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Richmond, Va., May 29th, 1832.

(Confidential)

Dear Sir: I received your letter informing me of the official conversation with the President of the United States.

I regret much you did not give it all the forms of an official communication to me and will be glad if you will yet do so for which purpose I will shortly send it to you.

In the meantime I must say to you that the President's conversation with you in your official capacity, is so offensive to me that for the honor of Virginia I cannot consent to have any further correspondence with the Federal Government or with any of its officers, either by the agents of Virginia or by myself.

The attack which the President of the United States made upon me and Mr. Tazewell, the Senator of Virginia, in his political conversation with you, the official agent of Virginia, was of so distinct a character that, as a friend of Mr. Tazewell's as well as Governor, I felt bound to give him a sight of the letter and accordingly enclosed it to him.

I wish Mr. Tazewell to make that letter the basis of an official communication to me but as you have written it not desiring it to be considered official you can have an opportunity of making it so very soon as you shall have it, or a copy of it, returned to you.

I wish you to go as soon as practicable to Annapolis and search the records of Maryland for the document wanted as I have an advice of Council to pay expenses in this country. On your way you can see Mr. Tazewell and deliver him the official paper. In the meantime I hone you will give me the permission desired.

Soon you shall hear all. The document can be had if in existence but you shall know all in a few days freely and efficiently. We will yet do well. Yours with regard,

John Floyd.

To Charles James Faulkner, Esq., of Berkeley County, Virginia.

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Note to the foregoing letter.

If you are willing to grant the request simply direct a letter to me for that purpose, but if you are willing to take back the letter merely to throw it into a better official form, you will have an opportunity to do so as you pass through Washington City to Annapolis by calling on Mr. Tazewell and saying to him that I have instructed you to ask for the letter to be put in a more official form to be again placed in his hands to be by him returned to me. Pray weigh all these things. It is all right. I use these last expressions because I am pressed for time, I cannot explain as fully as I will in a few days. Your friend and servant,

John Floyd.

Thirtieth day. The news from Washington is still more and more unfavorable to the honour or intelligence or gentlemanly deportment of the administration of the Federal Government. If I record them all it will hardly be believed in future times if by accident this record should see the light.

JUNE, 1832.

First day. The Council of State, to use their power, have refused to notice the pretensions of Mr. John B. Richardson to the clerkship of their Board. This, I understand, to take place day before yesterday.

Second day. I wrote on this day to Mr. Tazewell.

Thirteenth day. The crops throughout the country have been much injured by the cold, the rains and the hailstorms and the coolness and the irregularity of the Winter though there will be enough of grain for subsistance, it will greatly take from the usual supply of commerce. The excessive rains during

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the Spring together with the cold caused very much of the Indian corn to rot in the ground, which had been planted. Whole fields had been ploughed up and replanted or sowed in oats. Though the destructive rains have injured the grain crops it has produced a finer crop of grass for meadows and pastures than has almost ever been seen.

Sixteenth day. Congress is still in session, the elements are more and more troubled. The Northern Members insist on keeping on the tariff and oppressing the South by its execution, as it operates as a monopoly to the northern states. The Southern members resist all this. My belief is that the great wealth which has flowed in upon the North under the operation of that law of Congress has given them so strong a predeliction for that system which makes them rich by the labor of the South that they will never abandon it. The South on the other hand, will not bear it long and I do believe they could not bear it ten years if they were willing to pay the ex-action.

The President, I see from the papers, is about to rip up the whole of that old business of the Seminole War to prove that he acted under secret orders thus hoping to shield himself from the odium of violating his orders and also violating the Constitution. I was Jackson's friend in that debate in Congress, as I thought he entered Florida in "hot pursuit" of his enemy; but since I left Congress I have seen letters which prove he did it deliberately and wantonly. He even proposed by letter, and I have seen the letter lately, to the President that if he, the President, would sanction it or give a private hint to any of

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his friends that he, Jackson, would make the attack upon Florida or Pensacola. Monroe, the President, repelled the idea and forbade it. Still Jackson, as it lately appears, went on and to gratify his hatred to Calhoun he wishes to, and says he will, open that subject again and prove that he was privately instructed to do what he did on that occasion.

If Jackson does prove any such thing as that, he will do it by perjury and fraud, as I say I have lately seen all the private letters between the President and Jackson, between Calhoun, the Secretary of War, and Jackson, between the President and Calhoun on that occasion. Jackson alone justifies himself, or did justify himself, in these letters upon the ground that it was covered by the official orders.

Yet such is the character of Jackson that he can prove by certificates and oaths anything he pleases, and can make a witness out of any of his retainers, for if they refuse any request they lose his favor, patronage and office, which such as he generally has around him, will not do.

Twenty-fourth day. I am so much recovered that I think to-morrow I will take the road for my residence in the mountains and spend a few weeks in order to see whether the cool and healthful atmosphere will not restore me to perfect health once more.

JULY, 1832.

First day. Received to-day the news of the passage of the tariff bill by a majority in the House of Representatives of one hundred and twenty-one to

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sixty-five--a majority, too, of the Virginia delegation voting for it, among whom was Craig of the Montgomery District.

Third day. Ritchie's paper came out this morning, he speaks of the passage of the Tariff but no one can say from his article whether he is for or against the bill.

Fourth day. This day has been celebrated with unusual display, two companies of volunteers from Petersburgh and one from Chesterfield County attending with the Richmond Volunteers.

Ninth day. We got the news to-day of Jackson's having signed the bill for internal improvement which totally annihilates every position taken in his Maysville veto. Rumour says that he will veto the United States Bank Bill.

OCTOBER, 1832.

Twenty-fifth day. The cholera, the most terrible disease to which the human body is subject to is disappearing.

Twenty-sixth day. This day a letter from P. P. Barbour to Thomas W. Gresham was published in the Whig, wherein he declines being voted for as Vice-President. This man, so soon before the election, puts us, the States Rights party, in such a condition that no efficient measures can be taken to defeat the election of Jackson and Van Buren, the latter a man of moderate talents and the man less governed by principles or the Constitution than any who are at all of consequence enough to be looked to as a candidate for any respectable Station before the

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country. Thus has the honest P. P. Barbour succumbed to power regardless of his principles. Some do say that Jackson has promised him the office of Chief Justice of the United States should Marshall die or resign. I know he wishes that office.

