PRESIDENT JACKSON, AND BLACK HAWK. 29 



Jackson, the President, to visit in course of his tour, 



already commenced, proposed that I should wait and form one 

 of the party. There is no ruler of any portion of the earth I 

 would so soon associate with as a President of the United 

 States of America, chosen by a free and enlightened people, 

 to administer their laws ; but the task which I had imposed 

 upon myself did not warrant delay in an indulgence of feeling, 

 forming part of the President s tail, being unconnected with 

 the objects of my excursion. I had no reason to regret this 

 act of self-denial, the conduct of the people and President 

 during the tour being such as I could not admire. 



General Jackson having resolved to visit the chief towns 

 in the northern parts of the Union, he got as far as Boston, 

 when he was compelled by fatigue to return to Washington. 

 In every town his deportment and reception seemed an imita 

 tion of the rules of despotic countries a spectacle to the 

 crowd, and an object of extravagant devotion. An Indian 

 chief, named Black Hawk, who had been taken prisoner 

 the preceding year, in a war to the west of Lake Michi 

 gan, and who was carried through some of the great towns, 

 with a view of impressing him with the power of the States, 

 preparatory to his liberation, arrived at New York the day 

 after the President, and divided public attention. The ladies 

 declared in favour of Black Hawk, some of them actually 

 kissing him, which, it is said, affected the old President s 

 health. The chief of the white men, and the chief of the red, 

 were alike objects of curiosity ; the President holding a levee 

 by day, the Hawk by night, in Niblo s gardens. Had a mam 

 moth or elephant appeared, the mighty ones of the earth 

 would have been eclipsed in public favour, 



We left New York early in the morning, by the Albany 

 steam-boat, for Hyde Park, after viewing which we returned 

 to the landing-place on the river Hudson, and, at half-past 

 twelve at night, stept on board of a steam-boat which 

 landed us at Albany a little after seven next morning. I got 

 on deck at four, when passing the town of Hudson ; the wind 

 was blowing high from the north, and piercingly cold. 



Hyde Park, the seat of Doctor Hosack, is the most cele- 



