American Aurora
Page 103
THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
THE FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT
The new anomalous body conjured up by the genius of Mr. Ross in his famous bill has not obtained all the notice which it requires. The attempt to destroy the Editor of this paper for giving the alarm on the subject might have shewn the public what its authors and supporters contemplated … The truth is that this bill was calculated in its birth to set aside the public voice and to place in the hands of a few men—and we know what a few men in the Senate are capable of—the nomination of the chief magistrate …
Ross’s men attempted to be invested with an arbitrary power of decision by which they could, of their own uncontrouled and unaccountable will, set aside the suffrages of the people …
War … Today, off Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, the fourteen-gun, ninety-man U.S. Navy cutter Pickering captures a French privateer, l’Active, of twelve guns and sixty-two men.1944
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court sitting in Philadelphia, a record of Thomas Cooper’s trial includes:
Mr. [Thomas] Cooper attended, and the court sentenced him to pay a fine of four hundred dollars; to be imprisoned for six months, and, at the end of that period, to find surety for his good behavior, himself in a thousand, and two sureties in five hundred dollars each.1945
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Mr. Cooper has been tried and by the verdict of a jury declared guilty under the Sedition Law on Saturday last. Yesterday morning he appeared at court and was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of 400 dollars …
Republicans may rest compleatly assured that they will have every reason to be satisfied … with the whole tenor of Mr. Cooper’s conduct on the occasion. He defended his own cause throughout, without the aid of counsel.
On the 11th instant Mr. Charles Holt, Editor of the Bee of New-London, was tried at the Circuit Court New Haven under a charge under the Sedition Law for discountenancing the recruiting for a standing army. This prosecution, which in any other times would excite astonishment, was supported by the attorney general upon the extraordinary point that Mr. Holt called the provisional army a standing army! He was sentenced to be confined three months and fined 200 dollars.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The jury this morning found a verdict of GUILTY against John Fries for high treason …
SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
Some of the human species display tempers like the brute species; Fenno in irascibility approaches to that of a cat. In the struggles of political dissolution, as the last effort of hatred and despair, the animal spits its ruthless venom at the memory of Dr. Franklin. Through the whole course of British influence and dependence, the name of this sage is the uniform object of their toothless rage … It is “working in his vocation” to attack Franklin. [T]he British government are said to have expended a large sum of money, and a most nefarious artifice and stretch of power to suppress the publication of Dr. Franklin’s life, for which he left materials to one of his descendants now in London.
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
IN advertising the Establishment of the Gazette of the United States for sale … [i]t is my desire that propositions for the purchase (if any there may be) should be made immediately.
The paper will be sold with or without the Printing Office, and the most liberal terms given. A small sum only, in cash, will be required; and the remainder of the purchase money will be left to such arrangements that it may be paid out of the income of the Paper.J. W. FENNO.
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 1800
Tonight, the Macpherson’s Blues are active. A report:
About ten o’clock at night, several bodies of armed men were seen parading the principal streets and bustling in every direction … The armed bodies … were the federal corps called Macpherson’s Blues … About eleven o’clock … this military host was declared to be called out to search for the incorrigible fellow, the Editor of the Aurora … [T]he democrats were on the alert, and things soon after became quiet …1946
MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
The public now have an additional and striking evidence of the value of a free … press in the total rejection of that odious Bill which was introduced … by Mr. Ross of this state in the Senate of the U. States. The public will judge … the conduct of the Senate towards the Editor of this paper … who dared to publish a Bill … too abominable to be countenanced by the House of Representatives. Had this Bill been suffered to be stolen through the Senate unexamined, unpublished, and unexposed, it might have escaped the attention of the public until it would have been too late, and perhaps the country would have been saddled with a secret tribunal which, by possessing one enormous power, that of actually appointing the President of the United States, could command the fortunes and the liberties of the people.
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
MORE FEDERAL RIOTS
Sunday evening last was selected above all others for throwing this city into a state of alarm. About ten o’clock at night, several bodies of armed men were seen parading the principal streets and bustling in every direction. The peaceable citizens could obtain no information …
The armed bodies it appeared were the federal corps called Macpherson’s Blues …
[C]are was taken to produce incidents in abundance; it was said that a body of Insurgents from Northampton were coming into town with their pitchforks …
About eleven o’clock a new incident was turned up, and this military host was declared to be called out to search for the incorrigible fellow, the Editor of the Aurora. [T]he effect was of course such as was expected. [T]he democrats were on the alert, and things soon after became quiet … [T]he federal Marshal assumed the power of calling out the military …
It has been asserted in the House of Assembly of this state that the people are not as capable of choosing electors for President and Vice President as the Legislature on account of their want of knowledge … If the people be not capacitated to perform the business of election, what political purpose are they competent to? none at all; there is an end to republican government.
