"Sam": or The history of mystery./ By C. W. Webber.

490 "SAM:" OR, THE HISTORY OF MYSTERY.
the other American, bearers of an unexpected treaty of peace,
already ratified by the British government. It was late of a
Saturday night; but no sooner was the joyful word PEACE circulated through the city-and it spread like electricity-than,
without stopping to inquire or to think about the terms, the
whole active population, of all parties, rushed into the streets
in a perfect ecstasy of delight; and, amid shouts, illuminations, and a perfect uproar of joy, expresses were sent off,
north and south, with the news. In thirty-two hours (thought
to be a great effort of speed) the announcement reached
Boston, where it was received on Monday morning with the
most clamorous rejoicings. All the bells were at once set to
ringing; messengers were despatched in every direction to
spread the delightful intelligence; the schools received a
holyday; the whole population, quitting their employments,
hastened to congratulate each other at this' relief, not only
from foreign war, but from the still more dreadful impending
cloud of internal and civil struggle. The blockaded shipping,
rotting forlorn at the wharves, got out all their flags and
streamers, and, before night, once more the hum of commerce
sounded, ship-carpenters and riggers were busy at work, cargoes were being shipped, and crews engaged. The joy was
the same along the whole maritime frontier; nor, however
they might strive to conceal their emotions, was it less among
the politicians at Washington, including those most forward
to precipitate their country into a struggle so unequal and
disastrous. At the same time they made a very dexterous
use of the sudden halo of glory diffused by Jacksoni's victory,
to conceal from themselves, as well as from the people, the
desperate point to which affairs had been reduced. Troup
had the audacity to congratulate the House even before the
contents of the treaty were known, it having but just been
laid before the Senate, on the glorious termination of the
most glorious war ever waged by any people-provided, as he
cautiously added, that the treaty should prove an honorable one!
The weakness of the British possessions in North America;
the necessity of some barrier against that ambitious spirit
admirals and vice-admirals failed, as the same proposal
has often done since, but an important change was made in