Benjamin Franklin Bache (Aug. 12, 1769 – Sept. 10, 1798), son of Richard and Sarah Bache and the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was an American journalist. He headed the openly Jeffersonian publication, the Philadelphia Aurora, which is notable for being some of the impulse behind the Alien and Sedition Acts. Bache was often referred to as "Lightning Rod Junior" after his famous grandfather.
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Sarah "Sally" Franklin, only daughter of Benjamin Franklin, met Richard Bache while away from her parents. They were married on November 2, 1767. On August 12, 1769 she gave birth to a son, Benjamin.[1]
From the moment she set eyes on him, Benjamin Franklin Bache’s grandmother, Deborah Read, fell in love with her grandson. She called him “her little kingbird,” and saw “Benny,” as she called him, her very own. While Deborah Read and Benjamin Franklin raised Franklin's illegitimate son, William together, Deborah Read Franklin's only son with her husband, Francis Folger Franklin died from smallpox at the age of four.
Benjamin Franklin Bache was baptized on August 30, 1769 in Christ Church in Philadelphia. His godmothers were his aunt and his grandmother. His godfathers were his uncle and his grandfather, who had a proxy in his place.[2]
On December 19, 1774, young Bache lost his grandmother.[3] Although he was at her funeral, he regretted that he was not at her deathbed. In May 1775, at the age of five, Bache met his grandfather for the first time.[4] His grandfather’s arrival brought more tumult to his home.
On October 29, 1776, accompanying his grandfather on one of his many diplomatic missions, Bache and his cousin, William Temple Franklin boarded the USS Reprisal, and sailed for France. Bache settled in Passy, an affluent district of Paris. During his voyage, Bache experienced violent storms, and battles with hostile British ships. Soon after arriving in France, Benjamin Franklin enrolled his grandson in Le Coeur’s, a Parisian boarding school. Bache attended Le Coeur's with other students from Great Britain's North American colonies such as Charles Cochran, his close friend Jesse Deane, and John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams.[5]
Bache was a good student, and won the school prize for translating Latin into French at yet another school in Geneva, Switzerland. Perhaps due to his grandfather's habit of being away without visiting for long periods of time, Bache was a depressed and shy adolescent. Though sensible and reasonable, those around him observed that oftentimes, he came across as cold, inexpressive, and lacking in imagination.
After a few years at Le Coeur’s, Benjamin Franklin began training Bache for a career as a printer-publisher. In the early months at Geneva he was under the care of Philibert Cramer.[6] At the age of 13, he was learning the classics and was already interpreting Telemachus, Terence, Sallust, the orations against Cataline by Cicero, Lucian, and the New Testament in Greek. In 1781, he wrote in his diary of the extensive school work which demanded his time in and out of school.[7]
Upon returning to Philadelphia, Bache began working as a printer at his grandfather's old shop, presaging his future career as a newspaper editor. He took lessons for a time under François Didot, a well acknowledged and respected printer. After living abroad, his home town of Philadelphia felt foreign to him.[8]
Bache learned type-founding as an apprentice in Paris to Francois-Ambrose Didot, first printer to print on vellum paper. He saw Didot as the “best printer that now exist and maybe that has ever existed.” [9] Becoming the man he had been raised to be, Bache worked in a shop at the family’s Franklin Court property on Market Street. His grandfather was starting to fade. BFB oversaw the shop’s operations, but under the watchful eye of his grandfather. The first printing Bache was given to do was "An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus," a poem by linguistic scholar William Jones decrying England’s corruption and the misuse of monarchical power.[10] Bache’s first ventures in commercial publishing were school texts. Bache reprinted Isaiah Thomas’ collection of writing by Aesop and Erasmus. His earlier ventures also included reprinting a series of four Lessons for Children books by Anna Letitia Barbauld, an English woman who used Lockean behavioral techniques of esteem and disgrace to instill wisdom and virtue. The children in Barbauld’s works learned that they were not to cry, mistreat animals, or be idle. One of the story’s is of three boys at a boarding school each receives cakes from home. One of the boys, Harry, greedily eats his cake and becomes sick. The other, Peter, hoards his cake until it becomes stale. The third boy, Billy, shares his cake with the other students and eventually with an old blind man. The act of being unselfish made the boy “more glad than if he had eaten ten cakes.”[11]
Following his grandfather's death in 1790, Bache inherited Franklin's printing equipment and many of his books, and established The Philadelphia Aurora, which surpassed even Benjamin Franklin's fierce pro-French and democratic position. Bache promised that, "This paper will always be open, for the discussion of political, or any other interesting subjects, to such as deliver their sentiments with temper and decency, and whose motives appears to be, the public good."[12] Moreover, Bache made clear that, "The strictest impartiality will be observed in the publication of pieces offered with this view."[13] His paper was first published on October 1, 1790, with the name General Advertiser, and Political, Commercial, Agricultural and Literary Journal. In contrast to other papers, Bache's paper incorporated articles that focused on the sciences, literature, and the useful arts.[14] Since Federalist policies and practices seemed to ignore the fundamental premises of enlightenment egalitarianism, Republicans, like Bache were vociferously anti-Federalist.[15] On January 1, 1791, after three months, Bache dropped the word “Agricultural” from his paper’s full title and removed the motto – “Truth, Decency, Utility” – from the nameplate, and expanded the size of the paper's pages. Bache made clear to his readers that he was unable to offer the variety of material he had originally proposed as long as a “more important matter” was at hand. Later that year, Bache dropped the words “Political, Commercial and Liberty Journal” from the nameplate. The paper became increasingly polemical and promoted reforms in line with republican ideals.[16]
