American Aurora
Page 27
LYON, whose endeavors, like those of his associate and fellow-laborer [New York Republican Edward] Livingston, tended to excite mobs and riots for the overthrow of the government and constitution, has become himself the object of popular contempt. On his arrival at Trenton [New Jersey], an immense concourse of people attended him with their compliments, and the spirited sound of sundry rattling drums to the tune of the “Rogue’s March” revived the grateful recollection of his warlike exploits at the wooden sword redoubt on Onion river. On resuming his seat on the stage, the admiring populace, with loud acclamations, still followed the redoubted knight, and the drums … fairly drummed him out of town. The hisses and hooting of the crowd were loud and universal. At Brunswick [New Jersey] the same honor awaited our renowned hero, this pink of chivalry, gentility, and knighthood.551
This evening, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine suggests some Jeffersonian adultery:
It is said that JEFFERSON went to his friend Doctor Logan’s farm and spent three days there soon after Dr. Logan’s departure for France. Quere: What did he do there ? Was it to arrange the Doctor’s valuable manuscripts ?
George Logan’s wife, Deborah, explains the visit:
Soon after the departure of my husband, I received a visit from Thomas Jefferson who told me he had been greatly concerned for me … and advised me to evince my thorough consciousness of [my husband’s] innocence and honour by showing myself in Philadelphia as one not afraid nor ashamed to meet the public eye. He said … [t]hat he was himself dogged and watched in the most extraordinary manner; and he apologized for the lateness of his visit (for we were at tea when he arrived) by saying that, in order to elude the curiosity of his spies, he had not taken the direct road, but had come by a circuitous route by the Falls of Schuylkill … He spoke of the temper of the times and of the late acts of the Legislature with a sort of despair, but said he thought even the shadows of our liberties must be gone if they attempted anything that would injure me …552
MONDAY, JULY 23, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
“Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is one of the commandments of the Deity himself. Mr. Adams wishes us to believe that he is a true believer and very pious man … By their fruit ye shall know them, says the scripture: let us then test Mr. Adams’ religion and morality by this rule. He has appointed Alexander Hamilton inspector general of the army; the same Hamilton who published a book to prove that he is AN ADUL-TERER … Mr. Adams ought hereafter to be silent about French principles.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Bache has thought proper in several instances to make Macpherson’s Blues the objects of his dull ridicule and [on Saturday] … affects to make merry with the serenade given by them in compliment to the young lady … Mr. B. must not consider the liberty of the press infringed or endangered if some of these boys resent a personal insult in a personal way and kick his breech.
We learn by the Aurora [on Saturday] that a Sansculotte Frenchman has recently had the audacity to walk the streets bearing the bloody emblem of French Fraternity. Some spirited citizen very meritoriously struck the tri-color from his chapeau.
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
John Fenno has taken upon him to apply a joke … where Macpherson’s blues had no concern whatever, to that corps. He then suggests that personal violence should follow. If such is a fit consequence, it ought to fall upon him …
Tonight, John Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
Bache’s pipes on the subject of the serenade have been stopped, and he knows how—A poor sneak! he tells a falsehood in an ambiguous shape, and when called to account for it, evades the danger by another. But the best of the joke is that he would throw all the blame on Mr. Fenno’s malicious construction …553
As Poor Richard observed,
He makes a Foe who makes a jest.554
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[T]he United States frigate, commodore Barry, and the Delaware sloop of war, capt. Decatur, went to sea on Friday last.
[New York.] We are informed that a number of people in and about Newburgh … assembled the other day to take down the liberty pole—This having excited the opposition of those who erected it, they assembled with arms …
Callender is gone. Jefferson is gone. Congress are gone. This morning, the Adamses secretly depart.555 Benny and I remain. We face a rising tide of political violence and the season for yellow fever. Will we be strong enough? Poor Richard said,
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.556
FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
At a respectable meeting of the citizens of Kent and Queen Anne’s counties [Maryland], on the banks of the river Chester on the 21st of July, after partaking of a fish-feast, the following [toast was] drank … By Peregrine Letherbery. Benjamin Franklin Bache who remains firm at his post and supports with magnanimity the rights of his countrymen.
Today, as President and Mrs. Adams pass through Newark, New Jersey, on their journey home, a local resident violates the Sedition Act. From reports:
[T]he approach of the President of the United States was announced—Great preparations were made for his reception by the true Federalists … The honorable exclusive friends of their country, with [black] cockades in their hats, paraded … The “very respectable part of the young men,” (who had informed the President that they were surrounded by enemies of the government who were endeavoring to blast the buds of their patriotism) … procured a piece of cannon of the Company of Artillery, distinguished themselves in their new livery consisting of a blue jacket, not forgetting the emblems of all emblems, the adorable [Black] Cockade … and displayed flags from three conspicuous places in town.