Twenty-seventh day. This evening I have received from the Honourable Littleton Waller Tazewell, a letter resigning his seat in the Senate of the United States from Virginia. I am truly sorry for this as Mr. Tazewell is a virtuous, good man and a man of the highest order of talents, and as a man of learning and ability stands first in the Senate. I have feared this because he, a year or more ago, told me that the inclination of his mind was that way. Because said he, "Jackson has abandoned all his principles and ignorant and vicious as his mind is there is no hope for maintaining the struggle for States Rights, and it would be worse than useless for me to spend my time in the Senate in fruitless attempts to sustain the States Rights principles alone or in a hopeless minority. All Jackson's counsellors are of low, underbred characters without minds or morals and are as yet sustained by a majority."

To this I answered that all he said was true but that our country ought to be sustained and not given up to be disgraced, plundered and ruined by ignorance and vice, that the exertions of such men as himself, few as they were, would sustain themselves until the great mass of the people could be informed of the truth of things, not only in this State, but in the other States, that the mass of the people were virtuous and would in the end be with us. He consented to serve another session but said if there was,

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at the end of that time, no strong hope of the restoration of the dignity of the United States Government, that he would feel disposed then to resign. Upon reflection, I think this conversation took place last Spring a year, not long after the adjournment of Congress.

NOVEMBER, 1832.

Second day. It is hazy and warm, what we in the mountains call a "blue day in the fall."

Tenth day. No case of cholera for several days.

Eleventh day. The elections for President of the United States are going through the confederacy, of course, nothing else astir but all anxiously waiting what the result will be.

Fourteenth day. Letters from the Thorn Spring, our home, inform me that the snow there is four inches deep.

Fifteenth day. This day is cloudless and clear though becoming cold.

Seventeenth day. Yesterday afternoon I heard of the death of Charles Carroll of Maryland, the last signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was a Catholic by persuasion, a pious, good man. I am fearful the liberty of the country, the Declaration of whose Independence he signed, will not long outlive the last of its signers.

I have heretofore been as firm and dauntless a supporter of the rights of the people and the supremacy of the Constitution as any man now living. I declare before Heaven that I never had an object but to support the Constitution in its limited construction

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believing as I have, and as twenty years experience and observation in public life now fully prove to my mind, that this confederacy cannot long last unless the Federal Government is administered upon this principle, which I am now hopeless of. Jackson is again elected to the office of the President of the United States. Should he still pursue his ignorant and violent course, which there is a strong probability he will do, we will never see another President of the United States elected. Such has been the misrule of this man and so ignorant of the Constitution he has been called to administer the government under, that the States which feel their Sovereignty insulted, contemned and threatened, writhing under the oppressive exactions of the Tariff that they talk seriously of calling a Convention of the people of their States to decide upon the constitutionality of these acts and of arresting their operation in their States. Such is the folly of Jackson that, dizzy with his power and maddened by his tyrannical disposition, he is ordering troops to South Carolina to threaten an attack should the Convention now called nullify the Tariff. This will, if an attack is made, destroy the confederacy. Such is the man who is President and the one in whom I had originally so large a share in putting into that place. My error was an honest one. I thought he was not so ignorant and would be assisted by the good, learned, and virtuous of his party, but he has quarreled with them and has chosen the mean, ignorant, and unprincipled as his counsellors.

Twenty-second day. It is now ascertained beyond a doubt that Jackson is reelected President of the

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United States for four years from the fourth of March next.

Now comes the downfall of the liberties of my country or at all events, the destruction of the Confederacy. I pray God that I may not be a true prophet, but I will with truth record the facts that future inspectors may know the truth and shun the danger.

Twenty-fifth day. I this day received a letter from South Carolina from a member of the Convention that they have in that body determined to nullify all the tariff laws of Congress and if force is used against them to enforce them, then, in that event, they declare South Carolina out of the Union I, as Governor of Virginia, will sustain South Carolina with all my power. Let others beware.

Twenty-seventh day. I have heard this day from South Carolina. Wm. C. Preston writes that the Committee have agreed to report a measure of unconditional nullification of all the laws on the subject of the tariff. So far it is well.

DECEMBER, 1832.

Second day. South Carolina is much talked of and her nullification of the tariff laws of Congress. I will first learn the opinion of the members of the Assembly of this State before I record anything as they meet to- morrow. My message will show my opinion upon these subjects to be precisely that which the Legislature exposed as their opinions by the adoption of the resolutions of the year 1798. I think the flatterers of Jackson are becoming alarmed

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at the course of South Carolina and begin to change their language and minds.

Thirteenth day. This day I received intelligence that something would transpire in Congress of deep import. At twelve o'clock I received from a Senator in Congress, the Honourable John Tyler, a copy of a "Proclamation by Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, denouncing war upon the State of South Carolina." This is the most extraordinary document which has ever appeared in the United States. It concentrates all power in the President and denounces all meetings in any states, as treason if to call in question the constitutionality of any act passed by Congress, denies the States to be sovereign or this to be a confederacy, and acknowledges no authority but that vested in the President. He has ordered his army to South Carolina and is making every preparation for war. I think I shall be able to check him.

Fourteenth day. I have this day laid before the General Assembly the ordinance adopted by the Convention of the People of South Carolina, with a message, which will call for their action whereby it will be seen whether the people of this State will submit tamely to be governed by a tyrant who acknowledges no law but his own will. A republic and constitutional liberty I will have or I will perish in the struggle.

Fifteenth day. There is some sensation created in the Assembly and among the people from my message and the President's Proclamation and the Ordinance of South Carolina. The minions of Jackson, Ritchie, the Tory son of a Tory father, P. N.

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Nicholas, P. V. Daniel, Wyndham Robertson and D. Willson, the three Councellors of State, Banks, the Speaker of the House of Delegates, and Dromgoole, the Speaker of the Senate, are agitated. These wretches have deserted their principles and the liberties of the people for the smiles of that tyrant, Jackson. I still do not despair of the stability and virtue of the people, with them I am strong and they shall be free.

Seventeenth day. The Committee to which my message conveying to the house the Ordinance of South Carolina has not yet reported. Strange to tell, some of them are for submission to the will of Jackson in compliance with the desires of that base Tory printer, Ritchie.

Nineteenth day. No report yet from the Committee. I understood this morning that when my message was received in the City of Washington the friends of the President were with him almost all night consulting upon the propriety of his retracing his steps but as yet his personal hate to Calhoun induces him to insist upon using the sword to inforce his doctrine of treason. If so, there is no government or Constitution but his will and that Proclamation. If he uses force, I will oppose him with a military force. I nor my country, will not be enslaved without a struggle.

