ABSTRACT
In becoming the chief repository of the new capitalism New York had become the first and the greatest of the middle-class capitals. In sharp contrast with Boston, New York was wanting in intellectual background and intellectual stimulus. James Kent, whose long life and ripe legal learning were devoted to upholding what he conceived to be the ultimate principles of law and politics, was the chief political thinker of the transition days of New York. With the extraordinary upheaval in economics and politics New York unfortunately underwent no corresponding intellectual revolution. The very considerable reputation of Fitz-Greene Halleck resulted in a part from the literary sterility of New York in his early days, and in part from the personal popularity of the man. Halleck's political affiliations were Federalist-Whig, and his satire exudes much of the old prejudice against the democratic mass.
