^ jpdBMGBftk 
 
 3 f>%-*2 
 
 3* 3
 
 SKETCHES 
 
 PUBLIC CHARACTERS. 
 
 DRAWJT FROM 
 
 THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTICES OF OTHER MATTERS. . 
 
 BY 
 IGNATIUS LOYOLA ROBERTSOX, L L. . 
 
 A RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 : " He that writes, 
 
 Or makes a feast, more certainly invites 
 
 His judges than his friends ; there's not a guest . 
 
 But will find something wanting or ill drest." 
 
 "But here, where Freedom's equal throne 
 
 To all her valiant sons is known ; 
 
 Where all are conscious of her cares, 
 
 And each the power that rules him shares, 
 
 Here let the bard, whose dastard tongue, 
 
 Leaves public arguments unsung, 
 
 Bid public praise farewell ; 
 
 Let him to fitter climes remove. 
 
 Far from the hero's and the patriot's lova, 
 
 And lull mysterious monks to elumber in their cell. 
 
 NEW -YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY E. BLISS. 
 
 AHD SOLD BI G. C. & H. CARVILt.; W.~B. GILLEY, AND C. S. 
 FRANCIS. BOSTON, BILLIARD, GRAT, dt CO. AND CAR- 
 TER & HENDEF.. PHILADELPHIA, JOHN GRIGG, 
 AND CARET &. HART. 
 
 1830. 
 
 G. L. Austin, & Co. Printers.
 
 Southern District of New- York, t. 
 
 BE IT RE- 
 MEMBERED, That on the eleventh day of June, A. D. 1S30, 
 in the 55ih year of I lie Independence of the United States of 
 America, Elam Bliss, of the said district, hath deposited 
 in this office the title of a book, the right whereof lie claims 
 as proprietor, in the words following, to wit. 
 
 "Sketches of Public Characters. Drawn from the living 
 and the dead, with noticesof other matters, by Ignatius Loyo- 
 la Robinson, L. L. D. a resident of the United States. 
 
 ; He that writes, 
 
 ' Or makes a feast, more certainly invites 
 
 ' His judges than his friends ; there is not a guest, 
 
 ' But will find something wanting, or ill drest." 
 
 ' But here, where freedom's equal throne 
 'To all her valiant sons is known ; 
 'Where all-are conscious of her cares, 
 ' And each the power that rules him share?, 
 ' Here let the bard, whose dastard tongue 
 ' Leaves public arguments unsung, 
 ' Bid public praise farewell; 
 "1 Let him to fitter climes remove, 
 ; Far from the hero's -and the patriot's love, 
 1 And lull mysterious monks to slumber in their cell." 
 
 Irvconformity to the actofthe Congress of the Uniied States, 
 intituled, "An act for the encouragement of learning by se- 
 curing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors 
 and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men- 
 tioned;" and also to the act entitled, " AH act supplementary 
 to an act, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learn- 
 ing, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the 
 authors and proprietors of such copies during the times there- 
 in mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts 
 of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other 
 
 prints." 
 
 FRED. J. BETTS, 
 
 Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 
 Webster ', . 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 LETTER 11. 
 
 
 Calhoun 
 
 (!>,... 
 
 . 30 
 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 
 Everett 
 
 .^c .*. 
 
 . " 33 
 
 ' T-- 
 
 Livingston 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 . 31 
 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 
 Jones .*. 
 
 < 
 
 41 
 
 i 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 
 Randolph 
 
 ',, .,.- 
 
 . 47 
 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 
 Johnson 
 
 - 
 
 . 53 
 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 
 Dwight . . 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 
 The Presidents 
 
 ' 
 
 . 63 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 City of Washington 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 The Capitol its ornaments 
 
 82 
 
 . 100 
 
 /f A
 
 1V CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 The President's House "." . . 110 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 .library of Congress Columbian Institute Lit- 
 erature of Washington Periodicals . 117 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Colonization Society The Clergy Medical 
 School Orphan Asylum Tyber Creek Man- 
 ners and Customs College Convent of Vis-j| 
 
 itation 
 
 t 
 
 . 132 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 New- York Poets . . . . 
 
 157 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 Basil Hall O\ven 
 
 . 179 
 
 Painters 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 194 
 
 Dr. Mitchell 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 . 205 
 
 Boston 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 212 
 
 Bartlet 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 . 219 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 Gen. Brown Tudor Judge Washington 
 
 241 
 
 Patent Office 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 . 253
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO COLONEL A. WARD, 
 
 OF WESTCHESTER COUXTY, N. Y. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I DEDICATE this little work to you, re- 
 membering, with pleasure and gratitude, your 
 kindness in rendering me every facility in grati- 
 fying my curiosity, on my first visit to Washing- 
 ton, while you held a seat in Congress. I had 
 been long enough in the United States to feel 
 an attachment to the country ; and I would not 
 yield a particle of my reverence for the distin- 
 guished men of it, to any reviler of them, who- 
 ever he might be. There is only one point in 
 which I am often constrained to agree with those 
 who are unfriendly to this nation, and that from 
 the truth of the remark, not the temper of it.
 
 v i DEDICATION. 
 
 They say that " you never think of a man, howe- 
 ver great his virtues, and his talents, when he 
 is out of office ; that sometimes, at the death of 
 some one who has filled a considerable space 
 in the world, your gazettes praise him to-day, 
 and this is curtailed in to-morrow's paper ; and 
 by the time the next edition of an American Bi- 
 ographical Dictionary is printed, he appears in 
 a flat, chalky picture, of half a column, as grace- 
 less as his epitaph, in some country church- 
 yard, where his bones may rest ; and this, per- 
 haps, a character whose lights and shades, pro- 
 perly disposed of, might have been made a splen- 
 did portrait." 
 
 The writers of the day should speak freely of 
 the living ; the truly great have nothing to fear ; 
 the oftener their merits are discussed, the better 
 for them. In countries like England and the 
 United States, the abodes of free institutions and 
 freer minds, every thing should be presented in 
 full relief ; political and civil rights should be 
 closely examined, and the manners, habits, and 
 morals of the people, become a common topic : 
 the characters, services, claims, and pretensions 
 of men in high places, should be searched out 
 and precisely adjudged. The eyes of the pa-
 
 DEDICATION. v ii 
 
 triot writer should never be shut to the faults of 
 men in power, whether their station or authority 
 be executive, legislative, ministerial, or subal- 
 tern. I write my creed openly, my dear sir, 
 because I believe in it sincerely ; but ask no 
 man to follow it implicitly. You and I have long 
 since settled this, that to be friends, it is not ne- 
 cessary to agree in every particular in politics 
 or religion ; and that more light is to be obtain- 
 ed from a strong and an honest mind, that dif- 
 fers from us, than from a shallow one whose 
 great merit is his acquiescence ; neither you 
 nor I love feeble spirits. I have spoken of men, 
 of measures, and of things, after my own man- 
 ner ; no one is answerable but myself: if there 
 is aught of evil in it, be it mine ; if aught of 
 good, place it, if you please, to the impres- 
 sions received from friends and intimate ac- 
 quaintances. You will probably revisit the seat 
 of government again as a politician ; your ser- 
 vices and talents will be wanted. I shall not be 
 there, as a looker-on in Venice; but whatever 
 may be your pathway in the journey of life, 
 whether in the courts of justice or in the halls 
 of the legislature, may you be successful and 
 happy, and still retain that bland and courteous
 
 v iii DEDICATION. 
 
 disposition, and that love to do kind things, 
 which secures the good man's benison, and the 
 orphan's prayer ; and without which talents, 
 office, and fame, ate empty names. 
 Most truly, 
 
 Your devoted friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 NEW- YORK, JUNE, 1830.
 
 SKETCHES. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 1830. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 You are among the few in your coun- 
 try who take an interest in the affairs of this ; 
 and in compliance with your request, I shall 
 from time to time send you such notes as I 
 have made, or shall make of men and things 
 in the United States. I have seen and heard 
 much during the seventeen years I have resi- 
 ded in the United States, and think I can speak 
 with honesty and candour of their institutions, 
 their men, and of their affairs. Having assu- 
 med the responsibility of a citizen I shall call 
 it my country. As the alarms of war have 
 passed away, it is natural for the reading pub- 
 lic to seek for descriptions of orators, states- 
 men, poets, painters, &c. rather than of war- 
 riors or heroes. This is an active, thinking 
 age, and mind seems to be getting its pro- 
 per influence in the community, on this as 
 well as on the other side of the water. In my 
 
 2
 
 6 WEBSTER. 
 
 remarks upon the good folks of this country, I 
 shall not confine myself to any regular or- 
 der, but give you my opinions as they arise 
 in my mind, believing that in letters from one 
 friend to another there should be no disguise. 
 With this I send you several of the public 
 documents printed by order of Congress, and 
 a bundle of pamphlets containing some of the 
 best American speeches, and also forward a 
 slight notice of some of the most distinguish. 
 ed speakers. As the New-England orator, 
 Mr. WEBSTER, now occupies the largest space 
 in the halls of Legislation, I shall give a 
 sketch of him, which I have no doubt is sub- 
 stantially accurate. 
 
 The person of Mr. Webster is singular and 
 commanding : his height is above the ordinary 
 size, but he cannot be called tall ; he is broad 
 across the chest, and stoutly and firmly built, 
 but there is nothing of clumsiness either in his 
 form or gait. His head is very large, his 
 forehead high, with good shaped temples. He 
 has a large, black, solemn looking eye, that 
 exhibits strength and steadfastness, and which 
 sometimes burns, but seldom sparkles. His 
 hair is of a raven black, and both thick and 
 short, without the mark of a graj hair. His 
 eye brows are of the same colour, thick and 
 strongly marked, which gives his features the
 
 WEBSTER. 7 
 
 appearance of sternness ; but the general^ ex- 
 pression of his face after it is properly examin- 
 ed, is rather mild and amiable than otherwise. 
 His movements in the house and in the street 
 are slow and dignified ; there is no peculiar 
 sweetness in his voice, its tones are rather 
 harsh than musical, still there is a great varie- 
 ty in them ; and some of them catch the ear 
 and chain it down to the most perfect atten- 
 tion. He bears traits of great mental labour, 
 but no marks of age ; in fact, his person is 
 more imposing now, in his forty-eighth year, 
 than it was at thirty years of age. 
 
 Mr. Webster was born in the state of New- 
 Hampshire, in the Town of Salisbury, on the 
 banks of the Mcrrimack ; his early education 
 was scanty, for at that time the public schools 
 in that part of New-England where he lived 
 were not in the same state they now are. A 
 few months of instruction from some badly ed- 
 ucated school -master was all that could be ob- 
 tained at home. Mr, Webster's father was a 
 man of note in his neighbourhood ; sometimes 
 a representative to the legislature, a county 
 judge, and at all times a farmer ; having seve- 
 ral children, he did not feel able to give them 
 the advantages of a liberal education ; but the 
 faculties of his son Daniel attracting the at- 
 tention of all the intelligent part of the com- 
 
 V
 
 8 WEBSTER. 
 
 munjty about him, he made an effort and sent 
 him to an academy to prepare himself for 
 college. The sagacious eye of his instructor 
 was not long in seeing his extraordinary ca- 
 pacity for his studies, for he strode before his 
 classmates with ease, and left them to come 
 up as they could. 
 
 In 1797 he entered Dartmouth college, and 
 graduated in course in 1801. In this semina- 
 ry he was distinguished as a young man of 
 astonishing powers of mind ; but he coursed 
 over too large a field of knowledge to allow 
 him time for those minute and accurate stu- 
 dies whrch alone can make a thorough classi- 
 cal scholar. On leaving college he took the 
 charge of an academy for a year, a usual 
 course for the graduates of that college, and 
 then commenced the study of the law. He re- 
 mained a considerable time in the country in 
 his native village in the office of a tasteful and 
 an elegant scholar, but who was then enga- 
 ged in the profitable part of his profession, the 
 collecting business ; and this practice being 
 soon understood, Mr. Webster was desirous 
 of seeing courts and witnessing a more enlar- 
 ged course of practice ; and for this purpose 
 went to Boston, and put himself under the care 
 of Christopher Gore, a distinguished advocate 
 in that metropolis. Gore soon saw and spoke
 
 WEBSTER. 9 
 
 prophetically of the talents of his pupil. Some 
 political essays he wrote in the papers at that 
 time attracted the attention of men of judg- 
 ment, and these productions were spoken of as 
 exhibiting great vigour and point. As soon as 
 he was admitted to the bar he returned into 
 the country and commenced the practice of 
 his profession at Boscawen, the town adjoining 
 his native village. It was not long before all 
 eyes were turned upon him, and his business 
 rapidly increased, but he deemed the field too 
 narrow for him, and in about three or four 
 years he left Boscawen for Portsmouth, the 
 largest town in New-Hampshire, a place of 
 extensive commerce and great enterprise. 
 His fame had preceded him ; he was soon 
 known to all, and employed in most of the im- 
 portant cases in the courts throughout the 
 State. Smith and Mason were then his com- 
 petitors ; they were shrewd and learned men, 
 who had been brought up in a school of sharp 
 practice, and the young aspirant for distinction 
 had to fight them hard, and he did beard them 
 by all the subtleties of special pleading ; and 
 with equal taunts and gibes and sarcasms 
 and such weapons, inflicted equal harms un- 
 til they acknowledged him as their peer, and 
 made with him an amnesty that was perpetual. 
 Mr. Webster has often said that this was a 

 
 10 WEBSTER. 
 
 good school for him. No doubt it was a good 
 thing for him to be under the necessity of con- 
 tending alone with his seniors, men who were 
 at the upper row of the bar and had long mo- 
 nopolized the best business. But Mr. Web- 
 ster had not been at the bar more than seven 
 years when he shared with them the leading 
 cases in all the courts. 
 
 At this time party spirit ran high, and the 
 prominent men in New-Hampshire were 
 anxious to see Mr. Webster display his pow- 
 ers in the halls of Congress. He had taken 
 sides in politics in early life, and had been ac- 
 tive with his pen in support of his principles ; 
 but he never suffered his zeal to get the better 
 of his judgement ; he was no demagogue. 
 The first halo of political glory that hung 
 around his brow was at a convention of all 
 the great spirits in the county of Rockingham, 
 where he then resided, and such representa- 
 tives from other counties as were sent to this 
 convention to take into consideration the state 
 of the nation, and to mark out such a course 
 for themselves as should be deemed advisable 
 by the collected wisdom of those assembled. 
 On this occasion an address with a string 
 
 o 
 
 of resolutions were proposed for adoption, 
 of which he was said to be the author. They 
 exhibited uncommon powers of intellect and
 
 WEBSTER. 1 1 
 
 a profound knowledge of our national interests. 
 He made a most powerful speech in support of 
 these resolutions ; portions of which were re- 
 printed at that time and which were much ad- 
 mired in every part of the Union. From this 
 time he belonged to the United States, and not 
 to New-Hampshire exclusively. Massachu- 
 setts seemed to take as deep an interest in his 
 career as his native state. Not far from this pe- 
 riod, a traveller passing through Portsmouth, 
 when some election was near at hand, when 
 at the inn it was announced over the dinner ta- 
 ble that Mr. Webster was to speak at a caucus 
 that evening ; this news ran from one part of 
 the town to another and all were enthusiast ic at 
 hearing that Mr. Webster was going to speak. 
 The gentleman's carriage came to the door 
 and he was about to get into it, when the hostler 
 said, sir, are you going to leave town ? Mr. 
 Webster is to speak to night. The gentleman 
 finding all classes so much delighted to hear 
 that Mr. Webster was going to speak, order- 
 ed his horses to the stable, and put off his 
 journey until the morrow. 
 
 At early candlelight he went to the caucus 
 room ; it was filled to overflowing, but some 
 persons seeing that he was a stranger gave 
 way, and he found a convenient place to stand ; 
 no one could sit. A tremendous noise soon
 
 12 WEBSTER. 
 
 announced that the orator had arrived ; but as 
 soon as the meeting was organized, another 
 arose to make some remarks upon the object of 
 the caucus ; he was heard with a polite apathy ; 
 another and another came, and all spoke well, 
 but this would not do, and if Chatham had 
 been among them, or St. Paul, they would not 
 have met the expectations of the multitude. 
 The beloved orator at length arose, and was 
 for a while musing upon some thing -which 
 was drowned by a constant cheering : but when 
 order was restored he went on with great se- 
 renity and ease, to make his remarks without 
 apparently making the slightest attempt to 
 gain applause. The audience was still, ex- 
 cept now and then a murmur of delight which 
 showed that the great mass of the hearers were 
 ready to burst into a thunder of applause, 
 if those who generally set the example would 
 have given an intimation that it might have 
 been done ; but, they devouring every word, 
 made signs to prevent any interruption. The 
 harrangue was ended ; the roar of applause 
 lasted long and was sincere and heart-felt. It 
 was a strong, gentlemanly, and an appropriate 
 speech, but not a particle of the demagogue 
 about it ; nothing like the speeches on the 
 hustings to catch attention. He drew a pic- 
 ture of the candidates on both sides of the
 
 WEBSTER. 13 
 
 question and proved, as far as reason could 
 prove, the superiority of those of his own 
 choice ; but the gentleman traveller, who was 
 a very good judge, has often said that the most 
 extraordinary part of it was that a promiscu- 
 ous audience should have had good sense 
 enough to relish such sound, good reasoning, in 
 a place where vague declamation generally 
 is best received. 
 
 As the traveller went on toward the East, 
 he found the fame of the speech had preceded 
 him and was talked of in every bar room and 
 at every public table. In 1809 he was pat in 
 nomination for congress and was elected. Par- 
 ties were nearly equally divided, but his name 
 gave great weight to th ticket. In New- 
 Hampshire the members of congress are cho- 
 sen by general ticket, without regard to dis- 
 tricts, or without any further regard to them 
 than that of consulting public feeling in se- 
 lecting candidates. In Congress he soon be- 
 came distinguished and was surrounded by the 
 New England delegation, or rather a greater 
 part of them ; and was considered as conspicu- 
 ous among them, if not at that time precisely 
 their leader. On the great question of renew- 
 the Charter of the Bank of the United States 
 he made a long speech full of well tried facts 
 and sound principles. In any other but high
 
 14 WEBSTER. 
 
 party times his reasonings would have been 
 irresistible. The question was lost, but when 
 the subject came up again after the peace of 
 1815, the advocates of the Bank did but little 
 more than repeat his arguments in favour of 
 its establishment. 
 
 On retiring from public life he found that 
 his pecuniary affairs were deranged and his 
 friends in Boston invited him to come there, 
 as a wider field for his talents, and promised 
 him business ; he removed in 1817, and at 
 once entered into full practice, and shared the 
 best of it, with the elder luminaries of the bar 
 of Suffolk. His practice was not confined to 
 that county, but he was called into Essex, 
 Middlesex, Norfolk, and in fact to other coun- 
 ties as far as he would go from home. His 
 fame was every day increasing at the bar ; and 
 he seemed to have forgotten that he was ever 
 a politician. To his clients he was every thing, 
 and they complained of nothing, but that it 
 was difficult from the press of those who 
 sought him, to obtain an audience to speak of 
 their cases. Some of the bar fretted at his oc- 
 casional sharpness and overbearing ; and his 
 greatest admirers will not deny that at times, 
 he was petulant, and restive, and he seemed to 
 have forgotten, that he was in a different lati- 
 tude from that in which he was educated ; but
 
 WEBSTER. 15 
 
 on reflection he generally made amends for 
 any pain he had given. There seemed in his 
 day a common law in New-Hampshire, as well 
 as in England, that every witness might, by ex- 
 amining counsel, be put to the torture and that 
 it was all fair play. In Massachusetts it was 
 not so. The rights and feelings of witnesses 
 were protected by the court, sometimes fas- 
 tidiously ; he knew nothing of that at first, 
 and when he had learned it, often forgot it. la 
 1823 he was elected from Boston to the legis- 
 lature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 but did not take an active part in any impor- 
 tant discussion, perhaps there was not any 
 ihing which came up at that time to require 
 his aid. 
 
 In 1824, Mr. Gorham, who had ably and 
 faithfully represented the District of Suffolk 
 in Congress, resigned his seat in that body. 
 A merchant of talents, and polished educa- 
 tion, was put in nomination. Mr. Putnam was 
 one of the most decidedly popular men in the 
 district, and all parties had made up their 
 minds to send him, when some of Mr. Web- 
 ster's friends put him in nomination only a few 
 days before the election ; and when it was as- 
 certained that he would stand as a candidate, 
 there was a strong desire evinced among his 
 old friends to support his election ; but not
 
 16 WEBSTER. 
 
 a few were pledged to Mr. Putnam, who was 
 a most unexceptionable candidate. In this 
 state of things caucuses were held, and at each 
 the speakers struggled to say the kindest 
 things of the two candidates ; and when they 
 had made a choice, appeared to regret that 
 both could not be members ; suffice it to 
 say, Mr. Webster was chosen. He came 
 in at the next election unanimously, he was 
 of course the representative of a city, and a 
 people, and not of a party. From the House, 
 he was elected to the seriate of the United 
 States, and in that body he took the same stand 
 he had held in the popular branch of the go- 
 vernment. He came to it, at once, as he was 
 known to all the members of the senate per- 
 sonally or by reputation. There is not, proba- 
 bly, a lawyer in the United States of his age, 
 who has argued so many important causes as 
 Mr. Webster, notwithstanding his long politi- 
 cal services. 
 
 When he came to Boston, he could not have 
 ranked among the first scholars of our coun- 
 try, for there were many in his own cir- 
 cle of acquaintance, before him in all the 
 nicities of classical learning. He had not felt 
 this before, and he now devoted many of his 
 leisure hours to classical learning, not merely 
 as an amusement, but as a study ; and at the
 
 WEBSTER. 17 
 
 same time made himself master of the history 
 of his country ; a branch of learning in which 
 most of the American politicians are greatly 
 deficient. In this latter course, he saw minute- 
 ly the origin of our institutions, and the princi- 
 ples on which they had flourished. 
 
 These acquirements give a ripeness and 
 finish to his speeches on all national questions 
 which they had not before ; like Lionardo da 
 Vinci, he added to the magnificence of his ear- 
 ly designs, all the gatherings of experience, 
 and the improvements of taste. It is seldom 
 that the bold outline is patiently filled up. 
 
 The situation of every man has much to do 
 with his reputation, if it does not alter his 
 character. If it be true that 
 
 " Pigmies are pigmies still, though perch'd on Alps, 
 And pyramids are pyramids in vales," 
 
 yet when the latter are placed on an eminence, 
 their morning and evening shadows are cast at 
 greater length, and the vast pile is seen in all 
 its magnificence at a much greater distance. 
 Comingto the metropolis of New-England, was 
 indeed setting himself on a hill. It was a hap- 
 py change, for he was made for that city, and 
 that city for him. He seems to have the same 
 power over the people of Boston, and indeed 
 of all Massachusetts, that Pericles had over 
 3
 
 18 WEBSTER. 
 
 the Athenians, and for aught I know is likely to 
 last as long ; for fifteen years it has been wax- 
 ing apace without feeling any wanings of pub- 
 lic opinion. It may be that the measure of his 
 fame is filled up, and that he has reached his 
 acme ; but it is impossible for him to become 
 unpopular while he retains the powers of his 
 mind, and continues his exertions for the hon- 
 our of his country. 
 
 But to speak more particularly of his mental 
 endowments ; he is not wanting in originality, 
 but has not so much of it as to lead him per- 
 petually after novel creations. His memory 
 is strong, and the stores of his knowledge are 
 laid up in admirable order, and ready for use 
 as exigences or circumstances may require. 
 His early friends say that his imagination was 
 once of a high order, and that he wrote vigor- 
 ous poetry whenever he chose ; and as farther 
 proof of the strength of his fancy they produce 
 a splendid eulogy delivered by him on the 
 death of one of his classmates when in college. 
 It has the gorgeousness of youthful genius 
 about it, and was for years considered the most 
 extraordinary composition ever written at 
 Dartmouth college ; but if imagination was 
 then his most striking characteristic, it is not 
 so now. The severe discipline to which he, 
 on coming to the bar, put it under, soon de-
 
 WEBSTER. 19 
 
 stroyed the inspiration of the muse, and laid 
 her lifeless at the feet of reason. That pow. 
 er of the mind, whatever metaphysicians may 
 call it, that looks over the utmost extent of a 
 subject at a glance ; that which grasps all its 
 near and remote bearings, and comprehends 
 its dependencies and relations, and can throw 
 out all the results of reasoning upon it to the 
 public in the smallest compass of time, is his, 
 pre-eminently his. It may be called gen- 
 ius, judgment, talent any thing no matter 
 what : it is greatness, mental greatness, ab- 
 stracted from circumstances or accident. 
 There are men who say that Mr. Webster 
 has been over-rated this is not true ; some of 
 his over- weening friends, have at times for 
 want of discernment, spoken of his ordinary 
 efforts at the bar, and other places,"as wonder- 
 ful productions, comparing them with his high- 
 est efforts. The greatest minds are sometimes 
 common. place, and many of his speeches 
 should have passed away as other common- 
 place matters have done. It is equally wrong 
 to look to his orations on great occasions for 
 the proudest productions of his intellect. 
 These productions are noble compositions, 
 powerful discussions of the subject ia hand, 
 abounding in deep strength, pertinent remark, 
 and striking illustrations ; but they are not, af-
 
 20 WEBSTER. 
 
 ter all the praise which has been bestowed up- 
 on them, his most felicitous labours. He can- 
 not lash himself into passion in the closet ; he 
 requires excitement that he cannot find there ; 
 he must be roused by some spirit of emulation, 
 rivalry, or resentment ; he must be awakened 
 by the cry that the Philistines are upon him, 
 before the strength of his sevea locks are felt. 
 
 It is before a court and jury, or in the delibe- 
 rate assembly that the full extent of his pow- 
 ers can be understood ; and even there it de- 
 pends much on who his opponents may be, 
 whether he shall be great or not. 
 
 But if the oration at the landing of the Pil- 
 grims, is not his greatest effort, it was indeed 
 a fine one ; the production abounds in depth of 
 thought and majesty of language. 
 
 The oration at Bunker's Hill was literally de- 
 livered to the world. In the open air, exposed 
 to sun and winds, stood an orator ripe with the 
 thoughts of manhood, before all the impres- 
 sions and the glow of early days had gone ; 
 myriads of listeners were around him ; heroes 
 were clustering near him, among them the re- 
 presentatives of other hemispheres ; holy men 
 who were just entering eternity, were ready to 
 implore a blessing, and depart ; the bones of 
 friends, and enemies, were shaking in their 
 graves beneath the feet of new and old gene-
 
 WEBSTER. 21. 
 
 rations, and passing time, was announcing that 
 half a century had elapsed since the roar of 
 battle had broke over the sacred ground ; the 
 corner stone of a time defying monument was 
 then resting at his feet, and an hundred thou- 
 sand bosoms in his sight were swelling and 
 heaving with patriotism and republican pride ; 
 how sublime the scene ! what a moment for 
 " thoughts that breathe and words that burn :" 
 and is it not enough to say that all were sat- 
 isfied ? 
 
 His next oration was on the death of Adams 
 and Jefferson. It was delivered on the 2d 
 of August, 1826, in Fanuiel Hall, the cradle 
 of American liberty. Not more than one tenth 
 of those who strove to hear him could get ad- 
 mittance. The excitement was wonderful. 
 Happy is the orator who has an audience that 
 love him ; his glory is more than half perfect- 
 ed before an accent is heard, or his lips 
 move 
 
 I have seen 
 
 The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind 
 To hear him speak : the matrons flung their gloves, 
 Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchiefs, 
 Upon him as he passed : The nobles bended, 
 As to Jove's statue ; and the commons made 
 A shower and thunder, with their caps and shouts : 
 I never saw the like. 
 
 CORIOLANUS. 
 3* *
 
 22 WEBSTER. 
 
 His manners at the bar, and in the delibe- 
 rate assembly, are peculiar. He begins to 
 state his points in a low voice, and in a slow, 
 cool, cautious and philosophical manner ; he 
 goes on hammering out link by link his chain 
 of argument with ponderous blows, and while 
 thus at labour, you rather see the sinews of 
 the arm, than the skill of the artist. It is in re- 
 ply, that he comes out in the majesty of intel- 
 lectual grandeur, and lavishes about him the 
 opulence of intellectual wealth. It is when the 
 darts of the enemy have hit him, that he is all 
 might and soul ; it is then, that he showers 
 down words of weight and fire. Hear him, 
 and you will say that his eloquence is founded 
 on no model, ancient or modern, that he never 
 read the works of a master for instruction ; 
 all is his own, excellencies and defects. His 
 voice has an extraordinary compass ; for he 
 fills the largest room without great effort. His 
 emphasis belongs to himself alone ; it is found- 
 ed on no rule nor can it be reduced to any. 
 
 Fanueil Hall, and the largest room of the 
 capitol, are within the power of his voice, and 
 he speaks in them with apparent ease. The 
 style of his eloquence is also all his own ; he 
 resembles no American orator we yet have 
 heard ; he does not imitate in the least, the 
 Addisonian eloquence of Alexander Hamilton,
 
 WEBSTER. 23 
 
 which was the day-spring in a pure vernal 
 atmosphere, full of health and beauty ; nor 
 does he labour for the sweetness of Fisher 
 Ames, whose heart on all great occasions, 
 grew liquid, and he could pour it out UTce water : 
 nor like him, could Mr. Webster, by the ma- 
 gic wand of the enchantress make a paradise, 
 and people it with ethereal beings ; no ; all the 
 subject of this notice did, or could do, was to 
 work in a straight- forward course, with mor- 
 tal engines, and show himself mighty in earth, 
 air, and water ; but in these his sway was 
 Herculean : He had all the elements at com- 
 mand, and he used them as one of earth-born 
 mould, but of gigantic proportions. He never 
 strives to dazzle, confuse or astonish ; but 
 goes on to convince and to conquer by legiti- 
 mate means. When he goes out to battle, it is 
 without squire, aid-de-carnp, or arrnour-bear- 
 er ; although hundreds are ready to take any 
 part in and about his person. In his conflict he 
 trusts to no arm but his own he rests only on 
 the staff of his own spear. 
 
 I believe that it can be said of him, that he 
 shows none of that vanity in debate, which 
 belonged to the very nature of the great father 
 of Roman eloquence, and was conspicuous in 
 all his acts of a public nature; but if he never 
 said with him " Video, patres concsripti, in me
 
 24 WEBSTER. 
 
 ominum ora, atque occulos esse converses ;" yet 
 from his lofty carriage, his haughty brow, his 
 swelling veins, and curled lip, you would judge 
 that he had no small share of that sin "for 
 which fell the angels." 
 
 Some of his admirers talk of his wit in de- 
 bate. There is often a piquancy and girding re- 
 tort in his arguments, that by some may be call- 
 ed wit ; but it is not the wit of Sheridan or of 
 any professed wit ; nor that wit which sparkles 
 out, and illumines the subject under discussion, 
 and seems to be the offspring of the moment, 
 but is a matter of long and previous delibera- 
 tion, perhaps, of frequent rehearsal. Instead of 
 . those pyrotechnics, of the war of words, Web- 
 ster's speeches abound in the burning intensity 
 of that heat which sheds a flash of light around, 
 such as we see proceeding from a glowing mass 
 of iron, when drawn by a powerful arm across 
 the anvil. In the United States, there have 
 been, and there now are, men of some one, or 
 more qualifications superior to any single trait 
 of Mr. Webster's mind. Some have more 
 learning, others more wit, some have a sweet- 
 er voice, others have a more refined taste ; and 
 not a few of more imagination ; but in the 
 combination of all these powers, he has no 
 equal. He seizes his subject, turns it to the 
 light, and however difficult, soon makes it fa-
 
 WEBSTER. 25 
 
 miliar, however intricate, plain, and with a 
 sort of supernatural power, he possesses his 
 hearers, and controls their opinions. His 
 friends yield at once with a delighted willing- 
 ness, and his opponents give up after a few in- 
 effectual struggles ; even those who talk on 
 against him, show that their tones are altered, 
 and that they are conscious of the victory he 
 has achieved over them, and the thraldom in 
 which they are placed. The " reluclantes dro- 
 cones," after he has brushed the swarm of flies 
 away, soon become quiet in his grasp. 
 
 There are many, and those too of no little 
 intelligence, who think and avow their opin- 
 ions, that the present race of politicians are in- 
 ferior to that which has just passed away ; 
 and to account for their opinion, they say it re- 
 quires less of talent, to administer a govern. 
 merit, than to make a constitution, and less en- 
 ergy to cultivate peace, than to fight out a re- 
 volutionary war. We are not converts to this 
 doctrine. To equipoise the general govern- 
 ment with state rights, to keep all safe on the 
 waves of party violence, to keep the great 
 states from infringing on the rights of the 
 small, and to take care that no state should op- 
 press its own citizens, is quite as hard a task, 
 and requires as much mind, prudence, labor, 
 and calculation, as did the great work of the
 
 26 WEBSTER. 
 
 41 
 
 preceding generation, that of establishing na- 
 tional independence, and agreeing on a form 
 of popular government. 
 
 Mr. Webster has every advantage for intel- 
 lectual discipline, having been born among the 
 yeomanry of New-Hampshire, he became ear- 
 ly acquainted with their capacities, feelings 
 and habits, and from his practice as a law- 
 yer among them, at the commencement of 
 his professional career, he became still more 
 accurately acquainted with their whole char- 
 acter. There is no profession, equal to that 
 of the law, to teach one a knowledge of human 
 nature ; entering on a political course, his 
 views were expanded and he saw men playing 
 higher games with pretty much the same mo- 
 tives. One of the evils attending great men in 
 England, and other aristocratic governments 
 is, that they have but little acquaintance with 
 the middling classes in society, and many of 
 them from being educated privately, have nev- 
 er tried their corporeal and mental strength 
 with beings of their own age. 
 
 When mind contends with mind, without any 
 of the distinctions of society in a public school, 
 the powers of each are very accurately mea- 
 sured and the youth grows up to manhood 
 with a proper knowledge of his own capacity. 
 These school exercises are efficacious in ta-
 
 WEBSTER. 27 
 
 king out of the mind that vanity, and conceit, 
 that partial friends are apt to infuse into for- 
 ward boys. The college in which Mr. Webster 
 was educated is most favourable to this mode 
 of testing minds. The scholars are all on an 
 equality the moment they enter the institution. 
 All have their way to make in the world and 
 the moment they have graduated, fly off to dis- 
 tant places and begin their labors as those 
 well aware of what they have to do. 
 
 In every place where Mr. Webster has been 
 called to act, he has been prominent, in courts 
 of justice and in halls of Legislation. Before 
 he was thirty years of age, he stood unequal- 
 led in congress as a debater, and even then, his 
 claims were acknowledged by a most powerful, 
 but generous political opponent, Mr. Lowndes. 
 In the convention for altering and amending 
 the constitution of Massachusetts, the Pa- 
 triarch of that numerous and highly intel- 
 lectual body, John Adams, stated openly, that 
 Mr. Webster, was the first man among them ; 
 and indeed, he did not hesitate to say, that he 
 had never met in his long acquaintance with 
 statesmen, a superior mind, viewing him in 
 every respect. 
 
 His enemies say that he is ambitious ; this 
 will not be denied by his friends ; but can 
 there be such a thing as a statesman, without
 
 28 WEBSTER. 
 
 ambition ? Even the martyr's bosom is not free 
 from ambition ; he looks to the crown of glory 
 in another world. That Mr. Webster has fail- 
 ings, no one will deny ; for who is without 
 them? but they are not those which impair 
 his mind, or injure his political usefulness. 
 Some may have cau^e to complain of his dis- 
 tance or coldness ; others of his forgetfulness 
 or want of generosity in acknowledging their 
 merits. The nil admirari is frequently an in- 
 gredient in a statesman's creed, but after all, 
 justice in making out her balance sheet, has to 
 allow for the jealousies of the mediocre and 
 the little, as well as for the coldness of the 
 great. The writer of this article is no foliow- 
 er, vassal, or even lover of Mr. Webster ; but 
 he thinks him a man of whom his country 
 should be proud, and one that every honest 
 politician should honor and protect ; for if he 
 sometimes acts with a party, his general sen- 
 timents are truly national and noble. 
 
 In every country the character of a public 
 man is common property, and in most coun- 
 tries they speak of them with great freedom, 
 and often with much profligate severity. Mr. 
 Webster, however, has suffered more from 
 injudicious and indiscriminating admirers than 
 from the bitterest enemies he has ever had. 
 Those nauseous flatterers and cringing toad-
 
 WEBSTER. 29 
 
 eaters who exist always near a great man, and 
 who are ready to lie, fume and cry aloud in 
 his praise, disgust honest admiration and of- 
 fend common sense ; no man has suffered more 
 from this pittiful race than Mr. Webster. They 
 are not content with showing the size of the 
 man from the impressions of his footstep ; nor 
 inferring his strength from his deeds of prow- 
 ess ; but they must deal in the miraculous : 
 Such a man as Mr. Webster requires no 
 such abettors or false aids ; he is above them. 
 On the basis of his own merits he may rest 
 his fame ; it will support through all the ages 
 of this republic a collossal figure for the pride 
 of the nation, and the delight of those who love 
 to contemplate the finest efforts of human 
 genius.
 
 LETTER. II. 
 
 Washington, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 THE Vice President, MR. CALHOUN, now 
 occupies a large space in the eye of the na- 
 tion. He is, indeed, a very considerable man 
 in the political world, and no ordinary one as 
 a statesman or an orator. He is now about 
 forty-eight years old, born in Pennsylvania, 
 and bred in South Carolina. He received his 
 education at Yale College, and was a favour- 
 ite of that great instructor, Dr. Dwight, then 
 president of that Institution. Soon after he 
 was admitted to the bar, he was sent to Con- 
 gress, and at once took a leading part in the 
 business and debates, of that period. From the 
 House of Representatives he was made Sec- 
 retary of War. In this office he made all his 
 calculations on a broad, bold scale ; he reor- 
 ganized the army and got rid of no small share 
 of the blustering ignorance which is always 
 found among the fair character and talents of 
 such bodies after a war of some continuance. 
 His plan of fortification for the most expo- 
 sed parts of the sea-board and frontiers was a 
 bold and magnificent one, worthy of the war
 
 CALHOUN. 3; 
 
 department and of a great people. The par- 
 simonious were alarmed at the extent of his 
 expenditures, and the very prudent thought 
 him lavish of the public monies ; still the wise 
 and calculating supported him from a belief 
 in the utility of his measures. He hated that 
 parsimony which is always in the end the 
 worst of prodigalities. Such was the state of 
 the army when he came into office that it re- 
 quired a bold hand like his to reform it. There 
 can be no doubt but great injustice was done 
 to individuals in razeeing, yet, on the whole, 
 the public were benefitted by the reform. 
 
 From the head of the war department, Mr. 
 Calhoun was elevated to the Vice Presidency, 
 and served one term with Mr. Adams, and is 
 now on his second, with General Jackson. 
 
