The enclosed issue of the Columbian Centinel reported on debate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives on 31 Jan. over a resolution proposed by Representative Thomas Allen, Jr., of Pittsfield that the house cease its employment of Alexander Young and Thomas Minns as printers because of their “indecent and libellous publication against the personal character of the President of the United States” in the 18 Jan. edition of their newspaper, the New-England Palladium, under the title “The Monarchy of Federalism.” Countering Allen’s allegation that the Palladium article was libelous, Representative John W. Hulbert of Sheffield contended that “far the greater part, if not the whole of those charges were substantially true and capable of undeniable proof.” Hulbert proceeded at length to repeat most of the allegations against TJ made by the Palladium and to offer arguments and evidence to support their veracity. The charges included accusations that TJ “abandoned his post” while governor of Virginia in the face of a British invasion of his state, that he demeaned the importance of faith in God “to the peace and welfare of society,” that he invited Thomas Paine to return to the United States, and that he attempted to seduce the wife of his friend John Walker. Hulbert also mentioned that TJ “is accused of having taken to his bosom a ‘sable damsel,’ ” a circumstance that, if true, TJ probably thought “excusable” given “the custom of the country” in Virginia. Hulbert said that he would leave it for the public to decide the wisdom or folly of TJ’s reductions of the navy, his Mediterranean policy, and his advocacy of dry docks and gunboats. Hulbert declared, however, that the charge that TJ paid $100 to James Thomson Callender for writing The Prospect Before Us was well supported by evidence. Hulbert read several passages from that work in which Callender disparaged the Constitution, George Washington, and John Adams. In agreement with the Palladium, Hulbert questioned TJ’s views of Napoleon Bonaparte and the “enlightened government” of France; his appointment of Gallatin as Treasury secretary; the purchase of Louisiana, which Hulbert considered to be the “grave of the union”; and TJ’s “affection for criminals convicted of enormous crimes,” particularly Callender and William Duane. Echoing an assertion that the country was governed by “an aristocratic Junto” under TJ, Hulbert stated that the editors of the Palladium were entitled “to the esteem not only of the house, but of all good and honest men.” The Palladium piece, the legislative debate it inspired, and a lengthy defense by the Palladium’s editors were published in March as The Defence of Young and Minns, Printers to the State, Before the Committee of the House of Representatives (Boston, 1805).