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Chapter Five
CONGRESS 1811-1812
In the year 1811 the journey from Charleston to Washington
was long and tedious. 'To traverse the two Carolinas and the State of
Virginia required from ten days to three weeks, according to lightness of
vehicle and swiftness of horse. One had to cross great rivers, often
swollen by freshets, in flats poled by negroes. Sometimes the carriage
would slip down the muddy banks into the river, sometimes it stuck in a
swamp, and again the horses stalled in a sandy waste. The old journals are
full of these misadventures. The wayside taverns were abominable, and
although the neighboring planters were delighted to receive travelers,
their houses were apt to be so widely surrounded by their own acres that
it lengthened the journey too much to go in search of them. To avoid this
fatigue and trouble, Mr. Lowndes, on his first journey to Congress, went
by water, taking the Philadelphia packet, which was esteemed better than
that to Baltimore or Norfolk.
His letters to his wife begin at this moment, and as they
show his disposition and character more clearly than any mere account can
do, passages from them are given here. The constant careful directions for
the plantation work are generally omitted, as are also the kindly messages
to his brothers and sisters, and much of the affectionate talk of and to
the children. This, not compressed into a sentence or two at the end, as
in many paternal epistles, runs throughout most of them in a loving and
tender strain. These early letters give also his first impressions of many
of the distinguished men of the time; impressions which were to be
confirmed or modified by further acquaintance. He
writes:
Philadelphia, Oct. 23d, 1811
I will
adopt hereafter, my dear Elizabeth, the same plan of numbering my
letters which your sister practices. This will enable you to
discriminate between the negligence of the Postoffice and mine. My first
was written on shipboard and put into the office of Newcastle
immediately upon my landing. . . . Tarn very comfortably lodged here at
Mrs. Benson's, where I found Mr. and Mrs. Cheves, Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy,
Hugh Rutledge, and Mr. Toomer. It is a Carolina house [all the above
were from Carolina] ; Mrs. Cheves is a very pleasant and amiable woman.
Mr. Cheves and I have occasionally touched on the subject which in
conversation you know I very much dislike — politics.
But I felt much anxiety to know his opinions, because I
believe that they either are or will be those of nearly all the members
from Carolina.
He carries his wife and two children to Washington. ... I
shall set off in a day or two for Washington, by the way of Lancaster,
traveling slowly and spending two or three days at some of the farms
upon the road. I begin to long for a peep at you and the children, but I
must make a requisition upon my patience for six months.
Washington, Saturday Night. November 2 or
3,1811
Here I am, you see, at the end of my journey, in a
comfortable room with a good fire, and I believe in a pleasant mess. I
do not well know all of them, but I think it will consist of Mr. and
Mrs. Cheves (and two children for the musical part of the company), Mr.
Clay, whom they call "tho Western Star " (I believe he is a clever man),
and his wife ; Mr. Calhoun from our State, and perhaps two other
gentlemen. I have so far done better than I had expected. He came from
Baltimore in the stage-coach with the elite of the Federalists. I liked
the little I saw of Mr. Emmott [representative from New York] very much.
Of Mr. Quincy [of Massachusetts] I have seen more and think less. He is
always looking out for a prettiness in thought or language, always
declaiming — he declaims ill; and even his language (which is doublv
offensive in a pretty speaker) is very inaccurate. But what are Mr.
Emmott and Mr. Quincy to you? I had better write about myself: I mean to
do so. I am quite recovered from the slight indisposition which I had at
Philadelphia . . . and Dr. Fhysick says it will be my own fault if it
ever returns again. I await the winds of the Capital without tremor.
I will not return to Carolina by water, I will not return
in the stage: how I shall return I do not yet know, but these stages are
not the things for me. My present disposition, if my health continues
good, is in favour of returning on horseback. But I must not yet think
of the manner of returning. ... I meant to have written some directions
to my overseers and to the carpenters, but my plantation ideas have got
so completely to the bottom of my brain that I shall " tumble up
everything," as the ladies call it, if I rummage for them. ... If I keep
this letter two days I may frank it: if I send it now you will have to
pay for it: however, I feel so anxious to have to pay for a letter from
you, that I will impute the same anxiety to you and send off my letter.
When you answer it, it is not necessary that I should say," tell me
everything about the children."
I suppose you will soon be going into the country. . . .
You can send word to Boineau [an overseer] to break Napoleon for
Rawlins, who will want him next summer, for I am afraid Glum [the old
pony] night is setting in. If my letter is to go today 1 must send it
now. I wish myself at home.
Such letters require but little comment. Dr. Physick, then
the head of his profession in this country, certainly benefited him, for
his health improved for some time. A recent brilliant novelist makes one
of her characters remark that" General Washington never was anything but
a homesick country gentleman; " to which an English traveler replies
that " the same might be said of most members of Parliament." It
certainly is, or was, true of those Southern members of Congress who
left their beloved plantations for the unfinished city and raw society
of Washington. The letter just given, and the following, written only a
few days after the opening of a session which must last six months at
least, are striking proofs of this, but it is visible in every letter.
This also gives his first impressions of Mr.
Calhoun.
Washington, Nov. 7,1811
From this
place one who does not write politics can hardly find anything to write
and I never feel any disposition to write, nor would you to read
them. I find my notions on the subject less singular than I
had supposed them, and there is some degree of satisfaction in receiving
for one's opinions the confirmation afforded by another's.
Of
opinions, however, in respect to our best policy, the diversity is very
great, and the want of some controlling or at least some concentrating
influence is very obvious.
