JEFFERSON.
This philosopher seems to have been so stung by certain reflections which I published … that all his philosophy could not restrain him from an act of spite … I did not see his communications to Duane ‘till about an hour ago. It is, therefore, out of my power to comment on them ‘til Monday which I shall then do in a letter addressed to myself. I will prove clearly that he communicated Mr. Short’s and my letter to Duane, and after that, I think that no one will blame me for condescending to return him my thanks for his kindness …
Mother Bache and good man, Duane, have published some parts of the late European News; but they are devilishly sparing of their comments. They used to comment a good deal; but, as the Sans-culottes are nearly driven out of Italy, I suppose the sympathetick Widow is in tears, lest “the horrible practice of castration” should be revived …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
William Duane, who has been hired for some time past to conduct Bache’s Aurora, was brought up before Judge [Richard] Peters, on Friday morning, and bound, himself in 2000 dollars, and two sureties in 1000 dollars each.
His trial is expected to come on before Judge Paterson, in October next.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1799.
Today, Elijah Griffiths writes Thomas Jefferson:
[T]he republican interest has gain’d rapidly the last 6 months in this State [of Pennsylvania] … If the Aurora finds its way into your neighborhood, the whiping business which follow’d the Northampton expedition … must be known to you. Those things must have taken place through want of policy … (They) very sensibly lessen’d the popularity of the party in Pennsylvania & New Jersey … (and) may probably have that effect elsewhere … (so there is) no doubt of Mr. Thomas McKean being Elected to the Governor’s chair [in Pennsylvania] by a very respectable majority.1836
Today, from Mount Vernon, George Washington writes Secretary of State Timothy Pickering:
[A] question which I intended to propound … I find solved in the Aurora which came to hand last night.
The question I allude to is whether the officers of Government intended to be acquiescent under the direct charge of bribery, exhibited in the most aggrivated terms by the Editor of the above paper? The most dangerous consequences would in my opinion have flowed from such silence and therefore could not be overlooked, and yet I am persuaded that if a rope a little longer had been given him, he would have hung himself up something worse, if, possible, for there seems to be no bounds to his attempts to destroy all confidence that the people might and (without sufficient proof of its demerits) ought to have in their government; thereby dissolving it and producing a disunion of the States. That this is the object of such Publications as the Aurora … those who “run may read.” …
They dare not, at present, act less under cover, but they unfold very fast and, like untimely fruit or flowers forced in a hot bed, will, I hope …, soon wither and in principle die away …
All of the Administration or some of the members are now to look for it, for Mr. Duane, I perceive, in his address to the public on the occasion of his arrest, has assured it “that he has not published a fact which he cannot prove, and that neither persecution nor any other peril to which bad men may expose him can make him swerve from the cause of republicanism.”1837
Secretary of State Pickering has instituted proceedings against me for claiming John Adams wrote of British influence in the Washington administration. For the article in yesterday’s Aurora, a federal indictment will include:
THE Grand Inquest of the United States of America for the Pennsylvania District … do present that William Duane … being an ill-disposed person designing and intending to defame the government of the United States … and to cause it to be believed that the President and principal executive officers of the said United States were bribed and corrupted … on the third day of August … wickedly and maliciously did print … in a certain newspaper called the Aurora … “That British influence should be employed in the America … or British money is not so surprising …”1838
I will answer all these indictments in the sedition trial that is scheduled to occur in October (when the Pennsylvania federal court reconvenes).
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
KEYSTONE OF DEMOCRACY
Pennsylvania, seated in the centre of the United States, wealthy, populous, commercial, and extensive as it is, must, while the present division of sentiment subsists between … [the northern and southern] parts of our country, direct and govern its policy … [T]he influence of Pennsylvania in the scale of American consequence would be immense … The effects then of the election of governor will be incalculable …
JOHN WARD FENNO, EDITOR,
GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1798–18001839
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BRITISH INFLUENCE! …
The declaration of American independence was the proud national instrument which first declared to nations that All Men are EQUAL. This illustrious and immortal memorial of American wisdom and American virtue … has scintillated over the whole Universe:—this grand and indelible register of Man’s Right and of the wrongs of a nation at the hands of a tyrant gave at once a deadly blow to every class of meretricious distinctions and absurd titles—It established the right of men … to govern themselves …
Notwithstanding the efforts made, and the plan of monarchical government presented by [Federalist leader] Alexander Hamilton to the [constitutional] convention, the whole stupendous efforts of British intrigues and corruption were not sufficient to smother the primitive principles of our revolution.
