American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

  1581 See FBRS, 269-270, 176.

  1582 WDRP, 30.

  1583 TJ to William Carmichael, Paris, Aug. 9, 1789, TJPB, XV, 236-238.

  1584 WDGE, 22-23.

  1585 WDRP, 38-39.

  1586 SSC, 442. See Lafayette to TJ, Versailles, July 6, 1789, TJPB, XV, 249, GLEF, 143-145.

  1587 WDRP, 39-40.

  1588 TJ to James Madison, Paris, Aug. 28, 1789, TJPB, XV, 364-367.

  1589 SSC, 458. On the choice between the JA and BF models in France, see Joyce Appleby, “America as a Model for the Radical French Reformers of 1789,” William and Mary Quarterly, XXVIII (1971), 267-286.

  1590 SSC, 458.

  1591 JA to Count Sarsfield, N.Y., Sept. 16, 1789, JAPM, Reel 115.

  1592 JWM, 155.

  1593 GW to TJ, N.Y., Oct. 13, 1789, GWPB, IV, 174.

  1594 BF to Samuel Moore, Phil., Nov. 5, 1789, BFSM, X, 63.

  1595 “Queries and Remarks …” BFWS, X, 54, 58-60.

  1596 BFAW, 780, 768.

  1597 BF to David Hartley, Phil., Dec. 4, 1789, BFSM, X, 72.

  1598 BFB to Margaret Markoe, Phil., Dec. 6, 1789, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 2.

  1599 DSFR, 167-168.

  1600 JA to Benjamin Rush, N.Y., Feb. 2, 1790, JAOF, 54-55.

  1601 ANC, 1C, 2S, 984.

  1602 JWM, 191-192.

  1603 JA to Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, N.Y., Feb. 27, 1790, JAPM, Reel 115.

  1604 “To the Citizens of Pennsylvania on the Proposal for Calling a Convention” [1805], TPW, II, 992, 993, 998.

  1605 Thomas Paine to Anonymous, Paris, Mar. 16, 1789 [sic], TPW, II, 1285-1286. This misdated letter is logically placed a year later. See TPHD, 202.

  1606 JA to Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, N.Y., Mar. 27, 1790, JAPM, Reel 115.

  1607 JA to Benjamin Rush, N.Y., Apr. 4, 1790, JAOF, 55-57.

  1608 Benjamin Rush to JA, Phil., Apr. 13, 1790, BRL, I, 544, 546.

  1609 BFWE, 347, BFBB, 117.

  1610 BFB to Margaret Markoe, Phil., May 2, 1790, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 2.

  1611 BFPL, I, 109-111.

  1612 ANC, 1C, 2S, 1534.

  1613 TJ to William Short, N.Y., Apr. 27, 1790, TJPB, XVI, 387-388.

  1614 TJ to Benjamin Rush, Wash., Oct. 4, 1803, TJWF, X, 31-32.

  1615 “Discourses on Davila …” JAWO, VI, 225.

  1616 Lettres d’un Bourgeois de New-Heaven à un Citoyen de Virginie, sur l’inutilité de partager législatif entre plusieurs corps. [Letters from a common citizen of New Haven to a Citizen of Virginia on the uselessness of dividing legislative power between several bodies], included in Filippo Mazzei, Recherches historiques et politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l’Amérique Septentrionale: où l’on traite des établissemens des treize colonies, de leurs rapports et de leurs dissentions avec la Grande-Bretagne, de leurs gouvernements avant et après la revolution, &c./par un citoyen de Virginie; avec quatre lettres d’un bourgeois de New Haven [Condorcet] sur l’unité de la législation, 4 vols. (Paris: Froulle, 1788), I, 267-371.

  1617 “Discourses on Davila …” JAWO, VI, 224, 252.

  1618 “Discourses on Davila …” JAWO, VI, 224, 399.

  1619 Thomas Paine to GW, London, May 1, 1790, TPW, II, 1302-1303.

  1620 WDRP, 62, See CFR, 152.

  1621 JA to Thomas Brand-Hollis, N.Y., June 11, 1790, JAWO, IX, 571.

  1622 Quoted in BFFC, 212-213, and in FBRS, 287.

  1623 Louis-Guillaume Le Veillard to BFB, Paris, June 10, 1790, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 2.

  1624 TJ to Rev. William Smith, Phil., Feb. 19, 1791, TJPB, XIX, 112-113.

  1625 LJLC, II, 34-35, as quoted in BFFC, 92.

  1626 Gilbert Chinard, “The Apotheosis of Benjamin Franklin,” PAPS, Vol. 99 (1955), 440, 463.

  1627 Journal de la Société de 1789, June 19, 1790, as quoted in BFFC, 87.

  1628 On Brissot’s relationship to Franklin and America, see FBRS, 237-246.

  1629 See FBRS, 237-247.

  1630 J. P. Brissot de Warville, “Reflections on the Constitution of Pennsylvania” (1782), trans. by J. Paul Selsam, PMHB, LXXII (1948), 25-43.

