til more than a century after his death; and Thomas Prince (1687-1758) began a more extensive work on the same subject, which was never completed. Among the earlier contributions to American local history are the “History of the Present State of Virginia,” by Robert Beverley (London, 1705), that of the discovery and settlement of Virginia by William Stith (died 1750), and that of Massachusetts by Thomas Hutchinson, its last colonial governor, a man of considerable learning and culture. Of works relating to the Indians, the most noteworthy were the history of King Philip's war by the famous Capt. Benjamin Church (1639-1718), the history of the Five Nations by Cadwallader Colden, and the “Diary” of the missionary David Brainerd (1718-'47). The poetry of this period has no pretension to literary merit, but the drama of “The Prince of Parthia,” by Thomas Godfrey, a son of the inventor of the mariners' quadrant, deserves mention as the first work of the class produced in America. II. 1775-1820. The earliest works produced during the first American period, beginning with the revolution, are naturally associated with the causes which led to that event; and the political pamphlets, speeches, letters, and other writings of the men who aided in securing the independence of the North American colonies afford the first indications of a desire to cast aside the conventionalisms of European literature, and to develop one characteristic of the country and its institutions. The severance of the intellectual reliance of the colonies upon the mother country followed as a consequence of their political independence, and as early as the commencement of the revolutionary struggle the high literary ability and practical wisdom evinced in the public documents of the principal American statesmen were recognized by Lord Chatham, who praised them as rivalling the masterpieces of antiquity. Politics now gained a prominence almost equal to that enjoyed by theology in the preceding period; and dry as such subjects usually are to the mass of readers, the discussion of them in speeches and pamphlets during the last quarter of the 18th century accorded thoroughly with the popular taste, and the influence of political writers and orators in giving a decided national type to American literature is unmistakable. Conspicuous among the early pamphleteers were James Otis (1725-'83), Josiah Quincy, jr. (1744-'75), John Dickinson (1732-1808), Joseph Galloway, a tory writer (1730-1803), Richard Henry Lee (1732-'94), Arthur Lee (1740-'92), William Livingston (1723-'90), William Henry Drayton (1742-'99), John Adams (1735-1826), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and Timothy Pickering (1745-1829), of whom Otis and Quincy were perhaps most distinguished as orators, although little beyond the traditions of their eloquence has come down to us. For fervid declamation Patrick Henry (1736-'99) stands at the head of all the orators of this period; and in the reports of his speeches, meagre as they are, he has been more fortunate than others of his contemporaries, as Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805), John Rutledge (1739-1800), Edward Rutledge (1749-1800), Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825), Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), and George Mason (1726-'92), whose reputation as parliamentary debaters or public speakers was very high. The “Common Sense” of Thomas Paine (1737-1809), though not strictly the work of an American author, may be classed with the early national literature, from the fact that it was thoroughly American in tone, and was inspired by the causes which produced the revolution. The great state paper of this era was the “Declaration of Independence,” by Thomas Jefferson, which may be considered unrivalled among works of its class. (See United States, p. 157.) Jefferson also published a “Summary View of the Rights of British America,” and “Notes on Virginia,” which passed through many editions in Europe and America, and left a mass of correspondence forming a valuable contribution to American political history. The writings of George Washington (1732-'99) must always hold a distinguished place in American literature, not only for their lofty patriotism and solid common sense, but for their clearness of expression and force of language; a characteristic, indeed, of most of the writers who were contemporary with him. Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), by turns soldier, lawyer, and statesman, was a member of the convention which framed the federal constitution; and according to Guizot there is not “one element of order, strength, or durability” in that instrument which he did not powerfully contribute to introduce. An enduring monument of his political sagacity and literary ability is the “Federalist,” a series of papers written chiefly by himself for the purpose of elucidating and supporting the principles of the new constitution. Hamilton was assisted in this work by John Jay (1745-1829), the first chief justice of the United States, and James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth president, of whom the former was the author of an “Address to the People of Great Britain” issued by congress in 1774, and other political papers, and the latter a prolific writer on political, constitutional, and historical subjects. John Adams, who wrote with perspicuity and elegance, published a “Defence of the American Constitution,” and a series of “Discourses on Davila,” directed against the French revolutionary ideas prevalent in the last decade of the 18th century, and left numerous political papers and letters, which, together with his “Diary,” begun in 1755, have been edited by his grandson Charles Francis Adams. The most accomplished rhetorician and speaker of the period was Fisher Ames (1758-1808), whose essays and orations are distinguished by a splendor of diction
