the boarding-houses are still worse. In both the domestics are all negroes, and in the latter mostly slaves. They are generally dirty in their persons, slovenly in their apparel, and unskilful and inattentive in their duties. In the boarding-houses, the members of Congress and other inmates who use them occupy a separate bedroom, which they use for office, bureau, receiving-room, and all; and, on passing by these when the door is open, one sees a four-post bed without canopy or furniture, the upper extremities of the posts not being even connected by any framework, and the bed pushed close up against the wall by the side, to leave the larger space in the rest of the room. A table covered with papers occupies the middle of the apartment, often with a single chair only, and that frequently a broken one; and around on the floor are strewed, in the greatest disorder and confusion, heaps of congressional documents, large logs of firewood piled up in pyramids, the wash-basin and ewer, printed books, and a litter of unfolded and unbrushed clothes.

The drawing-room of the hotel or boarding-house is used by all equally, and is usually in better condition than the private apartments, though even in these the dust of the wood fires (universal in Washington), the multiplicity of newspapers and other things scattered about, take away all appearance of cleanliness or elegance. The eating-room is used for breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper; and a long table, spread out the whole length of the room, is kept always laid throughout the entire day and night. The process is this: the table is first laid over-night for breakfast; when this meal is over, however, the table is merely swept, so as to remove the crumbs, and the cloth, not being taken off even to be shaken or folded up, is suffered to continue on for dinner, the only precaution used partaking at all of cleanliness being that of laying the dinner-plates, which are put on the moment breakfast is over, with their faces downward, so that they may not receive the dust.

Dinner is brought on at the appointed hour; but so unacquainted with comfort, or so indifferent to it are the parties furnishing it, that no warm plates are provided; iron forks alone are used; the earthenware and glass are of the commonest description, and often broken; indeed, articles that would be thrown away as worn out in England continue to be used here, broken as they are, and no one seems to think of repairing or mending; while the provisions are of the poorest kind, and most wretchedly cooked and prepared. The dishes are all brought to table without covers, and are

consequently cold before the parties are seated; and, with the exception of now and then, but very rarely, a good fish (rock-fish and perch) from the River Potomac, we never partook of any good dish of meat, poultry, or vegetables during all our stay in Washington, though not at all fastidious in our taste or difficult to please in this respect, preferring always the plain and simple in food as well as drink. The table-cloth used for breakfast and dinner remains on for tea, which is taken at the same long table from common earthenware teapots, broken and smoked by long standing before the fire; and after supper the same cloth still remains on for breakfast the next morning, which is laid overnight as soon as the supper is done.

The same hurry in eating was observable here as in all the other cities we had visited. The boarders are rung out of bed by a large and noisy hand-bell at half past seven, and at eight the breakfast is begun. Many persons seemed to us to finish in five minutes, but none exceeded a quarter of an hour; and, the instant that any one had done, he rose up, quitted the table, and went into the drawing-room to read the newspapers; so that it sometimes happened that at a quarter past eight we came down and found everybody gone, leaving us in exclusive possession of the breakfasttable. At dinner it was the same; and the whole style and manner of living had a coldness and selfishness about it which we could not approve.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Private Friends in Washington.-Judge White.-Quaker Deputation from Philadelphia. -Attempted Fraud on the Seneca Indians.-Practices of Land-speculators towards these People.-Peculiar and remarkable Personages in Washington. Mr. Fox, Relative of Lord Holland, the British Minister.-Mrs. Madison, Widow of the late exPresident.-Privilege of franking conferred on her by Congress.-English Gentlemen arriving in Washington.-Practice of wearing Arms.-Recklessness of Character.Instances of Profligacy.-Women and Gamblers.-Influence of Slavery in producing this State of Things.-Anecdote of Life on the Western Waters.-Shameful Indiffer. ence and Silence of the Clergy.-Demoralizing Effect of Slavery on Social Life.

AMONG the individuals whose private friendship we had the good fortune to cultivate and enjoy while we were at Washington, none delighted us more by their intelligence, urbanity, and perfect freedom from that overweening assumption of national superiority and exclusiveness, which VOL. I.-G G

we had too often occasion to observe in others, than Judge White and his lady. These were fortunately inmates of the same house with us, so that our opportunities of communication were frequent and acceptable. They were both from Tennessee, of which the judge is one of the senators. At the last contest he was one of the candidates put in nomination for the presidency; for, though upward of seventy years of age, the universal appreciation of the justness of his character was such as to overcome this objection, and he was thus very extensively supported in the states in which he was best known. This reputation for integrity still occasions him to be the senator most frequently appealed to against acts of oppression and injustice, whether committed by the government or by private individuals. Several instances of this became known to me, as the deputations that waited upon him were often received in the drawing-room, so that we had an opportunity of hearing their statements.

