How Newspaper Politics Lead to Federalist Attacks on Other Newspaper Editors

John Fenno wanted to publish an official government newspaper.  He was a penmanship teacher from Boston who had failed at keeping an inn, managing a shop, and working in the export business before working as a journalist for the Boston Centinel.  There he first gained recognition for his defense of the Constitution.  Backed by prominent Bostonians, he moved to America’s new capital in New York City in 1789.  He began publishing the Gazette of the United States.  He quickly gained the notice of Alexander Hamilton.  Hamilton supported Fenno’s vow to “support the Constitution & the Administration formed upon its national principles.”  Fenno sought to defend Washington, his administration, and its policies.

In 1790, Thomas Jefferson returned from France.  He was concerned that those in power would misuse or abuse federal authority.  He courted Fenno, encouraging him to promote liberal views.  Fenno remained loyal to Hamilton.  Hamilton later funneled the Senate’s printing business to Fenno, lending him sizeable sums of money in 1790 and 1791.  When the nation’s capital moved to Philadelphia, Fenno and his Gazette of the United States followed it there.[1]

Next, Jefferson approached Benjamin Franklin Bache, Benjamin Franklin’s favorite grandson.  He wanted to use Bache’s paper as a rival platform to Fenno’s Gazette.  Bache edited the Philadelphia General Advertiser (later the Aurora) and declined the offer.

Undeterred, Jefferson surreptitiously recruited James Madison’s roommate from Princeton, poet Philip Freneau.  Freneau agreed to publish the National Gazette.  To help finance Freneau’s efforts, Jefferson gave him a position as a State Department translator, and directed government printing jobs his way.  Remaining behind the scenes, Jefferson worked through James Madison, John Beckley and Henry Lee.  Jefferson was careful never to mention the National Gazette in his correspondence with Freneau.  Freneau’s  newspaper appeared in October, 1791.[2]

Freneau was a one-time sea-captain, imprisoned by the British at the end of the Revolutionary War, a radical, and a low-paid journalist working in New York City, when Jefferson recruited him to publish a paper.  The National Gazette criticized Washington, and his administration, especially Alexander Hamilton and his financial policies.  Jefferson, Madison and their associates wrote articles under pseudonyms, concealing their identities.  Soon Washington loathed the National Gazette, calling the editor “that Rascal Freneau.”

Hamilton and Jefferson began to quarrel, using their respective gladiators of the quill, Fenno and Freneau, to shield themselves from public recognition.  Washington urged them to tone down their public arguments.  Hamilton and Jefferson continued anyway.  Benjamin Bache, along with his assistant William Duane, and James Reynolds, jumped into the fray, denouncing Washington as well.

Mathew Carey, never fond of faction, was incensed.  He found the “coarse and vulgar” assaults by Reynolds, particularly “did more to injure the cause of Democracy than all the efforts of its enemies could have done in five years.”  He voiced the opinion of many in the Irish-American community, proud of what America and George Washington had accomplished during the Revolution.[3]

Unlike other newspaper publishers, Freneau had no financial involvement in the National Gazette.  Like Mathew Carey, he encountered the difficulties of distributing the publication nationally.  Freneau was a poet and a writer, and seemed to disdain serving his subscribers with regularity.  The newspaper lost money, and an important investor warned that he would discontinue his financial backing.  When the Yellow Fever struck Philadelphia, both Fenno and Freneau stopped publishing their newspapers.  Fenno resumed publication, but Freneau did not. [4]

Benjamin Bache and the Aurora replaced it.  Benjamin Franklin had tried to steer Bache away from politics and into type founding.  Bache, however, had been exposed to revolutionary ideals in France.  After Franklin’s death in 1790, Bache threw aside the approval of his social peers, and the profitability of type founding.  He pursued political journalism with a passion.  Bache infamously criticized George Washington.  After the demise of the National Gazette, Bache was ready voice the viewpoints of Jefferson’s new party.[5]

His wife Margaret was at his side.  She was a daughter of a plantation owner from St. Croix and stepdaughter of a well-regarded Philadelphia physician.  She enthusiastically supported Bache descending the social scale and associating with Democratic-Republicans from lower class neighborhoods.  When Bache was out of town, she capably managed the newspaper.[6]

Next:  How the Federalists Attacked Bache

Look for it Monday, November 11.