have heretofore referred, in general terms, to Mr. Reed's numerous
applications, by writing and in person, to such survivors of the
Revolution, or their descendants, as he supposed could furnish the
information he desired, for anecdotes of General Reed; a part of my
labours, hereafter to be entered upon, will be to narrate not a few of the
rebuffs and rebukes this unfortunate Doctor Syntax in search of the
biographical Pickenesque has experienced, and the minute fidelity with
which my sketches shall be marked, will contribute, let me assure Mr. Reed,
no less to his surprise than mortification, nay, I will establish that much
of the information, that many of the documents, which _I_ propose to lay
before the readers of the Evening Journal, _he_ and his brother, the
Professor, possess; that copies of some of the latter have long been in
their hands; and that Mr. William B. Reed has solicited the transfer or
destruction of the originals. But I will even do more than all this, I
will, in at least two instances, _publish his own letter_, praying for the
loan if not the gift, of original papers affecting the fame of his
grandfather. _Even here_ I do not mean to stop. I shall show that Mr. Reed
succeeded in inveigling from the possession of a gentleman of my
acquaintance, for a pretended temporary purpose, a letter, the publication
of which he supposed; and a part, I may say a prominent part, of Mr. Reed's
scheme to perpetuate the delusion of his grandfather's patriotism, has been
to write or call upon, every person projecting any work connected with the
Revolution; and by tendering information, or otherwise volunteering his
assistance, to deceive or disarm. He has played his game, so far, with very
clever success; and, as I formerly mentioned, it is one which he is at
present engaged in practising upon Mr. Bancroft--that same Mr. George
Bancroft, whom, at a political meeting in this city, held some four or five
years since, he so delicately described as a "tin cannister tied to the
tail of Martin Van Buren, while Martin Van Buren, was running through the
street, like a hot slut, with the whole kennel of loco-focoism bawling at
her heels!" Adapting this figure to circumstances, as it might be
introduced with great effect, into Mr. Reed's collegiate eulogy upon the
services and patriotism of his grandfather.

In Col. Smith's last published letter to Col. ----, he promised to furnish
the latter with copies of certain letters, and