1. Lukas Vischer (1780–1840) of Basel, Switzerland, was an amateur artist and art collector, who traveled in the United States and Mexico during the years 1823 to 1838 (Christian F. Feest, “Lukas Vischer in Washington: A Swiss View of the District of Columbia in 1825,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 49 [1973–74]: 80–81).

Vischer described his visit to Montpelier in his diary: “June 11. Mr. Madison’s residence, Montpellier, lies, if I am not mistaken, about seven miles from Orange Courthouse, in a region of heavily wooded rolling hills, neither especially beautiful nor fertile; in the distance you can see the Blue Ridge. We arrived there in the morning between ten and eleven o’clock, and were cordially greeted and refreshed with toddy (sugar water with brandy). The house is attractive and filled with paintings, engravings, and statues. Mr. Madison is small, and has a plain but charming appearance. He is polite and agreeable without excess talk; one grows fond of him and feels at home immediately. (I found quite a bit of similarity between him and Judge Ecklin.) Mrs. Madison is a large, handsome woman, d’un beau porte. She was a renowned beauty, is still beautiful considering her age, and still wishes to please; therefore she takes an interest in being amiable. She wears a turban. She was a Quaker, and when Mr. Madison married her, she was a widow. She has a son from her first marriage, her only child. We met Mr. Monroe there; he had just been at the nearby estate that he wants to sell to pay some of his debts. He looked very dejected and was quite indisposed. This ex-president is also an unpretentious, plain-spoken man. He said little, but Mr. Madison was very conversational, and I was astounded at the diffidence with which he expressed his opinions. He showed us around his garden, which was full of beautiful grapevines, but he lamented that the grapes usually withered before ripening, and said that even such a man as Gnl. Washington had tried in vain to introduce viticulture in Virginia. We had a good, neat little dinner at noon, with artichokes and other vegetables. In the evening I observed how the attractive negro families peaceably divided among themselves the pork that they had received. Mr. Madison’s fortune is estimated at about $50,000. In relation to the poor condition of Mr. Monroe’s finances I had often heard it said, even in official reports, that it was a shame that the United States did not pay its president enough to cover his necessary expenses. Doubting the correctness of this charge, I sought information in Washington about the real cause of Mr. Monroe’s difficulties. Mr. Adams’ steward, Antonio, claimed that when Mr. Monroe was minister in London, a local merchant persuaded him to have American produce, namely tobacco, shipped there; this merchant then cheated him, to his great loss. I do not consider this information reliable, however. Mr. Salomon said that he knew nothing about this circumstance, but in his opinion Mr. Monroe used barely half of his $25,000 salary for household expenses, and during his presidency he had supposedly paid off debts contracted earlier.

Madame Madison asserted that aside from the feeling of dependency, the slaves in Virginia are not unhappy in general. Well fed, clothed, and sheltered, they lead a carefree life. Anyone who treats such people badly, she said, is despised and not received in polite society, and there are few instances of such behavior.

From Mr. Madison’s statements it became apparent that he is both an enthusiast and a practitioner of agriculture. He is also reputed to have an outstanding degree of expertise in the field.

June 12. We stayed the night at Mr. Madison’s, and after breakfast bid him goodbye and returned to Orange Courthouse. It was Sunday, and a church service was held in the courthouse. The local people including Mr. Madison were there, and I once again had the opportunity to marvel at the Elegance of the American country folk. In Virginia, however, many of the gentry live in the country. Around four o’clock in the afternoon the stagecoach arrived, in which we continued our travels; I sat next to the driver, who said that he makes $15 a month after costs. He gave the price of land in this area at $10 to $15 per acre; a nice estate with good buildings is worth $15 to $18 per acre; an acre yields fifteen, eighteen, or twenty bushels of wheat. At 6:30 we traveled through Gordonsville, and at 8:15 we reached Bentevoglio, where we stayed overnight at a small inn. The land there is worth $10” (diary courtesy of an anonymous collector; German transcript courtesy of Christian F. Feest, Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, Austria; translated by Angela Kreider).