Visit to Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of State.--Alexandria, its early
history.--Reminisences of General Washington.--Memoir of Mr.
Anthony Charles Cazenove; a most interesting tale.--He was the
old partner of Albert Gallatin, at New Geneva, Pennsylvania.
On the fifth day of April, I went early in the morning to see Mr.
Calhoun, the new Secretary of State. I found him already in his office,
attending to his official duties. It was long before office hours,
and I had a long conversation with him. He received me most cordially
and entertained me most agreeably for an hour or two. When it was
announced to him that Mr. Chilton, a member of Congress, had called to
see him, I retired to call on Mrs. Murphy, of Ohio, and her son, who
were putting up near the Secretary’s office. After spending an hour or
two with them, I called again at the Secretary’s office, but found him
engaged with the Texan ministers, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Van Zandt.
The messenger brought me a slip of paper with Mr. Calhoun’s place
of residence written on it, “at Mrs. King’s, between 13th and 14th
streets, on F st.” I went thither, and waited not long but until Mr.
Calhoun and his son had arrived and dined. The Secretary came into the
parlour where I was sitting, and we conversed together several hours,
until General Anderson of Tennessee came, when I took my leave of Mr.
Calhoun. During these interviews I had in my mind two regrets: first,
that I had never before in my lifetime had an opportunity to converse
with him so freely on a great variety of matters, deeply interesting to
the people of these United States; and secondly, that my _first_ was to
be my _last_ opportunity of conversing with Mr. Calhoun.
Mr. Calhoun, in conversation, is as great as he is in every thing else.
He can say a great deal in a few words. His language is appropriate
and as beautiful as one could possibly imagine it to be. He is in the
full possession of all his corporeal and mental powers, he sees every
thing at a glance of his mind, and he can speak as easily as he thinks.
He is unquestionably one of the most talented men in the nation. It
is quite possible that he has been treated very ungratefully by the
men, who have been raised into high places by Mr. Calhoun himself.
Without a particle of intrigue in his composition--unacquainted entirely
with the machinery of party management and party drill, he has stood
no chance of success among such men. He appeared to know and to feel
this, though he has always scorned to stoop to such low means of
rising into the highest office in the Union. He has not a particle of
ill will towards his enemies, and, he said, that he had taken a real
pleasure in doing good to those who were employing themselves in their
endeavors to injure him, although he well knew what they were doing
at that moment when he was serving them. He has come here, merely to
treat with England and Texas, and having finished his intended labors,
he will resign his present office, and retire to the high ground where
he dwells, there to spend the remainder of his days. Just back of the
country where he lives, the Alleghany mountains rise to an altitude
of seven thousand feet above the sea, which is higher than the White
mountains in New Hampshire.
In the vallies of the Alleghany, near him, Indian corn grows and comes
to perfection four thousand feet above the sea. Though I did not ask
him, yet, I suspect that at such an elevation it is the New England
corn, and not our gourd seed corn. He tells me, that on his elevated
ground, where he lives the climate is nearly the same, as that of
the District of Columbia. He has no ambition for public life, its
cares and responsibilities. After being thirty-five years in office,
he desires to retire from it, and be at peace at home, surrounded as
he is by a family endeared to him by all the ties which none but a
parent can feel. He has five sons and two daughters. The son with him
here, is an officer in the army--a promising young man. He appeared
to think that his part of the Union had been wholly neglected by the
general government. If that be the fact, and I am sure he thinks so,
the representatives from South Carolina, should use their endeavors to
obtain their due share of the public patronage. To strengthen the bonds
of our Union by mutual aid and mutual affection, should be the constant
aim of all our national legislation. I told Mr. Calhoun that Ohio had
paid twenty millions of dollars for her lands, into the United States
treasury, whereas the people of the Atlantic States had gotten their
lands originally, merely for settling on them. Mr. Calhoun in reply
stated that Wayne’s war, with all its expenditures, must be charged on
Ohio and Indiana.
