THE PLYMOUTH ROCK
The ancient rock which partly has piously been buried in the wharf at Plymouth, and the remainder sliced off, and removed to the corner near the old Court House in the said town, has been an object of great veneration to the sons of the pilgrims; and even the daughters have viewed it with saucer eyes of great respect as the first spot that ever was trod by our ancestors in New-England.-- Impressed with this idea, school boys and antiquaries, strangers and virtuosos have hammered upon the rock aforesaid, much to the convenience of a neighbouring black-smith, and carried away divers and sundry pieces and parcels thereof, which they preserve with as much care as a Catholick would a relick of St. Peter.
But still the same rock has been of vast use to the ancient and venerable town of Plymouth. It has brought strangers within its limits who peradventure otherwise might never have trespassed on its borders, much to the felicity and profit of their tavern keepers. The 22d of December furnishes a play day for the boys and girls; the Standish Guards white-wash their heads and frown in all the pomp of military pride — the Pilgrim Society stuff themselves to the chin in honour of their ancestors — and even the ducks and hens of Plymouth seem to march with more stately step and feel a fictious consequence on account of having it in their heads that this spot was the first one touched by those reverend gentlemen, our ancestors. In fact, this same rock has been a theme for the Orator, Painter and Poet; a Webster and an Everett have handed it to remotest posterity by the power of cloquence — they have done every thing with it except dig it from the wharf.
Yet, after all, our ancestors did not first land there. It is a great pity
to be sure they did not, because, had they imagined of how much consequence
this circumstance was to be in after ages, they might have landed there as well
as any where else — but in fact history informs us, that they landed a number
of times on the Cape and traveled into the interior previous to the 22d — and
if there is any merit due to posterity on account of their happening to land
at any particular place, of a truth it belongs to the Wellfleet, Eastham or
New-Orleans folks. But far be it from me to divest the old rock of any of its
sanctity. It is a very peaceable, quiet, well behaved rock - upon which romantick
people indulge in pleasant fancies, and sometimes cut strange capers upon it
— moreover the people below Plymouth are quite willing it should be believed,
that this is the very rock of all rocks, and the writer hereof has dreampt of
our future greatness & all that sort of thing, when he has looked on the
top of said rock as it peeps out of the ground close by the fish-house - Barnstable
Gazette
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Spurious one dollar bills, purporting to be on the Mechanicks Bank in New
York, have been put in circulation in Albany, dated May 1, 1824, and signed
E. DUDLEY president, and S. S. CLAY, cashier. These are fictitious names; the
true names are Lynde CATLIN, president, and Walter MEADS, cashier.
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FARMINGTON CANAL - The length of this canal is 58 miles. We learn from New-Haven
papers, that the excavation, tow-path, embankments, locks, aqueducts, culverts,
roads and farm bridges, have been contracted from Massachusetts line to the
village of Cheshire, an extent of 44 miles.-- Only 14 miles remain to be contracted
for, and even of these 14 miles the locks are under contract. These contracts
have been made at 20 per cent below the estimates of Judge WRIGHT, although
the canal is to be both broader and deeper than was projected by him - Northampton
Gazette
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MAYOR OF NEW YORK - At the annual election, held by the Common Council on
the 3d inst. Philip HONE, esq., was chosen Mayor of the city of New-York.
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MARRIED, at Rochester on the 15th inst, by Joel WHEELER Esq., Mr. Joel COY
to Miss Matilda PETTY.
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