The Hall of Representatives is of semicircular form; a beautiful colonnade of native with capitals of Italian marble, ranges along within the semicircle and its base, with rich crimson and fringed curtain drapery between the columns. The President's throne is placed on the centre of the base and fronting the semicircle, the seats and desks [208] for the Members ranged so as to radiate from it; the whole area is covered with a rich and rather gaudy carpet.
The Hall of the Senate is as studiously plain as that of the Representatives is gaudy; in the same form, but upon a much smaller scale, and the gallery is only upon the base of the semicircle, so that a spectator here fronts the Members;—the style of decoration throughout is far preferable to the other.
Of the debates on the tapis I can say but little, not having had time sufficient to give them much attention,—they were apparently carried on however with more decorum than from report I had reason to expect, except that the exercise of spitting upon the beautiful carpet was continued as everywhere else; the walls of the stairs and the stairs themselves also were covered with the saliva of tobacco chewers.
It being an expected compliment from strangers coming to the Seat of Government to pay their respects to its head, we drove down to the President's house, at the hour appointed; it is a handsome stone building, which has now been restored and repaired since the shock given to it by the English; but the gardens and pleasure grounds, reaching down to the banks of the Potomac, and extending again up to the Capitol, are as yet only [209] to be seen upon paper; rude nature still rules absolute over the tract. Remains of the late snow yet lay in the shade, and negligence, studied or accidental, had left it upon the flight of steps to the President's house, an old plank being laid upon the landing that visitors might get dry to the door. A servant, not a man of show, admitted us into a plain hall, and ushered us up stairs to the private apartment in which we found Mr. Munroe seated alone at his bureau with various papers before him; he arose at our entrance, and himself placed chairs for us, which his independent servant had left the room without doing. Mr. Munroe appeared a plain quiet man in dress and manners, the English country gentleman with a physiognomy which bore marks of deep reflection: a conversation of ten minutes on indifferent subjects terminated our visit, when, instead of formal etiquette he gave me a friendly shake of the hand with a "God bless you," spoken in a pleasing tone, which left upon me a very favourable impression.
The other objects of our curiosity were, the Naval Dock-yard, George Town, the Patent Office; at this last, we were much amused by the various models, amongst which, though I shall not attempt minutely to describe them, may be enumerated a car propelled with the hands by a [210] easy and very simple contrivance, a model of machinery applicable to propelling boats instead of the steam engine, several models of bridges, a cotton-carder, a plough having its beam turn upon a centre to save the trouble of swinging it round at the land ends; these were among the inventions most attracting our attention, and I now mention them as a remembrancer to good machinists who may have an opportunity of viewing them. George Town is an extensive place and pretty thickly settled; and it much resembles our more populous villages adjoining to London; the road is excellent between it and the Capitol, and to the foot of the hill is lined with houses many of which are good, substantial, handsome buildings.
In the Naval Dock there was little to review worth mention to an English reader; we saw a clumsy monument, erected we were told to commemorate the burning of a frigate at Tripoli by Commodore Decatur. On the stocks was a frigate as they denominated it, but which appeared to be of a size equal to our second rate; and at the forge an anchor was forming of 10,000lb. weight. These were the chief objects which attracted attention. On account of the recent loss of Decatur it was the fashion to be very dull, and no drawing-room has been held since his death: we passed the evening with Mr. ****, a Member [211] of Congress, who had obligingly shewn us whatever was thought worth viewing, and some amusement was afforded at a lecture upon the laughing gas, in seeing its ludicrous effects upon several individuals of the company who inhaled it.
The following morning, my compagnon-de-voyage having finished his business, we quitted Virginia, and in twenty-eight hours were landed again at the Fish-market wharf in Philadelphia.
Fish is well supplied here in quantity but not in variety: it has hitherto chiefly consisted of a coarse kind called Sea Bass, but now the Shad fishery is just commencing; these fish come up the large rivers in shoals, and are caught in hundreds at each haul with the seine; they are a very oily fish and weigh from two or three to ten pounds and perhaps more; being a plentiful season they are just now bought of the fishermen at the price of five dollars a hundred, and have been lately as low as three dollars. In the season of 1818, they sold at sixteen and seventeen dollars a hundred. Many parties are formed during the season to see them caught and to partake of them fresh from the water; one of these being made we took a boat, which carried us under a pleasant breeze down the river to a place called Gloucester Point, here the shore suiting we saw several seines hauling, and upon the beach caravans [212] waiting to convey the fish, as quick as caught up the country, where they are cut open, cleaned, salted down, and many of them smoked, contributing very largely to the winter food of the Americans. The Herring season comes on here immediately after that of the Shad, but it is not near so much reckoned upon.
Out of the produce of one of the hauls two fish, of about seven or eight pounds each, were taken, and quickly brought to table in excellent order;—the mode of dressing is to open the fish, nail it to a board and place it before a fire; it is thus toasted, and being brought in upon the board quite hot proves very good eating. In the room where we dined were hung up a printed set of rules of a fox-hunting club; but how the chase can be followed on horseback through a country so uncleared and undrained, it is to me a mystery—must too often prove like that of Caliban and his companions following the music of the invisible Ariel, "through toothed briars, sharp furzes, pricking gorse and thorns," and ending "i' the filthy mantled pool;" dry clothes and a cigar the best enjoyment of the day. By the way we had a specimen here of the early initiation into the habit of smoking; a fine child of only about three years old was very coolly walking about and puffing a cigar, while he looked on at our pastime [213] at shuffleboard, an obsolete English game, it is said, though new to our party. The day had been delightfully fine; but, tempted by the game, we lingered too long at the amusement, and on the return encountered one of those violent squalls of wind and rain which are so common here in spring; it suddenly blew tremendously, and our little sail was with difficulty taken in—the party luckily all sat steady, or we might not have escaped with the inconvenience alone of a thorough wetting and spoiled finery.
9th. Incendiaries have lately been dreadfully alert—the whole city is under nightly apprehension of fire, and hardly a day passes without alarm, the roll of fire engines with the dismal horns of the attendants are constantly sounding in our ears: threatening letters have been received, and many buildings actually burnt down. The Theatre was consumed late on Sunday evening in a short space of time, fire having been laid in several places; snow, which lay in the streets, by adding to the reflection of light increased the tremendous effect. The cause of these crimes is sought for by some people in religious bigotry; others look with suspicion on the black population; and some, not without grounds, have attributed these diabolical deeds to some unprincipled white people of even respectable connections. To save themselves [214] from these unknown desperadoes the inhabitants of each district or parish, have formed themselves into patroles, relieving each other nightly; the watch is doubled and every precaution taken.