American Aurora
Page 72
Two blackguards at a time attacking even a man is at least too much—What must the condition of their morals and education be who attack a woman!
We are not surprized that corporal Cobbett should be particularly scurrilous against women, since he beats the woman who is unfortunately linked to the beast: we are only astonished that he shews any affection for children, particularly for Fenno, as it is well known that at Bustletown, [Cobbett) subjected his own infant to the knot.
It must not be thought that we in any way desire to derogate from the character of William Cobbett[. W]e only couple him with his co-corporal Fenno to elucidate the pretensions of the latter.
It would have been imagined, considering the youth of editor Fenno, that the late calamities of his own family would have made some impression upon his mind, and at least have taught him to respect the feelings of others. But he seems to have been so thoroughly bred in the school of vice, that even female grief cannot be respected by him.
In page 70, vol. Ist. [of Mr. Adams’ Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States] we find another testimony … to the excellence of the British constitution (of king, lords, and commons) … “I only contend (says the Doctor) that the English constitution is in theory the most stupendous fabric of human invention … and that the Americans ought to be applauded instead of censured for imitating it as far as they have …”
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Luther Baldwin, of Newark, was arrested on Saturday last, by the marshal of the state of New-Jersey, under the late Sedition Act, for expressing a wish that the President of the United States was dead.
(Yes; the great wish, the longing desire of the French faction. THE PRESIDENT is almost the only bar in their way to general pillage.—God preserve his life!)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
(The following is taken from a letter written by Col. [Matthew] LYON [of Vermont], since he was committed to gaol [prison], and directed to Gen. STEVENS THOMPSON MASON, of Virginia, Senator of the United States.
In Gaol in VERGENNES [Vermont]. October 14
DEAR GENERAL … I mourn with you the death of our good friend BACHE—he was too good a man to be tortured with the Sedition Law—God saw it in that light and took him to himself.
I shall trouble you no longer at this time than to request you to give my respects to my friends in Virginia … and to let them know the operation of the Sedition Law in Vermont …[MATTHEW LYON]
Under the British government, you could talk as you pleased, write as you pleased, censure King George the Third, if you pleased. But John Adams is not to be censured; he is immaculate ! Did you, or did you not, fight for LIBERTY? The causes of our revolutionary war appear in the present day as a dream … Unanimity in Judge, lawyer, and Jury ! A Judge appointed by John Adams, an Attorney appointed by John Adams, a Jury summoned, selected by a Marshall appointed by John Adams ! ! ! It is time—But, as Benedict Arnold says—HUSH !
A clerk in a particular office is specially appointed to search the obnoxious papers for suitable matter to cut them up at law—a wag, referring to the fact, observed that the clerk seldom searched the scriptures.
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
There is a vagabond Irishman or Scotchman, in the third parish of Dedham [Massachusetts], who has stirred up a few ignorant people to erect a liberty pole, with a painted board, and the words Liberty, Equality, no stamp act, no sedition or Alien bill, downfall to tyranny in America, peace and retirement to the President …
Many of the justices of the peace, on their way to the Sessions, had opportunity to behold this standard of insurrection against the laws and magistracy of the country.
Porcupine does not have to worry! Massachusetts Federalists have already brought charges under the new federal Sedition Act against David Brown, the middle-aged “vagabond” who stirred up the people to erect a liberty pole. Boston’s Federal Marshal Samuel Bradford is searching for David Brown with a warrant for his arrest.1704
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter from Doctor Logan, dated Bordeaux [France], September 9, 1798, to his Wife.
“I have the pleasure to inform you that I embark this day on board the ship Perseverance for Philadelphia and shall bring with me dispatches to restore that harmony, the loss of which has been so sensibly felt by both countries. All American vessels in the harbours of France have been released—all American prisoners have been set at liberty; and the most positive assurances have been made that France is ready to enter into a treaty for the amicable accommodation of all matters in dispute …
GEORGE LOGAN.”
The warhawks will be now more than ever distracted. The publication of a letter from Dr. Logan is a cruel blow … to the candidates for [military] contracts, commissions, and commissaryships !
The man who dares even to hint that the President of the United States is proud or avaricious is locked up in solitary confinement—Oh Liberty !!! … The place of victim Lyon’s confinement is without shelter from a freezing northern climate or fire-place to dispel the chilling damps—if he should be frozen to death, could an honest jury bring in a verdict ?—MURDER !
The [news]paper-searching clerk in a certain office may be appropriately compared with a familiar of the Inquisition—with this odd feature of resemblance; that as the latter is employed to support religion, so the other is employed to support liberty !
