History of Journalism in the United States/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
HAMILTON AND THE EVENING POST
With this chapter we close the eighteenth century, remarkable for many contributions to human progress, not the least of which was the distinct assumption of political functions by the newspaper press.[1]
Theoretically the Revolutionary War marked the assumption of political functions by the great mass of the people, but actually a majority remained non-active; in fact, until the time of President Monroe, many, even of the white people of the United States,—democracy though it professed to be,—had no actual voting power. In the meantime the will of the people was expressed through the newspaper press.
The Alien and Sedition Laws were the last attempts by the government in power to check the development of the Fourth Estate and the exercise of its acquired political power. Those who believed in government by a select minority felt that such power in the hands of irresponsible persons, such as editors and printers, was a danger to the community; especially dangerous to those who were the political representatives of the old order of things. But the Federalist attack failed; the Federalist party was defeated and, with the advent of Jefferson into power, there began the dissolution of the first political party in the country, the only one to misinterpret so wilfully the character of the government that this was to be.
It is unfortunate that those who write of this period, even after so many years, do so with some of the acrimony of the times. To admire Hamilton is to disparage Jefferson, and vice versa. In this regard the student of journalism is more happily placed than the student of politics, for to both men journalism is largely, and very nearly equally, indebted. The most influential conservative paper to-day, the New York Evening Post, was Hamilton's own undertaking, while to Jefferson's belief in the masses, and in a government resting on a broad popular appeal,, we owe much of the development of the great popular journals that came later with what was called the cheap press, the press for "even" the workingmen.
The very success of this conservative press has proved the justification of Hamilton's industry, though it is never the conservative press that rules the country. Nevertheless we shall see it, under the leadership of Godkin and others, one of the most effective forces in the country for certain specific governmental reforms.
The political triumph of Jefferson in 1800 "was an event of importance in the history of the world."[2] It marked, moreover, the retirement of Hamilton from national life, although he could not and did not give up his interest in the affairs of his state. It was this, more than a desire to found a national organ, that led him, shortly after the inauguratibn of Jefferson, to establish with John Jay and a group of Federalists, the New York Evening Post, November 16, 1801. William Coleman, a Massachusetts lawyer, who at one time had been associated with Aaron Burr, was made the editor. His opponents gave Coleman the title of "Field Marshal of Federal Editors "and he was unquestionably the ablest man in the country in his line.
It is to him that we owe what knowledge we have of Hamilton's editorial methods. Hamilton, it seems, was in the habit of seeing Coleman late in the evening, whenever the latter felt the necessity of the statesman's assistance. "He always kept himself minutely informed on all political matters," was Coleman's confidential statement to a contemporary; "as soon as I see him, he begins in a deliberate manner to dictate and I to note down in shorthand; when he stops, my article is completed."[3] A very humble note for an editor, but Hamilton was then a powerful political figure, with a position in his state not very dissimilar to that which Theodore Roosevelt occupied in our own time, after his retirement from office.
In New York State there was a particularly bitter struggle, because here were located Aaron Burr,—now Vice-president under Jefferson, although secretly opposed to him—and Hamilton, the acknowledged leader of what remained of the Federalist party. Burr's endeavor to make himself a leader of the anti-Jeffersonian party led to vicious attacks on him by the American Citizen, edited by James Cheetham, one of the vigorous editors of the day. Duane, editor of the Aurora, and Coleman, editor of the Evening Post, constituted, with Cheetham, a triumvirate of editorial pugnacity and vivacity.
As Burr also had a paper, the Chronicle, the result was a continual exchange of personalities, probably more vicious than at any period in history, at least in that of New York State. Several duels resulted from this bitter warfare. Coleman challenged Cheetham, who displayed good sense by refusing to take the matter too seriously, and the differences were temporarily adjusted.
A harbor-master named Thompson, resenting the suggestion that Cheetham had weakened, declared that it was Coleman who had backed down. Coleman immediately sent him a challenge; the next day they met on the outskirts of the city, in a place called "Love Lane," now the foot of Twenty-first Street, and exchanged two shots without effect; because of the growing darkness the opponents moved closer, and at the next shot Thompson was mortally wounded. The editor of the Evening Post was at his office the next day as if nothing had occurred, at least nothing unusual in the life of an editorial publisher.[4]
It all seemed in the day's work, and no one recalled that an editor, not a hundred years before, had been threatened with imprisonment for printing; the community had progressed so far that now, not only was an editor printing his paper without let or hindrance, but he was supported by the government in so doing. What was more remarkable still, the editor now had the satisfaction of knowing that he might kill or be killed according to the Code.