 The vice Presidency has not been a place 
 for an ambitious man heretofore. He was 
 not until the elevation of General Jackson 
 considered a member of the cabinet, and had 
 but little more to do than to preside in the 
 Senate. This requires but little talent. Mr. 
 Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency, 
 but at length sent in his declinature in favor of 
 general Jackson. This gave a shock to his 
 popularity, for he had then enlisted in his 
 cause some of the first spirits in the country. 
 These were all at once afloat and some con- 
 fusion ensued.
 
 32 CALHOUN. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is now prominently before the 
 public. He has high claims and many friends ; 
 but he, nor any one else can divine his fate. 
 The changing winds are not more uncertain 
 than popular favour ; it bloweth where it listeth, 
 and no one comprehendeth it. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is a man of great readiness, 
 sagacity and daring. He comes quickly to a 
 point, and acts fearlessly upon what he thinks 
 is well for him to do. In conversation Mr. 
 Calhoun is fluent, rapid and ingenuous, and 
 the productions of his pen are of the same 
 stamp. He stops for none of the graces of 
 finishing. His eloquence is not of a high 
 grade if manner and voice make up any por- 
 tion of eloquence. His action is vehement 
 and his words flow in torrents. When Secre- 
 tary at war he brought forward some of the 
 young men of talents he had known in college 
 or as fellow students at law, and every selec- 
 tion justified his knowledge of character, and 
 his just appreciation of ability and tact for bu- 
 siness. He is ambitious ; but who would moil 
 and toil for many years for place and power 
 if he were not ambitious ? The thorny pinna- 
 cle of power must be reached by long and 
 painful labour and countless privations, anx- 
 ious days and sleepless nights belong to him 
 who seeks distinctions in any path of life.
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Washington, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 MR. EVERETT you have seen, and 
 therefore I need not describe his person to 
 you ; when in Europe he was, as you know, 
 much caressed as a learned man ; his course 
 has been singular and prominent. While at 
 Harvard University as a student he was dis- 
 tinguished, though very young ; on leaving 
 college he studied divinity and was ordained 
 and settled a youthful prodigy. In elegant 
 literature he had no equal of his age and the 
 world was delighted with his pulpit eloquence ; 
 whenever he preached crowds of the most ac- 
 complished of both sexes assembled to hear his 
 splendid sermons ; these discourses if they had 
 not so much of the holy unction in them as in 
 some sermons of graver men, still there was a 
 purity of taste and a sweet solemnity that 
 made him delightful to hearers of all creeds. A 
 few years after his ordination he was elected 
 to a professorship in Harvard University. 
 This office he accepted on condition of being 
 allowed to visit Europe and reside a year or
 
 34 EVERETT. 
 
 two in Germany. He set out on this tour with 
 all the ardour of a young man panting for 
 knowledge and ambitious of surpassing all, in 
 his accomplishments. In his absence he visit- 
 ed Rome, France, and England, and tarried 
 for some time at Gottengen, and became ena- 
 moured with German literature. He extend- 
 ed his travels to Greece, and there drank in- 
 spiration among the relics of ancient taste and 
 greatness. He examined the Parthenon in its 
 ruins with great minuteness, as well as all 
 other things worthy of notice.' He returned 
 to his Alrna Mater with a mind filled with 
 " the spoils of time," and a memory stored 
 with the humanities, the great object of his 
 travels, and commenced his labours as a pro- 
 fessor, and at once became the pride of the 
 University and the delight of his pupils. 
 
 He did not confine himself to the instruc- 
 tion of college classes, but gave a splendid 
 course of lectures on Architecture, which 
 was numerously attended by the most enlight- 
 ened persons of both sexes in the metropolis 
 of New-England. At this time he was consid- 
 ered the Editor of the North American Re- 
 view, which was well conducted, and took the 
 lead in the periodicals of the country. His 
 portions of the work are distinguished for taste, 
 talent and learning ; there is a variety and
 
 EVERETT. 35 
 
 raciness about his productions that mark one 
 born and bred among the Muses ; In fact he 
 was a scholar by profession, and wore the lau- 
 rel among all the lettered and polite as an eve- 
 ry day ornament. In an evil hour for American 
 literature the politicians of his District turned 
 their eyes upon him as member of Congress, 
 and he left the lecture room, perhaps never to 
 return. In Congress he is respected for his 
 learning, and talents. When he rises all are 
 anxious to catch every word he has to say 
 not that his eloquence there, is as good as it was 
 in the pulpit, or the lecture-room, but that the 
 information he gives may be relied on, for he 
 has day and date, chapter and page, for every 
 thing he says, and the purity of his language 
 forms a great contrast to that of many of those 
 around him. He has too much refinement for 
 the rough and tumble of Congress skirmishing. 
 In this body he has frequently been selected 
 as Chairman of committees to make reports, 
 on important subjects, and these are generally 
 admired for their clearness of reasoning and 
 appropriateness of style ; these reports are said 
 to prove that he is greater in the closet than 
 on the floor of the House ; but he is great 
 every where. 
 
 Such men are wanted in the American Con- 
 gress, for loving the country so much as I do,
 
 36 % EVERETT. 
 
 I am constrained to confess that there is no 
 little ignorance in the National assembly, and 
 that learning does not always receive its due 
 honour. Mr. Everett's eloquence is charac- 
 terized by taste, sweetness, harmony, delicacy 
 and correctness. It has the Ciceronian flow, 
 ease and purity, and all the great Roman's ac- 
 curacy and marks of scholarship. He is 
 said to be ambitious, and to dearly love polit- 
 ical distinctions. Of this, it is probable, he will 
 soon get cured in the shiftings and chang- 
 ings of party, and in the fulness of his genius, 
 return from the bustle of the Hall of Legis- 
 tion to the groves of the Academy he desert- 
 ed. If it should so happen, it will be well ; for 
 learning should have more knowledge of the 
 world than it generally has, and the world 
 should have more learning than it is disposed 
 to honour and cherish.
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Washington, , 1830, 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 EDWARD LIVINGSTON, of the Senate, 
 is a hale, vigorous man, past the grand cli- 
 macteric. He has been active in profes- 
 sional and political pursuits for more than 
 forty years. He was born in the state of 
 New- York, and by brilliant talents, and fa- 
 mily connexions, was early brought into pub- 
 lic notice. As a lawyer he was conspicuous 
 and took a high stand, at a very early 
 age, at the bar. In 1793 he was in Con- 
 gress, and took an active part on the questions 
 which arose upon Jay's Treaty. He was, of 
 course, in the minority ; which is the best 
 school for a young, aspiring politician. He 
 can discuss measures without being responsi- 
 ble for them, and learns the science of attack 
 and defence without danger of injuring his 
 reputation. After being in Congress for some 
 years, he was elected mayor of the city of 
 New-York ; an office then next, in point of 
 emolument, to that of the President of the 
 United States. It is said that he was a very
 
 38 LIVINGSTON. 
 
 effective, energetic executive officer ; and 
 " that there never was a better judicial officer 
 on the bench than Edward Livingston." He 
 was succeeded by De Witt Clinton. 
 
 When the United States extended their 
 sovereignty over Louisiana by purchase, Mr. 
 Livingston went to settle in New-Orleans. 
 Here he was at once the first lawyer of that 
 country, and was employed in all the impor- 
 tant cases. Being master of the French and 
 Spanish languages, and well read in the civil 
 law, he was called upon to compile their code ; 
 which was so ably done that his compilation 
 is considered the law of the land in all the 
 courts. Since that period he has been em- 
 ployed by that state to form a penal code of 
 laws, a code of procedure and of state pri- 
 son discipline. All this he has furnished ; 
 and Congress are about to take a part of it for 
 the District of Columbia. In preparing this 
 he has spared no labor, and suffered no obsta- 
 cle to deter him for a moment. A very con- 
 siderable portion of the manuscript of his code 
 was burnt in the city of New- York, at ten 
 o'clock in the evening, and at seven next 
 morning he sat down to begin his labors upon 
 it anew. What cannot be accomplished by 
 such perseverance ? In making up these codes 
 he has ransacked the annals of all ages and
 
 LIVINGSTON. 39 
 
 nations, and read every treatise on crime and 
 punishment that the lettered world affords : 
 and in addition to this, held a correspondence 
 with all the philanthropists of the age : nothing 
 has escaped him. 
 
 " To him familiar every legal dome, 
 
 The Courts of Athens, and the Halls of Rome." 
 
 Those who have read these codes, do not 
 hesitate to say, that for comprehension and 
 clearness, exactness in defining crime, for dis- 
 tinctness and simplicity in making out the 
 modes of proceeding to ascertain the guilt or 
 innocence of a prisoner, that his surpasses all 
 other codes that can be found. And another 
 excellence of it is, that it leaves as little for 
 the discretion of the judge as possible. 
 
 Although Mr. Livingston's life has been a 
 busy one, and he has done much at the bar 
 and in Congress, and out of these walks of 
 life he has contended with principalities and 
 powers in more than a ten years warfare, 
 and come off with success ; still he looks |to 
 his code for permanent fame. Besides its 
 learning and wisdom, there is a living and 
 immortal principle in it, that will bless it for 
 ever. It is a benevolent code. His justice 
 is not a confused, sanguinary Deity, who lifts 
 her devouring sword at every offence ; but
 
 40 LIVINGSTON. 
 
 one who punishes in mercy, making discrimi- 
 nations in the nature of punishments as she 
 discovers differences in the nature of crimes. 
 If Mr. Livingston does not, in his lifetime, see 
 it adopted entire, by any state or country, he 
 will find that its spirit will silently enter the 
 penal codes of all civilized nations, and sweet- 
 en the bitter fountains of penal vengeance. 
 
 Mr. Livingston is one of the most learned 
 men of his age ; for he has been assiduous in 
 acquiring knowledge, and has lost none of his 
 acquisitions by ill health or decay of mental 
 powers. If his style is less copious than it 
 was in his earlier days, it has lost nothing of 
 its vigour or spirit : even his imagination has 
 all the creative powers it had when he first 
 appeared before the public, as his last speech 
 in the Senate, on Mr. Foot's resolutions, will 
 fully show.
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 1830. 
 DKAR SIR, 
 
 Mr. Wirt you have heard of as the Author 
 of the British spy and several other works 
 which have been read and admired in this 
 Country and in Europe. He is now about sixty 
 years of age, a stout, fair, good looking man. 
 He has been for many years a laborious law- 
 yer, and for several years past Attorney Gen- 
 eral of the United States, which office he haa 
 filled with credit to himself and to the Nation. 
 His manners are bland and courteous, partic- 
 ularly, to those who seek him, tinged with a 
 little of that Virginian trait self- considera- 
 tion, which gives a dignity to a public man 
 when it does not degenerate into the affecta- 
 tion of high bred fashion without many early 
 advantages. Mr. Wirt, in the midst of the busi- 
 ness of an arduous profession, has made himself 
 a fine classical scholar. His imagination is 
 strong and refined. He sees every subject in 
 its true light and paints it with a master's touch; 
 some of his descriptions glow with all the co- 
 lours of fancy and are yet most admirably true 
 5
 
 42 WIRT. 
 
 to nature. Many of his intellectual portraits 
 are of the first order of genius, and some of his 
 narratives are wrought up to a dramatic affect. 
 His often supposed that one so imaginative 
 could not have a logical mind. This is an 
 error : No one would deny to Shakespeare or 
 Milton a good share of logical power, yet 
 they " exhausted worlds and then imagined 
 new." Strip the arguments of Mr. Wirt uf all 
 their beautiful drapery, and tear away all the 
 clusters of diamonds that sparkle around them, 
 you will find as sound reasoning as in the dry 
 speeches of a professed logician, who from an 
 iron throat and hide-bound brain, give his hear- 
 ers a string of tasteless sylogysms. By many 
 Mr. Wirt is held up as the first orator in the 
 United States, and no one will venture to say 
 that he is not among the first. His fame had 
 reached its acme before he was made Attorney 
 General ; there is nothing in the duties of that 
 office, in quiet times, to increase a man's know- 
 ledge or his fame. Most of the business of 
 the United States is done by the district attor- 
 nies, who are generally men of talents and do 
 their work so well, that but little of it goes to 
 Washington, for the attorney general to at- 
 tend to. Mr. Wirt is held in high estimation by 
 the Supreme Court, and the bar of ttiat courrat 
 Washington. In Virginia and in Maryland Mr.
 
 WIRT. 43 
 
 Wirt was familiarly known as an advocate ; but 
 the good people of the East had never heard 
 him in a cause until last year. In an equity 
 cause of importance involving reputation and 
 large sums of money, he made his appearance 
 in Boston. No great actor that ever crossed 
 the Atlantic was more talked of before his arri- 
 val than Mr. Wirt. The learned, the Thebana 
 of both sexes assembled to hear his argument, 
 but with the most kindly disposition imgina- 
 ble. He was pitted against their Champion, 
 and the interest was wound up to a high pitch. 
 The race was as well contested as that great 
 one between Henry and Eclipse ; and like that 
 won by half a neck. In other words it was 
 thought a fair match ; bone and muscle con- 
 tended with blood and spirit. Mr. Wirt lost his 
 cause but came off with the affectionate res- 
 pect of the people, even of his opponents. 
 These interchanges of civilities among Eas- 
 tern and Southern men, united with a display 
 of the powers of each have a good effect in 
 removing prejudices and establishing friend- 
 ships among the people of different sections of 
 of the country. 
 
 ~ 
 
 Look into the Supreme Court of the Uni- 
 ted States, almost any day of its session, and 
 you will perceive a small man with a solemn
 
 44 JONES. 
 
 countenance, a slow, low voice, with a head 
 covered with thick hair growing rapidly grey, 
 and with eyes fixed upon his papers, talking 
 to the court as if they were statues, but in a 
 strain of most powerful reasoning : This is 
 General Walter Jones, one of the first law- 
 yers in the United States. He was educa- 
 ted at William and Mary College, is a good 
 classical scholar, and one of the best meta- 
 physicians of the country. He is unlike the 
 orators of the south ; there is no dash of elo- 
 quence in his speeches, but a neat, elegant 
 and appropriate choice of words is found in 
 every remark that falls from him. Those who 
 know him speak well of him as a gentleman ; 
 but it is only as a public man that I know 
 him. He resides in the city of Washington 
 and is engaged in all the important causes^that 
 originate there, and in many from abroad. 
 When once engaged he touches every point 
 in a subject before he sits down ; and he is 
 sometimes tedious from the great length and 
 minuteness of his arguments, but in making 
 an analysis of them, when he has finished 
 you find that they have been as close and 
 particular as the subject would admit of, and 
 the reviewer would meet with no small diffi- 
 culty in suggesting any alterations for the 
 better. The Supreme court have a profound
 
 JONES. 45 
 
 respect for General Jones and never lose a 
 word of his argument however long he may 
 be in a cause. He meets the arguments of 
 his opponents with more ingenuity, if possible, 
 than he shows in makng his own ; he seizes the 
 weak points with acuteness and turns them to 
 his advantage with great adroitness, but with- 
 out sneer or sarcasm. In the circuit court of 
 the District of Columbia he is engaged in all 
 the trials, and is as good a jury lawyer as any 
 man at the bar. There are times, when 
 warmed with his cause before a jury, that he 
 is thought to be eloquent ; certainly he is very 
 impressive and successful. His is a species 
 of eloquence, and that of the very best kind to 
 an enlightened jury ; and the manner of sum- 
 rnoninga jury in the District, secures the best 
 of the citizens for the pannel. In the street 
 and in the court room, Jones seems to be in a 
 constant state of abstraction, a sort of disease 
 of the mind. This is adduced by his city 
 friends as a wonderful proof of mental labour. 
 It may be so in his case ; but abstraction of 
 mind, and absence of mind, are frequently ta- 
 ken for the same thing ; they are not so : 
 the former is the power of concentrating 
 thoughts on one subject, and calling them in, 
 as it were, from all their wanderings, to in- 
 crease their force in its consideration ; while 
 5'
 
 46 JONES. 
 
 absence is an unconsciousness of any thought, 
 and may belong to one grade of intellect as 
 well as to another. There are no uniform 
 symptoms of mental greatness ; it shows itself, 
 when it exists, under all guises and in various 
 modes ; but under any, it can never be entire- 
 ly concealed. How unlike aach other are 
 these distinguished lawyers ! as unlike as Ci- 
 cero and Sallust. All hearers like both ; but 
 each has his devoted admirers.
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Washington Jan. 1830 
 DEAR SIB, 
 
 I have often seen that most singular man 
 you enquire after ; and often heard him speak. 
 Many of the sketches of his person have been 
 more accurate than those given of his mind. It 
 must be confessed that his person and dress 
 are so unique that a just representation of 
 them would, to those unacquainted with Mr. 
 Randolph, seem a caricature. He is about 
 six feet in height, perhaps his narrow chest 
 and long legs make him appear a little taller 
 than he is. His head is small, his shoulders 
 high, and all parts of his physiognomy, except 
 his eye, altogether unintellectual. He is beard- 
 less, or nearly so, and his muscles and his 
 skin about his face shrivelled, although he is 
 not more than fifty-six years of age. Notwith- 
 standing his height, his frame is so slender that 
 bis weight is not more than one hundred and 
 thirty pounds. His long legs support a shcr/t 
 body that is notmorelhana talon in the wa.iM" 
 His arms are very long and small and his fin-
 
 48 RANDOLPH. 
 
 gers bird-claw-like, and in debate he makes 
 them very expressive. His hair is dark, thin 
 and lank, and lies close to his head. His move- 
 ments are rapid and awkward. His voice 
 is shrill and high, and perfectly soprano : lat- 
 terly his voice has lost most of its power ; his 
 throat seems to be dry and husky. This is 
 the effect of disease, for he has long been an 
 invalid, the fine piercing and fife-like notes of 
 his voice are nearly extinct. So much for his 
 person. His mind is still more singular than 
 his person. His perceptions are, I speak of 
 him as he has been, quick and his impressions 
 strong ; but it is in the strength and elevation 
 of his imagination that he is above mast men. 
 His judgment, from every evidence I have 
 ever seen or heard, is either feeble or never 
 consulted in his acts or speeches. His mem- 
 ory is good, often minutely accurate ; but it is 
 now somewhat impaired. His attainments 
 are considerable, rather miscellaneous than 
 political or professional. His knowledge of 
 the English language is critical and extensive, 
 and he is quite fastidious in his choice of 
 words ; and one of his best things about him 
 is that he keeps a constant vigil over the good 
 old English, his mother tongue. His acquain- 
 tance with English history is minute ; and it 
 may be said of him that he is well read in en-
 
 RANDOLPH. 49, 
 
 eral history ; but saving and excepting the an- 
 nals of his own state he knows not much of 
 American history. His classical knowledge 
 has been overrated. In the common latin 
 classics he is quite at home, and quotes with 
 great readiness, but his acquaintance with 
 those less read in this country must be limit- 
 ed, for in his passion for display he never 
 mentions them. 
 
 Mr. Randolph has been in congress most of 
 the time since he was eligible from constitu- 
 tional age, and at all times has been conspicu- 
 ous as a declaimer, but never has shown the 
 slightest tact for business. I believe the Jour, 
 nals of congress do notshow that he ever made 
 a report in all this length of time ; and no one 
 recollects of his ever having drawn a bill. 
 He has nothing more to do with the ordinary 
 proceedings of congress than the last comet 
 that appeared in our solar system had in reg- 
 ulating the motions of the planets. 
 
 The only congressional business he ever set 
 seriously about, was the impeachment of judge 
 Chase, and in this he failed. He made a splen- 
 did declamation on this subject, mostly unsup. 
 ported by the facts in the case ; he laboured 
 hard to demolish the judge but did not suc- 
 ceed ; the good sense of the Senate saved the
 
 50 RANDOLPH. 
 
 enroachments on the judiciary. Randolph 
 came out of the contest without a single laurel. 
 
 He has notwithstanding his pretentions to 
 consistency been a politician that no party 
 could for a moment, or but for a moment trust. 
 He disliked Washington, and violently op- 
 posed John Adams, and was disappointed in 
 Jefferson, as from him he expected much, 
 but the philosopher could not, or certainly 
 did not trust him. He openly quarrelled with 
 Madison and never was cordial with Munroe. 
 He raved like a madman against John Q. Ad- 
 ams, and said and did every thing in his power 
 to injure his administration ; and it is well 
 known that he supported Jackson from his 
 dislike to Adams, for he did not stop in Wash- 
 ington to witness the inauguration, but hurried 
 off to Virginia, thinking he had done enough 
 for the hero. 
 
 By profession Mr. Randolph is a democrat, 
 by every habit an aristocrat, for he is proud as 
 Lucifer, and except in his maudlin moments 
 suffers no one to approach him with familiar- 
 ity. His friendships are as capricious as an 
 April cloud; and his enmities bitter and last- 
 ing. 'His tongue " a chartered libertine" has 
 under it the venom of asps. No one can tell 
 on whom his next cateract of abuse is to fall, 
 and no one is secure from it. He has libelled
 
 RANDOLPH. 51 
 
 some of the best men the country ever produ- 
 ced, and praised many that no body else ever 
 heard of ten miles from their native village. 
 He has, like the jesters in the courts of Kings 
 in former days, been previleged, to rail on all 
 around him, and it must be confessed, that 
 this same railer is diabolically ingenious in his 
 invention of phrases, and in his choice of 
 words, to give force to his fiendish disposition. 
 He stole a leaf from the curse-book of Pandi- 
 monium to express his hatred for Henry Clay. 
 The victim of his wrath called Randolph to 
 the field, and fired an ineffective shot at the 
 shadow, in order to convey away the agonies 
 of his resentment. It may be asked by you, 
 if there are no bright spots on his escutcheon, 
 no fair side to the medal. It is said that he 
 is generous at times ; that he is a kind mas- 
 ter to his slaves ; that he is a good neigh- 
 hour ; and always popular in his district ; 
 these things are something, and in a fair esti- 
 mate of him should not be forgotten ; and not- 
 withstanding his love of English books, English 
 manners, Baronial Castles and feasts, and his 
 profuse panegyrics on Ducal pedigrees, which 
 show more acquaintance with the blazonry 
 of their armorial bearings than of his own 
 Country's history, yet, there are men who say 
 that he loves his country, and like his father
 
 52 RANDOLPH. 
 
 would have the courage to fight for it, that is 
 if he could have his own way of fighting. 
 
 On the whole survey of his character Mr. 
 Randolph may be set down as one of the most 
 eccentric beings that any age ever produced, 
 and perhaps this same examination would as- 
 sist to confirm the moral philosophers in their 
 opinions that all eccentricity is a species of 
 madness.
 
 LETTER VIZ. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 1830. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 COL. RICHARD M. JOHNSON, now of the 
 House of Representatives was last year of the 
 Senate. He is about fifty one or two years old 
 a full blooded Kentuckian, that is a man gen- 
 erous, warm-hearted, brave, ambitious ; and 
 supplying the defects of education, by perse- 
 verance, hardihood, and fearlesness. He was 
 sent early in life as a representive in Congress, 
 and at once took an active part ; and quite 
 a high-minded one, all things considered. 
 Among the memorabilia of his life it should 
 not be forgotten, that he had the magnanimity 
 to espouse the cause of Mrs. Hamilton, on a 
 petition for pay for the services of her husband, 
 for many years in the revolutionary war. 
 This pay, Col. Hamilton had relinquished, in 
 order that his motives should not be questioned, 
 in the course he was about to recommend to 
 Congress in regard to his funding system. He 
 had made a noble sacrifice on the altar of pat- 
 riotism, and he was now no more. The great 
 6 

 
 54 JOHNSON. 
 
 man when living, had asked nothing. He was 
 dead ; and it was right that the nation should 
 remember the wisdom of one so generous, 
 Col. Johnson never gave up the point until it 
 was accomplished. Story, and others came 
 to the aid of Johnson in this cause of justice, 
 and the bill was passed although prejudice 
 and party strove against it. In this, as in 
 many other instances, Johnson acted above 
 party. 
 
 Col. Johnson was a zealous advocate for 
 the war of 1812, and after voting for it, went 
 home and assisted his brother to raise a regi- 
 ment of mounted volunteers : took a Lt. Co. 
 lonel's commission, and marched to join gen- 
 eral Harrison, and was foremost in the battle 
 of Thames river. To this regiment command, 
 ed by his brother and himself, then divided in 
 the fight, much of the glory of that victory is 
 due. He took his course against the Indians, 
 and it is said that in this conflict he shot, the eel- 
 ebrated chief,- Brigadier General Tecumseh, 
 the most renowned savage since the days of 
 King Philip. 
 
 His own account of the deed is plain and 
 modest. The Indian shot at him, and wounded 
 him in the arm, when Col. Johnson fired his 
 horse-pistol at him within six or eight yards 
 and brought him to the dust. Johnson was
 
 v 
 
 JOHNSON. 55 
 
 then ignorant of his rank, but at once surmis- 
 ed it from the instant retreat of the whole bo- 
 dy of Indians, and the terrible howl that ac- 
 companied it. They who deny that this sa- 
 vage was the fierce Tecumseh never refused 
 to Johnson the palm of gallantry and suc- 
 cess in battle. Johnson is a plain unaffected 
 man, a warm and persevering friend, a strong 
 partizan, and both friends and enemies know 
 where to find him. He has not a particle of 
 hypocracy in his nature ; he speaks of men 
 in, or out of office, with great freedom ; and 
 poising himself at all times on his own mag- 
 nimity never becomes the slave of any body, 
 or set of men. He is honest, fluent and open 
 in debate, and speaks right on, ichat he does 
 think, whether it be politic or otherwise for 
 party ; though he has very good party tact, 
 having been nurtured in it. There is noth- 
 ing in his speeches either remarkable for elo- 
 quence or learning ; but abundance of direct- 
 ness and honesty. Every body is pleased with 
 the sentiments of the man, if they do not think 
 him a first rate orator ; it must however be 
 acknowledged that there are those who think 
 him remarkably eloquent. Something of his 
 popularity arises from his having been a con. 
 slant advocate for the abolition of imprison, 
 ment for debt. In season, and out of season
 
 56 JOHNSON. 
 
 he has never deserted his cause ; but has 
 gone on to call the attention of the philoso- 
 phic and wise to the sufferings of the unfortu- 
 nate debtors throughout the country. 
 
 Col. Johnson is an invalid from the wounds 
 he received in the battles in which he was en- 
 gaged, and looks pale in his seat in the Senate 
 or House, and is seldom seen at the convivial 
 board or the evening party. He is careful of 
 his health ; but notwithstanding the feeble state 
 of it, he manages to get through a great mass 
 of business in the course of the day. The 
 western members have an onerous correspon- 
 dence with their constituents. It is any thing 
 but a sinecure to be a Member of Congress 
 from the other side of the Allegany. Col. 
 Johnson is a popular man, and has many 
 friends in various parts of the Union, who 
 speak of him as Vice President of the United 
 States for the next election. With politics I 
 have nothing to do, there are a great many 
 politicians and philanthropists who would be 
 gratified to see him elevated to the second 
 office of the nation.
 
 I.ETTER VIZI. 
 
 Washington Jan 1830. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 MR. DWIGHT is from the mountains of 
 Massachusetts. The pure skies of Berkshire 
 have given his person an athletic frame, but his 
 polished manner and city air mark him as 
 a well bred man. He is in Washington a 
 fashionable man, not of 'the Brummel school 
 of affectation and pretension, but of that easy 
 dignified cast that shows the man of mind as 
 well as of manners. If he moves down the 
 dance with grace, his powers are not confined 
 to the ball room, for the Belle who has been 
 his partner there, the next day hears him as 
 she listens from the gallery of the house of 
 representatives, mingiihg in the debate ; and 
 in a sweet sonorous, but manly voice, support- 
 ing or defending his -side of the question in an 
 argument at once lucid and powerful. If he 
 were assiduously to cultivate eloquence, he 
 would be second to none in the country, for 
 he has every physical and mental capacity 
 6*
 
 58 DWIGHT. 
 
 for a great speaker. When any high respon- 
 sibility is upon him he is powerful in debate. 
 Mr. Dwight is a popular man in the House, 
 for he is affable to all, and yields as far as ne- 
 cessary for courtesy to every one, but never 
 gives up a jot of principle. His independence 
 in his course of debating and voting is as great 
 and as completely maintained, as that of the 
 roughest member who makes a declaration 
 of his independence at every paragraph of 
 his speech. There is no small degree of 
 tact necessary in understanding the temper of 
 a deliberate assembly, and this he has equal to 
 any member of congress. He has been long 
 enough there to futhom all the depths of par- 
 ty policy, which after all has no witchcraft 
 in it, to use his knowledge to advantage. Mr. 
 Dwight does better in a complicated, than in 
 a familiar question : as a strong man appears 
 best when he has weight to carry to swell his 
 muscles. He is yet young and will probably 
 serve his country for many years, and were I 
 his particular friend I would whisper in his 
 ear, "omnia vincit labor," which is the true 
 motto for a man of talents. 
 
 The present Attorney General John Me 
 Pherson Berrien is from Georgia but I under- 
 stand that he is a native of Philadelphia. He
 
 
 BERKIEN. 59 
 
 is a most eloquent speaker. In the senate he 
 was a model for chaste, free, beautiful elocu- 
 tion. He seemed to be the only man that 
 Webster softened his voice to, when he turn- 
 ed from his seat to address him. There is not 
 the slightes dash in his manner ; it is as grave 
 as it is pleasant. His views are clear, and he 
 meets the subject manfully. In his arguments 
 there is no demagogical praises of his constitu- 
 ents, no tirade of abuse against his opponents, 
 or of the section of country from whence they 
 came. He is said to have been a good judge 
 on the bench, and an excellent lawyer at the 
 bar, and surely he was a host for his party in 
 the Senate. He is now an Attorney General, 
 and a cabinet councillor as well as counsel 
 for the cabinet. The public of all parties have 
 great confidence in him, and he stands fair 
 for higher promotion. It is so seldom that 
 we hear in Congress a classical style of speak- 
 ing, that a man who has any regard for the ad- 
 vancement of taste, admires such a speaker. 
 He is said to be a lover of literature, and it is 
 to be hoped that in his high office, he will ad- 
 vise the President to recommend its protec- 
 tion and encouragement. The President and 
 heads of departments can do much for litera- 
 ture and science, if they feel disposed to do it. 
 The records of the nation are not yet thor-
 
 60 M'DUFFIE. 
 
 oughly examined. It is time the work waa 
 done. The present is the hour to begin, and 
 the zeal of the future may atone for the apathy 
 of the past. It is a solemn truth that the Uni- 
 ted States do not support a single literary 
 man ; as such, the nearest to it is the librarian 
 of Congress and he is obliged to be a mere 
 shelf and catalogue man, whatever may be 
 his acquirements. 
 
 MB_M'DUFFIE who has figured in 
 congress, for several years past from South 
 Carolina is an eleve of Mr. Calhoun. He is a 
 fiery speaker ? full of gesture, and one would 
 think to see him, when speaking, and if out 
 of distinct hearing, that he was wrought up to 
 a frenzy, such is the violence of his manner. 
 Mr. M'Duffie is unquestionably a man of 
 talents ; but like most men of talents whose 
 early education was defective, he mistakes 
 his own thoughts and opinions for original 
 thoughts, because he is not sufficiently ac- 
 quainted with the thoughts and opinions of 
 those who have gone before him, and prides 
 himself upon being the author of axioms that 
 were promulgated ages before he was born. 
 Mr. M'Duffie has been prominently brought 
 before the public, and has been able to sup- 
 port'a high character, for high intellect even in
 
 DAVIS. 61 
 
 his errors. His late reports on several sub- 
 jects prove that he is industrious and, that he 
 spares no pains in his researches ; and all be- 
 lieve that when time has taken off the fiery 
 edge of his spirits, that he will be a still more 
 conspicuous statesman than he now is, for un- 
 til lately he tore his passion to the very rags ; 
 \vhen the subject might have been discussed 
 in the quietness of a quaker meeeting. 
 
 Mr. Davis of Massachusetts is a -fair speci- 
 men of the talent, gravity and solidity of the 
 New-England people. He thinks correctly 
 and talks well ; not easily moved to resent- 
 ment or worked up to passion ; his^ speeches 
 are one unbroken chain of argument; hia 
 language is plain but forcible ; his manner 
 calm, even, and manly ; his voice is clear and 
 strong, and precisely such a one as gains at- 
 tention and secures it. He is always so self- 
 poised that no one can shake him from his 
 purpose ; so 1 well informed that he is never 
 put down by any detection of a mistake in 
 what he states for facts ; so just to others that 
 no one can complain that he misrepresents 
 them, and he understands his subjects and his 
 rights so well, that he is never called to order, 
 without assuming to direct, he often leads the 
 debate, for the productions of an honest and
 
 62 DAVIS. 
 
 powerful mind, have their effects on friends 
 and opponents. His speeches are listened 
 to and read for the information they contain, 
 and they never offend taste by any extrava- 
 gance of diction or inference, and some of his 
 speeches are models of strength, symplicity 
 and good English.
 
 LETTER XX, 
 
 H 
 
 Washington, -, 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 THE rapid growth of this country has been 
 the wonder of the world ; but the causes of this 
 growth have been overlooked or misunderstood. 
 It has vaguely been attributed to their freedom ; 
 yet the aborigines were freer than they have 
 been ; and what did they do for the advancement 
 of national prosperity? The secret of their growth 
 has been the development of their civil institu- 
 tions ; the seeds of which they brought from 
 their native land. They have grown up without 
 fetters. The very independence of this people 
 was a living principle in them, when they first 
 reached these inhospitable shores ; and in the 
 fulness of time it burst into a flame. In all their 
 reasonings they united the government of man 
 with the government of God, and insisted that 
 the ruler over men should be just, ruling in the fear 
 of God. The history of the colonies is full of 
 their wise sayings and doings, but I have not 
 time to draw your attention to any portion of it ;
 
 64 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 at this moment my remarks will be principally 
 confined to the current events, and to living 
 men ; but occasionally shall take a limited re- 
 trospection. It has often been remarked that 
 elected rulers have not been as good as heredi- 
 tary ones ; and the history of Great Britain is 
 quoted as proving it. That the house of Lords 
 have been, and still are, a highly honourable 
 body, no one will deny ; and that it contains 
 many true patriots is very certain ; but I should 
 doubt very much whether, at any time, it con- 
 tained so much practical talent, and mental ac- 
 tivity, as the house of Commons. The whole 
 of the rulers in the United States are virtually 
 elected directly by the people, or selected by 
 those they have elected for that purpose. The 
 seven Presidents that have ruled over the Uni- 
 ted States since 1789, is a proof that a man must 
 have some rare qualifications to induce the great 
 mass of the people to give their votes for him. 
 He must have some strong hold of their affec- 
 tions for services rendered, or have given proofs 
 of powers from which great services may here- 
 after be expected, who ventures to think of being 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Those who have held this office have been 
 men of distinction. The first can never be 
 equalled, because he lived in an age that can 
 never return ; and circumstances gave him op-
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 65 
 
 portunities for exertions that no man ever had 
 before him, or can have after him. He was 
 raised up for the times. He was a warrior of 
 that peculiar cast that such a struggle demanded. 
 He inspired his followers with confidence in his 
 capacity and courage, and the nation with the 
 belief that he was born for their deliverer. His 
 wisdom as a chief magistrate of the United 
 States was as conspicuous as his military tal- 
 ents. He was advised by the speech of the trusty, 
 but influenced by no man's opinions without 
 sufficient reasons were adduced to support them. 
 The shocks of party never moved him ; he was 
 as quiet in the midst of the denunciations of de- 
 magogues and the startling prophecies of the 
 wily, as if all had been peace and sunshine. 
 He contemplated with great care, and acted 
 with unequalled decision. He read men with 
 great sagacity, and selected his officers for their 
 talents and probity. He was seldom wrong in 
 his judgment. He may have committed errors, 
 but never did any foolish acts. He was truly 
 the father of his country. 
 
 The second President, Mr. Adams* was a 
 true patriot and a high spirited man. He en- 
 tered on his duties with more of the experience 
 of a statesman than his predecessor had done, 
 but was wanting in the prudence of that great 
 man. He was cast, indeed, on evil times, and 
 was easily chafed by untoward circumstances. 
 7
 
 66 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 There had begun to be loss patriotism and more 
 management among politicians than when the 
 government was first organized. Party spirit 
 had increased, and entered more into the pro- 
 ceedings of Congress than in the administration 
 of Washington ; party spirit raged with violence 
 every where ; the hydra heads of the French 
 revolution were reared in every quarter of the 
 country ; and the fiendish spirit of anarchy was 
 in them. The political atmosphere was poison- 
 ed, and like the mother of mankind, many of the 
 honest were seduced and overcome by that sub- 
 tlety which the serpent once possessed, and 
 which has since 'been so hateful to mankind. 
 Mr. Adams breasted the storm with great ener- 
 gy ; and if not always with judgment, yet al- 
 ways with sincerity -and capacity. He never 
 cowered at opposition, nor shrunk from respon- 
 sibility. One of the evils of his nature was that 
 he had not enough of plausibility to qualify and 
 soften his rigid determinations. He persisted 
 in forming a navy against all opposition, and the 
 result has proved his foresight. In most instan- 
 ces he put good men into high places, and ne- 
 ver tolerated a feeble or bad man because he 
 was with him in politics. Times have changed ; 
 and those who were once his enemies, have be- 
 come his friends. 
 
 He returned to private life after administering 
 the government one term, and lived many years
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 67 
 
 as a sage whom all men, of all parties, sought to 
 Jearn the history of past events and to hear him 
 discourse on matters of government. His space 
 in history will be an enviable one. 
 
 The successor of Mr. Adams was quite differ- 
 ent from him in his mental organization and 
 political views. He had drank deeply of the 
 new school of philosophy, made conspicuous by 
 Mandeville, Bollingbroke, and their successors, 
 on both sides the Alps. It was studied in Italy 
 and France, had reached Germany, and swept 
 over the Netherlands. It had in it many good 
 points ; it inculcated the broad doctrines of 
 equality in civil rights, and wared with the hie- 
 rarchies every where. The theories formed in 
 this school were beautiful and splendid, and have 
 in part been realized by the present age. The 
 predecessors of Mr. Jefferson had acted upon 
 the maxim, Adhere to that which has been found 
 to be good and practical, and be cautious of the un- 
 tried and theoretical ; his, to venture on the untried, 
 if it promised more happiness to mankind, fearless 
 of the consequences. They distrusted human 
 nature, he reposed implicit confidence in it. 
 Perhaps the change at this time in the parties 
 was fortunate for the nation ; it checked the 
 vaulting ambition of many, and prostrated the 
 pride of some who were beginning to think that 
 they were made to rule. Some began to talk 
 of family connexions and distinctions, who have
 
 68 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 now passed away, and are forgotten ; and who, 
 from a momentary political or pecuniary eleva- 
 tion, began to think that some way might be de- 
 vised to give permanency to their importance by 
 securities to succession. The policy of Jeffer- 
 son and his party sunk all these visions in night, 
 and broke down all the hopes of the aristocracy 
 of the nation. The change that followed was 
 not without its evils. New men arose, and ma- 
 ny of them, the creatures of circumstances, were 
 destitute of political wisdom or true patriotism ; 
 and not a few who assisted in building up the 
 republic, were not allowed to assist in adminis- 
 tering the government. The navy was reduced, 
 the vessels of war sold off, the army not thought 
 much of, and the dreams of perpetual peace in- 
 dulged. This did not last long, and Mr. Jeffer- 
 son found that it would not answer, in the present 
 state of mankind, to beat swords into ploughshares, 
 and spears into pruning hooks too soon. He re- 
 vived some of the doctrines he intended to ex- 
 plode, and consented to think it was better to 
 whip insolent foes, than to buy their good will at 
 too dear a rale. Public opinion is always fluc- 
 tuating, but never so far out of the way as closet 
 reasoners believe, particularly when the public 
 are as enlightened as this. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was communicative, free and 
 generous in his disposition, and fascinating in his 
 manners. He practised the republican sympLU
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 69 
 
 city he taught, and in a most extraordinary de- 
 gree took the people along with him, and re- 
 tained his office, and the place he held in their 
 affection, during the eight years of services. 
 Though historians will differ greatly upon the 
 effect his course and character had on the na- 
 tional growth and prosperity, yet all will agree 
 that the man was learned and philosophical, and 
 that while he pursued a course of his own, he 
 had the power of stamping his own impressions 
 upon minds beyond any statesmen of the age in 
 which he lived ; that he was not avaricious may 
 be known by the poverty in which he died. 
 
