e was indebted. Madison and Jefferson both denied, with
much heat and indignation, that they had anything to do with the
editorial conduct of the paper. No doubt they spoke the truth. They had
to draw the line somewhere; they drew it there; and an exceedingly sharp
and fine line it was. For it is plain that Freneau knew very well what
he was about and what was expected of him, and his powerful friends knew
very well that he knew it. They could feel in him the most implicit
confidence as an untamed and untamable democrat, and one, perhaps, whose
gratitude would be kept alive by the remembrance of poverty and the hope
of future favors. There was clearly no need of a board of directors for
the editorial supervision of "The National Gazette," and it was quite
safe to deny that any existed. The fact, nevertheless, remained that a
seat had been given the editor at Mr. Jefferson's elbow.

Three months before Madison heard that his relation to Freneau was
bringing him under public censure, he showed an evident interest in the
"Gazette" hardly consistent with his subsequent avowal of having nothing
to do with its management. In a letter to Jefferson he refers to the
postage on newspapers established by the bill for the regulation of
post-offices, and fears that it will prove a grievance in the loss of
subscribers. He suggests that a notice be given that the papers "will
not be put into the mail, but _sent as heretofore_," meaning by that,
probably, that they would be sent under the franks of members of
Congress, or by any other chance that might offer. "Will you," he adds,
"hint this to Freneau? His subscribers in this quarter seem pretty well
satisfied with the degree of regularity and safety with which they get
the papers, and highly pleased with the paper itself." This was careful
dry-nursing for the bantling which had been provided with so comfortable
a cradle in the State Department.

The political casuist of our time may wonder at the importance which
attached to this Freneau affair. We are taught that "there were giants
in those days," but we may also remember that in the modern science of
"practical politics" they were as babes and sucklings. Madison was
making good his place as a leader of the opposition hardly second to
Jefferson himself. As with Hamilton, so with the Federalists generally,
he fell more even than Jefferson fell in their esteem. He fell more,
because he had farther to fall. No man had been more earnest