Summer tours; or, Notes of a traveler through some of the middle and northern states

CHAPTER I. Washington — Mount Vernon 9

CHAPTER n.

Washington — Advantages of Small Capitals — Salutary Hints to Ambition — Foreigner disappointed — More Reflections — Vines — Railroad . . . . . . • . .17

CHAPTER HI.

Baltimore — Route to Philadelphia — Railroads . . .23

CHAPTER IV.

Philadelphia ' . 28

CHAPTER V.

New-York — Activity of Citizens — Merchants — Societies — Steamboats .......... 31

CHAPTER VI.

The Sea-shore — Long Branch — Bathing — Scenery — Shipwrecks — Forms of Danger and Modes of Escape . . .37

CHAPTER VII.

New-York — Books — The Apparatus of Literature — Conversations with Booksellers on Public Taste, &c. — A Friend returned from a Tour to Europe — Foreign Feelings and Ignorance respecting America — Varying Aspects of the Streets of the Metropolis — [mpressions from observing them . . 46

CHAPTER VIII.

New-York continued — Foreign Residents and Visiters — Foreign Books 4 . . 55

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

Fashions and old Fashions in Travelling — New-York Harbour — Retreat of Washington's Army from Long Island — The East River — Low State of Agriculture caused by our defective Education — Hell-Gate — Long Island Sound ... 62

CHAPTER X.

New-Haven — Literary Aspect — Refined Society — Taste in Architecture — Burying-ground — Franklin Institute — Paintings of Trumbull — American Taste — Learning . . . 73

CHAPTER XL

A Connecticut Clergyman's Family — Wood-hauling — Middletown 88

CHAPTER Xn.

Hartford— Charter Hill, the Seat of the Willis Family— Public Institutions — Society — Antiquities .... 97

CHAPTER Xni.

Narrative of a Visit to the Springs in the last Century — Newspapers ..... .... 104

CHAPTER XIV.

Music — New-England Villages contrasted with Italy on this subject — A Traveller in search of Health — Burying-grounds — Rural Celebration of Independence at Northampton — Amherst — Academies of Massachusetts — Exhibition. . .113

CHAPTER XV.

Female Character — A Connecticut School — Scenery on Connecticut River — Deerfield — Turner's Falls — Early State of the Country 122

CHAPTER XVI.

Copies of ancient Letters, illustrating something of the State of Things in this Part of the Country early in the last Century 129

CHAPTER XVII.

Erroneous Opinions of Foreigners of our Society — A great political Character — Sabbath-school 135

CONTENTS. VJl

CHAPTER XVIII.

Approach to the White Hills — Bath — Reflections on Society — The Wild Ammonoosuc — Breton Woods — Crawford's — Scenery 143

CHAPTER XIX.

Excursion to Mount Washington — Walk through the Forest —

The Camp — Ascent of the Mountain — View from the Summit

_ —The Notch— Old Crawford's— Bartlet . . .151

CHAPTER XX.

Boston — Environs — Literary Institutions — Mount Auburn — Remarks on our Intellectual Machinery .... 160

CHAPTER XXL

Nahant — Plymouth — Principles of the Pilgrims — Their Institutions — Excuse for not knowing more — Lyceums . .165

CHAPTER XXIL

New-York — Hotels — Sculpture — South America — Dr. Sweet — Foreign Inventions . . . . . . .175

CHAPTER XXIIL

Anew Corner of the World — Recollections of the Cholera 185

CHAPTER XXIV.

Fashionable Education — Hudson River — The Power of Fancy — Catskill Mountains — Thunder-storms — Rainbows — Morning Scene 192

CHAPTER XXV.

Method and Effects of Labour-saving in teaching Latin — A Frontiers-man — Early History — Conversations on Health and Dress 199

CHAPTER XXVL

The Privileges of American Citizens in Trial by Jury — ^Battle-ground of Saratoga — Former State of Ballston Springs — Leisure Time — The Beauties of the German Language — A Foreign Spirit in America — Value of our own Tongue . 207

VUl CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Thoughts on Foreign Travel — Dr. Sweet, the natural Bone-setter — Retiring Travellers 218

CHAPTER XXVni.

