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 EПEA ПITЕРОENTA.*

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 without my share. Mr. Jefferson's notes on Virginia was the book that first taught me to 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 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

66

66

adorned the great character whose name it bears, be for

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

the capital of the United States that fills his imagination! It is the country of Jefferson and Burr that he beholds! It is the rising mistress of the world that he contemplates! The tract chosen for the City of Washington is situated at the junction of the Potomac river, and Eastern Branch; extending about four miles along their respective shores. This territory, which is called Columbia, lies partly in the State of Virginia, and partly in the State of Maryland; and was ceded, as every body knows, by those two States, to the United States of America; by which it was established the seat of Government, after the year of 1800.

The City of Washington is to be divided into squares, or grand divisions, by streets running due North and South, and East and West, which form the ground-work of the plan. But from the Capitol, the President's house, and some of the important areas, are to be diagonal streets, which will prevent the monotony that characterises Philadelphia.

We here perceive the superiority of taste in a travelled Frenchman, over a homebred Englishman. Penn was the founder of Philadelphia; the plan of Washington was formed by Major L'Enfant.

The great leading streets are to be one hundred and sixty feet wide, including a pavement of ten feet, and a gravel walk of thirty feet, planted with trees on each side; which