"I slept at Howe's, and during the night

was perpetually annoyed with the cry of "fire! fire! As the noise increased, I arose "with not less trepidation than Eneas, when "he ascended to the top of old Anchises' palace:

"But here, as in all modern conflagrations, (whether real or poetic), there was more "smoke than fire, and more consternation "than danger; so I sunk again to slumber, "from which not even the ghost of Hector "could have awakened me.

"Shall you exchange soon the dull walks of West Chester, for the animated streets of New York? Come over, I beseech you, "and enable me once more to exclaim with rapture Vixi!"

With the first frost the family of Mr. Ludlow removed from the solitude of West Chester, to the gaieties of New York; and I again took possession of a room boasting every convenience of accommodation, where I could prosecute, without disturbance, my lucubrations till a late hour. The library of Caritat supplied me with every book in the French and my own idiom; and before a cheerful fire, I could pass nights of rapture in the acquisition of elegant and useful knowledge. The

emoluments I had derived from the publication of my little Novel, induced me to undertake another, which I was resolved to make more voluminous; for Americans expect quantity in a book not less eagerly than in other merchandise, and the maxim of the old Greek is not yet established in the New World.*

After revolving many schemes, I was determined to continue my former narrative, by writing the adventures of its principal character; for, in the Farmer of New Jersey, they are only partially related, and William (the hero of the tale), I discovered to be a favourite among the ladies.

Having finished my tale, my next care was to find a publisher; for which purpose I addressed a letter to the Editor of the Port Folio. In a few days the letter-bag was distended with petitions from the Philadelphia booksellers, who lavished every allurement of eloquence on the convenience of their presses, and the skill of their workmen; but none offered to buy the manuscript, and it was never my intention to give it away. However, my prospects were soon after brightened by a letter in a different strain from a copyrightpurchasing patron, of the name of Dickins; to whom I dispatched my manuscript, together

* Μέγα Βιβλίον, μέγα Κακὸν.

with a letter written in a state of mind that generated the EIIEA IITЕPOENTA.*

About this period the attention of the public was turned towards the City of Washington, where the Members of both Houses of Congress had assembled to decide on the nomination of a President for the United States.

In the year 1789, General Washington was chosen President over the new system of confederated Government, and in the year 1793, when the term of his Presidentship had expired, he was reelected in the office. He therefore continued four years more invested with the executive power of the Government; but at the second termination of the time stipulated by the Constitution for a new election to be made, desirous of retiring from public business, he resigned his important office. This was in 1797, when Mr. Adams was

[* The MS so dispatched was that of The Wanderings of William. Philadelphia, 1801. The purchaser of the copyright was doubtless Asbury Dickins who was associated with Joseph Dennie in founding the Port Folio at Philadelphia, and later was secretary of the United States Senate, from 1836 to 1861.

Duyckinck, (Vol. I, p. 563), remarks on this transaction: “A very clever resident English author in the country, John Davis, writer of a lively book of travels in the United States, which he dedicated to Jefferson, offered by an advertisement, in 1801, two novels, fruits of his winter labors, to any bookseller in the country who would publish them—on the condition of receiving fifty copies. The booksellers of New York, where he lived, could not, he said, undertake them, for they were dead of the fever."]

elected into the Presidentship, and Mr. Jefferson was chosen Vice-President. For three years the party of Mr. Adams lost none of its influence; but in the fourth the contending party acquired a visible ascendancy, and it was the predominant opinion, that Mr. Jefferson would be chosen President in the next election. The event justified the expectation; Mr. Jefferson obtained the suffrages of the majority; he was elected into the office of first Magistrate of the nation, and Mr. Adams, who still had kept at Washington, and still indulged in hope, till the very moment that fixed his doom, now felt himself become again a private citizen, and departed the same night, in the stage-coach, for his paternal abode. It was by ballot that Mr. Jefferson's right to the office was decided; for in the nomination of the different States, Mr. Burr had an equal number of votes; but a ballot assigned the office to Mr. Jefferson, and it consequently followed that Mr. Burr became Vice-President.

The election of a new President of the United States could not but engage the feelings of the public. It raised the expectations of some, and damped the hopes of others; or, more properly speaking, all regarded the event as it related to their interest.

The City of Washington was now the centre of attraction to the nation. Multitudes flocked

to it, in different directions, to hear the inaugural speech of Mr. Jefferson.

Of this general enthusiasm I was not withMr. Jefferson's notes on Virbook that first taught me to

out my share.

ginia was the think; and my

heart now beat with the desire

to hear the accents of wisdom fall from the tongue of that man, whose pen had engrafted v much truth on my mind. I therefore departed for the city of Washington, passing through, in my way to it, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

CHAP. VI.

Emotions on entering the City of Washington. The Plan of the Place. The inaugural Speech of Mr. Jefferson to both Houses of Congress assembled at the Capitol.

"In this City may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and "magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which "adorned the great character whose name it bears, be for

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I ever held in veneration! Here, and throughout America, 'may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion, flourish for ever!"

THE mind of the Traveller must be abstracted from all local emotion, who can enter unmoved the city at the confluence of the Potomac, and Eastern Branch. He witnesses the triumph of freedom over oppression, and religious tolerance over superstition. It is