The Federalists had a powerful ally in William Cobbett, who signed himself Peter Porcupine, adopting for his literary alias a nickname bestowed by his enemies.  This remarkable writer, who, like Paine, figured in the political conflicts of two nations, must have come into the world bristling with pugnacity.  A more thorough game-cock never crowed in the pit.  He had been a private in the English army, came to the United States about 1790, and taught French to Americans, and English to Frenchmen, (to Talleyrand among others,) until 1794, when the dogmatic Dr. Priestley arrived here, fresh from the scene of his persecutions.  The Doctor losing no time in laying his case before the American public, Cobbett answered his publication, ridiculing it and the Doctor’s political career in a pamphlet which became immediately popular with the Federalists.  From that time until his departure for England, in 1800, Cobbett’s pen was never idle.  His “Little Plain English in Favor of Mr. Jay’s Treaty” was altogether the best thing published on that side of the question.  Cobbett had more than one point of resemblance to Paine, the object of his early invective, but later of his unqualified admiration.  These two men were the best English pamphleteers of their day.  In shrewdness, in practical sense, Cobbett was fully Paine’s equal.  He was as coarse and as pithy in expression, but with more wit, a better education, more complete command of language, and a greater variety of resources.  Cobbett was a quicker and a harder hitter than Paine.  His personal courage gave him a great advantage in his warfaring life.  In 1796, in the hottest of the French and English fight, the well-known Porcupine opened a shop in Philadelphia.  He filled his show-window with all the prints of English kings, nobles, and generals he could collect, and “then,” he says, “I took down the shutters, and waited.”

Party-feeling reached the boiling-point when Washington retired to Mount Vernon.  Mr. Adams, his successor, had none of that divinity which hedged the Father of his Country to protect him.  Under the former administration, he had been, as Senator Grayson humorously called him, “his superfluous Excellency,” and out of the direct line of fire.  He could easily look down upon such melancholy squibs as Freneau’s “Daddy Vice” and “Duke of Braintree.”  But when raised above every other head by his high office, he became a mark for the most bitter personal attacks.  Mr. Adams unfortunately thought too much about himself to be the successful chief of a party.  He allowed his warm feelings to divert him from the main object and end of his followers.  He was jealous of Hamilton,—­unwilling, in fact, to seem to be governed by the opinion of any man, and half inclined to look for a reelection outside of his own party.  Hamilton, the soul of the Federalists, mistrusted and disliked Mr. Adams, and made the sad mistake of publishing his mistrust and dislike.  It must be confessed that the gentlemen