia, a French privateer of 12 guns and 70 men.”—This, I hope, will be the language of History.
TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Yesterday morning was ushered in with the ringing of bells and other demonstrations of joy; great numbers of the opulent mercantile interest of this flourishing city assembled at the Coffee house to reciprocate their congratulations on the occasion—the taking of a French schooner after a desperate action of one gun … The captured schooner, it appears, mistook the Delaware for a British ship of war and, being an inferior force, took refuge in Egg Harbour … The French schooner, it appears did not fire on the Delaware …
Today, John Adams issues instructions, through his Navy Secretary, to commanders of all armed vessels belonging to the United States:
You are hereby authorized, instructed, and directed to subdue, seize and take any armed French Vessel or Vessels sailing under Authority or Pretence of Authority from the French Republic which shall be found within the Jurisdictional Limits of the United States or elsewhere on the high Seas: and such captured Vessel … to bring within some Port of the United States …525
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passes the sedition act, 44 ayes to 41 nays. To become law, the bill only requires John Adams’ signature. This can hardly be in doubt. Confirming Republican suspicions that the sedition act serves John Adams’ party purposes rather than any national emergency, the bill is written to expire at the end of John Adams’ term of office!526
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Libel and Sedition Bill yesterday passed the House, 44 to 41 … [T]he good citizens of these States had better hold their tongues and make tooth picks of their pens.
Mr. Adams, in his answer to four companies of militia in New Jersey, insinuates that the Government is not a party. He certainly must have forgotten that he was elected by a party, that he is supported by a party, and that he supports none but a party. Who are the persons delegated to public office? None but men of a particular mode of thinking.
War … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law:
AN ACT
For establishing and organizing a Marine Corps.
Be it enacted, &c., That in addition to the Present military establishment, there shall be raised and organized a corps of marines … to do duty in the forts and garrisons of the United States, on the sea coast, or any other duty on shore, as the President, at his discretion, shall direct.527
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Aurora of this morning, (a thing quite new) calls the government a party and says the President is supported by a party, &c. Verily, these words must be true; for they proceed from the pen of a man who never told a lie !! All America is, however, at this moment testifying to the contrary.
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Communication.
“The conduct of Mr. Bache is particularly meritorious. Unawed by a denunciation … on the floor of Congress or by threats which were industriously circulated out of doors … he has exhibited more than his wonted firmness … and bid defiance to a host of foes leagued for his destruction. It is hoped that the republicans … will, in every part of the union, countenance his virtuous exertions. Although his paper already has a general circulation, no republican who can afford it should neglect becoming a subscriber. It is by the dissemination of such salutary truths as are contained in the Aurora and a few other Republican papers that the eyes of the people will be opened …”
Today, President Adams revokes U.S. government recognition (exequaturs) for French Consul General Joseph Philippe Létombe (Philadelphia), for French Vice-Consuls Rosier (New York) and Arcambal (Newport), and for French Consul Charles Mozard (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island).528
Today, from Mount Vernon, George Washington writes John Adams,
It was not possible for me to remain ignorant of, or indifferent to, recent transactions. The conduct of the Directory of France towards our Country … their various practices to withdraw the affections of the people from it; the evident tendency of their Arts and those of their agents to countenance and invigorate opposition;… could not fail to excite in me corresponding sentiments with those my countrymen have so generally expressed in their Affectionate addresses to you. Believe me, sir, no one can more cordially approve of the wise and prudent measures of your Administration.529
Today, at this dar
k hour in our country’s history, a great personal tragedy befalls my family. Today, in our meager living quarters next to a hot, smoke-filled alley, my wife, Catherine, dies of cholera.530 Three of us got cholera this year, Catherine, William John, and I.531 Now Catherine has died from it, and I must be father and mother to the children. When we married in Ireland twenty years ago, Catherine was only seventeen, and I was nineteen. She was Protestant; I was Catholic. After our wedding, my mother shunned Catherine and disinherited me. Mother died a few years later.532 During nine of the last twelve years, Catherine and I lived apart, she remaining in Ireland while I worked for newspapers in India and England. We reunited for the trip to America, but it hasn’t turned out well for Catherine.533 As Poor Richard said,
A good Wife lost is God’s Gift lost.534
My son, William John, now 18, can help with the other children, and William John has a job with Benny Bache as a clerk at the Aurora (where I am now working full-time).535 The Baches are good friends to the Duanes, and the Duanes will be good friends to them. Especially in times like these, as Poor Richard wrote,
No better relation than a prudent & faithful Friend.536
Jimmy Callender is gone. Though Jimmy Callender has insulated himself from the Alien Acts by citizenship, President Adams will sign the Sedition Act tomorrow. Jimmy has said his “good-byes,” left his four children in the care of his tobacconist friend Thomas Leiper, and is the first Republican scribbler to flee the federal government.537