Twenty-sixth day. I have this day received from the Governor of Pennsylvania sundry resolutions of the Assembly of that State, approved by the Governor, requesting them to be laid before the Commonwealth (Virginia), affirming all the power to belong to the Federal Government which is claimed

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for it by the President by his late Proclamation ordering the people of South Carolina to repeal their ordinance of nullification and offering the military aid of that State to subdue South Carolina.

If this should take place there is no limit to the Federal Government, and the United States becomes the most arbitrary government in the world and we have lost our liberty should that take place, by the action of one section of the Union by force of arms appropriating the profits of the labor of the other for their own use.

I have often said and here state that Jackson is the worst man in the Union, a scoundrel in private life, devoid of patriotism and a tyrant withal, and is only capable of using power that he may have the gratification of seeing himself obeyed by every human being. He speaks the language ungrammatically, writes it worse and is exceedingly ignorant, but strange to tell, he is feared and most all seem disposed to give up their liberty rather than displease him, who is now so popular that many fear to encounter his frown and many, very many, seem willing to let him rule, the arbitrary despot, provided they can obtain office. Thus office and a base love for gold and power have mainly contributed to enslave us by a brutal, ignorant soldier.

Notwithstanding all these things my countrymen are inert and many say "O, I think Jackson does not mean to wage war, he is only getting his vast armies together, chartering steamboats, manning his ships, merely to scare South Carolina a little." Base, treacherous curs! thus adding insult to injury.

I, at this moment, feel assured we will soon be

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by that monster and villain, Jackson, involved deeply in a civil war. I deplore this the more as the Constitution of Virginia has so limited the power of the Governor and through jealousy of him, has made the most imbecile government that a free people ever lived under, and still more strange, they have had no fears in regard to the President, yet I will do the best I can to save the liberty of my country. I expect civil war and I expect to perish in it, but none shall say hereafter in the history of this coming conflict that I, as Governor of Virginia, wanted either prudence, courage or patriotism. I will do my duty though I have no fondness for power of office.

JANUARY, 1833.

Fifth day. The whole of this week the debate on our Federal Relations has continued and each day's debate convinces me that we hold our liberty by a very slender thread and a very uncertain tenure.

I have heard almost all the members of the Legislature speak who have delivered orations on this subject and am fully of the opinion that they are [more] afraid of offending the Tyrant, Jackson, than of preparing the minds of the people for resistance to encroachments upon their liberty.

Broadnax, Bruce and Witcher feel like freemen and assert like men of firmness the rights of the States, but all the others submit abjectly to the usurpations of Jackson. Mr. Brown, of Petersburgh, spoke yesterday and sustained the President's proclamation throughout. At last he said a

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"State had the right to judge of the violations of the compact, treaty or constitution (call it what you will) and secede from the Union but that the remaining twenty-three had an equal right to judge whether they had or not so violated the Constitution and if they were of the opinion that they had not so violated the Constitution, or compact, that they had a right to compel the seceded State to submit to the law and return to the Union. That the President had not now power to wage war upon South Carolina, but that it was in the power of Congress to pass laws to enable him to subdue that State under the provisions of the Constitution!

This is the highest toned consolidation doctrine I have ever heard in my life, entertained by any man south of the Potomac, John Marshall, perhaps, excepted.

If the Legislature sustains that doctrine then the States cease to exist as Sovereignties, and the Union becomes one great consolidated despotism. This, by the by, seems the language of the whole Jackson party at this time, which is an immense majority and our liberty now depends entirely on our ability to prevent them from being carried into absolute execution until the people once more dispense with their fears so as to enable them to think If we fail, then we have lost our liberty forever! This results from the eclat which belongs to the drum and the sword. I know Jackson personally, he has not the capacity to govern the country, nor has he the information, but if he had the virtue to choose men of morals and character he would have acquitted himself to the country and to posterity.

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His vices and his violence have urged him onward and thousands sing praises to his progress because they have not the courage to say he is wrong or that they will not be his slaves.

All this is the result of his victory at New Orleans, a victory gained by accident, by the commission of a blunder which, if he had been unsuccessful, he ought and would have been cashiered and dismissed from the army in disgrace.

Fifteenth day. This day the debate on Federal Relations came to a close so far as to take the vote between Brown of Petersburgh's substitute to the original resolution of the committee of twenty-one. These resolutions of Mr. Brown's are of a spirit so slavish and so submissive that I wonder men could be pleased to so easily surrender the liberty of the country to the caprice of a tyrant. These resolutions were adopted by the House of Delegates by a majority of one vote. They were written to please General Jackson and adopted to please him. So ends the high character of the State of Virginia and such the end of liberty.

Though we have not chains upon our hands, still we now have no guard for our liberty but hold it at the will of a tyrant, and all mouths exhaust all terms in his praises; and when they are told they have voted away their liberty they say no, "the General Assembly will meet as heretofore." When they are told the General Assembly has voted away the power to protect them, they say, "O, we know General Jackson will not hurt us." Poor, wretched men! I now perceive how all tyrants of the earth have overturned the liberties of their countries, and

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find the process clear, plain, and simple. It is not the tyrant who does this thing, it is the multitude. Jackson won a victory at New Orleans, the crowd lauded him for it. The crowd thought they would make him president of the United States, many men of integrity, patriotism and talents united to take him sooner than Adams, as Adams has already claimed power for the Federal Government which at a blow consolidated those states. Jackson was elected, and though palpably ignorant, as it was soon ascertained and surrounded by vice, still the crowd lauded him and he, by the voice of this multitude, has been cheered on to make himself despotic.

Many patriots have endeavored in the last four years to arrest his course but the indignation which ought to have been hurled upon the Tyrant was turned upon the patriot and at this moment has leveled with the dust the constitution and liberty and prostrated all but South Carolina, which I think will be crushed by a military force which Jackson has been anxious for and has been preparing.

Twenty-sixth day. This day the General Assembly finally adopted their resolutions relating to the affairs of South Carolina. They are poor ineffectual affairs though they have been debating them there for five or six weeks. It is a proof that where Legislative bodies keep all the power of government as in Virginia the government cannot act promptly and efficiently. The action of the Legislature has been wholly inadequate to save the country though I think South Carolina and the Southern members will yet be able to resist the Tyrant.

Twenty-seventh day. My message of the twenty-fifth

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instant I will say nothing of except that it contains the true States Right doctrine, and under no other mode of administering the Federal Government can this Union be permanent.

Twenty-eighth day. I saw Judge Brook to-day who tells me that he has received a letter from Henry Clay who will advocate a reduction of the tariff and save, if possible, the Union. But that Clay thinks that Jackson and Van Buren will prevent a settlement of the difficulties of the country for fear Mr. Calhoun will be benefited by it in his public standing. Thus our liberty is jeopardized and civil war proposed by the villain, Van Buren, through his influence upon Jackson that he may ruin a rival for office.

