Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume XII Part 3

"No," said he, as before. "Well then," said they, "if you will not plead for us, we will give you 1,000 dollars not to be against us;" which sum he took, and left other advocates to talk.

Edward C----, late in the service of Joseph Vipan, Esq. of Sutton, is here elevated from the smock frock and stable, to the dress and society of a merchant in this city. So great is the change and so mighty the tyranny of custom, that what were his duties last year, would now be a disgrace to him. Another would-be gentleman, in the same store, was requested to a.s.sist his employer, a polished Englishman, in rolling a barrel of dried fish out of the cellar into a cart only. "Oh! no, that is _n.i.g.g.e.r's_ work," said he; and then left a good situation within two hours after {394} he came to it. Such are the blessed effects of slavery!

_15th._--Met Mr. Cooper, an English gentleman, at Washington, who has grown comfortable rich, and has recently bought about 300 acres of land, near this city, so exhausted, that no produce can be had from it for years to come. The system pursued here, if carried into the old country, would soon lay it waste, more effectually than either fire or sword. It is more difficult to raise a hundred dollars here than a hundred pounds in England. Individuals, who are rich in land, are generally without cash, and have their personalty seized, and sold for small debts, of a few dollars only.

_16th._--All kinds of fruit and vegetables (potatoes excepted) are now remarkably scarce, and enormously dear, insomuch that they are not seen, during the winter and spring, except on the tables of the rich. In summer they cost as much or more than butcher's meat; yet thousands of acres, all round the city, close to water and manure, are to be had by any body free of rent! In summer the potatoes were one dollar fifty cents per bushel; now, eastern potatoes sell for 50 to 75 cents, and nothing but potatoes come on the tables of the bulk of the people. What is the cause? "Why," says one, "the gardeners get rich and ride in their single horse chaise, because the business is so profitable. They have no compet.i.tion. {395} Whatever they send to market is sold only at their own price. It is their will to have 150 per cent, above the value of an article. Rather than undersell, they would carry home their vegetables for the cattle and pigs!" So that the will of the gardener governs the price, although the means of opposition are open to all! The poor farmer comes to market with his flour, but _his_ will is to take just what is offered him. He is not in the gardener's secret of insisting and willing to have ten dollars a barrel for flour, when worth only four dollars and a half. But what is the real cause of the high price of vegetables in this soil and climate of Washington? Why, no body gardens; not even the rich; because they can buy cheaper than they can raise them; and it is found that none but the poor, humble man, who has no capital, will attempt it, because others can employ capital more profitably than in gardening. It is therefore an undoubted fact, that the soil and climate do not admit of vegetables being raised, at a much lower price than that at which they are actually sold. In summer, continual watering and shading are absolutely necessary, and the soil is poor into the bargain; insomuch that the seed rises so weak, that the sun would burn up the plants instantly, without great attention to shade and watering, and if this were not so, myriads of gra.s.shoppers would eat all in spite of any measures for their preservation.

{396} _Winter Prices of Garden-stuff_

Winter greens, lightly put in, one quarter dollar per peck.

Spinach, the same.

Cabbages, of about four oz. weight, yellow and bad, having been buried from the frost, four cents each.

Potatoes, seventy-five cents a bushel.

Carrots, bad and scabby, 9_d._ sterling, to one quarter dollar per peck.

_23rd._--Commodore Stephen Decatur[140] fell this day in a duel, having killed five men in the same way himself. He swore shamefully at the doctors while dying, because they could not extract the fatal ball from his bowels. He is called by the National Intelligencer, "One of the bright stars of Columbia, set for ever!" And the country is summoned to mourn for him. The president and the heads of departments, with military and naval officers and citizens, walked in procession at his funeral.

The laws of heaven and earth, on this subject, are here quite insulted, by common consent. A lady of this district, hearing that her husband was gone to fight a duel, fifty miles off, sent an express, charging that he should be brought home a corpse rather than disgraced. It is a rule here always to take skilful aim, and if one party chooses to reserve his fire, he may go up and shoot the other, if he does not beg for his life.

{397} A gentleman once would not beg it, but the other said, "If your life is not worth asking for, it is not worth taking!" And so fired in the air.

A sinecure, or something in the nature of one, is held by Joseph Paulding, Esq. of Washington.[141] The holder of this situation is enjoined to write in defence of the American character and government, and at the same time to vilify the British. Mr. Colvin, late editor of the National Register, in a critique on Lancaster's lectures, says, "that we (meaning America) are more virtuous than the people of other nations, I cannot believe. It is sufficient that we are equal, not worse." That there is no great superiority of moral worth on the part of America, the following anecdote will prove. A gentleman seduced the sister of his own wife, and then, to hide her disgrace, disguised his wife in the uniform of a lieutenant of the United States' navy, and married the young woman to her. The lieutenant of course went to sea immediately, and, poor man! was never heard of more. The nuptials were celebrated by candle-light, and all the gay company, except the priest, were parties to this ingenious trick!