"I think our mess a pleasant one, the most so, perhaps, in
the place. We have, too, the honor of having the Speaker [Mr. Clay]
among us. [Mr. Clay had been made Speaker since his previous letter].
Mr. Calhoun, of S. Carolina, has joined us witnin a day or two. I had
heard a very favourable character of him; but skeptical as I am on the
score of character; his did not at all lessen by preparing me for the
pleasure of an acquaintance with a man, well informed, easy in his
manners, and I think amiable in his disposition^ I like him already
better than any member of our mess, and I give his politics the same
preference. . . . This delay affords no encouragement to try the Norfolk
packet for expedition in returning home, and indeed I have written to
you that I had determined against it on other grounds. I shall
indeed, I think, return in a very convenient way with Mr. Calhoun, who
wishes to buy a carriage here. Each of us wishes to buy a pair of
horses, but if we cannot do that, then each will buy one low-priced
horse, and we shall travel, a little more leisurely perhaps, to Carolina
together..In regard to my health, there is no reason for your feeling
any solicitude; I am quite well, and lake nearly, or perhaps quite,
exercise enough. The streets will soon be too bad for walking, and
I am looking for a saddle horse] . . . Tell Rawlins [his eldest son,
about eight years old] that I am very impatient for his message, and
would turn from Mr. Randolph's most brilliantharangue to read it: tell
him his father thinks of him every day, and a hundred times a day, and
never without wishing to be with him.
It seems curious that
having been so long in the legislature, and therefore necessarily in
company with men from all parts of the State, Mr. Lowndes should never
have met either Mr. Cheves or Mr. Calhoun until their congressional life
began. It may as well be said at once that the friendship for these two
gentlemen, which arose early in their acquaintance, continued unbroken
to his life's end. No rivalry or personal ambition interfered with their
high estimation of each other, the kindest offices were exchanged
between them, and twenty years after Mr. Lowndes's death, Mr. Calhoun,
visiting his widow, said, with an emotion rare in that great man, "that
there had never been a shadow between his friend and
himself."
In the House Mr. Lowndes had as yet been silent, a silence
which annoyed his friends at home,— most of all, his old preceptor, Dr.
Gallagher, who exclaimed impatiently, " Why does he not speak ? Let him
speak and show what he is." His reasons for not doing so he gives in the
following:
November 24, 1811
Of what are usually
considered comforts of life we have as much here as could reasonably be
desired while we are separated from our families. This separation, when
we get busily engaged in politics, may possibly be less vexatious than
now, as one subject of anxiety may expel another. At present there is
nothing here which interests me: not but that the subjects of
deliberation in the House are important, but because I am not vain
enough to expect to alter, or sanguine enough to think that I shall
approve, the result.
And again a little later:
December 1,1811
I write every Sunday
and I shall certainly at no time of the session be too busy to do so. In
fact I do not expect to be at all busy. I have not yet made any other
effort at speaking in the House than an " aye "or" no," and I am not
sure but that these may continue to be the only specimens of my -
' eloquence. I never have spoken, and I think' I cannot speak without
the expectation (perhaps always a mistaken one) of making some converts,
but I am not vain enough to think of making a convert here in public
debate. Something in this way is done in conversation; much, I think,
has been done by the open declarations of the new members, behind which
the timid may rally, and on whose opinions the lazy may in some measure
repose : but this is something very different from
conviction.
A young and modest man might well be doubtful of his
influence in such an assemblage as the Twelfth, or, as it was called in
the peaceful years after 1815, the " "War Congress." A new spring of life
and talent seemed to have come to the House, presided over by the "
Western Star," Henry Clay. The more prominecit men whom he had with him
from the South, besides the four from Carolina, were Johnson of Kentucky,
Felix Grundy of Tennessee, Barton Key of Maryland, Macon of North
Carolina, Forsyth and Crawford of Georgia, and Randolph of Roanoke, now an
old man, but who still dominated the House. From New England came Quincy,
the leader of the Federals, and Pickering of the " Essex
Junto." Govenor of New York was chief speaker from the
Middle States, and Seyburt of Pennsylvania, a physician, who was
therefore, Mr. Lowndes says, nicknamed " the Chemical Congressman." These
were the leading men, gathered, as the Carolinians firmly believed, to
shape their country's future for glory or disgrace.
The session opened, of course, with the appointment of
committees, and it is said that the Speaker was " somewhat embarrassed at
finding upon his hands three men of powers so entitled to recognition as
Mr. Cheves, Mr. Lowndes, and Mr. Calhoun, all coming from one State, and
that one of the smallest in the Union." However, he made the following
appointments: Mr. Cheves to the Naval Committee, Mr. Lowndes to Commerce
and Manufactures, and Mr. Calhoun to Foreign Affairs; Mr. Cheves being
chairman of the Naval Committee. The slow progress of affairs was very
trying to impatient spirits. " Our politics scarcely move, they crawl, Mr.
Lowndes writes at this time. Still, the first positive word is given in
the next letter:
Washington, December 7,1811
You
ask whether I go to balls, etc. I suppose they do not think it cold
enough for balls, for I have not heard of any, but there will, I think,
be no probability of my going to one during the winter. I have never
derived any pleasure from seeing other people play cards, or dance, or
eat. I do not like the entertainment in which I cannot share, and you
know that sixyears ago I thought myself too old to dance. But Mrs.
Madison's levee I think I shall like pretty well. I have not yet
attended it on account of the little accident I mentioned in one of my
earlier letters [his horse had fallen with him and bruised his face]. I
have seen the great man [President Madison], however, and had an
invitation to dine with him, which I declined, as I did not consider my
health quite established. I am to dine with him next Tuesday, and if
there be anything very peculiar in his dinner, I will set it down for
your edification. They say his dinners are not very good. ... I can
answer your grandmother's " [Mrs. Motte] question as to the probable
price of rice during the winter, on authority much better than my own.
