Jefferson and Hamilton

by Claude G. Bowers

In estimating the sincerity of the simulated shock of the Federalists when the Secretary of State encouraged the establishment of a paper to support his principles, it is well to bear in mind that the Secretary of the Treasury had done precisely the same thing two years before. Then, as always, politicians were shocked at the turpitude of their opponents. Just how John Fenno came to establish the ‘Gazette of the United States’ is an impenetrable mystery. He was in his thirty-eighth year when he appeared at the home of Rufus King, perhaps the ablest of Hamilton’s supporters, with a letter of introduction from Christopher Gore, a member of the inner council of Boston Federalism who afterward waxed wealthy on speculation in the funds. The record is meager as to Fenno’s previous career beyond the revelation that he was born in Boston and taught for several years in the Old South Writing School. In the letter to King, we have the assurance of Gore that Fenno’s ‘literary accomplishments are very handsome’; that Gore had known him long and could testify that ‘his honor and fidelity are unquestionable’; and, strangely enough, that ‘his talents as the editor of a public paper are unrivaled in this commonwealth.’ As John Russell was then editing the ‘Columbian Centinel,’ the tribute would seem strained but for the intimation that the strength and sparkle of that able journal was due to Fenno’s contributions; and since the ‘Centinel’ suffered no apparent loss on his leaving Boston, even this theory seems absurd.

If his origin is a mystery, the purpose of his call on King was made clear enough in the letter of introduction. The ‘unrivaled’ editor sought encouragement for the establishment of a newspaper through arrangements for ‘obtaining the patronage of Congress’ in the printing of its journals and official papers. If something of the sort could be arranged, Gore was positive that Fenno would prove ‘capable of performing essential service in the cause of Federalism and good government.’[581]

The conversation was evidently agreeable, assurances of some sort were manifestly given, and within a few weeks the ‘Gazette of the United States’ was making its appearance. That Hamilton, who was intimately identified with King, was consulted, we may he sure; and within four years the relations between Fenno and Hamilton were so confidential that the former felt no hesitancy in appealing in a letter to the latter for a loan of two thousand dollars. Months before, the editor had submitted a schedule of his debts and credits to the head of the Treasury. The two had talked over the financial difficulties of the paper. The appeal for the loan was not lightly brushed aside. Hamilton wrote to King of the troubles of ‘poor Fenno,’ and proposed that if King would raise a thousand dollars in New York, he would himself undertake to raise a similar amount in Philadelphia. It is to be assumed that the money was raised, for the paper continued to appear. It is significant that in his letter to Hamilton, the editor wrote as one who had rendered faithful service and was entitled to consideration.[582]

From the beginning Fenno had liked to think of himself as the editor of ‘the court journal.’ Possessing considerable merit, it is impossible to turn its yellowing pages even now without being oppressed with a sense of sycophancy and snobbery. There was a fawning on wealth and kow-towing to power in most of the leading articles. The tone was pronouncedly pro-English and all Hamiltonian. Democracy was anathema. The critics of the policies of the leader of the Federalists were inciters to disorder. All the influence of the Federalist leaders was exerted to throw all possible governmental patronage into his office.

Hamilton had his paper before Jefferson got his own.[583] It was to meet these conditions that James Madison and Governor Henry Lee conceived the notion of persuading Philip Freneau, ‘the poet of the Revolution,’ to establish a newspaper in Philadelphia. This fiery petrel of democracy was eking out a mere existence on a New York newspaper when Madison, who had been his roommate at Princeton, made the proposal. This was due in part to personal affection and the feeling that the poet’s sufferings and losses in the Revolution entitled him to some consideration, but in large measure to the purity of his republicanism and his zeal for the popular cause. ‘I entertained hopes,’ wrote Madison later, ‘that a free paper, meant for general circulation, and edited by a man of genius of republican principles and a friend of the Constitution, would be some antidote to the doctrines and discourses circulated in favor of Monarchy and Aristocracy.’[584] With the view to giving some slight protection to a precarious enterprise, Madison sought a clerkship for his college friend in one of the governmental departments. Nor was it to Jefferson that he first applied.[585] The outcome, however, was the offer of a clerkship of foreign languages in the State Department at a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars a year. He accepted, went to Philadelphia, and established the ‘Federal’ or ‘National Gazette.’

