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SOCIETY IN THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS.

BY FRANCIS J. GRUND.

people of Washington a warlike character which is not altogether unbecoming in gentlemen; but the arts of peace are not apt to flourish under such a regime. Mars and Venus may be conjoined; but the Graces and the eternal Nine do not willingly dwell amid carnage and plunder.

LONDON, Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Ber-city. These alternate invasions give to the lin, and Madrid, have each their peculiar attractions, and represent an epitome of the empires, of which, respectively, they are the capitals. Not so with Washington, which, independently of the personale of the government, conveys to the stranger no idea whatever of the magnitude, wealth and progress of the United States. If it were not for the presence of Congress, and the disbursements of the treasury department, Washington would be a rotten borough" a finished town": were the seat of government removed, it would sink into absolute insignificance. And yet Washington is a delightful place in the winter and spring of the year; at least so says everybody who has been there without being grievously disappointed in politics.

But, with all these drawbacks, Washington still contains, at all times, a sufficient number of agreeable and educated people to constitute a pleasant visiting circle, though the persons whom you there meet in first places, would probably be at a reasonable discount in other parts of the Union. It stands to reason that Washington should be the focus of the strong and original mind of the country; but strength and originality, though at all times attractive, are not all that constitutes agreeable society. The most essential element of pleasant company is ease, and that cannot very well prevail where positions are so adventitious and precarious, as in Washington. Our country is young and vigorous, and these leading characteristics are reflected in the official and " con

One disadvantage of Washington which, however, may in other respects be considered an advantage (at least to some people), consists in the absence of what may be termed a funded society, serving as a means of perpetuating and distributing refinement as well as the proprieties and elegancies of social life on the Lancasterian principle of mutual in-gressional" gentry of the metropolis; but struction. The few agreeable families who make Washington their permanent home, are people of official standing, or deriving consequence principally from their connexion with the government. Wealth and refinement are, as yet, not sufficient to balance political power; much less can either of them alone run a successful career against the official dispensers of power and patronage. Thomas Jefferson delighted in this prospect of the city, and his beau-ideal of a political capital without influence, has probably been exceeded by the reality.

Washington, apart from its official stamp, presents, as yet, no social characteristics, and is, in this respect, vastly inferior to Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, and New Orleans, -the four cities of the United States which may boast of the most original elements of society in the country. Washington is a sort of frontier town, taken alternately by the Huns and Goths, as this or that political party is in the ascendency; with feudal lords and their retinue surrounding the conqueror, till the latter, in turn, is obliged to evacuate the

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vigour, intelligence, and originality, though at
no time insipid (as society is often found in the
most elevated spheres), are but too often the
cause of mortification in others, unless joined
to great social tact and that habitual urbanity
of manners which, if it do not exclude, at least
does not invite comparison. The prerequisite
of agreeable society is equality, and that can-
not exist where its members, as in Washington,
are labelled "senators," "members," "cabinet
officers," "auditors," "clerks," &c. There is
probably no place in the world where people
are more strictly classified, or more exclusively
composed of sets, according to power and in-
fluence, than in Washington.
The upper
crust" in Washington seem to be entirely ab-
solved from any effort to please or to be agree-
able. They are everything from position, and
as that is dependent, for the most part, on
their standing and popularity in other com-
munities, they but too often use the freedom of
travellers in hotels, and make themselves com-
fortable at the expense of their neighbours.
The disagreeable, shocking scenes which are so
often witnessed in both Houses of Congress,

66

from their dignity, or in aught diminish that influence on the inferior classes which causes these to emulate their matchless example.

