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>^' 
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 ABIMELECH COODY 
 
 AND OTHER 
 
 CELEBRATED WRITERS 
 
 OF NEW-YORK 
 
 
 JN A LETTER PROM A TRAVELLER, 
 
 J 869 '"'' 
 
 HIS 1-RIEND IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 January 1815. 
 
Nexo-Tork, January lUA, 1815, 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 Literary excellence has its favourites whom it selects 
 to bless with its benign influence and to adorn with its highest 
 honours. It is not confined to a particular spot, nor is it 
 l)ounded by degrees of latitude. It wanders over the earth 
 in search of superior minds, and whenever it finds setheriael 
 intelligence, it applies the hand of cultivation;, and produces 
 a harvest of instruction and amusement for the benefit of 
 mankind. In some favoured places, nature seems to have 
 put forth her utmost strength, and to have produced prodi- 
 gies of genius and miracles of learning ; and it has been 
 remarked, that after this she has been in a state of exhaus- 
 tion for a long period of time, and that her offspring are 
 correspondent. Athens was at one period, the great school 
 of philosophy and learning, which enlightened the human 
 race. This intellectual supremacy was, ftfter the lapse of 
 many centuries, transferred to Rome. After a long night, 
 it was revived under the Medici in Italy. In the reign of 
 Louis XIV. of France, and of Queen Anne of Great Britain, 
 constellations of great minds appeared resplendent in the 
 literary heavens. 
 
 Philadelphia has for a long time claimed to be the Athens 
 of America. Connecticut has also for many years arrogated 
 to herself similar honours. She has produced a plentiful 
 crop of poets, who have aspired to be the wits of the west- 
 ern world, and the venerable Morse has not hesitated to 
 a-ward to her the palm of superior excellence. But while 
 these literary Colossuses were striving for pre-eminence, 
 the star of Ne^v- York was seen in the distant horizon, illu- 
 
minating as it ascended to the meridian, and finally astonish' 
 ifhg the world by its superior lustre and effulgence. 
 
 Previous to my visit to this celebrated city, fame had not 
 been idle in trumpeting forth the praises of its wits and 
 literary worthies. My expectations were raised to the 
 highest pitch; and I fully anticipated in the feast of reason 
 and the flow of soul, those intellectual pleasures which 
 elevate man in the scale of creation. Under this impres- 
 sion, I entered this renowned metropolis. Now says I, 
 I am on classic ground ; on ground trodden by the Knick- 
 erbockers and the Goodies, and the far-famed authors oi 
 the History of All Nations ; of the Beau asid the Salma- 
 gundi, and of the Analectic Magazine, and of the Magazine 
 of Wonders. Perhaps on this very spot, Goody cherished 
 his sublime ideas ; perhaps on this ground the great poet 
 who sung so melodiously the lay of the Scottish Fiddle 
 courted the heavenly muse. And when I entered my 
 chamber, may be, though* I, this very room has been visit- 
 ed by the great geniuses that have produced the three great 
 magazines, the New- York Magazine, the Analectic Ma- 
 gazine, and the IMagazine of Wonders. If so, sacred be 
 the place ! may poetry deck and eloquence adorn it wlti; 
 their choicest flowers. 
 
 I was so agitated with these feelings, that sleep was in a 
 great degree a stranger to my pillow. I was distui-bed in 
 my slumbers by apparitions flitting before me, clothed in 
 the, costume of Apollo and the Muses. Goody approach* 
 ed me in the darkness of night, surrounded v/ith haloes of 
 glory. He was a tall man, with an angelic countenance : 
 the genius of symetry had moulded his limbs, and a more 
 than a mortal brightness beamed from his eyes of fire. As I 
 reached forth my hand to welcome the splendid vision, it 
 vanished from H»y embrace, and I awoke in all the bitter- 
 ness of disappointment. 
 
 The next morning I sallied forth to gatlicr intelligence, 
 and to see the literary wondcis of the great c;t\-. I went 
 
to the bookstores and to the litei^aiy rcems, and I even 
 obtained introduction to sonie of the celebrated authors. 
 The result of my inquiries I shall now communicate to you 
 in as succinct a form as possible*. 
 
