Two fundamental forces derived from the ugly aspects of the struggle for Independence visibly shaped the form of development of the press during the early days of the Republic. The first was the legacy of intense political identification of many newspapers. During the increasingly unstable days of the later Colonial administration and even more so during the tumul- tuous Revolutionary era, there had been no nonpartisan press. Nor was there any common acceptance of the principles of free discussion of political ideas, nor any readiness to agree to disagree. Those were times when all had to choose: Were they Tories or Patriots?13 The newspapers of the times had been no exception; each had been strongly identified with one of the con- tending forces. The contention over the relationship of the Colonies to the Home Country increasingly become less tolerant and more violent. The Patriots terrorized Tories, with the Tory press as a prime target. After Inde- pendence, matters became worse during the years of of military struggle.
As Pasley puts it, “During the (Revolutionary) War, the Loyalist press was mobbed, prosecuted, or confiscated out of existence when the British Army was not around to protect it.”14
These unhappy aspects surrounding political debate during the pre- Revolutionary period and the War of Independence largely reappeared as political divisions became more pronounced in the New Republic. The Revolutionary atmosphere of intolerance soon reappeared as the increasing
12 SeeBurns, note5, at67ff.
13 As Shakespeare put it in a much quoted challenge: “Under which King, Bezonian? Speak or die.”
Henry IV, Pt. Two, Act V, Scene3.
14 See Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic 34(2001) (hereinafter Pasley).
division between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans once again led to intense partisan identification. On each side of the political divide, newspapers were being published by editors with unrestrained, virulent con- demnation of political opponents. The virulent calumnies of such violent Federalist editors as Fenno, Cobbett, Coleman, and Dennie were matched by the outrageous prose of Bache, Duane, and Cheetham for the Republican press.
As early as1789, that icon of the free press, Benjamin Franklin, lamented the state of the press, saying:
If [liberty of the press] means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law, and shall cheerfully consent to exchange mylibertyof abusing others for the privilegeof not being abused myself.
He went so far as to suggest that, if the legislature failed to act, people could resort to the “power of the cudgel” or mob attacks on offending editors.
Franklin concluded by saying that if the proposal “disturb[ed] the public peace,” legislators should move to adopt “an explicit law [to] mark their extent and limits.”15
For an introductory taste of the vituperative invective and near-depraved imagery that demonization of the opposition assumed, William Cobbett and Noah Webster provide some introductory examples. For Federalist Cobbett, who published under the name “Peter Porcupine,” his barbed attacks on Republicans included description of them as the “refuse of nations” and as “frog-eating man-eating, blood-drinking cannibals.”16 Federalist Webster similarly indicted Republicans as “the refuse, the sweepings of the most depraved part of mankind.”17As we will see, the Republican editors were no less restrained.
The partisan climate not only contributed to a proliferation of politically identified newspapers, but also undermined the prospects of a sound eco- nomic potential for the industry. Many papers were written for partisan groups, not for the community as whole, and accordingly, their market was signif- icantly shrunken. They desperately required some form of subsidization to
15 Benjamin Franklin,An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in Pennsylvania, viz., The Court or the Press, Philadelphia Federal Gazette, Sept.12,1789(emphasis in original).
16 SeeEric Berns,Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism111nn.9,10(2006) (hereinafter Berns).
17 Letter, Noah Webster to Timothy Pickering (July7,1797),21Pickering Papers173(Mass. Hist.
Soc’y).
Corruption of the Press 29 stay afloat. Even in earlier times before such political divisions, printers and editors were hard pressed financially.
1. The Politicized Press of the New Republic
During the early days of the new nation and for decades thereafter, most newspapers were strongly identified with either the Federalists or the Repub- licans, with their very survival often dependent on political financial support.
In some cases, the newspapers were even established by political leaders who selected the editors. Financial assistance did not end with contributions.
