SURGO UT PROSIM
The Freedom of the Press is the Bulwark of Liberty …
B. F. BACHE, EDITOR,
AURORA GENERAL ADVERTISER, 1790-17981693
Philadelphia, October 13, 1798.
Caesar Rodney
Sir, Mrs. Bache, having lain in [with her new child] only a few days before her husband’s decease and having nonetheless attended him day and night, has been obliged to retire to her father-in law’s [the farm called “Settle”] … The heavy calamity that afflicts this city would alone be a Sufficient cause for troubling you on the present occasion for the Small arrear due to this office; but the death of the late Editor & the State of his Family, with the general Stagnation of Circulation, are doubly pressing motives for paying the discharge of the following bill …
I promise that my effort shall be directed to emulate the former excellence of the Aurora, and to render it as it has hitherto been—the only authentic Source of genuine public information. Educated in the principles & admiration of Franklin and firmly attached to the true interests of my country, I venture to presume that the character of the paper will not Suffer under my guidance.
Wm Duane1694
October 15th, 1798
Tench Coxe, Esq. Philadelphia,
Sir, A report having been spread in town on Saturday that Mrs. [Margaret] Bache was dead, I thought it expedient to go to Settle and ascertain the course I had to pursue in the event of the report being true. I was happy, however, to find her, all children, and all the family in perfect health.
Your Queries to me (which I had forwarded to her as you desired) she returned …
1. About 700 Subscribers in Philadelphia.
2. About 5 to 600 [additional] in the country …
13. [F]rom some conversations which I had with Mr. B. I suppose that there is due south of the Delaware between 15 & 20,000 Dollars! Mark this plain observation from experience: Newspaper Debts are the worst of all others! …
15. Since the 1st of July there has been near 200 additional subscribers …
I am very anxious to see you and Mr. Clay [executor of Mr. B’s estate], if possible together, in order to mention some matters of the utmost interest to the Aurora.
Your faithful and grateful servant
Wm Duane1695
Peggy Bache and I will reopen the Aurora. Her name will appear on the masthead. I will edit and manage the paper. We each lost a spouse this year. Benny’s four children need a man to take charge of their inheritance. My children need the Aurora, too. My son, William John, now eighteen, has a job at the paper.1696 Besides, I find Peggy Bache a very attractive woman.1697
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PUBLISHED (DAILY) FOR MARGARET H. BACHE …
Under the guidance of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE, this paper has for eight years maintained a character of freedom and intelligence, unrivaled … until calamity for a while arrested its career and deprived society of the Editor.
Of him and his paper—the principles were the same as those … which cherished the imperishable love of liberty in the hour of oppression and which … terminated in the humiliation of our tyrant and the establishment of our national independence. Upon those principles it was that the Aurora was established; upon those alone has it been, with tried constancy, hitherto conducted.
But he whose love of truth and of science, whose zeal to promote the true interest and happiness of his country and the common good of mankind—whose integrity and firmness gave birth and body to the Aurora, is no more …
After such a man … the most earnest efforts of subordinate talents must require a liberal consideration—Upon the principles of the Aurora, upon an undeviating adherence to the principles of our constitution, and an unwearied watchfulness against those eternal foes of republics, avarice, ambition, and corruption—the successor of Benjamin Franklin Bache in the editorial duty confidently relies for public candor and regard.
Efforts have not been wanting to destroy … the credit and interests of this paper—and either to suppress it forever or convert it into a vehicle of atrocious delusion.
Little did the enemies of republican freedom know that among the last and most solemn injunctions made by Benjamin Franklin Bache was that his paper should be continued with inflexible fidelity to the principles upon which it was founded and reared up—an injunction manifesting at once his integrity and the firmness of his mind at the hour of death—it was an injunction which love and honour must cherish and from which virtue could not depart—but such sentiments enter not into the bosoms of the enemies of equal freedom.
[The] moment when calamity had depopulated our city … was chosen by the publisher of a paper … to heap the most malignant aspersions upon the morals and reputation of Benjamin Franklin Bache—at a moment too when he no longer lived to expose the atrocity of the calumny … An apprentice belonging to this office had, soon after the death of the Editor, broke into a store in Market Street and stolen a considerable quantity of goods … Upon these facts, that person who, under the name of Peter Porcupine, confers so much ignominy on the American morals and literature, asserted that the apprentice above mentioned had been trained up to this nefarious mode of life by the late Editor, that the watch which had been stolen was found in this office or house, and that no person was employed in this office who did not carry pistols for such purposes …
[T]he late Editor’s reputation is too much above the reach of [such] detraction …
Matthew Lyon of Vermont has had the honour of being the first victim of a law framed directly in the teeth of the Constitution of this federal republic—the ancients were wont to bestow particular honour on the first citizen who suffered in resisting tyranny.
