American Aurora
Page 96
The defendant’s counsel took the ground that Mrs. Greenleaf ought to have been the person prosecuted for the libel, if it was one, and not the defendant who was only her journeyman … Upon the second point also, the court was explicit that the defendant, even as a journeyman, was liable to the prosecution …
The jury, after being out about two hours, returned with a verdict of guilty.1879
Justice Radcliff will pronounce sentence on December 3rd. The jury has recommended clemency.1880
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Alexander Hamilton’s partiality for the liberty of the press cannot but be excessively gratified in the encrease of Republican newspapers and the decline of those who have advocated crimes, monarchy, and public extravagance. Within the last sixteen months, more than twenty newspapers have been established upon the avowed basis of democratical republican principles—in the same period those papers which advocate adverse principles have uniformly declined in public consideration and profit.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter to the Editor, dated New-York, November 22. Yesterday I attended the Mayor’s court in this city as a spectator—the trial of Mr. Frothingham as conductor of the Argus came on …
Major Gen. Hamilton was sworn and called upon … to prove that he was innocent of the charges … The amorous general was then called upon to explain certain innuendoes in the indictment … He was then asked whether he considered the Aurora as hostile to the government of the United States ? And he replied in the affirmative ! …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States, Jack Fenno writes:
As the Irish Editor of the Aurora seems to be as ignorant of the true construction of my Latin motto … I have resolved to rectify one of his mistakes at least …
The Caitiff whose object is plunder and blood,
Has for Libels been cropt or in pillory stood,
The law above all things will hate.
In Europe or India, his mind will ne’er alter;
There’s no cure for his vice but the noose of a halter,
And this will at last be his fate.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
On Tuesday the 11th of Nov. inst. a respectable number of citizens of Mifflin County met in the borough of Lewistown to celebrate the happy success of the Republican cause in the State of Pennsylvania at the last election … In full persuasion of these sentiments, attended by the rifle corps of the borough, they marched to the public square and, accompanied with a discharge of their guns, drank the following [17] patriotic toasts … 7th. The Aurora, and other republican papers in this state and the United States—May they never be awed by the threats of power from freely and decently investigating the conduct of men in office …
Today, The President’s Lady, Abigail Adams, writes her sister:
Cooper has lately appeard in the Aurora and, in his former Mad democratic Stile, abused the President, and I presume subjected himself to the penalty of the Sedition act. The greater part of the abuse leveld at the Government is from foreigners. Every Jacobin paper in the United States is Edited by a Foreigner … What a disgrace to our Country …1881
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Subscribers whose files of “the Aurora” became defective owing to removals, stoppages in the Post office, and other accidents during the late sickness, may be supplied without any additional expence on application at the office, 112 Market-street.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It is amusing (so far as any thing of so deep interest can be said to amuse) to see the method and deliberation with which the democrats proceed in their attacks upon the Constitution and Government of America … In Maryland, they have proposed to do away with all qualification, by property, for office—in New Jersey to effect a reform in the mode of election … These attempts have failed …
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The Philadelphia Gazette feels and groans under the encreasing popularity of “the Aurora” … and if the Editor of the Aurora does not laugh at them … they must attribute it to the superiority of his Irish Education …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
[O]ur system of Education … is no system at all; for the docile minds of the rising hope of the Commonwealth are left to fall indiscriminately a prey to United Irishmen, German Illuminati, and native Democrats from whom they acquire, about learning, enough to read the Infernal Aurora and to imbibe from it the admonitions of the Devil. Total ignorance is far better than such Education …
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
On Friday evening, an elegant supper and splendid ball was given by the republican ladies at the house of Jacob Crever, Esq.—Upwards of 60 ladies attended and congratulated each other on the recent success of Thomas M’Kean …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
I would recommend to the next stated meeting of the Lyceum that is held at Mr. Coleman’s school-room the following question:
Whether it is probable, upon a fair calculation, that M’Kean will consume more Gin per annum than [departing Governor] Mifflin has done, or they both as much as Duane; also, whether they Gin, or Gin them, will most consume.
The Session of Congress commences on Monday next. As it is the last time they are to have the honor of sitting in Philadelphia, it is sincerely to be hoped they may “put on their best airs.”
MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
WANTED
A CAREFUL DRIVER who is sober and honest may hear of employment by applying at the Office of the Aurora.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The gin-drinking pauper who is said to conduct Bache’s paper boasts of having been highly complimented by a respectable English merchant of this city. The aspersion is undoubtedly a lie, as there is no man … who would not be ashamed and afraid to perpetrate such an act of humiliation and disgrace. The exultation with which the vagabond mentions it shews, however, that the compliments of a gentlemen are not “renewed upon him every day.”
