Selleck Osborn

Background

Selleck Osborn was born in 1782 in Trumbull, Connecticut, the son of Nathaniel Osborn.

Education

At an early age Selleck was apprenticed as a printer.

Career

From June 19, 1802, to January 3, 1803, Selleck Osborn edited the Suffolk County Herald at Sag Harbor, New York. In 1805 he joined Timothy Ashley in editing The Witness, at Litchfield, Connecticut. The town was at that time strongly Federalist and contained several outspoken critics of President Jefferson and his policies. Democrats encouraged the publishers to expose Federalist fallacies and uphold the President in their columns. Osborn penned editorials with youthful zeal and indiscretion. The prominent Federalists were decorated with opprobous and malodorous nicknames until one, "Crowbar Justice" (Julius) Deming, sued the editors for libel. At the session of the county court in April 1806, they were found guilty, fined each $100 and costs, and ordered under bonds to "keep the peace & be of good behaviour till the next Term of this Court" and "to stand committed within the Gaol of County untill this Judgment be complied with. " Ashley exhibited compliance, but Osborn chose to "stand committed" and from his cell, as sole editor, continued The Witness. This made him a veritable John Wilkes in the eyes of John C. Calhoun, then a law student in Litchfield, and of the Republican newspapers throughout the country and much political capital was made of his imprisonment.

On August 6, 1806, a demonstration was staged in Osborn’s honor; there was a procession followed by "spread-eagle exercises in the meeting house" and a collation on the Green opposite the jail; the first toast offered was: "Selleck Osborn! the Later Daniel in the lion's den. He is teaching his persecutors that the beasts cannot devour him!" Reporting the incident, a Washington paper said that the "persecution of federalism" had raised Osborn "high in the esteem of dispassionate men. " It is more than possible that the presence in that Litchfield parade of a squad of cavalry militia from Massachusetts induced Osborn some time after his release to become a cavalryman. He was commissioned first lieutenant of light dragoons in the United States army July 8, 1808, was promoted to captain February 20, 1811, became attached to the first regiment of light dragoons July 6, 1812 (a second regiment having been organized that year), served in the War of 1812 on the Canadian frontier, and was honorably discharged June 1, 1814.

Osborn soon returned to newspaper work, associating himself, after a brief interval, with the American Watchman, Wilmington, Delaware, of which, for about three years beginning July 19, 1817, he was the owner and editor. In 1823-24, zealous to gain the Republican presidential nomination for his friend Calhoun, he collaborated in editing and printing the New York Patriot. A regular feature in any newspaper edited by Osborn was a poet's corner, to which he contributed. A volume of his verse entitled simply Poems was published in Boston in 1823. Later he moved to Philadelphia, where he died.

Achievements

• Selleck Osborn was editor of The Witness, Litchfield, Connecticut; The American Watchman, Wilmington, Delaware; the New York Patriot. Osborn was imprisoned for his political libellous publications. He published a collection of his verse entitled Poems (1823).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Poems (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Poems Over and above ordinary consideration...)

Connections

In 1810, at New Bedford, Massachussets, Selleck Osborn married Mary, daughter of Barnabas Hammond. They had two children, a son and a daughter.

Father:

Nathaniel Osborn

Wife:

Mary (Hammond) Osborn