Washington. Here are assembled from every State in the Union what ought
to be the collected talent, intelligence, and high principle of a free
and enlightened nation. Of talent and intelligence there is a very fair
supply, but principle is not so much in demand; and in everything, and
everywhere, by the demand the supply is always regulated.
Everybody knows that _Washington_ has a Capitol; but the misfortune is
that the Capitol wants a city. There it stands, reminding you of a
general without an army, only surrounded and followed by a parcel of
ragged little dirty boys, for such is the appearance of the dirty,
straggling, ill-built houses which lie at the foot of it.
Washington, notwithstanding, is an agreeable city, full of pleasant
clever people, who come there to amuse and be amused; and you observe in
the company (although you occasionally meet some very queer importations
from the Western settlements) much more _usage du monde_ and continental
ease than in any other parts of the State. A large portion of those who
come up for the meeting of Congress, as well as of the residents, having
travelled, and thereby gained more respect for other nations, are
consequently not so conceited about their own country as are the
majority of other Americans.
If anything were required to make Washington a more agreeable place than
it is at all times, the arrival and subsequent conduct of Mr Fox as
British Ambassador would be sufficient. His marked attention to all
Americans of respectability: his _empressement_ in returning the calls
of English gentlemen who may happen to arrive, his open house; his
munificent allowance dedicated wholly to the giving of fetes and dinner
parties as his Sovereign's representative; and, above all, his excessive
urbanity, can never be forgotten by those who have ever visited the
Capitol.
The Chamber of the House of Representatives is a fine room, and taking
the average of the orations delivered there, it possesses this one great
merit--_you cannot hear in it_. Were I to make a comparison between the
members of our House of Commons and those of the House of
Representatives, I should say that the latter had certainly real
advantages. In the first place; the members of the American Senate and
House of Representatives are paid, not only their travelling expenses to
and fro, but eight dollars a day during the sitting of Congress. Out of
these allowances many save money, and those who do not, are at all
events enabled to bring their families up to Washington for a little
amusement. In the next place, they are so comfortably accommodated in
the house, every man having his own well-stuffed arm-chair, and before
him his desk, with his papers and notes! Then they are supplied with
everything, even to pen-knives with their names engraved on them--each
knife having two pen-blades, one whittling blade, and a fourth to clean
their nails with, showing on the part of the government, a paternal
regard for their cleanliness as well as convenience. Moreover, they
never work at night, and do very little during the day.
It is astonishing how little work they get through in a session at
Washington: this is owing to every member thinking himself obliged to
make two or three speeches, not for the good of the nation, but for the
benefit of his constituents. These speeches are printed and sent to
them, to prove that their member makes some noise in the house. The
subject upon which he speaks is of little consequence, compared to the
sentiments expressed. It must be full of eagles, star-spangled banners,
sovereign people, clap-trap, flattery, and humbug. I have said that
very little business is done in these houses; but this is caused not
only by their long-winded speeches about nothing, but by the fact that
both parties (in this respect laudably following the example of the old
country) are chiefly occupied, the one with the paramount and vital
consideration of keeping in, and the other with that of getting in,--
thus allowing the business of the nation, (which after all is not very
important, unless such a trump as the Treasury Bill turns up,) to become
a very secondary consideration.
And yet there are principle and patriotism among the members of the
legislature, and the more to be appreciated from their rarity. Like the
seeds of beautiful flowers, which, when cast upon a manure-heap, spring
up in greater luxuriance and beauty, and yield a sweeter perfume from
the rankness which surrounds them, so do these virtues show with more
grace and attractiveness from the hot-bed of corruption in which they
have been engendered. But there has been a sad falling-off in America
since the last war, which brought in the democratic party with General
Jackson. America, if she would wish her present institutions to
continue, must avoid war; the best security for her present form of
government existing another half century, is a state of tranquillity and
peace; but of that hereafter. As for the party at present in power, all
I can say in its favour is, that there are three clever gentlemen in
it--Mr Van Buren, Mr Poinsett, and Mr Forsyth. There may be more,
but I know so little of them, that I must be excused if I do not name
them, which otherwise I should have had great pleasure in doing.
