"
But as the present patriotic preference for home-bred manufactures, may
extend to anecdotes as well as to other productions, a story of domestic
origin may have more weight with most of my readers, than one introduced
from abroad.
The chief of a party of Indians, who had visited Washington during
Mr. Jefferson's presidency, having, on his return home, assembled his
tribe, gave them a detail of his adventures; and dwelling particularly
upon the courteous treatment the party had received from their "Great
Father," stated, among other things, that he had given them ice, though
it was then mid-summer. His countrymen, not having the vivacity of our
ladies, listened in silence till he had ended, when an aged chief stepped
forth, and remarked that he too, when a young man, had visited their
Great Father Washington, in New-York, who had received him as a son, and
treated him with all the delicacies that his country afforded, but had
given him no ice. "Now," added the orator, "if any man in the world could
have made ice in the summer, it was Washington; and if he could have made
it, I am sure he would have given it to me. Tustanaggee is, therefore, a
liar, and not to be believed."
In both these cases, though the argument seemed fair, the conclusion was
false; for had either the king or the chief taken the trouble to satisfy
himself of the fact, he might have found that his limited experience had
deceived him.
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