. A larger history of the United States of America, to the close of President Jackson's administration . ut also modest, and even shy,so that his prevailing air was that of commonplace strength andrespectable mediocrity. After all the political excitements ofthe past dozen years, nothing could be more satisfactory thanthis. People saw in him a plain Virginia farmer addressing au-diences still mainly agricultural. Ralph Waldo Emerson oncesaid to me, when looking for the first time on John P. Hale, ofNew Hampshire, then at the height of a rather brief eminence: What an average man he is! He look
. A larger history of the United States of America, to the close of President Jackson's administration . ut also modest, and even shy,so that his prevailing air was that of commonplace strength andrespectable mediocrity. After all the political excitements ofthe past dozen years, nothing could be more satisfactory thanthis. People saw in him a plain Virginia farmer addressing au-diences still mainly agricultural. Ralph Waldo Emerson oncesaid to me, when looking for the first time on John P. Hale, ofNew Hampshire, then at the height of a rather brief eminence: What an average man he is! He looks just like five hundredother men. That must be the secret of his power. It wasprecisely thus with Monroe. He had in his cabinet men oftalents far beyond his own—Adams, Calhoun, Crawford, Wirt;Jefferson and Madison yet lived, his friends and counsellors;Jackson, Clay, Webster, and Benton were just coming forwardinto public life; but none of all these gifted men could havere-assured the nation by their mere aspect, in travelling throughit, as he did. Each of these men, if President, would have been. JAMES MONROE. [From the painting bv Gilbert Stuart, owned by T. Jefferson Coolidt;e. Esq., Boston 25 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. 387 something more than the typical official. Monroe precisely filledthe chair, and stood for the office, not for himself. He left Washington June 2, 1817, accompanied only by hisprivate secretary, Mr. Mason, and by General Joseph G. Swift,the Chief Engineer of the War Department. The ostensibleobject of his journey was to inspect the national defences. Thisexplained his choice of a companion, and gave him at each pointan aim beyond the reception of courtesies. With this nominalerrand he travelled through Maryland to New York City, trav-ersed Connecticut and Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hamp-shire, and Maine, then a district only. He went southwardthrough Vermont, visited the fortifications at Plattsburg, trav-elled through the forests to the St. Lawrenc
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