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An American scholar and writer; born in New York in 1786; died March 1870. He published anonymously in 1819 a brilliant satirical work, entitled "The State Triumvirate". In 1825 he was elected to Congress, and published, 1827-30, conjointly with William Cullen Bryant and Robert C. Sands, a miscellany entitled The Talisman. Among his other works are his address before the New York Historical Society entitled "The Early European Friends of America" (1818); "Essays on the Nature and Uses of the Evidences of Revealed Religion" (1824); and "Discourses and Addresses on Subjects of American History, Art, and Literature" (1833). In 1846 he brought out his edition of Shakespeare, with notes, esteemed one of the best that had ever appeared.