John P. Kennedy, 1796-1870. This gentleman, eminent in American politics
and literature, was born in Baltimore, graduated at the College of
Baltimore, and died in the same city. He served several years in the
Legislature of his native state, and three terms in the United States
House of Representatives. He was Secretary of the Navy during a part of
President Fillmore's administration, and was active in sending out the
famous Japan expedition, and Dr. Kane's expedition in search of Sir John
Franklin. Mr. Kennedy wrote several novels, as well as political and other
papers. His writings are marked by ease and freshness, The following
extract is from "Swallow Barn," a series of sketches of early Virginia.
###
From the house at Swallow Barn there is to be seen, at no great distance,
a clump of trees, and in the midst of these a humble building is
discernible, that seems to court the shade in which it is modestly
embowered. It is an old structure built of logs. Its figure is a cube,
with a roof rising from all sides to a point, and surmounted by a wooden
weathercock, which somewhat resembles a fish and somewhat a fowl.
This little edifice is a rustic shrine devoted to Cadmus, and is under the
dominion of parson Chub. He is a plump, rosy old gentleman, rather short
and thickset, with the blood vessels meandering over his face like
rivulets,--a pair of prominent blue eyes, and a head of silky hair not
unlike the covering of a white spaniel. He may be said to be a man of
jolly dimensions, with an evident taste for good living, sometimes sloven
in his attire, for his coat--which is not of the newest--is decorated with
sundry spots that are scattered over it in constellations. Besides this,
he wears an immense cravat, which, as it is wreathed around his short
neck, forms a bowl beneath his chin, and--as Ned says--gives the parson's
head the appearance of that of John the Baptist upon a charger, as it is
sometimes represented in the children's picture books. His beard is
grizzled with silver stubble, which the parson reaps about twice a
week--if the weather be fair.
Mr. Chub is a philosopher after the order of Socrates. He was an emigrant
from the Emerald Isle, where he suffered much tribulation in the
disturbances, as they are mildly called, of his much-enduring country. But
the old gentleman has weathered the storm without losing a jot of that
broad, healthy benevolence with which Nature has enveloped his heart, and
whose ensign she has hoisted in his face. The early part of his life had
been easy and prosperous, until the rebellion of 1798 stimulated his
republicanism into a fever, and drove the full-blooded hero headlong into
a quarrel, and put him, in spite of his peaceful profession, to standing
by his pike in behalf of his principles. By this unhappy boiling over of
the caldron of his valor, he fell under the ban of the ministers, and
tested his share of government mercy. His house was burnt over his head,
his horses and hounds (for, by all accounts, he was a perfect Actaeon)
were "confiscate to the state," and he was forced to fly. This brought him
to America in no very compromising mood with royalty.
Here his fortunes appear to have been various, and he was tossed to and
fro by the battledoor of fate, until he found a snug harbor at Swallow
Barn; where, some years ago, he sat down in that quiet repose which a
worried and badgered patriot is best fitted to enjoy.
He is a good scholar, and, having confined his readings entirely to the
learning of the ancients, his republicanism is somewhat after the Grecian
mold. He has never read any politics of later date than the time of the
Emperor Constantine, not even a newspaper,--so that he may be said to have
been contemporary with AEschines rather than Lord Castlereagh--until that
eventful epoch of his life when his blazing rooftree awakened him from his
anachronistical dream. This notable interruption, however, gave him but a
feeble insight into the moderns, and he soon relapsed to Thucydides and
Livy, with some such glimmerings of the American Revolution upon his
remembrance as most readers have of the exploits of the first Brutus.
The old gentleman had a learned passion for folios. He had been a long
time urging Meriwether to make some additions to his collections of
literature, and descanted upon the value of some of the ancient authors as
foundations, both moral and physical, to the library. Frank gave way to
the argument, partly to gratify the parson, and partly from the
proposition itself having a smack that touched his fancy. The matter was
therefore committed entirely to Mr. Chub, who forthwith set out on a
voyage of exploration to the north. I believe he got as far as Boston. He
certainly contrived to execute his commission with a curious felicity.
