 | LETTER XXI. Letters of J. Downing, major, Downingville militia, Second brigade, to his old friend, Mr. Dwight, of the New-York daily advertiser |  |
21. LETTER XXI.
Plan of the President's Message to Congress—and of
a Cabinet Supper—Song for the Important Occasion
—Please not to call the Major Jack Downing.
Washington, 9th December, 1833.
My last letter tell'd you about that diskovery
I made in the natur of the Gineral's specs
—and that the Message I had been to work
on for some time was jest finished—but the
very next day we had to take it all to bits,
and spring to and write eny most the hull of a
new one, for we found we had gone too much
into particulars, especially about the 'counts;
and letters from Mr. Van Buren advised us to
say as little about such matters as possible,
for Congress would only make us tell pretty
much the hull on't over agin—and the best
way was to say little at first, and trust to luck
and chance afterward. As soon as the Gineral
came to know of this, says he, `Major,
you must look out and keep in that Latin
about the Bank anyhow.' So we kept that
work well with the rest on't, for when you
come to make English on't, it reads that the
Gineral would have taken the Bank by the
throat right off, if he thought he could make
that Latin pill operate afore the charters expire—and
then agin he says the Bank does
wrong in bringing its business to a close so
rapidly as it is now doing. There is one thing
however that's true enuff, for seein that Judge
Marshall is a stubborn know-nothin kind of
crittur, and would have a finger in givin the
Bank that pill the Gineral speaks of in Latin,
I don't believe it would have operated afore
the charter expired, if it had 40 years more to
run—so there is more wit and cunnin in what
the Gineral says than folks think for.
There was another thing puzzled us tu a
trifle about the Bank. Last year, when we
thought it had no rale chink in it, the Gineral
thought best to take the deposits away from
it; but since I tell'd the Gineral in my Bank
Report there was more than 100 cords of the
rale grit, we had to say in the Message they
had too much.
The Post Office accounts was the next
bother; and that puzzled all on us peskily.
and you see by the Message there has
ben an error in keepin the 'counts in the post
office ever since Gineral Washington's time;
and every Postmaster Gineral, up to Major
Barry's time, never found it out; and it was
so curious that he took nigh upon 5 years to git
at it. But it's all clear now, for he is an amazin
sharp feller at siferin. We struck out all about
the Grand Tower, for Clay has been over the
same ground, and Mr. Van Buren thought it
was best to say nothin about it. And it warn't
thought best too to say nothin about the Nullifiers,
for some of Mr. Van Buren's friends in
Georgia, headed by Crawford, are gittin up
Nullification there, worse than Calhoun's last
winter, and it makes all the difference in the
world when you come to see that one's own
friends are doin what our enemies did afore.
As soon as we sent the Message to Congress,
we set about gittin up a supper for all
our folks who had ben to work on't, and we
had a grand time; all our Majors was there.
The Gineral was so beat out, he didn't stay
long; but some on 'em kept it up till nigh
daylight.
We had some rale good songs too; and one
a copy of one on 'em; but I hain't got time
now to send you the hull on't: so I'll jest give
you 3 varses only.
Here assembled in the hall,
Lest us sing of times past, present, and to come;
We have every thing at stake,
And our fortunes yet to make,
And the public good is now-a-days “a hum.
Times past have all gone by,
And old laws are “all my eye,”
The present and the future we are sure in,
When the Gineral's time is up,
We'll fill again the cup,
And drink to Amos Kindle and Van Buren.
We have no one now to thank
For a discount at the Bank,
Since we've got the public money from Nick Biddle,
And as we alone have ernt it,
We'll use it as we want it,
Security is now all fiddle diddle.
I wish you would tell folks to stop callin
me Jack Downing—'twas well enuff when I
warn't quite as much up in the world as I now
be; and it was jest so with Mr. Van Buren—
folks would keep callin him `Mat:' but it
warn't right, and it ain't good manners nuther.
And there is another thing I don't like; but I
of any letter I ever did write), and that is
printin in a book all the Letters I first rit, and
mixin up other Letters and Sam Patch, and
callin some of my Letters to you counterfits.
As soon as I git the Gineral threw this Congress,
I'll turn to and git my Letters all together
that I writ to you, beginnin with the
Grand Tower. Major Earl is drawin my
likeness, and the Gineral's, and Mr. Van Buren's,
and the most of our folks for me. He
is a master hand at it; and Zekel Bigelow
tells me if I'll give him the copyright, he'll
new shingle our old barn for nothin. How
comes on your book about the Hartford Convention?
The Gineral wants you to send
him a copy on't as soon as it is done—he
wants to see how nigh Yankee Nullification
comes to Nullification now-a-days.
| LETTER XXI. Letters of J. Downing, major, Downingville militia, Second brigade, to his old friend, Mr. Dwight, of the New-York daily advertiser | |