The Philadelphia Aurora began as the General Advertiser and changed its name in 1794. It was virtually a national daily for the followers of Thomas Jefferson until about 1808, when the Washington National Intelligencer began to eclipse it. During the early national period, the Aurora proclaimed Jeffersonian principles, but it grew increasingly extreme and eventually pleased only radical Jeffersonians.
During the 1790s, guided by its editors Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane, the Aurora opposed the Washington and Adams administrations. The paper denounced Alexander Hamilton's financial system, Federalist alliances with Britain, and especially the Alien and Sedition Acts. Instead, the Aurora supported the French Revolution, democratic and local governance, and economic policies hostile to the concentration of wealth.
After 1800 none could ignore the Aurora. As the Federalists declined, the followers of Jefferson split over what their victory should mean. The Aurora called for sweeping reforms, seeking a more democratic society. It denounced the independent judiciary and opposed constitutions since they could prevent popularly elected majorities from implementing majority will. The paper excoriated common law and insisted that only statutes enacted by popular legislatures should govern a democracy. The Aurora frightened moderate Jeffersonians by insisting that majority will should intervene in the economy to preserve what it called "the happy mediocrity of condition." By 1805 several Jeffersonian newspapers had emerged to argue with the Aurora, and by 1810 the paper was in decline. Duane sold the paper in 1822 and left for South America, seeking what he considered real democracy.