The history of Waterbury, Connecticut - citizen hylbom blog

386 HISTORY OF WATERBUET.
with a will. He denounced the Democratic party and its leaders, in
unmeasured terras. He was a master of irony, sarcasm and invective,
and was not always free from personalities. About the time of the
declaration of war against Great Britain, party spirit ran higher, per-
haps, than has since been known in this country. In Baltimore, a riot
occurred, and the printing office of a Federal newspaper was destroyed.
Mr. Bronson's office was threatened with a similar fate. He received
many anonymous letters, warning him of his danger. Some were from
enemies threatening to serve him as some of his party in Baltimore had
been served, if he did not desist from his abuse of the administration
and the Democratic leaders. Others, apparently friends, counseled
moderation and discretion. These letters, gathered into a bundle
and inclosed in a wrapper, are now before me. On the wrapper is
written, in the hand of the receiver, " Good Advice, or wholesome Les-
sons on Prudence." On one occasion, the Gazette office was threaten-
ed, and a night appointed for its destruction. On that night. Dr. Chap-
man, Charles Chauncey, Horace Binney, Dr. Bird Wilson, John B.
Wallace, Thomas Biddle (all intimate friends of Mr. Bronson) and
others are stated to have stood guard in and around the menaced build-
ing, prepared to resist an attack.
Mr. Bronson wrote with great vigor and directness, in a pure, lucid
and simple style, wielding old Saxon with great effect. In reference to
his habits of composition, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman is affirmed to have
said that his editorials were written in his office, while he was surround-
ed by friends engaged in political discussions, in which he would at in-
tervals join. When the printer's devil came down for more copy, he
would tear off the sheet on which he was writing, at the last word, seldom
finding it necessary to make the smallest correction. Dr. Chapman
was his family physician, and told a friend that he was the only
yankee he ever knew who never learned the value of money.
Soon after Mr. Bronson became connected with the Gazette, the
office issued, under his supervision, an edition of William Roscoe's Life
of Lorenzo de Medici. One object of the undertaking was to cultivate
in the American mind a taste for literature and history. The publica-
tion led to a correspondence with Mr. Roscoe, and to the subsequent
issue from the Gazette office of an edition of Leo X, by the same author.
The correspondence, which is in my possession, is honorable to both
parties.
Mr. Bronson married, in Philadelphia, Mary White, a daughter of
the late Bishop White, by whom he had five daughters and two sons.
But two of them are now living ; one the widow of the late Professor