Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
[The President] has the happiness never to have approved of the principles of the French Revolution, directly or indirectly.
TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The armed cutter Gen. Greene, captain Price, sailed from hence yesterday on a cruise.
Today, John Adams calls another group of young men to arms:
To arms, then, my young friends,—to arms … For safety against dangers which we now see and feel, cannot be averted by truth, reason, or justice … I ought not to forget the worst enemy we have, that obloquy [slandering] which you have observed, it is the worst enemy to virtue and the best friend to vice; it strives to destroy all distinction between right and wrong; it leads to divisions, sedition, civil war, and military despotism. I need say no more. JOHN ADAMS389
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
I am one of the young men … [W]hy does our wearing the [black] American cockade excite the warmest sensibility of the corrupt Aurora man and his virtuous friends? Why have they raised a villainous mob to insult and intimidate those who had courage and patriotism to wear it? Because it shews who are friends of this country … because it has a tendency to check the spreading of the baneful principles which have been industriously disseminated for the purpose of rearing the hideous head of anarchy. The panic with which the American cockade strikes the French faction is an undeniable proof of the absolute necessity of wearing it …
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy … contains an exposure of such deep-laid villainy … The French Revolution with all its abominations are traced to … [the] ILLUMINATI …
While a pupil is under trial and before he is admitted into this infernal society, many questions are put … For instance: “How far is the proposition true that WICKED MEANS may be used for a GOOD PURPOSE?”
In one of the answers to this question, the example of a great philosopher and Cosmopolite is adduced, who betrayed a private correspondence entrusted to him, for the service of Freedom: the case was DOCTOR FRANKLIN!!!!!—This is excellent! DOCTOR FRANKLIN is held up as an example to the pupils of a society, surpassing if possible hell itself in perfidy and every species of wickedness!! The illuminati understood the merits of Doctor Franklin …
As Jimmy Callender has observed, “Abuse on the memory of Dr. Franklin has, for some time, been an essential ingredient in every federal pamphlet.”390
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Adams, in his answer to the address from Burlington, declares the French nation to be “our enemies.” Query, has the President the power of declaring war? If he has not, by what authority does he presume to stile a nation our enemy with whom we are at peace?
THURSDAY, MAY 24. 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PORCUPINE AND THE PRESIDENT
Amongst the numerous and fulsome praise which issue from Cobbett’s press to daub and flatter the President, we cannot help noticing one … for [his] having never approved of the principles of the French Revolution, either directly or indirectly!— This indeed we required no ghost to inform us of: for the American who could not approve of the principles which gave freedom and independence to his own country could certainly not view the emancipation of a foreign and distant nation in any favourable point for view.
War … This morning at eleven o’clock, the Secretary of War, accompanied by Captain Barry of the frigate United States, boards the U.S. ship-of-war Ganges and delivers sailing orders to Captain Dale. This afternoon, the Gazette of the United States reports,
On the Secretary’s leaving the ship, a salute was fired, immediately after which she weighed anchor to proceed to her cruising station.
War … At about five o’clock this afternoon, between Norfolk, Virginia and Philadelphia, the American schooner Liberty has an encounter with a French privateer. Captain Joseph Canby reports:
I was chased by a privateer without colours but whose crew wore the National Cockade of France. When she overhaled me and came alongside, within about thirty yards, she ordered me to hoist out my boat, and go aboard her, but before I could do it, the man at the masthead called out … “a Sail,” upon which the privateer left me … The privateer carried twelve guns …391
SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Hopkinson, the author of the late Federal Song [“Hail Columbia”) to the tune of the President’s March … has been nominated [by the President] a commissioner to transact some business with some Indians. He has written his song to some tune, and to the right tune—that’s clear.
[Clement] Humphries, who attempted to assassinate Mr. Bache, of which he was convicted, on going to pay his penalty received notice it had been paid already; and he has since been selected to carry dispatches to the three envoys at Paris! pause, reader, and reflect on conduct that beggars all commentary. The next conspirator for the murder of Mr. Bache ought not to complain for the want of previous engagement. If the writing of adulatory songs to the president and the assassinating of men who have firmness to expose the improper measures of our government are to recommend them to executive appointments, to what an alarming pass has our government arrived.
HIGHLY ALARMING!
It is said, that there are six French privateer Cruisers now on our coast to take all American vessels with British property on board!
HIGHLY ALARMING, AGAIN.
