CHAPTER XV.

TWO REMARKABLE NEWSPAPERS.

THE PHILADELPHIA AURORA.-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE AND WILLIAM DUANE. CURIOUS INCIDENT IN INDIA.—THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.— TRIALS AND CONVICTIONS of Editors.-SERIOUS RIOTS.-THE NEW YORK EVENING POST. WILLIAM COLEMAN. - EXTRAORDINARY DUEL. JOHN RODMAN DRAKE AND FITZ GREENE HALLECK.-WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT AND WILLIAM LEGGETT.-NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION.-CHARLES HOLT, OF THE BEE AND COLUMBIAN.-THE FATHER OF "GALES AND SEATON.”— CONGRESSIONAL REPORTS.-JOSEPH DENNIE, THE LAY PREACHER.

THE newspaper which unquestionably took the lead of all Republican or Democratic journals in the formation and early origin of the party was the Aurora, of Philadelphia. On the death of the National Gazette it was the special organ of Jefferson and his followers. It was first published and edited by Benjamin Franklin Bache, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, and formerly of the Advertiser. It arrayed itself so strongly against the Federal measures of Washington's administration that its violence was frequently turned on Washington personally. Inspired by Jefferson, Madison, and other leaders of the party, it was a political power. No better illustration of the violence of party feeling which had been generated between the two factions towards the close of the last century can be given than in the following extract from the Aurora, which appeared in that paper immediately after the inauguration of John Adams and the departure of George Washington for Mount Vernon on the 5th of March, 1797. It was alleged at the time to have been the production of a "public functionary" and a distinguished member of the Democratic Party. Thus spoke the Aurora:

Ev

"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," was the pious ejaculation of a man who beheld a flood of happiness rushing in upon mankind. If ever there was a time which would license the reiteration of this exclamation, that time is now arrived; for the man who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with his fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United States. If ever there was a period of rejoicing, this is the moment. ery heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the people, ought to beat high with exultation that the name of Washington from this day ceased to give a currency to political iniquity and to legalized corruption. A new era is now opening upon us-an era which promises much to the people; for public measures must now stand upon their own merits, and nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name. It is a subject of the greatest astonishment that a single individual should have carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to

Violence of the Aurora.

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have put in jeopardy its very existence. Such, however, are the facts; and with these staring us in the face, this day ought to be a jubilee in the United States.

This article was a little too strong for those days. The Spring Garden Butchers, who had been in the army with Washington, made an attack on the office of the Aurora, threw its type into the street, and almost demolished the inside of that newspaper establishment.

On the 9th of May, 1798, which was observed as a day of fasting and prayer, there came near being a very serious political riot in Philadelphia, growing out of the violent declamations from pulpits and elsewhere against Jacobins, philosophers, freemasons, and the illuminati. Several Republican quarters were marked for attack. Bache, for the protection of the Aurora office, collected and armed all his friends. Others did the same for the protection of their persons and property. These decided arrangements deterred the ringleaders, and very little damage was done. Several windows and lamp-posts were broken, and a statue of Franklin covered with mud. About this time a man named Humphries was convicted of an assault on Bache for political articles in the Aurora. It was charged against President Adams that he selected Humphries as a bearer of dispatches to France before the expiration of his sentence for the assault. So run the political excitement in the days of our political fathers.

In the fury of that dreadful plague, the yellow fever, which visited Philadelphia in 1798 for the second time, Bache was a victim to its ravages. The Aurora then became the property of his widow, and William Duane assumed its editorial management. It continued to be the violent partisan sheet it had been under Bache, and, indeed, a little more so. Let us see why. Duane was born in this country. His parents were both Irish. Early in life he went to Ireland, and learned the art of printing. Thence he went to India, and started one or two newspapers, one of which he published in Calcutta. There, with his ideas of the liberty of the press, he came in collision with the authorities, and was sent out of the country in a manner so cowardly and outrageous as to rankle in his bosom ever after. The incidents connected with this part of his career are too interesting to omit.

