American Aurora
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As to Bristol being overrun with Tories, the Editor has not been so unfortunate as to find but one … [T]he Editor and all the numerous establishment have experienced the most impressive civilities and untired attention …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Preparations for the electioneering campaign in Pennsylvania are making, with great spirit and activity. Alarm posts are established: the armies are marshaled, officered and equipped, and the recruiting service is prosecuting with ardour and perseverance … A general and decisive battle is expected in October. If talents, integrity and patriotism can influence the fate of the day, victory will crown the banners of General Ross.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BRITISH PRINCIPLES …
The British constitution preposterously affects to maintain “that the king can do no wrong”—So Fenno openly advocates putting the American chief magistrate on the same footing by a dangerous and impolitic alteration of our federal constitution …
The British constitution sacrilegiously establishes one set of Christians (the Church of England) over the whole Christian church; so Fenno wishes an established church to be maintained no doubt out of the federal treasury …
[L]et the electors of Pennsylvania remember that Fenno is the printer of the Journals of the Senate and that Mr. Ross is a member of the majority of that Senate … Is he not a vigilant friend of our constitution, our political principles—and our administration when he never took a single measure to withdraw the printing from this young man (Fenno) who has abused them all? What sort of officers are we to expect Mr. Ross would appoint, were he governor of Pennsylvania—men who, like Fenno, abuse our civil and religious constitutions.
Today, in New York City, the federal government indicts widow Ann Greenleaf, publisher of the New York Argus, for the paper’s claim that “the federal government was corrupt and inimical to the preservation of liberty.” The New York Argus is the nation’s second largest Republican newspaper (now that Federalist sedition prosecutions have defeated Boston’s Independent Chronicle) and the only remaining Republican newspaper in New York City (now that John Adams has suppressed the New York Time Piece and exiled its Irish editor, John Daly Burk). Ann Greenleaf’s trial is scheduled to occur just before New York’s May 4th election of a new state assembly (whose members will decide the state’s presidential electors!).1850
Today, the same grand jury indicts, under the Sedition Act, a member of the New York state assembly, Jedidiah Peck, for having circulated a petition against the Alien and Sedition Acts. Peck’s petition claimed: “The former is directed at Foreigners; the latter is levelled at ourselves. The former tyrannizes over Men, who in general have been born and bred under oppression. But it is the superlative wickedness of the latter to convert Freemen into Slaves.” The New York state assemblyman will stand trial next spring, just before he faces reelection to the New York state assembly.1851
Lastly today, the same New York grand jury indicts, under the Sedition Act, William Durell, publisher of the weekly Mount Pleasant Register (Mount Pleasant is thirty miles north of New York City) for “false scandalous malicious and defamatory Libel of and concerning John Adams.”1852
John Adams’ message to New Yorkers is clear. Looking to next spring’s elections in New York, all public voices must support the Federalist vision.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE AURORA,
May have their papers in Philadelphia at No. 12 Market-street—those who remain in town are requested to give orders at that house, and the papers will be delivered daily at their residence. Papers will be delivered in Germantown at Oeller’s Hotel. In Frankfurt, at Major Sullivan’s at the Cross Keys. Letters for the Editor will be likewise received at those places. Subscribers in other parts of the Country are requested to send written directions how their papers are to be forwarded.
Today, in the Gazette of the United States:
HARRISBURG, [PENNSYLVANIA] August 28. On Saturday morning last, Wm. Nichols, Esq., Marshal of Pennsylvania, arrested Benjamin Moyer and Conrad Fahnestock, printers and proprietors of a Dutch Aurora of this borough, for publishing a “false, scandalous, and malicious” libel against the laws and government of the United States. They have given bail …
Today,1853 in the Porcupine’s Gazette:
Much has been said and written on the utility of newspapers—but … [w]as there ever such a damnable proposition as … Read News-papers in schools ! I would as soon give my children “the pickpockets vade mecum.” A news-paper, generally speaking is the manual of ignorance and rascality. For instance, Mother Bache’s Atheistical paper would “supply the want of preaching” … MOTHER BACHE’S for seditiousness, falsehood, bawdry, and blasphemy …
ELECTION.
This business grows hotter and hotter. The Federal Battery at Dunwoody’s was pretty loud some time ago and promised to continue so; but, whether by desertion or otherwise, it has since grown slack, and the enemy, profiting therefrom, have recommenced offensive operations with great fury and with not less skill than fury.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
A Newspaper has been commenced at Easton, on the Eastern Shore of [Maryland] by a Citizen of the name of T. P. SMITH—it is entitled, “THE REPUBLICAN STAR,” and from the talents and spirit of the Editor, excites expectations of benefiting the good cause. (Balt. Am.)