_24th._--Flour now is only four dollars and a half a barrel, five bushels to a barrel. After hauling, grinding, and the cost of the empty barrel, are deducted, it is seen that the farmer only receives two dollars fifty cents, for five bushels of fine wheat. Under such circ.u.mstances, where is profit?

{398} _Sunday, 26th._--I left this city and old friends, to return, perhaps, no more. At Baltimore, on my way to Philadelphia, I met Joseph Lancaster, teaching a few small children.

_28th._--Again at Philadelphia, where British and French goods are selling at 200 per cent. under cost. So great is the distress for money, that the regular merchants are sending their stock to auction. I visited Mr. Potter, an English merchant, who has been established here ever since the peace of 1786. He is now rich, but loves England still. He was intimately known to the Duke of Kent. He says that corruption is rising into an English sense, even here; and adding the state and general taxes together, they make a sum little short of English taxation.

_29th._--Six hundred prisoners are this day in a state of mutiny, endeavouring to escape by violence from the Philadelphia state prison.

One is shot, and three or four are wounded. The mail robbers now in custody killed the driver of the mail, but they have restored all the money, and pray that they may not be hanged.

_31st._--I parted with my old friend C., who promised to meet me again at Baltimore, in June. I reached Newcastle, Delaware State, and visited its old Golgotha, on a bluff, near the river Delaware, which washes the feet of the dead, exposes a great part of the coffin, and bleaches the skulls and bones of men. Numbers of horses tread on the {399} graves and break in the coffins, for here is nothing to protect these bones from insult.

I saw the effect of the late freezing rain on the trees, which, over an extent of country six times as large as England, has despoiled trees as completely as if chain shot had pa.s.sed through them all. The trees and shrubs are laden with ice, a weight ten times that of their own boughs.

Many farmers lost nearly all their timber and orchards: a ship also was upset by the great weight of the ice adhering to her rigging.

_April 7th._--I met with a black gentleman who has bought a beautiful farm, with a good house and improvements, six miles only from Philadelphia, at twenty dollars an acre, at a sheriff's sale. A law has just pa.s.sed to prevent any more selling under two thirds of a fair valuation. A quaker whom I met, states that Joseph Lancaster injured himself by going to Baltimore. He did not succeed at Philadelphia, the only place where he could have succeeded, because he expected more attention from the inhabitants of that city, than they ever pay to any body.

Visited Peale's museum,[142] a fine collection of native and foreign curiosities, amongst the former of which are the skeleton of a mammoth, 15 feet high, and horns, nine feet long, under the belly of which, as under an arch, a horse might run full gallop. I crept down the throat of an alligator. {400} Several bodies of Indian chiefs are here to be seen dried, standing in their usual dresses and att.i.tudes, as well as some Otaheiteans.[143] There is also the skin from the thighs and legs of an Indian, tanned by Indians into fine leather, for thus they use their prisoners taken in battle. I saw the ma.n.u.script of a poem of Major Andre, penned about two months before his execution.[144] Here is also a fine collection of national portraits.

_8th._--I this day set sail from Philadelphia for Charleston, in the _General Wade Hampton_, and anch.o.r.ed at Newcastle in the evening.

_Sunday, 9th._--I rode with the captain, in his chariot, to the beautiful seat and extensive powder mills of E. S. Dupont, Esq.[145] on the Brandywine creek, a fine stream full of natural falls and working many mills. We went for 500 barrels of gunpowder. Mr. Dupont, who pressingly invited us to dine, seems a liberal, intelligent Frenchman, of large capital, which sometimes vanishes by explosion, together with the doors and windows of his elegant mansion.

During this twenty miles ride, I observed that thorn quicks are here generally used as an outward fence, but they are badly managed. I saw, on poor wet lands, large heaps of lime, formed by oyster sh.e.l.ls and stone, gathered and burnt for manure; in this way cheaply turning stone into bread.

We received this evening three or four physicians {401} and other pa.s.sengers, to the number of ten or twelve, on board the _Wade Hampton_.

_10th._--At three, this morning, we got under weigh, sailing into the bay of Delaware, and by noon arrived opposite to the light-house.

