96 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



can never raise it ; he lives in Jersey near to the Passaik 

 Falls and has lain 27 years, his age, in the cradle.* 



The present Governor of Pensylvania, Mr. Dickin- 

 son, is known as a man of keen intellect, although his 

 enemies of which he has many, (governors of a repub- 

 lic may have them without much trouble), prefer to 

 paint him in dark colors. He showed his spirit and 

 capacity, politically, by a collection of Letters under 

 the fanciful name of An American Farmer but these 

 are not to be confused with another collection, of a 

 similar title, Letters of an American Cultivator. + I 

 desired to make him my duty, and in order to be re- 

 ceived by him I had recourse to a physician of my ac- 

 quaintance, who excused himself on the ground that 

 he had been against the Governor at the last election. 

 I then went to an American Major with the same re- 

 quest, and he likewise excused himself because at the 

 last rising of the troops he had had some difficulty with 

 the Governor over their pay. I betook myself therefore 

 to a Quaker confidently believing I had come to the 

 right man since Dickinson himself is of the Society of 

 Friends ; but my Quaker assured me he had nothing 

 to do with the Governor, and that my intended courtesy 

 was superfluous. Finally I sought out another doctor 

 who also thought my proposed visit unnecessary and 

 told me the Governor was ill. So I let the matter stop 



* " His name is Peter van Winkle, born 1754, from the feet 

 to the chin he measures 4 ft. 5 in., from the chin to the poll a 

 foot precisely, from the chin to the root of the nose 7 in., 

 thence over the head to the neck 25 in., round the temples 32 

 in." Further information has been published by Counsellor 



Michaelis in Med. Beytrdg. Michaelis, Med. prakt. 



Bibl. I, 91. 



