The next morning, as soon as we rose, we proceeded to the southward of the city, where we found all the militia of the adjoining counties collected in a camp, which they occupied for some days whilst waiting for the arrival of Lafayette; some of the corps we saw under arms, had come, we were told, more than fifty miles, to add by their presence to the solemnity of the reception given to the guest of the nation. The general, after having seen them manœuvre before him, went through their ranks to express his admiration of their discipline, and his gratitude for the proofs of affection they had shown him. During this time, Mr. George Lafayette and myself conversed with an officer of the staff, who had the goodness to give us some details as to the organization of the military force of Tennessee.
This officer might perhaps be thought to have been enthusiastic in his praises, and to have shown much national vanity, but I am persuaded he only spoke as he felt. He extolled the military qualities of his fellow citizens, from conviction, and as he would have praised, in strangers, any points he thought worthy of commendation. I have often remarked that the Americans, in general, are little given to the species of hypocrisy we term modesty, and with which we think we should always veil ourselves when we are speaking of our own virtues. They believe, and I am of their opinion, that true modesty does not consist in depreciating ourselves, but in not speaking with exaggeration or without cause of our own merits.
A frugal repast, prepared and served by the military, under a tent, terminated this visit to the camp of the Tennessee militia, after which we returned to the city, where we successively visited an academy of young ladies of Nashville, and Cumberland college. In both these establishments, the general was received as a beloved father, and he left them with the sweet and consoling certainty, that the careful and excellent manner in which they inculcated learning and a love of liberty, would greatly augment the glory and perpetuate the happiness of his adopted country. The committee of instruction of Cumberland college, presented to him and to General Jackson, a resolution of the trustees, by which two new chairs, under the names of Lafayette and Jackson, for teaching the languages and philosophy, were about to be established by a voluntary subscription of the citizens of Tennessee. They both accepted this honour with great satisfaction, and subscribed their names at the bottom of the resolution before leaving the establishment, which, although recently formed, already promises the most satisfactory results.
At one o’clock, we embarked with a numerous company, to proceed to dine with General Jackson, whose residence is a few miles up the river. We there found numbers of ladies and farmers from the neighbourhood, whom Mrs. Jackson had invited to partake of the entertainment she had prepared for General Lafayette. The first thing that struck me on arriving at the general’s, was the simplicity of his house. Still somewhat influenced by my European habits, I asked myself if this could really be the dwelling of the most popular man in the United States, of him whom the country proclaimed one of her most illustrious defenders; of him, finally, who by the will of the people was on the point of becoming her chief magistrate. One of our fellow passengers, a citizen of Nashville, witnessing my astonishment, asked me, whether in France, our public men, that is to say, the servants of the public, lived very differently from other citizens? “Certainly,” said I; “thus, for example, the majority of our generals, all our ministers, and even the greater part of our subaltern administrators, would think themselves dishonoured, and would not dare to receive any one at their houses, if they only possessed such a residence as this of Jackson’s; and the modest dwellings of your illustrious chiefs of the revolution, Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, &c. would only inspire them with contempt and disgust. They must first have in the city an immense and vast edifice, called a hotel, in which two large families could live with ease, but which they fill with a crowd of servants strangely and ridiculously dressed, and whose only employment, for the most part, is to insult those honest citizens who come on foot to visit their master. They must also have another large establishment in the country, which they call a chateau, and in which they accumulate all the luxuries of furniture, decorations, entertainments, and dress, in fact, every thing that can make them forget the country. Then they must have, to enable them to go from one to the other of these habitations, a great number of carriages, horses, and servants.” “Very well,” interrupted the Tennessean, shaking his head as if in doubt, “but who provides these public officers with all the money thus swallowed up in luxury, and how do the affairs of the people go on?” “If you ask them, they will tell you that it is the king who pays them, although I can assure you that it is the nation, which is borne down by taxes for the purpose; as to business, it is both well and badly attended to, but generally the latter.” “And why do you submit to such a state of things?” “Because we cannot remedy it.” “What! you cannot remedy it? A nation so great, so enlightened as the French, cannot prevent its officers, magistrates, and servants, from enjoying, at their expense, a scandalous and immoral luxuriousness, and at the same time not attending to their duties! whilst we, who have just assumed our name among nations, are enjoying the immense advantage of only having for magistrates, men who are plain, honest, laborious, and more jealous of our esteem than solicitous for wealth. Permit me to believe that what you have told is only pleasantry, and that you wished to amuse yourself for a moment with a poor Tennessean who has never visited Europe. But rest assured, that however ignorant we may be of what passes on the other side of the water, it is not easy to make us credit things which militate so strongly against good sense and the dignity of man.” Do what I could, I could never make this good citizen of Nashville believe that I was not jesting, and was obliged to leave him in the belief that we were not worse governed in France than in the United States.
