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This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in
cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You
may not reproduce this digitized copy of the book for
any purpose other than for scholarship, research,
educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You
may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy
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FROM A PORTRAIT OF B. H. LATROBE.
In the possession of Ferdinand C. Latrobe, Esq.

The

JOURNAL OF LATROBE

Being the Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and
Traveler in the United States from IJ<)6 to 1820

BY
BENJAMIN HENRY LATROBE
Architect of the Capitol at Washington

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
J. H. B. LATROBE

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1905

Copyright, 1905, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

b^f'1^

Published November. 1905

CONTENTS

CHAPTER L-

II.-
III.-
IV- V.-
VI.-
VII.-
VIII.- IX.- X.-
XI.-
XII.-

Introduction .......
Foreword ........
-Virginia and Its People : With Comments upon
Hospitality, and some Strange Acquaintances
-Virginia and Its People — Continued .
-A Visit to Washington at Mt. Vernon .
-Thoughts on National System of Education
-Philadelphia ......
-The Habits of Certain Virginia Insects
-The Building of the National Capitol, with
Expressions of the Author's Canons of Art
-By Sea to New Orleans ....
-New Orleans and Its People
-Peculiar Customs : With some Disjecta Membra
upon Art Conventions ....
-Louisiana Limitations ....
¦Fragmentary Criticism ....

PAGE vii
xli

i •
30 1
5°
65 '
83 /
99
114 "
152169194
225 -
246

111

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

From a Portrait of B. H. Latrobe . . . Frontispiece
Sketch of Edmund Randolph ......
James River Falls ....... Facing
Travel on Horseback in Virginia .....
Billiards at a Country Tavern ..... Facing
" An Attempt at the Features of Patrick Henry " .
View of the Town of Norfolk from Town Point in 1796 Facing
View of Mount Vernon, Looking to the Southwest . Facing
Sketch of George Washington ..... Facing
Sketch of a Classic Group at Mount Vernon . . Facing
Another Classic Group at Mount Vernon . . . Facing
Mount Vernon, Looking to the North, July 17, 1796 . Facing
View of the City of Richmond from the Banks of the James

River in 1796
Buckhalter's Ferry on the Susquehanna
The Schuylkill River Below the Falls
A Study of Heads ....
" A Whig Reading a Tory Paper " .
The Schuylkill River Opposite Wissahickon .
Dirt-Daubers' Cells
Sketch of the Capitol, from the West .
Unfinished Sketch of the Capitol, from the East
V

Facing
FacingFacing

FacingFacingFacingFacing

I
2 2
3
44 555
66 7789
9 9
ic1 1
12

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
West Elevation of the Capitol at Washington . .Facing 128
Pennsylvania Avenue in 1 8 1 3 . . . . . Facing 1 34
South Elevation of the President's House . . . Facing 138
A Conversation at Sea ...... Facing 154
Storm in the Gulf, en route to New Orleans . . Facing 160
View from a Window of Tremoulet' s Hotel, New Orleans Facing 172
A New Orleans Cemetery ..... Facing 198
A Street in New Orleans ..... Facing 212
View of the Balize at the Mouth of the Mississippi . Facing 232
Sketch of the Statue of the Right Honorable Norborne
Berkeley ....... Facing 250

VI

INTRODUCTION

BENJAMIN HENRY LATROBE, the subject
of the present brief memoirs, was the young
est son of the Rev. Benjamin Latrobe and
Ann Margaret Nutis — the former an English clergy
man of the Moravian faith, eminently distinguished
for his talents and many virtues, and the latter the
daughter of a gentleman of Pennsylvania. The family
name was Boneval, that of Latrobe belonging to a
younger branch which emigrated to England from
France during the persecution of the Huguenots. For
the curious in these matters it may be here mentioned
that the last of the elder branch was Count of Limou
sin, whose life throughout was more of a romance than
a reality. The family of Nutis, into which the elder Mr.
Latrobe married, was closely related to David Ritten-
house, whose knowledge and success, self-acquired,
have gained for him so extended a reputation. Col.
Frederick Nutis, the brother of Mrs. Latrobe, distin
guished himself as a partisan chief during the Revo
lutionary War, and, with a price set upon his head
vii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
by Lord Howe, was untiring and successful in his
opposition to the British arms. Miss Nutis had been
sent from Pennsylvania by her parents, who were Mo
ravians, to be educated in Germany, at one of the
establishments of the United Brethren in that country,
and meeting, while there, with Mr. Latrobe, they were
married about the year 1755. The fruits of this mar
riage were three sons.
In looking back to the .early history of an indi
vidual who has distinguished himself in any particular
department of science or art, it is interesting to observe
the indications, which sometimes- present themselves
even at the tenderest age, of his future career. An
instance is the oft-repeated and well-known story of
West's first attempt at portrait painting, as he endeav
ored to copy the features of the infant that, when a
boy, he was set to watch. The childhood of Mr.
Latrobe, which until eleven years of age was spent
chiefly at school in Yorkshire, was marked by his fond
ness for his pencil; and there is now in the possession
of his family a drawing of Kirkstall Abbey, from na
ture, made by him in his tenth year, the accuracy and
force of which, in all its Gothic details, would do credit
to any a*rtist. Various other drawings, made about the
same time, and all of architectural subjects, prove him,
at this early age, to have possessed a correctness of eye
and a force and facility of delineation which are not
easily attained until after years of constant practice.
viii

INTRODUCTION
In his eleventh or twelfth year he was sent to Saxony,
to a Moravian seminary, where he remained for some
time and until sufficiently advanced in his education to
become a student at the University of Leipsic, then the
most celebrated on the continent of Europe. Here he
remained for nearly three years, during which time he
devoted himself with the most intense application to
the acquisition of knowledge of every kind. There was
scarcely anything that he did not attempt for which
he could provide the facilities of instruction, and, being
well grounded in elementary knowledge when he en
tered the university, aided by the book masters, and
possessing uncommon perseverance and a remarkable
memory, there were few things that he attempted
which he did not succeed in acquiring.
In 1785 Mr. Latrobe, being then in his eight
eenth year, left the university, and passed some months
in traveling through Germany. Meeting with some
friends, English and Prussian, whom he had known at
Leipsic, they agreed, in a wild spirit of adventure, to
make a campaign with the Prussian army, and through
the influence of their friends obtained subaltern com
missions. Mr. Latrobe's was a company of hussars;
and after two hard-fought skirmishes, in the last of
which he was severely wounded, his friends and him
self found the curiosity which had led them into this
youthful and dangerous folly gratified, and resigned
from any further participation in a contest in which
ix

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
the most of them had no possible interest to advance
or serve. One of Mr. Latrobe's friends during his
brief campaign was afterwards a distinguished officer
in the army of the United States. After recovering
from the effects of his wound he made the tour of
Europe, and acquired that intimate knowledge of the
works of the great masters in architecture which dis
tinguished him in his own subsequent career.
In the latter part of 1786 Mr. Latrobe returned
to England, in his nineteenth year, in time to be present
at the last illness of his father. After this he resided
for several years in London with his elder brother,
during which time he assiduously devoted himself to
the acquisition of knowledge, aiming, as in Leipsic, at
everything within his reach. He mixed much in the
best society of England, to which the character of his
father provided him a ready access, and formed friend
ships and acquaintances with the distinguished literary
and scientific men of his day, which were, many of
them, continued during his life.
After being for some time in England, he deter
mined to choose and study a profession, and guided by
his tastes and propensities, fresh too from the works
of art of the Continent, he adopted that of architecture
and civil engineering, and concentrated all his energies
upon the acquisition of the necessary practical infor
mation. All this time the celebrated Smeaton was still
alive, and although he had retired from the active
x

INTRODUCTION
practice of his profession, he was still in the full vigor
of his mental powers, preparing for publication those
works which have done so much toward establishing
his high reputation. With him Mr. Latrobe was inti
mate, and had the benefit of his advice and experience
in the prosecution of his present studies. In 1787 or '
1788 — it is uncertain which — he entered the office of
Mr. Cockrell, then considered one of the best archi
tects in London. His previous classic education, his
skill with his pencil, his profound mathematical knowl
edge, and his acquaintance with the great buildings of
the Continent gave him most decided advantages over
all around him; and anecdotes are still extant showing
the great facility which he soon acquired in all the
practical knowledge of a draughtsman and calculator.
Under these circumstances the period of his probation
in Mr. Cockrell's office was comparatively short, and
as his labors knew no relaxation while engaged in it,
he soon found himself competent to commence the
practice of the profession which he had adopted.
In a short time after he left Mr. Cockrell's office
Mr. Latrobe found ample employment offered him as
an architect and civil engineer, and was appointed I
Surveyor of the Public Offices, in London. In 1790
he was married to Miss Lydia Sellon, the daughter of
the learned Dr. Sellon, and the sister of Mr. John
Sellon, a lawyer of eminence, whose work in the prac
tice of the courts is well known both in England and
xi

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
America. In a memorandum in the possession of the
writer of this memoir, Mr. Latrobe, speaking of him
self about this time, makes mention of the uncommon
rapidity with which he succeeded in his profession
when he had not been engaged in the practice of it
more than a year or eighteen months. The same suc
cesses continued to attend him during his residence in
London. In a letter written to his brother, after he
reached America, he narrates the following anecdote,
which shows that at the same time he must have
acquired considerable reputation as a professional
man: " Mr. Ton (Charles I. Ton) on one occasion paid
me the highest compliment I had yet received; for,
although only slightly introduced to him, he recognized
me on Pall Mall, took me into a coffee-house and con
versed with me on all sorts of things, and the next day,
when the tax on bricks was proposed, sent for me and
obtained from me, in a manner I shall never forget,
all the information on the subject of bricks and brick
houses which I possessed, and, while he received infor
mation from me, opened my mind to so many new
views that I have ever since been the better for this
tete-a-tete."
By his marriage with Miss Sellon, Mr. Latrobe
had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1793
Mrs. Latrobe died, leaving her husband plunged in the
deepest affliction; and her loss may be considered as
xii

INTRODUCTION
among the chief causes of his leaving England for
America at a time when his profession in the former
country offered him every inducement to remain there.
In the numerous papers that he has left there are con
stant allusions to this sad event as having broken in
upon all his prospects and having rendered distasteful
to him the presence of the objects and the society with
which her memory was inseparably connected. Other
matters combined to determine him to make his future
home on this side of the Atlantic.
It is not to be supposed that one of Mr. Latrobe's
education and acquirements should have been so much
immersed in the daily occupations of his particular
profession as to take no note of the politics of the
stirring times in England, when Pitt, Fox, Burke, and
Sheridan, with the talent that surrounded them, fixed
the attention of the whole civilized world. On the
contrary, Mr. Latrobe took a deep interest in the agi
tating discussions of this time, and although the atten
tion that his business required prevented him from
mingling personally in any of the proceedings of the
day, the new doctrines of government that were then
in the mouths of most men made strong impressions
upon him, and the natural bent of his mind so inclin
ing him, he espoused the side of liberal principles, and
was among those who looked to America as the scene
of that mighty experiment in government which has
been since so successfully accomplished. It was the
xiii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
home, too, of his maternal ancestors. By parentage
he was already half an American ; and these considera
tions operating upon him at a time when the powerful
recollections of his domestic loss weighed down his
spirits, as though it would not be shaken off, he deter
mined to cross the Atlantic and devote his talents to
his professional advancement in the United States.
Having once formed his resolution, he at once pro
ceeded to carry it into effect. He completed the works
he was engaged in in England, declined the office of
Surveyor to the Crown, with a salary of £1,000 per
annum, disposed of his patrimonial estate, and on the
25 th of November, 1795, left the country of his birth
forever. It is a matter of regret to his biographer that
there is nothing to enable him to refer with any cer
tainty to Mr. Latrobe's works in England; though
from time to time, since his death, those who knew him
before he came to America, and who have since moved
to this country, have spoken to his children in praise
of edifices that they attributed to him, both of a public
and private character, and which they say still keep
alive his professional reputation in the land of his
nativity. On the 20th of March, 1796, after a passage of
four months, within four days (a fact mentioned now
by way of contrast) , Mr. Latrobe landed at Norfolk,
Va. His letters of introduction were numerous, and
he was received and treated in the kindest manner by
xiv

INTRODUCTION
all to whom he presented them. On the 31st of March
he writes from Norfolk:
" I have been idly engaged since my arrival. The
friends to whom I was recommended have been ex
tremely kind to me, and I have loitered my time away
at their homes, doing little odds and ends of services
for them — designing a staircase for Mr. A  's new
house, a house and offices for Captain P  , tuning
a pianoforte for Mrs. W  , scribbling doggerel for
Mrs. A  , tragedy for her mother, and Italian songs
for Mrs. T  . The excursion into the Dismal
Swamp opened a prospect for professional pursuits of
more importance to me. I saw there too much to de
scribe at random and too little to describe at all with
out seeing more. In the meantime the management
of the James River Navigation seems opening for me,
and I am going thither to-morrow"; etc. Again he
says in a postscript to the same letter: "A Virginian
welcome must be experienced to be understood. It in
cludes everything that the best heart can prompt and
the most luxurious country afford. It is that which will
oblige a stranger to stop his career to the northward,
and force him to settle among men whom he experi
ences to be liberal, friendly, and sensible — Experto
crede Roberto."
After remaining several months at Norfolk, Mr.
Latrobe went to Richmond, where he remained until
November, 1798, when he removed to Philadelphia.
xv

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
During this period he was constantly occupied with the
business of his profession in its most extensive appli
cation. He designed many private buildings in Rich
mond, Norfolk, and Petersburg, besides others in the
country. In July, 1797, his design for the penitentiary,
which the Legislature had determined to build after
the change in the penal code of the State, was accepted,
and he was employed to superintend its erection at
Richmond. He was employed to examine and report
upon the Dismal Swamp Canal, the improvement of
the navigation of the Appomattox and the James rivers,
and also the condition of the fortifications at Norfolk,
with a view to their renovation.
As a geologist and mineralogist his services appear,
by his memoranda, to have been in frequent demand,
and he paid numerous visits to various counties of the
State where it was believed that coal, iron, and other
minerals were to be found. Such time as he could
spare from strictly professional pursuits he devoted to
the cultivation of the natural sciences and an examina
tion into the geological features of Virginia. Upon
these subjects he wrote much; and his remarks, accom
panied by numerous illustrative drawings, landscapes,
and sketches, show, at this day, the keenness and accu
racy of his observation, not less than the activity and
energy of his mind. His communications, copies of
which he has left, were principally addressed to
Volney and Dr. Scandella, the naturalist, and ex-
xvi

INTRODUCTION
hibit a thorough knowledge of the subjects of his
investigation. In other respects, too, Mr. Latrobe was most pleas
antly situated while in Virginia. The acquaintances
that he formed in many parts of the State were numer
ous, and at Richmond he enjoyed the friendship of the
late Bushrod Washington, John Simes, Edmund Ran
dolph — Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States — John C. Shubert, Esq., of Maryland,
to whose attention during a dangerous illness he owed
his life, and many others, who were through life his
warm and assured friends. His talents were appre
ciated, his society was sought, ample occupation was
afforded him, he experienced but little of the opposi
tion that he had subsequently to contend with, and he
found no reason to regret the loss of the prospects
which he could have enjoyed had he continued to reside
in England. On one of his many excursions through
the State Mr. Latrobe visited President Washington
at Mount Vernon.
In March, 1798, Mr. Latrobe paid a short visit
to Philadelphia. Among the acquaintances which his
letters procured for him in that city was the president
of the Bank of Pennsylvania. Upon one occasion,
when in company with this gentleman, the conversation
turned upon the banking house which it was then pro
posed to build, and Mr. Latrobe, having heard de
scribed the accommodation that would be necessary,
2 xvii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
made a sketch of a design, while the conversation was
going on, with the pen and ink that happened to be at
hand, and left it with the president, without the re
motest expectation of its ever being executed. In the
following July (1793) he was not less surprised than
gratified to receive a letter from Philadelphia, inform
ing him that his design for the Bank of Pennsylvania
had been adopted, and pressing him to prepare correct
copies of the sketch that he had left behind him, and
such instructions as would enable the workmen to
build it.
It is a fact that deserves mentioning in this place
that Mr. Latrobe, at the time he designed the Bank
of Pennsylvania, had not the means of access to a
single work in which were the proportions of the order
to which it belongs. The vessel containing the library
which was sent after him to America had been taken
by a French privateer, so that for several years he was
-without a single architectural authority to resort to,
and obliged to rely solely on his memory and his taste.
How well these served him is shown in many of his
works. The Bank of Pennsylvania is the work which per
manently established the professional reputation of
Mr. Latrobe, and if simplicity of construction, classic
elegance of proportions and details, and adaptation to
the purposes for which it is intended may give char
acter to a building and credit to its architect, the praise
xviii

INTRODUCTION
which the Bank of Pennsylvania has universally re
ceived and the fame which Mr. Latrobe has derived
from it are fully justified.
The employment of Mr. Latrobe to superintend
the building of the Bank of Pennsylvania, joined to
the inducements that had been held out to him to make
Philadelphia his permanent home during his short visit
there in the spring of 1798, determined him to leave
Richmond. Accordingly he brought all his business in
Virginia to a close, and in the winter of 1798 went to
reside in Philadelphia.
Soon after Mr. Latrobe moved to Philadelphia he
undertook to build the waterworks for the supply of
the city with the water of the Schuylkill, pumping it
by a steam-engine, with proper reservoirs, from whence
it could be distributed through the streets. It was the
first time that such a design had been attempted in
America, and Mr. Latrobe was looked upon by the
mass of the community as a visionary prospector when
he undertook it. People were not satisfied with treat
ing him and his design with contempt. Personal abuse
was heaped upon him. Unfortunately for him, L'En
fant, a French engineer, the author of the plan of the
City of Washington, had disappointed the people of
Philadelphia in the home which he undertook to build
for Robert Morris and the city assembly rooms, for
which a subscription had been raised to a considerable
amount. On both these buildings immense sums of
xix

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
money had been squandered. The house of Mr. Mor
ris, although put under roof, was never finished, and
was torn down, and the assembly rooms never rose
above the foundations. L'Enfant had scarcely left
Philadelphia before Mr. Latrobe made it his home
and attracted to himself the public attention by the
two great works that he at once commenced, the Bank
of Pennsylvania and the supply of the city with water.
The first was easily understood by the citizens ; the last
was at first incomprehensible, ranking with the schemes
of L'Enfant, and they transferred at once to Mr. La
trobe, whose profession and French name appear to
have been considered by them as ample justification,
all the unpopularity into which the works of L'Enfant
had brought the profession of an architect. \ He was
called " the damned Frenchman," in common parlance,
who was spending the people's money upon a chimer
ical project. Difficulties were thrown in the way of
his procuring workmen. Petty and vexatious injuries
were done to the buildings by unknown persons; no
argument could convince the multitude, and popular
dislike toward Mr. Latrobe seemed to advance with
the progress of the work until, when the pipes were
laid in the streets and the steam-engine finished, this
sentiment seemed to have attained a point beyond which
it could not be restrained from acts of violence.
A change in popular feelings was, however, close
at hand. By Mr. Latrobe's directions, the hydrants
xx

INTRODUCTION
were left open on the afternoon of the day when the
steam-engine was in readiness, and in the middle of
the night, with three gentlemen, his friends, and one
of his workmen, he went to the waterworks, kindled a
fire under the boiler, and set the ponderous machinery
in motion while the city was buried in sleep. Every
thing worked as he anticipated, and when the morning
came the streets of Philadelphia were flowing with
water from the gushing hydrants. Mr. Latrobe was
now praised as much as he had before been condemned,
and everyone seemed desirous of making atonement to
him for the ill-usage that he had received. Philadel
phia already owed her building of greatest beauty to
his talent, and she was now indebted for the most use
ful of her improvements to his skill.
In 1799 Mr. Latrobe made a survey with a view
of ascertaining the practicability of uniting the waters
of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays by a canal. His
report was favorable, and in 1803 we find him busily
engaged in the surveys preliminary to the choice of the
precise route and the work of construction.
While engaged in the surveys of the Chesapeake
and Delaware Canal, in 1803, Mr. Latrobe was called |
to Washington by Mr. Jefferson to complete the build
ings there which had been commenced under the ad
ministration of General Washington. Having under
taken the task, he received the appointment of Surveyor
of the Public Buildings of the United States. For two
xxi

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
years he paid only occasional visits to Washington, but
upon the abandonment of the Chesapeake and Dela
ware Canal he removed there with his family and made
it is his permanent residence in 1807.
General Washington had caused advertisements to
be published for plans for a Capitol and President's
house to be built at Washington. At this time the
country was entirely destitute of artists, and even of
good workmen in those branches of architecture upon
which the superiority of public over private buildings
depends, and the designs that were offered were such as
might be expected from such a state of things. The
design chosen from among these was one made by
Dr. William Thornton, a man of talent, but without
any practical architectural skill. His own account of
his architectural education was that he had acquired it
by a week's study among the works that he found in
the Philadelphia Library. The plan of the Capitol,
therefore, certainly was a striking proof of his genius.
He was appointed one of the commissioners to super
intend its execution, and by the year 1800 the north
wing was so far completed that Congress moved to
Washington and occupied it.
Mr. Latrobe's first step on receiving his appoint
ment was to examine the work that had been done and
to see how far the plans yet unfinished could be carried
into execution. This brought him at once into pain
fully unpleasant collision with all those who had been
xxii

INTRODUCTION
before engaged in the public buildings. If he sug
gested an alteration, if he pointed out a defect, if he
showed the impracticability of executing a part of the
design, he was sure to bring upon himself a host of
assailants. Every effort was made to undermine him
in the President's good opinion. His talents were de
nied, his motives assailed, and the party papers of the
day, associating him with party politics because he
received his appointment from Mr. Jefferson, joined
in the hue and cry against him. Several times was he
on the point of resigning his situation altogether, and
was only prevented from doing so by the firm and un
wavering support that on all occasions he received from
the President.
In 1803 Mr. Latrobe commenced the south wing
of the Capitol. The foundation, it is true, had been
already laid, but so defectively as to require to be taken
down in many places. The whole design of the interior 1
of this wing was his, for the design of the original
projector was impracticable and could not have been
put together. The exterior, of course, had to be built
in conformity with the north wing design and built
under the direction of Dr. Thornton.
At the time of his appointment to the office of
Surveyor of the Public Buildings the business of the
navy yard was put into Mr. Latrobe's hands, and the
entrance to the yard, which is still admired for its ex
cellent taste and the beauty of its proportion, is from
xxiii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
his pencil. He designed the workshops, the conven
ience of whose construction is still remarkable, the
powder magazine on the eastern branch, and superin
tended all the improvement within or in connection
with the navy yard during his residence in Washington.
In 1809 Mr. Latrobe was employed to survey and
superintend the construction of a canal to pass through
the city of Washington, meeting the main stream of
the Potomac River at the mouth of Tibers Creek with
the eastern branch near the navy yard. The work was
commenced with much ceremony on the 2d of July,
18 10, and prosecuted vigorously until it was completed.
Over the deepest excavation there is a brick arch of
upward of sixty feet span, the construction of which
is a singular specimen of Mr. Latrobe's skill and
ingenuity. Mr. Latrobe continued busily engaged in Wash
ington until 1 8 13. In 1811 the south wing of the
Capitol was completed, and the further progress of the
public buildings was suspended for want of appropria
tions to carry them on, the approaching war with
Great Britain being alleged as the reason for curtail
ment in the expenditures for this particular object.
The works at the navy yard, however, were carried on
upon a larger scale than ever.
While engaged at the public buildings in Washing
ton, Mr. Latrobe invented what has been often termed
a new order of architecture, and the words of praise
xxiv

INTRODUCTION
in which it has often been spoken of require a notice
of it in a sketch of his life. In the small vestibule at
the east entrance to the north wing of the Capitol the
vaulted roof is supported by columns representing the
stalk of the Indian corn with its fruit. The shaft of
the column is composed of the stalks of the corn bound
together by a cord or rope at the bottom, of sufficient
size to form the molding of the base, and with a
smaller cord at the top so as to form a proper fillet
below the capital. The capital is composed of the ears
of the corn with the husk or outer covering sufficiently
opened to show the grain within. The proportions of
the columns are perfect, and the effect is singularly
striking. Not many years since, the writer of this article,
then on a visit to Virginia, made the usual pilgrimage
of travelers in that quarter to Monticello. Among the
places of interest that were pointed out to him in the
then dilapidated premises was the favorite seat of Mr.
Jefferson. It was upon the low, flat roof of a range
of offices, which are built partly underground and ex
tend some distance from the main building. Several
trees formed a thick shade over the spot without inter
fering with the rare and lovely view which it afforded.
In the distance were the bold mountains of the Blue
Ridge. The intervening landscape was covered with
the velvet hues of cultivation. Charlottesville, with its
university, was in the midst, and the river, gleaming
xxv

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
here and there, broke the uniformity of the landscape
and carried the eye far to the north into the remote
perspective. Four garden benches were so disposed as
to form a square on this little observatory, and upon
a pedestal in the midst was a capital with its ears of
corn, a silent but expressive compliment to the genius
of its author, paid by one who knew him well and could
appreciate his abilities.
As early as the year 1809 Mr. Jefferson, at the
suggestion of Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana, ap
plied to Mr. Latrobe to ascertain whether it was prac
ticable to supply New Orleans with water by the same
means that had been so successful in Philadelphia, and
proposed that Mr. Latrobe should undertake it. This
he consented to do, and we find among his correspond
ence numerous letters written to that place with a view
of ascertaining the practicability of obtaining an ex
clusive grant of the privilege. In 18 10 he became
satisfied from his intercourse with Governor Claiborne,
then on a visit to Washington, that such a grant could
be obtained, and sent his eldest son by his first wife,
Henry S. Latrobe, who, having graduated at St.
Mary's College in Baltimore, had then been for some
time in his office, to New Orleans with the necessary
authority to negotiate for the grant in question. In
1 8 1 1 the Legislature of Louisiana granted to him the
exclusive privilege for twenty years from the first of
May, 1 8 13, the time intervening between this date and
xxvi

INTRODUCTION
the date of the grant being considered as sufficient for
the erection of the necessary buildings and machinery.
Mr. Latrobe having associated with himself several
gentlemen as partners in the advantages promised by
this undertaking, so flattering in the outset, but to which
ultimately the lives of himself and his son were sacri
ficed, commenced the preparation in Washington of
all those parts of the building which could be made
cheaper there than at New Orleans, sending them
round by sea to his son, who was upon the spot engaged
in erecting the works.
The war with Great Britain, which came on in
1 8 12, broke in upon all Mr. Latrobe's plans. The
engines for the waterworks had not yet been built,
nor could they be built at New Orleans; and if built,
as was originally intended, in Washington, they could
not be sent round by sea without the risk of a loss
which no insurance could cover — the loss of time.
Under these circumstances he made up his mind, as the
greater portion of the work on the public buildings,
and, of course, his emoluments thereon, were suspended
by the war, to remove to Pittsburg, and there super
intend the construction of the engines for the New
Orleans works, sending them when completed down
the Mississippi. While making arrangements to carry
this plan into effect he incidentally heard that Robert
Fulton, with whom he had long been intimate, con
templated removing his engine works to Pittsburg and
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
obtaining for his steamboats the same monopoly on
the Western waters that was already enjoyed on the
Hudson. He wrote to Fulton; the result was a com
bination of objects, and Mr. Latrobe, in the. fall of
1 8 13, as the agent of the Ohio Steamboat Company,
moved his family to Pittsburg, and began there the
construction of a steamboat, with a view of construct
ing subsequently the engines for which his son was
waiting in New Orleans.
The first steamboat that had ever descended the
Mississippi had been built in 18 12 by Nicholas T.
Roosevelt, Esq., who, in 18 10, married the eldest
daughter of Mr. Latrobe by his first marriage. The
next boats were the Vesuvius and Mtna, built by a
brother-in-law of Mr. Fulton's; so that the steamboat
commenced by Mr. Latrobe was the fourth that was
launched upon those waters, where they are now so
greatly multiplied.
In this visit to Pittsburg Mr. Latrobe was unfor
tunate. Ignorant of the new creation which was then
just starting into life to give impetus to all the trans
actions of commerce and all the relations of man in
America, Mr. Latrobe in commencing the building of
the steamboat Buffalo was but the agent carrying out
the ideas of others and exercising no judgment of his
own, because he had no experience, and without expe
rience he was necessarily at fault. All his instructions,
and those too of the most humble kind, were given
xxviii

INTRODUCTION
him by Mr. Fulton before he went to Pittsburg. Mr.
Fulton in making up these instructions was governed
by the value of labor and materials in New York, with
the conveniences possessed there for the construction of
vessels and materials. The result was what might
easily have been anticipated. Mr. Latrobe found him
self without support and his drafts protested when the
advanced condition of the steamboat required the great
est exertions to complete it and make it profitable to
those interested. Mr. Fulton, who found that his
estimate had been spent and that it was still unfinished,
made no allowance for error in those calculations and
instructions which had been the only guides in the
management of the business. He was disappointed,
and his disappointment made him unjust. The dis
tance of the parties rendered personal explanations out
of the question; misrepresentation was busy in creating
a wrong understanding, and the result was a breach,
destructive alike to the interest of both of them. For
the first time in his life the spirits and firmness of Mr.
Latrobe sank under the complicated difficulties by
which he was now surrounded. Not only was the
steamboat design wholly defeated, but also all his hopes
of being able to furnish the engines for his New Or
leans works which he had looked forward to beginning
on the completion of the boat. All the money that he
could raise from his own resources was applied to the
payment of the hands, in the daily expectation that
xxix

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
advices from New York would put all things once more
upon their proper footing. The expectation was a
vain one, however, and yielding to the pressure of cir
cumstances, and worn out by constant mental suffering,
Mr. Latrobe was wholly overcome and rendered in
capable of exertion.
In thus speaking of Mr. Fulton and the conse
quences to Mr. Latrobe of his conduct in the matters
here related, it is not intended by the writer of this
article to use one harsh term or to create one unpleas
ant feeling to any of his friends or relatives. Before
his death, which occurred while Mr. Latrobe was still
in Pittsburg, he did ample justice to Mr. Latrobe, and
admitted the error of the opinion under which he acted
at the period in question, and expressed his deep regret
at what had taken place. What is here stated claims
its place in the narrative only as a necessary portion
of the history of the individual.
Mr. Latrobe was in the painful condition above
described when peace was proclaimed. It brought to
him no satisfaction, for misfortune had made him in
different to everything. Mrs. Latrobe, however, had
seen that a law had passed authorizing the rebuilding
of the public buildings, and, known to her husband,
wrote to Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Dallas, and others of her
husband's intimate friends, stating his situation and
asking their influence in obtaining his reappointment
to his former office as Surveyor of the Public Buildings.
XXX

INTRODUCTION
She induced him, too, with much difficulty to write to
Mr. Madison soliciting the place. Her gratification
may well be imagined when the return mail brought to
her the official information that the subject of her letter
already had been under consideration, and there had
never been a moment's hesitation as to his being the
person to be appointed to rebuild the Capitol. She
carried the joyful intelligence to her husband, and all
the pain of months of anxiety and sorrow was compen
sated when she saw him revive from the despondency
into which he had fallen at this prospect of extrication
from the difficulties of his situation.
While at Pittsburg Mr. Latrobe designed several I
private buildings that were erected there or in the
vicinity, as well as others. Among these last were the
residences of Henry Clay at Lexington and Governor
Taylor at Newport.
Upon receiving his appointment Mr. Latrobe im
mediately went to Washington to examine the situa
tion of the public buildings. In the summer of 1815 j
he returned for his family, and soon afterwards found
himself once more at the seat of Government. His
reception here was of the kindest and most gratifying
kind, and letters of congratulation came to him from
all those with whom his profession had at any time
connected him.
For nearly three years Mr. Latrobe now devoted
himself assiduously to the restoration of the public
xxx i

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
buildings at Washington, and made those alterations
in the interior arrangements of the south wing and
north wing which the destruction of the former divi
sions by the fire permitted. The Hall of Representa
tives was altered from an oval into a semicircle, and
the design as it is now executed belongs to Mr. Latrobe.
The columns of Potomac marble are due exclusively
to him, as he was the first who suggested the applica
bility of the material to its present purposes. During
a visit to Virginia he had observed the immense quan
tities that were scattered in all directions, and, having
ascertained that it was susceptible of high polish, he
proposed that it should be used in place of freestone
for the columns of the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives. In the north wing the fragile character of
the original structure before Mr. Latrobe was ap
pointed Surveyor of the Public Buildings had given
more materials for the flames, and the room for change
and improvement was greater than in the south wing
of the Capitol. The Supreme Court room, the Senate
chamber vestibule in the place of the former stair
case, are all of his design, and in the capitals of the
columns of the latter the leaf and flower of the tobacco
plant are used as the ears of corn in the capitals of the
columns of the vestibule below.
While at Washington in 1817 Mr. Latrobe re
ceived the afflicting intelligence of the death of his eldest
son. As we have already had occasion to remark,
xxxii

INTRODUCTION
he had gone to New Orleans to superintend the con
struction of the waterworks there, and finding ample
employment otherwise in his profession as an architect
had made it the place of his permanent abode. He had
distinguished talents in his profession, and several of
the best buildings of New Orleans are from the design
of his pencil. The lighthouse that he designed on
Frank's Island at the mouth of the Mississippi has been
pronounced by a distinguished judge to be unsurpassed
save by the Eddystone light and the celebrated light
of the Caduan. During the attack of the British he
distinguished himself by his cool, determined bearing.
On the return of Mr. Latrobe to Washington the
system under which the work at the public buildings
was conducted was very different from what it had been
during the time of Mr. Jefferson. The direction was
no longer in the hands of the President, but was con
fided to a Board of Commissioners appointed by law.
After a little while this board was done away with,
and an act of Congress passed resting the whole con
trol in a single commissioner. The individual who
was appointed to the office was, unfortunately for Mr.
Latrobe, one who could not appreciate the necessity
that then existed of the architect of a great and com
plicated structure having the sole direction of those
interested with the execution of its various parts; and
who, totally ignorant of everything connected with the
profession, was nevertheless constantly interfering with
3 xxxiii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
the progress of the work. It was not to be wondered
at, therefore, that constant collisions took place between
Mr. Latrobe and the commissioner, until the latter, by
the course which he pursued, made it impossible for
Mr. Latrobe to retain his situation without giving up
what he conceived due to himself and his profession,
and sacrificing for the sake of the office which he held
his independence, both as an architect and a gentleman.
The alternative was one about which he did not for a
moment hesitate, and he resigned his situation as Sur
veyor of the Public Buildings, deeply as his pride and
his reputation were interested in his completing them,
rather than submit to the daily sacrifice of personal
and professional feeling to which he would have been
otherwise subjected.
The Capitol as now finished is essentially, with one
or two exceptions, so far the design of Mr. Latrobe as
it could be when the style of the architecture was set
tled for him beforehand by the erection of the north
wing under the direction and after the plan of Dr.
Thornton. The present central dome, however, is far
larger than Mr. Latrobe ever intended that it should
be. In his design, which is before the writer, this dome
is low and flat, rising from an octagonal base, the
sides of which are marked with deep-sunk panels. The
dome is in every respect an appendage to the building.
To use a plain simile, an inverted coffee cup, instead of
a tea cup, has been placed upon the Capitol, and the
xxxiv

INTRODUCTION
body of the building, with its noble porticos, instead
of making its full and proper impression upon the
spectator, is buried and pressed down by the mass above
it. The domes of the wings are altogether dwarfed
on either side of their formidable neighbor.
What is here said is by no means in disparagement
of the amiable and talented gentleman who succeeded
Mr. Latrobe as Surveyor of the Public Buildings. To
him great credit is due for the manner in which his
part of them has been completed, involving as it has
done great originality of design and skilful contrivance.
The whole of the center building was put up under
his direction, and when the writer of this article speaks
of the claim of Mr. Latrobe to the general features of
the design, so far as this part of the Capitol is con
cerned, it is the exterior rather than the interior that
is alluded to.
During his residence at this time in Washington,
Mr. Latrobe designed St. John's Church, on the Presi
dent's Square. The building as it at present stands has
been disfigured in an attempt to enlarge it by the pro
longation of one of the arms of the cross. The church
as originally finished by Mr. Latrobe was a simple yet
beautiful specimen of his skill. He also designed
Christ's Church in Alexandria.
After resigning his situation at the Capitol, Mr. La
trobe removed in the early part of 1 8 1 8 to Baltimore.
There he was occupied in building the Exchange, on
xxxv

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
Gay Street, and the Cathedral. The latter building had
been commenced in the year 1805 under the auspices
of the late respected Archbishop Carroll. Want of
funds had protracted its erection, nor was it until 1818
that it was covered in. The Exchange was commenced
in 1 8 17 from a design made by Mr. Latrobe while
he yet resided in Washington. The cathedral, in
point of size and solidity of execution, is his greatest
work. The Bank of Pennsylvania was long considered
as the most beautiful; but while it does not yield to
the cathedral in taste or execution, it is inferior in size
and in complication. It required less genius to design
it and less skill to suit all its parts, one with another,
until a whole, perfect in proportion, was the result.
At the present writing the interior of the cathedral is
all that may be considered as finished, and the remarks
here made refer to the interior alone. The exterior
still wants one of its towers to lighten by contrast the
dome, which now appears too massive, and, above all,
it wants its north portico, with a double range of Ionic
columns. When the towers and the portico shall be
added to the cathedral, the exterior, not less than the
interior, may be referred to as among the best instances
of the talent and skill of the architect. The Exchange
is in its exterior a plain building of excellent propor
tions. Its hall, however, is a beautiful specimen of
architecture, not only in the proportion of all its parts,
from the Ionic columns below to the light and airy
xxxvi

INTRODUCTION
dome high overhead, but for the truth and ability with
which the various and complicated parts of the whole
are adjusted and put together.
After his removal to Baltimore, Mr. Latrobe, no
longer in the public employment and bound down to
remain near the public buildings, determined to visit
New Orleans, with a view of completing the water
works there which had been commenced by his son,
and in which so much of the fortune of himself and
his friends was already invested. Leaving his family,
therefore, in Baltimore, he paid a visit to New Orleans
in 1819—20, and commenced putting up the engines,
which had been built in Baltimore since he had left
Washington. After he had remained there a few
months he found that his own constant personal super
vision was unnecessary, and having made arrangements
to remove his family, he returned for them to Balti
more, and in 1820 took up his residence with them in
New Orleans, with the intention of remaining until the
works were finished and their success certain. When
it was understood that he intended removing from
Baltimore, the trustees of the Cathedral and the direc
tors of the Exchange addressed to him letters showing
the estimation in which he was held by those to whom
his talents had been last devoted.
For some time after Mr. Latrobe reached New
Orleans the waterworks progressed most rapidly. His
health was good, and he congratulated himself that at
xxxvii

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
last there was a prospect of his being released from
the constant labors of his previous life and being able
to live in comfort and with competence, if not affluence,
for the remainder of his days. The engine was com
pleted, and in two weeks the entire work would have
been done and water flowing through the streets. But
on the very day that he was engaged in superintending
the laying down of the pipe connecting the engine with
the Mississippi he was taken ill. The fatal disease of
the climate had seized him, and in a few hours he was
laid beside his son. His all had been embarked in the
works he was then engaged in. His own life was now
added, with his son's, to the sacrifice. With him died
all hope of emolument from the scheme. The build
ings and machinery passed into other hands, and his
widow and children, in sorrow, and in vain, returned
to the Atlantic seaboard.
John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe.
Baltimore, i 876.

xxxvni

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE

FOREWORD

We pay so little attention in general to what is
going forward on the scene on which we ourselves are
actors that when now and then a real story, unadorned
by fiction, is presented to us in the succession of its
circumstances, we are very apt to fancy it too full of
incident and contrivance to have passed on the theater
of actual life. I have more than once made this observa
tion in reading my old journals of trivial transactions,
which had very little but truth to recommend them.
In this respect we are like the actors of dramatic scenes,
who are so engaged with their own parts that they
hardly ever study the performance of others. We wait
till our own act comes, and then go on as we have
accustomed ourselves to do.
I have often intended to make the recital of some
of my own adventures an amusement of my leisure, but
whenever I have attempted it the appearance of fiction
has accompanied many of the most positive facts. In
deed, the general rage for novels, which most fre
quently recite very common occurrences but which we
know to be invented, throws a false reflection upon
xli

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
every relation which at all steps out of the common
road. The practice of keeping a regular journal was rec
ommended to me very early in life by my father —
merely for the sake of writing down my ideas with ease
and correctness, for he recommended at the same time
that I should at the close of every year extract all the
generally useful facts and burn the remainder. I have
followed his advice at intervals ever since I was a boy,
both in writing and burning my journals. Since my
arrival in America I have in a great measure altered
my plan of a diary into a collection of observations and
a record of facts in which my personal interest and
actions were not immediately concerned. The great
chasms which appear in the collections are chiefly owing
to the personal activity which so filled up my time as
to render it out of my plan to report what was going
forward.
B. H. L.

xlii

The Journal of Latrobe

CHAPTER I

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE: WITH COMMENTS UPON
HOSPITALITY AND SOME STRANGE ACQUAINTANCES
Col. Skipwith's, Cumberland County,
June 10, 1796.
TO get my person to this place has been the
work of much labor and some contrivance.
I ought to have been twenty miles more to
the westward upon the 7th, but that could not be
done. The capital of Virginia does not afford a horse
for hire. This is not much to be wondered at, nor
will the matter be better till post-feeding goes out of
fashion. The Virginians ride hard, and are, into the
bargain, accused of tying their horses to a post or tree,
when they ought to be tied to a manger. My appoint
ment for the 7th was to meet the superintendent of
the Appomattox Navigation at Mr. Venable's, in order
to proceed from the head of the river to Petersburg.
The weather has been very rainy for this fortnight
1