Evil Effects of Pagan Education in a Christian Land — Improvements in Temperance — Sources of intemperate Habits in our Country — Proper Estimation of Foreign Travel — Our own Moral and Physical Resources — Negligence of good Men in making Travels at home Pleasing and Useful — A Card-party in a Steamboat ....:... 227

CHAPTER XXIX.

Whitehall — Story of Sergeant Tom, a Creature of the Revolution — Lake George — Charming Scenery and Interesting Historical Associations — Ticonderoga — A Revolutionary Tradition — ^An Oracle of Philology — Crown Point .... 236

CHAPTER XXX.

Feelings on entering Canada — State of Society — Emigrants — Scenery, &c. on the St. Lawrence — Architecture — Wilful Errors on Education in Convents 243

CHAPTER XXXL

Different Travellers have different Eyes — The Polish Exiles — Regrets on the Necessity of closing — "Tom Slowstarter's" Farewell . j 248

NOTES OF A TRAVELLER.

CHAPTER I.

Washington — Mount Vernon.

"Whoever visits Washington for the first time during the session of Congress has much to observe. It is his own fault if he does not find some one who will give him information, or help him to amusement among the variety of objects and characters around him. There are always idlers hanging on some petition, who have news to tell. The representatives and senators from his state will be glad to see him as their countryman, and feel an obligation to render him some of those attentions which he might expect from the consul of his nation in a foreign port. Let him be careful, however, not to look for more than is reasonable, for business is very pressing upon a large part of the members, and calls of this kind are frequent. Members have their trials like other men ; and if they grow inattentive, or even show a disposition to get rid of you, forgive them. Many a speech is made in the House and Senate to thin, restless, coughing, and whispering audiences ; and talents which have transported their possessor five hundred or a thousand miles to a seat in the government, now, by a strange reaction, will sometimes send fifty or a hundred people out of the House. Events multiply daily in a country like this ; and time goes on in spite of every thing, though it please only a very small minority at best ; and although commonly nobody can be found who is satisfied in every thing. In the main, the members are about as civil to pef-

10 CITY OF WASHINGTON.

sons indifferent to them, as other people are whose interest it is on the whole rather to please than to displease ; and will meet you in the rotunda of the eapitol by appointment ; introduce you into the library of Congress ; tell what senator is looking out of the middle window, or what distinguished representative is turning over Audubon's Ornithology ; point to the President's house, the departments, the patent-office, and the top of the dome, as objects worthy of a visit ; and then entering their chamber, introduce you to a few loungers near their own seats, yawning at the thoughts of another stupid day, or nervous and feverish with anxiety about the country or themselves. If it be gloomy weather, late in the session, you feel as if you were in a prison, for the people seem as dissatisfied as convicts. One is lost in thought about something invisible, another blushes over some newspaper which has attacked him, a third hurries to hear whether you have brought any news, and all are either hoping or despairing about soon obtaining their release.

The broad staircase on the east side of the eapitol, by which you wearily mount from the level of the yard to the floor of the houses, the rotunda, &,c., is a deformity, interfering exceedingly with the architectural beauty of the front. It is unprecedented in Europe, so far as I have seen, unless the eapitol of Rome should be claimed as an example, which cannot with propriety be done. The " stairs which lead to the eapitol" of that metropolis are made merely to mount the hill, and do not cover a large part of the edifice.

