correspondence, with the existence of which we had long been acquainted. If the public had been possessed of the biography of Hamilton, which has so long been promised, but which, we fear, will be delayed, until all its bone and gristle are gone,-nothing would be necessary for us, so far as his illustrious name is concerned, but to refer to that work. In the absence, therefore, of such a testimony, and under the impression that this stale calumny might be cited in support of the assertion of the Reviewer, we have determined to preserve, in our Port Folio, the ensuing correspondence, DEAR SIR Salem, (Massachusetts,) 5th April, 1803. THE assertion of the Jacobins, that you are an aristocrat and a monarchist, is not new: but at a late meeting of the sect in this town, one of their leaders declared, "that general Hamilton proposed (and, it was understood, advocated) in the general convention, that the president of the United States, and the senators, should be chosen for life: that this was intended as an introduction to monarchy; and that the federalists of this county, (Essex) had adopted general Hamilton's plan." Your friends here (who are the real friends of their country,) are very desirous of knowing the fact. If you did not make and advocate that proposition, it will be useful to have it known, and the Jacobin lie contradicted. If the proposition was offered in the convention, your friends well know to what motives to ascribe it; and that, whatever form of government you may have suggested for consideration, the public welfare, and the permanent liberty of your country, were not less the objects of pursuit with you, than with the other members of the convention. Your answer will gratify me and your numerous friends here. Such use shall only be made of it as you shall prescribe: and as I shall be absent for about four weeks from this time, have the goodness to direct your letter to me, under cover, to my nephew Samuel Putnam, Esq. of Salem. General Hamilton. MY DEAR SIR I am, as ever, truly and respectfully, yours, TIMOTHY PICKERING. New York, 16th Sept. 1803. I WILL make no apology for my delay in answering your inquiry some time since made, because I could offer none which would satisfy myself. I pray you only to believe, that it proceeded from any thing, rather than want of respect or regard. I shall now comply with your request. The highest toned propositions, which I made in the conven tion, were for a president, senate, and judges, during good behaviour-a house of representatives for three years. Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the general government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the state governments; but on the contrary, they were in some particulars, constituent parts of my plan. This plan was in my conception, conformable with the strict theory of a government purely republican; the essential criteria of which are, that the principal organ of the executive and legis. lative departments be elected by the people, and hold their offices by a responsible and temporary, or defeasible tenure. A vote was taken on the proposition respecting the executive. Five states were in favour of it; among these Virginia, and though from the manner of voting, by delegations, individuals were not distinguished, it was morally certain, from the known situation of the Virginia members, (six in number, two of them Mason and Randolph, professing popular doctrines,) that Madison must have concurred in the vote of Virginia. Thus, if I sinned against republicanism, Mr. Madison was not less guilty. I may truly then say, that I never proposed either a president or senate for life, and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of the state governments. And I may add, that in the course of the discussions in the convention, neither the propositions thrown out for debate, nor even those voted in the earlier stages of deliberation, were considered as evidences of a definite opinion, in the proposer or voter. It appeared to me to be in some sort understood, that with a view to free investigation, experimental propositions might be made, which were to be received merely as suggestions for considera tion. Accordingly, it is a fact, that my final opinion was against an executive during good behaviour, on account of the increased danger to the public tranquillity, incident to the election of a magistrate of this degree of permanency. In the plan of a constitution, which I drew up, while the convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. Madison about the close of it, perhaps a a day or two after, the office of president has no greater duration than for three years. This plan was predicated upon these bases:-1st. That the political principles of the people of this country would endure nothing but republican government. 2nd. That in the actual situation of the country, it was in itself right and proper, that the republican theory should have a fair and full trial. 3rd. That to such a trial it was essential, that the government should be so constructed, as to give it all the energy and stability reconcileable with the principles of that theory. These were the genuine sentiments of my heart, and upon them I acted. I sincerely hope, that it may not hereafter be discovered, that through want of sufficient attention to the last idea, the experiment of republican government, even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as decisive, as could be wished. Very truly, Dear Sir, Timothy Pickering, Esq. Your friend and servant, A. HAMILTON. POETICAL PROSINGS BY MAJOR LONGBOW. THE DAVID AND HE GOAT, MERYDDGWDYTWLLY. North Wales, 12th Oct. 1822. MY DEAR EDITOR,-Here I am! Just arrived, all safe and sound, rump-steak broiling below, while I keep my word, and write directly to say,-why the devil did'nt you meet me at Brighton? Kept a seat for you in the tilbury, mounted George on the charger, and drove Gun-powder in harness. Never sat behind a beast that went better; drove ten thousand horses in my time, and never had such a beauty before: all blood, bone, fire, and action: been five and fifty miles a day for the last nine weeks, and never stumbled! Hills or turnpike roads, all the same pace, and bolts at nothing but an old woman with a lantern. 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie? Since I saw you, been all over the three kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland, seen them all; Laurencekirk, Prestonpans, Strathbogie, and Edinburgh Castle! Ballyshannon, Knocklofty, Mullingar, Cork, and Dublin. Been up all the inaccessible mountains, slept in Fingal's cave, and swain over the lake of Killarney! Wet weather all the time I was out, not a single dry day for the whole three months, but couldn't hurt me; hard as marble! never was ill in my life, and never took a dose of physic! You know my muscle, double jointed! finest piece of anatomy on the face of the earth! Hercules was a fool to me! 