[A]bout 11 o’clock A.M. the President’s carriage was seen at the lower end of the town. The discharge of cannon commenced, a general peal from the bells joined … when to the astonishment and mortification of the self-constituted federalists, the President pushed his horses into full speed, kept the curtains of his carriages down, and passed the assembled friends to good order in a second, without even deigning to drop a nod of approbation …557
Luther Baldwin happening to be coming toward John Burner’s dram [of liquor] shop, a person that was there says to Luther, “there goes the President and they are firing at his a–.” Luther, a little merry, replies that he did not care if they fired through his a–. Then exclaims the dram seller, “that is sedition”—a considerable collection gathered—and the pretended federalists, being much disappointed that the president had not stopped that they might have the honor of kissing his hand, bent their malice on poor Luther, and the cry was that he must be punished …558
Luther Baldwin will be punished. The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of New Jersey will find Luther Baldwin guilty, under the new federal Sedition Act, of “seditious words tending to defame the President and Government of the United States” and order him to pay a fine of $400; $250 for speaking those words and $150 for costs and expenses.559
This evening, after President Adams arrives in New York City, a more violent incident occurs. Porcupine reports:
[A]bout half past ten in the evening, 5 young men were walking on the battery. Animated by the presence of our illustrious President who had … entered the city under the display of flags and the thunder of cannon, amidst the glitter of swords, a forest of bristling bayonets, and the shouts and acclamations of assembled thousands—they were singing, as is very common throughout the town, the Federal song, “Hail Columbia.” A much larger number of boatmen and low fellows from the wharves and docks immediately collected, and, instigated by the deluding demon of French jacobinism … approached our young men, singing in opposition … the infamous French song “Ça Ira.” … Both parties quickly met, and it was not long before the alien crew … began the dastardly attack and
first insulted, and then beat and bruised them in a most shameful manner … Meantime, several watchmen and a number of people assembled, and the ruffians desisted from their purpose.560
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A wag, practicing on Benny’s gullibility and self-love, has sent him a list of toasts, said to have been drank at a democratic dinner in Maryland which the zealous editor of the Aurora has published in this paper of this morning without adverting to the ridiculous names of the persons by whom they are said to have been given—Among others … Benjamin Franklin Bache [is toasted] by Peregrine Letherbelly. Risum teneatis amici? [May you bear the laughter of your friends?]
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
General WASHINGTON Commands !!
HARK ! the DRUM beats to arms !!…
Nothing need be advanced to induce the young men … to re-enter the service when they learn they will be commanded by the great, illustrious, magnanimous General WASHINGTON … Your country, my boys, is threatened with invasion! Your houses and farms with fire, plunder and pillage! and your wives and daughters with ravishment and assassination by horrid outlandish sans-culotte Frenchmen !!! … To arms then, my dear brave boys! …
JAMES HAMILTON, Recruiting …
SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Some of the [black] cockade gentry, we understand, have amused themselves by midnight howlings round the doors of the republicans. Some imitated with great nicety the mewing of cats, others the barking of dogs. The braying was so close a copy from nature that it was at one time believed that they had actually enlisted some of the long eared aristocrats into their serenade.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Jeff[erson] is gone away. He is unquestionably the very soul of the party. His connexion with Bache, Logan, and others … leaves no doubt … The day after the last dispatches were communicated to Congress, Bache … &c, &c … were closeted with Jeff[erso]n.
It is no wonder that Bache snarls at our young serenading “cockade gentry” who, by a sympathy natural to musical minds, struck on the Rogue’s March at passing the door of a Jacobin.
MONDAY, JULY 30, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The next night the aristocrats insult their betters by infamous serenades, we advise them to keep at a respectable distance and to hold themselves in readiness to run at the first alarm.
John Fenno has profited so little by the tuition of his schoolmaster to forget even his spelling; in his Gazette of Friday, he mistook the name of a respectable man, Mr. Letherbery, for a Leatherbelly; no wonder that a Leatherhead should take a Letherbery for a leatherbelly!
