During My Second Visit To Baltimore I Went Over To Washington For A
Day Or Two, And Found The Capital Still Under The Empire Of King
Mud.
How the elite of a nation - for the inhabitants of Washington
consider themselves to be the elite - can consent to live in such a
state of thraldom, a foreigner cannot understand.
Were I to say
that it was intended to be typical of the condition of the
government, I might be considered cynical; but undoubtedly the
sloughs of despond which were deepest in their despondency were to
be found in localities which gave an appearance of truth to such a
surmise. The Secretary of State's office, in which Mr. Seward was
still reigning, though with diminished glory, was divided from the
headquarters of the commander-in-chief, which are immediately
opposite to it, by an opaque river which admitted of no transit.
These buildings stand at the corner of President Square, and it had
been long understood that any close intercourse between them had not
been considered desirable by the occupants of the military side of
the causeway. But the Secretary of State's office was altogether
unapproachable without a long circuit and begrimed legs. The
Secretary of War's department was, if possible, in a worse
condition. This is situated on the other side of the President's
house, and the mud lay, if possible, thicker in this quarter than it
did round Mr. Seward's chambers. The passage over Pennsylvania
Avenue, immediately in front of the War Office, was a thing not to
be attempted in those days. Mr. Cameron, it is true, had gone, and
Mr. Stanton was installed; but the labor of cleansing the interior
of that establishment had hitherto allowed no time for a glance at
the exterior dirt, and Mr. Stanton should, perhaps, be held as
excused. That the Navy Office should be buried in mud, and quite
debarred from approach, was to be expected. The space immediately
in front of Mr. Lincoln's own residence was still kept fairly clean,
and I am happy to be able to give testimony to this effect. Long
may it remain so. I could not, however, but think that an energetic
and careful President would have seen to the removal of the dirt
from his own immediate neighborhood. It was something that his own
shoes should remain unpolluted; but the foul mud always clinging to
the boots and leggings of those by whom he was daily surrounded
must, I should think, have been offensive to him. The entrance to
the Treasury was difficult to achieve by those who had not learned
by practice the ways of the place; but I must confess that a
tolerably clear passage was maintained on that side which led
immediately down to the halls of Congress. Up at the Capitol the
mud was again triumphant in the front of the building; this however
was not of great importance, as the legislative chambers of the
States are always reached by the back doors.
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