He thought the public debt was held by men
who had paid very little value for it, and who ought to be
paid off in the same cheap money which was in vogue when
it was originally incurred. He hated New England culture
and refinement, which he deemed a very poor crop coming from
a barren intellectual soil. He regarded me, I think, as
the representative, in a humble way, of all these things, and
esteemed me accordingly.
I was not behindhand with him, although I was not quite so
frank, probably, in uttering my opinions in public debate.
But I found out, after a little while, that the Northern men
who got intimate with him on committees, or in private intercourse,
found him one of the most delightful companions, fond of poetry,
especially of Burns, full of marvellous stores of anecdotes,
without any jot of personal malice, ready to do a kindness
to any man, and easily touched by any manifestation of kindly
feeling toward him, or toward his Southern neighbors and constituents.
My colleague, Mr. Dawes, served with him on some of the great
committees of the Senate and in the House, and they established
a very close and intimate friendship.
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