James T. Callender

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James Thomson Callender (* 1758 in Scotland , † July 17, 1803 in Richmond , Virginia ) was an active in Great Britain and in the United States , controversial political pamphleteer and journalist. He was a central figure in the media disputes between the Federalist Party and its opponents of the Democratic Republican Party .

The subordinate public clerk at the Edinburgh Sasine Office (a register of feudal property transfers) published satirical writings against Samuel Johnson , ( Deformities of Samuel Johnson ) and pamphlets against political corruption . Callender's writings were marked by radical democratic egalitarianism , Scottish nationalism, and a pessimistic view of human nature and progress. He was an admirer of Jonathan Swift .

In 1791 Callender wrote a pamphlet against the beer tax, which was financed by their opponents from the brewery industry. In 1792 he anonymously published the critical treatise The Political Progress of Britain and subsequently fled to the United States via Ireland. In Philadelphia, Callender worked as a congressional reporter , ghostwriter and freelance journalist. His political stance was that of a left republican, he agitated for a progressive tax system in favor of the poor, for economic independence from Europe and for the promotion of domestic industrial production. With this he came into opposition to the Federalists and to the more conservative representatives of the Democratic-Republican Party interested in agricultural exports.

Title page , Observations of certain documents contained in no. V & VI of 'The history of the United States for the year 1796,' in which the charge of speculation against Alexander Hamilton , late secretary of the Treasury , is fully refuted. Written by himself. Title page of Callender's 1797 pamphlet against Hamilton

Callender's writings attacked the Federalists with factual arguments, but also personally. In History of 1796 he accused Alexander Hamilton of the relationship with a married woman, Maria Reynolds , but also of financial corruption, in 1797 he admitted adultery with Sketches of the History of America after Hamilton, but denied the corruption allegations. Hamilton held no political office until his untimely death.

Notwithstanding this journalistic success, Callender's personal situation remained precarious. In 1798 he had to apply for poor relief and his wife died of yellow fever . The competing journalist Wiliam Cobbett had uncovered Callender's authorship of the anonymously published pamphlets against Hamilton. Callender fled to Richmond leaving his children behind. There Thomas Jefferson became interested in the militant pamphleteer and tried to use him against John Adams . In Virginia, Callender completed The Prospect Before Us , an attack on political corruption in the Adams administration. In June 1800 he was therefore prosecuted for rioting under the Sedition Act and was imprisoned until the last day of Adams' presidency. In March 1801 Callender was pardoned by the now President Thomas Jefferson. Callender, however, demanded the post of Richmond Postmaster from the new president and warned of the consequences if this did not happen. Jefferson refused the post and Callender became the editor of a Federalists' newspaper, the Richmond Recorder . As such, he disclosed Jefferson's funding of his own pamphleteer activity and also published the fact that Jefferson had several children with his slave girl Sally Hemings . The articles in question were worded in an extremely racist way, although Callender initially spoke out against slavery after his arrival in the USA .

Callender's aggressiveness in all directions had its consequences: In December 1802, one of his former lawyers, George Hay , attacked him with a walking stick . On July 17, 1803, the allegedly drunk Callender drowned in the only one meter deep water of the James River .

literature

  • Michael Durey, With the Hammer of Truth, James Thomson Callender, (Charlottesville, Univ. Press of VA, 1990).
  • Miller, John Chester, The Wolf by the Ears , (The Free Press, 1977).
  • Byron Woodson, A President in the Family, (Westport, CT, Praeger, 2001)

swell

  1. ↑ Durey 1990 , p. 6
  2. ↑ Durey 1990 , p. 9
  3. ↑ Durey 1990 , pp. 74-83
  4. ↑ Durey 1990 , p. 102
  5. ↑ Durey 1990 , pp.103-106
  6. ↑ Durey 1990 , p.106
  7. ↑ Miller 1977 , pp. 152-153
  8. ↑ Gordon-Reed, Annette. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy . University of Virginia Press (April 1997) .S. 59-61. ISBN 0-8139-1698-4 .
  9. ↑ Durey 1990 , p. 164

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Callender, James T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Callender, James Thomson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish-American novelist and satirist
DATE OF BIRTH 1758
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotland
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1803
Place of death Richmond , Virginia