American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

580 JBZP, 98-99.

  581 AGA, Aug. 10, 1798. See BFBT, 349, 366, BFBS, 161, JBZP, 184.

  582 GUS, Aug. 9, 1798.

  583 1735 ed., PRA, I, 62.

  584 YF, 51.

  585 YF, 51.

  586 PG, Aug. 13, 1798.

  587 YF, 51.

  588 See FETT, 216-217, TJAH, 404-405.

  589 YF, 58.

  590 GUS, Aug. 20, 1798.

  591 To the Citizens of Harrison County, Va., JAWO, IX, 216, PG, Aug. 27, 1798. See DMAF, 144.

  592 Timothy Pickering to JA, Aug. 28, 1798, TPPM, XXXVII, 325.

  593 AGA, Aug. 30, 1798.

  594 YF, 94-95.

  595 DMSM, 255.

  596 AGA, Aug. 21, 1798. On the depth of the yellow fever problem, see BFBT, 396, SWHP, I, 459 n., TJAH, 380-381, TCER, 345.

  597 AGA, Aug. 24, 1798.

  598 Presumably GUS, July 28, 1798.

  599 TJ to Samuel Smith, Monticello, Aug. 22, 1798, TJWF, VIII, 443-447.

  600 IRPT, 295-299.

  601 ND, I, 331, VII, 366, 371.

  602 Richard Peters to Timothy Pickering, Belmont, Aug. 24, 1798, TPPM, XXXVII, 71.

  603 YF, 85-86.

  604 1740 ed., PRA, I, 182.

  605 Timothy Pickering to William Rawle, Aug. 28, 1798, TPPM, XXXVII, 326.

  606 FETT, 216.

  607 AGA, Sept. 5, 1798.

  608 1733 ed., PRA, I, 15.

  609 YF, 67-70.

  610 AGA, Nov. 9, 1798.

  611 AGA, Sept. 7, 1798, GUS, Sept. 6, 1798, See John Hench, “Letters of John Fenno and John Ward Fenno,” PAAS, Vol. 89, Part 1 (1979), 301-302.

  612 ND, I, 377, II, 478 (map), VII, 371, DAQW, inside back cover.

  613 LTNA, II, 24-28.

  614 RWA, Sept. 15, 1798. See PG, Sept. 13, 1798.

  615 YF, 84.

  616 RWA, Sept. 15, 1798, quoted in Louis Richards, “Hon. Jacob Rush of the Pennsylvania Judiciary,” PMHB, XXXIX (Jan. 1915), 65, 66. See AGW, 114.

  617 TCER, 346, FETT, 203, BFBT, 396.

  618 Will, Sept. 7, 1798, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3. See BFBS, 163.

  619 AGA, May 13, 1800.

  620 IRPT, 326.

  621 GW to William Jones and the Bd. of Managers of the Marine and City Hospitals, Sept. 10, 1798, GWW, XXXVI, 435).

  622 Independent Chronicle (Boston), Sept. 17, 1798 reports that, “real friends of their country cannot but lament the loss of so valuable a citizen.” BFBT, 398.

  623 Elizabeth Hewson to Thos. T. Hewson, Oct.? & 30, 1798, HP, BFBT, 396, 403 n. 5.

  624 AGA handbill, Sept. 11, 1798. See BFBB, 356.

  625 1757 ed., PRA, II, 355.

  626 BF to BFB, Aug. 19, 1779, BFPL, XXX, 241.

  627 Timothy Pickering to T. Williams, Trenton, Sept. 13, 1798, TPPM, IX, 315.

  628 BFBS, 164.

  629 GW to James McHenry, Sept. 30, 1798, GWW, XXXVI, 474. See DMAF, 215.

  630 TJ to Stevens T. Mason, Monticello, Oct. 11, 1798, TJWF, VIII, 449-450. See SDOP, 472, JAPS, II, 978.

  631 JA to Benjamin Rush, Quincy, June 23, 1807, JAOF, 144, 148.

  632 Detail (cropping), George Washington (1776), by Charles Willson Peale (Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y.).

  633 Doodle sketch of BF by BFB [1790], “Memorandum, No Date” Folder, Franklin Papers, Bache Collection (APS). Tentatively dated 1790 on the basis of Claude-Anne Lopez and Eugenia W. Herbert, The Private Franklin: The Man and His Family (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975), 140 (illus.). Cf. BFB’s doodle sketches of BF in BFB’s notes of debates in Congress, Mar. 7-17, Mar. 18-Apr. 10, 1796, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  634 BF to Robert Livingston, July 22, 1783, BFSM, IX, 62.

