v^' ''^. V^ ■S' "*. \ ' « i '-^, *A V^~ i •^, ^/r.s-\^o ^^- \ ' « ^ ''C' v V- v^ ^-^-iij^ 0i o - ,/ , : ^ A ■^.'^ \''M ^\^ ^0 o^ %■ % ^V^ ^ - 1- .-, \ • » ^^^ ^.. .OC >^ ^^. cA-, /- ■>^J-^ /" ^0- '» N O - ^ ^^'.;\.^''^ v^^^-'j "^'^- ./ s^*"^ r- -'^ .^ •^%, 0^ ^^ - c^ ^;^^ -^ A ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN BY JOHN W. FORNEY. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE WASHINGTON SUNDAY CHRONICLE AND PHILADELPHIA PRESS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1873- I Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Harper & Brothers, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ^^ 7 nents in New York. Although Douglas defeated Lincoln for Senator in 1858, he gave him his confidence immediately after his inauguration, and never failed in generosity to his widow and children. When I was defeated for Clerk of the House in March, 186 1, he called in person upon a number of Senators and asked them to vote for me for Secretary of that body. When Stonewall Jackson was killed, and one of my assistant editors spoke kindly of the better part of his character, Abra- ham Lincoln wrote me commending the tribute to a brave ad- versary. If you visited Lincoln he never wearied you with dreary politics or heavy theories, or glorified himself or his do- ings. In every crisis he sought the advice, not of his enemies, but of his friends. To his convictions he was ever true, but his opinions were always subject to revision. He delighted in par- ables, and especially in the rude jokes of the South and the West. He hailed Artemus Ward and Petroleum Nasby as ben- efactors of the human race, and no witticism, whether delicate or broad, escaped his keen appreciation. He was, withal, a man of sentiment, reading Shakespeare like a philosopher, and remembering the best passages. A little poem written by Fran- cis De Haes Janvier, of Philadelphia, called " The Sleeping Sentinel," was an especial favorite; and "The Patriot's Oath" and " Sheridan's Ride," by Thomas Buchanan Read, were al- ways recited at his -request by Mr. Murdoch, whenever that loyal actor visited the metropolis. He was neither boisterous nor pro- fane. He cared little for the pleasures of the table ; and, al- though reared among a frontier people largely addicted to in- toxicating drinks, he preferred water as a beverage. He liked l68 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. the theatre, especially when Edwin Forrest, Joseph Jefferson, John Brougham, or John S. Clarke was the star. Though he frequently accompanied Mrs. Lincoln to the opera, it was rath- er in obedience to a social demand or an eagerness for rest in the corner of his box than a taste for scientific music. He was a capital peacemaker, and was especially resolute in refusing to adopt the enemies of his friends. He had a horror of mak- ing speeches, although a fine colloquial orator, and when he did address the people it was in short sentences, and only for a few moments at a time. In these addresses, as well as in his messages and letters, he said things that will survive for many generations. I give a few at random : From his first annual message, March 9, 1861 : " There are already among us those who, if the Union be pre- served, will live to see it contain two hundred and fifty millions. The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day — it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us." From his remarks at a Union meeting in Washington, D. C, August 6, 1863 : " There has been a very widespread attempt to have a quar- rel between General McClellan and the Secretary of War. Now I occupy a position that enables me to observe that these two gentlemen are not nearly so deep in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends. General McClellan's attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he can not but wish to be successful, and I hope he will ; and the Secre- tary of War is in precisely the same situation. If the military commanders in the field can not be successful, not only the Secretary of War, but myself, for the time being the master of them both, can not but be failures." From his letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862 : " The sooner the national authority can be restored, the near- er the Union will be —the Union as it was. LINCOLN'S TERSENESS. 169 " If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. " If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. ''^My paramount object is to save the Ufjmi, and not either to save or destroy slavery. " If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving oth- ers alone, I would also do that. " What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union ; and what I forbear, I for- bear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. " I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. " I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.'.' From his letter to the Illinois Convention, August 26, 1863 : " Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay ; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well -poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation, while I fear ther-e will be some white ones unable to forget that, with malig- nant heart and deceitful speech, they have striven to hinder it." From his letter to Colonel Hodges, of Kentucky, April 4, 1864 : " I claim not to have controlled events, but confess that H 170 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and re- vere the justice and goodness of God." From his speech at the Philadelphia Fair, June 16, 1864 : " It is a pertinent question, often asked in the mind privately, and from one to the other. When is the war to end ? Surely, I feel as deep an interest in this question as any other can, but I do not wish to name a day, a month, or a year when it is to end. I do not wish to run any risk of seeing the time come without our being ready for the end, for fear of disappointment because the time had come and not the end. We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will end until that time. Speaking of the present campaign. Gen- eral Grant is reported to have said, ' I am going through on this line if it takes all summer.' This war has taken three years; it was begun or accepted upon the line of restoring the national authority over the whole national domain; and for the Ameri- can people, so far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I say we are going through on this line if it takes three years more." From his second annual message : " The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. AVe must disenthral ourselves, and then we shall save our country. " Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We, of this Con- gress and this Administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 171 spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest gen- eration. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to they>r^ — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. W^e shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." From his address at the consecration of the National Ceme- tery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1864 : " But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not conse- crate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take in- creased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain ; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." From his letter to a committee of New York workingmen, March 21, 1864 : " None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working people. Let them beware of prejudices working disunion and hostility among themselves. The most notable 172 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. feature of a disturbance in your city last summer was the hang- ing of some working people by other working people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor ; property is desirable ; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for him- self; thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." To a club of Pennsylvanians, November 8, 1864 : " I am thankful to God for this approval of the people ; but, while deeply gratified for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of per- sonal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one op- posed to me. It is not pleasure to me to triumph over any one ; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity." To political clubs of Washington, D.C., December 10, 1864: " But the election, along with its incidental and undesired strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. [Renewed cheers.] Until now it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and how strong we still are. It shows that, even among candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed to treason can receive most of the people's vote. [Applause.] " It shows, also, to the extent yet unknown, that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is good PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 1 73 in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold. [Cheers and other demonstrations of applause.]" On the adoption of the anti-slavery amendment this speech from the Presidential Mansion, February i, 1865 : " A question might be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be urged that it only aided those who came into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up ; or that it would have no effect upon the children of slaves bom hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet the evil. But the amendment is a king's cure-all for all the evils. [Applause.] It winds the whole thing up." On being officially notified of his re-election : " Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet unended national peril, I can view this call to a second term in nowise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, than could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this view, and with assured reliance on that Almighty Ruler who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous people for their continued confidence, I accept the renewed trust with its yet onerous and perplexing duties and responsibilities." From his second inaugural address : " If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attri- butes which the believers in a God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this . mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continues until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's 174 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." On the slaves fighting for the rebels, March ii, 1865 : " There are but few aspects of this great war on which I have not already expressed my views by speaking or writing. There is one — the recent effort of * our erring brethren,' sometimes so called, to employ the slaves in their armies. The great ques- tion with them has been, ' Will the negro fight for them ?' They ought to know better than we, and doubtless do know better than we. I may incidentally remark, however, that having in my life heard many arguments — or strings of words meant to pass for arguments — intended to show that the negro ought to be a slave, that if he shall now really fight to keep himself a slave, it will be a far better argument why he should remain a slave than I have ever before heard. He, perhaps, ought to be a slave, if he desires it ardently enough to fight for it. Or if one out of four will, for his own freedom, fight to keep the other three in slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish meanness. I have always thought that all men should be free ; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for them- selves^ and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." On Victory and Reconstruction, the last speech of his life, April II, 1865 • LINCOLN S LAST SPEECH. 1 75 " Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, or- ganized a State government, adopted a free State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Con- gress abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State ; committed to the very things and nearly all the things the nation wants, and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good that com- mittal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white men, * You are worthless, or worse ; we will neither help you nor be helped by you.' To the blacks we say, 'This cup of Liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how.' If this course, discouraging and par- alyzing both w'hite and black, has any tendency to bring Loui- siana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recog- nize and sustain the newgovernment of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. " We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it and proselyte for it and fight for it, and feed it and grow it and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance and energy and daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps to- ward it than by running backward over them } Concede that 176 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl ; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. "Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet this proposition it has been argued that no more than three fourths of those States which have not attempted seces- sion are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to say that such a rati- fication would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned ; whilst a ratification by three fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable." I think I never saw him out of temper but once, and that was when I presented him the unanimous confirmation of a certain personage for a high office. " Why did the Senate not confirm Mr. and Mr. ? My friends knew I wanted this done, and I wanted it done to-day ;" r,nd then he used certain strong expressions against the successful person. I looked at him with some surprise, never having seen him in such a mood, and said, " Why, Mr. Lincoln, you seem to hold me responsible for the act of the Senate, when you must be aware of the custom under which that body acted." " Oh, no," was his reply; " I was not scolding you, my friend, but I fear I have been caught in a trap." Many a fierce conflict took place in his presence between angry politicians, but it required a very strong provocation to overbalance his judgment or his equanimity. Not so, however, with an appeal for mercy ; not so with a petition from the poor. Here he was as weak as woman, and more than once mingled his tears with the gentler sex. There are few parallels to such a character, but many con- trasts. The contrast between Lincoln and Johnson may be illustra- ted by an incident connected with the unhappy fourth of March, 1865, when Andrew Johnson was inaugurated Vice-President INCOHERENT VICE-PRESIDENT. 1 77 in the Senate chamber. I do not desire to see the curtain rise before a scene that both parties seem wiUing to expunge — the RepubHcans, who apologized for it when it occurred, and the Democrats, who regretted it after Johnson joined their despair- ing columns. But I can never forget President Lincoln's face as he came into the Senate Chamber while Johnson was deliv- ering his incoherent harangue. Lincoln had been detained signing the bills that had just passed the old Congress, and could not witness the regular opening of the new Senate till the ceremonies had fairly commenced. He took his seat facing the brilliant and surprised audience, and heard all that took place with unutterable sorrow. He then spoke his short inau- gural from the middle portico of the Capitol, and rode quickly home. Bitter maledictions were immediately hurled against the new Vice-President. I hastened to his defense to the best of my abilities, believing the affair to have been an accident. Threats of impeachment were common in both parties, espe- cially among the Democrats; and the crusade got so fierce at last that I found myself included among those who had helped Mr. Johnson to his exposure. But no voice of anger was heard from Abraham Lincoln. While nearly all censured and many threatened, Mr. Lincoln simply said, "It has been a severe lesson for Andy, but I do not think he will do it again." In a little more than a month, Lincoln was in his grave and Johnson his successor. Both have had their trial before the same people. The verdict on each is irreversible. What was at first a parallel has become a contrast. And this contrast grows stronger with every hour, and will stand through all time as a warning to the nations. [September 3, 187 1.] H 2 1 78 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. XXXV. Very many people are exercised about the growth of monop- olies. Do they ever think of the monopoly of government and legislation by the lawyers ? I do not repeat a prejudice, but a fact. Take a seat in the gallery of the Senate or the House in Washington, or in any of the State Legislatures, and you will note that the controlling minds, with very few exceptions, are lawyers. All our Presidents were educated at the bar except Washington, Harrison, Taylor, and Grant. Most persons for- get that Andrew Jackson's early life, even beyond his thirtieth year, was given to the law, as United States District Attorney for the Territory of Western North Carolina, and as Judge of the Supreme Court of the new State of Tennessee ; that James K. Polk was one of the busiest men on his circuit; that Millard Fillmore (at first a tailor's apprentice), Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln were distinguished lawyers. It is true that Andrew Johnson was in no sense a lawyer, but he had been long in politics and knew how to avail himself of lawyers. The Southern politicians of the generation after Wash- ington, Jefferson, and Monroe, such as Clay, Calhoun, Critten- den, Thomas H. Benton, George Poindexter, Bailie Peyton, Henry A. Wise, Jefferson Davis, Robert Toombs, and W. H. Roane, were famous at the bar before entering public life. Sam Houston, of Texas, was not a lawyer, nor Lewis F. Linn, Col- onel Benton's handsome colleague from Missouri, nor William M. Gwin, Senator from California, nor his martyr-colleague, David C. Broderick ; but such exceptions only strengthen the rule that the legal profession is, after all, the sure secret of suc- cessful leadership. I have often been struck with the dogma- tism of the attorneys who came into Congress after a prosper- ous career, and the deference paid to them by those of stronger minds and larger experience. They assert their old habits LAWYERS IN CONGRESS. 1 79 while they were advocates or judges. AV. Pitt Fessenden, of Maine; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, Reverdy Johnson, of Mary- land, Thaddeus Stevens and John Hickman, of Pennsylvania, were signal illustrations. Their opinions were given with an ex cathedra air, and generally submitted to. The privileges of lawyers in Congress have often excited complaint. They can practice in the courts, even in cases upon which they may have voted in Congress. Many do not scruple to attend to business in the Departments and take fees for their services, but the lay- men — the merchants, the physicians, and the manufacturers — can not, uncensured, follow their example, while holding a place in the national councils. What was true in this respect in the past is more true at the present, and will be truer of the future. The law is the royal road to eminence in this country, whatever men may say to the contrary ; and it is natural that it should be so, as government, property, and personal rights are vitally dependent upon law : thus all Americans ought to include some- thing of legal knowledge in their early education. In England every statesman is reared, if not to the bar, at least to a knowl- edge of jurisprudence. First take a thorough classical educa- tion as a foundation, and build on it a complete insight into the common law and of the laws of nations. Such is the British ideal. Ordinary minds, thoroughly conversant with legal prec- edents and authorities, wield a large influence in public bodies. Every man of business consults his lawyer more frequently than his physician. The youth who varies his collegiate course by lessons in the law academy, emigrates to the West with rare advantages over those who are not so equipped. Our Delegates, Senators, and Representatives from the new States and Terri- tories are lawyers almost without exception. A profession which clothes its disciples with so many facilities deserves more attention than it has received from scholastic institutions. I do not insist that all our young men should study the law, but where the acquisition of it is so easy and the possession of it so l8o ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. useful, it certainly deserves consideration at the hands of those who direct the instruction of the people. No citizen is any the worse for such an acquisition. More than a year ago I sat among the spectators at the com- mencement of the Howard University in the city of Washing- ton, while Professor John M. Langston presided over the exer- cises of a class of colored young men, just completing their le- gal studies. Some of them had only a year before been unable to read and write, and one bright, black fellow was especially patronized by the Professor, because six months before he did not know his alphabet. Nearly all had been slaves. There were oral and written arguments. The manner in which they spoke or read their productions displayed extraordinary talent. I thought I could detect in their flowing cadences and graceful gestures close copies of the old Southern statesmen, who in past years lorded it over both parties. There was scarcely an error, of grammar or pronunciation. The logic and the appreciation of the subjects treated, which included landlord and tenant, titles to real estate, divorce, borrowing and lending, promissory notes, etc., proved not only careful study, but intense deter- mination to succeed. Among the candidates was a woman who read a clear and compact treatise on a difficult legal prob- lem, in the enunciation and preparation of which she exhibited the precision of an expert and the condensation of a thinker. I doubt whether the older and more extensiv^e Law School con- nected with Columbia College, where the offspring of the other, and what is called the superior race, are educated, could show, all things considered, an equal number of graduates as well grounded and as completely armed for the battle of the future. There are colored lawyers in most of our courts, even in the highest judiciary. They are the pioneers of an interesting and exciting destiny. With them, unlike their more fortunate white brethren, the bitterest struggle begins when they receive their sheepskins, They go forth to war c^gainst a tempest of bigotry CLAY AND BUCHANAN. l8l and prejudice. They will have to fight their way into society, and to contend with jealousy and hate in the jury-box and in the court-room, but they will win, as surely as ambition, genius, and courage are gifts, not of race or condition, but of God alone. [September lo, 1871.] XXXVI. Henry Clay never fully forgave James Buchanan for the part he played in 1824-25 in the celebrated bargain and sale by which it was charged that Clay gave the vote of Kentucky to John Quincy Adams for President instead of General Jack- son, in consideration of his subsequent appointment by Adams to the Department of State. Buchanan was then a Representa- tive in Congress from the old Lancaster, Chester, and Dela- ware district in Pennsylvania. Chosen originally as a Federal- ist, he became a Democrat under the influence of Jackson's popularity, while Clay, originally a Democrat, became a violent Whig antagonist of Jackson and his party. In 1824-25 Bu- chanan was in his thirty-fifth year, and Clay in his forty-eighth. The accusation that Clay had supported Adams for a place in his Cabinet, long insisted upon by his adversaries, aroused the bitterest passions, and was haughtily and indignantly repelled by himself. He was made to believe that the story was started by the young member from Lancaster, but this was always de- nied by the latter, and he wrote several letters efiectually dis- proving it, but they were not satisfactory to the imperious Ken- tuckian. It will be remembered that John Randolph, of Vir- ginia, was one of Clay's fiercest assailants, and he carried his enmity so far that it led to a duel between them, which termi- nated without bloodshed. l82 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Some ten years later Clay and Buchanan were both in the United States Senate together, and the latter was one of the leaders of the Democracy. Clay did not conceal his dislike of the Pennsylvanian, and sought every occasion to show it. One memorable day he rose and made a studied attack upon the Democrats, and especially upon General Jackson, Mr. Bu- chanan was put forward to answer him, which he did with his best ability. When he took his seat Mr. Clay rose with well- feigned surprise, and sarcastically remarked that " he had made no allusion to the Senator from Pennsylvania. He was refer- ring to the leaders^ not to the subordinates of the Democracy." Upon which Buchanan took the floor and said that the Senator from Kentucky was certainly in error, because he had pointedly and repeatedly looked at him while he was speaking. Clay quickly and sneeringly retorted by alluding to Buchanan's slight obliquity of vision. " I beg to say, Mr. President," he remarked, " that the mistake was the Senator's, not mine. Unlike him, sir, I do not look one way and row another." It was a cruel thrust ; and when a gentleman reproached Clay for his harsh- ness, he shrugged his shoulders and said, " Oh, d — n him ! he deserved it. He writes letters P'' On another occasion Bu- chanan defended himself against the charge of hostility to the second war with England by showing that he had formed a troop of Lancaster horse, and rode to Baltimore to resist the invader. " Yes, Mr. President," was Clay's prompt rejoinder, " I remember that event, and I remember also that by the time the Senator got into Maryland the enemy had fled. Doubtless they heard of the approach of the distinguished gentleman, and retired before the prestige of his courage." But time, if it does not make all things even, mollifies the passions of men. Mr. Buchanan was too much a man of the world — too accomplished a courtier — not to soften the asperity of as proud a spirit as Clay. They frequently met in society in after years, especially at the dinner-table. If they did not be CITIES OF THE DEAD. 1 83 come friends, they at least ceased to be enemies. And in 1856, when Buchanan became the Democratic candidate for President, he had no more hearty supporter than the son of the Great Kentuckian, James B. Clay, who, after having served in the Confederate army, died at Montreal on the 26th of January, 1864. Benton, who had always opposed Buchanan's aspirations, be- cause he regarded him as weak and timid, powerfully champi- oned him in that year even against his own son-in-law, Fremont. Rufus Choate, Webster's nearest friend, was on the same side ; so were John Van Buren and his father, notwithstanding both held Buchanan's friends accountable for the nomination of Polk in 1844. Webster himself, had he lived, would, I think, have voted the same way ; and perhaps Henry Clay would have pre- ferred the man who so solemnly pledged himself to put an end , to the slavery agitation. They both died. Clay in &eptemtrer /• and Webster in October of 1852, and so were spared the morti- fication of Choate, Benton, and the Van Burens, when James Buchanan yielded to the fire-eaters, and tried to force slavery into Kansas. [September 17, 1871.] XXXVII. Cemeteries are of modern origin. One of the oldest is Pere la Chaise, near Paris, the arrangements of which have been generally followed in English and American cities. The dead of the ancients became so numerous at last that the bodies were burned, and the ashes preserved in urns, which it appears from recent excavations had accumulated in incalculable num- bers. It is believed that the fine burial grounds of the Turks, extending over large tracts, adorned by cedars and other trees, suggested the prevailing plans of the Europeans. Our places 184 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. of interment are surrounded by beautiful and elevating influ- ences, decorated by foliage and flowers, monuments and statu- ary, and always located in the midst of exquisite natural scen- ery. Greenwood, near New York; Mount Auburn, Boston; Laurel Hill, Philadelphia; Buenaventura, Savannah, may be called the patterns from which many have been copied, so that there is not a considerable town. North or South, that does not boast of one of these cities of the dead. Among the most pict- uresque is undoubtedly that founded by W. W. Corcoran — " Oak Hill Cemetery," at Georgetown, D. C. The marble pile awaiting his own remains is a work of consummate majesty and symmetry. The plan is entirely different from that adopt- ed in other cemeteries. A series of natural ravines have been handsomely terraced and planted with shrubbery. No railings are allowed around the different lots, so that the whole pre- sents the appearance of a handsome private park. Many of the monuments are noted specimens. Prominent among the latest is that erected by the family of Edwin M. Stanton. It is of silver-tinged granite from the quarries near Concord, New Hampshire. The inscription reads : " Edwin M. Stanton, born December 19, 1814; died December 4, 1869." ,/ No modern character possesses more interest than Stanton. The time has not come when his biography may be faithfully and dispassionately written. Up to the rebellion he lived a life of singular tranquillity. Discarding office and atvoiding politics, his ambition was in the line of the law, in which he soon became a giant. ' A close student, a clear, compact logi- cian, a bold and impetuous advocate, his best powers were given to his profession. Sought after far and near, and employed in most of the great cases, his reputation and large influence, in his native State of Ohio and in his adopted State of Pennsyl- vania, assumed national proportions when he removed to the city of Washington. He towered in the Supreme Court a leader of leaders. An authority of wide acceptation, he was a EDWIN M. STANTON. 1 85 genius of his school. Forced finally into public position at the close of Buchanan's Administration, his bearing as Attorney- General was so fearless and conscientious that when General Cameron retired from the War Department, popular opinion pointed him out as the fittest man for that responsible post, and when President Lincoln selected him, the whole country cried Amen. I knew him well. Long before his name was cited in the catalogue of great lawyers, I met and learned to love him, won- dered at his mind, and gathered instruction from his counsels. He had strong convictions. He hated slavery from the start, although co-operating with the Democratic party. Once he was sent to Columbus as a delegate to a Young Men's State Con- vention, and when the chairman endeavored to disregard the sentiment to which the majority were pledged, Stanton, who was in the second or third tier, made several efforts to obtain a hearing. At last he caught the chairman's eye, and command- ed his attention by beginning his speech as follows : "I address you to-day as the meanest man among the thousands of young men of Ohio whom you have attempted to betray." When he accepted the portfolio of War Minister it was in the spirit of the generals of Cromwell's Puritan army. The first thing he did was to put himself out of sight. In the long catalogue of calumnies heaped by bad men upon his honored name, not even a suspicion of personal ambition is found. They hated him because he loved his country — because that love was sin- cere, vigilant, exacting. He was rough in his manners to those he had reason to believe corrupt, but he was sweet as summer to the poor, the humble, and the brave. By his own example he conquered. Asking nothing for himself, he refused every thing to others that was not just. After several generals had failed, I heard him say, more than once, " I will find a leader for these armies, if he must be taken from the ranks." The in- tensity with which he was identified with his client's cause was 1 86 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. in accordance with his intense devotion to the Republic. I have seen him more than once order back the laggard to camp in tones of stern rebuke, and immediately afterward take the mother of a private soldier by the hand and cheer her for the loss of her son. Utterly regardless of social pleasure, he had no hope, no object, no time but for the cause. He worked harder than any of his subordinates, and stayed longer in his Department. It was astonishing how this man, who had never participated in party warfare, comprehended the political situa- tion. Fertile of suggestion, he was a mine of information to an editor. He thought quickly and wrote strongly. He would give a key-note for a campaign, which, sounded in the columns of a newspaper, would thrill a continent. He was no respecter of persons. Frequently, to prove his iron impartiality, he re- proached his nearest friends when he feared they were falter- ing. He studiously abstained from public speaking. His re- ports were brief, but clear and cogent ; his letters few and simple; his gazettes announcing a victory were marked by all the Covenanter's fire. I reproduce that in which he promul- gated the decisive victories of Grant before Richmond : "War Department, Washington, D.C, ) ''Lieutenant-General Grant: " ^P"^ 9, 1865-9:30 P.M. ) "Thanks be to Almighty God for the great victory with which he has this day crowned you and the gallant army under your command ! The thanks of this Department, and of the Government, and of the people of the United States, their reverence and honor, have been deserved, and will be rendered to you and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of your army for all time. Edward M. Stanton, Secretary of War." In these two sentences you have an insight into the character of Edwin M. Stanton. Every word seems to have been coined out of the pure gold and weighed in the nicest scales of grati- tude. They are short, but how ponderous ! Written for the living millions, they will be read by the coming millions. As we ponder them, and recollect that in five little days Abraham Lin- DR. GEORGE McCLELLAN. 1 87 coin slept in death, and that a little more than five years later — after that terrible struggle with Andrew Johnson, which may be said to have literally crushed the heart of the great statesman — Stanton himself was summoned to his last account, let us never cease to cherish and follow his matchless example. Had he lived to take his seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, the words of Daniel Webster, applied to the illustrious John Jay, would have been equally true of Edwin M. Stanton : " When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell upon him it touched nothing less spotless than itself." [September 24, 1871.] XXXVIII. General McClellan's father, the famous Philadelphia sur- geon, Dr. George McClellan, was one of the most devoted of Whigs, and one of Henry Clay's sincerest friends. His lectures at our great Philadelphia Medical College, in which he was an eminent professor, were models of terse statement and lucid analysis. His influence in society was large and commanding. Shortly after the defeat of Mr. Clay, in 1844, 1 was the guest of my friend, Hon. Morton McMichael, the present editor of the Philadelphia North American, who then resided in Filbert Street, near Broad, in that city. Like Dr. McClellan, he had fervently supported the Kentucky statesman. At that time I was the editor of the Democratic organ at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and bore a very near relation to James Buchanan. Politics had never interfered with my intimacy with Mr. McMichael, which, beginning when we were both very young, has continued with- out pause to this hour. One day after dinner there was a quick, sharp ring at the door-bell, when my host said with a laugh, " Look out ! there is Dr. McClellan f and with that the l88 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. distinguished surgeon came bustling in. The defeat of Mr. Clay was still keenly felt by the Whigs, though my generous and genial friend, McMichael, did not allow his hospitality to be less because I had opposed him. But Dr. McClellan could not restrain his feelings. He held Buchanan responsible for the vote of Pennsylvania, and, though most courteous to me, did not spare the Wheatland leader. We soon got over our little difference, however, and closed the controversy in a glass of wine. The Doctor possessed rare traits. Abounding in an- ecdote and information, he was an unrivaled wit and conversa- tionalist. His son. Dr. J. H. B. McClellan, and his grandson, young Dr. George, both in fine practice in Philadelphia, have in- herited his high professional skill and in a considerable degree his lively and vivacious nature. There is a well-known physician in Washington, Dr. J. C. Hall, who relates many incidents of the public men he has at- tended in his long and brilliant experience. At the head of his profession, he has attained old age almost without an enemy. I know no man more universally beloved. A happy tempera- ment, fine manners, and a thorough scholar, his sketches of the leading characters of other days would make a charming vol- ume if he would write them out. Fond of polite literature and of cultivated people, he is almost out of practice, and may be said to live among his friends and his books. He, too, was an "Old-line Whig," and shared the feelings, if not the prejudices, of Dr. McClellan, whom he knew and admired, especially as he was a graduate of Jefferson College, Philadelphia. Dr. Hall has known the leaders of both, in fact, of all the great parties, and was frequently consulted by them. He attended General Jackson on several occasions, though not his family physician. It is one of the Doctor's peculiarities that he does not trouble himself with money matters, and is careless about collecting his fees. Once, however, during a temporary absence, his clerk made out some bills, and among others sent one to the Presi- THE PRESIDENT AND THE DOCTOR. 1 89 dent. On his return the Doctor found a note from General Jackson inclosing a check for the amount, deducting an old charge which had been called for and settled, and for which he held a receipt. The fact that the bill had been sent was not less a mortification to Dr. Hall than the error in the account it- self. But on looking at the President's check he found that the General had forgotten to sign it ! He therefore returned it, with the expression of his regret that the bill had been sent, and pointed out the General's omission. The check was duly signed and sent back inclosed in a note with this remark ; "Dear Doctor, — The best of men is liable to mistakes. "Andrew Jackson." Dr. Hall testifies to the old hero's kindness to all his people, especially to his servants. Once when the small-pox broke out among them, and nearly every body else fled, the President re- mained in the White House, and waited on black and white with unremitting attention. Few physicians enter public life, though many of them are active politicians. They seem to prefer the field of science to the field of party. Yet there is no class capable of exercising more power. They are the depositories of many a sacred trust ; and if they dared to relate what they know of the great ones they have attended in sickness and in their last hours, they would shed a wonderful light upon the characters of men and the mysteries of governments. [October i, 1871.] XXXIX. I WAS introduced to Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, grandson of the illustrious patriot of that name, at Barnum's Hotel, Bal- timore, in the spring of 1855, and after a friendly conversation 19© ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. upon public affairs he cordially invited me to visit his estate at Doughoregan Manor, in Carroll County, Maryland. There was something so sincere in his manner that I yielded to his wish, and one afternoon in July of the same year I took the cars for Ellicott's Station, in company with a young friend. When we reached it, on a bright moonlight night, we found a carriage waiting to convey us to the farm of the Hon. Edward Ham- mond, then a Representative in Congress, and the neighbor and confidential friend of Mr. Carroll. Mr. Hammond had been an invalid, and was confined to his room, but came forth and greeted us with an old-fashioned Southern welcome. A number of the young men of the vicinity came in on horseback to join our merry party, and it was very late when we retired. The next morning we passed over to see our host at Doughore- gan Manor. He received us like a knight of the olden time. AVe found ourselves in the midst of a vast estate, into which all the modern improvements in agriculture had been introduced. He showed me a thousand acres devoted to the cultivation of corn, then in full leaf and tassel, promising a bounteous crop; he carried us through his slave-quarters, and when I remarked that this system could not last, he turned to me with an expres- sion I shall ever remember, and said, " So far as I can help it, it shall not." He was a Catholic, like his great ancestor, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who was born at Annapolis, September 20, 1737, and who died November 14, 1832, in his ninety-sixth year. He pointed out the exquisite marble effigies of his de- ceased relatives in the beautiful chapel, without seeming to think that he would soon be one of the occupants of that beau- tiful chamber of the dead. Of gentle, polished manners, hand- some presence, large acquirements, and generous, even profuse hospitality, he was a type of the patriotic school of which his grandfather was one of the finest ideals. As a citizen of intrin- sic and historic merit, an authentic sketch of his career may not be out of place: CARROLL OF CARROLLTON. I9I Charles Carroll, grandson of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and son of Charles Carroll, of Homewood, and Harriet Chew, a daughter of the late Chief Justice Chew, of Pennsylvania, was born in Baltimore on July 25, 1801. He had one brother older than himself, who died in his infancy, and he remained an only son with four sisters. The preparatory studies of Mr. Carroll were made at home under a tutor, from which he was sent to St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and afterward to Mount St. Mary's, Emmettsburg, in Maryland. In 1818, in company with his cousin, Charles Harper, a son of the late General Harper, he went to Europe under the charge of a tutor, and was placed at the College of St. Stanislaus, in Paris. He remained there until 182 1, when he returned and entered Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. A few months before the graduation of his class, in 1823, owing to some difficulty with the professors, a large portion of that class was dismissed, and their degrees were not given to them for many years aftenvard. Mr. Carroll, returning home, entered the law -office of the late General Harper, and in 1825 he married Mary Diggs Lee, granddaughter of the late Thomas Simon Lee, Governor of Maryland. At the death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Mr. Carroll came into possession of the estate called Doughoregan Manor, which he held undivided until his death. A large num- ber of slaves were bequeathed to him by his grandfather's will, and he set himself to work to renovate and improve the lands, which were considerably run down by being leased for long terms of years. He greatly improved the mansion-house and grounds, and succeeded in a very short time in bringing nearly the whole es- tate, consisting of two thousand acres, under prosperous culti- vation. For many years he was a Whig in political sentiment, and although always posted and taking a great interest in public 192 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. matters, he never held any position of political preferment, but devoted his life to the development of his property for the ben- efit of his family. His slaves were always treated with that kindness and consideration which he felt was their due, and, having always professed the Catholic faith, their religious edu- cation was guarded with the same care as was that of his own family. In i860 an affection of the heart, from which he had long been disturbed, developed more fully, and in December, 1862, he died, devising his estate of Doughoregan Manor, and all the rest of his property, equally among his seven representatives. He left as heirs three sons and three daughters, and the infant children of a son who died a few months previous to himself. His views upon the subject of slavery are perhaps best set forth in his will, which is thus transcribed: " I have always regarded slavery as a great evil, producing in- jury and loss in grain-growing States, but an evil for which we are not responsible who now hold slaves, considering that God in his wisdom placed them here and permitted them to be in- troduced. My experience and full convictions are that as long as we have that class of labor among us, they are as a mass better cared for and happier than if they were free and provid- ing for themselves. I therefore give all my slaves to all my children, with these positive injunctions, that none of them shall ever be sold except among themselves, and except for those crimes for which they would be punishable by the laws of the State, or for gross insubordination. I also direct that they shall continue to have the advantages of the religious education they now receive, and that their morals and habits be watched over like those of children. It may hereafter be found advisable to remove them to the South to cultivate cotton, where the climate is more congenial to their health, while it removes them from the pernicious influence of the low whites, who now corrupt them. In this way they can be made profitable, and eventually ANDREW M. REEDER. I93 a fund provided to establish them at some future day in Africa or in the West Indies. It is my wish that my children shall not transmit them to any of my grandchildren." It was a sad yet happy day and a half I spent among these interesting men. Amid their abounding hospitality there was still a presentiment upon me, and so when I returned to Wash- ington, and found Sydney Webster, private secretary of Presi- dent Pierce, waiting for me at the station, I knew something had happened. He had come to announce that Andrew H. Reeder had been that day removed as Governor of Kansas. It was the beginning of the end. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was too powerful for either Hon. Asa Packer or myself, and our gallant friend was ejected from his place only because he had re- fused to consent to the conspiracy to make Kansas a slave State. We had jointly recommended the appointment of Andrew H. Reeder to this post, really in response to President Pierce's suggestion, who was anxious to give it to a Pennsylvanian. When Reeder accepted he was in high favor with the Democ- racy of the old Tenth Legion of Pennsylvania. An extreme sympathizer with the South at all times, his experience in Kan- sas completely converted him. Honest, independent in his circumstances, a very able lawyer, and an entrancing speaker, he was just the character for a new country, just the man to save the Administration from fatal complications. When the President nominated him, Hon. Richard Brodhead, then one of the Pennsylvania Senators, and always the rival of Reeder, or Reeder of him, did not conceal his disappointment, but Judge Packer, who lived in the same Congressional district, was too strong for Brodhead to fight, and Reeder was confirmed. Then our friend went forth to Kansas, free, fair, and unprejudiced. He had not been there long before he wrote back to us, de- nouncing the open frauds of the slaveholders. I well remember the effect produced upon our minds. But Jefferson Davis's friends were potent with the Executive ; their falsehoods were I 194 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. credited ; Reeder's statements discredited, and a brave, honest man sacrificed. The news of his dismissal, after my agreeable visit to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was the gloomy sequel of a happy day. What rendered it more unpleasant was the fact that I was at that time one of the editors of the WasJmigton Ufiio?i, the Democratic Administration organ. Many will blame President Pierce for consenting to the proscription of Governor Reeder ; but I can never forget that when I told him I could not remain in the Union^ and write in support of the policy which had displaced Governor Reeder, or even consent to let others do so, he refused to accept my resignation, and I con- tinued under the proffered generous condition that the paper should remain silent on the subject. And so it did, until I for- mally retired, and returned to Pennsylvania to make James Buchanan President. Of the parties to this event I have named, incidentally and otherwise, three only survive ; Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Andrew H. Reeder, Richard Brodhead, and Franklin Pierce have been gathered to their fathers. [October 8, 1871.] XL. There is always something grotesque in the manners and habits of the old Southern slaveholders. Every body has noticed how the negro dialect pervades the conversation of the so-called superior race. A beautiful Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, or Louisiana woman is made more interesting by the infusion of the plantation patois into her liquid language. Long and constant communication between the master and the slave cre- ated and crystallized affinities and eccentricities that wdll re- quire generations to modify. As some friends and myself were IN THE LEGISLATURE. I95 passing through one of the Southern States, a little more than two years ago, an odd incident illustrative of the characteristics of the old-time school took place in one of the smoking-cars. A venerable gentleman, with white hair and gold-headed cane, got in at one of the stations, took his seat, and drew from his large coat-pocket a long pipe, which he proceeded to fill and light. He was soon followed by another of the same school, a little older, who took his seat next to him and lit a cigar. They were evidently near neighbors, and the dialogue ran about as follows : " How are you all at home, sah ?" " Well, sah !" " Is Miz Smith well ?" " Very well, sah !" " Is Miz Jones well ?" " Yes, sah," question and answer being rapidly punctuated with alternate puffs. Then came the more serious topic. " Mr. Smith," said the one to the other, " I notice that Tom has gone back on you, sah. I never had any opinion of Tom, and I am not surprised that he did go back on you, sah !" " Yes, sah," was the reply, "he has gone back on me. Is it not an aston- ishing thing, sah, that this boy of mine should now be repre- senting me in the Legislature, sah, when I am prevented from voting by this d — d Radical Congress and Government, sah? He was a first-rate servant; wrote a good hand, sah; frequently kept my books, sah, and yet he sits in the Legisla- ture, sah, and I can not even vote, sah." On inquiry I learned that Tom was a former slave of our worthy Polonius, but, after emancipation and reconstruction, was elected a member of the Legislature, and was then at Raleigh doing the work that the masters had done for a century. The simple-hearted old man did not seem to know that in every complaint against Tom he was paying the highest tribute to his qualifications. During the same trip one of the same class came into our special car and regaled us with a long catalogue of his suffer- ings and losses. Like most Southern men and women, he was full of talk and full of politics. It is the characteristic of these people that they hardly ever hold a conversation which is not 196 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. interlarded with their own affairs. Addicted to it before the war, they enlarge upon it now. I had barely been presented to my new friend before he opened his budget. We were passing over some of the historic fields of the rebellion, and it was amusing to note, in the midst of his lamentations, how he stopped to say, "Well, sah, here's the spot whar we gave the Yankees h — , sah." " Now we are coming to the place where you uns rather got the advantage of us, sah, and here is whar we had to fly to when Wilmington fell;" and then he would resume his wail. I listened a good hour without interruption. The oblivious simplicity of the man rather pleased me, and when there was a pause in the torrent, I said, "Pray, Mr. , in all your accusations of the National Government, have you ever once reflected upon the part you played against it? Do you ever think that all these sufferings have been brought upon you by yourselves ?" I think if I had struck him in the face he would not have been more surprised. This honest, kind-hearted man was so completely absorbed in his grievances that he had never taken account of his own offenses. And so it is with the entire class. Naturally generous, confiding, and brave, they are so much absorbed in themselves, and have lived so long in their exclusive world, that they have finally come to believe in nothing but their own wrongs, and never indulge the habit of self examination. Herein we have the source of their steady resistance to mental and material progress. They do not feel the world move. They do not see the vast improvements all around them. They will retain thousands of acres without go- ing out of their way for purchasers, and even when they find them, they are very apt to forfeit a bargain on account of poli- tics. To them every advance in science and in government is a Radical innovation. They can't be called malignant, although their exclusiveness operates precisely as if they were. They are generous as long as their vanity is flattered. Very brave in personal combat, they fought gallantly on the rebel side, but, SOUTHERN DIALECT. I97 lacking true courage and self-respect, they do not admit that they committed the slightest wrong against their Government, even while they expect that Government to extend its blessings over them. It remains to be seen whether the children of these men and women will follow their example. Happily for them- selves, and happily for the country, the Government of the United States and the welfare of all its citizens do not depend upon the fiat of the old slaveholders. But I was talking of the peculiar dialect of these people rather than their opinions. Henry Clay's speaking was strongly marked by it. James M. Mason, of Virginia, seemed to delight in the African accent. But there was no better specimen than the late Thomas H. Bayley, for many years the Representative in Congress of the Accomac district. He was a man of con- siderable force and education, and I can easily recall his tall form, his expressive face and ringing voice, as, spectacles on nose, he would address " Mr. Speakah," and refer to the hon- orable member who had just had the "flo'." Keitt, of South Carolina, had the same accent and pronunciation. So, too, Linn Boyd, of Kentucky, and Howell Cobb, of Georgia. All these men, and most of the former leaders of opinion in the South, are in their graves, but Toombs, Stephens, Henry A. Wise, Bocock, John Forsyth, and Jeff Davis, still live, as warn- ings, if not as examples. [October 15, 1871.] XLI. John Sergeant is one of the many Philadelphians whose memory will always be honored. His reputation, ripened by culture, integrity, and winning manners, became national before he was forty, and when he died, in his seventy-third year, he 198 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. had filled out a life of rare usefulness and success. He was born in 1779, less than a year before Horace Binney, who is still living, and who was his contemporary for fifty years at the bar and in public life. The tribute of the latter, a few days aft- er the death of his friend, at a meeting of the members of the legal profession of Philadelphia, in November, 1852, is a classic of obituaries. At a period when so many are rushing into the law as a profession, Horace Binney on John Sergeant may not be unprofitably read. I quote : " Mr. Sergeant was born in Philadelphia, and lived there for seventy-three years, during fifty-three years of which he was an advocate and counselor — one of the ministers of justice. He has been known and honored for half a century. In learning, integrity, and in liberal fairness, in habitual courtesy, he has maintained the reputation of the bar of Philadelphia and sup- ported the inherent dignity of the profession. He continued every year during his whole life increasing his titles to respect and honor every day, until he achieved the highest degrees of both — as wise men estimate degrees of honor and respect — by merit, not by accident or fortune, or the breath of popular ap- plause. He has rounded the whole circle of his life fully, com- pletely, perfectly." As marking the difference between the lawyers of the past and the present, I heard an anecdote of Mr. Sergeant the other day, which shows how the giants estimated their professional services and by what sensitive and scrupulous rules they squared their actions. A distinguished merchant, still living, called upon Mr. Sergeant for his opinion in an important case, which was duly prepared and sent by one of the students of the great lawyer. The merchant opened the letter, and after glancing over it asked the student for the charge. He said he did not know the contents of the paper and could not answer. The merchant then signed a blank check, and sent it back to Mr. Sergeant by the same hand, with a message that he should JOHN SERGEANT. 