possession of Louisiana, countenanced Blind
Palmer, the lecturer on Deism, and congratulated the public on the return
to America of Thomas Paine. He ever remained an active advocate of old
George Clinton, but his friendship was suddenly turned into hatred of
Paine, and his life of that once prominent but wretched individual
demonstrates the rancor of his temper. The murderous death of Hamilton, I
think, had a strong influence on him. No sooner had he breathed his last
than Cheetham extolled him as the greatest of patriots. Many speak of
Cheetham as at times holding the pen of Junius--a judgment sustained by
some of his political assaults and essays. He possessed a magnificent
library, was a great reader, and studied Burke and Shakspeare more than
any other authors. I know nothing against his moral character. His death,
however, was most remarkable: he had removed with his family to a country
residence, some three miles from the city, in the summer of 1809. A few
days afterwards he exposed himself to malaria, by walking without a hat,
through the fields, under a burning September sun. He was struck with a
complication of ills--fever, congestion of the brain, and great cerebral
distress. The malignancy of his case soon foretold to his physician, Dr.
Hosack, the uncertainty of his recovery. Being at that time a student of
medicine, I was requested to watch him; on the second day of his sickness,
his fever raging higher, he betrayed a disturbed intellect. On the night
of the third day raving mania set in. Incoherently he called his family
around him, and addressed his sons as to their peculiar avocations for
life, giving advice to one ever to be temperate in all things, and to
another urging the importance of knowledge. After midnight he became much
worse, and was ungovernable. With herculean strength he now raised himself
from his pillow; with eyes of meteoric fierceness, he grasped his bed
covering, and in a most vehement but rapid articulation, exclaimed to his
sons, "Boys! study Bolingbroke for style, and Locke for sentiment." He
spoke no more. In a moment life had departed. His funeral was a solemn
mourning of his political friends.

Paine has been referred too. I have often seen him at the different places
of his residence in this city, now in Partition-street, now in
Broome-street, &c. His localities were not always the most agreeable. In
Partition-street, near the market, a portion of his tenement was occupied
for th