  635 AGA, Oct. 29, 1796.

  636 WD to Franklin Bache, Wash., Mar. 4, 1804, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  637 JA to Arthur Lee, Paris, Apr. 10, 1783, JAPM, Reel 108.

  638 BFBR, 3, 65.

  639 “Notes, drafts, and fragments of Presidential messages and proclamations,” JAPM, Reel 387.

  640 During the 1790’s, Thomas Paine was known not only for his political writings during and after the American Revolution but also for his service as secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Continental Congress during the revolution, viz. Thomas Paine, The Writings of Thomas Paine, Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Congress of the United States of America, in the Late War (Albany, N.Y.: Charles R. & George Webster, 1792?) REDX 24,658 & 27,466. Paine served as secretary during 1777, while French arms were arriving to equip America’s northern army under Gen. Horatio Gates. Paine was, therefore, well positioned to appreciate the dimensions of French aid.

  641 WDRP, 545-555.

  642 JA to Benjamin Rush, Mar. 19- Apr. 22, 1812, A&R, 211, 212-213.

  643 Timothy Pickering to James Robertson, Salem, July 29, 1824, as reported in John Womack Wright, “Pickering’s Letter on Washington,” TYQ, VII (July, 1925), 16, 24-26.

  644 ANC, 5C, 2S, 3776-3777.

  645 James Monroe to TJ, Mar. 26, 1798, JMOW, III, 106-115.

  646 BFB was born Aug. 12, 1769. BFB’s college-age cousin, William Temple Franklin, also accompanied BF and would serve as secretary to the Paris commissioners.

  647 JA to Abigail Adams, Phil., June 18, 1777, JAFC, II, 267-268.

  648 BFBR.

  649 GLBE, VI, 31-32.

  650 GWRH, I, 113, GLBE, VI, 38-39, 52-53.

  651 The Jumonville assassination and its aftermath are well described in GWRH, I, 114-157, GLBE, VI, Chap. 2.

  652 GW to John Augustine Washington, June 28, 1755, GWPD, I, 321. (“The Genl. before they met in Council ask’d my priv’e Opinn concern’g the Exp’n … This was a scheme that took.”) See GWRH, I, 205, 227-229, GWAC, 104.

  653 GWRH, I, 197, 227-229. See GWAC, 102.

  654 BFA, 159.

  655 GW to John Augustine Washington, June 28, 1755, GWW, I, 241. See GLBE, VI, 82, 97.

  656 GW’s account is found in GWW, I, 151-152.

  657 GWRH, I, 260.

  658 GWKC, 147.

  659 E.g., Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.), Sept. 3, Oct. 5, 1756. See GWKC, 222.

  660 GWKC, 268.

  661 Just a few months before marrying Martha, GW professed love to Sally Fairfax: “You have drawn me … into an honest confession of a Simple Fact—misconstrue not my meaning—’tis obvious—doubt it not, nor expose it—the World has no business knowing the object of my Love, declard in this manner to—you when I want to conceal it.” GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, Sept. 12, 1758, GWPD, VI, 10-13. See GWKC, 259.

  662 MJTF, 64-65, GWMK, 108-120.

  663 MJOR, 74-77, BSDR, 96-97, AGBE, 194-195.

  664 See GWCA, 159-160, WDLW, 47.

  665 MJOR, 82-89.

  666 Adam Smith articulated the principles of mercantilism in his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776).

  667 On Hancock’s smuggling, see JHHA, 45-47.

  668 GW to William Crawford, Mt. Vernon, Sept. 21, 1767, GWPD, VIII, 26-29.

  669 MJOR, 123-126, MJTF, 65.

  670 Edmund S. Morgan and Helen M. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ. of N. C. Press, 1953), 181, MJOR, 129-130, 144-145.

  671 JADA, IV, 258, JAC, 49.

  672 MJOR, 137-139.

  673 MJOR, 143.

  674 JCSH, 41. Radical Democrat-Republicans of the late 1790s, though passionately anti-British, fostered the suspicion that Federalists, particularly New England Federalists, really wanted independence to create their own monarchy and to establish themselves as a wealthy aristocracy, in short, to feather their own nests. See, e.g., JCUS, 270, TPW, II, 915-916.

