deracy of men of letters." In its new dress it
"cherished the hope that it might bear a comparison with any of the
foreign journals." In 1804 the price had been raised to six dollars. The
issue of July 21, 1804, was in deep black lines, in mourning for
Alexander Hamilton. The issue of July 23, 1808, was a memorial number to
Fisher Ames. The "Oliver Oldschool" figurehead was abandoned in January,
1811, and "conducted by Jos. Dennie, Esq.," took its place; for, the
editor explained, "Since the magazine is no longer _political_, the
appellation of Oliver Oldschool is no longer expedient or necessary."
During Dennie's last illness his place in the editorial chair was taken
by Paul Allen (1775-1826), who wrote poems, and prepared the "Travels of
Lewis and Clarke" for the press, and who must not be confounded with
another eccentric Bohemian, James Allen, brother to the Sheriff of
Suffolk, who wrote under the inspiration of the West Indian
muses--sugar, rum and lemon-juice--who "wore ruffles--and they hung in
tatters about his knuckles."

January, 1812, told of Dennie's death and "that the confederacy of
scholars disbanded almost as soon as it was formed." At this time the
_Port Folio_ was the oldest literary journal in America.

NICHOLAS BIDDLE became the next editor. He supplied the magazine with a
number of articles upon paintings, old and new, and resigned his charge
early in 1812. Dr. Charles Caldwell was requested to succeed him. "I
accepted the proposal," he says, in his "Autobiography," "in less than a
minute, and in less than one hour began to prepare for the performance
of the duty it enjoined" (_Autobiography_, page 322). Caldwell entered
upon his task under an engagement to furnish ninety-eight pages of
matter for each number, and this matter would have to be to a great
extent original. In six months Caldwell increased the number of
subscribers twenty-five per cent. The war naturally became the theme of
greatest interest. General Brown declared that "he reported himself, and
ordered his officers to report themselves in their connection with all
interesting events of the army, as regularly to the editor of the _Port
Folio_ as they did to him, or as he did to the Secretary of War." In
this way the magazine obtained some interesting and valuable
biographical notes of military and naval officers. Dr. Caldwell employed
as assistant editor the famous and versatile THOMAS COOPER. Cooper was
an Englishman, who was born in