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diff --git a/old/56104-0.txt b/old/56104-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 429bc08..0000000 --- a/old/56104-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7171 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Walks About Washington, by Francis E. Leupp - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Walks About Washington - -Author: Francis E. Leupp - -Illustrator: Lester G. Hornby - -Release Date: December 2, 2017 [EBook #56104] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALKS ABOUT WASHINGTON *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - _Walks About Washington_ - - [Illustration] - - [Illustration] - - [Illustration: _Where Lincoln Died_ - - FRONTISPIECE] - - - - - WALKS ABOUT - WASHINGTON - - BY - FRANCIS E. LEUPP - - WITH DRAWINGS BY - LESTER G. HORNBY - - [Illustration] - - BOSTON - LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY - 1915 - - - _Copyright, 1915_, - BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. - - _All rights reserved_ - - Published, September, 1915 - - - Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. - Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. - - - - - To - ADA, HAROLD, ETHEL, - CONSTANCE, KATHLEEN - AND THE - MEMORY OF GRAHAM - - - - -[Illustration] - -_Preface_ - - -This is not a history. It is not a guide-book. It is not an -encyclopedia. It is nothing more ambitious than the title would -indicate: a stroll about Washington with my arm through my reader’s, and -a bit of friendly chat by the way. Mr. Hornby, sketch-book in hand, will -accompany us, to give permanence to our impressions here and there. - -First, we will take a general look at the city and recall some of the -more interesting incidents connected with its century and a quarter of -growth. Next, we will walk at our leisure through its public places and -try to people them in imagination with the figures which once were so -much in evidence there. - -For the stories woven into our talk I make no further claim than that -they have come to me from a variety of sources--personal observation, -dinner-table gossip, old letters and diaries, and local tradition. A -few, which seemed rather too vague in detail, I have tried to verify. My -ardor for research, however, was dampened by the discovery of from two -to a dozen versions of every occurrence, so that I have been driven to -accepting those which appeared most probable or most picturesque, -falling back upon the plea of the Last Minstrel: - - “I cannot tell how the truth may be; - I say the tale as ’twas said to me.” - -And now, let us be off! - - F. E. L. - - -WASHINGTON, D.C., - - August 1, 1915. - - - - -[Illustration] - -_Contents_ - - - PAGE - -PREFACE vii - -CHAPTER - - I. A CAPITAL MADE TO ORDER 1 - - II. WAR TIMES AND THEIR SEQUEL 26 - - III. “ON THE HILL” 54 - - IV. THESE OUR LAWMAKERS 85 - - V. “THE OTHER END OF THE AVENUE” 114 - - VI. THROUGH MANY CHANGING YEARS 147 - - VII. “THE SPIRIT OF GREAT EVENTS” 177 - -VIII. NEW FACES IN OLD PLACES 207 - - IX. THE REGION ’ROUND ABOUT 235 - - X. MONUMENTS AND MEMORIES 261 - - -INDEX 287 - - - - -[Illustration] - -_List of Illustrations_ - - - PAGE - -White House, from the State Department i - -Where Lincoln Died _Frontispiece_ - -Down F Street to the Interior Department vii - -Old Mill, on Bladensburg Battlefield ix - -Washington, across the Potomac from Arlington xi - -Capitol, from Pennsylvania Avenue, West xiii - - FACING PAGE - -General Washington’s Office in Georgetown 8 - -George Washington Tavern, Bladensburg 18 - -Octagon House 30 - -Union Engine House of 1815 42 - -On the Ruins of Fort Stevens 50 - -Survivals from “Before the War” 62 - -Rock Creek 74 - -Capitol, from New Jersey Avenue 84 - -Where Dolly Madison Gave Her Farewell Ball 96 - -Lee Mansion at Arlington 108 - -Old Carlyle Mansion, Alexandria 120 - -Washington’s Pew in Christ Church, Alexandria 132 - -Mount Vernon 142 - -Tudor House, Georgetown 154 - -Bladensburg Duelling-Ground 156 - -Decatur House 170 - -Soldiers’ Home 180 - -Old City Hall 192 - -The “Old Capitol” 204 - -St. Paul’s, the Oldest Church in the District 218 - -St. John’s, “the President’s Church” 234 - -Ford’s Theatre, the Old Front 248 - -Stage Entrance through which Booth Escaped 260 - -Rendezvous of the Lincoln Conspirators 274 - -A Herdic Cab 286 - -[Illustration] - - - - -_Walks About Washington_ - - - - -CHAPTER I - -A CAPITAL MADE TO ORDER - - -With the possible exception of Petrograd, Washington is the only one of -the world’s great capitals that was deliberately created for its -purpose. Look for the origin of London, Paris, Berlin, or Rome, and you -find it enveloped in a cloud of myth and fable, from which, it appears, -the city emerged and took its place in history because certain -evolutionary forces had made it the nucleus of a nation and hence the -natural seat of government. Not so the capital of the United States. -Here the Government was already established and seeking a habitation; -and, since no existing city offered one that seemed generally -satisfactory, a new city was made to order, so that from the outset it -could be shaped as its tenant-master deemed best. - -The creative force at work in this instance found its outlet through a -dinner. Of the ready-made cities which had competed for the honor of -housing the Government, New York and Philadelphia were regarded by the -Southern members of Congress as too far north both geographically and in -sentiment, while the Northern members were equally unwilling to go far -south in view of the difficulties of travel. Another sectional -controversy broke out over the question whether the Federal Government, -since it owed its birth to the War for Independence, were not in honor -bound to assume the debts incurred by the several States in prosecuting -that war. The North, as the more serious sufferer, demanded that it -should, but the South insisted that every State should bear its own -burden. In the midst of the discussion, Thomas Jefferson, who happened -to be in a position to act as mediator, invited a few leaders of both -factions to meet at his table; there, under the influence of savory -viands and a bottle of port apiece, they arranged a compromise, whereby -the Southern members were to vote for the assumption of the debts, in -exchange for Northern votes for a southern site. The program went -through Congress by a small majority, and the site chosen was a tract -about ten miles square on both banks of the Potomac River, the land on -the upper shore being ceded by Maryland and that on the lower by -Virginia. The Virginia part was given back in 1846. - -As far as we know, the first map of this region was drawn by Captain -John Smith of Pocahontas fame and published in 1620 in his “Sixth Voyage -to that Part of Virginia now Planted by English Colonies, whom God -increase and preserve”; and the picturesque river which runs through it -was described by him as the “Patawomeke, navigable 140 myles, and fed -with many sweet rivers and springs which fall from the bordering hils. -The river exceedth with aboundance of fish.” - -When the Commissioners appointed by President Washington took it over as -a federal district, they changed its Indian name, Connogochegue, to the -Territory of Columbia; and the city which they laid out in it was by -universal acclaim called Washington, regardless of the modest protests -of the statesman thus honored. Georgetown, which is now a part of -Washington, was then a pretty, well-to-do, little Maryland town about a -hundred years old, and Alexandria, Virginia, included in the southern -end of the District as then bounded, was a shipping port of some -consequence. All the rest of the tract was forest and farm land. The -President felt a lively personal interest in the whole neighborhood. His -estate, Mount Vernon, lay only a short boat-ride down the Potomac; and -he had been instrumental in starting a project for the canal now known -as the Chesapeake and Ohio, connecting Georgetown with a bit of farming -country west of it, and had planned one from Alexandria which should -form part of the same system. During his activities on the Maryland side -of the river, he made his headquarters in a little stone house in -Georgetown which is still standing. - -It took time and diplomacy to induce some of the local landholders to -part with their acres to the Commissioners. There is an old story, good -enough to be true, of one David Burns, a canny Scot, who held out so -long that President Washington personally undertook his conversion. -After pointing out to the farmer what advantages he would reap from -having the Government for a neighbor, the great man concluded: - -“But for this opportunity, Mr. Burns, you might have died a poor -tobacco-planter.” - -“Aye, mon,” snapped Burns, “an’ had ye no married the widder Custis, wi’ -all her nagurs, ye’d ha’ been a land surveyor the noo, an’ a mighty poor -ane at that!” - -However, when he learned that, unless he accepted the liberal terms -offered him, his land would be condemned and seized at an appraisal -probably much lower, Burns met the President in quite another mood, and -to the final question, “Well, sir, what have you concluded to do?” -astonished every one by his prompt response: “Whate’er your excellency -wad ha’ me.” On one of his fields now stands the White House, and an -adjacent lot became Lafayette Square. By the sale of property adjoining -that which the Government bought, he amassed what for those days was an -enormous fortune. It is within our generation that his cottage was torn -down for the improvement of the neighborhood from which we enter Potomac -Park. Although a poor building in its old age, in its prime it had -sheltered many eminent men. Among them was Tom Moore, the Irish poet, -who was under its roof when he wrote his diatribe against-- - - “This fam’d metropolis where Fancy sees - Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; - Which second-sighted seers, ev’n now, adorn - With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn.” - -Little as we may relish such satire, we are bound to admit its modicum -of truthfulness, for the brave souls who founded Washington were given -to the grandiloquent habit of their day. They had called to their aid -Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French military engineer who had served -in the patriot army of the Revolution, and who cherished brilliant -dreams of the future of his adopted country. To him they had committed -the preparation of a plan for the federal city, and he had laid it out -on the lines, not of an administrative center for a handful of newly -enfranchised colonies, but of a capital for a republic of fifty States -with five hundred million population. As he had lived in Versailles, he -is supposed to have taken that town as a general model in his -arrangement of streets and avenues, which some one has likened to “a -wheel laid on a gridiron.” - -Of course, it was the business of the Commissioners to advertise the -attractions of the federal city as effectively as possible, to promote -its early settlement; so perhaps we may forgive their taking a good deal -for granted, and permitting real estate speculation to go practically -unchecked. Congress for several years ignored their appeals for an -appropriation for the development of the city, and in the interval their -chief dependence for the funds necessary to spend for highways and -buildings was on the sale of lots, and on grants or loans obtained from -neighboring States. The most sightly hill was set apart for the Capitol, -and a beautiful bit of rising ground, overlooking a bend in the river, -for the President’s House. The two buildings had their corner-stones -laid with much ceremony, but progress on them was slow. Nevertheless, -their sites, as well as the spaces reserved in L’Enfant’s plan for -parks, fountains, and statuary, were always treated by the speculators, -in correspondence with prospective customers, as if the improvements -designed eventually to crown them were already installed. The outside -public manifested no undue eagerness to buy, and the auction sales of -lots proved very disappointing. Then a lottery was organized, with -tickets at seven dollars apiece, and for a first prize “a superb hotel” -with baths and other comforts, worth fifty thousand dollars; but that, -too, fell short of expectations, all the desirable prizes going to -persons who felt no concern for the city’s future, and the hotel, though -started, never being finished. It was a pretty discouraging prospect, -therefore, which confronted the officers of the Government when, on May -16, 1800, President John Adams issued his order for their removal from -their cozy quarters in old Philadelphia to what seemed to them, by -contrast, like a camp in the wilderness. - -The six Cabinet members, with their one hundred and thirty-two -subordinates, made the journey overland at various dates during the -summer, and in October the archives followed. These filled about a dozen -large boxes, which, with the office furniture, were brought down by sea -in a packet-boat and landed on a wharf at the mouth of Tiber Creek, a -tributary of the Potomac which then ran through the city but was later -converted into a sewer. All Washington, numbering perhaps three thousand -persons, turned out to greet the vessel; and amid cheers, ringing of -bells, and blasts from an antique cannon brought forth for the occasion, -its precious contents were carried ashore. “The Department buildings” to -which they were consigned were a wonderful assortment. The Treasury was -a two-story brick house at the southeast corner of the President’s -grounds, the War Office a still unfinished replica of it at the -southwest corner. The Post-office Department found shelter in a private -house in which only half the floors were laid and four rooms plastered; -while the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Navy, and the -Attorney-general had to direct their affairs from their lodgings. All -these temporary accommodations were sought as near as possible to the -President’s House. Congress had striven, for its greater ease of access, -to have the Departments quartered near the Capitol; but Washington had -set his face resolutely against every such proposal, citing the -experience of his own secretaries, who had been so pestered with -needless visits from Senators and Representatives that some of them “had -been obliged to go home and deny themselves, in order to transact -current business.” Which shows that one modern nuisance has a fairly -ancient precedent. - -Members of both houses of Congress came straggling in all through the -first three weeks of November, to - -[Illustration: _General Washington’s Office in Georgetown_] - -find most of the best rooms in the two or three hotels and the little -cluster of boarding-houses already occupied by the executive -functionaries and their families. President Adams, who had preceded them -by a few weeks, was not much better off even in the official abode -reserved for him, if we may call his wife as a witness. - -“The house is on a grand and superb scale,” she wrote to her daughter, -“requiring about thirty servants to attend and keep the apartments in -proper order, and perform the ordinary business of the house and -stables. The lighting the apartments, from the kitchen to the parlor and -chambers, is a tax indeed; and the fires we are obliged to keep, to -secure us from daily agues, is another very cheering comfort. Bells are -wholly wanting, not one single one being hung through the whole house, -and promises are all you can obtain. I could content myself almost -anywhere three months; but surrounded by forests, can you believe that -wood is not to be had, because people cannot be found to cut and cart -it! There is not a single apartment finished. We have not the least -fence or yard, or other convenience without; and the great unfinished -audience-room I make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The -principal stairs are not up, and will not be this winter. The ladies are -impatient for a drawing-room; I have no looking-glasses but dwarfs for -this house, not a twentieth part lamps enough to light it.” - -Mrs. Adams’s consolatory reflection that she would have to endure these -conditions only three months, was probably shared by many of the -thirty-two Senators and one hundred and five Representatives who, on the -high hill to the east, shivered and shook and passed unflattering -criticisms on everybody who had had a hand in the construction of the -Capitol. Only the old north wing was in condition for use, and not all -of that. The Senate met in what is now the Supreme Court chamber; the -House took its chances wherever there was room, ending its travels in an -uncomfortable box of a hall commonly styled “the oven.” Most of the -members had made some study of the L’Enfant chart before coming to -Washington. One of them put into writing his impressions as he looked -about and tried to identify the public improvements he had been led to -expect. None of the streets was recognizable, he said, with the possible -exception of a road having two buildings on each side of it, which was -called New Jersey Avenue. The “magnificent Pennsylvania Avenue,” -connecting the Capitol with the President’s House, was for nearly the -entire distance a deep morass covered with wild bushes, through which a -passage had been hewn. The roads in every direction were muddy and -unimproved. The only attempt at a sidewalk had been made with chips of -stone left from building the Capitol, and this was little used because -the sharp edges cut the walker’s shoes in dry weather, and in wet -weather covered them with white mortar. Another member declared that -there was nothing in sight in Washington but scrub oak, and that, since -there was “only one good tavern within a day’s march,” many members had -to live in Georgetown and drive to and from the daily sessions of -Congress in a rickety coach. And a particularly disgusted critic, not -content with recording that “there are but few houses in any place, and -most of them are small, miserable huts,” added: “The people are poor, -and, as far as I can judge, live like fishes, by eating each other.” - -Newspapers in all parts of the country echoed these depressing reports, -accompanying them with demands that the Government move again, this time -to some already well-populated and civilized region. Indeed, of several -resolutions to that end introduced in Congress, one was actually carried -to a vote and barely escaped passage. It may have been this accumulation -of discouraging elements which caused the delay in the arrival of the -Supreme Court from Philadelphia; or it may have been the paucity of -business before that tribunal, whose first Chief Justice, John Jay, had -resigned his commission to become Governor of New York, because he had -come to the conclusion that the Court could not command sufficient -support in the country at large to enforce its decisions! Whatever the -reason, the Justices did not find their way to Washington till well on -in the winter, or open their work there till February. They were -assigned the room in the basement of the Capitol now occupied by the -Supreme Court library. - -Even when the first acute discomforts incident to removal had passed -away, the general depression was little relieved. Most of the earlier -citizens of Washington had entertained hopes of its becoming a -commercial as well as a political center of importance. They reasoned -that since Alexandria and Georgetown had already built up some trade -with the outside world, Washington, much more eligibly situated than -either, ought to attract a correspondingly larger measure of profitable -business. But all these bright anticipations were doomed to -disappointment: the progress of the city was as inconsiderable as if its -feet had become mired in one of its own marshes. The Mall, which on -L’Enfant’s map appeared as a boulevard fringed with fine public -buildings, soon degenerated into a common for pasturing cows. There was -good fishing above the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue from Sixth -Street to Thirteenth. Wild ducks found a favorite haunt where the Center -Market now stands. The whole place wore an air of suspended vitality in -striking contrast with the generous face of nature. “I am,” wrote a -visiting New Yorker to his wife, “almost enchanted with it--I mean the -situation for a city, for there is nothing here yet constituting one. As -to houses, there are very few, and those very scattering; and as to -streets, there are none, except you would call common roads streets. The -site, however, for a city, is the most delightful that can be -imagined--far beyond my expectation.” - -“I took a hack after dinner to visit Nath’l Maxwell, and although he -lives near the center of the great city, yet such was the state of the -roads that I considered my life in danger. The distance on straight -lines does not exceed half a mile, but I had to ride up and down very -steep hills, with frightful gullies on almost every side.” And the -simplicity of life at the capital then is reflected in his statement -that after finishing his letters one night he was afraid to go out to -post them lest he lose his way in the dark, though he knew that the mail -would close at five in the morning. “After I had got comfortably into -bed,” he continued, “a watchman came past my window bawling out, ‘Past -one o’clock, and a very stormy night,’ on which I sprang out of bed and -called to him to take my letters to the post-office, which he consented -to do. I accordingly wrapped them in a sheet of paper to protect them -from the wet, and threw them out of the chamber window to him.” - -The declaration of war against Great Britain in June, 1812, for which -the country at large held President Madison chiefly responsible, and -which reduced considerably such measure of popularity as he still -retained, did not produce much effect on the pulses of the stagnant -city. The first hostilities occurred in the north and on the sea; and, -although the enemy threatened Washington for more than a year, Madison -and most of his advisers regarded an attack as highly improbable. When, -however, it became known in 1814 that a large body of Wellington’s -veterans were setting sail from England, under convoy of a powerful -fleet, for the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, every one suddenly awoke to the -impending peril. It was then too late. Thanks to the misjudgment of -General Armstrong, Secretary of War, or General Winder, who was in -charge of military affairs in the District, midsummer found the enemy in -Maryland, but the city still without an efficient defensive force, or -ammunition or provisions to equip one properly. Hurried efforts brought -together a first line of thirty-one hundred men, all raw recruits except -six hundred sailors and a couple of hundred soldiers. A second line, -almost equal in number, was formed, mostly of militia, and disposed for -use as a home guard. At Bladensburg, Maryland, five miles north of -Washington, the decisive battle occurred on the twenty-fourth of August, -from which the seamen led by Captain Joshua Barney were the only -contingent that emerged with extraordinary credit; but they did so well -that a grateful community has not yet raised a monument to them or their -leader. The battlefield was close enough to the old George Washington -tavern, of which Mr. Hornby gives us an intimate glimpse, for the -occupants to hear the rattle of musketry and see the cannon-smoke from -the upper windows. - -The outcome of the fight was that the British commanders, General Ross -and Admiral Cockburn, with six thousand men, drove the Americans back -and swept down upon the city, spreading ruin in their track. Ross had -his horse killed under him by a shot from a private house he was passing -and kept more in the background thereafter, but Cockburn was active in -the work of devastation. Tradition describes him as mounting the -Speaker’s dais in the Hall of Representatives, calling a burlesque -session of Congress to order, and putting the question: “Shall this -harbor of Yankee democracy be burned? All in favor will say, ‘Aye’!” -There was a roar of “Ayes” from the men, who at once set going a mammoth -bonfire of written records and volumes from the library of Congress, and -soon the whole Capitol was wrapped in flames. Thence the party proceeded -to the other public buildings, burning whatever was recognizable as the -property of the Government. Their progress was nearly everywhere -unopposed, the clerks in charge having gathered up such books and papers -as they could carry away, and transported them to the most convenient -hiding-places. - -The first break in this program occurred at the Patent Office, which was -under the superintendency of Doctor William Thornton, himself of English -birth. A neighbor having warned him at his home that his office was in -danger, he mounted his horse and galloped to the spot, where he arrived -just in time to see a squad of soldiers training a field-piece upon the -building. Leaping from the saddle and dramatically covering the muzzle -of the gun with his body, he reminded the artillerists that the -inventions they purposed destroying were monuments of human progress -which belonged to the whole civilized world, and denounced such -vandalism as a disgrace to the British uniform. His boldness had its -effect, and the Patent Office was spared. Another check came, in the -form of an accident of poetic justice, at Greenleaf’s Point, the present -site of the Army War College. This place had been used as an arsenal by -the defenders of the city, who, before deserting it, had secreted all -their surplus gunpowder in a dry well in the midst of the grounds. A -body of British troops undertook to destroy the American cannon they -found there by firing one gun directly into another, when a fragment of -burning wadding was blown into the well, causing an explosion that -killed twelve and wounded more than thirty of the party. - -President Madison, who had been at Bladensburg personally superintending -the placing of our troops, hastened southward when the rout began, and -took refuge among the hills of northern Virginia. There he was presently -joined by his wife, and both remained in seclusion till they received -word that the British had marched away. This message was preceded by the -news that the President’s House had been burned, with all its contents -except a few portable articles which could be gathered and put out of -harm’s reach at an hour’s notice. The property destroyed with absolute -wantonness in various parts of the city aggregated in value between two -and three million dollars--a heavy loss for a government which was just -managing to stagger along with its legitimate burdens, and in a capital -that could barely be kept from collapse under the most favoring -conditions. It is not wonderful that the British press was almost a unit -in condemning Cockburn’s vandalism, the London _Statesman_ saying: -“Willingly would we throw a veil of oblivion over the transactions at -Washington; the Cossacks spared Paris, but we spared not the capital of -America!” And the _Annual Register_: “The extent of the devastation -practised by the victors brought a heavy censure upon the British -character, not only in America, but on the Continent of Europe.” The -restoration of the President’s House alone, including the repainting of -its outside surface to remove the scars of the fire, consumed four -years, in the course of which President Madison made way for his -successor, Monroe, and the building had fastened to it, from its -freshened color, the title it has worn in popular speech from that day -to this. - -It was a sorry-looking Washington to which the Madisons came back. -Blackened ruins were everywhere; placards posted here and there -denounced the President as the author of the city’s misfortunes; -mournful streams of women, children, old men, and - -[Illustration: _George Washington Tavern, Bladensburg_] - -shamefaced stragglers from the defensive force, trickled in from the -woods in the suburban country where they had been hiding since the -battle; the streets were strewn with the wreckage of a cyclone which had -swept the valley almost simultaneously with the hostile troops, -unroofing houses, uprooting trees, demolishing chimneys, and generally -supplementing the disasters of warfare. Indeed, almost the only -potentiality of evil that had not come to pass was an uprising of the -slaves, which had been widely feared, as some of the restless spirits -among them had been overheard counseling their fellows to join the -British in looting the city and then make a break for freedom. The -Madisons, after a brief visit with friends, rented the Octagon house at -the corner of New York Avenue and Eighteenth Street, now the -headquarters of the American Institute of Architects. It was here that -President Madison signed the treaty of Ghent, binding Great Britain and -the United States to a peace which has remained for a whole century -unbroken. Here, too, Dolly Madison held her republican court, the most -famous since Martha Washington’s in New York, and far eclipsing that in -splendor. - -To provide a meeting-place for Congress till the Capitol could be -occupied once more, a building which stood at the corner of F and -Seventh Streets was made over for the purpose. It proved so -uncomfortable, however, as to revive with increased zest the discussion -whether, in view of the spread of population through the newly opened -West, it would not be wiser to remove the seat of government to some -fairly accessible point in that part of the country. The agitation -alarmed the more important property-owners in Washington, who, in order -to head it off before it had gone too far, hastily organized a company -to put up a temporary but better equipped substitute for the Capitol. -They chose a site a few hundred yards to the eastward of the burned -edifice, and there built a long house which is still standing, though -now divided into dwellings. The stratagem accomplished its aim, and -Congress stayed in its improvised domicile till 1819. This occupancy -gave the building the title, “the Old Capitol,” that clings to it to-day -in spite of the changes it has undergone in the interval. - -Washington was early supplied with a good general newspaper in the -_National Intelligencer_, and the social side of life presently found a -weekly interpreter in _The Huntress_, edited by Mrs. Ann Royall, whose -personality was so aggressive that John Quincy Adams described her as -going about “like a virago-errant in enchanted armor.” She said so much, -also, in disparagement of some of her neighbors, that she was indicted -by the grand jury as a common scold and threatened with a ducking in -accordance with an old English law in force in the District. But the -disseminators of information to whose coming the citizens looked forward -more eagerly than to any printed sheet, were two men who made their -rounds daily on horseback among the homes of the well-to-do. One was the -postman, delivering the mails that came in by stage-coach from the outer -world; the other was the barber, who, like an endless-chain letter, -picked up the latest gossip at every house he visited, and left in -exchange all the items he had picked up at previous stopping-places. - -During the next generation Washington saw, it is safe to say, more of -the ups and downs of fortune than any other American city. The reasons -were manifold. For one thing, the larger part of its population -consisted of persons whose permanent ties were elsewhere. As federal -officeholders they were residents of Washington, but they retained their -citizenship in the places from which they had been drawn. Under the -Constitution, moreover, Congress exercised supreme authority in the -District of Columbia, and every member of Congress had the interests of -his home constituency more at heart than those of the people who were -his neighbors for only a few months at a time. Nevertheless, the -population of the capital, which, when it rose from its ashes, numbered -between eight and nine thousand, more than doubled within the next -twenty years. Then came ten years of great uncertainty, during which -occurred the overwhelming business panic of 1837, that set awry nearly -everything in America, and for this period the increase averaged only -about five hundred souls annually. But another twenty years of forward -movement brought the total up to a little more than sixty thousand. - -In the meantime many things had happened, calculated to attract public -attention generally to Washington. President Monroe had proclaimed his -famous doctrine, warning Europe to keep its hands off this hemisphere. -President Jackson had made his fight upon the United States Bank and won -it, changing the whole financial outlook of the country. The Capitol had -been enlarged, and several new Government buildings started; the -Smithsonian Institution had begun to make its mark in the scientific -world, and the Washington Monument had risen nearly two hundred feet -into the air. The long-threatened war with Mexico had come and gone, -adding a rich area to our public domain. Steamships had crowded sailing -vessels off the highways of commerce and become the main dependence of -the Yankee navy. The Baltimore and Ohio Railway, the first successful -experiment in its field, had brought what we now call the Middle West, -with its grain and minerals, to within a day’s journey of the capital, -and this pioneer enterprise had been followed by the opening of other -rail facilities. The Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act had -been passed, slavery had been abolished in the District of Columbia, the -Underground Railroad had begun to haul its daily consignment of runaway -negroes across the Canada border, the Supreme Court had rendered the -Dred Scott decision, and John Brown had led his raid in the mountain -country scarcely fifty miles from where the Court was sitting. Letter -postage, anywhere east of the Mississippi River, had come down to a -three-cent unit. The first telegraph message had been transmitted over a -wire connecting Baltimore with Washington, and out of this small -beginning had presently been developed a network of electric -communication covering all our more thickly populated territory; while -experimenters with a submarine line had effected an exchange of messages -between England and the United States which proved the practicability of -their enterprise. Last but not least, royalty had smiled upon us in the -person of the Prince of Wales, who had passed some days as the guest of -President Buchanan at the White House. - -Had Washington been situated elsewhere than on the border line between -two sections, neither of which felt any pride in its success, or had it -been governed by executives whose records were to be made or marred by -the faithfulness with which they turned every opportunity to account for -its welfare and reputation, we should probably have seen the capital -beginning then its career as the model city of the new world. Instead, -the dependence of its people, at every stage, on the favor of what was -practically an alien governing body, bore natural fruit in a feeble -community spirit. - -By 1860 Washington had reached the middle of its Slough of Despond. Not -a street was paved except for a patch here and there, and Pennsylvania -Avenue was the only one lighted after nightfall. Pigs roamed through the -less pretentious highways as freely as dogs. There was not a sewer -anywhere, a shallow, uncovered stream carrying off the common refuse to -the Potomac, which was held in its channel only by raw earthen bluffs. -Wells and springs furnished all the water, and the police and fire -departments were those of a village. The open squares, intended for -beauty spots, were densely overgrown with weeds. Except for an omnibus -line to Georgetown, not a public conveyance was running. Such permanent -Department buildings as had been started, though ambitious in design -and suggesting by their outlines a desire for something better than had -yet been accomplished, had not reached a habitable state. The Capitol -was in disorder, and still overrun with workmen who had been employed in -constructing the new wings and were preparing to raise the dome; the -White House had scarcely a fitter look, with its environment of stables -and shambling fences and its unkempt grounds. - -Nor was there any prospect of speedy improvement in municipal -conditions. Every considerable stride in that direction would mean -largely increased taxation, and the bulk of the taxable property had -drifted into the hands of unprogressive whites and ignorant negroes, who -were equally unwilling to pay the price. Upon this seemingly hopeless -chaos descended the cloud of civil war. - -It was a black cloud, but it had a sunlit lining. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -WAR TIMES AND THEIR SEQUEL - - -Three days after John Brown had been hanged for his Harper’s Ferry raid, -the Thirty-sixth Congress convened. Brown’s exploit had sent a wave of -excitement sweeping over the country, and the slavery controversy had -entered a phase of emotional acuteness it had never known before. There -was a strong Republican plurality in the new House of Representatives, -but it was by no means of one mind, most of its members still hoping to -avoid any action which might precipitate a dismemberment of the Union. -It took forty-four ballots, covering a period of eight weeks, for a -combination of Republicans with a few outsiders to choose a Speaker, and -the wrangling which preceded and followed the choice reached at times -the verge of bloodshed. A large majority of the Representatives from -both Northern and Southern constituencies attended the sessions armed. - -Before the end of June, 1860, four Presidential tickets were in the -field. The Republican ticket was headed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, -the Northern Democratic ticket by his old rival in State politics, -Stephen A. Douglas. The Southern Democrats had nominated John C. -Breckinridge of Kentucky, then Vice-president, and what was left of the -Whig party had united with the peacemakers generally in naming John Bell -of Tennessee. When Lincoln was elected in November, every one knew that -a crisis was at hand; for, although opposed to the use of violence for -the extinction of slavery, he disbelieved utterly in the system, and the -radical leaders in the South proceeded at once with their plans for -divorcing the slave States from the free States. - -South Carolina led the actual revolt by adopting an ordinance of -secession and withdrawing her delegation from Congress. Almost -simultaneously she sent three commissioners to Washington, “empowered to -treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the -forts, magazines, lighthouses and other real estate within the limits of -South Carolina” to the State authorities. President Buchanan, fearing -lest any discussion with them might be construed as a recognition of -their claim to an ambassadorial status, referred them to Congress, which -met the difficulty at the threshold by turning their case over to a -special committee, with the result that their demands were disregarded. -The committee, however, played a pretty important part in the activities -of the succeeding winter, for the Union men in its membership organized -themselves into a sort of subcommittee of safety, and opened -confidential channels of communication with men and women all over the -city who were in a position to tell them promptly what the enemies of -the Union were planning to do. These secret informers included all -classes of persons, from domestic servants to Cabinet officers. The -correspondence was conducted not through the post-office, but by cipher -notes hidden in out-of-the-way places, where the parties for whom they -were intended could safely look for them after nightfall. - -The militia and fire departments of the District of Columbia were modest -affairs then, but their members were alert to the growing possibilities -of trouble. Some who were secession sympathizers formed themselves into -rifle clubs and drilled privately at night; while the Unionists built up -a little body of minutemen, who elected their own officers and secreted -stands of arms at the Capitol and other convenient points, so that they -could respond instantly, wherever they chanced to be, to a summons for -emergency service. Day after day brought its budget of news from the -South, saddening or thrilling. Thomas and Floyd quitted the Cabinet, -Dix became Secretary of the Treasury, and Holt Secretary of War. In -January, 1861, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi -seceded, seizing all the forts, vessels, and other Government property -on which they could lay hands; and Dix put upon the wire his historic -despatch to his special agent at New Orleans, “If any one attempts to -haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot,” but it was -intercepted and never reached its destination. - -February witnessed the secession of Texas, the election of Jefferson -Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice-president of the -Confederate States of America, and the withdrawal of several Senators -and Representatives from the United States Congress. The only cheering -news of the month was the refusal of Tennessee and Missouri to secede, -though both States contained a multitude of citizens who would have -preferred to do so. Daily the galleries of Congress were crowded with -spectators representing all shades of opinion and at times -uncontrollable in their expressions of approval or disapproval. When the -House voted to submit a Constitutional amendment forbidding the -interference of Congress with slavery or any other State institution, -one element in the gallery burst into deafening applause; the opposing -element in the Senate became equally boisterous in applauding a speech -by Andrew Johnson, denouncing as a traitor any man who should fire upon -the flag or conspire to take over Government property for the -Confederacy. The difference in the treatment of the two outbreaks was -significant: that in the House was merely rebuked in words, but in the -Senate the gallery was cleared and closed to spectators for the rest of -the day. - -In fairness it should be said that at this trying juncture several men -in positions of responsibility, who had made no secret of their interest -in the Southern cause, acted the honorable part when put to the test. -Vice-president Breckinridge was credited by current gossip with an -intention, at the official count of the electoral vote, to refuse to -declare Lincoln elected, or permit a mob to break up the session and -destroy the authenticated returns. On the contrary, he conducted the -count with as much scrupulousness in every detail as if his heart were -in the result. Equal praise is due to the chief of the Capitol police, -who, though bitterly hostile to Mr. Lincoln, took all the precautions -for his safety on the day of inauguration that his best friend could -have taken. - -Thus the Buchanan administration went out, and the Lincoln -administration came in. The persistent - -[Illustration: _Octagon House_] - -warnings of a plot to kill or kidnap the President-elect led to the -adoption of an extraordinary program for bringing him safely to -Washington. Under the escort of an experienced detective, he made the -journey from Harrisburg at high speed, in a special train provided by -the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, all the tracks having been previously -cleared, and the telegraph wires cut along the route. Meanwhile, a -sensational newspaper had published locally a story that Lincoln was -already in the city, having been smuggled through Baltimore in disguise -in order to elude the conspirators who were waiting there to assassinate -him. This fiction so incensed William H. Seward, who had been in -Washington preparing for the arrival of his future chief, that Lincoln -was not allowed to make a toilet after his night’s journey, but was -hurried, all unwashed and unshaven, to the Capitol, so that the members -of Congress could see him and satisfy themselves of the falsity of what -they had read. - -His immunity thus far did not quiet the apprehensions of Lincoln’s -friends, who took especial pains to prevent the interruption of his -inauguration at any point. A temporary fence was built around the space -immediately in front of the platform from which his address was to be -delivered, and an enclosed alley of boards was constructed from the -place where he would leave his carriage to the place where he would -pass into the Capitol. On the morning of the fourth of March, armed men -in citizen’s clothing were stationed on the roofs of all the buildings -overlooking the main east portico, and others on and under its platform, -while yet others mingled with the crowd of thirty thousand spectators -that early assembled on the plaza. Batteries of light artillery were -posted in commanding positions, with their cannon loaded and prepared to -sweep any of several converging streets on the approach of a mob. -Buchanan drove with Lincoln to the Capitol, and their carriage was -surrounded by a hollow square of regular troops, in formation so dense -that the occupants of the vehicle were scarcely visible from the -sidewalk. Hannibal Hamlin, the Vice-president-elect, walked up from -Willard’s Hotel, on purpose to hear what the people who lined the Avenue -were saying. Their comments were, as a rule, far from friendly to the -incoming administration, and some were distinctly ominous. - -Lincoln appeared very calm, in spite of the general atmosphere of -excitement. Buchanan’s face was graver than usual, and he spoke little -during the drive. When the party came upon the platform, Senator Baker -of Oregon stepped forward and said simply, “Fellow citizens, I introduce -to you Abraham Lincoln, President-elect of the United States”; and the -tall, ungainly hero of the day advanced to the rail. He laid his -manuscript, to which he had put the finishing touches at daybreak that -morning, upon the little desk with his cane for a paper-weight, and -looked about for somewhere to lay his high silk hat; Stephen A. Douglas, -who was sitting near, reached for the hat and held it throughout the -proceedings. Lincoln, after a brief pause, drew from his pocket a pair -of steel-bowed spectacles, which he adjusted very deliberately, and -began to read with a seriousness of manner that soon quenched all -disposition to frivolity in his audience. The address was a plea for the -preservation of that friendship between the North and the South which -had been hallowed by their united warfare in the past against the -enemies of their country, and ended thus: - -“Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of -affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield -and patriot grave to every loving heart and hearthstone all over this -broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, -as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” - -When the last syllable had passed his lips, he stood still a moment, -slowly sweeping the multitude with his eyes. Then he bowed to Chief -Justice Taney, who, in a voice tremulous with emotion, administered the -oath of office. - -Within six weeks thereafter Fort Sumter had been fired upon, and the new -President had issued his call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to -maintain the laws of the United States, and summoned Congress to meet in -extra session on the fourth of July. Almost the first thing the Senate -did when it came together was to expel six of its members who had cast -their fortunes with the seceding States. Meanwhile, Washington had been -transformed from an outwardly peaceful town into a military camp. A home -defense corps was hurriedly enlisted by Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky and -James H. Lane of Kansas, and a guard was posted