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No. I.

HARVARD COLLEGE FIBRARY

In zankam fund

LITERARY

THE LITERARY PORT FOLIO Will be published every Thursday, and on this day it will always be punctually delivered to subscribers in Philadelphia and New York, and sent off by mail to subscribers in the country.

It will contain eight printed pages in each number, and four handsome engravings every year. The price will be Three Dollars a year-or Two Dollars and a Half if paid in advance,

It is intended that this journal shall contain such a variety of matter as may make it acceptable to ladies as well as to gentlemen; to the young as well as to the old. While we shall take care that nothing be admitted which would render the work unfit for any of these classes, we shall endeavour to procure for it sufficient ability to en. title it to the attention of all of them. To these ends we have secured an abundant supply of all foreign and domestic journals and new books-and we ask the assistance of all who are qualified to instruct or amuse the public. Upon this assistance we depend in a great degree for our hopes of success, for however the abundant stores to which we have access, may enable us to supply matter which may be highly interesting to our readers, we shall think it of even more importance to give them something peculiarly adapted to the present time and circumstances; something from home.

Communications should be addressed to "E. Littell for the Literary Port Folio,"-and subscriptions will be thankfully received by E. Littell & Brother, corner of Chestnut and Seventh streets, Philadelphia. Subscriptions are also received by Thomas C. Clarke, 2. W. corner of Chestnut and Seventh streets.

The present agents are requested to continue their exertions to promote the circulation of the work, and a Jiberal compensation will be made to all who may procure and forward subscriptions and payment.

To the present publishers nearly all the subscribers are strangers. It is our wish to ascertain as early as pos sible whether there be any names on our list unworthy of credit, and to this end we respectfully request all the good subscribers to take the trouble to call at the book. store and pay what may be due for the past year-nd also, by paying in advance, to receive the deduction request stipulated in our terms. A compliance with this will inuch oblige us.

Public Affairs.

In beginning our editorial labours, all that we have room to say under this head, is a few words upon the manner in which we shall hereafter endeavour to fulfil this part of our duty. We shall not have room for the messages of our Presidents; nor for the reports of future Conventions; nor for the constitutions of benevolent societies; nor for the interminable essays of - -; nor even for the reports of Secretaries at War. We shall not even be able, in the small space we can give to this department, to condense all the important items of intelligence; but considering the whole as an open field to us, we shall select such subjects as shall to us seem best-considered in the compound ratio of their usefulness to our readers, and their adaptation to our editorial capacity.

In thus announcing our intention to meddle, when we judge it expedient, with political matters, we think it necessary to guard against alarming two classes of our subscribers: 1st. Those who may think us likely to encroach upon a province peculiarly belonging to themselves. To these we say, that we have no desire to distinguish ourselves in any of the dirty work now doing, and that we are as unlikely to become active politicians as if we were

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PORT FOLIO. KSG 649

PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 7,

judges on the bench. 2d. To those who may
fear that our meddling with public affairs may
or the
make our paper as dull as the
and thus unfit it for what we have declared to
be its object-the information and amusement
of ladies as well as gentlemen; of the young
as well as of the old-to these we say, that
our greatest desire is, to be useful-that is, in
the favourite definition of the utilitarians, "to
produce the greatest happiness to the greatest
number"—and so sincere are we in this matter,
that we do not hesitate to declare that we
would rather receive five thousand more good
subscribers to this paper, than to receive fifty
thousand votes for Governor of Pennsylvania.
More and more arrivals from the Bay of
Mexico, have lessened and lessened our hope
of hearing from the HORNET, and we can now
hope no longer. "The captain of a light brig
who was in the edge of the tempest, represents
it as having been the most appalling spectacle
that he ever beheld. The sea was wrought
into a foam as though a thousand water spouts
were bursting over as many whirlpools, while
the winds were driving with a fury that moun-
tains only could resist. His own vessel was
very light, and although but in the edge of the
gale, he was borne almost through the air, he
knew not how. The captain thinks that no
heavy ship, or ship heavily laden, could have
We have heard
stood that awful tempest."

the opinion of one of our highest naval officers,
"that in all probability the gale opened the
seams of the Hornet, and she went down like a
mass of iron."

The long uncertain fate of the Eperrier,
hung for months upon our imagination; but
in the loss of this vessel we keenly feel that
we have suffered a peculiar evil.