Mr. Monroe [Secretary of State] supped with us last night, and expressed
the opinion that until war shall be actually declared, flour and rice
will sell higher than if war were not expected. I do not place much
confi dence in this opinion myself,, but you may learn from it at least
how familiar we are with the great men of the nation.
As to your " symptoms of accommodation with England," they
were never less. Our government has not sent and will not send a
minister to negotiate on our present differences with England. Nor has
our charge d'affaires nor will he have, directions to make any
proposition to that government. We have, indeed, nothing to propose, but
England, if she chooses to avoid a war, may possibly repeal her Orders
in Council. On this it would be very foolish to calculate, and without
it we shall certainly have war before the close of the session. There
did, indeed, at one time prevail some doubt as to the disposition of the
Administration for war, but Mr. Monroe has given the strongest
assurances that the President will cooperate zealously with Congress in
declaring war, if our complaints are not redressed by
May.
In the next letter is a reference to what was to be for many
years his chief thought: the condition of the navy, at that time a
neglected and unpopular branch of the service. It is to
Mrs. Lowndes —-spending her Christmas with her father at
Santee.
December 25
You have my best wishes
for a Merry Christmas, although the expression will not reach you until
the festivity of the season is forgotten.
Christmas too, or at least this Christmas day (for we have
no longer holiday), will not in common opinion be a dull one, as it will
be spent at the French Minister's and enlivened, I suppose, with
burgundy and champagne. I should not be averse to
company if the custom of the place permitted me to go in boots,
but the exposure of a leg unprotected by flesh or leather is, in this
windy place, an uncomfortable thing. . . . As to
Pinckney his second son being a sailor, as you say
your brother recommends, I have but one objection, and I
still hope that that will be surmounted; I mean that the
prejudices against the navy here are such as to render it doubtful if he
can ever be an admiral. I have not,
therefore, as yet applied for even a midshipman's warrant?
The weather here is now very cold. I am told
That the Potomac was frozen in a single night.
Unluckily, too, our coals failed us, in our utmost
need. The boat which was bringing them sunk in the
river, and wood in a grate we found but a bad substitute. I
cannot say, however, that I have been at all incommoded by the severity
of the weather, although the old members say they never knew it
greater. It is luckily clear and dry, but the wind
almost takes away the breath. Although the
accommodations here are better than I expected, yet the comforts of a
city are such in winter that I think I shall spend the next (if
I come here at all) in Georgetown.
Looking at Washington today, it is curious to think of
leaving it for Georgetown, in order to secure the comforts of a city.
But Washington was then only a straggling village, hardly even
deserving its nickname of the " city of magnificent distances." Sir
James Jackson, who was British Minister in 1808, said in the "Bath
Archives," "The City of Washington (as they call it) is five miles long,
the scattered houses are intersected with woods, heaths, and gravel
pits. I put up a covey of partridges within three hundred yards of the
House of Congress, exept the Capitol." He says it is "more like
Hampstead Heath than a city," but that the neighborhood is beautiful and
he admires the scenery compassed by the Potomac and the hills about
it.
The new year opened with anxiety both public and
private.
January 2, 1812
I have put off writing
my letter for this week so long that it may serve as well for the
ensuing Sunday as the last. . . . Although I have had nothing to do my
mind has been anxiously occupied within a few days by the business of
the House. I had great fears of the failure of a measure which seemed to
me important. It has been carried by a large majority, but many a
reluctant vote was given in. its favour. I am now in better spirits,
because I see many disposed, and many obliged, to vote rightly?. . . I
ought not to have gotten so far in my letter without thanking you for
the information you have given me in respect to the Horse Shoe. The loss
which has been suffered, and which probably will be still greater, is of
the kind the most distressing. ... I meant to have written long
letters to the overseers, but have given up the plan as much from
judgement as from laziness.
This alludes to an epidemic of malignant fever on the
plantation, which Mrs. Lowndes, at her own imminent risk, had gone to
attend. She took strong measures, removed the people from their customary
quarters to huts hastily built in the high pineland, changed their diet
(persuading them with great difficulty to eat mutton broth), stopped the
epidemic at last, and was said by the doctor to have saved many lives,
although many were lost. In the letters for weeks to come there are
constant passages on the subject, Mr. Lowndes being very anxious on her
own account as well as about his people. The letter
continues:
" The dreadful event at Richmond " [the burning of the
theatre on the 26th of December, 1811], "which, living as we do here
among the friends and relations of the sufferers, seems to be nearer to
our view than it would otherwise be, has been, I suppose, particularly
described in the newspapers. The best consolation, it seems to me, which
the mind can feel in such a calamity is afforded by the instances of
courage, and disinterestedness, and affection, which in this case were
very distinguished. Many who had it in their power to escape remained
with their families, whom they could not extricate. One gentleman
(Lieut. Gibbon of the navy) after having got out of the playhouse
returned to endeavour to save a lady to whom he was attached, but who
was engaged to be married in a day or two to another."
Notwithstanding the quiet tone of these letters, it is easy
to see the anxiety of the writer.
