1800.066: The Invisible Spy.
Published: 1800
Full Title: The Invisible Spy.
Author: A Republican.
Place Issued: Virginia
Issuing Press: Uncertain
Description: 16 pgs.; 18 cm.
Notes
Imprint states: "Virginia: Published by a Republican, and supported by the Friends of Liberty. M,DCCC.," so the indeterminacy here. Essentially a two-part imprint designed to assist that Republican campaign of 1800; first half presents a prospectus for publishing a like imprint "once every two weeks. ... [in] twenty-six numbers ... Each number is to contain a letter addressed to the people of the United States, or to some conspicuous character in the Union, upon some important political subject, under the signature of Junius" [iii], and the justification therefore, dated January 20, 1800; the second half is "Letter VII. To Alexander Hamilton, major-general in the Army of the United States; late Secretary of the Treasury" [9-16], which is signed in print: "Junius. London, September 15, 1798." That letter has been ascribed to James Thomson Callender, who was living in Petersburg in early 1800 completing his infamous The Prospect before Us (1800.019); that attribution suggests that this proposed periodical was a partisan production that would be issued either in Petersburg, or through the Republican press organized in Richmond by Meriwether Jones, which regularly employed Callender; however, the text and typography do not provide any further clues as to its origin or publisher.