EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CHARLES COPLAND (continued); Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 14, No. 4

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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                        EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CHARLES COPLAND
                              (Continued from page 50).
                       Communicated by Miss Anna Melissa Graves.

   Probably the most interesting parts of the diary are the descriptions of his journeys.
The following are among the most noteworthy:

   "1792. June.  In this month Mr. Alexander Buchanan and myself set out together on a trip
to Philadelphia and New York.  It was a trip merely to see the country, as neither of us had
before been on the north side of the Potomack. . . . I returned home in July."

   The next entry is the first time he mentions going to the Springs.
   "July 17th, 1796.  Set out with my wife and two of our children, Maria and Alexander, for
the Louisa Springs.  We travelled in a Cocher, with a pair of horses, and hired a small stage
wagon to carry two servant women and a part of our baggage.  We stayed at the Springs until
the 29th of August, and then went on to Staunton, but carried from the Springs but one of 
the servant women - the other was sent home.  On our first arrival at the Springs I discharged
the stage wagon.  We returned from Staunton on the 18th of September.  The expenses of the
trip were . . . . . . . . . . . $449.00."

   This next entry is his first trip to Kentucky:
   "October 12th, 1797.  Set out on a journey to kentucky in company with Mr. Lyne Shackleford.
This was the first time

Page 218

of my going to Kentucky.  I returned home on the 10th of December."

   In 1802 he makes two trips to Bethlehem, Pa.
   "May 18th, 1802.  I set out with my three daughters for New York on board the schooner
Lyoness, commanded by and belonging to Capt. Secaman, and arrived at New York on the 23rd.
After a week's stay we proceeded on to Bethlehem, where I placed at school my daughters
Elizabeth and Margaret, and I, with my daughter Mary, returned in the stage to Richmond,
where we arrived on the 21st of June.  The expenses of the trip were . . . . . #318.11.
   "Oct. 7th.  I set out with my ward, M. A. Nicolson, for Bethlehem, to place her at school
there.  We travelled int he stage by Washington to Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, and there I
hired a hack for Bethlehem.  I returned home in the stage".

   In 1803 he visited his daughters again, taking his daughter Mary and his son Peter and
Agnes Nicolson.  They went and returned by stage, Agnes Nicolson being left at school.

   In 1804 he makes a remarkably quick trip to New York and Bethlehem.
   July 2nd, 1804.  To-day, in company with mr. Tho. Nicolson, my daughter Mary, Lucy Ann
Pollard and margaret Nicolson, I set out for Bethlehem.  We went to New York in the schooner
Hamlet, commanded by Captain Cropey.  From New York we went in the stage to Newark, in 
Jersey, and there hired a hack to carry us on to Bethlehem.  From Bethlehem I brought home
my daughter Elizabeth and my ward, M.A. Nicolson.  The former had been there a little upwards
of two years, and the latter one year and nine months.  We returned home in the stage on the
26th of the same month, having been absent from home only 24 days.  The expenses for the trip
for myself and two daughters ere $265.79."

   In 1805 he took his two daughters and Mary Ann Nicolson to Staunton.

   In 1808 he made his third trip to Kentucky.

   In 1809 he mentions the White Sulpher Springs for the first time.  His entry is as follows:
   "July 13th 1809, I set out for the springs with my wife, my

Page 219.

daughter Elizabeth, and my ward, Margaret Nicolson, with a maid attending.  We went by
Staunton to the Warm Springs, thence to the White Sulpher, thence to the Sweet Springs, and
returned by the Warm Springs and Staunton, and arrived in Richmond on the 10th of September,
so that we were absent two months lacking two days.  My expenses were $489.89, not including
my ward's expenses, which were separate."

   In 1811 he makes quite an extensive trip North.  His plan of "bargaining with the Captain",
was very characteristic.

   "July 25th.  Set out on a trip to the North with my wife, my daughter Elizabeth and a maid
attending on the ladies.  We went to New York on the sloop Fox.  I bargained with the Captain
for the entire use of the Cabin, for which I paid him 90 dollars, and laid in my own sea
stores.  I admitted two passengers at 15 dollars each, which reduced my passage to 60 dollars,
which, including the sea stores, made my entire expense $91.21 for the sea stores cost $31.21.
We staid a week in New York, and then in a packet went up the Sound to New Haven, where we
joined my daughters Maria and Margaret and my son Alexander, who had in June gone from Rich-
mond to New Haven under the protection of Mr. and Mrs. Turner.  Having staid four days in
New Haven we all proceeded to Middletown in the stage.  After two days at Middletown we went 
to Hartford; thence to Springfield, in Massachusetts.  From there we returned by the Sufield
Springs to Hartford; thence to Litchfield, and from there we returned to New Haven, where,
after staying a few days, and placing my son Alexander at Yale College, we returned to New
York, where we staid between two and three weeks, and came to Philadelphia by the Steamboat(1)
and stages, and after a stay of a few days, proceeded on homeward, first to New Castle on the
Steamboat, thence to Frenchtown, 12 miles in the stage; from there to Baltimore on the
packet.  Staying two days there, we came to Alexandria in the stage, and there I hired a hack
for Richmond, and for which I paid 55 dollars.  Sent the maid home in the stage.  My wife, two
of my daughters and myself rode in the hack, and Betsy
_______________________________
   (1)The first mention of a steamboat.

Page 220.

rode with Mrs. Moram in her carriage.  We got home on the 20th September.  My expenses on
this trip - I mean our travelling expenses only - were $1,057.20, but his included my daughter
Margaret's and my son Alexander's expenses, who set out before us, and staid at New Haven two
or three weeks before we joined them.  My daughter Maria's expenses were kept separately".(1).