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
past, and all my endeavor to hire or beg the use of a
horse has been abortive. Mr. Arthur, however, fur
nished me at last with a horse, which, having carried
me to Tuckahoe, I exchanged for another and pro
ceeded across the river to Amelia County. Tuckahoe
is sixteen miles from Richmond on the north side of
the James River. The river here is about a hundred
and fifty yards wide, and runs in a straight line about
two miles. Its scenery of wood and gentle hills is soft
and pleasing. The river is deep at the ferry.
The rains had swelled it, and there was about ten
feet of water nearly across. My object was to get
to Hopkins's Tavern. An old, talkative negro, who
was plowing in a cornfield, directed me. I made him
repeat the lesson till I knew it by heart. He happened
not to know his right hand from his left, but with some
trouble I contrived to understand him. This business
of inquiring after roads and getting clear directions is
a matter that ought to be well understood by a solitary
traveler in American woods. Men that daily travel
the same route think their road so clear that it cannot
possibly be mistaken, and perhaps pass over in their
directions its most critical points. My way is always
to hear and, if possible, to imprint on my memory the
direction offered me, and then to make minute inquiry
after all the by-roads and turnings which I am to avoid.
By this mode of inquiry I in general astonish my direc
tors by discoveries of difficulties they never thought of
2

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
before. This was the case with my old negro. After
telling me at first that the road was so plain I could
not miss it, he then recollected so many devious paths
in the first mile that he turned me over for further
guidance to the overseer, whom, he said, I should meet
half a mile off. I met, however, no overseer, but con
tinued my ride through the woods, following the old
man's direction and steering southwest. Having, by
my feelings, ridden about ten miles without catching a
view of any known object, I began to be uneasy, and
soon after met a man who, though himself a stranger,
could tell me that Hopkins's Tavern lay about ten
miles behind me. He put me into a small path lead
ing into the thickest of the woods which would lead
me to a plantation where I could get directions.
After following it three miles, frequently stopping
to choose among three or four by-ways, which ap
peared to be equally likely to be right, I overtook
another white man, who made me turn aback about
half a mile again, as I unfortunately had pitched upon
a wrong one. This path I followed for an hour with
out seeing an opening in the wood or meeting with
anything that looked like an indication of human habi
tation. At last I arrived at a fence and saw a small
house at a distance. I pulled part of the fence down,
got over, and rebuilt it. I soon arrived at the house.
A man, apparently dying of consumption, sat at the
door with his head in the lap of a very beautiful young
3

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
woman, who was crying over him. Her cheeks seemed
flushed with a hectic red. There were three or four
small white children crawling about, attended by about
as many black ones. Within, everything looked neat
and comfortable. I waited for some minutes, and felt
a degree of melancholy that I cannot describe, pictur
ing to myself a long story of distress which I fancied
must belong to this unhappy family, of which the poor
children might soon inherit the continuance. Here,
however, there is hospitality and neighborly feeling to
assist and alleviate; in Great Britain the crowded in
habitants are forced to trample upon each other's suf
ferings. The man, who had fainted, soon recovered,
and I found that the fever and ague, the canker of
the plenty and health of this country, had harassed
him for a year or two, and that he despaired of recov
ery. He begged me to alight and refresh myself, but
the scene was too distressing. I got from him and his
wife a clear direction, and in about an hour more
escaped from the woods and arrived at Hopkins's. I
was extremely fatigued, got my horse fed and a dish
of tea for myself. While I was drinking it the tavern
keeper sat in the room nursing a child and singing and
rattling a table in the most violent manner, and ex
ceedingly unpleasant to a fatigued traveler. There is
nothing, thought I, like liberty and equality. I found
it impossible to disturb him by the questions I asked
with that design. I therefore ordered my horse, paid
4

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
my bill, and rode eight miles farther. It was dark
when I arrived. It had rained often in the day, and
when I alighted I could scarce walk to the house with
fatigue, having ridden about fifty miles in the course
of about nine hours. Extreme fatigue prevented my
sleeping much. I got up late, and resolved to go and
dress myself for the day at Captain Murray's, about
four miles off.
I spent all Wednesday at Captain Murray's, and
on Thursday went to Major Eggleston's. He was
out, and I followed him to Mrs. Eggleston's, his
mother-in-law's, about two miles farther. He had also
left that place, but I met there his wife, and spent a
very pleasant day with three agreeable ladies. In the
evening he arrived, and I returned to his house, joined
by Major Scott, a veteran officer in the American army
and a man of uncommon natural ability and strength
of intellect. About nine o'clock this morning I pur
sued my journey up the river, hoping in the evening
to arrive at Mr. Venable's, where I proposed staying
till the freshet should have subsided and the superin
tendents commenced their operations.
Major Eggleston favored me with a letter to
Colonel Skipwith, who has a mill about twenty miles
higher up upon the Appomattox. The road lay
through Stingytown and by Chinquopin church. The
circumstance that gave the name of Stingytown to the
small collection of houses around Mr. James Town's
5

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
tavern is forgotten. The name, however, is now, I
dare to say, indelibly fixed, and the attempt of the
proprietor to call it by his own name, Jamestown,
will scarcely succeed. Nicknames are durable things.
Chinquopin church has a small collection of houses
about it, the principal of which is a tavern kept in an
indifferent style by Major Chaffin, who with Major
Eggleston is a representative of the county in the State
Legislature. I suppose the quantity of Chinquopin
bushes about the church gave it the name it bears, but
they are everywhere so thickly spread that I am at a
loss to know why the preference should be given to
this spot. The church, like all the rest, is an indif
ferent wooden building, scarcely ever used.
I was in hopes of getting by twelve o'clock to
Colonel Skipwith's. At Chinquopin church I struck
into the woods and pursued the direct road without
suffering fork to the right or left to puzzle me, accord
ing to the advice of an old man whom I met near
Chinquopin. The road indeed was straight enough.
I rode without fear till I fancied I must have exceeded
the seven miles of distance I had to travel. I then
turned into a plantation, the third opening only which
I had met with in these eternal woods. A negro man
came to the gate, who in a long speech bewailed my
having missed the proper turning to the right in this
infallibly straight road. It was about four miles be
hind me. The day was excessively sultry, and my
6

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
horse appeared as tired as his rider. Nothing, how
ever, could be done but to go back, and I got nearly
the following directions :
" I am right sorry, master, you are so far out in
this hot day. It is very bad indeed, master. You
must, if you please, turn right around to your right
hand, which was your left, you see, when you were
coming here, master. I say you turn right around to
your right hand, which was your left hand, and then
you go on and go on about two miles or two miles
and a half, master. It's very bad indeed to have to
ride so far back again on so hot a day, and your horse
tired and all ; but when you have got back again about
two miles or two miles and a half you will see a plan
tation, and that plantation is Dicky Hoe's. That's on
your right hand now as you're going back, but it was
on your left hand when you were coming here, you
see, master. The plantation is Dicky Hoe's on your
right hand, right handy to the road, and there is a
house with two brick chimneys on it; but it is not one
house, it only looks like one house with two brick
chimneys, but it is two houses and is only built like
one house, but it is really two houses; you will see it
right handy to the road a little way off, with two brick
chimneys, on your right hand, which was your left
hand when you were coming here. And so you ride
by Dicky Hoe's plantation with the house with the two
brick chimneys, which is two houses, you know, and
4 n

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
then you ride on and come to another plantation about
a mile farther, which plantation is on your left hand,
which was your right hand when you came here, right
handy to the road."
" Well," said I, " I know it; and then I get again
to the wood, and how then when I am in the wood
past the plantation and house? "
" Why, then, master," said the negro, " when you
have passed the plantation on your left hand, which
was your right hand when you came here, right handy
to the road, you go along till you come into the woods,
and ride about one hundred yards — no, master, you
don't ride about one hundred yards, only fifty yards.
But I think, master, you had better ride about a hun
dred and fifty yards, and then it will be all plain to
you, for you see a fork on your right hand, which was
your left hand when you came here. Turn down
there." " Now I know all about it," cried I, fatigued.
" Good morning, my good fellow, and thank you many
times." I rode off in full trot, and when he was out
of sight he was still calling out to me about my right
hand which was my left. As soon, however, as I got
out of the woods I saw the house with the two brick
chimneys on my left instead of my right, and presently
the next house was on my right instead of my left. I
therefore tied up my horse, got over the fence, and at
the house got a direction in good German to the mill,

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
from which I was then only two miles distant. The
river was very full, and I heard the roar of tumbling
water half a mile off. The mill and house belonging
to it are on the opposite steep bank. Colonel Skip-
with had just erected a small mill on the south end of
his dam, to which I rode and tied my horse to a tree.
There was not a human being, however, to be seen in
or near it. I heard voices in the wood and went in
search, of the women or children from whom they
seemed to proceed, but I could not reach them. I then
walked down the" river, halloed to the other side, but
nobody answered. The roaring of the cascade, I pre
sume, drowned my voice, and nobody was in the mill,
which was stopped. I therefore undressed and at
tempted to swim to a canoe which I saw on the other
side. The river was very deep at the spot at which I
entered it, but I had not swum many yards when my
feet, which I dropped to feel for the bottom, were
entangled in some bushes, and I was glad to get back
to the shore again. I then sat down quietly under a
tree, dressed, and waited near an hour. At last I saw
a negro on the other side. He heard me, and pres
ently a young white man put the canoe across, brought
me over, and then forded my horse at the ford below
the mill. During this time a dreadful thunderstorm
was slowly rising, and before I could get to the colonel's
house, about a mile above the mill, it began to rain.
He was gone to another plantation an hour before my
9

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
arrival. His family, however, consisting of his lady,
two daughters, and Miss Johnson, received me with
the politeness and hospitality I .have everywhere met
with in Virginia, and the terribly stormy, wet weather
which has set in and continued renders it extremely
necessary as well as pleasant to me.
Colonel Skipwith's, June n, 1796.
This place has a name very appropriate — Horsdu-
monde. No possibility of outside communication by
letter or visit but by riding half a dozen miles into the
world. In other respects there is a great deal of
worldly beauty and convenience about it. The house
is a strange building, but whoever contrived it, and
from whatever planet he came, he was not a lunatic,
for there is much comfort and room in it, though put
together very oddly. Before the south front is a range
of hills, wooded very much in the style of an English
park. To the east runs the Appomattox, to which a
lawn extends. Beyond the hills to the southwest the
river winds, and to the vapors tending eastward thence
the unhealthiness of the place is ascribed. It is a re
mark which I have heard from many sensible and
examining men that water, even stagnant water, situ
ated to the eastward of a place — that is, between the
place and rising sun — never affects its health, but that
no elevation protects from the noxious evaporation
arising from a western river or pond. The opinion is
10

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
universally received here, and I dare say is well founded
on fact. The warmth of the rising sun may expand
and occasion the rise of vapors which have been hov
ering near the ground or surface of the water during
the night. But why they should take an eastern course
I cannot guess, as the wind in warm latitudes in gen
eral blows from the sun, and I should suppose on
a still morning the tendency of the pressure of the
air would be to the westward. Reasoning, however,
against experience is vain work.
Of the unhealthiness of this place, Horsdumonde,
Mrs. Skipwith is a melancholy instance, having for
. five years past labored under a fever and ague which
nothing, I think, can cure but a change of air. All
her family have had the same complaint, though at
present well. They seem to think it a thing of course,
and one of them, upon my observing that her looks
did not betray an unhealthiness in the situation, an
swered that it was no wonder, for she had not had an
ague for these thirteen months past. A miserable ex
istence this. Bizarre, June 12, 1796.
Another French name, but not quite applicable to
Mr. Richard Randolph's house at present, for there
is nothing bizarre about it that I can see. It was,
however, I am told, justly enough applied to the first
house built on the estate. My misfortunes have fol-
11

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE

lowed me to this house. It rained violently at Hors-
dumonde all the night before I left and yesterday
morning. At eleven I mounted my horse, hoping to
get to Mr. Venable's last night. I rode gently
through the woods, following a tolerably good road,
crossing first Guinea
Creek and then Green
Creek, both of which
were so swollen by the
rain as to be scarcely
fordable. At the dis
tance of ten miles I got
to Colonel Beverly Ran
dolph's, who gave me a
very distinct direction
through the woods hith
er. The weather was
excessively sultry, and a
constant peal of thunder
from a very black cloud
to the southwest has
tened my pace. About half-past two o'clock I ar
rived at the last gate before Mr. Randolph's house,
which I found I could not jump without alighting.
I then perceived that I had lost my bundle and great
coat from behind my saddle, containing all my draw
ing materials, besides clothes of some value. Eheu
misere! My philosophy was nearly worn out before,
12

SKETCH OF EDMUND RANDOLPH
Former Secretary of State.
Made in the Court of Appeals, Richmond,
Va., April 11, 1796.

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
but it quite forsook me now, and I stood at the gate,
absent and uncertain what to do, for a quarter of an
hour, to the great astonishment of those who observed
me from the house, till a heavy shower reminded me
of my horse and the neighboring shelter, and I rode
on to the house. I soon forgot my personal loss at
finding Mr. Randolph very dangerously ill of an in
flammatory fever. He induced me, however, to stay,
and immediately sent a trusty servant to seek my
bundle, who in a couple of hours returned with it, safe
but wet. But this was not all. The superintendents
of the river, of whom I was in quest, had passed
Bizarre that very morning, and rendered all my jour
ney useless. It was no comfort to me that the voyage
must be equally so, for the freshet that has been for
a week in the river must have rendered an examination
of it impossible. From the moment of my arrival to
eight this morning it has thundered, lightened, and
rained incessantly. The river, however, remains just
within its banks. Mr. Randolph is much worse. His
family, however, have shown me every attention and
kindness in their power. Petersburg, June 17, 1796.
Mr. Randolph was visited about noon by a medical
practitioner in the neighborhood, Dr. Smith. He ap
peared a man of good sense. His opinion was against
the probability of Mr. Randolph's recovery, though
13

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
masked by a long string of hopes and technical phrases.
The weather cleared up about noon. I dined with the
melancholy family of my host, and immediately after
set off for Colonel Skipwith's. My horse was perfectly
master of the intricate road and saved me the trouble
of much consideration by the quickness with which he
turned from broad, beaten roads into the narrow paths
through which I had to go. Otherwise, I have no
doubt that I should have, as usual, missed my way.
The two creeks were so swollen by the rain that I had
to swim through the middle of the channels. About
eight o'clock I got back to Horsdumonde, where I
found Mr. Venable and Epperson waiting for the
freshet to subside.
Colonel Skipwith is related to the Skipwiths of
Warwickshire in England. His brother, Sir Paton
Skipwith, is one of the very few who keep up their
title in this country. The title of baronet is a phantom
even in England, having no real privilege annexed to
it; here it is the lank ghost of a phantom, the shadow
of a shade. Among the follies of mankind the adora
tion of this title is one of the most unaccountable.
Fifty years hence it will scarcely be credited in this
country that the baronets of Great Britain should have
met, appointed a committee, issued advertisements,
held frequent and grave deliberations, and publicly
exhibited a pettish kind of anxiety upon the subject of
petitioning the king for leave to wear a badge of dis-

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
tinction to distinguish themselves from mere knights
dubbed Sir — " right worshipful on shoulder blade."
It is impossible to think of it without astonishment and
vexation, and, indeed, a sensation of total despair that
the reign of common sense will ever be established in
any country. Captains, majors, colonels, and generals
elbow a man out of all hopes even of this country.
Colonel Skipwith is a man of strong mental powers.
His house is a most pleasant one, though the illness of
Mrs. Skipwith operates as a drawback. We were most
hospitably entertained; the sense and wit of Messrs.
Skipwith and Venable provided the mental feast. In
the evening Messrs. Venable, Epperson, and myself
rode, accompanied by Colonel Skipwith, part of the
way to Captain Patterson's, about five miles down the
river. Without the polish and refinement, we met here
the same hospitality as at Horsdumonde. The house
was small and inconvenient, and Mr. Venable and
Epperson, Mr. Anderson and I, and Mr. Wily, treas
urer to the company of Appomattox, slept in a small
room upon excellent beds. Mr. Anderson is a country
gentleman from the neighborhood of Mr. Venable's,
who undertook to be captain of our aquatic expedition,
being a perfect adept in the management of a boat
among rocks, falls, and rapids. Captain Patterson
furnished us with a roomy boat he has, and we had
got a tilt to protect us from the rain or sun, and plenty
of good ham, bacon, Indian bread, and spirits. We
15

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
rose before sunrise, but it was six o'clock before we
got into the boat ready to start, as the Virginians say.
The river is too narrow above Clemen's mill to display
in all its beauty the scenery of its banks. Each side
is bordered with trees of a great variety of species and
sizes, and now and then a bold rock bursts into the
river. There is not much large timber near the banks
of the river. This is a defect which deprives the
innumerable pleasant groups of that boldness which
characterizes them lower down. About six we arrived
at Clemen's mill. With the assistance of the people
of the mill we got our boat unloaded and carried past
the milldam into the water below. The south shore,
upon which the mill stands, is a hard rock of the same
species of micous granite which I have observed to
extend through Amelia County. Much of the interest
of a trip of this kind arises from the little difficulties
attending it, and we were in a humor to laugh at every
seeming inconvenience. Having launched our boat
again, we went to breakfast as she quietly carried us
down the stream. Mr. Venable and myself are water
drinkers, the rest drink grog, and we all lived upon
ham and bacon, of which we had a great store. The
same cask also contains cherries, a few biscuits, and
pones of Indian and wheat bread. The social manner
in which all these viands inhabit the same dwelling
produces a sympathy of taste among them, so that with
your eyes shut it would be difficult to decide whether
16

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
you had a piece of bacon, a cherry, or biscuit, or a
slice of bread in your mouth. Whenever we came to
the rattle of a spring from the bank we recruited our
water cask, and thus kept up a constant supply of cool
beverage. Had we been furnished with firearms we might
have had plenty of wild ducks, Indian hens, and king
fishers. The river abounded chiefly with these birds,
and innumerable other species rose incessantly among
the trees. Having rowed along till we supposed it
about twelve o'clock — for we had not a watch on board
— we discovered through an opening a house upon a
near hill. Anxious to know whereabouts we were, we
landed and marched up in a body to the house. We
found nobody at home. Before we discovered the
house we had made the banks ring again with singing
and hallooing in order to attract some one to the bank
and partly to get rid of our superabundant spirits.
Mrs. Brackett, supposing us drunk, had escaped into
the kitchen, and Mr. Brackett was gone in search of
the racket. We sent a message to Mrs. Brackett, who
then made her appearance, and soon afterwards Mr.
Brackett returned, and we were hospitably furnished
with as much grog and buttermilk as we could drink.
Mr. Brackett accompanied us down the river as far as
Like's ford, a shallow part of the river which will re
quire some improvement. The river winds amazingly
about Mr. Brackett's, but from thence to Jeneto its
17

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
direction is tolerably straight. We got to Jeneto before
three o'clock. Mr. Venable and myself walked up to
the inn, one-quarter of a mile distant. Captain Wil
liamson returned with us, and furnished us with a
number of negroes, who soon launched our boat below
the dam of his mill. We have overtaken the freshet,
and the water was very deep and covered all the shal
lows and falls, of which there are a few below this
place. Having dined and added some of Captain
Williamson's excellent beer to our salmagundi, we pro
ceeded down the smooth stream and arrived about
seven o'clock at the mouth of Flat Creek, a very con
siderable stream, which with little trouble might be
made navigable forty miles up the country. The river
below Jeneto winds about so much as to run for a con
siderable extent in a northwesterly direction. We
found the stream in Flat Creek so rapid and so full
of logs that, having attempted to get up to the mill,
we were obliged to return and land on the shore of
the Appomattox. Thence we walked up the hill to
Mr. Walk's house, where we were determined to stay
all night, no introduction or previous notice being neces
sary in this hospitable country. Mr. Walk, a sensible,
good-humored man, made his house so comfortable
and pleasant to us that we were happy to accept his
polite offer to send for Major Eggleston as a pretense
for staying the greater part of another day with him.
We had expected to find Major Eggleston somewhere
18

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
higher up, but a letter of appointment having missed
him, we had neither seen nor heard of him.
While we were waiting, Mr. Anderson, with what
I considered a most desperate intrepidity, stripped
himself, and, furnished only with a pipe of tobacco,
knocked off the head of two beehives and robbed them
of their contents without being once stung by the thou
sand bees that were buzzing about him. In this cli
mate very little is necessary to the rearing of large
quantities of bees, and I am astonished to find them so
little attended to. I conceive that the fourth book of
Virgil's " Georgics " would contain every possible direc
tion to that end, as it was written in about the same
climate. We are here in latitude 38 degrees: Mantua,
I believe, is in latitude 43 degrees or 44 degrees. The
honey was excellent. All the use Mr. Anderson made
of his pipe was to drive the bees from the upper to the
lower parts of the hive, lest they should get drowned
in honey. In coming down the river we saw many
swarms and hives of wild bees. They are not indige
nous. Jefferson tells us that they precede the European
settlements in propagating themselves to the westward,
and are called by the Indians the white man's fly.
Neither the messenger nor Major Eggleston hav
ing returned at two o'clock, we dined, and immediately
afterwards got our things on board and proceeded down
the river, which had fallen considerably. The weather
had been cloudy since yesterday noon, and it began to
19

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
thunder soon after our departure. About six o'clock
our tempers were completely tried by a most violent
thunderstorm and rain which drove us under the lofty
trees of the bank. Their protection was but of short
duration, for the rain, which exceeded any that I have
yet seen, soon poured in streams from the leaves, and
we were all wet to the skin. About seven o'clock we
arrived at Watkins's mill, and having stored our goods,
we proceeded to the house, about a mile distant upon
the hill on the left bank. Upon approaching the yard
we were attacked by half a dozen dogs. We got,
however, safe to the house. Old Mrs. Watkins sat at
the door, apologized for having set the dogs upon us,
not knowing who we were, and informed us that her
son Dick was in bed. Mr. Walk, who is his brother-
in-law, undertook to wake him, and in about ten min
utes appeared our minute host, a proper study for
Lavater. His manner expressed just as much haughti
ness and conceit as it excited contempt. A total want
of good breeding might have been forgiven, good
sense cannot be acquired; but civil hospitality is the
spontaneous impulse of the savage. Mr. Venable, with
that good sense and mildness of temper which is natural
to him, and Mr. Epperson, the best-humored man in
the world, stood the brunt of his insolence. Silence
protected me in a great measure, though not entirely,
and Mr. Walk was too much chagrined to say any
thing. We were wet and hungry, but neither accom-
20

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
modation nor food was offered. Before nine o'clock
Mr. Watkins took up a candle and said:
" Gentlemen, I will show you your beds." He led
us into a small room containing beds for four of us,
and, putting the candle down, walked away without
saying a word. We had asked him to permit some of
his negroes to help us in getting our boat around his
mill. His answer was :
" If it rains, they may assist you if they like. If
fair, I wish them to be in the wheat-field."
At six o'clock we escaped from the house and got
to our boat, which we contrived to get around by our
selves, though with difficulty. Before we were gone
he came down and continued his insulting language.
It was met with temper and contempt. The instance
of rude inhospitality is so extraordinary that I take
Dick Watkins to be a mere lapsus natures. Hogarth
somewhere records a singular caricature of a very
slender Italian singer, of which everybody discovered
the original at first sight. It was nothing but a straight
line with a dot over it. Had I the talent of Hogarth
I think I could represent both the body and mind of
this animal under the same form.
We ate our pork-cherry-pone dinner at a fine spring
near Moore's mill and then proceeded to the falls,
which commence about four miles lower down. The
river there is divided by numerous rocky islands cov
ered with beautiful trees. We passed several small
21

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
falls without much alarm. Mr. Anderson is com
pletely master of his pole, and exerted himself with
great skill. Trailer's Falls, however, are a most seri
ous obstruction. The river tumbles down a ledge of
rocks among some islands which scarce offer any toler
able opening. We were directed entirely by chance in
our choice of a passage. We kept the right bank, and
by very great exertion arrived in smooth water, which
continued about a quarter of a mile to the second and
most dangerous part of Trailer's Falls. We were not
so fortunate here, for, Mr. Anderson's pole breaking,
we hung upon a rock in the worst part of the cataract,
and were all preparing to go overboard when we got
again into a sluice, and soon after were dashed into a
tolerably smooth surface. Half a mile lower down the
gang of negroes belonging to the company were at
work. We landed on the north side, about a mile
distant. Petersburg, April 21, 1796.
Everybody here is so engaged in talking of Lamp
lighter, the Shark mare, the Carolina horse, etc., that
I am as much at a loss for conversation as if I were
among the Hottentots. There indeed I should be
much better off, for I could talk, to the women without
knowing their language. But the case is desperate in
a house occupied by seventy men in leather breeches.
I rode yesterday to see the race, accompanied by Mr.
22

<
fa >

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
Thomas Shore. I meant to have taken my quarters
with him, but he is at present building, and occupies
his offices only, which in Virginia seem to follow the
dwelling house as a litter of pigs their mother. The
accommodations at Mrs. Armstead's are quite as good
as you ought to expect at such a time as this. I slept
in a garret with seven other gentlemen. Their dif
ferent merits of snoring I could descant upon at great
length, having been a wakeful listener a greater part
of the night, and could I have got a previous bet I
should have laid any odds upon my old shipmate, Mar
tin, but he was distanced hollow by Mr. Ruffin, who
snored, indeed, like a ruffian. I am, however, afraid
that the subject might prove more soporific in writing
than it did to me in fact.
The concourse upon the race ground was very great
indeed — perhaps fifteen hundred persons. It cannot
be of much interest to know that Lamplighter, the
favorite of the field, upon whom all the odds were laid,
was beaten two successive heats, and came in only third.
A light, delicate horse from North Carolina won with
ease. I have now got into Mr. Shore's house for the
day, and feel a little more at home than in the buzz
of betting on the course. Petersburg, April 23, 1796.
I have neither books, pencils, brushes, nor colors,
nor any other drawing materials at this place, and my
5 23

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
refuge from ennui, drinking, and gambling is reduced,
therefore, to a sheet of bad paper and my pen. Hav
ing once lived in a Polish ale-house for four days dur
ing a fair which had collected all the Jews and Gentiles
from fifty miles around under one miserable roof, I
cannot say that my residence at Mr. Armstead's tavern
affords any scenes that are entirely new to me. The
multitude of colonels and majors with which I am sur
rounded bring back the nobles of the Polish republic
to my recollection, whose power and respectability
were much upon the same level. The only difference
is that instead of Counts Borolabraski and Leschinski
and Latroblastmygutski and Skratchmypolobrambolo-
boski, we have here Colonel Tom and Colonel Dick
and Major Billy and Colonel Ben and Captain Tit
mouse and General Rattlesnake and Brigadier-General
Opossum. The rabble in leather breeches which fills
up the vacuities of swearing and noise is scarcely dis
tinguishable in the two places — only indeed by this
difference, that we are here at a loss for even a Jewish
rabbi to help out the appearance of religion, and a
box of lemon and sealing wax to represent commerce.
I was invited, with several other gentlemen, to dine
with Dr. Shore. About an hour before dinner I was
at his door. I found there many other gentlemen, all
honorable men, no doubt, very busy indeed. They
were doing no harm, only playing at loo. A very
sumptuous dinner soon made me acquainted with Mrs.
24

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
Shore, a very pleasant lady, who with great ease and
goodness of temper presided over a company of twenty-
eight men. After dinner, and one bumper to the
President's health, the whole party adjourned to the
drawing-room. Loo, the most trifling of the ingenious
contrivances invented to keep folk from the vile habit
of biting their nails, made a very large party happy,
whist affording a more sulky delight to a few more.
The rattling of dollars is a very pleasant sound when
it is at last smothered by the folds of your own pocket.
To me, whose pockets and mind remained equally
void, it was a great relief to go and chatter to Mrs.
Shore and a few ladies who called upon her in the
afternoon. Just before a magnificent supper was com
pletely arranged I walked off with Jack Willis, re
solved to go to bed. I had got a bed in a neighboring
house, where only six gentlemen slept in the same room.
But alas ! after knocking and bawling for half an hour
at the door of the room, in which a light was visible
through the cracks, a tremendous yawn, which preceded
the slow drawing of the bolt, ushered me in — to dis
appointment. A huge mulatto, more than half naked,
had been left to guard the room. Overcome with sleep
and toddy he had stretched himself upon my bed, in
dulging the former and evacuating the latter. It was
not to be endured, and I returned to the inn.
Here in the interval had Falstaff with Harris,
Haydon and Sam Overton, his Nym, Pistol, and Bar-
25

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
dolph, established the throne of Pharo and assembled
his hosts around him. However, I went upstairs and
got into bed in the shedded barrack. Another sober
man or two also lay down, but the explosions of joy
from below banished sleep till past twelve. I am
ashamed of my apathy, for I really outslept the remain
ing raptures of the night, nor should, I believe, even
have opened my eyes at six o'clock had not a heavy
mass which then fell upon my bed, with the eructation
" By your leave," recalled my senses. The motion by
which I freed my legs from the weight which oppressed
them might have been injurious to my eyes had they
not been closed, for the colonel (it was a colonel, you
must know) called out, " Damn your eyes, lay still."
After extorting an apology and a promise of good
behavior, I left him in quiet possession of the ground
and got up. Upon going downstairs I found myself
surrounded by half a dozen colonels and as many
majors in different states of intoxication and noise.
The subalterns were still rattling the dollars below.
By eight o'clock most of them had staggered out of
the house or into their beds. Petersburg, April 24, 1796.
Close to the river Appomattox is a little house
inhabited by a man whose brother I knew in England.
He has a large concern of distillery, bakehouse, and
mills here, and under the idea that I might be useful
26

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
to him, Major Murray (a major de facto) introduced
me to him. His house stands upon a very high bank,
under which the river steals along and winds away into
beautiful woods to the right, and to the left washes the
town of Petersburg. Mr. Bate is also proprietor of
the race ground and the buildings belonging to it. He

TRAVEL ON HORSEBACK IN VIRGINIA.
is also one of the stewards of the course. I rode with
him to the field. It was the same thing over again.
Upon the whole, I think running matches a useful as
well as a very amusing entertainment. It encourages
a taste for and an inclination to breed handsome
horses. The mischief they do is, I believe, not pecul
iar to horse racing, but attendant upon all concourses
of men for the purpose of amusement. Betting at a
27

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
horse race, I believe, is an English passion. Upon the
continent of Europe high play is carried to its utmost
extent, but I do not think, from my recollection of
manners, that horse racing would be considered on the
Continent as a subject into which gambling could deeply
enter. There is a work written in his own fascinating
style by Mercier, author of the " Tableaux de Paris,"
entitled " La Quinzaine Anglaise a Paris," which, I
believe, has been translated into English. It contains,
if I recollect right, a very excellent chapter on horse
racing, and the idea of betting upon running horses is
therein assumed to be entirely English. Gibbon has
entered deeply into the business of the blue and green
factions at the chariot races of Rome and Constanti
nople. I entirely have forgotten the merits of the
betting question, but they cut throats upon these occa
sions, an addition to, if not an improvement upon,
the degree of interest we take in the running of our
horses. The Greeks, I think, were entirely ignorant
of the pleasures of betting. I have been delving into
the metaphysics of this strange passion, and have at
last found out that a bet is a mental dram. It exhila
rates and stimulates the mind till it has worked off.
Its effect is then gone, and is, on the losing side, fol
lowed by sickness and qualms ; on the winning, by lassi
tude and debility and a longing for another dram.
Intoxication is in both the consequence. The amuse
ments of the theater would be useful to interrupt the
28

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
gambling and drunkenness of the evening. But there
are no players here at present.
About nine o'clock in the evening I got back to the
barrack, which I found in a dreadful state of warfare.
Lieutenant Williams had said that General Bradley
was as great a fool as himself. It is true that a greater
affront could not be offered to any man, but the fury
with which the affront was taken up was astonishing
even to me whose motto here had become Nil admirari.
Six men, each six feet high, swore, bawled, cursed,
damned, blasted, drank punch for nine hours uninter
ruptedly without settling the important affair. The
most valiant of these champions was a colonel and
representative of this county — ci devant sergeant of
regulars and Methodist preacher. The rest were to a
man colonels and majors whose stentorian rhetoric
stunned me while I remained below, that is, from nine
till one o'clock. I then retired to the eight-bedded
barrack, but to sleep before three o'clock was impos
sible. At eight I rose and found Lieutenant Williams
still upon his legs, who upon my appearance wreaked
his half-spent vengeance upon my spectacles, challeng
ing me to fight for a hat. In the fray the faro table
was overset, the dollars scrambled for, and all the
host put to flight.

29

CHAPTER II
VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE — continued
ARRIVED about eight o'clock at Alexandria.
About half-past eight the Philadelphia com
pany of players who are now acting in a
barn in the neighborhood came in in a body. They
had been at a " drinking party " in the neighborhood.
Once, in Virginia, these drinking parties had a much
more modest name — they were called " barbecues."
Now they say at once a " drinking party." And as
insincerity gets the better of hypocrisy, or, to use the
more clerical and decent phrase, as vice expels shame,
we shall have the nature of the meeting explained at
once by hearing it called a " drunken party."
This honorable company was shown at first into
a small room opposite the supper room, where those
who could not stand sat down. The others filled the
passage and hiccoughed into the faces of those who
had business at the bar. In this small room two or
three songs were well sung, and, mellowed by the dis
tance, the sound arrived pleasantly enough in the sup
per room where I was writing. 30

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
About nine my last night's sleeplessness induced me
to go to bed. I was shown into the hall room, where
eight beds were arranged for that class of citizens so
little respected at taverns, stage passengers. I lay
down, and as I was the only one in the room I should
soon have fallen asleep had not messieurs the players
become dissatisfied with their accommodations in the
small room and insisted upon a larger. That immedi
ately under me was assigned them, and the movement
commenced. For more than half an hour the racket
continued. It was more like the breaking up of a
camp than a change of room in the same house. To
arrange chairs and tables, and perhaps to get a deviled
bone or other light supper for these mock kings and
princes, was not a work that could be done without a
corresponding eclat. The shifting of the scene pro
duced, therefore, as much noise of men and things as
did ample justice to its importance. Noise seems to
be universally considered as the evidence of mirth and
hilarity (quite different things from happiness), from
the burst of cannon on the coronation of Bonaparte to
the horse-laugh of a fool or the drum of a child.
As now the furniture became silent, the clamor
made up the deficiency for an hour. Screeching, halloo^
ing, roaring, laughing, and simultaneous conversation
continued, till at last the cry of, " Order, gentlemen !
Silence for a song! " And the knocking that accom
panied these festal rounds drowned every other.
31

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
" Time has not thinned my flowing hair," was
struck up by Robbins, at least a sixth too high.
" That won't do," cried Francis. " Time has not
thinned my flowing hair." (This time a third too low.)
" Both wrong," exclaimed Wood. " Listen, this
is the key : ' Time has not thinned my flowing hair.' "
Now on they went, too low for Robbins's falsetto
and too high for his natural voice, and. just hovering
over the crack that separates Francis's bass from his
treble. Would to mercy on my ears, thought I, that water
had thinned your flowing grog. However, they got
through it fairly well, for they sang this hackneyed,
but always incomparable, duet both in time and in tune.
Roars of approbation and talking all together in a body.
" Toby Philpot," " Boony Bet," and all the old rou
tine of English drinking songs succeeded, with inter
ludes of noise, till at last " My friend so rare, my girl
so fair, my friend, my girl, and pitcher," seemed to
have exhausted their lungs and their tempo into a gen
eral crash, slamming and knocking of chairs and tables
around the room. And then silence as they filed out,
but it was not of long duration. It broke out again
immediately. But the clock had struck one, the party
was breaking up, and I rejoiced in the prospect of
three hours' sleep before I should be called to proceed
by the stage. My joy was premature. Several of the
worthies choose to sleep at the tavern, and they were
3*

za w
> H><etZDO

Q
et <3

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
ushered into the room exactly over my head; to go to
bed quietly would have been entirely out of character.
The corporeal exercise of this sort of gentry had no
scope below; upstairs all was roomy and the party
select. Wrestling, tumbling, dancing, pulling about
bedsteads were the gymnastic exercises with which the
night was concluded. Between three and four all was
still; a feverish doze took possession of my senses, and
scarcely had I forgotten myself before the half-sleep
ing waiter yawned to me that the stage waited at
the door.
Philosophy and self-command had many oppor
tunities of exerting themselves in this motley world.
To quit a warm bed in order to get into a stage is
one of the severest trials to which a man can be put.
But " no help for it " is the spur that effects this
achievement. Happiness, convenience, comfort, bien-etre, it may
be said, in mass and in detail depends altogether upon
habit, excepting in cases in which physical pain or
pleasure or the disappointments of natural wants are
concerned. This premise I deny. There is a great deal more
in the science of the French — the savoir-vivre — than is
admitted by the English and the clergy of all nations
and denominations.
In my trips to the quarries to look over the stone
33

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
destined for the public buildings, I have remarked upon
the hundreds of half-starved, miserably lodged, idle,
besotted, and fever-smitten families that inhabit the
country on the Potomac, and indeed all the back
country of the slave States below the mountains.
These people are either tenants to great landhold
ers or possess little farms themselves or only inhabit
miserable log houses, and hire themselves occasionally
as laborers. The river and creeks supply them most
amply in ordinary seasons with shad and herring at
the expense of little labor and salt. A few pigs and
fowl and a cow are kept at scarcely any expense in
the woods. The pigs furnish bacon, the cows a scanty
supply of milk. The little labor these people do for
themselves (and generally they cultivate but little
land) gives them as much corn as supports them and
a few vegetables, viz., cabbage to their bacon. And
the smaller amount of labor they perform for others
brings them in their deficient meal, their few groceries,
and the great source of their bliss — whisky.
The wretched women, who with few exceptions are
but mere beasts of burden, spin a little and make up
household clothes of all sorts, cotton chiefly, and also
lindsey, and earn a little whisky by spinning for more
decent and wealthy neighbors. This tribe of wretched
(I am told they are happy!) families is numerous in
all conscience, and their votes at election time are not
unimportant in the new and peculiar phase of politics.
34

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
Within a mile of Mr. Robertson's quarry are fifteen
such families, from whom, to use Mrs. Tuttle's phrase,
you cannot borrow a gridle's bacon.
Colonel Cook insists upon it that we have not in
our everyday existence, and that I have not in my pro
fessional interests, means of happiness equal to what
whisky is to them.
" But the ague and fever? " quoth I.
" They don't mind it half so much as you do the
vexations of your public concerns."
"But the dripping roofs of their huts; the open
state of their log walls, which admit the winter's blast
from every quarter; their wretched food, often scanty,
never certain; their constant fighting and quarreling
with each other; the poverty, the disease! "
" Hold, hold! " exclaims Colonel Cook. " I shall
forget half of this Pandora's box of questions. First,
there is always some dry corner under their dripping
roofs, and if they get wet, whisky keeps the cold out.
Second," says he, " whisky is better than a tight wall
against a northwestern gate. Third, whisky is a sub
stitute for solid food, and an hour's labor earns a day's
drunkenness; fighting is a mere amusement, and all
quarrels may be made up over a glass of whisky. As
to the lesser of the immaterial comforts, they count
them small. Less worry they take over them than you
do about a mosquito bite."
And what can be said to all this, alas ! alas !
35

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
When I sat down to write, however, it was not
about these wretches that I meant to spend my ink
and paper, but Colonel Cook's arguments popped in
upon my memory and drew away my original range
of thought. I sat down to find fault with the personal
manners of my country, at least this part of it. By
personal manners I mean everything that relates to
habits of cleanliness and living, food and domestic
arrangements. I must confess that many of these
things are much better ordered in England than
with us, which may be the effect of older customs and
usages. . . .
Take the traveler. The half-dozen or ten hours
which intervene between his being set down abruptly
by the stage at the best tavern between New York and
Norfolk and his being taken up again in the morning
are far from pleasurable.
In the first place he sups at the ordinary. There
are probably two or three clerks, young, permanent
residents, farmers, physicians, etc., who, boarding at
the house, have the control of the waiters and of all
the accommodations, especially as to the hours of
meals. A stage passenger is everywhere a little below
the rank of any other citizen (those who travel in
their private conveyances, of course, are different) .
The youngsters at the table are often loud talkers,
and their subjects are (O tempora, O mores!) the last
drunken bout and the girls. This is unpleasant, but
36

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
it is best to be silent in such cases, and that is an effectual
resource. EXPEDITION TO THE DISMAL SWAMP
Suffolk, June 10, 1797.
About the beginning of the month, Mr. Macauley,
merchant of York, the acting director of the Old Dis
mal Swamp Land Company, engaged me to go down
to the Swamp to survey the boundaries of the com
pany's property, and to point out such improvements
as might occur to me as a professional man.
On Tuesday, the 6th of June, we intended to go
down to York by the stage, and having stayed there
a day or two, to cross the James River to Smithfield,
and then to proceed to Suffolk. But by some mistake
the stage set off without us. We therefore resolved
to go to Petersburg and take the south side of the
river. Our companions in the carriage were Mr.
George Hay, of Petersburg, and Mr. Parker, of Smith-
field. We breakfasted at Osborn's and arrived about
eleven in Petersburg.
Soon after our arrival at Bob Armstead's a tall,
well-looking young man introduced himself to me, and
presently entered into a very lively conversation upon
horses, their diseases, the best mode of treating them;
gave me a very intelligent account of an extraordinary
marsh upon his estate in Lunenburg County, and was
so witty and good-humored that I thought his acquaint-
37

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
ance an acquisition. He dined with us, became equally
acquainted with Mr. Macauley, and seemed to be the
life of the whole company. He procured our names
and gave us his, which was John Mason.
I spent the evening at Mr. Hay's, and returned to
the inn about nine o'clock.
The company had just sat down to supper, and
Mason was one of the party.
As soon as he saw me he called out, " Walk in,
Billy Keely." I thought him drunk. He then intro
duced me to the gentlemen sitting to his right and left.
" This is Mr. Jones, a very honest, humane little
gentleman, as you may tell by the shape of his nose;
and this is Mr. Brown, as quiet a good soul as you'll
meet in a thousand; and this, sir, is the true Billy
Keely." " Pray, sir," said I, " is Billy Keely a title of dis
tinction or a noun proper? "
" Sir," said he, " let me tell you who Billy Keely
is. The Billy Keelys are a numerous family, and by
the cut of your jib, or your physiognomy, as the
learned say — to which, by the bye, I have taken a very
particular fancy^I know you are one of them. Billy
Keely is a soft, humane, quiet, and accommodating
gentleman, suiting himself to dispositions, tempers, cir
cumstances, and times. He never contradicts roughly,
never finds fault, never is out of humor, never quarrel
some. His opinions are right, correct, and virtuous.
38

