FOOTNOTES:
[20] The mazurka.
[21] My friend speaks of the year 1833.
[22] The reader will remember with what severity Miss Martineau commented on his talents, though she had only seen him once or twice en passant.
CHAPTER III.
The Library of Congress.—Conversation with several Members of Congress.—Practice of Public Speakers in Washington.—Mr. Van Buren’s Method of parrying an Invective.—Discussion of General Jackson’s Character.—Jackson and Wellington’s similarity of Character.—Mr. Van Buren’s Character.—Instability of American Institutions.—Insecurity of Property the Consequence of it.—Want of Enthusiasm in the Higher Classes.—Their Toad-eating in Europe.—Cooper’s last Publication.—Vanity of boasting of the Natural Resources of the Country.—Thin-skinnedness of the Americans when attacked by European Critics.—Toad-eating to the People.—Necessity of establishing a Moral Quarantine for all Americans returning from Europe.—Americans ashamed of their Institutions.—Anecdote of a vulgar rich American and the Grand Duke of Tuscany.—Democratic Twaddles.—Advantages of a poor Capital.
“Ambition rends, and gaming gains a loss;
But making money, slowly first, then quicker,
And adding still a little through each cross,
(Which will come over things,) beats love or liquor,
The gamester’s counter, or the statesman’s dross.
O gold! I still prefer thee unto paper,
Which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.”
Byron’s Don Juan., Canto xii. 4.
Being engaged in the evening, I spent the time from four till five in the afternoon in visiting the library of Congress at the Capitol. I was introduced to the librarian by one of the members, and found him exceedingly obliging. The collection of books, manuscripts, newspapers, &c. is of course small, the number of works in any one department being probably insufficient to form a scholar: yet, for the entertainment of the members, and for such current and useful instruction as may be desirable for the purpose of reference, it is probably more than sufficient; and thus it well answers the purpose of its founders. After taking from one of the windows a fine view of the city, which looks more like a newly settled colony than the capital of a powerful country, I took a walk with two senators and a member up and down the macadamised road, called the Pennsylvania Avenue, which leads from the Capitol to the President’s house; this being the fashionable promenade, business street, habitable quarter, and sum total of the whole American metropolis.