John Binns, English Political Prisoner,
American Politician and Editor, Died
November 16, 1860
John Binns was one of the most influential citizens of the State during the quarter century of which the War of 1812 might be considered the central period. He was a politician, but more than all else an editor, who was a fearless and trenchant writer.
Binns had experienced a stormy life in England before he came to America. He was born December 22, 1772, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, and received a fair education at an English school.
April, 1794, he went to London and soon became a member of the London Corresponding Society, an event which gave much color to his future life. This society was the leading opposition to the Crown and many of its members were arrested and tried for high treason. Binns was an officer and most active member, and was soon in trouble, being arrested, March 11, 1796, while making an address in Birmingham, and imprisoned in “The Dungeon,” charged with “delivering seditious and inflammatory lectures.”
Binns was mixed up in the movement of the United Irishmen to have France make an invasion of Ireland. He was arrested four times for the same offense, and was sentenced to Clerkwell Prison. Soon as he was liberated, he was again arrested for high treason, and sent to the Tower of London, where he was confined under a strict watch.
After a number of trials he was freed, only to be again arrested, and confined in Gloucester prison, where he was ill-treated. On his liberation he embarked, July 1, 1801, for the United States and landed in Baltimore September 1.
Upon his arrival at Baltimore, he hired three wagons, loaded them with his personal effects, and set out, on foot to accompany them to Northumberland, where he proposed to reside. At Harrisburg he hired a boat, and helped push it up the Susquehanna. At Northumberland he joined Dr. Joseph Priestley and Judge Thomas Cooper, two former Englishmen, who had sought refuge there.
Dr. Priestley lived an ideal life of peace and usefulness in Northumberland, but Dr. Cooper, the most learned man of his time, a Judge, president of two different colleges, and renowned chemist, was so violent in his politics that he was imprisoned for a libel on President John Adams.
On July 4, 1802, John Binns delivered an oration, which was printed in the Northumberland Gazette, the only paper published beyond Harrisburg, in the State, at that time. The many criticisms of this oration led to a lengthy newspaper controversy, and finally resulted in John Binns establishing at Northumberland the Republican Argus, which soon became one of the best and most widely known papers in Pennsylvania.