I told Mr. Calhoun that within ten years from this time, the national
government would be in our hands in the West for safe keeping, and so
will remain thenceforth and forever. This idea, I told him, had its
full weight on our minds--it made us bear and forbear--bear our evils
and forbear to use any violent means now, to acquire what would, of its
own accord soon fall into our possession, and be forever ours.
General Anderson of Tennessee, coming in here, I left Mr. Calhoun with
the most friendly impressions towards him, which will never wear off
from my mind during my life-time. Devoid of all intrigue, he is too
honest a man to compete with the little men, who have always opposed
him. He will only be called for, when great and commanding powers of
mind are imperiously demanded by some great emergency. Like a great
lamp, he shines to give light for the benefit of others, who see by the
aid of its lustre. Perhaps it is best that the greatest talents are
unemployed, except in cases of emergency. They are the army in reserve,
upon which a defeated party in advance can fall back and be saved from
destruction. Why so many incompetent men should rise into high places
of trust, while the greatest and the best ones should be passed by, is
not always seen. Envy of living merit may be the cause.
Mr. Calhoun’s private character is pure and spotless. He never had any
vicious habit of any sort, nor indulged in any vice. There are very
few such public men in this nation, or even in this world, and there
is no better one anywhere. Whether he belongs to any church, I do not
know but that he practises all the christian virtues is certain. His
hair is grey, but his step is strong and elastic, and his body like
his mind is as strong and as active as it ever was. For strength of
thought, deep, vigorous, keen, searching, discriminating, methodical,
logical and clear Mr. Calhoun has no superior in this nation. His
feelings are mellowed down by years and by a large experience in the
affairs of the world and all its vicissitudes. His great learning,
derived from books--his agreeable manners, derived from a good heart
and from his associations with the best society in the nation; his
business talents; his industrious habits, and all his other great
qualifications, eminently fit him for his present high station, and for
even the highest station in this republic. The Senate did but yield to
the unanimous desire of all our citizens here, when they unanimously
confirmed the nomination of JOHN C. CALHOUN, as Secretary of State. In
whatever station he is, we may always feel assured that a talented,
patriotic and good man occupies it, who will faithfully, honestly and
correctly do his duty at all times and in all emergencies.
ALEXANDRIA, APRIL 10th.
I came here yesterday, to spend a few days--to rusticate. This city
of ten thousand people is made up of an agreeable, well informed and
industrious population. The streets all cross each other at right
angles, like those of Philadelphia. It is free from the dust, which
loads the air of Pennsylvania avenue at this time, and is, on the
whole, a better place for me than capitol-hill, where I was so happily
located, at Mrs. Ballard’s, within two minutes’ walk of the capitol,
its rotundo and library. This spot is more retired from company, so
agreeable to me as to take off my mind from my business. On attending
the market here, the most prominent object in it, was the fishes, such
as shad, herring, &c., just taken in this river, and brought here
for sale. I saw yesterday three large shad sold for a quarter of a
dollar, and single ones, large, fresh and fair, for ten cents each! The
quantities taken are great, and a great many wagons from the country,
back of this city, and from Maryland and Pennsylvania were here for
the purpose of carrying them away. Before I came here, I heard much
of the decay of the city, but on my arrival I found none of it. I
found signs of thrift, but none of decay. Houses were repairing, the
people were all employed in some useful calling; the streets are all
paved, with good side-walks, and what surprised me, was, that I saw no
coffee-houses where spirits are retailed, in this city of ten thousand
people. There are only two taverns in it, and one of the innkeepers
sells no ardent spirits in his house. I am now writing these lines in
his inn. I doubt much, whether such another town of the size of this
can be found in America, where no more intoxicating liquors are drank
in it. I have now lying before me, a record of the first town meeting
in this old American town, and I extract from it the following, viz.
“At a meeting of the majority of the trustees of Alexandria town, July
13th, 1749. Present: Richard Osborn, Wm. Ramsay, John Carlyle, John
Pagan, Garrard Alexander and Hugh West, Gent.”