Lieutenant Daniel H. Mackey was a friend of whom we were proud. He was a man upon whom we should have absolutely relied in any difficulty or danger. In uprightness, in delicacy, in manners and in mind, he was a gentleman to whom we know no superior. As an officer he was strictly attentive to his duty, when on board;-and we can testify from personal knowledge, that when on shore he was assiduous in those studies which better qualified him for serving his country. Whatever it was his duty to know, he knew thoroughly -and such is our opinion of his capacity, his prudence, and his knowledge, that we do not hesitate to assert, that could any accident have placed him at one step at the head of our Navy, he would have done honour to his station.

For the Literary Port Folio.
PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.
(See the accompanying Plate.)

The celebrated treaty under the Elm Tree
at Shackamaxon, has received so much atten-
The
quarters of the world, as to give it strongly the
tion, and excited so much emotion in various
character of an incident in romance.
spectacle was indeed singular in many respects;

1830.

and well calculated to act on the imagination.
A band of humble religionists,who, through per-
secution and evil-speaking, had retained their
determination to obey the scriptural mandate,
"resist not evil," headed by a courtier of one
king, and the cherished personal friend of ano-
ther, the son of Cromwell's victorious admiral,
himself forsaking the attractions of a court, to
exercise his religion, and to colonize the desolate
wilderness-these men entering a region hi-
therto distracted by incessantly repeated 'wars,
and in which the only European lodgments
were maintained by fortified posts, provided
with cannon, and there transacting with the
high-minded savage a peaceful purchase of soil,
founded on reciprocal services, and only gua-
ranteed by confidence in each other's good
faith, a faith retained uninjured for a period of
seventy years-such was indeed a remarkable
occurrence. Nor was the end less worthy of
history than the action or the men. To estab-
lish a government, under which entire personal
liberty, and in particular, total freedom of con-
science, for all denominations, should be se-
cured, by depositing the power in the hands of
the people to be governed; to institute the ex-
perimental trial of a regular, elective, repre-
sentative republic, freed from the habitual con-
nexion of church and state, was an undertaking
utterly at variance with the spirit of the age.
In the reign of the second James, who incur-
red so much obloquy, and ultimately lost his
throne, for the attempts he was believed to be
making to re-establish the Catholic religion
and Roman domination in the British islands,
such an attempt, with the patronage of the
monarch himself, might even go far to call in
question the reality of his supposed efforts at
overruling religious liberty at home. Well
might the occurrence excite the attention, in
a subsequent age, of the infidel satirist," who
declared this "the only treaty never ratified by
an oath, and the only one that was never bro-
ken."

Nor were the aboriginal parties to the treaty
devoid of personal interest. We have not now
space to go into a discussion with the talented
but prejudiced writer in the North American
Review, who has expressed a contrary opinion;
but we think any impartial person who will
take the pains to examine the necessary docu-
ments, will be convinced of the truth of the
statement originally made by Heckewelder,.
that the Delaware Indians held a high priority
among the tribes of this continent, with the
exception of the Six Nations, in the capacity of
political leaders and of peace-makers. The fa-
mous title of Grandfather, uniformly claimed
knowledged by members of other tribes, pro-
by them down to very recent treaties, and ac-
bably conveyed no very definite powers, ac-
cording to our ideas. Still, it appears from
their own statements, as preserved by the au-
thor just mentioned, that they laid aside, by
treaty, the character of warriors, to assume
that of women, with the distinct understanding
that in this there was no degradation, but an
honorary charge of peace-making, which could
be given to none but a powerful and respected
nation. This has been treated, in the review
alluded to, as the self-flattering invention of a
conquered tribe; and some of our own people
have been found willing to back this supposi-
tion by appealing to the commands said to have

been laid on thein by the Six Nations, at the treaty of Easten, which they are represented to have obeyed, by removing to Wyoming, When we recollect that the Six Nations were invited to assume and exercise this influence by the whites, at a period when the latter, with their Mohawk allies, vastly outnumbered and nearly surrounded the Delawares, and that the