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie? Bought ten score of Irish black cattle, for my cousin Harry's farm in Norfolk; all prime beasts; such horns and tails! One of them tossed me thirty feet over a hay-stack! Would have killed any body else, could'nt hurt me! Up I went, down I came, pitched plump into my own arm chair at the dinner table! Nothing to what I met with in the East Indies once, at my Bungalow near Kuttygar; walking one morning with colonel Rampart, met one of my red bulls, none of your little English breed-big as a rhinoceros, and strong as an elephant? Away went the colonel,-" fly," says I, "I will," says he, left me to face him, walked leisurely to the hedge, five and twenty feet high, could have cleared that at jump, but no! stood my ground, and met him manfully-bull came up, seized me by the middle, and over I went; another bull on the other side caught me on his horns, and tossed me back again; first flung me over to the second, and there was I, pitched backwards and forwards for three hours and twenty minutes! I repeat it, for three hours and twenty minutes! till the last bull was so tired, could only throw me to the top of the hedge; upon which, up I sprang, and ran home by a circuitous route, nine miles round, without stopping! 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie. There was muscle! why, that would have killed twenty common men; did'nt hurt me, drank five bottles of claret afterwards, and went to bed sober; hard as marble, hit me with a hammer, make no impression, a sledge hammer if you like! Double jointed! Strong as a Hercules and a half, and a match for Randall and any three prize-fighters the Fives Court can furnish; five hundred guineas to five that I finish them all in twelve minutes. Punish them as I did the marble Melpomene at the Louvre, knock their noses off! By the by, I see Matthews told that story of me at the play-house last winter; showed me off to the public, when I was climbing up rocks and tumbling down precipices in Switzerland; introduced all my private adventures. Old Twaddle frightening the fish at Battersea; splashing and dabbing like a cat in a waterbutt; going up in the balloon, Indian juggler, landing at Margate, and all that sort of concern. Pretended that I was afraid too! I, that never was afraid of any thing in my life; he knew that; nothing alarms me. Young lady set the bed curtains on fire at an inn where I slept last December, reading novels when she ought to have been dreaming about them: room in a blaze! staircase as hot as St. Sebastian, when I mounted the first scaling ladder! what did I do? shaved myself, and dressed in full uniform, quite cool and composed; took the whole family, two and twenty of them, up to the top of the house, nine stories high! tied them all up in blankets, three together, and flung them over the parapet; jumped myself last, with the young lady under my arm, and not a soul hurt! 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie? And after all this, Mathews to say that I was frightened! it's well for him I was'nt in London; but we shall meet yet, and he'll find that major Longbow is'nt to be affronted with impunity. What! escaped being taken off by the enemy's balls at Waterloo, and to be taken off at the English Opera house in London. I'll show him muscle! Why my own relations swore they saw me in the Strand, when I was rolling over the Glaciers! Vowed that I was retailing my own exploits at Westminster, when I was living peaceably at Zurich! So warn Matthews of his danger, will you! for if I dont carbonado him, unless he makes an apology, never believe me again. How go on things in London, eh, Mr. Editor? for the people about me here know nothing-how should they? Never in town: all their lives digging, and delving, and ploughing, and sowing, and reaping, planting drumhead cabbages, and Swedish turnips, and mangel wurzel, breeding hogs, and pounding jack-asses; Pooh! mere clod-hoppers! dolts! plenty of muscle, but no brains, dull as their own donkeys; send me down twenty dozen of the European to give away to enlighten them: and if that charity don't do them good they are incurable! Fine coursing country I've been in lateTy, hares plenty as sprats at Billingsgate, loaded the heavy coach up last Friday, inside and out, all of my own shooting! 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie? Hope your five and twenty came sweet, feast all your establishment for a month. Miss my dog Mungo though, never get such another; if once he saw a hare, never lost scent till he caught him, he'd have followed the brute for a month first. Started one in Sussex of a Tuesday morning, I remember; away they went; hare bolted in at a rabbit-burrow, so did Mungo; there I waited, Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, never came out! Countryman passed by with pick-axe and shovel, told him the story, he felt as I did, at it we went, worked like tigers! all day Wednesday, saw nothing of them, kept on night and day, till we dug nine miles under ground! I repeat it, nine miles under ground! and at four o'clock Saturday afternoon, the dog caught the hare just as we got up to them! 'Pon my life it's true! What will you lay it's a lie? Mungo died at last though, choaked himself at a hunting dinner, where I was chairman, had a pair of gloves made out of his skin, and the hair stands on end now, whenever I go out coursing! Hope to be in town soon, have my old lodgings, and stop all the winter; then I'll show you muscle! Not an hour older than I was forty years ago! hip three inches higher than any other man's in England! hard as marble, and the finest form in Europe! Door opens, waiter enters. Rump-steak, oysters, Madeira, all ready, so am I! eat nothing but a few sandwiches, these two hours. So, good by, Beauchamp,-hav'nt written to a soul but you, therefore let them all know I'm alive. Print this in the Magazine, if you like, that's the shortest way; every body knows me, every body reads the European, and so they'll all have the news at once. forget to write to Mathews, privately though; for if he doesn't excuse himself handsomely, I'll crack every bone in his body, like a boiled lobster. There's muscle! Your's truly, Don't MUNCHAUSEN LONGBOW. P. S. Send the twenty dozen of Magazines down here by mail to-morrow, and I'll give them away myself; I'll enlighten the boobies' ignorance; I'll drive sense into their heads, if I use a hatchet. At present there are but ten copies in all the village, and six of those are read by Welch interpreters. Sorry I couldn't be at the coronation, but it was impossible; offered a thousand |