Coleman's duel is a milestone in journalistic history, viewed in its relation to the Hamilton-Burr duel that resulted in the death of one of America's ablest statesmen. The Code itself was one evidence of the weaknesses of the Federalist cause, conveying the idea that the well-born had a code of their own that was superior to the laws that governed the common herd.
In 1804 came up the Croswell case, growing out of the charges made by James Thompson Callender, whose attack on the Tories had led to William Cobbett's literary activities in Philadelphia. Callender had begun publishing, in 1795, an annual called Political Progress and later called the American Annual Register. It contained a reference to Hamilton's illicit relations with Mrs. Reynolds; a reference that led Hamilton, in self-defense, to put into print his whole statement of the Reynolds scandal, a most unfortunate confession. Callender was later employed by Bache on the Aurora, and when a strong Republican paper was needed in Virginia, he started the Richmond Examiner. For publishing a pamphlet called "The Prospect Before Us," in which he bitterly attacked Adams, the Federalists and the Alien and Sedition Acts, he was indicted; the infamous Chase, who commanded the marshal to see that none of the "rascally Democrats" were on the jury, presided at the trial. The trial was a mockery, and Callender was convicted before nightfall and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. While in jail he defiantly continued his work and issued a still more savage attack on Jefferson's political opponents.
On Jefferson's election, Callender was granted a full pardon, his term of imprisonment having expired, but he was not content with this. He demanded the postmastership—ever the postmastership—of Richmond; when this was refused, he associated himself with the Richmond Reporter, filling its columns with slander and abuse of Jefferson.
By this sudden change in Callender's political faith the Federalists came into possession of what they considered the most damaging evidence against Jefferson, and it was used unsparingly, with Coleman demonstrating his ability as "Field-Marshal."
Jefferson, the believer in a free press, now tasted some of its bitterness. Shortly after taking office he had begun to feel, apparently, that a free press had its disadvantages; he referred to the newspapers as "a bear-garden scene into which I have made it a point to enter on no provocation."[5]
On the other hand, shortly after his inauguration he set forth in a letter to Elbridge Gerry his attitude toward the press, as he consistently lived it out.
"The right of opinion," he said, "shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in opinion; those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope, nor shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of opinion in politics as well as religion that makes us take great interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish aliment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support from a numerous priesthood, were it not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries and require a priesthood to explain them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this. They have no priests, therefore, no schisms. They judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality. So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough. In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election they seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their ordinary state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to office they have detailed which had never been thought of, merely to found a text for their calumniating commentaries! However, the steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country." [6]
Under further newspaper attacks he showed that his mind was working somewhat sympathetically towards the point of view of the Federalists, and in a letter to Mrs. John Adams, dated September 11, 1804, he admitted that the state had the right to control the freedom of the press. "While we deny," he wrote, "that Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the right of the States, and their exclusive right, to do so. They have accordingly, all of them, made provisions for punishing slander, which those who have time and inclination, resort to for the vindication of their characters. In general, the State laws appear to have made the presses responsible for slander as far as is consistent with its useful freedom. In those states where they do not admit even the truth of allegations to protect the printer, they have gone too far."[7]
While his mind was working in this way it was decided by some of his advisors that there should be a check put on the libels of the Federalists against the President, while at the same time the Federalists were given a taste of their own medicine.
The Hudson (New York) Balance was the paper se lected, because of the vigorous editorship of Harry Croswell, who was an able assistant to Coleman of the New York Evening Post in disseminating Federalist doctrine, through the Hudson Valley and up-state New York.
Following one of Coleman's vicious attacks on Jefferson, Croswell had printed a paragraph to the effect that Jefferson had paid James T. Callender to slander Washington and Adams. Croswell was pounced upon, and the Democratic party leaders felt that now they would exact payment in full for the oppression they had suffered under the Alien and Sedition Acts. The case went to court, the pack of Democratic editors in joyous pursuit, and Croswell was found guilty.
