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George Washington | 5 ­ toward the belligerent powers.” This statement of neutrality infuriated the Repub- licans, who felt it was a policy that resulted in consequences that ­ were not neutral at all but rather ­ were injurious to France. ­ Because the neutrality policy was estab- lished by Washington himself in a unilateral statement, anger was directed at Washington personally. And once the personal criticism started, it grew far beyond the disgust with the Neutrality Proclamation, expanding to include much of Wash- ington’s ­career. It was almost as though Washington’s decision to remain neutral in the French-­British conflict was the excuse Republicans needed to attack his entire rec­ord. Most of the criticism directed at Washington came from the Republican news- papers, and one in par­tic­u­lar was responsible for the most sustained attacks on Washington—­the Aurora, edited by Bache. On November 18, 1795, the paper printed a letter to the editor arguing for Washington’s impeachment: “The opinion that the President ­ ought to be impeached is gaining proselytes daily, and ­ will soon become general as the subject is more fully understood. . . . ​The revolution was cer- tainly never designed to benefit the President alone, and if he can exercise uncon- stitutional and unlawful powers, ­because he was the commander in chief of the American army, then the revolution was designed alone for his aggrandizement.” Bache was a radical Demo­crat who had never been a strong supporter of Wash- ington. The editor perceived him to be part of a po­liti­cal elite that was not firmly committed to the demo­cratic ideals of the revolution. Washington’s popularity pre- vented Bache from printing serious criticism before 1793, but the widespread Republican anger against the proclamation created an opportunity for Bache to target Washington directly. The Aurora printed stories criticizing Washington on ­ every imaginable front. His manners ­were considered to be overly formal, smack- ing of elitism the fact that he was so well dressed was said to be another indication of elitism and demonstrated that Washington was not a man of the ­people his leadership of the Continental Army during the American Revolution was described as weak, and it was alleged that his ­ career was sal­vaged only ­ because the French came to the colonies’ aid his actions as president ­ were said to enlarge the role of the executive at the expense of elected representatives, leading the nation ­ toward monarchy as demonstrated by his decision to use state militias to forcibly halt pro- tests against taxes on spirits (more commonly known as the Whiskey Rebellion) he was labeled a criminal for his practice of drawing funds from the government that amounted to advances on his salary and even the public cele­bration of his birthday was framed as evidence of Washington’s intent to turn himself into roy- alty. In addition to Bache’s Aurora, Freneau’s National Gazette also printed sharp criticism of Washington ­ until the newspaper went out of business in late 1793. The backlash against Washington ­ after the Neutrality Proclamation increased ­ after the ratification of the Jay Treaty in 1795. Treaty negotiations had begun in 1794 when John Jay, chief justice of the United States, was chosen to travel to Britain to