American Aurora
Page 104
Judge Paterson charged the jury that … it [was not] necessary that the defendant should have written the defamatory matter. It was issued in his paper, it is enough.
The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty, and the court sentenced the defendant to a fine of two hundred dollars and an imprisonment of two months.1959
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Republican faction have carried every point at New York … Republican Senators are also elected for the District, of which the city is a component part, notwithstanding there was a small majority against them in the City. Thirteen Republican members for the Districts are also elected to the lower House of Assembly by a majority of 445. The result gives a dead majority to the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, even tho’ M’Kean should not carry his point [in Pennsylvania].
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The result of the New York election must speak to the federal administration in a very emphatical manner how general and decisive the public opinion is against their measures and the baleful policy they have pursued …
[T]here is a class … of people who always adore the rising sun …
The character of Mr. Jefferson is attacked … in the federal prints of New York, and what has been the effect? … Good Mr. Secretary Hamilton … did not frighten the Democrats out of their votes. Mr. Secretary Hamilton is about to sell the copyright of his [adultery] defence (secured according to law) to John Ward Fenno, who is soon to favour the world with a new edition … By this bargain, it is probable the immaculate General, the assailant of Jefferson, will make the eleven hundred dollars which he confesses Mrs. Reynolds cost him!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The state of our country in its domestic and foreign relations has not exhibited so promising a prospect, since the establishment of the federal constitution …
Mr. Adams in his extraordinary book [the Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States] … bestowed great pains on the principle of the balance …
The balance of public opinion appears, however, to be the most effectual … It is by public opinion, addressing itself freely to the actions of men entrusted with power, that freedom can be maintained …
While writing this article, the Editor has received a letter from New York … [with] a new and extraordinary instance of the confirmed depravity of a faction …
Extract of a letter to the Editor, dated New-York, May 4th, 1800 … “Their despondency approaches to the melancholy of despair; at a party meeting held last night, it was suggested that Mr. Jay [the Governor] should immediately call the old legislature of this state together and that they should invest him with the power of chusing the Electors of President and Vice President in order to prevent the effects of the recent change in the people’s minds from taking effect. Whether this will be attempted by Mr. Jay or not is uncertain. But when it was urged that it might lead to a civil war … a person present observed that a civil war would be preferable to having Jefferson … It might suit the abandoned politics of Hamilton and Pickering …”
Today, unaware that this morning’s Aurora has revealed his plan to overturn the New York election results, Federalist party leader Alexander Hamilton writes New York Governor John Jay:
You have been informed of the loss of our Election in this City … The moral certainty … is that there will be an Anti-Federal Majority in the ensuing Legislature; and the very high probability is that this will bring Jefferson into the Chief Magistracy, unless it can be prevented by … the immediate calling together of the existing Legislature … [I]n times like these in which we live, it will not do to be over scrupulous … The calling of the Legislature will have for object the choosing of Electors by the people in Districts. This (as Pennsylvania will do nothing) will ensure a majority of votes in the United States for Federal candidates …
In weighing this suggestion, you will doubtless bear in mind that Popular Governments must certainly be overturned & while they endure prove engines of mischief …1960
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
MR. FENNO, IN your paper of the 5th of this month I have read a paragraph which reads that “the result of the election in New York ascertains the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency.” I do firmly believe this to be an erroneous prediction. I trust this country is not yet so abandoned of God.
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter from New York, May 7 th. 1800 …
Thus you see, my friend, that the eyes of our yeomanry have been opened and in spite of all the threats of the anglo-federalists, republicanism has triumphed beyond our most sanguine expectations.—
New York Governor John Jay will not accept Alexander Hamilton’s plan to overturn the New York elections. Popular opinion won’t allow it. One the most active Republicans in the New York election, Mathew Davis, explains:
The result of the election was announced on the 2d of May. On the 3d of May, in the evening, a select and confidential Federal[ist] caucus was held. On the 4th a letter was written to William Duane, editor of the Aurora, stating that it was determined by the caucus to solicit Governor Jay to convene the existing [holdover] legislature forthwith for the purpose of changing the mode of choosing electors for president and placing it in the hands of the people by districts. The effects of such a measure would have been to neutralize the State of New-York, and … would have secured to the federal party their president and vice-president. The letter was published in the Aurora of the [7th] … of May and called forth the denunciations of those Federal papers whose conductors were not in [on] the secret … One of the New-York city papers reprinted the letter, and thus closes its commentary on it:—“Where is the American who will not detest the author of this infamous lie? If there is a man to be found who will sanction this publication, he is the worst of Jacobins!”1961
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Among other wise projects, lately brought forward in Congress, is the establishment of a national library at Washington … [B]ooks be purchased … Adams’s Defence of the American Constitutions—Porcupine’s edition … The Cuckold’s Chronicle for the use of General Hamilton …
Today, still distraught over the New York election result, John Adams demands Timothy Pickering’s resignation as Secretary of State and announces his decision to disband the federal army which Alexander Hamilton now commands.1962
Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
ELECTIONS OF PRESIDENT.