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
You think he converses, while he argues; you think
you have convinced him, but he has changed your
own opinions. You think you have conquered, but
he has triumphed. Mankind is a great deal better
for Billy Keely. He relieves the distressed, comforts
the sorrowful, and makes all sad faces put on a
smile." " You do me much honor," said I, " to adopt me
into this family of Billy Keelys, and I am very happy
to find so many of my relatives in this circle, for I
observe that you give them all the same name."
" They are all good fellows," said he, " all Billy
Keelys, and we will drink a bottle together." He then
ordered a bottle. Some of it was drunk. He ran on
for above an hour in the same eccentric, mad way, till
he and I were the only members of the Billy Keely
family left. In the course of the evening he discov
ered my fondness for natural history, and immediately
turned the conversation to the subject of Dr. Green-
away's studies. He had been educated by that very
extraordinary man, and this explained his acquaintance
with learned terms and subjects. I thought him ex
cessively drunk, though everything he said was very
rational. But it was wildly arranged, and he started
from one subject to another without any apparent
connection. I hoped by his means to procure some books left
by the late Dr. Greenaway, and which his widow wishes
6 39

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
to sell. It was with difficulty I escaped from him
to bed. June nth. About half-past six I came downstairs,
and found my friend Billy Keely waiting for me. He
had just prepared a mint julep. " Sir," said he, " you
do not drink spirit, I know, but still we may take this
julep together. I will drink the spirit, you take the
botanical part. I am a Virginian dram-drinker, you
a disciple of Linnaeus."
I was very sorry to see him appear so drunk, and
hoped to escape from him by going to breakfast with
Mr. Macauley to Mr. George Hay's, but it was in
vain. He had fastened upon me like a leech, and he
declared he would accompany us. He did so, to the
utmost distress of the excellent family. However, he
was so witty, his observations were so shrewd and
original that he kept us exceedingly merry till it be
came necessary to return to the inn in order to proceed
by the stage. It would be impossible to follow him
through four minutes' duration of his eccentric talk.
Like the plays of Reynolds, which depend upon unex
pected incident, stage effect, the humor of the per
former, and the very ridiculous effect of his selection of
words, the conversation of Mason would perhaps ap
pear extremely insipid if read.
On our return there happened to be a gentleman
on the porch, unlike Mason in every respect except for
his extreme fondness for talking. As soon as he saw
40

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
him Mason proceeded to the attack. He introduced
him to me under the most ridiculous though indecent
name. " Sir," said he, " this is a very particular and
entertaining friend of mine, a very distant relative of
Billy Keely, a great talker — almost as bad as myself —
and above all, let me tell you, a most honest man, the
most honest man, I may say, in Petersburg. For you
will observe," continued he, turning to me and speak
ing in a half whisper, " there goes a great deal of very
strong sense to make a great rascal." His friend had
not sense enough to understand him.
About twelve the stage was ready. After we had
gotten in I was distressed to see Mason follow us. He
declared he would go one stage with us. I contrived,
however, to persuade him to deliver two letters for me
at the post-office, and while he was doing it the stage
drove off.
During the whole time that this unfortunate man
attached himself to me I did not discover the slightest
trace of insanity, and was astonished to hear from Mr.
Hay, just as I was leaving him, that not only he, but
his father and other members of his family, are insane.
He spoke more like a drunken than a mad man and
acted soberly enough. After hearing that he was in
sane I could, however, plainly perceive that he is con
scious of the light in which he is considered. He is
in the highest degree jealous of every look and whisper
among those with whom he is conversing; he often
4i

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
repeated the words : " They say that both my father
and myself are mad, but, notwithstanding, let anyone
try to gain his ends with us on that supposition."
John Mason is just mad enough — or, which amounts
to the same thing, he acts and speaks just enough out
of the common road — to be extremely troublesome
without being injurious to society. He drinks hard,
and it seems probable that in time he may bring him
self into a state of mind in which the law concerning
lunatics may reach him. At present there is so much
method in his madness that he must be permitted to
take liberties which men in their senses dare not attempt.
He lives, for instance, upon the tavern keepers without
paying them, torments their company without their dar
ing to turn him out or to caution them against him.
Both he and his father are accused of having pleaded
their insanity in order to violate contracts and to make
void imprudent and injurious engagements. All this
renders him less an object of pity.
HOSPITALITY IN VIRGINIA
A Confused Conversation
" Pray, my good sir," asked Dr. Scandella, " do
you think the Virginians hospitable? I have heard so
much in Europe of the hospitality of the Virginians,
and of the Americans in general, that I confess I am
most egregiously disappointed. I have met with none
42

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
of it. Where I have been particularly introduced, or
have had urgent letters of recommendation, I have
received a few invitations to dinner, but I do not call
that hospitality."
When Dr. Scandella — a Venetian gentleman of the
most amiable, fascinating manners, and of the best in
formation upon almost every scientific subject, who
speaks English perfectly, and who has now traveled
through all the country between the St. Lawrence and
James rivers — asks such a question, it naturally induces
a closer examination of the subject than I might have
otherwise given it, having never yet been in a situation
in which I could receive the hospitality to which his
question particularly applies.
Upon the hospitality of the rich in a very infant
and almost savage state of society the best treatise is
to be found in Dr. Adam Smith's " Wealth of Na
tions." A rich shepherd or a rich cultivator of land,
having no market for his cattle or for his corn, wine,
and oil, cannot acquire distinction but by distributing
these perishable commodities among those who will
pay him with praise, who will increase the jollity and
mirth of his existence, who will support him in war,
and by their number add to the splendor of his retinue.
This is the hospitality of a Tartar khan, and was that
of a feudal lord. It is entirely selfish.
The hospitality of an Indian is much more amiable.
It often arises from an idea of moral duty, or is a re-
43

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE

ligiously received law, and has not personal gratifica
tion for its immediate object. The experience of the
difficulty of procuring food and shelter, especially by
a stranger, excites besides that gregarious sensation of
compassion that be
longs naturally to man
as an animal, and on
that account savages
are in general hospi
table in proportion as
they are poor. Where
strangers are seldom
seen curiosity is often
a powerful motive for
hospitality. An insu
lated farmer in the
back country, or in the
thinly populated States,
is in some respects in
the situation of the feu-
"AN ATTEMPT AT THE FEATURES dal lord. It COStS him
OF PATRICK HENRY." noth;ng ^ ^ ^fa
table to supply the ap
petites of one or two additional guests, and he re
ceives amusement and entertainment in return. His
life in general is insipid and uniform, the visit of a
stranger furnishes it with a little variety. But as
soon as the market comes nearer to him, or increasing
44

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
population occasions more frequent calls upon him,
or he finds the society of towns more accessible, ex
perience has everywhere proved that his hospitality
declines. In answer, therefore, to Dr. Scandella's question,
I think I might truly say that Virginia is past that state
of society in which the latter species of hospitality was
at its acme. It still, however, exists at a distance from
all the towns. Strangers are still welcome, -although
they are now no longer collected " from the highways
and hedges and pressed to come in." But the peculiar
manners of the country must also be considered in order
to appreciate the degree of hospitality that exists in it.
In spite of the unpopularity which politics will
annex to the assertion, the manners of Virginia are
English. The English character, with some excel
lences, has many faults. It is the most cold-hearted
and cautious of any nation I know. English hospital
ity, therefore, like gas under a very low temperature,
must be estimated according to the volume it would
occupy when raised to the temperature — by Dr. Scan-
della, for instance — of the Italian sky.
" This," says the doctor, " may be very true; at all
events it ingeniously settles the account for the Vir
ginian, but it does nothing for me. I still go without
the society and the information I wish to gain. I
stayed, for instance, for a week and more at Stanton.
I dined frequently at the tavern with all the gentlemen
45

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
in the neighborhood. My inquiries and my accent
proved me a stranger, my dress and, I believe, my
manners — a gentleman. What was the consequence ? I
overheard daily whispers — " Pray, who is that French
man? He seems a genteel sort of a man. I wonder
what has brought him hither? " Perhaps I was asked
about the present state of affairs in Europe, and no
doubt civilly enough treated. But no soul invited me
to his house, begged to be better acquainted, or put
himself forward to oblige me. I have mentioned Stan
ton, but the case was exactly similar from Niagara to
Richmond." I much fear that the doctor's judgment is correct.
And it is certainly, as far as my observation goes, a
real fact that, notwithstanding modern principles and
prejudices, there is in the minds of us Virginians a
practical English unsociability to the French, and we
are apt to mistake all but English, Irish, and Scotch
for Frenchmen as soon as we hear them open their
mouths. An Englishman, I believe, would have fared
better, and, especially if recommended to one family,
would have shared what there is of hospitality in the
whole country.
" Hospitality ! What do you mean by hospital
ity?" said the doctor. "Beef, mutton, ducks, geese,
and turkeys ; a bed and a dish of tea. I came not hither
to feast and to drink, but to examine the country and
make myself acquainted with the state of society in a
46

hZOQ.ZoH

oPiU!oozozoh

hO>

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
country as free and as well governed as this. Now,
by eating a man's beef and mutton I do not at all put
him out of the way, but it has appeared to me that by
my inquiries I have put people out of their way and
made them uneasy. None but Mr. Jefferson and three
gentlemen at Richmond have stepped forward to meet
and assist me in that respect. This, however, would
have been the hospitality of an enlightened and free
people. But, estimating their hospitality as you meas
ure the volume of your gas, I feel as much obliged,
though much worse informed."
I cannot help agreeing with my friend the doctor,
but I answer him thus : The Virginians are no doubt
on a par in goodness of heart and soundness of sense
with every other nation in the world. The state of
their manners, however, being one of the objects of
our inquiry, the want of this hospitality exhibits one
of its features.
You are a man of letters and a theoretic farmer.
Neither of these characters are common among us.
You therefore miss the conversation you have been
accustomed chiefly to find among those with whom you
have elsewhere associated. With the detail of county
and State politics you neither are nor wish to be ac
quainted. This shuts you out from a very large field
of conversation which fills up the intercourse of our
citizens. The actual state of agriculture in this State
is, however, open to you, and upon that subject you
47

BE

THE JOURNAL OF LATRO
have no doubt heard much that was interesting. But
upon the whole you seem not to be satisfijed, and I
must therefore remind you that you are ini a country
in which you could not have expected information,
unless you had eaten your way to the hearts of its
inhabitants. We must proceed considerably in refinement before
the era arrives when, our beef-and-mutton hospitality
being quite worn out, the literary hospitality of Europe
succeeds it, and till a few have amassed such large
stocks of fortune and taste as to spend the former to
gratify the latter. In Richmond, for instance, as in
the other towns of Virginia, everyone who wishes to
treat you hospitably invites you to dinner and asks half
his friends to meet you. This is expensive, and, as in
all towns most men live up to their incomes, cannot
often be repeated. You therefore perhaps hear no
more of this friend during the ebb of his ability till,
the flood arriving, you are again asked to dine with
him. In Europe, and lately even in England, your
first invitation would be perhaps to an evening party,
the entertainment of which would be a trifle. You
would be pressed to repeat the visit frequently, and,
feeling that you did not incommode, you would come.
But we have as yet no such parties, and you must be
content to eat beef and mutton now and then till you
by degrees become an amico della casa, and feel your
self at ease in visiting at such hours as shall be con-
48

VIRGINIA AND ITS PEOPLE
venient and agreeable to yourself. And, besides, I can
assure you that you are entirely mistaken in judging
as you do from the Anglican reserve and gravity of
our good citizens that they dislike the free visits of
strangers. I believe it is, in general, far otherwise.

49

CHAPTER III
A VISIT TO WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON
ON Sunday, the 16th of July, I set off on horse
back for Mount Vernon, having a letter to
the President from his nephew, my particular
friend, Bushrod Washington, Esq. I traveled through
a bold, broken country to Colchester. Colchester lies on
the north side of the river Occoquan, over which there is
a ferry. The river is filled briefly by the backwater of
the Potomac. At the ferry it is a hundred and five yards
wide, but extends (nearly the same width) only two
miles up the country, where it dwindles into a rivulet.
The town is small and scattered. The river is shal
low and the convenience for trade not considerable. I
breakfasted with Mr. Thomas Mason. From Colches
ter to Mount Vernon the road lies through extensive
woods, the distance being about ten miles. About two
and one-half miles from the President's house is a mill
belonging to him, on a canal brought from the river. Its
neatness is an indication of the attention of the owner to
his private concerns. The farm of the President extends
from the mill to his house. Good fences, clean grounds,
50

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
and extensive cultivation strike the eye as something
uncommon in this part of the world, but the road is
bad enough. The house becomes visible between two
groves of trees at about a mile's distance. It has no very
striking appearance, though superior to every other
house I have seen here. The approach is not very well
managed, but leads you into the area between the stables.
The house is a wooden building, painted to represent
chamfered rustic, and sanded. The center is an old
house to which a good dining room has been added at
the north end, and a study, etc., at the south. The
house is connected with the kitchen offices by arcades.
The whole of this part of the building is in a very in
different taste. Along the other front is a portico, sup
ported by eight square pillars of good proportions and
effect. There is a handsome statuary marble chimney-
piece in the dining room with inverted columns on each
side. This is the only piece of expensive decoration I
have seen about the house, and it is indeed remarkable
in that respect. Everything else is extremely good and
neat, but by no means above what would be expected
in a plain English country gentleman's house of £500
or £600 a year. It is, however, a little above what I
have hitherto seen in Virginia. The ground on the west
front of the house is laid out in a level lawn, bounded
on each side with a wide but extremely formal serpen
tine walk shaded by weeping willows, a tree which in
this country grows very well upon high, dry land. On
51

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
one side of this lawn is a plain kitchen garden, on the
other a neat flower garden laid out in squares, and
boxed with great precision. Along the north wall of
this garden is a plain greenhouse. The plants were
arranged in front and contained nothing very rare, nor
were they numerous. For the first time since I left Ger
many I saw here a parterre stripped and trimmed with
infinite care into the form of a richly flourished fleur-de-
lis, the expiring groan, I hope, of our grandfathers'
pedantry. Toward the east nature has lavished magnificence,
nor had art interfered but to exhibit her advantages.
Before the portico a lawn extends on each hand from
the front of the house and a grove of locust trees on
each side to the edge of the bank. Down the steep
slope trees and shrubs are thickly planted. They are
kept so low as not to interrupt the view, but merely to
furnish an agreeable border to the extensive prospect
beyond. The mighty Potomac runs close under this
bank, the elevation of which must be perhaps two hun
dred and fifty feet. The river is here about a mile and
a half across, and runs parallel with the front of the
house for about three miles to the left and four to the
right. To the left it takes a sudden turn round a point
and disappears, proceeding to Alexandria and the fed
eral city; but the sheet of water is continued in the
Piskattaway, which appears at first sight to be the
Potomac, being of the same width. The Piskattaway
52

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
appears in sight to the distance of eight or nine miles ¦
and then vanishes at the back of a bold woody head
land. This river continues about fifteen miles up the
country, a bold stream, being filled by the backwater
of the Potomac. It is, however, shallow, and at present
no object of commercial advantage. An extent of 1,500
acres, perfectly clear of wood, which borders the river
on the left bank on the Virginia side, boldly contracts
the remainder of the woody landscape. It is a farm
belonging to the President. Its general surface is level
but elevated above all inundations. Beyond this sheet
of verdure the country rises into bold woody hills, some
times enriched by open plantations which mount gently
above one another till they vanish into the purple dis
tance of the highest ridge twenty miles distant. The
Maryland shore has the same character. Opposite to
the house, where its detail becomes more distinct, it is
variegated by lawns and copses.
After running about four miles to the right, the
river turns suddenly to the eastward, but is seen over
a range of lowland for a considerable distance. A
woody peninsula, running to a point, backs the silver
line of the water, and the blue hills of Maryland just
appear above the edge of the trees beyond the next
bend. What are descriptions of the face of nature good
for? They convey just as much an idea of the scene
as the description of the features of a lady does her face.
53

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
The pen and the dictionary of Mrs. Radcliffe has done
little more than to tire her reader by setting him to
paint imaginary scenes of landscape that interrupt the
story. Descriptions of buildings are more successful,
in general, and I think she is particularly so in them,
though I once endeavored to plan the Castle of
Udolpho from her account of it and found it impossible.
Having alighted at Mount Vernon, I sent in my
letter of introduction, and walked into the portico next
to the river. In about ten minutes the President came
to me. He was attired in a plain blue coat, his hair
dressed and powdered. There was a reserve but no
hauteur in his manner. He shook me by the hand,
said he was glad to see a friend of his nephew's, drew a
chair, and desired me to sit down. Having inquired
after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon
Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known
the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to
step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very
good at present. He thought the best thing a family,
regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would
be to build a house for their separate accommodation,
the expense of which might be two hundred pounds.
He has himself a house there which he supposes must
be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation,
the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors
would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless
the health of himself or family should render it neces-
54

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
sary. At first that was the motive, he said, that in
duced people to encounter the badness of the roads
and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present
few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number,
had health in view. Even those whose object it was,
were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of
the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case
in every large collection of men whose minds were not
occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In
these and many more observations of the same kind
there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared
as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens
particularly impressed him at the time he made them.
They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who
has seen and knows the world.
The conversation then turned upon the rivers of
Virginia. He gave me a very minute account of all
their directions, their natural advantages, and what
he conceived might be done for their improvement
by art. He then inquired v/hether I had seen the
Dismal Swamp, and seemed particularly desirous of
being informed upon the subject of the canal going
forward there. He gave me a detailed account of the
old Dismal Swamp Company and of their operations,
of the injury they had received by the effects of the
war, and still greater, which their inattention to their
own concerns had done them. After many attempts
on his part to procure a meeting of directors, the
7 55

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
number of which the law provided should be six in
order to do business, all of which proved fruitless, he
gave up all further hopes of anything effectual being
done for their interests, and sold out his shares in the
proprietary at a price very inadequate to their real
value. Since then his attention had been so much
drawn to public affairs that he had scarcely made any
inquiry into the proceedings either of the Swamp or
of the Canal Company. I was much flattered by his
attention to my observations, and his taking the pains
either to object to my deductions where he thought
them ill-founded, or to confirm them by very strong
opinions of his own, made while he was in the habit
of visiting the Swamp.
This conversation lasted above one hour, and, as
he had at first told me that he was endeavoring to
finish some letters to go by the post upon a variety
of business " which notwithstanding his distance from
the seat of Government still pressed upon him in his
retirement," I got up to take my leave; but he desired
me, in a manner very like Dr. Johnson's, to " keep my
chair," and then continued to talk to me about the
great works going forward in England, and my own
object in this country. I found him well acquainted
with my mother's family in Pennsylvania. After much
conversation upon the coal mines on James River, I
told him of the silver mine at Rocketts. He laughed
most heartily upon the very mention of the thing.
56

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
I explained to him the nature of the expectations
formed of its productiveness, and satisfied him of the
probability that ore did exist there in considerable
quantity. He made several minute inquiries concern
ing it, and then said that " it would give him real
uneasiness should any silver or gold mines be discov
ered that would tempt considerable capital into the
prosecution of that object, and that he heartily wished
for his country that it might contain no mines but such
as the plow could reach, excepting only coal and iron."
After conversing with me more than two hours
he got up and said that " we should meet again at
dinner." I then prowled about the lawn and took
some views. Upon my return to the house, I found
Mrs. Washington and her granddaughter, Miss Custis,
in the hall. I introduced myself to Mrs. Washington
as a friend of her nephew, and she immediately en
tered into conversation upon the prospect from the
lawn, and presently gave me an account of her family
in a good-humored free manner that was extremely
pleasant and flattering. She retains strong remains
of considerable beauty, seems to enjoy very good
health, and to have a good humor. She has no affec
tation of superiority in the slightest degree, but acts
completely in the character of the mistress of the
house of a respectable and opulent country gentleman.
Her granddaughter, Miss Eleanor Custis, the only one
of four who is unmarried, has more perfection of form,
57

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
of expression, of color, of softness, and of firmness of
mind than I have ever seen before or conceived con
sistent with mortality. She is everything that the
chisel of Phidias aimed at but could not reach, and the
soul beaming through her countenance and glowing in
her smile is as superior to her face as mind is to matter.
Young La Fayette with his tutor came down some
time before dinner. He is a young man about seven
teen, of a mild, pleasant countenance, favorably im
pressing one at first sight. His figure is rather awk
ward. His manners are easy, and he has very little
of the usual French air about him. He talked much,
especially with Miss Custis, and seemed to possess wit
and fluency. He spoke English tolerably well, much
better, indeed, than his tutor, who has had the same
time and opportunities of improvement.
Dinner was served about half after three. It had
been postponed about a half-hour in hopes of Mr.
Lear's arrival from Alexandria. The President came
into the portico about half an hour before three, and
talked freely upon common topics with the family.
At dinner he placed me at the left hand of Mrs. Wash
ington; Miss Custis sat at her right, and himself next
to her about the middle of the table. There was very
little conversation at dinner. A few jokes passed be
tween the President and young La Fayette, whom he
treats more as his child than as a guest. I felt a little
embarrassed at the silent, reserved air that prevailed.
58

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A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
As I drink no wine, and the President drank only three
glasses, the party soon returned to the portico. Mr.
Lear, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Lear's three boys soon
after arrived and helped out the conversation. The
President retired in about three-quarters of an hour.
As much as I wished to stay, I thought it a point
of delicacy to take up as little of the time of the Presi
dent as possible, and I therefore requested Mrs. Wash
ington's permission to order my horses. She expressed
a slight wish that I would stay, but I did not think it
sufficiently strong in etiquette to detain me, and or
dered my horses to the door. I waited a few minutes
till the President returned. He asked me whether I had
any very pressing business to prevent my lengthening
my visit. I told him I had not, but that as I consid
ered it an intrusion upon his more important engage
ments, I thought I could reach Colchester that evening
by daylight. " Sir," said he, " you see I take my own
way. If you can be content to take yours at my
house, I shall be glad to see you here longer."
Coffee was brought about six o'clock. When it was
removed the President, addressing himself to me, in
quired after the state of the crops about Richmond.
I told him all I had heard. A long conversation upon
farming ensued, during which it grew dark, and he
then proposed going into the hall. He made me sit
down by him and continued the conversation for above
an hour. During that time he gave me a very minute
59

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
account of the Hessian fly and its progress from Long
Island, where it first appeared, through New York,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, part of Pennsyl
vania, and Maryland. It has not yet appeared in
Virginia, but is daily dreaded. The cultivation of
Indian corn next came up. He dwelt upon the advan
tages attending this most useful crop, and then said
that the manner in which the land was exhausted by
it, the constant attendance it required during the whole
year, and the superior value of the produce of land in
other crops would induce him to leave off entirely the
cultivation of it, provided he could depend upon any
market for a supply elsewhere. As food for the
negroes, it was his opinion that it was infinitely pref
erable to wheat bread in point of nourishment. He
had made the experiment upon his own land and had
found that though the negroes, while the novelty lasted,
seemed to prefer wheat bread as being the food of their
masters, soon grew tired of it. He conceived that
should the negroes be fed upon wheat or rye bread,
they would, in order to be fit for the same labor, be
obliged to have a considerable addition to their allow
ance of meat. But notwithstanding all this, he thought
the balance of advantage to be against the Indian
corn. He then entered into the different merits of a
variety of plows which he had tried, and gave the
preference to the heavy Rotheram plow from a full
60

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
experience of its merits. The Berkshire iron plow he
held next in estimation. He had found it impossible
to get the iron work of his Rotheram plow replaced
in a proper manner, otherwise he should never have
discontinued its use. I promised to send him one of
Mr. Richardson's plows of Tuckahoe, which he ac
cepted with pleasure.
Mrs. Washington and Miss Custis had retired
early, and the President left the company about eight
o'clock. We soon after retired to bed. There was no
hint of supper.
I rose with the sun and walked in the grounds near
the house. The President came to the company in the
sitting room about one-half hour past seven, where all
the latest newspapers were laid out. He talked with
Mr. Lear about the progress of the work at the great
falls and in the City of Washington. Breakfast was
served up in the usual Virginia style. Tea, coffee, and
cold broiled meat. It was very soon over, and for an
hour afterwards he stood upon the steps of the west
door talking to the company who were collected round
him. The subject was chiefly the establishment of the
University at the federal city. He mentioned the
offer he had made of giving to it all the interests he
had in the city on condition that it should go on in a
given time, and complained that, though magnificent
offers had been made by many speculators for the same
purpose, there seemed to be no inclination to carry
61

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
them into reality. He spoke as if he felt a little hurt
upon the subject. About ten o'clock he made a motion
to retire, and I requested a servant to bring my horses
to the door. He then returned, and as soon as my
servant came up with the horses, he went to him and
asked him if he had breakfasted. He then shook me
by the hand, desired me to call if I came again into the
neighborhood, and wished me a good morning.
Washington has something uncommonly majestic
and commanding in his walk, his address, his figure,
and his countenance. His face is characterized, how
ever, more by intense and powerful thought than by
quick and fiery conception. There is a mildness about
its expression, and an air of reserve in his manner
lowers its tone still more. He is sixty-four, but appears
some years younger, and has sufficient apparent vigor
to last many years yet. He was frequently entirely
silent for many minutes, during which time an awk
wardness seemed to prevail in everyone present. His
answers were often short and sometimes approached
to moroseness. He did not at any time speak with
very remarkable fluency; perhaps the extreme correct
ness of his language, which almost seemed studied,
prevented that effect. He appeared to enjoy a humor
ous observation, and made several himself. He laughed
heartily several times in a very good-humored manner.
On the morning of my departure he treated me as if
I had lived for years in his house, with ease and atten-
62

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A VISIT TO WASHINGTON
tion, but in general I thought there was a slight air of
moroseness about him as if something had vexed him.
For Washington, had Horace lived at the present
age, he would have written his celebrated ode: it is
impossible to have ever read it and not to recollect in
the presence of this great man the virum justum
propositique tenacem, etc.
I returned by the same route that had brought me
to Mount Vernon. Near the spot at which the roads
to Alexandria and Mount Vernon separate lives an old
man of the age of eighty-five by his own account. He
was born in Yorkshire and his name is Boggis, I think.
He is tall, rather thin and rawboned, but perfectly
hearty and strong. What is remarkable in him is that
he has for many years past lived upon nothing but tea.
He drinks his tea three times a day, consuming in it a
pound of sugar daily and a great quantity of the rich
est cream. A pound of tea lasts him a week. He buys
the best he can procure, and makes it pretty strong.
The ferryman at Occoquan ferry is one of the un
common productions called albinos. He is one of
several who are children of a man and woman, negroes,
brought from Africa — called here salt-water negroes.
I could not get an exact account of his family from
him, he appeared ashamed of the trick dame Nature
had played upon him. He has the exact features of
a perfect black, flat nose and thick lips, and is very
ugly. His skin, both of his face and body, is uncom-
63

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
monly fair and white. His cheeks and neck, which is
extremely thick, are very red and pimpled as if he were
a hard drinker. His hair, or rather wool, is yellow,
his eyebrows are white with a yellowish cast, and his
eyelashes, which are very long and almost choke his
eyes, are almost white. His eyes are reddish gray.
He wore his hat, and they twinkled as if they were
weak, but upon my asking him the question he told me
he " had as good eyes as anybody else." I suppose he
is much pestered with inquiries and ill-natured jokes
upon his color, for he seemed very pettish upon the
subject. If his eyes are good, he is an exception to
Jefferson's general remark in his notes.

64

CHAPTER IV
THOUGHTS ON NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
Richmond, May 28, 1798.
Ferdinand Fairfax, Esq.,
of Shannon Hall, Shenandoah.
M ~\EAR SIR: The compliment you have paid to
' -J my opinion by requesting that I would furnish
you with the observations that occur to me
on the perusal of the regulations and by-laws of the
Charlestown Academy, requires that I should giye them
to you freely. I have reason to know your candor, and
I believe you will give me credit for sincerity. If I
therefore should happen to differ with the benevolent
institutors of this undertaking I need not fear that I
shall offend you by saying so plainly, nor yet be thought
captious in my criticisms for the purpose of exhibiting
my judgment.
Education has been the subject of innumerable
treatises. They have all, even those which are founded
in the boldest and most original trains of thinking, re
ceived part of their character from the habits acquired
by their authors from the mode which was fashionable
in their own education. There is a fashion even of
65

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
sentiment, and wherever there is fashion there is big
otry. I wish we could get rid of fashions in thinking.
I think this age less addicted to them than the preced
ing have been. At all events, more fashions are suffered
to live together as contemporaries than formerly, and
we have a greater choice of them. They therefore
improve by emulation. The old ones, which were sel
dom changed, and the absurdity of which was not so
easily discovered for want of contrast, seldom ceased
to be worn until they would no longer hang together.
While religion and law were the only paths of
learning which led to riches and honor, and while
priests occupied both professions, it was exclusively of
other circumstances which made the rest of barbarous
Europe dependent upon the remnant of Roman civil
ization in Italy, good policy in the priests to entrench
themselves in the Latin and Greek languages. How
effectually the Latin religion and the Latin law of the
centuries between the sixth and the fifteenth held Eu
rope in the most abject subjection to ecclesiastical and
political tyrants everybody knows. A mathematician
was then a heretic, and a natural philosopher a wizard.
After the reformers had driven the priests from
many of their strongholds, and Lord Bacon had pointed
out, by the way of experiment, the true road to science,
or, which is synonymous, to truth, the habits of man
kind, though their knowledge was increased, still con
tinued to subsist. Accustomed to see pretended knowl-
66

NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
edge only in Greek and Latin dress, they could not bear
to behold truth in the plain garb of a vernacular idiom,
but tricked out the simple, chaste maiden in the foppery
of the harlot.
Learning, in fact, within the remembrance of every
one who is above thirty, was another word for Greek
and Latin. Oxford, and even Cambridge, are yet
immense hospitals, in which lingers, decrepit and mor
tally wounded, what remains of Greek and Latin ig
norance in England, and within these forty years, in
Germany, to write upon any literary subject in German
was to proclaim the ignorance of the author. Out of
the pale, however, of the old seminaries, whose crazy
and diseased constitutions can never be repaired, and
which may now be safely suffered to die a natural death,
the men of letters, both in Europe and America, have
shaken off the shackles of the dead languages, and
quitting their study with the slavery of the schools,
more useful knowledge employs their attention and
their time. Now no man of genius or clear under
standing devotes himself to the settling of doubtful
readings in useless works or to the acquisition of the
command of a language which he will never be required
to speak or to write.
In the establishment of a new seminary in a coun
try, the social and political duties of which are settled,
it were much to be wished that every part of instruc
tion should tend to render the citizen useful and the
67

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
man happy. A republic would be ill served if its
schools were only contrived to create a privileged class
of men furnished with languages, to the acquirement
of which in perfection a gregarious education of long
continuance is absolutely necessary, which cannot be
applied to the common transactions of life, and which,
therefore, as we see of other things that are useless
and rare, command reverence from those who want and
feel pride in those who profess them.
As America took the lead in the practice of im
proved political theory in the organization of a com
munity, I sincerely wish that she may set the example
of a rational education of her citizens.
American citizens may be divided into only three
classes, cultivators of the soil, artisans, and merchants.
Of the practical sciences, the first have most occasion
for a knowledge of chemistry, natural history, and
national philosophy; the second, of those branches of
mathematics called usually mechanics (or materia ap-
plicata) ; and the third, of numeral mathematics. To
each" a general range of science is highly useful, but
these ought, in my opinion, to be the leading objects of
education in an American seminary. They may be
acquired without the knowledge of Latin or Greek,
although an acquaintance with these beautiful lan
guages will greatly ease the memory in retaining the
technical vocabulary and assist in comprehending the
precise meaning of terms, most of which are taken
68

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NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
from them. Young men, and of these there will always
be a great number in a country circumstanced as ours
is — young men who will have sufficient property to
purchase philosophic leisure, whose business it is " to
do little, but to observe everything," will, in such a
course of study, be rendered capable of employing and
amusing themselves usefully throughout their lives,
while little can be expected from a mere knowledge of
Greek and Latin toward the improvement of the enjoy
ments of American society.
I cannot, therefore, help regretting that your semi
nary has so far followed the beaten track of the old
schools as to place knowledge of Greek and Latin at
the head of your studies. I am by no means ignorant
of all the advantages attending a critical knowledge of
the ancient languages. They are included in the fol
lowing heads:
I. In learning a dead language, or even a living
one, which must be acquired not in loose conversation,
but in reading and analyzing authors who are perfectly
correct in their diction, and in composing by dint of
inflexible rules, a general knowledge of language and
of grammar becomes so imprinted upon the mind, at
an age when permanent impressions are easily received,
that it may never be effaced. This general knowledge
comes into use whenever a living language is to be
learned or the native language studied.
2. The dry, laborious study of words, uninterest-
69

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
ing in themselves, inures the mind to labor and to the
habits of attention.
3. So many useful and elegant works are written
in these languages that it is worth while to expend much
time in obtaining the key that unlocks these treasures.
4. A knowledge of Latin, and especially of Greek,
renders it easy to understand the technical language of
every science.
5. There is a time when it is difficult to employ
boys in anything else, and when it is very indifferent
what they are employed in, provided they be kept out
of mischief. They may, therefore, as well be learning
languages, which may perhaps become useful, and never
can be a burden.
The first argument, the importance of acquiring a
perfect knowledge of grammar, has perhaps the most
weight, and is the principal reason why, after all the
useful sciences, I would recommend the study of Greek
and Latin.
Second. If the minds of children generally were
less capable of understanding mathematical truths or
of retaining facts in natural history or philosophy than
of remembering grammatical rules, for which no rea
sons can be assigned, and which do not interest the
mind in any degree, I would agree that Greek and
Latin should be forced into their memories at all haz
ards. But I believe the contrary to be the case gen
erally. I know it from my own experience, and besides
70

NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
the presumption is highly reasonable. I think of a boy
ten or twelve years old I could much sooner make a
perfect botanist than a good Greek scholar; and I am
sure the botanist would be happier, healthier, and less
agitated by false notions of glory and honor than the
expositor of Homer; nor do I believe his mind would
have acquired less activity and vigor.
Third. If there be little weight in the other
points, then this argument can have none, for all the
good works of the ancients may be read in excellent
translations. Fourth. To comprehend and remember easily the
technical terms of science, it is very true that a knowl
edge of the learned languages is highly useful, but a
much slighter acquaintance with Greek and Latin is
necessary than that proposed by the usual modes of
education, and which is attainable in a much shorter
space of time. Indeed, the knowledge of a science will
lead to, and render pleasant, the study of its language,
the latter being subordinate to the former.
Fifth. I am so ashamed of the fifth reason that
were it not very commonly urged I should not have
quoted it. It is answered under the second head.
My objection, therefore, goes not to teaching Greek
and Latin, but to the preference given to the Greek and
Latin instruction. I should object even to its being
upon a level with moral philosophy, mathematics,
physics, or modern languages. But, by the constitu-
8 71

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
tion of your school, it not only has the preference, but
will very probably absorb the attention which other
studies more deservedly claim. " The principal shall
be a professed teacher of the Greek and Latin lan
guages," and shall be only " competent to teach mathe
matics" etc.; " he shall be the teacher of the Latin
school." What a preponderance in favor of words,
and how ; little is done for truths ! How inevitably
must your academy, carried along by the current and
organized into the habits of this old prejudice, run into
a channel by no means intended to be cut out for it by
the other, regulations of the benevolent founders.
I observe that with the instruction in Greek and
Latin the elements of history, rhetoric, and poetry are
to be connected. This is some atonement for the atten
tion forced into the channel of the languages; and if
the authors read in the Greek and Latin schools be
more judiciously chosen than has been usual in the old
schools, it is impossible not to combine the acquisition
of the language with that of the useful knowledge con
veyed in it. But then Terence, Phasdrus, Ovid, and
other poets, from whom no one ever learned a single
useful fact, should be rejected, and in their room it
would be well to substitute Justin's epitome of the his
tory of Trogus Pompeius, as being an easy and enter
taining writer, and containing a tolerably good sketch
of general history; Cornelius Nepos, Caesar's "Com
mentaries," and for the more advanced scholars, Livy,
72

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NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
and, above all, Tacitus, the most elegant and virtuous
of historians. I would confine the study of poetry to
Virgil, and select pieces to Horace. In eloquence,
Cicero's book " De oratore " stands for all that ever
has been or will be written, and ought to be well
digested by those who propose to plead at the bar or
to serve their country or their party in the senate. I
believe the first Latin book which is studied appears
to the student to be written in the easiest style, at least
I have always thought Livy and Cicero to be the easiest
of all Latin authors, because I first learned the lan
guage by reading their works. Many of my friends,
however, think them more difficult than others whom
I cannot read with equal ease. Should the observation
be true, and it is reasonable, the book " De oratore "
might be put into the hands of very young students as
well as any other, and might upon the whole be the
most useful to those who propose to read only a few
ancient writers, and to devote most of their attention
to science. In Greek the works of Xenophon are among the
richest treasures of the language. I wonder his "Anab
asis " is so little read in schools. It is highly enter
taining and instructive, and as a composition nothing
can be more elegant. The " Cyropaedia " is not less
elegant and instructive, but boys will think much of
it very dull. Plutarch has both the advantages of fix
ing the attention to his story and teaching the purest
73

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
Greek by his style. Herodotus, with both those excel
lences — and without both no ancient author ought to
be put into the hands of a scholar — has another of
considerable importance. The subject of his work, the
institutions of Egypt, which he has often been charged
with disguising in fables, is daily more and more found
to be faithfully copied from actually existing facts;
and he conveys much important knowledge concerning
the cradle of all the past and present religious systems
which have been called Christianity. He is well trans
lated by Beloe. Homer's " Iliad," which no one can
more admire as an effort of genius than myself, is, I
think, the most improper book for a school. It poisons
the minds of young men, fills them with a rage for
military murder and glory, and conveys no information
which can ever be practically useful. Sooner than suffer
my pupil to learn to read without horror many beautiful
passages he should read nothing but Theocritus and
Anacreon. It is better to soften the mind of a boy
of fifteen by a picture of a tender shepherdess hanging
upon the neck of her lover than to set it on fire by a
description of brains dashed out, bellies ripped open,
blood streaming around, and convulsed heroes gnawing
the earth in agony. But neither is. necessary.
To the mathematical school there can be no objec
tion, provided the trustees watch over it and prevent
it becoming a mere ciphering school. Half the rules
of the common books of arithmetic are useless to one
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NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
who understands the principles of algebra. Arithmetic
is generally a heavy study to boys, because it is ren
dered entirely a business of memory, no reasons being
assigned for the rules. A schoolbook of arithmetic
accompanied with demonstrations is much wanted. We
do boys from seven to fifteen years old great injustice
in supposing they cannot reason.
Natural philosophy and history ought to have a
fair proportion of time. Moral science and political
economy ought to have a separate school. Adam
Smith's book, " The Wealth of Nations," ought to be
the groundwork of a very principal instruction. We
much want a schoolbook upon this subject. It is a
subject the most necessary for an American citizen.
Two more schools are allotted to languages, that
is, to words. The time, class, or school allotted to
English might include the French language, but under
separate teachers.
I highly approve the degree, neither more nor less,
of attention paid to writing.
I confess I am shocked at the first section of the
fifth chapter. Let us first examine into the meaning
of the word punishment as generally understood, and
as intended here. Is it not synonymous with revenge?
As an American republican I may ask what right has
any human being to prescribe laws to the actions of
any other unless they be injurious to him ? What right
has any American citizen to say to any other, " You
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
shall get Quis, quae, quid by heart by a certain time
or you shall be punished"? What injury does the
punisher receive from the neglect? Can he even plead
the savage law of retaliation? But suppose the fault
to be punished to be of the active kind. Suppose tricks
be played, and quibs and crackers thrown in the school.
Then punishment can only be just, as it is retaliation,
as it is revenge. Punishment upon this principle — and
my reasoning applies to all legislative punishment — is,
in fact, a repetition of the offense, and most frequently
it is a repetition with aggravation. If the punishment
be, as. we falsely say, just, or exactly adequate to the
crime, that is, if the pain, or evil, or inconvenience
inflicted upon the criminal be equal to that occasioned
by him, the moral nature of the act of punishment
would stand in the place and be as bad as that of the
crime if the crime had not preceded it. And will any
one say that moral actions are good or bad according
to their succession in the order of time?
This reasoning appears to me to be mathematical,
and by no means puts an end to social order and dis
cipline. We have mistaken the moral rights of com
munities because we have mistaken the moral rights
of man. We have taken it for granted that retaliation
is a law of nature because it is the propensity of edu
cated man. But can that be a law of nature that in
its mildest form doubles the injury committed? Nor
is it certain that the propensity is natural, because the
76 '

NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
desire of revenge may, by education, be rendered as
perpetually absent from the mind of the dervish and the
true Christian as it is perpetually present to that of the
Cherokee and the Arab. We Christians who cherish
laws of honor are in the situation of the Cherokee.
The original rights of man are bounded by his in
dividual existence and his individual interests. They
are self-preservation and self-defense. I cannot con
ceive a principle upon which they can be further ex
tended. A society is an interchange and a union of
these individual rights. Every individual has a right
to enter into compact by mutual consent for mutual
preservation and defense, and under this compact to
observe certain laws. But, what right have I to force
any man or boy into my society and to make him
observe its laws? If an individual of my society re
fuse to conform to its rules, let him be removed. If,
after agreeing to abide by them, he is guilty of their
violation, that act cancels his title to protection, and
he ceases to be a member of it. The preservation and
defense of the society require his removal, and the
society has a right to remove him. A school is such
a society, as far as the rights of one individual over
the other extend. It is an institution for the good of
its members, and my argument might be strengthened
by considering the matter in another point of view, and
deciding upon the morality of what is called punish
ment by its utility. 77

