62 TlTt-ES^V 



Representatives, The Honorable, he. &c. For 

 the honor of the country, this ridiculous effort was 

 overruled by the good sense of the nation. Draw- 

 ing rooms, levees, regulations of rank and pre- 

 scriptions of etiquette, are however, permitted to 

 disgrace the government ; and questions of high 

 import, and of great pith and importance, with 

 respect to precedence, are debated with wonder- 

 ful zeal and astonishing ability. Shall the wife 

 of the President return visits — shall the wife of a 

 Secretary pay the first visit to the wife of a mem- 

 ber of Congress — shall the Secretaries outrank the 

 Senators — shall clerks and the wives of clerks 

 visit the President's drawing room — are questions 

 which have been discussed in solemn council, and 

 which have employed every tongue and every 

 mind in the sublime Bagdad of America. A lit- 

 tle more than two hundred years have elapsed 

 since the first settlement of this country ; and as 

 a generation averages but thirty-three years, few 

 families here can boast of more than five genera- 

 tions ; and yet our ears are saluted in all quarters 

 with panegyrics on great families, who have come 

 perhaps 



" From Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where." 



1 assure you that I feel infinitely disgusted at 

 this ridiculous apery of nobility. I have seen 



