December, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONHLY VISITOR 



186 



done to iMark tlie piililn- sviiipiilliy niul iippioba- 

 tioii ol" the daiiii-; and disinterested deed. 



A coroner's inquest was held on the bodies of 

 foiu-ot' tlie sntli'iers, which were washed ashore. 

 The jiM-y returned a verdict of— " Wrecked on 

 board ihe Forlarsiiire sfeampacket, by the imper- 

 fection of her boilers, and the culpable neylect 

 of the captain in not putting back to port." 



The Federal City, and two of its remarkable 

 men. 



Washington city, the seat of government of 

 the United Slates, has much improved in popula- 

 tion, wealth and business within the last dozen 

 years. 'Ihe areat public buildiii'js. tlie 'I're.isury. 

 the Post Office and the Patent Office, which have 

 been lately erected— all fire proctt^— the improve- 

 ments in the j;rouniU about the Capitol, the Pres- 

 ident's house and the public offices— the renova- 

 tion of many old buildiims and the election of 

 new dwelling houses liy ilie cihz.uis-luivo put a 

 new face upon the city. Capitol hill has es|)eci- 

 ally been improvedaiid beamilied. iMr.SessCord, 

 late messenger and now a Clerk in the office of 

 the Second Comptroller, has for many years 

 gathered and reconlird the statistics of tlie city. 

 He iufurined tis that the iiuiiiber of dwelling 

 houses, within the liiiiils of the city on the 1st of 

 Jalluar^^ 1842, was 4;ilc!— thai of liiese ^Kl— 4U 

 of brick— were ended iii I,-<ll; and tli.it 'ilO, of 

 which CO were of brick, had been built in 184-3 

 up to the 9th September. 



Of the now old residents of Wasliington, who 

 have seldom been absiut from desk duty for a 

 single day since the new oiTraiiization of the 

 Treasury Departmenl twenty-six years a^'o. is the 

 veteran James Leander Cathcart. Our first 

 newspaper reading carryiiiy- us liack to 17SI8, at 

 ten years of aye, made us lamiliar with this iiauK^ 

 us tjir as it coniircied Aineiicaii negotiations with 

 the piratical states of IJ.uh.u}. ]!v the kindness 

 ofGen. .lacksmi who .Irsiynaled ha- us the place. 

 we some fifteen monllis ollii-i.itiil in the (.l1lrc of 

 Seconil Comptroller.it Wasliiii-inii : ou ihe first 

 entrance we were not inme sui prlsi-d at the fiict 



that the Barbary Consi.l (; •iJ u,-,s a cle.k in 



the department of \\irM-h «e uere Chief, than 

 we were at tin; singiihir personal appearance of 

 this gentleman: he looknl ikiI oiiU' a vrieiaii, 

 but his prominent fiu-e and llMinies, Ills hroad 

 shoulders, his costume of ihc' aiiclenl le.jinie, at 

 once brought to remembrance ihe hlsiorv of the 

 gufl^erings and the hoinirs of ChrlMlaii li..i„laue 



chained in the ditches or upon the raiiipaits of 

 barbari.-in fortificalioiK— scourged and ill-lre.ated 

 to extort from their friends and couulryiiien at 

 lioine large sumsot iiioiiey to purchase their lib- 

 erty. Tills gentleman we had ihoiiiilit to be an 

 old man when first leailing ahuut him more than 

 forty years ago; and in 18-29-30, he did seem 

 to "be approaching the " sere and yellow 

 leaf." In 184-? we found him at his old desk, 

 much as he was when we first mei— gratefiil to 



he had met from any man willun lh(i last twenty 

 years — a kindness wlili;h, if it might thus In; 

 called, had escaped our recolleclinn : his dress 

 and address seemed not to be .it all altered. The 

 same habit of dissatisfaction for personal ills he 

 had long since suffiu-ed — the same bright re<!ol- 

 lection especially of his personal friend of thirty 

 years ago, Mr. Jefierson, and the other eminent 

 l)uhlic men of that day — the same strong expres- 

 sion of gratitude for real acts of friendship, and 

 of impatient contempt for the memory of injuries 

 — was manifested by action and word from I his 

 man of a former age. 



Mr. Cathcart is a native of Ireland, born in 

 1784 and of course 78 years of age: lit! left that 

 country when quite young, and received a com- 

 mon education in .Aiin'iica. In command of an 

 American ship, he was caplured hv an Alirerine 

 corsair July 2.5.1785. The ciunmander of the cor- 

 sair was not a Turk, but an Arab. His own ship, 

 the Maria, was entered by surprise: the pirate.s, 

 he said, tumbled him into a boat almost hclbre he 

 was aware of it. The Aral) afterwards treated 

 him with great good nature until he arrived at 

 Algiers : no reproaches or indi^rnilies were offer- 

 ed. Mr. C. remained a captive under the barba- 

 rian Dey until the 8ili of May, 1796. His educa- 

 tion and talent for penmanship soon made him 

 too u.sefiil to be dispensed witii I>y the tyrant 

 Turk : he was for a loiij lime occupied ns on« of 



the Christian secretaries to his divan — he was 

 also the organ of communication Ibr.severtd years 

 belweei) Ihe Dey and the agents and consids ol 

 the Christian powers — useful as his confidential 

 servant in negoliating treaties and tigreements. 