Another Republican paper has been lately established at Winchester, Virginia, by a Mr. G. Trissler, late of Fredericktown, a gentleman of very handsome abilities. The cause of virtue cannot have too many nor too able supporters.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
[W]hen the infamous Bache called [General Washington] a perjured peculator and a wilful assassin and [Mr. Adams] “an old, bald, blind, toothless and decrepid president,” the vigilant Chief Justice of Pennsylvania was not so “fully impressed with the duties of his station” as to bind over [for trial] the abandoned calumniator. Nay, he has since, in some degree, even sanctioned “the magnitude and virulence of the lies” of the Aurora … by making it necessary that the advertisements of insolvent debtors, relative to their discharge, should be published in that vehicle of slander …
While the proposition for repealing the Alien and Sedition Bills were under consideration in Congress, four United Irishmen assembled a mob in one of the church yards … After a violent scuffle, the rioters were made prisoners and carried before the Mayor. During the examination, the Chief Justice … forced himself into the mayor’s house, grossly insulted that magistrate while in the execution of the duties of his office, and declared that the prisoners ought to take up their hats and go away … With the unlimited power of pardon vested in such a man, what outrage will not escape punishment ? …
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
TO THE ELECTORS OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens,
The time is fast approaching when you will have to decide upon … the [Governor] of the Republic of Pennsylvania …
It is well known that the Republican party are attached to a representative Constitution; to a Constitution of equal rights; free from all hereditary honours and exclusive privileges; where the officials of Government are responsible for their conduct … By this party the nomination of Thomas M’Kean is supported.
The Federalists on the other hand … think the government should have more and the people less power. To this party, and their Candidate, Mr. Ross, we owe the Sedition Law … To them we are indebted for the British [Jay] Treaty, that parent of our present dispute with France … To them we owe the Alien Law which has set aside trial by jury; has stopped the useful influx of Republican Men and Industry and Money. The leaders of this party are professed admirers of the British constitution … They are no friends to
universal suffrage … To this party we are indebted for all our late taxes … for a Standing Army, an extensive Navy, and a strong tendency to premature hostility with the earliest friend of Republican America … Of this party, James Ross is the favoured Candidate … C.
Our lawyer and friend Thomas Cooper wrote this morning’s address “To the Electors of Northumberland County.”1854
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
BRITISH INFLUENCE. (DISSIPATING).
While the despots of Europe are openly and declaredly engaging in a war … to destroy every vestige of republican government, it is satisfactory to a republican American to witness the revival of the national principles and spirit, and the dissipation of the most astonishing delusion that ever blinded a free and virtuous people.—From one end of the continent to the other, a reviving spirit of freedom and love of self government is visible—few can possess more certain or more general evidences of the fact than the editor of a public newspaper.
On no occasion perhaps since the bold animation which blazed forth in 1775 and which continued to pervade America to the close of 1783 has this generous, this necessary passion to save the national liberties and honor been more strongly manifested than they are now every day …
In our particular state … the exclamation from one end of Pennsylvania to the other is—“Our eyes are opened”—
Pursuant to public notice, about 350 Republican Citizens, chiefly from the upper part of Bucks County, met … Resolved, That … we will … promote [Thomas M’Kean] … to the office of Governor of this Commonwealth …
Something very important is happening in Pennsylvania!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
[T]he cause of France is the cause of liberty and man …
Today, U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering instructs the U.S. district attorney for Pennsylvania to pursue the Aurora:
Besides the newspapers on which the prosecution of the Aurora has been commenced, I have [handed] you several others … If you find anything … which you think it proper … [illegible] on which he [can be] prosecuted … 1855
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE RETURNING SENSE OF THE COUNTRY …
Two years—nay eighteen months ago—so extravagant was the change that had taken place in public sentiment that it became almost dangerous for a republican citizen to acknowledge himself a republican, much less to maintain the principles of equal liberty and the rights of mankind upon which the governments we live under are established ! …
This national infatuation is broken—the satellites of Britain see it with mingled dismay and despair—their countenances and their conduct betray them—and the free American countenance once more wears the softened lineaments of the independent and benevolent republican …
This change of public sentiment now so powerfully operating throughout the union has been produced by a variety of causes. But there is one cause which we shall place above all others, and therefore first—This change has been effected.
1. By a press retaining its constitutional freedom, in spite of open threats, of frequent danger, of the persecutions of power, unconstitutional laws, and the efforts of private intrigue and corruption …
It is now but a few days more than a year since public calamity deprived his country and the cause of virtue of Benjamin Franklin Bache,—that inflexible man, that man worthy of his name—who, when nearly a majority of our fellows citizens, influenced by the error of great names, laid the national honor at the foot of that nation we had defeated in arms, stood steadfast at the post of danger and public trust.
