American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-11-10

The late ME-. McDOMOuSh ana h1s Estnte'
correspondent Of the New York Herald,
writing from New Orleans on the 30th ultimo,
says:
"About the middle of last August after a
| labor of nine months, the notary completed an
inventory of the celebrated McDonough estate.
1t seems that his effects, embracing bills pay
able, amount to the sum of two millions five
hundred and ten thousand two hundred and fifty
two dollars and sixty cents, ($2, ,5l0,252 co.,
This estimate falls far short of the impressions
| respecting the old mans wealth at the time of
| his death-immensey less than his own calcu-
| lations. McDonough was o strange creature in
many respects. 1t would be very wrong to
| designate him as q miser, in the ordinary ac-
ceptation of the term. Although the items in
| the inventory referred to as ARTICLES used
by the deceased, personally do not ex-
ceed the meagre sum Of $2S.S5, an inspection
| of his correspondence, his known contributions
| to colonization societies, and the number Of
| slaves he manumitted and transmitted to Libe-
ria at his own expense, establish that he must
have expended several hundreds of thousands
of dollars in the cause of colonization. He
closed his pockets Theoretically against private
charities, and exacted his dues to the last farth
| ing with a pertinacity and remorselessness that
would have done honor to the Jew of the play.
| In pursuit of credited dime he would swim
| through an ocean of widows and orphans tears.
| His great energies were devoted to the acquisi-
| ton Of posthumous notoriety, and he was as
satisfied of securing it as Horace, or Bacon, or
| Milton. To this end, from earliest manhood to
| the last moment of his existence, he adopted
| the abstemiousness Of an anchorite. He knew
| his fellow men only as the possessors of GER
tain moneys which he must obtain. He met
them only on tho Rialto.' l find that he once
became tender aud sighed like furnace il
the ears of Madame Pontalba, when she was
merry hearted girl. Even then, l am disposed
| to think that money rather than love was the
cause Of his wooing, for the lady was the wealth
lest heiress in the Crescent city. She laughed
at his VOWS, and young McDonough welded
celibacy.
"I cannot omit here characteristic anecdote.
After the lapse of many years, when both par
ties had become rankly 'sere,' it became i'm
portant for the widow Pontalba, in order to
carry out some projected Improvements, to pur-
chase a small lot, Of little value, that belonged
to the eccentric Mac. She approached him
with smiling face, after her agent had been re-
fused the purchase, and begged of him not to
deny her favor. She pleaded the old love he
bore her. 1t was too much for the old man.
Apparently very much affected, he consented to
dispose Of the lot, worth some few hundred dol
lars, for the price of fifty thousand dollars. As
l have already intimated, he devoted his life to
accumulation, for the sole purpose of investing
his acquisitions in such n manner that immor-
| tality might ensue. 1t is curious to notice, in
corroboration, the comments he is constantly
making in his staid legers, in reference to the
accretive value Of his various purchases. In
his bold calculations he dispels fututity as o
housemaid would spiders web-'a year is
but as day. For q mere song he purchases
q frog -tenanted swamp lot The entry Of the
acquisition is duly made. Then follows his
vaticination 8 In two hundred years, this lot
will be worth one hundred thousand dollars.
Throughout his entire will, the same morbid
disposition for future fame is apparent Then,
again, he hunts up scheme of philanthropy,
utterly discordant to every feeling of his nature
have no doubt his original intention was to
invest his property in some grand colonization
project; and it is probable that his clear head
found il impractcable, so he becomes fierce
lover ofiuveniles-he who had lived long life
in utter disregard, rather in positive violation
Of every social tie. reader might ask, Why
the length of time for the notary to complete his
inventory? And the answer elucidates another
peculiarity of this strange being. AT least nj
teen thousand letters we're found among the de-
ceased's papers He always enclosed copy o.
his answer in the original communication. Then
again. were discovered at least five hundred
, thousand memoranda, Of every size and descrlp
tion.
ale never came to New Orleans Che resides
, directly opposite) without making memoran
{ dun of what he was going to do, which, upol
his return, he religiously filed away. For thre
| entire months four persons embracing th