^f^ ^1773 V BOOK 917.3.B856A v. 1 c 1 3 T1S3 0021003S H i. V '^^^^'^S^ Of^CJ0> ^L^ ^ ■^w^ / IC5 AMERICA, S HISTORICAL, STATISTIC, AND DESCRIPTIVE, J. S. BUCKINGHAM, ESQ. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL, I. FISHER, SON, & CO. NEWGATE ST. LONDON; RUE ST. HONORE, PARIS. 477.3 DEDICATION TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, LoxXDON, May 1, 1841. Sir, When I took the liberty to transmit to Your Royal Highness, the announcement of my proposed Work on America, You did me the honour to assure me, that " it would afford You much pleasure to give it Your full sanction and patronage." Your Royal Highness further condescended to observe, that " the feelings of good- will towards the American people, under which this Work was undertaken, could not fail at the present moment of producing a desirable effect." While I am deeply sensible of this act of kindness on the part of Your Royal Highness toward myself personally — I feel yet more strongly the value and importance, from their future influence on the public weal, of the generous sentiments to which Your Royal Highness has been pleased to give expres- sion. IV DEDICATION. A sense of gratitude on my own part, and a still higher sentiment of duty towards the peo- ple of England and America, thus encourage me to make known to both, the noble and enlightened views with which Your Royal Highness desires to promote whatever can strengthen the friendly relations between their respective countries. I cannot, therefore, commit my humble labours to the press, under more appropriate or more distinguished auspices than those of Your Royal Highness, to whom I cheerfully dedicate these Volumes ; in the confident hope that they will awaken in other minds, the same friendly and benevolent aspirations after " peace on earth and good-will to man," which beamed so generously and spontaneously from Your own. Your Royal Highness cannot be indifferent to international friendships, as the illustrious Consort of a Queen whose broad realm em- braces such extended possessions, that the sun never ceases to shine on some portion or other of her vast dominions, — its evening rays still lingering amid the shrines and domes that stud the banks of the mighty Ganges— while its morning beams are just beginning to gild the spires and turrets scattered along the margin of the still more magnificent St. Lawrence. DEDICATION. To Her protection, multitudinous nations, provinces, and tribes, of every hue and creed, from *' The gorgeous East" to those primeval forests of the Western world " Wliere the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind," all look up with hope ; and think that while the diadem of England sits on so fair a brow, and its sceptre is wielded by so gentle a hand, they may count on seeing Mercy, " The brightest jewel that adorns the crown," SO tempering Justice in its administration, as to make the condition of themselves and all their children more happy than under any previous reign. It is, therefore, but a just compliment to Your Royal Highness to believe, that every portion of the globe which owns Her Majesty's benignant sway, should enlist Your generous sympathies, in its actual condition, as well as in its future prospects : and as it has fallen to my lot to visit nearly all the possessions of Her Majesty's crown, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and thus to see for myself the powerful claims they possess to Royal favour and public support, I may hope to be the more readily forgiven for availing myself of every opportunity to express my earnest and unabated interest in their prosperity. VI DEDICATION. In the sincere hope that Your Royal Highness may long be permitted to enjoy the distinguished happiness with which You are at present blessed ; and that Her Majesty may be honoured of Heaven, to be the happy instrument, in the hands of Divine Providence, of conferring, by Her enlightened and pacific rule, in the British dominions, at home and abroad, a larger measure of prosperity, virtue, piety, and justly-earned renown, than any of Her predecessors on the imperial throne I have the honour to be, Your Royal Highnesses obliged, And devoted servant, J.S. BUCKINGHAM. 4 Camden Terrace^ West. Camden JVew Town, CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAP. I. Motives for visiting the United States — Intercourse with various classes of society — Extensive geographical range of the country traversed — Names of the several states and territories examined — Form of narrative adopted in description — Historical and statistical sketches, blended with this — General topics chiefly dwelt on, in cities and states — Pictures of manners and customs, in public and private life 1 CHAP. n. Departure from England — Arrival at New York— Address to the American public issued on landing — Different courses of lectures delivered in the city — Attendance at public meetings for benevolent objects — New York State Temperance Society — New York Peace Society — Meeting on the subject of public education — New York City Tract Society — Total Abstinence Society — Ladies' Meeting for the Orphan Asylum — Meeting of the Friends of Sailors' Homes — Visit to one of the establishments of this Institution — Admirable arrangement for the comforts of seamen — Political excursion to Newark with the Hon. Daniel Webster — Visit to polling places at the time of election — Legal and clerical parties — Intellectual soirees 12 CHAP. III. History of New York from 1609 to 1838 — .Topography and plan of the city and its environs — Astonishing rapidity of the increase of population — Comparison of its shipping at different periods — Augmentation of its revenue and foreign commerce — Admirable situation chosen for the city — Great advantage of extensive water-margin — Outline of the plan, and general form of the city — Public squares and open spaces in New York — Public buildings — City Hall, Custom House, Exchange — Churches and style of architecture in general use — Hotels and general accommodation in them — Theatres and places of amusement of various kinds — Private dwellings — interior — style —furniture — Streets and their peculiarities compared with ours — Appearance of the principal shops or stores — Num- ber of elegantly-dressed ladies in Broadway — Absence of the splendid equipages of England 32 CONTENTS. CHAP. IV. Population of New York — Strangers, residents, merchants, traders — Public conveyances, omnibuses, hackney coaches — Private equipages, carriages, servants — Male and female society, differences between them — Private parties, balls and suppers — Comparison between English and American soirees — Expensive and profuse entertainments given — Condition of the humbler classes in America — Political parties, Conservatives, Reformers* Radicals, Americans, Whigs, Democrats, Loco-focos — Politics of the wealthy mercantile classes — Causes of the recent panic or embarrassment —Extravagant habits engendered by the credit system — Effects of this on all classes of society — Loss of 20,000,000 by the great fire at New York — Newspapers of New York — Organs of parties — Penny newspapers, character and influence — Proceedings of the election for state legislature — Public meetings to support candidates for office — State of political parties — Deadly reciprocal hostility — Gross misrepresentations of the motives and ends of each — Difficulty of extracting truth from such conflicting statements — Attendance at the polls during the election — Deficiency of a previous registration of voters — Vote by ballot, not secret voting generally — Reasons why this is not necessary in America — Success of the Whigs in the New York election — Intoxication of joy in the triumphant party — Extravagant projects of political demonstration — National character and taste exhibited in this 52 CHAP. V. Deep-rooted prejudices on the subject of slavery — Murder of Mr. Lovejoy, the abolitionist, at Alton — Conduct of the New York press and people on this subject — Imperfect views of the value of a free press^ — Sentiments of leading men in Congress on this act — Resolutions of Legislatures refused reception by the Senate— Rejection of all petitions on the subject by the House of Representatives — Deservedly bitter reproach of Thomas Moore the poet— Contrast between democracy aud slavery in the United States — Threats of senators to hang up abolitionists by law— State of slavery and the slave trade at Washington — Resolutions of Episcopal- Methodist clergy in Georgia — Meeting of democrats in favour of the Canadian rebels— Mr. O'Connell denounced at the meeting, as an aboli- tionist — Letter complaining of coloured people sitting with white men — Prejudice of colour not extended to Indian tribes — Mr. Catlin's Lectures on the American Indians 78 CHAP. VI. Mr. Catlin's Museum of Indian costumes, M^eapons, and paintings — Course of lectures on the Indian tribes — Names of Indians in Mr. Catlin's gallery of portraits — Hunting excursions among the Indians — Skilful management of the horse by them — Indian games of amusement — Dances — Horid character of their war-dances — Scalp-dance of the Sioux tribe oi Indians— Bloody scalps of their enemies suspended by women — Dog- dance of the same tribe — Heart and flesh eaten raw— Flesh of dogs served as food, at their greatest festivals 94 CONTENTS. CHAP. VII. Personal visit to some Indian chiefs at New York— The Sauks and Foxes, Sioux and loway tribes -Anecdotes of conversation with the Indian chiefs — Offering of presents to the wife and children of Kee-o-kuk— Stoical indifference manifested by each— Black- Hawk, the celebrated warrior, and his son— Pantomimic conversation of Mr. Vandenhoff with an Indian — Invitation to visit their camps in the Far West— Anecdotes of life among the Indi'ans— Arrival of a third tribe of Indians in New York- Reply of an Indian chief to General Fox— Anecdotes of Indians respecting interest of money— Belief that the Indians are descended from the Jews —Facts and arguments of Major Noah and others— Striking similarity of many of their customs to Jewish rites— Retention of some of the identical expressions of the Hebrews— Authority of Mr. Catlin in support of this resemblance 106 CHAP. VIII. Benevolent institutions of the Americans— This a very prominent feature of the national policy— Almshouse for the poor at Bellevue — Dutch farm for charitable labour in Long Island— House of refuge for destitute boys and girls — Asylum for the insane at Blooming Dale — Instances of ferocious manners in the Western states — Indifference of the American editors to such things — Murder of a member of the legislature by the speaker— Institution for the deaf and dumb at New York— Visit of the Indians to this institution— Benevolent institutions for seamen — Quaran- tine hospital on Staten Island— Seaman's Retreat supported by the funds of the state— Seaman's Snug Harbour, for the merchant service— Bene- volent institutions for seamen continued — Asylum for the blind at Bellevue — American Seaman's Friend Society, in foreign ports— Sailor's Magazine, and sailor's library supplied— Seaman's savings bank, mariner's church, Bethel society — Institution for the support and instruction of the blind- Origin, progress, and present condition of this establishment— Asylum for lying-in women, and dispensary— Society for the reformation of juvenile delinquents 128 CHAP. IX. Misery and crime among the poorer classes — Levity of the public journals in recording this — Bennett's slanderous paper, the Morning Herald — Bodies of dead negroes salted for exportation — Deaths from want and destitution— American importation of foreign grain— Reversion of the order of nature in this— Causes which led to this singular state of things — Instances of robbery, murder, and fraud — Occupations for the members of the law— Highwaymen in the suburbs of New York— Depravity of morals in the country — Intemperance and wretchedness in the towns — Authentic proofs of this from public records— Opinions as to the cause of so much depravity— Exposition of the progress of American embarrass- ment — Effects of these causes on the general condition of society — Party CONTENTS. misrepresentations of the public press — Taste of the populace for shows and sights— Celebration of the anniversary of Evacuation-day— Descrip- tion of this festival from an American pen 153 CHAP. X. The Courts of Law held in the City Hall — Chancery, Common Pleas, Superior and Supreme Courts — Qualifications of barristers and attorneys — Nomination or appointment of judges — Style of pleading and judg- ment, official costume — Scale of remuneration for the bar and the bench — Character of the medical profession in the city — Clergy and ministers of religion in New York — Churches, interior arrangements, comfort — Service, singing, absence of pulpits and clerks — General character for learning and piety of the clergy — Benevolent efforts of the voluntary system — Extensive field of missionary labour in foreign lands 182 CHAP. XL State of literature and the arts in the city — Common schools — Statistics of education — Newspapers and periodical publications — The Knickerbocker — Monthly Magazine — New York Review, by Dr. Hawkes — Superiority of the Common- School Assistant — Model worthy of imitation in England Music and Painting— Mr. Cole's pictures — Architecture and the fine arts — New York churches — University — Astor House — House of Deten- tion — Building in Egyptian style — Columns of the portico, after a temple at Philoe — Defect in the want of elevation for its site — Striking effect of the massiveness of the whole 201 CHAP. XIL Peculiarities in the manners and customs of New York — Visits between residents and strangers — Carriages, servants, liveries, &c. — Want of lamps, numbers of houses — Naming of streets — bell-hangers and locksmiths — Song of chimney-sweeps in their rounds — Excellent mode of observing new-year's day — Love of quaintness and singularity of expression — Examples in announcements and editorial paragraphs — Visit to Newark with Mr. Webster — Instances of wit, cheerfulness, and humour — Anecdote of Mr. Webster and coloured people — Memorial of coloured people against mixed races — Boarding-house life, its advantages and disadvantages — Peculiarity of expression, phrases, &c 219 CHAP. XIIL Climate, weather, snows, severe cold— Sleighing, private sleighs, omnibuses, carts — Peculiarities of American winters — Supposed periods of ten years for each series — Series of severe and series of mild winters — The present winter of 1837, regarded as a mild one — Supposed commencement of a mild series with this — Ships, packets, steam-boats, comparison with English — Naval expedition destined for the Polar Seas — Environs of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island— Stuten Island, New Brighton — Asbestos CONTENTS. quarries — Jersey city, Hoboken Ferry, excellent boats — Passengers in carriages conveyed without alighting — Separate apartments for ladies and gentlemen — Good fires and comfortable accommodations for all — Last day of our stay in New York — Farewell lectures, and parting with friends — Visit to the public school with the mayor — Proficiency of the 'pupils in their exercises — Voluntary society for moral and mental improvement — Preparations for leaving New York— Friendly parting with our fellow- boarders — Mutually strong attachments, on solid grounds 239 CHAP. XIV. Voyage from New York to Amboy, by steam-boat — Journey from Amboy to Camden, by rail-road — Crossing the Delaware in ice-boat to Philadel- phia — Visit to the Pennsylvanian convention, then sitting — Nature, object, and proceedings of conventions— Temperance festival at the Arch Street theatre, given as a public welcome to myself and family — Preparations and arrangements for this entertainment — Opinions of the press on the temperance festival — Departure from Philadelphia, by rail-road, for Bal- timore — Halt at Wilmington — Deputation headed by Judge Hall — Passing • from the free into the slave States — Arrival at Baltimore — Temperance meeting there — Journey by rail-road to Washington 256 CHAP. XV. Stay at Washington — Funeral of a member of congress, who had been shot in a duel — Visit to the house of representatives — Funeral service — Impres- siveness of the scene — Effect on the auditors — Publication of an Address to both houses, on duelling — State temperance meeting of members of congress — Speech in the hall of representatives — Vote of thanks, and resolution to publish the same — Commencement of lectures in Washing- ton — Letter on the subject of slave abolition — Advertised rewards for runaway slaves — Ofier of purchase by slave-dealers — Prejudice of native Americans against foreigners — Illustration of this in an editor at Wash- ington — Visit to the first drawing-room of the president — Description and character of that entertainment — All classes, without distinction, freely admitted — Remarkable order and decorum of so mixed an assem- blage 272 CHAP. XVL History of the City of Washington — Formation of the district of Columbia — Seat of government established there by law — Choice of the position for the new city —Plan and design of General Washington— Topography and details of the streets, &c. — Public buildings — the Capitol — Scale of the edifice — Style of architecture— Sculptured subjects in the Rotunda- Historical pictures in the Rotunda— Description of the senate chamber— Arrangement and modes of doing business — Description of the hall of representatives— Regulation of taking seats by members — General order and decorum of their proceedings — Great advantage of day-sittings over CONTENTS. niglit-meetings — Hall of the supreme court of justice — Library of the Capitol, history and present condition — The President's house, size, style, and character — Public offices of government near the President's — State department — Original Declaration of Independence— War department — Portraits of Indian chiefs — -Treasury department — Standard weights and measures — Arsenal — Navy-yard, and general post-office — Indian depart- ment — Land department — Patent office — Destruction of models and records — Places of public worship in Washington — Anecdote of the Con^ gressional chaplains — Colleges, banks, hotels, and boarding-houses — Theatres — Mr. Forrest, the American actor — Anecdote of southern sensi- tiveness on slavery — Play of Othello and of the Gladiator proscribed — Exclusion of coloured persons from the representations — Private buildings of the city, style and character — Population of Washington — City govern- ment — Revenue, taxes, licenses, debt, and appropriation — Regulations respecting the coloured population — Restrictions as to the heights of houses in building 291 CHAP. XVII. Diversity of character in the population — Proportion of the black to white inhabitants — Residents, members, strangers, and visitors — Members of the senate, appearance, manners — Great speeches of Mr. Calhoun, Clay, and Preston— Opinions of the newspapers on these efforts — Two days' speech of Mr. Webster on the treasury bill — Opinions of the press on this great speech — Anecdote of Mr. Webster's physiognomy — Anecdote of General Washington's temper — Character of the house of representa, tives — Remarkable members — John Quincy Adams — Quorum of the houses ; no counting out — Public funerals of the members of congress — Specimen of an oration on such occasions — Pay of the members — Privilege of franking — State of the general and fashionable society at Washington — Madame Caradori Allen's concert — Anecdote of Mr Wood — Hotels of Washington — Boarding-houses — Inferiority of both to those of New York — Domestic attendants — Style of apartments — Manner of living — Hurry at meals — Inattention to comfort — Coarsenes.s of fare — Coldness and selfishness of manners 324 CHAP. XVIII. Private friends in Washington — Judge White — Quaker deputation from Philadelphia — Attempted fraud on the Seneca Indians — Practices of land- speculators towards these people — Peculiar and remarkable personages in Washington — Mr. Fox, relative of Lord Holland, the British minister — Mrs. Madison, 'widow of the late ex-president — Privilege of franking conferred on her by congress— English gentlemen arriving in Washington — Practice of wearing arms — Recklessness of character — Instances of profligacy — Women and gamblers — Influence of slavery in producing this state of things — Anecdote of life on the w-estern waters — Shameful indifference and silence of the clergy — Demoralizing effect of slavery or social life 351 CONTENTS. CHAP. XIX. Environs of Washington, scenery and views — Georgetown older in date than Washington — Climate of Washington extremely variable — Captain Smith's and Jefferson's account of the climate — Last survey of Washing- ton in an excursion round it — Visit to the arsenal, and description of it — Visit to the navy-yard of Washington — Description of its resources and works — Return to the city of the Capitol — Battles of the giants and the pigmies — Last Sunday passed at the service in the Capitol — Admirable sermon of the Rev. Dr. Fisk — Excursion to Alexandria across the Potomac — Embryo city of Jackson, near Washington — Sale of lands for nonpay- ment of taxes — Singular , names of new-settled estates — History and description of Alexandria — Museum, and relics of General Washington — Mount Vernon, the family seat and tomb — Disinterment of General Washington's corpse — Veneration for Washington and Lafayette — Native Indians seen at Washington — Farewell visits on leaving the city 362 CHAP. XX. Stay at Baltimore, and agreeable intercourse there — History of the first foundation of Maryland — Character of Lord Baltimore, a Catholic peer — Settlement of the colony by his son — Followed by Roman Catholics of rank and fortune — Religious toleration the principle of these settlers — Kind treatment and gratitude of the Indians — Foundation of St. Mary's and Annapolis — Early existence of negro slavery in the colony — Origin and cause of the first Indian war — Progressive prosperity of Maryland as a State — Foundation of the town of Baltimore — Elevation to the dignity of a city in 1796 — Effects of the revolution on its prosperity 385 CHAP. XXI. Topographical situation of Baltimore — Finest points of view in the panorama — Form and plan of the city — Private residences and public buildings — Exchange, custom-house, and city-hall — Court-house, jail, and peniten- tiary — Separation of the sexes in the latter — Night-cells open to constant supervision — Work-shops for the daily labour of the convicts — Produce of their work sustains the institution — Plan of government, and internal economy — Places of public worship in Baltimore — The Catholic cathedral, its beauties and defects — Pictures of the interior, presented by France — Unitarian church, exterior and interior — Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches — Medical college for students — Benevolent institutions of Baltimore — Asylum at Calverton, plan and condition — The hospital under the Catholic sisters of charity— The Infirmary, illustration of Catholic zeal — Dispensary, orphan asylum, marine society — Penitent female refuge society, and others — Baltimore characterized as the "monumental city "—Washington monument, column and statue — The Battle monument, in Monument square — The Armistead monument, near the City spring — Fountains or enclosed springs in Baltimore — The City spring — The Western fountain — The Eastern fountain, the Centre foun- CONTENTS. tain — Places of public amusement — Theatre, circus, concert and ball room — Museum, public gardens, race-course — Municipal government, com- merce, and shipping — Capacities for trade, banks, and insurance offices 398 CHAP. XXII. Population of Baltimore, white and coloured races— Position of Maryland, as a Slave-state — Maryland colonization society — Severity of the law against rescuing slaves — Vigilance of the post-office on abolition publica- tions — General liberality of sentiment — Education of coloured children — Negro preachers — Religious sects, and their proportions — Benefits of the voluntary system of support — Institutions for the promotion of education — Death of the member of congress for Baltimore — Public funeral, and marks of general respect — Eulogium on the character of the deceased member — Newspapers in Baltimore — Party and neutral remarks on the partisanship of political writers — Editorial taste for quaintness and singu- larity — Literary institutions — Lectures and library 431 CHAP. XXIII. Classification of the varied population of the city — General characteristics — State of society and manners — Supposed causes of the refinement of Baltimore — Co-existence of depraved and abandoned classes — Instances of recent outrage and cruelty— More disorganized state of society in the West — Retrospect of Baltimore society a century ago — Extensive use of tobacco by the Marylanders — Evil effects of this pernicious and oflE'ensive practice — Injury to society by the waste of land and capital — Growing opinion against the use of tobacco— Cultivation of this noxious weed by slaves — Exhaustion of the soil in Virginia and Maryland— Popular appeal to southern men and slaveholders — Inconsistency of the demo- cratic party on this subject— Public sale of appropriated lands for arrears of taxes— Singular names of many of these estates— Public labours of the Maryland legislature — Registry law — Imprisonment for debt — Wearing weapons 453 ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. 1 Portrait of the Author to face the Title. NEW YORK. 2 Broadway, looking North from the Bowling Green, ... 40 3 Broadway, looking South from the American Museum . . 41 4 The City Hall, in the centre of the Park 4.3 5 The new Custom- House — after the Parthenon 44 6 The new Merchants' Exchange, in Wall-street 45 7 St. Thomas's Church, upper part of Broadway .... 4G 8 The Lunatic Asylum, at Blooming Dale I^J 9 Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, Haarlem Road .... 137 10 New University, Washington Square 205 11 Hall of Justice, from an Egyptian Temple 217 12 Wharf and Shipping, East River, near Maiden Lane . . . 242 13 Steam Ferry Boat and Dock for landing 250 WASHINGTON. 14 West Front of the Capitol, towards the Gardens . . . . 295 15 East Front of the Capitol, and principal Entrance .... 29() 16 Interior of the Hall of Representatives — from Hinton . . 304 17 The White House— Official Mansion of the President . . , 310 BALTIMORE. 18 The Washington Monument, and part of the City .... 401 19 The Exchange and Rotunda, in Gay Street ...... J04 20 The Roman Catholic Cathedral — as originally designed . 408 21 The Battle Monument, in Monument Square 423 AMERICA, ' HISTORICAL-STATISTICAL-AND DESCRIPTIVE. CHAP. I. Motives for visiting the United States — Intercourse with various classes of society — Extensive geographical range of the country traversed — Names of the several states and territories examhied — Form of narrative adopted in description — Historical and statis- tical sketches, blended with this — General topics cliiefly dwelt on, in cities and states — Pictures of manners and customs, in public and private life. After a long course of travels over a great por- tion of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and of voyages in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean, spread- ing over more than thirty years of a varied and active life, I had a strong desire to add to the knowledge thus acquired of the countries of the Old World, by examining for myself the most favoured portion of the New. I had once visited the United States, about thirty years ago, just after the period when the gifted poet, Thomas Moore, had passed through the country ; and I had the plea- VOL. I. B 2 INTRODUCTORY. sure to mino'le in many of the circles that he had '&' many enUvened by his wit, and enchanted by his verse : but from that period, 1808, up to 1837, all my wanderings had been in the Eastern hemisphere, and the Western had continued, to me at least, to be ** a sealed fountain," of whose waters I longed the more ardently to drink. At the close of my parliamentary labours, in 1837 — when the great object of my public life had been successfully accomplished, by the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly, and the open- ing of the vast and populous regions of the East to British enterprise — I availed myself of my retirement, to make a second visit to America, with the intention of devoting at least three years to a careful examination of all the most prominent and interesting objects of nature and art, that the country contained, as well as investigating the nature of its institutions, the structure of its society, and the character and manners of its people. In all the works I had hitherto read, in the shape of travels through the United States, there appeared to me defects, or omissions, which a more patient, more diligent, and more impartial examination of the country and its inhabitants might supply. In some of the English writers there was an evident deter- mination to seek only for blemishes, and to turn even the virtues into ridicule. In others there was a strong political bias, hostile to every thing con- nected with the very name of a republic; causing them to see every thing, therefore, through a jaun- diced medium^ In some again, there was an elabo- ration of disquisition on a few prominent features of INTRODUCTORY. 5 the national character and national institutions, with a contemptuous neglect of minuter but not less im- portant details ; and in others, a substitution of ficti- tious and imaginary stories for facts, which, however it might display the talent of the writers for inven- tion, and broadly exaggerated humour, could only mislead the reader as to the real state of society among the people so unjustifiably misrepresented and caricatured. Without assuming to myself the possession of greater abilities for this task than those who have gone before me, I venture to believe that I have, at least, enjoyed superior advantages to most of my predecessors : and to these alone I am anxious to draw the attention of the reader ; as he will see in them abundant reasons why I should be likely to escape many at least of the defects and omissions pointed out in others. It is an advantage which the latest traveller in any country enjoys, that the errors of his pioneers serve as so many beacons and land- marks, by which he may be at once warned and guided in his path. But in addition to this, there were several special privileges which I had the good fortune to enjoy, and by which I endeavoured, at least to profit, on every occasion, to acquire as extensive and accurate information as I could, on all the sub- jects of my inquiry. Having designed, from the first, to make some stay in all the principal cities and to\\Tis of the coun- try, I proposed to occupy the mornings in active ex- amination of all the objects accessible to my research ; and to devote the evenings to the delivery of my Courses of Lectures on the scriptural and classical B 2 INTRODUCTORY. regions of the East 5 so that the acquisition of knowledge as to the New World, for my own de- light, and the diffusion of information respecting the Old World, for the gratification of others, blended happily together; and the latter occupation assisted the former in a greater degree than I could have anticipated or thought possible. In every town, the delivery of my Lectures brought around me, in the shortest space of time, all the most intellectual portion of society : and as these sought my acquaintance by introduction, some for the purpose of extending their inquiries as to the subjects described — and others, to offer, by their hospitality, some return for the pleasure they professed to have received — I was brought into personal and intimate communion with the very best portion of the community, whether tested by the standards of learning, morality, manners, influence, or wealth; and nothing could exceed the frankness and kindness with which all their resources of infor- mation were placed at my disposal. The interest which I had been known to take in England, in the cause of temperance, education, the condition of seamen, the improvement of the working classes, unfettered commerce, and universal peace, occasioned very early applications to be made to me by the various philanthropic societies, with which the United States happily abound, to take a part in the proceedings of their public meetings, to examine the working of their several institutions, and to offer my unreserved opinion as to their merits or defects. This of course gave me as frequent opportunities to examine the condition of society among the middle and inferior classes, as my Lectures afforded me of INTRODUCTORY. mixing with the higher ; and taking both together, I may safely affirm, that my Lectures were heard and read by not less than a million of persons during my stay in America ; from the elite of whom, I received the most cordial attention, in private as well as in public : and in assisting the various philanthropic objects enumerated, there could be hardly less than a million more, by whom my addresses at their public meetings were heard and read, in every part of the Union, from Maine to Louisiana, and from the Atlan- tic shore to the regions beyond the Mississippi. If the minghng so intimately with all classes m the cities and towns be regarded as an advantage, the extensive range of my track over the surface of the interior of the country was scarcely less so. This embraced, it is believed, a greater number of states and territories than had ever before been traversed, and a more thorough examination of each than had yet been made, by any single traveller, European or American ; my journeys having carried me through every state and territory in the Union except two, and these the least settled and least interesting in every point of view, namely, the state of Arkansas and the territory of Florida. We were indeed close on the borders of each ; but one was uninvitinof from the unhealthiness of its climate in the season at which we were near it, and the other was inaccessible from the deadly and exterminating war still raging- over its swamps and everglades, between the Seminole Indians and their pursuers. We visited, however, and traversed in various directions, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 6 INTRODUCTORY. Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Ca- rolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisi- ana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, In- diana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Mi- chigan ; navigating the great lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, embracing the whole country be- tween New Orleans on the gulf of Mexico, to Quebec on the gulf of St. Lawrence ; and terminating with the British provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the disputed terri- tory on the boundary line between the British and American possessions. In addition to the advantages which extensive in- tercourse with all classes of society, and a wide range of country traversed, but with frequent intervals of halt, and careful examination in detail, may be sup- posed to confer, I think I do not overrate the value of a knowledge of other countries too highly, when I say that it furnished me with more accurate standards of comparison than could be applied by persons ac- quainted only with their own. At the same time, the very fact of my having thus Uved for so many years among various nations, differing from each other in religion, government, language, morals, and manners, could hardly fail to soften those national prejudices by which the people of every country are too much disposed to flatter their own institutions and manners, as all perfection, and to denounce all such as differ from them as worthless and contemptible. I was thus, I venture to believe, enabled to view things with a more catholic spirit of impartiality than it is INTRODUCTORY. 7 possible for those to do, who have not had their na- tional prejudices corrected by extensive intercourse with other lands. I am aware, that in thus offering the reasons I have enumerated, as the ground of my confidence that this work on the United States has been pre- pared under greater advantages than have been en- joyed by most others, I am increasing the weight of my responsibility to public opinion for its execution. This is unavoidable, and I do not, therefore, shrink from it; but to enable those to whose judgment it will be necessarily submitted, to form a more accu- rate opinion as to whether it accompUshes the end it proposes, I may be permitted to state briefly the plan on which I have endeavoured to construct it. In reading books of travels for myself, I have always desired to be placed by the author, as much as possible, in his own situation; to be brought, in short, by his descriptions, as nearly as can be, to the condition of being his travelling companion ; to see things in the same order of succession as he him- self saw them ; to be made acquainted with the mi- nuter incidents of his life, as well as with the more prominent; to become familiar with the inconveniences to which he was subjected, as well as with the plea- sures he enjoyed ; to partake of his indignation at the wrong, as fully as with his admiration of the right ; to be, in short, continually present with him in all his vicissitudes, and to sympathize with him in all his joys and sorrows, by whatever cause produced. For this reason, I have always preferred the form of the ac- tual diary, in which the incidents and feelings are trans^ ferred to paper while fresh and new. But as I have INTRODUCTORY. myself, when residing in any country, state, or city, a strong desire to know at least the prominent parts of their history and progress, as far as they can be traced ; so I desire that others shall share the pleasure of my investigations in this respect ; and such brief historical sketches are accordingly introduced. But as the actual condition of things is of far greater im- portance than the past, especially in a new and rising country Hke the United States, this portion of the subject has been most elaborately treated in every case, and will be found to embrace ample details of the topography, public and private buildings, insti- tutions, manufactures, commerce, population, man- ners, customs, and peculiarities, of all the cities and towns ; while in the provinces, the general character of the soil and country, its scenery, climate, and productions, statistics of area, comparative fertility, population, resources, public works, and financial condition, have the greatest share of attention be- stowed on them. Of general topics, belonging to every part of the country equally, those of political institutions, reli- gion, morals, education, literature, social intercourse, and domestic relations, will be found to be most frequently described and discussed ; and wherever it has been practicable to corroborate my own views by native authorities, whether among the popular writers of the country, or from their public journals, I have availed myself freely of these sources, partly to satisfy the English reader of the probable sound- ness of my conclusions, and partly to let the American reader also see that it is not, as he might otherwise suppose, the erroneous impressions of a foreigner, INTRODUCTORY. 9 of whose authority they are peculiarly jealous in matters of national concern, but the deliberate con- viction of some of the leading public writers of their own country, against which no such objection can be raised. It will be inferred from this, that my views of American institutions and manners are not always of the most favourable kind: and this I am ready to avow. I visited the country neither predisposed to admire nor condemn ; but most sincerely desirous of seeing the actual condition of things, and most firmly resolved to describe them as they appeared to me, whether for good or for evil. To suppose that I may not in some cases have received imperfect impressions, and in others have formed erroneous conclusions, would be to suppose a freedom from the ordinary frailty and fallibility of mortals. To such an exemption, I hope I should be the last to make any claim. But this at least I can assert with con- fidence, that I have always endeavoured to investi- gate carefully the facts placed within my reach ; that I have been quite as anxious to form correct deduc- tions from these when ascertained ; and never having indulged the national antipathy towards foreigners, which has always seemed so offensive to me in the writings of too many of my own countrymen, I am not conscious of having been influenced by such a feeling, in any censures which I may have felt it right to express. From the peculiarly quick sensitiveness of the American people to the censures of foreigners, and of English writers above all others, I have no doubt I shall be condemned by many of the party journals in that country, for some of the observations 10 INTRODUCTORY. which I have felt it my duty to make, on subjects connected with their institutions and manners ; while, on the other hand, I expect as little justice from the party journals of my own country, who will con- demn me perhaps as fiercely, for the eulogies I feel hound to bestow, on the manifold advantages enjoyed by the people of the United States, over most of the countries of the Old World. Between these two extremes, I shall, however, hope to find, in the mode- rate and impartial judgment of those who love truth wherever it is to be found, and who think it is as much a duty to condemn what is evil as to praise what is good, a sufficient counterbalance to the se- verity of the criticisms on both sides of the Atlantic, which I am prepared to expect. On one other topic I may venture to say a word or two in explanation. Throughout the United States, the complaint is almost universal, that English travellers, especially, have abused the hospitality of some, ai>d betrayed the confidence of others, by making public what was never intended, or thought likely, to be so exposed ; and much bitterness of disappoint- ment and anger of feeling has been occasioned thereby. There is unfortunately too much of truth in the ac- cusation — though the English are not more in fault in this betrayal of confidence, and abuse of hos- pitality, than some American travellers who have visited and described England. But in both, it is no doubt an offence that deserves to be punished with public censure ; first, for its injustice and ingTa- titude ; and next, because it has a tendency to lessen the disposition of even the most generous and high- minded in each country to extend their hospitality INTRODUCTORY. 1 1 and attentions to the citizens of the other. I hope and believe that I have avoided this evil ; I am sure at least that I have earnestly endeavoured to do so ; and remembering, as I shall always be prompt and proud to do, the many warm and affectionate friend- ships I had the happiness to form among the Ame- rican people, I should feel the deepest regret, if any thing to which I gave publicity respecting their country or themselves, should weaken our reciprocal regard, or render my name and memory less revered among them or their children, than it has hitherto had the honour and good fortune to be. CHAP. II. Departure from England — Arrival at New York — Address to the American public issued on landing — Different courses of lec- tures delivered in the city — Attendance at public meetings for benevolent objects — New York State Temperance Society — New York Peace Society — Meeting on the subject of Public Education — New York City Tract Society — Total Abstinence So- ciety — Ladies Meeting for the Orphan Asylum — Meeting of the Friends of Sailors' Homes — Visit to one of the establishments of this Institution — Admirable arrangement for the comforts of seamen — Political excursion to Newark with the Hon. Daniel Webster — Visit to polling places at the time of election — Legal and clerical parties — Intellectual soirees. It was on the 7th of September, 1837, that we left London for New York. The packet-ship, in which we had engaged cabins, was the President, Captain Chadwick ; and our party consisted of Mrs. Buck- ingham, my youngest son, then about twelve years of age, and myself. We were accompanied to the ship by the other members of our family and friends; and the prospect of so long a separation, as that which we contemplated, made our adieus more than usually painful. During our tedious passage down the British Channel, the sight of the often-seen, and well-re- membered ** white cliffs of Albion," excited recol- lections of the joy with which I hailed them on my last return from exile, that contrasted powerfully with the opposite emotions with which I now be- held them fading from my view; and this found vent in some effusions, which sufficiently indicate the frame of mind in which they were penned.* * See Appendix, No. I. and II. PICTURESQUE RIVER SCENERY. 13 There was nothing of sufficient interest or novelty in the sea voyage across the Atlantic, nothing peculiar in the ship or her equipment, nothing even in the number or character of our fellow-passengers, to require any special notice ; and except in the enjoy- ment of domestic society and books, so full of delight everywhere, but especially when cut off from the world in the comparative solitude of the ocean, there was nothing beyond the common incidents or plea- sures of an ordinary sea voyage. Our passage was of more than usual length, occu- pying forty-three days ; the general average of out- ward voyages not exceeding thirty days. We had, however, a great prevalence of contrary winds, and much boisterous and unpleasant weather ; though the season of the year is one in which this is not very common. It was on the 19th of October that we first saw the American coast, a part of Long Island, to the eastward of New York ; and soon after receiving on board a pilot, we made all sail with a fine breeze for the entrance of the harbour by Sandy Hook, which we reached early in the afternoon. From thence we proceeded up through the Narrows towards the city, and anchored off the Battery about five o'clock. It is difficult to speak without an air of exagge- ration, of the beauties of this short trip, from the entrance of the harbour to the anchorage ground. They were, however, so numerous and so enchanting, that my only regret was at the rapidity with which we passed by the several objects that succeeded each other. The time of the year was undoubtedly fa- vourable, and added much to the splendour of the scene, in the rich autumnal tints with which the 14 STATE OF NEW YORK. foliage on all the surrounding hills was crownied ; and the time of day was equally advantageous, as it was just before the full glow of a western sun-set. The Narrows, formed by the nearly approaching cliffs of Staten Island on the west, and Long Island on the east, is one of the most strikingly interesting straits of entrance that can be conceived, to the more expanded harbour into which it opens ; and its beauty is much increased by the number of little villas scat- tered over the surface of the hills on either side, con- trasting their almost snowy whiteness with the rich greens, and yellows, and scarlets, and browns, of the au- tumnal foliage in which many of them are embosomed. As we advanced upward, the variety of the scenery presented continual charms, and the first sight of the city of New York, with the lofty spires of its numer- ous churches rising from the interior — the tall masts of its crowded fleets fringing the outline of the entire mass of houses, while distinctive signals were waving from the greater number of the mast-heads — added to ships of war forming the squadron now about to sail on an exploring expedition — the opening views of the East River, Long Island, and Brooklyn, which lie to the right of New York, as you look toward it from the south — and the still greater ex- panse of the noble Hudson River, and the opposite city of Jersey, which are seen to the left hand, or on the west — produced a coup d'oeil which few sea-ports could parallel, and none that I have ever entered could surpass. Soon after anchoring, we took leave of our floating residence ; and landing at the Battery, we were taken to one of the principal hotels in the lower part of the Broadway, called the Mansion House, or Bunker's, AGREEABLE SOCIETY. 15 where we found accommodation for the night ; but being unable to make arrangements for our per- manent stay there, for want of room, we took up our quarters at the adjoining house, which was what is called a private boarding-house, and here for the present we made our home. As we remained in New York for several months, and as I availed myself of every opportunity that presented itself during that period to see whatever the city contained, and to mingle as much as possible with the various classes of its inhabitants, I shall endea- vour to condense my description of the whole into a general and continuous picture, embracing all those details which occupied many different days in col- lecting, and most of which required and received that subsequent revision, which time and re-examination can alone secure. Before entering on this, however, I may offer the following short notice of my own labours, as those which were most instrumental in bringing me in contact with the most intelligent and respectable of the inhabitants, and leading to many delightful friendships, of which I shall long cherish a pleasing and grateful remembrance. Soon after my landing, I presented the numerous letters of introduction with which I had been favoured by friends in England to families of the greatest influence here ; and this brought us at once into the midst of a most extensive circle of agreeable ac- quaintances. As considerable public curiosity had begun to be awakened, however, by my visit to the United States, from the notice taken of it by the public journals, I thought it the shortest and most IG STATE OF NEW YORK. effective method of correcting erroneous impressions, and placing the motives and object of my visit in their true light, to issue an Address on this subject.* My courses of lectures, descriptive of Egypt and Palestine, were soon afterwards announced ; and as the great length of the city, as well as the difference in the classes of society that reside in different quar- ters rendered it desirable to have more than one place for their delivery, an arrangement was made to give one of the courses at Clinton Hall, near the centre, for the mercantile classes ; and one at the Stuyvesant Institute, at the northern extremity of Broadway, for the more opulent and fashionable classes who reside in that newly built and elegant quarter of the town. Both these lecture rooms were well adapted for their purpose, and capable of accommodating with ease — the former about 7OO, and the latter about 500 auditors ; and each course was so well attended, that while the Clinton Hall was usually filled, the Stuy- vesant Institute became too crowded, and many indi- viduals were unable to obtain admission. This obliged us to remove to the chapel of the University, a beautiful gothic building, forming part of the general edifice in Washington Square, which was cheerfully granted to me by the president and chan- cellor, and the remaining lectures of my course were delivered there to very crowded audiences. After the close of these two courses in New York, I was invited by a requisition, signed by about 100 of the principal residents of Brooklyn, to visit them, and deliver the same lectures at the Lyceum of their city. In this duty I was agreeably occupied for * See Appendix, No. III. PUBLIC LECTURES AND MEETINGS. 17 about a month, crossing over from New York to Brooklyn on each evening in a carriage, which drives into the steam ferry-boat, and is conveyed to the other side across the East River, without the necessity of the passenger leaving his vehicle ; and returning by the same mode after the lecture was over. The lec- ture room at the Brooklyn Lyceum, like that at the Stuyvesant Institute in New York, is built in the form of the old Greek theatre, semicircular, with the ranges of seats rising in succession behind each other ; but, though Brooklyn is by much the smaller place, — the population of New York being about 300,000, and that of Brooklyn 30,000 — its lecture room is much larger, more lofty, better proportioned, and was filled every night by a larger audience than had yet attended any of the lectures in New York. At the termination of the Brooklyn course, I was still further detained for six weeks longer in New York, to repeat my course on Egypt at the Stuyvesant Institute ; to give a second course on Palestine at the lecture room of St. Luke's church in Hudson Street : and a third course on Eg}^t and Palestine combined at the Chatham Street chapel, each in different quar- ters of the city, and attended by different classes of auditors — that at the Stuyvesant averaging 600 ; that at St. Luke's, in Hudson Street, about SOO ; and that in Chatham Street chapel not less than 2000 ; each being up to the fullest capacity of the respective places to contain. Independently of these labours on my own account, I had the pleasure to assist at the following public meetings, which were fixed for those evenings on which my own labours were suspended ; and although VOL. I. c 18 STATE OF NEW YORK. these intervening days were originally set aside for rest, I was too happy in the appropriation of them to the objects named, to regret for a moment the extra labour they involved. The first of these public meetings was held in the Tabernacle, a large church or meeting-house in Broadway, to advocate and promote the cause of Temperance. The Tabernacle is one of the largest places of worship in New York, and will contain nearly 3000 persons. On this occasion it was filled to overflowing, and large numbers were unable to obtain admission. At half-past seven the chair was taken by S. V. S. Wilder, Esq., and the meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. M. Duffield. I was then introduced to the audience by a short address from the chairman ; after which I spoke for about two hours, giving the history of the temperance reformation in England, the efforts made in the House of Commons, the evidence procured by its committee of inquiry, and the recent progress of the question in the public mind in Britain, followed by some general arguments in favour of the cause, as applicable to this and every other country on the globe. The audience, large as it was, evinced the deepest interest in the subject ; and the meeting closed with a more than usual expression of enthu- siasm. The second of these public meetings was one held by the New York Peace Society, which took place in Chatham Street chapel. This building, though not so large as the Tabernacle, will comfortably accom- modate 2000 persons seated ; and when the aisles and all other standing places are filled, 2500 can be NATIONAL EDUCATION ENCOURAGED. IQ admitted. Every part of it was crowded on the present occasion, and many went away for want of room. The chair was taken at seven, and the meeting was opened by sacred music, vocal and instrumental, beautifully executed by a very numerous and well-trained choir. Here also, as at the Tabernacle, the deepest attention was manifested ; and during the two hours of my ad- dress, — which was devoted to an exposition of the hor- rors and miseries of War, its injustice, and the long- train of evils which it inflicted on mankind, the desi- rability of its abolition, and the practicability of estabHshing a Congress of Nations, to which, as to a supreme tribunal, all those disputes between nations, now settled by an appeal to the sword, might be referred for adjudication, and war thus be averted, — nothing could exceed the interest evinced by the hearers, or the unanimity of the approbation with which these statements and sentiments were received. The meeting was closed, as it was opened, by sacred music, and the effect was altogether most impressive as well as aofreeable. The third public meeting that I attended was to advocate and promote the cause of National Education. This was held in the Tabernacle, on Tuesday the 14th of December, and attended by as many as the building would contain. The meeting was called by John Orville Taylor, Esq., a gentleman who has taken a deep interest in the promotion of education and the improvement of the common schools, and who for some years past has given his time almost exclusively to this object. At seven o'clock, on the motion of Col. Stone, the editor of one of the prin- cipal daily newspapers, Samuel Mott, Esq., a member c S ^ STATE OF NEW YORK. of the Society of Friends, and a gentleman who takes a prominent part in the promotion of education, was called to the chair. After this, Mr. Taylor addressed the meeting for ahout an hour, detailing the defects of the common schools in the country districts of the several states ; showing how these defects might be remedied ; and proposing that, for the purpose of carrying forward the requisite improvements, a so- ciety should be formed, to be called " The Common School Union," to act for the benefit of the common schools of the country— as the "Sunday School Union" does for the Sunday schools of the states — a proposi- tion which was well received. Mr. Taylor was followed by the Rev. M. Bracken- ridge, of Princeton, one of the most eloquent of the public men of the present day; who made a very powerful speech in support of the general cause of education, and urged the necessity of carefully ex- cluding persons who were known to be infidels, from all participation in the management or direction of schools, either as teachers or assistants. At the close of his speech, a remarkable scene occurred : a well-dressed and middle-aged lady rose in front of the gallery, and asked permission of the chairman to put a question to the speaker who had just sat down. She represented herself as a foreigner, and spoke with the accent of a German, but used correct and appro- priate language, and expressed herself with great firmness and self-possession. Permission having been granted from the chair, the question she proposed was this, "Whether the reverend gentleman, who had spoken so severely of infidels, was ready to accept her challenge, and prepared to fight the infidels with IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN AiAJERICA. 21 their own weapons?" A scene of great excitement followed — the indignation of the audience being loudly and generally expressed; and all the eflPorts of the chairman and those on the platform to repress it were for some time ineffectual. At length, silence being restored, Mr. Brackenridge rose, and said that he was quite prepared to answer the question proposed to him ; and his reply was this, " That he had been taught from his infancy, and Christianity has since confirmed the propriety of the lesson, that it would be altoge- ther unbecoming his character as a man, to take up any kind of weapons to fight with a woman." The lady appeared satisfied with the reply — or, seeing the feeling of the meeting to be so strongly against her interruption, made no further appeal — and order was, therefore, speedily restored. After this, I addressed the meeting, by the intro- duction of the chairman, for about an hour and half, on the subject of Education generally, its state and condition in various countries of the world, and the peculiar importance of this question to America, as being the country in which the mass of the people exercised a larger share of power than in any other nation in the world; it being therefore of the ut- most consequence that this power should be directed by intelligence, which could only be communicated, generally and extensively, by a good system of Na- tional Education. The meeting did not separate till 1 o'clock, and its proceedings were marked by great animation and enthusiasm. The fourth public meeting that I was called on to attend, was that of the anniversary of the New York City Tract Society, an extensive and useful body. ^^ STATE OF NEW YORK. who employ sixteen paid missionaries, at regular an- nual salaries, to devote their whole time to visiting the most wretched and abandoned part of the popu- lation in their own dwellings, and, by the use of printed tracts, conversation, admonition, and persua- sion, incline them to change their modes of life, attend to the better management of their temporal affairs, and devote some portion of their time to spi- ritual ones. These missionaries are assisted in their benevolent labours by the voluntary services of eleven hundred male and female district visitors, who, day by day, devote some portion of their time to the same object, and are instrumental in rescuing large num- bers every year from profligacy and dissipation ; pre- vailing on hundreds to join the Temperance Society, to become more economical and industrious, to attend public worship, to send their children to the Sunday schools, and so to amend their lives in industry, so- briety, morals, and religion, as to become changed beings — better husbands, better wives, better parents, better children, and better members of the commu- nity. At 7 o'clock the chair was taken by the president of the Society, Zachariah Lewis, Esq., a venerable old gentleman, above seventy years of age. Music was then performed by the New York Academy of Sacred Music, assisted by the choir of the Tabernacle, the building in which we were assembled; and nothing could be more chaste or perfect than its execution. Prayer was then offered up by the Rev. Dr. Ferris, of the Reformed Dutch church ; after which the an- nual reports of the secretary and treasurer were read, and speeches were delivered in support of the objects THE TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. 23 of the Society by the Rev. M. Remington, of the Methodist church, the Rev. J. W. Cooke, of the Episcopal church, the Rev. Silas Ilsley, of the Bap- tist church, and the Rev. W. Adams, of the Pres- byterian church ; thus embracing ministers of the principal religious bodies in the city. At intervals of about an hour apart, two other pieces of sacred music were performed by the members of the Academy and the choir united, each with equal sweetness and skill, adding greatly to the charm of the proceedings. It was half-past nine before I was called on by the chairman to terminate the business of the evening by a closing address ; and though the subject and the interest I felt in it drew me on be- yond half-past ten, the attention was as profound and unbroken at that late hour as in the earliest part of the evening, A collection was made at the close of the whole, for the funds of the Society, by which a sum of 3,500 dollars was reaUzed, a substantial proof of the sincerity and zeal of those who contributed it. The fifth pubhc meeting that I attended was that of the Total Abstinence Society, or that branch of the Temperance Society which recommends the en- tire abstinence fi'om all intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and avoids the use of wine, beer, or any other drink that can produce intoxication, as much as ardent spirits. This meeting was held in the Methodist chapel in Green Street, which was filled in every part ; and about twenty clergymen, minis- ters, and members of the board or committee, were on the platform. Several speeches were delivered on the subject of temperance, and, in the intervals, appropriate, music was performed ; and one or two odes and hymns. ^4 STATE OF NEW YORK. written for the occasion, were sung by the choir. My own effort was reserved for the closing address, as had been done on all the previous occasions of such pubhc meetings ; and the effect of the whole was, to add a very considerable number of members to the Total Abstinence Society, by persons coming forward, after the proceedings were over, to enter their names, sign the pledge to abstam fi'om all that can intoxicate, and contribute to the funds of the institution. The sixth public meeting at which I assisted, was the anniversary of the Half Orphan Asylum, which was held at the Stuyvesant Institute, on Wednesday, the 10th of January, 1838, at noon. There had existed, previous to this, an orphan asylum for those unhappy childi'en who had lost both their parents ; but many little objects of charity who had lost only one, though that surviving parent should be helpless, were shut out from admission by the terms of its constitution. It was to meet such cases as these, that this second institution was formed. Its projectors, supporters, and managers, were ladies, and the good they had already effected w^as sufficiently proved by the exhibition of about a hundred little children, of both sexes, who had been saved from certain want and probable vice and misery by their benevolent exertions. The funds were supplied wholly by an- nual subscriptions and voluntary donations ; and it was impossible to hear the report read, and witness the amount of benefit secured, without being de- lighted to find how small an amount of money, judi- ciously applied, will procure a large amount of good ; and without being at the same time surprised, that SAILORS HOINIES. 25 mankind are so slow in learning that the pleasures of benevolence are at once the cheapest, the most exqui- site, and the most enduring that man can enjoy. The meeting was very numerous, though composed almost wholly of ladies ; and the proceedings were conducted, and addresses made, by the chairman, the Rev. Dr. Peters, the secretary who read the report, the Rev. Dr. Hawkes, and myself. The seventh public meeting in which I took a part, was held at the Tabernacle, on Tuesday, the l6th of January, for the purpose of presenting to the commu- nity of New York the claims which the Seamen of the port had on their sympathy and aid, with a view to induce the public to assist in rescuing them fi'om the snares and temptations by which sailors are sur- rounded and beset on landing, and providing for them comfortable, orderly, and temperate boarding-houses, to be called Sailors' Homes. From the interest I had always taken in the welfare of this deserving but neg- lected class of beings in my own country, my atten- tion was naturally drawn to their condition here j and I found, on inspection and inquiry, that here, as in England, the sailor is hardly permitted to tread the shore, after his arrival from a long voyage, before he is beset and surrounded with an unprincipled gang of grog-shop keepers, pawnbrokers, procuresses, crimps, and other *' land-sharks," as they are most appro- priately called, all anxious to make the unsuspecting victim their prey. He is then decoyed by flattering words, and the offer of money for his immediate wants before his wages are paid, to some low boarding house, attached to which, or near at hand, are all the vicious allurements of intoxicating drink, gaming,danc- S6 STATE OF NEW YORK. ing, women, and every thing that can draw his money from his pocket ; so that by these joint influences he is often drained of the whole earnings of a year of peril and hardship at sea, in the short space of a sin- gle week, at the end of which he has to embark again upon the ocean, without even the means of purchas- ing sufficient clothes for his voyage, or leaving any provision for his family or kindred behind him. To remedy this evil, some benevolent ladies had been prevailed on to set the example of establishing a single Sailors' Home, which I went with my family to visit on the morning of the day of our meeting. We found it all that could be desired — a good kitchen, well furnished with every requisite — a clean and airy mess-room for eating — a large sitting-room, well pro- vided with plain furniture — and useful and entertain- ing books for reading — spacious and well- ventilated dormitories, with clean and wholesome beds, and am- ple room for the sailors' chests and hammocks — and, above all, a " sick bay," as it is called by sailors — a large open room used as a hospital for the men. The establishment was presided over by Captain Gulson, a seaman of experience and good character, assisted by his wife and sister, who managed all the household supphes and arrangements, while he super- intended the general discipline. A physician at- tended the house weekly, or oftener if required, to prescribe for those who needed it; and a chaplain read prayers, morning and evening, and conducted public worship on Sundays. The food was simple, but wholesome and ample. No spirits, wine, beer, or any other stimulating drink, was permitted to enter the establishment ; nor was smoking, the great aux- CULPABLE APATHY OF SHIP-OWNERS. ^7 iliary and promoter of drinking, allowed within the walls. The number of sailors at present boarding here were forty, which was as many as the house would comfortably accommodate; but more than a hundred had been shipped from the house since its establishment, only two months since, — captains of ships preferring to take them from hence, as being better assured of their sobriety, only one failure in which had taken place since the house was opened. The sum charged to each of the seamen for board and lodging, with every thing in the most comfortable abundance, was only three dollars, or about twelve shillings sterling, per week ; and this was found to be sufficient to cover all the expenses of the establishment. Thus, economy was added to all the other attractions of this Home ; as, for much worse fare in the ordinary boarding-houses, from four to five dollars are charged, independently of the constant drain for drinking, and other vicious indulgences, of all the men's surplus money ; while those who live in the Sailors' Home are easily persuaded to put their wages received into the Savings' Bank, and thus to accumulate, instead of dissipating and destroying, their hard-earned gains. The object of this meeting was to present these facts to the community, and appeal to them in sup- port of such institutions, which, with their aid, it would be easy to multiply, first in New York, and then in every other port of the country. It was matter of surprise and regret to me, to find that not a single shipowner or merchant of note was present on the platform of the meeting; though they who amass their fortunes by the enterprise of sailors, ought un- doubtedly to have taken the lead on such a subject. 5^8 STATE OF NEW YORK. But the principal supporters of it were the ladies of the New York Bethel Union, and some ministers of the gospel and philanthropic laymen, wholly uncon- nected with shipping, commerce, or trade. The meeting was very numerously attended, and addressed hy the Rev. Mr. Greenleaf, secretary, and editor of the Nautical Magazine ; the Rev. Mr. Elliott, who had been himself a sailor in early life up to the age of thirty, and had afterwards entered the ministry ; and by myself. Great sympathy was manifested and expressed by the audience, which exceeded 3000 per- sons, and a very liberal collection was made in aid of the fund forming for the purpose of setting on foot more such Homes as this, by paying the first cost of their fitting up and furniture, and so keeping the rate of expense to the seamen, below the standard of ordinary boarding-houses, and yet sufficiently high to maintain the establishment out of its own weekly receipts, as soon as it had been set up in the manner described. When all the public institutions that solicited my aid had been thus assisted, at the public meetings held on their behalf, I had hoped to have enjoyed some intervals of repose, between the days on which my lectures were announced to be delivered, as I found the labour of public speaking and private visiting every day, to be a little more than was congenial to health or comfort. But I was not permitted to enjoy even these occasional intervals of repose, as I was pressed into the service of individual and collective charity, to give some public lectures, first, for the benefit of a family of respectability, who had been well off in England, came here, suffered losses and THE HON. DANIEL WEBSTER. ^9 sickness, and were now in great distress ; and se- condly, for the benefit of the poor in a district or quarter of the town where the English and Irish emigrants chiefly reside, before they are drained off to the Western states, and where the misery and suffering, among these emigrants, seemed to me to be equal to any thing that I had seen at home. In addition to those opportunities which my own several courses of lectures, and the assisting at those public meetings, afforded me of becoming acquainted with the most intelligent and benevolent members of the community, we visited, in company with the direc- tors of the institution themselves, almost all the public establishments of the city connected with moral or social improvement, of each of which an account will be given in its proper place. I passed an entire day also with the Hon. Daniel Webster, the eminent senator from Massachusetts, in a public visit made by him to his political friends at Newark, one of the principal cities of New Jersey, about ten miles from New York, during which I saw a great deal to admire in the picture which it presented of the people among whom we were placed. I was taken by several friends to the different polling places of the wards, during the exciting election of members for the legislature, which occurred within the first month of our stay here, and which was said to have agitated the whole country more than any election for many years. In addition to all this, we were invited to dine and pass the evening with so many families in the first circles of society, that we had the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with all the leading members of the community, and so STATE OF NEW YORK. seeing the state of manners in every class, and in every variety of aspect. I was introduced also to the leading members of the legal profession, by being invited to their club, where about fifty of the principal gentlemen of the bench and the bar meet every Saturday evening at the houses of the members in rotation, and thus had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the greatest number of the judges, the principal barris- ters, and the most eminent of the attorneys, for some of each class belonged to the club. The great body of the clergy and ministers of the gospel were among my most frequent visitors and companions, our labours in assisting at the various public meetings bringing us much together ; besides which, they were among the most constant attendants on my lectures. In addition to this, the chancellor of the University, the Rev. Dr. Matthews, invited several parties of the most eminent among the scien- tific professors and literary men of New York, to meet me at his official residence. These two classes of soirees, the legal and the clerical, were among the most intellectual and agreeable I ever remember to have met with anvwhere, not even ex- cepting the delightful literary soirees of London and Paris ; for though, at these, the number and eminence of the distinguished individuals present were always greater than here ; yet, in the parties of the legal, clerical, and literarv men in New York, there was a simplicity of manners, and an intensity of interest in the subjects that engaged their attention, which was particularly charming. At the most moderate calculation that can be OPPORTUNITIES OF INFORMATION. 31 made, I think that, during the four months of our stay in New York, I became personally acquainted, by introduction and interchange of calls and visits, with nearly 500 individuals; while those who attended my courses of lectures, delivered in different parts of the city, and formed the audiences of the several public meetings at which I assisted, exceeded 20,000 in number ; so that I was as generally and extensively known to the inhabitants, as any man could well become in that space of time. It was from such sources, and such opportunities as these, that I drew the information, and made the observations, which I have committed to paper, re- specting the city, and the objects of interest it con- tains. Having no preconceived notions to establish or defend, no theory of society to maintain, nor any interest whatever to serve, I believe that I brought to the execution of this task as much of impartiality as human nature will admit of one's exercising on topics like these ; and, if to some, my estimate should appear too high, or to others too low, my justifica- tion is, that I have aimed at no standard but that of truth ; and whether it made in favour of or against the objects spoken of, I have been so intent on its discovery, that I could not forego the pleasure of freely expressing it, whether acceptable or otherwise. The following, then, is the result of my inquiries and observations on New York, during my residence in that city. CHAP. IIL History of New York from 1609 to 1838 — Topography and plan of the city and its environs — Astonishing rapidity of the increase of population — Comparison of its shipping at different periods — Augmentation of its revenue and foreign commerce- — Admirable situation chosen for the city — Great advantage of extensive water-margin — Outline of the plan, and general form of the city — Public squares and open spaces in New York — Public buildings — City Hall, Custom House, Exchange — Churches and style of architecture in general use — Hotels and general accom- modation in them — Theatres and places of amusement of various kinds — Private dwellings — interior — style — fumitiu-e — Streets and their peculiarities compared with ours — Appearance of the principal shops or stores — Number of elegantly-dressed ladies in Broadway — Absence of the splendid equipages of England. The spot on which the city of New York now stands, was, little more than two centuries ago, a forest, inha- bited by tribes of untutored Indians. It was in 1609 that the island of Manhattan was first disco- vered by an English navigator, Henry Hudson, then in the service of the Dutch West India Company ; and he found the tribes inhabiting it so inhospitable, that they refused to hold any intercourse with him even for barter and trade. The Indians of the continent, on the opposite shore of New Jersey, were more accessible ; and, encouraged by his friendly re- lations with them, he sailed up the great North river NEW YORK TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. 33 for 150 miles, and gave it the name which it now bears — the Hudson. The Dutch availed themselves of this discovery, to make a settlement for trading purposes, high up the river, on an island near the pre- sent town of Albany, where furs were to be obtained abundantly ; hut the hostility of the tribes inhabit- ing the island near the sea, on which New York now stands, was not overcome till three years afterwards ; the first fort built there by the Dutch being in I6l2. It was not until 1623 that the Indians could be pre- vailed upon to part with the land on which New York is built ; and even then, the settlement formed here was confined to an enlarged fort, where the confluence of the two rivers, the North and the East, swept round the southern point of the island, and made it a suitable place for a fortification to com- mand the harbour, as the Battery of the present city, which occupies the same locality, does at the pre- sent time. From this point, as the population in- creased, the town began to extend from the fort northward, and it was then called New Amsterdam. In 1664, the city was taken by the British, from whom, however, it was rescued by the Dutch in 1673. After remaining in their possession for a year only, it was restored again to the English ; and being then granted by Charles the Second to his brother James, the Duke of York, its name was changed to New York. From this time onward, its population and buildings seem to have made a slow but steadily increasing progress ; and the state of the municipal government, and the improved police of the town, kept pace with its increase in size. It was in 1684 that the first city- watch was appointed, the VOL. I. D 34 STATE OF NEW YORK. number of these heroes of the night being twelve, and their pay a shilling each per night. In 1697» the lighting of the city was provided for by an order, which compelled all persons to put lights in their windows, under a penalty of ninepence for each omission ; and every seventh house in each street was, in addition to this, required to hang out a pole with a lantern and candle suspended on it, to light the street. In 1725 the first newspaper was published in New York, called the Weekly Gazette ; and in 17^9 a large library, belonging to Dr. Millington, of Eng- land, was presented, after his decease, to the city, by the London Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. These two events gave an impetus to the operations of the public mind ; and improvements of every kind became more marked than before. It was in I765 that the famous stamp-act, attempted to be imposed on the American colonies by the British, produced such excitement as to lead to the meeting o^ a congress at New York, composed of delegates from other parts of the colonies. Early in I776 the Ame- rican army entered New York, and, on the 8th of July in that year, Independence was proclaimed ; when the celebrated Declaration, signed at Philadelphia only four days before, by the founders of the Ameri- can republic, was read to the inhabitants, and at the head of each brigade of the army. In the same year, however, the British obtained a victory over the Ame- rican troops in the battle of Long Island, and repos- sessed themselves of New York. This was in August 1776 ; and in September of the same eventful year, a dreadful conflagration occurred, which destroyed FIRST AIVffiRICAN CONGRESS. 