William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[80]

Chapter 8: the Conservatives.

An aide-de-camp brings us an invitation from General McEnery to visit the Conservative headquarters in Canal Street; and in company of my old friend Consul De Fonblanque we start from our hotel, now known as “Headquarters of the Gulf.”

General McEnery occupies a suite of rooms in Canal Street, looking on the effigies of Henry Clay, in which apartments he holds a modest court. “You're not afraid to enter,” asks a senator, meeting us on the stairs, “although we are banditti?” No, we are not afraid. Some wag has gummed a caricature of Sheridan to the wall. The general is represented as a dog snapping at a Louisiana cavalry officer. “Poor stuff,” says the Senator, passing in; “poor stuff-but boys will have their fun. We have the Southern genius, and our boys delight in mockeries and burlesques.”