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My patient and indulgent reader will doubtless agree with
me that it is time these gossiping chronicles were brought
to a close. Indeed, I am so near upon the heels of the day
in which I write, and the printer so near upon mine that
little remains to be said. I shall therefore despatch what
remains of my memoranda with such speed as shall suit
my reader's longing for the end.

Although the New Lights in general bore no ill will
against that division or faction which has been distinguished
in these pages by the name of True Grits, yet I must say
we were not wholly displeased at the result of Sergeant
Trap's trial. On the contrary, many of us chuckled in
secret thereat. Eliphalet Fox we have ever acknowledged
to be a useful man and a zealous—and we have not been
backward to award him such meed as he deserved. But it
must be told that in Eliphalet, there lurks a scantling of

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ambition to climb higher on the ladder than our party is yet
willing to afford to one of his degree. And Eliphalet
moreover is suspected—heaven forfend that I should do
him wrong!—in regard to the Hon. Middleton Flam our
Representative, and those who are not altogether well disposed
towards him, I mean Theodore Fog's adherents, (for
it is manifest Theodore is looking to a seat in Congress)
utrosque parietes linere, as the Latin proverb has it, which
in the vernacular signifies to wear two faces—by no
means an uncommon, though a very objectionable sin in
political affairs. This may be a groundless suspicion, as I
would fain hope it is; but it is believed by many, and
therefore the more reason was there for some secret rejoicing
in Quodlibet at Eliphalet's failure in the matter of Sim
Travers. It unquestionably hath made our Editor of The
Whole Hog more modest and seemly in his behaviour of
late.

The course of the canvass has been growing every day
more and more intensely interesting to our New Lights;
and, bating some few aberrations into which we have fallen,
daily gives us greater promise of the consummation of all
our wishes. One of these aberrations it becomes my duty to
notice; since as I write for the instruction of the New
Democracy, no less than for the information of posterity,
it is but proper that I should point out an occasional error
with a view to guard against its commission in future: and
I do so in the present instance because the fault hath been
happily repaired in a manner that greatly redounds to the
efficacy and excellence of our Quodlibetarian system. The
wisest man may commit mistakes, as may be seen in what
I am about to recount of one of the Magnates of our party.

Ever since New Light Democracy and Nullification
have shaken hands and sworn eternal friendship, or—in the
poetical language of Theodore Fog, “ever since that

[figure description] Page 233.[end figure description]

Prodigy of Weathercocks, the great Nullifier, first endured,
then pitied and then embraced the Galvanised Corpse,”
there has been a notable race set on foot over the Hard
Money Course. The prize in this race is understood to be
the good will of the South, and upon that is built hopes of
“the Succession;” at least, so I gather from the Hon. Middleton
Flam, who is fully in the secret. Now, it has been
whispered in high places, says my honorable informant,
that when Mr. Van Buren shall vouchsafe to favor us by the
appointment of his successor, Thomas Hart Benton—who
is the king Midas of the New Lights—looks to receive the
mantle; unless, indeed, Amos Kendall shall disallow the
same, and require it to be placed on other shoulders, which
Mr. Flam thinks Amos will not do. On the other hand,
the Nullifier has put in his claim; and it is given out that
as the President at this moment stands greatly in need of
Southern Principles, he only may hope to win favor who
shall contribute the greatest quantity of that material to the
present contest. Hence, the competition in the display of
this commodity.

Some time back many of us in Quodlibet took occasion
to say, that a certain New Light Democrat, of great note
in our ranks—a senator from Pennsylvania—would be as
likely to take the lead as the best of them. This reaching
the ears of the gentleman in question, so fired his ambition
that he straightway became a Hard Money man—as hard
almost as the other two; and, conceiving that he might profitably
imitate the wisdom of the Fox, and steal away the
prize whilst the Wolf and the Leopard were fighting for it,
he unluckily took it into his head to let off a speech,
wherein he demonstrated most satisfactorily to the whole
South, that our country would be “filled with blessings” if
we could only get our inflated values of northern labor
down to the hard money standard of France and Germany.