FEBRUARY, 1833.

Seventh day. News from Washington says that there is not much prospect of an adjustment of the tariff, that Jackson and his party are urging forward preparations of a military character to attack South Carolina.

Ninth day. Congress, at least the Senate, speak of reporting a bill to raise forces to indulge the Tyrant in his military propensities.

Eleventh day. The Consolidationists, or what may rightly be termed the Monarchical Party, are endeavouring to turn Tyler out of the Senate of the United States. The General Assembly are nearly equally divided, though all that party, are not monarchists, but devotion to Jackson is impelling them forward to support even worse measures against

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South Carolina to gratify him, the fifteenth instant was fixed upon for the election of Senator.

Fifteenth day. This day Tyler was reelected to the Senate by a majority of one vote, seventeen of the States Rights party throwing away their votes. Such is the confusion among the friends of liberty and the Constitution that their enemies often gain an advantage. Each thinks he has a right to lead and all being very independent, choose to pursue his own way which has already endangered us and will seriously injure us in the end.

Twenty-second day. There is much music, rejoicing and a vast display of military of the State. They have all passed in review before me and have paid me, as the Commander-in-Chief, the usual military honours.

For some hours last evening and this morning the Consolidationists, or the friends of Jackson and Van Buren, who favored an unlimited government, reported that I intended to haul down the flag of the United States this morning and put up that of the State of Virginia, by this means to excite the mass of the people against me as Governor and against nullification as the rightful remedy for Federal aggression and usurpation, and even stated that if the flag of Virginia were put up the populace would tear it down and that probably blood would be spilt. So far from this being the feeling of the multitude, they say that if Governor Floyd hoists the flag of Virginia none shall trouble it and but for respect for him "we would tear down the United States flag now floating on the flag staff."

This has been a most mortifying occurrence to

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the unlimited government men. The poor, unworthy dogs, Ritchie, Van Buren, Jackson and Company, are chagrined that Virginia will sustain me and the "States Rights" party, though I seem to make no effort to please anybody. It is owing to a full belief the people have that I will do justice and defend the liberty and the integrity of the Constitution regardless of men or consequences. In this they do me justice, for I will do so.

Twenty-fifth day. News from Congress informs us that Clay has pressed the passage of a bill to modify the tariff so as to bring it down to the common standard, and abandoning the protection principles. This will restore harmony to the country and prove that nullification is the rightful remedy for Federal usurpation. South Carolina has triumphed and has saved the confederacy and the liberties of the country from the Tyrant's grasp, has saved us from a civil war. Yet we of the South know Jackson would have been defeated. I could, I think, have beaten him with the troops of this State for a long time. If he had shed one drop of blood in civil war, my determination was to strike the next blow upon himself.

MARCH, 1833.

Second day. I heard this day that the tariff bill as proposed by Clay will certainly pass Congress. The Tyrant, Jackson, will not dare to send it back with objection.

I have this day received from the Honorable John Tyler a letter informing me of his acceptance

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of the position as Senator in Congress for six years to take office on the 4th of March.

Twentieth day. The people begin to move and take an interest in public affairs. The Proclamation of Jackson, his after-message and the Force Bill are becoming odious and he is much less popular than he was. The election begins to be much talked of. Jackson and his partizans are evidently losing ground.

Twenty-third day. This day, B. W. Leigh, Esq., the commissioner to South Carolina returned. He brings news of great excitement in that State. They have rescinded their ordinance nullifying the tariff on account of the modification of the tariff law by Congress but have nullified the law called the enforcing bill which is called "a law for the collection of the revenue."

This act which they have now nullified is in its provisions a complete repeal of the Constitution of the United States.

Twenty-sixth day. This day I organized a board under the law of the last session for the purpose of transporting the free persons of color.

Twenty-eighth day. Political news much as before. All are becoming disgusted with Jackson's course and admit his utter incapacity for government.

Thirty-first day. I have heard from South Carolina. All our friends are in high spirits. From various parts of this State I have also heard the States Eights party is gaining strength daily. That base Tyrant, Jackson, will be overthrown at last, our

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principles will be reestablished on a firm foundation and upon that success alone at this moment rests the liberty of the world.

APRIL, 1833.

First day. Now things progress very well in the political world. States Rights will be restored and our Liberty perpetuated.

Fourth day. This day Senator Tyler came to Richmond. He looks in fine health and spirits. From what he tells me, I did not know of half of the vile corruption which was carried on last winter in Washington. Among other things that Louis McLane, Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, said, "Give us (the administration) the force bill and the tariff will be compromised." The passage of that bill, the Republicans all agree, repeals the Constitution and makes this country a military despotism instead of a constitutional confederacy or a confederated republic.

Sixteenth day. For some time past the Northern papers have been full of disquisitions on slavery, emancipation, rights of man and universal amalgamation of color.

Such is the corrupt state of public morals, produced by the ignorance, vice and bad passions of Jackson and the minions around him that I do believe these United States will be shaken to pieces in a few years and deluged with blood purely because the Southern States tolerate slavery and the North wishes to destroy this property that they may govern by a majority in Congress and make the entire

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South subservient to their views. It cannot be affection for our slaves, who, at this moment, are happier and in a very much better condition than the laboring poor of the North. They have more of the comforts of life. They have, in truth, everything but political rights and rights of property.

MAY, 1833.

Seventh day. This is the day appointed to lay the corner-stone of the monument to be erected to the mother of Washington, who was a Yorkshire woman and in the Revolution was a Tory. She never liked that George, as she called him, should go to war against the King--this I have from Judge Brook, of the Court of Appeals but a few days ago. Judge Brook was an officer of the Revolution and a relation of Washington's.

I have this day received letters from Alexandria informing me that President Jackson has had his nose pulled at Alexandria by Lieutenant Robert Beverly Randolph, the same gentleman whom the President so unceremoniously dismissed from the Navy of the United States a few days ago. If anything could justify any citizen in pulling the nose of such a President, this gentleman was surely justified. Jackson surely has entered personally into this affair and taken part against Randolph and has used his power and patronage to effect his ruin both as an honest man and his property. These are the facts. John H. Eaton, Jackson's favorite, had been for years in the habit of importuning the Secretaries of the Navy for employment for Timberlake,

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a purser in the United States Navy. This was most gratefully acknowledged by Timberlake, who was most strongly attached to Eaton, whom he thought did all this for friendship to him. I was a member of Congress at that time and so was Eaton, and know this to be true, but the cause, I did believe instead of friendship for Timberlake was an attachment for Timberlake's wife, and this was to keep Timberlake always at sea and out of the way.

Mrs. Timberlake was very pretty and the daughter of one O'Neal, an impudent Irishman, who went to Washington City to seek employment as a labourer. By good fortune he got a little money and at an early day he commenced tavern-keeping and with the profits of that business he enlarged his house and purchased other lots which, as it was thought, made him rich. The naval officers stopped there when they went to the city. Timberlake married finally this daughter. She was impudent, or rather, has as much assurance as her father but she was the wife of a naval officer. She was admitted into good society but about the year 1821, Mrs. Monroe, the wife of the then President, sent her a message desiring her, Mrs. Timberlake, not to come to their drawing-rooms. This was done, as was supposed, from the report of Mrs. Timberlake's amour with Eaton having got to the ears of Mrs. Monroe. Whether so or not none can tell, but this I know, that Eaton's connection with Mrs. Timberlake was as notorious at that day as any part of the day. She was no more faithful to Eaton, her paramour, at that day than to her husband, though Eaton thought she was, as several members of Congress, who lodged

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in her father's house where she stayed with her mother, told me they knew of their own knowledge that she was faithless to both husband and Eaton.

Thus things were when Jackson was elected President of the United States but that very winter the news of this very intrigue and infidelity of his wife reached Timberlake in Mahon in the Mediterranean, which so affected him that he cut his own throat. Mrs. Timberlake's brother-in-law, a certain Dr. Randolph, knowing Eaton's connection with Mrs. Timberlake, his wife's sister, and his great influence with the President, then just elected, compelled Eaton to marry the widowed Timberlake, which marriage accordingly took place that winter, Eaton's fears prevailing over all other considerations.

At this moment Jackson took the oath of office and became the President of the United States. The first act was to appoint Eaton Secretary of the Department of War which disgusted every political friend of character and standing in the country, which he had in the world. The notorious and ill concealed conduct of Mrs. Timberlake, now Mrs. Eaton, caused every decent and respectable family and lady to refuse to visit Mrs. Eaton. Then instantly Jackson was appealed to by his favorite to support his wife. He did so and actually for a whole season busied in procuring affidavits and certificates to prove her a virtuous woman! Not only this, but Jackson went to the trouble of writing out a defence for this woman by way of argument founded upon the certificates and affidavits which he had obtained of ninety-one manuscript pages! He had the baseness

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to require all persons connected with that government and all persons who desired office under that government to visit Mrs. Eaton and defend her as a virtuous woman, and all who failed so to do were disappointed in obtaining office if they were in search of one or if in office, were turned out if they failed to perform that task.

During Timberlake's lifetime, believing Eaton his good friend, he was prevailed upon by Eaton to place in his hands a large sum of the public money which had been advanced to him as Purser of the Navy to pay the officers of the ships in which he last sailed. This advance was solicited under the pretext of securing old O'Neal's property which at that time was in danger of being lost, as it was about to be seized by his creditors.

Timberlake died. The captain of the ship, then in Port Mahon, ordered his then lieutenant on board that ship to take charge of Timberlake's goods and the balance of the public money in the hand of the Purser, Timberlake. The Captain was Peterson, the Lieutenant who received the order was this Dr. Robert Beverly Randolph.

When the ship returned to the United States, Timberlake's books and property were returned to the Navy Department, also Randolph's account of his disbursements.

In the meantime Eaton procured from Jackson the appointment of fourth auditor of the Treasury to be conferred upon one Amos Kendal, a printer and a Yankee of notoriously false and knavish character. The business of the fourth auditor is to settle the accounts of the naval officers and the Navy.

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Eaton determined to keep the money he had obtained from Timberlake and in concert with Kendal, the fourth auditor, determined to throw the odium of their embezzlement upon Lieutenant Randolph. Consequently they charged Randolph with the crime and at the same time cut the leaves out of the books of Timberlake's which explained the transaction, at least as far as Randolph was concerned. Thus they harassed Randolph for four years. At length believing themselves safe, they agreed to let Jackson call a Court of Inquiry.

When this court assembled, to the amazement of these unprincipled men, Lieutenant Randolph was able to prove to the court clearly every transaction. Lieutenant Randolph was honorably acquitted and brought the United States in debt upwards of six hundred dollars. When this disclosure was made, and the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry was laid before the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, he was prevailed upon by his friends and Kendal to mix in this business as a partizan of Eaton's and Amos Kendal's, disregarded all testimony in the case except Peterson's, whom nobody believed, and charged Lieutenant Randolph, in the face of the decision of the Court, then before him, with embezzlement of the money and to injure his character and testimony which was believed would be injurious to Eaton in case he should ever be brought to account for the money by the proper officers of the Treasury. The President interposed and by a sentence which all believed to be erroneous and unjust, but dictated alone by the feeling of

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power and fortunately for this favorite not only decided against the court but ordered Lieutenant Randolph to be dismissed from the Navy without further ceremony. All these things so operated on the minds of the public that the conduct of the President in thus voluntarily becoming a partizan for his unworthy favorites that he was viewed by the virtuous and the good with the mingled emotions of pity, scorn and contempt. For this Lieutenant Randolph pulled the President's nose on board the steamboat Sidney, then at the wharf at Alexandria whilst on his way to Fredericksburg to lay the aforesaid corner-stone of the aforesaid monument, so that the sixth of May, 1833, will be notorious for pulling Presidents' noses.

I regret this act as the President, Jackson should have been exempt from that disgrace. As a partizan, however, he ought to have deserved a partizan's punishment.

Tenth day. Such is the total disregard of the Constitution and laws of the State that I am verbally informed by a gentleman this day that large parties of men are in pursuit of Lieutenant Randolph in the county of Fairfax, adjoining the District of Columbia, in this State with a view to carrying him forcibly within the jurisdiction of the District, with a view to punish him for the assault and battery committed on the person of Jackson.

That county is distant from this but I hope the magistrates will not permit violence and force to be used, thus in the person of Randolph to permit the sovereignty of the laws of Virginia to be violated within her own limits.

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Whatever the laws and the constitution of Virginia require to be done or the Constitution of the United States enjoins shall be fully and distinctly performed but no obliquity of justice or conduct shall or will be tolerated to gratify popular desires or the malice of Jackson. Impartial justice is due us and shall be given to all.

