If they will scorn the process by which other nations have become what they avowedly intend to be, they must rest satisfied with the praise and admiration they receive from each other; and turning a deaf ear to the criticism of the old world, consent to be their own prodigious great reward.”

Alexandria has its churches, chapels, and conventicles as abundantly, in proportion to its size, as any city in the Union.  I visited most of them, and in the Episcopal and Catholic heard the services performed quietly and reverently.

The best sermon, however, that I listened to, was in a Methodist church, from the mouth of a Piquot Indian.  It was impossible not be touched by the simple sincerity of this poor man.  He gave a picture frightfully eloquent of the decay of his people under the united influence of the avarice and intemperance of the white men.  He described the effect of the religious feeling which had recently found its way among them as most salutary.  The purity of his moral feeling, and the sincerity of his sympathy with his forest brethren, made it unquestionable that he must be the most valuable priest who could officiate for them.  His English was very correct, and his pronunciation but slightly tinctured by native accent.

While we were still in the neighbourhood of Washington, a most violent and unprecedented schism occurred in the cabinet.  The four secretaries of State all resigned, leaving General Jackson to manage the queer little state barge alone.

Innumerable contradictory statements appeared upon this occasion in the papers, and many a cigar was thrown aside, ere half consumed, that the disinterested politician might give breath to his cogitations on this extraordinary event; but not all the eloquence of all the smokers, nor even the ultradiplomatic expositions which appeared from the seceding secretaries themselves, could throw any light on the mysterious business.  It produced, however, the only tolerable caricature I ever saw in the country.  It represents the President seated alone in his cabinet, wearing a look of much discomfiture, and making great exertions to detain one of four rats, who are running off, by placing his foot on the tail.  The rats’ heads bear a very sufficient resemblance to the four ex-ministers.  General Jackson, it seems, had requested Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary of State, to remain in office till his place was supplied; this gave occasion to a bon mot from his son, who, being asked when his father would be in New York, replied, “When the President takes off his foot.”

CHAPTER 30

Journey to New York—­Delaware River—­Stagecoach—­
City of New York—­Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies—­
Theatres—­Public Garden—­Churches—­Morris Canal—­
Fashions—­Carriages

At length, in spite of the lingering pace necessarily attending consultations, and arrangements across the Atlantic, our plans were finally settled; the coming spring was to show us New York, and Niagara, and the early summer was to convey us home.