American Aurora
Page 85
THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The late editor of the Aurora was publicly unprovokedly assaulted, and the violator of public law was as publicly honored by an appointment on a public mission. The present editor, without the advantage of being a descendant of [Benjamin Franklin,] the memorable founder of the American republic, could not hope to escape …
Yesterday a band of those friends of good order and regular government to the amount of near THIRTY entered the Office of the Aurora—and while the editor was pursuing his business, assaulted him … Peter Miercken who was the principal of those dastards with several others seized the Editor by violence, struck him several times on the head, while others held his hands. By force they dragged him down stairs into Franklin court, and there repeated their violence by reiterated blows from above TEN different persons …
After having satiated their malice … they sought to add what they conceived to be dishonour on the Editor by several blows with a whip …
If any circumstance could more deeply impress on his mind … to guard, with the vigilance of republican jealousy, against the artifices, the intrigues and the injustice of arbitrary men;—this conduct would only more and more attach him to his principles—but he has never slackened since he has had the honor to hold his present situation—and while he holds it, his hand must perish or his vital principles must be suspended by the hand of some of those assassins before he will shrink from exposing villains and crimes to public obloquy.
Wm. DUANE, Editor of the Aurora.
The above statement was drawn up by the editor in the few moments after the lovers of good order and regular government had departed …
Today, the federal army officers reassemble for an assault on me and the Aurora’s printing office:
ISRAEL ISRAEL: I heard the alarm had increased, that further violence and barbarity was intended, and as an old citizen, I thought it was my duty, as far as in me lay, to interfere and prevent it if possible. I was told a number of these gentlemen were at Hardy’s … I went alone and sent in for Mr. Miercken and told him I understood they were assembled to act the second part of the tragedy of the preceding day by attacking Duane again and destroying his press … I told him that this conduct of theirs would rouse the people and probably lead to civil war; that although they might build very much on the troop of officers, the strength of the community was not with them. He said you have a right to do as you please, but by God, we will have satisfaction.1818
VICE PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON: [T]hese friends of order, these enemies of disorganization, assemble a second time to pull down the printing office of the young and amiable widow of the grandson of Benjamin Franklin. On the other hand, a body of real republicans, of men who are real friends of order, assemble in arms, and … mounted guard to protect the office of this widow, the person of her Editor, of his journeymen, his apprentices, and his son.1819
Yes, dear reader, a large crowd of republicans gathers at the Aurora’s offices and stands firm against the reassembled federal army officers. As darkness approaches, a federal officer seizes a bayonet from one of my new Republican guard.1820
Tonight, Jack Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
MURDER ! MURDER ! MURDER !
Citizen Dwight in his candid account of the magnanimous manner in which he received his flagellation has forgotten to mention that he bellowed MURDER! from the time he was taken hold of ‘till the discipline was completely gone through—I dare say this omission has arisen from the haste in which he drew up his statement, and he will no doubt correct the error in his next edition.
Jasper Dwight told his customers on Saturday last that in Monday’s Aurora he would publish a laboured vindication of the troops employed in the Northampton Insurrection; and he has this morning exhibited himself as a belaboured vindication of the same subject. We would advise this gentlemen to change his climate—the cowskin of America cuts as keenly as the lash of India.
We published, yesterday, a statement which was communicated by an eye-witness of the flagellation inflicted upon one of the United Irishmen concerned in propagating that Diablerie of slanders and lies, called the Aurora, and who it since appears, is the fellow who calls himself “the Editor of the Aurora.”
Although the punishment of this caitiff is of no more consequence than that of any other vagabond, yet as he has the impudence to make a parade of his sufferings and his republicanism, we shall bestow a remark or two which the insignificance of the object would not otherwise require.
A body of men, as respectable in character as any in the United States … make a further sacrifice … in defence of their country and its constitution. In their absence on this expedition, they are maligned with every slander that the foul malice of an incendiary can invent, and after their return, are insulted …
When the officers reflected on these things … and more especially when they reflected that … the same villain and the same paper had called the great and good Washington a hypocrite, a fool, a liar, and a coward, a tyrant and a murderer—the present illustrious Chief Magistrate, who cooperated so powerfully in council with his immortal compeer in the field, in obtaining our Independence, “a blind, bald, toothless, crippled, dotard”— … when they reflected on these things, and reflected that the author of them was not an American but a foreigner, and not merely a foreigner, but a United Irishman, and not merely a United Irishman, but a public convict and fugitive from justice; they might have determined that nothing from so vile a source could stain their well-established credit, and they might have let him go … But then must they have stifled every distinctive attribute of a soldier and a man of honor, and sunk to the level of the Democratic crew …
SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE PUBLIC …
In that calamitous moment—which my country and virtue herself must daily deplore—that snatched Benjamin Franklin Bache from this post of honor, it is my felicity that he named me in his Will as the man who ought to succeed him as the Editor of the Aurora.
