History of New York he speaks disparagingly. In what he says of Verplanck
he allows himself to refer to his figure and features as subjects of
ridicule. This war I think was closed by the publication of "The Bucktail
Bards," as the little volume is called, which contains The State
Triumvirate, a Political Tale, and the Epistles of Brevet Major Pindar
Puff. These I have heard spoken of as the joint productions of Verplanck
and Rudolph Bunner, a scholar and a man of wit. The State Triumvirate is
in octo-syllabic verse, and in the manner of Swift, but the allusions are
obscure, and it is a task to read it. The notes, in which the hand of
Verplanck is very apparent, are intelligible enough and are clever,
caustic and learned. The Epistles, which are in heroic verse, have
striking passages, and the notes are of a like incisive character. De Witt
Clinton, then Governor of the State, valued himself on his devotion to
science and literature, but he was sometimes obliged, in his messages and
public discourses, to refer to compends which are in every body's hands,
and his antagonists made this the subject of unsparing ridicule.

In the family of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, lived Mary Eliza Fenno, the sister
of his wife, and daughter of John Ward Fenno, originally of Boston, and
afterwards proprietor of a newspaper published in Philadelphia, entitled
the _Gazette of the United States_. Between this young lady and Verplanck
there grew up an attachment, and in 1811 they were married. I have seen an
exquisite miniature of her by Malbone, taken in her early girlhood when
about fifteen years old--beautiful as an angel, with light chestnut hair
and a soft blue eye, in the look of which is a touch of sadness, as if
caused by some dim presentiment of her early death. I remember hearing
Miss Sedgwick say that she should always think the better of Verplanck for
having been the husband of Eliza Fenno. Several of her letters written to
him before their marriage are preserved, which, amidst the sprightliness
natural to her age, show a more than usual thoughtfulness. She rallies him