“Surgo ut prosim.” Today, almost two months after Benny’s death, the Philadelphia Aurora resumes publication. As our masthead motto proclaims, “I rise so that I may be useful. ”
While the Aurora was closed, Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon (whose congressional “spitting” incident prompted Federalist House Speaker Jonathan Dayton to regulate congressional reporting and to expel Benny from the House floor when he refused to cooperate) was in his home state of Vermont, campaigning for reelection to the House of Representatives. In the midst of this campaign, the federal government indicted Matthew Lyon for sedition (October 5), arrested him (October 6), tried him without legal representation (October 8), fined him $1,000, and sentenced him to four months in prison (starting October 9). His “seditious libel” was the claim that President John Adams has demonstrated “a continual grasp for power” and an “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, or selfish avarice,” &c.1698 Today, Vermont Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon is in jail.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Fever is Gone!
NO NEW CASES have occurred for the last 24 hours. We most heartily congratulate our Readers and the Public, upon this state of things, so long anxiously looked for.
Our lately exiled fellow-citizens are returning in crowds; and the Roads in the vicinity of the city, on every quarter, present an aspect resembling the rear of a retreating army [with its baggage and families].
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
One of the counts in the indictment against MATTHEW LYON is that he had insinuated that the President of the United States was devoted to fondness for “ridicule, pomp, idle parade, and selfish avarice.” (What was that Roman’s name that said Heliogabalus was not a plain man, and died for it?)
Should the French land a large army in Ireland, will they be more to blame in assisting the Irish to establish an elective government, like ours, than the English were in assisting … to restore the old absolute military despotism of France …? … If the Irish wish for an elective government and freedom for other religious societies besides the church of England … will they be more to blame in asking for and using foreign assistance tha
n we were? Will the French who sent us a fleet, an army, clothing, arms, ammunition, and money be more blamable for giving the Irish such assistance? If Washington, Rochambeau and [La]Fayette took Cornwallis at York Town, why may not an Irish general and one or two French generals take Cornwallis in Dublin? If taxation and representation in 1775 were held to be inseparable for two millions of Americans who made many of their own provincial laws, why ought they not to be held inseparable for three millions of Catholics in Ireland who have not had (Great God of Liberty) a single vote ?
Thomas Adams, editor of the [Republican] Independent Chronicle at Boston, was arrested by Colonel Bradford, Marshal of that district, and brought before the Circuit Court to answer to an indictment found against him by the grand jury, for sundry libellous and seditious publications in his paper tending to defame the government of the United States …
While the Aurora was closed, the Adams administration moved to disable the nation’s next-largest1699 republican newspaper, the Independent Chronicle of Boston, Massachusetts, indicting Chronicle publisher Thomas Adams under the new federal Sedition Law for “sundry libellous and seditious publications.” The government arraigned Thomas Adams about a week ago (October 23) before Judges William Paterson and John Lowell at the Federal Circuit Court in Boston, where bail was set and Thomas Adams ordered to stand trial in June.1700
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
COMMUNICATION.
On Thursday, the AURORA again made its appearance to disgrace the city and heap indignities on our Government. The Aurora, I am informed, is conducted by one DUANE, a wretch, who not long since emigrated to this country, was some months ago turned out of the House of Representatives by the Speaker for his insolence … at a time when Duane [was] a short-hand writer;—this Duane is also said to be the miscreant who wrote, under the assumed name of [Jasper] Dwight, the infamous letter to our immortal WASHINGTON—and such a character as this, by Mrs. Bache and her friends, has been thought worthy of conducting the Aurora.
The first paper published for Mrs. Bache by this reptile contains the following observation —
“Matthew Lyon of Vermont has had the honour of being the first victim of a law framed directly in the teeth of the Constitution of this Federal Republic—the ancients were wont to bestow particular honour on the first citizen who suffered in resisting tyranny.”