Mr Van Buren is a very gentleman-like, intelligent man; very proud of
talking over his visit to England, and the English with whom he was
acquainted. It is remarkable that, although at the head of the
democratic party, Mr Van Buren has taken a step striking at the very
roots of their boasted equality, and one on which General Jackson did
not venture--i.e. he has prevented the mobocracy from intruding
themselves at his levees. The police are now stationed at the door, to
prevent the intrusion of any improper person. A few years ago, a fellow
would drive his cart, or hackney coach, up to the door; walk into the
saloon in all his dirt, and force his way to the president, that he
might shake him by the one hand; whilst he flourished his whip in the
other. The revolting scenes which took place when refreshments were
handed round, the injury done to the furniture, and the disgust of the
ladies, may be well imagined. Mr Van Buren deserves great credit for
this step, for it was a bold one; but I must not praise him too much, or
he may lose his next election.
The best lounge at Washington is the library of the Capitol, but the
books are certainly not very well treated. I saw a copy of Audubon's
Ornithology, and many other valuable works, in a very dilapidated state,
but this must be the case when the library is open to all, and there are
so many juvenile visitors. Still it is much better than locking it up,
for only the bindings to be looked at. It is not a library for show,
but for use, and is a great comfort and amusement.
There are three things in great request amongst Americans of all
classes,--male, I mean,--to wit, oysters, spirits, and tobacco. The
first and third are not prohibited by Act of Congress and may be sold in
the Capitol, but spirituous liquors may not. I wondered how the members
could get on without them, but upon this point I was soon enlightened.
Below the basement of the building is an oyster shop and refectory. The
refectory has been permitted by Congress upon the express stipulation
that no spirituous liquors should be sold there, but law-makers are too
often law-breakers all over the world. You go there and ask for pale
sherry, and they hand you gin; brown sherry, and it is brandy; madeira,
whisky; and thus do these potent, grave, and reverend signors evade
their own laws, beneath the very hall wherein they were passed in solemn
conclave.
It appears that tobacco is considered very properly as an article of
fashion. At a store close to the hotel, the board outside informs you
that among fashionable requisites to be found there, are gentlemen's
shirts, collars, gloves, silk handkerchiefs, and the best chewing
tobacco. But not only at Washington but at other large towns I have
seen at silk-mercers and hosiers this notice stuck up in the
window--"_Dulcissimus_ chewing tobacco." So prevalent is the habit of
chewing, and so little, from long custom, do the ladies care about it,
that I have been told that many young ladies in the South carry, in
their work-boxes, etcetera, pigtail, nicely ornamented with gold and
coloured papers; and when their swains are at fault administer to their
wants, thus meriting their affections by such endearing solicitude.
I was rather amused in the Senate at hearing the claims of parties who
had suffered during the last war, and had hitherto not received any
redress, discussed for adjudication. One man's claim, for instance, was
for a cow, value thirty dollars, eaten up, of course, by the Britishers.
It would naturally be supposed that such claims were unworthy of the
attention of such a body as the Senate, or, when brought forward, would
have been allowed without comment: but it was not so. The member who
saves the public money always finds favour in the eyes of the people,
and therefore every member tries to save as much as he can, except when
he is himself a party concerned. And there was as much arguing and
objecting, and discussion of the merits of this man's claim, as there
would be in the English House of Commons at passing the Navy Estimates.
Eventually he lost it. The claims of the Fulton family were also
brought forward, when I was present, in the House of Representatives.