To that man’s labours and virtue do the people of America in a vast measure owe their present rescue from ruin—it was he who stood almost alone—assailed by every species of slander and calumny—aspersed by the hired agents of Britain—and persecuted by the government of his native land—the government of that land which his immortal grandfather, more than any other man, had contributed to render glorious, independent, and free. It was he that dared brave all the menaces of assassination—the assaults of faction—and the oppression of irritated but perverted authority …
It requires not argument to prove that the Aurora, in the hands of Benjamin Franklin Bache, was the most formidable check upon ambition and false policy which this nation has possessed for five years past …
When we attribute this degree of honorable consequence to the memory of him, the memory of whose virtues and whose worth must long survive him; let it not be presumed that we wish to confer a stigma on the few prints which laudably stood true to those principles; or which are now returning back with credit to them; and when the pre-eminence is claimed for the Aurora as a tribute due to the superior talents of the late editor, the integrity of a Greenleaf [of the New York Argus] and an Adams [of Boston’s republican Independent Chronicle], are not meant to be depreciated—to them all the honor that is due to the steadfast virtue, industry, and love of freedom belongs.
At a period not very remote, the United States could scarcely boast of six public papers out of nearly two hundred, which maintained the principles of 1776.
The Argus at New-York, edited by a citizen of the most determined zeal, was certainly the second in the union; though weakly supported by patronage and much harassed by foreign faction—and in the hands of its present editor holds a high character.
The Chronicle of Boston, conducted by a man of genuine virtue, was more conspicuous for the able productions of correspondents than for any proceeding from its own sources …
The Farmer’s Weekly Museum, a weekly paper, conducted with genius and classical elegance at Walpole, Connecticut.
With a few more plagiary papers to the Southward, these were all the papers which dared to maintain the principles of equal liberty and the sovereignty of the people for a considerable length of time, in conjunction with the Aurora.
Efforts were made during the lifetime of the late editor to crush the Aurora, and efforts have been more recently made which shall be exposed in due time—both have proved fruitless.
The present editor of the Aurora knows that had the Aurora fallen, the Argus must have followed it. The effort to destroy the republican character of the Chronicle succeeded; the feeble old man of virtue was imprisoned and his poor heart broke … The Farmer’s Weekly Museum has been changed from its republican character to the most violent advocation of monarchy …
The Aurora, amidst all changes and vicissitudes of politics and power, has remained unchanged—and has seen from the dreary prospect which surrounded it since arise a galaxy of republican prints, which, unawed by power and devoted to the republican constitutions of these states, diffuse knowledge and truth into all corners of the Union. Among these stand in pre-eminence—The Albany Register; the Examiner at Richmond, Virginia, the American at Baltimore; the Bee at New London, Connecticut; the Herald of Liberty at Washington, Pennsylvania; the Epitome of the Times at Norfolk, Virginia; the Farmer’s Register at Greensburg, Pennsylvania; and about thirty others whose principles are known but whose rank for original writings is not yet established.
Such is the encreasing state of the republican presses in the Union. And to the constancy of the late Editor, and the force of the truths which he has published, do we attribute the salvation of the Press, the destruction of which we are decidedly of opinion was intended by the late odious law—a law for the repeal of which the public voice is prepared to cry aloud in the ears of their mistaken and deluded servants …
Today, at New London, Connecticut, a federal marshal arrests Charles Holt, publisher of Connecticut’s only Republican newspaper, the New London Bee. The federal indictment charges the Bee with defaming the President of the United States and with impeding army recruitment by criticism of the new standing army. Charles Holt is brought before the U.S. Circuit Court at Hartford. Trial is set for April.1856
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN TO THE FREEMEN
Of the City and County of Philadelphia..
That on Tuesday, the 8th day of October next, being the day of the General Election, are to be elected, viz …
Six representatives of the said City in the House of Representatives of … Pennsylvania.
One Governor of the State of Pennsylvania …
The Freemen … of Philadelphia are to hold their election at the State House in the said city. The election is to be opened between the hours of ten o’clock in the forenoon and one in the afternoon …
JONATHAN PENROSE, Sheriff.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
APPROACHING ELECTION …
To The Electors of Pennsylvania.
SINCE my last number, I have observed in the Aurora some further charges against Mr. Ross … Mr. Ross is charged with acting under a foreign influence … [I]f to have sanctioned the plans of Mr. Washington, Mr. Adams and the most illustrious patriots in America … be a proof of his exclusive attachment to his country, no man less deserves the stigma attempted to be affixed by this abominable slander …
FEDERALISTS, You now stand behind the last dyke of your happiness, constitution, and laws … Victory finally completes your triumph, defeat plunges you into endless and irretrievable ruin. Let each individual then act as tho’ the success of the election depended on his individual exertion; let him unite all the alacrity of hope, with all the energy of despair … [T]hen the glorious reward of victory certainly will be yours.MILO