son was now complete, and the
violence of party spirit manifested by the Gazettes of Fenno and Freneau
was greatly augmented. The latter became more and more personal in his
attacks upon the administration; and Hamilton, who was held up by name
as a monarchist at heart, believing that the assaults originated in the
hostility of Jefferson, in whose office Freneau was employed, at length
turned sharply upon his assailant. Over an anonymous signature he
inquired, in Fenno's paper, whether the government salary given to
Freneau was paid him for translations, or for calumniating those whom
the voice of the nation had called to the administration of public
affairs; whether he was rewarded as a public servant, or as a disturber
of the public peace by false insinuations. "In common life," he said,
"it is thought ungrateful for a man to bite the hand that puts bread in
his mouth; but if a man is hired to do it the case is altered."

Again he said, after giving a history of the establishment of Freneau's
paper: "An experiment somewhat new in the history of political
manoeuvres in this country; a newspaper instituted by a public
officer, and the editor of it regularly pensioned with the public money
in the disposal of that officer.... But, it may be asked, is it possible
that Mr. Jefferson, the head of a principal department of the
government, can be the patron of a paper the evident object of which is
to decry the government and its measures? If he disapproves of the
government itself, and thinks it deserving of his opposition, can he
reconcile it to his own personal dignity and the principles of probity
to hold an office under it, and employ the means of official influence
in that opposition? If he disapproves of the leading measures which have
been adopted in the course of his administration, can he reconcile it
with the principles of delicacy and propriety to hold a place in that
administration, and at the same time to be instrumental in vilifying
measures which have been adopted by majorities of both branches of the
legislature, and sanctioned by the chief magistrate of the Union?"

This brought out an affidavit from Freneau, in which he exculpated Mr.
Jefferson from all complicity in the establishment, the conduct, or the
support of his paper.

The feud between Hamilton and Jefferson gave Washington great concern
and no little mortification. Both ministers discharged the duties of
their respective offices to the entire sat