National Gazette
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The National Gazette was an American newspaper that began publishing in October of 1791. Funded in part by Thomas Jefferson and other republicans in order to counter the influence of the rival Federalist newspaper, The Gazette of the United States, it was published bi-weekly and edited by poet and printer Philip Freneau.
The paper began as a mouthpiece for numerous columns by James Madison, as well as the occasional letter from Jefferson.
The Gazette received criticism from other papers of its time due to the fact that Freneau was receiving a salary of $250 from Jefferson at the United States Department of State as a translater while producing the paper, gaining inside information from Jefferson in the meantime. Freneau's most voracious critic was John Fenno of The Gazette of the United States, who criticized Freneau's publication as "the vehicle of party spleen and opposition to the great principles of order, virtue, and religion." Freneau would often respond to the attacks in his own publication in poetic verse.
The Gazette would spend much of its time criticizing the establishment. For example, the paper described Alexander Hamilton's financial policies in 1792 as "numerous evils...pregnant with every mischief," described George Washington's sixty-first birthday celebration as "a forerunner of other monarchical vices," and described soldiers marching in a parade in a similar fashion, calling it an "assist in establishing monarchical fashions."
The Gazette unofficially stopped publishing in October 1793, two years after its establishment, citing "a considerable quantity of new and elegant printing types from Europe" to be obtained, but it is believed that the outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia combined with dwindling subscriptions contributed to the paper's demise. Jefferson would later resign the Secretary of State position, ending Freneau's main source of income and funding for the paper.
[edit] Reference
- Infamous Scribblers. Eric Burns, Public Affairs, 2006. p280-290.
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