There certainly exists something similar to this in Washington in regard to the peerless society of senators, members, and the corps diplomatique. These constitute, par excellence, the society of Washington; and although the first two, as above stated, are in general, selected

would perhaps not occur, if there were an independent and sufficiently consequential society in Washington, capable of punishing offenders against the proprieties of life. At all events, if it be proper that Congress and the administration of the government should be placed beyond the influence of a mob of a great city, it would certainly not be amiss if they were more frequently brought within the sphere of those more gentle attractions which can hardly exist for them, as long as they remain beyond the pale of social rewards and punishments. Even an exclusively literary society may be rude when it dictates instead of minis-originality is calculated to give ladies a certain tering to the accomplishments of the other classes. Society is naturally jealous of domi

nion. It may be the creator and at times the slave of fashion; but it is always destitute of taste when it is supremely ruled by a caste.

Where society is exclusively composed of one set of men and women, no matter what their qualifications may be, it soon becomes irksome. Its members become as familiar to each other

as old household furniture, and the whole cycle of social pleasures is soon reduced to a series of mutual entertainments. To this monotony, even the most extensive society of London is reduced, from its exclusiveness. Thoughts, ideas, feelings, and the mode of expressing

them, become tinctured with a fatal mannerism which acts as a check on the mind, instead of serving it merely as an agreeable mode of conveyance. The frame becomes soon more valuable than the picture, and an acquaintance with forms, and the punctilio of politeness, a mystery known only to the craft. In this respect the best English society is probably nearest allied to the Chinese, only that the

latter is much more democratic; Mandarins

being made out of scholars and not out of the offspring of noble families, and official position, which alone gives rank in the Celestial Empire, open to individual merit. The blood relations of Confucius, it is true, receive pensions; but they do not set the fashion of Celestial society.

from the strongest and ablest men of the vince of women and not of men, their very country, yet as society is necessarily the pro

degree of uneasiness. On the other hand, one in Washington, whom it would be difficult to is frequently introduced to fashionable women of their being strangers, comparatively, in all class in any other city in the Union, on account

of them.

This may, indeed, heighten their charms, and increase the attractions of their company; but the season in Washington is too short to mature acquaintance into friendfor ties easily formed and quickly severed. ship, or to leave more than partial regrets There is little souvenir in Washington, and not enough of retired private life to compensate for the wrongs inflicted by society. The city is too small for people to live in retirement, and yet too large and noisy to promote the formation of domestic habits. Washington is a watering place, without its comforts, its social equality, its abandon, and oh! shall I name it? -without its bathrs! It is a mere rendez-vous of politicians, not always statesmen-a public exchange, on which power and place are discounted-the arena of high ambition and vul

gar pride-the place to study men and women;

but the most ill-chosen residence of those whose

happiness depends on the sympathy of others.

But to return to senators and members.

The members of the House of Representatives are only elected for two years, and the progress of the country, and the genius of the people are such, that but few of them comparatively, It is a familiar saying in England that "a are re-elected, until they become fixtures, or person may be admitted to their best society, pass eventually into the Senate. Members, but that none but its members ever belong to it." therefore, are not surrounded by that prestige Society and the institutions of England, are of power and office, which could make their alike resting on a feudal basis which has office a passe partout in society. They are successfully withstood all revolutions in poli- looked upon as in a transition state; either tics, religion, ethics, and taste; and it is for senators in embryo, or candidates for retired this reason that Madame de Staël, though her- citizenship. The case is different with senaself but a distinguished commonplace, observed tors; and accordingly, next to the cabinet that English society was the most capital ministers in Washington, the members of the means of keeping ordinary men in prominent Senate of the United States are the enfants places. The perfect ease which pervades the gates of society. Every senator of distinction first society in England is, no doubt, the result may be looked upon as a candidate for the of the conviction that its members are above presidency; many of them have been and will criticism that no accidents, no voluntary or be, candidates during the period of their nainvoluntary demerit on their part, can derogate | tural lives; and this state of things will con

SOCIETY IN THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS.

19

tinue as long as the institutions of our country of dyspepsia; nobody knowing what may be shall endure. the consequence.

