Ohio with Kentucky, and give us a fair chance for Pennsyl-
vania, were blighted by the tactics of our antagonists : Van
Buren, Silas Wright, Buchanan, the Jackson delegations from
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, in solid column, with all
but two or three members from New York, uniting (in 1828)
to frame and pass the highest and most Protective Tariff that
had ever been proposed, over the votes of a majority of the
Adams men from New England. Outmanoeu\Ted on every
side, we were clearly foredoomed to defeat ; the loss of Mr.
Clay's own Kentucky was a blow for which her preceding
election of Members to Congress had partly prepared us.
108 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
though we earned, by a close vote, her Governor (Metcalf) in
the spirited August election of this year ; but Indiana, and
even Ohio, went with her, though we had carried the latter
in her State election scarcely a month before the popular vote
for President. Louisiana, too, voted for Jackson, thoujih with
us in her preceding State contest ; New York (then choosing
electors by districts) gave Adams but 16 votes to 20 for his
opponent; and so we were badly beaten, carrying but 84
electors, while Jackson ā having every vote below the Poto-
mac, and all west of the Alleghanies ā had more than double
that number.
In the succeeding Presidential contest (1832) we had
scarcely a chance. Anti-Masonry had divided us, and driven
thousands of Adams men over to Jackson, whose personal
popularity was very great, especially with tlie non-readmg
class, and who had strengthened himself at the North by his
Tariff Messages and his open rupture with Calhoun. New
Hampshire and Maine had already gone over to liim ; Ver-
mont voted for Wirt, the Anti- Masonic candidate ; Ohio, dis-
tracted by Anti-Masonry, went again for Jackson ; New York
(now choosing electors by general ticket) went solid for him,
with Pennsylvania, and even New Jersey : so that ]\Ir. Clay,
though carrying his own Kentucky, made but a sorry figure
in the electoral asfffreoate. Massachusetts, Ehode Island,
Connecticut, Delaware, and part of Maryland (by districts),
were all the States that voted for him, save his own.
South Carolina now threw away her vote for President on
John Floyd, of Virginia, and proceeded to nullify the Tariff,
which had just been somewhat reduced, ā in part, to placate
her. But Van Buren had been substituted for Calhoun as
Vice-President, and she would not he placated. Her nullifi-
cation was abandoned, rather than suppressed, and this only
after the main point had been virtually yielded to her by a
graduated reduction of the Tariff througliout the next ten
years to a purely Revenue standard. Thougli overborne, she
was practically triumphant. IVIr. Clay proposed the Compro-
mise Tariff, that gave her ample excuse for receding from her
POLITICS. 109
untenable position; but only after it had been rendered
certain that a more immediate and sweeping reduction of the
Tariff, abeady reported by Mr. Verplanck, from the Committee
of Ways and Means, would be carried if this were forborne.
So the land had peace again for a brief season.
The United States Bank war, which soon followed, had
already been inaugurated by General Jackson's imperious
will. Early in his first term, he had been prompted to re-
quire the removal of Jeremiah Mason, President of the branch
at Portsmouth, IST. H., who was obnoxious to his leading
friends in that State. He was not gratified. Though the
first charter of the bank would not expire till 1836, he de-
monstrated against its renewal so early as 1830 ; telling Con-
gress that the question should be promptly acted on, so that
arrangements might seasonably be made, in case it should not
be rechartered, for supplying its place as a financial agent of
the Government, and a commercial convenience to the people.
A Jackson Congress, in due time, took the matter in hand,
and, in 1832, voted a renewal of the charter, by large majorities
in either House. The bill was vetoed, and the Veto Message
complained that the act of rechartering was premature !
That Congress, prior to its final adjournment, heard vaguely
that the President intended to remove the deposits of public
money from the detested Bank ; wdiereupon the House voted,
by three to one, that they ought not to be removed.