3C> nearly 500 houses, the whole number being then only 4,000, and the inhabitants reckoned at 30,000 in round numbers. It was not until seven years after this, or in 1783, that New York was finally evacuated by the British, when the American army, led by General Washington, entered and took possession of it ; and the anniversary of this event is celebrated every year, with military pomp and festivity, under the name of Evacuation Day, which happens on the 25th of November. It was in this city that the first American congress was held, when the members met after the revolution- ary war, in the year 1785, in the old city-hall; and in April, 1789, General Washington was inaugurated in the gallery of the same building, as the first presi- dent of the United States. From this period, the most rapid progress of New York may be fairly dated; as it was unquestionably owing more to her freedom from foreign dominion, and the right to devclope and direct her energies in the way that seemed best to her, without waiting for directions from a distant quarter, than to all other causes put together, that the amazing increase in size, population, and opulence, which New York now ex- hibits, must be attributed. How great that differ- ence is, can only be exhibited by the use of figures. In 1786 the population was 23,614; in 1836 it was 203,007 ; and at present it is nearly 300,000. In 1791 the whole amount of the exports fromNew^ York was 2,505,465 dollars; in 181 6, only twenty-five years afterwards, the mere duties on merchandise im- ported, as paid by the port of New York alone into the treasury of the United States, was 16,000,000 dollars ; D 2 36 STATE OF NEW YORK. and in the year 1836 the amount of the exports was 128,663,040, and of the imports 189,980,035 dollars. At the period of General Washington's inaugura- tion, the whole city of New York was not more than half a mile long, its northern extremity terminating south of the present city-hall j while at present, the length of the city exceeds three miles, and streets are paved and lighted, and avenues for buildings laid out and prepared, a mile at least beyond that. The value of the property in New York, in I786, is estimated to have been about 12 millions of dol- lars; in 1825 it was assessed by valuation at 98 mil- lions of dollars; and in 1834 it was assessed at 218 millions of dollars. In 1786 the whole shipping of the port did not exceed 120 in number, measuring about 18,000 tons. In 1836 they consisted of 2,293 vessels, of which there were 599 ships, 197 barks, 1,073 brigs and galleys, 412 schooners, and 4 sloops ; exceeding 350,000 tons. Such is the brief and encouraging history of New York. Of its topography, it will not be difficult to present an intelligible description. The island of Manhat- tan, on which the city of New York stands, is a long and narrow slip, projecting southward, like a tongue, from the point where it is separated from the main land ; its length from north to south being about four- teen miles, and its average breadth not exceeding a mile, the area containing about 14,000 acres. The East river (as it is called, but in reality a narrow strait, or arm of the sea,) flows down to the Atlan- tic, along the eastern edge of this long and narrow island, and the Hudson river flows down to the ADVANTAGEOUS SITE OF NEW YORK. 37 harbour of New York, along the western margin of the same piece of land, so that throughout the whole of the island the breadth is nowhere greater than two miles across, and in many places it is not more than half a mile, the average being about a mile throughout. It is impossible to conceive, therefore, a more ad- vantageous site for the foundation of a maritime citv than this ; as it furnishes two lines of river frontage, one on the east and the one on the west, each of fourteen miles in length; and from the central parts of the city, where the streets are open towards the water, the two rivers may be seen, one on each side, from the same point of view, with ships and smaller vessels sailing, or at anchor, in each. Along these river fronts, east and west, as far as the town at pre- sent extends, which is about four miles from north to south, the shores are lined with wharves, for the ac- commodation of vessels of every size and description, from the sloop of 50 tons to the London or Liver- pool packet of 1000 tons; and from the smallest steam ferry-boat to the largest steam- vessels that sail from New York to other ports north and south of it. Two other great advantages arise from this ar- rangement of the streets in the plan of the city. The first is the free and healthy ventilation of the whole, let the wind come from whatever quarter it may, as the full current of air is unimpeded in its course ; and the second is, the easy drainage of all the central parts, from the general declivity which proceeds from the central ridge gradually downward to the water on both sides of the city. These advantages are not yet sufficiently appreciated, nor are they secured by the 38 STATE OF NEW YORK. best practicable means ; but as wealth and popu- lation increase, they will, no doubt, be more and more valued, and carefully cherished and preserved. The southern extremity of this long and narrow island, where the Eastern and Western rivers have their confluence, and mingle their waters with those of the sea, is occupied by an open grassy plot (about eleven acres,) planted with trees, and laid out in gravel-walks, under the name of the Battery; pro- jecting beyond which, is a castellated edifice, built on a ledge of rocks, and now called the Castle Gar- dens, from its containing within its limits a public garden and promenade, and being a place where fire- works are often exhibited for the gratification of the visitors. From this Battery, or from the Castle-Garden be- yond it, as you look south, the view is varied and interesting. Immediately in front of the spectator is a small island, called Governor's Island, containing several dwellings, planted around with trees, and having at its western extremity a large circular fort, pierced for a great number of cannon, commanding the channel by which alone ships can approach the inner harbour. Beyond this, to the south-west, is another small island, called Bedloe's Island ; and still further on, in the same direction, the larger island, called Staten Island, on which is the to^n of Rich- mond, the more recent watering-place of New Brigh- ton, and a number of pretty terraces and villas. Through the opening between Staten Island on the west, and Long Island on the east, constituting the channel of the Narrows, the Atlantic ocean becomes visible near the low projection of Sandy Hook. TGI'OGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY. 39 While these varied objects present themselves in the direction of the south, the view to the west includes Jersey city, on the other side of the Hudson, here about a mile across; and on the east, the city of Brooklyn, seated on the heights of Long Island, on the other side of the East river, at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It is from this point of the Battery, at the extre- mity of the island, that the topography of the city may be most clearly traced. Advancing from this point northw^ard, though strictly in about a N.N.E. direction, the great avenue of Broadway extends from the Battery where it begins, to Union Place where it terminates, a distance of nearly three miles in a direct line. Beyond this, two large roads conti- nue the way onward in the same general direction, the Haerlem road diverging a little to the east, and the Bloomingdale road a little to the west, each extending to the extremity of the island. For this length, of three miles, the city may be said to be com- pactly built ; and for two miles beyond this, the ave- nues and streets are laid out, many of them paved and lighted, and in several of them, houses are built on each side. From Broadway, as from a common centre, the lateral or cross streets lead out east and west, on either side, terminating at one or other of the river fronts, and enabling the passenger, as he goes up or down this great thoroughfare, to see at almost every opening, the ships at the wharfs, at anchor, or under sail. Several great avenues, of nearly equal length and breadth with the principal one of Broadway, run nearly parallel to it on either side, or lengthwise of the city, the principal of which are Greenwich 40 STATE OF NEW YORK, Street and Hudson Street on the west, near the North river; and the Bowery, which makes a slight curve and intersects the most densely peopled part of the town, on the east of Broadway, and these are each crossed by streets at nearly right angles. The plan of the city is generally regular — much more regular than any of our old cities in Europe, though not so regular as Philadelphia, in this coun- try, or the new parts of Edinburgh and London, in Britain. The irregularities are here, as elsewhere, ehiefly in the oldest parts of the town. From the Battery, for about half a mile upward, or one-sixth the length of the city, the irregularity is considerable, though even here there are some fine separate man- sions, noble hotels, and regular terraces of dwellings. The great fire of 1835, which destroyed so large a portion of the eastern part, comprehending all the mercantile quarter near the river, and sweeping away DEFICIENCY OF PUBLIC PARKS. 41 property worth twenty millions of dollars, has had the effect of greatly improving the aspect of this section ; as the new buildings, though occupying nearly the same ground as the old ones, are more substantially and more regularly constructed, and give to the whole quarter an air of uniformity which it did not before possess. Beyond this half mile of length, which extends to the open space called the Park, the streets become more regular, and the whole aspect of the city more modem. As you advance higher up towards the termination of Broadway, the improve- ment becomes more and more manifest, and a consi- derable degree of elegance as well as regularity reigns in all the principal streets at the northern extremity of the town. Of the public places for air and exercise, with which the continental cities of Europe are so abun- 42 STATE OF NEW YORK. dantly and agreeably furnished, and which London, Bath, and some other of the larger cities of England, contain, there is a marked deficiency in New York. Except the Battery, which is agreeable only in sum- mer, the Bowling Green is a confined space of 200 feet long by 150 broad ; the Park, which is a compara- tively small spot of land (about ten acres only) in the heart of the city, and quite a public thoroughfare ; Hudson Square, the prettiest of the whole, but small, being only about four acres ; and the open space with- in Washington Square, about nine acres, which is not yet furnished with gravel- walks or shady trees — there is no large place in the nature of a park, or public garden, or public walk, where persons of all classes may take air and exercise. This is a defect which, it is hoped, will ere long be remedied, as there is no country perhaps in which it would be more advan- tageous to the health and pleasure of the community than this, to encourage, by every possible means, the use of air and exercise to a much greater extent than either is at present enjoyed. The pubUc buildings are neither so numerous nor so striking as in the cities of older countries. The principal edifice is the City-hall, which occupies a commanding situation in the centre of the most po- pulous part of the city, and surrounded by the open space constituting the Park. It is 216 feet in length by 105 in breadth. Its front, which is towards the south, as well as its ends towards the east and west, are built of fine white marble ; its foundation was laid in 1803, and the building was completed in 1812, at an expense exceeding half a million of dollars ; yet, recently as this date seems, the reason universally THE CITY HALL. 48 alleged here for its northern front being built of brown freestone, while the southern front is of pure white marble, is, that the builders never expected the city to extend beyond the City-hall, to the north ; this edifice being then at the northern extre- mity of the town, and New York being accordingly about half a mile in length ; whereas now, this hall has six times as many houses north of it as it has south; the city having extended in that direction from half a mile to three miles. To the houses, therefore, occupying half a mile of length from the Battery to the City-hall, this edifice presents its marble front, while to the houses occupying three miles of length to the north of it, its brown freestone front is alone presented ; so that if such a process were practicable, the civic authorities would be glad to turn it right round, and place its fronts just in the very opposite 44 STATE OF NEW YORK. direction to that in which they now stand. The building is much admired by the people of the city, and its advantageous position occasions it at first to make a favourable impression. But on a closer exa- mination this impression is not sustained. The win- dows are much too large and too numerous for exte- rior architectural beauty, though they may be advan- tageous for interior light and comfort. The central tower and dome, surmounted by a figure of Justice, is not of sufficient breadth and massiveness for the size of the building ; but the interior is well disposed, and possesses all the accommodation and convenience which the business of the court and matters of civic jurisdiction require. The Custom House and the Merchants' Exchange, both of which were destroyed by the late fire, are described as fine edifices. They are about to be replaced by others, both of which are now in course CHURCHES AND PLACES OF WORSHIP. 4.5 of erection, and rapidly advancing towards comple- tion. The Custom House is to be an exact copy of the celebrated Parthenon at Athens, and is con- structing of fine white marble. It is to be I77 feet long by 89 wide; and will have at each front a splendid colonnade of the Doric order, the size of the pillars 32 feet in height and 5 feet in diameter ; the centre of the interior hall is to rise in a dome 62 feet in diameter; the floors will be supported on arches of stone, to be fire-proof, and the cost is estimated at about half a million of dollars. The Merchants' Exchange is erecting not far from the Custom House; it promises also to be a very fine building, and not to cost less than the sum above named, the estimate indeed being somewhat higher. The churches and places of worship (of which there are 162— only ^4 of them built before 1800, and 138 46 STATE OF NEW YORK. since) are not so remarkable for the architectural beauty of their exterior, in which they are generally deficient, as for the elegance and comfort of their inte- riors, in which they far surpass our churches in Eng- land. The Episcopalian churches, and the chapels of other Christian, denominations, (though all are called churches here,) are the same in this respect ; the ar- rangement of the seats into separate pews, both below and in the galleries, is the same as with us ; but every seat is comfortably cushioned, and lined at the back, furnished with warm carpets or rugs for the feet ; the aisles are matted to prevent the noise of the foot ; and the whole is well warmed with stoves in every part. In many cases, the pews are of highly polished maho- gany, and the seats are cushioned with damask, exhi- biting great richness and elegance throughout. The box or tub pulpit, so common in England, is every- where discarded here ; and instead of it, a platform, HOTELS AND PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. 47 ascended to by a flight of steps on either side, and containing a reading-desk, and seats for three or four persons behind it, takes its place ; a substitution which greatly improves the appearance. The hotels are generally on a larger scale than in England. The great As tor- House, which overlooks the Park from the west side of Broadway, is much larger in area than the largest hotel in London or Paris ; it makes up 600 beds, and has a propor- tionate establishment to suit the scale of its general operations. It is built wholly of granite, is chaste in its syle of architecture, and is called after the rich John Jacob Astor, its proprietor, who is now deemed not only the wealthiest man in the city, but, since the death of Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, is consi- dered the richest individual in the United States ; his income exceeding, it is said, a million of dollars an- nually, or near £250,000 sterling, from land, houses, stocks, and permanent sources, unconnected with the risks of trade, from which he has long since retired, having realized his immense wealth by a long life industriously and successfully devoted to the fur trade. The City Hotel is also very large. The Washington, the Waverley, the Mansion House, the American, the Carlton, the Clarendon, the Globe, and the Athenseum, are all spacious establishments of the same nature ; and others of a smaller size abound in every quarter. Of places of public amusement there are a great number, including six theatres, which are well filled every night, though the majority of what would be called the more respectable classes of society, the most opulent, and the most religious members of the com- 48 STATE OF NEW YORK. munity, do not generally patronize, or approve of theatrical exhibitions under their present management. The large sums paid to English and other foreign actors and actresses who visit America is made up by the attendance of foreigners and persons not be- longing to either of the classes before enumerated ; and this will hardly be wondered at, when it is stated that every one of these theatres was not only open, but presented a combination of new and unusual attractions, on the evenings of days kept by the classes named as days of religious observance — the one, the day set apart by the proclamation of the state go- vernment as a day of public thanksgiving ; and the other, Christmas day. The private dwellings contain, as must be the case in all large cities, a great variety of kinds and descriptions. The older houses are small, and mostly built of wood, painted yellow or white. These are now confined to the residences of the poorer classes, and are fast disappearing in every quarter ; their places being occupied by substantial buildings of brick, though here and there are a few with granite fronts. The style of decoration, in the steps of ascent, the area railings, and the doors, is more florid and ornamental than in the best parts of London, and the interior of the principal houses may be described as spacious, handsome, and luxurious, with lofty passages, good stair-cases, large rooms, and costly and gorgeous furniture. There are many individual houses of much greater splendour in London than any to be seen in New York, especially in the man- sions of the English nobility ; but, on the whole, the number of large, commodious, and elegantly furnished STREETS AND PAVEMENTS. 49 private dwellings in New York is much greater in proportion to the whole population than those of London, and approaches nearer to the ratio of Edinburgh or Paris. The streets are very unequal in their proportions and condition. The great avenue of Broadway is striking from its continuous and unbroken length of three miles in a straight line : but its breadth, about eighty feet, is not sufficiently ample for the due pro- portion to its length. It is, moreover, wretchedly paved, both in the centre and on the sides. Large holes and deep pits are frequently seen in the former ; and in the latter, while before some houses the slabs of stone are large, uniform, and level, there is often an immediate transition from these to broken masses of loose stones, that require the greatest cau- tion to pass over, especially in wet or frosty weather. The lighting and cleansing of the streets is not nearly so good as in the large towns of England, the gas being scanty in quantity, the lamps too far removed from each other, and the body of scavengers both weak in numbers and deficient in organization. Some of the smaller streets are almost impassable in times of rain and snow ; and when not incommoded by a profusion of mud or water, they are prolific in their supply of dust. Many of the streets have trees planted along the edge of the foot pavement on each side, which, in summer, affords an agreeable shade, but in autumn it has the disagreeable effect of strewing the path with falling leaves, and in winter it makes the aspect more dreary. A custom prevails, in the principal streets for shops, of having wooden pillars planted along the VOL. I. E 50 STATE OF NEW YORK. outer edge of the pavement, with horizontal beams reaching from pillar to pillar, not unlike the stan- chions and cross pieces of a rope-walk. On these pillars, usually painted white, are pasted large printed placards, announcing the articles sold in the shop before which they stand ; and from the under side of the horizontal beam are suspended, by hooks or rings, show-boards with printed bills of every colour. This is especially the case opposite the bookstores. An- other purpose which these pillars and beams serve, is that of suspending awnings from the houses to the end of the pavement in summer, which must make the shade grateful to the foot-passenger ; but at all other times these wooden appendages, made as they are without regard to regularity or uniformity, are a great drawback to the otherwise good appearance of the streets. Broadway, which is greatly disfigured by these, is therefore much inferior to Regent Street in London, in the general air of cleanliness, neatness, light, spaciousness, good pavement, and fine shops, by which the latter is characterized ; and although the number of beautiful and gaily-dressed ladies, who make Broadway their morning promenade, unit- ing shopping, visiting, and walking at the same time, gives it a very animated appearance on a fine day between twelve and two o'clock ; yet the absence of handsome equipages and fine horses, and the fewness of well-dressed gentlemen who have leisure to devote to morning promenades of pleasure, occasions Broad- way to be inferior in the general effect of brilliance and elegance to the throng of Regent Street on a fine day in May, between three and four o'clock. The civil or municipal government of the town is MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. 51 vested in a mayor, alderman, and common-council, elected annually by universal suffrage and the ballot, at the time when the election for the Wislature of the State takes place, which is annually. Political or party considerations appear to weigh more with the electors than mere fitness for the duties of office ; and accordingly, Whig and Tory strive here, as they do in England, to fill the municipal body with per- sons of their own politics, as if it seemed to them impossible that a good civic or municipal functionary could be found, out of the ranks of their own political party. Their jurisdiction extends over the city and the surrounding waters. The offices are not largely paid, nor accompanied by much patronage ; and the candidates are rarely considered to be invested with much additional dignity by their civic functions. CHAP. IV. Population of New York — Strangers, residents, merchants, traders — Public conveyances, omnibuses, hackney coaches — Private equipages, carriages, servants — Male and female society, differ- ences between them — Private parties, balls and suppers — Comparison between English and American soirees — Expensive and profuse entertainments given — Condition of the humbler classes in America — Political parties. Conservatives, Reformers, Radicals, Americans, Whigs, Democrats, Loco-focos — Politics of the wealthy mercantile classes — Causes of the recent panic or em- barrassment — Extravagant habits engendered by the credit sys- tem — Effects of this on all classes of society — Loss of 20,000,000 by the great fire at New York — Newspapers of New York — Organs of parties — Penny newspapers, character and influence — Proceedings of the election for state legislature— Public meetings to support candidates for office — State of political parties — Deadly reciprocal hostility — Gross misrepresentations of the motives and ends of each — Difficulty of extracting truth from such conflicting statements — Attendance at the polls during the election — Deficiency of a previous registration of voters— Vote by ballot, not secret voting generally — Reasons why this is not necessary in America — Success of the Whigs in the New York election — Intoxication of joy in the triumphant party — Extrava- gant projects of political demonstration — National character and taste exhibited in this. The population of New York is estimated at present to be little short of 300,000. Of these perhaps there are 20,000 foreigners, including English and persons from Canada and the British possessions, and 30,000 strangers from other states of the Union, making therefore the fixed resident population 250,000, and the floating population about 50,000 more. The greatest number of these are engaged in commerce DEVOTION TO BUSINESS. 53 or trade, with a due admixture of professional men, as clergy, physicians, and lawyers. But among them all, there are fewer than perhaps in any other community in the world, who live without any osten- sible avocation. The richest capitalists still take a part in the business-proceedings of the day ; and men who have professedly retired, and have no counting- house or mercantile establishment, still retain so much of the relish for profitable occupation, that they mingle freely with the merchants, and are constantly found to be the buyers and sellers of stock, in funds, or shares in companies, canals, rail-roads, banks, &c. The result of all this is, to produce the busiest community that any man could desire to live in. In the streets, all is hurry and bustle ; the very carts, instead of being drawn by horses at a walking-pace, are often met at a gallop, and always in a brisk trot, with the carter standing in the front and driving by reins. Omnibuses are as numerous as in London, many of them drawn by four horses, though the car- riages are inferior to the English ones. Hackney- coaches are also abundant, and superior in every respect to those of London. These, with private carriages, which, however, are few and plain, gene- rally with a black coachman and footman, without display of livery or armorial bearings, added to gigs and other vehicles, make up a crowd of conveyances through the public streets, which, from their bad pavement, occasions as much rattling noise as in the most bustling parts of Piccadilly or Cheapside. The whole of the population seen in the streets seem to enjoy this bustle, and add to it by their own rapid pace, as if they were all going to some place of appoint- 54 STATE OF NEW YORK. ment, and were hurrying on, under the apprehension of being too late. Of the men thus seen in public, the greater part are well dressed, and the more fashionable among them more expensively than the same classes in Eng- land. Black cloth is the almost universal wear, and for the finest description of this, the most extravagant prices are paid. Full cloth-cloaks, with velvet or fur collars and linings, and rich tassels, are more nu- merous than with us ; and the whole outer aspect of the moving crowd indicates greater gaiety, and much more regard to personal appearance. The men are not generally as handsome, however, as they are well dressed. An almost universal paleness of counte- nance is seen, without the least tinge of ruddiness or colour; the marks of care and anxiety are also deeply furrowed on brows not yet bearing the impress of age ; and a general gloom or sadness of counte- nance is the rule — and hilarity of aspect, or cheerful- ness of appearance, the exception. The women far exceed the men in the costliness of their dresses, and in the gaiety of their walking appa- rel. There is, perhaps, no city in the world in which so many expensively-dressed ladies may be seen walking or shopping, as on a fine morning may be met with in Broadway. Rich and bright-coloured silks, satins, and other similarly costly materials, with ermine-lined cloaks, and the most expensive furs — white, pink, and blue, satin bonnets with ostrich feathers and flowers of the first quality — are worn by all who assume to be genteel, or rank in the class of ladies, and the whole force of the wardrobe seems to be exhausted in the walking costume. The women, FEMALE BEAUTY PREVALENT. 55 moreover, are much handsomer than the men. They are almost uniformly good-looking — the greater num- ber are what would be called m England " pretty women," which is something between good-looking and handsome, in the nice distinctions of beauty. This uniformity extends also to their figures, which are almost universally slender, and of good symmetry. Very few large or stout women are seen, and none that we should call masculine. A more than usual degree of feminine delicacy, enhanced by the general paleness of complexion and slightness of figure, is particularly characteristic of American females — and the extreme respect and deference shown to them every where by men, has a tendency to increase that delicacy, by making them more dependent on the attention and assistance of others, than English ladies of the same class usually are. It is in private society, how^ever, that one can best judge of both ; and the result of my observation, after having seen much of them in domestic circles, and in large and fashionable parties, was this — as wives and mothers, the American women appear to be exemplary in the extreme ; and while the interior of their dwellings exhibits the greatest attention to every thing that can give domestic comfort, an air of propriety and decorum reigns over all their establish- ments. In the private and social visits which we were permitted to pay to some of the families with whom we were on the most intimate footing, nothing could surpass the general good sense, amiability, in- telligence, and benevolence, which marked the con- versation. The women were always equal to the men, and often superior to them, in the extent of 56 STATE OF NEW YORK. their reading, and the shrewdness of their ohserva- tions ; and though there is every where, on the part of American females, as far as we had seen them, a shrinking away from any share in pohtical conversa- tion, (the notion studiously impressed on them by the men, and not unwillingly entertained by themselves, being, that it is unbecoming the timid and retiring delicacy of the female character to meddle with poli- tical matters,) yet, whenever they ventured to pass this barrier, and indirectly develope their views on public affairs, there seemed to me a clearness and a soundness in their remarks, which sufficiently evinced their thorough understanding of the subject. The leading features of the female character here, how- ever, in the best circles, are — domestic fidelity, social cheerfulness, unostentatious hospitality, and moral and religious benevolence. There are, perhaps, ten times the number of women in good society in New York, who interest themselves in the support and direction of moral objects and benevolent institutions, that could be found in any city of the same popula- tion in Europe ; and while the husbands are busily engaged in their mercantile or professional avoca- tions, a good portion of the wealth they acquire is directed by the benevolent influences of their wives into useful and charitable channels. In the gayer parties of fashionable soirees and balls, the ladies do not appear to so much advantage as in the sunny promenade, or in the private circle at home. Their fashionable parties are as injudiciously crowded with more persons than the rooms will ac- commodate, as in London — three or four hundred is not an unusual number of guests ; and though the rooms FASHIONABLE PARTIES. 57 are spacious, yet the crowd is so uncomfortably great, that the dancers have scarcely room to make a small circle in the middle of the dense mass ; while those who do not dance, must be content to remain wedged into one compact and solid phalanx, from which there is no moving, even for a change of posi- tion, till the dance is over ; and even then it will some- times take a quarter of an hour to elbow through the crowd from one room to another. I was asked, at one of these fashionable parties, by a lady, what there was in the scene before us which characterized it as Ame- rican, and wherein it differed from an English party of the same number and description. My answer was, that the chief points of difference observable to me were these — that there were a greater number of pretty female forms and faces than were ever to be seen in an equal number of English persons, and especially among the younger portion ; but there were no such examples of striking and surpassing beauty as one sometimes sees in one or two favoured indivi- duals of a large party at home. There were no " fine women" in the English sense of that term, compre- hending the requisites of tall, full, and commanding figures, bold and striking as well as beautiful features, rosy colour, expressive eyes, and the noble air and carriage of a lofty and dignified rank. On the other hand, the American ladies were dressed more in the extreme of fashion, both as to form and materials ; but there were no such splendid displays of jewels as one sees in an English party. The dancing was monoto- nous and indifferent — partly from languor, and partly, it is believed, from affectation of indifference, which 58 STATE OF NEW YORK. is considered to be more genteel than vulgar vivacity — a weakness, no doubt, copied from the English. The gentlemen, in these fashionable parties, ap- peared far less handsome in person and less polished in manners than the ladies ; and many whom we saw were evidently very ill at ease, and had their thoughts occupied by other subjects than those immediately before them. The refreshments were all substantial, as well as costly ; if there was a fault in them, it was that they were generally too abundant, and the pressure of the supper-rooms most frequently exceed- ed that of the apartments of the dance. Cards are rarely or never seen — the influence of the religious bodies on public opinion having banished these from general society ; and the propriety of language among all classes of the men is remarkable, as not an oath, or an imprecation, so often offending the ear in what are deemed the best circles in England, anywhere disturbs the general decorum of the scene. The same late hours as are followed in England, unfortu- nately prevail here ; and the most fashionable persons, though invited for eight, rarely come till ten or eleven, and parties of any extent in numbers are not often broken up till two or three in the morning. The condition of the more humble classes, as tradesmen, shopkeepers, clerks, and artisans, is cer- tainly more comfortable than that of the same classes in England; and although they are all at present more or less affected by the general depression of trade, occasioned by the late pecuniary crisis in the States, from which New York has suffered more ex- tensively, perhaps, than any other city in the Union, ABSENCE OF BEGGARS. 59 yet all seem to possess good dwellings, abundant clothing, and an ample supply of food. You do not see any where in the streets persons asking alms, or labouring under any visible want of the necessaries of life ; nor do the offensive and disgusting scenes so often witnessed in the great thoroughfares of London and the other large cities and towns of Britain, in the persons of drunken men and women, with filthy and ragged children, deprived of their due by the intemperance of their parents, ever meet the eye in the great public thoroughfares of the city, at least ; any more than the painful spectacle of young and miserable females earning a wretched and precarious subsistence by the wages of prostitution. That there does exist both poverty and intemperance, and that prostitution and crime accompany these, in the less frequented quarters of this city, there can be no doubt ; but they do not obtrude themselves on the public eye in every part of the principal streets, as they do in London ; and after residing in New York for four months, being out almost every day, and visit- ing nearly every part of the town in succession, we did not, in the whole, see so many of either of the classes named, during all that period, as one meets in a sin- gle morning's walk from Charing Cross to Cornhill. There are here, as there are in England, three political parties — conservatives, moderate reformers, and radicals ; and, following after the bad example of the mother country, each party seems determined to see no virtue and no merit in either of the others. The conservatives are here called Whigs ; the mo- derate reformers are called Democrats ; and the radi- cals are called Loco Focos, a recent name, bestowed Go STATE OF NEW YORK. on them from this incident : a public meeting of the Democrats was called at Tammany Hall, their usual place of assembling ; and the Radicals, wishing to ob- tain possession of the room, but not being strong enough in numbers to effect this by force, resorted to the following stratagem : — each member of the radi- cal body was furnished with one of the small instan- taneous light-matches, which are called loco focos — and each taking a box of these in his pocket, they contrived, by a preconcerted arrangement, to extin- guish all the lights of the room, during the proceed- ings of the evening. The whole of the audience being thus left in utter darkness, the greater number of them, who were not in the secret, went away ; when the radicals, taking advantage of their retirement, lighted all their matches, and with these, rekindled the lights in every part of the room at once, after which they voted into the chair a member of their own body, proposed and carried their own previously-prepared resolutions, and sent them out in the papers of the following day, as the resolutions of the great De- mocratic meeting, held by public advertisement at Tammany Hall. This trick, as might be expected, brought deserved discredit on the party practising it, and has fixed upon them a name which unites oppro- brium and ridicule in one. The conservatives are here called Whigs ; and they correspond in political character and sentiment with the Whigs of England ; being quite as loud in their professions of liberal principles, but quite as unwilling to carry them out into practice. One of their leading organs lately published a very remark- able essay, signed "Sidney," attributed to the pen of a POLITICAL PARTIES. 6l prominent leader of the Whig party, which, besides advocating conservative principles generally, went the length of saying, that "experience had shown that there was as much chance of obtaining a good chief magistrate by hereditary descent as by popular election, and that consequently the monar- chical principle was as favourable to liberty as the republican." This doctrine was so acceptable to the greater number of the Whigs, that most of their newspapers lauded it ; until it was attacked with such ability and force in the democratic prints, that the young men among the Whigs felt it necessary to hold a public meeting, to disavow their participation in any such doctrine, and to declare themselves to be uncompromising repubUcans. As far, however, as I was able to discover, by my intercourse with editors and political men of all parties, and by comparison of their journals, I found the American Whigs to be quite as conserva- tive as their namesakes at home. They are nearly all in favour of giving wealth a more open and direct influence than it now possesses, in the suffrage for elections, and would be glad to exclude from the elec- toral body all who have not some fixed amount of property. They are against any changes that would increase the power or influence of the people. They are in favour of monopolies in chartered or incorpo- rated banks, and against free trade, except in their own products and manufactures. They sympathize almost universally with the Tory party in England ; they think that even Lord Grey carried the princi- ples of reform too far, and would be glad to see the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel restored to G^ STATE OF NEW YORK. office. They think Lord John Russell perfectly right in refusing to accede to any proposition for the extension of the suffrage, for shortening the duration of parliament, or for granting the vote by ballot. They are against the separation of the church of England from the state, and against any alteration in the constitution of the House of Lords. They are averse to any discussion of the question of Slavery, and are generally hostile to its abolition. They con- demn the Canadians for their attempt to establish a free government for themselves ; and, in short, they think, and feel, and act, with reference to the other classes of the community here, just as the Tories and high-conservative Whigs do in England. The numerical force of this party is very consi- derable in New York, and it is still more remarkable for the wealth and influence of its members than even for their numbers. Nearly all the rich capi- talists and merchants belong to this party ; the more w^ealthy tradesmen also adhere to it : while the clergy of the Episcopal church, the ministers of other Christian sects, the lawyers, and the medical profes- sion, — in short, all who desire to rank with the aris- tocratical or genteel portion of society, either really entertain, or find it convenient to profess, whig or conservative principles, and prefer the latter name to the former. What has contributed very much to strengthen this party among the merchants of this city, is the financial measures pursued by General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, the last two presidents, in refusing to renew the charter of the United States Bank, and insisting on the payment of all sums due to the government, whether for the sale of PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENTS. 63 lands, duties on goods, or other sources of revenue, in a metallic currency. That these measures had the effect of hastening the commercial crisis which lately affected this country from one end to the other, there can be no doubt ; but the remote and real cause of this crisis was, first, the habit which all classes seem within the last few years to have contracted, of speculating beyond their means, of living beyond their income, of spending money before it was acquired, and of keeping up the appearance of men who had realized large fortunes, while they were only in the act of accumulating them. Extravagant expenditure in houses, in fur- niture, in entertainments, in equipages, in dress, in servants, in short, in every branch of disbursement, was characteristic of all the trading classes ; and so long as the credit system allowed them to import largely from England, and pay in notes or bills at long dates, the evil day could be deferred by one expedient succeeding another. In the midst of this came the great fire at New York in 1835, which destroyed property to the amount of 20,000,000 of dollars, and made nearly all the insurance offices in the city insolvent. Then came the drain of another 20,000,000, or perhaps 30,000,000, to rebuild the houses destroyed, and replace the goods consumed, making 20,000,000 lost, and 30,000,000 expended, or 50,000,000 taken from the fixed and floating- capital of this single city. Those who had specu- lated largely in the purchase of lands, tried to with- draw their capital from the investment ; but where all were sellers, and none buyers, prices were ruin- ously low : others who had large stocks of goods on 64 STATE OF NEW YORK. hand from the excessive importations of the preced- ing year, tried to raise money by forced sales, but there were no buyers ; and in the midst of all this, as the debts due to England were so much larger than could be paid in the produce of the country, for which the markets at home were declining, the re- mittance of specie became the only mode of sustain- ing the credit of the mercantile body, and this could be obtained only by immense sacrifices of property. My own conviction is, from all I have seen and heard, that if the President of the United States had never taken the steps he did, in refusing to renew the charter of the United States' Bank, removing the government deposits, and demanding payment of the revenue in metallic currency, this commercial crisis would nevertheless have still come, though not per- haps so soon ; because its real causes were the im- mense sacrifice of property by the fire ; the drain of capital necessary to replace what was destroyed ; the wild and almost mad speculations indulged in by the people, merchants becoming purchasers- of land in provinces and places they had never seen, and giving almost any price to-day, in the hope that they might sell it for a better price to-morrow ; never intending to occupy it, but to pass it on from hand to hand till it found a purchaser whose payment was so extrava- gant that he could get no one to take it from him. In this public delirium, farmers abandoned the tillage of their soil, and became speculators and traders also ; so that cultivation being neglected, the coun- try, the best adapted in the world to supply all other nations with its surplus grain, became so unpro- ductive of this first necessary of life, as to be obliged NEWSPAPERS. 65 to import grain from the Baltic ; several cargoes of which arrived in this port during the last and the preceding year. The government-measures, no doubt, hastened the crisis onward, though it did not create it ; and the natural unwillingness of all par- ties to reproach themselves for their own folly and extravagance, which were the real causes of the evil, after all, made them the more ready to charge all these evils on the government, so that General Jack- son and Mr. Van Buren have been literally made the scape-goats, by which the merchants, traders, bankers, and speculators of all kinds, endeavoured to get rid of the burden of their own sins, by pla- cing them on the heads of the two presidents named. As might be expected, the party of the rich have the greatest number of newspapers arranged on their side ; for it is by the rich that the newspapers are everywhere chiefly supported. The mere sale of a paper here, as in England, is wholly unproductive of profit ; advertisements are the only source of gain : the papers most read by the rich, will therefore be the favoured channel for advertisements, and here, the richest merchants as well as the smallest traders advertise their goods. The gains thus acquired by a newspaper enabling it to be more profuse in its expenditure, it can command the earliest news, the most correct reports of public proceedings, and in- deed have all its departments conducted with more talent, because it has more funds at its disposal to pay for the unavoidable cost of all these aids. There are thus no less than ten large daily papers, five morning and five evening, devoted to the party of the Whigs, with slight shades of characteristic dif- VOL. I. F 66 STATE OF NEW YORK. ferences between them ; while there are only two large daily papers devoted to the party of the Democrats, or that of the present administration ; and though each of the Whig papers, taken chiefly by the rich, not only supports itself, but yields a handsome annual surplus income, the papers of the other party are thought not to pay their expenses, but to require every now and then pecuniary aid for their support. The Evening Post, which is the leading paper of the Democrats, is at present under the editorship of one of the most celebrated poets of the country, William Cullen Bryant, who may fairly rank with our Campbell, the author of the Pleasures of Hope ; and, like other great poets, Milton, Byron, Camp- bell, and Moore, he is an extreme Liberal in his politics. In talent, wit, taste, and, above all, in gentlemanly fairness of argument, this paper appeared to me to possess great superiority over most of its op- ponents, though there are several of the Whig journals conducted with great ability also ; but the vitupe- rative style with which most of the public writers denounce every one who thinks or feels differently from themselves, shows how easy it is to combine loud professions of liberal principles with the bitter- est intolerance and most uncharitable bigotry. Besides the larger newspapers, which are sold at the price of about threepence English, there are several daily papers published at a cent, or a half- penny each. These are very small in size, and ineffi- cient in management, their profits not admitting of an adequate expenditure for great talent, though one of them, the Sun, is said to circulate 30,000 copies daily. Their cheap price occasions them to be taken chiefly by the humbler classes 5 and therefore. STATE ELECTION. 67 with only one exception, these cheap papers are democratic, and two or three of them what are called loco-foco. They have not talent enough em- ployed on them, however, to give them much in- fluence in political circles ; and their chief attraction seems to lie, first, in the cheapness of their price, and then in their containing those police reports of crimes and quarrels, which, unhappily, interest so large a portion of mankind, and for which the con- ductors of newspapers, as unhappily, find it to their interest or profit to cater. The only very clever paper of this class that I saw, was one that is now extinct. It was called " The Plain Dealer," and conducted by Mr. Leggat, one of the most powerful political writers in the country. It was an exact copy of the London Examiner, in shape, size, typography, and arrangement, and was written in the democratic tone and brilliant and witty style of the model it had chosen, in its best days. But it was too clever and too refined for the multitude; it wanted that charm for vulgar tastes which the annals of crime and vice can alone supply ; and its very purity and excellence were, therefore, the causes of its failure. The rich, who might have relished its talent and wit, if it had been employed in the advocacy of their interests, would not patronize it because it was democratic ; and the other classes, though ap- proving of its politics, found it dull, without their accustomed stimulus ; and thus the paper fell, for want of adequate support. I had an excellent opportunity of seeing the work- ing of the political machine, and the conflict of op- posing parties, in a general election for the State F 2 68 STATE OF NEW YORK. Legislature, which occurred, soon after my arrival in New York, in the month of November. Heretofore, the composition of the legislature for the State of New York, including the two houses, the Assembly and the Senate, as well as the Governor, was, like that of the Congress or legislature of the general govern- ment, democratic, or favourable to the existence of Mr. Van Buren's administration. The changes in public opinion, wrought by the commercial disasters of which I have previously spoken, had occasioned such a feeling of hostility to the present cabinet — as the supposed cause of those financial difficulties, from which all classes were more or less suffering — that the Whigs determined to avail themselves of this change, to effect a complete renovation of their two houses of State legislature, by making their own party predominant. Accordingly, the note of pre- paration was sounded early, by all their organs of the press ; and while committees were forming in town and country, and meetings held every night in the week, by old and young, to organize and arrange their plans of operation, pass strong resolutions, print them in the newspapers, and distribute them freely through every part of the city ; the editors themselves were all busily engaged in aiding these operations by their daily appeals. A stranger ar- riving in the country, and not knowing any thing of the state of parties beforehand, or of the mode of warfare practised on such occasions, would have ima- gined that the fate of the whole Union depended on the issue of this single election ; that if it were carried in favour of the Whigs, the nation would in- stantly be restored to the highest degree of commer- ELECTION ORATORY. 69 cial prosperity ; but that, if carried against them, the result would be universal bankruptcy, total annihila- tion of all the elements of prosperity, the dissolution of the Union, the insurrection of the slave population, and the destruction of all that was worth preserving in the country. There was no term of opprobrium too severe for them to apply to their opponents, the democratic republicans. They called them atheists, infidels, agrarians, incendiaries, men who were without religion and without honesty, who desired to pull down all that was venerable in the institutions of the country, to seize the property of the rich and divide it among the poor, to demolish the churches, to destroy the courts of justice, to let loose all the criminals from the jails, to abolish all government, and to produce only a chaos of anarchy and confusion. Some few who heard all this, seemed really to believe it ; but the greater number knew it to be merely elec- tioneering language, and disregarded it accordingly ; though they had no objection whatever to its use, provided it would attain the end they had in view. To me it was at once both ludicrous and disgusting; ludicrous, because of the gravity with which it was reiterated, day after day, in the face, not only of re- peated contradictions and disavowals of any such objects or such doctrines on the other side ; but in spite of challenges, again and again repeated, to pro- duce any well-authenticated speech or writing of any of the democratic party, in which such doctrines were avowed, or from which they could even be inferred ; but which challenges were no more heeded than if they had never been offered. It was ludicrous to me also, because it so constantly reminded me of the 70 STATE OF NEW YORK. equally groundless imputations heaped on the libe- ral party in India, by the advocates of the govern- ment in that country, when the press first began to call public attention to public abuses there; and of the misrepresentations continually made in England by the journals of each party, of the objects and intentions of the other ; the radicals denouncing the tories as wanting nothing but the restoration of absolute tyranny and arbitrary power ; the tories denouncing the radicals as wishing for nothing but the destruc- tion of all property, government, and religion ; and the whigs denouncing both, and praising themselves as the only body, that can either save the state, or accomplish any rational improvement in public affairs. The object of these meetings and appeals was to select and recommend a list of candidates for senators, representatives, sheriff, county-clerk, and coroner ; the election for all these taking place at the same time — though the state legislature, for which the senators and representatives were required, holds its sittings at Albany, the state metropolis, distant 150 miles up the river Hudson, while the municipal body and its officers hold their sittings in New York. The committees of the two opposing parties, having both completed their lists, designating whom they prefer and wish to see elected as senators, whom as representatives, and so on — such lists are published in their respective papers, and called the Whig ticket and the Democratic ticket ; and every effort is made, by placarding the walls with large bills, by the dis- tribution of small ones, and by personal canvass car- ried on with unremitting activity on both sides, to ARRANGEIMENTS OF POLLING PLACES. 7I prevail on all whom they can influence, or persuade, to adopt their views, and vote for " the whole ticket " of the party they espouse, as it is printed. The voting takes place by wards, there being fifteen or ^xteen wards in this city, and a voting place being apportioned to each ward, the committee of each party is thus able to canvass every male inhabitant of their own ward; and as there is no difficulty in obtaining from the voters a previous declaration as to the ticket for which they mean to vote, the numbers of each party can be almost as accurately ascertained before as after the election, though there is no want of zeal on each side to exaggerate the number of their respec- tive adherents, for the sake of deceiving or influen- cing others to favour the strongest party. A few days previous to the election, assessors are chosen to superintend the voting ; and one from each party attends at the polling places, in addition to the official superintendant appointed by the municipal authorities. The voting places are open rooms, ge- nerally on the ground-floor, furnished only with a counter and a desk, inside which the superintendant and a registering clerk take their places. On the counter is a box sealed up, with an open slit on the top, to drop in the printed ticket. The outer door is usually surrounded with a few partisans of both sides, who, on the approach of a voter, present him with their respective tickets, or lists of the candidates for which they wish him to vote. The voter enters the room, and being always an inhabitant of the ward in which he votes, both his person and his opinions are well known, if he has been long a resident, and is in what is called a respectable station of society. He is greeted of course by those of his own party, and, 7^ STATE OF NEW YORK, taking one of their printed papers, he drops it into the box. In nine cases out of ten there is no secrecy practised or desired, but the vote is as well known as if it were proclaimed aloud. In the case of an unknown or doubtful person coming to the poll, various questions are asked him by each party, as to his name, residence, citizenship, &c., but they have no means whatever of telling whether he answers truly or otherwise to their inquiries. The only qualifi- cation for voting being that of mature age (twenty-one) male sex, citizenship, and actual residence in the ward — there being no property, or rental, or rate-and- tax qualification, as in England — there are no diffi- culties to be got over. But one very manifest defect in the system is this, that there is no previous regis- tration of voters, nor any preliminary inquiry, so as to ascertain even the points of name, citizenship, and residence ; in consequence of which, if a person presents himself under any name, the superintend- ants have no means of ascertaining whether he is really the person he pretends to be, or not ; if he calls himself a citizen, no proof of citizenship is de- manded beyond his swearing to the fact ; and if he declares himself a resident in the ward, no corrobo- ration of this is asked from any other party. In consequence of this defect, it is said that in the densely - peopled wards, inhabited by the labouring classes, and especially the emigrants, there are repeated instances of the same man voting in several wards under different names ; many Irish labourers, who have not been six months in the country, and who have no legal claim whatever to citizenship, voting as Americans ; and as almost all these are additions to the democratic party, they VOTE BY BALLOT. 7^ assist to alter the real balance of power between the contending forces. In all the instances that I witnessed of the busi- ness of polling — and I visited many of the wards for that purpose — the whole affair was conducted with much more order and decorum than any contested election that I had ever seen in England. There were no party badges, in colours or ribbons, to excite party animosity. There was no drunkenness, riot, or abuse of any kind. Every man came freely to the poll, and went away as freely from it ; and though in the greatest number of cases it was well known which way he would vote when he entered, and which way he had voted when he left, none offered him the slightest molestation in word or deed, or even in gesture. In some of the wards, where the emigrants abound, it is said that this order and deco- rum does not always prevail ; but that between Irish excitability and American rum and whiskey, there are sometimes torn garments, and hard words ex- changed ; but even here, violent outrage is seldom committed. It is possible, therefore, that univer- sal suffrage, annual elections, and vote by ballot, may be much less productive of riot, drunkenness, and disorder, than limited suffrage, unfrequent elec- tions, and open voting; for in England, Scotland, and Ireland, where these prevail, the scenes 6f dissi- pation and outrage are frequent ; and here, where these opposites are practised, they are rare. As respects the vote by ballot, the observation is constantly made in England, that in America it is a failure, since it does not secure its avowed desidera- tum — secret voting. This is perfectly true, but for 74 STATE OF NEW YORK. very different reasons from those usually assigned. There is no imperfection in the machinery of the ballot here. Any man who chooses to conceal from committees or canvassers how he means to vote, may do so with perfect safety ; for, waiting till the day of election, he may go to the polling place, and there deposit, in print or in writing, the list of the candidates for whom he gives his vote, folded up, so that no man can see it, and no one would venture to molest him. It is perfectly easy, therefore, to secure the utmost secrecy in voting by the present system of the ballot as practised in America. But there is no adequate motive to make a man desire secrecy, while there are many powerful ones to make him court publicity. There are here no dependent farmers and forty-shilling freeholders, who must vote as their great agricultural landlords or patrons wish, or lose their friendship and protection. There are no shopkeepers and traders, innkeepers and mer- chants, so dependent on particular interests, or the profits of particular customers, as to make them ap- prehensive of their losing either the one or the other by their manner of voting. There are no large bodies of workmen so dependent on their employers, as to make it a matter of interest to shape their votes according to their masters' wishes ; and as no one apprehends injury, or expects benefit from voting, one way or the other, the full freedom of choice, or actual preference, is indulged by them, and governs their determination. There are, therefore, no motives to vote otherwise than the inclination dictates ; and the same absence of hope of benefit, or fear of evil, takes away all grounds for desiring or affecting secrecy. VOTE BY BALLOT. 7«^ On the other hand, there are many powerful motives to induce a man to declare his vote ; it gives him a claim to the sympathy and approbation of whichever party he votes for, and admits him to be an open participator of all their proceedings and their plea- sures ; it relieves the mind from the painfulness of an imposed restraint, and it indulges the feeling of political independence. The ballot is, therefore, a nonentity in America, and does not secure secret voting, because no one desires or cares about secur- ing secrecy. In England, the same machinery would enable every man who had reason to apprehend in- jury from the independent exercise of his franchise, to give his vote in secret if he chose ; and until the powerful influences, by which the independence of voting is crushed in England, shall be neutralized or removed by other counteracting causes, the ballot would be the greatest security for the dependent voter that could be introduced ; and none but those who wish to preserve these evil influences in full vigour, and who wish by their exercise to coerce the votes of their dependents, could furnish any intelligi- ble reason against the immediate adoption of this security. In the elections in question, which were carried on in the city of New York, and which lasted for four consecutive days, the Whigs were, as they had anticipated, signally successful. The greater impor- tance was attached to this success, first, because they had not been in the majority before for many years, so that the pleasure was altogether new to them; secondly, Mr. Van Buren, the President, was a native of this state, was long one of its representatives, and 76 STATE OF NEW YORK. relied more, it is said, upon its support for the con- tinuance of his administration than on any other three or four states in the Union ; and, thirdly, that the state of New York, from its great extent (this single state alone having an area or surface nearly equal to that of England,) its vast wealth, its exten- sive commerce, and its increasing population, is called the " empire-state,'' and is supposed to exercise a very powerful influence in its example over all the other sections of the country. The Whigs were, therefore, so intoxicated with their success, that they were perfectly frantic with joy ; and exhibited what might literally be called a paroxysm of delight in every conceivable form. The newspapers came out, day after day, with the most bombastically-ludicrous arti- cles on this subject. One I remember had in large type, at the head of its leading article, these words — " A thousand guns for the city, and ten thousand for the state ;" another insisted that the unusual splen- dour of an aurora borealis which appeared about that time, was " a display of the approbation of the hea- vens on the triumph of the Whigs." " The nation," said a third, ** was rescued from the gulf of perdi- tion," into which nothing could have prevented its hurrying headlong, but the overthrow of their enemies by the Whigs at the election. To this followed pub- lic meetings, to determine in what manner the great and glorious political victory should be celebrated. Some were for ten thousand cannon being discharged from point to point within hearing, all over the state ; others were for the illumination of every city, town, and village within its boundary. Some were for dinners, others for balls, some for processions, and ELECTION TRimiPHS. 77 some for all these united. It appears that in the western states the intoxication of joy, produced by the Whig victory, was not less extravagant than on the sea-board in the east ; and the mode of demonstration there chosen was peculiarly characteristic, if we may judge from the following paragraph, which appeared in the New York Sun, of Dec. 30, 1837: — "the biggest fire yet. "The Springfield (Illinois) journal gives notice that on the eighth day of January next — wind, weather, and snow permitting — the Grand Prairie will be set on fire, in commemoration of the great Whig victory in New York. The prairie is about 300 miles long, with an average breadth of from ten to twenty miles. The fires to be lighted at eight o'clock in the evening." But the effervescence sobered down gradually as the time for action approached, and as the costs of all these operations came to be calculated ; and at last it terminated in a day of festive entertainment, opened by the discharge of cannon from the batteries, con- tinued by minute-guns, and concluded by a great Whig dinner at Niblo's Gardens, where deputies from other towns, triumphing in the success of the same principles, were hospitably received and cordially entertained. In a week or two after this, the whole seemed to have passed away like an unremembered dream : so much are the people of this city the crea- tures of impulse — easily excited, and as easily calmed ; and passing with amazing rapidity from the most intense degree of earnest interest in any given sub- ject, to its opposite state of entire indifference to the same. CHAP. V. Deep-rooted prejudices on the subject of Slavery — Murder of Mr. Lovejoy, the aboHtionist, at Alton — Conduct of the New York press and people on this subject — Imperfect views of the value of a free press — Sentiments of leading men in Congress on this act — Resolutions of Legislatures refused reception by the Senate — Re- jection of all petitions on the subject by the House of Represen- tatives — Deservedly bitter reproach of Thomas Moore the poet — Contrast between democracy and slavery in the United States — Threats of senators to hang up abolitionists by. law — State of sla- very and the slave trade at Washington — Resolutions of Episcopal- Methodist clergy in Georgia — Meeting of democrats in favour of the Canadian rebels — Mr. O'Connell denounced at the meeting, as an abolitionist — Letter complaining of coloured people sitting with white men — Prejudice of colour not extended to Indian tribes — Mr. CatUn's Lectures on the American Indians. Amidst the political anomalies which every day struck me with surprise, there was none so remark- able as the deep-rooted, and apparently almost un- conquerable prejudice, so prevalent among persons of all political parties on the subject of slavery. With the conservatives, this question of slavery is regarded as one of those domestic institutions, which it is not desirable to disturb, and the greater number of them are averse even to its discussion in any manner whatever. With the democrats it is also regarded as a domestic institution, over which each state has sole jurisdiction ; and by them it is considered an infringement of state-rights for any one state to meddle with the question of slavery in any other. So imperfect are their notions of freedom, as the " na- SLAVERY ADVOCATED. 79 tural and inalienable right of every man," according to the terms of their own declaration of independence, that they scarcely consider it to be a blot on their republican escutcheon, that the several states of the Union in which slavery still exists, should hold so many thousands of their fellow-men in unjust and unwilling bondage. But what is perhaps most sur- prising of all is, that so large a number of the clergy, and especially Ihose of the Episcopal church, includ- ing those who call themselves Evangelical, should be not merely palliators of this state of slavery, but ad- vocates for its continuance, and deprecators of all public discussion or agitation on the subject ; so that if the Republicans understand civil and political liberty but imperfectly, the Christian professors seem to understand the liberty of religion and justice still less. Notwithstanding this, however, there is a large, though not an influential body of abolitionists in New York, who have a weekly newspaper, called " The Emancipator," devoted to the advocacy of their opinions ; another entitled " Human Rights," maintaining the same views ; and another weekly paper, called " The Coloured American," edited, printed, and published wholly by free negroes, and most respectably written and conducted. But these are in great, though undeserved, odium with the richer portions of the mercantile community, who are afraid of oflfending their southern customers by recognizing the abolitionists ; and as the newspapers chiefly subsist by the profits derived from commercial patronage, they are almost all against the abolition- ists also, so that they have to encounter many diffi- culties in propagating their views. 80 STATE OF NEW YORK. A tragical occurrence took place during my stay- in New York, which brought this question very pro- minently before the public. It was this : a minister of the gospel, the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, was engaged as the editor of a religious newspaper at the town of St. Louis, and in the slave-state of Missouri. In this state, the mob had burnt a coloured man alive, for some offence for which he was never brought to trial. Mr. Lovejoy condemned this act, and re- proved the judge, whose name was Lawless, for ex- cusing the mob, as he had done, for their unjustifiable conduct. In consequence of this, the mob themselves retaliated on Mr. Lovejoy, by attacking his house, breaking up his press, and throwing it and the types into the river, for which he could get no redress. He then removed to the town of Alton, on the oppo- site side of the Mississippi river, and in the fi'ee state of IlUnois. Even here, however, his advocacy of abolition occasioned the mob to destroy his press a second time ; another was procured to replace that, and they broke this in pieces also. A third press was purchased to replace this, but when it arrived at Alton, and before it was ever used, the mob attacked the store in which it was, with a view to destroy it, and whatever else the store contained. They were mcouraged to this outrage by the more wealthy inhabitants of the place, who fancied they had an interest in slavery being undisturbed ; but on this occasion, Mr. Lovejoy and hisJPriends determined to defend the store, and went with fire-arms for this purpose. While the mob were beating in the win- dows with stones, and firing from the outside into the store, they who were in the inside fired a gun also, DEATH OF MR. LOVEJOY. 81 by which one of the mob was killed. At this, the populace at first dispersed, but whisky being profusely supplied to them by their abettors, and guns placed in their hands, they returned in larger numbers to the store, determined to set it on fire, and burn alive all who were in it. Mr. Lovejoy and four of his com- panions went out to drive away those who were actu- ally setting fire to the roof of the building, and he was then shot through the body by one of the mob, and died in a few minutes afterwards. They sub- sequently wounded several others, took possession of the press, broke it to pieces, and threw its fragments into the river. On such a transaction as this, it might be sup- posed that there would be scarcely a difference of opinion, or that the whole press of the country, in the free states at least, would have condemned such an outrage, and contended for the right of freedom of discussion. But by far the greater 'majority of the Whig papers, and some even of the Democratic, in New York and elsewhere, condemned the perti- nacity and obstinacy, as they called it, of Mr. Love- joy, excused the conduct of the mob, and thought that any man venturing to publish sentiments which he knew to be obnoxious to the majority, deserved to be put down by force. The New York American, a Whig paper, and the Evening Post, a Democratic paper, were the principal exceptions to this line of conduct, and each spoke out boldly in condemnation of the lawless conduct of the mob, and in defence of the right of free discussion. It is the more remarkable, that in the constitution of the very state in which this outrage was perpe- VOL. I. G 82 STATE OF NEW YORK. trated, Illinois, there is a clause declaring ** that it shall be unlawful to place any restraint on the entire freedom of publication on all subjects, which is claimed as the right of every citizen of the state." In private society, however, the advocacy of the violent conduct of the mob was far more general than with the press. In the latter, some caution was necessary, to keep up the appearance of a decent attachment to liberty, while excusing this gross violation of it at Alton ; but in private circles, where no such neces- sity for caution existed, no restraints were felt, and it was quite common to hear persons priding them- selves on their republican principles, declare, that they thought Mr. Lovejoy's treatment such as he fully deserved ; adding to it a wish that all abo- litionists, who attempted to discuss the question in any shape or form, might be treated in the same manner. It was in vain to tell them that if their principle — " that sentiments not approved of by the majority ought not to be propagated by the mino- rity" — were fully carried out, no truth could make progress, and no reform be effected ; that Christianity itself originated with a very small minority, and was centuries before it was generally received; that all missionaries are sent abroad to preach doctrines unacceptable to the majority of the nation to which they address themselves ; and that every great poli- tical, moral, or religious reform, began with the minority. To all this they merely answered, that " the question of slavery was a very different affair ; and that while the whites of the south thought their interests endangered by its mere dis- cussion, the whites of the north had no rioht to CONGRESS OPPOSED TO EMANCIPATION. 83 discuss it at all." This very doctrine, however, is in direct violation of their own rule, as the- whites of the south are greatly in the minority, compared with the whites of the north ; the proportion of their num- hers being perhaps less than one-fourth of the whole. But the prejudice of native-born Americans on this subject is so deep-rooted and so inveterate, that it is altoirether invincible to reason, aud cannot be moved by any power of argument or demonstration. In the Senate, as well as in the House of Repre- sentatives, the legislators seem to be as full of this pT'ejudice as any of their constituents. Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, presented some resolutions of the legislature of Vermont, recommending the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, in which the city of Washington is placed, and over which district the general Congress has exactly the same jurisdiction and power as the State legislatures have over their respective territories. The reception of these reso- lutions, as well as of the numerous petitions pre- sented in favour of the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, were equally rejected, in both houses — by some, on the ground " that Congress had no constitutional right or power to deal with the question at all ;" and by others, on the ground **that the mere agitation of the question in Congress was full of danger to the Union." The representatives of the southern states, in which slavery principally exists, contended warmly for both these propositions ; and yet, in the face of this, Mr. Calhoun, the senator from South Carolina, himself introduced a long series of resolutions, which embraced the whole subject of slavery, defending it as an institution G 2 84 STATE OF NEW YORK. favourable to the welfare of the country and the people it embraced, denying the power of Congress to interfere with it in any manner whatever, and de- nouncing the abolitionists as enemies of the Union, and foes to the best interests of the whole country, from their mischievous attempts to obtain emancipa- tion for the slaves. These resolutions, of course, gave rise to the very discussion which Mr. Calhoun and his supporters had so much deprecated when brought on by others ; and for several weeks in succession, the Senate was chiefly occupied with debat- ing them. In the House of Representatives they disposed of the question much more speedily, by resolving, by a large majority, that the petitions of the people in favour of the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia should not be received, and they were therefore all laid on the table, without being either read, discussed, or printed ; so that the right of petition was wholly set aside, because it was thought to interfere with the more sacred right of the slaveholder over the slave. Since the days, therefore, when Thomas Moore wrote his celebrated Epistle from Washing- ton, the reproach which he uttered has not been wiped away. " Who can with patience for a moment see The medley mass of pride and misery, Of whips and charters, manacles and rights, Of slaving blacks and democratic whites, And all the piebald polity that reigns In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains ? To think that man, thou just and gentle God, Shoidd stand before thee with a tyrant's rod, O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee, Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty !" CHARACTE-R OF PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 85 A short extract from one of the papers of the day, describing a portion of the proceedings of the Senate, the most dignified and important of the two houses of the legislature, on Thursday the 4th of January, 1888, as given in an administration paper, the New York Evening Post, will be sufficient to show the tone and spirit of the leading men of that body. Mr. Preston, in his defence of Mr. Calhoun's reso- lutions, had said that " all that the south wanted was to be let alone ; and therefore they cried ' hands off ' to all their northern brethren ; " upon which, the following observations were made by the parties named, as taken from the report of the speeches in the government-paper of the day. " Mr. Young", of Illinois, said he was surprised to hear senators from the south say ' hands off.' He thought that the strength of the abolitionists was so great, so extensive, and so much upon the increase, that the south blinded itself by refusing to listen to the evidence before her. In his opinion, the south could not protect itself, without the protection of the general government. " ]Mi\ Preston repHed. He thanked the gentleman for his sym- pathy for the south. He wanted none of it — if he thought the south was not able to take care of itself. The south was abundantly able to protect itself. She wanted no interference, — nothing but constitutional protection. She still cried ' hands off, hands off^ hands off,' to all — to the states, to the general government, beyond her defined constitutional powers of protection. She complained of interference, and wanted none of it. The laws upon this subject were many and highly penal, and Mr. Preston would say, that in spite of the United States' laws, if any man interfered with slavery in South Carolina, South Carolina would hang him, upon the sti'ength of her laws. " The debate was continued up to nearly four o'clock. *' Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, made a strong speech in opposition to the resolutions, and in favour of the amendment of Mr. Smith. 86 STATE OF NEW YORK. He was opposed to the wliole discussion and the groundwork of the whole discussion, because it was a subject Congress had no right to handle. " Mr. Buchanan followed, and said that he should move an adjournment. The Senate was in bad temper, and he hoped sena- tors would be better-natured to-morrow. " The Senate then adjourned." In the course of the present session of Congress, while this most important topic was debated, on the presentation of petitions from the legislature of Vermont, and from many of the large cities of the north, praying the Congress to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia, as before described, the following appeared in the New York Transcript, of December 20, 1887j 3^s taken from a leading evening paper, the Commercial Advertiser. It was repeated after- wards, in most of the other papers of the city, without being either contradicted or questioned, as far as I could learn, and I made inquiries on this subject in every accessible quarter. No one ven- tured even to doubt the facts, very few thought them at all discreditable, and almost all the Whig party were against any effort to amend the evil it described. The following is the paragraph : — DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. From a correspondent of the Commercial Advertiser, we derive the following important information. " It is notorious that the slave-trade is largely pursued in the district of Columbia, to the disgust and molestation of a great majority of its inhabitants, of every class and colour. " A woman, a wife, a mother, esteemed or supposed to be free, was, in form of law, claimed as a slave, confined as such, and sold for exportation. EPISCOPALIAN METHODISTS, ANTI-ABOLITIONISTS. 87 " Torn from her husband — in prison with four young children about her — frantic with wretchedness and grief — she cast her eyes on her children, and, in a moment of frenzy, resolved that they, at least, should not grow up to be slaves, and proceeded to kill them with her own hand. Two she succeeded in killing, but the cries and struggles of the others brought in succour, and they were rescued from impending death. " The unhappy mother was indicted for murder, tried by a jury of the district, and acquitted on the ground of insanity. It was insanity — but the insanity of overpowering passion. " She had been sold, warranted sound, mind and body ; but, on the happening of these facts, she was returned by the buyer to the seller, for the legal cause of a breach of a warranty, by reason of the latent vice of unsoundness of mind, to be resold without warranty ; and she has been purchased by a benevolent individual, that she, and her husband, and her children, may work out her emancipation." Perhaps the most striking contrast that could be presented to this, the bare perusal of which must make every English heart thrill with horror, is the cool and deliberate resolutions of a body of ministers of the gospel in Georgia, which appeared soon after, in the New York Evening Post, of January 5, 1888. It is as follows : — GEORGIA CONFERENCE. The following resolutions have been adopted by the Georgia Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, at its late meeting held in Athens : — " Resolved, that it is the sense of the Georgia Annual Conference, tliat slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil. " Resolved, that we view slavery as a civil and domestic institu- tion, and one with which, as ministers of Christ, we have nothing to do, further than to ameliorate the condition of the slave, by endeavouring to impart to him and his master the benign influ- ences of the religion of Clmst, and . aiding both on their way to heaven." 88 STATE OF NEW YORK. One other illustration may be given of this moral blindness, which is not peculiar to the Whigs, or the ministers of the gospel who adopted the above reso- lutions, but which infects all classes of society, and all political and religious parties ; it is this : — On the breaking out of the rebellion in Canada, a public meeting was held by the democrats of New York in a large open space, called Vauxhall Gardens, " to express sympathy with the Canadian revolutionists, and to consider of the best means of aiding them in their resistance to the tyranny of their oppressors." This meeting took place at the close of December, 1837 > it was attended by an immense multitude, many thousands at least. The proceedings w^ere orderly, the speeches very animated ; and the general current of the whole w^as a fierce denunciation of tyranny and oppression, a declaration of the right of every man, and every body of men, to break their chains, and demand their freedom, whenever they saw fit ; and a general wish for the destruction of all oppressors, and the speedy emancipation from tyranny, of all mankind. These sentiments were repeated by almost every speaker, and received with the loudest marks of approbation from all present. At length, one of the Canadian revolution- ists, who had escaped to New York, and for w^hose capture the governor of Canada had offered, by public proclamation, a reward of 2500 dollars, a Dr. Callaghan, addressed the meeting, and was applauded to the very echo for his democratic sentiments. In the course of his speech, however, he instanced the number of liberal and distinguished public men in England, who had declared, in their places in the o'cONxNELL DENOUNCED AS AN ABOLITIONIST. SQ House of Commons, that they considered the Cana- dians to be most unjustly oppressed, and among the number of these he named Daniel O'Connell, upon which a scene of great uproar ensued, with cries of " No O'Connell ! No O'Connell ! he's an aboli- tionist ! " " And so," exclaimed Mr. Callaghan, " am I an abolitionist ; " upon which the uproar was increased, and mingled with cries of ** Turn him out ! turn him out !" Any comment on such a con- trast as this — where men, met awowedly to applaud the self-emancipation of those whose grievances were at least comparatively light, condemned in the same breath all attempts in favour of the emancipation of others, whose grievances were of the heaviest kind — must be wholly unnecessary ; and, but that this spirit is unfortunately as common among the Whigs and Conservatives of America as it is among the Demo- crats, it would make one repudiate the very name of democracy for ever. If this, however, were to be deemed a sufficient reason, whiggism and conser- vatism, and even religion itself, would have to be repudiated also, as this inconsistency affects the pro- fessors of each in an almost equal degree. 