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 ANNALS OF SILVER SPRING. ^V 
 
 By gist BLAIE, Maj. J.A.R.C., U. S. A. 
 
 Records of The Columbia Historical Society, Vol. XXI, 1918 
 
. KJ <: 
 
 h 
 
 
Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. V. 
 
 Ruins of Montgomkry Blaihs 1I(jus;h at Silvkh Spiung. JJlhnt by 
 THE Confederates Under General Karly. 
 
[Reprinted from The Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 
 Vol. 21, 1918.] 
 
 ANNALS OF SILVER SPEING. 
 
 By gist BLAIR, Maj. J.A.E.C, U. S. A. 
 (Read before the Society, April 17, 1917.) 
 
 Montgomery County, within which Silver Spring is 
 situated, was segregated from Prince George's County 
 in 1748, when it became a part of Frederick County. 
 Its historic soil even then should have felt and heard 
 in whispers the coming of great events. General 
 Braddock marched across it on his way to defeat in 
 the French and Indian War, where General Washing- 
 ton gained the first experiences of a soldier. In his 
 company and as a companion, my great great-grand- 
 father, Christopher Gist, born and raised in Baltimore, 
 also marched across the soil of Old Montgomery. 
 
 The few and scattered settlements which were then 
 in existence were not near Silver Spring.. Indians, 
 principally Piscatawags, roamed over the country and 
 as late as 1797 an act of assembly was passed for Mont- 
 gomery County, offering rewards of $30 per head for 
 every wolf over six months old and $4 for every one 
 under that age.^ No doubt these wolves then made 
 their homes around Silver Spring, because the first 
 settlements ran along Rock Creek and the Eastern 
 Branch of the Potoijiac. Silver Spring remained as 
 wild as any spot on the banks of the Mississippi or 
 Columbia Rivers. No sounds of population thrilled 
 her waving pine trees and the flush of life in the bud- 
 ding of the springtime must have been without man's 
 knowledge or his care. The shades and shadows of 
 Silver Spring were left unnoticed by the early settlers, 
 
 iScharf's "History of Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 641. 
 
 155 
 
156 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 who, stimulated by the remunerative prices for to- 
 bacco, reduced the land of Montgomery County to cul- 
 tivation.- This staple so appealed to Marylanders 
 when the first settlements occurred that it was used in 
 the place of money as a medium of exchange. Wages 
 were paid in tobacco and in 1732 tobacco was made a 
 legal tender at the rate of one penny per pound. 
 Fines for criminal offenses were paid in it; Sabbath- 
 breaking or selling liquor on Sunday, were punished at 
 the rate of from 200 to 2,000 pounds of tobacco and 
 even the salary of the learned and witty rector of Rock 
 Creek parish was paid in it, he enjoying an income of 
 ninety hogsheads of tobacco a year.^ In making ref- 
 erence to these early settlers of Montgomery County, 
 who exhausted her lands and whose life is now largely 
 forgotten with its come-easy, go-easy methods, we 
 must not forget the brilliant and gifted Philip Barton 
 Key, who lived in luxury at Woodley, as well as the 
 second one of that name, son of Francis Scott Key, 
 author of the ''Star Spangled Banner," the latter 
 shot by General Sickles two blocks from here.^ The 
 new Key Bridge across the Potomac River where the 
 old Aqueduct Bridge exists will when built carry the 
 name of Key down to posterity among us. 
 
 These were bright and happy days for the old 
 squires of Montgomery County and our District of 
 Columbia, who built handsome homes and lived at ease 
 in these neighborhoods.^ The .parson's home con- 
 tinues standing in the county and is known as ' ' Hayes ' ' 
 and is occupied and owned by Mr. G. Thomas Dunlop, 
 one of the descendants of James Dunlop, who bought 
 it about 1792 from the parson's estate. 
 
 2Scliarf's "History of Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 666. 
 3 Fortes Lindsay's "History of the City of Washington," p. 23. 
 4Scharf's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 399. 
 5 Scharf 's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 399. 
 
 am 
 
 'B^mB 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 157 
 
 This Parson Williamson was one of the richest men 
 of the time and he rode straight to hounds, negotiated 
 his three bottles of wine at a sitting and freely backed 
 his or his friends ' race-horses and played his whist for 
 double eagle points and five on the rubber as well as 
 the best of them. Another like him lived at ''Clean 
 Drinking Manor" — a certain John Coates by name, 
 who received a grant of land from the Crown in 1680 
 of 1,400 acres which lay to the north. This great prop- 
 erty was enjoyed, lived in and worked until it finally 
 descended through the female line to a certain Charles 
 Jones, who erected a handsome Manor House upon it 
 in 1750. The Joneses, like the Coateses, were the same 
 jovial kind and the Joneses' last descendant was buried 
 on his ground and apparently wasi then not only dead, 
 but bankrupt, too, for he left this epitaph upon an old 
 stone to mark his grave :^ 
 
 To the southeast of Silver Spring lay ''Warburton," 
 the home of the Diggs family. A part of this manor 
 was known as "Green Hill," named after the ancestral 
 home of the Diggses in Kent County, England, where 
 Sir Dudley Diggs lived in the reign of James the First. 
 And William Dudley Diggs, who resided here, has en- 
 deared himself to every one of us, because he took into 
 his home as a guest the now famous L 'Enfant, when 
 poor and old and without a friend but his dogs, and 
 kept him and fed him without cost until he died in 
 1825, and he buried him in his garden — a lovely spot 
 he had designed and laid out near his house.' Pie is 
 
 7 Forbes Lindsay, p. 21 and p. 71. 
 
 6T. H. S. Boyd's "History of Montgomery Co.," p. 31. 
 
 ' ' Here lies the body and bones 
 Of old Walter C. Jones 
 By his not thinkin<j 
 He lost 'Clean Drinking,' 
 And by his shallow pate, 
 He lost his vast estate." 
 
158 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 described as a tall, melancholy man of distinguished 
 appearance, dressed in threadbare surtout and high 
 bell-crowned hat, leaning heavily upon a staff and 
 followed by one half dozen hunting dogs. 
 
 This beautiful place, still called ''Green Hill," 
 owned by the estate of Elisha Biggs, is occupied each 
 summer by Mr. and Mrs. George Howard, a grandson. 
 The garden in which Major L 'Enfant was buried was 
 laid out by him, showing much of the same wonderful 
 talent which he displayed in laying out the city of 
 Washington. It is still carefully preserved by Mr. 
 and Mrs. Howard and when the remains of Major 
 L 'Enfant were removed to Arlington, I was invited to 
 be present at the disinterment as a representative of 
 the owners of the property, and witnessed the removal 
 of his remains and was given a section of the cedar 
 tree which grew at the head of the grave and whose 
 roots passed through it and which no doubt was par- 
 tially nourished by the remains of Major L 'Enfant. 
 
 The places of "Riversdale," "Arlington," "Ana- 
 lostan, " "Duddington," and others were within rid- 
 ing distance and enjoyed by similar owners.^ These 
 great estates and landed proprietors surrounded Sil- 
 ver Spring and the District of Columbia. Their 
 owners and residents were wonderfully prosperous, 
 possessed many slaves, and in part belonged to excel- 
 lent families of English origin. They drank, were 
 addicted to duelling, racing and cock fighting, and lived 
 as gentlemen then lived. 
 
