The Memories of Fifty Years eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 720 pages of information about The Memories of Fifty Years.

The Memories of Fifty Years eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 720 pages of information about The Memories of Fifty Years.

I shall have much more to say of these two in a future chapter.  At this time Colonel Burr was old and slightly bent, very unlike what he was when I first met him; still his eyes and nose, brow and mouth, wore the same expression they did fifteen years before.  About the mouth and eye there was a sinister expression, and he had a habit of looking furtively out of the corner of his eye at you, when you did not suppose he was giving any attention to you.

CHAPTER XV.

CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

GOVERNOR WOLCOTT—­TOLERATION—­MR. MONROE—­PRIVATE LIFE OF WASHINGTON—­ THOMAS JEFFERSON—­THE OBJECT AND SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT—­COURT ETIQUETTE —­NATURE THE TEACHER AND GUIDE IN ALL THINGS.

During the year 1820 I was frequently a visitor at the house of Governor Oliver Wolcott, who then resided in Litchfield, Connecticut.  Governor Wolcott was a remarkable man in many respects.  He was originally a Federalist in politics, and enjoyed the confidence of that party to an unlimited extent.  His abilities were far above ordinary, and his family one of great respectability.  He was a native of Connecticut, and after Alexander Hamilton retired from the Treasury bureau in the Cabinet of Washington, he succeeded to that position.  He filled the office with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of his chief.  He had, after considerable time spent in public life, left Connecticut, to reside in New York.  Subsequent to the war, and when the Federal party had abandoned its organization under the Administration of Mr. Monroe, there grew up in his native State a party called the Toleration party.  In reality it was a party proscriptive of the old Federal leaders, and it grew out of some legislation in connection with religious matters, in which, as usual, the Puritan element had attempted to oppress, by special taxation, for their own benefit, all others differing from them in religious creed.  Governor Wolcott favored this new organization, and he was invited to return to the State and give his aid to its success.  He did so, and in due time was made Governor by this party.  At the time of which I write, he was as bitterly and sincerely hated by the old Federal party as ever Jefferson was, or as Andy Johnson now is by the Radical party, which is largely constituted of the debris of that old and intolerant organization, and which is now eliminating every principle of the Constitution to gratify that thirst for power, and to use it for persecution, that seems inherent in the nature of the Puritan.  By the hour I have listened to the abuse of him, from the mouths of men whose lives had been spent in his praise and support, simply because he had interposed his talents and influence to arrest the oppressor’s hand.  They said he had deserted his party, that he would live to share the fate of Burr, and that he was as great a traitor.

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The Memories of Fifty Years from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.