biography
| name: |
Bache, Benjamin Franklin
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1769–98)
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| biography:
| Journalist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A grandson of Benjamin Franklin, from the age of seven to sixteen he lived in France under his grandfather's supervision and learned the printing trade there. On Franklin's death (1790), he inherited a printing house in Philadelphia where, at age 21, he established a newspaper called the General Advertiser (later the Aurora General Advertiser). He came to be nicknamed ‘Lightning Rod Junior’. Although his paper, unlike others, covered congressional proceedings at length, it was mainly devoted to the tradition of making virulent and reckless attacks on political opponents, in his case on George Washington (who was accused of having ‘debauched’ the nation as president), John Adams, and the Federalist Party. During the Adams presidency, Federalist sympathizers wrecked Bache's shop on one occasion, and on another he was severely beaten by a Federalist he had slandered. He was also arrested and held briefly on charges of libelling the president. Not long afterwards, he fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic. |
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