Fulton was certainly the father of steam-navigation in America, and to
his exertions and intelligence America may consider herself in a great
degree indebted for her present prosperity. It once required six or
seven months to ascend the Mississippi, a passage which is now performed
in fifteen days. Had it not been for Fulton's genius, the West would
still have remained a wild desert, and the now flourishing
cotton-growing States would not yet have yielded the crops which are the
staple of the Union. The claim of his surviving relatives was a mere
nothing, in comparison with the debt of gratitude owing to that great
man: yet member after member rose to oppose it with all the ingenuity of
argument. One asserted that the merit of the invention did not belong
to Fulton; another, that even if it did, his relatives certainly could
found no claim upon it; a third rose and declared that he would prove
that, so far from the government owing money to Fulton, Fulton was in
debt to the government. And thus did they go on, showing to their
constituents how great was their consideration for the public money, and
to the world (if another proof were required) how little gratitude is to
be found in a democracy. The bill was thrown out, and the race of
Fultons left to the chance of starving, for anything that the American
nation seemed to care to the contrary. Whitney, the inventor of the gin
for clearing the cotton of its seeds (perhaps the next greatest boon
ever given to America), was treated in the same way. And yet, on
talking over the question, there were few of the members who did not
individually acknowledge the justice of their claims, and the duty of
the State to attend to them: but the _majority_ would not have permitted
it, and when they went back to their constituents to be re-elected, it
would have been urged against them that they had voted away the public
money, and they would have had the difficult task of proving that the
interests of the _majority_, and of the majority alone, had regulated
their conduct in Congress.
There was one event of exciting interest which occurred during my short
stay at Washington, and which engrossed the minds of every individual:
the fatal duel between Mr Graves and Mr Cilley. Not only the duel
itself, but what took place after it, was to me, as a stranger, a
subject for grave reflection.
Notice of Mr Cilley's decease having been formally given to the House,
it adjourned for a day or two, as a mark of respect, and a day was
appointed for the funeral.
The coffin containing the body was brought into the House of
Representatives, and there lay in state, as it were. The members of
Senate and the Supreme Court were summoned to attend, whilst an eulogium
was passed on the merits and virtues of the deceased by the surviving
representative of the State of Maine: the funeral sermon was delivered
by one clergyman, and an exhortation by another, after which the coffin
was carried out to be placed in the hearse. The following printed order
of the procession was distributed, that it might be rigidly attended to
by the members of the two Houses and the Supreme Court:--
Order of Arrangements for the Funeral of The Hon. Jonathan Cilley, Late
a Representative in Congress, from the State of Maine.
The Committee of Arrangement, Pall-bearers, and Mourners, will attend at
the late residence of the deceased, at Mr Birth's, in third-street, at
11 o'clock AM, Tuesday, February 27th; at which time the remains will be
removed, in charge of the Committee of Arrangements, attended by the
Serjeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives, to the hall of the
House.
At 12 o'clock, meridian, funeral service will be performed in the hall
of the House of Representatives, and immediately after the procession
will move to the place of interment, in the following order,--
The Chaplains of both Houses.
Committee of Arrangement, viz:
Mr Evans, of Maine.
Mr Atherton, of NH. Mr Coles, of Va.
Mr Conner, of NC. Mr Johnson, of La.
Mr Whittlesey, of Ohio, Mr Fillmore, of NV.
Pall-bearers, viz:
Mr Thomas, of Maryland. Mr Campbell, of SC.
Mr Williams, of NH. Mr White, of Indiana.
Mr Ogle, of Pennsylvania. Mr Martin, of Ala.
The Family and Friends of the deceased.
The Members of the House of Representatives, and Senators from Maine, as
Mourners.
The Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives, preceded by their Speaker and Clerk.
The Serjeant-at-Arms of the Senate.
The Senate of the United States, preceded by the Vice President and
their Secretary.
The President of the United States.
The Heads of Departments.
Judges of the Supreme Court, and its Officers.
Foreign Ministers.
Citizens and Strangers.
_February_, 26th, 1838.
The burial-ground being at some distance, carriages were provided for
the whole of the company, and the procession even then was more than
half a mile long. I walked there to witness the whole proceeding; but
when the body had been deposited in the vault, I found, on my return, a
vacant seat in one of the carriages, in which were two Americans, who
went under the head of "Citizens." They were very much inclined to be
communicative. One of them observed of the clergyman, who, in his
exhortation, had expressed himself very forcibly against the practice of
duelling:--
"Well, I reckon that chaplain won't be 'lected next year, and sarve him
right too; he did pitch it in rather too strong for the members; that
last flourish of his was enough to raise all their danders."
To the other, who was a more staid sort of personage, I put the
question, how long did he think this tragical event, and the severe
observations on duelling, would stop the practice.
"Well, I reckon three days, or thereabouts," replied the man.
I am afraid that the man is not far out in his calculation. Virginia.
