Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2
by Benjamin Perley Poore · English · Gutenberg #20290 · 1,380,113 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2
Author: Benjamin Perley Poore
Release date: January 5, 2007 [eBook #20290]
Most recently updated: May 30, 2007
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20290
Credits: Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERLEY'S REMINISCENCES OF SIXTY YEARS IN THE NATIONAL METROPOLIS, V. 1-2 ***
Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
Transcriber's note:
The digraphs "ae" and "oe" are spelled out for clarity.
The chapter summaries in the Table of Contents are repeated in the
book at the start of each chapter. At the end of each chapter is
a facsimile autograph and a brief biography of the signer. The
running page titles are omitted.
Vol. I, Chap. XLIII: "President's Message or" changed to "President's
Message on"
Vol. II, Chap. IX: "Lamar" changed to "Lamon"
A tabulation of the 1884 Presidential vote totals has been added.
The typographical fist is represented by the right guillamet (").
LoC catalog number: E179.P8
[Frontispiece: perley.jpg]
Engr. by H. B. Hall's Sons, New York
[Signed] Faithfully yours,
Ben: Perley Poore
PERLEY'S
REMINISCENCES
OF SIXTY YEARS IN THE
NATIONAL METROPOLIS
_Illustrating the Wit, Humor, Genius, Eccentricities, Jealousies,
Ambitions and Intrigues of the Brilliant Statesmen, Ladies, Officers,
Diplomats, Lobbyists and other noted Celebrities of the World that
gather at the Centre of the Nation; describing imposing Inauguration
Ceremonies, Gala Day Festivities, Army Reviews, &c., &c., &c._
BY BEN: PERLEY POORE.
_The Veteran Journalist, Clerk of the Senate Printing Records,
Editor of the Congressional Directory, and Author of Various Works._
Illustrated.
VOL. I.
HUBBARD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, PHILADELPHIA.
Boston, Cincinnati, Kansas City; W. A. Houghton, New York; A. W.
Stolp, Chicago; A. W. Mills, Tecumseh, Mich.; E. Holdoway & Co.,
St. Louis; L. S. Varney & Co., Minneapolis; A. L. Bancroft & Co.,
San Francisco.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by
BEN: PERLEY POORE,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
NOTICE TO BOOKSELLERS.
This book is sold exclusively by subscription, all agents being
strictly enjoined by contract from selling in any other way. Any
evasion of this plan of sale will be a trespass upon the copyright
rights of the author. HUBBARD BROS.
PREFACE.
The public favor with which the journalistic writings of the
subscriber have been received prompted the publication of these
volumes. Their object is to give personal details concerning
prominent men and women in social and political life at the National
Metropolis since he has known it. He has especially endeavored to
portray those who "in Congress assembled" have enacted the laws,
and those who have interpreted and enforced the provisions under
which the United States has advanced, during the past sixty years,
from comparative infancy into the vigor of mature manhood, and has
successfully defended its own life against a vigorous attempt at
its destruction.
In chronicling what has transpired within his personal recollection
at the National Metropolis, he has gathered what "waifs" he has
found floating on the sea of chat, in the whirlpools of gossip, or
in the quiet havens of conversation. Some of these may be personal
--piquantly personal, perhaps--but the mighty public has had an
appetite for gossipings about prominent men and measures ever since
the time when the old Athenians crowded to hear the plays of
Aristophanes.
The subscriber is aware that some who write of prominent persons
and political events indulge too much in sycophantic flattery,
while others have their brains addled by brooding on some fancied
wrong, or their minds have lost their even poise by dwelling on
insane reforms or visionary projects. All this may have its use,
but the subscriber has preferred to look at things in a more cheerful
way, to pluck roses rather than nettles, and neither to throw filth
nor to blow trumpets.
While the Republic has preserved with commendable pride the histories
of her statesmen and her martial defenders, it is well that the
memories of those of the gentler sex, who have from time to time
taken prominent part in shaping the destinies of the nation, should
also be remembered. This work will give, it is hoped, an idea of stirring
events in both political and social life, of the great men and the
fascinating women who have figured in Washington during the past
six decades. Those who were too well acquainted with these personal
details to think of recording them are fast passing away, and some
account of them cannot but interest younger generations, while it
will not fail to profit the older politicians, publicists, and
journalists.
The great difficulty in the compilation of the "Reminiscences" has
been the selection from the masses of material accumulated in
diaries, autograph letters, and scrap-books containing published
literary matter. To have given a connected political and social
history of what has transpired at the National Metropolis during
the past sixty years would have required a dozen volumes, so the
most conspicuous features only have been here and there selected.
Confident of the exact truthfulness of the sketches here given,
this work is presented, without apologies, to a generous public as
the result of very extensive observation.
BEN: PERLEY POORE.
INDIAN HILL FARM,
Near Newburyport, Mass.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS BECOMES PRESIDENT.
The Tenth Presidential Election--A Political Bargain--Election of
President--A Scene in the House--Inauguration of J. Q. Adams--The
Adams Administration--The Mistress of the White House--The President's
Private Secretary--Social Life at the White House--President Adams'
Daily Life--Henry Clay as Secretary of State--The Rival Candidates
--The Death of Two Ex-Presidents.
CHAPTER II.
TRAVELING IN "YE OLDEN TIME."
Travel by Stage and Steamboat--Boston to Providence--The Old Town
of Providence--The Long Island Sound Steamers--New York City--New
York to Philadelphia--Philadelphia to Washington--Washington Hotel
Life--Expenses of Living--The Metropolis of the Union--The National
Capital--Works of Art--The Rotunda--Free-Masonry--The Morgan
Excitement--Theatrical--Division of the Friends' Society.
CHAPTER III.
JOURNALISM IN 1828.
Old Georgetown--The Union Tavern--A Natal African Salute--President
George Washington--Major L'Enfant--Newspaper Organs--The National
Intelligencer--The National Journal--Matthew L. Davis--James Gordon
Bennett--Mordecai M. Noah--Other Washington Correspondents--A
Notable Briton--Gambling-Houses--Senatorial Card Playing--Social
Games of Whist.
CHAPTER IV.
PROMINENT SENATORS OF 1827.
The Nineteenth Congress--Vice-President John C. Calhoun--Martin
Van Buren--Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina--Thomas Hart Benton
--Randolph, of Roanoke--Duel between Clay and Randolph--An Offended
Virginian--A Future President--Prominent Senators--Senatorial
Control of Society--The Dancing Assemblies--Fashionable Attire--
Belles of the Period--The Code of Honor.
CHAPTER V.
PROMINENT REPRESENTATIVES OF 1827.
The Representatives' Hall--Admission of Ladies--Webster, of
Massachusetts--Edward Everett--McDuffie, of South Carolina--Rhode
Island's Bald Eagle--A Bargain Exposed--Retrenchment and Reform--
Prominent Representatives--The Supreme Court--Chief Justice Marshall
--Mr. Justice Washington--The Christmas Holidays.
CHAPTER VI.
THE POLITICAL MACHINE.
The Tenth Presidential Campaign--Election of General Jackson--Death
of Mrs. Andrew Jackson--The Inauguration of "Old Hickory"--Reception
at the White House--An Editorial Phalanx--The Civil Service--
Disciplining a Postmaster General--A Fortunate Mail Contractor--
The Sunday Mail Crusade.
CHAPTER VII.
THE KITCHEN CABINET.
Jackson's First Annual Message--The Kitchen Cabinet--Blair, of the
Globe--Washington Newspapers and News--The First Lady-Bird of the
Press--Nathaniel P. Willis--Peter Force--Social Enjoyments--Mrs.
Trollope on Washington Society--Attempt to Oust a Veteran from
Office--Payment of the Claims on France.
CHAPTER VIII.
BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.
The Great Senatorial Debate--Attack on New England--Webster's Reply
to Hayne--Nullification Nipped in the Bud--Society in Jackson's
Day--Mrs. General Eaton--A Chivalrous President--Theatricals--The
Great Tragedian--Minor Amusements--Executive Charity--Swartwouting
--The Star Spangled Banner.
CHAPTER IX.
STAMPING OUT OF NULLIFICATION.
Rejection of Martin Van Buren--The War against the United States
Bank--Nick Biddle, of the Bank--Re-election of General Jackson--
Financial Debate in the Senate--Calhoun, of South Carolina--Secession
Stamped Out--Union Proclamation--The Expunging Resolution--A
Senatorial Scene--An Appeal from the Chair.
CHAPTER X.
PROMINENT MEN OF JACKSON'S TIME.
Harry of the West--Tilt between Clay and Benton--Rebuke of a
Revolutionary Hero--Apt Oratorical Illustration--Daniel Webster's
Wit--An Excited Visitor--The House of Representatives--General
Houston Reprimanded--Eli Moore, of New York--Churchill C. Cambreleng
--Crockett, of Tennessee--Embryo Presidents--Other Distinguished
Representatives--A Jackson Democrat.
CHAPTER XI.
SOCIETY IN JACKSON'S TIME.
The Van Ness Mansion--A Benefactress--A Popular Citizen--A Much-
Talked-of Lawsuit--A Runaway Nun--General Jackson's Diplomacy--
Washington Society--Anecdotes told by Mr. Clay--Maelzel's Automata
--Condemned Literature.
CHAPTER XII.
JACKSON AND HIS ASSOCIATES.
Democratic Rejoicing--Attempt at Assassination--The Political
Guillotine--The Vicar of Bray--Daniel Webster's Memory--Bayard, of
Delaware--The Claytons--Pearce, of Maryland--The Classical and the
Vernacular--Boulanger's--Location of the New Treasury Building--
Hackett, the Comedian--A Jealous Artist--Sumner's First Visit to
Washington--The Supreme Court and its Justices.
CHAPTER XIII.
JACKSON'S LAST YEAR IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
Van Buren as Vice-President--Henry Clay as Champion of the Bank--
Washington's Ceremonial Birthday--Removal of His Remains--The
Decapitation of General Jackson--The President at the Race-Track--
An Old-Time Cock Fight--Wedding at Arlington--The Public Gardener
--Miss Fanny Kemble--Cheese Reception at the White House.
CHAPTER XIV.
VAN BUREN'S STORMY ADMINISTRATION.
Inauguration of Van Buren--His First Reception--Departure of Jackson
for the Hermitage--Van Buren's Embarrassments--The Great Financial
Debate--Antagonism of Clay and Calhoun--An All Night Session--
Morning Excuses--The Graves and Cilley Duel--A Congressional
Comedian.
CHAPTER XV.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT.
The Slavery Agitation--Early Secession Movements--Webster on
Emancipation--His Idea of the Far West--Franklin Pierce's Position
--The Foremost of Orators--Joseph Holt--King, of Alabama--The
Buckshot War--Star Routes--Van Buren's Titles.
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICAL INTRIGUES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
Presidential Hospitalities--Social Entertainments--A Gifted
Adventuress--Espy, the Weather King--A Foreign Indorsement--Van
Buren's Re-election--The Ogle Speech--Van Buren's New Year's
Reception.
CHAPTER XVII.
LOG-CABINS AND HARD CIDER.
The Harrison Campaign--Political Songs--Whig Conventions--Great
Paraders--Corwin's Reply to Crary--Crary's Complete Discomfiture--
The Campaign Paper--Horace Greeley--Henry Clay on the Stump--Amos
Kendall--The Fall Elections--Pipe Laying--The Whigs Triumphant.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ENTER WHIGS--EXIT DEMOCRATS.
The Fourteenth Presidential Election--Enter Harrison--Exit Van
Buren--The Harrison Cabinet--Attack upon Mr. Webster--"The Salt
Boiler of the Kanawha"--The other Cabinet Officers--Harrison's
Inaugural Message--The Inauguration--The Procession--Scenes at the
Capitol--The Inaugural Address--President Harrison's First Reception
--Inauguration Balls.
CHAPTER XIX.
HARRISON'S ONE MONTH OF POWER.
Civil Service Reform--Differences of Opinion--Difficulty between
Clay and King--Washington Correspondents--Verbatim Reports of
Debates--A Popular British Minister--Other Foreign Diplomats--
Quarrelsome Carolinians--Daniel Webster's Housekeeping--Illness of
President Harrison--Death--Funeral--The Last Honors.
CHAPTER XX.
THE KING IS DEAD--LONG LIVE THE KING.
"Le Roi Est Mort; Vive le Roi"--Extra Session of Congress--Trouble
in the Whig Camp--Edward Everett before the Senate--Thurlow Weed--
Dissensions among the Whigs--Cabinet Troubles--Congressional
Criticisms--Cushing and Adams, of Massachusetts--Wise, of Virginia
--Bagby, of Alabama.
CHAPTER XXI.
DIPLOMATIC AND SOCIAL LIFE OF WEBSTER.
The Ashburton Treaty--Diplomatic Negotiations--Speech by Daniel
Webster--Webster's Social Life--Mr. Clay's Nightcaps--Administration
Organs--Justice to John Tyler.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CAPITOL AND THE DRAWING ROOMS.
A Stormy Session--John Quincy Adams at Bay--The Code of Honor--The
Supreme Court--Visit of Charles Dickens--The Secretary of State's
Party--A Reception at the White House--The President's Ball for
Children--Diplomatic Hospitality--Ole Bull--A Troublesome
Congressman.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.
The Accidental President--Virginia Hospitality--Second-Hand Style
--The Pathfinder's Marriage--Baron de Bodisco, of Russia--Mr. Fox,
of Great Britain--The Author of "Sweet Home"--The Daguerreotype--
The Electric Telegraph--The New York Tribune--Resignation of Mr.
Webster--Reconstruction of the Cabinet--Fatal Accident on the
Princeton--Marriage of President Tyler.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW TEXAS BECAME A STATE.
John C. Calhoun, Secretary of State--How Tyler was Managed--Admission
of Texas--Douglas, of Illinois--An Able House of Representatives--
An Exciting Campaign--President Tyler's Programme--Nomination of
Henry Clay--The Democratic Ticket--Surprise of George M. Dallas--
The Liberty Party--Exit John Tyler.
CHAPTER XXV.
PRESIDENT POLK'S ADMINISTRATION.
Inauguration of Polk--His Personal Appearance--Inauguration Balls
--Mrs. Polk--Secretary Buchanan--Governor Marcy, of New York--
Completion of the Cabinet--The Oregon Difficulty--The Mexican War
--A Change of Organist.
CHAPTER XXVI.
DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
Washington Society--An Old Whig Supper--Death of John Quincy Adams
--Abraham Lincoln in the House--Jefferson Davis as a Representative
--The Democratic Nomination--Lewis Cass, of Michigan--The Whig
Convention--Daniel Webster and Henry Clay--Nomination of General
Taylor--Letter of Acceptance--The Free-Soil Movement--Inception of
the Great Conspiracy.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MAKING THE MOST OF POWER.
President Taylor and His Secretary--Selection of the Taylor Cabinet
--The Taylor Family--Jefferson Davis--Inauguration Ceremonies--
Office Seekers--Patronage and Spoils--The Galphin, Gardiner, and
other Claims--The Taylor Administration--The White House.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE GREAT COMPROMISE DEBATE.
Stormy Scenes at the Capitol--Crimination and Recrimination--Taylor's
Only Message--Return of Mr. Clay to the Senate--The Great Compromise
Debate--Webster's Seventh of March Speech--The Last Days of Calhoun
--Jefferson Davis' Leadership--John P. Hale, of New Hampshire.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PROMINENT STATESMEN AND DIPLOMATS.
Sam Houston, of Texas--Seward, of New York--Buchanan, of Pennsylvania
--Agricultural Donations--Diplomatic Representatives--Social
Enjoyments--Winthrop's Farewell Supper--Fatal Illness of General
Taylor--Death of the President.
CHAPTER XXX.
FILLMORE AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
President Fillmore--Funeral of General Taylor--Webster again
Secretary of State--The Compromise Measures--Mrs. Millard Fillmore
--A Proud Father--The Capitol Extension--The Library of Congress--
Washington Society--Public Amusements.
CHAPTER XXXI.
ARRAIGNMENT OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
Accusation Against Mr. Webster--The "Expounder of the Constitution"
Sore at Heart--Belligerent Mississippians--Painting and Sculpture
at the Capitol--Overland Explorations--A Washington Mob--A Washington
Correspondent.
CHAPTER XXXII.
FOREIGN INFLUENCE AND KNOW-NOTHINGISM.
"Filibustering"--The Hulsemann Letter--Kossuth, of Hungary--The
Know-Nothings--Boss Tweed, of New York--Butler, of South Carolina
--Other Prominent Senators--Exit Clay--Enter Sumner--The Officers
of the House.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
PLOTTING FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
President-Making--Political Intrigues--The Democratic Convention--
Nomination of General Pierce--The Whig Candidates--Rivalry Between
Webster and Fillmore--The Last Whig National Convention--Death of
Henry Clay--General Scott as a Candidate--General Frank Pierce, of
New Hampshire--Death of Daniel Webster--General Pierce Elected
President.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PIERCE BECOMES PRESIDENT.
Inauguration of President Pierce--Vice-President King--The Cabinet
--Popularity of the New President--Pryor, of Virginia--Rare Old
Wines--Peale's Portraits of Washington--Brady's Portraits--Visit
of Thackeray--A Copyright Victim--Jullien's Concerts.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CHIVALRY, AT HOME AND ABROAD.
Executive Appointments--The Ostend Manifesto--Mr. Buchanan at London
--The Kansas-Nebraska Debate--Spicy Words Between Breckinridge and
Cutting--Diplomatic Card-Playing--Assistant-Secretary Thomas--The
Amoskeag Veterans.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Formation of the Republican Party--The Election of Speaker--Mr.
Banks Triumphant--Division of the Spoils--A Protracted Session--
Assault on Horace Greeley--Territorial Delegates--The Senate--The
Virginia Senators--"Hale," of New Hampshire.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
POLITICAL STORM AND SOCIAL SUNRISE.
Sumner, of Massachusetts--The Assault on Sumner--Troublous Times--
Congressional Courtesies--Senatorial Wit--Convention of Old Soldiers
--Social Routine at the White House--Society Gatherings.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GROWTH OF THE METROPOLIS.
The Crampton Difficulty--Unsuccessful French Mediation--The Diplomatic
Corps--Information for Publication--Mr. Buchanan in England--
Washington Hotels--The New Hall of the House.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE NORTHERN CHAMPIONS.
Fessenden, of Maine--The Sterling Claim--Social Festivities--Marriage
of Judge Douglas--Congressional Scenes--Secretary of War Davis--
Art and Literature--George W. Childs--J. R. Bartlett.
CHAPTER XL.
EXCITING PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST.
Democratic Candidates for the Presidency--James Buchanan--Stephen
A. Douglas--Delegates to the Cincinnati Convention--The Struggle--
The Disorganized Democracy United--Opposition Nominations--The
Republican Convention--Election of Mr. Buchanan--Counting the Votes.
CHAPTER XLI.
MISS LANE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
President-elect Buchanan--Miss Harriet Lane--The New Cabinet and
the Message--The Newspaper Organs--Inauguration of President Buchanan
--The Inauguration Ball--The Dred Scott Decision--The Minority
Decision.
CHAPTER XLII.
DIPLOMACY, SOCIETY, AND CIVIL SERVICE.
Foreign Relations--Lord Napier, the British Minister--Sir William
Gore Ouseley--Society in Washington--A Fashionable Pretender--Civil
Service--Office Seeking--Choate's Handwriting--The Governors of
Kansas.
CHAPTER XLIII.
PRELUDE TO THE REBELLION.
Organization of the Senate--John Slidell, of Louisiana--Senator
Douglas Opposes the Administration--Ben Wade's Bon Mot--Meeting of
the House--Election of Speaker--Investigation of the Wolcott Attempts
at Bribery--Debates on the Admission of Kansas--Nocturnal Row in
the House--The North Victorious.
CHAPTER XLIV.
POLITICIANS, AUTHORS, AND HUMORISTS.
Wade, of Ohio--Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi--Johnson, of Arkansas
--Anthony, of Rhode Island--Trollope, of England--One of Mike
Walsh's Jokes--Albert Pike's Wake--The Sons of Malta.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS [omitted]
LIST OF AUTOGRAPHS
ANDREW JACKSON
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD
EDWARD EVERETT
HENRY CLAY
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
SILAS WRIGHT, JR.
DANIEL WEBSTER
THOMAS HART BENTON
RICHARD MENTOR JOHNSON
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS
ANDREW STEVENSON
WILLIAM RUFUS KING
MARTIN VAN BUREN
TRISTRAM BURGESS
WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY
THOMAS CORWIN
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
THOMAS EWING
FRANKLIN PIERCE
RUFUS CHOATE
FELIX GRUNDY
CALEB CUSHING
STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS
JAMES KNOX POLK
HENRY STUART FOOTE
ZACHARY TAYLOR
ROBERT CHARLES WINTHROP
WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD
MILLARD FILLMORE
ROBERT JAMES WALKER
JEFFERSON DAVIS
JOHN JORDAN CRITTENDEN
THADDEUS STEVENS
JOHN TYLER
LEWIS CASS
GEORGE WASHINGTON
ABBOTT LAWRENCE
NATHANIEL PRENTISS BANKS
WINFIELD SCOTT
JOHN BUCHANAN FLOYD
PETER FORCE
HOWELL COBB
GEORGE BANCROFT
PERLEY'S REMINISCENCES.
