SOURCE: Tagg, James D. “Benjamin Franklin Bache's Attack on George Washington.” The Pennsylvania of History and Biography 100, no. 2 (April 1976): 191-230.

In the following essay, Tagg outlines Bache's writings critical of President George Washington, focusing on how Bache's background influenced his work, his motivation in attacking Washington, and the development of his opinion of Washington.

It is common knowledge that during his second administration George Washington was severely attacked by radical opposition journalists. Serious attacks on the President began with Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793 and increased with the Genêt affair of that year, but did not reach a crescendo until after Washington had signed and defended the Jay Treaty in 1795. In the year before Washington's retirement the attacks had become so extreme that “the President was assailed with a virulence such as few of his successors have suffered.”¹

The attacks were as varied as they were virulent...