Visit to Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of State.—Alexandria, its early history.—Reminisences of General Washington.—Memoir of Mr. Anthony Charles Cazenove; a most interesting tale.—He was the old partner of Albert Gallatin, at New Geneva, Pennsylvania.

On the fifth day of April, I went early in the morning to see Mr. Calhoun, the new Secretary of State. I found him already in his office, attending to his official duties. It was long before office hours, and I had a long conversation with him. He received me most cordially and entertained me most agreeably for an hour or two. When it was announced to him that Mr. Chilton, a member of Congress, had called to see him, I retired to call on Mrs. Murphy, of Ohio, and her son, who were putting up near the Secretary’s office. After spending an hour or two with them, I called again at the Secretary’s office, but found him engaged with the Texan ministers, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Van Zandt. The messenger brought me a slip of paper with Mr. Calhoun’s place of residence written on it, “at Mrs. King’s, between 13th and 14th streets, on F st.” I went thither, and waited not long but until Mr. Calhoun and his son had arrived and dined. The Secretary came into the parlour where I was sitting, and we conversed together several hours, until General Anderson of Tennessee came, when I took my leave of Mr. Calhoun. During these interviews I had in my mind two regrets: first, that I had never before in my lifetime had an opportunity to converse with him so freely on a great variety of matters, deeply interesting to the people of these United States; and secondly, that my first was to be my last opportunity of conversing with Mr. Calhoun.

Mr. Calhoun, in conversation, is as great as he is in every thing else. He can say a great deal in a few words. His language is appropriate and as beautiful as one could possibly imagine it to be. He is in the full possession of all his corporeal and mental powers, he sees every thing at a glance of his mind, and he can speak as easily as he thinks. 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. He has not a particle of ill will towards his enemies, and, he said, that he had taken a real pleasure in doing good to those who were employing themselves in their endeavors to injure him, although he well knew what they were doing at that moment when he was serving them. He has come here, merely to treat with England and Texas, and having finished his intended labors, he will resign his present office, and retire to the high ground where he dwells, there to spend the remainder of his days. Just back of the country where he lives, the Alleghany mountains rise to an altitude of seven thousand feet above the sea, which is higher than the White mountains in New Hampshire.

In the vallies of the Alleghany, near him, Indian corn grows and comes to perfection four thousand feet above the sea. Though I did not ask him, yet, I suspect that at such an elevation it is the New England corn, and not our gourd seed corn. He tells me, that on his elevated ground, where he lives the climate is nearly the same, as that of the District of Columbia. He has no ambition for public life, its cares and responsibilities. After being thirty-five years in office, he desires to retire from it, and be at peace at home, surrounded as he is by a family endeared to him by all the ties which none but a parent can feel. He has five sons and two daughters. The son with him here, is an officer in the army—a promising young man. He appeared to think that his part of the Union had been wholly neglected by the general government. If that be the fact, and I am sure he thinks so, the representatives from South Carolina, should use their endeavors to obtain their due share of the public patronage. To strengthen the bonds of our Union by mutual aid and mutual affection, should be the constant aim of all our national legislation. I told Mr. Calhoun that Ohio had paid twenty millions of dollars for her lands, into the United States treasury, whereas the people of the Atlantic States had gotten their lands originally, merely for settling on them. Mr. Calhoun in reply stated that Wayne’s war, with all its expenditures, must be charged on Ohio and Indiana.

I told Mr. Calhoun that within ten years from this time, the national government would be in our hands in the West for safe keeping, and so will remain thenceforth and forever. This idea, I told him, had its full weight on our minds—it made us bear and forbear—bear our evils and forbear to use any violent means now, to acquire what would, of its own accord soon fall into our possession, and be forever ours.

General Anderson of Tennessee, coming in here, I left Mr. Calhoun with the most friendly impressions towards him, which will never wear off from my mind during my life-time. Devoid of all intrigue, he is too honest a man to compete with the little men, who have always opposed him. He will only be called for, when great and commanding powers of mind are imperiously demanded by some great emergency. Like a great lamp, he shines to give light for the benefit of others, who see by the aid of its lustre. Perhaps it is best that the greatest talents are unemployed, except in cases of emergency. They are the army in reserve, upon which a defeated party in advance can fall back and be saved from destruction. Why so many incompetent men should rise into high places of trust, while the greatest and the best ones should be passed by, is not always seen. Envy of living merit may be the cause.

