OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. No. 1075.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1841. Original Communications. THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, WASHINGTON. THE President's House, at Washington, might be described in a breath: in architectural simplicity of elevation it resembles the general run of wealthy commoners' houses in this country; in interior arrangement it is vastly inferior. It occupies a slightly elevated plot of ground on the western side of the city, at a few hundred yards' distance from the Petomac, from which a creek runs back, forming the southern boundary of the land attached to the house. The waters are continued by an artificial canal through the city, until they unite again with the Potomac, two miles below, and thus afford a transit for vessels which could not cross the shallows in the main stream. The lodge-gates at the entrance to the pleasuregrounds form one terminus to the Pensylvania avenue, the principal street in Washington; the Capitol at a mile distance forms the other. The President's house is of white free-stone, two stories high, with portico, Ionic pilasters, and surmounted by a stone balustrade; but if I recollect rightly, the entire building is coated over with paint. There may be from fifteen to twenty acres of pleasure ground or park attached to it, but what few shrubs and trees are thinly scattered here and there are so much in their infancy, that, as yet, they take nothing away from the staring character of the house. The interior possesses three fine drawing or reception rooms, but all the apartments are furnished in a most meagre style, nor do successive years work any improvement in this respect, there invariably being too strong an opposition in Congress to admit of monies being voted to place the house in that suitable and wellappointed style which it ought to possess, were the comforts and feelings of the occupants in any way consulted. The Presidential mansion, therefore, is nothing better than a chief magistrate's barrack. A President upon his election takes up his quarters for four years, and from there being a melancholy deficiency of government furniture, he is compelled to bring with him a considerable portion of his own furniture from his private residence, perhaps (as in General Jackson's case) a distance of 800 or 1000 [PRICE 2d. miles; and when the period for which he was elected has expired, he again removes all away with him, leaving the United States chairs and table, and little better than bare walls, for his successor. It may be easily conceived what a motley appearance a drawing-room presents where the furniture has been supplied by odds and ends, according to the munificent views of successive sessions of Congress. Articles of various ages and various fashions, interspersed with the President's household goods from the far West, and which look as if they were the handiwork of some antediluvian carpenter, render the tout ensemble a most ill-assorted piece of upholstery patchwork. The levees which are held at certain periods present to the Englishman an equally heterogeneous mixture, being accessible to every citizen of the republic, let his station be what it may, and let his character be what it may also, so that he is not a notorious offender against the laws of his country. I was residing at Washington during a part of that period when General Jackson filled the Presidential chair, and through the friendship of General Houston, (who has since distinguished himself by overrunning and annexing Texas to the United States and giving his name to the Capitol,) I became personally acquainted with the old general. We had strolled up to the lodge-gates from Gadsby's Hotel, one sultry evening in the summer of 1832, when he proposed to me taking coffee with the President, as it would afford me an excellent opportunity of seeing him in private. I joyfully acquiesced; so we at once walked up to the door of the house, which was flung open by a porter with as rich and welcome a Kerry brogue as ever one would wish to hear under the walls of Darrynane, and were ushered upstairs into the President's private apartment. He received us cordially, and entered into conversation with such freedom that I at once felt relieved from everything like embarrassment. His appearance was certainly highly military; yet so far from being distingué, it presented nothing approaching to elegance. His dark blue eyes, with arched and slightly projecting brows, possessed a marked expression; and when excited, sparkled with peculiar lustre and penetration. His features had that bronzed and hard cast which might be expected in one inured to Indian warfare; and his figure, though slight, was for a man so far advanced in years, upright and commanding. He was at this time in his sixty-sixth year; and although six feet and an inch in height, yet weighing only ten stone. His conformation would certainly appear to disqualify him from hardships, yet his capability of enduring fatigue to a greater extent than most men of his day has earned for him from his fellow citizens the sobriquet or pet name of "Old Hickory," that wood being celebrated for its excessive toughness. His countenance, indeed, was expressive of firmness and decision. Our conversation at first ran upon the much talked of secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, and subsequently turned to the Tariff Bill, two subjects which at that time were occupying a large share of the attention of both houses of Congress. He expressed himself sensibly, and with more than ordinary fluency of speech; but true American like, abused his political opponents in no measured terms, and showered down upon them anything but heaven-born blessings. During General Houston's trial, which had just terminated, for breach of privilege of the house of representatives, in offering violence to one of the members for language used in debate, General Jackson being informed that the opinion of the house was going against his friend, commenced anathematizing the entire deliberative body at once, and passing from climax to climax of abuse, at length remarked, that" Congress itself, if subjected to the wholesome discipline of a sound cudgelling, would better understand its duties." A gentleman observed, that it might be found not only a difficult but a hazardous undertaking. "Not at all," replied his excellency, "let half a dozen stout fellows take their stand at the door, and knock down the members as they come out, and the matter will be accomplished soon enough." This peculiarity, however, is inoffensive, inasmuch as he carries his animosity no further towards those who differ with him on public matters, and it scarcely appears natural to him, as his general manners are mild and pleasing. His moral character is without reproach, and numerous instances might be adduced of his benevolence and humanity. The following is too amiable and rare to be passed over, even in this slight sketch of his character:-At the battle of Tohopeka, which was fought in his second campaign against the Indians, on the 27th January, 1813, an