It was claimed in the commercial States that the power "to regulate" commerce, bestowed by the Constitution, did not cover an embargo or prohibition of commerce. In advancing this argument, the New England people quoted the opinion of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions that "an unconstitutional law is not binding on the people." In reply to this point made by the loose constructionists, the strict constructionists could do nothing more than quote the implied power. "To regulate" meant to keep the enemy from seizing. Time had wrought a strange transfer of doctrines. Rhymesters exercised their wit in ridiculing both Jefferson and the embargo. Said one: "Our ships all in motion once whitened the ocean, They sailed and returned with a cargo; Now doomed to decay, they have fallen a prey To Jefferson, worms, and embargo." Another paid his respects to the President in stanzas, one of which will suffice: "Like the Tyrant of fame, he embargoes his ports, And to measures that ruin his subjects resorts; By fools he is flattered--by wise men accursed, For "No trade" is the maxim of Thomas the First." These squibs illustrate the dominance which politics held over the composition of the day. The discussion over the adoption of the Constitution had long since given way to newspaper and pamphlet writing on political issues. These writings, frequently scurrilous and abusive, were caused by the rise of parties and, in turn, aided in forming parties. None of the wretched stuff survived. _Peter Porcupine_, the _Aurora_, and the much loftier _Columbiad_ are alike forgotten. Yet it is indicative of the extent to which politics ruled the day to note that in _Knickerbocker's History of New York_, Washington Irving turns aside from the ostensible object of a humorous sketch of early New York to ridicule President Jefferson. William the Testy, a dreamer, a speculative philosopher, an impractical inventor, with a smattering of all knowledge, was easily recognised as the President of the United States. His suggestion of windmills as a means of defence was a burlesque on Jefferson's little gunboats, and his government by proclamation a parody on the embargo and its proclamations. [Illustration: PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.] This isolated work of Irving, written ten years before the beginning of his literary career, finds a counterpart in a long "poem" on the embargo, advertised extensively in the newspapers of New York and New England. It was composed by William Cullen Bryant, aged thirteen, no doubt gladly forgotten in later years and to be found in few editions of his works. "Go, wretch! resign thy Presidential chair, Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair,"