It is symptomatic of the course which the author had now adopted, that
much of this new satire was directed against Democratic principles and
the prominent upholders of them. This was soon followed by "Democracy
Unveiled," a more elaborate attack on the same political party.

In "Democracy Unveiled," our friend Dr. Caustic appears as a citizen of
the United States, and pours out six cantos of vituperative verse, with
copious notes of the same tenor, on the heads of President Jefferson and
his supporters. Much of the satire is unpardonably coarse. The
literary merits of the work are inferior to those of "Terrible
Tractoration "; but it is no less original and peculiar. Even where the
matter is a mere versification of newspaper slander, Dr. Caustic's
manner gives it an individuality not to be mistaken. The book passed
through three editions in the course of a few months. Its most pungent
portions were copied into all the opposition prints; its strange, jog-
trot stanzas were familiar to every ear; and Mr. Fessenden may fairly be
allowed the credit of having given expression to the feelings of the
great Federal party.

On the 30th of August, 1806, Mr. Fessenden commenced the publication, at
New York, of "_The Weekly Inspector_," a paper at first of eight, and
afterwards of sixteen, octavo pages. It appeared every Saturday. The
character of this journal was mainly political; but there are also a few
flowers and sweet-scented twigs of literature intermixed among the
nettles and burs, which alone flourish in the arena of party strife.
Its columns are profusely enriched with scraps of satirical verse in
which Dr. Caustic, in his capacity of ballad-maker to the Federal
faction, spared not to celebrate every man or measure of government that
was anywise susceptible of ridicule. Many of his prose articles are
carefully and ably written, attacking not men so much as principles and