around the White House -every night. The minutemen were called out repeatedly for special -service. Once they seized a vessel which was about to sail from a -Potomac wharf for a southern port, laden with munitions of war alleged -to have been stolen from the Government. Again, they marched to -Georgetown and took forcible possession of the flour stored in a mill -there and reported to them as destined for the Confederate army; this, -by commandeering all the wagons in the neighborhood, they removed to the -Capitol and stowed away in the basement rooms. In the streets, all -strangers were eyed with suspicion. Signals to the police, the home -defense corps, and the minutemen were conveyed by certain tollings of -big bells; and, as every signal meant trouble either present or -imminent, the townspeople lived continually as if on the brink of a -volcano. - -Among the earliest State volunteers to reach the city were regiments -from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. The Massachusetts Sixth, -which had been fired on by a mob while passing through Baltimore, was -quartered in the Hall of the Senate, and the New York Seventh in the -Hall of Representatives; while bivouacked in other parts of the same -building were about five hundred Pennsylvanians and a company of United -States artillery, for there was general expectation of a Confederate -attack upon the Capitol. The New York Seventy-first was assigned to the -Washington Navy Yard, so as to be convenient for repelling approaches -from Alexandria by way of the river. - -The first incident of the war in which Alexandria figured, however, was -not a foray on Washington but a tragedy at home. Colonel Ephraim E. -Ellsworth, who had recruited a regiment of zouaves from New York City, -came to Washington at its head. He was young, handsome, soldierly in -bearing, and full of enthusiasm; but Mr. Lincoln, though greatly -attracted to him, felt some misgivings as to his ability to control his -zouaves, for the New York firemen of that period had a reputation for -turbulence. Hence, when arrangements were made for moving troops into -Virginia to occupy a region which must be held for the defense of the -capital, the President consented to let Ellsworth’s regiment go only on -condition that it should be instantly disbanded if its members committed -any breach of discipline. - -At two o’clock on the morning of May 24, 1861, the zouaves boarded two -Potomac steamboats, which before sunrise had dropped down to Alexandria. -Leaving most of his men on the wharf, Ellsworth started with a small -squad toward a telegraph office whence he could report to Washington by -wire. He observed a Confederate flag flying from the roof of a hotel -known as the Marshall House, and, realizing what might happen if his men -caught sight of it, entered with the purpose of directing its removal. -Jackson, the landlord, was abed, and the man in charge of the office -seemed irresponsible, so Ellsworth and his squad hauled down the flag -themselves. As they were descending with it, Jackson suddenly emerged -from his chamber in the second story and leveled a double-barreled -shotgun at Corporal Brownell, the soldier nearest him. Brownell, with -his rifle, struck Jackson’s gun just as its trigger was pulled, and the -shot went wild; but in an instant Jackson had aimed again and discharged -the contents of the second barrel into Ellsworth’s breast. The Colonel -fell dead, and Brownell, firing and using his bayonet almost -simultaneously, killed Jackson where he stood. - -Except one who had lost his life by an accident, Ellsworth was the first -Union soldier to fall in the Civil War. He was buried from the White -House by the President’s order; and the news of his death so aroused the -North that volunteers poured into Washington for a time faster than the -Government could arm and provision them. Mostly they were militia -regiments which had come on under their own officers. In Washington they -were united in brigades, with generals of some experience in command, -and sent into Virginia by way of the “Long Bridge,” which had its -terminus on the fringe of the Arlington estate; it was a wooden -structure, and the troops had to break step in crossing it. The first -battle between the two armies was at a point near Manassas, and took its -name, Bull Run, from a small stream which, about twenty-five miles -southwest of Washington, joins the Occoquan River. - -So little conception had the people at large of the actualities of war -that many Washingtonians and tourists, of all ages and sexes, drove down -in carriages to watch the battle from a safe position on the hillside. -Fighting began on the morning of Sunday, July 21, and the first reports -that reached the city described everything as going favorably to the -Union cause. The despatches sent to Northern newspapers all reflected -this view, and some went pretty elaborately into detail concerning -incidents on various parts of the field. But suddenly the tide turned, -and with a panicky force which started the whole body of Federal troops -on a pell-mell rush for Washington. The light-hearted spectators ran, -too, often impeding the retreat of the soldiers by getting their -carriages wedged together on a bridge or a narrow road, while the air -shook with mingled profanity and prayers, punctuated with hysterics. Not -a few of the carriage folk, as night drew near, became so terrified that -they cut their harness and rode their horses bareback, two sometimes -clinging to one animal. The Confederates, discovering the rout, were as -much surprised as the Federals. They set out to follow their foes, but, -not fully grasping the real conditions, stopped about fifteen miles -short of Washington and waited for morning, thus giving the fugitive -army a chance to recover from its first demoralization. Had they -pressed on, they might have taken possession of the capital that night, -captured the stored munitions, and looted the Treasury; and the record -of the next four years must have been written in a different vein. - -Meanwhile, the true story had been brought in by the fleeing -non-combatants, and the Associated Press attempted to send out a -correction of first reports, but discovered too late that the Government -had seized all the telegraph lines and established a temporary -censorship, postponing any further dissemination of news. As far as -known, only one prominent paper in the North was able to describe the -disaster in its Monday morning’s issue. That was a Philadelphia journal, -whose correspondent had taken to his heels as soon as the panic began. -By the time he reached Washington, he was so convinced that the -Confederates were going to capture the city at once, that he boarded a -train which was just pulling out for Philadelphia, and at his desk in -his home office dictated his observations of the battle and the -stampede. - -The President, having received only cheering bulletins in the earlier -part of Sunday, went out for his usual drive in the cool of the -afternoon. On his return, about half-past six o’clock, he found awaiting -him a request to come immediately to General Scott’s room at the War -Department. All his Cabinet had gathered there, and his hurried -consultation with them resulted in messages directing various movements -of troops in the field, and appeals to the Governors of the loyal States -for more men. When he came back to his office, he threw himself upon a -lounge, where he spent the night, not in sleep, but in listening to, and -closely catechising, parties of civilians who had made their way in from -Manassas and had hastened to the White House to pour their disjointed -narratives into his ear. By daylight the streets of Washington presented -a pitiful spectacle. Ordinary business was almost at a standstill; -excited citizens were gathered in knots at every corner; and a multitude -of disheartened soldiers, lacking leaders and organization, not knowing -where to look for their next orders and thinking with dread of the -effect the bad news would have upon their friends at home, were -wandering aimlessly about. The President, after twenty-four hours of -anxiety, was greatly relieved when the responses from the Northern -States began to reach him, showing that the shock had not broken the -faith of the people but had awakened them to the realities of the -situation. This change was reflected in the Cabinet councils, too, where -a sudden revision of opinion was observed on the part of those members -who had fancied that the war would be merely a three months’ holiday--a -triumphal march of a Northern army from Mason and Dixon’s line to the -Gulf of Mexico. - -This is not a history of the civil conflict; its beginnings have been -thus outlined only because they made so deep an impress on the future of -Washington, which, from being generally regarded by the American people -with comparative indifference, had become a center of interest for all -the world. The city was not again seriously threatened with capture till -July, 1864, when the Confederate General, Jubal A. Early, with a corps -of seasoned soldiers, had worked his way around so as to descend upon it -from the north. The news of his approach, spreading through the -community, did not cause the consternation which might have been -expected in view of the slight defensive preparation that had been made -in the menaced quarter. Requisitions were sent to the army in Northern -Virginia for such troops as could be spared. Wounded and discharged -Union veterans shouldered their guns once more. The male nurses in the -hospitals were drafted for active duty. A troop of cavalry was recruited -among the civilian teamsters at work in the city. From all the executive -Departments the able-bodied clerks were called out, armed with rifles or -muskets as far as possible, and for the rest with pistols, old -cutlasses, axes, shovels, and whatever other implements might be turned -to emergency use, and ranged up on the sidewalks for elementary -instruction and drill. Those who were least strong or most poorly armed -were organized into a home-guard, to act as a last reserve if the -Confederates succeeded in piercing a line of earthworks thrown out north -of the city. Some of these fortifications can still be identified, -though worn away by a half-century’s exposure to a variable climate, -overgrown with trees and vines, and at intervals used as building sites. -The most interesting of the chain is Fort Stevens, near the present -Seventh Street Road, for there President Lincoln stood for hours under -fire, refusing to go home as long as there seemed a chance that his -presence could lend any inspiration to the men. The invading force was -repulsed after a two days’ effort to break through, and Washington -breathed freely once more. - -We come now to the concluding stage of the great struggle. Mr. Lincoln -was reëlected in November, 1864, and inaugurated on the fourth of March, -1865, making the chief theme of his address a plea for generous -treatment of the South. Within a month Richmond fell, and five days -after that General Lee surrendered his army. There was great rejoicing -in Washington over both these portents of peace, and parties of men and -women paraded the streets after - -[Illustration: _Union Engine House of 1815_] - -nightfall, singing patriotic songs in front of the dwellings of -prominent Government officers. On the night of April 11 a great crowd -gathered in the White House yard, loudly cheering the President and -calling for a speech. Having been notified in advance, he had jotted -down a few remarks which he now read from manuscript. This memory of him -we shall take away with us, as he stood framed in an open window, with -one of his secretaries at his side holding a lighted candle for him to -see by, and his little son Tad taking from his hand the pages of -manuscript, one by one, as he finished reading them, while the rest of -his family, with radiant faces, were grouped where they could overlook -the scene. - -Three nights later, almost at the same hour, Booth’s bullet laid the -good man low in his box at Ford’s Theater; and in a little back hall -bedroom of the house across the street to which he was carried, he -breathed his last at an early hour on the following morning. -Simultaneously with the shooting of Mr. Lincoln, an attempt was made to -kill Secretary Seward, and the detectives unearthed evidence of a wide -conspiracy, which contemplated a simultaneous murder of the President, -the Vice-president, all the Cabinet, and General Grant. The conspirators -were soon tracked. Booth was shot in a Virginia barn in which he had -taken refuge from his pursuers; four others were tried by a military -commission and hanged. - -Andrew Johnson, the Vice-president, was not a tactful man, and had -already drawn upon himself the enmity of the radical wing of his party -in Congress, which was intensified by his first acts as President, -foreshadowing a considerate policy toward the South. A tiresome petty -warfare set in, Johnson vetoing bill after bill, only to see it repassed -over his veto. Of the members of the Lincoln Cabinet he had retained, -Secretary Stanton was the one with whom he had most friction, and in -August, 1867, he called for Stanton’s resignation, designating General -Grant to manage the War Department temporarily. On Stanton’s refusal to -resign, Johnson suspended him, and Grant took over the Department and -held it till the Senate adopted a resolution declaring its -non-concurrence in Stanton’s suspension. Then Grant stepped out, and -Stanton returned to duty. Johnson suspended him again, this time -designating General Lorenzo Thomas to act in his stead. Matters had now -reached a climax, and the House in 1868 impeached the President. His -trial by the Senate consumed nearly two months and ended in a failure to -convict. In view of this defeat, Stanton resigned, and from that time -till the close of his term President Johnson continued his quarrel with -the opponents of his policy, celebrating his last Christmas in the White -House by proclaiming a general pardon and amnesty, so framed as to -include all grades of political offenders. - -Johnson was President when the enlargement of the Capitol building was -finished, including the rearing of the present dome. While the -alterations were in progress, the grand two days’ parade of the -victorious armies took place on Pennsylvania Avenue, the President -reviewing it as it passed the White House. General Grant was elected by -the Republicans to succeed Johnson, taking office in March, 1869. During -the next sixteen years, divided between his two terms and the -administrations of Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur, Washington almost -doubled in population. While Grant was President, it was so constantly -in the public eye that many rich men discerned its future possibilities -and invested in real estate there. Army and navy officers, retired from -active duty, found it pleasant to settle down where they would be most -likely to meet their old comrades. A few scholars drifted in, so as to -have easy access to the Government libraries and records. Thus, in both -a material and a social way, Washington took a strong upward start. - -For the esthetic side of the general change, less can be said in -praise. Most of the dwellings built during this era can still be -distinguished by their gratuitous ugliness. The parks became strewn with -flower-beds of fantastic shape, overrun by a riot of inharmonious -colors. Statues sprang up like mushrooms, unrelated in size or style or -any other quality. Alterations of street grades left little houses -perched on bluffs and leaning against big neighbors built at the new -level, or sunk in dingy pits. All this contributed to give the city an -unfinished look, like that of a child growing out of its small clothes. -Over the whole process of transformation loomed its master figure, -Alexander R. Shepherd. - -No man of his day, unless it were Grant himself, endured more wholesale -denunciation or found more valiant defenders than he. Like Grant, who -believed in him thoroughly, he had an iron will which treated all -obstacles as negligible when he had set himself to accomplish a certain -end. As a plumber by trade and a very competent one, he had accumulated -a fortune before middle life. Early in his business career he had made -up his mind that Washington’s failure to fulfil L’Enfant’s ideal of a -beautiful capital was due to the sluggishness which pervaded it, and -this he resolved to dispel. Grant listened to his projects and -encouraged them. The first step was to abolish the existing form of -municipal government and to substitute a Territorial form, with a -Governor and a Board of Public Works. Shepherd was made vice-president -of the Board and virtually its dictator. - -What he had to face in his effort to launch the city afresh can hardly -be conceived by an observer of to-day. Although ten years had elapsed -since the outbreak of the great war of which Washington was the focal -center, local conditions had improved but slightly upon those described -toward the close of the previous chapter. The road-bed of Pennsylvania -Avenue had received a pavement of wood, which was fast going to pieces. -A single square in Vermont Avenue was surfaced with a coal-tar product -that had proved its unfitness. A few other streets had been spread with -a thick coat of gravel, which, as it was gradually ground down, filled -the air with fine grit whenever the wind blew. The rest of the highways -were either paved with cobblestones or left in their primitive dirt, -which became nearly impassable in very wet weather for mud, and in very -dry weather for dust. It was not uncommon for a heavy vehicle like a -fire-engine to get stalled when it most needed to hurry, and to avoid -this contingency the engines sometimes ran over the sidewalk. In the -northwestern quarter, now so attractive, the marshes were undrained, and -the people forced to live there suffered tortures from chills and -fever. There was no efficient system of scavenging, but swine were kept -in back yards of dwellings to devour the kitchen refuse. Poultry and -cattle roamed freely about the vacant lots in thinly settled -neighborhoods. There were several open sewers; and the street sweepings, -including offal of a highly offensive sort, were dumped on the common -south of Pennsylvania Avenue and strewn over the plots set apart for -lawns. - -Because Shepherd foresaw the hostility he would excite by his program of -reforms, and that what he did must therefore be done quickly, he crowded -into three years what might well have consumed twenty. To save time and -cut red tape, he awarded contracts to friends whom he believed to be as -much in earnest as he was--a practice which of course laid him open to -accusations of favoritism; he experimented with novel materials and -methods, many of which proved ill-adapted to his needs; and his -expenditures reached figures which surprised even him when he found -leisure to foot up his debit page. But he shirked nothing because of the -danger or trouble it might involve for himself, and his opponents had to -lie awake nights to outwit him. - -For instance, there stood on the present site of the Public Library in -Mount Vernon Square a ramshackle old market building, the owners of -which had contrived so to intrench themselves behind legal -technicalities that they could not be ousted by any ordinary process. -One evening, after the courts were closed, a platoon of brawny laborers -was marched up to the building, armed with battering-rams, axes, and -sledge-hammers, and, before proprietors or tenants could hunt up a judge -to interfere, the party had reduced the market to kindling wood and -prepared the ground for conversion into a public park. Again, when the -time came to improve the lower end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a railroad -crossing stood in the way. It had been laid during the war, with no -legal warrant but as a temporary military necessity, and the company had -repeatedly refused to remove it. So at one o’clock one Sunday morning, -when injunctions were out of the question, Shepherd brought down a gang -of trusty men and proceeded to tear up the rails, which could never -thereafter be replaced. - -The boldness of this performance so stirred the admiration of John W. -Garrett, one of the most powerful railway magnates of the day, that he -offered Shepherd a vice-presidency of the Baltimore and Ohio Company. -But Shepherd was not to be lured away. He was promoted by Grant from the -vice-presidency of the Board of Public Works to the Governorship of the -District, a move which, though flattering, made him all the more shining -a mark for attack; and a group of large landowners, shuddering at the -prospect of further increases in taxation, induced Congress to -reorganize the local government, wiping out entirely the Territorial -system and popular suffrage, and putting the administration of affairs -into the hands of three Commissioners to be appointed for limited terms -by the President. This plan has remained substantially unchanged for -more than forty years, to the satisfaction of the citizens who have most -at stake in the welfare of the city. - -Having entered office rich at the age of thirty, Shepherd quitted it at -thirty-three so poor that he had to begin life anew in the Mexican -mining country. He left as his monument a record expenditure of -twenty-six million dollars, about half that amount remaining as a bonded -debt; many miles of newly opened or extended streets; a splendid -achievement in shade-tree installation and parking improvement; modern -water, sanitation, and lighting plants; and, above all, an awakened -popular spirit as to civic advancement. Albeit his ways of working out -his plans often were so crude as to shock the sense of quieter people -and not to be commended as a continuing force for - -[Illustration: _On the Ruins of Fort Stevens_] - -good, they served their time, which needed the application of a crowbar -rather than a cambric needle. - -True to his human type, Shepherd was an odd mixture of incongruities. He -poured out public funds like water, yet profited never a cent himself. -In his own fashion he was pious, yet he could swear like a trooper when -aroused, and once halted in the midst of family prayers to order a -servant to “drive that damned cow out of the rose-bushes!” He was -overheard, after hurling imprecations at some contractor who had -mishandled a job, murmuring a prayer to the Almighty to forgive and -forget his momentary loss of temper. A lady who once engaged him as a -plumber to hang a chandelier in her parlor noticed that it swayed under -her touch, and sent for him again to make sure that it would not fall -upon the heads of her guests. His answer was to mount a chair on one -side of the room, pull the chandelier toward him till he could grasp it -with both hands, jump off, and swing his whole weight of two hundred and -twenty-five pounds across to a chair on the opposite side. This -exhibition of his confidence in his work completely restored hers. - -Little more need be told here. The sodden soil plowed up by Shepherd was -gradually harrowed and seeded, watched and watered, till it brought -forth a new city, which under later administrations, in spite of many -vicissitudes, has prospered in the main. Presidents Cleveland, Harrison, -and McKinley took an interest in it which, while kindly, had some of the -detached quality of their interest in any of the States or Territories; -under them, however, the beautiful Rock Creek National Park and its -neighbor the “Zoo” were planned and largely developed, and the -pleasure-ground and suburban expansion programs received a considerable -impetus. President Roosevelt felt a lively sense of the importance of -the city as the capital of a great nation. It was in his time that the -White House underwent its restoration, and the L’Enfant plan generally -was revived as a standard. He was responsible, also, for attracting to -Washington, as permanent residents, many literary and scientific workers -whom it had formerly welcomed only as visitors, and the foundation of -the Carnegie Institution went far to make this period notable in local -annals. Mr. Taft’s interest took more the neighborly bent, as if -Washington were his home. He bore an active part in the popular -movements for beautifying the city, not so much because it was a -capital, as because he wished to have a hand in the civic enterprises of -his fellow townsmen. - -President Wilson’s attitude has not thus far been so clearly defined as -that of his recent predecessors. Other pressing public concerns have -left him scant time for looking into municipal improvement projects. -Mrs. Wilson, however, gave them much attention; and a hope expressed -during her last illness so touched the heart of Congress as to bring -about the enactment of some long-delayed legislation to abate the use of -unwholesome alleys for the tenements of the poor. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -“ON THE HILL” - - -In the ordinary conversation of Washington, one rarely hears Congress -mentioned by name. The respective functions of its two chambers are so -generally understood that it is common to distinguish between them: the -Senate yesterday did so-and-so; something is about to occur in the House -of Representatives. In speaking of the lawmakers collectively, the -familiar phrase is “the gentlemen on the hill.” Washington has several -hills, but “the” hill is by universal consent the one on which the -Capitol stands. - -To the visitor who knows the city only in its present aspect, the choice -of this hill for the monumental building now crowning it seems most -natural. This is not, however, the place originally considered for the -purpose. James Madison favored Shuter’s Hill, an eminence a little west -of Alexandria, now embraced in the tract set apart for George Washington -Park. Thomas Jefferson supported Madison in this preference; but -President Washington, feeling that Virginia had already had her full -share of the honors in launching the new republic, insisted that the -most important architecture at the seat of government should stand on -the Maryland side of the Potomac. His view prevailed; and, when the -sites of the principal public buildings were marked on L’Enfant’s plan -of the city, that selected for the Capitol was the elevation which, -besides being fairly central, commanded in its outlook, and was -commanded by, the greatest area of country on both sides of the river. - -Like almost everything else architectural in Washington, the Capitol is -a pile of gradual growth, subjected to many changes of detail in the -plans. Sketches were submitted in competition for a prize; the two -competitors who came nearest to meeting the requirements, though adopted -citizens of the United States, were respectively of French and English -birth; and the drawings finally evolved from the general scheme of the -one modified by the more acceptable ideas of the other were turned over -to an Irishman to perfect and carry out. Most of the credit belongs, -undoubtedly, to Doctor William Thornton, a draftsman by profession, who -afterward became Superintendent of Patents. The material used was -freestone from a neighboring quarry. Only the north or Senate end was -far enough advanced by the autumn of 1800 to enable Congress to hold -its short session there, and the disputes which arose over the -succeeding stages of the work led President Jefferson to call in -Benjamin H. Latrobe of Richmond, the first architect of already -established rank who had had anything to do with it. Under his -direction, the south end was made habitable by 1811; and the House of -Representatives, which till then had been uncomfortably quartered in -such odd places as it could find, took possession. There was no central -structure connecting the Senate and House ends, but a roofed wooden -passageway led from the one to the other. In this condition was the -Capitol when, in 1814, the British invaders burned all of it that was -burnable. - -The heavier masonry, of course, was unaffected by the fire except for -the need of a little patchwork here and there; but in his task of -restoration Mr. Latrobe found himself so embarrassed by dissensions -between the dignitaries who gave him his orders that after three -vexatious years he resigned, and the celebrated Charles Bulfinch of -Boston took his place. In 1830 Mr. Bulfinch pronounced the building -finished and returned home, and for twenty years it remained -substantially as he left it. Then, the needs of Congress having outgrown -the space at their disposal, Thomas U. Walter of Philadelphia was -ordered to prepare plans for an enlargement, and he was far-sighted -enough to make the extension the vehicle for some other improvements. -The great wings attached to the northern and southern extremities were -built of white marble, which has rendered imperative the frequent -repainting of the old freestone surfaces to match; the dome was raised -proportionally; and additions made, then and since, to the surrounding -grounds, have given the building an appropriate setting and vastly -enhanced its beauty of approach. - -This is, in brief, the story of the Capitol as we find it to-day. A -stroll through it will call up other memories. As you look at the -building from the east, you will be struck by the difference in tint -between the painted main structure and the two marble wings. Imagine the -wings cut off and the dome reduced to about half its present height and -ended abruptly in a flat top, and you have in your mind’s eye a picture -of the Capitol as Bulfinch left it, and as it remained till shortly -before the Civil War. Its most conspicuous feature now is its towering -dome, surmounted by a bronze allegorical figure of American Freedom. As -the sculptor Crawford originally modeled the image, its head was crowned -with the conventional liberty-cap; but Jefferson Davis, then Secretary -of War, objected to this on the ground that it was the sign of a freed -slave, whereas Americans were born free. The cap was therefore discarded -in favor of the present helmet of eagle feathers. - -Filling the pediment over the main portico is a bit of sculpture which -enjoys the distinction of having been designed by John Quincy Adams, -because he could not find an artist who could draw him what he wished. -It consists of three figures: the Genius of America in the center and -Hope and Justice on either side, Justice appearing without her customary -blindfold. Flanking the main staircase are two groups of statuary. That -on our left is called “The Discovery”--Columbus holding aloft a globe, -while an Indian woman crouches at his feet. It was done by the Italian -sculptor Persico, who copied Columbus’s armor from the last suit -actually worn by him. And now comes a bit of politics; for Congress, -having awarded this work to a foreigner, was besieged by a demand that -the next order be given to an American, and accordingly engaged Horatio -Greenough to produce “The Rescue,” which stands on our right. It -represents a frontiersman saving his wife and child from capture by an -Indian. - -The portico has an historic association with another President besides -Adams, for it was here that an attempt was made upon the life of Andrew -Jackson. At the close of a funeral service in the House of -Representatives, he had just passed out of the rotunda to descend the -steps, when a demented mechanic named Lawrence sprang from a place of -hiding, aimed a pistol at him, and pulled the trigger. As they were less -than ten feet apart, the President was saved only by the failure of the -powder to explode. Lawrence instantly dropped the useless pistol and -tried another, with like effect. Jackson never could be talked out of -the idea that Lawrence was the tool of political conspirators who wished -to put some one else in his place as President. - -We enter the building between the bronze doors designed by Randolph -Rogers, commonly called the “Columbus doors” because they tell, in a -series of reliefs, the life story of the discoverer. In the rotunda, the -center of the building, we find ourselves surrounded by paintings and -sculpture dealing with historical subjects. Hung at even intervals are -eight large canvases, of which four are by John Trumbull, a portrait -painter who was also an officer of the patriot army in the Revolution. -For the one representing the signing of the Declaration of Independence, -old John Randolph could find no better designation than “the shin -piece,” because “such a collection of legs never before came together in -any one picture”; but a more friendly commentator has discovered by -actual count that, of the nearly fifty figures, only ten show either -legs or feet, the rest being relieved by drapery or deep shadows. In -another, the “Resignation of General Washington,” are the figures of two -girls, which have given rise to many a discussion among sightseers -because the pair seem to have five hands between them; I shall not -attempt to solve the problem. - -The paintings of the “Landing of Columbus,” “Discovery of the -Mississippi,” “Baptism of Pocahontas,” and “Embarkation of the Pilgrims” -are from the brushes of Vanderlyn, Powell, Chapman, and Weir -respectively. Their subjects permit of picturesque costumes and dramatic -groupings which Trumbull could not use. But whatever his limitations, we -owe to him, probably more than to any other one man, the rotunda as we -know it. Bulfinch had under consideration various schemes of treatment -for the center of the building, but Trumbull’s foremost thought was of a -good light for his pictures; and, as he was a valued friend of the -architect, the pertinacity with which he urged this design won the day. - -Four doors pierce the circular chamber, and over each is a rectangle of -sculpture in high relief. As works of art, the quartet are little short -of execrable, but as milestones on the path of esthetic development in -America they have a charm of their own. All were the work of Italian -sculptors, whose acquaintance with our domestic history and concerns was -presumptively scant; and when the tablet showing William Penn -negotiating his treaty with the Indians was first exhibited to the -public, the head of the gentle Quaker was adorned with a cocked hat and -military queue. It was necessary, therefore, to decapitate him and set -upon his shoulders the head he now wears. All four reliefs deal with our -aboriginal problem. In one, the Indians are welcoming the Pilgrim -Fathers with a gift of corn; in another, they are conveying to Penn the -land on which Philadelphia now stands; in a third, Pocahontas is saving -the life of Captain John Smith; while in the fourth, Caucasian -civilization, personified in Daniel Boone, has already killed one Indian -and is engaged in bloody combat with a second. The series drew from an -old chief the comment that they told the true story of the way the white -race had repaid the hospitality of the red race by exterminating it; and -another observer, pointing to the huddled-up body of the fallen Indian -under Boone’s foot, remarked: “The white man has not left the Indian -land enough even to die on!” - -Running all around the circular wall and immediately under the dome -opening, we note an unfinished frieze, so done in neutral tints as to -convey the suggestion of relief sculpture, depicting the most notable -events in the history of America from the landing of Columbus to the -discovery of gold in California. Six of the fourteen scenes were painted -by Constantino Brumidi, and the others after sketches left by him. It -was an ambitious design, in view of the rapidity with which history is -made now and the brevity of the space. Only a trifling gap is left for -all that has happened in the last sixty years or so, and Congress has -had more than one debate over what ought to be crowded into the record -of this interval. Among the subjects considered have been the -emancipation of the slaves, the completion of the first transcontinental -railroad, and the freeing of Cuba; but the proposal which has met with -most favor is a symbolic treatment of the Civil War, not as a breach -between the sections but as the cementing of a stronger bond. This was -set aside because the design outlined was a representation of Grant and -Lee clasping hands under the Appomattox apple tree--the objection being -based on the discovery that the apple tree existed only in fiction, and -that the real meeting-place of the two commanders was too unromantic for -artistic use. - -From the frieze our eyes ascend to the canopy, or inner lining of the -dome, which hangs above us like an - -[Illustration: _Survivals from “Before the War”_] - -inverted bowl enclosing an elaborate fresco in colors. This, too, is -from the brush of Brumidi. Although it is ostensibly allegorical, many -of its sixty-three human faces are recognizable portraits, including -those of Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Robert Morris, Samuel F. B. -Morse, Robert Fulton, and Thomas U. Walter, who was architect of the -Capitol while the work was in progress. In a group representing War, -with an armed goddess of liberty for its center, are heads resembling -those of Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, Robert E. Lee, and John -B. Floyd. Whether the likenesses are there by the deliberate intent of -the artist, or merely by accident, no one will ever know, as Brumidi -died in 1880. - -The door on our left leads, through a short corridor, into what was once -the Hall of Representatives. It is now known officially as the Hall of -Statuary, but to irreverent critics as the National Chamber of Horrors, -because of the varied assortment of marble and bronze images collected -there. The room is semicircular, with a domed ceiling, a great arch and -supporting pillars on its flat side, and a colonnade lining the -horseshoe. During the forty years that it was used for legislative -purposes, a rostrum holding the Speaker’s table and chair filled the -arch, and the desks of the Representatives were arranged in concentric -curves to face it. Overlooking the chamber, and following most of the -rear wall, ran a narrow gallery for visitors who did not enjoy the -privileges of the floor; it derived an air of comfort from curtains hung -between the columns of the colonnade and looped back so as to produce -the effect of a tier of opera-boxes. Stay in the room a while, and you -will understand why, for many years, the complaint of its acoustic -properties was so constant, and a demand for a better hall so strong: it -is a wonderful whispering gallery. There are spots in the tiled pavement -where you can stand and hear the slightest sound you make come back from -some point before or behind you, over your head, or under your feet. Go -to the place where the semicircle ends on one side of the room, and I -will go to the corresponding place on the other side, and, by speaking -into the vertical fissures between the wall and the pillars at the two -extremities of the great arch, we can converse in the lowest tones with -as much ease as if we were side by side instead of a hundred feet apart. - -A vivid imagination can people this hall with ghosts. Here some of the -fiercest forensic battles were fought in early days over protective -tariffs, internal improvements, and, above all, negro slavery. Here it -was that Randolph’s piping voice denounced the Northern “dough-faces,” -and here Wilmot launched his historic proviso. Here Alexander H. -Stephens made his last effort to resuscitate the moribund Whig party, -while Abraham Lincoln listened to his argument from a seat on the same -side of the chamber. Here John Quincy Adams drew upon himself the fire -of an incensed opposition by championing the people’s right to petition -Congress, and here he fell to the floor a dying paralytic. Here John -Marshall, the greatest of our Chief Justices, administered the oath of -office to two early Presidents. And here it was that Henry Clay, as -Speaker, delivered his address of welcome to Lafayette as the guest of -the nation, and listened with becoming gravity to the Marquis’s -response--which, as it afterward appeared, owed its excellent English to -the fact that Clay had composed it for the most part himself. - -The conversion of the hall from its former to its present uses was at -the instance of the late Senator Morrill of Vermont, who procured -legislation permitting every State in the Union to contribute two -statues of distinguished citizens to this temple of fame. No restriction -having been placed on the sizes of the figures, one result of his -well-meant effort is a grotesque array of pigmies and giants, some of -the personages biggest in life being most diminutive in effigy, while -others of comparatively insignificant stature are here given massive -proportions. Most of the notables thus immortalized are persons with -whose names we associate a story. Here stand, for example, Ethan Allen -as he may have looked when demanding the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga -“in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress”; Charles -Carroll, who wrote Carrollton after his name so that the servants of the -King, when sent to hang him for signing the Declaration, would know -where to find him; sturdy John Stark, who snapped his fingers at -Congress and whipped the British at Bennington in his own fashion; -Muhlenberg, the patriot parson, throwing back his gown at the close of -his sermon and standing forth as a Continental soldier; and fiery Jim -Shields, who once challenged Lincoln to a duel, but was laughed out of -it when, arriving on the field, he found his adversary already there, -mowing the tall grass with a cutlass to make the fighting easier! - -Another corridor brings us to the present Hall of Representatives, which -has been in use since the latter part of 1857. It is a spacious -rectangular room, with a high ceiling chiefly of glass, through which it -is lighted in the daytime by the sun and after nightfall by the modified -glow of electric lamps in the attic. Its plan is that of an -amphitheater, the platform occupied by the Speaker being at the lowest -level in the middle of the long southern side. Facing this are the -concentric curved benches of the members. Formerly the body of the hall -was filled with desks but, as the membership increased with the -population of the country, these were found to take up too much room, -not to mention the temptation they offered for letter-writing and other -diversions. Back of the Speaker’s chair hang a full-length portrait of -Washington by Vanderlyn and one of Lafayette by Ary Schaeffer. The -Washington is the conventional portrait as far as the waist-line, but -the legs were borrowed from a prominent citizen of Maryland, who had a -better pair than the General, and who consented to pose them for the -benefit of posterity. - -Now let us go back to the north or Senate wing of the building. On our -way we swing around a little open air-well, through which we look down -into the corresponding corridor of the basement. The well is surrounded -by a colonnade supporting the base of a circular skylight. The columns -are worth noticing, because their capitals are of native design, using -the leaf of the tobacco plant somewhat conventionalized. They date from -the period when the clerk of the United States Supreme Court, whose -office is near by, used to receive a part of his compensation in -tobacco. - -A few steps more bring us to the Court itself, sitting in a chamber -considerably smaller than the Hall of Statuary, but laid out on the -same plan. This was the first legislative chamber ever occupied in the -Capitol, having been till 1859 the Hall of the Senate. Here it was that -Thomas Jefferson was twice inaugurated as President. Here Daniel Webster -pronounced the famous “reply to Hayne” which every boy orator once -learned to spout from the rostrum. Here Preston Brooks made his -murderous assault upon Charles Sumner, and here Henry Clay delivered the -farewell address which we used to find in all the school readers. On the -walls of this chamber once hung the life-size oil portraits of Louis -XVI. and Marie Antoinette, which were presented by the Government of -France to the Government of the United States just after our Revolution, -and which disappeared when the British burned the Capitol in 1814. The -room has always suffered from the same bad acoustic properties which -caused the House of Representatives to exchange its old hall for its new -one; and it has a similar whispering gallery, so that a court officer in -one corner can communicate with a colleague in the other in a tone so -low as to be inaudible to any one else. - -Since it took possession here, the Court has rendered its legal tender -and anti-trust decisions, and a number of others of historic importance. -In this room sat, in 1877, the Electoral Commission which decided that -Mr. Hayes was entitled to take office as President. Here occurs, every -day during a term, the one ancient and impressive ceremonial which can -be witnessed at our seat of government. At the stroke of noon there -appears at the right corner of the chamber the crier, who in a loud -voice announces: “The Honorable the Supreme Court of the United States!” -All present--attorneys, spectators, and minor functionaries--rise and -remain standing while the members of the Court enter in single file, the -Chief Justice leading. The lawyers bow to the Justices, who return the -bow before sinking into their chairs. Thereupon the crier makes his -second announcement: “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business with -the Honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to -draw near and give attention, as the Court is now sitting. God save the -United States and this Honorable Court!” - -All the Justices wear gowns of black silk. John Jay, the first Chief -Justice, relieved the somber monotony of his by adding a collar bound -with scarlet, but the precedent was not followed. The Court has -sometimes been styled the most dignified judicial tribunal in the world, -and doubtless it deserves the compliment. Certainly no American need -blush for its decorum. The whole atmosphere of its chamber is in -keeping with the fact, reverently voiced by one of its old colored -servitors, that “dey ain’t no appeal f’m dis yere Co’t ’xcep’ to God -Almighty.” The arguments made before it are confined to calm, -unemotional reasoning. The pleaders do not raise their voices, or forget -their manners, or indulge in personalities or oratory while debating: -and the opinions of the Court are recited with a quietness almost -conversational. These opinions are very carefully guarded up to the -moment they are read from the bench; but now and then, after a decision -has become history, there leaks out an entertaining story of how it came -to be rendered. - -One such instance was in the case of an imported delicacy which might -have been classed either as a preparation of fish or as a flavoring -sauce. The customs officers had levied duty on it as a sauce, and an -importer had appealed. The Justices, when they came to compare notes, -confessed themselves sorely puzzled, and one of them suggested that, -since the technical arguments were so well balanced, it might be wise to -fall back upon common sense. That evening he carried a sample of the -disputed substance home to his wife, who was an expert in culinary -matters. - -“There, my dear,” said he, “is a sauce for you to try.” - -With one look at the contents of the package, which she evidently -recognized, she exclaimed: “Pshaw! That’s no sauce; that’s fish--didn’t -you know it?” - -The next day the Court met again for consultation, and on the following -Monday handed down a decision overruling the customs officers and -sustaining the importer’s appeal. - -Leaving the court-room and continuing northward, we come to the present -Hall of the Senate. It is smaller than the present Hall of -Representatives and also cleaner looking and more comfortable. When -Congress is in full session, the contrast may be extended