199 fill it Up with the amount of his fee. This very student, now one of the leading members of the Philadelphia bar, graphically describes the effect of the communication. He says he never saw a little man (Mr. Sergeant was of slight stature) so sudden- ly tower into a giant. "Mr. entirely misunderstands me, sir! Go back to him, sir, and say for me that I am the last person living to fill up another man's check. If he will care- fully examine the paper I sent, he will find my fee written in one of the corners." With this somewhat considerable flea in his ear the young man retraced his steps to the merchant, when the opinion was carefully inspected, and written in very small letters, in the angle of one of the pages, were the figures "^30." I fear the fee of our reigning legal magnates for similar serv- ices would be at least ten times thirty dollars. In illustration of Sergeant's mode of life, I quote again from the venerable Binney's eulogy ; " His honor and integrity in all that regarded his profession or management of his cause were not only above impeachment or imputation, but beyond the thought of it. So distinct and universal was this impression, that if any man had directed a battery of that sort against him, the recoil would have prostrated him to the earth. His heart, his mind, his principles, his conscience, his bond to man, his bond to Heaven, which he had given early, and which to the last he never intentionally violated, would have made it, hu- manly speaking, impossible for him to swerve from his integrity. It is the best example for the rising generations to have before them. He was perfectly fair. There was no evasion, no strat- agem, no surprising, no invocation of prejudice, no appeal to un- worthy passions — he was far above all these. Mr. Sergeant had too much strength indeed to make use of such arts, to say nothing of his virtue. He was charitable in doing work at the bar without pecuniary compensation — though not without re- ward. He did that which, in his judgment, was best, but he 200 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. did not do it ostentatiously. He did not do it by proclamation, informing the court in the presence of the bystanders that he did not receive a fee, but that it would make no difference to him. He never let his left hand know what his right hand did — still less did he ever impose upon the left hand of others by informing it of what his right hand had 7iot done." We must not forget, in perusing such a character in the light of such an eulogy, that Horace Binney was himself, during his active career, a fair illustration of his own sentiments. Mr. Binney sat in Congress while Andrew Jackson was President, and was, perhaps, the ablest advocate of the Bank of the Unit- ed States, and therefore one of the stanchest opponents of General Jackson's Administration ; but he understood how to antagonize measures without assailing men — how to arraign a public policy without traducing private character — a rare qual- ity, which might be profitably copied by our modern teachers. One day he was surprised by a note from the President solicit- ing an interview, and the more so because he had just finished an exhaustive protest against the President's course in regard to the United States Bank. General Jackson met him with all his grace, dignity, and cordiality, and said: "I have taken the liberty of sending for you, Mr. Binney, to say that I have read your speech, which is the most powerful yet made on your side of the House. I can not, of course, thank you for the strength of your argument, but I am happy to know you as an adversary who does not conceive it necessary to employ invective against a public officer who believes he has discharged his duty faith- fully." I have this interesting fact from good authority. John Sergeant and Horace Binney moved together in poli- tics and in their profession. Let me employ Mr. Binney's lan- guage in 1852 once more : "I honored and respected him to the end of his life. I shall honor and respect his memory to the end of my own. No trivial incongruities of feeling or opinion, no misrepresentations, however arisen; no petty gust; no cloud HORACE BINNEY. 20I of a hand's breadth, which may and will chill or overcast the summer sky of the truest friends ; in a life of fifty-five years not a single accident disturbed the foundations of my regard for him, or even reached the depths in which they were laid. These foundations were laid upon his principles as I well knew them fifty years ago. They were laid deep upon that sure basis, and they were beyond the reach of change or chance, as his princi- ples were." Binney was a member of the State Legislature sixty-one years ago, in 1806-7 [do not forget he is still living at his old home in the city of Philadelphia], and declined a re-election. He was a Representative in Congress from Philadelphia from 1833 to 1835, served as a member of the Committee of Ways and Means, and again declined a re-election. Sergeant was in Con- gress from 1815 to 1823, from 1827 to 1829, and from 1837 to 1842. He was especially famous for his part in the great Mis- souri Compromise of 1820. He was selected by President John Quincy Adams to represent the United States on the Panama Commission. He was the Whig candidate for Vice-President in 1832, on the same ticket with Henry Clay. He was tender- ed the mission to England by General Harrison, which he de- clined. For half a century these two interesting men were associates at the bar, harmonizing in politics, and generally supporting the same measures and the same candidates. Their joint ex- perience, their blended patriotism, their high sense of honor, their fidelity to convictions and to the interests of their city, state, and country, can not be too frequently reproduced. We tread the path of duty more bravely in the lustre shed from ex- amples so unselfish and pure. [October 22, 1871.] I 2 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. XLII. A GOOD Story is told of the celebrated George Kremer, who figured conspicuously during the " bargain and sale " excite- ment forty-five years ago, about the time Henry Clay -was ap- pointed Secretary of State by President John Quincy Adams. Mr. Kremer represented the old Union and Northumberland Congressional district in Pennsylvania, and was a fine type of the primitive manners and rugged Democracy of that period. He was firmly convinced that Mr. Clay threw his influence against General Jackson, by which the electoral vote of Ken- tucky was given to Mr. Adams, for a consideration ; and when the first place in the Cabinet was tendered to and accepted by the Kentucky statesman, honest George "cried aloud and spared not." The sensation he created disturbed the politics of the whole country, and led to many difierences between pub- lic men. John Randolph of Roanoke dilated upon the accu- sation against Clay to such an extent that the new Secretary of State was compelled to challenge him to mortal combat. But I do not propose a chapter on the "bargain and sale." That episode is happily ignored by the retiring generation, and is no longer recalled as a reproach on the memory of Henry Clay. I write simply to revive an incident between Randolph and Kre- mer characteristic of both. After one of the peculiar speeches of the eccentric Virginian, which he interlarded with copious quotations in Latin and Greek, Kremer rose, and, in a strain of well-acted indignation, poured forth a torrent of Pennsylva- nia German upon the head of the amazed and startled Ran- dolph. His violent gesticulations, his loud and boisterous tones, his defiant manner, were not more annoying to the impe- rious Southerner than the fact that he could not understand a word that was spoken. And when honest George took his seat, covered with perspiration, Randolph rose and begged the honor- PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH. 203 able gentlemaa from Pennsylvania to enlighten the House and the country by translating what he had just uttered. Kremer retorted as follows: "I have only to say in reply to my friend from Virginia that when he translates the dead languages, which he is constantly using for the benefit of us country mem^ bers, into something like English, I will be equally liberal in translating my living Pennsylvania Dutch into something that the House can understand." The laugh was completely against Randolph. Apart from the beauty of well-written and well-spoken Ger- man, and the benefits conferred upon the human race by Ger- man philosophers and scholars, there is something irrepressibly odd in \\\^ patois of Pennsylvania Dutch, so called. Under the influence of my learned friend, Charles Godfrey Leland, this mingled dialect has recently acquired a world-wide celebrity. His "Hans Breitmann," even including the "dog Latin" he weaves into it, is becoming one of the comic classics of En- glish-speaking nations. Whether read at the fireside or acted in the theatres, it excites irrepressible mirth. Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle is a signal illustration of this remark. His inimi- table acting, although the story itself amounts to nothing, reach- es all hearts, inspiring alternate tears and smiles. Clinton Lloyd, Esq., the accomplished chiefclerkof the National House of Representatives, has memorized "Hans Breitmann" entire. He is a native Pennsylvanian, reared in a community where this curious admixture of English and German was once large- ly spoken. He is, besides, a cultivated gentleman, and per- haps the best-known interpreter of Leland's famous creation. I know of few things more pleasant than to sit by and hear Lloyd going through the experiences of Hans, the soldier and the traveler. I have seen him entertain hundreds of persons of all nationalities at one time with this grotesque production. Sympathizing fully with the poet, he gives additional flavor to his peculiar wit, because he knows the character he describes. 204 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. whom you almost see passing before you in his diversified guises. Mr. Leland is now a resident of London, the friend and associate of most of the literary leaders. It must be ex- tremely gratifying to him that the amusing poems which he threw off in his leisure moments should be read and admired in all intellectual circles, and that every stanza he adds in- creases their deserved popularity. I can only hope that he is fortunate in something more than mere fame, and that his writ- ings are contributing to his substantial comfort in the Old World. Almost as interesting is it to hear Mr. Lloyd reciting James Russell Lowell's "Hosea Bigelow;" but the Yankee idiom is not so cosmopolitan as the pafois of English and German. The same remark applies to negro melodies and plays. The New- Englander and the black man are Americans, while Hans Breit- mann is the citizen of the world ; his poetry is a medley of the tongues of the oldest and most civilized nations, and, as he plays many parts and borrows a little from each, he will be re- membered when the accent of Brother Jonathan and Uncle Tom is lost in the universality of the language that must ulti- mately control the whole American continent. [October 29, 1871.] XLin. Slavery and its mysterious inner life has never yet been de- scribed. When it is, Reality will surpass Fiction. Uncle Tom's Cabin will be rebuilt and newly garnitured. A book detailing the operations of the Under-ground Railroad is soon to be pub- lished in Philadelphia by William Still, Esq., an intelligent col- ored gentleman, which, composed entirely of facts, will supply material for indefinite dramas and romances, • It will disclose a UNDER-GROUND RAILROAD. 205 record of unparalleled courage and suffering for the right. The narrative of Professor John M. Langston, of Howard Univer- sity, at Washington, famous as orator and scholar ; his birth as a slave, the education of himself and brother by his white fa- ther ; his return,.after many years, to his native town in Virginia, as the champion of his race and of their newly acquired free- dom ; the thrilling story of Frederick Douglass, told by himself; the eventful career of Stephen Smith, the rich colored man of Philadelphia, who voted for Jackson in 1832, was afterward dis- franchised by the insertion of the word "white" in the consti- tution of Pennsylvania in 1838, and again voted under the im- mortal act of emancipation; the experience of Ebenezer D. Bas- sett, our resident Minister at Hayti ; the struggle for self-im- provement of Octavius V. Catto, and the tragedy of his assassi- nation ; the early efforts of John Brown, long before he was known to the world as the willing martyr of his ideas ; the sketch of the inner life of William J. Wilson, vice-president of the Freedmen's Savings Institution at Washington, including his story of the industry, patience, and economy of his race ; the long conflict with slavery of Senator Revels, of Mississippi ; the stormy life of Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, of Louisiana; and last, not least, the memoir of Robert Purvis, the accomplished gentleman and scholar, residing at Byberry, in Philadelphia — a memoir which, written by himself, would surpass in the in- tensity of its interest many of the famous autobiographies of the day — these and their companion pictures might be called the genuine " Romance of Reality." The time is coming when they can be published without fear and read without prejudice. In the light of a civilization which liberated millions, as well the slaves of others as the slaves of mere bigotry, men will pon- der these volumes with an indignation and surprise not less sin- cere because felt for the first time. In the sanctity which sur- rounded the institution of slavery — a sanctity resulting from the arguments of the clergy, the politicians, and the capitalists, the 206 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. habits and luxuries of the society created by the submission of its fettered miUions, and its influence upon commerce in Eu- rope and America — the still small voice of conscience was hush- ed. And if the men who had grown rich and great had not finally been maddened by the idea that they were irresistible and inviolable, slavery would have finally accomplished the overthrow of the Government. That idea carried into war saved the nation and destroyed its enemies. Among the thousand novel incidents of emancipation, one of curious interest, familiar to myself and many others, may be re- lated : John Queen was a light mulatto, five feet ten inches high, about thirty-five years of age. He had lived a slave in Anne Arundel County, in the State of Maryland, and several years before emancipation obtained his free papers. He was harm- less, quiet, and inoffensive j but when he was jokingly told that the traders were coming to take him back to slavery his eyes would flash, and his whole demeanor would change. He would exclaim, "Dey neber take me back to slabery. I die in de blood first — I die in de blood ! cut out dere hearty eat der liber. Is'e free-born, I tell you, Is'e free-born;" and when asked to show his papers, he would repeat something like these words : "Do you know de H d's?" "Yes, I know them." "Do you know Squire C ?" referring to certain old Maryland families. *' Do you mind de mornin' old Squire H said, * Go, John, go down to de stable, hitch up old Baldy and de sil- ber gray, put em in de coach, go to 'Napolis to make out de free papers ?' Den old Squire H came down, all dressed up, dressed in black silk breeches, silber buckle on de knee, sil- ber buckle in de shoes, hair powdered, hanging down de back ; John Queen jump on de step behind de coach, and den we all go to 'Napolis. When we got dere we all go to de cou7't, and dere, in de face of de whole court. Squire H he kiss de Book and do declare dat John Queen is a free-born." Upon JOHN queen's free PAPERS. 207 being asked to show his papers, which he never would consent to do, the poor half-witted fellow, who had long years be o e committed ihem and locked them in his memory, whde he hnn- selMd keep the key, in a monotonous recitative repeated some- h ng like the following, never varying in the slightest degree and always reiterating "dat I'se free-born:" "In de State of Maryland! de Ann Arundel County, and de Anno Domm,, >n de year o our Lord, de one tousand and de e.ght hundred and de forty-seven. In de face of de whole court, I do now dec are dat John Queen, who is five feet ten inches in de he.ght, w>d de long straight, black hair, yaller in complex.on, w;d a mole on de riM.t uroer lip, which is de free-born, in de testimony where- o I do hereby, in de State of Maryland, in de County of Ann Arundel in de year of our Lord, de Anno Domm. one tousand dlht hundred Ind forty-seven, set my hand and de great seal of di court, and do Irereby now declare dat de aforesaid John Queen is free-born." , , . , i r ^r John never paused until he finished this indubitable proof o. his freedom, and always seemed to glean satisfaction from hav- ing the original in his possession, which he said he never would part from save with his heart's blood. Only a few evenings ago I heard this incident described in the presence of some of the connections of the Maryland families referred to, and they in- stantly recognized the picture and the persons preserved m the memory of this simple freedman. If I suppress the names, it is only because it is unnecessary to revive individual relations to a system which does no credit to those who subsisted upon it, however unconsciously or innocently. [November 5, 1871.] 208 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. XLIV. Shortly after I took possession of the Lancaster InieUigencer, more than thirty-four years ago — before I had reached man- hood — Mrs. Dickson, the amiable and gentle postmistress of that place, handed me a soiled letter directed to " the editor of a newspaper," which she said had been in her possession for more than a year, and had not been delivered because it had no definite address. Upon opening it I found it dated Logans- port, Indiana, and signed by George W. Ewing, United States Indian Agent. He stated that he had only recently stopped at an Indian wigwam for the night on the banks of the Mississi- newa, about fifty miles south of Fort Wayne, and found it occu- pied by a family who were rich for Indians, and boasted of con- siderable property in houses and lands. He went on to say that in the course of the evening he noticed that the hair of one of the women was light, and her skin under her dress white, and so he entered into conversation with her, which was not diffi- cult, as he spoke the language of the tribe. She told him she was white, but had been carried away when a very small girl. She could only remember that her name was Slocum ; that she had lived in a little house on the banks of the Susquehanna; also the number of her father's family, and the order of their ages ; but she could not recall the name of the town from which she was taken. Fascinated by this romantic story, yet unde- cided how to let the facts be known, he wrote a letter and sent it to my native town of Lancaster, as the place nearest the Sus- quehanna that he could remember of any importance. After, as I have said, sleeping in the post-office for many months, it came out through the columns of my little journal, and in that way got to the Slocums of Wilkesbarre, being the first intelli- gence of the child which had been stolen from them sixty years before. The brother of Frances, w^ho w^as only two years and FRANCES SLOCUM's ROMANCE. 209 a half old when his sister was carried off by the Indians, started for the Indian country in company with his eldest sister, who had aided him to escape, and another brother, then living in Ohio, born after the captivity of Frances. After a long journey they found a little wigwam among the Miami Indians. "We shall know Frances," said the sister, " because she lost the nail of her first finger. You, brother, hammered it off in the black- smith shop when she was four years old." They entered and found a swarthy woman who looked to be seventy-five. She was painted, jeweled, and dressed like an Indian in all respects. Nothing but her hair and her covered skin indicated her origin. They got an interpreter, asked her name and where she was born. " How came that nail gone ?" said the eldest sister. She answered, " My elder brother pounded it off when I was a little child in the shop." They had discovered the long-lost sister. They asked her Christian name. She had forgotten it. "Was it Frances.?" As if smitten by a revelation, she answered "Yes." It was the first time she had heard it pronounced in sixty years. Here they were met, two brothers and two sisters, after having been separated for more than half a century. The brothers were walking the cabin, unable to speak, the sister was drowned in tears, but the poor Indian sat motionless and pas- sionless. She could not speak a word of English. She did not know when Sunday came. Was not this the consummation of ignorance in a descendant of the Puritans ? She was carried off by the Indians, and when she grew up she married one of their number. He either died or ran away, and then she mar- ried a Miami chief, since dead. She had two daughters, both married, who, thirty-four years ago, lived in all the glory of Indian cabins, deer-skin clothes, and cow-skin head-dresses. They had horses in abundance, and when the Indian sister ac- companied her new relatives, she bridled her horse and mount- ed it astride. At night she slept on the floor, with her blanket around her. They could not persuade her to return to Wilkes- 2IO ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. barre, even when the invitation was extended to her children. She had always lived with the Indians, they had been kind to her, and she promised her last husband on his death-bed she would never leave them. It is now nearly ninety-five years since this white child was torn from her parents' home in Wy- oming Valley. She herself has been gathered to her fathers, and most of her double family who were living in 1838, with the exception, I believe, of Mr. Joseph Slocum, now one of the most influential and respectable citizens of Scranton. Among all the changes that have taken place in this long interval, few are more interesting than this transformation from civilization to barbarism. A coincidence even more romantic is soon to be revealed in the pages of the remarkable book of William Still, of Philadel- phia, entitled the " Under-ground Railroad," referred to in my last number. Mr. Still kept a careful memorandum of the suf- ferings and trials of his race during the existence of the fugi- tive-slave law, in the belief that they would be instructive to his posterity rather than from any hope of the overthrow of the revolting system of human servitude. But when that passed away, and speech became as free as thought, and the printing- press, the school-house, the ballot, and every civil right, were secured to the colored race, he resolved to spread before the w^orld this unprecedented experience. When his book appears it will accomplish more than one object. Interesting to the literary world, it will undoubtedly facilitate the reunion of other colored families, long divided, long sought for, and perhaps to this day strangers to each other. The curious similarity be- tween the case of the wealthy Slocums in Wyoming Valley and the experience of Mr. Still will be intensified when this book is published. Here we find the story of Peter Still, torn from his mother when a little boy of six, and for more than forty years a slave in Alabama, totally destitute of all knowledge of his par- ents. We are told how by extreme economy and overwork he DAVID PAUL BROWN. 211 saved about five hundred dollars with which to buy his ransom — how he started in search of his mother and kindred — how he reached Philadelphia, where, by having notices read in the col- ored churches that more than forty years before " two little boys were kidnapped and carried South," he obtained informa- tion in regard to them — how, after traveling sixteen hundred miles, the first man Peter Still sought advice from was his broth- er, the author of this very book on the Under-ground Railroad, whom he had never seen or heard of — how, after this mutual recognition, the self-ransomed captive was destined again to suffer the keenest pangs of sorrow for his own wife and chil- dren, whom he had left in Alabama in bondage — how, finally, a brave white man, Seth Conklin, proceeded to Alabama, car- ried off this wife and children, and was retaken with them, in Indiana, and perished while he was being carried in irons back to the South, by leaping from the boat in which they were con- fined. The volume, containing this and other equally romantic yet truthful stories, will soon be out, and, my word for it, no book of the times will be more eagerly read or more profitably remembered. [November 12, 1871,] XLV. David Paul Brown, of Philadelphia, has been for half a century the favorite orator of the American bar. His renown was national before he was thirty; and as he not only never sought but resolutely declined office, and rarely practiced in the courts of other States, his fame is mainly the outgrowth of pro- fessional efforts in his native city. He is still living in Phila- delphia, in his seventy-seventh year, the most active veteran of his time. Who can not recall him in the flush of his manhood ? 212 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Of middle height, compactly made, with a full, round chest; his forehead high and broad, eyes black, mouth large, and filled with the finest teeth, he is frequently seen on the streets, al- most as erect and graceful as when he thrilled our court-rooms and was followed by crowds of admirers. Mr. Brown was al- ways rather an exquisite in his dress, and to this day his blue coat and brass buttons, buff vest and light pantaloons, gloved hands, neat boots, and rather rakish hat, prove the youthfulness of his tastes and the gayety of his disposition. He is, perhaps, too fond of dress ; but he defends his peculiarity by saying " that he had never known a man to speak well in clumsy boots, nor to have a clear mind with dirty hands and face ; that he had known many a fop that was not a fool, and many a sloven that was not a Solomon." "A becoming decency of exterior," he says, " may not be necessary for ourselves, but is agreeable to others ; and while it may render a fool more contemptible, it serves to embellish inherent worth. It is like the polish of the diamond, taking something, perhaps, from its weight, but adding much to its brilliancy and attraction." Another peculiarity of David Paul Brown is his disregard of money. He has often been heard to say that he never was so rich and happy as in his early youth ; for then, in the language of Socrates, he wanted least, and therefore approached nearer to the gods, who wanted nothing. He is not extravagant in the mere pleasures of the world. His attire is rich, but his habits simple and abstemious. To these he attributes his entire free- dom from pain and diseases of every sort. Money has no value in his eyes. Its receipt gives him no pleasure — its expenditure no annoyance. From his early manhood to the present, though his professional income has exceeded a quarter of a million, the same indifference, the same recklessness, in regard to wealth, has marked his career. A characteristic anecdote is told in this connection. He studied law with the late William Rawle, a lawyer of universal celebrity, whose writings and example are WILLIAM RAWLE. 213 fondly treasured by the profession. The preceptor and student met one day, after the latter had attained a high position at the bar. " My dear Mr. Rawle," said Mr. Brown, " fifteen years ago I gave you my check for ^400, in return for your valuable legal instruction ; since that time I find I have received for pro- fessional services upward of $100,000." " I know," replied the preceptor (himself a most liberal-minded man), " you have been very busy, and it is necessary to be very busy for a young man to make such a sum in so short a time." " Oh ! but," rejoined Mr. Brown, " you don't know how busy I have been. I have spent all ; there is not a dollar left. Yes, I have spent it on principle. There are two kinds of extravagance : that which arises from a love of display, and that which springs from con- tempt of wealth. Mine is the last. If I could become rich, I should become indolent, and lose in fame what I gained in money. This is not the case, perhaps, with all, but it is with me." The old gentleman laughed heartily at the amusing can- dor of his former eleve. To show the high estimation in which the pupil was held by his revered preceptor, I transcribe the following letter, written by him to Mr. Brown some ten years after his admission. The applause of such a man is worth more than that of a whole theatre of critics : " My Dear Sir, — You borrowed of me some time ago the first volume of Guthrie's Quintilian. Will you allow me to send you the second, with the request that you will receive them both into your library ? "The plain binding will not affect the internal merit of an author who, the first that is known to us, systematically and fully laid down the precepts not only of forensic but of general oratory, and who, were he now living, would be delighted to perceive a full illustration of what he requires to form an accomplished orator in yourself. " With unfeigned respect and esteem, I am, dear sir, " Your affectionate friend, W. Rawle. "March 31, 1828. "To David Paul Brown, Esq." And it is as an orator that he deserves to be remembered. 214 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. As a criminal lawyer he has few equals. His examination of witnesses and his appeals to the jury illustrate his peculiar tal- ents. A voice of rare compass and sweetness; a command of the best phrases; a master of action, his pathos melts and sub- dues, his invective startles and dismays. Once, on a celebrated trial, he objected to a certain witness being heard because the witness was a convict. Great consternation ensued. The wit- ness was indignant, spoke of his good character, and defied his accuser. But he had met his master. Mr. Brown fixed his searching eye upon him, and then spoke : "I have objected to your evidence, sir. This objection is founded upon a knowl- edge of your character. Answ^er me, sir. Were you not con- victed and punished in the State of Delaware for a heinous crime ?" " No, sir !" This was uttered with an evidently as- sumed boldness. " Now," said the lawyer, " if I were to strip 'jp the sleeves of your coat, and point to the letter Ji branded on your right arm, near the shoulder, and say this was done at New Castle, Delaware, what answer would you make ?" The poor wretch was crushed; his artificial courage melted away before the fire of an intellectual eye. It is scarcely necessary to add that Mr. Brown won his cause. Industrious and perse- vering, he never was the slave of the black-letter. He always delighted in literature, and was a consummate Shakespearian interpreter. Chief Justice Gibson, of Pennsylvania, a very em- inent authority, said, "He does not quote Shakespeare — he speaks Shakespeare." It was natural that he should affect the drama. His rhetoric, his manner, his voice, were modeled after the best standards, and he firmly believed that the very best case was improved by being set forth gracefully and eloquently. Hence he alternated, or rather relieved the heavy toil of his profession by reading and writing poetry, by lectures on " Ham- let," by orations on patriotic subjects, and by a mass of miscel- laneous composition. *' How is it possible you can do so much business?" was the question of a friend. " Because," was the THE AMERICAN FORUM. 215 practical reply, "I have got so much to do." "But," was the rejoinder, "how can you indulge in poetry and general litera- ture ?" " Because," he replied-—" because it enables me to re- turn to my more rugged pursuits with greater alacrity and re- newed strength. The mind takes its direction from habit; if you wish to strengthen it you must direct it for a time into other channels, and thereby refresh and improve it. A mere lawyer is a mere jackass, and has never the power to unload himself; whereas I consider the advocate — the thoroughly ac- complished advocate — the highest style of a man. He is al- ways ready to learn, and always ready to teach. Hortensius was a lawyer, Cicero an orator. The one is forgotten, the other is immortal." He wrote " Sertorius, or the Roman Patriot," a tragedy, in 1830; "The Prophet of St. Paul," a melodrama; and a farce called "Love and Honor, or the Generous Soldier." The elder Booth took the leading character in the first, which was represented nine times. Mr. Brown was not vain of these productions. He said, quaintly enough, " I must say they de- rived greater celebrity from their author than their author will derive from them." He has written much on other subjects. "The Forum, or Forty Years' full Practice at the Philadelphia Bar," a work published by subscription, in 1856, in two large volumes, is a mine of learning to student and statesman. After a review of the practice of the law before the Revolution, and its history from the Declaration of Independence to the year 1856, we have a series of biographical sketches of distinguished American lawyers, with an entertaining description of their personal ap- pearance, manners, dress, etc. Justices Washington, Tilghman, Breckinridge, and others, now deceased, are passed in review, and then he takes up the living. The celebrated trials which have occurred in our civil and criminal courts (in many of v/hich he took part) are described, with anecdotes of the giants of the bench and bar, and a chapter on legal wit. " The Golden 2l6 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Rules for the Examination of Witnesses," " Capital Hints in Capital Cases," and "Instructions from a Father to his Son," are still in demand, and have passed through several editions. He can not yet be said to have left the arena in which, for fifty-six years, he has been so conspicuous an actor. He lives in honored and vigorous old age, keenly alive to all the great events of an eventful era. Even as I write I have some of his MSS. before me. His thoughts are clearly stated, and his con- tributions practical and pleasing. He is still averse to party politics, though, as ever, an ardent Republican patriot. His passion for literature is unabated, and if he touches public questions, it is only in a tolerant and judicial spirit. Few men have enjoyed life more thoroughly; few have seen more of our mighty minds ; and none survive with a warmer love of country or a larger share of the love of their countrymen. He has passed the Psalmist's age, and bids fair to live to see the hun- dredth anniversary of that Declaration of Independence of which he has been one of the most gifted of interpreters and champions. [November 19, 1871.] XLVI. July 4, 1876, will be a proud and happy day to those who shall live to see it, especially in Philadelphia, where it is to be celebrated under peculiar historical and national auspices, as the hundredth anniversary of our independence. A little more than four years and a half remain to digest plans and to execute them. These will be various and numerous, and many will be visionary and impracticable. The primal conditions to success should be discrimination against pretenders — a cultivated knowledge of and taste for art, and a resolute resistance to ev- THE CENTENARY COxMMISSION. 217 ery thing selfish or corrupt. Happily the men at the head of Fairmount Park, which, with its twenty-eight hundred acres, is to-day the largest of its kind in the world, and in a few years will be the completest and loveliest, are generally citizens of national and local reputation. As they will have much to do with the preliminaries and control of the Centenary, I give their names for the benefit of those who may want some assurance that their efforts and interest in this important movement shall not be wasted: Morton McMichael (president), journalist; General George G. Meade (vice-president), topographical en- gineer ; Samuel W. Cattell, manufacturer ; Theodore Cuyler, ■attorney-at-law; Daniel M. Fox, real-estate agent; Frederick Graeff, civil engineer; Joseph Harrison, Jr., manufacturer; Henry Huhn, coal shipper; Strickland Kneass, surveyor; Henry M. Phillips, attorney-at-law; Eli K. Price, attorney-at-law; Jon- athan H. Pugh, locksmith; Gustavus Remak, attorney-at-law; William Sellers, machinist; John Welsh, merchant; James Mc- Manes, gentleman. There is hardly one name in this list that is not a guarantee of integrity and responsibility. Several are connoisseurs of art, the owners of fine pictures and statuary, and nearly all men of wealth. They represent different vocations and both parties. Having no other motive but that which concerns the public, and no temptation but to honor themselves and the country, they will be to Philadelphia what the New York Central Park Commission was before Sweeny and Tweed polluted it with their creatures, and removed Colonel Stebbins, its president, and Mr. Green, its incorruptible treasurer. The confidence crystal- lized around the New York Park Commission, under the admin- istration of these excellent men, was such that at one time it was proposed to place the best portion of the city government in their hands. Two short years avenged the wrong inflicted in their rude removal. The people rose against Tammany, and the historical Committee of Seventy, their agent in the rescue and redemption of their great State and city, had Colonel H. K 2l8 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. G. Stebbins for its president, and Mr. Green as his most efficient auxiliary ; and now both are to go back to the Central Park Commission, as if to complete their own vindication and the retribution of the spoilers. Let us take care to maintain the Philadelphia Park Commission, soon to enter upon a wider field of action, and to act in conjunction with the preparations for the grandest national event of the country, so that, with com- mensurate dignity and energy, it may fulfill the mission assigned to it. One suggestion is made in connection with the Centenary of Independence which deserves the consideration of the Fair- mount Park Commission. There is not a county in Pennsyl- vania that can not point to names of national and even world- wide renown. I need not recount a catalogue brilliant with the services of Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Anthony Wayne, Robert Fulton, Lindley Murray, David Rittenhouse, Peter Muh- lenberg, and their contemporaries and successors in war and peace, in science and in statesmanship, in art, in law, in medicine, in religion, in manufactures, and in skilled labor. The suggestion is that every county should select one of these departed wor- thies, and have a colossal statue to represent him, in bronze, marble, or iron, ready for Fairmount Park in season for the Centenary, there to remain during all time. The tribute would be graceful, and the cost comparatively small. There is not a county in Pennsylvania that could not easily afford to perpetu- ate the features of one of its illustrious sons. The condition precedent, however, should be that the work itself should be done by an accomplished artist. Save us, O Park Commission ! from the effigies and caricatures that have so often disfigured and disgraced our lovely cities, and that still dishonor our na- tion's capital. " Art is long," says the poet. Art is not the growth of the hour, but of the ages. As it is created to endure, it can not graduate at once. If years of toil, study, and patience are essential to ripen a statesman, a scholar, a philosopher, a THE CENTENARY OF SEVENTY-SIX. 219 poet, or a complete mechanic, so are they essential to the cre- ation of an artist, who should be a combination of varied learn- ing. We have some fine specimens of American genius. Our Powers, Story, Rogers, Rothermel, Miss Hosmer, Reade, Ball, Baillie, Miss Stebbins, Church, Bierstadt, etc., are acknowledged leaders. But we should not be ashamed to lay under contribu- tion the best minds of Europe when we come to the preserva- tion of the memorials of those who have done so much for the liberty and the elevation of the whole human race. No crude brain or 'prentice hand should be employed, simply because it is of domestic growth, and no acknowledged master should be excluded because he was born under French, Italian, German, or English skies. As we shall invite the liberal thinkers of all nations to join us on the Fourth of July, 1876 — as we shall look for John Bright, Louis Kossuth, Edouard Laboulaye, Guiseppe Garibaldi, Victor Hugo, Emilio Castelar, Guiseppe Mazzini, Al- fred Tennyson, Charles Reade, and the republican teachers of Germany, we must extend a welcome, at least as warm, to the ripe and aspiring minds who are beautifying the galleries, churches, and streets of Paris, London, Berlin, Dresden, Mu- nich, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfort, Dusseldorf, Florence, Na- ples, Venice, Turin, and Imperial Rome. Art knows no party and no country. America is eventually and inexorably the chief of civilization. Opening her arms to all the children of men, she will gather to her side with a precious love those for- tunate ones whom God has most generously crowned with his richest gifts. An able writer, in a late number of a London magazine. Temple Bar^ thus sets forth the verdict of enlightened Europe, in a contrast between this country and France. We can not be unmindful of the duty here taught us in our relations to the rest of mankind : " America, not France, has been the propagandist of democ- racy, and has instituted the only successful republic of ancient or modern times — a republic of which the foundations have 2 20 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. been cemented by no unrighteously spilled blood, nor under- mined by fantastic social theories ; a republic founded on rea- son, on the unalterable principles of humanity, neither twisted nor forced from their natural channels to harmonize with indi- vidual ideas ; on the purely normal development of certain conditions of society and their only practical solution. Ameri- can republicanism means the advancement of the human race ; French republicanism its destruction. Commerce and the arts of peace are the weapons of the one ; fire and sword are the weapons of the other." [November 26, 1871.] XLVII. More than twenty years ago I made the acquaintance of David Hoffman, of Baltimore, the eminent lawyer and legal writer, who died of apoplexy shortly after in the city of New York, seventy years old. I was introduced to him at the din- ner-table of Charles Jared Ingersoll, then living in Walnut Street, near Fifth, in the city of Philadelphia, an equally inter- esting character, of more experience, if not profounder learning, who was born in 1782, and died on the 14th of May, 1862, at the great age of eighty. Marked deeply in my memory of that afternoon were two anecdotes of General Washington, whom these interesting veterans had known in their youth. Mr. Hoff- man, while playfully reminding his contemporary and friend of his ancient Federalism [Mr. Ingersoll was one of the ablest of the Democratic leaders at the time], took special pains to illus- trate his own consistent attachment to what he was pleased to call the doctrines and teachings of Washington, by relating how, as a lad of twelve, he had met the Father of his Country at Beltzhoover's Hotel, in Light Street, Baltimore. An immense GEORGE WASHINGTON. 221 crowd had assembled to greet the patriot. Hoffman, with two other boys, lingered after the concourse had dispersed, for an opportunity to see and converse with the honored guest. Wash- ington had retired to his chamber, but answered the knock of the boys by opening his door and inviting them in. In those days the French republicans had a large class of imitators and followers in the United States, and Hoffman's two companions wore what was known as the Jefferson or French cockade in their caps. After Washington had asked their names, he turned to Hoffman and said, " I see that you have no cockade ; will you allow me to make one for you ?" And calling a servant, he directed him to purchase a piece of black ribbon, and " with this," said Mr. Hoffman, " he cut out for me a bUck cockade, which he pinned to my cap with his own hands ; and that is why I have remained a Washington Federalist to this day, and why I shall die one." Mr. IngersoU followed with an incident not less interesting. In his thirteenth year he had seen Gen- eral AVashington in Philadelphia. Playing around his residence in Market Street, near Fifth, with some of the children connected with the Washington family, he was persuaded into the house, and dined at the table with the great man, his wife, Mrs. Martha Washington, and his military aids or secretaries. Mr. IngersoU described Washington as stately and austere. No conversation took place during the meal. He filled his own glass of madeira silently, passed the decanter to his lady, and then took wine with the guests, the boys inclusive. It was a long and quiet repast, and the boys were glad when it was over. Washington rose first, and passed to his front door, where three horses were in waiting in the hands of the grooms ; the General mounted one, the aids the others, and all three rode rapidly out of Fifth Street. There are not many living who could relate similar experi- ences. Mrs. Mary Ellet, whose memoir I had the honor of writing, and who lived to be nearly ninety, dying in the city of 222 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Philadelphia about two years ago, was full of these reminiscen- ces. There are doubtless old families whose records and recol- lections abound in stories of the Revolutionary and ante-Revo- lutionary heroes and statesmen. As we approach the Centen- nial Anniversary of American Independence these materials ought to be collected and edited. Our Historical Societies could in no better way honor the day and increase their useful- ness than by publishing every thing pertaining to the immortal characters who deliberated at Philadelphia during the early stages of the Revolution, and down to the period when the seat of the National Government was finally removed to the city of Washington, at the beginning of the century. There is hardly an old State, from Maine to South Carolina, that is not instinct with private and personal recollections of these men and their works. In the five years between now and the 4th of July, 1876, much could be gathered from these sources to add to the interest of that auspicious anniversary, and to perpetuate our gratitude for those who first destroyed the British power, and then laid the foundations of American liberty on this continent. [December 3, 1871.] XLVIII. From the month of December, i860, to the 19th of April, 186 1, we made history like magic. Parties dissolved and sections consolidated. Professed politicians became practical patriots; professed patriots became practical traitors. Andrew Johnson struck the first blow on the 19th of December, i860, in the Senate, and continued pounding against the Secessionists all through the war, insanely changing his course only when assas- sination and accident made him President — throwing away the ripest fruits of what seemed to be honest endeavors, and that FOUR MONTHS OF EXCITEMENT. 