Some famous Elzevirs were picked up, and many other antiques that nobody
but Mr. Chub would ever think of opening.
The cargo arrived at Swallow Burn in the dead of winter. During the
interval between the parson's return from his expedition and the coming of
the books, the reverend little schoolmaster was in a remarkably unquiet
state of body, which almost prevented him from sleeping: and it is said
that the sight of the long-expected treasures had the happiest effect
upon him. There was ample accommodation for this new acquisition of
ancient wisdom provided before its arrival, and Mr. Chub now spent a whole
week in arranging the volumes on their proper shelves, having, as report
affirms, altered the arrangement at least seven times during that period.
Everybody wondered what the old gentleman was at, all this time; but it
was discovered afterwards, that he was endeavoring to effect a
distribution of the works according to a minute division of human science,
which entirely failed, owing to the unlucky accident of several of his
departments being without any volumes.
After this matter was settled, he regularly spent his evenings in the
library. Frank Meriwether was hardly behind the parson in this fancy, and
took, for a short time, to abstruse reading. They both consequently
deserted the little family circle every evening after tea, and might have
continued to do so all the winter but for a discovery made by Hazard.
Ned had seldom joined the two votaries of science in their philosophical
retirement, and it was whispered in the family that the parson was giving
Frank a quiet course of lectures in the ancient philosophy, for Meriwether
was known to talk a great deal, about that time, of the old and new
Academicians. But it happened upon one dreary winter night, during a
tremendous snowstorm, which was banging the shutters and doors of the
house so as to keep up a continual uproar, that Ned, having waited in the
parlor for the philosophers until midnight, set out to invade their
retreat--not doubting that he should find them deep in study. When he
entered the library, both candles were burning in their sockets, with
long, untrimmed wicks; the fire was reduced to its last embers, and, in an
armchair on one side of the table, the parson was discovered in a sound
sleep over Jeremy Taylor's "Ductor Dubitantium," whilst Frank, in another
chair on the opposite side, was snoring over a folio edition of Montaigne.
And upon the table stood a small stone pitcher, containing a residuum of
whisky punch, now grown cold. Frank started up in great consternation upon
hearing Ned's footstep beside him, and, from that time, almost entirely
deserted the library. Mr. Chub, however, was not so easily drawn away from
the career of his humor, and still shows his hankering after his
leather-coated friends.
NOTES.--Cadmus is said to have taught the Greeks the use of the alphabet.
Socrates (b. 469, d. 399 B. C.), a noted Athenian philosopher.
Rebellion.--In 1798, the Irish organized and rose against the English
rule. The rebellion was suppressed.
Actaeon [Ak-te'on], a fabled Greek hunter, who was changed into a stag.
Constantine, the Great (b. 272, d, 337), the first Christian emperor of
Rome. He was an able general and wise legislator, In 328, he removed his
capital to Byzantium, which he named Constantinople. AEschines [es'ke-nez]
(b. 389, d. 314 B. C.), an Athenian orator, the rival of Demosthenes.
Castlereagh, Lord (b. 1769, d. 1822), a British statesman. He was in
power, and prominent in the suppression of the Rebellion. Brutus, see p.
145.
Elzevirs [el'ze-virs], the name of a family of Dutch printers noted for
the beauty of their workmanship. They lived from 1540 to 1680.
Academicians.-The Old Academy was founded by Plato, at Athens, about 380
B. C. The New, by Carneades, about two hundred years later.
Jeremy Taylor (b. 1613, d. 1667), an English bishop and writer. His Ductor
Dubitantium, or "Rule of Conscience," was one of his chief works.
Montaigne, Michel (b. 1533, d. 1592), was a celebrated French writer of
peculiar characteristics. He owes his reputation entirely to his "Essais."