Mississippi, Louisiana, and now Congress, as respects the district of
Columbia, in which Washington is built, have all passed severe laws
against the practice of duelling, which is universal; but they are no
more than dead letters. The spirit of their institutions is adverse to
such laws; and duelling always has been, and always will be, one of the
evils of democracy. I have, I believe, before observed, that in many
points a young nation is, in all its faults, very like to a young
individual; and this is one in which the comparison holds good. But
there are other causes for, and other incentives to this practice,
besides the false idea that it is a proof of courage. Slander and
detraction are the inseparable evils of a democracy; and as neither
public nor private characters are spared, and the law is impotent to
protect them, men have no other resource than to defend their
reputations with their lives, or to deter the defamer by the risk which
he must incur.
And where political animosities are carried to such a length as they are
in this exciting climate, there is no time given for coolness and
reflection. Indeed, for one American who would attempt to prevent a
duel, there are ten who would urge the parties on to the conflict. I
recollect a gentleman introducing me to the son of another gentleman who
was present. The lad, who was about fourteen, I should think, shortly
after left the room; and then the gentleman told me, before the boy's
father, that the lad was one of the right sort, having already fought,
and wounded his man; and the father smiled complacently at this tribute
to the character of his son. The majority of the editors of the
newspapers in America are constantly practising with the pistol, that
they may be ready when called upon, and are most of them very good
shots. In fact, they could not well refuse to fight, being all of them
colonels, majors, or generals--"_tam Marte quam Mercurio_." But the
worst feature in the American system of duelling is, that they do not go
out, as we do in this country, to satisfy honour, but with the
determination to kill. Independently of general practice, immediately
after a challenge has been given and received, each party practises as
much as he can.
And now let us examine into the particulars of this duel between Mr
Graves and Mr Cilley. It was well known that Mr Graves had hardly
ever fired a rifle in his life. Mr Cilley, on the contrary, was an
excellent rifle-shot, constantly in practice: it was well known, also,
that he intended to fix a quarrel upon one of the southern members, as
he had publicly said he would. He brought his rifle down to Washington
with him; he practised with it almost every day, and more regularly so
after he had sent the challenge, and it had been accepted. It so
happened that, contrary to the expectations of all parties, Mr Cilley,
instead of Mr Graves, was the party who fell; but surely, if ever there
was a man who _premeditated murder_, it was Mr Cilley. I state this,
not with the wish to assail Mr Cilley's character, as I believe that
almost any other American would have done the same thing; for whatever
license society will give, that will every man take, and moreover, from
habit, will not consider it as wrong.
But my reason for pointing out all this is to show that society must be
in a very loose state, and the standard of morality must be indeed low
in a nation, when a man who has fallen in such a manner, a man who, had
he killed Mr Graves, would, according to the laws of our country, have
been condemned and executed for murder, (inasmuch as from his practising
after the challenge was given, it would have proved _malice prepense_,
on his part) should now, because he falls in the attempt, have _honours
paid to his remains_, much _greater_ than we paid to those of _Nelson_,
when he fell so nobly in his country's cause. The chief magistrate of
England, which is the king, did not follow Nelson to the grave; while
the chief magistrate of the United States (attended by the Supreme Court
and judges, the Senate, the Representatives) does honour to the remains
of one who, if Providence had not checked him in his career, would have
been considered as a cold-blooded murderer.
And yet the Americans are continually dinning into my ears--Captain
Marryat, we are a very moral people! Again, I repeat, the Americans are
the happiest people in the world in their own delusions. If they wish
to be a moral people, the government must show them some better example
than that of paying those honours to vice and immorality which are only
due to honour and to virtue.
_Legislation on Duelling_.--The legislature of Mississippi has
prohibited duelling, and the parties implicated, in any instance, are
declared to be ineligible to office. The act also imposes a fine of not
less than three hundred dollars, and not more than one thousand, and an
imprisonment of not less than six months: and in case of the death of
one of the parties, the survivor is to be held chargeable with the
payment of the debts of his antagonist. The estate of the party who
falls in the combat is to be exonerated from such debts until the
surviving party be first prosecuted to insolvency. The seconds are made
subject to incapacity to hold office, fine, and imprisonment.