 But besides this they were intensely patriotic and 
 the Revolution found numbers of them fighting every- 
 where in the ranks of the colonists. '^ It was among 
 these settlers and tobacco planters, on whose patriot- 
 ism I have not time to dwell, on the first day of Octo- 
 
 8 Forbes Lindsay, p. 27. 
 
 oScharf's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 643. 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 159 
 
 ber, 1776, that Montgomery County was separated 
 from Frederick Conuty and created into a county by 
 itself. At this time they were seething with animosity 
 towards the mother country, so quite naturally Richard 
 Montgomery's name appealed to the mind and heart 
 of every man. This brilliant Irishman, who had 
 fought with General Wolfe at Quebec in the English 
 army, had married a daughter of Judge Robert R. 
 Livingston, of New York, where he had settled. Early 
 in the dispute, however, he took sides with the colonies 
 and in 1775, giving up the comforts and luxuries in 
 which he lived, victoriously led an expedition into 
 Canada, where he was rapidly conquering the entire 
 Province, when the question of a new name for our 
 county arose. And they selected his name — ' ' Montgom- 
 ery." Alas, his living fame was short-lived. Perhaps 
 few men have ever lived whose untimely death caused 
 keener regrets than that of General Montgomery, who 
 died like the great Wolfe in the hour of his triumph at 
 Quebec and his remains now lie in the churchyard of 
 Trinity Church in New York City, surrounded by the 
 whirl and eddy of Wall Street. But his death inten- 
 sified the devotion of Americans to his memory, and 
 counties and cities, and chiklren, were alike named for 
 him. My grandfather, Francis Preston Blair, was one 
 of those who sought to perpetuate his fame by naming 
 a child in his honor and my father was therefore named 
 ''Montgomery Blair," so Montgomery Blair living in 
 Montgomery County both traced their name to this 
 early hero in our struggle for independence. 
 
 Silver Spring lay in peaceful slumber during these 
 stirring 3^ears and not until my grandfather, who had 
 been brought from Kentucky by Andrew Jackson, 
 President of the United States, soon after his election, 
 rode into its delightful wilds on his lioi-se, Selim, and 
 
160 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 discovered the beautiful sparkling spring from which 
 its name is derived, did it begin to live on the map. 
 He had purchased this saddle horse from Greneral Wil- 
 liam Lingan Gaither, after whose family the prosper- 
 ous town of Gaithersburg, in Montgomery County, 
 takes its name, then a representative man, and while 
 riding Selim one day outside the boundary of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, his horse became frightened and 
 threw his rider and ran away among the thick growth 
 of pines in the valley to the west of the road which is 
 now known as Georgia Avenue, in the District of Co- 
 lumbia, formerly Seventh Street Road, in the county. 
 He followed hi? horse into the woods and found him 
 snared by the reins by a bush which had caught the 
 reins dangling, and near the place was a beautiful 
 spring full of white sand and mica which the gush of 
 the water from the earth forced into a small column 
 which sparkled as it rose and fell like silver. He was 
 charmed with the spot and purchased the property. 
 It was not dear and I have a parchment certificate 
 showing that some of the land was bought direct from 
 the state. My earliest memory of Silver Spring in- 
 cludes this beauty of the spring described by him and 
 quite famous at the time, but alas, it is now no longer 
 the same. The column of shining silver, sand and mica, 
 ever rising, ever falling, ever sparkling in the water 
 and the sunlight, was presided over by a marble statue 
 of a beautiful water njnxiph placed there by my grand- 
 father, and it was endless joy for me, a little country 
 boy, to sit and watch and dream upon this exquisite 
 combination of white marble and living water. But 
 like many dreams of childhood it has gone. A freshet 
 
 10 T. H. S. Boyd's "History of Montgomery Co.," p. 92. 
 
 11 Scharf s "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 764. 
 
 1-2 George Alfred Townsend 's ' ' Washington Outside and Inside, ' ' pp. 
 718, 719. 
 
Blair: Annals of Stiver Spring. 161 
 
 caused by a heavy storm washed earth from the sur- 
 rounding country into the spring and destroyed the 
 sand and mica. No effort has since been able to renew 
 the simple beauty of that early Silver Spring. The 
 sand does not sparkle as it did, nor the mica shine in 
 the sunlight, and I have heard people say as they gazed 
 at it, why was this called Silver Spring? 
 
 Francis Preston Blair^"^ was born at Abingdon, Vir- 
 ginia, April 12, 1791. His father, James, was the son of 
 John Blair, acting president of Princeton University, 
 when Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, whose statue you can see on Connecticut 
 Avenue and N Street, was called there to be president 
 of the University. James Blair, after marrying in Vir- 
 ginia, removed to Kentucky, where he was Attorney- 
 General of the State for some thirty years. My grands 
 father married Eliza Violet Gist, whose grandfather 
 was that same Christopher Gist who had marched 
 across Montgomery County with Braddock to battle 
 with the French about a hundred years before. After 
 engaging in the contest in Kentucky between the Old 
 Court and New Court which almost destroyed the state, 
 and serving as clerk of the New Court, he became in- 
 terested in the Kentucky Argus, a Democratic news- 
 paper published at Frankfort, and he wrote in this 
 paper a strong article denouncing nullification, which 
 attracted the attention of General Jackson, then Pres- 
 ident of the United States, who was strongly opposed 
 to disunion. President Jackson sent for my grand- 
 father and in 1830 helped him to establish a newspaper 
 in Washington, the special purpose of which was to de- 
 fend and explain the policies of the administration. 
 This paper, the Globe, became a power and the history 
 of Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations can best 
 
 13 Manuscript Life by Montgomery Blair. 
 12 
 
162 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 be understood from its columns. But after Van Buren's 
 defeat, the Globe liaving warmly denounced the South- 
 ern leaders, was reorganized when President Polk suc- 
 ceeded to the Presidency, and he dismissed my grand- 
 father as editor but sought to retain his friendship and 
 offered him a foreign mission. Mr. Blair declined the 
 mission, and said, according to my father, that in re- 
 lieving hini of his editorship President Polk had con- 
 ferred upon him the greatest favor, and that nothing 
 could induce him to give up his home at Silver Spring.^'* 
 My grandfather retained his opinions and later vig- 
 orously opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 and declared its repeal a declaration of war against the 
 Union by the Southern leaders. 
 
 Francis Preston Blair in those days was a ' 'free- 
 soil" Democrat. He opposed the extension of slavery 
 and believed that it could be gradually eradicated. 
 These views were those of Jackson and the great fol- 
 lowing who looked to him for leadership. He felt that 
 slavery was but a wedge with which the South would 
 split the Union and if they could not rule it they would 
 try to ruin it. The Southern leaders slowly forced 
 the old Jackson free-soil men out of control of the 
 party and into retirement and tried to absorb the coun- 
 try as well, and their success so increased their pride 
 and contempt for the opinion of all opposition that 
 they repealed the Missouri Compromise law and ac- 
 tually threatened to overwhelm the entire country with 
 the evils and abuses of slavery.^^ 
 
 At this trumpet call my grandfather withdrew from 
 his retirement at Silver Spring to aid the Republican 
 party, which had already started in a feeble way in 
 1854 in Wisconsin with the purpose of restricting slav- 
 
 i^Eufus Eoekwell Wilson, "Washington the Capital City," Vol. 2, 
 p. 41. 
 
 isKloeberg's "Formation of the Republican Party," p. 37. 
 
Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. VI. 
 
 SiiAKH Spiunc;, Francis Blaih's Mouse, (jIknkkal Bukc.kenhidge's 
 
 IfEAUQUAHTEHS. 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 163 
 
 ery. A call for a National Republican Convention or 
 gathering at Pittsburgh, February 22, 1856, was issued 
 from Washington on January 17, 1856, in order to per- 
 fect its organization and provide for a National Con- 
 vention at some subsequent date.^" My grandfather 
 took an active part in issuing this call from Washing- 
 ton. He attended the conference at Pittsburgh, which 
 was composed of many discordant elements, ^'whigs, 
 abolitionists, free soldiers, and native Americans, and 
 came near breaking up," and an authority says that 
 through the "efforts of Lewis Clephane, of Washing- 
 ton, D. C, Francis Preston Blair was made permanent 
 chairman or President, without objection, and his abil- 
 ity and tact and discretion prevented a complete 
 fiasco."^" He certainly presided over the meeting at 
 Pittsburgh which organized the party. An executive 
 committee was selected and it issued a call for a Con- 
 vention to meet in Philadelphia on June 17. Fremont 
 was nominated for the Presidency.^® My grandfather 
 was a delegate io this convention and as General Fre- 
 mont had married Miss Jessie Benton, the daughter of 
 his old friend. Senator Benton from Missouri, in whose 
 office my father started to practice law, it is natural to 
 suspect he had something to do in selecting the first 
 candidate for the Presidency of the Republican party.^^ 
 He was delegate at large for Maryland to the Conven- 
 tion in ]860, when Mr. Lincoln was nominated, and 
 after his election to the Presidency he was a constant 
 adviser and friend of the President, and my father, 
 Montgomery, became his Postmaster-General.^*' 
 
 The Silver Spring grounds and gardens were exten- 
 
 16 " Republican Conventions Since 1856," by Henry IT. Smith. 
 
 17 "Political Recollections," by George W. Julian, p. 147. 
 
 18 Appleton 's Encyclopsedia, Vol. 2, p. 688. 
 
 19 ' ' Republican Party, ' ' by Francis Curtis. 
 
 20 JJ. S. Magazine and Democratic Review, July, 1845, Vol. 17, p. 14, 
 article entitled "Blair and the Globe." 
 
164 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 sive and beautiful. The entrance, always called by tlie 
 negroes the "Big Gate," was just across the Maryland 
 line from the District line. One of the boundary stones 
 of the District of Columbia as it was laid out under 
 General Washington is within sight of the gate. The 
 old carriage drive wound through heavy forests, until 
 it neared the house, when one drove through a row of 
 horse chestnut trees, beautiful to look at when in bloom, 
 then through a row of large silver pines. The drive- 
 way was thought to have been modelled after one of 
 those one sees in the "Bois" in Paris. Crossing a 
 rustic bridge one arrived at the house, in old days of 
 mouse color, and of the type of a French chateau. The 
 circle enabled one to turn conveniently and look at 
 plants or shrubs in a little valley below the drive. The 
 summer kitchens were close to the house, so the negroes 
 could run with the dishes and serve them quite hot to 
 guests in the dining room or large enclosed glass piazza. 
 
 A fine row of sugar maple trees lined the walk from 
 the house to the spring, some two city blocks away, on 
 both sides of which were lawns improved with shrubs 
 and trees, many of which were imported. 
 
 The rose garden and vegetable garden, the vault in 
 which my great-grandfather and mother had been 
 buried, the grapery, peach orchard and some great fig 
 bushes, which furnished quantities of fruit, were in 
 close proximity and all the land surrounding them 
 were kept under a high state of cultivation and inter- 
 spersed with walks and paths and hedges. Near the 
 house and across the path leading to the summer 
 kitchen was a large cane break, the plants for which 
 had been brought from Canewood, Kentucky, the^ home 
 of General Nathaniel Gist, a Revolutionary officer and 
 father of my grandmother. This cane grew so thick 
 and kept so green during the winter that game often 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 165 
 
 remained there during severe weatlier for days, find- 
 ing comfort and shelter. Some of this cane still grows 
 in the same spot. 
 
 Not far from the spring was the dairy and ' ' quarters. ' ' 
 There the slaves lived and adjoining them were the 
 stables. A roadway ran due west from the spring at 
 the beginning of which was a large summer house 
 called the Acorn, named on account of its shape. This 
 Acorn was built of solid timber, colored like an acorn, 
 with its side supports of gnarled oak, its inside of 
 dressed lumber, and a lamp hanging in the center. 
 
 Spring stones were placed around its outside, adding 
 much to its beauty and seats were inside of it. Below 
 this was a large pond in which was an island of spring 
 stones covered with native honeysuckle. The pond 
 had garlands of plants and roses on its banks in suc- 
 cessive tiers, each tier of a kind to stand higher than 
 its neighbor which was nearer the pond, so to the eye 
 ^they rose from the water like seats in a colosseum. 
 The effect was startlingly beautiful, especially when 
 these flowers were in bloom. Below the pond was a 
 bath from a nearby spring, made of concrete and im- 
 proved by a bath-house, having large overhanging 
 trees and quantities of myrtle, and English ivy clus- 
 tered and growing profusely all over the space within 
 the enclosure. 
 
 Following the path or roadway further towards the 
 west, we passed the mill which in my childhood was no 
 longer used. It had an old wheel turned by water and 
 the inside of the mill faced an interior courtyard and 
 opposite it were large barns for cattle. In my child- 
 hood this mill was a mass of English ivy and looked 
 like a ruin. 
 
 Following the pathway further one passed across 
 Maria's Bridge, a stucco spring stone ornamental 
 
166 Records of the Columhia Historical Society. 
 
 structure, and struck into the woods. The path thence 
 wound through these along a stream of water which 
 took its origin from the springs mentioned. The first 
 grottoes one met on the walk, which was called by my 
 grandfather the "Grotto Walk," or by some others 
 "Lovers' Walk," was the "Bishop's Chair"; thence 
 by a rustic bridge, the roadway of which was one huge, 
 uneven stone, you came to the principal feature 
 of the walk, a succession of grottoes, a spring and 
 another bath. The largest of these grottoes was 
 sunk deep into a hillside, above which grew lofty trees 
 and underbrush, and it always had an air of mystery 
 about it which suggested secrecy and seclusion. This 
 Grotto walk wound around, turning with the windings 
 of this stream and at various places had seats and 
 bowers. "St. Andrew's Well" and "Violet Spring" 
 are two of the others which I recall. The walk was 
 about a mile in length. One place was named "Hern's 
 Oak," a majestic tree w^hich recalled Falstaff ; and the 
 streams, and planting, gave the walk everywhere va- 
 riety and beauty. 
 