When I undertook the trust, I foresaw its dangers and hazards. Honored with the most affectionate and unrestrained confidence of that incomparable man, I believe I knew better than any other person the sacrifices he had made to the service of his country and the preservation of its liberties, and the hideous persecution which he suffered in supporting these principles for which so much American blood had been shed.
I could not be insensible that when the descendant of Dr. Franklin—the heir of his principles and his virtues—suffered so much—that, unsurrounded by the reverend honors which belong to that great man and his posterity, I must be at least as much exposed as he was to the assaults of the common enemies of this republic and of liberty itself …
Solicitous of respect and regard only in proportion as I should be found to really merit it, I sought not to be conspicuous [in the execution of my honorable trust], nor did I deign to more than smile at the pointless malignity with which I have been so often assailed.
The present is an occasion in which I am bound to stand forward—and to challenge the industrious satellites of party to name the vice much less the crime of which I have, in the course of between 36 and 37 years, been guilty …
Three insinuations have been promulgated concerning me—
1. That I am a foreigner.
2. That I have been a convict and a fugitive from justice, whose republicanism has been derived from gaols, dungeons, and pillories.
3. That I am an United Irishman,
To the first and last of these insinuations, I simply reply—that I drew my first breath in America, have loved my country from my first reasoning hour—that I spent my early years a part in New York and at a later period in this city …
I am proud to say both my parents were Irish. The death of my father and the natural partiality of my mother for her own country carried me, before I was yet a youth, to Europe, and to I
reland I am indebted for my education …
As to the insinuation that I am an United Irishman … —If to have studied the history of the British empire attentively … [if] to have learned to detest the stupendous perpetuity of oppression which Britain has heaped for 600 years on that otherwise blessed country be an error or a crime, then I am decidedly an United Irishman as any man in that or this country …
It only remains to notice the second insinuation …
It has been more than once asserted that during my residence in India (where I lived for eight years) I had been imprisoned. It is true I was there twice a state prisoner …
[I]t will serve to shew the tyranny of the British government … I learned my crime was the issuing of proposals for publishing a work of two volumes, entitled, “The Policy of Asia.” Under despotic governments it is not unusual to see the press attacked, authors imprisoned, and printers tortured for works already printed—it was left with the English government in Asia to anticipate the contents of a work only half written at the time, and not yet printed …
Since my return to my native country, I have found but few of my old friends—but I have been blessed with many that are new and dear to me—my personal dealings and domestic character will speak for themselves—I, in perfect charity, most sincerely wish those who attempted my life could say as much.
WILLIAM DUANE
This is a portrait of me, William Duane, engraved by a French refugee, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de St. Mémin, who lives in Philadelphia on Third-street, engraves about eighty-five such profiles per year, and advertises his services in the Aurora.1821
On Friday, the 10th inst. departed this life, after a lingering illness, at Boston, THOMAS ADAMS, late Editor of the Independent Chronicle, in the 42d year of his age.
The Circuit Court of the United States yesterday afternoon decided in favour of Mr. Lewis’s motion for granting John Fries a new trial.
Jury misconduct will allow tax protester John Fries a new trial next year.
Tonight, Jack Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
To complete the character of the vagrant who calumniated the great and good Washington, under the signature of Jasper Dwight, he has avowed himself an United Irishman.
[Adv.] A BAYONET,
WRESTED from the musquet of a fellow in uniform, at the front of the Aurora office, by one of the Officers of the United States, on the night of the 16th inst. at the time they were assaulted in passing the street by the mob there assembled may be had, by proving property, at the Marine barracks.
MONDAY, MAY 20, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Gang are quite dolorous at their ineffectual efforts to pull down the Aurora or murder its Editor;—they have learned some things useful by their last exploit—
1. That the public indignation is roused.
2. That the republicans are the only respecters of the law.
3. That a reiteration of violence would carry public vengeance to their firesides.
A young federal lawyer … was heard to declare a few days ago—that altho’ he did not think the life of the Editor of the Aurora worth 100 dollars, yet he should consider his death worth 200.