William J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, Avas then Secretary of
the Treasury. The President required him to remove the
deposits. He declined. Jackson thereupon removed liim ;
appointing in his stead Ptoger B. Taney, of Maryland, who
proceeded at once to do his master's bidding. AVlien a new
Congress assembled (December, 1833), the Federal deposits, as
they accrued, were being dispersed among a multiplicity of
State banks, ā the least able being of course the most needy
and clamorous for a share of the pap, on the strength of their
directors' professed devotion to the Administration and its
"revered chief"
I have always ā at least, since I read Dr. Franklin's auto-
110 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
biography, more than forty years ago ā Leen an advocate of
paper money. But I want it to be money, ā convertible at
pleasure into coin, ā not printed lies, even though they fail
to deceive. From 1818 up to 1830, tliis country suffered
from a dearth of money. Tens of thousands were unwillingly
idle from month to month, who would have been usefully and
profitably employed had the country been blest with an ade-
quate circulating medium. Comparatively few houses were
built in those years, because of the scarcity of money, which
palsied enterprise and petrified labor. As a journeyman, I
could rarely find work in the country, because there was so
little money ; and, on coming to the city, I found that pay-
ments by master mechanics to their men were mainly made
in " uncurrent " notes of State banks, which must often, if not
generally, be taken to a broker and "shaved" before they
would pay board or buy groceries. The consequent loss was
something ; the inevitable bother and vexation were a far
greater nuisance. A paper currency everywhere current,
everywhere convertible into coin, was my ideal ; hence I was
not partial to local emissions of paper, but a zealous, deter-
mined advocate of a National Bank.
The United States Bank, being required to pay over the
millions it held on deposit for the Government, receiving no
more, began, of course, to contract its loans. It could do no
otherwise ; especially as an attempt, evidently inspired, had
been made by Jackson brokers to break its branch at Savan-
nah by quietly collecting a large quantity of its notes and
presenting them at once for payment, hoping that they could
not all be met, and that it might thereiipon be claimed that
the Bank had failed. It was charged by its adversaries that
the contraction consequent upon the removal of the Deposits
was too rapid and too great ; in fact, that its purpose was the
creation of commercial distress and panic. This may have
been ; but a very decided contraction by that Bank was in-
evitable ; and it could have pursued no course that did not
expose it to accusation and reproach. I presume it struggled
for its life, as most of us would do, if assailed with deadly
POLITICS. Ill
intent. With the removal of the DejDosits, its power to regu-
late the currency lapsed, and its duty as well. Those Banks
to which the Government had transferred its funds and its
favors should unitedly have assumed and exercised the func-
tions of a regulator, or confessed their inability.
As the pressure for money increased, the political elements
were lashed to fury, and our city, the focus of American com-
merce, became the arena of a fierce electioneerins: strugfole.
Hitherto, the Jackson ascendency had, since the death of De
Witt Clinton, been so decided, that our charter elections had
usually been scarcely contested ; but the stirring debates daily
received from Washington, the strivings of merchants and
banks to avert bankruptcy, the daily tightening of the money
market, and the novel hopes of success inspired in the breasts
of those who now took the name of "Whigs" (to indicate
their repugnance to unauthorized assumptions of Executive
power), rendered New York for some weeks a boiling caldron
of political passions. Our three days' election (April, 1834)
wias the most vehement and keenly contested struggle which
I ever witnessed. Our city was then divided into fifteen
Wards, with but one poll to each Ward ; and I should esti-
mate the average attendance on each poll at little less than
one thousand. I am certain that I saw the masses surround-
ing the Fourth and Sixth Ward polls respectively (then but
two or three blocks apart), so mingled that you could not say
where the one ended and the other began. There were some
fights, of course, and one general collision in the Sixth Ward
that might have resulted in deplorable bloodshed ; but peace
was soon restored. In the event, the Jacksonites elected their
Mayor (Cornelius W. La^vi-ence) over the Whig candidate
(Gulian C. Verplanck) by 384 majority, which was less than
their overplus of voters naturalized on the last day of the
poll. The total vote was nearly 35,000 ; which Avas probably
a closer approach to the whole number of legal voters than
was ever drawn out before or since. The Whigs carried both
branches of the Common Council, oivincf them the control of
most of the city patronage ; so that the result was generally
and justly regarded as a drawm battle.
112 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
My concern printed a daily campaign penny paper, entitled
The Constitution, through most of that year, and I was a free
contributor to its columns, though its editor and pul)lisher
was Mr. Achilles K. Grain, who died some thirty years ago.
It did not pay, and the firm of Greeley and Winchester were
losers by it, counting my editorial assistance worth nothing.