A circumstance transpired on Friday night last which must eminently tend to convince the citizens of the danger in which they will be exposed as soon as a mercenary standing army is quartered among them … About eleven o’clock, two … soldiers went into the tavern of Mr. Davis near Fell’s Point market-house; they appeared to be intoxicated, and pressed a man in the house to play at cards for money—Mr. Davis assured them that he would not allow gambling in his house; the soldiers insisted, and on Mr. D. ordering them out of the his house, one of them drew his bayonet from the belt and stabbed Mr. D. in the left side; another person interfered, and the second soldier made a lunge with his bayonet which, by the man’s dodging, took him on the left temple and laid the flesh open to the extremity of the back of his head.
These men, with a number of others, we understand, were detached from the fort to support the dignity of government …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Whatever declension has been witnessed by the Aurora, Darby the conductor or Editor if you will, is certainly in better case. It is said of him that he gets his daily allowance of gin “which was not so before,” as will also be seen by an old soliloquy handed us by one of his ci-devant associates:
DARBY DWIGHT’S SOLILOQUY OVER A GIN CASK.
Is this a gin cask that I see before me,
The bung-hole toward my mouth ? Come let me suck thro’— …
I smell thee yet as pungent, and as strong,
As that I PLEDGED MY WATCH FOR …
How did Darby come by this watch? for certain a watch was pledged for gin, and that by Darby.
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
I intended to have saluted my good friend Jefferson this day; but there is a fact or two with respect to which I wanted to be very clear, and which I cannot come at without examining certain pamphlets and papers. This I shall be able to do to-morrow, and the philosopher may expect to hear from me the next day.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The proceedings in York County have [so] shocked the weak nerved of the British faction, they rely now on the exertions of the army! It has been asserted, and with confidence, that the officers of the standing army are to be brought forward to vote at the election—and that their commissions are to be insisted on as their qu
alifications!
An Officer of the standing army now on the recruiting service at a town not a hundred miles from Montgomery County, a few days ago in the presence of a number of respectable citizens, declared that it was his intention to put the Editor of the Aurora to death … The Editor feels as perfectly tranquil on this as on the real attempts of Peter Mierckin … and it is very probable that this military enragé is looking out for promotion, the Editor will not publish his name to disappoint him—but he will inform any one who enquires of him personally, or the gallant hero himself if he should think it eligible to call !
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. EDITOR … At a tavern in Market-street a few days ago, a person who calls himself a Major was blustering very loudly on peace and moderation—among a variety of meek ejaculations, he did not forget to curse the Vice President and Mr. [Alexander James] Dallas and Mr. [Albert] Gallatin and the Editor of the Aurora—he wished heartily to have a guillotine erected for the four and very honorably declared that he would give an hundred dollars to be your Executioner. A CITIZEN
REPUBLICAN GREENS
Parade for exercise out of uniform on THURSDAY evening next, precisely at 6—and every Thursday and Saturday evening till further orders.
WM. DUANE, Captain.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The editor of the Aurora (see that paper of the 6th July), while he acknowledges Mr. Jefferson to be the author of the letter to Mazzei, paraphrases the highly obnoxious and rebellious sentiment it contains in the following toast: “The author of the declaration of independence, who prefers the activity of republicanism to the calm of despotism.” Two insurrections subdued [the rebellion in western Pennsylvania against the Whiskey Tax in 1794 and now the so-called Fries Rebellion of 1799] have not yet taught this man that the lovers of their country know how to sail with safety on Mr. Jefferson’s “tempestuous sea of liberty.” …
[T]he Aurora … prays devoutly that the French may annihilate the British fleet. Such are your lovers of “the tempestuous sea of liberty,” and haters of the present state of order and good government which they denominate, “the calm of despotism.”
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORS OF PENNSYLVANIA. FRIENDS & FELLOW CITIZENS …
[I]t is not on British Authority alone, my friends, that we rest our assertions of a pernicious foreign British influence here. In the year 1792, Mr. John Adams, at this time our president and then our vice president, was so confident of the matter that he suggested it in writing to an officer of the general government and incited that officer keenly to watch the operation and effects of it …
A PENNSYLVANIAN.
The assertion that John Adams witnessed British influence in George Washington’s administration will certainly be part of my federal sedition trial in October.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[Federalists] talk of the passions, prejudices and fears … [T]heir adherents … accused Judge M’Kean … of being a friend to France when they knew he was only the enemy of tyranny and monarchy; of being desirous of a war with Great Britain when he was only solicitous of avoiding a war; … [o]f being an United Irishman, only because he thought the people of Ireland barbarously oppressed …
Today, George Washington writes Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (much is illegible but subject to reasonable surmise):
Recruiting in the … has progressed tolerably well, … others it is at a stand; and indeed … tion that can be … the enemies to our government … In a word, the Aurora, … which emanate from it, … which supports the same … are subordination in … In short, to prostrate … introduce anarchy in the military … have attempted to do in the Civil government of this Country.
