ing his breast with his right hand, supporting himself with his firelock in his left," cried to them, to 66 Fight on, my countrymen, be free, be free." After the retreat the British leaders praised the unexpected valor and bravery of their enemies. Burgoyne exclaimed :59 "But this rude day, unparalleled in time, Has no competitor . . A scene like which, perhaps, no time shall know, 'Till Heaven with final ruin fires the ball, Burns up the cities and the works of men, And wraps the mountains in one general blaze." A military song by the army, on Washington's victorious entry, closed the drama. The second play by Brackenridge, The Death of General Montgomery, at the Siege of Quebec (Philadelphia, 1777), contrasted the noble traits of character and the superiority of the American cause with the sordid motives of their foes. Even here Brackenridge showed the love and respect of the colonists for former English valor, “O mighty Wolfe, if yet thy warlike shade If Wolfe had lived, would he have drawn his sword, To chain the American, and bind him down? O no, his soul, by nature elegant, With liberal sentiment and knowledge stor'd, 50 The Battle of Bunker Hill, act 5, scene 10. 9960 60 The Death of General Montgomery, act 3, scene 3. The ghost of Wolfe calmed them, "From your death shall spring the mighty thought Of moon-struck Britain.” 62 The ghost of Montgomery pronounced woe upon the King and Parliament and predicted victory for the Americans. Carleton, "exposing the body of Montgomery," entraps the Americans to surrender under promise of fair treatment and only desists from executing all of them on account of fearing the reversal of the fortune of war. Captain (afterwards General) Morgan, of Virginia, gave the final note of satire :6 .63 "And at the Last Day, when the pit receives Of Hell, shall say, 'That was an Englishman.' A comedy, published without date, name of author or of place, was The Patriots, in five acts. It deals with the social situation, the enthusiasm of the women for the distinguished officers and the lack of patriotism towards the private soldiers. The American Chronicles, in six chapters, thought by Tyler to be the work of Hopkinson, rises above the level of the ordinary pamphlet. Scores of short pieces were thrown off, in broadsides and pamphlets, all crude and unpretentious, but valuable for giving a vivid and realistic picture of the feelings of the people.64 62 Ibid., act 4, scene 3. 63 The Death of General Montgomery, act 5, scene 5. The most energetic printer of the period, William Bradford (1721-1791), issued The Pennsylvania Journal from December 2, 1742, until his death, when it was continued by his son to 1852. The paper was a means of strong appeal and bitter denunciation during the war. In 1757 Bradford revived The American Magazine for thirteen numbers. On the whole, this period of twenty years was prolific in many forms of literature, and while little of it may interest the general reader, every broadside accentuates the impressions of the student. The sermons and more learned essays were filled with serious argument and meant to soothe or to arouse; the verse served manifold purposes, satire, burlesque, occasional pleasantry. It was not a season for meditating on the glories of life, nor a time to be amused and entertained; rather an occasion for defending everything the colonists valued, and to this task they nobly set themselves. CHAPTER VI LATER PROSE AND VERSE WRITERS Magazines-Columbian-Rush-Cobbett-Museum-William Bartram -Observations-William Clifton-The Group, Political Satires, Lyrics-William Smith-Hannah Griffiths-Susanna WrightManuscript Poems-Ralling-Nesbit-Searson-Swanwick-"Geoffrey Touchstone”—Murdock-Markoe-Dramas-Linn-Powers of Genius, Valerian-Summary. AFTER the suspension of the United States Magazine (January, 1779-December, 1779), undertaken by Francis Bailey and H. H. Brackenridge, no one had the courage to try another such experiment until the war was over and financial confidence was restored. In September, 1786, a company started the Columbian Magazine or Monthly Miscellany, modelled upon the Gentleman's and the London Magazine. The owners were Mathew Carey, T. Siddons, C. Talbot, N. Spotswood, and J. Frenchard. Carey contributed to the first issue The Life of General Greene, and later some short poems, but in December he withdrew from the company to edit a magazine of his own. Many native productions on local topics can be found only in these volumes. They were not, however, confined to local productions; The Foresters, a humorous account of the settlement of America and her trouble with Great Britain, by Jeremy Belknap of New Hampshire was written for this periodical. Under the editorship of A. J. Dallas, brother of Byron's biographer,1 and by means of the contributions of Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), the magazine pros 1 Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron, 1808 to 1814, by Robert Charles Dallas. pered until December, 1792, when it was discontinued because of the high postage rate. The essays of the latter, literary, moral and philosophical, were published in book form (Philadelphia, 1798). Rush was a professor of chemistry in the college, a surgeon in the Pennsylvania Hospital, and a man interested in all social, political and philanthropic reforms. He dreams in The Paradise of Negro Slaves, of meeting many blacks, mindful of their tales of sorrow and oppression. While the stories are being rehearsed, Anthony Benezet, their benefactor, is announced and all rush to welcome him. The biographies of Lay and Benezet take a eulogistic form. In some of his medical lectures and essays, Rush departs from scientific questions to consider the effect upon society of certain forms of punishment, the need of definite reforms, and the responsibility of increasing prosperity.2 Rush was exceedingly useful during the yellow fever plague of 1798. William Cobbett, or "Peter Porcupine," editor of Porcupine's Gazette and United States Daily Advertiser (March 4, 1797, to January 13, 1800) and of the Political Censor (March, 1796, to March, 1797), who was noted for his extreme vulgarity and powerful invective, compared Dr. Rush to Doctor Sangrado, in Gil Blas, because Rush treated his fever patients by bleeding them. A slander suit followed, which cost the editor about eight thousand dollars and caused him to return to England. Before starting, however, Cobbett wrote many scurrilous pages against Rush, in The Rushlight, a new federal monthly, published in New York, in which place, Cobbett, for a short time continued his business. The American Museum, begun in January, 1787, by Carey, was the most successful American magazine of the 2 See The Old Farmer and His Almanac, by G. L. Kittredge, Boston, 1904. |