VOL. I.
CHAPTER I.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS BECOMES PRESIDENT.
John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States by
the House of Representatives on February 9th, 1825. At the tenth
popular election for President, during the previous autumn, there
had been four candidates: Andrew Jackson, then a Senator from
Tennessee, who received ninety-nine electoral votes; John Quincy
Adams, of Massachusetts, then Secretary of State under President
Monroe, who received eighty-four electoral votes; William H.
Crawford, of Georgia, then Secretary of the Treasury, who received
forty-one electoral votes, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky, then Speaker
of the House of Representatives, who received thirty-seven electoral
votes--in all two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes. As neither
candidate had received the requisite majority of one hundred and
thirty-one electoral votes, the election of a President devolved
upon the House of Representatives, in which body each State would
have one vote. As the Constitution required that the choice of the
House be confined to the three highest candidates on the list of those
voted for by the electors, and as Mr. Clay was not one of the three,
he was excluded. Exercising, as he did, great control over his
supporters, it was within his power to transfer their strength to
either Adams or Jackson, thus deciding the election. The Legislature
of his State, Kentucky, had to a certain degree instructed him, by
passing a joint resolution declaring its preference for Jackson over Adams,
and Jackson always believed that had he accepted overtures made to
him, for the promise of the Department of State to Mr. Clay, that
would have insured his election.
Mr. Clay decided, however, to request his friends to support Mr.
Adams. To one of them he wrote: "Mr. Adams, you well know, I
should never have selected if at liberty to draw from the whole
mass of our citizens for a President. But there is no danger of
his election now or in time to come. Not so of his competitor, of
whom I cannot believe that killing two thousand five hundred
Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult,
and complicated duties of the Chief Magistracy." Many believed,
however, that a bargain was made between Adams and Clay by which
the latter received, as a consideration for transferring to the
former the votes of Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri, the position of
Secretary of State. The charge was distinctly made by Mr. George
Kremer, a Representative from Pennsylvania, and as positively denied
by Mr. Clay. General Jackson wrote to Major Lewis: "So, you see,
the Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the
thirty pieces of silver. His end will be the same. Was there ever
witnessed such a barefaced corruption in any country before?"
When the Senate and the House of Representatives met in joint
convention to count the electoral votes it was found (as every one
present had known for months) that no one had received the requisite
majority. This was formally announced by Vice-President Daniel D.
Tompkins, who also declared that John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina,
had been elected Vice-President. The Senate, headed by the Vice-
President and its Secretary, Charles Cutts, then retired, and the
House proceeded to ballot for President.
The election was by States. Each State delegation appointed one
of their number to act as chairman, collect their votes, and report
the result. Whoever in each delegation received the most votes
was reported as the choice of that delegation to the tellers--one
from each State--who sat in parties of twelve at two tables. Daniel
Webster, the teller of Massachusetts, was appointed by the tellers
at one of the tables to announce the result of the ballot, and John
Randolph, the teller of Virginia, was appointed to the same service
at the other table. The votes of most of the States were matters
of confident calculation, but those of others were in some degree
doubtful, and there was intense interest manifested as their votes
were counted. At last, when the twenty-four States had voted, Mr.
Webster announced, in his deep voice, that thirteen States had
voted for John Quincy Adams, seven States had voted for Andrew
Jackson, and four States had voted for William H. Crawford. Mr.
Speaker Clay then announced, in sonorous tones: "John Quincy Adams,
having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected
President of the United States for four years, from the 4th of
March next ensuing."
A shout arose from the occupants of the galleries, which Mr. McDuffie
promptly asked might be cleared. The vote was carried, and a young
man, who was Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms, mounting to the broad stone
cornice, which ran around the hall outside of the floor of the
galleries, but on a level with them, exclaimed, as he walked along:
"The Speaker orders the galleries to be cleared; all must retire.
Clear the galleries!" The command was obeyed, to the astonishment
of some of the foreign ministers present, who had been accustomed
to see armed guards at such assemblages, and often to witness their
unsuccessful attempts to move the populace. The House soon afterward
adjourned.
That evening President Monroe gave a public reception at the White
House, which had just been rebuilt after having been burned by the
British army--in 1814. The two candidates, Mr. Adams, the elect,
and General Jackson, the defeated, accidentally met in the East
Room. General Jackson, who was escorting a lady, promptly extended
his hand, saying pleasantly: "How do you do, Mr. Adams? I give
you my left hand, for the right, as you see, is devoted to the
fair. I hope you are very well, sir." All this was gallantly and
heartily said and done. Mr. Adams took the General's hand, and
said, with chilling coldness: "Very well, sir; I hope General
Jackson is well!" The military hero was genial and gracious, while
the unamiable diplomat was as cold as an iceberg.
The inauguration of Mr. Adams, on the 4th of March, 1825, was the
most imposing demonstration ever witnessed at Washington up to that
time. President Monroe called for his successor and they rode
together to the Capitol, escorted by the District uniformed militia
and by a cavalcade of citizens marshaled by Daniel Carroll, of
Duddington, General John Mason, General Walter Smith, and General
Walter Jones, four prominent residents. On reaching the Capitol
the President-elect was received with military honors by a battalion
of the Marine Corps. He was then escorted by a committee of Senators
to the Senate Chamber, where the oath of office was administered
to the Vice-President-elect, John C. Calhoun. The dignitaries
present then moved in procession to the hall of the House of
Representatives, on the floor of which were the Senators and
Representatives, the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps, officers
of the army and navy, and many prominent officials, while the
galleries were filled with handsomely dressed ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. Adams read his inaugural address from the Speaker's desk, after
which the oath of office was administered to him by Chief Justice
Marshall. Salutes were fired from the Navy Yard and the Arsenal,
and the new President was escorted to his house, on F Street, where
he that evening received his friends, for whom generous supplies
of punch and wines were hospitably provided.
President Adams, although at heart instigated by a Puritan intolerance
of those who had failed to conform with himself, was a true patriot,
and as a public man was moved by the highest moral motives. He
was a great statesman in so far as the comprehension of the principles
of government and a mastery of a wide field of information were
concerned, but he could not practically apply his knowledge.
Instead of harmonizing the personal feuds between the friends of
those who had been candidates with him, he antagonized each one
with his Administration at the earliest possible moment, and before
the expiration of his first year in the White House he had wrecked
the Republican party left by Monroe, as completely as his father
had wrecked the Federal party established by Washington.
The President, when in London, had married Miss Louisa Catherine
Johnson. Her father was an American by birth, but just before the
Revolution he went to England, where he resided until after the
independence of the Colonies had been recognized. Mrs. Adams was
well educated, highly accomplished, and well qualified to preside
over the domestic affairs at the White House. She had four children
--three sons and one daughter--of whom one only, Mr. Charles Francis
Adams, survived her. It is related, as evidence of her good sense,
that on one occasion Mrs. Mason, of Analostan Island, called,
accompanied by two or three other ladies belonging to the first
families of Virginia, to enlist Mrs. Adams in behalf of her son-in-
law, Lieutenant Cooper (afterward Adjutant-General of the United
States Army, and subsequently of the Confederate forces), who wanted
to be detailed as an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Macomb.
Mrs. Adams heard their request and then replied: "Truly, ladies,
though Madames Maintenon and Pompadour are said to have controlled
the military appointments of their times, I do not think such
matters appertain to women; but if they did and I had any influence
with Mr. Adams, it should be given to Mrs. Scott, with whom I became
acquainted while traveling last summer."
&&&
Mr. Adams' private secretary was his son, John Adams, who soon made
himself very obnoxious to the friends of General Jackson. One
evening Mr. Russell Jarvis, who then edited the Washington _Telegraph_,
a newspaper which advocated Jackson's election, attended a "drawing
room" at the White House, escorting his wife and a party of visiting
relatives from Boston. Mr. Jarvis introduced them courteously,
and they then passed on into the East Room. Soon afterward they
found themselves standing opposite to Mr. John Adams, who was
conversing with the Rev. Mr. Stetson. "Who is that lady?" asked
Mr. Stetson. "That," replied Mr. John Adams, in a tone so loud
that the party heard it, "is the wife of one Russell Jarvis, and
if he knew how contemptibly he is viewed in this house they would
not be here." The Bostonians at once paid their respects to Mrs.
Adams and withdrew, Mr. Jarvis having first ascertained from Mr.
Stetson that it was Mr. John Adams who had insulted them. A few
days afterward Mr. Jarvis sent a note to Mr. John Adams, demanding
an explanation, by a friend of his, Mr. McLean. Mr. Adams told
Mr. McLean that he had no apology to make to Mr. Jarvis, and that
he wished no correspondence with him.
A week later Mr. John Adams went to the Capitol to deliver messages
from the President to each house of Congress. Having delivered
that addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, he
was going through the rotunda toward the Senate Chamber, when he
was overtaken by Mr. Jarvis, who pulled his nose and slapped his
face. A scuffle ensued, but they were quickly parted by Mr. Dorsey,
a Representative from Maryland. President Adams notified Congress
in a special message of the occurrence, and the House appointed a
select committee of investigation. Witnesses were examined and
elaborate reports were drawn up, but neither the majority nor the
minority recommended that any punishment be inflicted upon Mr.
Jarvis.
Mr. John Adams was married, while his father occupied the White
House, to his mother's niece, Miss Mary Hellen, of Washington.
The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. Hawley, of St. John's Church,
and General Ramsey, who was one of the groomsmen, is authority for
the statement that the President, usually so grave and unsocial,
unbent for the nonce, and danced at the wedding ball in a Virginia
reel with great spirit.
The foreign diplomats were recognized as leaders in Washington
society, and one of the Secretaries of Legation created a sensation
by appearing on Pennsylvania Avenue mounted on a velocipede imported
from London. Pennsylvania Avenue was then bordered with scraggy
poplar trees, which had been planted under the direction of President
Jefferson.
Mr. Adams found the furniture of the White House in a dilapidated
condition. Thirty thousand dollars had been appropriated by Congress
for the purchase of new furniture during the Administration of Mr.
Monroe; but his friend, Colonel Lane, Commissioner of Public
Buildings, to whom he had intrusted it, became insolvent, and died
largely in debt to the Government, having used the money for the
payment of his debts, instead of procuring furniture. When a
appropriation of fourteen thousand dollars was made, to be expended
under the direction of Mr. Adams, for furniture, he took charge of
it himself. This was severely criticised by the Democratic press,
as was the purchase of a billiard table for the White House, about
which so much was said that Mr. John Adams finally paid the bill
from his own pocket.
Mrs. Adams won popularity at Washington by the graceful manner in
which she presided over the hospitalities of the White House. The
stiff formalities of the "drawing-rooms" of Mrs. Washington and
Mrs. John Adams, and the free-and-easy "receptions" of Mr. Jefferson's
daughters, had been combined by Mrs. Madison into what she christened
"levees", at which all ceremonious etiquette was banished. Mrs.
Monroe, who had mingled in the fashionable circles of London and
Paris, as well as of her native city of New York, had continued
these evening "levees," and Mrs. Adams, in turn, not only kept up
the custom, but improved the quality of the refreshments, which
were handed around on waiters by servants.
Mr. Adams used to rise between four and six o'clock, according to
the season, and either take a ride on horseback or walk to the
Potomac River, where he bathed, remaining in the water for an hour
or more in the summer. Returning to the White House, he read two
chapters of the Bible and then glanced over the morning papers
until nine, when he breakfasted. From ten until four he remained
in the Executive Office, presiding over Cabinet meetings, receiving
visitors, or considering questions of state. Then, after a long
walk, or a short ride on horseback, he would sit down to dine at
half-past five, and after dinner resume his public duties.
On one occasion Mr. Adams imperiled his life by attempting to cross
the Potomac in a small boat, accompanied by his son John and by
his steward, Michael Antoine Ginsta, who had entered his service
at Amsterdam in 1814. Intending to swim back, they had taken off
nearly all of their clothes, which were in the boat. When about
half-way across, a gust of wind came sweeping down the Potomac,
the boat filled with water, and they were forced to abandon it and
swim for their lives to the Virginia Shore. By taking what garments
each one had on, Antoine managed to clothe himself decently, and
started across the bridge to Washington. During his absence, Mr.
Adams and his son swam in the river, or walked to and fro on the
shore. At last, after they had been about three hours undressed,
Antoine made his appearance with a carriage and clothing, so they
were able to return to Washington. Mr. Adams purchased that day
a watch, which he gave Antoine to replace one which he had lost in
the boat and alluded to the adventure in his journal that night as
"a humiliating lesson and a solemn warning not to trifle with
danger." A few weeks later a Revolutionary veteran named Shoemaker,
went in to bathe at Mr. Adams' favorite spot, the Sycamores, was
seized with cramp, and was drowned. The body was not recovered
until the next morning while Mr. Adams was in the water; but the
incident did not deter him from taking his solitary morning baths,
which he regarded as indispensable to health. Mr. Adams took great
interest in arboriculture, and was a constant reader of Evelyn.
He had planted in the grounds of the White House the acorns of the
cork-oak, black walnuts, peach, plum, and cherry stones, apple and
pear seeds, and he watched their germination and growth with great
interest. A botanic garden was established under his patronage,
and naval officers were instructed to bring home for distribution
the seeds of such grains and vegetables as it might seem desirable
to naturalize. The seeds thus collected were carefully distributed
through members of Congress, and several important varieties of
vegetables were thus introduced. Down to the present day the yearly
distribution of seeds to rural communities is an important item of
Congressional duty.
Henry Clay was the _premier_ and the most important member of Mr.
Adams' cabinet. He evidently regarded the Department of State as
a stepping-stone to the Executive Mansion, and hoped that he would
be in time promoted, as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy
Adams. The foreign policy of the Administration, which encouraged
the appointment of a Minister to represent the United States in
the Congress of American Republics at Panama, although in accordance
with the "Monroe Doctrine," was denounced as Federalism. Mr. Clay,
who had never been a Federalist, did not wish to be regarded as a
restorer of the old Federal party, and he accordingly began to
create the Whig party, of which he naturally became the leader.
Mr. Clay made a good Secretary of State, but his place was in
Congress, for he was formed by nature for a popular orator. He
was tall and thin, with a rather small head, and gray eyes, which
peered forth less luminously than would have been expected in one
possessing such eminent control of language. His nose was straight,
his upper lip long, and his under jaw light. His mouth, of generous
width, straight when he was silent, and curving upward at the
corners as he spoke or smiled, was singularly graceful, indicating
more than any other feature the elastic play of his mind. When he
enchained large audiences, his features were lighted up by a winning
smile, the gestures of his long arms were graceful, and the gentle
accents of his mellow voice were persuasive and winning. Yet there
has never been a more imperious despot in political affairs than
Mr. Clay. He regarded himself as the head-centre of his party--
_L'etat, c'est moi_--and he wanted everything utilized for his
advancement.
General Jackson was meanwhile being brought before the public,
under the direction of Aaron Burr, Martin Van Buren, and Edward
Livingston, as a "man of the people." They had persuaded him to
resign his seat in the Senate of the United States, where he might
have made political mistakes, and retire to his farm in Tennessee,
while they flooded the country with accounts of his military exploits
and his social good qualities. Daniel Webster told Samuel Breck,
as the latter records in his diary, that he knew more than fifty
members of Congress who had expended and pledged all they were
worth in setting up presses and employing other means to forward
Jackson's election.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of the three survivors of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, passed hence on the
Fourth of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of their signing
the Magna Charta of our Republic. Their names had been inseparably
connected in the minds and upon the lips of the people, as their
labors were united in bringing about the events of the Revolution
and its final triumph. Mr. Jefferson was the writer, Mr. Adams
the orator, of the Congress of '76. The one penned the Declaration
of Independence, the other was pronounced "the pillar of its support
and its ablest advocate and defender." Mr. Jefferson called Mr.
Adams "the Colossus of the Congress," the most earnest, laborious
member of the body, and its animating spirit. For the loss of
these men, though they fell as a ripe shock of corn falleth--both
having arrived at an advanced age--Mr. Adams over ninety--the whole
nation clothed itself in mourning.
CHAPTER II.
TRAVELING IN "YE OLDEN TIME."
The old stage route between Boston and New York, before John Quincy
Adams was President, passed through Worcester, Springfield, Hartford,
and Norwalk. Passengers paid ten dollars for a seat and were fifty-
six hours or more on the road. This gave way about 1825 to the
steamboat line via Providence, which for five dollars carried
passengers from Boston to New York in twenty-four hours.
Stage books for the Providence line were kept in Boston at offices
in different parts of the city, where those wishing to go the next
day registered their names. These names were collected and brought
to the central stage office in the Marlboro Hotel at ten o'clock
each night, where they were arranged into stage-loads, each made
up from those residing in the same part of the city. At four
o'clock in the morning a man started from the stage office in a
chaise to go about and wake up the passengers, that the stage need
not be kept waiting. The large brass door knockers were vigorously
plied, and sometimes quite a commotion was caused by "waking up
the wrong passenger."
In due time the stage made its appearance, with its four spirited
horses, and the baggage was put on. Trunks, which were diminutive
in size compared with those now used, were put on the rack behind,
securely strapped; valises and packages were consigned to the depths
of a receptacle beneath the driver's seat, and bandboxes were put
on the top. The back seat was generally given to ladies and elderly
gentlemen, while young men usually sought a seat on top of the
stage, by the side of the driver. When the passengers had been
"picked up," the stages returned to the stage office, where they
way-bills were perfected and handed to the drivers. As the Old
South clock was striking five, whips were cracked, and the coaches
started at the rate of ten miles an hour, stopping for breakfast
at Timothy Gay's tavern in Dedham, where many of the passengers
visited the bar to imbibe Holland gin and sugar-house molasses--a
popular morning beverage.
Breakfast over, away the stages went over the good turnpike road
at a rapid pace. Those who were fellow passengers, even if strangers
to one another, gradually entered into conversation, and generally
some one of them was able to impart information concerning the
route. Occasionally the stage would rattle into a village, the
driver giving warning blasts upon his long tin horn that he claimed
the right of way, and then dash up to a wayside inn, before which
would be in waiting a fresh team of horses to take the place of
those which had drawn the coach from the previous stopping-place.
Time was always afforded those passengers who desired to partake
of libations at the tavern bar, and old travelers used to see that
their luggage was safe.
Providence was in due time reached, and the procession of stages
whirled along the narrow street beneath the bluff, swaying heavily
with the irregularities of the road. The steamboats lay at India
Point, just below the town, where immense quantities of wood were
piled up, for each boat consumed between thirty and forty cords on
a trip through Long Island Sound.
The stages used to reach India Point about half-past eleven o'clock,
and the boat would start for New York precisely at twelve. There
were no state-rooms, the passengers occupying berths, and at the
dinner and supper the captain of the boat occupied the head of the
table, having seated near him any distinguished passengers.
Occasionally there was an opposition line with sharp rivalries,
and at one time a then rising New Yorker, Cornelius Vanderbilt,
carried passengers from New York to Boston for one dollar.
On arriving at New York, the passengers had to look out for their
luggage, and either engage hacks or hand-cartmen, who for twenty-
five cents would carry a trunk to any part of the city. The city
then, be it remembered, did not reach up Manhattan Island above
the vicinity of Broome or Spring Streets, although there were beyond
that the villages of Greenwich, Bloomingdale, Yorkville, and Harlem.
The City Hotel, on Broadway, just above Trinity Churchyard, Bunker's
Hotel, lower down, and the Washington Hotel, which occupied the
site of the Stewart building above the Park, were the principal
public houses. The Boston stages stopped at Hall's North American
Hotel, at the corner of Bayard Street and the Bowery, and there
were many boarding-houses where transient guests were accommodated.
From New York, travelers southward went by steamboat to Elizabethport,
where they were transferred to stages, and crossed New Jersey to
Bordentown on the Delaware River, where a steamer was in waiting
to transport them to Philadelphia. This was a long and fatiguing
day's journey, and a majority of travelers remained over a day in
Philadelphia, where the hotels were excellent and there were many
objects of attraction.
Leaving Philadelphia in a steamboat, passengers went down the
Delaware to New Castle, whence they crossed in stages to Frenchtown
on the Elk River, and there re-embarked on steamers, which took
them down and around to Baltimore, another long and fatiguing day's
trip. At each change from boat to stage, or from stage to boat,
passengers had to see that their luggage was transferred, and it
was generally necessary to give a quarter to the porter. Baggage
checks and the checking of baggage were then unknown.
Between Baltimore and Washington there were opposition lines of
stages and a good turnpike road. There had been, when I first went
over the road, some daring robberies by "road agents," and the mail
coaches were protected by a guard, who occupied a perch on the roof
over the boot and was armed with a blunderbuss. This weapon had
a funnel-shaped barrel, a flint lock, took about half a pint of
buckshot for a charge, and was capable of destroying a whole band
of robbers at once. In due time the flat, wide dome of the Capitol,
which resembled an inverted wash-bowl, was visible, and the stage
was soon floundering through the broad expanse of mud or of dust
known as Pennsylvania Avenue, taking passengers to the doors of
the hotels or boarding-houses which they had previously indicated.
