124 CHANGING SITE OF CAPITAL. [CHAP. XXVII. 



make ; he liked to behold it in imagination, as it will 

 be in reality, built up from the bank of the river to 

 the margin of the lake, sustaining and supporting a 

 happy, industrious, and enterprising population of 

 millions, and being at the same time the great em 

 porium of the trade and commerce of the world.&quot; 



Although I talked much with Louisianians of dif 

 ferent classes in society, as to their reasons for 

 changing the site of the capital, I never could satisfy 

 myself that I had fathomed the truth, and suspect 

 that a spirit of envy and antagonism of country 

 against town lies more at the bottom of the measure 

 than they were willing to confess, aggravated, per 

 haps, in this case, by the rivalry of two races. No 

 one pretended that they wished to retreat to a 

 village, from fear that the populace, or mob, of New 

 Orleans might control the free action of the repre 

 sentative body. Some told me, that as their mem 

 bers received pay, they were desirous of taking away 

 from them all temptations to protract the session, 

 which the charms of a luxurious metropolis afforded. 

 They also affirmed that, by living in so dear a place, 

 their representatives acquired extravagant notions in 

 regard to the expenditure of public money, and that 

 they were exposed to the influence of rich merchants 

 and capitalists, who gave them good dinners, and 

 brought them round to their opinions. 



I asked if a convention for remodelling the con 

 stitution had been called for. My informants were 

 generally disposed to think that the time had arrived 

 when such a re-cast of the old system had become 

 unavoidable. The recurrence, they said, of such 



