America’s First Newspaper Leak: Tom Paine and the Disclosure of Secret French Aid to the United States

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Americas First Newspaper LeakTom Paine and the
Disclosure of Secret French Aid to the United
States

• Dr. Larry L. Burriss, Ph.D., J.D.
• School of Journalism
• Middle Tennessee State University

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Dramatis Personae

• Pierre A. Caron de Beaumarchais
• Writer (Marriage of Figaro)
• Low-level businessman
• Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes
• French foreign minister
• Conrad Gerard
• First accredited French diplomat to U.S.
• Silas Deane
• Commissioner to France
• Businessman
• British spy?

• William Bingham
• Former secretary to Foreign Affairs Committee
• Congressional agent in Martinique
• Henry Laurens
• President of Continental Congress
• Arthur Lee
• Commissioner to France
• Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
• Secretary, Foreign Affairs Committee
• Newspaper writer
• John Dunlap
• Editor, Pennsylvania Packet
• Printer, Declaration of Independence

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• Pierre A. Caron de Beaumarchais
• Writer (Marriage of Figaro)
• Low-level businessman

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• Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes
• Foreign minister

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• Conrad Gerard
• First accredited minister to U.S.

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• Silas Deane
• Commissioner to France
• Businessman

Spy for the British?
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• William Bingham
• Former secretary to Foreign Affairs Committee
• Congressional agent in Martinique

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• Henry Laurens
• President of Continental Congress

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• Arthur Lee
• Commissioner to France

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• Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
• Secretary, Foreign Affairs Committee
• Newspaper writer

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• John Dunlap
• Editor, Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser
• Printer, Declaration of Independence

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Thomas Paine

• January 29, 1737 Born in Thetford, Norfolk,
  England
• 1776 500,000 copies of Common Sense sold
• 1776 The Crisis Papers
• 1787 Goes to England
• 1791 The Rights of Man indicted for treason
• 1792 Escaped to France imprisoned for treason
• 1794 The Age of Reason
• 1802 Returned to the United States
• June 8, 1809 Died penniless in New Rochelle,
  New York

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Beaumarchais (Roderique Hortalez Co.)
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Chronology
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• Silas Deane letter to the Pennsylvania Packet,
  Dec. 5, 1778

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Chronology
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• Thomas Paine letter to the Pennsylvania Packet,
  Jan. 2, 1779

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Chronology
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War of Words
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Results

• First resignation by a president (Laurens)
• First forced resignation by a government official
• First Congressional investigation of a newspaper
  (Pennsylvania Packet and John Dunlap)
• First investigation of confidential source
• Congress split along regional and economic lines
  Northern merchants vs. Southern landowners

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Americas First Newspaper LeakTom Paine and the
Disclosure of Secret French Aid to the United
States

• Dr. Larry L. Burriss, Ph.D., J.D.
• School of Journalism
• Middle Tennessee State University