 My grandfather loved Silver Spring. It was there 
 he enjoyed his friends and as early as 1854 he gave his 
 Washington house to his son, Montgomery, and set- 
 tled down among his flowers and slaves and books. 
 His social life was rich. People delighted in visiting 
 him and readily made what was then a long journey 
 in a carriage Or on horseback to see him. He knew no 
 enemies, political or otherwise, at his generous table. 
 There north and south were treated alike. His daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. S. P. Lee, and her husband. Admiral S. P. Lee, 
 resided with my grandfather and grandmother, and 
 she and her husband inherited the old home and main- 
 tained many of his customs during her life. Her por- 
 trait, by Sully, when nineteen, is one of the valued 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 167 
 
 possessions in the house and it is said of her she would 
 never have another taken, nor even a photograph 
 made, always laughing and saying ''Nobody cares to 
 look at the picture of an old woman, nor even at the 
 old woman herself."-^ She lived to be eighty-nine 
 years of age and her love of life and people lasted until 
 the end. Many stories were told by Mrs. Lee, who 
 spent an entire winter in the White House when Gen- 
 eral Jackson was President, of his ready wit. He 
 must have liked her, since he gave Mrs. Lee, among 
 other gifts, the ring presented to him by Mrs. Eliza 
 W. Custis, February 22, 1825, which Mrs. Custis sent 
 to him by the hand of General Lafayette, saying ' ' the 
 birthday of Washington is the fit time for a tribute of 
 respect to him whose glorious achievements place him 
 next to the father of our country. On this day I pre- 
 sent to General Jackson a ring of the hero's hair, of 
 the color it was when he led our soldiers to victory. 
 It was made in this city and of American gold. Wear 
 it in remembrance of him who was first in the hearts 
 of our country and of her who gives it to you with her 
 best wishes for your health and happiness. To Gen- 
 eral Jackson. "^2 
 
 After General Jackson 's term. President Van Buren, 
 his successor, was intimate with my grandfather and 
 gave his portrait to him on leaving. He was called 
 the "red fox" by his opponents and always carica- 
 tured as one.^^ This portrait shows this expression. 
 It still hangs on the walls of the old house at Silver 
 Spring. Reference* has already been made to the 
 strong feeling always displayed by my grandfather 
 when any reference was made to dissolving the Union. 
 He had long felt the South was going to attempt to dis- 
 
 21 Article in Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 
 
 22 Article in Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 
 
 23 Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 
 
168 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 member it and create an aristocratic empire founded 
 on slavery. My grandfather was thoroughly demo- 
 cratic. He loved the whole country and believed its 
 future depended upon democracy in its true, not party, 
 meaning. Mr. Clay's Missouri Compromise on the 
 slavery question had held the country together. So, 
 when his young cousin, John C. Breckinridge, came to 
 the United States Senate as Mr. Clay's successor, my 
 grandfather naturally hoped he would take strong 
 ground against any repeal of this law, which would at 
 once cause the country to renew the dangerous agita- 
 tion of the slavery question. This question was pend- 
 ing when one day Mr. Breckinridge visited Silver 
 Spring and the interview between him and my grand- 
 father is described by Mrs. Lee; she details how he 
 pleaded with Breckinridge to stand up against any re- 
 peal of the law and prophesied it was certain to cause 
 civil war and the questions end in blood. Breckinridge 
 returned to Silver Spring a Confederate general with 
 Early on his famous raid. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson Davis was also a frequent visitor at 
 Silver Spring, and true to his best nature, my grand- 
 father never allowed politics to interfere with his 
 friendships. He kept them and they kept him, so 
 when President Davis was arrested and threatened 
 with death or imprisonment, Mrs. Davis quite natu- 
 rally appealed to Francis Preston Blair for succor and 
 help. I have in my possession a hitherto unpublished 
 letter in which she makes the appeal and as she de- 
 scribes the capture of Jefferson Davis by the Federal 
 forces and the disguise he wore, which was exhibited 
 in the War Department for many years, the account 
 of the capture as given by his wife may properly be 
 included in this article: 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 169 
 
 Savannah, Ga., June 6, 1865. 
 
 "Private and confidential. 
 
 ''My dear Mr. Blair: Fearing ill treatment at the hands of 
 your people in the event of the fall of Richmond, I left it 
 with my family on the 30th of March, and went to Charlotte, 
 where after a residence of ten days, I was again forced to 
 give up the house I had secured and go by rail and wagon 
 route to Ashville, N. C, There I heard of the surrender of 
 General Lee's grand army and knowing that General John- 
 ston's was the only barrier left between us and your troops, 
 I deterined to go down to the coast of Florida and thence to 
 embark for Europe for I had but little hope that our dear ex- 
 hausted army could long resist such overwhelming odds, as 
 your people could bring against it. Mr. Davis had sent his 
 private Secretary to us the day before I came to this decision 
 in order that he might take care of us. Five wagons were 
 furnished us in which we placed our baggage and such supplies 
 of groceries as the exhausted state of the country enabled us to 
 procure. The latter we hoped to trade for milk, butter, or 
 shelter, on the road, because Confederate money was not cur- 
 rent in the country and I had no specie. When it was ru- 
 mored in Abbeville that we were going with only one gentle- 
 man over a wagon route infested by bands of demoralized 
 Confederate soldiers, three paroled Confederate gentlemen 
 offered to accompany the train, stating at the same time that 
 they were unarmed, could not fight the Federals if they were 
 not, but could resist by an appearance of strength at least, the 
 poor discouraged, disorganized confederate soldiers, who might 
 with their hopes of success have lost their nice sense of duty. 
 The Hon. Armistead Burt heard the offer of service, and also 
 the announcement of paroled disability. Thus accompanied 
 I went to Washington, Ga., where I heard of Gen. Johnston's 
 surrender not only of his army but of a whole section to the 
 command of which he had not been assigned on conditions of 
 utter submission on the part of our people. Before the official 
 notification of. the surrender had been received, nay before the 
 rumor was credited, a train of seven wagons was organized 
 
170 Records of the Cohimhia Historical Society. 
 
 and the young men who accompanied me. Lt. Hathaway, 
 Mr. Messie, and Mr. Munroe, finding me still dependent upon 
 their protection begged me to consider them at my service. 
 Capt. Moody of Mississippi, and I\Iaj. Moran, of Louisiana, 
 joined me announcing as did my other friends, that they could 
 not resist the Federals and were unarmed, but would try to 
 protect me from our own people. These with my young 
 brother, eighteen years old, a furloughed midshipman, also 
 unarmed and the seven wagoners who had volunteered to 
 drive us, because they wanted the transportation, out as far 
 West as I was going, and my two colored men servants, con- 
 stituted the "belligerent train" to catch which a Brigade was 
 sent out. Two of the teamsters had, as I afterwards learned 
 thrown their muskets used while in service into the wagons 
 and one had a broken revolver. After our capture I heard 
 that upon meeting two negroes with some powder and a half 
 bucket of ammunition, and finding that it had been stolen by 
 them, one of the wagoners took away from them, fearful they 
 might make an insurrection and use of it and expressed his 
 intention to trade the ammunition for food on the road. Thus 
 protected, thus equipped, ignorant of Mr. Davis' condition, 
 certain of one thing only, that he would never seek personal 
 immunity by deserting the remnant of our people who were 
 still resistant and willing to die rather than be enslaved, I 
 started out upon the world hoped by constant travelling to 
 reach a port from which I might embark for England, there 
 to await in poverty but freedom, the loss of all I held dear. 
 When we were camping out the second night after we left 
 Washington, our camp was entered by a company of paroled 
 Confederates under the impression that it was a 'treasure 
 train,' but the Captain fortunately recognized me as having 
 dressed his wounds in Richmond, and after an apology left 
 us. Before they did so I explained to them that a friend 
 had furnished us with $2,500 in gold in Washington but that 
 this was all. Distracted about my country and my husband, 
 beset upon every side by foes internal and external, I travelled 
 two days further, at the expiration of that time we discovered 
 that we had been followed by a number of General Wheeler's 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 171 
 