   In 1812 he took a very interesting trip to Ohio, which rather resembled a modern camping
expedition.

   "May 20th.  Suffering much this year under a nervous affection, and finding no relief from
medicine, I was advised by Dr. McLurg to travel and amuse myself in the best way I could.  In
consequence of his advice I determined to go to the State of Ohio.  I wrote to my son Charles 
to have built for me a Cabin on my own land(2), near to a spring that I named, and which was
accordingly done, and on this day, with my wife and my son William, set out for Ohio to take
possession of the new Mansion prepared for us, having previously written to my son Charles to
provide for us as would be needful.  We traveled with four horses and a gig, with a side
saddle on one of the horses, that my wife might occasionally ride on horse back, and which in
the course of the journey she often did.  The first two days of our journey my spirits were
exceedingly depressed, so much so that I should have abandoned the trip and returned home but
that my wife zealously encouraged me to proceed.  The third day I felt my strength increasing
and my spirits better, and I continued to mend every day after.  We travelled leisurely, and
were 14 days on the road to Zanesville, where, staying two days, and being there met by my
son Charles, we proceeded on to our new establishment, and which I named Silvan Rest.  It was
indeed to me a place of rest and comfort, and there my health continued to improve every day.
   "Our Cabin was 18 feet long and 16 wide, built of round oak logs with the bark on, and
covered with slabs.  The floor was of oak plank, neither plained nor jointed, and planks of
the
_____________________________________________________________
   (1)Maria was at this time a widow.  Her husband, John Henry Brown, had died on the 19th of
March, 1811.
   (2)Charles Copland, Jr., went to reside in Ohio in May, 1811.

Page 221.

same sort were laid on the joists above, that formed an upper apartment - a sleeping place for
Charles and William, that was entered by a ladder on the outside and through a hole cut in
the gable end.  The lower apartment was our chamber and eating room.  It had one window and a
fire place.  John for himself made a little hovel or sleeping place of boards and brush be-
side the cooking place, and near our Cabin.  We made a coop for chickens, of which we always
had plenty, bought at 6 1/4 cents, and our hams of bacon - which cost per pound the price of
a chicken - fearless of robbers, were suspended on wooden hooks on the outside of the Cabin.
We had good butter and milk from a tenant, and within fifty yards of our Cabin.  My wife made
custards when we wanted them, and we slept soundly on a bed of straw.  We visited and were
visited by our neighbors.  I was almost constantly employed in one thing or another, and I
have often thought that I enjoyed in this humble cottage as much happiness as human life is
capable of.  The charm of novelty had, however, much agency in producing the contentment I
then enjoyed.  Had we staid long enough for the novelty of the same to have worn off, our
contentment would have been lessened.  We staid five weeks at Silvan Rest, and then set out on
our return home, and arrived in Richmond on the 8th of August, after an absence of two months
and 18 days.  Our travelling expenses, including expenses at the Cabin, were   $339.00
Expended for furniture for                                                       39.37
              Silvan Rest establishment.                                       _______
                                                                               $378.37"

   The following is probably the most expensive trip he ever took:

   "1815.  July 2d.  I set out to-day in a trip to the North with my wife, my sons William
and Robert and a maid servant.  We went to New York in the schooner Rose in Bloom, commanded
by Captain James.  We staid two weeks in New York.  My son William then returned home by
water, and we went to Albany in the Steam Boat, thence to Saratoga Springs in a hired coach,
where we staid three weeks, and then made a short excursion to Lake George.  After our
return to the Springs from the Lake

Page 222.

we staid a week, and then went by Albany to the Lebanon Springs, on the border of Massachusetts.
Lebanon, however, is in the State of New York.  We staid at Lebanon ten days, and then, in
a hired hack, went to the City of Hudson, on the bank of the North river, and two days after
went on board the steamboat Richmond and came to New York, where we continued a week, and
then turned homeward, travelling by steamboat and stage, and arrived in Richmond on the 28th
of September, after an absence of three months lacking 5 days.
The expenses of this trip were                                            $1,046.44
But to get New York money I had to pay for the difference in exchange,        46.00
                                                                          _________
Which made the expenses                                                   $1,092.44

   In November, 1816, he spent 17 days on a trip to Norfolk, and calls it the most expensive
trip he ever made for the time.
   "November 6th.  I set out on a trip to Norfolk with my wife and Mary Ann Cringan and
Elizabeth Nicolson.  We went in the steamboat Powhatan.  The second day after our arrival at
Norfolk we were joined by my son Alexander, who came on horse back.  We staid at Norfolk 12
days, and thence came to Jamestown in the steamboat; from there to Williamsburg in a hack,
where, after a stay of two days we set out in a hack (the ladies) for Richmond.  I rode on
horseback.  Alexander went to Jamestown and took the steamboat.  We arrived in Richmond on
the 23d, an excursion of 17 days only.
   "Our traveling expenses were                         $349.88
Of which my share was                 $229.82
Mary Cringan's share                    60.00
Elizabeth Nicolson's share,             60.06
                                       ______
                                      $349.88
   "The most expensive trip I ever made for the time".

