The honorable John Adams, Esq. Vice President
of the United States, 2 copies.
The hon. Pierce Butler, Esq. }
The hon. Charles Carrol, Esq. }
The hon. Oliver Ellsworth, Esq. }
The hon. William Few, Esq. }
The hon. Benjamin Hawkins, Esq. }
The hon. John Henry, Esq. }
The hon. Ralph Izard, Esq. } Senators in Congress.
The hon. William Samuel Johnson, Esq. }
The hon. Samuel Johnston, Esq. }
The hon. Rufus King, Esq. }
The hon. Robert Morris, Esq. }
The hon. George Read, Esq. }
Hon. Jonathan Trumbull, Esq. } Representativs
Jeremiah Wadsworth, Esq. 2 copies. } in Congress.
A.
Nathaniel W. Appleton, Physician, _Boston_.
John Allen, Esq. Attorney at Law, _Litchfield_.
B.
Isaac Baldwin, Esq. Clerk of Court, _Litchfield_.
Isaac Baldwin, jun. Esq. Attorney, do.
Mrs. Ruthy Barlow, _Greenfield_.
Mr. Jesse Benedict, _Fairfield_.
Mr. Isaac Bronson, _Hartford_.
Mr. Caleb Bull, do.
Mr. James Burr, do.
Jonathan Brace, Esq. Attorney, _Glanstenbury_.
David Burr, Esq. Attorney, _Fairfield_.
Barna Bidwell, Esq. Attorney, _New Haven_.
John Bird, Esq. Attorney, _Salisbury_.
C.
Peter Colt, Esq. Treasurer of Connecticut, _Hartford_.
Mr. John M'Curdy, Merchant, do.
Richard M'Curdy, Esq. Attorney, _Lyme_.
John Caldwell, Esq. Alderman of the City of Hartford.
Mr. John Chenevard, jun. _Hartford_.
Hon. John Chester, Esq. Judge of the County Court, _Wethersfield_.
Thomas Chester, Esq. Attorney, _Wethersfield_.
Edward Carrington, Physician, _Milford_.
Reverend Henry Channing, _New London_.
Joshua Coit, Esq. Attorney, do.
Mr. Lynde M'Curdy, Merchant, _Norwich_.
Messieurs Coit and Lathrop, Merchants, do.
Mason F. Cogswell, Physician and Surgeon, _Hartford_.
Reverend John Clarke, _Boston_.
D.
Samuel W. Dana, Esq. Attorney, _Middleton_.
David Daggett, Esq. Attorney, _New Haven_.
Mr. Benadam Dennison, _Norwich_.
E.
Pierpont Edwards, Esq. Attorney for Connecticut District, _New Haven_.
F.
Mr. Thomas Fanning, _Norwich_.
G.
William Greenleaf, Esq. _Boston_.
Chauncey Goodrich, Esq. Attorney, _Hartford_.
Elizur Goodrich, Esq. Attorney, _New Haven_.
Gideon Granger, jun. Esq. Attorney, _Suffield_.
Gaylord Griswold, Esq. Attorney, _Windsor_.
H.
His Excellency Samuel Huntington, Esq. Governor of Connecticut.
Lemuel Hopkins, Physician, _Hartford_.
Mr. Asa Hopkins, Druggist, do.
Uriel Holmes, Esq. Attorney, _New Hartford_.
Colonel Ebenezer Huntington, Merchant, _Norwich_.
Mr. Joseph Howland, do.
Mr. Andrew Huntington, Merchant, do.
Mr. Levi Huntington, do.
David Hull, Physician, _Fairfield_.
William Hillhouse, Esq. Attorney, _New Haven_.
Captain Pliny Hillyer, _Granby_.
Samuel Henshaw, Esq. _Northampton_.
I.
Jonathan Ingersoll, Esq. Attorney, _New Haven_.
J.
William Judd, Esq. Attorney, _Farmington_, 2 copies.
John Coffin Jones, Esq. _Boston_.
K.
Mr. Isaac Kibby, Merchant, _Enfield_.
Ephraim Kirby, Esq. Attorney, _Litchfield_.