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As far as punishment is the effect upon the pun
ished and not the act of the punisher, so far is exclusion
from the society the severest that can be suffered. It
involves the society in no immoral act, and it makes
unhappiness what it is in nature, in spite of human
ingenuity to invert her order, synonymous with mis
conduct. This fact applies particularly to a school.
Does a boy f ear . the ferula half as much as a tempo
rary separation from his schoolmates? We all know
the contrary.
If this be mere theory, look at experience. Crimes,
she teaches us, abound in every State, in proportion to
the multitude and severity pf penal laws. This proves
that if they be immoral, they are at the same time
ineffectual. On the other hand, examine that great and
first experiment in the moral science of mind — the peni
tentiary house at Philadelphia. I may be told that it
is an insult to an academy to compare it to a prison.
Is it not a greater to make it a place of execution, and
to erect in it a whipping, post ? So much for the punish
ment. But as to the exception, it is worse than the rule.
No boy of sixteen and upward is to receive corporeal '
punishment. Those under that age — the more inno
cent, the more incapable of resistance, those who being
more' ignorant are less guilty — they are to be punished!
The lenity of public and private admonition is very
laudable. But I do not. like the title of the "Book
of Disgrace." It will tend only to fix a stigma upon
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NATIONAL SYSTEM OF' EDUCATION
a boy, which he may not practically wipe off again by
ever so good behavior. It betrays anger against those
recorded in it and excites it in them. If such a book
must be kept, why not call it what it is, the " Record of
Misconduct." It occurs to me that in this country, however, such
a record were improper, unless every boy on leaving
the school could be satisfied that the record of his mis
conduct were destroyed. How most injuriously might
not the youthful follies of a meritorious citizen be
brought forward against him from such a record —
from political or any other hostile motives ! The inten
tion of the book is obvious and good; but it appears to
me to be very open to abuse in its application.
No master ought to be permitted to punish at his
discretion, under the idea of punishment evidently es
tablished by these rules. He will punish promptly if
he has the power. If punishment be admitted, it
should be delayed and considered. The very act of
punishment, though begun in the most philosophic tem
per and coldest blood, excites anger by the habitual
association of angry feelings with inflicted blows, and
the last strokes are always the severest. If begun while
the irritation of the offense is fresh, the floggings will
be, what, to the disgrace of humanity and of reason, it
is in all the schools which I have ever known, the most
flagitious act committed within their walls. I cannot
bear the idea, besides, of tormenting the poor little
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boys and letting the strong fellows escape. The per
sonal feeling of the master, operating by rules of
capricious dislike or favoritism, will dictate the inflic
tion and the measure of the punishment.
As I have already given you my sentiments so
freely upon the by-laws as they are before me, I will
add a few words more :
Nothing can be of greater importance than to
render the study of language and science amusing to
the scholars. The former is always disagreeable to the
boys, especially at first. On this account the most
entertaining authors ought to be put into their hands.
I have, therefore, recommended such as I thought
agreeable when I was very young. Much will, how
ever, also depend upon the method of the master.
For the preservation of the morals of the boys they
should be under constant inspection. But this inspec
tion should not be constant government. Therefore
the hours unoccupied by school ought to be devoted to
established games of ingenuity and activity under the
eye of the master, or usher, whose sole interference
should be to prevent dispute and decide doubtful cases
of skill, unless he chose to play with them, which could
not, I think, degrade the greatest philosopher under
heaven. The rewards should be impressive trifles.
Cricket, running, swinging, seesaw, and tops may
be thus made moral amusements. If the boys be
moderately fatigued by exercise in the day, they will
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NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
be glad to go to bed and rest at night, when otherwise
they would be planning adventures of fifty sorts. I
know by my own experience much of the ingenuity of
boys to contrive nocturnal rambles and meetings, and
I believe they are everywhere alike, and differ only
according to their management.
But the most amusing and useful recreations to
boys, and indeed a most important one to the com
munity, would be their being trained to arms and
military evolutions. While arms wound, and men,
believing their separate interests to be different from
those of the human race, have recourse to arms to de
cide their quarrels, every citizen ought to learn how
to defend himself against, and repel, a hired soldier.
If this be learned by the boy, it will never be forgotten
by the man. Let their officers be chosen by themselves
for a limited term, so as to give each the chance of a
turn. Let the principal, or the trustees, commission
them. Their mothers will find them uniforms. If in
every neighborhood throughout the State the boys from
seven to fifteen were regimented, and called out to
parade frequently, no useful labor would be lost, no
public expense incurred, a well-trained and disciplined
militia would be formed, always ready to act though
unexercised for many years. Habits acquired at so
early a period of life are never lost, as no one forgets
how to dance, to swim, to ride, or to skate. This is
enough for a hint. 81

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I am sure no apology is necessary to you for the
freedom of these remarks. Had I kept back my senti
ments then I ought to have apologized. Your academy
has an early stand upon the list of Virginian attempts
at rational education, and if I may judge from the
hearts and heads of its promoters, it will be as suc
cessful as it is early in its exertions in the cause of
mankind. Esto perpetual

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CHAPTER V
PHILADELPHIA Richmond, April 19, 1798.
W^AR fetched and dear bought" as the proverb
A. says, are epithets that human pride has made
almost synonymous with excellent, valuable,
and useful. Talk to an Englishman of white marble
columns of the United States Bank, thirty feet high, and
he is astonished at the magnificence of the said columns.
In London indeed such columns would not only be mag
nificent, but really valuable. They would contain the
value of all labor necessary to bring them thither from
some place where they were equally magnificent, but
less valuable, by the whole amount of that labor. As
nine-tenths of our American, even our Virginian ideas
and prejudices, are English, a very large proportion of
the admiration which we have bestowed upon the said
white marble columns has been bestowed upon the
material, the white marble. Now it happens to be a
fact that any other material besides white marble
was not to be easily procured at Philadelphia. And
so common is its use that the steps to the meanest house
and cheeks to cellar doors are frequently made of it.
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Gray marble, something like that of Carrara, is equally
common. I do not know where the quarries are
situated. The white marble columns of the bank are full of
bluish and yellowish veins, but they have, notwithstand
ing, a very beautiful appearance. Sufficient attention
has not been paid to the successive heights of the
blocks, nor are the joints level. The plain workman
ship is well executed. The sculpture is not good.
April 20, 1798.
While I was at Philadelphia, William Cobbett,
alias Peter Porcupine, did me the honor of the follow
ing notice. The paragraph furnished me with a hearty
laugh, and I am not a little pleased with the post
humous honor done to my father's memory, who has
been dead about eleven years. Miss Willems is Mrs.
Green, for whose benefit the apology was acted. She
was a very good dancer, and sings very well, though
in the style of the English stage, which does not please
here. She is a very respectable woman, and a mother.
I am sorry to have been the occasion of the abuse thrown
upon her, although the abuse of Porcupine is, in gen
eral, a certain proof of merit.
" A FARCE AND A FIRE
" At Sans-culotte Richmond, the metropolis of
Negro-land, alias the Ancient Dominion, alias Virginia,
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PHILADELPHIA
there was, some time ago, a farce acted for the benefit
of a girl by the name of Willems, whose awkward gait
and gawky voice formerly contributed to the ridicule
of the people of Philadelphia.
" The farce was called the Apology; it was intended
to satirize me and Mr. Alexander Hamilton (I am
always put in good company), and some other friends
of the federal Government. The thing is said to be
the most detestably dull that ever was mouthed by
strollers. The author is one La Trobe, the son of an
old seditious dissenter; and I am informed that he is
now employed in the erecting of a Penitentiary House,
of which he is very likely to be the first tenant.
" In short, the farce was acted, and the very next
night the playhouse was burnt down! I have not heard
whether it was by lightning or not."
The intelligence was conveyed, as I understood at
Philadelphia, to Peter Porcupine by a letter from Rich
mond, written in order to counteract the effect of some
letters of recommendation which I carried with me
with a view to the design of an arsenal at Harper's
Ferry. My stay at Philadelphia was too short to enable me
to say anything concerning the state of society there.
As far as I did observe, I could see no difference be
tween Philadelphian and English manners. The same
style of living, the same opinions as to fashions, tastes,
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comforts, and accomplishments. Nor can it be well
otherwise. The perpetual influx of Englishmen, the
constant intercourse of the merchants — here the lead
ers of manners and fashion — with England, must
produce this effect. In Virginia, where this influx and
intercourse is not so great, there appears a shade of
character somewhat different.
Political fanaticism was, during my residence in
Philadelphia, at its acme. The communications from
our envoys in Paris, the stories about X Y Z and the
lady, etc., were fresh upon the carpet. British influence
may be denied by one party, and French influence
asserted. But a very short residence in Philadelphia
will leave no doubt upon that subject. To be civilly
received by the fashionable people, and to be invited to
the President's, it is necessary to visit the British am
bassador. To be on terms with Chevelier D'Yrujo, or
General Kosciusko even, is to be a marked democrat,
unfit for the company of the lovers of order and good
government. This I saw. Many of my Virginian
friends say I must be mistaken.
I boarded at Francis's hotel. It is a much cheaper
house than any I have been at in the Virginian towns.
For breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper, exclusive of
liquors and fire, you pay $8 a week. At the Virginian
house 7/6 per day or $8.75, exclusive of liquors, tea,
supper, and fire.
I left Philadelphia on Wednesday morning, April
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PHILADELPHIA
nth, in the mail stage. The weather was very bad
again, the roads, however, were better than when I came
up. Between Philadelphia and Chester we lamed a
horse, which accident delayed us near two hours.
Dined at Wilmington. Got very late to the head of
Elk, and through the most horrid of roads from thence
to the Susquehannah at half-past twelve. It was very
calm, but a strong fresh in the river rendered crossing
tedious. At Barney's, where we arrived at half-past
one, there was neither fire nor supper provided. After
much grumbling we procured both, and got to bed
about half-past two. At four we were again in the
stage, breakfasted at Hartford, and arrived in Balti
more at eleven o'clock. The weather cleared up, but
the roads were as bad as ever. Breakfasted the morn
ing of the 13th at Spurriers, dined at Bladensburg.
Bladensburg is a little village on the eastern branch of
the Potomac, and has a very picturesque situation in
a deep valley, surrounded by woody eminences. We
stopped a few minutes in the federal city, during
which time I rambled over the Capitol. We got to
Georgetown and crossed the Potomac an hour before
sunset. Scarce, however, had we proceeded half a
mile before we broke our splinter bar. Mr. Rogers
and I therefore resolved to walk on. It was soon dark
and began to rain, and we trudged up to our knees in
mud a great part of the way to Alexandria. The stage
overtook us just as we entered the town, about ten
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o'clock. At three we again resumed our journey.
We had a very pleasant day and a very pleasant party,
so that I forgot my excessive fatigue and a dreadful
cold. The trees on this side of the Potomac seemed at
least a fortnight more forward in vegetation than they
were in Pennsylvania. We breakfasted at Colchester,
dined at Stratford Court-house, and arrived at Fred-
ericsburg about six o'clock. I took up my quarters at
Mr. John Minor's, where I stayed also Sunday, the
15th. Spent the evening with Mr. Slackley. Set off
again Monday morning at three, and arrived in Rich
mond at half-past five. The only tolerable roads on
the whole journey are between Fredericsburg and
Richmond. The expense of going to Philadelphia from Rich
mond in the stage is as follows :
Stage to Fredericsburg.. $3.50 Breakfast 2/6, —3/—.. $0.50
Stage to Georgetown. . . 3.50 Dinner, 6/—  1.00
Stage to Baltimore  4-75 Bed and supper, 4/6—. .75
Mail to Philadelphia. . . 8.00 
Heavy stage to do. $5.00 ' *
#16775^1^77 ^ive days   #.1.25
* y Stage  $19.75
Expenses  11.25
#31.00
N. B. — The heavy stage arrives later in Phila
delphia and occasions more expense on the road, but
returning the $3 are a clear saving, if you can proceed
immediately from Baltimore.

PHILADELPHIA Richmond, April 26, 1798.
Among the buildings of Philadelphia I did not
mention the house of Robert Morris, because I knew
not what to say about it in order to record the appear
ance of the monster in a few words. Indeed I can
scarcely at this moment believe in the existence of what
I have seen many times, of its complicated, unintelli
gible mass. Though I was in the pile, I protest against
any inquiries from me as to the plan, for I cannot
possibly answer them.
Mr. L'Enfant, the architect, never exhibited his
drawings to any but Mr. Morris and his wife, so that
I could not obtain any information of the intention of
the different parts of the building from my friends who
have been very often in it, and were well acquainted
with Mr. Morris and also with L'Enfant.
The external dimensions of the house are very large.
I suppose the front must be at least one hundred and
twenty feet long, and I think the flank cannot be less
than sixty. Every side of the house is as yet in the
most unfinished state possible, although much of the
marble dressing is entirely complete in patches and
the whole building is covered in. The south front is
not yet raised from the ground in the center part, but
part of each side is quite finished. The roof, in the
meantime, is carried by shares. At each angle is a sort
of a bow, or tower, or what you please, for it would
be difficult to define the sort of thing by any one term.
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It consists of two square and three curvilinear faces,
the square faces projecting about nine inches before the
other. In each face is a window in each of the two
stories. The windows, at least some of them, and the
others appear unfinished, are cased in white marble

A STUDY IN HEADS.
with moldings, entablatures, architraves, and sculpture
mixed up in the oddest and most inelegant manner
imaginable; all the proportions are bad, all the hori
zontal and perpendicular lines broken to pieces, the
whole mass giving the idea of the reign of Louis XIII
in France or James I in England. I cannot anyhow
conceive by what accident the windows were finished
90

PHILADELPHIA
in the order they are. For some in the east, others in
the west, a few in the north, and one or two in the
south, have their dressings complete, while their neigh
bors still exhibit the rough brick wall. There is a re
cess, across which a colonnade of one-story columns was
intended, the two lateral ones being put up, with a
piece of their architrave reaching to the wall; I cannot
guess what was intended above them. There is a wide
opening with an elliptical rough arch in the brick wall.
Conjecture is entirely baffled here, nor could I obtain
the smallest information what could be intended. In
the south front are two angle porches. The angle
porches are irresistibly laughable things, and violently
ugly. The bow is open to the roof, the bases only of
the columns being laid in niches, as in the front of St.
Peter's at Rome, from which I hope they were copied,
as such a madness in modern architecture stands in great
need of a powerful apology. The pilasters are carried
up, however, to their neckings, and being diminished,
they look horrible — indeed everybody who sees them
supposes they have given way and are ready to fall
down. There is a profusion of wretched sculpture
about these fragments of porticoes and scraps of colon
nades. The sockets of all the architraves are enriched.
with panels and foliage. The capitals of the columns
are of the worst taste. They are a sort of composite,
and resemble those of the  at Rome, the pro
duction of the worst times of the art. The roof is
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an immense mansard, and on the top of it are three
or four prominent skylights.
The whole mass altogether gives no idea at first
sight to the mind sufficiently distinct to leave an
impression. I went several times to the spot and
gazed upon it with astonishment before I could
form any conception of its composition. It singularly
made me wish to take a drawing of it, but the
very bad weather prevented me. It is impossible to
decide which of the two is the madder, the architect
or his employer. Both of them have been ruined by it.
It is now sold to Mr. Sansom of the Pennsylvania
Bank, who means to convert it, as I am told, into five
houses. This is the house of which I had frequently been
told in Virginia that it was the handsomest thing in
America. April 27, 1798.
The Capitol in the federal city, though, as I men
tioned in my journal at Philadelphia, it is faulty in ex
ternal detail, is one of the first designs of modern
times. As I shall receive a plan of it from either Dr.
Thornton or Mr. Volney, I mean to devote a particular
discussion to it at my leisure. April 29, 1798.
On inspecting the plan of the city of Philadelphia,
and observing the numerous wide and straight streets,
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PHILADELPHIA
it will not be easily believed that want of ventilation
can be entirely the cause of the yellow fever which has
made such dreadful and frequent devastations among
the inhabitants. It is true that there are narrow and

often very filthy alleys which intersect the interior of
the squares bounded by the principal streets and in
which the air may stagnate. The back yards of most
of the houses are also depositories of filth to a degree
which is surprising, if the general cleanly character of
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the Pennsylvanians be considered. There must be some
cause more powerful and more specific. This cause
may, I believe, be found in the following circumstance :
The soil between the Delaware and Schuylkill is
generally flat, and though not entirely so, yet it has
strongly the appearance of being factitious, that is,
deposited by the two rivers ; or perhaps it was the shal
lowest part of the bed of the Delaware and Schuylkill
united, at the period when the waters of all these North
American rivers were elevated between one hundred
and two hundred feet above their present levels. At
that time, then, the present Delaware and Schuylkill
were perhaps two channels only in this immense river.
The soil consists of a bed of clay of different depth,
from ten to thirty feet. It is excellent brick earth, being
very smooth and free beneath the surface from stone
or gravel. Below this bed of clay is universally a
stratum of sand. In this sand runs a stratum of water,
and as it is impossible to dig into it without finding
clear and excellent water in an inexhaustible quantity,
let the wells and pumps be ever so near to each other,
it appears to me not at all extravagant to suppose that
the waters of the two rivers unite through this sand
stratum, which serves as a filtering bed. The water
naturally, therefore, is universally as clear as crystal
and tastes as sweet and as free from heterogeneous
particles as possible. But this very circumstance, the
inexhaustible supply of clear water to be found in
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PHILADELPHIA
every possible spot of ground, and which must have
appeared the most tempting inducement to its projector,
Penn, to found here a city, is the great cause, in my
opinion, of the contagion which appears now to be an
annual disease of Philadelphia, the yellow fever. The
houses being much crowded, and the situation flat,
without subterraneous sewers to carry off the filth, every
house has its privy and its drains which lodge their sup-^
plies in one boghole sunk into the ground at different
depths. Many of them are pierced to the sand, and as
those which are sunk thus low never fill up, there is a
strong temptation to incur the expense of digging them
deep at first to save the trouble and noisomeness of
emptying them.
In every street, close to the footpath, is a range of
pumps at the distance of about sixty or seventy feet
from which all the water which is used for drinking
or culinary purposes is drawn. The permeability of
the stratum in which the water runs, and which the
action of the pump draws to itself from all parts round
it, must certainly contaminate the water of every pump
in the neighborhood of a sink loaded with the filth
of the family, and as the number of these sinks is very
superior to that of the pumps, each of them is in a
manner surrounded by noxious matter. That this must
be the case is evident from these facts: i. Those who
now live in the heart of the town, as in Fifth, Sixth, or
Seventh streets, but who can remember when their
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houses were in the skirts of the city, complain that
their water is growing worse since the accumulation of
houses beyond them. 2. All the public buildings, which
have large open squares around them, as the State
House, the penitentiary house, the hospital, etc., have
excellent water, and their pumps are resorted to by all
their neighborhood. 3. All the houses on the skirts
of the town, from Ninth to Eleventh streets, have ad
mirable water as yet. 4. In the rest of the city the
water is not to be drunk, and it is worst in the most
crowded neighborhoods. It appeared to me to taste
as if it contained putrid matter. 5. Before the pumps
were furnished with iron ladles, chained to the stocks,
for the purpose of drinking at them, those who were
desirous of satiating their thirst at the pump — which
very frequently happened to the lower class of people
in the violent heat of summer — had no other method
than to put their mouths to the spout, while they used
the handle. It was, therefore, a very common thing
that people fell down dead at the pump. This was
accounted for by their drinking the cold water while
they were heated by exercise. But it appears to me
infinitely more probable that the water in the pump,
loaded with all kinds of putrid and putrifying animal
substances, was in a state of chemical dissolution, and
that a noxious gas, containing probably a very large
portion of azote, swam, and was confined upon its sur
face, the top of the pump being closed by an ornamental
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PHILADELPHIA
knob. This gas was, of course, forced into the mouth
by the raising of the bucket and inhaled strongly, as
everyone who is going to drink at a stream draws in his
breath with great force. Instantaneous suspension of
life must be the consequence. I have been assured by
a very respectable and credible man who lived long in
Philadelphia, and was a very active member of the cor
poration, that to his knowledge no less than thirteen
men thus died at the pump in one day, and that no
such accident had ever been heard of since the ladles
were provided.
Thus, therefore, we have a proof that there does
exist in the mode by which the city is supplied with
water a very abundant source of disease, independent
of the noxious exhalations of the narrow and filthy
alleys and lanes. It is true that the inhabitants of
Philadelphia drink very little water. It is too bad to
be drunk, and that which is used in tea and cookery
loses, no doubt, most, if not all, of its noxious quality.
But the evil lies in the constant fermentation of the
stratum of water and production of mephitic air, to
which the pumps are so many chimneys to convey it
into the streets and open windows at all times, and from
which it is regularly pumped up every time the handle
is depressed. As to the public sewers, there are not very many
of them, and I do believe they are productive of much
mischief. That in Dock Street is a very great evil,
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but it spreads over a small extent of the city and
through a very few streets, for I believe it produces no
noxious vapors excepting when the tide is out.
The great scheme of bringing the water of the
Schuylkill to Philadelphia to supply the city is now
become an object of immense importance, though it is
at present neglected from a failure of funds. The
evil, however, which it is intended collaterally to correct
is so serious and of such magnitude as to call loudly
upon all who are inhabitants of Philadelphia for their
utmost exertions to complete it.

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CHAPTER VI
THE HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
Fredericksburg, July 9, 1796.
AMONG the many ingenious insects that I have
met with in Virginia, the dirt-daubers, more
decently called masons, are particularly worth
notice. They are a species of wasp of a dark-blue
color. Their cells are built of clay and are in ap
pearance somewhat similar to the nests of the English
house martins. I have not had an opportunity of ex
amining them, but am told that each cell contains an
egg and a spider. They are now at work; later in the
year I shall break into one of their fortresses ; at present
I think it a pity to put them out of their way. My
attention was this morning drawn to one of them who
was walking up and down his mud fort. Near him
a very large spider had extended his net, but had left
it to attack a caterpillar about two inches long, which
was crawling up the wall in order to suspend itself and
retire into the state of a chrysalis. The spider was of
a dark-purple color, with one large and two small. white
spots on his abdomen and a few slight white marks
down the sides. The thorax was almost black. His
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legs were short and very thick and mottled with white.
He had but lately begun his meal, for his body was
not much extended. I attacked him with a straw. He
immediately ran off sideways with his load, the cubic
contents of which were at least eight or ten times as
large as himself; but upon being closely pursued he
dropped it and suspended himself from my straw by
a thread. I wound him up upon it and put him near
the dirt-dauber. The wasp seemed immediately in great
agitation, and ran at him. The spider must have given
the wasp a bite, for he darted back. However, he soon
attacked him again and again retreated. The spider
seemed willing to decline the combat, and I had some
trouble to keep him near the wasp's fortification. My
curiosity was, however, balked, for the dirt-dauber got
entangled among some neighboring cobwebs and the
spider took the opportunity of my endeavoring to ex
tricate him to drop himself by a thread into a crevice
beyond my reach. The wasp cleaned his wings and
legs with great address and then flew off. He soon
returned with some dirt held between his legs. The
road to his cells was through an abattoir of cobwebs, and
I observed that the wasp took particular care to clean
himself every time he flew off by running to some clear
place and using his legs like a fly. They are no doubt
furnished with means superior to other insects to clear
their bodies of the glutinous threads of the spider, as
their subsistence seems to depend upon their engaging
IOO

HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
among cobwebs. My wasp cleared himself easily of
what would have destroyed a large humming bee.
Rippon Lodge, July 18, 1796.
A whole forenoon has been employed by me in
examining the operations of these ingenious wasps,
without being yet able to understand completely their
domestic economy. Behind a number of framed prints
which hang in the drawing-room here a large colony
had established their cells, all of which I destroyed and
searched. Their cells are of two kinds, but whether
two species of the same insect construct them or whether
eggs of different females of the same are deposited in
them, I have not yet discovered. The first kind consists
of a tube which is continued without internal divisions
at first for some length, perhaps four or five inches.
The second consists of separate cells joined to one an
other in a parallel arrangement, each of which is begun
and finished before the next is constructed. The former
seem to be executed with more neatness, the latter with
more strength, the dirt being daubed over them in a
great number of layers. I have not seen any of the
masons in the act of bringing dirt to the cells, but from
the quantity which every cell requires, their labor must
be very great. Internally each species of cell is finished
and filled alike. I think the horizontal cells, however,
are somewhat less in general.
The inside of the cells is made perfectly even and
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smooth. The mason had fixed his work to the back of
the print frame and made use of the wood as part of
his internal finishing without being at the trouble
of carrying his coat of dirt all round; and I have seen
one instance of a pipe being constructed in a hollow
molding of a panel, so as to save nearly half the labor
which a flat surface would have demanded. The dirt
has the appearance of being platted, the mason while
at work keeping the edge always in an angular form,
the point of which is upward, and working first on one
and then on the other leg of the angle. The tube
being carried to a satisfactory length, the mason col
lects as many spiders as will fill about three-fourths of
an inch, for the cells are not exactly equal in length.
The poor devils are crammed in with unrelenting
cruelty as tight as possible. I have counted twenty-
seven in two cells, twelve in one frequently, often only
six or seven if they happened to be large ones, and once
as many as sixteen small yellow spiders in one cell.
Upon opening many of the cells these miserable crea
tures were still alive, though so languid that they could
but barely move, and soon died when exposed to the
sun. I have been often shocked and distressed at the
scenes of cruelty and misery that seem to form a part
of the system of nature, but I scarce ever saw so dread
ful a contrivance of torment as appears to be employed
by the masons against the poor spiders, if we may rea
son upon their feelings from our own. The variety of
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HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
spiders collected by these industrious robbers is much
greater than my own curiosity ever exhibited to me in
my searches after subjects of natural history. They
remain in the cells in very good preservation even when
dead, not being in the least mutilated till devoured by
the grub for whose food they are provided.
Having filled the cell with spiders the mason then
lays an egg into the lower part of it and closes it up
with dirt. Another stop is then put to the head of the
next cell close to the stop of the last, and the same pro
vision laid in. The horizontal cells are managed in
the same way. The egg produces as usual a grub. The
uppermost cell produces the first complete insect. It
is astonishing with what dexterity the mason attacks,
conquers, and bears off a large spider much heavier than
himself. In the woods they fix their pipes to the south
sides of overhanging rocks. The young mason makes
a hole in the side of his cell to extricate himself.
Fredericksburg, July 24, 1796.
Wasps and hornets. I believe all insects of this
class have more or less ingenuity, from the honey-and-
wax-making bee down to the little wasp who persecutes
the caterpillars and deposits his eggs in their bodies.
1. The first wasp I have observed in Virginia ap
peared as early as March. He was a long slender
black fellow, very busy, and I was told that his sting
is very acute. He suspends his comb from ceilings of
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outhouses and branches of trees, where I have found
them with about a dozen hexagonal cells and eggs in
the beginning of May. I have not observed them
since. 2. The next that excited my attention was the
mason. He was at work the beginning of June, in
Amelia, and I suppose everywhere else in this State.
3. A large humble-be-looking insect at the same
time attracted my notice. He was at work in an orifice
he had made in a piece of timber. I am told their
passages are sometimes a foot or two long. Captain
Murray told me he had often traced them to that
length, but I have never had the means of examining
either the insect or his work.
4. At Rippon Lodge some wasps were at work in
the bench of the portico in the same manner. I could
not get one of them, but I blew up part of their pas
sages with gunpowder. One of them was full of saw
dust at the outer end. Farther on seemed to be
chrysalides which were mashed in being taken out. I
followed another for some inches, but it was empty.
In appearance the insect resembled the bald-face hornet.
5. The bald-face hornet. This dangerous fly is
proverbially fierce. If he is disturbed he darts at the
face of the intruder with great force and inflicts in a
moment a sting, the pain and swelling of which are
most extraordinary. He is not so large as the English
hornet, but much larger than a bee. He derives his
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HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
name from the pale-yellow color of his face. His body
is also spotted with straw color and the two low folds
of his abdomen are jagged with yellow. His sting is
black and very long and thick. A yellow bag adheres
to it when drawn. The females as well as the males
are furnished with this weapon, for one of them whom
I was examining laid an egg into my hand. Their nest
is strongly wrought into the leaves of a twig by which
it is suspended from the branch of a tree. The external
covering is composed of a number of thin, tough flakes
resembling parchment, which turn the wet most com
pletely. Near the bottom is a hole at which the hornets
enter and depart, and the nest may be easily taken and
destroyed by stopping this hole in the night with a
cork. In the inside are different cakes of hexagonal
cells. That which I saw had two. They were placed
obliquely, and the entrance hole was between them, and
served both cakes. The young hornets come to ma
turity successively. Many of the cells were empty, hav
ing discharged the brood ; others contained small, others
large grubs, and others were closed and held a chrysalis.
The grub is very similar to that of the mason reversed,
having a thick head and a slender tail. These nests
are sometimes found as big as a bushel. That which
I saw was about as big as the head of a boy of ten
years old. The food of these furies is flies. One of
them fell into my butter dish at breakfast with his
prisoner. They follow their prey into houses and are
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unpleasant visitors, but they do not sting unless pro
voked. 6. In the side of a bank at Mr. Thornton's a swarm
of bees was supposed to exist. We went to the attack
of them, but found the family very few in number,
though there were a great many holes. The bees all
escaped. In opening the holes I found they continued
a few inches into the bank perfectly cylindrical and
smooth; in one or two was a white grub. I did not
see any of the bees, so called.
7. In searching for the bees we discovered in a
neighboring stump a colony of scarlet wasps, longer and
lanker than the masons. Their comb was suspended
from a jag of the stump and exactly similar to that of
the common wasp. It was full of bluish worms in dif
ferent stages.
8. The yellow jacket I have not examined, but he
appears to be when on wing very like the common
wasp, and I am informed burrows in the ground in the
same manner.
The bees, the black, the scarlet and the yellow wasps,
and the bald-face hornet, feed their grubs in the cells
during their growth with daily supplies. In this they all
differ from the mason, who is, I think, one of the most
whimsical of God's works. The bees have something
of his forethought and their materials are more useful
to man and better manufactured, and they are therefore
more noticed and admired. But the odd predilection
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HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
of the mason for spiders, his separate provisions for
each grub, and his cruelty seem very eccentric instincts.
The spiders of Virginia may truly be said to fear the
blue devils. Richmond, June 29, 1797.
On the 6th of June I went down to the Dismal
Swamp, being engaged in a survey of the property of
the old Dismal Swamp Company. On the 25th I re
ceived a letter from the Governor of Virginia inform
ing me that my plan of the penitentiary house was
adopted by the executive, and desiring me to return
immediately to Richmond to direct the first steps for
carrying it into effect. I set off the next day, and ar
rived through Portsmouth, etc., and Petersburg at this
place on the 27th. To-day I was admitted to an inter
view with the board of Council, and received their
instructions. I spent the morning of yesterday at Colonel Jo
Mayo's house, about one and one-half miles from Pence
on the western road. The wasps called dirt-daubers or
masons were very busy behind the framed prints in his
dining room. This mason, whose cells are joined longi
tudinally and form one tube, seems to be the most com
mon of the two. The proverb, " Two of a trade can
never agree," does not apply to these two species of
spider catchers. I have found both species at work
behind the same picture. 107

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There is a considerable difference, however, not only
in their manner of constructing their cells, but in the
structure of their bodies. The Sphex carulea is of a
very blue color, the other, which is not described by
Linnaeus, is quite black, and spotted on the thorax and
thighs with yellow. The former has a petiolated ab
domen, but the petiole increases gradually from its
union with the thorax; the petiole of the latter is of
equal thickness till it suddenly swells at its union with
the abdomen. The nose of the former is somewhat
pointed, of the latter it is broad, emarginate, and
slightly turned up.
In lifting the picture from the wall, I injured several
of the cells of the industrious workman ; the dirt stick
ing to the wall being torn off. I held up the frame a
little and he soon returned to work, bringing with him
a round lump of dirt. He had just begun a new cell,
but seeing his former work disturbed he ran rapidly
over the cells seemingly doubtful what to do. At last
he put down the lump upon one of the holes I had
made, and began spreading it with his nose, pushing
it out before him with the action of a hog who is root
ing. While he did this he made a shrill, buzzing noise.
Having plastered up the hole very completely and
neatly, he flew away. In about four minutes he re
turned with another lump of dirt. He put this down
upon another hole, and stopped it up in the same man
ner, and thus he employed himself four times. The
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DIRT-DAUBERS' CELLS.

HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
fifth time he brought his dirt to his new cell, and was
proceeding to go on with it — having completed his re
pairs — when I pressed the picture to the wall, and thus
caught him.
I then opened his cells, beginning with the lowest,
and being curious to ascertain in what manner the
quantity of spider flesh collected for the worm is as
certained, as the size of the spiders is very various, I
weighed them.
From the trial it appears that the quantity of food
collected for each worm is nearly the same in weight,
about seven and one-half grains, notwithstanding the
difference of the spiders in number, some of the
cells containing twenty-two or twenty-three and some
only eighteen, and the difference of weight was only
proportioned to the consumption of spiders in each.
It also appears that the worm, whose weight at his first
escape from the eggs scarce amounts to the fifth part
of a grain, weighs at his full growth about one-half
as much as the food that reared him.
The whole class of insects called by Linnaeus Hy-
menoptera seem endowed with singular modes of econo
my, with much ingenuity and almost reasoning faculties.
The ichneumon lays his eggs in the bodies of other
insects or animals. The sphex is a careful provider of
substance through the life of his young progeny. The
vespa is an architect; the apis follows many trades,
building, making wax, and collecting honey, etc., etc.
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The ingenuity of the formica, the ant, exceeds perhaps
that of all the others.
When my sphex saw the dilapidation I had occa
sioned in his cells, he must have thought and reasoned
upon what he should do. The mischief was done in
his absence. The mud he brought on his return was
intended to build a new cell. But seeing the injury
done to the old ones, he altered his plan and before
he proceeded to build the new ones he thoroughly re
paired the former. Richmond, July 12, 1797.
Since my arrival I have been entirely engaged in set
ting out the foundations of the new penitentiary house,
and in getting forward the provisory steps for its erec
tion. Although so near Richmond, and so much fre
quented by cattle, the steep gravelly knoll upon which
the house is to stand, abounds in snakes and scorpions,
as a poisonous lizard with a red head and green body
is here very improperly called. These reptiles found
the brick kiln, before it was set fire to, a very convenient
lodging house, and those who attended the burning of
the brick told me that as soon as the fire and smoke
began to incommode them they left their retreats in
great numbers and were seen crawling round the top
of the clamp till the fire put an end to their misery.
In clearing the ground several moccasins and scorpions
have been killed, of which I saw some.
no

HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
Two days ago the following singular circumstance
occurred, of which Major Quarrier, Colonel Burnley,
and myself were witnesses. The morning was ex
tremely hot — there had been a meeting of several mem
bers of the executive upon the ground, and we were
returning down the side of a hill, when we heard a
violent screaming of birds in a small, low bush. We
stopped, and saw two of the birds, called the French
mocking bird, furiously pecking at and fighting with
something which was hid in the bush. I got very near
them and perhaps disturbed them, for presently the
birds flew up the hill, close upon the ground, and a
large black snake followed them. They alighted upon
a tree near us and seemed in great agitation. Of the
snake we soon lost sight. On examining the bush we
found a young mocking bird alive, but wounded severe
ly in the back and bleeding much. I took it up. It
screamed, and was answered by the old one in the tree.
I therefore put it down again, went away, and presently
saw the old ones descend to its assistance. It should
seem that the snake had been robbing the nest during
the absence of the old birds. This is a very striking
instance of the strength and courage inspired by
parental affection.
Who will explain the difference of feeling in the
same person ? See how the poor little fly struggles in the
net and with what savage activity and joy the spider
weaves the web around him. He is yet too free, too
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unfettered, to be safely attacked ; he can move his wings,
he can move his legs, he buzzes violently with his
wings. But every thread robs him of some motion.
Already the action of his wings is clogged. He sinks
into the net that is every moment strengthened. Hold,
I will relieve thee, little sufferer ! But is this humanity?
Art thou not truly destined for the food of spiders by
the hand that created you both? Shall I interfere and,
by saving a life half destroyed, rob another of its sup
port? I will venture it.
And I took the fly gently from the web that
crossed the window of my office. One of the threads
brought the spider along, and he crawled upon my
hand. In the haste to brush him off I killed him.
" There is one life lost," said I, " and what have I
saved? "
My poor fly has one of his wings fastened over his
head by a thread of the web. I have removed it, but
the joint is dislocated and he cannot use the wing. He
buzzes violently with the other. But he cannot walk
or fly. His legs are tied together. How shall I hold
him so as not to hurt him?
With great care I at last cleared him of the filmy
fetters that bound him. But he is lame and hobbles
miserably along. Have I done him any good? The
office is full of spiders — one of them will catch him
again. So I turn.
" Here, Hannah! Clear away all these spiders to-
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HABITS OF CERTAIN VIRGINIA INSECTS
morrow morning. How can you let the office be in
this condition? "
" Dang 'em master! what between spiders and flies
I never saw such a place in my life. What were they
made for? I can't tell, I'm sure."
Alas! no more can I. We are equally ignorant
if the question were put respecting ourselves. To be
happy? Why then is half our life at least spent in
misery and a great part of the remainder in sleep and
apathy. Is there a smile but what is bought with a
tear? Is there a glory but what cost the wretchedness
of thousands? A feast but what is enriched by the
spoils of Death.
The Hindoo's advice is good: " Since all things are
uncertain, repose thyself."

H3

CHAPTER VII
THE BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL, WITH
EXPRESSIONS OF THE AUTHOR'S CANONS
OF ART
I WAS introduced in 1798 to Dr. William Thorn
ton, then one of the commissioners of Washing
ton City, by William McClure, Esq., now one
of the commissioners of the United States at Paris. I
was then on my way to Philadelphia to take upon me the
direction of the Bank of Pennsylvania and the supply
of the city with water. Of course I had no objects to
solicit in Washington. I spent the afternoon with the
doctor. One of the first subjects introduced was the
plan of the Capitol, of which he had a ground plan
and east elevation. Of the plan I had a copy given
me by Volney, and differing from that which has been
executed in some respects, and another by Hallet given
me by Mr. Greenleaf. With freedom, but without giv
ing offense, I objected to both plan and elevation, ex
actly on those points which I have since endeavored to
correct, and having taken great liberty in my remarks,
I offered to give to the doctor a drawing in per-
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
spective of his design which I trusted would convince
him of its errors. But he never sent me the necessary
materials. In the year 1803 I was appointed Surveyor of the
Public Buildings. I called for drawings to guide my
operations. The President gave me a plan, and Dr.
Thornton gave me another. They were copies of each
other and both perfectly useless ; neither of them agreed
with the work as founded or carried up, and there were
no details whatever. In the superintendent's office no
drawings existed. To speak plainly, the design was
evidently the production of a man wholly ignorant of
architecture, having brilliant ideas, but possessing
neither the knowledge necessary for the execution nor
the capacity to methodize and combine the various
parts of a public work. In some respects the plan as
far as it indicated what was intended was impracticable,
and in all respects it was so inconvenient and often use
less in its arrangements that I despaired of correcting
it. However, I gave to it several days of severe study,
and then stated to the President that I could not under
take its execution. He consented to alterations. I pro
posed consulting Dr. Thornton. The President said it
was unnecessary and would be useless. Having in the
course of a week, however, formed and reduced to
drawing all my proposed alterations, I called on the
doctor, to whom I believed much to be due on the score
of delicacy. I procured an interview, at which, after
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much argument and heat, he at last consented to admit
my ideas into the plan. But the next day he called
on me, and, with much irritation and using language
offensive and uncivil, he recanted. I began, however,
to build, with the consent of the President, agreeably to
my own plan, and in the foundations no great altera
tion was perceptible. The doctor and myself remained
on tolerable terms. The doctor, however, was not
silent, and I found myself assailed on all quarters by
members of the Congress that met in 1804 respecting
alterations of the plan approved by General Washing
ton, for on that point all objection turned. Even the
President wished no unnecessary alteration from the
plan approved by General Washington to be made.
When the committee met to consider the message on the
public buildings, I was called before them and asked
in writing to exhibit the plan approved by General
Washington. Previously to my appearing before the committee,
I called on Dr. Thornton in order to consult on my
answer. I was received with violent expressions of
anger. I was so harassed by the despair of executing
a work which would do me any sort of credit that I
sent in my resignation to the President, and begged to
decline all further attempt to correct errors which, in
spite of the utmost latitude and power and discretion
in my office, were too deeply rooted in the design not to
give me infinite trouble and vexation. My resignation
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
was not accepted. I therefore went on in the manner
which is now before the public.
Philadelphia, December 13, 1803.
The Honorable Aaron Burr, Vice-President of
the United States and President of the
Senate.
Sir: Soon after my appointment to the direction of
the public buildings at Washington, I did myself the
honor to address a letter to you at Charleston, on the
subject of rendering the chamber of the United States
Senate more commodious, and especially on the means
of warming it more effectually. I much fear that this
letter, which I transmitted by a private hand, did not
reach, it being probable that you had left Charleston
before it could arrive. In the meantime the early meet
ing of the Legislature rendered it necessary that the
best means which I could devise should be pursued to
ward accomplishing the latter object, and, with the ap
probation of the President of the United States, the
works, which I much regret were not completed, were
commenced. The faulty construction of the Capitol
rendered it absolutely necessary to open windows for
the admission of light and air into the cellar story
under the Senate chamber. It was then discovered that
some of the timber of the floor was in a state of decay;
that the cellar was filled with stones and rubbish, in
many places to its whole depth, and that, owing perhaps
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to alterations in the first designs, walls of enormous
mass, but of little use, occupied some of the most useful
space. The removal of these obstructions required con
siderable time and labor, and the erection of furnaces
intended to warm the room above, the clearing of flues,
and the building of one entire stack could not be speed
ily accomplished. The pipes and the stoves themselves
could only be made in Philadelphia or New York, and
the yellow fever which prevailed in both those cities was
another cause of delay. In spite, therefore, of my
utmost exertion, the object is only just now on the eve
of being attained, the stoves being cast and ready to
be sent forward by the first vessel.
I have troubled you with the recital of this detail
in hopes that it may plead my apology with you and
with the members of the Senate, and I have no doubt
but that when the stoves shall be fixed and other ar
rangements made, the Senate chamber will be equally
and pleasantly warmed in every part of it. Independ
ently of the erection of the stoves, it is necessary to
ceil the cellar story and I have given directions to my
agent, Mr. Lenthall, to prepare everything for this
purpose, and he will wait upon you with this letter to
receive such directions as you may think proper to give.
The fund from which the expenses of this work
has hitherto been defrayed is the sum of $50,000,
placed at the disposal of the President of the United
States for the purpose of completing and repairing the
118

i ....

