[Illustration: Two part mosaic; above, postman on a horse; below, a moving train grabbing a mailpouch from a post.] Postal Progress, 1776-1876. The press was more violently partisan and indecently personal than now. To oppose the federalist United States Gazette the republican National Gazette had been started, which, with brilliant meanness, assailed not only Washington's public acts, but his motives and character. Him, and still more Adams, Hamilton, and the other leading Federalists, it, in nearly every issue, charged with conspiracy to found a monarchy. Republican journals reeked with such doggerel as: "See Johnny at the helm of State, Head itching for a crowny; He longs to be, like Georgy, great, And pull Tom Jeffer downy." [Footnote: 2 McMaster, 383] Federalists were not behind in warfare of this sort. Jefferson was the object of their continual and vilest slander. In New England, the stronghold of Federalism, nearly every Sunday's sermon was an arraignment of the French, and impliedly of their allies, the Republicans. [Footnote: 2 McMaster, 383] From Jefferson's election--he was a conservative free-thinker--they seemed to anticipate the utter extermination of Christianity, though the man paid in charities, mostly religious, as for Bibles, missionaries, chapels, meeting-houses, etc., one year of his presidency, $978.20; another year, $1,585.60. One preacher likened the tribute which Talleyrand demanded of Adams's envoys to that which Sennacherib required of Hezekiah. [Footnote: Isaiah, 36] Another compared Hamilton, killed in a duel, to Abner, the son of Ner, slain by Joab. Another took for his text the message which Hezekiah sent to the Prophet Isaiah: "This is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of contumely," [Footnote: Isaiah, 37: 3 seq.] etc. Another attacked Republicanism outright from the words: "There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel." [Footnote: Joshua. 7: 13] The coolest federalist leaders could fall prey to this partisan temper. Lafayette meditated settling in this country. Such was his popularity here that no one would have dared to oppose this openly. Hamilton, however, while favoring it publicly, yet, lest the great Frenchman's coming should help on the republican cause, secretly did his utmost to prevent it. Even Washington, who was human after all, connived, it seems, at this piece of duplicity. According to a federalist sheet, Hamilton's death called forth "the voice of deep lament" save from "the rancorous Jacobin, the scoffing deist, the snivelling fanatic, and the imported scoundrel." "Were I asked," said an apologist, "whether General Hamilton had vices, in the face of the world, in the presence of my God, I would answer, No." Another poetized of the "Great day When Hamilton--disrobed of mortal clay-- At God's right hand shall sit with face benign, And at his murderer cast a look divine."