Indeed, Bache was a man for liberty. It would be erroneous to classify Bache as a radical partisan, as most of historiography has done.(50) Despite becoming the premier newspaper in the nation for the voice of the Jeffersonian Republicans, he in fact was the independent publisher he always claimed to be. For example, he approved some of the fervently-Federalist Alexander Hamilton’s policies during the George Washington administration, and even initially approved of Washington himself. More telling, however, is the fact that Bache actually approved of the new president John Adams (whom he had previously opposed) at the beginning of his term despite the fact that he was the hand-chosen successor by George Washington, whom Bache greatly despised by that point. Bache did not blindly attack Adams for being a Federalist, but rather gave him an opportunity to show the character of his politics. Bache began to dislike the presidency of Adams only after the President began to present ideals and policies of which he disapproved.

Bache was a man influenced by thought from the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, and he believed it his duty to educate the public about any policies that may infringe on their natural rights, regardless of who was in office. He did not attack parties; he attacked policies – policies that he understandably believed were unjust, elitist, and infringing. Bache believed intensely in liberty; thus he was a libertarian, as can be seen through his zealous support of the free press based primarily on the natural rights of a free people rather than the Constitution itself. Certainly he used the Constitution to help justify his argument against the Sedition Act, but the root of his objection came from a deeper principle of liberty, not a government document that could be altered (this is why he could support liberty in all nations, such as he did for France, since he believed liberty to be a natural right, not a right derived from the United States Constitution per se). For Bache, the Constitution was merely the tool by which liberty was implemented in the United States, but it was not the basis for liberty in the United States.

Bache consistently opposed those who he believed had disconnected from the original ideals of the American Revolution - his perspective was indeed understandable. However, despite much adversity, Bache himself never wavered from the American Revolutionary ideals.