MRS. MAURY'S STATESMEN OF AMERICA.
Porarics in petticoats ! Democracy en chemise !—the public morals of Jaeobinism without their pretences of philosophy and philanthropy, or their excuse of revolt against tyranny, "done into English " : the poli- ticians of America painted in as good a rose-colour as Mrs. Maury can make up, without any stint in quantity : the great questions of the De- mocratic Republic, and by connexion those of the world, dismissed with the oracular decision of Minerva, but in a finer style. The Statesmen of America, in its original parts, (for there are a great many "elegant extracts" from the speeches or writings of the "statesmen,") is a curious display of frank self-confidence which knows not shrinking, and a full unveiling of personal matters, which in the Old World are generally considered indelicate to make the subject of public comment. From its subject and its treatment combined, it may be considered a readable book—" shallow streams run dimpling all the way " ; but, according to English notions, the writer has been ill advised in the publication. Mrs. Maury is an Englishwoman, wife to one of the members of the American house of Maury at Liverpool. She has been married twenty years; she has eight sons ; and in 1845 she went to Washington, ac- companied by one of her youngest boys, with the object, as we guess, of seeing her husband's friends and the probability of an opening for some of her children. She carried letters of introduction to Mr. Pakenbam. She found the British Ambassador "civil; and he made an offer of his services. But I was in high hands, and required them not. The Pre- sident himself; the Secretary of State, and every American, took care of me." Besides all the society to which Mrs. Maury was introduced or in- troduced herself, she constantly visited the ladies' gallery to hear the debates ; she attended the courts of justice ; she had a public dinner given her by the ladies of Washington ; she even tackled Congress itself: Having suffered from the want of medical attendance in her voyage out, "I made an attempt," she says, "to pass a bill through Congress to com- pel passenger-vessels to carry surgeons"; and she fell upon the Com- mittee of the House in propria persona, though without success. "The bill was frustrated by the blind and ignorant selfishness of the shipowners, who were represented by a Whig member of Congress for New Bedford."
The President, Ministers, and practising orators, she saw at Washing- ton. She volunteered a visit to Mr. Van Buren at his country-house, and found him a delightful person. She went to Mr. Clay, "the foremost man of all the [this] world " : Dr. Hughes, the Romanist Bishop, she arterwards saw at New York ; and then she found that "the Bishop is the greatest temporal prince in America, and he is the greatest spiritual prince in the world." "Serene, apart, and passionless—and high, and pure, and holy "—from him Mrs. Maury "learned to believe that other Catholics were good and true " ; which, considering that she introduced herself to Dr. Hughes as a personal friend of Dr. Lingard, does not seem a high compliment to the historian ; but rhetoricians, ever regarding empty words before the solid truth, are ever "putting their foot in it." The Hon. C. J. Ingersoll, the Chairman of Foreign Relations, "amiable, sensible, brilliant, and witty, and charming at sixty-three," seems almost to top the preceding " statesmen" ; for he is without a fault save one— he has an "uncontrollable impulse to utter at once, regardless of time and place, the thing he feels, or knows, or even suspects." We trust that the Chairman has not been illustrating, at Mrs. Maury's expense, the maxim of the great diplomatist, "that speech was given to man to conceal his
thoughts." Mr. Calhoun—but Mrs. Maury must tell of him in her own proper words.
" Calhoun is my statesman. Through good report and through evil report; in all his doctrines, whether upon Slavery, Free-trade, Nullification, Treasury, and Currency Systems active Annexation, or masterly inactivity, I hold myself his avowed and admiring disciple. If this distinguished statesman could be pre- vailed upon to visit England, either in a public or in a private capacity, he would command more admiration and attract more interest than any other man of Eu- rope or of America. The very anomaly of his position, the curious coincidences by which he becomes the representative of interests which, nominally at least, are in contra position to each other, and the skill and determined fidelity with which he unites and guards each several one of these interests, preserving entire the in- tegrity of all; these attributes together compose a character so unique, an atti- tude so extraordinary, as to be unparalleled either in his own or vs any other country of the world."
In this rapid muster-roll of the various foremost men of this world, we have almost put the ancients before the lieutenant ; but here is the latter with the rank and file. Humbug and servility are bad at all times, but they are more in place from the low to the high than from the high towards the low. President Polk, however, did the humbug well.
THE PRESIDENT'S LEVEE.
The first time I saw the President was on the 1st of January 1846, the morn- ing after the arrival of myself and my son, (the Doctor,) at Washington. On New- Year's Day it is the privilege of every American and his family to pay their re- spects to the Chief Magistrate of the country, at the White House. Wishing to see this Republican ceremony, so unlike any custom of Europe, we repaired to the residence of the President about one o'clock; and not having had time to deliver any of our letters of introduction, we went alone. The crowd was immense, but perfectly well conducted; no pushing forward, no murmuring, no jostling; each was solicitous to avoid, if possible, annoying his or her neighbour, and anxiously apologized if such an accident happened; all were neatly dressed, many of the female portion with much elegance, and the men carried their hats high up above their heads to keep them out of the way. I have been in all sorts of crowds, in England and France; at theatres, operas, churches, balls, routs, elections, and ce- remonies of various kinds, both public and private: but I have never seen any as- semblage of persons so orderly, respectful, patient, and well-mannered, as Vut..,_ American people on that day. The Democracy behaved like a lady. The President stood in the Reception-room, and Mrs. Polk at a little distance; they received their guests as they were able to approach; the greeting was friendly and courteous on the one side, and respectful and kind on the other. My son and myself approached with the rest, and I simply introduced myself as an English lady, without even mentioning my name. "lam delighted, Madam, to see you here," said the President, shaking me cordially by the hand. I then in- troduced my son, saying that I should hope to see the President again. "At all times, Madam, you will be most welcome."
The reader may now, perhaps, be able to form a judgment of the value and character of these ;ketches of some of the public persons of America ; wherein liking supersedes judgment, and externals or nonessentials stand instead of more solid qualities. Besides men, Mrs. Maury deals with subjects ; in which she utters the worst and extremest views of the Democratic party in the true style of American logic and oratory, the latter somewhat refined by feminine taste. Oregon is to be America's ; it is hers naturally ; she has a right, and, what is oddest of all, by the right' of occupancy,—which is simply untrue, America perhaps never having had a settler North of the Columbia river, and perhaps no American hav- ing ever set foot North of the Columbia valley. The war against Mexico is justified, and contrasted with our wars in India : with what knowledge, the reader may guess when he is told that Mrs. Maury says the Indian wars have "cost England millions of her people." Southern slavery is advocated and praised, (pp. 365-7,) with an impudence which we think a planter would scarcely be equal to, off his own dunghill. The follow- ing passage is even more singular. The connexion of slave-holding with " preminence in mathematics and the power of analysis" we do not see; but we do see that the serious application of solemn passages of Scripture to a planter ordering about his Negroes, and their obedience to him, is a piece of irreverence in the very worst taste. "The private position of Mr. Calhoun is as remarkable as his public station. An hereditary slave-owner, he was born and educated a ruler; he sways his people with justice and mercy, and the habitual possession of power has revealed to him the secrets of the art of government. His gracious, princely nature, ac- customed to give command without appeal, is equally accustomed to receive sub mission without reserve: hence his gentleness; hence his indulgence; hence his compassion; no vulgar upstart display of authority is traced in his intercourse with those who own him for their Lord [L. in orig.]--‘ He with to one man, come, and he cotneth; and to another, go, and he goeth' ; and he is served with the perfect love that casteth out fear. "And to this education in the art of government, as slaveholders at home and from their birth, it is mainly owing that the statesmen of the Southern sec- tions display such rare, such excelling wisdom, in their discharge of the offices of the Republic. Of eleven Presidents, three only have been from other portions of the Union; two from Massachusetts, and one from New York. To the Northern and Eastern States may be awarded many attributes essential to the prosperity of a country and the increase of wealth; but from the South have sprung the helmsmen that have steered the ark of the Republic. Their minds are more universal, as well as more concentrating, more deliberative, as well as more daring; and to these latter is also accorded the preeminence in the study of mathematics and the power of analysis. Doubtless, origin, climate, and consti- tution contribute powerfully to organize the faculties of man; but I assign the system of slavery as one of the most vital influences in forming that capacity-for rule so characteristic of the Southern race."
There are rather better things occasionally to be met with in the book : personal descriptions, and anecdotes of public men, with traits of their character, and reports of their conversation, sometimes racy, if some- times flat. They are done too with a little less of empty exaggertion than characterizes the other parts of the volume, though their publication often seems to violate good taste and social confidence.
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