 It is curious to observe how the fate of an age 
 is in some measure decided by a trivial matter. 
 By a provision in the constitution of the United 
 States, which has since been altered, the Presi- 
 dent and Vice President were voted for, without 
 discriminating between them, or directing who 
 should hold the first or second office. This was 
 left to depend upon the votes. The highest 
 number from the Electoral Colleges was conside- 
 red as having been given for the President. Mr. 
 Jefferson and Mr. Burr had an equal number of 
 votes, and therefore, there was no choice by the 
 people. In the House of representatives the 
 states were for a long time equally divided. For 
 a while it was thought Mr. Burr would have 
 been elected to fill the office of President. The 
 difference between the men was great. Aaron 
 7*
 
 70 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Burr had in "him the elements of a great sol- 
 dier and a profound Statesman. He was six- 
 teen years the junior of his opponent, full of ac- 
 tivity and ambition ; and that ambition that looks 
 beyond the hour. He had been a soldier of the 
 revolution, was with Arnold in his expedition to- 
 Canada by way of the Kennebeck. He had 
 left the halls of learning at the age of nineteen 
 to join this hazardous enterprize ; had been se- 
 lected by Arnold to traverse the wilderness alone 
 to communicate with Montgomery who had push- 
 ed his way by the lakes. For this adventure he 
 was made the aid of Montgomery, and was at 
 his side when the lamented warrior fell. He 
 rose still higher in the army during the course of 
 the war, and had left his name high on the list 
 of those brave and gallant youths who had gi- 
 ven a spirit of chivalry to the American army. 
 When the revolutionary conflict was over, he en- 
 tered professional life, and at once took a deci- 
 ded part ; was soon known as a most promising 
 man. His legal attainments were great ; and as 
 an advocate he had no superior. Bland, smooth 
 and eloquent, he guided the populace ; saga- 
 cious, penetrating, insinuating, and learned, he 
 influenced those in high places in the courts, or 
 deliberate assemblies. He was equal to any task, 
 for he had a constitution that knew no fatigue, 
 and a spirit of perseverance that nothing could 
 break down. His tongue was never silent from
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 71 
 
 any dread of dignity or power, and his heart ne- 
 ver palpitated at the presence of man. Open, 
 bold, and daring, he sought political distinction, 
 and was determined to have it. If such a man, 
 in the prime of manhood, for he had only reach- 
 ed his forty.fifth year, could have come to the 
 Presidency when the world was in such confu- 
 sion, he would have appealed to their pride, and 
 millions would have responded to his voice ; he 
 would have pointed out a new path to glory, and 
 myriads would have rushed to take it. The timid 
 and philosophical even now, shudder to think 
 what he might have done, and the adventurous 
 and ambitious on the wane of life rave at what 
 was lost in so great a man. The judicious 
 however feel assured that the destinies of na- 
 tions are in the hands of God, and without deci- 
 ding any thing upon this subject, pursuade them- 
 selves that all has been for the best. 
 
 Mr. MADISON followed Mr. Jefferson. The 
 country was then so exhausted and worn out by 
 embargoes and non-intercourses, that Mr. Mad- 
 ison found the people in a very restless state. 
 To pursue the system that had been tried and 
 found totally inefficacious, would have been idle, 
 and worse than idle ; it would have proved mis- 
 chievous. Mr. Madison delayed, and reasoned, 
 and forbore, until he found the west would not 
 forbear any longer, when in 1812 he recom-
 
 72 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 mended a declaration of war, which was instantly 
 declared by an act of Congress, and which, on 
 the same day, received his signature. The Pre- 
 sident was placed in a perilous situation ; for 
 the country was unprepared for war. The sup- 
 ply of the munitions of war was scanty, the 
 treasury nearly empty, but few soldiers in the 
 army, and no experienced commander at call. 
 Those brave men of the revolution had not kept 
 up 'with the rapid advancement of military tac- 
 tics, and there were few young men who had 
 made military science a study. The navy was 
 small and not fully manned, and the enemy were 
 on our coast. This was a trying situation for 
 the President. The war went on, Mr. Madi- 
 son did every thing he could, but the war ma- 
 chinery was in bad order. Sometimes the na- 
 tion was grieved by the loss of an army, and 
 now cheered, by a splendid victory. No small 
 portion of the wealth and talent of the country 
 were opposed to the war, and were reluctant 
 to support it. To brace up under all the evils 
 Mr. Madison had to contend with, required the 
 philosophy of a great mind. He struggled 
 through all ; met all the dishonour with com- 
 posure ; received all the news of success with- 
 out any of the unnerving effects of joy ; in fact, 
 he made the best of his situation ; and found 
 himself, at the close of the conflict, as popular 
 as he was at the commencement of it. Mr.
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 73 
 
 Madison was one of the framers of the constitu- 
 tion of the United States, and had more to do in 
 its formation in convention, and of the support 
 of it in his native state, than any other man. His 
 views of this great instrument have been pro- 
 found and consistent in every stage of the at- 
 tack and defence upon it, in, and out of Con- 
 gress. He has never flinched from defending 
 his first views of its powers, and of the inten- 
 tions which were incorporated with it, at its 
 birth. He is now old, and on the confines of 
 eternity ; but his last effort, in the Virginia 
 Convention, for constitutional liberty, proved 
 that the faculties of a^well regulated mind will 
 last long. Honesty of intention preserves an 
 accuracy of memory and a consistency of con- 
 duct. 
 
 Mr. MUNROE succeeded Mr. Madison. He 
 cam into power in quiet times ; the first term 
 with little opposition ; the second term with 
 none. The country recovered rapidly from the 
 exhaustion of war ; party spirit had, in a good 
 degree, lost its rancour ; the whole community 
 were busy in retrieving lost time ; and the 
 President had no great difficulties to contend 
 with. To appease those hungry for office was 
 the most trying evil he had to encounter. To 
 his honour be it said, that in his administra- 
 tion, and by his recommendation, the pension
 
 74 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 law was passed, giving a crust of bread and a 
 pitcher of water to the war-worn soldier, who 
 should have been stayed withjlaggons and com- 
 forted with apples, from the hands of a grateful 
 people, but who had been left to hunger and 
 thirst by the way-side. 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was successor to Mr. 
 Munroe ; he had been Secretary of State during 
 Mr. Munroe's administration. There was no 
 choice by the electoral colleges, and the states 
 in the House of Representatives decided the 
 question between him and General Jackson, 
 who were the two highest candidates. Jackson 
 had the highest number of electoral votes, and 
 his disappointed supporters were determined to 
 run him for the next term, and instantly took 
 measures for this purpose. The electioneering 
 campaign began earlier than it was ever known 
 to have commenced before, and was conducted 
 with great bitterness. Mr. Adams administered 
 the government with the most scrupulous integ- 
 rity. His policy was to keep things as they 
 were. He made no changes by removing one 
 and bringing in another ; and when vacancies 
 occurred, he was quite as likely to fill them up 
 with opponents as friends. Every one granted 
 to Mr. Adams first rate talents ; and all, who 
 were capable of judging, acknowledged him to 
 be the most thorough-bred scholar and diplomat-
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 75 
 
 1st of the country. He was patient of labour, 
 indefatigable in his researches, apt in acquiring 
 and ready in using all useful knowledge. He 
 had the experience of a lawyer, a legislator, and 
 of a minister at different courts ; and last of all 
 as a secretary and cabinet councillor of the Pre- 
 sident of the United States. Ancient and mo- 
 dern languages were familiar to him, and he 
 required no interpreter in his intercourse with 
 foreign embassadors. No man, however great 
 his patriotism or his talents, had ever filled the 
 presidential chair with such rich and varied ac- 
 quirements as Mr. Adams ; and one at a dis- 
 tance would have supposed that he would have 
 been the most popular President this country 
 ever had. It was not so. He had broke friend- 
 ship with his old federal friends by voting for 
 the embargo, and by taking a course for him- 
 self; and had been, in a manner, estranged 
 from them for the space of eighteen years. 
 They came to his support because they knew 
 his ability to serve the nation, and they saw his 
 scrupulous honesty in office. They had, how- 
 ever, deep and terrible ranklings in their bo- 
 soms at the same instant they dropt their votes 
 into the ballot box for his election ; for he had 
 openly, as they said, made the insanity of a few 
 pass for a disease among the many. 'He receiv- 
 ed his information of what they were saying and 
 doing from prejudiced sources ; and he was not
 
 76 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 sufficiently acquainted with his own people and 
 kindred to judge of them correctly ; for he had 
 not lived with them much. He forgot, that, if, 
 in the plenitude of freedom, now and then, one 
 talked daggers, there was a redeeming spirit in 
 the great mass of the people that would not suf- 
 fer them to be used. This was not all ; the 
 party he had served so heartily were not satis, 
 fied with one who would administer the govern- 
 ment without being influenced by party ; avow- 
 ing openly that a party administration was the 
 true genius of a republican government ; and 
 whether the axiom be right or wrong, it is one 
 that will be acted upon hereafter ; and all politi- 
 cians will agree that it is a better course than to 
 purchase enemies to make them friends. 
 
 Mr. Adams was surrounded by men who had 
 no sympathy for one another ; they were paired, 
 not matched: fortuitous circumstances brought 
 them together, but there was no real congeniali- 
 ty among them. Although a republican of pri- 
 mitive simplicity, Mr. Adams had no qualifica- 
 tion for meeting every-day men with those little 
 courtesies which secures their affections. Jeru- 
 salem might have been burnt a thousand times 
 before he would have sat at the gate to steal 
 away the hearts of the people. But when he 
 was met directly, and enquired of directly, no 
 man ever spoke more freely, or more honestly. 
 He had no disguise about him ; he discovered
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 77 
 
 iniore singleness of heart, and disinterestedness of 
 purpose, than any man I ever knew in a politi- 
 cal station. He lias retired from office in the 
 fulness of intellectual vigour, with sufficient 
 means for an elegant independence for life. He 
 will bring forward no claims for unrequited ser- 
 vices, nor proffer any appeal to his country's 
 generosity for assistance and support. For the 
 city of Washington he has done more than any 
 of his predecessors ever did : for general libe- 
 rality he is behind no one. The true otium cum 
 dignilate is his, and the belief is, that his coun- 
 try's history is to be the object of his future la- 
 bours. His descendants will have a rich inhe- 
 ritance in his fame ; for his little errors will be 
 buried with him, and his great merits perpetu- 
 ated. 
 
 
 
 The present incumbent of the presidential 
 chair, GeneralJACKsoN, is indeed a remarkable 
 man. He began life in the humblest walks, and 
 had no advantages of early education ; but such 
 was his energy of character, that he soon at- 
 tracted notice. The West was new, and he grew 
 up with the society around him, and early took 
 a leading part. He had been engaged in politi- 
 cal life, acted for a while in a judicial charac- 
 ter, and afterward become a politician again. 
 He was a soldier from a child, and attracted at- 
 tention from his high and heroic qualities in the 
 8
 
 78 THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 discharge of his duties. The fighting on the 
 frontiers has been more calculated to make 
 daring, prompt, and chivalrous men, than regu- 
 lar fighting in large armies ; for in these Indian 
 hunts every individual has an opportunity of 
 displaying his prowess, while in a large and re- 
 gular arm)', individuals must be restrained by 
 the great mass, and each has, in a good mea- 
 sure, to share with them in good or evil report. 
 Men gro\y hardy and adventurous who have to 
 keep arms in their hands for defence. General 
 Jackson was a terror to the Indians from the 
 Ohio to New-Orleans, and westward to the 
 rocky mountains. He annihilated the Semi- 
 noles, and terrified all those friendly to them. 
 When the war broke out, in '1812, General 
 Jackson was a Major General in the militia of 
 Tennessee ; and as soon as it was found that 
 Great Britain would probably attack New-Or- 
 leans, he was sent to the relief of that place. 
 
 He had many difficulties to encounter in or- 
 ganizing his forces. They came, many of them, 
 from more than a thousand miles up the river, 
 without arms, and depended on finding them at 
 New-Orleans ; but government had been remiss 
 in sending them. When General Jackson heard 
 that the British forces had made good their 
 landing, he marched out and met them, that same 
 night, as they were at supper. The conflict 
 was a very sharp one, and succeeded in putting
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 79 
 
 the British General on his guard ; and in fact, 
 checked the march of his army from the twenty, 
 third of December to the eighth of January. 
 By this time the American army was prepared 
 for them. On that day General Jackson fought 
 them, and obtained a signal victory. Call it 
 what you please, chance or a miracle, it was a 
 wondrous fight, and the gratitude of the Ameri- 
 can nation was unbounded. It was of incalcu- 
 lable service to his country in general, and to 
 that part of it more especially. It will not be 
 denied that he is a lover of military discipline, 
 and probably has sometimes carried his love of 
 martial law too far. it was too critical a mo- 
 ment to carry a statute book in one's pocket, or 
 to square every inarch by the doctrines of 
 'trespass quare clausum fregii. He had a people 
 to save, and it was not in his nature to do it 
 gently. There was something in the boldness 
 of the veteran soldier that was attractive to 
 most men, and particularly to the young. The 
 suggestions of those who preferred a civilian to 
 a soldier were lost in the huzzas of those who 
 panted for military distinction ; and at every 
 pause and return of the shout he gained popu- 
 larity. In most states the change was rapid, 
 and he came into office by a large majority. If 
 he was not as perfect and capable a man as his 
 friends represented him to be, he was a much 
 better man than his enemies described him to
 
 80 THE PRESIDENTS, 
 
 be. The fire of his temper had become a 
 flame less wild than when he was earning his 
 military laurels. The hatchet had been buried 
 and the wampum exchanged, and most of his- 
 enmities were gone. He has now administered 
 the government for nearly a year, and has 
 shown nothing of a disposition to act the milita- 
 ry chieftain. No gens d' arms guard his door, 
 no halberdiers his person. He has never as 
 yet amused the good citizens of Washington with 
 a military execution, himself preceded by laurel- 
 ed lictors with their fasces and axes, and with 
 the MASTER of the HORSK at his heels. If the 
 apprehensions of those who foretold such things 
 were honest, they are happily disappointed. If 
 they mistook not the man, as I believe they did,, 
 they certainly misunderstood the genius of the 
 people. They forgot the omnipotence of public 
 opinion in a great and a free country. Every 
 thing political must be shaped by it, every thing 
 exist by it. Public opinion may be as volatile 
 as the air around us, but nevertheless as vital to 
 republican institutions as that is to animal life. 
 Mind in this country is operating upon mind, 
 and opinion struggling with opinion for light and 
 knowledge. Every faculty of man is in a state 
 of improvement. Intelligence meets with, and 
 combats ignorance, and ignorance becomes illu- 
 mined by the conflict, infidelity is overcome by 
 faith, and truth elicited by error. In such a
 
 THE PRESIDENTS. 81 
 
 state, while every man is testing his own pow- 
 ers, and examining the rights and capacities of 
 others, and attempting to place all things on the 
 basis of philanthropy and justice, although there 
 may be a good share of evil abroad, yet the 
 dread of the talents, fame or influence of any 
 one man, is not one of these evils. 
 
 If military ambition once burned in the breast 
 of General Jackson, it should be recollected that 
 he has reached that period of life, when the 
 flame would begin to diminish. He is more 
 than double the age of Alexander when he died, 
 and much older than Caesar when he fell. Age 
 always holds on what it has gained, but seldom 
 desires to make exertions for new honours, par- 
 ticularly military ones. I have entered into 
 this subject more particularly, not that I ever 
 thought he would give the nation a military cast 
 of character, any more* than a civilian, but be- 
 cause the politicians in England, and in fact in 
 all Europe, affected to believe that this nation 
 was rapidly passing to a military despotism, be- 
 cause they selected General Jackson for their 
 President, and argued from it the downfal of the 
 liberties of the country, citing ancient instances 
 of the insatiable appetite of military chieftains. 
 There is no parallel between the cases there is 
 no force in the argument. 
 
 8*
 
 X, 
 
 Washington, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIK, 
 
 WE will now turn, for a moment, from 
 the subject of man, to contemplate the growth 
 of a city. Each subject has its singularities, 
 and each affords instruction. 
 
 The Potomac had been considered the centre 
 of the British Provinces in North America long 
 before the organization of a Federal government 
 was ever thought of by the North or the South. 
 A few of the wise men of Virginia had, in their 
 political forecasts, drawn upon their imagina- 
 tions so far as to think it within the limits of 
 conjecture, that through the Potomac the great 
 western lakes would find a highway to the 
 ocean, and the immense interior bordering on 
 them would be opened to the advantages of com- 
 merce with foreign nations. When, or how, 
 this was to be brought about, was not distinctly 
 understood. The subject was one of those great 
 matters of feeling and reasoning commingled, 
 that are often the precursors of investigation and 
 effort, and for many years remain as impres-
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 83 
 
 sions and presentiments, before the event gives 
 to vague conjecture the character of prophecy 
 or foreknowledge. These opinions were gain- 
 ing ground in Virginia from age to age, and 
 fastened themselves on the mind of Washington, 
 from his earliest years ; and so deep, that when 
 his reputation had reached the acme of human 
 glory, he was willing to risk some portion of his 
 fame in making every exertion to direct his 
 countrymen to this great national object, con- 
 nected with the government of the United States 
 and the future welfare of his country ; but no 
 place was now precisely designated. 
 
 In March, 1791, the President of the United 
 States was authorised to appoint commissioners 
 to lay out this city, and prepare suitable build- 
 ings for the government before the year 1800. 
 By an act of May, 1796, the commissioners 
 were authorised to borrow money for the ad- 
 vancement of the buildings, and to pledge the 
 lots that had been given to the United States, as 
 well as the faith of the government, to refund 
 the loan. In 1798 there was an act passed, sup- 
 plementary to the aforesaid, to hasten the pro- 
 gress of the public improvements. So far were 
 the public buildings finished, that, in April, 1800, 
 an act was passed authorising the President to 
 remove, with all the departments, from Phila- 
 delphia to the Federal City, which had been 
 previously named the City of Washington, in
 
 84 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 honour of the President ; and in pursuance of 
 this act the government was removed and com- 
 menced operations in the city of Washington the 
 first day of December, 1800. It cannot be deni- 
 ed but that the character, wishes and influence of 
 Washington, had no small share in fixing the 
 seat of government.. Like all other of his acts 
 it has proved to have been dictated by wisdom, 
 justice, and forecast ; for the site is one of the 
 finest in the world for a city. From the hill on 
 which stands the capitol, the most noble view 
 presents itself to the eye of the beholder that 
 the imagination could paint. From the north, 
 round to the south, a circular line of high 
 grounds is seen, making within them the interior 
 of an immense amphitheatre ; which, it is said, 
 resembles the appearance of Rome from some 
 of the elevations in or near the Eternal City. The 
 east view is extensive, but not bounded by high 
 lands ; The horizon sinks with the power of vi- 
 sion. On the south, the broad and peaceful 
 Potomac is seen for many miles, extending to 
 Alexandria, and even to Mount Vernon. The 
 whole panorama is bold, magnificent, pictur- 
 esque, and yet softand beautiful ; it only re- 
 quires the moral consecration of long past 
 events, the massy piles of ancient grandeur, the 
 deep and solemn recollections of the mighty 
 dead, to make the impression, at this view from 
 the capitol, such as crowds on the mind when
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 5 
 
 one views the Vatican or domes of St. Peter. It 
 was laid out on a noble plan, but it will require 
 the lapse of half a century to fully develope all 
 its beauties. The eye of practical utility is long 
 in discovering the harmonious proportions that 
 philosphical forecast designs for the completion 
 of distant ages. The colossal figures of Praxi- 
 telles were the subject of derision among minor 
 artists, who did not foresee the elevation for 
 which they were made ; but when placed in the 
 lofty niches of the temple, his master designs 
 found their exact situations, and breathed harmo- 
 ny and sweetness on every beholder. The city 
 of Washington struggled with every difficulty in 
 its commencement. The great founder did not 
 live to see it the seat of government ; he died a 
 year before the consummation of his wishes. 
 
 We had at the time of the beginning but few 
 native artists to assist him, and the foreigners he 
 employed had many preconceived opinions at 
 war with his great plans. Economy was the 
 order of the day, and it was hard to make frugal 
 statesmen understand, that judicious expendi- 
 ture, on a broad scale, would, in the end, be the 
 most prudent course. TJiey considered the ne- 
 cessities of a session ; he, the requisitions of 
 ages. The country was straitened in her 
 finances, and the great mass of the legislature 
 mistook the expansion of republican simplicity 
 and grandeur in building a city, for regal munifi-
 
 86 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 cence and aristocratic calculations ; and of course 
 every broad plan was narrowed down, and every 
 detail cramped by the wants of the treasury. 
 Other causes transpired to increase these dif- 
 ficulties. When the site of the Federal City 
 was fixed upon, speculators from every quarter 
 of this country, and also from abroad, flocked 
 in, to share in the chances of gain. Instead of 
 forwarding the enterprise, they did much to re- 
 tard it, by giving the lands a fictitious value, 
 and by keeping up nominal prices until there 
 were no real ones. It was a fair subject of spec- 
 ulation, but it was managed badly. The agri- 
 culture of the surrounding country was not pre- 
 pared to give a ready and an abundant supply 
 to the calls of the newly congregated popula- 
 tion, and the whole concern went sadly on, year 
 after year : at this period the market for provi- 
 sions was scanty, fluctuating, and often exorbi- 
 tant ; and sometimes it was hardly possible to 
 procure wholesome provisions, at any rate. 
 The dwelling houses in general were small, and 
 inconvenient ; and not only the citizens, but 
 public functionaries, and political dignitaries, 
 were crowded into narrow lodgings ; and amidst 
 the most anxious struggles for appearances 
 among the leaders of fashion, the nakedness of 
 the land was often seen by the sojourners as 
 well as felt by the inhabitants. The great mass 
 of the population suffered in some way or other,
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 87 
 
 and but few of the comforts of life, then, as well 
 as at present, so fully enjoyed in the cities of the 
 United States generally, were known in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 In summer the streets were in a good measure 
 deserted, and in winter all was bustle and con- 
 fusion. The streets were without sidewalks or 
 pavements, and in this naturally humid climate 
 and soft loomy soil, the mud was frequently 
 deep and troublesome. The greater part of the 
 visiters, and many of the members of Congress 
 boarded in Georgetown. The English goods 
 shops were there also, and many of the best wine 
 and grocery stores. These daily inconveniences 
 were annoying to the members of Congress, and 
 they were in ill-humour when any call for mo- 
 ney was made for the city ; and it was evident 
 that the dislike to Washington, as a permanent 
 seat of government, was fast advancing to a de- 
 termination to . remove iu The goodly streets 
 and comfortable rooms in the dwelling houses in 
 Philadelphia were remembered, and nothing 
 but reverence for the name of Washington kept 
 those feelings from breaking out into acts of le- 
 gislation. 
 
 This was the state of things up to 1814, when 
 the calamity which at first was supposed to have 
 given a finishing stroke to all the hopes of the 
 city fell upon it ; In August, of that year, it was 
 taken by the British without much bloodshed.
 
 88 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 The troops brought to defend it were well 
 enough, and might have been made good sol- 
 diers, if there had been union, concert, and en- 
 ergy among the leaders. Civil and military au- 
 thority and influence were jumbled together, and 
 confusion, defeat, and disgrace followed. The 
 blame was shifted from one to the other, and has 
 not as yet settled precisely any where ; but er- 
 ror, and gross error, must rest somewhere. 
 
 The whole country was mortified at such an 
 event, although it reflected no great honour on 
 the enemy. The capitol, as far as it was finish- 
 ed was burnt ; the President's house, the public 
 offices, and the public property of the navy yard. 
 The whole city resembled ' the skin of an im- 
 molated victim ;' and every appeal to the sympa- 
 thies and pride of the country was made. When 
 Congress next assembled, after a few struggles 
 for the removal of the seat of government, the 
 most vigorous steps were taken to restore the 
 city to tranquillity, and to repair the public loss- 
 es. It being once settled that pride and jus- 
 tice would not suffer the removal of the seat of 
 government, private enterprise followed public 
 spirit. The corporation of the city seemed to 
 be animated with a new soul, and individuals, 
 relieved from the fear of change, risked all they 
 could command in real estate. Landed proper- 
 ty arose in value, and hope, energy, and active 
 business, took the place of despair, listlessness,
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 99 
 
 and, wasting, repining indolence. New streets 
 were opened, dwelling houses and stores were 
 then erected. The trade came to the city, the 
 boarders left Georgetown and came to Washing, 
 ton, and a new face was put on every thing in 
 the city ; churches were built, institutions of 
 learning arose, and large, if not ample provision 
 was made for other necessary improvements on 
 the face of nature. This work has been going 
 on ever since the close of the war ; but it must 
 be pleasant to the citizens of Washington to re- 
 flect, that when all things are taken into consi- 
 deration, that they are not indebted to the gov- 
 ernment, in equity, for one dollar for all their 
 grants and favours ; but that, in truth, the gov- 
 ernment is indebted to the city for more than 
 a million of dollars, putting a fair value on the 
 property now owned by the United States within 
 the city, which cost them nothing. Blessings 
 are said to come in clusters ; for as soon as the 
 city began to flourish, it became healthy. The 
 low grounds were drained, and the fever and 
 ague, once prevalent, are now rarely known 
 among the evils of Washington ; and at present 
 the city is decidedly the most healthy of any 
 in the United States, or perhaps in the world. 
 The water of Washington is of the best quality, 
 and can be brought to every door in the greatest 
 abundance, at a very moderate expense. This 
 9
 
 90 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 was provided for in the charter given to the city 
 under the administration of Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 The schools in Washington are respectable 
 and instructors very well supported. The spirit 
 of religious freedom is as manifest here, as in 
 older cities. Toleration, in general, is a growth 
 of long experience and sound information ; here 
 intolerance had neither precedents or law. The 
 restraints on the exercise of liberty are fewer 
 here than in any other city known to civilized 
 man ; and yet the morals of the people are good, 
 and every year growing better. The whole 
 population of the city have been misrepresen- 
 ted as to manners, morals, habits and disposi- 
 tions. No people are more kind, or more hos- 
 pitable, or have better feelings than the Wash- 
 ingtonians. The bland Marylander, the lofty 
 Virginian, and intelligent, shrewd Eastern inha- 
 bitant, coalesce, commingle, and amalgamate, 
 until the virtues of all are seen united in the 
 most. As they become less dependant on Con- 
 gress, the more elevated is their standard of 
 mind and morals. When they looked to the 
 members of Congress as superior beings, who 
 might annihilate the city by a vote, the very 
 vices of the legislators were copied, and the ef- 
 fect was bad. Taken as a whole, the members 
 of Congress were not of the highest order for 
 imitation. Men are seldom virtuous in bodies, in 
 which, in most cases, but little individual respon-
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. Q\ 
 
 sibility is felt or acknowledged. The corpora- 
 tion are assuming an energy of character wor- 
 thy of freemen, and are looking at the true in- 
 terests of the city, and the citizens are uniting 
 their efforts for the prosperity of themselves 
 and neighbours. The patronage of Congress, 
 the attention of the corporation of the city, and 
 the efforts of individuals are now beginning to 
 be seen and felt. In former years their exer- 
 tions were not properly appreciated, because 
 they could not be seen in their effects ; they 
 were actually laying the corner-stone deep<in 
 the mire and water, where it was difficult for the 
 nicest observer to fairly calculate the value of 
 means used to produce ends ; now all things are 
 eeen most fully ; and effects are in proportion to 
 labours ; and whatever is done is visible in the 
 improvements of the city. The city is indeed 
 an emblem of our nation in its growth and cha- 
 racter, if not at first, certainly in the later peri- 
 ods. It was most assuredly afflicted in its com- 
 mencement, had no great seasons of prosperity 
 in its early day, and in the end, owed its glory 
 and stability to the outrage done upon it. The 
 streets are now provided with ample sidewalks ; 
 new squares are opened, the streets are gradua- 
 ted, and put in a proper state to be ornamented 
 with trees and fountains. The Ohio and Chesa- 
 peake canal, which has been begun, and will be 
 put in operation by the enterprise of individuals,
 
 92 CITY OF VVASHIGTON. 
 
 the spirit of the corporation and the liberality of 
 Congress, is one day to be the pride, the conve- 
 nience, and the source of prosperity to the city. 
 The trade will increase, which will increase the 
 number of inhabitants, and afford them many ad- 
 vantages, by bringing fuel and provisions to the 
 city, and reduce the prices of all the necessaries 
 of life, to as -low a scale as that of the most fa- 
 voured cities of the United States. The Wash- 
 ington market, with a little alteration, might be 
 made as good as any we know of. The glades 
 of Virginia furnish beef, pork, and butter, of the 
 best kinds ; and the immediate neighbourhood, 
 with a little care and attention, would be suffi- 
 cient, and more than sufficient, for all the de- 
 mands of vegetables and poultry. The soii and 
 climate are well suited for all the fruits of the 
 temperate zone. Peaches, plumbs, apples, and 
 almost every other fruit are, or may be raised, 
 of the first order. Washington is the happiest 
 region of flowers. A garden here might be 
 made to yield something for the basket of Flora 
 for nearly three quarters of the year. With a 
 small expense a fountain might be made in eve- 
 ry garden, to refresh the vegetation in the warm- 
 est seasons of the year. After the most promi- 
 nent sites for business are filled up in the city, a 
 better taste will prevail in erecting domicils, and 
 those dwellings a little removed from the bustle
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 93 
 
 will not be complete or satisfactory without a 
 garden of flowers. 
 
 To pass from the dulce to the utile, there are 
 fine building materials in abundance, in or near 
 the city, or can easily be brought to it. The 
 city abounds in the best of clay ; and bricks can 
 be furnished to any extent, at a few weeks no- 
 tice ; and fuel can easily be procured to burn 
 the greatest number of kilns that may be set up. 
 Ornamental trees for the high way or malls 
 would be of rapid growth, much more rapid, 
 take the whole number and variety of ornamen- 
 tal trees together, than that of any climate more 
 southerly or northerly in this country. It is 
 seldom that the winter is severe enough to in- 
 jure them, and droughts in the summer are not 
 common. Showers are frequent ; the clouds 
 following along the Shenandoah and the Poto- 
 mac, in the highlands, spread over the country 
 where the Potomac assumes a broader surface, 
 and gives a freshness to the vegetation along its 
 banks. The soil is porous and quickly imbibes 
 the rain, so that no stagnant waters are found 
 to originate diseases in the hottest weather. 
 There is none of that spungy, humid state of 
 the atmosphere here, so common at the north 
 in August, generally denominated dog-days. 
 The heat of Washington is not greater at any 
 season than at Boston or Montreal ; but is more 
 oppressive by its long continuance, and the tri- 
 9*
 
 94 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 fling change in the atmosphere from noon to 
 midnight. This may be, and indeed is exhaust- 
 ing ; but in this season there are but few preva- 
 lent diseases ; and the deaths that happen are 
 often among those who have not been the most 
 prudent ; or whose constitutions have been bro- 
 ken and decaying in previous years. Man is 
 subject to the first great denunciation of his 
 Maker every where, dust thou art and to dust 
 shall thou return ; but he is as much privileged 
 here, as any where, to escape it as long as pos- 
 sible. In fact, nature has done enough for the 
 city to make it one of the most delightful abodes 
 in the world ; art now must do her share. Cap- 
 ital, industry and business are now only wanted 
 to give interest, beauty, yea, more, splendour to 
 all in and about Washington ; commerce is want- 
 ed to obtain this capital and to secure prosperity 
 to the city, but it can never be so great and 
 all-absorbing as to endanger the welfare of the 
 city by those fearful fluctuations that large com- 
 mercial cities are liable to. None of those sud- 
 den changes in the markets can effect the great 
 mass of the citizens, when but a small part of 
 them are engaged in commerce, nor is it so near 
 the sea as to fear that its usual supplies can be 
 cut off by a war or blockade. The back coun- 
 try is sufficient for all exigencies, and perma- 
 nent requisitions for the main articles of life, and 
 and it will have easy communication with the
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 95 
 
 eastern and southern cities by steam boats and 
 rail roads. If a real and not a fictitious value 
 is given to property in the City of Washington, 
 it cannot fail to advance most rapidly. The 
 general temperature of the climate, the certain, 
 ty of wholesome supplies of provisions, the 
 chances of good schools, which will be found 
 here if they are not common now ; numerous 
 and well organized associations, united to the 
 easy access to genteel society, on those terms 
 which cannot be common in other cities, will 
 induce many respectable families, with but 
 moderate means, to make this a place of resi- 
 dence. It is a question, with many if this gol- 
 den age will ever come ; but who can doubt it. 
 Look at the changes of the last ten years, and 
 say if these have in them no promising augury I 
 If the citizens do not abandon real for imagina- 
 ry right ; if the congress of the United States 
 do their duty, as we trust they will, the prosper- 
 ity of the City of Washington is certain. Some 
 of the citizens of the district of Columbia are 
 anxious to be represented in congress ; but it 
 would be a miserable policy to change the hold 
 they have on the general goverment for legisla- 
 tive protection, for the honour of having a single 
 representative in congress. The government is 
 growing rich and the fostering hand of power 
 will be, hereafter, extended more liberally to 
 the district than it has been.
 
 96 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 With industry, enterprize, prudence, and bar- 
 mony the city of Washington may be naade a 
 place of trade, manufactures and learning. The 
 trade will be very considerable when the canal 
 is opened and the surrounding country catches 
 the spirit of the age. Manufactures will of 
 course go pari passu with the demand of those 
 articles that can be made here cheaper than 
 elsewhere. In addition to the water power in 
 the neighbourhood, fuel can be afforded cheap, 
 by way of the river and canal, either in wood 
 or coal for steam engines. A well balanced 
 business extending to all the common branches 
 of industry might be carried on here for the 
 prosperity of the city. Taste, and the arts must 
 grow up where there is no sudden influx of 
 wealth, no deep commercial speculation, whose 
 success gives no settled plans for mental im- 
 provement, and whose reverses damp the ardor 
 and dry up the aliments of learning. Those 
 cities whose income have been the most regular, 
 not those which at seasons have been the most 
 wealthy, have given the most encouragement to 
 the arts. It is true the Medici, the great Flo- 
 rentine merchants, were patrons of the arts ; but 
 not from the success of any particular enter- 
 prize, but from a settled plan to spend so much 
 of their income as they could spare for this pur- 
 pose, and they made as regular appropriations 
 for letters and the arts as for household expen-
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON- 97 
 
 ses. It is not with the excess of wealth that 
 learning flourishes, but with the judicious use of 
 it. Pericles ornamented his native Athens to 
 the delight of his own, and to the wonder and 
 admiration of succeeding ages, and yet his rev- 
 enues were not large ; but who ever heard of the 
 artists, or of the men of letters patronized by 
 Cro3sus. A national University to be establish- 
 ed in this city, was contemplated by that great 
 father of his country, Washington. His views 
 were expanded and noble. The University was 
 not only to be one in name, but in truth a place 
 of letters and sciences, with the arts, both useful 
 and ornamental in their train ; a place where all 
 that is known should be taught. Such a Uni- 
 versity, besides diffusing pure knowledge, would 
 do much towards breaking down the prejudices 
 that exist between the different sections of our 
 country. Educated together the youths of the 
 north, and the south, the east, and the west 
 would scan each others merits in their early 
 days, and find out each others mental powers. 
 Such an education would give them opportuni- 
 ties of knowing each too, when they came into 
 active life, and assist them to form accurate opin- 
 ions of each others powers and capacities, and 
 fitness for particular offices. Such a univer- 
 sity would be a resort for men of taste and leis- 
 ure, who with their families would come to at. 
 tend the lectures of the professors of the uni>
 
 98 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 versity ; as none but distinguished men could 
 hold these offices. In truth, whatever way we 
 look into our country's welfare, or however bold 
 and sagacious our reach may be, on close inspec- 
 tion, we shall find that the mind of Washington 
 had been there before us, arranged our antici- 
 pations and marshalled all our array of thoughts, 
 and he with equal clearness saw all the difficul- 
 ties we had to encounter, and the virtues it would 
 require to overcome them. He prayed the na- 
 tion might possess them ; he believed it did, or 
 would, so that his beloved republic would es- 
 cape the fate of all former republics, whose his- 
 tories are satires on the stability of governments 
 and the virtue of the human race. 
 
 We are now, in fact, the only republic on 
 earth ; those so called in South America, and 
 hailed with such enthusiasm by the lovers of lib- 
 erty, are at present only mock-suns on the clouds 
 formed by our rising brightness. The temples 
 of South American liberty have not as yet been 
 purified from the stains of the idols which inha- 
 bited them. Superstition and ignorance, and 
 the sounds of strife and blood-shed as yet 
 drown the bustle of the commitia. They have 
 ample means in their hands and they have 
 the wishes of the better part of mankind for 
 their success. We have believed, and still fondly 
 hope, that the American 'Republic is not to be 
 joined to those of former ages, over which the
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON. 99 
 
 plough-share of desolation has been driven and 
 on many of whose brightest deeds the pall of 
 oblivion has fallen. That the fears of the timid 
 may prove idle, that the anticipations of the 
 wise may be realized, and the hopes of the most 
 sanguine be fulfilled, should be every patriot's 
 prayer ; but neither prayers, or wishes or hopes 
 will avail, without enterprize, energy, learning, 
 virtue and perseverance ; all these are in the 
 people, and if they be true to themselves they 
 will perpetuate their liberties. Their destinies 
 are in their own hands. The responsibility of 
 this age is tremendous, and it will be increa- 
 sed with every succeeding one. The pillars of 
 the temple are knowledge and virtue, and as long 
 as these remain unbroken the edifice will stand ; 
 but faction, like the strong man, may break them 
 down and strew destruction around, but this evil 
 may God avert. 
 