223 golden opportunity which rarely comes more than once in a lifetime. Of Buchanan's Cabinet, General Cass, Howell Cobb, and John B. Floyd all resigned at an early day, and Jacob Thompson later — Cass in the spirit of profound attachment to the Constitution ; the others with defiance and threats. The two Houses of Congress were two theatres. The galleries were filled with excited spectators. Few speeches were made by the Union men, and almost none by the Republicans, until honest Ben Wade, of Ohio, broke silence and gave tongue to the feel- ings of an outraged people. Especially was Philadelphia an interesting scene during these initial months. The meeting at the Board of Trade Rooms on Thursday, the 3d of January, 1861, called to decide "What measures should be adopted in the-present condition of our national affairs," was an extraordi- nary event. The veteran Colonel Cephas G. Childs presided. There were some differences between those who participated, but the sentiment of devotion to the Union was almost unani- mous. That meeting resulted in a committee to make prepa- rations for a larger demonstration at National Hall, on the even- ing of the Saturday succeeding, January 5, 186 1. In looking over the names of those who took part in that monster and electric popular upheaval I find representatives of all parties. Many have passed away. We no longer see the familiar forms of Commodore Charles Stewart, Evans Rogers, J. Murray Rush, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Edward Coles, George W. Nebinger, John B. Myers, John Grigg, Oswald Thompson, Henry Horn, Cephas G. Childs, Edward Gratz, George A. Cofiey, John M. Butler, James Landy, Edward G. Webb, Robert T. Carter, and George, W. Thorn. All these have gone. Among the resolutions adopt- ed and indorsed by the Republicans and many of the Demo- cratic leaders of Philadelphia, was the following axiomatic and fundamental declaration : "That all persons who wage war against the United States for the purpose of destroying the Government established by 224 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. our fathers, and for any other purpose whatever, or who aid, sanction, counsel, or encourage them, can not be regarded in any other light than as public enemies." The o;entleman who introduced the resolutions was J. Mur- ray Rush, since deceased, son of the late venerable Richard Rush, widely known as a consummate statesman. Co-opera- ting with him were such Philadelphia Democrats as General Robert Patterson, Lewis C. Cassidy, William A. Porter, George Northrop, Benjamin Rush, and George W. Nebinger. The vet- eran William D. Lewis, who presided, and whose speech was as full of fire as any of the younger orators, and Horace Binney, who wrote a glowing appeal, now almost a centenarian, are yet among us. Other cities and towns were equally prompt and outspoken, . but Philadelphia, with Boston, took the start and maintained it. When war was inevitable, Philadelphia, like Boston, became a rendezvous of loyal spirits. She symbolized her purpose by her memorable reception of Mi. Lincoln at Independence Hall, on the 22d of February, 1861; by her first welcome to the Union troops as they passed along Washington Avenue to the national capital ; by the impromptu organization of the Cooper- Shop Refreshment Saloon, which soon became a national Mec- ca; by her magnificent Sanitary Fair; and her great Union League, beginning with a few gentlemen at a social meeting, and increasing into a brotherhood of seventeen hundred, wield- ing a potential influence in local. State, and general politics— a society not less distinguished for the culture of its members than for the gracious hospitalities extended to liberal strangers of every sect and clime. On the day after the firing upon Fort Sumter I met Stephen A. Douglas upon Pennsylvania Avenue, in the city of Washing- ton.* Naturally anxious to ascertain what part he would take in coming events, I put the question to him, "What is now to be done ? My dear friend, what are we to do?" STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 225 I shall never forget his answer : " We must fight for our coun- try and forget all differences. There can be but two parties — the party of patriots and the party of traitors. We belong to the first." Abraham Lincoln was President. His old adver- sary, who had defeated him for Senator in 1858, and whom he (Lincoln) had defeated for President in i860, called that very day at the White House and proffered his counsel and his serv- ices. The firing upon Sumter on the 14th of April, followed by the attack upon the Massachusetts troops on the 19th of the same month, raised the question how the soldiers of the North were to reach the capital, already beleaguered by the prepared hosts of the South. It was in the discussion of this question that Mr. Lincoln made the memorable remark, "If we can not pass over Baltimore, or under Baltimore, we must necessarily pass through Baltimore;" and it was in one of his interviews that Judge Douglas pressed the suggestion which originated in Massachusetts that we might go 7-oiuid Baltimore, and reach Washington via Annapolis by water — a suggestion subsequent- ly successfully carried out. During this cordial intercourse Mr. Lincoln solicited Judge Douglas to go to the West and raise his voice in favor of the Government ; and it was in re- sponse to this request that the great Senator turned his face homeward, and made the magnetic speech which aroused his followers, and gave to the Administration that timely support which helped to fill our armies, to increase the Republican column, and to add to Republican counsels the culture and courage of the flower of the Democratic party. Let me quote this his farewell speech at Chicago on the first of May, 186 1 — the faithful echo to Mr. Lincoln's affectionate appeal in the pre- ceding April. These golden words should never be forgotten: " The election of Mr. Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since — formed by leaders in the South- ern Confederacy more than twelve months ago. They use the K 2 226 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment of their ends. They desired the election of a Northern candidate by a sectional vote, in order to show that the two sections can not live together. When the history of the two years from the Le- compton question down to the Presidential election shall be written it will be shown that the scheme was deliberately made to break up this Union. "They desired a Northern Republican to be elected by a purely Northern vote, and then assign this fact as a reason why the sections can not live together. If the Disunion candidate in the late Presidential contest had carried the united South, their scheme was, the Northern candidate successful, to seize the capital last spring, and, by a united South and a divided North, hold it. Their scheme was defeated in the defeat of the Dis- union candidate in several of the Southern States. " But this is no time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known ; armies have been raised ; war is levied to ac- complish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war — only patriots or traitors." A little more than a month after (June 3, 1861), Stephen A. Douglas died at Chicago, aged forty-eight years and two months. But Abraham Lincoln did not forget him. He directed the De- partments to be clothed in mourning and the colors of the dif- ferent Union regiments to be craped. Nor did his sympathy end in words. He seized the first occasion to honor the sons of Douglas — an example fitly followed by General Grant. Rob- ert Martin Douglas is one of the President's private secretaries, and his brother, Stephen A. Douglas, Jr., a leading Republican in North Carolina, in full accord with the Administration. It is gratifying to add, as I feel I may now do by authority, that had Judge Douglas lived he would have been called into the Ad- ministration of Abraham Lincoln, or placed in one of the high- est military commands. The relations of the present Chief CALEB GUSHING. 227 Magistrate to the friends of Douglas were closer and more in- timate than those of Mr. Lincoln, and it is more than probable that had Douglas survived he would to-day be one of the coun- selors of President Grant, who himself was a citizen of Illinois at the time Judge Douglas was sweeping the Buchanan hosts out of the field. John A. Rawlins, the nearest friend and Sec- retary of War of Grant, was also the nearest friend of Douglas. What a power Douglas would have been, enlisted on the right side, with all his prophecies proved, all his Southern enemies crushed, with his plan of transcontinental railroads vindicated and increased, with our new Territories controlled and freed by the voice of the people, with the Mormon problem he so boldly attacked on the eve of solution, and the great West re- alizing every day his hopes of supreme empire ! [December 10, 187 1.] XLIX. No member of the Geneva Conference raised under the Treaty of Washington to adjust questions arising out of that convention will attract more notice than the senior counsel of the American members, Caleb Gushing, of Massachusetts. Born on the 17th of January, 1800, and therefore on the verge of seventy-two, he is, for his years, one of the most vigorous intel- lects in the world. His long career of more than half a cent- ury has been singularly varied. A graduate of Harvard Col- lege in 1817, subsequently a tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy, he studied law at Cambridge, and settled at New- buryport, still his Massachusetts residence, to practice the pro- fession which he formally entered in 1822. In 1825-26 he served in the Legislature of the State, in 1829 visited Europe, and published on his return "Reminiscences of Spain," a de- 228 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. lightful book, and a profound review of the Revolution in France. He was also one of the favorite writers of the old North American Review. In 1833-34 he was again elected to the Legislature, and was a Representative in Congress from 1835 to 1843. Appointed by President Tyler commissioner to China, he negotiated an important treaty. On his return, in 1846, he was again elected to the State Legislature. In 1847 he was chosen colonel of volunteers in the Mexican war, and was afterward made brigadier-general by President Polk. In 1850 he was elected for the fifth time to the State Legislature, and in 185 1 made a Justice of the Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts. When President Pierce was elected, Caleb Cushing was made his Attorney-General, and at the end of his term he returned to Massachusetts, and was again elected to the Legis- lature. He was president of the Democratic Charleston Con- vention in i860 to nominate a President, and in July, 1866, was appointed by Andrew Johnson one of the three commissioners to codify and revise the laws of the United States. When he accepted the post of American counselor to the commissioners under the English treaty he was the advocate of the Mexican Government before the United States and Mexican Claims Commission. Few men living can point to such an experience — few are better qualified by varied acquirements and personal address to cope with the ripe and thorough statesmen sent by Great Britain to Geneva. General Cushing was for a long time one of the ablest of the Whig leaders; and when John Tyler severed his connection with that party, he and Henry A. Wise, and one or two more, constituted what was called the Tyler Guard in the House. After that he gradually changed his course, and became as prominent a leader of the Democrats. At present, without any special party proclivities — having reached what Mr. Sumner calls "the philosophic age" — he devotes himself to law and literature. It is not denied that he is frequently employed at CALEB GUSHING. 229 the Department of State, and no doubt by other Departments, in the preparation of important papers. I have heard him at a dinner-table conversing in French, Spanish, English, and Ger- man. His style of speaking is exceedingly fascinating. Some eighteen years ago I was present at an oratorical combat be- tween him and Jefferson Davis at Newark, N. J., where Presi- dent Pierce halted on his way to the opening of the Crystal Palace at New York. They were well matched. Davis had the reputation of being one of the most graceful of the Southern debaters, but he found more than an equal in the Massachusetts dialectician. As a newspaper writer he is unsurpassed. While I was one of the editors of the National Democratic organ dur- ing Pierce's Administration, Attorney-General Gushing, although deeply immersed in the business of his Department, hardly let a day pass without sending me an editorial on some subject, and he frequently aided me on the Washington Chrofiicle. He was at home on finance, on law, and especially on foreign questions. In society he is delightful. Excelling in conversation, his rem- iniscences are original and graphic. It is very interesting to sit by and hear him talk of the characters of the past without hatred or prejudice. A man of large wealth, inherited and self- earned, a widower without children, fond of labor, of matchless excellence as a practitioner in the Supreme Court of the United States, he is also a great student — devouring every new book as it comes out, novels inclusive, and remembering every thing he reads. His health is good, his activity remarkable, his habits temperate. Invited every where in Washington, he is the orna- ment of every circle, and it is not going too far to sly that, gracious, polite, and agreeable as all educated Englishmen are — especially those reared in high life — among his associates in the Geneva mission he will be one of the most popular. I could run this notice of Caleb Gushing into several columns, but I will close my hasty tribute to a remarkable man with an extract from one of his speeches in 1836, while he was a Whig 230 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. member of the House of Representatives, as a specimen of his style. In all that has been written against the enemies of the Union, nothing finer can be found. I commend it to the spe- cial consideration of his old friend, Mr. Jefferson Davis : "I pray to God, if in the decree of his Providence he have any mercy in store for me, not to suffer me to behold the hour of its dissolution; its glory extinct; the banner of its pride rent and trampled in the dust; its nationality a moral of history; its grandeur a lustrous vision of the morning slumber vanished ; its liberty a disembodied spirit, brooding like the genius of the Past amid the prostrate monuments of its old magnificence. To him that shall compass or plot the dissolution of this Union, I would apply language resembling what I remember to have seen of an old anathema : Wherever fire burns or water runs; wherever ship floats or land is tilled ; wherever the skies vault themselves or the lark carols to the dawn, or sun shines or earth greens in his ray; wherever God is worshiped in temples or heard in thunder; wherever man is honored or woman loved — there, from thenceforth and forever, shall there be to him no part or lot in the honor of man or the love of woman. Ixion's revolving wheel, the overmantling cup at which Tantalus may not slake his unquenchable thirst; the insatiate vulture gnaw- ing at the immortal heart of Prometheus; the rebel giants writhing in the volcanic fires of ^tna — are but faint types of his doom." [December 17, 1871.] L. Christmas is one of the holidays when childhood joyously looks forward, and manhood solemnly looks back. The one lives in anticipation of happy years to come — the other lives WASHINGTON IN 1839. 23 1 over the years that have gone. In this, the fiftieth number of these anecdotes, which, when commenced, I did not suppose would extend to twenty, I am reminded of a season every where celebrated by the Christian world, and I quietly turn over the leaves of memory to see if I can not restore a few of the events that mark this time in former years. My first visit to Wash- ington was in the holidays of 1839, thirty-two years ago, when Martin Van Buren was President, Richard M. Johnson Vice- President, John Forsyth Secretary of State, Levi Woodbury Secretary of the Treasury, Joel R. Poinset Secretary of War, James K. Paulding Secretary of the Navy, John M. Niles Post- master-General, Felix Grundy Attorney-General; when Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, James Buchanan, Silas Wright, John C. Calhoun, Robert J. Walker, Samuel L. Southard, and William C.Preston were Senators in Congress; when James K.Polk was Speaker of the House, William R. King President/;-^ te7n- pore of the Senate, and Roger B. Taney Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Not one of these names now figures on the roll of living men. Washington was then little more than a straggling village, fulfilling painfully the idea of a city of dreary distances. The avenues were poorly paved, and the streets al- most impassible and miserably lighted at night. The leading hotel was Gadsby's — a vast barn or caravanserai; the chief amusements gambling-houses and a poor theatre; and no pub- lic halls with the exception of Carusi's. The only creditable buildings were the Capitol, the President's House, and the De- partments. When I was here first the snow lay deep upon the ground, the cold was intense; sleighs were the ordinary con- veyances, and Senators and members were generally huddled into ordinary boarding-houses, in which a sort of gipsy life was led, only tolerable to those who had fortunes of their own. It was a cheerless city, simply endurable by political and public receptions. Society was pleasant enough for those who had time to stay, but a casual visitor like myself had to be content 232 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. with a seat in the gallery of Congress, a presentation to the President among a mob, or a loiter in the East Room. Twenty years made comparatively little change in the character of the city. Old men died and new men rose. One set of giants was succeeded by another. Modern improvements came in slowly, for slavery was spread like a shroud over the whole dis- trict. Population grew apace, but enterprise was stagnant. The newspapers were didactic and dull. Gales & Seaton still qui- etly vegetated in their genteel Intelligencer, its prestige gone, and they struggled vainly against the huge and ponderous is- sues then projecting their dark proportions upon the scene. James Buchanan was President, trying with feeble force to quell the storm he aided to raise, while Stephen A. Douglas, Charles Sumner, John J. Crittenden, Benjamin F. Wade, Salmon P. Chase, Wm. H. Seward, John C. Breckinridge, Robert Toombs, John Slidell, and Andrew Johnson were leading different divi- sions of men — each contending for his own theories, and all irresistibly floating into that great conflict which abolished slav- ery, purified the Constitution, redeemed the whole government, and, for the first time since the Declaration of Independence, es- tablished and fortified a consolidated nation. Then the strong, warm blood began to circulate in the District of Columbia. Still the progress was slow. The debris of the battle had to be removed. The local municipality had to be changed. Free labor had to be organized and rewarded. The experiment of the ballot had to be tried. New men, when they came in to push old incapables from their stools, had to be accustomed to the demands and the progress of the times. Summoned to the helm of a Washington Republican daily in 1862, 1 gladly echoed the popular cry for improvement. Still years passed before there was any substantial response. It was only when General Grant succeeded Andrew Johnson that men were found to un- dertake responsibilities and bear misrepresentations, and place Washington City on the high plane of vigorous competition WASHINGTON IN 1871. 233 with its sisters. A few days since, after an absence of several months, I returned, to realize the vast difference between the Washington of 1839 and the Washington of 187 1. During these few months a magical transformation has been wrought. The desolation, decay, and retrogression of thirty-two years have been succeeded by a diversified and miraculous development. The inertness of the past is put to shame by the activity of the present. Youth has superseded age, enterprise enervation. Ten years ago its churches were hospitals, its parks camping- grounds, many of its public places barracks or prisons. Its avenues and streets trembled under the march of embattled thousands, and were torn and lacerated by long trains of artil- lery and huge processions of army wagons. Nothing main- tained its character but the marble Capitol, and that, as if to prefigure the new era, extended its wings in all the wonders of its classic beauty amid the shock of conflict and of death. And now, on the eve of that anniversary of the birth of Him whose " Blessed feet Which nineteen hundred years ago Were nailed for our advantage on the bitter cross," the visitor, whether American or foreigner, stands in the midst of something more than a material metamorphosis. It was said of one of the Roman emperors that he found Rome brick and left it marble. Not less true is the eulogy that the Republicans found Washington in chains and made it free. They found it a miserable mockery and converted it into a magnificent me- tropolis. My companions, most of whom had not seen Wash- ington for years, and easily recalled its former wretchedness, stood in amazement in the midst of the trophies of its present splendor. After riding along Pennsylvania Avenue and observ- ing the new residences going up in every quarter, and the broad streets laid with enduring composite, we stopped on the noble walk before the north front of the Treasury Department and stood opposite the Freedmen's Savings Bank. Its history will 2 34 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. form a striking chapter in the annals of these times. On the east corner of the same block I pointed out the famous bank- ing-house of Corcoran & Riggs — now managed, I believe, by Mr. George W. Riggs. The contrast between these two edifices is a contrast between two ideas, and suggests a moral better than an argument. Let us take two living men — men whose names are immediately associated with these institutions — W. W. Corcoran, the former head of the little old banking-house at the corner, and William J. Wilson, cashier of the new savings bank — the one white and the other colored, both natives of the United States, and both sympathizers with the South in the re- belHon— Corcoran with the Confederates and Wilson with the slaves. It can be no offense to the white man to say that, like his colored brother, he was of humble origin, and it is equally true that while he flourished under our institutions, William J. Wilson was oppressed and degraded. The white man grew in riches and in graces with his years. Under former Adminis- trations, before the Sub-Treasury, he was the principal deposi- tary of the national funds, and to this day his name is a letter of credit in all financial circles. Belonging to the age that is fast passing away, he does not forget that most of his wealth is the result of the confidence of his Government ; and in the rapid growth of Washington, although he himself has resisted many of the recent efforts in that direction, there are no more beautiful objects than his noble Art Gallery and the Louisa Home for Indigent Ladies, The black man had none of these chances. When Congress, early in 1865, passed a charter of incorporation for the Freedmen's Savings Bank, William J. Wil- son, the present indomitable cashier, was teaching school on Twelfth Street, near R, in Washington City, without remunera- tion. The trustees called upon him to make the bank known to the colored people of America, and he undertook the work. His first office was a rented room in a small brick house in G Street, where he remained for a few months stemming the tide freedmen's savings bank. 235 of bigotry against his race, and untiring in teaching them the necessity of hoarding their surplus wages in some institution that would keep them safely and profitably. A freedman, in 1866, told Wilson that his father's box had been broken into and two hundred dollars stolen, but that the old man had still twenty-four dollars left, and this was the first investment, under Wilson's advice, in the Freedmen's Savings Bank. It was the seed from which has grown what is already a gigantic and must become an overwhelming corporation. Other deposits followed in rapid succession, and real estate was purchased at the cor- ner of Nineteenth and I Streets in Washington. The opera- tions of the concern became too large in a short time, and it was finally moved to the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Av- enue and Nineteenth Street. During this period colored sol- diers began to deposit something of their pay, and those who were wise enough to do so now reap the benefit of their wisdom. In the winter of 1867 the bank was moved to Seventh Street, between E and F, where it remained for fourteen months, until finally it was located in the new building opposite the Treasury Department, to which I have referred. There are few banking- houses in America equal to it, and yet, large, commodious, and beautiful as it is, it is to be still further extended, inasmuch as the company has purchased the whole of the western portion of the lot, and are even now ambitious to buy out Corcoran & Riggs, so that the entire square may be given up to them. It may be called a tree of many branches, extending through the South and the Southwest. They have fine buildings, with ca- pable officers engaged in the good work of collecting the sav- ings of the freedmen, and so hoarding and investing them as that in the course of time the institution will be second to none on the continent. The Washington depositors are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred a day, and the daily amount of business varies from six to twenty thousand dollars. In four weeks these deposits have exceeded the drafts by sixty thousand 236 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. dollars. No discounts are made for the public or for any of the officers of the bank, and advances are made only on secu- rity of real estate. It is unnecessary to give further details. The concern itself stands first among financial institutions. Its future may be judged from its present. With ordinary care and integrity it must distance all competitors, inasmuch as it has secured the confidence of the great race which, united for one object, can accomplish almost any thing. Imagine these millions of colored men, women, and children, all resolved upon hoarding their earnings in one banking institution, and then contrast this unity of action with the savings banks in other cities and States which have grown rich because they have been preferred by only a portion of the whites, and you have the sto- ry in a nutshell. The architect of all this prosperity is William J. Wilson, the cashier, an earnest, hard-headed, true-hearted man, with the intelligence, vigor, and the directness of a John W. Garrett or a George Law, and the conviction of an Oliver Cromwell. As a Pennsylvanian I am proud to record the fact that perhaps the most efficient and persevering of the coadju- tors of Mr. Wilson in the administration of the affairs of this magnificent institution is Colonel D. L. Eaton, of Pittsburgh. But Wilson is the W. W. Corcoran of the colored men of the South, successfully emerging from a deadlier struggle, fighting against sterner obstacles, and perhaps surer of a grander future. Who knows but that in the years that lie beyond, a reputation as pure, a credit as high, may await the posterity of the colored banker as that which has a thousand times rewarded the white capitalist ? I said at the beginning that Christmas is that holi- day on which childhood looks joyously forward, and when man- hood solemnly looks backward ; and, as I conclude this strik- ing contrast, may not both child and man be instructed by its lessons, and alike anticipate the glorious destiny of our coun- try? [December 24, 1871.] NEW-YEARS CALLS. 237 LI. New-year's calls had their origin in Continental Europe. The custom was brought to New York by the Dutch and Hu- guenots as one of their peculiar institutions. It has never been naturalized, until recently, in towns of a more purely English origin or population. Christmas is the favorite holiday all through the Middle States, especially in districts originally set- tled by the English and the Germans. New-year's receptions have latterly become universally fashionable, but the cities of New York and Washington are more particularly abandoned to this growing and pleasant custom. On Friday, the first of January, 1790, the Government of the young United States, then located in the city of New York, the first President, George Washington, was waited upon by the principal gentlemen of the metropolis. Mrs. Washington held her levee as on other Fri- day evenings, but this special reception was one of unusual ele- gance. The weather was almost as gentle as May, and the full moon shone brightly into the chambers of the President's state- ly mansion. It was not the general custom for visitors to the President to sit, but on this particular evening, as I learn from a diary of the period, there were chairs in the rooms where Mrs. Washington met her friends, and, after they were seated, tea and coffee and plum and plain cake were served. Mrs. Washing- ton afterward remarked that none of the proceedings of the day so pleased " the General " (by which title she always desig- nated her husband, differing in that respect from Mrs. Grant, who nearly always speaks of our present President as "Mr. Grant") as the friendly greeting of the gentlemen who had call- ed upon him. Washington asked if New-year's visiting had al- ways been kept up in New York, and when he was answered in the affirmative, he paused a moment and said, " The highly fa- vored situation of New York will in the progress of years at- 238 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. tract numerous emigrants, who will gradually change its cus- toms and manners ; but, whatever changes take place, never forget the cordial and cheerful observance of New-year's-day." Mrs. Washington stood by his side as the visitors arrived and were presented, and when the clock in the hall struck 7ii7ie she advanced and said, with a pleasant smile, " The General alwa3^s retires at nine, and I usually jDrecede him," upon which the company made their parting salutations, and said good-night. This was the second session of the First Ame'rican Congress, and the last ever held in New York. It was closed on the 12th of August, 1790, and on the 30th the President set out for Vir- ginia. The population of Boston at this time was about eighteen thousand, that of New York thirty-three thousand, of whom twenty-three hundred were slaves, and that of Philadelphia forty- two thousand, of whom less than three hundred were slaves. One of the great questions of the day was in which of the cities or sections the capital of the nation should be fixed. It is amusing to note the efforts made to retain it in New York and to prevent its transfer to Philadelphia, and to compare them with the late endeavor of the gentle Mr. Reavis, of St. Louis, and his very few associates, against keeping the seat of the National Government where it is to-day. The first Con- gress had just closed at New York, and Washington prepared, in accordance with the decision of that body, to fix his new res- idence at Philadelphia, where the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Departments were to be retained until the close of the century. It was known that Washington and the Southern men generally were anxious that the political centre of the Re- public should be on the River Potomac, while Pennsylvania wished it on the banks of the Delaware, and New York vainly tried to keep it on the Hudson. Dr. Rush, in a letter to Gen- eral Muhlenberg, said, "I rejoice in the prospect of Congress leaving New York. It is a sink of political vice. Do as you THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. 239 please, but tear Congress away from New York in any way. Do not rise without effecting tliis business." But the New- Yorkers did not hesitate to retort upon Philadelphia. Captain Freneau, afterward Mr. Jefferson's great editorial advocate, and the assailant of General Washington in the Philadelphia Na- tional Gazette, wrote some verses, in which he made a Philadel- phia house-maid, in a letter to her friend in New York, speak of Philadelphia as follows : " Six weeks my dear mistress has been in a fret, And nothing but Congress will do for her yet. She says they must come, or her senses she'll lose ; From morning to night she is reading the news, And loves the dear fellows that vote for our town, Since no one can relish New York but a clown. " She tells us as how she has read in her books That God gives the meat but the devil the cooks ; And Grumbleton told us, who often shoots flying, That fish you have plenty, but spoil them in frying ; That your streets are as crooked as crooked can be, Right forward three perches he never could see ; That his view was cut short with a house or a shop That stood in his way and obliged him to stop." To which the New York maid responds to her friend : •* Well, Nannie, I'm sorry to find, since you writ us, That Congress at last has determined to quit us ; You now may begin with your dish-cloths and brooms. To be scouring your, knockers and scrubbing your rooms, " As for us, my dear Nannie, we're much in a pet. And hundreds of houses will be " To be Let ;" Our streets, that were just in a way to look clever, "Will now be neglected and nasty as ever. This Congress unsettled's a very sad thing, Seven years, my dear Nannie, they've been on the wing; My master would rather saw timber or dig, Than to have it removed to Conogocheague, Where the houses and kitchens are yet to framed, The trees to be felled, and the streets to be named." 240 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Then came the hurry and excitement of moving the different Departments of the Government, complaints on the part of members of Congress of high prices of rents and provisions, and all the numerous intrigues incidental to such a transition. The appearance of Philadelphia was monotonous enough, though Christ Church had quite a cathedral air, and the Dutch church was magnificent. But the city, plain and unpretending, was chiefly attractive to visitors by its markets, which were declared to be the best in the world. The Pennsylvania politicians, in- cluding such men as Robert Morris, felt that if they could make Congress, the President, and the Departments comfortable in Philadelphia, the project of removing to the South would be abandoned, and therefore some amusing expedients were re- sorted to, especially to propitiate the President, but without effect. He was exceedingly careful about committing himself, would receive no favors of any kind, and scrupulously paid for every thing. The house of Mr. Robert Morris had been taken by the corporation for his residence. " It is," said Washington to his private secretary, Mr. Lear, " the best they could get, and is, I believe, the best single house in the city." A larger house was set apart for him on Ninth Street, on the grounds nov/ cov- ered by the Pennsylvania University, which he refused to accept. The house he occupied while he was President was a large double house, on the south side of High Street, near Fifth, was three stories, thirty-two feet wide, four windows in the second as well as in the third story, and three in the first, approached by three heavy steps of gray stone to a single door. It was situated in a vacant lot, used as a garden, and surrounded with trees and shrubbery. On Saturday, the 28th of November, 1790, the President and Mrs. Washington arrived from Mount Vernon, and took posses- sion of this their new mansion, and on Christmas-day, the 25 th of December, they gave their first formal levee. The President was surrounded by members of his Cabinet or other distinguished WASHINGTON IN PHILADELPHIA. 241 men, his hair powdered and gathered behind in a silk bag, coat and breeches of plain black silk velvet, white or pearl-colored vest, yellow gloves, a cocked hat in his hand, silver knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword, with a finely wrought and glit- tering steel hilt, the coat worn over it and its scabbard of pol- ished white leather. On these occasions he never shook hands even with his most intimate friends. Every name was distinctly announced, and he rarely forget it after the owner had been introduced. At Mrs. Washington's receptions the President appeared as a private gentleman, without hat or sword, con- versing without restraint, generally with the ladies, who had few other opportunities of meeting him. The winter of 1790-91, including the New-year's receptions and levees, was unusually brilliant in Philadelphia. " I should spend a veiy dissipated winter," writes Mrs. John Adams, ".if I were to accept one half the invitations I receive." Another correspondent wrote as follows : "I never saw any thing like the frenzy wliich has seized upon the inhabitants here. They have been half mad ever since this city became the seat of Govern- ment, and there is no limit to their prodigality, and, Ellsworth might say, profligacy. The probability is that some families will find they can not support their dinners, suppers, and losses at loo a great while ; but generally, I believe, the sharp citi- zens manage to make the temporary residents pay the bills, one way or another. They have given a good many delightful parties, and I have been at Chew's, McKean's, Clymer's, Dal- las's, Bingham's, and a dozen other houses lately. Among your more particular friends there is more quiet and comfort, and it is not impossible that tlie most truly respectable people are least heard of." Few will think of the New-year of 1790-91 as they greet to-morrow ; and yet, though eighty years have gone, it is not difficult, after a little reading and reflection, to recall it. "The belle of the period " was Anne Willing, afterward Mrs. William L 242 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Bingham. She was the princess of society before whom Jeffer- son, Hamilton, Jay, and John Adams gladly bowed. Of rare personal attractions, fine intelligence, and unlimited resources, supplied by husband and father, she dazzled society in both continents. Dying at thirty-seven, she has left a deathless rep- utation for loveliness of person and of mind. A chief favorite of Washington, who saw her alike at her town and country home — the latter the famous Lansdowne on the Schuylkill, the glory of the great Fairmount Park — she was the star of Mrs. Wash- ington's levees. It is not difficult to picture her now, the queen of the ladies of her own age and sphere, and the admired of the great leaders of the time. There will be lovely women and eminent men to-morrow at the White House in Washington, and in the many great houses of New York, Philadelphia, Bos- ton, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore, and Rich- mond j but will the women be more attractive than those who attended the first levee of President Washington in Philadel- phia in 1790-91? There were Mrs. Vice-President John Ad^ ams, the dazzling Mrs. Bingham and her beautiful sisters, the Misses Allen, the Misses Chew, and a constellation of others. The eldest of the Aliens became the lovely Mrs. Greenleaf. Mrs. Theodore Sedgwick, and Miss Wolcott, of New England, added singular grace to the scene. Miss Sally McKean, after- ward the Marchioness d'Yrujo (wife of the Spanish Minister), whose portrait, by Gilbert Stuart, is still in possession of Pratt McKean, in Philadelphia, wrote to a friend in New York : " You never could have had such a drawing-room ; it was brill- iant beyond any thing you can imagine, and though there was a great deal of extravagance, there was so much of Philadelphia taste in every thing that it must be confessed the most delightful occasion ever known in this country." In fact, all the great women of this country, North and South, and of the foreign legations, figured in the decade between 1790 and 1800 in these historical assemblies. WASHINGTON S RECEPTIONS. 243 At these Washington receptions and levees also might be found the public men of the Revolutionary era — the leaders in the Senate and in society, beginning with Washington's Cabi- net, which included Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, Timothy Pick- ering, John Marshall, Oliver Wolcott, and Edmund Randolph ; and his immediate personal friends, at the head of whom stood John Jay, Governor Clinton, and Robert Morris. There, too, might have been seen Colonel Trumbull, the eminent historical painter. The Philadelphia celebrities living at that time were Dominie Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania, tall, thin^ with a nose like a hook, and overhanging brows, a striking figure, with his ivory-headed cane, as he walked about among the new gen- eration ; Benjamin Chew, at seventy years preserving the dis- tinguished air and high-bred courtesy which forty years before had arrested the admiration of Washington ; Edward Shippen, in his sixty-second year — ^just called to a position on the bench — the ancestor of his esteemed and universally beloved name- sake now living in Philadelphia, and exercising a salutary and generous influence ; Dr. Rush, though not in the Washington circle, still a great favorite with the people ; the facetious Judge Peters, in his fiftieth year, with his good nature and unfailing wit ; the genial and humorous Francis Hopkinson, author of "The Battle of the Kegs ;" the sage Rittenhouse, in his sixtieth year ; William Bartram, at his famous botanic garden ; John Fitch, the inventor of the steam-boat ; the eminent Bishop White ; Charles Brockden Brown, not yet twenty-one years old, with Hugh H. Breckinridge, Peter S. Duponceau, Dr. Caspar Wistar, and many more unforgotten in our annals, though long since gathered to their fathers. [December 31, 1871.] 244 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LII. Who will ever forget Friday, the 22d of February, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln rode down Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, from the Continental Hotel, for the purpose of raising the Amer- ican flag in front of Independence Hall? The spot, newly sanctified by that patriotic deed, has recently been additionally hallowed by an exquisite marble life-size statue of Washington, executed by that fine artist, Bailly, and paid for by the contri- butions of the public-school children of the First School Dis- trict of Pennsylvania. All his speeches on his way to AVashington seemed to be pervaded by consciousness of his danger and determination to do his duty. He was greeted by affectionate crowds at every station, but as he approached Philadelphia he became more se- rious and resolved. In his reply to Mayor Henry, of that city, on the 2ist of February, he said: "You have expressed the wish, in which I join, that it were convenient for me to remain long enough to consult, or rather to listen to, those breathings arising within the consecrated walls in which the Constitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Declaration of Inde- pendence, were originally framed and adopted. All my polit- ical warfare has been in favor of those teachings. May my right hand forget its auming and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if ever I prove false to those teachings.'''' The next day he was escorted to Independence Hall. It was an early winter morning, and as the President had to visit the Legislature at Harrisburg in the afternoon, in a special train that was to leave at 8:30, what was to be done had to be done quickly. In front of the ancient Temple of Liberty a plat- form was erected, from which Mr. Lincoln was to raise the na- tional flag with its thirty-four stars. As he approached the sacred spot, in a carriage drawn by four white horses, escorted LINCOLN IN PHILADELPHIA. *245 by the Scott Legion, with the flag they had carried to victory in Mexico twelve years before, the whole scene was highly dra- matic. The whole population was in the streets,- and their ex- citement and enthusiasm baffled description. It recalled Shakes- peare's picture of Bolingbroke's entrance into London : " You would have thought the very windows spake, So many greedy looks of young and old Through casements darted their desiring eyes Upon his visage; and that all the walls, With painted imagery, had said at once : * Jesu preserve thee ! Welcome, Bolingbroke !' Whilst he, from one side to the other turning, Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck, Bespake them thus : * I thank you, countrymen ;' And this still doing, thus he passed along." Leaving the carriage at the door, he entered, uncovered, the sacred Hall of Independence. And there it was that he used the language that now sounds like a solemn prophecy : "That Declaration of Independence gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope for the world for all fut- ure time. It was that which gave promise that in our time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chafice. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis ? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can save it. If it can not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country can not be saved without giving up that prin- ciple — / was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.''' And then, after a few more words, he added solemnly, as he drew his tall form to its fullest height, "/ have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, in the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." He had just been freshly warned of his peril, and when he walked forth to face the mighty concourse outside, and mounted 246 .- ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. the platform, " his tall form rose Saul-like above the mass." He stood elevated and alone before the people, and, with his overcoat off, grasped the halyards to draw up the flag. Then arose a shout like the roar of many waters. Mr. Lincoln's ex- pression was serene and confident. Extending his long arms, he slowly drew up the standard, which had never before kissed the light of heaven till it floated over the Hall of Independence. Tears, prayers, shouts, music, and cannon followed, and sealed an act which few knew was only the beginning of unspeakable sufferings and sacrifices, ending in his own martyrdom. That same afternoon, at Harrisburg, he spoke of his part in the morn- ing's drama as follows : " This morning I was for the first time allowed the privilege of standing in Old Independence Hall. Our friends had pro- vided a magnificent flag of our country, and they had arranged it so that I was given the honor of raising it to the head of its staff, and when it went up I was pleased that it went to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm. When, according to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it flaunted gloriously to the wind, without an accident, in the bright glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hoping that there was, in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony, at least something of an omen of what is to come. Nor could I help feeling then, as I have often felt, that in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. I had not provided the flag. I had not made the arrangement for elevating it to its place. I had applied a very small portion even of my feeble strength in rais- ing it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the peo- ple who had arranged it. And if I can have the same gener- ous co-operation of the people of this nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously." After the reception of Mr. Lincoln by the State authorities at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, preparations were immediately made for his return to Philadelphia. It was impossible to conceal SAMUEL M. FELTON's NARRATIVE. 247 the events of his journey to the capital. Fully advised of these events, the rebels prepared to take his life in Baltimore. Ac- curate information of their intentions had been received and conveyed to him. Supposing that he would proceed by the Northern Central road, they lay in wait for him at the Calvert Street depot of that road in Baltimore. To baffle them he took the Pennsylvania Central from Harrisburg, and reached Philadelphia just in time to enter the sleeping-car of the 11:30 train, at the Broad and Prime de'pot, in that city, by which means he was conveyed through Baltimore at night, and safely landed in Washington on the morning of the 23d of February, 186 1. To prevent the knowledge of this change of programme from being telegraphed to Baltimore, Henry Sanford, Esq., one of the officers of Adams's Express, suggested that the wires should be cut some distance from Harrisburg, which was ac- cordingly done. And now for a statement not generally known, and for the first time published in the very interesting book en- titled " Massachusetts during the War," prepared by General William Schouler, adjutant-general under Governors Banks and Andrew (a monument of industry and patriotism), which, not- withstanding its length, will be read with deep interest. This true history of Mr. Lincoln's perilous journey to Washington, in 1 86 1, and the way he escaped death, have never been printed before. The narrative was written by Samuel M. Felton, late president of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad Com- pany, in 1862, at the request of Mr. Sibley, librarian of Harvard University, but it was not completed until lately, when it was sent to General Schouler, with other valuable material, by Mr. Felton. Mr. Felton is a native of Massachusetts, and a brother of the late president of Harvard University. He was born in West Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, July 17, 1809, ^^d graduated at Harvard in the class of 1834. His services in the cause of the Union and good government are therefore a part of the renown of that Commonwealth. His narrative is as follows : 248 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. " It came to my knowledge in the early part of 1861, first by rumors and then by evidence which I could not doubt, that there was a deep-laid conspiracy to capture Washington, de- stroy all the avenues leading to it from the North, East, and West, and thus prevent the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in the Capitol of the country; and if this plot did not succeed, then to murder him while on his way to the capital, and thus inaugurate a revolution which should end in establishing a Southern Con- federacy, uniting all the slave States, while it was imagined that the North would be divided into separate cliques, each striving for the destruction of the other. Early in the year 1861, Miss Dix, the philanthropist, came into my office on a Saturday after- noon. I had known her for some years as one engaged in allevi- ating the sufferings of the afflicted. Her occupation had brought her in contact with the prominent men South. In visiting hos- pitals she had become familiar with the structure of Southern society, and also with the working of its political machinery. She stated that she had an important communication to make to me personally ; and, after closing my door, I listened atten- tively to what she had to say for more than an hour. She put in a tangible and reliable shape, by the facts she related, what before I had heard in numerous and detached parcels. The sum of it all was that there was then an extensive and organ- ized conspiracy throughout the South to seize upon Washing- ton, with its archives and records, and then declare the South- ern conspirators de facto the Government of the United States. The whole was to be a coup d'etat. At the same time they were to cut off all modes of communication between Washington and the North, East, or West, and thus prevent the transportation of troops to wrest the capital from the hands of the insurgents. Mr. Lincoln's inauguration was thus to be prevented, or his life was to fall a sacrifice to the attempt at inauguration. In fact, troops were then drilling on the line of our road, and the Wash- ington and Annapolis line, and other lines; and they were SAMUEL M. FELTON S NARRATIVE. 