Political patronage in the form of the award of government printing contracts for favored publishers was common. Examples of the linkage between the press and the nascent political parties of the period abound. The following account is no more than a brief series of illustrations.18
One of the earliest of the partisan editors was the American Revolutionary poet Philip Morin Freneau.19 Freneau was the handpicked choice of Jeffer- son and Madison to establish a Philadelphia paper that would support their policies. After Madison had repeatedly promised support and urged Freneau to forgo his idyllic plans to settle in rural New Jersey and start a country paper and instead come to Philadelphia, Freneau finally acceded in August1791. As part of the inducements to Freneau, Jefferson, then Secretary of State, pro- vided a sinecure for Freneau. He appointed him a foreign translation clerk in his Department of State at $250per annum and promised him government printing contracts.20
Freneau commenced publication of theNational Gazettein Philadelphia in1791and richly fulfilled Jefferson’s and Madison’s hopes with his vigorous support. Under Freneau’s editorship, theNational Gazettebecame a source of unremitting attacks on the Washington administration and along with Benjamin Franklin Bache with his vituperative PhiladelphiaAurorabitterly offended Washington. Washington lamented: “The publications in Freneau’s
18 See generallyPasley, note14; Berns, note16; Richard N. Rosenfeld, American Aurora(1997) (hereinafter Rosenfeld); Donald H. Stewart,The Opposition Press of the Federalist Period(1969) (hereinafter Stewart); Kim Tousley Phillips,William Duane: Radical Journalist in the Age of Jefferson(1989) (hereinafter Phillips); Robert W. T. Martin,The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty, 1640–1800(2001); Frank L. Mott,American Journalism (3rd ed.1962) (hereinafter Mott,American Journalism); Frank L. Mott,Jefferson and the Press (1943) (hereinafter Mott,Jefferson).
19 See generallyJacob Axelrad,Philip Freneau: Champion of Democracy(1967); Samuel E. Forman, The Political Activities of Philip Freneau(1902).
20 Pasley, note14, at65–66; Berns, note16, at279; Cunningham, note7, at15–19,25–27.
and Beeche’s [sic] papers are outrages on common decency.”21The President urged Jefferson to terminate Freneau’s State Department appointment, but Jefferson dragged his feet and never abandoned Freneau.22
Soon after Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State and “retired” to Monti- cello in1794, Freneau ceased publishing theGazetteand moved to New York.
His place as the most outspoken Republican editor was soon taken by the fiercely Republican editor Benjamin Franklin Bache. Bache with his news- paper, the PhiladelphiaAurora, speedily became the most prominent Repub- lican editor in the North, if not the nation. His prose was vituperative, his charges unrestrained, and as we will see, his attacks on the Federalists and their leaders, George Washington and John Adams, brutal. In the process, he infuriated both men. Small wonder, then, that when the High Federalists looked upon ridicule of the national leadership during this period of national crisis as criminal libel, Bache was among the first to be indicted.
Bache was an extreme critic of the Federalists, but was so vituperative that Jefferson tried to maintain some distance from him. However, in1798, when Bache was in a critical financial condition, Jefferson solicited subscriptions for him and urged Madison to do the same.
After Bache’s death, his successor William Duane with “much finan- cial assistance” from Tench Coxe and other wealthy Republicans23 revived theAurora and continued lambasting the Federalists in the same vitupera- tive vein. Jefferson was unremitting in his support for the Republican press and corresponded with his intimates soliciting subscriptions. As he wrote to Madison, “we should really exert ourselves to procure it [subscriptions] . . . for if these papers fall, Republicanism will be entirely browbeaten.”24He later reminisced: “I, as well as most other Republicans who were in the way of doing it, contributed what I could afford to the support of Republican papers and printers.”25
21 Letter, George Washington to Henry Lee (July21,1793), Washington,Writings(Lib. Am.), note6, at840,842.
22 SeeLetter, Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (Sept.9,1792), Thomas Jefferson,Writings 992,997–999(Libr. Am.1984); Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, May23,1793in9Jefferson’s Writings 144,145(H. A. Washington ed.1861). (As to Washington’s wish that “I interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment . . . in my office, But I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitution.”) Thus, John Catanzariti acidly comments that Jefferson’s relationship with Freneau “was far more extensive that the one he portrayed to the President.”See24Washington, Papers(Catanzariti), note6, at351,359, ed. note.
23 Pasley, note14, at183.
24 Letter, Thomas Jefferson to James Madison (Apr.26,1798),10Writings of Thomas Jefferson32 (Andrew Lipscomb ed.1904).
25 SeeMott,Jefferson, note18, at35.
Corruption of the Press 31 The Federalist counterpart to Freneau, Bache, and Duane was John Fenno, editor and publisher of the Gazette of the United States. Miller concludes that “in name calling, scurrility, and harshness of tone” Fenno’s Gazettewas an “equal match” for Bache’s and Duane’s PhiladelphiaAurora.26 Matching Jefferson and Madison’s role with Freneau, Bache, and Duane, Alexander Hamilton made Fenno’s paper possible by raising funds for it, by inducing persons to advertise in it, and by directing Treasury Department printing contracts to it. Later, when Fenno ran into financial difficulties, Hamilton “loaned” substantial funds without expecting repayment. When things became really difficult, Hamilton and Rufus King (a High Federalist and in1804, the Federalist candidate for Vice President) each gave Fenno
$1,000to keep the paper going.27
New York provides a further example. In1800Hamilton and the Federalists set up the New YorkEvening Postunder William Coleman in New York to battle the Republicans. Hamilton raised over $10,000for the purpose, selected Coleman to edit it, and got him started with a building and printing press.
