The affairs in the South are once more tranquil, and nullification may be said to be extinct. There are men in that quarter, however, who seriously meditate further difficulties, and there is just reason to apprehend that these will not be satisfied short of a Southern convention, leading to a Southern confederacy.
The elements of popular excitement only are wanting to make their purpose discernible to all, and the grave question has been revived for this purpose. So far it has not been successful, though it is evidently making some impression in one or two of the States south of the Potomac, and you know better than I can tell you, that the spirit of revolution is progressive, though it may be slow.
On all other points, our affairs at home are prosperous, and the prospect gratifying; and the new lines of party will not be very distinctly defined until toward the close of the next session of Congress.
I saw, while in Philadelphia with the President, many of your friends, who affectionately inquired after you, and you may be satisfied that your absence from the country has not served to weaken their attachment.
Now, my dear sir, I have taken up already too much of your time with this uninteresting letter, and I will therefore relieve you from a greater part of it. I will only add the wish of Mrs. McL—— to be brought to your remembrance, and the assurance of the continued respect and regard with which I am unaffectedly your friend and servant,
Louis McLane.
The principal object of the mission being accomplished, Mr. Buchanan began his journey to Moscow early in June, and was absent from St. Petersburg about a month. In making selections from his journals and letters relating to this tour, as well as those which he kept on his travels homeward after he finally left Russia, I shall omit descriptions of places and countries that are now familiar to multitudes of Americans, and shall quote only those which are of interest because they give accounts of persons or things as they impressed him at the time, and which are out of the beaten path of guide books as they then were or have since become, or which relate to the public affairs of that period.
Tuesday at 8 P. M., June 4, 1833.
Left St. Petersburg and arrived at Novogorod about 12 midi on Wednesday. Visited the church of St. Sophia, said to be founded by Wladimir in 1040. His tomb, at which they say miracles are wrought, is in it. The paintings are numerous and barbarous. The interior has a rude magnificence. Went into the sanctum sanctorum, where women are never admitted. There they consecrate the Eucharist in the Greek Church, out of the view of the people; unlike the Latin in this respect. The priest afterwards carries it out on his head, to be adored by the people.
The sides of the western door are lined with bronze, from which jutted out in bronze a number of strange and barbarous figures not unlike those of Mexico. They must have been Christian and even Russian in their origin, as one of them represented an Archimandrite in full dress. The inscriptions were Sclavonian. Our guide said they were conquered from the Swedes by St. Wladimir. The church is west of the river. It and several other buildings are surrounded by a brick wall, with turrets, etc., etc., about twenty-five feet high and eighteen thick and nearly a mile in circumference, a ditch beneath.