  1631 GLEF, 169.

  1632 WDRP, 62-63.

  1633 James A. Leith, “La Culte de Franklin en France Avant et Pendant la Révolution Française,” AHFR, XLVIII, (Oct.-Dec., 1976), 543, 565.

  1634 See Robert Morris to BFB, July 28, 1790, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 2.

  1635 AGA’s original name was General Advertiser and Political, Commercial, Agricultural and Literary Journal. For the history of the paper’s masthead names, see BCAN, 891-892.

  1636 JWM, 349-350, 378.

  1637 Gilbert Chinard, “The Apotheosis of Benjamin Franklin,” PAPS, Vol. 99 (1955), 451-452.

  1638 JWM, 379-380.

  1639 TJ to Benjamin Rush, Wash., Oct. 4, 1803, TJWF, X, 31-32.

  1640 TPHD 223-227.

  1641 TPW, I, 298-301.

  1642 TPW, I, 313-314.

  1643 TPW, I, 338-340.

  1644 TJ to Jonathan B. Smith, Apr. 26, 1791, TJPB, XX, 290.

  1645 See TJPB, XX, 272.

  1646 TJ to James Madison, Phil., May 9, 1791, TJPB, XX, 293.

  1647 Tobias Lear to GW, May 8, 1791, GW Papers (LC), as quoted in TJPB, XX, 277.

  1648 JAWO, VI, 272.

  1649 Anas, TJWF, I, 163, 180.

  1650 Thomas Paine to Messieurs Condorcet, Nicolas de Bonneville, and Lanthanas, Paris, June, 1791, TPW, II, 1315.

  1651 GUS, July 20, 1791. The series was first published in the Columbia Centinel (Boston), June 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 29, July 2, 9, 13, 20, 27, 1791. AGA carried “Publicola” series on June 30, July 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 15, 20, 24, 28, Aug 2, 1791.

  1652 CFR, 237.

  1653 GLEF, 193.

  1654 Séance du vendredi 7 octobre 1791. Correspondance patriotique, I (1791), 67, as quoted in BFFC, 87.

  1655 TJ to Pres. of the U.S., Monticello, Sept. 9, 1792, TJPB, XXIV, 351, 354-355.

  1656 TPW, I, 389.

  1657 TPW, I, 410-413.

  1658 TPW, I, 415.

  1659 TJ to Lafayette, Phil., June 16, 1792, TJPB, XXIV, 290.

  1660 TJ to Thomas Paine, Phil., June 19, 1792, TJPB, XX, 312.

  1661 TPHD 257.

  1662 See Thomas Paine, “Answer to Four Questions on the Legislative and Executive Powers,” TPW, II, 521-534.

  1663 WDRP, 194.

  1664 SSC, 639-641, CFR, 291.

  1665 Thomas Paine to Benjamin Mosley, Paris, Oct. I, I Year of the Republic, TPW, II, 1326.

  1666 WDRP, 194.

  1667 Thomas Paine, Address to the People of France, Sept. 25, 1792, TPW, II, 537-540.

  1668 Thomas Paine, “An Essay for the Use of New Republicans in Their Opposition to Monarchy,” TPW, II, 541, 543, 546-547.

  1669 JA to Lafayette, Hague, May 21, 1782, JAWO, VII, 593.

  1670 JAWO, IV, 358-359.

  1671 Thomas Paine to William Short, Nov. 2, 1791, TPW, II, 1320.

  1672 TPHD 266-267.

  1673 LEV, 285-286, TPHD 267-270.

  1674 As quoted in JCHU, 230-231.

  1675 See The Whole Proceedings on the Trial of an Information Exhibited ex Officio by the King’s Attorney-General Against Thomas Paine … Taken in Short-Hand by Joseph Gurney (London: Sold by Martha Gurney, 1793), 71-73.

  1676 GLEF, 221-222.

  1677 BP, May 15, 1811, as reprinted in JAWO, I, 649, 660-663.

  1678 GLEF, 236.

  1679 JA to Abigail Adams, N.Y., Mar. 2, 1793, JAPM, Reel 376.

  1680 Tom Paine to Danton (undated), Danton Files, item #5, AF II 49, Dossier 380, Archives Nationales, Paris, cited and attributed in TPKJ, 357, 597, n.17.