249 sworn to obey the command of their leaders, and the leaders were banded together to capture Washington. As soon as the interview was ended, I called Mr. N. P.Trist into my office, and told him I wanted him to go to Washington that night and com- municate these facts to General Scott. I also furnished him with some data as to the other routes to Washington that might be adopted in case the direct route was cut off. One was the Delaware Railroad to Seaford, and thence up the Chesapeake and Potomac to Washington, or to Annapolis, and thence to Washington; another to Perryville, and thence to Annapolis and Washington. Mr.Trist left that night, and arrived in Wash- ington at six the next morning, which was on Sunday. He im- mediately had an interview with General Scott, who told him he had foreseen the trouble that was coming, and in October pre- vious had made a communication to the President, predicting trouble at the South, and urging strongly the garrisoning of all the Southern forts and arsenals with forces sufficient to hold them, but that his advice had been unheeded; nothing had been done, and he feared nothing would be done ; that he was pow- erless, and that he feared Mr. Lincoln would be obliged to be inaugurated into office at Philadelphia. He should, however, do all he could to bring troops to Washington sufficient to make it secure ; but he had no influence with the Administration, and feared the worst consequences. Thus matters stood on Mr. ■ Trist's visit to Washington, and thus they stood for some time afterward. About this time — a few days subsequent, however. — a gentleman from Baltimore came out to Back River bridge, about five miles this side of the city, and told the bridge-keeper that he had come to give information which had come to his knowledge of vital importance to the road, which he wished communicated to me. The nature of this communication was that a party was then organized in Baltimore to burn our bridges in case Mr. Lincoln came over the road, or in case we attempt- ed to carry troops for the defense of Washington. The party L 2 250 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. at that time had combustible materials prepared to pour over the bridges, and were to disguise themselves as negroes, and be at the bridge just before the train in which Mr. Lincoln traveled had arrived. The bridge was then to be burned, the train at- tacked, and Mr. Lincoln to be put out of the way. This man appeared to be a gentleman, and in earnest, and honest in what he said ; but he would not give his name, nor allow any inqui- ries to be made as to his name or exact abode, as he said his life would be in peril were it known that he had given this in- formation ; but, if we would not attempt to find him out, he would continue to come and give information. He came sub- sequently several times, and gave items of information as to the movements of the conspirators; but I have never been able to ascertain who he was. Immediately after the development of these facts I went to Washington, and there met a prominent and reliable gentleman from Baltimore, who was well acquainted with Marshal Kane, then the Chief of Police. I was then anx- ious to ascertain whether he was loyal and reliable, and made particular inquiries upon both these points. I was assured that Kane was perfectly reliable; whereupon I made known some of the facts that had come to my knowledge in reference to the designs for the burning of the bridges, and requested that they should be laid before Marshal Kane, with a request that he should detail a police force to make the necessary investiga- tion. Marshal Kane was seen, and it was suggested to him .that there were reports of a conspiracy to burn the bridges and cut off Washington, and his advice was asked as to the best way of ferreting out the conspirators. He scouted the idea that there was any such thing on foot; said he had thoroughly investigated the whole matter, and there was not the slightest foundation for such rumors. I then determined to have nothing more to do with Marshal Kane, but to investigate the matter in my own way, and at once sent for a celebrated detective, who resided in the West, and whom I had before employed on an SAMUEL M. FELTON'S NARRATIVE. 25 1 important matter. He was a man of great skill and resources. I furnished him with a few hints, and at once set him on the track with eight assistants. There were then drilling upon the line of the railroad some three military organizations, profess- edly for home defense, pretending to be Union men, and, in one or two instances, tendering their services to the railroad in case of trouble. Their propositions were duly considered; but the defense of the road was never intrusted to their tender mercies. The first thing done was to enlist a volunteer in each of these military companies. They pretended to come from New Or- leans and Mobile, and did not appear to be wanting in sympa- thy for the South. They were furnished with uniforms at the expense of the road, and drilled as often as their associates in arms; became initiated into all the secrets of the organization, and reported every day or two to their chief, who immediately reported to me the designs and plans of these military com- panies. One of these organizations was loyal, but the other two were disloyal, and fully in the plot to destroy the bridges and march to Washington to wrest it from the hands of the le- gally constituted authorities. Every nook and corner of the road and its vicinity was explored by the chief and his detect- ives, and the secret working of secession and treason laid bare and brought to light. " Societies were joined in Baltimore, and various modes known to and practiced only by detectives were resorted to to win the confidence of the conspirators and get into their se-: crets. This plan worked well, and the midnight plottings and daily consultations of the conspirators were treasured up as a guide to our future plans for thwarting them. It turned out that all that had been communicated by Miss Dix and the gen- tleman from Baltimore rested upon a foundation of fact, and that the half had not been told. It was made as certain as strong circumstantial and positive evidence could make it, that there was a plot to burn the bridges and destroy the road, and 252 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. murder Mr. Lincoln on his way to Washington, if it turned out that he went there before troops were called. If troops were first called, then the bridges were to be destroyed and Wash- ington cut off and taken possession of by the South. I at once organized and armed a force of about two hundred men, whom I distributed along the line between the Susquehanna and Bal- timore, principally at the bridges. "These men were drilled secretly and regularly by drill-mas- ters, and were apparently employed in whitewashing the bridges, putting on some six or seven coats of whitewash saturated with salt and alum, to make the outside of the bridges as nearly fire-proof as possible. This whitewashing, so extensive in its application, became the nine-days' wonder of the neighborhood. Thus the bridges were strongly guarded, and a train was ar- ranged so as to concentrate all the forces at one point in case of trouble. The programme of Mr. Lincoln was changed, and it was decided by him that he would go to Harrisburg from Phil- adelphia, and thence over the Northern Central road by day to Baltimore, and thence to Washington. We were then informed by our detective that the attention of the conspirators was turn- ed from our road to the Northern Central, and that they would there await the coming of Mr, Lincoln. This statement was confirmed by our Baltimore gentkman, who came out again and said their designs upon our road were postponed for the pres- ent, and, unless we carried troops, would not be renewed again. Mr. Lincoln was to be waylaid on the line of the Northern Central road, and prevented from reaching Washington, and his life was to fall a sacrifice to the attempt. Thus matters stood on his arrival in Philadelphia. I felt it my duty to com- municate to him the facts that had come to my knowledge, and urge his going to Washington privately that night in our sleep- ing-car, instead of publicly two days after, as was proposed. I went to a hotel in Philadelphia, where I met the detective, who was registered under an assumed name, and arranged with him PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN PERIL. 253 to bring Mr. Judd, Mr. Lincoln's intimate friend, to my room in season to arrange the journey to Washington that night. One of our sub-detectives made three efforts to communicate with Mr. Judd while passing through the streets in the procession, and was three times arrested and carried out of the crowd by the police. The fourth time he succeeded, and brought Mr. Judd to my room, where he met the detective-in-chief and my- self " We lost no time in making known to him all the facts which had come to our knowledge in reference to the conspiracy, and I most earnestly advised that Mr. Lincoln should go to Wash- ington that night in the sleeping-car. Mr. Judd fully entered into the plan, and said he would urge Mr. Lincoln to adopt it. On his communicating with Mr. Lincoln, after the services of the evening were over, he answered that he had engaged to go to Harrisburg and speak the next day, and he would not break his engagement even in the face of such peril, but that after he had fulfilled the engagement he would follow such advice as we might give him in reference to his journey to Washington. It was then arranged that he would go to Harrisburg the next day and make his address, after which he was to apparently return to Governor Curtin's house for the night, but in reality to go to a point about two miles out of Harrisburg, where an extra car and engine awaited to take him to Philadelphia. At the time of his returning, the telegraph lines, east, west, north, and south, were cut, so that no message as to his movements could be sent off in any direction. Mr. Lincoln could not possibly arrive in season for our regular train that left at eleven P. M., and I did not dare to send him by an extra for fear of its being found out or suspected that he was on the road ; so it became necessary for me to devise some excuse for the detention of the train. But three or four on the road besides myself knew the plan. One of these I sent by an earlier train, to say to the people of the Washington branch road that I had an important package 254 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. I was getting ready for the eleven P.M. train ; that it was laecessary that I should have this package delivered in Wash- ington early the next morning, without fail ; that I was strain- ing every nerve to get it ready by eleven o'clock, but, in case I did not succeed, I should delay the train until it was ready, probably not more than half an hour, and I wished as a person- al favor that the Washington train should await the coming of ours from Philadelphia before leaving. This request was will- ingly complied with by the managers of the Washington branch, and the man whom I had sent to Baltimore so informed me by telegraph in cipher. The second person in the secret I sent to West Philadelphia with a carriage, to await the coming of Mr. Lincoln. I gave him a package of old railroad reports, done up with great care, with a great seal attached to it, and direct- ed, in a fair, round hand, to a person at Willard's. I marked it * Very important. To be delivered, without fail, by eleven o'clock train,' indorsing my own name upon the package. Mr. Lin- coln arrived in West Philadelphia, and was immediately taken into the carriage and driven to within a square of our sta- tion, where my man with the package jumped off, and waited till he saw the carriage drive up to the door and Mr. Lincoln and the detective get out and go into the station. He then came up and gave the package to the conductor, who was waiting at the door to receive it, in company w^ith a police officer. Tick- ets had been bought beforehand for Mr. Lincoln and party to Washington, including a tier of berths in the sleeping-car. He passed between the conductor and the police officer at the door, and neither suspected who he was. The conductor remarked as he passed, 'Well, old fellow, it was lucky for you that our president detained the train to send a package by it, or you would have been left.' Mr. Lincoln and the detective safely ensconced in the sleeping-car, and my package safe in the hands of the conductor, the train started for Baltimore nearly fifteen minutes behind time. Our man No. 3, George ^ THE ESCAPE. 255 Started with the train to go to Baltimore, and hand it over with its contents to man No. i, who awaited its arrival in Balti- more. Before the train reached Gray's Ferry bridge, and be- fore Mr. Lincoln had resigned himself to slumber, the conduct- or came to our man George, and said, 'George, I thought you and I were old friends ; and why did you not tell me we had Old Abe on board .?' George, thinking the conductor had in some way become possessed of the secret, answered, 'John, we are friends ; and, as you have found it out. Old Abe is on board ; and we will still be friends, and see him safely through.' John answered, 'Yes, if it costs me my life he shall have a safe passage.' And so George stuck to one end of the car and the conductor to the other, every moment that his duties to the other passengers would admit of it. It turned out, however, that the conductor was mistaken in his man. A man strongly resembling Mr. Lincoln had come down to the train, about half an hour before it left, and bought a ticket to Washington for the sleeping-car. The conductor had seen him, and concluded it was the veritable Old Abe. George delivered the sleeping- car and train over to William in Baltimore, as had been previ- ously arranged, who took his place at the brake, and rode to Washington, where he arrived at six A.M., on time, and saw Mr. Lincoln in the hands of a friend, safely delivered at Wil- lard's, where he secretly ejaculated, 'God be praised!' He also saw the package of railroad reports, marked 'important,' safely delivered into the hands for which it was intended. This being done, he performed his morning ablutions in peace and quiet, and enjoyed with unusual zest his breakfast. At eight o'clock, the time agreed upon, the telegraph wires were joined ; and the first message flashed across the line was, 'Your pack- age has arrived safely, and has been delivered. Signed, Wil- liam.' Then there went up from the writer of this a shout of joy and a devout thanksgiving to Him from whom all blessings flow; and the few who were in the secret joined in a heartfelt 256 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. amen. Thus began and ended a chapter in the history of the rebellion that has never before been written, but about which there have been many hints, entitled ' A Scotch Cap and Rid- ing-cloak,' etc., neither of which had any foundation in truth, as Mr. Lincoln traveled in his ordinary dress. Mr. Lincoln was safely inaugurated, after which I discharged our detective force, and also the semi-military whitewashers, and all was quiet and serene again on our railroad. But the distant booming from Fort Sumter was soon heard, and aroused in earnest the whole population of the loyal States. The seventy-five thousand three- months' men were called out, and again the plans for burning bridges and destroying the railroad were revived in all their force and intensity. Again I sent Mr. Trist to Washington to see General Scott, to beg for troops to garrison the road, as our forces were then scattered and could not be then got at. Mr. Trist telegraphed me that the forces would be supplied, but the crisis came on immediately, and all, and more than all, were required at Washington. At the last moment I obtained and sent down the road about two hundred men, armed with shot- guns and revolvers — all the arms I could get hold of at that time. They were raw and undisciplined men, and not fit to cope with those brought against them — about one hundred and fifty men, fully armed, and commanded by the redoubtable reb- el, J. R. Trimble." To confirm this careful statement of Mr. Felton, who is now living in honored retirement near Thurlow, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, I need only refer to subsequent events: To the attack upon the Massachusetts Sixth, to the after attempts of the rebels to burn the bridges across the Susquehanna, to the necessity of placing Baltimore under military rule, and to the authoritative admission of the Baltimot-e Sun of Monday, the 25th of February, 186 1, proving that if President Lincoln had taken the Northern Central, and had reached Baltimore by the Calvert Street depot, he would undoubtedly have been mur- WASHINGTON'S CARRIAGE. . 257 dered in cold blood, and the conspiracy foreshadowed and ex- posed by Mr. Felton carried out and consummated. I shall never forget the sensations of the Union men and the conster- nation of the rebels when Abraham Lincoln entered Washing- ton on Saturday, the 23d of February. We all breathed freer and deeper. We felt that our leader had reached the citadel in safety. Few indeed anticipated what incredible effort and what incalculable loss of life would be necessary to maintain the capital, and none, perhaps, outside the few persons who had knowledge of the dark and dreadful plot herein revealed, believed that among these sacrifices would be our beloved Pres- ident, Abraham Lincoln. Qanuaiy 7, 1872.] LIIL On the 19th of March, 1791, President Washington wrote from Philadelphia to General Lafayette as follows : " My health is now quite restored, and I flatter myself with the hope of a long exemption from sickness. On Monday next I shall enter upon your friendly prescription of exercise, intending at that time to begin a long journey to the southw^ard." He had been invited by many of the leading characters of the Southern States, who promised him every where the cordial and enthusiastic greeting which two years before marked his triumphal progress through New England. The carriage in which he traveled was that in which he usually appeared on public occasions in Philadelphia. This carriage was built by Mr. Clarke, of that city, and was carefully preserved in a house built especially for its reception, where it remained for half a century. It is described as " a most satisfactory exhibition of the progress of American manu- factures." It was drawn by six horses, carefully selected for 258 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. their handsome appearance and endurance. Washington started from his residence, in Market Street, at twelve o'clock, on Mon- day, the 2ist of March, 1791. Mr. Jefferson and General Knox escorted him into the State of Delaware, and there left him. Major Jackson, one of his private secretaries, accompanied him until he returned to Philadelphia, the capital of the nation. He arrived at Annapolis, Maryland, on the 25th of March, and re- mained two days. He stopped at Georgetown, thence pro- ceeded to Mount Vernon, where he remained a week, thence to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he dined with his old friends and neighbors, recalling, with Chancellor Wythe, the scenes of his youth and early manhood. The party arrived at Richmond at eleven o'clock on Monday, the nth of April, where, as at An- napolis, Washington was greeted with acclamations and public illuminations. They visited Halifax, Newbern, Wilmington, and other places in North Carolina. Leaving Wilmington, Washington was rowed across Cape Fear River in an elegantly decorated barge. He arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, the 2d of May. Charleston was then the gayest of cities. Milliners and tailors corresponded directly with invent- ors of dresses in London and Paris. Women preferred French fashions, and often improved upon them. Gentlemen were par- tial to blue, the product of their staple, indigo. Pantaloons had been introduced, and were worn by some of the younger men, but in a few years were entirely laid aside, and breeches re- sumed. Duels were frequent. " Drunkenness," says Dr. Ram- sey, " was the endemic vice." There were periodical races, hunt- ing and fishing, and luxurious dinners, followed by dancing and music. The Due de Rochefoucauld Liancourt observed that "from the hour of four in the afternoon the people of Charleston rarely thought of any thing but pleasure. They had two gaming- houses, both constantly full. The inhabitants had acquired great knowledge of European manners, and a stronger partiality for them than was found in New York. A foreign style of life Washington's southern tour. 259 prevailed." This view of the inner society of Charleston is in- teresting as the key to a future largely controlled by the polit- ical opinions there nurtured and disseminated. Here the Pres- ident had a royal greeting, A twelve-oared barge, commanded by thirteen captains of American ships, conveyed him, with sev- eral distinguished gentlemen, from Hadrill's Point, surrounded by a fleet containing an instrumental band and a choir of sing- ers, which greeted him with triumphant airs and songs on his way to the city, where he was received by the Governor, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the military, amid ringing of bells, firing of cannon, and public acclamations. He remained a week the centre of affection and admiration. At the corpora- tion ball two hundred and fifty ladies wore sashes decorated with his likeness. A part of their head-dress was a fillet or bandeau, with the inscription " Long live the President," in gilt letters. He sat for his portrait to Colonel Trumbull, the same that now adorns the City Hall in Philadelphia. On Monday, the 9th of May, he left Charleston, accompanied by a committee from Savannah, and was escorted on board a richly decorated boat, rowed down the river by nine sea captains, dressed in light-blue silk jackets, black satin breeches, white silk stockings, and round hats with black ribbons, inscribed " Long live the President," in gold letters. Ten miles from Savannah they were met by other barges, in one of which the gentlemen sung the popular air, " He comes, the Hero comes !" Here new honors and festivities awaited him. He passed on to Augusta, where the populace rapturously received him; returned into South Carolina, visited Columbia, dined at Camden, passed through Charlotte, Salisbury, Salem, Guilford, and other towns in North Carolina, and arrived at Mount Vernon on the 12th of June. On the last day of that month he started for Phila- delphia by way of Frederick, York, and Lancaster, and arrived at the Presidential residence about noon on the 6th of July, having been absent nearly three months, during that period 26o ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. performing a journey of one thousand eight hundred and eighty- seven miles. It was said of Washington that "no man in the army had a better eye for horses." This long tour was a severe test of the capacity of his steeds, and before reaching Charles- ton he wrote to Mr. Lear, his secretary, " that, though all things considered, they had got on very well, yet if brought back they would not cut capers as they did on setting out. My horses, especially the two I bought just before I left Philadelphia, and my old white one, are much worn down, and yet I have one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles of heavy sand before I get into the upper roads." While the President was in the South, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were making a tour in the North. They pro- ceeded to New York, sailed up the Hudson to Albany, visited the principal scenes of the British General Burgoyne's misfor- tunes, at Stillwater, Saratoga, and Bennington, Fort AVilliam Henry, Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and other memorable Revolutionary places. Jefferson amused himself with his gun and hook and line, and indulged his strong taste for natural history. I recall these facts to show that the custom of Presidential journeys did not originate with President Grant. The example of Washington was followed without censure or exception by all his successors, save Mr. Lincoln, who was constantly at work in the midst of a great war. Eighteen hundred and eighty-seven miles in three months was regarded as an extraordinary feat in 1791 ; and if the most hopeful of our statesmen had then pre- dicted that the day would come when a successor of Washing- ton would preside over thirty-seven States, with a population of nearly forty millions of people, and travel from Washington City to the Pacific and back, by way of New York and Philadelphia — a double distance of over seven thousand miles, with plenty of time to see and converse with the masses, all in one month — he would have been denounced as a lunatic. WASHINGTON IN PHILADELPHIA. 261 Washington was pleased with his Southern tour. In one of his letters he said : "It was accomplished without any interruption by sickness, bad weather, or any untoward accident. Indeed, so highly favored were we that we arrived at each place where I proposed to halt on the very day I fixed before we set out. I am very much pleased that I undertook this excursion, as it has enabled me to see with my own eyes the situation of the country through which we traveled, and to learn more accurately the disposition of the people than I could through any informa- tion." But these contrasts and comparisons do not end here. Offi- cial manners, customs, and costumes were different things when Washington lived in Philadelphia from what they are to-day. His habit, when the day was fine, was to take a walk, attended by his two secretaries, Mr. Lear and Major William Jackson, one on each side. He always crossed directly from his own door, on Market Street, near Fifth, to the sunny side, and walked down toward the river. He was dressed in black, and all three wore cocked hats. They were silent men, and seemed to con- verse very little. Washington had a large family coach, a light carriage, and a chariot, all light cream - colored, painted with three enameled figures on each panel, and very handsome. He went in the coach to Christ Church every Sunday morning, with two horses; used the carriage and four for his rides into the country, and the Lansdowne, the Hills, and other places. When he visited the Senate he had the chariot, with six horses. All his servants were white, and wore liveries of white cloth, trimmed with scarlet or orange. It was Mrs. Washington's cus- tom to return calls on the third day. The footman would knock loudly and announce Mrs. Washington, who would then pay the visit in company with Mr. Secretary Lear. Her manners were easy, pleasant, and unceremonious. The late lamented Rich- ard Rush, whom I knew well, and who occupied very many dis- tinguished positions, local. State, national, and diplomatic, and 262 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. who died July 30, 1859, aged seventy-nine, recalls a scene in Philadelphia in 1794-95, when Washington opened Congress in person, and which Mr. Rush saw as a boy. His words are al- most mine. " The carriage of the President was drawn by four beautiful bay horses. It was white, with medallion ornaments on the panels, the liveries of the servants white turned ujd with red. Washington got out of the carriage, slowly crossed the pavement, ascended the steps of the edifice, corner of Sixth and Chestnut, upon the upper platform of which he paused, and, turning half around, looked in the direction of a carriage which had followed the lead of his own. Thus he stood for a minute, distinctly seen by every body in the vast concourse. His cos- tume was a full suit of black velvet ; his hair, blanched by time, powdered to snowy whiteness, a dress sword hanging by his side, his hat in his hand. Profound stillness reigned through- out the dense crowd ; not a word was heard ; every heart was full. It seemed as if he stood in that position to gratify the assembled thousands with a full view of the Father of his Coun- try. Not so ; he paused for his secretary, who had got out of the other carriage, decorated like his own. The secretary as- cended the steps, handed him a paper, probably a copy of the speech he was to deliver, when both entered the building. An English gentleman, a manufacturer, Mr. Henry Wansey, break- fasted with Washington and his family on the 8th of June, 1794. He was greatly impressed. The first President was then in his sixty-third year, but had little appearance of age, having been in his life exceedingly temperate. Mrs. Washington herself made tea and coffee for them ; on the table were two small plates of sliced tongue and dry toast, bread and butter, but no broiled fish, as is generally the custom. Miss Eleanor Custis, her granddaughter, a very pleasant young lady, in her sixteenth year, sat next to her, and next, her grandson, George Washing- ton Parke Custis, about two years older. There were but few slight indications of form ; one servant only attended, who wore r.IRS. WASHINGTON. 263 no livery. Mrs. Washington struck him as something older than the President, although he understood they were both born the same year. She was short in stature, rather robust, extremely simple in her dress, and wore a very plain cap, with her hair turned under it." This description of Mrs. Washing- ton corresponds exactly with the portrait painted by Trumbull, now in the Trumbull gallery, at New Haven, Connecticut. In 1793 Washington left Philadelphia for nearly three months dur- ing the prevalence of yellow-fever, and stayed at Mount Ver- non. The disease broke out in August, but he continued at his post until the loth of September. He wished to stay longer, but Mrs. Washington was unwilling to leave him exposed, and he could not, without hazarding her life and the lives of the children, remain. Freneau, the editor who was charged with having written the bitterest things against Washington, com- plained in the following stanza that the physicians fled from Philadelphia to escape the plague : " On prancing steed, with sponge at nose, From town behold Sangrado fly; Camphor and tar, where'er he goes, The infected shafts of death defy- Safe in an atmosphere of scents, He leaves us to our own defense." Among the public characters attacked by the yellow-fever were Mr. Willing and Colonel Hamilton, but they recovered. The officers of the government were dispersed, and the Presi- dent even deliberated on the propriety of convening Congress elsewhere ; but the abatement of the disease rendered this un- necessary, and in November the inhabitants returned to their homes, and Congress reassembled on the 2d of December. [January 14, 1872.] 264 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LIV. One Saturday afternoon in July, 1861, George H. Boker, now on his way as American Minister to Constantinople, visited Washington City and called with me upon President Lincoln. It was a most interesting period of the war, just previous to the battle of Bull Run. When I presented Boker to the President, in his reception-room, up stairs, he asked, "Are you the son of Charles S. Boker, of Philadelphia ?" My friend answered, " That is what I am believed to be." "Well," said the Presi- dent, "I was your father's lawyer in Springfield, and I only wish I had all the money I collected and paid to him, for I would have a very handsome fortune." The Marine Band was play- ing on the green, south of the Presidential mansion, surrounded by a gay and glittering crowd. Mr. Lincoln said, " The Ken- tucky commissioners are waiting for me on the balcony below. They are here to protest against my sending troops through their State to the relief of the Unionists of Tennessee, and I would like you and Forney to come down and see them. They say they want Kentucky to decide her relations to the General Government for herself, and that any forces sent through their State to the Unionists of Tennessee would certainly arouse the elements of revolt." Then Boker told the President an anec- dote of the British Minister at the Court of Frederick the Great, who was anxious to persuade the King to take part in the British conflicts with other European powers. Old Fritz stead- ily refused to be involved. His policy was against all part in the quarrel. At a formal state dinner, when the British Minis- ter was present, Frederick said, "Will my Lord Bristol" — the name of the British plenipotentiary — " allow me to send him a piece of capon ?" to which the latter indignantly replied, " No, sir; I decline having any thing to do with neutral animals." The President enjoyed the joke hugely, and we walked down ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 265 stairs, where, on the balcony overlooking the joyous throng, stood the two Kentucky commissioners, one of them the emi- nent Judge Robertson, lately deceased. They renewed their appeals against sending troops across their State with much earnestness and ability. Mr. Lincoln quietly but resolutely combated their views, assuring them that neutrality did not become any of the friends of the Government — that while the citizen enjoyed his rights and the protection of the laws, he must also recognize his obligations and his duties. Then turn- ing to Boker, he asked him to repeat the incident between Fred- erick the Great and the British Minister, which, though it made the Kentuckians laugh, was evidently not agreeable to them. Mr. Lincoln added, " Gentlemen, my position in regard to your State is like that of the woodman, who, returning to his home one night, found coiled around his beautiful children, who were quietly sleeping in their bed, several poisonous snakes. His first impulse was to save his little ones, but he feared that if he struck at the snakes he might strike the children, and yet he dared not let them die without an effort. So it is with me. I know Kentucky and Tennessee are infested with the enemies of the Union ; but I know also that there are thousands of pa- triots in both who will be persecuted even unto death unless the strong hand of the Government is interposed for their pro- tection and rescue. We must go in. The old flag must be carried into Tennessee at whatever hazard." Upon which the commissioners retired with unconcealed dissatisfaction. Un- happily for the good cause, it was many months before relief could be extended to the clamorous people of Tennessee. Ken- tucky lay athwart the road to their rescue, a dark and stubborn obstacle ; and now, six years after the overthrow of the rebell- ion — thanks to the dangerous doctrine of neutrality — the State most obdurate and obstinate in its opposition to all progress, most ready to resort to violence against the law, most eager in its opposition to the Union people, most intolerant to free opin- M 266 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. ion, most qualified to throw the largest vote against the Repub- lican party — is this very State of Kentucky. So much for neu- trality in politics and in war. In a few days came the first bat- tle of Bull Run with all its attendant horrors, teaching to us the severest lesson of the great conflict — the lesson that a great people, armed for their own defense and for their own liberties, must be prepared at all poiftts. Just at that period the genius of Boker broke out in a great poem, entitled "Upon the Hill before Centreville, July 21, 1861," from which I extract the following: " Awake, my countrymen ! with me Redeem the honor which you lost, With any blood, at any cost ! I ask not how the war began. Nor how the quarrel branched and ran To this dread height. The wrong or right Stands clear before God's faultless sight. I only feel the shameful blow, I only see the scornful foe. And vengeance burns in every vein To die, or wipe away the stain. The war-wise hero of the West, Wearing his glories as a crest Of trophies gathered in your sight, Is arming for the coming fight. Full well his wisdom apprehends The duty and its mighty ends ; The great occasion of the hour, That never lay in human power Since over Yorktown's tented plain The red cross fell, nor rose again. My humble pledge of faith I lay. Dear comrade of my school -boy day, Before thee, in the nation's view ; And if thy prophet prove untrue. And from thy country's grasp be thrown The sceptre and the starry crown. And thou and all thy marshaled host Be baffled, and in ruin lost — GEORGE H. BOKER. 267 O ! let me not outlive the blow That seals my country's overthrow ! And, lest this woeful end come true, Men of the North, I turn to you. Display your vaunted flag once more, Southward your eager columns pour ! Sound trump and fife and rallying drum ; From every hill and valley come ! Old men, yield up your treasured gold ; Can liberty be priced and sold ? Fair matrons, maids, and tender brides, Gird weapons to your lovers' sides ; And, though your hearts break at the deed. Give them your blessing and God-speed ; Then point them to the field of fame. With words like those of Sparta's dame ! And when the ranks are full and strong, And the whole army moves along, A vast result of care and skill, Obedient to the master will ; And your young hero draws the sword, And gives the last commanding word That hurls your strength upon the foe — O, let them need no second blow ! Strike, as your fathers struck of old. Through summer's heat and winter's cold ; Through pain, disaster, and defeat ; Through marches tracked with bloody feet ; Through every ill that could befall The holy cause that bound them all ! Strike as they struck for liberty ! Strike as they struck to make you free ! Strike for the crown of victory !" " The war-wise hero of the West " was George B. McClellan, son of the great surgeon, George McClellan, of Philadelphia. He had been Boker's "dear comrade of the school-boy days," and after the first Bull Run was the nation's hope. His victo- ries in West Virginia gave him the opportunity which others had lost, to be lost by him in his own turn. Boker wrote sev- 2 68 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. eral great lyrics afterward, but whatever he may have said of other soldiers, the tribute he paid to McClellaii in 1861 was the outpouring of a sincere and hopeful heart. [January 21, 1872.] LV. The first theatrical performance in Philadelphia of which there is any mention was in January of 1749, evidently con- ducted by home-made Thespians. In 1754 some genuine art- ists arrived, called " Hallam's Company," and got a Hcense to open their " New Theatre in Water Street," in William Plum- stead's store, corner of the first alley above Pine Street. Here they acted "The Fair Penitent" and "Miss in her Teens" as their first effort. Boxes, 6s.; pit, 4^./ gallery, 2s. 6d. In 1759 they opened at the corner of Vernon Street, then beyond the city bounds, so as to be out of the reach of the city authorities. They were violently assailed by the Friends, and they made every effort to evade this hostility by calling their entertainment a " Concert of Music," and by playing "George Barnwell" "for the benefit of the College of Philadelphia," and "to improve youth in the divine art of psalm and church music." The Brit- ish occupation of Philadelphia revived the drama. They used the Southwark Theatre, the performers being officers of Howe's army, the proceeds going to the widows and orphans of the soldiers. Major Andre and Captain Delancy were the scene- painters. In 1793 the Chestnut Street Theatre, northwest cor- ner of Sixth and Chestnut, was erected, under the name of the "New Theatre," in opposition to the Southwark Theatre, known afterward as the Old Theatre. This is the house patronized by Washington, the statesmen in Congress, and the Cabinet and their families. OLD THEATRES OF PHILADELPHIA. 269 The New Theatre was not opened, in consequence of the yellow-fever, until the 17th of February, 1794. The manager was Wigfall or Wignell, famous in the annals of the American stage, and "the house was fitted up with a luxurious elegance hitherto unknown in this country." The principal actors were Whitlock, Harwood, Morton, Darley, Mrs. Oldmixon, Mrs. Morris, and Mrs. Marshall. Harwood married Miss Bache, granddaughter of Dr. Franklin. Mrs. Whitlock was a sister of Mrs. Siddons. The illustrious John Jay writes from Philadel- phia to his wife on the 13th of April, 1794, just previous to his appointment as envoy extraordinary to the Court of London, as follows : " Two evenings ago I went to the theatre with Mrs. Robert Morris and her family. 'The Gamester,' a deep trag- edy, succeeded by a piece called ' The Guardian,' were played." An English traveler describes the theatre " as elegant, conven- ient, and large as that of Covent Garden. I should have thought myself still in England. The ladies wore small bonnets of the same fashion as those I saw in London, some of checkered straw ; many had their hair full dress, without caps, as with us, and very few had it in the French style. Gentlemen had round hats, coats with high collars, cut quite in the English fashion, and many coats of striped silk." The motto over the stage, " The eagle suffers little birds to sing," is explained by the fact that when it was in contemplation to build the theatre, the Quakers used all their influence with Congress to prevent it ; but Robert Morris and General Anthony Wayne successfully advocated the establishment of theatres for the public amuse- ment. Wigfall, the manager, fell under the displeasure of the beautiful Mrs. Bingham. The cause of the quarrel seems to have been because she desired to furnish and decorate her box at her own expense, with the absolute condition that the key should be kept by herself and no admission allowed to any one, except on her assent. Wigfall refused the exclusive re- quest, and in consequence Mrs. Bingham and her set rarely 270 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. attended the theatre. The great rival of the new Chestnut Street Theatre was " the Grand Circus," controlled and owned by the celebrated Ricketts. Washington and his family went frequently to both their performances. On Monday, the 27th of February, 1797, Benjamin Franklin Bache's Philadelphia Aurora a?id Advertiser contained the fol- lowing paragraph : " The President of the United States, we understand, intends to visit the theatre THIS EVENING,/^/- the last ti7ney The performance was the celebrated new com- edy, for the fourth time, called " The Way to Get Married," " as performed at Covent Garden (I copy from the advertisement) thirty-nine nights without intermission, the first season, and since upward of one hundred and fifty nights, with unbounded applause. At the end of the comedy the pantomime ballet, composed by Mr. Byrne, called ' Dermit Kathleen,' to which will be added a farce called 'Animal Magnetism.' Boxes, $1 25; pit, seven eighths of a dollar; gallery, half a dollar. The doors of the theatre will open at five o'clock, and the cur- tain will rise precisely at six o'clock. Ladies and gentlemen are requested to send their servants to keep places a quarter before five o'clock, and to order them, as soon as the company are seated, to withdraw, as they can on no account be permitted to remain." The first President and all his successors were constant at- tendants at the theatres, although it was some years before such an institution was built in Washington City after it became the national capital. The habit of attending places of public amusement had no exception in our Presidents. It was a good way to see and to be seen by the people. Mrs. John Adams wrote in eulogy of the New Chestnut, in Philadelphia, and her husband, the sec- ond President, attended of course. Jefferson's residence in France, his musical tastes, his fondness for polite literature, all made him like the stage. Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy INFLUENCE OF ACTORS. 2'Jl Adams were all men of letters, and the latter as late as 1845 had quite a discussion with James H. Hackett on the character of Hainlet. Jackson went frequently to the play, and Van Bu- ren followed his example. So of John Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan. Lincoln was killed in the theatre. Andrew Johnson liked the drama when he was in Congress, and did not give it up when he was Chief Magistrate. General Grant conforms to the custom of his predecessors. Actors have always wielded a large influence, though few have been politicians. It was Talma, I believe, who boasted that he had played to " a whole pit full of kings." Jefferson, the grandfather of Joseph, who, by acting a single character, has made himself rich in fortune and fame, was a rare favorite with the leading men of Pennsylvania, especially with Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson, who wrote the impressive words upon his tombstone at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Forrest has been welcome in every social circle, where, by his humor and genius, he has surpassed all rivals. John Brougham is perhaps the finest of dinner-table companions, only excelled by the late John Van Buren and John T. Sullivan. There is no more genial gentleman than Davenport, whom you meet at most of the great parties in Philadelphia. Edwin Booth is exceedingly popular in New York society. Nobody, during his lifetime, was so much sought after as Power, the incomparable Irish comedian. The late William B. Wood was even more interest- ing off than on the stage. William E. Burton, in his time, dis- tinguished himself by uncommon versatility as a writer and a comedian. The Wallacks have made fame for themselves by scholarship and success as managers and actors. Fanny Kem- ble, the last of a long list of great artists, shone with equal brill- iancy in private and public life. It is natural that such people should be attractive to statesmen. Students of the manners and habits of other countries, and mimics of the manners and habits of our own, where can the wearied public servant find a 272 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. surer and a better rest than in listening to the words of the great men of the past as these are echoed from the stage by cultivated students ? The President, who visits the theatre, not only sees the people and is seen by them, but reposes, so to speak, with- out interruption, upon the delightful utterances of deathless minds. Mr. Lincoln liked the theatre not so much for itself as because of the rest it afforded him. I have seen him more than once looking at a play without seeming to know what was going on before him. Abstracted and silent, scene after scene would pass, and nothing roused him until some broad joke or curious antic disturbed his equanimity. We are in the habit of saying that the drama of the present is not equal to the drama of the past — a truism, like many others, easily contradicted. Turn to New York, Philadelphia, or any of the great cities, and compare the number of amusements offered every night with the scarcity of the same attractions fifty years ago ; the delightful repetition of the works of the great masters ; the endless inventions of modern playwrights ; the infinite variety of opera, comedy, tragedy, and spectacular pantomime ; and no other fact is needed to enforce the argument that if we are not wiser than our ancestors, we certainly ought to be. [January 28, 1872.] LVI. Much of the recreation of the public men at the capital of the nation in former times was entertaining and instructive. The era of lectures seems to have superseded these symposia — perhaps for the better; but I always recur to them as the un- forgotten and unsurpassed pleasures of my life. There were cards and wine, of course ; but the real attractions were im- promptu wit and humor, recitations, magnetic speeches, music, SOCIAL LIFE IN WASHINGTON. 273 and songs; and as the participants were generally cultivated and representative men, it needed no formal rule to exclude vulgarity. Every one had a constituency of some sort to re- spect and fear, even if he did not respect himself; and, as they were of all sides in politics, many meeting for the first time, and never to meet again, they did their best to leave the best im- pressions. Ah, could those " Noctes Ambrosianae" have been taken down in short-hand, or recorded by a faithful scribe like Pepys, Boswell, or Crabbe Robinson, what a delicious repast would have been left to posterity ! When William E. Burton came to Washington to play, and after the curtain fell would join one of these assemblies, and give us his raciest things spontaneously ; when Charlie Oakford, of Philadelphia — clever, genial, and ever-ready Oakford — rolled out Drake's "Ode to the American Flag," with a voice so rich and mellow; when Murdoch moved us to tears with Janvier's " Sleeping Sentinel," or stilled us with the sweet drowsiness of Buchanan Read's "Drifting;" when John Hay recited one of his fine creations, or Fitz -James O'Brien or Charles G. Halpine thrilled us with a song of war or of love ; when Jack Savage sung us " The Temptation of St. Anthony," or rare Forrest dropped the tra- gedian, and played for us the mimic and the comedian ; or Jefferson sung his "Cuckoo Song;" or Nesmith of Oregon left the Senate to set our table in a roar; we had no thought of phonography, and no time that was not crowded with ecstacy. Some of these are dead, and all are absent from the scenes of these happy evenings. Other forms crowd the saloons; other voices wake the echoes of other hearts; other eyes glisten with responsive smiles and tears. Every night we had something new, for the inventors of our amusements were artists, who work- ed for the best of all rewards — the happiness of their fellows. At one time it was an opera sung by a corps of amateurs, with a houseful of Congressmen in the choruses. Then we " Buried Joe Sanders," to illustrate the sin of idleness. This M 2 2 74 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. was the late John L. Dawson's great story. Joe was a village nuisance, who would not work, and lived upon what he could borrow or beg. At last it was resolved to bury him alive, and so relieve the village. A coffin was duly prepared, with a place for him to see and breathe, and the procession started, Joe in- side, resigned to his fate. Passing by the blacksmith, who stood at his shop-door, Vulcan asked who was to be buried. The chief mourner answered, "Joe Sanders." "What! is poor Joe dead ?" " Oh no ! but he is so great a nuisance that, rather than support him any longer, we have resolved to put him in the grave alive." " Oh, that won't do," says the smith ; " I have enough corn to keep him going for some time, and he shall have it." Joe overhears the dialogue, lifts the coffin lid, and quietly asks, " Is the corn shelled .?" " No," is the indignant reply. "Well, then," says the disgusted Joe, '^ go on with the funeral'' Dawson used to tell this as a joke upon the Southerners, to prove that they lived without labor. To play this piece was quite an event, and required a first-rate Joe and a very con- siderable procession, with a good feast after the dead man was in his grave — generally the back parlor. One memorable night in January of 1859 deserves to be spe- cially embalmed. It has been recorded in a volume for private circulation, but has never had any public place. Albert Pike, a name well known in poetry and journalism, though not so well remembered in the North for his part in the rebellion, yet withal one of the most genial of men, was reported killed by an accident, to the great grief of his very many friends in Washing- ton. The report was proved to be false by the sudden appear- ance of Pike himself, whereupon John F. Coyle, of the National Intelligencer^ determined to honor him by an Irish " wake " at his residence. More than a hundred people participated. It was called " The Life Wake of the fine Arkansas Gentleman who died before his time." The " obituary " was read by Alexan- der Dimitry, of New Orleans, after which Coyle sang a capital THE WAKE OF ALBERT PIKE. 275 parody on Pike's own rare parody of the " Fine Old English Gentleman," a few verses of which will show its quality. Pike had lived a varied life, especially among the Indians of Arkan- sas, which will account for the allusions to the red men : " The fine Arkansas gentleman restored to life once more, Continued to enjoy himself as he had done before ; And, tired of civilized pursuits, concluded he would go To see some Indian friends he had, and chase the buffalo. This fine Arkansas gentleman, Who died before his time. " The rumor of his visit had extended far and near, And distant chiefs and warriors came with bow and gun and spear ; So when he reached the council-grounds, with much delight he sees Delegations from the Foxes, Sioux, Quapaws, Blackfeet, Pottawatomies, Gros Ventres, Arrapahoes, Comanches, Creeks, Navajoes, Choctaws, and Cherokees. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc. " They welcomed him with all the sports well known on the frontier, He hunted buffalo and elk, and lived on grouse and deer ; And having brought his stores along, he entertained each chief With best Otard and whisky, smoking and chewing tobacco, not forgetting cards, with instructions in seven -up, brag, bluff, and was whooped whoo-oo-ooo-oooped till he was deaf. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc. *' He went to sleep among these friends, in huts or tents of skin. And if it rained or hailed or snowed, he didn't care a pin. For he'd lined his hide with whisky and a brace of roasted grouse, And he didn't mind the weather any more than if he slept in a four-story brown-stone front, tip roof, fire-proof Fifth Avenue house. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc. *' Now while he was enjoying all that such adventure brings. The chase and pipe and bottle, and such like forbidden things, Some spalpeen of an editor, the Lord had made in vain, Inserted in his horrible accident column, among murders, robberies, thefts, camphene accidents, collisions, explosions, defalcations, seductions, abductions, and destructions, under a splendid black-bordered notice, the lamentable news that — he was dead again. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc. 276 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. '* But far above the common grief— though he was good as gold — His creditors, like Jacob's wife, refused to be consoled ; They granted him a poet, and a warrior, if you will, But said they had extensive experience in generals, commodores, orators, statesmen, congressmen, actors, editors, letter -writers, route agents, conductors, and other public characters who — rarely paid a bill. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc. " Behold, in this excitement our distinguished friend arrived, We * knew from a remark he made' that he was still alive ; Then every journal joyously the contradiction quotes, The tailors take his measure, and the banks renew his notes. This fine Arkansas gentleman, etc." A racy song in such a voice electrified the dead man, who woke and spoke at length, and in part as follows : " If any of us have unfortunately, and even by their fault, be- come estranged from old friends, and if in this circle we miss any of the old familiar faces that were once welcomed among us with delight, surely I shall not be deemed to tread upon for- bidden ground if, thinking aloud, I murmur that at some time hereafter, when perhaps it is too late, perhaps not until the por- tals of another life open to us, but surely then, at the furthest, all the old kindly feelings will revive, and the misunderstanding of the past will seem to have been only unreal shadows. " Let us remember that ' we love but to lose those we love, and to see the grave-yards become populous with the bodies of the dead, where in our childhood were open woods or cultivated fields;' and that we can not afford to lose any of our friends while yet they live. * Every where around us, as we look out into the night, we can see the faces of those we have loved, and who have gone away before us, shining upon us like stars.' Alas ! for us, if, besides these that we have lost, there are other faces of the living looking sadly upon us out of the darkness, regretting that they too could not, even if it be their own fault, have been with us here to-night, beaming with pleasure and sympathy as of yore. Must not I, at least, always feel hq\y true A NIGHT AT JOHNNY COYLE's. 277 it is that if men were perfect they might respect each other more, but would love each other less ? and that we love our friend more for his weaknesses and failings, which we must overlook and forgive, than for his rigid virtues, which demand our admiration more than our affection ? Let the memories of the dead soften our feelings toward the living, and while by expe- rience we grow in knowledge, let us also, knowing that we all fall short of perfect excellence, grow in love — from within, like the large oaks, as well as from without, like the hard, cold crystals. " I submit it to your indulgence to decide whether, desiring to be at peace with all the world and to serve my fellows, I may not be forgiven for wishing to live a little longer. If I desired to live for myself alone, the judgment rendered against me ought to be affirmed. In that case I would already have lived too long. I wish, and I am sure we all wish, to work for the men of the future, as the men of the past have lived for us, and to plant the acorns from which shall spring the oaks that shall shelter those who will live after we are dead. It is as natural as to enjoy the shade of those our fathers planted. " I detain you too long. May the memory of each of you, when it comes to you to die, be as kindly cherished and as gently dealt with as mine has been ; and if you, like me, should have the good fortune to read your own obituaries, may you have as good cause to be grateful for the consequences of the mistake as I have ! You deserve no less fortune, and I could wish you none better." Afterward John Savage sung Pike's own song on his own de- mise, in a noble tenor, a strain of which I quote : " A gentleman from Arkansas, not long ago, 'tis said. Waked up one pleasant morning and discovered he was dead; He was on his way to Washington, not seeking for the spoils, But rejoicing in the promise of a night at Johnny Coyle's. " He waked and found himself aboard a rickety old boat; Says the ferryman, when questioned, ' On the Styx you are afloat.' 278 ANECDOTES 07 PUBLIC MEN. ' What ! dead ?' said he. ' Indeed you are,' the grim old churl replied. ' Why, then, I'll miss the night at Coyle's,' the gentleman replied. •* Old Charon ferried him across the dirty, sluggish tide, But he swore he would not tarry long upon the farther side ; The ancient ghosts came flocking round upon the Stygian shore; * But,' said he, * excuse me; I must have at Coyle's one frolic more.' " He crossed the adamantine halls and reached the ebon throne, Where gloomy Pluto frowned, and where his queen's soft beauty shone. * What want you here ?' the monarch said. * Your Majesty,' said he, * Permission at one frolic more at Johnny Coyle's to be. " * 'Tis not for power or wealth or fame I hanker to return, Nor that love's kisses once again upon my lips may burn ; Let me but once more meet the friends that long have been so dear, And who, if I'm not there, will say, '* Would God that he were here !" ' " * If it's good company you want,' the King said, * we've the best — Philosophers, poets, orators, wits, statesmen, and the rest, The courtiers of the good old times, the gentlemen most rare.' Says he, * With those I'll meet at Coyle's yot^r folks will not compare.' " Says the King: 'There's Homer here, and all the bards of ancient Greece, And the chaps that sailed away so far to fetch the Golden Fleece ; We've Tully, Horace, and Montaigne.' Says he, * I'll match the lot. If you'll let me go to Johnny Coyle's and fetch them on the spot.' " ' Enough !' old Pluto cried; * the law must be enforced. 'Tis plain, If with those fellows once you get, you'll ne'er return again; One night would not content you, and your face would ne'er be seen, After that night at Johnny Coyle's, by me or by my queen. •• ' And if all these fellows came at once, what would become of us ? They'd drown old Charon in the Styx, and murder Cerebus; Make love to all the women here, and even to my wife; Drink all my liquor up, and be the torment of my life.' ". The portraits in the private volume before me of the chief actors in this humorous drama are preceded by that of Pike himself, who is described by one of them, Dr. Shelton Macken- zie, as " a stalwart figure, large and lofty, with keen eyes, a nose reminding one of an eagle's beak, a noble head firmly placed between a pair of massive shoulders, and flowing locks nearly BEST-ABUSED MEN. 279 half way down his back." He may be seen in Washington City any day, where he now practices his profession, in company with ex-Senator R. AV. Johnson, of Arkansas, whose fine face smiles upon me from the same pages. Here we have Elias Rector, the famous Indian agent of the same State, whose Hfe has been almost as romantic as that of Pike, and whose con- versation was as unique as his anecdotes were fresh ; then kind- hearted Arnold Harris, of Tennessee, whose well-remembered song, " Miss Patsey," accompanied by his odd negro dance, re- calls his features, even better than his photograph, from beyond the grave ; then " Father " Kingman, the rich and retired "Ion " of the Baltimore Sun; then Alexander Dimitry, " that peripa- tetic encyclopedia," says Dr. Mackenzie, " who is popularly be- lieved to have intimate acquaintance with all the dead lan- guages, and also with the tongues of nearly every undiscovered country in the world. He translates their books, he speaks their tongues, he knows the variety of their dialects, he remem- bers their ballads, and sings them splendidly, occasionally trans- lating them into good Anglo-Saxon verse for the benefit of the unlearned. I shall not soon forget the ore rotunda swell of his organ-like tones, deep and resonant as those which Lablache used to pour out from his capacious chest." There are many more of these portraits, but these will suffice to give some idea of the pleasant and profitable pastimes of the men of thought and action at the nation's capital ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. [February 4, 1872.] LVII. Is it not true that the public men best abused are the best remembered.'' Certainly Andrew Jackson looms up through all the mists and misrepresentations of the past like a great 28o ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Statue founded as if to last forever. Witness the tribute paid to his memory by Henry A. Wise in his just-published book — a book bitter enough as regards Benton and others, but abound- ing in compliments to the hero President, of whom Wise, during his early career in Congress, was perhaps the most violent assailant. Witness, also, the extraordinary memoir of James Parton, the most caustic and remorseless of critics. Never shall I forget the eulogy of George Bancroft, pronounced twen- ty-six years ago, while he was Secretary of the Navy under President Polk, after the intelligence of the death of Jackson had been received in Washington. The affluence of genius never produced a more exquisite offspring. The rapidity with which it was prepared, the fervor with which it was pronounced, and its effect upon the public mind, excited the wonder and delight of the followers of Old Hickory ; and if you turn to it now you will find it surpassed by nothing in the interesting volume which preserves the "Jackson Obsequies." At the end of nearly a generation, we find the ardent expressions of a partisan Cabinet Minister equaled by the more deliberate praise of former polit- ical adversaries. Why is this .'' Simply because Andrew Jack- son's inspiration through his whole life was a passionate love of the Union — a fixed and even ferocious determination to put down its enemies at whatever hazard or cost. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster live in the affections of posterity more because they were animated by the same principle, than because of the fame of the one as an orator and the other as a statesman and jurist. They forgot party when their country was in peril, bury- ing or postponing animosities as against even their severest foe, Andrew Jackson, when he struck the key-note and declared that " the Union must and shall be preserved." Something like this was the scene between George Wolf and Thaddeus Stevens, some thirty-six years ago, when in the midst of the anti-Masonic excitement which Stevens headed against Wolf, Dallas, Rev. Mr. Sprole, and other Masonic dignitaries— even OLD HICKORY. 25 1 to the extent of threatening them with imprisonment — ^\Volf and Stevens forgot their envenomed quarrel in the ardor with which they together pressed forward the great cause of popular edu- cation. No name can perish from memory or history that is truly identified with civilization and liberty. I was talking of these things the other day with an old Ohio Whig, at present a Republican, when he related an anecdote of Old Hickory which I had never heard before, and which I think worth preserving. After Jackson's first election in 1828, a strong effort was made to remove General , an old Revolutionary soldier, at that time postmaster in one of the principal New York towns. He had been so fierce an Adams man that the Jackson men deter- mined to displace him. He was no stranger to Jackson, who knew him well, and was conscious of his private worth and public services ; but as the effort to get his place was a determined one, General resolved to undertake a journey to Washing- ton for the purpose of looking after his case. Silas Wright had just left his seat as a Representative in Congress from New York. Never was the Empire State more ably represented. Cool, honest, profound, and subtle, Mr. W^right was precisely the man to head a movement against the old postmaster. His influence with Jackson was boundless. His force in debate made him a match for the giants themselves ; and as Mr. Van Buren was then Jackson's Secretary of State, the combination was powerful. The old postmaster, knowing that these two political masters were against him, called upon the President immediately upon his arrival, and was most courteously received and requested to call again, which he did several times, but nothing was said about the post-office. Finally the politicians finished their protest, and sent it forward to Mr. Wright, with the request that it should be delivered at the first opportunity. The old postmaster heard from his friends at home that the important document was on its way, so he resolved on a coup de main. The next day there was a Presidential reception, and 282 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. among the early visitors was General . After a cordial greeting by Jackson, he quietly took his seat, and waited until the long train of visitors had duly saluted the nation's Chief and passed through the grand East Room on their way home. The President turned to his venerable guest with some surprise as he noticed him still seated on one of the sofas, and entered into familiar conversation with him, when, to his amazement, the old soldier said, " General Jackson, I have come here to talk to you about my office. The politicians want to take it from me, and they know I have nothing else to live upon." The President made no reply, till the aged postmaster began to take off his coat in the most excited manner, when Old Hick- ory broke out with the inquiry : " What in Heaven's name are you going to do ? Why do you take off your coat in this public place ?" " Well, sir, I am going to show you my wounds, which I received in fighting for my country against the English!" " Put it on at once, sir !" was the reply ; " I am surprised that a man of your age should make such an exhibition of himself," and the eyes of the iron President were suffused with tears, as without another word he bade his ancient foe good-evening. The very next night the crafty and able New York politician called at the White House and sent in his card. He was im- mediately ushered into the presence, and found Jackson, in loose gown and slippers, seated before a blazing wood fire, qui- etly smoking his long pipe. After the ordinary courtesies had been exchanged, the politician opened his budget. He repre- sented the district from which the venerable postmaster hailed ; said the latter had been known as a very active advocate of John Quincy Adams ; that he had literally forfeited his place by his earnest opposition to the Jackson men, and that if he were not removed, the new Administration would be seriously injured. He had hardly finished the last sentence, when Jack- son sprung to his feet, flung his pipe into the fire, and exclaimed, with great vehemence, " I take the consequences, sir ; I take s. s. cox. 283 the consequences. By the Eternal ! I will not remove the old man — I can not remove him. Why, Mr. Wright, do you not know that he carries more than a pound of British lead in his body ?" That was the last of it. He who was stronger than courts, courtiers, or cabinets, pronounced his fiat, and the happy old postmaster next day took the stage and returned home rejoicing. [February 11, 1872.] LVIII. While I was editor of the Washington Ufiioft, under the ad- ministration of President Pierce, a very interesting incident took place at a dinner at my former residence, now the Census Bureau, on Eighth Street, near F. It was attended by a num- ber of the Democratic leaders, including John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, Lawrence M. Keitt, of South Carolina, Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, John Slidell, of Louisiana, and several whose names I can not remember. Hon. Samuel S. Cox, then a very young man, just known for his book, " The Buckeye Abroad," and for his talents as an occasional lecturer, was among the guests, and did me the honor to write an editorial against the Know-Nothings — the proof of which was sent to us while we were at the table, and read aloud for the general delectation. Mr. Keitt was full of humor, and took special delight in teasing Mr. Breckinridge by his raillery of the Kentuckians — their pe- culiar habits and ideas. The retort of Breckinridge was re- called to me the other evening at the reporters' banquet in Washington by Mr. Cox, who, after having been appointed Sec- retary of Legation to Peru, in 1855, was chosen a Representa- tive in Congress from Ohio for three successive terms, and then, on his removal to the city of New York, chosen several terms 284 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. to the same body, in which he now figures as one of the ablest advocates of the Democratic party. Breckinridge wittily de- scribed a recent trip to South Carolina, and his meeting with several of the original Secessionists — one of them a militia offi- cer in Keitt's district, who had just returned from a training, clothed in faded regimentals, with a huge trooper's sword at his side, and a chapeau surmounted with a very long plume. He was full of enthusiasm for " the cause," and descanted with par- ticular eloquence upon what he called the wrongs of the South. " I tell you, sah, we can not stand it any longer ; we intend to fight ; we are preparing to fight ; it is impossible, sah, that we should submit, sah, even for an additional hour, sah." "And from what are you suffering?" quietly asked Breckinridge. " Why, sah, we are suffering under the oppressions of the Fed- eral Government. We have been suffering under it for thirty years, and will stand it no more." " Now," said Breckinridge, turning to Keitt, " I would advise my young friend here to in- vite some of his constituents, before undertaking the war, upon a tour through the North, if only for the purpose of teaching them what an almighty big country they will have to whip be- fore they get through !" The effect was irresistible, and the impulsive but really kind-hearted South Carolina Hotspur joined in the loud laughter excited by Breckinridge's retort. Somehow the name of Baker is always associated in my mind with that of Breckinridge. You have not forgotten my descrip- tion of the thrilling scene between these two men, after the battle of Bull Run, in the Senate of the United States — the eloquent attack of Breckinridge upon the administration of Mr. Lincoln, and the magnetic reply of Baker, who had just come in from his camp in time to hear the outburst of the Ken- tuckian, and to answer it on the spot with such overwhelming force. He was killed in one of the Virginia battles, October 21, 1861, and on the 28th of that month I reproduced in an " Occasional" letter one of his fugitive poems, which is so beau- PROPHETIC POETRY. 285 tiful, and the last verse of which applies so strikingly to his untimely death, that I copy it here : "TO A WAVE. " Dost thou seek a star with thy swelling crest, wave, that leavest thy mother's breast ? Dost thou leap from the prisoned depths below In scorn of their calm and constant flow ? Or art thou seeking some distant land, To die in murmurs upon the strand .'' *' Hast thou tales to tell of the pearl-lit deep, Where the wave-whelmed mariner rocks in sleep ? Canst thou speak of navies that sunk in pride Ere the roll of their thunder in echo died ? What trophies, what banners, are floating free In the shadowy depths of that silent sea ? " It were vain to ask, as thou rollest afar, Of banner or mariner, ship or star : It were vain to seek in thy stormy face Some tale of the sorrowful past to trace ; Thou art swelling high, thou art flashing free, How vain are the questions we ask of thee. ** I too am a wave on the stormy sea ; 1 too am a wanderer, driven like thee ; I too am seeking a distant land. To be lost and gone ere I reach the strand — For the land I seek is a waveless shore, And those who once reach it shall wander no more." [February 18, 1872.] LIX. Shortly after my return from Europe, in 1867, I rn^t the present Chief Justice Cartter of the Supreme Court of the Dis- trict of Columbia; and Hon. John M. Thayer, then Senator in 286 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Congress from Nebraska, corner of Tenth and Pennsylvania Avenue. Andrew Johnson was doing his level best to destroy the Republican party, and the chief hope of patriots and politi- cians was a Republican candidate for President who could se- cure a majority of electoral votes. Johnson had so utterly de- moralized politics as to make it an even chance whether the Republicans could elect anybody. He had consolidated the South against us, and had corrupted enough of the North to render it exceedingly doubtful whether a Republican successor could be elected with the power of the National Government against him. He came into the Presidency under tragic cir- cumstances, and his plans were so well laid that if our institu- tions had not been singularly elastic, and our people intensely patriotic, he would have undoubtedly transferred the Govern- ment to the hands of those who rushed to arms to destroy it. I saw enough after he had rejoined the Democrats — after he had yielded to the rebel element — to convince me that unless we could secure some good strong name the Republican party was bankrupt. And there was a vast deal in Johnson's theo- ry to captivate Republicans as strong as Doolittle, of Wiscon- sin, Cowan, of Pennsylvania, and Foster, of Connecticut. Aid- ed by that extraordinary intellect, William H. Seward, Johnson made the most decided onset against the Republican party that has ever been or ever can be made. Full of these apprehen- sions, there was something of a coincidence when I met Justice Cartter and Senator Thayer, and was not much surprised when they said, "Why can we not make General Grant the Republican candidate for the Presidency ? — every body is for him ; his star is the star of victory. There are two things necessary — his own consent and an approved Republican record. Now, will you not apply yourself to a thorough examination into the political dec- larations of Grant since he left Galena as a volunteer against ' the rebellion ?" I answered with perfect frankness, " that I had had quite enough to do with making Presidents. I had assist- GENERAL GRANT'S NOMINATION. 287 ed somewhat in the election of James Buchanan in 1856, and had contributed to the nomination of Andrew Johnson as the Republican candidate for Vice-President in 1864; and that, with my experience of public men generally, I did not feel war- ranted to undertake such a task;" but the earnest appeals of my good friends prevailed, and I retired to my rooms on Capi- tol Hill, and prepared the five-column article which appeared in the Washington Chronicle and the Philadelphia Press of Novem- ber 7, 1867. After it was in type, Senator Thayer and myself called upon John A. Rawlins, Chief of General Grant's staff, and read it to him. He instantly advised that it should appear the very next day; but I answered that "General Grant was not a candidate for President, and did not desire to be, and if I printed it without authority, there was little doubt that some su- perserviceable politician would call upon him and ask him if he had been made a candidate with his sanction. He will, of course, reply that he never saw the article till it was in print,/ and so all your schemes to make him President will gajig aj g/ey." Then Rawlins took it in to General Grant, and stayed a long time. When he returned he said, "General Grant is quite pleased with your statement of his political record, and surprised that he proves to be so good a Republican." Upon this hint I printed. But this is not the real point. My misgiv- ; ings were correct; for on that very day an elaborate dispatch was sent from Washington to the Boston Post, stating that "a dis- tinguished friend of General Grant had called upon him with the article, and inquired if it met his approval or was published with his sanction. He promptly denied all knowledge of the publication, and expressed his indignation at the liberty taken by his self-styled friend who had concocted the article in ques- tion. In speaking of the Hon. E. B. Washburne, who would like to be considered the conscience-keeper and guardian of Gen- eral Grant, the latter expressed his detestation of Mr. Wash- burne's patronizing airs, and said he could not understand why 288 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. he was so constantly annoyed by his presence, as he had never known Mr. Washburne before the war, and that Mr. Washburne knew quite as Httle of him." The dispatch concluded as follows : "The report of the conversation I obtained directly from Gen- eral Grant's friend, with full permission to publish the same, that the country may know how far the Radicals are authorized to shelter themselves from the storm under General Grant's wing." I immediately telegraphed to Washington, and got the follow- ing authorized contradiction of the dispatch \x\ \^\^ Boston Post : " General Grant expressed neither indignation nor annoyance at the appearance of the article in The Chronicle and The Press^ nor did he intimate to any one that it misrepresented his polit- ical position. As to the remarks attributed to him relative to Mr. Washburne, they are so palpably untrue as to stamp the character of the entire dispatch. General Grant has never ut- tered a word against Mr. Washburne which could have afforded the slightest foundation for these atrocious statements. Gen- eral Rawlins says that the sentiments attributed to General Grant in The Chronicle are undoubtedly those he has held, and holds still, and he asserts unequivocally that the italicized words, introducing his own words, are true." When Rawlins came back from General Grant with the edito- rial, he told us with great emphasis, " General Grant does not want to be President. He thinks the Republican party may need him, and he believes, as their candidate, he can be elect- ed and re-elected j but," said Rawlins, "what is to become of him after his second Presidential term — what, indeed, during his administration ? He is receiving from seventeen to twenty thousand dollars a year as General of the armies of the Repub- lic — a life salary. To go into the Presidency at twenty-five thousand dollars a year for eight years is, perhaps, to gain more fame; but what is to become of him at the end of his Presidency? He is not a politician. He does not aspire to the place. Eight years from the 4th of March, 1869, ^^^ will POLITICAL CANDIDATURE. 289 be about fifty-six years old. Of course he must spend his sal- ary as President. England, with her Wellington, her Nelson, and her other heroes on land and sea, has never hesitated to enrich and ennoble them through all their posterity. Such a policy is in accordance with the character of the English gov- ernment, but in our country the man who fights for and saves the Republic would be a beggar if he depended upon political office ; and mark it, if Grant takes any thing from the rich, whose vast fortunes he has saved, after he is President, he will be accused as the willing recipient of gifts." Just now, when General Grant is struggling out of his first term of the Presi- dency and struggling into his second, I thought it might not be out of place to revive this incident. Is it not true that when we elect a man to office w^e at the same time unconsciously en- courage others to tear him to pieces ? What public character can escape investigation ? What public character can escape calumny.? Our best candidates for office are not saints — our best Representatives and Senators in Congress are not divini- ties. I have shown that even President Washington when he closed his second term was regarded as an usurper, and the end of his administration declared a great national relief. Please understand that in selecting this incident I am simply trying to show my countrymen that if we establish an angelic standard for our public men, we are not only sure to fail, but perhaps to end in making an hereditary monarchy necessary to govern and subdue a dissatisfied people. Poor Rawlins did not live long after his friend was made President. I was one of the last he recognized. No knight of the days of chivalry surpassed him in integrity of soul and nobility of nature. He was an original Douglas Democrat, but no man was more truly influenced by the conscience of the fight, and none was ever called before his Creator with a more spotless character— public and private. [February 25, 1872.] N 290 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LX. Is there- such a thing as unconscious courage ? Of bravery against volition ? A coward will fight for his life ; but I know a case where a single man routed a large armed force while he was in a tremor of fear. The death of General Andrew Porter, U. S. A., at Paris, France, a few weeks ago, recalled the story, and I tell it as it fell from the lips of one of my old transcribing clerks in Washington eighteen years ago — the popular and witty Dr. W. P. Reyburn, of New Orleans. He was a surgeon in a Louisiana regiment during the Mexican war, and a close friend of Andrew Porter, one of the captains in the Mounted Rifles, and, if I mistake not, attached to that celebrated corps. He was hand-in-glove with all the Southern notables, a welcome visitor at every social circle — a fellow of quick wit, with a con- tagious laugh, fond of pleasure of every kind, and, to complete the picture, a very fat man, who loved his leisure and his friends, and hated work consumedly. He is dead, too; but I often think of him rolling into my room on his short legs, with his broad face aglow, his large mouth streaming with tobacco, full of some quaint story, which he would relate, till every body roared with the merriment he always started in his explosive way — fairly screaming over his own fun. One of these inci- dents, and one of the best, was the way he charged and dis- persed a squadron of Mexican rancheros. I have seen a room- ful of celebrities enjoying this really original story, as thus told by my departed friend : " You will all recollect that Andy Por- ter's company of mounted rifles was detailed as the escort of the American commissioners, who were to carry the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo from the city of Mexico, then occupied by the victorious American forces, under General Winfield Scott, to the city of Queretaro, for ratification by the Mexican govern- ment, which, driven out of their capital, had taken up its quar- ADVENTURE IN MEXICO. 29 1 ters in that city. Among these commissioners were Ambrose H. Sevier, of Arkansas, and Nathan Clifford, of Maine [at pres- ent a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]. We had whipped the Mexicans, taken their fortresses, subdued their country. That magnificent empire lay at our feet. We ought to have gobbled it then, as we shall have to absorb it hereafter. The war was over, but the entire country was swept by preda- tory parties, and no American was safe within a few miles of the city of Mexico. The route from the capital to Queretaro, dis- tant some sixty or eighty miles, was beset by guerrillas, and the commissioners, with their attendants, occupying several hand- some coaches, drawn by fine horses, could not proceed on their errand without due military escort. Captain Andy Porter was, as I have said, in command, and I was selected as surgeon, no doubt because I liked him and he liked me. Before starting, a very fine-looking filly was set apart for me ; for you must rec- ollect, gentlemen, that we laid under contribution the best ani- mals the vicinage could afibrd. I am fond of a good horse, and you can imagine my displeasure when I saw the animal that had been assigned me was considered too light by the owner, who came to me, saying: 'Dr. Reyburn, you have a long jour- ney before you, and would not like to find your hor§e lame. I have, therefore, brought with me a handsome roadster, capable of carrying you comfortably. As I am the owner of both, and as you would be certain to destroy the filly by your heavy weight, without helping yourself, why not take the easy and safe roadster, and therefore subserve your own comfort and my in- terests?' Captivated by the candor of my friend, and not know- ing that his only object was selfish, and, above all, not knowing that the roadster, as he called it, had been an old campaigner, I gladly mounted him, and the cortege proceeded on its way, headed by Captain Porter. It was a beautiful day, and our course ran through a picturesque country. The commissioners were happy, the command in good order, the surgeon (that is 292 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. myself) in the rear — none happier than our gallant leader, and none more perfectly at ease than myself. But you must rec- ollect, gentlemen, that I make no professions to intrepidity ; the fact is, I suspect I am a coward; at any rate, I always kept myself in the rear of my valor. In the midst of our pleasant- ries we heard the ring of the bugle in the front, then the quiet roll of drums, and now and then a dropping shot. I, of course, regarded this as among the pyrotechnics of the journey; but as the noise proceeded I felt a quick tremor of my horse, and no- ticed a strange movement of his ears, till at last the firing be- came more brisk, and the roll of the drums and the blasts of the bugle more frequent, when he became ungovernable, until I lost all control, and he burst ahead with me, past the commis- sioners, past the escort, past the gallant Captain Andrew Por- ter — when, to my horror, I found stretched across the road a large body of Mexicans, arms in hand, resolved to dispute our passage. You may well imagine my consternation, " ' Never having set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knew, More than a spinster !' Conceive my feelings when I saw myself, single-handed and alone, without an effort of my own, and certainly without my consent, facing the enemies of my country ; yet judge of my re- lief when, supposing me to be the advanced guard of a charging column, they divided on both sides of the road and fled up the hills, leaving our way unobstructed. I never was in the same danger before, and yet I can not express to you my relief at the escape when, drawing in my veteran charger, he having accom- plished his work, I quietly turned back to the escort, feeling somewhat like an unconscious conqueror, yet unprepared for the salute I received from my good Captain Andrew Porter, who was scarcely able to articulate between his amusement at my unexpected courage and his rage at the loss of a chance to distinguish himself. 'What, in God's name, did you mean? THE WAR-HORSE. 293 Why, sir, did you dare to leave your position in the rear and attack the enemy in the front ? Who gave you orders to charge ? Are you aware that you spoiled a fine chance for my men to unload their muskets, and to rid the road of a set of infernal scoundrels who are violating the truce between two nations ?' ' Well, sir,* was my respectful reply to my good friend Andy, ' all I have to say in self-defense is, that you must not accuse me of courage; I make no pretensions to it; I am not a fight- ing man; I am simply Doctor Reyburn, of New Orleans; and if I have shown any thing like pluck on this occasion, you must attribute it to the infernal Mexican who was afraid to allow me the use of his good horse, and who put upon me an old cavalry charger, without giving me notice in advance that he would be sure to respond to the first bugle call or rouse at the first tap of a drum.' " You may imagine, for I can not describe, the effect of this story told by the genial, generous, frank-hearted Southerner, himself punctuating his points by his own laughter, and therefore awakening the merriment of all who heard him. [March 3, 1872.] LXI. " Most history is false, save in name and dates, while a good novel is generally a truthful picture of real life, false only in names and dates." I often think of this sensible remark of a veteran statesman, now in Europe, as I glance into the pages of some of the numberless volumes born during and since the rebellion. Many of their writers seem to have no other object than to make gods of their favorites and devils of their adversa- ries. Perhaps there can be no true philosophy of that tragic interval. Passion and prejudice have given way before judicial impartiality and tranquil reflection. Carlyle's "French Revo- 294 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. lution" of 1793, one of the most remarkable of that strange man's productions, as wonderful for its flashes of individual character as for its accuracy in describing events, was made up from personal investigation and from a careful review of the journals of the day. It inspired Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities," one of the most grotesque and thrilling of all his crea- tions. Exactly such a mind is required to give us a faithful picture of the inner life of the rebellion. There are several collections of the newspapers of both sides, one that was pre- served for some years in the National Library, and, I think, one or two in New York and Boston. Add to these the letters of private soldiers to their families at home, thousands of which are laid away for reference. But who will distill the essence from this mass of material ? Who will digest the endless col- lection ? It should be a patriotic and laborious man, a stu- dent like Carlyle, blessed with a pleasant style, large sympa- thies, and a strict and conscientious sense of justice. The inci- dents of the war, set forth in these private letters of the soldiers and narrated in the newspapers, would make up not only what would be the best of all histories, but reading as absorbing as any romance. One of these incidents occurs to me as I write. AVhile I was Secretary of the Senate there was hardly an hour during any day that I was not called upon to help somebody who had friends or kindred in the army, or had business in the Depart- ments, or was anxious to get some poor fellow out of the Old Capitol Prison. These constant appeals were incessant de- mands upon the time of a very busy man, but the labor was a labor of love, and I am glad to remember that I never under- took it reluctantly. One day a very energetic lady called on me to take her to the President, and aid her to get a private soldier pardoned who had been sentenced to death for desertion, and was to be shot the very next morning. We were much pressed in the Senate, and she had to wait a long time before I could THE PARDON SIGNED. 295 accompany her to the White House. It was late in the after- noon when we got there, and yet the Cabinet was still in ses- sion. I sent my name in to Mr. Lincoln, and he came out ev- idently in profound thought, and full of some great subject. I stated the object of our call, and, leaving the lady in one of the ante-chambers, returned to the Senate, which had not yet ad- journed. The case made a deep impression on me, but I forgot it in the excitement of the debate and the work of my office, until, perhaps, near ten o'clock that night, when my fe- male friend came rushing into my room, radiant with delight, the pardon in her hand. " I have been up there ever since," she said. "The Cabinet adjourned, and I sat waiting for the President to come out and tell me the fate of my poor soldier, whose case I placed in his hands after you left ; but I waited in vain— there was no Mr. Lincoln. So I thought I would go up to the door of his Cabinet chamber and knock. I did so, and, as there was no answer, I opened it and passed in, and there was the worn President asleep, with his head on the table rest- ing on his arms, and my boy's pardon signed by his side. I quietly waked him, blessed him for his good deed, and came here to tell you the glorious news. You have helped me to save a human life." This is the material, if not for solemn history, at least for those better lessons which speak to us from the lives of the just and the pure. [March 10, 1872.] LXIL Congressional debates and Departmental reports, too often dreary enough, are not without a large leaven of romance and humor. Time and patience are required, however, to winnow 296 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. the wheat from these piles of dust. It is ahnost like digging for gold or searching for jewels — you must endure much before you reach the precious deposits. The records of our former wars by land and sea, of the Treasury, State, Interior, Postal, and Law Departments, conceal an infinite variety of material, now utterly forgotten, and almost entirely unknown. As you pass through the lofty spaces of the Capitol, or the dim clois- ters of the executive buildings, you see aged men with busy pens bending over and filling large folios of this increasing history. If you could catch one of these veterans after hours, he would spare you a world of pains by gossiping through the avenues of his experience, not a few of which are full of the flowers and fragrance of a cultivated life. William L. Marcy used to be such a man, as, with snuff-box in hand, he sat cross- legged in his place as War Minister under Polk, and Foreign Secretary under Pierce. Robert J. Walker, vastly like that de- licious literary canary, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston, would crowd his talk with the pictures of the people he had known. James Buchanan was no mean delineator of the char- acters of the past. Mr. Seward loved to philosophize, or rather dogmatize, by the hour. Doubtless General Spinner, the Unit- ed States Treasurer, could tell you a thousand stories about the romance of the Greenbacks. The beloved First Auditor, Thom- as L. Smith, who died recently after half a century's honest service, wrote and spoke of departed leaders with rare facility ; Admiral Joseph Smith is a treasure-house of sea-legends ; Quar- termaster-General Meigs will relate what would fill a volume of his work on the extension of the Capitol, and his relations to the rebellion ; General David Hunter will take you back to the primitive days of Washington City, and repeople many of the old houses on Capitol Hill. The other day I called on Com- modore Daniel Ammen, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation and Detail, and asked him to tell me about the celebrated mutiny on board the California steamer, the Ocean Queens in May, of A MUTINY SUBDUED. 297 1864. This event, though of a recent date, has been literally sponged from the slate of the general memory, though still pre- served among the records of the navy. A contingent of over 200 men, most of them "roughs " who had served in the army, and had volunteered for naval service on the Pacific coast, were shipped for their destination on board the Ocean Quee?i, in charge of Commodore Ammen and a subordinate officer. There were over a thousand other passengers, including many women and children. Justice Field, of the United States Su- preme Court, was among the cabin passengers. The vessel itself was commanded by a fine old seaman. Captain Tinkle- paugh. On the first day out the nev/ recruits began to show dissatisfaction with their accommodations and food, and it was soon evident that, under the counsel of two or three desperate leaders, they were preparing to seize and rifle the steamer and the passengers. The Captain proposed to run into one of the nearest ports and get rid of the dangerous conspirators, but this was resisted by Commodore Ammen, who had the turbulent men in charge. He quietly reasoned with them, and assured them that, as he was responsible for their good conduct, he would see to their proper comfort, but that if they resorted to violence they would be severely punished. He was so cool and kind as he made this statement, that they did not think him in earnest, and proceeded with their plans. Their chief, Kelley, was a young fellow of six feet four inches, very athletic and determin- ed. When the first demonstration was made Commodore Am- men was in a distant part of the vessel, and on hearing the noise proceeded to the scene of action. There he found Captain Tinklepaugh in the hands of Kelley, who was surrounded by the other mutineers, all evidently under his orders, and ready to proceed to the worst extremities. The crisis had come, and Ammen, seeing that prompt action was necessary to save the steamer and perhaps the lives of the female passengers, drew his revolver and shot Kelley dead on the spot. One of his im- N 2 298 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. mediate followers was killed at the same time. The effect on the others was instantaneous. They saw that the quiet man who had them in charge was resolved to enforce his authority, and they quailed. He then briefly addressed them, telling them of his determination, exhorted them to remember their duty and their flag, and was greeted with three hearty cheers. After which, under his advice, they went to their dinner. There was, of course, great consternation among the cabin passengers, but they were soon reassured by the calm demeanor of Commodore Ammen. His next step was to go straight among the remain- der of the mutineers, and to call out the leaders and put them in irons. One or two attempted to resist, but when they saw that they would soon be made to follow their dead compan- ions, who had by this time been sewed in canvas and cast over- board, they submitted. The whole affair occupied very little time ; and the commander, crew, and passengers were so im- pressed by the resolute courage of Commodore Ammen that they joined in a hearty commendation of his course. Justice Field himself addressed a strong letter to the Department in earnest vindication of the wisdom and energy of his action. I do not pretend to tell the story as it fell from Commodore Am- men — so modest and so clear. His printed defense before the court-martial, which he demanded, is a model of candor, and was followed by his unanimous acquittal. Had he been weak or impulsive, the scene would have ended in a grand tragedy, and perhaps hundreds of innocent persons would have perished. Men like Ammen, though beloved and honored in their own circle, and by the Government they bravely and unostentatious- ly serve, are rarely heard of in the great outside world ; and it is simple justice that they should not be wholly lost sight of in the loud rush and conflict of these busy times. [March 17, 1872.] EMINENT BOSTONIANS. LXIII. 299 "What constitutes a State?" is the title of one of the most familiar poems in the English language. I could not help think- ing of the constantly quoted answer during my visit to Boston last autumn in company with my friend Dougherty, who repeat- ed his fine lecture on " Oratory," at Music Hall, in that city. The next day Senator Sumner invited us to dine with him at a place called Taft's, on the ocean beach, a few miles outside of the town, and when we got there I found among the company assembled Professor Agassiz, Henry W. Longfellow, Richard H. Dana, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, ex-Governor Clifford, George S. Hilliard, Samuel Hooper, and one or two more. The dinner itself was a rare curiosity — thirteen courses in all, consisting of seven varieties of fish, taken from the neighboring waters, each of which was familiarly and graphically described by Professor Agassiz in an exceedingly interesting manner, and six courses of game, gathered from far and near, all of different species, ex- pressly stated on a written label, as they were sent in hot from the kitchen, and as exquisitely prepared as if they had been so many varieties of French cooking, and had been ushered in un- der French titles, so that it would have been difficult to tell whether the fish was not fowl, and whether the fowl was not something else than itself. The wines were choice, old, and historical, and they were thoroughly enjoyed, although with that moderation which always marks the gentleman at a dinner-table who knows the wise stop, and never forgets himself. But I do not desire to speak of what was to me, a plain Pennsylvanian, the mere novelty of the substantial of the feast, as of my pa- tient study of the interesting men by whom I was surrounded. Here was Professor Agassiz at sixty-four, looking younger than most men at forty-four ; Longfellow, with his streaming locks, revealing in a snowy framework a face of enchanting and ven- 300 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. erable beauty; Sumner, who, to use the remark of another, al- ways looks like the classic statue of some great Roman ; Hooper, the living type of the solid men of Boston ; Richard H. Dana, the author of " Two Years before the Mast," keen, congenial, and receptive, and equally distinguished as the leader of the bar; Dr. Holmes, with his charming sparkle, and his endless and spontaneous humor. Their conversation was the flavor of the afternoon and evening. Unconstrained, without coarseness; animated, without intolerance ; if it could have been reported for future reading it would have furnished a precious page in some new " Noctes Ambrosianae." Professor Agassiz was filled with enthusiasm, and appeared to have realized the acme of his ambition in the proposed scientific trip he was soon to make under the auspices of our Government, and aided by the liber- ality of enterprising citizens of Boston. He rejoiced in the fact that America had taken the initiative in these important inves- tigations, and explained in a clear and lucid manner, devoid of technical phrases, the object of his mission. England had for many years considered the propriety of exploring the wonders of the deep, but it was reserved for America to carry into prac- tical effect a scheme that would not fail to be followed by good results, and which would add materially to the development of science. He said he proposed to survey the geography of the bed of the ocean. The topography of the earth had long since been discovered, but we were yet in darkness as to the founda- tion of the great waters, which is supposed to present the same indentations, elevations, and irregularities. All the requisite appliances and every conceivable comfort had been furnished Agassiz, a ship had been placed at his disposal, and he entered upon his work with all the eagerness and fervor of a young man just in the prime of life. The affectionate and loving passage between Longfellow and himself, when the former left his chair to bid the Professor farewell and God-speed on his long voyage, which commenced a few days afterward ; the skill, the learning. NEW ENGLAND. 30I and the wit displayed in the discussion of the private character of Franklin, by Sumner and Dana; the frank and manly inter- change of views on all questions affecting men and measures, answered the question so frequently asked in regard to Massa- chusetts. What is it that constitutes this great State ? What is it that has made New England so powerful, with her barren soil and inhospitable clime? Her men. Here were the off- spring of generations; the sons and grandsons of some of those who have laid deep the foundations of civil and religious liberty; who initiated the war of the Revolution, and fought it through to the end; who lighted the fires against slavery, and when slav- ery flew to arms were the first to rush to its overthrow ; whose colleges, schools, charities, municipal management, internal finance, and the general order, propriety, and safety of whose government has no parallel in the world. It is very easy to sneer at the habit of laudation of New England and of Massa- chusetts, but facts are better than fables, plain experience bet- ter than theory ; and as I sat in this goodly company I reverted to the condition of the South, that fought in the war against Great Britain a hundred years ago, under the leadership of men confessedly as great, and many of them greater than the great chiefs of cold New England. They were venerated every where; but what effect has their example had upon posterity? And why ? Simply because, whereas the New England founda- tion of schools in peace and in war produced an increasing popular intelligence, there has never been in the South such a thing as popular intelligence until, perhaps, to-day, when the most benighted class, elevated to freedom, is outstripping the ignorant minority which held it so long in slavery. But the lesson is capable of a more elaborate and extended notice. [March 24, 1872.] 302 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LXIV. Premature death is always sad. The fall of a brave, bright spirit, as we perhaps profanely phrase it, "before his time," awakens a sharper pain than when the ripe fruit drops of itself, or is kindly gathered in. Douglas died when millions, who would once have been glad of his death, prayed that he might live ; died when his brain would have been a treasure to his country. Henry Winter Davis passed away in the flush and prime of his usefulness. The Rupert of debate, the Rienzi of the people, the model of manly beauty — yet he faded out at the moment when he was filling the hearts and eyes of men. I have two or three such precious memories of my own — memo- ries that can never die, memories that never waken but to stir every fibre and to start every throb. Oh ! what a career was closed to them by the sudden shutting of the vital gates. How splendidly they were equipped for the race ! They were armed personally and mentally ; they loved life ; they inspired love in others ; they reveled in books and in society j they were fired by ambition. And they are gone, as utterly forgotten by the mass who flattered and followed them as if they had never ex- isted. But to me they are deathless : " The loveliest of their race, Whose grassy tombs my sorrows steep ; Whose worth my soul delights to trace ; Whose very loss 'tis sweet to weep." It is only a few weeks since I sat with my old friend, Simeon M. Johnson, at Delmonico's, in New York. Johnson was a rare man. He read much and remembered what he read ; he had seen much, and knew how to describe what he had seen with eloquent tongue and ready pen. He was so kind and genial that you felt as if he must live to a great age. There are some men who so entirely absorb you that when they die DEPARTED FRIENDS. 