It is said that there are ten sail of British Ships of war on the American coast to [take] … all American vessels bound to or from the ports of France … having the produce of those countries on board.
A pretty pickle of fish for the United States to digest!
The object of the late political fast [May 9th] is every day better and better understood. Instead of a day devoted to solemn prayer and humiliation, rancorous fulminations and party invectives issued from most of the pulpits. Many ministers of religion … were wonderfully uniform … They moved with an exactness which proved that there existed a main spring somewhere. The mystery is unraveled when the reader is informed that some weeks before the fast day, circulars were issuing from a certain public office in this city to these select Reverends throughout the Union.
Today, The President’s Lady, Abigail Adams, writes her sister:
I wish the Laws of our Country were competent to punish the stirrer up of sedition, the writer and Printer of base and unfounded calumny. This would contribute much to the Peace and harmony of our Country as any measure, and in times like the present, a more carefull and attentive watch ought to be kept over foreigners. This will be done in the future if the Alien Bill passes, without being curtaild & clipt untill it is made nearly useless. The Volunteer Corps which are forming not only of young Men but others will keep in check these people, I trust…392
SUNDAY, MAY 27, 1798
Today, George Washington answers Joseph Hopkinson’s letter of May 9th:
I pray you now, my good Sir, to accept my thanks for the Pamphlet and Song which accompanied it … To expect that all men should think alike upon political, more than on religious or other subjects, would be to look for a change in the order of things; but at so dangerous a crisis as the present, when everything dear to Independence is at stake, the well disposed part of them might, one would think, act more alike; Opposition therefore to the major will and to that self respect which is due to the National character cannot but seem strange!
But I will unite with you in a fervent wish and hope that greater unanimity than heretofore will prevail … and that the young men of the present day will not suffer the liberty for which their fore fathers fought … [to] be lost by them either by supineness or divisions among themselves disgraceful to the Country …393
MONDAY, MAY 28, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The westerly winds that have prevailed for som
e days past compelled the English frigates to retire from our coasts, and several vessels have in consequence entered port.
There are now French vessels of war within the capes of Delaware, and there is a treaty [of 1778] still in existence between the United States and France … [B]y that treaty, not only armed French vessels may come into our ports and bring in their prizes; but they may also sail out of our ports at any time unmolested, and we are bound not to give them hindrance.
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law,
AN ACT
More effectually to protect the commerce
of the United States.
WHEREAS armed vessels … of France have committed depredations on the commerce of the United States …
Be it Enacted … That … the President … is hereby authorized to instruct and direct the armed vessels belonging to the United States to seize, take and bring into any port of the United States … any such armed vessel which shall have committed, or which shall be found hovering on the coast for the purpose of committing, depredations …394
War measures … Today, John Adams approves and signs into law,
AN ACT
Authorizing the President of the United States to raise a Provisional Army.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted … That the President … is hereby authorized in the event of a declaration of war against the United States, or of actual invasion, … or of imminent danger of such invasion discovered in his opinion to exist, to cause to be inlisted … a number of troops not exceeding ten thousand …
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted … That … the President is hereby empowered, at any time within three years after the passing of this act, if in his opinion the public interest shall require, to accept of any company or companies of volunteers … who may associate and offer themselves for the service, who shall be armed, clothed and equipped at their own expense …395
John Adams will now invest Macpherson’s Blues and other Federalist militias with the authority of the U.S. government.
Today, President Adams warns some citizens,
[Y]our tranquillity has been disturbed by incessant appeals to the passions and prejudices of the people by designing men and by audacious attempts to separate the people from the government …396
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It would be an endless labor to notice all the lies and misrepresentations that crowd the pages of Bache’s papers. In the Aurora of [Saturday morning], he pretends to account for the unanimity of the sentiments expressed by the ministers of religion on the late [May 9th] fast day by suggesting that they were prompted to do this by “circulars issued some weeks before by a certain public office to the select reverends throughout the union.” The office alluded to is certainly the Department of State, and the facts were simply these—Proclamations were printed for the information of all the clergy in the United States. [T]hey were formed into packages and addressed to the marshals and, to facilitate their distribution by the aid of the public mails, they were separately folded and packed up at the Department of State without the name of one clergy superscribed, it being left to the marshal to add to the superscription of Reverend the name of each minister in his district … Bache … says that “rancorous fulminations and party invectives issued from most of the pulpits.” … [This fact] proves that most of the clergy in the United States, and thence we can conclude most of the people, detest the conduct of the French and are ready to oppose their attempts to control our government.
