A senate, and a house of representatives form the legislative power of the United States, power which emanates immediately from the people, and which counterbalances the executive power, so that if it should happen that the people, in a moment of error, should bestow the presidency on an incompetent or ambitious candidate, the injurious influence of such a man would be neutralized by that of congress.
Congress assembles on the first Monday in the month of December of each year, and continues in session according to the importance of the business before it, but rarely beyond the month of May. From the middle of November, the senators and representatives of the different states begin to arrive in Washington. Among them there are many who, to fulfil the duties of their appointment, have been obliged to traverse hundreds of leagues of uninhabited forests, and over most perilous roads. On arriving they lodge at a hotel, where they are obliged, in some instances, to sleep in a room with four or five of their colleagues. The table is open to all who reside in the house. It is usually there, after a frugal meal, that those interesting conversations occur, in which most part of the questions likely to come before congress during the session are amicably discussed. When the first Monday in December arrives the session opens, and business commences immediately, for all are at their posts. During the whole time every day is conscientiously employed by the representatives of the nation in the discussion of the dearest interests of the people. As soon as the session closes, each member returns to his constituents, and finds, in the reception they give him, the dearest recompense he can hope for, if he should have fulfilled his duty to their satisfaction.
The first of January was fixed upon by the two houses, for a grand dinner to General Lafayette. The representatives of the people wished to consecrate American hospitality, by seating the guest of the nation at a table at which the whole people could be present in them. Mr. Gailliard, president pro tempore of the senate, and Mr. Clay, speaker of the house of representatives, presided at the dinner. Mr. Gailliard had General Lafayette on his left, and Mr. Monroe the president of the United States on his right; who, overlooking on this occasion the rule he had made of never attending any public dinner, had accepted the invitation; Mr. Clay had on each side of him, the secretaries of the different departments. Among the guests, were General Dearborn, minister of the United States to the court of Portugal; Generals Scott, Macomb, Jessup, and our worthy countryman Bernard, by whose side I had the honour to be placed; Commodores Bainbridge, Tingy, Steward and Morris, as well as many other public officers of highest rank. Among the guests, General Lafayette had the pleasure of finding some of his old companions in arms. Captain Allyn of the Cadmus, who had recently arrived from France, was also present. The hall was decorated with great splendour, and the guests were animated by a feeling of union, which demonstrated how completely they considered this ceremony as a family festival.
It is in such assemblies, that the public feeling of a people can be studied, particularly where its representatives, chosen freely, and having no reason to flatter those in power, or to dissimulate, give a free vent to all their sentiments. After a variety of toasts, highly complimentary to the general, and to which he replied with great felicity, the entertainment was concluded with a universal wish of the guests that all the American people could have been present at it.
CHAPTER III.
Departure from Washington—American Feelings—Sea-Lion—Family of Free Negroes—Raleigh—Fayetteville—North Carolina.
About the first of February, General Lafayette had received from all the southern and western states such pressing invitations, that he could no longer hesitate as to what course he should pursue; and immediately we were all actively employed in determining our order of march, and the means of surmounting the difficulties which every one assured us, would be very great in a journey of this nature and length. We had, indeed, a distance of more than twelve hundred leagues to pass over, in less than four months, to enable us to be in Boston on the seventeenth of June, where the general had promised to assist at the celebration of the anniversary of Bunker’s Hill; and a part of the country through which we were obliged to travel, was scarcely inhabited, and the roads, rough and difficult, were imperfectly laid out.
But thanks to the experience of General Bernard, to the information of the post master general (M’Lean,) and to the assistance of the members of congress who were in Washington, Mr. George Lafayette was enabled to trace out an such an excellent itinerary, that his father had no fear of neglecting in his course any places of importance in the various states we had to visit, although most of these places were often many miles to the right or left of our main line of march; and his time was so exactly proportioned, that, unless prevented by sickness or some serious accident, we were to arrive in Boston on the day promised.
We neglected no precaution adapted to aid us in surmounting the obstacles which, in the opinion of every one, threatened us in the course of this new journey. The general’s friends could not think without fear of the fatigues and dangers to which, they said, he was about to expose himself. Mrs. Eliza Custis, of the Washington family, pressed him to accept of her commodious and easy carriage. We purchased good saddle-horses to substitute for the coach on very bad roads; reduced our baggage as much as possible, and on the 23d of February, at nine o’clock in the evening embarked upon the Potomac, which we descended to its outlet in the Chesapeake Bay, and thence proceeded to Norfolk, where we landed early on the morning of the 25th, after a pleasant passage of two nights and one day. On the day following we went to dine at Suffolk, a small village, where they waited for the general with all the eagerness and kindness he had hitherto met with at every step.
Favoured by a good road and pleasant weather, our march was very rapid. A few miles from Norfolk we were obliged to stop some time before a small, solitary inn upon the road, for the purpose of refreshing our horses. We were sitting in our carriage when the landlord presented himself, asked to see the general, and eagerly pressed him to alight for a moment and come into his house. “If,” said he, “you have only five minutes to stay, do not refuse them, since to me they will be so many minutes of happiness.” The general yielded to his entreaty, and we followed him into a lower room, where we observed a plainness bordering on poverty, but a remarkable degree of cleanliness. Welcome Lafayette, was inscribed with charcoal upon the white wall, enwreathed with boughs from the fir trees of the neighbouring wood. Near the fire-place, where pine wood was crackling, stood a small table covered with a very clean napkin, and covered with some decanters containing brandy and whiskey; by the side of a plate covered with glasses was another plate filled with neatly arranged slices of bread. These modest refreshments were tendered with a kindness and cordiality which greatly enhanced their value. Whilst we were partaking of them the landlord disappeared, but returned a moment after accompanied by his wife, carrying her little boy, about three or four years of age, whose fresh and plump cheeks evinced the tenderness and care with which he had been cherished. The father, after first presenting his wife, next took his child in his arms, and, having placed one of his little hands in the hand of the general, made him repeat, with much emphasis, the following: “General Lafayette, I thank you for the liberty which you have won for my father, for my mother, for myself, and for my country!!” While the child was speaking, the father and mother eyed the general with the most tender regard: their hearts responded to the words of their boy, and tears they were unable to suppress, proved that their gratitude was vivid and profound. Were I to judge from what I myself felt on witnessing this simple and yet sublime scene, General Lafayette must have found this one of the most pleasing moments of his life. He could not conceal his emotions, but having tenderly embraced the child, took refuge in his carriage, bearing with him the blessings of this family, worthy of the freedom they enjoyed.