The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-27
PENS DIPPED IN GALL
Politicians Were Not Polite IN
the Good Old Days.
ABUSE WAS THEIR WEAPON

Adams. ana All I've ~ $500 =
ofthe Republic Felt the Lash of Sar-
castle and Scurrious Writer'S, Who
Hurled Abuse in Acrid Prose or Vitu-
perative Verse--Forgotien ScribIers
of That Time.
(From the Washington Post.)
Of course campaign asperities are
always to be expected, but a glance
backward will show that in this respect
we are far behind the times of Wash
ington and jefferson, those days which
are commonly called THE better days
of the republic"
THE Father of His Country" the
immortal Washington was assailed as
no politician of the present day has
been. One of the principal assailants
of Washington was Philip Freneau. He
was a poet of considerable talent, and
during the revolution dedicated his
muse to the cause of freedom. He was
inspiring in his lampoons upon those
who remained loyal to the British lion,
and in his collected writings of the
period we find his pen dipped in gall.
William Cobbett was at that time
publishing his paper in Philadelphia,
called Peter Porcupine's Gazette" and
was regarded as the representative OF
the Jacobin element, which was, Just
previous to the French revolution of
1898, very formidable force, and a
gainst it Freneau directed all the
shafts of his ridicule and contempt
For example, these lines, addressed
ito Cobbett," in reply to "a despicable
mass of scurrility' which Cobbett had
in his tracts leyeled at the Democrats
of those days:
Philadelphia, we're sorry you suffer
by fevers,
Or suffer such solutions to be your de-
ceivers;
'Wil1'' Pitts noisy whelp,
With his red, foxy scalp,
Whom the kennels of London spewed
out in fright,
Has Sculked over here
To shuttle and sneer,
Like puppy to snap or bulldog to
bite.
Such fellows as these are of England
Z the trash.
But Columbia's disgrace
Begins from that place
That was aa,i;ggnifed once by Franklin
= and Penn,
But infested by you
And your damnable crew,
Will soon be deserted by all honest men.
jefferson, when Secretary of State
under Washington, appointed Freneau
to the position of translator for the
Department. of State at salary of
$3.50 per annunl, and while holding that
position he published the National
Gazette, the organ of the Democratic
party, of which Jefferson was the rec
ognized head. The paper teemed with
abuse of Washington, and his habit
was to send to the President three
copies of his paper daily, of which
Washington complained to Jefferson,
always abiding to him as that rascal
Freneau, who seems to think that /
am to be the distributor of his sheet"
Hardly number appeared without
lampoon on the President, and at that
early day the liberty of the press was
thus fully tested. When the President
complained to jefferson about it hot
words passed between them. Washing
ton claimed he had no right to keep
on the pay rolls of his department a
man who was so constant in his abuse
of the administration. Hamilton COM
mented severely on Mr.. Jefferson's Of
fetal support of the editor in a series
of political assaults in which he charg
ed Jefferson with controlling the paper
and using the patronage of his office
to support the editor.
Jefferson denied the charges, explain
ing that when the government removed
to Philadelphia, Mr.. Pintard, the trans
lating clerk, did not choose to follow,
and was so succeeded by Freneau, but
disc1aimed having written, dictated, or
been instrumental in furnishing line
to the journal. Freneau continued his
assaults, however, and sent copies of
the paper regularly to the President,
in which action Washington said he
could see nothing but an impudent de-
sign to insult him. Certainly, it was
not until after Washington became
President that the assaults began for
on the arrival of Washington at Phila-
delphia in 1883 Freneau addressed
poem to him full of eloquent acknowl-
edgment of his greatness and his SER
vices to his country.
FROM PRAISE TO ABUSE.
In other poems written about that
period, he is full of devotion to Wash
fngton, and it was only when he came
to be associated with Jefferson that
he INDUCED in the abuse that strained
the relations of jefferson with the adj
ministration. Under the nom de plume
of Robert Slender" he was the de-
fender Of Jefferson and his party, and
Jefferson so appreciated his services,
while disclaiming any responsibility
for the bitter articles directed against
Washington, that in his diary he
writes ''Freneau's paper has saved our
Constitution, that was fast galloping
into monarchy. Tt has checked the
career of the Monocrats."
1t may be inferred from the we'll
known enmity that existed between
Jefferson and Hamilton that this term
included Hamilton and his friends
The very Congress which witnessed
the Inauguration OF Washington, and
which appeared so enthusiastic in his