 * *-*
 
 XI. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 1830. 
 DEAR SIB, 
 
 THE capitol of the Congress of the Uni- 
 ted States is a very noble building. The order 
 is called Corinthian ; but, in truth, it is a med- 
 ley of all orders. The whole edifice is now 
 completed. It covers an acre and a half and 
 1820 feet of ground. It has been an expensive 
 building, having cost the United States nearly 
 three millions of dollars. The square on which 
 the capitol stands contains more than twenty 
 acres, and is laid out in a very handsome style, 
 and is filled up with trees and shrubbery in a 
 flourishing state. The dome of this building is 
 the third in point of size in the world ; next to 
 St. Paul's, and before St. Sophia's ; but this 
 building has been so often described, that I shall 
 not attempt it ; but give you a few remarks up- 
 on the ornaments of the building, which have 
 not been so particularly mentioned. 
 
 Several artists of note have, from time to time, 
 been employed on the capitol, and it bears 
 marks of their taste and talents. They have
 
 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 1Q1 
 
 ornamented the inside of the dome and other 
 parts of the building with the labours of theirart. 
 Over the western door of the dome is a grop 
 in bass-relief, representing the preservation of 
 Capt. John Smith from the wrath of Powha- 
 tan, by the kind interference of his daughter, 
 Pocahontas. This is the work of Capelano, an 
 artist of considerable talent ; but he had seen 
 more Italians than Indians, and his savages are 
 Italian banditti, and his intended child of the 
 forest an Italian queen. In this picture, howe- 
 ver, notwithstanding all its defects, there is more 
 variety of expression in the countenances of the 
 group, than is generally found in stone. This 
 work attracts much attention, and elicits many 
 criticisms ; but it will continue to be admired, in 
 spite of its faults. Smith was a hero whose 
 name is imperishable ; his life has more of ro- 
 mance in it than that of any other man in the 
 annals of history. Over the east door is a rep- 
 resentation of the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- 
 mouth, 1620. The Indians on the rocks, the 
 boat, the shore, the sea, are all well executed ; 
 but the artist mistook the character of the com- 
 ers to the new world ; he has given the religious 
 adventurers the hat of the ancient Pilgrim, and 
 the dress also ; when nothing would be farther 
 from the truth. They were puritanical adven- 
 turers, and not crusading pilgrims. The sub- 
 ject is one much better for the pencil than the 
 10 
 
 *
 
 102 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 
 
 chisel ; but it was given to illustrate a portion of 
 American history, and the artist was told the 
 story by those who, probably, did not precisely 
 understand the capacities of his art, and he set 
 about it as it was, a subject dictated to him, and 
 which some body else would have been engaged 
 to execute, if he had remonstrated against it, 
 The Pilgrims of that day never thought of their 
 glory in stone. The pen and the pencil have 
 secured their immortality long since. The 
 sculptor was Causici. 
 
 Over the north door is sculptured William 
 Penn, making his treaty with the Indians, in 
 1680. He is holding the parley, in the fearless, 
 ness of innocence, with the savages, who seem- 
 ed to have caught the same spirit and to be go- 
 verned by the same peaceful principles. This 
 treaty is worthy of all praise, for it was kept in- 
 violate for seventy years ; but the moral sub- 
 limity of the subject must be fully understood 
 before you can relish the design. There is nei- 
 ther beauty or attraction in it, taken by itself. 
 The capacities of the art do not reach such a 
 subject. The painter would do better here also. 
 " Gods, not men, should breathe in stone." They 
 are only seen in naked majesty. The modem 
 succinct dress in marble may be made by skill 
 so as to be endured, but never to be admired. 
 Phidias could not have given immortality to a 
 modern martinet, in dress, with all his frogs and
 
 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 1Q3 
 
 taggcry. The sculptor would have preferred' 
 the Winnebago, in his war dance, almost in na- 
 tive nakedness, to one so bedizzened. 
 
 On the pannels between the doors, looking 
 above them, are several fine heads in bass-relief. 
 One of Columbus is so near a resemblance to 
 some fine pictures of him, that it is probable the 
 sculptor had hit upon something near a true like- 
 ness. The head of Sir Walter Raleigh is also 
 a fine one, resembling the best prints of him. 
 They are richly deserving a place here. This 
 talented, but unfortunate Englishman, deserves 
 to be remembered in a country on whose shores 
 he made a vigorous struggle to plant a colony. 
 It was not his fault if it did not succeed. The 
 heads of la Sale, and Sebastian Cabot, are rough 
 statuary, but have considerable expression and 
 life in them. They, too, merit a place in this 
 pantheon, if enterprise and success are sub- 
 jects of reward in this way. These are strong, 
 and severe pieces of physiognomy, but not' with- 
 out talent and character. They could not be 
 recommended as models, nor are they so recom- 
 mended ; but they are worthy of attention and 
 notice. 
 
 Over the great eastern door, outside of the 
 dome, there is a head of Washington, taken from 
 a picture, or bust, of an earlier age in Wash- 
 ington's life, than is seen in Stuart's great pic- 
 ture. The bust has a striking likeness to the
 
 104 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 
 
 head of the late Judge Washington. It is a la- 
 boured production of Capelano's chisel. It is 
 supported, to speak in the language of heraldry, 
 by Fame, with her clarion on one side, and by 
 the genius of immortality, ready to place the 
 wreath on his brow, on the other. It is ad- 
 mired by many, and is certainly a specimen of 
 very good proficiency in the art. But it is be- 
 yond the art, and skill, and genius of Canova, 
 to give us a just idea of Washington. The im- 
 age in our minds was all perfect ; the eye could 
 not be satisfied with any effort, however mighty, 
 to give it body and tangibility. 
 
 It was reserved for Lugi Persico to produce, 
 by patient labour, and unquestionable skill, uni- 
 ted to the soul of genius, a work that will immor- 
 talize the sculptor, and do honour to our coun- 
 try. It is an ornament for the tympanum of 
 the east front of the capitol. The figures are 
 colossal ; the design is full of meaning, and yet 
 is marked with great simplicity. On the right 
 of the spectator is seen Hope, leaning on her 
 anchor, and extending her right hand to the skies, 
 directing her looks to the Genius of America, a 
 still loftier figure, in partial armour. Hope is 
 describing to the Genius some of these visions of 
 glory which are crowding on her soul ; some of 
 those unborn ages of her beloved republic ; 
 while the Genius of the Nation, with dignified 
 mien and placid countenance, points over a
 
 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 1Q5 
 
 third figure, which is Justice, of a size in keep- 
 ing with the others, and seems to say, we ask 
 nothing that we are not entitled to by the stern- 
 est decisions of the goddess. The eyes of Jus- 
 tice are not, as usual, blinded, but are opened 
 on the day, that she may see and judge all that 
 passes under the sun. Between Hope and the 
 Genius of America, there is an American Eagle, 
 a noble piece of statuary ; the talons grasp the 
 emblematical weapons of defence, with charac- 
 teristic power. The breast, the wings, the tail, 
 are full of life and strength, as is the head and 
 beak of majesty. The head of the eagle is 
 turned to the Genius, and " with eye retortive 
 looks creation, through" The easy, elegant, 
 and natural flow of the drapery, the fine finish 
 of the hands and arms, and the graceful attitudes 
 of these figures, take away, even when you are 
 close to them, all those impressions of coarse- 
 ness which susceptibility and taste have felt at a 
 near inspection of colossal figures. It is not in 
 nature to love the person of a giant. It was only 
 through the medium of his deeds of generosity 
 and valour that Hercules won the hearts of those 
 that praised him. Between the overgrown and 
 the diminutive exist the forms of symmetry, 
 grace, and beauty. That art must be exquisite 
 that gives us those huge dimensions, as it were, 
 directly in our eye-shot, and 6till contrives to 
 take off the general impression of coarseness. 
 10"
 
 106 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 
 
 Mr. Persico's work is now to be examined from 
 the ground only ; the proper line of vision be. 
 ing extended more than an hundreed feet from 
 the object. At this distance the figures appear 
 about the size of human beings, full grown. I 
 have no hesitation in saying that they are far 
 superior to any thing of the kind in this coun- 
 try, entirely free from that hoiden air, or that 
 prominence of parts, often made in works of this 
 sort, to catch the gaze of the tasteless spectator. 
 This group appears all life, celestial life ; spi- 
 rits communing with spirits, in the dignity and 
 calm repose of upper natures, without a single 
 throe of mortal thought-bearing. ^ 
 
 After having said so much of the work, it is 
 proper that I should say something of the artist. 
 Mr. Persico is a Neapolitan, of about thirty 
 years of age, or perhaps he is a little older, and 
 full of the inspiration of his art. The clash of 
 parties does not interest him, or the animated 
 debate detain him but for a moment. The gaie- 
 ties of the saloon, or the festive board, have but 
 few charms for him, notwithstanding he posses- 
 ses the mercurial temperament of his nation. 
 Distinction in his art is the predominant passion 
 of his soul ; and if he looks at a fair one ever so 
 earnestly, it is only to find some line of beauty, 
 or some grace of form or motion, to transfer to 
 stone ; or, if he listens to an orator in the glow 
 of bis genius, and when the light of his mind is
 
 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 107 
 
 beaming on all around him, it is only that he 
 may catch all this to give it to after ages, when 
 the image of the speaker has faded from the me- 
 mories of living men. 
 
 The ornaments of the Superior Court Room 
 are not numerous. The only one worthy of 
 particular attention is a group opposite the bench 
 of justice. On the left, as seen from the bench, 
 is a figure too lank and lean for a cupid, or an 
 angel ; but is probably intended for one or the 
 other of these supernatural beings, or perhaps 
 for the Genius of the constitution. The figure 
 has wings, and holds the constitution of the Uni. 
 ted States in its hand. On the head of the 
 figure, whatever it may be, is a glory, or a 
 schechina. This is in bad taste. It is attempt, 
 ing too much, and therefore produces a failure. 
 All the other parts of the design are classical. 
 This is from sacred history. The middle figure 
 is Justice sitting in a chait, (Phidias 6r Praxi- 
 telles knew nothing of such a seat for the god- 
 dess,) with her right arm leaning on her sword, 
 and holding the equal scales in her left. The 
 face of this figure is excellent, and the drapery 
 flowing and easy. Her proportions are rather 
 more delicate than those in which the ancients 
 exhibited the inflexible goddess. Before her 
 sits the bird of wisdom, perched near some vo- 
 lumes of law ; but the owl is formed in the mo-
 
 108 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 
 
 dern school ; and the capitol to a groat, Mi- 
 nerva would not know her bird if she should see 
 him so beaked, so feathered, so trim and dove- 
 like, unless she should guess it out by recog- 
 nizing her sister Justice in the form of this 
 belle, or resort to her divinity to discover the 
 whole group in their transformation. This room 
 is one of deep interest to every lover of his 
 country. To see seven quiet, good looking 
 men, covered with a slight robe of black, with- 
 out enough of the insignia of office to tell them 
 from so many pall bearers, sitting together, lis- 
 tening to the arguments of men from every state 
 in the Union, on great and important questions, 
 of municipal, civil, and international law ; and 
 thus without any emotion or excitement, settling 
 all the numerous conflicting opinions that have 
 grown up in this republic since its formation, is 
 a specimen of the moral sublime, unequalled in 
 the annals of civil or ecclesiastical history. 
 These oracles of the Delphic cave have as yet 
 been free from the corruption or fear of executive 
 power, and uninfluenced by party strife in the 
 halls of legislation. As long as this sanctuary 
 is unassailed, and talents and integrity are se- 
 lected and maintained in this branch of govern- 
 ment, so long will it be the palladium of Ameri- 
 can liberties ; but wo-betide the hour when 
 political rancour shall come, within these walls,
 
 ORNAMENTS OF THE CAPITOL. 109 
 
 to poison the fountains of justice, or to weaken 
 her arm. The bickerings above them, in the 
 senate chamber, may pass away, and the many 
 boisterous and idle speeches be forgotten, while 
 the country is safe ; but once pollute this hall, 
 and the guardian Genius of the liberties of this 
 country will leave it for ever.
 
 UTTER ZH. 
 
 Washington, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. I shall be 
 particular in my description of this building, as 
 so much has been said of it which was errone- 
 ous. It is a magnificent mansion, or rather will 
 be when finished. It stands near the centre of 
 one of the largest squares of the city, on an em- 
 inence, nearly a mile and an half west from the 
 Capitol. The building is of the Ionic order, with 
 a southern and a northern front. It is one hun- 
 dred and seventy five feet long, and eighty-five 
 in width ; it has two lofty stories above the base- 
 ment. There are thirty-one rooms of consid- 
 erable size within the walls. As you enter the 
 north door there is a fine large hall, called the 
 entrance hall. At the left of this is the eastern 
 room, whose length is the width of the house, 
 making a room in the clear eighty feet in length, 
 forty feet in width, and twenty. eight feet in 
 height, with four fire places, two of them of ele- 
 gant marble jams, mantle-pieces, &c. From the
 
 PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. HI 
 
 south of the Hall you enter the elyptical room, 
 which is the general audience room on Levee 
 nights. The east room was intended for a gen- 
 eral audience room ; and the elyptical room to 
 receive foreign ambassadors, and public func- 
 tionaries, on occasions of ceremony ; but the 
 east room not having been furnished, until lately, 
 the elyptical room has been used for all public 
 ceremonies. East of the elyptical room is the 
 Green Drawing Room ; this is of a medium size 
 for such an edifice. On the west of the elypti- 
 cal room is the Yellow Drawing Room ; on the 
 west from this is the large Dining Room, of a 
 fine size, and farther west still is the small Dining 
 Room, and beyond this is the Porters room. 
 
 The north front of the upper story contains 
 six rooms for various purposes. The south front 
 has seven rooms ; the anti-chambers, the audi- 
 ence chamber, and Lady's Parlour ; this is di- 
 rectly over the elyptical room, and of the same 
 size of that. The basement story contains ele- 
 ven rooms, kitchen, pantry, butler's room, &c. 
 These are cool and convenient in the summer, 
 and warm in the winter from the massy walls of 
 the edifice. 
 
 Some of the furniture of the house is elegant, 
 but in general it looks much abused from the 
 crowds of careless visiters. The Lady's par- 
 lour may be said to be superbly furnished, but 
 this remark does not extend to many other
 
 112 PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. 
 
 rooms. Within twelve years past congress have 
 expended eighty thousand dollars in furnishing 
 this mansion, and there was some old furniture 
 of the former stocks. Some portion of the plate 
 is elegant and is now worth twenty thousand dol- 
 lars, or more. 
 
 The ornaments are sparse and not of high or- 
 der. In the second south-east room there is a 
 map of Virginia ; a portrait of Bolivar ; a bust of 
 Washington, and one of Americus Vespacius. 
 These latter ornaments are very good specimens 
 of the arts. In the third room, the anti-chamber, 
 there is an engraving of the declaration of inde- 
 pendence in a gilt frame. In the yellow drawing 
 room there is a portrait of Washington from the 
 pencil of Stuart. In this room there is a French 
 piano, which it is said cannot be kept in tune. 
 In the days of omens, when Memnon's harp re- 
 sponded to the ray of the sun, or ^Eolus first 
 breathed among the reeds, this might be thought 
 to have a mysterious bearing on the jars of the 
 Cabinet councils or at least, a Greek Poet would 
 have said that the Genius of the place was not 
 always happy, and tuneful. This palace belongs 
 to the people, and should be adorned with the 
 best specimens of the fine arts the country can 
 produce. The works of the great painters 
 should hang upon the walls, and those of their 
 sculptors fill every niche. To the tenants of this 
 house it cannot be of much importance, for to
 
 PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. H3 
 
 them it is only a caravansy, where they throw 
 down their wallets to cast a horoscope to lay 
 spirits, and raise spells, and their hour comes, 
 and they take up their march without restora- 
 tion to health, or a forgiveness of their sins. 
 Such is the omnipotence of the public mind in 
 a free government. The whole square, except 
 a few spaces for iron gates is surrounded by a 
 substantial stone wall of excellent masonry. 
 The four public offices of the secretaries are 
 within these walls. The view from the north 
 front is extensive and beautiful, but from the 
 south front it is more extensive and still more 
 resplendent, embracing in its range a lovely 
 prospect of the Potomac. 
 
 The site of the house is elevated about sixty 
 feet above the river, and the descent is quite 
 gradual to it. On the south-eastern side of the 
 wall there is a stone arch for a gateway, it looks 
 from the antiquity of the style and the colour of 
 the material of which it is made, as if it had 
 stood centuries defying the climate. Two large 
 ancient weeping willows, one on each side of 
 the arch, add much to its venerable appearance. 
 These trees have not grown up since the date 
 of the federal constitution. They are older than 
 the city's charter. They were provincial seed- 
 lings, now national monuments. It is said that 
 an accomplished lady of the Great House in for- 
 mer days when congratulated upon her eleva- 
 11
 
 114 MERIDIAN HILL. 
 
 tion remarked with a smile, "I don't know that 
 there is much cause for congratulation ; the 
 President of the United States generally comes 
 in at the iron gate, and goes out at the weeping 
 willows." 
 
 MERIDIAN HILL as seen from the president's 
 house is situated ahout three quarters of a mile 
 west of Columbia college, is a handsome seat, 
 built by commodore Porter at great expense, 
 which has been the temporary residence of Mr. 
 Adams the late president of the United States. 
 It probably derives its name from* the expecta- 
 tion that an tjbservatory would be erected there 
 by the government of the United States. To- 
 ward such an object there were some steps ta- 
 ken. In the year "1821 the president of the Uni- 
 ted States authorized, under a resolve of con- 
 gress, William Lambert, Esq. a distinguished 
 mathematician to take proper measures for as- 
 certaining -with precision and accuracy the lon- 
 gitude of the Capitol from Greenwich or Paris. 
 He was assisted in taking his observations by 
 William Elliot Esq. who had an extensive astro- 
 nomical knowledge and experience in the use 
 of instrumenls. This commission was executed 
 to the satisfaction of the president. The govern- 
 ment also sent an experienced mathematician, 
 Mr. Hasler to Europe to purchase or cause to 
 be made, all such instruments as might in his
 
 MERIDIAN HILL. 115, 
 
 opinion be necessary for an observatory. A 
 most costly and admirable set of instruments 
 was procured probably, equal, or superior to 
 any set in Europe ; but the observatory was not 
 erected, and when it was recommended by the 
 next president, the whole was ridiculed and lost. 
 The costly materials are nearly ruined by rust, 
 and neglect. It is not made the duty of any 
 department to take care of them. If this plan 
 of erecting an observatory had been carried in- 
 to effect we should now make all our calcula- 
 tions of longitude from Washington, instead of 
 Greenwich, which might have been called an 
 era of scientific independence, which it behooves 
 this country to declare as soon as possible. 
 They have scarcely a map or chart of their own, 
 out of their own territories. They have in the 
 midst of every boast been guided more by the 
 light of other minds than their own, a mortify- 
 ing fact to those of their countrymen who are 
 willing to make every exertion to wipe away 
 this stain from their "proudly emblazoned es- 
 cutcheon," and to make this equal with other na- 
 tions in contributions to the common stock of 
 knowledge. Individuals have done much, gov- 
 ernment but little, in the cause of science. 
 The government have done nothing of a public 
 nature in the city to assist in measuring space 
 or time. There is not even a public clock to 
 regulate the hours of business or pleasure, or to
 
 116 MERIDIAN HILL. 
 
 tell the weary and restless applicant for office 
 how pass his long, and tedious days of heats 
 and chills, in waiting for a definite answer from 
 a department of the government. Indeed, I had 
 almost forgotten to state that there is a sun-dial 
 on the front of the department of State. This 
 was probably, put there as the devise of some 
 philosopher to teach the passing generations of 
 politicians a solemn moral ; the design was a 
 happy one, for it has often marked the hours 
 of a great man's fame, and seen them pass away 
 as a shadow on its face*
 
 iETTER XIII. 
 
 Washington, Jan. , 1830V 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 THE LIBRARY op CONGRESS. Congress 
 had provided but few books for the general rea- 
 der, until Mr. Jefferson offered his -library to 
 them as nucleus for a future national library ; 
 the journals, laws, and state papers were about 
 all the representatives of the United States could 
 have access to in their public reading room, un- 
 til the Jefferson library was purchased. It was 
 a cheap one for the United States considering 
 how many excellent papers in the form of 
 speeches, tracts, pamphlets, and books it con- 
 tains upon revolutionary history. The argu- 
 ments urged to bring on the contest, the reason- 
 ing required to keep the spirit of patriotism 
 alive, to induce the people to form and accept a 
 form of goverment, to secure the liberty they 
 had achieved, are found in this library in great- 
 er abundance, than perhaps in any library be- 
 longing to an individual in this country. In 
 forming this library Mr. Jefferson had exercised 
 11*
 
 118 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 his judgment, no doubt ; but much of the most 
 valuable part of it was the growth of the times 
 of struggle and determination, and if they had 
 not been gathered then, would have been lost 
 by neglect, and they could not now be called 
 back by any conjuration. The collections in 
 this library of history, general politics, statis- 
 tics, and scientific works and classical literature 
 is considerable ; the deficiencies of Mr. Jeffer- 
 son's library, have been supplied by the appro- 
 priations of congress for the library department ; 
 the library committee are members of congress 
 of a high literary and scientific reputation, and 
 what they recommend seldom meets with any 
 obstacle. They have with great taste and judg- 
 ment purchased many rare works of great value 
 to scholars, as also many of high taste and fash- 
 ion for those who have only time to indulge the 
 eye upon wire-wove or vellum paper, or impe- 
 rial bindings, or exquisite engravings. The ex- 
 penditure of about five or six thousand dollars a 
 year is a trifle for the government, and yet, by 
 this appropriation, in twenty years this will be 
 one of the first libraries in the world ; as it now 
 is, it probably stands the fourth in this country ; 
 but there are several of the minor class that are 
 at present nearly equal to it, in point of numbers. 
 There is a very respectable library belonging 
 to a company in the city. It contains between 
 five and six thousand volumes, and these are
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. H9 
 
 very well selected. It is as rich in American 
 literature as any miscellaneous library of its 
 size in the United States. 
 
 This library is increasing under judicious 
 management, and promises to be in a few years 
 an extensive concern. 
 
 Each branch of the government has an ac- 
 cumulating library. That of the state depart, 
 ment is of considerable magnitude ; but is of 
 very little value at present to any one, but those 
 in its immediate neighbourhood. This is not as 
 it should be ; the library of the state department 
 ought to be kept in a spacious room, fitted with 
 every convenience for taking notes and making 
 extracts, &c. It should contain all the Ameri- 
 can works to be found in the book market, in 
 proper order for the inspection of every visitor 
 properly introduced. The sums now expended on 
 European works are next to useless here ; which 
 under proper direction would, in the course 
 of a few years, make up a very fine collection 
 of American books. Of the current publications 
 there are a considerable number of volumes de- 
 posited in that office by the laws of copy-right, 
 and in addition to this supply, a few thousand 
 of dollars annually would tell well in increasing 
 the stock. The secretaries of state have gene- 
 rally been scholars, and it is therefore surpri- 
 sing that this library should not be found in a 
 better state, one we mean more conducive to
 
 120 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 general cunvenience and the diffusion of infor- 
 mation relating to our own country. It is but 
 justice to say that these remarks apply to the 
 library as it was before Mr. Van Beuren came 
 into office. It is to be hoped that he has made 
 some reform in the premises. 
 
 The Columbian Institute was incorporated in 
 1819 ; it had existeifor some time before this 
 period as a literary and scientific society. It 
 was founded upon a noble basis, to promote 
 learning in all the various branches of arts, sci- 
 ences, and letters. Its members are resident, 
 corresponding, or honourary. Contributions are 
 exacted of the resident members, of papers upon 
 such subjects as each member choses to write 
 upon ; and there has, from time to time, been a 
 good deal of talent exhibited. These papers are 
 kept on file, and will be useful to the society 
 hereafter. Congress has granted to this insti- 
 tution the use of several acres of land for a bo- 
 tanic gorden and other purposes. By the libe- 
 rality and exertions of some of its members this 
 garden has been weli laid out, and many of the 
 trees and shrubs of other countries have been 
 transplanted and nurtured there. This, with a 
 little of that liberality that congress has shown 
 to some other institutions or other projects, 
 would flourish ; for there are several literary 
 and scientific men who would spend many of
 
 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE. 121 
 
 their leisure hours in the botanic department of 
 the society if they could do it to advantage. 
 
 Congress has furnished the society with a 
 convenient room under the library of congress 
 where the collections of books, minerals and cu- 
 riosities are deposited. Resident members are, 
 it is said receiving encouragement from corres- 
 ponding members, by way of donations, books, 
 and minerals, and works from their own pens ; 
 and after the bustle of politics is over, it is to be 
 hoped that the watchful eye of the scientific and 
 literary part of congress will see the wants of 
 the society, and that the liberal part will be dis- 
 posed to aid in giving it something annually to 
 carry on their useful labours. The members 
 are most certainly labouring for the good of the 
 community at large, not for themselves, and 
 therefore deserve encouragement. It has talent 
 sufficient among its members to do honour to the 
 reputation of the country in the. literary and sci- 
 entific world, as yet, their publications have 
 been but few, but those are of a high order and 
 have been well received every where. The 
 first was a Eulogy on Mr. Jefferson, by Mr. 
 Harrison Smith. This is not only valuable as a 
 composition, but it is more so as arising from a 
 particular acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson who 
 knew him in the ease and freedom of domestic 
 life. The second was an ample memoir of John 
 Adams by a relation, friend, and familiar ac-
 
 122 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 quaintance, Judge Cranch. This is a chaste, 
 plain, sensible discourse upon the merits of the 
 great patriot of the east. It abounds in facts 
 and judicious reflections, and will be a valuable 
 document for the future historian. The next 
 was of a more general character, from Mr. 
 Southard, the secretary of the navy. The gen- 
 eral strain of the orator was to show that it was 
 the duty of government to patronise the arts, 
 and sciences in this country. His doctrines 
 were sound and most manfully enforced, and 
 should have made a deeper impression on the 
 national legislature than we fear they have. 
 The last was from Mr. Everett, and as might have 
 been expected was a splendid performance. Line 
 upon line and precept upon precept, are still want- 
 ted to rouse our government to become the pa- 
 tron of letters, the arts and sciences and the 
 friends to the learned men of the country. 
 
 The society in the summer of 1827 met with 
 a great loss in the death of Robert Little, who 
 had been a most active member. He was a 
 thorough scholar, a zealous promoter of letters 
 and sciences and deeply engaged in the welfare 
 of the Columbian Institute. The death of a man 
 of virtue and good sense is a calamity at all 
 times, but [the loss of an active, intellectual 
 member of an infant society is incalculable. 
 Mr. Little was an ardent, but practical man and 
 had the faculty of infusing his enthusiasm into
 
 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 123 
 
 others less apt to kindle than himself. He was 
 devising liberal things for the Institute, which, 
 would soon have been carried into effect if he 
 had been spared a short time, only, to have ma- 
 tured his plans and made a communication of 
 them. Foreigners have as yet a right to smile 
 at this government for their neglect of learning 
 but we trust that the groves of the academy are 
 growing up ; that the Pierian springs are gush- 
 ing from the hills, and that the muses will not 
 forever be frightened away by the spasms of 
 party, or neglected for petty electioneering de- 
 bates. 
 
 MEN in office, in Washington, have been, and 
 are, too busy to make books ; they hardly read 
 them. Some of the different documents from 
 the several Presidents, and members of the suc- 
 cessive cabinets, are works of great merit, of 
 their kind. Among the most conspicuous of 
 these is the Report of Mr. Adams, when he was 
 Secretary of State, on weights and measures. 
 This is a most learned Report, and is creditable 
 to the nation, as well as to the author. The first 
 book, giving any account of the District of Co- 
 lumbia, was written by Col. Lear, who was an 
 aid to Washington, and afterward Consul to Al- 
 giers, &c. This book is now out of print. Since 
 that time, several descriptions of the District, and 
 city, have been given by residents, travellers,
 
 124 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 and all sorts of people some of them full of er- 
 rors and absurdities. The best accounts were 
 from the pen of the librarian of Congress, G. 
 Watterson, Esq. and much careful detail may be 
 found in Elliot's Washington Guide. Samuel 
 Harrison Smith, Esq. formerly editor and pro- 
 prietor of the National Intelligencer, published 
 a history of a session of Congress. It was the 
 session of 1801. The volume contained 190 pa- 
 ges, and gives a condensed view of the pro- 
 ceedings of that year. 
 
 S. Blodget, finding how scanty the statistical 
 information was in the country, wrote a work 
 upon that subject, and brought his calculations, 
 conjectures, data and results, down to 1806. 
 Although not a perfectly accurate book, it was 
 a good one, and gave a good deal of information 
 to the people of the United States, on subjects 
 they did not know much about, or had reasoned 
 too little upon. Mr. Blodget was among the 
 first settlers in Washington, and like many other 
 sensible men, was romantic in his calculations 
 on the probable yearly increase of the population 
 of the city. 
 
 B. Woodward published a work in Washing- 
 ton, on the substance of the sun, which made 
 some noise in its day. 
 
 Mr. Watterson, we have before mentioned, 
 has written several popular and useful books 
 " Letters from Washington ;" " Course of Stu-
 
 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 125 
 
 dy ;" " L. Family ;" " Tabular Statistics of the 
 United States," &c. The public are much in. 
 debted to him for much useful information, con- 
 veyed in a good style. Some of the sketches of 
 the great men, in and about Washington, which 
 are to be found in his works, are splendid and 
 original, and give a very fair view of their cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The public are much indebted to a lady of 
 Washington, Mrs. Harrison Smith, for two very 
 clever novels, one called " A Winter in Wash- 
 ington," the other, " What is Gentility ?" The 
 peculiar habits and manners of the fashionables, 
 and of those who would be fashionables, are hit off 
 with admirable tact, and the prevailing follies of 
 the society of the District exposed and satirized 
 with no little neatness. The latter of these 
 books, particularly, should be read by those who 
 are in the chrysalis state, and whose wings and 
 colours are growing. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Ewell, of Georgetown, published 
 a volume of Chemical Discourses, which were 
 well received ; and Dr. J. Ewell has published, 
 in Washington, an improved edition of his work, 
 the MEDICAL COMPANION. This is a most valu- 
 able family book. It contains, in an attractive 
 form, many useful precepts, directions, and reci- 
 pes for the use of families in sickness ; and 
 where physicians are not to be had readily, is 
 invaluable. 
 12
 
 126 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 Thomas Law, Esq., has, although now nearly 
 an octagenarian, lately published a book upon 
 currency. He is a man of no ordinary powers 
 of mind. His life has been an eventful one. In 
 England, his native country, he was considered 
 a man of mind. In India he was distinguished 
 for his financial talents, and was a great bene- 
 factor to the natives, by his judicious plans for 
 their relief. He was the companion of Teign- 
 mouth, and the friend of Sir William Jones. 
 Active and enterprising, he saw the accounts of 
 the establishment of our Federal City, and he 
 hastened to this country to identify himself with 
 its growth, from the corner stone to the setting up 
 the gates tliereof. He purchased largely of the 
 soil, built on an extensive scale, suggested ten 
 thousand plans for the improvement of the city, 
 and for the prosperity of the nation ; but the 
 slow, doubtful, and often strange course of Con- 
 gress, came not only in his way, but in the way 
 of all those deeply interested in the welfare of 
 the city ; and he has spent the days of his matu- 
 rity and wisdom in unavailing efforts for the im- 
 provement of it. It is happy for him, however, 
 that he has lived to see the dawn of a better day 
 for Washington ; and if he cannot stay here long 
 to enjoy it, as a good man he will rejoice in the 
 hopes of his friends and descendants. If his diap- 
 pointments have been numerous, yet it can not 
 be said that they have soured his temper or
 
 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 127 
 
 hardened his heart, or that his tenants have felt 
 his resentment, because he was deceived by 
 those who could have favoured his plans. In this 
 world, the insults received from those above us, 
 are often repeated by those below us, in pitiful 
 and aggravated forms. 
 
 One of the most useful books printed in 
 Washington, is the NATIONAL CALENDAU, by 
 Peter Force. It contains, among other things, 
 much useful information. The first number of 
 this work contains some excellent historical re- 
 marks upon the District of Columbia and of the 
 city of Washington, which have furnished au- 
 thentic matter for most of those who have writ- 
 ten any thing upon the subject since. 
 
 Gales and Seaton have, at great expense and 
 trouble, printed three ponderous volumes ofcon- 
 gressional Debates. They have not, as yet, 
 been paid for their trouble. This is truly a na- 
 tional work ; and for the fame of the present 
 race of politicians, and the benefit of those who 
 come after them, should be continued. Indivi- 
 duals, however enterprising, cannot afford such 
 expenditures on works that are in fact rather 
 printed for other ages than our own. Gales and 
 Seaton are well qualified, in all respects, to give 
 these debates to the public, freed from party bi- 
 asses, and properly pruned, and brought down 
 to a reasonable length ; and also capable of se- 
 parating the chaff from the wheat, and freeing
 
 128 LITERATURE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 the reader from the labour of getting rid, by his 
 own mental process, of all the crudities of legis- 
 lation. 
 
 There are several bookstores in Washington, 
 in the hands of business men, who publish many 
 current works, and are usefully engaged; but the 
 most important establishment in the city is P. 
 Thompson's. His store is not so large, per- 
 haps, as some in New- York, Boston, or Philadel- 
 phia ; but, for rare editions of valuable works, 
 in many languages, is not surpassed in the Uni- 
 ted States. It contains most of the best editions 
 of classical works to be found in Europe, and 
 also many works of great taste in the printing 
 and binding, &c. To the visiter, this bookstore 
 is what bookstores were in the days of Johnson, 
 and Burke, and others, a reading room for clas- 
 sical gentlemen, who were desirous of seeing 
 more than they were able to buy. The propri- 
 etor is himself a gentleman of education, and is 
 often an index, and learned commentator on 
 his most profound volumes, when the examiner 
 wishes for, and needs a guide, which is often the 
 case in this country, where scholarship is not a 
 profession, except with a few. The writer for 
 one, among many, has to acknowledge his po- 
 lite attention and valuable assistance in frequent 
 examinations of matters out of the common path 
 of literary intelligence*
 
 PERIODICALS. 129 
 
 The city has not been wanting in newspa- 
 pers since its first establishment. The National, 
 Intelligencer was commenced in 1800, when the 
 city was actually made the seat of government, 
 for thirteen years it was published three times a 
 week, and since that time it has been a daily 
 paper. During the first of its years, there was 
 a weekly paper connected with it, and growing 
 out of it, called the United States Gazette. - 
 Since it has been published daily there has been 
 a tri-weekly paper for the country, bearing the 
 same name, and containing all the best matter 
 of the daily, without the advertisements or other 
 mere city concerns. It has a most extensive cir- 
 culation through every part of the Union. 
 
 THE Weekly Register was first published in 
 1807, and in 1808 changed its name to the 
 Washington Monitor. It was edited by Mr. 
 John Colvin, whose life was passed mostly in 
 literary labours in Washington. He was a man 
 of abilities, and some of his writings show supe- 
 rior acquirements. 
 
 In 1809, Dinmore and Cooper published the 
 Washington Expositor. 
 
 At the commencement of the war, in 1812, 
 the Washington City Gazette was published by 
 William Elliot. 
 
 The Hive by Mr. Lewis. 
 
 * _ i 
 
 The Senator by Mr. Cummings. 
 In 1823 the National Journal was got up and 
 12*
 
 130 PERIODICALS. 
 
 published twice a week. The next it was a tri- 
 weekly paper ; but in a short time become a 
 daily, and has continued so ever since. 
 
 From 1822 to 1824 the Washington Republi. 
 can was in existence. This was ably conducted, 
 but it was at length absorbed in the Journal. 
 
 In 1824 The Telegraph was established, and 
 within a few years was purchased by Duff Green, 
 who conducts it now. This is an extensively 
 circulated paper. 
 
 A short time since there was a religious pa- 
 per coming out once a week, called the Colum- 
 bian Star, which has since been transferred to 
 Philadelphia. It was rather a religious than a 
 political paper, and was edited with a brisk reli- 
 gious spirit, but had no offensive sectarian cast. 
 
 John Colvin, in the latter part of his life, com- 
 menced his Weekly Messenger which publica- 
 tion his wife conducted for several years after 
 his death. 
 
 A periodical called the Theological Reposi- 
 tory was kept up a while by the contributions 
 of the clergy. 
 
 The Columbian Register is a religious pa- 
 per, has been published in this city for nearly 
 two years and is still continued. It is a religious 
 paper of a very tolerant spirit. 
 
 A literary paper has lately been got up here, 
 called the Washington City Chronicle which
 
 PERIODICALS. 131 
 
 promises fair to be a valuable repository of use- 
 ful knowledge. 
 
 It would be pleasant to make some remarks 
 upon the talents displayed in the several works 
 we have mentioned, but in most cases it is too 
 late to censure, and it would do no good to com- 
 mend ; for most of the writers in them have pas- 
 sed away where praise and blame are equal, 
 and it is never safe to cause the ghost of a poli- 
 tician to come up ; for their graves, like the wiz- 
 zard, Michael Scott's, are full of strange things. 
 No one, who wishes to amuse, or arouse the peo- 
 ple, must look back on matters not easily ex- 
 plained, and perhaps not worth knowing, if they 
 could be known. Most things bear the stamp 
 of the hour, and all that belongs to that hour, is 
 not easily recalled. Every passing day has its 
 signet, but the impression is often too faint to 
 be retained on the memory. The life of a politi- 
 cian resembles that of a feeder at an ordinary of 
 a hotel ; he sees one after another go away, un- 
 til his lurn comes to depart also ; such is the 
 career, and the impression of one who takes an 
 active part in the affairs of men*
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Washington, -, 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY 
 was established in this city about thirteen years 
 since, and at once engaged the attention of some 
 of the first men in the country, in the slave-hold- 
 ing states, as well as in the non-slave-holding 
 states. The great objects of this society were 
 to found a colony in Africa of the free people of 
 colour of the United States ; that in process of 
 time a place might be prepared for the surplus 
 population of the blacks, and to extend the bles- 
 sing of civilization and religion into the interior 
 of Africa. If the maxim " Finis origine pendit," 
 is to hold as in any measure true, this society 
 cannot fail of success. They were fortunate in 
 their late agent Mr. Ashman ; he was a soldier, 
 a politician, a judge, and a divine ; he pursued his 
 own plan, with that which was marked for him, 
 with the romantic spirit of a crusader and the 
 zeal of a martyr, to which glory he at length ar-
 
 COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 133 
 
 rived. They have been fortunate loo in their 
 secretary and principal agent in Washington, 
 the Rev. Mr. Gourley ; who, with those acquire- 
 ments, talents, and attractive virtues that would 
 make him eminent in his profession, has left his 
 high calling, and given up the pulpit, to labour 
 in this cause, which neither promises worldly 
 interests or glory. Thirteen annual roports are 
 already before the public, and abound in interest 
 both in manner and fact. The colony planted 
 in Africa has had much to struggle with, but has 
 succeeded beyond the expectation of many of its 
 wisest founders, who were well aware of the dif- 
 ficulties of the undertaking. No event since the 
 adoption of the Federal constitution and the es- 
 tablishment of the Bible Societies, has called 
 forth more mind or eloquence than the welfare 
 of this society. There are already twelve state 
 Colonization Societies in the Union, and others 
 are forming. These are under the direction of 
 the men most distinguished for talents and vir- 
 tues in their several states. In addition to these 
 there are already established, and most of them 
 in a flourishing condition, about one hundred aux- 
 iliary societies scattered throughout the coun- 
 try. The whole will constitute a moral engine 
 whose power must be felt at home and abroad. 
 God speed them. If he does not prosper this plan, 
 or some other, I know not what evils a century 
 may produce.
 