1 must still oiFer another example of this all-per- vading prejudice, though I thought I had done. During my stay at New York I delivered a course of lectures on Palestine at Chatham Street chapel, one of four or five " free churches," as they are called, in this city, where the pews are not private property, but where every one who presents himself at the door is at liberty to take up his seat wherever he pleases ; the churches and chapels so freed, being generally built by subscription, and sustained by letting the 90 STATE OF NEW YORK. buildings for public and religious meetings, and by collections made on such occasions at the door. The audience at this chapel in attendance on these lec- tures were very numerous, exceeding 2000 persons ; and among them were perhaps four or five negroes extremely well dressed and well behaved ; and from ten to twenty coloured persons, of different shades of brown complexion, according to the greater or less admixture of Anglo-American with their African blood. These individuals, most of whom were en- gaged in trade, behaved with the greatest humility and propriety, and in several instances where they saw white persons standing near them, they rose to offer them their seats, and removed to a remoter part of the building. In the course of the first week I received a number of anonymous letters on this subject, but none with real sigTiatures ; they were all well written, and were no doubt the productions of persons moving in the sphere of gentlemen ; but one of these will suffice as an example of the rest. It was addressed to me in the following terms : — « Sir, " New York, Jan. 16, 1838. " In company with several friends, I attended your first lectui'e, at Chatham Street chapel on Wednesday evening last ; and al- tliough, in common with the rest of the party, I came off highly delighted and edified by the subject of the evening, I woidd beg leave, in the spirit of courtesy, and with the most friendly feelings, to suggest to you an evil which requires the most immediate cor- rection. I allude to the practice of allowing coloured persons to mix with the audience, and occupy the ground-floor of the chapel. Tlieir desire to appear at such a place, I admit, is highly commend- able ; but a place apart from the audience, in some part of the gallery, should be assigned to them. The building being under PRESENCE OF COLOURED PEOPLE OFFENSIVE. 91 your control on the evening of your lecture, with you alone would seem to rest the corrective power; and without its immediate ap- plication, you may rest assured that your lectures will not only lose their present popularity, but also their entire usefulness and respectabihty. This amalgamation of * black spirits and white,' you may rest assured will never be tolerated by a refined and intel- ligent community ; but, on the contrary, is considered no less an outrage on decency and decorum, than an insult to the feelings of your audience." Of course I took no public notice whatever of these anonymous communications, though I had occa- sion to know, verbally, from several quarters, that very many persons had been deterred from attending my lectures here, (and those absentees were mostly persons professedly religious,) because the " coloured people" were thus allowed to sit in the same part of the chapel with the whites. What makes this affected horror of " amalgamation" the more revolt- ing is, that many of the very gentlemen who declare themselves to be so insulted and degraded by being placed so near the " coloured people" as to sit by them, have no scruple whatever to keep coloured women as mistresses, and have large families of chil- dren by them. Without this actual amalgamation, indeed, between the white races and the black, there would be none of the mulatto or brown-coloured peo- ple in existence. Yet in the northern states of America these " mixed races" are far more numerous than the pure African black ; and, therefore, the pretended horror of the slight amalgamation which sitting together in the same chapel involves, while the fruits of a much closer amalgamation meet you at every step, in the highways and by-ways of the 92 STATE OF NEW YORK. country, is the very acme of hypocrisy and pharisai- cal deceit. It is remarkable, that this prejudice, against dark complexions, does not extend to the aboriginal In- dians, who are, many of them, of a deep reddish bro^Mi, almost as dark as the darkest mulattoes, and considerably darker than many other shades of the " coloured people" beyond the first remove from the offspring of white fathers and negro mothers. On the contrary, to have a mixture of dark Indian blood is rather a matter of pride than reproach ; and so far from its being attempted to be concealed, it is occasionally the subject of public self-congratulation. A remarkable instance of this occurred during my stay in New York. The Rev. Dr. Hawkes,one of the most popular and distinguished of the Episcopa- lian clergy here, was invited to deliver a lecture " On the History and Character of Pocahontas," the celebrated daughter of the Indian chief, Powhat- tan, before the Historical Society of New York. The Stuyvesant Institute, in which this discourse was delivered, was crowded to excess ; the lecturer was peculiarly eloquent, and his address deservedly admired, for the beauty of its composition, and the finished style of its delivery ; and when, at the close of his discourse, he placed his hand upon his heart, and apologized for the pride which he must naturally feel in the recollection that some of the blood of Pocahontas flowed in his own veins, the sympathy of the audience manifested itself in marks of universal approbation. This was even still more loudly ex- pressed when he added, that though it had pleased the Almighty to clothe the creatures of his creation NO PREJUDICE AGAINST THE INDIAN HUE. QS with skins of different hues, yet the Scriptures had emphatically declared that " God had made of one flesh all nations of the earth ;" and that, therefore, despite these external varieties, it was our duty to regard all mankind as our brothers, being children of one great Father, by whom all were brought into being. But into this seemingly " universal family" the despised African race is not admitted, and could not at the time have been included, either by the speaker, or the great majority of his auditory at New York. Their toleration was for the red races, or reddish-blackish-brown coloured tribes, but not for the blacks of Africa, or the mixed progeny of the white and the negro amalgamations, because Dr. Hawkes is himself an openly avowed anti-abolitionist, and so were the greater number of those who formed his admiring and sympathizing audience. CHAP. VI. Mr. Catlin's Museum of Indian costumes, weapons, and paintings — Course of lectures on the Indian tribes — Names of Indians in Mr. Catlin's gallery of portraits — Hunting excursions among the Indians — Skilful management of the horse by them — Indian games of amusement — Dances — Horrid character of their war -dances — Scalp-dance of the Sioux tribe of Indians — Bloody scalps of their enemies suspended by women — Dog- dance of the same tribe — Heart and flesh eaten raw — Flesh of dogs served as food, at their greatest festivals. I HAD an opportunity of hearing much of the Indian tribes during our residence in this city, from Mr. Catlin, an American artist, who had travelled extensively in the '* Far West," as the territories beyond the Mississippi are here called ; and after a sojourn among the various tribes, from the eastern borders of the United States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, near the shores of the Pacific, had re- turned to New York, with a collection of more than a hundred portraits of the most remarkable men and women in each tribe, with paintings of their land- scape scenery, encampments, villages, hunting par- ties, war-dances, religious festivals, games, tortures, and almost every occupation in which they engage ; added to which, he had amassed a large collection of their dresses, weapons, and ornaments, which formed altogether the most complete museum of Indian curiosities that had ever, it was thought, been brought together into one spot. MR. CATLIN S LECTURES. 95 Besides many private interviews with Mr. Catlin, in which he was most agreeably commmiicative, we attended a course of his lectures, delivered in the Stuyvesant Institute, where the portraits and other paintings were exhibited, and where the dresses, weapons, and ornaments were also shown, accompa- nied by a short explanation of each. I select a few of the most striking names of the warriors and others, whose portraits were exhibited, each in his peculiar costume ; and to the accuracy of which, in person and dress, the testimonies were abundant. -kaik Mun-ne-pus-kee . Wa-mash-ee-sherk Shing-ga-war-sa . Muck-a-tah-mish-o-kah Kee-o-Kuk . . Wah-pee-kee-sult Nah-se-un-kuk . Jee-he-o-bo-shah Chesh-oo-hon-ga Ee-shah-ko-nee . Jah-wah-que-nah Kots-o-ko-no-ko . Kots-a-to-ah . . Ush-ee-kitz . . Ah-no-je-nage . Tah-zee-keh-da-cha Chah-tee-wa-ne -chee Mah-to-rah-rish-nee-eeh-ee Ee-hee-a-duck-chee-a . Bi-eets-e-cure . . . Ba-da-a-clion-du . . . Un-ka-ha-hon-shee-kou rah He who is not afraid. He who takes away. The handsome Bird. The black Hawk. The running Fox. The white Cloud (a Prophet.) The whirling Thunder. He who cannot be thro\vn down. Man of good sense. The Bow and Quiver. Mountain of Rocks. Hair of the Bull's neck. The smoked Shield. He who fights with a Feather. He who stands on both sides. Torn Belly. No heart. J The Grisly Bear, that runs without \ regard. He who ties his hair before. The very sweet Man. He who leaps over every one. Long Finger Nails. 9G STATE OF NEW YORK. Ba-na-rah-kah-tah . Au-nah-kwet-to-hau-pay-o Auh-ka-nah-pau . . Chesh-ko-tong . . Lay-lau-she-kau Ten-squat-a-way . . Cah-be-mub-bee . . Olij-ka-tchee-kum . Gitch-ee-gau-ga-osh Wah-chee-hahs-ka (a Boxer) Eeh-tou-wees-ka-zelt . . The broken Pot. The one sitting in the Clouds. The Earth standing. He who sings the War-song. He who goes far up the river. The open Door. He who sits every where. He who walks on the sea. The point that remains for ever. He who puts all out of doors. He who has eyes behind him. These were all the names of males, and were ge- nerally characteristic of some quality, achievement, or habit, of the persons bearing them ; this being, no doubt, the origin of names in all countries, and in none more than in England, where the Strongs and the Swifts are very abundant ; the Riders and the Walkers, not less so ; the Browns and the Blacks, and the Whites and the Greens, scattered every- where ; the Swans and the Cocks, the Doves and the Wrens, the Sparrows and the Nightingales, hap- pily mingled and blended with the Foxes and Hares, the Otters and Beavers, the Wolfs and the Bulls; and these again varied with the Salmons, the Stur- geons, the Cods, and the Herrings ; while there is no end to the tribes of the Masons, the Tylers, the Carpenters, the Painters, the Taylors, and the Smiths ; or to the Butchers, the Bakers, and the Brewers, who follow in their train. The names given to the female Indians, exhibited in this collection of Mr. Catlin's portraits, were quite as remarkable, and generally very expressive of femi- NAMES OF INDIAN FEMALES. 97 nine softness, as well as of the admiration of the stronger sex. These are a few : — Hee-la-dee The pure Fountain. Mong-shong-sha .... The bending Willow. Eh-nis-kim The crystal Stone. Lay-loo-ah-pee-ai-shee-kau . Grass, bush, and blossom. Tis-se-woo-na-tis .... She who bathes her knees. Pah-ta-coo-chee The shooting Cedar. Pshan-shau ...... The sweet-scented Grass. Ha-das-ka-mon-me-nee . . The Pipe-of-peace Bird. Seet-se-he-a The mid-day Sun. ^ Cos-pe-sau-que-te .... The indescribable Thing. In the course of his lectures, Mr. Catlin related to us many interesting particulars respecting the manners and customs of the various Indian tribes among whom he had sojourned; and of most of these he exhibited pictorial representations, of which the following may be named as among the most remark- able. In their hunting excursions, where they pursue the wild buffaloes, either singly or in herds, they exhibit astonishing proofs of skill and horsemanship. Their aim is so unerring with the arrow, that they never fail to pierce their victim ; and such is the force as well as skill with which the arrow is sent out from the bow, that instances are not uncommon of their shooting it right through the trunk of a buf- falo, out on the other side — a fact testified to by many witnesses. The buffaloes being in natural enmity with the grisly bear, attack it wherever they meet ; but the white wolves they permit to graze with their herds unmolested. The Indians knowing this, often cover themselves with skins of the white wolt^ VOL. I. H 98 STATE OF NEW YORK. previously prepared for the purpose, and under its cover creep towards them on all-fours, without excit- ing their suspicion, when, being within arrow-range, they draw their bow, and shoot their unsuspecting victim through the heart. Another method of pursuing and decoying the buffaloes to destruction, is thus related by Hinton, and its accuracy was confirmed by Mr. Catlin in all particulars. " The herds of buffaloes wander over the country in search of food, usually led by a bull most remarkable for strength and fierceness. While feeding, they are often scattered over a great extent of country ; but when they move in a mass, they form a dense and almost impenetrable column, which, once in motion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their line of march is seldom interrupted even by consider- able rivers, across which they swim without fear or hesitation, nearly in the order in which they traverse the plains. When flying before their pursuers, it would be in vain for the foremost to halt, or to attempt to obstruct the progress of the main body ; as the throng in the rear still rush onward, the leaders must advance, although destruction awaits the move- ment. The Indians take advantage of this cir- cumstance to destroy great quantities of this their favourite game ; and certainly no mode could be resorted to more effectually destructive, nor could a more terrible devastation be produced, than by forcing a numerous herd of these large animals to leap together from the brink of a dreadful precipice upon a rocky and broken surface, a hundred feet below. When the Indians determine to destrov a herd of buffaloes in this way, one of their swiftest- BUFFALO HUNTING. 99 footed, and most active young men is selected, who is disguised in a buffalo skin, having the head, ears, and horns adjusted to his own head, so as to make the deception very complete ; and thus accoutred, ho stations himself between the buffalo herd and some of the precipices, which often extend for several miles along the rivers. The Indians surround the herd as nearly as possible ; when, at a given signal, they show themselves, and rush forward with loud yells. The animals being alarmed, and seeing no way open but in the direction of the disguised Indian, run towards him, and he, taking flight, dashes on to the precipice, where he suddenly secures himself in some previously-ascertained crevice. The foremost of the herd arrives at the brink ; there is no possi- bility of retreat, no chance of escape ; the foremost may for an instant shrink with terror, but the crowd behind, who are terrified by the approaching hunters, rush forward wdth increasing impetuosity, and the aggregated force hurls them successively from the cliffs, where certain death awaits them."* In the management of their horses, the Indians seem to be as skilful as the Arabs, or the Mamelukes of the East. Some pictures w^ere shown to us, in which were delineated Indians of the Camanche tribe, hanging over one side of their horses, and shooting their arrows over the saddle towards their enemies, while they were themselves completely sheltered from their attack, by the interposing body of the horse covering their whole person, which was coiled or * Hinton's Topography of the United States, 4to. vol. ii. p. 147. h2 100 STATE OF NEW YORK. gathered up so as to fill only the space between the hanging stirrup and the upper part of the saddle. Of their games, or amusements, the following were the most striking. Playing with the hall for stakes, or sums of money deposited on each side, is very frequent ; and so much importance is attached to this game, that on the night previous to its perform- ance four conjurers sit up, to smoke to the Great Spirit, at the point where the ball is to be started ; and while the stakeholders also sit up to guard the sums deposited, men and women dance around their respective stakes at intervals during the night. At some of these games, the bodies of the one party are painted all over with white paint, while those of the other remain of the natural reddish-brown colour, to prevent their being mistaken or confounded. Besides horse-racing, foot-racing, and course- racing, all of which are common, skill in archery is much cultivated, and with great success. In this they perhaps surpass all people in the world, bring- ing down single birds while flying at a great height, and shooting fish while darting with great rapidity in their rivers and lakes. In one of these games, the great object of the archers is to see who can accu- mulate the greatest number of arrows in the air, by the most rapid succession of shooting them, before the first arrow reaches the ground ; and if the parties playing at this are numerous, the air becomes literally darkened with the showers of arrows that are sent forth. Of dances, they have a great variety. The ** straw dunce," among the tribe of the Sioux, consists in INDIAN DANCES. 101 making young children dance naked, with burning straws tied to their bodies, to make them tough and brave. Another dance, among the tribes of the Sauks and Foxes, is called " the slave dance," and is performed by a very singular society of Indians, who volunteer to become slaves for two years, on the condition that they may elect their chief or master. Another dance among the tribe of Ojibbeways, is called " the snow-shoe dance," from its taking place at the first fall of snow in the winter, and being danced in long snow-shoes, almost like small canoes, worn by all the party. The tribe of the Minna- tarrees have a dance called *' the green-corn dance,'* where they make an offering of the first-fruits to the Creator, by ** sacrificing the first kettle-full," to use their own language, " to the Great Spirit." The ** buffalo dance" of the Mandans, another tribe, consists of men dressing themselves in the skins of buffaloes, two men erect, generally sustaining the skin of one buffalo placed horizontally above their heads, the sides of the skin falling around them and concealing their persons, and the head and horns being sustained by the foremost person, so that as they walk along or dance, they look at a distance like real buffaloes ; and the object of this dance is to attract the herd in the direction of the spot where it takes place. The "scalp dance" of the Sioux, is among the most revolting, where women, in the centre of a large circle, suspend the bloody scalps of their enemies, taken in war, on poles, while the warriors of the tribe dance around them brandishing their weapons. This, however, is exceeded in fero- city by " the dog dance" of the same tribe, at which 102 STATE OF NEW YORK. the heart and liver of a dog are taken, raw and bleeding, and, cut into strips, placed on a stand about the height of a man's face from the ground ; to this each of the warriors advances in turn, and, biting off a piece of the flesh, utters a yell of exultation at having thus swallowed a piece of the warm and bleeding heart of his enemy. It may be added, that the flesh of the dog is accounted the greatest delicacy among the Sioux ; and at an Indian feast, given in 1803 at a Sioux village about 1400 miles above St. Louis, to Mr. Sanford, Mr. Choteau, Mr. M*Kenzie, and Mr. Catlin, a picture of which was in the collection, dogs' flesh was the only food served ; and this was the highest honour they could confer upon strangers. Nothing is more remarkable, however, in the character of the Indians, than their power of endur- ing torture, and the strength of the religious super- stitions which sustain them. In one of the ceremonies of this description, represented in Mr. Catlin's pic- tures, several young candidates for fame were seen undergoing the various processes of pain to which they voluntarily and cheerfully submit themselves. They first lacerate the flesh with a sharp-edged but ragged flint-stone, by cutting open six or seven gashes across the muscular part of each thigh and each arm ; a splint of wood, like a skewer, is then run transversely through the lips of each gash, and there they are permitted to bleed and swell, while the agonizing pain produces no sign of emotion on their countenances. They are then dragged around the circle of the tent on the inside, on the bare ground, sometimes by the hair of the head, and INDIAN MAGICIANS. 103 sometimes by the feet, the body trailing all the while along the rough and broken soil, and getting new lacerations at every turn. After this, the bodies of the self-torturers are hung up by the splints in the flesh, around which cords are twined, and they are thus kept suspended for hours on a pole, without food or drink, looking steadfastly on the sun, from his risinor to his setting, without an interval of rest. Another remarkable form in which their super- stition developes itself, is that of reverence for magic and magicians. Attached to every tribe, and often to every encampment and every village, is a person, who is called "the medicine man" — the "magician" would be the more appropriate term. It is believed by the rest of the tribe that he is gifted with pro- phetic knowledge and supernatural powers. He is consulted in all expeditions of war, on all negociations of peace ; his oracles are indisputable, and his charms are believed to be irresistible ; he collects together in his wanderings all things supposed to possess any superior virtue or property — the skin, feathers, head, beak, and talons, of the eagle and the hawk ; the skins of serpents, lizards, and toads ; the horns and hair of the buffalo ; the skins of the grisly bear and the wolf; besides various animal and mineral compounds supposed to operate as charms. To each of the warriors he dispenses his talismans, which are worn with unlimited confidence in their virtues : and when any one is ill or sick from any disease or wounds, " the medicine man" is the only person thought likely to afford relief. This he does, not with medicine of any kind, for this is never attempted ; but by coming to the tent or hut where the sufferer 104 STATE OF NEW YORK. may be lying, and performing certain mysterious ceremonies, and administering certain charms — the " medicine man" being himself on these occasions so disfigured with the skins of various animals placed over and around him, that he may be said to be as remote as possible from " the likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth ;" and when Mr. Catlin presented himself to his audience so arrayed, it was difficult to suppose that any thing human could be so disguised. An additional interest was given to these lectures, by the paintings and descriptions with which they were illustrated, from their reminding me, so often and so forcibly as they did, of the Hindoos. The complexion of the Indians, generally resembles that of the natives of Hindoostan, more than that of any other people I had seen ; they have the same fond- ness for gold and silver ornaments, and particularly for large silver bangles on the feet, and armlets on the arms ; they paint their bodies, and especially their fore- heads and chins, with various coloure'd paints, like the Bramins ; they load the ears with ornaments, and the neck with chains ; they oil their bodies to soften the skin ; they sit cross-legged on the ground, and are excessively fond of smoking. The favourite colour for the painting of their persons is a bright scarlet : and in all the female portraits that I saw, the central seam occasioned by the parting of the hair, which is smoothed down on each side of the head, and oiled to keep it flat and glossy, was invariably painted with a bright scarlet paint, a custom almost universal among the women of Hindoostan. But it is in the voluntary SELF-TORTURE. 1 05 infliction of self-torture, and the power of sustaining pain without a murmur, that the resemblance between the Indians of America and of Asia is most striking. Whoever has witnessed the self-tortures of the Hin- doos, in their religious ceremonies of the "chur- ruck-poojah," or festival of the wheel — where a man permits an iron hook to be passed through the fleshy- muscles of his loins, and is thus hoisted up to a wheel, and whirled around in the air with extraordi- nary velocity, as well as the many other descriptions of self-imposed torture practised in Hindoostan — could not fail to be struck with this feature of resemblance between the tribes of Asia and America, who may possibly have descended from one common stock. CHAP. VII. Personal visit to some Indian chiefs at New York — The Sauks and Foxes, Sioux and loway tribes -— Anecdotes of con- versation with the Indian chiefs — Offering of presents to the wife and cliildren of Kee-o-kuk — Stoical indifference mani- fested by each — Black-Hawk, the celebrated warrior, and his son — Pantomimic conversation of Mr. Vandenhoff with an Indian — Invitation to visit their camps in the Far West — Anecdotes of life among the Indians — Arrival of a third tribe of Indians in New York — Reply of Indian chief to General Fox — Anecdotes of Indians respecting interest of money — Belief that the Indians are descended from the Jews — Facts and argu- ments of Major Noah and others — Striking similarity of many of their customs to Jewish rites — Retention of some of the iden- tical expressions of the Hebrews — Authority of Mr. Catlin in support of this resemblance. It was only a few weeks after hearing the lectures and examining the collection of Mr. Catlin, that several Indian chiefs of different tribes arrived at New York from Washington, on a tour through the United States, where, after they had concluded their treaties at the Capitol, it was thought desirable they should be taken to the principal towns, to impress them with a strong idea of the power and resources of the American people. Among them, were the chiefs of the Sauks and Foxes, Kee-o-kuk and Black- Hawk, with the wife and younger son of the former, " the roaring Thunder." There were about thirty of these who took up their abode at the City-hotel, on INDIAN COSTUMES. 107 the west-side of Broadway ; while at another hotel, the National, on the opposite side of the way, were the chiefs of the Sioux and loways, the two latter being in such deadly hostility to the two former, as to make it unsafe to place them in the same building. We went to see both parties, having the advantage of a favourable introduction to each, and were accom- panied in both our visits by a skilful interpreter, who had lived among the Indians from his childhood. The Sauks and Foxes were undoubtedly the finest race of men ; they were as tall, stout, and muscular, as the very best specimen of men that could be pro- duced from the yeomanry of England, and they were as hardy and robust as they were large and well formed. Their costume was almost wholly made up of skins, furs, and feathers, with the occasional addi- tion of a woollen blanket, of a bright scarlet, satu- rated with the vermilion paint with which they so copiously bedaub the body. Their head-dresses were mostly feathers, differently arranged. They all wore leather coverings for the legs, like long gaiters, but loose over the foot, and with innumerable strips of leather trailing after them at considerable length be- hind the heel, so as to make it difficult to follow them. To these gaiters were attached a number of silver bells, and whenever they moved or walked, it was an evident delight to them, to hear the tinkling of these bells, and the rattle of the various plates of metal placed at different points about their garments. Their weapons were the tomahawk, the heavy-headed and spiked iron mace, and the bow and arrow ; their con- duct was characterized by a dignified reserve ; and their great aim seemed to be, not to manifest the least 108 STATE OF NEW YORK. feeling of admiration or surprise at any thing they saw. They were sufficiently communicative to an- swer all our questions, but always briefly, and with- out asking others in their turn. I had taken in, as I was advised, some suitable presents for the prin- cipal personages of the party ; but they were received without the slightest symptom of satisfaction by those to whom they were offered, excepting in one instance. To the wife of the chief Kee-o-kuk I presented a very handsome string of large and beautiful beads, suitable for a necklace of great richness and fulness; but after taking them from my hands, she placed them in her bosom ; and then rolling herself in a vermilioned blanket, lay down at her husband's feet on the floor, without mat or pillow, and sunk almost instantly to sleep. I presented to her eldest son, " the whist- ling Thunder," a handsome ivory case, containing a knife, a looking-glass, and some other things ; which he also received with the same indifference, and put it by, as though the person presenting it was more honoured than himself by receiving it. To the younger son, a little fellow of about five years of age, I gave a silver whistle and bells, such as are commonly used by children in England, with a fine piece of red coral at the end ; and this little creature, not having yet been trained in the Indian art of restraining the expression of his natural emotions, burst out into a paroxysm of delight, sounding the whistle, ringing the bells, shrieking with pleasure, and dancing about the room, exclaiming every now and then, " A-oo-A-ha-oo," good, very good— and clasping my knees, and kissing my hand, to the great chagrin of the men, who talked to him with VANDENHOFF AND THE INDIAN CHIEF. 109 frowning countenances, but could not repress his hilarity. The Sioux and loways, whom we visited at the National hotel, were not so fine a race of men as the Sauks and Foxes, nor so well dressed, but they were far more communicative. Some of them, indeed, talked with us at great length. Mr. Vandenhoif, the English actor, happened to be in the room at the time ; and being struck with the appearance of scars from burns, running up the arm of one of the chiefs, from the wrist to the shoulder, he wished to know how it happened ; but the interpreter being in another part of the room, and engaged, he was unable to commu- nicate with the Indian, except through the language of pantomime ; he accordingly pointed to the scars, and then, by a variety of significant signs, intimated his wish to know how they occurred ; upon which, the chief performed these several motions : He first held his left hand horizontally before his body, as if grasping a cup or basin, while with his right he performed the motion of lifting something from the ground, out of which he poured liquid into the stationary vessel. He then lifted this vessel to his mouth, and, turning back his head, and gurglmg his throat, made signs of drinking copiously. His next action was to rise, and reel about, as though growing gradually intoxicated, until he became unable to stand ; when he described a large heap of something, with flames ascending and falling, on this he began to roll about with agony, and rub his right arm as the part chiefly affected. Mr. Vandenhoff' exclaimed, ** I see it — whisky, whisky !" at which the old man nodded assent with a smile. The fact was, as we afterwards learnt, 110 STATE OF NEW YORK. that the white people had made him drunk, as they too often do, with ardent spirits, and he had fallen on a large wood fire, and thus got dreadfully burnt. In the course of conversation with the chiefs of this tribe, they expressed great admiration of my wife's dress and ornaments, and were especially ena- moured with the feathers which she happened then to wear in her bonnet. With my younger son, Leicester, they were even still more pleased ; and were quite astonished that one so young should come so far away from home, over " the great sea," of which they seem to have a most terrible idea. They asked us, whether, in the course of our journey, we intended to come so far west as their prairies and forests ; and we answered that this was w^hat we intended, and hoped to accomplish ; but that our stay would be short, as we should desire only to see their country, and then return home, without settling in it. This was no sooner interpreted to them, than seve- ral Indian voices exclaimed, as we afterwards learnt, " Does he say so ? does he say so? he is welcome, he is welcome ?" And when this assurance was repeated, the principal chief of the tribe advanced to me, and grasping my hand firmly, he said with a grave countenance, looking at me, but addressing himself to the interpreter, " Tell this white man, that if he comes to see us, and goes away again, leaving us in possession of our lands undisturbed, we will bless his name for ever. The white men come, they look at our lands, they take them from us, they drive us far off* ; we become settled, they disturb us, and drive us farther off again, because they want our lands for themselves j and, therefore, we like not their foot- ILL-TREATMENT BY THE WHITES. Ill steps ; but if he will come, and share our feasts, and smoke our calumet, and then return to his own home, we will give him a welcome such as white men do not always receive." I repeated my assurance, and even ventured to add my deep regret that all white men could not be prevailed upon to leave them in the quiet possession of the hunting-grounds and graves of their fathers ; and the sentiment was one that evidently touched all their sympathies. It would be a long and a melancholy narrative to relate the half of what it fell to my lot to hear, with- out leaving New York, of the ill-treatment of the Indians by the whites, who teach them all our vices, but especially drunkenness, for the purpose of de- frauding them while thus intoxicated, in the various bargains of traffic and sale in which they are engaged. In addition to this, still more deliberate and cold- blooded injuries are practised by whites of compara- tive opulence upon their unsuspecting females. The following is abridged from a very interesting, but little-known work, entitled '* Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains," written by a young gentle- man of New York, who presented me with a copy, and who states that he had the facts from the mouth of an old Indian in the Far West, who appeared to be sinking under the weight of his years. In 1814, an American trader, of considerable influence, thinking he should strengthen his mer- cantile connexions among the Missouri Indians, succeeded in prevailing on one of the principal families of the Omawha tribe of Indians, to permit him to marry one of their daughters, who was remark- ablv beautiful. The marriage being consummated, 112 STATE OF NEW YORK. she soon bore him a son and a daughter, one of which she permitted the father to take with him to the country of the whites, and the other she retained with her. On his return, however, to the Indian territory, it was found that he had married a white wife in his absence, and that he now demanded the surrender of the second child, and the repudiation of its mother. To this of course she refused her assent. The trader then offered her a considerable present, if she would go away and leave her child ; upon which she exclaimed, "Is my child a dog, that I should sell him for merchandize ? You cannot drive me away ; you may beat me, it is true, and otherwise abuse me, but I will still remain with you. When you married me, you promised to use me kindly as long as I should be faithful to you. That I have been so, no one can deny. Ours was not a marriage contracted for a season ; no, it was to terminate only with our lives. I was then a young girl, and might have been united to an Omawha chief; but I am now an old woman, having had two children, and what Omawha will regard me ? Is not my right paramount to that of your other wife ? She had not heard of me before you possessed her. It is true, her skin is whiter than mine, but her heart cannot be more pure towards you, nor her fidelity more rigid." Happily the infant was secured to its devoted mother, but the heartless wretch of a trader abandoned her for ever. Who can wonder, therefore, when the Indians are continually receiving injuries, and rarely, if ever, blessings from the hand of the white man, that they should not " like his footsteps." Soon after the visit of the Sauks and Foxes, and INDIAN TRIBES, AND CHIEFS, 113 Sioux and loways, another party of Indians arrived at New York, consisting of Pawnees, Omawhas, and Otoes. We saw the whole of these also ; but there was nothing peculiar in them, to deserve a detailed description. The following account of their visit, with their names, is given in the New York Express, of November 30, 1837 : — " The delegation from several tribes of Indians, under charge of Major Dougherty, left this city yesterday for Washington, where they are to hold a council with the Secretary of War. " They appeared to be much pleased with their visit to the city, having spent a week, and visited the navy-yard, theatres, museums, &c. On Saturday they visited Mr. Catlin at his exhi- bition-room in Broadway, who has spent several years among them and other tribes of Indians ; after viewing his splendid collection of Indian portraits, landscapes, and curiosities, he took them into another room, where he had several of their own portraits, which they discovered at once, and appeared to be much delighted at the sight of their own faces on the canvass. " They were received by the mayor and common-council at the City Hall, on Saturday, and a great variety of presents were made them, consisting of red and blue broadcloths, knives, glasses, beads, &c. " During their visit at the navy -yard, one of them applied the match to a loaded cannon on board the Hudson — the effect aston- ished them : one of them said he thought the Great Spirit could only produce thunder, but he had now seen it among the white men — that for the future the Indian would avoid coUision with his white brethren, as he was convinced they were too powerful for them. " The following are the names of the tribes and chiefs : — GRAND PAWNEE TRIBE. Shouk-ka-ki-he-gah . . . Horse chief. La-char-e-ta-roox .... Fearless chief. La-do-ke-ah Buffalo bull. Ah-shaw-waw-zookste . . . Medicine horse. VOL. I. I 114 STATE OF NEW YORK. PAWNEE TAPAGE TRIBE. La-kee-too-me-ra-sha . . . Little chief. La-paw-koo-re-loo .... Chief partizan. Loo-ra-we-re-coo .... Bird that goes to war. Ta-la-coosh-ca-roo-mah-an . Partisan that sings. PAWNEE REPUBLICAN TRIBE. Ah-shaw-la-coots-ah . . . Mole in the face. La-shaw-le-straw-hix . . . Man chief. La-wee-re-coo-re-shaw-we . War chief. Se-ah-ke-ra-le-re-coo . . . The Chyenne. PAWNEE LOUP TRIBE. Le-shaw-loo-Ia-le-hoo . . . Big chief. Lo-lock-to-hoo-lah .... Handsome pipe in his hand. La-wa-he-coots-la-sha-no . . Brave chief. Shar-e-tar-reesh Ill-natured man. OMAWHA HACO TRIBE. Ki-he-gah-waw-shu-she . . Brave chief. Om-pah-tong-gah .... Big elk. Sha-dah-mon-ne There he goes. Nom-hah-mon-ne .... Double-walker. OTOE TRIBE. Maw-do-ne-sah He who surrounds. No-way-ke-vug-ga .... He who strikes two at once. Raw-no-way-waw-krah . . . Loose pipe-handle. We-ree-roo-ta He who exchanges. MISSOURI TRIBE. Haw-che-ri-sug-ga .... He who strikes in war. During the stay of these Indians in New York, they were as much objects of curiosity to the inhabitants as they would have been to the residents of London. Wherever they went, whether to the theatre or the museum, the battery, or the steam-boat, crowds of persons of both sexes, who had never before perhaps REPLY OF AN INDIAN CHIEF. 115 seen so many Indians, and of such distant tribes, in their lives, followed them in the streets, and their hotels were crowded at all hours of the day. Such are the revolutions of things, that the aboriginal Indians, who less than two centuries ago were the sole occupants of the very island on which New York is built, are now strangers in the land of their fathers. The reply made by one of the Indian chiefs to General Knox, who was entertaining, in the city of New York, a deputation from the tribes, is full of melancholy truth ; and, perhaps, it interested me the more, from the resemblance of the fate of the Indians of the West to those of the East, as both have been dispossessed of their lands and dominions by their white conquerors ; for the language used by the Indian of America is precisely that which might, with equal propriety, be used by a native Indian of Malabar, of Coromandel, or of Bengal. " What makes you so melancholy ?" said General Knox to the Indian chief who was observed to be very thoughtful, amidst the gaieties of the entertain- tainment prepared for himself and his brethren of the forest. " I will tell you, brother," was the chiefs reply : "I have been looking at your beautiful city, your great waters, full of ships, your fine country, and I see how prosperous you all are. But, then, I could not help thinking, that this fine country was once ours. Our ancestors lived here. They enjoyed it as their own, in peace. It was the gift of the Great Spirit to them and to their children. At last, white men came in a great canoe— they only asked to let them tie it to a tree, lest the water should i^ 116 STATE OF NEW YORK. carry it away. We consented. They then said, some of their people were sick, and they asked per- mission to land them, and put them under the shade of the trees. The ice came, and they could not go away. They then hegged a piece of land, to huild wigwams for the winter. We granted it to them. They then asked corn, to keep them from starving. We furnished it out of our own scanty supply. They promised to go away when the ice melted. When this happened, instead of going away as they had promised, they pointed to the big guns round the wigwams, and they said, ' We shall stay here.' Af- terwards came more. They brought intoxicating drinks, of which the Indians became fond. They per- suaded them to sell them our land, and, finally, have driven us back, from time to time, to the wilderness, far from the water, the fish, and the oysters. They have scared away our game. My people are wasting away. We live in the want of all things, while you are enjoying abundance in our fine and beautiful country. This makes me sorry, brother, and I can- not help it." The following anecdote was related to me at New York by an elderly gentleman, nearly seventy, who had passed many years with the Indians, both in the early and middle periods of his life. He was, at one time, deputed to treat with the tribe of Oneidas, west of Lake Erie, for the purchase of a large tract of their land ; and the payment of 100,000 dollars was agreed to be given to them for it. The Indians, who have no conception of numbers beyond a hundred, could not be made to comprehend how much this sum was j until a number of kegs or bar- INDIANS* IDEA OF A BANK. 117 rels were procured, and ranged along in line, and the number of these kegs which 100,000 dollars would fill, gave them some idea of their multiplicity ; while a conception of their weight was conveyed, by describing how many horses it would require to carry them, if they were loaded on their backs. It was then thought that this great sum was too large to be divided among the Indians at one time, as it would probably soon be all spent, and they would then be destitute. To provide against this, it was suggested, that the principal sum should be depo- sited in the United States' bank ; that the govern- ment for the time being should be made perpetual trustees for its safe custody ; and that the interest of this sum, at '7 pel* cent., or 7>000 dollars, should be divided among them every year for ever. This proposition was much approved of; but the Indians could not be made to comprehend what a bank was, or how 7>000 dollars could be paid to them every year from this bank, and the 100,000 still remain undiminished. Among the various sup- positions in which they indulged on this subject, one was, that the bank was a place where, by some extraordinary process, silver increased in bulk and size by one-seventh in every year, and that the 7,000 dollars was to be made out of the yearly increase of the metal by growth, when the surplus would be cut off, and the remainder allowed to grow again. An- other belief was, that when the dollars were put into this mysterious bank, they propagated and increased their kind; and that the 7,000 full-grown dol- lars were taken out of the 100,000, and their places left to be supplied by the little dollars grow- 118 STATE OF NEW YORK. ing up to be big ones, like the rest. The more general belief was, however, that the bank was a place where a peculiar soil existed, in which the dol- lars were sown, like grain, and every year produced a crop, which was to furnish the 7>000 dollars of annual interest. So general was this belief, that the gentleman who made the purchase was often after- wards asked whether the seasons were favourable, and the crop promising at Philadelphia, so that they might be certain of receiving their full share. In the annual division of this sum, he said that each father received a share proportioned to the number of his children ; and that each person com- ing to the place of division, brought his blanket, which he spread on the ground, laying on it a number of short sticks, indicating the number of his family, and the youngest and the oldest of these had an equal portion. They have no individual property, except in their tents, horses, weapons, and apparel ; all else is held in community, and the chief and the humbler Indians all share alike. An opinion has often been expressed, that the Indians of America are descendants of some of the lost tribes of Israel ; but this opinion had never, per- haps, been put forth with all the data on which it was founded, until of late. So recently as the year 1837, Major Noah, the editor of the New York Evening Star, and himself a Jew of some learning, delivered a public lecture before the Mercantile Lite- rary Association of New York, at Clinton Hall, intended to establish this fact ; and the following are among the most prominent points established in that discourse. HEBREW ORIGIN OF INDIANS 119 The latest notice that is given of the dispersed tribes of Israel in the sacred writings, is in the Book of Esdras, where the following verses occur: — *' Whereas thou sawest another peaceable multi- tude : these are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea, whom Salmanazar, king of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters^ so that they came unto another land." ** They took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go into a farther country, wherein mankind never dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land (Assyria) : and there was a great way to go, namely, a year and a halfr It is supposed that these tribes marched from the banks of the Euphrates to the north-east of Asia, some remaining by the way in Tartary and China ; in proof of which, Benjamin, of Tudela, who travel- led in the eleventh century through Persia, men- tions, that in some of the provinces of that country, at the time of the decree of Ahasuerus, there were at least 300,000 Jews. Alvarez, in his history of China, states, that there had been Jews living in that kingdom for many hundreds of years. Some went to India, as a Hebrew letter of the Jews of Cochin- China, written to their brethren at Amsterdam, gives, as the date of their coming into that country, the period when the Romans first conquered the Holy Land, and made Judea a province of the Roman empire, which was some time before the birth of Christ. 1^0 STATE OF NEW YORK From the various parts of Asia, it is believed that the more enterprising and persevering went on gradually advancing by degrees to its north-eastern extremity, till they arrived at Behring's Straits, where, during the winter, it would be perfectly easy to cross over to the nearest part of the continent of America, a distance of less than thirty miles, and this rendered more easy by the existence of the Cop- per Islands in the way. Here, it is believed, that during a course of two thousand years, they spread themselves from this point northward to Labrador, and southward to Cape Horn, multiplying as they proceeded ; some settling in every part, but more populously in the rich countries and agreeable climate of central America, including California, Texas, Mexico, and Peru. On the first discovery of this continent by Colum- bus, those races, now called Indians, were found in very different stages of civilization. They were not all either rude, or savage, or ferocious ; but, on the contrary, the greater number of them were remark- able for qualities that bespoke a noble origin. They had simple, but sublime ideas of a Supreme Being, unmixed with the least tincture of idolatry ; they had courage, constancy, humanity, hospitality, elo- quence, love of their families, and fidelity to friends. It is, however, in the religious belief and ceremonies of the Indians, more than in anything else, that their resemblance to the people from whom they are believed to have descended, is to be traced ; and the chief points of these are thus enumerated — 1st, Their belief in one God— 2d, Their computa- tion of time by the ceremonies of the new moon — JEWISH FESTIVALS OBSERVED. V2l 3d, Their division of the year into seasons corre- sponding v^ith the Jewish festivals, of the feast of flowers, the day of atonement, the feast of the taber- nacle, and other religious holidays. 4th, The erec- tion of a temple after the manner of the Jews, with an ark of the covenant and altars. 5th, The division of their nation into tribes, with a chief or grand sachem at their head. 6th, Their laws of sacrifices, ablutions, marriages, ceremonies in war and peace, the prohibition of certain food, according to the Mosiac rule, their traditions, history, character, appearance, aflinity of their language to the Hebrew, and finally, by that everlasting covenant of heirship exhibited in a perpetual transmission of its seal in their flesh. Such are the points enumerated by Major Noah in his discourse ; and in the subsequent parts of it he adduces proofs, strengthened by the opinions of very eminent persons whose authorities he cites. Among these are named Adair, Heck welder, Char- leveux, M'Kenzie, Bartram, Beltrami, Smith, Penn, and Mr. Simon, the last of whom had written a highly-interesting work on this subject. Major Noah says, that all these writers were struck with resem- blances among the customs of the Indians to those with which they were acquainted as peculiar to the Jews ; but the fact of Major Noah being a Jew himself, gives him great advantage over even all these, from his personal acquaintance with Jewish opinions, ceremonies, and usages, in all the minutiae of their details. They call the Supreme Being, Lo-ak (Light) IsIl- ta-hoola-aba y which, says the writer, is distinctly 12^ STATE OF NEW YORK. Hebrew, and means, " The great supreme beneficent Holy Spirit of Fire, who resides above." They have another name for the deity, which like the Jews, they never use in common speech, but only when perform- ing their most sacred religious rites, and then they most solemnly divide it into syllables, with interme- diate words, so as not to pronounce the ineffable name at once. In the sacred dances, at the feast of the first-fruits, they sing Alelujah and Mesheha, from the Hebrew of Mesheach, the Messiah, "the anointed one," exclaiming " Yb, mesheha." — ** He, mesheha," — " Wahy mesheha," thus making the Alelujah, the Meshiah, the Jehovah. On some occasions they sing ^' Shiluyo, Shilu-he, Shilu-wahy* the three termina- tions making up, in their order, the four-lettered Divine Name in Hebrew, and Shilu being evidently " Shiloth the messenger, the peace-maker." The number of Hebrew words used in their religious services, is, says Major Noah, incredible, and he gives abundant instances, among which, the name of light- ning is Eloahy and the rumbling of thunder is called Row ally from the Hebrew word Ruach, or spirit. The Indians divide the year into four seasons, with festivals peculiar to each ; they calculate by moons and celebrate, as the Jews do, the herachah helehanay " the blessing for the new-moon." The chief priest wears a breast-plate, of a white conch-shell, ornamented so as to resemble the precious stones in the Urwiy and he binds his brow with a wreath of swan's feathers, and wears a tuft of white feathers which he calls Yatina, The Indians have their ark, which they invariably carry with them to battle, and never suffer it to rest on the ground, or to be unguarded; and they have as great JEWISH LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 123 faith in the power of their ark, as the Israelites ever had in theirs. " No person," says Adair, " is ever per- mitted to open all the coverings of this ark ; and tradi- tion informs them that curiosity having induced three different persons to examine the mysterious shell, they were immediately punished for their profanation by blindness, the very punishment threatened to the Jews for daring to look upon the Holy of Holies." Their observance of a great day of atonement, about the same period of the year at which it is ob- served by the Jews, attended with many of the same ceremonies, and for the same object, is extremely remarkable ; and as it respects sacrifices, the resem- blance is even still more striking. The bathings, ablu- tions, and anointings, are Jewish in their chariacter ; as is also the abstaining from eating the blood of any animal, from the use of swine's-flesh, of fish without scales, and other animals and birds deemed by the Mosaic law to be impure. Women caught in adul- tery are stoned to death, as among the Jews of old ; and, as in the Mosaical law, the brother is obliged to marry the widow of his brother, if he die without issue. Of the authors who have written in support of these views there is a very long catalogue, and some of very early date. Manasseh Ben Israel, a learned Jew, who flourished about 1650, wrote a treatise to prove that the Indians were descended from the Israelites ; this was soon after the discovery of Ame- rica by Columbus. William Penn, the Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania, though he does not appear to have suspected this descent, says, in one of his letters to his friends in England, of the Indians, " I found 124 STATE OF NEW YORK. them with like countenances to the Hebrew races. I consider these people as under a dark night, yet they believe in God and immortality, without the aid of metaphysics. They reckon by moons, they offer their first-ripe fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their altars with twelve stones ; they mourn a year, and observe the Jewish law with respect to separation." The Rev. Mr. Beatty, a missionary among the Indians, Emanuel de Merazy, a Portuguese historian of the Brazils, Monsieur de Guignes, the French historian of China, Beltrami, the Italian traveller, who discovered the sources of the Mississippi, all concur in this view : and the Earl of Crawford and Lindsey, who pub- lished his Travels in America in 1801, says, " It is curious and pleasing to find how the customs of these people comport with the laws of Moses." He after- wards adds, " It is a sound truth that the Indians are descended from the ten tribes ; and time and investigation will more and more enforce its acknow- ledgment." Among the Indians of Mexico and Peru, who were the most enlightened and civilized, though all springing from the same stock, the resemblances were more manifest. Montesini, who travelled in South America, states, that " his Indian guide ad- mitted to him that his God was called Adonai ; and he acknowledged Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as his ancestors, and claimed to be descended from the tribe of Reuben. He was in short a perfect Jew ; immense numbers like himself were said by him to live behind the Cordilleras." Acoasta mentions that they have a tradition relative to the great deluge j that they INDIAN TEMPLE LIKE SOLOMOn's. 1^5 preserve the rite of circumcision ; and in Peru, they eat the paschal lamb. He adds, that the Mexicans point out the various stations by which their ances- tors advanced into the country, and it is precisely the route by which they must have come into America, supposing them to have emigrated from Asia. Manasseh-ben-Israel declares that the Indians of Mexico had a tradition that their magnificent places of worship had been built by a people who wore their beards, and were more ancient than their Incas. Escobartus affirms, that he frequently heard the southern tribes repeat the sacred notes HaUle-lu- yah ; and Malvenda states, that several tombstones were found on St. Michael's, with ancient Hebrew characters. When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, the Cholula was considered a holy city by the natives, in which the high-priest, Quetzacolt, preached "peace to man,'* and would permit no other offerings to the Master of Life than the first-fruits of the harvest. ** We know by our traditions," said the venerable prince, Montezuma, to the Spanish general, Cortez, "that we who inhabit the country are not the natives, but strangers who came from a great distance." As striking a resemblance as any of the preceding, is presented between the great temple, founded in Mexico by the Inca Yupanque, and the temple of Solomon, of which many think it was a copy ; so remarkable was it for its resemblance to this, in its size, its plan, and its wealth. Clavagero and De Vega, speaking of the Indian temple, say thus — " The altar was on the east side of the temple ; there were many doors to the building, all of which were plated with gold ; and the four walls, the whole 126 STATE OF NEW YORK. way round, were crowned with a rich golden garland, more than an ell in width. Round the temple were five square pavilions, whose tops were in the form of pyramids. The fifth was lined entirely with gold, and was for the use of the royal high- priest of sacrifices." Lord Kingsborough, in his Tra- vels, not only declares that this temple at Palenque was built by the Jews, but that he considers it to be an exact copy of Solomon's temple, being precisely after the model described by Ezekiel. All this is so remarkable — and much more than is here condensed, is adduced, in the form of evidence in Major Noah's Discourse — that it is impossible not to be struck with it ; and if the opinions of com- petent authorities, the customs of the people still preserved and now existing, as well as their own traditions as to their origin, all tend to the same conclusion, the inference is irresistible. Du Pratz, in answer to the question which he put to the Natchez tribe, " Whence come you ?" says that they answered him thus, — " All that we know is, that our fathers, to come hither, followed the course of the sun, and came from the place where he rises. They were long in their journey, they were nearly perishing, and were brought to this wilderness of the sun- setting, without seeking it." The latest, and in many respects the best autho- rity, as to the appearance of the Indians, is Mr. Catlin, who lived so many years among them, and whom we so often saw in New York, with his exten- sive and interesting collection of Indian portraits, dresses, weapons, and curiosities. This gentleman, while he enumerates very many of the customs and JEWISH COUNTENANCES OF INDIANS. 127 usages of the Indians, which he thinks are clearly of Jewish origin, says, " the first thing that strikes the traveller in an Indian country as evidence of the Indians being of Jewish origin, (and it is certainly a very forcible one,) is the close resemblance which they generally bear, in certain expression of counte- nance, to those people." This subject might be pursued to great length ; but I purposely refrain, from the conviction that enough has been adduced of fact, reasoning, and authority, to prove at least the extreme probability of the Indians of America being really the descend- ants of the Israelites of old ; and I may add, that the belief in their Asiatic origin was strongly impressed on my own mind from all I saw of the Indians here ; while there appears to me nothing in their present state and condition which may not be easily accounted for by the long lapse of ages which have passed since their migrations first began. CHAP. VIII. Benevolent institutions of the Americans — This a very prominent feature of the national policy — Alms-house for the poor at Belle- vue — Dutch farm for charitable labour in Long Island — House of refuge for destitute boys and girls — Asylum for the insane at Blooming Dale — Instances of ferocious manners in the Western states — Indiiference of the American editors to such things — Murder of a member of the legislature by the speaker — Institu- tion for the deaf and dumb at New York — Visit of the Indians to this institution — Benevolent Institutions for seamen — Quaran- tine hospital on Staten Island — Seaman's Retreat supported by the funds of the state — Seaman's Snug Harbour, for the merchant service — Benevolent institutions for seamen continued — Asylum for the blind at Bellevue — American Seaman's Friend Society, in foreign ports — Sailor's Magazine, and sailor's library supplied — Seaman's savings bank, mariner's church, Bethel society — Institu- tion for the support and instruction of the blind — Origin, pro- gress, and present condition of this establishment — Asylum for lying-in women, and dispensary — Society for the reformation of juvenile delinquents. I TURN to that which forms one of the most prominent and praiseworthy features in the American character, their steady and liberal patronage of benevolent insti- tutions, a great number of which we visited, and all with much pleasure, from the excellence of their management, the evident utility of the purposes for which they were established, and the amount of the good they effect. The first of these is a spacious alms-house, situated at a place called Bellevue, about three miles beyond ALMS HOUSE — DUTCH FARM. 129 New York, on the shore of the East river. Into this asylum are received all persons who are destitute of the means of subsistence, and the opportunity of acquiring them, from whatever cause. Real and undoubted want is the only qualification for admis- sion. The expenses of this establishment are thus defrayed : — For such of the inmates as are citizens of the city of New York, the municipal authorities pay a stipulated sum per head, per day, out of the municipal taxes ; for those who belong to particular counties in the state of New York, the financial authorities of such counties pay the same rate ; those that belong to other states, are, after a given period, transferred to the alms-houses of such states ; and all foreigners, who are principally emigrants, have their expenses paid by the general government of the United States. In general, there are from three to four hundred persons in this establishment ; but the late pressure on the mercantile classes, having led to a great stagnation of employment among the labouring classes, the number is accordingly much augmented. Another excellent establishment exists in Long- Island, called the Dutch Farm, where a large area of ground has been purchased, and buildings erected ; and to which all boys taken up as vagrants, without any visible means of subsistence, but who have not been convicted of crime, are taken and put to labour at various occupations, in which they nearly main- tain themselves by their own industry, and are at the same time subjected to the wholesome discipline of mental culture and moral training, so that many of them become, in after life, worthy members of VOL. I. K 130 STATE OF NEW YORK. society, and almost all acquire the power of main- taining themselves in honesty and independence. A third is the House of Refuge, to which all youths of both sexes, under maturity, who have been convicted of crime, are taken for reformation. When we visited this establishment, we found there about two hundred boys and fifty girls. They were kept in separate apartments, each under superintendents of their own sex ; and what struck us as remarkable was, that though it might be supposed that the con- viction of crime w^ould level all distinctions, as they were all convicted criminals alike, yet here the black and coloured children were made to sit in one part of the room, and the whites in another. Both w^re subjected to a rigid discipline, and every hour of their time was kept fully employed in some useful or improving labour. They exhibited, as we thought, the worst collection of countenances we had ever seen ; and in their heads and faces, the phrenologist and physiognomist would both have found abundant proofs of the general truth of their theories, that the shape of the cranium and the expression of the features are often faithful indexes of the minds within. The Asylum for the Insane was another of the benevolent institutions which we visited here. It is situated at a beautiful spot called Blooming Dale, about seven miles beyond the limits of the city of New York to the northward, the House of Refuge being only about two miles out of town in the same direction. The founder of this institution was a Quaker, and the members of this exemplary and benevolent body still take the warmest interest in LUNATIC ASYLUM. 131 its superintendence and direction. It was in the company of a worthy family, of the Society of Friends, Mr. Samuel F. Mott, that we visited most of these institutions, and we spent the entire day with them at the Asylum in Blooming Dale. The house is pleasantly situated, in the centre of a narrow part of the island of Manhattan, so that from its terrace, the view is at once extensive and beau- tiful ; the noble Hudson, with its lofty western cliffs, appearing on the one side, and the East river on the other. It is surrounded with pleasing grounds and spacious buildings, all adapted to the general purposes of the establishment, and is well placed for health, beauty of prospect, and exercise. It is a melancholy duty to visit those who are afflicted with the loss of reason, and painful to narrate in detail the peculiarities of each individual case. For myself, indeed, after seeing and conversing with some of these unfor- K 2 13'2 STATE OF NEW YORK. tunate beings, though I found them more happy than I had expected, in their persons and minds — though they were provided with every comfort, in space, cleanhness, apparel, bedding, books, instruments, music, flowers, and, indeed, everything that could cheer and delight them, I was so overcome by the strength of my feelings, as to be obliged to retire for a period into a room alone, and seek relief in tears ; while the recollection of all that I heard and saw made me dejected for several days. Mr. Mott told me that this was the effect produced fre- quently on him ; but that a sense of duty, and a fre- quent repetition of his visits, had enabled him to fortify himself in some degree for the discharge of his functions, as a director and visitor, though never without some pain. It would be impossible to speak too highly of the whole management of this establishment, as it respects the arrangement of the building, the fur- niture, the food, the ventilation, the amusements and recreations, and, indeed, all that can promote the health and comfort of the inmates. They go out, in parties, to take exercise, by walking or riding, in the open air, every day, under the care of their re- spective keepers, and behave with great propriety ; once a month they are indulged with a ball, under the inspection of the superintendant ; and it was stated that all parties, but especially the females, look forward to this monthly ball with the most pleasing anticipations, prepare dresses for it with great care, and are more frequently sobered doAvn from an approaching fit of anger or violence, by being told, that if they do not behave well, they SANGUINARY OUTRAGES. 133 shall not go to the ball, than by almost any other means that have yet been tried. The whole system of treatment is conducted on the principle of exciting all the good feelings, and repressing the bad — of substituting the allurement of hope for the terror of fear — of making affection and respect the leading motives of action : and the success that has attended this mode of treatment, justifies its permanent adop- tion. There are, undoubtedly, a number of persons in the United States, many of them filling important and distinguished stations in life, who might be more appropriately placed as inmates of this Asylum than suffered to remain at large, and commit the outrages upon society of which they are guilty. The American papers daily teem with proofs of this ; but, as speci- mens of life and manners in the western and southern states, the following may be deemed sufficient : — " A FATAL RENCONTRE. " A fatal rencontre took place on the 18tli inst. (Nov.) at the Opelousas race-coiu-se, between Thomas Reeves and Samuel Fisher — the former a young man of about twenty-three years of ag«, and the latter an elderly gentleman of sixty. " It appears that Reeves came armed to the place with a very large bowie knife. By some means, his clothes were disarranged, and the knife became visible to the smTOunding spectators. Mr. Fisher, noticing the appearance of the weapon, asked Mr. Reeves, playfully and in jest, for what purpose he carried such a deadly instrument. Reeves immediately answered, * To kill you. God d — ^n you :' whereupon he instantly drew the knife, and was in the act of plunging it into the body of Fisher, when he was arrested in the act, by a bystander, who, picking up a club that presented itself, told Reeves that if he did not desist, he would strike him down with the club. This afforded Fisher a moment for reflection, 134 STATE OF NEW YORK. after which he closed with Reeves, and succeeded in taking the knife fi'om him — having his hand cut severely durmg the struggle. During the combat, both parties fell to the ground. Reeves falHng uppermost, who immediately commenced gouging his adversary, Fisher then run him through the body with the knife. Reeves arose, remarking that he was ' a dead man.* Fisher immediately gave himself up to the magistrate, who acquitted him. Public opi- nion, it appears, fully justifies him in the act." — Planter's Intelli- yencer. " TWO LIVES SACRIFICED IN A PRIVATE QUARREL. " The following very extraordinary outrage, against the supre- macy of the laws and the peace of society, we copy from a western paper : — * A very savage act of assassination occurred on the 7th instant, at CHnton, Hickman county, Kentucky, between Judge James, a State senator, and Mr. Robert Binford, a candidate to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives. ' The parties had a preliminary quaiTel near the residence of Judge James a few days before, relative to some expression of the Judge's, unfavourable to Binford's election. They met again, how- ever, on this occasion, accidentally at Clinton. The particulars we gather from the Louisville Advertiser. ' James asked Binford if he came to assassinate him on Sunday. Binford answered — ' What I came for, I came for.' Both drew, and fired immediately. The ball from James's pistol killed Bin- ford, and Binford shot two balls into the head of Mr. Colhns, a dis- interested young gentleman, on a visit from Mississippi, who died in thirty or forty minutes. Binford, it is said, after firing his pis- tol, knocked James down with it, and commenced beating him furiously, when a younger brother of the Judge's drew a pistol, and put the second ball into the body of Binford. * Judge James was arrested, tried, and acquitted by an examin- ing court, consisting of four highly respectable magistrates — the kilhng of Binford being considered justifiable homicide." — New York Transcript, Nov. 30, 1837. '* THE MOST HORRIBLE YET. " Of all the horrible tales from the West, which have yet reached mc, one contained m the Louisville Kentucky Journal, of Satui'day SAVAGE BARBARITIES OF THE WEST. 135 last, caps the climax. It is no less than the murder of H. S. Julian, the treasurer, and Mr. Owen Parker, the clerk of the Mechanics' Savings' Institution of that city, at 12 o'clock in the day, in the banking-house, by Captain Clarendon E. Dix, for the purpose of robbing the money-drawer ; and he closed the dreadful tragedy by blowing out his own bi-ains. The death of Julian and Parker was achieved by beating in their skulls with the cancelling hammer of the bank. Dix had been esteemed generally as a respectable young gentleman, and was but recently married ; his victims were of the most unexceptionable character, and left dependent families." The American editor who prefixed to this last paragraph the words " The most Horrible Yet," was not aware of what was soon to succeed it ; for in less than three weeks after this had appeared, an an- nouncement was made of the following extraordinary and unparalleled atrocity. The Speaker of the House of Assembly, in Arkansas, having taken offence at something said by one of the members of that legislative body, instead of calling him to order, or appealing to the sense of the House, went deli- berately from his chair towards the member, and then drawing a bowie knife, plunged it into his bosom, and killed him on the spot. For myself, much as I had heard and read of the savage barbarities of the people of the West, I did not believe this to be true. The gravity of a Legisla- tive assembly — the dignity of a Speaker of such a body — and the presence of a large number of col- leagues — would, as it seemed to me, so operate as to render such a scene impossible. But, a few days brought full confirmation of this unprecedented out- rage ; and my surprise at the fact itself was hardly greater than my astonishment at the indifference 106 STATE OF NEW YORK. with which such an atrocious affair was passed over both by the press and the people, all of whom seemed too much engrossed in some present affair, to think it worth their while to utter more than a passing word upon it ; and this in many instances hardly amounting to more than a very cold condemnation. The following is the brief manner in which the con- firmation of the fact is given in the paper that first announced the intelligence, the New York Sun, of Dec. 29, 1837 :— " THE TRAGEDY IN ARKANSAS. " We published on Monday a short paragraph, stating that a Mr. Anthony, a member of the Arkansas legislature, had been killed in a rencontre with Col. Wilson, the Speaker of the lower House. It appears, from the particulars since received, that this murderous outrage was actually committed on the floor of the House, while in session — the Speaker, in consequence of some offensive remark directed against him by the unfortunate member, having come down from his seat, armed with a bowie knife ! The member, it is stated, was also armed with the same weapon, but the rencontre lasted only for a moment, the latter having been left dead on the floor, and the Speaker having had one hand nearly cut off, and the other severely injured. Wilson was forthwith arrested by the civil authorities, and his name stricken from the roll of the House, by nearly a unanimous vote." It was not entirely by an unanimous vote, it would seem from this, that the murderous Speaker was expelled from the house ; there were some of the members who refused to join in this vote, thinking, like the mob at Alton, who murdered Mr. Lovejoy, and the magistrates who acquit murderers so often in the West, that wilful spilling of blood is "justifiable INSTITUTION FOR DEAF AND DUMB. 137 homicide." It appeared from a subsequent paragraph, that this Speaker had been released, on a bail of SOOO dollars, (about 4001. sterling,) and it is thought that even this atrocious murder will never be judicially punished.* Whether persons of such ungovernable passions might not be advantageously lodged in the Blooming-dale Asylum, rather than be permitted to go at large, is a question which every one may easily decide for themselves. One of the most pleasing of the benevolent insti- tutions that we visited while in New York, was the Establishment for the Instruction of the Deaf and dumb, on the Haerlem road, at a distance of about three miles from the citv. This institution, like that at Blooming-dale, is pleas- ingly and advantageously situated, for good air, agree- able scenery, and facility of pleasurable exercise. It is presided over by Mr. Peet, a gentleman eminently qualified for the office of Superintendent, by his great * He was subsequently acquitted. 138 STATE OF NEW YORK. skill in the art of teaching mutes, by his mildness, urbanity, and piety, and by the earnest zeal which he manifests in the progress of his pupils, and the general welfare of the institution. At the period of my first visit, a commission, appointed by the State, was engaged in examining the pupils previous to their drawing up the annual report of its • condition ; and besides a great number of visitors, the mayor and aldermen of the city attended in their official capacity. The appearance of the pupils, in health, apparel, and manners, was highly agreeable, and the number of both sexes was nearly 200. The teachers were numerous and competent ; and the examination of the pupils in classes, evinced extra^ ordinary quickness and attainments in the majo- rity of them. Without witnessing it, one could scarcely believe that a person deaf and dumb from birth, could be put so nearly on a par, by edu- cation, with those who possess entire the faculties of hearing and speaking. Among other persons who visited this institution during my stay here, were the Indian chiefs ; and as the account of their impres- sions and observations, as well as of the proceedings of the day generally, was very faithfully reported by one of the party, for the Commercial Advertiser of the following day, the 25 th of November, it is here transcribed. " VISIT OF THE INDIANS TO THE INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. " The Indian delegations now in this city, accompanied hy the United States' agent, and a committee of the Common Council, paid a visit yesterday at 11 o'clock, to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumh. Some circumstances connected with this incident, gave it INDIANS CONVERSE WITH DEAF AND DUMB. 139 more than ordinary interest. The natural language of gestures, in which deaf mutes converse, is quite familiar to all the savage tribes of the West. The individual signs in some cases differ, but the basis of the language is the same every where. It was quite inte- resting to observe the pleased attention paid by these Sons of the Forest to the various gesticulations employed by the pupils, as well as to the wonder and unfeigned terror with which, on their first arrival, they were in turn regarded by the mutes themselves. " In the first instance, an intelligent lad belonging to the school was brought forward, who described, by signs, the Indian processes of hunting and fishing. The eyes of the whole circle were fixed intently on him, and faces, at first expressive of utter indifference, lighted up with smiles of satisfaction as he proceeded. Occasionally one would respond by a sign, signifying * I know.' One of the teachers then addressed them by signs, as follows : ' You have come from a country very far to the West. You have travelled in steam-boats and cars. You have visited great cities. You have arrived here, and come to this building to visit the deaf and dumb. We are pleased to see you. We are all alike children of the Great Spirit.' Emphatic signs of assent followed each proposition ; and one of the chiefs interrupted the gesticulator, to describe the fires in the steam-boats which had conveyed them. This individual seemed to enter into the conversation with uncommon interest. He told, by signs, on his own part, how they chased the deer and buffalo, and how they skinned the slaughtered animals, and ate their flesh. He told the number of his wives and children, mea- suiing the height of the latter with his hand. Various other com- mimications were made by different individuals, through the same medium. " In the mean time, however, some among them appeared dis- posed to doubt the fact that all these cliildren, amounting to some hundred and fifty, were really deaf mutes. They expressed them- selves in an amusing manner, intimating that they were not to be deceived in that sort of way. But shortly afterward, having been conducted to one of the school-rooms, and having seen the perform- ance of a class, under the direction of the principal, Mr. Peet, they gave it up, and allowed that the thing was possible. " They asserted, however, that they had never seen a deaf mute 110 STATE OF NEW YORK. among their own people. This is a remarkable fact ; for of the existence of such among some tribes, there can be no doubt. " After the assemblage had been collected in the chapel of the. institution, the delegation were addressed by Mr. Peet, as follows : — " * Brothers — I am happy to see you here. The object of this institution is to teach the deaf and dumb. These children, whom you see around you, cannot hear or speak. They are assembled here from all parts of the country. We do not leave them on the prairie or in the forest. We give them food and clothing. We teach them to read and write, to make shoes, clothes, and furniture, and to bind books, and raise vegetables. We also teach them con- cerning the Great Spirit, who takes care of them, and gives them every blessing; so that when they leave this place, and return to their friends, they may know how to work and support themselves, and to be virtuous and happy. Brothers, I thank you for your visit. I wish you prosperity and happiness. I have done.' " This address having been communicated to the Indians, was responded to by a chief of the Pawnees, in the following manner : — " * 3Iy Father — We are glad to come here. Wlien we saw these children, we did not believe that they could not hear and speak ; but since we have seen you make signs to them, and that they write down what you say, we believe that they are deaf and dumb. My father, I thank you, I thank you. Wlien I go back to my country, I shall tell my people what I have seen. I shall remem- ber what you have said. I shall imitate your good example.' " The extreme fondness of these simple children of nature for glittering ornaments, was manifested in a thousand ways during their visit. Upon all beads, chains, and rings, they looked with eager eyes. From many of the mutes, and others, they received gifts of trifling value, with expressions of the highest gratification. " The visit to the institution has not been without its use to the pupils themselves. It has served better than a thousand descriptive lessons, to convey to them an adequate idea of the inhabitants of our Western wilds. They have now clear ideas of a portion of the human race, of whom they read and are told much. And as there is no doubt that their uncivilized visitants will fulfil their promise, to remember what they have seen, so there is quite as little, that the remembrance will be reciprocal. INSTITUTIONS FOR SEAxMEN. 