Sect. III.] United Slates of America. 247 



S. Smith, now president of the college of New 

 Jersey, and whose literary eminence is well 

 known, may be considered as the founder of this 

 institution. It is called Hampden Sidney college, 

 and has been useful in training up a number of 

 , good scholars J but is not now considered as in a 

 very flourishing situation. 



But among the various remarkable periods in 

 the progress of American literature, there are fe\y 

 more worthy of notice than the American re- 

 volution ', a grand struggle, which both awaken- 

 «ed and produced talents j and which, by giving 

 birth to many publications, served to impart new 

 vigour to minds little distinguished before, and to 

 improve the public taste.. Hence it is a fact, that 

 the style in which the j^etitions and remonstrances 

 ■of the American congress at that time, and other 

 political writings of the day, were drawn up, ex- 

 cited surprise in Europe, and gave new elevation 

 to the literary character of the country. 



Among those who distinguished themselves 

 at this period by their publications relating to 

 the great political contest which divided Ame- 

 rica,, we may enumerate James Otis, Josiah 

 Quincy, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and 

 Thomas Hutchinson, of Massachusetts; William 

 Livingston, and John Witherspoon, of New 

 Jersey; John Dickinson*, and Joseph Gallo- 



* John Dickinson, esq., who is a native of the state of Dela-' 

 ware, and at present resides in that state, received a considerable 

 part of his education in Great Britain, from which he had returned 

 but a few years when the ooiitroversy between the colonies and 

 the mother country commenced. He wrote and published much 

 oa this controversy at different periods ; but, p( rhaps, among the 



