American Aurora
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My letter proving that John Adams saw British influence in the Washington administration would embarrass not only Adams but also Washington. The threat to release the letter produces a stand-off !1865
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The PRESIDENT of the United States arrived at Trenton from Quincy on Wednesday last. It is expected he will remain there until the meeting of Congress.
Same day arrived at Trenton, Major General Hamilton, from New York …
Chief Justice Ellsworth and Governor Davie [two of the three proposed envoys to France] are also at Trenton.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The republicans of Pennsylvania in general may consider the present election as a very fortunate opportunity to test their principles … At a moment when the enemies of republicanism counted high on the prospect of destroying it in Europe (only as a prelude to destroying it here), the citizens of Pennsylvania have stood up like men, and by chusing a man of ‘76, declared that—a republic means something … [T]his state has declared its principles, and the Sister States have always respected the opinion of the Pennsylvanians.
It is said that matters of great pith and moment are shortly to engage the heads of the nation now in Trenton;—the most important of which [is] probably the question respecting the sailing of the ministers to the French republic …
On Saturday evening the 31st ult., the editor [of the New London, Connecticut Bee] was arrested by major Simon Clark, deputy marshal of the United States for the county of Hartford on an indictment for printing and publishing the Bee on May 8th last, which is said to contain sedition against the government of the United States. On the day following (Sunday), he was taken to Hartford and lodged in common prison; but on Monday, on his appearance before the Circuit Court, bail was taken … [T]rial postponed until … the 13th of April next …
War … Today, off Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, the U.S. Navy’s brig Pickering does battle with a French privateer. From a report:
[A] battle was fought between the United States brig Pickering, of 14 guns, four pounders and 70 men, and the French privateer schooner L’Egypte Conquise, of 18 guns, 14 nines, and 4 sixes, and 250 men; in which after an engagement which lasted nine hours, the Frenchman struck and was carried into St. Kitts … [N]ot being able to stand the fire of American cannon, she was obliged to strike to a force not much more than one third her equal in number.1866
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Reports have been circulated … that the President of the United States had proposed to resign …
We did not believe he had resigned or meant to resign, because … he is morally and politically bound to … oppose those measures of war which … men under British influence would provoke him, if possible to enter upon …
The mission [to France] has been temporarily suspended. Alexander Hamilton wishes it to be suspended for ever … [W]e believe the President will be obstinate on this occasion to save his country from war and his own reputation …
Tonight, in the Porcupine’s Gazette, Peter Porcupine has some election talk that is sure to upset the President:
The president of the United States is arrived at Trenton in New Jersey, where are at this time assembled all the principal officers of the federal government, civil and military. It has been whispered about that the president has signaled his intention of resigning as soon as congress meets; but, from what I have been able to learn, the report seems to be unfounded …
The election of my Democratick Judge as Governor of Pennsylvania, undeniably the most influential state in the union, has, in my opinion decided the fate of what has been called Federalism … It has uniformly been my opinion that M’Kean would succeed, and I have as uniformly asserted that his success would be a sort of onset in a struggle which will terminate in the complete triumph of Democracy. I mean a pure (perhaps it should be impure) Democracy; not a Democracy that allows a man to make his underlings put “honourable” before his name and “Esquire” after it; but a real Democracy, an equality Democracy, where sans-culotte slovens shall be “citizen each other” ‘till the very walls blush at the obscenity … I look forward with great confidence to the time when Duane and Callender shall occupy the space now filled by Dallas and M’Kean …
The Yellow Fever, at Philadelphia, is nearly at an end for this year; people are fast returning into town.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
NORRISTOWN, October 15. In the Circuit Court of the United States, now holding at this place, by the honorable Judge Washington and Peters, two bills of the indictment, under the sedition law, have been presented by the grand inquest against Duane, editor of the Aurora.
Mr. Dallas moved a postponement until the next term. Some of the evidences for his client he said were absent … besides a number of documents … to which he could not have access with safety during the existence of the prevailing fever in Philadelphia …
Duane was sworn in proof of the necessity of the evidence alluded to and that he was not ready to proceed to trial.
The decision on this point was not made when the Court adjourned this day.