  1681 JAWO, VI, 403. See JAPP, 167.

  1682 WDRP, 563. James Thomson Callender details the Democratic-Republican argument in JCPB, I, 95-108.

  1683 Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), 513-517. See GUS, Aug. 28, 1800.

  1684 AGA, Apr. 24, 1793. See TPHD 263-264.

  1685 French admirers often addressed BF as �
�Papa.” BFLC. See, in general, James A. Leith, “La Culte de Franklin en France Avant et Pendant la Révolution Française,” AHFR, XLVIII, (Oct.-Dec., 1976), 543-571.

  1686 R. R. Palmer observes, “The constitutions drafted in Pennsylvania in 1776, and in France in 1793, were, in their formal provisions, by far the most democratic of any produced in the eighteenth century.” ADR, II, 219.

  1687 Detail, plate #12, BRP.

  1688 JA to Benjamin Rush, N.Y., June 9, 1789, JAOF, 36-38.

  1689 TJ to James Monroe, Monticello, Oct. 19, 1823, TJWF, XII, 316.

  1690 JA to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Apr. 12, 1809, JAWO, IX, 619.

  1691 WD to Franklin Bache, Wash., Mar. 4, 1804, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  1692 James Madison to TJ, Wash., May 3, 1811, JMAW, VIII, 150-151. See WDCA, 53.

  1693 AGA, Oct. 2, 1790.

  1694 WD to Caesar Rodney, Oct. 13, 1798, Duane folder, General MS Collection, Columbia Univ. Lib., as quoted in BFBP, 113.

  1695 WD to Tench Coxe, Oct. 15, 1798, reprinted in Peter J Parker, “The Revival of the Aurora: A Letter to Tench Coxe,” PMHB, 96 (Oct. 1972): 524-525. Sometime between the time BFB contracted and died of yellow fever, BFB wrote Tench Coxe, asking that the paper be continued for his “family, his country and mankind.” See Tench Coxe to Margaret Bache, Sept. 13, 1798, quoted in TCER, 346. BFB lost between $14,700 and $20,000 in the eight years he published the paper. See AGA, Aug 11, 1798, Apr. 23, 1800, Aug. 11, 1802. TCER, 345.

  1696 WDBM, 6.

  1697 WD’s attraction to Margaret Bache is deduced from their later marriage.

  1698 Lyon’s story is well told in FETT, 221-246.

  1699 SDOP, 616.

  1700 FETT, 188, 252.

  1701 “Capture of the Armed Schooner Highlander, Thomas M’Connell,” ND, II, 6-7.

  1702 SDOP, 617-618.

  1703 FETT, 398-399.

  1704 See FETT, 257-262.

  1705 AGA, Nov. 13, 1798.

  1706 Quoted in GLM, 86n. Pickering’s account of the meeting is in “Report of the Secretary of State on the Transactions Relating to the United States and France …” Jan. 18, 1799, as printed in PG, Jan. 24, 1799.

  1707 KRW, 75-85, 96.

  1708 TJ to J. Cabell Breckinridge, Monticello, Dec. 11, 1821, quoted in KRW, 138-139.

  1709 GW, “Memorandum of an Interview,” Nov. 13, 1798, GWW, XXXVII, 18-20.

  1710 GLM, 86-87.

  1711 FETT, 260-265.

  1712 GW to Alexander Spotswood, Phil., Nov. 22, 1798, GWW, XXXVII, 23-24.

  1713 JA to printers of the BP, JAWO, IX, 241, 244.

  1714 GLM, 85.

  1715 TJ to John Taylor, Nov. 26, 1798, TJWF, VIII, 479, 480.

  1716 WDKP, 26-28, citing John Shore (Lord Teignmouth), The Private Record of an Indian Governor-Generalship: The Correspondence of Sir John Shore, Governor-General, with Henry Dundas, President of the Board of Control 1793-1798, Holden Furber, ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1933), 9-16, Sir John Shore to Henry Dundas, Jan 1794, Charles J. Shore (Second Baron Teignmouth), Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of John Lord Teignmouth, 2 vols. (London, 1843), I, 275-282. Calcutta Gazette (Calcutta), Sept. 18, 1794, W. S. Seton-Kerr, ed., Selections from the Calcutta Gazette, 1784-1823, 5 vols. (London, 1864-1869), II, 393-394.