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Now is the crisis advancing. The abandoned faction, devoted to France … have fifty thousand men, provided with arms, in Pennsylvania. If vigorous measures are not taken; if the provisional army is not raised without delay, A CIVIL WAR, OR A SURRENDER OF INDEPENDENCE, IS NOT AT MORE THAN A TWELVE MONTH’S DISTANCE …
The partizans of France are linked together in one chain, from Georgia to N. Hampshire. The seditious impudence of the Democratic Societies has given place to the dark and silent system of organized treason and massacre, imported by the UNITED IRISHMEN … And yet the pretended friends of America are asleep …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
We are happy in perceiving the growing jealousy of foreigners. The inundation of suspicious characters, particularly from Ireland and France, should awaken the most serious concern …
We have now before us a file of “The Redacteur,” the French official gazette, almost every page of which contains some insult to our beloved President. In one we read … “John Adams has ordered a day of general fasting. This is truly laughable.”
Today about eleven o’clock, our beloved General [Washington] arrived in town. Detachments from the different troops of horse met him on the road, at and from Chester, and escorted him to the city … McPherson’s Blues [the Federalist volunteer corps of “young men,”] and Captain Hozey’s company were drawn up in the centre square, and, as he approached, he alighted from his carriage, and with his secretary Mr. Lear, passed the line uncovered to the usual salute of presented arms … Having got into his carriage again, he was escorted to Mrs. White’s in Eighth-street, where a guard from McPherson’s Blues was immediately mounted …
Major General Alexander HAMILTON and the Hon. James McHenry, Secretary at War, also arrived this day, and accompanied the Lieutenant General to his lodgings in Eighth street.
Tonight, after dark, George Logan arrives back at his farm in Germantown from his private peace mission to France. He has messages to deliver to the U.S. Secretary of State from the French Directory (France’s plural executive), and he will set out in the morning to find Timothy Pickering who has yet to return from Trenton, New Jersey, the temporary seat of the federal government while the yellow fever beset Philadelphia.1705
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The blues … have the honor of first testifying their loyalty and attachment to the hoar
y general; may they never encounter a worse duty …
It is hoped that the guard of state has been selected from those who are not subject to growing pains!
Why shouldst thou rail O Fenno! at thine enemies for laughing at the fastings of the federalists, ordained by thy beloved President, when the citizens of Philadelphia know that the day, “so holy,” was celebrated by thy fellow FEDS in riot, drunkenness, and assault. Only ask capt. Josey Thomas now—who at length returned to the bosom of his fond friends and the seat of his former federal and literary glories!
Though we may not think it quite safe to sum up the follies of the present day, still it may possibly be permitted a freeman born to amuse himself with recalling past scenes …
ANECDOTES.
[1.] AT a theatrical representation given at Versailles and to which the three American envoys were invited (not the late unsuccessful ones, reader) … a resemblance of the late Dr. Franklin, the selected commissioner of the three and with whom the court then had communication, was introduced … with a civic wreath. Whether the spectacle excited any disagreeable movements in the mind of a certain personage [Mr. Adams] … we cannot say. [W]e know, however, that it operated … to excite the animal power of locomotion [for his departure] …
[2.] Lieutenant General Washington, once General in Chief of Republic America, has in his possession a profile of himself … with a wreath and crown. This, together, with a profile of the late doctor Franklin, were presented to the doctor whilst in France. A certain personage [Mr. Adams] … was in Paris at the same time. It would be highly dangerous to accuse him even of envy, but … the complimentary crown offended his highness so much (perhaps because it was over the head of another) that he took great pains to dismantle the frame and cut off the offending object with his penknife. The deficiency is now observable in the portrait which is still in the possession of the late President.
Quere.—What may we think of a Person whose republicanism cannot even suffer the semblance of a crown to remain upon another’s image, but who at the same time may be hereafter shrewdly suspected of craving a real crown for his own knapper.
Today, George Logan visits Secretary of State Timothy Pickering in Trenton, New Jersey. George Logan:
After a conversation of considerable length with Mr. Pickering, during which at times he manifested a great degree of irritation against the French, I took my leave; he waited on me to the door, on the threshold of which, with a voice altered by the agitation of his mind, he stammered out these words, too singular not to be related:
“Sir, it is my duty to inform you that the government does not thank you for what you have done. ”
Considering Mr. Pickering as Secretary of State and the Public organ of the executive, I was astonished at his folly. In this the most important transaction of my life, I had the approbation of my conscience. I never experienced a more perfect satisfaction than what arose from the reflection of having done my country so considerable a service.1706
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
If we do not speedily close our doors upon the hordes of ruffians yearly disgorging upon us, America will erelong be converted into one vast house of assassins.
If the revolutionary vermin of foreign countries should continue to encrease and fatten as they have heretofore done on the sufferings and distress of the community, it is not difficult to foresee the speedy dissolution of this … most enlightened republic. Then we should see committees of public safety and revolutionary tribunals composed of Callenders, Reynolds, Burks, and Duanes. The heads of rich men would roll down the kennels …
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
The President of the United States is expected at Trenton, on his way back to Philadelphia, in a few days. It must give pain to every one, Mother Bache and her gang excepted, to hear that Mrs. Adams will, from indisposition, be unable to accompany him.