When Congress first met at Washington there was but one hotel there
and one in Georgetown. Others were, however, soon erected, and
fifty-eight years ago there were half a dozen. The favorite
establishment was the Indian Queen Hotel, which occupied the site
of the present Metropolitan Hotel and was designated by a large
swinging sign upon which figured Pocahontas, painted in glaring
colors. The landlord, Jesse Brown, who used to come to the curbstone
to "welcome the coming guests," was a native of Havre-de-Grace and
had served his apprenticeship to tavern-keeping in Hagerstown and
in Alexandria. A glance at the travelers as they alighted and were
ushered by him into the house would enable him mentally to assign
each one to a room, the advantages of which he would describe ere
sending its destined occupant there under the pilotage of a colored
servant. When the next meal was ready the newly arrived guest was
met at the door of the dining-room by Mr. Brown, wearing a large
white apron, who escorted him to a seat and then went to the head
of the table, where he carved and helped the principal dish. The
excellencies of this--fish or flesh or fowl--he would announce as
he would invite those seated at the table to send up their plates
for what he knew to be their favorite portions; and he would also
invite attention to the dishes on other parts of the table, which
were carved and helped by the guests who sat nearest them. "I have
a delicious quarter of mutton from the Valley of Virginia," Mr.
Brown would announce in a stentorian tone, which could be heard
above the clatter of crockery and the din of steel knives and forks.
"Let me send you a rare slice, Mr. A." "Colonel B., will you not
have a bone?" "Mrs. C., send up your plate for a piece of the
kidney." "Mrs. D., there is a fat and tender mongrel goose at the
other end of the table." "Joe, pass around the sweet potatoes."
"Colonel E., will you help to that chicken-pie before you?"
The expense of living at the Indian Queen was not great. The price
of board was one dollar and seventy-five cents per day, ten dollars
per week, or thirty-five dollars per month. Transient guests were
charged fifty cents for breakfast, the same for supper, and seventy-
five cents for dinner. Brandy and whisky were placed on the dinner-
table in decanters, to be drink by the guests without additional
charge therefor. A bottle of real old Madeira imported into
Alexandria was supplied for three dollars; sherry, brandy, and gin
were one dollar and a half per bottle, and Jamaica rum one dollar.
At the bar toddies were made with unadulterated liquor and lump
sugar, and the charge was twelve and a half cents a drink.
On the Fourth of July, the 22d of February, and other holidays,
landlord Brown would concoct foaming egg-nogg in a mammoth punch-
bowl once owned by Washington, and the guests of the house were
all invited to partake. The tavern-desk was behind the bar, with
rows of large bells hanging by circular springs on the wall, each
with a bullet-shaped tongue, which continued to vibrate for some
minutes after being pulled, thus showing to which room it belonged.
The barkeeper prepared the "drinks" called for, saw that the bells
were answered, received and delivered letters and cards, and answered
questions by the score. He was supposed to know everybody in
Washington, where they resided, and at what hour they could be seen.
The city of Washington had then been called by an observing foreigner
"the city of magnificent distances," an appellation which was well
merited. There was a group of small, shabby houses around the Navy
Yard, another cluster on the river bank just above the Arsenal,
which was to have been the business centre of the metropolis, and
Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to Georgetown, with the
streets immediately adjacent, was lined with tenements--many of
them with shops on the ground floor. The Executive Departments
were located in four brick edifices on the corners of the square,
in the centre of which was the White House. The imposing building
now occupied by the Department of the Interior had not been begun
nor had the General Post-Office replaced a large brick structure
intended for a hotel, but which the pecuniary necessities of the
projector forced him to dispose of in a lottery before it was
completed. The fortunate ticket was held by minors, whose guardian
could neither sell the building nor finish it, and it remained for
many years in a dilapidated condition.
The Capitol was pronounced completed in 1825. The two wings, which
were the only portions of the building finished when the British
occupied Washington, were burned with their contents, including
the Congressional Library and some works of art. When Congress
was convened in special session after the invasion, the two Houses
assembled in the unfinished hotel previously mentioned, but soon
occupied a brick building erected for their temporary use, which
was afterward known as the Old Capitol Prison.
The tympanum of the eastern pediment of the Capitol was ornamented
by a historical group which Mr. John Quincy Adams designed when
Secretary of State. It was executed in marble by Luigi Persico,
an Italian sculptor, whose work gave such satisfaction to Mr. Adams
that he secured for him an order for the two colossal statues which
now flank the central doorway. War is represented by a stalwart
gymnast with a profuse development of muscle and a benign expression
of countenance, partially encased in ancient Roman armor, while
Peace is a matronly dame, somewhat advanced in life and heavy in
flesh, who carries an olive branch as if she desired to use it to
keep off flies.
The then recently completed _rotunda_ of the Capitol--Mr. Gales
took pains to have it called _rotundo_ in the _National Intelligencer_
--was a hall of elegant proportions, ninety-six feet in diameter
and ninety-six feet in height to the apex of its semicircular dome.
It had been decorated with remarkable historical bas-reliefs by
Cappellano, Gevelot, and Causici, three Italian artists--two of
them pupils of Canova. They undoubtedly possessed artistic ability
and they doubtless desired to produce works of historical value.
But they failed ignominiously. Their respective productions were
thus interpreted by Grizzly Bear, a Menominee chief. Turning to
the eastern doorway, over which there is represented the landing
of the Pilgrims, he said: "There Ingen give hungry white man corn."
Then turning to the northern doorway, over which is represented
William Penn making a treaty with the Indians, he said: "There
Ingen give white man land." Then turning to the western doorway,
over which is represented Pocahontas saving the life of Captain
Smith, he said: "There Ingen save white man's life." And then
turning to the Southern doorway, over which is represented Daniel
Boone, the pioneer, plunging his hunting-knife into the heart of
a red man while his foot rests on the dead body of another, he
said: "And there white man kill Ingen. Ugh!"
When Congress was in session, the rotunda presented a busy and
motley scene every morning prior to the convening of the two houses.
It was a general rendezvous, and the newspaper correspondents were
always in attendance to pick up the floating rumors of the day.
The visit of General Lafayette to Washington gave a great impetus
to Free-Masonry there. The corner-stone of a new Masonic Temple
was laid, and many of the leading citizens had taken the degrees,
when the rumored abduction of William Morgan was made the basis of
a political and religious anti-Masonic crusade. It was asserted
that Morgan, who had written and printed a book which professed to
reveal the secrets of Free-Masonry, had been kidnapped, taken to
Fort Niagara, and then plunged into the river, "with all his
imperfections on his head." Many well-informed persons, however,
are of the opinion that Morgan was hired to go to Smyrna, where he
lived some years, and then died; but his real or supposed assassination
awakened a profound popular indignation. Some good men who belonged
to the "mystic tie" felt it their duty to dissolve their connection
with it, and the Anti-Masonic party was at once got up by a goodly
number of hopeful political aspirants. As General Jackson and Mr.
Clay were both "Free and Accepted Masons," Mr. Adams had at first
some hopes that he might secure his own re-election as the Anti-
Masonic candidate.
A small theatre at Washington was occasionally opened by a company
of actors from Philadelphia, who used to journey every winter as
far south as Savannah, performing in the intermediate cities as
they went and returned. The Jeffersons, the Warrens, and the Burkes
belonged to this company, in which their children were trained for
histrionic fame, and President Adams first saw the elder Booth when
that tragedian accompanied one of these dramatic expeditions as
its brightest star. On another occasion he saw Edwin Forrest, then
unknown to fame, and enjoyed the finished acting of Cooper, as
Charles Surface, in the "School for Scandal." The popular performance
at that time was "Tom and Jerry, or Life in London," and the flash
sayings of Corinthian Tom and Bob Logic were quoted even in
Congressional debates.
The Friends, or Quakers, as "the world's people" call them, had a
society at Washington formed principally by the clerks of that
persuasion who had come from Philadelphia when the seat of government
was removed from there. Their harmony was, however, disturbed in
1827, when a number of the most influential among them left the
"Orthodox" or old belief and followed Elias Hicks, of New York,
who founded what has since been known as Hicksite Friends. The
Friends believed in a free gospel ministry, and did not recognize
either water-baptism or the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. At
their meetings the elders and preachers occupied a platform at one
end of the meeting-houses, the men sitting on unpainted benches on
one side and the women on the other. The congregation would sit
quietly, often for an hour, until the Spirit moved some preacher,
male or female, to speak or to offer prayer. There was no singing,
and often long intervals of silence. Marriages were solemnized at
the monthly meetings, the ceremony consisting simply of a public
acknowledgment by the man and woman, after due inquiry of their
right to be united. After they had stood up in meeting and publicly
taken one another to be man and wife, a certificate of the ceremony
was publicly read by one of the elders, and then signed by the
contracting parties and witnesses.
[Facsimile]
John Quincy Adams
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS--son of John Adams--was born at Braintree,
Massachusetts, July 11th, 1767; Minister to the Netherlands and
Prussia, 1794-1801; United States Senator, 1803-1808; Professor at
Harvard College, 1808-1809; Minister to Russia, 1809-1817; negotiating
the treaty of Ghent in 1815; Secretary of State, 1817-1825; President,
1825-1829; Representative in Congress, 1831, until stricken by
death in the Capitol, February 23d, 1848.
CHAPTER III.
JOURNALISM IN 1828.
Georgetown, now called "West Washington," was originally laid out
as a town in 1751, and settled by the Scotch agents of English
mercantile houses, whose vessels came annually to its wharves.
They brought valuable freights of hardware, dry goods, and wines,
and they carried back tobacco, raised in the surrounding country,
and furs, brought down the Potomac by Indian traders. There were
also lines of brigs and schooners running to New York, Boston,
Salem, Newburyport, and the West Indies. Two principal articles
of import were sugar and molasses, which were sold at auction on
the wharves. Business in these staples has been entirely superseded
by the coal and flour trade.
The main street of Georgetown was generally filled every week-day
with the lumbering Conestoga six-horse wagons, in which the farmers
of Maryland and Central Pennsylvania brought loads of wheat and of
corn, taking back dry goods, groceries, salt, and, during the
fishing season, fresh shad and herring. Another source of trade
was the Potomac River, which was navigable above Georgetown as far
as Cumberland in long, flat-bottomed boats, sharp at both ends,
called "gondolas." These boats were poled down the Potomac to the
Great Falls, twelve miles above Georgetown, where a canal with
locks was constructed, running around the falls and back to the
river. The same plan of avoiding the rapids was suggested by George
Washington, who was once president of the company. The canal was
finished in 1793, but it never yielded a sufficient revenue to pay
expenses.
The "gondolas" brought down considerable quantities of flour, corn,
pork, and iron, much of which was shipped at Georgetown to other
ports. During the year 1812 several hundred hogsheads of Louisiana
sugar were brought by way of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the
Potomac Rivers to Georgetown. This was a realization of Washington's
idea that the city which he founded and which bore his name would
become an _entrepot_ for the products of the Mississippi Valley
destined for shipment abroad. He displayed his faith in this belief
by the purchase of wharf lots, which would not to-day bring what
he paid for them.
The Union Tavern at Georgetown was a well-patronized and fashionable
inn during the first quarter of the present century. Among the
distinguished men who were its guests were Louis Philippe, Count
Volney, Baron Humboldt, Fulton (the inventor), Talleyrand, Jerome
Bonaparte, Washington Irving, General St. Clair, Lorenzo Dow (the
eccentric preacher), Francis S. Key (author of the "Star Spangled
Banner"), with John Randolph and scores of other Congressmen, who
used to ride to and from the Capitol in a large stagecoach with
seats on the top and called the "Royal George."
When my mother was born in Georgetown, in 1799, the neighbors were
startled by the repeated firing of a heavily charged musket beneath
the window of her mother's room. It was a welcome-into-the-world
salute fired by "Old Yarrah," a very aged Mahometan, who had been
brought as a slave from Guinea to Georgetown, where my grandfather
had shown him some kindness, which he thus acknowledged after the
custom of his own people.
General Washington used to pass through Georgetown on his journeys
between the North and Mount Vernon, and I have heard my grandfather
describe the interest which he took when the "Federal City" was
located. On one occasion he rode over to visit David Burns, who
owned a farm on which the Executive Mansion and the Departments
now stand. Washington agreed with the Commissioners that what is
now Lafayette Square should be a reservation, but Burns disliked
to donate any more building lots for the public good. Finally
Washington lost his temper and left, saying, as he crossed the
porch: "Had not the Federal City been laid out here, you would
have died a poor tobacco planter." "Aye, mon!" retorted Burns, in
broad Scotch, "an' had ye nae married the widow Custis, wi' a' her
nagurs, you would hae been a land surveyor to-day, an' a mighty
poor ane at that." Ultimately, however, the obstinate old fellow
donated the desired square of ground.
When Major L'Enfant came to Georgetown to lay out the Federal
District he brought a letter of introduction to my grandfather,
who had a great deal of trouble in endeavoring to adjust the
difficulties between the fiery French officer and the Commissioners
appointed to govern the infant metropolis. The Major, who was very
imperious, claimed supreme authority, which the Commissioners would
not submit to. On one occasion, a Mr. Carroll had commenced the
erection of a large brick house, which Major L'Enfant found encroached
on one of the proposed streets. Summoning his chain bearers and
axmen, he demolished the trespassing structure and filled up the
cellar, against Mr. Carroll's earnest protests.
He was a favorite with Washington, but Jefferson disliked him on
account of his connection with the Society of the Cincinnati, and
availed himself of his difficulty with the Commissioners to discharge
him.
The Major then became an unsuccessful petitioner before Congress
for a redress of his real and fancied wrongs, and he was to be seen
almost every day slowly pacing the rotunda of the Capitol. He was
a tall, thin man, who wore, toward the close of his life, a blue
military surtout coat, buttoned quite to the throat, with a tall,
black stock, but no visible signs of linen. His hair was plastered
with pomatum close to his head, and he wore a napless high beaver
bell-crowned hat. Under his arm he generally carried a roll of
papers relating to his claim upon the Government, and in his right
hand he swung a formidable hickory cane with a large silver head.
A strict Roman Catholic, he received a home in the family of Mr.
Digges, near Washington, in whose garden his remains were interred
when he died.
Newspaper "organs" formed an important feature of the early political
machinery at Washington. Railroads, as well as the magnetic
telegraph, were then unknown, and it took two days or more for the
transmission of intelligence between the Federal Metropolis and
New York, while it was a week or two in reaching Portland, St.
Louis, New Orleans, or Savannah. This made it advisable for each
successive Administration to have a newspaper published at Washington
which would reliably inform the subordinate officials what was
being done and keep alive a sympathy between them and the President.
The _National Intelligencer_ was never devoted to Mr. Adams, as
its proprietor had a kind regard for Mr. Clay, but it was always
hostile to the election of General Jackson. Mr. Joseph Giles, its
editor, wrote ponderous leaders on the political questions of the
day, and occasionally reported, in short-hand, the speeches of
Congressional magnates. His partner, Colonel William Winstead
Seaton, was by trade a printer, and his generous hand was ever
ready to aid those of his fellow-craftsmen who were in destitute
circumstances--indeed, the superannuated compositors of the _National
Intelligencer_ always received "half pay." Coming here when
Washington was only just "staked out," he was honorably identified
with the growth of Washington City, and his administration as Mayor
is favorably spoken of by the citizens of all classes and parties.
The _National Intelligencer_ had been established as a Catholic
organ, with John Agg, an Englishman of great ability, as its editor,
and Richard Houghton, afterward the popular editor of the Boston
_Atlas_, as its Congressional reporter. In 1825 the paper was
purchased by Peter Force and became the "hand-organ" of all the
elements of opposition to General Jackson. Such abusive articles
and scurrilous remarks as the dignified _National Intelligencer_
would not publish appeared in the _National Journal_. Some of
these articles reflected upon Mrs. Jackson and gave great offense
to her husband, who was persuaded that they were inspired by
President Adams.
Matthew L. Davis, who was probably the most influential of Washington
correspondents, was a New York printer. He had entered political
life in 1790 and joined the Democratic party, which came into power
by the election of Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice-President.
Davis went to Washington shortly afterward, and was boasting that
the elevation of Mr. Jefferson was brought about solely by the
management of Tammany Hall. Mr. Jefferson was a philosopher, and
soon after caught a very large fly, calling the attention of Mr.
Davis to the remarkable fact of the great disproportion in size of
one portion of the insect to its body. Mr. Davis took the hint,
and left the President, in doubt as to whether Mr. Jefferson intended
the comparison to apply to New York or to him (Davis) as an
individual.
Mr. Davis was at one time wealthy, having cleared over one hundred
thousand dollars in the South American trade; but he became poor,
and for many years he was the correspondent at Washington of the
_Courier and Enquirer_, of New York, under the signature of "The
Spy in Washington." He was also the correspondent of the London
_Times_, under the signature of "The Genevese Traveler." On one
occasion Mr. Davis was presented to the British Minister at Washington
(Lord Ashburton) as the author of those letters in the _Times_.
"I am delighted to see you," said the Envoy. "They are extraordinary
letters. I have read them with great pleasure. I hope, sir, that
you are well paid by the _Times_. If not, sir, let me know it; I
will take care that you are paid handsomely." Mr. Davis begged
not to be misunderstood, and said that he was amply paid by the
_Times_. He received two guineas for each letter.
James Gordon Bennett in 1828, when in his thirtieth year, became
the Washington correspondent of the New York _Enquirer_, which was
then on the topmost round of the journalistic ladder. It is related
of him that during his stay in this position he came across a copy
of _Walpole's Letters_ and resolved to try the effect of a few
letters written in a similar strain. The truth of this is doubtful.
It is more probably that the natural talents of the man were now
unfettered, and he wrote without fear of censorship and with all
the ease which a sense of freedom inspires. He was naturally witty,
sarcastic and sensible. These letters were lively, they abounded
in personal allusions, and they described freely, not only Senators,
but the wives and daughters of Senators, and they established Mr.
Bennett's reputation as a light lance among the hosts of writers.
Major M. M. Noah was for many years a leading New York journalist,
who occasionally visited Washington, where he was always welcome.
Major Noah was born in Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed, as
he grew up, to learn the carver's trade, but he soon abandoned it
for political pursuits. Receiving the appointment of Consul to
Tunis, he passed several years in Northern Africa, and on his return
wrote a very clever book containing his souvenirs of travel. About
the year 1825 he conceived the idea of collecting the scattered
Jews and of rebuilding Jerusalem. Grand Island, in the Niagara
River, above Niagara falls, was designated as the rendezvous, and
Major Noah's proclamation, which he sent to all parts of the world,
created quite a sensation among the Children of Israel. He
subsequently was connected with the evening press of New York and
was then appointed to a Government office by President Jackson.
He was a man of fine personal appearance and great conversational
powers.
Another New York journalist, just coming before the public, was
Thurlow Weed, a tall man, with an altogether massive person. His
large head was at that time covered with dark hair, and he had
prominent features and gray eyes, which were watchful and overhung
by shaggy eyebrows. He was a man of great natural strength of
character, deep penetration as regards human nature, and a good
sense, judgment, and cheerfulness in his own characteristics which
conduced to respect and popularity. He was most happy in his
intercourse with men, for he had, when a mere youth, a geniality
and tact which drew all toward him, and it has been said that he
never forgot a face or a fact. There has never been a better
example of the good old stock of printer-editors, who seemed to
have an intuitive capacity for public affairs, and never to love
political success well enough to leave their newspapers in order
to pursue the glittering attraction of public life.
Among the other newspaper men in Washington were William Hayden,
Congressional reporter for the _National Intelligencer_, who
afterward succeeded Mr. Houghton as editor of the Boston _Atlas_;
Lund Washington, equally famed as a performer on the violin and
writer of short-hand; Samuel L. Knapp, a graduate of Dartmouth
College, who abandoned the law for journalism and corresponded with
the Boston _Gazette_, and James Brooks, a graduate of Waterville,
afterward the founder of the New York _Express_ and a Representative
in Congress, who was the correspondent of the Portland _Advertiser_
and other papers.
Prominent as an adopted citizen of Washington and as a personal
friend of President Adams was Dr. William F. Thornton, Superintendent
of the Patent Office, who had by personal appeals to his conquering
countrymen, in 1814, saved the models of patents from the general
conflagration of the public buildings. He was also a devoted lover
of horse-racing, and on one occasion, when he expected that a horse
of his would win the cup, Mr. Adams walked out to the race-course
to enjoy the Doctor's triumph, but witnessed his defeat. After
the death of Dr. Thornton and of his accomplished wife, it became
known that she was the daughter of the unfortunate Dr. Dodd, of
London, who was executed for forgery in 1777. Her mother emigrated
to Philadelphia soon afterward, under the name of Brodeau, and
brought her infant daughter with her. In Philadelphia she opened
a boarding-school, which was liberally patronized, as she had
brought excellent letters of recommendation and displayed great
ability as a teacher. The daughter grew up to be a lady remarkable
for her beauty and accomplishments and married Dr. Thornton, who
brought her to Washington in 1800.