He and his colleagues knew, none better, that the country
was unprepared for war, and that every day not spent in preparation was a
day lost. The state of the navy engaged the earnest attention of Cheves
and Lowndes. This greatest of the services had been neglected on principle
by Mr. Jefferson, who considered it a wanton expense and a temptation to
sinful warfare. He had indeed expressed the belief that all that was
needed was a few small vessels to look after the Barbary pirates, and that
the frigates might be laid up in the eastern branch of the Potomac. Over
the Barbary pirates, Preble, Rodgers, and Decatur had gained signal
victories, even in Mr. Jefferson's time, but this, the sole military
achievement of his administration, had not made him more favorable to the
navy. His successor had followed the same plan of neglect, and it was
difficult to repair it quickly. On November 19, 1811, Mr. Cheves, in
behalf of the Committee on Naval Affairs, had addressed a note to Paul
Hamilton, of South Carolina, then Secretary of the Navy, requesting a full
statement of its condition. The account that Mr. Hamilton had to give was
frightful.
There were half a dozen frigates, several gunboats, all in
bad order, hardly any stock of niunitions, and not a single dry
dock. The vessels, he said, had to be " heaved down," i. e. turned
over on their sides, for repairs. It was not Mr.
Hamilton's fault: he had received the navy in this condition, and Congress
would vote it no money. How the war party dared throw
down the gage of battle with the fleet in this state, when England had a
thousand ships, God and their own stout hearts "only knew. . . .
This correspondence was followed, on January 18, 1812, by a bill brought
in by Mr. Cheves, in favor of appropriations for both army and navy,
advising a levy of two millions of dollars , and possibly ten millions
more, a monstrous sum according to the ideas of that day. It so
shocked the Washington correspondent of the "Charleston Courier"
that he writes: " If the good people of South Carolina do not shortly
request your Cheves and Williams and Lowndes, notwithstanding their
abilities, to stay at home, they will deserve the evils they must
suffer."
Mr. Cheves spoke eloquently in support of his bill, saying proudly
that he did so " irrespective of party, for the great interests of the
nation," thus stating the policy of himself and his colleagues for the
coming struggle.
Little opposition was made to the grants for the army, and
David R. Williams for the military committee carried through the bill
which he proposed. The objections made to the navy are almost incredible;
the debate is curious reading. Mr. Seybert, of Pennsylvania, declared that
a navy was a dangerous thing, and brought countries to ruin: Holland and
Venice had fallen because they had navies. Mr. McKee thought that America
should have none, " because our little navy has already contributed much
to the imtation which exists between this country and England." Mr.
Johnson, of. Kentucky, avowing the most absolute sectional selfishness,
said that great difference of opinion existed between the States lying
upon the seaboard and those distant from it. He declared a navy most
dangerous to public liberty, much more so than an army; went to ancient
history and bewailed the " plunder and piracy " of Tyre and Sidon, Crete,
Rhodes, Athens, and Carthage; dreaded that the possession of a navy might
lead the United States to similar deeds; thought commerce could exist
unprotected by one, but recommended letters of marque and privateering,
probably as unconnected with " plunder and piracy! "
To privateering Mr. Lowndes was uniformly and strongly
opposed! He had already given his vote against permitting merchant vessels
to arm, when a bill to that effect had been brought in, in December. It
had been carried by the Federalist vote as profitable to the New England
shipping. Now Mr. Lowndes spoke his convictions. On January 21, 1812, he
made his first speech in support of Mr. Cheves's motion, and, strange to
say, there is not the least allusion to it in the letters to his wife. We
can only conclude that those letters, being of more general interest, may
have been put into the parcel of " important papers" and so burned; none
remain written between the 12th and 16th of January.
Few of Mr. Lowndes's speeches remain except in the most
abridged form. Reporting was then a new art, and his voice was so low that
often members left their seats and crowded round to hear him. His speech
was never written out beforehand; a card or a half sheet of note-paper,
with a few lines numbered 1, 2, 3, etc., to recall to him the heads of his
proposed address, were all that he ever used. Mr. Benton, in his "Thirty
Years in Congress," says that only one speech was ever prepared by him for
publication, but in his letters he speaks of another, and two in
manuscript found among his papers (not in his own handwriting) were
probably submitted for his approval. This first, on the navy, published in
the " Charleston Courier," is tolerably full, and I give some
extracts.
"The honorable gentleman from Kentucky, who spoke
yesterday, offered objections to a navy which, if they were well
founded, would supersede all further reasoning. He opposes a Navy
now, he will oppose it forever. It would produce all possible evil and
no possible good. It would infallibly destroy the
Constitution. Will the honorable gentleman tell us
why? How? He sees the danger clearly, will he explain it ? An ambitious
general might corrupt his army and seize the capital, but will an
admiral reduce us to subjection by bringing his ships up the Potomac ?
The strongest recommendation of a navy in free governments has hitherto
been supposed to be that it was capable of defending but not of
enslaving its country.
" The honorable gentleman has discovered that this is a
vulgar error. (A navy is really much more dangerous to liberty than an
army, etc., etc. Yet there is a view in which this question of a navy is
closely connected with the Constitution. That Constitution was founded
by the union of independent States, that the strength of the whole might
be employed for the protection of every part. The States were not
ignorant of the value of the rights which they surrendered to the
general goverment, but they expected a compensation for their
relinquishment in the increased power which should be employed for their
defense.
