Project Gutenberg's She Would Be a Soldier, by Mordecai Manuel Noah

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Title: She Would Be a Soldier
The Plains of Chippewa

Author: Mordecai Manuel Noah

Editor: Montrose J. Moses

Release Date: June 27, 2009 [EBook #29231]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES

This e-book contains the text of _She Would Be A Soldier_, extracted
from Representative Plays by American Dramatists: Vol 1, 1765-1819.
Comments and background to all the plays and the other plays are
available at Project Gutenberg.

Spelling as in the original has been preserved.

SHE WOULD BE A SOLDIER

_By_ M. M. NOAH

[Illustration: M. M. NOAH]

MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH

(1785-1851)

Mr. Noah was born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1785, the son of Portuguese
Jewish descent, it being stated by some sources that his father not only
fought in the Revolutionary Army, but was a sufficient friend of George
Washington to have the latter attend his wedding. In his early years, he
was apprenticed, according to the custom of the day, to a carver and
gilder, but he spent most of his evenings in the Franklin Library and at
the theatre, likewise attending school in his spare time, where, among
the pupils, he met John and Steven Decatur, famed afterwards in the
history of the American Navy. He filled a minor position in the
Auditor's office in Philadelphia, but his tastes inclined more to
journalistic than they did to desk work, and, in 1800, he travelled to
Harrisburg as a political reporter.

Several years after this, he went to Charleston, and studied law, but
before he had had a chance to practise, he became the editor of the
Charleston _City Gazette_, and, advocating those principles which
resulted in the War of 1812, he used his pen, under the pseudonym of
_Muley Molack_, to disseminate those ideas in editorials. The
consequence is he encouraged much hatred, and was forced into many duels
to support his opinions. In 1811, he was offered the position of Co