Mr. 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. For strength of thought, deep, vigorous, keen, searching, discriminating, methodical, logical and clear Mr. Calhoun has no superior in this nation. His feelings are mellowed down by years and by a large experience in the affairs of the world and all its vicissitudes. His great learning, derived from books—his agreeable manners, derived from a good heart and from his associations with the best society in the nation; his business talents; his industrious habits, and all his other great qualifications, eminently fit him for his present high station, and for even the highest station in this republic. The Senate did but yield to the unanimous desire of all our citizens here, when they unanimously confirmed the nomination of John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of State. In whatever station he is, we may always feel assured that a talented, patriotic and good man occupies it, who will faithfully, honestly and correctly do his duty at all times and in all emergencies.

Alexandria, April 10th.

I came here yesterday, to spend a few days—to rusticate. This city of ten thousand people is made up of an agreeable, well informed and industrious population. The streets all cross each other at right angles, like those of Philadelphia. It is free from the dust, which loads the air of Pennsylvania avenue at this time, and is, on the whole, a better place for me than capitol-hill, where I was so happily located, at Mrs. Ballard’s, within two minutes’ walk of the capitol, its rotundo and library. This spot is more retired from company, so agreeable to me as to take off my mind from my business. On attending the market here, the most prominent object in it, was the fishes, such as shad, herring, &c., just taken in this river, and brought here for sale. I saw yesterday three large shad sold for a quarter of a dollar, and single ones, large, fresh and fair, for ten cents each! The quantities taken are great, and a great many wagons from the country, back of this city, and from Maryland and Pennsylvania were here for the purpose of carrying them away. Before I came here, I heard much of the decay of the city, but on my arrival I found none of it. I found signs of thrift, but none of decay. Houses were repairing, the people were all employed in some useful calling; the streets are all paved, with good side-walks, and what surprised me, was, that I saw no coffee-houses where spirits are retailed, in this city of ten thousand people. There are only two taverns in it, and one of the innkeepers sells no ardent spirits in his house. I am now writing these lines in his inn. I doubt much, whether such another town of the size of this can be found in America, where no more intoxicating liquors are drank in it. I have now lying before me, a record of the first town meeting in this old American town, and I extract from it the following, viz.

“At a meeting of the majority of the trustees of Alexandria town, July 13th, 1749. Present: Richard Osborn, Wm. Ramsay, John Carlyle, John Pagan, Garrard Alexander and Hugh West, Gent.”

What a record! Ninety-five years almost since this was a frontier town, and then the majority of the trustees held their first meeting, of which any record remains. Before that time, the place must have been occupied by settlers, and must have been laid out as a town, into lots, because the same record shows that John West, junior, was appointed a clerk of the town, and the proceedings of the meeting were recorded by their clerk, and his book, in manuscript, lies before me! John West, junior, was “appointed cryer to sell the lotts at publick sale, within five minutes, from the time they are set to sale.” The price of the lots is given in the record, in pistoles. No. 36 was the first lot sold at the public sale, and John Dalton was the purchaser, at 19 pistoles. Among the purchasers of the lots, we find the names of Lawrence Washington, W. Fairfax and Geo. Fairfax, Nathaniel Harrison, Wm. Fitzhugh, Wm. Ramsay and Major Henry Fitzhugh, besides the names of the trustees first named, and their clerk and Roger Lindon and Allan McRae.

I visited the printing office on Saturday morning, April 13th, and introduced myself to the editor, a pleasant sensible and obliging man. The Alexandria Gazette was established by Samuel Snowden in 1800. It was continued by the original proprietor until his death in 1831. Since that time it has been conducted and owned by his son, Edgar Snowden—it is therefore one of the oldest newspaper establishments in the United States.

Between this place and Washington there are two steam boats running, starting almost every hour of the day from each city, and passing each other about half-way between Washington and Alexandria. They start at five in the morning, and their last trip commences at five in the evening. They charge twelve and a half cents for the passage. Some of the officers of the departments live here, and daily pass the distance between the two cities. A stage coach runs between them also several times daily.