" Suppose this expectation disappointed, suppose the
harbor of New York blockaded by the English seventy-fours. The commerce
of that city (which exists only by commerce) destroyed, the protection
of the general government claimed. Your whole navy could not drive these
seventy-fours from their station. Would the brave and enterprising
people of New York consent to see their capital emptied of its
inhabitants, and their whole country beggared by so contemptible a force
? Their own exertions would raise a fleet which would drive off the
enemy and restore the city to its owners. But if a single State shall
find herself able to raise a greater fleet than the general government
can or will employ for her defense, can it be expected that she will
consider that government essential to her safety, entitled to her
obedience ? "
He goes on to show clearly the duties of the government,
sweeps aside the comparisons from ancient history, and examines those from
modern; shows that Venice fell, not from possessing, but from neglecting,
her navy; points to the long prosperity of England, and her fostering care
of her fleets; makes elaborate calculations of expense (a bagatelle to the
sums we hear of now), and ends, looking to the conclusion of the war: "To
succeed in negotiation with a rival people, you must convince them that
they will gain as much as you by the treaty which you propose. To
terminate your war with England honorably, you must show that she will
lose as much as you by its continuance. But when your whole trade, your
foreign and your coasting trade, are destroyed (and without a navy it
seems to me that they must be destroyed), what argument would your most
dextrous negotiator employ, to show that the loss of England would be
equal to your own, from the continuance of the war? What equivalent could
we offer her for the restoration of that commerce which peace would give
you? I know not; but if the resources of the country be employed
prudently, economically, vigorously, in the acquisition of a naval force,
the command of your seas obtained, your coasting trade protected, the West
Indian trade of your enemies threatened, then indeed you may negotiate on
equal terms.
You may then obtain respect for your flag without sending a
national ship into every sea of Europe and Asia, and you will be paid in
return for the safety which peace with you must give to the trade of
England with her colonies. Your war will then have been honorable, your
peace will be secure."
These selections have been made with a view to showing, as
much as possible, the line of thought which pervades Mr. Lowndes's public
utterances, — which seems to have governed his life. There is, it will be
noticed, not one single appeal to the passions of his audience, no
invective against the enemy, no fiery patriotism, no deification of naval
glory or renown. He addresses himself immediately to the questions :
Do we need this defense? Is it the best that we can employ ?
Do the Constitution and the laws justify us in so doing? These are the
points which all through his career engage his attention. What is
expedient? Is the expedient right?
Another characteristic, his oft-quoted courtesy, is shown in
the speech, but not in the extracts. At one point Mr. Seybert, of
Pennsylvania, interrupted him to make some explanation of his own previous
remarks. Mr. Lowndes on resuming said: " I always hear my friend with
pleasure and often with conviction, but on this occasion am forced to
differ with him.
This speech placed him, it is said, at once " in the
foremost rank in the House, and satisfied the expectations of his
friends."
It did not, however, carry its object. The prejudice against
the navy, as an aristocratic institution, the tool of the Administration,
was too strong. The Republicans who had voted the army appropriation
resisted this, and Cheves, Lowndes, and Calhoun voted against them with
the Federals. The House gave one dock, and gunboats, but refused the
frigates for which Cheves pleaded. It was ill preparing to fight England
with cockle-shells.
From this time to the end of the session I find no speech of
any length, only a few remarks now and then, and votes always in support
of the warlike side. The legislators waited while the diplomats made their
last moves. I give a few extracts from the letters :
January 26,1812
The session has now
lasted three months, and I suppose you must begin to think yourself what
they call in Connecticut, and perhaps elsewhere, a "widow bewitched." I
believe I have not told you thatfince my last letter I have been to an
assembly and to a grand ball at the British Minister's. To the assembly
I went in the most agreeable manner : I mean half an hour before supper
with a senator of the mess, Mr. Bibb (of Kentucky), who is I think as
lazy as myself. We took a look at the ladies, whom you may be sure we
thought inferior to those of Carolina and Kentucky, but when supper was
announced I was disappointed to find that a third only of the party
could sup at a time, and we were of course excluded by the ladies. ... I
am also going to a ball at the French Minister's tomorrow. The truth is,
that here as in Carolina I do not like these parties, but I am more
ready to go to them, because I do not like home as well here as there. I
begin to be very tired of absence from my family. I think I would
willingly have the trouble of putting Pinckney every night to bed, if I
could have him to play with during the day. For want of him,
however, a little boy of Mrs. Cheves's comes into my room to hear
stories and make boats, so that when I return to Carolina the boys will
still find me a good playmate.
February 9
As out mess is certainly
the strongest war mess in Congress, we excite, I believe, not a little
surprise and perhaps some suspicion by our attending the parties of Mr.
Foster [the British Minister]. Mr. Duane [editor of the "Aurora"], they
say, means to give a list of all those who attended on the Queen's
birthnight. Our whole mess, male and female, were of
the party, so that you will see us in print. But we have committed the
yet more unpardonable offense of inviting him (Mr. Foster) to dinner,
and I dare say some of the papers will consider this as an overt act of
treason.
February 16, 1812
I have not been
quite as gay as usual for the last fortnight. I was invited, indeed,
during that time to a small party, as the note expressed it, at which I
am told there were 180 persons, but I felt m too lazy to go. Mr. Monroe
inquired particularly after your health and your father and sister's,
when I first saw him, and very politely told me that Mrs. Monroe would
be glad to see me on account of her regard for you. But I have been so
very lazy, that though I like him, from the little I have seen of him,
very much, I have been rude enough to neglect his invitation to call,
although I did not that to dine with him, and everybody agrees
that he gives the best dinners in Washington.
At this time the coming event cast its shadow so markedly
that there are frequent allusions to applications for commissions in the
army. One of these was from Mr. Lowndes's nephew, Lowndes Brown. Mr.
Lowndes, " not liking to ask a favor for so near a relation," gave the
application to Mr. Cheves, " as Brown is one of his constituents," not
without some not unnatural trepidation as to what his sister's feelings
might be on the subject. He was relieved, however, for in the same letter
quoted above he says:
My sister bears Lowndes's plan of going into the army much
better than I expected. She says she thwarted him in one of his plans
[that of becoming a planter], and she does not think it right to object
to this. Yet if anything unfortunate should happen, I should rather not
have been the instrument of his appointment.