L

I. '
 )
BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
public buildings, etc., etc., at Washington, by an act of
the last Legislature. In order that this fund may go
to the greatest possible extent toward the completion of
the buildings themselves, I beg leave to submit to you
whether the expenses attending the stoves and in the
erection of furnaces and flues in the cellar, as well as
the stoves themselves which more evidently may be con
sidered as furniture, might not be charged to the con
tingent fund of the Senate.
I am sure you will acquit me of any intentional
indiscretion in making this suggestion. Previously to
the statement of my accounts of the manner in which
the funds intrusted to me have been expended, I con
sidered it in a great degree my duty to state to you
my ideas on this subject for your consideration, and I
hope on my arrival in Washington, in the course of ten
days, to be guided by your decision and advice. An
account of what these expenses have amounted to will,
if you require it, be made out by Mr. Lenthall.
I am, with truest respect, etc.
Washington, February 27, 1804.
The President of the United States.
Dear Sir: I judged very ill in going to Dr. Thorn
ton. In a few peremptory words he in fact told me
that no difficulties existed in his plan but such as were
made by those who were too ignorant to remove them,
and though these were not exactly his words, his ex-
11 119

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE .
pressions, his tone, his manner, and his absolute refusal
to devote a few minutes to discuss the subject, spoke his
meaning even more strongly and offensively than I have
expressed it. I left him with an assurance that I should
not be the person to attempt to execute his plan, and
had I been where I could have obtained immediate pos
session of pen, ink, and paper, I should have directly
solicited your permission to resign my office.
I owe, however, too much to you to risk by so hasty
a step the miscarriage of any measure you may wish
promoted, and I shall devote as before my utmost en
deavors to execute the disposition in the committee, to
which I am summoned to-morrow morning, in favor of
the appropriation.
In respect to the plan itself, it is impossible to con
vey by words or drawings to the mind of any man the
impression of the practical difficulties in execution which
twenty years' experience creates in the mind of a pro
fessional man. I fear I have said too much for the
respect I owe your opinions, though much too little
for the force of my own convictions. The utmost
praise I can ever deserve in this work will be that of
la difficulte vaincue, and after receiving your ultimate
directions all my exertion shall be directed to gain this
praise at least.
My wish to avoid vexation, trouble, and enmities is
weak compared to my desire to be placed among those
whom you regard with approbation and friendship.
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
If you, therefore, under all circumstances, conceive
that my services still be useful, I place myself entirely
at your disposal.
In order to pass my accounts it will be necessary to
produce a regular appointment from you to my office.
May I beg you to give the necessary directions for this
purpose ? I ought to leave Washington on Wednesday
morning. I am, etc., etc.
After writing this letter and before I drew up my
report to the committee on the President's message
respecting the public buildings, but having had an inter
view with Mr. Blagden and Mr. Hatfield as to the
facts which I have therein stated, I met the committee
as soon as it broke up.
The President's letter of 26th of February, 1804,
was delivered me. I answered it immediately, explain
ing in many instances the utter absurdity of the plan,
especially in respect to the conference room, which
though drawn in the plan of the ground story belongs
to the floor above, and to the want of light in the two
rooms on each side of the conference room. I also stated
what had passed verbally before the committee, and
that I was required to give it them in writing. Of this
letter I have no copy. In the evening I had an inter
view with the President, when after much conversation
he appeared convinced of the absurdity of many parts
of the plan and the impracticability of others, and de-
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
sired me to transmit to him drawings of a practicable
and eligible design retaining the features of that adopted
by General Washington.

Newcastle, March 29, 1804.
The President of the United States,
Washington.
Dear Sir: I herewith transmit to you a separate
roll containing drawings, being the plans and sections
of the south wing of the Capitol according to the ideas
which I explained to you when I had the favor of see
ing you last. I fear, however, that these and any other
preparations for proceeding with the public works may
be useless, for by a letter from Mr. Lenthall I learn
that the appropriation bill has passed the Senate with
an amendment enjoining the removal of Congress to the
President's house. This amendment must either be
fatal to the bill when returned to the House of Rep
resentatives or divert the expenditure of the appro
priation from the Capitol to I know not what sort of
an arrangement for Congress and for the President,
if it should pass into a law.
However, as it is impossible to think or speak with
legal respect of the yeas in such a measure, or to sup
pose that such a law should pass both houses, I will
take the liberty to explain the drawings as concisely as
I can. 122

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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
Washington, March 6, 1805.
Philip Mazzei, Esq.
Sir: By direction of the President of the United
States I take the liberty to apply to you for your assist
ance in procuring for us the aid of a good sculptor in
the erection of the public buildings in this city,- espe
cially of the Capitol.
The Capitol was begun at a time when the country
was entirely destitute of artists and even of good work
men in the branches of architecture, upon which the
superiority of public over private buildings depends.
The north wing, therefore, which is carried up, al
though the exterior is remarkably well finished as to
its masonry, is not a good building. For two or three
years after the removal of Congress to this city the
public works were entirely discontinued. In the year
1803, however, they were resumed, and under the pat
ronage of the present President and the annual appro
priations by Congress the south wing of the Capitol
has been begun and carried on. It is now so far ad
vanced as to make it necessary that we should as early
as possible have the assistance of a good sculptor of
architectural decorations. In order to procure such an
artist the President of the United States has referred
me to your assistance, and to enable you to make choice
of the person most likely to answer our purpose I will
beg leave to describe to you the nature of the work we
require to be done. The principal sculpture required
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will be of twenty-four Corinthian capitals, two feet four
inches in diameter at their feet, and open enriched
entablatures, of 147 feet (both English measure) in
length. There are besides five panels (tavole) enriched
with foliage and an eagle of colossal size in the frieze,
the distance between the tips of the extended wings
being twelve feet six inches.
The material in which this is to be cut is a yel
lowish sandstone of fine grain, finer than the peperino
or gray sandstone used in Rome — the only Italian sand
stone of which I have any distinct recollection. This
stone yields in any direction to the chisel, not being in
the least laminated nor hard enough to fly off (sprawl)
before a sharp tool. It may, therefore, be cut with
great precision. The wages given by the day to our
best carvers is from $3 to $2.50, or from about $750
to $900 per annum. They are considered good wages,
but the workmen who receive them are very indiffer
ent carvers and do not deserve the name of sculptors.
My object is to procure a first-rate sculptor in the par
ticular branch of architectural decoration. He should
be able to model and bring with him another good,
though inferior, workman as his assistant, to whom we
could pay from $1.50 to $2 per day.
It is not my intention to confine you to these prices,
but to leave it to you to do the best you can for the
public interest both as to the excellence of the talents
and the moderation in the wages of the person you may
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
be pleased to select. Should you even — which I do not
think improbable — find a man of superior merit willing
to come hither on lower terms than those we pay to
our very indifferent carvers, it were well to contract with
him at the terms with which he will be perfectly satis
fied, as he may depend on receiving such an addition to
his stipulated salary if his conduct merits it as will
place him in proper relation as to salary as well as to
abilities with our other workmen. There are, however,
other qualities which seem so essential as to be at least
as necessary as talents. I mean good temper and good
morals. Without them an artist would find himself
most unpleasantly situated in a country the language
and manners of which are so different from his own,
and we should have no dependence upon a person
discontented with his situation. For though every
exertion would be made upon my part to make his
engagement perfectly agreeable to him, the irritability
of good artists is well known and it is often not easily
quieted. The American consul at Leghorn, who does me the
favor to forward this to you, will provide all the ex
penses and make the arrangements necessary to the
voyage of the persons you may select. I think it nec
essary that they should enter into a written contract to
remain with us two years. We will pay all their ex
penses hither, their salary to commence on the day on
which they shall be ready to leave Leghorn, and any
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reasonable advance to enable them to wind up their
affairs at home would be paid to them. Single men
would be preferred, but no objection would be made to
a married man, whose family may come over with him.
On expiration of the time, and should he choose to
return, the expenses of the voyage will also be paid to
him on his arrival again in Italy and not before. But
this stipulation should not be made unless absolutely
demanded. I have a further favor to ask which I hope
will give you less trouble than the preceding. It is pro
posed to place in the chamber of Representatives a sit
ting figure of Liberty nine feet in height. I wish to
know for what sum such a figure would be executed by
Canova in white marble, and for what sum he would
execute a model in plaster (the only material I believe,
in which it could be brought hither) , to be executed
here in American marble from the model.
If Canova should decline the proposal altogether,
as he must now be an old man, what would be the price
of such a statue and such a model by the artist he should
recommend as in his opinion the nearest to himself in
merit ?
Although I have not the honor to be personally
known to you, I shall not take up your time by apologies
for giving you this trouble.
The time is already* approaching when our vines
and our olives will spread your name and our gratitude
over a great portion of our country. Let us also owe
126

BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
to your kindness the introduction of excellence in the
most fascinating branch of art.
With true respect, etc., etc.
Wilmington, Del., May 5, 1805.
The President of the United States.
Dear Sir: I herewith transmit to you two sheets
containing the drawing of the buildings proposed to
connect the President's house with the public offices on
each side. The height of the story indispensably nec
essary in the fireproof of the Treasury, of which I by
this post also transmit a plan to the Secretary of the
Treasury, as well as the general appearance and the
connection of the colonnade with the offices at different
heights, have induced or rather forced me to make the
colonnade of the exact height of the basement story.
This throws up the blocking course to the window of
the President's house and gets over all difficulties.
Washington, June 18, 1805.
To the Masons and Bricklayers employed at
the Capitol:
(In answer to a written memorial signed by all of them, the
work of Clotworthy Stevenson, carpenter, formerly em
ployed by the commissioners and one of the principal pecu
lators. )
I should have sooner noticed your application to
me had it not been necessary to make some previous
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
inquiry into the facts which ought to govern my de
cision on it.
Your request that the hours of work may begin only
at six o'clock in the morning and end at six o'clock in
the evening is founded upon the practice adopted in the
erection of the north wing. Whatever circumstances
may have rendered this regulation proper at the time,
you will, I am sure, agree that it is the duty of every
public officer to take care that the public work shall not
be performed on worse terms than those that prevail
in private business in the same place. Punctuality and
certainty of payment render the employment on public
works much more advantageous to the workmen than
any private undertaking, and there cannot, therefore, be
any good reason why the public, paying with more
punctuality and with more certainty, should also con
sent to pay more in amount than what may be called
the market price of labor.
For it is the same thing whether the wages be raised
or the hours of labor reduced. It is also necessary that
uniformity should prevail in the terms on which the
public work is done in different departments. At the
navy yard the same hours are observed which are now
kept at the Capitol, and though two hours are allowed
at dinner time, no rest is permitted in the course of the
morning or afternoon as with us. You will therefore
perceive, with the best disposition to consult your ad
vantage, these considerations forbid the adoption of the
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
alteration in the working hours at the Capitol to the
extent you propose.
Allowing, however, the justice of your statement,
as to the inconvenience and heat of the place to which
your work is confined, two hours will be granted at
dinner time from this day to the ist of September
next, and one hour and a half from the ist of September
to the 2 1 st of September, after which day the old
regulation will again prevail. The usual time of re
freshment in the morning and afternoon will also be
continued during this season in consideration of the
situation of the work.
In respect to the time lost by the deficiency of ma
terial, I most sincerely regret that your interests should
have suffered by the faults of the contractors for ma
terials as well as the interest of the public. But I con
fess that neither I nor those to whom my conduct is
amenable can see in what manner any reparation can be
made to you by us for an injury which did not arise
out of any fault of ours. And besides, the plain prin
ciple that the public ought not to be placed on worse
terms with you than an individual would be must gov
ern the case. And I should ask you what individual
would consent to such allowance?
It is the most unpleasant part of my duty to act
contrary to the expectations of men who have so faith
fully and in so workmanlike a manner carried on the
public work, but while I in this respect act agreeably
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to my conscience and to my instructions, I assure you
that I consider your general conduct to be deserving
of every encouragement that it is in my power to
give. August 12, 1806.
Bishop Carol (one of the best men in the world)
being here, I walked a little before sunset to Mr. Brent's
to see him. As I passed over the uninhabited part of
the town between the Capitol and his house, which was
a low swampy piece of ground covered with bushes, a
tall, middle-aged woman popped out upon me from a
crossroad with a gun in her hand. As I was thinking
certainly not upon a gun in the hands of a woman, I
started a little back.
" Sir," said she, " pray, for God's sake, buy this
piece of me."
There was a wildness in her look which induced me
to think her crazy. I therefore took the gun from her
and putting the ramrod into it found it was loaded.
I asked her how she came to carry a loaded gun and
laughing said that she would get more by presenting
it than by asking money for it.
She said she did not know it was loaded and seemed
frightened at the circumstance, but in order to account
for offering it for sale she said she was a widow with
several small children; that her husband had money
when he came hither, but had on his death left her in
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
great distress; that the present drought had prevented
her getting any meal; that all her children were sick,
her money gone, and that she was now begining to live
upon her furniture and clothes. The thing she could
best spare was the fowling-piece, etc., etc.
Her distress seemed unfeigned and extreme. While
I was talking to her one of my people came up who
knew her. I gave her some trifling relief and he bought
the gun.
But what is to become of a widow with sick chil
dren in this wretched and desolate place when the tem
porary relief is expended. The city abounds in cases
of extreme poverty and distress. The families of work
men whom the unhealthiness of the city, and idleness
arising from the capricious manner in which the appro
priations for the erection of the public buildings have
been granted, give to them for a short time high wages
and again for a whole season do not afford them
a week's work. The result is distressing. Workmen
who are ruined in circumstances and health are to be
found in extreme indigence scattered in wretched huts
over the waste which the law calls the American me
tropolis. They inhabit the half-finished houses, now
tumbling to ruins, which the madness of speculation
has erected. Besides these wretched remnants of in
dustrious and happy families enticed hither by their
own golden dreams, or the golden promises of swin
dling or deceived speculators, there are higher orders of
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beings quite as wretched and almost as poor, though
as yet not quite so ragged. These are master trades
men, chiefly building artisans, who have purchased lots
and perhaps built houses in which they have invested
their all. Many of them brought hither have sunk the
earnings of a laborious life, which in any other spot
would have given to them ease and to their children
education. Distress and want of employment has made
many of them sots. Few have saved their capital.
Most of them hate, calumniate, or envy each other,
for they are all fighting for the scanty means of support
which the city affords.
Above these again are others who brought large for
tunes to this great vortex that swallowed everything ir
recoverably that was thrown into it. Law, Duncannon,
Stoddart, and many others, from affluent circumstances,
are involved by their sanguine hopes in embarrass
ments from which nothing but the grave will set them
free. Of the adventurers and swindlers whom the estab
lishment of the city brought hither, few remain. S.
Blodget is confined in the bounds of the prison, but
collects five-dollar subscriptions for the establishment
of the university. Greenleaf pays annual visit to the
courts of justice for the purpose of testing titles to lots,
and also as agent for his creditors who hold assign
ments on his city property. The rest have disappeared
or are dead. 132

BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
Daily through the city stalks the picture of famine,
L'Enfant and his dog. The plan of the city is probably
his, though others claim it. This singular man, of
whom it is not known whether he was ever educated
to his profession or not, had the courage to undertake
any public work that might be offered to him. He
has not succeeded in any, but was always honest, and
is now miserably poor. He is too proud to receive any
assistance and it is very doubtful in what manner he
subsists. George Hadfield, once a promising young artist,
sent hither by the English Society of Dillitanti at the
requisition of General Washington, and employed to di
rect the public buildings, was too young to possess ex
perience and education. Proficient more in the room
of design than in the practical execution of great work,
he was no match for the rogues then employed in the
construction of the public buildings, or for the char
latans in architecture who had designed them. All that
he proposed, however, proved him a man of correct
tastes, of perfect theoretic knowledge, and of bold in
tegrity. He waged a long war against the ignorance
and the dishonesty of the commissioners and of the
workmen. But the latter prevailed, for General Wash
ington, led by his feelings and possessing no knowledge
of the subject, sided against him. Thus has Hatfield
lost the most precious period of his life, that of the
practical study of his profession in the first works he
133

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
might have executed. He loiters here, ruined in for
tune, in temper, and reputation, nor will his irritable
pride and neglected study ever permit him to take the
station in the art which his elegant taste and excellent
talent ought to have obtained.
To go through the list of injured fortunes or ruined
characters which this establishment has caused would
fill a volume. The conduct of the original proprietors
who have killed the goose that would have laid
the golden eggs, is another very copious subject for
remark. At present the expenditure of money under my di
rection on the public buildings relieves in some measure
the general despair. I employ scarce any master work
men that do not do the work by the day under proper
superintendence, of whom the chief — and he would be
the chief anywhere — is John Lenthall, great-grandson
of the ci-devant president of the Rump Parliament
under Cromwell.
I found him here nearly as badly off as any of the
rest who had sunk their prosperity in buildings. I wish
I could reward his merit as it deserves.
This mode of executing the work by the day has
this effect, that the laboring mechanics receive with cer
tainty their wages, instead of the moneys going to prop
the credit and pay the debts of the masters. In one
instance, in which I cannot act freely, the master swal
lowed all. It would be so in most cases.
134

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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
Washington, April 29, 1807.
The President of the United States.
Sir: At the President's house I have laid out the
road on the principle of the plan extended to you. A
small alteration of the outline of the inclosures to the
south was necessarily made, which renders the whole
ground infinitely more handsome and accommodates
the public with an easier access from the Pennsylvania
Avenue to the New York Avenue. In the plan sub
mitted to and approved by you a semicircle was struck
to the south from the center of the bow of the house.
The semicircle carried the inclosure too far to the
south. Mr. King will lay before you the new plan,
which differs from the other in being of oblong figure
instead of a semicircle.
By this alteration many very important objects are
gained :
1. The Pennsylvania and New York avenues are
by the wall and gate opposite to them at right angles.
2. A direct access is obtained from the New
York to the Pennsylvania Avenue and on the shortest
line. 3. The wall is straight from point to point, and
thus all circular work is avoided.
4. The nature of the ground is consulted so far as
to obtain the best level for the road with the least
removal of earth.
5. The road runs in such a manner that the Presi-
12 I35

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
dent's house is not overlooked from the low ground and
is covered by the rising knolls as the road rises.
Having laid out the ground with the assistance of
Mr. King, to whose kindness and skill I am under the
greatest obligations, the next consideration was how to
do the greatest quantity of business with the fund ap
propriated, and if possible to get at least the south half
of the wall built this summer. I therefore bought a
cargo of lime, made a contract for stone, and prepara
tory arrangements for the work itself.
The next step was to get down to the foot of the
wall on the south side by cutting out the road to its
proper width, leaving the internal dressing of the
ground to the last. The building of the wall rendered
it necessary to go to the permanent depth of the road,
otherwise I should have contented myself with laying
it down on its right place, removing only so much earth
as would have made the declivities convenient to the
carriages. But this could not be done, and I con
tracted to loosen the ground from the first walnut south
east of the President's house to the War Office, the
width of the road, footpath, and wall.
The next consideration was to execute your direc
tions as to the north side of the President's house, and
to level the ground regularly and gradually from the
level of the stones in front of the steps, which nearly
agrees with the site of the offices, sloping in their di
rection toward the inclosure. The earth which was to
136

BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
effect this necessarily was removed from the site of the
offices between the President's house and the War
Offices.

Philadelphia, May 21, 1807.
The President of the United States.
Sir: In arranging the papers which I brought with
me from Washington I have had the mortification of
finding the inclosed letter, written immediately before
my departure from the city and intended to have been
forwarded by the post of the evening, but which, it
appears, in the hurry of packing up, had slipped into
my paper case. I still beg the favor of you to read it,
as it contains my reason for the measures I took pre
vious to my departure, and will explain the manner in
which I hope to accomplish your objects as respects the
arrangement of the ground around the President's
house. On the 1 6th inst. your letter, Monticello, April 22,
reached me here, being forwarded by Mrs. Lenthall.
Hoping to be at Washington as soon at least as you
return I did not immediately answer it. But I am
waiting from day to day for the arrival of one of the
Georgetown packets in order to put my things on board
previous to my removal.
I am very sensible of the honor you do me in dis
cussing with me the merits of the detail of the public
building. I know well that to you it is my duty to obey
137

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
implicitly or to resign my office: to myself it is my
duty to maintain myself in a situation in which I can
provide for my family by all honorable means. If in
any instance my duty to you obliged me to act con
trary to my judgment, I might fairly and honorably
say with Shakespeare's apothecary: " My poverty, not
my will consents." Such excuse, however, I have never
wanted, for although in respect to the panel lights I
am acting diametrically contrary to my judgment, no
mercenary motive whatever has kept me at my post,
but considerations very superior to money — the attach
ment arising from gratitude and the highest esteem.
At the same time I candidly confess that the question
has suggested itself to my mind : What shall I do when
the condensed vapor of the hall showers down upon
the heads of the members from one hundred skylights,
as it now does from the skylights of our anatomical hall,
as it did from the six skylights of the Round House, as
it does from the lantern of the Pennsylvania Bank, and
as it does from that of our university — an event I be
lieve to be as certain as that cold air and cold glass
will condense warm vapor? This question I have asked
myself for many months past. I shall certainly not
cut my throat as the engineer of Staines Bridge did
when the battlement failed, and his beautiful bridge
fell because the commissioners had ordered him to pro
ceed contrary to his judgment. But I dare not think
long enough on the subject to frame an answer to my
138

BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
own mind, but go blindly on, hoping that " fata viano
invenient." In respect to the general subject of cupolas, I do
not think that they are always, nor even often, orna
mental. My principles of good taste are rigid in
Grecian architecture. I am a bigoted Greek in the
condemnation of the Roman architecture of Baalbec,
Palmyra, Spaletro, and of all the buildings erected
subsequent to Hadrian's reign. The immense size, the
bold plan and arrangements of the buildings of the
Romans down almost to Constantine's arch, plundered
from the triumphal arches of former emperors, I
admire, however, with enthusiasm, but think their
decorations and details absurd beyond tolerance from
the reign of Severus downward. Wherever, therefore,
the Grecian style can be copied without impropriety, I
love to be a mere, I would say a slavish, copyist, but
the forms and the distribution of the Roman and Greek
buildings which remain are in general inapplicable to
the objects and uses of our public buildings. Our re
ligion requires churches wholly different from the tem
ples, our Government, our legislative assemblies, and
our courts of justice, buildings of entirely different
principles from their basilicas; and our amusements
could not possibly be performed in their theaters or
amphitheaters. But that which principally demands a
variation in our buildings from those of the ancients
is the difference of our climate. To adhere to the sub-
139

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
ject of cupolas, although the want of a belfry, which
is an Eastern accession to our religious buildings, ren
dered them necessary appendages to the church, yet
I cannot admit that because the Greeks and Romans
did not place elevated cupolas upon their temples, they
may not when necessary be rendered also beautiful.
The Lanthorne of Demosthenes, than which nothing of
the kind can be more beautiful, is mounted upon a mag
nificent mass of architecture harmonizing with it in
character and style. The question would be as to its
real or apparent utility in the place in which it appeared,
for nothing in the field of good taste, which ought never
to be at warfare with good sense, can be beautiful which
appears useless or unmeaning.
If our climate were such as to admit of doing legis
lative business in open air, that is under the light of an
open orifice in the crown of a dome, as at the Parthenon,
I would never put a cupola on any spherical dome.
It is not the ornament, it is the use that I want.
If you will be pleased to refer to Degodetz, you
will see that there is a rim projecting above the arch
of the Parthenon at the opening. This rim, in the
dome projected for the centerpiece of the Capitol, is
raised by me into a low pedestal for the purpose of
covering a skylight, which could then be admitted, al
though I think it inadmissible in a room of business.
But I should prefer the hemisphere, I confess. As to
the members of Congress, with the utmost respect for
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
the Legislature, I should scarcely consult, but rather
dictate in matters of taste.
I beg pardon for this trespass on your time. You
have spoiled me by your former indulgence in hearing
my opinions expressed with candor. A few days will
give me the pleasure of personally assuring you of the
profound respect of yours faithfully.
Washington, August 13, 1807.
The President of the United States.
My whole time, excepting a few hours now and
then devoted to the President's house, is occupied with
drawing and directions for the north wing, in the
arrangements for which I am pursuing the eventual
plan approved and presented by you to Congress at
the last session, and in pushing on the work of the
south wing. But I am again almost in despair about
the roof. We had a gentle northeast storm without
much wind, but with a persevering rain of thirty-six
hours. It began on Wednesday evening and did not
cease raining till Friday morning (yesterday). I was
often under the roof and upon it during this time,
and must say that the leakage was such that Congress
could not have sat either on Thursday or Friday in the
room. And what is as bad as the leakage, the ceiling
is stained all over, and the entablature of the colonnade
is in some places black with the water soaking through
the ribs and receiving iron from the numerous nails.
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Yesterday I took off one of the strips which cover the
joints, and discovered one cause of leakages.
It is now too late to make experiments. Nothing
appears clearer to me than that we are in a situation
in which there is no room to deliberate on the cost
of any method whatsoever which to common sense and
experience appears effectual. To place Congress at
its next session under a leaky roof would be con
sidered almost an insult to the Legislature after what
passed at the last session. Of the total destruction of
my individual reputation, of the personal disgrace I
should incur after the censure implied by my reports
of my predecessors, I say nothing. I dare not think
of it. It would drive me, who have never yet failed
in any professional attempt, to despair. But there are
public considerations which seem to involve higher
interests. Your administration, sir, in respect of public
works, has hitherto claims of gratitude and respect
from the public and from posterity. It is not flattery
to say that you have planted the arts in your country.
The works already erected in this city are the monu
ments of your judgment and of your zeal and of your
taste. The first sculpture that adorns an American
public building perpetuates your love and your protec
tion of the fine arts. As for myself, I am not ashamed
to say that my pride is not a little flattered and my
professional ambition roused when I think that my
grandchildren may at some future day read that after
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
the turbulence of revolution and of faction which char
acterized the two first presidencies, their ancestor was
the instrument in your hands to decorate the tran
quillity, the prosperity, and the happiness of your gov
ernment. Under this stimulus I have acted, and I hope,
by the character of what I have executed hitherto under
your orders, obtained an influence over the feelings and
opinions of Congress, which, without some fatal disaster
or miscarriage, would insure the progress and comple
tion of all your objects of which you can make me the
instrument. But I am now in despair. The next ses
sion is to decide not my fate only, but the whole de
pendence which Congress shall in future place upon any
thing which may be proposed by you on the subject of
public works. My former representations on the cer
tain event of the panel lights prove that I am not now
attempting by flattery to obtain the prevalence of my
individual opinions. How unworthy of all your kind
ness and confidence should I be, could I for a moment
degrade myself and insult you by insincerity. If I of
fend it will be by too indiscreetly laying before the
Chief Magistrate of the Union, the nervous, irritable,
and perhaps petulant feelings of an artist. But you
will forgive me for the sake of my candor.
I have strayed from my subject to represent my
feelings. I cannot add any consideration to what I have said
which will not occur to you, and I beg you will have
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the goodness to give me as early a decision as con
venient to you, that we may proceed to work. I can
not help thinking that it would be highly useful to
present to Congress fair drawings of the Senate cham
ber, etc., as proposed to be executed. It would prob
ably be the means of carrying the point, and perhaps
progressing with the center. I am at present entirely
without a clerk. Might I engage the assistance of a
clerk, for my time is so wholly occupied that it is scarce
ly possible for me to take the necessary rest, and the
most pressing engagements of the practical execution
are such that I can only make the working drawings,
and that at home and in the evenings?
With highest respect and gratitude, I am faithfully.
Washington, September i, 1807.
President of the United States.
Dear Sir: The greatest inconvenience we suffer is
from the most troublesome multitudes of visitors, who
crowd the house at all times, and who do infinite mis
chief to the plastering and the stone work, and the
lower classes who carry off whatever they can lay their
hands on. The building was for some time the regular
play place for all the boys in the city, and nothing but
great exertion has kept them in better order. It ap
pears to me absolutely necessary, whenever the furni
ture shall be brought into the house, and much of it
is already there, that access should be denied to every-
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
one without exception, otherwise great offense will be
given by a partial restriction, and indeed the visits of
the more respectable would be very inconvenient. It
has, therefore, occurred to me that after the 15th of
September admittance will be prohibited, and also to
put up the notice at the Capitol. In favor of strangers
passing through I might make what exceptions ap
peared proper. It would give additional sanction and
weight to this notice could I plead the direction of the
President of the United States, but if you do not think
it of sufficient importance to use so mighty a sanction,
I have no reluctance to take upon me all the obloquy
which I know it will occasion. Washington, April 13, 1808.
John Randolph, Esq.
Sir: Since I had the honor of seeing you this morn
ing the report on the debate of the appropriations for
the public buildings, as reported in the United States
Gazette, fell into my hands. I am very sensible of the
impropriety of noticing, out of the House, anything that
has been said by a member in debate, and therefore it
would be perhaps more discreet in me to leave the pres
ent letter unwritten than even attempt to attain its very
innocent and respectful object by writing at all in ref
erence to anything you may have said in your speech.
But you have been too long known to me and to the
public to permit me to doubt your receiving this proof
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of my confidence in your candor otherwise than it is
meant. You received my thanks for having expressed your
good opinion of my talents with kindness, and I cannot
believe that you will refuse to hear an explanation on
a point in which I am much more interested — my ca
pacity as a man of business and accountant.
Nothing has so much injured my utility to the pub
lic and to my family as the very prevailing opinion that
men who, unfortunately for themselves, are called men
of genius are incapable of the management of money.
I, unfortunately, have, very undeservedly, acquired this
nickname merely because I stand alone in a profession
in which there is not room in our country for more
than one, and which requires some portion of imagina
tion. It is a mark upon me the effects of which I feel
daily, and which keeps me from acquiring the inde
pendence which a dull usurer or a dealer in dry goods
can easily and honorably attain.
It is by many believed that to employ me to design
a building is the shortest road to ruin, and when I have
been employed, it has been under the terrors of calling
for that knowledge and talent which could not be had
elsewhere, but which could not possibly be dispensed
with. Now it happens very unluckily that the professions
of architecture and painting are supposed to be of the
same grades and require the same sort of head and
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
habits, and that as Stuart, the greatest painter we have
ever seen, was a profligate and spendthrift, the only
architect we know may possibly be just such another.
But I am sure that the professions, and I hope that
the men, are widely different.
The architect indeed requires all the imagination
of the painter. The building exists in his mind before
it is sketched upon paper, and if the operation of design
is the same in other heads as in mine, arrangement,
construction, and decoration are attained so simultane
ously that I seldom materially change the design first
elaborated. But when imagination has done her duty,
her aid is no longer wanted, and to a moment of en
thusiasm succeed months of dry mechanical labor in
drawing and the more dry and tedious application to
it of calculations. When the castle in the air has been
made to descend into the office, and such constructions
in writing and drawing shall guide the hard hand and
iron tool of the mechanic, imagination is busy only to
distract. To execute such a building as the Capitol
without relaying a brick or altering the shape of a
single piece of timber or of stone, a competent knowl
edge of eighteen mechanical arts is necessary, a toler
ably perfect command of every part of mechanical
science, and, above all, a very correct mastery of ac
counts. Where these are not combined, the architect
is the slave of his mechanics; he is either ignorant
of or must wink at their deceptions for fear of ex-
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posing his own ignorance, and alteration and experi
ment constitute a very considerable portion of his
expense. If I should lay before you the accounts of all the
buildings in which I have been engaged, I am sure that
you would never again pay a compliment to my imagina
tion at the expense of my common understanding. For
I could prove that whenever I have committed myself
upon an estimate I have never exceeded it, unless great
alterations of the design have been made to induce
greater expense.
In the south wing of the Capitol I can also assert
that no alterations whatever have been made during
the progress of the work, because from the general
design to the minutest molding everything has been
conceived and drawn by my own labor, and when the
work was finished the measurements of every part have
been taken by me personally, the calculations made, the
prices determined, the bills made and sent in my own
handwriting into the office of the superintendent. The
calculations of the dimensions of the plasterers' work
alone occupied one hundred and twenty-eight columns
of my measuring book.
But the truth is that previous estimates have never,
but once, in 1804, been required of me, and the re
sponsibility of an estimate for such a work as the
Capitol will never be courted by me for a salary of
$1,700 per annum, which for several years did not pay
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
the expenditures of my office, but left me the honor
of presenting my labors to the public.
In the course of the debate I am informed I was
by some gentlemen supposed to be a contractor to build
the Capitol for a limited sum, and that if it had ex
ceeded that sum I ought to lose it. I wish I had been
such a contractor at the cost of the north wing. I
should have put $60,000 into my pocket instead of
being poorer than I was when I undertook the direction
of the work.
I might pass all this over with the proud but little
satisfactory consolement of virtute mea mi involero.
But this will do only for myself, not for my wife and
children. That which robs me of reputation, robs them
of bread. The freedom with which I have written is the best
evidence of my respect for you. I will therefore say
no more but to assure you of its sincerity.
Yours most respectfully.
Washington, September 1, 18 10.
The President of the United States.
Sir: It is my duty to take up so much of your time
as to inform you of the progress of the public business
under my charge.
As the uncertainty of public employment increases
annually, I have thought it prudent to get some busi
ness independently of my profession, and am going to
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establish in connection with a few of the most wealthy
men in Baltimore a manufactory of cotton stuff, of the
success of which I have no doubt. I shall thus escape
the calumny and abuse which it is very foolish to re
gard, but which it is not human nature to entirely
despise, and from which, as neither you nor your im
mediate predecessor have escaped, a public man, even
if his importance be as trifling as mine, cannot expect
to remain exempt.
With the highest esteem and respect, I am,
Very sincerely your obd't servant.
Thomas Jefferson, Esq.,
Monticello, Va.
Dear Sir: The columns of the rotunda (Senate
chamber) , sixteen in number, must be more slender
than the Ionic order will admit, and ought not to be of
a Corinthian because the chamber itself is of the Ionic
order. I have, therefore, composed a capital of leaves
and flowers of the tobacco plant which has an inter
mediate effect approaching the character of the Cor
inthian order and retaining the simplicity of the Attic
column of the Clepsydra or Temple of the Winds.
Washington, November 20, 181 7.
The President of the United States.
Sir: My situation as architect of the Capitol has
become such as to leave me no choice between resigna-
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BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL
tion and the sacrifice of all self-respect. Permit me
then, sir, to resign into your hands an office in which
I fear I have been the cause to you of much vexation
while my only object has been to accomplish your
wishes. You have known me more than twenty years.
You have borne testimony to my professional skill —
and my integrity has never been questioned. You will,
I am confident, do me justice, and in time know that
never the delay nor the expense of the public works
are chargeable to me.
I am aware that much inconvenience may arise
from my retiring from my office so suddenly. But I
pledge myself to furnish drawings and instructions for
all the parts of the works that are in hand for a rea
sonable compensation being made, which my circum
stances do not permit me to decline.
I am, very respectfully, Your obdt. srt.