What a record! Ninety-five years almost since this was a frontier
town, and then the majority of the trustees held their first meeting,
of which any record remains. Before that time, the place must have
been occupied by settlers, and must have been laid out as a town,
into lots, because the same record shows that John West, junior, was
appointed a clerk of the town, and the proceedings of the meeting were
recorded by their clerk, and his book, in manuscript, lies before me!
John West, junior, was “appointed cryer to sell the lotts at publick
sale, within five minutes, from the time they are set to sale.” The
price of the lots is given in the record, in pistoles. No. 36 was the
first lot sold at the public sale, and John Dalton was the purchaser,
at 19 pistoles. Among the purchasers of the lots, we find the names of
Lawrence Washington, W. Fairfax and Geo. Fairfax, Nathaniel Harrison,
Wm. Fitzhugh, Wm. Ramsay and Major Henry Fitzhugh, besides the names of
the trustees first named, and their clerk and Roger Lindon and Allan
McRae.
I visited the printing office on Saturday morning, April 13th, and
introduced myself to the editor, a pleasant sensible and obliging man.
The Alexandria Gazette was established by Samuel Snowden in 1800. It
was continued by the original proprietor until his death in 1831. Since
that time it has been conducted and owned by his son, Edgar Snowden--it
is therefore one of the oldest newspaper establishments in the United
States.
Between this place and Washington there are two steam boats running,
starting almost every hour of the day from each city, and passing each
other about half-way between Washington and Alexandria. They start
at five in the morning, and their last trip commences at five in the
evening. They charge twelve and a half cents for the passage. Some of
the officers of the departments live here, and daily pass the distance
between the two cities. A stage coach runs between them also several
times daily.
The citizens of Alexandria often attend the debates in Congress, and
know what is doing in Washington as well almost as those who live there.
I visited the Alexandria museum over the market house, and among
the collection there, I saw the mantle in which George Washington
was christened; his masonic robes, apron and gloves; his pistols,
presented to him by Louis XVI; a model, in stone, of the Bastile,
presented to him by the national assembly of France; his pack-saddle,
used in the revolutionary war; his flag, borne by his body guard in
that war; the first British flag, captured in that war, called Alpha
by Washington; the last flag taken in that war from Cornwallis; La
Fayette’s flag--blue; Decatur’s flag; Paul Jones’ flag, on board the
Bonne Homme Richard, in his battle with the Serapis; Gen. Morgan’s
flag, borne by his Virginia regiment; and a great many other relics
of revolutionary times. General Washington’s letter to the cotillion
party, which used to assemble in the house where I am located, is in
the museum. In this letter the General declines to meet with them, on
account of Mrs. Washington’s age. What thrilling recollections of times
gone by, do these relics stir up within us? What a crowd of emotions,
of all sorts, rush upon the mind, when looking on these memorials of
former days, former ideas and opinions? of old customs and ancient
manners, compared with modern ones? We live in a world that is passing
away--in its habits, customs, dress, weapons of warfare; all is changed,
changing and never will be stable, scarcely an hour! Ninety-four years
ago, this spot, where this city is, was surrounded by a dense forest,
on the verge of civilization, now it is quite on the eastern side of
our domain.
There is a large market house here, of brick, over which are rooms
for the several public offices, and in the third story is the museum.
The mayor, clerk, auditor, &c. have their offices in the first story
above the market house. The market is well supplied with meat, fish and
vegetables. I saw too in it many flowers and small evergreen trees, in
a proper state for planting them. The vegetables, flowers and trees
were offered at very low prices--hardly sufficient to pay for bringing
them to market. Those who brought them appeared to be poor, with
families to support.
The rail-road from Cumberland to Baltimore has injured Alexandria, by
taking some of the trade of the upper country away from this district.
An extension of the canal to this city will bring back some of the
trade which it has lost temporarily. The water in the wells of this
city is not good, except a few in the suburbs, from which the city is
well supplied. By taking the water out of the canal, it can be easily
conveyed to the houses and supply all the citizens with healthful water.