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latter had been for about 60 years unused to war, and particularly united in bonds of the strictest ainity with these very whites, while the alternative subjected them to compulsion, and to the invasion, from behind, of their fero

cious red neighbours, can any one be surprised at the readiness with which the intriguing Mohawks made a merit of assuming the authority, or at the compliance of the unfortunate emigrants? To confirm the idea that the character in which the latter stood was not that of humiliation, but of respect and peaceful authority, we quote the following passage from an Indian writer of another tribe. Hendrick Aupaunent held the rank of Chief among the Mohegans; and, in conceding superiority to the Delawares, must be considered as impartialwaiving, as he does, the claims of his own nation. He was an individual well known to, and confidentially employed by, President Washington; and we have attestations to his character from the late Col. Pickering. His words are as follows*-

"The Delawares, whom we call Wenaumeeu, are our Grandfathers, according to the ancient covenant of their and our ancestors, to which we adhere without any deviation in these near 200 years past; to which nation the Five Nations and British, after finding themselves incapable of completing a union of all who has one colour, have committed the whole business. For this nation had the greatest influence with the Southern, Western and Northern nations."

The picture, from the brush of our countryman, West, an engraving of which is before us, presents the peculiar style of attitude and countenance of this unfortunate tribe with such peculiar accuracy, that a gentleman well known as an eminent naturalist, when taken to see the copy now in the Academy of the Fine Arts, declared that he could at any time have recognised the figures as belonging to the Delawares, from their resemblance to those members of the tribe with whom he had sojourned on the Arkansas. He described their air and features as peculiarly noble; and added that they actually preserve to the present day, the style of painting the face as represented in the picture. This, of course, our engraving cannot adequately represent. Aged individuals have stated, that the figure represented as discharging the duties of historian or secretary, and concentrating his attention, as he holds a large fan before his face, is a very good likeness of the celebrated Teedyuscung. Others, and these are by no means few, profess to recognise the likenesses of several of our own ancestors in the patriarchal group towards the right of the picture. The figure holding the sheet of parchment represents, we know not with what correctness, the Secretary, Thomas Story. The others, probably filled up from the painter's acquaintance, bear strong resemblance to the respective families of Shippen, West, Logan, and Morris. Towards the midst of the picture, and near his Indian friend, appears the man

Qui leges et jura dabat, parvaque suorum
Et pater et judex idem regnabat in aula.

Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies. from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Charlottesville. 4 vols. 8vo.

Of this work we have procured a copy with some difficulty, having neglected to subscribe for it. The agents in Philadelphia received exactly the number subscribed for, and understand that the whole edition has been taken up. The death of a subscriber enabled us to obtain possession of his copy-and Messrs. Littell & Brother request us to state that persons who

Hendrick Aupaunent's Narrative, p. 76.

desire to have the work would do well to send their names to them, as in distributing the copies, something may happen to cause a surOrders will be supplied, in the order in

plus.

which they are received.

We have not had time to read much of the work, but select two interesting passages, and shall hereafter give further notices of it.

MR. JEFFERSON'S OPINION OF THE CAUSE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

"The King was now become a passive machine in the hands of the National Assembly, and had he been left to himself, he would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head, with powers so large, as to enable him to do all the good of his station, and so limited, as to restrain him from its abuse. This he would have faithfully administered, and more than this, I do not believe, he ever wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind, and timid virtue, and of a character, the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of her clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led her self to the guillotine, drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and calamities which will forever stain the pages of modern history. I have ever believed, that had there been no Queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would have been provoked, nor exercised. The King would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same space, to advance the principles of their social constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; nor yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the King, many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of Kings, who would war against a regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited powers, which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his understanding. In this way no void would have been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those enormities which demoralised the nations of the world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy, millions and millions of its inhabitants. There are three epochs in history, signalized by the total extinction of national morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander, not omitting himself: The next, the successors of the first Cæsar: The third, our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland, followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz; next the conflagration of Copenhagen; then the enormities

of Bonaparte, partitioning the earth at his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now the conspiracy of Kings, the successors of Bonaparte, blasphemingly calling themselves the Holy Alliance, and treading in the footsteps of their incarcerated leader; not yet, indeed, usurping the government of other nations, avowedly and in detail, but controlling by their armies the forms in which they will permit them to be governed; and reserving, in petto, the order and extent of the usurpations further meditated."

IMPORTANT DINNER AT MR. JEFFERSON'S.