ALARMING!
At a meeting of Herodsburg (Kentucky), present 200 citizens, resolves … were agreed to, censuring the late measures of the general government. Similar resolves have been entered into by the inhabitants of Montgomery county (K.), Madison county, and Lincoln county (K.)
We can account for these discontents and clamours. No papers circulate in Kentucky except the Aurora, that herald of Sedition …
(This article is taken from a New York newspaper … It seems to me that [the writer] has mistaken an effect for a cause. The preference given to the Aurora is proof of previous discontent … )
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The New York Gazette has long been afflicted with the incurable malady of dreaming about the Aurora … [A] story is now brought forth that “no paper circulates to Kentucky but the Aurora.” … [T]he plain truth is that three papers in this city have double or triple the number of subscribers in that state … [W]e have the pleasure to learn however that a large subscription to the Aurora has lately been made …
Today, in Lexington, Kentucky, the Kentucky senate concurs in resolutions passed three days ago by Kentucky’s house of representatives, including:
III. Resolved, That … [by] abridging the freedom of speech or of the press … the act of the Congress of the United States passed on the 14th of July 1798 [the Sedition Law] … is not law, but is altogether void and of no effect …
VI. Resolved, That … “An act concerning aliens” … to authorize the President to remove a person … on his own suspicion, without accusation, without jury, without public trial, without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defence, without counsel, is contrary to … the Constitution, … not law … void and of no force.1707
Kentucky’s attorney general, John Breckinridge, submitted these proposals, but Thomas Jefferson secretly composed them. Thomas Jefferson:
At the time when the Republicans of our country were so much alarmed at the proceedings of the federal ascendancy … it became a matter of serious consideration how head could be made against their enterprises on the Constitution. The leading republicans in Congress found themselves of no use there … They concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in their state legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress …1708
Today, having returned to Philadelphia from Trenton, New Jersey, George Logan locates George Washington at Rosanna White’s Eighth-street boarding-house. George Washington:
Mr. Lear, My Secretary, being from our lodgings on business, one of my servants … informed me that a Gentleman in the Parlor below desired to see me … In a few minutes I went down and found the Rev. Doctr. Blackwell and Doctr. Logan there. I … gave my hand to the former; the latter did the same towards me … I was backward in giving mine … Finally, in a very cool manner and with an air of in-diffe[re]nce, I gave him my hand … I addressed all my conversation to Doctor Blackwell; the other [Dr. Logan] all his to me, to which I only gave negative or affirmative answers, as laconically as I could …
He observed that the situation … with respect to France has induced him to make the Voyage … This … induced me to remark that there was something very singular in this. That he who could be viewed as a private character, unarmed with powers and presumptively unknown in France, should suppose he could effect what these gentlemen of the first respectability in our Country, specially charged under the authority of the Government, were unable to do. With this observation he seemed a little confounded; but recovering … said that the Directory was apprehensive that this Country, viz. the Government of it or Our Envoys … was not well disposed towards France … To this I finally … asked him if the Directory looked upon us as worms; and not even allowed to turn when tread upon? … and I hoped the spirit of this Country would never suffer itself to be injured with impunity by any nation under the Sun. To this he s[ai]d he told Citizen Merlin [president of the French Directory] that if the U.S. were Invaded by France, they w[oul]d unite to a man to oppose the Invaders.1709
George Logan’s wife, Deborah, reports:
[A]t this interview, the general asked him what was the reason the Directors had treated him so well, when the government of France has assumed so different a tone to our commissioners? Doctor Logan replied that his own conduct, and not theirs, was all he could account for.1710
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
THE jacobins have taken up the trick of late, which they have borrowed from their friends, the French, of employing ladies in their wicked maneuvers … [T]he amiable daughters of America will lose greatly by mingling in the stormy element of politics … [T]his ill-chosen business, if you pursue it, will spoil your beauty, as well as mar your happiness; it will plant your bosoms with thorns, and deform your lovely faces with wrinkles before their proper time. Be warned; retreat, before it is too late.
A Friend of the Fair.
Tonight, windows are broken at the offices of the Philadelphia Aurora.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
PUBLISHED (DAILY) FOR THE HEIRS OF BENJ. FRANKLIN BACHE
Starting this morning, Peggy’s name no longer appears on the Aurora’s masthead.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Put out the light, and then put out the light. Shakespeare. That the Aurora office is still under the particular patronage of the tory federalists appears from their demolitions Tuesday night. It is no new thing that the aristocratic junto should admit the propriety of breaking windows, since they are not yet taxed.