“Hail Columbia, happy land,
“Hail ye heroes, heaven-born band.”
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Adams, the printer and publisher of the infamous Chronicle at Boston, is DEAD.
Tonight, Jack Fenno in the Gazette of the United States:
In the last Aurora is the most singular gallimaufry [hodgepodge] of falsehood, Democratic, and jailbird impudence, terrified apprehension, and guilty cowardice, signed Wm. Duane. What I have to notice, however, is a gross and palpable lie. He says he had the felicity to be named in Franklin Bache’s will as the man who “ought to succeed him.” Now, although such a nomination were enough of itself to draw any man to everlasting infamy, and, although it be of no consequence whether if Tom, Dick, or the D—l, happened to be named, yet as the Gentleman took the pains to come and inform me of the state of the facts, in complaisance to him, I can do no less than say that it is an utter falsehood and that Wm. Duane is not named nor alluded to.
There can scarcely be a more laughable object than a fellow making pretensions to character, whom every circumstance indicated to have been born and bred in a brothel …
It is equally curious to hear a wretch pretend to have written a Book … under whose hands the least distinguished offspring of literature, a news-paper, has become, by the gross vulgarity and ignorance it has displayed … the reproach and scandal of the age and nation.
Nor is it less ludicrous to hear a fellow boast of debauching the king’s guards with his wine, who could never in his life ‘till very lately, muster money enough without difficulty to purchase his diurnal half-pint of Gin.
It is a serious reflection that the stupidity and dullness of such Gazettes as those of Duane … have the deleterious operation on society from their peculiar aptitude to the minds of those on whom they are designed to take operation.
I set about forming a new Democratic Dictionary …
A Republican. The scape-gallows, Duane …
A Tory. General Washington.
The friends and supporters of American Liberty and Independence.United Irishmen.
The enemies of d[itt]o. The Government, the officers, soldiers and sailors …
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Several citizens having intimated that a full and particular statement of the transactions which took place in this office last week was looked for by the public, the Editor … gives the following detail …
In the height of their rage, a menace was thrown out that they would tear down the Aurora Printing-Office, in consequence of which a number of Republican citizens collected with arms and ammunition to mount guard in the Printing-Office. The banditti have assembled several times since and have raised a purse of 1500 dollars to defray the expences of the prosecution against them! …
Several occurrences have arisen which strongly manifest the public indignation at these outrages … [T]he most important is the spirit of association among the republicans who have joined the militia volunteer companies in considerable numbers.
[WILLIAM DUANE.]
TO THE REPUBLICAN CITIZENS OF PENNSYLVANIA …
My fellow citizens, the moment is arrived when it has become essential to your safety that you should be soldiers as well as citizens … After the outrages which were committed both here and in Reading, which of you will say that it may not be his turn next … [M]en intent upon hostility have associated themselves in military corps. [I]t becomes your duty to associate likewise …
MENTOR
The federal army officers’ attack on the Aurora has prompted guardians of the press to start a Republican militia for its protection!1822 [W]ithout any agency or knowledge of mine, a body of young men presented themselves to me and offered to uniform if I would command them; a young man … in the United States army, was their lieutenant, and I accepted the command.1823
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
If a daring banditti had declared that none of their brotherhood should be punished by law and that civil process dare not touch them, what should we think of the energy of the municipality that was terrified by the threat. This is precisely the cry of the jacobins with regard to their partizans and accomplices.
THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Mamelukes have contrived to get the Editor of the Aurora bound over to keep the peace—thirty more, kill them says Bobadil! … The hero who presented a pistol to the breast of a person in the Aurora Office on Wednesday, the 15th inst. is said to be George Way—some one observed he wished to be in the way of promotion.
Crowds of armed citizenry, Federalist and Republican, fill the city streets every day. If someone were to discharge a musket, this city and perhaps
the country could erupt in civil war.1824
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes:
IN the Aurora of [the day before] yesterday, the faction of which that paper is the organ are expressly called upon to associate themselves in the military corps, not for the purpose of defending their country from foreign invasion; not with a view to support their government against the machinations of domestic traitors, but avowedly to act against the Friends of Government.
Under the authority of Duane himself, it is stated that to accomplish this object, considerable accessions of military strength have already been made to the Militia Companies; and that a band of Jacobins mount guard every evening at his office …
Duane says that during the horse-whipping he received t’other day, the people who stood looking with dumb astonishment were heard to murmur aloud!! Will this blundering bull maker again tell us he is an American?