Mr. Holt, editor of [the Republican paper,] the Bee, of New London, has been sentenced to two months imprisonment and 200 dollars fine, and for what, truly the whole of the criminality was predicated upon the assertion that the President had countenanced a standing army—The Lawyers for the prosecution maintained that it was not a Standing Army but a Provisional Army; and herein lay the CRIME ! From the Bench in the case of Mr. Cooper a few days ago, Judge Chase held the same sophistry …
Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Annals of Congress report:
DISPUTED ELECTIONS.
The House resolved itself into a Committee on the bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice President of the United States.
The bill, as amended by the select committee, provided for the appointment of a joint committee, with certain defined, but no decisive, powers.1947
The House has modified James Ross’ Senate bill to say that a joint committee may review, but cannot decide, any matters of dispute concerning the election of President and Vice President! The House will send back this enfeebled version to the Senate.
Today, in the U.S. Circuit Court at Philadelphia, Judge Samuel Chase’s trial of John Fries and other Pennsylvania war-tax protesters proceeds toward its inevitable conclusion. Alexander James Dallas (John Fries’ lawyer) comments:
They [the defendants] had not the ordinary access to information, since our laws are published in English, and most of them only understood German … The assessors were sometimes interrupted in their journeys and sometimes jostled in the crowd; and the unmeaning epithets of Stamplers and Tories were rudely applied to th
e friends of the Government. But however censurable, where is the treason in such proceedings? A rioter and a traitor are not synonymous … Is there any actual force resorted to? No! I find the bridle of one assessor seized, and his leg laid hold of; but the man is not pulled off his horse, nor is he the least injured in his person …1948
From the trial record:
The prisoner was arraigned and pleaded not guilty … Mr. Lewis and Mr. [Alexander James] Dallas, before engaged to act for the prisoner, on account of the conduct directed by the court … withdrew their assistance; so the prisoner was left without counsel …1949
Mr. Dallas:
Judge Chase had declared that the court had made up their minds to the law relative to treason … [I]t became the subject of altercation whether we had a right to address the jury upon the law …
[Fries’ other lawyer and I] stated to the court that we were no longer his counsel …
On the first trial of Fries, we were allowed to address the jury both on the law and on the fact … We also read the statutes of Congress, particularly the first section of the act called the Sedition Law, in order to show that the legislature of the United States had declared the offence of which Fries was charged to have committed to have been only a riot …1950
From the record:
COURT. John Fries, you are at liberty to say anything you please to the jury.
PRISONER. It was mentioned that I collected a parcel of people to follow up the assessors; but I did not collect them. They came and fetched me from my house to go with them.
I have nothing to say, but leave it to the court.
JUDGE CHASE then addressed the jury as follows: …
[T]he court are of the opinion that any insurrection or rising to resist … the execution of any statute of the United States for levying or collecting taxes … under any pretence, as that the statute was unjust, burthensome, oppressive or unconstitutional, is a levying of war against the United States …
The Court are of opinion that military weapons … are not necessary to make such an insurrection or rising amount to a levying of war …
The jury retired, for the space of two hours, and brought in their verdict, GUILTY. [Sentencing will be May 2d.]1951
Today, New York begins three days of voting for state legislators who will choose the state’s presidential electors. New York’s twelve presidential electors could make Thomas Jefferson the next President of the United States.1952 The nation is watching!
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
On the trial of Mr. Holt at New-London, the federal district attorney, a northern paper says, conceded the truth of the adultery of General Hamilton which was part of the libel charged !
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
The Democrat hates the British government … because it has been the champion of religion and social order … It will require centuries to establish … a national spirit in the United States of America. The mixture is too heterogeneous; it is compounded of too many foul ingredients to permit any part to be proud of the whole …
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FROM THE N. Y. CITIZEN … Wm. DURRELL, late Editor of the Mount Pleasant Register … at the federal circuit court for the eastern district, held in New York, … was tried for reprinting a … Libel … [S]entence was pronounced on Wednesday the 9th inst … That he be imprisoned four months, pay a fine of 50 dollars and stand committed till the fine was paid and good security given for two years, himself in 1000 dollars and two sureties in 500 dollars each.