 134 COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 
 
 The subject of slavery with this nation is, the 
 dead fly in the ointment. The non- slave holding 
 states approach the subject with great reluctance, 
 for the Harry Percys of the south start up with 
 rage at the slightest allusion to it ; but it is ne- 
 cessary that the subject should be fairly and 
 openly discussed, and the extent of the evil un- 
 derstood, not only for the satisfaction of the pre- 
 sent generation, but that this age may devise 
 some means to protect future ages from the 
 overwhelming growth of this evil. The non- 
 slave-holding states had many errors of opinion 
 to correct. Their impressions of cruelty of the 
 masters of slaves are quite imaginary. From 
 no slight acquaintance with the subject, I have 
 no hesitation in saying that in general, the slaves 
 are well treated. The subject of slavery was 
 incidentally discussed in the nineteenth con- 
 gress, occasioned by a member of the House 
 from the state of New- York, having offered a 
 resolution to inquire into the case of a free 
 black, who had been confined in the jail of the 
 District of Columbia, as a runaway negro, and 
 who was at length sold as a slave for cost and 
 charges. The state of New-York was in a fer- 
 ment on this subject, and the honourable mem- 
 ber offering the resolution had partaken deeply 
 of the excitement. The speech made by Col. 
 Ward in support of this resolution was spirited 
 and eloquent. He recounted, in most animated
 
 COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 135 
 
 language, the circumstances of the case and in- 
 sisted upon some security for the Africans of his 
 state, who should chance to pass into anoth- 
 er that might be a slave-holding one. The 
 South Carolinians, and Georgians were most fu- 
 rious in the debate, but the ferment lasted only 
 for a short time. The next congress the same 
 gentleman presented some petition from his con- 
 stituents touching upon the same subject, the 
 storm was up again, and he defended the peti- 
 tition with his usual zeal and ability, but there 
 the matter rested. Col. Ward did all an able 
 member should or could have done. If these 
 colonization societies are kept alive with the 
 spirit that has been shown in them, in times past, 
 I firmly believe that, by the smiles of Provi- 
 dence, the blessing of liberty will, in no distant 
 day, cheer even the sun-stricken African on his 
 native shores. That the race will not only be 
 free, but enjoy their freedom accompanied by 
 all the arts of civil life, and those institutions 
 which will secure them to the Christian family 
 for ever. The thought is an animating one and 
 should arouse the liberal and the philanthropic 
 throughout this great country to come to the 
 work most heartily, with purse, pen, and tongue, 
 which when united seldom fail of success. The 
 most enlightened portion of the blacks have a 
 just view of their own situation, and are anxious 
 to prevent any spasmodic exertions for their
 
 136 CLERGY. 
 
 emancipation. At the time every African heart 
 was overflowing with gratitude to Col. Ward for 
 his bold and philanthropic exertions in their 
 cause, I heard one of their preachers in the 
 pulpit, at Washington, make a most judicious 
 speech upon the subject. It was full of politi- 
 cal wisdom and Christian feelings; it inculcated 
 thankfulness to friends and forgiveness to ene- 
 mies, and it was accompanied by a prophecy 
 that the time was approaching for their libera- 
 tion. He saw in the spirit of the thousand in- 
 titutions of charity and benevolence which 
 abounded in the world, the political redemption 
 of his race. The speech of the good, and intel- 
 ligent member of congress, he said, was only a 
 part of that, which in a few ages should be on 
 every patriot's tongue ; and freely remarked to 
 his hearers, that, if they were religious, and 
 prayerful, God would hasten the day of this de- 
 liverance. 
 
 CLERGY. The religious denominations are as 
 numerous in Washington, according to the num- 
 ber of inhabitants, as in any other place in our 
 country ; but if there is no great harmony among 
 them, there is no discord. Each pursues his 
 own course, and preaches his own doctrines, un- 
 molested by controversy or opponents. Con- 
 gress protects all, and cherishes none. They 
 have a fair field for the display of their talents,
 
 THE CLERGY. 137 
 
 in any form of Christian doctrine. There is, or 
 rather has been, some opposition to the Unita- 
 rians ; but that is nearly over ; and the other 
 denominations are learning a lesson from the 
 Rev. Dr. Mathews, of the Catholic faith, to do 
 good, walk humbly, and love mercy, and live in 
 unity with all mankind. The clergymen of 
 Washington, as a body, have as good a share of 
 talents as those of other cities, and the religious 
 character of the people stands as high. Consi- 
 dering that the city is a thoroughfare, it is as- 
 tonishing that there is no more fanaticism preva- 
 lent here. A learned, pious, evangelical body 
 of divines, is the greatest blessing to any place, 
 in a free country, that can be imagined. The 
 pulpit with them is a High School, in which, in 
 addition to a common code of ethics, the great 
 doctrines of divinity are taught, the precepts of 
 salvation are explained, and heaven brought 
 down to earth. Whatever there is deep in phi. 
 losophy, beautiful in morals, charming in litera- 
 ture, or sweet in affection, are made familiar to 
 man by the zeal and learning of the pulpit. It 
 brings man to a familiarity with his Maker, and 
 takes away his enmities to his fellow men ; it 
 gives a high zest to life in the hopes of futurity, 
 and takes away the darkness and horror from 
 the grave, and the sting from death, by the light 
 it gathers and sheds from the Gospel. This 
 country has been advanced half a century in its 
 13
 
 138 THE JUDICIARY. 
 
 intelligence by the pulpit, notwithstanding that 
 much time and breath has been wasted in idle 
 disputes, and frivolous distinctions, in points that 
 were nugatory, or in commentaries that were 
 absurd. 
 
 The Bar of the District of Columbia is nume- 
 rous, for the population and business ; but it is 
 certainly respectable in point of talents and 
 learning : but there does not appear to be that 
 esprit du corps among them, as exists in some 
 parts of our country, among the gentlemen of 
 the bar ; but they are gentlemanly and courte- 
 ous towards each other. Men, similarly edu- 
 cated, are alike in every part of the world. If 
 law be a science, it is only the science of bring- 
 ing particular cases under fixed and settled 
 rules. Morals change with every age, and 
 opinions fluctuate with every hour, and old 
 enactments give place to new ; but that sagacity 
 which brings all the powers of the mind to the 
 standard set up, whatever it may be, makes the 
 good lawyer, whether the possessor be in Tur- 
 key or in the United States. 
 
 Congress has made a very good judiciary 
 system for the District of Columbia. A Dis- 
 trict Court has been established here, upon the 
 same principles as those of other districts in the 
 United States. This bench is filled by Judge
 
 MEDICAL SCHOOL. 139 
 
 Cranch ; whose talents, learning, patience, and 
 integrity, are well known to all who have the 
 honour to know him. 
 
 There is also a Circuit Court for the District 
 of Columbia, which is held four times a year. 
 Judge Cranch is Chief Justice of this Court ; 
 Judges Thurston and Morsel], are assistant Jus- 
 tices. This court find some little inconvenience, 
 at times, from the singular fact, that what is law 
 in one part of their jurisdiction, is not law in 
 another ; the statutes of Virginia, and in like 
 manner those of Maryland, being still in force in 
 those parts of the District which formerly be- 
 longed to those states ; and in the growth of 
 these states, there is no proof that they were 
 ever so kind as to copy much from each other. 
 
 The professors of the healing art are nume- 
 rous and highly respectable in Washington. 
 Most of them are men of good education, and 
 not a few of them have seen considerable prac- 
 tice before they came to this city. Some of 
 them have served in the army or navy, and oth- 
 ers were educated abroad, or in the first schools 
 in this country. They deserve much credit for 
 getting up a medical school, which has been in 
 operation but a few years only ; but the lectures 
 delivered here, in the dilferent departments, are 
 of a high order, and have been delivered with- 
 out any of that quackery, that struggles for ef-
 
 140 ORPHAN ASYLUM. 
 
 feet ; and (hat produced, thinks of nothing else. 
 The graduates are well instructed ; and if, as 
 yet, are not numerous, have been respectable 
 for acquirements. It is connected with Colum- 
 bia College, and is composed of a Dean and 
 Faculty, made up of professors in such branches 
 as are generally taught in silch an institution. 
 
 The Washington City Orphan Assylum was 
 got up by certain charitable ladies of distinction 
 and worth in this city. With indefatigable la- 
 bour and persevering exertion, they have laid 
 the foundation of an excellent seminary, as well 
 as an asylum for those helpless infants that have 
 been deprived of their parents. It is not con- 
 fined to one sex, but is intended to exercise cha- 
 rity on a broad scale. A lady of property, Mrs. 
 Van Ness, gave the corporation a lot of ground, 
 in a pleasant and central situation, in Tenth 
 Street ; and on it the association have erected a 
 suitable building for their kind purposes. The 
 corner stone of this edifice was laid in the sum- 
 mer of 1828, with solemn and impressive cere- 
 monies, accompanied with the orphan's prayer, 
 and the good man's benison. These asylums 
 have, after the fashion of this hospitable and in- 
 dustrious age, taxed the ladies of this city with 
 making articles of taste and fancy, which when 
 mingled with other articles purchased for the 
 occasion, are exposed at a Fair, and the sums
 
 ORPHAN ASYLUM. 141 
 
 realized from the sales are directed to the benefit 
 of the institution. The Sisters Of Charity have 
 their fairs also. 
 
 Every age has something or other, for good 
 or evil, to mark its existence. The brightest 
 constellation of this age of improvement is its 
 charities. They grow up in every society, they 
 extend to every climate, and thus reach all 
 mankind. 
 
 There has been established, by the Catholics 
 in this city, for several years past, an institution 
 of charity for orphan females ; and 'connected 
 with it a primary school for day scholars. This 
 is a most excellent institution, under the care 
 of intelligent Sisters, whose vows extend to a 
 devotion of their time, that can be spared from 
 their religious exercises, to the educating of the 
 infant, female mind in religious duties and useful 
 knowledge. This delightful, but onerous task, 
 is performed with true zeal, and untiring con. 
 stancy, by those Sisters whose sole business is 
 to do good, and wish well to mankind. The 
 school is an admirable one ; each Sister has her 
 branch of studies to attend to in these schools, 
 and is not directed to others, but pursues that 
 until teaching in it is easy and familiar. Their 
 buildings are convenient, their grounds are laid 
 out with taste, and every arrangement unites 
 judgment, economy, cleanliness and industry ; 
 and, in fact, all the household virtues are con. 
 13*
 
 142 TYBER CREEK. 
 
 slant handmaids of religion with the Sisters of 
 CHARITY. These schools are every day becom- 
 ing more justly appreciated, and the knowledge 
 of their merits more fully developed. It would 
 be agreeable to the writer to enter into some of 
 the minute facts relating to this institution, in 
 which there are no pecuniary views, no particle 
 of worldly ambition, none of the pride that seeks 
 for praise only. They are ambitious only as 
 far as their fame may benefit the houseless child 
 of want, whose yearnings have elicited their 
 pity, and whose cries have gone up to heaven 
 for succour. The charities of this age are not 
 confined to males or females ; they belong to the 
 warrior in the day of his glory, and to the female 
 in the hour of her beauty and dominion ; they 
 preserve the peaceful walks in the feuds of 
 party strife, and in the change of political pow- 
 er. Sectarians and oppositionists are all ac- 
 tive in extending the influences of charity ; and 
 if she is made, by those of limited knowlege, 
 and of narrow views of man, accessary to bigot- 
 ed notions, and persecuting zeal, this is only 
 accidental and short-lived, or occasional, while 
 the great acts she is called to perform, in every 
 country, are, as a whole, pure, lofty, and noble. 
 
 I cannot pass over the Tyber without saying 
 one word of that pleasant little stream.
 
 TYBER CREEK. 143 
 
 "AND WHAT WAS GOOSE CREEK ONCE, is 
 TVTBER NOW," was wittily said, and ought not to 
 to excite the indignation of our countrymen as 
 much as it has done against the English Ana- 
 creon ; for our part we will forgive him this 
 splenetic remark and all the other vituperations 
 he was guilty of, save and except his attack on 
 Washington himself, for the pleasure he has af- 
 forded us in his exquisite poetry since ; and we 
 can easily believe that he who wrote SACRED 
 MELODIES to atone for writing amorous ditties, 
 has, in his heart, repented for his sins in attack- 
 ing the greatest patriot of all times. It falls out 
 that if there is satire in the line, there was not 
 much truth in it. The name of the stream was 
 not changed by way of making great things out 
 of little, from Goose Creek to Tyber ; Goose 
 Creek belongs to the vulgate of the boys, who 
 sailed boats, and shot ducks in the stream ; but 
 the old deeds of more than a century ago call it 
 by the name of Tyber Creek. It is said that a 
 landholder who lived on what is now called Cap. 
 itol Hill, finding the strong resemblance in the 
 natural panorama of the surrounding country, 
 named his little territory Rome, and the brook' at 
 the foot of the hill Tyber ; but this little brook 
 may be of more importance to mankind than that 
 Tyber which " flows fast by the Eternal City" 
 For this pure little stream, when other streams 
 shall " mourn their fountains dry" may be con-
 
 144 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 veyed in abundance to every part of the city, to 
 refresh and adorn it, when the malaria has 
 made Rome a desert. 
 
 THE manners and customs of Washington 
 demand a moments attention : 
 
 I have already in the historial sketch of the 
 city, glanced at the general character of the in- 
 habitants, but it may be well to speak of them 
 more distinctly, as they are often either igno- 
 rantly or wilfully misrepresented ; sometimes, 
 indeed, caricatured by those who imagine they 
 are praising them. And it must also be remem- 
 bered that their general character must be eve- 
 ry day changing, from the increase of popula- 
 tion, and the great influx of strangers ; who, 
 finding now what could not have been offered 
 them in the earlier years of the history of the 
 city, comfortable quarters, and good fare, are 
 willing to make longer visits, and become 
 more more acquainted with the manners and 
 habits of the citizens of Washington. The 
 amiable and scholar-like Warden, now resident 
 in Paris, who has written in a distant land a 
 good history of this country, gave, about thirteen 
 years ago, a lively description of all he saw wor- 
 thy of record in the District of Columbia, hav- 
 ing spent the summer here ; but many things 
 have altered since that time, and what was then 
 as much as could honestly be said of them, must
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 145 
 
 fall shorf of the truth now. He seemed to feel 
 alarmed for the society of the city, in contempla- 
 ting the number of beauties married from the 
 circles of fashion, by the members of congress, 
 from time to time. This laudable custom still 
 continues ; but there are no complaints of it as an 
 evil, at present ; in fact, the dread of it as such, 
 could only have existed in a bachelor's brain ; 
 and if he had thought as much of the doctrine 
 of political economy, as of his affectionate gal- 
 lantry, he would soon have discovered that the 
 supply is increased by the briskness of the de- 
 mand." The manners of a people are at all 
 times affected by the greater or lesser impor- 
 tance they attach to themselves ; particularly 
 when this self esteem is made up in a consider- 
 able degree of the space they may fill in the 
 public consideration. The people of Washing- 
 ton know that whatever transpires in the city, 
 of a public nature, is a matter of deep interest 
 to the rest of the nation. In such a place, the 
 affairs of government are constantly discussed. 
 The movements of the executive and the doings 
 of the legislature are instantly known to all, 
 and commented upon by all classes. The in- 
 terest, however, which may be felt is not pre- 
 cisely in proportion to the magnitude of the sub- 
 ject ; but oftener according to the bearing it 
 may have on themselves. The appointment o-f 
 a minister, or the recall of one, or of a judge of
 
 J46 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 the Supreme Court, or the rapid advancement of 
 a naval or military officer, great things in them- 
 selves, because they are important to the coun- 
 try, make up only an item in the mass of daily 
 information ; but the removal, or appointment 
 of a clerk, or auditor, or any head of a Bureau, is 
 an affair directly within their vision, and comes 
 home to their business, and bosoms. But all 
 these things, however pleasant or painful they 
 may be for the moment, are hardly remembered 
 a day, and certainly are forgotten in a few 
 weeks, in the quid nunc appetite of a free peo- 
 ple. These changes produce a sort of mercu- 
 rial disposition in a population ; which may, and 
 in fact does, tend more to their happiness than 
 that apathetical character which despotic govern- 
 ments give to a people. Politics are all-absorb- 
 ing topics of this republic. More time is cer- 
 tainly taken up than necessary ; but still a good- 
 ly share of our time, and many exertions are ne- 
 cessary to keep the lamp of knowledge and the 
 torch of liberty in pure and regular burning, and 
 to save it from being deadened by the chills of 
 indifference, or blown out by the fierce storms 
 of faction. Restlessness, anxiety, and the sick- 
 ness and fever of party feuds, is the tax that in- 
 telligence has had, in every age, to pay for free- 
 dom ; it was never sustained without it. The 
 men of Athens, it is said, spent more than a 
 fourth part of their time in politics. In Rome,
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 147 
 
 the busy tribunes kept the people awake to their 
 interests, and jealous of patrician power. The 
 struggles between the nobles of Venice and the 
 merchants, kept the whole population involved 
 in endless disputes. In England, for centuries, 
 public attention has been exerted, and great 
 struggles made for public and private rights. 
 The history of this country is a history of po- 
 litical discussions, and perpetual struggles for 
 liberty. The people have, from the first settle, 
 ment of the country, devoted more than a quar- 
 ter part of their time in learning their rights and 
 in defending them, and in building up their in- 
 stitutions. All, from twenty years of age to the 
 grave, in any change of years or situation in 
 life, are daily engaged, among other things, in 
 politics. Washington is the centre of all this 
 bustle, the very ear of Dionysius, in which every 
 remote whisper is reverberated. The com- 
 plaints of the great and the little are all heard 
 here ; the feeble, who mutter, but dare not speak 
 aloud ; the bold, who rave in their disappoint- 
 ments, and invoke the curses of the upper and 
 the nether world, are also heard. The peo- 
 ple of this city have the finest opportunity of be- 
 coming acquainted with the talents and charac- 
 ters of the prominent men in the country. They 
 see at every touch and turn the obsequious min- 
 ion, with his simperings and flatteries, and the 
 consequential patron, bloated with " a little
 
 148 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 brief authority." They not only see, but read, 
 and read pretty thoroughly too, the true cha- 
 racter of men in power. It falls to their lot 
 often to see men one day surrounded by secre- 
 taries, foreign ministers, and a bowing crowd ; 
 who, on the next, pass off to private life, without 
 a farewell salutation ; and another set arrive, 
 who bustle through their reign, and then sleep, 
 either living or dead, with their predecessors. 
 This proves the force and majesty there is in 
 the people ; but it lessens the importance of the 
 individuals. To the great politicians of former 
 ages, such a 'government, had it been truly 
 sketched, would have justly been classed among 
 the wildest fictions ever created ; but its perpe- 
 tuity is a problem, the most timid need not fear 
 a solution of. The intelligence of the commu- 
 nity may safely be trusted in modelling a new, 
 or repairing the defects of any form of govern- 
 ment. There is no virtue or spell in any form 
 of a constitution. The whole political safety, in 
 a republic, consists in the purity and in the 
 soundness of the great body politic. 
 
 The literary taste cf the inhabitants now does 
 them credit, and it is every day growing better. 
 The visiters find but little time to devote to 
 reading, and their previous acquirements are 
 sufficient for all the demands of the occasion ; 
 and to the honour of the country, I speak of the 
 ladies more particularly, these are sufficient
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. H9 
 
 for their purpose. In some of the prettiest, a 
 close observer will see the lisp or drawl of the 
 drawing room conversation, which is only a 
 manner put on for the time. In the moments 
 of intoxicated vanity from admiration and flat- 
 tery, even the political philosopher looks wise 
 and straightens up ; and can youth and beauty 
 be expected to be more firm or insensible ? The 
 diplomatic corps at Washington have not, in for- 
 mer years, done much either to enrich, embel- 
 lish, or enlighten the city. Those who have 
 been sent here in former times, have, with some 
 honourable exceptions, been of a secondary or- 
 der of diplomatists, with their equipage and par- 
 ties, and after making a dash, have hardly been 
 heard of again. Many of them, no doubt, were 
 men of talents ; but there was no opportunity of 
 displaying their intellectual powers here. The 
 corps are now, however, very respectable. The 
 English minister is a scholar and a gentleman. 
 The French minister, I make no distinction in 
 their different ranks, is said to be a man of cour- 
 tesy and learning ; and those from Netherlands, 
 Holland, and Russia, are thought to be men of 
 fine manners and high intelligence. South 
 America, in her -infancy, has sent us a good 
 share of talents ; men of the most inquisitive 
 minds, who are indefatigable in studying the po- 
 litical institutions of this country, and in making 
 themselves acquainted with the manners and 
 14
 
 150 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 customs of it. This remark is not confined to 
 the representatives of the new republics alone ; 
 for no man in Washington was more respected 
 and loved for his amenity, frankness, integrity, 
 talents, and patriotism, than the late Brazilian 
 minister, Mr. Rebello. .His name is in every 
 literary and scientific institution, and the poor 
 have blessed him for his kindness. Jn former 
 times a man was thought to have every' claim 
 to society, who was known to be familiar with a 
 baron, count, or minister ; but the people are 
 growing more republican even' day, and the 
 smiles of a diplomatist is not now the standard 
 for the admeasurement of claims to society. 
 Now and then a romantic girl is found flirting 
 to catch an attache : but she is, fortunately, nine- 
 ty. nine times out of the hundred, unsuccessful. 
 During the session of Congress, the amuse- 
 ments of Washington absorb no small portion of 
 the attention of the visiters,. as well as members. 
 Political struggles produce a sort of dramatic in- 
 fluence on society ; not that the theatre is very 
 well attended ; but for th<; short time it is kept 
 open, it finds a very tolerable support when 
 the press of visiters is great. The President's 
 levees, and the parties of the secretaries, foreign 
 ministers, heads of Bureaus, and those citizens 
 who can afford to make parties, are frequent, 
 and well attended. At these parties are collect, 
 ed the most distinguished men, not only of the
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 151 
 
 nation, but many foreigners of note. The visit- 
 ors, who do not think of distinction, like well 
 enough to see what is passing, and they find 
 easy access to the social circles, and mingle in 
 the throng, to see and examine for themselves. 
 It is not difficult to get an introduction to men 
 of importance, and to pass a social half hour with 
 them. These routs are rather to be remember- 
 ed, than enjoyed at the moment. These parties 
 are so crowded as to level all distinctions. 
 Governors, generals, judges, and political mana- 
 gers, whose influence is something in a little dis- 
 trict, are all lost in this congregation. Orators, 
 whose speeches were fine at home, and doubt- 
 less raised a most noble flame among their po- 
 litical partisans, are astonished at being over- 
 looked ; and poets, whose works have been 
 printed on wire-wove and hot press paper, and 
 sent to the ladies' toilets in silk or morocco bind- 
 ing, are mortified that not even a belie lisps a 
 line of their works, or ever whispers their names. 
 The traveller, who has seen every kingdom on 
 which the sun looks down, is put precisely on a 
 par with him who has just come down from the 
 mountains, or out of the West, or from the East. 
 Fashion is the bed of Procrustes, and all are 
 suited to its dimensions. A whiskered dandy, 
 a black-stocked, officer-like looking man, and a 
 quizzing-glass attache, are all moving about, 
 regardless of those they jostle or crowd. If you
 
 152 COLLEGE. 
 
 inquire who it is that pushes you out of the way 
 to get at a partner for the waltz, no body can 
 tell you, and perhaps he hardly could himself, if 
 you were to ask him, who he was ; no matter, 
 he seems genteel, and that is sufficient for the 
 hour. The waltz goes on, much to the gratifi- 
 cation of the exquisites ; for belles aye, grave 
 matrons, are swimming round in the dance, if 
 Dervise-like whirling can be called dancing, 
 and you see blowsy impudence and simpering 
 familiarity gazing with Asiatic voluptuousness 
 upon seemingly unsuspecting innocence, made 
 giddy by unnatural motion, or unmeaning flat- 
 tery. There is not much harm in all this ; for 
 each one is taught to play a part, and it is all 
 acting. There is an apparently sober, quiet 
 part of the joyous whole, who are insinuating 
 the little rumours of the day ; of this lady's par- 
 tialities, and of that gentleman's indiscretions, 
 and without any decided ill nature, but just by 
 the way of amusement, 
 
 " Distort the truth, accumulate the lie, 
 And pile the pyramid of calumny." 
 
 This is a picture of all societies, w'here per- 
 sons unknown to each other, except from the 
 introduction of the moment, assemble. 
 
 There can come no harm from our looking 
 out of the limits of the city for a moment. The
 
 COLLEGE". 153 
 
 College of Georgetown is delightfully situated 
 on an eminence, that commands a fair prospect 
 of all around. This institution was established 
 about forty years since. It is a Catholic semi- 
 nary, and was made a University by Congress in 
 1815, with the power of granting degrees. The 
 college buildings are commodious and sufficient- 
 ly elegant for all the purposes of a school. The 
 library is respectable, and the system of educa- 
 tion is liberal ; the modern languages are taught 
 there, with the classical, and youths of all deno- 
 minations are received as students. . The facul- 
 ties are composed of pious and learned men, 
 and the young gentlemen I have known, who 
 were educated there, have been well instructed. 
 The Catholic clergy of Maryland are in posses- 
 sion of handsome revenues, arising from large 
 tracts of glebe lands, throughout the state. 
 These revenues have been kept for the true 
 purposes of religion and learning, and the eccle- 
 siastical orders have never been charged with 
 ambition, as they have in other countries, nor 
 have they aspired to high offices in the state or 
 general government. The Protestant denomina- 
 tions of every shade of doctrine have, unques- 
 tionably from principle, in some period or other 
 of the history of Maryland, been openly and se- 
 cretly hostile to the Catholic church ; but it has 
 gone on with such a tolerant spirit as to disarm 
 all sects of their enmity, and nearly all of their
 
 ]54 CONVENT OF VISITATION. 
 
 opposition. The clergy of Maryland protected 
 those persecuted by the Church of England on 
 one side of them, and those exiled by the Puri. 
 tans of the East on the other. In a free coun- 
 try all men should, in the article of religious be- 
 lief, be persuaded in their own minds, and the 
 constitution of every state should give equal 
 protection to all creeds ; 
 
 " Tros, Rutulus ve, nullo discrimine habebo," 
 should be the language of the lawgiver in every 
 age and nation. In the District of Columbia, 
 this principle is fairly acted upon, and the com- 
 munity feel its beneficial effects. 
 
 The Convent of Visitation is an object of deep 
 interest to all who take a part in what may be 
 emphatically called the glory of this country 
 its education. Seminaries for boys are suffi- 
 ciently numerous in most parts of the country ; 
 the people have now to refine and exalt their 
 character, not add to their numbers ; but well 
 regulated female schcfols are yet much wanted. 
 This Convent was established more than thirty 
 years ago, by Archbishop Neale, a most worthy 
 Prelate, and upon a most improved plan, with 
 the piety and zeal of the order of which it is a 
 part. There is infused into the constitution of 
 it some of the most liberal principles of the age. 
 The superior is elected by the sisterhood every 
 three years, and^is ineligible for more than
 
 CONVENT OF VISITATION. 155 
 
 ;wo terms in succession. Thus the elective 
 franchise in this country, in its most republican 
 form, has found its way into " The Convent's 
 Shade." 
 
 The number of Sisters, or nuns, is about fifty; 
 and they are all devoted to religious duties and 
 to the education of females. The younger Sis- 
 ters are set to keep an eleemosynary school, and 
 do much good by diffusing correct principles 
 and information among the poor ; but the most 
 valuable part of the establishment is the board- 
 ing school for young ladies. This is in a most 
 flourishing condition. The Sisters themselves 
 are highly educated, in every branch of science, 
 and in all the current and fashionable literature 
 of the age, as well as in the profound ethics and 
 the sublime doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 In this institution the great evil of most schools 
 is avoided ; this evil is to make one person 
 teach many branches, and of course no one can 
 be profound in all. Here, each sister selects 
 her department, and never walks out of it ; six 
 or seven, therefore, are united as instructors in 
 the same branch, and the indisposition of one or 
 two does not interfere with the course of instruc- 
 tion in any branch. 
 
 The languages are taught here with great ac- 
 curacy, and with a pure, lady-like, and natural 
 accent, the charm of polished society. The 
 system of education here, extends to the minute
 
 156 CONVENT OF VISITATION. 
 
 duties of housewifery, and the pupils graduate 
 with a thorough acquaintance with the science 
 of the kitchen and mysteries of the culinary 
 art, without which no woman can be said to be 
 all-accomplished. 
 
 The system of government in this school is 
 admirably strict, not severe ; decided, not im- 
 perative. There is no espoinage ; no making 
 use of one to find out the faults of another ; but 
 their care and watchfulness are so sisterly and 
 maternal, that the pupil is naturally moulded, 
 not drilled, to good manners. Discipline is con- 
 stantly going on even in those hours of relaxa- 
 tion in which girls left to themselves often ac- 
 quire an awkwardness of manners that cleave to 
 them for the whole course of their lives. Such 
 schools are rare. The Ursulines have just 
 opened one on the same plan, near Boston, 
 which is flourishing under a most accomplished 
 superior. 
 
 If this age has any thing to boast of over 
 those that are gone by, it is in the difference of 
 education, and the facilities it has invented to 
 give a genteel education to female youths, with- 
 out endangering the health, or diminishing the 
 grace and beauty of their persons.
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 New- York, , 1830. 
 
 DEAH SIR, 
 
 THIS CITY is called the London of Amer- 
 ica. Its growth since the close of the revolu- 
 tionary war has been most wonderfully rapid. 
 When the British evacuated it, in 1783 there 
 were not twenty five thousand inhabitants in it, 
 and the population is now over two hundred 
 thousand. There is no city on tWe habitable 
 globe so well situated for commerce as New- 
 York. The deep and surrounding waters af- 
 fording docks at the most trifling experlse ; its 
 central situation in regard to the south and east, 
 make it the mart for both. The influx of for- 
 eigners is greater here, than in all the other 
 cities in the United States. All tongues and 
 languages are heard in Broadway, from the dawn 
 to midnight. The activity of the people is, or 
 seems to be greater here than in other places. 
 The houses of public worship, as most of them 
 are called to distinguish them from churches,
 
 158 NEW- YORK. 
 
 when they are nearly the same, are numerous 
 and many of them splendid. The hotels are 
 spacious, and some of them kept in a great style. 
 Many of the private houses are also elegant. 
 There is as far as I can see a great deal of 
 wealth, no small share of bustle in this city, and 
 a pretty large share of want and suffering. The 
 people are forever finding fault with the corpo- 
 ration, as the mayor alderman and recorder are 
 called, but this body spend a large sum of mon- 
 ey yearly and probably much more judiciously 
 than they have credit for. There is a respecta- 
 ble college in the city which has sent forth ma- 
 ny fine classical scholars ; but the people as a 
 body are just beginning to be literary and sci- 
 entific, but have made no small advances in 
 knowledge. The interior of the state has grown 
 beyond all parallel; from a secondary state, it 
 has become the first in the union in population, 
 and second to none in enterprize. This state 
 alone has more than two thirds as large a popu- 
 lation as the whole of the United States had 
 when the revolutionary war broke out. The 
 soil is rich, take the whole territory together, 
 and seems capable of, as yet, unlimited cultiva- 
 tion. The great canals bring the remote inte- 
 rior to the seaboard ; an intercourse hardly 
 dreamt of by the people of a former age. The 
 foundations are laid for literary and scientific 
 instructions in every part of the state which,
 
 NEW- YORK. 159 
 
 when its resources are more fully developed 
 will place her as forward in the blessings of in- 
 struction, as she now is in activity, population 
 and enterprize. The race of men, which has 
 gone off the stage, laid the foundation for her 
 present and future greatness. The Clintons, 
 the Livingstons, the Van Courtlands, with Ham- 
 ilton and an hundred others, were shrewd men 
 who foresaw the rising greatness of the state 
 and laboured to place many things in the right 
 way for improvement. Their memories are res- 
 pected, at the present time, and will be venera- 
 ted hereafter. The politics of the state are va- 
 cilating and uncertain, but no matter, the true 
 leaven is in the people and the people's institu- 
 tions. The professions are as bodies, learned, 
 and prosperous, and the yeomanry increasing 
 in wealth and knowledge ; and these things are 
 the brightest promise and the surest hopes of a 
 people. Individual reputation has not, it is true, 
 so great a security in the shifting winds of po- 
 litical doctrines, as in some other states, but in 
 the end, this is no great evil, for many assume 
 and support, in other places, a fictitious reputa- 
 tion, which perhaps may do more injury than 
 the premature decay of the political importance 
 of a few ambitious statesmen. It is however to 
 'be regretted that her influence in the national 
 government is not greater than it is, having for 
 several years past been nearly neutralized, by
 
 160 NEW- YORK. 
 
 the strength of parties. She has many lessons 
 to learn, but she is aware of her situation, and 
 that is nearly half the battle, for a change of 
 circumstances. 
 
 In New-York there are several writers of dis- 
 tinction who have assisted to enlighten the com- 
 munity in various ways, and whose productions 
 are well known to all the reading people. Paul- 
 ding, for wit, and satire, is second to no one. 
 His satire upon those pompous, inane travel- 
 lers who swarm in this country, is so keen, and 
 yet so playful, that those ridiculed must be quite 
 tempted to laugh at their own picture, from his 
 pen. PauLding can be grave as well as gay. 
 Genuine humour however, is a scarce article ; 
 there' are an hundred good orators to one Juve- 
 nal or Junius. The people of this country are 
 beginning to value the refinements of wit, and 
 to show some tolerable taste in judging of it. 
 
 You are acquainted with the works of chan- 
 cellor Kent. He is the Blackstone of the Uni- 
 ted States for he has written four volumes of 
 commentaries of nearly or quite the size of 
 his great prototype. 
 
 The work is found in almost every law -library 
 from New Orleans to Maine and highly esteem- 
 ed in every part of the United States. The 
 style is easy, the language neat and pure, and the 
 law unquestionable. It is a standard book, used 
 in the courts. It was fortunate for the whole
 
 NEW-YORK. 161 
 
 country that one state had so absurd a law in 
 its code as to deprive themselves of the wisdom 
 of a good judge, when he had reached the age 
 of sixty. The Chancellor having reached that 
 age, was out of office while all his corporal and 
 mental powers were in full vigour. To have 
 returned to the bar, would have been irksome, 
 and he wisely commenced his legal labours as 
 author, and satisfied the whole country, that 
 profound lawyers and judges who wield a pen, 
 as well as advocate or decide a cause, were to be 
 found in the United States, as well as in England. 
 The Chancellor is now about sixty six years 
 of age, but as fresh and young as the bard of 
 Teos describes himself to have been, when he 
 had numbered as many years. Neither in move- 
 ments, nor limbs, or mind, or imagination, can 
 you see a particle of coming age in the Chan- 
 cellor ; one might say of Kent, what a grave, or- 
 thodox divine, of the true puritanical stamp, 
 onco said of Hamilton. He came from the east 
 to see the man of mighty mind, whose reports, 
 speeches, and whole course of political life, had 
 pleased him so much. The desired interview 
 was had, and the conversation lasted long, and 
 was discursive and animated. When the holy 
 man came home, all were inquisitive to know his 
 opinion of Hamilton ; " was he as great as you 
 expected ?" asks one ; " yes, greater," was th& 
 reply ; " what did he talk about ?" said another ; 
 15
 
 162 POETS. 
 
 " every thing,' said the divine ; " describe him/ 
 says a third ; the old man began, hesitated, went 
 on, run a parallel with one, as to his eloquence, 
 with another as to his depth of thought and rea- 
 soning ; and so on to a dozen, but all did not 
 suit him, or convey, in his mind, any portion of 
 his meaning ; at last in despair cf doing justice 
 to his subject he broke out and said, " why, he is 
 as playful as a kitten." 
 
 The Edinburgh Review has in the last num- 
 ber stated that the people of the United 
 States are wanting in Imagination. This asser- 
 tion is the offspring of a profound ignorance of 
 the subject of which the writer was treating. 
 They are full of imagination ; a more mercurial 
 people does not exist this side of Arabia. If 
 the writer had said that their imaginations were 
 not cultivated, and that, taste was not yet 'suffi- 
 ciently refined to place them among the first 
 grade of poetical nations, there might have been 
 some truth in the remark ; but it only, argues an 
 ignorance of this people from Maine ic New-Or- 
 leans, to say that they, are wanting in imagina- 
 tion. L .-will now name a few of the poets of this 
 country to you. They are of the growth of dif- 
 ferent parts of the country, most of them how- 
 ever northern and eastern born. 
 
 In this country there are no authors by pro- 
 .fession ; a few, perhaps, might be named, who 
 have devoted a great portion of their lives to
 
 POETS. 163 
 
 literature. Noah Webster, Hannah Adams, and 
 perhaps one or two more : but generally, all 
 the poets of the present day, and all other wri- 
 ters in our country, are engaged in professional 
 pursuits, and take up the pen occasionally, as 
 circumstances require or opportunity offers. 
 
 Doctor GEORGE J. PERCIVAL has devoted more 
 of his time to poetry, than most of his brothers 
 of the tuneful choir. He has written enough to 
 make a very considerable volume. His Prome- 
 theus, although not so much read as many of his 
 other works, is full of deep philosophy and fine 
 poetry. His smaller pieces are in every maga- 
 zine and newspaper in the country. His lan- 
 guage is copious, smooth, and well chosen. He 
 unites much of the strength of Akenside with 
 the sweetness of Kirk White. His elements 
 are all poetical ; and if his whole time was de- 
 voted to writing, his country would be greatly 
 the gainer by it ; but the stern necessity which 
 binds, and often controls the destiny of the sons 
 of song, makes him the supervisor of the works 
 of others, and editor of many compilations, when 
 he should be devoted to the offspring of his own 
 genius. He is yet young for one. of so ripe a 
 fame ; and much is to be hoped for him in time- 
 to come. He is so mild, so gentle, and has so 
 little of envy in his nature, that those who know 
 him, love him ; and he has seldom, (a rare oc-
 
 164 POETS. 
 
 currence,) found even an enemy to his muse. 
 I do not recollect a single criticism on his works 
 that contained any acrimony. 
 
 BRYANT was educated a lawyer, and has been 
 seduced from the hard labours of the profession, 
 by his love of letters, to become an editor of a 
 paper, and a general writer. His poetry has 
 been greatly praised by those who were the best 
 judges of literary merit. He has been more po- 
 pular with scholars than with the great mass of 
 the reading'community ; yet with them he holds 
 a high rank. He is natural, easy, and tasteful, 
 and condenses his thoughts with great power 
 over language, by having clear views of his 
 subject. He is descriptive when his subject ad- 
 mits of it, but is always master of the philosophy 
 of the heart, without which verse is nothing 
 but a dress for moral sentiment and metaphysical 
 reasoning. 
 