 His first public employment by tlie Dey was in 

 keeping the accounls and superlntend"ing the 

 building of a |Uilace. Afterwards he was a sub- 

 clerk in the Marine department, and finally was 

 advanced to the ofliee of main clerk or secretary 

 of the Dey. In this capacity he formed and drew 

 up the terms of the first treaty between the Uni- 

 ted States and Algiers, which conceded Ihe pay- 

 ment of aumial tribute to the barbarian power, 

 and provided the payment of a large sum to pur- 

 chase the fieetlom oi the .Americans in captivit\: 

 the negociation was carried on by Mr. Hmnphreys 

 Ihen American minister at the" comt of Madrid 

 through the intervention of the agent of u friendly 

 (Christian power — we believe the Swedish consid 

 at Algiers; and the treaty, on behalf of the Uni- 

 ted States, was signed by Josepii Donelson, a 

 hatter, l)elonging to Philadelphia. 



Afier executing this treaty, Mr. Cathcart re- 

 turned to the United States, wliere he remained 

 until 1797, when he was commissioned by Gen. 

 VVashington .is Consul General tor the Barbary 

 powers, and remainiMl there until the year IfcOS. 

 During his captivity in the year 1791, tlie reigning 

 Dey, Hainel Bashaw, was deposed and decapita- 

 ted and the throne was usurped by his prime min- 

 ister, Hassan Bashaw; the latter a man of liir 

 more brutal and ferocious disposition than the 

 former. 



About the time of Mr. Cathcarl's return to this 

 country the expedition ofGeneral Eaton through 

 the desert of Baicia in which he marcheil with a 

 band of men in the service of the righlfiil heir to 

 the throne of Tripoli, with the view of e.xpelllng 

 an usurping Bey then at war with the United 

 folates, who had kept the crew of the Philadel- 

 phia frigate and other Americans long in captiv- 

 ity, was iiiidertakeii. After proceeding well on 

 the way,and cM|itin liig one of the principal towns 

 of Tripoli on ihi! coiisi, it will be recollected that 

 Mr. Lear, the UiuHil States' consul at Algiers, 



was obliged to ask protection for bis person in 

 the Uifited States. During his residence at Wash- 

 ington, and on the subsequent arrivid of an am- 

 bassador from Tunis to this country, Mr. C. was 

 tlie only man qualified as an interpreter between 

 these persons and the President and his secreta- 

 ries. After peace hail been concluded with these 

 barbarians, and the valor of the American sailors 

 had put an end to the systetn of tribute, Mr. Jef- 

 ferson, as the great pacificator of this country, 

 had much to do with the barbarian agents: he 

 received presents fioiii them in return for presents 

 which this ^'oveiniiHUt had tendered. Among 



ine presei 



the momi 

 Washiiigt. 



ts from Ti 



IS of At, 



a pairol sheep Iroiii 

 vhleb were kept in 

 Feeding ou the; open 

 grounds, Mr. Jefterson's Tunisian ram attacked 

 :uul killed a child on one occasion. The new iu- 

 ttrcomse for some time brought Mr. Cathcart al- 

 most as a member of the family of the President. 



Siiliseipieut to his last return, the veteran con- 

 sul married a lady of this country. At one lime 

 he possessed what he consiilered an ample prop- 

 son, Charles Cathcart, born In 1809, has emigrated 

 to Norili Indiana, where he is now a fiiriner and 

 a magistrate, and has been a member of his 

 State Legislature. lie has an extensive farm 

 called Catheart's Hetrealui Laporte county, from 

 whence he wrote to his tallirr on the 1st of Sep- 

 tember that the crops of this vear wen.' nnlv tol- 

 erable. an.I that he had ihlrlv-oiie acres of wheat 

 almost entirely ruiiieil by iliearmy worm. Young 

 i\lr. Cathcart has liuented a machine for tlirash- 

 iiii; grain ; and wlili tie- usi> of ibis he is iible to 

 earn in that country for hliiiself an income of 

 twenty-five bushels of whe.it per day. 



