The Generals in the "War of Words"

On one of the powerpoint slides in class were two collumns. One collumn listed "Federalists" and the other listed "Anti-Federalists". Upon seeing this, I had immediate flashbacks to my high school AP US History class where I learned that a federalist is one who supports the distribution of power between the people and the government. However, in class on Tuesday it came to my realization that that might have been the Federalist belief, but the government and those of the media world during that time did use the media to influence the people of their political ideologies.

John Fenno, editor and publisher or the "Gazette of the United States", acted as a major figure in the late 18th century. One may even call him a general in the "war of words" that he helped to lead during a time when partisan press exploded and turned from a few intellectual's opinions to real change in the American political system.

Another general in the "War of words" was Phillip Freneau. He was an Anti-Federalist (a person who was against the US Consititution as it did not contain a Bill of Rights and because they believe in the concept of the central government being equal to or inferior to a state government). Freneau served the American people as the editor of the "National Gazette" and has gone down in history as the "poet of the American Revolution". Often he took part in the partisan press on the right-leaning side of Jeffersonian Democracy.

Fenno and Freneau may have been two opposing generals in the "war of words", but they became leading figures in the partisan press which helped to mold and shape American politics.

Link on John Fenno: http://www.personal.psu.edu/sah6/Fenno.html
Link on Philip Freneau: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/freneau.html;