nsul
at Riga by President Madison, but declined. In 1813, he was sent by Mr.
Monroe, as Consul, to Tunis, at a time when the United States was having
trouble with Algerian piracy.

During all this period, his pen was actively busy, and while he was
abroad he did much travelling which resulted, in 1819, in his publishing
a book of travels.

In 1816, he returned to New York, and settled there as a journalist.
Being a Tammanyite in politics, we find him filling the position of
Sheriff, Judge and Surveyor of the Port at various periods. He was,
likewise, an editor of some skill, and his name is associated with the
columns of the _New York Enquirer_, the _Evening Star_, the _Commercial
Advertiser_, the _Union_, and the _Times and Messenger_.

His political career may be measured in the following manner:

In 1821 he became Sheriff. In 1823, he was admitted to the bar of New
York, and in 1829 to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.
This same year he was appointed Surveyor of the Port of New York.

Entering very prominently in politics, he opposed the election of Van
Buren, and gave his vote to General Harrison. Governor Seward appointed
him, in 1841, Judge of the Court of Sessions. The same year he was made
a Supreme Court Commissioner.

It was in 1825 that, as one of the early Zionists of America, he entered
into negotiations for the purchase of nearly three thousand acres of
land on Grand Island, in New York State, where it was his dream to
establish the City of Ararat, a haven of Judaism in this country. This
venture became the basis for a story by Israel Zangwill, called "Noah's
Ark." He died in New York on March 22, 1851, having lived in that city
since 1813.

Any full Bibliography will give a sufficient idea of the scope of Major
Noah's pen. He lived at a time when American Letters were beginning to
develop, himself a friend of most of the literary figures of the
day--Cooper, Irving, Fitz-Green Halleck and others. And we have an
excellent impression of the manner in which the younger literary men
regarded the authority of Noah in the "Reminiscences" of J. T.
Trowbridge:

"Come with me," he [Mr. Noah] said, putting on his hat; and we
went out together, I with my roll of manuscript, he with his
stout cane. Even if I had been unaware of the fact, I should
very soon have discovered that I was in company with an
important personage. Everybody observed him, and it seemed as if
e