   The longest absence from home was nearly six months.  This was spent in a trip to Kentucky
and Ohio, immediately after he had retired from the bar.
   1817.  "April 7th.  I set out to-day with my wife, and my son Robert, on a trip to Logan
county, Kentucky, to visit her rela-

Page 223.

tives.  We arrived at Mr. Wills, a distance from Richmond by my computation of 666 miles, on
the third day of May.  We continued at Mr. Wills until the 17th of June.  On that day we left
his home, and the day after came to the Carnelian in Warren county, where we staid a week,
and then went to Barren county to visit my sister Goodall.  We left Glasgow, the county town
of Barren, on the 4th of July, and came that night to Mumford's ferry, on Green River; the day
after to Elizabeth, the county town of Hardin; got to Louisville on the 7th, and left it on
the 12th; visited Major Croghan, eight miles above Louisville; staid with him till the 15th,
and then proceeded on to Lexington by the way of Frankfort; staid at Lexington 'til the 23d.
From Lexington we went to Marysville, and then crossed the river Ohio into the State of Ohio,
and at 11 o'clock at night of the 25th got to West Union; to Chilicothe on the 27th and on
the first of August arrived at Zanesville, and the day after went to my son Charles', where
and at Zanesville we staid till the 20th of that month, and then set out and came to Wheeling,
where we reamined until the 28th; proceeded on from there to Pittsburg, which place we left
on the 2d Sept. for Bedford Springs, and continued there until the 16th; came by Martinsburg,
Harper's Ferry, Fredericktown and Washington to Alexandria on the 25th, and on the day after
we visited Mount Vernon, a seat made illustrious by the residence of the Father of his country,
George Washington.  We arrived in Richmond on the 28th of September after an absence of six
months, lacking 9 days.
   "Our expenses were $1012.23".

   Unless he took a trip North or West he seems to have gone to the Springs every summer.
Sometimes visiting the Sweet, the White Sulphur and the Warm Springs all in one season.  
During the thirty-four years he kept the diary he speaks of twenty-four spearate trips (and
it is known from family letters that he made a good many trips in Virginia which he did not
mention in his diary).  Fourteen of these trips were out of Virginia.  He visited twelve
separate springs.  The most remarkable things though in connection with these journeys are
the shortness of his stay at individual places, the number of places he would visit in

Page 224.


one trip, the rapidity of his travelling, considering the time and the means of conveyance,
and the general lack of leisure in his movements.  On one occasion he and his wife drove all
the way to his son Charles' in Ohio, stayed four days only and three days in Zanesville,
and then returned home immediately, taking forty-three days for the trip.  At another time,
in 1810, he and his son Alexander made the Ohio trip, and were back in Richmond in thirty-one
days exactly.  The twenty-four day expedition to New York in a schooner, and Bethlehem by
stage, and back, has already been given on page 12.  Even while travelling in his own State
he seemed possessed by a nervous restelessness, which is usually considered characteristic of
the end rather than of the beginning of the nineteenth century.  His 1813 "excursion" is a
typical one, and may well be the last quoted.

   1813.  August 25th.  I set out with my wife on a short excursion across the mountains; we
travelled in a gig with a servant on horseback.  Our route was through Louisa, Spotsylvania,
Culpeper, Fauquier.  Crossed the mountains at Ashbies Gap, thence by Battletown; Charleston
to Harper's Ferry. Returning we came to Winchester, thence up the valley to Staunton.  Re-
turning homewards, we came by Charlottesville, crossed James River at the point of fork and
came down through Cumberland and Powhatan, and got home on the 28th September after an ab-
sence of thirty-four days.  Our expenses were $152.40".

   To every Virginian his account of the burning of the theatre in Richmond will be very
interesting.  His entry was evidently made some time after the event.

   1811.  "December 26th.  On the night of this day my daughter Margaret died.  She with 
about 70 other persons perished in the conflagration of the Theatre, which took fire
accidentally, and began in the scenery.  It was a night of horror and of great distress to
me, and also to many others, who were sufferers as well as myself by the loss of relatives
who perished in the flames.  Four of my children were in the Theatre when the fire broke out.
I was there myself in the early part of the night, but got tired of the play and came home,
and was in bed and asleep whent he fire commenced.  I was awakened by the cries of fire in
the street;

Page 225.

on opening my eyes, the room was illuminated by the fire from the Theatre through the end
window of the chamber, and which faced the Theatre.  Rising and going to the window, I discov-
ered the Theatre enveloped in flames, and before I got on my clothes I heard by daughter
Elizabeth, who had escaped, coming up stairs shrieking. When I got to my front door, going
out, I found crowds of people in the street coming from the Theatre.  Some of them bearing
away their maimed friends, who had suffered either from burning or broken limbs.  On my way
to the Threatre I stopt at every group I met to enquire for my daughter Margaret and my sons
William and Robert, and after I got to the Theatre I ran about in all directions making like

enquiries, but could hear nothing of them.  By this time, and even when I first got to the
Theatre, all those who were maimed or hurt, either by burning or broken limbs, were carried
off, and the crowd had removed from the Theatre twenty or thirty yards, either forced back
by the heat or the fear of the walls falling on them, leaving a wide open space between the
house and the crowd.  Agitated by disappointment in not finding my daughter or my sons, I
rushed into the Theatre at the only outward entrance door, and over a plank floor of about 
12 feet wide to the narrow inward door, where the receiver of tickets used to stand to receive
the tickets of admission from those that went to the play, and at which inward door there was
a step that led down to the dirt floor that led to the foot of the stairway that ascended to
the boxes.  When I got to the inward door, I discovered on the dirt floor, and at a little to
the left of the door, a female with her arms extended, and I thought by her gestures, under
the influence of mental derangement; she had passed the inward door that led to the outward
door (the way I had entered), and was moving to the westward side of the house, and where
there was no outlet.  I advanced quickly to her, and bore her out into the front yard in
front of the Theatre.  Some of the spectators came up; I left her in their care, and immediately
returned into the Theatre, and advanced to the foot of the stairway that led to the boxes
above, and here was presented to my view the most appalling sight I had ever witnessed.  At
the foot of the staircase there lay twelve

Page 226.

or fifteen human beings, if not more, some of them manifestly alive, and which I discovered
by the wreathing of their bodies.  I thought they were all females; one of them had her arm
extended and erect.  I seized her and carried her out into the yard, as I had done the one
before, and when she was received from me by some of the spectators, I then proclaimed the
situation of others that lay at the foot of the staircase, and ventured again into the 
Theatre to the foot of the staircase, but no one followed me.  My daugher had worn to the
Theatre a cloth riding dress, and when I was there a second time at the foot of the staircase
I passed my hand over the bodies of the females that lay prostrate before me, with the hope
of discovering my daughter by the dress she had worn, for I had not time to examine faces,
although there was sufficient light, as well from the candles that were burning in the tin
sconces that hung on the walls, as from the flames above, the glare of which came down the
stairway.  Agonized by the disappointment in not finding my daughter among those who lay at
the foot of the stairway, distracted too with the belief that my sons as well as my daughter
were lost, the roar of the fire above, the crackling of the burning timber, and the appre-
hension that my retreat to the outward door might be cut off by the falling in of the floor
above me, all united, so affected me (I tell it to my shame) that I retreated from the foot
of the stairway, and went out without taking with me any one of those unfortunate victims
that lay at my feet, and whose life I might have saved.

   "By what means death or torpor in so great a degree was produced in those that lay at the
foot of the stairway, it is difficult to say.  No doubt but that suffocation had commenced as
they got from the upper floor, and in attempting to descend the stairway they were borne down
and trampled on; fright, too, might have had an effect.  I remember well that the smoke on
the ground floor, where I was, was not in such a degree sufficient to retard respiration in
those who had suffered from smoke before they got from the upper floor.  I think it probable,
however, that the greater part, if not the whole, of those that lay at the foot of

Page 227.

the stairway on the ground floor might have been saved if they had been carried out even
when I was a second time at the foot of the stair case, and which was the third time I had 
been in the house.  While I was passing my hands over their bodies feeling for a cloth dress,
I frequently and with a loud voice called my daughter, hoping by loud speaking to rouse her,
or some one of them, but the power of speech was gone or suspended, but other signs of life
were not wanting.  The sad catastrophe of this night my feeling had hindered me from making a
subject of conversation, but I have often wished that I knew the recollections (if any) which
the two ladies I rescued had of the scenes that night.  I have said that there lay at the
foot of the stairway twelve or fifteen, if not more.  It is possible, however, that the
perturbation of my mind at that time may have magnified the number.  On coming out of the
Theatre the third and last time I ran home not without faint hope that my children might have
escaped and returned home.  I found my two sons, but my daughter was no more".

   To those who may not understand the intense interest which every native of Richmond takes
in the burning of this Theatre the above will seem an unnecessarily long interpolation, espe-
cially since our great grandparent is somewhat long-winded in his explanation.  But the
Richmonder's interest is so great that the other descendants must pardon its being quoted
at length.

   Besides the entries of intrinsic interest through the others there are often scattered
sentences which show Charles Copland's character and characteristics too decidedly to be
omitted here.  His hatred of debt was intense, and may show is Scotch-Irish blood.  His naive
self-complacency when he thinks his financial actions commendable, and his frank and very
severe self reproofs when his expenditures were unwarranted, are often amusing, but always
show an outspoke, warm-hearted and surely a lovable nature.

   When he first discovers that his practice is no longer able to supply the expenses of his
family he consoles himself by saying, "Fortunately for me, however, I have been more wise
than some others have been.  I was industrious in my youth, and am still

Page 228.

so, and by that industry have acquired property".  In spite of the income derived from this
property he deems it prudent to retrench, and says, "I have therefore determined to sell my
carriage(1) and horses.  Pride restrains many from lessening their expenses when prudence
calls aloud for it, and thereby many are hurried into ruin.  I have no such silly pride about
me, and if I shall hereafter find it needful to make other retrenchments than the one above
spoken of I shall do it".  Again he says, "It is a moment to enforce my motto, 'Industry and
Economy'; the reverse of that leads to ruin, and to that distress of mind always attendant
on embarrassment.  I am a stranger to duns, and I wish always to be so.  All the debts I owe
in the world amount to twenty pounds two shillings and nine pence ($67.13) and no more".  But
this naive self-complacency is certainly more than counterbalanced by his vehement self-
condemnation.  He says of 1811, "My expenses of this year I felt at the end of that year, and
now feel unwilling to record.  It is a reproach on me that I feel the justice of, and but 
that I think it right to disclose my own follies of this sort, I would hide it from the world,
and even from my self if that could be done.  I have never thought on it but with pain and
regret.  It was an expenditure wholly unwarranted by any one not richer than myself".  Later
in 1815 he is even more depressed.  "Prudential considerations", he says, "it may be thought,
would justify me in concealing from the eyes of my family, the amount of my expenses this
year, as that amount is not only great, but so far exceeds my income of this year.  Truth,
however, requires that such concealment should not be made, for while I sometimes notice to
my sons errors or mistakes of their own, I have no pretension to an exemption from errors
myself.  God knows I have had my full share of them.  But I never look on my account of ex-
penses of this year, and contrast the amount with my income of the same year without feeling
mortified and ashamed".
____________________________________________________________
   (1)It may interest some of Charles Copland's descendants to know that this carriage was
made to order for him in Philadelphia by T. Ogle in 1796, and cost $666.67.  It was 1805 when
he sold it, but he bought another in 1809.

Page 229.

   The following entry is truly pathetic, "I this year (1822) kept a detailed account of my 
house expenses.  Chiefly prompted to do so, that I might better judge in what parts of my
expenses I could retrench, as my income now, compared with what it has been, has dwindled
down almost to nothing, and it is important to my comfort that I should retain my independence
by keeping out of debt, for to me debt is a gorgon that I never think of without fear and
trembling".  It is comforting to know that he never was in the clutches of that gorgon.

   One more very short entry, and we shall have done with the diary.  In 1812 he says, "This
year I left off the use of that noxious plant Tobacco".  His different descendants will have
various opinions of the wisdom of that statement.

   There are several contemporaneous accounts of Charles Copland's legal fame.  In Letters
and Times of the Tylers (Vol. I., pp. 221, 222) John Tyler says, "The transfer of the General
Court from Williamsburg to Richmond brought along with it men of high eminence, and among
others Edmund Randolph.  He was soon after followed by Charles Copland, John Wickham and
many others, who made the city their permanent place of abode . . . Charles Copland remained
in Williamsburg for several years after the transfer of the General Court.  That old city still
furnished a large theatre for forensic labors, and Mr. Copland became the leading counsel in
all cases of interest.  To secure his services was regarded as equivalent to securing the 
case".  Mr. Tyler (afterwards President Tyler) is probably mistaken about the scene of
Charles Copland's forensic labors, for, according to his own diary, he came straight to
Richmond from Charles City, but Mr. Tyler was not mistaken in ascribing to our ancestor legal
pre-eminence.  Wickham was younger than Charles Copland, and twenty-five years later he
describes to John Tyler how he felt very terrified when he had his first case with Charles
copland on the other side.  He speaks of him as "the lion in my path".

   1904.  The present clerk of the Henrico county court assures me that from the number of
documents bearing Charles Copland's name as that of attorney in the case, and the number of

Page 230.

times his opinions are quoted as being authoritative, he must not only have had an unusually
large practice, but he must have been considered as Mr. Tyler puts it, "the leading counsel".
Certainly at one time, as he would have himself acknowledged, he was the leading consel,
"one only excepted".  (See page 6).

   In the Richmond Inquirer of Tuesday, November 29, 1836, there was this notice of his
death, "On Thursday evening, about half past 8 o'clock, Mr. Charles Copland, of this city.
In the death of Mr. Copland, the city has lost one of its oldest members.  He died at the
age of about forescore years, and his life is not so remarkable for its length as for the
exemplary discharge of all its dutires.  He was for many years a highly respected member of
the Richmond bar, and successful in the practice.  An intimate knowledge of his professional
life would furnish a useful lesson of dilligence, exact method in business, punctuality and
scrupulous integrity, while his private life is an exemplar of all the domestic and social
virtures.  The indigent, the orphan and the widow, the servant, the child and the wife will
unite with numerous friends to bless his memory and to mourn his loss".

                                                    WASHINGTON, 24th May, 1831.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:

   . . . I cannot say at this time when I shall visit Kentucky.  The late changes in the
Cabinet make it necessary for me to remain near the President until the new Secretaries 
arrive.  Judge White, on account of domestic affliction, having recently lost his wife, and
one of his only two remaining children being now in the last stages of consumption, declines
accepting the War Department.  It is not yet determined whom it will be offered to next.  P. 
P. Barbour, of Va., and Col. Drayton, of So. Carolina, are talked of; it will most probably
be the latter.  You will see from the papers that Mr. Branch has gone off in

Page 231.

a pet; however, since he arrived in No. Carolina he has regained his senses, and says, in
accepting an invitation to become a candidate for Congress, that he will, if elected, support
the measures of the present administration.  Mr. Ingham, it is believed, will behave more
prudently; he will probably remain in the Treasury Department until Mr. McLane returns from
Europe, and then, if he desires it, go as Minister to Russia in place of Mr. Randolph, who is
expected to return home this fall.
   Mr. Van Buren will, if he desires, go to England.  Major Eaton returns to Tennessee for a
season, not decided on his future course.  I shall remain, not for the reason assigned, that
the President would not accept my resignation until I clear up the charges against me; this
story got afloat in consequence of a remark of the President to Mr. Branch, who very indeli-
cately asked the President, when he was informed by the latter of the necessity of reorganizing
his Cabinet, and shown the resignation of Mr. Van Buren and Major Eaton, what I intended to
do.    The President replied that when apprised of the resignations of Mr. Van Buren and Major
Eaton, that I had promptly tendered mine, which he declined accepting, at which Mr. Branch
expressed some surprise at the discrimination in my favor.  The President, to save his
feelings as much as possible, instead of stating the real cause, that I had done nothing to
forfeit his confidence, remarked that I had been wantonly assailed, in a manner that no other
member of the Cabinet had, and that if it were proper for me to retire he would not consent to
it, as it might be cause of triumph to my unprincipled persecutors.  I was advised of Major
Eaton's and Mr. Van Buren's intentions long before they were sent in, and was advised with as
to the propriety of their course.  It was not known whether the other members of the Cabinet
would resign, or whether General Jackson would be compelled to remove them.  To cut off all
excuse, and open the way for freedom of action on the part of the President, I offered my
resignation.  When I did so he instantly said, "No, there is no cause for your retiring; I
have reluctantly parted with my confidential friend, Major Eaton, and I want you to remain
with me whilst I am in office."  Mr. Berrien is yet absent; it is not known whether he will

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resign or not; if he should, as is probable, in the event of Col. Drayton's appointment to
the War Department, the Honorable Mr. Bell of Tennessee will be Attorney General.  If P. P.
Barbour of Va. should be made Secretary of War, the Honorable J. Buchanan of Penn. will be
Attorney General.  The President enjoys good health.  Mr. Livingston and Mr. Woodbury are 
here.  In future we hope for harmony and united action.
   A great Jackson meeting was held in this city last evening.  They adopted resolutions
approving of General Jackson's administration and recommending his re-election for another
term.  General Duff Green attended, affected to be friendly, but advocated resolutions that
he procured to be offered, expressing confidence in J. C. Calhoun, and recommending him again
as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency.  His resolutions were rejected by an overwhelming
majority.