141 " It appears, from the nineteenth annual report of the institution, that the whole number of pupils is 1 50, of whom 112 are supported by the state, 14 by the institution, 3 by the corporation of this city, 2 by the supervisors of Montgomery County, 1 by the super- visors of Dutchess County, 8 by the state of New Jersey, and 10 by their friends. The expenditure in 1837 amounted to 27,873 dollars. Receipts, 26,866 dollars, including 14,926 dollars from the comptroller for state pupils, and 5,000 dollars from ditto, under the act of April 3, 1834." The benevolent institutions for the benefit of Sea- men are numerous and efficient ; and the condition of the mariners of America is far more honourable to it, as a maritime nation, than the condition of the same classes in Great Britain. It is estimated that there are in the United States about 200,000 sea- men, of whom there are 50,000 in the foreign, and 50,000 in the coasting-trade and fisheries, and about 100,000 in the ships of war in commission at home and abroad ; in addition to which, there are, at least, 50,000 more employed in navigating the large rivers and lakes of the interior of the country. For these, the following institutions provide the comforts and advantages attached to each respectively. The Quarantine Hospital is established in a healthy and agreeable situation at Staten Island. It is an institution of the United States, and, as such, is under the control of the general government. It is supported by a tax of 20 cents, or about tenpence English, per month, on the wages of seamen, which sum is paid by the captain of each ship that enters at the custom-house, and deducted from the sea- men's wages in his settlement. To this hospital every seaman who has ever paid the hospital money at 14^ STATE OF NEW YORK. any period of his life, has a right of admission, to remain there as long as may be necessary for his complete recovery. During all the time of his stay here, he is fed and lodged comfortably, as well as provided with medical attendance, all without charge. The Seamen's Retreat is also situated at Staten Island. This belongs to the local government of the State of New York, by whom it was founded, and it is supported by a State tax of one dollar per voyage, long or short, from every foreign port, to which ships entering ports in the state of New York are subject. Masters of ships pay a dollar and half, mates and seamen a dollar each, and all persons performing trips coastwise, a quarter of a dollar per voyage. This is collected at the custom-house like the former, and is applied, in a similar manner, to the mainte- nance of this State asylum, in aid of that of the general government, which, but for this auxiliary, would be insufficient to receive all the applicants : the treat- ment here is most liberal, and the care and attention to the inmates deserving all praise. The Sailors' Snug Harbour is also on Staten Island. This was first established by a munificent bequest of Mr. Randall. It is intended for the permanent accommodation, for life, of a limited number of super- annuated and worn-out seamen : and from the inte- rest taken in this institution by the leading friends of the seamen here, and the judicious management of the property from which its funds are derived, it is one of the best and most efficient of all the mari- time establishments of the country. The American Seamen's Friend Society, has for its great object the maintaining chaplains for Ame- INSTITUTIONS FOR SEAIMEN. 143 rican seamen in foreign ports. It was first organized in 1826, and has for nearly the whole of that time supported chaplains in fifteen foreign ports. This society publishes at New York, the Sailor's Magazine, and furnishes vessels with libraries for the use of seamen. It has been particularly instrumental in forming the " Sailors* Homes," a name given to the sober and orderly boarding-houses, established, under the care of the society, to rescue the seaman from the grasp of the harpies who usually surround him on his landing, and never quit him till they have plun- dered him of all he possesses. These Homes have happily increased in all the principal ports, especially in Boston, Portland, New York, and Charleston; and lists of them, for the sailor's guidance, are pub- lished monthly, on the cover of the Sailor's Magazine. The Seamen's Savings' Bank is another excellent institution, in which, under the superintendence of the American Seamen's Friend Society, many mariners are induced to deposit a good portion of their hard- earned wages, so as to save it from dissipation ; and the best effects have already been produced by this and kindred institutions in the other ports of the United States. In addition to all these, there are several religious associations, which confine their labours to the class of Seamen only — such as the New York Port Society, to sustain the Mariner's Church — the Bethel Union, for promoting prayers and divine service on board ships lying in the harbour and at the wharves — and the Marine Bible Society, for the supply of the Scriptures to such seamen as may be ready and will- 144 STATE OF NEW YORK. ing to receive, and are able and disposed to read them. One of the most interesting of the benevolent institutions of New York, is the Asylum for the Blind. This is agreeably situated at a short distance from New York, at a place called Bellevue, overlooking the Hudson river and the Jersey shore, where a suit- able building, with all the requisite auxiliaries for the purposes of the institution, has been erected, on ground worth 10,000 dollars, which was liberally given for the purpose by Mr. James Boorman, a merchant of New York. The society was first orga- nized in 1831, and owes its origin to Dr. Samuel Ackerly, a benevolent physician, and Mr. Samuel Wood, a member of the Society of Friends, who were afterwards joined by Dr. John Russ. These gentlemen presented a petition to the legislature of the State, praying for the incorporation of the Society, which was granted; and in March 1882, the institution was first opened, with three blind children from the alms-houses of New York, who had lost their sight by ophthalmia, to which three others were added in May of the same year ; and with these six, the school of instruction first began. In 1833, the directors were engaged in obtaining from Europe all the in- formation they could collect respecting the best method of teaching the blind ; and in 1838 they had so far succeeded, as to be able to hold a public exhibition of the proficiency of the pupils, in various branches of manual labour, as well as of mental exer- cise, in both of which there were performers scarcely inferior to those of youth of the same age possessing INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 145 sight. In 1834, the number of pupils had increased to 26 ; in 1835, there were 41 ; in 1836, there were 58 ; and in 1837, there were 60 ; the increased numbers being occasioned by the increased means of the Institution to provide for their support and in- struction, though still forming a very small proportion of the whole number of blind in the state of New York, which had been ascertained, by the census of 1830, to be more than 800 persons. The funds by which this institution is supported are contributed partly by voluntary contributions, and partly by the State, according to a usage very common in America, and well worthy of imitation in other countries, namely, that whenever private individuals raise, by voluntary contribution, a sum for any given benevolent purpose, the State contri- butes an equal or sometimes a larger sum ; in return for which, it enjoys a share of the superintendence, and the power of placing claimants, who are destitute of other patronage, within the reach of its benefits. Where individuals contribute the whole support to such institutions, it is generally found that they languish for want of funds ; and where the State contributes the whole, it is as generally found that they decline, for want of due vigilance in the super- intendence. But both these evils are avoided by this joint contribution of means, and joint interest and responsibility, and the practical working of the system shew^s its decided superiority to every other. In the instance of the Institution for the Blind, the State agreed that so soon as 8,000 dollars were raised by voluntary contributions, and placed in a given bank, the public funds should furnish 12,000 dollars, VOL. I. L U6 STATE OF NEW YORK. to make the capital of the institution 20,000 ; and the interest of this, with the annual suhscriptions, legacies, donations, collections at public meetings, exhibitions of manufactures, and concerts of music held by the blind pupils at stated periods of the year, furnish ample funds for the support of the Institution, and the gradual increase of its accommo- dation for pupils. The time of the pupils is divided into three parts, and their instruction is arranged and organized into three departments — intellectual, mechanical, and musical. The superintendent has the entire direc- tion of all the internal concerns of the Institution, besides which, he gives daily lectures to the pupils on various subjects of knowledge and science adapted to their capacities, and occasionally takes part in the instruction of a class. The school is regularly opened twice a day for instruction in reading, writing, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and history. Reading is accomplished by feeling the pages of a book with embossed or raised letters. Perfection in this is readily acquired by some of the blind, and with difficulty by others. Children have a greater sensibility of feeling in the extremity of the fingers than grown persons ; and those whose hands have been hardened by work, have this feeling blunted. Even those whose sensi- bility of touch is so great as to enable them to read with facility the books printed for the blind, have this capacity greatly abated or destroyed when the fingers are cold, dirty, wet with perspiration, or rough with mechanical employments. Hence it is, that all the pupils do not engage in this exer- EDUCATION OF THE BLIND. 147 else, and that the best class of readers is composed of young females, and of male children not engaged in the workshops. Writing is best performed with a pencil, as a blind person cannot see to the perfection of the pen, or the flow of the ink, and its regular supply ; and when the pen is raised, the place to recommence cannot be correctly ascertained. Various contri- vances have been suggested and tried for this pur- pose ; but the simplest is that of a grooved pasteboard, on which the paper is placed, and the grooves guide the pencil of the writer in a straight line. Much of the instruction conveyed to the blind is oral. Their want of sight abstracts them from external objects, and in many cases renders them highly intellectual. Hence their memories are ver^ tenacious and retentive, and they acquire a perfect knowledge of grammar, geography, and history, by oral communication witli their teachers. Amono^ the pupils in the school of this Institution, the super- intendent feels confident he can turn out a class (and some of them quite young) equal in gi^ammar and geography to any class of the same number in any other school. The details of geography are also conveyed by oral instruction, but maps and globes with raised lines, grooves, prominences, points, &c. have been prepared for the blind, and the pupils are exercised upon them by feeling out rivers, lakes, mountains, coasts, bays, towns, and other things thereon delineated. A knowledge of history depends altogether upon the tenacity of the memory in retain- ing what the teachers read to them. Arithmetic is acquired both mentally and mecha- l2 148 STATE OF NEW YORK. nically. Several have a remarkable capacity for this science, and in them the organ of numbers is largely developed ; hence they find no difficulty in calculating, mentally, problems in arithmetic involv- ing many figures. Music is also cultivated, both vocal and instru- mental ; and considerable proficiency has been attained in both, by the pupils, so that public con- certs are occasionally given by them for the benefit of the Institution, at which none but the pupils perform, and this they do with great credit to them- selves. Many are thus taught, beyond their mere literary attainments, the knowledge of some useful art, by the practice of which they can maintain themselves independently when they leave the Institution ; and the only matter of regret is, that such asylums are not sufficiently numerous in all countries, to secure to every person afflicted with blindness the enjoy- ment and independence which study and the pursuit of some useful occupation is certain to secure, and which might be thus easily brought within the reach of all. There is an Asylum for Lying-in Women, which affi>rds relief to poor but respectable females, whose marriages are capable of proof, and whose characters are good. Some of these are taken to the Asylum and attended there, and others receive medical aid and other assistance at their own homes. It is superintended chiefly by benevolent ladies, and conducted by a matron with proper assistants ; and during the fourteen years of its existence, 964 of the applicants to it have been safely and efifec- REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. 149 tually relieved, while only eight deaths have occurred in the whole period. It is supported entirely by volun- tary subscription, and is the only similar institution in the city. A Dispensary also exists, for supplying medical advice, as well as medicine, gratuitously to the poor, which is supported by voluntary contributions. It has subsisted for forty-six years, and, during that period, 17,544 persons have been relieved through its instrumentality, at the moderate cost of about 3,000 dollars for the whole period. One of the most valuable of the benevolent insti- tutions in the city, is the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents. This institution was estab- lished for the purpose of taking charge of the youthful criminals and vagrants taken up by the police in the streets and highways, and endeavouring to effect these three great objects : first, of reforming their bad habits, and giving them a moral, and, if possible, a religious character ; next, of giving them some mental acquirements by education ; and thirdly, teaching them some honest trade or calling, by which they might obtain a subsistence. It has been in operation for twelve years, and has hitherto produced the best results. The number of the boys in this Institution is at present 145, and of girls 69. The two sexes are taught in different apartments, and exercised in different sections of the building, and each is attended by teachers of its own sex only. The coloured are also separated from the white delinquents ; for even among criminals, this distinction of colour is rigidly observed. 150 STATE Or« NEV/ YORK. We were struck with the testimony of the teachers and superintendent, as to the large share which intemperance had in producing the crimes of which these very young persons were the victims, some of them not more than seven or eight years of age, and none above fifteen or sixteen ; and this was so strongly impressed on the minds of the directors of the Institution, that in their last annual report for 1837, they advert to it in the following terms : " In enumerating a few of the chief causes of crime in this country, as discovered in the experience of the managers, we liave as usual to commence with that hydra-headed monster, intemper- ance ! Such is the general demand for labourers and mechanics in every branch of business, and so remunerating are the wages to be obtained by the industrious, that there would seem to be but little incentive to crime, occasioned by want, as a person has only to be sober and industrious to obtain the means of support. That mora- lity and religion are practised and reverenced by thousands of the labouring classes, is a fact evident to every person of observation ; that such might be the case much more extensively in every class, nobody will deny : what is done by some, can be done by others in similar circumstances. But, alas! the never-failing supply of ardent spirits, and at so cheap a price as to bring them within the com- pass of every man's pm-se, is so direct and constant a temptation, that it seems to require something more than human nature to withstand it. When once the first feelings of propriety are over- come, and the Rubicon passed, there is but Httle hope that any self- control afterwards will be exercised to expel the tempter from his new abode. The same indescribable fascination which binds the ambitious man in the pursuit of his favourite object, whatever it may be, exercises a similar or even more potent influence over the drunkard. He first sacrifices himself, then his wife and children, until all are reduced to the lowest grade of human misery. Al- though, in most cases, we are ready to beheve that the unfortunate wife will stem the torrent of affliction, without contamination, and preserve her tender babes from the moral pollution which smromids REPORT OF THE SOCIETY. 151 them, yet, alas ! it sometimes happens that she, too, becomes the victim, corrupted by her husband's example, and, as a necessary consequence, the poor children, imtil then iimocent, are forced into the paths of vice by their unnatural parents ? This is no * fancy sketch ;' it is an every-day truth ; and the records of the House of Refuge most distinctly prove, that by far the greater number of its inmates have been brought to their unfortunate condition by the intemperance of a father or a mother, or both. " The book which contains the histories of the children who have been admitted into the house, is a most instructive one to read, and should not be beneath the notice of a legislator. Its pages may almost be called a ' succinct account of the rise and progress of intemperance.' The philanthropist who peruses its simple and unpretendhig details, will exclaim, when he finished it, ' Could we but abolish drunkenness, where would we find candidates for admission into our prisons ?' " If the effects of this dreadful plague be such as we describe, (and who can call our statement into question ?) is it not an act of duty on the part of the constituted authorities^ to whom power is given for the benefit of the whole commimity, to do all they can to lessen, if they cannot eradicate, this vice? " There is another evil of seiious magnitude in this city, which we think requires correction — we allude to those petty pawn- brokers' shops, which are to be found in many of our most public streets. " The facility with which money can be obtained on any article, whether new or old, whether of great or Httle value, holds out strong temptations to theft. " A pawnbroker who would not knowingly receive stolen goods, is still very liable to be imposed upon ; whilst one of a different character has numerous ways of encouraging thieves to con- tinue their evil practices. Persons m distressed circumstances, who are ashamed to beg, will thankfully take whatever sum, be it ever so small, they can obtain in the pawnbroker's shop, and submit to the loss of interest, or to the sale of their goods, if they cannot in time redeem them. Those who steals will also take whatever they can get advanced, as a loan, because it is all clear gain to them. Many a thief would steal an article worth ten shillings, and pawn it 152 STATE OF NEW YORK. for ten cents. Finding the ease with which they succeed in obtaining money, one petty theft follows another, until they become more bold in their depredations, and rob on a larger scale. " The system of loaning money to the poor can certainly be improved upon, and none calls more loudly for legislative interfer- ence. We have our chartered banks, and insurance companies, for the benefit of the community ; as by these means, accommodation and security can be furnished on better terms to the upper and middle classes of society ; while for the poor and needy, little provision has been made, so that they are left a prey to the arts of those who take advantage of their necessities." I have given these passages of the Report, in the hope that they will meet the eyes of some of our British legislators and philanthropists, having heen myself for years past convinced that public houses for drinking, and pawnbrokers' shops for lending, are two of the greatest curses that afflict our country ; and that the entire extirpation of both would be the greatest blessing that could be conferred upon our land. CHAP. IX. Misery and crime among the poorer classes — Levity of the public jom-nals in recording this — Bennett's slanderous paper, the Morning Herald — Bodies of dead negroes salted for exportation — Deaths from want and destitution — American importation of foreign grain — Reversion of the order of nature in this — Causes which led to this singular state of things — Instances of robbery, murder, and fraud — Occupations for the members of the law — Highwaymen in the suburbs of New York — Depravity of morals in the country — Intemperance and wretchedness in the towns — Authentic proofs of this from public records — Opinions as to the causes of so much depravity — Exposition of the progress of American embarrassment — Effects of these causes on the general condition of society — Party misrepresentations of the public press — Taste of the populace for shows and sights — Celebration of the anniversary of Evacuation- day — Description of this festival from an American pen. Notwithstanding the number and efficiency of the benevolent institutions of New York, there is still a large amount of misery and crime, of destitution in its most abject state, and of intemperance in its most fearful forms, existing in that city. A very painful part of this picture is the indifference, and even levity, with which this subject is treated in the public papers, where facts that ought to thrill the heart with horror, or melt it with pity, are treated of with all the flippancy of a jest, and their readers are thus habituated to see crime and wretchedness made subjects of amusement rather than of commiseration. The manner in which most of the police cases are treated (and the London papers have had their per- 151^ STATE OF NEW YORK. iiicious example too closely followed in this respect) is such as to take away all disgust at the crimes committed, and destroy all sympathy for its unhappy victims. Provided a laugh can he excited hy the air of the ludicrous with which the personages and their offences are invested, the ohject of the reporter appears to he answered ; and if the sale of the paper is thereby increased, the gains of the editor are also promoted; but the healthy feeling of indignation against crime, and of sympathy for human suffering, is by this means daily and hourly vitiated and destroy- ed. I offer as examples of this, two paragraphs out of fifty similar ones, at least, that fell under my eye during my stay in this city. " WELL FILLED. " The Courier of this morning states that some police officers had occasion to visit a house in Cross Street a few days since. They found that it was tenanted by seventy-two women, sixty-five men, and one hundred and thirty -five children, exclusive of the live stock attendant upon such a family." This paragraph, which was taken from the Com- mercial Advertiser in December, one of the leading Whig daily papers, was copied into nearly all the others, with the heading of '' Well Filled," pre- served in each ; and in no instance did I perceive added to it the slightest expression of regret that this opulent city should contain within its bosom such a number of unhappy beings huddled together in so confined a space, while hundreds were living in palaces, and could feed, by the surplus of their daily tables, the wretched inmates of these crowded dwellings. The terms "well-filled," and "live stock" were the parts of the paragraph that excited a EDITORIAL PROFLIGACY. 155 laugh ; while the amount of suffering indicated by the excessive numbers and limited space, were passed over without comment or observation. The follow- ing is just as heartless in its way. It is taken from the New York Daily Whig : " A fight came off at Maysville, Kentucky, on the iilOth, in which a Mr. Coulster was stabbed in the side, and is dead; a Mr. Gibson was well hacked with a knife ; a Mr. Farrs was dangerously wounded in the head, and another of the same name in the hip ; a Mr. Shoe- maker was severely beaten, and several others seriously hurt in various ways. This entertainment was the winding up of a com husking frolic, when all, doubtless, were right merry with good whisky^ What must be the indifference to human life, the contempt of morals, and the indulgent estimate of drunkenness, in the mind of the editor who could pen such a paragraph as this, (for this and its prede- cessor was printed in large open type, like the leading articles of the respective papers,) may be easily inferred. How then is it possible, while such heartless and unfeeling guides and teachers regulate the public taste, and supply the public appetite with mental food, that the community should not have their taste corrupted, their moral perceptions dead- ened, and their horror of crime frittered away to indifference ? Thus it is that announcements of the most revolting description are made with a coolness and nonchalance which is almost incredible. In the New York Transcript, of January 14, 1838, the editor of which professes to be a religious man, the following astounding assertion is made without note or comment ; and whether the statement be 156 STATE OF NEW YORK. true or false (and for the reputation of the city named, I would hope for the latter,) yet the heartless- ness of the editor who could make such a statement, without the expression of the slightest mark either of surprise or disapprobation, is the same. It is as follows : — " The business of supplying brothel-keepers with unsuspecting victims, has been adopted by the Boston intelligence office -keepers in Boston." The demoralizing effect which the daily perusal of such paragraphs as these must produce on the rising generation, is impossible to be calculated, from its familiarizing them with scenes of vice, of which they would otherwise have remained ignorant ; but still more, from its making crime and wretchedness the subject of jest and ridicule, by which the under- standing becomes blunted to the perception of evil, and the heart rendered callous to human suffering. There is one daily newspaper in New York, how- ever, which carries on such a trade of infamy, in pandering to the public appetite for slander and obscenity, that it deserves to be held up to public reprobation by name. It is called the Morning Herald, it is written and published by its proprietor, James Gordon Bennett, a native of Scotland by birth, but long domiciled in New York ; it is pub- lished, in three editions — a morning, an evening, and a weekly Herald — the two former at a penny, and the latter at three pence each. Its practice is to employ persons to collect all the gossip and scandal of the toAvn, relating to private families and indivi- duals ; and upon a grain or two of truth, to heap up a superstructure of falsehood, and then interlard this ABUSE OF THE PRESS. 1^7 with expressions or allusions of the grossest obscenity, and send it forth for the gratification of the depraved. Private dinner-parties, balls, and social meetings, are pretended to be reported in its pages — some of them having no existence, and others wholly misrepresent- ed ; and the only way of securing exemption from the attacks of his slanderous pen, is to advertise largely in the paper, and, pay most extravagant prices, or to send the editor presents, in money or other direct bribes. Several individuals have had letters addressed to them from the office of this paper, saying, that communications were in their possession which they would not like to see in print ; but that the only way of preventing their appearance, would be to pay the amount which had been offered for their insertion ; and some timid persons have been thus awed into the payment of the '* hush-mo- ney" required, though others have resisted it. The following circumstance occurred to myself with this paper: — On my arrival in New York, a gentleman, whom I had known in England, offered to allow his clerk to transact for me any business connected with advertising in the newspapers, to save me the trou- ble. I very gladly availed myself of this offer ; and the clerk accordingly took round the first advertise- ment of my lectures to each of the papers of the city, as he was directed to have it inserted in all, without distinction of party. At the offices generally, the charge varied between one and two dollars, but never exceeded the latter, for one insertion. At the office of the Morning Herald, ten dollars were demanded ; the great disproportion of the charge induced the clerk to decline leaving it there, till he had con- 158 STATE OF NEW YORK. suited his employer ; and accordingly the excessive charge demanded was communicated to me. Being then entirely ignorant of the characters of any of the papers, as I had been in the country hut a few days, I asked whether there was any thing in the great circulation or high reputation of the Morning He- rald, that could warrant its asking ten dollars for what other papers charged but two ; and the answer was " No : on the contrary, the paper has the worst reputation of any journal in the city — its cir- culation is confined to the lovers of scandal rather than of news ; and the editor is considered as a man of the most abandoned and unprincipled character." But, it was added, this is his method of asking, and obtaining " hush-money ;" and I was strongly re- commended to pay it, as the only method of escaping from his lash. My reply was, "Never — I would rather submit to any amount of vituperation that his press could pour forth against me, than pvu'chase his silence by this degrading and demoralizing payment of hush-money. I will neither advertise in his paper, nor read it, while I remain in the city." I was told what would happen — that I should be abused daily ; and this was really the fact, as I learnt from others, for I was true to my promise, of never seeing it myself. I was told, also, that I should re- pent the course I had taken ; but this prediction was not fulfilled. Mr. Bennett was tired of his task, as far as I was the subject of his abuse, in a very short time, and soon gave it up ; and if this course, of nei- ther paying for suppression, nor reading his vitupe- rations, were more generally followed by the commu- nity, it would extinguish his paper in a very short LEVITY OF MANNERS. 159 period. Others have followed a different method, but with a less favourable issue. By some, Mr. Ben- nett has been publicly horsewhipped in the street ; by others, he has been prosecuted at law ; but the result of both these modes of treatment has been to give himself and his paper greater notoriety than before, and thus to promote, rather than retard, the farther extension of the mischief. Another instance of the habit of treating with levity, incidents which, in any other country, would excite feelings of indignation and horror, may be given. It had been discovered, that of late, it was a common practice in New York, to ship off the bodies of dead negroes, male and female, for various ports, but especially the south, to the medical students, for dissection ; and, to elude suspicion, these dead bodies were put up in salt and brine, and packed in the same kind of casks as those in which salted provi- sions are exported from hence. A third or fourth discovery of this description was made during the month of January ; and the following is the manner in which it is headed and described in the papers of the day : — "more pork for the south. " Yesterday morning it was discovered that a barrel, which had been put into the office of the Charleston packet line — store of George Buckley, No. 88, South Street — for the purpose of being shipped to Charleston, contained the bodies of two dead negroes. The cask and contents were sent up to the police office, and placed in the dead- house for the Coroner's inspection ; but as he had no opportunity to hold an inquest on them yesterday, the particulars of the affair have not yet transpired." The verdict of the inquest, subsequently given, 160 STATE OF NEW YORK. was, that the negroes had died of disease ; but no further inquiry appears to have been made into the matter, as if it were altogether beneath the notice of the white men to trace out these traders in the dead bodies of the blacks. The instances of death, from destitution and want, are much more numerous than I had thought pos- sible in a country like this, where food of every kind is abundant and cheap ; and where labour of every description is largely remunerated. Besides the subscriptions raised in the different wards of this city to relieve the indigent and distressed classes, who, under any proper arrangement of things, ought not to exhibit instances of want, in large numbers, in a land of plenty, the Philadelphia Commercial Herald, of January, announces that "five hundred persons in indigent circumstances in that city were daily sup- plied with good soup, at the Western soup-house there." This indigence, in a country where food can be raised so cheap, where labour is in such demand, and always paid so well, would seem unaccountable, but for the fact, that in the late mania for specula- tion, the cultivators of the soil, instead of following up their agricultural pursuits, had left off farming, to become speculators in stocks, buyers of shares in rail-roads never begun, and canals never opened, as well as purchasers of lots of land on which towns were intended to be built; in which extravagant schemes they spent all their time and money ; so that agriculture, the great basis of the national wealth, and the surest and steadiest security of individual prosperity in these fertile States, was so neglected, that the country was obliged to import grain for its INORDINATE LOVE OF GAIN. l6l own consumption, instead of supplying, as it ought to do, from its own surplus, the older countries of Europe. From the vast amount of grain, grown in America, subjected to distillation — thus converting what nature has bountifully supplied for whole- some food, into the poisonous and crime-engender- ing drink of ardent spirits — and from the deficiency of the supply of grain from its own soil, for the rea- sons before assigned — this finest grain-producing coun- try on the globe was obliged to import its own food ; and it is stated in the public journals of this city, that in the year 1837, the single port of Baltimore alone, received 800,000 bushels of wheat, and 140,000 bushels of rye, from Europe. The following is the paragraph, verbatim : — " The amount of foreign grain imported into Baltimore dming the year 1837, was not far from eight hmidred thousand bushels of wheat, and one hundred and forty thousand bushels of rye." The inordinate love of gain, which has led to all these perversions of things from their right and pro- per channels, is working more mischief in this country, and undermining the moral principle of its inhabit- ants more powerfully than all other causes combined, except, perhaps, intemperance, the giant-destroyer that sweeps away thousands every year to a premature grave, and hurries its victims from a life of compara- tive virtue and honesty to a career of vice and infamy. The newspapers, from all quarters of the Union, teem with proofs of the recklessness with which this love of gain is indulged ; and every barrier that stands in the way of its acquisition seems to be broken down with- out scruple. Not long since, a young man who had VOL. I, M 162 STATE OF NEW YORK. entered life with brilliant prospects, and rvas engaged in a respectable house of business, acquired a taste for card-playing in the steam-boats, where, it is said, the passengers generally play for several hours a day while on their voyage, and where professed gamblers and sharpers are ready to profit by the occasion, at first ruining, and then seducing into their own ranks, the unguarded and the young. He soon became infatuated with the passion, quitted his regular busi- ness, played, lost, and betook himself to robbery : when every new exploit making him more and more desperate, he entered one of the banks at Nashville in Tennessee, at a period of the day when the clerks were absent at dinner, and finding there the cashier, seized him, and killed him at a blow, by beating his brains out with a hammer. The cries of the victim brought a person from an adjoining room to his relief, and he was despatched in a similar manner ; when others soon after arriving, he was interrupted in his plunder of the drawers of the bank, with which he was proceeding ; till, seeing all hope of escape vain, he drew a loaded pistol, with which he had fur- nished himself, for the murder of another, and with it blew out his own brains on the spot. This had scarcely been communicated through the papers, before the following paragraph appeared, in the New York Sun, of January 29. " THE ROBBERY OF THE MAIL, AND MURDER OF THE DRIVER. " The Mobile Advertiser of the 22d states, that on the previous Friday night, within a mile and a half of Stockton, the mail bags were ripped open and their contents rifled. The bags were found REMARKABLE CASE OF FRAUD. l63 next morning in the neighbourhood. The stage contained the New Orleans mails of Wednesday and Thursday, and the mail of Friday from Mobile. The driver had two balls shot through his head. Suspicion rests upon two men who had been lurking about Stockton for some days previously." But to show that these robberies and frauds are not confined to the south, though no doubt they are more abundant there than in the north, the follow- ing short summary may be given from the New York Transcript of the same day, January '29, 1838. ** ATTEIVIPT AT EXTENSIVE FRAUD. " A considerable excitement was produced in Wall-street circles on Friday and Saturday, in consequence of the discovery of an attempt to perpetrate extensive frauds by several persons, in this city, some of whom have hitherto maintained characters highly respectable for honour, honesty, and wealth. It appears, that by forging a letter in the name of a bank in Kentucky, addressed to the president or cashier of the Union Bank of this city, in which the plates of the Kentucky bank were deposited, those plates were obtained, taken to the printers, Messrs. Burton and Co., and 370,000 dollars of bills of the Kentucky bank struck off, ready for signature. A man caUing himself Scott, who came, as is stated, from Cleveland, Ohio, and who brought the letter to the office of the Union bank, having gone on to Boston while the bills were printing off, returned at night, and, owing to the imseasonable hour at which he called upon the printer, the latter suspected that there was something wrong in the transaction, when going to the president of the Union bank, and stating his suspicions, that officer, on look- ing at the letter from the president of the Kentucky bank, ascer- tained that it was a forgery. " The 370,000 doUars of bills of Kentucky that had been struck off, were then handed over to the Union bank, and Scott, whose real name is Pitcher, was arrested and imprisoned, as was also Mr. Charles Stearns of Waverley Place, in this city, who whilom figured as the getter-up of some Illinois shinplasters which he advertised to be redeemed m this city, at his own house in Waverley Place, and M 2 l64 STATE OF NEW YORK. many of which, though worthless, were pushed into circulation. Both these men are now in prison, and many others of no less note are said to be implicated, whose names, when arrested, will be given to the public." Two days after this, in the Sun, of January 31st, another species of fraud was announced in the fol- lowing paragraph. " FALSE TOKENS. "Is there no way to reach the knaves who have flooded this city, with checks, made in form of bills upon banks in which they have not a dollar deposited? It is one of the most palpable descriptions of knavery ever attempted, and fully equal in moral guilt to the counterfeiting of bank notes. In its pm'pose, and in its operation, it is no less than counterfeiting ; and we recommend every citizen, who receives a note of this description, to commence a prosecution forthwith against the person of whom he received it. The laws against small notes, and against the notes of other states, may be improved for this purpose, if for no other." My apology for these quotations, if any indeed he necessary, is the apprehension that if such statements were made by me, of the condition of society here, without an exhibition of the authorities for the facts, it would be thought an exaggerated picture ; and I should be open to the imputation of having over- charged the colouring. But it is only necessary to consult American authorities, and not English ones, to show that recklessness and fi-aud are far more prevalent in this community than in most others of a mercantile character in Europe, and that an inordi- nate thirst after gain, and a determination to acquire it by any means that are practicable, is one of the chief causes of this evil. Another form in which this passion displays itself is in the frequency of fires in this country. That, with FREQUENCY OF FIRES. 165 the utmost degree of prudence, fires will occasionally happen, and prove destructive, in spite of every pre- caution, is undeniable. But the extreme frequency of fires in this city is so much greater than could be accounted for by ordinary causes, that the almost uni- versal belief here is, that the majority of them are inten- tional; some being occasioned by persons desiring to realize a large insurance, and thus defraud the insurance offices ; some by persons wishing to furnish an excuse for the destruction of papers, books, and obligations, so as to defraud their creditors ; some for the purpose of evading the payment of rent due, by removal of furniture, so as to leave nothing to seize ; and some by wretches who desire only an opportunity to plunder. The last fire that happened during our stay in New York, and which occurred on the 30th of January, was one originated by persons of the latter description, who were traced out dis- tinctly as the perpetrators of the act, and seen afterwards engaged in carrying ofi* some of the effects as plunder. By this calamity, about sixty houses were destroyed, the wind raging so high as to defeat all the efforts of the firemen and engines to subdue the flames, and more than one hundred families were thus thrown almost naked and house- less into the streets, in a night of the severest cold we had yet experienced for the winter. The indifference with which all this is regarded, is almost as painful as the frequent occurrence of the calamity itself, because it shows the utter want of that most amiable of all social qualities, sympathy in the sufferings of others, and a desire to relieve them in their distress, It is a custom in this city, 166 STATE OF NEW YORK. when a fire breaks out, for the bell of the City-hall to be rung in a particular manner, so as to indicate the locality of the fire, while the other churches have their bells rung in a different manner, merely to apprise the town of the event. In any other city than this, the ringing of these bells would excite great attention ; but the very frequency with which fires occur, is urged as an excuse for taking no notice of them ; and it is a common saying, ** that the only fit test of determining whether a person should disturb himself on hearing the bells ringing and engines rattling along the pavement is this : to put his hand up to the wall at the head of his bed, and if it be very hot, it is time for him to move ; but if not, he had better remain where he is." That fires produced by incendiaries are not confined to New York, however, the following paragraph, taken from the New York Sun of January 81, will show. ** WHOLESALE INCENDIARISM. " On the morning of the 22nd instant, no less than three of the principal stahles in the most thickly settled part of Somerset, Pennsylvania, were set fire to by incendiaries. That in the stable, from which the most destruction would have spread, fortunately went out ; the other two stables were consumed, together with nine valuable horses, a number of cows, carriages, grain, hay, &c. The citizens of Somerset have since held a meeting in reference to the matter, and offer a reward of 500 dollars for the detection of the incendiaries." In such a state of society as this, it may be readily imagined that there is abundant occupation for the members of the legal profession ; and such is the fact, as well as for the agents of the police. It may be thought that the existence of highwaymen, not INCENDIARISM AND HIGHWAY ROBBERY. iGj merely in the neighbourhood of New York, but actually in the city itself, would be incredible ; but in addition to several instances verbally related to me of such desperate persons attacking individuals on the road, and robbing them, the following announce- ment from the New York Sun, of February 2, 1838, puts the matter beyond doubt. ** LOOK OUT FOR HIGHWAYMEN UP TOWN. " A gentleman passing down Tenth Street, between fifth and sixth avenues, about nine o'clock on Tuesday night, was violently assaulted by a villain who sprung over the fence, and, without pro- vocation, aimed a heavy blow at his head, which he escaped by stooping ; his hat only being knocked off, as his head would have stood a strong chance of being, had it met the ruffian's club. A watchman promptly answered the assailed gentleman's call for aid, and the vagabond was secured at the upper police office ; but the earnest entreaties of his wife, and the prospective trouble and hinderance a prosecution would occasion him, induced the gentleman not to proceed against the ruffian, and he was discharged. "We mention the circumstance, to put people on their guard wliile passing through that part of the city after dark." It may be thought that the vicious associations of a crowded city, are chiefly, if not exclusively, the cause of such crimes as these; but the accounts from the country furnish too many melancholy instances of a state of morals not at all less depraved than that which prevails among the more degraded classes in the towns. It would fill a large sheet daily to give all the statements of crime and wretchedness that are brought before the public eye every morning and every evening of the week, in the journals of this city alone ; but the three following extracts, taken from two papers of the same date, the Evening Post and the Transcript, of February 2, 1838, will be sufficient 168 STATE OF NEW YORK. as specimens of the kind of depravity which unhap- pily exists in a land blessed with a more abundant production of the necessaries of life than almost any country that can be named ; where lafcour is more in demand, and better paid, than in any part of Europe ; where millions of unoccupied tracts of land invite the cultivation of the industrious j where the institutions of the state open to every man of intel- ligence, industry, and integrity, the honours and emoluments of the public service; where private enterprise has an almost unlimited field for its operations ; and where religious professors are more numerous, religious publications more abundant, and benevolent institutions more thickly planted, than in any country under the sun ; yet, in spite of all these advantages, the crime and misery that deface the land are terrible to contemplate. Here are the three paragraphs adverted to. " HORRIBLE ATTEMPTS OF POISONING. " The Frankfort Ohio Argus gives a dreadful detail of three successive poisonings by arsenic, of the entire family of Dr. Helm, residing at Springborne. The writer found the doctor and his nephew, also a physician, together with Mrs. Helm, and five of the children, all suffering under the agonies of poison. The youngest child was but foiu* weeks old. The cause was using at supper cream or milk in which arsenic had been put. The persons all reco- vered, and the family now suspecting that some black-heai-ted wretch intended to make away with them, interdicted any provisions being brought into the house but what were brought from the country. In a few days, however, they were all down again, with the burning symptoms at the pit of the stomach, and vomitings ; — this time, introduced in the coffee or water, and the attending physician, Dr. Dubois, also one of the sufferers. They recovered : but, incredible to relate, a third attempt was now made, and proved fatal to one of DEPLORABLE STATE OF MORALS. l69 the boys, by introducing the arsenic into some hominy. The post- mortem examination by nine physicians proved that arsenic was the cause, and the cream and milk above-mentioned contauied large quantities of it. The neighbours flocked in to offer their sym- pathies, and ferret out the demon who could be guilty of such atrocities. It is devoutly to be hoped that such a monster in human shape may encounter the wrath of Heaven wherever he may be." " DEPLORABLE MORALS. " On Wednesday evening, officer Driesback, of the first ward, brought up to the police a woman, and a little girl about twelve years of age — mother and daughter, whom he had picked up in the street — both beastly drunk, the mother so much so that she was past talking. The magistrate asked the girl how in the world she came to be so drunk? to which she drawlingly answered, "Why, mother is drunk too ! " They were both sent over to Bridewell, to get sober. Had they not been so fortunate as to be rescued from the exposure to which their folly and helplessness had subjected them, both would have inevitably perished in the street." " A MISERABLE SCENE. " The watchmen in Oak Street were called on Wednesday evening to arrest a man who had been beating his wife. On entering the cellar, the men were startled by stumbling over a pine coffin. This led to an examination of the premises, and the finding a man dead on a bed, his wife beastly drunk, and one child lying by his side, and two children nearly frozen to death on the floor. The man had died during the course of the day, from sickness and misery. The Hving parties were all taken to the watch-house, and discharged this morning, that they might bury the dead." I had heard verbally a hundred eases, at least, of crime the most revolting, and misery the most appal- ling, during my stay in New York ; a large number, it must be admitted, among the emigrant families from England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as other foreigners with which this city abounds, though some also among natives of the country ; but though all lyO STATE OF NEW YORK. were communicated to me by American gentlemen long resident in the city, and of undoubted veracity, I preferred selecting such instances as the public journals of the day furnished ; because these, by their very publicity, challenged contradiction, and in no instances, as far as I could discover, was their accuracy called in question. These cannot be con- sidered, therefore, as the libels of a prejudiced Englishman, uttered against the country in a fit of disappointment or of spleen, but as the grave and partial testimony of the American journals, conducted by men who are generally disposed to put the most favourable construction on every thing that belongs to, or occurs within, their own country ; and who always seek to present the most favourable aspect of their public affairs, and private morals, to those who sojourn among them. As to the causes to which these evils may be traced, I had listened to disquisition upon disqui- sition, in private circles ; and from what I had heard, and what I had seen, I had drawn my own conclusions. Some of these I have ventured to express in the preceding pages ; and to others I shall from time to time give utterance, as the occasion may demand. But to answer, by anticipation, any imputations of unfairness, or harshness of judgment, which may be pronounced on such strictures by those who might be disposed to think them overcharged, I avail myself again of a native authority, of good repute, and extensive circulation among the middle classes of society, 30,000 copies daily being the amount of its sale in New York alone, in which, in a leading article of the Sun of February 2, 1838, STATE OF SOCIETY. I7I is the following frank, and, I believe, perfectly ho- nest review of the causes and consequences of the present state of society in America : — " Enterprise has long been spoken of as a characteristic of our nation; and in the way of enterprise, Uncle Sam* certainly de- serves the credit of having outstripped his older neighbours. — No undertaking, which promised any adequate return, has, in any difficulty short of impossibihty, found cause sufficient to deter us Americans. Even impossibihty must be demonstrated beyond a question, by a score or two of abortive attempts, before it is admit- ted. * Try,' is the first word, the meaning of which is thoroughly mastered. Boys are men before they are loosed from their leading strings. They are educated in the belief that every man must be the architect of his own fortune. There is, to be sure, a Hmited class, who look forward to the arrival at majority, or to the decease of parents, as the commencement of an era in which they will have no duty to do but to enjoy the property bequeathed them. But as a class, it is too small to be considered in the estimate of national character. The great majority look forward to manhood as the time to act, and anticipate it by juvenile participation in the events of busy life. Boys argue upon polemics, political economy, party pohtics, the mysteries of trade, the destinies of nations. Dreams of ambition, or of wealth, nerve the arm which drives the hoop — the foot, which gives the ball its impetus. Toys are stock in trade. Barter is fallen into by instinct, as a young duck takes to the water. " There is scarcely a lad of any spirit who does not, from the time that he can connect the most simple ideas, picture to himself some rapid road to wealth — indefinite and obscure, it is true. But he reads the history of Girard, and of others who have amassed wealth. He sees the termini of the race — ^poverty at one end, affluence at the other, and jumps the intermediate years. He fan- cies that the course of amassing will be as easy as imagination. He dreams of dashing into a fortune by some lucky speculation. ♦ " Uncle Sam," is a national term for the American people; as "John Bull," is for the English. It seems to have superseded the phrase, " Bro- ther Jonathan." 172 STATE OF NEW YORK. Contentment with competence he learns to regard as a slothful vice. To become rich, and, of course, respected — influential, great, pow- erful — is his darling object. He contemns the honest labour, which was considered the road to wealth before enterprise was so rife, and, if he respects his father, he respects him as a good, honest old drudge, with old-fashioned notions, but altogether barbarous, and behind the age. If maternal fondness, and juvenile pertinacity in preferrmg requests, succeed, he is launched, at one-and-twenty, on the sea of enterprize, with all his father's available capital embarked with him. If the old gentleman is too stubborn to yield his opi- nion, or if other circumstances make it imperative that he should, for a while, be content with honest but sure gains, the result of industry, he embraces the first opportimity to leave his craft for speculation — to throw a bird in the hand away, and commence the pursuit of those in the bush. " One great cause of our present state is the almost universal contempt into which industry, in producing, has fa'llen. The agricul- tural States — those we mean which produce the direct necessaries of life — are not half cultivated. The youthful energies, which should be devoted to improving lands and the mode of culture, to embracing and practising the lessons of experience, to blending and testing the discoveries of agricultural theorists with practical culti- vation, are devoted, instead, to speculating in the scanty product which old lands yield, under partial improvement. Even the old farmers themselves, men, one would think, clear enough of enter- prise^ betray that national characteristic in their grasping for terri- tory. They measure the value of farms, not by their productive- ness, but by their extent. They grasp territory, till the taxes on its nominal value are, contrasted with its actual weath, a serious burden. They pursue even a more foohsh course than the hoarder of inactive money, because, while the miser's gold pays him nothing, it costs him nothing for keeping ; while the farmer's pride, in the addition of acre to acre, is an expensive investment, even aside from the purchase money. " In our cities, a natural consequence of tliis mania for specula- tion was the increase of banks, and the distention of their issues. Banking facilities were in every body's reach. Almost every body was on some board of directors, or had a father, brother, cousin. COMIVIERCIAL SPECULATION. 173 friend, or acquaintance there. Wliere that was not the case, an endorser could be had for a premium, or the money of banks could be obtained through broker jackals. "Now speculation in her glory walked. Joint-stock companies of every possible description started into existence. City lots, town lots, highland lots, swamp lots, granite quarries. India-rubber companies, rail-roads, canals, and every possible description of in- vestment were offered, to absorb this redundancy of nominal currency. Associations to extract sun-beams from cucumbers, a la Sivift, and moonshine from sunbeams ; Texas speculations, cotton speculations, and fancy stock-gambling, drove out the legitimate business of the merchant ; and even coaxed the mechanic, the student, and the pro- fessional man, into the vortex — to be ruined. " In the midst of this glare of fictitious business, luxury has been appealed to, to evade thought of the future, as the gambler drinks deep while his all is at stake. Luxury and extravagance have been the curse of all classes, from the richest down almost to the very poorest. European nobles and princes, with sure incomes and immense, have been taken for models ; and, with true Ameri- can enterprise, the models have been outdone. Troops of servants have taken the place of the cook, the chambermaid, and the boy John. Three have been installed where one formerly served. High- seasoned dishes and expensive knicknacks have driven out the plain joint. Silver services have supplanted china, delft, and Britannia ware. Expensive carriages have taken the place of the comfortable old family coach ; and coaches and chaises have been set up by fami- lies who are really puzzled to find a use for them. The fine arts, which are capable of exerting a refining and excellent influence, have only served to minister to the insolvency of those whose only standard of value is price, and whose rules of taste are graduated by dollars. Travelling in foreign countries has been abused. Once it was a great means of improvement. Now our young men are retm'ned rogues and fops, with extravagant anti- American notions, and a disposition to hug and imitate all the follies of European travellers in this country. The heads of American wives and daughters are turned, and infant children look forward to travel, to finish them. Amusement has been eagerly sought at any cost ; and the more extravagant its price, the more genteel. Frugality has been con- 174 STATE OF NEW YORK. temned as on old-fashioned and dirty foible. Dress has been out- rageously expensive — cost being the only criterion of its quality. " So much for a review of the past. In the present quiet, we rejoice to believe a revolution is at work. Eyes have been opened to the destructive consequences of an over issue of bank promises ; and the industrious body of the people have learned to watch banks with a jealousy which will effectually bar, for many a year, any return of the evils we have just gone through. " After all the scenes of commercial distress, and of suffering among the operative and industrious, the conclusion yet remains, that nothing has been annihilated. The world stands the same. We are not so much poorer than we were, as we have thought. The only difference is, that time and truth, those expe- rienced appraisers, have restored the old and true valuation to commodities which have been overvalued, and pronounced those worthless which are so. It may be that there is some deprecia- tion, but prudence and industry will soon put things upon a stable basis. We are much richer in experience — ^much more humble — much more frugal — much more prudent, already ; and if the refor- mation proves permanent, then will even the pressure have proved a good speculation." This was one of the most sensible expositions of the true causes of the present state of affairs that I remember to have met with in any of the public prints that fell under my eye ; and it is to be regret- ted, that such frank and instructive expositions are not more frequently made. Instead of this, each party organ endeavours to throw the whole blame of the matter on the party to which it is opposed ; and to effect this, no sort of device is left untried. Mis- representation, the most gross and palpable, is re- sorted to on the most common occasions, even on those where detection of such misrepresentation is certain ; and the result is, that the public press here, as in England, is fast losing what little influ- TREASURIES AND SUB-TREASURIES. 175 ence it possessed over the public mind, by writing itself down by its own extravagancies. The great question now in debate between the two conflicting parties of the State, for instance, is this — whether the Government shall keep safe custody of the surplus revenue in w^ell-secured treasuries of its own, under responsible officers, and with every available guarantee for security, — or whether they shall deposit it in a great bank, like the Bank of England, such as was the United States bank, or in smaller branches of such an institution. One would think that the only question which would interest the people in this affair, was, as to the relative degree of safety and security, or otherwise ; for as it is the community who must pay all the taxes and duties that compose the revenue, and make good any loss accruing after its collection, it is clearly their interest to prefer that mode of custody and safe keeping which is most secure ; and the government treasuries would seem, to most unprejudiced men, better for this purpose than any private banks. But this plain question has been so mystified by the Whig party — who are against these treasuries and sub-treasuries, and who want the Government to deposit this surplus in a great bank, and let that bank trade upon it, so as to affbrd credit and discounts to merchants and speculators — that the whole community is divided into two hostile parties upon this subject; as they are in Ireland upon the tithe-question ; in Scotland, upon the voluntary system ; and in England, upon church-rates and the ballot. There would be no great evil in this, if fairness of dealing characterized their proceedings; but 176 STATE OF NEW YORK. every thing is distorted, to serve party views. If the largest meeting is got up on one side, the opposite party declares it to be a mere handful in numbers. If the parties are ever so wealthy and respectable, they are pronounced to be a set of needy vagabonds. If the talent of the speeches should be of the highest kind, they would call them mere drivellings ; and if the order was undisturbed for a single moment, they would describe it as a bear-garden — and in this, too, the party-press of England has unhappily set them an example. Sometimes, indeed, the fact of the numbers is so notorious, that it cannot be safely denied ; but then another course is taken — to admit the numbers, but pretend that, after all, this matters nothing, for other reasons which they assign. A ludicrous instance of this occurred in the Evening Star, of February 8, 1838, in which the editor. Major Noah, himself very recently one of the democratic party that he now denounces, writes thus : — " The New Era and Evening Post, organs of the Locofoco party, declare that there was an immense meeting at Tammany Hall on Tuesday evening, full 2000 pefsons present. We helieve it, and what does it prove ? Why, that in a city of 300,000 inhabit- ants, 2000 radicals, agrarians, Fanny- Wright men, and Locofocos can be found, who, having no employment, no interest in society, no means present or prospective, have thrown themselves on the bounty of the Van Buren party, and in hopes of part of * the spoils,* and a portion in a scramble for the people's money, have by invita- tion met at Tammany Hall, and swallowed the whole dose pre- pared by the office-holders. The appeal having been made by our rulers to men * wanting principle and wanting bread,' to organize against respectable American citizens having something at stake, it was not surprising that they crowded to Tammany Hall to obey orders. They will claim their pay shortly." HABITS OF EXAGGERATION. 177 "Agrarians" is the name here given to people who meet to recommend the Government to keep the revenue in safe custody in treasuries of their own, instead of entrusting it to speculating banks, at the risk of losing it all ; though in other countries this term is usually, though erroneously, applied to those who are supposed to desire that the public lands and public wealth should be taken from the rich and divided among the poor. Here, too, the ** scramblers for the share of the spoils of the people's money" are not the bankers, who want it to trade upon, with all the risk of gain or loss, but the people themselves, who want their own money to be taken care of, that it may not be scrambled for by any body; and here also, "poverty and the want of bread," which is falsely asserted to be the condition of those who attended this meeting, is imputed or insinuated as a crime, and as making the parties disreputable by their mere poverty alone, a doctrine as current among the Whigs in America as in England. When a writer of the Whig party has to describe a meeting on their own side, however, he can find no terms sufficiently swelling and lofty in which to express himself. The 2000 who may attend it, are not, as in the former case, taken to be the whole body that can be mustered out of 300,000 inhabit- ants, but, by a magic flourish of the editorial wand they are made to be the representatives of many millions that are absent, and every thing they do or say is of the most pure, most disinterested, most intelligent, most eloquent, and most dignified descrip- tion. Their " thunder" is not like any other thunder that was ever heard before ; and the very globe seems VOL. I. N 178 STATE OF NEW YORK. to be shaken to its centre by their gigantic powers. As an illustration of this, the following is from the Daily Whig of the morning succeeding that of the Evening Star, namely, February 9, 1838 : — " THE GREAT ANTI-SUB-TREASURY IVIEETING. " We have heard the old temple of liberty, Masonic Hall, ring tiU its rafters cracked with the shout of assembled thousands, that drowned the thunders of artillery on a great and patriotic triumph ; but we never witnessed or heard any thing like the burst of Ameri^ can feeling which resounded there on Wednesday night. If the somid does not make the Wliite House* at Washington tremble, and the Machiavelian Belshazzar'sf knees smite against each other with " fear of change, perplexing,' then there is rather strength- giving than death, in the poisoned chalice, which, prepared by himself for the people, he must drain to the very dregs of bitter- ness. " The limits of this paper will not allow us to afford even a meagre outline of the powerful appeals which were made to Ameri- can pride, honour, and patriotism, on that occasion, m opposition to the most impudent and tyrannical stretch of power that was ever suggested by the drunken brain of ambition. Every thing was said, by Chandler Starr, Esq., Alderman Paterson, Alderman Bruen, Hugh Maxwell, Esq., and Hiram Ketchum, Esq., that love of country could dictate or eloquence enforce ; and a response was echoed back from the throng crowding every part of the hall, that thrilled through e^^ery fibre of our body, as it did through the whole assembled multitude. There was but one feeling with three thousand American citizens there present, the representatives of ten millions who were absent, — and that feeling was ivdignation at the tyranny of our rulers. There was but one high resolve that made three thousand hearts beat together loudly, and that was, not to bear the iron yoke ivhich is forging for them. There is no mistaking the spirit of 1776, wherever and w'henever it shows * The White House, at Washington, is the official residence of the presi- dent of the United States for the time being, f This is applied to Mr. Van Buren, the existing president. TASTE FOR PUBLIC SPECTACLES. 179 itself; and the free people of our United States will be themselves incarcerated in the subterranean dungeons of the * Independent Treasury,' before they suffer the revenues of the country to be converted to the base uses of poHtical traitors." Such are the distorted and exaggerated pictures, drawn by the writers on each side, of the proceedings of their own party, and of their opponents: but, though this practice deserves the severest reproba- tion, candour compels us to admit, that the English press has shown them the example ; and they have only made the copy more highly coloured than the original. — I pass on, however, to other topics. The taste of the populace in New York for shows and sights is quite as strong as in any part of Eng- land ; and public celebrations of particular events by anniversary days, appear to excite more general attention. Two such days occurred during our stay in this city ; the first was called " Evacuation day," from the English troops having quitted the city on that day, the 25th of November ; and the second was the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, where General Jackson obtained so decided a victory over the British. This last was chiefly confined to the administration party, being tinged with political associations ; but the first was more general, though the weather was extremely unfavour- able to public processions. The reports of the day's proceedings in the newspapers were as varied as their general character ; but there was one that offered so good a specimen of a kind of writing which is pecu- liar to America, that I venture to transcribe it. Its peculiarity consists in a strange mixture of the serious and the sarcastic, the grave and the witty, N 2 180 STATE OF NEW YORK. the sober and the ironical, with all the while an under-current of self-gratulation at the exploits of the country, and the privilege of being one of its citizens. If a foreigner had written it, it would have been thought contemptuous ; but from the pen of a native American, it is meant to be at once amusing and complimentary, and would be so regard- ed even by the personages described. Here it is. " Your hero never shows white feather Even to the very worst of weather. " We could not but feel a stirring impulse of enthusiasm — a thrill of patriotic pride and self-gratulation — at 7 o'clock this morn- ing, at beholding the indomitable spirit of bravery and contempt of danger exhibited by a detachment of our martial fellow-citizens, returning up Broadway, in the very teeth of the snow-storm, from the performance of their arduous duty at the Battery. " There," we soliloquized, " goes the palladium of our country's safety against all the power of a world in arms — ^there go the dauntless heart, the iron frame, the arm of might, and the soul of patriotic chivalry." Who can entertain a doubt of American bravery, when he sees those noble fellows — those unconquerable citizen -soldiers — trudg- ing thus gallantly along, through mud and slush, and wind and snow, bearing their heads erect, with unwinking eyes, and muskets bravely shoiildered, and looking as calm and resolute as though the loveliest of spring-time were blooming joyously about them. First came a band of youthful heroes, arrayed with cap and plume, and braided coats, and knapsacks at their backs, imshrlnk- ingly encountering the fury of the elements, without great coat or cloak, or even worsted comforter to guard their throats against the damp and cold : then follow^ed the bold musicians, pom-ing the martial strain from fife and drum, and trumpet — giving old winter blast for blast ; then came the grim and frowiilng cannons — two of them — each with its tumbril, charged with the fiery dust that emu- lates the volleying thunder ; and last, though far from least, the sturdy veterans of the ancient corps, disdaining all the foppery of Mars, and breasting the pitiless northern wind and driving sleet in PUBLIC PROCESSIONS. 181 their plain blue coats, round hats, and other every-day habiliments. One craven soul there was, whose right hand bore aloft no dreadM sword, but in its stead a large, black, silk umbrella ; and another had fortified his person with a Petersham. But these were excep- tions, and did but show more bravely forth the courage of the rest. There was one hero, marching by the side of the detachment, with a cross-belt slung around him, and a long sword in his red right hand — we took him for a corporal, or perhaps a sergeant — whom we could not behold without excess of admiration. Nature had bounteously endowed his cheeks with a mighty crop of whisker; and on these the snow had settled thick and deep, so that he looked for all the world as though his barber had stuck a monstrous powder-puff on either side, between his collar and his skin ; and so they marched along, unmindful of the storm, while the big drum, vigorously pounded by a pair of stalwart arms, gave forth a dumpish sound, and the shrill notes of the trumpet struggled through the snow- encumbered air." Many of the public processions in this country are, however, admirably conducted ; and some of the volunteer companies, under arms, would be thought highly of, even by military men, for their appropriate dress, excellent equipments, and steady order of march. CHAP. X. The Courts of Law held in the City Hail — Chancery, Common Pleas, Superior and Supreme Com'ts — Qualifications of bar- risters and attorneys — Nomination or appointment of judges — Style of pleading" and judgment, official costume — Scale of remuneration for the bar and the bench — Character of the medical profession in the city — Clergy and ministers of religion in New York — Churches, interior arrangements, comfort — Service, singing, absence of pulpits and clerks — General cha- racter for learning and piety of the clergy — Benevolent efforts of the voluntary system — Extensive field of missionary labour in foreign lands. The Courts of Law in New York are held in the City Hall. They consist of a court of Chancery, a court of Common Pleas, a Superior court, and a Supreme court, each of which has its special judges, and pecu- liar forms of proceeding. The court of Chancery, like that of England, from which it derives its name, is a court of equity, presided over hy a chancellor as judge, who is guided in his decisions, partly by prece- dents, partly by statutes, and partly by the reason or justice of the case. He is not a political officer, as in England, having here no other functions to dis- charge than those belonging to his office as judge. He is not assisted by a jury ; the proceedings, as in England, are rather written than verbal ; and deposi- tions and interrogatories take the place of viva voce TENURE OF JUDICIAL OFFICES. 183 examinations. As might be expected of a system so closely resembling that of the parent comitry, the same tree produces the same fruits ; and the charac- teristics of a chancery- suit here, are precisely the same as they are with us — endless delay, boundless expense, and harassing uncertainty. The court of Common Pleas resembles our court of the same name in England ; and the common-law authorities and common-law precedents are followed as in it, modified, of course, by the statute law of the State ; while the forms of proceeding are nearly the same, varied only in a slight degree by local circumstances. The Superior court is analogous to that of our court of King's Bench, taking cognizance of similar cases, and having similar powers. The Supreme court is the court of appeal from all the other tribunals of the city, as well as from the county and circuit courts, in which cases are tried ; and the last resort, beyond the Supreme court, is that which is called the Court of Errors, composed of the three judges of the Supreme court, a judge from each of the other three courts of the city, and the Senate of the State, corresponding nearly to the court of appeal, before whom writs of error are tried in England, namely, the House of Lords. The judges in each of the inferior courts are appointed by the legislature of the State, for terms of five years, and are usually reappointed, if the same political party rules in the legislature; though, in times of high party excitement, they are changed, if changes in the state of parties occur either in the senate, the house of assembly, or the governor, which three bodies constitute the legislature of the State. The congress of the United States, or the general government of the whole Union, have nothing what- 184 STATE OF NEW YORK. ever to do with their appointment or removal, the independence of the State government never being interfered with in this respect. The chancellor, and the judges of the Supreme court, including one chief justice and two associate judges, are also appointed by the legislature of the State, for life, or till the age of sixty, which is fixed by law as the period of their superannuation. The elective prin- ciple is, therefore, not acted upon in the choice of the judges in the State of New York, and they are considered here to be as independent of the people, as they are of the government, and enjoy quite as large a share of popular estimation, for impartiality and integrity, as our judges at home. The number of persons belonging to the legal pro- fession in New York alone, exceeds 7OO, of whom about 50 only are judges, in all the courts together. The remainder are barristers and attorneys, which are here not separate professions, as in England, but united in the same individuals. The qualification for admission is a seven years' apprenticeship, or arti- cled servitude, under a licensed legal practitioner : or, if four years classical study, in any college or uni- versity in the United States can be certified, the term is then abridged to four years ; but, at the end of either or both of these terms, a rigid examination must be successfully sustained by the candidate, before his license to practise will be granted by the court. When thus qualified, he may act as attorney for pre- paring cases to be tried in either of the courts, or he may ofiiciate as pleader or counsel. It is not usual, however, for persons to undertake the latter duty until they have acquired some standing as attorneys ; and some, indeed, continue to practise as attorneys LAW COURTS. 