RELIGIOUS SECTS.--There are episcopalians, presbyterians, methodists,
catholics, baptists, and perhaps some other denominations of
christians. They appear to live together in unity, and agree to
disagree in opinion about their several forms of worship. To the
community at large it matters little what may be their several forms,
so as they have the same great fundamental principles of charity and
benevolence towards each other and towards God and man. There are too,
some quakers, as I perceive by their dress and conversation.--They are
the same industrious, neat, quiet, friendly people every where.
On Sunday April 14th I attended church in the morning at the first
presbyterian church, and in the afternoon at Christ church, the oldest
episcopalian church. In the forenoon I heard the Rev. Mr. Harrison.
Calling at Mr. Cazenove’s to accompany him, he being absent, I went
to the dwelling of his son-in-law, expecting to find him there, but,
learning the object of my calling, a daughter of my deceased friend,
the late Colonel FOWLE, came forward, and accompanied me to the church;
she was a child nine or ten years old. She behaved perfectly lady-like,
and conducted me to her mother’s pew, where her parent was already
seated. The congregation was not a large one, though a very serious
and devout one, to whom the preacher addressed a very good discourse.
Colonel FOWLE was lost in the MOSELLE, when that vessel was blown up
at Cincinnati, a few years since. I shook hands with him, and bid him
farewell, only fifteen minutes before his death. I had been personally
well acquainted with the Colonel for many years, and had spent many
happy hours at different places in the West with him, on many a day,
and I always had a high regard for him. His little daughter resembles
him very much in her looks and manners. I could not refrain from
thinking how happy he would have been, had he seen her, and noticed how
lady-like his daughter was, in her behaviour, while conducting his old
friend to church, in this city. If spirits hover around those friends
whom they have left behind them in this world, and take a peculiar
pleasure in any thing that relates to them in this life, the spirit of
my departed friend, Col. Fowle, must have been pleased to see me seated
in his pew, yesterday, at church, with his widow, her father and his
daughter.
In the afternoon I went to the church where Washington used to attend
divine worship, and found in it but two persons--ladies, dressed in
mourning. I stated to them my case, that I was a perfect stranger, who
wished to attend their meeting at that time. One of them offered me
a seat in her pew, which I accepted. It was near the pulpit, and she
pointed out to me the pew in which General Washington used to sit; it
was the largest one in the church. At the proper time, the congregation
assembled, some three hundred people perhaps, and three-fourth of them
were females. The weather was warm and it was after dinner. Where the
men were I did not know, but they were not in the church. Two preachers
at last appeared, and began the service. The regular minister read the
service, but another clergyman preached the sermon. I soon discovered
that this was an old school episcopalian church.--Their creed told me
so, because it stated what Jesus himself has contradicted on his
cross. The creed said, he descended into hell, but he himself told the
thief by his side suspended on the cross, that on _that day_ he would
be in paradise! The sermon was an eloquent one, and so far as I could
judge, very correct in its doctrinal points. As a literary composition,
it was good too, and its delivery occupied an hour perhaps. The regular
preacher was Mr. Dana and the one who officiated, was the Rev. Mr.
Johnson. Young, or middled aged at most, tall, erect, active and well
educated, they may yet live long to be useful and successful preachers.
Forty-five years since, General Washington attended this church and sat
in the pew now occupied by a square built, heavy man, fifty years old,
possibly. To me every person in the church was an entire stranger. The
church has a good organ, and on each side of the pulpit are printed on
boards the ten commandments on the south, and the Lord’s prayer and
their creed on the north, or right hand side of the minister in his
desk.
Reuben Johnson is the present clerk and auditor of the city. From him
I obtained leave to inspect all his records. Joseph Eaches, Esq., is
the present mayor, from whom I have derived very useful information,
concerning this city.