303 you "can not make them dead." As with Johnson, when I saw that he was gone, so with our dear friend, James H. Orne, whom we carried into his vault one icy afternoon last Decem- ber ; and so, too, with William S. Huntington, whom you Wash- ington people are just now mourning. I can see Orne now at the head of his dinner-table, or in his own parlors, or on Chest- nut Street, or in his business — the air, the bearing, the tone of a gentleman ; graceful, unselfish, polite, practical, and I " can not make him dead." I think it was two weeks ago this very Sunday that I was passing by the new club house, on New York Avenue, Washington City, with some friends, when Mr. Hunt- ington saw us, came out on the steps, invited us in, showed us through the establishment, and asked us to enroll our names. He was most courteous, and, though not robust, seemed cheery and hopeful. He described to me his trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back ; how many days it consumed ; how much he had seen in his meteor flight. His face was always one of sin- gular interest to me ; its classic outlines indicated brain of the highest order ; his whole bearing was distingue. And now he is gone, at thirty-one. Even on the threshold of an earthly future, crowded with hopes and honors, he is suddenly introduced into the mysteries of another world. [March 31, 1872.] LXV. To preside over a large dinner-party is always a trying task to a woman. Those who recall the sparkling descriptions of the entertainments of Lady Blessington, by Nathaniel P. Willis, during his stay in London, many years ago, need not be told that the post is one which requires rare qualities. There is the necessity of knowing something of the guests, then the art of 304 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. conversation, and, above all, easy address, refinement, and tact. When New York was the political capital of the United States, which embraced but one winter — that succeeding the formal rat- ification of the Constitution — President Washington's ill-health, the death of his mother, and other circumstances, prevented him from attending public balls, and Mrs. Washington had little inclination for such amusements, and was never present at grand entertainments. She was a plain, old-fashioned person, and rarely figured save in the subsequent Presidential receptions in Philadelphia, after the removal of the capital to that city. Mrs. John Adams, wife of the second President, removed while her husband was Vice-President from Boston to Philadel- phia to her new residence at Bush Hill, which she describes as a very beautiful place. She was fond of the theatre, having acquired the taste during her sojourn in Paris. " She was not without tenderness, and womanly, but her distinction was a masculine understanding, energy, and decision, fitting her for the bravest or most delicate periods of affairs, and in an eminent degree for that domestic relation which continued unbroken through so many changeful years, herself unchangeful — always making her own lot a portion of her husband's, in a manner that illustrates the noblest ideas that we have of marriage." She remained in Paris and London four years, and was forty- five when summoned to America by the election of her husband to the office of Vice-President. She was very intimate with Martha Jefierson, Thomas Jefferson's daughter, who had been intrusted to her care in Paris, and spoke of her as a young wo- man of uncommon delicacy and sensibility. Mr. Jefferson kept a liberal table for his friends, but there is little note of the ladies who figured at his dinners. He was a widower when he entered the Presidency. He married Martha Skelton, the widow of Bathhurst Skelton, of Virginia, and daugh- ter of John Wayles. The marriage took place at "The Forest," in Charles County. The bride v/as left a widow when very MRS. MARTHA JEFFERSON. 305 young, and was only twenty-three when she married Mr. Jeffer- son. She is described as having been very beautiful, a little above the middle height, with a lithe and exquisitely formed figure. She was well educated for her day, and a constant reader ; inheriting from her father method and industry, as the accounts kept in her clear handwriting, still in the possession of her descendants, testify. Several other prominent men aspired to her hand, but Jefferson carried off the prize. She did not sur- vive to enjoy the brilliant career of her husband, but died on the 6th of September, 1782, after the birth of her sixth child, leaving three female children. Jefferson wrote the following epitaph for his wife's tomb : *' To the memory of iHartl)a 3 cffcxQon, Daughter of John Wayles ; Born October 19, 1748, O. S. ; Intermarried with Thomas Jefferson, January i, 1772; Torn from him by death, Septemper 6, 1782, This monument of his love is inscribed. '* * If in the melancholy shades below The flames of friends and lovers cease to glow, Yet mine shall sacred last ; mine undecayed, Burn on through death, and animate my shade.' " These four lines Mr. Jefferson left in the Greek in the orig- inal epitaph. There is a photograph from a portrait by Sully in "The Domestic Life of Jefferson," compiled from family let- ters and reminiscences by his great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph, of Virginia, which fully confirms the above descrip- tion. Mr. Jefferson thought it becoming a Republican that his in- auguration should be as unostentatious and free from display as possible ; and such it was. An English traveler, who was in Washington at the time, thus describes him : " His dress was of plain cloth, and he rode on horseback to the Capitol without a single guard, or even servant, in his train, dismounted without 3o6 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. assistance, and hitched the bridle of his horse to the palisades." He was accompanied to the Senate Chamber by a number of his friends, where, before taking the oath of office, he delivered his inaugural address, whose chaste and simple beauty is so fa- miliar to the student of American history. Congress opened December 7, 1801. It had been the cus- tom for the session to be opened pretty much as the English Parliament is by the Queen's speech. The President, accom- panied by a cavalcade, proceeded in state to the Capitol, took his seat in the Senate Chamber, and, the House of Representa- tives being summoned, he read his address. Mr. Jefferson, however, on the opening of this session of Congress (1801), swept away all these inconvenient forms and ceremonies by in- troducing the custom of the President reading a written mes- sage to Congress. Soon after his inauguration he did away with levees, and established only two public days for the recep- tion of company, the first of January and the Fourth of July, when his doors were thrown open to the public. He received private calls, whether of courtesy or on business, at all other times. We have had preserved to us by his great-granddaughter an amusing anecdote of the effect of abolishing levees. Many of the ladies of Washington, indignant at being cut off from the pleasure of attending them, and thinking that their discontinu- ance was an innovation on former customs, determined to force the President to hold them. Accordingly, on the usual levee day, they resorted in full force to the White House. The Pres- ident was out taking his habitual ride on horseback. On his return, being told that the public rooms were filled with ladies, he at once divined their true motives for coming on that day. Without being at all disconcerted, all booted and spurred, and still covered with the dust of his ride, he went in to receive his fair guests. Never had his reception been more graceful or courteous. The ladies, charmed with the ease and grace of his MRS. MADISON. 307 manners and address, forgot their indignation with him, and went away, feeling that, of the two parties, they had shown most impoHteness in visiting his house when not expected. The re- sult of their plot was for a long time a subject of mirth among them, and they never again attempted to infringe upon the rules of his household. Madison succeeded Jefferson as President, and his wife, Dolly Payne, the Quakeress, is still remembered by surviving states- men like Reverdy Johnson and Horace Binney. She was born in North Carolina, but had been educated under the strictest rules of the Friends of Philadelphia, where, at an early age, she married a young lawyer of this sect named Todd; but when she became a widow she threw off drab silks and plain laces, and was for several years one of the gayest and most attractive women in the city. She had many lovers, but she gave the preference to young Madison, whose wife she became in 1794. To this day there are anecdotes told of her peculiar fascinations in Washington City, and especially at dinner-parties and recep- tions. Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas (now Mrs. General Williams) is one of her descendants. She made a jolly and happy social administration. One of Mrs. Seaton's letters graphically de- scribes a dinner at the President's, and a naval ball, under date of November 12, 1812 : "On Tuesday, William and I repaired to 'the place' between four and five o'clock, our carriage setting us down after the first comers and before the last. It is customary, on whatever occasion, to advance to the upper end of the room, pay your obeisance to Mrs. Madison, courtesy to his Highness, and take a seat ; after this ceremony, being at liberty to speak to ac- quaintances, or amuse yourself as at another party. The party already assembled consisted of the Treasurer of the United States; Mr. Russell, the American Minister to England; Mr. Cutts, brother-in-law of Mrs. Madison ; General Van Ness and family ; General Smith and daughter, from New York ; Pat- 3o8 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. rick Magruder's family; Colonel Goodwine and daughter; Mr. Coles, the Private Secretary ; Washington Irving, the author of ' Knickerbocker ' and ' Salmagundi ;' Mr. Thomas, an Eu- ropean ; Mr. Poindexter ; William R. King, and two other gen- tlemen ; and these, with Mr. and Mrs. Madison, and Payne Todd, her son, completed the select company. " Mrs. Madison very handsomely came to me and led me nearest the fire, introduced Mrs. Magruder, and sat down be- tween us, politely conversing on familiar subjects, and by her own ease of manner making her guests feel at home. Mr. King came to our side, sans ceremonie, and gayly chatted with us until dinner was announced. Mrs. Magruder, by a priority of age, was entitled to the right hand of her hostess, and I, in virtue of being a stranger, to the next seat, Mr. Russell to her left, Mr. Coles at the foot of the table, the President in the middle, which relieves him from the trouble of receiving guests, drinking wine, etc. The dinner was certainly very fine, but still I was rather surprised, as it did not surpass some I have eaten in Carolina. There were many French dishes, and exquisite wines, I pre- sume, by the praises bestowed on them ; but I have been so little accustomed to drink that I could not discern the differ- ence between sherry and rare old Burgundy madeira. Com- ment on the quality of the wine seems to form the chief topic after the removal of the cloth and during the dessert, at which, by -the -way, no pastry is countenanced. Ice-creams, maca- roons, preserves, and various cakes are placed on the table, which are removed for almonds, raisins, pecan -nuts, apples, pears, etc. Candies were introduced before the ladies left the table ; and the gentlemen continued half an hour longer to drink a social glass. Meantime Mrs. Madison insisted on my playing on her elegant grand piano a waltz for Miss Smith and Miss Magruder to dance, the figure of which she instructed them in. By this time the gentlemen came in, and we ad- journed to the tea-room ; and here, in the most delightful man- MRS. MADISON. 309 ner imaginable, I shared with Mrs. Smith, who is remarkably in- telligent, the pleasure of Mrs. Madison's conversation on books, men and manners, literatm-e in general, and many special branches of knowledge. I never spent a more rational or pleas- ing half-hour than that which preceded our return home. On paying our compliments at parting we were politely invited to attend the levee the next evening. I would describe the dig- nified appearance of Mrs. Madison, but I fear it is the woman altogether whom I should wish you to see. She wears a crim- son cap that almost hides her forehead, but which becomes her extremely, and reminds one of a crown from its brilliant ap- pearance, contrasted with the white satin folds and her jet-black curls; but her demeanor is so far removed from the hauteur generally attendant on royalty that your fancy can carry the re- semblance no further than the head-dress. In a conspicuous position every fault is rendered more discernible to common eyes, and more liable to censure ; and the same rule certainly enables every virtue to shine with more brilliancy than when confined to an inferior station in society. But I — and I am by no means singular in the opinion — believe that Mrs. Madison's conduct would be graced by propriety were she placed in the most adverse circumstances in life. " Mr. Madison has no leisure for the ladies, for every moment of his time is engrossed by the crowd of male visitors who court his notice; and, after passing the first complimentary saluta- tions, his attention is unavoidably withdrawn to more important objects. Some days ago invitations were issued to two or three hundred ladies and gentlemen to dine and spend the day with Colonel Wharton and Captain Stewart, on board the Constel- lation^ an immense ship of war. This, of all the sights I have ever witnessed, was the most interesting, grand, and novel. William, Joseph R., and I went together, and as the vessel lay in the stream off the point, there were several beautiful little yachts to convey the guests to the scene of festivity. On reach- 310 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. ing the deck we were ushered immediately under the awning, composed of many flags, and found ourselves in the presence of hundreds of ladies and gentlemen. The effect was astonish- ing — every color of the rainbow, every form and fashion ; nature and art ransacked to furnish gay and suitable habihments for the belles, who, with the beaux, in their court dresses, were gayly dancing to the inspiring strains of a magnificent band. The ladies had assured youth and beauty in their persons, taste and splendor in their dress. Thousands of dollars were ex- pended by the dashing fair ones in jDreparation for thisy?/^. " At the upper end of the quarter-deck sat Mrs. Madison, to whom we paid our respects, and then participated in the con- versation and amusements with our friends, among whom were Mrs. Monroe, Mrs. Gallatin, etc. " It is customary to breakfast at nine o'clock, dine at four, and drink tea at eight, which division of time I do not like, but am compelled to submit. I am more surprised at the method of taking tea here than any other meal. In private families, if you step in of an evening, they give you tea and crackers or cold bread, and if by invitation, unless the party is very splen- did, you have a few sweet cakes and macaroons from the con- fectioner's. Once I saw a ceremony of preserves at tea, but the deficiency is made up by the style at dinner, with extrava- gant wines, etc. Pastry and puddings going out of date, and wine and ice-cream coming in, does not suit my taste, and I confess to preferring Raleigh hospitality. I have never even heard of warm bread at breakfast. " On Thursday last was the grand naval bill, given in honor of Captains Hull, Morris, and Stewart, of which I must say a few words. =* * * The assembly was croM'ded with a more than usual portion of the youth and beauty of the city, and was the scene of an unprecedented event — two British flags unfurled and hung as trophies in an American assembly by American sailors. lo triiimphe I Before we started, our house had been MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 3II illuminated in token of our cheerful accordance with the general joy which pervaded the city, manifested by nearly every window being more or less lighted. This was inspiring, and calculated to give every patriot and old officer in Washington an inclina- tion to join in the festivities of an event devoted to the pleasing task of paying homage to the bravery and politeness of the naval heroes." James Monroe, who succeeded with his " era of good feel- ing," did not follow the free-and-easy reunions, parties, balls, and dinners, under the auspices of Mrs. Madison, who saw every body, visited every where, and allowed no distinction of sect or party. John Quincy Adams, Mr. Monroe's Secretary of State, drew up a severe series of rules of etiquette, which gave great offense. But when the President's daughter, Maria, was mar- ried to her cousin, Sam Gouverneur, of New York, she had quite a reception at the Presidential Mansion, Mrs. Monroe, her mother, yielding the post of honor to the bride, and mingling with the other guests. There was a grand birthnight ball at Washington on the 22d of February, 1821, at which the con- trast between the plain attire of President Monroe and John Quincy Adams and the splendid costumes and decorations of the foreign legations was much remarked. They had a hand- some foreigner present in the person of the new British Minis- ter, Mr. Stratford Canning, cousin of George Canning, afterward the celebrated Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Of course, the administration of John Quincy Adams was rather austere. His wife, Mrs. Louisa C. Adams, was a lady of high literary tastes and great precision ; and it is not going too far to say that their only son, the present Charles Francis Adams, owes almost as much to her care and attention to his manners and education as to his myriad-minded, indefatigable, and illus- trious father. They succeeded Monroe, a man of peace with a peaceful administration, and they had a hot and violent time of it for four years. John Randolph openly charged Henry Clay 312 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. with having traded off the vote of Kentucky for a place in the Adams Cabinet, and George Kremer cried aloud and spared not. Andrew Jackson felt that he had lost the glittering prize, and took a lofty and imperious tone. This was not a time for poor Mrs. Adams to show her social points, however graceful and numerous. Mrs. Andrew Jackson seldom appeared at receptions and other public entertainments. She was a plain, domestic wom- an, little accustomed to society and devoted to her husband, who, in turn, showed her the utmost affection. The account of her burial, by Henry A. Wise, in his book lately published, is one of the most striking illustrations of Old Hickory's private character. The first lady of the White House I ever saw was Mrs. James K. Polk, in 1846. She presided at all the state dinners, and was the queen of her own social circle ; a woman of striking presence, stately and tall, perhaps a little too formal and cold, yet not the less an ornament and an example. Mrs. President Pierce was in such ill-health as rarely to be seen save on her evenings with ladies. Amiable, gentle, and long-suffering, she filled the picture of a good woman, and nothing in her hus- band's character stands more to his credit than his devotion to her during her painful invalid years. Miss Harriet Lane was the most accomplished young mistress of the Presidential Man- sion of modern times. She was a valuable auxiliary to her uncle, the bachelor President, and did much to assuage the asperities of his unfortunate administration. Mrs. Lincoln was always present with her husband at public dinners and recep- tions, conversed freely, and took pleasure in introducing the wives and daughters of members of Congress. Mrs. A. John- son was rarely seen on great occasions, but was beloved by all who knew her. Of Mrs. Grant, the present lady of the White House, it only needs to be said that she sustains her delicate position with quiet dignity, and is never more interesting than when surrounded by her little family in the evening, with Mr. CALIFORNIA ANNEXED. 313 Dent, her aged father, at her side. What are now known as great state dinners do not severely tax the hostess. The guests are so arranged that each lady is only called on to converse with her next neighbor, and thus an agreeable evening is passed and many pleasant acquaintances formed. The President is seated opposite Mrs. Grant, about the middle of the table, gen- erally between two of the loveliest or most distinguished ladies, while Mrs. Grant is flanked by the two most eminent men, for- eigners or natives, among the company. At the President's private dinners the same order is preserved, only that there is less restraint, and more of the freedom of the family. In that delightful book, " Sir Henry Holland's Recollections," just published, there is a sketch of one of the famous leaders of British society. Lady Holland, which shows what peculiar qualities were required when the wife, so to speak, is empress of the household. Like Lady Biessington, Lady Holland is a historical character, and if there are any who resemble her in these days they have not perhaps the same opportunities for display and distinction. [April 7, 1872.3 LXVL An attack upon the policy of the Mexican war and the an- nexation of Texas always disposes me to direct attention to the results of the conquest or purchase of California and the open- ing of our way to the Pacific on the thirty-second parallel. When Robert J. Walker, who was perhaps the most active en- gineer of the annexation scheme, wrote his celebrated letter in its favor, he pleaded with prophetic ken for its effect on the whole country. The future vindicated his views, and gave him an opportunity to resist, on a broader field and with resplendent O 314 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. disinterestedness, the efforts of the Disunionists to use their new advantages for the overthrow of the Government. The slaveholders gave quick and earnest support to the Texas pro- gramme, and they sent their best material into the war against Mexico, but they soon realized that freedom could spread as well as slavery, and that the more it was distributed the stronger it was. They met a fearful fall when they tried to divide Cali- fornia in 1850, so as to reserve half of it for the peculiar institu- tion; and they were still more disappointed v;hen California re- fused to follow them in their spoliation of Kansas in 1855, '56, '57 ; and later still, in 1861, '62, when the Pacific State, set apart as an outlying fortress of slavery, became one of the chief bul- warks of the Union. But I did not sit down to write politics, or to show how Provi- dence overthrows the best-laid plans of ambitious men, but to restore to the memory of my readers some of those who figured in the early days of California. These were all in the prime of life, most of them young, and all of them seeking their for- tunes. They came from various sections. Young Fremont, who in his twenty-seventh year explored the South Pass, and afterward penetrated to the Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lakes, and still later unfolded Alta California, the Sierra Nevada, the valleys of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento, was the first United States Senator after the war and the ratifi- cation of the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo. This was in 1850, when he was thirty-six years old. I remember him well, his quiet manners and his youthful figure. His colleague, Dr. Wil- liam M. Gwin, of Mississippi, who had grown to be a veteran in the bitter conflicts of the South, where he had held any number of jDlaces, emigrated to California, like the rest, to better his condition, and was made a Senator in Congress in 1850 for six years. He was then just forty-five, full of vigor, resources, busy, continuous, and resolute, not over-scrupulous, and intensely am- bitious. His wife was exactly the mate for such a man ; fash- CALIFORNIAN REPRESENTATIVES. 315 ionable, liberal, dashing, generous, and full of Southern partiali- ties. Their house was as hospitable as plenty of money and pleasant people could make it. George H. Wright was then a Representative in the House in 1850-51. He is now a resi- dent of Washington, and a sound Republican. In 1852 Milton S. Latham came to Washington as a Representative from Cali- fornia. He was just twenty-five when he took his seat — a hand- some boy, who, after a short career in Alabama, had emigrated, in his twenty-third year, to the Golden State. He was modest and graceful, made a good sophomore speech, was never violent, and soon conciliated great favor. Few men have enjoyed more of the world's smiles and favors, and few deserved them more than this young man. He was clerk of the Recorder's Court of San Francisco in 1850, district attorney in 185 1, Representa- tive in Congress in 1852, and declined a re-election; was Col- lector of the Port of San Francisco in 1855, elected Governor of California in i860, and three days after his inauguration chosen a Senator in Congress for six years. He was always moderate in his politics, though a Democrat; liked Douglas and Breckinridge ; was a close friend of Andy Johnson, and never "fell out," I believe, with Hotspur Wigfall or dogmatic Toombs. He was even and genial to all; had no angular points, and made money with the ease of a fortune's favorite. He is now living at San Francisco, a millionaire at forty-five, having had an experience of a quarter of a century unusual in any man's history, with perhaps as many years before him in which to in- crease and enjoy his large possessions. Of a widely different type was E. C. Marshall, who went forth from Kentucky to Cali- fornia about the same time, and sat in the House with Latham as his colleague. He was a genius ; impetuous, blind, reck- less ; a true scion of a gifted and eccentric race. Some of his speeches were gems ; but he had no system, and wasted his gifts lavishly, while the more prudent Latham carefully garnered and added to his. Then came the big-brained James A. McDougall, 3l6 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. born in New York, thence removing to Illinois, and in 1850 settling down in California, where, after other service, he was chosen to succeed Latham in the House. What a handsome fellow he was in 1853, in his thirty-seventh year, and how he flamed in debate ! He ought to be living to-day, and would be if he had been a little less selfish. John B. Weller, of Ohio, trans- planted himself to California in the exodus of 1846, succeeded Fremont in the Senate in 185 1, and was afterward Governor of the State. He is, I believe, still living in California. Thomas J. Henly, of Indiana, belonged to the same emigration. He made the longest and best stump speeches I ever heard, and could hold a crowd together for four hours at a stretch. Brod- erick, "the noblest Roman of them all," was, I think, in the mines as early as 1845. He fled from New York and its deg- radations, and dug for a living in the gulches; but he was soon called forth to lead in the formation of the constitution of the new State, and to sit in and preside over the State Senate. Chosen a Senator in Congress in 1856, and refusing to sanction the treachery of Buchanan on the Kansas question, he was kill- ed in a duel by a Southern Secessionist in September of 1859. John Conness, one of the disciples of Broderick, was one of the first emigrants to California, and served in various public posi- tions till he was chosen a Senator in Congress in 1863. The gold discovery, following directly after the conquest of California, stimulated the rush from the old States, North and South. That revelation made the ancient Spanish settlement the seat of a new American empire. It seemed a providential sequel to a great national event; and you will note how the men I have named were moulded and mastered in the develop- ments of the times. Every one of them left home a pro-slavery Democrat, with the exception of General Fremont; and they were either forced into sympathy with the rebellion, and with its collapse closed their political career, or took bold ground against the rebellion, and so live in the gratitude of posterity. DANIEL E. SICKLES. 317 California is no longer an outpost of slavery or Democracy. New men have succeeded the pioneers ; men like Cole, Sargent, and Lowe. The bad influence that ruled the State has passed away. The old, slow ocean passage has yielded to the genius of the rail. Continents make treaties by telegraph and inter- change commodities by steam. Distant nations are made neigh- bors, and thoughts that could only be spoken or written for a few, twenty years ago, fly in an instant into millions of minds in the remotest regions. The ideas of Broderick and Baker and Starr King survive the evil sophistries of Gwin and Weller, and leaven the whole mass of dogmas that came so near losing for us a country. [April 14, 1872.] LXVII. In 1853, when President Pierce nominated James Buchanan as Minister to England, the Senate was on the point of adjourn- ing without confirming the Pennsylvania statesman, and he positively refused to accept unless he was confirmed. Hon. Richard Brodhead, a Senator in Congress from Pennsylvania, since deceased, was an opponent of Buchanan, and it was diffi- cult to secure his vote for the new Minister ; but Mr. Marcy, Secretary of State, and the President, finally succeeded in con- ciliating him, and J. B. was put through, and began to prepare for his mission. His first solicitude was to secure a competent Secretary of Legation, and he asked me if I had any such per- son in view. I said I had not; knowing that Mr. Buchanan was not easy to please in such matters, and believing that in the choice of his confidential assistant he ought to act for him- self Shortly after this conversation, however, I visited New York, and met a gentleman whose talents and address seemed 3l8 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. to fit him for the post. This was the present General Daniel E. Sickles, then the prominent young leader of the Democracy of the Empire State. He was in his thirty-fourth year,, in the flush of a full practice at the bar, and in the receipt of a large income at the head of the law department of the city. I said to him one day, " How would you like to be Secretary of Le- gation under Mr. Buchanan, the new Minister to London ?" "What's the pay?" "Twenty-five hundred dollars a year." " Why, bless you, my dear fellow, that would hardly pay for my wine and cigars. My annual income is fifteen times more than that ; I could not think of such a sacrifice." But the next day he thought better of it. A year or two at the British Court, with opportunities to see Paris and the Continent, began to be attractive to him, and he said he would give up his splendid business for the time and go. He had never seen Mr. Buchan- an, and the latter only knew him as a brilliant lawyer, politi- cian, and man of the world, who had a host of friends and not a few enemies, like all men of force and originality. I wrote to Wheatland, announcing that Mr. Sickles would accept the post, and that he would call on him in a day or two. The vet- eran statesman was most favorably impressed, and nominated Sickles as his Secretary of Legation. Sickles did not belong to the Marcy wing of the party in New York, and the ancient Secretary of State stoutly objected to his appointment ; but Gen- eral Pierce interposed, and the new Secretary of Legation got his commission. I was, of course, anxious to know how the bright and daring youngster got on with the staid old bachelor, and at last I heard from the latter something like this : " Your Secretary of Legation is a pleasant companion, but he writes a very bad hand, and spends a great deal of money." And again : " Sickles writes as bad a hand as you do, but I find him a very able lawyer, and of great use to me." They got on very well, though not without some amusing experiences. One is worth referring to, and I wish my readers could hear General AN ENGLISH TAVERN-BILL. 319 Sickles tell it in his own inimitable way. The American lega- tion, including the ladies, were invited to dine with a person of high rank, a duchess, residing near London, and they proceed- ed in their carriages to her residence. Their coachmen and other attendants, under the direction of General Sickles, drove back to the little inn hard by, to feed their horses and take care of themselves till the hour for the return of the party ; and the young secretary told them to have " a good time." On the re- turn of the legation Mr. Buchanan ordered the carriages to stop at the English inn, that he might pay the bill of mine host, who soon appeared with his " little claim." It was a startling array of charges for all sorts of delicacies, including a full English dinner, with " the materials," and amounted to five pounds, or $25. " Five pounds !" exclaimed Old Buck in amazement; "I never heard of such a thing in all my life." " Let me pay the bill," said Sickles, in his cool way; "I told the boys to enjoy themselves, and I am to blame." " No, sir," was the severe re- ply, " I will pay it myself, and will keep it as a souvenir of En- glish extortion and of your economy. Why, my dear sir, do you know I could have got just as good a dinner for twenty-five cents apiece at John Michael's, sign of 'The Grapes,' in my own town of Lancaster, as this man has charged a pound a head for ? No, sir ; I will keep this bill as a curiosity of its kind, an autograph worthy of historical mention." The incident marked the difference between the men — the open-hearted generosity of the Secretary and the exact business habits of the Minister. Some men crowd a year into a month ; others vegetate in aimless and eventless routine. Some give a life to the collec- tion of coins and insects ; others are happy in the study of old pictures, or busy themselves in figuring how to pay off the na- tional debt, or lose themselves in vainly seeking for perpetual motion ; and one of the best I know spends most of his days in collecting autographs, and especially in filling books with the original letters and photographs of certain characters, so that 320 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. when he dies he may be remembered as the owner and com- piler of volumes of which there can be no copies or duplicates. But here is one still in his prime — he was fifty last October — whose career has been as diversified and romantic as if he had filled out a full century of endless action. He was a printer before he read law j was a member of the New York Assembly when he was twenty-six ; a State Senator when he was thirty-five : then Secretary of Legation at London, where he met and min- gled with the best minds; afterward two terms in Congress; an early volunteer against the rebellion, losing his leg at Gettysburg in 1863 ; then one of the chief agents as Military Governor in the reconstruction of North and South Carolina ; and now Ameri- can Minister to the Spanish Court. I do not refer to the sad- dest page of his experience save to prove that he has outlived it, nor yet to his intermediate labors as orator, journalist, advo- cate, and counselor. He is what one might call a lawyer by intuition; careful in reaching his conclusions, but quick and bold in pushing them ; as a, speaker, incisive, clear, and logical ; as a controversialist, cool and wary. His recent coup d'etat against the Erie ring would alone make any man famous. Few characters in our country, or in our history, have passed through so many ordeals. Tried for his life, hunted by fierce and des- perate foes, tabooed under a relentless though temporary ostra- cism, periling his life in battle, and saving it only at the cost of a fearful mutilation, he survives to teach to his countrymen the lesson beautifully set forth in his speech on the 2d of Octo- ber, 1868, from the portico of the Union League of Philadel- phia, and now most worthy of reproduction : " I see thousands and thousands of men, formerly of the Democratic party, who have determined no longer to be ruled by it ; and if the Democratic party determine not to see the fut- ure that shall lead them to a better course, the Union party of this country will illumine the path that will lead them to a bet- ter conclusion. No disloyal party can ever gain control of this TIME'S CHANGES. 32 I country. As well might George III. again stretch his long hand to seize the starry coronet of the Colonies ; as well might the Mohawks, the Cherokees, and the Mohicans claim again their lost hunting-grounds, or attempt to drive back civilization to the sea, as that old slave dynasty ever again attempt to resume sway in this land of justice and loyalty." [April 21, 1872.] LXVIII. Congressional habits and manners have changed with the times, and the change is marvelous. In fact, social life at the nation's capital has itself been revolutionized. If you look down from the galleries of the two houses, or step into the old Senate Chamber, now the Supreme Court-room, you will see how thorough is the revolution. Colored men in Congress, colored men before the highest judicial tribunal, also colored men in the local courts, deliberate and practice without insult or interruption. In 1857-58 a white man could not safely ad- vocate ordinary justice to a black man. He was subjected to inconceivable obloquy, not alone in the Legislatures, but in society. Nothing but illustrious services or great moral cour- age secured decent toleration to such an offender. The South- ern leaders were models of politeness till their peculiar institu- tion was touched. Then the mask was dropped, and arrogance expelled all courtesy. Nobody who did not agree with them was invited to their houses, and, as they controlled the Admin- istration, of whatever party, the few anti-slavery men had to live among themselves. Now all is changed. Men meet together and discuss politics like philosophers. Go to one of Fernando Wood's great parties, and you find people of all opinions. Look in upon one of Charles Sumner's unequaled dinners, and you O 2 322 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. see him surrounded with Democrats Hke Thurman, of Ohio, and Casserly, of California. Call on brave Ben Butler at one of his receptions, and note among his guests many whom he has most steadily antagonized. When Thaddeus Stevens lived, his most intimate companion at whist and euchre was the venerable John Law, the distinguished Democrat from the Indianapolis district. But in nothing is the change more marked than in the manners of the two houses. First is the evident absence of public dissipation — that fruitful source of evil during the old slave regime. You do not see men inflamed by bad whisky seeking quarrels with their associates. The night is no longer made hideous by personal altercations. The bowie-knife, the pistol, the bludgeon, lie buried in the grave with secession and State rights. There are lively disputes, of course ; Butler and Sunset Cox indulge in an occasional passage; Schurz and Car- penter exchange repartee; and now and then Mr.Vorhees flies his eagles with angry and fervid declamation ; but there are no hostile messages, no clandestine consultations, no summonses to Bladensburg or Canada. The shots that are fired are harm- less; the swords are air-drawn; the fierce charges explode in fruitless investigations. A colored member is listened to by respectful houses, and silent if not responsive auditors ; and the extremest Democrat, even from the South, yields a hearing and a reply to a man like Benjamin Sterling Turner, the Represent- ative in Congress from Selma, Alabama, who was born a slave and is now a freeman. How wonderful is the decay of prej- udices that seemed to be eternal ! Is this the Capitol in which Sumner fell under the blows of Brooks ? From which John Quincy Adams was sought to be expelled for words spoken in debate ? In which Toombs thundered, Keitt lightninged, and Wigfall threatened ? And as I turn from this profound lesson, and look over the fair city as it stretches before me from the west windows of the Congressional Library — in which I notice colored men and NATIONAL CONVENTIONS. 323 women reading in the quiet alcoves — I find other and even better manners. Cars traversing streets as clean as those of Paris in her best days, and carrying both races without protest, even from the delicate ex-rebel ladies who are coming back to us on their silken wings, ready to sell guns or carry claims, as opportunity offers ; the same schools for the education of black and white; colleges for the education of the freedmen; a great savings bank, in which the millions of former slaves are hoarded and increased; and, above all, a free press, that prints words and distributes thoughts which three years ago would have raised a mob and swung the writer to the lamp-post in front of his burning dwelling. And this social, political, and intellect- ual revolution is vindicated by results, which, like the glorious works of nature, give joy to all and real sorrow to none. The flowers and verdure of early spring, that bloom and grow all around us, are not more truly the proofs of the providence of God than all these changed manners at the nation's capital. [April 28, 1872.] LXIX. A National Convention of delegates representing one of the great political parties of a Republic like ours, called to nom- inate a candidate for President, is always interesting. No other country presents such a spectacle. The best ability is assem- bled. The sages and statesmen and the young men of the party take part in the deliberations, which are frequently inter- rupted by high excitement, and made historical by electrical dis- plays of oratory. The vindication by Judge Holt, of Kentucky, of the character of Richard M.Johnson in the National Conven- tion at Baltimore, thirty-six years ago, was a magnificent burst of eloquence. I read it in Greeley's Netv -Yorker^ of that day. 324 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. which spoke of it as a gem of finished rhetoric. The white- haired statesman who rides along Pennsylvania Avenue every morning, on his way to the office of the Judge Advocate-Gen- eral, is the same Joseph Holt whose youthful appearance and splendid argument thrilled the people in 1836. W.L.Yancey, of Alabama, was another of the bright lights of the Democratic National Convention, and was a captivating speaker, and, like most of the school of extreme Southerners, exceedingly courte- ous and refined. Never shall I forget the debate between Ben- jamin F.Butler, Mr. Van Buren's ex- Attorney-General, and Rob- ert J. Walker, Senator in Congress from Mississippi, in the con- vention of 1844, on the two-thirds rule. Van Buren, defeated in 1840 by Harrison, was again a candidate for the nomination, but he had faltered on the annexation of Texas, and, though he had a clear majority of the delegates, the adoption of the two- thirds rule ruined his prospects. Butler was no match for the keen little Senatorial Saladin; and when he rose to reply the House had already been conquered by the logic of his adver- sary. That convention was James Buchanan's first appearance as an aspirant for President, and had he remained in the field he would assuredly have been the candidate against Mr. Clay. Polk was an accidental selection, and was never dreamed of till the conflict made a compromise necessary. In 1848 Van Buren's men took ample revenge by running him as a volunteer candidate for President, and so defeating Cass and electing Taylor. Buchanan's adherents were on the ground, but he had contrived to lose the friendship of many of the leading men of Pennsylvania, and was coldly jostled ofi" the track. In that convention Preston King was the Van Buren leader, backed by David Wilmot, and when New York seceded the doom of the party was sounded. Daniel S. Dickinson headed the New York Hunkers, and took strong ground against the Little Magician, as Van Buren was called. King was cool, calm, and resolved, Dickinson witty and sarcastic, Wilmot aggressive and defiant, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 325 In 1852 Mr. Buchanan was again presented and defeated, Frank Pierce, another Accident, winning the prize. That year sound- ed the death-knell of the old Whig party. Rufus Choate was present in the Whig National Convention as the champion of Daniel Webster, and made a speech of marvelous force and beauty in his support, but in vain. The politicians wanted an Availability, and got him in General Scott, who was overthrown in November by the Democrats. On the fourth trial, in 1856, Mr. Buchanan was successful at Cincinnati, because of his supposed identity with the sentiment in favor of making Kansas a free State. That event lost Judge Douglas his chance. He was taken to Charleston, S. C, in i86o, and there defrauded, in ad- vance of his more deliberate slaughter at the adjourned con- vention in Baltimore. Young Breckinridge was the candidate of the extremists of that year, a curious sequel in a life which opened in 185 1 in Congress in avowed sympathy with the anti- slavery idea. Henry A. Wise, in his late work on John Tyler, reveals a pict- ure of the disappointed ambition of Henry Clay, when in 1840 he failed of the Whig nomination, and when he could easily have defeated Van Buren. Alas ! his fate had been the fate of many. Crawford, Calhoun, Cass, Douglas, all felt the same sharp sting before they were called away, and even some of those who won the golden bauble lived to find it a barren sceptre. A candidate for President soon realizes the value of political fealty, and I have often thought that in the nervous struggle for that high honor even the best man loses faith in others, and forgets his own obligations in his distrust of his sup- porters. The vast patronage of the office, and the vexations and heart-burnings of those who seek place, open a wide avenue to intrigue and deception. And yet, as a general thing, the conventions of the past have not been disgraced by corruption. Douglas was undoubtedly juggled in i860, but there was no direct use of money. He was simply overborne by the South. 326 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Lincoln was fairly chosen by the Republicans that year, but not until Mr. Seward had come to grief by having been compelled to drink of the bitter cup drained before by Cass, Webster, and Clay. As population increases and the Government grows more and more imperial, these quadrennial National Conventions become intensely important. It is no longer a question that they are the best methods for choosing Presidential candidates, and the fierce struggle for the control of the Government is itself one of the strong points in our system. That which adjourned in Cincinnati on Friday was more like a great town meeting than a National Convention ; but its work will be felt far and near. Among the characters most talked about in that body is Colo- nel A. K. McClure, of Pennsylvania. He is in the prime of life, about forty-three, of herculean frame, at least six feet two, winning address, and great powers of endurance. His career has been full of incident. Beginning life poor, as a country printer, he afterward studied law, and soon became a Whig leader. He is a consummate newspaper writer, and a fine speaker. Bold, dashing, resolute, and full of resources, he is a valuable friend and a dangerous foe. Among all the diversified elements of the Cincinnati gathering there was no one man, not even Carl Schurz, who has a better knowledge of public men and manners than McClure. I say all this the more freely because I think he has committed an irreparable mistake in opposing President Grant's re-election ; but as he owns him- self, I presume he best knows what he is about. [May 5, 1872.] PRESIDENTIAL LITERATURE. 327 LXX. A Presidential election always has its comic side, and if some of our book-makers would study the newspapers of the time, a mass of genuine wit and humor could be collected. The songs of the period, the jokes, the travesties, the satire, would fill volumes. Franklin would have made a splendid campaigner, with his keen sarcasm and his homely phrases, but he died be- fore the close of Washington's first term (April, 1790), and before he could realize the passions and prejudices that after- ward entered into these quadrennial struggles. The libels of Freneau, the fierce invectives of Cobbett, the short paragraphs of John Binns, all of them first appearing in Philadelphia, would interest the country if they could be reproduced to-day. George Dennison Prentice was, however, the prince of this style of writing. Beginning as the editor of the Louisville Jouriia^ in 1 83 1, he soon became a host in the opposition to Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, and other Democratic Presidents, and his epigrams, bright and sharp, often bordering on the severest personality, were far more effective than the heavy columns of his editorial foes. Duff Green, Shad Penn, Francis P. Blair, and Thomas Ritchie. And yet, while he could sting like a hornet, he could sing like a nightingale. It is not often that one who distilled such venom into his paragraphs, could exhale so much sweet fragrance from his poems. We had a rougher wit in William B. Conway, the editor of a little Democratic paper called The Moutitaineer^ printed in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, who threw off some of the finest party songs and repartees of his time. To Mr. Greeley, however, must be assigned the post of honor in making this sort of literature an effective weapon in Presi- dential elections. He started The Log Cahin^ in 1840, to aid in the election of Harrison and Tyler, and threw such force and 328 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. variety into it that it soon ran into an immense circulation, and became the basis of The Tribune, established in 184 1. A file of The Log Cabin would be choice reading, now that Mr. Greeley is himself a candidate for the highest office in the nation, and might be a model and guide to those who desire to make merry at the Philosopher's expense. From this example grew an army of imitators on both sides. Greeley's followers sung them- selves hoarse for " Tippecanoe, and Tyler, too ! " and the Van Burenites roared for their favorite in the famous ditty beginning — " When this old hat was new Van Buren was the man." Living men who saw those days will not forget the monster parades of the Whigs after the Maine election in 1840, when they chorused the popular refrain, opening and ending with *' Oh ! have you heard the news from Maine, Maine, Maine ?" a lesson not lost upon the Democrats four years after, when they took up the same song and thundered it back upon the Whigs, who lost Maine in the fall elections, and the Presidency in the November following. Tammany Hall came forth in a tumultuous delirium, making night hideous with exulting itera- tion. The elections of 1840 and 1844 were far more exciting than any of previous years, excepting always that of General Jackson in 1832, and the amount of speaking and writing was prodigious. All the best talent of those talking times was out : William Al- len, Thomas H. Benton, Silas A. Wright, Andrew Stevenson, Robert J. Walker, James Buchanan, Daniel S. Dickinson, C. C. Cambreling, George W. Barton, for the Democrats ; Webster, Choate, W. C. Preston, S. S. Prentiss, Thomas F. Marshall, for the Whigs, called out fearful crowds, whose glees and shouts rang from Maine to Georgia in response to the humor and in- vective of their orators and organs. Thomas F. Marshall's eel- PICTORIAL SATIRE. 329 ebrated speech at Nashville, in 1844, against Polk, contained an allusion to Old Hickory, then at the Hermitage, and even at his great age inspiring his hosts of friends, which ought not to be lost. I quote from memory. It is a little irreverent, but there is a spice in it that shows how freely we treated our idols a generation ago : "What a career has been that of Andrew Jackson ! A ca- reer of success by brutal self-will. No impediment stood in his way. If he saw and fancied a pretty woman, even though she was another man's wife, he took possession of her. If he entered a horse at a race, he frightened or jockeyed his com- petitor. If he was opposed by an independent man, he crushed him. He saw the country prosperous under the Bank of the United States, and shattered it from turret to foundation stone. His rule has been ruin to this people, his counsel full of calam- ity. And now, when he is approaching his last hours, when good men are praying that he may be punished for his many misdeeds, he turns Fresbyteria?i and cheats the devil himself ^ The war called out a flood of witty songs and speeches, and much fine poetry and prose in both sections, only a portion of which has formed several volumes of Frank Moore's invaluable " Rebellion Record;" but peace has made us less sentimental. Our satire now takes the shape of caricature. The photograph and the printed picture supplant the paragraph and the pali- node. Harper and Frank Leslie laugh at their adversaries through grotesque illustrations, and millions are satisfied or ir- ritated by sarcasm that needs no prose to strengthen, and no poetry to intensify. [May 12, 1872.] 