The ''National Gazette'' was a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

partisan newspaper that was first published on October 31, 1791. It was edited and published semiweekly by

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

Philip Freneau Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor, sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his newspaper, th ...

until October 23, 1793. The ''National Gazette'' was founded at the urging of Democratic-Republican leaders

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

and

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

in order to counter the influence of the rival Federalist newspaper, the ''

Gazette of the United States The ''Gazette of the United States'' was an early American newspaper, first issued semiweekly in New York on April 15, 1789, but moving the next year to Philadelphia when the nation's capital moved there the next year. It was friendly to the F ...

''. Like other papers of the era, the ''National Gazette'' centered on its fervent political content. The ''Gazette's'' political content was often written pseudonymously, and was directed against the Federalist Party. Many prominent Democratic-Republicans contributed articles, often pseudonymously, including Madison and Jefferson. The ''Gazette'' is unique among early American partisan newspapers for being substantially supported by a major player within a sitting administration (then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson) while simultaneously attacking that administration's own policies. Jefferson enticed Freneau to come to Philadelphia to edit the ''Gazette'' by hiring him as a translator at the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

for an annual salary of $250. Federalist writers, including Alexander Hamilton, attacked this as a conflict of interest. Hamilton and other Federalists also financially supported their own partisan newspaper, the ''Gazette of the United States'', although their publication did not attack Washington and his policies, but praised them effusively. Freneau's ''Gazette'' spent much of its time criticizing the policies of the

Washington administration The presidency of George Washington began on April 30, 1789, when Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1797. Washington took office after the 1788–1789 presidential election, the na ...

. The paper described Alexander Hamilton's financial policies in 1792 as "numerous evils...pregnant with every mischief" and described

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

's sixty-first birthday celebration as "a forerunner of other

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

ical vices." The ''Gazette's'' strident polemics and screeds against the Washington administration led President Washington to despise the ''Gazette'', and to refer to its editor pejoratively as "that Rascal Freneau." The ''National Gazette'' unofficially stopped publishing in October 1793, two years after its establishment, citing "a considerable quantity of new and elegant printing types from Europe" to be obtained, but it is believed that the outbreak of

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

combined with dwindling subscriptions contributed to the paper's demise. Jefferson would later resign as Secretary of State, ending Freneau's main source of income aside from the paper. Another newspaper of the same name was being published in Philadelphia in 1830.

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