A message was received from the Senate informing that House that the Senate adhere to their disagreement to the amendments to the bill prescribing the mode of deciding elections of President and Vice President of the United States, made by this House and subsequently insisted on Whereupon
Mr. HARPER moved that this House do also adhere to their disagreement to recede; which was carried, and the bill, consequently, is lost.1963
The Ross bill is defeated. The Aurora has won. Peter Porcupine will confess,
This Bill was a sweeper. It would, had it passed into law, have in reality placed the election of the President in the hands of the Senate alone. That it would be much better for the country … is certain, but … [t]o lead the sovereign people through the farce of an election when the choice was finally to be made by thirteen men, seven of whom were to be nominated by the Senate, was a departure from frankness …1964
MONDAY, MAY 12, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
ADDRESS
AT a moment when the national legislature is about to take its final departure from this city, the Editor is bound to offer … a few considerations which appear to be necessary on this occasion.
From the moment that the destinies of these states appeared to be committed on
the issues of a fatal treaty [the Jay Treaty of 1795], “The Aurora,” from circumstances unpremeditated but natural, became distinguished as the national paper—here it was that the genius and the virtue of the country rallied round the principles of the revolution and republicanism; here it was that the sparks of virtue … were cherished by the grandson of that sage to whom posterity will give the first claim to the glory of establishing the American nation and liberties.
It has been confessed by the enemies, and it will not be denied by the friends, of the publication that if this paper did not solely keep from total despair the staggering spirits of the persecuted and insulted friends of the republican form of government, it contributed more to sustain those liberties and to retrain the measures and designs of the enemies of free government than any other means.
It is not only discharging a duty of private affection but an act of public justice to call to remembrance and to make known under what efforts of disinterestedness and with what sacrifices Benjamin Franklin Bache persevered to assert the cause of virtue and his country.
This country should not forget, either for the country’s honor, for the honor of republican justice, or for an example to others … how greatly the present auspicious return of the nation from delusion to a just consideration of its true happiness and interests is owing to the free and manfully conducted Press in the hands of Benjamin Franklin Bache …
In that last trying situation it was that, in a document attached to his will, specially designed to secure this paper to his country, he named the present Editor to be his successor—if in executing the trust so honorably confided to him—if in emulating the spirit and constancy of his predecessor, the present editor has obtained the same hatreds and the same friendships—if he has sustained with success and to the advantage of his country the character of the paper and justified the confidence reposed in him—even then a large share of that merit is due to him who made the choice and gave the example.
It is no longer criminal to read “The AURORA”—its subscription list is now so much encreased that with punctual payments and after employing thirteen thousand dollars annually in its unavoidable expences, it will afford a profit of 3,000 dollars a year to the proprietor and encreases daily in circulation and popularity …
The present editor undertook this arduous duty when the prospects of the country or of this establishment were not so flattering; and, under the voluntary assurances and proffers of support of the republican interest of a steady and effectual support, he also undertook the proprietorship of the paper …
Faithfully supported, the AURORA must continue to hold its accustomed rank & utility, notwithstanding the removal of the Legislature … It is the Editor’s intention to be near the Legislature at their future sittings—and to persevere in the same vigilance and industry in the public service which has already obtained for “The Aurora” the unwilling praise of its enemies and the unqualified applause of its friends.
WILLIAM DUANE
Today, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes President Adams:
I had indeed contemplated a continuance in office until the 4th of March next; when, if Mr. Jefferson were elected President (an event which, in your conversation with me last week, you considered certain) I expected to go out, of course … I do not feel it my duty to resign …1965
John Adams responds immediately:
[Y]ou are hereby discharged from any further service as Secretary of State.1966
It’s a day of celebration! Thomas Jefferson stops by the offices of the Philadelphia Aurora,1967 and I attend this afternoon’s anniversary banquet of the Republican Society of St. Tammany (guardian saint of the United States) at the great Wigwam near the Buck on the Passyunk road. When I finish my meal and depart the flower-strewn table, my fellow Republicans toast: “Brother William Duane, three cheers.”1968
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
In the Senate of the United States on Saturday … Mr. Bingham presented the Remonstrance and Petition of the citizens of this city and county, &c. (lately published in the Aurora) praying the honorable Senate to reconsider the extraordinary proceedings in the case of William Duane.
