be not entirely without its advantages. If there is danger of its making the gentlemen too prompt to advance, let it not be unobserved that it fits the lady to escape. Unlike the dull drapery of petticoats worn some years since, but now banished to the nursery or kitchen, the present light substitute gives an air of celerity which seems to say—Catch me if you can." During the first decade of The Evening Post there was much discussion of public questions; its editorial articles, even when brief, seldom if ever seemed to think that it was their sphere to pronounce prompt judgment on every question of a public nature the moment it arose. The annual message of Jefferson to Congress in 1801 was published in The Evening Post on December 12 of that year without comment. Not until December 17 was there any discussion, but when it started it lasted until April 8 of the following year. Though Coleman was styled Field-Marshal of the Federal Party he was opposed to the famous Hartford Convention. Mention has been made that Coleman found it impossible because of the times to keep personalities out of The Post. By way of illustration, its editorial comment of December 2, 1803, may be quoted: "Cheetham's New York Watch-Tower [connected with The American Citizen] has recently come to hand in an entire new dress in such a strange habit, in fact, that it was almost as much unknown as the notorious swindler who disguised himself by putting on a clean shirt. But Cheetham has been cautious, while altering his manner, not to improve his matter. Falsehoods appear in the columns of The Watch-Tower as numerous as usual, with no other difference, than that they shew a face more bold." For the benefit of the lay reader, it may be said that "bold face" is a term used to designate a certain kind of type, as well as to describe the actions of individuals.
Coleman, of The Evening Post, had to defend himself not only against the attacks of Cheetham in The American Citizen, a continuation of Holt's New York Journal, but also against those of Duane in The Aurora, a continuation of Bache's Philadelphia Advertiser. This newspaper war was typical of the period. Coleman edited a Federal paper and Cheetham and Duane, Republican sheets. Sometimes Coleman attacked his rivals separately, but not infrequently he attempted to kill, editorially,
