For The Prospect Before Us, Jimmy Callender will suffer the penalties of the Sedition Act.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A Salem paper (Massachusetts) calls the proposition for renewing the laws for a popular election in Pennsylvania an effort of Jacobinism—these people sometimes speak very plainly—tho’ cunning as they are no one can mistake them.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[I]nteresting events have recently taken place in France … A counter-revolutionary plot appears to have been deeply laid … The ark of the republic appears to have been tossed about … [T]he Constitution of the 3rd year was annihilated, … [Napoleon’s] Consulate established on its ruins …
The advocates of Representative Government admired the distinction of legislative power and the control of the popular over the Executive authority. They admired the plurality of the Executive, as it gave five men responsible for executive acts instead of One …
[F]eatures in the Constitution were objects of dislike, but freemen were indulgent to a system … which in its spirit and arrangement carried all the grand principles of social and human happiness into operation and laid down as its basis the immutable and eternal rights of man …
Time may yet develop new facts upon which the recent changes may be more accurately weighed …
Napoleon Bonaparte, who commands the armies of France, has seized dictatorial control of France!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PARIS … Letter from the minister for foreign affairs [of France] to the foreign ministers [of other states].
SIR, I HAVE the honour to inform you that the consuls of the French republic have taken into their hands the reins of government …REINARD
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Tom Paine, awake only at every new revolution, lately sent a bundle of constitutions to Buonaparte …
Since the French Republic is overthrown, we shall probably hear so many alarms sounded respecting the danger [to] Republican Liberty from despotic conspiracies …
After denying during many days the authenticity of the late news, the Aurora people at length believed it, because Mr. Jefferson believed it …
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PARIS … Every one is endeavouring to recollect all the circumstances by which persons might have predicted the revolution which has just taken place.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes;
The late [counter]revolution in France appears to us an unequivocal decision of the popular sentiment in favor of Royalty. The sovereign people sacrificed the old government and zealously cooperated in seating the new into power under the hopes of thereby approximating the conclusion of a peace. As peace cannot be concluded or hoped for with the dominant moonshine usurpers, there can be little doubt that a consciousness of this will lead them to reinstate their lawful monarch; or that the people, finding peace not attainable through their means, will … themselves restore their exiled King.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Hamilton’s late defence of “kiss and tell” is said to be bought up by the friends of that gentleman. Should any friend to liberty have been so fortunate as to have saved one copy, the loan of it is requested …
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
Mr. Ross [Federalist, Pennsylvania], from the committee appointed the 28th of January last, reported a bill prescribing the mode of deciding elections of President and Vice President of the United States, which was read and ordered to a second reading.1895
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Several enquiries have been made at the Aurora office to know what is the nature and purpose of the Caucuses or secret meetings which have been held a few evenings past in the [United States] Senate Chamber, as if “the Aurora” must of necessity be in the secret … We candidly confess we are not in the secret on this occasion, but we shrewdly suspect what is going on …
I. Measures of intrigue, influence, and reconciliation concerning the Election for President.
II. Plans for encreasing the influence of the federal and diminishing that of the state legislatures …
The Pennsylvania state senate is preventing Pennsylvania from expressing its popular preference for Thomas Jefferson. Will the United States Senate prevent the nation from doing the same?
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
JUST PUBLISHED AND TO BE HAD
AT THE OFFICE OF THE AURORA …
portrait of the Hon. THOMAS JEFFERSON, engraved by AKIN and HARRISON, jun. from the picture now in the Museum painted by C. W. Peale
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The civil dissensions in Pennsylvania threaten the complete disenfranchisement of the citizens at the ensuing election for President and Vice president.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18. 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MR. EDITOR, I HAVE often doubted of the necessity … of two houses of Legislature … [T]here is some reason to doubt whether we (the people) have not lost. upon the whole, by the change that took place [in the Pennsylvania constitution] about the year 1790 …
Dr. Franklin (a name no longer popular among the well-born, the well-bred, and the fashionable adherents of our present rulers) was decidedly averse to the modern doctrine of checks and balances, nor could I ever understand the theory … [A] few considerations … lead me to doubt whether we ought not to abolish or to modify the Senate of the State of Pennsylvania …
[H]ow can we justify the absurdity of appointing our [Pennsylvania] Senate for four years and our immediate representatives [in the Pennsylvania House] for one year only?