 I found that New- York formed in more respects than 
 one, a singular exception to the general state of things in 
 America. Almost in every other place men %vrite for 
 amusement or for fame — but here there are authors by 
 profession, who make it a business and a living. This 
 profession is not extensive, but it makes up in celerity its 
 numerical deficiencies. And its usefulness in course of 
 time, will render its votaries as acceptable to the public as 
 they now are to themselves. 
 
 At the head of the list is a venerable old gentleman from 
 Scotland. He has published more books than any other 
 writer in New- York. His History of Man and of All 
 Nations are curious, and are pronounced by good judges 
 to contain more solid inFcyntiatksn than the History of 
 New- York by Knickerbocker. His Mental Flower Gar- 
 den is a very agreeable present to young persons ; and his 
 Magazine of Wonders has had a more extensive circula- 
 tion than any ether periodical performance. This worthy 
 old gentleman sometimes sacrifices to the muses, and indeed 
 it is believed that the lay of the Scottish Fiddle owes some 
 of its best lines to his munificence. 
 
 The next writer is also from Scotland : he is an excellent 
 classical scholar, and has published a Latin Grammar and 
 Skome improved editions of the school classics. lie has 
 also been concerned in writing for Low's Encyclopaedia* 
 He has given to the world four lai-ge octavos on American 
 Biography ; has written a History of the Yellow Fever, and 
 Lately edited the New- Vork Ptiagazine. It is to he regret- 
 ted that he has retired altogether from literary lucubrations, 
 and has devoted himself to the science of arms. 
 
 I have been introduced to a gentleman whose original 
 profession ws^ that oi an ironmonger. He ha.i recently- 
 
6 
 
 become a counsellor at law : I have not heard of any original 
 writings proceeding from his pen, except a philippic against 
 the celebrated orator Ogilvie, wherein he inveighs most se- 
 verely against democracy, and lashes the republican party 
 v/ith more fury than Xerxes lashed the Hellespont. His inti- 
 mate friendship and relationship with Abimelech Coody the 
 the Ladys' Shoemaker, has inti-oduced him to the Society of 
 the Cordv;ainers ; in consequence of which he was appoint- 
 ed as one of that body to deliver an Oration before the con- 
 gregated Patriotic Societies ca the the 4th of Jul}-, which 
 he performed as 1 am told to general sa«tisfaction. It has 
 given me great regret that I have not been s^le to procure 
 a sight of this celebrated production. On the same day, a 
 great stateman and orator, Governcur JMorris delivered a 
 speecli before the Washington Benevolent Society I have 
 seen a very able criticism on the Cordwainer's Oration at- 
 tributed to the author himself, in which he has instituted 
 a comparison between it ajad th© crration of Mr. Morris. 
 It is unnecessai-y to state that he pronounces his to be as 
 superior in genius and execution as it is in public spirit ; 
 and it instantly reminded mc of Plutarch's celebrated paral- 
 lel between Demosthenes and Cicero. 
 
 I have, indeeed, heard it sneeringly objected to his dis- 
 course that the scent of the original cask still remained about 
 the author and that his ironmongery education, like San- 
 cho's key, which gave the whole butt of wine a chalybeate 
 taste, has infected the purity of his style ; for that he has 
 unv/ittln^^lv animated his countryman by the sound of the 
 kettle instead of the drum, and has armed them with tlis 
 spade and n\t puJi-axe^ Instead of the sword and the mus- 
 quet. 
 
 This gentleman has farther distlngui^^hed himself by transla- 
 tions from the French. It is to be regretted that he is disqua- 
 lified by the defect of his education from drinking the Pie- 
 rian springs of classic lore. But he has endeavoured to 
 atone for his deficiency by making great progress in Spa^ 
 
nish and High Dutch, nnd as he and Coody by uniting their 
 legal honours have made one lawyer, so is it to be hoped 
 that by clubbing their attianmeuts in language, they may 
 produce one accomplished scholar. His face is rather va- 
 cant, but the interior of his hands still display the marks .ci 
 laborious contact with hard substances. 
 