I was much pleased with the morning scene from the terrace, and still more witli that from the top of the eapitol. The view would be splendid indeed if the city were of the size originally expected, or even if the surrounding country were well cultivated. I could not, however, spend much lime in the city, without first visiting Mount Vernon. The very name of that place had long been dear to me. The sound always seemed sweet and solemn to my ears. I have had a peculiar feeling for it ever since the day when my father came home with a badge of mourning upon his arm, and said, with a tear in his eye, that General

MOUNT VERNON. H

Washington was dead. In the sadness of our house that day I participated as a child, with but few ideas beyond these, that a man, loved and venerated by my father above all others, had left the world, and that such excellence as I could never hope to see was gone for ever. And where did he die ? At Mount Vernon. So sweet a name, associated with such feelings in the mind of a stripling, I had always heard with emotion ; and it was with a degree of solemnity that it occurred to me at Washington, that I was now in the vicinity of the place.

Not falling in company with any persons of congenial feelings who wished to visit the spot, I determined to proceed thither alone ; and mounting a horse, set off one fine morning on that most interesting pilgrimage. A great part of the low level land which extends south from Capitol Hill to Greenleaf's Point, where the East Branch joins the Potomac, is entirely unenclosed and uncultivated, with the exception of a field here and there. I passed a spot, however, which makes the strongest contrast with the general waste appearance of this extensive tract, and indeed with most of the soil in the vicinity of Washington. There foui acres have been enclosed, manured, and cultivated with care ; and now supply the market of the metropolis with a large share of its vegetables, yielding to the proprietor a valuable income. What a lamentable picture is presented by a country like this, worn out by exhausting crops, and abandoned years ago to sterility and solitude ! The road to Baltimore lies through a similar region ; and my whole ride to Mount Vernon ofi^ered only the sad variety of a few plantations, where the same debilitating process appeared to have been not quite completed. The few crops I saw seemed to say that they were destined to be the last on those extensive fields ; and the scattered habitations of planters and slaves looked as if ready to be deserted, and soon to resemble the ruins seen on former sites, long since abandoned. The people are the first I ever saw who have not energy enough to pull down their old houses.

Shrub oaks and other stunted trees have sprung up on $he deserted fields, and show how slow is nature to recover

12 MOUNT VERNON.

the springs of vegetable life when they have once been cut off. Among these I often paused to contemplate the grand aspect of the capitol from a distance, which is visible from a thousand points around. The enormous tolls paid on the road to Alexandria show the inconveniences arising to travellers out of a thin population. Roads and bridges are erected at greater expense, and contributions for their support are divided among a few instead of multitudes. The reconstruction of the long bridge over the Potomac, as I ought to have mentioned, has been undertaken : but it seems to me a discouraging task, especially since the steamboats carry so large a part of the travellers on the route to Alexandria.

Alexandria is a large town, with spacious stores near the water, and in the upper part several streets of handsome and even elegant houses. The view of the city and its environs, from an eminence beyond it, was such as to show its extent and principal edifices, yet not to exhibit any thing of its harbour or the general plan of the streets. After this I had nothing like an extensive or a pleasing view during the rest of my ride, as the season was not far enough advanced to give the woods all their beauty, the late rains had rendered the road very wet, and the habitations of men were few and poor.

At length I entered the Mount Vernon estate ; and there was some feeling excited by the thought of the cavalcades and personages that had passed through the same gate. I was also reminded of visits I had made to Roman villas, and the deserted avenues to ancient cities ; and my impressions were in some respects similar, though in others very different from any thing I had ever experienced before. The solitude was as profound as that of any deserted region of Italy; the habitations of men, at many parts of the road, seemed as distant ; and nature appeared almost as much left to herself. But who can describe the difference between the character of Washington and that of the ancient warriors, whose memory we associate with the scenes they visited ? Though our education teaches us far too much to admire them, plain sense as well as Christianity leads us to

TOMB OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 13

'despise their motives and to condemn their actions. When will our children be trained up to a clear conception and a just estimate of the character of Washington, in whose heart alone was more real greatness than in all heathen antiquity? His principles and conductj enforced by the injunctions of the Scriptures, what influence might they not exert upon the minds and hearts of American youth !