Bache's articles continued to denounce the Federalists and openly denounced both George Washington and John Adams. Among Bache's more controversial statements was the suggestion that Washington had secretly collaborated with the British during the American Revolution. Bache was subsequently arrested after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, legislation supported by President John Adams. This law may have been written, at least in part, in response to Bache's statements. The persistent theme of Republican journalism of the 1790s was that the federal government had fallen into the hands of an aristocratic party aligned with Britain; that the Federalists were hostile to the interests of the general public.[17] For Bache, the problem was not so much the form of governance as the beliefs and behavior of those who governed.[18] Bache’s most basic objection to the Senate was that it showed contempt for the public by meeting behind closed doors. As an example of particularly egregious behavior, Bache cited the Senate's secrecy in meeting to consider the Jay Treaty.[19]
In November 1794, Bache again announced that he was renaming his paper. The Aurora and General Advertiser's stated purpose was to “diffuse light within the sphere of its influence, dispel the shades of ignorance, and gloom of error and thus tend to strengthen the fair fabric of freedom on its surest foundation, publicity and information.” The name, “Aurora” represented the ascent and accessibility of information that it promised its readers. With the intent to honor his grandfather, Bache explicitly referred to the sun on the back of Washington’s chair at the Constitutional Convention when he used the motto, “Surgo Ut Prosim,” translated as, “I rise to be useful.” For Bache, the motto symbolized the dawning, not the setting of the sun on the new republic.[20]
The Aurora filled its papers with regular attacks on what Bache interpreted as Washington’s monarchical tendencies, his hostile actions toward France, contempt for the public, and his friendly relations with Britain.[21] Bache's harangues increased after anti-federalists charged Washington with being too ready to accept public adulation.[22] Bache’s commitment to the “strictest impartiality” were less and less evident as his favorable opinion of Jefferson increased and his hostility towards Adams became more strident. However, Bache was not always as harshly critical of Washington's presidency. Washington had been a frequent visitor at the Franklin family's home. While still a general, Washington enjoyed close relationship with Bache’s grandfather.[23]
Ultimately, Bache’s attacks on the administrations of both Washington and Adams, were met with equal hostility in those publications friendly toward Federalist policies.[24] Lack of support from Jefferson and other Jeffersonians led to financial difficulties for Bache. At one point, Bache had difficulty paying a five-dollar fine, and increasingly was unable to pay his own employees in a timely manner. As a result of his harsh anti-Federalist attacks, many Federalists refused to do business with him. While he acquired several hundred new subscribers in 1798, he encountered problems in collecting payment which further negatively impacted the newspaper’s viability.[25]
Increasingly, Bache became the focus of attacks from other journalists. William Cobbet, known by his pen de plum, Peter Porcupine, wrote malicious descriptions of Bache, and even mocked his dead grandfather. Cobbet's denunciation of Bache was so condemnatory that even Federalists thought Cobbet had gone too far. Yet, Bache paid little attention to what he viewed as amateurish attacks even as his friends became increasingly concerned for his safety.[26]
Bache’s slow and harrowing downfall occurred one year and a half before he succumbed to the yellow fever that killed him shortly thereafter. In April 1797, while investigating the USS United States, the son of the ship’s architect, Joshua Humphreys, physically assaulted him. As he made his escape, Bache recalled hearing the crowd's hostile remarks that he had deserved the beating. His accusation that ship's carpenters were taking bribes had led to the assault. In May 1798, Bache’s residence and office were threatened by a mob. The glass door leading to his office was smashed, and although his residence was not vandalized, his family was terrified nevertheless.[27]
Bache again found himself in an altercation with the son of someone whom he had publically denounced. Angry at Bache’s attack on John Fenno, Fenno's son demanded that Bache publicly apologize to his father. When Bache’s refused, John Ward Fenno assaulted him. In this instance, Bache fought back. He refused to be intimidated by published and physical attacks. Even the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act, which ultimately landed him in jail, did not stop him from his pursuit. After posting bail, he spent most of his time condemning the Act as a violation of the First Amendment.[28]
Bache died from yellow fever at the age of 29 before he was able to stand trial. He was buried in the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.[29] He is regarded by some as an early champion of Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment.
See Richard N. Rosenfeld, AMERICAN AURORA (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997).
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