To James Madison from Richard Bache, 8 January 1818
From Richard Bache
Phila 8 Jany 1818
Sir,
I cannot suffer the enclosed proposals to issue to the public, without sending you a copy.1 Could I succeed in putting an end to News-paper war in Penna., as it is at present conducted, and abolish all personal & private abuse from the presses, I shall gain one of the objects for which I establish the paper, & relieve my native State from what may at present be termed, the horror of an election. Permit me to tender to you the assurances of my highest esteem & my best wishes for the welfare & happiness of yourself & family. Most respectfully yours
Rich Bache2
RC (DLC). Addressed by Bache to JM at Montpelier and franked. Postmarked “Phil 7 Jan.” Cover docketed by JM.
1. The enclosure was a copy of the one-page printed prospectus Bache sent to Thomas Jefferson on 3 Jan. 1818, proposing the establishment of the Franklin Gazette, a daily newspaper for Philadelphia (DLC: Jefferson Papers). The first issue was published on 23 Feb. 1818, and the paper continued its run until 22 Nov. 1824, when it merged with the Aurora and General Advertiser to become the Aurora and Franklin Gazette (Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690–1820 [2 vols.; Worcester, Mass., 1947], 2:907; J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884 [3 vols.; Philadelphia, 1884], 3:1978, 1986).
2. Richard Bache (1784–1848), grandson of Benjamin Franklin and brother of Dr. William Bache and Benjamin Franklin Bache, was postmaster of Philadelphia, 1814–28, and publisher of the Philadelphia Franklin Gazette (see n. 1 above). He married Sophia Burrell Dallas, daughter of Alexander James Dallas, in 1805 and was active in Pennsylvania politics (Leonard W. Labaree et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin [38 vols. to date; New Haven, Conn., 1959—], 1:lxv; Sanford W. Higginbotham, The Keystone in the Democratic Arch: Pennsylvania Politics, 1800–1816 [Harrisburg, Pa., 1952], 285, 309; John M. Belohlavek, George Mifflin Dallas: Jacksonian Patrician [University Park, Pa., 1977], 18, 26, 191 n. 2).