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Whew! what a turmoil did this little flourish of political
philosophy produce! No sooner did the laboring people of
the North come to hear of this—and they had no right to
hear it, for it was by no means intended for their ears—
than they set up such a floundering and kicking in the
traces as never was known in this country, except in the
case of the Alien and Sedition Law and Mr. Van Buren's
late notorious affair of the Standing Army. They were
actually so perverse and unreasonable as to turn their backs
in a manner disgraceful to the Democracy, upon this proffered
“blessing,” and incontinently to reject it in advance,
as a thing altogether flagitious; and in the mere obstinacy
of their selfish natures, to affirm that the inflated wages
they now received were not a jot beyond their deserts.
Deserts indeed! as if the Pennsylvania Senator was troubling
himself about their deserts, when he had so high a
matter in view as the Presidency. Thereupon many of
these democrats were so foolish as to become British Whigs,
and declare openly that they desired nothing more earnestly
as working men, than to see as little British manufacture
brought into our country, (whilst our own people could
make as good,) as by any fair and lawful means might be
avoided:—a doctrine which, as every body knows, is now
exclusively set up by these British Whigs, and which all
good New Lights reject as in the highest degree undemocratic.

This extraordinary fatuity, and, as I may call it, rebellion
of the working people, of course caused our committee great
uneasiness. We deliberated over the subject anxiously and
long, to find some means of allaying this ferment; and were
well nigh at our wit's end. At last, it occurred to Mr.
Doubleday, that the best and, in truth, the only thing we
could do, was to get the transgressing senator to explain
his speech away. It was a happy thought; and being

[figure description] Page 235.[end figure description]

communicated to the gentleman, we had every reason to be satisfied
with his prompt acquiescence in the advice. With
most laudable perseverance and importunity, it must be confessed,
has he obeyed our injunction. It is a sound New
Light precept,—when a leader cannot maintain a dangerous
position, let him roundly affirm that he never took it;
and every genuine Quod and veritable New Light, will stand
by him and back him in the assertion. In this matter of a
man's livelihood, it is sometimes—as the senator has found
it—extremely difficult to bring the stomachs of the people
into subjection to their democracy.

This distinguished Democrat's latter speeches all must admire,
as beautiful examples of our Quodlibetarian mode of
drawing in our horns when we have chanced to thrust them
out too far. But perfect as these are, they sink into insignificance,
in comparison with the masterly address of a
toast which he has recently sent into the very head quarters
of the rebellion. All Quodlibet is in extacy with this piece of
management. The toast is addressed to the Working Men
of Worcester, Massachusetts. It is in itself, a miniature
oration of dainty advice—a rare posy of multum in parvo;
and, as an effort of clever Quodlibetarianism, unmatched in
the effusions of all our great men. If it does not wholly
repel, abrogate, annul and scatter to the four winds of
heaven, all remembrance of that unfortunate speech for
lowering wages, then there is no virtue left in the democracy.

My reader shall peruse this gem of reconciliation.

“The Laboring Classes.—The laws of God and the
constitution of this free country, have placed them on an
equality with the proudest of their employers. In the
onward march of public opinion, a lustrum will not elapse
before the petty tyrant, who would degrade them from the
sovereign rank of independent citizens, by threatening them

[figure description] Page 236.[end figure description]

with the loss of employment, unless they should exercise
the right of suffrage according to his dictation, will himself
be an enemy and traitor to our free institutions.”

This sentiment, of course, must strike every working-man,
as manifesting an extreme interest in his welfare, on
the part of its author;—because it evidently shows, that the
author is fully of opinion that the working people ought to
be told that they are FREEMEN, and have rights as well as
others—a fact that had never been communicated to them
before, and concerning which, it is presumed, they have remained
in total ignorance.

