Between 1778 and 1780 he wrote a number of moralizing and political essays under the pseudonym "J.A. Schasz, M.D." He also wrote four political comedies, inspired by the American Revolution and the American Revolutionary War, with an anti-British tenor, under this pseudonym. These plays were popular under the pro-American citizenry of the Dutch Republic at this time. Those sympathies were not shared by the regime of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange who was related to the British king George III of the United Kingdom and therefore preferred a pro-British and anti-American/French policy. Despite this official policy of the Republic, Great Britain was so displeased with a number of pro-American Dutch policies that it declared war on the Republic in December 1780. This war did not go well for the Dutch, and the population blamed the stadtholder. 't Hoen, sharing this feeling, started a publication, entitled De Post van den Neder-Rhijn, on 20 January 1781, which in the following six years would become a thorn in the side of the stadtholder's regime.