further so as -to include what we hear as well as what we see, for there is little -likeness between the two houses in the matter of orderliness of -procedure. But that’s another story, which will keep. It was from this -chamber that the Senators from the seceding States took their departure -in 1860 and 1861. For years afterward the first request of every -visiting stranger was to be shown the seats formerly occupied by these -men. As long as the old doorkeeper of the Senate, Captain Bassett, -lived, he was reputed to be the only person who knew the history of -every desk on the floor. Whether he transmitted this knowledge to any of -his assistants before his death, I cannot say; but more than once he -saved some of the furniture from injury at the hands of wanton vandals -or curio collectors. - -During the early days of the Civil War, a party of Northern zouaves, -passing through the city on their way to the front, entered the Senate -Hall during a recess and tried to identify Davis’s desk. They frankly -avowed their purpose of destroying, if possible, the last trace of the -Confederate President’s connection with the United States Government; -but Bassett refused to be coaxed, bribed, or bullied into revealing the -information they wished. Their persistency presently aroused his fears -lest they might come back later and renew their attempt in his absence; -so he resorted to diplomacy and made them a little speech, reminding -them that, no matter what Mr. Davis might have done to provoke their -indignation, the desk at which he had sat was not his property, but that -of the Government which they had come South to defend. His reasoning had -its effect, and, admitting that he was right, they went away peaceably. - -Back of the Senate chamber are two rooms set apart for the President and -Vice-president respectively. Till lately, the President’s room as a rule -has been occupied only during a few closing hours of a session, when the -President wishes to be readily accessible for the signing of such acts -as he approves. Sometimes he has spent the entire last night of a -Congress here, returning to the White House for breakfast and coming to -the Capitol again for an hour or two before noon. President Wilson has -used the room more than any of his recent predecessors, going there to -consult the leading members of his party in Congress while legislation -is in course of preparation or passage. - -The Vice-president’s room has been more constantly in use as a retiring -room for its occupant during the intervals when he is not presiding over -the sessions of the Senate. On its wall has hung for many years a little -gilt-framed mirror for which John Adams, while Vice-president, paid -forty dollars, and which was brought with the other appurtenances of the -Senate from Philadelphia when the Government removed its headquarters to -Washington. Many of the frugal founders of the republic were scandalized -at the extravagance of the purchase, and one gravely introduced in the -Senate a resolution censuring Adams for having drawn thus heavily upon -the public funds “to gratify his personal vanity.” What these good men -would say if they were to revisit the Capitol now and see in the same -room with the forty-dollar mirror a silver inkstand that cost two -hundred dollars and a clock that cost a thousand, we can only imagine. -It was in this room, by the way, that Vice-president Wilson died in -November, 1875, after an attack of illness which suddenly overcame him -at the Capitol and was too severe to justify his being carried to his -home. - -On the floor below are two other points of interest. We shall do well to -descend, not by the broad marble staircases in the north wing, but by an -old iron-railed and curved flight of stone steps a little south of the -Supreme Court. Note, in passing, its columns, as truly American in -design as those above-stairs to which attention has already been -directed; for they conventionalize our Indian corn, the stalks making -the body of a pillar and the leaves and ears the capital. The first -point we shall visit is the crypt, which is directly under the rotunda. -It is a vaulted chamber originally intended as a resting-place for the -body of George Washington. There was to have been a circular opening in -the ceiling, so that visitors in the rotunda could look down upon the -sarcophagus, above which a suspended taper was to be kept continually -burning. The light was duly hung there, and not extinguished for many -years; but as Washington’s heirs were unwilling to allow his remains to -leave Mount Vernon, the rest of the plan was abandoned. - -A little way north of the crypt we come to the room that the Supreme -Court occupied for about forty - -[Illustration: _Rock Creek_] - -years after the restoration of the Capitol. Out of it was sent the first -message with which Samuel F. B. Morse announced to the world the success -of his invention, the magnetic telegraph. Morse was perfectly convinced -that his device was workable, but he had exhausted his means before -being able to make a satisfactory experiment. He therefore asked -Congress for an appropriation to equip a trial line between Washington -and Baltimore. Some of the members scoffed at his appeal as visionary; -others intimated that he was trying to impose upon the Government; only -a handful seemed to feel enough confidence in him and his project to -vote for the appropriation. After a discouraging struggle lasting till -the third of March, 1843, Morse was at the Capitol watching the dying -hours of the Congress, when his friends advised him that his cause was -hopeless, and he returned to his hotel and went to bed. - -Before breakfast the next morning he received a call from Miss Annie -Ellsworth, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, who brought him the -news that after he had left the Capitol his appropriation had gone -through, and the President had signed the bill just before midnight. To -reward her as the bearer of glad tidings, Morse invited her to frame the -first message to be sent to Baltimore. It took more than a year to -build the line and insure its successful operation; but on May 24, 1844, -in the presence of a gathering which filled the court chamber, the -inventor seated himself at the instrument, and Miss Ellsworth placed in -his hand a phrase she had selected from the twenty-third verse of the -twenty-third chapter of the Book of Numbers: “What hath God wrought!” In -less time than it takes to tell the facts, the operator in Baltimore had -received the message and ticked it back without an error. In that hour -of his triumph over skepticism and abuse, Morse could have asked almost -anything of Congress without fear of repulse. - -Not all the associations which cling about the Capitol are confined to -politics or legislation, science or business. The old Hall of -Representatives was, in the early days of the last century, long used -for religious meetings on Sundays, the Speaker’s desk being converted -temporarily into a pulpit. One of the first preachers who held stated -services there was a Swedenborgian. When the custom had become well -established, most of the clergymen of the city consented to take the -Sundays in a certain order of succession. Sir Augustus Foster, a -secretary of the British Legation during Jefferson’s administration, has -left us his impressions of the meetings: - -“A church service can certainly never be called an amusement; but, from -the variety of persons who were allowed to preach in the House of -Representatives, there doubtless was some alloy of curiosity in the -motives which led one to go there. Though the regular Chaplain was a -Presbyterian, sometimes a Methodist, a minister of the Church of -England, or a Quaker, sometimes even a woman, took the Speaker’s chair, -and I do not think there was much devotion among the majority. The New -Englanders, generally speaking, are very religious; but though there are -many exceptions, I cannot say so much for the Marylanders, and still -less for the Virginians.” - -Probably this comment on the worldly element entering into the meetings -was called forth by their gradual degeneration into a social function. -The hall came to be regarded as a pleasant Sunday gathering-place for -friends who were able to see little of one another during the secular -week. They clustered in knots around the open fireplaces, apparently -quite as interested in the intervals afforded for a bit of gossip as in -the sermon. The President was accustomed to attend from time to time; -and possibly it was by his order that the Marine Band, nearly one -hundred strong and attired in their brilliant red uniforms, were present -in the gallery and played the hymn tunes, as well as some stirring march -music. Their attendance was discontinued later, as their performances -attracted many common idlers to a hall already crowded almost to -suffocation with ladies and gentlemen of fashion, and thus increased the -confusion. - -Partly as a result of this use of the hall, the habit of treating Sunday -as a day for social festivities of all sorts reached a point where the -strict Sabbatarians felt called to remonstrate. One, a clergyman named -Breckenridge, preached a sermon denouncing the irreligious frivolities -of the time, which created a great sensation. He addressed his remarks -directly to Congress. “It is not the people,” said he, “who will suffer -for these enormities. It is the Government. As with Nineveh of old, your -temples and your palaces will be burned to the ground, for it is by fire -that this sin has usually been punished!” And he cited instance after -instance from Bible history, showing how cities, dwellings, and persons -had been burned for disrespect of divine law. - -One day in the fall of 1814, after the British had left the city scarred -with blackened ruins, Mr. Breckenridge was passing the Octagon house, -when he was hailed by Dolly Madison from the doorway. - -“When I listened to that threatening sermon of yours,” she exclaimed, “I -little thought that its warnings would be realized so soon.” - -“Oh, Madam,” he answered, “I trust that the chastening of the Lord may -not have been in vain!” - -It was, however, as far as any permanent change in the habits of the -people was concerned. There was a brief interval of greater sobriety due -to the sad plight of the community; then Sunday amusements resumed their -sway with as much vigor as of old. - -Although to the eye of the casual visitor the Capitol seems so quiet and -well-ordered a place that it practically takes care of itself, the truth -is that it is continually under pretty rigid surveillance. It has a -uniformed corps of special police, whose jurisdiction covers everything -within the limits of Capitol Park; besides this, the Superintendent of -the Capitol has general oversight of the building, and the officers of -the House and Senate look after their respective wings. When Thomas B. -Reed of Maine became Speaker, he found the House wing a squatting ground -for a small army of petty merchants who had crept in one by one and -established booths for the sale of sandwiches and pies, cigars, -periodicals, picture cards, and souvenirs, obstructing the highways of -communication between one part of the building and another. He proceeded -to sweep them all out. There was loud wailing among the ousted, and some -who could command a little political influence brought it to bear on -him, but in vain; and for more than twenty years thereafter the -corridors remained free from these intruders. With the incoming of the -Sixty-third Congress, however, discipline began to relax, and, unless -the House acquires another Speaker with Mr. Reed’s notions of propriety -and the force of will to compel obedience, we shall probably see the -hucksters camping once more on the old trail. - -Outside of the building the rules are as well enforced as inside. When -Coxey’s Army of the Commonweal marched upon Washington in 1894, its -leader advertised his intention to make a speech from the Capitol steps, -calling upon Congress to provide work and wages for all the idle -laborers in the country. Under the law, no harangue or oration may be -delivered anywhere on the Capitol grounds without the express consent of -the presiding officers of the two chambers of Congress. Remembering the -way the lawmakers had been intimidated by a mob at Philadelphia in the -early days of the republic, neither the Speaker nor the President of the -Senate was willing that Coxey should carry out his plan; and the Capitol -police, without violence or display of temper, made short work of the -proposed mass meeting. On another occasion, the performers for a -moving-picture show attempted to use the steps of the Capitol as a -background for a scene in which a man made up to resemble the President -of the United States was to play an undignified part; the police pounced -down upon the company, confiscating the apparatus and escorting the -actors to the nearest station-house. A like fate befel an automobilist -who, on a wager, tried to drive his machine up the steps of the main -portico. Occasionally a bicycler, ambitious to descend this staircase at -full speed, has proved too quick-witted for the officers, but as a rule -they are at hand when needed. - -Now that we are outside, let us look around. To the eastward lies the -part of the city broadly designated as Capitol Hill. As far as the eye -can reach, it is a beautiful, evenly graded plateau--an ideal residence -region as far as natural topography, verdure, sunshine, and pure air are -concerned. It is the part which George Washington and other promoters of -the federal city picked out for its residential end, and the Capitol was -built so as to face it. These circumstances made it a favorite locality -for speculative investment, and the prices at which early purchasers of -land held out against later comers sealed its fate: the tide of favor -turned toward the opposite end of the city, and the development of the -northwest quarter took a start which has never since halted. The first -plans of Capitol Park included on its eastern side a pretty little -fish-pond, circular in shape, which must have been about where the two -raised flower-beds with mottled marble copings now flank the driveway to -First Street. - -The west front of the Capitol overlooks a gentle slope pleasantly turfed -and shaded. The building itself descends the slope a little way by an -esplanade and a series of marble terraces, from which broad flights of -steps lead down nearly to the main street level. The perspective view of -the Capitol is much more impressive from this side than from the other, -thanks to an admirable piece of landscape gardening. In old times, the -lawns on the west side were used by the residents of the neighborhood -for croquet grounds, and the whole park was enclosed in an iron fence, -with gates that were shut by the watchmen at nine every evening against -pedestrians, and at a somewhat later hour against carriages. With -characteristic impatience of such restraints, sometimes a Congressman -who had stayed at the Capitol past the closing hour would save himself -the trouble of calling a guard to open the gate, by smashing the lock -with a stone. The increasing frequency of such incidents undoubtedly had -much to do with causing the removal of the fence. - -No point in the city affords so fine facilities for fixing L’Enfant’s -plan in the mind of the visitor and enabling him to find his way about -the older parts of Washington, as the Capitol dome. A spiral staircase, -the doors to which open from obscure parts of two corridors, leads first -to the inside circular balcony crowning the rotunda. This is worth a few -minutes’ delay to test its quality as a whispering gallery. The -attendant in charge will show you how, and, if you can lure him into -telling you some of the funny things he has seen and heard in his eyrie, -you will be well repaid. - -More climbing will bring you to an outside perch, which forms a sort of -collar for the lantern surmounting the dome. Now open a plainly printed -map of Washington and hold it so that the points of the compass on the -map correspond with those of the city below you. With a five minutes’ -walk around the base of the lantern, to give you the view from every -side, you will have mastered the whole scheme designed by L’Enfant. Here -are the four quarters--northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest--as -clearly spread before you on the surface of the earth as on the paper in -your hand. Here is the Mall, with its grass and trees, leading up to the -Washington Monument and abutting on the executive reservation where -stand the White House, the Treasury, and the State, War and Navy -Department buildings. Well out to the northward you can descry a tower -which fixes the site of the Soldiers’ Home, and to the southward the -Potomac, flowing past the War College and the Navy Yard. East of you -loom up the hills of Anacostia. On all sides you see the lettered -streets running east and west, intersected by the numbered streets -running north and south, while, cutting both diagonally at various -angles, but in pursuance of a systematic and easily grasped plan, are -the avenues named in honor of the various States of the Union. Once let -this chart fasten itself in your mind, and there is no reason why, total -stranger though you may be, you should have any difficulty in finding -your way about Washington. - -[Illustration: _Capitol, from New Jersey Avenue_] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THESE OUR LAWMAKERS - - -The House of Representatives, albeit presenting an average of conduct -equal to that of any corresponding chamber in the world, is a -rough-and-tumble body. It is apt to carry partisan antagonisms to -extremes and wrangle over anything that comes up, with accusations and -recriminations, and at rare intervals an exchange of blows. Repeatedly I -have seen the Sergeant-at-Arms lift his mace and march down one aisle -and up another, to compose disturbances which seemed to threaten a -sequel of riot, while the Speaker pounded his desk in an effort to -overcome the clamor of several members trying to talk at once. By laxity -of discipline and force of custom, there is a degree of freedom here, in -even a peaceful discussion, unknown to the Senate. Members will bring, -to exemplify their statements in a tariff debate, samples of -merchandise--a suit of clothes, a basket of fruit, a jar of sweetmeats, -perhaps. One day a debater, discussing olive oil, accidentally dropped -a bottle of it on the floor, and several of his colleagues lost their -footing in crossing the scene of the disaster. Another, who had a -pocketful of matches designed for illustrative purposes, suddenly found -his clothes ablaze and made a fiery bolt for a water-tank. Still -another, inflamed by his own eloquence in trying to show how Congress -ought to wring the life out of an odious monopoly, impetuously laid -hands upon a small and inoffensive fellow member who happened to sit -near and shook him till his teeth rattled, amid roars of delight from -every one except the victim. - -Usually, the Senate is as staid as the House is uproarious. All routine -business is transacted there “by unanimous consent”; it is only when -some really important issue arises that the Senators quarrel publicly. -When a serious debate is on, there is no commotion: every Senator who -wishes to speak sends his name to the presiding officer, or rises during -a lull and announces his purpose of addressing the Senate on a specified -day. The rest of the Senators respect his privilege, and, if he is a man -of consequence, a goodly proportion of them will be in their seats to -hear him. If a Senator is absent from the chamber when a matter arises -which might concern him, some one is apt to suggest deferring its -consideration till he can be present. It is the same way with -appointments to office which require confirmation by the Senate: a -Senator objecting to a candidate nominated from his State can count upon -abundant support from his fellow Senators, every one of whom realizes -that it may be his turn next to need support in a similar contingency. -This is what is called “Senatorial courtesy.” So well is it understood -that no unfair advantage will be taken of any one’s absence, that the -attendance in the chamber sometimes becomes very thin. An instance is -often cited when the Vice-president, discovering only one person on the -floor at the beginning of a day’s session, rapped with his gavel and -solemnly announced: “The Senator from Massachusetts will be in order!” - -The strong contrast between the two chambers has existed ever since the -creation of Congress. This is not wonderful when we reflect that the -Senate was for a long time made up of men chosen by the State -legislatures from a social class well removed from the masses of the -people, and that they held office for a six-year term, thus lording it -over the members of the House of Representatives, who, besides being -drawn directly from the rank and file of the body politic, had to -struggle for reëlection every two years. In the early days, the Senators -were noted for their rich attire and their great gravity of manner; -whereas most of the Representatives persisted, while sitting in the -House during the debates, in wearing their big cocked hats set “fore and -aft” on their heads. Whether the Senate sat covered or bareheaded for -the first few years of its existence, we have only indirect evidence, as -it then kept its doors closed against everybody, even members of the -House. Little by little a more liberal spirit asserted itself, until the -doors were opened to the public for a certain part of every morning, -with the proviso that they should be closed whenever the subjects of -discussion seemed to require secrecy. By common consent, these subjects -were limited to certain classes of business proposed by the President, -like the ratification of treaties and the confirmation of appointments -to office. Such matters remain confidential to this day, and the Senate -holds itself ready to exclude spectators and go into secret session at -any moment, on the request of a single Senator. - -As a secret session is always supposed to be for the purpose of -discussing a Presidential communication, the fiction is embalmed in the -form of a motion “that the Senate proceed to the consideration of -executive business.” This is the signal for the doorkeepers to evict the -occupants of the galleries and shut the doors leading into the -corridors; but sometimes the real reason for the request is widely -removed from its pretext. I have known it to be offered for the purpose -of cutting short the exhibition which a tipsy Senator was making of -himself; or to prevent a tedious airing of grievances by a Senator who -had quarreled with the President over the dispensation of patronage in -his State; or to silence a Senator who, objecting to the negotiation of -a certain treaty, kept referring to it in open debate while it was still -pending under the seal of confidence. In this last instance, the -offending Senator was so obstinate of purpose that the doors had to be -closed and reopened several times in a single day. - -On the face of things, there is no reason why the President should not -attend any session of the Senate at which business of his originating is -under debate. No President since the first, however, has made the -experiment. Washington attended three secret sessions, but was so -angered by the Senate’s referring to a committee sundry questions which -he insisted should be settled on the spot, that he quitted the chamber, -emphatically vowing that he would waste no more time on such trifling. -The Senators excused their conduct by saying that they were embarrassed -in talking about the President and his motives while he was sitting -there. - -The custom of wearing their hats while transacting business was -continued by the Representatives for fifty years or more. Even the -Speaker, as long as he sat in his chair, would keep his hat on, though -he was accustomed to remove it when he stood to address the House. The -Senators, whatever may have been their practice during the years of -their seclusion, distinguished themselves from the Representatives -immediately thereafter by sitting with bared heads. They also avoided -the habit, common in the House, of putting their feet up on the nearest -elevated object--usually a desk-lid--and lolling on their spines. -English visitors, though accustomed to the wearing of hats in their own -House of Commons, nevertheless found a text for criticism in the way the -American Representatives did it; and they all had something severe to -say of the prevalence of tobacco-chewing in the House, with its -accompaniment of spitting, as Mrs. Trollope put it, “to an excess that -decency forbids me to describe.” Less offensive to the taste of our -visitors from abroad was the indulgence in snuff-taking, which was so -general that boxes or jars were set up in convenient places inside of -both halls, and it was made the duty of certain employees to keep these -always filled with a fine brand of snuff. Any of the most eloquent -orators in Congress was liable to stop at regular intervals in a speech -to help himself to a large pinch, bury his face in a bandanna -handkerchief, and have it out with nature. A few of the lawmakers, -indeed, cultivated snuff-taking as a fine art, and were proud of their -reputations for dexterity in it. Henry Clay was one of the most skilful. - -While we are on the subject of indulgences, we must not overlook a drink -called switchel, which was very popular, being compounded of rum, -ginger, molasses, and water. Every member was allowed then, as now, in -addition to his salary and traveling expenses, a fixed supply of -“stationery”; and this term, which was elastic enough to include -everything from pens and paper to jack-knives and razors, was stretched -to cover the delectable switchel under the thin disguise of “sirup.” In -later years, when a wave of teetotalism had swept over Washington, and -the open sale of alcoholic drinks in the restaurants of the Capitol was -under a temporary ban, any member who wished a drink of whisky ordered -it as “cold tea,” and it was served to him in a china cup. This -stratagem fell into marked discredit when one of the most respectable -and abstemious members of the House, who had never tasted intoxicating -liquor of any sort, ordered cold tea in entire good faith to clear his -throat in the midst of a speech, and became maudlin before he was aware -that anything was amiss. - -Besides sprawling with their feet higher than their heads, and otherwise -airing their contempt for conventional etiquette, many of the old-time -Representatives felt free to read newspapers while debates were going on -around them, indifferent to their disturbance of both orators and -audience. The first pointed rebuke of this practice was administered by -James K. Polk when Speaker of the House. He noticed one morning that -substantially every Representative had a newspaper in hand when the -gavel fell for beginning the day’s session. The journal was read, but -nobody paid any attention to it, and then the Speaker made his usual -announcement that the House was ready for business. Still everybody -remained buried in the morning’s news. After another vain attempt to set -the machinery in motion, Mr. Polk quietly drew a newspaper from his own -pocket, seated himself with his back toward the House, spread the sheet -open before him, and ostentatiously immersed himself in its printed -contents. One by one the Representatives finished their reading, and -perhaps a quarter of an hour passed before there came from all sides an -irregular volley of calls: “Mr. Speaker!” “Mr. Speaker!” Mr. Polk -ignored them till one of the baffled members moved that the House -proceed to the election of a presiding officer, to take the place of the -Speaker, who appeared to be absent. This brought Mr. Polk to his feet -with the remark that he not only was present, but had notified the House -that it was ready for business and had received no response. The House -took the joke in good part and showed by its conduct thereafter that it -was not above profiting by the Speaker’s reproof. - -Although women were admitted as spectators to the sessions of both -chambers on the same terms as men, there was for many years an -undercurrent of feeling against their encroachments. There was limited -room in either hall for their accommodation behind the colonnade. In -this space--the original “lobby”--there was an open fireplace at each -end, and it soon became a common complaint among the Senators that the -feminine guests drew the sofas up in front of the fire and thus -effectually shut off the warmth from every one else. Aaron Burr, while -Vice-president, was the first person in authority to take cognizance of -this indictment. He notified the visiting women that after a certain -date they must cease coming into the lobby and find seats in the -gallery. They were appropriately indignant and declared an almost -unanimous boycott against the Senate. Vice-president Clinton was of a -different temper from his predecessor and let them all come back again. -By degrees, however, as the privileges of the floor became more and more -restricted in both chambers, the women were given a special gallery for -themselves. - -From the time they began coming to Congress in any multitude, the fair -visitors have made their presence felt. In the House one day John -Randolph drew attention to them by halting a debate to point a long, -skinny finger in their direction and snarl out: “Mr. Speaker, what, -pray, are all these women doing here, so out of place in this arena? -Sir, they had much better be at home attending to their knitting!” In -spite of that, they continued to come and to attract attention, till the -number of members who habitually quitted their seats to repair to the -gallery and pay their devoirs to their lady friends threatened to play -havoc with the roll-calls. This abuse did not last long, and nowadays -the visit of a member of either house to the gallery is an incident. - -So far from objecting to spectators, both House and Senate now offer -distinct encouragement to the public to come and hear the debates. To -this end, each chamber has a deep gallery completely surrounding it, -with cross partitions at intervals. One section is reserved for the -President and Cabinet and their families; another for the members of the -diplomatic circle; a third for the members of the press, and so forth. -Control of each press gallery is nominally retained by the chamber -concerned, but actually is left in the hands of a committee of newspaper -men, who enforce an exemplary discipline, so that a writer guilty of -misconduct would be excluded thenceforward from his privileges. On the -other hand, the newspaper men have always stood firmly for their right -to discuss the members and measures of Congress with all the freedom -consonant with truth. It has required a long and sometimes dramatic -struggle to bring about the present harmonious mutual understanding -between Congress and the press as to the legitimate preserves of each -body upon which the other must not trespass. - -Some of the battles leading to this result are entertaining to recall. -In the later forties, while members of the press were still permitted to -do their work at desks on the floor of the House, a correspondent of the -_New York Tribune_ named Robinson published an article about a certain -Representative named Sawyer, whose unappetizing personal habits he -thought it would be wise to break up. Among other things he described -the way Sawyer ate his luncheon: “Every day at two o’clock he feeds. -About that hour he is seen leaving his seat and taking a position in the -window back of the Speaker’s chair to the left. He unfolds a greasy -paper, in which is contained a chunk of bread and sausage, or some other -unctuous substance. He disposes of them rapidly, wipes his hands with -the greasy paper for a napkin, and throws it out of the window. What -little grease is left on his hands, he wipes on his almost bald head.” -There was more to the same effect, but this will suffice. When the paper -containing the article reached Washington, there was much laughing -behind hands in Congress; but, though most of the members rejoiced that -somebody should have told the truth for the dignity of the House, few -had the courage to come out boldly and say that the satire was deserved. - -One of Sawyer’s colleagues retaliated with a resolution that all writers -for the _Tribune_ be excluded thenceforward from the floor; after a -brief debate it was adopted, and the offending correspondent was obliged -to go up into the gallery and sit among the women. But his pursuers were -not satisfied with this measure of revenge; for, reviving a -half-forgotten rule that men were to be admitted to the gallery only -when accompanied by women, and then must be passed in by a member of the -House, they sent a doorkeeper to eject him even from his temporary -refuge. At once several ladies volunteered to accompany him for his -visits, and among the Congressmen who climbed the stairs from day to day -to pass him in was one not less distinguished than John Quincy Adams. -Nor - -[Illustration: _Where Dolly Madison Gave Her Farewell Ball_] - -was this the end. For the correspondent went home, ran for Congress and -was elected, while the wrathful Representative dropped into obscurity -under the nickname, which he was never able to shake off, of “Sausage -Sawyer.” - -Many newspaper publications have been made subjects of special -investigation by committees of Congress, but in no instance has a threat -of expulsion from the gallery or of prosecution in the courts produced -any practical results; and the locking up of recusant committee -witnesses has become a mere mockery. The most notable case on record was -that of Hallet Kilbourn, a former journalist who had become a real -estate broker and a leading participant in a local land syndicate which -the House undertook to investigate. Kilbourn was commanded to produce -certain account-books, as well as the names and addresses of sundry -persons who, not being members of Congress, he insisted were outside the -jurisdiction of that body. For his refusal to furnish the information -demanded he was thrown into jail and kept there nearly six weeks. From -the first, he had declared that he had no objection to opening his -accounts to the whole world or to publishing the data desired, as all -the transactions covered by the inquiry had been honorable; and this -assertion he proved later by voluntarily printing everything. But he -was resolved to make a legal test of the right of Congress to arrogate -to itself the arbitrary powers of a court of justice, and he got a good -deal of enjoyment out of the experience. - -For the whole period of his imprisonment he lived like a prince at the -expense of the contingent fund of the House; drove about the city at -will in a carriage, merely accompanied by a deputy sergeant-at-arms; and -entertained his friends at dinner within the jail walls. Of course, the -newspapers exploited the whole episode gladly, and when he had held his -prosecutors up to popular ridicule long enough, he sued out a writ of -habeas corpus and was released. Then he brought a suit for damages -against the Sergeant-at-Arms for false imprisonment and won it on appeal -after appeal, till the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a -sweeping decision that “there is not found in the Constitution any -general power vested in either house to punish for contempt.” In spite -of the efforts of all the judges in the lower courts to cut down the -damages granted by their juries, Congress was finally obliged to pay -Kilbourn twenty thousand dollars, or about five hundred dollars a day -for his forty days’ incarceration. It took him nine years to carry his -case through all its stages. - -Both chambers open their daily sessions with prayer. Clergymen of -nearly all denominations have served as Chaplains, including Father -Pise, a very eloquent Catholic priest who was a close friend of Henry -Clay and was invited at his instance to lead the devotions of the -Senate. As a rule, the prayers are extemporaneous, and it seems almost -inevitable that, in periods of political upheaval, some color of -partisanship should creep into them. Yet such slips have been very rare -indeed. The most startling was made by the late Doctor Byron Sunderland, -who was Chaplain of the Senate in 1862. He was the foremost Presbyterian -minister in Washington and a strong anti-slavery advocate. One day -Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, who was an accomplished biblical scholar, -made a speech reviewing the references in the Hebrew scriptures to human -servitude, as proof that slavery was of divine origin. Doctor -Sunderland, having left the hall, did not hear the speech made, but was -told about it when he arrived at the Capitol the next morning. He was -nettled by the news, and, before he was fairly conscious of it, he -caught himself saying something like this in his opening prayer: “Oh, -Lord God of Nations, teach this Senate and all the people of this -country that, if slavery is of divine institution, so is hell itself, -and by Thy grace help us to abolish the one and escape the other!” These -few words caused a great sensation, and later in the day Mr. Saulsbury -vented his indignation in a resolution to expel the offending clergyman -from the chaplaincy; but some quick-witted Senator on the opposite side -cut off debate by moving to adjourn, and the matter died there. - -Every day’s proceedings of Congress are published in a special journal -called the _Record_; but it must not be too lightly assumed that every -speech reported has been made in Congress. One of the rules of the House -of Representatives permits a member, with the consent of the House, to -be credited with having made remarks which, as a matter of fact, he has -only reduced to writing and handed to the Clerk. That is what is meant -by the “leave to print” privilege. Into the authorship of these -speeches, or even of some that are delivered, it is not wise to probe -too far. There are trained writers in Washington who earn a livelihood -by digging out statistics and other data and composing addresses on -various subjects for orators who are willing to pay for them, and -Congressmen are among their customers. Once in a while something happens -which casts a temporary shadow over this traffic. Several years ago, for -example, two Representatives from Ohio were credited in the _Record_ -with the same speech. Inquiry developed the fact that it had been -offered to one of them, who had refused either to pay the price -demanded for it or to give it back; so the author had sold a duplicate -copy to the other. But worse yet was the plight of two members who -delivered almost identical eulogies on a dead fellow member, having by -accident copied their material from the same ancient volume of “Rules -and Models for Public Speaking.” - -I have alluded to disorders which occasionally mar the course of -legislation, when members hurl ugly names at each other or even exchange -blows. While some such affrays have carried their high tension to the -end and sent the combatants to the dueling field to settle accounts, -others have taken a comical turn which decidedly relaxed the strain. -Perhaps the most picturesque incident of this kind was the historic -Keitt-Grow contest in February, 1858. The House had been engaged all -night in a wrangle over an acute phase of the slavery question, and two -o’clock in the morning found both the Northern and the Southern members -with their nerves on edge. Mr. Keitt of South Carolina, objecting to -something said by Mr. Grow of Pennsylvania, struck at him, but Grow -parried the blow, and a fellow member who sprang to his assistance -knocked Keitt down. From all sides came reinforcements, and in a few -minutes what started as a personal encounter of minor importance -developed into a general free fight. - -Potter of Wisconsin, a man of athletic build, whirled his fists right -and left, doing tremendous execution. Owen Lovejoy, seeing Lamar of -Mississippi striding toward a confused group, ran at him with arms -extended, resolved on pushing him back, while Lamar as vigorously -resisted the obstruction. Covode of Pennsylvania, fearing lest his -friend Grow might be overpowered by hostile numbers, picked up a big -stoneware spittoon and hurried forward, holding his improvised -projectile poised to hurl at the head where it would do most good; but -having no immediate need to use it, he set it on top of a convenient -desk. Everybody was too excited to pay any attention to the loud -pounding of the Speaker’s gavel, or to the advance of the -Sergeant-at-Arms with his mace held aloft. Even the unemotional John -Sherman and his gray-haired Quaker colleague Mott could not keep out of -the fray entirely. - -But Elihu Washburne of Illinois and his brother Cadwallader of Wisconsin -proved by all odds the heroes of the occasion. They were of modest -stature, but sturdy and full of energy. Elihu tackled Craig of North -Carolina, who was tall and had long arms, which he swung about him with -a flail-like motion; and it would have gone hard with the smaller man -had he not suddenly lowered his head and used it as a battering-ram, -aiming at the unprotected waist-line of his antagonist and doubling him -up with one irresistible rush. Just then Cadwallader, seeing Barksdale -of Mississippi about to strike Elihu, ran toward him; but being unable -to penetrate the crowd, he leaped forward and reached over the heads of -the intervening men to seize the Mississippian by the hair. Here came -the culmination; for Barksdale’s ambrosial locks, which were only a -lifelike wig worn to cover a pate as smooth as a soap-bubble, came off -in his assailant’s hand. The astonishment of the one man and the -consternation of the other were too much for the fighters, who, in spite -of themselves, united in wild peals of merriment; and their hilarity was -in no wise dampened when Barksdale, snatching at his wig, restored it to -his head hind side before, or when Covode, returning to his seat and -missing his spittoon, marched solemnly down the aisle and recovered it -from its temporary perch. - -This scene occurred in the old Hall of Representatives. The most -dramatic scene ever witnessed in the present hall was one which attended -the opening of the Fifty-first Congress, when the Republicans, who had -only an infinitesimal majority, had organized the House with Thomas B. -Reed as Speaker. Reed, who was a large, blond man with a Shakespearian -head and a high-pitched drawl, signalized his entrance upon his new -duties by announcing his purpose to preside over a lawmaking rather than -a do-nothing body. For several successive Congresses the House had found -itself crippled in its attempts to transact business by the dilatory -tactics of whichever party happened to be in the minority. Day after -day, even in a congested season, would be wasted in roll-calls -necessitated by some one’s raising the point of “no quorum,” although -everybody knew that a quorum was present, and that its apparent absence -was deliberately caused by the refusal of members of the opposition to -answer to their names. Reed had bent his mind to breaking up this -practice. - -Early in his Speakership a motion to take up a contested election case -was put to vote, and a roll-call demanded as usual by the minority. As -the House was then constituted, one hundred and sixty-six members were -necessary to a quorum, and four Republicans were unavoidably absent. -Following the old tactics, nearly all the Democrats abstained from -voting; but, as the call proceeded, Reed was observed making notes on a -sheet of paper which lay on his table. At the close, he rose and -announced the vote: yeas 162, nays 3, not voting 163. Mr. Crisp of -Georgia at once raised the point of no quorum. Reed ignored it, and, -lifting his memorandum, began, in measured tones and with no trace of -excitement or weakness: - -“The Chair directs the Clerk to record the following names of members -present and refusing to vote--” - -And then Bedlam broke loose. The Republicans applauded, and howls and -yells arose from the Democratic side. Above the din could be heard the -voice of Crisp: “I appeal from the decision of the Chair!” But the -Speaker, not having finished his statement, kept right on, oblivious of -the turmoil: - -“Mr. Blanchard, Mr. Bland, Mr. Blount, Mr. Breckinridge of Arkansas, Mr. -Breckinridge of Kentucky--” - -The Democrats generally had seemed stunned by the boldness of this move; -but the Kentucky Breckinridge, at the mention of his name, rushed down -the aisle, brandishing his fist and shaking his head so that its -straight white hair stood out from it. His face was aflame with anger, -and his voice quite beyond his control, as he shrieked: “I deny the -power of the Speaker--this is revolutionary!” The other Democrats, -inspired by his example and recovering from their stupefaction, poured -into the center aisle. They bore down in a mass upon the Speaker’s dais, -gesticulating wildly and all shouting at once, so that nothing could be -understood from the babel of voices save their desire to express their -scorn for the Speaker and their defiance of his authority. The -Republicans sat quiet, making no demonstration, but obviously prepared -to rush in if the trouble took on a more violent form. The Speaker stood -apparently unruffled, not even changing color, and only those who were -near enough to see every line in his face were aware of that slight -twitching of the muscles of his mouth which always indicated that his -outward composure was not due to insensibility. - -So furious was the clamor that he was compelled to desist from his -reading for a moment, while he pounded with his gavel to command order -on the floor. Then, as the remonstrants fell back a little, his nasal -tone was heard again, still reciting that momentous list: - -“Mr. Brookshire, Mr. Bullock, Mr. Bynum, Mr. Carlisle--” - -And so on down the roll, one member after another jumping up when he -heard his name called, but subsiding as the Speaker went imperturbably -ahead, much as might a schoolmaster with a roomful of refractory pupils. -Presently came the opportunity he had been waiting for. Mr. McCreary of -Kentucky, a very dignified, decorous-mannered gentleman on ordinary -occasions, had shown by his change of countenance and color that he was -repressing his emotions with difficulty; and, resolved not to be ridden -over ruthlessly as the rest had been, he had risen in his place and -stood there, holding before him an open book and waiting to hear his -name. The instant it was read out, he raised his disengaged hand and -shouted: “Mr. Speaker!” - -To every one’s astonishment, the Speaker paused, turning a look of -inquiry toward the interrupter, while the House held its breath. - -“I deny,” cried Mr. McCreary, in a voice which, in spite of his endeavor -to be calm, was trembling with agitation, “your right to count me as -present; and I desire to cite some parliamentary law in support of my -point!” - -Reed, wearing an air of entire seriousness, answered with his familiar -drawl: - -“The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman is -present.” Then, with a significant emphasis on each word: -“Does--the--gentleman--deny--it?” - -The silence which had settled momentarily upon the chamber continued for -a few seconds more, to be succeeded by an outburst of laughter which -fairly shook the ceiling. The Republican side furnished most of it at -first, but those Democrats who possessed a keen sense of humor soon gave -way also. The Speaker, still grave as a statue, maintained the expectant -attitude of one awaiting the reply to a question. McCreary held his -ground for a few minutes, striving to make himself heard in reading a -passage from his book, while the gavel beat a tattoo on the desk as if -the Speaker were trying to aid him by