AUGUSTUS FOSTER

This [Washington and Congress] is a miserable place, but the elect of all the states are assembled in it, and really such a gang to have the affairs of an empire ... entrusted to them, makes one shudder. Imagination is dead in this country—with neither to be found nor is it understood among them.... There are about five persons who look like gentlemen. All the rest come in the filthiest dresses and are well indeed if they look like farmers—but most seem to be apothecaries and attorneys.

Generally speaking, they [Americans] are not a people we should be proud to acknowledge as our relations.

Generally speaking, they [Americans] are not a people we should be proud to acknowledge as our relations.

This [Washington and Congress] is a miserable place, but the elect of all the states are assembled in it, and really such a gang to have the affairs of an empire ... entrusted to them, makes one shudder. Imagination is dead in this country—with neither to be found nor is it understood among them.... There are about five persons who look like gentlemen. All the rest come in the filthiest dresses and are well indeed if they look like farmers—but most seem to be apothecaries and attorneys.