American Aurora
Page 77
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A splendid Ball was given last evening at the Theatre in honor of the President of the United States … [A] flooring had been thrown over the Pit, forming a very handsome area for dancing …
At about 8 o’clock, the President entered, music playing the march. The dancing then commenced and continued ‘till about 11, when the painted Cloth was rolled up and displayed the supper tables on the stage, elegantly arranged and decorated. General Macpherson presided—on his right sat the President … After supper, the company returned to dancing and about one separated without an occurrence to mar the pleasure of the entertainment.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The following is a copy of a paper posted up in the public Coffee-room of this city, yesterday at two o’clock, in the presence of Robert Moore, esq. and several of the gentlemen who usually assemble there.
Philadelphia, January 17, 1798.
In Consequence of the unprovoked calumnies continually issued against me by John Ward Fenno, editor of the Gazette of the United States, I was induced to waive the consideration of my place in society and to put him on the footing of a gentleman. Upon Tuesday evening I sent a letter and message to him by a friend, demanding a proper apology or a meeting. He refused to give either. I am now therefore reduced to the necessity of suing him at law—(but my views are not mercenary)—or of again putting myself on a level with him—(by attacking him like a ruffian in the streets) or of thus posting him as a LIAR, a SCOUNDREL, and a COWARD.JAMES REYNOLDS
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes:
The … note was handed me by Dr. William Bache on Wednesday morning … I told the messenger that I was resolved to hold no terms with such a man as his friend. On which he replied that he then must have recourse to personal satisfaction. To which I rejoined that I was prepared to meet him on any ground. He said he would bear my answer to his friend.
I have not since heard from him. I am informed that he stole into the Coffee-house last evening and attempted to post up a hand-bill, containing a number of opprobrious epithets. This piece, conveying the false implication that he had challenged me, proves him to be a Liar. The pitiful trick he has practiced shews him to be a most filthy coward: To elucidate his character further on this score, he has been publicly horse-whipped. He is, moreover, a traitor and an outlaw.
The Gallows, it thus appears, is at issue with him: to place one’s self in a situation to take his life would therefore be partaking his crime in cheating the vengeful monster of what ought to be its undisputed claim.
I thank my God that the tongue of a perjured villain, a proven coward, a traitor and an outlaw, slit as it is by the undeviating hand of public justice, can make no impression to my prejudice.
JOHN WARD FENNO.
Philadelphia, Jan. 18
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine writes:
CONSOLATION
For Reynolds … Lloyd, and Mother Bache …
Wolfe Tone, who was to head the French troops destined for Ireland, had been taken and was to have been tried as a rebel but gave the government the slip by cutting his own throat …
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Dear Sir … I send you the following statement of my interviews with J. W. Fenno …WILLIAM]. BACHE
I called upon John Ward Fenno … and when he read the letter which I presented, he asked me what Dr. Reynolds expected—this question however strange I replied to, “that he must retract what had been asserted in his paper or Give the Dr. that satisfaction which every gentleman had the right to respect.” He replied that he would not give the Dr. the satisfaction …
This morning, Jack Fenno has his associate, Richard Oswold, deliver the following note to Benny’s brother, William Bache:
FOR the shameful and studied falshoods with which you have assailed my character, in a publication under your signature, I demand satisfaction. My friend, Mr. Oswold, who bears this note, is authorized to take any necessary stepts on my behalf.
JOHN WARD FENNO1743
This afternoon at three, Jack Fenno posts two announcements at Philadelphia’s Merchants’ Coffee House:
Dr. William Bache, having traduced my character by the most shameful and studied falsehoods, and having refused me satisfaction when called upon, I hereby publish him as a Liar, a Coward, and a True Democrat.
JOHN WARD FENNO
James Reynolds, commonly called Doctor Reynolds, having asserted that I refused to fight him, when I had not received a challenge, and having neglected to answer a defiance which I sent him, I do hereby publish him for an infamous Liar and Coward …
JOHN WARD FENNO1744
SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 1799
Today, from Mount Vernon, George Washington writes the Rev. Mr. Bryan, Lord Fairfax:
[T]hat [Republican] party … have been uniform in their opposition to all measures of Government … torturing every act, by unnatural construction into a design to violate the Constitution, introduce monarchy, and to establish aristocracy … [W]hat is more to be regretted, the same Spirit seems to have laid hold of the major part of the Legislature of this State, while all the other States in the Union (Kentucky, the child of Virginia, excepted) are coming foreword with the most unequivocal evidence of their approbation …1745
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE EDITOR.
