Mr. Downing's account of the dreadful tussle in which
the Jacksonites in the legislature attempt to pour a
“healing act” down the Huntonite's throats.

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Portland, Feb. 4, 1831.

Dear Uncle Joshua.—If you got my postscript to
this letter that I sent you yesterday, I spose you wont
sleep nor eat much till you hear something more about
it. So I thought I'd try to send you a little bit of a letter
to-day. O dear, uncle, there 's terrible times here
again, and I'm half afraid it's agoing to be worse than
it was last winter. The Legislater 's been all in the
wind this two or three days, pulling and hauling and
fighting like smoke. The wheels of governments are all
stopt; I can say as they are trigged, as they used to be
last winter, but they are fairly stopped, because nobody
dont pull 'em along; for when the members are all pulling
each other's caps, how can they pull the wheels of
government? They seemed to get along very well ever
since they've been here till now, and I thought they most
all belonged to them are two clever parties that tried so
hard to save the State last winter; I mean the democratic
republicans and the national republicans. But
some how or other this week a quarrelsome gang of
Jacksonites and Huntonites has got into the Legislater
and kicked up such a bobbery, it seems as though they'd
tare the State all to pieces. My heart 's been up in my
mouth a dozen times for fear the State would go to ruin
before I could get out of it; and I've scratched round
and picked up what few bean-poles and ax-handles I
had left, and got all ready to sail to Boston, for I'me
determined to be off before the State goes to rack. And
I advise you and all our friends at Downingville to pack
up as soon as you get this letter, and be all ready as
soon as you hear a cracking down this way to fly for
your lives away back into New-Hampshire or Vermont.

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The trouble as near as I could understand it begun in
this way. The Jacksonites said the Huntonites worked
so hard last winter in trying to trig the wheels of government,
and tare the constitution to pieces, that they made
themselves all sick, dreadful sick, and had n't got well
yet; and it was time to do something to try to cure 'em;
for their sickness was so catching that all the State
would be taken down with it in a little while, if they
want cured.

But the Huntonites said they want sick a bit; they
never was better in their lives; and moreover, it was
false that they had tried to trig the wheels of government
last winter, or tear a single leaf out of the constitution;
if any thing of that kind was done, they said
the Jacksonites did it, and as for taking doctor's stuff
they'd no notion of it. But the Jacksonites said 'twas
no use, the Huntonites were all sick, and they must take
some doctor stuff, and if they would n't take it willingly
they must be made to take it. So they went to work
and fixed a dose that they called a healing act, that they
said would cure all the Huntonites and any body else
that had catched the sickness of 'em. The Huntonites
declared 'twas no use for 'em to fix it, they never would
take it as long as they lived, that's what they wouldn't;
they were as well as any body, and they'd fight it out
till next June before they'd take it. Howsomever, the
Jacksonites got their dose ready, and yesterday they
carried it into the House of Representatives and told
the Huntonites they must take it, and 'twould do 'em
good. As soon as the Huntonites smelt of it, they turned
up their noses, and said no, before they'd take that
are plaguy dirty stuff they'd fight 'em all over the State,
inch by inch. But the Jacksonites said 'twas no use,
they might sniff as much as they pleased, it was the
only thing that would cure 'em, and they must take it,
and more than all that, they was the strongest and they
should take it.

Some of the Huntonites looked pale as tho' they were
a little grain frightened, and some of them looked red

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as though they were mad as a March hair. And some
of 'em begun to talk to the Jacksonites and tell 'em how
unreasonable it was to make 'em take doctor stuff when
they want sick. They were well now, and like as not
if they should take it, 'twould make 'em all sick.

One of 'em, that talked like a very clever man got up
and coaxed 'em to ask the Judges of the great Court if
they thought there was any need of their taking sich a
dose, or if it would do 'em any good if they did take it.
But the Jacksonites said no, they shouldn't ask no sich
questions. They understood the business well enough,
they knew the Huntonites were sick, and they knew
this would cure 'em, and swallow it they should. Well,
the Huntonites see how 'twas gone goose with 'em, and
they thought the only chance left was to put their hands
over their mouths and fight and kick and scrabble with
all their might and keep it out of their throats as long
as they could. Still they tried to talk and reason with
the Jacksonites about it. They asked 'em to let them
have time to examine the medicine carefully and see
what it was made of, or that they would tell 'em what
it was made of, or that they would tell 'em what
it was made of, or why they thought it would do any
good to take it. But the Jacksonites said they should
n't tell 'em any thing about it, it would be `casting
pearls before swine,' and the good book said they must
n't do so.

The men who had fixed the dose knew what they
were about, they had fixed it right, and the Huntonites
must open their mouths and take it, and not parley any
more about it. And now the rale tussle and the hard
fight begun. The House seemed to be so full of Jacksonites
and Huntonites that I guess there was n't but
a few republicans left. And I could n't help minding
that the Jacksonites took the seats of the democratic
republicans, and the Huntonites took the seats of the
national republicans. Well, the Jacksonites took the
dose in one hand, and grab'd the Huntonites with the
other, and tipped their heads back, and were jest agoing
to pour it down their throats, when the Huntonites

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fetched a spring and kicked it away to the fourth day
of April. But the Jacksonites run after it and got it
back again in about half an hour, and clinched 'em
again, and got all ready to pour it down; but jest as
they got it almost to their lips, the Huntonites fetched
another spring and kicked it away to the fourth of
March. Away went the Jacksonites after it again, and
brought it back, and clinched the Huntonites in the
same manner as before, and they kicked it away again,
but they didn't kick this time quite to the end of
February.

So they kept it agoing all the forenoon, but every
time the Huntonites kick'd the bitter dose away, it
didn't go so far as it did the last time before. I spose
they begun to grow tired and could n't kick so hard.
Well, then they tried to adjourn so as to get some dinner,
but the Jacksonites would n't let 'em. And they
kept 'em there till four o'clock in the afternoon without
any dinner, and I dont know but they thought the Huntonites
would get so hungry after a while that they
would swallow it down without much fuss. But it all
would n't do, the nearer it come to 'em, the tighter the
Huntonites gritted their teeth together, and I guess
they'd a starved before they would take it. Well after
the Jacksonites had tried nearly twenty times to pour
down the bitter dose, and the Huntonites had kicked it
away as many times, both parties seemed to be nearly
tired out, and so they finally agreed to adjourn till nine
o'clock this morning. I thought the Huntonites, if they
once got out, would cut and run home and get clear of
the plaguy stuff. But instead of that they all come in
again this morning, and they've been at it again all day,
hammer and tongs, the Jacksonites trying to pour it
down, and the Huntonites fighting against it, tooth and
nail.

How it 'll come out I cant tell. Whether the State
will be ruined if they dont take it, I cant tell; or whether
it will cure them if they do take it, I can't tell.
But I can assure you, dear uncle, there's a greater fuss

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here, than there was when the little boy said he run and
jumped over a fence and tore his trowses as if the heavens
and earth were coming to pieces. If we live
through it, I shall let you know something more about it.