 The Muse of CHARLES SPRAGUE was, like 
 Hoole's nurtured in a banking house. He has 
 long been engaged in the duties of a bank 
 officer, and discharged them with the most un- 
 wearied industry and care ; but these arduous 
 labours have not repressed his warmth of zeal, 
 or clipt the wings of his imagination. Some of 
 his poetry is as solid and pure as the precious 
 metals of his vaults.
 
 POETS. 165 
 
 The Rev. SAMUEL GILMAN, of Charleston, 
 South-Carolina, is a poet of highly refined taste, 
 and has given the public several morceaus of 
 poetry, that show the vigour and delicacy of his 
 muse. He has sometimes attempted subjects 
 that were not poetical, being too high for the 
 descriptive, such as the burning of the Rich- 
 mond Theatre. Poetry may darken the gloomy, 
 aggravate the awful, and extend the vast ; but 
 when a scene is so overwhelming, so recent, and 
 so settled in agony upon every nerve of the 
 whole people, there is nothing left for the muse 
 to do. At such a moment, grief is tearless and 
 wo is dumb. To attempt, then, a requiem for 
 the dead, is labour lost ; the eye cannot see an 
 epitaph, traced with ever so bold a hand ; nor 
 the ear hear a lamentation, however deep and 
 loud it may be. This poem has, however, ma- 
 ny fine touches of sentiment in it, and proves 
 that the author, on a subject softened by dis- 
 tance, or time, could be both descriptive and pa- 
 thetic. 
 
 N. CARTER, whose classical travels have been 
 extensively read in this country, was also a 
 poet. He has given the public many pieces on 
 occasional subjects ; but the most considerable of 
 his productions is his Phi Beta Kappa poem on 
 the PAINS OF THE IMAGINATION. The verse of 
 this poem is smooth, harmonious, and sweet; 
 15*
 
 166 POETS. 
 
 the philosophy true, and the sentiment touching. 
 Indisposition gave a melancholy shade to his 
 drapery ; but it is disposed of with exactness 
 and taste. The news of his death has just 
 reached us. He was too delicate for his pro- 
 fession, the editor of a newspaper. Men are 
 seldom found in the place best suited to their 
 talents. 
 
 DAWES is quite a young man ; but has writ- 
 ten enough, that is beautiful and attractive, to 
 place him in the constellation of poets that has 
 lately risen to the view of the American people ; 
 a constellation that emits a mild and lovely 
 light ; but one that has not shone long enough, 
 as yet, for the observer to calculate its precise 
 range in the heavens, or to mark the exact 
 magnitude of the different stars that form it. 
 Justice, in time, will be done to each and all ; 
 for the night of ignorance and superstition, in 
 which the streaming meteor excited the wonder 
 and fastened the gaze of nations, while the har- 
 monious movements of the planets were but lit- 
 tle noticed, has passed away for ever, and every 
 eye is now fixed upon the regular, the beauti- 
 ful, the shining heavenly body, whether it 
 
 *' Adorns the eve, or ushers in the morn." 
 But to come down from the Empyrean to which,
 
 POETS. 167 
 
 in contemplating the subject of poetry and its 
 authors, I am often carried ; and to speak plain- 
 ly of these writers, I think that they will not 
 have occasion, in the end, to complain of the 
 discussions of the public on their respective 
 merits ; for there is no one person, in this com- 
 munity, as there has been in England, at some 
 periods in her history, who was the arbiter ele- 
 gantiarum of the public, and from whose judg- 
 ments it were in vain to appeal. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. UPHAM, of New-Hampshire, 
 has written enough to show that the fire of true 
 poetry is within him, and it would not, we con- 
 conceive, take either from the sanctity of his 
 calling, or from the time that could be better 
 occupied, if he were to indulge himself in a lit- 
 tle devotion to poetry ; perhaps more true pie- 
 ty has been conveyed in verse than in almost 
 every other way. In the first place it is attract- 
 ive, and will be read when graver discourses 
 will not, and is remembered much longer than the 
 same sentiment in prose. 
 
 HALLECK has been often before the public, in 
 pieces of infinite wit and playfulness. There is 
 a flow and ease of composition, probably in 
 this, as in most other cases, the effect of great 
 labour ; for I cannot conceive of ease being ac- 
 quired in verse without it, which has distinguish-
 
 168 POETS. 
 
 ed him among his brethren. He has gathered 
 up, or suffered somebody else, to collect a 
 volume or two of his poems, and has not a few 
 still floating in the journals of the day. His 
 playful scraps are not inferior to Moore's, 
 which have lately been collected by his poetical 
 friends. I name this to show how difficult it 
 is to succeed in wit and satire, especially if it 
 assumes a playful manner. The grave rebuke 
 is easy, but the ironical smile is of difficult at- 
 tainment. It is a powerful and a dangerous 
 weapon, and is apt to be freely used when the 
 possessor is unconscious of its effects ; but I do 
 not know that Mr. Halleck has used it on any 
 but lawful subjects, and in a gentlemanly man- 
 ner. His hit at the Percys was a fair one. 
 
 MR. WELLS, of Boston, has been the success- 
 ful writer for several prize odes and has nu- 
 merous cups and pieces of plate as trophies of 
 his muse. He is well read in English poetry 
 and has a fine taste in it. His imagination is 
 prolific, but he chastises his productions with 
 the greatest scrupulosity. He comes from ac- 
 tive business to his books, as an elegant amuse- 
 ment, and not as the labour of life : this is the 
 charm of letters, when they can be used as the 
 ornaments of social intercourse and polished 
 society, and the mind is improved and the dispo- 
 sition sweetened by them in these hours which
 
 POETS. 169 
 
 might otherwise be spent in trifling amusements, 
 or idleness, which is still worse. It is one of 
 the best proofs of the progress of refinement in 
 this country that neither wealth, nor martial 
 achievements are held in much estimation un- 
 accompanied by respectable literary attain, 
 ments, and a lady of ever so fine teeth, or 
 beaming eyes, could hold her place as a belle 
 not a moment after it was known that her pro- 
 nunciation was vulgar, or her grammar bad. 
 
 MR. SA> T DS is a poet of most exquisite taste. 
 He wrote in connection with his friend Eastburn 
 that beautiful Indian tale Yamoyden. It is a fine 
 specimen of poetry. Mr. Sands is now quite 
 devoted to letters, in some shape or other. His 
 productions often adorn the annuals printed in 
 this country, such as the Talisman, Souvenir, &c. 
 Whatever comes from his pen has the marks of 
 mind and taste about it. He is now engaged 
 in a biographical work of some importance, 
 which will, no doubt, receive the justice it de- 
 mands from his pen. Yamoyden is a poem 
 which has been admired by the lettered and 
 tasteful, but has not yet floated into that popu- 
 lar current of distinction which it will inevitably, 
 sooner or later find. Mr. Sands is a ripe scho- 
 lar, familiar with all the best specimens of an- 
 cient and modern poetry, and if his muse has a 
 fault, it is that of being too fastidious and severe
 
 170 POETS. 
 
 in her corrections of her own inspirations ; but 
 this is so rare a fault in this country, where it 
 must be confessed, you may find more genius 
 than taste, that it should be forgiven for its sin- 
 gularity. 
 
 Among the most remarkable instances of pre- 
 cious talents and acquirements is James Nack 
 the deaf and dumb poet of the city of New-York. 
 He is now not far from twenty years of age, 
 but as young as he is, he has written more vol- 
 uminously than any poet among all those I have 
 named. But only one volume of his works is 
 as yet printed, though he has many manuscripts 
 on hand which will probably see the light when 
 he has become more known. This young man's 
 growth has been most wonderful. He was born 
 with perfect organs of hearing, and of speech, 
 and retained them until he was nine years old, 
 when by an accident his head was so crushed 
 as to have destroyed his auditory nerves, and 
 by degrees his faculty of speech was lost a 
 very natural consequence of his misfortune. His 
 father had been unfortunate in business as a 
 merchant in Nack's infancy, and he had no ad- 
 vantages of schooling but what he picked up 
 from his sisters, yet was considered a good rea- 
 der at four years of age, and he had a passion, 
 a very common one in forward children, of 
 preaching that is, in a solemn way, muttering 
 over their fancies. A bright and observing
 
 POETS. 171 
 
 child sees_the great attention and reverence 
 that is paid to the services of the clergyman, 
 not only by his parents and his brothers and sis- 
 ters, but by all in the church. He is taught 
 that the speaker is a good man, and in the first 
 awakenings of his mind he attempts to imitate 
 him. Nack had heard the singers in the church, 
 and had caught something of the chiming of 
 words, and once, being without a hymn book, he 
 framed a couplet, for which he was applauded, 
 and this encouraged him to make a few lines 
 every day, and before he was in his ninth year 
 he had a good knowledge of rhymth and rhyme 
 from a cultivated ear. This he has so com. 
 pletely kept in his memory that I question very 
 much, whether there is any poet living who has 
 a better knowledge of rhyming words in the 
 English language than Nack. , > 
 
 As soon as he recovered from the injury done 
 to "his head, as far as he ever recovered ; he was 
 sent to the assylum for the deaf and dumb. But 
 it is quite questionable whether the instructors 
 of that excellent institution ever precisely un- 
 derstood the bent and the extent of his genius. 
 
 At about twelve years of age Nack wrote a 
 tragedy ; this he destroyed ; but his mind at that 
 time, was in one constant dramatic effort ; it 
 was an expedient he resorted to, to get rid of 
 the deep wretchedness he felt at being, as it 
 were, left alone with himself to contemplate his
 
 172 POETS. 
 
 misfortuae in losing his hearing and speech. In 
 the regions of imagination he was soothed, and 
 warmed with all the dreamy delights to be found 
 in such fairy land ; an expedient that riper 
 minds have resorted to, to soften the agonies 
 of the heart. 
 
 The productions of his fourteenth year were 
 numerous, but to use his own words " most of 
 these have perished except two or three small 
 pieces inserted in my published volume. Most 
 of the minor pieces in that volume, were written 
 in my fifteenth year, among which, those I am 
 proudest of, are Blue eyed Maid, the Grave of 
 Mary, and the Gallant Highland Rover." 
 
 In his fifteenth year he wrote another trage- 
 dy. It was written under peculiar circumstan- 
 ces, at the early dawn of the morning in the 
 winter season, in the garret where he lodged, 
 without a spark of fire, and only a stump of a 
 pen, and without a table, he stole the moments 
 to write a long tragedy on his knees. He had 
 no sooner finished than he concealed it, and has 
 never suffered it to be seen. 
 
 In his sixteenth year he wrote, with many 
 other poems, that beautiful effort of genius, the 
 Minstrel Boy. This came from his heart, and 
 it reaches the heart of every reader. It has a 
 deep tone of feeling, a sweetness of language 
 and ease of versification that will secure its im- 
 mortality.
 
 POETS. 173 
 
 Until his sixteenth year he had never found 
 any one who was capable of understanding his 
 character, and of giving him advice and encour- 
 agement united to friendship. It was then he 
 began to fee) the balmy soothings of kindness 
 that came with advice and patronage. It was 
 not until this period that he had found books, ex- 
 cept by accident. He now was in the library 
 of a gentleman of taste who was as kind to him 
 as a father. This situation opened a new world 
 to him. He revelled in fresh delights ; devoured 
 books upon poetry, history, philosophy, fiction, 
 mathematics, politics, ethics, criticism, and the- 
 ology, formed a thousand theories and tore them 
 up, root and branch, for new creations ; and these 
 again shared the same fate. He wrote, as well 
 as read on all these subjects, and piled manu- 
 script upon manuscript, which he sometimes 
 viewed with all the rapture of genius, and then 
 with freakish untowardness turned from his nu- 
 merous progeny with loathing. With all the 
 irritation of wounded sensibility he'grows fever- 
 ish over his reminiscences, and then again hur- 
 ries on to perform some new task. He seems 
 to have no dread of any labour, however severe 
 it may be, if it will please a friend or come to 
 any account for'himself or others. 
 
 His acquirements, at this early age, in the 
 languages and all the branches of knowledge, 
 ordinary, and extraordinary is superior to that of 
 16
 
 174 POETS. 
 
 any young man's of the same age I have ever 
 met with, There is a strength and maturity 
 about his mind nofto be found in one who has 
 had the use of his ears nd tongue. His criti- 
 cisms have a sagacity and shrewdness unequal- 
 ed by those who were critics long before he. was 
 born. He acquires a language with the most 
 astonishing facility. No one I ever knew, could 
 do it with the same readiness, except the late 
 learned orientalist, George Bethane English. 
 Nack unites in a most astonishing degree those 
 two seemingly inconsistent qualities restlessness 
 and perseverance. He reat's, writes and does all 
 things as though he had just breathed the Del- 
 phi vapour, and perseveres as though he were 
 chained to the spot by some talismanic power. 
 He is a bunch of delicate fibree, too. susceptible 
 for composure, or rather of nerves, jarred to ag- 
 ony, if struck by a rude hand. Poetical beings 
 are often too sensitive when in possession of 
 every natural property and gift, but when de- 
 prived of the charms of hearing and speaking, 
 the pulses of the heart seem to beat in our own 
 sight, without even the thinest skin to hide them ; 
 open to every blast of a cold and cruel world. 
 But in a, few years he will find things changing 
 around him, and thege youthful labours now 
 viewed as useless, will become in his opinion, 
 as the foundation stones of a goodly edifice in 
 the fashioning of which he has learnt the skill
 
 POETS. 175 
 
 of a literary architect and acquired the strength 
 to raise a temple of imperishable fame, for his 
 own and his country's glory. 
 
 , The ladies of this country may justly put in 
 their claims for distinction, in every path of lit- 
 erature, but particularly in poetry. It is con- 
 sidered among the elegant accomplishments of 
 the age, and the great number who possess the 
 talent prove that this is a land of pure etherial 
 fancy, and correct taste. Mrs. Sigourney who 
 was known as a poet, in her maiden days, then, 
 Miss Huntley, has not with the cares of her 
 family, as is often the case with female musi- 
 cians, or poets, neglected her devotions to the 
 muse ; but has given the world other effusions 
 since, marked with more strength and beauty 
 than those which charmed all who read them, 
 in her earlier days. There is a sweetness, a 
 depth of feeling, a grasp of thought, united with 
 the most perfect care and elegance in her wri- 
 tings, that shows she was intended to be con- 
 spicuous among gifted minds, and an ornament 
 to the virtuous as well as intellectual part of the 
 community. From her residence of elegance 
 and taste on the banks of the lovely Connecticut, 
 she sends forth her minstrelsy, to guide the 
 young and to delight the old, and to improve all 
 ages ; may it be long before others shall supply 
 her place ; may the flowers of her arbours bloom, 
 and her harp be in tune, until nature shall re-
 
 176 POETS. 
 
 quire that repose that philosophy contemplates 
 with composure and religion with visions of hope 
 and transport. 
 
 MKS. HALE, who is now conducting a literary 
 periodical in Boston, has besides several respec- 
 table works in prose, written many pieces of 
 fine poetry. She is now in a circle of intelli- 
 gence and taste, where her merits will be ack- 
 nowledged. The muses may owe their birth to 
 a village, and love to reside for a season amid 
 sylvan scenes, but some Athens must be near 
 for them to resort to occasionally, and receive the 
 homage their inspirations deserve, and which it 
 was never known that their modesty refused. 
 Apollo must listen if the best song of the Nine 
 is expected. 
 
 IT is a long time since the public have heard 
 any thing from Mrs. Oilman, except her fame 
 as the pride of the social circle, and the first in 
 every charitable exertion, but it will be long be- 
 fore the lovers of genuine pathos and poetry will 
 forget 'Jephthah's vow?.' by Miss Howard. We 
 hope the mild air of the south will not incline 
 her to forget her early promise to her country, 
 that such talents should not be hid. 
 
 MRS. WARE is the editor of the Bower of 
 Taste, a periodical of reputation, printed in 
 Boston, along side of Mrs. Hale's magazine.
 
 POETS. 177 
 
 These rival ladies, I use the word in its primitive 
 sense, divide a liberal patronage, in that city. 
 She too, is a poet, and established her reputation 
 by writing occasional hymns and odes, before 
 she took the editor's chair, and came out as one 
 of the literati by profession. There is ease, 
 spirit and mind in her verse, and her prose is- 
 tasteful and elegant. The fact of these two ed- 
 itors and that of there being so large a number 
 of females who are writers, speak volumes for 
 the advancement of education here. It is evi- 
 dence of the polish and intelligence of a nation, 
 that their females assist in directing the minds 
 of the rising generation. The writings of Han- 
 nah More, Joanna Baillie, Miss Lucy Aikin and 
 Miss Mitford, with a host of others, are now,- 
 and for a long time have been, an. honourable 
 portion of English current literature which has 
 found its way among the reading community, in 
 the United States. 
 
 Hannah Adams, Miss Sedgewick, Mrs. Childs 
 (formerly Miss Francis,) Mrs. Willard and 
 others have been eminently successful in lead- 
 ing the youths of this country in the paths of 
 knowledge. Acquainted with the infant mind^ 
 they early learnt the best methods of instilling 
 virtuous principles, and making pure impres- 
 sions, with the facts and reasoning that go to 
 make up the mass of information which is pos- 
 16*
 
 178 POETS. 
 
 sessed in the maturity of the understanding. A 
 sound principle, taught in the nursery, and af- 
 terwards cherished in the domestic circle, seems 
 written on the heart and brain together, and is 
 seldom or never effaced. They may be obscu- 
 red for a while by false doctrines and loose ha- 
 bits, but they break out and shine again when 
 these delusions have passed away. 
 
 Of the. male and female poets I have not given 
 a tenth part of the names of those who have 
 gained a considerable share of fame by their 
 productions ; and there are many who write well 
 for amusement, who will not avow their produc- 
 tions. This is decidedly a land of poets as well 
 as painters ; but it is strange that there should 
 be so much written when authors are so wretch- 
 edly paid for their labour. It is not strange 
 that authors in this country are badly paid when 
 the fact is known that about five hundred Eng- 
 glish works are reprinted here a year. Some 
 of them, are standard works, and of service in 
 diffusing useful knowledge, but with these all 
 the trashy novels, as well as the good ones are 
 found.
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 New- York, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I REGRET that you should have given so 
 much credit to capt. Basil Hall's account of the 
 people of the United States. There have been 
 a race of wretched travellers from England 
 whose works have passed among the people as 
 honest chronicles, when they were, in truth, a 
 tissue of falsehoods and absurdities. Ash was 
 a miserable liar, and is not now believed by any 
 one. -Kendal had not the spirit of on old wo- 
 man, and Miss Fanny Wright was a dreaming 
 enthusiast when she gave an account of this 
 country. Hall came to write a book and by his 
 being a post capt. in the navy had access to 
 good society ; but he was a wretched specimen 
 of English manners. He attempted to be re- 
 publican and was most insufferably vulgar. I 
 have never met with a well bred' Englisman in 
 this country who was not ashamed of him, nor 
 an American who did not despise him. 
 
 Your alarm for the religious character of the 
 United States is altogether unnecessary ; the
 
 180 BASIL HALL. 
 
 people, as a mass, are as truly religious, as any 
 people in the world, and do as much for the 
 support of it as any other people ; and in most 
 cases, throughout the whole country, the pay of 
 the clergy is from voluntary taxation. The va- 
 rious creeds professed have but little influence 
 on the public morals, because good moral con- 
 duct is either the basis, or a prime ingredient, 
 in all the creeds. A good patriot, when he 
 sees any religious sect doing justly and walking 
 humbly, does not quarrel with them for shades 
 of difference between them and himself in reli- 
 gious belief. The impression you have of the 
 influence of Mr. Owen and his disciples, is alto- 
 gether erroneous. You get a wrong statement 
 from the two parties who talk the most about it. 
 The followers of Owen are enthusiastic in all 
 they do and say ; and their accounts of their 
 success cannot be depended upon, even to the 
 slightest detail ; they see every thing as reform- 
 ers, and turn it all to their advantage. If 
 you were to listen to them, you would sup- 
 pose that the reign of reason, after their fashion, 
 had come, and all superstition and priestcraft 
 were falling into the dust at once, and an exalt, 
 ed moral feeling and principle was directly to 
 take the place of ignorance and debasement. If, 
 on the other hand, you should hear the timid and 
 scrupulous portion of the community, you would 
 think the altars of true religion were at once to
 
 OWEN, &c. 181 
 
 be overthrown, and the reign of infidelity and 
 libertinism were to ensue. 
 
 Hall thought that he had acquired more in- 
 formation than all his predecessors, and should 
 be enabled to enlighten all his countrymen 
 respecting this country ; for he assumed to think 
 deeply on all subjects ; but you can hardly 
 find a book containing more charlatanry than his 
 in all the bookstores in England. 
 
 I went last evening to the Hall of Science, as 
 it is called, to hear and see Miss Fanny Wright. 
 She was to deliver one of her lectures on Know- 
 ledge. She is a tall, bony woman, of a good 
 countenance, and not an ungraceful person. Her 
 style of elocution is imposing. She speaks as 
 one conscious of high mental powers, and as one 
 believing that she was born for a reformer. She 
 has nothing, however, of novelty in her theory. 
 She said what Mary Woolstoncraft had said 
 before she was heard of, in a more fascinating, if 
 not in so logical a manner. She inveighed against 
 the established order of things, as if the whole 
 world were deceived and led blindfolded by 
 rulers, judges, divines, and pretended moralists, 
 of all classes. I have a full belief that the mis- 
 taken woman is sincere in her creed, if creed it 
 can be called that denounces all creeds, human 
 and divine. But she propagates error under the 
 guise of doing good, and sows the seed of moral 
 evil under the lofty pretensions of eradicating
 
 182 OWEN, &c. 
 
 fixed and settled errors. A misguided multitude 
 follow her ; some honest dupes, but more dis- 
 honest mal-contents are in her train. She at- 
 tacks the altar of God as though it were an al- 
 tar of Baal ; and solemnly pronounces the whole 
 profession of priests a race of hypocrites. 
 There were many things in her lecture that 
 were very good, if they were unconnected with 
 the vile slanders she so shamelessly uttered. 
 Her whole course of conduct shows that she is 
 both ambitious and benevolent ; and she thinks 
 that she hides the former under the mantle of 
 the latter ; but in this she is as silly as the os- 
 trich, who thinks herself concealed, when she 
 has only hid her head. To see a man in the 
 profligacy of a coarse, strong and misguided in- 
 tellect, railing at religion and trampling upon 
 every thing sacred, is painful enough ; but to 
 behold a woman, of a refined education, fitted 
 for all the charities of life, so far unsex herself 
 as to promulgate doctrines, that bring down the 
 pride of female virtue, and place every one of 
 her sex on a par with the impure and wicked, is 
 too painful to dwell upon. This misguided wo- 
 man is, now followed and cheered by those who 
 are at war with the established order of things ; 
 but the most will drop off, one after another ; 
 and the probability is, that she will find herself, 
 in her old age, deserted by those who once af- 
 fected to admire her, and be left to mourn over
 
 OWEN, &c. 183 
 
 her worse than useless life ; then she will see 
 the difference between philosophical benevo- 
 lence and Christian charity ; the one is stained 
 with the filthy currents of this world, and par- 
 takes deeply of the nature of the earth, while 
 the other is illumined by the light above, and 
 grows brighter and stronger as its burthens in- 
 crease. Such spirits as Fanny Wright are 
 blessings in disguise. If there was nothing to 
 alarm the city, the watchmen would sleep on 
 their posts. Our spiritual watchmen are but 
 men, and they require to be alarmed by some 
 symptoms of danger to keep them awake. A 
 rude attack may make them more united; a 
 charge brought against them for want of con- 
 cord, may teach them to move in more harmo- 
 ny. From evil, good may come. -Moral evil 
 is, perhaps, as necessary to fulfil the designs of 
 Heaven, as natural evil. Fire, flood, pestilence, 
 and war, are all instruments in the hands of a 
 just God, for wise purposes, and why not a re- 
 viler of his nature and government 1 
 
 There is a most active spirit abroad in the 
 cause of benevolence and religion ; it pervades 
 every part of this country ; large sums are 
 yearly collected for all the purposes of enlight- 
 ening the rising generation ; Bibles and good 
 -books are put into the hands of all classes of 
 the people, and it is a prevailing fashion in the 
 upper circles to know something of the Scrip-
 
 184 OWEN, &c. 
 
 tures. Men now discuss the subject of divinity 
 as well as others, and form their own opinions 
 upon these weighty matters ; and while child- 
 ren are taught theology in the nursery, and the 
 philosopher is as much pleased with the subject 
 as the priest, there can be no just fears from a 
 few specious reformers, who make themselves 
 conspicuous by their blasphemies, rather than 
 from their reasoning powers. Ever since I 
 have looked on men, I have never known it 
 fail, that the blasphemous were in the end de- 
 serted, and their names held in abhorrence. The 
 Sunday Schools, which are established in all parts 
 of this country, and are so numerous that their 
 honest register seems to stagger all belief, are 
 soon to be the greatest moral engine, next to 
 that of permanent day schools, that civilization 
 has ever devised. A thousand false teachers of 
 infidelity cannot withstand the force of these 
 modes of instructing the youthful mind. These 
 false teachers may seem to have great influence 
 with the people ; but it must be remembered, 
 that the sincere followers of such lecturers as 
 Owen and Fanny Wright, are those who have 
 long been infidels ; the rest of the audience are 
 made up of those who are curious to hear all 
 things, but are not converts, or likely to be ; 
 or those whom idleness, or accident, throw in 
 by way of amusement ; and it is not to this latter 
 class the difference of a pin's fee whether they
 
 OWEN, &c. 185 
 
 take a lounge into the theatre, fall into a gam- 
 bling room, or stroll up to the Hall of Science, to 
 hear the female orator. They must have some- 
 thing to amuse themselves with, and a female 
 preacher is as good as any thing else. It would 
 be wrong to infer their depravity from the place 
 where they happened to be seen. To the hon- 
 our of the females of the United States, it should 
 be said that they have given no encouragement 
 to Miss Wright or her doctrines. You might 
 follow her from one part of the country to ano- 
 ther, and you will not find that she is protected 
 by any portion of the female community. It is 
 possible that now and then one or two women, 
 either careless of their reputation, or urged by 
 insatiable curiosity, may have been seen among 
 her audience ; but I have never known an in- 
 stance. The females of the United States are, 
 in general, well educated, and in some portions 
 of the country highly so. And I have never 
 known more than a half dozen female infidels 
 in my long acquaintance here. 
 
 17
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 New- York, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 HAVING glanced at a few of the poets, 
 perhaps you will expect me to say something of 
 the painters. Those who have passed off the 
 stage have found historians, who, if they have 
 not done them justice, have, certainly, had oppor- 
 tunities to speak of them more particularly than 
 I can, in these familiar letters to.<r friend. As all 
 artists belong to a nation and not to particular 
 cities, I shall not take any pains to name them 
 with any territorial reference, any farther than 
 as citizens of this qountry. If one place claims 
 their birth, another may have called forth their 
 talents, and the patron is often better to an ar- 
 tist, than a parent. 
 
 DUNLAP, to use a Yankee phrase, is one of 
 those artists who started from his own head. He 
 began by copying some prints in India ink, and 
 then proceeded in painting portraits in Crayons.
 
 PAINTERS. 187 
 
 In 1783 he painted General Washington and his 
 lady, who sat to him at head quarters, Rocky 
 Hill, New-Jersey, when the self taught artist 
 was only seventeen years of age. These were 
 so much extolled, considering the youth of the 
 artist, that in 1784 he was sent to England to 
 study his art, and on this adventure, for it was 
 indeed a great one, he received the attentions of 
 Mr. West. On returning to this country, in 1787, 
 he gave up his profession and began mercantile 
 pursuits. He early discovered a literary taste, 
 which in fact is almost indivisible from a taste for 
 painting. In 1789 he wrote a tragedy ; " The 
 Father of an only child." This was brought out 
 immediately and was very successful. This led 
 him to an intimate acquaintance with theatrical 
 people, who induced him to enter into dramatic 
 speculations, as a manager and author, and 
 which ended as such speculations generally do, 
 in the loss of all the cash a man has when he 
 commences ; but as he was honest and honoura- 
 ble, and more sinned against than sinning, he 
 had no great difficulty in settling up y and begin- 
 ning anew. In 1808, he assumed the pencil as 
 a miniature painter, and followed this branch of 
 the art with success, but was induced by the 
 friendly offers of Cooper, the tragedian, then in 
 the zenith of his fame, to take a department in the 
 management of a theatre in New- York ; but af- 
 ter two or three years he grew tired of that, and
 
 188 PAINTERS. 
 
 took up his pencil again as a miniature painter. 
 Stuart saw the cleverness of the artist and ad- 
 vised him to try oil ; and his advice was follow- 
 ed, and with great success ; but soon after this 
 time Dunlap received the appointment of depu- 
 ty pay master general in the militia of the state 
 of New- York. It was a busy office, as the troops 
 were in arms on the seaboard and frontiers, and 
 allowed him no time for his professional pur- 
 suits. In 1816, he returned to the arts he had 
 left, and from which he had so often played tru- 
 ant, and commenced anew, with youthful vigour 
 and delight and has ever since been constant to 
 the Muses. 
 
 Since that time he has been most industrious, 
 and besides a great number of portrait and fan- 
 cy pieces, he has produced four great histori- 
 cal pictures. The first was Christ disputing 
 with the doctors in the temple. This was so 
 much admired that he was induced to try his 
 hand again, and Christ rejected was his next. 
 This was indeed a great effort, it is a sublime 
 subject. The great masters of a religious age 
 had devoted painful years to scripture delinea- 
 tions, and while ponderous tomes of divinity, as 
 it is called, have sunk into the dust, those splen- 
 did efforts of human genius have survived as 
 models and lessons to this, and, will descend, to 
 future generations. This is indeed an epic la- 
 bour ; hundreds of figures appear on the canvass,
 
 PAINTERS. 189 
 
 m 
 and most of these full of history. Dunlap had 
 
 never seen West's great picture ; he had only 
 read hig outline. It is quite a different thing in 
 design, and a judicious critic might, we think, say 
 that in many points of his picture he has been 
 quite equal to that great master, The angelic 
 composure of Christ in Dunlap's picture, has, in 
 my mind, as much truth to nature, as the down, 
 cast countenance of " the man of sorrows," ex. 
 hibited in West's. We prefer to see his divine, 
 rather than his human nature, in every exhibi- 
 tion of our Saviour ; but we will not dwell on 
 this or any other point in the picture ; the sub- 
 ject is one of eternal interest, and will for ever 
 employ the pen, the pencil, and the tongue of 
 fire of the most gifted of the human race. The 
 next was the bearing of the Cross ; this was 
 full of holy feeling. The fourth was Death on 
 the Pale Horse. West had done the same, but 
 we have no hesitation in saying that in many 
 points Dunlap has the advantage of West : we 
 mean, particularly,. in colouring. The fifth Cal- 
 vary ; this picture is all original, as in fact the 
 others are in most of their features. It was a re- 
 mark made by an American lady of taste which 
 is founded on truth, that the more we see of 
 the historical pictures of the great masters of 
 Europe, the more we value the productions of 
 Trumbull, Allston, Dunlap, and others we have 
 seen brought out among ourselves. 
 17*
 
 190 PAINTERS. 
 
 Dunlap has been distinguished as an author, 
 aa well as a painter. He has figured in biogra- 
 phy as well as in the drama. He was admired 
 among the scholars of an age gone by, and is 
 honoured by the present, as a man of genius 
 and of taste, and it is no easy matter to keep up 
 with the march of improvement at this time. He 
 has reared a monument to Brown the novelist, 
 to Cook the tragedian, and to others of less 
 note. May he be rewarded according to his 
 deeds. 
 
 SARGENT'S picture of THE LANDING OF THE 
 PILGRIMS was, I speak in the past tense, for 1 un- 
 derstand that it was destroyed by some accident, 
 much admired in its day by the descendants 
 of the pilgrims, and spoken well of by those who 
 did not feel any extraordinary sympathy for that 
 race of men. The event of the landing of those 
 few wanderers had nothing in it of very great 
 sublimity or interest when taken by itself, un- 
 connected with the past or the future in relation 
 to that period. A handful of adventurers setting 
 foot on an inhospitable shore, in an inclement sea- 
 son is, no doubt, a subject of sympathy, but not 
 of wonder. The appearance of a northern sky 
 in such a season of the year was a fine object 
 for the painter, and Sargent availed himself of 
 it. He was northern-born and had lived, for the 
 usual months in the year, under such a sky as
 
 PAINTERS. 191 
 
 our forefathers first saw on their first landing, a 
 freezing atmosphere, rocks, ground, all covered 
 with a mantle of snow, while a low and sickly 
 looking sun threw a few faint rays on the iron- 
 bound, frost-bound coast. The dignity of the 
 group was conspicuous in the picture. All they 
 had suffered, all they were prepared to suffer, 
 and what they hoped to effect, was well con- 
 ceived and defined in the painting. The pious, 
 providence -trusting, resigned look, was there 
 also. A little of the soldier was still seen in 
 Miles Standish yea, more of it than of the 
 saint. The females were well displayed ; not 
 with Amazonian hardihood and fearless look ; 
 but yet there was no timidity, no shrinking 
 weakness, no dread of the savages, nor of a 
 more appalling foe ; a long and dreary winter, 
 without house or home, or any shelter for them- 
 selves or their little ones. They stood, they 
 looked, they went forward, as those who believe 
 that they have a God for their protector. That 
 painter is good for nothing who cannot impress 
 us with the moral sublimity of virtue, and give 
 us the majesty of religion, with all her sweet- 
 ness. There is a spirit of prophecy in the 
 hearts of the good in every undertaking, which 
 if it has no defined views, no tongue, but only 
 speaking looks, yet it lives and dwells in every 
 vein, and kindles in every eye, and has full pos- 
 session of the soul, as certain as the soul has an
 
 192 PAINTERS. 
 
 existence ; and the painter of this picture had 
 genius enough to seize the thought and make 
 the best of it. 
 
 The next picture, from the same artist, was 
 CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM. This 
 was also a popular picture. It was remarkable 
 for variety in the expression of the countenance 
 of the Hosannah- crying multitude. The face of 
 the Saviour is wonderfully fine. An Indian 
 chief once viewing the picture in the presence 
 of the author of these remarks, looking stedfast- 
 ly in the face of our Saviour, said, emphatically, 
 that is a good man. The last and only remain- 
 ing picture I know from Sargent, is the Dinner 
 Party ; a specimen of the extraordinary power 
 of light and shade ; to exhibit which seems the 
 great object of the artist in this painting. Sar- 
 gent formerly took several portraits which were 
 praised for their spirit and exactness. 
 
 VANDERLYN'S paintings have attracted the at- 
 tention of the lovers of the arts, both here and 
 on the other side of the water. His Ariadne is 
 an exquisite painting. It is the semblance of 
 enamoured beauty, in dreaming innocence. The 
 sleeping princess seems to glow with visions of 
 eternal love, while her. faithless spouse is steal, 
 ing away like a thief from the shores of Naxos, 
 and tarnishing by his perfidy the glories of his 
 adventures. Thirty centuries are lost in con-
 
 PAINTERS. 193 
 
 templating this picture. The mind of the spec- 
 tator is impressed with the whole scene as if the 
 present was the precise hour of her desertion, 
 and feels all the passion of love and grief and 
 resentment, crowding upon his heart, as he ga- 
 zes upon the sleeping beauty ; and seems to 
 dread that she should awake in his presence, to 
 realize and bewail her misfortunes, before he has 
 quitted the scene. Such is the power of the 
 artist. 
 
 Marius on the ruins of Carthage is from the 
 same hand. The savage pride of the great Ro- 
 man general, nursing himself with high resolves, 
 drawing aliment for the concentrated energies 
 of his soul from the awful ruins around him, and 
 looking, feeling, and expressing, by his very si- 
 lence, the eternal truth of the indestructibility 
 of mind ; that mind, which in him, no misfor- 
 tunes could subdue* 
 
 The panorama of the Garden of Versailles is a 
 work of a different kind, but of great merit. 
 Those who have visited the place say that the 
 faithfulness of the picture is admirable ; and 
 certain it is that the beauty of the light and 
 shade is hardly to be equalled. This painting 
 has been exhibited in several of our cities, with 
 great success. The artist is now engaged in a 
 panoramic view of the falls of Niagara. All 
 former attempts to convey on canvass this sublime 
 scene in nature, have fallen short of even majea-
 
 194 PAINTERS. 
 
 ty ; and all I have seen did not show any of that 
 terrific grandeur which belongs to the subject. 
 The occasional war of the elements, as exhibited 
 in tornadoes or volcanoes, have often been suc- 
 cessfully represented by the pencil ; but such a 
 perpetual display of the wonderful works of Om- 
 nipotence, as the rising and setting of the sun, 
 and the eternal agitation of the ocean, are not 
 within the capacities of the painter. By great 
 effort, he may bring to your own recollection 
 the images that have been there before ; but his 
 powers add nothing to them. These are sub- 
 jects for the muse of poetry, not of painting ; 
 and if his attempt is successful, in any conside- 
 rable measure, as his friends say that it will be, 
 he will have added to the capacities of his art, 
 and secured his immortality. 
 
 WASHINGTON AILS TON, now of Boston waa a 
 native of Carolina, and received his education 
 at Harvard College, where he graduated in 
 1800. His taste led him to think of painting as 
 a profession. Soon after leaving college, he 
 hastened to Europe, and commenced his pupil- 
 age with the zeal of youthful genius. In the 
 bosom of the arts he became known as a man 
 of promise, and his fame often came across the 
 Atlantic to raise the expectations of his country- 
 men. They were not disappointed ; he return- 
 ed with a mind enriched by travel and obser-
 
 PAINTERS. 195 
 
 vation, without any diminution of his character 
 or simplicity of his manners. In Boston he sat 
 down to his profession, and every production of 
 his pencil was anticipated with painful anxiety ; 
 not from apprehensions of disappointment in the 
 work, but from the intense desire of being grati- 
 fied with the sight of his productions. He is 
 above the envy of his compeers ; for he comes 
 in competition with no one. The fashionable 
 world has rto charm for him, and he is never 
 found in its circles. A little coterie of dear 
 friends is his passion, and his hours of relaxation 
 are .spent with them; but in these hours he is 
 exact and systematic. It is true of him, that he 
 flatters no one, abuses no one, nor is found in 
 the train of any one. He has truly an inde- 
 pendent mind, without one particle of the mo- 
 roseness which often accompanies that godlike 
 virtue. He seeks no idol of the day for patron- 
 age and praise, nor follows in the train of a reign- 
 ing belle to catch an approving smile, which on 
 the morrow may lead others to seek him : no, 
 for he feels a security in his own fame, that re- 
 quires no such momentary aid ; his reputation 
 will be increasing when the politician's fame is 
 blown away by some new burst of infernal smoke, 
 and the beauty is no longer remembered. He 
 has that popularity that follows merit ; he wants 
 not that which is sought for by conforming to 
 v the lights and shades of the hour ; nor did Alls-
 
 196 PAINTERS. 
 
 ton ever complain for want of patronage ; his 
 productions being promised as soon as commen- 
 ced. I have seen but three from his pencil 
 Elijah fed by the ravens in the wilderness Jere- 
 miah in prison, dictating his prophecies to Baruch 
 his scribe and the dead man into whose grave 
 the body of Elijah was cast, waking into life. 
 These have been seen by a good portion of 
 those who have any taste for the fine arts, in the 
 several great cities in the United States, and 
 their merits thoroughly examined. The first, 
 Elijah fed by the ravens, is marked by the boldest 
 scenery. The Judean mountains seemed fitted 
 for the abode of prophecy. It is more natural 
 and more sublime to place the voice of inspira- 
 tion among the deep caverns and strong shades 
 of the mountains, than by fountains or caves in 
 the sunny fields of cultivation. Allston has 
 caught the true philosophy to nurse his genius 
 by the perpetual contemplation of those scenes 
 and events, in the revelations of God to man, in 
 which the power of God-head, transcending his 
 natural laws, is visible and unquestionable. His 
 two other works are of the same class, drawn 
 from the same source. Such a cause admits 
 every variety of talent and demands every 
 extent of power. The picture of the hand 
 writing on the wall, the appearance of which 
 has long been expected and so much desired, 
 is of the same character.
 
