Baltimore
"We have made to Baltimore, capital of Maryland, a little excursion that I shall
have to tell you about. The very day of our arrival they gave a great
subscription ball at twenty-five francs a ticket. If it had been necessary to
pay this price, you may well believe that we should not have gone. But in out
quality of foreigners of distinction we were admitted gratis. Thus on out very
first day we had a chance to see gathered together all the finest society of
Baltimore. The women of this city have a great reputation, and truly they
deserve it. I saw a quantity of very pretty ones. They dress well, are very
attractive, and excessively coquettish, though I am persuaded that this
coquetry is not very dangerous for them and that it's a path in which they well
know how to stop. I did however see a little Miss Randolp[h], roguish as a
demon, and more giddy than a May-bug, who, I believe, will be guilty of some
follies, were it only from malice, when she
shall have cast her choice on some one as ready as she to commit them."
Beaumont, letter to his brother (Pierson 490)
"An incredible luxury is paraded at their great dinners. If these people give such dinners often, they must ruin themselves. There are, though, some very rich men among them. Mr. Charles Carroll, for example, has easily four hundred thousand livres de Rente. . . .
On our return to Philadelphia, we saw in a Baltimore paper a very flattering article about us, in which was rendered a striking tribute to our merit and our virtues. It is perfectly true that each day we gain in self-possession and that now, when we are on exhibition, we utter, with great tact, the most agreeable remarks in the world.
I should never finish if I told you everything we did at Baltimore. There was, notably, one very interesting thing to be examined, to wit, the slavery which still exists there legally. On this point I made many observations which, to my mind, are not very favourable to the people to whom they apply; but all that will probably be published in the great work which is to immortalize me, and it's to that publication that I refer you to learn the rest. . . ."
Beaumont (Pierson 492-3)
Itinerary