Freneau published the National Gazette's first issue in October 1791. In March 1792 Freneau began a series of newspaper essays attacking Hamilton's vision for economic development. Hamilton's financial system "has given rise to scenes of speculation calculated to aggrandize the few and the wealthy, by oppressing the great body of the people, to transfer the best resources of the country forever into the hands of the speculators, and to fix a burthen on the people of the United States and their posterity, which time . . . will serve to strengthen and increase." The whole plan, Freneau wrote, had been "copied from British statute books" and was part of a general scheme for creating a Britishstyle government, with Hamilton as prime minister controlling the Congress through corruption and patronage. Fenno was slow to respond, waiting until June to declare that Hamilton's opponents were "persons...