 command, nearly a regiment of Alabama Cavalry, and that 
 they intended to 'storm' our camp that night, taking all our 
 mules and horses and such of our baggage as they needed. 
 It was very bright moonlight, and we loaded all the arms we 
 had, a fine little colts revolver and a fine Adam's self cocking 
 revolver which had been presented to Mr. Davis by the maker 
 and given by him to me to take care of and we retired until 
 the moon should set, knowing they would not attack us in all 
 probability until that time and then I hoped to throw myself 
 upon their generosity, and appeal to them as my legitimate 
 protection, and thus to render the use of fire arms unnec- 
 essary. However, before day my husband joined us. He had 
 been travelling nearly the same road accompanied by his staff, 
 the Secretary of the Treasury pro-tem. Judge Reagan, and six 
 armed men as his escort. One of his aids heard at a house 
 that we were to be attacked and rohbed, and Mr. Davis rode 
 fifty miles in twelve hours to join us, and to prevent it. He 
 came upon the rendezvous of the cavalry and frightened them 
 away — then joined us for a day and a night, at the expiration 
 of which time we bade him farewell, not expecting to meet 
 him again, hut after travelling for a day and night in front of 
 us, he received information that one hundred and fifty men of 
 ^the same command were at Irvington or Irvingsville and joined 
 us again for purposes of protection, travelling all the day 
 bd'ore our capture with us. The night preceeding our capture 
 we camped near a little stream bordered on both sides with a 
 thick growth of underwood and tall trees. The road led across 
 it and we camped on the side nearest to Irvingsville and the 
 wood shut out the view of the road through which we trav- 
 elled. IMr. Davis had been suffering from billions derangement 
 and could not bear the weight of his Deringer pi-stol around 
 his waist, therefore handed them to one of his aids. He did 
 not intend to camp with us that night but to ride forward and 
 meet the marauders, if possible, before they reached us. He, 
 therefore, left his pistols in their holsters on the saddle, in the 
 possession of his servant. As night drew on he seemed so 
 exhausted that he decided to stay all night with us. Before 
 I left Richmond in order to pay all the outstanding debts and 
 
172 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 to procure money enough to go away from there I sent my 
 silver, china glass, and little ornaments, not excluding the 
 little gifts received from dear friends, years ago, also as much 
 of my clothing and of Mr. Davis's as was not absolutely in 
 use, to be exposed for public sale — some at auction, some at 
 different stores. I also sold the debris of our magnificent 
 library, several hundred volumes, which had been sent us 
 after the Federals robbed us of all that they considered it 
 worth their while to steal or isell. As those things were sold 
 for Confederate money, I left it in Richmond to be converted 
 into gold and sent to me by some convenient opportunity. 
 Judge Reagan brought it to me in a pair of saddle bags upon 
 a pack mule and told me it amounted to a little over $8,000 
 in gold. This was left in the ambulance in which we travelled. 
 This money and a pair of fine carriage horses which poverty 
 had compelled me to sell, and which the citizens of Richmond 
 bought, and returned to me, constituted all my worldly wealth. 
 Just before day the enemy charged our camp yelling like 
 demons. Mr. Davis received timely warning of their ap- 
 proach but believing them to be our own people deliberately 
 made his toilette and was only disabused of the delusion, when 
 he saw them deploying a few yards off. He started down to the 
 little stream hoping to meet his servant with his horse and arms, 
 but knowing he would be recognized, I pleaded with him to let 
 me throw over him a large waterproof wrap which had often 
 served him in sickness during the summer season for a dress- 
 ing gown and which I hoped might so cover his person that in 
 the grey of the morning he would not be recognized. As he 
 strode off I threw over his head a little black shawl which was 
 around my own shoulders, saying that he could not find his 
 hat and after he started sent my colored woman after him 
 with a bucket for water hoping that he would pass unobserved. 
 He attempted no disguise, consented to no subterfuge but if 
 he had in failure is found the only matter of cavil. 
 
 "Had he assumed an elaborate female attire as a sacrifice to 
 save a country the heart of which trusted in him, it had been 
 well. When he had proceeded a few yards the guards around 
 our tents with a shocking oath called out to know who that 
 
Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. VII. 
 
 Mrs. Jkffehson Davis. 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 173 
 
 was. I said it was my mother and he halted Mr. Davis who 
 threw off the cloak with a defiance and when ealled upon to 
 surrender did not do so and but for the interposition of my 
 person between his and the guns would have been shot. I 
 told the man to shoot me if he pleased, to which he answered 
 he 'would not mind it a bit,' which I readily believe. While 
 this was transpiring a scene of robbery was going on in camp, 
 which beggars description — trunks were broken open, letters 
 and clolhing scattered on the ground — all the gold taken, 
 even our prayer books and bibles taken from the ambulances. 
 These latter articles were easily recovered as being of no use 
 to the robbers. My baby's little wardrobe was stolen almost 
 entirely, the other children shared the same fate. When we 
 reached Savannah, the city contributed a part of their chil- 
 dren's clothes to clothe them until I could have more made. 
 The negroes were robbed of their wardrobe and the Federal 
 soldiers wore their clothing before them, though reminded of 
 the fact by the negroes. Our faithful slave Robert owned 
 his horse which was taken from him and turned over to one of 
 the officers as were my horses. Capt. Husdon so said his men 
 received my gold, took the lion's share and secreted the rest 
 for the soldiers, consequently Col. Pritchard's search for it 
 among the valuables of the men was unsuccessful. Col. Pritch- 
 ard did what he could to protect us from insult, but against 
 robbery he was powerless to give us protection, though I feel 
 sure he tried to prevent it. We were robbed not once, nor 
 twice, but every time the wagons stopped. When we had 
 progressed about ten miles on our dreary return from the scene 
 of our capture, a man met us having a paper containing the 
 first copy the cavalry had seen of ]\Ir. Johnson's infamous 
 accusation against J\Ir. Davis, and the reward offered for his 
 apprehension. It gave him no uneasiness, and was evidently 
 not believed by the men to be founded in truth. In con- 
 versation with some of the officers, Mr. Davis' staff! were told 
 that it was fortunate that no resistance was made for they 
 were ordered if any was offered to fire into the tents (there 
 being only two, and those two containing women and children) 
 and make a general massacre. Another said, 'bloody work' 
 