The toast had a peculiarly stimulating effect upon Neal
Hopper, who works for Christy McCurdy at the Mill, and
always votes against him. He proposed a meeting of the
New Light Club, and gathered all the laboring men of Quodlibet
to attend it. Several very pithy speeches were made
in commendation of the useful hint which the senator of
Pennsylvania had imparted to his countrymen; resolutions
of thanks were adopted, to be conveyed to him for his sudden
anxiety to enlighten the laboring classes; and the whole
proceedings wound up with a toast, in cold water, which
had been prepared on the spur of the moment by Theodore
Fog and offered by Neal Hopper—the same being drunk
with loud cheers, and a copy ordered to be sent to the gentleman
in whose honor it was given. It was in these words:

“The Senator of Pennsylvania.—The Constitution
has placed him on an equality with the proudest of his employers.
In the onward march of public opinion, not even
the fifth part of a lustrum will elapse before the Petty Tyrant,
who would degrade him from the rank of an independent
statesman by threatening him with the loss of employment
unless he should exercise the right of suffrage according
to his dictation, will himself be considered an enemy
and traitor to our free institutions.”

[figure description] Page 237.[end figure description]

Thus happily ended a mistake which, in its origin, threatened
so much injury to our cause. If, after the toast I
have noticed, and the laudatory response to it from our New
Lights in Quodlibet, there can be any working-man so
stony-hearted as to refuse to be lopped in his wages and to
vote as our Great, New Light, Quodlibetarian Democratic
Chief shall command—then let him join the British Whigs!
we wash our hands of him.

To compensate us for whatever detriment we might have
suffered by this mishap, the passage of the Independent
Treasury bill has brought us fresh occasion of rejoicing and
confidence. After a long and, as Tom Crop says, a bloody
struggle, Lo! it is at last the law of the land, and all our
wishes are crowned. “It is,” as Mr. Flam has declared,
“the unmingled, unaided, spontaneous result of popular
sagacity—springing not from executive dictation, nor the
influence of party discipline, but from the intuitive and instinctive
wisdom of millions of freemen ground to the dust
by the tyrannical pressure of associated wealth. It is the
law of the land in spite of the groans of merchants, the wailings
of agriculturists, and the murmurs of mechanics. It
seals the fortune of our Great chief, and proclaims the immortal
triumph of the New Light Democracy.”

When the tidings of this joyful event reached us in Quodlibet,
our first care was to fire one hundred guns; the next
was to illuminate the Borough, and to bring out all our flags
and lanterns: after this the New Lights were called together
in the Court House, where addresses were delivered by Agamemnon
Flag and Theodore Fog—the latter of whom actually
outdid himself in an effort that would have exalted
the fame of Patrick Henry: and to close this jubilee, the
Central Committee passed a resolution declaring the bill the
Second Declaration of Independence. For this brilliant

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series of events, we have to thank that sturdy devotion to
State Rights which shone with such conspicuous lustre in
the annihilation of New Jersey by the New Lights, in the
House of Representatives. But for that glorious stroke of
policy the bill would again have been crushed by the serpent
of opposition. Now that we have gained it, British
Federal Whiggery is forever prostrate.

A fortnight after this event brought us the cheering tidings
from Louisiana, to which many an anxious eye had
been turned. The elections there have resulted in a splendid
victory—a victory, indeed, not indicated by the polls,
where the majority was seemingly increased against us—but
manifested in the spirit with which our people every where
received the tidings. Until this spirit became manifest, it
might be said our hopes were even wavering; but forthwith
an unwonted confidence in our success has spread abroad.
The sagacious Mr. Doubleday, whose face may be called
the barometer of our party, and to whom we all look for
predictions of the future, now wears a countenance wreathed
in smiles, and tells us that, from what he knows of the
changeableness of that state, “we may make ourselves altogether
certain of the victory in the fall.”

In running over the events of the day, nothing is more
deserving of our animadversion, than the ostentatious display,
by the British Federal Tory Whigs, of the changes
amongst the people against the New Light Democracy;—as
if here and there the change of some recreant Democrat,
who is afraid to follow his leader and chooses to have opinions
of his own, could stay the mighty torrent of attachment
to the fortunes of our Chief. We do not deny these changes;
but rather rejoice that men, so little worthy of being called
true Quods, should leave our standard to the tried soldiers
who have marched behind it in all its vicissitudes, and fought

[figure description] Page 239.[end figure description]

its battles through the whole field of political experiment.
By such only can our glorious cause be upheld. But we
can recount changes as well as they.

I might select thousands from our newspapers; and I forbear
to do so, only because I think it unworthy of the good
sense of a Quod to parade the names of converts to our
party; thus assimilating, as it were, the people to a flock of
sheep, and expecting that more will follow because many
have gone before.