Congress had placed on the statute-book stringent penal laws against
gambling, but they were a dead letter, unless some poor dupe made
a complaint of foul play, or some fleeced blackleg sought vengeance
through the aid of the Grand Jury; then the matter was usually
compounded by the repayment of the money. The northern sidewalks
of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Indian Queen Hotel and the
Capitol gate, was lined with faro banks, where good suppers were
served and well-supplied sideboards were free to all comers. It
was a tradition that in one of these rooms Senator Montford Stokes,
of North Carolina, sat down one Thursday afternoon to play a game
of brag with Mountjoy Bailey, then the Sergeant-at-Arms of the
Senate. That body had adjourned over, as was then its custom, from
Thursday until Monday, so the players were at liberty to keep on
with their game, only stopping occasionally for refreshments. The
game was continued Friday night and Saturday, through Saturday
night and all day Sunday and Sunday night, the players resting for
a snatch of sleep as nature became exhausted. Monday morning the
game was in full blast, but at ten o'clock Bailey moved an adjournment,
alleging that his official duties required his presence in the
Senate Chamber. Stokes remonstrated, but the Sergeant-at-Arms
persisted, and rose from the table, the Senator grumbling and
declaring that he had supposed that Stokes would have thus prematurely
broken up the game he would not have sat down to play with him.
Whist was regularly played at many of the "Congressional messes,"
and at private parties a room was always devoted to whist-playing.
Once when the wife of Henry Clay was chaperoning a young lady from
Boston, at a party given by one of his associates in the Cabinet,
they passed through the card-room, where Mr. Clay and other gentlemen
were playing whist. The young lady, in her Puritan simplicity,
inquired: "Is card-playing a common practice here?" "Yes," replied
Mrs. Clay, "the gentlemen always play when they get together."
"Don't it distress you," said the Boston maiden, "to have Mr. Clay
gamble?" "Oh! dear, no!" composedly replied the statesman's wife,
"he 'most always wins."
There were only a few billiard-rooms, mostly patronized by the
members of the foreign legations or visiting young men from the
Northern cities. Ten-pin alleys were abundant, and some of the
muscular Congressmen from the frontier would make a succession of
"ten strikes" with great ease, using the heaviest balls. Some of
the English residents organized a cricket club, and used to play
on a level spot in "the slashes," near where the British Legation
was afterward built, but the game was not popular, and no American
offered to join the club.
[Facsimile]
Your obedt servt.
William H. Crawford
William Harris Crawford was born in Virginia, February 24th, 1772;
was United States Senator 1807-1813; Minister to France, 1813-1815;
Secretary of War, 1815-1816; Secretary of the Treasury, 1816-1825;
Judge of the Northern Circuit Court of Georgia, 1827, until he died
at Elberton, Georgia, September 15th, 1834.
CHAPTER IV.
PROMINENT SENATORS OF 1827.
The old Senate Chamber, now used by the Supreme Court, was admirably
adapted for the deliberations of the forty-eight gentlemen who
composed the upper house of the Nineteenth Congress. Modeled after
the theatres of ancient Greece, it possessed excellent acoustic
properties, and there was ample accommodation in the galleries for
the few strangers who then visited Washington. The Senate used to
meet at noon and generally conclude its day's work by three o'clock,
while adjournments over from Thursday until the following Monday
were frequent.
John C. Calhoun was Vice-President of the United States, and
consequently President of the Senate--a position which was to him
very irksome, as he was forced to sit and dumbly listen to debates
in which he was eager to participate. He had been talked of by
some of the best men in the country as a candidate during the then
recent Presidential election, but the North had not given him any
substantial support. Regarding each Senator as an Ambassador from
a sovereign State, he did not believe that as Vice-President he
possessed the power to call them to order for words spoken in
debate. Senator John Randolph abused this license, and one day
commenced one of his tirades by saying: "_Mr. Speaker! I mean
Mr. President of the Senate and would-be President of the United
States, which God in His infinite mercy avert_," and then went on
in his usual strain of calumny and abuse.
Mr. Calhoun was tall, well-formed, without an ounce of superfluous
flesh, with a serious expression of countenance rarely brightened
by a smile, and with his black hair thrown back from his forehead,
he looked like an arch-conspirator waiting for the time to come
when he could strike the first blow. In his dress Mr. Calhoun
affected a Spartan simplicity, yet he used to have four horses
harnessed to his carriage, and his entertainments at his residence
on Georgetown Heights were very elegant. His private life was
irreproachable, although when Secretary of War under Mr. Monroe,
he had suffered obloquy because of a profitable contract, which
had been dishonestly awarded during his absence by his chief clerk
to that official's brother-in-law.
The prime mover of the Senate of that day was Martin Van Buren, of
New York, who was beginning to reap the reward of years of subservient
intrigues. Making the friends of Calhoun and of Crawford believe
that they had each been badly treated by the alliance between Adams
and Clay, he united them in the support of General Jackson, and
yet no one suspected him. When Mr. Van Buren had first been elected
to Congress, Rufus King, of his State, had said to G. F. Mercer,
also a member, "Within two weeks Van Buren will become perfectly
acquainted with the views and feelings of every member, yet no
man will know his."
This prediction was verified, and Mr. Van Buren soon became the
directing spirit among the friends of General Jackson, although no
one was ever able to quote his views. Taking Aaron Burr as his
political model, but leading an irreproachable private life, he
rose by his ability to plan and execute with consummate skill the
most difficult political intrigues. He was rather under the medium
height, with a high forehead, a quick eye, and pleasing features.
He made attitude and deportment a study, and when, on his leaving
the Senate, his household furniture was sold at auction it was
noticed that the carpet before a large looking-glass in his study
was worn and threadbare. It was there that he had rehearsed his
speeches.
The "Father of the Senate" was Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina,
who had served in the ranks during the Revolution, and then in the
Senate of North Carolina. He was elected to the Second Congress,
taking his seat in October, 1791, and after having been re-elected
eleven times, generally without opposition, he was transferred to
the Senate in 1815, and re-elected until he declined in 1828, making
thirty-seven years of continuous Congressional service. At the
very commencement of his Congressional career he energetically
opposed the financial schemes of Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary
of the Treasury, and throughout his political career he was a
"strict, severe, and stringent" Democrat. Personally Mr. Macon
was a genial companion. He had none of that moroseness at the
fireside which often accompanies political distinction, and it was
said that at his home he was the kindest and most beloved of slave-
masters.
Colonel Thomas Hart Benton, who had earned the military title in
the army during the war with Great Britain, was a large, heavily
framed man, with black curly hair and whiskers, prominent features,
and a stentorian voice. He wore the high, black-silk neck-stock
and the double-breasted frock-coat of his youthful times during
his thirty years' career in the Senate, varying with the seasons
the materials of which his pantaloons were made, but never the
fashion in which they were cut. When in debate, outraging every
customary propriety of language, he would rush forward with blunt
fury upon every obstacle, like the huge, wild buffaloes then ranging
the prairies of his adopted State, whose paths, he used to subsequently
assert, would show the way through the passes of the Rocky Mountains.
He was not a popular speaker, and when he took the floor occupants
of the galleries invariably began to leave, while many Senators
devoted themselves to their correspondence. In private life Colonel
Benton was gentleness and domestic affection personified, and a
desire to have his children profit by the superior advantages for
their education in the District of Columbia kept him from his
constituents in Missouri, where a new generation of voters grew up
who did not know him and who would not follow his political lead,
while he was ignorant of their views on the question of slavery.
Senator Randolph, of Virginia, attracted the most attention on the
part of strangers. He was at least six feet in height, with long
limbs, an ill-proportioned body, and a small, round head. Claiming
descent from Pocahontas, he wore his coarse, black hair long, parted
in the middle, and combed down on either side of his sallow face.
His small, black eyes were expressive in their rapid glances,
especially when he was engaged in debate, and his high-toned and
thin voice would ring through the Senate Chamber like the shrill
scream of an angry vixen. He generally wore a full suit of heavy,
drab-colored English broadcloth, the high, rolling collar of his
surtout coat almost concealing his head, while the skirts hung in
voluminous folds about his knee-breeches and the white leather tops
of his boots. He used to enter the Senate Chamber wearing a pair
of silver spurs, carrying a heavy riding-whip, and followed by a
favorite hound, which crouched beneath his desk. He wrote, and
occasionally spoke, in riding-gloves, and it was his favorite
gesture to point the long index finger of his right hand at his
opponent as he hurled forth tropes and figures of speech at him.
Every ten or fifteen minutes, while he occupied the floor, he would
exclaim in a low voice, "Tims, more porter!" and the assistant
doorkeeper would hand him a foaming tumbler of potent malt liquor,
which he would hurriedly drink, and then proceed with his remarks,
often thus drinking three or four quarts in an afternoon. He was
not choice in his selection of epithets, and as Mr. Calhoun took
the ground that he did not have the power to call a Senator to
order, the irate Virginian pronounced President Adams "a traitor,"
Daniel Webster "a vile slanderer," John Holmes "a dangerous fool,"
and Edward Livingston "the most contemptible and degraded of beings,
whom no man ought to touch, unless with a pair of tongs." One day,
while he was speaking with great freedom of abuse of Mr. Webster,
then a member of the House, a Senator informed him in an undertone
that Mrs. Webster was in the gallery. He had not the delicacy to
desist, however, until he had fully emptied the vials of his wrath.
Then he set upon Mr. Speaker Taylor, and after abusing him soundly
he turned sarcastically to the gentleman who had informed him of
Mrs. Webster's presence, and asked, "Is Mrs. Taylor present also?"
Henry Clay was frequently the object of Mr. Randolph's denunciations,
which he bore patiently until the "Lord of Roanoke" spoke, one day,
of the reported alliance between the President and the Secretary
of State as the "coalition of Bilfil and Black George--the combination,
unheard of till then, of the Puritan and the blackleg." Mr. Clay
at once wrote to know whether he had intended to call him a political
gambler, or to attach the infamy of such epithets to his private
life. Mr. Randolph declined to give any explanation, and a duel
was fought without bloodshed.
Mr. Randolph, on another occasion, deliberately insulted Mr. James
Lloyd, one of "the solid men of Boston," then a Senator from
Massachusetts, who had, in accordance with the custom, introduced
upon the floor of the Senate one of his constituents, Major Benjamin
Russell, the editor of the _Columbian Sentinel_. The sight of a
Federal editor aroused Mr. Randolph's anger, and he at once insolently
demanded that the floor of the Senate be cleared, forcing Major
Russell to retire. Mr. Lloyd took the first opportunity to express
his opinion of this gratuitous insult, and declared, in very forcible
language, that, as he had introduced Major Russell on the floor,
he was responsible therefor. Mr. Randolph indulged in a little
gasconade, in which he announced that his carriage was waiting at
the door to convey him to Baltimore, and at the conclusion of his
remarks he left the Senate Chamber and the city. Mr. Calhoun, who
had not attempted to check Mr. Randolph, lamented from the chair
that anything should have happened to mar the harmony of the Senate,
and again declared that he had not power to call a Senator to order,
nor would he for ten thousand worlds look like a usurper.
Senator Tazewell, Mr. Randolph's colleague, was a first-class
Virginia abstractionist and an avowed hater of New England. Dining
one day at the White House, he provoked the President by offensively
asserting that he had "never known a Unitarian who did not believe
in the sea-serpent." Soon afterward Mr. Tazewell spoke of the
different kinds of wines, and declared that Tokay and Rhenish wine
were alike in taste. "Sir," said Mr. Adams, "I do not believe that
you ever drank a drop of Tokay in your life." For this remark the
President subsequently sent an apology to Mr. Tazewell, but the
Virginia Senator never forgot or forgave the remark.
William Henry Harrison, a tall, spare, gray-haired gentleman, who
had gone from his Virginia home into the Western wilderness as aid-
de-camp to General Anthony Wayne, had been elected a Senator from
the State of Ohio, but probably never dreamed that in years to come
he would be elected President by an immense majority, with John
Tyler on the ticket as Vice-President. Colonel Richard M. Johnson,
of Kentucky, had, however, begun to electioneer for the Democratic
nomination for the Vice-Presidency, basing his claim upon his having
shot Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames, and he was finally
successful. He was of medium size, with large features, and light
auburn hair, and his private life was attacked without mercy by
his political opponents.
John Henry Eaton, of Tennessee, was General Jackson's henchman,
who had come to the Senate that he might better electioneer for
his old friend and commander. William Hendricks, a Senator from
Indiana, was the uncle of Thomas A. Hendricks, of a subsequent
political generation. The New Hampshire Senators were Levi Woodbury
and John Bell, men of decided ability and moral worth. Georgia
supplied a polished and effective orator in J. McPherson Berrien.
Vermont was represented by portly and good-looking Dudley Chase,
who was the uncle of Chief Justice Chase, and by Horatio Seymour,
of Middlebury. Maine's stalwart, blue-eyed Senator, Albion Keith
Parris, was said to have filled more public offices than any other
man of his age, and his colleague, John Holmes, although rude in
speech and at times vulgar, was the humorous champion of the North.
Ever on the watch for some unguarded expression by a Southern
Senator, no sooner would one be uttered than he would pounce upon
it and place the speaker in a most uncomfortable position. John
Tyler one day thought that he could annoy Mr. Holmes, and asked
him what had become of that political firm once mentioned in debate
by John Randolph as "James Madison, Felix Grundy, John Holmes, and
the Devil." Mr. Holmes rose at once. "I will tell the gentleman,"
said he, "what has become of the firm. The first member is dead,
the second has gone into retirement, the third now addresses you,
and the last has gone over to the Nullifiers, and is now electioneering
among the gentleman's constituents. So the partnership is legally
dissolved."
The Senators were rather exclusive, those from the South assuming
the control of "good society," which was then very limited in its
extent and simple in its habits. Few Senators and Representatives
brought their wives to cheer their Congressional labors, and a
parlor of ordinary size would contain all of those who were accustomed
to attend social gatherings. The diplomats, with the officers of
the army and navy stationed at headquarters, were accompanied by
their wives, and there were generally a few visitors of social
distinction.
The Washington assemblies were very ceremonious and exclusive.
Admission was obtained only by cards of invitation, issued after
long consultations among the Committeemen, and, once inside the
exclusive ring, the beaux and belles bowed beneath the disciplinary
rule of a master of ceremonies. No gentleman, whatever may have
been his rank or calling, was permitted on the floor unless in full
evening dress, with the adornment of pumps, silk stockings, and
flowing cravat, unless he belonged to the army or the navy, in
which case complete regimentals covered a multitude of sins. The
ball, commencing with the stroke of eight precisely, opened with
a rollicking country dance, and the lady selected for the honor of
opening the festivities was subsequently toasted as the reigning
divinity of fashion for the hour. The "_minuet de la cour_" and
stately "quadrille," varied by the "basket dance," and, on exceptional
occasions, the exhilarating "cheat," formed the staple for saltatorial
performance, until the hour of eleven brought the concluding country
dance, when a final squad of roysterers bobbed "up the middle and
down again" to the airs of "Sir Roger de Coverly" or "Money Musk."
The music was furnished by colored performers on the violin, except
on great occasions, when some of the Marine Band played an
accompaniment on flutes and clarinets. The refreshments were iced
lemonade, ice-cream, port wine negus, and small cakes, served in
a room adjoining the dancing-hall, or brought in by the colored
domestics, or by the cavalier in his own proper person, who ofttimes
appeared upon the dancing-floor, elbowing his way to the lady of
his adoration, in the one hand bearing well-filled glasses, and in
the other sustaining a plate heaped up with cake.
The costume of the ladies was classic in its scantiness, especially
at balls and parties. The fashionable ball dress was of white
India crape, and five breadths, each a quarter of a yard wide, were
all that was asked for to make a skirt, which only came down to
the ankles, and was elaborately trimmed with a dozen or more rows
of narrow flounces. Silk or cotton stockings were adorned with
embroidered "clocks," and thin slippers were ornamented with silk
rosettes and tiny buckles.
Those gentlemen who dressed fashionably wore "Bolivar" frock-coats
of some gay-colored cloth, blue or green or claret, with large
lapels and gilded buttons. Their linen was ruffled; their "Cossack"
trousers were voluminous in size, and were tucked into high "Hessian"
boots with gold tassels. They wore two and sometimes three
waistcoats, each of different colors, and from their watch-pockets
dangled a ribbon, with a bunch of large seals. When in full dress,
gentlemen wore dress-coats with enormous collars and short waists,
well-stuffed white cambric cravats, small-clothes, or tight-fitting
pantaloons, silk stockings, and pumps.
Duels were very common, and a case of dueling pistols was a part
of the outfit of the Southern and Western Congressmen, who used to
spend more or less time in practicing. Imported pistols were highly
prized, but the best weapons were made by a noted Philadelphia
gunsmith named Derringer, who gave his name to a short pistol of
his invention to be carried in the trouser's pocket for use in
street fights. Some of the dueling pistols were inlaid with gold,
and they all had flint-locks, as percussion caps had not been
invented, nor hair triggers.
[Facsimile]
Edward Everett.
EDWARD EVERETT. Born in Massachusetts April 11th, 1794; was a
Unitarian clergyman, and a professor at Harvard College, until
elected a Representative from Massachusetts, 1825-1835; Governor
of Massachusetts, 1836-1840; Minister to Great Britain, 1841-1843;
President of Harvard College, 1846-1849; Secretary of State under
President Fillmore, 1852-1853; United States Senator from Massachusetts,
1853-1854; died at Boston, January 15th, 1865.
CHAPTER V.
PROMINENT REPRESENTATIVES OF 1827.
The Hall of the House of Representatives (now used as a National
Gallery of Statuary) was a reproduction of the ancient theatre,
magnificent in its effect, but so deficient in acoustic properties
that it was unfit for legislative occupation. It was there that
Henry Clay, then Speaker of the House, had welcomed General Lafayette
as "the Nation's Guest." The contrast between the tall and graceful
Kentuckian, with his sunny smile and his silver-toned voice, and
the good old Marquis, with his auburn wig awry, must have been
great. His reply appeared to come from a grateful heart, but it
was asserted that the Speaker had written both his own words of
welcome and also Lafayette's acknowledgment of them, and it became
a subject of newspaper controversy, which was ended by the publication
of a card signed "H. Clay," in which he positively denied the
authorship, although he admitted that he had suggested the most
effective sentences.
Ladies had been excluded from the galleries of the House originally,
in accordance with British precedent. But one night at a party a
lady expressed her regret to Hon. Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts,
that she could not hear the arguments, especially his speeches.
Mr. Ames gallantly replied that he knew of no reason why ladies
should not hear the debates. "Then," said Mrs. Langdon, "if you
will let me know when next you intend to speak, I will make up a
party of ladies and we will go and hear you." The notice was given,
the ladies went, and since then Congressional orators have always
had fair hearers--with others perhaps not very fair.
The House was really occupied, during the administration of John
Quincy Adams, in the selection of his successor. At first the
political outlook was rather muddled, although keen eyes averred
that they could perceive, moving restlessly to and fro, the indefinite
forms of those shadows which coming events project. Different
seers interpreted the phantasmal appearances in different fashions,
and either endeavored to form novel combinations, or joined in
raking common sewers for filth wherewith to bespatter those who
were the rivals of their favorite candidates. It was then that
Congressional investigating committees became a part of the political
machinery of the day. The accounts of President Adams when, in
former years, he was serving the country in Europe as a diplomatist;
the summary execution of deserters by order of General Jackson,
when he commanded the army in Florida; the bills for refurnishing
the White House; the affidavits concerning the alleged bargain
between the President and his Secretary of State, and the marriage
of General Jackson to Mrs. Robards before she had been divorced
from Mr. Robards, were, with many other scandals, paraded before
the public.
Daniel Webster had been recognized in advance as the leader of the
House by his appointment as chairman of the committee to inform
Mr. Adams that he had been elected President. This Mr. Webster
did verbally, but Mr. Adams had prepared a written reply, which
had been copied by a clerk and bore his autograph signature.
Mr. Webster was at that period of his life the embodiment of health
and good spirits. His stalwart frame, his massive head, crowned
with a wealth of black hair, his heavy eye-brows, overhanging his
great, expressive, and cavernous eyes, all distinguished him as
one of the powers of the realm of the intellect--one of the few to
whom Divinity has accorded a royal share of the Promethian fire of
genius. His department was ceremonious, and he made a decided
impression on strangers. When Jenny Lind first saw him, she was
much impressed by his majestic appearance, and afterward exclaimed,
"I have seen a man!"