On their side, the New York Republicans were locked in internal struggle for control between one wing led by George and DeWitt Clinton and the other led by Aaron Burr and Edward Livingston. Henry Adams reports that the Clintons entrusted an English refugee named James Cheetham with a new paper,The American Citizen. When Cheetham was not hurling one charge after another at Burr, he was lambasting the Federalists. As for Burr, his friends established theMorning Chronicleedited by Dr. Peter Irving, which was used to assail the Clintons.28
Pasley provides a cautionary note. Although providing innumerable exam- ples of partisan financial support, he notes that most were episodic and only a few established long-term financial relationships. Start-up loans and assis- tance in obtaining subscriptions in connection with the start of new journals were a different matter, with such assistance common.29Whatever the extent, the relationship between party leaders and newspaper editors was continuing
26 John C. Miller,Crisis in Freedom: The Alien and Sedition Acts30(1952) (hereinafter Miller) (“in name calling, scurrility, and harshness of tone,” Fenno’sGazettewas an equal match for Bache’s and Duane’sAurora, until1800the leading Republican paper in the new nation and known for its outrageous prose).
27 SeePasley, note14, at58; Berns, note16, at267–268.
28 See Mott,American Journalism, note18, at184–186; Henry Adams,1History of the United States during the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson, 1801–1805,84,225(Libr. Am.1982) (hereinafter H. Adams,Jefferson Administration).
29 SeePasley, note14, at213.
and symbiotic, with printers frequently turning for help when in financial difficulties. In brief, much of the press can only be described as corrupt.
2. Support of the Partisan Press by Political Patronage
In addition to direct loans, contributions, and subsidized subscriptions, politi- cal patronage was an important sort of support for the partisan press. Jefferson’s early appointment of Philip Freneau as a translation clerk in the Department of State while simultaneously editing his outspoken Republican newspaper proved to be atypical. Instead of this model, which largely faded away, parties in power turned to the partisan awarding of government printing contracts.
Without such contracts, survival was not easy.30 a. Government Printing Contracts
In the New Republic, public printing contracts became a valued form of patronage that served the ends of the party in power and the partisan press that was supporting them.31 This symbiotic, corrupting relationship started very soon. Thus, as early as 1792, Freneau’s National Gazette sardonically observed that outspoken John Fenno, the leading Federalist spokesman with his Gazette of the United States, had been designated by the Federalist administration as Official Printer for the Federalist-dominated U.S. Senate for $2,000 or $2,500per year. The Gazettecontinued: “The natural infer- ence is that” the payment “cannot otherwise have some sort of influence [on him] especially when his avaricious principles are brought into view.”32This was very early in the period and several years before party divisions became pronounced.
The overshadowing need of most newspaper editors for partisan financial support is well illustrated by William Duane’s 1800 experience with the victorious Jeffersonian leadership. As readers have learned, Duane was no ordinary newspaperman. Successor to Benjamin Franklin Bache as editor of the Aurora, he made theAurora the outstanding Republican newspaper in the entire country from1795 to 1800. Duane was further distinguished by his capacity for outrageous prose and the unrestrained nature of his attacks on the Federalists and their leaders.33 With the success of the Republicans and the election of Jefferson as President in1800, Duane saw the opportunity
30 SeeMiller, note26, at29.
31 For a study of this phenomenon in Pennsylvania,seeDwight L. Teeter, Press Freedom and the Public Printing: Pennsylvania,1775–1783,45Journalism Q.445–451(1968).
32 National Gazettereprinting an article in theGazette of the United States, Aug.18,1792.
33 SeeH. Adams,Jefferson Administration, note28, at84.
Corruption of the Press 33 to expand the range of his influence and proposed transferring his base to Washington. However, Duane had gone too far. He had become so notorious that an ungrateful Jefferson, who no longer needed him once elected, sought to distance himself. As Jefferson wrote to Madison in1803, “Duane is honest, well-intentioned, but over-zealous.”34 When Duane sought public printing contracts from the Jeffersonians to maintain his contemplated Washington enterprise, James Madison and Albert Gallatin acting for Jefferson behind the scenes rebuffed him, and, thereafter, Duane bore a grudge against both.