 Incongruous ae the association between the cultivation 
 of ironmongery and literature may appear, yet it. is no less 
 true, that another celebrated author by profession, was 
 originally concerned in a hardware f5tore, and it is believed 
 is still a sleeping partner. He was also brought up to the 
 law; but like Blackstone and Jones he preferred the inspi- 
 ration of the- muse to an intimate acquaintance with 
 Bracton and Fleta, Spelman and Littleton: he has wisely 
 determined that another Ovid should not in another Murray 
 be lost : he has taken the road which leads to mount Par- 
 nassus, instead of following the drudgery of the law, and 
 has become the salaried editor of a Magazine. 
 
 Although his Salmagundi is upon a thread-bare plan, 
 yet its execution exhibits some strong traits of humour, and 
 some fine flashes of imagination. The History of New- 
 York by Knickerbocker, independently of its broad humour, 
 is really intolerable. The heterogenous and unnatural 
 combination of fiction and history is perfectly disgusting 
 to good taste. Such delineations of human nature are like 
 likenesses in wax-work. You neither see the chissel of 
 Phidias nor the pencil of Apelles; but the rough delinea- 
 tions of the untutored savage. The resemblance may be 
 great, but it is nature without life, character without ex- 
 pression, and it exhibits art without exciting interest. In 
 reading such productions, the mind is continually tortured 
 between the real and the fabulous, and they resemble the 
 works of the pointer who should unite the neck of the horse 
 to a human head. 
 
 There is no doubt but that this gentleman possesses a 
 ^h imagination. IJe has however expended the ener^ 
 
cf his mind in pursuing ridiculous combinations, in hunt- 
 ing after quaint expressions, and in plundering from the 
 stores of Le Sage and Cervantes, Rabelais and Scarron, 
 Fielding and Smollet. As to real science and learning, 
 his mind is a tabula rasa : he cannot read any of the clas- 
 sics in their original language ; nor does he know the first 
 elements of any science. I have spent an evening in his 
 company, and I find him barren in conversation, and very 
 limited in information. His physiognomy is intelligent, and 
 I should, upon the v.hole, think favourably of him, had he 
 not attempted to play the Joe Miller at a great man's 
 table. 
 
 Next to him may be ranked Dr. Henry, the author of a 
 New and Complete American Family Herbal, illustrated 
 with elegant engravings. Of this elaborate and highly 
 scientific work, honourable mention is made in that reposi- 
 tory of sound criticism, the Analectic Magazine. It 
 appears that the Doctor is a great traveller, and that he 
 has been thirty years a' prisoner among the Creeks. His 
 mind is deeply stored with anecdote and lore, and next to 
 Goody, he is the most splendid star in the galaxy of New- 
 York authors. 
 
 I have also seen a tall bow bent young gentleman who 
 has attained universal reputation as a writer— He is deep- 
 ly read in the history oi the heathen gods, and this I be- 
 lieve is the full extent of his classical knowledge— His late 
 reply to Southey's review of Inchiquin's Letters, is a well 
 meant, although not ably executed refutation of malignant 
 calumny. It was not necessary for him to exhibit so much 
 knowledge of mythology, and when he pronounced the 
 philosopher who, 
 
 «'Eripuit Ccelo f ulineiv Sceptruinque tyrannls," 
 
 as the Jupiter Tonans of this western world, he certainly 
 ruined his reputation as a man of discrimination and taste, 
 nor was it proper in him to make ^ parade of learnirig 
 
which he never possessed, and of books vliich he never 
 saw — His affectation of reading reminds me of Pope's lines 
 in the Dunciad. 
 
 For mc, what Virg-il, Pliny may deny, 
 Manillus or SuUnus shall supply. 
 
 His parody on Scott is utterly destitute of the spirit of 
 poetry. When with his magic pen, he converts inns into 
 castles, tavern-keepers into barons bold, and rustic lasses 
 into high born damsels, we are reminded of the exploits of 
 the knight of the rueful countenance. 
 
 But let us ascend to superior characters. I understand 
 that the wits of New- York had established a Button's 
 Coffee-House, in a celebrated Mead-House near the inter- 
 section of Pine and William streets, and I often attempted 
 to gain admittance into their sanctum sanctorum, but I 
 vmfortunately never could succeed, — This was a kind of 
 literary free-masonry, which shut its doors against the pro- 
 fane ; but their enemies did not scruple to assert that this 
 exclusion was intended to conceal the poverty of their 
 knowledge, and their want of conversation talents, and 
 at the same time to envelop themselves in mysterious im- 
 portance : and I have heard them more than once compared 
 to the Ugly Club, which, as it is composed of the hand- 
 somest young gentlemen in the cit}', so the Club of pro- 
 fessed wits is said to be made up of the greatest dunces 
 that could be selected. But I was determined not to make 
 up a definitive opinion until I could gain access to the 
 celebrated ABIMELECH COODY, and after finding 
 him as difficult of approach as the philosopher of Ferney, 
 I at length had the pleasure of seeing him. 
 