General Jackson successively showed us his garden and farm, which appeared to be well cultivated. We every where remarked the greatest order, and most perfect neatness; and we might have believed ourselves on the property of one of the richest and most skilful of the German farmers, if, at every step, our eyes had not been afflicted by the sad spectacle of slavery. Every body told us that General Jackson’s slaves were treated with the greatest humanity, and several persons assured us, that it would not surprise them, if, in a short time, their master, who already had so many claims on the gratitude of his fellow citizens, should attempt to augment it still more, by giving an example of gradual emancipation to Tennessee, which would be the more easily accomplished, as there are in this state but 79,000 slaves in a population of 423,000, and from the public mind becoming more inclined than formerly to the abolition of slavery.
On returning to the house, some friends of General Jackson, who probably had not seen him for some time, begged him to show them the arms presented to him in honour of his achievements during the last war; he acceded to their request with great politeness, and placed on a table, a sword, a sabre, and a pair of pistols. The sword was presented to him by congress; the sabre, I believe, by the army which fought under his command at New Orleans. These two weapons, of American manufacture, were remarkable for their finish, and still more so for the honourable inscriptions, with which they were covered. But it was to the pistols, that General Jackson wished more particularly to draw our attention; he handed them to General Lafayette, and asked him if he recognized them. The latter, after examining them attentively for a few minutes, replied that he fully recollected them, to be a pair he had presented in 1778 to his paternal friend Washington, and that he experienced a real satisfaction in finding them in the hands of one so worthy of possessing them. At these words the face of old Hickory was covered with a modest blush, and his eye sparkled as in a day of victory. “Yes! I believe myself worthy of them,” exclaimed he, in pressing the pistols and Lafayette’s hands to his breast; “if not from what I have done, at least for what I wished to do for my country.” All the bystanders applauded this noble confidence of the patriot hero, and were convinced that the weapons of Washington could not be in better hands than those of Jackson.
After dinner we took leave of General Jackson’s family, and returned to Nashville to attend a public ball which was very brilliant; and afterwards went on board the Artisan to continue our journey. Governor Carroll of Tennessee and two of his aides-de-camp accompanied us. We rapidly descended the Cumberland, and on the 7th of May again entered the Ohio, otherwise called “la belle rivière,” for it was thus the first French who discovered its shores designated this majestic body of water, which for eleven hundred miles waters the most smiling and fertile country on the globe. The Ohio is formed by the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany at Pittsburgh, and empties itself into the Mississippi about the 37° of latitude. Its current is usually about a mile and a half per hour, but when the waters are high, it often equals that of the Mississippi, whose ordinary swiftness is four miles per hour. The water of the Ohio is said by the Americans to possess great prolific powers, and when you demand on what ground they found this opinion, they proudly point out the numerous dwellings which are infinitely multiplied on its banks, and the prodigious number of children who issue forth every morning, with a little basket of provision on their arms, to spend the day at school, to return in the evening to the paternal roof, singing the benefits of liberty.
On the 8th at break of day, we arrived opposite Shawneetown, where we landed with Governor Coles and the other members of the committee from the state of Illinois, and who, to our great regret, could not accompany us any farther. General Lafayette accepted a dinner provided for him by the inhabitants of that town. We continued our voyage, urging the speed of our small vessel with the whole power of the engine. Notwithstanding the departure of Governor Coles and his companions, we still had a numerous company on board. All the beds in the great cabin, were occupied by the deputations from Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and by other persons who had asked permission to accompany General Lafayette to Louisville. The general, his son, Mr. de Syon, and the author of this journal, shared in common, what is called the ladies’ cabin, situated in the stern of the vessel, and which could only be reached by descending about a dozen steps.