When, where, and how such things are to terminate is beyond the reach of human Ken; but … they cannot progress much further without an explosion, indeed … the Aurora (if one … publications) seem desirous … Crisis. His innuendos and charges … longer to be borne, and … to his account (and I have no doubt …) there is a contest in Philadelphia for the honor of becoming his Bail … other things, in language, and … impossible to be misunderstood, the Government is not only accused of being under … [British] influence but of bribery to a considerable amount … [I]f it shall be found that it is all calumny … to poison the minds of the People … punishment ought to be inflicted …1840
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 1799
Today, from Mount Vernon, George Washington writes Secretary of War James McHenry:
There can be no medium between the reward and punishment of an Editor who shall publish such things as Duane has been doing for sometime past. On what ground then does he pretend to stand in his exhibition of the charges or the insinuations which he has handed to the Public? … I hope and expect that the Prosecutors will probe this matter to the bottom. It will have an unhappy effect on the public mind if it be not so … 1841
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
AN APPRENTICE WANTED TO THE PRINTING BUSINESS.
Enquire at this office.
Today, Benny Bache would have been thirty years old.
Today, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes the U.S. district attorney for New York:
The audacious calumnies against the Government, with which many of the presses devoted to promote the views of France and of opposition to our own Government have lately teemed in a more than usual degree, have suggested the necessity of efficient measures to correct them by legal process. In particular, a paper is published in New York, under the title of the “Argus,” which possesses the character of extreme virulence. It is not received at my office, but, from the passages which are studiously copied from it into the Aurora, I am satisfied that that character is not improperly ascribed to it. I request that you procure it daily at the public expense and to prosecute the publisher for every libel upon the Government.1842
Secretary Pickering also writes the U.S. district attorney for Maryland:
[A] paper is published in Baltimore, under the title of the “American,” which possesses the character of extreme virulence … [F]rom the passages which are studiously copied from it into the Aurora … I request that you procure it daily at the public expense and prosecute the publisher for every libel upon the Government.1843
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine writes:
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON …
SIR, In the Aurora of the 1st instant, there appeared two letters … [T]he story told by your friend Duane, respecting the channel through which he came by the letters, is a LIE.
Your friend Duane (who formerly inhabited the jails of Calcutta) states that the copies were received from a person who saw them at Wilmington … You and Duane may endeavor to persuade people that this is the truth; but the most stupid, even your stupid partizans, will never believe you … What share you had in this falsehood I cannot pretend to say; but as it is certain that you, and you alone, could furnish copies of the letters and as they came forth accompanied with a lie intended to persuade the public that you did not furnish them, it is by no means unfair to presume that if you were not the inventor of the falsehood yourself, you gave your consent … to the making use a falsehood of some kind or another …
[Duane claims] that I was sent out by the British government to carry on the business of corruption … But, Sir, was it not strange that the British Government should choose such an instrument as I was ? Their diplomatic corps must be very weak if they were compelled to beat up for recruits amongst the non-commissioned officers of a regiment of foot … Besides, there is another consideration in which you, my dear Jefferson, were deeply involved; if the British Government did really send me out to prosecute the work of corruption, how came they to send me to YOU in particular? Your reputation was, by them, as well kno
wn then as now …
What must the statesmen of other countries … think of a VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES entering into a literary warfare with a PRINTER and taking, for an auxiliary, a man who confesses he was driven from the British dominion, after having inhabited its jail ?
These questions, Sir, are asked by the people, and, therefore, you who are “the man of the people” ought to answer them …
Wm. COBBETT
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BRITISH INFLUENCE !
From the moment that Britain failed to subject us by arms—she resolved to pursue our humiliation by perfidy—the peace of 1783 was scarcely concluded, when laws calculated to cramp and obstruct our commerce were introduced into the British parliament …
Today, John Adams responds to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering’s letter of August 1st (which enclosed Thomas Cooper’s farewell address, as it appeared in the July 12th Aurora):
And now, Sir, what shall I say to you on the subject of “libels and satires ? Lawless things, indeed.” I have received your private letter of the 1st of this month …
At the time when we were inquiring for an agent to conduct the affairs of the United States before the [British] commissioners at Philadelphia, Mr. Cooper wrote to me a solicitation for that appointment … Mr. Read was appointed, and the disappointed candidate is now, it seems, indulging his revenge. A meaner, a more artful, or a more malicious libel has not appeared. As far as it alludes to me, I despise it; but I have no doubt it is a libel against the whole government; and as such, ought to be prosecuted …1844
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