 I was certainly struck with his singular appearance, and 
 I immediately pronounced him an extraordinary character. 
 He rose from his chair when I was announced, and did 
 not approach me in a direct line, but in a side-long way, or 
 
10 
 
 diagonally, or in a kind of echellbn movement. This im- 
 mediately reminded me of Linnaeus's character of a dog, 
 which he says, always inclines his tail to the left. He held 
 his head down, and did not look me in the face. This I at 
 first attributed to the diffidence of a retired student, but I 
 no sooner had a full view of him, than I instantly saw 
 
 The proud Parnassian sneer, 
 The conscious simper and the jealous leer. 
 
 His Avhole preson is squat and clumsy, and reminds you of 
 the figure called by children Humpy Dumpy on the wall. 
 A nervous tremor was concentrated at the lower end of 
 each nostril, which must have arisen from his habitual 
 sneering and carping at every thing. If I had not enter- 
 tained an exalted idea of his intellect, I should hai'c sup- 
 posed that his sensorum had been tranferred from his head 
 to his nose : and I was often tempted to say, prithee, dont 
 look with that violent and inflexible wise face, like Solomon, 
 at the dividing of the child, in an old piece of tapestry. 
 I found him dry and reserved, although perfectly polite. 
 I could not allure him into conversation, and I therefore 
 determined to look into his writings before I pronounced 
 him 
 
 A wit wilh dunces, and a dunce with wits. 
 
 In the first place I was referred to an oration before the 
 Washington Benevolent Society : this I found like all other 
 holiday political discourses, common place and virulent, 
 without any solidity of thought, or depth of research, and 
 with very little pretensions to eloquence. Besides, I could, 
 never think a work like this a criterion by which to pro- 
 nounce upon the merits of a literary character. 
 
 I was next referred to the biographical works of this 
 great man : he was described to me as a second Plutarch 
 cr Johnson in Biography. With this favourable impres- 
 5!on, I looked into several pieces in the Anal,6ctic Maga' 
 
11 
 
 zine signed V, and I was much disappointed to find that 
 thej^ were principally stolen from Hardie and Eliot, and var- 
 nished up in a new style. Now and then, the author elabo- 
 rates a profound thought, but it has all the appearance of 
 hard labour, and like straining out the last dull dropping of 
 his sense. In some places he sins most egregiously against 
 grammar and style. Take for instance, his life of Cad- 
 wallader Golden : It opens in the following pompous 
 sentence. 
 
 " There is nothing which can afford a more sure indica^ 
 tlon of the growth of national feeling, and the consequent 
 formation of a more definite national character among us, 
 than that curiosity and interest which has been of late so 
 strongly manifested with respect to the history, anecdote, 
 and the humble antiquities of our provincial annals." We 
 have heard of the annals of history, but never of the histo- 
 ry of annals : and the anecdote of annals is a still more 
 rare occurrence. Abimelech Goody's Letter on Banks is 
 also considered a great performance — And truly if it ever 
 excites laughter, it must be at the nonsense, not at the wit 
 which it contains. It is not «nlivened with a single ray of 
 genius, or spark of wit, and the writer never more egre- 
 giously mistook his talents, than in supposing himself en- 
 dowed with powers for satire. 
 
 I believe I have remarked upon all the works of the im- 
 perial wit of New-York, commonly called Abimelech 
 CooDY, and I must candidly say, that I never met with a 
 man pretending to be a great literary character v/ho has 
 done so little either as it respects the quality or the quanti- 
 ty of his performances. In justice to him, however it must 
 be admitted, that he possesses more knowledge than his 
 brother wits : and this he may indeed have, and yet his ac- 
 quisitions may be very scanty and limited. 
 
