Text: N. P. Willis (?), Notice of the American Review, Evening Mirror (New York), December 6, 1844, vol. 1, no. 53, p. 2, col. 2

[page 2, column 2, continued:]

THE AMERICAN REVIEW. — A morning paper commends this work, as having “enlisted some of the finest, most vigorous, most learned and sharpest pens in the country.” Is a fine, vigorous and learned pen improved by being made a sharp one into the bargain? Our opinion is just the contrary. We hope the execution of the work will enable us to add fair to the list of commendations. Without this, the others will be of small value. From the names pledged to the support of the new Review — Webster, Choate, and others — pledged under their own hands, and not by the proprietors, which last pledge has, in these days, but a so-so value — we should expect something in the political vein, to which (except, perhaps, in the Democratic) our periodical literature has been a stranger.