FOOTNOTES:
[2] From the Dutch Baas, meaning master.—Ed.
[3] New Utrecht was in Kings County, New York, seven miles from New York City.—Ed.
[4] William Cobbett, a publicist known both in America and England, was born on a farm in Surrey, March, 1762. After serving for several years in the English army, he resigned and (1792) came to Philadelphia. Here, under the name of “Peter Porcupine,” he advocated the cause of the Federalists. Returning to London in 1800, he founded the Weekly Political Register. His influence with the workingmen was so great that the English government became alarmed, and he found it prudent to spend two more years in America (1817-19). He published his experiences as a Long Island farmer (1818), under the title A Year’s Residence in the United States of America. Vigorously opposing the plans of Morris Birkbeck and others to bring over colonies of British emigrants to the United States, his attacks and the replies that followed brought on a journalistic controversy which lasted until about 1825. (See volumes x, xi, and xii of our series.) Upon his return to England, he was elected to parliament as a Liberal in 1832, and served until his death (1835).—Ed.
[5] This person was English.—Flint.
[6] Admiral Lord Richard Howe, British general in the Revolutionary War, left Halifax with his fleet June 11, 1776, to effect a union with General Clinton at New York. He arrived at Sandy Hook June 29, and July 2 took possession of Staten Island.—Ed.
[7] By act of legislation, 31st March, 1817, “Every Negro, Mulatto, or Mustee, within this State, born before the 4th day of July, 1799, shall, from and after the 4th day of July, 1827, be free.”—Flint.
[8] The American Society for the Colonization of the Free People of Color of the United States, was organized at Washington, December, 1816. It rapidly gained favor, both North and South, and by February, 1820, sufficient money had been subscribed to send the first colony to Liberia. But the free negroes disliked it; the colonists suffered great hardships in Liberia; and the abolitionists soon opposed the project. William Lloyd Garrison began to denounce the Society in 1829, and thereafter it declined steadily in importance.—Ed.
[9] Fort Diamond, later renamed Fort Lafayette, was the largest of the forts planned in 1812 for the defense of New York harbor. It became famous as a political state prison during the War of Secession, and was then protected by seventy-five heavy mounted guns.—Ed.
[10] A series of metrical epistles purporting to be written in Paris by Thomas Moore.—Ed.
[11] “The Brownie of Blednoch,” a folk-lore ballad, is the best known of William Nicholson’s poems. He was a Galloway peddler (1782-1849), who composed verses as he travelled from town to town.—Ed.
[12] Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), experimental philosopher and editor of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, invented the kaleidoscope about 1816. Throughout these letters, Flint portrays large acquaintance with the writings of the more noted of his fellow-countrymen.—Ed.
[13] The “Washington” was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1814, being the second ship of seventy-four guns (not ninety-six, as Flint states) launched for the United States navy. She was the flagship of Commodore Chauncey in the Mediterranean, from 1816 to 1818. In 1843 she was broken up in New York harbor.—Ed.
[14] This was the “Fulton,” the first steamship in the American navy. Robert Fulton directed her construction, and she made her trial trip June 1, 1815, a few months after his death. Her naval service was unimportant. While employed as a receiving-ship at the Brooklyn docks she blew up, June, 1829.—Ed.
[15] The “Chancellor Livingstone,” built under Fulton’s direction, and named in honor of his friend and patron, was completed in 1816. She was one hundred and twenty-five tons larger than any boat then on the Hudson. Her average speed was eight and a half miles an hour. In 1832 she was put on the route between Boston and Portland, being broken up at Portland two years later.—Ed.
[16] Benjamin Charles Incledon (1764-1826), a famous English vocalist.—Ed.