 It is believed that he skims like a swallow over the 
 
12 
 
 surface of science, and that he may be properly arranged 
 in that order of sciolists who 
 
 •« Commas nnd points Ihey set exactly right, 
 "' And 'twere a sin to rob them of their mite." 
 
 In order to have a full view of this great" man, it is ne- 
 cessary to state that he was bred a lawyer, but his first 
 grand exhibition in life was that of a rioter in a church : 
 that he next personated a lady's shoemaker ; that he has 
 finally settled down into a magazine writer for money, and 
 into a captain of Sea Fencibles for money; and that he has be- 
 come the head of a political sect called the Goodies, of a 
 hybrid nature, composed of the combined spawn of federal- 
 ism and jacobinism, and generated in the venomous passions 
 of disappointment and revenge ; without any definite cha- 
 racter : neither fish nor flesh; bird nor beast ; animal nor 
 plant, but a non-descript made up of 
 
 All monstrous, .-ill prodigious things, 
 Abominable, miutterable and worse than 
 Fable, yet has feign'd or Fear conceiv'd 
 Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire 
 
 This account Avould be indeed a very unfair specimen of the 
 literature and talents of N6w-York. It is but due to justice 
 to state, that this city contains in its bosom, men of as 
 great attainments in various kno\vledge, and of as high 
 professional standing as any place in the world. Several 
 of those g(;nllemcn have united into a society, called the 
 Historical, Mhose name describes its object ; and into 
 another association, called the LJtcranj and Philosophical 
 Society : similar establishments, as the last, exist in 
 South-Carolina, Pennsjdvania, Massachusetts and Connec- 
 ticut : — and in JMassachusetts, there is also an Historical 
 and Antiquarian Societ}'. In order to extend their use- 
 fulness, and to acquire infornuiticn from distant parts. 
 
13 
 
 tliese associations frequently admit distinguished persOiTg, 
 in other states and countries, as honorary and correspond- 
 ing members. They have been all patronized by the state 
 governments ; and some of them have been favourably no- 
 ticed by the general government. They are proud monu- 
 ments of the zeal for knowledge and science, which per- 
 vades the United States : and the names of their founders 
 and patrons, will be transmitted with honom- to posterity. 
 One would think that it would require more than Corin- 
 thian brass, to attack such institutions with ridicule, or 
 with seriousness. They certainly accumulate many import- 
 ant facts, and furnish the grounds of many useful inven- 
 tions. They have been encouraged in all enlightened coun- 
 tries, and patronized by all patriotic governme»ts. They 
 combine the most public spirited and best informed men of 
 the nation, without reference to party or sect: and at all 
 events, they produce well-meant, and in most cases, suc- 
 cessful attempts to enlighten man, and to improve society. 
 
 The literary striplings, of whom I have spoken, have 
 made an attack upon tUese institutions, in their great work, 
 called the Analectic Magazine. Without any comments 
 on the modesty which dictated this measure, and the match- 
 less intrepidity of face, which must distinguish such 
 very young, and very ignorant men, in thus dashing their 
 venom in the faces of their superiors, it is sufficient to re- 
 mark, that their combined production, is as remarkable for 
 its want of point, and its dearth of talent, as it is for its 
 wanton abuse, and its flagitious disregard of truth. The 
 strength of the attack, and the burden of the song, consists 
 in falsely representing the institution of these associations, 
 and their distant extension, as the offspring of avidity for 
 literary honours ; not as tiie effect of a desire to increase 
 the stock of human knowledge. The motives which proi- 
 duced this miserable abortion of malignity, this fruit of 
 dull heat, and sooterkin of wit, are various : and I shall 
 briefly relate the predominant ones. 
 
14 
 
 They had heard, that some of the wits In England, had 
 attacked the Royal Society ; that Swift, Pope, and Arbuth- 
 not, that illustrious triumvirate, had sometimes amused 
 tiiemselves with the philosophers of the day, and that even 
 one of them had said— 
 
 " And sh.inc in all the dignitj' of F. R. S." 
 
 Now as Pope, Swift and Arbuthnot, had attacked the 
 Philosophical Society of Great Britain, ergo, Coody, 
 Knickerbocker, and Scottish Fiddle, ought to attack the 
 Philosophical Societies of the United States. The wits of 
 New- York must do as the wits of Great Britain had done 
 before, or they would not indicate their inherited blood, 
 and would be out of the right line of descent. 
 