During the whole of the 8th we worked hard. The general replied to a great number of letters, which were addressed to him every day from all parts of the Union, and dictated to me some directions to the superintendant at La Grange; indicating what changes and improvements he wished made before his return to France. Being somewhat fatigued by this labour, he retired early to bed, and was already asleep, when at 10 o’clock, Mr. George Lafayette, coming below from the deck where he had been walking, expressed his astonishment that in so dark a night, our captain did not come to, or at least abate the speed of the vessel. We fully agreed in the justice of this remark, but being accustomed for some months to permit no difficulty to arrest us, and to travel at all times, we soon began to speak of other things, and Mr. George Lafayette also laid down and slept with every feeling of safety. I remained conversing with Mr. de Syon and correcting some notes. With the exception of the pilot and two men, every body was asleep around us, and at 11 o’clock the profound silence that reigned on board, was only broken by the deep grating of the engine and the dashing of the water against the sides of the vessel. Twelve o’clock struck, and sleep was beginning to invite us to repose, when our vessel suddenly received a horrible shock, and stopped short. At this extraordinary concussion, the general awoke with a start, his son sprung from his bed, half dressed, and I ran on deck to learn what was the matter. I there found two of our fellow passengers, whom anxiety had brought up, but who were returning, saying we had probably struck on a sand bank, and that there was no danger. Not trusting this opinion, I went into the great cabin; all the passengers were in a state of great agitation, but still in doubt as to the nature of the accident; some had not even quitted their beds. Decided on not going below without positively ascertaining the real state of things, I seized a light and ran forward, the captain arrived there about the same time, we opened the hatches, and ran forward; the hold was already half filled with water, which rushed in torrents through a large opening. “A snag! a snag!” cried the captain, “hasten Lafayette to my boat! bring Lafayette to my boat.” This cry of distress had reached the great cabin, and every mouth repeated it with dismay, but it had not been heard in our cabin, where I found the general, who had, by the advice of his son, permitted himself to be partly dressed by his faithful Bastien. “What news?” said he, on seeing me enter. “That we shall go to the bottom, general, if we cannot extricate ourselves, and we have not a moment to spare.” And I immediately began to collect my papers, which I threw pell-mell into my port-folio; George Lafayette on his part, hastily collected those objects he thought most necessary to his father, and begged him to follow us, but his toilet not being yet made, he wished us to go first and provide means of escape. “What!” cried his son, “do you think that in such circumstances we will leave you for a moment?” and immediately we each seized a hand and dragged him towards the door. He followed us, smiling at our haste, and began to ascend with us, but had scarcely reached the middle of the stairs, when he perceived that he had forgotten his snuff-box, ornamented with a picture of Washington, and wished to return for it; I went to the end of the cabin, found it and brought it to him. At this time the rolling of the vessel was so violent and irregular, and the tumult over our heads augmented to such a degree, that I believed we should not have time to escape before she sunk. At last, we reached the deck, where all the passengers were in the greatest confusion, some bringing their trunks, others looking for the boat, and crying out for Lafayette. He was already in the midst of them, but owing to the darkness of the night, no one recognised him; the boat heeled so much to starboard, that it was with difficulty we could keep our footing on deck. The captain assisted by two sailors, had brought his boat to this side, and I heard his sonorous voice crying out, Lafayette! Lafayette! but we could not reach him on account of the confusion around us. Nevertheless the vessel heeled more and more, each moment augmented the danger, we felt that it was time to make a last effort, and pushed into the middle of the crowd, where I cried, “here is General Lafayette!” This exclamation produced the effect I anticipated. The most profound silence succeeded to the confusion, a free passage was opened for us, and all those who were ready to spring into the boat, spontaneously checked themselves, not wishing to think of their own safety before that of Lafayette was ascertained. The difficulty was now to determine the general himself to depart before all his fellow passengers, and almost alone, for the boat would only hold a few persons, but he was soon obliged to yield to the will of all, energetically expressed by each; the irregular concussions of the vessel, and the rocking of the boat which was more than four feet lower than our deck, rendered a passage from one to the other extremely difficult, especially in the dark. The most active young man would not have hazarded a leap, for from the darkness he would have risked plunging in the water; great precautions were therefore to be adopted, as regarded the general. I went first into the boat, and whilst the captain kept her as near as possible to the vessel, two persons descended with the general, holding him under the shoulders. I received him in my arms, but his weight added to my own on the side of the boat, nearly capsized it, and losing my equilibrium, I should probably have fallen into the water with him, if Mr. Thibeaudot, formerly president of the senate of Louisiana, had not given me his support, and thus saved us both. As soon as we were assured that the general was safely on board, we pushed off as rapidly as possible, to prevent the other passengers from overloading our slight batteau. Although the greatest difficulties were overcome, all danger was not passed. The land was to be made; but at what distance was it from us? towards what shore should we direct our course? This the darkness of the night prevented us from ascertaining with certainty. Our captain soon made up his mind with decision. Holding the rudder with a firm grasp, he directed us to the left bank, and ordered his two sailors to row gently. In less than three minutes we happily reached a bank covered with a thick wood.