330 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LXXI. One of the sweetest poets of any age was last Tuesday, May 14, 1872, laid away among the oaks and flowers and monu- ments of Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia. Thomas Bu- chanan Read, in his fifty-first year, left Rome a little more than a month ago on a brief visit to his native country, and on his arrival at New York sent me his card, now before me, with these words : " Shall see you soon. Aju coming home /" Poor fel- low! He is now at home — his last home. Rarely have so many gifts been found in one man. Painter, sculptor, poet; susceptible, high-strung, loving his country and his friends, his soul was too intense for his body, and, like the fabled sword, literally consumed its scabbard. The war brought us close to each other. Our sympathie.s were in common. His genial nat- ure, his genius, his brilliant conversation, his tenacious mem- ory, made him a delightful companion. Now he is gone, I love to cherish his memory. I wish I could describe his wit, elo- quence, and imagery. The rebellion touched his every chord, and roused him to superhuman efforts. His loyalty was an ecstasy, his pictures and his poems were effusions of purest in- spiration. ^Who will forget, that ever heard it, the manner in which Murdoch recited the great ode known as " The Patriot's Oath ?" I serve a double purpose in reproducing it, while my friend's grave is still covered with the freshest and loveliest flowers of May, and while the enemies of the nation are or- ganized to repossess themselves of the government. The cir- cumstances under which this wonderful lyric was composed de- serve preservation. The news of the brutal murder of General Robert McCook by guerrillas, while he was traveling in Ken- tucky during the war, reached Cincinnati when Mr. Read hap- pened to be in that city, and aroused universal indignation and horror. Mr. Read participated in this sentiment, and applied READ AND MURDOCH. 33 1 the oath of the ghost in Hamlet with thrilling effect. Shortly after, Mr. Murdoch was the guest of a Kentucky loyalist, at his residence in Danville, in that State. While partaking of his hospitalities, in company with a number of the leading men of the neighborhood, the question of allegiance to the General Government was warmly discussed. Mr. Murdoch's host re- marked that many of his friends, although patriotic, were not so clear on the subject of putting down the rebellion as he could wish them to be; upon which Murdoch said he did not desire a controversy, but if he were permitted he would appeal to their sympathies by an invocation to their duty and their principles. They gladly assented. He stood in the centre of the drawing- room with the gentlemen around him, and there recited this magnificent appeal. Intense silence pervaded the assemblage. At the close the entire group was spell-bound. Tears were streaming down the cheeks of many, while others, with the so- lemnity which marked the absorbing interest awakened by the poet, grasped the hands of their neighbors. The host turned to the sideboard in silence, and as each guest raised his glass to his lips there was a pause which seemed to render audible the words "We Swear." ^^ Hamlet. Swear on my sword. Ghost (below). Swear !" — Shakespeare. " Ye freemen, how long will ye stifle The vengeance that justice inspires ? With treason how long will ye trifle, And shame the proud name of your sires "i Out ! out with the sword and the rifle. In defense of your homes and your fires ! The flag of the old Revolution Swear firmly to serve and uphold, That no treasonous breath of pollution Shall tarnish one star on its fold. Swear ! And hark ! the deep voices replying. From graves where your fathers are lying — * Swear ! oh, swear !' 332 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. " In this moment, who hesitates barters The rights which his forefathers won; He forfeits all claim to the charters Transmitted from sire to son. Kneel, kneel at the graves of our martyrs, And swear on your sword and your gun; Lay up your great oath on an altar As huge and as strong as Stonehenge, And then, with sword, fire, and halter, Sweep down the field of revenge. Swear ! And hark ! the deep voices replying. From graves where your fathers are lying — * Swear ! oh, swear !' •' By the tombs of your sires and brothers, The host which the traitors have slain; By the tears of your sisters and mothers. In secret concealing their pain; The grief which the heroine smothers. Consuming the heart and the brain; By the sigh of the penniless widow, By the sob of our orphans' despair, Where they sit in their sorrowful shadow, Kneel, kneel, every freeman, and swear ! Swear ! And hark ! the deep voices replying. From graves where your fathers are lying — * Swear ! oh, sv/ear !' " On mounds which are wet with the weeping, Where a nation has bow'd to the sod, Where the noblest of martyrs are sleeping. Let the wind bear your vengeance abroad ; And your firm oaths be held in the keeping Of your patriot hearts and your God; Over Ellsworth, for whom the first tear rose, While to Baker and Lyon you look. By Winthrop, a star among heroes. By the blood of our murder'd McCook, Swear ! T. BUCHANAN READ. 333 And hark ! the deep voices replying, From graves where your fathers are lying — * Swear ! oh, swear !' " To add to the solemnity of the occasion, General Robert McCook's brother, George, was present, and was much affected by the unexpected mention of his murdered brother's name. " The Oath," rehearsed by Murdoch, is a drama in itself. Those present when, at the request of the lamented Lincoln, he re- peated it in the House of Representatives during the war, can vividly recall its effect. I have on more than one occasion witnessed the involuntary answer of thousands to this electric invocation. It is easy to imagine how it must have been re- ceived by the soldiers in the field when the enthusiastic histrion visited their camps. Identified with the war, he was particu- larly attached to Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Lincoln to him, so it happened that many of his productions had reference to the Martyr. One of the most prophetic of these were the allusions in "The New Pastoral," a poem written by Buchanan Read in 1850, which Murdoch read for the first time in the Hall of the House of Representatives, 1864, at a benefit for the sick and wounded soldiers. Just as he uttered the following prophecy concerning the future, Lincoln entered the chamber and took a seat on the right of the Speaker's stand : " Let Contemplation view the future scene ; Afar the woods before the vision fly. Swift as the shadow o'er the meadow grass Chased by the sunshine, and a realm of farms O'erspread the country wide, where many a spire Springs in the valleys, and on distant hills, The watch-towers of the land. Here quiet herds Shall crop the ample pasture, and on slopes Doze through the summer noon ; while every beast "Which prowls a terror to the frontier fold. Shall only live in some remembered tale, Told by tradition in the lighted hall, Where the red grate usurps the wooded hearth. 334 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Here shall the city spread its noisy streets, And groaning steamers chafe along the wharves ; While hourly o'er the plain, with streaming plume, Like a swift herald bringing news of peace. The rattling train shall fly ; and from the east — E'en from the Atlantic to the new-found shores Where far Pacific rolls in storm or rest, Washing his sands of gold — the arrowy track Shall stretch its iron band through all the land. Then these interior plains shall be as they Which hear the ocean roar ; and Northern lakes Shall bear their produce, and return them wealth, And Mississippi, father of the floods. Perform their errands to Mexico Gulf, And send them back the tropic bales and fruits. Then shall -the generation musing here Dream of the troublous days before their time, And antiquaries point the very spot Where rose the first rude cabin, and the space Where stood the forest chapel with its graves, And where the earliest marriage rites were said. Here, in the middle of the nation's arms. Perchance the mightiest inland mart shall spring ; Here the great statesman from the ranks of toil May rise, with judgment clear, as strong, as wise, And, with a well-directed, patriot blow, Reclinch the rivets in our Union bands Which tinkering knaves have striven to set ajar ! Here shall, perchance, the mighty bard be born. With voice to sweep and thrill the nation's heart, Like his own hand upon the corded harp. His songs shall be as precious girths of gold. Reaching through all the quarters of the land. Inlaid so deep within the country's weal That they shall hold when heavier bands shall fail, Eaten by rust or broke by traitor blows. Heaven speed his coming ! He is needed now ! O thou my country ! may the future see Thy shape majestic stand supreme as now. And every stain which mars thy starry robe In the white sun of truth be bleach'd awav ! THE RELICS. 335 Hold thy grand posture with unswerving mien, Firm as a statue proud of its bright form, Whose purity would daunt the vandal hand In fury raised to shatter ! From thine eye Let the clear light of freedom still dispread The broad, unclouded, stationary noon ! Still with thy right hand on the fasces lean, And with the other point the living source Whence all thy glory comes ; and where, unseen, But still all-seeing, the great patriot souls Whose swords and wisdom left us thus enrich'd. Look down and note how we fulfill our trust ! Still hold beneath thy fixed and sandaled foot The broken sceptre and the tyrant's gyves, And let thy stature shine above the world, A form of terror and of loveliness !" Lincoln was not observed at first. Gradually his presence was felt and applauded, which quickly became general, as the application to him of the poet's language was made apparent. This poem, written eleven years before the rebellion, was re- markable. Recalling it as a portrait of the coming man. Read wrote during the war the following, on the occasion of the pre- sentation to Mr. Lincoln of three ancient relics, consisting of a piece of Penn's Treaty Elm, of the old frigate Alliance^ and of the halyards of the sloop-of-war Ctimherlaiid, nobly apostro- phized by Boker in his great poem : "THE APOSTROPHE. "Great ruler, these are simple gifts to bring thee — Thee, doubly.great, the land's embodied will ; And simpler still the song I fain would sing thee ; In higher towers let greater poets ring thee Heroic chimes on Fame's immortal hill. " A decade of the years its flight has taken. Since I beheld and pictured ^^^th my pen How yet the land on ruin's brink might waken To find her temples rudely seized and shaken By traitorous demons in the forms of men. 336 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. " And I foresaw thy coming — even pointed The region where the day would find its man To reconstruct what treason had disjointed. I saw thy brow by Honesty anointed, While Wisdom taught thee all her noblest plan. " Thy natal stars, by angels' hands suspended, A holy trine, were Faith and Hope and Love — By these celestial guides art thou attended, Shedding perpetual lustre, calm and splendid. Around thy path, wherever thou dost move. ** No earthly lore of any art or science Can fill the places of these heavenly three ; Faith gives thy soul serene and fixed reliance, Hope to the darkest trial bids defiance. Love tempers all with her sublime decree. " 'Tis fitting, then, these relics full of story. Telling ancestral tales of land and sea — Each fragment a sublime memento mori Of heroes mantled in immortal glory — Should be consigned, great patriot, unto thee." I could fill a volume with reminiscences of Thomas Buchan- an Read. One of the giants of American literature said, "His poetry is the embodiment of nature's fanciful creation, of the exquisitely bright and the delicately beautiful, as expressed in the loves of the fairies and the poetry of the stars, in maiden purity and youthful heroism. His pictures are poems, and his poems are pictures." [May 19, 1872.] LXXH. More than fifty colored delegates in the Republican Nation- al Convention at Philadelphia, June 5, 1872 ! Shades of John C. Calhoun, Barnwell Rhett, Dixon H. Lewis, John Slidell, and ROBERT PURVIS. 337 W. L. Yancey, is this to be permitted ? Little did the lords of slavery twenty years ago think that such an offense would ever be dared. When I recall Dawson, of Louisiana, with his curls and jewels and gold-headed cane ; Ashe, of North Carolina, with his jolly yet imperious style j John S. Barbour, of Virginia, with his plantation manners; Governor Manning, of South Car- olina, as handsome as Mrs. Stowe's best picture of the old Southern school in " Uncle Tom's Cabin ;" Pierre Soule, with his handsome, haughty face, true types and apostles of the pe- culiar institution, I wonder how they would feel to see the South represented in a National Convention by their former slaves. A little more than ten years have sufficed to disprove all the predictions against the colored race, but in nothing so much as in the intelligence of their representative leaders, and in their own general improvement. If you were to compare the chiefs of the freedmen with the chief slaveholders, knowing them as I knew them, you would soon realize that John M. Langston, professor of the Law Department of the Howard University, is as thorough a lawyer as Pierre Soule in his best days; that Robert Brown Elliott is a better scholar and speaker than Lau- rence M. Keitt, who, having helped to create the rebellion, died in fighting for it ; and that Benjamin Sterling Turner, of Selma, Alabama, a self-educated slave, and now a freedman in Con- gress, is as practical a business man as John Forsyth or George S. Houston. Frederick Douglass was famous as an orator before the war. With the fall of slavery, however, he rose to the highest position. His eloquence is formed on the best models. Captivating, per- suasive, and often profound, he wields an increasing influence in both races. But among the colored delegates in the Republican National Convention none will attract more attention than Robert Pur- vis, of Philadelphia, I hope some day to relate the romance of his life. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, he left it fifty- P 338 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. three years ago, when he was about seven years old. A few weeks since he returned to his native city, and was eagerly wel- comed by his own people, and by many of the old citizens, who favorably remembered his father and mother, and had watched his own career with friendly eyes. The changes wrought in this more than half a century were more than revolutionary. The stone rejected by the builders had become the head of the col- umn. The magnates had disappeared, and those who made them so had taken their places. It was a bewildering dream ; yet the retributive fact stood prominent. The descendants of Calhoun, Rhett, M'Queen, Hayne, and Brooks no longer ruled like their fathers. New influences and new ideas prevailed. Mr. Purvis stood among his kindred like another Rip Van Winkle, with the difference that he was not forgotten ; and as he walked the streets of Columbia and re- ceived the ovation of his friends in Charleston, he saw and felt that, although slavery was dead and the old slave-lords deposed, the sun shone, the grass grew, the flowers bloomed, the birds caroled, and the waters run, as when the magnates lived on the labor of others as good as themselves, and often died confessing that their bad work must come to a bitter end. Robert Purvis is one of the best proofs of the influence of education, travel, good associations, and natural self-respect. Few would distinguish him to be what he often proudly calls himself, " a negro." His complexion is not darker than that of Soule or Manning. His manners are quiet and courtly. His general knowledge is large, and his conversation easy and intel- lectual. Educated at some of the best of our Philadelphia schools before there was any prejudice against the reputable man or woman of color, and when colored votes were thrown at all the elections, he has reached sixty, universally esteemed. His fam- ily is among the most refined in the aristocratic country neigh- borhood where he lives, and he commands respect of others by the courage with which he and his children respect themselves. THE COMING CENTENNIAL. 339 Yet while he walks erect in all circles, and yields to none in the graces of manhood, and in the observances of what we call society, he is the ardent friend of his people, determined that they shall eventually secure all their civil, as they have now their political, rights. No more useful or influential man will sit among the delegates to the Philadelphia National Convention, Wednesday, the 5th of June, 1872. As these colored colleagues of Robert Purvis from the South gather around their friend and teacher, how many a story they could relate of their individual lives ! Each has had his ro- mance of hard reality. Their struggles as slaves — their expe- rience as freedmen — their "hair-breadth 'scapes by flood and field " — their restoration to family and friends — the fate of their old " masters " — what material for the poet, the novelist, the historian, and the philanthropist ! [May 26, 1872.] LXXIII. Philadelphia was honored by a national convention in the shape of the Colonial Congress, which, ninety-six years ago, next 4th of July, proclaimed American independence. The body which is to assemble at the Academy of Music, Wednes- day, June 5, will be one of the only three that gave practical expression to the ideas of the Declaration. While slavery ex- isted, no national convention of any party could consistently plead for freedom. And as the years rolled on, the fetters of the bondmen were more closely riveted, and the chains of the political leader made heavier. Now all is in harmony with the protest and prophecy of Thomas Jeflerson and his compa- triots. Thousands will be present who never saw Philadelphia ; and if they will trace the growth of their country in the growth 340 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. of the City of Brotherly Love, they will study American history on the spot where American liberty was born. They will walk the streets trod by Washington. They will see the places de- scribed by Franklin in his incomparable autobiography. They will be taken to the spot where he was buried. They will re- alize where John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, Andrew Jack- son, Delegates or Senators in Congress, Cabinet Ministers, financiers, etc., lived in those trying times ; and as they follow up the progress of events from their source they will better un- derstand why President Grant is to-day the strongest public man in America. Discounted by the accidents, and, if you please, by the errors of all men in his position, you find the great fact remaining, that he is the only man who ever had the full opportunity, and seized that opportunity boldly, to prove his devotion to the principles of the Declaration of Indepen- dence. Without any thing like a party record, and without the slightest pretension, he has grasped the whole situation, with all its obligations, and has been as true to advanced Republican doctrines, as these have been crystallized by experience, as if he had made that species of philosophy a study. The danger has always been that those earliest in defending great truths become hypercritical as they grow old. Grant's rare merit is that he accepts a fact proved by trial, and incorporates it into his administration. In this respect he resembles George Wash- ington. Washington never was a political experimenter. He never reveled in theories. He was not carried away by vision- ary hopes of human perfectibility. He wrote little and spoke less. And yet, as President, he executed the laws, kept the peace between Hamilton and Jefferson, bore with the eccentric- ities of John Adams, and never lost his temper when Thomas Paine and Philip Francis Freneau hurled their bitterest shafts against his private character. I need not elaborate the paral- lel. You have Grant before you, and can do it without my aid. SENATOR HENRY WILSON. 341 Twenty-four hundred years of human effort, revolution, and ambition may be studied in the remains of ancient and the tri- umphs of modern Rome. With the torch of our new intelli- gence we light up and restore the memories of those almost forgotten centuries. "A railroad to Pompeii !" says that fasci- nating writer, George S. Hillard, of Boston, in his charming book, "Six Months in Italy" — "it seemed appropriate to be transported from the living and smiling present to the heart of the dead past by the swiftest and most powerful wings that modern invention has furnished." Our one century of govern- ment discloses wonders and trophies of another kind. The world has gone forward with the speed of magic, and as we turn back for a moment to contemplate what has been done in that cycle, what better aid could we have to illuminate our path than the living lessons of the city of Philadelphia, as taught by the men of the Revolution, whose posterity can even yet recall their features, and rejoice with us among thennagnificent harvest of the seed which they planted ninety-six years ago ? [June 2, 1872.] LXXIV. Henry Wilson, our candidate for Vice-President, is a fine example of the effect of free institutions upon the struggling youth of America, and also a proof of the practical consistency of the Republican party. I have known him well for over sev- enteen years. Twelve months younger than Mr. Sumner, he has always been his friend, even when compelled to differ with him. Wilson is one of the men who wear well Time and trial improve and ripen them. No day passes that they do not learn something. I met him while I was presiding over the House of Representatives in the stormy session of 1855-56, and had 342 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. a chance to study his character. He saw that the time was coming when Democrats hke myself would be compelled to choose between liberty and slavery, and his anxiety to secure such a reinforcement to his party was shown in his kindness to and confidence in that brave and earnest body of men. And when the storm broke, in 1858, and Buchanan sought to force the Lecompton Constitution upon Kansas, Henry Wilson threw himself with especial fervor among the revolting Democrats. He consulted with us and encouraged us ; he traveled far and near to effect co-operation and organization ; and when my name was presented for Clerk of the House in 1859, he insisted that I should be elected without pledges. These had been de- manded by some of the more violent Republicans, and sternly refused. I did not ask for the place, and would not have touched it if it had interfered with my independence as editor of The Press. Wilson declared that I was right, and with the aid of Charles Francfe Adams, John Hickman, John B. Has- kin, and John Schwartz, we organized the House, and soon after the anti-Lecompton Democrats constituted a resistless Republican reserve. Henry Wilson is a superb organizer. His temperate life and high principles, his fine health and strong convictions, his knowledge of the prejudices and wants of men, made him a great power against the rebellion, as well in the army as at the head of the Committee on Military Affairs. The amount of work performed was prodigious. He was a real break-of-day man — a sleepless, untiring, and unmurmuring pa- triot. A little too impulsive, perhaps, his is one of the truest of hearts, warm, generous, and forgiving. His frugal habits ac- cord with his strict integrity. He is inexpensive in his tastes and desires, and lives among his books and his friends. He visits a great deal, and reads much. Active and quick, regular in his seat in the Senate, he is often seen on the Avenue and in society, though he never touches wine or cigars. He is a thorough common-sense man, and a natural medium between DEMOCRACY FORTY YEARS AGO. 343 quarreling friends. His blows are for the enemy ; his forgive- ness for his associates. He hates corruption as he hated slav- ery, and he will go far to punish a faithless trustee. Such is our candidate for Vice-President. Is he not an argument in himself? Especially so when we reflect that this man w^orked for the lowest wages as a boy on a farm, and began to learn shoemaking when he was twenty-one years of age ! [June 9, 1872.] LXXV. I WAS a boy in a Lancaster printing-office when the Jackson party swallowed the old Federalists, and when the Democracy took a fresh start under the banner of Old Hickory. There had been no trenchant Democratic organization till that day, when the Iron President rallied and crystallized it. In 1824 every aspirant for President was a Democrat — Clay, J. Q. Ad- ams, Crawford, Calhoun, and, of course, Jackson; but there was no vigorous antagonism till the Whigs rose out of Mr. Clay's aspirations, and died with their decline. James Buchan- an was an early Federalist, and sat in the Pennsylvania Legis- lature from Lancaster as a Federalist, and afterward in Con- gress as a representative of the same party ; and when he join- ed the Democrats, under the Jackson standard, about 1828-30, he had to endure many bitter sneers from his old associates. They charged him with having gone over for a selfish purpose. They alleged that he ought to have been, in the logic of events, a good Whig ; but he pointed to the fact that the Jackson party contained thousands of Federalists as active as himself, and that many of the Whig leaders were once Democrats like Clay. This was the Democracy forty years ago. It has passed through many changes since, and survived many storms. It 344 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. killed the Whigs in 1844, the Native Americans in 1845, ^^le Taylorites in 1849-50, the AVebsterites in 1852, and the Know- Nothings in 1854. At last, however, it undertook a job bigger than itself. It entered into partnership with the rebellion, was bankrupted by the investment, and finally died in the arms of its ablest enemy, Horace Greeley. So history repeats as it runs ! Old Hickory made the modern Democracy, and Horace Greeley unmakes it ! The one presided at its marriage with the Federals in 1828-30, the other follows it to its grave in 1872. The real Democracy of our times is the Republican party, of which President Grant is the leader ; but from this hour, whatever may be the issue of next November's contest, there will be as earnest a rivalry to prove which is the better Republican as, forty years ago, there was to prove which was the better Democrat. Most of the politicians in those early days were anxious to show their devotion to the Democracy, and now John C. Breckinridge, Horatio Seymour, W. W. Cor- coran, Charles R. Buckalew, and even Jefferson Davis, are anx- ious to show their devotion to the Republicans. Thus we gath- er a great lesson over a grave. Under Jackson the old Feder- alists were buried in a Democratic sepulchre. Under Greeley the Democrats are buried in a Republican one. And now that the Republicans have fairly absorbed the Democrats, how long will the new departure last ? [July 21, 1872.] LXXVI. Massachusetts, and, indeed, most of the New England States — but Massachusetts above all — presents the very best modern ideal of a thorough Republic, not alone in her productive ca- pacities, nor yet in her scientific excellences, nor even in her THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 345 high collegiate establishments, but in the primary elements of general education, public lectures, town halls, large libraries, and local historians. The opportunities for universal informa- tion are most general, and almost perfect. The fundamental principle of republican government is typified in the frequent popular meetings, wherein are discussed all municipal necessi- ties, in spacious buildings, which can also be utilized for other purposes, and which are, in every case, I think, connected with libraries open to every class and condition. The result is an insatiate appetite for learning. The whole social frame-work is permeated by healthy competition. No ordinary or superfi- cial lecturer or book satisfies the public. Accustomed to read the best authors, they will tolerate none but the best of speak- ers. Agassiz, Emerson, and Dr. Holmes are preferred to fee- bly forcible wits and glittering declaimers. These are the in- fluences which produce so fine and wholesome a literature in New England — which open so many doors to Massachusetts scholars — which place Longfellow, Whittier, Bancroft, Motley, Hillard, Prescott, Dana, Lowell, Ticknor, and Sprague at the head of the American schools of learning — which send forth to States and Territories intelligent young men and women quali- fied to lead in art and in industry — whether these relate to the labor of the hands or to the labor of the brain. When Mr. Sumner returned from his last tour through Pennsylvania, after having repeated in many of our prominent places his great lect- ures on "Caste," "Lafayette," and "The Franco-Prussian War," he spoke in raptures of the extraordinary variety and fertility of our soil and our productions, especially of the wonderful min- eral and agricultural developments in such counties as Leba- non, Schuylkill, and Wyoming, and along the region of the Al- leghany Valley. " But," he remarked, " that which pained me, in the midst of all this affluence, was the absence in your most populous interior cities of libraries and town halls, such as we have in New England ; and I beg of you," he said to me, "to P2 346 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. employ your pen in calling the attention of the people of the Middle States to the vital importance of securing such insti- tutions wherever the population warrants them." As these thoughts occurred to me, I recalled an unpretending and hum- ble scholar — the most active and accurate, if not the most ele- gant and polished of our local historians — whose life in itself is an example to our youth, and whose efforts, extending through now nearly half a century, might have been fittingly imitated by men of loftier pretensions and more numerous acquirements. I deplore the fact that, whereas Massachusetts has at least one or two first-class historians and biographers in every county, Pennsylvania has yet to find a perfectly qualified mind to pre- pare or to compile such a book for the State itself as w^ould do justice to our past and our present, and fit us for the future, and at the same time stimulate others to follow in the lead of the subject of this notice — I. Daniel Rupp, Esq. He was born near Harrisburg in 1803, and is now living, in his seventieth year, at West Philadelphia. This quiet yet laborious man has produced a variety of works of all kinds — most of them de- voted to the early records of Pennsylvania. Allibone's " Dic- tionary of Authors" speaks of him as an industrious historian, translator, and agricultural writer. Without enumerating his productions on other subjects, the Pennsylvania reader will be surprised to see how much of his time has been given to that State, as proved by the following list : History of Lancaster County; History of the Counties of Berks, Lebanon, York, Northampton, Lehigh, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry ; History of Western Pennsylvania and the West, from 1754 to 1833 ; His- tory and Biography of Northumberland, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Centre, Union, Cambria, Juniata, and Clinton Counties, and a Collection of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and other Immigrants to Pennsylvania, originally covering a period from 1727 to 1776 — an invaluable A LOCAL HISTORIAN. 347 book to all persons anxious to ascertain the names of their an- cestors — now, I fear, almost out of print — published at Harris- burg on the 25th of January, 1856. He has also ready for the press a monograph of the Hessian mercenaries in the British service during the Revolution, from 1775 to 1783, and has been engaged since 1827 in collecting materials for an original his- tory of the German, Swiss, and Huguenot emigrants to Penn- sylvania. Owing to lack of means, this really useful work has not yet been published. Under New England influences it would long since have been given to the world. It must not be understood as depreciating my native State ; but is it not true that, with the exception of Breckinridge's Western Pennsylvania; Wat- son's Annals; the works of Chas. Minor ; Rupp's contributions above named, and a few excellent but incomplete memoirs, we are sadly deficient in literature inspired by our early struggles and present pre-eminence ? A history of Pennsylvania adapt- ed to the times has yet to be written. Mr. Sypher's book for schools has decided merits ; but we wait for a work equal to the traditions, the facts, the men, and the manners of past days brought down to the present time. When will that historian appear ? [July 28, 1872.] Lxxvn. No problem of modern civilization is so vexed as that of municipal government, or the difficulty of securing good rulers for great cities, of regulating taxation, and preserving the pub- lic credit. Paris became the dazzling metropolis of the Con- tinent under the irresponsible rule of Louis Napoleon, whose chief agent, Baron Haussman, executed his master's commands 348 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. without much regard for private rights, but certainly produced matchless results. The money spent and squandered upon the French capital under Haussman reached a fabulous sum, but the comforts and luxuries secured to strangers were equally un- usual. London is controlled by a number of corporate bodies, and many complaints are heard against their profligacy. Berlin and Vienna are magically improved in every direction. Brus- sels is a miniature Paris, and the Dutch cities. The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, are famous for their institutions of art and learning, and the comparative comfort of their over- taxed population. But these, like Edinburgh and Dublin, are governed rather by the monarch than by the people. It is when we come to apply popular rule to municipalities that the worst difficulties are encountered. The rapid growth of our American cities, the necessity for heavy expenditures in paved streets, public buildings, water, light, and the preservation of property, open the door to endless speculation. Boston is un- questionably the best-managed city in America, mainly because there is very little politics in its administration, a severe system of finance, a police extending over the State, and a rigid at- tendance at the primary elections by prominent men. He who visits AVashington to-day, after an absence of twenty years, will be amazed at its progress and its promises. We may prefigure its future by its contrast with the past. As we remember its dusty streets in summer and its muddy streets in winter, its poor hotels and boarding-houses, its miserable police, its disor- ganized finances, in the light of its increasing miles of broad and beautiful drives, its new temples of education and learning, its gallery of art, its splendid public edifices, with the superb Capitol crowning the whole, unsurpassed in the world, we may easily anticipate the day when Washington will be the favorite and the loveliest city on our side of the sea. President Grant struck the key-note when he appointed Henry D. Cooke Gov- ernor of the District of Columbia under the Congressional act GOVERNOR HENRY D. COOKE. 349 of reorganization, which made the popular branch of the local Legislature elective, and gave the people a Delegate in Con- gress. Mr. Cooke is one of the many proofs of the wisdom of our Chief Magistrate. He is just forty-seven, and when he ac- cepted the post had accumulated a handsome fortune, which placed him beyond temptation. "Whatever may be said of the propriety of opening public positions to every condition, expe- rience has proved that the mayor of a great city should be be- yond pecuniary want. Undoubtedly the choice of such a man as William M. Tweed at the head of perhaps the most impor- tant department in the city of New York opened the way to that series of speculations and corruptions which tottered to its fall, amid the congratulations of the people, in the autumn of 187 1. In olden times, the mayors (for instance) of Philadelphia were men who had acquired independence by long years of in- dustry and frugality, and our people proudly recall the days when worthy citizens like Wharton, Scott, and Page acted in that capacity. It is true, Philadelphia during that time was not what it is to-day, with its increasing population and necessities. Perhaps, if they were now in command, they would not escape the censure so fiercely passed upon their successors. Governor Cooke, at the head of the government of the District of Colum- bia, has come in for his full share of criticism, but his vindica- tion closely follows the proofs of the justice and the sagacity of his administration. His career is an example of his fitness to preside over the destinies of a great cosmopolitan centre. Born in Ohio, educated at Meadville, Pennsylvania, bred to the law, then a school-teacher and a newspaper editor in Philadel- phia, where he formed the acquaintance of literary lights like Joseph R. Chandler, Joseph C. Neal, and Robert T. Conrad, then Vice-Consul at one of the South American ports under his connection, Consul-General William G. Moorhead, more than twenty-five years ago, and finally finding fortune in acquiring a knowledge of banking under Jay Cooke, in Philadelphia, his 350 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. removal to Washington, at the beginning of Mr. Lincoln's administration, and his connection afterward with the great banking-house with which he is still identified, he has gather- ed enough knowledge of men to qualify him for the arduous services which have made Washington City what it is. Fine manners, princely hospitality, warm and ardent sympathies with the new citizens and the cause of universal education, make him acceptable to every class. Never a polidcian in the vulgar interpretation of that word, although a sincere and consist- ent Republican, and rich enough, as I have said, to escape suspicion, his intercourse with the Representatives and Sena- tors in Congress of every shade is agreeable to himself and profitable to his constituents. The generous bounty of Con- gress to the District at the last session, inspired by the explicit recommendations of General Grant in his annual message, is to be attributed to the confidence reposed in Governor Cooke; and when our law-makers meet in December they will be sur- prised at the enormous amount of work done under the au- spices of Governor Cooke and the energetic Board of Public Works appointed by the President, with Alexander R. Shep- herd at their head. In five years from to-day the District of Columbia will be the choice winter resort of the country, and will be to the people of wealth and intelligence — to inventors, our men of science, and to foreigners, an irresistible attraction. Directly connect- ed. North and South, by new railroads, and offering extraor- dinary inducements to persons of moderate means who desire to live in a healthy climate and to enjoy the best society, it will be sought by men from every State, whether as visitors or resi- dents. And when that day comes, no name will be more af- fectionately remembered and honored than that of Governor Henry D. Cooke. [August 4. 1872.] OUR FUTURE LEADERS. LXXVIII. 351 " Our future leaders — where are they to come from ?" was the question of a friend, a short time ago, after an interesting discussion on the necessity of securing the best material in the management of government, society, and business. We were looking out of the window of my editorial room in Philadelphia. I answered, pointing to the newsboys and bootblacks congre- gated at the corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets, " There are your future leaders. That little fellow with the curly hair is an embryo merchant; that one with torn trowsers is the sap- ling of a sturdy politician; that black-eyed lad is saving his money to pay for a collegiate education." And has it not been so of most of the strong men of our times? On the Pacific coast many of the great houses grew from just such seeds. Sargent, the United States Senator elect, visited Philadelphia twenty-five years ago to get work as a journeyman printer, and failed; Latham, the millionaire, who has been in both houses of Congress and Governor of the State, began life very poor; Broderick was in New York a Bowery boy in 1847; ^"d the railroad kings, most of them, began life as low down as the lit- tle Bohemians at our corner. The sons of the rich, the edu- cated darlings of the great families, are nowhere. All their gifts were so many fatal temptations, and they themselves are forgotten, like bad copies of good pictures. " It is the rough brake that virtue must go through." A recent writer insists that a grandfather is no longer a so- cial institution. Men do not live in the past. They rarely look back. " Forward !" is the universal cry. Perhaps our reverence for our ancestors suffers, but such a thing as a great family in this country helps nobody. Even the Adamses of the present day make litde out of their former generations of great- ness. Thomas Hughes struck the key-note when he said that 352 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. the absence of the laws of primogeniture and entail in this country opened a wide door to poor young men, and compelled the very rich to spend their money in good deeds to save it from being wasted by their posterity, and thus great fortunes change hands almost as rapidly as the changes of life. But we must not forget that many of the most useful and illustrious of the English leaders are the growth of the long years, of patient study and careful rearing of their fathers. One fault of our system is the absence of this very experience, and the presence of so much undisciplined intellect in our public places. Yet, with all these drawbacks, how easily the machinery of American government moves on; how successfully it survives accident; how providentially it seems to order and control itself! And, though we sometimes mourn for our great ones gone, there is not a day that does not teach the wholesome lesson that nobody is necessary or indispensable. Every hour some new man starts up to fill the vacancy made by the death of an old leader, and in nearly every instance the new man is found equal to the emergency. Ours may be called the Age of Utility. We are not prolific of statesmen or orators, and politics has degenerated into a poor strife between speculators and mediocrities. But for all this the country is safe. One such man as Leland Stan- ford, of the Central Pacific Railroad, or Dean Richmond, of the New York Central, or Ben Holliday, Jr., of Oregon, or John Ed- gar Thomson, or his vigorous vice-president, Thomas A. Scott, may do more practical good, and has more real power, than a Webster or Clay. And when we consider that, like Webster and Clay, they have all risen from small beginnings, is it going too far to say that they may purify and elevate our politics even as they extend their great enterprises and enrich themselves ? He who inherits wealth without mind is always sure to under- rate mind, but he who by sheer hard knocks works his own way through the rock of adversity into affluence, is sure to set a high price upon intellect. And thus it stands that many of WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 353 those who have grown to great riches by their own exertions have taken every opportunity, Hke Asa Packer, Pardee, Cornell, A. T. Stewart, George Peabody, and George W. Childs, to give liberally to the education of the masses from whom they sprang. [September 15, 1872.] LXXIX. I HAVE been enjoying, for the first time, William H. Seward's "Life of John Quincy Adams," published in 1849, and I pro- nounce it among the best biographies I ever read. It is the tribute of one great man to another. I do not compare Mr. Seward to John Quincy Adams, but if any writer in his forty- ninth year — the age when Seward wrote his life of Adams — would now undertake the same work for Seward, he would pro- duce a book of uncommon interest. Mr. Adams was over eighty when he died in the Capitol of the country he had served so well. Mr. Seward is now in his seventy-second year, and his experience, though not marked by the austere lines of that of Adams, is one of the eventful examples of our day. He " still lives" at Auburn, New York, in a body wrecked by accident and the assassin's dagger; but his intellect shines through the shattered casket like light through a ruined castle. He will be fortunate if the historian of his varied and somewhat grotesque career — a combination as it was of curious evolutions, daring experiments, and very great abilities — is as careful and thought- ful a delineator of human nature as the biographer of John Quincy Adams. But I did not intend to compliment Mr. Seward, nor to draw a parallel between him and John Quincy Adams, in nothing more striking than the fact that both are supposed to have kept a close and graphic detail or diary of their political and official 354 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. relations. The volume before me, chiefly the product of his brain, has been so long forgotten, and contains so many new suggestions, at least to the present generation, that a glance through its pages may be pleasant and profitable to the reader of these Anecdotes. The American progenitor of the Adams family was Henry Adams, who fled in 1639 from ecclesiastical oppression in En- gland, and was a member of the first Christian Church at Mount Wollaston, the present town of Quincy, Massachusetts, and died on the 8th of October, 1646. His memory is preserved by a plain granite monument in the burial-ground of Quincy, upon which John Adams, second President of the United States, caused the following inscription to be carved : "In Memory of " Who took his flight from the dragon Persecution in Devonshire, in En- gland, and alighted, with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England, and, after taking time to ex- plore the country, four removed to Medfield and the neighboring towns, two to Chelmsford. *' One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, who was an original proprietor in the Township of Braintree, incorporated in the year 1639. " This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great- great-grandson, from a veneration of the piety, humility, simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry, and perseverance of his ancestors, in hope of recommending an imitation of their virtues to their posterity." If we trace the descendants of Henry Adams we shall realize how faithfully the ideas carved on the stony monument of their great ancestor have been cherished. Three generations have attested their devotion to these valuable precepts. I recollect no American family that can point to so many great minds, all formed, as it were, upon one model. The sons of the living Charles Francis Adams, himself the son of John Quincy, are far above the common standard, John Quincy Adams, Jr., being a JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 355 political leader of acknowledged power, and a writer of uncom- mon gifts. But none of the name, not even the second Presi- dent, have made such a mark upon his age as the successor of James Monroe. Mr. Seward shows how carefully John Quincy Adams was trained for the battle of life. At a period when our American youth are too apt to neglect their precious and surpassing op- portunities, it may be useful to recall the boyhood of that re- markable man. Born at Quincy, May ii, 1767, he was literally cradled in the Revolution, and almost baptized in its blood. His great grandfather, Quincy, on his mother's side, was dying, and his daughter, grandmother of young John Quincy, was pres- ent at the birth of the latter, and insisted that he might receive the name of Quincy ; and in one of his letters the incident is thus referred to : " The fact, recorded by my father at the time, has connected with portions of my name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name. It was the name of one passing from earth to immortal- ity. These have been among the strongest links of my attach- ment to the narrie of Quincy, and have bee?t, through life, a per- petual admoJiition to do iiothmg tmworthy of it'^ Fortified by the example of his ancestors on both sides, and by the care of a cultivated father and a careful mother, he was so studious and manly that Edward Everett, in his eulogy, said : " There seemed to be in his life no such stage as that of boyhood." When only nine years old he wrote as follows to his father : "Braintree, June 2, 1777. "Dear Sir, — I love to receive letters very well, much better than I love to write them. My head is much too fickle. My thoughts are running after birds' eggs, play, and trifles, till I am vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me studying. I own I am ashamed of myself I have but just entered the third volume of Rollin's History, but designed to have got half through it by this time. I am determined this week to be more diligent. Mr. Thaxter [his teacher] is absent at court. I have set my- self a task this week— to read the third volume half out. If I can keep my 356 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. resolution, I may again at the end of the week give a better account of my- self. I wish, sir, you would give me in writing some instructions with re- gard to the use of my time, and advise me how to proportion my reading and play, and I will keep them by me and endeavor to follow them. With the present determination of growing better, I am, dear sir, your son, "John Quincy Adams. " P. S. — Sir, — If you will be so good as to favor me with a blank book, I will transcribe the most remarkable passages I meet with in my reading, which will serve to fix them upon my mind." Here we see the beginning of that extraordinary diary which was continued down to the period of his death in the Speaker's room of the House of Representatives, on the 23d of February, 1848. That great work has not yet seen the hght, but is in process of preparation for publication by his son, Charles Fran- cis Adams, and will be issued at an early day by the great house of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. The value of such a diary is proved by Mr. Seward's biography. It is in most cases infallible, and whenever Mr. Adams allowed a reference to be made to its pages, the evidence was decisive. Accurate and painstaking in every thing, living by rule, he stated a fact ex- actly as it occurred, and at the exact time, and from his author- ity there could be no appeal. Mr. Seward himself seems to have adopted John Quincy Adams as his model, at least in his later years. His late travels round the world, his steady refusal to intermix with passing politics, and his entire independence in the expression of his opinions, taken in connection with the general belief that he is busy preparing his own memoirs, show that, unlike most retired statesmen, he is not insensible of the world's judgment, and that in his old age he is still keenly alive to the progress of his country. But he can leave no memento that will do him more credit than his " Life of John Quincy Adams," published in 1849. [September 22, 1872.] WESTWARD ho! 357 LXXX. Now that the Territories have assumed a significance, not to say grandeur, unknown in the days of Jackson and Polk, we may better appreciate Thomas H. Benton's stereotyped advice whenever a young man called on him in Washington to ask his influence for a clerkship in one of the Departments : " Go to the Territories, sir; or to one of the new States. Go to Iowa or Missouri ; go to Wisconsin or Illinois. If you are a lawyer, hang out your shingle and show that you are deserving ; if a farmer, buy a quarter-section of land and cultivate it ; if a me- chanic, open your shop and work ; but don't stay here to burn yourself out with rum, or to rust with idleness. Do any thing but serve as a slave in one of these wretched bureaus." Good advice thirty, forty, even fifty years ago, and better to-day. The men who went forth into the Territories in Benton's time, when he left Tennessee for Missouri, or when Sam Houston left Ten- nessee for Texas, or when John C. Breckinridge tried his young fortunes by removing from Kentucky to Iowa, after the Mexican war ; like the early pioneers to other regions, when the West was bounded by the Missouri River — these men had a hard time of it. They had to meet not only a primitive people, but to traverse a primitive country, with few or no conveniences, either of food or of shelter, and to give weeks and months of valuable time before they reached their destination. How dif- ferent to-day ! We go West in palace cars, swift " as the sight- less couriers of the air," to find even in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and in the defiles of the Sierras, the best luxuries of life, and the choicest temptations to business enterprise or professional ambition. These modern inducements take off much of the superior material of the older States, and we need not be surprised if the West and the Pacific slope furnish, here- after, the strongest minds in public affairs. Perhaps the mani- 358 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. fest depreciation of the lawyers of the old States is to be attrib- uted to the exodus to the more attractive fields of our young men. Brains have not long to wait for employment in the Ter- ritories; they are in constant demand, and always at a premi- um. Money goes a great way, but it can not forever buy me- diocrity into office. There are too many competitors for the prizes, and in fact too much capital in the hands of able men to give an inferior man a superior chance. No doubt money decides many a contest, but the winner is nearly always fit to fill the place he secures. As the opportunities for wealth in- crease with the chances for preferment, you may prepare for a new rush to the Territories without parallel. We are, in fact, in the mere infancy of development. Marvelous as the con- trast is between the present and the past, it is as nothing to the contrast between the present and the near future. Our prog- ress has many opulent worlds to redeem and some to conquer from our neighbors. Men like Senators Nye and Stewart, of Nevada, Governor Evans, of Colorado, Governor McCormick, of Arizona, Ben HoUiday, of Oregon, and W. C. Rallston, of California, fortunate and honored as they are, will be succeed- ed by intellects as marked, and by success as brilliant ; and most of us will live to see it for ourselves, and to realize that, however heavy the reinforcements, there is room enough and reward enough for all. [October 6, 1872.] LXXXI. Now we add to the catalogue of the suddenly called the name of the beloved William Prescott Smith, of Baltimore, who died last Tuesday evening, October i, in his forty-eighth year. It seems only yesterday that I rode with him to Philadelphia, WILLIAM PRESCOTT SMITH. 