His swarthy complexion gained him the epithet of "Black Dan." He
was very proud of his complexion, which he inherited from his
grandmother, Susannah Bachelder (from whom the poet Whittier also
claimed descent), and he used to quote the compliment paid by
General Stark, the hero of Bennington, to his father, Colonel
Ebenezer Webster: "He has the black Bachelder complexion, which
burnt gunpowder will not change." Although majestic in appearance,
Mr. Webster was not really a very large man; in height he was only
about five feet ten inches. His head looked very large, but he
wore a seven and five-eighth hat, as did Mr. Clay, whose head
appeared much smaller. His shoulders were very broad and his chest
was very full, but his hips and lower limbs were small.
Mr. Webster had his first great sorrow then. His eldest, and at
that time his only, daughter died at Washington, and the next year
her mother followed her to the grave. This estimable lady, whose
maiden name was Grace Fletcher, was one year older than Mr. Webster,
and was the daughter of a New Hampshire clergyman. While on her
way to Washington with her husband, the December after he had been
re-elected United States Senator by a nearly two-thirds vote in
each branch of the "General Court" of Massachusetts, she was taken
fatally ill at the house of Mr. Webster's friend, Dr. Perkins,
where they were guests.
Mr. Webster had begun at that time to be disturbed about his money
matters, although he should have been in a prosperous pecuniary
condition. His professional income could not have been less than
twenty thousand dollars a year, and he had just received seventy
thousand dollars as his five per cent. fee as counsel for the
claimants before the Commissioners on Spanish Claims, but he had
begun to purchase land and was almost always harassed for ready
money.
Edward Everett, who was a member of the Massachusetts delegation
in the House, had won early fame as a popular preacher of the
gospel, as a professor at Harvard College, and as the editor of
the _North American Review_. Placed by his marriage above want,
he became noted for his profound learning and persuasive eloquence.
At times he was almost electrical in his utterances; his reasoning
was logical and luminous, and his remarks always gave evidence of
careful study. As a politician Mr. Everett was not successful.
The personification of self-discipline and dignity, he was too much
like an intellectual icicle to find favor with the masses, and he
was deficient in courage when any bold step was to be taken.
George McDuffie, who represented the Edgefield District of South
Carolina, had been taken from labor in a blacksmith's shop by Mr.
Calhoun and became the grateful champion of his patron in the House.
He was a spare, grim-looking man, who was an admirer of Milton,
and who was never known to jest or to smile. As a debater he had
few equals in the House, but he failed when, during the discussion
of the Panama Mission question, he opened his batteries upon Mr.
Webster. The "expounder of the Constitution" retorted with great
force, reminding the gentleman from South Carolina that noisy
declamation was not logic, and that he should not apply coarse
epithets to the President, who could not reply to them. Mr. Webster
then went on to say that he would furnish the gentleman from South
Carolina with high authority on the point to which he had objected,
and quoted from a speech by Mr. Calhoun which effectively extinguished
Mr. McDuffie.
Tristram Burgess, of Rhode Island, who had a snowy head and a Roman
nose, was called "the bald eagle of the House." Although under
fifty years of age, his white hair and bent form gave him a
patriarchal look and added to the effect of his fervid eloquence
and his withering sarcasm. A man of iron heart, he was ever anxious
to meet his antagonists, haughty in his rude self-confidence, and
exhaustive in the use of every expletive of abuse permitted by
parliamentary usage. In debate he resembled one of the old soldiers
who fought on foot or on horseback, with heavy or light arms, a
battle-axe or a spear. The champion of the North, he divided the
South and thrashed and slashed as did old Horatius, when with his
good sword he stood upon the bridge and with his single arm defended
Rome.
George Kremer, of Pennsylvania, was probably the most unpopular
man in the House. An anonymous letter had appeared just before
the election of President [Adams] by the Representatives denouncing
an "unholy coalition" between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, by which the
support of the friends of the latter had been transferred to the
former, "as the planter does his negroes, or the farmer his team
and horses." Mr. Clay at once published a card, over his signature,
in which he called the writer "a base and infamous calumniator, a
dastard, and a liar." Mr. Kremer replied, admitting that he had
written the letter, but in such a manner that his political friends
were ashamed of his cowardice, while the admirers of Mr. Clay were
very indignant--the more so as they suspected that Mr. James Buchanan
had instigated the letter.
Mr. Henry W. Dwight, of Massachusetts, a good specimen of "a sound
mind in a sound body," gave great attention to the appropriation
bills, and secured liberal sums for carrying on the various
departments of the Government. His most formidable antagonist was
a self-styled reformer and physical giant, Mr. Thomas Chilton, of
Kentucky, who had been at one period of his life a Baptist preacher.
He declared on the floor in debate that he was pledged to his
constituents to endeavor to retrench the expenses of the General
Government, to diminish the army and navy, to abridge the number
of civil and diplomatic officials, and, above all, to cut down the
pay of Congressmen. He made speeches in support of all these
"reforms," but did not succeed in securing the discharge of a
soldier, a sailor, a diplomatist, or a clerk, neither did he reduce
the appropriations one single cent. The erratic Mr. David Crockett
was then a member of the House, but had not attracted public
attention, although the Jackson men were angry because he, one of
Old Hickory's officers in the Creek War, was a devoted adherent of
Henry Clay for the Presidency. One of his colleagues in the
Tennessee delegation was Mr. James K. Polk, a rigid and uncompromising
Presbyterian, a political disciple of Macon, and a man of incorruptible
honesty.
Prominent among the Representatives from the State of New York were
Messrs. Gulian C. Verplanck and Thomas J. Oakley, members of the
legal profession, who were statesmen rather than politicians. Mr.
George C. Washington, of Maryland, was the great-nephew of "the
Father of his country," and had inherited a portion of the library
at Mount Vernon, which he subsequently sold to the Boston Athenaeum.
Messrs. Elisha Whittlesey and Samuel Vinton, Representatives from
Ohio, were afterwards for many years officers of the Federal
Government and residents at Washington. Mr. Jonathan Hunt, of
Vermont, a lawyer of ability, and one of the companions chosen by
Mr. Webster, was the father of that gifted artist, William Morris
Hunt, whose recent death was so generally regretted. Mr. Silas
Wright, of New York, was then attracting attention in the Democratic
party, of which he became a great leader, and which would have
elected him President had he not shortened his life by intemperance.
He was a solid, square-built man, with an impassive, ruddy face.
He claimed to be a good farmer, but no orator, yet he was noted
for the compactness of his logic, which was unenlivened by a figure
of speech or a flight of fancy.
The Supreme Court then sat in the room in the basement of the
Capitol, now occupied as a law library. It has an arched ceiling
supported by massive pillars that obstruct the view, and is very
badly ventilated. But it is rich in traditions of hair-powder,
queues, ruffled shirts, knee-breeches, and buckles. Up to that
time no Justice had ever sat upon the bench in trousers, nor had
any lawyer ventured to plead in boots or wearing whiskers. Their
Honors, the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices, wearing silk
judicial robes, were treated with the most profound respect. When
Mr. Clay stopped, one day, in an argument, and advancing to the
bench, took a pinch of snuff from Judge Washington's box, saying,
"I perceive that your Honor sticks to the Scotch," and then proceeded
with his case, it excited astonishment and admiration. "Sir," said
Mr. Justice Story, in relating the circumstance to a friends, "I
do not believe there is a man in the United States who could have
done that but Mr. Clay."
Chief Justice John Marshall, who had then presided in the Supreme
Court for more than a quarter of a century, was one of the last
survivors of those officers of the Revolutionary Army who had
entered into civil service. He was a tall, gaunt man, with a small
head and bright black eyes. He used to wear an unbrushed long-
skirted black coat, a badly fitting waistcoat, and knee-breeches,
a voluminous white cambric cravat, generally soiled, and black
worsted stockings, with low shoes and silver buckles. When upward
of seventy years of age he still relished the pleasures of the
quoit club or the whist table, and to the last his right hand never
forgot its cunning with the billiard cue.
Nor did the Chief Justice ever lose his relish for a joke, even at
his own expense. In the Law Library one day he fell from a step-
ladder, bruising himself severely and scattering an armful of books
in all directions. An attendant, full of alarm, ran to assist him,
but his Honor drily remarked, "That time I was completely floored."
Bushrod Washington, who had been appointed to the Supreme Court by
President John Adams, was by inheritance the owner of Mount Vernon,
where his remains now lie, near those of his illustrious uncle,
George Washington. He was a small, insignificant-looking man,
deprived of the sight of one eye by excessive study, negligent of
dress, and an immoderate snuff-taker. He was a rigid disciplinarian
and a great stickler for etiquette, and on one occasion he sat for
sixteen hours without leaving the bench. He was also a man of rare
humor.
Christmas was the popular holiday season at Washington sixty years
ago, the descendants of the Maryland Catholics joining the descendants
of the Virginia Episcopalians in celebrating the advent of their
Lord. The colored people enjoyed the festive season, and there
was scarcely a house in Washington in which there was not a well-
filled punch bowl. In some antique silver bowls was "Daniel Webster
punch," made of Medford rum, brandy, champagne, arrack, menschino,
strong green tea, lemon juice, and sugar; in other less expensive
bowls was found a cheaper concoction. But punch abounded everywhere,
and the bibulous found Washington a rosy place, where jocund mirth
and joyful recklessness went arm in arm to flout vile melancholy,
and kick, with ardent fervor, dull care out of the window. Christmas
carols were sung in the streets by the young colored people, and
yule logs were burned in the old houses where the fireplaces had
not been bricked up.
[Facsimile]
With great respect
I am yrs. v. truly. [?]
H. Clay
HENRY CLAY, born in Virginia, April 12th, 1777; United States
Senator from Kentucky, 1806-1807, and again 1810-1811; Representative
from Kentucky, 1811-1814; negotiator of the treaty of Ghent, 1815;
Representative in Congress, 1815-1820, and 1823-1825; Secretary of
State under President Adams, 1825-1829; United States Senator from
Kentucky, 1831-1842, and 1844, until he died at Washington City,
June 29th, 1852.
CHAPTER VI.
THE POLITICAL MACHINE.
As the time for another Presidential election approached, the
friends of General Jackson commenced active operations in his
behalf. The prime mover in the campaign was General John Henry
Eaton, then a Senator from Tennessee. He had published in 1818 a
brief life of the hero of New Orleans, which he enlarged in 1824
and published with the title, "The Life of Andrew Jackson, Major-
General in the Service of the United States, comprising a History
of the War in the South from the Commencement of the Creek Campaign
to the Termination of Hostilities Before New Orleans." The facts
in it were obtained from General Jackson and his wife, but every
incident of his life calculated to injure him in the public estimation
was carefully suppressed. It was, however, the recognized text-
book for Democratic editors and stump speakers, and although entirely
unreliable, it has formed the basis for the lives of General Jackson
since published.
President Adams enjoined neutrality upon his friends but some of
them, acting with Democrats who were opposed to the election of
General Jackson, had published and circulated, as an offset to
General Eaton's book, a thick pamphlet entitled, "Reminiscences;
or, an Extract from the Catalogue of General Jackson's Youthful
Indiscretions, between the Age of Twenty-three and Sixty," which
contained an account of Jackson's fights, brawls, affrays, and
duels, numbered from one to fourteen. Broadsides, bordered with
wood-cuts of coffins, and known as "coffin hand-bills," narrated
the summary and unjust execution as deserters of a number of
militiamen in the Florida campaign whose legal term of service had
expired. Another handbill gave the account of General Jackson's
marriage to Mrs. Robards before she had been legally divorced from
her husband.
General Jackson's friends also had printed and circulated large
editions of campaign songs, the favorite being "The Hunters of
Kentucky," which commenced:
"You've heard, I s'pose of New Orleans,
'Tis famed for youth and beauty,
There're girls of every hue, it seems,
From snowy white to sooty,
Now Packenham had made his brags,
If he that day was lucky,
He'd have those girls and cotton-bags
In spite of old Kentucky.
But Jackson, he was wide awake,
And was not scared at trifles,
For well he knew Kentucky's boys,
With their death-dealing rifles.
He led them down to cypress swamp,
The ground was low and mucky,
There stood John Bull in martial pomp,
And here stood old Kentucky.
"Oh! Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!"
After a political campaign of unprecedented bitterness, General
Jackson was elected, receiving one hundred and seventy-eight
electoral votes against eighty-three cast for John Quincy Adams,
and so a new chapter was commenced in the social as well as the
political chronicles of the National Capital. Those who had known
the Presidential successors of Washington as educated and cultivated
gentlemen, well versed in the courtesies of private life and of
ceremonious statesmanship, saw them succeeded by a military chieftain,
whose life had been "a battle and a march," thickly studded with
personal difficulties and duels; who had given repeated evidences
of his disregard of the laws when they stood in the way of his
imperious will; and who, when a United States Senator, had displayed
no ability as a legislator. His election was notoriously the work
of Martin Van Buren, inspired by Aaron Burr, and with his inauguration
was initiated a sordidly selfish political system entirely at
variance with the broad views of Washington and of Hamilton.
It was assumed that every citizen had his price; that neither virtue
nor genius was proof against clever although selfish corruption;
that political honestly was a farce; and that the only way of
governing those knaves who elbowed their way up through the masses
was to rule them by cunning more acute than their own and knavery
more subtle and calculating than theirs.
Before leaving his rural home in Tennessee, General Jackson had
been afflicted by the sudden death of his wife. "Aunt Rachel," as
Mrs. Jackson was called by her husband's personal friends, had
accompanied him to Washington when he was there as a Senator from
Tennessee. She was a short, stout, unattractive, and uneducated
woman, though greatly endeared to General Jackson. While he had
been in the army she had carefully managed his plantation, his
slaves, and his money matters, and her devotion to him knew no
bounds. Her happiness was centered in his, and it was her chief
desire to smoke her corn-cob pipe in peace at his side. When told
that he had been elected President of the United States, she replied,
"Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake I am glad of it, but for myself I am
not." A few weeks later she was arrayed for the grave in a white
satin costume which she had provided herself with to wear at the
White House. After her funeral her sorrow-stricken husband came
to Washington with a stern determination to punish those who had
maligned her during the preceding campaign. Having been told that
President Adams had sanctioned the publication of the slanders, he
did not call at the White House, in accordance with the usage, but
paid daily visits to old friends in the War Department. Mr. Adams,
stung by this neglect, determined not to play the part of the
conquered leader of the inauguration, and quietly removed to the
house of Commodore Porter, in the suburbs, on the morning of the
3d of March.
The weather on the 4th of March, 1829, was serene and mild, and at
an early hour Pennsylvania Avenue, then unpaved, with a double row
of poplar trees along its centre, was filled with crowds of people,
many of whom had journeyed immense distances on foot. The officials
at Washington, who were friends of Mr. Adams, had agreed not to
participate in the inaugural ceremonies, and the only uniformed
company of light infantry, commanded by Colonel Seaton, of the
_National Intelligencer_, had declined to offer its services as an
escort. A number of old Revolutionary officers, however, had
hastily organized themselves, and waited on General Jackson to
solicit the honor of forming his escort to the Capitol, an offer
which was cordially accepted. The General rode in an open carriage
which had been placed at his disposal, and was surrounded by these
gallant veterans. The assembled thousands cheered lustily as their
favorite passed along, every face radiant with defiant joy, and
every voice shouting "Hurrah for Jackson!"
After the installation of John C. Calhoun as Vice-President in the
Senate Chamber, the assembled dignitaries moved in procession
through the rotunda to the east front of the Capitol. As the tall
figure of the President-elect came out upon the portico and ascended
the platform, uplifted hats and handkerchiefs waved a welcome, and
shouts of "Hurrah for Jackson!" rent the air. Looking around for
a moment into ten thousand upturned and exultant human faces, the
President-elect removed his hat, took the manuscript of his address
from his pocket, and read it with great dignity. When he had
finished, Chief Justice Marshall administered the oath, and as the
President, bending over the sacred Book, touched it with his lips,
there arose such a shout as was never before heard in Washington,
followed by the thunder of cannons, from two light batteries near
by, echoed by the cannon at the Navy Yard and at the Arsenal. The
crowd surged toward the platform, and had it not been that a ship's
cable had been stretched across the portico steps would have captured
their beloved leader. As it was, he shook hands with hundreds,
and it was with some difficulty that he could be escorted back to
his carriage and along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Meanwhile Mr. Adams, who had refused to participate in the pageant,
was taking his usual constitutional horseback exercise when the
thunders of the cannon reached his ears and notified him that he
was again a private citizen.
The broad sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue were again packed as
the procession returned from the Capitol. "I never saw such a
crowd," wrote Daniel Webster to a friend. "Persons have come five
hundred miles to see General Jackson, and they really seem to think
that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger." Hunters
of Kentucky and Indian fighters of Tennessee, with sturdy frontiersmen
from the Northwest, were mingled in the throng with the more cultured
dwellers on the Atlantic slope.
On their arrival at the White House, the motley crowd clamored for
refreshments and soon drained the barrels of punch, which had been
prepared, in drinking to the health of the new Chief Magistrate.
A great deal of china and glassware was broken, and the East Room
was filled with a noisy mob. At one time General Jackson, who had
retreated until he stood with his back against the wall, was
protected by a number of his friends, who formed a living barrier
about him. Such a scene had never before been witnessed at the
White House, and the aristocratic old Federalists saw, to their
disgust, men whose boots were covered with the red mud of the
unpaved streets standing on the damask satin-covered chairs to get
a sight at the President of their choice.
Late in the afternoon President Jackson sat down to dinner with
Vice-President Calhoun and a party of his personal friends, the
central dish on the table being a sirloin from a prize ox, sent to
him by John Merkle, a butcher of Franklin Market, New York. Before
retiring that night, the President wrote to the donor: "Permit
me, sir, to assure you of the gratification which I felt in being
enabled to place on my table so fine a specimen of your market,
and to offer you my sincere thanks for so acceptable a token of
your regard for my character." This was the commencement of a
series of presents which poured in on General Jackson during the
eight years of his administration.
The Democratic journalists of the country were also well represented
at the inauguration, attracted by this semi-official declaration
in the _Telegraph_: "We know not what line of policy General
Jackson will adopt. We take it for granted, however, that he will
reward his friends and punish his enemies."
The leader of this editorial phalanx was Amos Kendall, a native of
Dunstable, Massachusetts, who had by pluck and industry acquired
an education and migrated westward in search of fame and fortune.
Accident made him an inmate of Henry Clay's house and the tutor of
his children; but many months had not elapsed before the two became
political foes, and Kendall, who had become the conductor of a
Democratic newspaper, triumphed, bringing to Washington the official
vote of Kentucky for Andrew Jackson. He found at the National
metropolis other Democratic editors, who, like himself, had labored
to bring about the political revolution, and they used to meet
daily in the house of a preacher-politician, Rev. Obadiah B. Brown,
who had strongly advocated Jackson's election. Mr. Brown, who was
a stout, robust man, with a great fund of anecdotes, was a clerk
in the Post Office department during the week, while on Sundays he
performed his ministerial duties in the Baptist Church.
Organizing under the lead of Amos Kendall, whose lieutenants were
the brilliant but vindictive Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire; the
scholarly Nathaniel Greene, of Massachusetts; the conservative
Gideon Welles, of Connecticut; the jovial Major Mordecai M. Noah,
of New York, and the energetic Dabney S. Carr, of Maryland, the
allied editors claimed their rewards. They were not to be appeased
by sops of Government advertising, or by the appointment of publisher
of the laws of the United States in the respective States, but they
demanded some of the most lucrative public offices in their share
of the spoils. No sooner did General Jackson reach Washington then
they made a systematic attack upon him, introducing and praising
one another, and reciprocally magnifying their faithful services
during the canvass so successfully ended. The result was that soon
after the inauguration nearly fifty of those editors who had
advocated his election were appointed to official Federal positions
as rewards for political services rendered.
Up to that time the national elections in the United States had
not been mere contests for the possession of Federal offices--there
was victory and there was defeat; but the quadrennial encounters
affected only the heads of departments, and the results were matters
of comparative indifference to the subordinate official drudges
whose families depended on their pay for meat and bread. A few of
these department clerks were Revolutionary worthies; others had
followed the Federal Government from New York or Philadelphia; all
had expected to hold their positions for life. Some of these desk-
slaves had originally been Federalists, others Democrats; and while
there was always an Alexander Hamilton in every family of the one
set, there was as invariably a Thomas Jefferson in every family of
the other set. But no subordinate clerk had ever been troubled on
account of his political faith by a change of the Administration,
and the sons generally succeeded their fathers when they died or
resigned. Ordinarily, these clerks were good penmen and skillful
accountants, toiling industriously eight hours every week day
without dreaming of demanding a month's vacation in the summer, or
insisting upon their right to go to their homes to vote in the
fall. National politics was to them a matter of profound indifference
until, after the inauguration of General Jackson, hundreds of them
found themselves decapitated by the Democratic guillotine, without
qualifications for any other employment had the limited trade of
Washington afforded any. Many of them were left in a pitiable
condition, but when the _Telegraph_ was asked what these men could
do to ward off starvation, the insolent reply was, "Root, hog, or
die!" Some of the new political brooms swept clean, and made a
great show of reform, notably Amos Kendall, who was appointed Fourth
Auditor of the Treasury, and who soon after exulted over the
discovery of a defalcation of a few hundred dollars in the accounts
of his predecessor, Dr. Tobias Watkins.