13 151

CHAPTER VIII
BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
J-^ECEMBER 17, 1818. On board the brig
M J Clio; Captain Wynne, master. Left Balti
more twenty minutes before one o'clock, with
a strong northwest wind, passed North Point at quarter-
past two o'clock; at three, off Magotty, the wind
chopped round to the southwest, and died away. Cast
anchor. At sunrise, the 18th, the wind fresh from the
northwest, a very fine day, fair and fresh wind. Got
the cabin into order, and arranged our domestic hours
of breakfast, dinner, and supper.
December igth, about 1 A. M. Cast anchor off
Old Point Comfort, to wait for a boat to take off the
pilot. At sunrise weighed anchor, all hands sick.
Tuesday, the 22d, about 2 A. M. A perfect calm.
The wind then shifted to the southwest, remarkably
smooth sea without swell. At eight a very large shoal
of porpoises played for an hour about the ship.
I have often heard that a shoal of porpoises round
a ship indicates an approaching gale, and their direc
tion to the point toward which they leave the ship to
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
be that from which the storm will blow. In this in
stance the case was certainly so, for toward night the
violence of the wind increased to a gale.
Thursday, the 24th. The wind during the night
had got round to the north. The sea still as high as
ever and wind not abated, but being quite favorable,
the brig was put before it, and scudded under close
reefed maintopsail and close reefed foresail. Got on
deck and sat on the taffrail, from whence the motion
of the brig through the most awful sea I ever be
held or imagined, at the rate of nine or ten knots,
appeared the most wonderful effect of human art, and
indeed of human courage, that can be imagined. The
vessel is a most admirable sea boat, and skips over
these mountainous waves without appearing to labor in
the least. Several birds, of a species unknown to any
one on board, were flying near the water at no great
distance from the ship, during the great part of the
morning; the outer edge of the wing dark brown,
pennon light ash color, back dark brown ; could not dis
tinguish the legs and bill.
A CONVERSATION AT SEA
Question. Hooooooagh !
Answer. Hooooooooagh !
Question. Whence came ye?
Answer. From Stoningtown.
Question. Where's that? 153

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Answer. You're a fine fellow for a captain not to
know where Stoningtown is.
Question. {Aside. Damn your Yankee soul!)
Where are you bound?
Answer. To Savannah, if ye know where that is.
Question. What have you in?
Answer. Only a few notions.
Question. What's your longitude?
Answer. Right enough. Tebadiah, make sail,
up helm.
Friday, the 25th, Christmas day. Wind strong
from the N.N.W. Got up more sail. All the passen
gers are dressed in honor of the day. The weather is
now delightful, wind gentle, and, as I judge from my
feelings, temperature about seventy degrees. Our party
is so good-humored, from the captain to the second
mate, that the day was spent very pleasantly, and the
passengers remained on deck until eleven o'clock at
night. A heavy dew reminded us of the necessity of
retiring. Saturday, the 26th. A magnificent sunset. The
sky of Italy is deservedly celebrated. The singularity
and brilliancy of this sky are not altogether peculiar to
Italy, for in all latitudes, near to or upon the ocean, a
similar sky prevails. It is a sky inimitable by the
pencil. Sunday, the 27th. A general shave and clean shirts.
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
The captain's birthday; celebrated by hot rolls at
breakfast, a hog killed, apple pies for dinner, and a
great variety of similar demonstrations of satisfaction.
All these things are important in a sea voyage, and
scatter flowers over the monotonous surface of so barren
an existence. The conversation is as multifarious as the habits
and professions of the company — slave dealers, steam
boats, tobacco, sea voyages, New Orleans and its man
ners, inhabitants, police, Mississippi, shipbuilding, etc.
Mr. W. is the least informed of the company. He
appears to be a sort of English agent, a most good-
humored creature, less opinionated than could be ex
pected from his confined education and knowledge.
He pointedly dislikes the government of his country,
and sees clearly enough in what particulars America
possesses superior advantages, both for the acquisition
of wealth and on account of more generally diffused
knowledge among the mass of the people. On this
subject he one day discoursed very largely, and gave
many instances within his own knowledge of the igno
rance of the lower orders of the English respecting
America and other foreign countries. After all were
in their berths, M. and he continued their conversations
from their beds across the cabin. M., who as a sailor
has been several times in the East Indies and twice in
China, was giving an account of the peculiar customs
of the Chinese, and the difficulty of obtaining admission
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into their cities. Mr. W. observed that he should, of
all things, like to be admitted to see the buildings of
the cities of China ; that he knew that foreigners could
get into the suburbs of the city of China, which he
believed was called Canton, but not into the city itself.
It was with great difficulty, and much to the entertain
ment of his silent auditors, that M. explained to him
that China is not a city but an extensive empire, of
which Canton is a trading port, into the suburbs of
which only foreigners could have access. W. persisted,
and M. explained and exemplified for an hour, but I
believe without convincing W. that China is not a
walled town, for he suddenly recollected to have some
where heard of the wall of China, and nobody could
be so absurd as to believe that a country could be
walled. In truth, no greater proof of the want of a knowl
edge of the true state of foreign countries among the
English in general could be adduced than this very
conversation with W., unless it were the conduct of the
English minister and of the generals during the late
war. Monday, 28th. I got up at the first dawn, and,
remaining on deck till the sunrise, contemplated the
magnificent star-spangled heavens with feelings that
are not to be excited by any theological discussion, and
which, founded on an exhibition of the power and
benevolence of God that always exists and is not in the
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
remotest degree dependent on opinion, must leave a
permanent, habitual, and highly devotional impression
on the heart. The gradual gilding of light clouds along
the horizon preceded the glorious rise of the sun from
the ocean. The increased knowledge of the construc
tion of our solar system, of the general laws that govern
the motion to the heavenly bodies, will forever prevent
the revival of a religion in which the sun is considered
as the living God of the world, to be adored as such,
and propitiated by prayers and offerings, but surely
no error deserves more indulgence, or is more natural,
than the adoration of this glorious luminary as the God
of our life and of our enjoyments. A trace of this
idea remains in all the churches of Christendom ex
cepting those having their origin more or less in the
Reformation by Calvin and his followers. The situa
tion of Catholic, Greek, and Church of England, as
well as Lutheran altars, in the east of the church, and
the consequent direction of the faces of worshipers
to that point, is a vestige of the original religion of all
uncivilized nations.
One of our black passengers, Tom, a negro belong
ing to the notorious slave dealer Anderson, died this
morning. He had been, with another, who came also
sick aboard, sometime before his being sent off, in jail.
He was most faithfully attended by our most humane
captain and Dr. Day, and everything done for his
recovery that the confined room in the vessel permitted.
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He had a mother and sisters on board, who treated him
with very little kindness, and he would probably have
recovered had they taken better care of him. As soon
as we were off the bank, about 3 p. M., his body was
committed to the sea. I read the Episcopal burial
service on the occasion, every person on board attend
ing. This man had cost Anderson $800 and his pas
sage $30 more. He was a light mulatto and was ex
pected to fetch $1,000 to $1,200 in Louisiana.
It appears to me, whatever may be said of the diffi
culty of suppressing the internal slave trade without
infringing upon the rights of private property, as long
as these men are considered as articles of legal traffic,
that it certainly ought not to be aided by the Govern
ment or its officers. But this is certainly done, while
the public jail is permitted to be a place of deposit for
this sort of goods until they can be shipped. There
is another man on board, half Indian, half negro, who
came out of the same depot, the public jail of Balti
more, the same time with Tom, also sick — and, what
is more noisome on board, absolutely eaten up with
vermin. The only rags he possesses are those that
were on his back on his being shipped. Captain
Wynne, whose humanity to these poor wretches has
been very active, and who has personally attended
their wants, had him stripped and wrapped up in a
blanket; his rags then were towed overboard, but I
doubt whether the vermin would be expelled from them.
158

BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
The other colored people on board, and who are well
clad and seem very respectable and orderly in their
way, will neither approach nor assist this poor wretch,
and had it not been for the captain's attention, he
would have starved, for they gave him nothing to eat
for two days.
January I, i8ig. This being New Year's, an
extraordinary exertion was made to furnish our dinner
table, and a boiled turkey marked the day, which, like
all the rest, was spent in great good humor.
January g, i8ig. At daylight the wind, though
very light, was favorable. The fog continued. We
soon got under way and proceeded up the river, first
through the wide bay from which the several passes,
south and southwest, find their way into the Gulf of
Mexico, then through a margin of reeds on both sides
of the river about a mile wide. Presently large trees
present themselves, thinly scattered on the west bank
upon a narrow margin of more elevated ground. This
growth continued to Fort Plaquemine or Fort St.
Phillip, bombarded by the British during the late war
and successfully defended by Colonel Overton.
After passing Plaquemine, low and mean houses,
the residences of planters, appear occasionally on both
sides of the river. Orange trees in the open air formed
a short vista on the west bank, the first I had seen.
It is not easy to assign a cause for the present
course of the Mississippi, although there is certainly
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an invincible necessity in the physical circumstances
that belong to this mighty stream, which confines it to
its present bed and forbids it to form any other.
The planters in the lower parts of the river are
cultivators of rice. A large capital is required for the
cultivation of sugar and coffee. The sugar plantations
do not begin until within fifty miles of New Orleans.
The first on a large scale is Johnson's, formerly at the
Balize, now a very rich man, as his solid and extent
sive sugar works prove. It has a large house of two
stories of brick, with a portico on each front. All the
other houses which I observed were of one story, low,
and having a portico or piazza either all round, which
is the old French style of building, or on each front.
There are generally some orange trees growing about
every house, sometimes forming a vista from the road
to the door, sometimes planted in quincunx like an or
chard. The larger plantations have a regular street
of negro houses near the dwelling, many of them look
ing commodious and comfortable, with a belfry in the
center to call the negroes to work. I saw an overseer
directing the repair of the levee, with a long whip in
his hand. The creole French have the reputation of
working their slaves very hard and feeding them very
badly; the Americans are said to treat and feed them
well. On arriving at New Orleans in the morning, a
sound more strange than any that is heard anywhere
1 60

Z <
JetOz o

a;

DO

ctOh

BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
else in the world astonishes a stranger. It is a most
incessant, loud, rapid, and various gabble of tongues of
all tones that were ever heard at Babel. It is more to
be compared with the sounds that issue from an exten
sive marsh, the residence of a million or two of frogs,
from bullfrogs up to whistlers, than to anything else.
It proceeded from the market and levee, a point to
which we had cast anchor, and which, before we went
ashore, was in a moment, by the sudden disappearance
of the fog, laid open to our view.
New Orleans has, at first sight, a very imposing
and handsome appearance, beyond any other city in the
United States in which I have yet been. The strange
and loud noise heard through the fog, on board the
Clio, proceeding from the voices of the market people
and their customers, was not more extraordinary than
the appearance of these noisy folk when the fog cleared
away and we landed. Everything had an odd look.
For twenty-five years I have been a traveler only be
tween New York and Richmond, and I confess that I
felt myself in some degree again a cockney, for it was
impossible not to stare at a sight wholly new even to
one who has traveled much in Europe and America.
The first remarkable appearance was that of the
market boats, differing in form and equipment from
anything that floats on the Atlantic side of our coun
try. We landed among the queer boats, some of which
carried the tricolored flag of Napoleon, at the foot
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of a wooden flight of steps opposite to the center
of the public square, which were badly fixed to the
ragged bank. On the upper step of the flight sat a
couple of Choctaw Indian women and a stark naked
Indian girl. At the top of the flight we arrived on the
levee extending along the front of the city. It is a
wide bank of earth, level on the top to the width of
perhaps fifty feet, and then sloping gradually in a very
easy descent to the footway or banquet at the houses,
a distance of about one hundred and fifty to two hundred
feet from the edge of the levee. This footway is about
five feet below the level of the levee, of course four feet
below the surface of the water in the river at the time
of the inundation, which rises to within one foot, some
times less, at the top of the levee. Along the levee, as
far as the eye could reach to the west, and to the
market house to the east, were ranged two rows of
market people, some having stalls or tables with a
tilt or awning of canvas, but the majority having
their wares lying on the ground, perhaps on a piece of
canvas or a parcel of palmetto leaves. The articles
to be sold were not more various than the sellers.
White men and women, and of all hues of brown, and
of all classes of faces, from round Yankees to grizzly
and lean Spaniards, black negroes and negresses, filthy
Indians half naked, mulattoes curly and straight-
haired, quadroons of all shades, long haired and friz
zled, women dressed in the most flaring yellow and
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
scarlet gowns, the men capped and hatted. Their wares
consisted of as many kinds as their faces. Innumerable
wild ducks, oysters, poultry of all kinds, fish, bananas,
piles of oranges, sugarcane, sweet and Irish potatoes,
corn in the ear and husked, apples, carrots, and all sorts
of other roots, eggs, trinkets, tinware, dry goods, in
fact of more and odder things to be sold in that man
ner and place than I can enumerate. The market was
full of wretched beef and other butcher's-meat, and
some excellent and large fish. I cannot suppose that
my eye took in less than five hundred sellers and buyers,
all of whom appeared to strain their voices to exceed
each other in loudness. A little farther along the levee,
on the margin of a heap of bricks, was a bookseller,
whose stock of books, English and French, cut no mean
appearance. Among others, there was a well-bound
collection of pamphlets printed during the American
war, forming ten octavo volumes, which I must get my
friend Robertson of Congress, if here, to buy.
I was so amused by the market that I spent half
an hour or more in it, walking from one end of the
levee to the other, as far as it was occupied by the
market people.
The public square, which is open to the river, has
an admirable general effect, and is infinitely superior
to anything in our Atlantic cities as a water view of
the city. The whole of the wide parallel to the river
is occupied by the cathedral in the center, and by two
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symmetrical buildings on each side. That to the west
is called the Principal, and contains the public offices
and council chamber of the city. That on the east is
called the Presbytery, being the property of the church.
It is divided into seven stores, with dwellings above,
which are rented and produce a large revenue.
At the southwest corner of the square is a building
of excellent effect. The lower story and entresol are
rented by storekeepers; the upper story is a hotel,
Tremoulet's, at which I have taken up my quarters.
The rest, to the west side of the square and the whole
of the east side, is built in very mean stores, covered
with most villainous roofs of tiles, partly white, partly
red and black, with narrow galleries in the second story,
the posts of which are mere unpainted sticks, but they
let at an enormous rent. The square itself is neglected,
the fence is ragged, and in many places open. Part of
it is let for a depot of firewood, paving stones are
heaped up in it, and along the whole of the side next
to the river is a row of mean booths in which dry goods
are sold by yellow, black, and white women, who dis
pose, I am told, of incredible quantities of slops and
other articles fit for sailors and boatmen, and those
sort of customers. Thus a square which might be made
the handsomest in America is rather a nuisance than
otherwise. Tremoulet, who keeps this house, was, I am told,
formerly a cook, an excellent station from which to
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
rise to the dignity of the master of a large hotel. He
has lived here under the Spanish, French, and Ameri
can governments, and prefers the former. He has
lost three large fortunes made in this place by his
hotels, and is now poor and old. He and Madame
Tremoulet, however, are the most vigorous and cheerful
and generous old people imaginable. The causes of
Tremoulet's failures have been the bank and his gen
erous disposition. When the American Government
took possession, the bank soon offered facilities to
commerce that had not before existed. Tremoulet, al
though he did not meddle with commerce, aided those
who did by indorsement. Nothing, to a man unused
to the terrible consequences of becoming security for
others with no other counter security than their honesty
or success, seems so pleasant as to be able to assist a
friend, and perhaps make his fortune, by writing his
name across the back of a slip of paper. That caution
is indeed lulled to sleep which would be awake if the
security were given in the shape of a bond or lien upon
an estate, because a man who indorses a note for an
other, while he himself does not require the aid of a
bank, naturally conceives that the loss of credit attend
ing the nonpayment of the note by the drawer is a
coercion operating in his favor, and tends to render
him more certain that he will not be called upon to
pay it, but that the drawer will make any sacrifices
rather than have the note protested.
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Tremoulet, from having built and owned the two
largest hotels in the city, is now the tenant of Madame
Castillion, to whom the stores in the public square be
long. His house is by far the filthiest which I have
ever inhabited, but my room is kept clean by an excel
lent servant whom I have bribed to attend me partic
ularly. The growing Americanism of this city is
strongly evident by the circumstance that Tremoulet's
is the only French boarding house in the city, that it is
unfashionable, and when he removes, for he is going to
the Havana, there will be no other open. My object
in preferring this house is to reacquire a facility in
speaking French, a facility which I have lost by thirty
years' disuse of that language. Whether my object
will be answered I am doubtful, for the company is
exceedingly mixed and daily changing, and some cour
age is required to venture to converse with strangers
in a language imperfectly spoken. Another obstacle
exists in the excessive rapidity with which they speak,
and a greater, in their all speaking at once, and ex
cessively loud. Some, among them Tremoulet himself,
occasionally strike up a song, in which others join; in
fact the noise and gabble is so incessant that Tremoulet,
seeing me look with astonishment and a smile at the
vociferous party, thought some sort of an apology
necessary, and said : " Voyez vous, nous autres Fran-
cais sont un pen bruyans." It must, indeed, be ac
knowledged that the party of this house is not ex-
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BY SEA TO NEW ORLEANS
actly that which would constitute the best society
anywhere : storekeepers, planters, and some of Lalle-
mand's ruined party from the Trinity River. But
they are all decent men, and two or three of them
seem to be men of excellent information and polished
manners. The construction of the house, and of two or three
others which I have seen, is entirely French. A lower
story, divided into and let as stores, and an entresol
in which the shopkeepers live, or which is let to other
families; then a handsome range of apartments sur
rounding a court of thirty by "twenty-four feet. The
appearance externally of the house is very good, and
if the whole square were thus built up it would be one
of the handsomest in any country.
In the interior, the court gives light to all the
stories, but is reserved only for the use of the principal
story and is entered by a porte-cochere. Part of the
entresol is also appropriated to the use of the hotel,
which thus becomes very roomy and commodious.
The proportions of this are not correct, the house
being longer from north to south than from east to
west, but the subdivision is correct.
I asked Tremoulet whether, as his house is much
frequented, he could not find it to his interest to re
main here where he is known and respected, and where
in the same line he had already made two fortunes.
He answered with, a shrug, " Chacun n'aime point ce
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
Gouvernement," and then told me a romantic story
that must for the present be deferred, but which proves
that gratitude has not entirely disappeared from the
surface of the earth, and that he will probably succeed
better in Cuba.

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CHAPTER IX
NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
WHAT is the state of society in New Orleans?
is one of many questions which I am re
quired to answer by a friend, who seems
not to be aware that this question is equivalent to that of
Shakespeare's Polonius. He might as well ask: What
is the shape of a cloud? The state of society at any
time here is puzzling. There are, in fact, three societies
here — first the French, second the American, and third
the mixed. The French side is not exactly what it was
at the change of government, and the American is not
strictly what it is in the Atlantic cities. The oppor
tunity of growing rich by more active, extensive, and
intelligent modes of agriculture and commerce has
diminished the hospitality, destroyed the leisure, and
added more selfishness to the character of the Creoles.
The Americans, coming hither to make money and
considering their residence as temporary, are doubly
active in availing themselves of the enlarged oppor
tunities of becoming wealthy which the place offers.
On the whole, the state of society is similar to that of
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every city rapidly rising into wealth, and doing so
much, and such fast increasing business, that no man
can be said to have a moment's leisure. Their business
is to make money. They are in an eternal bustle.
Their limbs, their heads, and their hearts move to that
sole object. Cotton and tobacco, buying and selling,
and all the rest of the occupation of a money-making
community, fill their time and give the habit of their
minds. The post which comes in and goes out three
times a week renders those days, more than the others,
days of oppressive exertion. I have been received with
great hospitality, have dined out almost every day, but
the time of a late dinner and a short sitting after it
have been the only periods during which I could make
any acquaintance with the gentlemen of the place. As
it is now the Carnival, every evening is closed with a
ball, or a play, or a concert. I have been to two of
each. To entitle a stranger to describe the character of
a society, more is required than to have looked at it
superficially, and through the medium of habits ac
quired elsewhere. More than a superficial use of the
senses is required to ascertain facts of which the senses
are the only judges. The great fault of travelers, I
was going to say, especially of English travelers — be
cause we Americans have suffered most by the false
accounts of our country — is to impose first impressions
upon themselves and the public for the actual states
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
of things. To determine upon the relative moral or
political character of a community requires more time,
more talent, and a more philosophical investigation of
the history of its habits, and of those causes of them
over which no control can be exercised, than traveling
bookmakers possess or can command.
It would therefore be very impertinent in me, after
ten days' residence only, to call anything which I may
put into these brochures by a name more decided than
my impressions respecting New Orleans.
My impressions, then, as to the surface of female
society, are that there are collected in New Orleans at
a ball, many women, below the age of twenty-four or
twenty-five, of more correct and beautiful features, and
with faces and figures more fit for the sculptor, than I
ever recollect to have seen together elsewhere in the
same number. A few of them are perfect, and a great
majority are far above the mere agreeable. I have said
faces for the sculptor, not altogether for the painter,
for the lilies have banished the roses. The Anglican
slang of a painted French woman does not apply here.
A few American ladies, not long resident here, had rosy
cheeks, but very few. The French Creoles are univer
sally of healthy color, fair, but the cheeks are of the
color of the forehead. At a bal pare the number of
brunettes was small, and my attention being alive to the
subject, I could not see one face that had the slightest
tinge of rouge. There was a face and a head, the beau-
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tiful hair of which was decorated with a single white
rose, surmounting a figure exquisitely formed and mov
ing with perfect grace, belonging to some young lady
apparently of eighteen, whom I am glad I do not know,
but which was as perfect in all respects as anything I
have ever seen in or out of marble.
The dancing of the ladies was what is to be ex
pected of French women; that of the gentleman, what
Lord Chesterfield would have called, too good for
gentlemen. I hope and believe that we Americans
have qualities which make up for our deficiency in
dancing, a deficiency which marked those young Ameri
cans that were upon the floor.
I have, never been in a public assembly altogether
better conducted. No confusion, no embarrassment as
to the sets having, in their turn, a right to occupy the
floor, no bustle of managers, no obtrusive solicitors of
public attention.
Altogether the impression was highly favorable.
The only nuisance was a tall, ill-dressed black in the
music gallery, who played the tambourine standing up,
and in a forced and vile voice called the figures as they
changed. The French population in Louisiana is said to be
only 20,000, in the city not above 5,000 or 6,000.
The increase is of Americans. Some French have come
hither since the return of the Bourbons, but they did not
find themselves at home; some joined General Lalle-
172

z <wJ ow z w OI

JD
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
mand in his settlement on Trinity River, a few re
mained so as sensibly to increase the French population.
The accession, if worth mentioning, did not exceed the
emigration which has taken place of those who did not
like the American Government, or had amassed for
tunes and have returned to France or settled in the West
Indian islands. Since the breaking of Lallemand's
colony, a few have returned to New Orleans, but so
few that they are not a perceptible quantity, even in
the comparatively small French community.
On the other hand, Americans are pouring in daily,
not in families, but in large bodies. In a few years,
therefore, this will be an American town. What is
good and bad in the French manners and opinions must
give way, and the American notions of right and wrong,
of convenience and inconvenience, will take their place.
When this period arrives, it will be folly to say
that they are better or worse than they now are. They
will be changed, but they will be changed into that
which is more agreeable to the new population than
what now exists. But a man who fancies that he has
seen the world on more sides than one cannot help
wishing that a mean, an average character, of society
may grow out of the intermixture of the French and
American manners.
Such a consummation is, perhaps, to be more de
voutly wished than hoped for. There is a lady, and
I am told a leading one among the Americans, who
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can speak French well, but is determined never to con
descend to speak to the French ladies in their language,
although in New York she prided herself on her know
ing that language. Many of the leading gentlemen,
when not talking of tobacco or cotton, find it very
amusing to abuse and ridicule French morals, French
manners, and French houses. In truth, there is evi
dently growing up a party spirit, which in time will
give success to the views of the Americans, and every
thing French will in time disappear. Even the miser
able patois of the Creoles will be heard only in the
cypress swamps.
At present the most prominent, and, to the Ameri
cans, the most offensive feature of French habits is the
manner in which they spend Sunday. For about ten
years the recoil of the French revolutionary principles
has made religious profession fashionable, especially
in England, from whence our American public mind
always, more or less, receives its tone. The Holy
Alliance of Greek, Roman, Lutheran, and Calvinistic
sovereigns, who before the battle of Waterloo most
piously consigned each other, as far as religious belief
went, to eternal damnation, has given authority of high
effect to this fashion. For my part, the effect of this
impious farce upon my own mind is to make me retire
vith th°. more humility into my own heart and seek
there 'a temple unprof aned by external dictation. Sun
day in New Orleans is distinguished only, first, by the
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
flags that are hoisted on all the ships; second, by the
attendance at church (the cathedral) of all the beau
tiful girls in the place, and of two or three hundred
quadroons, negroes, and mulattoes, and perhaps of one
hundred white males to hear high mass, during which
the two bells of the cathedral are jingling; third, by the
shutting up of the majority of the shops and ware
houses kept by the Americans, and fourth, by the firing
of the guns of most of the young gentlemen in the
neighboring swamps, to whom Sunday affords leisure
for field sports; fifth, the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and
Methodist churches are also open on that day, and
are attended by a large majority of the ladies of their
respective congregations.
In other respects, no difference between Sunday and
any other day exists. The shops are open, as well as
the theater and the ballroom, and in the city, at least,
" Sunday shines no holiday " to slaves and hirelings.
In how far the intermarriage of Americans with
French girls will produce a less rigid observance of the
gloom of an English Sunday, it is impossible to foresee.
For some time an effect will be produced; for I have
spent Sunday in a family in which a devout Quaker
and a Presbyterian, who have married two sisters,
joined in a very agreeable dance after a little concert.
But the pulpit, now filled very ably by the Presby' 'nan
clergyman, Mr. Learned, and the Episcopalian, Mr.
Hull, directs its principal energy against this pretended
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profanation of the Sabbath; and with the countenance
of the American majority perseverance will at last
prevail, and Sundays will become gloomy and ennuyant,
as elsewhere among us.
A bill was moved, I think, at the last session of
the Legislature to put down the practice of dancing
and shopkeeping prevailing here on Sunday. I am
not quite sure of the fact, but I have heard it stated;
but if the attempt was made, it did not succeed. Per
haps my early education on the continent of Europe
has still an influence over my opinions, but certainly,
had I been in the Legislature, I should have voted
against the law to prohibit recreation of any sort on
Sunday, on principle. If gambling is a recreation, it
is also a vice; that is, it produces certain inevitable
misery to the winner as well as the loser, and certain
injury to their families and to the community at large.
The more effectually, therefore, that sort of recreation
is put down, not on Sunday only, but on all days, and
the sooner, so much the better. I was also of the opin
ion that the shopkeeping ought to be put down, inde
pendently of any religious motives, because it forces
those who have no interest in the sales — that is, the
hired people and apprentices — to labor, and deprives
them of the privilege of divine worship or of recrea
tion, if you please, which every other individual, and
probably the masters themselves, enjoys once in seven
days. But my opinion is altered after being better in-
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
formed, principally by conversation with Mr. Thomas
Urquhart, one of the oldest inhabitants and most sensible
men of this place. The slaves are by no means obliged
to work anywhere in the State on Sunday, as has been
stated, and is believed in the Eastern States by many —
excepting in the sugar-boiling season, and to prevent
danger from inundation when the river rises on the
levee. They do, indeed, work at other seasons by the
desire, perhaps by the order, of their masters; but it
is understood, I believe it is a law, that if they do
work they shall be paid for their labor, both in boiling
sugar on Sunday and for every other kind of work.
In the neighborhood of New Orleans the land is
valuable for the cultivation of sugar, and there is so
little of it that were is not for the vegetables and fowls
and small marketing of all sorts, raised by the negro
slaves, the city would starve. To the negroes it is not
labor, but frolic and recreation, to come to market.
They have only Sunday on which to sell their truck.
If more good than evil grows out of the license to these
wretches to come to town and earn some comfort,
some decent clothing, or even some finery for their
families, by the sale of their articles, if the town is fed
and the negro slave clothed thereby, it would be dif
ficult to show how the prohibition of the practice and
its consequences would be compensated by the forced
idleness of these people throughout the week, as well as
their idleness or forced attendance at church on Sunday.
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I have often listened to the Puritan doctrine on the sub
ject of Sunday with astonishment, in so far as it pro
hibits as sin, a word of very elastic meaning, every
innocent act satisfactory to the human heart as con
stituted by our Creator on one day in the week, which
it allows on every other, and justifies this rigor by the
Ten Commandments and the example of the early Chris
tians. All that the second commandment directs is
contained in these words: " Six days shalt thou labor,
and on the seventh [not on the first] thou shalt do
no manner of work, neither thou," etc., etc. Now,
recreation is certainly not herein forbidden, neither
walking, nor dancing, nor music, nor any other act that
gives innocent pleasure, and to which forced labor,
either of servant or animal, is not required. In the
country in which the Sabbath was instituted a more
benevolent, a more just, and a more politic law could
not have been established by the common Father of
master and slave. There the relation of slave to the
master was infinitely more distant and more oppressive
than with us. The master was master of the life, as
well as of the labor, of his servant. But there is no
country, not even the countries in which this relation is
wholly unknown to the laws, in which the difference
of rank and of wealth does not put the labor of the
poor at the disposal of the rich. It is, therefore, a
wise and benevolent institution that says to power:
" Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." But shall
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
the slave, released from the constraint of his master,
be told : " You are not compelled to work, but you shall
not play; you shall listen for six days to the sound
of the tabor and pipe issuing from your master's man
sion, and see at a distance, when you return to your
hovel, the blaze of his festivity, and through his win
dows gape at the dance and the revel without sharing
it, but on the seventh you shall go to church for an
hour or two and the rest of the day you shall sit idle
by force, ' for every step in the dance is a step toward
hell fire ? ' It is no sin for your master to spend, during
six days, the product of the sweat of your brow on
musicians and gardeners and coachmen and footmen,
and all the other means of innocent pleasure which the
most pious allow themselves ; but for you to do the little
dancing, and playing of football or cricket, which you
can do on the seventh, is a crying sin." It will be hard
to find this doctrine in the second commandment; still
less will it be found that at the risk of real injury to
themselves, and to the city which their labor during
the week tends to supply with food, they are forbidden
to indulge the useful recreation of going to market.
This long dissertation has been suggested by my
accidentally stumbling upon an assembly of negroes,
which, I am told, every Sunday afternoon meets on
the Common in the rear of the city. My object was
to take a walk on the bank of the Canal Carondelet
as far as the Bayou St. John. In going up St. Peter's
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Street and approaching the Common, I heard a most
extraordinary noise, which I supposed to proceed from
some horse-mill — the horses tramping on a wooden
floor. I found, however, on emerging from the house
to the Common that it proceeded from a crowd of five
or six hundred persons, assembled in an open space or
public square. I went to the spot and crowded near
enough to see the performance. All those who were
engaged in the business seemed to be blacks. I did not
observe a dozen yellow faces. They were formed into
circular groups, in the midst of four of which that I
examined (but there were more of them) was a ring,
the largest not ten feet in diameter. In the first were
two women dancing. They held each a coarse hand
kerchief, extended by the corners, in their hands, and
set to each other in a miserably dull and slow figure,
hardly moving their feet or bodies. The music con
sisted of two drums and a stringed instrument. An
old man sat astride of a cylindrical drum, about a foot
in diameter, and beat it with incredible quickness with
the edge of his hand and fingers. The other drum was
an open-staved thing held between the knees and beaten
in the same manner. They made an incredible noise.
The most curious instrument, however, was a stringed
instrument, which no doubt was imported from Africa.
On the top of the finger board was the rude figure of
a man in a sitting posture, and two pegs behind him
to which the strings were fastened. The body was
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
a calabash. It was played upon by a very little old
man, apparently eighty or ninety years old. The
women squalled out a burden to the playing, at in
tervals, consisting of two notes, as the negroes work
ing in our cities respond to the song of their leader.
Most of the circles contained the same sort of dances.
One was larger, in which a ring of a dozen women
walked, by way of dancing, round the music in the
center. But the instruments were of different con
struction. One which from the color of the wood
seemed new, consisted of a block cut into something
of the form of a cricket bat, with a long and deep
mortise down the center. This thing made a con
siderable noise, being beaten lustily on the side by a
short stick. In the same orchestra was a square drum,
looking like a stool, which made an abominable, loud
noise ; also a calabash with a round hole in it, the hole
studded with brass nails, which was beaten by a woman
with two short sticks. A man sung an uncouth song
to the dancing, which I suppose was in some African
language, for it was not French, and the women
screamed a detestable burden on one single note. The
allowed amusements of Sunday have, it seems, perpetu
ated here those of Africa among its former inhabitants.
I have never seen anything more brutally savage and
at the same time dull and stupid, than this whole ex
hibition. Continuing my walk about a mile along the
canal, and returning after sunset near the same spot,
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the noise was still heard. There was not the least
disorder among the crowd, nor do I learn, on inquiry,
that these weekly meetings of the negroes have ever
produced any mischief.
The general opinion of the masters and mistresses
of the slaves in this city and neighborhood is that the
Americans treat and feed and clothe their slaves well,
but that the Creoles are, in all these respects, compara
tively cruel to all these unfortunate people. In going
into Davis's ballroom and looking around the brilliant
circle of ladies, it is impossible to imagine that any one
of the fair, mild, and somewhat languid faces could
express any feeling but of kindness and humanity. And
yet several, I had almost said many, of these soft
beauties had themselves handled the cowskin with a
sort of savage pleasure, and those soft eyes had looked
•on the tortures of their slaves, inflicted by their orders,
with satisfaction, while they had coolly prescribed the
dose of infliction, the measure of which should stop
short of the life of their property.
Madame Tremoulet — why should I conceal the
name of such a termagant — is one of these notorious
for their cruelty. She is a small, mild-faced creature,
who weeps over the absence of her daughter, now with
her husband in France. She has several servants; one
a mulatto woman, by far the best house servant of her
sex that I know of, famous also as a seamstress and
for her good temper, so much so that she can at any
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
time be sold for $2,000, and Tremoulet actually asks
$3,000. Independently of her duty in a large board
ing house, in waiting, and making beds, she is expected
to make two shirts a day (and night) for the benefit
of her mistress' private purse. In six weeks I have
never seen in her conduct the smallest fault; she is
modest, obliging, and incredibly active. A few days
ago she failed, because it was impossible, to make the
bed of a stranger at the hour prescribed. In conse
quence of this fault, Madame Tremoulet had her
stripped quite naked, tied to a bedpost, and she her
self, in the presence of her daughter, Mrs. Turpin, the
mother of three beautiful children, whipped her with
a cowskin until she bled. Mrs. Turpin then observed:
" Maman, vous etes trop bonne; pourquoi prenez vous
la peine de la fouetter vous-meme , appellez done Guil-
laume." William was called and made to whip her
till she fainted. This scene made a noise in the house,
and the blood betrayed it. Poor Sophy is ill and con
stantly crying. I shall leave the house as soon as con
venient to me.
Madame  is another of these hell cats. Her
husband is a very amiable man, president of the Bank
of Louisiana, whom she had driven to seek a divorce,
but the matter has been compromised lately. She did
actually whip a negress to death, and treated another
so cruelly that she died a short time afterwards. Mr.
 , a principal merchant of this place, stated the
15 183

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
facts to the grand jury, but it was hushed up from
respect to the lady's husband.
My landlady, a sensible Irish woman, saw through
the fence preparations making by Madame C  to
punish several of her negroes. A ladder was brought
and laid down and a naked man tied upon it. She
was so shocked that she left her house for several hours
and did not return until she supposed the execution was
over. The first wife of  was a beast of the same
kind. A gentleman, whom I will not name, saw her
stand by, some years ago, while a naked woman was
tied on a ladder by her orders to undergo the punish
ment of the whip. He immediately turned about and
departed. At the ball on Washington's birthday, the 2 2d, the
idea of these things destroyed all the pleasure I should
otherwise have felt in seeing the brilliant assemblage
of as many beautiful faces and forms as I ever saw
collected in one room. All pale, languid, and mild. I
fancied that I saw a cowskin in every pretty hand,
gracefully waved in the dance; and admired the com
parative awkwardness of look and motion of my coun
trywomen, whose arms had never been rendered pliant
by the exercise of the whip upon the bound and scream
ing slaves. Whatever, therefore, this community may
lose in taste and elegance and exterior suavity, and ac
quire of serious and awkward bluntness, and commer
cial stiffness, may the change be as rapid as possible,
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NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
if at the same time active humanity is introduced into
the deplorable system of slavery, which, I fear, must
long, perhaps forever, prevail in this State.
I begin to understand the town a little, as a collec
tion of houses; and a curious town it is. It would be
worth while, and if I can find time I will try to do
something of the sort, to make a series of drawings
representing the city as it now is, for it would be a
safe wager that in a hundred years not a vestige will
remain of the buildings as they now stand, excepting,
perhaps, a few public buildings, and of houses built
since the American acquisition of the country. The
three most prominent buildings in the city are the
cathedral, the Principal, and the Presbytery, already
alluded to. They form the northwest side of the Place
d' Armes. The cathedral occupies the center, the two
others are perfectly symmetrical in their exterior, the
Principal to the south, the Presbytery to the north of
the church. Although in detail these buildings are as
bad as they well can be, their symmetry and the good
proportions and strong relief of the facades of the two
latter and the solid mass of the former produce an
admirable effect when seen from the river or the levee.
The construction of these buildings is curious. The
foundations are laid about six inches below the natural
surface, that is, the turf is shaved off, and logs then
being laid level along the shallow trench, very solid
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
piers and thick walls of brick are immediately built
upon the logs. The cathedral is bound together by
numerous iron clamps, which appear externally in S's
and other forms ; but I do not think they were very
necessary, the settlement of buildings here being very
equal and general, and few, if any, cramps appear on
the outside of a few other buildings. The southeast
corner of the Principal, however, has not settled as
much as the rest of the front; for though no crack ap
pears, the horizontal moldings are swayed down at least
four inches toward the northeast. The corner that has
not settled, as I was informed by the mayor, was built
upon the foundation of an old wall; from which cir
cumstance it would appear that the earth, once pressed
down by considerable weight, does not afterwards admit
of further condensation. In digging the foundation of
my boring mill, I found the ground hardest at the very
surface, and almost a quicksand on the northwest side,
where the foundation of the old building obliged me
to dig deeper.
These three buildings are, in fact, the best looking
in New Orleans at present. The hospital is a good de
sign by my son. The New Orleans theater joined to
Davis's Assembly rooms is a thing that had not a strik
ing effect. It is tame, but otherwise not a bad composi
tion. The old theater of St. Philip has an unfinished
front, which, if complete, would be rather pretty.
After a longer residence I shall be better qualified to
186

NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
speak of the private houses. But this much I may say,
that although the sort of house built here by the French
is not the best specimen of French arrangement, yet it
is infinitely, in my opinion, superior to that arrange
ment which we have inherited from the English. But
so inveterate is habit that the merchants from the old
United States, who are daily gaining ground in the
manners and habits, the opinions and the domestic
arrangements of the French, have already begun to
introduce the detestable, lop-sided London house, in
which a common passage and stairs acts as a common
sewer to all the necessities of the dwelling, and renders
it impossible to preserve a temperature within the
house materially different from that of the atmosphere
without, as the coughs, colds, and consumptions of our
Eastern cities amply testify. With the English arrange
ment, the red brick fronts are also gaining ground, and
the suburb St. Mary, the American suburb, already ex
hibits the flat, dull, dingy character of Market Street in
Philadelphia, instead of the motley and picturesque
effect of the stuccoed French buildings of the city. We
shall introduce many grand and profitable improve
ments, but they will take the place of much elegance,
ease, and some convenience.
The change which is gradually taking place in the
character of this city is not very rapid compared with
the march of society on the continent generally, but
to the old inhabitants it must appear extraordinary
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
enough. Much of what was a daily practice has en
tirely disappeared, never to return; for instance, the
military parade of the intendant, and all the ceremony
that belongs to the government of a city in which the
people were only an appendage to the magistracy. The
governor of the State is certainly the head of a much
more important and powerful community than the
Spanish authority ever reigned over. But the difference
of respect with which the former is treated, compared
with the submission shown to the latter whenever he
appeared, is in an immense ratio entirely. I observed
a remarkable instance of the democratic character of
the citizens at the magnificent ball given at Davis's, on
Washington's birthday. There were about three hun
dred gentlemen present, and probably four hundred
ladies. When supper was ready, old Mr. Fortier, an
old creole of about seventy, with the spirits and man
ners of a boy of seventeen, who is a sort of self-elected
master of the ceremonies, not only at balls, but at all
private parties to which he is invited, stopped the danc
ing, and called out: " II y a cinquante converts, cin-
quante dames au souper, au souper, au souper! " About
one hundred, however, sat down, and the gentlemen
stood behind their chairs; another and another set suc
ceeded. The third set did not fill the table, and the
gentlemen sat down to it as fast as they could. The
governor, Villere, the chief judge of the United States
Circuit Court, an officer whom I do not know, Commo-

NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
dore Patterson, and the Mayor of Orleans, were shown
to the head of the table by the managers. But all the
places were occupied by young men, not one of whom
would give way. I happened to be among them and
immediately rose, offering my place to the governor, and
giving a hint to my neighbors. They looked round,
but not a man of them followed my example, and as
I vacated only one place and did not sit down again,
it was soon filled by somebody else.
The Catholic religion formerly was the only one
permitted, and was carried on with all the pomp and
ceremony of a Spanish establishment. The Host was
carried to the sick in great parade, and all those whom
it encountered knelt devoutly till it had passed. All
that is now over, and I understand that the procession
of the Host through the streets has not been seen here
for several years.
When the American Government took possession
of New Orleans, it found here a bishop, who was in full
possession of all the ecclesiastical power belonging to
his rank, and of a considerable share of civil authority.
He did not remain here, but went to the Havana, where
I am told he now resides. A vicar was appointed, I
do not know by what authority, and the famous Abbe
Dubourg was the man. There is here an old Spanish
monk, Father Anthony, whose influence among the
Catholics is unbounded. He did not like this new vicar,
Abbe Dubourg, who — ambition is equal to his talents,
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
and both are of the first magnitude — exerted himself
to maintain his authority. He twice entered the pulpit
But as soon as his voice was heard, a number in the
church were seized with the most violent colds; they
sneezed, coughed, spat, and, as decency required, rubbed
out their spittle on the floor with their feet. They sat,
in fact, so uneasily on their benches that they were
obliged to be in perpetual motion, and did not recover
anything like tranquillity until the abbe had finished his
sermon. The conduct of Father Antoine, in fact, was such
that Archbishop Carrol suspended him, and I think
Archbishop Mareschal has been obliged to do the same.
He made his submission and was restored. Abbe Du
bourg acquired a temporary eclat on the 8th of Jan
uary, when he collected all the ladies in the church and
performed high mass, while the men were fighting at
the lines. The subsequent parade and a flaming oration
a la Franqaise kept him up for some time, and he then
went to Italy and France. The Pope consecrated him
Bishop of Orleans and he returned ; but Father Anthony
remained refractory, and yet refused to acknowledge his
authority, no regular deposition or abdication of the
Spanish bishop having taken place. The Catholic
Church here, therefore, is in a kind of schismatic state.
All matters of ceremony and faith are, I presume, as
elsewhere; but the authority of the Holy Father at
Rome appears to be disavowed in the person of the
190

NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
bishop he has consecrated and sent out. In the mean
time, Bishop Dubourg, with the collection of priests, or
naments, and money which he has collected and begged
in Europe, and which amount to forty of the former
and a very large sum of the latter, has established him
self at St. Louis, where he is about to build his cathedral.
In speaking on this subject to Archbishop Mareschal,
at Baltimore, he seemed very rationally to think it best
to let the schism die with Father Anthony.
Although the procession of the Host no longer
parades the streets, the parade of funerals is still a
thing which is peculiar to New Orleans, among all the
American cities. I have twice met, accidentally, a
funeral. They were both of colored people; for the
coffin was carried by men of that race, and none but
negroes and quadroons followed it. First marched a
man in a military uniform with a drawn sword. Then
came three boys in surplices, with pointed caps, two
carrying staves with candlesticks in the form of urns at
the top, and the third, in the center, a large silver
cross. At some distance behind came Father Anthony
and another priest, who seemed very merry at the cere
mony of yesterday, and were engaged in loud and cheer
ful conversation. At some distance farther came the
coffin. It was carried by four well-dressed black men,
and to it were attached six white ribbons about two
yards in length, the ends of which were held by six
colored girls, very well dressed in white, with long
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
veils. A crowd of colored people followed confusedly,
many of whom carried candles li'ghted. I stood upon
a step till the whole had passed, and counted sixty-nine
candles. About a month ago I attended high mass at the
cathedral. All the usual motions were made; I think
in greater profusion, indeed, than ordinary, and the
common service performed in the common way. But
what was unusual was the procession of the Host round
the church; the Mortranza (literally the " showbox,"
Latin pix, from which the exclamation " Please the
pigs " — pix — is derived) was a very fine affair indeed,
and an embroidered canopy was carried over it upon
six silver staves, held by six very respectable-looking
men. One of my motives for going to the cathedral was
the hope of hearing good and affecting church music.
In this I was most sadly disappointed. There was no
organ, at least the miserable organ which they have
was not played. The voices, half a dozen, at least, of
them, that chanted the service were the loudest and
most unmusical that I ever heard in a church. The
loudness was terrific, of one of them particularly, and
as they chanted in unison, and in the most villainous
taste imaginable, something between a metrical melody
and a free recitative, it is not easy to conceive anything
more diabolical.
The congregation consisted of at least four-fifths
192

NEW ORLEANS AND ITS PEOPLE
women, of which number one-half, at least, were col
ored. For many years I have not seen candles offered
at the altars; but at each of the side altars there were
half a dozen candles stuck upon the steps by old colored
women, who seemed exceedingly devout.
At Baltimore, the metropolis of American Catholi
cism, the stages of the mass performing within the
church is no longer announced to those who do not
attend there. But here, the pious Catholic confined to
his bed at home can follow the congregation in the
church through the whole exhibition. The bell is kept
at work as a signal, and when the Host is elevated,
it rings a peal that is heard all over the city.
Father Anthony is said to be near eighty. He
looks, indeed, so. He has a long, sharp face, with an
aquiline nose and a gray beard, long and thin, which
has once been red.