There is, however, one case which I am sure I shall be
excused for bringing before my reader. It is that of the
Dibble family of Wisconsin. It was brought to the notice
of our Central Committee by Zachary Younghusband, who
came into possession of the original manuscript through a
brother Postmaster, Mr. Straddle, who resides in the neighborhood
of the converted family, and who, in fact, was the
amanuensis used upon the occasion. Our Committee thought
this document of sufficient importance to be copied into the
Whole Hog: from whence it is likely to be transferred into
every New Light Democratic paper of the country. It certainly
exhibits very conclusive as well as very abundant reasons
for change; and may be said to contain the best epitome
of the popular objections of the New Lights to the election
of General Harrison which has yet appeared in print. An
aged and widowed father with five sons—all heretofore
steeped to the lips in the slough of British Whiggery—have
had the independence to rise, in the majesty of freemen, and
boldly assert the highest prerogative of an American citizen—
the right of thinking, speaking, and voting in such
manner as a patriotic, disinterested, New Light Postmaster,
whose opinions are above all suspicion, might direct them.
The letter of this never-sufficiently-to-be-admired family will
speak for itself. I have only to remark that, in transcribing
it, I have taken the liberty to correct, what indeed I must call,

[figure description] Page 240.[end figure description]

some glaring faults in the orthography—which are to be
attributed solely to Mr. Straddle, the Postmaster, who reduced
the instrument to writing, and who, by the bye, let
me say, should be advised to give more of his attention to
the useful art of spelling—but in no other point altering
word, syllable, or letter.

It is somewhat fancifully headed

“This is to give notice, that we who have put our signmanuals
to the foot thereof, being till now snorting Whigs,
having heard our Postmaster, Clem Straddle, Esq., say that
he knows General Harrison sold five white men as slaves
off his plantation, and is for Abolition, and whipped four
naked women on their bare backs, and is for imprisonment
for debt, and moreover is for making a King, and goes for
raising the expenses of the Government up to fifteen millions,
and is a coward and wears petticoats, and is kept in
a cage, and wants to reduce wages, and for that purpose is
a going to have a standing army of two hundred thousand
men, which our free and independent spirits wont bear, and
wants to give the public money, which comes from the sweat
of our brows, and public lands, to Sam. Swartwout and
Price, and a gang of British Whigs, which we consider
against the Constitution, and moreover we dont believe he
wont answer, and has got no principles excepting them
what he used to have, and is against the Independent Treasury
which was signed Fourth of July, whereby it is the
Declaration of Independence; and the aforesaid Clem Straddle,
Esq., which writeth this for us and in our names, being
against all office-holders which the British Whigs is a striving
after, and tells us to vote for Van Buren, we being an
affectionate father and five orphan children without any mother,
and never had any since infancy, make known that in

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the next Presidential election in this Territory, if we had a
vote, and if not we shall vote in Missouri, we goes against
Tip. and Ty. and all that disgusting mummery of Log
Cabins, Hard Cider, Coonskins, Possums, and Gourds, in
regard of their lowering morals, and goes for Jackson, Hickory
Poles, Whole Hogs, and Van Buren, as witness our
hands and seals.

This letter, it will be admitted by all unprejudiced persons,
bears the most expressive testimony to the natural and
unsophisticated character of its authors; and furnishes us
gratifying evidence that the great Reform, which it has been
the labor of our committee to promote, has begun at the
right end, and that the result must be the infallible and universal
triumph of New Light Democracy over the whole
Union.

Upon the adjournment of congress, late in July, the Hon.
Middleton Flam returned to Quodlibet, to infuse new energy
into our indefatigable committee. Through him we were
apprised of many matters of deep interest, touching the

[figure description] Page 242.[end figure description]

progress of the campaign, which was now growing amazingly
active. Being in the confidence of the president and Amos
Kendall, he could tell us divers things which were not intrusted
to the party at large; and let us into the secrets of
the little and big wheels which were at work in Washington
and other places. Amos, we were glad to learn from
him, had entirely recovered his health by the change from
the corrupt atmosphere of the post office to the wholesome
air of the Globe's type-room: the “excitement of composition,”
Mr. Flam said, daily brought a fresh glow upon his
cheek—and particularly in the writing of some late articles
against General Harrison; and his children, upon the whole,
slept better than formerly—having insensibly grown more
indifferent to the Whig victories which at first produced such
unhappy effects upon their slumbers.

