COMMENTARIES, 14 DECEMBER 1787

phrase "the boyish Caesar" is possibly a reference to Alexander Hamilton, the alleged
author of the "Caesar" essays.
Examiner II
New York Journal, 14 December 1787
MR. GREENLEAF, When a man is predetermined in any cause, he will
seldom listen to arguments against his system, but when they are pro-
duced and read to him, his organs of hearing are not more deeply
impressed, than by the whispers of the wind, or the sound of a drum.
I am therefore convinced, that I shall never be able to make a convert
of such a character as Cato, who declared against the new constitution
before ever he saw it.' It is evident however, that he has promised much
more than he has abilities to perform. I expected, from what he ob-
served in his second number,2 that his succeeding ones would contain
something more than bare assertions of his own. I expected to have
seen numberless quotations from the most sensible and approved po-
litical writers in favor of what he advanced, this being the method he
promised to pursue; instead of which he has totally neglected Grotius,
Puffendorf, Sydney, Locke, Hume, and others equally celebrated, con-
fining himself to one or two thread-bare quotations from Baron Mon-
tesquieu which have appeared before in several recent publications.
Now Sir, I think it is ten to one that Cato has never read the works
of either of those great men I have mentioned, and it is more than
probable he has never seen any more of Montesquieu's works, than a
few scraps, picked out of some late mi [s] cellaneous pieces. If he knows
any thing of the Baron, he has certainly used him very scurvilly by
mutilating and tearing in pieces his spirit of laws, in the manner he
has done; especially as he is cautioned by the Baron himself "not to
judge of the labor of twenty years by a few hours reading; that his design
can only be completely found in the book entire, and not in particular
phrases."3
Cato has cast a net, which I believe will catch very few fish. He affects
the appearance of a true son of liberty, but he is an hypocrite, and may
be compared to a carved image with a double head one within the
other; the inner head cohering with the trunk or body, and the outer
being moveable about the inner, and painted in front the colour of an
human face, not unlike the wooden heads exposed to view in a barber's
shop.
1. The reference is to Governor George Clinton, the alleged author of the "Cato"
essays who was accused by Alexander Hamilton of attacking the work of the Constitutional
Convention while it was still in session. See "Alexander Hamilton Attacks Governor
George Clinton," 21 July-30 October (above).
2. "Cato" II, New York Journal, 11 October (above).

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