ners.

The Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives, preceded by their Speaker and Clerk.

The Serjeant-at-Arms of the Senate.

The Senate of the United States, preceded by the Vice President and
their Secretary.

The President of the United States.

The Heads of Departments.

Judges of the Supreme Court, and its Officers.

Foreign Ministers.

Citizens and Strangers.

_February_, 26th, 1838.

The burial-ground being at some distance, carriages were provided for
the whole of the company, and the procession even then was more than
half a mile long. I walked there to witness the whole proceeding; but
when the body had been deposited in the vault, I found, on my return, a
vacant seat in one of the carriages, in which were two Americans, who
went under the head of "Citizens." They were very much inclined to be
communicative. One of them observed of the clergyman, who, in his
exhortation, had expressed himself very forcibly against the practice of
duelling:--

"Well, I reckon that chaplain won't be 'lected next year, and sarve him
right too; he did pitch it in rather too strong for the members; that
last flourish of his was enough to raise all their danders."

To the other, who was a more staid sort of personage, I put the
question, how long did he think this tragical event, and the severe
observations on duelling, would stop the practice.

"Well, I reckon three days, or thereabouts," replied the man.

I am afraid that the man is not far out in his calculation. Virginia.
Mississippi, Louisiana, and now Congress, as respects the district of
Columbia, in which Washington is built, have all passed severe laws
against the practice of duelling, which is universal; but they are no
more than dead letters. The spirit of their institutions is adverse to
such laws; and duelling always has been, and always will be, one of the
evils of democracy. I have, I believe, before observed, that in many
points a young nation is, in all its faults, very like to a young
individual; and this is one in which the comparison holds good. But
there are other causes for, and other incentives to this practice,
besides the false idea that it is a proof of courage. Slander and
detraction are the inseparable evils of a democracy; and as neither
public nor private characters are spared, and the law is impotent to
protect them, men have no other resource than to defend their
reputations with the