William H. Seward, then thirty-four years old, and just closing
with distinction a four years' term in the State Senate, was om'
candidate for Governor, with Silas M. Stillwell for Lieutenant ;
and we fondly hoped to cany the State in the November
election. But meantime the State Banks, wherein the Federal
revenue was deposited (" Pet Banks," we Whigs termed them),
had been enabled to effect an enormous expansion of their
loans and issues ; and the country ā not yet feeling the Tariff
reductions wliich the Compromise of 1833 had barely in-
augurated ā was launched on the flood of a factitious but
seductive semblance of prosperity. Money was abundant ;
every one had employment who wanted, and pay if he earned
it ; property Avas rapidly appreciating in value ; factories and
furnaces had full work, and were doing well ; so, when the
Fall election came, we made a gallant fight, but were badly
defeated, ā Marcy being reelected Governor over SeAvard by
some 13,000 majority, ā more than he had over Granger in
1832, ā and the Whigs, beaten pretty generally and decisively,
relapsed into a torpor whence they were scarcely aroused by
the ensuing Presidential Election, wherein General Harrison
was made their candidate for President, wdth Francis Granger
for Yice-President, while Hugh L. Wliite, of Tennessee, ran
for President, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice-President,
on an independent ticket which contested the South with the
Jackson regulars, who alone held a National Convention, in
which they nominated Martin Van Buren for President, with
Colonel Pdcliard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, for Vice. I was
among the very few in the Eastern States who had taken any
interest in bringing forward General Harrison as a candidate,
believing that there was the raw material for a, good run in
his history and character ; but this was not generally credited,
POLITICS. 113
at least in our State, which, in a languid, contest on a light
vote, went for Van Buren, Johnson, and Marcy, by some
28,000 majority. AVhen, however, the returns from other
States came pouring in, and it was found that General Harri-
son liad carried, with Vermont only of the New England
States, New Jersey, Delaware, Maiyland, Ohio, Indiana, and
Kentucky, and had barely failed to carry Pennsylvania, while
White had carried Tennessee and Georgia, barely failing in
North Carolina, and in two or three Soutliwestern States,
and that Virginia had refused her vote to Johnson, so that he
had failed of an election by the people, and had to be chosen
over Granger by the Senate, there was a general waking up
to the conviction, that either Harrison was more popular, or
Van Buren more obnoxious, than had been supposed in our
State, and that the latter might have been beaten by seasonable
concert and eftbrt. In that slouching Wliig defeat of 1836
lay the germ of the overwhelming Whig triumph of 1840.
I\Ir. Van Buren's election to the Presidency always seemed
to me anomalous, and I am not yet fully reconciled to it. He
had none of that personal magnetism which made General
Jackson and Mr. Clay resj)ectively the idols of their contend-
ing parties. He was not even an orator, was far inferior to
Silas Wright as a debater, and to William L. Marcy in execu-
tive ability. I believe his strength lay in his suavity. He
was the reconciler of the estranged, the harmonizer of those
who were at feud, among his fellow-partisans. An adroit and
subtle, rather than a great man, I judge that he owed his elec-
tion, first to the Vice-Presidency, then to the Presidency, to
tlie personal favor and imperious will of Andrew Jackson,
with whom " Love me, love my dog," was an iron rule. Had
there been no Jackson, Van Buren would never have attained
the highest office in the gift of liis countrymen.
XV.
PLAY-DAYS.
WHOEVEE has spent a few weeks in Paris has doubt-
less paused to witness, on the greensward enclosed by
the Palais Eoyal, or elsewhere, groups of young children at
play, and been charmed by their unconscious spirit, freedom,
and grace of manner. The French chronicler's observation,
centuries ago, ā " The English take their pleasures sadly," ā
will be brought to his mind on almost every occasion when
he witnesses an attempt at festivity on the part of the neigh-
boring islanders or of their descendants on this side of the
Atlantic. Our Scotch-Irish settlers in southern New Hamp-
shire brought with them from the other side a broad humor,
a love of fun, a spirit of hospitahty, a regard for kinship and
clanship, which had not wholly faded out in my boyhood, or
been drowned in the sea of British nationality which in time
rolled over the continent, submerging the islets of Scotch,
HoUandic, Swedish, Erench, or other diverse origin, whicli
had for a season gleamed above the waves. The low-born,
rudely bred Englishman has but one natural fashion of enjoy-
ing himself, ā by getting drunk. We have modified this
somewhat ; but, as a rule, our thrifty, self-respecting people
have hitherto allowed themselves too few hohdays, and failed
to make the best use of those they actually took.
