Caleb Atwater

“ Let any observing man look over this district, and then answer my question. We live in an age of innovation—in an age, when the passions are let loose, and when the pseudo reformers are busily engaged in their endeavors to uproot all our old, well-established forms of government, religion, morals and law. Like the largest oak on the Alleghanies, which has withstood the fury of the elements during five centuries, we hope our institutions of all sorts may survive the furious blasts of demagogues in morals, politics and religion. ”

“ Wise condemned C. J. Ingersoll, as every one else did, for his behaviour towards an aged, respectable man, whose public services, years learning and talents ought to command and do command the respect of all good men in the nation. Any member of Congress who respects himself, will always be treated with respect, because he deserves it. Any young man, who thinks to obtain any advantage by assailing Mr. Adams, will find himself to have made a false calculation.
The Senators preserve their own dignity, and do not mingle much with the turbulence around them. ”

“ It has the monopoly of commissions—not of qualifications—the same instruction at another location would have equal effect in qualifying an officer to command. I object to the institution, because it is aristocratic, also, in the habits and feelings which it inculcates. Petted as the cadets are, it would be surprising if they did not become proud and vain. It is not their fault—your laws make them so. They are placed in such a position as to render the adoption of such feelings almost inevitable. They alone have a public education at the expense of the nation. ”

“ Freemont, it is certain, that a rail-road from Cumberland, in Maryland, to the Pacific, is entirely within our means as a nation, at an expense of only about fifty millions of dollars or less; and it is equally certain that the new lands to be brought into market by making the road, would defray every dollar of the expense of making it. We live in the infancy of the greatest nation that now exists, ever did, or ever will exist, on the face of the globe. ”

“ The Western people, possessing as they do, unflinching courage, pure patriotism, a love of liberty, of sincerity and truth, decision of character, open heartedness and sincerity, with broad and liberal views, and possessing too an energy and a determination to go forward, conquering the forest and the prairie, they will soon extend our dominion to the Pacific ocean. Such a people will always go ahead of all national legislation and compel Congress to come limping and halting along on crutches and stilts behind them. ”

“ He is unquestionably one of the most talented men in the nation. It is quite possible that he has been treated very ungratefully by the men, who have been raised into high places by Mr. Calhoun himself. Without a particle of intrigue in his composition—unacquainted entirely with the machinery of party management and party drill, he has stood no chance of success among such men. He appeared to know and to feel this, though he has always scorned to stoop to such low means of rising into the highest office in the Union. ”

“ To say that Congress ought not to encourage ingenious foreign artists at all, would be contrary to our feelings and to all our history, but our own artists should have a preference, all other things being equal. And I do not say, that our artists may not with great propriety go to Europe and there study the best labors of the best artists. But let our Americans carry with them American hearts, and return to us untinged with European feelings, and not be imbued either with the ideas of paganism. Washington clad in a Roman dress, instead of his American uniform! ”

“ The institution is aristocratic in the monopoly of military commissions which it secures to the cadets after they have received their education. It is not sufficient to educate them at the public expense, but they must also be provided for in the same way ever after, and that too in the most objectionable form of a monopoly. No man, whatever may be his talents or qualifications, or his thirst for military fame, can get into the army unless he enter through the gate of the West Point Academy, the only portal open to ambition. ”

“ Should the seat of the national government be removed farther west, Alexandria would not suffer much by that change. The Potomac, broad, deep and navigable, would still roll its tide from Georgetown to the sea. The industry, enterprise, economy, morals, religion and patriotism of the people would remain, and render prosperous, useful, good189 and happy, a thriving people. An increasing city will forever remain here an ornament of the nation. This is a nucleus, around which men of good principles may rally, and from this point spread far and wide, sound morals and sound principles of all sorts. ”

“ Her ships and commerce will float on every sea and every ocean, until she will rival London herself in trade, wealth and power. The position of New York, so near the main ocean, on an island, laved too by the North river and the Sound, affords every facility which she needs or could desire, for extending her commerce not only to foreign countries, but into the interior of this vast country. She will only need a rail-road to the Pacific, and a dense population, settled along its whole route, to enliven and animate the scenery along its way. ”

“ Placed as members of Congress are on a pinnacle, in view of a whole nation, unless they possess well ballanced minds, they are not to be envied. They have rivals at home, sometimes ready to misrepresent their motives, their services and their talents. There is always requisite, the constant exercise of one virtue, at least, which is patience, and they must labor incessantly to gratify friends at home, who expect at their hands more than they can do for them. ”

