97
Not in the Manuscript Catalogue.
Not in the 1815 catalogue.
1831 Catalogue, page 66. no. J. 223, The Bee, by Charles Holt, 1798, 1800, 1 v. folio; New London.
The Bee.
New London:
Charles Holt,
1798,
1800.
Folio. Weekly.
Parsons, page 16.
Brigham, page 304.
Evans 33387.
Republican. Published in New London until 1802, when Holt was fined and imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition act (passed
in 1798 and repealed by Jefferson
[
sic
--
Ed.
] on his election to the Presidency).
In a letter to James Monroe (when Governor of Virginia), dated from Washington, July 17, 1802, Jefferson wrote: “
. . . I, as well as most other republicans who were in the way of doing it, contributed what I could afford to the support
of the republican papers & printers, paid sums of money for the Bee, the Albany register &c. when they were staggering under
the Sedition law, contributed to the fines of Callendar himself, of Holt, Brown & others suffering under that law I discharged,
when I came into office . . .
”
Several years later, on October 25, 1810, Holt wrote to Jefferson concerning his establishment of
The Columbian
in New York. Jefferson replied from Monticello on November 23: “
I have duly recieved your favor of the 25
th. ult, & thank you for it’s kind expressions towards myself personally, as well as for the proposition of sending me a copy
of your paper. I am now at that period of life when tranquility, and a retirement from the passions which disturb it, constitute
the summum bonum . . . I remember too well the principles and intrepidity of the Bee in the gloomy days of terrorism, to entertain
any doubt on the principles of your present paper. but I wish at length to indulge myself in more favorite reading, in Tacitus
& Horace, and the writers of that philosophy which is the old man’s consolation & preparation for what is to come . . .
”
[602]
Jefferson subscribed to many newspapers which do not appear in his or in the Library of Congress catalogues.
On June 22, 1802, he wrote to
Mitchell & Buel of Poughkeepsie that he became “
with pleasure a subscriber to your paper,
Fenno's Gazette
.”
On January 14, 1806, he wrote from Washington to John Vaughan: “
. . . there are 4. newspapers which I recieve from Philadelphia, M
c.Corkle’s
Freeman’s journal,
Le Petit Censeur,
the Spirit of the gazettes (or some such title) and the
Philadelphia repertory. the Censeur I know is
8.D. & the Freeman’s journal the same. the annual price of the
others I do not know. will you have the goodness to pay them out of the
inclosed note of 30.D. the Spirit of the gazettes I suppose to have been
discontinued early, because I recieved a few papers only, and none for two
months past. at the bottom of the notification of the Repertory I have
subjoined a note for discontinuance . . .
”
The collection deposited with Governor Page for the use of John Daly Burk (no. 464) was apparently never recovered.
Newspaper bills, and bills for binding the papers, occur from time to time in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress.
Jefferson in 1795 wrote
Notes on Professor Ebeling’s letter of July 30, 95 intended to provide Professor Ebeling with information as to how much he might rely on the authority of his sources. Jefferson
included newspapers:“
Fenno’s Gazaette of the U. S.
}
Webster’s Minerva.
}
Columbian centinel.
}
"
to form a just judgment of a country from it’s newspapers, the character of these papers should be known, in order that proper
allowances & corrections may be used. this will require a long explanation, without which, these particular papers would give
a foreigner a very false view of American affairs . . .
"
As in the commerce of human life, there are commodities adapted to every demand, so there are newspapers adapted to the Antirepublican
palate, and others to the Republican. of the former class are the Columbian Centinel, the Hartford newspaper, Webster’s Minerva,
Fenno’s Gazette of the US. Davies’s
”
