LETTER LVII.
In which Major Downing gives the result of a consultation
amongst the government on the question, whether the
President should shake hands with the Federalists during
his journey down East.
Washington City, April 20, 1833.
To the Editor of the Portland Courier, in the Mariners' Church
building, second story eastern end, Fore Street, away down East
in the State of Maine.
My Dear Old Friend, — Bein I hant writ to you
for some time, I'm afraid you and our folks up in Downingville
will begin to feel a little uneasy by and by, so
I'll jest write you a little if it aint but two lines, to let
you know how we get on here. I and the President
seem to enjoy ourselves pretty well together, though its
getting to be a little lonesome since the Congress folks
went off, and Sargeant Joel cleared out with my Downingville
Company. Poor souls, I wonder if they have
got home yet; I have n't heard a word from 'em since
they left here. I wish you would send up word to Sargeant
Joel to write to me and let me know how they got
along. He can send his letter in your Currier, or get
uncle Joshua to frank it; either way it wont cost me any
thing. Now I think of it, I wish you would jest ask
cousin Nabby to ask uncle Joshua to frank me on two
or three pair of stockings, for mine have got terribly out
at the heels. He can do it jest as well as not; they
make nothing here of franking a bushel basket full of great
books to the western States. And they say some of the
members of Congress used to frank their clothes home
by mail to be washed.
I and the President are getting ready to come on that
way this summer. We shall come as far as Portland,
and I expect we shall go up to Downingville; for the
President says he must shake hands with uncle Joshua
before he comes back, that faithful old republican who
has stood by him through thick and thin ever since he
found he was going to be elected President. He will
either go up to Downingville, or send for Uncle Joshua
to meet him at Portland.
There is some trouble amongst us here a little, to know
how we shall get along among the federalists when we
come that way. They say the federalists in Massachusetts
want to keep the President all to themselves when
he comes there. But Mr Van Buren says that 'll never
do; he must stick to the democratic party; he may
shake hands with a federalist once in a while if the democrats
dont see him, but whenever there's any democrats
round he mustn't look at a federalist. Mr McLane
and Mr Livingston advise him tother way. They
tell him he'd better treat the federalists pretty civil, and
shake hands with Mr Webster as quick as he would with
uncle Joshua Downing. And when they give this advice
Mr Lewis and Mr Kendle hop right up as mad as
march hairs, and tell him if he shakes hands with a single
federalist while he is gone, the democratic party will
be ruined. And then the President turns to me and
asks me what he had better do. And I tell him I guess
he better go straight ahead, and keep a stiff upper lip,
and shake hands with whoever he is a mind to.
Mr Van Buren staid with us awhile at the President's,
but he's moved into a house now on Pennsylvany Avenue.
He's a fine slick man I can tell you, and the
President says he's the greatest man in America. He's
got the beat'em-est tongue that ever I see. If you had
a black hat on, he could go to talking to you and in ten
minutes he could make you think it was white.
Give my love to our folks up in Downingville when
you have a chance to send it to 'em, and believe me
your old friend,