174 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 would have been made of the whole party. Col. Pritchard 
 told me he did not expect to find Mr. Davis with me but came 
 out to take my train and carry it back to Macon as a 'bellig- 
 erent train.' In the jam of the attested fact, that not a gun 
 was fired by our party, that no arms were found except those 
 of Mr. Davis' escort, the gentlemen who accompanied me 
 were thrown into prison to be tried for the violation of their 
 parole. Will you not interest yourself for them ? When were 
 men punished by a great nation for the offer of service to a 
 helpless woman and her little defenceless children? There 
 were no public papers — ^no one professes to have found any- 
 thing of value, only a desolate woman's belongings and some 
 commissary's stores for her little ones, and servants. Yet 
 these unhappy young men are consigned to a prison though 
 just released from a confinement of two years' duration only 
 a month before. I thought Satan was the only being wicked 
 enough to desire to punish men for the indulgence of the 
 manly virtues which he is incapable of feeling. At your ad- 
 vanced age you would do the same that they did for an un- 
 protected woman. Will you take care of them and see that 
 they have a fair trial ? ' ' 
 
 After being brought to Old Point, where President 
 Jefferson Davis was confined and away from her, Mrs. 
 Davis states the unappreciative rogues of the country 
 had left her a diminutive Japanese cabinet, and the 
 more refined rogues of Old Point stole it with a little 
 china cup and saucer — the gift of a dear friend, and 
 numberless other petty larcenies. 
 
 "Sick and without help, save at the hands of our guard, 
 the 14th ]\Taine, who had fought too long and too bravely to op- 
 press women and children, kindly even sympathetically treated 
 by the crew of the ship. I was forced to return to Savannah — 
 here to exhaust the little money left me, with my little ones, 
 unacclimated children and teething baby, wasting away from 
 the hot climate. Sympathy and homes were proffered me on all 
 sides but where all were robbed and beggared as well as I, the 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 175 
 
 former only could be accepted, and now to you, I appeal to tell 
 me for what I am detained here. Why I alone am excluded 
 from my husband's trial? What have I done that I am a 
 prisoner at large with my family in a strange place surrounded 
 by detectives who report every visitor? Have I transgressed 
 any rule of your government since I have been under its dread 
 tyranny? Why am I kept in a garrisoned town bereft of 
 home, friends, husband and the means of' support? Insulted 
 by a licentious press, which spreads upon its daily journals 
 every agony of my tortured husl^and — May God forgive them 
 they know not what they do. 
 
 "I have written this to j^ou because I know you would like to 
 hear the ti^uth, and trust me that I will tell it, knowing as well 
 as you that the things I have said as the oiitpourings of my 
 heart to you would injure his cause if known to others. Please 
 consider the letter entirely private. If I have been diffuse, it 
 is because it is so hard to compress such conduct to the help- 
 less in so small a compass. Let me tell you a significant fact. 
 Save Col. Pritchard and Genl. Upton, no federal officer offered 
 me the courteous salutation usual from a gentleman to a lady 
 until Lt. Grant of the 14th Maine took charge of us. We were 
 treated with less consideration than I have seen my knightly 
 husband show to the beggars who came to our door for alms. 
 I never knew him to stand covered in the presence of a woman 
 or allow one to be persecuted. With thoughts of 'martial' 
 faith and country, he stands before me, and I can say no 
 more. With sincerest affection, 
 
 "Your distressed friend, 
 
 "Navina Davis." 
 
 Just before this General Early made his raid through 
 Maryland — ''too late Early," as he was called. No 
 history of Silver Spring would be complete without 
 mention of the famous barrel, not the money barrel 
 politicians love, but the barrel of Bourl)on whiskey 
 which lay in the cellar, and when powder and shot 
 could not save the Capitol at Washington, it did. The 
 officers of the Confederates made ilicir hc-Khiuarters 
 
176 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 at the old house, which is scarcely seven miles from 
 this city, and proceeded to drink up as much of it as 
 they could. They also found the dresses and clothes of 
 my half-sister, Mrs. Comstock, dressed up as women and 
 amused themselves dancing and drinking and instead 
 of pushing through Fort Stevens that afternoon when 
 few, if any, soldiers were on guard, remained at Silver 
 Spring until morning. The Sixth Massachusetts ar- 
 rived the following day and Washington was saved. 
 Greneral Early burned my father's house, known as 
 ''Falkland," which adjoined that of Silver Spring. It 
 was a total loss, because although insured it was not in- 
 sured against the public enemy. 
 
 General Early afterwards denied having authorized 
 this vandalism, when it was criticized by good people 
 everywhere. My father was a member of Mr. Lincoln's 
 cabinet and the only Southern man in it. His heart 
 was full of tender feeling for the Southern people, and 
 Virginia and Kentucky were full of his kin and boy- 
 hood friends. Like my grandfather, during the war, 
 he never failed in trying to lessen its sufferings and 
 the numbers of Southern people whom he helped out 
 of prison and aided were legion. When his house was 
 burned he was in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet and great re- 
 sentment arose on both sides. 
 
 Referring to the house General Early's interview 
 is as follows : 
 
 "Recently in Maryland, the house of Gov. Bradford was 
 burned without my orders. But I must add that I approved 
 it and had I been present would have ordered it in retaliation 
 for the burning of the house of Governor Letcher whom I 
 know to be a very poor man and whose family was not allowed 
 live minutes to remove clothing or other valuables. After- 
 wards when in front of Washington some of my troops were 
 very determined to destroy the house of Mr. Francis P. Blair 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 177 
 
 and had actually removed some of the furniture probably 
 supposing it to belong to his son^ a member of the Federal 
 Cabinet. As soon as I came up I immediately stopped the 
 proceeding and compelled the men to return every article so 
 far as I knew and placed a guard to protect it. The house 
 of his son, Montgomery Blair a member of the Cabinet, was 
 subjected to a different rule for obvious reasons." 
 
 As I have already said, the burning of Falkland ex- 
 cited strong feelings of resentment. General Benja- 
 min F. Butler immediately sent word that he intended 
 retaliating upon the South for the outrage, but my 
 father wished no retaliation. 
 
 He wrote the following letter to General Butler : 
 
 "Washington, D. C, 
 "August 10, 1864. 
 
 ^^My dear General Butler: 1 received, several days ago, your 
 telegram announcing the destruction of Seddon 's in retaliation 
 for the burning of mine. I have delayed acknowledging it be- 
 cause whilst thankful for the consideration which induced you 
 to resent my w^rongs — I have yet regretted your action on this 
 occasion. 
 
 " It is not because I have any regard for Seddon or Letcher, 
 that I regret the destruction of their property by the order of 
 our military commanders. They deserve a much worse pun- 
 ishment, I know, and I trust they may yet receive it, but it 
 will not be punishment unless they get it at the hands of the 
 law. I have a great horror of lawlessness and it does not 
 remove my repugnance to it that it is practiced upon the law- 
 less. If we allow the military to invade the rights of private 
 property on any other grounds than those recognized by civi- 
 lized warfare, there will soon cease to be any security whatever 
 for the rights of civilians on either side. 
 
 "The tendency of such measures is to involve our country 
 in all the horrors of the Wars of the Fronde, of the pettj^ 
 Princes and Brigands of Italy, of the Guerillas of Spain, which 
 made the plunder of the peaceful citizens' homes, highway 
 robbery and assassination, the concomitants of the war. 
 