Eleventh day. I have received a letter from Henry Clay under the date of the eighteenth of April last. This letter is on business though it contains an expression of a wish to be on terms of former friendship. I will agree to that. I think I was wrong in giving the certificate though it contained literally the truth but I now think it might have been withheld with propriety. I did not think so then. I here refer to the certificate I gave the "Central Committee," as it was called, which was an association of gentlemen in Washington, to promote the election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency of the United States.

The facts were these: Clay, by his influence, had John Quincy Adams elected by the House of Representative, as the election had fallen upon that body, neither of the candidates having according to the Constitution of the United States received a majority of the electoral votes, or the votes of the electors. Then the three candidates having the highest number of votes are carried to the House of Representatives, one of whom the House chooses as President.

In the present case, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford and Henry Clay were the candidates. It was ascertained that the three first were those who had the highest number

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of votes, that they stood in the order above named. Of course, Mr. Clay was excluded from the House and could not be voted for, though I do believe with that body the most popular.

At this time a tariff for the protection of the manufacturers of the Northern States was in progress, of which Mr. Clay was the greatest champion, he being popular in the Western States, took the lead in favor of the tariff and the manufacturers with a hope of securing that interest in the North. With this course of reasoning and with a hope of future success, he threw his influence with the House of Representatives into the scale of John Quincy Adams and elected him President of the United States.

Pending the election, I had frequent conversations on the subject with Mr. Clay, or rather, he with me. I sought a conversation with him but once in relation to it. The object Mr. Clay seemed to have in view was to secure the election of Adams, and to get as many Southern votes as possible. He was at that time Speaker of the House and I a member from Virginia.

I was a friend of Mr. Clay's personally but opposed to his course in this election and to him, whence I did not think I had much influence with him but I felt it a duty to give him such advice and opinion as was due to a personal friend. I urged to a different course if notwithstanding he did vote for and cause Mr. Adams to be elected, that he should not take office under him; that he and his father were both unpopular and never could be otherwise as they were of the party fond of power and

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strong government, that if he, Clay, continued in the House of Representatives as Speaker, that he would be the most influential and powerful man in the Union since he was popular with the House of Representatives and could at any time govern and control the legislation of the country. This position I urged upon him, telling him that, by occupying such a station, he would be able to prevent Adams when elected, if elected, from running into those excesses of power which his opponents in my party so much feared and if he did so, that his influence would then be able to arrest it and for that all who were afraid of tyranny would come to his support and that ultimately success must attend his efforts, that if he took office under Mr. Adams, that then, from the controller of Mr. Adams, he sunk into the subordinate agent, acting under his orders and having caused him, Adams, to be elected, would be held responsible for his acts, that he knew Mr. Adams was a man without judgment, full of conceit, obstinate and intractable, that he had done so many strange things in his life that a person ought to cease to be surprised at anything he might do, that Mr. Adams could not be made acceptable to the people of the Union.

To which Mr. Clay replied that Adams was unpopular and disposed to claim much power for the Federal Government, but surrounded as he would be by men of character and experience in public affairs he would get along very well (or rather his identical words "we will get along very well") and a great deal could be done. Then he used these memorable

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words "Give us the patronage of the government and we will make ourselves popular."

For reasons then deemed good, to wit; in several conversations with friends and political partizans, I happened to mention Mr. Clay's views and opinions on this subject, which I presume were spoken of among themselves. I was at last asked whether I would write down these words. This request was made by Van Ness, the chairman of the "Jackson Central Committee." as I had spoken these words, which were certainly true, I did write them down. Afterwards they were published and did Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay great harm in the election then again commencing for the next Presidential term. The Jackson party, of which I was a prominent member, and was the cause of giving the vote of Virginia to Jackson, aided by the influence of Mr. L. W. Tazewell and Mr. John Tyler. Tazewell was then and Tyler was afterwards a Senator from this State. I say the Jackson party made great use of this fact which did Clay and Adams great harm particularly Clay. To give it all the injurious effect these words were capable of effecting, the worst construction was put upon them.

At this time, a year afterwards, when the Presidential canvass was highest, Mr. Clay and myself were not friends, which compelled me to be silent as to the impression these words made upon my mind and were intended by him to make, as I then supposed, nor did I at the time I wrote them reflect upon the construction they would bear so injurious to him.

My regret and mortification was now extreme

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since I saw a great man injured by bad men, torturing his true words into bad meaning, though certainly susceptible of this erroneous construction but which circumstances now compelled me from correcting, because of us, Clay and myself, not being friends. If I spoke at all, it would be considered as propitiating his wrath. As soon as Jackson was elected, he outraged the Constitution of the United States so grossly, violating it in every provision, that I found myself unable to support his administration without feeling myself a traitor to my country and the Constitution. I was then soon considered in opposition to him If then I had spoken out and published to the world my own impressions as to what Clay did mean to convey, I was liable to the unworthy imputation of taking this step out of revenge or disappointment in not receiving office from Jackson although I had refused office and told him that I wanted none. This, however, only he and I and two or three others knew. Thus was I still prevented from doing Clay justice, at least, explaining how I understood his words.

Mr. Clay, I suspect, has for some time past judged that I did not approve of the construction put upon his words by the Jackson party and hence in the letter which I have lately received from him upon business appertaining to my office, dated Ashland, Kentucky, April 18th, 1833, after speaking of his business, he closes his letter in these words:

I am aware that an apology is due your Excellency for troubling you with this small matter, be pleased to put it in

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some hands to attend to and place my addressing you to the score of our old friendly relations. With great respect, I am truly yours,

H. Clay.

This reminded me of the necessity of doing something which would convey at some future time to the world my impressions in relation to those words so often referred to of Mr. Clay's and upon the suggestion of James E. Heath, the Auditor of Public Accounts, who saw the letter and to whom I related my own expressions I have now made this record. Mr. Heath was then informed of my having this book. I then told him I would make the record here. I now proceed to finish the most important part of it.

Mr. Clay did say to me when conversing upon the subject of the election of the President when I told him "Adams was too unpopular to be chosen by the people of this country" he said, "Give us the patronage of the Federal Government and we will make ourselves popular."

In using this expression I did not understand Mr. Clay as meaning to convey to my mind the remotest insinuation that the "patronage" was to be corruptly used, nor do I believe that it ever was corruptly used by him and Mr. Adams whilst they administered that government, but I did understand him to mean that if they had the administration of the Federal Government in their hands that by selecting men who were known and admitted to be persons of high character, talents and popularity that their influence with the people would sustain them (Adams and Clay) because these men would sustain

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them upon the wisdom and justice of their measures, thus making manifest to the people the impropriety of turning out men who had conducted the administration upon wide principles and beneficial measures merely because they had a personal aversion to one man (Mr. Adams). In other words they would have selected men of talents and virtue, so arranged locally as to have made themselves popular by thus distributing the patronage of the government. I have little idea but that this suggested the corrupt use which has been made of the patronage of this government by Jackson. Every day proves him to be the worst and most corrupt man in the United States.