Mr. Joshua King, _Ridgefield_.
L.
Lynde Lord, Esq. Sheriff of Litchfield County, _Litchfield_.
M.
Reverend Jedidiah Morse, _Charlestown_.
William Moseley, Esq. Attorney, _Hartford_.
Samuel Marsh, Esq. Attorney, _Litchfield_.
Mr. John Morgan, Merchant, _Hartford_.
Mr. William Marsh, do.
Eneas Munson, jun. Physician, _New Haven_.
Ashur Miller, Esq. Attorney, _Middleton_.
George R. Minot, Esq. Attorney, _Boston_.
N.
Hon. Roger Newberry, Esq. Judge of the County Court, _Windsor_.
O.
Mr. Jacob Ogden, Merchant, _Hartford_.
Harrison Gray Otis, Esq. Attorney, _Boston_.
P.
Ralph Pomeroy, Esq. Controller of the Treasury, _Hartford_.
Enoch Perkins, Esq. Attorney, _Hartford_.
Mr. Nathaniel Patten, Merchant, _Hartford_, 3 copies.
Colonel Joshua Porter, Judge of the County Court, _Salisbury_.
Jonas Prentice, jun. Esq. _New Haven_.
Colonel Noah Phelps, _Symsbury_.
Giles Pettibone, Esq. _Norfolk_.
R.
Hon. Jesse Root, Esq. Judge of the Superior Court, _Hartford_.
Nathaniel Rosseter, Esq. _Guilford_.
Ephraim Root, Esq. Attorney, _Hartford_.
Tapping Reeve, Esq. Attorney, _Litchfield_.
S.
Reverend Nathan Strong, _Hartford_.
Thomas Y. Seymour, Esq. Attorney, do.
Mr. Isaac Sanford, Goldsmith, do.
Reuben Smith, Esq. _Litchfield_.
Daniel Sherman, Esq. Chief Judge of County Court, _Woodbury_.
General Heman Swift, _Cornwall_.
Lewis B. Sturgis, Esq. Attorney, _Fairfield_.
Mr. James Smedley, do.
Zephaniah Swift, Esq. _Windham_.
T.
John Trumbull, Esq. State Attorney for Hartford County.
Uriah Tracy, Esq. Attorney, _Litchfield_.
Nathaniel Terry, jun. Esq. Attorney, _Enfield_.
Mr. Thomas Tisdale, Merchant, _Hartford_.
W.
The Hon. Oliver Walcott, Esq. Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut,
_Litchfield_.
John Williams, Esq. Attorney, _Wethersfield_.
William Williston, Esq. Attorney, _Symsbury_.
Mr. Joseph Williams, _Norwich_.
Mr. Ashbel Wells, Merchant, _Hartford_.
Alexander Wolcott, Esq. Attorney, _Windsor_.
Mr. Thomas Walley, Merchant, _Boston_.
Thomas Welsh, Physician, _Boston_.
TO
The PRESIDENT,
The VICE PRESIDENT,
The SENATORS, and
The REPRESENTATIVS
OF THE
UNITED STATES of AMERICA,
The following PUBLICATION,
Designed to
Aid the PRINCIPLES of the REVOLUTION,
TO
Suppress POLITICAL DISCORD,
AND TO
Diffuse a SPIRIT of ENQUIRY,
Favorable to MORALS, to SCIENCE, and TRUTH,
Is most humbly inscribed,
As a TRIBUTE of RESPECT for their KARACTERS,
Of GRATITUDE for their PUBLIC SERVICES,
And a PLEDGE of ATTACHMENT
TO THE
Present CONSTITUTION
OF THE
AMERICAN REPUBLIC,
BY THEIR MOST OBEDIENT,
AND MOST HUMBLE SERVANT,
_The Author_.
HARTFORD, _June, 1790_.
_As the author was absent from the press, and the copy, in some places,
obscure or not correct, some errors have unavoidably escaped the notice
of the printers. The following are the most material._
Page 47, line 7, after _corporate_ add _body_.
49, line 4 from bottom, for _cognized_ reed _organized_.
54, line 6 of note, for _would_ reed _could_.