178 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 "No man, I know, would appreciate such results more than 
 myself, and there are no talents on which I would sooner rely 
 than yours to prevent it, if you had proper support. 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 "M. Blair." 
 
 ' ' It may be proper to say that it was intimated to me through 
 my postal agent that it was contemplated to burn Seddon's 
 home shortly after mine was burned in retaliation for that act 
 and I directed him to say that I hoped it would not be done. ' ' 
 
 After the death of Francis P. Blair and his wife, 
 Mrs. S. P. Lee inherited Silver Spring for her life- 
 time, with the proviso it should go to her son, Blair 
 Lee, the present owner and recently a senator from 
 Maryland. Admiral S. P. Lee, her husband, resided 
 there for many years. He served in the Navy through 
 the Civil War with great distinction, and was the last 
 survivor of the great war admirals. He had been 
 commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 
 and of the Mississippi Squadron during the Civil 
 War. Welles in his diary gives him credit for great 
 honesty in those days when this trait of character was 
 often overlooked by those in command of blockades, 
 who permitted blockade runners for a consideration 
 to get through the blockade. Mr. Welles also tells us 
 in his diary that he received for his thoroughness in 
 catching these Confederate vessels the largest sum of 
 prize money distributed. He was sailor-like in his 
 farming. He saw the farm as he would a man-o'-war. 
 His workmen reported like jackies at a roll call and it 
 is said that all the daily doings — the fields plowed and 
 planted — the state of each crop — the hours of every 
 laborer — each and all, were set down in a log-book 
 called "the Silver Spring Log." He not only argued 
 that farming should be reduced to a ship-shape system, 
 but he did it. The Admiral remained living at Silver 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 179 
 
 Spring, known far and wide for his pleasant greetings 
 to every neighbor and running his log until 1897, when 
 he died at the age of eighty-five. 
 
 My grandmother, Violet Gist, for whom I was named 
 — a tall, strong-looking old lady — rode horseback every 
 morning until a few days before her death, when she 
 was eighty-two, and her spirit should linger along that 
 winding roadway which follows Sligo Branch, now 
 where the Seventh Day Adventists have a great sani- 
 tarium. This was opened for her to ride horseback 
 through these woods, long before the Civil War, and 
 extended about seven miles almost entirely on the 
 Silver Spring property. 
 
 Francis Preston Blair had three sons besides the 
 daughter who lived with him. The youngest, Francis 
 P. Blair, Jr., was a member of Congress and in the 
 United States Senate from Missouri, a general in the 
 Union Army during the Civil War, commanding the 
 Seventeenth Corps of Sherman's Army and active in 
 retaining Missouri in the Union, in company with Gen- 
 eral Lyon, and in whose honor the state has placed 
 his statue by the side of Senator Benton in Statuary 
 Hall in the Capitol at Washington. James L. Blair, 
 the next brother, a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, died 
 at the early age of thirty-five. His widow lived at 
 Silver Spring in her place, called the "Moorings," 
 until her death a few years ago. My father, the eld- 
 est, was the most identified with Silver Spring, living 
 there from 1853, when he returned from St. Tjouis, 
 until his death in 1883. General Jackson appointed 
 him to West Point, where he graduated and later re- 
 signed to study law. Like my grandfather, he imbi])ed 
 the Jacksonian Democracy, believing in the everlast- 
 ing Union of the states and the ultimate destruction 
 of slave property. My grandfather owned numbers 
 
180 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 of slaves, among whom "Uncle Henry," the coachman, 
 and "Aunt Nanny," the cook, still figure in my mem- 
 ory, but my father would never own a slave. He rep- 
 resented a more militant attitude towards abolition. 
 The dramatic events of the decades hetween 1853- 
 1883 saw him always on the firing line. My grand- 
 father loved his ease and his Silver Spring, and I re- 
 member him a very old gentleman in his silk dressing 
 gown going into his rose garden and pulling off the 
 heads of the roses by slipping them between his fingers 
 and bringing them back in his dressing gown's pocket 
 to lay them without stems in a beautiful silver dish, 
 which was fashioned like a huge leaf, along the ten- 
 drils of which ran a little water. And this dish, when 
 filled with these rose heads, looked like some lovely 
 big new flower. My father felt duty always calling to 
 him. He helped secure a defense for John Brown at 
 Harper's Ferry.^^ He defended Dred Scott before 
 the Supreme Court of the United States. He sat as a 
 delegate in the convention that nominated Fremont in 
 1856. He represented Silver Spring and Montgomery 
 County in the convention that nominated Lincoln in 
 1860, as the delegate from the Sixth District of Mary- 
 land. He was Postmaster-General under Mr. Lincoln, 
 and when the President and cabinet hesitated about 
 sending supplies to Fort Sumter, although the young- 
 est member of the cabinet, he declared it treason and 
 handed in his resignation, but President Lincoln de- 
 clined to accept it and agreed with his view. He gave 
 the country as Postmaster-General, free delivery, the 
 postal car service, and made it what it is today.^^ 
 He abrogated the franking privilege then enjoyed 
 
 24 See Testimony of Chilton, Brown 's attorney, Pub. Doc. Keport on 
 J. B. Eaid. 
 
 25 See a Pamphlet called ' ' Public Career of Montgomery Blair, ' ' by 
 Madison Davis. 
 
Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI , Pl. VIII. 
 
 Francis Preston Blair and His W'ifk, \'i()m:t (Jist, ,\s Thkv I.ookkd 
 AT THE End op the Civil War in the United States. Fr(j.m a Colored 
 Photograph Owned by Major Gist Blair, Said to Have Been Taken 
 AT Silver Spring. 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 181 
 
 by every small postmaster and brought down upon his 
 head a storm of indignation. He curtailed and re- 
 stricted the charges for railway mail transportation 
 and brought against himself their power. ( See his Post 
 Office Annual Eeport in 1861, p. 30; 1862, p. 32; 1863, 
 Sec. 42.) 
 
 He introduced the scheme for registering letters and 
 exacted rigid accountability on the part of postal em- 
 ployees. He established the Railway Post Office sys- 
 tem, b}^ which the railwa}^ car became a perambulating 
 post office and letters were distributed in the car direct 
 to their destination.-*^ No one can now estimate the 
 time saved in their delivery by this simple novelty. 
 He drove out the private letter express business and 
 what was familiarly called "the penny post system," 
 and introduced in its place the letter carrier and col- 
 lection of letters. This is called the ''Free Delivery" 
 system. By it the citizen received his letters at his 
 residence or place of business and mailed his letters in 
 locked boxes near his home or office, similar to what 
 we have today. We have lived to see this extended 
 into the great farming districts under the name of 
 "Rural Free Delivery." 
 
 He recommended and outlined the money order sys- 
 tem in his annual report in 1862, adopted the month 
 after he resigned. 
 
 But his most far-reaching reform and accomplish- 
 ment was the Universal Postal Union, suggested to him 
 by Honorable John A. Kasson, See pages 11 and 12, 
 Report of Postmaster-General, 1863. This was the 
 organization of the countries of the world for an inter- 
 national exchange of mail. He drew the rules sub- 
 mitted to the Congress which met at Paris May 11, 
 
 ^c Reprinted from the Eecokds of the Columbia Historical Society, 
 Washington, D. C, Vol. 13, in 1910. 
 