Duane, at the time of our story, was sole proprietor of the Indian World, by which he had acquired a handsome fortune. In September, 1794, he advertised his property for sale, with the intention of returning to Philadelphia. It was to be sold on the 1st of January, 1795, and he had engaged passage on board the Hercules, Captain Delano, of Boston, then lying at Calcutta, to sail in the following April. Strange as it may appear, when we take the result of this incident into consideration, Duane was at that time on terms of ap

parent friendship and good-will with most of the public characters in that part of India, and especially with the officers of the army, who had made the World the means of spreading their grievances before the public. Our editor had been particularly noticed by Sir William Jones and Sir John Shore. He had been flattered and honored with their attentions. On the evening of the 26th of December, 1794, a note was left at Duane's country house, written by Captain John Collins, private secretary of Sir John Shore, inviting Duane to the governor general's house on the next day at eight o'clock. The note did not reach Duane till the next morning. He immediately proceeded to the governor general's, expecting to breakfast there. Captain Collins met him in the saloon, and, after the usual salutations, the following conversation occurred:

Captain Collins. I am glad you are so punctual, Mr. Duane.

Mr. Duane. I generally am, sir; I hope the Governor-General is well.
Captain Collins. He is not to be seen, and-

Mr. Duane. I understand I was invited by him.

Captain Collins. Yes, sir; but I am directed by the Governor-General to inform you, that you are to consider yourself as a state prisoner.

He stamped on the floor, and thirty Sepahis, who stood concealed behind the folding doors of an anti-chamber, rushed out, and presented their bayonets to Duane's breast. The doors, being left open by them, discovered Sir John Shore and two others of the Supreme Council sitting on a sofa.

Mr. Duane. I did not think Sir John Shore, or you, sir, (turning to Capt. Collins) could be so base and treacherous as to proceed, or even to think as you do. Captain Collins. Silence, sir. (To the Sepahis) Chillow Sepahi: Drag him along, Sepahis.

Mr. Duane. (To the Sepahis) Osti babaa-hum becjagga: Softly, my friends, I shall go along with you. (To Collins) What is to follow next, Collins; the bowstring or scimetar ?

Captain Collins. You are insolent, sir. (To the Sepahis) Chillow joub, soor Masani Drag him along, you pig-eating scoundrels.

Mr. Duane. You are performing the part of Grand Vizier, now, my little gentleman, and these are your mutes. Calcutta is become Constantinople, and the Governor-General the Grand Turk.

It is said that much more passed, and during the last utterances Duane was conveyed down stairs, put into his palanquin, and his bearers beaten all the way to Fort William. With a great parade he was there given in charge, with two sentinels placed at the outer door of his quarters, and one, with a drawn bayonet, always by his side, asleep or awake. This was on Saturday. On the following Monday morning a company of royal grenadiers were paraded on the ramparts, and he was marched to the water side, where a company of royal light infantry was ready to receive him in a barge, upon which he was conducted to an armed Indiaman, commanded by Sir Charles Mitchell, and carried to England. No charge was ever lodged against him. When at St. Helena he was not permitted to go ashore, as he was a foreigner. On reaching England he was landed without a single word of information or explanation.

When he thus left India his property amounted to about fifty thou

Treatment of Duane in India.

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sand dollars. On application to one of the first lawyers in England to commence a suit for its recovery, that gentleman, ascertaining that he had only one thousand dollars remaining, returned him his fee of one hundred dollars, and said that although the case was one of the most oppressive in his knowledge, he advised Duane not to waste what he had left in competition with the wealth and power of the East India Company. Several gentlemen interested themselves in his case, and had written from India in his behalf. One wrote to Lord Lucan. That nobleman advised Duane, if he wished to recover his property, to go to Mr. Dundas, and disclose to him all he knew of persons in India! With a feeling of contempt, he picked up his hat and left. Immediately after, he took his departure for Philadelphia. On his arrival in that city he assumed the editorial. charge of the Aurora, already a strong Democratic and anti-British organ, with bitter feelings towards England and every thing English. It is therefore easily seen why this well-known journal became, above all others at that time, the oracle of that vigorous young party. It is a curious fact that William J. Duane, the son of this early journalist, was the rebellious Secretary of the Treasury in Jackson's cabinet in 1834, when the government deposits were to be removed from the United States Bank.