Postmaster-General McLean, of Ohio, who had been avowedly a Jackson
man while he was a member of Mr. Adams' Administration, rebelled
against the removal of several of his most efficient subordinates,
because of their political action during the preceding Presidential
campaign. At last he flatly told General Jackson that if he must
remove those postmasters who had taken an active part in politics,
he should impartially turn out those who had worked to secure the
election of General Jackson, as well as those who had labored to
re-elect Mr. Adams. To his General Jackson at first made no reply,
but rose from his seat, puffing away at his pipe; and after walking
up and down the floor two or three times, he stopped in front of
his rebellious Postmaster-General, and said, "Mr. McLean, will you
accept a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court?" The judicial
position thus tendered was accepted with thanks, and the Post-Office
Department was placed under the direction of Major Barry, who was
invited to take a seat in the Cabinet (never occupied by his
predecessors), and who not only made the desired removals and
appointments, but soon plunged the finances of the Department into
a chaotic state of disorder.
Prominent among those "Jackson men" who received lucrative mail
contracts from Postmaster-General Barry, was "Land Admiral" Reeside,
an appellation he owed to the executive ability which he had
displayed in organizing mail routes between distant cities. He
was a very tall man, well formed, with florid complexion, red hair,
and side whiskers. Very obligingly, he once had a horse belonging
to a Senator taken from Pittsburg to Washington tied behind a stage,
because the owner had affixed his "frank" to the animal's halter.
He was the first mail contractor who ran his stages between
Philadelphia and the West, by night as well as by day, and Mr.
Joseph R. Chandler, of the United States _Gazette_, said that "the
Admiral could leave Philadelphia on a six-horse coach with a hot
johnny-cake in his pocket and reach Pittsburg before it could grow
cold." He used to ridicule the locomotives when they were first
introduced, and offer to bet a thousand dollars that no man could
build a machine that would drag a stage from Washington to Baltimore
quicker than his favorite team of iron-grays.
Mail robberies were not uncommon in those days, although the crime
was punishable with imprisonment or death. One day one of Reeside's
coaches was stopped near Philadelphia by three armed men, who
ordered the nine passengers to alight and stand in a line. One of
the robbers then mounted guard, while the other two made the
terrified passengers deliver up their money and watches, and then
rifled the mail bags. They were soon afterward arrested, tried,
convicted, and one was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary,
while the other two were condemned to be hung. Fortunately for
one of the culprits, named Wilson, he had some years previously,
at a horse-race near Nashville, Tennessee, privately advised General
Jackson to withdraw his bets on a horse which he was backing, as
the jockey had been ordered to lose the race. The General was very
thankful for this information, which enabled him to escape a heavy
loss, and he promised his informant that he would befriend him
whenever an opportunity should offer. When reminded of this promise,
after Wilson had been sentenced to be hanged, Jackson promptly
commuted the sentence to ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary.
When Admiral Reeside was carrying the mails between New York and
Washington, there arose a formidable organization in opposition to
the Sunday mail service. The members of several religious
denominations were prominent in their demonstrations, and in
Philadelphia, chains, secured by padlocks, were stretched across
the streets on Sundays to prevent the passage of the mail-coaches.
The subject was taken up by politicians, and finally came before
the House of Representatives, where it was referred to the Committee
on Post-Roads, of which Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was then
the chairman. The Rev. Obadiah B. Brown, who had meanwhile been
promoted in the Post-office Department, wrote a report on the
subject for Colonel Johnson, which gave "the killer of Tecumseh"
an extended reputation, and was the first step toward his election
as Vice-President, a few years later.
[Facsimile]
J. C. Calhoun
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN was born in South Carolina, March 18th, 1782:
was a Representative in Congress, 1811-1817; Secretary of War, 1817-
1825; Vice-President, 1825-1832; United States Senator, 1833-1843;
Secretary of State, 1844-1845; United States Senator from 1845
until his death at Washington City, March 31st, 1850.
CHAPTER VII.
THE KITCHEN CABINET.
When the Twenty-first Congress assembled, on the 7th of December,
1829, General Jackson sent in his first annual message, which
naturally attracted some attention. Meeting his old and intimate
friend, General Armstrong, the next day, the President said, "Well,
Bob, what do the people say of my message?" "They say," replied
General Armstrong, "that it is first-rate, but nobody believes that
you wrote it." "Well," good-naturedly replied Old Hickory, "don't
I deserve just as much credit for picking out the man who could
write it?" Although the words of this and of the subsequent messages
were not General Jackson's, the ideas were, and he always insisted
on having them clearly expressed. It was in his first message, by
the way, that he invited the attention of Congress to the fact that
the charter of the United States bank would expire in 1836, and
asserted that it had "failed in the great end of establishing a
uniform and sound currency." This was the beginning of that fierce
political contest which resulted in the triumph of General Jackson
and the overthrow of the United States Bank.
General Jackson rarely left the White House, where he passed the
greater portion of his time in his office in the second story, smoking
a corn-cob pipe with a long reed stem. He was at the commencement
of his Presidential term sixty-two years of age, tall, spare, with
a high forehead, from which his gray hair was brushed back, a
decisive nose, searching, keen eyes, and, when good-natured, an
almost childlike expression about his mouth. A self-reliant,
prejudiced, and often very irascible old man, it was a very difficult
task to manage him. Some of his Cabinet advisers made it a point
to be always with him, to prevent others from ingratiating themselves
into his good will, and they were thus chronicled in a ballad of
the time:
"King Andrew had five trusty 'squires,
Whom he held his bid to do;
He also had three pilot-fish,
To give the sharks their cue.
There was Mat and Lou and Jack and Lev,
And Roger, of Taney hue,
And Blair, the book,
And Kendall, chief cook,
And Isaac, surnamed the true."
Mat. Van Buren was Secretary of State, Lou. McLane Secretary of
the Treasury, John Branch was Secretary of the Navy, Lev. Woodbury
was his successor, and Roger B. Taney was Attorney-General. Blair,
Kendall, and Isaac Hill were also known as "the kitchen cabinet."
The confidential advisers of General Jackson lost no time in
establishing a daily newspaper which would speak his sentiments
and sound a key-note for the guidance of his followers. The
_Washington Globe_ was accordingly started on an immense paying
basis, as it had the name of every Federal office-holder whose
salary exceeded one thousand dollars on its subscription list.
The paper was sent them, and in due time the bill for a year. If
a remittance was made, well and good; if payment was refused, the
delinquent was told informally that he could pay his subscription
to the _Globe_, or be replaced by some one else who would pay it.
It was owned and edited by Blair & Rives, Rives attending to the
business department of the establishment. Mr. Blair had been the
partner of Amos Kendall in the publication of the Frankfort _Argus_,
and they had both deserted Henry Clay when they enlisted in the
movement which gave the electoral vote of Kentucky to General
Jackson, and joined in the cry of "bargain and corruption" raised
against their former friend. It is related that the first interview
between Clay and Blair after this desertion was a very awkward one
for the latter, who felt that he had behaved shabbily. Clay had
ridden over on horseback from Lexington to Frankfort, in the winter
season, on legal business, and on alighting from his horse at the
tavern door he found himself confronting Blair, who was just leaving
the house. "How do you do, Mr. Blair?" inquired the great commoner,
in his silvery tones and blandest manner, at the same time extending
his hand. Blair mechanically took the tendered hand, but was
evidently nonplussed, and at length said, with an evident effort,
"Pretty well, I thank you, sir. How did you find the roads from
Lexington to here?" "The roads are very bad, Mr. Blair," graciously
replied Clay, "very bad; and I wish, sir, that you would mend your
ways."
Mr. Blair made it a rule to defend in the columns of the _Globe_
the acts of Jackson's Administration, right or wrong, and he waged
merciless warfare against those who opposed them. When Colonel
William R. King, of Alabama, once begged him to soften an attack
upon an erring Democrat, Mr. Blair replied, "No! let it tear his
heart out." With all his political insolence, however, he possessed
remarkable kindness, and a more indulgent father was never known
in Washington.
The Washington papers, up to this time, contained very little of
what has since been known as local news. A parade, an inauguration,
or the funeral of a distinguished person would receive brief mention,
but the pleasant gossip of the day was entirely ignored. It was
then necessary for the correspondent of a paper in a northern city
to mail his letter at the post-office before twelve o'clock at
night to insure its departure by the early morning's mail northward.
Letters written to New York did not, consequently, appear until
the second day after they were written, while those sent to Boston
rarely appeared before the fourth day. The people then were better
posted as to what transpired at the Nation's Capital than they are
now, when dispatches can be sent in a few moments at any time of
day or night.
Mrs. Anne Royall began an enterprise in personal literature. She
managed to secure an old Ramage printing-press and a font of battered
long-primer type, with which, aided by runaway apprentices and
tramping journeymen printers, she published, on Capitol Hill, for
several years, a small weekly sheet called the _Huntress_. Every
person of any distinction who visited Washington received a call
from Mrs. Royall, and if they subscribed for the _Huntress_ they
were described in the next number in a complimentary manner, but
if they declined she abused them without mercy. When young she
was a short, plump, and not bad-looking woman, but as she advanced
in years her flesh disappeared, and her nose seemed to increase in
size; but her piercing black eyes lost none of their fire, while
her tongue wagged more abusively when her temper was roused. John
Quincy Adams described her as going about "like a virago-errant in
enchanted armor, redeeming herself from the cramps of indigence by
the notoriety of her eccentricities and the forced currency they
gave to her publications."
Mrs. Royall's tongue at last became so unendurable that she was
formally indicted by the Grand Jury as a common scold, and was
tried in the Circuit Court before Judge Cranch. His Honor charged
the jury at length, reviewing the testimony and showing that, if
found guilty, she must be ducked, in accordance with the English
law in force in the District of Columbia. The jury found her
guilty, but her counsel begged his Honor, the Judge, to weigh the
matter and not be the first to introduce a ducking-stool. The plea
prevailed and she was let off with a fine.
The first "Society Letters," as they were called, written from
Washington, were by Nathaniel P. Willis, to the New York _Mirror_.
Willis was at that time a foppish, slender young man, with a
profusion of curly, light hair, and was always dressed in the height
of fashion. He had, while traveling in Europe, mingled with the
aristocratic classes, and he affected to look down upon the masses;
but with all his snobbishness he had a wonderful faculty for endowing
trifling occurrences with interest, and his letters have never been
surpassed. He possessed a sunny nature, full of poetry, enthusiasm,
and cheerfulness, and was always willing to say a pleasant word
for those who treated him kindly, and never sought to retaliate on
his enemies.
Willis first introduced steel pens at Washington, having brought
over from England some of those made by Joseph Gillott, at Birmingham.
Before this goose-quill pens had been exclusively used, and there
was in each House of Congress and in each Department a penmaker,
who knew what degree of flexibility and breadth of point each writer
desired. Every gentleman had to carry a penknife, and to have in
his desk a hone to sharpen it on, giving the finishing touches on
one of his boots. Another new invention of that epoch was the
lucifer match-box, which superseded the large tin tinder-box with
its flint and steel. The matches were in the upper portion of a
pasteboard case about an inch in diameter and six inches in length
and in a compartment beneath them was a bottle containing a chemical
preparation, into which the brimstone-coated end of the match was
dipped and thus ignited.
The Mayor of Washington, during a portion of the Jackson Administration,
was Peter Force, a noble specimen of those who, before the existence
of trades unions, used to serve an apprenticeship to the "art
preservative of arts," and graduate from the printing office
qualified to fill any political position. Fond of American history,
Mr. Force, while printing the _Biennial Register_, better known as
the Blue Book from the color of its binding, began to collect
manuscripts, books, and pamphlets, many of which had been thrown
away in the executive departments as rubbish, and were purchased
by him from the dealers in waste paper. In 1833 he originated the
idea of compiling and publishing a documentary history of the
country, under the title of the _American Archives_, and issued a
number of large folio volumes, the profits going to the politicians
who secured the necessary appropriations from Congress. He was
emphatically a gentleman--tall, stalwart, with bushy black hair,
and large, expressive eyes, which would beam with joy whenever a
friend brought him a rare autograph or pamphlet.
Assemblies were held once a week between Christmas Day and Ash
Wednesday, to which all of the respectable ladies of the city who
danced were invited. It was also customary for those of the Cabinet
officers and other high officials who kept house to give at least
one evening party during each session of Congress, invitations for
which were issued. The guests at these parties used to assemble
at about eight o'clock, and after taking off their wraps in an
upper room they descended to the parlor, where the host and hostess
received them. The older men then went to the punch-bowl to
criticise the "brew" which it contained, while the young people
found their way to the dining-room, almost invariably devoted to
dancing. The music was a piano and two violins, and one of the
musicians called the figures for the cotillions and contra-dances.
Those who did not dance elbowed their way through the crowd,
conversing with acquaintances, the men frequently taking another
glass of punch. At ten the guests were invited to the supper-table,
which was often on the wide back porch which every Washington house
had in those days. The table was always loaded with evidences of
the culinary skill of the lady of the house. There was a roast
ham at one end, a saddle of venison or mutton at the other end,
and some roasted poultry or wild ducks midway; a great variety of
home-baked cake was a source of pride, and there was never any lack
of punch, with decanters of Madeira. The diplomats gave champagne,
but it was seldom seen except at the legations. At eleven there
was a general exodus, and after the usual scramble for hats, cloaks,
and over-shoes the guests entered their carriages. Sometimes a
few intimate friends of the hostess lingered to enjoy a contra-
dance or to take a parting drink of punch, but by midnight the last
guest departed, and the servants began to blow out the candles with
which the house had been illuminated.
In Jackson's first Administration the country was shocked by the
appearance of a book entitled, _The Domestic Manners of Americans_,
by Mrs. Frances Trollope. She was a bright little Englishwoman,
who had come to this country and established a bazaar at Cincinnati,
which proved a failure. So she sought revenge and wealth by a
caricature sketch of our pioneer life, founded on fact, but very
unpalatable. Expectoration was her pet abomination, and she was
inclined to think that this "most vile and universal habit of
chewing tobacco" was the cause of a remarkable peculiarity in the
male physiognomy of Americans, the almost uniform thinness and
compression of their lips. So often did Mrs. Trollope recur to
this habit that she managed to give one the impression that this
country was in those days a sort of huge spittoon.
Mrs. Trollope first called attention to the fact that American
women did not consult the season in either the colors or style of
their costumes, never wore boots, and walked in the middle of winter
with their pretty little feet pinched into miniature slippers
incapable of excluding as much moisture as might bedew a primrose.
Removals from office that places might be provided for Jackson men
were the order of the day, but President Jackson was not disposed
to displace any veteran soldier. Among other victims designated
for removal by the politicians was General Solomon Van Rensselaer,
whose gallant services against Great Britain in the War of 1812
had been rewarded by an election to the House of Representatives,
followed by his appointment as Postmaster of Albany. He was a
decided Federalist and the petition for his removal was headed by
Martin Van Buren and Silas Wright.
Visiting Washington, General Van Rensselaer received a cordial
greeting from General Jackson at a public reception, and then,
taking a seat in a corner, he waited until the room was cleared,
when he again approached the President, saying: "General Jackson,
I have come here to talk to you about my office. The politicians
want to take it from me, and they know I have nothing else to live
on." The President made no reply, till the aged Postmaster began
to take off his coat in the most excited manner, when Old Hickory
broke out with the inquiry: "What in Heaven's name are you going
to do? Why do you take off your coat here?" "Well, sir, I am
going to show you my wounds, which I received in fighting for my
country against the English!" "Put it on at once, sir!" was the
reply; "I am surprised that a man of your age should make such an
exhibition of himself," and the eyes of the iron President were
suffused with tears, as, without another word, he bade his ancient
foe good evening.
The next day Messrs. Van Buren and Wright called at the White House
and were shown up into the President's room, where they found him
smoking a clay pipe. Mr. Wright soon commenced to solicit the
removal of General Van Rensselaer, asserting that he had been known
as a very active advocate of John Quincy Adams; that he had literally
forfeited his place by his earnest opposition to the Jackson men,
and that if he were not removed the new Administration would be
seriously injured. He had hardly finished the last sentence, when
Jackson sprang to his feet, flung his pipe into the fire, and
exclaimed with great vehemence, "I take the consequences, sir; I
take the consequences. By the Eternal! I will not remove the old
man--I cannot remove him. Why, Mr. Wright, do you not know that
he carries more than a pound of British lead in his body?" That
settled the question, and General Van Rensselaer remained undisturbed
as Postmaster at Albany through the Jackson Administration, although
Martin Van Buren, when he came into power, promptly "bounced" him.
General Jackson's defiant disposition was manifested when, in a
message to Congress, he recommended that a law be passed authorizing
reprisals upon French property in case provision should not be made
for the payment of the long-standing claims against France at the
approaching session of the French Chambers. Some of his Cabinet,
having deemed this language too strong, had prevailed upon the
President's private secretary, Major Donelson, to modify it, and
to make it less irritating and menacing. No sooner was it discovered
by General Jackson than he flew into a great excitement, and when
Mr. Rives entered his private office to obtain it for printing, he
found the old General busily engaged in re-writing it according to
the original copy. "I know them French," said he. "They won't
pay unless they're made to."
The French people were indignant when this message reached Paris,
and when the Chamber of Deputies finally provided for the payment
of the claims, a proviso was inserted ordering the money to be
withheld until the President of the United States had apologized
for the language used. This General Jackson flatly refused to do,
and the "Ancient Allies" of the Revolution were on the verge of
hostilities, when both nations agreed to submit their differences
to Great Britain. The affair was speedily arranged, and France
paid five millions of dollars for French spoilations into the
Treasury of the United States, where it has since remained.
[Facsimile]
Silas Wright Jr.
SILAS WRIGHT, JR., was born at Amherst, Massachusetts, May 24th,
1795; was a Representative from New York in Congress, 1827-1829;
Comptroller of New York, 1829-1833; United States Senator, 1833-
1844; Governor of New York, 1844-1846; retired to his farm at
Canton, New York, and died there, August 27th, 1847.
CHAPTER VIII.
BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.
An unimportant resolution concerning the public lands, introduced
into the Senate early in 1830 by Senator Foote, of Connecticut (the
father of Admiral Foote), led to a general debate, which has been
since known as "the battle of the giants." The discussion embraced
all the partisan issues of the time, especially those of a sectional
nature, including the alleged rights of a State to set the Federal
Government at defiance. The State Rights men in South Carolina,
instigated by Mr. Calhoun, had been active during the preceding
summer in collecting material for this discussion, and they had
taken especial pains to request a search for evidence that Mr.
Webster had shown a willingness to have New England secede from
the Union during the second war with Great Britain. The vicinity
of Portsmouth, where he had resided when he entered public life,
was, to use his own words, "searched as with a candle. New Hampshire
was explored from the mouth of the Merrimack to the White Hills."
Nor had Mr. Webster been idle. He was not an extemporaneous speaker,
and he passed the summer in carefully studying, in his intervals
of professional duties, the great constitutional question which he
afterward so brilliantly discussed. A story is told at Providence
about a distinguished lawyer of that place--Mr. John Whipple--who
was at Washington when Webster replied to Hayne, but who did not
hear the speech, as he was engaged in a case before the Supreme
Court when it was delivered. When a report of what Mr. Webster
had said appeared in print, Mr. Whipple read it, and was haunted
by the idea that he had heard or read it before. Meeting Mr.
Webster soon afterward, he mentioned this idea to him and inquired
whether it could possibly have any foundation in fact. "Certainly
it has," replied Mr. Webster. "Don't you remember our conversations
during the long walks we took together last summer at Newport,
while in attendance on Story's court?" It flashed across Mr.
Whipple's mind that Mr. Webster had then rehearsed the legal argument
of his speech and had invited criticism.
As the debate on the Foote resolution progressed, it revealed an
evident intention to attack New England, and especially Massachusetts.
This brought Mr. Webster into the arena, and he concluded a brief
speech by declaring that, as a true representative of the State
which had sent him into the Senate, it was his duty and a duty
which he should fulfill, to place her history and her conduct, her
honor and her character, in their just and proper light. A few
days later, Mr. Webster heard his State and himself mercilessly
attacked by General Hayne, of South Carolina, no mean antagonist.
The son of a Revolutionary hero who had fallen a victim to British
cruelty, highly educated, with a slender, graceful form, fascinating
deportment, and a well-trained, mellifluous voice, the haughty
South Carolinian entered the lists of the political tournament like
Saladin to oppose the Yankee Coeur de Lion.
When Mr. Webster went to the Senate Chamber to reply to General
Hayne, on Tuesday, January 20th, 1830, he felt himself master of
the situation. Always careful about his personal appearance when
he was to address an audience, he wore on that day the Whig uniform,
which had been copied by the Revolutionary heroes--a blue dress-
coat with bright buttons, a buff waistcoat, and a high, white
cravat. Neither was he insensible to the benefits to be derived
from publicity, and he had sent a request to Mr. Gales to report
what he was to say himself, rather than to send one of his
stenographers. The most graphic account of the scene in the Senate
Chamber during the delivery of the speech was subsequently written
virtually from Mr. Webster's dictation. Perhaps, like Mr. Healy's
picture of the scene, it is rather high-colored.