Fifty years have passed since I first stole down, one foggy
morning, to the Ijrook that ran through the west side of my
father's . farm in New Hampshire, and, dropping my line off
the bridge, felt a bite almost instantly, and, hauling up, drew
in a nice speckled trout. I had tried ' to fish before, but
PLAY-DAYS. 115
without success ; henceforth, through boyhood, I was an
enthusiastic, persevering fisherman, tliougli never a master
of the art. The modern sophistications of fly and reel were
unknown in rural New England in those days ; hook, line,
and sinker gave adequate warning to every considerate, wary
fish of what he had to expect if he bit ; but fishermen were
fewer and brooks more shady, less capricious in volume, than
the clearing away of woods has since made them, while in-
tellectual delights were rarer and less inviting : so fishing
was largely the pleasure of the gay and the business of the
grave. Our rivers, unvexed by mill-dams, swarmed in their
season mth shad, lamprey-eels, &c., and afforded some sal-
mon, as well as fish of less consideration. Even the sea was
not too far to be visited by adventurous parties, intent on a
week's profitable sport. Winter brought its sleigh-loads of
fresh cod, frozen as soon as fairly out of water, and so retain-
ing the sweetness which soon vanishes forever ; and I reckon
that, down to 1800, the people of New England had eaten
many more pounds of fish than of beef and mutton together,
ā perhaps of all meats save those obtained by the chase.
In Vermont, the clay soil of the Champlain Valley dis-
colors the brooks when full and repels the trout ; but the
abundant lakes and lakelets used to abound in perch, bass,
and sunfish, while the larger streams afforded, in addition,
eels and pike. East Bay ā the common estuaiy of the
Poultney and Castleton creeks, and dividing Westhaven
from Hampton, N. Y. ā is, in Spring, the resort of a small,
peculiar shad, which, w'ith a few pike, bass, mullet, &c., come
up from the Lake to spawn, and are caught with seines drawn
by two fishermen, who wade througli the swollen stream, ā
one of them sometimes oblicfed to swim, ā while oreat blocks
of ice, left aground by the receding floods, often lie slowly
wasting along the bank. The melted snow from the moun-
tains eastward stings like a hornet as you enter it ; so that,
if this were not sport, it would be disagreeable ; biit I liave
often, when ten to twelve years old, carried the in-shore staff
while my father took the deeper track, which immersed him
IIG RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
up to his neck ; we dipping together at his word of command,
and then gathering up our net and carrying out therein, from
no fish at all up to six or eight. I have known a dozen taken
at one haul ; but this was most extraordinary.
In Summer, we sometimes caught a fine pike or eel with
hook and line in the basin beneath the fifty-foot cataract by
which the blended creeks tumble into the Bay ; but fishing
here was too slow for any sportsman less persistent than I
then was. I have sat here alone in the dense darkness of a
wooded abyss, where the fall drowned all sounds but its own,
from 8 to 11 P. m., without being blest with a bite, and
then felt ray way up through the Egyptian darkness of the
forest hillside to the road, and so home, pondering on the
fickleness of fortune ; yet eager to try again whenever oppor-
tunity should favor. I always had my week's work allotted
me when I could, and generally succeeded in redeeming at
least the Saturday afternoon for my favorite pastime. And I
wish here to bear my testimony against a current theory which
imports that boys are naturally lazy. My experience contra-
dicts it. My schoolmates and neighbors, who had a great
deal more leisure than I, were frequent visitors to the field
wherein I was working out my " stint," and very rarely hesi-
tated to turn in, with hearty good-will, and help me out, so
that I might devote the rest of the day to fishing, ball, or
other sport with them. A lazy man, in my view, is always
the pitiable victim of miseducation. Each human being,
properly trained, works as freely and naturally as he eats ;
only the victims of parental neglect or misguidance hate work,
and prefer hunger and rags with idleness, to thrift won by
industry and patient effort.