John Ward Fenno, having refused to give Dr. Reynolds the satisfaction of a gentleman, having suffered his real conduct to be exposed …, I have refused to meet with him … It is sufficient for me that John Ward Fenno is now sufficiently notorious.WILL. BACHE
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
B.[ache] told Mr. Oswold, “that until I had answered the challenge from his friend Dr. Reynolds, he should have nothing to say to me,—after which he was at my service.” As it was utterly impossible that I ever could meet Reynolds, I considered this reply as a dastardly evasion and proceeded to post him … in the Merchants’ Coffee-House at 3 o’clock, P.M. [on Saturday] … At about 11 o’clock at night, two men rushed into the Coffee House and awakened the bar keeper who, being ordered to set up alone for a club, had fallen asleep. On examination, he found, after they had ran out, that they had removed the … papers.
Nothing changes! Last June, William Bache opposed Irishman Jimmy Reynolds’ dismissal from the Philadelphia Infirmary and, for this, got himself dismissed as well. Now William intercedes to defend Jimmy Reynolds against the Fennos. Can you understand how I feel about the Baches?
TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE READERS OF THE AURORA
The compositors and pressmen who lately took themselves out from this office have appealed to our readers. The tribunal before which they have arraigned themselves demands respect …
They have stated their case—hear the other side.
This paper for several years has yielded a very slender revenue from a variety of causes. A large sum has been sunk in its establishment by the late editor. The expence of the office since its establishment has been greater than that of any other office in the United States … The paper having nearly doubled in number and circulation since its revival, the labor became greater on the pressmen … It was agreed that an advance of wages should be made where the labor had increased, but that a reduction should be made to the standard of other offices where the labor was equal …
On the 14th instant, they were called upon (as they have been every Saturday since the paper has recommenced and duly paid) to make their bills according to the new regulations … [B]oth pressmen and compositors left the office without any notification of their purpose …
The paper was thus left unfinished—and the copy that had been given out by the editor was either accidentally or purposely mislai
d, so that the business could not be accomplished by any other persons at that time. Under a representation of these circumstances, the editor was authorized to accede to any terms they should dictate—and they were on Sunday expressly informed …
On Monday they came to business as usual … One of the pressmen … received notice to provide himself at the end of the week with another situation.
Soon after, the compositors and pressmen, one by one, took themselves off, without even the usual notification of a week, or even saying whether they would return or not. At two o’clock on Monday, nothing had been done at press or case for Tuesday’s paper … and the paper appeared without any advertisements on Tuesday …
The editor informed them that not one man of them should return on any terms.
And now those men are angry! …
The readers will now judge …
THE EDITOR
As there is no tax laid upon windows by the house and land tax and as there is an admeasurement of windows carrying forward throughout the states, it is to be presumed we shall soon have a tax upon day light …
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FOREIGN INFLUENCE
THE public attention has been employed for some time on the danger of foreign influence … From what foreign quarter [is] the greatest danger of influence … to be apprehended? … The conclusion with me is … Great Britain …
[T]he most powerful, perhaps, of all her motives is her hatred and fear of the republican example of our governments … The same acute and predominant feeling … has displayed itself, with all its force, in its instant alarm at the propagation of republican principles into France …
The truth is Great Britain, as a monarchy … must view with a malignant eye the United States as the real source of the present revolutionary state of the world … It will consequently spare no effort to defeat [our] success by drawing our Republic into foreign wars, by dividing the people among themselves, by separating the government from the people, by establishing a faction of its own in the country, by magnifying the importance of characters among us known to think more highly of the British government than of their own … The MEANS of this influence are as obvious as the motives …
[T]he great flood-gate of British influence—British Commerce. The capital in the American trade … [t]hree fourths of this is British …
As a vehicle of influence, the press … must be allowed all its importance … The inland papers, it is well known, copy from the city papers; this city more particularly, as the centre of politics and news. The city papers are supported by advertisements. The advertisements for the most part relate to articles of trade and are furnished by merchants and traders. In this manner, British influence steals into our newspapers and circulates under their passport …
ENEMY TO FOREIGN INFLUENCE
James Madison wrote1746 and Thomas Jefferson submitted1747 this morning’s article on “Foreign Influence.” Republicans must persuade America that British influence, not French influence, jeopardizes the country.1748
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Lieutenant General Washington, having contemplated every martial arrangement necessary at this crisis, has returned to Mount Vernon. The permanent army will be forthwith organized and, though the French should not advance, may have the opportunity to avenge their country if the sedition of … Kentucky should rise to overt rebellion. The late resolutions of the motley banditti of that state are of unexampled audacity … At this eventful period, Virginia is like [the volcano] Hecla of Vesuvius, exploding the most fiery particles. Angry remonstrances, seditious speeches, and rash resolutions abound …
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
DISSENT of the Minority of the Senate of this State [of Pennsylvania] from the Address … to the President of the United States …
WE Dissent from this address … We hear from different parts of the union, and we know that even in the very neighborhood where we are assembled, numbers of people are discontented; that the Acts of the last Session of Congress have agitated the public mind to a violent degree..