restoring order; but he was -talking against a torrent, and had to realize his defeat and resume his -seat. - -When the last name on the written list had been read, the Speaker handed -the sheet to the Clerk for incorporation in the minutes, and, as coolly -as if nothing had happened, proceeded to set forth briefly the -precedents covering the case, including one ruling made by a very -distinguished Democrat who was at that hour the most conspicuous -candidate of his party for the Presidency. - -The fight was resumed the next day and continued to rage all through the -session, the foes of the Speaker constantly devising new stratagems to -outwit him, but in vain. Sometimes there were funny little developments, -as when, in a precipitate flight of the Democrats from the hall to -escape being counted, Mr. O’Ferrall of Virginia inadvertently left his -hat on his desk, and the Speaker jocosely threatened to count - -[Illustration: Lee Mansion at Arlington] - -that, on the theory that its habitual wearer was constructively present; -or when “Buck” Kilgore, a giant Democrat from Texas, refused to stay in -the hall after the Speaker had ordered the doors fastened, and kicked -one of them open with his Number 14 boot. Sometimes a tragic threat -would be uttered by a group of hot-headed enemies, and the galleries -would be thronged for several days with spectators expecting to see Reed -dragged out of the chair by force and arms. But, though every day -witnessed its parliamentary struggle, the bad blood aroused was never -actually spilled. What did happen was that, at the close of the -Congress, when it is customary for the opposition party to move a vote -of thanks to the Speaker, Reed went without the compliment. Something -far more flattering than thanks was in store for him, however; for in -the Fifty-third Congress, the House, which was then under Democratic -control, by a vote of nearly five to one adopted his quorum-counting -rule with only a technical modification. Since that day it has never -found itself in a condition of legislative paralysis. - -The communications in which the President, as required by the -Constitution, gives to Congress from time to time “information of the -state of the Union,” take the form of general and special messages. A -general message is sent at the beginning of every session and usually -reviews the relations of our Government with its citizens and with the -outside world. A special message is called forth by some particular -event or series of events requiring a union of counsels between the -legislative and executive branches of the Government. - -The formalities attending the presentation of general messages have -differed at various stages of our national history. John Adams, for -example, brought his in person to the Capitol. A military and civic -procession escorted him from his house to the Senate chamber, where the -Senators and Representatives were assembled in joint session. He was -attired with more elegance than was his wont and was accompanied by the -members of his Cabinet, the United States Marshal acting as usher; the -Vice-president surrendered to him the chair of honor and took a seat at -his right while he read his address aloud. In those days, each house -appointed a committee to consider the address of the President and to -draft a reply to it; when the reply was ready, a committee waited upon -him to inquire at what time it would be agreeable for him to receive it, -and on the day appointed, the members called upon him in a body to -present it. - -The message ceremonial was considerably shortened during the -administration of President Jefferson, who scandalized some of the -sticklers for propriety by reading his first address to Congress clad in -a plain blue coat with gilt buttons, blue breeches, woolen stockings, -and heavy shoes tied with leather strings. This democratic departure was -typical of the way a good many old customs died out. We find most of the -later Presidents, till the spring of 1913, rather studiously avoiding -the Capitol, meeting Congress seldom outside of the White House, and -confining their official communications to written messages presented in -duplicate at the doors of the two halls respectively by the hand of an -executive clerk. The response of each house, if any is deemed worth -while, now takes the form of the introduction of legislation on lines -suggested by the President. But the common practice is to cut a message -into parts, referring the passages which deal with one class of subjects -to one committee, and those which deal with another class to another -committee; and in most cases, unless an emergency arises to make further -consideration essential, little more is heard of them. - -President Wilson has revived the custom of visiting Congress in its own -home and there delivering his addresses directly to the lawmakers in a -body, assembled for the occasion in the Hall of Representatives. This -is a much more effective mode of approaching Congress than sending a -written document by messenger, to be drawled through in a singsong voice -by tired clerks, simultaneously in both halls, to a gathering of only -half-interested auditors. It is also a more certain means of -concentrating public attention upon the work of the session. There is a -subtle something in the very personality of a President which appeals to -the popular imagination. As the one high officer of state elected by the -votes of all the people, he stands in their minds as a conservator and -champion of their broadest ideals, as contrasted with the narrower -sectional interests represented by the members of Congress. When, -therefore, he takes his position face to face with the men who are to -frame whatever legislation grows out of his recommendations, the whole -country instinctively draws near and listens. - -It is hard to guess what might happen should it fall to the lot of -President Wilson to appear before Congress in person with such a -trumpet-call as was sounded in President Harrison’s message on the -maltreatment of our sailors in Chile, or President Cleveland’s on the -encroachments of England in Venezuela, or President McKinley’s on the -failure of his peaceful efforts for freeing Cuba. If the mere reading of -these formal messages was so impressive as to paint a vivid picture of -the attendant scenes on the memory of all who witnessed them, what an -extra touch of the dramatic would have been added had the chief -executive of the nation appeared at the Capitol to tell his story -himself! - - - - -CHAPTER V - -“THE OTHER END OF THE AVENUE” - - -Although Pennsylvania Avenue is several miles long, the mile that lies -between the hill on which Congress sits and the slope where the -President lives is called in local parlance “the Avenue.” Outside of -their formal speeches and documentary literature, members of Congress -are wont to refer to the White House and its surroundings as “the other -end of the Avenue.” This familiar phrase is, like the popular -designation of Congress as “the gentlemen on the hill,” a survival from -the period when only one hill in town was officially occupied, and the -strip of highway connecting it with the group of buildings used by the -executive branch of the Government was about the only thoroughfare -making any serious pretensions to street improvement. It was along this -line that President Jefferson planted the first shade trees; and -L’Enfant’s plan made the south side of it the northern boundary of the -Mall. - -The title which for almost a hundred years the American people have -given to the headquarters of their chief public servant is a fine -example of historic accident. The White House was not originally -intended to be a white house. It was built of a buff sandstone which -proved to be so affected by exposure to the weather that as an -afterthought it was covered with a thick coat of white paint. From its -nearness to several red brick buildings, many persons fell into the way -of distinguishing it by its color, and after its repainting to conceal -the stains of the fire of 1814 this practice became general. Presidents -have referred to it in their messages variously as the President’s -House, the Executive Mansion, and the White House. Among the people it -was also sometimes known, in the early days, as the Palace. The -Roosevelt administration made the White House both the official and the -social designation, and fastened the label so tight that there is little -reason to expect a change by any successor. - -The White House was born under the eye of Martha Washington, was nursed -into healthy babyhood by Abigail Adams, received its baptism of fire -under Dolly Madison, was popularly christened under Eliza Kortright -Monroe, and passed through numberless vicissitudes under a line of -foster-mothers stretching from that time to the end of the century, -every one carrying it a little further away from its original plan; -then Edith Kermit Roosevelt administered a restorative elixir which -started it upon a second youth. The evolution of the Capitol, described -in an earlier chapter, finds a parallel in the architectural genesis of -this building. Its drawings were made and its construction superintended -by James Hoban, an Irishman; but a distinguished critic has described it -as “designed on classic lines, modified by an English hand, at a time -when French art furnished the world’s models in interior detail.” That -accounts, of course, for its monumental and palatial features. - -But we must bear in mind that its sponsors intended it not only as an -official residence for the executive head of the Government, but as a -home for the foremost American citizen and his family, and that, in the -esthetics of domestic architecture, local influences were most potent. -All the Presidents except one, for the first thirty-six years of the -republic’s existence, were Virginia gentlemen; so, although broadly -following in treatment the Viceregal Lodge in Dublin, the President’s -House took on much of the character of the “great house” on a Virginia -plantation. This will explain why, in their work of restoration, when -the architects were confronted by some gap in their plans which could -not be filled by reference to the early records of the house itself, -they drew upon the material common to the Virginia mansions of the same -period. - -By no means the least notable of their revivals was the recognition of -the proper front of the building. For a half-century, and perhaps -longer, its back door had been used as its main entrance, and most -visitors had borne away the impression that that was the face its -designer had intended it to present to the world. Nearly all the -authoritative pictures helped to confirm this notion, by displaying the -north side as confidently as the photographers in Venice take San Marco -from the Piazza. The confusion of front and rear came about with other -changes wrought by the increase of facilities for land transportation. -The rural and suburban architecture of a century ago took great note of -watercourses; for in those days wheeled vehicles were rarer than now and -vastly less comfortable, the saddle was unsociable, and most travel was -by river and canal. Hence the finest houses were built, when -practicable, where they would not only command a pleasing view, but -present their most picturesque aspect to the passing boats. Doubtless -the site of the White House was chosen with reference to the bend which -the Potomac made opposite the center of the building, thus opening a -view down to Alexandria and beyond. The river was broader then, and -probably washed the outer edge of what was intended to be preserved -forever as the President’s Park. - -With the growing preference for land approaches, a good many Southern -houses of the colonial type altered their habits, the White House among -them; the side which faced the street offered the easier entrance, and -thus the back door gradually usurped the dignities of the front, and -accordingly the grounds on that side were laid out with lawns, trees, -and shrubbery. Its outlook, also, is upon Lafayette Park, which, if -sundry plans are carried through, will one day be faced on three sides -with stately buildings, housing those executive Departments with which -the President has to keep in closest touch. - -Though President Washington was never to occupy the White House, or even -to see it after it was nearly enough finished for occupancy, he took the -greatest interest in watching it go up, and, only a few weeks before his -death, went all over it with Mrs. Washington, thoroughly inspecting -every part then accessible. He had borne a share in the Masonic ceremony -of laying its corner-stone, and by his personal influence had induced -the State of Virginia to advance a large sum of money at one -particularly critical stage of the building operations; so the old -mansion may boast of having some honored association with every -President from the foundation of our Government till now. - -When John and Abigail Adams moved in, the scantiness of fuel and lights, -and the necessity for devoting the east room to the humblest of domestic -uses and converting an upstairs chamber into a salon, were not the only -shortcomings in their environment. Surface drainage water from a -considerable bit of high ground to the eastward had formed a turbid -little creek which almost surrounded the mansion. There was no water fit -to drink and of sufficient quantity to meet the daily needs of the -President’s family, short of a spring in an open tract which we now know -as Franklin Square, about half a mile away, whence it was brought down -in crude pipes. Beds of growing vegetables filled parts of the garden -area where to-day we find well-kept lawns and ornamental shrubbery. The -only way of reaching the south door from Pennsylvania Avenue was by a -narrow footpath, on which the pedestrian took a variety of chances after -dark. The streets surrounding the President’s grounds were so deep in -slush or mud for a large part of the year that, in order to keep their -clothing fairly presentable, visitors were obliged to come in closed -coaches; and when the Adamses gave their first New Year’s reception, -their guests, though so few that the oval room in the second story -accommodated them, could not obtain in Washington enough suitable -vehicles, and had to draw upon the livery stables in Baltimore. - -Adams was a well-bred and well-read man, reared in the best traditions -of New England, including the sanctity of a pledge; and, having promised -his friend and predecessor, Washington, to do what he could toward -building up a capital in fact as well as in name, he pocketed his petty -discomforts and made the best of things. Among his other efforts to -promote the popularity of the new city must be counted several dinners -of exceptional excellence, at which Mrs. Adams presided with -distinguished graciousness in a costume that, though it would strike us -now as rather prim, was in keeping with her age and antecedents. The -President, who was a rotund, florid man of middle height, appeared at -these entertainments in a richly embroidered coat, silk stockings, shoes -with huge silver buckles, and a powdered wig. These were concessions to -the general demand for elegance of attire on the part of the chief -magistrate, following the precedent established by Washington. They did -not at all reflect Mr. Adams’s preferences, for he was one of the -plainest of men in his tastes, and his ordinary course of domestic life -in the President’s House was to the last degree unpretentious; his -luncheon, for example, - -[Illustration: _Old Carlyle Mansion, Alexandria_] - -consisted usually of oatcake and lemonade, and one of his amusements was -to play horse with a little grandchild, who used to drive him up and -down the somber corridors with a switch. - -Albeit Adams and Jefferson became, late in life, the warmest of friends, -no love was lost between them during the period when both were active in -politics. Adams, who would have been gratified to receive, like -Washington, a second term, was not disposed to “enact the captive chief -in the procession of the victor,” so he did not stay to see Jefferson -inaugurated, but at daylight of the fourth of March, 1801, left -Washington for Boston. There was no need for such haste to escape, for -Jefferson, as the high priest of democratic simplicity, had no -procession; though the cheerful little fiction about his riding down -Pennsylvania Avenue alone, and hitching his horse to a sapling in front -of the Capitol while he went in to be sworn, received its death-blow -long ago. The truth is, he had no use for a horse. He was boarding in -New Jersey Avenue, where he had lived for the latter part of his term as -Vice-president. A few minutes before noon on inauguration day he set out -on foot, in company with several Congressmen who were his fellow -boarders, and walked the block or so to the Capitol, where he was -escorted by a committee to the Senate chamber and there took the oath -of office and delivered his address. Then he walked back again to his -boarding-house, and at dinner occupied his customary seat at the foot of -the table. A visitor from Baltimore complimented him on his address and -“wished him joy” as President. “I should advise you,” was his smiling -response, “to follow my example on nuptial occasions, when I always tell -the bridegroom that I will wait till the end of the year before offering -my congratulations.” - -The accommodations in the President’s House were somewhat better by the -time Mr. Jefferson moved in than they were when the Adams family opened -it, yet he seems to have been more or less cramped during most of his -two terms--owing, doubtless, to the continued presence of mechanics and -building materials in the incomplete parts of the house. When the -British Minister called in court costume to present his credentials, he -was received, with his convoy the Secretary of State, in a space so -narrow that he had to back out of one end of it to make room for the -President to enter at the other. One of the legation described Jefferson -as “a tall man, with a very red, freckled face and gray, neglected hair; -his manners were good natured and rather friendly, though he had -somewhat of a cynical expression of countenance. He wore a blue coat, a -thick, gray-colored hairy waistcoat with a red under-waistcoat lapped -over it, green velveteen breeches with pearl buttons, yarn stockings -with slippers down at the heels, his appearance being very much like -that of a tall, raw-boned farmer.” On the other hand, an admiring -contemporary insists that his dress was “plain, unstudied and sometimes -old-fashioned in its form,” but “always of the finest materials,” and -that “in his personal habits he was fastidious and neat.” So there you -are! - -A social being Jefferson certainly was. He liked company, and his former -residence in France had cultivated his taste for the good things of the -table, including light wines and olives. He once said that he considered -olives the most precious gift of heaven to man, and he had them on his -table whenever he could get them. He was also fond of figs and -mulberries, and his household records bristle with purchases of crabs, -pineapples, oysters, venison, partridges, and oranges--a pretty fair -list for a man devoted to plain living. One of his hobbies as a host at -very small and confidential dinners was to insure to his guests the -utmost privacy, so he devised a scheme for dispensing as far as -practicable with the presence of servants and avoiding the needless -opening and closing of doors. Beside every chair was placed a small -“dumb-waiter” containing all the desirable accessories, like fresh -plates and knives and forks and finger-bowls; while in a partition wall -was hung a bank of circular shelves, so pivoted as to reverse itself at -the pressure of a spring, the fresh viands entering the dining-room as -the emptied platters swung around into the pantry. The company at table -rarely exceeded four when this machinery was called into play. At big -state dinners the usual array of servants did the waiting. - -The first great reception in Jefferson’s administration occurred on the -fourth of July next following his inauguration. For some reason, -possibly because the novelty of his sweeping invitation prevented its -being generally understood by the populace, only about one hundred -persons presented themselves. A luncheon was served, in the midst of -which the Marine Band entered, playing the “President’s March,” or, as -we call it, “Hail Columbia.” The company fell in behind and joined in a -grand promenade, with many evolutions, through the rooms and corridors -of the ground floor, returning at last to the place whence they had -started and resuming their feast of good things. - -As he was a widower when he succeeded Adams at the head of the -Government, and it was not feasible, most of the time, for either of his -daughters to preside over his public hospitalities, Jefferson naturally -turned for aid to Mrs. James Madison, wife of his Secretary of State. -He despised empty precedent; and when, at a diplomatic dinner, he led -the way to the dining-room with Mrs. Madison instead of offering his arm -to Mrs. Merry, wife of the British Minister and dean of the corps, he -defied all the old-world canons. Mrs. Merry withdrew in high dudgeon, -and her husband made the incident the subject of a communication to the -Foreign Office in London. - -Dolly Madison’s fondness for society counterbalanced the indifference of -her husband--a little, apple-faced man with a large brain and pleasant -manners but no presence, of whom every one spoke by his nickname, -“Jemmy.” She is described as a “fine, portly, buxom dame” with plenty of -brisk small-talk. She knew little of books, but made a point of having -one in her hand when she received guests who were given to literature; -and she would have peeped enough into it to enable her to open -conversation with a reference to something she had found there. One of -the celebrities she entertained was Humboldt, the scientist, concerning -whom she wrote: “We have lately had a great treat in the company of a -charming Prussian baron. All the ladies say they are in love with him. -He is the most polite, modest, well-informed, and interesting traveler -we have ever met, and is much pleased with America.” Another was Tom -Moore, who, though embalming in verse some of the spiteful spirit he -had absorbed from the Merrys, in later years recanted these utterances. - -As she was praised everywhere for the beauty of her complexion, it is -disconcerting to learn from a candid biographer that Mrs. Madison was -wont to heighten her color by external applications, and now and then, -through an accident of the toilet, gave to her nose a rosy flush that -was meant for her cheeks. We are told also that she was addicted to the -fashionable snuff habit and kept always at hand a dainty little box made -of platinum and lava, filled with her favorite brand of “Scotch,” which -she would freely use at social gatherings and then pass around the -circle of diplomatists who assiduously danced attendance upon her. This -indulgence accounted for her carrying everywhere two handkerchiefs: one -a bandanna tucked away in her sleeve, whence she could draw it promptly -for what she called “rough work,” and the other a spider-web creation of -lawn and lace, which she styled her “polisher” and wore pinned to her -side. - -Besides the British Minister with his standing grievance, which he -advertised by never bringing Mrs. Merry to the President’s House after -the fateful dinner, we read of two other foreign envoys who used to -appear there spouseless. One was Sidi Mellanelli, who, Dr. Samuel -Mitchill tells us, “came from Tunis to settle some differences between -that regency and our Government. He is to all appearance upward of fifty -years old; wears his beard and shaves his head after the manner of his -country, and wears a turban instead of a hat. His dress consists simply -of a short jacket, large, loose drawers, stockings, and slippers. When -he goes abroad he throws a large hooded cloak over these garments; it is -of a peculiar cut and is called a bernous. The colors of his drawers and -bernous are commonly red. He seldom walks, but almost always appears on -horseback. He is a rigid Mohammedan; he fasts, prays, and observes the -precepts of the Koran. He talks much with the ladies, says he often -thinks about his consort in Africa, and wonders how Congressmen can live -a whole session without their wives.” - -The other unaccompanied diplomat was the French Minister, General -Turreau, a man of humble birth who had risen to some eminence during the -recent revolution in his country. Having once been imprisoned, he -improved the opportunity to make love to his jailer’s daughter and marry -her; but he appears to have tired of his bargain, and it was no secret -that they led a most inharmonious life. According to Sir Augustus -Foster, he was in the habit of horsewhipping her to the accompaniment -of a violoncello played by his secretary to drown her cries, and the -scandalized neighbors had finally to interfere. Doctor Mitchill’s -version of the affair is that the Minister tried to send his wife back -to France, and that, when she refused to leave and raised an outcry, a -mob gathered at their house and enabled her to escape and go to live in -peaceful poverty in Georgetown. The Doctor has little to say of -Turreau’s ability, but dwells impressively on “the uncommon size and -extent of his whiskers, which cover the greater part of his cheeks,” and -on the profusion of lace with which his full-dress coat was decorated. - -Jerome Bonaparte, a younger brother of the first Napoleon, passed a good -deal of time in Washington during the Jefferson administration and was -one of the lions at the parties in the President’s House. Meeting Miss -Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore, he succumbed to her attractions and -lost no time in suing for her hand. Her father was a bank president and -one of the richest men in the United States, and the family, whose -social position was unexceptionable, were far from having their heads -turned by the proposed match, possibly feeling some misgivings as to -future complications; but the young people would listen to no argument -and were married. Mr. Jefferson wrote at once to the American Minister -at Paris, telling him to lay all the facts before the First Consul and -to make it plain that in the United States any marriage was lawful which -had been voluntarily entered into by two single parties of full age. -Nevertheless, the great Napoleon did not hesitate to treat the marriage -as void, and Jerome lacked manliness to defy his brother and fight the -matter out; but Mrs. Bonaparte, having spunk enough for two, stood up -firmly for her rights as a wife to the end of her days, and commanded -recognition for them everywhere outside of the imperial court. - -A friend of Jefferson’s who came to Washington during his -administration, and whose advent created not a little stir, was a man -about seventy years of age, described as having “a red and rugged face -which looks as if he had been much hackneyed in the service of the -world,” eyes “black and lively,” a nose “somewhat aquiline and pointing -downward” which “corresponds in color with the fiery appearance of his -cheeks,” and a marked fondness for talk and anecdote. This was none -other than Tom Paine, patriot, poet, political pamphleteer, and infidel. -He was favorably remembered all over the United States for his writings -in behalf of human rights, and for the leaflets and songs which had -cheered the hearts of the Continental soldiers at the most discouraging -pass in our War for Independence. After the Revolution, he had gone -abroad as an apostle of popular liberty, and, though outlawed in -England, had been permitted to cross to France to take his seat as a -deputy in the proletariat National Assembly. There, among other acts -which won him commendation, he raised his voice and cast his vote -against the resolution which sent Louis XVI to the guillotine. - -Appreciating his services to this country and also strongly sympathizing -with the French type of democracy, Jefferson had invited Paine to come -back to his native land in a United States war-ship; and the Federalist -newspapers seized their chance to make partisan capital by parading -Paine’s religious heterodoxy and charging Jefferson with having brought -him home to undermine the morals of our people. Jefferson had -considerable difficulty in counteracting the effects of the accusation, -for his own opinions had been for a good while under fire, and it was -not a day of nice distinctions. Probably in this more tolerant age a man -like Paine would be given due credit for his practical benevolence even -when mixed with a hatred of ecclesiasticism, and Jefferson would find -himself not out of place in the Unitarian fold. - -When Jefferson was not occupied with affairs of state or entertaining -visitors, he was fond of sitting in what he called his “cabinet”--a room -which he had fitted up to suit his own fancy. The rest of the house was -rather unhomelike. The east room was still unfinished, and through the -others were strewn articles of furniture which, though good in their -way, were not especially suggestive of comfort; many of them were relics -of the Washington régime, brought from Philadelphia. But in the cabinet -stood a long table with drawers on each side, filled with things dear to -their owner’s heart. One contained books with inscriptions from their -authors; another, letters and manuscripts; a third, a set of carpenter’s -tools for his amusement on rainy days; a fourth, some small gardening -implements, and so on. Around the walls were maps, charts, and shelves -laden with standard literature. Flowers and potted plants were -everywhere, and in the midst of a bower of these hung the cage of his -pet mockingbird; but the door of the cage was rarely shut when the -President was in the room, for he loved to have the bird fly about -freely, perch on his shoulder, and take its food from his lips. - -As may be guessed, the sponsor for this greenery was fond of all growing -things. Jefferson was often seen walking about the embryo city, watching -the workmen digging or building, but manifesting a special interest in -tree-planting and ornamental gardening. He tried to induce Congress to -vote enough money to beautify the grounds around the President’s House, -but in vain; the most he could do was to enclose the yard with a common -stone wall and seed it down to grass. Among the plans he prepared but -was obliged to abandon was the adornment of these grounds exclusively -with trees, shrubs, and flowers indigenous to American soil. He must be -credited with the first attempt ever made in Washington to establish a -zoölogical park; Lewis and Clarke, the explorers, brought him from the -West a few grizzly bears, for which he built a pen in the yard. He also -made the first move to furnish Pennsylvania Avenue with shade trees. His -preference was for willow-oaks; but he started four rows of Lombardy -poplars to take advantage of their rapid growth till the slower oaks -matured. One of his hobbies was to improve the market gardening of the -neighborhood by distributing new varieties of vegetable seeds obtained -through the American consuls in foreign countries, and instructing his -steward always to buy the best home-grown table delicacies at the -highest retail prices. - -At Madison’s inauguration in 1809, Jefferson not only did not imitate -the ungraciousness of Adams eight years before, but went to the opposite -extreme, declining - -[Illustration: _Washington’s Pew in Christ Church, Alexandria_] - -Madison’s invitation to drive to the Capitol in the Presidential coach -lest he might divide the honors which he felt belonged exclusively to -the President-elect. Madison had what was then deemed a wonderful -procession of military and civic organizations, and turned the occasion -into the first “made-in-America” gala day, wearing himself a complete -suit of clothing made by an American tailor, of cloth woven on American -looms from the wool of American sheep. Jefferson, clad in one like it, -modestly waited till the procession had passed and then rode to the -Capitol alone, not even a servant following to care for his horse. On -entering the Hall of Representatives, he declined the chair reserved for -him near Madison’s but joined the ordinary spectators, saying: “To-day I -return to the people, and my proper seat is among them.” At the close of -the ceremony, he mounted his horse again and rode up the Avenue -unattended, till George Custis, also mounted, joined him, and they went -together to the Madisons’ house. - -Here a crowd of friends had gathered to welcome in the new -administration. Mr. Madison’s emotions had been a good deal stirred by -what had passed at the Capitol, but his manner was affable. His wife was -all herself as usual. She was attired in a plain cambric dress with a -very long train, and a bonnet of purple velvet and white satin, adorned -with white plumes. Jefferson seems to have been, for such time as he -stayed, quite as much the lion of the occasion as his successor. -Presently he slipped quietly away and went over to the President’s -House, where the empty halls echoed to his footsteps; for he had given -all the servants a holiday so that they could see the show. But he did -not remain long alone; the news spread among his old friends that he had -gone back to bid his home of eight years farewell, and they followed him -after a little. In the evening he went to the inaugural ball--the first -ever held, and the only ball of any sort he had attended since his -return from France. - -From all accounts it was not a highly enjoyable affair. The room was so -crowded that it was difficult to elbow one’s way across it; nobody could -see what was going on without standing on a chair; the air became -stifling, and when an attempt was made to freshen it by letting down the -upper sashes of the windows, they would not move, so nothing was left -but to smash the glass. Mrs. Madison was almost crushed to death; -Madison was so tired that he confessed to a friend that he wished he -were abed; and as soon as supper was over, the Presidential party -withdrew. The younger set stayed and danced till midnight, when, at the -stroke, the music ceased and the attendants began to put out the lights. - -The social success achieved by Dolly Madison as official hostess through -so large a part of Jefferson’s administration did not wane when, with -the rise of her husband to the head of the Government, she came into her -own by right instead of by courtesy. Her first term as mistress of the -President’s House was a continuous blaze of gayety, in which we catch -fleeting glimpses of her in a variety of toilets, the most truly typical -being a buff velvet gown with pearl ornaments and a Paris turban topped -with a bird-of-paradise plume. Then came the second war with Great -Britain and the wrecking of the city. - -When the British approached Bladensburg, and the improvised home-guard -of Washington went out to engage them in battle, Mr. Madison permitted -his military advisers to persuade him that, after seeing the stiffness -of the American resistance, the British would withdraw. His wife caught -the infection of confidence, and together they planned to celebrate the -victory by a dinner to the officers on the evening after the battle. The -table was spread by three in the afternoon, when Mrs. Madison, who had -been listening with composure to the distant boom of cannon, was -dismayed to see a lot of demoralized American soldiers running in from -the north by twos and threes. Her sudden fears were confirmed when one -of her colored servants galloped up to the door, shouting: “Clear out! -Clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat!” Then a few friends -came over to insist on her seeking safety in flight. They helped her to -fill a wagon with such valuables as were not too heavy; but she provoked -their indignation by waiting till the oil portrait of General Washington -attributed to Stuart, which hangs in the White House to-day, could be -cut out of its frame and “placed in the hands of two gentlemen from New -York for safe keeping.” - -We have already seen how the Capitol and other public buildings were -burned. A particularly vicious scheme was worked out to assure the -destruction of the President’s House, because of Mr. Madison’s personal -share in the dispute which led to the war. Indeed, it was the hope of -the invaders to find him and his wife at home and take them captive, so -as to humiliate the American Government and people and thus impress a -lesson for the future. By way of a reconnoiter, Admiral Cockburn went to -the mansion and looked through it, taking with him as a hostage a young -gentleman of the city, named Weightman. In the dining-room they found -everything prepared for the dinner of triumph, and Cockburn ordered his -companion to sit down with him and “drink Jemmy’s health.” Then he bade -Weightman help himself to a mantel ornament as a souvenir of the day. “I -must take something, too,” he added, and with great hilarity tucked -under his arm an old hat of the President’s and a cushion from Mrs. -Madison’s chair. - -When all was ready, a detachment of fifty sailors and marines were -marched in silence up Pennsylvania Avenue, every man carrying a long -pole with a ball of combustible material attached to the top of it. -Arrived at the mansion, the balls were lighted, and the poles rested -each against a window. At a command from their officer, the pole-bearers -struck their windows simultaneously a hard blow, smashing the glass and -hurling the fire-balls into the rooms with a single motion; and the -little group of lookers-on beheld an outburst of flame from every part -of the building at once. - -At the Octagon House, where they passed some months after their return -to Washington, the Madisons were surrounded by the same friends who had -enjoyed the hospitalities of the President’s House before the fire. It -was not, however, till they removed to the dwelling at the corner of -Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street that Mrs. Madison was able to -entertain on the scale she desired. The house was one of the most -commodious in town, and for any fine function the whole of it was thrown -open. This was done on the occasion of the levee of February, 1816, -which was universally pronounced the most splendid witnessed in the -United States up to that time. The illumination extended from garret to -cellar, much of it coming from pine torches held aloft by slaves -specially drilled to maintain statuesque attitudes against the walls and -at the heads of staircases. Mrs. Madison’s toilet of rose-tinted satin -was set off with a girdle, necklace, and bracelets of gold, and a -gold-embroidered crown. It may have been this last adornment which -suggested to Sir George Bagot, the new British Minister, his comment -that “Mrs. Madison looks every inch a queen.” The compliment promptly -spread over Washington, where for some time thereafter the President’s -wife was constantly referred to as “the Queen.” - -This levee was in the nature of a farewell, for on the fourth of the -next month President Madison made way for his successor, James Monroe, -whose inauguration was the first ever held in the open air. The -innovation was due to a quarrel between the two chambers of Congress, -which was then occupying its temporary quarters opposite the east -grounds of the Capitol. Monroe had arranged to take the oath in the -Hall of Representatives; but the Senators found fault with the seats set -apart for them, the Representatives were stubborn, and a deadlock seemed -imminent, when Monroe suggested as a compromise that a platform be -raised in front of the building, and that the ceremony take place there, -where all the people could witness it. Thus began what came to be known -as “the era of good feeling.” - -How class consciousness prevailed in those days is amusingly illustrated -by Monroe’s resentment of the foreign conception of Americans. “People -in Europe,” he had once said to the French Minister, while Secretary of -State under Madison, “suppose us to be merchants occupied exclusively -with pepper and ginger. They are much deceived. The immense majority of -our citizens do not belong to this class, and are, as much as your -Europeans, controlled by principles of honor and dignity. I never knew -what trade was; the President was as much a stranger to it as I.” -Perhaps it was because he knew so little about trade that he took pains -to cultivate its acquaintance as soon as he became President. He made a -grand tour of the new West, staying away from Washington more than four -months and visiting especially the commercial centers, where he showed -himself to the people as much as possible. He invited some criticism by -making his tour in the buff-and-blue uniform of the Continental -soldiery of forty years before, cocked hat and all; but his friends -always contended that this appeal to patriotism vastly increased his -popularity and went far to account for his wonderful success in his -campaign for reëlection in 1820, when he captured all the electoral -votes except one. - -The period covered by the last few pages brought to Washington two great -men, whose share in shaping the history of the United States was such as -to warrant our pausing to take a closer look at them. These were Henry -Clay and Daniel Webster. Clay was probably the most popular man in our -public life from Washington’s time to Lincoln’s, and his legislative -career was unique both in its beginning and in its ending. He came to -Washington first to fill a vacancy caused by the death of a Kentucky -Senator, and held this position for several months while he was still -too young to be eligible under the Constitution, because nobody was -disposed to inquire into the years of one who possessed so mature a -mind. Both before and after this experience he served in the Kentucky -legislature, where, on account of an insult received in debate, he -challenged its author and “winged” him in a duel. When the Twelfth -Congress was about to meet, with every prospect that John Randolph and -his little coterie were going to make trouble in the House, a demand -arose for a Speaker who would be able to cope with the turbulent -element. Clay had just been elected a Representative, and his prowess as -a duelist drew all eyes in his direction. “Harry Clay can keep Randolph -in order,” declared his Kentucky neighbors, “and he is the only man who -can!” On this ground, then, he was elected Speaker before he had -actually taken his seat in the House. He was the first man ever thus -honored; and he was, I believe, the only one who ever made two formal -farewells to the Senate. The first, preliminary to his resignation in -1842, appears among the classics of American eloquence; but, as he was -sent back in 1849, he had the chance, rarely accorded any one except a -histrionic star, to bow himself off the stage a second time. - -During the years of his greatest activity, every announcement that he -was to speak made a gala day at the Capitol. “The gallery was full,” -wrote Margaret Bayard Smith of one such occasion, “to a degree that -endangered it; even the outer entries were thronged. The gentlemen are -grown very gallant and attentive, and, as it was impossible to reach the -ladies through the gallery, a new mode was invented for supplying them -with oranges, etc. They tied them up in handkerchiefs, to each of which -was fixed a note indicating for whom it was designed, and then fastened -to a long pole. This was taken on the floor of the house and handed up -to the ladies who sat in the front of the gallery. These presentations -were frequent and quite amusing, even in the midst of Mr. Clay’s speech. -I and the ladies near me divided what was brought with each other, and -were as social as if acquainted.” - -The orator who could hold his own against such a background of confusion -might well take pride in his powers; but the universal testimony was -that Clay’s wonderfully modulated voice and magnetic charm of -personality triumphed over everything. He was so attractive a man that -even Calhoun, with whom he was at swords-drawn in every forensic battle, -could not forbear wringing his hand with a “God bless you!” at their -final parting in the Senate chamber; and John Randolph, with whom he had -clashed repeatedly and whose coat he had punctured in a duel, insisted -on being carried to the Capitol, while dying, and laid on a couch where -Clay was going to deliver a much-heralded speech. Possibly one of the -secrets of Clay’s success in winning people was illustrated in his -quarrel with Senator King of Alabama, which began on the Senate floor -and led to the passage of a challenge. Friends interfered, and after -some days a peace was - -[Illustration: _Mount Vernon_] - -patched up, both men publicly withdrawing their offensive remarks, and a -brother Senator making some appropriate gratulatory observations on the -reconciliation. Then Clay gave the final dramatic touch to the scene by -crossing the chamber to where his late adversary sat, saying aloud: -“King, give me a pinch of your snuff!” King, surprised, sprang up and -held out both a snuff-box and an open hand, while Senators and -spectators applauded to the echo. - -Clay was a slimly built man who always appeared for action clad in a -solemn suit of black, with a claw-hammer coat, a stiff silk stock, and a -huge white “choker” with pointed ears. His face was spare and his -forehead high, his cheekbones were prominent, the nose between them was -slender and forceful, and the mouth wide, thin-lipped, and straight-cut. -His lank hair, naturally of a tawny hue, became early streaked with gray -and was worn long enough to fringe his coat collar. He was approachable -in manner, had a most genial smile, and was ready with a pleasant -response to every greeting, its effect being intensified by its musical -clarity of enunciation. He was distinctly fond of society and especially -enjoyed a game of cards. Although his wife accompanied him to -Washington, she appeared little with him in public. She was a good woman -with few gifts, but a devoted mother, and her chief joy in life was to -sew for her six children. Wherever he went, Mr. Clay was always -surrounded by a circle of adoring women, who hung upon every word of the -many he uttered as he talked in desultory style with his back against a -sofa-cushion. He followed a free fashion of his time in taking toll from -the lips of all the young and pretty maidens he met. The first time he -saw Dolly Madison, her youthful face and dainty dress misled him into -saluting her in this fashion. On discovering his mistake, “Ah, madam,” -he pleaded gallantly, “had I known you for whom you are, the coin would -have been larger!” - -I may add in passing that the American navy owes its monitor type of -fighting-craft largely to Henry Clay. Theodore Timby, who invented the -revolving turret which Ericsson used during the Civil War, came to -Washington bearing a letter of introduction to Clay, who became -interested in the idea and helped him get the patent without which it -might have been lost to the world. - -Webster was cast in quite a different mold from Clay. He was godlike -where Clay was human; his eloquence overwhelmed his hearers where Clay’s -fascinated them. He had a big head, a big frame, a big voice, a big -presence. Emerson speaks of his “awful charm.” Some one who heard him -condemn the dishonest gains of a certain financial institution, says -that the word “disgorge,” as he uttered it, “seemed to weigh about -twelve pounds.” Once Mrs. Webster brought their little son to hear his -father deliver an oration. Daniel began a sentence in his thunder-tone: -“Will any man dare say--” and the audience were waiting breathless to -hear what was coming next, when a wee, piping voice responded from the -gallery: “Oh, no, no, Papa!” - -His greatest effort in Congress, of course, was his reply to Hayne. -Everybody in Washington was eager to hear it, and galleries and floor, -including the platform on which the Vice-president sat, were crowded to -the last limit. Representative Lewis of Alabama, being unable to gain -access to the hall, climbed around behind the wooden framework which -flanked the platform and bored a hole through it with his pocket-knife -in order to get a view of the great expounder. At a levee that evening -at the White House, Webster was besieged by admirers offering -congratulations. Among the crowd that drew near him at one time happened -to be Hayne himself. “How are you, Colonel Hayne?” was Webster’s -greeting. “None the better for you, sir,” answered Hayne, good humoredly -but with sincere feeling. - -We are treated to another picture of him when he arrived late at a -concert given by Jenny Lind. For the benefit of the statesmen who were -present, Miss Lind, for an encore, sang “Hail Columbia.” Webster, who -had been dining, was on his feet in an instant and added his powerful -bass voice to hers in the chorus. Mrs. Webster did all she could to -induce him to sit down, but he repeated his effort at the close of every -verse, and with the last strain made the songstress a profound -obeisance, waving his hat at the same time. Miss Lind curtsyed in -return, Webster repeated his bow, and this little comedy of etiquette -was kept up for some minutes, to the delight of the audience. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THROUGH MANY CHANGING YEARS - - -With the advent of the Monroes, social life at the President’s House -underwent a transformation. Its character could have been forecast from -the fact that, although for the six years Monroe had been at the head of -the Cabinet his family had been with him in Washington, they were as -nearly strangers to the great body of citizens as if they had been -living in New York or Boston. If a lady wished to call on Mrs. Monroe, -she had to apply for an appointment and have a day and hour fixed, -unless she were a member or intimate of some former Presidential family. -In this administration, too, was born to Washington its first formal -code of social precedence, which, with certain modifications in detail, -has remained unchanged to this day. It differs from the codes of other -American communities in having official rank as a basis. John Quincy -Adams, before becoming Secretary of State, had served at various times -as envoy to five European courts. He was therefore ripe with -information on the rules observed abroad and resolved on bringing -something of the same sort into operation at our capital. - -Mrs. Monroe and her daughters made it an absolute rule to pay no visits; -so calls made on them, no matter by whom, went unreturned. Their dislike -of the underbred caused them to take no part in the preparations for the -general levees, which were thronged with anybody and everybody; but -their invitation list for select receptions was cut down mercilessly, -and the reduced company were treated to supper, an innovation on recent -practices. At all such entertainments Mrs. Monroe was so exacting in her -demands as to dress that when one of her near relatives presented -himself in an informal costume which he had worn without criticism at -the best of the Jefferson and Madison functions, she refused him -admittance till he should don the regulation small-clothes and silk -hose. - -The Monroes renamed the east room “the banqueting hall” and had their -state dinners there, partly because of its spaciousness, and partly -because the dining-room had been so badly damaged in the fire that it -took a long time to rehabilitate. The table appointments included a -central oval “plateau” twelve feet long by two feet wide, composed of a -mirror “surrounded by gold females holding candlesticks.” The china was -highly gilt, and the dessert knives, forks, and spoons were of beaten -gold. All the plate was the private property of the family and bore the -initials “J. M.”; much of it was afterward purchased by the Government -and made a part of the official furnishing of the White House, where it -remained in use down to Van Buren’s day. - -A New York Representative went with some friends to dine with the -Monroes. Arriving at half-past five, his party were “ushered, Indian -file, into the drawing-room,” where they found “some twenty gentlemen -seated in a row in solemn state, mute as fishes, having already -undergone the ceremony of introduction.” And he goes on: - -“Mrs. Monroe was seated at the further end of the room, with other -ladies. On our approach, she rose and received us handsomely. After -being myself presented, I introduced the other gentlemen. I now expected -to be led to the President, but my pilot, the private secretary, had -vanished. We beat a retreat, each to his respective chair. Observing the -President sitting very demurely by the chimney-corner, I arose and -advanced to him. He got up and shook me by the hand, as he did the other -gentlemen. This second ceremony over, all again was silence, and each -once more moved to his seat. It was a period of great solemnity. Not a -whisper broke upon the ear to interrupt the silence of the place, and -every one looked as if the next moment would be his last. After a while -the President, in a grave manner, began conversation with some one that -sat near him, and directly the secretary ushered in some more victims, -who submitted to the same ordeal we had experienced. This continued for -fully half an hour, when dinner was announced. It became more lively as -the dishes rattled.” The party remained at table till about half-past -eight. - -The retirement of Monroe marked the end of “the Virginia dynasty.” It -had always been a sore point with John Adams that the highest office of -the Government should be passed from hand to hand in the Old Dominion, -and he once threw out the splenetic comment that not “until the last -Virginian was laid in the graveyard” would his son have a chance at the -Presidency. The son had been trained with reference to such an -inheritance, and, on becoming Monroe’s Secretary of State, regarded -himself as in the line of succession. His appearance as a Presidential -candidate, however, aroused no general enthusiasm, whereas General -Andrew Jackson, having given the finishing stroke to the defeat of the -British invaders by his victory over Pakenham, and acquired the -nickname “Old Hickory,” had become the idol of the multitude. In spite -of their approaching competition for the Presidency, Adams was obliged -to recognize Jackson’s prestige at every turn; and on the eighth of -January, 1824, Mrs. Adams gave a ball in the General’s honor which was -so grand that it was still talked of in Washington fifty years -afterward. - -The Adams house stood on the site now occupied by the Adams office -building in F Street near Fourteenth. On this occasion the floor of the -ballroom was decorated with pictures in colored chalks. The central -design, which portrayed an American eagle clutching a trophy of flags, -bore the legend: “Welcome to the Hero of New Orleans!” The pillars were -trimmed with laurel and other winter foliage, roses were scattered -everywhere, and the illumination was furnished by variegated lamps, with -a brilliant luster in the middle of the ceiling. There were eight pieces -of music. Mrs. Adams was seated in the center of the hall, with Jackson -standing at her side and a semicircle of distinguished guests behind -them. President Monroe and Mr. Adams attended, but both were conspicuous -for their sobriety of attire. It was this gathering which inspired a -tribute in verse by a local journalist, beginning: - - “Wend you with the world to-night? - Brown and fair, and wise and witty, - Eyes that float in seas of light, - Laughing mouths and dimples pretty, - Belles and matrons, maids and madams, - All are gone to Mrs. Adams!” - -Nine months later, Jackson polled a far larger popular vote for the -Presidency than Adams, and so distributed as to give him a lead in the -electoral colleges also. But as there were four candidates, none of whom -had a clear majority of the electoral vote, the decision was left to the -House of Representatives, where Henry Clay, the candidate at the bottom -of the list, threw his support to Adams, giving him the office. Adams -recognized his debt to Clay by appointing him Secretary of State, and -thus placing him in the line of promotion. Jackson never forgave Clay -for his share in electing Adams, and from that day forth had nothing to -do with him beyond the coolest exchange of civilities. In other respects -the General accepted defeat philosophically, attending the inaugural -ceremonies and promptly coming forward to congratulate the new -President, an act of grace that brought tears to the eyes of Adams. The -appearance of the two men together in public delighted the crowd, and -there was vociferous hurrahing for Jackson. Judged solely by -appearances, indeed, the day was a festival in honor of Jackson rather -than of Adams. Many of the General’s friends had come a long distance, -in an era when traveling was so slow that they had been obliged to leave -home before learning the final outcome of the election, and supposed -that they were to attend the inauguration of their favorite. They sought -solace for their disappointment in turbulent demonstrations. For the -whole afternoon the dramshops carried on a tremendous business, and all -night the streets were full of tramping men roaring out Jackson campaign -songs and silencing opposition with their fists. Pistol shots were heard -at frequent intervals, and a rumor spread that Henry Clay had been -killed. - -Whatever Adams may have thought of these exhibitions, he bore them with -a calm exterior. He was always indifferent to criticism, and became -famous as the most shabbily clad man who had ever occupied the -Presidential chair, being accused even of having worn the same hat for -ten years. He braved public opinion by setting up a billiard table in -the White House, which gave a North Carolina Representative a text for a -speech denouncing the expenditure of fifty dollars for the table and six -dollars for a set of balls as “alarming to the religious, the moral, and -the reflecting portion of the community.” The anti-administration -press, using the game of billiards as a theme, opened fire upon the -President as a gambler. For a fact, he never made but one bet in his -life. Clay had picked up at auction a picture which Adams tried to buy -of him. One day, in jest, Clay offered it as a stake for a game of -all-fours. To his astonishment, Adams, the supposed ascetic, took him -up, and won the game and the picture. - -It was a habit of Adams to take a plunge in the Potomac, at the foot of -his garden, every morning “between daybreak and sunrise,” the weather -permitting. Once he had all his clothing stolen, and had to catch a -passing boy and send him home for enough raiment to cover him. But this -was by no means his most embarrassing adventure. It was during his -administration that the first woman newspaper correspondent turned up in -Washington. She was resolved to procure an interview with the President, -who did not care to gratify her. So she rose early one morning and -repaired, notebook and pencil in hand, to the river bank, and planted -herself beside his clothes till he started to come out. Standing almost -neck-deep in the water, he tried first severity and then persuasion to -induce her to go away, but she held her ground till he surrendered and -answered her most important questions. - -[Illustration: _Tudor House, Georgetown_] - -The billiard table was not the only basis for charges of prodigal living -brought against Adams. When he ran for reëlection, his enemies made -effective use of a letter written by a member of Congress who had -attended a New Year’s reception at the White House and who mentioned the -“gorgeously furnished east room.” The truth was that the east room, -except for three marble-topped tables and a few mirrors, did not contain -fifty dollars’ worth of furniture of any sort. A Washingtonian of the -period has written that there were no chandeliers, and that the great -room depended for its lighting on candles held in tin candlesticks -nailed to the wall, which “dripped their sperm upon the clothes of those -who came under them, as I well know from experience.” - -Adams sometimes aroused personal hostility by his peppery temper. He had -to dine with him one evening a Southern Senator who was notorious for -his dislike of everything in New England but prided himself on his -knowledge of wines. The Senator had the bad manners to remark that he -had “never known a Unitarian who did not believe in the sea-serpent.” -This aroused the ire of Adams, who later, when his guest said that Tokay -and Rhine wine were somewhat alike, turned upon him with the -exclamation: “Sir, I do not believe that you ever drank a drop of Tokay -in your life!” He afterward apologized, but the Senator would not -accept the apology and became the implacable foe of his administration. - -Jackson’s election in 1828 was a foregone conclusion from the moment he -reappeared as a Presidential candidate; and, immediately upon the -announcement that he had won an electoral vote a good deal more than -double that of Adams, Washington became the Mecca of a hundred -pilgrimages. By the fourth of March, 1829, the city was so crowded with -worshipers of the President-elect that they overflowed the inns and -boarding-houses, and many were obliged to live in camp. Half the men -wore their trousers tucked into their boot-legs, and not a few carried -pistols openly in their belts. The hickory emblem was in evidence -everywhere: men wielded hickory canes and staffs, women wore bonnets -trimmed with hickory leaves and necklaces composed of hickory nuts -fancifully painted, and scores of horses were driven with bridles of -hickory bark. - -Like his father, Adams did not attend the inauguration of his successor; -he withdrew to a hired dwelling on the heights north of the city and -kept to himself till the flurry was over. Probably Jackson did not -regret his absence, for the campaign had been surcharged with bitter -personalities, into which the name - -[Illustration: _Bladensburg Duelling-Ground_] - -of Mrs. Jackson was remorselessly dragged. Mrs. Jackson had died since -election day, and the General believed her death the direct result of -calumny. - -Madison had set the fashion, and Monroe and Adams had improved upon it, -of having a formal escort to the Capitol on the way to inauguration. -Jackson, however, refused to follow custom. As the only militia -organization in the city was under command of a colonel who hated him, -he had no military display, but walked down the middle of Pennsylvania -Avenue with only a body-guard composed of veterans of the War of the -Revolution, then a half-century past. For any lack of enthusiasm on the -part of the resident population, that of the visiting Jacksonians more -than compensated. All the way the General and his little party were so -surrounded by a yelling, cheering crowd that they could advance only at -a snail’s pace. To watchers on Capitol Hill he was distinguishable from -the mob by being the one man in the midst of it who walked bareheaded. - -Jackson was the first President to take the oath of office on the east -portico of the Capitol, the place now generally used. He also was the -first to read his speech before being sworn. He wore two pairs of -spectacles,--a pair for looking at the crowd and a pair for reading; -when he was using one pair, the other was perched aloft on his -forehead. At the close of the exercises, he mounted a fine white horse -and rode to the White House, again having to make his way through a mass -of singing and shouting admirers. At the mansion a feast had been -provided, and the gates thrown open to every one. The building was soon -stuffed full; and, as the people waiting outside could hardly hope to -force their way in, negro servants came to the doors with buckets of -punch and salvers of cakes and ices and passed these out. Much of the -food and drink was wasted, and much china and glassware smashed. Women -fainted, men quarreled and bruised one another’s faces. At one stage the -doorways became so blocked that people coming out had to climb through -the windows and drop to the ground. The rabble inside, bent on shaking -the hand of the President, jammed him against a wall to the serious -peril of his ribs, till he succeeded in escaping through a back entry -and taking refuge in the hotel where he had lately had his lodgings. - -The boisterous incidents of his first day in office were only an earnest -of the stormy administration which lay before Jackson. Realizing how -much he was indebted to New York for his election, and that Martin Van -Buren had a powerful following there, he appointed Van Buren his -Secretary of State. This proved a pretty lucky investment in human -nature; for in the Peggy Eaton controversy, which broke out soon after -Jackson began his term, Van Buren was a valuable ally. General John H. -Eaton, a lifelong friend whom Jackson had appointed Secretary of War, -had been boarding for several years with a local tavern-keeper named -O’Neal. The publican’s daughter, Peggy, had grown up a pretty, but pert -and forward girl, who flirted with her father’s patrons and married one -of them, Purser Timberlake of the navy. Timberlake was addicted to -drink, and during one of his cruises he ended a spree by suicide, -leaving his wife and children destitute; and Eaton, whose name gossip -had already linked with the widow’s, came to the front with an offer of -marriage, which was accepted. - -The wedding followed so closely upon the tragedy as to cause wide -criticism, and this, together with her antecedents, condemned Mrs. Eaton -to social ostracism. Left to themselves, Eaton’s colleagues of the -Cabinet would have ignored the circumstances of his marriage, but the -ladies of their families declared that they would have nothing to do -with the bride. Van Buren, as a widower with no daughters, felt free to -act as he pleased; and Jackson, remembering what his own wife had -endured, gallantly espoused the cause of Mrs. Eaton and gave the hostile -Secretaries their choice between accepting her or resigning their -portfolios, whereupon the Cabinet went promptly to pieces. - -Being a man of means, Van Buren did a good deal of entertaining for Mrs. -Eaton’s benefit, and also inspired those members of the diplomatic corps -who were unaccompanied by ladies to join him in “floating” her. The -British Minister was a bachelor, so was the Russian Minister; but, -though the dinners and balls which they gave attracted many feminine -guests who were flattered by being invited, they were not wholly -successful. Madam Huygens, wife of the Dutch Minister, for instance, was -induced to attend a ball, but when escorted to the supper table found -that she was expected to sit next but one to Mrs. Eaton and would have -to exchange a few words with that lady. Instantly she placed her arm in -that of her husband and withdrew with him from the room. When the story -was told to Jackson, he rose in his wrath and declared that he would -send Huygens home to Holland; but he never carried out the threat. - -Viewed in historical perspective, Jackson appears to have been a man of -tremendous force, thoroughly patriotic, conscientious in even his most -wayward conceptions of duty, unlearned but not illiterate, and above all -things hating treachery. He handled the sword with more facility than -the pen, and some of his correspondence, reproduced with its crudities -of syntax and spelling, would make the better educated angels weep. -Conscious of his scholastic shortcomings, he rarely attempted anything -original in writing or speaking, except on public questions; and when -his autograph was sought in the albums which were the fashionable fad of -the day, he borrowed his sentiments from the Presbyterian hymn-book, -quoting, as Miss Martineau recalls, “stanzas of the most ominous import -from Dr. Watts.” - -Jackson usually flavored his dinners and receptions with a dash of the -unexpected. On one occasion he jostled the proprieties by singing “Auld -Lang Syne.” He ate sparingly at his own table but talked a great deal, -slowly and quietly, and, when women were present, with much real -kindliness of tone. He had a homely way of disposing of questions which -he regarded as not overimportant. At a dinner in honor of the marriage -of his adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Junior, he decided on an innovation -in etiquette by having his Secretary of State precede the diplomatic -corps, the rest of the Cabinet to follow the foreigners. This plan was -vigorously resisted by the Secretary of the Treasury, who argued that -the Cabinet was a unit, and that its members should therefore be -treated on an equal footing. “In that case,” said the President, “we -will put all the Cabinet ahead of the diplomats,” and he sent his -private secretary, Major Donelson, to make the announcement to the -guests. The French Minister at once stirred up the Dutch Minister, as -senior member of the corps, to prevent the threatened indignity. -Meanwhile, dinner had been announced, and every one was standing. -Donelson reported the strained situation to the President, who, instead -of vowing “by the Eternal” that his commands should be obeyed, smiled -good-naturedly and said: “Well, I will lead with the bride. It is a -family affair; so we’ll waive all difficulties, and the company will -please to follow as heretofore.” - -The first baby born in the White House probably was Mary Emily Donelson, -child of the private secretary. At her baptism in the east room the -President and Martin Van Buren stood as godfathers. Van Buren took her -in his arms when she was first brought in, but she squirmed and wriggled -so that Jackson reached out for her, whereat she cooed with delight, as -children always did at any attention from him. He held her throughout -the service, and, at the minister’s question, “Do you, in the name of -this child, renounce the devil and all his works?” he stiffened up as he -might have if confronted with a fresh machination of his enemies, and -declared with characteristic emphasis: “I do, sir; I renounce them all!” - -It was during Jackson’s administration that Harriet Martineau first -visited Washington. She was suffering from overwork and had been orderd -by her physician in England to cross the sea for a good rest. In spite -of that, people would not let her alone. It is said that within -twenty-four hours after her arrival in town more than six hundred -persons had called to pay their respects. Probably not fifty could have -told why they did so, except that she was a literary celebrity. One lady -was eager to learn “whether her novels were really very pretty,” and -most of the statesmen, when told that she was a political economist, -laughed outright. A social leader, desirous of giving her a dinner such -as she had been accustomed to at home, made the table groan under the -choicest things the market afforded, including eight different meats, -only to see the guest confine herself to a tiny slice of turkey-breast -and a nibble of ham. She was equally disconcerting with her other -simplicities, such as coming to a five o’clock dinner at a little after -three, clad in a walking suit in which she had been tramping about the -city, but bringing in her capacious pockets all the trappings necessary -for a presentable evening toilet. - -Notwithstanding her idiosyncrasies, Miss Martineau made a profoundly -pleasant impression wherever she went. Webster, Clay, and Calhoun would -desert their seats in the Senate to join her for a talk, and Chief -Justice Marshall would descend from the bench to greet her when she came -into his courtroom. She could take up her unpretentious position in the -corner of a sofa anywhere, and in a few minutes have a circle of the -country’s elect about her awaiting their turns for a chat; and this in -spite of the fact that she was very deaf and had to make use of an -ear-trumpet of an unfamiliar pattern, so that often a newcomer would -talk into the wrong aperture. She never made anything of her infirmity; -and, of all the poems, addresses, and letters of appreciation with which -she was showered, the production which gave her most delight was an ode -to her trumpet, beginning: “Beloved horn!” - -Early in this administration, the east room at the White House, which -had figured in the Democratic campaign speeches as an audience chamber -sumptuous enough for royalty, was discovered to be too shabby for a -President of Jackson’s simple habits. So four large mirrors, heavily -framed in gilt, were hung against its walls, their bases resting on -mantels of black Italian marble. Chandeliers gleaming with glass prisms -were suspended from the ceiling; damask-covered chairs, their woodwork -gilded like the mirror frames, were substituted for the worn-out -furniture which had sufficed for the Adams family; the windows were -richly curtained; a Brussels carpet, with the sprawling pattern then so -much admired, was stretched over the entire floor; and this array of -elegance was capped with bouquets of artificial flowers, in painted -china vases, distributed among the mantels and tables and in the window -recesses. - -These things did not long retain their freshness. Jackson’s dinners had -features quaint enough, but his receptions were little short of riots. A -literary visitor has left us the description of one where “generals, -commodores, foreign ministers and members of Congress” brushed elbows -with laborers who had come in their working clothes from a day of canal -digging, and “sooty artificers” direct from the forge. “There were -majors in broadcloth and corduroys, redolent of gin and tobacco, and -majors’ ladies in chintz or russet, with huge Paris earrings, and tawny -necks profusely decorated with beads of colored glass. There were -tailors from the board and judges from the bench; lawyers who opened -their mouths at one bar, and tapsters who closed theirs at another; and -one individual--either a miller or a baker--who, wherever he passed, -left marks of contact on the garments of the company.” Meanwhile, the -waiters who attempted to cross from the pantry to the east room with -cakes and punch were intercepted by a ravenous horde who emptied the -trays as fast as they could be refilled, so that little or nothing -reached the better-mannered guests. This went on till the Irish butler, -in exasperation, enlisted a dozen stalwart men and armed them with -billets of wood, to surround the waiters as a guard, and keep their -sticks swinging about the food so briskly that it could not be captured -except at the cost of a broken head. Of course the carpet, curtains, and -cushions were deluged with sticky refuse, and broken bits of china and -glass were ground into powder under foot. - -If it be possible to imagine anything worse in its way than this scene, -it was Jackson’s farewell entertainment, given on the twenty-second of -February, 1837. The chief feature was the cutting of a mammoth cheese -which had been sent to the President by admirers in a northern dairy -district. It weighed fourteen hundred pounds, and nothing would satisfy -Jackson but to give a piece to every man, woman, and child who would -come for it. As a result, the paths leading to the White House, and the -portico itself, were thronged that afternoon with people going in to -get their chunks and coming out with greasy parcels in their hands. “We -forced our way over the threshold,” wrote one of the adventurous souls, -“and encountered an atmosphere to which the mephitic gas over Avernus -must be faint and innocuous. On the side of the hall hung a rough -likeness of General Jackson, emblazoned with eagle and stars, and in the -center of the vestibule stood the fragrant gift, surrounded by a dense -crowd who had in two hours cut and purveyed away more than a half-ton of -horribly smelling ‘Testimonial to the Hero of New Orleans.’ A small -segment had been reserved for the President’s use, but it is doubtful if -he ever tasted it.” The cutting was done by two able-bodied laborers, -armed with big knives extemporized from hand-saws. - -In the White House, Jackson lived a good deal apart. He was always glad -to see any one who came on a friendly errand, and loved to frolic with -children; but one of his chief pleasures was sitting by himself in the -big south room of the second story and smoking. An aged friend who, as a -boy, visited the White House with his father while Jackson was there, -told me that the President bade them draw up with him by the fireside, -offered a clean clay pipe to the elder of the visitors, and, lighting -his own well-seasoned corn-cob, puffed the smoke up the chimney, -explaining that Emily Donelson--the wife of his secretary, who kept -house for him--disliked the smell of tobacco. - -The ghost of the Peggy Eaton affair could never be permanently -exorcised. Timberlake had not only died penniless and in debt but left -his official accounts in confusion, and a year or two later it was -discovered that he had been a defaulter. His bondsman resisted payment -of the shortage, accusing Lieutenant Robert B. Randolph, who had taken -over Timberlake’s papers, of the actual responsibility for it. Randolph, -in demanding a court-martial, committed a technical breach of discipline -for which the President dismissed him summarily from the service. One -day Jackson was a passenger on a river steamboat which stopped briefly -at a wharf in Alexandria. He was sitting alone, when a stranger -approached him as if to shake hands. Jackson, seeing him drawing off one -of his gloves, said amiably, “Never mind your glove, sir,” and stretched -out his own hand. But the stranger, instead of taking it, made a violent -lunge at Jackson’s face, exclaiming: “I am Lieutenant Randolph, whom you -have wronged and insulted, and I came here to pull your nose!” Startled -by the noise, two or three gentlemen ran forward and sprang upon -Randolph, who, in the struggle that followed, reached the gangplank and -freed himself. The President, convinced by later developments that the -Lieutenant had really suffered an injustice, offered to reinstate him if -he would apologize for the nose-pulling; but he scornfully rejected the -proposal. - -The Cabinet, as reorganized in consequence of pretty Peggy’s fight, did -not hang together long. Secretary Eaton intimated presently that he -would like to retire, Van Buren seemed of the same mind, so the -President appointed the former Governor of Florida and the latter -Minister to England. The Senate confirmed Eaton’s appointment with good -enough grace, but balked at that of Van Buren, who, having gone to -England in good faith to enter upon his duties, was put to the -humiliating necessity of coming home again. Jackson was angry, regarding -this as a blow at himself. “If they don’t want him for Minister,” he -thundered, “we’ll see if they like him any better as President!” He -therefore laid out a program beginning with his own reëlection with Van -Buren as his Vice-president, and ending with Van Buren’s election as his -successor. The plan carried; and, as Jackson’s affection for Van Buren -had grown largely out of the latter’s stanch loyalty in the Cabinet -quarrel, Mrs. Eaton may be said to have shaped American history for a -considerable term of years. - -Long after this lady ceased to hold the center of the national stage, -her career continued to be picturesque. Her husband, having retired from -the Governorship of Florida, was appointed Minister to Spain, and in -Madrid she appears to have made herself a great favorite at court. After -General Eaton’s death she returned to Washington, and was living down -much of the adverse sentiment of former days, when there appeared on the -scene an Italian dancing-master named Buchignani, whose dark, soulful -eyes and insinuating manners proved too much for even her experienced -heart. Although she was well advanced in years and he was young enough -to be her son, she not only became his wife, but let all her comfortable -fortune slip into his hands, and gradually gave him also the custody of -her grandchildren’s property, which she was holding in trust. He repaid -her kindness by eloping with her favorite granddaughter to Canada, where -he went into business as a saloon-keeper. Mrs. Buchignani died in 1879, -still glorying in the memory of her early activities. - -As Vice-president, Van Buren lived in the Decatur house, the big somber -brick dwelling on the corner of Jackson Place and H Street. Across the -park, just south of the present home of the Cosmos Club, lived Mr. and -Mrs. Ogle Tayloe, with whom it was his habit to pass his disengaged -evenings. Suddenly he ceased - -[Illustration: _Decatur House_] - -coming, and after some weeks Mr. Tayloe hunted him up to inquire what -was the matter. His only response was: “Mrs. Tayloe has things lying -about on her table which should not be there.” Van Buren had always -seemed interested in Mrs. Tayloe’s collection of contemporary -autographs; and, when husband and wife were searching there for the -possible cause of offense, they came upon a letter from a prominent New -York politician containing the passage: “What is little Matt doing? Some -dirty work, of course, as usual.” Mrs. Tayloe cut out the derogatory -paragraph and sent word to Van Buren that she had done so, and at once -he renewed his visits. - -Jackson escorted Van Buren to the Capitol, for his inauguration, in a -carriage widely celebrated as the “Constitution coach.” It was a present -to the General from citizens of New York and was built out of timbers -from the old war frigate _Constitution_, a picture of which was -emblazoned on one panel. Van Buren discovered, before he had been long -in office, that a thousand things which the people accepted without -question from a military hero they were prepared to criticize in a -civilian. Moreover, his son John, while in England some years before, -had danced with the Princess Victoria and thus acquired the nickname -“Prince John,” of which the enemies of the administration made use as a -political cudgel, declaring that the whole family were aping the foreign -aristocracy. Along came the financial panic of 1837, reducing thousands -of well-to-do persons to poverty, and this was fatuously laid to Van -Buren’s account when he stood for reëlection in 1840 against General -William Henry Harrison, affectionately styled “Old Tippecanoe” in memory -of one of his victories. - -Regardless of the fact that Jackson had refurnished the White House -expensively for those days and then given entertainments which spoiled -nearly everything spoilable, it was Van Buren who became the undeserving -target for attack on the ground that he maintained “a royal -establishment” in “a palace as splendid as that of the Cæsars, and as -richly adorned as the proudest Asiatic mansion.” The stump orators -harped on the use of gold and silver spoons at the White House table, -and on the excessive number of spittoons distributed in the parlors and -halls. Vainly did the President’s defenders show that the gold spoons -were mostly plated ware, and that the spittoons, like the other -furniture, were the property of the Government: the voters who ate their -porridge from wooden vessels and threw their quids into boxes of sawdust -were resolved upon putting into his place a man of different type. Henry -Clay, passing the White House one day when a blaze broke out in the -laundry, joined the firemen in helping to extinguish it, remarking -jocularly to the President: “Though we are bound to have you out of -here, Mr. Van Buren, we don’t want you burned out.” - -Harrison was elected. He was sixty-eight when he arrived in Washington -in February, 1841, and was in delicate health, but affected a vain -pretense of robustness. Though the day was chilly, with snow thinly -covering the streets and a cold rain falling, he declined to enter a -carriage, and walked half a mile to the City Hall with his hat in his -hand, bowing to the people on either side of the street. At the hall he -stood on the portico, still uncovered, while the Mayor made a speech of -welcome and he responded. His exposure gave him a cold which, following -his fatigues and excitement, brought on a serious nervous attack, and -this was not improved by the prospect of a wearisome inaugural ceremony. -He had only a common school education, but had read a good deal, -particularly ancient history. Mr. Webster, whom he had selected for -Secretary of State, recognizing his literary limitations, composed an -excellent inaugural address and carried it to him, saying in -explanation: “I feared lest, with all you are called upon to do just -now, you might not find time to do anything of this sort.” - -“Oh, yes,” answered Harrison, cheerfully, producing a packet of neatly -written sheets, “I attended to all that before leaving home.” - -Webster tactfully contrived to induce him to exchange manuscripts, “so -that each author could read the other’s production, and whichever proved -the better could be used.” - -But the next day Harrison handed back Webster’s paper with the remark: -“If I were to read your address, everybody would know you wrote it. Mine -is not so good, but at least it is mine, and I shall prefer my own poor -work to your brilliant one.” As a last resort Webster offered to revise -Harrison’s address, and Harrison consented, though very reluctantly. -Webster struggled with his task a whole day, chopping out paragraph -after paragraph of classical citations. When a lady that evening -inquired what he had been doing to make him look so ill, he exclaimed: -“You’d be ill, too, if you had committed all the crimes I have. Within -twelve hours I have killed seventeen Roman pro-consuls--dead as smelts, -every man of them!” - -Though compelled to sacrifice so much of his antique lore, Harrison was -not to be argued out of his resolve to ride a white horse to and from -his inauguration, having read of sundry great Romans who thus traversed -the Appian Way. He refused, too, to wear an overcoat on the fourth of -March, notwithstanding that he had a heavy cold, and that a stiff gale -was blowing which searched the vitals of most men in thick garments. Nor -would he consent to cover his head while delivering his address, which -was a protest against executive usurpation, the corruption of the press, -and the abuses of party spirit. Few who heard it realized how near they -had come to witnessing no inaugural ceremony that day. It had been -arranged that Harrison should join the procession for the Capitol at the -house of a friend whom he was visiting, but he was in such a state of -nervous exhaustion that he fainted twice before the time came to start. -His companions bathed his temples with brandy, and the physician they -called in forbade his going out of doors unless in a carriage; but he -would hear to no change of plans, and managed, by sheer force of will, -not only to perform his part at the Capitol, but to hold an afternoon -reception at the White House and in the evening to look in at two or -three balls with which the Whigs were celebrating their triumph. - -During the fortnight that followed, he did his best to conceal his -increasing feebleness, even going in person to market every morning when -he was able. But a succession of colds presently ran into pneumonia, and -the office-seekers hounded him not the less cruelly after this. Just -one month from the day of his inauguration, death came to his relief. -Mrs. Harrison, who had been too ill to accompany him to Washington, -never saw him from the day he parted with her in Ohio till his body was -brought back to her for burial. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -“THE SPIRIT OF GREAT EVENTS” - - -John Tyler, the first Vice-president to receive promotion to the -Presidency in mid-term, was at his home in Virginia when Harrison died. -He came to Washington at once and took lodgings at a hotel, where, two -days later, he was sworn in by Chief Judge Cranch of the Circuit Court -of the District. His administration was not picturesque in the usual -sense; the most it gave people to talk about was his narrow escape from -impeachment for deserting the party which elected him. But his -unpopularity bore valuable fruit for Washington. When the partisan -excitement was at its highest pitch, a company of local politicians went -to the White House one night and, drawn up in front of it, “groaned” -their disapproval of Tyler’s conduct. To protect the Presidential office -from further indignities of that sort, a bill was introduced in the -Senate to establish an “auxiliary guard” for the defense of the public -and private property against incendiaries, and “for the enforcement of -the police regulations of the city of Washington,” with an appropriation -of seven thousand dollars to equip a captain and fifteen men with the -proper implements to distinguish them in the discharge of their duty. -This was the foundation of the Metropolitan Police force, which now -numbers seventy-five officers and more than six hundred privates. - -Life at the White House was simple in Tyler’s time. The President was in -the habit of rising with the sun, lighting a fire that had been laid -overnight in his study, and working at his desk till breakfast was -served at eight o’clock. At this meal he insisted on having the ladies -of his family appear in calico frocks. In the evening all the household -would gather in the green parlor and pass an hour or two in entertaining -any visitors who happened in, interspersing conversation with piano -music and old-fashioned songs. It was Tyler who introduced the custom of -periodical open-air concerts by the Marine Band; and on warm Saturday -afternoons the garden south of the White House was a favorite resort of -the best people of the city, while the President would sit with his -family and a few invited guests on the porch, listening to the music and -responding to the salutations of his acquaintances. Tyler is rarely -suspected of possessing a strong sense of humor; but he must have smiled -when he signed an official letter to the Emperor of China, in which he -described himself as “President of the United States of America, which -States are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, -Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, -Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, -Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, -Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan”--an array which so impressed the mind -of the Celestial despot that the envoy who presented the missive got -everything he asked for. - -Tyler lost his wife soon after he entered the White House, and his -daughters presided over the domestic life there. He was fond of young -society, and one of the belles who appeared pretty regularly at his -parties was Miss Virginia Timberlake, daughter of the unfortunate naval -purser and the lady whose cause Jackson and Van Buren had championed. -Another was Miss Julia Gardiner of New York, who so captivated him that -at one of his receptions in the second year of his term he made her a -proposal of marriage. As she described it afterward, she was taken -wholly by surprise, and gave her “No, no, no!” such emphasis by shaking -her head that she whisked the tassel of her crimson Greek cap into his -face with every motion. The controlling reason for her refusal, she -explained, was her unwillingness to leave her father, to whom she was -devotedly attached; but an accident soon changed the whole face of -things. - -Captain Stockton of the navy invited a party of about four hundred -ladies and gentlemen to inspect the sloop-of-war _Princeton_, then lying -in the Potomac. President Tyler, the members of his Cabinet and their -families, and a good many Congressmen were among the guests. The vessel -had dropped down the river to a point near Mount Vernon, when some of -the party importuned Stockton to fire his big gun, nicknamed “the -peacemaker.” This was just at the close of the luncheon, and the ladies -had lingered at table while most of the gentlemen went on deck. One -lady, fortunately, had detained Tyler as he was about to leave, by -inducing him to listen to a song; for the gun exploded, killing Mr. -Upshur, Secretary of State, Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, Commander -Kennon of the navy, Virgil Maxey, lately American Minister at the Hague, -and David Gardiner of New York, the father of Miss Julia. A day of -merrymaking was thus turned into one of mourning, as the vessel slowly -moved up the stream again, bearing the bodies of the dead, for whom -funeral services were held at the White House. After an interval the -President renewed his suit and found Miss Gardiner more pliant. When he - -[Illustration: _Soldiers’ Home_] - -had composed in her honor a serenade beginning, “Sweet lady, awake!” she -agreed to marry him if her mother would consent. Her mother did not -approve of a union between a man of fifty-six and a girl of twenty, but, -as she did not actually forbid it, they had a very quiet wedding. - -In spite of the enjoyment he took in social intercourse, Tyler was often -criticized for his frigid manners. A virulent type of influenza which -became epidemic during his administration received the name of “the -Tyler grip,” from the remark of a Boston man who fell ill a few hours -after being presented to him: “I probably caught cold from shaking hands -with the President.” A good deal was made of this in the campaign of -1844, and added point to John Quincy Adams’s denunciation of Tyler for -“performing with a young girl from New York the old fable of January and -May!” Tyler’s general unpopularity, and a deadlock between two other -prominent candidates, led the Democrats to nominate James K. Polk for -President. He was so little known to most of the voters that throughout -the campaign the Whigs, who were supporting Henry Clay, rang the changes -on the question, “Who _is_ James K. Polk?” thus contrasting his -obscurity with Clay’s eminence. The count of ballots showed that a -candidate of whom little was known might have certain advantages over -one long before the public eye; and as on inauguration day it rained -heavily, exultant Democrats kept themselves warm by hurling back at the -Whigs the familiar cry, “Who _is_ James K. Polk?” and then laughing -wildly at their own humor. It was on this occasion that the telegraph -first conveyed out of Washington the news that one President had retired -and another had come in--Professor Morse having set up an instrument at -the edge of the platform on which the President-elect stood, and ticked -off a report of the proceedings as they occurred. - -Mrs. Polk being a devoted church-member, of a school which disapproved -of dancing, the inaugural ball that evening shrank into a mere promenade -concert till after she and her husband had quitted the hall. The social -activities of the Polks, through the four years which followed, were -consistent with this beginning, all the functions at the White House -being too sober to suit the diplomats or the younger element among the -resident population. On its practical side, Polk’s term was perhaps the -most notable in that generation, including as it did the war with -Mexico, which resulted in the annexation of California and the great -southwestern area afterward carved into the States of Utah, Nevada, and -Arizona and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. This war, -moreover, furnished the usual crop of Presidential candidates, chief -among them General Zachary Taylor, who had led the first army across the -Rio Grande, and General Winfield Scott, who had wound up the invasion by -capturing the city of Mexico. - -Believing Taylor the easier to handle, the Whig managers fixed upon him, -although, having passed the larger part of his sixty-four years with the -army, he had never voted. Indeed, he had always expressed an aversion to -office-holding, and, when approached on the subject of the Presidency, -met