ADDRESS TO A PIPE OF GIN
By Jasper Dwight,
Occasioned by seeing a Quantity rolling into a Store.
O ! thou delicious-flavor’d, wholesome juice,
Not less for pleasure purpos’d than for use !
Source of Democracy and source of joy—
Come let me taste thee—Gin can never cloy.
(Puts his mouth to the Bung and sucks up a draught thro’ a straw—the owner of the gin kicks him into the gutter—but new inspired—he thus sings on) …
Thro’ all the details of the rights of man,
Even when in dungeons by the vile tyrants chain’d
Thy powerful aid my sunken soul sustain’d;
And tho’ a convict, devoid of every means,
I dream’t of liberty and guillotines—
Whether in dram shop or in dungeon drear
Celestial Nectar by thou ever near—
(The operation of the draught occasions him to fall down drunk in the street, where the Muse of course left him.)
It is not surprising to hear the voice of jacobinism raised against the excellent “Discourses on Davila” [of John Adams]. The learned author, instead of attempting to mislead the public mind … has taken infinite pains … [in] convincing them that all men are under the influence of certain passions which will war with each other and produce discord unless regulated by a proper balance of powers in government and a vigorous execution of its laws.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Yesterday at 12 o’clock, the President of the United States met both houses of Congr
ess in the Representatives’ Chamber, where he addressed them as follows: …
[T]he commissioners … have made a report of the state of the buildings … in the city of Washington … [T]he removal of the seat of government [from Philadelphia] to that place, at the time required, will be practicable and the accommodations satisfactory …
JOHN ADAMS.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
At a meeting of a number of the republican citizens of Montgomery County on the evening of the 28th of November at the house of Michael Blank … the following [16] toasts were drank—–1. The 8th of October, 1799. The Day on which … Republicanism defeated Aristocracy … 9. The German and Irish union that gave us a governor … 11. The heroes who fought and bled in the cause of freedom … 12. The memory of Dr. Franklin—a man whose talents shed lustre upon his country—may a blush crimson the American cheek for suffering so long his ashes to be violated by a British Hedge Hog. 13. The Aurora—the memory of the late, and success to the present, Editor. 14. Buonaparte, the intrepid hero in the cause of freedom … 16. May Asses’ ears and black cockades become synonymous terms …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
NEW YORK, December 4. The [New York] Supreme Court yesterday delivered their sentence in the case of David Frothingham, previously convicted on a charge of aspersing the character of General Hamilton, by publishing that he had been at the “bottom of an attempt at suppressing by pecuniary means the Aurora.” He was fined in the sum of one hundred dollars—ordered to be imprisoned for four months and to give security for his good behaviour for two years; himself in one thousand dollars and two sureties each in five hundred.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Frothingham, foreman in the office of the Argus was sentenced to pay a fine of 100 dollars and to be confined for four months in Bridewell [prison] for copying a publication … reflecting on the amorous Gen. Hamilton. Be it remembered that the jury recommended Frothingham to the clemency of the court.—How kindly has it complied!
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
It might afford not a little curious speculation to philosophize on the different substances of which the Aurora is at different times composed, and, by analyzing them, to assign every effect to its legitimate cause. Now, the lucubrations of this republican luminary are for the most part to be assigned to one or other of these different moods, viz. Either an horrible malice at want of money to pay for a glass of gin; or a state of idiocy for having procured it. In all the diversifications of the Aurora, the influence of these causes on Duane’s mind may be distinctly discerned.
Though Jasper certainly stands among the most deserved candidates for the gallows, yet the jacobins, true to their cause, have resolved not to let his long services pass unrewarded and have serious thoughts of setting him up as a candidate for Congress at the next election. But the daily and increasing quantity of gin which this fellow exhausts will probably ere-that-time present a formidable obstacle in the way of preferment; and he may be thought a disgrace even to the republican cause.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Fenno, whose enmity to talents is proverbial and … the natural effect of his stupidity and consequent expulsion at College … rails incessantly … Porcupine is extinguished by the odor of his own excrementations, but his pupil remains and inherits all his vulgar honors—his proverbial falsehood—and is approaching by rapid strides to the same goal.
