Mr. Calhoun, in conversation, is as great as he is in every thing else. He can say a great deal in a few words. His language is appropriate and as beautiful as one could possibly imagine it to be. He is in the full possession of all his corporeal and mental powers, he sees every thing at a glance of his mind, and he can speak as easily as he thinks. He is unquestionably one of the most talented men in the nation. It is quite possible that he has been treated very ungratefully by the men, who have been raised into high places by Mr. Calhoun himself. Without a particle of intrigue in his composition—unacquainted entirely with the machinery of party management and party drill, he has stood no chance of success among such men. He appeared to know and to feel this, though he has always scorned to stoop to such low means of rising into the highest office in the Union. He has not a particle of ill will towards his enemies, and, he said, that he had taken a real pleasure in doing good to those who were employing themselves in their endeavors to injure him, although he well knew what they were doing at that moment when he was serving them. He has come here, merely to treat with England and Texas, and having finished his intended labors, he will resign his present office, and retire to the high ground where he dwells, there to spend the remainder of his days. Just back of the country where he lives, the Alleghany mountains rise to an altitude of seven thousand feet above the sea, which is higher than the White mountains in New Hampshire.
In the vallies of the Alleghany, near him, Indian corn grows and comes to perfection four thousand feet above the sea. Though I did not ask him, yet, I suspect that at such an elevation it is the New England corn, and not our gourd seed corn. He tells me, that on his elevated ground, where he lives the climate is nearly the same, as that of the District of Columbia. He has no ambition for public life, its cares and responsibilities. After being thirty-five years in office, he desires to retire from it, and be at peace at home, surrounded as he is by a family endeared to him by all the ties which none but a parent can feel. He has five sons and two daughters. The son with him here, is an officer in the army—a promising young man. He appeared to think that his part of the Union had been wholly neglected by the general government. If that be the fact, and I am sure he thinks so, the representatives from South Carolina, should use their endeavors to obtain their due share of the public patronage. To strengthen the bonds of our Union by mutual aid and mutual affection, should be the constant aim of all our national legislation. I told Mr. Calhoun that Ohio had paid twenty millions of dollars for her lands, into the United States treasury, whereas the people of the Atlantic States had gotten their lands originally, merely for settling on them. Mr. Calhoun in reply stated that Wayne’s war, with all its expenditures, must be charged on Ohio and Indiana.
I told Mr. Calhoun that within ten years from this time, the national government would be in our hands in the West for safe keeping, and so will remain thenceforth and forever. This idea, I told him, had its full weight on our minds—it made us bear and forbear—bear our evils and forbear to use any violent means now, to acquire what would, of its own accord soon fall into our possession, and be forever ours.
General Anderson of Tennessee, coming in here, I left Mr. Calhoun with the most friendly impressions towards him, which will never wear off from my mind during my life-time. Devoid of all intrigue, he is too honest a man to compete with the little men, who have always opposed him. He will only be called for, when great and commanding powers of mind are imperiously demanded by some great emergency. Like a great lamp, he shines to give light for the benefit of others, who see by the aid of its lustre. Perhaps it is best that the greatest talents are unemployed, except in cases of emergency. They are the army in reserve, upon which a defeated party in advance can fall back and be saved from destruction. Why so many incompetent men should rise into high places of trust, while the greatest and the best ones should be passed by, is not always seen. Envy of living merit may be the cause.
Mr. Calhoun’s private character is pure and spotless. He never had any vicious habit of any sort, nor indulged in any vice. There are very few such public men in this nation, or even in this world, and there is no better one anywhere. Whether he belongs to any church, I do not know but that he practises all the christian virtues is certain. His hair is grey, but his step is strong and elastic, and his body like his mind is as strong and as active as it ever was. For strength of thought, deep, vigorous, keen, searching, discriminating, methodical, logical and clear Mr. Calhoun has no superior in this nation. His feelings are mellowed down by years and by a large experience in the affairs of the world and all its vicissitudes. His great learning, derived from books—his agreeable manners, derived from a good heart and from his associations with the best society in the nation; his business talents; his industrious habits, and all his other great qualifications, eminently fit him for his present high station, and for even the highest station in this republic. The Senate did but yield to the unanimous desire of all our citizens here, when they unanimously confirmed the nomination of John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of State. In whatever station he is, we may always feel assured that a talented, patriotic and good man occupies it, who will faithfully, honestly and correctly do his duty at all times and in all emergencies.
Alexandria, April 10th.
I came here yesterday, to spend a few days—to rusticate. This city of ten thousand people is made up of an agreeable, well informed and industrious population. The streets all cross each other at right angles, like those of Philadelphia. It is free from the dust, which loads the air of Pennsylvania avenue at this time, and is, on the whole, a better place for me than capitol-hill, where I was so happily located, at Mrs. Ballard’s, within two minutes’ walk of the capitol, its rotundo and library. This spot is more retired from company, so agreeable to me as to take off my mind from my business. On attending the market here, the most prominent object in it, was the fishes, such as shad, herring, &c., just taken in this river, and brought here for sale. I saw yesterday three large shad sold for a quarter of a dollar, and single ones, large, fresh and fair, for ten cents each! The quantities taken are great, and a great many wagons from the country, back of this city, and from Maryland and Pennsylvania were here for the purpose of carrying them away. Before I came here, I heard much of the decay of the city, but on my arrival I found none of it. I found signs of thrift, but none of decay. Houses were repairing, the people were all employed in some useful calling; the streets are all paved, with good side-walks, and what surprised me, was, that I saw no coffee-houses where spirits are retailed, in this city of ten thousand people. There are only two taverns in it, and one of the innkeepers sells no ardent spirits in his house. I am now writing these lines in his inn. I doubt much, whether such another town of the size of this can be found in America, where no more intoxicating liquors are drank in it. I have now lying before me, a record of the first town meeting in this old American town, and I extract from it the following, viz.
“At a meeting of the majority of the trustees of Alexandria town, July 13th, 1749. Present: Richard Osborn, Wm. Ramsay, John Carlyle, John Pagan, Garrard Alexander and Hugh West, Gent.”
What a record! Ninety-five years almost since this was a frontier town, and then the majority of the trustees held their first meeting, of which any record remains. Before that time, the place must have been occupied by settlers, and must have been laid out as a town, into lots, because the same record shows that John West, junior, was appointed a clerk of the town, and the proceedings of the meeting were recorded by their clerk, and his book, in manuscript, lies before me! John West, junior, was “appointed cryer to sell the lotts at publick sale, within five minutes, from the time they are set to sale.” The price of the lots is given in the record, in pistoles. No. 36 was the first lot sold at the public sale, and John Dalton was the purchaser, at 19 pistoles. Among the purchasers of the lots, we find the names of Lawrence Washington, W. Fairfax and Geo. Fairfax, Nathaniel Harrison, Wm. Fitzhugh, Wm. Ramsay and Major Henry Fitzhugh, besides the names of the trustees first named, and their clerk and Roger Lindon and Allan McRae.
I visited the printing office on Saturday morning, April 13th, and introduced myself to the editor, a pleasant sensible and obliging man. The Alexandria Gazette was established by Samuel Snowden in 1800. It was continued by the original proprietor until his death in 1831. Since that time it has been conducted and owned by his son, Edgar Snowden—it is therefore one of the oldest newspaper establishments in the United States.