the overture with frank disfavor, declaring that he had neither the -capacity nor the experience needed for such a position. But his -“availability” overcame the force of his protests, and the Whigs won -with him a sweeping victory at the polls. There is pathos in the story -of the break-up of the pleasant home in Baton Rouge, and the reluctant -removal of the family to Washington, taking with them only a faithful -negro servant, a favorite dog, and “Old Whitey,” the horse the General -had ridden through the Mexican war. Taylor was with difficulty dissuaded -from his purpose of imitating his military predecessors and riding “Old -Whitey” either to or from the Capitol on inauguration day. What his -friends most feared was his loss of dignity in the eyes of the crowd, -for his legs were so short that, in certain emergencies, an orderly had -to lift one of them over his horse’s flanks whenever he mounted or -dismounted. - -Taylor was as simple a soul as Harrison. His unostentatious ways in the -army had led the soldiers to dub him “Old Rough and Ready,” and this -title stuck to him always afterward. One of his favorite amusements was -to walk about Washington, chatting informally with people he met and -watching whatever was going on in the streets. His love of comfort was -such that he could never be induced to wear clothes that fitted him, but -his suits were always a size or two larger than his measure, and these, -with a black silk hat set far back on his head, made him recognizable at -any distance. His message at the opening of Congress contained one -announcement as voluminous as his costume: “We are at peace with all the -nations of the world, and the rest of mankind.” The bull was discovered -too late to prevent its going out in the original print; but in a -revised edition the sentence was made to end: “And seek to maintain our -cherished relations of amity with them.” - -The White House underwent another grand refurbishing while the Taylors -were in it. The east room was newly carpeted, its walls were decorated, -and gas replaced its candles and lamps. The ladies of the family were -good housekeepers--particularly the younger daughter, who made the old -place look actually homelike, and whom an appreciative guest described -as doing the honors “with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the -grace of a duchess.” But this pleasant picture was soon to be clouded -over. On the fourth of July, 1850, a patriotic meeting was held at the -base of the Washington National Monument, with long addresses by -prominent men. It lasted the whole of a very hot afternoon, and -President Taylor, as a guest of honor, felt bound to stay through it, -refreshing himself from time to time with copious drafts of ice-water. -He reached home in a state of some exhaustion and at once ate a -basketful of cherries and drank several glasses of iced milk. From a -party to which he had accepted an invitation for that evening he was -obliged to excuse himself at the last moment on the score of -indisposition. He was violently ill throughout the night, and five days -later he died. - -Millard Fillmore of New York, fifty years old, of moderate political -views and fair ability, was Vice-president at the time. Unlike Tyler, he -went to the Capitol to be sworn in the presence of a committee of the -two houses, but made no inaugural address. Mrs. Fillmore, who had -formerly been a teacher, cared little for society. She was of studious -habits and soon converted the oval sitting room in the second story of -the White House into a library, personally selecting the books. Her -taste ran chiefly to standard historical and classical works; and, as -the editions then available were generally not very good specimens of -the typographic art, most of her collection has disappeared. In this -administration the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, and Fillmore, by -signing it, alienated the North so largely that the Whig party refused -to nominate him for another term. General Scott, to whom it turned, did -precisely what most of the politicians had predicted he would: made a -number of public utterances which ruined his chances and thus gave the -election to his Democratic competitor, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. - -During Fillmore’s term Louis Kossuth visited Washington. The country was -just passing through one of its occasional periods of revolutionary -fervor, and Kossuth’s stand for the rights of Hungary against Austria -had aroused much sympathy here. Our public men were divided in opinion -as to how far to go with their demonstrations in his favor, wishing to -win the support of the Hungarians in the United States and of immigrants -who had fled from other countries to escape oppression, yet hoping to -keep clear of entanglements with Austria. As Kossuth had left home to -escape death for high treason and taken refuge in Constantinople, one of -our men-of-war was sent to the Dardanelles to bring him to America. He -did not then care to go further than England, whence, after an agreeable -visit, he came over, in the expectation of inducing our Government to -take up arms for Hungarian liberty. Henry Clay, who was already stricken -with his last illness, promptly put a damper upon that scheme; but -Kossuth remained the guest of the nation for a time and was dined and -fêted prodigiously. He maintained the state of a royal personage, -keeping a uniformed and armed guard about the door of his suite of -apartments at what is now the Metropolitan Hotel, and a lot of carousing -young subalterns always in his anteroom. He never appeared in public -except in full military uniform, with his cavalry sword, in its steel -scabbard, clanking by his side. Mrs. Kossuth, who accompanied him on his -tour, was unable to overcome her distrust of American cooking, and used -to scandalize her neighbors at table by ostentatiously smelling of every -new dish before tasting it. - -The inauguration of Pierce was marked by several innovations: he drove -to and from the Capitol standing up in his carriage, delivered his -address without notes, and made affirmation instead of taking the oath -of office. A tragic interest attaches itself to his administration, -because, just as he was preparing to remove to Washington, he lost his -only child, a boy of thirteen, in a railway accident. Mrs. Pierce, who -was an invalid, was terribly broken by this bereavement, and all social -festivities at the White House were abandoned till toward the close of -her stay there. The new Vice-president, William R. King, was not -inaugurated at the same time and place with the President. He had gone -to Cuba in January for his health, and, as he was not well enough to -come home, Congress passed a special act permitting him to take the oath -before the American Consul-general at Havana. Soon after his return to -the United States, in April, he died. - -Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was a college mate and intimate friend of -Pierce, was anxious to see something of Europe, but had not the means to -gratify his desire; so Pierce appointed him consul at Liverpool, where -he was able to live in comfort on his pay and save enough for a sojourn -on the Continent. To this experience American literature owes most of -his later work, including “The Marble Faun” and “Our Old Home.” In -Washington still linger stories of a visit Hawthorne paid the city about -the time of his appointment. Pierce tried to show him some informal -attentions; but Hawthorne’s shyness, which went to such an extreme that -he could not say anything to the lady next him at table without -trembling and blushing, prevented his making much headway socially. - -All through Pierce’s term, political conditions were working up to the -point which caused the irruption of a few years later. The habit of -carrying deadly weapons on the person became so common in Washington, -especially in Congress, that scarcely an altercation occurred between -two men without the exposure, if not the use, of a pistol or a dirk. The -newspapers in their serious columns treated such incidents severely, -while the comic paragraphers satirized them; and Preston Brooks, a -Representative from South Carolina, in a half-earnest, half-cynical -vein, gave notice one day of his intention to offer this amendment to -the rules of the House: “Any member who shall bring into the House a -concealed weapon, shall be expelled by a vote of two-thirds. The -Sergeant-at-Arms shall cause a suitable rack to be erected in the -rotunda, where members who are addicted to carrying concealed weapons -shall be required to place them for the inspection of the curious, so -long as the owners are employed in legislation.” - -Senator Sumner of Massachusetts having, a few days later, in a speech on -slavery, spoken disparagingly of a South Carolina Senator who was -absent, Brooks, on the twenty-second of May, 1856, entered the Senate -chamber when it was nearly deserted, and, with a heavy gutta-percha -cane, rained blows with all his strength upon the head of Sumner, who -was quietly writing at his desk. Sumner fell to the floor and for some -days thereafter hovered between life and death. He was three or four -years in recovering from the direct effects of the assault, and never -was entirely restored to health and strength. The incident excited -bitter feeling throughout both North and South. For denouncing the -assault as paralleling that of Cain upon Abel, Representative Anson -Burlingame of New York was challenged by Brooks; he accepted the -challenge, naming date, place, and weapons, but Brooks failed to appear -on the field. - -The next President was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, also a Democrat. -The two incidents in his term which most impressed Washington were the -first successful experiments with the Atlantic cable in August, 1858, -and the visit to the White House of the Prince of Wales, who later -became King Edward VII. Cyrus W. Field, after a struggle as soul-wearing -as Morse’s over the introduction of the telegraph, succeeded in making -his submarine cable work and induced Queen Victoria to send the first -despatch, a message of greeting to President Buchanan, who was requested -to answer it in kind. The skepticism of the day toward all scientific -novelties was reflected in Buchanan’s summoning a newspaper -correspondent whom he trusted and begging to be told frankly whether he -were not the victim of a hoax. At the White House all the members of the -Cabinet were gathered, earnestly debating the same question. The most -stubborn disbeliever was the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, who -jeered at the whole thing as a wild absurdity. In spite of Cobb’s -resistance, the correspondent persuaded the President to answer the -Queen’s message. As bad luck would have it, the cable parted in -mid-ocean soon thereafter and was not restored to working order for -several years; and in the interval the skeptics were appropriately -exultant. - -Buchanan, who was our first bachelor President, was sometimes slangily -called “the O. P. F.,” having once referred to himself in a message as -an “old public functionary.” The image of him carried in the popular -mind is derived from contemporaneous pictures, which show him as a -stiff, precise, ministerial-looking old man, wearing a black coat, a -high choker collar, and a spotless white neckerchief. But this was the -style of the day in portraiture and must not be accepted too literally. -The late Frederick O. Prince of Boston used to tell of a morning call he -paid Buchanan, whom he had imagined a model of formality and elegance, -and of his astonishment when the President entered the room clad in a -greenish figured dressing-gown, woolen socks, and carpet slippers, and, -to put the standing visitors at their ease, called to a servant: “Jeems, -sit some cheers!” - -When Buchanan came to Washington for his inauguration, attended by a -number of Pennsylvania friends, he took lodgings at the National Hotel, -where the whole party fell ill with symptoms which to-day we should -charge to ptomaine poisoning. One or two of the sufferers died. Buchanan -escaped with a comparatively light attack; but a rumor gained -circulation that the Free Soilers had tried to assassinate him because -of his conservative disposition toward slavery. For some time after he -entered the White House, therefore, the police kept a watch on his -movements, and one rough-looking Kansan was arrested on suspicion, -having bought an air-gun and engaged a room in a building which the -President was in the habit of passing every day when he went out for -exercise. - -The domestic accommodations at the White House were already so limited -that, when the Prince of Wales visited it in 1860, the President had to -give up his bedchamber to his guest and sleep on a cot in the anteroom -of his office. As I recall the Prince he was not - -[Illustration: _Old City Hall_] - -inordinately tall, but for some reason--possibly because the legs of -royalty were supposed to need more space than those of common folk--the -old bedstead in the President’s room was replaced by one of extra -length. Society in Washington was agog over the Prince’s advent, and the -reigning belles insisted that his entertainment must include a ball at -least as brilliant as that given in his honor in New York; but Mr. -Buchanan, whose ideas on certain subjects were rigid, would not listen -to the suggestion of dancing in the White House, and the ball was turned -over to the British legation. Miss Harriet Lane, the President’s niece, -who managed his household affairs, gave instead a large musicale, at -which was performed for the first time the once favorite song, “The -Mocking Bird,” its composer having dedicated it to her. - -Trained as attorney, diplomatist, and politician, to regard the letter -of the law rather than its spirit, Buchanan found himself in an unhappy -situation when the preliminary mutterings of sectional warfare grew -loud. In January, 1861, he was urged by some of the Cabinet to recall -Major Robert Anderson from Charleston Harbor as a rebuke for having -removed the Fort Moultrie garrison to the stronger Fort Sumter without -orders from Washington, and he was holding the matter under advisement -when Justice McLean of the Supreme Court came to dine with him one -evening. After the ladies had left the table, the Justice drew the -President aside and inquired what was going to be done about the Major. -“Anderson has exceeded his instructions,” answered Buchanan, “and must -be disciplined.” McLean raised his hand and fairly shook it in the -President’s face as he ejaculated: “You dare not do it, sir! You dare -not do it!” This unique defiance of the executive by the judiciary had -an immediate effect: Major Anderson was left undisturbed, to become -within a few weeks the first hero of the Civil War. - -General Scott, who filled a large place in national affairs from Polk’s -administration till the autumn of 1861, was a good officer and a pure -patriot but full of eccentricities. His love for military forms gave him -the nickname “Old Fuss and Feathers,” and a letter he wrote during the -Mexican war, excusing his absence from his headquarters when the -Secretary of War called there, on the plea that he had just stepped out -to get “a hasty plate of soup,” had won for him the punning title -“Marshal Turenne.” He was a good deal of a gourmet and did his family -marketing himself, especially delighting in the delicacy which he -persisted in calling “tarrapin,” and ordering his oysters by the barrel. -One of his favorite dishes was pork jowl, and once he told of having -eaten sauerkraut “with tears in his eyes.” He was a keen stickler for -the dignity due him on all occasions. Just after Taylor had been -inaugurated President, the two men met in Washington for the first time -since a somewhat acrimonious parting in Mexico. Taylor, passing over old -animosities, invited Scott to call. Scott did so the next day, and -Taylor, who was engaged with some other gentlemen in his office, sent -word that he would be down in a moment. Five minutes later, having cut -his business short, the President descended to the parlor, to find his -visitor already gone: Scott had waited two minutes by the clock and then -stalked in high dudgeon out of the door, not to come back again. - -The drama of the Lincoln administration, on which the curtain rose to a -bugle-blast and fell to the beat of muffled drums, deserves a volume to -itself; but in my limited space I have been able to outline only some of -its features directly related to the capital city. Lincoln’s first levee -was held not in the White House but at Willard’s Hotel, some days before -the inauguration. The higher public functionaries and their wives, and a -number of private citizens of prominence, had been notified rather than -invited to come to the hotel on a certain evening for a first glimpse of -the new chief magistrate. Into this presence stalked the lank, -loose-jointed, oddly clad “Old Abe,” with his little, simple, -white-shawled wife at his elbow, and the never failing jest on his lips -as he made his own announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, let me present -to you the long and the short of the Presidency!” - -The Lincolns received several social courtesies from members of Congress -and others before the fourth of March, and on the evening of that day -the usual inaugural ball was given in their honor. It was plain from the -start that they had not made a favorable impression in their new -setting, for the ball was a failure in point of attendance; few ladies -wore fine costumes, and of the men the majority came in their business -clothes. As neither Mr. nor Mrs. Lincoln knew how to dance, or felt -enough confidence even to walk through a quadrille, the early part of -the evening was devoted to a handshaking performance which threw a chill -upon the rest. Mrs. Lincoln’s feminine instinct had led her to exchange -the stuffy frock and shawl of her first reception for a blue silk gown. -Mr. Buchanan had been expected but sent belated regrets; and Stephen A. -Douglas, the “Little Giant” who always became a big one in an emergency, -stepped into the breach as representative of the abdicating party, and -established himself as the personal escort and knight-in-waiting of Mrs. -Lincoln. - -In the White House, Lincoln took for his office the large square room in -the second story next the southeast corner, from the windows of which he -could look over at the Virginia hills. The room adjoining on the west -was assigned to his clerks and to visitors waiting for an interview. To -secure him a little privacy in passing between his office and the oval -library, a wooden screen was run across the south end of the waiting -room, and behind this he used to make the transit in fancied -invisibility, to the delight of the people sitting on the other side, to -whom, owing to his extraordinary height, the top locks of his hair and a -bit of his forehead were exposed above the partition. He was -persistently hounded by candidates for appointment to office; and it is -recalled that in one instance, where two competitors for a single place -had worn him out with their importunities, he sent for a pair of scales, -weighing all the petitions in favor of one candidate and then those of -the other, and giving the appointment to the man whose budget weighed -three-quarters of a pound more than his rival’s. - -Visitors admitted to his office usually found him very kind in manner, -though now and then a satirical impulse would give an edge to his humor. -When an irate citizen with a grievance called and poured it out upon -him, accompanied by a variegated assortment of profanity, Lincoln -waited patiently till the speaker halted to take breath, and then -inquired: “You’re an Episcopalian, aren’t you?” - -“Why do you ask that?” demanded the visitor, momentarily forgetting his -anger in his surprise. - -“Because,” answered Lincoln, “Seward’s an Episcopalian, and you swear -just like him.” - -The Reverend Doctor Bellows of New York, as chairman of the Sanitary -Commission, called once during the Civil War to tell Lincoln of a number -of things he ought to do. Lincoln listened with the most flattering -attention, slightly inclining his head in recognition of every separate -reminder of a duty left unperformed, and at the close of the catalogue -remained a minute or two in silent meditation. Then, throwing one of his -long legs over an arm of his chair, he looked up with a quizzical smile. -“Dominie,” said he, “how much will you take to swap jobs with me?” - -He could not always keep his humor out of his official communications, -as in this despatch to General Hooker in Virginia: “If the head of Lee’s -army is at Martinsburg, and the tail of it on the plank road between -Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be pretty slim -somewhere. Couldn’t you break him?” - -Indeed, it was his instinctive discernment of the ridiculous side of -everything which, though it gave his enemies their chance to assail him -as a mountebank and a jester, undoubtedly served as a buffer to many a -heavy blow. Sometimes his laughs were at his own expense. About the -middle of the war a young man from a distant State procured an interview -with him, to expound a project for visiting Richmond in the disguise of -a wandering organ-grinder and making drawings of the defenses of the -city for the use of the Union commanders. Lincoln was so impressed that -he contributed one hundred and fifty dollars or more to purchase the -organ and pay other preliminary expenses. The young man disappeared for -some weeks and then returned with a thrilling account of his adventures, -and with plats and charts covering everything of military importance -around Richmond and at various points on the way thither. As a reward, -the President nominated him for a second lieutenancy in the army and -spurred some other patriot into sending him a brand new uniform and -sword. After a little, and by accident, it came out that the youth had -never been anywhere near Richmond, but had spent the President’s money -on a trip to his home, where, at his ease, he had prepared his -fictitious report and maps. Of course his nomination was at once -withdrawn; but Lincoln was so amused at his own childlike credulity -that he could not bring himself to punish the offense as it deserved. - -The Cabinet were often annoyed at the obtrusion of the President’s taste -for a joke at what seemed to them inopportune moments--especially -Secretary Stanton, whose sense of humor was not keen. On September 22, -1862, they were peremptorily summoned to a meeting at the White House. -They found the President reading a book, from which he barely looked up -till all were in their seats. Then he said: “Gentlemen, did you ever -read anything from Artemus Ward? Let me read you a chapter which is very -funny.” When the reading was finished, he laughed heartily, looking -around the circle for a response, but nobody even smiled; if any -countenance revealed anything, it was irritation. “Well,” said he, -“let’s have another chapter;” and he suited action to word. Finding his -listeners no more sympathetic than before, he threw the book down with a -deep sigh and exclaimed: “Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the -fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should -die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.” With that, he ran his -hand down into his tall hat, which sat on the table near him, and drew -forth a sheet of paper, from which he read aloud, with the most -impressive emphasis, the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. -“If any of you have any suggestions to make as to the form of this paper -or its composition,” said he, “I shall be glad to hear them. But”--and -the deliberateness with which he pronounced the next words left no doubt -that the die had already been cast--“this paper is to issue!” - -The Lincolns brought two young children with them into the White House, -both boys. Of the elder, Willie, we hear little, except that he died -there, and that his loss added one more to the many lines which the war -had worn into the brow of his father. The younger boy, “Tad,” is better -known to the public through the exploitation of his juvenile pranks by -the newspapers and his appearance in some of the President’s portraits. -Many stories are told of his fondness for bringing ragged urchins from -the streets into the kitchen and feeding them, to the sore distress of -the cook and sometimes to the disturbance of the domestic routine in -other ways; but for whatever he wished to do in the charitable line he -found his father a faithful ally. There is a pretty tale of his having -espied in the lower corridor of the White House, one very rainy day, a -young man and woman, rather shabbily dressed, who seemed depressed in -spirits and anxious to consult with some one. Tad called his father’s -attention to them, and the President went up and asked them what they -wished. His sympathetic manner loosed their tongues and they told him -their story. - -It appeared that the girl was from Virginia and had run away from home -to marry her lover, an honorably discharged soldier from Indiana. They -had met by arrangement in Washington, but they were strangers there and -very unsophisticated, and had little money to pay a minister or spend on -hotel accommodations; so they had been wandering about the city for -hours, not knowing where to go, and had taken refuge in the White House -from the storm. They had no idea that they were talking to the President -till he made himself known. With characteristic directness, he sent for -a clergyman of his acquaintance and had the nuptial knot tied in his -presence. Then he invited bride and groom to remain as his guests till -the next day, when the weather cleared and they went their way -rejoicing. - -Although Mrs. Lincoln was the titular head of the President’s household, -the woman recognized as the social leader of the administration was Kate -Chase, daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury. She was handsome, -accomplished, and, after her marriage with William Sprague, the young -War Governor of Rhode Island, rich as well. Mrs. Lincoln never liked -her, but the President’s gift for peacemaking came into action here, -and there was no public display of the coolness of feeling between them. -Mrs. Sprague had a strong taste for politics, and her chief ambition was -to see her father President; but Lincoln cut off that chance at the -critical moment by making him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Among -the young and rising Congressmen with whom Mrs. Sprague was brought into -contact during this period was Roscoe Conkling, a Representative from -New York, who later became a Senator. He was the pink of elegance in -person and attire, of stately and somewhat condescending manners, and -master of the arts of verbal expression. They formed a firm friendship -which lasted as long as both lived. Edgewood, the Chase home on the -northern border of the city, was for many years one of the show places -of Washington, and after Chase’s death Conkling procured from Congress -an act exempting it from taxation as a tribute to the public services of -its former owner. Another young Representative of whom Mrs. Sprague saw -almost as much as of Conkling, but liked less, was James G. Blaine of -Maine, a brilliant orator who in after years became Conkling’s most -powerful adversary. - -A warm friend of Chase’s who used to drop in at Edgewood whenever he was -in Washington was Horace Greeley, editor of the _New York Tribune_. He -was a quaint character, who wore his clothes awry and his hair long and -always tousled. His face he kept clean shaven, but raised a heavy blond -beard under his chin and jaws; and this, with his ruddy cheeks, blue -eyes, beaming spectacles, and generally bland aspect, made him look like -the typical back-country farmer of theatrical tradition. He accentuated -the peculiarities of his appearance by affecting a large soft hat and -not spotless white overcoat, the pockets of the latter habitually -bulging with newspapers. His handwriting was as unconventional as his -attire, and compositors in the _Tribune_ office had to be specially -trained in deciphering it, for Mr. Greeley was often unable to read it -himself after the subject-matter had grown cold in his mind. - -Greeley was an anti-slavery man, but not an aggressive abolitionist; -nevertheless he smiled benignantly upon the work of the Hutchinson -family and took some pains to introduce them in Washington wherever -their music would be likely to meet with a cordial reception. The -Hutchinsons were a Massachusetts family of sixteen brothers and sisters, -nearly all of them bearing Bible names given them by a deeply religious -mother. They learned as children to lead the singing in the Baptist -church attended by their parents, and, as their musical fame spread, one -of the - -[Illustration: _The “Old Capitol”_] - -brothers developed a talent as a versifier and began writing songs -adapted to their interpretation, breathing an earnest spirit of -patriotism and pleading for human freedom. From giving concerts in their -native town and neighborhood, they gradually essayed more and more -ambitious ventures, and with Greeley’s aid came under the favorable -notice of the administration. Lincoln, realizing the appeal their homely -entertainments would make to the Union volunteers, gave them a roving -commission to visit the camps of the Army of the Potomac and encouraged -them to take in the recruiting stations wherever they happened to be. -They mixed fun with their seriousness in such proportions as they -believed would please all classes in their audiences; and in their way -they did as much to keep the soldiers cheerful as Tom Paine had done -fourscore years before. - -So accustomed is the public mind to associating Lincoln and Grant as -coworkers for the Union cause that few persons suspect that the two men -never met till the Civil War was three-fourths over. Then, Congress -having revived the grade of Lieutenant-general of the Army, Grant was -ordered to Washington to receive his promotion. Arriving early in March, -1864, he went at once to the White House, where the President happened -to be holding a reception in the east room. He held back till most of -the people had passed, when Lincoln, recognizing him from his portraits, -turned to him with hand outstretched, saying: “This is General Grant, is -it not?” - -“It is, Mr. President,” answered Grant. And with this self-introduction, -fittingly simple, the two great figures of the war faced each other for -the first time. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -NEW FACES IN OLD PLACES - - -Although constantly urged to take precautions for his own safety, -Lincoln never did. He used to walk about the streets as freely as any -ordinary citizen; and night after night, during the darkest period of -the war, he would stroll across to Secretary Stanton’s office to talk -over the latest news from the front. Stanton’s remonstrances he would -dismiss with a weary smile, protesting that, as far as he was aware, he -had not an enemy in the world, but if he had, anybody who wished to kill -him had a hundred chances every day--so, why be uneasy? His second -inaugural address was shorter than the first; he wrote it about midnight -of the third of March, seated in an armchair where he was resting after -a hard day’s work, and holding the cardboard sheets in his lap. Its -concluding words were as memorable as those of four years before: “With -malice toward none, with charity for all, let us go forward with the -work we have to do: to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who -has borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, and to do all -things which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among -ourselves and with all nations.” - -Early on the fourth, he went to the Capitol quietly and devoted the -remaining hours of the morning to reading and signing bills. The -procession which had been arranged to escort him was formed at the White -House, with the President’s carriage at its head, occupied by Mrs. -Lincoln and Senators Harlan and Anthony. A platoon of marshals pioneered -it, and a detachment of the Union Light Guard surrounded it. The crowd, -recognizing the White House coachman on its box, but not seeing -distinctly who sat behind, cheered it all along the line under the -supposition that it held the President. Two companies of colored troops -and a lodge of colored Odd Fellows were among the marchers, this being -the first time that negroes ever took part in an inaugural pageant -except in some servile capacity. - -We have already seen how Washington received the news of the final -triumph of the Federal arms, and how Lincoln fell in the midst of the -general rejoicing. Many readers of his inaugural address of that year -have since professed to discern between its written lines a veiled -foreboding of the end. Certain it is that he was an habitual dreamer, -and that one dream, which came to him on the night before Fort Sumter -was bombarded, was repeated on the eve of the first battle of Bull Run, -and just before other important engagements. As he described it, he -seemed to be on the water in an unfamiliar boat, “moving rapidly toward -a dark, indefinite shore.” The last recurrence of the dream was in the -early morning hours of April 14, 1865. We shall never know, now, whether -it was this or some other portent that caused him to say to a trusted -companion, not long before his death: “I don’t think I shall live to see -the end of my term. I try to shake off the vision, but it still keeps -haunting me.” He had received several threatening letters, which he kept -in a separate file labeled: “Letters on Assassination.” After his death -there was found among these a note about the very plot in which Booth -was the chief actor. - -Fate plays strange tricks. For a few hours that spring, one friend in -Washington unconsciously held Lincoln’s life in his hand. Harriet -Riddle, since better known as Mrs. Davis, the novelist, was a pupil at a -local convent school. Shortly before the tragedy at Ford’s Theater, a -teacher who had been on a brief visit to a Southern town returned, -apparently laboring under some terrible excitement which she was trying -to suppress. At the session of her class immediately preceding their -separation for Good Friday, she suddenly fell upon her knees, bade them -all join her in prayer, and poured forth, in a voice and manner so -agonizing that the children were thrilled with a nameless horror, an -hysterical appeal for divine mercy on the souls who were soon to be -called before their Maker without warning. - -Harriet, who was an impressionable child, could hardly contain herself -till she reached home and sought her father, to whom she attempted to -relate the afternoon’s occurrence. He was the District-attorney, and an -intimate of the President’s, and was so immersed in the cares of office -that he put her off till he should have more leisure. When she was -awakened on Good Friday night by the noise of citizens and soldiers -hurrying through the streets and calling out the news of the -assassination, she uttered an exclamation which caught her father’s -attention, and then he listened to the tale which he had once waved -aside. “Why did you not tell me this before?” he demanded. It was then -too late to do more than collect such evidence as he might from the -pupils to aid the detectives; but the teacher who had uttered that awful -prayer had fled and could never be traced. No one could longer doubt her -guilty knowledge of the plot, probably acquired during her visit in the -South. - -The oath with which Vice-president Johnson took upon himself the -obligations of the Presidency was administered to him at his rooms in -the Kirkwood House, a hostelry on the Pennsylvania Avenue corner now -occupied by the Hotel Raleigh. Of his administration, the most broadly -interesting incident was the impeachment trial described in an earlier -chapter; and in our reflections on how history is shaped, another -personal anecdote seems worthy of a place. Its heroine was Miss Vinnie -Ream, the sculptor, who later became Mrs. Hoxie. - -As his trial drew near its close, and Johnson’s friends and enemies were -able to figure out pretty accurately how the Senate was going to divide, -it became plain that the issue would hang on a single vote. If all the -Senators counted against the President stood firm, he would be -convicted, thirty-six to eighteen; but Secretary Stanton insisted that -Ross of Kansas was preparing to go over from the majority to the -minority. Ross was occupying a room in the same house with Miss Ream on -Capitol Hill, and General Daniel E. Sickles, who was acquainted with -him, was deputed to see him on the night before the roll-call and try to -hold him fast against the President. Miss Ream happened to meet the -General at the door, ushered him into the parlor but refused to let him -see the Senator, and held him at bay till dawn the following morning, -when he gave up the effort as fruitless and went home. If she had -weakened for a moment, there is no telling what might have happened, for -Sickles was in a position to have brought very heavy pressure to bear -upon Ross. The roll-call showed thirty-five for conviction to nineteen -against--less than the two-thirds required to convict; and it was Ross’s -vote that saved Johnson. - -At the inauguration of Grant, the relations between him and the retiring -President were so strained, owing to the recent struggle at the War -Department, that Johnson refused to attend the ceremonies unless it -could be arranged that he and Grant should ride in separate carriages. -General Rawlins therefore acted as escort to Grant and Vice-president -Colfax. Grant was not much of a speaker, but the delivery of his -inaugural address is remembered for a pretty incident. His little -daughter Nellie, confused by the continuous bustle all about her, obeyed -on the platform the same childish impulse which moved her in any -exigency at home, and, running to his side, nestled against him, -clasping one of his hands in both of hers and holding it all the time he -was speaking. At the ball that evening, access to the supper-room and to -the cloak-room was by the same door, which caused a blockade in the -passage. The servants in charge of the wraps became hopelessly -demoralized, with the result that Horace Greeley had to wait two hours -to recover his white overcoat and lost his hat entirely. The torrent of -lurid expletives he let loose during his ordeal shared space and -importance, in the next day’s newspapers, with the thirty-five thousand -dollars’ worth of diamonds worn by Mrs. John Morrissey, wife of the -prize-fighter. - -Grant’s second inauguration began inauspiciously, his aged father -falling down a flight of stairs at the Capitol and suffering injuries -which finally caused his death. The day was stormy, and the evening the -coldest known in Washington for years. Unfortunately, the only place -where the ball could be held was an improvised wooden building, through -the crevices of which the icy wind blew a gale; and, to complete -everybody’s misery, the heating apparatus broke down, so that many of -the ladies who had come in conventional toilets had to protect their -shoulders with fur mantillas, while their escorts put on overcoats. The -President was so cold that he forgot the figures in the state quadrille -which he was to lead, and was obliged to depend on General Sherman to -push him through them. The supper was ruined, the meats and salads -competing in temperature with the ices; all that could be saved was the -coffee, which was kept hot over alcohol lamps. The breath of the members -of the band congealed in their instruments, and several hundred canaries -which were to sing in the intervals between band pieces shriveled into -little downy balls on the bottoms of their cages and uttered not a -trill. - -The key-note of Grant’s administration on its political side was his -steadfast faith that any friend of his was capable of filling any office -in his gift. He named Alexander T. Stewart, the New York dry-goods -merchant, for Secretary of the Treasury, but had to let him resign on -account of technical objections raised in the Senate. Wendell Phillips -having come to his defense at a hostile mass-meeting in Boston, Grant -wished to make him Minister to England, but the offer was declined -because Mrs. Phillips would not be able to go abroad at that time. Caleb -Cushing of Massachusetts, though a stanch Democrat before the war, had -become an “administration man” as soon as the Union was threatened, and -thereby aroused the admiration of Grant, who named him for Chief Justice -after Chase’s death; but the same political independence which so won -Grant had incensed a number of Senators, who caused the rejection of the -nomination. - -Later, however, Grant succeeded in sending Cushing as Minister to -Spain. Cushing was a man full of peculiarities, which strengthened with -his years. At an early age he discarded the umbrella as a nuisance and -braved storms unprotected. Naturally his hats suffered. At the time he -received his billet for Spain, he was wearing one of the chimney-pot -variety, which, from its appearance, he must have bought many years -before. The nap was a good deal worn, there was a slight bulge in the -top, and, thanks to the squareness of his head, he could wear it with -either side in front. When some one suggested that he had better buy a -new hat before presenting himself at the Spanish court, he considered -the question solemnly, turning the old hat around and examining it with -care before answering: “No, I think I shall wait and see what the -fashions are in Madrid.” Though ready to spend his money freely for any -public purpose, in private indulgences the frugal notions inherited from -his New England ancestry came to the front. Hardly anybody ever saw him -light a fresh cigar, but he used to carry about in his pocket a case -packed with partly consumed stumps, to one of which he would help -himself when he wished a smoke, only to let it die again as soon as he -had become interested in talking. - -It was because of his liking for both Blaine and Conkling that Grant -strove, as his last act in the White House, to reconcile the two men, -who were intensely hostile to each other. Their quarrel had grown out of -a passage in debate when Conkling had made some very sarcastic comments -on Blaine. The latter retorted in kind. “The contempt of that -large-minded gentleman,” said he, glancing toward Conkling, “is so -wilting, his haughty disdain, his grandiloquent swell, his majestic, -supereminent, overpowering, turkey-gobbler strut have been so crushing -to myself and all the members of this House, that I know it was an act -of temerity for me to venture upon a controversy with him.” Referring to -a recent newspaper article in which Conkling had been likened to the -late Henry Winter Davis, Blaine went on: “The gentleman took it -seriously, and it has given his strut additional pomposity. The -resemblance is great. It is striking. Hyperion to a satyr, Thersites to -Hercules, mud to marble, a dunghill to a diamond, a singed cat to a -Bengal tiger, a whining puppy to a roaring lion!” - -Conkling never forgave this attack. It seems like a small thing to -change the whole current of a nation’s history, but it probably cost -Blaine the Presidency; for in 1884 the disaffection of the Republicans -in Conkling’s old home in central New York gave the State to Cleveland. -President Grant’s effort to bring the foes together failed because -Blaine, though ready to make any ordinary concessions, balked when -Conkling demanded that he should confess his “mud to marble” speech to -have been “unqualifiedly and maliciously false.” - -In 1874, Miss Nellie Grant was married to Algernon Sartoris, a British -subject. She was her father’s pet. At her wedding, he stood beside his -wife to receive the guests, his face wearing a sphinx-like calm, though -every one knew how he would feel the parting soon to follow. His forced -composure continued till Nellie had left the house with her husband, and -then he disappeared. An old friend, seeking him up-stairs, tapped at his -chamber door, and, as there was no response, pushed it slightly ajar and -looked in. There, on the bed, face downward, his eyes buried in his -hands and his whole frame shaken with grief, lay the great soldier, -sobbing like a child. - -Throughout the Grant administration, the social arbiter for Washington -was Mrs. Hamilton Fish, wife of the Secretary of State. She was a woman -of the world, broad-minded and efficient, but the White House was not a -very ceremonious place in that era. When the new Danish Minister called, -for instance, in full regalia, to present his credentials, he found no -one prepared to receive him, even the negro boy who met him at the door -having to hurry into a coat before ushering him in. Persons who -attended the state dinners say that Grant often turned down his -wine-glasses. It was, as far as I have ever heard, the first instance of -a President’s doing this; and it paved the way for the reign of cold -water which came in with the next President, Rutherford B. Hayes. - -Hayes entered office under cloudy auspices. His competitor for the -Presidency was Samuel J. Tilden, a powerful Democratic leader. In some -of the Southern States which were still in the throes of reconstruction, -United States troops were doing police duty, the Governors were -appointees of a Republican President, and the election machinery was in -the hands of Republican office-holders, though the bulk of the white -voting population was Democratic. In these States the official -canvassers had reported the Republican electors chosen, the electors had -cast their ballots for Hayes, and the Governors had signed and forwarded -their certificates accordingly, in defiance of Democratic protests that -the returns were fictitious. Without these States, the Democratic -candidate had one hundred and eighty-four of the one hundred and -eighty-five electoral votes necessary to a choice, while the Republican -candidate could win only with their aid; so a single electoral vote -would tip the scale either way. The duty of opening the certificates -and - -[Illustration: _St. Paul’s, the Oldest Church in the District_] - -announcing the results devolved upon the President of the Senate, a -strong Republican. - -The Democrats made so serious charges of falsification of the records -that the whole country became much excited, and fears were entertained -in Congress that another civil war might be impending. In the midst of -the turmoil, a joint committee of both chambers worked out a plan for a -bi-partisan Electoral Commission, to consist of five Senators, five -Representatives, and five Justices of the Supreme Court, before whom all -the questions at issue should be argued by counsel, and whose decisions -should place the result beyond immediate appeal. The Commission, as made -up, contained eight Republicans and seven Democrats, and its decisions -were always given by a vote of eight to seven. It held its sessions in -the room now occupied by the Supreme Court, where it began its work on -February 1, 1877, and at the end of a month rendered its last ruling, -which gave the Presidency to Mr. Hayes. - -As the fourth of March was to fall on Sunday, President Grant had Hayes -meet Chief Justice Waite in the red parlor of the White House on the -evening of the third and take the oath privately. The inaugural ball was -omitted because the Electoral Commission had finished its work too late -to enable preparations to be made. President Hayes was not nearly so -conspicuous a figure during the following four years as his wife, who -was a woman of very positive convictions, especially on the subject of -alcoholic stimulants. At her instance, wines were banished from the -White House table, the only exception occurring when the Grand Dukes -Alexis and Constantin of Russia visited Washington. It is said to have -been some incident at the entertainment given in their honor which fixed -Mr. and Mrs. Hayes definitely in the determination not to depart again -from the rule of teetotalism. - -The newspapers poked a good deal of innocent fun at the Hayes parties on -the score that, though the ban was never lifted from the ordinary -intoxicants drunk from glasses, there was always plenty of strong Roman -punch served in orange-skins. The nickname which presently fastened -itself to this deceptive course was the “life-saving station.” In his -diary, however, Mr. Hayes has left us the statement: “The joke of the -Roman punch oranges was not on us, but on the drinking people. My orders -were to flavor them rather strongly with the same flavor that is found -in Jamaica rum. This took! It was refreshing to hear the drinkers say, -with a smack of their lips, ‘Would they were hot!’” I am bound to add -that, in spite of the good man’s enjoyment of his ruse, the suspicion -still survives that his steward used to put a private and particular -interpretation on his orders. - -Although Mr. Hayes was not a member of any church, his wife was an -ardent Methodist, and one marked feature of their life in Washington was -the Sunday evening sociables at the White House, when Cabinet officers -and other dignitaries would come in and pass a couple of hours singing -hymns, with light conversation between. Among the most interested -attendants at these gatherings was General Sherman, who used to join -vigorously in the singing--or try to. Another, who was destined to play -an independent part in history a few years afterward, was a clever young -Congressman from Ohio named William McKinley, Junior. He had been a -volunteer soldier in Hayes’s regiment early in the war, and they had -grown to be fast friends. At one of the first of the secular receptions -during the Hayes régime, the guest of honor was a budding celebrity, -Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. She labored under the handicap of knowing -no English, and had to carry on most of her conversation through an -interpreter. - -President Hayes provoked a good deal of criticism among the Southerners -in Washington by appointing Frederick Douglass, the negro ex-slave and -orator, United States Marshal of the District, for the office had up to -that time carried with it the duties of a sort of majordomo at the -President’s receptions, including the presentation of the guests. A -visitor to Washington about these days who did not attend the state -receptions, but held some of his own in the open air, was a man of small -and unimpressive stature, with black hair and mustache and a rather -good-natured face, whose portrait appeared repeatedly in the illustrated -papers, and whose name carried with it a certain terror to timid souls -who expected to see him launch a social revolution. This was Dennis -Kearney, who had made himself notorious by his speeches in the sand-lots -of San Francisco, declaring that “the Chinese must go,” and denouncing -every one, regardless of race, who had been thrifty enough to accumulate -any of this world’s goods. His remarkable coinage of words and generally -unique English gave currency to a multitude of epigrammatic phrases, -which for several years were known as “Kearneyisms.” - -All through the campaign of 1880 a great deal was made of the sayings -and doings of “Grandma Garfield,” the mother of the Republican -candidate: an old lady of a type rarely seen now, who was not ashamed of -her years, wore her cap and spectacles as badges of distinction, and -never forgot that, however great he might have grown, her son was still -her son. Nor did he forget it; and on the east portico of the Capitol, -with his assent to the constitutional oath barely off his lips, his -first act as President was to bend down and kiss her. The inauguration -was notable, too, for the important part taken in the parade by the -defeated competitor for the Presidency, General Winfield S. Hancock. He -was a splendid-looking man and a superb horseman, and in his uniform as -a Major-general was the most imposing object in the procession. The -spectators, delighted with his sportsmanlike spirit, paid him as hearty -a tribute as they paid the President. - -A few weeks after the inauguration, a fierce quarrel broke out over the -distribution of federal patronage, splitting the Republican party into -two factions. The angry irruptions of the newspapers on both sides, -which would have passed with any normal mind for what they were worth, -made a more serious impression on that of Charles J. Guiteau, a -degenerate with a craving for self-advertisement; and, failing in his -attempt to obtain an office for himself, he saw in the controversy an -opportunity to pose as a hero by removing its cause. Garfield, as a -graduate of Williams College, had arranged to attend the next -commencement, and was in the railway station on the second of July, -1881, on the way to his train, when he was approached by Guiteau from -behind and shot. He lingered, first in the White House and later at -Elberon, New Jersey, whither he was taken after the weather became too -sultry in Washington, till the nineteenth of September. The assassin was -brought to trial at the winter term of the Supreme Court of the -District, convicted of murder, and hanged. - -On the evening of the day of Garfield’s death, the Vice-president, -Chester A. Arthur, was sworn in at his home in New York City, in the -presence of his son and a few personal friends, including Elihu Root. A -more formal administration of the oath took place in the -Vice-president’s room at the Capitol in Washington three days later, -Chief Justice Waite officiating, with Associate Justices Harlan and -Matthews, General Grant, and several Senators and Representatives as -witnesses. After signing the oath, Arthur read a brief address and -returned at once to his office. - -Arthur was a widower, and his only daughter was still too young to take -full charge of his household affairs, so his sister, Mrs. McElroy, -presided at all his social functions. He was very fond of music, and the -great operatic and concert stars were always sure of a warm welcome from -him when they passed through Washington. The finest of his dinners was -that which he gave for Christine Nilsson. As the company rose from the -table and he offered his arm to escort her back to the east room, the -Marine Band in the corridor, responding to a secret signal, began -playing one of her favorite airs, and, with the spontaneous delight of a -child, she fell to singing it, her voice soaring bird-like above the -instruments as she walked. This surprise for Miss Nilsson was typical of -the graceful things Arthur was fond of doing, and in which he set the -pace for the members of his official family. Ex-president Grant and his -wife, on their return from their tour of the world, dropped in upon -Washington, as it chanced, just when a reception was about to be held at -the White House. Arthur sent his carriage for them. Mrs. Frelinghuysen, -wife of the Secretary of State, was on that occasion filling Mrs. -McElroy’s accustomed station next to the President in the receiving -line; but on the entrance of the distinguished guests she withdrew, -gently pressing Mrs. Grant into her place as hostess of the evening. - -As the first Democratic President since the war, Grover Cleveland of New -York found a hard task laid out for him. He realized that he owed his -election chiefly to the reform element in both the great parties, yet it -was his own party that claimed him, and, having been out of power for a -quarter-century, it was not over-modest in its demands. His efforts at -tariff reduction stirred the protectionists to such activity in the -next campaign that Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a Republican and a -grandson of “Old Tippecanoe,” was elected in November, 1888. When he -entered office, Cleveland was a bachelor forty-eight years old. In June, -1886, he married Miss Frances Folsom, the daughter of a former law -partner to whom he had been warmly attached. The wedding ceremony was -performed in the White House, only a small party of friends attending. -Mrs. Cleveland, who was young and of attractive presence, made friends -for herself on every side and did much to soften the antagonisms which -her husband’s course in office necessarily aroused. - -The clerk of the weather seemed to have been storing his rain for weeks -in order to let it all out upon Harrison’s inauguration, and the street -pageant was a drenched and draggled affair. The civilities of the -outgoing to the incoming President gave the day its one touch of -cheerfulness. Cleveland sat on the rear seat of the open landau which -bore them to the Capitol, the front seat being occupied by Senators Hoar -and Cockrell, acting as a committee of escort. In order to enable -Harrison to lift his hat to the people who cheered him from the -sidewalk, Cleveland raised his own umbrella and held it over his -companion. When Cockrell undertook to do the same for Hoar, his umbrella -broke. Cleveland at once borrowed an umbrella of his Secretary of the -Treasury in the next carriage, and, when Mr. Hoar demurred, reassured -him with a laugh: “Don’t be alarmed, Senator; we’re honest, and I’ll see -that it gets back!” As they drove down the Avenue, most of the applause, -naturally, was for the President-elect; but once in a while a spectator -would shout, “Good-by, Grover!” or something of the sort, and Cleveland -would return the greeting with a smile and a nod. So much kindly feeling -was manifested throughout the morning that Harrison, who was -temperamentally the least effusive of men, was deeply touched; and he -could not forbear referring in his inaugural address to the courtesy he -had received at Cleveland’s hands, adding that he should endeavor to -show like consideration to his successor four years later. - -And four years later Providence gave him the chance, which he improved -as far as in him lay. In the meantime he had passed through many sad -experiences. Factional divisions, almost as serious as those that -culminated in the assassination of Garfield, had broken up his party. -His Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, had parted company with him on the -eve of the meeting of the Republican National Convention of 1892, become -his rival for the Presidential nomination, and died the following -winter. Two of Blaine’s sons and one of his daughters had already died. -Mr. Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, had fallen dead at a public -banquet, just after finishing a memorable speech in defense of the -administration. General Tracy, Secretary of the Navy, had lost his wife -and daughter in a fire which destroyed their Washington home. The wife -of the President’s secretary, Mr. Halford, had died; and to crown his -load of sorrows, Mr. Harrison lost his own wife and her father almost at -the time of his defeat for reëlection. - -On the other hand, he had enjoyed the presence in the White House of his -daughter, Mrs. McKee, with her two children, one of whom, a bright -little boy named in his honor, was his special favorite and playfellow -out of office hours. The south garden was the scene of many of their -frolics, which recalled the legends about John Adams and his juvenile -tyrant. One incident will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. -“Baby McKee,” as Benjamin junior was commonly called, used to drive a -goat before his little wagon. This amusement was confined, as a rule, to -occasions when the President could be near at hand to watch proceedings, -for the goat was an erratic brute. One day it caught the President -napping and started at full gallop for an open gate. Mr. Harrison, -suddenly awakened to the situation, dashed after. The goat succeeded in -pulling the wagon through the narrow aperture without a collision, but, -once in the street, bolted straight for a trench in which workmen were -laying a pipe. By a succession of mighty leaps, such as probably no -dignitary of his rank had ever made before, Mr. Harrison contrived to -get in front of the animal, seize it by the bit, and swing it around in -the nick of time to prevent its jumping the excavation and tumbling -wagon and boy into the mud at the bottom. The President was puffing hard -as he returned triumphantly to the White House, dragging the reluctant -goat by the headstall, under a running fire of complaints from his -grandson for spoiling the morning ride. - -When Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland came back in 1893, they brought with them -their infant daughter Ruth, and open gates in the south garden of the -White House became at once a thing of the past; for the garden was the -child’s only playground, and an epidemic of kidnapping had recently -broken out. For further security, and in order to have one place where -his domestic hours would be free from business interruptions, the -President rented the small estate known as Woodley, in one of the -northwestern suburbs. Here he lived during the greater part of the year, -driving in daily to his work and spending a night in Washington now and -then if necessary. By that time the official encroachments on the family -space of the White House had reached a point where either the building -must be enlarged or a separate dwelling provided for the President. A -scheme of enlargement had been broached in Harrison’s term, but the -plans drawn under Mrs. Harrison’s direction changed the shape of the old -mansion in too many essential features to win the approval of the -architects consulted, and the matter was dropped. The Clevelands, by -living at Woodley, escaped some of the cramping the Harrisons had -suffered, and the McKinleys, who came in next, got along pretty well -because they had no children. - -As Senator La Follette once said, McKinley never had a fair chance as -President to show what was in him: his first term was broken into by the -Spanish War, and his second was cut off almost at its beginning by -assassination. He was sweet-natured and a born manager of men, and no -one who ever filled the Presidential chair left behind him a more -fragrant memory. As his murder occurred in Buffalo, and Czolgosz, who -killed him, was tried and put to death there, the episode serves our -present purpose only in leading up to the accession of Theodore -Roosevelt of New York, the Vice-president, who was recalled from a -summer vacation in the mountains to take the head of the state. His -inauguration was of the simplest sort, at the house of a friend in -Buffalo, where some members of the McKinley Cabinet and a few other -gentlemen met to witness the administration of the oath. - -His first few months in the White House convinced the new President that -something must be done without delay to relieve the building, which had -become not only inconvenient but dangerous. For several years, when -repairs had been found necessary, they had been made by temporary -patchwork, with little reference to their effect on anything else; not a -few of the floor timbers subject to most strain were badly rotted, and -others stood in so perilous relations to the lighting apparatus that -only by a miracle had the house escaped destruction by fire. Fortunately -Congress had begun to show some interest in a long-mooted project for -bringing the city back to the plan laid out by L’Enfant; and a generous -appropriation was procured for making over the White House to resemble -as nearly as practicable the President’s Palace built by Hoban. All the -latter half of 1902 was given to this work. The office was moved out of -the main building and planted in a little house of its own on the same -spot where Jefferson used to have his workroom, at the extremity of the -western terrace. The eastern terrace, of which nothing but the buried -foundations remained, was rebuilt, and so arranged as to afford an -entrance for guests at the larger receptions. - -Inside of the main house, the old lines were kept intact as far as the -comfort of its occupants would permit, though the restoration did work -some changes. The noble east room, which for many years was decorated in -the style of the saloon of a river steamboat, wears now the air of -simple elegance designed for it before steamboats were invented; and the -state dining-room has been so enlarged that future Presidents will not -be forced, on especially great occasions, to spread their tables in the -east room in order to spare the diners the annoyance of bumping elbows. -Upstairs the changes have been rather of function than of form. The room -which, from Grant’s day to McKinley’s, was used for Cabinet meetings, -and where our peace protocol with Spain was signed, is now a library; -that in which Lincoln read to his official family the first draft of his -Emancipation Proclamation is now a bedroom, and a like fate has befallen -the former library, where Cleveland penned his Venezuela message. The -old lines of partition, however, are all there. Logs still blaze and -crackle in the fireplace beside which Jackson puffed his corncob pipe. -The windows through which Lincoln looked over at the Virginia hills have -not changed even the shape or size of their old-fashioned panes. The -places where our first royal guest slept, and where Garfield passed his -long ordeal of suffering, remain bedchambers. - -Mrs. Roosevelt, who loved the White House and had made a study of its -architectural history, personally supervised every stage of its -restoration. When the alterations were finished, she took the same -interest in the process of refurnishing, so that the final product was, -as nearly as modern conditions would permit, the White House of a -century ago. The removal of needless obstructions was one of the most -successful elements in the renovation, as it made possible the handling -of a crowd of fifteen hundred or two thousand people without confusion. -Socially, the Roosevelt administration was in every way the most -brilliant Washington has ever known. Mrs. Roosevelt was a perfect -hostess, and the many-sided President drew about him the leaders in -every line of thought and action. In his democracy of companionship and -his forceful way of doing whatever he laid his hand to, he was another -Jackson; in his attraction for men of letters, students of statecraft, -artists, and scientific workers, he revived the best traditions of -Jefferson. - -The four years of Taft are too fresh in the public memory to call for -extended mention. Taft was forced to have his inauguration in the Senate -Chamber on account of the execrable weather, for the worst blizzard -prevailed on the fourth of March, 1909, that had visited Washington for -ten years. The railroads leading into the city were blockaded, so that -many passengers who had come from a distance to attend the ceremony were -compelled to forsake their trains a mile or more from their destination -and plow their own way in, as the sole alternative of camping in the -cars for an indefinite number of hours. Only by the utmost diligence on -the part of the municipal laborers were the streets kept in condition -for the parade to pass, and most of the spectators’ stands erected on -the sidewalks were utterly deserted. Mr. Roosevelt having announced, -some time before, his intention to leave for New York as soon as he had -seen his successor sworn in, Mrs. Taft made the drive between the -Capitol and the White House by her husband’s side. - -Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, the next President, signalized his advent -by notifying the citizens of Washington that he did not wish any -inaugural ball, and the preparations already under way were abandoned. -His administration is still writing its own history. - -[Illustration: _St. John’s, “the President’s Church”_] - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE REGION ’ROUND ABOUT - - -No American city has suburbs more interesting than Washington’s. Those -that hold first rank, naturally, are on the Virginia side of the -Potomac, the region most redolent of the memory of the great patriot -whose name was given to the capital. The Arlington estate, which lies -nearest, was never the home of George Washington, but he visited it -often, for it belonged by inheritance to the grandson of his wife by her -earlier marriage; and George and Martha were so pleased with it that -they built a little summer-house about where the flagstaff now stands, -whence they could overlook the work going on in the new federal city -across the river. Young George Custis, owner of the place, built the -spacious dwelling substantially as we now find it, finishing it four -years after Washington’s death. He left the property to his daughter -Mary, who in 1831 became the wife of Robert E. Lee, then a lieutenant in -the regular army, but thirty years later commander-in-chief of the -Confederate forces. Their wedding took place in the old drawing-room, -where visitors now register their names. - -Lee had just reached colonel’s rank when the Civil War broke out. He was -opposed to secession, but, faithful to the traditions of State -sovereignty in which he had been trained, decided that it was his duty -to sacrifice all other ties and follow the fortunes of Virginia. After a -painful interview with General Scott, who strove vainly to shake his -resolution, he wrote, in the library across the hall from the -drawing-room, his resignation of his commission in the United States -army. Then, accompanied by his family, he set out for the South, never -to return. In a few days the Federal troops took possession of the -estate as important to the protection of Washington. Here McClellan -worked out his plans for the reorganization of the Union army following -the Bull Run disaster. A few years afterward, there being no one at hand -to pay the war-tax laid on the land, it was sold under the hammer, and -the Government bid it in. Before the sale had been definitely ordered, a -Northern relative of the Lees came forward with an offer to pay the levy -and costs, but the tax commissioners declined the tender on the ground -that the delinquent taxpayer had not made it in person. - -Meanwhile, the house had been turned into a military hospital, and the -patients who died there were buried close by. When it became necessary -to have a soldiers’ burial-ground near Washington, Quartermaster-general -Meigs was permitted to lay off two hundred acres of the estate for the -purpose. This was the beginning of the National Cemetery of to-day, -where about eighteen thousand soldiers and sailors have found a last -resting-place. - -Some time after the war, General Lee’s son brought suit for the recovery -of the property and won it, the Supreme Court holding that the tax -commissioners ought to have accepted the tender made them; but Mr. Lee -compromised with the Government, conveying to it his interest for one -hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Since then the house has been put -into excellent repair, and the land about it suitably enclosed and -improved. On the upper edge of the estate has been established the -military post known as Fort Myer, where cavalry-training is carried to a -high point, weather observations are made, and a wireless telegraph -station exchanges despatches with the Eiffel tower in Paris. Some of the -land down by the river has been made over into an experimental farm -under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture. - -Happily, the Cemetery has been kept free from tawdry memorials and -inconsequential ornament, and enveloped in an atmosphere of dignity -well fitting its sacred character. Its most impressive tomb is that -dedicated to the Unknown Dead, which contains the remains of more than -two thousand soldiers found on various battlefields but never -identified. “Their names and deaths,” says the inscription, “are -recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens -honor them as their noble army of martyrs.” Not far away is a fine -amphitheater with a carpet of turf and a canopy of trellised vines, -where memorial exercises are held annually on Decoration Day, the -President almost always taking part. There is also a Temple of Fame, -bearing the names of Washington and Lincoln, with those of the military -leaders who particularly distinguished themselves in the Civil War. An -extension has recently been made in the grounds devoted to sepulture, -where the most conspicuous monument is that which commemorates the -tragedy of the battleship _Maine_ in Havana harbor. The base is built to -represent a gun-turret on the deck of a man-of-war; on this are -inscribed the names of the victims, while from the center of the turret -rises a mast with a fighting-top. A larger and more ambitious -amphitheater, also, has been laid out in the extension. - -From Arlington we can go, by the same road that Washington trod on his -trips, to Alexandria, a town which fairly reeks with associations, from -the colonial names of some of its streets--King, Queen, Prince, -Princess, Duke, Duchess, Royal--to its remnants of cobblestone pavement -laid by the Hessian prisoners in the Revolution. Here is the old Carlyle -mansion, where General Braddock had his headquarters before starting on -his ill-fated expedition against the French and Indians. In its blue -drawing-room Washington, as a young surveyor ambitious to serve his -king, received the first rudiments of his military education; and at the -foot of yonder staircase one evening stood the same Washington, -expectant, while pretty Sally Fairfax tripped lightly down to join him -and be led through the opening cotillion at her coming-out ball. - -This must have been a splendid mansion in its time, with a terraced -garden descending to the river-bank, and a fountain in the midst of the -flower-beds. It was built on the ruins of a fort used by the early -settlers against the Indians; the living-rooms of the fort became the -cellar of the mansion, and the fort proper the plaza, upon which the -main hallway opens. You enter the house now through a cozy little -tea-room established by a group of young ladies of Alexandria; and it -may be your good fortune to be shown about the premises by one of them -who is herself a member of the historic Carlyle and Fairfax families -and familiar with all their ancestral tales. - -A prominent site in town is covered by Christ Church, where Washington -worshiped, and where you can see the square family pew for which he paid -the record price, thirty-six pounds and ten shillings. The church stands -in a large, old-fashioned yard, sprinkled with the gravestones of men -and women of local renown. Hither, on Sundays, drove the ladies from -Mount Vernon, seven miles away, in a chariot with a mahogany body, green -Venetian blinds, and pictured panels, drawn by four horses. The General -did not take kindly to the coach for himself, but rode beside it on his -favorite saddle-horse, followed at a respectful distance by Bishop, his -colored body-servant, in scarlet livery. After service he would linger -in the churchyard, chatting with his friends, till Bishop reminded him -of the flight of time by bringing up his horse and holding the stirrup -for him to mount. - -A spirited historical controversy has been waged over the question of -Washington’s attitude toward religion. The weight of evidence favors the -idea that, though not bound by dogma, he had a broad faith in the -philosophy of Christianity, always knelt with the rest of the -congregation and joined in the responses, and occasionally remained for -the communion. He certainly encouraged his slaves to believe in the -efficacy of prayer; for once, when a long-continued drought threatened -to ruin his crops, he called his farm-hands together on Sunday morning -and bade them put up their united supplication for rain. They did so, -and to their great delight the flood-gates of heaven suddenly opened and -deluged the earth; but the Washington family were caught in the storm on -their way home from church, and could not make shelter soon enough to -save Mrs. Washington’s best gown from serious damage or the General from -being soaked to the skin. - -In his younger days, Washington was fond of dancing, and used to come -into town to attend assemblies at Clagett’s Tavern. The assembly-hall -was up-stairs. It was afterward divided into three rooms, one of which, -having fallen into the hands of persons who respect its pedigree, has -been pretty well preserved. In the old times it had at one end a gallery -for the musicians, accessible only by a ladder, which was removed as -soon as they were all in their places. This arrangement was designed to -compel them to stay at their work till released, and to drink only what -was passed up to them with the approval of the floor-committee. - -Across the corridor from the old assembly-hall was a chamber that later -became interesting through its occupancy by an unknown woman who came to -the tavern one morning in 1816, plainly in ill health. She was -accompanied by a few servants, with whom she conversed only in French, -and neither she nor they could be drawn into any communication with -other persons, except what was necessary to engage accommodations and -order meals. On the fourth day of her stay, there appeared on the scene -a strange man, who from various indications was assumed to be her -husband. An hour after his arrival she died in his arms. He buried her -in St. Paul’s cemetery on the outskirts of the town, planting a -willow-tree over her grave, and raising at its head a stone inscribed to -the memory simply of “A Female Stranger,” with this stanza from Pope’s -“Unfortunate Lady”: - - “How loved, how honored once, avails thee not, - To whom related, or by whom begot. - A heap of dust alone remains of thee, - ’Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.” - -And the Female Stranger remains a mystery to this day, though many -efforts have been made to discover her identity. A local suspicion that -she was Theodosia Allston, the daughter of Aaron Burr, seems to be -discredited by the fact that Theodosia’s disappearance occurred in 1812, -and that her husband was dead long before the Stranger came to -Clagett’s Tavern. - -How public-spirited a citizen Washington was is attested by his having -laid the foundation of Alexandria’s free-school system, presented the -town with its first fire-engine, organized its first militia company, -and got up a lottery to raise a fund for improving the country roads -thereabout. He was an earnest Freemason, and the lodge named for him -owns a number of relics like the chair in which he presided as Master, -his apron, his wedding gloves, his spurs, his pruning-knife, and a -penknife which his mother gave him when he was eleven years old and -which he carried till he died. It has also the last authentic portrait -of him taken from life, a pastel done by William Williams of -Philadelphia. - -In and around Alexandria are other points of interest, including the -house in which Colonel Ellsworth was killed, and one where, it is said, -Martha Washington secreted herself for a while during her widowhood for -fear of a slave uprising; a theological seminary which has graduated, -among other eminent divines, Bishops Phillips Brooks of Boston and Henry -C. Potter of New York; and the nearly obliterated remains of the road -which, in 1765, General Braddock began to build into the West. - -We can go to Mount Vernon by boat, or over a road which Congress has -repeatedly, but without effect, been petitioned to acquire and improve. -Already a trolley company has recognized a public demand and is running -cars on a regular schedule from the heart of the capital city to the -borders of Washington’s old estate. On the way down we pass Wellington, -once the home of Tobias Lear, whom General Washington hired for two -hundred dollars a year to act as tutor to the children at Mount Vernon, -promoting him later to the post of private secretary. In both -capacities, his employer provided, he “will sit at my table, will live -as I live, will mix with the company who resort to the house, and will -be treated in every respect with courtesy and proper attention.” Lear -married three wives, one of them a kinswoman of the General’s. He -acquired means, removed in later life to Washington, and became a -merchant with a warehouse on the river. His tombstone in the -Congressional Cemetery recites an overflowing list of his virtues and -honors, and posterity owes him a large debt for having preserved many of -the Washingtoniana most valued now by historians. - -Mount Vernon became the property of the Washington family by a grant -from Lord Culpepper in 1670 to John Washington, the great-grandfather of -George. It was christened in honor of Admiral Vernon, a friend of -Lawrence Washington, the half-brother who brought George up and -superintended his education. George, who received it by inheritance, -willed it to his nephew Bushrod, he to his nephew John, and John to a -son of the same name. Financial embarrassments led the last heir to part -with some of the land; but to an area of a few hundred acres, including -the mansion, the family tomb, and the wharf on the Potomac, he held fast -till arrangements could be made for its purchase by the Mount Vernon -Ladies’ Association, a society of patriotic women who, with money -privately raised, have restored the place and kept it in order ever -since. There is good reason to doubt whether this would ever have come -about but for the heroic energy of Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham of South -Carolina, who, though a confirmed invalid, devised and executed a plan -which saved the estate from being sold to a professional showman. - -Just as in Alexandria we found ourselves in touch with a George -Washington who was a flesh-and-blood Virginian as distinguished from the -colorless paragon of the standard histories, so at Mount Vernon we meet -the same Washington in his character of husband, farmer, and host. Even -here, however, we are not wholly beyond the penumbra of fiction; for -only five miles away is the town of Pohick, once the parish seat of -Parson Weems, the inventor of the cherry-tree myth on which my -generation were industriously fed. Although, of course, no one still -living in the region can remember Washington, there are not a few who -are familiar with the details of his daily life, handed down in their -families from ancestors who did remember him. These make him out a very -human country gentleman, who loved to ride, to shoot, to fence, and to -wrestle; who mixed business with pleasure in an occasional horse-race or -real estate speculation; who disbelieved in slavery, and was recognized -by his own two hundred bondmen as a kind master, yet was noted for -getting more work out of a negro than any other slaveholder in Virginia, -and for not hesitating to administer corporal punishment to one who -deserved it. - -We learn from these sources that he was “as straight as an Indian, and -as free in his walk”; that he was what the ladies of that day, in spite -of some marks left by the smallpox, styled “a pretty man”; that his -weight of two hundred and ten pounds was all bone and muscle; and that -he stood six feet and two inches tall in his shoes, which ranged in size -from Number eleven to Number thirteen. His hands seem to have been his -only physical deformity; they were so large as to attract attention and -required gloves made expressly for them, three sizes larger than -ordinary. His eyes are variously described as “blue,” as “of a bluish -cast and very lively,” as “a cold, light gray,” and as “so gray that -they looked almost white.” These alternatives may be reconciled, -perhaps, by Gilbert Stuart’s recollection that his eyes were “a light -grayish blue, deep sunken in their sockets, giving the expression of -gravity of thought.” His hair was originally dark brown and fairly -thick; his face was long, his nose prominent, his mouth large, and his -chin firm. He suffered a good deal with toothache, particularly after -his military service, and, as the rural remedy was the simplest known, -he passed his last years almost toothless. This drove at least one -portrait-painter into padding the front of his mouth with cotton wool, -to make his lips look more natural than they did when drawn over the -ill-fitting artificial teeth which he inserted for state occasions. - -The great man lived well, his principal meal being a three o’clock -dinner, which he washed down with five glasses of Madeira, taken with -dessert. This allowance he gradually increased toward the close of his -life till it reached two bottles. In sending away for sale a slave whom, -though troublesome, he guaranteed as “exceedingly healthy, strong and -good at the hoe,” he expressed his willingness to take in part payment -“a hogshead of the best rum” and an indefinite quantity of “good old -spirits.” In our gout-fearing era, these data have the ring of -immoderate indulgence, but measured by the standards of the eighteenth -century they were temperate enough. It must be said for the General, -also, that he was charitable in his judgment of the weaknesses of -others, as shown by his contract with an overseer, to whom he conceded -the privilege of getting drunk for a week once a year; and his campaign -expenses for election to the Virginia legislature embraced a hogshead -and a barrel of punch, thirty-five gallons of wine, and forty-three -gallons of strong cider. - -It makes us feel a little nearer to the Father of our Country to learn -that he was not immune to the influence of bright eyes and dainty -toilets; that he was in love, or fancied he was, with several different -damsels at as many different times; and that his self-surrender -occasionally declared itself in amatory verse too dreadful for belief. -His most serious infatuation seems to have been with a Miss Gary, whom -he courted fervently, only to be dismissed by her father with the sordid -reminder: “My daughter, sir, has been accustomed to ride in her own -coach!” As this was a knock-down argument for a stripling surveyor who - -[Illustration: _Ford’s Theatre, the Old Front_] - -was just struggling to raise his professional terms to twenty-five -dollars a day when employed, he went his way, but sought consolation in -winning Martha Custis, who resembled Miss Cary almost as a twin sister. - -Of Mary Washington, mother of George, we get glimpses in the familiar -chat of the vicinage. She appears as a rather difficult person, who -tried the methodical soul of her son by her thriftless habits and her -incessant complaints of being out of money. For years he did his utmost -to induce her to rent her plantation further down the State, hire out -her slaves, and live on her fixed income thus obtained, but to no -purpose. Yet after he had become so famous that he was obliged to -entertain at Mount Vernon all the traveling celebrities of two -hemispheres, she suddenly took it into her head that she would like to -come and live with him. In spite of his filial piety, candor compelled -him to show her the impracticability of her proposal; and, though he -tried to soften her disappointment by sending her the last seventy-five -dollars in his purse, she seems to have continued dissatisfied. - -George was not stingy. On the contrary, on each of three plantations -which he farmed he kept one crib of corn always set apart for free -distribution among the poor, and never let this fail, even if he had to -rob his own table supply or to buy corn at a dollar a bushel to make up -a deficit. He was not a rich man, but for sentimental reasons held on to -Mount Vernon after it had ceased to be profitable property. At his -death, he was worth only about seventy-five thousand dollars in his own -right, and, had he lived ten years longer at the same rate, he would -have died a bankrupt. It was his wife’s better investments that kept up -the expenses of their home. - -As we go over the old mansion, we are shown the various rooms associated -with Washington’s activities, and that in which his death occurred. -Notwithstanding his sturdy muscular development, his throat and chest -were always weak spots; and in 1799, after a soaking and chill from a -ride through a December storm, he went to bed with a cold which left him -unable to swallow. Soon he realized that the end was not far off. It was -characteristic of the man that he should then discharge the doctors from -further useless ministrations, give such directions about his burial as -he deemed important, and calmly proceed to watch the waning of his own -pulse. After a little the hand that held his wrist relaxed and dropped -upon the coverlet, and the friends gathered in the chamber knew that all -was over. - -On the Maryland side of the Potomac, the suburb most convenient of -access is Georgetown. In fact, it long ago ceased to be strictly a -suburb, by incorporation with the city of Washington, from which it was -separated only by Rock Creek, a narrow tributary of the Potomac. -Officially, it is now West Washington, and its streets have been renamed -and renumbered so as to conform as nearly as practicable to the system -in use in the capital. All the same, Georgetown has never lost its -identity. It had a life of its own before Washington was thought of; and -within my recollection the old society of Georgetown used to look -askance at the “new people” with whom Washington was filling up. It is -still sprinkled with hoary houses set in quaint ancestral gardens, -though modernism has touched the place at so many points that we can get -a glimpse of these survivals sometimes only through deep vistas lined -with the red brick side-walls of urban blocks. The most attractive of -the old mansions, and the best preserved, is the Tudor house, built by -Doctor William Thornton about 1810. It is a good specimen from the -Georgian epoch in architecture, standing fitly in the midst of a great -square of lawn, with shade trees and box hedges to correspond; and one -of its traditions is that pretty little Nellie Custis went there to her -first ball, though--but I leave others to struggle with the problem of -conflicting dates. One thing we do know, that the place has always been -in the possession of kinsfolk of the Mount Vernon family. - -Many amusing stories are told of Georgetown’s early days, when the -Scotch element were so strong in its population that a man could not be -appointed to the office of flour inspector without subscribing to a test -oath declaring his disbelief in the doctrine of “transsubstantiation in -the sacrament of the Lord’s supper”; when the city fathers sought to -save the expense of employing a surveyor to calculate the width of the -Potomac at a point where a bridge was to be built, by ordering out all -good citizens to pull at the opposite ends of a measuring-rope; and when -the big triangle which was pounded as an alarm of fire fell from the -belfry in which it hung, and fire-alarms were sounded thereafter by -blowing a fish-horn through the streets. But none of these tales will -have an interest for most visitors equal to the local version of the -origin of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” For Georgetown was Francis Scott -Key’s old home. - -As the story goes, part of the British forces which marched upon -Washington in the summer of 1814 passed through Upper Marlboro, -Maryland, on a day when Doctor William Beanes, a prominent physician, -was entertaining several friends at dinner. As the gentlemen talked, -they grew more and more indignant against the invaders, and, news being -brought to them at table that a few red-coated stragglers were still in -town committing depredations after the main body of their comrades had -passed on, some one suggested that the party go out and arrest these men -as disturbers of the peace. This was done, but to little effect; for as -soon as the stragglers got away, they hastened to catch up with the army -and lodge a complaint with their officers, who at once sent back a squad -of soldiers to arrest the arresters. Three of the dining party, -including Beanes, were carried off to Admiral Cockburn’s flagship, which -was lying in the Patuxent River. Cockburn, after administering a -disciplinary lecture to the trio, dismissed the others but took Beanes -as a prisoner on his ship to Baltimore. - -Key, who was Beanes’s nephew, hastened to Baltimore as soon as he heard -of the doctor’s plight, and under a flag of truce went aboard the vessel -to intercede with Cockburn for his uncle’s release. His plea was vain; -and Cockburn would not even let him go ashore again till after the -bombardment of Fort McHenry. When Key returned to Georgetown, he related -his adventures at the next meeting of the local glee-club, and his -fellow members urged him to put his narrative into verse. He read his -production at a later meeting, and the club introduced it to the -public, who adopted it as the national anthem. - -Among the noted names associated with Georgetown, outside of political -life, may be mentioned those of Joel Benton, the poet and essayist, who -bought a farm on the Washington side of Rock Creek, since famous as the -Kalorama estate; Robert Fulton, the pioneer in steam navigation, who -made some of his early experiments with water-craft and submarine -explosives on the small streams of the neighborhood; George Peabody, -financier and philanthropist, who came as a poor boy from Massachusetts -and worked as a clerk in a store in Bridge Street; William W. Corcoran, -whose later career somewhat resembled Peabody’s, and whose real start in -life dated from the failure of a little shop he kept in the heart of the -town; and, last but not least, a youthful belle whose romance demands a -paragraph or two of its own. - -Baron Bodisco, Russian Minister to the United States during the Van -Buren administration, lived, as did most of the foreign envoys of that -time, in Georgetown. He was a bachelor, well on toward sixty years of -age, uncompromisingly ugly, with a face covered with wrinkles, and a -bald head which he tried to conceal under a somewhat obtrusive wig. He -had for visitors one winter two young nephews, for whom he gave a -dancing party at the legation, inviting all the socially eligible boys -and girls in town. By some accident, one of his invitations miscarried -and failed to reach Harriet Beall Williams, a most attractive and -popular schoolgirl of sixteen. He hastened to repair his error as soon -as he discovered it, and on the evening of the party hunted her up to -make his apologies in person. It was a case of love at first sight. -After that he contrived to meet her occasionally on her way to or from -school, and ere long he became an avowed suitor for her hand. The -courtship, though not displeasing to the girl, was for some time -discouraged by her family. Finding her resolved to accept her elderly -lover, however, they withdrew their active opposition, and Beauty and -the Beast, as they were commonly called, were married in June. - -The Baron, who had excellent taste in everything except his own make-up, -superintended all the details of the affair, even to the costumes of the -bridal party. The bridesmaids were schoolmates of Miss Williams, one -being Jessie Benton, then aged fourteen, who afterward became the wife -of General John C. Fremont. The groomsmen were generally contemporaries -of the groom, so that the note of age disparity was uniform throughout. -President Van Buren and Henry Clay were conspicuous among the guests. -At the first opportunity, the Baron took his bride to Russia and -presented her at court, where she electrified the assembled nobility by -shaking the Czar’s hand in cordial American fashion. It delighted the -Czar, however, which was more to the point; and, although she did many -unusual things, like declining the Czarina’s invitation to a Sunday -function because she had been brought up to “keep the Sabbath,” she -became a great favorite in the inner imperial circle, and loved to dwell -on her foreign experiences after she came back to Georgetown to live. -The Bodisco house is still pointed out to strangers. - -Not all the historic associations of Georgetown