II
THE SOUTHERN JOURNEY
SETTING out on my southern journey, I left home October 5, 1850, and went to Peace Dale. Tuesday evening we started for Philadelphia via New York. We spent some days in Philadelphia, where my friend had numerous relatives. During our stay we heard Albert Barnes preach a very plain and simple sermon, somewhat in the style of his then famous notes on the Gospels. We also heard Jenny Lind, then on her first tour, sing. I have never been so impressed by singing as by her rendering of "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Philadelphia had many objects of interest to me, Independence Hall, the Mint, the Schuylkill, Fairmount, etc.
We got our outfit of saddles and bridles and went via Baltimore to Harper's Ferry and Winchester. When we had planned to set out on horseback for a journey through the South, we had clothed ourselves in suits of heavy gray cloth, and steeple-crowned, brick-coloured hats, known as California hats. We had india-rubber ponchos for use in rainy weather. Our effects were packed in saddle bags. We purchased two excellent horses here.
We had letters to some intelligent men in Winchester. From conversation with them we received the impression that the more thoughtful regarded slavery as economically of no advantage to that section; but they did not relish the attitude of the North in criticizing them for continuing to maintain it. Some of them seemed to be in a rather confused state of mind, admiring the prosperity of the North, expressing devotion to the Union, but defending their course in retaining their negroes in bondage.
We were deeply impressed with the prosperity of the Shenandoah Valley as we travelled along its great highway. Wagons laden with corn and the other products of the fertile farms passed on in continuous procession towards Winchester, the terminus of the railway from Harper's Ferry. We visited Weyer's Cave, which though not so extensive as the better known Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, was as beautiful and striking to us who had never seen such a geological formation. From Waynesboro we crossed the Blue Ridge by the Rockfish Gap. Under Monsieur Crozet, a French engineer, the men were driving the tunnel for the railway. Our immediate destination was Charlottesville. We wished to visit Monticello, the home of Jefferson, and the University of Virginia.
We reached Turpin's Hotel in the afternoon. Our costume was hardly calculated to impress strangers with the idea that we were entitled to special civilities at their hands. In fact we had generally been taken by the men' we had met on the road for drovers, who were seeking cattle, or for bill collectors, sent out by northern firms to dun their debtors. More than once those who held the latter theory put whip to their horses to escape from us.
But in the evening we had a fine example of Virginia hospitality. In some way a group of gentlemen sitting near us in the hotel learned the object of our visit to the town, and notwithstanding our costume proffered their services to make our visit agreeable. The oldest of them, Mr. William Gilmer, widely known as we soon learned as Billy Gilmer, introduced himself, saying that he had received courtesies in New England and that he and his friends would be glad to entertain us. He introduced us to them and immediately began to lay out a programme of hospitalities which would have occupied us for a week or ten days. "You will go to dinner with me to-night, to-morrow we will go to Southold's, the next day we will have a fox hunt," and so on. We were obliged to decline this kind offer; but we told him we should be obliged to him if he could help us gain access to Monticello, since we had heard it was closed to visitors. "Oh, yes," he replied, "I will go with you to-morrow morning. As a child I grew up a neighbour of Jefferson and was often in his house. I will see that you get in."
The next morning he appeared at the appointed hour. Monticello is about two miles from the town. As we rode up the hill he told us some interesting stories about Mr. Jefferson, which I here give on his authority.
The view from the hill commands the two fertile counties of Fluvanna and Louisa. "If in the place of them there had been a lake," Jefferson used to say, "this would have been the finest situation on earth." "And," added Mr. Gilmer, "if he could have had his way, he would have sunk them both in the lake."
Pointing to a wooded peak rising behind Monticello, he said that Mr. Jefferson once planned a sawmill to be placed there and driven by a windmill, since there is always a breeze up there. When some woodman asked how he would get the logs up there to be sawed, he was nonplussed.