The citizens of Alexandria often attend the debates in Congress, and know what is doing in Washington as well almost as those who live there.

I visited the Alexandria museum over the market house, and among the collection there, I saw the mantle in which George Washington was christened; his masonic robes, apron and gloves; his pistols, presented to him by Louis XVI; a model, in stone, of the Bastile, presented to him by the national assembly of France; his pack-saddle, used in the revolutionary war; his flag, borne by his body guard in that war; the first British flag, captured in that war, called Alpha by Washington; the last flag taken in that war from Cornwallis; La Fayette’s flag—blue; Decatur’s flag; Paul Jones’ flag, on board the Bonne Homme Richard, in his battle with the Serapis; Gen. Morgan’s flag, borne by his Virginia regiment; and a great many other relics of revolutionary times. General Washington’s letter to the cotillion party, which used to assemble in the house where I am located, is in the museum. In this letter the General declines to meet with them, on account of Mrs. Washington’s age. What thrilling recollections of times gone by, do these relics stir up within us? What a crowd of emotions, of all sorts, rush upon the mind, when looking on these memorials of former days, former ideas and opinions? of old customs and ancient manners, compared with modern ones? 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. The market is well supplied with meat, fish and vegetables. I saw too in it many flowers and small evergreen trees, in a proper state for planting them. The vegetables, flowers and trees were offered at very low prices—hardly sufficient to pay for bringing them to market. Those who brought them appeared to be poor, with families to support.

The rail-road from Cumberland to Baltimore has injured Alexandria, by taking some of the trade of the upper country away from this district. An extension of the canal to this city will bring back some of the trade which it has lost temporarily. The water in the wells of this city is not good, except a few in the suburbs, from which the city is well supplied. By taking the water out of the canal, it can be easily conveyed to the houses and supply all the citizens with healthful water.

Religious Sects.—There are episcopalians, presbyterians, methodists, catholics, baptists, and perhaps some other denominations of christians. They appear to live together in unity, and agree to disagree in opinion about their several forms of worship. To the community at large it matters little what may be their several forms, so as they have the same great fundamental principles of charity and benevolence towards each other and towards God and man. There are too, some quakers, as I perceive by their dress and conversation.—They are the same industrious, neat, quiet, friendly people every where.

On Sunday April 14th I attended church in the morning at the first presbyterian church, and in the afternoon at Christ church, the oldest episcopalian church. In the forenoon I heard the Rev. Mr. Harrison. Calling at Mr. Cazenove’s to accompany him, he being absent, I went to the dwelling of his son-in-law, expecting to find him there, but, learning the object of my calling, a daughter of my deceased friend, the late Colonel Fowle, came forward, and accompanied me to the church; she was a child nine or ten years old. She behaved perfectly lady-like, and conducted me to her mother’s pew, where her parent was already seated. The congregation was not a large one, though a very serious and devout one, to whom the preacher addressed a very good discourse. Colonel Fowle was lost in the Moselle, when that vessel was blown up at Cincinnati, a few years since. I shook hands with him, and bid him farewell, only fifteen minutes before his death. I had been personally well acquainted with the Colonel for many years, and had spent many happy hours at different places in the West with him, on many a day, and I always had a high regard for him. His little daughter resembles him very much in her looks and manners. I could not refrain from thinking how happy he would have been, had he seen her, and noticed how lady-like his daughter was, in her behaviour, while conducting his old friend to church, in this city. If spirits hover around those friends whom they have left behind them in this world, and take a peculiar pleasure in any thing that relates to them in this life, the spirit of my departed friend, Col. Fowle, must have been pleased to see me seated in his pew, yesterday, at church, with his widow, her father and his daughter. In the afternoon I went to the church where Washington used to attend divine worship, and found in it but two persons—ladies, dressed in mourning. I stated to them my case, that I was a perfect stranger, who wished to attend their meeting at that time. One of them offered me a seat in her pew, which I accepted. It was near the pulpit, and she pointed out to me the pew in which General Washington used to sit; it was the largest one in the church. At the proper time, the congregation assembled, some three hundred people perhaps, and three-fourth of them were females. The weather was warm and it was after dinner. Where the men were I did not know, but they were not in the church. Two preachers at last appeared, and began the service. The regular minister read the service, but another clergyman preached the sermon. I soon discovered that this was an old school episcopalian church.—Their creed told me so, because it stated what Jesus himself has contradicted on his cross. The creed said, he descended into hell, but he himself told the thief by his side suspended on the cross, that on that day he would be in paradise! The sermon was an eloquent one, and so far as I could judge, very correct in its doctrinal points. As a literary composition, it was good too, and its delivery occupied an hour perhaps. The regular preacher was Mr. Dana and the one who officiated, was the Rev. Mr. Johnson. Young, or middled aged at most, tall, erect, active and well educated, they may yet live long to be useful and successful preachers.