185 only without entering on the duties of counsel at all. Others, again, commencing as attorneys, go on for a few years, as such, when they unite with it the business of pleaders, and then end in practising only as barristers, leaving the duties of the attorneys to be practised by those of less standing or inferior eminence to themselves. In the proceedings before the courts, no wigs or gowns are worn by any of the parties officially engaged; and although at first sight this seems to an English observer as a defect, yet a very few attendances on the courts, and a slight degree of interest in the pro- ceedings, causes this impression to wear off, when one becomes as readily accustomed to it, as to the loose, disorderly, and undignified appearance of the House of Commons in England, where members sit in every variety of coloured clothes, boots, spurs, and whips, with their hats on, in lounging attitudes, and an appearance of the utmost indifference to what is ^oing on — a feature which is usually revolting to the stranger from the country who visits the House of Commons for the first time, but to which he gets as speedily reconciled, as he vrould do to the unwigged and ungowned judges and barristers here. The style of speaking among the counsel, in their addresses to the judge and jury, is less technical and pedantic than in England, and less oratorical in manner. Shrewdness, sagacity, wit, and tact, are the chief characteristics of the addresses from the bar ; and plain deductions from established premises, or clear and intelligible expositions of the law and the facts of the case, are characteristic of the charges and judgments from the bench. The scale of remuneration to all classes of the 186 STATE OF NEW YORK. legal profession is liberal, without being absurdly extravagant or profuse. The younger members, who have any practice at all as attorneys, readily make an income of 8,000 dollars, or from 600/. to 7OO/. a year — rising from this minimum to as much as 10,000 dollars, or about 2,000/. sterling a year. The smallest fee of a barrister of any standing, and in almost any cause, is 100 dollars, or about 20/. The greatest fee to the most distinguished barrister in any regular cause, tried in the city-courts, is 5,000 dollars, or about 1,000/. But when a special cause of importance arises, requiring great skill and considerable application, especially if such cause has to be tried at a distance from the residence of the barrister, and he be a person of the first emi- nence, it is said (and one of the profession was my informant) that as large a sum as 25,000 dollars, or 5,000/. has been paid ; but this was admitted to be a very rare and unusual occurrence. The judges have fixed salaries, varying from 1,600 dollars, for the youngest, to 3,000 dollars for the oldest, includ- ing the chancellor and the chief justice of the Supreme court, respectively. In private society, the legal gentlemen are among the most intelligent and agreeable of companions. Like the lawyers in England, however, they do not appear to mingle so much in general society, as to congregate and herd together with the members of their own profession, and especially to delight in the society of clubs. I had the pleasure to attend two or three of their meetings of this description, held alternately at the houses of the members in rota- tion, and the cordiality, intelligence, courtesy, cheer- fulness, and kindness, which seemed to prevail, THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE. 187 made them some of the most agreeable evenings I had ever passed, not merely in America, but in any part of the world* The medical body is also a very large, and very interesting portion of the society of New York. They have colleges of instruction, halls of dissection, dis- pensaries, lectures, and all the machinery and appa- ratus of medical instruction, in great abundance and perfection. The number of medical practitioners in the city is about 600. The conditions to be ful- filled by a young candidate for the profession, are the following : — He must serve three years at least, as an assistant to some licensed medical practitioner of the State, and attend, at least, two courses of medical Icc- tureSp under some recognized professor. For this he will have to pay from 300 to 500 dollars for the three years, according to the rank and standing of the individual under whom he studies. He is then ob- liged to undergo an examination before competent examiners, appointed by the College or Faculty of Medicine ; and is rarely deemed sufficiently accom- plished to pass at the first time. Some are success- ful at the second examination, after an interval of a year, and the additional skill and practice obtained by them in that period. Many more are remanded, and pass at a third, and some only at a fourth exa- mination — these being annual only. On passing, the license of the College to practise as a surgeon, is granted ; or, if required, and the qualifications are deemed sufficient, the diploma of a physician is added, and by far the greater number receive both. Hence the business of surgeon and physician is united in the same person, as in the 188 STATE OF NEW YORK. general practitioner in London ; and all are called Doctor. It is the custom for each to have a surgery and dispensary attached to his residence, usually in the area, or ground-floor ; and while the name alone is seen on the brass-plate of the door of the private residence entering from the street, the name, and prefix of " Doctor," with the word " office," is seen painted in yellow or white letters, on a black japan- ned tin plate, over the window or door of the surgery in the area below. There are here, as in England, all degrees of excellence and estimation among the members of the medical profession. It is thought to be sufficiently suc- cessful, if young men begin to realize enough to sup- port themselves in the fourth or fifth year of their practice. All the time up to this is^one of expendi- ture beyond receipt. From this point, however, with ordinary ability and industry, and regular conduct, their progress is almost certain, till they obtain the middle rank, where incomes of from 5,000 to 10,000 dollars, or from 1,000/. to 2,000/ sterling, are fre- quently realized. In the highest branches of the profession, when great reputation is obtained, from 20,000 to 25,000 dollars, or 4,000Z. to 5,000/! a year, is sometimes made. In general, they are men of good education, and have the reputation of skill and atten- tion in their professional duties. They are also, as a class, a more moral and religious body of men than persons of the same profession in the old countries of Europe ; though their dress, manners, and appear- ance is less polished and refined than one is accus- tomed to observe in medical men at home. The clergy and ministers of religion form a very RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 189 important and influential body in New York. There are not less than 300 members of this body, of differ- ent denominations : the order of their numbers being — Presbyterian, 74 ; Episcopalian, 56 ; Baptist, 40 ; Methodist, 38 ; Reformed Dutch, 34 ; Roman Catho- lic, 25 ; Friends or Quakers, 6 ; Lutheran, 6 ; Univer- salist, 5 ; Unitarian, 4 ; Independent, 4 ; Moravian, 4 ; Jews, 3 — besides several supernumeraries. For the services of these several denominations, there are about 150 places of worship, in nearly the same ratio or proportion. The Presbyterian ministers do not use gowns and bands, as in Scotland. The Episcopalian and the Dutch Reformed are the only clergy that wear robes ; the former, the surplice for prayers, and the black stuff* gown for the pulpit, as in Eng- land ; the latter, a black silk gown, with cassock and girdle of the same material. In the service of the Episcopalian church, the ritual and liturgy are nearly the same as in the Church of England, which they profess to follow, as a model. The few alterations in the prayers are such as to adapt them to the country in which they are read ; substituting, in the prayers for the King and Royal Family, and for both Houses of Parliament, the names of the President of the United States, and the Houses of Congress. Some corrections are also introduced in the style and composition ; and some judicious curtailments of the frequent repe- titions in the original service. One addition, how- ever, is made, which appeared to me a great improve- ment, and well worthy of adoption at home, which is this : — after the reading of the Ten Commandments in the Communion Service ; at the close of the 190 STATE OF NEW YORK. whole, the minister reads aloud this sentence : — " Hear also what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ saith on this subject. The first and greatest commandment is — Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets." It is remarkable that neither in the Episcopalian churches, nor any of the others in this city, is there to be seen a pulpit of the old English form ; nor is there any person who officiates as clerk, either to read the responses, to say Amen, or to give out the psalms or hymns. In lieu of the small circular pulpit used in England, there are here two spacious plat- forms, on one of which the minister reads the prayers, and to the other he ascends to preach the ser- mon. These are each well furnished with the requisite cushions, drapery, and lights, and are usually much more agreeable to the eye than the elevated and isolated pulpit. The ear of the worshipper is never offended by the mangling and bad reading of an uneducated and vulgar clerk, as it is in half the churches of England; and it would be a great improve- ment to have all the responses, now drawled out by our illiterate clerks at home, read by young aspirants for the clergy, either while students of divinity or after taking orders, acting as curates or assistants to the regular minister ; for if it be desirable to have one part of the liturgy, psalms, and prayers, read impressively, and in a dignified and devotional tone as well as spirit, it must be equally desirable to have the alternate verses and responses read in the same manner ; and this could best be secured by SUPERIORITY OF THE CLERICAL CHARACTER. 10 ^ Tiaving two well-educated readers, instead of one good and one bad one, as at present. In America, the congregation perform this duty without a leader, and the absence of the clerk is not felt to be any inconvenience. The choral service, both vocal and instrumental, is uniformly superior to the average standard of England. The organ is everywhere seen, and is everywhere well played. The choirs are judiciously proportioned, for the proper blending of the different voices ; they are well trained, and frequently prac- tised in rehearsals ; and as the congregation gene- rally joins, though in subdued tones, in the singing, this part of the service is more uniformly well performed, in churches and chapels of every denomi- nation here, than it is with us. The arrangement and furniture of the pews are more elegant and more comfortable than in England ; ample provision is made for securing the most agreeable temperature, in all kinds of weather ; and the attendance is more numerous, as com- pared with the whole population, than in any country of Europe. The greatest respect and decorum is manifested throughout the service by all classes ; and there is less of wandering eyes, whis- pering gossip, and general inattention, than is seen elsewhere. As a body, the clergy and ministers are more generally well educated, and more uniformly of pure morals and devout character, than in England. With us, there are no doubt individuals of much more extensive and profound learning than are to be found in this country ; and among the clergy of the 192 STATE OF NEW YORK. Church of England for some years past, and among the dissenters at all times, there has been a high standard of morals and piety. But taking the 300 ministers of religion now in New York, it may be doubted whether there is any city in Great Britain that could furnish, from an equal number of the same class, so large an amount of learning and piety as exist in the aggregate of the religious teachers of this city. An illiterate, or an immoral man, could not hold his place among them ; and both the eyes of their own body, as well as those of the whole community, are constantly upon them, in a state of unremitting watchfulness. The support of the churches and their ministers, is wholly on the voluntary system ; and, as far as I could learn, after many anxious inquiries, no one among the clergy or laity wished it to be otherwise. The Episcopalians have a bishop in each State of the Union,* their salaries varying from 5,000 to 10,000 dollars, or from 1000/. to 2000/. sterling. The Rev. Dr. Onderdonk, the bishop of the State of New York, whose diocese is as large as that of six English bishoprics, receives this last-named sum, and his is the highest ecclesiastical salary in the country. But his duties are onerous, laborious, and expensive. He resides in the city during the six winter months, and preaches once or twice every Sunday. The other six months of summer he passes in travelling, visiting the clergy of his diocese, and setting in order whatever may need amendment. He is a gentleman of Dutch * In tlie State of New York, which has since been divided into two dioceses, there are now two bishops. BROOKLYN FERRY. 193 family, as his name will indicate, of great merit, and universally respected ; but of the simplest and most unostentatious manners. On one Sunday afternoon I was going over, with my family, to hear the Rev. Dr. Cutler at Brooklyn, and pass the evening with some friends there. The ferry is crossed here by a steam-boat, at which we arrived just in time to meet the bishop, who had walked from his house to the ferry, in his black gown, round hat, bands, and a bible under his arm. As we entered the boat, he offered a bank-note of a dollar for the fare, which the boat- men returned, saying "they never took toll from clergymen who were going on duty on the sabbath ;" at which the bishop returned the money into his purse, and said, smilingly, "It is not always that they are so careful to grant us the benefit of clergy." He was going to preach that afternoon at a church in Brooklyn, and then to return and preach at New York in the evening. On his reaching the Brooklyn shore, a horse and gig was waiting for him at the ferry ; and with the most unaffected humility he got into it, though the equipage was one of the shabbiest I had yet seen, and drove on, seated by the black servant who came for him, with far less thought of state and appearance, than any English bishop. There is nothing perhaps that strikes the stranger, from England, more forcibly, than the easy access which is here obtained to personal intercourse with the highest classes of society. The President of the United States — the governors of the separate States — the generals of the army — the commodores of the navy — the judges of the county — the senators, bishops, and all other persons filling high stations in VOL. L o I 194< STATE OF NEW YORK. the country — are not hemmed around with so many barriers of etiquette and ceremony as to make it a matter of favour to obtain a personal interview with them. The sending in a card, without previous appointment, is sufficient to ensure immediate admis- sion to their presence, if not at the moment engaged ; and in casual meetings like the present, or in parties of mixed society, the greatest degree of affability and urbanity prevails. The voluntary system of supporting churches and ministers, which is universally adopted here, is found to be a perfect security against the great inequalities in the emoluments of the clergy at home, where bishops have incomes of 10,0001. a year, and curates must live on lOOl. ; while it equally guarantees to all a very adequate and comfortable provision. No clergyman or minister in New York receives less, as I was assured by many who were competent and accurate authorities, than 1,000 dollars or 2001. a year; many receive 3,000 dollars, or 600l. a year ; but none more than 4,000 dollars or 8001. a year. The usual mode of raising the funds is this: — The church is first built on the undertaking and guarantee of some few wealthy individuals of the sect for whose use it is intended. When completed, the pews are all sold at high prices, in the order of choice, to the families desiring to worship there ; and the amount paid for these pews, which become the absolute property of the purchasers, is generally sufficient to cover all the cost of the building and furniture. The minister's salary is then determined by the vestry, composed of the chosen men of the congregation, and the pews are all assessed, at a certain per centage on their value, THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 195 to make up the annual salary fixed on for the minister, which he therefore receives as a permanent income, without trouble, anxiety, or delay, from the hands of the treasurer, and without any of those unhappy disputes and bickerings, so fruitfully engendered by the tithes, annuity-taxes, church-rates, and other imposts for the clergy in England. They who assert, therefore, that the voluntary system has been tried and failed in America, and that it does not work well for either ministers or people, must speak in ignorance of the real state of the case ; or, what is worse, with wilful perversion of the truth. And they who add to this, that under the voluntary system there is no guarantee for the steady support and advancing progress of religion, must be equally guilty of great ignorance or wilful untruth ; because there is no city in the world that I have ever visited, where so large a number of the population attend public worship, where that wor- ship is more devoutly entered into by the people, or more efficiently conducted by their teachers, or where the influence of morality and religion is more power- fully exerted over the great mass of the community. In addition to the larfje amount of funds thus raised by the population of this city, for the support of religion at home, their assistance to all kinds of benevolent societies is munificent ; for by their voluntary aid do they almost all subsist. But, far beyond the immediate sphere of their own locality, they extend their benevolence to the remotest parts of the world. At the last anniversary of the Ameri- can Tract Society, held in the city of New York in April 1837, the large sum of 35,000 dollars was o2 196 STATE OF NEW YORK. appropriated to the printing and distributing of tracts in different foreign languages abroad, in addition to the great expense incurred for the support of Mission- ary establishments in various remote quarters of the earth, and their Sunday School Union, for the edu- cation of the children of the poor at home. And as it may give some idea of the extent of the field over which their labours are spread, I transcribe an abridgment of some of the principal items of that appropriation from their official report. 'To China, for the use of American Missionaries, Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, Leang Afa, Keuh Agang, and others, and to aid in the preparation of Chinese metal type, a work in progress both by Rev. Mr. Dyer, at the east, and by M. Pauthier and others in Paris, who find that 30,000 Chinese characters, not obsolete, may be printed from 9,000 types separate and combined ; the Chinese being the written language of probably 300 millions ; Chinese printing conducted without interruption at Singapore, Malacca, &c. ; many new Tracts prepared : and openings in the maritime provinces, and among Chinese residing in other countries, for "as many books as can be printed " — 4,000 dollars. To Singapore and Indian Archipelago, probably embracing 50 millions, Chinese, Malay, Javanese, Bugis, &c. ; a large print- ing establishment, with type in various languages, and a stereotype foundery, being in active operation ; Leang Afa, Keuh Agang, and several others, employed at Singapore in Chinese printing ; great facilities of intercourse with all the neighbouring countries and the ports of China ; a large mission having recently been sent out by the reformed Dutch church, to be located at present in Java— 3,000 dollars. To Siam, where are two printing establishments, with access to millions of Chinese, Malays, Peguans, Cambojans, Laos, &c. Bankok alone containing 400,000 Chinese ; most of the adult Siamese being able to read ; Rev. I. J. Roberts, from a new Mis- sionary Society at the west having recently sailed for Siam, to labour mainly as a distributer — 2,000 dollars. EXTENSIVE BENEVOLENCE. 197 For the Skans, a great people, bordering on, and commingling with the inhabitants of Burmah, Thibet, and China; the American Baptist board having recently estabhshed a mission and a press at Assam with Burman and Shan type — 800 dollars. To Burmah, for the Burmese, Tahngs, and Karens ; among whom are 7 stations, upwards of 30 Missionaries ; 600 converts, a spirit of inquiry awakened ; large printing establishments with a stereotype foundery : the whole Bible printed, and 24 tracts to which the Society's funds may be applied ; two presses entirely occupied with Tracts; many native distributers; frequent tours made for distribution ; milHons of readers, and God richly adding his blessing — 4,000 dollars. For Northern India,ior use of Missionaries of Western Foreign Missionary Society at Lahore, who have two presses, and have distributed extensively in journeys and tours ; the mission being also about to be reinforced — 1,000 dollars. To Orissa, for the use of English General Baptist and American Baptist Missionaries ; this being the '' Holy Land" of India, and site of the temple of Juggernaut, annually visited by nearly half a million pilgrims. " If Hindooism is ever to be subverted," says a missionary at this station, " I beheve tracts will occupy the first place as the instrumental cause" — 1,000 dollars. For the Teli?igas, 13 miUions in a country between Orissa and Madras, on the Coromandel coast, for a new mission of American Baptist Board ; large portions of the Bible, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and several tracts having been already printed at Madras in the Telinga, or Teloogoo language — 500 dollars. For Ceylon, where are 7 mission stations ; 27 Missionaries ; 39 native assistants ; 122 free schools, and a seminary of young men ; a press ; 30 tracts issued ; many native distributers and the distributions much blessed — 2,000 dollars. For Southern India, for use of Missionaries of American board of commissioners for Foreign Missions ; station at Madura, among the Tamul people, a strong hold of Paganism, and other stations about to be established — 1,500 dollars. For the Mahrattas, where are presses, with a stereotype foun- dery ; one or more missionaries wholly devoted to the preparation 198 STATE OF NEW YORK. and distribution of tracts and books, which are found an indispen- sable auxiliary — 1,000 dollars. For the Sandwich Islands, where 3,420 pages of Hawaiian have been prepared ; 3 presses issue from 6 to 10 million pages annually ; and the missionaries have at no time been able to meet the immediate, pressing demand for books — 1,000 dollars. For Persia, for use of exploring mission of the Protestant Epis- copal church — 500 dollars. For Nestorians in Persia, who retain much of the simplicity of the Gospel, and express great anxiety to receive christian books : mission station at Tabreez — 500 dollars. For Asia Minor, for use of missions of A. B. C. F. M. at Smyrna, Scio, Broosa, and Trebizond; there being at Smyrna a large printing establishment with type for various languages, a stereotype foundery, and numerous publications issued — 1,500 dollars. To Smyrna, for the use of Mission of Western Foreign Mis- sionary Society, who have a press and extensive openings for dis- tribution, especially in modern Greek — 1,000 dollars. To Greece, For use of mission of Protestant Episcopal church, who have an efficient press at Syra ; printed last year at the Society's expense 1,714,000 pages; have a harmony of the Gos- pels and other valuable works in preparation, and wide openings for distribution. New mission recently sailed for the island of Crete — 1,500 dollars. To Greece, for Missionaries of A. B. C. F. M. ; 28,000 pubU- cations distributed from Athens the last year, and many more might have been given, had supphes been furnished ; " people have ap- plied for boolis from all parts of the country" — 500 dollars. To Constantinople, chiefly for the Armenians, who " seem to be waking up en masse," including Jews in Turkey, Greeks, &c. — 1,000 dollars. To Russia, for use of tract friends in St. Petersburgh, who labour for 60 millions ; have issued 50 tracts in Russ, Finnish, Esto- nian, Swedish, Mongolian, &c. all of which have the cordial sanc- tion of the censor ; some volumes in preparation. Tracts to the value of 600 dollars, were sold by one individual m one extensive RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. 199 tour ; many are purchased by the nobihty for distribution ; parcels sent to friends at various points throughout the empire, with many evidences of the Divine blessing — 3,000 dollars. For Hungary^ embracing 2 million Protestants, and for tracts in Bohemian and Wendish, to be committed to Mr. Samuel Elsne of Berlin, and Rev. Dr. Paterson, at the earnest solicitation of Rev. Dr. Paterson — 300 dollars. Prussian Tract Society at Berlin^ for the Poles, by urgent request of Rev. Dr. Paterson, many of whom are crying for help, both within and beyond the limits of Prussia — 300 dollars. Germany^ Lower Saxony Tract Society, Hamburg, Tracts being a prominent medium for diffusing evangelical truth ; and wide doors open, in the midst of opposition — 300 dollars. Hamburg^ for Missionary of American Baptist Board, who makes extensive tours for distribution, and a colporteur who is devoting himself to the work — 300 dollars. To France^ embracing 32 millions, for use of Missionaries of American Baptist board — 500 dollars. For South Africa, to the South African Female Tract Society at Cape Town, in connection with Rev. Dr. Philip ; the Pilgrim's Pro- gress and 6 American Tracts being ah'eady printed in Dutch, with many active distributers. Rev. Dr. Pliilip says, " There is nothing within the range of human means that we more need than money to assist us in printing" — 500 dollars. To the 3Ioravian Brethren, for aid at their respective mission stations, especially in the West Indies and Canada — 700 dollars. For North American Indians, for missions of American Baptist- Board, especially at their press in Shawanoe — 200 dollars. In addition to the funds raised for these extended operations, and the personal labours which the clergy and ministers undergo, in carrying them out, there is a degree of zeal, energy, and untiring activity among them, for the promotion of benevolent and religious objects, which is deserving of all praise : it may, indeed, be doubted whether in any country in 200 STATE OF NEW YORK. the world there is so much of purely gratuitous and disinterested labour devoted to the temporal and spiritual interests of the whole community, and espe- cially the most friendless and destitute portions of it, as in America, if New York be regarded as a fair specimen of the Union, and it is asserted that New England is in this respect still its superior. CHAP. XI. State of literature and the arts in the city— Common schools- Statistics of Education — Newspapers and periodical publications — The Knickerbocker — Monthly Magazine — New York Review, by Dr. Hawkes — Superiority of the Common-School Assistant — Model worthy of imitation in England — Music and Painting — Mr. Cole's pictures — Architecture and the fine arts — New York churches — tFniversIty — Astor House — House of Detention — — BuUding In Egyptian style — Columns of the portico, after a temple at Philoe — Defect in the want of elevation for its site — Striking effect of the massiveness of the whole. The common schools of New York are objects of great interest to those who feel the full importance of the value of general education. A great effort has been lately made to increase the number and improve the efficiency of these schools, not merely in this State, but throughout the whole Union. The gen- tleman who has taken the most active and practical part in this valuable labour, is Mr. John Orville Taylor ; and his qualifications for the task may be judged of from the fact of his filling a professorship of the Science of Education in the New York Uni- versity, and his being publicly recommended for that office by some of the most eminently learned and distinguished men in the country. At the begin- ning of 1836, a monthly periodical was commenced by him, under the title of " The Common School Assistant ;" its avowed object being to awaken the public feeling as to the importance of education, and to collect and diffuse all kinds of information calcu- 202 STATE OF NEW YORK. lated to improve the modes of teaching, and stimu- late the public to adopt the best plans for the exten- sion of knowledge generally. This was first pub- lished at Albany, the seat of the legislature of this State, but it has been since removed to New^ York, as the better central point of general communication. The paper is admirably conducted ; it is full of the most interesting and valuable information ; its pages are honoured with contributions from the first pens in America ; and it is furnished at the cheap rate of fifty cents, or about two shillings English, per annum. The circulation is, accordingly, immense — approach- ing 50,000 monthly. During my stay in New York, a public meeting of the Friends of Education was held at the Ta- bernacle, in Broadway, for the purpose of forming a " Common School Union," on the principle of the Sunday School Union, or the Bntish and Foreign School Society. To effect this, the sum of 5,000 dollars, or about 1000/. sterling, was required ; and such was the effect of the appeals made at this meet- ing, that the whole sum was raised in a few days. This Union is now in full operation, with an office, an establishment for correspondence, and all the neces- sary elements for securing complete efficiency. It has already awakened the spirit of the neighbouring States ; and State conventions are following each other, in various parts of the country, to consider of the best means of improving the modes of education in the common schools of their respective districts. I had the good fortune to enjoy much of the society of Mr. Taylor, as we lived under the same roof; and from his conversation, and the perusal of his journals SCHOOL FUNDS. 203 and papers, I derived all the information I wished respecting the statistics of education here ; though I relied only on my own personal examination of the schools of New York, for the knowledge of their actual present condition. In the State of New York the whole population is 2,174,000 ; and the number of children, between five and fifteen years of age, taught in the common schools, is 537,398 ; or about one in four of the whole population. The number of school districts, in each of which there is a common school, is 10,207 ; and the annual expenditure on these is 1,235,256 dollars. The amount of the school-fund, belonging to the State, is l,917>49 STATE OF NEW YORK. passed away before the person would have thought of ordering one. Among the pecuharities in the customs of New York, none is more worthy of imitation than the manner in which its inhabitants observe the first day of the new year. The custom is derived from the old Dutch settlers who first founded the city, and is thus observed. The day is made a complete holiday, and the stores and shops are almost as generally closed as on the Sunday. All the ladies of the family rise early, dress for the day, and immediately after breakfast repair to the drawing-room, to receive the visits of their male friends. Not a lady moves out, either for business or pleasure, health or exer- cise ; and it is the only day in the year, perhaps, in which no lady is seen out, either in carriage or on foot, for none but ** friendless ladies" could be spared from home. As early as nine o'clock the visits of the gentlemen commence ; and as these are all dressed in their best, the streets and squares present a most animated appearance, by groups of friends ascending and descending the steps of the private houses, while carriages are waiting at the different points for the conveyance of those who require this assistance, though the greater number of the young gentlemen perform their visits on foot. The new year's day of 1 838 happened to be a day of the finest possible weather — a sharp, but not a cold air, a bright sun, and a perfect calm ; and as it is expected of foreigners that they who approve of the custom should adopt it with their particular friends, I took a carriage for the day, though in conse- quence of the increased demand, this was only to be had VISITS OF CEREMONY. Q^5 at about five times the ordinary charge ; and taking my son with me, while Mrs. Buckingham remained at home with the ladies of the house in which we lived, to receive the visits of the gentlemen to whom we had been introduced, I made the circuit of Brooklyn and New York, in each of which we had some agreeable acquaintances, and between ten and five o'clock we called on fifty-two families, and drove over about ten miles of ground. We met in every house witli a most cordial reception ; the ladies put forth all tlieir attractions, were well dressed, affkble, cheerful, and communicative. In an adjoining room, refreshments were provided, of which some of the gentlemen partook; but as it is thought important by those who have a very extensive circle of acquaintance that they should visit them all in the course of the day — we heard of some young men who had nearly a hundi'cd on their list — the great majority were only able to shake hands, wish health and the joys of the season to their fair entertainers, and then retire to pursue their course. Our number being more limited, it afforded us the opportunity of remaining some little time at each house, so that we saw as much of the gentlemen as of the ladies, and met a large number of acquaintances among those who were visitors like ourselves. The clergy and ministers of religion also remain at home, and receive the visits of the members of their congregations ; and as we waited on several of these, we found all the Episcopalian clergy dressed in full canonicals, and receiving their guests with great courtesy and hospitality. The beneficial effects of this custom are numerous VOL. I. Q 226 STATE OF NEW YORK. and important. It is a day saved from the toils and cares of business, and given to innocent and social pleasure ; and this, in such a busy and over-wrought community, is a great advantage. It enables those who have long neglected their visits to bring up their arrears, and begin a new account ; and it furnishes those who have been growing cold by absence, or indifferent from some slight or embryo quarrel, to renew their intercourse without conces- sion or without offence. It serves to increase the respect for women, by the homage thus paid to female influence ; and it brings the ministers of the gospel and their congregations into happy and agree- able communication. It has all these advantages, and many more, without a single evil that I could dis- cover ; for though some might think it would have too democratic a tendency, by bringing persons of different ranks too nearly on a level, yet, since no gentleman ever presumes to visit a family on new year's day who has not been previously introduced to them, and his introduction sanctioned by some reciprocal inter- course, none of the parties who meet are strangers to each other, and no liberties are taken of which the most fastidious could disapprove. Among the most striking peculiarities of Ameri- can taste, is a love of quaintness and singularity in their expressions. Many ludicrous instances of this will arrest the attention of the observant stranger every day in his intercourse with society ; but this is not confined to conversation in private circles, it extends also to their printed documents, announce- ments, and paragraphs prepared for the press. The following are two only out of some twenty or thirty EDITORIAL WITTICISMS. 227 announcements that met my eye in the puhlic papers of the day, inserted among the advertisements. The first relates to a convivial society, of Dutch origin, which celehrates its anniversary by a feast of sour krout ; and it carries one back to the age of Deidrick Knickerbocker and Rip Van Winkle, with the legend of " the sleepy hollow ; " and the second belongs to a political society, taking the name of an Indian Saint, Tammany, for its patron, and preserv- ing the Indian imagery, phraseology, and dates. ** GREAT AND IIVIPORTANT NEWS. " Owing to the recent disturbances in Canada, his august Majesty, the Grand Krout, has been awakened from his annual nap, which he takes immediately after the holiday feasts — ^his Majesty opened his peepers in the sixteenth hour of his nap, after rubbing, gaping, and stretching for three hours, and eating seven plates of krout, five links of Bologna sausages, drinking four bottles of old hock, and smoking seventeen pipes of tobacco, he was seen to nod, which signifies approbation. " Now I, the Arch Chancellor, in virtue of my authority, com- mand all the liege krouts in creation, to appear at Krout Von Nowland's, unwilted, to partake of the annual feast, on Tuesday, January 16th, 1838. By order, " Nicholas Rulef Pompernacle, " Arch Counsellor. " Peter Harmanus Klotterloff, " Secretary. ** For tickets apply to " Krout Von Davis, 45, Pine Street. " Krout Delavan, 489, Broadway. " Krout Meserole, 19, Nassau Street, " Krout Foote, 204, Front Street. " Krout Bendernagle, 179, Division Street. " Krout Cruttenden, City Hotel. " Krout Knowland, Prospect Hall," q2 ^28 STATE OF NEW YORK. " TAMMANY SOCIETY, OR COLUMBIAN ORDER. " Brothers. — A regular meeting of the Institution will be held In the Council Chamber of the Great Wigwam, on Monday evening, Feb. 5th, at half an hour after the setting of the sun. General and punctual attendance is particularly desired. ** By order of the Grand Sachem " John J. Bedient, Secretary. ** Manhattan, Season of Snows, Second Moon, Year of Discovery 346, of Independence 62, and of the Institution the 49th." The editorial witticisms of this kind are without end ; and the straining after effect in oddities and quaintness, to serve the purpose of the moment, seems to have engendered a permanent relish for such extravagancies, as readers appear to enjoy them very heartily ; and so long as this is the case, there will be no want of writers to furnish that description of gratification. The following are three specimens out of many : — " A western editor has placed over his marriages a cut represent- ing a large trap, sprung, with this motto — ' The trap down, another fool caught.' " Query. — Has not the editor been caught in a marriage trap himself, which, like the clenched teeth of the steel trap, has pinched him most confoundedly. There is another kind of trap, which is usually placed under a gallows, with a candidate for immortality, with a rope round his neck upon it, which the galled editor might employ, and which he would find very pertinent to his purpose. Hang it, man, why don't you just try it once V^ ** A CATASTROPHE. *" The Boston Post says, that an editor down east, in speaking of his own merits thus concludes : — " I'm a real catastrophe — a small creation ; Mount Vesuvius at the top, with red hot lava pouring out of the crater, and routing nations — ^my fists are rocky mountains — arms Whig-llbei-ty poles, AGREEABLE PUBLIC DINNER. 2^9 with iron springs. Every step I take is an earthquake— every blow I strike is a clap of thunder — and every breath I breathe is a tor- nado — my disposition is Dupont's best, and goes off at a flash — when I blast, there'll be nothing left but a hole three feet in circumference, and no end to its depth." *' A STRONG APPEAL TO SUBSCRIBERS. " An editor in North Carolina calls loudly on his subscribers to pay up their dues, as his wife has furnished him with three babies to feed. If this appeal be not successful, we advise the editor to quit printing, and buy him a farm." I had an excellent opportunity of witnessing the full exhibition of this taste for overstrained wit and extravagant expression, in a pleasant excursion made soon after my arrival in New York, in which I was invited to accompany Mr. Daniel Webster, the celebrated senator of Massachusetts, and one of the first orators of the day, in a visit to Newark, a town in New Jersey, about ten miles from New York, on the other side of the Hudson. Mr. Caleb Gushing, another northern member of Congress, was of the party, as well as Mr. Pennington, the Governor- elect of New Jersey ; Mr. Peet, the superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum ; and the editors of two daily papers in the city, — Mr. Charles King, of the American, and Colonel Stone, of the Commer- cial Advertiser. Our journey was performed by steam-boat and rail-road ; the day was remarkably favourable ; and every one was in high spirits. The morning was devoted to the delivery of political addresses, by Mr. Webster and Mr. Cushing, to the inhabitants of Newark, on the present aspect of the times ; and after a procession through the town, we 230 STATE OF NEW YORK. all sat down to a public dinner, under the presidency of Mr. Freelinghuysen, the mayor. It was one of the merriest and wittiest of public dinners at which I was ever present. Every speech was a series of epigrams and jokes, and brought up some of the parties alluded to, who repaid the debt with full interest in rapid volleys of the sharpest repartees. Though there was scarcely a dozen bottles of wine drank among 200 persons — the worthy mayor who pre- sided being a member of the Temperance Society, and, like myself, drinking only water, and more than half the company doing the same — yet the table was kept literally in a roar, by the continual excitement of new matter for merriment, furnished by almost every one who spoke. On our return about four o'clock, we found the rail-road blocked up by one of the cars being upset, and stretched across the rails ; and as we were then about midway between Newark and Jersey city, there was no alternative but that of our waiting where we w^ere, until a new train could be brought, from the point to which we were bound, as far as the spot where the impediment occurred, and take us onward to our destination. In England, such a detention as this, to a numerous party, would have created great dissatisfaction, which would have shown itself in every variety of mode, according to the tempera- ment of the different individuals. Here, on the contrary, everybody made the best of the mishap, cheerfully awaited the arrival of the remedy ; and during the interval, which occupied nearly two hours, we all sat in the omnibus car in which we had ANECDOTE OF MR. WEBSTER. ^31 set out, to the number of twenty-five or thirty at least ; while various individuals in succession sang droll songs, and told still droller stories, with the utmost glee, so that not a symptom of weariness was evinced by any one of the party. Indeed, I never witnessed such uniform good temper and forbearance, among a similar number of people, on any occasion within my recollection. Among the anecdotes of the day, the following was related by Mr. Gushing, the representative from Massachusetts, and it was told in the presence of Mr. Webster himself, who laughed as heartily as any one at its recital. Mr. Webster, though a handsome man, with fine large expressive eyes, beautiful teeth, and a commanding and intellectual countenance, has a remarkably brown complexion, as much so as a native of the south of Italy, or Spain. During the dinner, and while Mr. Webster was speaking, the servants of the hotel at which we dined, had the fullest opportunity of noticing the peculiarity of his complexion, and it evidently made an impression on them ; for when Mr. Gushing went into the kitchen after dinner, to light his cigar, the coloured servants were surrounding the fire, witli their backs towards him, and not perceiving his approach, they continued their conversation; till one of them addressing herself to her fellow-servant, exclaimed, " Well, Betsy, we coloured people may begin to hold up our heads now ; for they say that Mr. Webster is to be the next president, and surely he'll be in our favour, for he's as dark as any of us, and is a coloured man himself.'* This was followed by a loud laugh, which rung through the S32 STATE OF NEW YORK. kitchen, till the discovery of Mr. Cushing's approach to the fire rather disconcerted the parties, and stifled the further discussion of the subject. It is worthy of remark, that there are some of the coloured people who are not very anxious for the amalgamation of the races, which seems to be so much dreaded by the whites (though this dread must rather be pretended than real, since all the varieties of mulattoes, of different shades, the natural fruits of such amalgamation, are far more numerous in the north than the blacks ;) for a memorial was recently presented to the State legislature of Massachusetts on this subject, of which the following is a copy, with the introductory paragraph : — " MIXED MARRIAGES. " The following memorial, signed by a number of persons of colour, was presented the other day m the Massachusetts legisla- ture : — ' To the Honourable Senate and House of Representatives — The undersigned, people of colour, in the city of Boston, have learned with deep regret and mortification, that Charlotte F. Thompson and fifteen other ladies of Rehobeth, have petitioned your honourable body for a repeal of the law, which interdicts marriage between white people and persons of colour. Now your memorialists, regarding this as a very wise and salutary law, calcu- lated to preserve the purity of our race, and to prevent the evils resulting from a mixed breed, do respectfully, but earnestly, remon- strate and protest against a repeal of the law referred to — and, as in duty bomid, will ever pray." The peculiarity of living in boarding-houses, in- stead of keeping house, or occupying private lodg- ings, is one of the most distinguishing features of society in Mew York. There are many causes that EXORBITANT RENTS. ^3^ have had their share in contributing to this. One, no doubt, is the too large scale on which houses are usually built, and the difficulty of finding a small one adapted to the purse of a family with moderate means. The house in which we resided, next to Bunker's Hotel, 37, Broadway, was one which would be considered dear in any part of London at 300/. a year, and might be had in a country town for 100/. at the utmost. The present rent paid by its tenant was 3,500 dollars, or 700/. a year ; and the owner asked the exorbitant price of 5,000 dollars, or 1,000/. after the expiration of the year, just about to close. In addition to the exorbitant rents, the difficulty of procuring and keeping good domestic servants is another cause which leads to the living in boarding- houses ; and a third, no doubt, is the frequent change of occupation and habitation, which is common to all classes in America. The advantages derived from this mode of life to unmarried men are unquestionable, relieving them from the necessity of great expenditure and care ; but the disadvantages are also great ; for the habit of find- ing all that they need without much cost or trouble, and the enjoyment of female society besides, lessens the necessity of marriage ; and, like the clubs in London, boarding-houses in America indispose men to form attachments, or to contemplate a more permanent set- tlement. To the young married couple it is also a convenience, for the reasons already alleged ; but its disadvantage is much greater to them in the end ; for when they become parents, and separate establishments are more necessary — the wife has acquired no expe- rience in housekeeping, and both her husband and S34 STATE OF NEW YORK. herself are averse to the trouble, care, and anxiety of a separate house and separate servants ; besides find- ing it less exciting and agreeable to sit down to breakfast and dine alone, and pass the evening without companions, to which they were accustomed while living at the boarding-house. Many accord- ingly seek refuge from this married solitude, by going out to parties, paying morning visits, laying themselves out for invitations, and giving expensive routs and balls themselves at great cost and great in- convenience, while the progressive vitiation of the taste which this brings, fed with stimulants and excite- ment, never allows them, perhaps, to return with plea- sure to the sober and wholesome tranquillity of a well-ordered domestic home. The boarding-house life was to us, however, ex- tremely disagreeable from the beginning ; and we did not get at all more reconciled to it at the end. The early hour at which all are rung out of bed by the sound of a great bell, as if at school — the rapi- dity with which persons rush to the table exactly at eight o'clock — the certainty that if you are five mi- nutes after this, the breakfast will be half-consumed, and what remains will be cold and unpalatable — the haste with which every thing is despatched, and the air of indifference with which parties rise up and go away to business when they have done — the ear- liness of the dinner-hour, three o'clock, with a repe- tition of the same hurry and bustle over again — the unskilfulness and indifference of the servants, mostly coloured people — the utter want of sympathy or con- sideration on the part of the boarding-house keepers, as to whether their inmates are provided with all AMERICAN PHRASEOLOGY. ^35 they need or not — the absence of the many little nameless conveniences with which English houses are furnished — the imperfect hanging of the bells, and difficulty of getting them answered — and the prefer- ence of showy appearances to cleanliness — are but a part of the many evils of a boarding-house life, as they ?ippeared to us at least. The contrast of all this is seen in the private dwellings of the opulent which we had the opportunity of visiting, where every com- fort and luxury that the most fastidious could desire, were united ; and where the only objection to the style of living was its great expense. Of peculiarities in expression, I did not meet with nearly so many as I had been led to expect. A few words only are used in good society here, that are not well known, or common with us, though some others convey a different sense from that in which we are accustomed to hear them. The word sparse is constantly used, in speaking of population, as opposed to dense, as " the western states are but yet sparsely peopled." The word understandingly is used for admsedly, as in the phrase ** I should have replied to your question earlier, but I wished to do it understandingiy." A loafer is a term applied to an idler who troubles himself about other men's business, and who is a lounger about places of public or private amusements ; and also to a low thief and vagabond. In the different applications of words well knowTi to us, the following are examples. A person who is ill, or indisposed, from whatever cause, or of whatever disease, is always said to be sick. The word storm does not, as with us, mean a high wind, b^t merely rain or snow, with or without wind. No ^36 STATE OF NEW YORK. force of wind alone, however, is called a storm, though rain or snow in a perfect calm is invariably so denominated ; and the phrase ** stormy weather'* is used, when rain or snow are descending without a breath of wind in the heavens. The term ugl^ is rarely or ever applied to the person, but to the qua- lities of mind, and an ugly man, or an ugly woman, means a person of angry temper, or petulant, or un- principled, or disagreeable in mind and manners. , On the other hand, the term loveli/ man, is as fre- quent as that of lovely woman, and neither of them have the least relation to personal beauty, but mean always a combination of talent, virtue, and affability, in the person to whom it is applied. A clever per- son is a phrase used to denote a lesser degree of ex- cellence than lovely, and applies chiefly to sweetness or amiability of disposition, meaning good-nature rather than talent. Speaking of a lady, who was of very plain exterior, but who possessed high qualities of mind and heart, I once heard this description given, ** She is undoubtedly a very lovely woman, but it cannot be denied that she is bitter homely." The term right away is in constant use to indicate imme- diately. Pretty smart, and pretty miserable, are phrases that bespeak good health and spirits, or the reverse ; and on asking a lady or gentleman how they do, one or other of these answers is not uncommon. When a person is greatly affected by disease, or when excessively fatigued, either by physical labour, mental study, or gay dissipation, he is said to be pretty much used up. In the adoption of French words, the English pro- nunciation is usually given ; and persons speak of ABUSE OF WORDS.' ' 237 the rout they intend to take in a journey, instead of route. When persons are addressed in conversation, and do do not hear at first what is said to them, they usually make the interrogatory how ? which is cer- tainly less abrupt than our what ? among the vulgar, and more brief and appropriate than the phrase Iheg your pardon, among the more refined, which would be the expressions used in similar cases in England. In answering a question when distinctly understood, as for instance, ** Where are you going to-day ?" or *' What think you of the present prospect of affairs ?" or even the simple question of " What o'clock is it ?'' the party answering usually begin, by saying, " Well," and, after a short pause, gives you the answer required. To ** get along," is the phrase equivalent to ours of to ** get on," that is, to make progress in a journey, or to advance in life. To *' guess" is not applied to the future exclusively, nor even to the present, but to the past, and to the certain. For instance, a person will say, " I presume," or " I reckon," or " I guess that the dinner-bell has rung ;" and if you ask him, on what ground he so presumes, or reckons, or guesses, he will tell you that he heard it ; and if a servant, he would say, perhaps, " Well ! 1 rung it myself." It often occurs that an individual is ad- dressed in conversation as the third person, as in Italy : and a lady will frequently be heard saying to a gentleman, whom she is addressing face to face. " I hope we shall soon have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Buckingham again ; if, indeed, Mr. Bucking- ham's engagements are not too numerous to permit us to indulge that hope :" or, a person would ask me sometimes, " Can you tell me where Mr. Bucking- 238 STATE OF NEW YORK. ham delivers his lecture this evening," the parties knowing all the while that it was myself that they were addressing. On the whole, however, there is much less of variety in dialect, pronunciation, and expression among the people of America, as far as we had yet seen them, than there is in Great Britain, where not only the English, Scotch, Irish, and Welch, have their marked and hroad accents and peculiarities, but where the different counties of each, produce such varieties, as to make the peasant of the one nearly unintelligible to the peasant of the other. Here, the frequent intercourse between State and State, w ears off whatever peculiarities may be acquired in early life in any one locality ; and thus, there is a general level, or standard, observable among the whole. The only universal characteristic that I could observe to distinguish American conversation, preaching, or speaking, from English, was a clearly perceptible, but at the same time almost indescriba- ble sort of whining tone, not quite nasal, nor yet far from it, but mingled with a thin wiry sound, which is common to both sexes, but more marked in females, and in both it takes much from the fulness, dignity, and richness of tone, which is so great a charm in well-sustained conversation, and still more so in efforts of eloquence made from the pulpit, the bar, or the platform. CHAP. XIII. Climate, weather, snows, severe cold — Sleighmg", private sleiglis, omnibuses, carts — Peculiarities of American winters — Supposed periods of ten years for each series — Series of severe and series of mild winters — The present winter of 1837, regarded as a mild one — Supposed commencement of a mild series with this — Ships, packets, steam-boats, comparison with English — Naval expedition destined for the Polar Seas — Environs of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island — Staten island. New Brighton — Asbestos quarries — Jersey city, Hoboken Ferry, excellent boats — Passengers in carriages conveyed without alighting — Separate apartments for ladies and gentlemen — Good fires and comfortable accommodations for all — Last day of our stay in New York — Farewell lectures, and parting with friends — Visit to the pubKc school with the mayor — Proficiency of the pupils in their exer- cises — Voluntary society for moral and mental improvement — Preparations for leaving New York — Friendly parting with our fellow-boarders — Mutually strong attachments, on solid grounds. The weather during our stay in New York, from October to February, was on the whole more agree- able than I ever remember to have experienced with- in the same period in England. The two first of these months were delightful, it being a sort of second autumn, which is here called " the Indian summer." The sky was always bright, the atmosphere clear, and the air soft and balmy. In December it began to feel cold ; but throufjhout the whole of that month and January, there were not more than three or four days of snow or rain. The frost was sometimes severe, but the bright and warm sun, and the fresh and healthy atmosphere, made one sustain it better than 240 STATE OF NEW YORK. the same amount of cold could be borne in England. The coldest days were early in February, when the thermometer was, on one occasion, as low as 7 8 WASHINGTON. war. The artisans employed are among the most skilful that can be procured ; many of them are paid as high as five dollars, or about a guinea, a day^ these being occupied in constructing models ; and their work- manship surpassed, in skill and beauty, any that I remember to have seen in this line. It may show the extent of patronage bestowed by the government of the United States on inventions which they deem valuable for warlike operations, to mention the fact, that a Captain Bell, of their service, was recently paid 20,000 dollars out of the public funds for a very simple and almost obvious improve- ment, by substituting a vertical worm or screw, to elevate and depress heavy pieces of artillery with greater ease and precision than could be eiFected by the w ooden quoins formerly used for that purpose ; the effect of which improvement is to enable the person firing the cannon to take his deadly aim with gi^eater precision. How liberally the arts of destruction are rewarded, compared with the arts of preservation, one need not visit America to learn. All Europe furnishes many striking examples of the same kind ; but while such is the perverted taste and judgment of mankind, that the warrior, w^hose life is devoted to the slaughter of his fellow-men, shall be crowned with honours and rewards — while the schoolmaster who instructs them, shall pine in neglect and obscurity — who can wonder that it is deemed less honourable to save than to destroy ? The Navy Yard is a much larger establishment than the Arsenal. It is higher up on the Eastern branch, or Anacosta river, and is under the superin- NAVY- YARD. .SGQ tendence of Commodore Patterson. No ships were building in it at the time of our visit : but the large shed, or ship-house, under which the Columbus 7^ was built, was still standing, and perfect in its kind. The most interesting processes we saw here, were the forging of the large anchors for line-of-battle ships ; the welding the links of the great chain-cable for the first-rate ship of war, the Pennsylvania, of 130 guns ; and the manufacture of the cooking- houses, or cabooses, and iron tanks for water, all for ships of war, as well as the machinery for making blocks. Although the dock-yards of England are more extensive than this at Washington, and employ a greater number of men, (the number employed here being about 200 at present) ; yet the works executed here, in every department, appeared to me as perfect as at Portsmouth, or any other of our great naval ports. Many of the leading workmen, indeed, were English ; and the person who conducted us through the different departments was a native of Devonport, and had served his apprenticeship in the dock-yard there : but he said, the wages paid to able workmen here were so much higher than the same class could obtain in England, that he considered himself to be twice as well off here as if he had remained at home, and was very happy at having made the change. On our return by the Capitol, we heard that the Senate was still in debate upon the never-ending topic of the Sub-treasury Bill ; but conceiving that all that could be said on either side had been already exhausted — for the measure had been under debate in the Senate for a greater number of days than there VOL. I. 2 b 370 WASHINGTON. are members of that body, and these are fifty-two — we did not stop, though, according to the National Intelligencer of the following morning, March 23, the contest was severe j for it is thus characteristi- cally described : " The War of the Giants. — The debate among the great men of the Senate still continues, and continues to be distinguished by passages of arms, of unexcelled skill and ability. Yesterday, Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster encountered, and held a large audience wrapt in admiring attention to the conflict for several hours." We had learnt to estimate at its proper value, however, this exaggerated style of description, and bore our disappointment meekly ; as well as the loss of a scene which contrasts well with the former, and which, by way of appendage, might be called " the battle of the pigmies." This scene took place on the same day in the House of Representatives, and is thus described by the same paper. " Mr. Boon commented with very great severity on Mr. Halsted's speech of yesterday, and avowed his intention " to skin" that gentle- man. He said his speech evinced the advantage of being high- bom and college- bred ; characterized its strain of language as low and vulgar, and every way unworthy of a representative ; referred to Mr. Halsted's consumption of pens and paper, as being ten times greater than his own ; he remarked upon his dress, as being that of a dandy, &c. ; and concluded by comparing the whole speech to butter churned without a cover, which splashed on all around," &c. We passed our last Sunday in Washington, in attending divine service in the House of Represen- tatives at the Capitol. It had been announced that the Rev. Dr. Fisk, president of the Wesleyan Con- RELIGIOUS SERVICES. 371 ference of Connecticut, was to preach there to-da}-, and the weather being beautifully fine, the preacher eminent, and the place very popular, a crowded audience was assembled, and the scene was impres- sive and imposing. It was curious to see nearly all the representatives' seats occupied by ladies ; while members of both Houses crowded around in the passages and avenues, and the galleries were filled with strangers. The preacher occupied the chair of the Speaker or president of the assembly ; and the service consisted of the usual succession of the hymn, the extempore prayer, the lessons, and the sermon. This last was a very able and beautiful discourse, on the words of the psalmist, " The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice ; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof," in which the reign of the Almighty over the material and the moral world was impress- ively explained ; and a deep attention was bestowed on every part of it by the audience. On returning from the Capitol, we lingered for a long while on the terrace that sweeps its western front, from whence the view over Washington below it to the westward, as well as over the broad Potomac and the distant hills, is one of the most pleasing that the city affords. The day was as bright and sunny as our finest days of June in England ; and though all vegetation was still clothed in the brown and leafless garb of winter, it was full-blown summer all around and overhead. Our last excursion from Washington was to pay a visit to Alexandria, to which place we accompanied a young Virginian, who was returning to her home there, after a visit to our amiable and excellent friend, 2 B 2 37^ WASHINGTON. the lady of Judge White, in whose carriage we per- formed the journey. The position of Alexandria being on the Virginia side of the Potomac, as Wash- ington is on the Maryland side, (though both are now in the district of Columbia,) we had to cross the long bridge over the Potomac, which exceeds a mile from bank to bank, with a small drawbridge over the navigable channel, for the passage of vessels up and down the stream. The views from this bridge are very charming ; and as we were fortunate enough to arrive at the drawbridge when it was open, we had to alight, and enjoy the sight of a beautiful schooner cutting her way with a fine breeze, against the descending stream, and steering under full sail right through. On the opposite side of the river to Washington, at the point where the bridge terminates, we were shown the foundations of a new town, intended to have been built as a rival to Washington, and to be called Jackson, after the late President of the United States. The history of this little spot is worth giving, because it is a specimen of similar acts of folly committed in many other parts of the United States within the last ten years, and within the last five especially, originating partly in the vanity, and partly in the cupidity, of the people, and resulting in their bankruptcy and ruin. An idea was conceived by some real admirer or sycophantic flatterer of General Jackson (it is not certain which, for there were many of both), that it would be well to set up a rival city on the south of the Potomac, to eclipse Washington on the north, and to call it by the name of the rival chief. This idea was at once acted on PROJECTED CllY. 373 by the immediate survey of the spot, where the bridge touches the shore, and, being a perfect level, a city was soon mapped and planned on paper, with squares, avenues, markets, an exchange, churches, and all the usual accompaniments of a large emporium ; General Jackson was applied to, for his patronage to the undertaking, which was readily granted; and, thus provided, the individual, who got up the whole, sent on to New York, where the rage for speculating ill lands and city-lots was at its highest ; and forthwith a number of those gentlemen came here, to purchase. When they had bought their lots, at high prices, they repaired back to New York, to sell them to other speculators at still higher; and General Jackson having, at the request of the founder, attended the ceremony of laying the foundation of the Exchange of Jackson City, before a single dwelling of any kind was erected, and delivered a long oration on the occasion, the lots rose in value, because the city had been actually begun ; and buyer after buyer continued to give a higher and a higher price. At length, however, the sums per foot given for this waste land were so extravagant, that no further advances could be had upon it, and the last buyer consequently found himself stuck fast, and could only get out of his diffi- culty at an immense sacrifice. After this, a retrograde movement took place, when prices went down even more rapidly than they had risen ; and the lots are now worth absolutely nothing, since no one would be at the expense of clearing them. In fact, the whole space is covered with a marsh, over which it has been difficult to construct an ordinary road; and the auctioneer who sold the last lots that were brought 874 WASHINGTON. to the hammer, very accurately characterized its fer- tility by describing it as being **so rich that it pro- duced sixty bushels of frogs to the acre ;" to which he facetiously added, that *' there was no need of incurring expense for fencing, as there were alligators enough on the spot to form an excellent fence, if you could catch them, by planting them with their heads downward and their tails in the air." The croaking of these frogs was loud and discordant, as we went over the road that crosses this marsh early in the afternoon ; and when we returned after sun-set in the evening, it was absolutely deafening. The remainder of the way to Alexandria was over a tolerably level road, with well-filled cedar plantations on either side, the greenness of which was an agreeable relief to the brownness of every- thing else. These public roads are kept in repair by a general assessment on the landed property of the district ; but this, though considered a good road for America, would be called a very bad one in any part of England, from being so full of ruts and pits, and its surface so uneven. There was only one turnpike in the way, at which half a dollar was paid for the carriage ; but this we learnt was over the private property of an individual, to whom alone the receipts went, and no part of it was expended in the repair of the road. A great portion of the land in the district of Columbia is so poor as to be not worth paying the taxes on ; and it is therefore often sold for the unpaid dues upon it, though these are very trifling indeed. In the National Intelligencer of March 27, are no less than three columns of specified estates and SINGULAR NAMES. 3^5 plots of ground advertised for sale, by the commis- sioners of taxes, in Columbia and Maryland, for nonpayment of these dues ; though their amount seems insignificant compared with the size of the estates on which they are due. For instance, on an estate in St. Mary's county, called " Scotland," con- sisting of 2,273 acres, the sum due was only 6 dollars and 43 cents. ; and in an estate in Alleghany county, called " Western Connexion," consisting of 8,808 acres, the sum due was 19 dollars and 70 cents. ; and this last belonged to the United States' Bank. On looking over the names of these tracts and appro- priations of lands advertised for sale, it was impossible not to be struck with the singularity of them ; of which the following are only a few examples : " Hard Struggle," 1,554 acres — '* Isaac's Bless- ing," 48 acres — " Rights of Man," 189 acres — "Paradise Regained," 1,500 acres — "Now or Never," 600 acres — " Myself," 61 acres — " Com- monwealth," 3,817 acres — " Canaan," 3,648 acres — " Hornet's Nest," 208 acres — " Honest Miller," 50 acres — "Hard Bargain, re-surveyed," 329 acres — " Last Shift," 100 acres — " Hope," 6,638 acres — " What you Please," 73 acres — and " Blue-eyed Mary," 987 acres. When all these tracts become settled and occupied, as in time they are sure to be, their names will mingle oddly with those of Nineveh, Babylon, and Troy ; of M'^mphis and Thebes ; of Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Utica ; of Rome, and Syracuse ; of Jerusalem, Joppa, and Lebanon ; and the many other classical and scriptural cities, whose names are adopted by humble villages in America. 376 ALEXANDRIA. Alexandria itself is a small, but well-planned and neatly-built town, occupying a favourable position on a projecting point of land, on the southern bank of tlie Potomac, at a distance of about six miles below Washington. It was originally a village, first inha- bited by a native of Scotland, and called by him Belhaven. Its name was subsequently changed to Alexandria, which it still retains. At one period of its history it enjoyed a considerable commerce, as a point of shipment for tobacco, the chief product of Virginia, in which state it was situated previous to its being included in the cession of the district of ten miles square, to form the present Columbia, as well as a point of import for goods for internal consump- tion in the country behind it, to which it is an inlet. The beginning of its decay may be traced to the attack made upon it by the marauding squadron of the British, under Sir John Cockburn, in their expedition up to Washington. Not content with burning some parts of the town and sacking others, they wantonly destroyed a large quantity of goods of various kinds, then at Alexandria, belonging to the exporters and importers in the interior ; and without benefiting themselves by such destruction in any way. The owners of the goods so destroyed, demanded payment of their value by the Alexandrians, as they were uninsured, and held at the risk of the persons in whose custody they were. Their demands could not be complied with, for want of means, as the Alexandrians themselves had been impoverished by the general plunder of the British. The owners of the goods therefore refused to export or import any more through Alexandria till their old accounts were PLAN OF THE TOWN. ^77 settled ; and this being impossible, the trade of the place was crippled at a blow. Soon after this, the finishing stroke was put to its decline, by the construction of the rail-road from the interior of Maryland and Virginia to Baltimore, by which imports and exports could be more advantageously made through that port ; so that unless some new causes arise, to produce new sources of prosperity, Alexandria seems doomed to decay. The plan of the town is extremely regular, and its whole aspect pleasing ; but amidst all its beauty of situation and regularity of design, it wears an aspect of melancholy and gloom. Grass is growing in most of the streets, and even the great thorough- fares seem altogether deserted. The number of houses to let are as great as those occupied ; and its population of ten thousand, has dwindled down to less than half that amount. Closed windows and shutters, and broken panes of glass, give an aspect of dilapidation, quite unlike the generally thriving appearance of towns in America ; and there was one sight which reminded me of the Liberties of Dublin. A large and handsome mansion, built as a family residence, by an English gentleman named Carlisle, is now occupied by a number of poor families, two or three living in each of the separate floors ; and the whole building exterior and interior, is going gradu- ally to ruin, for the want of occasional repairs. Among the public buildings in Alexandria, there is a Court House, a large Theatre, and a Theological College, besides six good Churches. There is also a Museum, which is enriched by some highly-prized relics belonging to that universal object of homage 378 ALEXANDRIA. and veneration in every part of America — General Washington. Among these are the satin robe, scarlet lined with white, in which the infant George Washington was baptized ; a penknife, which was given to him by his mother when he was only twelve years of age, and which he kept for fifty-six years of his life, amidst all its vicissitudes and dangers ; a pearl button taken from the coat which he wore when first inaugurated as President of the United States, at New York ; a masonic apron and gloves, worn by him at a lodge-meeting ; a black glove, part of the suit of morning which he wore at the death of his mother ; a fragment of the last stick of sealing wax that he ever used to seal his letters ; and the original of the last letter ever penned by his hand, written, to decline, on his own behalf and that of his wife, a joint invitation, which they had received to attend a ball at Alexandria, in which, while politely apologizing for this refusal, he says, " Alas ! our dancing days are over." In the museum of the Capitol, at Washington, we had previously seen a military suit of the general's, which he had worn in the revolutionary campaign ; and all these are looked upon by every American, of whatever age, sex, or condition, with a personal regard and veneration, such as no relics of any other national hero excites, I think, in any other quarter of the world. People not only admire, but they seem to love the name of Washington, and hold sacred everything that ever belonged to him ; con- sequently there is scarcely a single dwelling in all America, however splendid or however humble, and few public buildings of any kind, except perhaps MOUNT VERNON. 379 places of religious worship, in which a portrait of Washington is not to be found. All parties claim him for their own ; and the expression of any doubt as to the wisdom, courage, virtue, or excellence of Washington, would be a treason that few would be disposed to forgive. Mount Vernon, the country-seat of the Washing- ton family, and the spot that contains the ashes of the general himself, is not more than ten miles from Alexandria ; but though we had several times plan- ned an excursion to visit it from Washington, one obstacle after another intervened, to prevent it. Sometimes it was some great speech in the Senate, or House of Representatives, the expectation of which kept us in either house, and prevented our leaving the Capitol ; and sometimes it was the detention there, not by the expectation, but the reahty, of the speeches delivered. Sometimes it was a party in Washington that prevented our leaving the city. And when these or other causes did not prevent, the terrible state of the weather and the impassable condition of the roads beyond Alexandria, from the snow or rain, as effectually defeated our intentions. We regretted this, because, though there is nothing of unusual grandeur or beauty in the house or grounds, both of which have been neglected by the present occupiers, who are distant relatives of the illustrious chief, yet it would have given us great pleasure to have looked upon the tomb that contains his earthly remains; and thus have paid to his memory that homage which all admirers of freedom and justice must delight to show to the last resting- place of one who was so distinguished a friend of both. 380 WASHINGTON. Not long since, in December last, the body of the general was taken from the coffin in which it was originally deposited, at Mount Vernon, and placed in a marble sarcophagus ; and this event is thus described in the Philadelphia Gazette of that date. * General Washington. — The remains of this illustrious man, the Father and Saviour of his country, were recently placed in the sarcophagus made by Mr. Struthers of this city, from whom we learn, that when the vault and coffin were opened, * where they had lain him,' the sacred form of Washington was discovered in a wonderful state of preservation. The high pale brow wore a calm and serene expression ; and the lips pressed still together, had a grave and solemn smile, such as they doubtless wore, when the first President gave up his blameless mortal life, for an immortal exist- ence, — * When his soft breath, with pain, Was yielded to the elements again.* The impressive aspect of the great departed, overpowered the man whose lot it was to transfer the hallowed dust to its last tene- ment, and he was unable to conceal his emotions. He placed his hand upon the ample forehead, once highest in the ranks of battle, or throbbing with the cares of an infant empire, and he lamented, we doubt not, that the voice of fame could not provoke that silent clay to life again, or pour its tones of revival into the dull cold ear of death. The last acts of patriotic sepulture were thus consummated ; and the figure, which we can scarcely dissociate from an apotheosis, consigned to its low, dim mansion, to be seen no more until mortal shall put on immortality, and the bright garments of endless incor- ruption." Next to General Washington, Lafayette ranks higher than any other public man in the general estimation of Americans. About Jefferson and Madison, Monroe and Adams, there are still differ- ences of opinion ; and still greater differences re- GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 381. specting General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren. But Lafayette, like Washington, seems to unite all suf- frages ; and accordingly the portrait of this venerable Friend of Liberty is generally to be found accompa- nying that of his hardly more illustrious companion in arms, and partner in glory. Besides the full-length picture of Lafayette, which is suspended on the walls of the Hall of Representatives, opposite to that of General Washington, there is a beautiful marble bust of him in the library of Congress, an admirable like- ness, and on the side of the bust are inscribed the two following short extracts. The first is from the words of his speech, delivered at Washington in the Hall of Representatives on the 10th of December 1824, when he said, "What better pledge can be given of a persevering national love of liberty, than when those blessings are evidently the result of a virtuous resistance to oppression, and of institutions founded on the rights of man, and the republican principle of self-government?" The second is the closing sentence of his answer to the President's fare- well speech, delivered in Washington, September 7> 1825, when he said, " God bless you. Sir, and all who surround you. God bless the American people, each of their statesmen, and the Federal government. Accept the patriotic farewell of an overflowing heart. Such will be its last throb, when it ceases to beat." In my inquiries respecting the Indians, during our stay at Washington, I learnt many new particu- lars, and from extremely favourable sources. The venerable Judge White, who was an inmate of the boarding-house in which we lived, was 382 WASHINGTON. chairman of the Committee of the Senate on Indian affairs ; and we, therefore, saw many Indians and Indian agents, who came to see him on business. I became acquainted also with other Indians then at Washington, through other sources, and particularly with some of the Cherokees, one of whose tribe in- vented an alphabet, printed books, and gave to the whole body an impulse of advancement, of con- siderable force. I had leisure also to read Cap- tain Carver's remarkable Travels among the Indians in the Wisconsin Territory, with occasional comments and explanations by the experienced judge, who was so competent to the task. The result of all this was, to convince me that the task of civilizing and instruct- ing the Indians, if it be practicable at all, must be directed chiefly to the younger portion of the tribes ; as the whole career of an Indian, from his cradle to manhood, is calculated to fix his habits and prejudices deeper and deeper with every succeeding year, so as to make the civilization of the adults almost hope- less. We had a missionary and his wife staying with us, from New England, on their way to the Rocky Mountains, where some tribes exist who have had no intercourse whatever with white men : and even these acknowledged the extreme difficulty of bringing them into any state of civilization. Some of them, how- ever, become nominal Christians, and evince all out- ward respect to Christianity. But any progress beyond that, seems very doubtful. From one of these, our venerable friend. Judge White, received an Indian version of the Prayer Book used by the Pro- testant Episcopal Church of America, printed in LAST DAY AT WASHINGTON. 383 English characters, but in Indian words ; and having, on the leaf preceding the title, the following inscription : " To the Hon. Judge White, of Tennes- see, a distinguished chief, now sitting by the great council-fire of the American nation, in the City of Washington ; from Daniel Bread, Chief of the Oneidas, who has the honour of sitting by the small council-fire of his nation, at Dutch Creek, in the Territory of Wisconsin; Feb. 28, 1838." It has been remarked of the Indians, that though they have all the ferocity which is characteristic of savage life, their feelings of generosity and gratitude towards those whom they esteem and respect, are much more powerful than among civilized people ; and therefore it is that all who have lived longest among them, and know them most intimately, appear to entertain the most favourable opinion of their characters, which, according to the testimony of all parties, is never improved, but continually deteriorated by their intercourse with the more civilized race, because they rarely adopt their virtues, while they speedily acquire their vices, that of drinking to intoxication especially ; and this soon leads to the indulgence of all the evil passions, since drunkenness, besides being a vice in itself, is the prolific source of almost every other. Our last day at Washington was passed in paying and receiving farewell visits to the friends whose kindness we had experienced during our stay there, many of whom we hoped we might meet again in some other portion of the Union, where more leisure and less dissipation might admit of our enjoying, what Washington will rarely admit, a quiet and ,'384 WASHINGTON. social intercourse, suited to the tranquillity of intel- lectual enjoyment ; and with several there was not only the hope but almost the assurance of such meetings in the various States in which they resided when at home, and through which it was our intention to travel before we should leave the country. On the evening of Monday, the 26th of March, we left Washington for Baltimore, by the rail-road cars, passing over the viaduct, which forms a picturesque object in the way ; the whole country looking better than when we last traversed it, from the entire disap- pearance of the snow, and the approach of spring: — and after an agreeable ride of about two hours and a half, over a distance of thirty-eight miles, we reached Baltimore before eight in the evening, and found excellent accommodation in the Eutaw House Hotel, one of the most comfortable and commodious that we had yet met with since our landing in the country. CHAP. XX. Stay at Baltimore, and agreeable intercourse there — History of the first foundation of Maryland — Character of Lord Baltimore, a Catholic peer — Settlement of the colony by his son — Followed by Roman Catholics of rank and fortune — Religious toleration the principle of these settlers — Kind treatment and gratitude of the Indians — Foimdation of St. Mary's and Annapolis — Early existence of negro slavery in the colony — Origin and cause of the first Indian war — Progressive prosperity of Maryland as a State — First foundation of the town of Baltimore — Elevation to the dignity of a city in 1796 — Effects of the revolution on its prosperity. Our stay at Baltimore, which extended to a month, was unusually favourable in every point of view. The families with whom we had the good fortune to be acquainted, were as hospitable and generous as they were intelligent and agreeable; and carriages were daily placed at our disposal for any excursions we designed to make. The weather was beautiful throughout the whole period, and scarcely a day passed without our being taken, by one friend or another, to some point of view in the city or its environs, from which the most extensive and advan- tageous prospect of the surrounding scene could be enjoyed. We visited in succession all its public institutions ; attended its principal churches ; were entertained both by social and by brilliant parties ; and had every source of information and pleasure thrown open to us without reserve. I gladly availed myself, VOL. I. 2 C 386 BALTIMOJIE. therefore, of these valuable advantages, to acquire as full and accurate an account of Baltimore as was practicable ; and to add to that which was necessarily gleaned from other sources, the observations which our stay here enabled me to make for myself; the result of which will be found embodied in the following sketch. In describing Baltimore, it is necessary to go a little farther back than the history of the city itself, for the purpose of showing how the influence of the first founders of society here, continues to operate on the taste and habits of their descendants, and to make Baltimore essentially diflferent from any of the cities of the Union which we had yet visited. It was as early as the year 1620, that the first Lord Baltimore (then Sir Charles Calvert) obtained from James the First, to whom he was at that period secretary of state, a grant of land in America ; but this being far north, in Newfoundland, the colony he founded there did not prosper. His visit to Virginia, eight years afterwards, inspired him with the first idea of settling there, if possible, instead, but being obliged to quit that country by the persecu- tion of the Protestants, who hated and feared him because he was a Roman Catholic, he subsequently formed the design of obtaining a royal grant of the lands north of the Potomac, and at the head of the Chesapeake, for the purpose of founding a colony of refuge for the persecuted of his own sect in Europe. He succeeded in obtaining the grant he desired from the next sovereign, Charles the First; but did not live to carry his plans into execution. His son, however, Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore, took LEONARD CALVERT. 