TO THE
HON. JAMES K. PAULDING,
As one of the earliest pioneers in the fields of American
letters, as one of the ablest and most patriotic, who,
though conscious of the few rewards and thousand discouragements
of literature in our country, has never
made any concessions to that foreign sway,—a relic of
the old colonial tyranny,—the insolent exactions of
which, seen in all our relations, social and national, will,
it is feared, never entirely cease, until, in the accumulating
and unquestionable harvests of our own soil, we
shall become as obviously independent of the mind and
money of other and hostile nations, as we have shown
ourselves to be of their political protection,—this story of
the New World—of the perils and privations of early
discovery—of its bold adventures, wondrous triumphs,
and inadequate rewards,—is most respectfully inscribed
by his fellow-labourer and friend,