In landing, our first care was to count and recognise each other; we were nine: the captain, two sailors, General Lafayette, Mr. Thibeaudot, Doctor Shelly, carrying in his arms a child of about seven years of age, a daughter of a presbyterian clergyman, the father of the child and myself. It was then only that the general perceived that his son was not with him, and immediately his habitual coolness in the presence of danger abandoned him. He was filled with anxiety, and in a state of the most violent agitation. He began to call, George! George! with all his strength, but his voice was drowned by the cries which arose from the vessel, and by the terrible noise made by the steam escaping from the engine, and received no answer. In vain, to re-assure him, I represented to him that his son was a good swimmer, and that he doubtless had remained on board voluntarily, and with his coolness he would escape all danger. Nothing had any effect; he continued to traverse the shore calling on George. I then threw myself into the boat with the captain to go to the succour of those who so much needed it. The vessel still floated, but almost on her beam ends. The captain mounted on board, and I received in his place a dozen persons, who precipitated themselves into the boat, and whom I carried to land, without having been able to speak to George, Mr. de Syon, or Bastien. I dared not give an account of this first attempt to the general, and therefore made preparations for another trip, when a horrible crash and cries of despair announced to me that the vessel was sinking. At the same instant, I heard the water agitated in several directions by the efforts of those who were saving themselves by swimming. Mr. Thibeaudot, who had advanced into the water in order to judge better of what was passing, and to afford assistance to those who needed it, perceived a man, exhausted with fatigue, drowning a few paces from the shore, in a spot where the water was only three feet in depth. He drew him out with such ease, that a child might have rendered him the same service, and laid him on the grass. But the unfortunate man was so agitated by fear, that he continued to make on land all the movements of swimming, and would perhaps have killed himself by these useless efforts, if Mr. Thibeaudot had not succeeded in calming him. At every instant, other persons arrived on shore, and among them I always expected to recognise Mr. George Lafayette; and the general demanded news of his son from all, but in vain. I now myself began to fear for him. Another arrival of the boat informed us that the vessel had not entirely sunk; that the starboard side was under water, but that the larboard and gangway were still above it; and that a great number of passengers had taken refuge there. Thinking that there was an urgent necessity for succouring those who remained in this critical situation, I again entered the boat, and aided by a sailor approached the vessel. I first arrived at the prow; I called George with all my strength, but there was no answer. I then dropped along her side to the stern. In passing, I heard a voice over head cry out, “Is that you, Mr. Levasseur?” I listened and examined attentively; it was our poor Bastien, who was holding with difficulty to the roof of the upper cabin, the pitch of which was very great from the oversetting of the vessel. As soon as I came near him, he slid down and fortunately fell into the boat. When I arrived at the stern, I again called George; he instantly answered me. His voice appeared to be perfectly calm. “Are you in safety?” said I. “I could not be better,” replied he gaily. This reply gave me much relief, for my fears were really becoming serious. At the same instant, Mr. Walsh of Missouri, who was near him, gave me every thing that could be saved of our baggage. This was a small portmanteau of Mr. George Lafayette’s, a bag of his father’s, my own port-folio, which I had thrown on the deck when I was aiding the general to descend, and about sixty out of the two hundred letters we had prepared for the post, on the preceding days; all the others were lost. I now returned to land with Bastien and two other persons I had received in the boat, and hastened to assure the general of the safety of his son.