193

CHAPTER X
PECULIAR CUSTOMS, WITH SOME DISJECTA MEMBRA
UPON ART CONVENTIONS
New Orleans, March 8, 1819.
I WALKED to-day to the burial grounds on the
northwest side of the town. There is an in-
closure for the Catholic Church of about three
hundred feet square, and immediately adjoining is the
burial place of the Protestants, of about equal dimen
sions. The Catholic tombs are of a very different
character from those of our Eastern and Northern cities.
They are of brick, much larger than necessary to in
close a single coffin, and plastered over so as to have
a very solid and permanent appearance. They are of
many shapes of similar character, covering each an
area of seven or eight feet long and four or five feet
wide, and being from five to seven feet high. They
are crowded close together, without any particular at
tention to aspect. The range of the sides of the area
is southwest and northeast, and northwest and south
east. It appeared to me possible that the confusion
might arise from the different degrees of importance
which the friends or priests might attach to the east
194

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
and west position of the tomb, a position which was
once considered an essential in the construction of a
church, as well as in the placing of a tomb; and is a
surviving remnant of Eastern worship which still hangs
about our religious practice after being disavowed by
our creeds. I was once told by a Catholic priest that
the position of the coffin, with the feet to the east and
the head to the west, was of the first importance, be
cause that at the resurrection Christ would appear in
the east, and if they were placed otherwise they would
rise with their backs toward Him. Without intending
to place this subject in a ludicrous light, I mention this
opinion as a strong proof that the worship of the sun
rising in the east has strongly impregnated the religious
practices of the Christian church; and assuredly, of all
false worship, none appears to me more natural and
pardonable than that of the rising sun.
In one corner of the Catholic burying ground are
two sets of-Gatacom"bs~of three stories each, roughly
built, and-oeeupying much more room than is necessary.
Many of the catacombs were occupied, but not in
regular succession, and the mouths of some were filled
up with marble slabs having inscriptions. But more
were bricked up and plastered, without any indication
of the person's name who occupies it. Of the tombs
there are very few that are furnished with any inscrip
tion whatever. The few that are record only the name
and the date of the birth and death of the deceased,
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
with a very few exceptions. One of the catacombs
had this simple epitaph on L. M. M. Villouet, aged
twenty years:
" Qui, qui tu sois, respecte ce monument
dernier asile d'une fille bonne et vertueuse."
More needed not to be said.
The Protestant burying ground has tombs of much
the same construction, but a little varied in character,
and they are all ranged parallel to the sides of the
inclosure. The monument of the wife, child, and
brother-in-law of Governor Claiborne is the most con
spicuous, and has a panel enriched with very good sculp
ture. A female lies on a bed with her child lying across
her body, both apparently just departed. A winged
figure, pointing upward, holds over her head the. crown
of immortality. At the foot of the bed kneels the hus
band in an attitude of extreme grief. The execution
is very good, and it is less injured than might have been
expected from its exposure in an open burial place.
The governor's rank is indicated by the fasces at the
head of the bedstead.
There were two or three graves opened and ex
pecting their tenants. Eight or nine inches below the
surface they were filled with water and were not three
feet deep. Thus all persons are here buried in the
water. The surface of the burying ground must now
be seven or eight feet below the level of the Mississippi,
196

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
which has still five or six feet to rise before it attains
its usual highest level. The ground was everywhere
perforated by the crawfish, the amphibious lobster
(ecrevisse) . I have, indeed, seen them in their usual
attitude of defiance in the gutters of the streets. The
French are fond of them, and make excellent and
" handsome " soup of them, their scarlet shells being
filled with forced meat and served up in the tureen.
But the Americans, with true English anti-Gallican
prejudices, disdain this species of the Cancer, although
we delight in crabs and lobsters, the food of which we
all know to be in the last degree disgusting. They pre
tend that the sellers of this fish collect them principally
in the churchyards, which is not, I believe, true, and,
in fact, impossible, considering the quantity that are
sold. We are all slaves, nationally and individually, of
habit; our minds and our bodies are equally fashioned
by education, and although the original dispositions of
individuals give specific variety to character, the general
sentiment, like the general manners, modes of living,
and cooking, of sitting and standing and walking, can
only be slowly changed by the gradual substitution of
a new habit for the old.
In nothing does habit and general and long-con
tinued practice guide a community more despotically
than in the disposal of the bodies of the dead. The
Parsees, in Hindostan, expose them in the open air to
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
be devoured by vultures, and judge of the happiness or
misery of the departed soul by the attack of the birds
upon the right or left eye. The rich Hindoos burn
and the poor throw their dead into the river to be de
voured by alligators or fish. We bury them, as food
for worms and crawfish. At sea we deliver them to
the sharks, crabs, and lobsters. Those who can afford
it inclose them in leaden and stone coffins, as if jealous
of the appetites of the vermin to whom they might give
nourishment ; while the ancient Egyptians and the Euro
pean princes and nobles embalm the bones and fleshy
parts and leave the bowels to shift for themselves in
leaden boxes. In many places in Sicily and Italy and
Malta the bodies are preserved by drying. The Greeks
and Romans committed them to the flames. Of all
these modes of getting rid of the dead body, the latter
is, after all, productive of the least annoyance, and most
completely avoids that accumulation which we find so
very inconvenient, and which inevitably attends our
mode of burial.
I do not recollect to have met in any author, ancient
or modern, with any account of the manner and the rea
sons of the change in the usual mode of disposing of
the dead, after the promulgation of Christianity, and
of the substitution of the grave for the funeral pile.
But it seems to have naturally grown out of the doctrine
of the resurrection of the body, of the very body which
the soul inhabited in this state of our existence. The
198

et

Z<
et 3
?wZ

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
dissipation of all its parts by the action of fire ap
peared so near an approach to annihilation that it was,
I presume, the natural consequence of the new doctrine
that the body, after death, should be as well preserved
in the ground as possible. " The graves shall give
up their dead." Besides, the early Christians were of
opinion that the day of judgment and the resurrection
of the body would take place during the existence of
the first or second generation after Christ — an opinion
which appears to have been that of St. Paul. " We
shall not all die, but we shall be all changed." And
though this text is explained away, as well as that of
Christ, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this genera
tion shall not pass away before these things come to
pass," yet those who are not polemical theologians have
a right to take them in their natural sense.
The whole event of the resurrection of the natural
body must be the work of omnipotence ; and it cannot,
therefore, be of any importance whether the particles
of which it consists be dissipated by fire or by any
other mode of dissolution. In either mode the in
dividuality is destroyed, and a new synthesis must take
place. I cannot, therefore, help wishing on many accounts
that the burning of bodies had continued to be the
practice of Christians. The health of cities, the
convenience, as respects public squares and building
grounds, are greatly involved in our practice. At the
16 199

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
cathedral in Baltimore, and, in fact, in most great
cities, the existence of graveyards has been found a
serious nuisance. The great operation at Paris, in re
moving the dead from the cemetery of Les Innocents,
is an astonishing instance of the expensive efforts that
have been found necessary to get rid of them, an opera
tion that none but Frenchmen could have conceived or
executed. But there are other reasons for which I
would give a preference to the Greek and Roman prac
tice. Those who have lost friends, especially of a dif
ferent sex from themselves, and have hearts to feel,
need not be told that whatever philosophical indiffer
ence may have existed respecting the fate of their own
bodies after death, those of their friends become in
finitely dear to them, and that no display of their
affection is considered too extravagant or too expensive
to be indulged and executed. But if habit did not
reconcile us to everything, how inconsistent with the
delicate enthusiasm of a husband respecting the body
of his wife and child does it not seem to put it into a
hole full of stagnant water about three feet deep, to
be there devoured by crawfish, as is done unavoidably
in New Orleans, or to place it in a catacomb where the
wonns-may dispose of it!
Now, if the body were burned, and the ashes sepa
rately retained, which may easily be done by many
methods, besides the expensive one of sheets of as
bestos, if they ever were used, the space occupied would
200

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
be so small and the remains so entirely inoffensive
to any sense that all objections, public and private,
would vanish which render the preservation of what
is left behind of those we loved so difficult, expensive,
and, in most cases, impossible. And if the urns that
inclose the ashes of our departed friends were placed
in our view, the delightful sentiment of posthumous
affection would be longer kept alive, and its moral effect
be stronger and more beneficial.
I have a confused recollection of the account given
to me by Mr. Foster, the British minister, of the dis
covery of the tomb of Aspasia. Within the monument
was a large marble urn, or vase, exquisitely sculptured,
with decorations of cheerful import. Within this outer
vase was found an urn of bronze of small size, but of
the most exquisite workmanship, containing the ashes
of that extraordinary woman, who, to the talents and
acquirements of the Baroness de Stael, added a most
refined and graceful taste and exquisite beauty, although
her moral character, judged on the most latitudinarian
of Athenian libertinism, must always be an object of
disgust. Upon the ashes, which only partly filled the
urn, lay a wreath of gold, the most perfect effort of
art, a wreath composed of a sprig of laurel and one
of myrtle. There is some difference between such a monument
to departed worth and the death's heads and cross
bones of our churchyards. 201

THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE March 16, 1819.
I happened this morning to be in the dry-goods
store of Mrs. Herries, a lady who formerly, as the
wife of the rich Banker Herries, of Buffalo, figured in
the highest circles of fashion ; and now, one of the many
ruins of the French Revolution, still exhibits in her
manners and language the characters of former taste
and elegance. At the same time she has had the good
sense not to be ashamed of her present situation and
employment, and is a most admirable and attentive
shopwoman, both to her customers and to her interest.
While I was in the shop a mulatto man came in and
asked for some shawls. Mrs. Herries produced some
very elegant ones, which the man looked at with an
apparent intention to buy, but said he had no money
with him, but that, if her woman was out with shawls
and she called at the house, one would be bought and
paid for. Mrs. Herries replied that her woman was
not out that morning, but should go out, and the man
went away.
This circumstance induced me to make inquiries as
to the details of a mode of retail trade which I had
long observed, and which had excited my curiosity.
In every street, during the whole day, women, chiefly
black women, are met carrying baskets upon their heads
and calling at the doors of houses. These baskets con
tain assortments of dry goods, sometimes, to appear
ance, to a considerable amount. The shawls at Mrs.
202

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
Herries's which the man looked at cost from $28 to
$50 each, and were many of them exceedingly hand
some. These female peddlers are slaves belonging either
to persons who keep dry-goods stores or who are too
poor to furnish a store with goods, but who buy as
many at auction as will fill a couple of baskets, which
baskets are their shops. I understand that the whole
of the retail trade in dry goods was carried on in this
way before the United States got possession of the
country. It was not then, nor is it now, the fashion
for ladies to go shopping. The creole families stick
still to the peddlers. Although many inducements are
held out by the better arrangement and exhibition of
the shops to the ladies to buy, still, as in everything
else, the old habit wears away very slowly. I am in
formed that it is a very unprofitable mode of dealing;
that the infidelity of the peddlers, their ignorance or
forgetfulness of prices at which they ought to sell,
and the slow sales, render it even more so than it might
be. But it is continued by two circumstances: by the
dependence of those who live by the labor of their
slaves upon this traffic, and by the necessity thus im
posed upon the shopkeepers to meet their petty rivals
on the same ground. This retail trade is so far worthy
of notice as it forms one of the characteristic features
of this city at present.
The existence- of ^slavery brings with it many things
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
which seem contradictory. Servants who are slaves are
always treated with more familiarity than hirelings;
probably because if you indulge and behave familiarly
to a hireling you cannot, if he presume upon it, correct
him as you can a slave, and make him feel his in
feriority by corporal punishment. Therefore we find
cruelty and confidence, cowhiding and caressing, per
fectly in accord with one another among the Creoles of
this place and their slaves.
There are poor Creole families and individuals
who live upon the labor of their slaves. Their fuel
is collected by them wherever they can find it, and the
house is kept either by the petty traffic above described
or by some other species of industry of the slaves, in
which the master or mistress takes no share. I have
heard of mistresses who beat their slaves cruelly if they
do not bring them a sufficient sum of money to enable
them to keep the house or fuel to warm them. I
know, also in my neighborhood, an old, decrepit
woman who is maintained entirely by an old slave
whom she formerly emancipated, but who, on her mis
tress getting old and helpless, returned to her and
devoted her labor to her support.
Judge M  , of this city, a severe miser and very
rich, is said to be entirely maintained by his slaves,
to a few of whom he has given the liberty to earn as
much as they can for themselves, provided they kept
a good table for him. 204

PECULIAR CUSTOMS March 18, 1819.
I went, this morning, with Mr. Planton to see his
wife's picture of the Treaty of Ghent. It is an ex
cellent painting in many points of view, and there are
parts of it, separate figures and groups, that have very
extraordinary merit. But its inherent sin, especially
in America, is its being an allegorical picture. When
the mythology of antiquity was the substance of its
religion, and the character and history of every deity
were known to every individual of the nation, allegorical
representations were a kind of written description of
the subject represented, and might be generally under
stood. But since Hercules and Minerva and the rest
of the deities are in fashion only as decorations of ju
venile poetry, and are known by character only to those
few who have had classical educations, an allegorical
picture stands as much in need of an interpreter as an
Indian talk.
Mrs. Planton has painted exceedingly well, but has
judged very ill. In another respect, also, her American
feeling has betrayed her into error. She has painted
a picture of the largest size in oil, of course a picture
calculated for duration, and forming an historical rec
ord, to represent evanescent feelings, the feelings of
unexpected and, of course, riotous and unreasonable
triumph. Britannia is represented as laying her flag,
her rudder (emblems of naval superiority), her laurels,
and other symbols of victory and dominion, at the feet
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
of America, who approaches in a triumphal car. She
kneels in the posture of an humble suppliant, while Her
cules and Minerva threaten her with the club and the
spear: all this is caricature. But the whole of this
group, excepting Hercules, is admirably painted. The
figure of Britannia is very graceful and well drawn, and
the drapery has superior merit. The group on the
right is also uncommonly, well conceived and executed.
The whole . picture does, indeed, infinite credit to the
artist and to her country, for she is a Philadelphian.
The great fault is the choice of the subject, for the sign
ing of negotiation of a treaty, as a matter of fact, can at
best be but a collection of expressive likenesses of per
sons writing or conversing, and has nothing picturesque
about it. Strength, fortitude, courage, and some good
luck, on our side, were not wanting to " conquer the
treaty," in the French fashionable phrase; and admi
rable talent was displayed in the negotiation. But these
are not very well paintable.
As to allegory, generally it is a most difficult branch
of the art of the painter and sculptor, and belongs
rather to the poetical department. Yet sometimes the
sculptor and painter have succeeded in rendering senti
ment intelligible by the chisel and pencil; for instance,
in the personification of Peace, by Canova, where a pair
of doves make their nest in a helmet.
Some years ago Dr. Thornton, of Washington,
described, before a large company, the allegorical group
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
which it was his intention, as commissioner of the city
of Washington, to place in the center of the Capitol,
around the statue of the general.
" I would," said he, " place an immense rock of
granite in the center of the dome. On the top of the
rock should stand a beautiful female figure, to represent
Eternity or Immortality. Around her neck, as a neck
lace, a serpent — the rattlesnake of our country — should
be hung, with its tail in its mouth— the ancient and
beautiful symbol of endless duration. At the foot of
the rock another female figure, stretching her hands
upward in the attitude of distressful entreaty, should
appear, ready to climb the steep. Around her a group
of children, representing Agriculture, the Arts and.
Sciences, should appear to join in the supplication of the
female. This female is to personify Time, or our pres
ent state of existence. Just ascending the rock, the
noble figure of General Washington should appear
to move upward, invited by Immortality, but also ex
pressing some reluctance in leaving the children of
his care. " There," said he, " Mr. Latrobe, is your requisite
in such works of art; it would represent a matter of
fact, a truth, for it would be the very picture of the
general's sentiments, feelings, and expectations in de
parting this life — regret at leaving his people, but hop
ing and longing for an immortality of happiness and
of fame. You yourself have not ingenuity sufficient
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to pervert its meaning, and all posterity would under
stand it."
The doctor was so full of his subject that I was
unwilling to disturb his good humor; but I said that
I thought his group might tell a very different story
from what he intended. He pressed me so hard that
at last I told . him that, supposing the name and
character of General Washington to be forgotten,
or at least that the group had been found in the
ruins of the Capitol, and the learned antiquarians of
two thousand years hence were assembled to decide
its meaning, I thought then that they would thus
explain it:
" There is a beautiful woman on the top of a dan
gerous precipice, to which she invites a man, apparently
well enough inclined to follow her. Who is this
woman? Certainly not a very good sort of a one, for
she has a snake about her neck. The snake indicates,
assuredly, her character — cold, cunning, and poisonous.
She can represent none but some celebrated courtesan
of the day. But there is another woman at the foot
of the rock, modest and sorrowful, and surrounded by
a family of small children. She is in a posture of en
treaty, and the man appears half-inclined to return to
her. She can be no other than his wife. What an
expressive group ! How admirable the art which has
thus exposed the dangerous precipice to which the
beauty and the cunning of the abandoned would entice
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
the virtuous, even to the desertion of a beautiful wife
and the mother of a delightful group of children ! "
I was going on, but the laughter of the company
and the impatience of the doctor stopped my mouth.
I had said enough, and was not easily forgiven. March 22, 1819.
New Orleans, beyond Royal Street toward the
swamp, retains its old character without variation. The
houses are, with hardly a dozen exceptions among
many hundred, one-story houses. The roofs are high,
covered with tiles or shingles, and project five feet over
the footway, which is also five feet wide. The eaves,
therefore, discharge the water into the gutters. The
height of the stories is hardly ten feet, the elevation
above the pavement not more than a foot and a half,
and, therefore, the eaves are not often more than eight
feet from the ground. However different this mode is
from the American manner of building, it has very
great advantages, both with regard to the interior of
the dwelling and to the street. In the summer the
walls are perfectly shaded from the sun and the house
kept cool, while the pedestrians are shaded from the
sun and protected from the rain. From my lodging
to Mr. Nolte's is a distance of six hundred and fifty
feet, independent of the crossing of two streets, and
yet in the heaviest rains I can walk to his house per
fectly dry, excepting for about two hundred feet in
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front of a dead wall and some high houses in Toulouse
Street. These one-story houses are very simple in their
plan. The two front rooms open into the street with
glass French doors. Those on one side are the dining
and drawing-rooms, the others chambers. The front
rooms, when inhabited by Americans, are the family
rooms, and the back rooms the chambers. We derive
from the English the habit of desiring that every one
of our rooms should be separately accessible, and
we consider rooms that are thoroughfares as useless.
The French and continental Europeans generally live,
I believe, as much to their own satisfaction in their
houses as we do in ours, and employ the room they
have to more advantage, because they do not require
so much space for passages. The comfort is a matter
of habit. The offices are in the back of the buildings.
In the Faubourg St. Mary and wherever the
Americans build they exhibit their flat brick fronts,
with a sufficient number of holes for light and entrance.
The only French circumstance which they retain is the
balcony in the upper story, which, although generally
too elevated for the protection of the passenger, is still
a means of shade as far as it goes. The French stucco
the fronts of their buildings, and often color them ; the
Americans exhibit their red, staring brickwork, imbib
ing heat through the whole unshaded substance of the
wall. The old English side-passage house, with the
210

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
stairs at the end, is also gaining ground, and is taking
the place of the French porte-cochere, or corridor,
which, carrying you quite through the house, leads to the
staircase at the back, where it takes up no room from
the apartments, and is protected by a broad and con
venient gallery.
An American bricklayer, a very worthy man, con
sulted me as to a house he has built for himself on
the London plan. I objected to many parts of his
design as contrary to every principle of good archi
tecture. He could not well answer my objections, and
at last cut the argument short by exclaiming: " I have
been at war with architecture all my life, and will con
tinue so to the end, having all New York in my favor."
I have no doubt that the American type will ulti
mately be that of the whole city, especially as carpenters
from the Eastern border of the Union are the architects,
and of course work on in their old habits for men
accustomed to these very sort of houses. But although
room may be thereby gained, the convenience of the
houses will by no means be promoted, nor the health
of the city improved.
The streets are, in the city, all of them, thirty-six
French feet wide (about thirty-eight feet six inches
English) , and the squares (islets) three hundred French
(or about three hundred and twenty English) feet
square. The old lots are sixty French feet front by one
hundred and twenty deep. In the Faubourg St. Mary
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the streets are wider ; but in that of Marigny, the same
as in the city. Provision is made for several public
squares, an ornament and convenience in which our other
cities are most remarkably deficient. In this respect
New Orleans will always maintain its superiority.
Habit governs our preferences in everything so ex
tensively, if not entirely, that it is 'a very presumptuous
man indeed who undertakes to decide on the positive
merit of any national practice in which morality is not
concerned. The English writers of the most candid
and enlightened minds have been more guilty of this
presumption than those of any other nation, more espe
cially when the question has been about anything rela
tive to France and Frenchmen. One of the most de
lightful of English writers, Goldsmith, has blotted his
elegant pages with more illiberality toward the French
than any other respectable English author. All this is
to be regretted, but national hatred and jealousy seems
to be implanted in the very essence of the human mind,
and is considered by all governments to be so essential
a machine in the management of a war that it never
will be corrected entirely, although I think that since
the American Revolution somewhat more liberality
prevails. But there are national sources of pleasure which are
so entirely artificial that it is a fair subject of inquiry
whether habit, alone, gives to them their fascination,
whether they cannot be improved or corrected, and
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CMe! O&
wZ

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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
.even whether they are not so far founded in error and
prejudice as to require correction for the benefit of the
public taste generally.
These thoughts were suggested some time ago by
the French tragedy of " Mahomet," at the performance
of which I was present, and by the perusal of many of
Moliere's comedies, and have been revived by stepping,
a few nights ago, into the Theater of St. Philip and
listening to a tolerably good English recitation by a
Mr. Philips.
Mr. Skipworth, who has resided many years in
France, accompanied me, and I take it for granted that
the declamation was very bad, for he, who is almost
a Frenchman, declared that he could not understand
one-fourth part of it. I was happy if I could under
stand the general drift of what was going forward,
being entirely out of the habit of hearing or speaking
the French language. And yet I observed many ladies,
as well as gentlemen, who were much affected by the
scene, and the piece certainly commanded the most
silent attention of the whole audience.
So much has been said and written on the subject
of the French rhymed plays that nothing new remains
to be discovered. The ridiculous in them is equal to
the unnatural. And yet to this day, when a revolution
has taken place in many very prominent habits of the
whole world, Frenchmen still listen in rapture to the
strings of declamation, impossible and absurd as they
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are as representations of nature, which constitute the
tragedies of their greatest as well as of their more
moderate writers. The nasal terminations of the
French words, and the latitude of rhyme which they
allow themselves (in turning over the " Henriade " I
see fenetre rhymed to maitre, connaitre, etc., etc.), and
the distinctness with which the actors impress the coup
lets upon the ear, adds, in French, an effect of harsh
ness to the rhymed declamation, which may be avoided
in English and in German, in which languages a good
declaimer can render the rhyme scarcely perceptible.
Moliere, as far as I may venture to judge, after so
long a disuse of the French language, has managed his
rhymed speeches with great dexterity. But he is won
derfully loose in his rhyming, I think, which in comedy
may be pardoned and perhaps approved as slackening
considerably the fetters of the verse.
I have somewhere or other either read or imagined
that that which disgusts and shocks us in waxwork,
colored and dressed to the life, is that it exactly re
sembles living men and women, excepting in the princi
pal evidence of life — motion. On a beautiful statue
we look with delight, because we see in everything be
longing to it, in its color, its hardness, the evidence that
it does not and cannot be anything but a representation
of a living form; whereas the nearer a figure in wax
work resembles a living individual, the more we are
embarrassed by its presence, while we are deceived to
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
believe it alive, and the more shocked when we dis
cover that it is really dead. Just such I might sup
pose would be the effect of a French tragedy on one
who had never seen or heard any performance of the
kind. The dress and scenery would first deceive him
to believe that the scene is real; but the moment the
actors open their mouths he would find that they come
from another world, where emperors and executioners,
kings, lackeys, and ladies talk and make love and com
mit murder, and abuse one another in measured and
rhymed language. On the other hand, when a story
written in verse, even in dialogue, is read, the want of
dress and scenery and dramatic action has the same
advantage which is possessed by the marble statue.
Nothing resembling the business of the world in all its
minute details is expected; the mind is left at liberty
to admire the elegance of the poetry and the correct
ness of the rhyme and meter, and to be affected by the
description of events and feelings. It creates its own
scenery around, just as it warms the cheeks of a marble
Venus with blushes, her eyes with fire and color, and
her skin with the hue and velvet of life. The statue
gives you nothing but the form. The waxwork pre
tends to give you the life, and the employment of life
with the form, and you find nothing but death in the
mask of life. So the French tragedy pretends to rep
resent real men and women, and you find a race you
never heard of before.
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April 8, 1 8 19.
The Holy Week is here celebrated with much less
pomp than formerly, but still with many ceremonies
that do not well accord with the simplicity of the Ameri
can character, even of the Catholic religion in the old
United States. The arrival of the Missouri with
my machinery has so occupied me that I have been
unable to attend the church as much as I wished.
Every year clips off a little more of the old Spanish
regime. The Host is no longer carried in procession
through the streets, and the public square before the
church is not any more the parade ground of the clergy.
The business is all done within the walls of the building.
The altar has been, during this whole week, covered
with a black drapery, without ornament. On Thursday
I went into the church about five o'clock in the evening.
A temporary piece of scenery was erected at the end
of the south aisle, which covered the side altar at that
place. The side altar at the north aisle was lighted
up and a priest was officiating. The church was exces
sively crowded, especially about the door, and in the
south aisle, and about one thousand people were in the
square fronting the church, where, indeed, I had ob
served a great crowd the whole day. The decoration
at the end of the south aisle consisted of a sort of gate.
It was made of boards, badly painted in imitation of
marble. The steps were narrow and flat and not in
tended for use. Four rows of candles and five of flower-
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
pots, with very bad artificial flowers, stood on the steps,
and a row of candles on the balusters, so as altogether to
look like what the children would call a very pretty baby
house on a large scale. Within the arch was an altar
covered with drapery and tinsel, and at each side of
the altar stood a wax doll, about the size of a child of
five or six years old, dressed up in scarlet and a profu
sion of tinsel. Each held a candle in its hand. I could
not make out what all this represented, and nobody
that I asked could inform me. On one side of the altar
is a door. This door was shut up and covered with
a white muslin curtain, festooned round the arch and
hanging down on each side. Within the niche was an
image of the Virgin, about two feet high, dressed in
black velvet; her robe was drawn out on each side and
fastened to the back of the niche so as to give the whole
figure a triangular shape. A silver embroidered cross
extended from her chin to her feet, and at each ear she
had a large silver shell. The face appeared to be of
wax. This figure stood upon two steps, upon an ordi
nary table covered with muslin, with a little tinsel about
it and four candles burning before it.
Before these two altars a carpet was spread, upon
the edge of which lay a crucifix, with a figure about two
feet long, and two tea-waiters.
On the south side of the nave, near the principal
door of the church, was placed a common small table.
Behind it was a long bench, on which sat an old, gray-
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headed man in an ordinary and rather mean dress, and
upon the table stood a crucifix. The cross was of black
wood and the figure painted to represent flesh, with a
gray drapery round the middle. This figure was ad
mirably executed, but on this very account was a hor
rible object. The artist had represented his subject so
naturally that nothing but habit could reconcile the
eye to such an exhibition. The body hung, as usual,
by nails through the palms of the hands. The sinews
of the hands and arms were strained to the utmost, the
fingers open and the flesh swelled and puckered by the
weight hanging to it. The body had fallen to the left
side. All the pectoral muscles strained upward. The
head sinking into the cavity of the collar bones, the
legs bending again to the right, and the feet, where
nailed to the body of the cross, twisted upon the nails
and the wounds opening, the knees bending a little for
ward — in fact, so well had the artist studied his subject,
and so naturally was the bloody and death-colored image
painted, that nothing but habit could have reconciled
the people to its use.
This was the apparatus of the ceremony that was
going on the whole day. The people, of whom three-
fourths, at least, were colored, and of those a very
large majority were women in their best dresses,
crowded down to the altar at the bottom of the south
aisle, and after crossing themselves they knelt down and
kissed the hands, feet, and body of the crucifix which
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
lay upon the carpet, and at the same time put a piece
of money into the waiters, which, when I saw them,
were heaped with bits and halfbits (escalins and pica
yunes — six and a quarter and twelve and a half cents),
and among these many quarters and half-dollars, and
some dollars.
The same ceremony of kissing the image was going
on near the entrance of the church, where there was a
waiter filled with money. The business of the old man
seemed to be twofold : to guard the money and to hold
the crucifix steady. On each side of the other crucifix
at the altar was a soldier in uniform, with his musket
and bayonet fixed. They stood on the carpet, and
a large crowd were kneeling around, praying, looking
about at the newcomers, and occasionally laughing and
conversing together upon their knees.
The earnestness and devotion with which the dev
otees kissed these images was very remarkable. Most
of them kissed each of the hands and the feet, but
many bestowed their kisses also upon the knees and
breast, and repeated them several times. Several young
women appeared to mix a sort of devotional passion
with their kisses, and one woman, after getting near
the door, turned back, and kissed the image again
most passionately, while tears were running down her
cheeks. As to the contribution of money, it seemed to be
optional, for I observed many who gave nothing.
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April 9, 1 8 19.
I went, about twelve this morning, to the church.
The scenery at the end of the south aisle was removed,
and they were sweeping the building. It was full of
dust, and yet a large concourse were in it, and as many
on the outside. The crucifix and the old man near the
door were still there, and many men and women, all
colored people, were still performing the ceremony of
kissing it, and the more substantial one of putting money
into the waiters. Several women were there with small
children, whose little mouths they put to the hands and
feet of the image.
Although the Catholic inhabitants of this city do
business on Sunday as on any other day, yet on this
day, Good Friday, even the notaries have, to my great
injury, shut up their offices; and the police officer has
summoned one of my carters and threatened him with
a fine of fifty dollars for hauling lime on this day.
April 18, 1 8 19.
Before I went to church this morning I had occa
sion to go to the upper end of the Faubourg St. Mary.
A Sunday in New Orleans may be pretty well under
stood by recounting the various sights that occur in such
a walk. For instance :
After taking leave of two friends who accompanied
me as far as the levee, and conversed on the relative
merits of the different flags which were flying on board
220

PECULIAR CUSTOMS
the numerous ships along the shore, I bought three
oranges for a bit (twelve and a half cents) of a black
woman, and watched the mooring of a market boat
which carried the broad pennant of Napoleon. Out
of the boat came ashore a basket of pecan nuts, twenty
or thirty wild ducks of different sorts, rather too late
in the season, a great quantity of carrots, and some
sugar cane. The boat was principally loaded with corn.
On the cabin was a coop, well filled with poultry, and
in it two black women in madras turbans, and gowns
stripped with scarlet and yellow. Round their necks
a plentiful assortment of bead necklaces — in fact, they
were in full dress. The man who seemed to be the
owner was an old sunburned Creole, slovenly in his
whole appearance; and two old black men, in blanket
frocks with pointed hoods (capots), were the navi-
gatorSj and were carrying the cargo ashore, with many
a curse at being so late at market (ten o'clock). A
little farther on were three drunken Indians who af
forded sport to several boys that surrounded them.
Then half a dozen Kentuckians, dirty, savage, and
gigantic, who were selling a horse or two to a group
of genteel-looking men, who spoke English. Being
now arrived near the steamboats, everything like busi
ness seemed suspended, and the levee was full of per
sons, well dressed, without any apparent object but to
take the air. I left the levee and walked along the
houses on the old levee. Here some sailors were buy-
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ing, in a French shop, of a black shopwoman, slops,
and trying on their pantaloons, she helping them.
Many shops shut up, but some open and doing business.
At last, as the houses became thinner, I reached my
destination, which was to call on a gentleman by ap
pointment. I stayed some timet with him, during which
we sat in the gallery and saw two ships come to at the
levee — a very beautiful view. Returning, to avoid the
dust, into Magazin Street, I called, in passing, at Mr.
Brand's to inquire after Mrs. Brand, who is sick. I
found him going to church, with some others. Passing
Mr. Morgan's, I overtook another church party. On
the steps of a store, a little farther on, lay two boat
men, drunk and half-asleep, swearing in English at
some boys who were teasing them. Going along the
Levee Street, I encountered a large group of colored
gentlemen and ladies, who seemed to be about to sepa
rate. I stopped for a moment to listen to a pretty loud
conversation, and found that a blackish sort of mulatto
was discussing the merits of a new priest who has a
very fine voice. A cream-colored lady differed from
him, and gave the preference to one of the other priests,
" qui a la voix si forte et si haute comme une cloche;
mon Dieu! comme une cloche, si haute." Other opin
ions were given in Creole French, and were unintelligible
to me. These folks, then, came from church; and, by
the bye, these singers, or musical reciters, had treated
them to a chapter or two of Latin. The voice, there-
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PECULIAR CUSTOMS
fore, was the only subject of discussion, for to them
it was certainly vox, et prceterea nihil.
It was now eleven o'clock, and I went myself to
Mr. Hull's church, following many a group who were
directing their steps thither also. The church service
was just beginning; the prayers always excellent; the
music more than tolerable, and the sermon very well
composed and delivered. The church was just full. I
left the church with the congregation. In Bourbon
Street, passed a cooper who was at work with some
mulatto boys. He was scolding them in very good Eng
lish. A little farther along, passed a shoemaker's.
The house had a door, and a wide window on each side
of it. All were well open. Opposite to one window
sat a broad-faced, dark mulatto, on his bench. His
sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he sat with
a very large draughtboard on his knees ; and facing him,
on another shoemaker's bench, sat a good-looking, well-
dressed white man, apparently eighteen or nineteen,
with his hat on, who was playing at draughts with him.
They seemed to be arguing, on terms of perfect equality,
some knotty point of the game. Opposite to the open
door stood a white woman, with a gaudily dressed child,
having a large hat and feathers on his head, in her
arms. She looked as if much interested in the dis
cussion. The other window discovered four boys and
an enormous man, all black, hard at work at their
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At the corner of Bourbon and St. Louis stood a
boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, with his
fowling piece and hunting net, and some gentlemen were
examining its contents. It contained a mocking bird,
a red bird (the Virginia nightingale), a heron (Indian
hen), and a number of small martins. This shooting
is the common sport of the young Creoles on Sunday,
but it is to be regretted that the war should be carried
on at this season, to destroy the melody of the woods
and interrupt the connubial happiness of birds that
cannot be eaten.
I turned down St. Louis Street, and on coming near
the French coffee-house, I heard the blow of the cue
and the rebound of billiard balls upstairs. The coffee
house was full. I came home then, and in a short time
was called upon by three tall Kentuckians, who came to
make contracts for logs; and as they were to go up
the river the next morning, I attended to their business,
which occupied me till dinner. I walked downstairs
with them, and as I stood at the gate of the corridor
there passed a cabriolet, or chair, in which was a white
man and a bright quadroon woman holding an umbrella
out of the chair, the hood of which was up. A ragged
black boy sat at their feet and drove, and a girl of
thirteen or fourteen years old sat up on the trunk board
behind.

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CHAPTER XI
LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
April 25, 1 8 19.
TAKING a peep into the cathedral, en passant
this morning, I observed an old black woman
by herself before one of the altars, on her
knees, and her body bent to the earth. She had drawn
away her clothes from under her in such a way as to
kneel on the bare bricks, which are exceedingly rough
and broken. She was much too old and ugly to be
suspected of having incurred the penance she was suf
fering for any such sin as a younger penitent might
have committed; and it would not be easy to imagine
what actual and injurious breach of morality she had
disclosed in the confessional which could have deserved
its infliction. Perhaps she had eaten a little meat in
Holy Week, or on Friday, or broken some other pre
cept of mere discipline.
Of the astonishing and rigorous despotism which
religious opinions exercise over the imagination not only
of old black women, but of men otherwise of strong
and cultivated minds, there is hardly any more curious
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example than that of the restrictions submitted to in
respect to diet. If, for the first time, the Christian
world were told that the Almighty Creator of the uni
verse would doom to everlasting perdition, or even to
purgatory, every one that should eat meat on particular
days, but that he would except a very delicious kind of
duck called a mallard (sarcelle) and also the eggs of
all sorts of birds from his prohibition,* the preacher
of such absurdity would be ranked with Richard
Brothers and Jemima Wilkinson, or perhaps be sent to
the lunatic hospital. And yet the force of example
and general practice aids the inculcation of this belief
by the Catholic priests, so as to make it as powerful in
its effect upon the minds of all good Catholics as the
plainest rule of common sense.
Mr. Wilmer, the Episcopal clergyman of Alexan
dria, in Virginia, once told at my house a story, for the
truth of which his character is a certain pledge.
He was riding alone over the Allegheny Moun
tains, when, he was overtaken by a well-dressed man on
a good horse, who, with the familiarity of our back
woodsmen, proposed to join his company. The man
seemed extremely grave, and his conversation was
abrupt and unconnected. He had evidently something
upon his mind which distressed him. Mr. Wilmer at
* The sarcelle, which abounds in the neighborhood of New Orleans, is a small
duck, considered to be the most delicate of the many kinds which are brought
to market. It has been decided to be maigre, and is eaten on fast days, as fish and
eggs are.
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LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
last asked him whether he had met with any misfor
tune that could be the occasion of his apparent melan
choly. The man told him that that was actually the
case. He said that he had rode that morning from a
great distance; that he had left his home, in the lower
part of Maryland, about ten days before, and, having
much business to do before he could cross the moun
tain, he had been almost always on horseback, and had
not kept a very strict account of the days of the week;
that the week before he had arrived, fatigued and
hungry, at a tavern, where they were just sitting down
to a most excellent dinner; that he was asked to join
the dinner company, and, totally forgetting that it was
Friday, he had eaten a most plentiful dinner of all
sorts of meat; that he had been extremely unhappy and
miserable as soon as he had recollected the terrible sin
which he had committed, but no priest resided near
to whom to confess and from whom to receive absolu
tion; that he had traveled on, resolving never to be
again similarly guilty, and had a few hours ago arrived
at Cumberland, at the foot of the Allegheny Moun
tains. His mind had been filled all the week with peni
tent ideas and pious resolutions not again to commit
a similar breach of duty ; and when he entered Cumber
land he was fully aware of the sacrifice he had to make
this day, Friday, of his appetite to his religious obliga
tions. But alas ! the enemy was all the while watching
for his fall. He came into the dinner room fatigued,
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hungry, and his head full of the business he had to
transact. He was accosted by an acquaintance, and en
tered into conversation. Never was his appetite keener,
nor a good solid dinner more welcome. He ate and ate,
and thought he never could have enough. At last he
was satisfied; but scarcely had he swallowed the last
morsel before the recollection of the day rushed upon
him, and he was the most miserable of men. He feared
he never could be forgiven. Mr. Wilmer happened
at that moment to open his great coat and to exhibit
his clerical dress under it. The man saw it. " Good
God! " cried he, " and you are a priest! " He slipped
from his horse and kneeled down in the road. But Mr.
Wilmer begged him to rise, told him he was a priest,
but that he was a Protestant, or what he might call
a heretic priest, and would prescribe to him no penance.
The man got up again, half-comforted, half-ashamed;
and during the rest of the journey Mr. Wilmer suc
ceeded pretty well in persuading him that " To enjoy
is to obey."
A very disagreeable circumstance is of daily occur
rence in the neighborhood of the city and along the
levee. It is the abominable squealing of ungreased cart
wheels. With the unpleasant noise, there are many
ideas connected that render.it still more unpleasant —
the difficulty in dragging the carriage, to which the oxen
are unnecessarily subjected, the barbarous state of the
commonest arts among the planters, and the thick ears
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and idleness of the savage slaves that drive. But, in
fact, these ungreased and screaming cartwheels are
neither an indication of idleness nor of ignorance, but
are a legacy left to the country by the Spaniards, and
they still scream in obedience to a positive law of the
Spanish Government. Incredible as this may seem, it
is true. I should have taken the whole relation for a
hoax had I not received it from Judge Hale, as well
as from other sources.
The case is this. There is no country so favorably
situated as to the facility of smuggling as Louisiana.
Innumerable bayous, or creeks, lead from the ocean to
the back of the narrow strips of cultivatable land on
each side of the Mississippi. Into these bayous the
contraband goods can be easily brought, but they must
be carried from the swamps in wheel carriages, a dis
tance of from one to two or three miles. If the wheels
of the carts were greased this part of the business might
be carried on in perfect silence. Therefore it is ordered
that all carts shall remain ungreased, and that they shall
scream, in order that they may give notice to the rev
enue officers of the illegal traffic that is going on, and
thus become informers against their owners. A round
about way, in more senses than one, this, of obtaining
information. The greased carts — that is, carts that
did not scream — were liable to seizure. Such a revenue
regulation is, indeed, worthy of the ingenuity of the
Spanish Government. No other would have thought of
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it. The framers thereof did not know that a negro,
with a gallon of water at each wheel gradually poured
upon it, would as effectually prevent the wheel from
screaming as if it were as well greased as possible. The
cart might at any time be examined without betraying
the smuggler. May 4, 1819.
In going home to my lodgings this evening, about
sunset, I encountered a crowd of at least two hundred
negroes — men and women — who were following a
corpse to the cemetery. Of the women one-half, at
least, carried candles; and as the evening began to be
dark, the effect was very striking, for all the women,
and many of the men, were dressed in pure white. The
funerals are so numerous here, or rather occupy so
much of every afternoon, in consequence of their being,
almost all of them, performed by the same set of priests,
proceeding from the same parish church, that they ex
cite hardly any attention. But this was so numerously
attended that I was tempted to follow it; and, getting
just in a line with the priests, I entered the churchyard
with them and placed myself close to the grave. The
grave was about three feet deep, of which eighteen
inches were filled with water. It had been dug in a
mass of earth and bones which formed a little hillock
by its side. Ten or twelve skulls were piled up upon
the heap, which looked more like a heap of sticks, so
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numerous were the ribs and thigh bones that partly
composed it. As soon as the priests, who were five in
number, had entered the cemetery, preceded by three
boys carrying the usual pair of urns and crucifix on
staves, they began their chant, lazily enough, and con
tinued it till they arrived at the grave. The coffin was
then brought and immediately let down. It swam like
a boat in the water. The priest began his prayers.
In the meantime a great crowd of women pressed close
to the grave, making very loud lamentations. At a
particular passage the gravedigger, who was a little,
gray-headed negro, naked, excepting as to a pair of
ragged, short breeches, threw a shovelful of earth upon
the coffin, and at the same instant one of the negro
women, who seemed more particularly affected, threw
herself into the grave upon the coffin, and partly fell
into the water, as the coffin swam to one side. The
gravedigger, with very little ceremony, thrust his shovel
under her, and then seized her with both hands round
the throat and pulled her up, while others took hold
of her legs and arms, and she was presently removed.
On the heap of bones stood a number of boys, who then
began to amuse themselves by throwing in the skulls,
which made a loud report on the hollow coffin, and the
whole became a sort of farce after the tragedy, the
boys throwing about the legs and thighs and hunting
up the skulls for balls to pelt each other. The noise
and laughter was general by the time the service was
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over. The women near the grave each plucked up
a little grass before they returned.
I went out in the midst of the confusion and asked
one of the mourners in white, who was talking intelli
gible French to her companions, who the person was
who seemed to be so much honored and lamented by her
own color. She told me that she was a very old African
(Kongo) negress, belonging to Madam Fitzgerald, and
that most of those who followed her to the grave were
her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, their
husbands, wives, and companions. I asked if her grand
daughter, who threw herself into the grave, could pos
sibly have felt such excessive distress at the death of
an old woman who before her death was almost child
ish, and was supposed to be above one hundred years
old, as to be tired of her own life. She shrugged her
shoulders two or three times, and then said, " Je n'en
saisrien, cela est une maniere."
This assemblage of negroes was an instance of the
light in which the quadroons, view themselves. There
were none that I observed but pitch-black faces.