Today, at the U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia, Judge Samuel Chase imposes sentence on John Fries. From the record:
The prisoner being set at the bar, Judge CHASE, after observing to the other defendants what he had to say to Fries, would apply generally to them, proceeded:—you have already been informed that you stood convicted of the treason charged upon you …
It cannot escape observation that the ignorant and uninformed are taught to complain of taxes … and yet they permit themselves to be seduced into insurrections …
[I]t becomes you to reflect that the time you chose to rise up in arms to oppose the laws of your country was when it stood in a very critical situation with regard to France and on the eve of a rupture with that country …
What remains for me is a very painful but a very necessary part of my duty … The judgment of the law is, and this Court doth award “that you be hanged by the neck until dead.”1953
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
Sentence of death has been passed on Fries, Hainey, and Getman, to be executed 23d May.
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
At the election in New York, the British faction there have used all their arts …
Extract of a letter from Chester County (Penn.), April 29th, to the Editor.
“The public in this part of the country is very much agitated in consequence of that famous Bill commonly called ROSS’s BILL—
“We hope the oppression of the Editor will not prevent the Aurora from giving us the debates …”
Tonight, in the Gazette of the United States:
NEW YORK, May 1. ELECTION … It has been strongly declared that Thomas Jefferson, the object of the present election with the jacobins in this city, is an enemy to all religious establishments. That so very important an assertion should not rest in doubt, I quote the proof from his book … “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty Gods or NO GOD. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” And who will now dare to give his vote for this audacious howling Atheist ?
May 2. ELECTION. The poll of the election of the Senators and assemblymen in the legislature of the State … closed yesterday … The votes were not all canvassed at a late hour last evening …
Tonight, having learned that New York has elected a majority for Jefferson in the new state legislature, a caucus of New York Federalists decides to have their leader, Alexander Hamilton, urge Federalist governor John Jay to reconvene the old (holdover) state legislature (with its Federalist majority) to change the rules and award presidential electors now on the basis of district elections (each district to choose to certain number) rather than by the state legislature.1954 Dirty!
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 1800
Today, Aaron Burr and other New York Republican leaders send a letter to me at the Aurora, warning that Federalists plan to overturn Jefferson’s victory in New York.1955
MONDAY, MAY 5, 1800
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
By an authentic account of the Pole for members of Congress and members of the State Legislature of New York, the following appears to be the aggregate of the majorities in the several wards of the republican ticket and the federal—It will be understood that the whole of the republican ticket has been carried.
Maj … for the fedral Ticket
1st Ward 72
2nd Ward 234
3rd Ward 187
439
Maj … for the Republican.
4th Ward 37
5th Ward 82
6th Ward 468
7th Ward 301
933
Clear majority for the whole
republican list. for the state Legislature, 440
Today, upset over the New York election result, John Adams fires his Secretary of War, James McHenry.1956
Today, the President’s Lady, Abigail Adams, writes her sister:
You need not write to me after the present week. It is my present intention to leave here some time next week …
I shall have a very buisy week the next. It is the last time that I shall reside in this city, and, as present appearences indicate, the last time I shall visit it; The people are led blind fold by those who will ride them without saddle but well curbed and bitted.
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br /> It is generally supposed that N[ew] York would be the balance in the … scale … N[ew] York, by an effort to bring into their assembly antifederal Men, will make also an antifederal ticket for President; and this will give all the power sought by that Party … To this purpose was … Coopers libels—with all the host of Callenders lies … A whole year we shall hear nothing else but abuse and scandel, enough to ruin & corrupt the minds and morals of the best people in the world. Out of all this will arise something which tho we may be no more, our Children may live to Rue—I hope we may be preserved from confusion, but it is much to be dreaded.1957
Today, in Windsor, Vermont, the U.S. Circuit Court opens the federal sedition trial of Anthony Haswell, publisher of Vermont’s and northern New England’s leading Republican newspaper, the Vermont Gazette at Bennington.1958 From the record of the trial:
The case being called, the District Attorney opened the case of the part of the United States. Evidence was produced to show that the passages of the indictment had been published in a newspaper called the Vermont Gazette, edited by the defendant; the first being part of an advertisement issued by a committee of Colonel [Matthew] Lyon’s friends [for a lottery to raise money for his sedition fine], the second being an extract from the Aurora …