182 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 1863, which agreed to the thirty-one articles, about the 
 same today. ^" 
 
 Great losses of revenue occurred by reason of the 
 South seceding, and yet the great deficit arising in the 
 Post Office of the year before was reduced 50 per cent, 
 in the first year he held office, and in the year ending 
 June 30, 1865, the surplus was $861,431 in the Post 
 Office Department.^^ 
 
 How the President felt when he resigned can best be 
 understood from the letter he wrote him : 
 
 "Executive Mansion, 
 "Washington, D. C, 
 
 "Sept. 23, 1864. 
 "Honorable Montgomery Blair, 
 
 "My dear Sir: You have generously said to me more than 
 once that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me it 
 was at my disposal. The time has come. You very well know 
 that this proeeeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you 
 personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsur- 
 passed by that of any friend, and it is true that the War does 
 not so greatly add to the difficulties of your Department as to 
 those of some other. It is yet much to say, as I most truly 
 can, that in the three years and a half during which you have 
 administered the general Post Office, I remember no single 
 complaint against you in connection therewith. 
 
 "Yours, as ever, 
 "A. Lincoln." 
 
 After Mr. Lincoln's assassination he withdrew from 
 the Republican party on the reconstruction questions 
 and appeared before the Supreme Court in the Test 
 Oath cases by which the laws to disfranchise the white 
 people of the border states were successfully contested 
 before the courts and presided over the first conven- 
 tion in Maryland to demand the rights of her white 
 
 27 See Testimony of Chilton, Brown's attorney, Pub. Doc. Report on 
 J. B. Raid. 
 
 28 Report of Postmaster General, 1888, pp. 753-755. 
 
Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. IX. 
 
 MoNT(;()Mi;in liisin. whilk I'(>stmastk»-(;knkhal of tiik I'mtkd 
 
 States. 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 183 
 
 citizens and denounce these laws. He was a friend 
 and champion of Tilden ; was of counsel for him before 
 the Electoral Commission and boldly denounced the 
 fraud by which Hayes was seated. He edited a news- 
 jDaper called the Union in the city of Washington as 
 Mr. Tilden 's representative, and for which the money 
 was furnished by Mr. W. W. Corcoran. Its columns 
 boldly denounce the principal politicians of the day, 
 both North and South, and long before the decision of 
 the Electoral Commission was rendered, it declared in 
 rather strong language just what it would be. It is 
 not to be wondered that this newspaper is now not only 
 difficult to find, but few even know of its existence. In 
 the few hours given my father for the development of 
 Silver Spring, he gave most of them to "Grace 
 Church," which he helped establish in 1858. He was 
 a lay reader in the Protestant Episcopal Church and 
 vestryman in St. John's Church, Washington, D. C, as 
 well as Grace Church, Montgomery County, for many 
 years, and often during the winter when the clergyman 
 could not officiate, drove through the cold, the snow, or 
 rain from Washington to this little church in the coun- 
 try, miles away, to read the services of the Episcopal 
 Church to the few who gathered there. 
 
 No more striking instance of his independence and 
 fearless disregard of consequence to himself can be 
 instanced than his denunciation of Captain Wilkes for 
 seizing Mason and Slidell, Confederate Commission- 
 ers, on a British ship. When Wilkes was being feted 
 everywhere and had been thanked by a resolution of 
 Congress, when the country was effervescing over 
 Captain Wilkes, he saw the trouble ahead with Great 
 Britain, and stood alone in the Lincoln cabinet against 
 it, receiving the unmeasured abuse of the country, and 
 tlie rein-oaclies of liis colleagues. He was right, and 
 
184 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 
 
 recently a pamphlet by Charles Francis Adams, called 
 the "Trent Affair," was published for private circu- 
 lation in which he gives my father unstinted praise for 
 his action and graphically portrays the sentiment of 
 the country at the time and how close it brought us to 
 a war with England. 
 
 But these questions are historical and to be found 
 in any history. 
 
 Modern Silver Spring. 
 
 When I returned from St. Louis to settle in Mary- 
 land in 1897, Silver Spring was a cross-roads without 
 inhabitants. A toll-gate existed about half a mile 
 north of the station on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
 charging tolls to those who lived south of it for obtain- 
 ing their mail. Rural free delivery did not then exist, 
 so I circulated a petition for a post office for the dis- 
 trict south of the toll-gate and the office of Silver 
 Spring was named and established near the station on 
 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and I was made post- 
 master May 5, 1899. The office was kept in existence 
 only by constant fighting, because it interfered se- 
 riously with Sligo, a quarter of a mile away, and just 
 north of the toll-gate, the receipts for that office then 
 depending on the number of letters mailed and can- 
 celled there. In 1900 the postmaster at Sligo suc- 
 ceeded in having the Silver Spring office discontinued, 
 but I secured a further hearing, and had the order dis- 
 continuing it "rescinded." I remained postmaster 
 until February 21, 1906, and established the Money 
 Order System and the Rural Free Delivery there with 
 three carriers. The office requiring more time than I 
 could give it, I resigned, and Mr. Frank L. Hewitt, my 
 assistant, succeeded me and remained postmaster until 
 removed by a Democratic administration. 
 
 Silver Spring now has the "Woman's Cooperative 
 
Col. Hist. Soc. Vol. XXI Pl. X. 
 
 Mus. \li)Ni(.()Mi;in l>i,\in. l.'Ui 
 
Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 185 
 
 Improvement Society, organized about four years ago. 
 It is a most efficient, useful and public-spirited organi- 
 zation. Mrs. W. B. Newman, who was president until 
 recently, has been succeeded by Mrs. L. E. Warren. 
 
 The Volunteer Fire Association was organized two 
 years ago, and possesses a complete modern fire appa- 
 ratus. The president is William Juvenal, and Clay 
 V. Davis secretary. 
 
 The militia company, consisting of seventy-five men, 
 drill in the Silver Spring Armory and served during 
 the recent troubles on the border with Mexico. They 
 are a "crack" company and considered one of the best 
 in Maryland. 
 
 Brooke Lee, son of Honorable Blair Lee, is captain, 
 and Frank L. Hewitt lieutenant. 
 
 Silver Spring at present consists of some sevent}^- 
 five dwellings, ten stores, a mill, and a national bank. 
 Its growth and prosperity are assured. 
 
 It has not been incorporated as a town, therefore, 
 suffers from many of the troubles of unincorporated 
 villages. Sewers, gas, water, and policemen have 
 their advantages, but the neighborhood has been so 
 free from the evildoer that the police are not needed. 
 Electric light enables us to see without gas and a coun- 
 try town with many gardens and surrounding fields, 
 when a healthy community, overlooks the sewer prob- 
 lem, and the rain from heaven collects water by the 
 down spout when your well runs dry at less cost than 
 the water main. But these bountiful aids to nature 
 are not likely to live many months longer in Silver 
 Spring, for this flourishing community is even now 
 planning a government to furnish all of these necessi- 
 ties, besides the many other modern conveniences 
 which we receive from politics and politicians, and for 
 which we pay in good old American money. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 003 908 440 5 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 003 908 440 5 ^