Mathew’s brother James established the Daily Advertiser in Philadelphia. He was an avid Democratic-Republican. He had been involved with the Evening Star, mouthpiece of the United Irishmen in Dublin. Inevitably, he attracted the attention and venom of William Cobbett. Cobbett was the editor of the Federalist paper, Peter Porcupine’s Gazette. Before long, Cobbett began referring to both Mathew and James as the “O’Careys” whenever he disparaged the Irish.
James Carey became more prominent as a Democratic-Republican editor, and established his second newspaper in Philadelphia, Carey’s United States Recorder. He attacked Cobbett and defended the United Irishmen in the United States. He characterized them as “respectable” and “innocent in [their] intentions.”[1] Cobbett responded by criticizing the Carey brothers with increasing ferocity.[2]
In April, Mathew Carey wrote to Thomas Jefferson appealing for financial aid. He hoped to prevent Cobbett’s attacks from destroying his brother’s paper. The money was raised. The United States Recorder and the Aurora, another Federalist target, continued publication as well.[3]
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“It is easy to blunt the edge of slanderous appellations by adopting that in a good sense, which was intended in a bad one—it is thus that epithets applied with the most degrading intention, have been rendered the most honourable—therefore, with the most cordial detestation of tyranny and slavery, I subscribe myself, A JACOBIN”[4]
James Carey
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In May, Mathew Carey made a hypocritical effort to tame Cobbett. He varnished the truth claiming he had no concern with his brother’s paper. He threatened to start a newspaper war. Cobbett was undeterred. In truth, Mathew Carey had provided funding for his brother’s paper. Mathew Carey backed down, failing to carry out his threat.[5]
Mathew and James Carey’s Federalist enemies used a new tactic. The Bank of the United States, under Federalist control, was Mathew’s bank. It cut short its practice of discounting Carey’s state bank and promissory notes collected from his customers and agents. The Bank had cashed Carey’s notes from banks all over the United States. In exchange for providing the face value of commercial paper in coin or bank notes, they subtracted interest and advanced Carey the balance. He had used this service weekly. The Bank of the United States only allowed him a single discount from March 15 to April 16, restricting Mathew’s ability to subsize his brother’s anti-Federalist newspaper.[6]
Next: How the Federalists Attacked other Newspaper Editors
Look for it Monday, October 28
[1]David A. Wilson, United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic (Ithaca: Cornell University Press) 50.
[2] Edward C. Carter II, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey, Nationalist, 1760-1814,” PhD Dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, 1962, 251-2.
[3] Carter “Political Activities” 255
[4] James Carey in the Constitutional Diary, December 17, 1799, quoted in Wilson, United Irishmen, United States, 7-8.
[5] Carter, “Political Activities” 253
[6] Edward C. Carter II, “The Birth of A Political Economist: Mathew Carey and the Re-charter Fight of 1810-1811,” Pennsylvania History, 23 (1966) 277.