58, line 7, for _contrary_ reed _contracting_.
146, last line, for _thousand_ reed _hundred_.
151, line 2 from bottom, for _jurisdiction_ reed _usurpation_.
263, line 13, for _do_ reed _did_.
275, line 5, for _Archorites_ reed _Archontes_.
283, line 14, for _leriquæ_ reed _linguæ_, and for _dacodeni_
_duodeni_.
323, last line of text, for _godfather_ reed _grandfather_.
327, line 7 from bottom, for _change_ reed _chance_.
332, line 7 from bottom, for _masks_ reed _marks_.
334, line 22, place the full point after _equity_.
349, line 1, for _district_ reed _distinct_.
350, line 2, for _mass_ reed _map_.
355, line 5, for _ilans_ reed _clans_.
365, line 9, for _the manners_ reed _this manner_.
375, line 3 and 4 from bottom, for _ilans_ reed _ilands_.
377, line 4, for _Koman_ reed _Roman_.
382, line 4 from bottom, for _necessarily_ reed _necessary_.
401, line 28, for _normous_ reed _enormous_.
_PREFACE._
The following Collection consists of Essays and Fugitiv Peeces, ritten
at various times, and on different occasions, az wil appeer by their
dates and subjects. Many of them were dictated at the moment, by the
impulse of impressions made by important political events, and abound
with a correspondent warmth of expression. This freedom of language wil
be excused by the frends of the revolution and of good guvernment, who
wil recollect the sensations they hav experienced, amidst the anarky and
distraction which succeeded the cloze of the war. On such occasions a
riter wil naturally giv himself up to hiz feelings, and hiz manner of
_riting_ wil flow from hiz manner of _thinking_.
Most of thoze peeces, which hav appeered before in periodical papers and
Magazeens, were published with fictitious signatures; for I very erly
discuvered, that altho the name of an old and respectable karacter givs
credit and consequence to hiz ritings, yet the name of a yung man iz
often prejudicial to hiz performances. By conceeling my name, the
opinions of men hav been prezerved from an undu bias arizing from
personal prejudices, the faults of the ritings hav been detected, and
their merit in public estimation ascertained.
The favorable reception given to a number of theze Essays by an
indulgent public, induced me to publish them in a volum, with such
alterations and emendations, az I had heerd suggested by frends or
indifferent reeders, together with some manuscripts, that my own wishes
led me to hope might be useful.
During the course of ten or twelv yeers, I hav been laboring to correct
popular errors, and to assist my yung brethren in the road to truth and
virtue; my publications for theze purposes hav been numerous; much time
haz been spent, which I do not regret, and much censure incurred, which
my hart tells me I do not dezerv. The influence of a yung writer cannot
be so powerful or extensiv az that of an established karacter; but I hav
ever thot a man's usefulness depends more on _exertion_ than on
_talents_. I am attached to America by berth, education and habit; but
abuv all, by a philosophical view of her situation, and the superior
advantages she enjoys, for augmenting the sum of social happiness.
I should hav added another volum, had not recent experience convinced
me, that few large publications in this country wil pay a printer, much
less an author. Should the Essays here presented to the public, proov
undezerving of notice, I shal, with cheerfulness, resign my other papers
to oblivion.
The reeder wil obzerv that the orthography of the volum iz not uniform.
The reezon iz, that many of the essays hav been published before, in the
common orthography, and it would hav been a laborious task to copy the
whole, for the sake of changing the spelling.
In the essays, ritten within the last year, a considerable change of
spelling iz introduced by way of experiment. This liberty waz taken by
the writers before the age of queen Elizabeth, and to this we are
indeted for the preference of modern spelling over that of Gower and
Chaucer. The man who admits that the change of _housbonde_, _mynde_,
_ygone_, _moneth_ into _husband_, _mind_, _gone_, _month_, iz an
improovment, must acknowlege also the riting of _helth_, _breth_,
_rong_, _tung_, _munth_, to be an improovment. There iz no alternativ.
Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the
spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform
should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under
the influence of reezon than our ancestors.
_Hartford, June, 1790._