  675 JPBL, 78-83. Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967) details the arguments.

  676 MJOR, 231, 269-276, 287-295.

  677 MJOR, 308-316.

  678 MJOR, 76-77.

  679 For GW’s reaction, see GWAC, 159-160.

  680 JHB, 282.

 
681 TPTB, 193, JHAH, 140-141.

  682 MJOR, 359.

  683 See RARW, 166.

  684 From the late 1770s until 1796 when he came to America, WD worked for the Clonmel Gazette or Hibernian Advertiser in Clonmel, Ireland, for the Bengal Journal and the Bengal World in Calcutta, India, and the Telegraph and probably the General Advertiser in London, England. WDKP, 9-12, 21, 38.

  685 As a weekly paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette’s masthead date means “the week ending Wednesday,—.”

  686 TPHD, 162.

  687 BF to Richard Bache, London, Sept. 30, 1774, BFPL, XXI, 325-326. On the connection between Paine, BF, and BFB, see BFBT, 126-127.

  688 “Crisis” (3d), TPW, I, 88 n. 7.

  689 Thomas Paine to BF, Phil., Mar. 4, 1775, TPW, II, 1130-1131.

  690 Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap [ca. 1798], Revere Family Papers (MHS).

  691 JAWO, II, 215-216, GWMK, 65.

  692 MJTF, 36-37, TPAD, 8.

  693 Italicized words from AGA, Apr. 11, 1800.

  694 JCC, II, 26-27.

  695 JCC, II, 24-25.

  696 They were married on Sept. 1, 1730. BFCV, 93.

  697 BFB was born Aug. 12, 1769. BFBT, 1.

  698 MJTF, 90-91.

  699 JA to Abigail Adams, Phil., May 29, 1775, JAFC, I, 207.

  700 JCC, II, 91.

  701 JADA, III, 321-323, MJTF, 61-62. See GWFS, III, 434-435, GWMK, 19, 84, 53-92.

  702 JCC, II, 91.

  703 JCC, II, 92-93.

  704 JA to James Lloyd, Quincy, Apr. 24, 1815, JAWO, X, 162, 165-166.

  705 BFBR, 30.

  706 MJTF, 46-47, MJOR, 410-411.

  707 JCC, II, 96-97.

  708 MJTF, 48-52.

  709 See Orlando W. Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” AHR, XXX (Jan. 1925), 271-281.

  710 James Warren to JA, Watertown, June 20, 1775, JAPA, III, 37.

  711 JCCS, I, 17.

  712 JCC, II, 101.

  713 GW to Pres. of Cong., Camp at Cambridge, July 10, 1775, GWPA, I, 85.

  714 BFBR, 67.

  715 BF to Mary Hewson, Phil., July 8, 1775, BFPL, XXII, 99-100.

  716 JCC, II, 195-197. See FUMR, 80-83, BFWE, 238-239.

  717 JCC, II, 199. Compare BF’s plan in 1775 for a 125-member congress with the first U.S. House of Representatives fourteen years later which, despite the nation’s population growth, had only 58 members. ANC, 1C, 2S, 1075.

  718 Those who wanted the first U.S. House of Representatives to be larger (and voting districts to be smaller) feared that wealthy aristocrats would control large voting districts. See AFC, I, 43-44, V, 89-90, 192, 258, II, 235-236, 268-269, 272-273, III, 158, VI, 154, BBDC, I, 320-322, 424-425, JPBL, 109.

  719 Gen. Orders, July 23, 1775, GWPA, I, 158.

  720 JA to Abigail Adams, Phil., July 23, 1775, JAFC, I, 252-253.

  721 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Aug. 4, 1775, GWPA, I, 227.

  722 BF to Philip Schuyler, Phil., Aug. 10, 1775, BFPL, XXII, 160-161.

  723 Memorandum on the Use of Pikes, Aug. 26, 1775, BFPL, XXII, 182.

  724 GW to Richard Henry Lee, Cambridge, Aug. 29, 1775, GWPA, I, 374.

  725 Benjamin Rush to JA, Feb. 12, 1812, A&R, 206-207.

  726 BFPL, XXII, 181.

  727 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Sept. 21, 1775, GWPA, II, 24, 28-29.

  728 JCC, III, 265.

  729 JCC, III, 266.

  730 JCC, III, 270-271.

  731 JCCS, I, 28.

  732 JCC, III, 484-485.

  733 JA to Abigail Adams, Oct. 29, 1775, JAFC, I, 318-319.

  734 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, GWPA, II, 349, 350.