The people of Alexandria have in their manners the simplicity and
straight-forwardness of a people in a rural village.--They have the
hospitality of their ancesters of Charles II. time, when the Scotch,
under Lord Fairfax settled the northern neck of Virginia. The pure
morals and pure principles of those primitive times have been handed
down unsoiled and uncorrupted to the people who now dwell here. Should
the seat of the national government be removed farther west, Alexandria
would not suffer much by that change. The Potomac, broad, deep and
navigable, would still roll its tide from Georgetown to the sea. The
industry, enterprise, economy, morals, religion and patriotism of the
people would remain, and render prosperous, useful, good and happy,
a thriving people. An increasing city will forever remain here an
ornament of the nation. This is a nucleus, around which men of good
principles may rally, and from this point spread far and wide, sound
morals and sound principles of all sorts. Near this town Washington was
born and died, and his spirit hovers over this people. His example, his
precepts and his principles govern Alexandria still. We see it in every
thing all around us.
The stage house, where I am, is kept by Mr. GEORGE WISE, and it is
the best in the city. As such I take pleasure in recommending it to
travellers.
I cannot conclude my remarks on Alexandria better, than by introducing
to the reader Mr. A. C. CAZENOVE, a native of Geneva, Switzerland,
but now and for many years past an enterprising merchant and importer
of foreign goods. Mr. Cazenove is as stirring a man, as there is in
Alexandria. At my request he drew up a short memoir of his life, which,
in his own words, I present to the reader. Gen. ARCHIBALD HENDERSON
married Mr. Cazenove’s eldest daughter and Colonel Fowle his youngest
one.
MEMOIR OF MR. CAZENOVE.
The cradle of the Cazenove family was Nismes in France, though it is
probable, from their name and coat of arms, that they were originally
from Italy or Spain, where you find some Casanovas and Casanuovas.
Being protestants, they had to fly at the revocation of the edict
of Nantes, and took refuge in Geneva, in Switzerland, from whence
some of them afterwards branched off to Lausanne, in Switzerland, to
Holland, England, France, and lastly to the United States. This last
event took place during the summer of 1794, when the leaders of the
dreadful French revolution fomented one of a similar character, only
on a smaller scale, in the little republic of Geneva, then not one of
the cantons of Switzerland, but in close alliance with that ancient
and admirable confederation. The object of the French being the
geographical situation of Geneva, being fortified and by nature one of
the gate-ways into France, Switzerland and Italy, besides its great
wealth for an inland city, and the high state of information possessed
by the generality of its inhabitants, being acknowledged to be one of
the luminaries of the world.
Although France had succeeded in overturning their old form of
government, and substituting in a population, then amounting to about
25,000 souls in the city and about 15,000 in the surrounding villages
and country, a national assembly as democratic as it could well be.
They were attached to their independence and desirous so to remain. It
therefore became necessary for Roberspierre and the leading jacobins
of France, to find some pretext for taking possession of Geneva, for
which purpose they surrounded it (being then in possession of Savoy and
having military posts close by) with the worst of their jacobins, and
such Genevans as had been banished from it for any cause, and in one
night, with the help of their sattelites in Geneva and their own people
which they had introduced into the city, took possession of the three
gates of the city, arsenal and powder magazines. They armed the most
desperate amongst them, to intimidate others, and early next day went
and dragged the heads of our best families and distinguished citizens,
into two large warehouses, used before that for public granneries, to
the number of about 400 persons, and established a national tribune,
before which they brought several of the best, most virtuous and
patriotic citizens of Geneva, but ranked by them as aristocrats,
which they pretended to have conspired against the independence of
the republic; the very thing they had themselves in view, and were
aiming at. Nor could they have had the reign one single day, but for
the knowledge that France was ready to pounce upon Geneva, if any
thing like a scuffle had taken place, to avoid which the people of
Geneva thought it best to submit for a while to the tyranny of their
own jacobins. As it was impossible to substantiate any charge against
such men, however depraved their revolutionary tribunal was, they were
necessarily acquitted and sent to the common jail for safe keeping.