Forty-five years since, General Washington attended this church and sat in the pew now occupied by a square built, heavy man, fifty years old, possibly. To me every person in the church was an entire stranger. The church has a good organ, and on each side of the pulpit are printed on boards the ten commandments on the south, and the Lord’s prayer and their creed on the north, or right hand side of the minister in his desk. Reuben Johnson is the present clerk and auditor of the city. From him I obtained leave to inspect all his records. Joseph Eaches, Esq., is the present mayor, from whom I have derived very useful information, concerning this city.

The people of Alexandria have in their manners the simplicity and straight-forwardness of a people in a rural village.—They have the hospitality of their ancesters of Charles II. time, when the Scotch, under Lord Fairfax settled the northern neck of Virginia. The pure morals and pure principles of those primitive times have been handed down unsoiled and uncorrupted to the people who now dwell here. 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, good 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. Near this town Washington was born and died, and his spirit hovers over this people. His example, his precepts and his principles govern Alexandria still. We see it in every thing all around us.

The stage house, where I am, is kept by Mr. George Wise, and it is the best in the city. As such I take pleasure in recommending it to travellers.

I cannot conclude my remarks on Alexandria better, than by introducing to the reader Mr. A.C. Cazenove, a native of Geneva, Switzerland, but now and for many years past an enterprising merchant and importer of foreign goods. Mr. Cazenove is as stirring a man, as there is in Alexandria. At my request he drew up a short memoir of his life, which, in his own words, I present to the reader. Gen. Archibald Henderson married Mr. Cazenove’s eldest daughter and Colonel Fowle his youngest one.

Memoir of Mr. Cazenove.

The cradle of the Cazenove family was Nismes in France, though it is probable, from their name and coat of arms, that they were originally from Italy or Spain, where you find some Casanovas and Casanuovas.

Being protestants, they had to fly at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and took refuge in Geneva, in Switzerland, from whence some of them afterwards branched off to Lausanne, in Switzerland, to Holland, England, France, and lastly to the United States. This last event took place during the summer of 1794, when the leaders of the dreadful French revolution fomented one of a similar character, only on a smaller scale, in the little republic of Geneva, then not one of the cantons of Switzerland, but in close alliance with that ancient and admirable confederation. The object of the French being the geographical situation of Geneva, being fortified and by nature one of the gate-ways into France, Switzerland and Italy, besides its great wealth for an inland city, and the high state of information possessed by the generality of its inhabitants, being acknowledged to be one of the luminaries of the world.

Although France had succeeded in overturning their old form of government, and substituting in a population, then amounting to about 25,000 souls in the city and about 15,000 in the surrounding villages and country, a national assembly as democratic as it could well be. They were attached to their independence and desirous so to remain. It therefore became necessary for Roberspierre and the leading jacobins of France, to find some pretext for taking possession of Geneva, for which purpose they surrounded it (being then in possession of Savoy and having military posts close by) with the worst of their jacobins, and such Genevans as had been banished from it for any cause, and in one night, with the help of their sattelites in Geneva and their own people which they had introduced into the city, took possession of the three gates of the city, arsenal and powder magazines. They armed the most desperate amongst them, to intimidate others, and early next day went and dragged the heads of our best families and distinguished citizens, into two large warehouses, used before that for public granneries, to the number of about 400 persons, and established a national tribune, before which they brought several of the best, most virtuous and patriotic citizens of Geneva, but ranked by them as aristocrats, which they pretended to have conspired against the independence of the republic; the very thing they had themselves in view, and were aiming at. Nor could they have had the reign one single day, but for the knowledge that France was ready to pounce upon Geneva, if any thing like a scuffle had taken place, to avoid which the people of Geneva thought it best to submit for a while to the tyranny of their own jacobins. As it was impossible to substantiate any charge against such men, however depraved their revolutionary tribunal was, they were necessarily acquitted and sent to the common jail for safe keeping. This however so enraged their blood-thirsty Marseillois, (the worst of jacobins) that they forced the jail during the night, and by torch light shot sixteen of the best men Geneva ever possessed, and so overawed the revolutionary tribunal itself, as to compel it to take on itself the responsibility of so atrocious a deed.