War … Today, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert asks John Adams to approve a naval expedition against France in the West Indies:
At this season of the Year, and during the Months of August & September & part of October, the British armed-Ships are less alert in the West Indies … Our own force, on our own Coast … is well known to the French—And … it is not to be apprehended that our Coasts will be much molested by their Cruisers … unless, indeed, they could send a Force from Europe which is far from being probable.—The French islands, having no authorized intercourse with the United States, must depend in a great degree upon Captures for supplies of Bread & Salt meat…
Under such circumstances, and impressed … that our Force should be employed, while the French have but little force, in destroying what they have and in producing a scarcity of Provisions and the consequent discontent flowing from such a source in their islands, I have the honor, Sir, to submit … to send a cruise among the islands … 561
President Adams will approve this expedition against the very French islands America had promised to defend.562
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Letters were received in town from New York yesterday, about two o’clock, containing … details of a vast, universal, and decisive revolt of the Irish People against the English Government. The rising is stated to have been on the same day and form throughout the whole Island; that a fierce action had been fought between a numerous body of the English & Hessian [German mercenary] troops and the revolters, in which great obstinacy was manifested on both sides and the slaughter dreadful.
A man must sing “Hail Columbia” and wear a black cockade or he is called by [the governmental party) a disorganizer, a Jacobin, a pensioned tool of the French … It would seem really the view of some of the loudest vociferators for union to excite a civil war in our country; they cannot expect that, by their denunciations, their insults & their abuse, they can bully the republicans into silence or an acquiescence in their sentiments or measures.
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Last evening marched into town the guard from Macpherson’s Blues who escorted the French prisoners [from the French privateer CROYABLE] to Lancaster …
THE proposed law for the punishment of libels will have an excellent effect, and I hope its first operation will be upon the infamous Bache and his associates who have been long in the habit of abusing the worthiest characters in the country … [I]f we are to suffer war, they may in the end retire … to the territory of the power whose interests they traitorously prefer to those of the United States.
A JERSEYMAN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We may judge of federal ideas of respect … by their behavior towards [Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon] … Were a posse of people to meet President Adams on the public highway and insult him for his public opinions and in a manner that would disgrace even an English mob, we should never hear the end of it…
On Friday evening last, a number of young friends of order assembled [in New York City] … It was conjectured … they intended offering an insult to [New York Republican Congressman] Edward Livingston … [A] fracas ensued …
Fenno attempts to make it believed that, in the affray in New York, the Republicans were the aggressors. This does not appear … We do not remember that a citizen was ever attacked from behind and in a situation to endanger his life without provocation, with premeditation, without warning, and merely on account of his politics except the editor of this paper, and this assault was surely not committed by a Republican. What house belonging to a tory has been attacked by stones and clubs ? We all know that that of the Editor of this paper was. Have any of the tory members of Congress been insulted by playing the Rogue’s march before their doors? This feat was also reserved for the friends of order …
Today, George Washington observes:
[T]he French … have been deceived in their calculations on the division of the People, and the powerful support they expected from their [Republican] party is reduced to uncertainty; though it is somewhat equivocal still whether that party who have been the curse of this country and the source of the expenses we have to encounter may not be able to continue their delusion.563
Tonight, near Leesburg, Virginia, Jimmy Callender is arrested. He records:
I was returning from Leesburg … when about three miles from that village, I was overtaken by a man at full gallop. He enquired my name and said that he had orders to apprehend me. Leesburg is a little molehill of aristocracy and the junto had declared that if I came there they would find some means or other of using me ill. I returned with the courier. It was by this time dark …564
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
From the late lawless proceedings of the young men who wear the [black] American cockade, a doubt can no longer exist that it is the intention of the federalists to introduce into this country the system of [terror] … Anonymous letters—midnight insults and riots—and the sanguinary and abominable publications which daily issue from the press of Porcupine and other ministerial prints evince their diabolical design. [T]he republicans should not lose a moment in concerting a
plan for their mutual defense …
We understand the chief magistrate of this city has given such reproof to the noisy brawlers who nightly infest our streets that our citizens have some prospect of reposing henceforth in quiet … The wearing of a [black] cockade is not sufficient to justify continual insolence, impertinence, and outrage.
Today, Moreau de St. Méry gets a passport to return to France.565
Today, Jimmy Callender goes to court in Leesburg, Virginia. He reports,
I went to Leesburg before breakfast to confront this awful tribunal … I entered the hall of audience with a crowd at my heels … I answered all their questions with a ready indifference and asked in my turn for the … warrant against me … The warrant was made out in consequence of a complaint from Jonas Pott, overseer of the poor, and undoubtedly a worthy yoke mate to the rest of the gang. He represented that I was a vagrant … They told me I must either give some security for not becoming cumbersome or go to jail … They asked me what I meant to do? I told them that, as they would not let me send for bail, I could do nothing …
An acquaintance of mine went to town … but not to give bail. He enquired how the court came to maltreat any person living under the protection of General [and Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia Stevens T.] Mason … [T]here the matter stuck [and I was freed] …566
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States: