CHAPTER XV.

Washington City.-Gadsby's.-Capitol.-Two Houses of Congress.-Interview with Cherokee Chiefs.-Treatment of Slaves by Indians. Causes of Extermination of Aborigines.-Indian Character misrepresented. Gold Mines.-Motive for removing Indians. Insuperable Bar to incorporation with the Whites. Despotic Laws of Georgia.-Protest against Emigration. Religious Persecution in Georgia.

IN the afternoon I left Baltimore by the stage, for Washington (thirty-eight miles). The coach was filled with young men, who seemed to pay more attention to their rings and brooches and gold watches, than to the cleanliness of their hands, or the purity of their language. It rained in torrents, and the road was in a wretched state. About seven in the evening we entered the capital of the greatest slave-holding nation on the face of the globe; I speak of commercial, not of feudal, slavery :—of a system forced upon society, not springing naturally from its progress:-a disease engendered by the vices of its maturity, not an infirmity incidental to its infancy.

I put up at Gadsby's hotel-an establishment

upon an immense scale :-between three and four hundred persons having been at one time accommodated there. At Baltimore, the bed-room doors were locked, at the hotel; and the guests requested to leave their keys at the bar of the house. Here, on the contrary, I was informed that no precaution of the kind was necessary. As the servants at the one were white, and at the other black, I was curious to learn the cause of this difference. I asked, therefore, one of the waiters at the breakfast-table how many servants there were; and whether they were free. "Sir," replied the man, "there are seventy or eighty of us; and not one freeman." My heart sunk within me at this unexpected piece of intelligence. I felt shocked beyond description at the idea of being surrounded by slaves. "Do you belong to the master of the house?" I inquired. "No," was his reply: "my owner lives at Alexandria :- -I am let out, as many others are, to the landlord:-there are many here who do not know each other, even by name." The man spoke in a dejected voice, but his language was good-much better than what I had heard the day before in the stage. I conversed with him some time;- as long, indeed, as I remained the only white in the room ;-and felt deeply convinced, by what he told me, that his fellow bondsmen, as well as himself, were unhappy and discontented.

If slaves are all thieves, why does Gadsby allow

his doors to be left unlocked, and so much valuable property exposed? Is the whip a better preventive of crime than the penitentiary? Or is he who is compelled to labor more honest than the man who is hired? Gadsby's treatment of those under his care is, I was told, mild and considerate,-this is the more to his credit-for he is an Englishman, long resident in the country; and it is generally observed that the English slave-owners are more cruel masters than the Americans; and of the latter, the southerners are less severe than those from the north. It is well known that those habits, which are most repugnant to our nature, are, when once they have obtained the mastery, the least easily subdued; while they are more severely condemned, from their supposed indication of innate depravity.

The rain continued to pour down as abundantly as the preceding day; and rendered it impossible to explore the topography of this infant metropolis. There was nothing going on in the Halls of Congress particularly interesting to a stranger. I went, however, to the Capitol, which is situated on a commanding eminence, and has a very imposing appearance, from the form of the edifice and the material of which it is built. The latter is white freestone; and the approach is by three or four flights of steps. As the decorations are of the Corinthian order, the whole, though perhaps somewhat too splendid for republican simplicity, is calculated to

produce a strong impression on the mind of the spectator.

The rotunda, which occupies the centre of the capitol, and is placed between the two chambers, where the Senate and the House of Representatives hold their sessions, is composed of marble, and lighted from the dome above. It is a noble room. Its various ornaments, whether in painting or in sculpture, are illustrative of those historical events which are most interesting to the country. Near each is placed a small sketch in outline, with the names of the figures introduced in the original. As it is drawn on paper, and intended for the hand, a stranger is saved the trouble of asking for a guide, and the still greater trouble of listening to his mechanical explanation of the different objects before him. In front of the paintings were various wooden boxes, that attracted my attention; and it was some time before I could make out what they were. They contained some vegetable production, like mustard and cress. Upon a closer inspection, I discovered they were placed there for the accommodation of those who are addicted to tobacco in its various forms; and who, cum pituita molesta est," might, for want of such conveniences, forget the sanctity of the place, and the respect due to the departed worthies whose images are around them. It would be as well, I thought, if Chantrey's beautiful statue of Washington, in the State House at Boston, had

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some protection against a beastly practice, which had so disfigured and debased the pedestal, that, were the artist to see it, "by Jove 'twou'd make him mad." The whole has since been railed in, and is now out of the reach of the spitters. To attempt a description of the disgusting habits here alluded to, would be to sin against that delicacy which they outrage. The very remembrance of what I have seen is inexpressibly disgusting.

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The Chamber of the Representatives is semi-circular in its form, and rather gaudily furnished. The gallery, appropriated to the public, commands a full view of the House"; above which it is sufficiently elevated to separate the members from the audience, and afford the latter an opportunity of seeing as well as of hearing what is going on below. Each member had his chair and desk; and most of them were busily employed in writing or reading, while one of them, who was presenting a petition, was dilating upon its contents;-they were of a local nature, and of no general interest. The appearance of the members was much the same as that which our House of Commons would present. It seemed to me, however, that there were not so many young men among them as are to be seen in the latter. Twenty-five is the minimum age allowed by the constitution.

From the House of Representatives I proceeded to the Senate. The room in which the latter