My journal has long been suspended. The epidemic of scarlet fever has been in my family at the Thorn Spring where all of us were during the summer. We suffered much. Every one was ill during the summer and my two youngest daughters, Coralie and Mary fell victims to it. No parent ever had better children or children of more intellect. These misfortunes have had a deep effect upon my mind and feelings, the more so as it has often happened before. I am beginning to be old and have had no share of the affections of the world but from my children and my wife. Yet everybody manifests the highest respect for me and everybody is kind to me and among the people generally I have, for twenty-three years, been very popular, so also with the General Assembly, who made me Governor of this ancient Commonwealth under the old constitution by a vote of three to one, and elected me the first Governor

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under the new Constitution by a unanimous vote of both Houses of the General Assembly, still that warm and cordial devotion to the affections of the heart cannot be compensated by honors and the profoundest respect which has always been manifested to me. What can this be? Everybody loves me, as my friends tell me, I certainly am and for many years have been popular and after the first election I never was opposed afterwards for that station. That I have friends I know, whom I trust with everything, but in my presence they are more ceremonious than with each other. It is the playfulness of affection which makes friendship so delightful, but when mingled with but little reserve it has the effect of keeping the very object of that respect a little more on his guard, because it seems to be a caution to him to remain so.

NOVEMBER, 1833.

Fifth day. I saw Judge Brook of the Court of Appeals and had much conversation with him about Henry Clay, whom he says, will not press his claim to the Presidency but leave the selection of the candidate to oppose the corrupt minions of Jackson to the good sense of the people. So far it is well, yet every day gives me new cause to doubt the stability of the Union. The multitude is more disposed to follow the tendencies and go for party success than in search of principle, which act in support of liberty, besides the utter ignorance of the structure of our government in the mass of the people (the togata Romana), besides this men, who have some education

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cannot fully comprehend it, simple as it is. This ignorance in the first place, and the anxiety every man has for success when he attaches himself to a party must cause the downfall of the Union.

If I am justified in applying the same tendencies in a simple state government which I have witnessed in the Union, the same local and general causes, parties instead of principles, the state governments themselves will not long keep their liberty though the form will remain. To aid the progress of these tendencies, all the unprincipled join the dominant party for office and it is surprising to see how many there are and how high some of them stand in the estimation of their countrymen, men who stand well, yet counsel and aid the basest principles of self aggrandisement whilst they think themselves concealed from the observation of the best and most learned of our citizens.

Judge Henry St. George Tucker, of the Court of Appeals, has enjoyed much of the favor of the people of Virginia. He was, and yet calls himself, a Republican and is believed by many though he was in correspondence with Senator Rives during the last winter or session of Congress and approved of everything Jackson had done and proposed doing, Proclamation and all, and induced that poor, weak creature, Rives, to vote for the force bill and for all this he now has Jackson's promise in his pocket that if John Marshall shall die or resign he, Tucker, shall receive the appointment of Chief Justice of the United States! This is the pure Republican who thinks himself secure in his negotiation in selling his principles for

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office, not even that, for a promise of office. His friends may say that he has not changed his principles. If so, it is the worse for him, for then it is a proof that he has been a base hypocrite for twenty years or more. To my proof: Rives showed Tucker's letter to John S. Barbour, as Barbour related it to me, persuading him and insisting upon his taking the course he did and developing the reasons why he ought to continue his course for the other, Beverly Tucker, the brother of Henry St. George Tucker, was in Washington City about this period and learned the fact of his assurance about the Chief Justice's place being destined for Tucker, the Judge, and communicated the fact to Colonel William Campbell Preston of South Carolina, who informed me of it at the Thorn Spring during the month of August last. Judge Henry St. George Tucker thinks now that no person is acquainted with his secret and is aiding and forwarding, as well as he can all the federal and latitudinous principles entertained by Jackson. He is now paying the price of his promised appointment.

Sixth day. I have heard to-day that vast defalcations have taken place in the General Post Office, which, from the profligate manner in which the public business has been transacted generally, has been long expected, and to cover similar frauds, it is believed by many. the Treasury Department was burnt.

Thirteenth day. This day there was witnessed the most extraordinary phenomenon ever beheld in this place. About two o'clock in the morning the whole heavens seemed to be on fire, from each star there

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seemed to descend a stream of active fire, it appeared in every variety of hue and form, it seemed to continue at times to fall in flakes as though it was snowing fire. It continued thus for nearly three hours. The ignorant, of course, were greatly alarmed and thought the day of judgment was at hand. The weather for a few days preceding had been very warm and suddenly it changed and became very cool. To me it seems a phosphoric production of some kind. We will have to leave its nature and character to be investigated by future philosophers as at this day we know nothing of such a phenomenon.

Twenty-third day. I have this day finished my message to the General Assembly of Virginia. It is a true States Rights paper. On account of its length I have been obliged to suppress about half of it. This doctrine is an able exposition of the doctrine of the Constitution, and would be much more complete if the whole was sent in. This I have no fear in saying, and posterity will find it true, that the Government of the United States will, unless the doctrine of state sovereignty and nullification and secession be admitted as belonging to the States overthrow the liberties of these United States and consolidate them in one great despotism. Jackson may exercise unlimited power and the Togata huzza for Jackson. This man is thoroughly vicious, there is not a crime he has not committed. Surrounded with men as vicious as himself, they plunder the treasury at will and the majority in Congress submit without resistance, because the majority is of the same party. Even the treaty making power is

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perverted so as to make treaties with Indians within the limits of the States and by that treaty make reservations of large and valuable tracts of lands to be enjoyed by himself and his friends.

Twenty-fourth day. I have sent a copy of my correspondence with Henry Clay to William C. Preston of Columbia, South Carolina. The object of that correspondence was to induce Mr. Clay to detach himself from the Northern constructionists and to prevail upon him to unite with the States Rights party, and to prevail upon his friends in the Legislature of Kentucky to reaffirm their resolutions of 1798.

Thirtieth day. On next Monday the General Assembly meets. I will send them my annual message which contains the true doctrine of the Constitution and the only doctrine by which this confederacy can be kept together or the liberty of the people of America can be maintained. I have also indicated the policy which Virginia ought to pursue to preserve her liberty, but this I awfully fear will be left unattended to.