887 up his father's project, and had the chartered grant confirmed to him, with the rest of the estates and title of his parent. It was in 1632 that this charter began first to be acted on. A younger brother of Lord Baltimore, Leonard Calvert, was appointed governor of the province ; and from the great number of Roman Catholics then suffering in England from the severity of the laws against them there, the materials of the new colony were easily obtained. But what was extremely favourable to the future character of the settlement, and its inhabitants, was this; that the most intelligent as well as the most moderate of the Catholic body in Britain, were among the first to embark for this new land of liberty : and as if they were determined, on their first entry into the sanctuary themselves, to make it a place of refuge also, for all others, they established their colony on the liberal principles of perfect freedom of conscience, and tolerated the open profession and undisturbed practice of all forms of worship, and tenets of doctrine, at the very period when the Puritan fathers of New England, who, like themselves, had fled from the religious persecutions of the mother-coun- try, were acting so unworthily, as to proscribe and persecute persons of all other faiths than their own, and Roman Catholics especially. The number of persons who embarked in the first expedition with Leonard Calvert, did not exceed 200 : but these were almost all gentlemen of rank and fortune, accompanied by about an equal number of adherents and attendants, all of the Roman Catholic church. They took possession of the terri- 2 c 2 388 BALTIMORE. tory by landing near the mouth of the Potomac in the Chesapeake, planting there a Cross, and claim- ing the soil " for our Saviour, and our Sovereign Lord, the King of England." But that justice should be done to the aboriginal possessors of the region, a negociation was opened with the Indian chief, who was then sovereign of these wilds: and the price demanded for the land having been amicably adjusted, and fairly paid, the generosity of the settlers so won the hearts of their new Indian friends, that the chief expressed his confidence in them in the following- striking language. " I love the English," said he, " so well, that if they should go about to kill me, if I had so much breath as to speak, I would command my people not to revenge my death ; for I know that they would not do such a thing, except it were through my own fault." The town which they first occupied stood on the north point of the Potomac, at its entry into the Chesapeake, about half way up that bay on the left ; they called it St. Mary's, and the whole district was called Maryland : and so rapidly did they increase in prosperity, in their new abode, that in the short period of two years after their first landing, they exported 10,000 bushels of Indian corn to New England, in exchange for the articles which they required from thence. The intelligence of their safety and success soon spread to England ; and many, who were not bold enough to risk the first adventure, soon flocked around them, when all danger was past. Lord Baltimore, too, aided the transport of all who desired to go, by munificent grants from his own purse ; so much so, that in two years he had expended NEGRO SLAVERY. 389 £40,000 ; and in addition to this, he gave to every settler who came out, a present of fifty acres of land, in absolute right of fee — still adhering to the origi- nal principle of tolerating all religious opinions, and not assuming supremacy for any mode of faith or worship. In 1639, the first representative assembly was formed in Maryland, and the persons elected by the votes of others to sit as members of this assembly were called burgesses. But one of the most striking singularities of the law prescribing this election of representatives was this, that it enacted, that if any freemen refrained from giving their votes to any representative at the time of election, they should have liberty to sit in the assembly in person them- selves ; the principle being probably this — that if a man did not vote for any one of the persons put before him as a candidate, it w^as because he had no confidence in him as his representative ; and there- fore, not having delegated his rights to any one to represent them for him, he should go and represent them for himself. It is remarkable, however, that notwithstanding the extreme liberality which characterized the con- duct of Lord Baltimore, and the early settlers, on religious matters, they were not superior to their neighbours in their respect for civil liberty, as negroes were held in slavery by them from the begin- ning ; and in an act of the Maryland assembly, as early as 1639, the " people" are declared to consist of *' all Christian inhabitants, slaves only excepted." This is the more remarkable, inasmuch as the Catho- lics of those davs had shown more abhorrence in 390 BALTIMORE. general than Protestants, to the state of slavery ; for while Sir John Hawkins was tolerated by the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, in the slave-trade which he first originated on the coast of Africa, the Roman Pontiif, Leo X. had declared, when a controversy on this subject had been submitted to him for his deci- sion, that ** not only the Christian religion, but Nature herself, cried out against slavery." Not long after this, in 1641, the great accumula- tion of settlers led to enroachments on the rights of the aboriginal Indians, by persons less scrupulous than their predecessors ; and by the agency of ardent spirits, which they first introduced to the knowledge and use of these unhappy people, they so defrauded them, as to excite universal indignation among the tribes, and provoke an Indian war. This lasted for two years, with losses on both sides, and advantages to neither ; and when peace was happily restored, a law was enacted by the Maryland assembly, which made it illegal to obtain grants of lands from Indians without the consent of the legislature ; which consti- tuted it felony to sell or kidnap any friendly Indians ; and made it a high misdemeanour to put them in possession of arms and ammunition, or to supply them with spirituous liquors — then, as now, the most prolific source of crime and misery to all who used them excessively themselves, or administered them to others. In 1649, the principles of religious toleration which I^ord Baltimore had been the first to estab- lish by his individual authority in the Western world, was embodied in "an act concerning reli- gion," passed by the Maryland assembly, composed RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 391 almost wholly of Roman Catholic members. In this act, the preamble asserted the dangerous conse- quences of attempting to enforce the conscience, and the benefits of leaving it free ; and the enactments imposed penalties of different degrees on all who should molest individuals on account of their reli- gious worship, or who should apply opprobrious names or epithets to persons on account of their faith. What is the more remarkable is, that while the Catholics of Maryland acted with so much liberality to their Protestant brethren, these last, who had many of them come to seek refuge from Protestant persecution in the north, returned this liberality with the basest ingratitude, and sought by every means to crush those by whom they had been so hospitably received. In 1661, at the period of the Restoration, the colony of Maryland contained about 12,000 inhabit- ants ; and in 1666 these had increased to 16,000. The number of vessels trading from England to this province was estimated at more than 100. Labour- ers of every kind were so amply employed, and so liberally paid, that want was unknown ; and many persons who had been unfortunate in business at home, repaired here for a few years, to retrieve their misfortunes, and were almost uniformly successful. In 1676, the venerable founder of this colony, Cecilius Lord Baltimore, died full of age and honours; and the very maxim which he is represented as con- stantly expressing and enforcing, and on which his policy was founded, gives him a high claim to distinc- tion, as a man of a sound head and generous heart. It was a favourite saying with him "that by concord, 392 BALTIMORE. a small colony may grow into a great and renowned nation ; but that by dissension, mighty and glorious kingdoms have declined and fallen into nothing ;" and all history testifies to its truth. The colony suffered no reverse, however, from the death of its first patron, as the son, by whom he was succeeded in his titles and estates, Charles, the third Lord Baltimore, inherited all his father's enlarged views and generous principles, A very happy allusion is made by one of our English poets (Burroughs) to the virtues of Calvert and Penn, the two most just and liberal of all the founders of colonies in modern times, when he thus adverts especially to their legal provisions for religious toleration — " Laws formed to harmonize contrarious creeds, And heal the wounds through which a nation bleeds ; Laws, mild, impartial, tolerant, and fixed, A bond of union for a people mixed ; Such as good Calvert framed for Baltimore, And Penn, the Nmna of the Atlantic shore." After various vicissitudes, the intolerant spirit of the Protestants at home so gained the ascendancy, that in 1692, under William and Mary, the proprietary government of Lord Baltimore was taken from him, for no other reason than that he was a Roman Catholic, after it had been exercised with the greatest justice and mildness for a period of fifty-six years. In 1695, the Church of England was declared, by law, to be the constitution of the State of Maryland. Catholics were prohibited under the severest penalties from all acts of public worship, and even from exer- cising the profession of teachers in education. In spite of all this re-action, the colony went on TOBACCO CURRENCY. 393 advancing in prosperity and population. In IG90 the province contained 30,000 persons, and ex- ported as much of its principal produce, tobacco, as the much older and far more extensive province of Virginia. In I669, the town of Annapolis, higher up the Chesapeake, was substituted for St. Mary's as the capital ; and this still continues to be the seat of legislation for the State, its central position giving it the preference over all other places for this purpose. It was not until I7II that the town of Baltimore began to be laid out and built upon, the first sale of land for that purpose being made at that period, consisting of 31 acres, and subsequently augmented by other sales of adjoining tracts, amounting to 550 acres. In 17^9, an act of assembly was passed, authorizing the erection of a town on the north side of the river Patapsco. The ground selected for it was sold by the proprietors at the rate of forty shillings an acre for the absolute fee, and the com- missioners, authorized to conduct the purchase, bargained to pay this amount in tobacco at the rate of a penny per pound ; for at this period, and long before, tobacco may be said to have formed the com- mon currency of Maryland : — purchases were made by it, and salaries were paid in it ; even the revenue was often collected in it; besides being used for remittances to England, as well as for the payment of local dues — for then, gold and silver money was very scarce, and paper currency was not then substituted, though it was soon after abundantly used. The progress of the town under the old colonial system was slow, compared with its more rapid pro- gress since. In 1752, the number of houses weie 394 BALTIMORE. twenty-five, only four of which were of brick, and all the rest of wood. In 1^5% a brig and a sloop were the only vessels actually belonging to the port ; and about the same period, the only newspaper published in Maryland, was issued at Annapolis, under the title of the " Maryland Gazette," one of the numbers of which for the year 1752 contains an advertisement for a schoolmaster, of "a good and sober character, who understands teaching English, wTit- ing, and arithmetic," and who, it is added, "will meet with very good encouragement from the inhabitants of Baltimore town, if well recommended." In 1767> Baltimore had sufficiently increased in importance to be made the county-town, instead of Joppa, which formerly enjoyed that distinction. The removal of the county-court to this spot, added at once much to the importance of Baltimore; and in 177^, the first newspaper was established in the town, by Mr. Goddard, of Rhode Island, w^ho came down from Philadelphia for this purpose ; but an attempt to establish a circulating library at the same time by a Mr. Joseph Rathel, failed for want of adequate support ! The revolution, which achieved the independence of the United States of America, did for Baltimore what it eiFected for every other town and city in the country — gave it a greater impetus of advancing and accelerating prosperity than all previous causes put together. Baltimore soon became the seat of an exten- sive foreign commerce, by the exportation of tobacco to Europe, of flour to the West Indies, and of the produce of the fisheries of the Chesapeake to places nearer at hand. Ship-building began to be practised FAST-SAILING SHIPS. 395 on an extensive scale ; the carrying trade of Europe was shared largely by the Baltimore ship-owners ; and in 1790, some of her vessels went round the Cape of Good Hope, to the Isle of France. In 1793 a new impulse was given to the prosperity of Baltimore by an unlooked-for cause. The revo- lution in St. Domingo, which followed almost immediately that of the mother-country, France, caused a great number of the French colonists to seek an asylum in Baltimore. Many rich families having succeeded in escaping with their wealth, brought it to Baltimore with them; and, in addi- tion to the substantial capital thus added to the means of the city, there was an importation also of talent, ingenuity, gentlemanly manners, and generous hospitality, which harmonized well with the spirit that still prevailed among the descendants of the high rank and gentle breeding of the first founders of the colony. It was in 1796 that Baltimore received the dig- nity of a city, by a charter of incorporation for a mayor and city council ; and about this period, its prosperity was higher than at any previous time ; as its superiority in the fast-sailing qualities of its ships and schooners, known by the name of the " Balti- more clippers," gave it the advantage of effecting quicker voyages than the vessels of any other port could accomplish ; and in cases of war between rival nations, they were enabled, by means of these swift- sailing vessels, to break almost every naval blockade ; to carry on with great success the various contraband trades of the West India Islands, and the continental ports of the Spanish dominions in Mexico and South 396 BALTIMORE. America. The supplies of imported goods from Europe for the newly-settled territories in the great valley of the Mississippi, came also chiefly through Baltimore, and were transported from thence across the Alleghany mountains, as the opening of the channel by New Orleans, and the use of steam-hoats on the great western rivers, had not then begun. In 1812 the war with Great Britain affected Bal- timore in common with all the sea-ports of the United States ; but Baltimore suffered less than any other, because nearly all her large ships were abroad engaged in the carrying trade between nations at peace with each other, while their fast-sailing " clip- pers" eluded the blockade of the Chesapeake by the British squadron, not a vessel of which could ever overtake them. In 1814 the British forces landed at the mouth of the Patapsco, close to Baltimore, when a battle w^as fought between the British and Americans, which ended in the repulse of the former, and the death of their commander. General Ross ; after which the British retreated to their ships, and did not again renew the attack. When the peace of 1815 came, the change ope- rated most favourably on Baltimore ; and for the few years next immediately succeeding to this, its shipping and its population greatly increased. Its commercial operations abroad were extended to India, Batavia, and China, in the east — and to the Islands of the Pacific, in the south and west ; while to almost every large port of Europe vessels from Baltimore found their way. Imports of British and French, as well as German manufactures, increased PROGRESS OF PROSPERITY. 39? in an equal degree ; the value of land and houses rose in each succeeding year ; and this state of con- stantly accumulating wealth has gone on, with slight and occasional reverses, till the present time, when, instead of twenty-five houses and a population of about one hundred persons, which it possessed in the year 1752, it has now nearly 10,000 houses, and a population of 100,000 souls ; and, instead of the brig and the schooner, which were then the only two vessels belonging to the port, it has now about 1,500 vessels of various kinds, amountino: at least to 100,000 tons. Such is the brief but instructive history of Baltimore — a history which, like that of New York, shows what can be achieved by the indus- try and energy of man, when placed under the protec- tion of equal laws and free and liberal institutions. CHAP. XXI. Topographical situation of Baltimore — Finest points of view in the panorama — Form and plan of the city — Private resi- dences and pubHc buildings — Exchange, custom-house, and city - hall — Court - house, jail, and penitentiary — Separation of the sexes in the latter — Night-cells open to constant supervision — Work- shops for the daily labour of the convicts — Produce of their work sustains the institution — Plan of go- vernment, and internal economy — Places of public worship in Baltimore — The CathoHc cathedral, beauties and defects — Pic- tm-es of the interior, presented by France — Unitarian church, ex- terior and interior — Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches — Medical college for students — Benevolent institutions of Baltimore — Asylum at Calverton, plan and condition — The hospital under the CathoHc sisters of charity — The Infirmary, illustration of CathoHc zeal — Dispensary, orphan asylum, marine society — Penitent female refuge society, and others — Baltimore characterized as the "monumental city" — Washington monu- ment, column and statue — The Battle monument, in Monument square — The Armistead monument, near the city spring — Foun- tains or enclosed springs in Baltimore — The city spring — Tlie Western fountain — The Eastern fountain, the Centre fountain — Places of public amusement — Theatre, circus, concert and ball-room — Museum, pubHc gardens, race course — Municipal government, commerce, and shipping — Capacities for trade, banks, and insurance offices. The topographical situation of Baltimore is, like that of all the American cities we had yet seen, extremely well chosen and advantageous. The town is huilt around the skirts of an inlet on the north side of the Patapsco river, which discharges itself into the Che- sapeake, at a distance of ahout fifty miles from the FINEST VIEWS OF THE CITY. 399 north-eastern extremity of that long gulf or bay, and about 120 miles above the entrance to it, between the Capes of Virginia, as Cape Henry and Cape Charles are called. A finer situation for a sea-port, it is therefore difficult to imagine ; and the number and size of the various rivers that flow from the east and west, but especially from the latter quarter, into this great estuary, give it the advantage of water communication with extensive tracts of country in the interior ; while the path for its ships from their docks to the Atlantic Ocean is perfectly clear, and unob- structed by any impediment in the way of navigation. The finest views of the city are obtained from the following points, each of which we visited in succes- sion. The first is from the Federal Hill, which lies to the south of the city, and across an arm of the water which runs up like an inlet, or creek, below the hill and the town. This hill is about 100 feet in elevation, and on its summit are a station-house for look-out down the Chesapeake bay, and a telegraph for communicating the arrival of ships while they are yet at a distance in the offing. From it the view is extensive and beautiful. To the north, the whole city is spread out like a picture, and every one of the principal buildings can be seen ; but the view em- braces too many objects for any picture except a panorama. To the south and south-east, the eye extends down the Patapsco into the Chesapeake, the distant horizon being the long level line of the sea ; and in the same direction, but nearer at hand, are the projecting points by which the entry to the har- bour of Baltimore are guarded, and on one of which stands Fort M*Henry. KX) BALTIMORE. Between the Federal Mill and the city, and at the foot of the spectator on the north, is the Ikisin, as this inlet of water is called, in which ^^0 or 30 steam- hoats of various forms and sizes, with a large num- her of schooners and other small-craft are crowded along the wharves ; while at Fell's Point on the east, and the city-dock in the same direction, the larger vessels are moored in tiers and groups in great numhers. The second view is from the gallery at the top of Washington's Monument, which gives you a complete map of the city laid out at your feet, and enahles you to see the direction of almost every street, and the position of all the puhlic buildings, with Federal Hill, Fort M^Henry, and the Chesa- peake in the distance to the south and south-east, this monument being on the northern extremity of the city. The third view is from the Medical College imd from the hill beyond it, which being on the east, gives you a new and equally interesting view in the opposite direction, and thus completes the series. The form of Baltimore is irregular ; but approaches nearer to a square than to any other shape. As now built upon, it is about two miles in length from east to west, and a mile and half from north to south, but the ground is marked off for new buildings, and streets are mapped and planned for a considerable distance in each direction beyond these limits. The site is not level, like that of New York or Phila- delphia, but the ground has many risings and decli- vities, which give it a picturesque appearance. The number of the elevations and depressions exceeds PLAN OF THE CITY. 401 fifty ; and the highest of the former, on which the monument of Washington is placed, is at least 150 feet above the harbour. -ii- ,$M-, This inequality of surface is favourable to the cleanliness of the streets, and to the exercise and health of the population. It gives also great variety of view to the several openings through the streets towards the surrounding country, and affords many charming prospects of the distance, as well as of the immediate environs. The plan, or laying out of the city, is characterized by the same uniformity and regularity which mark the other cities of the United States. The streets are generally broad, few being under 50 feet, and some 80 and 100. These cross each other mostly at right angles ; the few deviations that here and there appear, 2d VOL. I. 402 BALTIMORE. being "but exceptions to the general rule. The centres of all the streets are paved, strongly though roughly, and are kept remarkably, clean. There are side- pavements to each, mostly made of red bricks placed in a diagonal interlacing, which is agreeable to the eye, and dry and comfortable to the feet. The business part of the city is in the neighbour- hood of the water, along the wharves, from Light Street, at the head of the basin, west, to Thames Street, at the extremity of Fells' Point to the east. The north end of the town is the fashionable quarter, in the vicinity of the Washington Monument, and all around it east and west ; and the principal prome- nade of the gay pedestrians is Baltimore Street, which runs nearly east and west through the centre of the city, having about an equal portion of it north and south. This being the great thoroughfare and place for stores, was originally called Market Street, but it is now called Baltimore Street. It is at least two miles in length, and corresponds to the Broadway of New York, the Pennsylvania Avenue of Washington, and the Regent Street of London ; though in length, breadth, and general style or cha- racter, it is more like Oxford Street in London than either. A small muddy stream, called Jones's Falls, runs from north to south through the eastern part of the city, but, instead of contributing either to its beauty or its advantage, it is a source of considerable expense and vexation, from the great quantities of alluvial mud which it brings down every year from the rich lands of the Patapsco, over which it flows, and which requires the constant use of many expensive machines PRIVATE RESIDENCES. 403 to prevent its filling up the harbour into which it runs. The private residences of the more wealthy inha- bitants of Baltimore are handsome and commodious, without being imposing or ostentatious. There are no great squares that can compare with Washington Square in New York ; nor any terraces or rows of houses equal to those of Lafayette Street, or Waverley Place in that city, or some of the large old private mansions near the Battery at the lower end of the Broadway : but, taken as a whole, there is a greater uniformity of neatness, taste, and substantial comfort in the dwellings of the first class in Baltimore, than in New York. Of the residences of the middle classes, the greater number are also excellent ; and even those of the mechanics and artisans are such as in England would be deemed comfortable abodes for persons far above that condition. There is not nearly so large an admixture of mean wooden houses with the better kind of brick and stone dwellings, as in Washington and New York ; and the whole air and aspect of Baltimore is that of a city of substantial wealth and general prosperity, without the least semblance of ostentation or attempt at display. The houses are chiefly built of fine red bricks, which are manufactured of excellent quality, and beautifully worked here ; and as in the neighbourhood of the town there are fine quarries of granite and marble, these two materials are used for surbase- ments and flights of steps, and both are of the finest colour and quality. Of the public buildings of Baltimore, it may be 2 D 2 401' THE EXCHANGE. said that they are fully equal to the size and wants of the city, and are each well adapted to the purposes for which they were designed. The first, in order of importance, is perhaps the Exchange, which is situated nearly in the centre of the husiness-part of the city, in Gay Street, near the water. It was huilt in 1815, hy an incorporated company, from the design and under the superinten- dence of the city architect, Mr. B. H. Latrohe. The front of this building, in Gay Street, is 255 feet, and its depth is 141 feet. It is four stories in height, including the basement, which is vaulted throughout, and the whole is crowned by a dome, which rises to the height of 115 feet above the pavement. There are three separate entrances into this great build- ing, from the streets to which its several fronts are presented; namely, from Gay Street, Water Street, and Second Street ; and on the fourth side, under a PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 405 colonnade, is another entrance to the Exchange read- ing-rooms. The interior hall used as the '' Change," for the assemblage of merchants from one to two o'clock in the day, is 53 feet square ; and east and west of this are colonnades composed of six Ionic columns each, the shafts of which are single blocks of fine Italian marble, and the style and proportions according to the best Greek models. The several compartments of the building are furnished with every requisite for the information of men of business, and with news- papers from all parts of the world ; and the edifice itself is a great ornament to that quarter of the city in which it stands. The Custom House ofii<^es are now in a wing of the Exchange ; but there is a noble edifice in progress of erection on the opposite side of Gay Street, to form the new Custom House of Baltimore, which was begun under General Jackson's administration : it is now nearly roofed in ; and when completed, it will be a great ornament to this quarter of the town. The City Hall, which is used as the seat of the municipal government, and as the depository of the public records, is greatly inferior, in size and beauty, to the City Hall of New York ; yet it is a substantial and convenient building, and adequate to all the purposes for w^hich it is required. The Court House, in w^hich the courts of justice hold their sittings, is a large and stately edifice in Monument Square and Lexington Street. Its archi- tect, Mr. George Milliman, is said to have been a self-educated man ; and it is a proof of the absence of a well-regulated taste, that he should have placed the principal front of his building on the declivity 40;) BALTIMORE. of a steep hill in Lexington Street, and the end of the building on the level platform of Monument Square, where the front certainly ought to be. The consequence of this is, that the edifice does not look half so commanding, in an architectural point of view, as it would have done by the other arrangement. Its front is 145 feet in length, and it is 65 feet deep. It rises to the height of five or six stories, is built of brick, with Ionic pilasters of marble running up the whole height of the building from the base to the cornice, and has a small circular tower, or cupola, crowning its roof. Its interior arrangements are so spacious and commodious, as to give it the reputation of being the most perfect court-house in the United States. The County Jail of Baltimore is another of its public buildings, that may be spoken of with praise. It was built by Mr. R. C. Long, an architect of great taste. It stands in the eastern quarter of the city, near Madison Street, but being encompassed with high walls, is not so ornamental in its immediate vicinity, as when seen from one of the commanding eminences in other parts of the town. It is spacious, airy, fire-proof, clean, and well-regulated under the superintendence of a board of visitors. The Penitentiary is another of the public buildings connected with the administration of justice, which is of essential benefit to the town. It was completed in 1811 ; previous to which time, the criminals were sentenced to labour on the high roads, but since then they have been sent to this establishment. It is in the same quarter of the city as the jail, but farther to the north-east, being seated on a gentle eminence to the north of Madison Street, in an airy and healthy PENITENTIARY. 407 spot. It is composed of a centre building and two wings, the basement of which is of stone, and the upper parts of brick. The centre building has a southern aspect, and is used by the keeper's family, the officers, and guards. The wings are appropriated to the prisoners. The sexes are separated, and there are cells for solitary confinement of all the convicts at night, so arranged, that while there is light and air for each, the guards can see the interior of every cell, and exercise a constant vigilance of supervision. There are also ranges of workshops for the occupation of every individual in labour of some descrip- tion or other during the day, which extend over a space of 250 feet in length and 25 in width, some of them having two stories in height, but the greater number being only one. Here all are obliged to labour while they have health and strength ; and the tasks assigned to them are rigidly exacted, under penalties sufficiently severe to enforce their performance. The principal kind of labour is weaving, which all understand, or can soon be taught ; and the produce of their labour has not only paid the whole expense of the institution, but in some years left a surplus, which keeps a fund in hand for meeting deficiencies, or carrying forward improvements, as may be thought best. The government of the prison is vested in twelve directors resident in Baltimore,^ who are appointed annually by the executive council of the State ; and these appoint a resident keeper, sixteen deputy keepers and guard, a book-keeper, a clerk, and a physician. The directors meet at the jail in a body 408 METROPOLITAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. once a month ; and two of their number, as a visiting committee, meet at the prison every week, so that the management is vigilant and complete. Of public edifices for religious w^orship, there are a great number in Baltimore ; and these, generally, above the average of such buildings for architectural beauty. The first, in size and importance, is the Metropo- litan Catholic Cathedral, which occupies a com- manding situation on one of the most elevated sum- mits of the town, at the corner of Cathedral and Mulberry Streets. It was designed by Mr. Latrobe, but his original plans, which were very beautiful, were obliged to be abandoned for less expensive ones, the restriction in funds obliging him to reduce his building, in size and decoration, to a much hum- bler standard than was at first intended. This is necessary to be stated, to account for many of the discrepancies it exhibits. It was begun in 1800, CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. 409 and completed up to its present condition in 1821, since which it has remained stationary, though it is still wanting in its chief ornament, the fine Ionic portico, which ought to adorn its west front, and the absence of which is a deformity that completely mars the general effect of the building.^ Its form is that of a long cross ; the length of the whole, from the altar to the portico of entrance, be- ing 190 feet ; and its breadth, at the arms of the cross, 177 feet ; while its height, from the pavement to the top of the cross that surmounts the dome, is 127 feet. The walls of the exterior are perfectly plain, excepting only the tablets left by the archi- tect, for sculpture, but which have been strangely disfigured, in an architectural point of view, by the long passages from Scripture inscribed on their surfaces — a most unusual practice on the exteriors of religious buildings. The dome is extremely flat, representing a section of about one-fourth of a globe downward from the pole ; while, at the west end, where the absent Ionic portico should be, rise two tall towers, like minarets, crowned with Saracenic cupolas, such as are commonly seen in Constantino- ple and the larger cities of the East ; and these towers are loftier than the dome, which they thus over-top, and leave below in the shade. If the Ionic portico were built, its fine fluted columns, and noble pediment, with sculptured tympanum and tablets, would eclipse these incongruities in the building, and give a Greek character to it, notwith- * The portico is given in the engraving accompanying this, which was taken from Mr. Latrobe's original drawing of the build- ing. 410 BALTBIORE. standing its defects ; but as it stands, with grey stone walls, perfectly plain in the exterior, the abrupt termination of the western front, in a dead high blank wall, surmounted with a brick screen, and flanked by the two Saracenic towers, it looks much more like a Turkish mosque than a Catholic cathe- dral ; and if Arabic inscriptions occupied the tablets of the exterior, instead of those in Roman cha- racters, which now fill it, the resemblance would be perfect. It is in the interior of this edifice, however, that its principal beauties are to be seen. The dome, which crowns the centre of the cathedral, is 231 feet in circumference externally, and 207 feet internally, and it is so relieved on the inside with panels and rosettes, as to take off the appearance of the size, and give great richness to the whole. The light from above is also skilfully managed, so as to combine great eflnlgence with sufficient softness and general diffusion of the rays. The high altar is very imposing, both in its archi- tecture and decorations. The organ in this cathe- dral is the largest in the United States, having 6,000 pipes and 36 stops. There are two fine pictures here also — one, a pre- sent from Louis the Sixteenth of France, to the arch- bishop of that day ; and the other, a present from Charles the Tenth to the present metropolitan. The first is the Descent from the Cross, painted by Pau- lin Guerin ; and the second is a representation of St. Louis burying his officers and soldiers slain before Tunis. It is by the celebrated Steuben ; and the subject of the picture is thus narrated : — " St, PAINTINGS. 411 Louis could find no one to bury the dead of his army, for fear of contaoion ; but this heroic prince could not bear to see the bodies of so many brave men exposed to be devoured by hyaenas and birds of prey. To encourage his army, he began the work of cha- rity, accompanied by his armour-bearer and chaplain. He is represented as holding the corpse of an officer, who is his relative, which he is depositing in a rude grave made in the sands." The picture is very beautiful, and harmonizes well with the surrounding architectural ornaments. Amidst the splendour of this cathedral, with its grand altar, lofty crucifix, and over-shadowing domes, there is a peculiarity which is never witnessed in the Catholic countries of Spain, Portugal, or Italy, namely, the arrangement of pews for separate fami- lies, instead of the broad and open pavement, where all the worshippers are placed on the same level be- fore their Maker, in the building dedicated to his worship. This innovation the Catholics of Balti- more, no doubt, borrowed from the Protestants, with whom it is universal. There is another arrange- ment, however, to which both Protestants and Ca- tholics appear to me to have given too ready an as- sent, and that is, the separation of the coloured races from the whites, even in the worship of their com- mon Deity. There is a separate gallery for the coloured people at Baltimore, in this, and in most other of the Christian places of worship ; a distinction which could not be made in any cathedral of the usual Catholic construction in Europe, and which no Mo- hammedan community would permit for a moment in 412 BALTIMORE. any mosque of their dominions ; yet the P]*eshyte- rians and Episcopalians at Washington constantly enforced this separation of the coloured and the white races in their worship ; as if the same Saviour had not died for the redemption of both ; as if salvation was not attainable by both on equal terms ; and as if the distinction of colour was to be preserved here- after, in the assignment of their stations in a future w^orld, as well as in the present. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Catholic Cathedral, is the Unitarian place of worship, which, in its general style of architecture, has some resem- blance to the former, and it is justly accounted one of the handsomest religious edifices of the city. The building is 108 feet long and 78 feet broad. The portico is of the Tuscan order, with three arched entrances ; and in the centre of the pediment which it supports, is a sculptured figure, intended to repre- sent the *' Angel of Truth," surrounded by rays of light, and holding a scroll on which is inscribed TQ MQNQ0EQS ** To the Only God." From this portico, five bronze doors, in imitation of those of the Vatican at Rome, open into the building, three leading to the body of the edifice, and two to the galleries. The interior of the church is a square, formed by four equal arches of 33 feet span, which support a dome of 55 feet diameter. The summit of the cupola, which is flattened like that of the Catholic cathedral, is 80 feet high, and is terminated by a star of light through the glass that crowns the summit, the whole of the dome being an imitation of that of the Pan- theon at Rome. The pulpit stands upon a double MEDICAL COLLEGE. 413 pedestal, the lowest of wliich is of a fine green varie- gated marble, from Connecticut, like the verd antique of the ancient buildings ; and the upper pedestal is of fine white marble. The pulpit itself is of the wood called bird's-eye maple. The organ in this church is very singular in shape, but appropriate and beautiful. It has the external form of the ancient lyre, the per- pendicular pipes representing the strings — the instrument being about S3 feet high, and I7 feet wide, and containing 1,400 pipes and 22 stops. It was designed and built under the superintendence of Maximilian Godefroy, and opened in 1818. Of the other churches of Baltimore, numerous as they are, there are none remarkable for the beauty of their architecture ; St. Paul's, which may be called the aristocratic or fashionable church of the Episco- palians, is a brick building, cast into the shade by the disproportionate heaviness and height of its tower and steeple. The first Presbyterian church, with its pair of towers and cupolas, is a large and substantial building ; and the first Baptist church, with its Ionic portico, and circular dome, is also a fine edifice ; but these are all tlmt possess any claim to notice on archi- tectural grounds, among the forty or fifty places of worship, of different denominations, which the city contains. Among the other public buildings of Baltimore may be mentioned the Medical College, on the eastern extremity of the city, which, though a substantial and commodious edifice, and well adapted, in all its interior arrangements, to the purpose for w^hich it is designed, is really a deformity instead of an orna- ment to the view, from the absurdly lofty and narrow 414 BALTIMORE. front which it presents to the west ; and the effect of this absurdity is greatly increased by the planting of four white pyramids on the summit of the roof, which attract the attention of the observer, and excite pity for the taste that could design any- thing so incongruous as these appear. The benevolent institutions of Baltimore are numerous, and well sustained. The first that we visited was the Asylum, at Calverton, a distance of about a mile and a half from the city, towards the west. This building occupies a fine airy position, commanding most extensive and aoreeable views of the country. It extends over a frontage of 37'5 feet, and a depth of about 50 feet. The central build- ing was originally the private residence of a Balti- more banker : but on its being vacated by him, it was taken for an asylum, and two wings added to it, one on each side, east and west. Attached to the estate, are about 500 acres of land, with a stream of water running through it, and the cultivation of this land yields a large part of the revenue of the institution. The building and estate are the property of the State government of Maryland, and therefore no rent is payable for either. To it, the poor of the city and county of Baltimore, who have fallen into distress, either from their own imprudence or any other cause, are sent, as to an alms-house, and here they receive food, shelter, and clothing, as long as they remain. They are charged, however, on account, twenty cents, or about tenpence English, per day, for their subsistence, while they do not work ; but the moment they are able to labour in any branch of ALMS-HOUSE. 415 occupation that can be found for them there, they begin to receive their food, clothing, and shelter free : and have seven cents per day allowed them, besides this, for their labour, by which the industrious soon pay off their account •, and some accumulate a little sum, with which to go out into the world again. This constant occupation is favourable to health and morality, and preserves habits of industry, all of which are of great value to the paupers themselves, while at the same time the institution is benefited by the profits arising from their labour, over and above the sums paid for it. The average number of persons in this institution is about five hundred ; at present there were nearly eight hundred ; the commercial pressure in Baltimore having produced the same effects as elsewhere, in throwing labourers out of employment. But the medical gentleman who accompanied us over the institution, assured us, that, in nine cases out of ten, intemperate drinking was the cause of persons finding their way into the Asylum ; and he expressed his belief, that if, by legislative enactment, the distillation and sale of ardent spirits could be positively pro- hibited under the severest penalties, that nine-tenths of the disease, poverty, and crime of the country would be swept away at a blov/. The central part of the edifice is occupied by the superintendent and officers of the establishment. The wings are divided into wards, in which there is a separation of the males from the females ; of the latter who have children, from those who have not ; and also of the coloured, from the white in- mates. Of the whites, the women seemed the most 416 BALTIMORE. abandoned, and most difficult to keep in order, or reclaim ; and of the two races, the coloured were by far the most obedient, decent, and industrious ; and their wards were in every respect better kept by themselves, than the wards of the whites by their occupants, although they laboured under the dis- advantage of being more crowded, and of occupying the least commodious part of the building. The revenue produced by the working of the the farm, and by the labour and production of the inmates, is nearly equal to the entire maintenance of the whole establishment, though they have often many unproductive occupants, as young children — extremely aged or decrepit persons — some blind — others diseased — and some insane — all of whom are taken great care of. Whenever a deficiency occurs in the funds, the representation of this to the city- council of Baltimore obtains the requisite relief. Each ward of the city elects a manager for the poor, and these appoint four trustees, by the joint superin- tendence of which the whole is well conducted. In one of the late reports of this institution, the following passage occurs: "The trustees have fre- quently adverted to the fruitful source of nearly all the pauperism that comes under their notice, the intemperate use of ardent spirits. They have now the satisfaction, however, to say, that the rule of the institution, forbidding the use of any vinous, spirituous, or fermented liquor, as an article of diet, has been strictly enforced; and the late harvest at the farm, which employed several hands, was secured without any such allowance. " It is to be hoped that the frequent reiteration of HOSPITAL. 417 convictions like these will at length awaken the attention of governments, generally, to the duty of banishing, by legislative prohibition, the manufacture of and traffic in this deadly poison — the source of no one earthly good, to counterbalance the countless miseries which it carries in its train. The next of the benevolent institutions which we visited in Baltimore was the Hospital. This stands on the opposite side of the city, being on the east, w^hile the Alms House is on the west ; like it, how- ever, it is some distance from the town, and is seated on a fine eminence, commanding a most extensive and beautiful view of the entire city below it, the harbour, the river, and the far- surrounding country. Indeed, the view from this Hospital, especially from the cupola on the summit of the roof, to which we ascended, is quite equal to that fi'om Federal Hill, and as extensive as that from the gallery of the Washington Monument. It is about thirty years since the Hospital was begun to be built, at the expense of the State ; and by donations and loans from private individuals, and the proceeds of lotteries, specially drawn for this pur- pose, it was completed to its present state. It is a fine brick building, 184 feet in length, by 56 feet deep in the centre, and 36 in the wings ; it is four stories in height, the cupola of the central dome being about 100 feet from the foundation ; and its erection cost from time to time about 150,000 dollars. The interior is admirably arranged ; in the base- ment are all the requisite offices of the domestic establishment, and in each of the other stories are wards for the sick, private apartments for the convalescent, VOL. I. 2 E 418 BALTLMORE. and separate chambers for the insane. The rooms were all in the nicest order ; clean, airy, and well- furnished ; and nothing seemed wanting for the com- fort of every class. The superintendence of this institution is under the Catholics of Baltimore ; twelve nuns, called Sisters of Charity, are always in the house, subject to a superintending Sister of their own order. They all wear the black dress of the convent, with their hair cut off, and an ill-looking black-leather cap over their heads in summer and winter. The Sister- superintendent conducted us over the building, and answered all our inquiries with great affability. It appears that these Sisters give their labours gra- tuitously, and go througt^ them with the greatest cheerfulness ; they are occasionally relieved in rota- tion, but many remain here for several years, and account themselves happy in being able to do good. A small Catholic chapel is fitted up in the building, to which the patients of that religious persuasion go ; but the utmost liberty of conscience is allowed to all the inmates, and no attempt is made to coerce any in their choice of the worship they may prefer. This institution, like the Alms House or Asylum, is the property of the State, and there has been recently granted to it a considerable addition of surrounding land, for walks and gardens, and 80,000 dollars in money, to make additions and improvements to the building. The annual current expenses, however, are amply provided for by the receipts of the sums paid by the inmates for their accommodation. Those who live in the wards pay three dollars a week for board, medicine, and attendance, including washing: INFIRMARY. 419 and the occupiers of private apartments pay increased rates, varying from five up to as high as ten dollars per week ; while those who are destitute, and unable to pay, have all the requisite accommodation free of cost, but the number of these is comparatively few. The BaltiiQore Infirmary is another institution, attached to the Medical College ; this, also, is super- intended in all its domestic arrangements by the Catholic "Sisters of Charity;" and we heard it admitted by a Protestant lady, who lamented the fact while she described it, that when this institution was under the management of Protestant superintendents, it was not half so well conducted, as the managers were deficient in that zeal, self-denial, and devoted attention to their duties, by which these Catholic Sisters are so constantly characterized. There are three physicians and four surgeons regularly attached to the Infirmary, and all the students of the Medical College use it as their school of practice. The rate of payment for board, medicine, and attendance, by the patients, is three dollars per week. Besides these, there are the following excellent institutions, all well supported and well conducted, in different parts of the city. A general Dispensary, for supplying medicine and advice to the poor gratuitously, supported by voluntary contributions amounting to about 1,000 dollars annually. A Catho- lic Orphan Asylum, for the education and support of Catholic orphans, under the management of the Sisters of Charity. A Benevolent Society, for edu- cating and supporting destitute female children, whether orphans or otherwise, conducted and main- tained by the Episcopalians. A Society for the Ue2 420 BALTIMORE. relief of the poor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A Charitable Marine Society. A Female Penitent's Refuge Society. A Humane Impartial Society, for bettering the condition of the large class of females who live by needlework, and whose inadequate wages often leave them in a state of want, and exposed to many temptations. An Indigent Sick Society, composed of Protestant ladies, who undertake to visit personally the indigent sick in the several districts of the town, of which each takes charge of a separate one, and to supply them with food, clothing, and other comforts needed by the sick, while the dis- pensaries supply them with medicine. A Mary-and- Martha Society, of the same description, conducted by Catholic ladies ; and a Dorcas Society, who prepare clothing and materials for the necessitous poor, and by bazars or fairs, by subscriptions and donations, as well as by the labours of their own hands, greatly contribute to relieve the sufferings of their fellow- beings. Baltimore is often called *'The Monumental City," from the fact of its containing a greater number of public monuments — though these are still very few — than the cities of the Union generally, in which the practice of erecting public monuments has hardly begun to receive much popular support. The most important of these is the " Washington Monument," which was first proposed to be erected, in 1809, and for defraying the expenses of which a lottery was permitted by the State, to raise the sum of 100,000 dollars, or about 20,000/. This amount being thus secured, the place selected for it was an elevated part of the northern edge of the city, where WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 421 the requisite area of ground was given for this pur- pose by Colonel Howard ; and on the 4th of July, 1815, the foundation-stone was laid, on the anni- versary of the Declaration of Independence by the United States of America. This monument is a noble Doric column of marble, rising from a base of ample dimensions, 50 feet square and 20 feet high. The shaft of the column is 160 feet, its diameter about 20 feet, and the statue of Washington, which stands on its summit, is 13 feet in height. The base and pedestal are of pure white marble; the shaft, which is built like the Monument of London, is hollow, with a winding staircase up the inside ; it is of a whitish marble also, here and there slightly veined with blue streaks. The gallery at the termination of the capital, to which visitors ascend, is also of pure white marble ; and the colossal figure on the summit, which represents Washington after he had resigned his commission, as commander-in-chief of the Ameri- can forces, at Annapolis, is of the same material. Though every part of the successful career of Washington is reverted to by the American people with great satisfaction, there is none on which they dwell with greater admiration than on this last great act of his military life, when, having attained to a power as great as that of any of the warrioi-s of other countries, with more of the affection as well as admiration of his adherents and followers than per- haps any hero that ever lived ; he did not use this power as an Alexander, a Cromwell, or a Napoleon, would have done, but cheerfully and voluntarily resigned it into the hands of those from whom he received it, and for whom he held it but in trust. 422 BALTIMORE. This act of virtuous self-denial, and conscientious discharge of duty, has therefore endeared his memory to the wise and the good of all countries, but espe- cially of his own. The workmanship of this column is of the first order, and the monument, as a whole, both from the chaste- ness and good taste of its design, its size, and its com- manding position, is equal in beauty to any similar column in London or Paris. It has a general resem- blance to the Duke of York's monument in Waterloo Place, overlooking St. James's Park ; but it is greatly superior in size, materials, and execution, and forms a prominent object in all the distant views of Baltimore. The prospects of the city from this gallery, with the extensive sea- view down the Patapsco to the Chesa- peake on the one hand, and the distant land- view over the northern and western boundaries of Balti- more on the other, richly reward the visitor for the trouble of his ascent. The second of the monuments of Baltimore is that called *' The Battle Monument," which stands on what was once the site of the old court-house of the town, but is now an open space, called Monu- ment Square, nearly in the centre of the city. It is intended to commemorate the battle of North Point, when the British attacked Baltimore in 1814, at the period of their burning and destroying ex- pedition up the Potomac to Washington. The British were in this instance successfully repulsed, and this monument was erected by the American sur- vivors of the battle, to the memory of their comrades who fell in defending their hearths and their homes. It was designed by the architect Maximilian Gode- THE BATTLE MONUMENT. 423 froy, who built the Unitarian church, and the Gothic chapel of St. Mary's for the Catholics of Baltimore. The effect of the monument is striking, though the design is somewhat incongruous. The base is Egyptian, rising to the height of about 20 feet from the ground, characterized by the lessening breadth of the square mass as it ascends, the outline showing the inclined lines within the perpendicular. On each front is an Egyptian doorway, of the same form, and the whole is surmounted by a deep overhanging cor- nice, with the winged globe, and other Egyptian sym- bols. Above this base rises the column, which represents a Roman fasces, on the bands of which are inscribed, in bronze letters, the names of those who fell in the battle which it commemorates. At the angles of the square base on which this column is erected, are four figures called griffins, which seem to unite the body of the lion with the 424" BALTIMORE. head and wings of the eagle ; and on the summit of the fasces which forms the circular column, is a figure meant to be, and called, " the Statue of the City," holding a wreathed garland or crown, for the honoured dead, in her hand, and having the American eagle at her feet. The monument is composed of fine white marble, its entire height is 52 feet, and its auxiliary decora- tions are rich and ornamental. Separate inscrip- tions on the north and south front record the erection of the monument, to commemorate the battle of Sept. 12, 1814; and the recollections it cherishes are such as the inhabitants of Baltimore have no reason to be otherwise than proud of; as their defence of their homes was as gallant and patriotic, as the attack upon them was unprovoked and unsuccessful. The third monument of Baltimore is that called ** the Armistead Monument," which is erected in the Gothic niche of a building near the City spring, and was set apart to the memory of the brave Colonel Armistead, who conducted the defence of Fort M*Henry at the entrance of the harbour, against the bombardment of the British on the 13th of September, the day following the battle of North Point. He was not killed in the engagement, but died about four years afterwards, in April 1818, at the age of thirty- nine ; and his defence of the fort at which he com- manded, being still fresh in the recollection of his grateful townsmen, they honoured themselves as much as him by erecting this monument to his memory. There are several springs or fountains in different parts of the city, which add to its beauty and conve- PUBLIC AMUSEiAIENTS. 425 nience. The City Spring is enclosed by an iron railing, and covered by a dome supported by pillars ; it is surrounded by trees and foliage, and has a very pleasing effect. The Western fountain, in another quarter of the town, is also covered with a dome supported by columns, and is used for the supply of ships in the harbour of Baltimore with water. The Eastern fountain is much larger, and adorned with more of architectural beauty. It has an Ionic colonnade, open all around, supporting a roof over the spring, which is enclosed within iron railings. The Centre fountain, in front of the market, is also an ornament to the spot. The markets are excellent structures, and well adapted to their several uses. It is to be regretted that the introduction of foun- tains is not more frequent in the cities of England and America. Whoever has travelled much in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, cannot fail to have admired the many beautiful fountains adorning the open places and public squares of the ancient cities of these countries. The refreshinor coolness of the atmo- sphere, the sparkling brilliance of the waters, the soothing murmur of their falling sounds, and the air of freshness, luxury, and repose, which are all sources of enjoyment, are in themselves sufficient recommendation. It seems astonishing that London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, as well as New York, Phila- delphia, and Washington, should be so deficient as they are in these combinations of beauty and utility. Of places of public amusement, there are not many, and these are but little frequented. There is a large theatre, but the taste for dramatic exhibitions is everywhere on the decline in America : for it is 426 BALTmORE. only on occasions when some very great attraction, or some new or distinguished performer is presented, that an audience can be collected. There is a smaller theatre which, however, is entirely abandoned ; and there was recently a large circus for the exhibition of horsemanship, but it was destroyed by fire, and nearly all the valuable stud of horses perished in the flames. There is a good concert-room in the Law- buildings, and another over the assembly-room, and music appears to be well cultivated and enjoyed. The suite of dancing and refreshment rooms, in which the regular winter balls are held, are not surpassed in beauty by any in Europe. There are many much larger ; but for richness, taste, and effective decora- tion, nothing can be more chastely beautiful than these. The Baltimore museum, which is well furnished with collections of various natural produc- tions, a skeleton of the great mammoth, and other curiosities in nature and art, has also a minor theatre attached to it, in which farces and vaudevilles are performed, but to very thin audiences. There are some public gardens in Baltimore, the Columbian, Vauxhall, and the Citizen's Retreat ; and public baths have been lately introduced on a good scale. The sports of the turf are much patronized here ; and in Maryland the horses are considered to be better trained than in any other state of the Union, At a place called Canton, a few miles from Baltimore, down the river, a large training establishment exists, and horses are kept there during the intervals between the racing seasons, at which time persons interested in this amusement come here in great numbers from the north and the south. An excellent rule prevails HOTELS. 427 in the race-club, that no gambling of any kind is allowed ; and gamesters, whenever known as such, are excluded from membership. Of hotels, there are a great number : and the three principal ones, the Exchange, Barnum's, and the Eutaw House, are perhaps equal to those of any town of a similar size to Baltimore in England. The last indeed, which is a new establish- ment erected by a company, is equal to any in the Union, and combines more of cleanliness, comfort, and adequate attendance, than any hotel we had yet visited in the country. The boarding-houses are not nearly so numerous, in proportion to the popula- tion, as in New York : and such as we inspected, previous to our fixing on our abode, were very inferior in almost every requisite. We were fortunate, how- ever, in getting admission to one in Gay Street, kept by Mr. West, where the apartments, table, and society were all agreeable, and where we passed our time most happily. The municipal government of Baltimore is vested in a mayor and city-council, the elections for which take place every two years : in most of the other cities of America, the election is annual. The city is divided into 12 wards ; the inhabitants of each w^ard elect an elector; and these 12 electors choose the mayor. The salary of his office is 2,000 dollars, or about £400. per annum. His qualifications must be, to have been ten years a citizen of the United States, to be 25 years of age, to have resided in the city five years, and to have property assessed in the city to the extent of 500 dollars. His powder, and patronage in appointments, are considerable : and his election 428 BALTIMORE. is almost always made with reference to his party politics. The city-council is composed of two branches : the first consists of two members from each ward, who are chosen by the inhabitants directly, and elected annually ; the second branch consists of one member from each ward, chosen also directly, but elected every two years, with the mayor. The quali- fications for a member of the first branch, or lower house, are, a residence in the city of three years, and to be assessed in property to the amount of 300 dollars, also to be 21 years of age. The qualifica- tions for the second branch, or upper house, are,, to have been a resident of the city for four years, to be assessed to the value of 500 dollars, and to be 25 years of age. The two branches of the council sit in separate chambers, and, together with the mayor, form the city parliament. Each has a negative on the pro- ceedings of the other, and the concurrence of all these is necessary to the validity of their ordinances. If the mayor exercise his veto, however, and, on a reconsideration of the subject, three-fourths of both branches of the council concur in its adoption, it may become law without the assent of the mayor. Their duties are strictly confined to municipal government : and the salary of the councillors is a dollar and half per day. The commerce of Baltimore is varied and exten- sive, though inferior to Boston, New York, Philadel- phia, or New Orleans, but superior to any other city or port. The exports are chiefly tobacco, the staple produce of Maryland, flour, salted provisions, staves SHIPPING AND COMMERCE. 429 and heading for casks and barrels, and tui'pentine. The imports are chiefly from England, the West Indies, South America, and China, in the various productions and manufactures of each. In the last year, the amount of exports exceeded 4,000,000 of dollars, and the imports exceeded 6,000,000 of dollars. In the exports, the largest amounts were — to England, 882,000 dollars— to the Hanse-Towns, 682,000— to the ports of Chili, 620,000 — and to the ports of Brazil, 407,000. Of the imports, the largest amounts were — from England, 1,822,000 dollars — from Brazil, 564,000 — from Peru, 54,000 — and from the Hanse- Towns, 265,000. The shipping of Baltimore are not so numerous at present in the larger classes, as they were some years since : but the smaller ones have greatly increased, so that the tonnage has not at all diminished. The waters of the various rivers that flow into the Chesa- peake, are covered with Baltimore sloops and schoon- ers ; many also are employed in the coasting trade ; and a few larger ships sail regularly to England and other parts of Europe, as well as to India and China. In the last year, out of 115 vessels built here, nearly 100 were schooners : the whole tonnage built in that year exceeding 10,000 tons. The repu- tation of the Baltimore builders for constructing the finest models of beauty, and the finest bottoms for speed, in their unrivalled small-craft, is still un- diminished : and a "Baltimore clipper" may be matched against the world, for fast saihng, and keep- ing close to the wind. The commercial capacities of Baltimore, however, are yet far from being developed to their fullest 430 BALTIMORE. extent. The presence of no less than eight rapid streams, with considerable descents, in the immedi- ate neighbourhood of Baltimore, are highly favour- able to the application of machinery, by water-power, to manufacturing purposes, and this has recently been made available to the erection of some powerful mills for grinding flour. No less than five rail-roads, now- lead from Baltimore in different directions ; the principal ones, to Philadelphia, to Washington, and to Harper's Ferry, on the way to the Ohio river, being already the channels of great and increasing intercourse : and when this last is completed on to the western river, a distance of 350 miles, it is more than probable that Baltimore will be as much frequented by purchasers and sellers from the South- ern and Western States, as New York and Philadelphia are at present. As connected with its commerce, the banks here are as abundant as in any city of the same size ; they are all in good credit at present ; and the insurance companies, and other establishments of this descrip- tion, are both numerous and well-conducted. CHAP. XXII. Population of Baltimore, white and coloured races — Position of Maryland, as a slave-state — Maryland colonization society — Severity of the law against rescuing slaves — Vigilance of the post- office on abolition publications — General Hberality of sentiment- Education of coloured children — Negro preachers — Religious sects and their proportions — Benefits of the voluntary system of sup- port — Institutions for the promotion of education — Death of the member of congress for Baltimore — Public funeral, and marks of general respect — Eulogium on the character of the deceased member — Newspapers in Baltimore — Party and neutral remarks on the partisanship of political writers — Editorial taste for quaint- ness and singularity — Literary institutions — Lectm-es and library. The population of the city of Baltimore, by the census of 1830, was as follows: whites 61,710; free-coloured persons, 14,790; slaves 4, 1^20; making a total of 80,620. The rate of increase has been such as to create a belief, that the population is at present a total of about 100,000 persons, just equal to the population of Sheffield in England. This pro- portion of the free-coloured and slave population to the whites, as exhibited in the census of the city, is very different from the proportions of the same classes to each other in the census of the State of Maryland, which at the same period was as follows : whites 291,108; free coloured persons 52,938; slaves 102,994. In the city, therefore, it will be perceived that the slaves were not one-fourth of the numbers of the free- coloured people ; and both these together were not more than one-fourth of the whole population; while 432 BALTIMORE. in the State the slaves are twice as numerous as the free-coloured persons, and both together are equal to more than half the white population. The position which Maryland occupies as a slave- state is peculiar, and has become a source of jealousy and alarm to some of the people of the more southern states, especially those on the sea-board. The feeling of the great body of the whites in Maryland, as well as in Virginia, is in favour of abolition ; and if they did not apprehend danger to their connections with the more southern and western states, it is pro- bable that each would, before this, have made a commencement in the good work. But Maryland has made at least one step in ad- vance of her neighbours. There has existed for many years, a general Society for removing the surplus free blacks from America to Africa, called the American Colonization Society ; and the colony of Liberia in Africa, is their place of settlement. Mr. Henry Clay, the popular senator, from Kentucky, and Whig candidate for the presidency, is at the head of this ; and nearly if not all the southern states are in favour of it, because it keeps up the semblance of a wish to advance the question of emancipation gra- dually and by slow degrees, and thus enlists the sym- pathies and soothes the consciences of the scrupulous and religious ; while at the same time it removes only those fi'ee blacks whose presence in the southern States is thought to be dangerous, as likely to excite the envy, and stimulate the dissatisfaction, of the slaves. The abolitionists of the Northern States are there- fore almost all hostile to this Colonization Society, COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 433 because they believe that while the slaves increase in the southern parts of the Union at the rate of 60,000 a year, and the utmost efforts of the Colonization Society can get off no more than 2 or 3,000 by emigration in the same period, the tortoise might as soon hope to overtake the hare, as the Colonization Society to overtake the surplus population of the slaves, or at all lessen the number of the whole body. In Maryland, however, a great step has been taken, which is this ; that instead of joining the general body of the slave States in supporting only one society and one colony for the whole Union, they have estab- lished a State Colonization Society for Maryland only, and founded a separate colony for the settle- ment of free negroes and people of colour from this State alone ; thus setting an example to the other States, which if each were to follow out in good faith, might effect all that Colonization is ever likely to accomplish for the negro race of America. But a still stronger objection than that of the inefficiency of colonization to reduce the number of slaves to any great extent, is this ; that the whites possess no moral right to expatriate those born on the same soil as themselves, from the country of their nativity ; and that it is an injustice to the coloured races, to use even indirect coercion to drive them from what is as much their home, as it is that of the whites ; since both are strangers in the land, and in- terlopers on the soil, of their red brethren, the Indians. This practice of forcing the Indians to go farther west beyond the Mississippi, and the Afri- cans to go farther east beyond the Atlantic, to make room for the greater spread of the white race on the VOL. I. 2 F 43-ii BALTBIORE. territory on which the red and black races are found to be an incumbrance, can only be justified, if justified at all, on the principle, that the strongest have a right to do what they please with the weakest. This is the only intelligible principle indeed, in which either war, or slavery, or extirpation, can be main- tained ; though the same principle will equally sustain the right of the robber, the incendiary, or the mur- derer ; and when Christianity and reason shall over- come selfishness and prejudice, this will be perceived and admitted. As an illustration of the severity with which any attempt at assisting slaves in their escape, is still visited in the States of Virginia and Maryland — for in both the law is the same — the following, taken from the Baltimore Patriot, of April 4th, may be given : " Serious Charge — On Saturday last, as we learn from the Norfolk Herald, a breach of the laws of Virginia, involving the severest penalty in her whole criminal code, short of capital punish- ment, was charged against Captain Charles Hubert, of the British brig Charity. This was no other than an attempt to abduct, or a permission of the attempt by others to abduct, a slave, the pro- perty of a citizen of Norfolk, in the hold of the vessel under his command. It appears that the brig had taken in a cargo of staves, and was on the eve of departure for Barbadoes, when some deten- tion was suffered in consequence of the desertion of several of the crew. In the effort to reclaim these, the captain brought himself under the penalties of the law, by making a forcible entry into a sailor's lodging-house. An action of damages was the consequence of this illegal step, which the captain compromised by the payment of 112 dollars. Meantime the police officers succeeded in capturing one of the sailors who had deserted ; and this man, on being taken, gave information that a runaway slave was secreted on board the brig. The same information had been imparted to the pilot of the A essel by the cook, (a fre«-coloured man) who pointed out his SLAVERY. 435 hiding-place, which was among the staves In the hold, and in which the fng-itlve was found. The negro was taken thence, and the captain of the brig was taken into custody, and committed to the county jail, to stand his trial. The penalties against this act are particularly severe, being, as stated by the Herald, '1. a fine of five hundred dollars, recoverable by any person who will sue for the same; 2. the value of the slave, on the action of the owner — in which action the vessel is liable to attachment, to answer the verdict of the jury, no matter to ivhom she belongs ; 3. a fine of one hundred and fifty dollars, for the benefit of the Literary Fund ; and, lastly, the master of such vessel is liable to a prosecution and three years' imprisonment, if the slave shall be found on board after the vessel leaves the port, ivhether he knew the slave ivas on board or not.^ The brig had been placed under attachment, to await the result of a judicial decision." Another instance may be mentioned, which is quite as striking. — There resides at Baltimore a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Robert Brecken- ridge, who has been for many years a warm advo- cate and supporter of the American Colonization Society, and, as such, has been much cherished and esteemed by the people of the South. Recently, however, either from some change in his views, or from the more frank and full expression of them, he has attracted great notice, and inspired very opposite sentiments. In a religious periodical, edited and published by him in this city, he issued an article entitled, ^' A Presbyterian, on the Bible Doctrine of Slavery." This article led to the following corre- spondence, which has been recently published in the Petersburgh Intelligencer, a newspaper published in the adjoining state of Virginia. " The following is the correspondence between Mr. Shore, our post-master, and General Pegram, the chairman of the committee of vigilance. 2f2 436 BALTIMORE. "Post-office, Petersburg!!, Feb. 8th, 1838. " Dear Sir. — At your leisure will you have the kindness to peruse the article of ' A Presbyterian on Bible Slavery,' contained in three numbers of areligious periodical, published in Baltimore by Brecken- ridge, &c. I am satisfied in my own mind that the article and magazine are of that class of incendiary productions, which the act of Assembly was designed to suppress, and that it is my duty to hand them over to the magistracy to be publicly burned. Your opinion is respectfully solicited, as an experienced lawyer, touching the character of this article, as well as the organ of a committee, raised by this commonwealth, soon after that awful tragedy was acted called the Southampton insurrection, in which about sixty men, women, and helpless infants were cruelly butchered by their savage slaves. " It does seem to me. Sir, that I should subserve the cause of the abolitionists, and be instrumental in getting up the second act of this tragedy, by circulating the wild speculations of this mad iiic en- diary. Let me ask you. Sir, would it be safe to disseminate am.ongst our slaves the doctrine which ' A Presbyterian' would establish, and which is so fiilly endorsed by the ' disclaimer' of the editors ? " If the doctrines of this writer be true, who will venture to condemn the conduct of the abolitionists ? He attempts to draw arguments from the Bible, to show that slavery is a crying and damning sin. Vain is the attempt ! for not one condemnatory sentence can be found, fi'om Genesis to Revelation, that touches slavery as it exists in this country. " Excuse the trouble 1 have imposed upon you. My apology is to be found in the grave importance of the subject upon which your opinion is asked. From the elevated station you occupy in the confidence and esteem of your fellow - citizens, throughout our State, any opinion expressed by you will have weight, and will decide my ultimate course. I am, &c. ** THOMAS SHORE, P. M." " Petersburgh, February, 9, 1838. ** Dear Sir. — I have carefully examined the article of ' A Presby- terian on the Bible Doctrine of Slavery,' contained in the January and February numbers of the ' Baltimore Literary and Religious SLAVERY. 437 Magazine,' to which my attention has been invited by youi* note of yesterday. " The act of assembly, passed March 23d, 1836, provides: ' That if any person shall hereafter write, print, or cause to be written or printed, any book, pamphlet, or other writing, with intent of advising, entreating, or persuading persons of colour within this commonwealth to make insurrection, or to rebel, or denying the right of masters to property in their slaves, or incul- cating the duty of resistance to such right, or shall, with intent to aid the purposes aforesaid of such book, pamphlet, or other writing, knowingly circulate, or cause to be circulated, any such book, &c.* such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, &c. And the next section of the same act further provides : ' That if any post-master? or deputy post-master, within this commonwealth, shall give notice to any justice of the peace, that any book, pamphlet, or other writing, hath been received at his office through the medium of the mail, of the character and descriptio?i mentioned in the section of this act, immediately preceding, it should be the duty of such justice of the peace to inquire into the circumstances of the case, and to have such book, pamphlet, or other writing, burned in his presence,' &c. Any post-master, or deputy post-master, knowingly violating the provisions of this act, shall forfeit and pay a sum not less than fifty dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, to be recovered with costs,' &c. " I have read the two articles in the magazine referred to, without prejudice, to discover if they contain anything offensive to any part of the provisions of the act I have quoted. Whatever may have been the motives of the writer, there cannot be a doubt that he has assumed positions, and advanced arguments, antagonist to * the right of masters to property in their slaves.' And this right he has assailed in the most imposing of all other modes — by under- takmg to prove that it is denied by the laws of God ; that not only * the Scriptures of the Old Testament give no countenance to the system of slavery established in this land, but, on the contrary, they decidedly condemn it as oppressive and unjust ;' but also, that our Saviour ' clearly condemns the system of slavery which prevails in our land.' And after thus establishing his position, as he confi- dently supposes, that masters have no right of property in their 438 BALTIMORE. slaves; and by consequence, tliat the invasion and resistance of such claimed right, would be sanctioned by the same high authority, he concludes with this dangerous suggestion : * The people of the South may take their choice, either to rid themselves of the sin of slavery peaceably and righteously, or, by persevering in their present course, leave a legacy of blood to their children.' " I am of the opinion, that such a publication is clearly ' of the character and description mentioned' in our act of assembly; and that you would be subject to its penalties if you, knowingly, cause to be circulated the numbers containing the articles referred to. In examining this subject, I have carefully discarded the seilsitive jealousy which may be supposed to influence the mind of a slave- holder ; and have considered it, as I presume you presented it to me, merely as a legal question, arising under oiu* statute. " Yours, most respectfully. It is worthy of remark, however, that m all our intercourse with the people of Baltimore, and we were continually out in society, we heard less about slaves and slavery than in any town we had yet visited ; and we never heard the institution of slavery defended or excused, as we had so often heard it done, by the merchants of New York. All parties here seem to admit it to be a great national evil ; all appear anxious to see it abolished ; and all with whom we conversed were more willing to listen to and consider any proposition for hastening the period of emancipation, than we had found to be the case elsewhere, except among the professed abolitionists. It seemed remarkable to us, and was not less agreeable than unexpected, that we should thus meet, in the populous capital of a slave-state, more tolera- tion of opinion on the subject of slavery, and a more general sympathy with efforts for its removal, than RELIGIOUS SECTS. 