Today, Thomas Jefferson writes a friend,
I shall make to you a profession of my political faith … in confidence …
I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation of our current constitution … and I am opposed to monarchising it[s] features by the forms of its administration with a view to conciliate a first transition to a President & Senate for life, &from that to a hereditary tenure of these offices, & thus to worm out the elective principle … I am not for transferring all the powers of the States to the general government, & those of that government to the Executive branch. I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple … and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt on the principle of it[s] being a public blessing. I am for relying, for internal defence, on our militia solely, until actual invasion … and not for a standing army in time of peace which may overawe the public sentiment … I am for free commerce with all nations … I am for freedom of religion & against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another; for freedom of the press & against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force & not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents. And I am for encouraging the progress of science … To these I will add that I was a sincere well-wisher to the success of the French revolution and still wish it may end in the establishment of a free & well-ordered republic … [T]hough feeling deeply the injuries of France, I did not think war the surest means of redressing them..
These, my friend, are my principles; they are unquestionably the principles of the great body of our fellow citizens …1749
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
It is frequently asked, what are we raising an army for? Various are the answers. Some say the people are so corrupt and vicious that we must have this rod held in terrorem over them … However, few can see the necessity of it … [A] judicious writer observes, “… When the people are easy and satisfied, the whole country is an army.”
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
A Gentleman called a few days since at the office of the Aurora where he found [Jasper] Dwight administering the honors of the shop—While he was detained, one or two of your rank Irishmen came in and enquired for the vulgar and impudent Dissent of the minority of the Pennsylvania Legislature to the address to the President. They were informed that there were none then to be had; that Mr. Jefferson had sent for and taken them all, but that a number more would be struck off in a few days.
To the Inhabitants of Chester County [Pennsylvania]
I noticed that a number of persons had convened at the house of Mr. Richard Robinson at Paoli for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of addressing the legislature of the union to repeal the alien and sedition laws.—[I]t appears from an advertisement of these persons in the “Aurora” that an adjourned meeting is to be held at the house of major Bones on the 28th inst … Fellow citizens, do not be duped by having any thing to do with these people, their meetings, or their petitions or remonstrances … It cannot be the wish of an honest man that this country be an asylum for alien enemies, felons, and convicts …
A Chester County Man
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[DUBLIN, IRELAND] COURT MARTIAL. The Court sat about 11 o’clock, when Mr. [WOLFE] TONE was introduced … splendidly dressed in the French uniform …
The charge was then read to him … of adhering to the King [of Britain]’s enemies—attempting to levy war within the Kingdom, &c., &c … [H]e … at length pleaded guilty, and immediately after, producing a paper, he spoke nearly to the following effect:
“The inf
luence and connection of Great Britain I have ever considered the bane of the prosperity and happiness of Ireland—These it has been the first wish of my heart to destroy, and the moment I found the proper resources of the country inadequate to the conflict, I applied to [the French] nation who had the will and the power to assist her …
“But in life, success is omnipotent—I have made an attempt in which Washington succeeded—and Kosciusko failed—the deliverance of my country …
“The Court must be sensible I have given no unnecessary trouble … [I]n return, it is my wish that the sentence may, if possible, be executed within an hour.” …
Mr. TONE is about two and thirty, and has left an amiable wife … and three children in Paris.
The victory of French forces in America gave America her independence and gave George Washington his presidency. The defeat of French forces in Ireland has left Ireland in British servitude and has cost Ireland’s would-be George Washington his life!
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
CIVIL WAR !
ALEXANDRIA [VIRGINIA], January 14 … Extract of a letter … “Times are alarming, civil dissensions, if not actual civil war, may be expected. A bill is ordered to be brought into the [Virginia] house arraying the state’s judges against those of the United States in cases that may occur under the sedition act … The government of the United States must protect itself or yield to the force of Virginia …”
(I apprehend nothing from the arms of Virginia alone; but she will call to her all the malcontents, all the villains, all the robbers, all the United Irishmen, from every part of the continent … But, take care, Virginia! Take care ! Pause and reflect before you rise en masse.