 It is impossible that they can attain distinction, even 
 if they gain admittance into these learned associations ; their 
 information is so scanty, and their Intellects so feeble, that it 
 is utterly out of their power to pursue any considerable train 
 of investigation, or to arrive at any important scientific de- 
 ductions. Of Coody it may be said, that he has a great ap- 
 petite for learning, without any digestion : but the others 
 have neither appetite nor digestion. Like Insects who buzz 
 about the lamp of science, they may sometimes obscure its 
 rays by their ptuiy wings, but they can never increase its 
 effalgence nor continue its lustre. It is the invariable 
 quality of little minds, to depreciate that excellence which 
 they cannot reach, and to destroy that superiority which 
 they cannot attain. Wlien Cot)dy and his associates, en- 
 deavour to attach ridicule to knowledge, and to throw sci- 
 ence into the back ground,it is because they can never aspire 
 to any distinguished rank in the walks of literature. They 
 satirize literary tides, because they are not so honoured ; 
 and they abuse literary institutions, because theii are there 
 exhibited in their diminutive size. 
 
 With respect to Coody, I have recently had a piece oi 
 information winch will serve as an additional clue to his 
 
15 
 
 conduct. Avarice and revenge appear to be two promi- 
 nent traits in his character. In Hall's Law Journal, vbK 
 IV, I have met with a charge of the Honourable De Witt 
 Clinton, Mayor of the City of New-York, in a case of a 
 riot. It appears that Coody and seven others, were indicted 
 ■for a riot in a church. The authorities of the College had 
 refused a degree to one of the students, on account of con- 
 tumacy. Coody and his associates, insisted that the de- 
 gree should be conferred ; and ihcy Interrupted the exerci- 
 ses of the day, and created a scene of confusion and uproar, 
 which essentially disturbed the solemnity, and most fla- 
 grantly violated the respect due to the holy place. The 
 Mayor, in speaking of Coody's conduct, thus expressed 
 himself: — *■' He too must be regarded as one of the ring- 
 leaders of this disorder and disgrace. It is difficult to spci'ik 
 in terms sufficiently strong, of his reprehensible conduct. 
 A young man of his age, to have the boldness to mount 
 the stage, and insolently to demand of the Provost the cau- 
 ses of his conduct : — and then shaping himself into all the 
 importance of an umpire, to exclaim, " Mr. Maxwell must 
 be supported !" And afterwards to move that the thanks 
 of the meeting be given to Mr. Maxwell, fur liis spirited 
 defence of an injured man, " evinces a matchless inso- 
 lence.'^ Coody was convicted, and instead of being sent 
 to prison, as he ought to have been, he was let off with a 
 fine and a severe reprimand. Since that time, he has like 
 Hannibal on the altar, sworn revenge, and he regulates his 
 ideas of men and things by Mr. Clinton"'s opinions, — alwa}s 
 exhibiting himself in opposition. 
 
 Mr. Clinton, amidst his other great qualifications, is 
 distinguished for a marked devotion to science : — few men 
 have read more, and few men can claim more various and 
 extensive knowledge. And the bounties of nature have 
 been improved, by persevering and unintermiited industry. 
 It was natural that such men should have high rank in li- 
 terary institutions ; and he was accordingly elected the Erst 
 
16 
 
 President of the Literary and Philosop'aical Siociety of 
 New- York : Coody of course points his envenomed arrows 
 at that institution. 
 
 The Royal Society has survived the satire of Pope, and 
 the wit of Butler, and it is to be hoped, that the literary 
 institutions of America, will exist and flourish, when Coo- 
 dy and Knickerbocker have joined the Thersites' of for- 
 mer times. We may smile at the tricks of the monkey, 
 the sallies of the buffoon, and the repartees of the jester ; 
 but we attach no solid respect to their exhibitions. A 
 sick lion may be kicked even by an ass ; but an institution 
 established upon the broad basis of public utility, by hon- 
 ourable and high-minded men, for the purpose of extend- 
 ing the empire of science, can never experience the fate of 
 Actaeon, and be destroyed hy puppies » 
 
 I am yours, with regard, 
 
 THE TRAVELLER. 
 
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