This however so enraged their blood-thirsty Marseillois, (the worst
of jacobins) that they forced the jail during the night, and by torch
light shot sixteen of the best men Geneva ever possessed, and so
overawed the revolutionary tribunal itself, as to compel it to take on
itself the responsibility of so atrocious a deed.
In order, however, to appease in some respects public indignation, the
revolutionary tribunal brought before them forty of the prisoners,
amongst whom were Mr. Paul Cazenove, myself, and his two and only sons,
John Anthony and Anthony Charles, when, after having charged them
also of conspiracy against the republic, and threatening them in an
awful manner if they persisted, they were allowed to return to their
respective families, where I found seven jacobins guarding my mother at
her country seat, not allowing her to leave her own room, and I was not
even allowed to go in and see her, nor have I seen her since; for my
brother and myself, under cover of the night, with the help of a Swiss
boat, escaped the second night, through the lake to Copet, the nearest
town in Switzerland, on the lake of Geneva, where we were joined by
our cousin Fazy, one of the defenders of Lyons when beseiged by order
of the French national convention. Having long felt that we could not
live in peace in Geneva, under the sway of the jacobins, we and several
other Genevans had determined to leave it, for a while at least, and
under the impression that the jacobinical principles of revolutionary
France were destined to go through Europe, we determined to come to
America, where the revolution had happily terminated, and where we had
already friends and relatives. In order, therefore, to avoid the French
armies, which were then making their second incursion into Flanders
and Germany, we proceeded through the interior of Germany to Hamburg,
where we were met by other Genevans, who had formed the plan of
emigrating to America. There we heard of the death of Roberspierre, and
were all on the point of abandoning our project, but we determined to
persevere in it, because every leader of the French convention having
been heretofore succeeded by one still more sanguinary than the last,
we did not expect any change for the better. We all, to the number of
eight, therefore, embarked together with our four Swiss servants, for
Philadelphia, where we landed in November 1794, and were soon after
joined by three other Genevans, two of whom, with their wives, had left
Geneva after us for the United States. There I found my cousin, Mr.
Theophilus Cazenove, the same after whom Cazenovia, in the State of
New York, is called, who had made in that State and in Pennsylvania, as
agent of wealthy capitalists of Holland, the extensive purchase of the
Holland company. Also my cousin Odier of the house of Odier & Bousquet
Brothers, and soon after Mr. Albert Gallatin, then a distinguished
member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, joined us.
A number of Genevans having, while yet in Geneva, much approved our
intention of removing to the United States, and desired that we should
remember them and also prepare a retreat for them. We formed the plan
of a large landed company, in which a number of influential individuals
became interested. But having ascertained during the spring of 1795
that, justly adverse to emigrate, the French revolution and that of
Geneva having assumed a somewhat milder course, after the fall of
Roberspierre, we were not likely to be joined by other Genevans as
we expected, we relinquished the plan of our landed company, and I
formed a co-partnership with Mr. Albert Gallatin, his brother-in-law,
Mr. J. W. Nicholson, and two other gentlemen, under the firm of Albert
Gallatin & Co., and purchased a tract of land at the mouth of George’s
Creek, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where we located the town of
New Geneva, on the Monongehela river, and established stores, built
mills, glass-works, &c. I remained there until having married in
Alexandria, where I then settled myself for life. Some years after
that, the Swiss government, having thought it desirable, for the first
time, to establish consuls in the United States, unexpectedly to me,
knowing nothing of their intentions, I received from the federal
government of that country, their appointment of Swiss consul for the
middle and southern States, with a very kind and obliging request
from them to accept it; which was the more flattering, as it had been
unsought by me, and though it was impossible for me to forget the
country of my birth, or my attachment for Switzerland ever to be
weakened, still it was very pleasing for me to see that I had not been
forgotten by her, and had such agreeable opportunities afforded me of
keeping up an intercourse with that excellent government and equally
excellent people, which it is the delight of all travellers to exalt
above all other nations.