The hope of subverting republicanism in Europe is certainly the main object and encouragement of the combined [European] emperors and kings. The British ministry has openly avowed this subject. It was not the superior power, the superior ambition, nor even the superior criminality of France—No; It was openly avowed in terms that it was a republican government. That was the sin, that was the evil.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
General Hamilton arrived in town yesterday and, it is said, means to keep watch in Philadelphia for the winter. He despairs doing any thing with the “Aurora” … but still considers it as the most cruel opposer of his views in the United States.
Mrs. Reynolds, alias Maria, the sentimental heroine of the memorable vindication [of Mr. Hamilton], is said to be in Philadelphia once more; in the early part of last year, she was in town and had the imprudence to intrude herself on women of virtue with a relation of her story—“that she was the Maria.” She escaped on one occasion through the difficulty of finding a constable before she disappeared.
The prospects of the republicans have greatly brightened of late and are getting better and better; in our own state Governor M’Kean has been elected in a manner so decisive that the effect cannot but be useful to the republicans throughout the Union and a lesson to their adversaries: in Virginia, governor [James] Monroe has been chosen in a manner equally honourable and admonitory …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
[Adv.] WILLIAM COBBETT
HAVING (in order to avoid the disgrace of living under the Government of M’Kean) REMOVED from Philadelphia to the City of NEW-YORK, requests any one in Pennsylvania, who may have a demand against him, to deliver an account thereof to Mr. JOHN MORGAN, No. 3, South Front Street …
[Adv.] To be Sold, at Auction,
AT PORCUPINE’S HOUSE
On Thursday next at 9 o’clock,
A QUANTITY OF HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE CONSISTING OF Chairs, Mahogany Tables, Bureaus, Stoves, and Stovepipe, an excellent Roasting Jack, &c. &c. &c.
ALSO A COMPLETE PRINTING PRESS
With a variety of Books &c. &c. &c. The sale will begin at 9 o’clock precisely and will continue till all is sold off.
Tonight, at Mount Vernon, shortly before midnight, General George Washington, commander in chief of America’s army during the American Revolution and during America’s undeclared war with France, founder of the hereditary Society of the Cincinnati, and first President of the United States of America, dies of what is called “crupe” or “quinsey” or “cynanche.” George Washington’s wife, Martha, immediately burns certain of his papers, and his nephew, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington, will discard some, remove signatures from others, and license their publication to Jared Sparks, a Harvard historian and future Harvard president, who will control, withhold, and even reword them (for the sake of Washington’s reputation) and will be their only publisher for the next hundred years.1882
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
DIED,
AT Mount Vernon, on Saturday evening, December the 14th, at 11 o’clock, of an illness of 24 hours;
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Wednesday, December 18. Immediately after reading the journal, General Marshall came into the House of Representatives, apparently much agitated, and addressed the Speaker in the following words:
Information, sir, has just been received that our illustrious fellow citizen, the Commander in Chief of the American army, and the late President of the United States, is no more … The House immediately adjourned …
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
In consequence of the afflicting intelligence of the death of General Washington, MRS. ADAMS’ Drawing room is deferred to Friday the 27th, when the Ladies are respectfully requested to wear white, trimmed with black ribbon, black gloves and fans, as a token of respect to the memory of the late President of the United States.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Extract of a letter from Alexandria [Virginia] ….
GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON …
The disorder of which he died is by some called Crupe, by others inflammatory Quinsey, a disorder lately so mortal among children in this place …
The bells are to toll daily until he is buried which will not be
until Wednesday or Thursday. He died perfectly in his senses, and from [physician] Mr. Dick’s account, perfectly resigned.—He informed them he had no fear of death, that his affairs were in good order, that he made his will, and that his public business was two days behind hand.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1799
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY
On Tuesday last THOMAS M’KEAN, the successful candidate for the office of Governor of Pennsylvania, was inducted into office to the great joy of the Republicans …
On Thursday the 28th ult. agreeable to notice given in the newspapers, about two hundred and thirty respectable inhabitants of Harrisburgh and its vicinity assembled at the court house, where they dined with cheerful hearts on a plentiful preparation … [T]hey then proceeded to the public ground … with music, where the following [26] toasts were drank, under as many discharges of capt. Connelly’s artillery … 14. The memory of Benjamin Franklin—“where liberty dwells, there is my country.” 15. The Memory of Benjamin Franklin Bache, the late Editor of the Aurora, the friend of his country, who withstood temptations, disregarded persecutions, and was faithful to the cause of republicanism, even unto death. 16. William Duane, Editor of the Aurora; the detector of falsehood and promoter of truth; he deserves well of his country …