Corresponding to this, in material, style, and texture, he wore, also, a pair of wide pantaloons--not always of precisely the proper length for the limbs of the wearer, but having invariably a broad waistband, coming up close under the arms, and answering the purpose of the modern vest. People were not so dainty about "set" and "fit," in those days, as they have since become; and these primitive integuments were equally well-adapted to the figure of any one to whose lot they might fall. In their production, no one had been concerned save the family of the wearer. The sheep which bore the wool, belonged to his own flock, and all the operations, subsequent to the shearing, necessary to the ultimate result of shaping into a garment, had been performed by his wife or daughter. Many politicians have continued this affectation of plainness, even when the necessity has ceased, on account of its effect upon the masses; for people are apt to entertain the notion, that decent clothing is incompatible with mental ability, and that he who is most manifestly behind the improvements of the time, is best qualified for official stations.
A neck-cloth, or cravat, was never seen about the politician's throat; and for the same reason of expediency: for these were refinements of affectation which had not then been introduced; and a man who thus compassed his neck, could no more have been elected to an office, than if he had worn the cap and bells of a Saxon jester. The shirt-bosoms of modern days were in the same category; and _starch_ was an article contraband to the law of public sentiment--insomuch that no epithet expressed more thorough contempt for a man, than the graphic word "starched." A raccoon-skin cap--or, as a piece of extravagant finery, a white-wool hat--with a pair of heavy shoes, not unfrequently without the luxury of hose--or, if with them, made of blue-woollen yarn, from the back of a sheep of the aforesaid flock--completed the element of costume.
He was not very extravagantly dressed, as the reader sees; but we can say of him--what could not be as truly spoken of many men, or, indeed, of many women, of this day--that his clothing bore distinct reference to his character, and was well-adapted to his "style of beauty." In fact, everything about him, form, face, manners, dress, was in "in keeping" with his characteristics.