[108] I am indebted to Mr. Weise for courteous replies to several queries. He writes me: "The fact that the Wilsons received contracts for the supply of beef to the troops encamped at the cantonment at Greenbush, and that Samuel Wilson was an inspector, together with the information respecting the sites of the Wilson slaughtering houses in Troy, I obtained from old inhabitants of Troy intimately acquainted with the two brothers." Mr. Weise adds that the notes taken by him when preparing his various books on Troy are stored and so are inaccessible at present.
[109] See p. 57, note 104, above.
[110] See The Trojan Sketch Book, edited by Miss Abba A. Goddard (1846); Hunt's Merchants Magazine for June, 1846, XIV, 515-523; D. O. Kellogg's City of Troy (1847); Hunt's Merchants Magazine for September, 1849, XXI, 298-305; John Woodworth's Reminiscences of Troy (1853, second edition in 1860). Mr. Weise's History of the City of Troy was published in 1876.
[111] "The army of the U.S." (Salem Gazette, January 21, 1812, p. 3-2). "An ambitious president . . . might march the militia . . . out of the U. S. and keep the whole of the regular force within" (Connecticut Courant, January 22, 1812, p. 3-4). "The Gull Traps which are now set through the U. States" (Columbian Centinel, February 19, 1812, p. 2-2). "Equipped at the expense of the U.S." (Salem Gazette, July 31, 1812, p. 3-2). "The army of the U.S." (Yankee, August 21, 1812, p. 3-2). "Which cost the U.S. five dollars to transport to Greenbush" (Columbian Centinel, September 26, 1812, p. 2-2). "War . . . between the U.S. and G.B." (Columbian Centinel, December 19, 1812, p. 2-3). "Four regiments of U.S. troops" (Columbian Centinel, December 26, 1812, p. 2-3). "The enemies of the U. States" (New York Spectator, January 9, 1813, p. 2-5). "The President of the U. States" (National Intelligencer, January 12, 1813, p. 3-1). "The U. S. Senate" (New York Spectator, February 11, 1813, p. 1-1). "What shall we say of her conduct during the present war with the U.S.?" (National Intelligencer, April 3, 1813, p. 3-4). "A regiment of U. S. troops" (Columbian Centinel, June 16, 1813, p. 2-4). "The Navy of the U.S." (Yankee, July 23, 1813, p. 3-1). "U.S. Law" (New England Palladium, August 31, 1813, p. 1-1). "Gen. Varnum, . . . (whose recent votes in the U. States' Senate shew, that he is beginning to reflect)" (New England Palladium, September 3, 1813). All these citations, which could be multiplied indefinitely, are of an earlier date than the first appearance of Uncle Sam. A few instances previous to 1812 may be given. "Major Rice of Hingham, we are informed, is appointed a Colonel in the U.S. army" (Columbian Centinel, October 27, 1798, p. 2-4). "The President of the U. States" (Columbian Centinel, March 20, 1799, p. 2-2). "Christopher Gore, Esq. Commissioner of the U. S. at the Court of London" (Columbian Centinel, March 20, 1799, p. 2-4). "The President of the U.S." (Columbian Centinel, March 14, 1807, p. 2-3). But while, as thus seen, the initials U. S. were perfectly familiar to Americans in 1812 and 1813, yet no doubt the war with England made them still more common. Attention may also be called to the example of "U.Sam" quoted on p. 37, above.
[112] Page 22. A copy of the opera in the Ridgway branch of the Library Company of Philadelphia has written in ink on the title page, "by Col. Thomas Forrest of Germantown. S." Who "S." was, I do not know. John F. Watson also stated that "Mr. Forrest wrote a very humorous play, (which I have seen printed)" (Annals of Philadelphia, 1830, p. 232).
[113] New York Journal, October 13, 1768, p. 2-2.
[114] Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous; and Monthly Literary Journal, III, 158, 159.
[115] It is in a collection of Songs, Ballads, etc., in three volumes, presented to the Society by Isaiah Thomas in August, 1814, and stated by him to have been "Purchased from a Ballad Printer and Seller, in Boston, 1813. Bound up for Preservation—to shew what the articles of this kind are in vogue with the Vulgar at this time, 1814." In 1903 the Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale printed this version in his New England History in Ballads, pp. 116-120.
[116] My attention was called to this in 1901 by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, who kindly sent me a blue print of it. As the library officials have for years been unable to find the volume containing the original, my blue print is valuable. The title, and the fact that at the top of the broadside is a cut of a drummer and three soldiers, make me think that this version is older than the other.
[117] By earlier, I merely mean that it was printed earlier. The words of the two versions are practically identical.