 PAINTERS. 197 
 
 Until within a few years past, our artists had 
 to find their way entirely alone. They had no 
 concert, no associations for mutual aid, and mu. 
 tual instruction ; they had no place for the ex- 
 hibition of their productions ; they were seen 
 by chance ; and the fame of most of the paint- 
 ers depended upon ignorant admiration, or ill 
 natured criticisms, even perhaps less intelligent. 
 Ordinary reputation will always be local ; but 
 then it often happened that those of a higher grade 
 found their fame not more extended, and proba- 
 bly not so distinctly allowed when it was known, 
 as those of no solid merits. Academies and ex- 
 hibition rooms, which have been got up in our 
 principal cities, within a few years past, give 
 the youthful aspirant for fame a chance of being 
 known, and of having his merits justly appre- 
 ciated. In New- York an Academy of Design has 
 been established, and a distinguished artist put 
 at the head of it. Mr. Morse has been known 
 to the public as a painter for some years. His 
 Dying Hercules was considered a good speci- 
 men of drawing, as well as colouring. He has, 
 like many of our painters, been chiefly employ- 
 ed in taking portraits ; but his taste and talent, 
 I should think, would lead him to historical 
 painting : but what was more immediately in 
 my mind is, that he has commenced a course of 
 lectures on his art ; the first, probably, that has 
 been undertaken in this country. From what I 
 18
 
 198 PAINTERS. 
 
 have read of them, I think there can be no doubt 
 of their utility and success. He matures his 
 subject well, and gives it those minute finishings 
 which make the great charms of the writers of 
 the classical ages. The bold truths and start- 
 ling positions, so much the fashion of the present 
 age among men of genius, will pass away and 
 be forgotten, when the more natural, and, at 
 first, less attractive productions of taste, will be 
 fresh and increasing in value. The polished 
 lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds will ap- 
 pear in new and splendid editions, when those 
 of Fusilli, full of gigantic throes of thought and 
 night-mare figures of rhetoric, will only be found 
 in the libraries of the curious. To aid Morse, 
 there came many young men of merit. A word 
 must answer for them ; and as they are now in 
 the glorious career of emulation, adding to their 
 fame every passing day, this course, perhaps, is 
 best. To make only a few remarks on them, is 
 not to say they do not deserve much ; but is only 
 saying that, as yet, they are striving for the 
 mastery, and their comparative merits are not 
 as yet decided. 
 
 B. W. WIER is a historical painter, he spent 
 some time in Italy in pursuit of his art, with a 
 most perfect devotion to it. He is delicate and 
 elaborate in his finishings, and every thing from 
 his pencil shows, that with the elements of a
 
 PAINTERS. 199 
 
 great painter he has the industry that ensures 
 success. In colouring, he imitates the Venetian 
 masters, and the effect is often delightful. He 
 is yet young, and the country has much to ex- 
 pect from him. 
 
 C. IXGHAM, is a portrait and historicnl pain- 
 ter ; he has made many fine portraits for the 
 exhibition room. His colouring is admirable ; 
 his finishing finely minute. His female heads 
 of taste and fashion, in high dress, have been 
 the admiration of men of judgment, not only in 
 this city, but in other cities, where they could 
 not have been influenced by the social and vir- 
 tuous qualities of the individual. The talents of 
 the artist could alone have been the foundation 
 of their opinions. 
 
 T. C. CuMMrxGS is a miniature painter, and 
 possesses a good share of capacity in his line ; 
 and it is a branch of difficult attainment. His 
 sketches are full of life mind and spirit seems 
 to awake in his most shadowy lines. 
 
 H. INMAN, a portrait and historical painter, is 
 a great favourite in New-York. He is not more 
 than twenty-four or five years old, and yet he has 
 attained to an honourable eminence in his pro- 
 fession. His compositions are bold in design, 
 and happy in effect. He never seems to think
 
 200 PAINTERS. 
 
 of a difficulty in his art, and seldom does he 
 meet one. His colouring is remarkably fine, 
 and all speak of him as full of still greater pro- 
 mise, while they are admiring what he has al- 
 ready done. This is unforced praise from them, 
 for he has no management in eliciting admira- 
 tion and praise ; it comes from his labours alone. 
 
 A. B. DURAND is a landscape painter, and 
 would be very clever in this branch, if his pre-em- 
 inent talents as an engraver did not put him as a 
 painter, in the back ground. His productions are 
 in every work of standard taste and talents pub- 
 lished in this country. I have many of his works 
 in my mind which are exquisite, but as they are 
 not before me, I shall refrain from my criticisms 
 for fear of not doing justice to his merits. 
 
 G. W. HATCH is in the same line as Durand, 
 and has given the most astonishing proofs of 
 genius. A distinguished artist, on seeing some 
 of his productions, and understanding to what 
 age he only had attained, observed, " I know 
 not to what eminence this young man may not 
 aspire if his life is spared." 
 
 BENNET is one of this gifted society, and 
 uses his pencil or his graver as occasion re- 
 quires with ease and talent.
 
 PAINTERS. 
 
 There are others of reputation in their pro- 
 fessions who may not be connected with any as- 
 sociations for the improvement in the arts. Fro- 
 thingham, a self-taught artist, is an excellent por- 
 trait painter, who has laboured along with every 
 difficulty, but who has now reached a stand that 
 will insure profitable business. He began his 
 career near Boston, where Stuart was in full bu- 
 siness, and if he cannot be said to be a pupil of 
 that great artist, he certainly has caught much of 
 his manner. The public have been gratified 
 this year by seeing some of the specimens of his 
 pencil. The engravings of the heads of Bishop 
 Cheverus, and the Rev. Doctor Channing, with 
 others, have given Hoogland an enviable repu- 
 tation as an artist. Indeed, one might continue 
 until a volume might be written on the works 
 of the clever artists now in the active pursuit of 
 fame and emolument. There is no want of ta- 
 lent in any department of the arts or sciences, 
 or in any walk of literature in this country ; pa- 
 tronage alone is wanted to fill the principal ci- 
 ties with the first rate proficients. 
 
 So much has been done for the advancement 
 of female education among us that in almost 
 every walk of life, the women of this coun- 
 try, have claims for distinction. We have named 
 a few of those who, possessing a good share of 
 poetical talent, or are known in the groves of 
 18*
 
 202 PAINTERS. 
 
 learning ; we will mention a few also who are 
 distinguished as painters. Our ladies are as 
 yet mostly amateurs, a few only have made 
 the art a profession. Among the amateurs, and 
 probably first among them, or female profes- 
 sional painters, is Mrs. L. Russel, formerly 
 Miss Smith, daughter of B. Smith, Esq. of Bos- 
 ton ; she is indeed a most talented woman, but I 
 am not now attempting to describe her general 
 scope of intellectual acquirements, but it is as a 
 oainter only I mention her. She, early in life, 
 discovered a partiality for drawing, and instead 
 of always copying the lessons of her master, she 
 boldly designed for herself, to the admiration of 
 her acquaintances. A long residence in Eu- 
 rope, particularly in France, gave her fair op- 
 portunity of improving her skill and refining her 
 taste in the art. 
 
 Some copies she made while she was in Eu- 
 rope from the works of the masters, astonished 
 the modern professors, and while they wondered 
 at her production, would not be persuaded that 
 she was a native of the new world, and not one 
 reared in the bosom of the arts. She has taken 
 several fine portraits of her friends. One of 
 John Adams, which, allowing for a little of the 
 female and the friend which is thrown into the 
 picture, is most excellent, and certainly the 
 next to Stuart's of any one I have ever seen of 
 this venerable patriot. There is a freedom of
 
 PAINTERS. 203 
 
 pencil and brilliancy of colouring in her paint- 
 ings rarely equalled in this country, so prolific 
 in painters of great merit. She is to our great 
 painters what Lord Lyttleton was to Pope among 
 the poets an amateur and proficient of exqui- 
 site taste, who did not wish to rank among the 
 poets ; this, however, was forbidden by the just 
 laws of Parnassus, and he was put in the cata- 
 logue of British Bards, so must she among the 
 painters. Had Mrs. Russel continued her la- 
 bours, or amusements, call it what you please, 
 we too should have had an Angelica Hoffman. 
 
 Miss JANE STTJART, a daughter of the vete- 
 ran painter of that name, early discovered marks 
 of genius in the art. She had made considera- 
 ble progress in her studies before her father knew 
 her talent in this way. She copied her father's 
 paintings as often as she had opportunities, and 
 with great success. Her friends persuaded her 
 to attempt original pictures ; and encouraged 
 by their kindness and patronage, she ventured to 
 receive now and then a sitter, and was quite suc- 
 cessful. She is now engaged in the profession, 
 and discovers much of her father's manner, and 
 no small share of his spirit. Encouraged by 
 the munificent and intelligent patrons of her fa- 
 ther, with industry and patient labour, she will, 
 without doubt, be a first rate portrait painter. 
 
 Miss GOODRICH, of Connecticut, has been a
 
 204 PAINTERS . 
 
 miniature painter for several years, and some of 
 her likenesses are said to be very fine ; particu- 
 larly of ladies. She, as well as those we have men- 
 tioned, is an estimable woman, as well as a fine 
 artist. In addition to these there are a great num- 
 ber of ladies who excel in landscape and ornamen- 
 tal painting, and several have succeeded in Li- 
 thographic drawing, who are unwilling to make 
 their merits known to the public. There are 
 branches of this art for which the retired life of 
 many of the ladies in this country is well fitted 
 to cultivate, and as the country grows in wealth, 
 a taste for the fine arts will increase, and then 
 those high accomplishments may be made, when 
 necessary, a source of emolument far greater.
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 New- York, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I WAS yesterday introduced to the LY- 
 CEUM of this city by one of its principal mem- 
 bers, Dr. De Kay, whose urbanity, intelligence 
 and devotedness to literary and scientific pur- 
 suits, are well known in this city. The subjects 
 of natural history are admirably arranged, and 
 scientifically classed ; but as you are much bet- 
 ter acquainted with all these matters than 1 am, 
 I shall hasten to the authors and builders of these 
 institutions rather than dwell on the minute rela- 
 tions of their extent or excellence. 
 
 In one of the rooms of the Lyceum are seve- 
 ral large cases, marked with the name of Doctor 
 Samuel L. Mitchell, which is as familiar to you on 
 the other side of the Atlantic as with us, on this ; 
 for he has received academic honours from every 
 literary and scientific institution, I believe, of 
 note in the world ; and the Doctor himself is less 
 understood than any other man living. Some 
 have laughed at him as a credulous, rhapsodical 
 lover of learning, but without much true science,
 
 206 DR- MITCHELL. 
 
 and entirely destitute of judgment and common 
 sense. Others, and particularly those in fo- 
 reign countries, hail him as the most learned man 
 in America ; for they have received more infor- 
 mation from him than from others, and it is na- 
 tural they should suppose that he was truly at 
 the head of our savans and literati. The Doc- 
 tor has analysed every thing which has been 
 brought forward for nearly half a century past, 
 in matter and mind ; and he cannot complain 
 if he should now be analyzed himself. In 
 that part of his character which assures a man 
 true respect and affection from those around 
 him, a kind disposition and a benevolent heart, 
 and a life of charitable deeds, the Doctor has 
 nothing to fear from any scrutiny. But to com- 
 mence as the moral anatomist, upon his capaci- 
 ties, powers and organizations, it may be said 
 that his memory is wonderful, and he has stored 
 up an immense accumulation of facts in every 
 art and science, and every incident in history ; 
 not contented with this, he never suffers a fact, 
 or circumstance, which he has taken pains to 
 treasure in his memory, to be there 'alone ; but 
 he makes a minute of it on paper, and puts that 
 in a pigeon-hole, to answer as a voucher to his 
 memory, if that should fail him, or be doubted 
 by himself or others. From these methods he 
 has obtained advantages over most men, in fact, 
 I might say, over any one I ever knew. He has
 
 DR. MITCHELL. 207 
 
 not only been industrious in this accumulation 
 of valuable materials, but his mind has been ac- 
 tive in reasoning upon them. He is happy in 
 great quickness of perception, and falls more 
 naturally into a train of correct reasoning, than 
 those who labour ever so hard for it. He de- 
 scribes with great ease, and often most felici- 
 tously. If his style is sometimes tainted with a 
 little vanity, it bears no marks of arrogance. 
 It is true that he never feai's to meet a subject, 
 however novel, and it is true that he seldom 
 touches one without giving it some new grace 
 or ornament. He is equally happy in giving 
 names as characteristics. A monster of the 
 ocean unknown, and of course unnamed by an- 
 cients or moderns, some ten years ago was 
 caught in our waters ; the Doctor saw, dissect- 
 ed it, and named it " the Vampire of the 
 oceau ;" and I challenge the lovers of Buffon to 
 produce a more accurate, lively, and philoso- 
 phical description in all that admired author's 
 works, than was given of this anomaly. The 
 Doctor is called credulous ; indeed he is ; but 
 his is not the credulity of wondering igno- 
 rance, that knowing nothing, believes every 
 thing ; whose imagination makes hobgoblins and 
 " chimeras dire ;" and fears the powers of fiends, 
 because he knows nothing of angelic natures. 
 The Doctor's credulity, in all the wonders of 
 creation, is like that charged by the noble Fes.
 
 208 DR. MITCHELL. 
 
 tus upon Paul " much learning makes thee 
 mad ;" by which madness was meant an un- 
 bounded credulity in believing a newly promul- 
 gated religion, which was to the wise a stumbling 
 block and to the Greeks foolishness. The Doc- 
 tor's credulity arose from knowing more than 
 other men. He was acquainted with the laws 
 of nature, and knew not where to fix her bounds. 
 He saw that she was carrying on innumerable 
 processes, in an immense laboratory, and could 
 not say what she might not produce next. If 
 he who knows but little is credulous, he who 
 knows much is more so. About forty years 
 since, a wise father, whose son had been in In- 
 dia, heard his accounts of certain religionists of 
 that country, suspending themselves with hooks 
 thrust through the flesh or the ribs, and swing- 
 ing for hours in the air, said, " My dear son, I 
 believe your narrative fully, because you have been 
 taught to tell the truth ; but do not repeat the story, 
 for others will not believe you ; it is too much for 
 them to credit ; wait a while, and others will tell 
 the tale, and you may confirm it ; I will assure you 
 it is dangerous to be a discoverer ;" and the 
 friends of Fulton begged of him not to persist in 
 his speculations on the use of steam engines. 
 Such credulity as Dr. Mitchell possesses, has 
 been the promoter of all that is useful in the arts 
 and sciences. Tecumseh said to an Indian 
 agent, " You tell me that you know how many
 
 DR. MITCHELL. 209 
 
 steps it is round this earth, and you never crossed 
 the mountains ! Tell me who is the mother of all 
 the rivers ; how deep is the sea ; and when the sun 
 will grow old, and die, like my forefathers ; I mil 
 then believe that you can tell me how long my arms 
 must be to embrace my mother earth." The agent 
 replied, " I can tell you when yon moon shall 
 hide her head, and become dark ; and you will 
 see the darkness come on ; and all yon tribes 
 shall see it also." The wondering savage 
 seized the thought, and bought the secret ; fore- 
 told the eclipse to his followers ; this increased 
 their confidence in him ; the eclipse happened ; 
 his fame was established ; and he threatened the 
 agent and astronomer, from whom he obtained 
 the secret, with death, if he was not out of his 
 reach forthwith. The moral is at hand ; ma- 
 ny a one has availed himself of the Doctor's 
 information, calculations, and conjectures, and 
 tried to hide his own ignorance in abusing the 
 source from whence his knowledge flowed. 
 There is a vanity, however, in human nature, 
 which the good Doctor has a share of; that is, 
 a desire of having a reputation for knowing al- 
 most all things ; yet it must be confessed, that 
 the Doctor's manner is modest enough. 
 
 The Doctor has been charged with enthusi- 
 asm. He is enthusiastic ; but it is that ardour of 
 mind that wishes to raise the standard of know- 
 ledge above what it is in this country, which 
 19
 
 210 DR. MITCHELL. 
 
 is, indeed, a pardonable enthusiasm. Nothing 
 good or great was ever achieved without it. It 
 is the " divine inflation" which swells the bo- 
 soms of the gods of knowledge, when they la- 
 bour for the sons of men. 
 
 The Doctor is not only credulous, inquisitive, 
 enthusiastic, but ambitious. He wishes this coun- 
 try to be the first on earth, and himself the first 
 in the country. This is fair ; and if he fails in 
 either, after having made the struggle to bring 
 about his wishes, who will say that the attempt 
 was not a noble one ? Give us more such ambi- 
 tious men as Sir Humphry Davy, such credu- 
 lous ones as Columbus and Fulton, and you may 
 cover them with the names of enthusiasts, dupes, 
 and insane men, and every other epithet that 
 ignorance and dulness can pick up, or mouth, 
 after some disappointed rival has once spoken it. 
 
 There is another sin the Doctor has long been 
 guilty of ; and that is, the sin of perseverance 
 in attempting to enlighten mankind, after scio- 
 lists and fops have satirized him for attempting 
 to make them wise. This is a "grievous of. 
 fence," and one that can never be forgiven, 
 while envy has so much sway among men. 
 
 If any one denies the Doctor taste and sci- 
 ience, let him go and view his cabinet of curi- 
 osities, and see the order and beauty of his 
 arrangement. Every thing in its place, from 
 the butterfly and humming-bird, caught on the sum-
 
 DR. MITCHELL. 211 
 
 mer flower, to the tooth of the mastodon, the 
 horns of the elk, and the brick, coming all the 
 way from Babylon, to the meteoric stone coming 
 from God-knows-where, and then ask him if 
 there is not taste, science, skill, patience, and 
 much that should make a great philosopher in 
 Dr. Mitchell's- cabinet.
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 Boston, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I AM now in Boston, the metropolis of 
 New-England. It answers my expectations, in 
 most respects, and in many instances, far ex- 
 ceeds them. The city has improved since I 
 visited it in former years. The buildings are 
 of a convenient kind, and many of them elegant. 
 No seventy thousand people on the globe are 
 better lodged, or from what I see of the market, 
 and public and private tables, better fed. The 
 people are mostly of one descent from the first 
 settlers of the country, and have about them all 
 the marks of their ancestors ; nor are these 
 characteristics of this people confined to this 
 city, every part of the commonwealth have 
 the same. The city of Boston abounds in 
 public schools of the first order. The poor 
 share with the rich the blessings of education. 
 The city boasts of ample public libraries ; and 
 private ones are more numerous, and better 
 chosen than can be found in any other city in 
 this country ; and perhaps I might venture to
 
 BOSTON. 213 
 
 say in any other in the world. The police is 
 excellent. The streets are clean, and all things 
 show a well regulated community. The affairs 
 of state are managed by a numerous assembly 
 of representatives who are, generally speaking, 
 highly intelligent men ; if in the multitude of 
 counsellors there is safety, this state cannot suf- 
 fer, or be in danger. 
 
 The College Halls, within three miles of the 
 city are ancient and noble edifices. This uni- 
 versity dates its origin nearly as far back as the 
 foundation of the city. The men as you walk 
 the streets have that solemn determined look, 
 which their fathers had when they came out in 
 open warfare with the mother country, and un- 
 questionably are as brave as they were, with 
 much more intelligence. On the Exchange are 
 to be found the old fashioned, honest merchant, 
 with the bustling, modern, brokering speculator. 
 The courts of justice, have the respect and con- 
 fidence of the people ; and when it is said, " the 
 Supreme Court have so decided," all conflicting 
 opinions cease, and the rule laid down by them 
 becomes absolute. They venerate the laws 
 and are ready to protect the court on any occa- 
 sion. The high places of the judgment seats, 
 and even those of minor power, have on gene- 
 ral been well filled, for public opinion would 
 not tolerate any but good talents and of unques- 
 tionable probity on the bench for any length of 
 19*
 
 214 BOSTON. 
 
 time. The volumes containing the reported de- 
 cisions of their Supreme Court, have been 
 thought well of in England, and 1 have heard 
 arguments from lawyers in this city that would 
 do honour to the fierce Brougham or to the 
 straight forward Scarlet. 
 
 Every profession has its learned men in this 
 place, and many of them of true merit in socie- 
 ty. Although this state first began the- revolu- 
 tionary war, they have but little rebellious mat- 
 ter about them. They are all as quiet as any 
 community I ever saw, under their own govern- 
 ment. Three years before the contest for in- 
 dependence closed, the people had made them- 
 selves a constitution, and form of government ; 
 which was in most of its features a model for 
 many other states' constitutions. John Han- 
 cock, the first signer of the declaration of inde- 
 pendence, was their first governor. He was a 
 man who filled a great sphere in society, and has 
 left an imperishable name for his country's his- 
 tory. He was in the chair of the commonwealth, 
 except one year, from 1780 until his death in 
 1792. The learned, philophical Bowdoin filled 
 the chair of the commonwealth, that year. It 
 was this year that this state had to crush an in- 
 surrection that threatened to subvert the gov- 
 eminent. Samuel Adams, who was a patriot, 
 and should have been called the Inflexible, was 
 his successor. A good and a great man succeed-
 
 BOSTON. 215 
 
 ed him, Increase Sumner, who was as just as he 
 was amiable. Caleb Strong was chosen after 
 him. He came from the interior of the state, 
 a wise, shrewd, catious man, who was a fair 
 representative of the first settlers of the country, 
 who were, as wise as serpents, and as harmless as 
 doves. He was sudceeded in 1807 by James 
 Sullivan, a bold, energetic chief magistrate; who 
 was strongly opposed, at his coming in, by a 
 powerful party,"but died in less than two years, 
 having gained by his upright, and independent 
 administration the confidence of most of his con- 
 stituents. In 1809 Christopher Gore, a well 
 bred politician, ; scholar and a gentleman, was 
 his successor. In 1810 Elbridge Gerry, who 
 had been an efficient member of the state legis- 
 lature in 1775, and a member of the continen- 
 tal congress afterwards, and had been conspicu- 
 ous in both bodies, was the successful candidate. 
 He administered the affairs of the commonwealth 
 for two years, and Strong came again into pow- 
 er, and held the chair during the war. The 
 gallant General John Brooks was his successor. 
 His popularity, as a revolutionary officer was 
 paramount to all political, or party feelings, and of 
 course he was the governor of the people. To 
 him succeeded Doctor Eustis, a man who had 
 served in a medical capacity for several years in 
 the revolutionary war, had been a member of Con- 
 gress from Massachusetts, and afterwards Secre-
 
 216 BOSTON. 
 
 tary of War in the general government. The 
 whole of this group were great men ; they had 
 enemies as well as friends ; but all had done the 
 country some service, and each had high claims 
 for the office, and they were men of whom their 
 opponents were proud. Some of them, it is 
 true, came into power in the spasms of party ; 
 but the Commonwealth had not descended, as 
 many others had, to take up men of sixth rate 
 minds, or come so low as to fill the chair of 
 state with the spawn of political apathy. Mas- 
 sachusetts then considered her governors as 
 holding only the second office in the country ; 
 and after having filled this, they would not ac- 
 cept of any other. Changes come over every 
 people. Sometimes they oppose those they are 
 proud of ; at other times, support those they are 
 ashamed of. The Athenians were an enlight- 
 ened people, but as volatile as intelligent. At 
 one time they ostracised those of political in- 
 tegrity, and prostituted their honours by lifting 
 into high places those loose, spongy, declaiming 
 demagogues, of whose want of political virtue 
 every one was aware, even in the midst of his 
 infatuation. These things will happen. A 
 sleeping lion will suffer a slimy lizard to crawl 
 over his nose, or hang on the majesty of his 
 mane. 
 
 The soil of Massachusetts is a hard one, and 
 will not allow any idleness in the cultivation of
 
 BOSTON. 217 
 
 it. Industry has made it productive and valua- 
 ble. The intelligence of the people has turned 
 every rood of land to advantage, and if it does not 
 support its man, it supports precisely that for 
 which it was made. Massachusetts is a land of 
 hills, and of many streams of water ; nature 
 pointed out the place for a manufacturing coun- 
 try ; and notwithstanding the disasters which 
 have befallen this interest, throughout New- 
 England, it will still be a manufacturing coun- 
 try, and equal to the wants of the market. 
 
 This people are struggling to keep the fore- 
 most rank in the literature of the country, and 
 are establishing town and county Lyceums for 
 the diffusion of knowledge. These are most 
 admirable institutions ; for they offer the ambi- 
 tious not only an opportunity to acquire know- 
 ledge, but also to display it. The antiquities of 
 the country are sought for, and the time is near 
 at hand when a correct history of it will be 
 written by some of their enterprising literary 
 people. 
 
 For the happiness of the whole there was too 
 great an inequality of property ; but this evil 
 will not last long : in fact the overgrown for- 
 tunes have found an agrarian law in overdoing 
 the manufacturing business. This business will 
 fall into other hands ; the second, third, and 
 minor classes of wealthy men, have taken the 
 place of the primary classes, and all will go on
 
 218 BOSTON. 
 
 harmoniously, and strictly, if not so lucratively 
 as formerly. 
 
 The whole of New-England abounds in a 
 wholesome population, full of industry and intel- 
 ligence. She has also some, yea, many great 
 men. She, with other parts of the country, has 
 committed mistakes in her policy, but she has 
 a defence for most, or all of them. The East, 
 North, and South, had many things to learn, 
 and not a small part of them was a better ac- 
 quaintance with each other. New-England has 
 produced a large number of patrons of learning, 
 and they still abound here. Names might be 
 mentioned that would answer to be placed along 
 side of the great friends of learning in every 
 age ; but as her own historians have, or should 
 long since have given their deeds to the reader, 
 I shall close by saying that I have packed up a 
 box of books relating to their history, manners, 
 habits, and schools, their possessions, their 
 hopes, their every thing, and shall leave you to 
 read for yourself.
 
 XiETTER XX, 
 
 Boston, ', 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 WHEX I was here some years since, I 
 by accident, in a mail coach, become acquaint- 
 ed with a singular man of the profession of the 
 law. He was witty, profligate ; not " thin, but fat, 
 jolly, and infinitely amusing. On my- return, I 
 inquired for him, alas ! he was not here, but al- 
 though I knew it was not reputable to be seen 
 with him, yet I felt it as a disappointment to find 
 that he had gone the way of all the earth. Ex- 
 pressing my wish to know something of his his- 
 tory, a friend put a manuscript* in my hand from 
 which with his consent I have extracted the fol- 
 lowing account ; if it is,as interesting to you as 
 he was to me, I shall be paid for transcribing it. 
 The Maxim " De mortuis nil nisi bonum," 
 " say nothing of the dead but what is good, has 
 wisely been changed to " De mortuis nil nisi 
 verum." But even the truth should not be told 
 at all times, if it casts a shadow over the grave ; 
 for the dead cannot defend themselves. It is 
 far better that the pall of oblivion should be
 
 220 BARTLET. 
 
 thrown over the errora of sinful man, than 
 that they should be exposed, unless their expo- 
 sition may serve as a beacon and a warning to 
 those who may come after us. To drag into 
 public, what was done in private, is wrong ; but 
 those who filled every act of the drama of life 
 as public men, who enacted every thing for no- 
 toriety and effect, and whose deeds had an in- 
 fluence on society, are fair subjects of examina- 
 tion, and animadversion. They must have ex- 
 pected this when living, and their friends cannot 
 complain of it when they are gone. There are 
 those who must be held out for us to shun, as 
 well as those exhibited for us to imitate ; detest- 
 ation for vice is nearly allied to a love of virtue. 
 As much may be learned from the reckless pro- 
 fligacy of Anthony, as from the severe virtues of 
 Cato ; and from the life of Caesar Borgia, as 
 from that of Pius VII. In our young communi- 
 ty, we have, in 'general, buried every thing in 
 the grave ; and tread lightly over the ashes of the 
 dead, hardly daring to repeat the maxim, " No 
 good man weeps when gifted villains die :" But 
 the welfare of society demands that this injudi- 
 cious modesty be overruled ; and truth, bold, 
 distinct, and naked, when it can do good, should, 
 unhesitatingly, be brought forth. It is abso- 
 lutely idle, and in fact, next to ridiculous, to 
 show a shrinking delicacy about one who never 
 had exhibited any regard for himself or for
 
 BARTLET. 221 
 
 others. It may be said thai the living should 
 be regarded, if the dead are not. This is right, 
 to a certain extent ; but not to a very great one. 
 The innocent child should not be distressed by 
 premature remarks upon his parents, nor the 
 aged parent agonized by a display of the vices of 
 the child. There should be discretion in all 
 things ; but the subject of this sketch died child- 
 less, and his parents are no more, and probably 
 there is not one living to whom a full develop- 
 ment of his character would give a pang; for if 
 his profuseness made, for a while, any impres- 
 sions upon the minds of the grateful, his dupli- 
 city and deceptions wiped them all away ; and 
 they can hear of him as of men for whom they 
 had no regard, or never knew. 
 
 JOSEPH BARTLET was born at Plymouth, the 
 landing place of the Pilgrims, about 1763. His 
 parents were highly respectable, among the 
 moral and intelligent of that exemplary people. 
 He was sent to Harvard College, and graduated 
 in 1783. He had a highly respectable standing 
 as a scholar in his class, as is, in some measure, 
 proved by his being one of the three to whom 
 the charter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society was 
 sent by the Alpha, then existing at William and 
 Mary College, Virginia, for the University at 
 Cambridge. He early attained that wretched 
 notoriety which has injured so many young men 
 in college the reputation for wit and excentri. 
 20
 
 222 BARTLET. 
 
 city. The gay gather round such a man, to join 
 in the amusement, and the grave and sober now 
 and then relish a good thing from him ; and it 
 must be remembered, that the age in which he 
 came forward, was not remarkable for its sobrie- 
 ty, or reverence for holy things. The country 
 was indeed engaged, at that time, in a great 
 struggle, one on which hung the destinies of 
 the nation ; but any man acquainted with human 
 nature, knows that great exertions of this kind 
 produce every evil fruit in morals and manners. 
 The elements of society were in a measure 
 afloat, during the revolutionary war, and parti- 
 cularly at its close. 
 
 Bartlet left his Alma Mater the year of the 
 peace, 1783 ; and every thing was in doubt and 
 confusion. The brave were resting from their 
 toils, thinking they had done their share of 
 the great work ; and were willing that others 
 should commence their labours. At such a fa- 
 vourable moment for confusion, the demagogues 
 who had been silent, when there was any danger, 
 now raised their voices at every corner, and in 
 every high place, to excite the turbulent against 
 order and moderation. Bartlet issued from the 
 halls of his college to join in the full cry of 
 liberty and equality, with those who intended to 
 profit byupro ir ;md confusion. He was well cal- 
 culated to assist in raising the whirlwind ; but had 
 no talents or disposition to aid in directing the
 
 BARTLET. 223 
 
 storm. Bartlet was soon conspicuous among 
 the vulgar and the riotous ; for he had a ready 
 elocution that caught the shallow, who were 
 contented with any specious arguments, when it 
 was in consent with their wishes. He was at 
 such times more than a match for men more 
 powerful in argument than himself, for his ready 
 wit never failed him, when he found it in vain 
 to reason ; and in any contest he seldom failed 
 to get the laugh on his side ; and this is much 
 in a dispute now, and was more then. At this pe- 
 riod of life he was an open infidel, and this was 
 thought by some as being a mark of a great 
 mind. The loose in principle wanted a witty 
 leader, one who had the capacity of using pro- 
 fligate satire and indecent ribaldry in their cause, 
 against the decent and pious. They had a man 
 in Bartlet. on whom they could rely. The reli- 
 gious had long been unaccustomed to be dis- 
 turbed in their opinions : they had, it is true, 
 quarrelled a little about points ; but had seldom 
 been assailed at all points ; and they hardly 
 knew what to rrfake of it, when they were bold- 
 ly attacked in their very citadel. The pious 
 were alarmed at this course, and shuddered at 
 his attempts to make shipwreck of their faith ; 
 while the free thinker enjoyed it, and made him 
 a much greater man in point of intellect than he 
 
 really was. 
 
 Soon after leaving college, he went to Sa-
 
 224 BARTLET. 
 
 lem, to study law ; and in the mean time to 
 teach a school. He could not have spent much 
 time in this place, for he was not at all suited 
 for that latitude. They are a quiet, thinking 
 people in Salem, and were not prepared for such 
 opinions. At this time, many of our young men 
 were taking a voyage to England, and Bartlet 
 thought he would go likewise ; and without much 
 preparation he set sail. This was, indeed, an 
 adventure. He had no object in view, except 
 to see if he could bring his wit and convivial 
 talents to a market. In this he in a degree suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 From the opulent Americans around him he 
 obtained supplies for the present, and trusted to 
 chance for the future. 
 
 One night when Bartlet was in the Theatre 
 in London, a play was going on, in which his 
 countrymen were ridiculed, I believe it is one 
 of General Burgoyne's plays ; a number of re- 
 bels had been taken, and brought into the Brit- 
 ish camp ; on the inquiry being made about 
 their occupations, I believe the play says 'pro- 
 fessions,' before they became soldiers, the an- 
 swer was, although many of them were officers, 
 that they were of different callings ; some were 
 barbers, some tailors, some tinkers, &e. at this 
 moment Bartlet rose from his seat in the pit, 
 and cried, " hurra ! Great Britain beaten by 
 barbers, taylors and tinkers!" The effect was
 
 BARTLET. 125 
 
 wonderful. John Bull took it all in good part ; 
 and many of the Bloods of the day introduced 
 themselves to him : and he made the best of the 
 occasion. Those who were pleased with his 
 boldness, soon became enamoured with his wit. 
 He had no restraint upon moral, political or re- 
 ligious grounds in saying any thing, and his 
 manners were, when he chose, gentleman- 
 ly, and very fascinating ; and he for awhile 
 was quite a lion in a certain circle ; he was as- 
 suredly distinguished wherever he went. The 
 Bucks of London at that time supposed that 
 Americans were savages, and were surprised to 
 find one who had been caught, tamed, and in their 
 view, somewhat polished. He was sought after 
 and petted, and in good faith they found that he 
 had seen, before the/ saw him a hand of cards. 
 He often boasted, that this time he had frequent 
 meetings with Fox, and Sheridan, and is this 
 unlikely ? But Bartlet's maxim of " carpe di- 
 em," would not suffer him long to be even a 
 fortunate gambler ; he was too sensual, and 
 luxurious for that ; soon as his purse was full, 
 the society of the table, took precedence of all 
 others. He had no legitimate hold on society, 
 but like the moss on the rock clung to it by sic- 
 city or saturation, until blown off, and there, 
 fore it is not wonderful that he should have 
 found hi mself in prison after a season of drought 
 and showers. Here he groaned and cursed 
 20*
 
 236 BARTLET. 
 
 awhile ; but found that such a course did not 
 do any good, and he set his wits to work to get 
 out of confinement. For this purpose he wrote 
 a play, which has since perished with ten thou- 
 sand others, but this was a novelty ; a play 
 from an American ! This provided him a sum 
 sufficient for his release. His former friends, 
 he has often said, gave it a character it did not 
 merit. 
 
 The particulars of this event he would never 
 precisely acknowledge ; but met every inquiry 
 with his usual escape, some facetious remark. 
 
 From London he set his face towards Edin- 
 burgh, and there under an assumed name went 
 on the stage, and as Mr. Maitland, enacted sev- 
 eral parts in genteel comedy ; and if his own 
 account of himself may be taken, was quite suc- 
 cessful. He prided himself in being at home 
 in Belcour in the West Indian, and in all prob- 
 ability, at that time, he had some qualifications 
 for the part. His histrionic career was not 
 long ; he was too fond of society to study enough 
 to make an actor, if nature had fitted him 
 through industry, to have become one. He 
 soon grew tired with this way of life, and has- 
 tened back to London, after one season, and 
 made an acquaintance with the mercantile clas- 
 ses, who were then in a rage to fill the United 
 States with goods ; and strange as it may seem 
 by his specious representations, and their anx-
 
 BARTLET. / 337 
 
 iety to sell, he procured a large credit. These 
 were probably insured in London, and perhaps, 
 the creditors did not suffer much, for the vessel 
 in which Bartlet was returning with his gooda, 
 was cast away on cape Cod, and was lost, with 
 the bulk of her cargo. 
 
 There is an anecdote connected with this 
 shipwreck quite characteristic of Bartlet. On 
 the voyage he had been constantly descanting 
 on his favourite topic, the theme of the French 
 philosophers, " the eternal sleep of the grave, 
 and the recuperative force of matter," and 
 that he was ready to take up his march at a 
 moments warning ; but when the vessel struck 
 the shore, he discovered the most cowardly anx- 
 iety for his safety, and when asked what had 
 become of his philosophy, and contempt of 
 death ? like Falstaff, he evaded the subject by 
 saying " that it is not that I fear to die ; but I 
 should dislike to be found dead in such a dreary 
 place, as the back of cape Cod." There is noth- 
 ing more amusing than to trace the selfishness 
 of those of his school who preach disinterested 
 benevolence. This patriot and champion for 
 the new philosophy, took care to get to the shore 
 as soon as possible, leaving the gentlemen of 
 old fashioned principles to assist the female pas- 
 sengers in making their escape. 
 
 On his arrival at Boston he formed a copart- 
 nership in business as a merchant, and again left
 
 228 BARTLET. 
 
 his country for England. He again obtained a 
 very considerable credit for his firm, which soon 
 failed ; but how much he was to blame in this 
 I never could discover. 
 
 Tired with trade, he returned to his first in- 
 tention of studying the law. While engaged in 
 reading his profession, the insurrection of Dan- 
 iel Shays, and his party took place, and the 
 troops of the lower counties in Massachusetts, 
 were ordered to march to suppress it. Rein- 
 forcements were soon wanting, and volunteer 
 companies were raised in Boston and the vicin- 
 ity, and Bartlett was chosen to command one of 
 them. He told them so much of his prowess, 
 that they thought him a great military cheiftain. 
 Captain Bobadil could not have said more of 
 himself. He took up his line of march from 
 Boston to Springfield ; but two hours after he had 
 left the town of Boston, he was ordered to re- 
 turn, for the insurrection was quelled and tran- 
 quillity established. On this news the captain 
 of the train-band made a speech, rcgreting that 
 he and his brave followers, had not had an op- 
 portunity of showing their courage ; -and closed 
 his harangue by saying, that he had not the 
 slightest doubt, that Shays had retreated on 
 hearing that he was coming with his brave com- 
 pany. 
 