“ There is an elasticity in the American character, not existing to the same extent in any other nation. Under any great national disappointment,145 there may be, and there is, sometimes a season of national gloom, but recovering from such a state of mind, our people rouse up all their wonted courage, and confiding in their own strength, they move onward to new enterprises, entertain new hopes, and finally realise, and frequently more than realise all their most sanguine expectations. ”

“ Looking through the vista of futurity, we can now behold a nation consisting of five hundred millions of people, all speaking our language, and governing the world in peace without a rival in commerce, arts or arms. ”

“ To be a member of Congress, requires talents of all sorts—great industry, great attention to business, constant care, strength of body and strength of mind. Members of Congress, who make a figure as orators, can do little indeed for individuals among their friends. Moving in a higher sphere, they aim at some high station—to be a minister abroad, a Secretary, or to obtain some lucrative office.144 Apparently laboring for the public good, their real object is frequently very selfish. Such men have rivals among their own party, and all their political opponents are opposed to them. ”

“ In such a case, the government may, on the purest principles of morals, give such a man some easy place as a shelter in his old age. Such an act ought to rescue such a head of department from oblivion. ”

“ Had we not known that it was the Almshouse, we might have been tempted to believe it the residence of some retired monarch of the old world, who had come here, and at the expense of a million of dollars or more, had erected this splendid palace for a residence. The traveller is generally treated a little better, and charged a little less in Philadelphia, than he is in any other Atlantic city. As a whole, this city has always been celebrated for its good qualities of all sorts, and yet a few, a very few men here have done not a little to injure its still fair character. ”

“ Men incapable of acting with the like nobleness themselves will be slow to believe it of others. I do not doubt that every member will act on this subject from the purest motives; but if we would stand well with the country—if we would have full credit for disinterestedness with the people, we ought to divest ourselves of this patronage.
Again, sir, if this power be confined without check or control to members of Congress, will there not be danger of the institution being aristocratic in the persons selected as cadets? ”

“ Should that time ever arrive when the members of our state and national legislatures practise all the vices which the laws they make are apparently made to punish and prevent—what influence can their legislative acts exert on the community? Why enact laws to prevent the commission of acts, which their own examples encourage and aid, and even induce? If such legislators are often seen at the card table, in the race field, or at the nightly debauch, will not men in less honorable stations continue to follow such blighting examples? ”

“ As a nation, we deserved to suffer, but still we may mourn for our dreadful loss, sustained by his untimely death.
Judge Upshur was a man of good principles and pure morals. He was all in reality and truth, that any old Virginia gentleman79 was in the days of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, an ornament to human nature itself and of the “Ancient Dominion.” He recalled to my mind the old patriots of Virginia, for whom from my earliest years I had entertained a strong and abiding sense of their worth, their intrinsic value, as men and as citizens of this republic. ”

“ These circumstances added much to my satisfaction on my first day’s visit to the seat of Government. I met and shook hands with many old friends, residing either here or in Georgetown. Washington no longer presents the outside of vice, and that circumstance speaks highly of those, who have so zealously laboured to improve the morals, and mend the hearts, of the great mass of the citizens. Their labors must have been great, otherwise such success would not have followed their works. ”

“ We live in a world that is passing away—in its habits, customs, dress, weapons of warfare; all is changed, changing and never will be stable, scarcely an hour! Ninety-four years ago, this spot, where this city is, was surrounded by a dense forest, on the verge of civilization, now it is quite on the eastern side of our domain.
There is a large market house here, of brick, over which are rooms for the several public offices, and in the third story is the museum. The mayor, clerk, auditor, &c. have their offices in the first story above the market house. ”

“ Calhoun’s private character is pure and spotless. He never had any vicious habit of any sort, nor indulged in any vice. There are very few such public men in this nation, or even in this world, and there is no better one anywhere. Whether he belongs to any church, I do not know but that he practises all the christian virtues is certain. His hair is grey, but his step is strong and elastic, and his body like his mind is as strong and as active as it ever was. ”

“ So of our senators, Tappan and Allen, the whigs of Ohio believe that these senators are their enemies, but I always found them very friendly to me, doing me many favors and no injury—quite the reverse. They have their own political creed, differing from mine in some respects, but they endeavor to serve their constituents when they come here, even if they are whigs.
Those who have been long in Congress can be much more useful to their constituents, than those who have had less experience. ”