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I know not to whom a work like this, consisting mainly of
selections from native authors, can with more propriety be
dedicated, than to one who has ever been their firmest defender
and warmest advocate. These titles, I need hardly
add, are peculiarly your own. Your early efforts contributed
much to raise American Literature from obscurity; and, when
its enemies could no longer adduce the plea of its insignificance,
and, from studied contempt, had recourse to open
malignity, you were found in the front rank of its defenders,
hurling back, vigorously, upon the assailants, the darts of ridicule
and satire. And, furthermore, that which you cherished
and protected in its infancy, you have adorned and
amplified in its maturer years, for you have never put off the
garb of nationality, nor imbibed those foreign prejudices
which would fain make us resign our truest badge of independence.

Your generous support of a cause hitherto involving more
honour than emolument, has given you a claim upon the regards
of all who cherish national sympathies, to which I am
proud to add my personal esteem, founded upon a sense of
your moral worth, and an intimacy fraught with delightful
recollections. These entitle me to subscribe myself