Background
James Thomson Callender was born in 1758 in Scotland.
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book
The prospect before us. Volume I-II. Two lines from Patrick Henry
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Delve into what it was like to live during the eighteenth century by reading the first-hand accounts of everyday people, including city dwellers and farmers, businessmen and bankers, artisans and merchants, artists and their patrons, politicians and their constituents. Original texts make the American, French, and Industrial revolutions vividly contemporary. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ Library of Congress W028002 "The design of this book is to exhibit the mutiplied corruption of the federal government, and more especially the misconduct of the president, Mr. Adams."--v. 1, p. 3. Attributed to Callender by Evans and the Library of Congress. Parentheses substituted for square brackets in imprint. Imprint varies. Vol. 2, pt. 1: Richmond: Printed and sold by M. Jones, printer to the Commonwealth; by S. Pleasants, Jun. at the office of the Virginia Argus; by T. Field, Petersburgh; and by the author, in the jail of Richmond .. 1800; v. 2, pt. 2: Richmond: Printed by H. Pace, and sold by M. Jones, printer to the Commonwealth; by S. Pleasants, Jun. .. by T. Field, Petersburgh; and by the author, in the jail of Richmond .. 1801. Vol. 1: 184 p.; v. 2, pt. 1: viii, 1, 10-152 p.; v. 2, pt. 2: 96 p. Errors in paging: v. 2, pt. 2, p. 13 misnumbered 31. Errata notes: v. 1, p. 184; v. 2, pt. 1, p. ii; v. 2, pt. 2, p. 2. Richmond, --Virginia : Printed for the author, and sold by M. Jones, S. Pleasants, Jun. and J. Lyon, --1800 -1801 (Price one dollar). 3 v. ; 8°
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James Thomson Callender
Edit ProfileEducation
He did not gain a formal education, but secured employment as a sub clerk in the Edinburgh Sasine office, the equivalent of the Recorder of Deeds.
Career
In 1792 Callender became a messenger at arms and writer in Edinburgh. There his propensity for intemperate political discussion expressed itself in a pamphlet, The Political Progress of Britain (Part I), which he termed an impartial history of the abuses of government, but which led to his indictment for sedition in January 1793. Ofttimes called in court, he did not appear and was pronounced a fugitive and outlaw. He found temporary safety, if not peace, in America.
Until the spring of 1796 he was a reporter of congressional debates for the Philadelphia Gazette. In 1797 appeared his American Annual Register, a discursive partisan work. In his History of the United States for 1796, his genius as a scandal-monger first became conspicuous. Here he uncovered to public gaze the intimate affairs of Hamilton and forced that statesman to bare his personal shame in the Reynolds affair to vindicate his official honor. In 1798, frightened by the Sedition Law, he fled Philadelphia and took refuge in Virginia. In 1799 he went to Richmond and attached himself to Meriwether Jones of the Examiner, who utilized his dangerous talents in connection with that Republican paper. Here, under the secretive patronage of Jefferson, he published in 1800 his most notorious pamphlet, The Prospect Before Us (vol. I), which, despite certain palpable hits was more characterized by abuse than valid criticism of Federalist leaders. For remarks about President John Adams in this work, he was tried under the Sedition Law in May and June, fined $200, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. No sufferer under this unwise law deserved less sympathy than Callender, but the political aspects of the case gained him strong support from his party, and the bullying tactics of Justice Chase in the trial aroused a storm of indignation in behalf of the eminent Virginia lawyers of the defense and their client. From prison, Callender hurled against the administration two fiery pamphlets, on both of which Jefferson advanced him money. Following the inauguration of his benefactor in 1801, Callender was pardoned and was singled out by the remission of his fine. Irritated, however, because of delay in the receipt of the money, he was already talking of the ingratitude of the President, who appears rather to have been excessively gullible and long-suffering. Having broken with his old employer, Jones, whom he later attacked, Callender became associated, in February 1802, with Henry Pace in the publication of the Richmond Recorder. Now increasingly critical of an administration which had failed to reward him with an appointment, he was openly charged with apostasy. By the autumn of 1802, he was turning the artillery of slander full on his most illustrious patron. Accusing Jefferson of dishonesty, cowardice, and gross personal immorality, he gave currency to most of the scandals which have been associated with the private life of the third President, and, despite the extravagance of the charges, left on him, as he had left on Hamilton, a stain which can never be entirely effaced.
Toward the end of his life, Callender was destitute, in part because of mistreatment by his partner. Shunned by his former associates, constantly intoxicated, he several times threatened suicide. He was drowned in three feet of water in the James River, July 17, 1803. The coroner's jury pronounced his death accidental, following intoxication.
Achievements
Works
book
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The prospect before us. Volume I-II. Two lines from Patrick Henry
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
- Letters to Alexander Hamilton, King of the Feds (Hamilton Club series)
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The prospect before us. Volume I-II. Two lines from Patrick Henry
Personality
He was regarded by Jefferson and other lovers of liberty as a man of genius suffering under persecution.
Durey noted that Callender's then-reputation as a liar, drunkard and scandalmonger had been uncritically based on the original attacks against Callender by his political targets and rivals in the press.
Connections
Callender was married and had at least four children, whose needs served at times to stimulate his reckless pen. His wife apparently died before him, and his children were supported during his last years at least by Thomas Leiper of Philadelphia.