It being the first day, the Court proceeded to business. Mr. Dallas stated his reasons in support of the motion … Mr. Rawle answered; after which Judge Washington declared the opinion of the court that the [other] trials should proceed …
The public mind has for a length of time … been in an anxious and awful suspence respecting the third mission [to France] which it was contemplated in the beginning of the present year to dispatch to that Republic. Of late, the town has been filled with jarring rumors on this all-important topic …
It was hoped that before the final nomination could reach Paris, the [American] capture of the Insurgent and other acts of resistance on our part would have so wounded the pride of the Directory as to have produced a declaration of war or at least have effected an irreparable breach; or that, in the interim, his Most Christian Majesty [of Britain] might have trampled his rebellious subject [France] beneath the foot of his throne …
The effect of the nomination upon the Federal party … was like that of some tremendous tornado … Its cause has since undergone a regular declension, the future steps of which daily grow more certain. The election of M’Kean we owe to this sole cause—that of Monroe in Virginia is its most natural offspring—and the success of Jefferson to the Presidential Chair will become an event which no longer can or indeed ought to be opposed.
In the nine months since John Adams nominated new peace commissioners for a mission to France, he has done nothing to cause those commissioners to depart.1867 Could the election in Pennsylvania make him reconsider? Porcupine’s announcement that McKean’s election has “decided the fate of … Federalism” might give pause. Should the mid-Atlantic states (meaning Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey) swing Republican next year, the Duke of Braintree will be gone!
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT.
At the federal court held at Norristown on Tuesday last, present Bushrod Washington and Richard Peters, Esqrs. Judges, an indictment upon an information against the editor of this paper was presented and found by the grand jury, upon a charge at the suit of the United States under the Sedition Law, for publishing certain matters alleged not to be true in the Aurora of the 24th of July, and upon which the editor had been held to bail, himself in 2000 dollars and two other citizens in 1000 dollars each.
A second indictment was also presented and found by the grand jury, upon certain matters contained in the Aurora of the 3d of August last.
Some very interesting arguments and doctrines of law were given in discussing the question whether a trial should or should not be adjourned to next term … The court … decided that, in consideration of the mass of business to be transacted at this term, the trial be
postponed to the 11th of June next.
Fresh bail was given …
The Editor restrains himself, out of respect to the recommendation of the constituted authorities, from giving copies of the indictments or a report of the arguments of the court and counsel—and is satisfied to remain silent on the subject of those charges until they shall be decided upon by due course of law …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
We learn from undoubted authority that the envoys to France are to sail on the 5th of November in the frigate United States, which now lies at Newport, ready to receive them.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
REPUBLICANS OF PENNSYLVANIA
ON THURSDAY NEXT …
A FAT OX WILL BE ROASTED
On Zeigler’s plains, Spring Garden in honor of our well beloved Governor, ELECT, THOMAS M’KEAN …
James Monroe, it is supposed, will be the next governor of Virginia.
It is said at Trenton that the President of the United States has passed the Rubicon—he has directed the departure of the Envoys for Europe—and removed [from Trenton, New Jersey] to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware to reside.
Today, U.S. District Court Court Judge Richard Peters, who presided with Judge Bushrod Washington at my trial at Norristown, writes Secretary of State Timothy Pickering:
We returned from Norristown yesterday after the blowing up of the Court. We are all too much chagrined to say much about the Circumstances or the Consequences … We do not say anything about the true Reason of our breaking up. We assigned as a Reason that we had discovered, since the last adjournment, an Error in the Proceedings … I bound over the Defendants—Duane & 2 or 3 more … We think it will be absolutely necessary to hold a special Court sometime in January. But we dared not order it …1868
Neither John Adams nor George Washington wants Adams’ admission of British influence in the Washington administration to become public. There will be no further court proceedings on that issue!1869 Peter Porcupine knows:
[T]he culprit appeared before the Court at Norristown. There Mr. A[dams]’s letter was not produced, but Dallas mentioned it as part of the evidence in favour of his client, and he even showed the letter to several persons.—The trial was postponed, and there is, I think, every reason to believe that it will never come on … [I]t was not, therefore, necessary to say the worst at once. Duane, Coxe, Dallas &c. have kept back the rest of the letter as a rod over the old man’s back.1870
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The District Court, lately sitting at Norristown, is adjourned, all its proceedings having been nullified by the discovery of a flaw in the notification of the removal of the court [from Philadelphia to Norristown].
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
By a Gentleman from Vermont, we learn that Col. Matthew Lyon, Anthony Haswell, Editor of the Vermont Gazette, and Judah P. Spooner, Printer at Fairhaven, have been indicted for Sedition before the Circuit Court for the District of Vermont.—(Northern Budget.).
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
[T]he present is an awful and pressing hour … An ancient and dangerous sedition, suppressed for a season … is about to revive, stronger from its temporary depression. An event has just occurred to consummate its highest temporary aims; and the ground is laid out on which it is again to advance with erect and towering head.
