Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/154

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ur vitals:


Who knows but our Congress will give it in fee, And make Mr. Fenno the grand patentee!

Then take to your scrapers

Other national papers

No rogue shall go snacks

And the newspaper Tax

Shall be puff'd to the skies

As a measure most wise So a spaniel, when master is angry and kicks it, Sneaks up to his shoe and submissively licks it.

From this time on, political discussions in both papers became more heated. Fenno's Gazette of the United States stood for the Hamiltonian doctrine of Federal control, modeled after that of England: Freneau's National Gazette came out just as strongly for the Jeffersonian principles of popular control dictated by the will of the people. Space does not permit a discussion of these widely divergent principles of Jefferson and Hamilton principles upon which two great political parties were built.

PRESS BATTLE OF STATESMEN

While it was undoubtedly true that both Hamilton and Jef- ferson were sincere in their desire to avoid an open quarrel, it soon became evident that the newspaper articles must bring about a fight to a finish. The break came when Hamilton, in- censed by the ironical and satirical thrusts of Freneau, published in July, 1792, the following letter in The Gazette of the United States:

Mr. Fenno:

The editor of The National Gazette receives a salary from the gov- ernment. Quaere: Whether this salary is paid for translations or for publications the design of which is to vilify those to whom the voice of the people has committed the administration of our public affairs, to oppose the measures of government and by false insinuation to dis- turb the public peace?

In common life it is thought ungrateful for a man to bite the hand that puts bread in his mouth, but if the man is hired to do it, the case is altered.

Freneau's reply may be found in the following item:

Whether a man who receives a small stipend for services rendered as French Translator to the Department of State and as editor