439 with a large number of those residing in the free state and populous city of New York. For this reason there are many schools opened for coloured children, and many benevolent persons, ladies espe- cially, assist personally in teaching them : so that here, at least, there is no dread of their becoming too intellitrent. There are also five African churches in the city, where the service is performed by coloured preachers to coloured congregations ; two of these being Methodists, and one a Protestant Episcopal church. Of the religious sects, into which the 100,000 inhabitants of Baltimore are divided, the following is believed to be the order, and predominance, of extent and influence. First come the Roman Catholics, who far out- strip any other separate sect, in numbers and in zeal. Besides their large and imposing Cathedral, by far the most prominent of all the public buildings of the city, in every view of Baltimore, they have churches and chapels scattered over all parts of the town, and others rising up in every direction. The last new one that we saw, just opened, has inscribed in large letters on the outside, " The Church of Mount Carmel and the Sacred Heart." The Catholic arch- bishop, and all the subordinate priesthood, are learned, pious, and clever men; the Sisters of Charity have among their number many intelligent and devoted women ; and these, with the seminary for the education of Catholic youth, secure not merely the permanence of the present supremacy of Catholic numbers and Catholic influence, but its still further steady and progressive increase. 410 BALTIMORE. Next to the Catholics, the Methodists are most numerous ; and one branch of these are called Epis- copal Methodists, from having bishops, but resem- bling the Wesleyan Methodists in all things else, whether in doctrine, mode of worship, discipline, or government. The Presbyterians follow next in or- der, and have several large places of worship, and excellent preachers. The Episcopalians come next, following the ritual of the Church of England ; and this being the reli- gion of the more fashionable and aristocratical por- tion of the community, they have handsome churches, and highly educated and eloquent preachers. Dr. Wiatt, at St. Paul's ; Dr. Johns, at Christ Church ; and Dr. Henshaw, at St. Peter's, are all accom- plished gentlemen, and highly popular preachers ; and their congregations are among the most elegant and distinguished. The Baptists and Lutherans are also numerous, the latter mostly Germans ; and, in addition to these, the Quakers, Unitarians, Swedenborgians, and Dunkers, have each places of worship for their seve- ral congregations. As no one among all these varied sects has any connection with the State, or possesses any privilege over any other, there is no ground for envy or jea- lousy among them. There is, therefore, a generally tolerant and indulgent spirit pervading their common intercourse ; and in all matters in which their co^ operation is necessary, religious distinctions are dis- regarded. The voluntary system is found to be abundantly adequate to the support of religious teachers, without forced tax or impost of any kind ; and EDUCATION. 441 while there is no clergyman who is thought to re- ceive more than 2,500 dollars, or ahout 500/. ster- ling per annum, there is not one who has less than 1,000 dollars, or 200/. per annum ; and from 300/. to 400/. may be taken to be the average of their sala- ries. The clergy of each of the denominations are of a higher order, on the whole, than the same classes in England ; not, perhaps, in learning, but in unex- ceptionable morality, in gentlemanly manners, and in zealous and exclusive devotion to their duties ; and the best understanding appears to exist between them and their followers. Of institutions for education, and for the promo- tion of literature and science, there are several. As long ago as I696, funds were appropriated by the province of Maryland, when a colony of Great Bri- tain, for the support of a college and free-schools. In 1782, Washington College, at Chestertown, was established. In 1784, St. John's College, at Anna- polis, was founded ; and these two were then united into a University, In I8O7 the State appropriated 12,000 dollars per annum for its support; and in 1813 a tax was laid upon Bank stock, which pro- duced about 10,000 dollars a year, and which is expended in the support of free-schools. By an act of Assembly, the personal estate of all individuals who die intestate in Maryland, and leave no rela- tions within the fifth degree, is appropriated to this object, unless they are seamen ; and in that case, the effects go to the funds of the Charitable Marine Society. Throughout the whole State, Sunday- schools are very numerous, and all are well attended by teachers as well as pupils. 442 BALTIIMORE. It was in I8O7, after much difficulty, that the State legislature succeeded in founding, in the city of Baltimore, the institution called The University of Maryland. The money for building it was raised by lottery, and it was incorporated in 1812. The Professors of Law, Physic, Anatomy, Chemistry, and Mineralogy, are all eminent in reputation ; the apparatus is excellent, and the collection valuable. The State has made liberal grants for the support of the institution ; and the fees of the students, though moderate in amount, are productive by numbers. The Roman Catholic College of St. Mary's is consi- dered to be an excellent seminary of education for pupils of that faith; and the Protestant establish- ment of Baltimore College, is equally so. There are private academies for both sexes, in great abundance ; and one of the most classical edifices in the town, architecturally considered, is a free-school, built in the form of a Doric temple, and liberally endowed by the late representative of Baltimore, Mr. Isaac M*Kim. The death of this gentleman happened just after we had left Washington for this place, he being the third member of Congress that had died within the period of about a month ; and each was honoured with a public funeral at the public expense ; this being the custom observed towards all the members of both Houses who may die during the sitting of Congress. It may serve to convey to the reader an idea of the respect shown to the office of a legisla- tor, though in this instance enhanced by much per- sonal respect for the man, to give the order of pro- ceedings at the funeral of Mr. M'Kim, as it was FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 443 observed at Washington, of which the following is the official report : — " The committee of arrangements, and pall-bearers, attended at the late residence of the deceased, at Gadsby's Hotel, on Pennsyl- vania Avenue, at ten o'clock, a.m., at which time the remains were removed, in charge of the committee of arrangements, attended by the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives, to the hall of the House. " At eleven o'clock, funeral service was performed in the hall of the House of Representatives, by Mr. Slicer, the chaplain of the Senate; who, having made an impressive prayer, and read the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, " Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth," delivered an appropriate discourse upon the occasion, from Ecclesiastes, chap. ix. 5, " For the living know that they must die." " After these services, the procession moved to the rail-road depot, on Pennsylvania avenue in the following order ; — The Chaplains of both Houses. Physicians who attended the deceased. Committee of arrangements, viz : The Family and Friends of the deceased. The Members of the House of Representatives and Senators from Maryland as mourners. The Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives, preceded by their Speaker and Clerk. The other Officers of the House. The Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate. The Senate of the United States, preceded by the Vice-president and their Secretary. The other Officers of the Senate. The President of the United States. The heads of departments. Foreign Ministers. Citizens and Strangers. " The corpse was placed in the car provided for the purpose, and carried to Baltimore, attended by the chapkiins and physicians, the 444' BALTIMORE. coninilttee of arrangements, the pall-bearers, the delegation from Maryland as mourners, and some of the members of the two Houses of Congress, for whom cars were provided." In this order the procession came over to Balti- more, where it was met by a great concourse of the inhabitants, who accompanied it to the place of inter- ment, and the following is the official report of the proceedings here. " FUNERAL OF MR. M*KIM. " The body of Mr. McKim arrived at the Mount Clare depot yesterday afternoon at about four o'clock. It was attended by a committee of members of Congress. " It was met at the depot by an immense concourse of people, who attended it in procession to the burial-ground belonging to the con- gregation attached to St. Paul's Church, where it was interred. The bells of the several churches were tolled during the procession, and the flags of the shipping and at various public places displayed at half-mast during the day. The following was the order observed in the procession. Mayor and City-council of Baltimore. Officers of the Corporation. Reverend Clergy. Members of the State Legislature. Judges and officers of circuit court, U. S. Judges and officers of Baltimore county court. Judges and officers of Baltimore city court. Judges and officers of the orphan's court. Members of the bar. Gentlemen of the faculty. Officers of the army and navy. Civil officers of the United States. Civil Officers of the State of Maryland. Foreign consuls. Strangers. Masters of vessels and seamen. Citizens. PUBLIC CHARACTER. 445 "On arriving at the depot, the procession halted and formed a line on each side of the road, facing inwards. The committee of Con- gress and other members of the government, who accompanied the corpse, with the relatives of the deceased, passed through the pro- cession, which immediately followed them, in reversed order. " At the conclusion of the ceremonies, an invitation was given from the mayor to the members of Congress, to remain and partake of some refreshments, which was declined by Mr. Adams on behalf of the committee of arrangements, in consequence of their desire to return immediately to Washington." Though Mr. M*Kim was a supporter of the pre- sent administration, and therefore called a Jackson or Van-Buren man — and as such opposed by all the Whigs, who here, as elsewhere throughout America, include nearly all the wealthy mercantile classes — yet all parties joined in showing respect for his cha- racter, in this last act of consigning his remains to the tomb. I never remember to have seen, in any country, more general or apparently more sincere sorrow evinced at the loss of any public man, than in the present instance of the unaffected mourning for Mr. M*Kim. The worth of his character — though he was denounced by his political opponents, while living, as a "Loco-Foco," a term equivalent to " Ultra- Radical " in England — and the real nature of his services, may be judged of by the following testi- mony given by one of the most influential of the Whig papers, which constantly opposed his politics. It is from the " Baltimore American," of April 3, 1838. **THE DEATH OF MR. M'KIM. *' Our form was opened on Sunday night, after the arrival of the cars from Washington, for the purpose of announcing to our readers, in yesterday morning's paper, the melancholy intelligence of the death of our late representative in Congress, the Hon. Isaac 4lG BALTIMORE. M'Kim. In referring to the demise of this valued citizen and estimable man, we feel that something far beyond the ordinary expression of regret is due to the memory of one who, while living, discharged the duties devolving upon him with a propriety and cor- rectness that must long be remembered. Whether we regard him in the relations of social life, or observe his course throughout his business transactions, as one of the most enterprising and wealthy merchants of our city, we find him alike distinguished for kindness and urbanity of deportment, and liberality of spirit. " Unlilce many men — who after having acquired riches by per- severance and activity, withdraw themselves from the busy pursuits of the world, and are contented to spend the residue of their lives in ease and quiet — Mr. M'Kim continued to make his immense fortune the means of affording support, in an extended degree, to honest industry. When, so far as he was personally concerned, all motive for active exertion must have been taken away, this valuable citizen persevered in his praiseworthy course of furnishing employ- ment to hundreds of his townsmen, through the various operations of manufactures and commerce, kept in steady motion by his capital. "Asa ship-owner, the commercial marine of Baltimore is par- ticularly indebted to him for the liberality displayed in engaging the services of those among her naval architects who were con- spicuous for talent, and by suggesting to them such judicious improvements as were the results of his own experience, enabling them to produce some of the most perfect models in ship-building of which our city can boast. As a manufacturer, his services have not been less important, through the facilities afforded by his ample means, in introducing the preparation of articles for which we otherwise would have remained tributary to other places. " In point of active beneficence and open-handed charity, few persons have surpassed Mr. M'Kim. As an instance of his well- directed munificence, we would point to the beautifully classic building for a free-school, erected on East Baltimore- Street, at his own expense, and, it is believed, liberally endowed by him. It is by this and similar acts, that Mr. M'KIm has left behind him a fond and lasting estimation among his fellow-citizens, many of whom, at present young, will, when their lieads shall have been NEWSPAPERS. 417 silvered over by the frosts of age, remember with heartfelt grati- tude the philanthropist whose kindness bestowed upon them the lights of education. " For many years past, Mr. M'Kim represented the city of Baltimore in Congress, and to the extent of his ability exerted himself in the promotion of what he conceived to be the best interests of this metropolis. Whatever feehngs may have been produced by party asperity in reference to his views of national measiu-es, those sentiments were never permitted to- invade the sanctity of the private relations in which, to the end of his life, he continued to possess the warm affection and unlimited confidence of aU who enjoyed his friendship. " As a token of respect and indication of the regret of his fellow- citizens generally, and particularly the commercial portion of them, the flags of the shipping in port, and all the public places, were during yesterday displayed at half-mast, and will, it is understood, continue to be so throughout this day." The two opposing candidates, named by the respective parties, to fill the vacancy in the represen- tation occasioned by the death of Mr. M*Kim, were, for the whigs, Mr. John P. Kennedy, a lawyer, well known in England as the author of *' Swallow Barn" and *' Horse-Shoe Robinson ;" and on the part of the democrats, General W. H. Marriott, both men of good talents and high respectability ; for universal suffrage does not lead here, any more than it would do elsewhere, to the selection of representatives from any other class than that which the voters believe to be a much higher one than the average of their own. Of newspapers in Baltimore there is no deficiency. There are four morning daily papers — the American and Chronicle, whig ; the Republican, democrat; and the Sun (a paper selling at one cent, or about a half- penny English, per copy, and issuing 12,000 daily,) 448 BALTIMORE. neutral ; and two evening daily papers, the Patriot, whig ; and the Transcript, neutral. In addition to this, there are three weekly papers, chiefly lite- rary — the Athenaeum and Visitor, the Kaleidoscope, and the Monument. These last supply the place of larger periodicals ; and in the Athenaeum of April, the whole of the February Number of Black- wood's Edinburgh Magazine was published entire, and sold for six cents and a half, or about three- pence sterling ; a competition against which no Eng- lish periodical could stand. The character of the newspapers of Baltimore does not difffer much from those of New York, The neutral papers appear to give, honestly, fair and im- partial reports of what really happens ; but they are too impartial to please any party in politics, and their circulation is not so extensive as it would be by em- bracing either side. The party-papers, on the other hand, can neither of them be relied on. As an in- stance, it may be mentioned, that during our stay here, a public meeting was held in Monument Square, of those who were opposed to the Registry Law. It was attended by 300 or 400 persons, and the proceeding was a manifest failure, as more than as many thousands usually attend such meetings ; and the evening was fine, and every thing in favour of a large assemblage. All the Whig papers passed it by in entire silence, which was a dishonest sup- pression of a fact that ought to be known, namely, that some, at least, were opposed to the registry law, and that it was not approved by all parties. The Republican, on the other hand, came out next day, with a most exaggerated statement of the triumphant PARTY-BIAS. 419 success which attended the meeting, and would lead its readers to infer, that the registry law was exe- crated by the whole community. On looking over what I had previously written on this subject, of the New York papers, I had sometimes hoped that I should find it true only of them, or at least that the journals of other cities w^ould not be so extremely partial and one-sided in their statements. But I find, in an article which has just appeared in a New York paper, and has been transferred to the columns of the neutral journal here, that this truth is beginning to make an impression even in the city where the evil is most conspicuous. Whether the calm expo- sure of this practice, in the candid spirit in which it is done, will lead to a correction of the evil, time alone will show ; but it is an evil of great magnitude, and one that needs speedy and effective correction. The following is the article referred to : — Tile following sensible remarks on the practice of Washing-tou Letter Writers, of eulogizing, without discrimination, their pohtical friends, and heaping anathemas upon their opponents, are from the New York Commercial Advertiser. The practice is in the highest degree reprehensible, and we are glad to see that the political press is beginning to think so. " The greatest fault on the part of the correspondents of the press at Washington, in our opinion, is to be found in the practice of bestowing universal praise and universal disparagement, upon their political friends on one hand, and their opponents on the other. We have inveighed against this practice of indiscriminate eulogy or praise, in our private correspondence, and in conversations with various writers for the press ; but the evil exists — to a much less degree, however, in regard to our own correspondence, than in relation to that of most other journals, on either side of the House. " The natural consequence of these partial reports is, to shake the confidence of the public in the general accuracy and tone of the VOL. I. 2 G 450 BALTIMORE. Washington letter- writers. Not, in oui' opinion, tliat they wilfully misrepresent ; but they allow their feelings, their partialities, and their animosities, too frequently to mislead their judgments. Hence, whenever a leading Whig member of either House lays himself out in a set speech, upon a great subject, we are quite sure of hearing that it is the ablest and most eloquent speech ever delivered. All his opponents who have spoken before him, have been of course overthrown, used up, and annihilated. And all who attempt to answer him, come off with miserable failures. On the other hand, — to judge from the correspondents of the Evening Post, and of the other Post erected in Boston, the editorials of the Globe, and the general correspondence of ' the party' — there is neither statesman nor orator at Washington, save those in the ranks of the adminis- tration. Messrs Wright, Niles, and Benton, according to these authorities, are the most able and profound men in the Senate ; and Mr. Cambreleng the most eloquent and sagacious statesman in the House. " We might illustrate these positions by examples at length, were it necessary. For instance, Mr. Clay's speech in reply to Mr. Calhoun, the other day, was extolled by our friends as almost tran- scending human effort ; and by the unanimous vote of the Whig letter-writers, Mr. Calhoun was utterly prostrated — overthrown — torn to tatters — and used entirely up. Now, we know the great powers of Mr. Clay, as a clear logician, and as a most eloquent rhetorician. He had, moreover, the right side of the question, and we doubt not that he was victorious in the argument. But — Mr. Calhoun used up ! We know that gentleman too well to believe it. He may use himself up, poHtically, by his waywardness, and by pursuing the winding mazes of metaphysical abstractions. But a man of his splendid intellectual faculties, of his vast and varied learning, of his vigour of mind, acuteness and power m debate, is not so easily ' used up,' even by such a man as Henry Clay. " These things ought not so to be. The correspondents of the press at the seat of government should exhibit more of candour, on both sides, than we are accustomed to see. They should speak truly and justly, both of men and things ; avoiding the infliction of unnecessary pain upon the feehngs of any one ; and also refrain- ing from the bestowment of unmerited praise. EDITORIAL QUAINTNESS. 451 " But this habit of indiscriminate eulogy or condemnation, is not confined to letter-writers. It is but too common among the con- ductors of the press themselves. How strikingly is it evinced in the notices of orators at public meetings, whereby a foreigner at a distance might well suppose us to be a nation of Hamiltons, Sheri- dans, and Ciceros — a people born in the possession of universal knowledge, every tongue tipped with the oil of eloquence, and every lip dropping with the honey of persuasion." In the Baltimore papers, as in all the others that I had yet seen, there is the same taste for odd and quaint displays of editorial singularity, and especially respecting the difficulties of getting their distant sub- scribers to pay up their arrears, an evil under which most of the newspapers seem to labour, and which they evidently feel to be a serious one, notwithstand- ing all their good-humoured jests about it. The following are three specimens taken fi^om the Baltimore papers of April 1838. " Lumber, Sour Krout, &c. — The editor of the Mohawk Courier — adjudged to be a bachelor — hangs out the following novel advertisement in his paper : — * For sale, at this office, six hundred feet of hemlock boards, one thousand shingles, a quantity of leather, one keg of sour krout, four yards of red flannel, nine bushels of potatoes, one barrel of vinegar, two bushels of corn, a few pounds of rusty pork, one patent screw bedstead, and one — Crib! — all of which having been taken in payment for the Courier, will be sold * dog cheap.' " "One in a Thousand. — The Cincinnati Whig has o?^e subscri- ber, of which it has good reason to be particularly proud. The case is such a singular one that we must give it publicity. It says, * He has taken the Whig ever since its commencement, and has invariably paid his subscription in advance, without waiting to be called upon.' " " Too Bad. — The Mobile Mercantile Advertiser bestows a just meed of virtuous indignation upon a * patron' of whom the editor heard that he had been seen laughing heartily over a paragraph 2 G 2 452 BALTIMORE. in the paper of a previous morning", but who had not paid his sub - scription for two years ! How could any man enjoy a joke with such a weight upon his conscience ?" The' literary taste of Baltimore is quite equal to that of New York ; and its institutions as nume- rous and as well supported, in proportion to the respective numbers of their inhabitants. Several literary and scientific societies, which existed under separate names, have recently associated themselves under one direction ; and at the introductory address delivered before this body, in the saloon of the Law buildings, during our stay here, at which I was present, a very large and attentive audience testified their deep interest in its prosperity. My own courses of lectures were also extremely well attended, and as highly appreciated and enjoyed by the audience, as in any place in which they had yet been delivered. There is an excellent public library, containing up- wards of 10,000 volumes, well selected, especially in historical subjects ; and its books are in constant use by the numerous and intelligent frequenters of this institution. CHAP. XXIII. Classification of the varied population of the city — General charac- teristics — State of society and manners — Supposed causes of the refinement of Baltimore — Co-existence of depraved and aban- doned classes — Instances of recent outrage and cruelty — More disorganized state of society in the West — Retrospect of Balti- more society a century ago — Extensive use of tobacco by the Marylanders — Evil effects of this pernicious and offensive prac- tice — Injury to society by the waste of land and capital — Grow- ing opinion against the use of tobacco — Cultivation of this nox- ious weed by slaves — Exhaustion of the soil in Virginia and Maryland — Popular appeal to southern men and slaveholders — Inconsistency of the democratic party on this subject — Public sale of appropriated lands for arrears of taxes — Singular names of many of these estates — Public labours of the Maryland legislature — Registry law — Imprisonment for debt — Wearing weapons. Of the 100,000 inhabitants now occupying the city of Baltimore, it is estimated that there are about 75,000 whites, and 25,000 coloured persons ; these last being in the proportion of about 5,000 slaves and 20,000 free. The slaves are mostly in the class of domestic servants, and labourers for hire; and their condition is consequently more comfortable than that of field slaves employed in cultivation. They are among the least favourable in countenance and person of any that I had yet seen in the United States ; but they are admitted to be orderly and un- offending, though considered to be deficient in capa- city, and, therefore, no one appears to apprehend 454 BALTIMORE. any danger from them. There are two extensive, and several smaller slave-dealers in the city, the two principal ones having amassed large fortunes in the traffic. One of them has the singularly appropriate name of Woolfolk, it heing the woolly-headed race, or wool-folk, in which he deals. I did not hear, how- ever, of acts of cruelty being attributed to any of the dealers here, beyond those inseparable from the coerced imprisonment to which they subject their victims, to secure them from their escape to that liberty, which it is so constantly asserted they neither value nor desire, but which, nevertheless, it is never deemed prudent to place within their reach. The free-people of colour are so far above the con- dition of the slaves, in their appearance, dress, man- ners, and intelligence, that it must strike the most careless observer ; it is indeed surprising that, in the face of such powerful evidence to the contrary, the whites should still insist, as many do here, that if the slaves were made free, they would become dete- riorated in condition, and be among the most indo- lent and vicious of their race. In Baltimore there are many coloured men engaged in trade, as small merchants, shop-keepers, traders, and dealers ; while the coloured women, who are to be met with in great numbers in every street, are well dressed, orderly, and respectable, both in appearance and behaviour. Schools for coloured children abound j there are several coloured preachers ; and in no instance, that I could learn, were the free-coloured people implicated in any of the riots and mobs by which Baltimore has been so often agitated ; these being invariably begun and carried on, CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 455 exclusively, by the "more intelligent," and "more improveable " whites ! In the white population, there is a great admix- ture, both of races, occupations, and conditions. The great bulk of the labouring classes are Irish or German, originally imported as emigrants, with a union of Americans, and the descendants of all three. They are in general uneducated, intempe- rate, and turbulent ; and furnish the largest number of subjects for the asylum, the hospitals, and the jails. The class next above these, are the small shop- keepers, native mechanics, and tradesmen, who ap- pear to be better informed, more industrious, and in better condition as to circumstances than the same class of persons in England ; labour of every kind being more in demand, and better paid, and provi- sions of all descriptions being more abundant and more cheap. The large shop-keepers, or store-keepers, as they are here called, are many of them opulent, almost all intelligent, and of good manners ; and intercourse with them on matters of business is extremely agree- able, from the frankness, cordiality, and perfect free- dom from anything like over-reaching, or hard bar- gaining, which too often characterises this class in all countries. The merchants, the bankers, the medical and legal professions, and the clergy, constitute here, as elsewhere, the most intelligent and the most polished portion of society. We had the best opportunities of seeing and enjoying this, in the various parties to which we were invited during our stay ; and we 4f56 BALTIMORE. were uniformly impressed, after leaving them, with the feeling that they were amongst the most agree- able that we had experienced in the country. The ladies of Baltimore enjoy a high reputation throughout the Union for their personal beauty ; and this reputation is well founded. There are few if any cities in Europe that could produce so many handsome women, out of such a population as this — pleasing in person, graceful in carriage, intelligent, well-bred, cordial in manners ; and in every sense of the term, " lady -like" in accomplishments and behaviour. The men, too, struck us as much more generally well-informed than the same class of per- sons we had seen elsewhere in the country ; of hand- some countenances, better dressed, and more " gen- tlemanlike" in their whole deportment. This is accounted for in different ways, by diffe- rent individuals ; but here, the observation generally is, that this superiority of appearance, intelligence, and manners, is characteristic of the south, in contrast to the north ; and that Baltimore, from its position and its trade, belongs to the south, and has an affinity with it in its interest and its tastes. But this in reality leaves the question just where it was, and the inquiry still presents itself. Why is it that the south possesses this superiority ? For my own part, I am inclined to attribute the elegance and refinement which characterizes the society of the higher circles of Baltimore, to the influences shed upon the existing generation by the character and condition of those who were its founders. The two hundred of the Catholic nobilitv and EARLY INFLUENCES. 457 gentry who came out under the patronage of Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore, under the personal pro- tection of his brother Leonard Calvert, — and the number of persons of rank, fortune, and education, of the same faith, who subsequently joined them in their refuge from religious persecution at home, — sowed the first seeds of the fruit which their posterity now bears ; and the easy circumstances in which the early settlers were soon placed, rendering it unneces- sary either to toil very hard, or to struggle against many difficulties, both of which were the lot of the pilgrim fathers of the north, would contribute largely to preserve that grace and urbanity, which affluence and even competency, is sure to generate and pre- serve. Add to this, instead of the rigid asperity by which the Puritans of the north were characterized, the first Catholic settlers of Maryland were liberal in their notions both of religion and politics, were free and easy in their own mode of living, and tolerant towards the opinions and manners of others. The influx of the wealthy and accomplished colo- nists of St. Domingo, who took refuge here at the time of the revolution in that island, and who brought with them the generosity of colonial hospi- tality, and the ease and grace of French manners, served, no doubt, to give a new infusion of these qualities into the society of Baltimore ; and the joint influences of these two causes, being again strengthened by the eflect of the Catholic religion, and the exist- ence of slavery — both of these having a tendency to make men less anxious about the future, and more disposed to enjoy the present — accounts sufficiently, to my mind at least, for the elegance, ease, and agreeable 458 BALTIMORE. manners, which characterize the best society of Balti- more ; and make their social parties the most cor- dial, and their gayer soirees the most agreeable that can be enjoyed. It must not be supposed, however, that Baltimore is entirely free from that admixture of evil which seems, in all communities, to be infused, in greater or lesser degrees, with the good. Here, as elsewhere, are men of abandoned characters and dissipated habits, who obtain their subsistence by preying on their more industrious fellow citizens, and who squander what they obtain in the most vicious indulgences; as well as others, who are guilty of the grossest cruelty and tyranny towards those who are in their power. The following instances are selected from many reported in the Baltimore papers of April, 1838. " Brutal Outrage. — Our city is infested, disgraced, by a gang of ruffians, who, in defiance of every sense of shame, promenade the streets in company with the most abandoned of the other sex, and at night prowl about, insulting decent females, and, like assassins, waylaying and beating peaceable citizens. They are dressed like gentlemen, and profess to be men of honour ; but a chimney-sweep has more gentility, and a footpad is a better man. Three scoun- drels, who, if they are not of this class, are fully entitled to rank among their number, rushed into the store of a highly respectable citizen, in Market-street, on Wednesday night, and, without cause or provocation, one of them struck him a severe blow in the face. The gallant youths then ran off, we presume to some of their haunts, to entertain their companions in iniquity with a description of their exploits. Measures have been taken for the arrest of these mis- creants, when we hope our citizens will be shown that their lives and property will be protected by the law, without having recourse to those means of defence which heaven and the laws of natiu'e authorize them to use, when the ministers of the law fail to do their duty. OUTRAGES, 459 "Impudent Villains. — One day last week tliree well-dressed fellows went into a hat-store in Pratt- street, and pretended to bar- gain with the proprietor for a hat for each of them. They were soon suited with those of the latest fashion, and one of them was also fitted with a cap. But no money was forthcoming ; two of the gentry deliberately walked out of the store with the new castors on their heads, while the third intimated the probabihty of his paying for the hats by putting a ball through the head of the shopman, if he attempted to follow them ; and then taking out a fifty-cent note, tendered it to him, as he said, for the time he had lost in talking to them. Before the hatter had recovered fi-om his astonishment at their effrontery, the worthy trio were out of sight. — Another rob- bery, similar to the above, occurred the same day in Market-street. Two men, fashionably dressed, walked into an umbrella store, where there was no one but a lady in attendance, bade the lady good morning, selected two umbrellas, bade her farewell, and took their departure, but never mentioned anything about the price, or else took it for granted that umbrellas are pubHc property, and so made off with them." But even these cases are as nothing, when compared with the accounts that are published almost daily, of atrocities committed in the newly- settled states of the South and the West, where the insecurity of person seems much greater than the insecurity of property, and where outrages are committed with impunity. The following are all from the Baltimore newspapers of the same day, April 10, 1838 :— "Infamous Outrage in Michigan. — The Ann Arbor State Journal, of March 15th, states that on the night of the 12th, the Presbyterian church in that village, was forcibly entered, and numerous depredations were committed, such as breaking lamps, destroying the hangings of the pulpit, and some other acts of too brutal and revolting a character to be pubhcly mentioned. The trustees of the church have offered a reward of one hundred dollars, and the town-council another hundred, for the apprehension and conviction of the perpetrators of these infamous acts. The next 460 BALTIMORE. day, the excitement was so great that a public meeting was held, and the act unanimously denounced as execrable. Yet it is boldly added, that there is a class of destructives in that town capable of being guilty of any atrocity." *' There was an encounter a few days ago at Warrington, Dallas county, Ala, between two brothers named Womack, in which one of them was killed. The difficulty arose out of an election of justice of the peace. Wm. Womack gave his brother Henry several severe blows with a club, when the latter drew a pistol, and shot liim dead. Henry has been examined, and discharged." " A bloody affray took place in the principal street of the town of Montgomery, Alabama, on the 28th ult. The persons engaged were Wm. J. Mooney and Kenyon Mooney his son, Edward Bell and Bushrod Bell, jun. The first received a wound in the abdomen, made by that fatal instrument the bowie-knife, which caused his death in about fifteen hours. The second was shot in the side, and would doubtless have been killed, had not the ball partly lost its force by first striking his arm. The third received a shot in the neck, and now lies without hope of recovery. The fourth escaped unhurt." " The Louisville Journal has also the following relation of a murderous affair which occurred in the southern part of Kentucky : ' We learn that two fatal encounters took place at Mills's Point, on the Mississippi, in this State, on Friday last. At first there was a fight between Mr. Rivers, a lawyer, and Mr. Ferguson, a physician, in which the latter was worsted. Shortly afterwards, Ferguson, burning with the mortification of defeat, procured a rifle, and shot Rivers dead ; and thereupon a brother of Rivers armed himself with another rifle, sought Ferguson out, and, after wounding him severely with a rifle-shot, rushed upon him with a pistol, and despatched him at once. We do not learn whether any judicial proceedings have been instituted in consequence of these bloody transactions." " The St. Louis Bulletin furnishes another addition to this bloody catalogue : * Assassination. — We regret to learn from a traveller, that a murder was recently committed at Knoxville, Illinois, imder the following mysterious circumstances. Two citizens of the place — Mr. Osborne and Dr. Dalton — were conversing in the street BORDER CRIMES. 46 1 opposite the tavern, when a g\m was discharged from a window of the building, and two balls entered Dalton's back below the shoulder. He exclaimed * I am dead,' and immediately expired. No one witnessed the discharge of the gun; but suspicion rests upon a young man, who came rmming from the tavern immediately after the occurrence; he has been apprehended. Report says, that the murdered man had some time previous, offered an indignity to a sister of the suspected individual. There was a strong sensa- tion in the village upon the subject." These are the crimes of border countries, and unsettled territories ; and will, it is hoped, gradually diminish before the influence of numbers, of law, and of public opinion ; but as the cities of the sea-coast have all passed through this state of preparation and transition, and have now been under the influence of law and order for many years, it is not just to institute a comparison between them, without taking this diflerence of their circumstances into consider- ation. As it respects Baltimore, however, it appears from the very first to have been peopled, by a race that never had this transition-state to pass through, having been settled by gentlemen originally, and continuing always to have a large infusion of elegant and even courtly manners and usages among its inhabitants. In a retrospect, taken by one of the octagenarians of the city, who retains a vivid recollection of his younger days, and carries about, in his costume and appearance, the relics of ** the olden time," there is a striking picture of the society of Baltimore in its halcyon days of fashion, which is worth repeating. The writer is speaking of the avenue of Market Street, just at the termination of the war of Inde- pendence, about sixty years ago — the same avenue that is now called Baltimore Street, and now, as well 46^2 BALTIMORE. as then the Bond Street or Mall of its day. He says : " This avenue was enlivened with apparitions of grave matrons and stirring damsels, moving erect in stately transit, like the wooden and pasteboard figm'es of a puppet show — our present grandmothers, arrayed in gorgeous brocade and taffetta, luxuriantly displayed over hoops, with comely bodices, laced around that ancient piece of armour, the stays, disclosing most perilous waists ; and with sleeves that clung to the arm as far as the elbow, where they took a graceful leave in ruffles that stood off hke the feathers of a bantam. And such faces as they bore along with them ! so rosy, so spirited and shar}3 ! with the hair all drawn back over a cushion — until it lifted the eye-brows, giving an amazingly fierce and supercilious tone to the countenance — and falling in cataracts upon the shoulders. Then they stepped away with such a mincing gait, in shoes of many colours, with formidable points to the toes, and high and tottering heels, fancifully cut in wood ; their tower-built hats, garnished with tall feathers that waved aristocratically backward at each step, as if they took a pride in the slow paces of the wearer. " In the train of these goodly groups came the beaux and gal- lants, who upheld the chivalry of the age ; cavaliers of the old school, ftdl of starch and powder : most of them the iron gentlemen of the revolution, with leather faces, — old campaigners renowned for long-stories, fresh from the camp, with their military erectness and dare-devil swagger ; — proper, roystering blades, who had just got out of the harness, and begun to affect the manners of civil life. Who but they ! jolly fellows, fiery and loud, — with stern glances of the eye, and a brisk turn of the head, and a swash-buckler strut of defiance, like game-cocks ; all in tlu-ee-cornered hats, and wigs, and light coloured coats with narrow capes and marvellous long baciks, with the pockets on each hip, and small-clothes that hardly reached the knee, and striped stockings, with great buckles in their shoes, and their long steel chains that hung conceitedly half-way to the knee, with seals in the shape of a sounding-board to a pulpit. And they walked with such a stir, striking their canes so hard upon the pavement as to make the little town ring again. I defy aU modern coxcombry to produce any thing like it. There FASHIONABLE PROMENADE. 463 was such a relish about it, and particularly when one of these weather-beaten gallants accosted a lady in the street with a bow that required a whole side pavement to make it in, with the scrape of his foot, and his cane thrust with a flourish, under his left arm, till it projected behind, along with his cue, like the palisades of a chevaux defrize : and nothing could be more piquante than the lady, as she reciprocated the salutation with a curtsy that seemed to carry her into the earth, and her chin bridled to her breast — such a volume of dignity !" Baltimore Street is still the fashionable promenade between the hours of four and seven, the dinner-hour varying here from two to three o'clock. At this period of the afternoon, when the weather is fine, the ladies of Baltimore may be seen in as great num- bers as the ladies of New York in the Broadway of that city between twelve and two. The street is neither so long, nor so broad, nor are the shops so elegantly furnished, nor the ladies so gaily and ex- pensively apparelled in the fashionable promenade of Baltimore, as in the great capital of the Empire state, as New York is called ; but there is much more beauty, and more also of what in England would be called " quiet elegance," unconsdous and unobtrusive grace and ease, which is peculiarly winning and agreeable. After dark, the streets are nearly deserted, and at no portion of the night or day are the eyes offended, the ear revolted, or the heart saddened, by those scenes of profligacy and dissipation among women, which unhappily characterize nearly all the large towns of England, but from which those of America seem almost entirely free. As the State of Maryland is, next to Virginia, the greatest tobacco-growing State in the Union, the ex- ports from Baltimore exceeding in quantity those 464 BALTIMORE. from any other part, might be expected as the use of this weed is very general among its male inha- bitants. This was the only drawback that we per- ceived to the gentlemanly appearance and polished manners of the more respectable classes ; but a great drawback it is. In England, none chew tobacco but sailors and hardworking labourers, who use it, as beer and spirits are used, under the delusive notion that it enables men to sustain labour better, to resist the changes of climate, and the cravings of hunger and thirst ; all of which they would no doubt sustain better without these stimulants than with them. Chewing tobacco is, however, regarded in England as a vulgar habit, while smoking the same weed, if in the form of segars, is deemed perfectly genteel. Here however, smoking is more confined to the labouring classes, and chewing is more frequent than smoking among the gentry, though both are said to have declined greatly within the last twenty years. Of the two, I confess it has always seemed to me, that chewing is the least offensive to others, because the smell of the tobacco does not fill the surrounding atmosphere, and hang about the garments of those who are in the same company, as the fumes of smoking do. The effect of chewing is, I believe, less inju- rious to the parties thus using tobacco, than smoking, which, moreover is much less compatible with other occupations than chewing, producing the double effect of making men more indisposed to labour, and leading to a great waste of time, and causing them also to be more inclined to drink, so that it more frequently engenders habits of intemperance and dissipation. Every mode, however, in which tobacco is used. USE OF TOBACCO. 46,5 appears to me injurious to the parties using it, and offensive to those around them who do not. The snuff- taker, no doubt, injures the stomach, obstructs the organs of smell, and destroys the clearness and intonation of the voice, besides presenting very often most disagreeable appearances to the person. The chewer of tobacco also injures his stomach, by the unavoidable escape into it of some portion of its acrid poison ; and though his voice is not affected by it, yet the rolling quid, passing from side to side, the ejection of the copious fluid, and the replenishing the exhausted portion of the weed with a new supply, are all most offensive to others. The smoker of tobacco, on the other hand, makes his own person and clothes smell so disagreeably, and so taints the whole atmosphere of the house in which he indulges, that it is disagreeable to approach him, or to enter his dwelling ; while the injury done to his healthy appetite and digestion, and the bad habits of indolence and drinking contracted by smoking, make this practice, I think, the most in- jurious to individuals and to society, of all the three modes in which tobacco is consumed. It is melancholy indeed to reflect on the misappro- priation of millions of acres of valuable soil, of the mis- application of millions of capital, and the perfect waste of millions of labour, on the cultivation of a weed which does no one any good, but is either use- less or mischievous as an article of human consump- tion in every form ; and it would be a great blessing to see all this soil, capital, and labour devoted to the production of wholesome food and raiment for man, or such other articles of growth as would at least have utility and innocence to recommend them. VOL. I. 2 H 466 BALTIMORE. There seems a growing feeling among the higher classes of the population against the use of tobacco in any shape, and the ladies especially express this feeling without reserve. The interests involved m the culture and traffic are too great to be easily destroyed at once, but there will, no doubt, be a gradual decline in the trade, as public opinion pro- duces a gradual diminution in the use. Now and then, attention is indirectly drawn to the subject, in articles published in the newspapers ; and the fol- lowing, which originally appeared in the Alexandria Gazette — (Alexandria being a port of Virginia, the first of the tobacco-growing States, and was then copied into a Baltimore paper, the second of the tobacco-growing States,) — is worth transcribing, for the allusions it contains on this subject. " THE GENTLEMAN AT CHURCH " May be known by the following marks. 1. Comes in good season, so as neither to interrupt the pastor or the congregation by a late arrival. 2. Does not stop upon the steps or in the portico, either to gaze at the ladies, salute friends, or display his colloquial powers. 3. Opens and shuts the door gently, and walks deliberately and lightly up tlie aisle, or gallery stairs, and gets his seat as quietly, and by making as few people remove, as possible. 4. Takes his place either in the back part of the seat, or steps out into the aisle when any one wishes to pass in, and never thinks of such a thing as making people crowd past him while keeping his place in the seat. 5. Is always attentive to strangers, and gives up his seat to such; seeking another for himself. 6. Never thinks of defiling the house of God with tobacco spittle, or annoying those who sit near him by chewing that nauseous weed in church. 7. Never, unless in case of illness, gets up or goes out diu-ing the SINIOKING PROHIBITED. 467 time of service. But if neceessity compels him to do so, goes so quickly that his very manner is an apology for the act. 8. Does not engage in conversation before the commencement of service. 9. Does not whisper, or laugh, or eat fruit in the house of God, or lounge in that holy place. 10. Does not rush out of the church like a trampling horse, the moment the benediction is pronounced, but retires slowly in a noiseless, quiet manner. 1 1 . Does all he can, by precept and example, to promote decorum in others, and is ever ready to lend his aid to discountenance all indecorum in the house of God." In the Northern states, however, the subject of tobacco-chewing has been taken up in a more direct manner than this ; and though it would seem to be a most unpoetical theme, it has been made the topic of a serious though not a very elegant poem, if one may judge from the following brief notice of it in a Baltimore paper, the only one I have seen. " Tobacco-chewing. — The Rev. Charles S. Adams, of Boston, has published a poem, on Chewing and Spitting. The following couplet is a specimen. * If you would know the deeds of him that chews, Enter the house of God, and see the pews.' I do not know how far it would be deemed an interference with personal liberty to prohibit the chewing of tobacco in public worship. But smoking would not be tolerated in any church, any more than in concert-rooms or theatres ; and at present, in the rail-road cars from Philadelphia to Baltimore, and from hence to Washington, there is a printed announcement, prohibiting all passengers from smok- ing within the cars ; a proof that public opinion 2h^ 468 BALTIMORE. pronounces smoking to be more oifensive to others than chewing, or both would have been alike forbidden. The cultivation of tobacco, which has nearly worn out the best soils of Virginia and Maryland, from its exhausting power over the earth, is almost wholly carried on by slaves : and as it is believed here, that the same men, if free, would not consent to such laborious occupation, unless highly paid, — and as the operation is thought to be too severe for the whites, — there is a great indisposition on the part of the mass of the people to hear any thing about abolition. What, however, is as inconsistent as it is remarkable, is this : that the democratic portion of the popu- lace, they who ought, if they acted on their professed principles, to be the most ardent friends of free- dom and equal rights for the blacks, which they so strenuously demand for themselves, are most strongly opposed to slave emancipation. Their organs accord- ingly seize every opportunity to impute the crime of advocating negro freedom — for they consider it as great a crime to ask freedom for others, as to with- hold it from themselves — to the Whigs. The follow- ing instance of this occurred in the Baltimore Repub- lican, of April 19, 1838, on the eve of the election for a member of Congress, when a whig and a democratic candidate were presented to the choice of the electors, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the recent death of the late member Mr. M'Kim. *' Southern Men, and Slaveholders — look at this ! " The following resolutions have passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously. Read them as a specimen of Webster whiggery. There is not a democrat in the Massachusetts Senate. Whiggery lias the whole of the honom*, may it have all the profit ! ABOLITIONISTS. 469 " Resolves relating to slavery and the slave-trade In the district of Columbia, and territories of the United States. 1. Resolved, That Congress has, by the constitution, power to abolish slavery and the slave-trade in the district of Columbia ; and that there is notliing in the terms or circumstances of the acts of cession by Virginia and Maryland, or otherwise, imposing any legal or moral restraint upon its exercise. 2. Resolved, That Congress ought to take measures for the abo- lition of slavery in the district of Columbia. 3. Resolved, That the rights of justice, the claims of humanity, and the common good, alike demand the entire suppression of the slave-trade now carried on in the district of Colmnbia. 4. Resolved; That Congress has, by the constitution, power to aboHsh slavery in the territories of the United States. 5. Resolved, That Congress has, by the constitution, power to abolish the traffic in slaves between different States of the Union. 6. Resolved, That the exercise of this power is demanded by the principles of humanity and justice. 7. Resolved, That no new State should hereafter be admitted in the Union, whose constitution of government, shall permit the existence of domestic slavery." During our stay at Baltimore, an announcement was made in the public papers, " by the levy court of St. Mary's County," of various estates and tracts of land in this part of the State, on which arrears of taxes, the most of very small amounts, were due ; and notifying that unless paid within thirty days after the date of the advertisement, the lands would be sold for the payment of such arrears. The names of the estates and tracts of land were as curious as those in Alleghany county in Virginia, advertised at Washington, of which the following specimens will serve as a proof. " The Flowers of the Forest," 100 acres, due one dollar 81 cents.— ''T\i for Tat," 50 acres, due 470 BALTIMORE, 1 cL 2 c. — " Truth and Trust/' 85 acres, due 1 d, 18 c— *' Good Luck," 75 acres, due 2 d, 30 c— " Resurrection Manor," 37 acres, due 1 d, 32 c. — ** Forest of Harvey found by Chance," 140 acres, due 2 d, &3 c, — ** America Felix," 15 acres, due I d. 20. c. — *' America Felix Secundus," 541 acres, due 40 d, — " Bachelor's Comfort," 225 acres, due 4 d, 30 c. — " Wathen's Disappointment," I67 acres, due 5 d, QS c, — " Heart's Delight," 433 acres, due II ^. 6 c— "Poverty Knoll," 118 acres, due 2 c^. 20 c " Chance's Conclusion with Amendment," 1032 acres, due 28 d, 99 c "Wit and Folly," 279 acres, due 6 d. 40 c " Peace and Quietness," 258 acres, due 2 d. 69 c, — " Long looked-for Come-at- last," 50 acres, due 2 c/. 18 c. — " Love's Adventure,'* 215 acres, due 5 ^. 81 c."^' These names, which were all conferred by the first purchasers of the estates so designated, had no doubt a reference to the several circumstances as well as moods of mind of the buyers : and their variety is a fair sample of the diversified motives and changing fortunes which bring emigrants from Europe to America, and which lead men from the town to the country in search of subsistence. As these places will most probably, however, retain their original names when towns are built around them — as, in the course of years, is almost sure to happen — the nomen- clature of America, already disfigured with odd and fanciful designations, and rendered confused by end- less repetitions, will be still worse than at present. Here, in the immediate neighbourhood of Baltimore, is a Rome, a Joppa, and a Havre de Grace ; in Long * In this accoimt, d means dollars, and c cents. POLLING AT ELECTIONS. 471 Island, close to New York, Babylon and Jericho may be visited by the same rail-road ; and the cities of Troy, Memphis, Athens, and Palmyra, with Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem, have all had their names, at least, transferred from the Old to the New world. While we were in Baltimore, the State legislature of Maryland was assembled at the legislative capital, Annapolis, but had closed their labours before we left. It appears from a report of their proceedings during the session of about four months, that they passed 363 laws and 79 resolutions ; so that there would seem to be the same taste for excessive legisla- tion here as at home. Among the really good laws which they passed, was one for the legal registration of voters previous to an election ; but though this law is so just in itself, and must be so unobjectionable to all men who desire only an honest exercise of the elective franchise, it has been denounced bv the democratic party here, as though it were the greatest infringement of liberty ever heard of. The truth is, that in this city, as well as at New York, and all along the sea-border, emigrants from Europe, German and Irish, are brought up to vote at the polls for the election of members of Congress and municipal officers, within a few days after their landing, though they declare themselves to be citizens, swear to a residence of the requisite number of years, get vouched for by abandoned men of their own party, and not only vote without the least title to such a pri- vilege, but often vote in several wards in succession, the very circumstance of their being entire strangers rendering it impossible for any resident to detect them. A registry-law will, no doubt, put an end to 472 BALTIMORE. this, and hence the anger of the party who denounce it ; but as such a law cannot possibly deprive any man who has a right to vote, of his power to exercise it — since the suffrage, among real and bona-fide citi- zens, is universal — it seems impossible that any truly honest politician should have any real objection to it. In the Maryland legislature, during the present session, a bill ^r abolishing imprisonment for debt was passed, with large majorities, through the House of Delegates ; but it was rejected in the Senate or upper house, where only three members voted in its favour. This was the fate of the first English bill on the same subject; and it exhibits a painful view of human nature, when the rich, who are not exposed to the infliction of the pimishment which imprison- ment for debt brings on misfortune, as well as fraud, oppose every attempt to soften the rigour of a prac- tice, which is unjust and injurious to all parties. A bill to prevent the carrying of concealed wea- pons, was passed by the legislature of Virginia during our stay here, by a majority of 85 to 17 ; and the same object was pressed upon the attention of the Maryland legislature, as concealed weapons are worn by some of the people of this as well as of the neighbouring State. The bill for the suppression of duelling in the District of Columbia, received also, while we were here the final assent of both Houses of Congress and the President, so that it has become a law ; and this, coupled with the gradual disuse of secret arms, will no doubt have the effect of lessening the number of sanguinary conflicts. The environs of Baltimore are extremely agree- able, abounding with hill and valley, wood and PARTING VISITS. 473 water. A number of pretty and commodious villas, and several larger seats or mansions, are scattered about the neighbourhood of the city, within a distance of from one to five miles, and the views from the elevated points are extensive and beautiful. We enjoyed, with friends, some most agreeable drives in excursions to the country, and saw new beauties every day. The weather, during our stay in Baltimore, was pleasant on the whole, though marked by the usual uncertainty and vicissitude of the American climate. On some days we had the warmth of a summer sun, and found light clothing acceptable ; at other times it was piercingly cold, and the north-east wind most disagreeable; rain was not frequent, but fell very copiously once or twice ; and after one of the warmest and finest mornings that could be imagined, there was a sudden overcast of the sky, and a heavy fall of snow before noon. The vegetation, amidst all this, was extremely backward ; and up to the 20th of April, scarcely a bud was to be seen on any of the larger trees. On the 20th, the last day of our stay in this city, we were engaged during the whole of the day, in receiving and paying parting visits to our friends, who were more numerous than we could have sup- posed it possible to make in so short a time. It was scarcely more than three weeks since we had arrived at Baltimore from Washington ; and we had become acquainted with almost all the principal families of the place. It would be impossible to speak too highly of their kindness, hospitality, and friendly attentions to us. If we had known them for years 474' BALTIMORE. instead of weeks, they could not have been more cor- dial ; in many of the families of whom we took leave, the evident regret at parting was like that which is felt at the separation of kindred relatives or nearest and dearest friends ; and of the sincerity of these manifestations there could be no reasonable ground of doubt. On the evening of the 20th, at the urgent request of the greater portion of the large auditory that had attended my courses on Egypt and Palestine through- out, as well as of many who had attended my public addresses on Temperance in Baltimore, where large numbers were added to those who pledged themselves to abstain from the use of all intoxicating drinks ; I gave a farewell lecture, in the costume of the East, descriptive principally of Oriental life and manners. This was crowded to excess ; and for nearly an hour after the close of the lecture, I was detained in shaking hands with those who came to give me the personal assurances of their good wishes, and urge their solicitations that I would not think of leaving America without returning to visit Baltimore again. On the morning of the 21st we left Baltimore, by the rail-road, for Philadelphia, where we arrived at four o'clock ; and being met by several friends at the station, were comfortably accommodated in a good boarding-house, at 188, Chesnut Street, opposite the Masonic Hall. APPENDIX— VOL. I. No. I. The following lines are those referred to at page 12. They were written on my return from India, in 1823, after being exiled by the Authorities of the East India Company in Bengal, without trial, hearing, or any other legal process of inquiry, for exercising the now admitted right of British subjects, in every possession of the British crown, to comment on the measures of the governing body, subject to the fullest responsibility to the laws of England, and the verdict of a court and jury — and for advocating, in the exercise of this right, the measures which have subsequently been adopted by the legislature of England, in the improved admini- stration of our Indian empire, and have long since become the established law of the land. ON BEHOLDING THE SHORES OF ENGLAND, AFTER AN ABSENCE OF MANY YEARS. ( Written on board the Ship Sir Edward Paget. ) Hail ! loveliest gem that studs the sea, Isle of the brave, the just, the free ! Whose surge-lashed cliffs at length arise To greet once more my longing eyes : Though time my brow has silvered o'er Since last I trod thy happy shore, And every change of weal or woe, That heart can feel or man can know, Has chequer' d thick the devious way Through which my weary wanderings lay : Yet, while by fortune driv'n to roam. My bosom knew one only home, And ever, as my course might range. Still turned to thee, and knew no change. Fair Lusitania's hills embrown'd. And Spain's proud peaks, with deep snow crown'd, Sicilia, breathing love and smiles, And Greece, with all her sea of isles. Have seen my bark's progressive way, Along their coasts, by cape and bay. Old Egypt next, and Nile's great stream, Whose wonders yet appear a dream. Where Cleopatra's 'witching power Still seems to haunt each grove and bower, 476 APPENDIX. Where Pyramids and Temples rise To mock the earth and brave the skies, Allured my hopes of promised gain, By visions, like its glories, vain. Then Palestine's more sacred vales, And Lebanon's soft balmy gales, Jordan's clear stream — dew'd Hermon's mountain, Zion's high hill, and Siloa's fountain, "With scenes revered in every age, Repaid my weary pilgrimage ; Till Syria's fertile regions came, Watered by fair Orontes' stream ; And Tigris and Euphrates flovv'd Along the various paths I trod ; Where Nineveh of old was placed, And Babylon's ruin'd heaps are traced. Where Bagdad's minarets still show The Crescent — of the Cross the foe. From thence, through Persia's land of song, I led my lengthened way along, Where Ispahaun's imperial halls Her verdant bowers, and mirror'd walls. And gay Shirauz, where Hafiz strung His " orient pearls," and sweetly sung : Arabia's gum-distilling trees, And Serendib's rich spicy breeze, With golden India's ample field Of wealth, and aU that wealth can yield, Charm'd every sense, and would have won Less ardent bosoms than my own ; But that dear Albion's freer sky Rose ever to my memory, And bade me turn from lands enslaved. To that loved rock, by ocean laved. Where, though by storms and tempests riven, Man can erect his front to heaven. And where the Monarch, on the throne. Rules for the many — not for one. Hail ! then, again, bless'd Island, hail ! Speed, speed our flight, propitious gale ! Bid lazy Time's slow lagging wheel Fly like the lightning with our keel, Till I shall touch my native earth. And tread the land that gave me birth ; ^ Escaped from Slavery's tainted air. To plead the wrongs of Freedom there. ( For there, at least, her holy cause May claim an ear) till equal laws Extend o'er Asia's vast domains, Now fettered with degrading chains. Where Britons, elsewhere free and brave. Must tremble like the abject slave. Desert their country's dearest pride. And lick the dust when Tyrants chide. APPENDIX. 477 Oh ! never, never, while the glow Of health around my heart shall flow, While my warm pulses freely beat, And Reason still retains her seat. Never shall that blest gift of Heaven, Which God to man has freely given For nobler cause than war or strife. Be yielded up — but with my life. A willing victim then I come, Though to a less luxurious home ; And ever, when the choice shall be. For Exile, Death, or Slavery, O God ! do thou the firmness give, Still to be free — or not to live. British Giannel, June 25, 1823. J. S. Buckingham. No. II. The opposite feelings of hope and despair were felt by me in all their contrasted force, on the two occasions of my first arriving in sight of England in 1823, and on my losing sight of its white cliffs again in 1837. The intervening period of fourteen years was passed in fruitless efforts to obtain redress for the unjust — and as many even of the actors in the scene now admit — unneces- sary destruction of my property in India, to the extent of £40,000 sterling, with the refusal of the East India Company to grant me even permission to return to that country for a few months, to collect in the scattered debts due to me, and realize the small amount which might be saved from the general wreck of my con- cerns. In the mean time, discussions had taken place at the India House, in which Sir Charles Forbes, Sir Henry Strachey, Sir John Doyle, Colonel Leicester Stanhope, Mr. Hume, Mr. John Smith, the Chairman of the London Bankers, Mr. Douglas Kin- naird, and other large Proprietors of East India Stock, advocated my claims to redress for the injuries I had received. After this, my case was brought before the House of Commons, on two suc- cessive occasions ; and a Committee of the House, after a patient examination of the facts, and hearing evidence on both sides — with the Minister for Indian Affairs, Lord Glenelg, at their head — drew up, and passed unanimously, a series of resolutions, decla- ring it to be the duty of the Eaet India Company to grant me compensation for the destruction of my property in Bengal. 478 APPENDIX. The Parliamentary and public proceedings on this case would fill a large volume, if given in detail : but it will be sufficient for tlie present purpose, to select — from the multiplied testimonies that are on record on this subject — the few given by persons enjo3ang the best possible opportunities of knowing the facts : namely. Lord Durham? who first introduced the case to the House of Commons, as Mr. Lambton ; Lord Denman, and Lord Abinger, both then members of the House, though since elevated to the Bench and the Peerage ; Mr. J. B. Lewin, formerly advocate-general in Lidia, and intimately acquainted with its laws ; Mr. Douglas Kinnaird. who first brought the case before the proprietors of East India Stock, at the India House ; Lord John Russell, as Chairman of the first Parliamentary Committee, by whose hands, as a minis- ter of the crown, the resolutions of the second Parliamentary Com- mittee were drawn up, declaring that compensation ought to be granted by the East India Company ; and lastly Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-general of India, than whom it was impos- sible to select a more competent or more impartial judge. These are brief extracts from their respective speeches. Mr. Lambton, — ^late Lord Durham. " Mr. Buckingham has been the victim of the most cruel oppressi07i, not M^arranted by sound pohcy or expediency, but arising from a wanton and aggravated spirit of despotism. If such things are allowed to go unredressed, it is idle to talk of the responsibility of the hidian Government. I do main- tain that Mr. Buckingham has suffered from the grossest tyranny, and that to suffer the repetition of such practices is to endanger the very existence of the empire.' Mr. Denman,— now Lord Denman. " Mr. Buckingham had been torn from his business, from his friends, from all his hopes, and had been sent to a distant country, where he was ruined, and was, perhaps, on the very verge of beggary. It was horrible to hear of such things. It was horrible to see any thing like an attempt to introduce into this country that Indian atmosphere, which he for one was not prepared to breathe. He considered this to be one of the most cruel, oppressive, and unjustifiable acts, which he had ever known to have been committed by a British Governor, in the history of the Colonies, bad as they were." Mr. Scarlett, — now Lord Abinger. " Mr. Scarlett observed, that no action could be brought against the Government of India for the exercise of that prerogative, and the only mode of redress therefore left was that stated by the noble lord, a Select Com- mittee of Inquiry. He was surprised that the House, who were said to be the guardians of the lives, the liberties, and properties of the people, could hear one clause of the petition read wdthout instantly affording the petitioner the means of redress. The petitioner stated that he was banished from India himself, and that the license or copyright of his Journal was taken from him and co-proprietors, without compensation, and presented as a gift to the son-in-law of one of the members of the government. Could the House endure this statement without endeavouring to ascertain its truth ? Not only was he banished, but the most valuable part of the property he left behind him was also taken from him without consideration. If these APPENDIX. 479 statements were proved, the Government of India deserved the reprehension of the House and the country, for punishing a man without trial." Mr. J. B. Lewin. " On the private and public merits of Mr, Buckingham we are all agreed. The only difference between us is, whether any public man could have braved better than he has braved the particular difficulties of his situation. Do you not yearn with sympathy towards a man, whose private conduct has been admitted on all hands to be free from reproach, and whose public con- duct, though open and manly in the extreme, has been productive to him of nothing but suffering and disappointment ? Mr. Buckingham has done well, and suffered well, for your sakes. Be it yours to provide that he is also indemnified well for the losses he has sustained. If ever a man deserved the support of his fellow-countrymen, it is Mr. Buckingham." The Honourable Douglas Kinnaird. " Mr. Buckingham is entitled to sympathy, as a gentleman of unimpeached character, who is suffering under a great calamity, without being in any degree the author of his own misfortunes. There is not a single India Director who would not, with all his heart, make some compensation, but for this reason, that they dare not censure any of the acts of their servants abroad. There is not an individual director with whom I have ever con- versed on the subject, who did not say that Mr. Buckingham's was one of the hardest cases he had ever heard of. They all acknowledge that they have not a word to say against him as a man and a gentleman ; they would willingly meet him on friendly terms in a private room ; but they say, if we afford him redress, if we save him from destruction, we pass censure upon the despotic power existing ten thousand miles off, and that we dare not do. " It has been said that Lord Hastings, if he had remained in India, would have found it necessary to banish Mr. Buckingham, as had been done by his successor. But I have it under Lord Hastings's own hand, that Mr. Bucking, ham never wrote anything, and he, Lord Hastings, believed that he never would have written any thing, which could induce him to resort to so severe a measure. For my own part, having had frequent and almost uninter- rupted personal intercourse with Mr. Buckingham, from the moment of his arrival in this comitry up to the present period, I can declare that I never met with a gentleman, who, under the difficulties and distresses Math which he has had to contend, behaved with more consistency and uprightness — or showed a greater disposition to behave in a fair and conciliatory manner. It is not a little to his credit, that, after standing before the public eye for so long a period, with the most searching scrutiny applied to every incident of his public and private life, no man can put his hand upon his heart and point out any one of his acts as dishonourable. '' Lord John Russell, — Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee. " I am of course in possession of all the facts which were laid before the Committee, and I am prepared to state, that having listened attentively to all that transpired in the Committee, my opinion of the hardships suffered by Mr. Buckingham is, instead of being weakened, materially strengthened, by the experience and knowledge I have thus acquired. What we have met here to consider is, the great hardships and grievous losses sustained by Mr, Buckingham, in consequence of conduct, which, so far from attaching any blame to him, is in my opinion, highly honourable and praiseworthy, and perfectly conformable to those rules of conduct and those examples of freedom, which we are accustomed to admire and hold up for imitation by others of our own countrymen. " For my own part, having had an opportunity of reading all those articles published in Mr. Buckingham's Journal, which were particularly found fault 480 APPENDIX. with by the Indian goveniment, I can undertake to say that there is not one of these articles, although they must all have been written and inserted in the hurry inseparable from the publication of a daily paper, which not only does not reflect the slightest stain on the character of the writer, but are such as would do honour to any man possessing an honest zeal for the wel- fare of the community in which he lived, and such as there is every reason to believe were written and published with a perfect conviction, on the part of the author and publisher, that he was serving the cause of truth, and was therefore entitled to the thanks of his feUow-suhjects, and the approeation of a WISE and benevolent government " Lord William Bentinck. " Lord "William Bentinck, on taking the chair, said : — In accepting the office to which I have been appointed, as chairman of the present meeting, it will not be necessary for me to address you at any length on the subject of Mr. Buckingham's claims, because I shall be followed by many gentlemen, fully competent to discharge this duty. But there is one point of some importance to the question, on which no one present can speak with the same knowledge or authority, perhaps, as myself — (Hear, hear). The situa- tion which I have recently filled, as Governor- General of India, enables me to speak from personal experience as to the state of feeling in Calcutta, on Mr, Buckingham's case. I did not arrive in India until some time after Mr. Buckingham's departure ; and at that period all the excitement pro- duced by the measures of Government towards that gentleman was over, and public feeling had been calmed down so as to enable the Indian com- munity to form as just and impartial an opinion on the whole case as on any matter of past history. I can assure you, then, that even at this period, and under those most favourable circumstances for forming an accurate judgment, a deep feeling pervaded the public mind generally, as to the injustice with which Mr. Buckingham was treated — (Hear, hear) ; and, with very few exceptions — such as must indeed occur in almost every case — the people of India generally were of opinion that Mr. Buckingham's was a case of great and unexampled hardship (cheers. ) In bearing this testimony to an important truth, I do not do so as the partisan of Mr. Buckingham, whose acquaintance I have but very recently made. But I do so as the Friend of Justice, my attachment to which alone brings me here this day. (Hear, hear, hear. ) An appeal has been made elsewhere on Mr. Buckingham's behalf, which I deeply regret has not met with the reception which the case justly deserved. I trust, therefore, that the British public, to whom this meeting will address itself, will render to Mr. Buckingham that justice which, after all his efforts in other quarters, has been so long withheld from him. (Loud cheers. )" This meeting was attended by a large number of members of parliament, and by Sir Charles Forbes, Colonel Leicester, Stan- hope, and other Indian friends : and the speeches and resolutions were unanimously in condemnation of the oppression and cruelty of the measures pursued towards myself and my property in India, as well as of the inconsistency and bad faith of the ministers of the crown in England, who, when the opportunity psesented itself for giving legal effect to their own resolutions, shrunk back from the task, abandoned the object they had so solemnly pledged themselves to protect, and presented an example of moral coward- ice, of which the annals of England present few parallels. No one will therefore wonder at the feelings of indignant disappoint- ment, which dictated the following effusion. APPENDIX. 481 ON LEAVING THE SHORES OF ENGLAND, FOR AN ABSENCE OF SOME YEARS. ( Written on board the Ship, President. ) Dear England ! while slowly thy shores are receding, And the trace of thy white cliffs grows dim to the view, Some cheering presentiment whispers I'm bidding The Land of my Fathers a short-lived Adieu ! That the Home of my Childhood, whose green hills and vales Have gladden'd my heart when most burthen'd with pain, Will soon welcome me back, when with favouring gales I return to enjoy all its pleasures again. Oh ! Fate ! — ^in Uncertainty's dark womb concealing The events of the Future — with Ignorance blest. Still prolong the delusion, nor blast, by revealing, The first ray of Hope that irradiates my breast. Though faintly it glimmer, I'll cherish it there, Till Time shall its embryo expand into flame — Till again I embrace the few Friends that are dear- Yes ! dearer than riches, than power, or fame. While from the tall mast the blue signal's still waving. And the breeze fills the sails that the morn saw unfurl'd, A pang — half indignant — swells my bosom while leaving Thy shores — once so famed as the Hope of the World ; For though to the Slave thou canst Liberty give. And mediate for Justice when Nations demand, Thine ov\nn Children, when plunder'd, oppress'd, and deceived, Find nor Justice, nor Mercy, nor Truth at thy hand. Believe me, ye faithful and fondly-loved few ! That wherever my track, at the Line or the Pole, The Pleasures of Hope, like the Spring's early dew, Will cheer, and refresh, and invig'rate my soul. Yes ! though driven from Justice, though exiled from Friends, My heart spurns with scorn base Subserviency's chain ; And where'er my dark course through this banishment bends. It will bound with the hope of our meeting again. Yet it shall not be always thus heartless and cold That thy Rulers shall falsely and faithlessly sway ; The Spirit of Freedom, which fiU'd thee of old. Shall call to thy Councils men nobler than they. Then Party and Faction, together cast down. Shall fall before Knowledge and Justice combined. And coronet, mitre, and ermine, and crown. Shall yield to the influence of Virtue and Mind. Oh ! hasten the day, thou omnipotent Judge, Which thy prophets and seers have so clearly portray'd, When the world, now so fill'd with injustice and fraud. Shall be purged of the dross which Corruption has made ; When the Earth shall be fill'd with the knowledge of Thee, And the sword shall give place to the press and the pen ; When Truth shall encompass the Globe, like the Sea, And Justice establish her throne amongst men. British Channel, J. S. BUCKINGHAM. Sept. II, 1837. VOL. I. ^ I 482 APPENDIX. No. III. MR. BUCKINGHAM'S ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. New York, October 25, 1837. Men, Brethren, and Fellow- Christians : The numbers of human beings that every day approach your shores from all parts of the old world, must so familiarize you with the arrival of stran- gers from every quarter of the globe, as to justify your indifference toward all who do not ask your attention on some special account, since it would be impossible for you to show it to every individual of so countless a mul- titude, and without some grounds on which to establish exceptions, none covdd be fairly expected to be made. This consideration, while it will fortify me in the propriety of the step I am taking, will also, I trust, dispose you to lend a favourable attention to a short statement of the circumstances which have driven me to your shores, of the motives which impel me to the course I am pursuing, and of the objects which I hope, under the blessing of Providence, and with your aid and protection, to accomplish. A train of events, much too numerous to be narrated in detail, occasioned me very early in life to leave my native country, England, and to visit most of the nations in Europe — still more of the interior of Asia — many parts of the continent of Africa — and some portions also of the two Americas. It was after an active life of some twenty years thus devoted, in which it fell to my lot to traverse, I believe, a larger portion of the earth's surface, and to visit a greater number and variety of countries, than almost any man living of my age, that I settled as a resident in the capital of the British possessions in India, where I remained for several years- During the voyages and travels I was permitted to make along the shores of the Mediterranean, amidst the Isles of Greece, in Asia Minor, Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Persia, and India, I had an opportunity of personally inspecting almost all the remarkable cities and monuments of ancient greatness in the several countries named ; including the gigantic pyramids, colossal temples, stately obelisks, majestic statues, and gloomy catacombs and sepulchres, which stud the classic banks of the Nile, from Alexandria and Grand Cairo to the cataracts of Syene ; the hoary mountains of Horeb and Sinai, and the Desert of Wandering, across which the children of Israel were led from out of the land of Egypt to the promised Canaan ; the plains of Moab and Ammon, with Mount Pisgab, the valley of Jordan, and the Dead Sea ; the ruined cities of Tyre and Sidon ; the ports of Joppa, Acre, and Cesarea ; the villages of Nazareth and Cana of Galilee ; the cities of Sechem, Samaria, and Bethle- hem ; the mountains of Lebanon, Hermon, Tabor, and Carmel ; the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion ; the holy city of Jerusalem, with all its sacred localities, from the pools of Siloam and Bethesda, near the brook Kedron, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the more touching and endearing spots of the Garden of Gethsemane, the Rock of Calvary, and the Sepulchre in which the body of our Lord was laid. While these were the objects of my inspection in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, the Scriptural countries of Syria and Mesopotamia were scarcely less prolific in the abundance of the materials which they presented to my view. In the former, were the sea-ports of Berytus, Byblus, Tripolis, and Laodicea, with the great interior cities of Antiochon the verdant banks APPENDIX. 