  1717 DMAF, 225.

  1718 RJMP, I, 271-273.

  1719 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2426-2427.

  1720 RJMP, I, 277.

  1721 GW to Sec. of War, Phil., Dec. 13, 1798, GWW, XXXVII, 32, 35.

  1722 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2445, 2447, 2450-2451, 2455.

  1723 GUS, Aug. 11, 1800.

  1724 Abigail Adams to William Shaw, Quincy, Dec. 20, 1798, SFP.

  1725 AGA, Dec. 24, 1798.

  1726 AGA, Dec. 24, 1798.

  1727 Abigail Adams to William Shaw, Quincy, Dec. 23, 1798, SFP.

  1728 KRW, 100-104.

  1729 GW to Marquis de Lafayette, Mt. Vernon, Dec. 25, 1798, GWW, XXXVII, 64-69.

  1730 GW to William Vans Murray, Mt. Vernon, Dec. 26, 1798, GWW, XXXVII, 71-72.

  1731 JA to Abigail Adams, Quincy, Dec. 31, 1798, JAPM, 392.

  1732 GUS, Jan 2, 1799.

  1733 AGA, Jan. 3, 14, 17, Feb. 18, 1799, June 11, Oct. 2, 1800, FETT, 242.

  1734 Hamilton to Dayton, 1799 [between letters of Dec. 28, 1798, and Jan. 6, 1799], AHWO, VI, 383-384, 387-388.

  1735 Timothy Pickering to Richard Harison, Esq., Dept. of State, Jan. 1, 1799, TPPM, XXXVII, 381.

  1736 Abigail Adams to William Shaw, Quincy, Jan. 3, 1799, SFP.

  1737 Pressmen and Compositors to Margaret Hartman Bache, Jan. 12, 1799, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  1738 Margaret Hartman Bache to Pressmen and Compositors, [1799], BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  1739 The late Pressmen and Compositors to Margaret Hartman Bache, Jan. 15, 1799, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  1740 Margaret Hartman Bache to Late Pressmen and Compositors of the AGA, Jan. 15, 1799, BFBC, Film 1506, Reel 3.

  1741 GW to Patrick Henry (Confidential), Mt. Vernon, Jan. 15, 1799, GWW, XXXVII, 87-89.

  1742 GUS, Jan 18, 1799.

  1743 GUS, Jan. 21, 1799.

  1744 GUS, Jan. 21, 1799.

  1745 GW to Rev. Bryan, Lord Fairfax, Mt. Vernon, Jan. 20, 1799, GWW, XXXVII, 91, 93.

  1746 Attribution to James Madison based on JMAP, XVII, 211-214, TJJM, II, 1073.

  1747 TJJM, II, 1073.

  1748 On the impact of the argument, see SDOP, 608-609.

  1749 TJ to Elbridge Gerry, Phil., Jan. 26, 1799, TJWF, IX, 15, 17-20.

  1750 ANC, 5C, 3S, 3795.

  1751 Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, N.Y., Feb. 2, 1799, AHP, XXII, 452-453.

  1752 TJ to James Madison, [Phil.], Feb. 5, 1799, TJJM, II, 1092-1093.

  1753 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2856-2857.

  1754 “Trial of Duane, Reynolds, Moore and Cuming …,” WFST, 345, 357-359.

  1755 Captain Thomas Truxton to Sec. of the Navy, U.S. Ship Constellation in sight of the Island of St. Christopher’s, Feb. 10, 1799, ND, II, 326-327, VII, 365.

  1756 DAQW, 128-130, GUS, May 15, 1799.

  1757 “Trial of Duane, Reynolds, Moore and Cuming …,” WFST, 345, 358-359.

  1758 “Trial of Duane, Reynolds, Moore and Cuming …,” WFST, 345-388.

  1759 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2884.

  1760 AGA, Oct. 3, 4, 1799.

  1761 GUS, Oct. 3, 1799.

  1762 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2906-2907.

  1763 TJ to Archibald Stewart, Phil., Feb. 13, 1799, TJWF, IX, 40-41, 44.

  1764 DMAF, 229.

  1765 Italicized sentence from AGA, Oct. 2, 1800.

  1766 FETT, 242, AGA, Apr. 9, 29, June 10, 1799, Sept. 1, 1800.

  1767 JA heard of Talleyrand’s willingness to negotiate not only from George Logan but also from Elbridge Gerry (one of JA’s three original envoys), William Vans Murray (U.S. Minister at the Hague), American writer Joel Barlow, Boston merchant Richard Codman, and even from his diplomat sons, Thomas Boylston Adams and John Quincy Adams. See EMAF, 609-610, 614-618.

