"Plain Facts," says that Freneau's salary began before he resided in Philadelphia. I do not know what quibble he may have in reserve on the word "residence." He may mean to include under that idea the removal of his family; for I believe he removed himself before his fam- ily did to Philadelphia. But no act of mine gave commencement to his salary before he so far took up his abode in Philadelphia as to be suffi- ciently in readiness for his duties of his place. As to the merits or de- merits of his paper they certainly concern me not. He and Fenno are rivals for the public favor. The one courts them by flattery, the other by censure, and I believe it will be admitted that the one has been as servile as the other severe. No government ought to be without cen- sors; and where the press is free, no one ever will.
FIGHT OF FKENEAU FOE EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Freneau was extremely bitter against any secrecy on the part of national legislation. Taking as its target the act of the Sen- ate in holding its sessions behind closed doors, The National Gazette fired the following shot in an editorial in February, 1792:
A motion for opening the doors of the senate chamber has again been lost by a considerable majority in defiance of instruction, in defiance of your opinion, in defiance of every principle which gives security to free men. What means this conduct? Which expression does it carry strongest with it, contempt for you or tyranny? Are you freemen who ought to know the individual conduct of your legislators, or are you an inferior order of beings incapable of comprehending the sublimity of senatorial functions, and unworthy to be entrusted with their opin- ions? How are you to know the just from the unjust steward when they are covered with the mantle of concealment? Can there be any ques- tion of legislative import which freemen should not be acquainted with ? What are you to expect when stewards of your household refuse to give account of their stewardship? Secrecy is necessary to design and a masque to treachery; honesty shrinks not from the public eye.
The Peers of America disdain to be seen by vulgar eyes, the music of their voices is harmony only for themselves and must not vibrate in the ravished ear of an ungrateful and unworthy multitude. Is there any congeniality excepting in the administration, between the government of Great Britain and the government of the United States? The Senate supposes there is, and usurps the secret privileges of the House of Lords. Remember, my fellow citizens, that you are still freemen; let it be im- pressed upon your minds that you depend not upon your representa- tives but that they depend upon you, and let this truth be ever present to you, that secrecy in your representatives is a worm which will prey and fatten upon the vitals of your l
