Being in a public station from the year 1800, I had to
pay the usual tax of obloquy to men in office, from Paddy
from Cork, &c.; and, paying more than I thought my
proportion, it was natural for me, to think of my bog-trotter,
as one who would make just such an editor as some
of these were. It was for this purpose, therefore, that
it came into my mind to give him a journal to edit.

It was a retrospection to a past period when a batchelor,
and recollecting the competition of those whom I
thought undeserving persons, that I was led to caricature
their pretensions with the success of my bog-trotter.
The fact is, I thought it might be of service to the young
women in the choice of a husband, and save them from
swindlers, who differed little from the quadruped, but
in the horn and the hoof, which they had not about them.

I have had individuals in my eye, in all these matters,
no doubt; but I do not name them; because they are not
worth naming; nor would the subject admit it. General
strictures of human nature, is all that can be expected, in
these matters.

From the talents of some new editors of papers, who
had never yet fleshed their maiden swords in a republic,
but were from Ireland, Scotland, or England, and some
that were from neither, but turf-born, in this country,
the press came to daggers-drawing with the law. The
types disposed themselves; 1, against the judges; 2, against
the law, and finally against the constitution. They
got help from partisans on all sides; and these establishments
were likely to be blown up. Learning was decryed;
and it was no uncommon thing to hear members
of the legislature thanking God “that they had never
been within a college.” There is now a considerable reform
of the public way of thinking; candidates for state
trusts begin to value themselves for having been at school,
and find their account in being thought able to read. It
is not as it used to be, the enquiry altogether, whether
a man be a plain unlettered person; or has had a tincture
of the law to poison his faculties. There is now actually
a lawyer a speaker of the senate. Heretofore you might
have seen caucus-holding men at their wits end for some
extraordinary kind of dunce to send to the house; upon
the same principle, that the philosophers dig into the
earth for a mineral, a science which is called Oryctognosy;
or that they look for a shell on the sea-shore, or a
beetle in the woods, to send to a museum.

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The enquiry now is by these caucus people in every
county, not only who is honest, but, who is capable?
There are said to be sixty-two new members in the present
session; I cannot say whether in the two houses, or
in one, the old having been left out; and this on the principle,
that they had missed a figure in calculation, and
read four for three dollars.

In the courts of judicature, in this state, there had always
been much delay; and this, in a great degree, owing
to the length of speeches; and note-taking. What
else but this book has put that down. Does any body
now hear of much excess in harangues? On the contrary,
there is the utmost precision of thought, and brevity
of expression.

Nor has it only been in forensic eloquence that there
has been a curtailing, but in that of deliberative bodies.
It is not from Pennsylvania, that those interminable
speeches come, which we hear of on the floor of congress.
Is it not to be hoped that, when my book gets a circulation
beyond the state, and into other parts of the Union,
a retrenchment will be perceptible in the verbosity of
members from other places, and that quality will begin
to be consulted, and the quantity reduced. I could wish
a tax were laid upon the time taken up in a debate. Why
is it that congress do not buy up an edition of my book,
and distribute among the members? It would be of
more use to them than the library of Monticello. If it
lay with the President, I am confident he would not hesitate,
had there not been so much said about the $50,000
to John Henry.

The people of Pennsylvania are so sensible of the use
that it has been in this state, that there is scarcely a parlour
window without a MODERN CHIVALRY. Five
booksellers have made a fortune by it; for I have never
asked a cent from any of them for the privilege of printing
an edition, save in this last instance, where a few copies
have been stipulated for the amanuensis to whom I
have dictated what has been added to the work, and this
for the purpose of distributing to his uncles, aunts, and
first cousins, as the members of congress do the copies
that are ordered to be printed, of President's messages,
reports of ambassadors, &c.

I have said that I do not know that I shall write more,
though I have some transactions in my mind, that I could
wish to Chronicle; and characters that might be drawn.

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I know, that after the present war, which, in the nature
of things, cannot last always, an ambassador will be sent
to England; and Teague may be a candidate. I can carry
him it I will; but, in that matter, I shall hesitate, because
I should have to take the trouble of presenting him
after his outfit; and going through the ceremonies of an
introduction, with which I am not so well acquainted.
For though a great deal might be said in favour of a republican
going from a republican government, being less
in need of a knowledge of etiquette, like an Indian prince
that comes from the woods; yet, as those who had preceded
him. Adams, Jay, King, Pinkney, &c. had not
gone with their coats buttoned behind, but accommodated
themselves to the dress, and the customs of the
courts of Europe; my bog-trotter could not well depart
from precedent.