Let us look to fact. [H]as there or has there not been a considerable change in public sentiment within the last four years? and do we not see that our house of assembly does, and our senate does not, represent that change ? …
[I]t appears that a government of 2 houses has been carried on at double the expence, on the average, which the government of one branch formerly cost us …
The only argument remaining … in favour of two houses is the alleged party spirit and precipitancy of one house … But this precipitancy has never been an evil of equal magnitude with the frequency of opposition of opinion between the Senate and the public … and the obstinate adherence that has sometimes occurred [among senators] to principles and practices directly opposed to those which the majority of their constituents are known to approve. The projects of the present dispute on the election law respecting electors … are not the only proofs …
C.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In our paper of the 27th ult. we noticed the introduction of a measure into the Senate of the United States by Mr. James Ross calculated to influence and affect the approaching presidential election …
We this day lay before the public a copy of that bill as it has passed the Senate. We noticed a few days ago the Caucuses (or secret consultations) held in the Senate Chamber … We stated that intrigues for the presidential election were among the objects. We now state it as a fact … that the bill we this day present was discussed at the Caucus on Wednesday evening last …
A BILL..
SECT. I. Be it enacted … That … the Senate and House [shall] choose by ballot, in each house, six members thereof, and the twelve persons thus chosen, together with the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States … shall form a Grand Committee and shall have the power to examine and finally decide all disputes relating to the election of President and Vice President of the United States …
SECT. 5. And be it fur
ther enacted, That … [the Committee] shall sit with closed doors …
SECT. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Grand Committee shall have power to enquire, examine, decide … upon the constitutional qualifications of the Electors appointed by the different states … upon all petitions and exception against … improper means used to influence their votes or against the truth of their returns [&c.] …
SECT. 10. And be it further enacted, That on the first day of March … the grand Committee shall make their final report … stating the legal number of [electoral] votes for each person [for President and Vice President] and the number of votes which have been rejected: the report shall be a final and conclusive determination …
SECT. 11. And be it further enacted, That when the grand committee shall have been duly formed … it shall not be in the power of either house [of Congress] to dissolve the committee or to withdraw its members …
With one member of this committee (the Chief Justice) appointed by the President (subject to U.S. Senate approval) and six members of this committee appointed by the senate itself, this committee’s majority will have a monarchical and aristocratical veto on whether Thomas Jefferson becomes president!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Fenno says, “the civil dissentions in Pennsylvania threaten to complete the disenfranchisement of the citizens at the ensuing election.” This is a more candid declaration than we could have expected from that quarter—it remains, however, untold by him that his friends are the authors of these dissentions—that they are caused by a contempt of the public will … That the member of the [U.S.] Senate who that faction sought to force upon the people as governor has been the mover and author of a bill in the federal senate of the most dangerous tendency to the constitution and liberties of this state and calculated in a particular case to bring in a judge appointed by the president of the United States to be an umpire in the legislative rights of this state and on the elective rights of the people. It is candid therefore in Fenno to acknowledge that the people of Pennsylvania are in danger of being disfranchised.
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate resumed consideration of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States.
On motion to strike out … It passed in the negative, yeas 11, nays 19 …1896
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It appears that the Bill which we published a few days ago, concerning a kind of Venetian Council of 12, proposed to be instituted to determine upon our state elections, has not yet passed the Senate of the U.S.
The republican interest in New York state are endeavoring to obtain a general election ticket as Virginia has done and as Pennsylvania has hitherto had with universal satisfaction. The people of New York, by a vast majority, are in favour of a general ticket, but by an artful course of measures steadily pursued in that as in other states, the election of legislators and other public servants is in fact carried on in a great measure by an aristocratical junto.
