Page:Federalist, Dawson edition, 1863.djvu/27

Rh ushering into public view, the succeeding numbers. If the public are pleased to stigmatize the Editor as a partial printer, in the face of his reiterated assertions of ',' what more can be said! This stigma he prefers, to that of a slavish copiest; consequently, unless manuscripts are communicated, he will be constrained (however injudicious) still to crouch under the weighty charge of partiality."

Following this brief editorial introduction was printed Number XXIII. of The Fœderalist, which appeared, also on the same day, in The New York Packet. The publication of the succeeding numbers was continued, with tolerable regularity, during a few weeks, when it flagged, although it was not entirely discontinued until Wednesday, the thirtieth of January, 1788, on which day, with the issue of Number XXXVIII.,&mdash;which had appeared in The Packet on the eighteenth of the same month,&mdash;The New York Journal ceased to notice it in any way whatever.

The authorship of the several numbers of The Fœderalist, at an early day, became the subject of an angry discussion between the friends of General and those of Mr. . Without attempting to reconcile the differences which then existed, or to revive the discussion by expressing an opinion concerning the merits or demerits of the several claims, it appears proper, in this place, to notice the subject generally, leaving the more careful examination of those claims, so far as they relate to each number respectively, until the origin and characteristics of the several numbers shall successively become the subjects of examination.

It appears that personal friends of General, soon after the first publication of the work, had obtained from that gentleman the names of the several writers, together with the numbers of which they were respectively the authors. It is not improbable that Mr.