A family (says the Captain) from England, of the name of Clementson, recently bought an estate from a scoundrel old countryman, of the name of Watson, living at Philadelphia, at a price 200 or 300 per cent. above its value. They paid in part about 6,000 dollars, but being unable to pay the remainder, and having no written contract, he induced them to quit and go to the wilds of Ohio, where, he said, he had much land at a low price, which they should have for the money in his hand. He also kindly gave them a letter of credit to his agent there; but on arriving, they found that he was unknown, and had no land, nor agent; and they were in consequence forced to sell their horses, waggon, and every necessary, to enable them, in unspeakable distress, to return to prosecute this scoundrel; but they had no evidence against him, and therefore found it advisable to lose their money without going to law.

Having about 2,000 dollars left, they purchased and stocked a farm bigger and better than the one for which they were to have paid 8,000, or 10,000 dollars. Old countrymen, it is said, make the most complete rascals.

_11th._--Now at sea, exposed to head-winds and sea-sickness. An Irish gentleman from Missouri, {402} states that last week, on board the steam-boat, he met a black archbishop and several of his inferior clergy. This most reverend father in G.o.d was endeavouring to prove that Adam, Noah, and all the prophets, and patriarchs, down to Jesus Christ, were blacks, and that a small portion of mankind, and that the worst, are whites, of whom Cain is the progenitor.

The Missouri Irishman has invested 50,000 dollars in land, the advantages of which he deems to be yet dubious and prospective. He says that society is bad, and that the people are unprincipled.

_12th._--Two old German gentlemen, heroes of the revolution, now on board, state, that they knew the accomplished and unfortunate Major Andre. When taken by three militiamen, in the capacity of a British spy, endeavouring to seduce West Point, he was dressed as a citizen, instead of appearing in the regimentals of his country, which greatly aggravated his crime. He offered his gold watch and purse, and large pecuniary compensation to be released, but the three men were firm. Both sides regretted, and were unwilling to witness, his death; and the American government would have saved him, if the British would have given up the traitor Arnold. He was fairly tried, and no precipitation evinced towards him. He thanked the court martial for their gentlemanly treatment, submitted to his fate as a matter of course, and {403} with great firmness prepared himself for it. Three months elapsed between his apprehension and execution. But when he was led out to execution, and saw the gallows instead of the rifle, his firmness, in some measure, forsook him. He was elegantly dressed in his martial suit, and on giving his cravat to his waiting man, only said, "I die for the honour of my king and country;" at which General Green, the American commander, who presided in the midst of the surrounding army on this sad occasion, shook his head, and observed, "No! you die for your cowardice, and like a coward!"

General Washington signed the order for his death with great reluctance; but the army were dissatisfied and demanded the sacrifice. The example was necessary and salutary, and in its general consequence calculated to deter men of honour and respectability from such military meanness.

Major Andre hoped to the last to escape. The tories, of whom he was one, had previously murdered some of the citizens and officers, in consequence of which, General Washington determined on retaliation by executing one of the British tory officers then prisoners, and ordered them to draw lots to decide who of their number must die. The lot fell on Sir Charles Asgill, who, but for the French influence of Count Vergennes, and a most pathetic letter from the baronet's mother, would have been executed.[146]

{404} The quakers, about New Jersey, were very loyal, and locked up the wells, and withheld all aid from the rebels!

_Sunday, 16th._--Fine breeze; sailing by Cape Hatteras, to pa.s.s which occupied two days. A strong current of air is here found, rushing to the land, accompanied generally with tempestuous gales. A gap in the Allegany mountains, towards which this current rushes, is said to be the cause.

_18th._--At three o'clock this afternoon I landed at Charleston, and found all nature in its most beautiful attire. Peas and all kinds of summer vegetables are in great abundance, and the peach-trees full of fruit. I found that my much respected friend, N. Russell, Esq. had died only a fortnight since; he kindly inquired after me in his extremity.

_19th._--I met my old shipmate, Mr. Moses Wood. I bought twilled nankeen trowsers for two dollars and a half. London clothes of good and best kinds sell at lower prices than in London.

_Rattlesnakes._--A gentleman informed me that he once shot a rattlesnake as thick as his thigh, and 26 years old. Its age is known by its tail.

It was near biting him. A neighbour of his left his house in search of his swine, and being long away, his wife went after him and found him dead, killed by a snake, to the bite of which the poor deceased had applied a quid of tobacco, then found sticking on the wound. Another neighbour, {405} who was also bitten, managed to walk home before he fell, but died very soon after his arrival. I was told, also, of a planter, out with his dogs and rifle after a deer, which he shot; but on bringing it to lay on the horse, a rattlesnake struck the man, who was found dead, with the buck and horse, which being tied to a tree was starved to death. Thus they were all found dead in one heap together.

_20th._--By conversation with Judge King, to whom I presented J.