"The Aristocracy was cemented by a common principle of preserving the ancient regime, or whatever should be nearest to it. Making this their polar star, they moved in phalanx, gave preponderance on every question to the minorities of the Patriots, and always to those who advocated the least change. The features of the new constitution were thus assuming a fearful aspect, and great alarm was produced among the honest Patriots by these dissentions in their ranks. In this uneasy state of things, I received one day a note from the Marquis de la Fayette, informing me, that he should bring a party of six or eight friends, to ask a dinner of me the next day. I assured him of their welcome. When they arrived, they were La Fayette himself, Duport, Barnave, Alexander la Meth, Blacon, Mounier, Maubourg, and Dagout. These were leading Patriots, of honest but differing opinions, sensible of the necessity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices, knowing each other, and not afraid, therefore, to unbosom themselves mutually. This last was a material principle in the selection, With this view, the Marquis had invited the conference, and had fixed the time and place inadvertently, as to the embarrassment under which it might place me. The cloth being removed, and wine set on the table, after the American manner, the Marquis introduced the objects of the conference, by summarily reminding them of the state of things in the Assembly, the course which the principles of the Constitution were taking, and the inevitable result, unless checked by more concord among the Patriots themselves. He observed, that although he also had his opinion, he was ready to sacrifice it to that of his brethren of the same cause; but that a common opinion must now be formed, or the Aristocracy would carry every thing, and that, whatever they should now agree on, he, at the head of the National force, would maintain. The discussions, began at the hour of four, and were continued till ten o'clock in the evening; during which time, I was a silent witness to a coolness and candour of argument, unusual in the conflicts of political opinion; to a logical reasoning, and chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy tin sel of rhetoric or declamation, and truly worthy of being placed in parallel with the finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by Xenophon, by Plato and Cicero. The result was, that the King should have a suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature should be composed of a single body only, and that to be chosen by the people. This Concordate decided the fate of the constitution. The Patriots all rallied to the principles thus settled, carried every question agreeably to them, and reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance and impotence.

But duties of exculpation were now incumbent on me. I waited on count Montmorin the next morning, and explained to him, with truth and candour, how it had happened that my house had been made the scene of conferences of such a character. He told me, he already knew every thing which had passed, that so far from taking umbrage at the use made of my house, on that occasion, he earnestly wished I would habitually assist at such conferences, being sure I should be useful in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a wholesome and practicable reformation only. I told him, I knew too well the duties I owed to

the King, to the nation, and to my own country, to take any part in councils concerning their internal government, and that I should persevere, with care, in the character of a neutral and passive spectator, with wishes only, and very sincere ones, that those measures might prevail which would be for the greatest good of the nation. I have no doubt, indeed, that this conference was previously known and approved by this honest minister, who was in conference and communication with the Patriots, and wished for a reasonable reform of the constitution."

TOM PAINE.

Extracts from the Notes of an Observer. WHEN Tom Paine escaped from the dungeons of the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, he came to this city (New York,) and put up at the city hotel. One morning, about nine o'clock, a person came into my store, and said that Paine was standing on the steps at the entrance of the hotel. As I lived next street, and being curious to see him, I, with two gentlemen who happened to be in the store at the time, went round the corner to have a look at him; but before we got there he had stepped in. At that moment I happened to observe S***** L****n the painter enter the hotel. As I knew Sam and he were compatriots through the whole of the American Revolution, I presumed he was going to see his old friend, and proposed to my companions to go in likewise, saying, that as I was acquainted with Mr. L****, he would introduce us. They, however, declined to go, so I went alone.

"Is Mr. Paine at home?" said I to the waiter. "Yes." "In his own room?"-"Yes.""Can I see him?"-" Follow me ;" and I was ushered into a spacious room, where the table was set for breakfast. One gentleman was writing at the table, another reading the newspapers at the farther end of the room, and a lengthy, lank, coarse-looking figure was standing with his back to the fire. I saw a resemblance to a portrait I had seen in the "Rights of Man." I knew it was Paine.

While following the waiter, presuming Paine was alone, I prepared a speech to introduce myself to a plain Republican solus; but when I thus found myself, in the presence of others, with the great author of "Common Sense," I was at a loss for a moment; at last I recovered my self-possession, and said,

"Gentlemen, is Mr. Paine in this room?" He stepped towards ine, and answered, "My name is Paine." I held out my hand, and when I had hold of his, says I, "Mr. Paine, and you gentlemen, will excuse my abrupt entry. I came out of mere curiosity to see the man whose writings have made so much noise in the world." Paine answered, "I am very glad your curiosity is so easily satisfied." Then, without a word more, I rejoined, " Good morning;" and walking out, shut the door behind me.