                                            WASHINGTON, 16th March, 1832.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . Your Mama is in bad spirits, but her health is pretty good.  She was at the President's
Levee last night; the house was crowded; it was the President's birthday, and completed his
sisty-fifth year.  I never saw him in better health or spirits.

                                            WASHINGTON, 10th April, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . The rumor of my going to England is wholly unauthorized.  At present I would not
accept a mission abroad.  It neither suits my circumstances in a pecuniary point of view, nor
the condition of my family.  Another motive would restrain me at preent, I wish to remain in
the Post Office Department; at least during the term of General Jackson, to show that I can
manage the Department, and to fulfill the wishes of the President and the hopes and ex-
pectations of my friends.  When I shall have done this, I shall be content to return to my
private life or to perform any service General Jackson may require of me.  I shall never ask
him for office, but leave it for him to say how and in what station I can best aid him and
serve the country.

Page 233.

                                                WASHINGTON, 4th July, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . The Bank Bill has passed, and was sent to the President yesterday for his signature;
but he will veto it, not caring for consequences, believing, as he does, that it is a 
dangerous and corrupt institution; one that now controls the legislation of Congress, and
which, if rechartered in the form it has passed, with unbounded powers, will destroy the
liberties of the country.  The President of the Bank is here openly canvassing, and it is said
loans to a large amount have been made to members of Congress, some of whom have gone home,
and others, once opposed to the Bank, now voting for it.  Of this I know nothing, and, of
course, would have you regard what I say as confidential.  General Jackson may lose ground in
some of the States by his veto, but he will gain in others.  It will make the entire South,
Virginia, etc., firm in his cause.  So it will New York, New Hampshire and Maine; nor will it
lose him Pennsylvania; the Democracy of the State are against the Bank. In the city of Phila-
delphia he may lose, but he will most probably gain in the county.  At any rate the conse-
quence will be hazarded, and his Cabinet are unanimously in favour of the veto.  Indeed, if
General Jackson were not to veto the Bill, it would tarnish his fame.  The measure is pressed
on him thus prematurely from the mistaken calculation that he will, to save his election, sign
the Bill.  Little do they understand the man, although his character is known in the history
of our country.  Base and designing politician judge General Jackson by themselves.  I cannot
believe that any true friend of General Jackson's will oppose his re-election for an honest
and fearless exercise of his constitutional powers.  When a charter for a Bank of proper form

is presented by the vote of a Congress elected under the new census by the people with a view
to this question, General Jackson will either sign the Bill or retire from his station, if he
thinks he cannot constitutionally do so, that the public will may take effect.

Page 234.


                                                 WASHINGTON, 17th July, 1832.
   I hope the President's veto of the Bank Bill will satisfy everybody that he is right, and
if not, that he is patriotic and honest; this no one will have the hardihood to deny.

                                                 STAUNTON, VA., 16th August, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:  We are thus far on our way to the Sulphur Springs . . . The day before we
left home, which was on the 10th inst., our cook, Fanny, was attacked with symptoms of 
cholera.  Dr. Cousin attended her, and all was done that medical aid and good nursing could
to save her, but in vain . . . Isaac, her husband, was attacked on the 1th, and in a letter
of the 13th Dr. Lacy says there was no hope of his recovery.  Betsy was attacked on the 12th
(your Mama left her to wait on her Mother), but was better on the morning of the 13th, no
symptoms of cholera appearing; her sickness, in all probability, resulting from great 
fatigue and loss of rest.  I  hope the children may be preserved, but all is uncertain in the

neighborhood of this terrible disease.  Your Mama and all of us are deeply distressed at the
loss of these faithful and affectionate slaves.  But we have known sorrow long enough to feel
it is our duty to be resigned to the will of an all wise and merciful God . . . We set out 
for the White Sulphur Springs, but it is so crowded and the accommodations so bad that I have
concluded to stay a few days at the Warm Springs, and then pass on to Salt, Sulphur and Sweet
Springs.  They are all in the same region of country, and I can pass rom one to the other as
they may best suit our condition.
   As we passed Charlottesville we had the satisfaction of visiting the University of Virginia
and Monticello.  The buildings of the former are beautiful, but the late residence of Mr.
Jefferson has lost all its interest, save what exists in memory, and that is the sacred
deposit of his remains.  All is dilapidation and ruin, and I fear the present owner,
Dr. Barclay, is not able, if he were inclined, to restore it to its former condition.

Page 235.

                                          WASHINGTON, 19th November, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER: . . . Miss Mary Lewis is to be married in a few days to a Mr. Pageot, I
believe this is his name, the brother of Madame Lournier, the lady of the French minister.
He appears to be an amiable and accomplished gentleman, but he is a foreigner, and therefore 
the match appears strange to me.  The President enjoys good health and is in excellent spirits.
His re-election is now certain.
   He will get all the States except Vermont; she is antimasonic, and, of course, for Mr.
Wirt.  Massachusetts and Connecticut are for Clay; little Delaware, Rhode Island doubtful,
and Louisiana.  S. Carolina goes anyway that Mr. Calhoun directs; his influence extends no

further.  Kentucky has no doubt gone for Clay and the Bank.  The power of both are drawing to
a close.  Developments of the corrupting influence of the Bank will probably be made the
approaching winter.  I regret the coarse of Kentucky.  She was the leading State in the West,
but is no longer so; Ohio takes her place, and ranks the fourth State, and will soon be the
third, if not the second.  Her population, like that of Pennsylvania, is essentially Democratic;
free from Bank influence.

