lected, because of the vigorous editorship of Harry Croswell, who was an able assistant to Coleman of the New York Evening Post in disseminating Federalist doctrine, through the Hudson Valley and up-state New York.
Following one of Coleman's vicious attacks on Jefferson, Croswell had printed a paragraph to the effect that Jefferson had paid James T. Callender to slander Washington and Adams. Croswell was pounced upon, and the Democratic party leaders felt that now they would exact payment in full for the oppression they had suffered under the Alien and Sedition Acts. The case went to court, the pack of Democratic editors in joyous pursuit, and Croswell was found guilty.
A touching letter exists which reveals old General Philip Schuyler appealing to his daughter to urge her husband to come to the aid of the Federal printer who is so sore beset by his political and editorial enemies. "I have had about a dozen Federalists ask me," he says, " entreating me to write to Your General if possible to attend on the 7th of next month at Claverack, as Council to the Federal printer there."[1]
It is a fine letter from a fine old gentleman, alive and sensitive to all the obligations of his leading position; not running off and letting the poor "Federal printer "languish in jail, as did the political associates of John Peter Zenger, who claimed poor Zenger's literary style and Latin quotations, but were entirely oblivious when the opportunity arose for furnishing his bail.
On the first trial Hamilton had been too busy to appear in Croswell's behalf, but when a motion was made for a new trial before the Supreme Court at Albany, he appeared and made one of the most notable arguments in
- ↑ Allan McLane Hamilton, Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, 180.