A touching letter exists which reveals old General Philip Schuyler appealing to his daughter to urge her husband to come to the aid of the Federal printer who is so sore beset by his political and editorial enemies. "I have had about a dozen Federalists ask me," he says, " entreating me to write to Your General if possible to attend on the 7th of next month at Claverack, as Council to the Federal printer there."[8]
It is a fine letter from a fine old gentleman, alive and sensitive to all the obligations of his leading position; not running off and letting the poor "Federal printer "languish in jail, as did the political associates of John Peter Zenger, who claimed poor Zenger's literary style and Latin quotations, but were entirely oblivious when the opportunity arose for furnishing his bail.
On the first trial Hamilton had been too busy to appear in Croswell's behalf, but when a motion was made for a new trial before the Supreme Court at Albany, he appeared and made one of the most notable arguments in his life; a speech that is, curiously enough, a continuation historically and legally of the great speech made by Andrew Hamilton in 1735 at the trial of John Peter Zenger. By Chancellor Kent it was declared to be Hamilton's "greatest forensic effort" and the ardor with which he threw himself into the cause is said to have made his pleading a memorable event. It was his last important speech and one cannot fail to mark that he, the genius who owed to journalism his education and his opportunity, ended his long record of service to humanity as he made his greatest legal effort for the freedom and protection of the press.
In declaring Croswell guilty the judge had ruled, as had Judge De Lancey in the Zenger case, that the truth of the libel could not be offered in evidence. It will be remembered that the venerable Andrew Hamilton had, in the face of all precedent, shattered this stand, at least so far as the jury was concerned.
Hamilton's Croswell speech itself has been lost,[9] but in his preparatory notes he emphasizes, as only he could emphasize, those principles the development of which in this country we have been tracing from the time of Benjamin Harris in 1690.
The outgrown dictum, "the greater the truth the greater the libel," was bad in morals and bad in law, he contended. "The liberty of the press," his notes read, "consists in the right to publish with impunity truth with good motives for justifiable ends, though reflecting on the Government, Magistracy or individuals."
The allowance of this right, he argued, was essential to the preservation of free government, the disallowance of it, fatal.[10]
The court divided after a long argument and the law was upheld, but so profound was the impression made on the lawmaking body by his speech, that the New York State legislature subsequently passed a statute authorizing the truth to be admitted in evidence and the jury to be the judges of the law as well as of the facts in libel cases.
It was during his attendance at court on this case that Hamilton made the remark, about Aaron Burr and his lack of principle, that later led the Vice-President to challenge Hamilton to a duel.
In the group sitting about the table in Lewis' tavern when Hamilton discussed Burr, was one who idly repeated the conversation. A letter quoting Hamilton found its way into the newspapers and this was called to Hamilton's attention by Burr. The offensive tone of Burr's communication shows that he was not to be contented without a duel; Hamilton's explanation was declared by Burr to be "a mere evasion," and a challenge was sent on June 27, 1804.
On the morning of July 11th they crossed the Hudson to Weehawken, and faced each other. Burr fired and Hamilton fell, dying thirty-one hours later. His pistol was undischarged and before he died he declared that he had never intended to fire at Burr.
Hamilton was one of America's greatest statesmen, and, despite his disbelief in the rule of the masses, he did more, not only to establish and to safeguard a free press, but to develop it, than any other man has done. The political ideas with which his name was associated in later life were doomed to pass with the Federalist party, which had been identified with disbelief in the stability of purely popular government, but his influence as a journalist continued for generations and still continues.
- ↑ Henry Jones Ford, American Politics, 108.
- ↑ Gordy, Political Parties in the United States, i, 382.
- ↑ G. J. Clark, Memoir of Jeremiah Mason, 32.
- ↑ Alexander, Political History of New York State, i, 128.
- ↑ Jefferson's Works, x, 173.
- ↑ Jefferson's Works, x, 254.
- ↑ Jefferson's Works, xi, 51.
- ↑ Allan McLane Hamilton, Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, 180.
- ↑ Lodge, Hamilton, 240.
- ↑ Allan McLane Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton, 181.