                                         WASHINGTON, 30th November, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . You will see that General Jackson is re-elected by a great majority.  I feel deeply
mortified at the vote of Kentucky; I did not expect to see that State separated from the 
family of Democratic States in the Union, and placed by the side of those of the Hartford
Convention.  But it is so.  I hope that she will strive to regain her place amongst the States.
She has certainly made sacrifices enough for Mr. Clay.  Hereafter Ohio will take the lead of
all the Western States in the public councils; all that she wants is men of talents to lead
and give direction to the Democratic party.  New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio are
now the great States of the Confederacy, and are happily united in political sentiments.  The
President is much gratified at the decided support given to him by the people of the U. States
in this late election.  His

Page 236.

health is good and his mind composed and tranquil.  Nothing now is calculated to give him or
the country uneasiness but the unhappy state of things in South Carolina.  Mr. Calhoun and his
partisans are advancing boldly and recklessly to acts of treason.
   The overt act is all that is now wanting to consummate the crime.  But we fondly cherish
the hope that a kind Providence will still continue to watch over the destinies of this
highly favored land, and aid us in preserving the inestimable boon of freedom and independence
that our ancestors won for us at the sacrifice of much blood and treasure.  The Executive
Government at Washington will be calm and prudent in all its acts, but will be found ready to
act, and efficiently too, is support of the laws and the Constitution.
   You will see in the papers many rumors about changes in the Cabinet.  Do not credit them.
It is possible (but I do not wish it spoken of) that Mr. Livingston will go to France as the
successor of Mr. Rives, who had just arrived in our city.  Mr. McLane, now Secretary of the
Treasury, will be appointed Secretary of State.  His successor will come from Pennsylvania,
and will be taken from the ranks of Democracy.  The person selected will probably be Wm. I.
Duane, son of Col. Duane, so distinguished as an Editor.  His son is a man of pure and elevated
character, of the finest order of talents, and always has been a sincere and devoted friend
of the President's.

                                            WASHINGTON, 13th January, 1833.
   . . . I hear from your brother John very frequently.  Mr. Clay, the Secretary of Legation,
comes home iwth the assent of Mr. Buchanan, to settle his accounts with the Dept. of State;
whether he returns in uncertain.  Mr. Livingston tells me that John, in the interim, will act
as Secretary of Legation, with its rank and emoluments.  This, in addition to his pay as an
officer, will be handsome.  So far, John is doing well, and I thank God is fulfilling all my
expectations.
   The President enjoys unusual health, and is calm and collected in this moment of trial and
national peril.  The newspapers will afford you ample information as to public matters.  You


Page 237.

will see much said about an express sent by the government to So. Carolina, its object, etc.
It is true an express did go, its purposes entirely pacific.  My agents went to Charleston,
a distance of 555 miles, and returned to Washington in five days, travelling in that time
1110 miles, and this without any particular previous arrangement.  Hereafter, if necesary, it
will go and come in four days.

                                            WASHINGTON, 20th February, 1833.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . I enclose you two letters from your brother John.  They were handed me by Mr. Clay,
the Secretary of Legation to the Russion Mission, who arrived at Washington yesterday.  He
says John looks remarkably well, and although not much pleased with his situation at St.
Petersburgh, was in very good spirits.

                                            WASHINGTON, 14th February, 1832.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   I know take exercise pretty regularly; breakfast at 8 o'c., ride an hour in an open
carriage before I go to my office; and after dinner, at 5 o'c., ride again for an hour or
two.  I find this improves my appetite and causes me to sleep at night more soundly.

                                            WASHINGTON, 22nd February, 1834.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   . . . I had previously considered the question of the vacant Judgeship.  Many of my
friends have advised me as you do.  I could not think of leaving my present station at this
time for any other office whatever, and therefore would not allow my name to be mentioned for
the office.  At the close of the session, had the office remained open, and been tendered to
me, I do not know what I might have done.  I desire so much to be with my family, to take
care of them and to educate our children, that I would sacrifice a great deal of personal
feeling and everything of official pride. But the applicants for the place were very numerous;
they were all my personal and political friends.  I was filling a high station; it did not
seem to comport

Page 238.

with self-respect to descend to competition with little men for inferior station, and I
declined it.  Col. M. has been nominated for the office, and will probably be confirmed, but
some doubts are entertained as to the vote of the Senate.  I took no part in the contest
between the applicants, and was indifferent who might be chosen.
   My situation is not a pleasant one.  I must necessarily be absent from my family the
greater part of the year.  The office is an arduous one, full of responsibility, increasing
in its perplexities, on account of the political state of the country.  I must necessarily
meet the attacks of the opponets of the Administration; this I am prepared for, but I am also
subjected to a danger that no human foresight can guard against, the insiduous attacks of
pretended friends.  The different aspirants for the Presidency watch my course.  Van Buren
partisans think I am too friendly to Col. Johnson, etc., etc.  The President is kind to me,
but he is growing old and is irritable, acting upon impulses; listening to the stories of
creatures and conforming to the counsels of men wholly unworthy of his association.  Inferior
men, too, by their forwardness and impudence, have his ear and confidence; such men as Major
Lewis, Kendall, Blair, T. P. Moore, etc., etc.  They are mercenary and selfish, and are
careless of General Jackson's fame and honor.  They look already to his successor, and 
supposing it will be Mr. Van Buren, are catering to his ambition.  These men to not want me
to remain where I am, because of the honesty of my course and the independence of my 
character; that I will not carry out Mr. Van Buren's lists of proscription against the original
and fast friends of General Jackson, because they happen to be opposed to Mr. Van Buren.  I
have much to encounter in this way; I shall act firmly whilst I remain, but the time may not
be distant when I shall feel it my duty to retire.
   The President would probably give me a Foreign Mission, but I certainly shall never ask it
of him, and if he should offer it, I doubt whether it would be my interest to take it.  I
prefer returning to my priviate business and to my profession.  The only fear is my health.
But it is always improved by an active life . . . A foreign mission would carry me abroad
amongst