 On his admission to the bar he opened his of- 
 fice at a town called Woburn, within a dozen
 
 BARTLET. 229 
 
 miles of Boston, and here began his career as a 
 wit, a lawyer, and a politician. Never was there 
 a better demagogue. He harangued in the grog 
 shops, and at the town meetings ; and at all times 
 had the power of setting the mob in a roar ; and 
 sober men too, if within bearing, found him irre- 
 sistible. His aim was first to attract attention 
 and then to assail his audience through the me- 
 dium of their vanity, and then to direct them 
 when they were excited, to a spirit of faction 
 and misrule. As odd as Jo Bartlet, was soon a 
 by word. He had painted his house black, and 
 caled it "the coffin," and the passers-by stared, 
 inquired, and wondered what sort of a man this 
 Jo Bartlet could be. In a few years he moved 
 to Cambridge, the half- shire of the county of 
 Middlesex. 
 
 Here was a wider field for the display of his 
 talents, than he had found in a small town ; not 
 that he expected or wished to associate with the 
 literati at Harvard university. The faculty had 
 no love for such a man ; his politics, his religion, 
 or rather his want of any religion ; and all his 
 opinions, and habits were not to their taste ; but 
 he knew that he should gain popularity by an- 
 noying them, that is the only popularity with the 
 only class of people he ever expected to secure, 
 the profligate and lawless. By some manage- 
 ment he got himself selected as poet for the an- 
 niversary celebration of the Phi Bella Kappa. In
 
 230 BARTLET. 
 
 this production he indulged his spleen against 
 some of the professors of that institution. This 
 was, however severe, the best production of his 
 pen that is extant. There is poetry, taste and 
 no little splendour in this work, however un- 
 just or sarcastic it may be. 
 
 In all the domestic concerns of the college, he 
 strove to have a part. At every quarter-day he 
 watched the poets and the performances of every 
 kind, and gave his biassed and partial opinions 
 to the world, through the medium of the press. 
 This was indeed dreadful ; for these candidates 
 for fame imagined their own little world to be 
 all the world ; but the public newspaper taught 
 them otherwise ; and they found the critic was 
 after them, before they had trusted themselves 
 to the press. By these attacks on the quarterly 
 performances, Bartlet often felt the resentment 
 of the scholars, and had but few or none to sup- 
 port him ; but he made mischief, and that was 
 pleasant to him. 
 
 He invited a few of the scholars to his table, 
 and kept a small party in his train, who drank 
 his wine, and who were sure, while in his favour, 
 that he would violate every thing like justice, to 
 make them conspicuous. He joined in every 
 little college feud, for the love of confusion and 
 uproar. The town of Cambridge was agitated 
 by party violence, and in the whirlwind he now 
 and then was thrown up to public notice, and
 
 BARTLET. 231 
 
 succeeded, more than once, in obtaining a seat 
 in the House of Representatives in the general 
 court ; but he had no weight in that body ; the 
 materials of that assembly were not much affect- 
 ed by his wit, or in the least guided by his poli- 
 tical opinions ; still he enjoyed it ; for his ele- 
 ment was a rancorous opposition. At the 
 Courts he was not more respected than in the 
 Legislature ; for he mixed himself up with his 
 clients, who, in general, were harlots, rogues, 
 and knaves, of every size and grade. He amu- 
 sed those he did not benefit ; and spunged all by 
 one piece of management or another ; and this 
 class often find means to pay counsel when they 
 seem extremely poor. Such a man as Bartlet 
 wears badly in any place ; and he found his po- 
 pularity, such as it was, declining : with the 
 honest he had but little communion, and with 
 the bad he was out of favour, for they found he 
 had no weight with a jury ; and often his repu- 
 tation, and his clients' together, ruined a pretty 
 fair cause. It was time for him, to use his 
 own expression, " to see new faces." From 
 Cambridge he removed to Saco, in the province, 
 now state of Maine. In this place he began, with 
 fresh vigour, the same course he had pursued 
 at Cambridge, as to politics and law. He ob- 
 tained credit sufficient to erect a good house, 
 and seemed, for a while, flourishing, particular- 
 ly in politics. He was sent a senator from the
 
 232 BARTLET. 
 
 county of York, to the Legislature of Massa- 
 chusetts. In this body he was courted for his 
 own vote, perhaps, but never carried a single 
 one by his arguments or his eloquence ; but it 
 is thought he assailed some propositions with 
 success, by the force of his ridicule ; but this 
 more often deters the modest from doing good, 
 than the bold from doing evil ; but ridicule is no 
 test of truth, at any time. The next year found him 
 an unsuccessful candidate for the same office ; 
 but this did not discourage him ; his patriotism 
 burned so conspicuously, that his partizans put 
 him in nomination for Congress, and he was so 
 active with his pen and tongue in electioneering 
 for himself, aided by his followers, that he run 
 nearly equal with his opponent, having, at 
 the close of the polls, within half a dozen 
 votes as many as the. successful candidate. 
 Some of his political writings of that period 
 had some pungency, and no little satire in 
 them ; yet they went to decay and oblivion 
 with the autumnal leaves of the year ; but 
 at that time they were blown about and spread 
 abroad, as thickly as the thistle down, over 
 the fields and gardens, and gave considera- 
 ble alarm to the sound and virtuous politicians of 
 the day. The demagogue, a happy circum- 
 stance for morals, gives his breath to the winds, 
 and its first influence is generally the worst. 
 Even the rancorous words of politicians com-
 
 BARTLET. 233 
 
 mitted to the periodical press are soon forgotten. 
 Junius may be stated a* .in exception ; but this 
 only proves the rule. At this day the opinions 
 of that great writer pass for nothing, and his ma- 
 lice would be condemned if it had not been em- 
 balmed in so felicitous a style ; a style as full of 
 genius as beauty. The folds of the serpent are 
 preserved to accompany and account for the 
 writhings, the agonies and griefs of the Laocoon- 
 tes ; but the very reptile which adds to the won- 
 derful effect of the group would be turned from 
 with instinctive disgust, if it had been chiselled 
 out alone, or by an ordinary hand. By his im- 
 prudence and waywardness, he was at length 
 broken up here, also. His power over the mul- 
 titude was every day diminishihg, and his chance 
 of political advancement nearly gone, when he 
 removed to- Portsmouth, in New-Hampshire. 
 In this place he had some business, and some 
 influence for a while, owing to the party spirit 
 which then agitated the community ; but the 
 sagacious people of that town had formed a 
 pretty just estimate of his character, and he 
 made no progress in political life, and with 
 difficulty found means to support himself as a 
 citizen. His clients were of the same grade in 
 New-Hampshire as his clients had been in 
 other places ; but even this class of clients soon 
 discovered that their advocate must have some 
 standing in society to do any good in court ; 
 21
 
 234 BARTLET. 
 
 and they turn from such men as Bartlet, after 
 some experience, to find men of influence to as- 
 sist them. At this time he had depreciated as 
 a man of talents, his stories had been told a 
 hundred times, his flashes of wit were less fre- 
 quent, and he often attempted to make up in 
 scurrility what was wanting in acuteness. From 
 day to day he grew more irregular in his habits, 
 and more careless in his person, and of course 
 he was neglected by many, who once from cour- 
 tesy associated with him ; and the good people 
 of Portsmouth were heartily tired of him long 
 before his departure from the place ; and at 
 length hired him to go, by agreeing to take 
 a certain number of tickets for some recita- 
 tion which he proposed to give. This literary 
 exhibition was beneath contempt, but secured 
 him a handsome sum of money, for so slight a 
 labour. Bartlet lingered in Portsmouth a while, 
 until his money was nearly or quite exhausted, 
 and then set out for Boston. Here he opened 
 his office ; but very few clients, however, found 
 their way to it ; and those few were miserable 
 wretches, who came for a writ for an assault and 
 battery, or some such grievous matter, and from 
 whom he could only squeeze a few dollars. In 
 this situation he became a tax to his friends, or 
 rather on those who had known him in his early 
 days, or had become acquainted with him in the 
 various paths he trod in life ; and such was the
 
 BARTLET. 235 
 
 liberality of the community in which he lived, 
 that the amount received by him, if it had been 
 prudently expended, would have supported him 
 in all the necessaries of life ; but who ever 
 knew such a man with a particle of even fore- 
 thought ? His principal reliance was on the 
 members of the Suffolk bar, but others assisted 
 freely, and particularly the benevolent Mrs. 
 F****, whose husband kept a public house in the 
 city. She was the most judicious of all those 
 who gave him succour ; and to her he was al- 
 ways obedient and respectful ; and his regard 
 for her judgment was the only proof, for a long 
 while before he died, that he was not lost to eve- 
 ry correct principle of conduct. Bartlet's case 
 is not the only instance of her good sense and 
 liberality to the unfortunate. Never was a more 
 judicious philanthropist than this good woman, 
 nor one that did so much with the same means ; 
 for she is as discriminating and prudent as she 
 is charitable. For six or seven years Bartlet 
 went on in this way, until he died in 1827 ; and 
 his exit was a relief to all around him. The 
 death of such a man gives no one the heart- 
 ache, or causes a tear to be shed. 
 
 When we sum up the whole matter of the life 
 of such a man, we find it amounts to little ; no 
 one has been made wiser, or happier by him ; 
 and his whole existence, with all its evils, does 
 not furnish sufficient of incident or variety, to
 
 236 BARTLET. 
 
 point a moral or adorn a tale. A wit is indeed 
 " a feather ;" and the smart things said any 
 where, are echoed but once or twice, and then 
 given to the winds. The wit of Bartlet was in 
 general neat and tasteful ; and if it had not been 
 allied, like Voltaire's, to infidelity, it would have 
 gained him more fame than it did. Some of his 
 flashes of witty resentment showed so much of 
 heartlessness, that the listener shuddered at the 
 blasphemy, while he could not refrain from 
 laughing, at the moment, at the singularity of it. 
 What can there be so evanescent as wit ? for 
 although the writer of this brief sketch has 
 heard many of his witticisms from Bartlet him- 
 self, and others, yet he has suffered them 
 to pass from his memory, as the recollection 
 of them would be productive of no good ; but 
 in justice it should be said, that Bartlet has 
 never published any thing, with his name, that 
 has an immoral tendency. His poem on phy- 
 siognomy delivered before the Phi Betta Kap- 
 pa, at Harvard university, was evidently intend- 
 ed as a satire on particular individuals, and like 
 most satires contains many exaggerations ; yet 
 there is nothing in it offensive to morals, or 
 manners, and considering the state of poetry at 
 the time in which it was written, is a very fair 
 poem in regard to the 'talents it discovers. It 
 had something of his spiteful disposition in it, 
 but none of that outrageous slander that he was
 
 BARTLET. 237 
 
 every day breathing out in his intercourse with 
 society. At a later period he wrote a book of 
 aphorisms that are well enough, but the produc- 
 tion cannot be said to have any great share of 
 originality in it. After the proverbs of Solomon ; 
 Rochefaucalt, and those of the Spanish writers 
 down to Sancho Panga, there seems but little to 
 glean in aphoristic literature. 
 
 In the writings attributed to him which ap- 
 peared from time to time, twenty or thirty 
 years, ago there was much of vituperation and 
 false reasoning ; but it is very seldom that truth 
 is found in party accusation or defence, and he 
 never had even a sense of decency to restrain 
 him, to say nothing of principle. In his wri- 
 tings as well as in his conversation a most ma- 
 licious spirit was evident when he was in the 
 least offended. He raved at the rich because 
 he felt his own poverty, he sneared at the pru- 
 dent because he knew that he was destitute of 
 all economy ; he ridiculed the learned, for he 
 was too indolent to store his mind with useful 
 knowledge ; and, like many, he affected to de- 
 spise what he had not industry to obtain. He re- 
 lied in middle life, and in old age on the acquire- 
 ments of his youth, which were respectable, but 
 the starved mind soon discovers its deficiencies 
 and weakness. He that does not sow and reap, 
 in seed time and harvest, and that on every sea- 
 son, will soon deal out straw and chaff for 
 21*
 
 238 BARTLET. 
 
 sheaves, and provender. As his head grew 
 more empty his heart grew more rotten, for the 
 time must be filled up with something ; and when 
 emulation ceases envy must come to fill every 
 void of the heart. All the good kind men did 
 him produced only a momentary impression, and 
 his gratitude was a mere transient matter of 
 sunshine, while his resentments were rancour- 
 ous and lasting. The heart and the head fre- 
 quently become diseased together. In his times 
 of distress he attempted to poise himself on his 
 philosophy ; but it was a shallow, cold, heartless, 
 infidel philosophy, destitute of hope or enthusi- 
 asm, and which could only be supported by hu- 
 man pride. It was that bravery whose parent 
 is cowardice, and which prefers the impulses of 
 desperation to the dictates of a deliberate judg- 
 ment, that gave the semblance of energy to 
 any part of his conduct. The empire either of 
 wit, or of any other power, mental, political, or 
 adventitious soon passes away, unless the most 
 strenuous exertions are made to maintain and 
 extend it. The wit which once " set the table in 
 a roar," loses its point by repetition, and the 
 laugh, once so contagious that the gravest could 
 not resist it, after a while becomes " stale, flat, 
 and unprofitable," Fashion is every thing, but 
 fashion soon passes away, or rather changes 
 her form, for she is truly eternal in spirit, and 
 power ; and the joke that was once racy and
 
 BARTLET. 339 
 
 piquant, after awhile, becomes dull and ceases 
 to attract attention, and the sentimental or na- 
 tional song, takes its place. Foot was some- 
 times tedious, and Sheridan maudlin, prosaic and 
 intolerable ; and they tired their companions 
 even when their talents were brought to a bet- 
 ter market than Bartlet could find in this coun- 
 try for his. 
 
 An imprudent man frequently under the ap- 
 pearance of carelessness and great liberality, 
 is selfish and exclusive, and often attempts to 
 put down the claims of justice by an assumption 
 of generosity ; and the complaints of a large 
 creditor, for his total loss, are drowned in the 
 abundant thanks, and noisy gratitude of some 
 recipient of a slight benefaction. There is no 
 particle of resentment or malice in the remarks 
 I have made on the subject of this memoir, nor 
 any wish to keep his failings alive. The sketch 
 was made to show the young the vanity of a 
 reputation for wit, and the folly of struggling to 
 be thought a genius, unless industry, and ex- 
 panded feeling are allied to distinguished powers 
 and happy gifts. Of Bartlet the world may 
 speak freely, for his father has long since gone 
 down with sorrow to the grave, and the wife of 
 his youth was obliged to desert him when ten. 
 derness and affection had become strangers to 
 his bosom ; and he left no child to blush at his 
 father's failings. If the dead, not claimed by re-
 
 240 BARTLET. 
 
 lations or friends, may be taken by common con- 
 sent to the theatre of the anatomist for the pub- 
 lie good, surely the character of one whose life 
 may serve to warn us of the dangers incident 
 to our journey from youth to the grave, or teach 
 us to shun the vices of society as we pass on, is 
 common property for the moralist or sermoni- 
 zer. If there was any thing in such a life to 
 attract attention, there was nothing to secure 
 respect. No mourner followed his hearse, no 
 poet sung his dirge, and where rest his ashes 
 no one will inquire. So pass away the profli- 
 gate and the unprincipled.
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Boston, -, 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I HAVE not had sufficient leisure to exe- 
 cute that part of your commission which relates 
 to those distinguished men of the United States 
 who have just gone off the stage. They are not 
 numerous, as the old revolutionists are falling like 
 autumnal leaves, and those of the next genera- 
 tion begin rapidly to follow"; of the first class 
 much has been said, of the second but little, for 
 there has not been much time to think of their 
 merits. And perhaps it is not best to say much 
 about them now, as there is a revolution taking 
 place in the public mind, and it may be well to 
 wait until this has become settled. Men were 
 estimated according to their offices, the people 
 are becoming wise, and they will be estimated 
 according to their merits. I have sketched one 
 you inquired after, general Brown, and the oth- 
 ers I send you, are well known to me. 
 
 The physical force of the army of the United 
 States is nothing. A few thousand troops are 
 to be found at the different forts and canton.
 
 242 GEN. BROWN. 
 
 merits along the seaboard and frontiers ; the plan 
 pursued i think is admirable. They support of- 
 ficers and not soldiers. These officers are men 
 of intellect and good morals and instead of gov- 
 erning men, which would afford them no oppor- 
 tunity of improving their minds, they are enga- 
 ged in scientific pursuits and are serviceable to 
 the country by making its topography known to 
 all sorts of people. In case of war men can be 
 raised and disciplined in a short time under skil- 
 ful officers. The last war gave sufficient evi- 
 dence of American bravery, but there was a 
 lack of well informed officers. There were men 
 among them of great talents, and who managed 
 well, but even these would acknowledge that 
 there were but few scientific officers at the com- 
 mencement of the war, and that the army suf- 
 fered much, for the want of them. Although it 
 sometimes happens that circumstances create the 
 necessary talents for the occasion, yet it is much 
 better to have men acquainted with all that has 
 been done in war or peace ready for service. 
 Among those men who have started up at the 
 moment they are wanted, and act their part 
 with honour, was the late major general Brown. 
 He began life with the peaceful tenets of a qua- 
 ker, and pursued the unobtrusive employment of 
 a teacher of youth. For some time he was not 
 aware of the spirit that was within him, but at 
 length he saw the sun rise and set, while he was
 
 GEN. BROWN. 243 
 
 in the same dull round of humble duty, and the 
 thought came over him that he was destined for 
 something of a more active nature. In 1799 
 he went on to the frontiers and purchased a lot 
 of land, took his axe, and began to fell the for- 
 rest with his own hand, in order to commence a 
 settlement. This was soon done ; he purchased 
 more land ; and was made Agent for M. Le Roy 
 de Chaumont, a distinguished Frenchman who 
 owned a large tract of that country, and was in- 
 dustrious in obtaining settlers, and when he had 
 enough for a company of militia they were form- 
 ed, and he so far shook off the quaker as to take 
 the command of them, at their urgent request. 
 From the command of a company he soon found 
 himself at the head of a regiment and from that 
 office, at the commencement of the war of 1812, 
 he was raised to a major general, and when 
 the militia were first called upon to assist the 
 regular troops on the frontiers, his name had 
 hardly reached head quarters at Washington ; 
 but such was his promptness, efficiency and 
 success, that the general government, not a little 
 embarrassed at the previous disasters in that 
 quarter, proffered him a high command in the ar- 
 my of the United States. It was accepted and 
 he moved on from one degree of fame to anoth- 
 er in this short war, until he found himself at 
 the head of the army, and at the return of peace 
 he made his head quarters at Washington, and
 
 244 EN. BROWN. 
 
 remained there until his death in 1828. Ge- 
 neral Brown was considerably above the com- 
 mon height, over six feet. His countenance 
 was a fine assemblage of regular, good sized 
 features, which most admirably expressed his 
 striking characteristics, mildness and determina- 
 tion. He had nothing in his manners of that 
 importance and vanity which often accompanies 
 a self-made man ; on the contrary, he was for 
 ever on the watch to gain something new. He 
 was well aware of his early deficiencies as a 
 military man, as any one would be ; and he took 
 the advice of those in whom he had confidence, 
 and weighed it in a sound balance ; and of course 
 was seldom wrong. If he was not the master 
 spirit of the army, he was well calculated to be 
 at its head, he managed all so gently, and im- 
 partially. He was as much esteemed in pri- 
 vate as in public life. In the social circles at 
 Washington, he thought nothing of that pride of 
 office so common with little men ; but was affa- 
 ble to all. The public deeds of such men will 
 find historians enough in every future age ; but 
 we should see on the records of the present 
 hour, something said of their private virtues. 
 These gems of Kfe, though lasting as eternity, 
 are often buried in the dust at the base of the 
 pyramid of a great man's fame. Brown was a 
 general of a primitive cast ; he emulated anti 
 quity ;
 
 WILLIAM TUDOR. 245 
 
 C( Have you not heard of Lacedoemon's fame? 
 Of Attic chiefs in Freedom's war divine? 
 Of Rome's dread generals? the Valerian name ? 
 The Fabian sons? The Scipio's matchless line? 
 Your lot was theirs. The farmer and the swain 
 Met his loved patron's summons from the plain; 
 The Legions gathered ; the bright eagles flew ; 
 Barbarian monarchs in the triumph mourned, 
 The conquerors to their household gods returned, 
 And fed Calabriau flocks, and steered the Sabine 
 plough." 
 
 The United States has recently met with a 
 loss in the death of the Hon. WILLIAM TUDOR, 
 late charge d' affaires to the Emperor of Brazil, 
 from this country. Mr. Tudor was born in Bos- 
 ton, in 1777. He graduated from Harvard 
 College 1796 ; and although very young, was 
 among the first scholars of his class. Soon af- 
 ter leaving college, he travelled in Europe, and 
 acquired a great fund of useful knowledge, with- 
 out contracting the slightest touch of that man- 
 ner which so often marks the travelled youth on 
 his return to his native country. " Sirs, I have 
 seen, and sure I ought to know," was no part of 
 his manners. It must be confessed, that he re. 
 turned to his native city, warm and bright from 
 all the lovely retreats of learning, and enlight- 
 ened from the halls of science, and brought with 
 him the noble ambition of attempting to make 
 his countrymen turn their attention to literature 
 and science, and to cultivate a taste for the arts. 
 22
 
 246 WILLIAM TUDOR. 
 
 For this he changed the Anthology into a quar- 
 terly review, which was called the North Ame- 
 rican Review, and at once established a proud, 
 and I trust, a permanent literary work for his 
 country. It was, indeed, a great undertaking. 
 The taste of the writers of this country had not 
 been, at that time, well developed. There were 
 two schools, or rather two styles then in vogue. 
 The quaintness of a former age had, from some 
 few incipient principles of taste, become un- 
 fashionable, and the bold, extravagant, tasteless 
 manner of writing had followed it, except by a 
 few who were disgusted with this style of wri- 
 ting, and these took a different course, and wrote 
 with affected simplicity. They were both bad 
 enough ; one bloated, flushed, and dropsical, 
 and the other lean, emaciated, and bloodless. 
 Tudor was well prepared by precept and exam- 
 ple, to correct these evils of literature ; for he 
 was not only learned, but mild, modest, and 
 persevering. He offended none by dictatorial 
 air, or pedantic assumption. He was not timid, 
 however, in his course ; nor did he, like most 
 critics, discover an unwillingness to write any 
 thing but reviews, for fear of finding critics in 
 his turn, but was ready to be subject to his own 
 rules. He wrote two or more works : two, cer- 
 tainly ; for his own name is affixed to one, and 
 the other was avowed by him. These works 
 show no small share of thought, but are more
 
 WILLIAM TUDOR. 247 
 
 remarkable for a pure and gentlemanly style 
 than for any extraordinary efforts of genius. 
 
 Mr. Tudor was for several years a member of 
 the legislature of the state of Massachusetts, and 
 though not remarkably popular with the country 
 members, yet he was respected by all of them. 
 In his travels he had so disciplined his mind, 
 that he seemed too mild for party times ; and 
 they put down for tameness and indifference, 
 that which was the result of gentlemanly feel- 
 ings and polished manners. It can be said of 
 Mr. Tudor, that he spoke merely on those subjects 
 in which he was most particularly interested for 
 the commonwealth, and never uttered a word for 
 popularity or fame. Never was there a man of 
 more singleness of heart, or purity of motives. 
 Some of the wise members of the legislature 
 thought him a little romantic ; but while they 
 voted against his plans, were fully convinced 
 that he was an honest man. Most of the mat- 
 ters he prepared, when in that body, have since 
 been acted upon ; and in many instances, ac- 
 cording to his wishes at that time. There was 
 no avarice, no corroding ambition in his soul. 
 He was a bachelor, and only wanted an elegant 
 competency ; he asked no more ; and had he 
 possessed more, it would have been devoted to 
 the advancement of letters and the sciences. 
 He had been much abroad, but never lost sight 
 of his own country ; and in fact it is to be be-
 
 248 WILLIAM TUDOR. 
 
 lieved, that he loved it the more from residing 
 in other countries. 
 
 This is the effect of travel upon a well regula- 
 ted mind. He was a patron and friend to the 
 Boston Athenaeum, and considered Harvard Uni- 
 versity as an Alma Mater indeed. It has been 
 said that he first suggested the erection of a 
 monument on Bunker Hill. If this is not cor- 
 rect, as it cannot be, he was the mover of the 
 plan for erecting the very monument which has 
 been begun, and is now pretty nearly raised, and 
 which will, in good time, be finished. He went 
 further than the erection of a simple obelisk, to 
 catch the gaze of the passing traveller, and pre- 
 pared a temple also ; not only as a repository 
 of the archives of the country, but of the relics 
 of the antiquities of it also. This was a noble 
 plan, and will be followed up, most religiously, 
 in due time ; but the people here are in the habit 
 of requiring the accomplishment of such great 
 matters in too short a time. 
 
 Mr. Tudor moved in the most intellectual cir- 
 cles in his native city, and was distinguished 
 for elevation, refinement and accomplishments 
 among its members. Such was his serenity of 
 temper that even that most irritating of all dis- 
 eases, the gout, which with him was hereditary, 
 and severe, never disturbed his temper. He 
 pursued his labours when the fit was upon him 
 and wrote with composure when his pain was
 
 WILLIAM TUDOR. 249 
 
 almost insupportable. In 1822 Mr. Tudor was 
 appointed consul to Lima. He was anxious for 
 this office, not for its emoluments, for those were 
 trifling, but he wished to read the character of 
 that portion of the world, for he ksew from its 
 history that it must have many new features in 
 it, and it had just come into the family of nations. 
 He was industrious while he was consul, in col- 
 lecting materials for some future work. From 
 Lima he was sent to Brazil as charge d' affaires. 
 In this situation he was an honour to ihis coun- 
 try. This people were soon apprised of his 
 rank as a literary man, and highly respected 
 him as a public functionary. In some most criti- 
 cal situations he maintained the dignity of his 
 government, and at the same time insinuated 
 himself into the affections of the Emperor. The 
 foreign ministers were his friends, and admirers, 
 for they found him a high minded man, and an 
 open, gentle, yet determined politician. Such 
 men should be sent abroad, who are the 
 pride of the people at home. Mr. Tudor was 
 from the cradle to the grave, a gentleman. He 
 descended from a family that had been opulent 
 for several generations, although by the changes 
 of fortune he inherited nothing of consequence. 
 His father, Judge Tudor, was one of the most 
 accomplished men of his age. He was a law 
 student with the late patriot, John Adams, and 
 Boon after coming to the bar, was appointed 
 22*
 
 250 WILLIAM TUDOR. 
 
 judge advocate general of the army of Washing, 
 ton, then at Cambridge. On the close of the 
 year 1777, he was called on to conduct the trial 
 of col. Henely, arrested on charges preferred 
 by General Burguoyne, for oppression, &c. 
 to some of his soldiers. The English general 
 was a most accomplished scholar, and made in 
 this trial a most eloquent and able argument in 
 support of the charges and specifications he had 
 brought forward. Tudor has often said that it 
 was equal to any speech he ever heard from any 
 one ; and Burguoyne said the young American 
 judge advocate went through his duties as a gen- 
 tleman and a man of learning and good sense. 
 Henely was acquitted. 
 
 There has been a meagre report of the trial 
 which has come down to the present genera- 
 tion, but from which nothing of importance as to 
 the particulars can be learned ; but one of the 
 court some years since, informed me, as I was 
 anxious to learn any thing of General Bur- 
 guoyne, that thi^trial called forth on both sides 
 very conspicuous talents. Judge Tudor has been 
 dead only about vn years, and is remembered 
 in Boston as one of those pleasant and intellec- 
 tual men that one meets in genteel society, and 
 who are communicative and happy, having a 
 large circle of affectionate acquaintance. His 
 son William was the idol of his heart, for in ear- 
 ly youth he was of a graver mien than his father,
 
 JUDGE WASHINGTON. 251 
 
 who was truly one of the most playful and face- 
 tious men that ever gave zest to a dinner, or life 
 to an evening party ; he had one of the kindest 
 dispositions that ever man possessed, and it 
 shed its sweet influences every where, in do- 
 mestic and public life. 
 
 The papers have just announced that Bushrod 
 Washington, the senior associate judge of the 
 .supreme court of the United States, died at Phil- 
 adelphia, while on a circuit of his official duties. 
 The judge was an excellent man, and was be- 
 loved by all who knew him. His person was 
 under the common size, his face pale, his coun- 
 tenance as serene as if he had passed his life in 
 a cloister ; there was no mark of passion, or re- 
 sentment in any lineament of his physiognomy. 
 He had been on the supreme bench for thirty 
 years, and never had but one of his decisions 
 overruled by the full court. He was so cautious 
 and examined every subject so critically, and 
 thoroughly, that he came to his results by a pure 
 process of reasoning, freed from the prejudices 
 and partialities which so easily, beset human na- 
 ture, even in high places, and responsible sta- 
 tions. He was the favourite nephew of that 
 great and good man who has given immortality 
 to the name of Washington, and was his imme- 
 diate successor at Mount Vernon. In this man- 
 sion for many years he has displayed all the vir-
 
 252 JUDGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 tues of domestic life and exercised all those hos- 
 pitable feelings so prominent in the character of 
 his illustrious uncle. Judge Washington was 
 not content with a faithful discharge of his du- 
 ty as a magistrate only, but added to it the la- 
 bours of a member of almost all the charitable 
 societies of the country, which are so many 
 sacrifices that go up to Heaven to be heard in 
 mercy, to propitiate through a Kedeemer, the 
 Father of all things toward his sinful children on 
 Earth. His rank, talents, and influence in socie- 
 ty did much to induce the wavering to join in 
 the great work of phi'anthropy and religion and 
 to keep steadfast those who had commenced the 
 work in good earnest. He was for several years 
 President of the Colonization Society, and deep- 
 ly engaged in the objects of that association. He 
 was a slave-holder, but he was not insensible to 
 the evils of the system, which was every day 
 impoverishing his native state, and diminishing 
 her influence in the Federal government. He 
 had the right feelings on the subject ; they were 
 drawn from observation and experience, the true 
 sources of intelligence and wisdom. 
 
 Judge Washington was so unobtrusive in his 
 manners, so delicate and refined in his feelings, 
 that his merits were not sufficiently known to the 
 great body of the people, for them to estimate 
 his intellectual and moral worth correctly. Like 
 his uncle, he died childless, and left his estate
 
 JUDGE WASHINGTON. 253 
 
 to a collateral branch of his family, who will now 
 take his place at the hospitable mansion of the 
 great patriot and chieftain, whose name belongs 
 to his country ; of whom it was wisely said, that 
 " Heaven wrote him childless, that millions might 
 find in him a father. Mount Vernon should no 
 longer be the property of an individual, for it has 
 become a place of pilgrimage for every patriot 
 traveller of the land ; and foreigners too, consi- 
 der the spot where the ashes of Washington re- 
 pose, as hallowed ground. His bones should 
 ever be mouldering there, and never be removed 
 from these abodes of primitive simplicity. The 
 nation should be proprietors of the soil ; the na- 
 tion should guard the*dead, and individuals of 
 his family should be relieved from the perpetual 
 vigils at his tomb, which the veneration of the 
 people for the memory of Washington have 
 made it indispensably necessary for them to 
 keep. The capitol is not a proper place for the 
 ashes of the dead. It should be the lonely spot, 
 or the chancel of the house of God. No echoes 
 of angry passions, or party strife, should be 
 heard in the chambers of the mighty dead ; no 
 sound should there be heard but that of prayer 
 and mournful music. The end of mortal man 
 is there ; the hopes of immortal man is there ; 
 and " procul, o procul este profani."
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 New- York, , 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I HAVE given you but a meagre account 
 of the men of mind in the United States. The 
 slight outline, perhaps I may have an opportu- 
 nity to fill up during the course of the summer. 
 Of the beautiful city of Philadelphia, I have said 
 nothing, as I have not had sufficient opportuni- 
 ties to select what is most striking in the char- 
 acteristics of that literary and intelligent place. 
 The people of Philadelphia have taken the lead 
 in the arts, and set a good example to the other 
 cities in the Union, which has been followed in 
 some of them with great spirit. The people of 
 this city have more excellent paintings than 
 perhaps can be found in any other in the Uni- 
 ted States. They have printed more editions of 
 valuable works than other cities ; but perhaps the 
 mass of inventive talent of the nation lies farther 
 to the north. You would be amused to observe 
 the activity of the inventors of this nation. The 
 Patent Office within a year past has been under 
 the care of a man of genius, of the first order of
 
 PATENT OFFICE. 255 
 
 intellect ; his perceptions were rapid beyond 
 description ; he had coursed over the whole field 
 of invention in the ardour of youthful genius, 
 and in every stage, believed that every track 
 was that of his own footsteps. The elements 
 of his mind to many of his friends seemed in a 
 state of absolute confusion, and the images of 
 things past, present and to come, to crowd 
 upon him at once. He received the premi- 
 um offered for a plan for the Capitol, and when 
 it was altered, it was lor economy sake, not for 
 taste. His was decidedly better than the one 
 built upon. Not a model ever came into his 
 office for a patent that he did not declare that 
 he had had some impression of the same thing, 
 and that virtually, he was a prime inventor of 
 it. Dr. Thornton was a man admired by all 
 who knew him, for his genius, industry, good 
 feelings and true philanthropy and charity, his 
 feelings and observations were those of a man 
 who had thought much on every subject. The 
 web of his fame was such, that if honestly ex- 
 amined by the warp, one could find a thread to 
 match any other that could be exhibited. This 
 office with a little of that encouragement that 
 congress might bestow, might truly be made a 
 museum of science. 
 
 The Patent Office is now a subject of deep in- 
 terest to the nation. By a law of the United 
 States, passed among the early acts, and which
 
 256 PATENT OFFICE. 
 
 has been revised by several subsequent acts, the 
 drawings and models of all the machines, and 
 of new and useful inventions, for which a patent 
 has been issued by the President of the United 
 States, were required to be deposited in the Se- 
 cretary's office ; and in a few years this increas- 
 ed greatly in importance to the country, and re- 
 quired large apartments for the models, and be- 
 came, in a measure, a department of itself. 
 Machines of complex principles and of great 
 utility, have often been invented by men of but 
 few literary acquirements, who could, with dif- 
 ficulty, find words to convey the outlines of the 
 principles brought to bear in their patent. 
 Loose descriptions, that did not convey the 
 meaning of the inventor, or such ones that satis- 
 fied the inventor, but gave no correct informa- 
 tion of the invention to others, were every day 
 sent to the office, and produced no little confu- 
 sion. This has been changed, in a great mea- 
 sure, by time ; and not only descriptions of in- 
 ventions are more accurate, but the models are 
 more finished ; and of course the whole busi- 
 ness of the office goes on more regularly. There 
 are now nearly six thousand models collected 
 in the office ; many of them of exquisite work- 
 manship, others of careless construction ; but 
 they exhibit, as a whole, an interesting group of 
 emblems, or representations, "in little" of what 
 are occuping all parts of our country ; on the
 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 257 
 
 streams, the hills, within and without doors, in 
 all places of business, are found the marks of 
 mind involving all the great principles of na- 
 ture and science. 
 
 From these reasoners on motion and matter, 
 we may proceed to another class of philosophers 
 which may be less useful, but not less acute, 
 the metaphysicians. This people reason an all 
 things ; their institutions and the nature of their 
 government in all its minor and major features 
 induce this habit. They no so'oner see effects 
 than they go on to find out causes for them ; 
 right or wrong, they must and will have a rea- 
 son for every thing. Untrammelled minds, how- 
 ever wild they may run, have an air of indepen- 
 dence about them. There are a great many 
 errors of reasoning among free minds, but no 
 errors of the market, as Lord Bacon calls those 
 settled errors of thinking. They have no dog- 
 mas in their creeds, nor hardly any creeds, but 
 such as they alter every day. There is no state 
 religion, and every one reasons upon God and 
 his revelations, as he is persuaded in his own 
 mind. 
 
 If this would be bad in England and other 
 countries, it is precisely suited to this people and 
 their institutions. 
 
 Having the literature of all the world before 
 them, they are intelligent, producing some fine 
 
 as
 
 258 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 writers. The taste of criticism is cultivated be- 
 fore they acquire the habit of writing. And in 
 truth there are but few writers among them, ex- 
 cept writers for periodical journals, considering 
 the number of men capable of holding a pen. 
 Opening their ports to all foreigners, and their 
 literature, and taxing their presses with reprints, 
 until the whole country is gorged with foreign 
 literature, there is nothing to bring forward the 
 offspring of their own minds. The growth of 
 English literature was advanced by depreciating 
 the French writers. The following couplet was 
 constantly in the mouths of the English, 
 
 " The sterling bullion of an English line, 
 
 Drawn in French wire would through whole pages shine." 
 
 This was false enough ; but it answered a 
 good national purpose. German literature, which 
 now is leading off, as among the highest in the 
 world, was half a century ago, nothing ; because 
 they depreciated their own writers, and read 
 French works only. You ought not to judge 
 this people by their writers ; for you might as 
 fairly infer their dress from their manufacturing 
 establishments, as their general knowledge from 
 their writers. They dress in English broadcloth 
 coats, and store their minds with English stand- 
 ard works ; but this people will much sooner 
 clothe themselves in their owa woollens than 
 increase their stock of knowledge by encour- 
 aging their own authors. It is hard to break up
 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 259 
 
 old habits ; the good matron will not be driven 
 to moisten her lips, after her morning prayers 
 or evening walk, with a decoction of sage and 
 balm, when gun-powder and imperial teas are 
 at hand. I must not be misunderstood there is 
 a spirit of education going on among the people, 
 from the nursery to the pulpit, the bench, and to 
 the halls of legislation ; all is full of life and im- 
 provement ; no people under heaven have a 
 greater mass of ready, wholesome, business lit- 
 erature than this. There is much done, and 
 that ably done in all the walks of life ; but in 
 the regions of elevated, tasteful letters, but few 
 are to be found ; and those few are seldom seen. 
 They have no inducement to cultivate literature ; 
 for as such, it is the most unprofitable of all 
 things ; who would write a book when a fresh 
 English one might be had from Campbell, Moore, 
 or Mackintosh for little more than the price of 
 untaxed paper ? This is a people of liberal feel- 
 ings and generous conduct ; they build churches, 
 states houses, and colleges, but they have not 
 as yet extended any thing like liberal patronage 
 to their authors, if authors they may be called 
 who, feeling the divinity within them,"occasion- 
 ally hazard property and quiet, to vent them- 
 selves in prose or rhyme.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 13, line 13, for 1809, read 1812. 
 
 Page 41, line 7, from bottom, after advantages, dele perioj ; an 
 
 line 8 after fashion add a period. 
 
 Page 49, line 4, from top, for His often" read Tt is often, 
 Page 153, line 7, from top, for Geoige G. Percival read J!;.nes G 
 
 Percival, 
 
 Page 170 lines 6 & 7 fromtoj>,/br precious, read, precocious. 
 Page 67, 1st line, for sage whom all men, read sage from whom 
 
 all men, etc. 

 
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