In order, however, to appease in some respects public indignation, the revolutionary tribunal brought before them forty of the prisoners, amongst whom were Mr. Paul Cazenove, myself, and his two and only sons, John Anthony and Anthony Charles, when, after having charged them also of conspiracy against the republic, and threatening them in an awful manner if they persisted, they were allowed to return to their respective families, where I found seven jacobins guarding my mother at her country seat, not allowing her to leave her own room, and I was not even allowed to go in and see her, nor have I seen her since; for my brother and myself, under cover of the night, with the help of a Swiss boat, escaped the second night, through the lake to Copet, the nearest town in Switzerland, on the lake of Geneva, where we were joined by our cousin Fazy, one of the defenders of Lyons when beseiged by order of the French national convention. Having long felt that we could not live in peace in Geneva, under the sway of the jacobins, we and several other Genevans had determined to leave it, for a while at least, and under the impression that the jacobinical principles of revolutionary France were destined to go through Europe, we determined to come to America, where the revolution had happily terminated, and where we had already friends and relatives. In order, therefore, to avoid the French armies, which were then making their second incursion into Flanders and Germany, we proceeded through the interior of Germany to Hamburg, where we were met by other Genevans, who had formed the plan of emigrating to America. There we heard of the death of Roberspierre, and were all on the point of abandoning our project, but we determined to persevere in it, because every leader of the French convention having been heretofore succeeded by one still more sanguinary than the last, we did not expect any change for the better. We all, to the number of eight, therefore, embarked together with our four Swiss servants, for Philadelphia, where we landed in November 1794, and were soon after joined by three other Genevans, two of whom, with their wives, had left Geneva after us for the United States. There I found my cousin, Mr. Theophilus Cazenove, the same after whom Cazenovia, in the State of New York, is called, who had made in that State and in Pennsylvania, as agent of wealthy capitalists of Holland, the extensive purchase of the Holland company. Also my cousin Odier of the house of Odier & Bousquet Brothers, and soon after Mr. Albert Gallatin, then a distinguished member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, joined us.

A number of Genevans having, while yet in Geneva, much approved our intention of removing to the United States, and desired that we should remember them and also prepare a retreat for them. We formed the plan of a large landed company, in which a number of influential individuals became interested. But having ascertained during the spring of 1795 that, justly adverse to emigrate, the French revolution and that of Geneva having assumed a somewhat milder course, after the fall of Roberspierre, we were not likely to be joined by other Genevans as we expected, we relinquished the plan of our landed company, and I formed a co-partnership with Mr. Albert Gallatin, his brother-in-law, Mr. J.W. Nicholson, and two other gentlemen, under the firm of Albert Gallatin & Co., and purchased a tract of land at the mouth of George’s Creek, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where we located the town of New Geneva, on the Monongehela river, and established stores, built mills, glass-works, &c. I remained there until having married in Alexandria, where I then settled myself for life. Some years after that, the Swiss government, having thought it desirable, for the first time, to establish consuls in the United States, unexpectedly to me, knowing nothing of their intentions, I received from the federal government of that country, their appointment of Swiss consul for the middle and southern States, with a very kind and obliging request from them to accept it; which was the more flattering, as it had been unsought by me, and though it was impossible for me to forget the country of my birth, or my attachment for Switzerland ever to be weakened, still it was very pleasing for me to see that I had not been forgotten by her, and had such agreeable opportunities afforded me of keeping up an intercourse with that excellent government and equally excellent people, which it is the delight of all travellers to exalt above all other nations.