MOSQUITOES AT NEW ORLEANS
Brig Emma, September 29, 1819.
There is a charm in mountainous, barren countries
that has attached the inhabitants of all such countries,
in all ages, to their home. Mountains and rocks are the
232

L.

a.a.

Ih

H P0

Xh
wJ <

LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
theme of poetry, while little is said in praise of flat-
lands, let them have ever so much the advantages of
fertility and convenience of locomotion; for, although
the Dutch appear to have loved the marshes of Batavia
and Communipaw on account of their resemblance to
Holland, their preference has been a preference of cal
culation and habit — a sentiment without a spark of the
enthusiasm felt by a Swiss.
And yet there are circumstances of convenience be
longing to flat countries, and of inconvenience insepa
rable from mountainous tracts, which render the former
desirable residences for the agriculturist, the lazy and
rich that ride in their carriages, and those advanced in
life, who have left off climbing. Such a country is
Louisiana. Its capacity to yield or to receive, by its
unparalleled ease of communication with hotter and
with colder climates, every necessary and every luxury
of life that this earth produces, might make it one of
the most delightful abodes of affluence and elegance in
the world were it not for the mosquitoes. I say noth
ing of the yellow fever, because I believe that this
calamity may be moderated, if not entirely eradicated,
by a good medical police, and under a better under
standing of its origin and treatment than now prevails
at New Orleans. But the pest inseparable from the
locality of New Orleans, which no human effort can
extirpate, is the mosquitoes. A few are found every
warm day throughout the year; but from June to the
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middle of October, or beginning of November, their
swarms are incredible.
This year ( 1 8 1 9 ) is said to have been by far the
most remarkable for mosquitoes within the memory of
man. Whether the extreme mildness of the winter of
1 818-19, or the constant rains of July, August, and
the beginning of September have occasioned this, I
will not pretend to decide. Probably both have had
much effect ; the former, by permitting the larva? to
live, the latter by filling all hollows with water through
out the city and country, and providing breeding places
for them over the whole surface of the land.
The mosquitoes are so important a body of enemies
that they furnish a considerable part of the conversation
of every day and of everybody; they regulate many
family arrangements; they prescribe the employment
and distribution of time, and most essentially affect the
comforts and enjoyments of every individual in the
country. To observe them minutely, therefore, is natu
ral enough to an inquisitive mind; and, in a long con
finement to my room, I have had ample opportunity of
becoming acquainted with them.
From January to the beginning of June the mos
quitoes can well be borne. They are not very trouble
some, appearing only in moderate numbers. From
June, and especially from the beginning of July, till the
weather becomes cold, in October and November, they
literally fill the air from sunset to sunrise; and in August
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and September they are troublesome even in the day
time.
I have observed four distinct species of this insect
in my chamber. Those that first made their appearance
were black, exactly, in their song, size, and every other
respect, similar to the common mosquito of our Eastern
marshes. Then succeeded another kind, the legs of
which were ringed with white, like the tail of a raccoon.
Of this species there seemed to be a variety, much less
in size, but in all other respects exactly similar to the
larger kind. The note of these spotted mosquitoes is
very similar to the first mentioned, but somewhat
shriller. The third kind is a little larger than either of
the others. They are of a shining black, gaunt, and
have remarkably large eyes and long legs. Their note
is shrill and loud, and their sting severe. The fourth
kind are very small, ash-colored, and have a whistling
note easily distinguished from the others. I have not
seen the kind called " gallinippers," said to be half an
inch long and to be very poisonous.
As soon as the sun sets, the mosquitoes appear in
clouds and fill every room in the house, as well as the
open air. Their noise is so loud as to startle a stranger
at its daily recurrence. It fills the air, and there is a
character of occasional depression and elevation in it,
like that of a concert of frogs in a marsh. There may
also be distinguished, I think, four or five leading
voices that are occasionally swelled and intermitted;
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in fact, the whole music has the effect of being per
formed by unanimous concert. This noise and the
activity of these pestiferous animals last about an hour,
when they abate and almost cease. The buzzing may,
however, be heard through the whole night until day
break, when the general outcry again begins, more
loudly, I think, than in the evening, and continues till
the sun has risen, when it ceases and no more is heard,
and little felt, till the approach of the night. There
are other singular circumstances attending these animals.
At sunset a black hat appears to have particular at
tractions for them. If a group of men stand together
on the levee, those who wear black hats are seen with
a column of innumerable mosquitoes ascending upward
above their hats; those in white hats are not so dis
tinguished. They appear to have a means of discover
ing their food at a distance. In the daytime, if you
throw yourself upon a bed, or sit down, very few mos
quitoes, if any, surround you. But in a quarter of an
hour they appear to discover you, and presently attack
you in increasing swarms.
What becomes of them in the daytime, in houses,
I can hardly tell. But they appear to hide in every dark
hole they can find, and especially in pitchers and vessels
that contain moisture, into which they lay innumerable
eggs. Pitchers of water that have passed through the
dripstone, and appear as clear as crystal in the evening,
will be found to have a sediment in the bottom, of
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the appearance of black mud. In a day this mud
assumes the character of sand, and in a day or two
more the water is filled with the living larvae of
the mosquito. Most of the mosquitoes that infest
the houses are thus bred in the rain-water casks and
wells, and when (as was the case in Philadelphia) the
city shall be supplied with water by pipes, the evil
may probably be considerably lessened, at least in
the city. The numbers, the minuteness, and the activity of
these enemies to repose render any warfare against
them, that is not merely defensive, impossible. But a
defensive war is very practicable, and may be, in a great
measure, successful. The business of the greatest im
portance is to secure yourself against their attacks dur
ing sleep. The common mosquito bar effects this most
completely. It consists of curtains, reaching from the
tester nearly to the floor, which surround the bed in
one piece, connected by a cover, or top piece, so that the
mosquito bar is a kind of a box without a bottom. The
best kind of a mosquito bar is furnished all around the
top with rings. The rings slide, as in a common set of
curtains, upon light iron rods on each side of the
bed. Another pair of iron rods run through the rings
at the head and foot of the tester, and draw along the
side rods when the bar is collected and drawn up to
the head or foot. If the bar be collected at the foot
of the bed, all the mosquitoes that have accidentally
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entered it can be easily destroyed or driven out every
morning. It is easy to slip under the bar at night
without admitting any, and there is an indescribably
pleasant sense of security in hearing their clamor on
the outside without the possibility of being annoyed
by them. The bars are made either of coarse, open canvas,
French lino (which are the best), open and figured
gauze (which are the most handsome), and most fre
quently of check muslin, which are, I believe, the
cheapest. The best defense during the day are light boots,
loose pantaloons, and thin gloves. The face soon be
comes accustomed to them, and they are also easily
driven off. Ladies and gentlemen who suffer their
stings rather than bear a little additional warmth suffer
exceedingly about the ankles. But I know creole ladies
who, with bare necks and bosoms and short petticoats,
pretend to or actually do not perceive them, and, in
fact, appear to suffer very little from them. Several
of my friends, lawyers and other studious men, put up
in their offices a kind of safe, or frame, covered with
gauze or lino, large enough to contain a table and
chair, and write till late at night in perfect security.
There is room to carry this mode of security to much
greater extent, and to render it applicable to companies,
as well as to adorn it with elegance.

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YELLOW FEVER
Medical practitioners have so differed and disputed
with one another on the subject of the yellow fever
that the contest appears to give some right to the
profane, the uninitiated, to maintain opinions of their
own; and, as in matters of theological dogmatism,
to await the issue of the wrangling of doctors be
fore they put implicit faith in the tenets of either
party. When I was in Philadelphia during the fever
epidemics of 1798 and 1799, which were both of com
paratively moderate violence and duration and, to use
one of the mystical phrases of a physician of New Or
leans in a company of ladies, were " sporadic," I had
made up my mind that the fever was imported, and a
legitimate descendant of the bulam fever. The in
timacy with which I was honored of Dr. Rush, who
often urged strong reasons against the probability of
importation, did not alter the conviction derived from
other sources of information and other reasonings of
an opposite character. Having had myself and seen
many of my acquaintances labor under very severe
bilious fevers, I could not be made to comprehend that
this disease, the autumnal fever, and the yellow fever,
of which so many cases came under my immediate ob
servation, were the same, differing only in degrees of
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I have now resided in New Orleans from the com
mencement of this dreadful pestilence until it has con
sumed or driven away the majority of those whom ex
perience has proved to be most subject to it — the young
strangers — and until, in the opinion of several physi
cians, the number of cases had diminished for the same
reason that a fire abates — when most of the fuel is
consumed. Early in July, or in the latter end of June, a vessel
arrived from the Havana, in the river, on board of
which, as it was reported to the governor by his physi
cian, there existed a suspicion of yellow fever. The old
quarantine law having been repealed at the last session
of the Legislature, and power given to the governor to
establish a quarantine whenever, in his opinion, danger
of the importation of disease should exist, this vessel
was immediately put under a quarantine of twenty days;
and although it was publicly stated that no single per
son on board was sick until he became so from con
finement on board — and several very respectable citizens
were passengers — the quarantine was strictly enforced.
Two sailors, however, were said to have reached the
city from this vessel, one of whom died in the Fau
bourg Marigny and the other in the Faubourg St.
Mary. From that time, rumors of yellow-fever cases
became daily more frequent, and by the beginning of
August it was a matter of notoriety that the disease did
exist. Every notice, however, of the calamity was care-
240

LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
fully kept out of the newspapers. I asked one of the
editors from what motive this omission arose; his an
swer was that the principal profit of a newspaper aris
ing from advertisements, the merchants, their principal
customers, had absolutely forbid the least notice of
fever, under a threat that their custom should otherwise
be withdrawn ; thus sacrificing to commercial policy the
lives of all those who, believing from the silence of the
public papers that no danger existed, might come to
the city.
From the beginning of August to the 19th of
September, the deaths increased from ten or twelve to
forty-six (the greatest number which I could ascertain
with tolerable correctness) a day. It was currently
stated that on one day fifty-three had been buried, and
it is not improbable. But no exact register is anywhere
kept of deaths and burials ; and uncertainty on this sub
ject is inevitable on many accounts. Those buried by
the Catholic Church may be correctly known, for Cath
olics in general consider the funeral rites as necessary to
the future state of the soul of the deceased; and the
poorest blacks take care to bring the corpse to the
church, to take advantage of the ceremony which may
be performed for some richer person. But many
others, not Catholics, are buried without the interfer
ence of any clergyman — in three cases to my own
personal knowledge. Others, buried by the Metho
dist, Presbyterian, or Episcopal ministry, render an
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inquiry very difficult and laborious, and neither my
time nor my health permitted my entering into it as
I wished. Early in July the cotton and tobacco crops of the
upper country, constituting the principal materials of
the commerce of New Orleans, and by far the greatest
part, have arrived, and have been disposed of either
by shipment to Europe or to the Atlantic States. The
new crops do not arrive until the latter part of October
or beginning of November. The principal merchants,
therefore, calculate their operations easily so as to find
themselves at leisure about the commencement of July.
A very large proportion of the commercial community,
from October to July, consists of strangers, who pur
chase or sell, as agents or principals, and leave the city
when their business is concluded; so that, even if no
disease, or fear of disease, existed, the population would
at that time be annually diminished by 8,000 or 10,000
souls, just as it is at the close of the great fairs of Ger
many in the cities where they are held. Those per
manent inhabitants of New Orleans who can afford it,
and dread the fever, the solitude, and the ennui of the
city during July, August, and September, go to the Bay
of St. Louis, or to other places of public resort at
that period, and do not return until the middle of Octo
ber or beginning of November. In these respects New
Orleans does not differ, excepting in degree, from the
great cities south of New York on the Atlantic. Phil-
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LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
adelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk, and Rich
mond, and more especially Charleston and Savannah,
have their sickly season during the same months.
Bilious fevers are the common disorder, and the wealthy
fly to the country. The locality of New Orleans may
render the unhealthiness of the place more decided; but
the strangers' fever has been dreaded and spoken of
long before New Orleans became an object of particular
notice by falling into the possession of the United
States. But this, I think, is a specific and not a mere
bilious fever. I am told by the physicians of the place
that no year passes in which cases of yellow fever do
not occur, although in some years they are much rarer
than in others. The year 1817 was remarkable as a
year of great mortality, especially among the strangers.
The late rise of the river and its uncommon height, even
in the month of August, accumulated and detained in
the city a very unusual number of boatmen and mer
chants, or proprietors, from the upper country, and
consequently occasioned a later residence in the city of
its commercial inhabitants. But in 18 18 the cases were
few, and it must be generally observed that physicians
have a great propensity to call every case of fever a
case of yellow fever. If the patient recovers, the cure
of that fatal disorder adds to the reputation of the
physician; if he dies, his death detracts nothing from
his credit, because the majority of such cases are fatal.
The public also, without fault of the physicians, take
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THE JOURNAL OF LATROBE
it for granted that every funeral is that of a yellow
fever patient.
I have had many opportunities of knowing correctly
the symptoms of the disorder as they appear this year,
and of the principal as well as unsuccessful result of the
treatment employed for its cure by different physicians.
In the boarding house in which I lodged four cases
occurred. All were cured. Most of my workmen were
attacked with different degrees of virulence. The sober
lived; the drunk died, with few exceptions.
Mr. Ritchie, a most respectable merchant and ami- '
able man, was seized in the middle of the night with
a chill and with violent vomiting of yellow and green
and slimy matter. Pains in the head, back, and limbs
succeeded, with the skin dry, feverish, and pulse often
slower, often quicker than natural. For seven or eight
days he continued in the same irritable state of stomach,
unable to retain anything. Dr. Rice administered an
emetic and a cathartic, I believe, the first day, but with
out apparent good effect. By the advice of Dr. Mar
shal, when all hope was lost, he was put into the cold
bath (the coldest water is not below 55" F.). From
that time he began to improve, his stomach gradually
retained some food, and in ten or twelve days he could
sit up and walk about the house. I left him very weak,
but considered as quite out of danger.
Mr. Thorne complained unduly, at breakfast, of
pain in his head and back, but went to his business.
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LOUISIANA LIMITATIONS
At dinner he said he felt very unwell, and as he did
not sleep in the house, he asked Mrs. Kennedy, the
mistress of the house, to accommodate him with a bed.
She had none unoccupied, but he lay down on a sofa,
and as he complained of chilliness, he was wrapped up
in a flannel dressing gown. He soon broke out into
a violent perspiration, so as to wet all his clothes
through and through. He was then sent home, took
a strong cathartic and emetic, and in four days was able
to attend to his business.
Dr. Rice, lately arrived, and having the care of my
sick workmen, in order to prepare himself, took, with
out any particular complaint, a mercurial cathartic, and
I think disordered his health thereby so as to render
further medical treatment necessary. He attended Mr.
Ritchie and his other patients, however, till he was
seized with slight pain in the back and head, and a pro
pensity to vomit. He was then obliged to keep to his
bed, and continued much debilitated, but without vio
lent symptoms of any sort, and considered himself well
when I left New Orleans.
Maria, a black slave, was suddenly seized with
pains in her limbs, back and head, a dry skin, and most
violent fever. Dr. Rodgers administered a strong
cathartic and bled her. In three days her complaint
vanished, leaving her only debilitated.

245

CHAPTER XII
FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
IT is often said that as we grow older we become
more hard-hearted, and wear out the finer and
benevolent feelings of youth. That this is the
fact cannot be denied; but if it were differently stated it
would not be less true and would, perhaps, be explained
as well as stated. As we grow older, we grow wiser;
that is, we find that many of the benevolent feelings of
youth are feelings which the objects on which they are be
stowed could not possibly excite if they were not viewed
in a false light and presumed to be different from what
they are. These feelings, then, belong not so much
to the objects as to the minds and hearts in which they
grow. As we grow older we know by experience the
cut and color of the cloaks that are worn to hide every
piece of imposture. To the young they are new, and
no fact respecting human nature is more verified by its
uniform occurrence than that no one will avail himself
of any experience but, his own. If this is the case in
the common course of society, in which the false ap
pearances which excite benevolent feeling in the young
246

FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
are of daily occurrence and daily detection, where these
feelings operate in respect to individuals that are before
our eyes and whose conduct and circumstances we may
daily watch and investigate, what must it be in respect
to nations at a distance, whose manners and vices and
virtues we know only from books, and those books com
piled from hearsay and very often with a view to create
or uphold a particular system of philosophy.
I remember the time when I was over head and
ears in love with Man in a State of Nature — by the bye,
I never heard of any fine theory spun together in behalf
of Woman in a State of Nature. Social compacts were
my hobbies ; the American Revolution — I ask its pardon,
for it deserves better company — was a sort of dawn of
the Golden Age, and the French Revolution the Golden
Age itself. I should be ashamed to confess all this if
I had not had a thousand companions in my kaleido
scopic amusement, and those generally men of ardent,
benevolent, and well-informed minds, and excellent
hearts. Alas ! experience has destroyed the illusion, the
kaleidoscope is broken, and all the tinsel of scenery
that glittered so delightfully is tarnished and turned to
raggedness. A dozen years' residence at the repub
lican court at Washington has affected wonderfully the
advance of riper years.
Chateaubriand, the disgrace of eloquence and of
talents, and many others have founded their systems of
human virtue in its most perfect and amiable state on
19 247

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the storied descriptions of travelers of the manners,
customs, courage, honesty, and independent spirit of
our North American Indians, of whom, by the bye, the
Choctaws are a very favorable specimen. We hear
daily, among ourselves and from people who have lived
among them, most high-flown encomiums upon our red
brethren, and the most indignant expressions on the
subject of the aggression of our frontier settlements
against the innocent savages, and at the systematic
frauds committed by our Government in treaties for
their lands. I have, therefore, lately been pretty in
quisitive on their subject; and adding all that I have
read in books, from Father Hennepin down to Will
iam Darby, Esq., to what I have heard in conversation
respecting them, I have almost established an opinion
as to their value in a moral and political point of view,
in my own mind.
The virtues which the social compact makers are
unanimous in attributing to man in a state of nature —
that is, to our North American savages — are courage,
hospitality, love of mirth, love of freedom. The
Choctaws have credit for two others — chastity and
honesty. On the debit side stand, and I believe with
the consent of these gentlemen, ferocity, cruelty to their
captives, idleness, and generally theft, ill treatment of
their women. Without going further, I should con
ceive the account to be pretty nearly balanced.
The courage of a savage is a very different kind
248

FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
of courage from that of a civilized being. I do not
know that they have ever exhibited courage in the open
attack of an enemy or in resistance when attacked in
the open field. But they undoubtedly stand first on the
list in respect to fortitude under privation and under
the most cruel tortures. But in this respect they must
admit many individuals of other nations to a participa
tion of their merit. Their superiority consists in the
virtue of being national, in its being generally possessed
by every individual, and that those who shrink under
torture are exceptions. Now, the force of education and
the power of opinion have produced martyrs in every
country, to whose fortitude nothing that the Indians
have exhibited at the stake is superior. But the mass of
most other nations have given up their opinions gener
ally to fdrce, and the martyrs form the exceptions.
The Jews, however, may be considered as national
martyrs. Hospitality exists everywhere where food cannot be
bought or sold. A good market in the neighborhood
always puts an end to it. The Choctaws, who live on
the roads, from Natchez to Nashville, for instance,
though they will not hold your horse or fetch his food
for you, that being beneath the dignity of freemen, take
good care that you shall not depart without paying
for it.
I do not think it worth while to follow up the argu
ment. But unpopular and unfeeling as the orator
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would be held that would defend the anti-Indian side
of the question, I think that it might be triumphantly
maintained that the sum of human happiness would be
greater, in the same space, if the Indians did not exist
and the country were peopled by a civilized nation ; and
that there would also be a greater sum of moral good
and less odious vice among the latter than among ten
tribes of the former. I am not now speaking of Mexi
cans, Peruvians, or Tahitians, but of our scalping-
women and child-murdering North American Indians.
A CAMP MEETING
Washington, August 8, 1809.
I have always endeavored to prevent my wife from
being led by her curiosity to attend the meetings of the
Methodists. With the most rational, but very pious
and sincere religious sentiments, she joins a warmth of
imagination which might receive a shock if not an im
pression from the incantations which form the business
of their assemblies. A camp meeting, however, is a
thing so outrageous in its form and in its practices, that I
resolved to go to one held a few miles from Georgetown
in Virginia, under the auspices of some very good citi
zens — principally of Mr. Henry Foxall, the great iron
founder. After traveling for about four miles along the
Leesburg road, a finger post pointed the way " To the
camp." The road lay through thick woods and was
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FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
so narrow that two carriages could pass each other only
in very few places. We met with considerable em
barrassment on this account in passing a wagon re
turning from the camp, loaded with women and
children. At the end of three miles more we began to per
ceive the vicinity of the camp, in parties of well-dressed
blacks of both sexes returning on foot toward the city,
and of ill-dressed white boys hurrying forward. The
number of those we met increased, till at the bottom
of a hill we could distinguish among the trees, half-
concealed by the underwood, horses, chairs, light
wagons, hacks, and a crowd of men and women, among
whom we presently arrived. A narrow road wound
among the trees, closely lined on both sides with horses
and carriages, and their riders and drivers. Some
of the horses were tied to the bushes, others fed out
of the bottoms of the carriages the doors of which
were opened. A numerous party of horsemen, always
arriving or departing, galloped with little attention to
the convenience of those on foot backward and for
ward. Bands of negresses, mulattoes tastily dressed,
stood among the trees, and the groups looked as if any
motive but religious ones had assembled them. Having
driven on till we had passed the principal concourse to
a place where the carriage could be turned, we alighted
and walked back along the road for about 200 yards,
following the distant sounds of an orator in full cry,
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accompanied by the groans and ecstasies of a numerous
congregation. Crossing a small and muddy brook, we
at length reached the camp, the site of which was
well chosen. It was placed on the descent of a narrow
ridge, at the foot of which ran a small stream, abound
ing in springs and furnishing the necessary conveniences
of water. We entered the concourse and were proceeding
toward the stage when a constable, whose office was
designated by a label upon his hat, stopped us, and told
us that no ladies could be admitted on that side. We
accordingly went back, and passing between the two
rows of tents arrived at the upper part of the theater
whence everything could be seen and heard. There
we stayed about an hour, during which Mr. Munn,
a blacksmith at Georgetown, one of the most eminent
preachers of the Methodists, spoke with immense
rapidity and exertion to the following effect. Indeed
what I shall put down is literally what he said as far
as it goes, although not one-fourth of what I heard
of the same sort, out of his mouth.
It appeared that his subject was the preaching of
St. Paul before Felix and Festus. He was in the midst
of his discourse, when I heard him exclaim :
" Temperance, temperance, temperance, I say, and
so says St. Paul; temperance — not self-denial, no, he
asks no favors of you, no, only temperance, and what is
temperance ? Paul had no communication with women,
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none at all. Peter carried about with him a sister named
Lucilla; I suppose she was his wife, else he had no busi
ness with her. This I call temperance. One woman
was enough for Peter, St. Paul wanted none at all.
This is temperance in women — faithful to one woman,
your wife. Then temperance in eating; eat enough
and drink enough to enjoy it, not to gluttony or drunk
enness. St. Paul asks no favors of you; eat while it
does you good," etc., etc. Then he spoke of the judg
ment to come. " That's the point, the judgment to
come. When the burning billows of hell wash up against
the soul of the glutton and the miser, what good do all
his victuals and his wine, and his bags of gold ? Do they
allay the fiery torment, the thirst that burns him, the
parching that sears his lips? Do they frighten away
old Satan, who is ready to devour him ? — think of that.
There's the judgment to come, when hell gapes and the
fire roars. O poor sinful damned souls, poor sinful
souls, all of you, will ye be damned, will ye, will ye,
will ye be damned? No, no, no, no, don't be damned;
now you pray and groan and strive with the Spirit."
A general groaning and shrieking was now heard from
all quarters, which the artful preacher immediately
suppressed by returning to his text. " And it was with
Festus, he trembled, he trembled, he trembled." Dur
ing these words the preacher threw out both his arms
sideways at full length, and shook himself violently, so
as to make his arms quiver with astonishing velocity.
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He must have practiced this trick often, for he intro
duced it with great success and propriety several times
afterwards. " He trembled, every bone shook; he
strove, he strove with this spirit, and he was almost
overcome; but he conquered, he was afraid of the
Jews, saving grace was not for him," etc.
At this part we were turned out. On reaching the
upper part of the camp, I found him further advanced
in his business. A general groaning was going on —
in several parts of the camp women were shrieking, and
just under the stage there was an uncommon bustle and
cry, which I understood arose from some persons who
were under conversion.
He was preaching thus : " There, there stands an
unconverted coxcomb ; dress is his god and his delight ;
will it help him then when he must face the fiery gulf,
when he cries mercy, mercy, mercy, and there is no
mercy? When hell burns and roars, what then is his
smartness and his buckishness. Of no use, none, not
any, any use to allay hell fire, which calls for him to
devour him. But there I see another — a woman. Oh,
how grace strives and the Spirit works ! Oh for power,
power, power; see how her bosom heaves and throbs,
how her whole frame is agitated, how the tears start in
her eyes, how they burst forth! O my brethren, pray
for her, pray for her; see how she trembles, how she
trembles [there he repeated his trembling], how she
trembles. And now comes the stroke of grace, the
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stroke [every time he pronounced the word he struck
his right hand into his left palm so as to produce an
astonishingly loud clap], the stroke again and another
stroke, another stroke [repeated about twenty times] ;
and now it works, it works, it works. O God! for
power, power, power, power, power, power, power,
power, power [roaring like a bull]. There it is, now
she has it, she has it ! Glory, glory, glory, glory," etc.
By this time the noise of the congregation was equal to
that of the preacher, and he took the opportunity to re
ceive and drink a glass of water, of which he seemed to
stand in very great need, for he was quite exhausted.
He then proceeded in a mild voice. " And now
God bless you, my dear souls, my dear, dear fellow-
sinners ; I have only one favor to ask of you, only one
favor; God bless you, my dear souls, don't refuse me,
God bless you, don't; only one favor, only one, one
small favor which I beg and entreat you to grant;
and pray, my dear brethren, pray do not be so hard
hearted as to refuse me ; it is only one favor, only one ;
do not refuse it; God help you my dear brethren."
These repetitions occupied a long time till everyone
was silent and curious to know what the favor was.
" Only one small favor — pray with me, pray with me
[raising his voice by degrees to a perfect roar], pray,
pray, pray with me. Oh how it stirs, oh how it presses
and works upon you. As sure as God is in heaven,
He is here and presses us to pray. Are there not
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twenty, not thirty to join me ? God bless you, don't re
fuse me; so pray. God is here; He will have it; don't
strive with the Spirit. Give it way, there it comes;
I know it, I feel it as sure as God is in heaven. See
how you resist ; but you can't resist, give way ; and now
for power, power, power," etc.
He soon again exhausted himself and drank some
more water. After which, in the true bathos style,
he said in a colloquial tone that the managers would
go round and collect money for the expenses of estab
lishing the camp, the balance to be applied to the
building of a meeting house in the neighborhood.
As it soon afterwards threatened to rain, we got
into the carriage to return home, and driving on the
road we were overtaken by the most violent storm of
thunder, lightning, and rain of the season. Henry, our
son, who remained at the camp till midnight, reported
that the conversions were numerous, and in the same
hysterical style in all the tents, and that the negroes
after the camp was illuminated sang and danced the
Methodist turnabout in the most indefatigable and en
tertaining manner.
Enthusiasm has its charms, and as this is the only
public diversion in which the scattered inhabitants *of
the country can indulge, it would be a pity to suppress
it, even by the ridicule to which it is so open. The
night scenery, the illumination of the woods, the novelty
of a camp, especially to the, women and children, the
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dancing and singing, and the pleasure of a crowd, so
tempting to the most fashionable, are in fact enjoy
ments which human nature everywhere provides for
herself, in her most savage as well as most polished
state. Let the congregation rejoice and welcome. But
as to the preacher, who lives by such dishonest means —
" to his own Master he standeth or falleth."
CONVENTIONS IN WRITING May 22, 1797.
One of the most sensible and agreeable women I
have ever known objected to Shakespeare's plays in
general, as containing expressions highly offensive to
modesty, and to " Othello," in particular, as not only
violating decency in the dialogue, but good manners,
and even the character attributed to the hero, in the
circumstance of his striking Desdemona in a fit of jeal
ousy. It was impossible to deny the first charge, of
indelicacy. Such expressions as fall from the mouth
of Iago, Brabantio, and Othello himself are shocking
in themselves, and must always have appeared so to
the young and the female hearers. But I ventured to
excuse our favorite poet by stating the great difference
between the manners of our day and those of Shake
speare's. It is certainly a great improvement of man
ners that teaches us to shun the appearance of licen
tiousness and to be shocked at its expression, and so far
Mrs. Wood had certainly the advantage had the argu-
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ment been whether or no our manners are more favor
able to virtue than those of former times ; and she was
perfectly right in asserting that, to decide upon these
expressions as they now appear to us, and especially
to those who have not, by long study, brought them
selves to conceive that they are living in the time and
among the contemporaries of the author they are read
ing, we must at once condemn them as highly indecent
and improper to be read or heard.
By degrees, however, the field of discussion en
larged itself. I found it necessary to attempt the proof
that Shakespeare did not so much violate the decency
of the manners of his age as ladies of the correct
delicacy of Virginia may suppose.
" The Merry Wives of Windsor " was written in
the days of Queen Elizabeth. The Bible was trans
lated in the reign of James I, perhaps twenty years
after. I mean no disrespect to that book when I
say that the translators, who were men of great piety
and learning, and in such a work, published for the
correction of morals and manners, would no doubt be
as cautious as was necessary not to give offense to
delicacy, have everywhere used language consonant to
the original, no doubt, but highly repugnant to our
present ideas of delicacy. They certainly might have
avoided it by circumlocution, or a different arrangement
of expression; for it happens that every language with
which I am acquainted is on no subject more ductile
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FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
than when common expressions are to be rendered equiv
ocally allusive to indelicacy, or natural functions, unfit
to be plainly mentioned, are to be intelligently hinted at.
How little care has been taken to soften the necessary
mention of these things by the translators of the Bible,
Leviticus and Ezekiel can fully show. The fact is, I
believe, that the manners of the time admitted all the
freedom they took, and no one was offended thereby.
I was proceeding to quote Beaumont and Fletcher,
Dryden and Congreve, but Mr. Wood very properly
observed that, during the reign of Charles II and some
time afterwards, the stage partook of the profligacy of
the manners of the court; and he might have added
that even to the moral authors of that day, whose
delicacy of expression when they necessarily mention
indelicate subjects is no ways conspicuous, the stage ap
peared to use a most unjustifiable license of language,
and that it was thought highly disreputable for a young,
modest woman to appear at the theater.
SOME NATURAL PHENOMENA
The idea that this continent is not so old as the
Eastern Hemisphere is by no means new. All the cir
cumstances and appearances in the actual state of the
geology and natural history of North America must
favor this opinion. It. would only be necessary to com
pare the whole map of the country with an equal map
on the other side of the Atlantic. Everything, how-
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ever, that I have seen of Virginia tends very much to
persuade me that at all events the country below the
limestone or Blue Ridge is much younger than any coun
try I have seen before. It is evidently all fictitious and
has every appearance of having been made by immense
deluges of water.
If, according to the very bold, but extremely prob
able, and in my mind almost certain theory of some
philosophers, the moon has been projected from the
earth, and perhaps occupied the space now the Pacific
Ocean, I can easily imagine that the whole continent of
North America from Greenland to Cape Horn may
have been raised up by the immense mass starting from
it to the westward, and as it were leaned over to the
eastern continent. As soon as the enormous explosion
had taken place this raised slice would fall back into
the vacuum, and its eastern edge would bring up from
the bottom of the sea whatever it found there: sand,
shells, fishes, etc., etc.
But perhaps there was at that time no Atlantic,
perhaps no ocean anywhere.
Perhaps not. But the immense quantity of salt
water which forms so great a part of our globe was
somewhere. If it was in the center, the explosion of so
large a portion of the earth's crust would let another
very large mass fall into the water, which by the prog
ress of the convulsion might again be forced upward,
and from the exuvias of sea animals brought up with
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FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
it form the limestone hills, and cover their slopes with
shells and marine substances as we actually see them.
I do not pretend that this hypothesis is worth half
a farthing. I am sick of pursuing it. I hate hypoth
esis making and mere hypothesis makers. It is a most
hypocritical way of confessing ignorance. When I sat
down to write I never dreamt of an hypothesis, but
merely meant to note an observation, minute indeed
compared to an explosion for the purpose of making
a moon. The subject I intended to treat was the gradual
mode by which the old valleys of this lower country
were made, and by which new valleys are daily making.
I. Old Valleys. Without one exception I have ob
served that all the brows of the hills that are completely
rounded and point toward water courses, are covered
with pebbles and stones rounded by attrition. Many of
these pebbles are siliceous, others quartz ore, others of
coarse sand in different states of induration, some of
them being very friable. I believe the average height
of these hills above the level of the great rivers may be
assumed at one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet.
The upper face of the flat country behind the edges of
the hills (that is, the country between the large rivers
or creeks) is in general covered with sand of different
depths. Where it has any descent the surface about the
clay commonly contains many pebbles. In every one
of these old valleys between hills or banks, the sides or
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brows of which are covered with pebbles or rounded
stones, runs now a river, a creek, a run, or a spring
branch, which is never quite dry.
I should therefore suppose that the water once
covered the whole of the country. That while the sur
face of the water remained above the surface of the
present highest land, it deposited the sand now found
upon the highest levels. After some time and from
some cause at present unknown, it seems to have sunk
to a much lower level and to have been acted upon by
the influence of the tide, during which time the pebbles
forming the brows of the hills were rounded and thrown
up at high-water mark at spring tides in the greatest
quantities, diminishing gradually to the mark of high
water at neap tides, as in the case in every tide river
and on the seashore, and is also universally the case in
all the valleys, which I call the old valleys of lower
Virginia. For it rarely happens that the pebbles extend
much more than halfway down the hillsides, excepting
where they have evidently rolled down from the top,
or have been washed down by the rain or some spring.
During this state of the water the old valleys were
formed gradually by the mutual operation of the
springs and the tides. Every spring formed at first a
small gully in that soft factitious material of which
the soil consists. This gully was increased in rainy sea
son by the collections of land water rushing down it.
The tide water would of course wash and round off the
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steep banks and wear the sharp points of meeting
gullys into round knolls. Thus arose the deep valleys
of the large rivers, the creeks, the rivulets and the rills
arising from perennial springs.
II. New Valleys. All this took place before the
growth of forests over the face of the country. I say
took place for I cannot allow that what I have said is
an hypothesis, against the evidences of the oyster banks
and the gravel knolls.
The new valleys have in general begun to be formed
since the invasion of America by the Europeans, and
are the consequences of the clearing and plowing of
the land. They may be said to be yet in a state of
progress and ought properly to be called only gullies.
Some of them are, however, so very considerable and
are so rapidly increasing, that we may as well call them
valleys. They differ from the old valleys in the total
absence of gravel, unless in their bottoms, and this is
brought by the rain from the sides of the hills, in the
steepness of their sides, and in their dryness in sum
mer. They are created in the first instance by accidental
directions of land water over surfaces unbound by grass
or roots of trees. A path or a road commonly gives
them their rise. They are so numerous and are so
rapidly increasing in this country as to be a very great
inconvenience. After the rain has washed their bot
toms to a considerable depth the frost in winter pulls
down their sides with great expedition. After a mod-
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erate frost, in which the thermometer stood at perhaps
twenty-six, for I have no instrument but my feelings,
I was passing by a gully which runs to the north of the
theater and heard a clatter in it which surprised me.
I walked up to it and observed that the bank upon
which the sun was shining, and which was perpendicular,
was tumbling down with great rapidity. The sides
looked uniformly to be of clay with a small mixture
of gravel, for it was the side of a hill, but when I
looked into the bottom of the gully I saw nothing
but pure ice in a thousand fragments. I stepped a little
nearer to the edge and tumbled presently to the bottom,
about fifteen feet down the steep bank, bringing with
me a stratum of ice and clay, which let me into the
whole secret at once.
There was first a complete surface of clay and
gravel about an inch thick and so compact, though some
what separated by the frost, that no ice could be seen
through it. This stratum — if that which was almost
perpendicular may be called a stratum — was succeeded
by another consisting of crystals of ice of irregular
forms from three inches to one inch long, unmixed with
earth. These crystals were fixed to and seemed to
have grown out of the natural soil of the bank, which
was smooth and compact. As soon as they felt the
warmth of the sun and air they fell into the bottom of
the gully with the earth adhering to their tops. A
few such nights would make a rapid progress in the
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increase of the gully, and indeed the whole of the
edge was already undermined to the distance of eight
or ten inches, which was the cause of my fall.
The laws of frost — and those who have studied
them may, if they please — account for the said crystalli
zation of water under a certain temperature, and in
form us how the said crystallization came to commence
below the immediate surface, and continued either by
attracting moisture from the air or from the earth
to extend itself to the length of three inches in one
night. Almost all the bottom of the old valleys contain
a new gully, sometimes of twenty or thirty feet deep.
There is a very expeditious method of stopping
gullies by building a rough wall across them, or only
filling them with brushwood. The soil brought down is
thus retained and in a short time weeds and brambles
grow in the richer soil, and perhaps restore the land
to its original level. This if done in time would pre
vent many a great inconvenience to the traveler, and
to the farmer. But it is generally neglected till the
business becomes too serious to be undertaken.
AN ANECDOTE
General Dearborn, Secretary of War, is a man of
plain, rough manners, moderate understanding, but with
a good memory and quick observation. He has all
his life been in the service of the public in some way
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or another, and he was made prisoner at the attack on
Quebec during the Revolution, and afterwards was at
the siege of Yorktown. Since then he has practiced as
a country physician, built several lighthouses by contract,
and is now Secretary of War. He is not altogether
popular with the officers of the army. Political prej
udices may do something, but a somewhat narrow dis
position in settling accounts does more to render him
obnoxious. But he is just and honest. I have always
found him obliging, and probably as good a man in the
present state of our army as could possibly be put into
office. In conversation with him to-day he happened to
mention that he was at the siege of Yorktown in Vir
ginia, most casually. I took this opportunity to ask
him whether he could exactly remember the detail of
the late General Hamilton's conduct and merits at the
storming of the fort to the left of the town, the capture
of which by the Americans and of that to the right by
the French decided the fate of the place.
His answer amounted to the following : " I was at
the siege of Yorktown," said he, " deputy quartermaster
general. Lieutenant-Colonels Hamilton and Laurens
commanded each batallion of a regiment of volunteers,
of which Scamel who fell at the siege was colonel.
Hamilton had then the rank of lieutenant-colonel in
consequence of his having belonged to General Wash
ington's family. Laurens was then one of the general's
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aides-de-camp. There existed at that time a slight cool
ness between Generals Washington and Hamilton.
When the attack on the two forts was resolved upon,
the second parallel was not yet completed, and it was
thought that the possession of these redoubts would
perhaps conclude the siege, or at least enable the be
siegers to commence the third parallel immediately.
General Washington had appointed Colonel Lau
rens to command a party intended to storm the fort to
the right of the besiegers. This induced Hamilton to
examine the roster, and he found that regularly the
routine of command devolved upon himself, Laurens
having commanded the preceding night in the trenches.
The party were already in the field when this dis
covery was made. Hamilton, however, repaired im
mediately to the general's tent, and stated that of right
the command devolved upon him, not upon Colonel
Laurens. General Washington acknowledged that he
might be correct, that dispositions were now made, the
necessary orders given and they could not be well al
tered. Hamilton then demanded the command as of
right, and even threatened to lay his case before Con
gress. Washington, contrary to his usual disposition
and conduct, yielded; Hamilton commanded the party,
and Colonel Laurens went as a volunteer.
A forlorn hope of twenty-five men were chosen
for the attack, and advanced. The American pioneers
soon leveled the counterscarp a few feet in width, the
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palisades were cut down — having previously been much
destroyed by the batteries — a few fascines were thrown
into the ditch, and the rampart immediately stormed.
Of the forlorn hope who achieved the affair, about five
were killed and fifteen wounded. The rest of the party
with Hamilton at their head arrived to take possession.
It is usually supposed that Hamilton led the storming
party. He did his duty but he did not lead it. He
had no opportunity to go beyond what his duty
called for. l' ENVOI
It is impossible for me to deny that I have upon the
whole enjoyed much happiness and success in the course
of my life, and yet — I confine my observations at present
to myself, who am naturally of a most cheerful dis
position — I find infinite satisfaction in grumbling and
complaining. This is ungrateful, for when I look back
on my life as upon a history I am puzzled to find the
cause of success in a thousand of my undertakings in
which I certainly did not deserve it. And so has it
been throughout my whole progress through the world
to the present day. I would positively hesitate, and
on reflection I am convinced that my vanity renders it
impossible for me to write down the actual facts of
my history, so little do they possess of merit, much less
of brilliancy, yet^ — I am absolutely ashamed that it is
so — I shall never while the arts exist in America hold
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FRAGMENTARY CRITICISM
a mean place among the men to whom merit is con
ceded. I am utterly at a loss to comprehend how it
happened that as I never stuck to anything, anything
has ever stuck to me ; yet I have succeeded and by work.
The highest encomium and the most flattering I ever
received relative to my architectural efforts, was in
regard to the bank of Pennsylvania.
Walking up Second Street I observed two French
officers standing opposite the building and looking at
it without saying a word. I stepped into Black's shop
and stood close to them. After some time one of them
exclaimed several times, " C'est beau, et si simple! "
He said no more and stood for a few minutes longer
before he walked away with his companion. I do not
recollect distinctly anything that has happened that has
given me so much particular satisfaction.

(D

THE END

269

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