We would have believed that Americans had submitted to indignities enough from the conduct of the French government … but it appears that our degradation was not complete, and the American people are to be obliged to Mr. Duane for coming to this country to inform them that a LAW made by their government, and declared to be a constitutional law by the Judiciary (the only constitutional judges) is a law …“directly in the teeth of the constitution.” … On the abandoned profligacy and unbounded insolence of this miscreant, I make no comment … Our government protects our property from the plunder of United Irishmen, our lives from the knife of the assassin; therefore, our government should be dear to us … [T]hose creatures coming into this country in a state of extreme wretchedness and, having acquired in their country a talent of defaming government, immediately begin here their trade in order to gain a subsistence, and this they call “the sacred liberty of the press.” … But alas! do we find every good American manfully stepping forward to crush this abandoned faction, formed of a few profligate Americans, late tenants of [N]ewgate [prison] and our own gaols; of United Irishmen, and fugitives from Scotland, of Frenchmen, and other restless foreigners, who have everything to gain and nothing to lose …
The friends of our government, believing its conduct to be just, wise, and upright, too much despise and disregard the vile slanders of a Duane, a Bache, and a [“Newgate”] Lloyd, while those creatures by our supineness are daily gaining ground …
AN AMERICAN
(I myself have read this first paper published in the name of MRS. BACHE … I by no means look upon DUANE or any other vagabond journalist newsmonger as the proper object of attack. The proprietor of the paper, the person whose name it bears, who causes it to be published, is the only one who is responsible for its contents either in the eye of reason or the eye of the law. That person, therefore, whether bearded or unbearded, whether dressed in breeches or petticoats, whether a male or female sans-culotte, shall receive no quarter from me … [William Cobbett])
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1798
War … Today, in the Atlantic, north of the French West Indies, a French privateer captures an armed American schooner. A report:
Thomas M’Connell, who was captured in the schooner Highlander, of Baltimore, mounting 12 guns and carrying 22 men … informed Captain Willis that, … in lat. 19, 10, long 59,00, he fell in with a French privateer, from Guadaloupe, mounting 12 guns, 9 and 6 pounders, with 96 men and 80 muskets, whom he engaged for three glasses. In the beginning of the action, M’Connell’s first mate was shot thro’ the right shoulder and his second killed; and owing to the superior number of men and musquetry on board the enemy, was obliged to strike. M’Connell had three seamen and one officer killed, first officer and one seaman wounded—The enemy had 8 killed, and 3 wounded and received much damage in the hull and rigging which obliged them to put into Bassaterre to repair, where they carried M’Connell and crew whom they immediately put into jail … Capt. M’Connell received the worst of treatment and bad language from the French during his confinement. The only name they called him and the rest of the prisoners was “John Adams’s Jack Asses.”1701
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
While the late editor of this paper lived, all the sluices of English vulgarity … were constantly pouring forth in torrents against him from the pen of the noted English corporal Porcupine, but with no other effect than … a sense of shame for the society that tolerated … it …
[T]he upholders of the present English government will never cease to hate the memory of Dr. Franklin, and they would carry their hatred into a curse on all his posterity, if possible, for his having torn, by the force of his genius, this new empire from the baneful bondage of Britain … [A]spersions o[n] that venerable man were resorted to with the varied view of pleasing the envious rivals of his former celebrity … and wounding the repose of his grandson; but with the like effect;—Franklin’s fame was no longer under the conservation of filial duty or family reverence; it belonged to his country and to history—upon the American nation every aspersion cast on Franklin must rest; when he ceases to be revered by his country, his country will cease to be respected …
[T]he English jackal [Porcupine] … pursued his grandson likewise to the grave—and endeavored to heap calumny on his memory whom he had not the courage to face while yet he lived. That calumny was exposed … in our paper last Thursday … [T]he assassin of the dead being exposed to public execration … comes forth with a threat, and against whom—a woman, and a widow—and for what? For defending the reputation of her husband …
One word more, and then let public shame perform the rest—Whenever the writer of the articles in Porcupine’s paper of Saturday thinks fit to call at this office, he shall see the person who wrote the defence of the late Editor published in last Thursday’s Aurora, who also is the writer of this; and who, whether in petticoats or breeches, will be ready to give him suitable satisfaction!
Porcupine and Fenno will find me a tireless defender of Ben Franklin and the Baches. If we don’t take Peggy’s name off the masthead, however, Peggy will become the principal focus for Fenno’s and Porcupine’s attacks.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It is either true or false that Mr. Adams has advocated the doctrine of hereditary rank and permanent office. If he has advocated such doctrines, it is high time the fact should be known and established … [T]he leaders of what is called the federal or government party have advocated the political conduct and principles of Mr. Adams … To decide, therefore, whether this ap
probation be given to acts founded on sound republican virtue or to those which may emanate from a principle destructive of the present form of our constitution, and unfriendly to the habits and feelings of the people, is an enquiry of infinite importance …
This afternoon, Jack Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
Two young Widows have just commenced their Editorial careers … [O]ne cannot too much admire at the bungling stupidity of the logger-headed boobies … under the sanction of those ladies’ names …
The other “young Widow” who “commenced her Editorial career” is Ann Greenleaf, who is trying to continue the nation’s third-largest1702 Republican paper, the New York Argus, after the death of her husband, Thomas Greenleaf, on September 14th from yellow fever.1703
Tonight, William Cobbett in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
MOTHER BACHE.
Has published a second number of her infamous Gazette, with her name at the head of it. I now look upon her as having declared herself. Her friends (if she yet has any) can no longer plead her ignorance of her name being made use of, and I shall, therefore, treat her as the profligate Authoress of the Aurora.—Adieu, PEG, ‘till I have a moment’s leisure.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Philadelphia presents the novel case of a ruffian … standing forth before the public the avowed assailant of a feeble woman, when the wretch dares not meet the man who alone is responsible for what appears in this paper.
The proprietors of the Argus and Aurora have the misfortune to be left widows, and behold the age of chivalry is not past, neither their sex nor their misfortunes can shield them from the attacks of two military heroes, two corporals—corporal Fenno and corporal Porcupine.
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