Federalists in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania state legislatures refuse to allow statewide popular elections to decide who gets these states’ presidential electors. They know that Thomas Jefferson could win such a statewide popular vote and have, therefore, retained the electoral choice to themselves. To alter the predictable outcome, Republicans will have to win control of the state legislatures, and the first opportunity to do so comes at the end of April, when New York holds its election for the state legislature.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A transaction in our [Pennsylvania] state legislature took place on Thursday last which exceeds even the memorable transaction in Congress upon which the Speaker Dayton forgot the dignity of his station … In the morning sitting, the [Pennsylvania] house had under consideration … the election law … Mr. Fisher … met with Dr. Logan and began to insult him … Fisher called him a damn’d puppy—Logan called him a rascal on which he received a blow in the face from Fisher. The Doctor struck at him … [S]everal blows were given by different persons …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Aurora tells us that the dissentions in the Legislature have terminated in blows; and That Doctor Logan has been beaten up and laid up by Mr. Fisher.
HARRISBURG … We are credibly informed that his Excellency Thomas M’Kean was knocked down with a brick-bat while walking the streets of Lancaster by one Moses Simons who is said to be insane. It is said his Excellency was taken up almost lifeless.
Occurrences on board the United States ship Constellation of 28 guns, under my command, Feb 1, 1800 …
[A]t half past 7, A. M…. saw a sail … I discovered … she was a heavy French frigate … I was determined to continue the pursuit … I gained a position on his weather port … [T]hus a close and as sharp an action as ever was fought commenced …
[CAPT.] THOMAS TRUXTON
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[I]t appears by the letter which we extract from Fenno’s paper from Captain Truxton that he resolved to challenge the French frigate to action …
The people of the United States have unequivocally expressed their unwillingness for offensive war. A negociation has been set on foot to procure … a fair understanding with the French nation. How comes it then that an officer, deriving his authority from the executive, from the first public servant of the people should commit such acts as violate the express will of the people … ?
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
A motion was made by MR. DAYTON [Federalist, New Jersey] that it be resolved
Resolved, That a Committee of Privileges, consisting of—members, be appointed to continue during the present session.
Ordered, That it lie for consideration until tomorrow.1897
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A prosecution has been commenced on an Eastern Printer [Anthony Haswell of the Vermont Gazette] for publishing an extract from [U.S. War Secretary] Mr. M’Henry’s letter … recommending Tories as fit persons to hold commissions in the army under a government the principles of which they hate.
Today, in the Senate of the United States, the Annals of Congress report:
The Senate took into consideration the motion made yesterday that a standing Committee of Privileges … be appointed …
Resolved, That a Committee of Privileges, consisting of five members, be appointed to continue during the present session.
And, on motion to agree to the motion as amended, it passed in the affirmative—yeas 22, nays 7 …
A motion was made by Mr. TRACY [Federalist, Connecticut], that it be,
Resolved, That the Committee of Privileges be, and they are hereby, directed to enquire who is the editor of the newspaper printed in the city of Philadelphia, called the General Advertiser, or Aurora, and by what means the editor became possessed of the copy of the bill … which was printed in the aforesaid newspaper, published Wednesday morning, the 19th inst … And generally to enquire the origin of sundry assertions in the same paper, respecting the Senate of the United States, and the members thereof, in their official capacity, and why the same were published …
Ordered, That this motion lie for consideration.
The Senate resumed the second reading of the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of the president and Vice President of the United States; and after progress, adjourned.1898
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes Samuel Adams of Boston,
A letter from you, my respectable friend, after three & twenty years of separation, has given me a pleasure that I cannot express … Your principles have been tested in the crucible of time & have come out. You have
proved that it was monarchy & not merely British monarchy you opposed. A government by representatives, elected by the people at short periods, was our object; and our maxim at that day was, “where annual election ends, tyranny begins. “Nor have our departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects …1899
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes:
It ought to be remembered that the great object with the antifederalists now is the election of Mr. Jefferson as President of the United States in opposition to Mr. Adams. As to the cause of France, they care nothing about it any farther than they can make it subservient to their own views, more especially since the late change in that government which they confessedly do not understand …
The antifederalists may preach up the virtues of their candidate, but the writer of this will consider the day on which they succeed in their election as the commencement of a revolution …
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A lawyer, whose federalism is of the highest tone, but who seldom speaks upon politics unless when he expresses the sentiments of his party, said a few evenings ago that it was in vain for the federalists to go against popular opinion while “The Aurora” was suffered to exist—to proceed in the next election or in any other measure, it was necessary first to begin with pulling down that paper—or its present Editor!!
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