There are at this time frequent mentions of loss of crops
from storms and other causes that try the soul of the planter, but Mr.
Lowndes was fortunate that his brother James lived near the Horse Shoe and
gave kind assistance in its management.
The next letter alludes to
an often discussed but never accomplished plan, of moving to the up
country. He had been much struck by the health and other advantages of
that section, and thought seriously of settling there. Paris Mountain is
an outlying spur of the Blue Ridge, which rises suddenly near Greenville,
S. C.
March 15
I am more disposed than ever
to get a place in the back country. But I prefer Paris Mountain so much
to any other place that I have seen, that I shall make no purchase until
I hear your news in regard to it confirmed or contradicted. The labour
of our negroes will, I think, be unproductive in war, and the most
advantageous employment of them, therefore, must be in the improvement
of land. The spirited planter will clear and ditch and dam; but as I am
not a spirited planter I should be satisfied with settling myself on a
back-country farm.
Washington, March 23d,
1812
It is still as doubtful as ever when we shall adjourn.
It will certainly be late enough to make me expect to find you at the
Grove. We hear from all quarters that the people do not expect war; I
look forward with great uneasiness to the shock which an unexpected
declaration will give to the mercantile class. Nothing is more true than
that, in political as in private life, popularity should be the result,
and not the object of our measures. No artificial excitement should be
resorted to; yet I am much afraid that in the present state of the
public mind the slow but steady approach of our government to war is
unnoticed, and without an embargo, which I fear will not be resorted to,
the war at its commencement must be necessarily disastrous. My politics
are too hastily expressed for any ear but your own. There is much to
disappoint us at Washington; many follies which we cannot conceal from
ourselves, and which in the present state of the country we cannot with
prudence publicly censure.
But you must be almost as weary of politics as I
am.
The letter of the next week was to convey a piece of news
both interesting and unexpected.
March 28th, 1812
I am glad to hear
that you have got to Alderly [her sister Mrs. F. K. Huger's place on the
Waccamaw River], where I dare say you will spend your time more to your
satisfaction till summer, than you could do anywhere else. As to your
arrangements for going to Charleston with your father's family, the news
from this place may perhaps affect them. You have probably already
heard of his appointment as Major-General.
We are afraid here that he may not accept. There was some
little objection in the Senate to the confirmation of his appointment,
the result probably of that illiberality of faction from which no public
body can be expected to be altogether exempt. The opposition, however,
consisted, I believe, of one or two men only, and even as good a
Federalist as you are will, I think, allow that this circumstance (as
four fifths of the Senate are Republicans) is honorable to the party.
The universal approbation (without the Senate and House) which the
appointment has met with here, — the gratification which it has afforded
to the present officers, and the high testimony to the military merits
of your father which it has brought forward from several Revolutionary
officers (particularly from General Lee and Colonel Hammond), it must
give you pleasure to hear, although if he accept the commission you
will, I suppose, regret the occasion. You will let me know (if you hear
them) his plans.
This appointment created much surprise, for Major Pinckney,
thus created Major-General to command the Southern States, was an
unswerving Federalist, absolutely identified with that party. He felt this
so strongly that he proposed to decline the appointment, saying that "the
views of the Administration could best be executed by those in sympathy
with it." It was pointed out to him, however, that the war would surely
come, when it would be the duty of every man of whatever opinion to serve
his country to the best of his ability, and that by his example a broad
and patriotic sentiment would be encouraged in the community. He yielded,
not very willingly, and the result justified the expectation of the
President, for the nomination was received with pleasure by all classes in
Carolina, where General Pinckney was generally popular. The Southern
Federalists, a small but influential body, were pleased that one of their
leading members should be so distinguished, and the " peace Democrats,"
who found it hard, even at the instigation of their brilliant
representatives, to abandon their constant policy, were pleased that the
defense of their homes should be intrusted to one whom they had long known
and trusted and in whose knowledge and energy they believed. At
Washington, the appointment gave rise to a report, that under the
influence of his son-in-law he had become a Democrat. An amusing idea,
since Mr. Lowndes used to complain that " so stubborn were the Pinckneys
that he had never Been able to convert his own wife," who remained an
unflinching Federalist to the end.
The satisfaction in Charleston was shown by addresses of
congratulation, etc., of which the papers are full. One very touching one
from the veteran comrades of the Cincinnati asks that he will place them
where by counsel, at least, they may serve their country.
Mrs. Lowndes evidently indulged in a little Federal
exultation, for her husband writes:
" I see that you have assumed the politician as well as I,
and as I make your father's appointment the subiect of praise to my
party, you make the necessity for Federal appointments an occasion for
sarcasm against the party that you are opposed to. Now as I do not think
that we live in a glass house, I have no objection to the amusement of
throwing stones. To be serious, however, though I should abhor the
persecution which would exclude from office the talents or virtues of
any party, I do believe that what is called the Republican party, having
so large a proportion of the population of the States, has enough of
talents and of virtue to serve the country, if the administration knew
how to select and employ them. There is certainly something to be
dissatisfied with here. I feel my situation a very unpleasant one; keep
this, however, to yourself. As to my going into the army, the mode of
appointment (really by the delegation) made it awkward for me to apply.
I have regretted frequently since, however, that I did not get over the
scruple. Yet the circumstances which render Washington unpleasant to me
would perhaps have made the army equally so.