One of these, a deputation from Philadelphia, came to seek his counsel in the following case. They said that, about fifty years ago, some members of their body, the Society of Friends, living at Philadelphia, considered that, as they were occupying the lands that once belonged to the Seneca tribe of Indians, though these lands were ceded by voluntary treaty, and fairly and fully paid for, yet as they, the Quakers, had many of them grown rich by the occupation of the territory, through the improved condition of it by themselves, they felt it to be their duty to take the Seneca nation under their especial protection, and do all they could to advance them in comfort and civilization. They had accordingly sent agents among them, prevailed on them to hold lands in severalty, and to follow the arts of cultivation; and had so improved the adults, and so trained the children of the tribe, that the greater portion of them were now fixed as permanent occupiers of the soil in the Western country, and were slowly, though steadily, advancing onward in the same

career.

A fraudulent attempt to remove these Indians still farther West, beyond the Mississippi, had recently been made known to them, and they had come on to Washington to stop its farther progress if they could. Some unprincipled landspeculators, white men and Americans, had been among them, and tried all their arts to persuade them to part with

This venerable and upright man is since deceased, but his name is held in universal estimation throughout the country; and, as these remarks were written during my stay at Washington, I suffer them to remain unaltered.

JUDGE WHITE. -QUAKER DELEGATION.-MR. FOX. 235

their lands for a given sum of purchase-money, quite insignificant as compared with the real value of the territory; but neither misrepresentations, blandishments, nor threats could prevail on the Indians to assent. Failing therefore in this, these speculators drew off, one by one, a few of the most ignorant of the tribe, and, by false representations and false promises, got a very few to come with them here as a deputation from the Indian tribe, bearing a treaty assigning their whole territory to the speculators in question; which treaty was signed by the said Indians for, and on behalf of, the tribe who, it was pretended, had deputed them. The Quakers, however, who suspected this story from the beginning, sent some of their own members to the West, and ascertained from the mouths of the chiefs that they had never delegated their power to treat to any persons whatever; when they returned, bearing a protest against the alienation of their lands, and declaring their entire dissent from the pretended treaty in question.

As all treaties are of necessity sent by the president to the Senate for their approval, it would fall within the power of Judge White, as one of that body, to give due exposure to this nefarious transaction, and thus the benevolent mission of these worthy Quakers-always engaged in this country, as the members of their society are in every other in which they exist, in doing good-would be crowned with success; though, for want of similar interventions of friendly parties, the poor Indians are often plundered and pillaged by unprincipled and cunning speculators, who grow rich by the spoil, and pass from the completion of one successful aggression to the commencement of another and a greater one, till death or exposure puts an end to their wicked career.

Among the remarkable persons to be seen in Washington besides the president, heads of departments, and members of both houses of Congress, the British minister, Mr. Fox, deserves mention. This gentleman, a near relative of Lord Holland, is upward of sixty years of age: he has the reputation of being amiable and learned; but he is so rarely seen, either in his own house or out of it, that it is regarded as quite an event to have met with him. His appearance indicates feeble health, and his habits are quite sufficient to account for this. Instead of rising at four in the morning, like the ex-president, John Quincy Adams, he goes to the opposite extreme of not quitting his bed till one or two in the afternoon; and he avoids mingling with society, either at home or elsewhere, as if it were naturally distasteful to

him. Book-auctions, which are frequent here, sometimes tempt him, but scarcely anything else can draw him out. He has the reputation of being a great entomologist, and it is said that his greatest happiness consists in the frequen: receipt of cases of insects from the various parts of the world in which he has either travelled or resided, or where he has friends or correspondents. His life is therefore probably as happy in the solitude to which he seems voluntarily to have devoted himself, as that of men who seek their pleasure from other sources; but his influence upon society is abso lutely nothing. This furnishes a striking contrast to his predecessor, Sir Charles Vaughan, who is regretted by most of the residents here, as he is described to have been one of the most social, affable, familiar, accessible, and agreeable ministers ever sent to Washington from the Court of St. James, and, as such, his good qualities drew everybody constantly around him.

Mrs. Madison, the widow of the ex-president Madison, is also one of the remarkable personages of the city. Though past eighty years of age, she is tall, erect, clear of sight, hearing, and intellect, most agreeable in manners, well dressed, and still really good-looking. She has resided in Washington almost ever since it was first begun to be built; and by her extremely affable temper and her kind-heartedness has won the esteem of all parties. Every stranger who comes to Washington is sure to be told of Mrs. Madison, and informed that it is his duty to call and pay her his respects: so that her drawing-room is almost an open levée from twelve to two on every fine day, and between the morning and afternoon service of Sunday. As a personal compliment to herself, and as a mark of the high estimation in which she was held by the Congress, both houses of that body conferred on her, by a joint resolution, the only privilege within their power to bestow, namely, the right of franking, or sending and receiving all her letters free of postage; she being probably the only individual, and especially the only female, upon whom such a privilege was ever personally conferred by an act of the legislature of any country.

During our stay in Washington, two Englishmen of some distinction arrived here, but their stay was very short; one was Lord Clarence Paget, a son of the Marquis of Anglesea, who came to Norfolk in the Pearl sloop-of-war from Bermuda with despatches, which he brought on from thence; and the other was Lord Gosford, the late governor of Low