Saturday,
Dec. 30.
After a storm of three days, and more snow than has
fallen at once here for several winters, it has cleared off—whether warm or cold,
one cannot yet say, for the weather is as coquettish as a lively girl.
Political
"Festivals" are considerably numerous about now. They are given by the Whigs1 in
honor of Taylor's2 success—just as if that had not come to be an old story. I look
upon them as flummery, whose only benefit is felt in the pockets of the
landlord—that is, if he gets his pay.
The California fever3 has somewhat decreased;
you may see quite a good many advertisements in the papers, offering tickets for
passages, procured and paid for in the first heat, which has passed over.
A benefit
comes off this evening at the Tabernacle, for the Musicians of the Park Theatre
orchestra. The programme is a most attractive one, and no doubt the house will be
crowded.
Balls and soirées are under way, at a great rate. The most notable of the
forthcoming ones are the Firemen's ball at the Opera-house, on the evening of
January 29th—the soirée of the Northern Lighters, at the Chinese Assembly Rooms, on
the night of January 4th, and the Erina ball,4 on the 3d of January.
MANHATTAN.
Notes
- 1. The Whigs were a political
party in the antebellum United States; the Whig and the Democratic Parties
were the two major political parties in the United States as part of the two-party system.
The Whigs were critical of the nation's expansion into Texas and of the Mexican-American War and favored a national bank.
They preferred that Congress take the lead in lawmaking and opposed strong presidential power. Their
supporters were primarily professionals and social reformers; they received much less
support from farmers and laborers. The Democratic Party in this period
opposed a national bank, and they advocated for strong presidential power,
and the interests of slave states. [back]
- 2. Zachary Taylor (1784–1850), a Southern
slaveholder and a well-known American miltary leader in the Mexican-American War,
was the Whig Candidate for president in the 1848 United
States Presidential Election. Taylor won the election and went on to serve as the twelfth president of the
United States, from 1849 until his death in 1850. [back]
- 3. In 1848, James W. Marshall was employed by
John A. Sutter to build a sawmill in what is today Coloma, California. Marshall found several pieces
of gold, and the news of Marshall's discovery was the beginning of the California
Gold Rush (1848–1855). The Gold Rush brought hundreds of thousands of people to
California in search of gold. As a result of the rapid growth, California was able to enter the Union as a free state
as part of the Compromise of 1850, while Native Californians and indigenous
societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by those seeking their fortunes in gold. [back]
- 4. Erina balls were
events sponsored by the Erina Benevolent Societies; the proceeds from
admission prices were often donated to homes for orphans or similar institutions. [back]