The rear of the family-mansion appears two or three times through openings in the foliage, before the visiter reaches it ; and although it is venerable, it shows, on a nearer approach, evident marks of decay. I passed the dwellings of the negroes, where an old family servant offered his services as guide ; and dismounting, hastened on to get rid of the groups which assembled around me. Two ranges of out-buildings, now partly disused, rim back from the ends of the mansion and form a court, — in which what messengers have heretofore reined up, what guests have alighted ! The plain piazza in front, with the fine .sloping and partly shaded lawn, descending to the brow of the precipice over the Potomac, the clumps of old trees, the broad and winding river below, all appear much as they have been represented for half a century on so many sorts of landscape furniture with which we have been familiar.

The remains of the father of his country have been removed within a few months from the old family-vault, on the brow of the precipice, to a spot near the corner of the vineyard enclosure, where the river is concealed from view, but which was selected by him duriiig life. A hasty sketch may give better ideas of its appearance than any description. I dismissed my guide, that I might indulge alone in the feelings which had been rising in my heart as I approached the spot I had so long regarded with reverence ; and however difficult it might be to trace their source or to define their nature, I am sure that I have spent but few halfhours in my life in meditations more sweet and yet more bitter. They need not be detailed. Whoever loves virtue and his country, and has done any thing less than his duty, or whoever feels like a son of Washington, however humble he may be, and apprehends how much reason there is to

H STEAMBOAT CONVERSATION.

moo'rn over the loss of his spirit and his principles, may^ well conceive them if he will imagine himself placed alone in a solitary spot near the ashes of the dead. At the same time, to a man of an opposite character any description would of course be lost. I regretted here the want of some truly appropriate national music, when I found myself breathing a very soft and plaintive Scotch lament. Of all the poetry I have «een written on Mount Vernon, none strikes my ear with so much simplicity and sweetness^ mingled with so much elevation, as the lines of Brainerd.

There is something much more congenial to my mind in the simple and indeed humble depository of the ashes of Washington than in the most splendid monuments of Italy or even of Egypt. Where there is no attempt made to captivate the eye, the mind is left at perfect freedom to form her own conceptions ; and it is no disrespect to the greatest artist to say, that a refined and virtuous fancy may transcend in its conceptions the work of any human hands. I have no objection to the erection of monuments to Washington ; nay, I hope the day may come when every city, town, and village in the Union may possess one of some sort, constructed in the purest taste : but I feel that any fabric of art in this place would be only an impediment to the mind, whidi,if left to itself, will create the noblest conceptions out of nothing.

Surely enough is not made of the memory of Washington in our country, when we reflect what has been and now is the influence of his name m. the world. His great example of disinterestedness has done more for the human race than we can possibly ascertain ; and is likely to produce still greater effects. His birthday should be observ^ed by our children as a day of becoming joy; and our schools should pour out their young inhabitants to hear his virtues recounted and to sing songs in his praise.

I returned from Alexandria to Washington in the steamboat. There were several Virginians on board, of different classes and characters, who engaged in conversation on slavery. This subject, which was long regarded as a prohibited one, and by general consent excluded from conversation in all societies, has become the most general topic throughout the state, as

STEAMBOAT CONVERSATION* 15

IS well known, since the legislature have taken it up as a ■serious business of deliberation. Virginia has long suffered under this incubus ; and from a mere love of that inaction which its oppressive weight has produced, has allowed it, like a vampire, to overshadow her eyes, and to suck her blood. Nothing but a severe shock can ever effectually arouse men from such a lethargy. " A little more sleep, a little more slumber," is a tune marked " Dacapo ad libitum,^'' and is generally sung over and over for life. Nothing can interrupt it but a louder note on some different key. The cracking of the foundation of one's house, however, a rattling among tlie clapboards and shingles, and an insuppressible scream of hunger from within, are serious sounds ; and it is no wonder that men begin to look about and talk when things get to such a pa-ss. The further they examine, the more they perceive that time and the elements are poor masons, carpenters, and providers ; and that Hercules never •works for a man who keeps his hands in his pockets.