Mr. Van Buren, our observant representative also informed
us, was a good deal nettled at the people for their
restiveness at his standing army scheme, and thought that
our New Lights in congress had behaved in a very cowardly
and shameful manner in regard to it. He whispered to Mr.
Flam that, notwithstanding all this pother, it was an admirable
democratic scheme, and should eventually become
the law in spite of lamentations in congress or elsewhere:
that the opposition to it now was no greater than that to the
Independent Treasury in 1835, and as he had carried the
one, so he would the other. For the present, he said, he
was obliged to succumb to the people; and it was the first
time he had ever been reduced to this point of humiliation
since he was President. But it was a case of necessity
and he had no alternative. He had consequently determined
to write a letter and insinuate some doubts as to the constitutionality
of the plan; and in the mean time Mr. Poinsett,
who was of that best description of friends, a friend
in need, had very obligingly, and like a faithful New Light,

[figure description] Page 243.[end figure description]

agreed to stand between him and the storm, and take the
whole blame upon himself. All these movements have
been subsequently developed, in confirmation of Mr. Flam's
communication to our committee; and the whole matter is
before the public.

The President, our member further told us, was greatly
annoyed at the impertinent curiosity of the Whigs in regard
to some passages in his past history, especially his
vote on the Missouri question and his denial, in the New
York convention, of the right of suffrage to old soldiers
whilst he was giving it to free negroes. These matters the
Whigs got out of that Book of Holland's which was written
before Mr. Van Buren was inoculated with Southern principles,
and when, in fact, he was rather looking to the opposite
point of the compass. He spoke of these subjects as of
an abstract character, belonging, as he said, to Geographical
Metaphysics, and he thought it therefore unjust to bring
them into the present canvass. And there was the affair of
the Negro Witnesses, which also, Mr. Flam remarked, deprived
the President of his natural rest. But these are the
common vexations of statesmanship; and if it were not for
the President's thorough endoctrination in the Quodlibetarian
philosophy would go nigh to affect his brain. As it
is, he is very sorry, Mr. Flam assures us, for these old
errors; has completely changed in regard to the whole
of them; and is now busily employed every day in writing
letters to convince the people that they are mere Whig misrepresentations.

Upon the subject of the Tariff and the Cumberland Road,
notwithstanding that the New Lights have, somewhat inconsiderately,
gone against the constitutional power to
meddle with them, Mr. Van Buren has confidentially disclosed
to Mr. Flam, (who in the same confidence has
imparted it to the Committee,) that, for the present at least, he

[figure description] Page 244.[end figure description]

means to see-saw a little on these points, and, in the Quodlibetarian
fashion, take his course hereafter. This determination,
we have reason to believe, will furnish the author of
the Worcester Toast another opportunity of displaying his
skill in drawing in his horns—that worthy Senator being
supposed to have got into an ultra position on this subject,
from not being sufficiently cautious, in marching, to “dress
by the right.” “Upon the whole,” Mr. Flam says, “so far
are these imputations, vexations and variations from doing
Mr. Van Buren any harm in the canvass, they, in fact,
only the more endear him to his friends, and strengthen his
chance of reelection, since they prove the more conclusively,
that he is personally experienced in the pros and cons of
every great question, by having been on both sides, and has
thereby rendered himself more competent to decide as a
statesman what is most likely to enure to the benefit of his
party. We shall see,” continued Mr. Flam, “a triumphant
vindication of the President's influence over the people, in
the results of the Western and Southern elections which
are immediately to take place. Indiana is surely with us;
even Kentucky is shaking in the wind; and North Carolina
will speak in a voice of thunder, in condemnation of
British Whiggery. Depend upon that. Our information is
of the most exact and authentic character. Read Amos
Kendall's health-inspiring paragraphs, replete with the soul
of truth, and no faithful Quod can for a moment doubt the
result.”