I heard them all burst out into a loud laugh. Thinks I, they may laugh that win-I have seen Paine, and, all things considered, have made a good retreat.

The gentlemen called the waiter, and inquired who I was; and he told them. They reported the matter in the coffee house, and among their acquaintances, and as the story travelled, it was enriched with all manner of garnishing. One of them was, that I had told Paine he was a d-d rascal, and had it not been . for his books I would never have left my native country. Are not people, who invent additions to truth, liars?"

At that time I was precentor in the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Cedar Street, of which the famous Dr. John Mason was then minister. The Kirk Session caught the alarm, an extra meeting was called, and I was suspended from office for some months on account of having visited Tom Paine,

When Paine had afterwards fallen into disrepute, and was shunned by the more respectable of his friends on account of his drunken habits, he boarded in the house of one William C****, a farrier. This C**** and I being acquainted, I had free access to his house, and frequently called to converse with Tom Paine. One evening he related the following anecdote.

During the slaughtery of Robespierre, when every Republican that the monster could get in his power was beheaded, Paine was cast into prison, and his name was on a list with nineteen who were ordered for execution next morning. It was customary for the clerk of the tribunal to go round the cells at night, and put a cross with chalk on the back of the door of such of the prisoners as were ordained for the scaffold in the morning. When the executioner came with his guard to remove the victims, wherever a chalking was found, the inmate of the cell was taken forth and executed.

In these horrible shambles there was a long gallery, having a row of cells on each side. The passage was secured at each end, but the doors of the cells were left open, and sometimes the prisoners stepped into the rooms of one another for company. It happened, on the night preceding the day appointed for the doom of Paine, that he had gone into his neighbour's cell, leaving his door open with its back to the wall. Just then the chalker came past, and being probably drunk, crossed the inside of his cell door.

Next morning, when the guard came with an order to bring out the twenty victims, and finding only nineteen chalks, Paine being in bed and his door shut, they took a prisoner from the farther end of the gallery, and thus made up the requisite number.

About forty-eight hours after this atrocious deed, Robespierre was overthrown, and his own head chopped off, so that Paine was set at liberty, and made the best of his way to New York.

I asked him what he thought of his almost miraculous escape. He said the FATES had ordained he was not then to die. Says I" Mr. Paine, I'll tell you what;-I think you know you have written and spoken much against what we call the religion of the Bible; you have highly extolled the perfectibility of human reason when left to its own guidance, unshackled by priestcraft and superstition. The God in whom you live, nove, and have your being, has spared your life that you might give to the world a living comment on your doctrines. You now show what human nature is when left to itself. Here you sit, in an obscure and comfortless dwelling, stifled with snuff and stupified with brandy;-you, who were once the companion of Washington, of Jay, and of Hamilton. Every good man has deserted you; and even Deists, that have any regard for decency, cross the streets to avoid you."

He was then the most disgusting human being that could any where be met with. Intemperance had bloated his countenance beyond description. A few of his disciples, who stuck to him through good report and through bad report, to hide him from the abhorrence of mankind, had him conveyed to New Rochelle, where they supplied him with brandy till it burned up his liver. But this man, beastly as he was in appearance, and dreadful in principle, still retained something of humanity within the depravity of his heart, like the gem in the head of the odious toad. The man who suffered death in his stead left a widow, with two young children, in poor circumstances. Paine brought them all with him to New York, supplied them while he lived, and left them the most part of his property when he died. The widow and children lived in apartments in the city by themselves. I saw them often, but never saw Paine in their company; and I am well assured, and believe, that his conduct towards them was disinterested and honourable.

G. T.

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LOVE'S REPROACH; A RUSTIC PLAINT.

BY JAMES KENNEY, ESQ.

DEAR Tom, my brave free-hearted lad,
Where'er you go, God bless you!
You'd better speak than wish you had,
If love for me distress you.
To me, they say, your thoughts incline,
And possibly they may so:
Then, once for all, to quiet mine,
Tom, if you love me, say so.
On that sound heart and manly frame
Sits lightly sport or labour,
Good-humour'd, frank, and still the same,
To parent, friend, or neighbour

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