We understand that Mr. Dayton was violently opposed to the permitting this remonstrance to be read—on account of the indecency of the language … complaining of the unconstitutional conduct of the servants of the people …
12 Members appeared against the reading … and 12 members in favor of it. But the President of the Senate [Mr. Jefferson] deciding in the affirmative, the remonstrance was read, to wit:
TO THE SENATE OF THE U. STATES,
THE REMONSTRANCE AND PETITION
Of the undersigned Citizens of the Republic of America, resident in … Philadelphia, respectfully Sheweth:
THAT WE … are fully persuaded that the surest safeguard of the rights and liberties of the people is the freedom of the Press …
[W]e had thought no law could be made by Congress abridging the freedom of the press. But we find by the proceedings of the Senate that the privileges of one house may effect what the constitution has forbidden …
[W]e observe in the proceedings of the senate another sedition law rising up to appall us; a sedition law that defies the counteraction of the laws of the land or the juries of our country …
We had thought that the plain and acknowledged principle of rational justice would have prevented the accusers from being also the judges, jury, and the punishers..
We … respectfully call upon the Senate to reconsider the resolutions by them adopted on the subject of privilege in the case of William Duane …
Mr. Dayton then moved the order of the day … We understand that upwards of a thousand signatures were presented on that day and as many more yesterday.
PARALLEL …
“By their works shall ye know them.” … In the third year of the Presidency of John Adams, under the Sedition Law—alias the indemnity law. [Indictments:] 1. Abijah Adams, printer of a republican paper at Boston for an alleged libel … 2. Matthew Lyon, a member of Congress from Vermont under the sedition law … 3. Anthony Haswell, a printer in Vermont, for publishing an extract of a letter written by James M’Henry, Secretary of War … recommending Tories for [army] officers … 4. Charles Holt, printer at New-London, Connecticut, for publishing moral arguments against … military establishments … 5. Thomas Frothingham, a journeyman printer at New York, for … stating that Alexander Hamilton had endeavored to destroy the Aurora … 6. Luther Baldwin of N. Jersey for wishing the wadding of a cannon fired on a day of rejoicing were lodged in the president’s posterior. 7. Benjamin Franklin Bache, Grandson of Benjamin Franklin, for publishing an article … 8. Thomas Cooper of Northumberland for publishing a number of truths about public men and measures … 9. William Duane of Philadelphia for asserting that Mr. Adams had asserted … British influence had been used under the federal Government with effect. [Also] Indicted for asserting that the British Government was a corrupt one. (N.B. These two indictments have been withdrawn, but they shall be published.) [Also] Indicted for publishing [British Minister] Liston’s Letters found on Sweezy in which it was declared that the American Government was provoking France to a war. Two or three other suits which he does not know what they relate to.
The balance of this account is immense …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
As Congress are on the eve of concluding a session … it might be well, nay, it would certainly be very well if they should, previously to rising, declare war. I think the attempt at such a measure on the part of some spirited member would have good effect. The ties by which it is sought to bind us are truly Lilliputian; war would break them …
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
ST. TAMMANY
Monday, the Anniversary festival of the tutelary SAINT of the United States of America was observed by the social or Columbian order of St. Tamman
y. Agreeable to annual custom, they assembled in their great Wigwam near the Buck on Passyunk road … Having lighted the great council fire and erected its standard of the orders & tribes & smoked the sacred calumet [and] … [a]fter partaking of the feast … the noise of hoarse canon was heard along with the songs, and shouts of joy, which were given with a number of toasts …
VOLUNTEERS.
By the Sachem THOMAS M’KEAN [Governor of Pennsylvania],—Peace and good government. By the Sachem Israel Israel—The Senate of the United States, may the ensuing election teach them to know and define their privileges … By other Brothers … Thomas Cooper, of Northumberland … suffering for truth under perversion of power … After Governor M’Kean, retired, his health with three guns. After he had retired—Brother William Duane, three cheers.
Today, John Adams approves and signs into law:
An Act supplementary to the act to suspend part of an act, entitled “An Act to augment the Army of the United States …”
Be it enacted, &c., That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to suspend any further military appointments …
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted. That the President of the United States shall be, and hereby is, authorized to discharge on or before the fifteenth day of June next all such officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates as have heretofore been appointed, commissioned or raised …1969