There came a day, early in June, 1824, when I had ran-
somed from toil the afternoon for perch-fishing in " Inman
Pond," a lovely tarn, lying lonely among wooded hills in
Fairhaven, some two miles east of our home. I was unde-
niably ill, in the forenoon, so that I was twice compelled to
desist from labor and lie down ; hence, my mother judiciously
urged me to let the fish alone for that day, and care for my
PLAY-DAYS. 117
health. I had not fislied for months, however ; the day was
glorious ; I set oft' for the pond a little after noon, and was
dropping the perch a line within the hour. But my head
soon grew hea\y ; there was a strange ache in my exerj
bone ; the hreeze that sped gently across the pond, though
really warm and bland, seemed to chill me as never before.
I was soon compelled to put aside my pole, and lie down,
shivering, on the bare rock which here formed the shore ;
thus passing two hours in a semi-conscious state of mingled
delirium and suftering. When the fit of ague passed off, I
rose and started homeward, but was constrained to stop at
the first house, half a mile from home, where I passed the
night. I had seen fever and ague before, but never felt it ;
and I made haste to terminate the unpleasant acquaintance.
Judging solely from my own experience, I believe he who
will begin with an emetic directly after his first fit, and fol-
low this with heavy and frequent doses of Peruvian Bark (I
distrust Quinine, as less natural and more perilous), taking
care to eat very little, and that of the simplest vegetable food,
and do absolutely no work at all, may break the fits directly,
and return to work quite well after a fortnight. He who
neglects or trifles with this scourge may lose a Summer by
it, and never again be restored to his pristine health and
vigor.
Ball was a common diversion in Vermont while I lived there ;
yet I never became a proficient at it, probably for want of
time and practice. To catch a flying ball, pro]3elled by a
muscular arm straight at my nose, and coming on so swiftly
that I could scarcely see it, was a feat requiring a celerity of
action, an electric sympathy of eye and brain and hand, which
my few and far-between hours snatched from labor for recre-
ation did not suffice to acquire. Call it a knack, if you ^^'ill ;
it was quite. beyond my powers of acquisition. "Practice
makes perfect." I certainly needed the practice, thougli I
am not sure that any amount of it would have made me a
perfect ball-player.
I like popular amusements, especially those which develop
118 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
and strengthen the muscles ; but I do not like the modern
matches made up between clubs located hundreds of miles
apart. According to my notion, the prize should be awarded
in these matches to the side which makes the shorter score.
In awarding the palm for such a contest, count my vote al-
ways for the beaten party. They doubtless mind their proper
business better, and perform their duties as fathers, husbands,
sons, clerks, journeymen, apprentices, &c., more thoroughly
than do the victors. It is an honor not to beat, but to be
beaten, in a match of this sort.
I wish it were practicable to win our countiymen to a
wiser and more equable frame of mind respecting recreations.
Many sourly contemn and reject them altogetlier ; and I
think this was a prevalent mistake of our better class, up to
a late period. Now, the excess seems to be of an opposite
character. Too many make play a business, when it should
be only a diversion from business. The youth, who has
given his minority to study and play alternately, with no
experience of work, is deplorably ill fitted to grapple with the
stern realities of responsible life. His muscles need harden-
ing ; his sinews have not been disciplined to the work that
solicits them. As between a youth aU work and one all
play, though neither is commendable, the former is pref-
erable.
I never saw a game of Billiards played, and know nothing
of Bowling ; yet I judge this latter a capital in-door exercise
for persons of sedentary pursuits and habits. These I would
advise to shun such games as Chess, Cards, Checkers, Back-
gammon, &c., because of their inevitable tendency to impair
digestion and incite headache. If played at all, they should
be played by men who give their days to muscular, out-
door exertion, and at night feel too tired to study.
I tried fishing again, after being weaned of it throughout
my apprenticeship, while stopping with my father at tlie
West, and had some little success in the creeks adjacent to
his new home ; but I was no longer fascinated by the sport,
while the proceeds were of slender bulk and value. The
PLAY-DAYS. 119
streams were full of trees and roots, while ove^gro^^^l by a
tangle of limbs and bushes ; the sawdust gradually repelled
or killed the trout ; the business involved more plague than
profit of any kind ; and I soon deserted it. I had become, in
my poor way, a fisher of men.
I protest against making a business of play. The Yankees
are prone to " run the thing into the ground," be it what it
may. We work immoderately, and play ditto. I have seen
Very few hohdays during my thirty-six years' sojourn in New
York ; and such is the experience of a large class ; while