The Departments of [the federal] Government now at Trenton are occupied in preparations for returning to the City [of Philadelphia].
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The federal Circuit Court recently held at Norristown by adjournment is, we understand, dissolved. An evening paper of yesterday says in consequence of a flaw in the proceeding of adjournment ! We cannot believe this to be true because we heard Mr. Dallas argue that the holding of the court was not conformable to law, and he was overruled. We rather suspect that the recent jarrings in a certain town in Jersey have indicated the wisdom of postponing discussions which might operate politically on an approaching election—look out in time republicans !
Yesterday was displayed in this city a Jubilee recently very rare in its object—It was the triumph of the principles of republicanism … [R]epublicans assembled in Zeigler’s plain in the Northern Liberties part of this city on Wednesday evening … A fine fat steer was, in ancient order, immolated on the altar of American liberty beneath the flag of America surmounted by the classical emblems of liberty and peace—the cap and wreath of laurel and palm …
Libations of red and white wines were poured out on the altar … At noon two British twelve pounders whose muzzles had ere muttered destruction in the ears of the free sons of America were heard to bellow forth triumph … Guns were fired in honor of each of the several counties which have displayed republican majorities in the recent election … The evening exhibited indeed a Jubilee … the citizens without arms but with colours, music, and wands, paraded the ground of festivity, and the night ushered in the morning with songs of 1776 and joy.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The festivity and rejoicings held in consequence of the election of THOMAS M’KEAN had not ceased on Friday morning. Processions of citizens with lighted tapers accompanied by music continued through the streets the whole night. Several parties with instrumental music serenaded popular characters.
It was asked how it came that a concourse of at least ten thousand democrats should assemble and be merry and that all should return home peaceably and cheerfully—without a single shot, quarrel, or dispute?—It was answered “Because there were no TORIES there to stir up dissention.”
The serenading parties visited among other places on Thursday night the house of the chief justice (he is at present on public duty in Bucks County)—the houses of the several members of the republican committee—The Aurora office—and [outgoing] Governor Mifflin’s.
The Republicans did not, in their serenades, pay a single visit to Mr. Wharton, the Mayor …
It appears that the friends of Mr. Ross were so confident of his election that, after the close of the poll at Pittsburg, they carried him in triumph through that town … Five hundred soldiers of the standing army, we are told, were introduced at Pittsburg and voted for Mr. Ross—by divine right for they had no other.
Poor Fenno ! Alas Poor Fenno ! … what a reproof !
Fenno in a fit of raving a few days ago—very solemnly declared that the people should now resolve to think of Thomas Jefferson for President at the next election—what a precious confession !
Today, at Mount Vernon, George Washington writes William Vans Murray:
A severe Electioneering contest has just closed in the state of Pennsylvania; adverse to the fortunes of the Federal Party by a considerable majority in favour of Chief Justice McKean ag[ains]t Mr. Ross, Senator for that state. Great pains was taken on both sides, and considerable abuse of character on one …
I most devoutly wish that the cogent, indeed unanswerable arguments you urged to dissuade our friend [the Marquis de Lafayette] from visiting the United States … may have prevailed. The measure would be injudicious … Embarrassing to himself; Embarrassing to his friends, and possibly embarrassing to the Government …1871
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter … I understand that the trial of Mr. Duane on two indictments will commence at Norristown … They cannot imprison his intellects, tho’ they may imprison his body.[New York] Argus.
MR. EDITOR, I send you the following particulars of the proceedings of a court of the United States held lately at Norristown …
On Friday the 18th, after doing little business, the court adjourned till Monday, when it did not meet till three in the afternoon, and met but instantly to adjourn to the next morning !
[John] Fries’ trial was announced and expected then to proceed, but then the court met only to bind over the witnesses and prisoners … to appear at the next circuit court in Philadelphia.
Thus, sir, an anxious multitude of jurors, witnesses, and citizens, waited a session of twelve days to see, to hear, and to do nothing more. The reasons for this extraordinary adjournment remains an impenetrable secret, excepting with the judges &c …SPECTATOR
Today, Abigail Adams writes the President’s secretary, William Shaw:
The State of Pennsylvania is a strange medly. I regret that any of my family should have a prevailing attachment to it. [T]heir late Election has withered all the laurels they ever had to boast of … Send me some newspapers—even tho it be peter’s [Cobbett’s] impudence …1872
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
We are informed … [t]hat one Beelems, a storekeeper in Pittsburg, who acts as Jackal to the Junto of Rossites at that place, went to the barracks on the day of their election for inspectors and brought a number of soldiers therefrom whom he caused to poll on said occasion.