things had pressed thro’ it to the public, yet the good had preponderated immensely.

On October 11, Freneau returned his appointment to the office of clerkship in the Department of State by Mr. Jefferson, and sent his resignation of that office as from October 1, 1793.

On November 2, Jefferson wrote to T. M. Randolph: “ . . . Freneau’s paper is discontinued. I fear it is the want of money. he promises to resume it before the meeting of Congress. I wish the subscribers in our neighborhood would send on their money . . . ”

Philip Morin Freneau, 1752-1832, poet, editor and mariner. He frequently made derisive use of his poetical talents in the National Gazette:

Instead of whole columns, our page to abuse,

Your readers would rather be treated with news;

While wars are a-brewing

And Kingdom’s undoing,

While monarchs are falling

And princesses squalling,

While France is reforming

And Irishmen storming--

In a glare of such splendor, what nonsense to fret

At so humble a thing as THE NATION’S GAZETTE!

Republican. Established by Benjamin Franklin Bache on October 1, 1790. With the issue of November 8, 1794, the title was changed to Aurora . Bache died of yellow fever in 1798, and on March 8, 1800, William Duane, the editor, became the publisher.

The letter of May 15, 1791, from Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph quoted under Fenno’s paper above continues: “ in the mean time Bache’s paper, the principles of which were always republican, improves in it’s matter. if we can persuade him to throw all his advertisements on one leaf, by tearing that off, the leaf containing intelligence may be sent without over-charging the post, & be generally taken instead of Fenno’s. I will continue to send it to you, as it may not only amuse yourself, but enable you to oblige your neighbors with the perusal . . . ”

On June 19, 1796, Jefferson wrote to George Washington: “ In Bache’s Aurora of the 9 ^th. inst. which came here by the last post, a paper appears which, having been confided, as I presume, to but few hands, makes it truly wonderful how it should have got there. I cannot be satisfied as to my own part till I relieve my mind by declaring, and I attest every thing sacred & honorable to the declaration, that it has got there neither thro’ me nor the paper confided to me. this has never been from under my own lock & key, or out of my own hands. no mortal ever knew from me that these questions had been proposed. perhaps I ought to except one person who possesses all my confidence as he has possessed yours. I do not remember indeed that I communicated it even to him, but as I was in the habit of unlimited trust & counsel with him, it is possible I may have read it to him. no more: for the quire of which it makes a part was never in any hand but my own, nor was a word ever copied or taken down from it, by any body. I take on myself, without fear, any divulgation on his part. we both know him incapable of it. from myself then or my paper this publication has never been derived. I have formerly mentioned to you that, from a very early period of my life, I had laid it down as a rule of conduct never to write a word for the public papers. from this I have never departed in a single instance . . . ”

On June 4, 1797, in a letter dated from Philadelphia to Peregrine Fitzhugh, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . as you doubtless recieve the newspapers regularly from hence, you will have seen in them the ”