MACLAY, WILLIAM

MACLAY, WILLIAM. [1789–1790] Pennsylvanian senator to the first U.S. Congress in New York City. A vocal populist agrarian and anti-Federalist. His account is one-sided but offers a valuable and unsentimental view of his colleagues, notably Thomas Jefferson, John Adams— whom he characterized as “Bonny Johnny”—and the president, whom he continued to call “General Washington.” Maclay was appalled by Alexander Hamilton’s fiscal innovations on grounds that they favored speculators and the urban financier. Published as The Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789–1791, edited by Edgar S. Mcclay. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1890.