Virginia is now paralyzed, if not governed by a Junta in Richmond, who obliquely operate upon the Legislature and influence all their acts. In this Junta there is not one man who has an intellect more than equal to decent mediocrity and whose moral integrity no man will rely upon further than he knows he can coerce him through the courts of justice. These fellows fawn and flatter, are abject or tyrannical as they find it their interest.

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DECEMBER, 1833.

First day. The assembly meets to-morrow and so does Congress. At no former period has there been a more settled purpose in the minority to arrest the corruption and usurpation than at this time. So much do the filthy, ignorant beasts who compose Jackson's administration, including himself, believe that all power, even the officers and treasurers of the United States, belong to them that they begin to quarrel among themselves for the posts of honour and profit, and so afraid are they of rivals and participators in these "spoils" as they have called them, even in the Senate itself, that they begin to push from the party many who are anxious to join it. I am no longer surprised that the republics of Greece and Rome were overthrown by popular men. The multitude are ignorant and neither understand their rights or have learning enough to pursue them. They huzza for their leader and never believe anything which is told them except what he says nor is there any hope for support of liberty from a very large proportion of the learned and intellectual, because many are scoundrels and are soon bought up, many are cowards and cannot act; and a still greater number are mean and take any position which will give them office or pelf. As for power, the multitude seem to care nothing. Their idea of power and of kings is that to be a king and to have power one must have a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand. Without these, they cannot believe any man is a king or can have power.

Sixth day. We got the President's message yesterday.

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It contained little of interest. He says not a word of Alabama, it would seem that he is disposed to take his own course in relation to that State without reference to the vassal Congress.

Seventh day. Several judges dined with me this day and talked freely of the Constitution and topics of the day.

Eighth day. The intelligence which I have received heretofore of the intended outrages of Jackson have all transpired. The source from which I obtained that intelligence has never failed to ascertain the true state of the parties of Washington City and has never failed to obtain the true intentions, feelings and objects of Jackson and his cabinet. This friend finds out more things sooner and more correctly than any one of my friends in Congress, even sooner than Calhoun himself, hence from this friendship I have been enabled to put into operation many things, which has saved Virginia from injury and vexation, from the malice and hatred of the unfeeling Tyrant, Jackson, and from the filthy putridity of those around him.

Twenty-third day. Many members of the Assembly spent this evening with me. I am gratified to find that the ancient spirit of freedom is reviving and from all appearance the "dirty set," the "President and his kitchen cabinet" as they are called, will soon lose their influence, at least, in this Commonwealth. They surely deserve to be considered and held as odious for attempting to establish the most unmitigated despotism ever known, besides their being underbred, vulgar fellows, without learning or talents. Such is the effect of military reputation, the most deadly enemy to freedom.

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Twenty-fifth day. Many members of the legislature called on me to-day. There is much talk as to the person who is to be my successor, Tazewell it appears from this day's conversation to be the most prominent. He is a man of great talents and integrity and will discharge the duties of his station with honour to himself and to the State.

JANUARY, 1834.

Third day. There has been but little snow this winter. On one day it fell for a few hours to a depth of a few inches, perhaps three, and disappeared the next day. For many weeks (four) the ground has been covered with snow to the depth of ten inches only forty miles above this. At the foot of the Blue Ridge it is said to be fifteen or eighteen inches deep, in the Great Valley, two feet and in the Alleghaney Mountains three feet deep. That is the deepest snow those mountains in Virginia have known for many years, perhaps since the winter of 1779 and 1780.

Sixth day. This day the Philosophic Society met, still many of the persons made members and officers of the Society have never met it.

Eighteenth day. Yesterday there was much debate in the House upon the resolution censuring the removal of the money of the United States out of the Bank by the act of the President, upon his own authority and by one of the most glaring acts of usurpation ever exercised in this country. The resolution passed, but still to flatter the Tyrant appended thereto, they passed a resolution condemning the

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Bank? Brown of Petersburgh and Stevenson of Spotsylvania acted in bad faith and henceforth ought to be considered as traitors to the cause of States Rights which they profess to support.

FEBRUARY, 1834.

Second day. I received a letter from Mr. Tazewell, my successor, couched in the friendliest terms--more of this anon.

Twentieth, day. This day I received an invitation to a ball in Portsmouth, to be given on the 22nd of this month. I will go. Many of the members of the Assembly will accompany me.

Twenty-second day. I left Richmond this morning in the steamboat, James Gibbon, and arrived at Portsmouth at seven o'clock. We stopped and enjoyed the hospitality of Dr. Collins, one of the Delegates from that county, and after resting a few hours we all attended the ball. A more brilliant display of more beautiful and accomplished ladies I never saw, or a room more brilliantly illuminated, nor was there ever more enjoyment ever afforded any company than there was that evening to that company.

Twenty-third day. All the volunteer troops of Portsmouth and Norfolk assembled in Portsmouth and were reviewed by me, after which they invited me to partake of a cold collation which was elegant and agreeable. At five we dined with Mr. John Murdaugh and supped with the gentlemen of Norfolk, about three hundred. We also had the company of Mr. Littleton Waller Tazewell, the Governor Elect, and the Honorable William C. Preston,

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a Senator in the Congress of the United States. Here was great enjoyment and many political toasts drunk, which very clearly indicated the triumph of the Nullifiers and the States Rights Party over that corrupt Tyrant, Jackson, who is even worse than his bitterest enemies ever believed him.

I left this banquet and went home with Mr. Tazewell, the Governor Elect, accompanied by Mr. W. C. Preston, referred to above, where we enjoyed ourselves in conversation until three o'clock in the morning, when we went to bed.

Twenty-fourth day. In the morning of this day we went to the Navy Yard and were received by Commodore Warrington in the handsomest military or naval honours. The guards were turned out and salutes were fired from the Java, a man of war, taken from the British during the late war. We were accompanied during the morning by the Commodore in examining the works and Dry Docks and hospitably entertained by the Commodore, who was a fine gentleman and proved himself during the late war a brave and gallant officer.

Twenty-fifth day. I breakfasted with Governor Tazewell this morning and became acquainted with his lady. A more amiable and accomplished lady I have never seen. After breakfast, accompanied by Governor Tazewell, we went to Portsmouth and after resting ourselves and collecting our whole company, we again embarked on board the James Gibbon, accompanied by Mr. Tazewell and his son, together with many other gentlemen and set sail, under the roar of cannon, the salute fired by the Portsmouth Artillery.