" The newspapers, which, thanks to my silence and
obscurity, had before treated me civilly, are now beginning a pretty
lively attack on me. I do not know, however, anything which anybody
could consider as an evil, which I can bear with more Philosophy, or
rather with more indifference. The sentence which they quote against me,
if I used it (and my friends here say that I did not), seems really to
be susceptible of the construction which they give it. They represent me
as being implicitly governed by the majority of my own party, in saying
that I would not call up a bill which I had supported for admitting
English manufactures. I said that I would not do it unless a change
should take place in the opinions of a majority of those with whom I
usually acted. I had before said that I would do it if there were any
hope of its passage, and my meaning clearly was (and my friends here say
my words were) that I would not call it up to provoke unavailing
discussion.
" These little attacks are fair enough in newspapers, and
the caucus principle which they impute to me is so abominable, that I
should have deserved all their censure if I had adopted it. My writing
so long a paragraph on this subject is, however, a bad proof (but I do
not think that you will require any) of my indifference to
it."
This idea of entering the army, extraordinary as it seems to
us, was a favorite one with Mr. Lowndes, He frequently returns to it. I
can find nothing of the newspaper criticism of which he speaks except the
following from the " Charleston Courier " (Federalist):
Washington, April 20th. (Private Correspondence.) The
Vice-President died this morning. Mr. Lowndes took occasion to say that he
should not call up the Importation Bill, as he had no expectation that it
could be carried in its present or any amended form. I drop these lines,
as the remarks of Mr. Lowndes may be considered of much importance.
If there is any hidden sting here, it is at least well
hidden.
By this time the public was becoming impatient of the long
delay, and accusations were not lacking of false play on the part of the
Cabinet.
Vacillation there undoubtedly was. A letter to the
Courier, signed "Virginia Patriot," says, on April 24, 1812: " A
large portion of the present members of the House are new members, almost
all inexperienced in the pitiful contrivances and electioneering intrigues
of the Cabinet.
Such men as Mr. Calboun, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Cheves,
and many others, seriously believed the Executive in earnest when hostile
measures were recommended. They see very differently now," etc., etc.
(abuse of Mr. Madison and his Cabinet).
It could hardly have been more agreeable to have been
considered such a dupe, than to have been accused of trickery one's
self.
These various annoyances, and the weariness of the endless
talk, found relief in a jaunt to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, April 29th, 1812
I think
it will surprise you a little to receive a letter from me dated at this
place. It was, indeed, rather a foolish plan to come here. I had,
indeed, something to do here, and this is the reason I give for coming;
but I could have done it as well by letter. My true reason was a wish to
run away from Washington and its politics. I came here on horseback, in
three days, which, on a hard trotting horse like mine, is good riding. I
shall stay two, and take three to return, which, as I set off and shall
return on Sunday, will make one Congressional week. If anything in which
one vote will have been of consequence shall have passed, my
constituents I suppose will quarrel with me; but I had reason to think
that I might leave Washington safely, and perhaps it would be a lucky
thing for me if my constituents should quarrel with me. I have just
returned from seeing, but I ought not to tell you of it, a famous
picture, of which I suppose you have heard, by
Westmuller.
It is the picture, in a very licentious taste (though the
ladies here all go to see it), of Danae, with a shower of gold breaking
into her apartment. The gold, and the bars, and the absurdities of pagan
mythology are kept out of view, and the attention is absorbed by the
figure, not of a divinity, — she breathes too much of human passion, — but
of an exquisitely beautiful woman, who has no other dress than a braid of
pearls for her hair. I do not mean, however, to give you a description of
this fascinating picture, for though it may do you no harm to read, it may
do me some to write or think of it. I had so little taste as to think that
if the painter had given her a little drapery (as transparent as he
pleased) of cambric or lace, so that she might have thought herself
covered, the effect of the picture would have been heightened. . . . You
will have heard of the failure of the plan for a recess [a recess of
Congress, to enable the members to visit their homes]. ... I have now no
expectation of getting away before the expiration of the embargo [the 3d
of July]. ... I shall then have been absent more than ten months, and
shall probably not be able to spend more than three at home. This business
of a Congressman is certainly fit only for young men without families who
are fond of traveling. They would have more comfort, and I believe quite
as much wisdom as we have.
Washington, May 10th
Of the plans of
our Administration I know nothing, and wish to know nothing. The
Committee of Foreign Relations [Mr. Calhoun, chairman] say that we may
get away in the first half of June ; and I dare say that they suppose
the projects of government fully formed and fully communicated to them.
I still think, however (though not from any communication with those who
are in the secret, if there are any such), that the chances are that we
shall get away in the beginning of July.
I am afraid that there is not as much variety in your
amusements (at Waccamaw) as in mine. This country affords pleasanter
rides than Waccamaw or even Horse Shoe. I went yesterday with a large
party of ladies and gentlemen, to see the falls of the Potomac, ten
miles off. The view was a pleasing one to me, who had never seen
anything of the sort before. The ride was, on the whole, pleasant, but I
met with a disappointment of which I ought not, for the credit of my
gallantry, to complain. The party was, as I thought, very well arranged,
five ladies and six gentlemen. Now as I dislike extremely to have the
beauties of a scene pointed out to me, and as I knew that I could walk a
great deal faster and see a great deal more alone than in company, I set
out to clamber over the rocks by myself.
One of our gentlemen, however, had an unlucky headache,
which compelled me (not a little reluctantly) to take a lady (and a
pretty one, too) under my protection. I like company very well in a
drawing-room, but with ten talkers it is impossible to feel the beauty
of a cataract.