The leaders of the new party were plainly pleased with the prospect. Jefferson himself did not scruple to solicit subscribers among his Virginia neighbors. Henry Lee, who was to desert to the enemy later, sent in subscriptions through Madison, in a letter rejoicing because the paper ‘is rising fast into reputation,’ and lamenting because of the precariousness of its arrival.[586] ‘His paper in the opinion here,’ wrote Madison acknowledging Lee’s letter, ‘justifies the expectations of his friends, and merits the diffusive circulation they have endeavored to procure it.’[587]

The Philadelphians awoke with a start to find that an entirely new note had been struck in political journalism. Within a few weeks, the ‘Federal Gazette’ was being extensively copied in the papers over the country. Bache in his ‘Advertiser’ caught something of Freneau’s fire and audacity, and began to take a firmer, bolder tone. Fenno found himself forced to defend himself and his friends in almost every issue. Men and even women scanned its columns eagerly and with emotions determined by their political prepossessions. Within a few months the poet-editor was being hotly debated by the two leading papers of Boston. ‘As all the friends of civil liberty wish at all times to be acquainted with every question which appears to regard the public weal,’ said the ‘Independent Chronicle,’ ‘a great number of gentlemen in this and neighboring towns have subscribed for the Federal Gazette published by Mr. Philip Freneau at Philadelphia; and it is hoped that Freneau’s Gazette, which is said to be printed under the eye of that established patriot, Thomas Jefferson, will be generally taken in the New England States.’[588] What! wrote a correspondent in the ‘Centinel,’ is this an avowal that Jefferson is the real editor? A paper hostile to religion and government! ‘Surely T. Adams ought to be well founded in his affections before he brings forward Mr. Jefferson as the patron of such a Gazette.’[589]

Within a short time Freneau had aroused the savage rage of the Federalist leaders and the zealous loyalty of the democrats everywhere. Here was a man who was not awed by power, and, brushing aside mild criticism and vapory innuendoes, struck hard and mentioned names. Soon the Jeffersonian farmers in Georgia were talking what he was writing, and Jeffersonian editors generally were following his lead. In the bar-rooms of Rhode Island men of no consequence were reading the paper aloud over their mugs, and David Rittenhouse in the library of the Philosophical Society was chuckling over its vicious thrusts. Just then ‘friends of the Constitution’ among the Federalists began to regret a certain provision in the Bill of Rights and to begin the slow incubation of the Sedition Law. That incomparable political preacher, Timothy Dwight, began to denounce papers as the ‘vice’ of the people in the new settlements, and another pious gentleman of the cloth thundered from the pulpit: ‘Many of you in spite of all the advice and friendly warnings of your religious and political fathers have taken and continue to take and read Jacobin papers, full of all manner of mischief and subtlety of the Devil.’[590] The hand-to-hand fighting of Hamilton and Jefferson was forced by the lusty blows of Freneau, who deserves to be something more than a name in the Plutarchian struggle.

V

Philip Freneau had richly earned the right to hold and express opinions concerning the destiny of his country. Many years before the Revolution, his Huguenot ancestors had come over from France, and for years his was a well-known name in the best circles of New York City where he was born. His childhood had been passed on the thousand-acre estate of his father near the battle-field of Monmouth, in a fine old mansion fashioned after the colonial style, with a great hall running through it, and large porticoes commanding a view of a beautiful country. The house was served by many domestic slaves. Near by rose Beacon Hill, thickly timbered, and from the peak could be seen the lower bay and the blue waters of the Atlantic. There his early childhood was passed under the tender care and training of a mother of rare intelligence. From her he caught a love of poetry, and of the things of which poetry is made. The spirit of his liberty-loving ancestors was strong within him. He had all the impulsiveness, the fighting courage of the Gael. When not at his studies, he wandered alone into the woods and upon the hill where he could brood dreamily upon the mystery of the sea. On the site where the battle of Monmouth was to be fought, he began the study of Greek and Latin in his tenth year. Even as a child he had a hot passionate hatred of oppression, an unfathomable contempt for hypocrisy, and an ardent love of beauty. All this he put into childish verse.