ADVERTISEMENT. THE greater part of the following letter was written at intervals, during the summer and autumn. of the last year; but a severe indisposition having prevented the author from completing it, he resolved (for reasons which will be obvious to the reader,) to lay aside his work, until after the adjournment of the session of the State Legislature, then about to open. He doubts, however, whether he should even yet have found leisure, or felt the inclination to prepare these sheets for the press, if his adversary had not lately thought it expedient to print and circulate a second edition of the Pamphlet to which they are intended as a Reply. Albany, August 2d, 1819. A REPLY, &c. SIR, To CADWALLADER D. COLDEN, Esq. WHEN your unwarrantable attack on the Report of the Select Committee, upon Mr. Ogden's Memorial, compelled me to step forward in defence of measures for which I felt myself responsible, I was by no means unmindful of the invidious nature of the task. I was aware of the jealousy with which persons invested with exclusive privileges, regard those who scrutinize their claims, and I presumed, that in exact proportion as I should succeed in vindicating the Committee from your aspersions, and in establishing the facts and principles of their Report, I should hazard the resentment of every individual whose interest might be involved in the discussion. From the part I had already taken in opposition to the powerful association, of which you are the champion, I knew, that I had awakened feelings by no means equivocal in their effects; and from the temper in which you had commenced the controversy, I had reason to conclude, that under whatsoever circumstances I might be driven to engage in it, my motives would be impeached, my opinions reprobated, and my language perverted. Independently of your Memoir, I had formed a previous estimate of your talents and disposition, which enabled me, in some degree, to anticipate the character of your reply. For much bold assertion,-much confused reasoning,-much idle declamation,-much vehemence, and even much passion, I was prepared. But before the appearance of your "VINDICATION," I had, after all, no adequate conception of the animosity I was fated to encounter. The odium theologicum, which had once been proverbial, appeared to have given place to the vindictive malice of the baffled speculator; and the fastidious objector to "classical allusions," seemed to claim for his appropriate motto- "OMNES HABENAS IRARUM EFFUDIT,” --- You have, indeed, poured yourself forth, Mr. Colden, without restraint and without disguise. You have assailed me with every weapon of ridicule and detraction. You would devote me to public contempt and execration, as a childish reasoner,-an obscure and half learned pettifogger, an ignorant and corrupt legislator;-but fortunately, the attack is as impotent as it is violent;-I feel, that it cannot hurt me. You may degrade yourself, Sir, but I know, you cannot degrade me. Your motives are too visible; and the reputation, which it has been the business of my life to establish, is proof, I flatter myself, against your aspersions. Believe me, therefore, I can smile, and pardon the exasperated vanity of the unlucky author; and if I cannot overlook, I do not fear, the malignant rage of the alarmed monopolist. Whether those for whom you have displayed so much devoted, but intemperate zeal, may not have cause to deprecate your friendship, is not for me, Sir, to |