As a body, the Senate of the United States can probably boast of a greater array of talent, vigour, and originality than any other body of men on the globe. I doubt whether the Roman senate, in its palmiest days, entertained more enlarged views of government, or were more familiar with the wants of the people, and the obligations of legislators. There certainly never was, and is not now, a Chamber of Peers or a House of Lords in Europe, whose aggregate talent can at all be compared to that of our own Senate. As far as talent, energy, or originality can grace society, that of our senators must be particularly entertaining and instructive. But senators do not live in Washington; they merely sojourn there, and but few of them ever honour the metropolis with the presence of their wives or daughters. Neither Mr. Clay, the true personation of the beau ideal of American character, nor Mr. Webster, nor Mr. Calhoun, has been in the habit of bringing his family regularly to Washington. Some of the most agreeable senators never had wives; and not more than two or three, as far as I can remember, ever kept house there, and entertained a circle of friends. Senator Benton is a long resident of Washington, and has contributed much to the intellectual and social entertainment of strangers and residents; Senator Dix, and his accomplished family, were his neighbours; and the Hon. Robert J. Walker's house has ever been distinguished for its réunions of clever persons, and its unpretending hospitality: but beyond these few exceptions to the rule, I know of few instances in which senators have become domesticated in the federal city. They live there in taverns and boarding-houses; and the people of Washington have as good a right to boast of their society, as the citizens of modern Rome have a right to boast of the society of the English nobles who go there, from time to time, to spend the holy week. Neither senators nor members constitute what may properly be called Washington society; they go there as people go to a fair or a cattle show, or to any other place of public notoriety; resolved to put up with temporary accommodations, and satisfied with any reasonable show of attention on the part of their hosts and hostesses. They do not constitute a coterie of their own, but depend on the hospitalities of others; and as they hold the power, and their entertainers are, for the most part, clients who may have favours to ask, the amphytrions of Washington city may reasonably be suspected of more than one object in the choice of their guests. The contemplation of the ulterior object of a dinner party is often quite as bad as the anticipation

As to the corps diplomatique, it is entitled to a separate notice, both from its importance and its insignificance. To judge of its insignificance it is only necessary to compare its members with the leading statesmen of Europe and America; but especially with the diplomates of the old world. Who, for instance, would dream of sending such a person as Chevalier Bodisco to England or France? What figure would Mr. Pageot have made by the side of Talleyrand, Perrier, Guizot, Broglie? What place would Chevalier d'Hulseman, the forgotten Austrian relic of Baron Marschall, occupy in London, Paris, or St. Petersburgh? I might go through the whole list of foreign ministers and diplomatic agents in Washington to show that, with one or two prominent exceptions, there is scarcely a man among them known to reputation or fame; and yet that corps furnishes above all others the standard of refinement and good breeding in the American capital! It would seem as if, through the everlasting mutations in Washington society, the foreign diplomates were the only persons in the place whose position may, in some degree, be considered as secure; partly because their offices are not coveted, and partly because they are too far from home to be reached by every change of administration or politics. Washington seems to be the Botany Bay of European diplomacy, to which ministers and chargés are sent for a number of years, or for life, according to their respective standing at home-not so much for the good they are expected to do there, as in order to get rid of them in their own country, where they might stand in the way of other men's promotions.

But there is yet another reason why a diplomatic appointment in Washington is a mere sinecure. The government of the United States, being essentially one of public opinion and not of individual ideas, negotiates with the foreign governments on principles of reciprocity. We have nothing to do with sinister alliances and wicked combinations against third powers. Our government is in reality what it purports to be-a truth and not a fiction: it deals in principles, not in stratagems-in public measures, not in diplomatic intrigues. "Dissimuler c'est regner" was the motto of Cardinal Mazarin, and has been the soul of diplomacy from that period. The United States have no occasion for dissimulation, which is at war with the principles of our government. We have no powerful neighbour to harass our frontier population—no American coalition to arrest our progress. Our ultimate destiny is so irresistibly impressed on the mind of the whole civilized world, that to

oppose it by the petty intrigues of European diplomacy, would seem like an attempt to resist the decrees of Providence. In that respect, therefore, a European diplomate is a man without a calling in Washington. He is the mere representative of the conventional forms of the old feudal institutions of Europe, -an actor without a stage-an orator without a forum.