  1768 RJMP, I, 282-283.

  1769 See letter of James McHenry, Sec. of War, to Brig. Gen. William Darke, Dec. 18, 1798, GUS, Feb. 27, 1799.

  1770 PG, Mar. 19, 1799.

  1771 Abigail Adams to William Shaw, Quincy, Feb. 21, 1799, SFP.

  1772 GUS, Mar. 12, 1799.

  1773 “Trial of Duane, Reynolds, Moore and Cuming …,” WFST, 345-388. Wharton confuses the trial date with the date the verdict was rendered. See AGA, Feb. 22, 1799.

  1774 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2955.

  1775 Attribution based on JMAP, VI, 211-214.

  1776 ANC, 5C, 3S, 2985, 2992-2993, 3002.

  1777 RJMP, I, 284.

  1778 ANC, 5C, 3S, 3804-3805.

  1779 TJ to James Madison, Phil., Feb. 26, 1799, TJWF, IX, 59, 61.

  1780 ANC, 5C, 3S, 3808.

  1781 FETT, 253-254, SDOP, 476-477.

  1782 FETT, 254.

  1783 Abigail Adams to William Shaw, Quincy, Mar. 4, 1799, SFP.

  1784 GUS, Apr. 19, 1799.

  1785 JCSH
, 120.

  1786 BFBR, 34-35.

  1787 BFBR, 38.

  1788 Speech in the Convention, BFSM, IX, 590, 592-593.

  1789 BF to Benjamin Vaughan, Passy, Mar. 14, 1785, BFSM, IX, 291, 296.

  1790 GUS, Mar. 14, 1799.

  1791 GUS, June 21, 1798.

  1792 GUS, Mar. 16, 1799.

  1793 Detail, “Pennsylvania Drawn from the Best Authorities by Cyrus Harris—engraved by A. Doolittle,” Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography … (Boston: Thomas & Andrews, 1796), Part I, 533.

  1794 GUS, Apr. 1, 1799.

  1795 Capt. Thomas Truxton to Sec. of the Navy, Bassateer Road, Mar. 16, 1799, ND, II, 458, VII, 365.

  1796 GUS, Mar. 21, 1799.

  1797 AGA, May 24, 1799.

  1798 ND, III, 157, 494 (map), VII, 366.

  1799 AGA, May 24, 1799.

  1800 AGA, May 3, 1799.

  1801 “Trial of the Northampton Insurgents …,” WFST, 458, 505-506.

  1802 “Trial of the Northampton Insurgents …,” WFST, 458, 510-511.

  1803 “Trial of the Northampton Insurgents …,” WFST, 458, 507-509.

  1804 Italicized words from AGA, Aug. 2, 1799.

  1805 FETT, 255.

  1806 TJ to Archibald Stuart, Monticello, May 14, 1799, TJWF, IX, 66-67.

  1807 That the units identified by GUS, May 15, 1799 were part of Macpherson’s Blues, see PMHB, XLVII (1923), 359-360.

  1808 See AGA, May 3, 1798.

  1809 WDME, 14-15.

  1810 WDME, 6-7.

  1811 WDME, 4-5.

  1812 WDME, 11-13.

  1813 WDME, 6-7.

  1814 WD’s testimony, WDME, 4-5.

  1815 WDME, 8-11.

  1816 WDME, 18-19.

  1817 AGA, May 21, 1799.

  1818 WDME, 19-20.

  1819 AGA, June 12, 1799.

  1820 GUS, May 18, 1799.

  1821 Detail, William Duane (1802), an engraving by St. Mémin, National Portrait Gallery, Wash., D.C. See AGA, Jan. 8, 28, 1799, Ellen G. Miles, Saint-Mémin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America (Wash: Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1994), 87, 98, 293, 446-447.

  1822 See BFBP, 127, WDCA, 22.

  1823 This sentence verbatim from WD to Stephen R. Bradley, Nov. 10, 1808, cited WDCA, 65-68.

  1824 See AGA, June 21, 1799, quoting Richmond Examiner (Richmond).

  1825 Capt. Thomas Tingey to Sec. of the Navy, Ganges off St. Bartholemews, June 26, 1799, ND, III, 345-346, VII, 367.

  1826 TJ to William Green Munford, June 18, 1799, TJMD, III, 418.

  1827 GW to John Trumbull, Mt. Vernon, June 25, 1799, GWW, XXXVII, 247-249.