Sheridan, after his forty days' preparation, did not commence his
scathing impeachment of Warren Hastings with more confidence that
was displayed by Mr. Webster when he stood up, in the pride of his
manhood, and began to address the interested mass of talent,
intelligence, and beauty around him. A man of commanding presence,
with a well-knit, sturdy frame, swarthy features, a broad, thoughtful
forehead, courageous eyes gleaming from beneath shaggy eyebrows,
a quadrangular breadth of jawbone, and a mouth which bespoke strong
will, he stood like a sturdy Roundhead sentinel on guard before
the gates of the Constitution. Holding in profound contempt what
he termed spread-eagle oratory, his only gesticulations were up-and-
down motions of his arm, as if he were beating out with sledge-
hammers his forcible ideas. His peroration was sublime, and every
loyal American heart has since echoed the last words, "Liberty and
union--now and forever--one and inseparable!"
Mr. Webster's speech, carefully revised by himself, was not published
until the 23d of February, and large editions of it were circulated
throughout the Northern States. The debate was continued, and it
was the 21st of May before Colonel Benton, who had been the first
defamer of New England, brought it to a close. The Northern men
claimed for Mr. Webster the superiority, but General Jackson praised
the speech of Mr. Hayne, and deemed his picture worthy to occupy
a place in the White House, thus giving expression to the general
sentiment among the Southerners. This alarmed Mr. Van Buren, who
was quietly yet shrewdly at work to defeat the further advancement
of Mr. Calhoun, and he lost no time in demonstrating to the imperious
old soldier who occupied the Presidential chair that the South
Carolina doctrine of nullification could but prove destructive to
the Union.
Mr. Calhoun was not aware of this intrigue, and, in order to
strengthen his State Rights policy, he organized a public dinner
on the anniversary of Jefferson's birthday, April 13th, 1830. When
the toasts which were to be proposed were made public in advance,
according to the custom, it was discovered that several of them
were strongly anti-tariff and State Rights in sentiment--so much
so that a number of Pennsylvania tariff Democrats declined to
attend, and got up a dinner of their own. General Jackson attended
the dinner, but he went late and retired early, leaving a volunteer
toast, which he had carefully prepared at the White House, and
which fell like a damper upon those at the dinner, while it
electrified the North, "The Federal Union--it must and shall be
maintained!" This toast, which could not be misunderstood, showed
that General Jackson would not permit himself to be placed in the
attitude of a patron of doctrines which could lead only to a
dissolution of the Federal Government. But the Committee on
Arrangements toned it down, so that it appeared in the official
report of the dinner, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved!"
This was a severe blow to Mr. Calhoun, who had labored earnestly
to break down Mr. Adams' Administration, without respect to its
measures, that a Democratic party might be built up which would
first elect General Jackson, and then recognize Calhoun as legitimate
successor to the Presidential chair. His discomfiture was soon
completed by the publication of a letter from Mr. Crawford, which
informed the President that Calhoun, when in the Cabinet of Monroe,
proposed that "General Jackson should be punished in some form"
for his high-handed military rule in Florida. Van Buren secretly
fanned the flames of General Jackson's indignation, and adroitly
availed himself of a "tempest in a tea-pot" to complete the downfall
of his rival.
The woman used as a tool by Mr. Van Buren for the overthrow of Mr.
Calhoun's political hopes was a picturesque and prominent figure
in Washington society then and during the next fifty years. The
National Metropolis in those days resembled, as has been well said,
in recklessness and extravagance, the spirit of the English
seventeenth century, so graphically portrayed in _Thackeray's
Humorist_, rather than the dignified caste of the nineteenth cycle
of Christianity. Laxity of morals and the coolest disregard possible
characterized that period of our existence.
Mrs. General Eaton ruled Andrew Jackson as completely as he ruled
the Democratic party. She was the daughter of William O'Neill, a
rollicking Irishman, who was in his day the landlord of what was
then the leading public house in Washington City. Among other
Congressmen who were guests here was Andrew Jackson, then a Senator
from Tennessee. It was here he became interested in the landlord's
brilliant daughter Margaret, called by her friends "Peg" O'Neill.
Before she was sixteen years of age she married a handsome naval
officer, John Bowie Timberlake. He died--some say that he committed
suicide--at Port Mahon, in 1828, leaving his accounts as purser in
a very mixed condition. After the death of Timberlake, Commodore
Patterson ordered Lieutenant Randolph to take the purser's books
and perform the duties of purser. On the return home of the
Constitution it was discovered that Timberlake or Randolph was a
defaulter to the Government to a very large amount. A court of
inquiry was held on Randolph and he was acquitted, but Amos Kendall,
the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury Department, charged the defalcation
to Randolph. President Jackson, notwithstanding the decision of
the court, dismissed Lieutenant Randolph from the Navy, and refused
to give him a hearing.
The Lieutenant, infuriated by his disgrace and pecuniary ruin, in
a state of excitement pulled the President's nose in the cabin of
a steamboat at the Alexandria wharf. He was immediately seized
and thrust on shore, the President declaring that he was able to
punish him. He charged that Jackson dismissed him and sustained
Kendall's decision in order to save General Eaton, who was Timberlake's
bondsman, from having to make good the defalcation.
General Eaton, who had boarded with his friend, General Jackson,
at O'Neill's tavern, soon afterward married the Widow Timberlake,
who was then one of those examples of that Irish beauty, which,
marked by good blood, so suggests both the Greek and the Spaniard,
and yet at times presents a combination which transcends both.
Her form, of medium height, straight and delicate, was of perfect
proportions. Her skin was of that delicate white, tinged with red,
which one often sees among even the poorer inhabitants of the Green
Isle. Her dark hair, very abundant, clustered in curls about her
broad, expressive forehead. Her perfect nose, of almost Grecian
proportions, and finely curved mouth, with a firm, round chin,
completed a profile of faultless outlines. She was in Washington
City what Aspasia was in Athens--the cynosure by whose reflected
radiance
"Beauty lent her smile to wit,
And learning by her star was lit."
General Jackson had come to Washington with a sad heart, breathing
vengeance against those who had defamed his wife during the
Presidential canvass, thereby, as he thought, hastening her death.
This made him the sworn and unyielding foe of all slanderers of
women, and when some of the female tabbies of the Capital began to
drag the name of his old friend "Peg," then the wife of General
Eaton, through the mire, he was naturally indignant, and showed
his respect for her by having her a frequent guest at the White
House. Enchanting, ambitious, and unscrupulous, she soon held the
old hero completely under her influence, and carried her griefs to
him. Mr. Van Buren adroitly seconded her, and the gallant old
soldier swore "by the Eternal" that the scandalmongers who had
embittered the last years of his beloved wife, Rachel, should not
triumph over his "little friend Peg."
This was Van Buren's opportunity. He was a widower, keeping house
at Washington, and as Secretary of State he was able to form an
alliance with the bachelor Ministers of Great Britain and Russia,
each of whom had spacious residences. A series of dinners, balls,
and suppers was inaugurated at these three houses, and at each
successive entertainment Mrs. Eaton was the honored guest, who led
the contra-dance, and occupied the seat at table on the right of
the host. Some respectable ladies were so shocked by her audacity
that they would leave a room when she entered it. She was openly
denounced by clergymen, and she found herself in positions which
would have covered almost any other woman in Washington with shame.
Mrs. Eaton, who apparently did not possess a scruple as to the
propriety of her course, evidently enjoyed the situation, and used
to visit General Jackson every day with a fresh story of the insults
paid her. Yet she gave no evidences of diplomacy nor of political
sagacity, but was a mere beautiful, passionate, impulsive puppet,
held up by General Jackson, while Mr. Van Buren adroitly pulled
the strings that directed her movements.
Mr. Calhoun, whose wife was foremost among those ladies who positively
refused to associate with Mrs. Eaton, said to a friend of General
Jackson's, who endeavored to effect a reconciliation, that "the
quarrels of women, like those of the Medes and Persians, admitted
of neither inquiry nor explanation." He knew well, however, that
it was no women's quarrel, but a political game of chess played by
men who were using women as their pawns, and he lost the game.
Van Buren and Eaton next tendered their resignations as Cabinet
officers, which General Jackson refused to accept; whereupon the
Cabinet officers whose wives declined to call on Mrs. Eaton resigned,
and their resignations were promptly accepted. The whole city was
in a turmoil. Angry men walked about with bludgeons, seeking
"satisfaction;" duels were talked of; old friendships were severed;
and every fresh indignity offered his "little friend Peg" endeared
her the more to General Jackson, who was duly grateful to Van Buren
for having espoused her cause. "It is odd enough," wrote Daniel
Webster to a personal friend, "that the consequences of this dispute
in the social and fashionable world are producing great political
effects, and may very probably determine who shall be successor to
the present Chief Magistrate."
Junius Brutus Booth was the delight of the Washington playgoers in
the Jackson Administration. His wonderful impersonations of Richard
III., Iago, King Lear, Othello, Shylock, and Sir Giles Overreach
were as grand as his private life was intemperate and eccentric.
He was a short, dumpy man, with features resembling those of the
Roman Emperors, before his nose was broken in a quarrel, and his
deportment on the stage was imperially grand. He had a farm in
Maryland, and at one time he undertook to supply a Washington hotel
with eggs, milk, and chickens, but he soon gave it up. His instant
and tremendous concentration of passion in his delineations
overwhelmed his audience and wrought it into such enthusiasm that
it partook of the fever of inspiration surging through his own
veins. He was not lacking in the power to comprehend and portray
with marvelous and exquisite delicacy the subtle shades of character
that Shakespeare loved to paint, and his impersonations were a
delight to the refined scholar as well as the uncultivated backwoodsmen
who crowded to his performances.
The Washington Theatre was not well patronized, but the strolling
proprietors of minor amusements reaped rich harvests of small silver
coins. The circus paid its annual visit, to the joy of the rural
Congressmen and the negroes, who congregated around its sawdust
ring, applauding each successive act of horsemanship and laughing
at the repetition of the clown's old jokes; a daring rope-dancer,
named Herr Cline, performed his wonderful feats on the tight rope
and on the slack wire; Finn gave annual exhibitions of fancy glass-
blowing; and every one went to see "the living skeleton," a tall,
emaciated young fellow named Calvin Edson, compared with whom
Shakespeare's starved apothecary was fleshy.
General Jackson turned a deaf ear to the numerous applications made
to him for charity. At one time when he was President a large
number of Irish immigrants were at work on the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal in Georgetown, and, the weather being very hot, many of them
were prostrated by sunstroke and bilious diseases. They were
without medical aid, the necessities of life, or any shelter except
the shanties in which they were crowded. Their deplorable condition
led to the formation of a society of Irish-Americans, with the
venerable Mr. McLeod, a noted instructor, as president. A committee
from this Society waited on the President for aid, and Mr. McLeod
made known the object of their visit. General Jackson interrupted
him by saying that he "entirely disapproved of the Society; that
the fact of its existence would induce these fellows to come one
hundred miles to get the benefit of it; that if the treasury of
the United States were at his disposal it could not meet the demands
that were daily made upon him, and he would not be driven from the
White House by a beggar-man, like old Jim Monroe."
Colonel Samuel Swartwout, of Hoboken, was an old personal friend
of General Jackson, and when "the Hickory Broom" began to sweep
out the old office-holders, in obedience to the maxim, "To the
victors belong the spoils," the Colonel was an applicant for the
then lucrative position of Collector of the Port of New York. Van
Buren was against him, and used many arguments with Jackson to
prevent the appointment; but after a patient hearing, Old Hickory
closed the case by bringing his fist down upon the table and
exclaiming, "By the Eternal! Sam, Swartwout _shall_ be Collector
of the Port of New York!" He was appointed and became the prey of
political swindlers, spending the public moneys right regally until
his accounts were overhauled, and he "Swartwouted" (to use a word
coined at the time) to avoid a criminal prosecution. He remained
abroad for many years, and I think died in Europe.
Francis S. Key was United States Attorney for the district of
Washington during the Jackson Administration. He was a small,
active man, having an earnest and even anxious expression of
countenance, as if care sat heavily upon him. In composing the
heroic song of the "Star-Spangled Banner," after he had witnessed
the unsuccessful night attack of the British on Fort McHenry, he,
in a measure, associated himself with the glory of his country.
He was a man of very ardent religious character, and some of the
most poetic and popular of the hymns used in religious worship were
from his pen.
[Facsimile]
Danl Webster
DANIEL WEBSTER was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18th,
1782; was a Representative from New Hampshire in Congress, 1813-
1817, and removing to Boston, a Representative from Massachusetts,
1823-1827; United States Senator, 1827-1841; Secretary of State
under Presidents Harrison and Tyler, 1841-1843; United States
Senator, 1845-1850; Secretary of State under President Fillmore
from 1850 until his death at Marshfield, Massachusetts, October
14th, 1852.
CHAPTER IX.
THE STAMPING OUT OF NULLIFICATION.
The rejection by the Senate of the nomination of Martin Van Buren
as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, was an act of
retributive justice, carried out on the very spot where, five years
before, he had formed the combination which overthrew the Administration
of John Quincy Adams. John C. Calhoun, who was the organizer of
the rejection of Mr. Van Buren, thought that he had obtained pledges
of a sufficient number of votes; but just before the ayes and noes
were called Mr. Webster left the Senate Chamber, and going down
into the Supreme Court room remained there until the vote had been
taken. Mr. Calhoun consequently found himself one vote short, and
had to give the casting vote, as President of the Senate, which
rejected the nomination of his rival, who was already in England,
where he had been received with marked attention.
Returning to the United States, Mr. Van Buren was warmly welcomed
at the White House as a victim of Mr. Calhoun's opposition to the
President, and he was soon recognized by the Democratic party as
their heir-apparent to the Presidency. His appearance at that time
was impressive. He was short, solidly built, with a bald head,
and with bushy side-whiskers, which framed his florid features.
He added the grace and polish of aristocratic English society to
his natural courtesy, and it was his evident aim never to provoke
a controversy, while he used every exertion to win new friends and
retain old ones. After he had been elected Vice-President, he sat
day after day in the chair of the Senate, apparently indifferent
alike to the keen thrusts of Calhoun, the savage blows of Webster,
and the gibes of Clay. He well knew that General Jackson would
regard every assault on him as aimed at the Administration, and
that his chances for the succession would thereby be strengthened.
Charges of political chicanery were brought against him in shapes
more varied than that of Proteus and thick as the leaves that strew
the vale of Valombrosa; but he invariably extricated himself by
artifice and choice management, earning the sobriquet of "the Little
Magician." He could not be provoked into a loss of temper, and he
would not say a word while in the chair except as connected with
his duties as presiding officer, when he spoke in gentle but
persuasive tones, singularly effective from the clearness of his
enunciation and his well-chosen emphasis.
Mr. Van Buren, who was then a widower, kept house on Pennsylvania
Avenue, about half way between the White House and Georgetown,
where he not only gave dinner parties to his political friends,
but entertained their wives and daughters at evening whist parties.
Gentlemen and ladies were alike used for the advancement of his
schemes for the succession and for retaining his position in the
estimation of General Jackson. On one occasions he said to Mrs.
Eaton that he had been reading much and thinking deeply on the
characters of great men, and had come to the conclusion that General
Jackson was the greatest man that had ever lived--the only man
among them all who was without a fault. "But," he added, "don't
tell General Jackson what I have said. I would not have him know
it for all the world." Of course, it was not long before Mrs.
Eaton repeated the conversation to General Jackson. "Ah, madam!"
said Old Hickory, the tears starting in his eyes, "that man loves
me; he tries to conceal it, but there is always some way fixed by
which I can tell my friends from my enemies."
Mr. Van Buren was noted for his willingness to sign applications
for office, and he used to tell a good story illustrating his
readiness to oblige those who solicited his aid. When Governor of
the State of New York, a lawyer called upon him to get a convict
pardoned from the penitentiary, and stated the case, which was a
clear one. "Have you the papers?" he asked. "If so, I will sign
them." "Here they are," said the lawyer, producing a bulky document,
and the Governor indorsed them: "Let pardon be granted. M. Van
Buren." He then left for the office of the Secretary of State,
but soon returned. "Governor," said he, "I made a mistake, and
you indorsed the wrong paper." He had presented for the official
indorsement the marriage settlement of an Albany belle about to
marry a spendthrift.
To ingratiate himself further with General Jackson, and to strengthen
the Democratic party, whose votes he relied upon to elevate him to
the Presidency, Mr. Van Buren organized the war against the United
States Bank. General Jackson was opposed to this institution before
he became President, and it was not a difficult task to impress
upon his mind that the Bank was an unconstitutional monopoly, which
defied the legislative acts of sovereign States, which was suborning
the leading newspapers and public men of the country, and which
was using every means that wealth, political chicanery, and legal
cunning could devise to perpetuate its existence. All this the
honest old soldier in time believed, and it was then not difficult
to impress him with a desire to combat this "monster," as he called
the bank, and to act as the champion of the people in killing the
dragon which was endeavoring to consume their fortunes. When a
committee of wealthy business men from Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia waited on him with a remonstrance against his financial
policy, he gave them such a reception that they felt very uncomfortable
and were glad to get away.
The Democratic politicians and presses heartily seconded their
chieftain in this war, promising the people "Benton mint-drops
instead of rag-money." Jackson clubs were everywhere organized,
having opposite to the tavern or hall used as their headquarters
a hickory-tree, trimmed of all its foliage except a tuft at the
top. Torch-light processions, then organized for the first time,
used to march through the streets of the city or village where they
belonged, halting in front of the houses of prominent Jackson men
to cheer, while before the residences of leading Whigs they would
often tarry long enough to give six or nine groans. Editors of
newspapers which supported the Administration were forced to advocate
its most ultra measures and to denounce its opponents, or they were
arraigned as traitors, and if satisfactory excuses could not be
made, they were read out of the party. Among these thus excommunicated
was Mr. James Gordon Bennett, who had edited the Philadelphia
_Pennsylvanian_.
Nicholas Biddle, its president, managed the affairs of the Bank of
the United States with consummate ability. His trials in the bitter
contest waged against him and the institution which he represented
were almost as manifold as those that tested the patience of Job;
and he bore them with equal meekness so far as temper was concerned,
but when duty required he never failed to meet his opponents with
decision and effect. The Bank had to discount the worthless notes
of a number of Congressmen and editors, whose support, thus purchased,
did more harm than good. Mr. Biddle had also incurred the hostility
of Isaac Hill and other influential Jackson men because he would
not remove the non-partisan presidents and cashiers of the branches
of the Bank in their respective localities, and appoint in their
places zealous henchmen of the Administration.
General Jackson was triumphantly re-elected in November, 1832,
receiving two hundred and nineteen of the two hundred and eighty-
eight electoral votes cast, while Martin Van Buren received one
hundred and eighty-nine electoral votes for Vice-President.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and
Kentucky cast forty-nine electoral votes for Henry Clay and John
Sargent. Vermont gave her seven electoral votes for the anti-
Masonic candidates, William Wirt and William Ellmaker, while South
Carolina bestowed her eleven electoral votes on John Floyd, of
Virginia, and Henry Lee, of Massachusetts, neither of whom were
nullifiers. Some of the Jackson newspapers, while rejoicing over
his re-election, nominated him for a third term, and William Wirt
wrote: "My opinion is that he may be President for life if he
chooses."
The ordeal of re-election having been passed, President Jackson
and his supporters carried out the programme which had before been
decided upon. The removal of the Government deposits from the
United States Bank gave rise to stormy debates in Congress, and
the questionable exercise of Executive authority met with a fierce,
unrelenting opposition from the Whigs.
The debates in the Senate on the Bank and attendant financial
questions were very interesting, but the audiences were necessarily
small. The circumscribed accommodations of the Senate Chamber were
insufficient, and while the ladies generally managed to secure
seats, either in the galleries or on the floor, the gentlemen had
to content themselves with uncomfortable positions, leaning against
pillars or peeping through doorways. Mr. Van Buren, as Vice-
President, presided with great dignity, and endeavored to conciliate
those Senators who were his rivals for the succession, but he had
often to hear his political course mercilessly criticised by them.
John C. Calhoun, who resigned the position of Vice-President that
he might be elected a Senator from South Carolina, differed from
his great contemporaries in the possession of a private character
above reproach. Whether this arose from the preponderance of the
intellectual over the animal in his nature, or the subjection of
his passions by discipline, was never determined by those who knew
the gifted South Carolinian best; but such was the fact. His
enemies could find no opprobrious appellation for him but "Catiline,"
instead of "Caldwell," which was his middle name--no crime but
ambition. He disregarded the unwritten laws of the Senate, which
required Senators to appear in dress suits of black broadcloth,
and asserted his State pride and State independence by wearing,
when the weather was warm, a suit of nankeen, made from nankeen
cotton grown in South Carolina. Mr. Calhoun had a pale and attenuated
look, as if in bad health; his long black hair was combed up from
his forehead and fell over the back of his head, and his thin lips
increased the effect of the acute look with which he always regarded
those around him. His personal intercourse with friends was
characterized by great gentleness of manner; he was an affectionate
and a devoted husband and father, and Webster truly remarked of
him that "he had no recreations, and never seemed to feel the
necessity of amusement."
