SOURCE: "Alsop's Satirical Writings," in Richard Alsop: "A Hartford Wit," 1939. Reprint by Wesleyan University Press, 1969, pp. 48-74.

Here, Harrington explores Alsop's contributions to the satirical Echo, praising his "keen sense of humor and ability to express the intended lesson in such mock-heroic style as appeals at once to the risibilities of the reader. '

Alsop is said to have almost "lisped in numbers" and to have contributed to such papers as the Middlesex Gazette at a very early age. It was during his youth and young manhood that he completed the remarkable Charms of Fancy, unpublished till long after his death, but he first achieved fame from his satirical poetry.

Satirical writings, mostly political in character, were notably common in America in the latter part of the 18th century. The intensely partisan feelings aroused by the controversies connected with the transition from the more loose earlier federation of...