infant was found pressed to the bosom of its lifeless mother. The circumstance was related to General Jackson, who directed the child to be brought to him, and then tried to prevail upon some of the Indian women to rear it. They signified their unwillingness to do so, intimating at the same time, that as all its relatives had fallen in battle, it was better that it should be put to death. Jackson determined, upon this disclosure, not to entrust them with the child, but to become himself the protector of it. Bestowing on it the name of Lincoier, he adopted it into his family; and not having children of his own, has ever since acted as a parent. At the time I speak of, the young man (for he was then in his twentieth year) resided in the President's house, and was spoken of as being engaged in marriage to an American lady of family and fortune. There is a strong resemblance between the early life of Lincoier and his benefactor, both being left in early life, by the ravages of war, without relatives or friends to assist and direct their course. Andrew Jackson was born on the 15th of March, 1767. His father emigrated from Ireland in 1765, bringing with him two sons, Hugh and Robert, and settled in South Carolina, where Andrew was born, shortly after whose birth the father died. The three brothers took part in the struggle for independence between the American colonies and the mother country; Andrew being at that time but fourteen years of age. Of his two brothers, the eldest died in arms at the battle of Stono; the younger, together with Andrew, were taken prisoner by the British, and died within their encampment; the mother expiring a few weeks after. The independence of the States being acknowledged, Andrew, then seventeen years of age, commenced the study of the law, and rose to eminence in the profession rapidly, being attorney-general by the time he was thirty years of age, and soon after judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Tenessee. General Conway, who commanded the militia of the same state, dying at this period, Jackson was elected as his successor, and held the command until May, 1814, when he was appointed a major-general in the United States' service; but not being the senior commissioned officer at the reduction of the army in 1821, his commission was annulled. Of his military talents nothing was known until the breaking out of the war in 1812 between Great Britain and America, when raising a corps of 2500 volunteers for the service of his country, he was charged with the command of the expedition against the Indians, which terminated in the battle of Tohopeka. In the winter of 1814, he marched with his troops to New Orleans, the threatened point of attack, and entrenching himself in a naturally strong position, a few miles in advance of that city, awaited the onset of the British, under Sir Edward Pakenham, and gained an easy victory; not through the want of courage in the invading army, but by the treachery or cowardice of an officer high in command. The victory was, however, sufficient to immortalize Jackson, and raised him twice to the highest honours his country could confer. His military talents have been much overrated by his countrymen, who rank him with such men as Wellington, Charles XII., and Washington: this, however, is natural enough, for it can barely be expected that they would allow the victory was gained by anything but the talents of the officers and the courage of the troops. The Americans are, par excellence, an unmilitary race, and never will be a military the constitution of the federal government is an insuperable bar to it. They never will be a chivalrous people, for they one; feel too much rancour and bitterness towards their opponents ever to allow room for that nobleness of feeling towards a foe and true heroism which characterize our continental wars. Each American citizen fights as though he were smarting under some personal injury, and had a personal resentment to gratify. Every Englishman who has visited the United States of late years must have heard, with painful indignation, the unmerited reproaches which are heaped, by all classes of the people, upon the memory of the gallant Pakenham, in the groundless assertion, that he ordered the password of beauty and booty" to be issued to the British sentinels the night preceding the attack on the entrenchments at New Orleans, as an inducement to the soldiery to secure a victory. This blot upon the character of the polished, the generous, and brave general, met with no official or public denial until the year 1833, when it came to the ears of the gallant officer (General Lambert) who succeeded to the command on the death of Sir Edward Pakenham, and who drew up a protest, which was signed by the five senior officers present in the action. It concluded in the following energetic language:-" Now we, the undersigned, serving in the army, and actually present, and through whom all orders to the troops were promulgated, do, in justice to the memory of that distinguished officer who commanded and led the attack, the whole tenour of whose life was marked by manliness of purpose and integrity of views, most unequivocally deny that any such promise was ever held out to the army, or that the watchword asserted to be given out was ever issued; and further, that such motives could never have actuated the man, who, in the discharge of his duty to his king and country, so eminently upheld the character of a true British soldier. That a refutation of the above calumnies not having before appeared, is solely to be attributed to their not having come to the knowledge of the undersigned; that they existed, until the work from which they are taken was given to the public in the present year 1833 : JOHN LAMBERT, Lieut.-Gen. also in the general rejoicings which followed The negro population were made to join the defeat of the British, with what sincerity Orleans fallen, the slave population would may be judged from the fact, that had New have risen to a man against their tyrant oppressors, and joined the invading army. Part of a negro song which had a long run on the American stage at that time is so descriptive of Jackson, that I transcribe the opening stanzas : "If you had seen what I have seen, Lord how you would laugh and grin ; He'd clar de kitchen, clar de kitchen, &c. This please General Jackson so, To clar de kitchen," &c. On A GERMAN Baron, Von. D, at present residing at Paris, was some few years since living in baronial ease at his castle of F, situated in a somewhat secluded but romantic district of his native land. the score of worldly possessions, fortune had smiled most favourably on the hero of our narrative; but, by way of amends, nature had been proportionably inauspicious as regarded his personal appearance, and the adornments of the outward man. In sober truth, the Baron Von D was about the ugliest man that Germany has produced for the last century and a half at the least; so ungainly, indeed, was his ap * Now Lord Keane. † General Jackson's despatch announcing the victory was not written until the 13th of January, five days after the Battle. |