Disappointed in his aspirations for the Presidency of the United
States, Mr. Calhoun conceived the idea of dissolving the Union and
establishing a Southern Confederacy, of which he would be the Chief
Executive. One of his projects, fearing that the success of the
main plot would be too long delayed for any benefit to inure to
him, was a proposed amendment to the Constitution, to make two
Presidents exist at the same time--one from the South and the other
from the other sections--and no act in regard to the interests of
the South was to be passed without the consent of the President
for that section. Of course, his plan was looked upon as puerile,
if not mischievous, and failed to attract much attention. His
whole soul was then bent on his main scheme, and he enlisted warm,
ardent, and talented followers in behalf of it; but little headway
was made in it outside of South Carolina.
President Jackson knew well what was going on, and was determined
that the law should be put into execution, not against misguided
followers, but against Calhoun, the chief conspirator. Calhoun,
hearing that Jackson had resolved upon his prosecution and trial,
and, if convicted, his execution for treason, sent Letcher, of
Kentucky, to confer with him and to learn his real intentions.
The President received Letcher with his usual courtesy; but that
mild blue eye, which at times would fill with tears like that of
a woman, was kindled up that night with unwonted fire. He explained
the situation to Letcher, and concluded by telling him that if
another step was taken, "by the Eternal!" he would try Calhoun for
treason, and, if convicted, he would hang him on a gallows as high
as Haman.
Letcher saw that Jackson was terribly in earnest, and hastened to
the lodgings of Calhoun, who had retired, but received him sitting
up in bed with his cloak around him. Letcher detailed all that
had occurred, giving entire the conversation with Jackson, and
described the old hero as he took that oath.
There sat Calhoun, drinking in eagerly every word, and, as Letcher
proceeded, he turned pale as death, and, great as he was in intellect,
trembled like an aspen leaf, not from fear or cowardice, but from
the consciousness of guilt. He was the arch traitor, who like
Satan in Paradise, "brought death into the world and all our woe."
Within one week he came into the Senate and voted--voted for every
section of Mr. Clay's bill--and President Jackson was prevailed
upon not to prosecute him for his crime.
During the last days of General Jackson at the Hermitage, while
slowly sinking under the ravages of consumption, he was one day
speaking of his Administration, and with glowing interest he inquired
of the physician:
"What act in my Administration, in your opinion, will posterity
condemn with the greatest severity?"
The physician replied that he was unable to answer, that it might
be the removal of the deposits.
"Oh! no," said the General.
"Then it may be the specie circular?"
"Not at all!"
"What is it, then?"
"I can tell you," said Jackson, rising in his bed, his eyes kindling
up--"I can tell you; posterity will condemn me more because I was
persuaded not to hang John C. Calhoun as a traitor than for any
other act in my life."
Daniel Webster's reply to Hayne was made the key-note of the
resistance by the Administration to Jefferson's assertion adopted
by Calhoun, "Where powers have been assumed which have not been
delegated, nullification is the rightful remedy." President
Jackson's proclamation against this doctrine of nullification--the
germ of secession--was written by Edward Livingston, his Secretary
of State, and it has been said that it followed, throughout, the
doctrine maintained by Mr. Webster in his reply to Hayne, in 1830.
So remarkable was this adoption of Mr. Webster's argument, that
popular opinion at that time regarded it as a manifest, but of
course a very excusable, plagiarism. Mr. Webster, when the
proclamation was issued, was on his way to Washington, ignorant of
what had occurred. At an inn in New Jersey he met a traveler just
from Washington. Neither of them was known to the other. Mr.
Webster inquired the news. "Sir," said the gentleman, "the President
has issued a proclamation against the nullifiers, taken entirely
from Mr. Webster's reply to Hayne." In the course of the ensuing
session, and not long after Mr. Webster reached the capital it
became necessary for the Administration to act. Mr. Webster was
in the opposition, and, excepting in regard to the integrity of
the Union and the just power of the Government, there was a wide
gulf between the Administration and him. He was absent from his
seat for several days when the Force bill was about to be introduced
as an Administration measure. A portion of General Jackson's
original supporters hung back from that issue. At this juncture
there was much inquiry among the President's friends in the House
as to where Mr. Webster was. At length a member of General Jackson's
Cabinet went to Mr. Webster's rooms, told him the nature of the
bill about to be introduced, and asked him, as a public duty, to
go into the Senate and defend the bill and the President. It is
well known to the whole country that Mr. Webster did so; and it is
known to me that General Jackson personally thanked him for his
powerful aid, that many of the President's best friends afterward
sought to make a union between him and Mr. Webster, and that nothing
continued to separate them but an irreconcilable difference of
opinion about the questions relating to the currency.
While Mr. Calhoun was undoubtedly the leading Democrat in the
Senate, after his return to that body, Mr. Benton was the recognized
leader of President Jackson's adherents in that body. His fierce
opposition to "Biddle and the Bank," with his prediction that the
time would come when there would be no paper money, but when every
laboring man would have a knit silk purse, through the meshes of
which the gold coin within could be seen, obtained for him the
sobriquet of "Old Bullion." His greatest triumph was the passage
of a resolution by the Senate "expunging" from its journal a
resolution censuring General Jackson for the removal of deposits
from the Bank of the United States. This expunging resolution was
kept before the Senate for nearly three years, and was then passed
by only five majority. The closing debate was able and exhaustive,
Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Thomas Ewing, William C. Rives,
William Hendricks, John M. Niles, Richard H. Bayard, and others
participating, while Daniel Webster read a protest signed by himself
and his sturdy colleague, John Davis. The Democrats had provided
a bountiful supply of refreshments in the room of the Committee on
Finance, and several Senators showed by their actions that they
were not members of the then newly organized Congressional Temperance
Society, before which Mr. Webster had delivered a brief address.
After the final vote--twenty-four years and nineteen nays--had been
taken, Mr. Benton moved that the Secretary carry into effect the
order of the Senate. Then the Secretary, Mr. Asbury Dickens,
opening the manuscript journal of 1834, drew broad black lines
around the obnoxious resolution and wrote across its face: "Expunged
by order of the Senate, this 16th day of January, in the year of
our Lord 1837."
No sooner had he concluded than hisses were heard, and Mr. King,
of Alabama, who occupied the chair, ordered the galleries to be
cleared, while Mr. Benton, in a towering rage, denounced the
offenders and demanded their arrest. "Here is one," said he, "just
above me, that may be easily be identified--the bank ruffian."
Mr. King revoked his order to clear the galleries, but directed
the arrest of the person pointed out by Mr. Benton, who was soon
brought before the bar of the Senate. It was Mr. Lloyd, a practicing
lawyer in Cleveland, Ohio, who was not permitted to say a word in
his own defense, but was soon discharged, after which the Senate
adjourned.
[Facsimile]
Thomas H. Benton
THOMAS HART BENTON was born near Hillsborough, North Carolina,
March 14th, 1782; was United States Senator from Missouri, 1821-
1851; a Representative in Congress from Missouri, 1853-1855; was
defeated as a candidate for re-election to Congress in 1854, and
as candidate for Governor of Missouri in 1856, and died at Washington
City, April 10th, 1858.
CHAPTER X.
PROMINENT MEN OF JACKSON'S TIME.
Henry Clay, after his return to the Senate, was the recognized
leader of the Whig Senators, for he would recognize no leader.
His oratory was persuasive and spirit-stirring. The fire of his
bright eyes and the sunny smile which lighted up his countenance
added to the attractions of his unequaled voice, which was equally
distinct and clear, whether at its highest key or lowest whisper--
rich, musical, captivating. His action was the spontaneous offspring
of the passing thought. He gesticulated all over. The nodding of
his head, hung on a long neck, his arms, hands, fingers, feet, and
even his spectacles, his snuff-box, and his pocket-handkerchief,
aided him in debate. He stepped forward and backward, and from
the right to the left, with effect. Every thought spoke; the whole
body had its story to tell, and added to the attractions of his
able arguments. But he was not a good listener, and he would often
sit, while other Senators were speaking, eating sticks of striped
peppermint candy, and occasionally taking a pinch of snuff from a
silver box that he carried, or from one that graced the table of
the Senate.
Occasionally, Mr. Clay was very imperious and displayed bad temper
in debate. Once he endeavored to browbeat Colonel Benton, bringing
up "Old Bullion's" personal recontre with General Jackson, and
charging the former with having said that, should the latter be
elected President, Congress must guard itself with pistols and
dirks. This Colonel Benton pronounced "an atrocious calumny."
"What," retorted Mr. Clay, "can you look me in the face, sir, and
say that you never used that language?" "I look," said Colonel
Benton, "and repeat that it is an atrocious calumny, and I will
pin it to him who repeats it here." Mr. Clay's face flushed with
rage as he replied: "Then I declare before the Senate that you
said the very words!" "False! false! false!" shouted Colonel
Benton, and the Senators interfered, Mr. Tazewell, who was in the
chair, calling the belligerents to order. After some discussion
of the questions of order, Colonel Benton said: "I apologize to
the Senate for the manner in which I have spoken--but not to the
Senator from Kentucky." Mr. Clay promptly added: "To the Senate
I also offer an apology--to the Senator from Missouri, none!" Half
an hour afterwards they shook hands, as lawyers often do who have
just before abused each other in court.
On another occasion, General Smith, of Baltimore, a Revolutionary
hero upward of eighty years of age, who had been a member of Congress
almost forty years, was one day the object of Henry Clay's wrath.
The old General, who had fought gallantly in the Revolutionary
struggle and taken up arms again in the War of 1812, was offensively
bullied by Mr. Clay, who said: "The honorable gentleman was in
favor of manufactures in 1822, but he has turned--I need not use
the word--he has thus abandoned manufactures. Thus
"'Old politicians chew on wisdom past
And totter on, in blunders, to the last.'"
The old General sprang to his feet. "The last allusion," said he,
"is unworthy of a gentleman. Totter, sir, I totter! Though some
twenty years older than the gentleman, I can yet stand firm, and
am yet able to correct his errors. I could take a view of the
gentleman's course, which would show how consistent he has been."
Mr. Clay exclaimed, angrily: "Take it, sir, take it--I dare you!"
Cries of "Order." "No, sir," said Mr. Smith, "I will not take it.
I will not so far disregard what is due to the dignity of the
Senate."
While Mr. Clay was generally imperious in debate, and not overcautious
in his choice of phrases and epithets, he was fond of a joke, and
often indulged, in an undertone, in humorous comments on the remarks
by other Senators. Sometimes he would be very happy in his
illustrations, and make the most of some passing incident. One
afternoon, when he was replaying to a somewhat heated opponent, a
sudden squall came up and rattled the window curtain so as to
produce a considerable noise. The orator stopped short in the
midst of his remarks and inquired aloud, what was the matter; and
then, as if divining the cause of the disturbance, he said: "Storms
seem to be coming in upon us from all sides." The observation,
though trivial as related, was highly amusing under the circumstances
which gave rise to it and from the manner in which it was uttered.
When Henry Clay returned to the Senate, Daniel Webster yielded to
him the leadership of the Whigs in that body, but in no way sacrificed
his own independence. "The Great Expounder of the Constitution,"
as he was called, was then in the prime of life, and had not began
those indulgences which afterward exercised such injurious effects
upon him. He would also occasionally indulge in a grim witticism.
On one occasion, when a Senator who was jeering another for some
pedantry said, "The honorable gentleman may proceed to quote from
Crabbe's Synonyms, from Walker and Webster"--"Not from Walker and
Webster," exclaimed the Senator from Massachusetts, "for the
authorities may disagree!" At another time, when he was speaking
on the New York Fire bill, the Senate clock suddenly began to
strike, and after it had struck continuously for about fourteen or
fifteen times, Mr. Webster stopped, and said to the presiding
officer, "The clock is out of order, sir--I have the floor." The
occupant of the chair looking rebukingly at the refractory time-
piece, but in defiance of the officers and rules of the House, it
struck about forty before the Sergeant-at-Arms could stop it, Mr.
Webster standing silent, while every one else was laughing.
On another occasion, while Mr. Webster was addressing the Senate
in presenting a memorial, a clerical-looking person in one of the
galleries arose and shouted: "My friends, the country is on the
brink of destruction! Be sure that you act on correct principles.
I warn you to act as your consciences may approve. God is looking
down upon you, and if you act on correct principles you will get
safely through." He then deliberately stepped back, and retired
from the gallery before the officers of the Senate could reach him.
Mr. Webster was, of course, surprised at this extraordinary
interruption; but when the shrill voice of the enthusiast had
ceased, he coolly resumed his remarks, saying, "As the gentleman
in the gallery has concluded, I will proceed."
Mr. Cuthbert, of Georgia, was much provoked, one day, by a scathing
denunciation of his State by Mr. Clay for the manner in which she
had treated the Cherokee Indians. As the eloquent Kentuckian dwelt
more in sorrow than in anger upon the wrongs and outrages perpetrated
in Georgia upon the unoffending aborigines within her borders, many
of his hearers were affected to tears, and he himself was obviously
deeply moved. No sooner did Mr. Clay resume his seat than Mr.
Cuthbert sprang to his feet, and in an insolent tone alluded to
what he called the theatrical manner of the speaker. "What new
part will Roscius next enact?" said the Senator from Georgia, coming
forward from his desk and standing in the area of the hall. He
was a man of about the ordinary height, with a round face pitted
with the smallpox, small, dark eyes, and a full forehead. As he
spoke he twirled his watch-key incessantly with his right hand,
while his left was flung about in the most unmeaning and awkward
gestures. He twisted his body right and left, forward and backward,
as if he were a Chinese mandarin going through a stated number of
evolutions before his emperor; in fact, he had "all the contortions
of the sybil, without her inspiration." To this display Mr. Clay
seemed entirely oblivious, but after Judge White, of Tennessee,
had discussed the pending question, Mr. Clay rose, saying, that he
would reply to this gentleman's remarks as "they alone were worthy
of notice."
In the House of Representatives, during the Jackson Administration,
sectional topics were rife, sectional jealousies were high, and
partisan warfare was unrelenting. Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia,
who was triumphantly re-elected as Speaker for four successive
terms, understood well how to keep down the boiling caldron, and
to exercise stern authority, tempered with dignity and courtesy,
over heated passions of the fiercest conflicting character. When
he was transferred from the Speaker's chair to the Court of St.
James, John Bell, of Tennessee, an old supporter of General Jackson,
became his successor for the remainder of that session, but at the
commencement of the next Congress Mr. Van Buren secured the election
of James K. Polk. Mr. Bell, on his next visit to Nashville, threw
down the gauntlet, in an able speech, and nominated Judge White.
This was the foundation of the White party, which had, as its
editorial henchman, the Rev. Mr. Brownlow, known as "the fighting
Parson," who soon acquired a national reputation by his defiant
personalities in debate and by his trenchant editorial articles in
the newspapers of East Tennessee. Mr. Brownlow was at that time
a tall, spare man, with long, black hair, black eyes, and a sallow
complexion. He was devoted to the Methodist Church and to the
White--afterward the Whig--party, and the denominational doctrines
of immersion and the political dogmas of emancipation from slavery
were objects of his intense hatred.
While Mr. Stevenson was Speaker, General Samuel Houston, who had
been residing among the Indians on the Southwestern frontier for
several years, came to Washington. Taking offense at some remarks
made in debate by Mr. Vance, a representative from Ohio, Houston
assaulted and severely pounded him. The House voted that Houston
should be brought before the bar and reprimanded by the Speaker,
which was done, although Mr. Stevenson's reprimand was really
complimentary. That night a friend of General Houston, with a
bludgeon and a pistol, attacked Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, who had
been active in securing the reprimand, but the latter soon got the
best of the encounter.
The first man elected to Congress as a representative of the rights
of the laboring classes was Eli Moore, a New York journeyman printer,
who had organized trades unions and successfully engineered several
strikes by mechanics against their employers. He was a thin,
nervous man, with keen, dark hazel eyes, long black hair brushed
back behind his ears, and a strong, clear voice which rang through
the hall like the sound of a trumpet. He especially distinguished
himself in a reply to General Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina,
who had denounced the mechanics of the North as willing tools of
the Abolitionists. With impetuous force and in tones tremulous
with emotion, he denounced aristocracy and advocated the equality
of all men. The House listened with attention, and a Southern
politician exclaimed to one of his old colleagues, "Why, this is
the high-priest of revolution singing his war song." What added
to the effect of this remarkable speech was its dramatic termination.
Just as he had entered upon his peroration he grew deathly pale,
his eyes closed, his outstretched hands clutched at vacancy, he
reeled forward, and fell insensible. His friends rushed to his
support, and his wife, who was in the gallery, screamed with terror.
His physician positively prohibited his speaking again, and in
subsequent years, when the Democratic party was in power, he enjoyed
the positions of Indian Agent under Polk, and of Land Agent under
Pierce.
Ransom H. Gillet, of the Ogdensburgh district, was one of the old
"Jackson Democratic War-Horses." He was a man of commanding
presence, a ready speaker, and a famous manipulator of opinion at
Conventions.
By birth a North Carolinian, Churchill C. Cambreleng was by adoption
a New Yorker, and by strict attention to business he had become
one of the merchant princes of the commercial metropolis. Thirty
years of age, with a commanding presence, a good voice, a ready
command of language, and a practical knowledge of financial matters,
he made an excellent Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means
and leader of the Jackson men in the House.
He carried business habits into Congress, and passed much of his
time at his desk, laboriously answering every letter addressed to
him by his constituents or others, or carefully examining papers
referred to his Committee. But he was always on the alert, and if
in debate any political opponent let slip a word derogatory to the
Administration, Mr. Cambreleng was at once on his feet with a
pertinent retort or a skillful explanation. He was noted for his
liberality, and neither the district charities or his needy
constituents ever appealed to him in vain.
The Whigs, during the Jackson Administration, made much of David
Crockett, of Tennessee, who was a thorn in the sides of the Democrats,
and they succeeded in having him defeated for one Congress, but he
was successful at the next election. He was a true frontiersman,
with a small dash of civilization and a great deal of shrewdness
transplanted in political life. He was neither grammatical nor
graceful, but no rudeness of language can disguise strong sense
and shrewdness, and a "demonstration," as Bulwer says, "will force
its way through all perversions of grammar." Some one undertook
to publish his life, but he promptly denied the authenticity of
the work, and had a true memoir of himself written and published.
This was a successful literary venture, and he next published a
burlesque life of Van Buren, "heir apparent to the Government, and
appointed successor of Andrew Jackson," which, in the mixture of
truth, error, wit, sense, and nonsense in about equal parts, has
certainly the merit even at this day of being entertaining.
Crockett's favorite expression was, "Be sure you're right, then go
ahead." When Texas commenced its struggle for independence he went
there, and was killed while gallantly fighting at San Antonio.
His son, John W. Crockett, served two terms in Congress, was Attorney-
General of Tennessee, edited a paper at New Orleans, and died at
Memphis in 1852.
Among the other members of the House of Representatives in Jackson's
time were several who afterward occupied high positions in the
Federal Government. Franklin Pierce, a courteous gentleman, the
son of a brave Revolutionary soldier, had been sent from New
Hampshire by a large majority, and laid the foundation of personal
friendships upon which he afterward entered the White House as
President. Millard Fillmore, hale and hearty in personal appearance,
represented his home at Buffalo. He soon acquired a reputation
for performing his committee work with scrupulous fidelity, and
winning the confidence of his colleagues, while advancing on all
proper occasions the interests of his constituents, who rejoiced
when he became President after the death of Taylor. James Knox
Polk, of Tennessee, a rigid Presbyterian, an uncompromising Democrat,
and a zealous Freemason, was another Representative who subsequently
became President.
There were several other prominent men in the House: Richard Mentor
Johnson, a burly and slightly educated Kentucky Indian-fighter,
who enjoyed the reputation of having killed Tecumseh at the battle
of the Thames, was elected a few years later on the Van Buren ticket
Vice-President of the United States, but was defeated in the Harrison
campaign four years later; and John Bell, a Whig of commanding
presence and great practical sagacity, who was afterward Senator
and Secretary of War, and who was defeated when he ran on the
Presidential ticket of the Constitutional Union party, in 1860.
Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio, who after sixteen years of Congressional
service became an auditor, and was known as "the Watch Dog of the
Treasury." Tom Corwin, of the same State, with a portly figure,
swarthy complexion, and wonderful facial expression, and an
inexhaustible flow of wit, who was not a buffoon, but a gentleman
whose humor was natural, racy, and chaste. Gulian C. Verplanck
and Thomas J. Oakley, two members of the New York bar, who represented
that city, were statesmen rather than politicians. John Chambers,
of Kentucky, a gigantic economist, was ever ready to reform small
expenditures and willing to overlook large ones. And then there
was the ponderous Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama, the largest man who
ever occupied a seat in Congress--so large that chai
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/20290