  735 Abigail Adams to JA, Nov. 27, 1775, JAFC, I, 328-330.

  736 JADA, III, 358.

  737 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Nov. 28, 1775, GAPA, II, 444, 446.

  738 GW to Joseph Reed, Cambridge, Nov. 28, 1775, GWPA, II, 448, 449-450.

  739 JCC, III, 392. See MJTF, 265, SWHA, 74-75, BSDR, 32.

  740 JCC, III, 400-401.

  741 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Dec. 4, 1775, GWPA, II, 483, 486.

  742 BF to Joseph Priestley, Paris, Jan. 17, 1777, BFPL, XXIII, 237-238.

  743 BF writes Barbeu-Dubourg (French translator of BF’s works) in Paris and Charles Willam Frederick Dumas (a paid American observer and agent) at The Hague. BSDR, 125-126.

  744 BF to Charles William Frederick Dumas, Phil., Dec. 9, 1775, BFPL, XXII, 287-290.

  745 BFPL, XXII, 311.

  746 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Dec. 14, 1775, GWPA, II, 549.

  747 Richard Smith Diary, Dec. 18, 1775, LCCS, II, 494.

  748 JCC, III, 444-445.

  749 JCC, III, 446, 449.

  750 GW to Joseph Reed, Cambridge, Dec. 25, 1775, GWPA, II, 606, 607.

  751 Achard de Bonvouloir to Comte de Guines, Phil., Dec. 28, 1775, NDR, III, 279-285.

  752 JCC, III, 466. See BSDR, 34.

  753 Gabriel de Sartine to Comte de Vergennes, Versailles, Dec. 30, 1775, NDR, III, 465.

  754 See GW to Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, Camp at Cambridge, Aug. 20, 1775, GWPA, I, 331, 332, Instructions to Col. Benedict Arnold, [Cambridge, Sept. 14, 1775], GWPA, I, 457.

  755 Benedict Arnold to GW, Camp Before Quebec, Jan. 14, 1776, GWPA, III, 81-82.

  756 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Jan. 4, 1776, GWPA, III, 18, 19.

  757 In general, see SWHA, 99-100, MJOR, 461-474, 492, TPHD, 39-41, 44. TPHD, 44 says pamphlet went on sale Jan 9.

  758 “Crisis” (3d), TPW, I, 88-89 n. 7.

  759 Thomas Paine to Hon. Henry Laurens, Phil., Jan. 14, 1779, TPW, II, 1160, 1163.

  760 See DERD 13 (“Thomas Paine … first identified the Revolution with democracy”).

  761 TPW, I, 7,10,13, 16, 27.

  762 TPW, I, 27-29.

  763 William Temple Franklin confirmed this. BFWT, II, 13. See Benjamin Rush to James Cheetham, Phil., July 17, 1809, BRL, II, 1007, 1008, TPHD, 162.

  764 BFCV, 548.

  765 JADA, III, 330-332.

  766 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Jan. 14, 1776, GWPA, III, 84-85.

  767 GW to Joseph Reed, Cambridge, Jan. 14, 1776, GWPA, III, 87-90.

  768 Caron de Beaumarchais to Louis XVI, [Jan. 22, 1776], NDR, III, 525-530. See RDCW, I, 369.

  769 Horatio Gates to Charles Lee, Jan. 22, 1776, quoted in TPKJ, 111.

  770 JADA, II, 227.

  771 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Feb. 9, 1776, GWPA, III, 277, 278.

  772 GW to Joseph Reed, Cambridge, Feb. 10, 1776, GWPA, III, 286-287.

  773 BF to Charles Lee, Phil. Feb. 11, 1776, BFPL, XXII, 342-343.

  774 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Feb. 18, 1776, GWPA, III, 335.

  775 BFBR, 6.

  776 GW to Pres. of Cong., Cambridge, Feb. 26, 1776, GWPA, III, 364-365.

  777 See SWHA, 119, 79, DNL, I, 268, BSDR, 23, 198.

  778 GWPA, III, 434.

  779 “Considerations on the Affair of the English Colonies in America,” Versailles, Mar. 12, 1776, NDR, IV, 966-969. See SFAC, XIII, 1316.

  780 GW to Gov. Nicholas Cooke, Cambridge, Mar. 17, 1776, GWPA, III, 483.

  781 “A Letter to GW …,” TPW, II, 718-719.

