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COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION
prosecute Oswald in Pennsa. but friends, whom I consulted, dissuaded me
from it, alledging that he was going down hill very fast, & that a prosecu-
tion would support him.-The Veracity of (I suppose himself) one of his
Correspondents has lately been disproved by "a Bostonian."7 It was as-
serted that a Gentn. from New York had seen in the Papers of that Place
an answer from the Gent Court of Massa. to the Govrs. Speech, in which they
pointedly & in express terms reprobated the Proceedings of the Conven-
tion, "both general & state."-The "Bostonian" disbelieved it & called
upon Oswald to write to his correspondent Printer in N. York for the
Paper, & then to publish the Answer;-which he did;-& it turns out to be
nothing more than an Extract of a Letter from Boston dated March 19th. &
published in Greenleaf's Paper in this City the 24th.-which the Bostonian
has taken proper notice of.-March 19th. was Wednesday, & the 24th. Mon-
day:-qus. how did that Letter reach N. York so as to appear there in Print
by 8 0 Clock A.M. on Monday 24th.-It could not have arrived by Post
before the 26th.-The Stage left Boston on Thursday the 20th.-arrived at
Hartford in the Evg. of Saturday 22d. & does not travel on Sunday, & the
Letter could not have come from Hartford hither (130 miles) on Monday
before 8 0 Clock A.M.-There was no Arrival from RhodeIsland, except one
Vessel which left Newport the 19th.-the Day the Letter is dated at Boston.-
So much for Antifederal Veracity! I believe the Letter was wrote here.-
I have mentioned Greenleaf:-he is our antifederal Printer;-a poor thick-
sculled Creature, & so much in debt to Oswald for his printing Office, as
not to dare to offend him:8 I suspect this made him antifederal:-he has
got into a Scrape too; but as the Story is too long for me to tell I will lend
you the Papers:-return them when you have read them:9-in short, the
poor Antifeds. seem to have got almost to "the length of their Tether," as
Govr. Hutchinson said.-The Maryland Majority has staggered them very
much:-So. Carolina will repeat the Blow, & I think Virginia will give
them the Coup de Grace. We cannot tell how our Election has gone in this
State, as the Ballots will not be opened & counted before the latter end of
this month: 10- think it doubtful whether Feds. or Antis. will be most
numerous in Convention, though I have little doubt that they will adopt
the Constitution:-it is probable that some may propose to have the
Breeches altered before they try them on; but I fancy the majority will be
for wearing them as they are. I believe F.H. wrote the Piece about the
Breeches."
1. RC, Belknap Papers, MHi. Printed: "Belknap-Hazard Correspondence," 35-38.
2. "A True Federalist," New YorkJournal, 25 March (above).
3. Richard Henry Lee.
4. Probably Mathew Carey's The Plagi-Scurriliad: A Hudibrastic Poem. Dedicated to Col.
Eleazer Oswald (Philadelphia, 1786) (Evans 19540). On 7 April Hazard wrote Carey that
"I have never had an Opportunity of seeing the Plagi-Scurrilliad til very lately, when a
typographical friend, finding that the Hero of that Poem had bejuniused me, put it into
my hands. Whether the Introductory Remarks of Gulliverus, the Recommendations of
Scribblerus Quartus, the Approbation of the Secretaries, or my own Opinion Feelings
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