Mrs. Lowndes seems to have been scandalized by the " Danae;"
when in France, she, as a jeune jUle, had probably not been taken to see
such pictures, for Mr. Lowndes answers:
May 27th, 1812
I think that you were
not in quite as good humour when you wrote your reflections on the
Philadelphia " Danae " as I was when I wrote the description. I do not
now remember what I said about her, but there is a matronly gravity in
your style, which makes me fear that your disgust towards the painter is
joined to some little displeasure against the describer of the painting.
He must be strangely unreasonable who is not satisfied that his wife
should now and then scold him in proof of her modesty. And though I do
not require such a proof of yours, yet I think your remarks on the
painting, on the ladies who visit it, and the sensualists who admire it,
perfectly just, and in a lady of Carolina natural.
The picture alluded to above is now owned by Mr. Heaton, of
New Haven, Conn., and is said by Miss Wharton in her recent work on
miniature painting to be the " celebrated Danae," one of the most
remarkable examples of purity in the nude composition in America. "Autre
temps, autre moeurs" The views of that day in relation to art were
certainly primitive, for Miss Wharton adds: "The English artist named Pine
brought with him a plaster cast of the 'Venus de Medici,' which was
kept shut up in a case, and only shown to peri-sons who particularly
wished to see it, as the manners of our country at that time would not
tolerate the exhibition of such a figure."
There are no letters between this of May 27th and June 28th,
which strengthens the belief that those (even to his wife) of public
interest were burned, for in this interval the die had been cast.
It is well known now that there was reason for suspecting
the firmness of the Cabinet, and especially of the President. But his
first term of office was drawing to a close, and there were doubts of his
renomination. Mr. Clay, the most important then of his supporters,
speaking in the name of those who felt with him, assured Mr. Madison, in a
private interview, that he would not be renomi-nated unless he gave the
desired pledge of support to the war party. The President yielded, and was
named in the Democratic caucus. Of this caucus the " Charleston Courier"
of May 30th says, that it was a meeting u exclusively Democratic " for "
the Presidential Hard Scrabble," and that " Messrs, D. R. Williams,
Cheves, and Lowndes from South Carolina, and Macon of North Carolina, all
Democrats, refused to attend the late meeting of members of Congress to
nominate a President and Vice-president of the United States, on the
ground that it was improper, inexpedient, indelicate, unconstitutional,
and a monstrous usurpation of the rights of the people." Things are
differently managed now. Mr. Lowndes's expression, "the caucus principle
which they impute to me is so abominable," etc., has been already quoted,
and he never changed his opinion on the subject. I know not if it is to
this caucus that the memorandum refers, but among the few note* in the
handwriting of Mrs. Lowndes is," Mr. Lowndes never would attend a caucus,
deeming them unconstitutional. On one occasion, being pressed to do so by
Mr. Calhoun, he answered, ' No, Calhoun, I shall give my views in the
House.'" Mr. Benton, in his " Thirty Years in Congress," says of Mr.
Lowndes, "He never would use any party machinery, shrinking from such as
from the touch of contamination."
The support of the Executive being thus assured, Mr.
Calhoun, for the Committee on Foreign Relations, brought in the report
which determined the declaration of war. The report might have been termed
the formal indictment of Great Britain, being a grave recital of the
wrongs sustained at her hands and the fruitless efforts for redress. There
was much discussion. The representative who should declare such views
to-day as many did then would not hold his seat for half an hour. One
long-suffering gentleman protested that England was not so bad after all,
as she had only taken ninety-three seamen out of our ships that year!
On June 19, 1812, war was formally proclaimed. The news, as
Mr. Lowndes had feared, was in many places received with profound
dissatisfaction. The chief cities of New York and New England protested
against it, and promised no support to the Administration. The South had
by this time become indignant, and in Charleston, where the opposition had
been so strong, the declaration was received with unexpected favor. A
meeting was held in St. Michael's church, attended by all the principal
citizens, with Mr. John Julius Pringle, long Speaker of the General
Assembly, in the chair. Mr. Pringle was then the leading lawyer of the
State, and all men knew that General Washington himself had made him
District Attorney of South Carolina, and that Jefferson had offered him
the position of Attorney-General of the United States.
His opinion had great weight. The meeting passed resolutions
of approbation and promised loyal support to the government, commending at
the same time their congressmen for the position which they had taken.
There were many similar expressions of opinion from other bodies.
On June the 28th the weary Representative wrote his last
letter for the session.
My dear Wife, — I hope that this will be the last letter
which you will receive this session from me. This is Sunday, and the
latest day that is spoken of for an adjournment is to-morrow week. I
shall go home very comfortably, in a carriage nearly as light as our
volante, with a very good pair of horses [bought a few weeks before from
"the Jerseys "], and my riding horse, which draws very well, may if
necessary assist the carriage horses. Mr. GaiUard [Senator from South
Carolina] goes with me. We hope to travel between forty and fifty miles
a day.
He goes on to explain how he had tried to get a commission
in the army, but that finding that it would only be given on political
grounds, and would not allow of active service, he had in disgust
withdrawn the application; he adds sorrowfully (so little do even the
wisest men know what is best for them), " Not engaging in the army now, I
must give up all hope of ever leaving the pursuit of civil life. To make
rice in Carolina and speeches in Washington must be the narrow limit of my
ambition. . . . I cannot but think that the scheme of your two brothers to
take their sick wives under the guns of ' Fort Moultrie [to General
Pinckney's summer home on Sullivan's Island] is a strange one.
I certainly think an attack upon the fort very improbable, but many an
alarm may be given by the appearance of a strange sail . . . After
receiving this letter you had better direct none to me north of
Fayetteville."
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