SOURCE: Faÿ, Bernard. “Benjamin Franklin Bache, A Democratic Leader of the Eighteenth Century.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 40, no. 2 (October 1930): 277-304.

In the following essay, Faÿ offers a biographical sketch of Bache, discussing his political writings and his importance as a publisher. He also relates Bache's work to the theories of his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin, and places Bache in historical context.

The glory of the years 1770-1785 overshadows the period of the administrations of Washington and Adams.¹ A military victory and a triumphant peace appear more impressive than any political achievement or any social development. These are not so easy to celebrate for the poet, and the historian finds them more difficult to study. Nevertheless there is no spectacle more interesting and enlightening to a scholar or philosopher than this 1790-1800 period. The world had seen and is seeing a great many revolutions; to achieve them does...