Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-08-03

MODE OF TRAyEIING-HI SERFs AND HIS BIC
Guar. The Gaiena Gazette relates the follow
I ing anecdote of sold Circumstance, which in
part accounts fol. the milk in the cocoanut."
We now know why it was Cass charged the
Government extra mileage extra ralions, &c.
He could not travel as ordinary men do, but
must be borne in a Sedan Chair upon the should
ers Of four lusty voyageur8, after the manner of
the princes in the East, which mode of travel
ing is attended with great expense, and which
Uncle Sam was invariably made to foot. Now,
had Gen. Cass been made to ''paddle his own
lcanoe"-for which his salary as Governor of
Michigan was ample OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES sex
tras' would have been a mere circumstance,
about which there would have been no s'noise1
among the Wings and less sconfusion'' in his
own party. Only think of man compelling
WHITE MEN to bear him about on their should
ers for fear of getting his feet wet running
race for the Presidency against Old Rough and
Ready, who waded the swamps of Florida,
sharing all the tolls sand hardships of the COM
mon soldier! The thingis preposterous.-But
to the story:
est has been urged, as a reason why General
Cass should be elected to the Presidency, that
he once made the voyage from St. Peters down
the Mississippi, ina canoe. We have heard a
| little Circumstance related by a gentleman
well known here, touching Lewis Cass, how he
used to make his landings, portages, &c, du-
ring that celebrated voyage. 1t may serve to
throw some light ON the obscurity of his rea-
for haliarino To he mn nctit,,4iO,,al ~
improve rivers and Harbors. Indeed if steam
boat could be picked and toted about by serfs
as he compelled white men to do him, we do
not see that such improvements would be very
necessary. Cass arrived here on the 4th of July,
1923. He hada large easy chair fixed in his
canoe, in which he sat, in dignIfied style, while
four lusty UoydgeurS put the craft in motion
with their oars. In deep water and fair pull
+ ing, every thing went on smoothly. But, Cass
being corpulent man, the craft was heavily
freighted when he,was aboard, and it became
difficult to make shoal landings. When he
came to the Portage, about four miles below
this place, our friend describes the manner of
procedure, as follow The boat was made to
approach as near as possible TO the shore, but
it grounded in water foot or so III depth, Cass
would compel his serfs 10 leap from the boat,
and beer him in the chair on their shoulders
through the mud and water to the shore. In
this wav, the great man kept his cloths clean
and his feet dry. After depositing their bur-
den on high ground, they drew the bark over
the Portage He was then taken up again, and
transported, like an East India nabob in his
chair, trough mud and water, till the burden
was again deposited on board, and the boat
! freighted. In this way he made the voyage,
suffering no inconvenience whatever from the
/ impediments in navigation. And perhaps he
thinks, that, if bis big bulk could be so easily
navigated over shoal waters and necks of low
land, that it isabsurd for steamboat navigators
to complain. 1t was however, perfectly con-
stitutionaL for him to loll away in his big chair
while four men. up to their thighs in mud and
water, were Juggling him along 10 land and
over land, but it is wholly unconstitutional to
expend dollar for the improvement of our riv-
ers and harbors, for the safety of the lives of
the hundreds of thousands who travel on our
steamboat, and the millions of property on OR
Lakes and Western Rivers!
i .sOCsContrast the unmanly action of Gen
Cass, borne about on the shoulders of poor
!, weather beaten, laboring men, fearful of wet
ting his feet, or any exposure that could by any
possibility be avoided-and Gen. Taylor, in the
) Florida war, eating his hard crust seated on a
log, sharing all the hardships, deprivations and
/ perils of the lowestssoldier. The latter knows
how to sympathise with the wants Of the com
: mon people, and sees in every man, brother;
the former looks on them as creatures born tC
, minister tc his ambition, and bear him over
: the wet places and through the tall grass, IN
A BIG CHAIR !"