My Virginia fellow-passengers seemed to me like boys about to sign their indentures to a new trade, or seamen inspecting a ship which they are invited to man for a long' voyage. They had many objections to make against the plan, principles, and arrangements proposed, but the reasons of their reluctance all seemed to be comprehended in one word, — it looked too much like hard work. Things were ■in a strange state in Virginia two years ago, when nobody ■felt able to speak of the most obvious facts, though they were the causes of general suffering and of private discontent. Now they have got upon the opposite extreme, and there is danger only of talking too much. They have as yet no distinct, feasible plan proposed ; and the question appears to turnon a general hinge : a change or no change ! A change they wish ; but then, the first thought is, who •shall do the work ? The apprehension of being obliged to labour seemed to keep my fellow-passengers at arm's length from the point. It drove them back to the statu quo, but as this affords no resting-plac€, they isame jumping back again, as on a recoiling spring, to th^ necessity of a change.

My friends, the hardship of work is not so great as you

16 STEAMBOAT CONVERSATION.

suppose. Give up this notion ; it has almost ruined you, and will ruin you totally if you hug it a little longer. How do we do at the North I How do they do at the West ? The spade and plough are not instruments of torture : their rough handles have the same drug secreted in them which was concealed in the racket of the Persian physician, and which with exercise exhaled its essence and restored the health of the monarch. Its influence also extends to the intellectual and moral man. Suppose you had made an experiment in one of your spacious and fertile counties thirty years ago, led your sons to the field, and trained them to the labours which consolidate and invigorate the frame. These labours, at the same time, foster a taste for harmless, cheap, and natural enjoyments. How would your fields have looked? What would have been their products under such improved systems as you and your sons might have introduced ? I fancy I see the little neighbourhoods which would have been formed, many a field now waste smiling with verdure, books and schools multiplied, manufactories built on the streams, good roads stretching hither and thither, happiness secured by intelligence, virtue, and prosperity. Your eyes are restless, your brows are clouded. There is nothmg more likely to remove such symptoms than the sight of our land well tilled by our own hands, the sounds of peace and joy in our habitations ; and what idle man ever knew them ?

It has been bitterly complained of in Virginia that useful labour is despised ; and no doubt the statesmen who would gain true honour should take Cincinnatus for their model. A most intelligent and independent step has been taken by one of the literary institutions of the state, the results of which must be useful. Manual labour has been connected with study at Hampden Sidney College ; and although the opposition to it was at first very general and powerful, a remarkable change in the opinion of the wise and good has already commenced ; and no one who looks at the state of things can doubt that this is one of the most wise and promising steps which could have been taken to repair the wastes of generations, and to remould the habits and condition of tlifi people*

Chapter II

Washington — Advantages of Small Capitals — Salutary Hints to Ambition — Foreigner disappointed — More Reflections — Vines — Rail- Toad.

I NEVER visit Washington without being reminded of the miscalculations which were made by some of our wisest men, in relation to the growth of the city in population and importance. The magnificence of the plan is evident to every eye, and so is the total want of power to complete it. Broad avenues, named after the states, stretch indeed from the centre towards various points ; but some of them are impassable, and others lead to nothing worth seeing. Unlike the great roads which met in the Roman forum in the days of Roman greatness, they are more like some of them at the present day, which conduct only to a deserted and steril region in the vicinity. Still there is one gratificatioa to be derived from the public disappointment in relation to the growth of the federal city : the intrigues of a court are more exposed to view than they could be in a large me« tropolis ; and the shades of a great population are not extended over them for their concealment. In European capitals, public men are much less exposed to public scrutiny ; and great facihties are enjoyed for all sorts of intrigues. Besides, every thing connected with the grandeur and brilliancy of power loses much of its importance in Washington, because so much of the interior of things is exposed to view. In this city visiters and inhabitants are alike impressed with what they see. Every year presents many new faces in the Houses of Congress, where new interests are maintained with the same ardour as before. When you call on a friend, you are perhaps introduced into •the same chamber you were in the last winter, with the 2£^nie two beds in ih^ corners, the same display of gilt*

18 CITY OF WASHINGTON.

edged paper, and sealing-wax upon the table, and the same symptoms around you of public business and partisan-spirit, while yoLi reflect that the former occupant of the room and of one of the beds, restored again to private life, is five hundred or a thousand miles off, divested of his feathers, and a fortunate man if not the worse for his campaign at the seat of government.

