Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/190

CHAPTER XII

THE EDITOR AND THE GOVERNMENT

Citizen Genet—Freneau's espousal of his cause—Hamilton and the "No Jacobin" papers—Noah Webster and the Minerva—William Cobbett—His attack on Callender—Lawsuit cause of his return to England—Benjamin Franklin Bache—Criticism of Washington—Encounter between Fenno and Bache—President's farewell address—Bache's abusiveness leads to wrecking of his office—William Duane and the Aurora.

Such was the condition in January, 1793, when, as a contemporary irreverently put it, "Louis Capet lost his caput "and France became a republic. Citizen Genet, ambassador of the new government, arrived in this country and brought with him a new issue—Genet expected America to declare war on England. The people were, to a large extent, in sympathy with France, and Freneau, to whose republican heart the French cause was dear—moreover, he was a Frenchman by descent—espoused the cause of Genet most fei^ently. Genet's actions, however, brought down on him the disapproval of the administration and aroused against him the Hamilton party. President Washington decided that this was no time for gratitude, and by proclamation called for a neutral course. The friends of Genet and of republican France bitterly protested and Freneau openly addressed the President.

"Sir," said the editor to the President, "Sir, let not, I beseech you, the opiate of sycophancy, administered by interested and designing men, lull you into fatal