THE DIARY of
Archibald Cary wrote his diary at Vaucluse. It begins on January 1, 1845 and ends on a note of disdain with the inauguration of President Polk, a little more than two months later.
During these weeks he went over constantly to Washington traveling usually on horse-back and one winter's day on foot--an eight mile walk through the snow. He was intensely interested in the public events of his time, not as an office seeker, for we may surmise that he had little gift as a hand-shaker and no disposition to seek votes for himself. It was of his class, if not of his day, that the highminded William Alexander Percy so recently wrote in "Lanterns on the Levee": "Politics used to be the study of men proud and jealous of America's honor, now it was a game played by self-seekers which no man need bother his head about."
In the presidential election of the preceding summer of 1844, Archibald Cary had taken the stump in Virginia in support of Mr. Clay, and had written articles for the Alexandria Gazette. An effective bit of campaign literature written by him is mentioned in an entry of February 24, 1845 in his diary:
"I have been engaged today in writing the address of Gen'l [Willis] Green to his constituents . . . I also agreed to write several newspaper articles touching upon the same subject which are to be published in the newspapers of the honorable gentleman's District in Kentucky. I render this
service to Gen'l Green the more readily because of his assistance to me in the late Presidential Canvass. It was chiefly through him that I was enabled to publish "The Tariff,-A Tract for the Tarnes, by a Citizen of Virginia," which was very widely circulated throughout the United States during the Canvass. Nearly thirty thousand copies of this tract were published in Washington and Alexandria,
and it was very eagerly sought after by the politicians of the Whig school. I had prepared another tract upon the "Distribution of the Proceeds of the Sales of the Public Lands among the States," but the committee of Whig members of Congress had not the funds to publish it, and I could not do so on my own account. However, I made much use of the materials during the canvass in the political speeches which I made at various places." A large part of his diary is taken up with observations on the two burning questions of the last days of President Tyler's administration--the annexation of Texas and the dispute with England over the Oregon boundary. In general he follows the lead of Mr. Clay on these great issues, and he regards it as inevitable that Texas is to be annexed to the United States. He adds: "I cannot say that I regret it, but one of its effects, I think is very evident; with Texas in the Union, at a future and perhaps no very distant, period Virginia and Kentucky will become free states.
This will be the natural consequence of the drain of the slave population to the wonderful cotton lands of Texas." Everything connected with the growth and commerce of the United States fills him with patriotic pride. He is intrigued by the proposed organization of the territory of "Nebraskee," though he fails to find it on the map. He thinks he may live to see the State of Nebraska represented in both Houses of Congress.
He exclaims upon the astonishing increase in population of the United States, it having reached 17,000,000 in 1840, and predicts that by the year 1900 it will reach almost 103,000,000.
He is very much interested in the return of Caleb Cushing, President Tyler's envoy to China, bringing with him our first treaty of commerce with the Chinese government. He notes also Asa Whitney's bold proposal to construct a railway from Lake Michigan to the coast of Oregon, commenting: "Truly this is a most stupendous project ! It would consummate what Columbus so anxiously sought to obtain, the opening of a direct western passage between Europe and China.... In a few years there will be a
continuous railroad line from Bangor in Maine to Cincinnatti, Ohio, of one thousand miles in extent! These facts indicate a vast development in the physical resources of this young and glorious republic."
One day he spent in the Library of Congress "examining some prints in the early history of Virginia about which there is at the present time some stir occasioned by the agitation of a project to send an agent to examine the state paper office in London for early records."
On January 16,1845 there is a brief note on the duel between the two members of Congress, Messrs. Clingman and Yancey, referred to already in this essay. He marks that it "was fought near Washington on Monday morning. Rifles, one fire, a miss and reconciliation."
On February 27, 1845 he notes: "The venerable widow of Alexander Hamilton, now nearly ninety years old, occupied a seat on the floor of the Senate today while Mr. Crittenden was speaking" [against the annexation of Texas].
So disappointed was Archibald Cary by the defeat of Henry Clay during the preceding summer, that he is led to view the new President James K. Polk with an extremely jaundiced eye. He writes in his diary: "Mr. Polk does not possess one single qualification to fit him for the elevated position he is called to occupy; a man who is a mere shadow, a political nothing, a sort of John Doe." He underestimated the abilities of the new President.
He is especially provoked by the industry as an office seeker of one Captain Isiah Rhynders who is said to be a professional gambler travelling with a roulette table between New Orleans and New York, who a year or two ago had fled from New Orleans to avoid arrest for forging Treasury Notes. "During the late election he organized the Empire Club, an association of thieves, burglars, murderers and other notorious characters banded together to aid in the election of Polk and Dallas.' At the inaugural
procession "Conspicuous in the ranks were 150 members of the Empire Club with their President, the infamous Capt. Ryndhers, bearing a large banner surmounted by a liberty cap and having on it portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Van Buren."
But the discreet Mr. Polk did not fail judiciously to mix some sheep with the goats since: "Gen. Jno. M. McCullom of Lexington was the Marshall of the Day. He is the in- dividual who busied himself during the late contest in procuring certificates to prove Mr. Clay a gambler and a violator of the Sabbath."
It rained all day during the inauguration of Mr. Polk, and the umbrella figured as prominently in this public spectacle as it did in the later excursions into European politics of Mr. Neville Chamberlain. In each case the umbrella was a danger signal of war ahead.
Mr. Polk's inauguration was "a procession of umbrellas"; the new President "read his inaugural address from under an umbrella held over his head to protect him from the merciless rain."
Of the address itself, Mr. Cary confides to his diary that "I verily believe there were not less than one thousand men present who could have written equally as good [a speech] . . . Mr. Polk deals exclusively in that species of hollow- hearted cant which has become so fashionable among the
Democracy of late. The 'Rich and the Poor,' 'Toiling Mil- lions,' 'Exclusive Privileges,' 'Monopolies,' 'We Want No National Bank,' &c. &c.'
In his intensive study of Roman history, Mr. Cary had evidently come to distrust the Gracchi.
After his inaugural address, the new Tribune of the People drove the outgoing President to his hotel, and they shook hands and parted amicably at the door. Mr. Cary, who watched them, records: "There was a very pleasant smile upon Mr. Tyler's face, but it was far from equalling the grin upon that of Mr. Polk." He concludes his account of the day: "Mr. Polk then proceeded to the Presidential Mansion
escorted by the military and a portion of the people on foot. Here the procession was dismissed and the pageant of the inauguration was over."
The grin, no doubt, faded from Mr. Polk's face as he settled at his desk and began to face the prospect of a war with Mexico, or with England.
With the inauguration of Mr. Polk, Mr. Cary's diary comes to an end, except for an addition on the first day of the year 1846, which follows: "Martinsburg, Berkeley County [West] Virginia, December the 31st [1845] 12 o'clock at night. "Well! I have been pretty well cast about from pillar to post! Anotheryear has passed by [note added in later years by his son Clarence Cary--'in this interval I was born. As this was a period of intense depression I could not have been welcome'] and I find myself located in this little village in the agreeable occupation of teaching a school. I came here in May last on foot, having walked from Alexandria and finding nothing else to do, was forced to engage in my present employment, or else see my family in want. Ah! that necessity is a hard master! And how
it humbles pride !
"Where shall I be at the expiration of the year that has just commenced its existence? Oh! that I could penetrate the dark veil that hangs over the future. But n'importe; it is useless to speculate. L'homme propose mais Dieu dispose. How do I like the position I occupy as a schoolmaster? Well, now I cannot very well answer you the question, as my experience extends through a few months only. Somehow or other, the teacher has as much attention paid him as anybody else. Perhaps the people know that humble as his employment is, there runs in his veins some of the richest old Virginia blood, and that his wife has a long line of noble ancestors to look back to. But this is anti-democratic, and there a truce to such vapourings concerning blood which is so poor in this world's wealth, as to drag
along through the puddles.
"While I write, the year 1845 expires, and the hour is marked here, according to an old custom, by the firing of guns and ringing of bells. It may be well thus to celebrate the departure of time. At least it induces many solemn thoughts in which I shall not here indulge.
"My good wife and three children--Falkland, Constance and Clarence are quietly sleeping in the midst of the din and confusion which are abroad. Adieu to 1845 and welcome 1846. All to gain and nothing to lose in the way of property at least."
As a note following this passage, his son Clarence Cary has added, many years later: "This is the last entry of my Father's diary--He died in 1854- eight years later-- not much better off. After a few months more teaching at Martinsburg he gave it up, and finally drifted to Cumberland, Maryland, where he practiced law, edited a newspaper--and died
We know nothing further of Mr. Cary's life in Martinsburg except that he contributed editorials to the Martinsburg Gazette, and delivered at that town a public address which was printed. These have been lost.