Wright's pamphlet on slavery, I learn that my negro case was much noticed, and its exposure much and indignantly regretted. Mr. King says that it was indiscreet in me to report facts, except from the evidence of my own senses! If no testimony is to be received, but that of our own eyes, half the evidence in the world is worthless. The Carolinians love slavery, and hate all who hate it. Both Mr. King and Mr. Duncan state, that in consequence of that affair, and of my being a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land, if Gregory should prosecute me for an advertis.e.m.e.nt, which I found it necessary, in pursuing the claims on the Rugeley property, to publish against him, I should meet with but little mercy from the jury!

_21st._--Called on Patrick Duncan, Esq., and took a final leave of him and his beautiful gardens, in which are oranges, figs, sugar-canes, pomegranates, and the prairie gra.s.s of South America, soft as silk in hand.

{406} Received, from my warm-hearted Irish friend, Mr. Wood, 50 dollars, an unsolicited loan, although he knows me not. Here is faith, greater than almost any I have yet found in America.

The slave-owners, in this state, must maintain all their helpless and infirm slaves, or kill them privately. They cannot become chargeable to the parish, or state. O humanity, where art thou!!! As a punishment for the la.s.situde of age, or the idleness of youth, a _n.i.g.g.e.r_ is stripped naked, well flogged, then dressed all over with treacle (or mola.s.ses) and hung up by his heels on a tree, in a swamp full of flies and mosquitoes, which lick up the sweets, and sting and bleed him dreadfully into the bargain. He is then a living lump of inflammation. What ingenious torture this! how refined! how honourable to the taste and ingenuity of a nation, the freest of the free, and who boast of superabundant polish and civilization!

When with my cousin, Major Rugely, in May last, I was presented with a beautiful black female baby, that could just creep, and which was given and intended to be sent as a keepsake to my lady in England; but I, not being qualified for a nurse at sea, nor indeed by land, declined this well-intended gift. The Major then possessed a poor negro, who wishing to die, was constantly detected in the act of eating dirt or lumps of earth, a habit which procured for him a cow-hiding daily! I might have had him, and branded him with my own {407} brand, F. As cattle it is necessary so to distinguish one herd from another, and if they stray, or are stolen, to advertise their persons, correctly describing the mark, or brand, which is deeply burnt in, and never obliterated, unless it is cut out!

_Sunday, 23rd._--I bade, this morning, a willing and final farewell to Charleston city, and to all its bugs, mosquitoes, negroes, and alligators, and a race of people, many of whom seem not much better than they. I left behind me some copies of J. Wright's pamphlet on slavery, for his Excellency, Governor Geddiss, the Attorney-General Haines, the editor of the Courier, Mr. Thomas Mitchel, and Mr. Judge King, the latter of whom promised to keep his a profound secret. The press seems here to be more enslaved than under the most despotic government. At night I found myself at sea, 60 miles from Charleston, in the _President_ for New York. Fare, 25 dollars.

_25th._--I saw two young alligators emigrating to the north. Mr. Morse (the son of the geographer, Dr. Morse)[147] states, that at New Haven University, Connecticut, an education of four years costs only 1,000 dollars, board included. The same gentleman states, that in Connecticut, republicanism and equality exist in greater purity than in any other part of the union. The farmers and people generally live economically and comfortably, surrounded with a cheap abundance of all the {408} necessaries of life, but they keep no domestic servants, male or female.

They are their own servants. As to negroes, scarcely one is to be seen in a day's travel. The people generally are so well educated in this state, that almost any man is qualified for a schoolmaster in any of the sister states. Dr. Paley's moral philosophy is a text book in their college.

_26th._--A young gentleman on board, from the state of Albania, says that Mobile, out of 600, lost 530 inhabitants, by the yellow fever last summer. In winter the population is from 2 to 3,000.

A dashing English gentleman travelling through this state with a white servant behind him, rode up to a one-room log-tavern, and begged the landlord to let him have a room to himself, which was agreed to. In a few minutes up came two native travellers, _equals_, who entered without ceremony, when the Englishman began to curse the landlord for permitting the intrusion. He replied, that he meant that the gentleman should have the room to himself until other travellers came up.

_29th._--At ten this morning we made Sandyhook light-house. The scenery here, all the way up to the city of New York, is delightful. Perhaps the views presented by this city and neighbourhood are unequalled, both as it respects the beauties of nature and the works of art. I landed at six o'clock, and was introduced by Messrs. Morse {409} and Co. to the boarding-house of Mrs. Mudge, where I met Mr. Dwight, a brother of the late eminent Dr. Dwight, now editor of the New York Advertiser.[148] In person this gentleman is said to be much like the Doctor.