New Hampshire Statesman And State Journal

FOR THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE STATESMAN.

A DREAM.

I here give you some account of a dream I had a short time since, and if you think it will be of any service to any of the readers of your useful paper, you are at liberty to publish it. I am a plain farmer, and what I relate shall be in a plain manner.

I thought I sailed to the western part of our country, in what was called a flying steamboat. The boat was something like an air balloon, with a little steam power in it to move the light wheels which propelled it along; and the Captain could manage the sails and the silken rudder so as to sail in any direction he pleased. We sailed just over the tops of the hills, so that I could have a fair view of the country as I passed along; and as I sailed I viewed the hills and valleys and streams and lakes, and thought upon the ingenuity of our mechanics, the riches of the country, and the privileges we enjoy for education, and the blessings of civil and religious liberty; and believed I was passing over the happiest country in the world. At length I was safely landed on a beautiful hill, shaded by ancient trees, and left alone, while the rest of the company repaired to an inn not far off, where we all expected to refresh ourselves, and to be in preparation to return home in the same silken vessel which brought us there.

While I was alone in the grove, and viewing the distant country around, there came up to me a venerable looking old man, who asked me from whence I came, and how I came there? I told him I came from the Granite State, in a flying steam boat with silken wings. "Your journey," said he, "must have been a curious one; but we live in a most wonderful age, and the most extraordinary country that has ever existed. Our mechanics have as great talents for inventions and improvements as any men who have ever lived, and they have probably greater encouragements to exercise their talents than any other men who have ever inhabited this Globe, and our posterity will see greater things than we see, if we do not lose our liberties. Your air balloon, or flying steam boat, is now no greater wonder than the steam boat on the water, or the steam carriage on the rail road, or than some other things. Who would have believed, a century ago, that a man would be raised up in America, who should contrive a plan to draw out the lightning from the clouds, in such a manner that his house should be in perfect safety in a thunder-storm? Or who would have believed, before the use of the magnet was known, that the time would come when the sailor, by looking on a little needle four inches long placed over a few figures, could cross the widest oceans, and for months out of the sight of land, without any danger of being lost? The balloon has been invented for centuries, in which a man could ascend to any height he pleased, and there be driven before the wind, and nothing has been wanted but these outside silken paddles or wheels, and a little alteration in the form of the vessel, and a little power within to move it. Now we can sail almost against the wind, just as we can in a boat on the water. You see a kite, with a line fastened to it, and a boy pulling upon the line, and the harder he pulls upon the line while he is running along, the more the kite is kept up. Two things operate upon the kite, to move it along, and to keep it up. The line pulls it along, and the wind pressing under it, keeps it up. Now suppose there was a little steam power, in proportion to the kite, placed on the back of it, as long as the steam power operated, the kite would be kept up, and would also go forward. The man that invented the flying steam boat, placed a kite upon the top of his house, in the same position of one moving in the wind, with a little weight tied to it with a short line, to keep it in the right position, and then fastened a sky rocket in a horizontal position on the back of it, and set it on fire, and the kite went straight forward as long as the rocket was burning. He then made the bottom of his steam boat like the underside of a kite, and then the steam power, by moving a light wheel on each side, would keep it up and drive it along. By the help of his gas he could rise when he pleased, and then set his wheels in motion, and go forward. And when he pleased he could stop his wheels and by the help of his gas could gently light upon the ground.

But what news in politics, said he, have you from your State? Said I, the Whigs and Tories are mustering their forces for some great political battle. And that battle, said he, will probably decide the fate of the Union. The whole country now contains only two parties, Whigs and Tories. There are a number of names of parties, but they all belong to these two. What, said I, is the main object of these parties? Is it for another president? That is one object, said he, but not the main object. The Whigs wish to make the people see what a tyrant the present president is, and how he was chosen, and also to prepare things in such a manner that when he is out of office, never to have another like him. The Tories wish to keep the people in ignorance respecting the real character of Jackson, so that they can, after him, have another of the same character, and therefore be kept in office themselves. And if this system of things continues a little longer, monarchy must inevitably follow. Considering our light and privileges, there has been a game played in making Jackson president and continuing him in office, such as never was played before. A party in this country, of widely different but combined politics, set up Jackson for the presidency, because by them he could be easily managed for their own purposes; and then they spread around him a blaze of glory, created and kept glowing by their own praises, for this they knew was the only way he could be made great; and then by belonging to his party, and bearing his name, they must of course be considered great themselves, and so be put in office, and kept there. Here is the origin of burning powder, and hurraing for Jackson. They made him glorious by praising him, and he did not understand the cheat; and then they made themselves glorious by belonging to his standard.

But the Whig party, in the Senate of the United States, have saved the country for the present; while those Jackson senators, by approving all Jackson has done, have used their influence to destroy our liberties. The Jackson senators are rotten-hearted Jackasses.

Why so? I replied,—Is it right to give them such a disgraceful title? "You know," said he, "that Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, when prophesying of the future conduct of his sons, said of one of them, 'Issachar is a strong ass, crouching down between two burthens.' [Gen. 49, 14.] Now, my dear friend, if that wise and good patriarch called his son an ass, because he would crouch down under burthens, and be patient, is it wrong, or harsh, to call the minority in the Senate, Jackasses, for trying to keep themselves and the people of this land under the most shameful and useless burthens that ever a free people bore? Besides, it is ordered so in providence, that the very phrase, 'The Jackson senators,' when anagramatized, exactly makes this phrase, 'Hon. rotten Jackasses.'"

What do you mean, said I, for I am unlearned, by the word anagram? He answered, I mean that the letters which form this sentence, The Jackson senators, exactly make the other phrase, Hon. rotten Jackasses. Thus—I will number the letters in both phrases, and you will see the whole at once.

123 456789 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
HON. ROTTEN JACKASSES
THE JACKSON SENATORS.
7 11 6 10 1 12 13 18 23 16 8 9 14 6 5 4 15

You know that the Jackson senators are styled Hon. and you know also that they are hollow-hearted; and the world knows they crouch down under Jackson's burthens, and are patient. The phrase properly applies to them. They approve of every thing done by him.—They do this to support his glory and their own. Jackson has exhibited a tyrannical disposition through life.—See his protest to the Senate; and his veto on the land bill, by which he deprived this State of forty or fifty thousand dollars.

But who, said I, shall we have for the next president? Will Webster do? Webster would do well, said he, if he did not live so far to the North. If he lived in Virginia, the Southern people would put up with his integrity and goodness; for Monroe and Washington were both good men, and the people continued them in office eight years each. But Webster, if he could be chosen, being a northern man, would not probably be kept in office more than four years, were his administration ever so good. Office-seekers in New-England, would join with the South to ruin him.

A FARMER.