They drank it willingly, and withal so lengthily and noisily that Mr. Wilkinson stood smiling and bowing for full three minutes before he could be heard.  He was a very paragon of modesty, was the General, and a man whose attitudes and expressions spoke as eloquently as his words.  None looked at him now but knew before he opened his mouth that he was deprecating such an ovation.

“Gentlemen,—­my friends and fellow-Kentuckians,” he said, “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness, but I assure you that I have done nothing worthy of it [loud protests].  I am a simple, practical man, who loves Kentucky better than he loves himself.  This is no virtue, for we all have it.  We have the misfortune to be governed by a set of worthy gentlemen who know little about Kentucky and her wants, and think less [cries of “Ay, ay!"].  I am not decrying General Washington and his cabinet; it is but natural that the wants of the seaboard and the welfare and opulence of the Eastern cities should be uppermost in their minds [another interruption].  Kentucky, if she would prosper, must look to her own welfare.  And if any credit is due to me, gentlemen, it is because I reserved my decision of his Excellency, Governor-general Miro, and his people until I saw them for myself.  A little calm reason, a plain statement of the case, will often remove what seems an insuperable difficulty, and I assure you that Governor-general Miro is a most reasonable and courteous gentleman, who looks with all kindliness and neighborliness on the people of Kentucky.  Let us drink a toast to him.  To him your gratitude is due, for he sends you word that your tobacco will be received.”

“In General Wilkinson’s barges,” said Mr. Wharton leaning over and subsiding again at once.

The General was the first to drink the toast, and he sat down very modestly amidst a thunder of applause.

The young man on the other side of me, somewhat flushed, leaped to his feet.

“Down with the Federal government!” he cried; “what have they done for us, indeed?  Before General Wilkinson went to New Orleans the Spaniards seized our flat boats and cargoes and flung our traders into prison, ay, and sent them to the mines of Brazil.  The Federal government takes sides with the Indians against us.  And what has that government done for you, Colonel?” he demanded, turning to Clark, “you who have won for them half of their territory?  They have cast you off like an old moccasin.  The Continental officers who fought in the East have half-pay for life or five years’ full pay.  And what have you?”