Such was the heated state of politics in Philadelphia, then the Capitol of the Union, that mob or a personal assault was not a rare occurence. Duane, like his predecessor Bache, came in for his share. The extreme violence of the Aurora brought down upon it all the obloquy of the Federalists. It was evident that the Democratic Party was gaining strength. This fact did not tend to soften the feeling of asperity that had been aroused against Duane. It had, indeed, the contrary effect. The Alien and Sedition laws had been in force about a year, and several Democratic editors, as well as others, had come under their penalties. These laws were not in accord with the spirit of the people. Duane and the Aurora, and especially Duane, as these laws, in their operation, reminded him of the treatment he received at Calcutta, were strongly opposed to them. It was proposed in Congress to repeal them. To aid this movement, petitions were in circulation.

On the 9th of February, 1799, Duane and several other gentlemen went to St. Mary's Church, in Philadelphia, and posted upon its doors a petition for their repeal, in hopes of obtaining the signatures of the aliens of that congregation. Instead of accomplishing this purpose it resulted in a riot. Many of the audience rushed out of the church, tore down the petition, attacked those who placed them on the doors, knocked them down, and otherwise maltreated them. Dr. Reynolds, of the Duane party, was brought before the courts on

rora.

the charge of attempted murder, and his companions on a charge of riot and assault on St. Mary's Church. They were acquitted. But this result was the cause of another more serious affair. On the 15th of May a band of thirty men entered the office of the AuOne section of this party, with pistols in hand, acted as sentinels over printers and pressmen, while another section prevented any interference from others in the office. The remainder then made an assault upon Duane, who appeared to be the special object of their vengeance. He was knocked down and inhumanly beaten. Then, bleeding and senseless, he was dragged down stairs and out into the street, where he was again brutally beaten. His young son, who had thrown himself across the body of his father to protect him from the ruffians, was also badly maltreated. The office of the Aurora would have been entirely demolished but for the timely arrival of a party of Democrats who came to the relief of Duane.

Alluding to this conflict between the journalists and the government, ex-President John Tyler, in 1858, said:

The President, who was supposed to be inimical to France, was assailed by the press, and in all public assemblies, as well as in private circles, with a bitterness of invective rarely if ever surpassed. In a moment of weakness Congress gave way to the adoption of the Sedition law, and the press, so far from being restrained, seemed rather to increase in its bitterness. The government resolved upon prosecutions against the most violent. Judge Cooper was put on trial for libel, in Philadelphia; and Mr. Lyon elsewhere. Nor did Richmond go unscathed: Callender, who edited The Prospect Before Us, in a style of abuse never surpassed, and with whom, personally, no one really sympathised, was thrown into jail. The law of libel, it was said, was made to be more potent than the letter of the constitution which guaranteed the freedom of speech and of the press, and the fires of popular indignation blazed brightly and fiercely. I cannot here forego relating an anecdote which I received from the lips of Governor Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, as illustrative of the violence of the times. Stephen Thompson Mason, then a Senator from the State of Virginia, repaired to Philadelphia, attended by the enthusiastic Dickerson, then a young man, to attend the trial of Judge Cooper. They took their seats on the right and left hand of Cooper at the bar, and when the jury returned their verdict of twenty-four hours imprisonment and a fine of $1,000, they each, rising in the court, shook hands most cordially with the prisoner. The next morning Fenno, who published the adminis tration paper, came out with an article of the following tenor :

"The republican party is always committing some act of excess-but what occurred in court on yesterday surpassed anything that has yet occurred. Upon the conviction of Cooper, Stephen Thompson Mason, a Senator from Virginia, shook hands with the culprit in the very face of justice."

Judge Chase, somewhat remarkable for the rotundity of his person and a florid complexion, presided at the trial. The following morning Dickerson prepared and published in Duane's paper-the Aurora-the following reply to Mr. Fenno's article:

Mr. Fenno is evermore committing great mistakes-but of all the errors into which he has yet fallen, that in his paper of yesterday is the greatest. He states that Stephen Thompson Mason, a Senator from Virginia, shook hands with the culprit in the very face of justice, mistaking the bacon face of old Chase for the face of justice.

There were a number of alien writers on the Press at this time who had become odious and hateful to the Federalists. John O'Ley Burke was one. James Thomson Callender, mentioned above, was another. William Cobbett, who came over in 1792, was employed