Several volunteer companies are now forming in this city. The Troops of Horse have increased their number. M’Pherson’s Blues are organizing themselves anew … A company of Grenadiers has likewise been established … Let the youthful signers of the late address to the President now come forward and join … Their country does now call for their assistance, and Congress has prescribed the mode in which it shall be rendered by authorizing the President to accept their services as volunteers …
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The YOUNG MEN who pledged themselves to the president will take notice that the committee will wait this evening (only) at the City Tavern, from 6 till 9 o’clock, to receive signatures of those who wish to join themselves to Macpherson’s Blues.
TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We are now, by the mad measures of our administration, on the eve of war, if not actually at war with the French Republic; our legislature it is hoped will not separate without further provision for the defence of our sea port towns and harbours. As government have determined that we should come to an open rupture with the French, we must expect to be treated as enemies.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The vapourings of poor Surgo Ut Prosim and his party remind one of the Balloonist who, after ascending in his machine with the pompous motto “sic itur ad astra” [thus may you go to the stars] was presently dropped upon the earth and shattered to pieces.
“Rise,” cries Bache, “ere it be too late”—Rise, and redress your wrongs: But ah! he cries in vain. The cruel state of his party resembles that of a wounded serpent …
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SIR … [T]he many addresses from different parts of the union approbating your conduct … are founded upon th[e] supposition that you have been sincere in your attempts at negociation with the French Republic … [Others] have said you secretly wished for a rupture with France and for a closer connection with Great-Britain whose government was more consonant with your feelings and with your ideas of perfection … [Should the people] hereafter be convinced that your secret movements spoke a different language from your public declarations … that by stirring upon the Americans to hate the French, it was intended they should hate … both Frenchmen and Republicanism … the public resentment will recoil with redoubled vengeance upon the heads of those who are its proper objects …
Today, Benny’s brother, William, and four other doctors at the Philadelphia Dispensary urge the dispensary’s managers not to dismiss Dr. Jimmy Reynolds, leader of Philadelphia’s Society of United Irishmen:
GENTLEMEN, The Physicians of the Philadelphia Dispensary have been informed that some of the contributors have applied to you for the removal of one of their associates, against whom nothing is urged but difference in political opinion, while all agree that his attentions to the duty annexed to the appointment have been useful to the sick and honorable to himself.
We place too much reliance on the candor and liberality of the Managers to believe that they will be the instruments of introducing into a charitable association the distinctions of party and are persuaded they will never consent to render a valuable institution an engine of oppression.
WILLIAM BACHE [et al]397
THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BOSTON, MAY 24. Yesterday between 2 and 3 o’clock, P. M. was experienced a very violent storm … declared to be a damn’d jacobin storm, by a noted major, for destroying a picture of George Washington and striking the mast of the schooner FEDERAL GEORGE. This is as conclusive reasoning as perhaps can be had that the operation of nature is highly anti-federal and ought, if possible, to be arrested in its progress.
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes James Madison:
The Alien bill will be ready today, probably, for its 3rd reading in the senate … [I]t is a most detestable thing … This bill will unquestionably pass the H of R, the majority there being decisive, consolidated, and bold enough to do anything. I have no doubt from the hints dropped they will pass a bill to declare the French treaty void …
Volney & a ship-load of others sail on Sunday next. Another shipload will go off in about 3 weeks.398
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It is currently reported that the itinerant philosopher VOLNEY has determined shor
tly to embark for Europe … [T]he day is just at hand when he and other emissaries must quit this land of toleration for the regions of directorial tyranny.
FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We believe nothing will so much endanger the liberties of the people of any country as frequent wars. They produce a vast accumulation of debt, an immense patronage in the hands of the executive, a great increase in fiscal influence (at all times unfavorable to liberties) and by harassing the people, induce them to trust the defence of their country to standing armies who will soon make some bold and aspiring man the tyrant of his country.
A special meeting of the AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY will be held at their Hall at 7 o’clock this evening.
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes fellow Virginian John Taylor:
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles … It is hardly necessary to caution you to let nothing of mine get before the public; a single senfence got hold of by the Porcupines will suffice to abuse and persecute me in their papers for months.399
Tonight, the Rev. James Abercrombie of Philadelphia’s Christ Church repeats his anti-French Fast Day sermon before a meeting of the American Philosophical Society. Thomas Jefferson, who has been at every meeting of the society since March, does not attend. The minutes read:
American Aurora Page 18