Accordingly we wait in anxious but cheerful suspense to
hear of the elections.

Some nervous New Lights affect to see signs of alarm,
in the fact that the President should find occasion so frequently
to write letters over the country, touching the affairs
of the election; that the Vice President should be obliged
to mount his horse and peddle in politics, as he does from

[figure description] Page 245.[end figure description]

town to town; and that even the Old Lion of the Hermitage
should, now and then, let off a roar to frighten the British
Whigs. But what can be more consistent with the principles
and professions of our new creed? Have we not exploded
Mr. Jefferson's old and unprofitable notion that the
office holders ought not to interfere with the freedom of the
elective franchise? Is it not a fundamental point with us
that the offices are “the spoils,” and that the men who hold
them ought to fight for them? How appropriate then is it
that our greatest officers should be in the very front of the
battle? Besides, we should not have considered Mr. Van
Buren worthy of that high place we have assigned him in the
Quodlibetarian school, if he did not set himself to work to
mystify every unpleasant matter of fact which might come
out against him. His letters are models for the instruction
of future New Light Statesmen, and therefore deserve the
attention not only of his contemporaries, but of all coming
generations.

A few instances will make this clear to every man's perception.

A committee of his friends in Illinois, being troubled at
the charge against him regarding the Negro suffrage and
the qualification which excluded white citizens, gathered
from his biographer—not doubting that he could explain the
matter to their satisfaction, very indiscreetly, before the
election, question him thereon; and especially demand whether
Holland's representations be true! With admirable
frankness Mr. Van Buren assures them that he will answer
at another time: and, in the meanwhile, gives these
friends reason to infer that it is quite likely Holland's book
is a forgery. Which subtle response, every man must see,
cuts up by the root every little item of fact the British Whigs
might get out of that volume to his prejudice. Vir sapit qui
pauca loquitur.

[figure description] Page 246.[end figure description]

And again:—It is a good New Light maxim, when a politician
is suspected of any unwholesome opinion, to repeal
the effect of this suspicion by the casual but frequent repetition
of words and sentiments which, in the popular judgment,
shall be held to contradict it. Of this point of tactics we
have a pregnant example in another of these letters.

Mr. Van Buren has been charged by some captious persons
with slighting the intelligence of the people, in regard to
some of his prominent acts, and, in fact, of practising upon
what he assumed to be the ignorance of those who have
been accustomed to vote for him and his measures because
he has called them democrats. Now having some little
misgivings that possibly this might be believed, he invariably
fills his letters, as if it were accidentally, with reiterated
compliments to the good sense of the people. Thus, he remarks
in a recent famous epistle of his:

“The Intelligence and virtue of our people have triumphed
over art, panic and pressure”—

—“the Intelligence and firmness of our people are equal
to any emergency”—

—“the most gratifying evidences have been furnished
that our people are, in Intelligence and integrity and determined
resolution, equal to the task of self government”—

—“in the triumph of the Independent Treasury we
witness the triumph of the popular Intelligence and firmness”—

—“on these evidences of popular Intelligence and firmness
the republican patriot rests with well grounded faith.”

All of which reiterations the curious reader, upon examination,
may find in five consecutive paragraphs of the
same letter.

This stratagem of Rhetoric has a marvellous effect upon
our new Lights; as we had occasion to observe a few days
ago, when Mr. Flam read this epistle aloud to a

[figure description] Page 247.[end figure description]

considerable assemblage of our people who had gathered together in
our committee room to hear it. At every recurrence of the
word Intelligence a loud clapping of hands evinced the sense
of the meeting at the token of approbation thus conferred
upon them by the President: and, at its conclusion, old Mr.
Snuffers wiped his eyes with his handkerchief—for it had
affected him to tears—and remarked aloud, “that if any man
after that could doubt Mr. Van Buren's democracy, he must
have the head of an infidel and the heart of a Turk.”

