The newspaper is American & Commercial Daily Advertiser, the July 17 1804 issue. I made an image of the original here:
https://i.imgur.com/xQHr4QL.png
What I'm curious about is this middle section:
Who is there but remembers the numberless bubbles raised by these Editors under Mr. Adams's administration, to divert the attention of the country, while the "well born" who had wormed themselves into office and power were forging chains for the mass of the people? Who but recollects the tribute said to be demanded of our embassadors in France, by X, Y, and Z? The treason discovered in a tub at Charleston? The plot of the taylors in Philadelphia? The conspiracy of Bache, to which Goody Harper found "a clue," which led him into a labyrinth from which he could never extricate himself? The intrigues of the illuminati-the jacobins-the Frenchified Americans-the sans culottes? Who can have forgot the tales promulgated in the pulpit by Dr. Morse, and propagated by those Editors, of the massacre of the crew of the ship Ocean, which came safe into port, with all her hands, a short time after the illuminating Dr. had given them all up victims to the blood-thirsty French? But why need I attempt to enumerate all of the Bubbles which the federalists blew up? They were as the bubbles on the bosom of the ruffled ocean for number, and resembled them in duration.
Who are X, Y, and Z? What happened in France?
What was discovered in a tub at Charleston?
Who were the taylors in Philadelphia, and what were they up to?
What is the conspiracy of Bache, what was "the clue"?
Who was Dr. Morse, and what was this deal with the Ocean ship being murdered by the French?
XYZ Affair is a true conspiracy. The French foreign minister Talleyrand was notoriously self-serving and corrupt (this was 1797/8 during the Directory phase of the Revolution). Using intermediaries he demanded that American diplomats pay him bribes before he would open formal negotiations.
u/Freddy-the-Pig wrote an answer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/79pw6l/why_did_the_xyz_affair_occur/
Around 1798/9, there was a lot of tension between the Republicans - who were largely supporters of the French Revolution and ideals of democracy - and the Federalists (including then President John Adams), who had a more monarchic, centralised view of what the USA should be and were more closely allied to the British. And, as can happen when people get polarised, there were a lot of both actual conspiracies and conspiracy theories about terrible things the Evil Other Side were doing.
This letter-writer is mainly talking about - and making fun of - Federalist rumours about Republican and/or French conspiracies, some real (like the XYZ affair, as another commenter mentioned), others not. Several of the ones mentioned in this letter are described in McMaster's History of the People of the United States, vol. ii (pp441-3):
The tub thing: The Governor of South Carolina was informed that French agents were on their way to Charleston, with 'papers and dispatches hostile to the safety and welfare of the States' hidden in the false bottoms of tubs. His people found the ship, seized four men and a woman who matched the descriptions provided, and found the tubs with false bottoms - except that the papers inside were love letters. The woman was 'a French girl who had lost, in the company of the X, Y and Z ambassadors, what she ought to have held most dear' and was heading for America 'to seek redress'. No spies and no conspiracy involved. (Quotes here are from McMaster.)
The 'taylor in Philadelphia': The Mayor was told that a tailor was making a ton of French-looking uniforms, so everyone decided this was preparation for a French attempt at a coup. Ten people were arrested, and the 'French agent' who had ordered the uniforms was tracked down. It turned out the uniforms were for Haitian general Toussaint l'Ouverture's soldiers.
The ship Ocean: The Federalists, aiming to stir up anti-French sentiment, claimed that the French had captured the Ocean and put everyone on board to death. They hadn't.
'Dr Morse' is the Reverend Jedidiah Morse, a Charlestown minister and strong Federalist. Morse preached about the Ocean story. He was also a big Illuminati conspiracy theorist, and preached several sermons about how the Illuminati had masterminded the French Revolution and were infiltrating America. He claimed in his last sermon on the subject to have proof, which he didn't provide:
I have, my brethren, an official, authenticated list of the names, ages, places of nativity, professions, &c. of the officers and members of a Society of Illuminati (or as they are now more generally and properly styled Illuminees) consisting of one hundred members, instituted in Virginia, by the Grand Orient of FRANCE.
Benjamin Franklin Bache (whom I talked about in my other comment on this thread) mentioned these sermons in his Aurora General Advertisor, saying that they were complete fantasy.
