says: "This western world
now beholds an aera important beyond conception, and which posterity will
number with the age of the Czar of Muscovy, and with the promulgation of
the Jewish laws at Mount Sinai. The names of those men who have digested
a system of constitutions for the American empire will be enrolled with
those of Zamolxis and Odin, and celebrated by posterity with the honors
which less enlightened nations have paid to the fabled demi-gods of
antiquity.... In the formation of our Constitution the wisdom of all
ages is collected; the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well
as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. In
short, it is an empire of reason." In all this there is a flurry of
enthusiasm which was not confined to Webster.

Later still, in 1793, he was placed in a more responsible position, as
editor of a new daily newspaper in New York. He had been writing under
the signature of Candor in the "Courant" upon the French Revolution,
taking a somewhat Gallican position, when he chanced to meet Genet at
dinner in New York. Conversation with that gentleman caused a change in
his views, and it was during this visit to New York that Mr. James
Watson proposed to him to establish a newspaper there in the defense of
Washington's administration. With his ardent attachment to Washington,
and his adhesion generally to the federal party, he accepted the
invitation, and established the "American Minerva," which subsequently
became the "New York Commercial Advertiser." In conducting the paper he
introduced an economical device, which was novel at the time, but has
since become an established mode with daily newspapers: he issued a
semi-weekly paper, called the "Herald," which was made up from the
columns of the daily "Minerva" without recomposition of type.

The political situation which led to the establishment of the "Minerva"
was that created by the intrigues of Citizen Genet, and by the bitter
hostility to Washington's administration on the part of the French
sympathizers. Washington had issued his proclamation of neutrality, and
the Jacobin clubs had opened upon him with their newspapers and
pamphlets and public addresses in the most virulent manner. It is
scarcely too much to say that the animosity between the French and
anti-French parties in the United States was keener--it certainly was
madder--than that which had existed between Americans and Englishmen
during the war which had