The vicissitudes in the life of the elder Cath- 

 cart have been :is one In ten thonsaml. How he 

 managed lonj; to retain the good opinion of the 

 nvo tyrants to whom he wasa slave — how he has 

 larrled himself through a life of great personal 

 exposure, under relations requiring the utmost 

 delicacy and circumspection — it would be diffi- 

 cidt lo tell. 



Another and altogether a dWerent person from 

 Mr.C.{wliowill not^lake ofi;iice at being is.-o- 

 clated in ihe same article) was mentionecl as w or- 

 lliy that his name might appear in print: John 

 Cary, a coloied man, said to be one hundred and 

 sixteen years of age, resides within the limits of 

 the city. He hasu young wife sixty years of a;;e, 

 who assists him in paying for the rem of a small 

 place. This man was wiiii Washiii'iton at Brad- 

 dock's defeat In the old French war, and in ilio 

 battle of the American revolution al Yorklown. 

 He has now, having saved while luliiyin the fam- 

 ily, a suit of Washiiifiion's cast off cloihes which 

 he puts on and exhibits on extr.-iordinary occa- 

 sions: he lived in a small negro house a'ssigned 

 him in the lile lime of Gen. \V'aslilii;;lon on ihe 

 Mount Vernon estate, being his slave."'lliis hou.se 

 became dilapidated and worn oiii, since which 

 time he has taken up his residence in ihe city, 

 where he depends niainlv on the cliailtyof llie 

 Baptist church of which he is a member. Il is a 

 saying of this very old man that "a lillle change 

 will go further lliuii a good deal of jilty." 



Indian Scenes. 



The editor of the Iowa Gazette attended the 

 late treaty-making council between Governors 

 Chambers and the Sacs and Fo.xes, and in a late 

 paper has an article on the subject, from which 

 we extract the following: 



The Sacs and Foxes are perhaps the finest 

 looking Indians on the Globe — of large, alhletic, 

 and perfect f()rms, and most graceful carriage— 

 and a brave, high minded, and hoiimable set of 

 fellows. There are few men in this world equal 

 to the celebrated Keokuk, whose commanding 

 oratory raised him, even in his youth, (rom the 

 common ranks of his tribe, and placed him, with- 

 out hereditary right and in despite of all com- 

 petition, at the head of his nation, ftlany states- 

 men in our Government might le:irn useful les- 

 sons in diplomacy, and many of our best orators 

 receive profitable instructions from this gifted 

 Indian. 



The younger son of Black Hawk is the Adonis 

 of Ills tribe, and is probably the handsomest man 

 in the world. He is six leet three or four inches 

 high, graceful and elegant in his manners, and, 

 although weighing perhaps two hundred, ho 

 treads as lightly as an iuliint. Klsli-ke-kosh, a 



■d and 



;uig man, and tlioii^jh as brave 

 .IS Ctesar, he is a regular built Briminiel exquis- 

 ite. He usually sports an ebony cane with a 

 gloriously large and bright brass lie.id, which he 

 twists in his fingers in the most eleg,uit style im- 

 aginable, and when silling, rests' his chin and 

 lips on the brilliant ornament, a la "ihe fiiio 

 old English Gentleman." He is a smilimr chap, 

 and celebrated as a gallant, as your smiling giiille- 

 men usii.illy are. It was rallier amusing to wit- 

 ness his eftorts to crime the polite tiling over his 

 brother savages. 



Every night the Indian camp was converted 

 into a vast ball-room, anil evcrv \ ai lelv of dances 

 known anion:.' then., from il,e '• cloililng of the 

 dead" to tlie flat boat •■double shiillle," was per- 

 lin-med by them; the sqii.-ius Ikui; no part in 

 these amusements, and iisiially manifested but 

 little curiosity lo wilness their" performance. It 

 i.s any thing but dancing, according lo oiir no- 

 tions, consisling as it does of violent stamping 

 upon the ground lo ihe measnied heals of a 

 driun— a regular te.irlng-up of the earth, or, as 

 the Mi.ssisssippl indictment expressed it, " kick- 



the 



re IS 



served excelh nt time. 'I'he chiel's and braves 

 are the principal perfornieis in these scenes. In 

 addition to the beating of the drum, the dancers 

 are enlivened by perh.ips the wildest and most 

 hideous yell that ever issued from the throats 

 of human beings. .\iid, although a Christian 

 might think all Pandemonium had been turned 

 loose upon our prairies, yet strange to say there 

 is music in the horrid compound. 



When all things are put into fiill blast, the 

 drum beating, the dancers moving, and the sing- 

 ers yelling, hundreds of Indian dogs join in the 

 delightful chorus, and it is then that the air is 

 maiie redol<;nt with savage sounds which make 

 Ihe listener quake while he laughs .-it the snptr- 

 lalively ludicrous character of ilie whole scene 

 before him. The young members of the tribe 

 ainiisP Iheniselves, some by aping ihe dancer at 