Page 239.

strangers that speak a language I do not understand.  Besides, I am heartily tired of holding
a place at the will and pleasure of another, even of General Jackson.  He is an honest, true
man and faithful to his friends, but he unfortunately listens to the counsels of bad men,
who find out his hobbies, and continually hang about and flatter him.  But for this class of
men, General Jackson's sun would have set peaceably and gloriously.  Now all is uncertainty.
   The removal of the deposits; the manner of it; the agents employed in it; the foolish plan
of the Secretary of the Treasury, if plan he has any; the consequent derangement of the
currency and suffering of the community, are making deep and lasting impressions on the public
mind.  Unless the evil is corrected (and I see but little hope of it now) General J. may
retire to the Hermitage under a cloud.  This I say to my family and in confidence.  I support
him, and will continue to do so whilst I am in his Cabinet.  But as the the real author of all
this, Mr. Van Buren, I owe him nothing, and care nothing for him.  As much as I dislike Mr.
Clay's public course, he has traits of character that Van Buren has not.  He is an open, 
fearless and brave man, and were he in power, would not allow dirty reptiles to worm about him,
and by their whispers and slanders tarnish the fame of honorable men.  But I will not dwell
on a subject unpleasant to me and to all honorable men to think of.

                                            WASHINGTON, 8th March, 1834.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER: . . . I find my health improving as the weather grows milder, and I take more
exercise than usual, determined to let business wait until I am ready for it.  I cannot leave
the Department; it is both my duty and my interest at present to remain in it.  I wish my
friends to understand this.  The idea that I intend leaving it impairs the power and influence
of my station.
   Contractors, Post Masters, and other agents, cease to respect the man who is about to quit,
and look to the one who probably will succeed him in office.  Now, I want it understood by
all my friends that I do not intend to quit my present station.

Page 240.

You know I can do so when I please, but that is a matter purely with myself.

                                              WASHINGTON, 15th May, 1834.
   . . . Armistead is now with me, and we are very comfortably lodged in a private boarding
house in F Street, in a very healthy and pleasant part of the city.  Do not be afraid that
General Jackson will ever prove an enemy of those principles of freedom for which he has
suffered so much, in the war of the Revolution and the late war.  If there is an honest
patriot living, General Jackson is one.  He is now contending against the powers of a monied
aristocracy, and a confederacy of able, ambitious, disappointed men, who are now united to
destroy General Jackson, and rather than fail in the effort, would be willing to see the
country convulsed in all the horrors of Civil War.

                                              WASHINGTON, 28th August, 1834.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER: . . . See how I am situated; assailed in the most violent manner, both
personally and politically.  Two special committees to meet, the middle of next month, to
examine into the concerns of the Department, how can I, under such circumstances, leave my
station until the progress of those committees in their business shall warrant it?  This, I
hope, will be in the month of October or November.


                                              WASHINGTON, 4th January, 1835.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER:
   I have been too much engaged to write to you for some time past.  Rumour, with her thousand
tongues, will no doubt magnify things.  I will state facts as they occurred.
   A Mr. Wm. Cost Johnson of Maryland, a member of Congress, assailed the P. O. Department as
corrupt from head to foot.  I addressed to him a note next morning to know if he intended to
impute corruption to me as a public officer or a man.  He sent me an equivocating and rather
insulting answer.  I did not hesitate a moment to send him a challenge.  My friend declined
delivering it until I had finished my address to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
that you will soon

Page 241.

see in the public prints.  In the meantime, your brother John, hearing of the attack upon my
reputation, left Fort Washington, and without naming it to me, challenged Johnson (who is a
young man), and they were to have fought to-day, between twelve and one o'clock. But last
evening the friend of Mr. Johnson, Major Heath of Maryland, suggested to the friend of your
brother John, Col. Peyton of Tennessee, the propriety, under the peculiar circumstances of the
case, of submitting the matter to a board of honour.  It was agreed to.  John selected Col. 
R. M. Johnson, the other party selected Mr. Wise of Virginia.  They met and agreed at once
that Mr. Johnson of Maryland ought to acknowledge that he did not mean to impute to me
corruption either as a public officer or as a man.  This was all I wanted, and so the matter
has ended.

   [On the 22nd of April, 1835, Major Barry wrote to his daughter his last letter from
Washington, enclosing a letter from General Jackson, relative to the Mission to Spain, in
which the President thanks his late Postmaster-General "for the aid and support you have
given me, on various important occasions, in performing the arduous duties of my office".
Resolutions were passed by the officers and clerks of the Post-Office Department, on the
21st of April, 1835, complimentary to the Postmaster-General, one of which is as follows:

   "Resolved, That the great and unexampled entension of the Mail establishment under Major
Barry is proof of his zeal in the public service and his devotion to the wishes of the people.
To multiply and quicken the streams of intelligence, until they should bear its blessings to
all; to our embryo settlements and frontier population, as well as to the older communities
of the Republic, has been the ambition of the Postmaster-General."

   In his letter of reply, Major Barry says:  "I have witnessed your labours and attention to
duty, and fondly hope that the Government will duly appreciate them, and provide for you a
more just and adequate compensation, placing the General Post Office upon the footing of 
other Executive Departments."]