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680 severe castigation from the " Quarterly Review." Our author's next work was a pamphlet in prose, "The United States and England (1814)," called forth by the strictures of the same periodical on " Inchiquin's Letters " by Charles J. IngersoU. This clever brochure attracted the attention of President Madison, and paved the way for the subsequent po- litical career of its author. After making a tour in Virginia in the year 1816, Paulding published " Letters from the South by a Northern Man," in which he gives glowing descriptions of the scenery and society of the •' Old Dominion." Soon after the appearance of this work he was made secretary to the first board of navy commissioners, consisting of Commodores Hull, Porter, and Rodgers. In 1818 Paulding issued " The Backwoodsman," his most elaborate poetical production, written in the heroic measure and describing the fortunes of an emigrant and his family in removing from the banks of the Hudson to the western wilderness. Of this production, which was translated and pub- lished in Paris, Halleck wrote : " The muse has damned him — let him damn the muse." It may be said in passing that Paulding during his long literary life devoted much time and strength to unpopular verse and to writing anonymous articles and editorials on various subjects for the "Even- ing Post " and other .journals and magazines, and " To party gave up what was meant for mankind " by entering the field of political controversy.

In 1819 a second series appeared of " Salma- gundi," which was entirely the product of Paul- ding's pen. It failed to receive the cordial recep- tion that greeted its predecessor. The " town " in- terest had diminished, the author was residing in Washington, engaged in official duties, and the work was deficient in that buoyant spirit of vivacity which was one of the chief characteristics of the first series. The scene of Paulding's first novel, " Koningsmarke, the Long Finne," which appeared in 1823, is laid among the early Swedish settlers on the Delaware. This was followed one year later by " John Bull in America, or the New Munchausen," purporting to be the tour of an English traveller in the United States, and in 1826 appeared "The Merry Tales of the Thi'ee Wise Men of Gotham," a satire on the social system of Robert Owen, on the science of phrenology, and on the legal maxim caveat emptor. " The New Mirror for Travellers " was pub- lished in 1828, and was followed by " Tales of the Good Woman " (1829) and " Chronicle of the City of Gotham " (1830), in which Mr. Paulding gives what purports to be a translation of curious old Dutch legends of New Amsterdam, but emanating exclusively from the author's fertile imagination. In 1831 " The Dutchman's Fireside " was issued, a story, as the author informed the writer of this notice, founded on Mrs. Grant's descriptions of the manners of the early Dutch settlers in her " Memoirs of an American Lady." This novel is in Paulding's happiest vein, and is his most success- fid production. It passed through six editions in twice that number of months, was republished in London, and translated into the Dutch and French languages. In the following year appeared " West- ward Ho ! " the scene of which is principally laid in Kentucky. For the copyright of this work, and also for "that of " The Dutchman's Fireside," the author received in each instance, on the delivery of the manuscript, fifteen hundred dollars — a hand- some sum for those days. In 1835 was published Paulding's admirable " Life of George Washing- ton," addressed to the youth of liis country, and constituting one of the most attractive personal sketches of Gen. Washington ever written. His next work, which appeared in 1836, when the Texas question was agitating the country, was on " Sla- very in the United States." It is an unhesitating- defence of slavery against every kind of religious, moral, and economical attack.

After having filled the office of navy agent at the port of New York for twelve years, embracing three administrations. Paulding resigned the posi- tion to enter Van Buren's cabinet in 1837. In his determination to reform abuses in the naval affairs of the country, and to be master of his department, he naturally met with opposition in many quarters, and had occasion to make use of his practised pen. While in the navy department he viewed with alarm the introduction of steamships and engi- neers and the persistency with which the advanced naval officers advocated them. He wrote that he " never would consent to see our grand old ships sup- planted by these new and ugly sea-monsters," and elsewhere he exclaims, " I am steamed to death ! " Soon after his retirement from the navy depart- ment, over which he i:)resided with ability and fidelity, Mr. Paulding purchased in 1841 a pleasant home on the banks of the Hudson near Hyde Park, represented in the accompanying illustration, which he named " Placentia." The lines of our author had fallen in pleasant places. No poet could have pictured a lovelier retreat, and there, surrounded by his children and miiinkhildren and some of the finest scenery of the Hudson, he devoted himself to the congenial pursuits of agriculture and author- ship. Some of his magazine articles written dur- ing the years 1842 to 1846 are equal to any of the compositions of his best days. A novel entitled " The Old Continental, or the Price of Liberty," a Revolutionary story, distinguished by all of Paul- ding's peculiarities of manner and spirit, appeared in 1846. The next year there was published a vol- ume of "American Comedies," by James K. Paul- ding, and his second son, William Irving, only the first of which, called " The Bucktails. or the Ameri- cans in England," was written by the father. In 1849 was issued " The Puritan and his Daughter," the scene of which is partly laid in England and partly in this country. It was the last of his novels, and not perhaps equal to Paulding's earlier ones, nor did it meet with the same measure of success. To a party of gentlemen, including William Gil- more Simms, who. while on a visit to William Wil- son, the poet-publisher of Poughkeepsie, during the summer of 1854. drove to " Placentia " with their host to dine with Mr. Paulding, he gave the fol- lowing description of his way of life : " I smoke a little, read a little, write a little, ruminate a little, grumble a little, and sleep a great deal. I was once great at pulling up weeds, to which I have a mortal antipathy, especially bull's eyes, wild car- rots, and toad-flax, alias butter and eggs. But my working days are almost over. I find that carry- ing seventy-five years on my shoulders is pretty nearly equal to the same number of pounds; and
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