and its neighborhood -have been so peaceful. For a few miles out of town the river’s edge is -dotted with sequestered nooks to which hot-brained gentlemen could -retire on occasion, to wipe out their grievances in one another’s blood. -The Little Falls bridge afforded such a retreat to Henry Clay and John -Randolph after Randolph’s speech declaring that the “alphabet that -writes the name of Thersites, of blackguard, of squalidity, refuses her -letters for” Clay. The combatants took the precaution to cross the -bridge far enough to avoid the jurisdiction of the District -authorities. Clay’s first shot cut Randolph’s coat near the hip, -Randolph’s did nothing. At the second word, Clay’s bullet went wild, and -Randolph deliberately sent his into the air, remarking: “I do not fire -at you, Mr. Clay!” At the same time he advanced with hand outstretched, -Clay meeting him halfway. Randolph, as they were leaving the field, -pointed to the hole made by Clay’s first bullet, saying jocosely: “You -owe me a coat, Mr. Clay.” “I am glad, sir,” answered Clay, “that the -debt is no greater.” - -The subject of duels calls to mind another suburb, to wit, Bladensburg, -Maryland, where the defenders of Washington made their brief and -ineffectual stand against the invading British in 1814. Here, for sixty -years, in a green little dell about a mile out of town, all sorts of -personal and political feuds were settled with deadly weapons. The most -celebrated of these meetings was that of March 22, 1820, between two -Commodores of the American navy, Stephen Decatur and James Barren. Like -most duels, it was more the work of mischief-makers than of the -principals themselves. - -Decatur was at the height of his fame for achievements in the War of -1812 and against the Barbary pirates; he was a fine marksman with the -pistol, and had had several earlier experiences on the dueling-field. -Barren, on the other hand, was under a cloud for some professional -mistakes; he was six years Decatur’s senior, had no taste for dueling, -and was near-sighted. Down to the last, Barron was plainly disposed to -accept any reasonable concession and call the affair off; but Decatur -was in high spirits and full of confidence. - -Two shots rang out simultaneously, and both men fell. Decatur, who was -at first supposed to be dead, presently showed signs of returning -animation and was lifted to his feet, only to stagger a few paces toward -his antagonist and fall again. As the two men lay side by side, Barron -turned his face to say to Decatur that he hoped, when they met in -another world, they would be better friends than in this. Decatur -responded that he had never been Barren’s enemy, and, though he -cherished no animosity to Barron for killing him, he found it harder to -forgive the men who had goaded them into this quarrel. Both combatants -were carried back to Washington, where Barron slowly recovered from his -wound; but Decatur, after a day of intense suffering, died in the house -which still bears his name, at the corner of Jackson Place and H Street. - -So habitually was this one ravine chosen for the settlement of affairs -of honor that when two Representatives, Jonathan Cilley of Maine and -William J. Graves of Kentucky, decided in 1838 to end a dispute with -rifles, they outwitted pursuit by choosing for their fight the eastern -end of the Anacostia bridge on the high-road to Marlboro, Maryland; and -a posse who started out to stop them went to the accustomed ground only -to find it empty. This duel had naught of the dramatic quality of that -between Decatur and Barren, but its effect on the public mind proved -more far-reaching. Cilley was a young man of brilliant promise, highly -respected as well as popular, with a wife and three little children. The -quarrel was forced upon him because, in the interest of the proper -dignity of Congress, he objected to a proposed investigation by the -House of some vague and irresponsible insinuations made in a recent -newspaper letter against sundry members who were not named or otherwise -identified. Graves insisted that this speech was an insult to the author -of the article, whose championship he gratuitously undertook. - -The first two shots were thrown away on both sides. At the third fire, -Cilley fell upon his face, his adversary’s bullet having killed him -instantly. When the news of his death spread through Washington, -indignation against Graves rose to fever heat, and his public career -ended with that hour. The wantonness of such a sacrifice of a useful -life, where the writer who figured as the cause of the quarrel did not -even take a part in it, gave special point to the condemnation of the -false standard of honor set up by the “code.” The funeral services for -Cilley at the Capitol were attended by the President and Cabinet, in -testimony to the high esteem in which he had universally been held; -while the Supreme Court declined its invitation in a body, as the most -emphatic means of expressing its abhorrence of glossing murder with a -thin coat of etiquette. Ministers, not only in Washington but in all the -more highly civilized parts of the country, denounced dueling from the -pulpit, newspapers published editorials and associations adopted -resolutions against it, additional legislation for the abolition of the -practice was introduced in various legislatures, and Congress passed an -act to punish, with a term in the penitentiary, the sending or -acceptance of a challenge in the District of Columbia. - -[Illustration: _Stage Entrance through which Booth Escaped_] - - - - -CHAPTER X - -MONUMENTS AND MEMORIES - - -Among the projects in the minds of the founders of the federal city was -a monument to celebrate the success of the American Revolution. George -Washington personally selected the site for it, due south of the center -of the President’s House. Meanwhile the Continental Congress had -recommended the erection of an equestrian statue of General Washington, -and, immediately after his death, the Congress then in session resolved -to rear a monument under which his body should be entombed. But, though -resolutions were cheap, monuments were costly, and the project gradually -faded out of mind till revived in 1816 by a member of Congress from -South Carolina. Still nothing happened, till another generation devised -a plan for raising the money by popular subscription without waiting -longer for a Government appropriation. The Washington Monument Society -was organized with a membership fee of one dollar, so as to give every -American opportunity to subscribe. By 1848 a sufficient fund had been -collected to spur Congress into presenting a site; and the spot chosen -was that marked by Washington for the monument to the Revolution, thus -happily combining his plan with the nation’s tribute to himself. Tests -of the ground showed that, in order to get a safe footing, it would be -necessary to move a little further to the eastward, which accounts for -the present monument’s being not quite on the short axis of the White -House. - -For the original plan of a statue, an obelisk of granite and marble was -substituted, which by its simplicity of lines, its towering height, and -its purity of color, should symbolize the exceptional character and -services of the foremost American. The building fund held out pretty -well till a politico-religious quarrel arose over the acceptance, for -incorporation in the monument, of a fine block of African marble sent by -the Pope; and on Washington’s birthday, 1855, a Know-Nothing mob -descended upon the headquarters of the Society, seized its books and -papers, and took forcible possession of the monument. The Know-Nothing -party ended its political existence three years later, and the monument -went back to its former custodians; but the riotous demonstration had -checked the orderly progress of the work, and, as the Civil War was -imminent, the shaft, then one hundred seventy-eight feet high, was -roofed over to await the return of normal conditions. It was not till -1876 that, under the patriotic impetus of the centenary, Congress was -induced to coöperate. The work was vigorously pushed from 1880 to 1884; -and in the spring of 1885, when it had attained a height of five hundred -fifty-five feet and five and five-tenths inches, occurred the formal -dedication of the Washington National Monument as we see it to-day. - -For the benefit of any one whose pleasure in a masterpiece is measured -with a plummet, it may be noted that the Monument falls less than fifty -feet short of the Tower of Babel; to him who revels in terms of -distance, the glistening pile will appeal on the ground that it is -visible from a crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, more than forty miles -away as the bee flies. But most of its neighbors in Washington find it -for other reasons an unceasing joy. To us it is more truly at the heart -of things than even the Capitol. It is the hoary sentinel at our -water-gate; or, spread the city out like a fan, and the Monument is the -pivot which holds the frame together. - -The visitor who has seen it once has just begun to see it. A -smooth-faced obelisk, devoid of ornament, it would appear the stolidest -object in the landscape; in truth, it is as versatile as the clouds. -Every change in your position reveals it in a new phase. Go close to it -and look up, and its walls seem to rise infinitely and dissolve into the -atmosphere; stand on the neighboring hills, and you are tempted to throw -a stone over its top; sail down the Potomac, and the slender white shaft -is still sending its farewells after you when the city has passed out of -sight. It plays chameleon to the weather. It may be gay one moment and -grave the next, like the world. Sometimes, in the varying lights, it -loses its perspective and becomes merely a flat blade struck against -space; an hour later, every line and seam is marked with the crispness -of chiseled sculpture. On a fair morning, it is radiant under the first -beams of the rising sun; in the full of the moon, it is like a thing -from another world--cold, shimmering, unreal. Often in the spring and -fall its peak is lost in vapor, and the shaft looks as if it were a -tall, thin Ossa penetrating the home of the gods. Again, with its base -wrapped in fog and its summit in cloud, it is a symbol of human destiny, -emerging from one mystery only to pass into another. Always the same, -yet never twice alike, it is to the old Washingtonian a being instinct -with life, a personality to be known and loved. It has relatively -little to tell the passing stranger, but many confidences for the friend -of years. - -To realize all that it is to us, you must see it on a changeable day. -Come with me then to the Capitol, whence, from an outlook on the western -terrace, we face a thick and troubled sky. The air is murky. Clouds -fringed with gray fleece, which have been hanging so low as to hide the -apex of the Monument, are folding back upon themselves in the southern -heavens, forming a rampart dark and forbidding. Against this the obelisk -is projected, having caught and held one ray of pure sunshine which has -found an opening and shot through like a searchlight. It is plain that -an atmospheric battle is at hand. The garrulous city seems struck dumb; -the timid trees are shivering with apprehension; the voice of the wind -is half sob and half warning. The search-ray vanishes as the door of the -cloud fort is closed and the rumbling of the bolts is heard behind it. -The landscape in the background is blotted from view by eddies of yellow -dust, as if a myriad of horsemen were making a tentative charge. Silent -and unmoved, the obelisk stands there, a white warrior bidding defiance -to the forces of sky and earth. As the subsiding dust marks the retreat -of the cavalry, the artillery opens fire. First one masked porthole and -then another belches flame, but the sharp crash or dull roar which -follows passes quite unnoticed by the champion. Then comes the rattle of -musketry, as a sheet of hail sweeps across the field. - -We are not watching a combat, only an assault, for these demonstrations -call forth no response. On the champion--taking everything, giving -nothing--the only effect they produce is a change of color from snowy -white to ashen gray. Even that is but for a moment. As the storm of hail -melts into a shower of limpid raindrops to which the relieved trees open -their palms, the wind ceases its wailing, and the wall of cloud falls -apart to let the sun’s rays through once more. - -The Monument is, of course, only one of many memorials to great men in -Washington. We have heroes and philanthropists, poets and physicians, -soldiers and men of science, mounted and afoot, standing and sitting. We -have horses in every posture that will hold a rider: Jackson’s balanced -on its hind legs like the toy charger on the nursery mantelpiece; -Washington’s getting ready to try the same trick; Sheridan’s dashing -along the line to the lilt of Buchanan Read’s poem; Pulaski’s, Greene’s -and McPherson’s, Hancock’s and McClellan’s and Logan’s, walking calmly -over the field; Scott’s and Sherman’s watching the parade. The best -equestrian statue is that of General George H. Thomas, by Quincy Ward, -at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue with Fourteenth Street. Here we -have the acme of art in treating such a subject: spirit coupled with -repose. The horse has been moving, but has been checked by the rider to -give him a chance to look about; they could go on the next moment if -need be, or they could stand indefinitely just as they are. - -The Scott statue, at Massachusetts Avenue and Sixteenth Street, is good -if we take it apart and examine it piecemeal; but the massive rider -threatens to break down his slender-limbed steed, which is, by some -mischance, of the mare’s build and not the stallion’s. General Sheridan, -who used to live within a stone’s throw of this statue, lay while ill in -a bedroom commanding a view of it. “I hope,” he remarked one day, “that -if a grateful country ever commemorates me in bronze, it will give me a -better mount than old Scott’s!” It is hard to find anything new to do -with a general officer and a horse without putting them into some -impossible attitude. A sculptor who attempts a reasonable innovation is -liable to be snubbed for it, as one was not long ago when he offered in -competition a statue of General Grant, dismounted, with his bridle -swung over one of his arms while he used the other hand to hold his -field-glass. - -Some of the best-known statues in the city have attracted as much -attention by their travels as by their artistic qualities. One of these -is Greenough’s colossal marble presentment of George Washington, which -visitors to the Capitol ten years ago will recall as standing in the -open space facing the main east portico. Greenough was in Italy in 1835, -when it was ordered, and spent eight years on its production. It shows -Washington seated, nude to the waist, and below that draped in a flowing -robe. It weighed, when finished, twelve tons without a pedestal, and -required twenty-two yoke of oxen to haul from Florence to Genoa. -Peasants who saw it on the way took it for the image of some mighty -saint, and dropped upon their knees and crossed themselves as it passed. -The man-of-war which was waiting for it at Genoa had no hatchway large -enough to take it in, so a merchant vessel had to be chartered for its -voyage to America. Arrived at the Capitol, where it was intended to -stand in the center of the rotunda, it could not be squeezed through the -doors, and the masonry had to be cut away. Then it was discovered that -it was causing the floor to settle, and a lot of shoring had to be done -in the crypt underneath. Finally, as it was not suited to its place, the -masonry around the doorway was ripped out again, and the statue was set -up in the plaza, where it remained till 1908, the sport of rains and -frosts and souvenir-maniacs, when it took what every one hopes will be -its last journey--to the National Museum. The original purpose of -Congress was to have a “pedestrian statue” costing, all told, five -thousand dollars. What has eventuated is Washington’s head set on a -torso of Jupiter Tonans, costing, with all its traveling expenses, more -than fifty thousand dollars. - -Another peregrinating statue is that of Thomas Jefferson, which stands -to-day against the east wall of the rotunda. In 1833 it occupied the -center of this room. When Greenough’s Washington was brought in, -Jefferson was removed to the Library of Congress, which was then housed -in the rooms of the west front of the Capitol. In 1850 it was carried up -to the White House and planted in the middle of the north garden. It -held that site for twenty-four years and then came back to the rotunda, -from which there is no reason to think it will be moved again. - -The only parallel to these instances of frequent shifts in the local art -world is the case of a painting entitled “Love and Life,” presented by -the English artist, George F. Watts, to our Government. Mr. Cleveland, -who was President at the time, hung it in the White House, but the -prudish comments passed upon it by visitors led to its transfer to the -Corcoran Gallery of Art. In the Roosevelt administration it made three -trips, first to the White House, then back to the Corcoran Gallery, and -then to the White House again, where it rested till President Taft came -in, only to be rebanished to the Corcoran Gallery. President Wilson had -it returned to the White House, and there it is at the present writing. - -Although there has never been in Washington a definite scheme for the -location of statues, which have been planted, hit or miss, wherever -space offered, accident has arranged a few of them so as to form a -rather remarkable historical series. Starting with the Washington -National Monument, in honor of the foremost figure in the Revolution and -the President who set in motion the machinery of the embryo republic, we -pass directly northward to the White House, home of all his successors -in the Presidency and emblematic of the civil government which emerged -from the War for Independence. A few hundred feet further northward -stands the statue of Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812, the -first fought by the United States as a nation. About a half-mile more -to the north we reach the statue of Winfield Scott, the general whose -capture of Mexico City ended the second foreign war in which the nation -engaged. All that is needed to complete this remarkable procession is a -memorial arch on Sixteenth Street heights, to the soldiers and sailors -on both sides of the Civil War which cemented the Union begun under -Washington. - -Strange to say, the city which best knew Lincoln and Grant has had, up -to this time, no out-of-doors statue whatever of Grant and no adequate -one of Lincoln. In Lincoln Park, about a mile east of the Capitol, is -the Emancipation statue, and in front of the City Hall there is an -insignificant standing figure of Lincoln, perched on a pillar so high -that the features can be seen only dimly. A statue of Grant will later -occupy the central pedestal of a group in the little park at the foot of -the western slope of the Capitol grounds, which it is proposed to call -Union Square. On either side of Grant, the plan originally was to place -Sherman and Sheridan; but as the Sherman and Sheridan statues already -set up elsewhere are so diverse in character, it has been questioned -whether they would fit into the Union Square group. After many -suggestions, controversies, and reports, Congress decided, a year or -two ago, upon a form of memorial for Lincoln, which is already under -way. It will be a marble temple, designed by Henry Bacon, in Potomac -Park, with a statue of the War President, by Daniel Chester French, -visible in the recesses of its dignified colonnade. - -Besides the scores of statues and miles of painted portraits which keep -vivid the memory of great and good men who are gone, Washington has many -institutions and buildings with personal associations that fulfil a -similar purpose. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, for instance, was the gift -of the late William W. Corcoran, the financier. The national deaf-mute -college at Kendall Green, on the northeastern edge of the city, recalls -its original benefactor, Amos Kendall, who was Postmaster-general under -Jackson, as well as the work of Doctor Edward M. Gallaudet in raising it -from its modest beginnings to its present eminence. The Pension Office, -in which eight inaugural balls have been held, takes first rank among -our public edifices for architectural ugliness. It is nevertheless an -honor to the memory of Quartermaster-general Meigs, who asked the -privilege of proving, in an era of extravagance, that a suitable -building could be reared for the money allotted to it, and who turned -back into the treasury a large slice of his appropriation after having -paid every bill. The present Library of Congress is, in a like manner, -a monument to the late Bernard R. Green, whose engineering skill and -administrative faculty performed a feat corresponding to General -Meigs’s; it reminds us, also, of Thomas Jefferson, whose private -library, purchased after the burning of the Capitol, formed the nucleus -of the present magnificent collection. The Soldiers’ Home, near the -north boundary of the city, commemorates General Scott’s success in -Mexico, the tribute he exacted there for a breach of truce being used in -founding this beautiful retreat, where veterans of the regular army may -pass their declining years in comfort. - -Few people, probably, are aware that the Smithsonian Institution, whose -fame is as wide as civilization, owes its origin to the rejection of a -manuscript prepared for publication. James Smithson, an Englishman of -means, who had been a frequent contributor to the Philosophical -Transactions of the Royal Society of London, sent in, a little less than -a century ago, a paper which the censors refused to print; and its -author avenged the affront by altering his will, in which he had -bequeathed his entire fortune to the Society, so as to throw the -reversion to the United States, a country he had never seen, to be used -for “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among -men.” Congress had a long quibble about the disposal of the money, but -at last hit upon a plan, and since then has turned over much of the -public scientific research work to be performed “under the direction of -the Smithsonian Institution.” The accumulation of trophies of -exploration, historical relics, and gifts of objects of art and industry -from foreign potentates, presently overflowed the accommodations of the -Institution proper, and a National Museum was built to house these -treasures. The Smithsonian commemorates not only the beneficence of -Smithson, but the great achievements of its several executive heads, -like Joseph Henry’s in electromagnetism, Spencer F. Baird’s in the -culture of fish as a source of food-supply, and Samuel P. Langley’s in -aërial navigation and the standardization of time. - -The old City Hall, better known now as the District Court House, will be -remembered as the place where the first President Harrison probably -caught the cold which resulted in his death. It has a tragic association -with another President, also, for in one of its court-rooms was -conducted the trial of Guiteau for assassinating James A. Garfield. This -trial excited vigorous comment throughout the country by what seemed to -many critics an unwarrantable latitude allowed the defendant for -self-exploitation. - -[Illustration: _Rendezvous of the Lincoln Conspirators_] - -Judge Walter T. Cox, who presided, was one of the ablest and most -conscientious jurists who ever sat on the Supreme bench of the District. -From personal attendance on the trial, I feel sure that the course -pursued by him was the only one which could have given the jury a sure -ground for dooming the assassin to death; and it was doubtless a -realization of that fact which held in check the mob spirit that began -to show itself at one stage and threatened to save the Government the -trouble of putting up a gallows. The popular rancor against Guiteau was -so strong that in order to get him safely into the Court House from the -“black Maria” which brought him from the jail every morning, and to -reverse the operation at the close of every day’s session, the vehicle -was backed up within about twenty feet of one of the basement doors, and -a double file of police, standing shoulder to shoulder with clubs drawn, -made a narrow little lane through which he was rushed at a quickstep, -his face blanched with terror, and his furtive eyes fixed on the earth. - -Another historical incident is associated with the old building, to -which many attribute the final resolve of President Lincoln to issue his -Emancipation Proclamation. I refer to the abolition of slavery in the -District of Columbia. A bill to this end, introduced by Henry Wilson in -December, 1861, was hotly debated in Congress but finally passed, and -was signed on April 16, 1862. Only loyal owners were to be paid for -their slaves, and every applicant for compensation had to take an -iron-clad oath of allegiance to the Government. The whole business was -handled by a board of three commissioners, who employed for their -assistance an experienced slave-dealer imported from Baltimore. They met -in one of the court-rooms, and the dealer put the negroes through their -paces just as he had been accustomed to in the heyday of his trade, -making them dance to show their suppleness and bite various tough -substances as a test of the soundness of their teeth. Many of the black -men and women came into the room singing hosannas to glorify the dawn of -freedom. The highest appraisement of any slave was seven hundred and -eighty-eight dollars for a good blacksmith; the lowest was ten dollars -and ninety-five cents for a baby. These were about half the prices which -would have been brought but for the fact that only one million dollars -was appropriated, whereas the total estimated value of the slaves paid -for was nearer two million, and all payments had to be scaled -accordingly. - -A remarkable feature of this episode was the discovery of how many -slaveholders there were who were not white people. Now and then in the -past, when for some special reason a negro had been freed, he would save -his earnings till he had accumulated enough to buy his wife and -children, who still remained in bondage to him till he saw fit to -manumit them. One case which attracted wide attention was that of a -woman who had bought her husband, a graceless scamp who proceeded to -celebrate his good fortune by becoming an incorrigible drunkard. This -had so outraged the feelings of his wife that she had finally sold him -to a dealer who was picking up a boatload of cheap slaves to carry -south. From that hour she had lost sight of him; but she haunted the -commissioners’ sessions from day to day in the hope that the Government, -now that it was going into the slave-buying business, might give her a -little addition to the bargain price at which she had sold the old man. - -Judiciary Square, in which the Court House and the Pension Office stand, -was, when Chief Justice Taney lived in Indiana Avenue, a neighborhood of -consequence. Several of the older buildings thereabout exhale a flavor -of fifty or sixty years ago, and tradition connects them with such -personages as Rufus Choate, Caleb Cushing, Thomas H. Benton, Stephen A. -Douglas, John C. Fremont, and John A. Dix. - -Opposite the east park of the Capitol, as we have already seen, stands -the Old Capitol, a building with a variegated history. It was erected -for the accommodation of Congress after the burning of the Capitol by -the British. In it Henry Clay passed some years of his Speakership, and -till very lately there was a scar on the wall of one of the rooms which -was said to have been made by his desk. Under its roof the first -Senators from Indiana, Illinois, and Mississippi took their seats. In -front of it, President Monroe was inaugurated. After Congress left it to -return to the restored Capitol, it was rented for a boarding-house, -patronized chiefly by Senators and Representatives. Here John C. Calhoun -lived for some time, and here he died. In one of the rooms, Persico, the -Italian sculptor, worked out the model of his “Discoverer.” In another, -Ann Royall edited her _Huntress_. - -After the Civil War broke out, the Old Capitol was turned into a jail -for the confinement of military offenders who were awaiting trial by -court-martial, and for Confederate spies and other persons accused of -unlawfully giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Belle Boyd, who was -locked up there for a while, has left us her impressions of the place as -“a vast brick building, like all prisons, somber, chilling, and -repulsive.” She describes William P. Wood, who was superintendent of -the prison, as “having a humane heart beneath a rough exterior.” Every -Sunday he used to provide facilities for religious worship to his -compulsory guests, announcing the hours and forms in characteristic -fashion: “All you who want to hear the word of God preached according to -Jeff Davis, go down into the yard; and all of you who want to hear it -preached according to Abe Lincoln, go into No. 16.” In the jail yard -Henry Wirz, who had been the keeper of the Confederate military prison -at Andersonville, Georgia, where so many Union soldiers died of -starvation and disease, was hanged for murder. At the close of the war -the building was divided into a block of dwellings, of which the -southernmost was long the home of the late Justice Field of the Supreme -Court. The Justice used to enjoy telling his visitors about the -distinguished men from the South who, after dining at his table, had -roamed over the premises and located their one-time places of -confinement. - -The oldest house of worship in Washington is St. Paul’s, a spireless -Protestant Episcopal church not far from the Soldiers’ Home. It stands -well toward the rear of the Rock Creek Cemetery, which also contains the -world-famous bronze by St. Gaudens, in the Adams lot. This is a seated -female figure, in flowing classic drapery, to which no one has ventured -to attach a permanent title, though it has been variously known as -“Grief” and “The Peace of God.” St. Paul’s goes back to the colonial era -and was built of brick imported from England. A younger church, -nevertheless numbered among the oldest relics of its class within the -city proper, is St. John’s, at the corner of Sixteenth and H streets. It -was designed by Latrobe about the time he undertook the restoration of -the Capitol and was consecrated in 1816. It has long been called “the -President’s church” because so many tenants of the White House, just -across Lafayette Square, have worshiped in it. - -Madison and Monroe were the first, and the vestry soon set apart one pew -to be preserved always for the free use of the reigning Presidential -family. John Quincy Adams was a Unitarian, but came to the afternoon -services; and Jackson, though a Methodist, was frequently to be seen -there. Van Buren was a constant attendant both as Vice-president and as -President. William Henry Harrison, for the month he lived in Washington, -came regularly, regardless of the weather or his state of health; and he -was to have been confirmed the very week he died. Tyler was a member of -the congregation. Polk had other affiliations, but Taylor, Fillmore, -and Buchanan used the President’s pew. Then came a break in the line -till Arthur entered the White House; and his retirement appears to have -been followed by another lapse in the succession till Mrs. Roosevelt -revived it. Her husband used to accompany her from time to time, though -he retained his active connection with the Reformed (Dutch) communion. -Since the Roosevelts, the line has been broken again. John Quincy Adams -became so fond of St. John’s that, when he returned to Washington as a -Representative, he renewed his Sunday visits. He paid close attention to -the preliminary service but seemed to sleep through the sermon, though -he was usually able to repeat the next day, with considerable accuracy, -the main things the minister had said. - -This whole neighborhood bristles with memories of great people. The old -Tayloe mansion was styled, in its later years, “the Cream-white House,” -partly because of its color, and partly in jocose reference to its -occupancy by two or three Vice-presidents. The house on the corner north -of it, now owned by the Cosmos Club, was the home of Dolly Madison in -her widowhood. After her death it passed into the hands of Charles -Wilkes, the gallant naval officer who was for many years the -unrecognized discoverer of the Antarctic continent, and who, in the -early days of the Civil War, forcibly took two of his late Washington -neighbors, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, off the British steamer _Trent_, -which was conveying them to Europe on a diplomatic mission for the -Confederate Government. South of the Tayloe house is the Belasco -Theater, on the site of the old-fashioned red brick building in which -occurred the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward and where James -G. Blaine passed the last years of his life. On H Street, about a block -to the eastward, General McClellan made his headquarters in the -intervals between his commands of the Army of the Potomac; while in a -near cluster are former homes of Commodore Decatur, John Quincy Adams, -Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Montgomery Blair, Gideon Welles, George -Bancroft, and John Hay, as well as the house where the Ashburton treaty -was negotiated and where Owen Meredith wrote his “Lucile.” Edward -Everett, Jefferson Davis, and Tobias Lear lived, at various times, a -short distance away. - -One of my favorite excursions about the city with friends who revere the -memory of the War President is what I call my “Lincoln pilgrimage.” We -start at the White House, turn eastward and take F Street to Tenth, and -then southward a half-square. This brings us in front of the building -which once was Ford’s Theater, by the route taken by Lincoln on the -evening of Good Friday, 1865. Here are the arches which once opened into -the theater lobby but are now used for ground-floor windows; through one -of them he passed on his way to his box. Directly across the street is -the house to which he was carried to die. In it is preserved the Oldroyd -collection of Lincoln relics, a really remarkable array. After -inspecting it, we return to F Street and go eastward again to about the -middle of the block, where an alley emerges from a lower level south of -us. Down into this we dive, and, making a sharp right-angle turn, find -ourselves at the old stage-door of the theater, beside which Booth left -his horse, and through which he made his dash for liberty after his mad -deed. - -Back again up the alley we climb, through F Street to Ninth, through -Ninth to H, and eastward on H Street to Number 604, the house of Mrs. -Surratt, the rendezvous of the conspirators and the place where some of -them were captured. It looks to-day very much as it did on the night of -the assassination. Retracing our steps to Seventh Street, we board a -southbound car, which carries us to the gate of the reservation now -occupied by the Washington Barracks and the Army War College. Here, -within a few hundred feet of the entrance, used to stand the military -prison where the conspirators were confined, and in the yard of which -they paid the last penalty for their crime. - - * * * * * - -And here, dear reader, we come to the end of our present walks and talks -about Washington. As I warned you at the outset, I have treated our -wanderings as a pleasure-jaunt rather than as a medium of solid -instruction. When you find yourself thirsting for the severely -practical, you can come back and make the round again, if you choose, in -a sight-seeing car, and the megaphone-man will point out to you twice as -many objects of interest and give you three times as much information -about them--accurate or otherwise. He will take pains to show you all -the Government buildings and the hotels, the foreign legations and the -theaters, the millionaires’ houses, and parks and circles and statuary -which I have dismissed with a line or left unmentioned. He will tell you -how many tons every bronze weighs, how long every edifice took in -building, and how large a fortune every Senator amassed before crowning -his career with a tour of public service. I could have told you these -things, too, but, rather than force too fast a gait upon you, I have -left them for the megaphone-man and taken for my task some odds and -ends he could not take for his. I should have liked to tell you how the -Government swept all the electric wires out of the sky and hid them -underground; how it drained the marshes on the city’s western edge, -cleared the channels of the Potomac, and built out of the dredgings a -big pleasure-ground; and how it got rid of the annual inundations, in -one of which, just about a generation ago, I crossed the busiest part of -Pennsylvania Avenue in a rowboat. - -These improvements, and others in the same category, have been -paralleled by the changes in the architecture of the city, at the -expense of tearing down something old to make room for whatever new was -to go up. Touched by the spirit of progress, the face of Washington is -rapidly becoming as destitute of landmarks as its origin is destitute of -myths, and the artist who visits it in quest of the antique has a hunt -before him. Nevertheless, it has not lost its picturesque appeal for the -pencil guided by imagination, or its colorful legends for the memory -seeking relief from more serious things. - -Hence this book. - -[Illustration] - - - - -INDEX - - -Adams, Abigail, 9, 115, 119. - John, 7, 73, 110, 119, 150, 156, 228. - John Quincy, 20, 58, 65, 96, 147, 150, 151, 181, 280, 281, 282. - Mrs. John Quincy, 151. - -Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 23, 192, 233. - -Alexandria, Va., 4, 12, 54, 238. - -Allston, Theodosia, 242. - -Anacostia, D.C., 84. - -Anderson, Major Robert, 193. - -Arlington Cemetery, 235. - -Army War College, 17, 283. - -Arthur, Chester A., 224, 281. - - -Bagot, Sir George, 138. - -Baird, Spencer F., 274. - -Bancroft, George, 282. - -Barksdale, William, 103. - -Barney, Joshua, 15. - -Barron, James, 257. - -Beanes, Dr. William, 252. - -Belasco Theater, 282. - -Bell, John, 27. - -Bellows, Rev. Dr. Henry W., 198. - -Benton, Joel, 254. - Thomas H., 277. - -Bladensburg, Md., 15, 135, 257. - -Blaine, James G., 203, 215, 227, 282. - -Blair, Montgomery, 282. - -Bodisco, Baron, 254. - Baroness, 255. - -Bonaparte, Jerome, 128. - -Booth, John Wilkes, 43. - -Boyd, Belle, 278. - -Braddock, Edward, 239, 243. - -Breckinridge, John C., 27, 30. - William C. P., 105. - -Brooks, Rt. Rev. Phillips, 243. - Preston, 68, 189. - -Buchanan, James, 30, 190, 196, 281. - -Buchignani, Mrs. (See MRS. JOHN H. EATON.) - -Bulfinch, Charles, 56, 57, 60. - -Bull Run, Battle of, 37, 236. - -Burlingame, Anson, 190. - -Burns, David, 4. - -Burr, Aaron, 93, 242. - - -Calhoun, John C., 164, 278. - -Capitol, 6, 15, 45, 54, 136. - -Cary, Mary, 248. - -Chase, Salmon P., 202. - -Choate, Rufus, 277. - -Cilley, Jonathan, 259. - -City Hall, 173, 271, 274, 277. - -Civil War, 25, 26, 194, 278. - -Clay, Henry, 65, 68, 140, 152, 164, 172, 181, 187, 256, 278, 282. - -Cleveland, Frances Folsom, 226, 229. - Grover, 112, 225, 229, 232. - -Clinton, George, 93. - -Cobb, Howell, 191. - -Cockburn, Sir George, 15, 253. - -Congress, 8, 19, 54, 82, 85, 138. - (See also SENATE and HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.) - -Conkling, Roscoe, 203, 215. - -Corcoran, William W., 254. - -Corcoran Gallery of Art, 270, 272. - -Cosmos Club, 281. - -Court House. (See CITY HALL.) - -Covode, John, 102. - -Cox, Judge Walter T., 275. - -Coxey’s Army, 80. - -Craig, Burton F., 102. - -Crawford, Thomas, 57. - -Crisp, Charles F., 104. - -Cunningham, Ann Pamela, 245. - -Gushing, Caleb, 214, 277. - -Custis, George, 133, 235. - Nellie, 251. - - -Davis, Harriet Riddle, 209. - Jefferson, 29, 57, 72, 282. - -Decatur, Stephen, 257, 282. - -Dix, John A., 29, 277. - -Donelson, Andrew J., 162. - Mary Emily, 162. - -Douglas, Stephen A., 27, 33, 196, 277. - -Douglass, Frederick, 221. - -Dreams, Strange, of Lincoln, 208. - -Dueling, Condemnation of, 260. - - -Early, Jubal A., 41. - -Eaton, John H., 159, 169. - Mrs. John H., 159, 168, 179. - -Electoral Commission, 68, 219. - -Ellsworth, Ephraim E., 35, 243. - -Emancipation Proclamation, 200, 275. - -Emancipation Statue, 271. - -Everett, Edward, 282. - - -Field, Cyrus W., 190. - Stephen J., 279. - -Fillmore, Millard, 185, 281. - -Ford’s Theater, 43, 209, 283. - -Fort McHenry, Md., 253. - -Fort Myer, Va., 237. - -Foster, Sir Augustus, 76, 127. - -Franklin Square, 119. - -Frelinghuysen, Mrs. Frederick T., 225. - -Fremont, Jessie Benton, 255. - John C., 255, 277. - -French, Daniel Chester, 272. - -Fulton, Robert, 254. - - -Gallaudet, Dr. Edward M., 272. - -Gardiner, David, 180. - Julia, 179. - -Garfield, “Grandma,” 222. - James A., 222, 233, 274. - -Georgetown, D.C., 3, 11, 12, 251. - -Grant, Nellie. (See NELLIE GRANT SARTORIS.) - Ulysses S., 43, 44, 45, 205, 212, 225, 232, 271. - Mrs. Ulysses S., 225. - -Graves, William J., 259. - -Greeley, Horace, 203, 213. - -Green, Bernard R., 273. - -Greenough, Horatio, 58, 268. - -Grow, Galusha A., 101. - -Guiteau, Charles J., 223, 274. - - -Halford, Elijah W., 228. - -Hamlin, Hannibal, 32. - -Hancock, Winfield S., 223, 266. - -Harrison, Benjamin, 112, 226. - William Henry, 172, 274, 280. - -Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 188. - -Hay, John, 282. - -Hayes, Lucy Webb, 220. - Rutherford B., 218. - -Henry, Joseph, 274. - -Hoban, James, 116, 231. - -House of Representatives, 10, 56, 63, 76, 85, 139. (See also CONGRESS.) - -Hoxie, Vinnie Ream, 211. - -Humboldt, Baron von, 125. - -Hutchinson Family, 204. - -Huygens, Bangeman, 160, 162. - - -Inaugural Balls, 134, 175, 212, 219. - - -Jackson, Andrew, 58, 150, 156, 232, 266, 270, 280. - Andrew, Jr., 161. - Mrs. Andrew, 157, 159. - -Jay, John, 12, 69. - -Jefferson, Thomas, 2, 54, 68, 111, 121, 231, 269. - -Johnson, Andrew, 44, 211. - -Judiciary Square, 277. - - -Kearney, Dennis, 222. - -Keitt, Lawrence M., 101. - -Kendall, Amos, 272. - -Key, Francis Scott, 252. - -Kilbourn, Hallet, 97. - -Kilgore, Constantine Buckley, 109. - -King, William R., 142, 188. - -Kossuth, Louis, 186. - - -Lafayette, Marquis de, 65. - -Lafayette Park, 5, 118. - -Lamar, Lucius Q. C., 102. - -Lane, Harriet, 193. - -Latrobe, Benjamin H., 56, 280. - -Lear, Tobias, 244, 282. - -Lee, Robert E., 42, 235. - -L’Enfant, Pierre Charles, 5, 83, 231. - -Library, Public, 49. - -Library of Congress, 273. - -Liliuokalani, Queen, 221. - -Lincoln, Abraham, 30, 65, 195, 232, 271, 275, 282. - Mary Todd, 196, 208. - “Tad,” 43, 201. - Willie, 201. - -Lind, Jennie, 146. - -Lovejoy, Owen, 102. - - -McClellan, George B., 236, 266, 282. - -McCreary, James B., 106. - -McElroy, Mrs. John, 224. - -McKee, “Baby,” 228. - -McKinley, William, Jr., 112, 221, 230, 232. - -McLean, John, 194. - -Madison, Dolly, 19, 78, 115, 124, 135, 144, 281. - James, 14, 54, 125, 132, 280. - -Mall, 12, 83, 114. - -Marine Band, 77, 124, 178, 225. - -Marshall, John, 65, 164. - -Martineau, Harriet, 161, 163. - -Meigs, Montgomery C., 237, 272. - -Mellanelli, Sidi, 127. - -Meredith, Owen, 282. - -Merry, Anthony, 125. - -Mexican War, 22, 182, 271, 273. - -Mitchill, Dr. Samuel, 127. - -Monroe, Eliza Kortright, 115, 147. - James, 18, 138, 147, 151, 278, 280. - -Moore, Thomas, 5, 125. - -Morrissey, Mrs. John, 213. - -Morse, Samuel F. B., 75, 182. - -Mott, Richard T., 102. - -Mount Vernon, Va., 244, 249. - - -Negroes, First, in Inaugural parade, 208. - -Nilsson, Christine, 224. - - -Octagon House, 19, 137. - -O’Ferrall, Charles T., 108. - -Old Capitol, 20, 278. - -O’Neil, “Peggy.” (See Mrs. JOHN H. EATON.) - - -Paine, Thomas, 129. - -Patterson, Elizabeth, 128. (See also JEROME BONAPARTE.) - -Peabody, George, 254. - -Pension Office, 272, 277. - -Pennsylvania Avenue, 10, 47, 49, 114, 285. - -Persico, Luigi, 58, 278. - -Phillips, Wendell, 214. - -Pierce, Franklin, 186. - Mrs. Franklin, 188. - -Pohick, Va., 246. - -Polk, James K., 182. - Sarah Childress, 182. - -Potter, Rt. Rev. Henry C., 243. - -Presidents, Deaths of, in office, 43, 176, 185, 208, 223, 230. - -Presidents and Congress, 72, 89, 109. - -Press, Congress and the, 94. - -Prince, Frederick O., 191. - -_Princeton_, Sloop-of-War, 180. - - -Randolph, John, 59, 64, 94, 140, 256. - Robert B., 168. - -Ream, Vinnie. (See HOXIE.) - -Reed, Thomas B., 79, 103. - -Religious Exercises in Congress, 77, 98. - -Robinson, William E., 95. - -Rock Creek Cemetery, 279. - -Rogers, Randolph, 59. - -Roosevelt, Edith Kermit, 116, 233, 281. - Theodore, 52, 230, 270, 281. - -Root, Elihu, 224. - -Ross, Edmund G., 211. - -Ross, Robert, 15. - -Royall, Ann, 20, 278. - - -Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 279. - -Saint John’s Church, 280. - -Saint Paul’s Church, 279. - -Sartoris, Algernon, 217. - Nellie Grant, 212, 217. - -Scott, Winfield, 39, 183, 186, 194, 236, 266, 267, 271, 273. - -Secession, Progress of, movement, 27. - -Senate, United States, 10, 55, 68, 71, 86, 139. (See also CONGRESS.) - -Seward, William H., 31, 43, 198, 282. - -Shepherd, Alexander R., 46. - -Sheridan, Philip H., 267, 271. - -Sherman, John, 102. - William T., 213, 271. - -Shuter’s Hill, 54. - -Sickles, Daniel E., 211. - -Slavery, 23, 64, 99, 186, 275. (See also EMANCIPATION.) - -Smith, Capt. John, 3. - Margaret Bayard, 141. - -Smithsonian Institution, 273. - -Soldiers’ Home, 84, 273. - -Sprague, Kate Chase, 202. - William, 202. - -Stanton, Edwin M., 44, 200, 207, 211. - -“Star-Spangled Banner,” Song, 252. - -Statues of Celebrities, 266. - -Stephens, Alexander H., 29, 65. - -Stewart, Alexander T., 214. - -Stockton, Robert F., 180. - -Stranger, “The Female,” 242. - -Sumner, Charles, 68, 189. - -Sunderland, Rev. Dr. Byron, 99. - -Supreme Court of the United States, 11, 67, 74. - -Surratt, Mary E., 283. - - -Taft, William H., 52, 233, 270. - -Taney, Roger B., 34, 277. - -Tayloe, Mrs. Ogle, 170. - -Tayloe House, 281. - -Taylor, Zachary, 183, 195, 281. - -Telegraph, Atlantic, cable, 190. - First American, 75, 182. - -Thomas, George H., 267. - -Thornton, Dr. William, 16, 55, 251. - -Tilden, Samuel J., 218. - -Timberlake, Mrs. (See MRS. JOHN H. EATON.) - Purser, 159, 168. - Virginia, 179. - -Tracy, Benjamin F., 228. - -_Trent_ Affair, 282. - -Trumbull, John, 59. - -Turreau, Louis M., 127. - -Tyler, John, 177, 280. - - -Van Buren, John, 171. - Martin, 158, 162, 169, 176, 256, 280. - -Victoria, Queen, 190. - - -Walter, Thomas U., 56, 63. - -War of 1812, 14, 135, 270. - -Ward, Artemus, 200. - J. Q. A., 267. - -Washburn, Cadwallader, 102. - -Washburne, Elihu, 102. - -Washington, D.C., - Beginnings of, 1; - Captured by British in 1814, 15, 56, 278; - Growth of, 45; - In Civil War Times, 24, 26; - Journalism in Early Days, 20, 154; - Plan of, 5, 83, 114, 231; - Police Force, 178; - Removal of Government to, 7; - Suburbs of, 235; - Threatened by Gen. Early in 1864, 41; - Varying Fortunes of, 21. - -Washington, George, 3, 67, 74, 81, 89, 118, 235, 238, 239, 240, 243, 268. - Martha, 118, 235, 240, 243, 249. - Mary, 249. - -Washington National Monument, 261, 270. - -Watts, George F., 270. - -Webster, Daniel, 68, 140, 164, 173. - -Weems, Rev. Mason L., 246. - -Welles, Gideon, 282. - -White House, 6, 8, 17, 114, 118, 135, 147, 155, - 162, 164, 172, 178, 182, 184, 195, 197, 201, 219, 231. - -Wilkes, Charles, 281. - -Williams, Harriet Beall. (See BARONESS BODISCO.) - -Wilmot, David, 64. - -Wilson, Henry, 74, 276. - Woodrow, 52, 73, 112, 234, 270. - -Windom, William, 228. - -Wirz, Henry, 279. - -Women visiting Congress, 93, 141. - -Wood, William P., 279. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Walks About Washington, by Francis E. 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