In the streets of Washington no warning seems omitted from which a spectator might learn patriotism, and a statesman honesty. The stage-horses wheel as gracefully to receive the unsuccessful applicant for office as to bring the court-favourite to his lodgings ; and the minister's furniture shines as bright at the auctioneer's door on the day of his taking leave as it did on the evening of his first drawingroom. Oh the silent lessons I have read at the auctioneer's en ambition and her reward, the boasted purity of a popular government, the value and splendour of real virtue, and the contemptible character of her counterfeits ! Indeed, so severe are some of the sarcasms thus practically presented, that I was once ready to exclaim against the punishment inflicted on a late favourite of fortune, then newly sunk in disgrace, as greater than he could bear.

The carpets on which his flatterers had stood, with smiles and compliments for him, were now cheapened on account of the dust of courtiers' feet, and the peculiar obsequiousness with which the surface had been scraped at audiences and levees. But, ah ! the bowls and dishes, the cups and glasses out of which so many simpering mouths had been so lately fed, and now scarcely dry from the unavailing banquets : what emblems were they of the hollowness and brittleness of the station they had recently embellished ! The minion had before possessed my secret contempt and abhorrence ; but I could now have saved him the pangs of such a show. And yet such things are salutary. If they are able to affect others as they afiected me, a walk through Pennsylvania Avenue might cure the most ambitious and corrupt of statesmen and courtiers.

Some of the inhabitants of Washington have had intelli' gence and observation enough to afford much interesting in-

ABSENCE OF SOLDIERS. 19

formation in relation to public men and national affairs. What we receive through the newspapers, or other channels little more correct, passes under their own eyes. And indeed, perhaps, no part of the country is left so much alone to form unbiased opinions. While speeches are made in Congress, written out, amended, and published by thousands to influence some county, state, or number of states, nobody tries to discolour things to the Washingtonians, knowing that it would be in vain. Every thing is therefore left to be seen by them without disguise ; and the consequence is, they often form correct opinions, and speak with becoming frankness. It is gratifying also to reflect, that local interests and influences are not likely to engross and control the attention of the government in so great a degree as they have often done in large cities ; and there is no mob to overawe or even to threaten their freedom.

To an American who has seen any of the capitals of Europe, the absence of military display is one of the most agreeable features in view, wherever he turns. There is not a soldier to guard gates or doors in Washington, with the single exception of those at the navy-yard, a mile or more from the capitol. The total want of every sign of military preparation is also very accordant with one's feelings. After the last war with England, a felon imprisoned for some crime confessed, as I recollect, that during his career of iniquity he had entered into a conspiracy to seize President Madison, and deliver him to the British ships then lying in the Potomac, while he was a sentinel to guard the President's house. As there was not even a wall of sufiicient height to prevent an approach to the doors, and no other obstacle, such a plan might have been easily accomplished, I suppose, under favourable circumstances, by mere surprise. Though danger was thus in one instance incurred by the neglect to take military precautions, how much better it is than to have the display of paid soldiers at every turn, and to become familiar with the music and the weapons of death ! From some acquaintance with the feelings and habits of foreigners, I can say with great confidence, that probably a large proportion of the intelligent men of Europe would so ADVANTAGES OF SMALL CAPITALS.

learn with surprise that there is not a soldier on guard in the capital of the United States, even during the sessions of Congress, aUhough the famihar fact excites not a thought in our minds.