n his better instructed
opponent as stoutly contradicted, insisting on the contrary, that
Jacksonism was the political creed cherished as orthodox amongst the
country people.

The mode of coming at the true state of the parties was simple enough;
we had only, whilst halting to change horses or bait, to touch upon the
absorbing topic of the day, and the village loungers, landlord,
bar-keeper, and guests, might have been placed upon a canvassing roll
without a chance of error, so decidedly did they make "their love
known."

I soon discovered that the "ould Gineral" had a hollow thing of it on
this line of march, as, indeed, I have uniformly observed to be the case
in all the agricultural districts; and although it may be argued that
the confidence of these sons of the soil may neither be wisely nor well
placed, it must, I conceive, be on all hands admitted that it is at
least the result of honest conviction; for, if a stranger may be
permitted to judge, I should say, a more virtuous and right-meaning
class does not exist than the agriculturists generally of these States;
indeed it appears clear to me that it is to this great body of truly
independent electors the political seer must turn when he would desire
fairly to calculate the probable changes likely to be worked out in this
vast region. They are the owners of the land which their votes govern;
they are invulnerable to the anarchist and the mad agrarian; they are
observant and intelligent; and although liable, as are all men, to be
for a time hoodwinked, or led astray, by interested brawlers, only let
the veil be once lifted, and a glimpse afforded which shall inform them
that their property or the country's freedom are endangered, and they
will be found a rampart behind which all true patriots, the lovers of
order and country, may rally, and which they may hold impregnable
against the furious assault of the leveller, or the insidious sap of the
disguised despot.

But enough of this: _chacun a son metier_; yet here I am betrayed into a
homily where I only contemplated a jest. The truth is, my allusion to
this topic at all arose from the vivid recollection I still have of the
great fun I derived from this canvassing of my companions in support of
their opinions previously expressed.

At each new stopping-place, my Whig friend would jump out with eager
anticipations that here his majority would be made too palpable for
denial; after him would quickly stride his lo