Another function of diplomatic gentlemen in Europe is to act as spies to their respective governments in the country to which they are accredited, in other words, to do those things, under the protection of their respective governments, for which, as individuals, they would be expelled from all decent society; but even in this respect diplomacy in Washington is a useless commodity. The diplomate in Washington must be very shrewd who wishes to be in advance of the public press; the press being in most cases ahead of the government itself. If the princes of Europe would regularly subscribe and read half a dozen of our newspapers which I could name, they would not only derive more information in regard to our progress and the institutions of our country than they can possibly receive from the official despatches of their ministers in Washington, but learn more in regard to their own position at home than they are likely to know through the means of their court flatterers.

The members of the diplomatic corps being functus officio, seem to have taken a notion to improve the manners of society; not that they are essentially better bred than the people whose manners they purpose to refine, but simply because they have nothing else to do. They feel that in proportion as the internal development of our country is going on, its external relations are of comparatively little consequence. The growth of the United States does not depend on external circumstances; but our manners betray, perhaps, too much of their European origin, and thus invite "foreign interference." The foreign ministers and their attachés, enjoying more leisure than other people in Washington, are expected to entertain more, and as that seems to be the principal duty of their vocation, the most sensible of the corps devote themselves to it with entire resignation. But it must not be supposed that this is altogether voluntary on their part, or a spontaneous effort of their liberality; their hospitality is in obedience to their instructions, and is defrayed by their respective governments. It is the Emperor of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, or the King of Prussia who entertains, not the minister; and the people of those countries pay for the entertainment. The table-money of foreign ministers amounts in many cases to a considerable sum,

and doubts may arise whether it is entirely expended for amphytrionic purposes by the respective functionaries.

It has often been remarked, in and out of the halls of Congress, that our ministers abroad are not sufficiently well paid, and, in consequence of it, obliged to remain behind their colleagues even from the less powerful states of Europe. It might perhaps be well, in connexion with this subject, to compare the expenditures of our ministers abroad with those of the members of the corps diplomatique in Washington. Considering that our own ministers abroad entertain out of their own small salaries or private fortunes, and that the entertainments of the foreign ministers in Washington are paid for by the respective governments, American hospitality abroad compares exceedingly well with the meagre European show of that sort in the federal city. Our ministers abroad not only entertain Europeans, but are also expected to show some attention to their own countrymen, of whom there are at least five hundred times as many in London or Paris as there are Englishmen or Frenchmen entitled to similar honours from their ministers in Washington. I have known quite a respectable array of educated Europeans in Washington, but few of them could boast of receiving the merest official politeness from their ministers; while our own travellers in Europe expect our ministers abroad not only to breakfast and dine them, but to act as showmen to the ladies of the party. They must be presented at court and launched in society, or the minister may be presented with some stricture in a newspaper which, perchance, is the only thing he receives free of postage while at his foreign post. Considering all these things, our ministers in Europe maintain far more extensive establishments than the ministers of European powers in America. It is not uncommon for a foreign chargé in Washington to have rooms over a barber's shop, or to hire a corner of the establishment of a green-grocer, with a solitary negro boy Pompey for his whole suite; and yet what is the rent of a respectable house in Washington compared with that of suitable apartments in London or Paris. The rent of the latter would build a house in the city of Washington!

It has been quite fashionable, for some years past, to retail the gaucheries of which our ministers and chargés d'affaires were said to be guilty in Europe; yet it has been admitted on all hands, and by none more readily than Englishmen and Frenchmen, that our ill-paid, uninformed, gauche diplomatic servants have generally acquitted themselves very handsomely of their tasks; while, not more than

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