  782 JA to Abigail Adams, Phil., Mar. 19, 1776, JAFA, 145-146.

  783 GW to Col. Joseph Reed, Cambridge, Apr. 1, 1776, GWPA, IV, 9, 11.

  784 FBRS, 70, quoting and translating DNL, I, 280-283. See JAPP, 153.

  785 JA to William Tudor, Apr. 12 1776, JAPA, IV, 118.

  786 Pennsylvania Packet (Phil.), Apr. 22, 1776, as cited by JAPA, IV, 68.

  787 John Adams, Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies in a Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend. (Boston, 1776), REDX 14,640, JAPA, IV, 88-89.

  788 DERD, 31-32.

  789 JA to Benjamin Rush, Apr. 12, 1809, A&R, 142, 144, JAOF, 375, 377.

  790 JADA, III, 333.

  791 Thomas Paine, “To the Citizens of the United States … Letter II,” National Intelligencer (Wash.), Nov. 2, 1802,
reprinted in TPW, II, 912, 915-916.

  792 Philip S. Foner, The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1974), xiv, TPHD, 48.

  793 JAWO, III, 189.

  794 JA to TJ, Quincy, June 22, 1819, JATJ, II, 542.

  795 General Ct. to Mass. delegates, May 9, 1776, JAPA, IV, 180.

  796 JCC, IV, 342.

  797 JA to James Warren, May 12, 1776, JAPA, IV, 181-182.

  798 BSDR, 27.

  799 Quoted in JAPP, 141.

  800 JCC, IV, 357-358.

  801 JAWO, II, 510-511.

  802 JCC, IV, 427-429.

  803 JCC, IV, 429-431.

  804 JAWO, II, 510-511.

  805 JCC, IV, 432-433.

  806 DIMJ, 53.

  807 DIMJ, 70.

  808 DIMJ, 109, 118.

  809 JA to Benjamin Rush, July 20, 1811, A&R, 182-183.

  810 SJPC, 147.

  811 “A Serious Address to the People of Penn. on the Present Situation of Their Affairs,” Pennsylvania Packet (Phil.), Dec. 1, 1778, as quoted in TPW, II, 277, 280. See BFPL, XXII, 512, which observes that BF “chaired the convention at a substantial proportion of its meetings.”

  812 See BFSG, 22-32.

  813 See JADA, II, 247, BFPL, XXII, 536-538.

  814 Protest against the First Draft of the Articles of Confederation, BFPL, XXII, 571-574. See BFWT, II, 38-42.

  815 Lord Stormont to Lord Weymouth, Paris, July 31, 1776, SFAC, XIII, 1342.

  816 Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Ser., X, 763, DERD, 267.

  817 Pierre Penet to BF, Nantes, Aug. 3, 1776, BFPL, XXII, 543-544.

  818 Abigail Adams to JA, Boston, Aug. 14, 1776, JAFC, II, 92.

  819 Silas Deane to Comm. of Secret Corres., Paris, Aug. 18, 1776, RDCS, I, 9, 30-31.

  820 JA to Francis Dana, Aug. 16, 1776, JAPA, IV, 466.

  821 Silas Deane to Comm. of Secret Corres., Paris, Aug. 18, 1776, RDCW, II, 112, 114.

  822 Caron de Beaumarchais to Comm. of Secret Corres., Paris, Aug. 18, 1781, RDCS, I, 35.

  823 Lieut. Col. Robert Hanson Harrison to Pres. of Cong., N.Y., Aug. 27, 1776, GWPA, VI, 140, 142. On Harrison, see GWPA, I, 78.

  824 GW to Pres. of Cong., Long Island, Aug. 29, 1776, GWPA, VI, 155-156.

  825 JA to William Tudor, Phil., Aug. 29, 1776, JAPA, V, 1-3.

  826 Gen. Orders, Hdqr., N.Y., Aug. 31, 1776, GWPA, VI, 171-172.

  827 GW to Pres. of Cong., N.Y., Aug. 31, 1776, GWPA, VI, 177-178.

  828 GW to Pres. of Cong., N.Y., Sept. 2, 1776, GWPA, VI, 199.

  829 JA to Samuel Cooper, Phil., Sept. 4, 1776, JAPA, V, 11.

  830 BF to GW, Phil., Sept. 8, 1776, BFPL, XXII, 593-594.