483 of the Orontes, Aleppo on the plains, and the enchanting city of Damascus, Avhose loveliness has been the theme of universal admiration, from the days of Abraham and Eliezer to those of Naaman the Syrian, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and from thence to the present hour : while the great Temple of the Sun at Baalbeck, the gorgeous monuments of ancient splendor in the Roman settlements of the Decapolis, and the still earlier monuments of those who reigned before either Greek or Roman, in Bashan and Gilead, and the regions beyond Jordan, added splendour to beauty, and combined all that the traveller or antiquary could desire. Mesopotamia, including the ancient empires of Chaldea, Assyria, and Babylonia, into which I passed from Palestine, largely rewarded my researches. In the former, the celebrated city of Ur of the Chaldees received me within its gates, and I passed many days in this ancient birth- place and abode of the patriarch Abraham. The extensive ruins of Nineveh, spread in silent desolation along the banks of the Tigris ; and the fallen Babylon, stretching its solitary heaps on either side of the great river Euphrates, were also objects of patient and careful examination ; as well as the Oriental capital of the Caliphs, Bagdad the renowned ; and the remains of the great Tower of Babel, on the plain of Shinar, of which a consider- able portion still exists to attest the arrogance and folly of its builders. Media and Persia came next in the order of my wanderings ; and there, also, the ruins of the ancient Ecbatana, the tomb of Cyrus at Pasagarda, and the splendid remains of the great temple at Persepolis, gratified in a high degree the monumental and antiquarian taste ; while the populous cities of Kermanshah, Ispahan, and Shiraz, with the lovely valleys of Persian landscape, amply fed my love of the beautiful and the picturesque. In India, as the field was more extended, and the time devoted longer by several years, far more was seen, experienced, and felt. It may suffice, however, to say, that all the outlines of that magnificent ' Empire of the Sun,' from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf on the west, to the Bay of Bengal on the east, were traced by my voyages along its shores ; for after navigating, and accurately surveying both the seas named, from Suez to Bab-el-mandeb in the one, and from the mouth of the Euphrates to the port of Muscat in the other, I visited Bombay, and all the ports upon the coast of Malabar ; from thence to Colombo and Point de Galle in the Island of Ceylon ; afterwards anchored at Madras, and entered the ports of Bimlipatam and Vizagapatam, on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa, in the region of the Idol temple of Juggernaut; and ultimately reached the British capital of India, Calcutta, on the banks of the Ganges. It may readily be conceived that in so extensive and varied a track as this, the personal adventures I experienced were as varied as they were numerous ; and I may assert, with confidence, that while privation and suffering had been endured by me in almost every form — in hunger, thirst, nakedness, imprisonment, shipwreck, battle, and disease — so also, every pomp and pleasure that man could enjoy, from honours bestowed, and hospitalities received, agreeably relieved the tedium of my way ; so that although my course was not invariably on a bed of roses, neither was it always across a path of thorns. Amid all these changes, however, there was one thing which, in me at least, remained happily the same. No length of travel, no amount of suffer- ing, no blandishments of pleasure, no intimidations of tyranny, no debilitation of climate, no variety of institutions, had been sufficient to abate in me, in the slightest degree, that ardour of attachment to Liberty, civil, political, and religious, which God and Nature implanted in my breast from the cradle — which experience fanned into maturity with manhood — and which Provi- dence, I trust, will keep alive in my heart to the latest period of my 2 i2 484 APPENDIX. advancing age. Animated by this love of Liberty, which you, the people of America, as you know how to cherish among yourselves, will not be disposed to condemn in others, I continued, even under the burning clime and despotic rule of an Eastern tyranny, to think, to feel, and to speak, as every Englishman, proud of his country, his ancestors, and his laws, ought to do, so long as he bears that honoured name. For thus presuming to carry with me from the land of my fathers that spirit, which made England for so many years the hope of the world, and which, infused into the early settlers of your own still freer country, and continued in their proud poster- ity, makes it now the Asylum and the Home of the Oppressed ; for this, and for this alone, I was banished by a summary and arbitrary decree, without trial, hearing, or defence ; my property destroyed, to the extent of not less than two hundred thousand dollars, and the prospective certainty of an equal sum, at least, cut off, and annihilated at a single blow. With the details of this atrocity it is not my purpose or intention to trouble you ; but while I record the fact, as one which forms an important link in the chain of circumstances that impel me hither, 1 may add, that the almost universal indignation of the people of England has been expressed against this gross injustice — that a Parliamentary Committee, composed of men of all parties in politics, unanimously pronounced its condemnation — and that the highest authorities among our public men have expressed their abhorrence of the deed; but from the impunity enjoyed by the East India Company in their oppressions abroad, and the impossibility of making them subject to our legal jurisdiction at home, no redress has, to this hour, been obtained, nor, according to all probability, is any ever likely to be procured. From the period of my arbitrary and unjust banishment from India, up to the reform of our Parliament in England, I was incessantly and successfully engaged in directing the attention of my countrymen to the evils of the East India Monopoly, and enlisting their interests and their sympathies in demanding its extinction. With this view I was occupied about six years in addressing the British public through the pages of the ' Oriental Herald,' and four years in a patriotic pilgrimage through England, Scotland, and Ireland, on a crusade against the abominations of the East ; in the course of which I traversed all parts of the three divisions of our kingdom, visited almost every town of the least importance in each, and addressed, in public speeches, lectures, and discourses, on this important subject, not less than a million of my assembled countrymen, in audiences varying from five hundred to two thousand each, including persons of all ranks, from the peasant to the peer, of both sexes, of every age, and of every political and religious persuasion. The result of all this was the kindling a flame throughout the entire nation, which burnt brighter and brighter as the hour of consummation approached, and at length became perfectly irresistible. More than an hundred provincial associations were formed, among which Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Birmingham took the lead, to demand the abolition of the East India Company's commercial monopoly, and the amelioration of its civil government; and not less than 10,000/, was raised and expended in the legitimate promotion of this object, through public meetings, deputa- tions, and the powerful agency of the press. The reform of Parliament being accomplished, I was invited, under cir- cumstances of the most flattering nature to myself, but on which I will not dwell, to become the representative of the town of Sheffield, in which, and to which, I was then personally an entire stranger, but its invitation was founded on a knowledge of my public life and labours alone. I was success- fully returned to the first reformed Parliament as its member, and had the happiness to advocate, in my place, in the British House of Commons, the APrp:NDix. 485 views I liad maintained in India — for maintaining which, indeed, I was banished i\ om that country — and which I had since, by the exercise of my pen and tongue, for tea years, spread so extensively in England. The triumph of these principles was at length completed by the accomplishment of all my views. The India monopo y was abolished, and free trade to India and China secured. The liberty of the press in India was established, and trial by jury guaranteed The political as well as the commercial powers of the East India Company were curtailed. The horrid and murderous prac- tice of burning the widows of India alive on the funeral piles of their husbands, was put down by law. The blood-stained revenue derived from the idolatrous worship of Juggernaut was suppressed. The founilation of schools — the promotion of missions — the administration of justice — were all more amply provided for than before —and to me, the suiferings and anxieties of many years of peril, and labour combined, were amply rewarded by the legal and constitutional accomplishmejit of almost every object for which I had contended, and the gratification of all the wishes I had so long indulged. In addition to my ordinary share in the duties of the Senate, I had the happiness to be the favoured instrument of first bringing before it the great question of Temperance ; and through the investigations of a Committee, I had the satisfaction of presenting to the world such a body of evidence and so demonstrative a report, as to convince a large portion of the British nation, that it was their solemn duty to God and man, to follow their American brethren in the noble example which they were the first to set in this most important branch of Moral and Social Reform. Of the remainder of my labours as a member of the British Legislature, it is not necessary that I should speak: but I may perhaps, without presump- tion, be permitted to add — and there are happily now in the city of New York some of the most intimate and inrtuential of my constituents among the merchants and manufacturers of Sheffield, who can confirm the statement — that I had the happiness to sit as the representative of that large and opulent town for a period of five years, in the enjoyment of as much of the confidence and approbation of its inhabitants as it was possible for any repre- sentative to be honoured with ; and that in every annual visit made to my constituents, for the purpose of giving them an account of my stewardship in Parliament, and surrendering up my trust to the hands of those who first bestowed it on me, I was uniformly crowned with the testimony of their unanimous approbation, and sent back to the House of Commons as their Representative, with still more unlimited confidence than before. The period came, however, in which it was necessary, for the interests of those who are dear to me by blood and family ties, and for whom it is my duty, as it is my happiness, to provide, that I should quit my senatorial duties, and, after nearly thirty years devoted to the service of the public, devote the few remaining years of health and activity, that might be spared me, before old age should render exertion impracticable, to providing a retreat for the winter of life, and acquiring the means of making that retreat independent as well as honourable. I accordingly announced this intention, and the reasons on which it was grounded, and at the close of the last session of Parliament in July, 1837, I paid a farewell visit to my constituents at Shef- field, where, though ;all our previous meetings had been cordial, hearty, and aifectionate in the extreme, this was more cordial, more affectionate — though tinged with a new element of sorrow and regret — than any that had gone before. These, then, are the circumstances, and I have narrated them withs a much brevity as possible, which have led me to quit the land of my nativity, and go, with my family, to other shores. The motives which have induced me to prefer those of the United States, as the first, at least, to be visited 486 APPENDIX. in my course, and the objects which I hope to accomplish among you, still require to be explained. It is an opinion, not now professed by me for the first time, but long entertained, and frequently avowed that America is destined, in the course of time, to be the great centre of Freedom, Civilization, and Religion, and thus to be the Regenerator of the World. In the ages that are passed, we have seen the rays of science and the beams of truth first illumining the countries of the East, and then passing onward, like the light of heaven itself, progressively toward the West : — Chaldea giving knowledge to Egypt — Egypt to Greece — Greece to Rome — Rome to Iberia, Gaul, and Britain — and these three in succession to their respective settlements in America ; — till these last, shaking off" their dependence, and rising in the full dignity of their united strength, asserted and secured their freedom, and took their place among the most enlightened and most honoured nations of the earth. From that moment you have gone on, rejoicing like the sun in his course, increasing in population, in commerce, in liberty, in wealth, in intelligence, in happiness, till your people have penetrated the primeval forests, and spread themselves as cultivators of the soil from the Atlawtic almost to the Pacific, till your ships cover every sea, and till the Message of your President unfolding the measures of the past, and developing the prospects of the future, is looked for with interest at every court in Europe, and read with enger and intense attention by the humblest lover of freedom in every coun- try in which it is made public. Commanding, therefore, as you now do, a position the most favourable to national greatness, to useful influence, and to honourable renown — the vast interior of your extensive surface embracing every variety of climate, soil, and production, and your extended sea-coasts furnishing ports of attraction to all the world ; with the Atlantic Ocean for your highway to Europe, and the Pacific for your approach to Asia; your mighty rivers, rising cities, populous villages, increasing colleges, temples of public worship, and adult and infant schools — what is wanting, but time, to place you at the head of those nations of the old world, who, less than a century ago, derided your intelligence and your strength, to both of which you have long since com- pelled them to pay the homage that was justly due ? While others, therefore, visit your shores, charged either with merchandise to sell, or gold and silver to buy, I venture to come among you, freighted with no cargo of goods for your consumption, or with the precious metals for purchase or exchange. In the midst, however, of all the bustle and animation that fills your crowded marts, there will be room, I hope, for one who brings only the knowledge and experience acquired by years of travel in the Scriptural and Classical countries of the East, to communicate to those who may have leisure and disposition to hear, and taste and education to enjoy, whatever can illustrate the history and poetry of early days, and, above all, whatever can tend to unfold the beauties, confirm the prophecies, and give strength and force to the sublime and important truths contained in the Sacred Volume of our common faith. This is the first object which I hope to accomplish by my sojourn among you, and this alone would well justify my visit to your shores. If, at the same time, there be others not incompatible with this prominent one, but auxiliary and subordinate to it, that I may be permitted to pursue— such as a careful and impartial examination of your own resources, institutions, lite- rature, and manners— so that while diff'using information for the gratification of others, I may be adding to my stores of knowledge for my own delight, I doubt not that I shall find among you all the kindness of aid for which you have so long been renowned. The mode that I have chosen for the communication of the interesting APPENDIX, 487 details with which the past history and actual condition of the Scriptural and Classical countries of the East abound, namely, that of oral discourses, or extemporaneous lectures, may appear to some to be less dignified, as it is undoubtedly less usual, than the diffusion of this class of information through printed books. But it may be defended, first, on the ground of its greater practical utility, being at once more attractive and more efficient ; and secondly, on the ground of its high antiquity, and of the sacred and classical, as well as noble and historical precedents in its favour. As to the ground of its attractiveness, it has been found, in Britain at least, that thousands have been induced to assemble to hear a traveller per- sonally narrate his adventures and describe the objects he has seen, where it would have been difficult to get even hundreds to bestow the time and labour of reading the same things in printed books ; and when I add, that in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Glasgow, Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Hull, Bristol, Bath, and others of our largest and most intellectual cities, audiences increasing from five hundred to two thousand persons have been attracted for six successive nights, without appa- rent inconvenience or fatigue — the proof of the superior attractiveness of spoken discourses over printed books may be considered as complete. Of their superior efficiency there is even still less doubt ; for the very fact of so many persons being assembled together at the same time, and hearing the same observations at the same moment, excites an animation, sympathy, and enthusiasm, which is contagious in its effects on both speaker and hearers, till their feelings flow in one common current ; the facts sink deeper into the memory at the time, and the subsequent conversation, criticism, compa- rison, and reflection, to which this gives rise among those who attend, imprint them with a firmness that no amount of reading could accomplish. For precedents or authorities it is not necessary to go far in search — so profusely do they abound in ancient and in modern annals. In Scriptural ages, the oral mode of communication was almost the only one in use, from the days of Abraham, who, according to the testimony of Josephus, thus taught the Chaldean science of astronomy to the Egyptians, down to the time of Solomon, who discoursed so eloquently of the productions of nature in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and from whose lips the profoundest maxims of wisdom were poured into charmed ears ; and from thence again to the days of Paul, who stood before Festus, Felix, and Agrippa, at Cesarea, and who, clothed in all the majesty of truth, addressed assembled thousands at Antioch, at Ephesus, at Athens, at Corinth, and in Rome. In classical countries the custom was universal, and there are many who conceive, with the great Lord Bacon, that one of the causes of the superior intellect of the Greeks, was the method in use among them of communicat- ing knowledge by oral discourses, rather than by written books ; when the pupils or disciples of Socrates, of Plato, and of Epicurus, received their information from these great masters, in the gardens and the porticos of Athens, or when the hearers of Demosthenes, of Eschylus, of Sophocles, or Euripides, hung with rapture on their glowing sentences, as pronounced in the Areopagus — the theatre — the gymnasium — or the grove. Of classical authorities, the memorable instance of Herodotus will occur to every mind. This venerable Father of History, as be is often called, having been first banished from his native country, Halicarnassus, under the tyranny of Lygdamis, travelled, during his exile, through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, to the borders of Media and Persia, in which he was engaged for several years. On his return from his travels, he was instrumental in uprooting and destroying the very tyranny under which his banishment took place ; but this patriotic deed, instead of gaining for him the esteem and admiration of the populace, who had so largely beneJBited 488 APPENDIX. by his labours, excited their envy and ill-will ; so that he a second time left his native land, and then visited Greece. It was there, at the great festival of the Olympic Games, about five hundred years before the Christian era, being then in the fortieth year of his age, that he stood up among assembled myriads of the most intellectual auditors of the ancient world, to narrate, in oral discourses, drawn from the recollection of his personal travels, the subject-matter of his interesting history and description of the countries of the East ; and such was its effect upon the generous hearts and brilliant intellects of his accomplished hearers, that while the celebrated Thucydides, then among them as a boy, shed tears at the recital of the events of the Persian war, and his young bosom was perhaps then first fired with the ambition which made him afterwards one of the most accomplished historians of Greece, the people received Herodotus with such universal applause, that as an honour of the highest kind, the names of the nine muses were bestowed upon the nine books or subdivisions of his interesting narrative, which they contitme to bear to the present hour in every language into which they have been translated. Pythagoras, of Samos, is another striking instance of a similar career. Disgusted with the tyranny of Polycrates, he retired from his native island, and having previously travelled extensively in Chaldea and Egypt, and pro- bably in India, he also appeared at the Olympic games of Greece, and tra- velled through Italy and Magna Grecia, delivering, in the several towns that he visited, oral discourses on the history, religion, manners, and philosophy of the countries of the East ; and their general effect was not less happy than that produced by the narrations of Herodotus — for it is said that *' these animated harangues were attended with rapid success, and a reforma- tion soon took place in the life and morals of the people." I might go on to enlarge the catalogue of precedents, for both ancient and modern history is full of them — Marco Polo, Columbus, Camoens, Raleigh, and Bruce (all, too, treated with the deepest injustice by their countrymen) will occur to every one — but it is unnecessary. May I only venture to hope, that as some similarity exists between my own history, in sufferings from tyranny and the ingratitude of contemporaries, and that which marked the career of those great men whose names I have cited — Herodotus and Pythagoras — as well as in the countries we each traversed, and the mode of diffusing the information thus acquired by oral discourses among the people of other lands — the similarity may be happily continued — ^if not in the honours to be acquired, at least in the amount of the good to be done ; and that in this last respect, the Olympia and Magna Grecia of the East may fairly yield the palm to the more free and more generally intelligent Columbia of the West, is my most earnest hope and desire — my most sincere and fervent prayer. I will say no more, except to add, that should my humble labours among you be crowned with the success which I venture to anticipate, and should Providence spare me life and health to follow out the plan I have long meditated and designed, it is my intention, after visiting every part of the United States of America, to extend my tour through the British Posses- sions of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the West Indies ; to visit from thence the Isthmus of Darien, for the purpose of investigating this barrier between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean ; to make an excursion through Mexico, and from thence pass onward by the South Sea Islands to China, visit the Philippines and the Moluccas, go onward to Australia and Van Diemen's Land ; continue from thence through the Indian Archipelago, by Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Malacca, to India ; traverse the Peninsula of Hindoostan, from the Ganges to the Indus, and return to Europe by the Rod Sea and the Mediterranean, APPENDIX. 489 Throughout the whole of this long and varied route, there are a few prominent and important objects, which, as they have been long favourite subjects of study, and have engaged a large share of my attention in the past, I shall hope to keep steadily in view, and do all within my power to advance in the future. It has long been my conviction, that among the most prolific causes of vice and misery in the world, those of Intemperance, Ignorance, Cruelty, and War, are productive of the greatest evils ; and that the best service which man can render to his fellow-beings is therefore to promote, by every means within his reach, the principles and practice of Temperance, Education, Benevolence, and Peace. My belief is, that more of sympathy and cordiality in favour of these great objects will be found in the United States of America, than in any other country on the globe. Already, indeed, has she done more than any other country that can be named for the advancement of Temperance, the spread of Education, the amelioration of the Criminal code, the improvement of prisons and peniten- tiaries, and the practical illustrations of the blessings of Peace. And placed as she now is, between the two great Seas that divide the Old from the New world, and separate the ancient empires of the East from the modern nations of the West — so that with her face toward the regions of the sun, she can stretch out her right hand to Asia, and her left hand to Europe, and cause her moral influence to be felt from Constantinople to Canton — she has the means within her reach, as well as the disposition to use those means, for the still further propagation and promotion of her benevolent designs. It is this which encourages me to believe that my ulterior pro- jects and intentions, which I thus freely avow, will not lessen the cordiality with which the first and more immediate object of my mission to your shores will be received. The land now covered with the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the offspring of those noble and unyielding spirits, who, fleeing to the uncleared wilderness as a refuge from tyranny and per- secution, found in its primeval forests the liberty they in vain sought for in their native homes — and whose posterity, while filling these forests with cities, and covering the wilds with civilization and religion, have never forgotten those lessons of Freedom which their ancestors first taught by their practical privations and sufferings, and then sealed and cemented by their blood — such a land is not likely to refuse its shelter to one whose past history may give him some claim to the sympathy of its possessors, whose present labours may be productive of intellectual gratification to them- selves, and whose future undertakings, if blessed by Divine Providence, may sow the seeds, at least, of benefit to other widely-scattered regions of the earth. To you, then, the People of America, I frankly submit this appeal ; and at your hands I doubt not I shall experience that cordial and friendly recep- tion which may smooth the ruggedness of a Pilgrim's path, and soothe the pillow of an Exile's repose. J. S. Buckingham. No. IV. It has been recorded in the text (p. 84,) that the petitions to abolish Slavery in the district of Columbia, and the resolutions sent from Massachusetts, and the other Northern States belonging to the thirteen United Colonies that formed the original compact of the 490 APPENDIX. first Republican Union, were, by certain resolutions of Mr. Patton, of Virginia, received in silence ; and so far stifled or suppressed. This excited a strong feeling of indignation among the Abolition- ists of the North ; from the pen of one of whom, the following spirited lines appeared in the public journals of the Free States : MASSACHUSETTS. Written on learning that the Resolutions of the Legislature of Massachu- setts on the subject of Slavery, presented by Hon. C. Gushing to the House of Representatives of the United States have been laid on the table unread, and unreferred, under the infamous rule of " Patton's Resolution." And have they spumed thy word, Thou of the old Thirteen ! Whose soil, where Freedom's blood first poured, Hath yet a darker green ? Tread the weak Southron's pride and lust Thy name and counsels in the dust ? And, have they closed thy mouth And fix'd the padlock fast — Slave of the mean and tyrant South — Is this thy fate at last? Old Massachusetts ! can it be That thus thy sons must speak of thee ? Call from the Capitol — Thy chosen ones again, Unmeet for them the base control Of slavery's curbing rein ! — Unmeet for necks like theirs to feel The chafing of the despot's heel ! Call back to Quincy's shade That steadfast son of thine — Go — if thy homage must be paid To Slavery's pagod-shrine. Seek out some meaner ofiering, than The free-born soul of that old man ! Call that true spirit back So eloquent and young — In his own vale of Merrimack No chains are on his tongue ! Better to breathe its cold, keen air Than wear the Southron's shackle there. Aye, let them hasten home. And render up their trust — Through them the Pilgrim state is dumo — Her proud lip in the dust ! Her counsels and her gentlest word Of warning spumed aside, unheard ! APPENDIX. 491 Let them come back, and shake • The base dust from their feet ; And, with their tale of outrage wake The free hearts whom they meet : And show before indignant men The scars, where Slavery's chain hath been. Back from the Capitol — It is no place for thee I Beneath the arch of heaven's blue wall Thy voice may still be free ! What power shall chain thy spirit there, In God's free sun and freer air ? A voice is calling thee, From all the martyr-graves — Of those stern men, in death made free. Who could not live as slaves — The slumberings of thy honoured dead Are for thy sake disquieted I The curse of Slavery comes Still nearer, day by day ; Shall thy pure altars and thy homes Become the spoiler's prey ? — Shall the dull tread of fettered slaves Sound o'er thy old and holy graves ! Pride of the old Thirteen ! That curse may yet be stayed — Stand thou, in Freedom's strength, between The living and the dead — Stand forth, for God and Liberty — In one strong effort, worthy thee ! Once more let Fanueil Hall By freemen's feet be trod. And give the echoes of its wall Once more to Freedom's God ! And in the midst, unseen, shall stand The mighty fathers of thy land. Thy gathered sons shall feel The soul of Adams near, And Otis with his fiery zeal And Warren's onward cheer : — And heart to heart shall thrill, as when They moved and spake as living men. Fling from thy Capitol Thy banner to the light, And, o'er thy Charter's sacred scroll, For Freedom and the Right, Breathe once again thy vows, unbroken, Speak once again as thou hast spoken. On thy bleak hills speak out ! A world thy words shall hear — And they who listen round about, In friendship, or in fear. Shall know thee still, when sorest tried " Unshaken, and unterrified." 49^ APPENDIX. No. V. The following is the correspondence and paper on Duelling referred to, in the chapter on Washington, at page 277, and it is given here, partly for the purpose of showing the effects produced by it in the United States ; but also in the hope, that as a noble Peer, the Earl of Mountcashell, has at this moment, a notice before the House of Lords for a Committee to enquire into the best mode of suppressing Duelling in England, it may be productive of some good here. (From the New York American, March 6, 1838.^ Duelling. — The recent occurrence at Washington seems to have turned all niinds to the consideration of some mode by which the barbarous practice of Duelling should, if possible, be prevented. In this view, and in aid of such an object — in which all men, whatever their private opinion or practice, outwardly concur, and in which all men ought in truth, in spirit, and in deed, heartily to co-operate — the following correspondence and essay have been sent to us for publication. We commend them heartily to the attention of all readers. The essay, it will be seen, was addressed by the author to the British Parliament, of which he was at the time a member. It is elaborate, able, and, occasionally, eloquent. To J. S. Buckingham, Esq. Washington, Feb. 27tb, 1838. My dear Sir, — On my arrival yesterday, I found this city clothed in sack- cloth and mourning. A member of Congress had been shot dead in a Duel by a brother member, and in a manner that cannot but shock the moral sense of the inhabitants of this vast Republic. You were so kind as to send to me, previous to your leaving England, a paper on the subject of Duelling, which I perused with deep interest; and the thought has occurred to me, that its publication at this time might be appropriate, and assist in correcting public sentiment on a most important subject. With your permission I should like to give publicity to the docu- ment. Truly and respectfully your friend, E. C. Delavan. To E. C. Delavan, Esq. Washington, Feb. 27th. 1838. My dear Sir, — Having been myself as deeply affected by the painful occurrence of the Duel to which you allude, as any member of this sorrowing community, among w^hom I have so recently arrived, the first impulse of my heart was to contribute, if possible, towards the correction of the false sentiment of honour which countenances so barbarous a practice. I accordingly sought among my papers for the document to which you refer ; and as this was originally presented to the members of both houses of the British Parliament during the period in which I had the honour of being a member of that body, I thought it would not be unbecoming or disrespectful in me to offer it to the consideration of both houses of Con- gress, at the close of those funeral solemnities, in the midst of which one of their lamented members was about to be consigned to an untimely grave. From your hands, however, as an American citizen, this document will be more acceptable than from mine. I therefore transmit it to you, in the hope that through your instrumentality the public press of America will APPENDIX. 493 convey it on the wings of the wind to the remotest verge of their extensive country, and that the reverberation of public opinion, re-echoed from these extremities to the Capitol, will influence the general legislature to pass sonie law for the correction of this great evil at the fountain-head— a law which would be approved by the vast majority of this moral and intellectual nation, and give the United States a new claim to the gratitude and admi- ration of the world. I am, my dear sir, yours respectfully, J. S. Buckingham. REASONS FOR LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE TO PREVENT THE PRACTICE OF DUELLING. Addressed to the Members of both Houses of Parliament in 1836, by J. S. Buckingham, Esq. M. P. At an early period of the present Session I placed a Notice on the Order Book of the House of Commons, announcing my intention to ask leave to brmg m a Bill to prevent the unchristian and barbarous Practice of Duelling. From a variety of causes, wholly beyond my power to control, this motion was delayed and postponed, from time to time, always against my wishes as I desired its discussion at the earliest possible period, until there was evidently so strong a disinclination to listen to any thing on the subject, under the existing pressure of other public business, that the motion was ultimately withdrawn. As I am persuaded that the unwillingness to listen to any proposition for abolition of this murderous practice, arises chiefly from the thick mist of pre- judice by which the question is surrounded, and the habitual, but unreflecting- veneration in which this custom is held; I think it but just to submit the principal facts and reasonings which have induced me— who at one period ot my life saw so little objectionable in Duelling, as to hazard my own life at a moment the most critical and painful in all my history— to come to the conclusion that it is as inefficient for all good purposes, as it is powerful for evil. '^ ^ There is one reason that has hitherto prevented gentlemen from denounc- ing Duelling in the senate, and seeking to effect its abolition by law • and this has been, the fear of being thought wanting in courage or spirit, and seeking to shelter their personal timidity under a legal prohibition. This want of moral courage is far more frequent than the absence of animal bravery. There are many men who would boldly face the cannon's mouth though they could not stand up against an absurd and revolting custom of society, if Fashion had stamped it with its approbation ; while the fear of nian is more powerful in its operation on the great bulk of the community than the fear of God, there will be always found men weak enough to yield up their judgments to those fears, and violate what they know to be the injunctions of religion, the duties of morality, and the des of parental and domestic affection, because they cannot summon courage enough to with- stand the reproaches of the world. Notwithstanding all these difficuldes, I shall endeavour to show that the practice of Duelling is unchristian, unjust, ineffectual, and absurd; that the present state of the law respecting it is inefhcient, and inoperative; and that It IS perfecdy practicable to devise a remedy, which will admit of the amicable and pacific adjustment of all those differences now made the subject of appeal to arms, and settled often in the shedding of innocent blood. To show that it is unchristian, requires, perhaps, butlittle proof. A hundred texts of Scripture might be quoted to establish the utter irreconcilability of 494 APPENDIX. such a practice, with the Christian code ; but I content myself with merely saying, that as suicide, or self-destruction, is, by the common consent of Christians of every denomination, held to be a crime of the deepest die, the practice of Duelling, which places both the combatants in the position of men voluntarily risking their lives in private quarrel, and permitting a reciprocal suicide to be perpetrated, for the satisfaction of private vengeance alone, must be deemed contrary to the very essence and spirit of Christian- ity, which teaches forgiveness of injuries, and the return of good for evil, as the sacred duty of every man professing the Christian faith. Upon what other ground, than its utter repugnance to the dictates of religion, is it that the clergy are exempt from amenability to its bloody and barbarous code? For no chaplain, even when serving on warlike expeditions, could dare to countenance a private Duel, nor is he ever expected, however gross the insult he may receive, to resent or to avenge it by such unchristian means. That it is unjust, is quite as susceptible of proof; and that it is ineffectual and absurd, very few, indeed, presume to deny. Whatsoever is just, manly, and honest, men are generally proud to do openly, that they may enjoy the applause and commendation of the world. But the Duellist shrinks away from the public gaze, and tacitly confesses the injustice of his proceeding, by shrouding it from the public eye in a mean and evasive secrecy. That it is ineffectual is just as clear, as a Duel never yet proved who was right and who was wrong in the quarrel out of which it arose, but left the merit and demerit of the parties in the dispute just where it was before. And that it is absurd, must be admitted from the fact, that instead of its accomplishing the end at which it aims, namely, to rectify some evil, or afford satisfaction to some wounded feeling, it often adds murder to the insult sought to be atoned for, and leaves the innocent and injured party seeking redress, to measure an untimely grave at the foot of the wanton and unprovoked aggressor. Let us take a very ordinary case. A gentleman makes an assertion, which is supposed by one hearing it to be incorrect. He at first denies its accuracy. The original assertor, jealous of his reputation, protests against the contradiction ; and after a few irritating expressions on either side, the one pronounces that what the other has said is false. A challenge ensues, and the matter is referred to seconds. To do what ? To ascertain whether the assertion made is true or false ? Not at all — for that is left untouched, as though it were a matter of the utmost indifference. But to see which of the two are the most wrongheaded and the most obstinate : the seconds nsually conceiving it to be their duty to preserve their own reputation for courage, by not permitting the respective principals to give way to each other by any admission that can be interpreted into a symptom of fear ; and thus, from the dread of being thought to be afraid, by making mutual concessions, both parties meet in the field, and the life of one or the other is sacrificed. The earliest Duels that were fought were to save lives. They were single combats, and trials of strength and skill, between eminent and distinguished individuals, to settle national differences by the sacrifice of one life instead of many, and to spare the too copious effusion of human blood. Such was the combat between Diomedes and ^Eneas, in the war between the Greeks and the Trojans ; such the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, in the war between the Romans and the Albans ; and such the going out of David to meet Goliath the Philis- tine, as recorded in Holy Writ. These were Duels for national victory, and to spare the lives of thousands, by making the issue of the single com- bat definitive of the question in dispute. They were, therefore, conducted with all due pomp and ceremony — were fought in the presence of assembled hosts, and were crowned with all the sanction which public authority could APPENDIX. 495 give to them. Even in still later times than those adverted to, the Duel was fought with the same public view; and among other instances may be mentioned, the combat between Edmund Ironside and Canute the Dane, for the dominion of England ; the offer of Richard the First, of Edward the Third, and of Richard the Second, to try their right with the King of France. At the period of the Norman conquest, William the First sent a message to Harold, on the day before the battle of Hastings, offering to spare the effusion of blood, which must follow from the meeting of the armies, by deciding the fate of the kingdom in single combat ; which Harold, however, refused. If the modern Duel were, like this, only entered on for national purposes, and to spare human blood, the objection to it would be greatly lessened. A second cause of Duel sprung up when the Goths and Vandals overran the declining empire of Rome, and brought with them, from their northern abodes, a mixture of blind superstition and ferocious courage, out of which arose the Trial by Ordeal, by which the parties in dispute consented to refer the decision of their guilt or innocence to the arbitration of some unseen Power, who, they professed to believe, would interfere in behalf of the innocent, and make the guilt of the guilty appear on the spot. The mo- dern Duel no more resembles this, than it does the preceding one described. A third kind of Duel was engendered by the feudal institutions of our ancestors, in those chivalrous encounters which fill the pages of romance. In this single combat, the parties never professed to fight for themselves, but to avenge the cause of some other. The baron fought to redress the wrong of some feudal dependent among his vassals. The knight, or cavalier, defended his lady's reputation at the point of the lance ; and the weak and the oppressed were sometimes rescued from the grasp of some petty despot, when an encounter at arms followed as the adjustment of the dispute. In all these combats, however, there were these redeeming traits ; they were more generous than selfish ; they exhibited prowess, agility, skill, and manly bearing; they were open, public, avowed, legal, authorized, and even honoured by the existing feelings and manners of the age. It is unnecessary to add, that the modern duel has but very slight traces of resemblance to this. There were very early perceptions, however, of the injustice of such appeals to arms for the settlement of private quarrels; and many instances of punishments inflicted on parties resorting to them are on record. One of these may be sufficient to mention. It is this : — In the reign of Richard the Second, a quarrel happened between the Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford, which was to be settled by single combat, in the usual way of those times, but in public and open encounter, under the notion of Heaven interposing to preserve the innocent. At the moment, however, of their being about to engage, each being mounted, the King interposed his authority, and both were banished from the kingdom, the one for ten years, the other for life. As an illustration of the errors of preceding legislators on this subject, by whose mistakes we may profit, and be directed into a better course, I may perhaps be permitted to state the following facts. At the close of the I6th century, Henry the Second and Philip the Fair, each published edicts against Duelling ; the first prohibiting it altogether, and the second placing it under certain restraints. These, however, were ineffectual, for this reason only, namely, the great facility with which pardons were obtained by those who disobeyed the law. It is said that in the course of ten years, there have been granted upwards of six thousand discharges or pardons to those who had violated the laws. This is exactly the state of things in England at the present moment. The law pronoimces killing in a Duel to be murder, and as such it is legally punishable with death ; but the facility with which acquittals are obtained, nay, the certainty that no j ury will convict — because they cannot, without doing violence to their consciences, put the midnight 496 APPENDIX. murderer and voluntary combatant on the same level — is such, that no man is deterred from risking his own life, or taking that of another, in single combat, from any fear of the penalties of the law, which he knows will never be enforced. In the same manner Henry the Fourth of France, in the five first years of whose reign, we are told, no less than four thousand gentlemen perished in single combat, yielding to the persuasions of his able minister, the Duke de Sully, held a council of his nobility and officers at Blois, in 1602 ; at which edicts were published, inflicting the severest penal- ties on duellists. But here again, as in the former case, the law was wholly inoperative ; as pardons were so easily obtained by those who offended it, that none of the penalties were ever enforced. The conduct pursued by Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, was more prompt and decisive. During one of his campaigns in Russia, the practice of Duelling bad reached such a height in his own army, that he denounced death against any who should engage in it. Two officers in high command, nevertheless, subsequently quarrelled, and, knowing the king to be inflexible, they did not dare to fight without asking his permission. It was granted ; but on condition that the king himself should be an eye-witness of the combat. The time and place being appointed, the combatants appeared; when they found the king, accompanied by a small body of infantry, which he drew in a circle round them : and calling the provost-marshal to attend as executioner, he said, " Let the combatants continue until one is slain ; and the instant that occurs, do you behead the other before my eyes." The generals (for the officers were of that high rank) pausing at the inflexible determination of their sovereign, mutually embraced, and forgave each other in the presence of their monarch — solicited, and received his pardon, and promised to be, as they continued, till death, firm and faithful friends. Joseph the Second, the Emperor of Germany, in a letter written with his own hand, to one of his general officers, 'dated Vienna, August, 1722, says : " I will not suffer Duelling in my army. I despise the maxims of those who pretend to justify it, and to kill each other in cold blood. I feel high esteem for officers who courageously expose themselves to the enemy. The indifference with which they brave death in battle is useful to their country ; but there are among them men ready to sacrifice every thing to revenge, and to the hatred which they bear to their enemies. I despise them. Such men are, in my opinion, no better than the Roman gladiators. Call a court- martial to try the two officers, who have given and received challenges to fight. Examine the subject of their quarrel with the impartiality which I require from every man who is invested with the office of rendering justice ; and let him who is guilty submit to his fate, and to the rigour of the laws. I am resolved that this barbarous custom, worthy only of the times of Tamerlane and Bajazet, and which has so often thrown families into mourn- ing, shall be repressed, should it even cost me the half of my officers to effect it. There are still men who know how to unite bravery with the duties of a faithful subject. It is they who respect the laws of the state." In the reign of Louis the Thirteenth, the successor of Henry the Fourth, and surnamed the Just, the law against Duellists was so rigorously put in force, that men who were mortally wounded in the combat were dragged to the gibbet, and there hung up by the hands of the public executioner, before they died of their wounds. In the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, in the year 1609, a Court of Honour was established, for considering and deciding on all points theretofore settled by appeals to arms ; and from that period, the number of duels began greatly to decline ; as undoubtedly they would do in any country where so much more just and satisfactory a method than the barbarous one at present in use, should be adopted for the settling of all personal matters of dispute. In 1712, Augustus, king of Poland, prohibited Duelling in his kingdom by severe edicts. Even Christophe, the late APPENDIX. 497 president of Hayti, decreed that any individual engaged in a duel, either as principal or accessory, should be shot as a rebel against the state, a violator of justice, and a disturber of the public peace; with a just reservation, how- ever, that if in the course of the legal investigation, it should appear that only one person v.'as to blame, as the original aggressor, the punishment should fall on him alone. In turning from foreign states to our own country, I find high names and great authorities in favour of legislative attempts to denounce and punish the practice of Duelling. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and thai of her successor, James the First, the practice having much prevailed, the great Lord Verulam, then Sir Francis Bacon, as Attorney- General for the Crown, instituted an information against two persons, the one of whom sent, and the other accepted a challenge ; on which occasion he delivered an oration against the practice, in the Star Chamber, following up his address by a statement of the laws which he meant to propose for its suppression ; but the court and the nobility were unfavourable to their prosecution, and all the eftbrts of the reforming philosopher were unavailing against such inliu- ence. In the time of Cromwell, the Parliament issued, in 1654, an ordinance against Duelling : and after the Restoration, Charles the Second issued a proclamation against it. But, the reason why these decrees were unavailing was, that the punishment, being death, was too severe to be ever inflicted; and the certainty with which acquittals or pardons could be obtained, gave impunity to offenders, and caused the law to be contemned and despised. In the year 1712, however, when Queen Anne had ascended the throne, and in the same year in which Augustus, the king of Poland, issued his edict against Duelling, a fatal duel was fought in England, between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun, in which both the combatants were killed. This event made so deep an impression upon the public mind, that under the imjjulse of the moment, a bill wds brought into the House of Commons, by Mr. Hungerford, which was read a first time in April, 1712, a second time in May of the same year, and referred to a Committee in the month of June following. It was entitled "A Bill to prohil)it Tryall by single Combat, and to suppress the impious practice of Duelling;" and it was introduced under the highest auspices, having been expressly recom- mended to the attention of the legislature, by a speech from the Queen on the throne. I have taken some pains to trace the progress of this bill through all its various stages ; and by the aid of the manuscript Index in the Journal Office, I was enabled to ibllow it through its first and second readings into the Committee, where it ajjpears to have lingered for several weeks, and after many successive postponements was dropped, without any reason being assigned, but it was not defeated or thrown out. From that period to the present, no attempt has been made, that I am aware of, to legislate against the evil ; though the practice is so far from being extinct, that it has acquired perha])s more open sanction, and more daring publicity, than any other infraction of the law that can be named. The occurrence is so much a matter of course, that in announcing such combats, the reporters of the public journals hardly deem it necessary to say how the quarrel arose, or whether the cause of the fight was adequate or otherwise. It is generally announced as though it were one of the most lawful and innocent customs of the age. Duelling pistols are also openly and publicly exposed for sale, and labelled as such in the shops ; as though to shoot a human being was as lawful and as iimocent an affair as bringing down a pheasant or a partridge. There are many persons who will read this, perhaps, and still think, that, after all, the number of Duels fought in England at present are few, and their effects unimportant, and on that ground they may depre- cate legislative interference, because they think the evil insignificant in VOL. L 2 K 498 APPENDIX. magnitude. But the catalogue is longer and more fearful than many would suppose. It appears, also, that this barbarous practice has ingulphed within its vortex, noblemen, statesmen, orators, and warriors. Por in this list will be found the names of the Dukes of York, Norfolk, and Richmond, Lords Shelburne, Macartney, Townsend, Bellumont, Exm on th, Talbot, Lauderdale, Lonsdale, Camelford, Paget, Castlereagh, Belgrave, and Petersham— as well as of Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Canning, Tierney, and even Wellington. Mr. Joseph Hamilton, of Dublin, states that a Captain Kernan had killed or wounded 14 persons in Duels-. — that Major Spread challenged 8 officers, and wounded 4 of them upon a single day ; and that George Robert Fitz- gerald WHS introduced to the King of France as an Irishman who had previously fought 26 fatal duels ! An officer who collected the reports of 172 cases, found 63 individuals were killed, and 96 wounded. He says that constituted as society at present is, the noblemen and gentlemen of the United Kingdom have no adequate security against a challenge or an offence. Thus every officer in the army or navy is placed in painful difficulty, between the existing military code, and the disrepute which is attendant on its strict observance ; for, while he is punishable by the criminal law for slaying a fellow-subject in a Duel, he is at the same time compelled, by the despotic and imwritten code of military honour, not to endure an insult, nor refuse a challenge. Several British officers indeed have been so spurned by their associates, that they were compelled to retire from the public service, because they acted in obedience to the articles of war, and the injunctions of their sovereign, in refusing to fight Duels for the most trifling causes of quarrel. I would ask whether such a state of things as this ought to be suffered to continue for a single moment longer; — the religion of the country denounc- ing a practice which is, nevertheless, followed by the highest personages in the state — the civil laws of the country denouncing a practice which is, nevertheless, followed by the legislators, the judges, and the legal profession at large — the military law denouncing a practice which must, nevertheless, be follow^ed by naval and military officers, or their society be shunned, and their prosperity in the service for ever destroyed. "What must be the inevi- table effects of all this, but to bring the authority of religion, law, and discipline, equally into contempt, and to set up the fickle goddess of Fashion as the supreme power in the state ? As the legal authorities upon the subject may not be familiar to all readers, I will venture to quote only a few. Judge Blackstone, in his Com- mentaries, says : " Deliberate Duelling is contrary to the laws of God and man ; and therefore the law has justly fixed the crime and punishment of murder on principals, and seconds also." Judge Foster, in his Discourse on Crown Law, says : " Deliberate Duelling, if death ensue, is, in the eye of the law, murder." Sir Edward Coke, in his Institutes, says: " Single com- bats, between any of the king's subjects, is strictly prohibited by the laws of this realm, and on this principle, that in states governed by law, no man, in consequence of any injury whatever, ought to indulge the principle of private revenge." Sir Matthew Hale says : " This is a plain case, and with- out any question. If one kill another in fight, even upon the provocation of him that is killed, this is murder." Mr. Justice Grose, Mr. Justice Buller, and others of great eminence, might be also cited, all concurring as they do in the same view ; namely, that no amount of provocation — no sense of wounded honour — no feeling of personal insult — no extent of private wi'ung — can ever justify, or even palliate, so false a method of seeking redress. The remedy that I shall venture to propose for this evil, will be found to be very simple, perfectly practicable, justified by precedent, warranted by analogy, and sanctioned by experience and success. It is founded on these two single principles. 1st. That there shall be competent tribunals APPENDIX. 499 established to take cognizance of all offences, so as to leave no man without a remedy for wrong, and by this means to deprive him of all motive for taking the law into his own hands. 2dly. That for all contempt or infraction of the authority of such tribunals, the punishments should be no more severe than public opinion would approve, so as to ensure their being enforced; by enlisting public sympathy always in favour of the respecter and observer of the law, rather than with its enemies and violators. The provisions which I should suggest as the substance of any legislative enactment would be these : 1. That Courts of Honour shall be established, with full powers to take cognizance of, hear, and determine, all cases referred to them for adjudica- tion, by parties conceiving themselves to be insulted or aggrieved ; and that the decisions of such Courts shall be binding on both appellants, under penalties to be hereafter specified. 2. That these Courts shall be constituted of not less than three, nor more than seven individuals, of a rank as nearly as may be attainable, to that of the parties making the appeal ; and that the selection and nomination of such individuals to form the Courts of Honour prescribed, shall be vested in the following authorities: — For the adjudication of all cases of dispute between the servants of his Majesty, whether Civil, Naval, or Military, the principal officer in that department of the public service to which the appeal- ing parties may belong, at the nearest station to the spot where the dispute may have arisen. And for gentlemen not belonging to any branch of the public service, the senior magistrate, or the sheriff, of the county, in which the points of difference may occur. 3. That persons having any cause of quarrel, not cognizable by civil or military law, but such as is usually determined among gentlemen, by refer- ence to private friends, or by appeal to arms, shall select, as at present, each a second, or representative, who shall have power and authority to draw up a statement of the cases of their respective principals in writing, copies of which shall be interchanged between each, and signed by both parties. 4. That the statements thus drawn up shall be laid before the proper authority, indicated in a preceding clause, with a request that he will sum- mon the requisite individuals of the rank and number required, to form the Court of Honour, whether Civil, Naval, Military, or otherwise, within a period of not less than three, nor more than seven days from the date of such appeal, which individuals shall be bound to attend at the time and place appointed, as jurors of our Lord the King. 5. That the Court being assembled, shall proceed to elect the senior member in age, as its president ; and after hearing the seconds, as advocates on either side, shall call before them such witnesses as they may deem necessary, and receive such oral or written testimony as they may consider fairly applicable to the case in dispute; after which, the President shall sum up the evidence, and the jurors or members of the Court of Honour shall each deliver their opinions and decision on the case, beginning with the youngest member, and going upwards with the remainder by seniority of age : when the President, as Judge, shall pronounce his verdict : which, if concurred in by the majority of the Court, himself included, shall be held binding on all parties, and without appeal. 6. That the expense of such proceedings before Courts of Honour thus constituted, shall l)e confined to the payment of the advocates, witnesses, and costs of evidence on either side ; — the service of the jurors or members of the Court of Honour being gratuitous, as in Grand Juries and Courts Martial at present ; but that in all cases, the party proved to be the aggressor in the dispute, and condemned by the verdict of the Court as being in the wrong, shall be held liable to the payment of all the costs, on both sides, and be subject to be detained in custody until such costs are dischaiged. 500 APPENDIX. 7. That the refusal, on the part of any individual giving or taking offence, to refer his case to the arijudication of a Court of Honour, constituted as above described, shall be taken to be an acquittal of the party consenting to such an appeal ; and such refusal of any one party, when communicated by the other who consents, to the Court, shall, when duly authenticated, be published under their authority as a judicial settlement of the case. 8. That in the event of both parties in any quarrel holding the authority of such Court of Honour in contempt, and still appealing to arms, and engaging in a Duel with deadly weapons — whether actual injury be intlicted by the combat or not — the following penalties shall be imposed on the con- victed offenders, whether principals, seconds, or accessories before or after the fact. If in the Civil, Naval, or Military service of his Majesty, the offenders shall be dismissed from their public employment, and deprived of all rank and pay, for a period of not less than three, nor exceeding seven years. If not in any branch of the public service, the offenders shall be declared to be outlaws, deprived of all rank in society, and of all civil and political privileges, as IJritish subjects, and be placed for a like period with- out the protection of the law. 9. That in the event of any wound being inflicted on, or death ensuing to, one or both of the parties engaged in any Duel, the property of the other parties, including ])rincipal, seconds, and accessories, shall be held liable for pecuniary reparation to all who may be injured, either directly or indirectly, by such Avounds or death, to the extent of maintaining, as far as the joint property of all the parties will admit, the families and dependents thus deprived of their natural protectors and supporters, in the same state and condition as they would have been maintained, had no such death occurred. These are the only provisions I should deem necessary, and these, I believe, would be found fully and completely effectual to meet every case. As to the practicability of the remedy, and the justice of the penalties proposed, many authorities may be cited in support of both. Judge Blackstone says, " Could a method be devised, of compelling the aggressor to make some other satisfaction to the affronted party, which the world would esteem equally reputable as that which is now given at the hazard of life and fortune, as well of the person insulted, as of he who hath given the insult, a probability of the discontinuance of this practice might be held out." Here then, we have shadowed forth, and that not dimly, but in lines so clear and distinct that they cannot be mistaken, that very Court of Honour or tribunal w^hich can give " some other satisfaction which the world would esteem," that the learned judge deems so desirable. Mr. Hamilton, whom I quoted before, says, that when his late Majesty, George the Fourth, was offended by the Duke of Brunswick, a Court of Honour, formed of all the neighbouring princes, dictated and enforced a becoming reparation ; and he states that Prussia, Bavaria, and other continental states, have established Courts of Honour for the peaceable adjustment of personal disputes. Even in England, a British Court of Chivalry was formerly in existence, having power to enforce full reparation for those grievances which were of too delicate a nature for the cognizance of common law; and being able to compel the defendant to take promptly on himself the lie which he had rashly or unjustly given, or to make such other submission as the laws of honour might require. This Court was held before the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marshal jointly ; but there having been no permanent High Con- stable since the execution of Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, that Court has unfortunately fallen into entire disuse. The most striking cases that can be cited as to the practicability of such a Court, are two mentioned by Mr. Samuel, in his " History of the British Army," bo^h happening in the reign of George the Third. The one was in the case of a dispute between Lieutenant- General Murray and Sir APPENDIX. 501 William Draper, in 1783; the other related to certain differences which arose out of the trial of Major John Browne, of the 67th regiment, and Captain Hedges, at Antigua. In both cases, His Majesty constituted the Courts-martial at their respective regiments into a Court of Honour, for mediating between the parties. The grounds of quarrel were there minutely- investigated, and the submissions due by the party which was convicted of giving the offence were dictated. The proposed terms were complied with, and all concerned pledged their honour, by requisition of the Court, to allow their differences there to terminate, and to have no further consequences. His Majesty's commission to the Court-martial in the second instiuice contained specific directions, which ran in these words : " If, upon the representation of any of the parties, it shall appear, that in respect of any unguarded or intemperate expression, which may have been heretofore used, an acknowledgment, apology, or concession, may be necessary, or proper, the Court will prescribe the terms in which the same shall be con- ceived; and will cause it to be made in their presence. And for the better effectuating these purposes, the Court-martial have His Majesty's permission to make use of his royal name, authority, and injunction ;' and, if they shall see occasion, to impose a strict arrest upon any of the parties, until a report shall be made to His Majesty." Here then, is experience of the perfect practicability, as well as the effi- cacy of such a Court of Honour, made permanent, which might be armed with full powers, instead of being merely temporary, and founded on royal commissions issued for every separate occasion. I may add, that the late revered and lamented Mr. Wilberforce, in his admirable " View of Christian- ity," says, " There can be little doubt of the efficacy of what has been more than once suggested, as a substitute for Duelling, namely, a Court of Honour, to take cognizance of such offences as would naturally fall within Its province : but," he adds, " the effects of this establishment would doubtless require to be enforced by legislative provisions, directly punishing the practice, and by discouraging at court, and in the naval and military circles, all who should, directly or indirectly, be guilty of it." And Mr. Samuel, with all that high feeling of respect for military honour, which his examina- tion of the materials for his work on the British Army naturally inspired, after condemning the practice of Duelling in the strongest terms, and recommending in the most forcible manner the substitution of Courts of Honour instead, concludes by saying : " This conquest over deep-rooted, but ill-founded prejudices, if difficult in attainment, will be most admirable in its consequences ■ since it cannot fail to abolish, in the end, a senseless and horrid practice, not less reproachful to the military character, than shocking to humanity itself." As to the arguments urged in favour of Duelling, there is but one that is at all relied on, which is this : that "it is indispensable for the preservation of order in ])olite society; for, were it not for the fear of being called out to the field, the greatest rudeness and incivility would prevail." To this it is enough to say, that the most polished nations of antiquity, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks, knew nothing of such a practice as the modern Duel ; yet they all preserved the greatest refinement o manners without the iiiHuence of fear. The rudest and most barbarous of modern nations, the Goths, the Vandals, and the Teutonic tribes, are those among whom it most prevailed ; and yet with all its influence, their manners were harsh and ferocious in the extreme. The most polite and Avell-bred individuals in all countries are so from courteousness of disposi- tion, and by force of example, rather than from fear; and professed Du(>llists are often the rudest and most boisterous of men. The traits, therefore of private and of national character, are wholly against such a theory as that set up in defence of Duelling. Besides which, 1 ask, can there be any grosser inconsistency than this : Jst, to say, that bravery, truth, and polished 502 APPENDIX. manners, are virtues so indispensable to a gentleman, and are possessed in such perfection by the gentry of England, that the slightest insinuation against any man's courage, veracity, or gentlemanly manners, is an ofFonc e which can be expiated only by mortal combat ; and '2dly, to affirm that they are of such ruffianly dispositions, such hypocrites, such pretenders to bravery, and such base cowards at the same time — so continually disposed to behave ill, but so continually crouching under the operation of fear, that if you will only hold over them in terror, the dread of the whip or the pistol, they will be the most civil and polite persons in the world. Now both of these posi- tions cannot be true. If they be really brave — no dread of being called to account for their conduct by others will ever deter them from doing what they deem right. It is only on the supposition of their being arrant cowards, that the fear of a Duel can ever make them polite, by professing a respect which they do not feel ; and therefore, the very apology set up for Duelling, is the bitterest censure ever passed on the character of the nation in which it prevails. Let me sum up the whole by a brief glance at the nature and extent of the penalties proposed to be enforced, and especially their suitableness to the nature of the offence. I contend, then, that death is altogether an excessive, as well as an unsuitable punishment for Duelling ; since, to put the man who voluntarily risks his life against that of another, and combats fairly and openly, on the same footing with the secret murderer and midnight assassin, is to confound all notions of right and justice, and defeat the very end of law, by revolting every man against its injunctions. It is to avoid being scorned and shunned by their equals, rather than to take vengeance, or even to prove their courage, that men go to the field. This degradation then, of which they stand in so much dread, is the proper punishment to be inflicted on those who shall be proved to be in the wrong ; and the fear of being so proved guilty, and so scorned and shunned, will operate more powerfully than any fear of death, to deter men from giving others offence. The fittest punishment for this, when tribunals are founded for the adjustment of every dispute, will undoubtedly be, to condemn the parties, not to physical, but to political and civil death — to annihilate, or suspend for a time, their rights and privileges as citizens — to exclude them from society — to make them outlaws — to withdraw from them the protection of the laws — since they themselves, by setting those laws aside, have shown that they will not yield them obedience ; — and, failing to observe this, they are no longer entitled to their protection. If it be thought that naval and military men may claim exemption from this reciprocal obligation of obedience and protection, I answer it is precisely to tho. e classes that the practice of Duelling is most derogatory. "What is its admitted principle ? To coerce men into respectful behaviour towards each other, by the operation of fear. Gracious Heaven ! and is this the ruling motive we would apply to the conduct of the heroic defenders of their country? Shall they, who never yet shrunk from the carmon of the enemy, be terrified into civility, by the fear of the pistol- balls of their own country- men and friends ? Is this the base material of which our fleets and armies are composed? But it is said, their feelings must be respected ! Undoubtedly — to all honourable extent ; but men in whose hands the national defence is placed, are bound above all things to show their respect for the laws ; and whenever they set their own selfish feelings and fancies above that solenni obligation, they prove themselves unworthy of their trust. It has been well said, indeed, that naval and military men have even less excuse than any other class for resorting to this barbarous practice. The country places weapons in their hands, and gives them the privilege and the honour of wearing arms, for the defence of the State ; and if they pervert these instruments of good to evil uses, and challenge each other, to spill the nation's blood, they are guilty of as great a crime as the cashier of a national APPENDIX. 503 bank, who, entrusted with funds for his country's use, applies them to his own selfish purposes, and squanders a treasure not his own. If we desire to maintain the refinements of civilized society, let us supply refined and noble motives, as stimulants to action — let the fear of public degradation, and the horror of merited shame, be substituted for the fear of wounds, or chastisement, or death. To serfs and slaves — to savages and brutes — the terror of the whip or the pistol may be fitly enough applied ; but by free and enlightened men — the only fear that ought to be felt, is the fear of oflfending the Supreme Being, and the dread of being justly con- demned in the opinion of the virtuous and the just. To defend his liberties and the laws, let no man hesitate to hazard his life. It is a trust given by heaven, not to be lightly wantoned with — it is a sacred gift, deposited in every man's keeping, to be made the source of rational enjoyment to himself, and the beings whom he finds around him, or brings into existence. If the ruffian or the braggart invade its peace, or attempt to sully its honour, let the united power of the law, based on the firm foundation of public opinion, crush them with its mighty power, and drive them from that society of which they are the bane. But let the brave and patriotic citizen reserve his life, which is not his own to sacrifice at will, for those high and noble deeds, which his country may one day demand at his hands ; and if it then be offered up upon the altar of justice, in defence of liberty and truth — he may fall as honoured, and his memory be as justly revered, as those who, in the Spartan band, left their bodies in the Straits of Thermopylse, and had inscribed on the impending rock, the ever memorable epitaph — " Stranger, go and report at Sparta, that we lie dead here, in vindication of the laws." It is to kindle and keep alive this noble sentiment, that I desire to see the laws made worthy of our respect and obedience; and with the conviction that the measure I have humbly recommended, will conduce to this desirable end, I trust some legislative measure, founded on the principles I have explained, will be introduced and carried, to prevent the barbarous and san- guinary practice of Duelling. P. S. May Queen Victoria, who now sways the sceptre of England, encouraged by the example of her illustrious predecessor. Queen Anne, have the humanity and moral courage to recommend, like her, the abolition of Duelling, in a speech from the throne. And may the Lords and Commons of her realm so sustain this virtuous eflTort of their youthful sovereign, as that all the wives, the mothers, and the sisters of her vast dominions, may have occasion to hail her majesty as the first emancipator of their husbands, sons, and brothers, from the barbarous and bloody custom to which the tyranny of fashion has so long subjected them ! No single act that could emanate from royal authority, would be more honourable to a female heart and mind, than this, or shed a brighter lustre on her majesty's crown. No. VI. It is pleasing to be able to follow this appeal, by a record of the interesting and important fact — that within the Session of the American Congress in which it was issued, and in less than three months after its first publication, an Act was passed through- out both houses, at Washington, and received the President's assent, so as to become law, in the following terms : — 504 APPENDIX. Anti- Duelling Law. — An Act to prohibit the giving or accepting, within the District of Columbia, of a challenge to fight a Duel, and for the punishment thereof. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That if any person shall, in the District of Columbia, challenge another to fight a duel, or shall send or deliver any written or verbal message purporting or intending to be such challenge, or shall accept any such challenge or message, or shall, knowingly, carry or deliver any such challenge or message, or shall, knowingly, carry or deliver an acceptance of such challenge or message to fight a duel in or out of said District, and such duel shall be fought in or out of said District, and either of the parties thereto shall be slain, or mortally wounded in such duel, the surviving party to such duel, and every person carrying or deliver- ing such challenge or message, or acceptance of such challenge or message as aforesaid, and all others aiding or abetting therein, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and upon conviction thereof, in any court competent to the trial thereof in the said District, shall be punished by imprisonment and confine- ment to hard labour in the penitentiary, for a term not exceeding ten years, nor less than five years, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That if any person shall give or send, or cause to be given or sent, to any person in the District of Columbia, any challenge to fight a duel, or to engage in single combat with any deadly or dangerous instrument or weapon whatever, or if any person in said District shall accept any challenge to fight a duel, or to engage in single combat with any deadly or dangerous instrument or weapon, whatever, or shall be the bearer of any such challenge, every person so giving or sending, or causing to be given or sent, or accepting such challenge or being the bearer thereof, and every person aiding or abetting in the giving, sending, or accepting such challenge, shall be deemed guilty of high crime and misde- meanour, and on conviction thereof in any comt competent to try the same in the said District, shall be punished by imprisonment and confinement to hard labour in the penitentiary, for a term not exceeding ten years, nor less than five years, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall assault, strike, beat, or wound, or cause to be assaulted, stricken, beaten, or wounded, any person in the District of Columbia, for declining or refusing to accept any challenge to fight a duel, or to engage in single combat with any deadly or dangerous instrument or weapon whatever, or shall post or publish, or cause to be posted or published, any writing charging any such person, so decli- ning or refusing to accept any such challenge, to be a coward, or using any other opprobrious or injurious language therein, tending to degrade and disgrace such person for so offending, on conviction thereof in any court competent to trial thereof, in said District, shall be punished by confine- ment to hard labour in the penitentiary, for a term not exceeding seven years, nor less than three years, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, that in addition to the oath now to be prescribed by law to be administered to the grand jury in the District of Columbia, they shall be sworn faithfully and impartially to inquire into, and true presentment make of, all offences against this act. END OF VOL. I. LONDON: FISHER, SON. AND CO., PRINTERS.