There was one sentiment in this letter that particularly
delighted Mr. Flam, and upon which he paused with an
inward gratification that for some moments interrupted his
reading. The eloquence and the philosophy of the sentiment
must be my excuse for inserting it here. He is speaking
of the opposition of the Federalists to the Kentucky
Resolutions:

“While even the name,” says he, “of the proud and
powerful party which opposed them, has come to be considered
a term of reproach, if not of ignominy and insult,
the principles of the Kentucky Resolutions, in profession, if
not in fact, now enter into the creed of every political sect,
and the once derided name borne by their apostates and
advocates is considered an essential passport to popularity
and success.”

How satisfactorily does this emanation of the President's
secret mind explain the motive and the source of his own
New Light Democracy! How indelibly does it fix upon
Henry Clay and the thousands who, for a quarter of a century,
have fought at his side in the great struggle to disarm
the President of his power—that name of ignominy and
insult which is attached to all who opposed the Kentucky
Resolutions!

It is wonderful to contemplate the influence of these master
minds upon our Quodlibetarian friends. The President

[figure description] Page 248.[end figure description]

scarcely drops a sentiment from his pen before it becomes
as it were expanded into the common air of Democracy.
The Globe usually leads off: the Whole Hog follows; and
upon their heels the Scrutiniser with all the Rank and File
of Typographs, brings up a glorious chorus of repetition
which leaves no hill or valley, mountain or plain in the
whole land uninstructed in the Presidential utterances. Thus
is it, even now, with this tribute to the intelligence and firmness
of the people, and this stigma of ignominy and insult
upon the old Federalists.

The Hon. Middleton Flam, Theodore Fog, Agememnon
Flag and Zachary Youngbusband, (for Zachary has turned
orator of late,) and, without vaunting, I myself may say that
the importance of the crisis has even, on some recent occasions,
placed me in the same category—we all give breath
to the same sentiment in speeches by day and by night, and
“the same key note,” to quote a studied and prepared figure
of speech from an admirable oration delivered last week by
Agamemnon Flag in front of the Iron Railing—“The same
Key Note of the Intelligence of the People rings in the
discourses of five thousand Orators, and jangles in twenty
thousand resolutions of New Light Democratic Clubs from
the St. Croix to the Sabine; and through all the windings of
its devious way the Ignominy and the Insult of Federalism
murmur on the ear in inseparable treble accompaniment.”

We have just received in Quodlibet the news from Kentucky,
Indiana and North Carolina. We are lost in amazement!
Our cause is no longer in doubt. Whatever misgivings
we may have heretofore entertained, all have vanished.
The majorities, Mr. Doubleday accounts for in the
most satisfactory manner,—and though ostensibly on the
side of the British Whigs, they have yet been obtained in

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such a manner as to render us perfectly certain of success
“in the Fall.”

Nim Porter offers an even bet of one thousand dollars on
the result, and is willing to increase it to ten.

Alabama, Illinois and Missouri are in, at the office of The
Whole Hog. Eliphalet Fox is stark mad with delirious
joy. To outward appearance something is gained by the
enemy; but Mr. Doubleday says it is altogether illusory,
and that, in fact, he has never been truly confident until
now. He repeats his assurance, that we must, from the
signs, inevitably carry all before us “in the Fall.”

Nim Porter is willing to double his bets.

Gentle reader, I have performed my covenant. Quod
meum fuit præstiti. What content these chronicles, and the
poor skill with which they are set forth, may have brought to
our respcctable Committee, I am in no position to decide;
since I know that an author is seldom honestly commended
to his face. That there is division of opinion on this matter
I am aware; for upon the reading at the last meeting on
Wednesday night, I could not fail to observe certain signs
of dissent, if not of displeasure, passing between Eliphalet
Fox and Zachary Younghusband; and that more than once.
But Mr. Flam, who has always shown himself a true friend
and patron to me, took up my cause with such spirit and
effect, being well supported by Mr. Doubleday and Mr.
Snuffers—that a unanimous vote of approbation was finally
passed by the Committee. Thus sheltered under the shield
of triple brass and tough bull hide of our Grand Central
Committee, I cheerfully submit my labors to the judgment
of the good folks of Quodlibet; promising, if they approve

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and should again call me to the desk, to contribute what my
opportunity may allow to the better elucidation of their character,
both social and public, wherein it is manifest an eager
desire to be instructed hath lately grown up in this nation.
Non sum qui oblivionis artem, quam memoriæ mallem.