Instead, Jefferson helped establish a new Republican newspaper in Wash- ington, theNational Intelligencer;he recruited the more restrained Samuel Harrison Smith to edit it,35and saw to it that most lucrative public contracts went to theIntelligencerrather than theAurora.36In its turn, theIntelligencer became “more than the semi-official organ” of the Jefferson administration.37 Although the Republicans did not completely abandon Duane and gave him some government printing for his Washington print shop, the shop was never successful and ultimately abandoned.38 Insofar as his newspaper activities were concerned, Duane was obliged to remain in Philadelphia. Although he continued for a while as a major political power on the Pennsylvania scene, his national prominence faded.39
Pennsylvania provides several other examples of the use of printing con- tracts as the reward for support in political struggles. A very early instance involves newspaper editor Eleazor Oswald, whom we will meet again in Chapter6. In one of the shifting alliances between political partisans and newspaper editors, Oswald was then allied with and financed by printing contracts made available by Robert Morris, then Superintendent of Finance of the Continental Congress.40
34 Letter, Thomas Jefferson to James Madison (Aug.16,1803), Phillips, note18, at129.
35 Although Samuel Harrison Smith was perceived as more restrained, he was capable of such extreme statements demonizing theentirefederal judiciary that, as readers will learn in Ch.5 so outraged two Federalist “midnight” judges of the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, William Cranch (nephew of Abigail Adams) and James M. Marshall (brother of Chief Justice Marshall), that a few months after Jefferson had assumed the presidency they attempted unsuc- cessfully to have the District of Columbia grand jury indict him for criminal libel in Oct.1801. SeeCh.5, text accompanying notes12to15.
36 SeePhillips, note18, at131.
37 See1H. Adams,Jefferson Administration, note28, at160,223.See alsoStewart, note18, at10,618, 854; Phillips, note18, at131.
38 SeePasley note14, at297.
39 SeeH. Adams,Jefferson Administration, note28, at160.
40 Morris was a member of the so-called Republican faction in Pennsylvania politics contending with the opposing “Constitutionalist” faction or Democratic faction who had been responsible for the1776 Constitution.SeeGail S. Rowe,Thomas McKean: The Shaping of an American Republicanism93–94(1978).
Later, after the Federalists had lost ground, the struggle for the control of the Pennsylvania Republican Party provides an unusual example of the award of lucrative state printing contracts for political purposes. In1806Republican Governor Thomas McKean had become Governor for his third term, despite the vigorous opposition from the radical Duane-Leib wing of the Republican Party. The McKean wing had triumphed as a result of their alliance with the Federalist remnants in the state. Upon reelection, McKean saw to it that state printing contracts were assigned to Federalist William Dickson, author of the Quid Mirror.41 At the same time, he also rewarded six other editors who had supported him with government printing contracts.42As we will see in Chapter6, political allegiances had their dangers as well as their rewards.
Later, when the Duane-Lieb wing gained control, Dickson was prosecuted for criminal libel under Pennsylvania criminal common law.43
In Connecticut, still controlled by the Federalists, it should be no surprise to find Barzillai Hudson and George Goodwin, editors of the leading Feder- alist paper in New England, theConnecticut Courant, serving as the official printers of the state.44 No doubt because of their prominence as leaders of the Federalist press and the bitter invective that they employed, Hudson and Goodwin shortly thereafter were indicted in a Republican-inspired criminal libel prosecution under federal criminal common law.
Complaints over the award of government printing contracts by editors not allied with the party in power and the beneficiaries of its largesse were pronounced but to no avail. Thus, in what was then Federalist New York, the editor of the Republican Albany Register complained that although it had underbid all other printers, the official printing always went to Loring Andrews, of the FederalistAlbany Centinel.45
Without government printing contracts, the newspaper partisans of the party out of power, such as the Republicans during the Adams administra- tion, were hard pressed to survive. Financial support from political leaders, including assistance in obtaining paid-up subscriptions, was essential.46This was particularly true of the Republican press.
In many instances Republican editors met with financial reverses. As Frank Mott reports, Benjamin Franklin Bache, the editor of the leading Republican
41 See ibid., at392.
42 See ibid., at363.
43 United States Gazetteof Feb.27,1806;Aurora, Jan.,15,27, Feb.20,22,26, May15,1806;Sentinel of Freedom, Feb.25,1806;Spirit of the Press, Aug.1,1806.
44 See The Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, 1805, printed by Hudson & Goodwin.
45 SeeMiller, note26, at30.
46 SeePasley, note14, at99.