359 the time passing swiftly under the influence of his pathos and humor. I can recall no character that filled a larger space with brighter gifts. He was in every respect an original man, a combination and a form indeed of most diversified • qualities. For many years identified with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and lately recalled to an important position in its management, he was as accurate in his business aptitudes as he was genial in social and literary circles. Successful alike in his dealings with the stern chiefs of great enterprises, he was beloved by all his associates and subordinates, and when he turned from work, to rest from his official duties, to books and the fine arts, he was a companion for scholars and statesmen. Nature had endowed him with a rarely handsome form and features. His manners were unusually fascinating ; his tastes were cultivated and re- fined j his memory acute and tenacious ; his knowledge of men most thorough. Modest and retiring, he bore himself like a prince in every presence. His ambition seemed to be to make others happy. In society always a universal favorite, and in- vited every where, his wit shone and sparkled, but never stung. He had no enmities and few enemies, never mixed in politics, and conciliated the affection and confidence of most antagonist- ic elements. His genius was as marked in the hard attritions of railroad competition as in the skill with which he invented the means of intellectual enjoyment. To soften asperities, to smooth the pathway of life, to befriend the distressed, and to help forward poor young men, these were his chosen ambitions. His mind was instinctively elevated, and when he threw off his daily cares it was surprising to note the variety and purity of his comic talent. Who that ever witnessed his imitations and his burlesques can recall one that approached vulgarity ? I re- member our voyage across the Atlantic, our rambles through England, and our experiences in France ; how fresh and ever- renewing his fun; how vivid his perceptions; how full and ripe his knowledge as he reviewed it in the famous historical places ; 360 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. and how, when he longed for home, he would brighten the gloom with some fitting story, or mimic one of the many odd foreigners around us. He was naturally considerate and un- selfish, and his deafness made me always anxious to amuse him by that which pleased his eye ; but he would anticipate me by taking tickets for the theatre or the lecture-room, and, though he could scarcely hear a word, would appear to enjoy himself like others. He had a habit of ridiculing politicians by making speeches in which he would travestie their manners and make them express thoughts exactly opposite to their own. No com- edy ever surpassed these capital scenes, and when he had his friends around him at his own house, he delighted to surprise them by some entertainment, always novel and yet always point- ed with a moral. Who can ever forget his Washington's Fare- well Address in the Revolutionary costume of the Father of his Country ? It was a composition worthy of Boucicault or Dick- ens. These and his books were the pleasures of his leisure hours. And now our friend, so full of health and hope only a few days ago, is laid away among his fathers. Lost to us his beaming smile, his splendid form, his grace, his courtesy, his flowing humor, his gentleness, and his generosity ; every thing gone but their memory, which will live long in the hearts of thousands who were made happy by his own happy nature, and better by a native toleration and affection at once impartial and sincere. [October 6, 1872.] LXXXII. Presidential elections are proverbially uncertain until the October contests are decided, and many conflicting hopes are entertained by rival parties. The exultation of the victors and PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 36 1 the disappointment of the vanquished are naturally extreme. Never shall I forget the exciting struggle in 1844, when James K. Polk defeated Henry Clay. The rejoicing of the Democrats and the agony of the Whigs of Philadelphia were literally ter- rific. Francis R. Shunk had been elected Governor of Penn- sylvania in the previous October by a small majority, and the struggle in November was intense. Immense sums were haz- arded by the betting men ; but when the October fiat was pro- nounced in Pennsylvania, the verdict in November was decided. It also practically decided the fate of the Whigs as a party. Mr. Clay was regarded as so far superior to Mr. Polk that the triumph of the latter was accepted as the recognition of a mere politician and the degradation of a great statesman. The Ken- tuckian never recovered from it. His real chance was lost in 1840, when Harrison was elected over Van Buren, and I was not surprised at his violence after his party had preferred a military availability, so graphically described by Henry A. Wise in his biography of John Tyler, just published by J. B. Lippin- cott. There was no actual contest in 1848, for the Democrats, were divided between Cass and Van Buren, and General Tay- lor had an easy time of it. In 1852 the Whigs made their last Stand as a party. Having set Mr. Clay aside in 1844, they ig- nored Webster for Scott in 1852, and broke the heart of the great New-Englander. Pierce literally walked over the course, aided by hosts of angry Whigs. But in 1856 the old fires were relighted. The Republicans came on the stage that year in great force, openly flying the banner of anti-slavery, and they would have won but for the pledges of the Democratic candi- date of justice to Kansas. The October fight in 1856 in Penn- sylvania decided the Presidency. The Democratic majority was small, but it did the work in November. In i860 there was again not much of a struggle, for there was a hopeless di- vision among the Democrats, who from that time began to grow weaker and weaker, until their folly ripened into the rebellion. Q 362 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. That overthrown, the drama was soon ended. Their single hope of recovery, after General Grant's inevitable re-election, is to accept Republican ideas in full, and to earn the confidence of the country by long and honest devotion to them. Equanimity in defeat is as pleasant, and yet as difficult to exercise, as magnanimity in victory. A good story is told of the veteran Major Noah, of New York, who, after having been several times chosen to a valuable local office, lost renomina- tion and ran as a stump candidate, and was badly beaten. His negro man, not realizing the event, and not understanding that the groans of the nocturnal visitors to the Major's mansion were any different from their cheers of former times when they came to congratulate him on his triumph, rushed to his master's study, exclaiming, " The boys are at the door, and want to see you." "Give them my respects, Sam," was the good-natured reply, "and tell them they have left the Democratic party." Mr. Clay once sarcastically announced to Van Buren, while the latter was Vice-President, a great Whig triumph, upon which Van Buren left the chair, and, walking to the Kentucky Sena- tor's seat, took a pinch of snuff out of his box, and then drew himself up directly in front of him and heard him through. I saw Judge Douglas in the House of Representatives in Febru- ary of 1 86 1, while the electoral votes were being counted, an- nouncing his defeat and Lincoln's election, and could not suffi- ciently admire his honho7iiie and wit. It was a period of painr ful suspense. Breckinridge, as Vice-President, was president of the convention of the two houses, and had himself been de- feated for the first office in the nation. Many of the Southern Senators and members had left their seats in advance of the formal act of secession, and some of those who remained were glowering over the constitutional act of recording the vote of the people in favor of the abolitionist, Abraham Lincoln. They had a special hatred of Douglas, whose refusal to yield to Breck- inridge had given the election to Lincoln ; but how well he bore "stop my paper!" 363 himself, how jovially, how easily, none but those who saw him can conceive. Hate and distrust around him — the hate of the Democrats and the distrust of the Republicans ; but through all he bore himself like the truly great man he was. In six months he was in his grave. [October 14, 1872.] LXXXIII. During the exciting contest led by the Philadelphia Press against James Buchanan's Administration, I was invited on the evening of October 28, 1858, to speak in the beautiful city of Camden, New Jersey. My audience was large, and my recep- tion cordial. The Press had attained a considerable circulation in Camden, and a great majority of all parties sympathized with me in my somewhat hazardous and independent stand. The following passage from my speech I take from The Press the next day, October 29, 1858 : " Now, gendemen, I have a most melancholy announcement to make. It is that the newspaper The Press is stopped — my Press is stopped. [Sensation.] I did not expect, in coming here, to be compelled to make this sorrowful announcement, but it is nevertheless the fact. The Press is stopped, not the establishment, but the single copy which the President of the United States takes — it is stopped. [Long-continued shouts of laughter.] I suppose I shall survive it. [Renewed laugh- ter.] I have no doubt I shall survive it. But it was a terrible blow. I do not think ever two cents created so much havoc before. But we shall recover ; we shall get over it. And now for the bright part of the story : I shall receive in a few days almost the only dollar that I have ever received from the Fed- eral Administration — which will be about $7 50 in payment of 364 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. The Press. [Laughter.] We see that this proscription runs from great to small. It attacks a popular tribune, and it strikes down a newspaper. It turns out a postmaster, and it refuses to pay two cents to an independent journal. " ' To such base uses must we come at last.' " Thus we see the Administration of the Federal Government, presiding over thirty millions of people, with all its vast patron- age, with all its great power, forgetting all its duties and all its pledges, and becoming a party to the petty proscriptions which village politicians would despise, and which honorable men would laugh at. [Applause.] "When this Administration policy was first announced, I said, in The Press, that the effect would be to disgrace the party, un- less the party should repudiate it ; and, in the next place, to de- feat hundreds of men who would be put upon Democratic tick- ets, not having had any thing to do with the betrayal. Such has been the result. Many and many a glorious Democrat, placed upon the Democratic ticket, has been sent to obscurity because the opposition party has risen against the mistakes of the Federal Administration, and because the Democratic party, through the conventions of its office-holders, has been committed to these mistakes and pledged to support them as a portion of the party duty. "You have seen how this petty proscription has extended itself to citizens of your own vicinity. I need not mention names ; they are all famiHar to you. But it is well that it is so ; it is better that it is so — it is a great deal better. We have had a trial that has done us all good. It has taught all parties that the day for betraying public opinion and for violating sol- emn pledges has gone. You will have no more traitors. The men who go to Congress now, if they desire to live and to die respected, will stand by the pledges which they make." This transaction proved not so much the prejudice of my old friend, Buchanan, as it did his littleness ; and now, in the new WILLIAM M. SWAIN. 365 and difficult path I am treading, I quote the example of 1858 to show how history repeats itself in 1872. That remarkable man, remarkable in almost every sense, the lamented William M. Swain, one of the proprietors and founders of the Public Ledger, always liked to relate the incident from which I took the idea that excited the risibilities of my Camden audience. The story is so much better told by my friend J. D. Stockton, of the Philadelphia Mor7iiiig Post, that I use his words : " By his course in regard to some public matter he had of- fended a number of his readers, one of whom met him on Chest- nut Street, and thus accosted him : " ' Mr. Swain, I've stopped The Ledger' "'What is that, sir?' " ' I've stopped The Ledger,' was the stern reply. " ' Great heavens !' said Mr. Swain ; ' my dear sir, that won't do. Come with me to the office. This must be looked into.' And taking the man with him, he entered the office at Third and Chestnut Streets. There they found the clerks busy at their desks ; then they ascended to the editorial-rooms and the composing-rooms, where all was as usual ; finally, they de- scended to the press-rooms, where the engineers were at work. " ' I thought you told me you had stopped The Ledger,' said Mr. Swain. " ' So I have,' said the offended subscriber. " ' I don't see the stoppage. The Ledger seems to be going on." " ' Oh ! I mean to say— that is, that 7— ah — had stopped tak- ing it.' "'Is that all!' exclaimed Mr. Swain. 'Why, my dear sir, you don't know how you alarmed me. As for your individual subscription, I care very little. Good-day, sir, and never make such rash assertions again.' " ;^66 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LXXXIV. Henry Wikoff, better known as " the Chevalier," was born in Philadelphia, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He must now be over sixty, though his adventures would indicate him to be a much older man. He is living in London at present, and is still a devoted adherent of Louis Napoleon, who has retired with Eugene and the Prince Impe- rial to Chiselhurst, some twelve miles from that great metrop- olis. Chevalier Wikoff is one of his constant attendants and friends. His devotion to Louis Napoleon began more than a quarter of a century ago. He visited him when he was a pris- oner at the Castle of Ham, in 1845, three years before he was made President of France, and wrote a " biography and per- sonal recollections " of him in 1849. Very near him when he became Emperor, he enjoyed large advantages during the brill- iant era between the cot/p d'etat of 185 1 and the flight after the fall of Sedan, in 1870. Once more an exile, Louis Napoleon has no more devoted supporter than Wikoff. A characteristic of this citizen of the world is his attachment to celebrated peo- ple. His early relations with Fanny Elssler, marked by a bit- ter quarrel with James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Her- ald^ closed in the warmest friendship with the veteran journalist, which remained unbroken down to his death. You might travel a long way before meeting a more pleasant companion than the cosmopolite Wikoff. He has seen more of the world than most men, has mingled with society of every shade and grade, has tasted of poverty and affluence, talks sev- eral languages fluently, is skilled in etiquette, art, and literature, and, without proclaimed convictions, is a shrewd politician, who understands the motives and opinions of others. He has writ- ten several books in addition to the biography of his idol, Louis Napoleon, including his strange experience with Miss Gamble, HENRY WIKOFF. 367 entitled " My Courtship and its Consequences," " The Advent- ures of a Roving Diplomatist," "A New-Yorker in the Foreign Office, and his Adventures in Paris." Here we have the photo- graphs of his life. From these we realize how such a character would entertain an editor like Bennett, a statesman like Buchan- an, a monarch like Louis Napoleon. Ranging through all socie- ty, he can talk of love, law, literature, and war ; can describe the rulers and thinkers of his time, can gossip of courts and cabi- nets, of the boudoir and the salon, of commerce and the Church, of the peer and the pauper, of Dickens and Thackeray, of Vic- tor Hugo and Louis Blanc, of Lamartine and Laboulaye, of Garibaldi and the Pope, of Lincoln and Stanton, of Buchanan and Pierce, of the North and the South, of the opera and the theatre, of General Sickles and Tammany Hall, and of the inner life of almost any capital in the world. With such gifts, aided by an air disfmgiie, a fine address and a manner after the En- glish model, Wikoff has the e?itree in many circles which higher intellect and deservings can never penetrate. Wikoff's diplomacy was never better illustrated than in mak- ing James Gordon Bennett and James Buchanan friends. Ben- nett had taken great dislike to Buchanan, and opposed his election in 1856 with unsparing severity. Never was The Her- ald more sarcastic. Every paragraph told ; every sentence touched the sensitive nerve ; and when the fight was over, and Mr. Buchanan was successful, the rejoicing was not less general because it was supposed that Bennett had been annihilated. But now Wikoff began to operate. He knew how much Bu- chanan feared a great newspaper, especially an independent one like The Herald, and he soon convinced Buchanan that it would be fortunate if he could secure The Herald 2a a supporter of his Administration. I do not think any consideration was named, for, whatever may be said of Mr. Bennett, he accepted no office while he was a journalist, though it is known that more than once high position was tendered to him. At all events. 368 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN, The Herald changed tack promptly and gracefully, and WikofF was ever after a welcome visitor at the White House. The Presidential mind was set at ease, until the Kansas war broke out, when The Herald faithfully represented public opinion, and warned the Administration of the folly of its course. Count d'Orsay was evidently Wikoff's ideal, and the two men were much alike. It was d'Orsay that effected the interview between Louis Napoleon and Wikoff in 1845. The following extract from the opening pages of Wikoff's book, describing this visit, is interesting, as it is a fair specimen of the style of the Chevalier, and a fair portrait of the titled exquisite he tries to imitate. This passage is not less curious because Wikoff is just now the courteous intermediary between Louis Napoleon, ex-Emperor, and such Americans as desire to pay him their respects in his retreat at Chiselhurst : " In passing from Philadelphia to New York, in the summer of 1845, j^st previous to my departure for Europe, I stopped at the princely residence of the late Joseph Bonaparte (near Bor- dentown), ex-King of Spain, to make 7Jies adieiix to its present owner, the young Prince de Musignano, who, having inherited this, along with other valuable property in this country, from his grandfather, had just arrived from Italy to take possession. " The few brief hours to which I was limited sped rapidly in the gay society of my affable host and his intelligent compan- ion, M. Maillard, and we had barely time to glance at the num- berless and splendid objects of art and curiosity which embel- lished this luxurious mansion, when a servant announced the approach of the New York train. " As I was hurrying away the Prince remarked, ' You are go- ing to France ; why not make an effort to see my unfortunate cousin, Prince Louis ? He will be glad, I am sure, to meet an old acquaintance, and I should be delighted, on your return, to receive personal tidings of his health, which, I am distressed to learn, is sadly deranged by his imprisonment. If you should COUNT D'ORSAY. 369 succeed, tell him * * ^ And say, also, that my best wishes are with him.' "I relate this simple circumstance because it explains in a word why I formed a resolution on the instant to get an interior view of the Citadel of Ham, if such an enterprise should prove at all compatible with the very rigid notions of political seclu- sion entertained by Louis Philippe and his Ministers. During my stay in London I mentioned my project to several friends of Prince Louis, who thought the idea rather quixotic, as the Government suffered no relations of any sort to be kept up with the lone captive of Ham. The late well-known refusal to al- low one of his family, sojourning by permission for a few days at Paris, to visit him, was suggested as a proof of the impracti- cability, if not absurdity, of my hopes. There was one individ- ual, however, whose views were more sanguine, and I was nat- urally more inclined to coincide with him. But there were bet- ter reasons still to rely on, whatever advice he gave. I am speaking of the far-famed Count Alfred d'Orsay, whose reputa- tion is spread over the fashionable world of Europe and Ameri- ca, but whose real merits soar much beyond the frivolous ac- complishments which have given him such wide celebrity. To be celebrated at all, no matter by what means, be they high or low, elevated or vulgar, talent I consider is indispensable ; and to obtain the social position held at one epoch by a Beau Brum- mel, and, at a later, by a Count d'Orsay, nothing short of men- tal superiority of a high cast is requisite. This idea is fully sup- ported, at all events, in the present instance, for I have seldom, in any rank of life, or among the higher grades of employment, encountered intellectual qualities of rarer excellence than those which distinguish a man chiefly known in the light of a vain ' carpet knight.' An elegant and fascinating man of the world he undoubtedly is. An adept in dress, easy in manners, ac- complished in the conventions of the drawing-room — a science apart, made up of the dictates of good-breeding and the require- Q.2 370 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. ments of etiquette — fertile in conversation, and of brilliant wit, the Count d'Orsay is certainly well-qualified to realize our vis- ionary ideas of that paragon of whom the poet dscribes as ' the glass of fashion and the mould of form.' Those, however, are rather the endowments which would secure him pre-eminence in the land of his birth ; for France \spar excellence the land of society, and to succeed there, grace of manner and charms of mind are indispensable. But in England the case is very dif- ferent ; and Count d'Orsay, with all his savoir faire, would nev- er have reached the position he has held for so many years un- rivaled, without an equal skill and proficiency in those ruder but still manly accomplishments which constitute the basis of his English popularity. The best rider, the most daring sports- man, the skillful bettor, the inimitable shot, the unrivaled spar- rer, these are the merits towering in English eyes, and which have made his name in England so long familiar as a household word. Of later years, abandoning these grosser occupations, he has, with that well-poised efibrt which never falls short of its mark, and which explains his marvelous success in all he has undertaken, given himself wholly up to art, and his produc- tions in painting and statuary have already thrown the world of taste in commotion, and are building him a reputation which, if less sounding than that he has hitherto enjoyed, is infinitely more enviable. But to me the attractive feature of Count d'Orsay's character has always been what the promiscuous world he lives in knows nothing about, and that is, his cultivated and aspiring intellect, which, in depth and keenness, is adequate to the com- prehension of the grandest questions, and capable of estimating them accurately in their nicest details. His knowledge of men and things is extensive and rare, and his criticisms overflow with point ^nd finesse. It is little imagined by the giddy crowd around him, whose dullness is enlivened by his wit, that the showy man of fashion is a studious thinker and a careful writer, and that the moments of leisure, stolen from the gay dissipa- HENRY WIKOFF. 37 1 tions of the London world, have been devoted to the record of his impressions on life, numbering some seven volumes of man- uscript. Their merit may be inferred from the glowing praise bestowed by Lord Byron on his traveling journal, written when only twenty years of age. In a word. Count d'Orsay may be esteemed beyond comparison the Admirable Crichton of the day, and I have cheerfully allowed myself to run into this digression concerning this remarkable person, as so enviable a chance may never offer to give the result of many years' observation of a character variously interpreted and little understood.' " Men have different tastes. Some aspire to wealth, some to high office, some to scientific fame, and others to excellence in works of charity ; but Wikoff is only happy in the society of the cultivated and the powerful. He is the Boswell of our day, who prefers to bask in the fame of others rather than in the milder radiance of his own. He must not be called mercenary. Unlike the favorites that were sunned and ripened in the smiles of Louis Napoleon, he sticks to the unfortunate Emperor. He clung to General Sickles in his darkest hour, and though he sturdily stood by James Gordon Bennett, the rich man, he was also one of his most industrious correspondents. But he never quarrels with power if he can get on peacefully. Politics make no difference with him. He was just as friendly with Lincoln as with Buchanan, and did Mr. Seward's work as faithfully as that of Louis Napoleon. One of his mottoes is never to adopt the enmities of others, but to make life pleasant, and to culti- vate kindly relations with " all the world and the rest of man- kind," as President Taylor said with awkward benevolence in his first and last message to Congress. [October 27, 1872.] 372 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. LXXXV. What a mine of incident is such a life as that of William H. Seward ! He dies at a time when at least one of his theories is practicalized. He has been pleading for reconciliation for a long time, and he dies in the midst of reconciliation. The advanced anti-slavery leader, he has always been one of the most moderate and conciliatory of men. In 1860-61, after Mr. Lincoln's election, Mr. Seward was distinguished for his efforts to keep the peace between the sections. The Southern men were violent. Wigfall thundered his anathemas ; Slidell was satirical ; Toombs was threatening ; Mason was dictatorial — but, obedient to Mr. Seward's counsel, the Republicans, having won the administration of the Government, were generally si- lent. Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, broke the bonds in De- cember of i860, and again in February of 186 1, and bold Ben Wade, of Ohio, answered the South in the fiercest rhetoric. Mr. Lincoln surprised every body by a visit to the Hall of Con- gress on the 23d or 24th of February, 1861, in company with Mr. Seward, then known to be his Secretary of State, and the exceeding mildness of his inaugural address — the succeeding inauguration speech of March 4 — was undoubtedly inspired by Mr. Seward's counsel. He knew at an early date that Mr. Lincoln's life was threatened ; he had a full foretaste of the conspiracy which, four years after, in April of 1865, killed Mr. Lincoln and came near killing himself; and his effort was to ward off the blow that finally and fatally fell. It is a curious comment on the times that the most generous and magnanimous men of the first real Republican administration of the Govern- ment should have been the first official victims of the pro-slav- ery fanatics. Had Lincoln lived, the whole current of legisla- tion would have been different. I am disposed to believe that his death did not force more vigorous measures, though Andrew WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 373 Johnson was a sad supplement in himself. He offered much, and lost all, to the South, and he made a rigid reconstruction so necessary that even the men who complain of it most no longer deny that it was justified. I heard an anecdote of Mr. Seward's patient temperament a few days ago that deserves mention. In June of 1856, after Preston S. Brooks committed his brutal assault on Charles Sumner, Mrs. Seward was exceedingly anxious for the safety of her husband, and advised him to protect himself. "Well, my dear," was the answer, " what shall I do ? I am a man of peace ; I never reply to personal attacks; how am I to defend myself.^ Shall I go to the Senate with a musket or rifle on my shoulder ? If I use pistols, I am sure you will not ask me to shoot anybody without notice. You say no. Well, then, it will be my duty, if I carry revolvers, to lay them on my Sena- torial desk, so that all men may see that I am ready to kill any- body at a moment's notice. I think this .is my best weapon," he said, as he closed the interview, and picked up the whip he carried as a sort of metaphorical help to the old horse that car- ried him to the Capitol. He goes hence to the mysterious world, while Thurlow Weed, his devoted chief, is dying, and while the house of Horace Gree- ley, his early advocate, is stricken with unspeakable woe. So the "human ocean" moves on. Like the eternal sea itself, its current is perpetual, though millions live on its bosom and per- ish in its depths. [November 3, 1872.] LXXXVI. I MET, a few days ago, one of the members of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-fourth Congress, and together we talked over the exciting session during which, as Clerk 374 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. of the old House, I officiated as presiding officer when the new body was preparing to organize. It was a long and angry struggle, and from December 2, 1855, to February 2, 1856, I played Speaker to the best of my ability, receiving, when the contest closed, the unanimous thanks of the House, and double the Speaker's pay. My friend Horace Greeley was the chief correspondent of the New York Tribime^ and at first severely criticised me because he thought I was a prejudiced partisan ; but, as the fight progressed, he discarded his suspicions and stood by me to the end, going so far, in 1857, as to ask Presi- dent Buchanan, in an editorial article, to put me in his Cabinet — a compliment, by the way, which I had the honor to recipro- cate four years after, in i860, when Mr. Lincoln wrote me a let- ter of thanks for my opposition to the Buchanan Administra- tion, in reply to which I suggested Horace Greeley for his Postmaster -General. Mr. Lincoln had already selected Mr. Seward for the State Department. In his answer to my rec- ommendation he paid Mr. Greeley as high a compliment as one great man could pay to another. Many of those who fig- ured in that trying period in Congress have gone to their rest, while the survivors have met strange vicissitudes. Sixteen years have wrought curious results. Howell Cobb, of Georgia ; Anson Burlingame, of Massachusetts ; Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland ; Henry M. Fuller, of Pennsylvania, are in their graves. They were men of mark, far above the common level, and were early called. Governor Cobb was worn out by the rebellion, in which he took an active part ; Burlingame died in the midst of an extraordinary diplomatic career ; Davis, the most incisive and brilliant orator of his time, passed off in the zenith of his fame; and Fuller left a mourning family and a host of devoted friends at a time when the future seemed bright before him. Of the living, the most distinguished are John Hickman, of Pennsylvania ; Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia ; N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts; James L. Orr, of South Caro- ELECTION OF SPEAKER. 375 lina ; E. B. Washburne, of Illinois (now American Minister to France); Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana (Vice-President); John Sherman, now Senator in Congress from Ohio; and Francis E. Spinner, of New York, present United States Treasurer. The whole time from December to February was consumed in ineffectual ballotings to elect a Speaker, and in discursive de- bate, involving the issues of the day and every conceivable sub- ject. Parties were closely balanced, the Know-Nothings or Americans holding the balance of power; but, as they were not united, no decision could be reached until Congress and the country were fairly worn out by the weary conflict. Finally Hon. Samuel A. Smith, a Democrat, from Tennessee, on Satur- day, the 2d of February, offered the following resolution, which was adopted by a vote of 1 13 to 104 : '''' Resolved^'Y\i2i\. this House will proceed immediately to the election of a Speaker, viva voce. If, after the roll shall have been called three times, no member shall have received a ma- jority of all the votes cast, the roll shall again be called, and the member who shall then receive the largest vote, provided it be a majority of a quorum, shall be declared duly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-fourth Congress." This brought the protracted struggle to a close. Several ef- forts were made to repeal it. Hon. Percy Walker, of Alabama, one of the Know-Nothing leaders, saw that Mr. Smith's resolu- tion looked to the election of a Republican Speaker, and made every effort to rescind it. As we were not acting under any rules, and a good deal of the work before the House had to de- pend on the common-sense of the Chair, I decided that his motion to rescind the resolution was in order, rather to let him see that I was impartial than to show my tenacity in adherence to Parlia- mentary law. An appeal was taken, and, as I expected, my de- cision was overruled. Then came the vote on the resolution itself, and on the 133d ballot, after a two months' fight, N. P. 376 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Banks v/as chosen Speaker on a plurality. The practice in former years had been for the House to adopt a resolution de- claring the Speaker who had received a majority of the votes to be elected ; but I saw that such action would reopen the question, and would force the House to another vote, perhaps into a revolution, and, by consulting the tellers, who represent- ed both parties, we determined to declare Banks elected, with- out any reference to the House. A scene of the wildest confu- sion ensued. I was denounced in unsparing terms, and Mr. A. K. Marshall, of Kentucky, took the ground that I had trans- cended precedent. I quote the following from the official pro- ceedings in The Globe : Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky. " I ask now, in connection with the remarks which I have made, whether the gentleman who now acts as Clerk of this House [Mr. Forney], and who has presided with so much fairness and so much dignity, and with- out having assumed the exercise of any right which was not clearly and legitimately his, who has refused on questions of order to give any decision — I ask that gentleman if he will now, on this great and vital question, dare — ah! that is the word — whether he will dare, in the absence of all official power, to induct into that chair a man who has not received a majority of the votes of this body ? If he does, I will, for one, have to change much of the high opinion which I have and still hold for that honorable gentleman." The Clerk (Mr. Forney). " The gentleman from Ohio will permit the Clerk to make a few words of explanation. The House adopted a resolution to-day providing in terms that at a certain stage a plurality vote should govern. The Clerk will say to the gentleman from Kentucky that if he has any feeling in this canvass it is not certainly in favor of the gentleman from Massachusetts. The course was pursued according to the terms of the resolution, which it was thought was the proper one. The Clerk was actuated by no motives but those of a de- ELECTION OF SPEAKER. 377 sire to continue to be impartial. He consulted with the officers of the House, who are older and better acquainted with the du- ties of this station than himself. He also consulted with the gentlemen who are tellers, and who represent the two great parties respectively. The consultation resulted in this conclu- sion. If there is error in the matter he throws himself on the indulgence of the House, trusting that the gentlemen who have sustained him thus far will carry him through the question which is now about to be settled." Mr. Campbell, of Ohio. " Mr. Clerk, from the beginning I have held that a Speaker ought to be elected by a majority vote, and I now submit it to the honor of those gentlemen who voted for the plurality rule, whether it does not become them now to carry out that rule and end the struggle that has been disgrace- ful to us and the country. I have heard a great deal about the danger of a dissolution of the Union. What ! Has it come to this, that the election of any man can dissolve this glorious Union ? [Applause.] I do not care what may be the senti- ments of the gentleman who is to preside over our delibera- tions; I shall be found one of the foremost in assailing him if he dares to do any thing that would separate the Union of these States. " It would seem that the gentleman from Kentucky has taken the Union under his particular charge. Sir, I think that there are those of us in the free States who will be found to the last for the union of these States. I am an American. I am for the Constitution of my country as the highest law which is to control our political action, and for the union of these States under any circumstances that may surround us. If I thought that my heart was capable of cherishing a sentiment that would tend to a disruption of this Union, I would, if I could, tear it out and cast it to the dogs." Mr. Clingman. " I have the floor now to say a few words. I was endeavoring to get it when the gentleman from Ohio rose, 378 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. and as soon as the point of order was raised. I anticipated something of this early in the session ; and when I spoke of going for the plurality rule, the question was frequently put to me by gentlemen upon the other side, whether, if that rule was adopted, I would then vote for such a resolution as was adopted in 1849. I replied that I regarded no such resolution as neces- sary, because the previous resolution was sufficient — that it was the act of a majority of the House. That was the opinion I then entertained, and hold the same opinion now. The reso- lution declares that the person who receives the highest number of votes shall be Speaker. The tellers merely announce who has that vote, and I entertain the opinion that the gentleman from Massachusetts can take his seat under the resolution ; that was and is now my opinion. But I saw that if the plurality rule were resorted to, whether or not you could pass a resolu- tion declaring the gentleman who received the highest number of votes for Speaker would depend upon its phraseology. I say now to the gentleman from Ohio, and to others, that if a resolu- tion shall be offered declaring that the gentleman from Massa- chusetts has been elected Speaker by virtue of that plurality resolution, if they think it necessary, I will vote for it." Mr. Cobb, of Georgia. "Allusion has been made to what occurred here at the time that I was elected Speaker of this House; and as I differ with some of my friends with reference to their construction of what was done then, and what is neces- sary to be done now, and as I may be called upon to vote upon some resolution connected with this matter, I desire to place myself right before the House, and to give the reasons for the vote which I shall give. In 1849, when it was determined to adopt the plurality rule, it was assailed as violative of the Con- stitution. In order to avoid any difficulty upon that subject it was, by general consent among those who were in favor of it, agreed that a resolution should be offered affirming the election, and that was done. At the time, occupying the position that I N. P. BANKS ELECTED. 379 did, I was asked the question, ' Whether, in my opinion, it was necessary that this should be done ?' I gave the same opinion then that I entertain now, and that I have repeatedly given when asked the question during this canvass ; and I feel it due to candor now to state it. I hold that it is necessary for a ma- jority of this House to elect a Speaker; but I hold, at the same time, that a majority of this House adopting the plurality rule, where a plurality vote is cast for any member, he is elected by virtue of the resolution originally adopted by a majority of the House. [Applause.] " When, sir, it was thought there was a probability that the gentleman for whom I voted would be elected, I gave that opin- ion then. I also gave it to those on the other side of the House who thought proper to ask my opinion upon the subject. I en- tertain no doubt in reference to it. Therefore I can not agree with either of my friends from Kentucky that it is incumbent upon those who voted for the plurality rule to perfect the election of Mr. Banks by a resolution. I think Mr. Banks has already been elected. My friends upon this floor know that I have appealed to them from the commencement of this struggle." Mr. Wheeler. " I offer the following resolution : " ''Resolved, That the Hon. Wm. Aiken, of South Carolina ; the Hon. Henry M. Fuller, of Pennsylvania ; and the Hon. Lewis D. Campbell, of Ohio, be appointed a committee to wait upon the Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Jr., of Massachusetts, the Speaker elect, and conduct him to the chair.' " Mr. Giddings. " I hope that resolution will not be adopted. It is an innovation on the whole past practice of the House. The Clerk always appoints a committee to conduct the Speaker to the chair." Mr. Wheeler. "I wididraw the resolution." " The Clerk then requested Messrs. Fuller, of Pennsylvania, Aiken, of South Carolina, and Campbell, of Ohio, to conduct the Speaker elect to the chair. 380 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. " The gentlemen designated proceeded to discharge this duty, and Mr. Banks was thereupon conducted to the chair, and took his seat. "After a moment's pause the Speaker rose and addressed the House as follows : " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : Before I proceed to complete my acceptance of the office to which I am elected, I avail myself of your indulgence to express my acknowledgments for the honor conferred upon me. It would afford me far greater pleasure in taking the chair of the House were I supported even by the self-assurance that I could bring to the discharge of its duties, always arduous and delicate, and now environed with unusual difficulties, any capacity commen- surate with their responsibility and dignity. I can only say that, in so far as I am able, I shall discharge my duty with fidel- ity to the Constitution, and with impartiality as it regards the rights of members. I have no personal objects to accomplish. I am animated by the single desire that I may in some degree aid in maintaining the well-established principles of our Govern- ment in their original and American signification ; in developing the material interests of that portion of the continent we occupy, so far as we may do within the limited and legitimate powers conferred upon us; in enlarging and swelling the capacity of our Government for beneficent influences at home and abroad ; and, above all, in preserving intact and in perpetuity the price- less privileges transmitted to us. I am, of course, aware that I can not hope of my own strength to be equal to the perfect ex- ecution of the duties I now assume. I am, therefore, as every man must be who stands in such presence, a suppliant for your co-operation and indulgence; and, accepting your honors with this declaration, I again offer you my thanks." Mr. Stanton (Dem,). "I have a resolution that I desire to offer, which I know will meet with the unanimous approbation of the House, and it would spoil by delay. It is as follows : THANKS VOTED TO JOHN W. FORNEY. 38 1 " '■Resolved^ That the thanks of this House are eminently due and are hereby tendered to John W. Forney, Esq., for the dis- tinguished ability, fidelity, and impartiality with which he has presided over the deliberations of the House of Representatives during the arduous and protracted contest for Speaker which has just closed.' " Mr. Campbell, of Ohio (Whig). " I sought the floor to offer a similar resolution, and I hope that it will be unanimously adopted." " The question was taken, and the resolution was unanimously adopted. Mr. Wheeler (Rep.). "I offer the following resolution, and upon it demand the previous question : " ^Resolved, That there be paid out of the contingent fund of the House to John W. Forney, late Clerk, in addition to the sal- ary allowed him by law, eight dollars per diem for the additional services performed by him from the 3d day of December, 1855, to the 4th day of February, 1856.' " "The previous question was then seconded, and the main question was ordered to be now put. Mr. Jones, of Tennessee (Dem.). "I object to that resolu- tion, and I think it is not in order to introduce it." The Speaker. " The Chair understands the House to have ordered the main question to be put." " The question was then taken on the resolution, and it was agreed to." I will be pardoned for quoting the personal resolutions which closed this extraordinary struggle, because they develop the characteristics of the leaders of opposing parties, and also be- cause they show how even ordinary integrity and decision are certain of ultimate compensation. General Banks has just been defeated for Congress in Massachusetts, after a long career, but I can not forget the manner in which he pronounced his inaugural address as Speaker of the House sixteen years ago. 382 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. His deportment during the succeeding session, his impartiality, his courtesy, and his uniform integrity, proved him to be an unrivaled statesman, and I am not without hope that we shall hear of him honorably in the future. Quitman, Barksdale, Rust, Keitt, Eustis, and other Southern fire-eaters have gone to their last account. They were men of varied and distinguished abil- ities, and yet not one of them, if he could speak from his grave, but would say that Nathaniel P. Banks was a just and honest presiding officer. [November 10, 1872.] LXXXVII. Washington City has been a vast newspaper sepulchre. It has witnessed the rise and fall of more dailies and weeklies than any other city of equal size and pretensions in the world ; and if they could be catalogued and accompanied by a sketch of the hopes that tempted and the disappointments that killed them, a very interesting inorceau would be added to the curios- ities of literature. The closing of the Democratic organ at the national capital. The Patriot, last Monday, revives the recollec- tion of the long procession that have passed away. The Patriot was conducted with signal ability, counting in its corps some of the best talent of the country, including W. B. Reed, James E. Harvey, Henry Adams, and the finest Democratic minds in Congress. Undoubtedly President Grant's re-election hastened its overthrow, but in the long run, at least in these later days, a national Administration can not of itself sustain a Washington newspaper. It must have a specialty of its own, and be noted for fine writing and unusual spirit to keep it afloat. Dr. Bay- ley's weekly. The Era, flourished, and for a while most profita- bly, chiefly on account of that marvelous romance, "Uncle I THE PRESS IN WASHINGTON, ^8$ Tom's Cabin," Mrs. Stowe's great work, of which Mr. Parton, in one of his "Topics of the Times," spe*aks so justly and so graphically. T/ie Daily Chrofikk, which I established in 1862, made money for several years because it had for a constituency a reading army. But we did not know our advantages, and were never prepared for the hosts who clamored for it. It was no uncommon thing for us to print thirty thousand a day, a cir- culation that could have been trebled if we had possessed the material to do the work. But few persons had any confidence, or, indeed, any desire, that the war would be so long protracted. We looked for the collapse of the rebellion every day, and were not surprised, after the troops had gone home, and the camps were broken up, and the hospitals turned into school-houses and dwellings, at the vast difference in our income. But what a change the war has made in the Washington newspapers. T/ie Sunday Chronicle, which was the first of its class ever seen at the capital, established in March, of 186 1, gave more news and telegrams in one number than all the old-time dailies did, I was going to say, in a week ; and now there are no less than four other Sunday journals. Then compare The Star, Daily Chronicle, and Republican with the old Globe, Ufiion, and Litel- ligencer, I know all about the two eras, for I worked in both. Twenty-five years ago a telegraphic dispatch or regular local department was a rarity. We were literally drenched with eternal politics. Our editorials were all about the party. Our news was heavy, and our ways were the ways of leisure. The world moved slow, and the newspapers were slower. We gen- erally went to press about 10 P. M., and our matter was always early in hand. Expenses were light, except the salaries, which were always liberal. The profits of the proprietors, especially if they happened to own the organs, were enormous, large enough, in fact, to enable these same proprietors to retire upon handsome fortunes. The last was Mr. Buchanan's champion, General George W. Bowman, the well-known editor of The Bed- 384 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. fo}-d (Pennsylvania) Gazette^ now living, I think, in Cumberland County, in that State, the possessor of a competency earned in Washington. Organship died with the rebellion. The public printing wholly ceased to be a job under Mr. Lincoln, and those who came to make newspapers in Washington have had to do it by hard work, by heavy outlays for news and telegraphs, and by a constant hand-to-hand struggle with a busy competition. The old correspondents, "Potomac," "The Spy in Washing- ton," " Observer," of The Ledger; " X," of The Baltimore Sim ; " Independent," of The North American ; and later than these, "Occasional," of The Press, gave way to the new guild, the alerts of Fourteenth Street, with their ravenous pens, their in- satiate greed for news, their sparkling repartees, their genius, wit, and dash. Supplementing these came the modern plan of "interviewing," which no public man, if he values his soul, can shirk without ridicule. Following this new fashion came the fluttering swarm of lady correspondents, with their delicious gossip, their bright sentences, their pictures of great people, and their unequaled photographs of receptions and parties. Only Annie Royall represented the gentler sex thirty years ago, and she had the ill-luck to be a terror rather than a temptation, for she wore a man's hat and carried an umbrella as large as that of "Paul Pry." Yet, with all these advantages over the past, few fouunes are made by the hard-working men in the business of journalism in Washington, excepting, perhaps. The Eveni7ig Star, the popular publication of the city, with its large circulation and its com- paratively small force of writers. And I perceive that 77ie Star is being steadily pushed by a new rival, called The Daily Critic, which has achieved an immense circulation almost without cost. The expense is too heavy, and the reading public too limited. Government advertising, however liberal, is not sufficient. There must be a community of producers, and Washington is still a city of consumers, men and women in the Departments, WILLIAM M. MEREDITH. 385 who get their daily literature gratis, and devour it in the easy intervals of their routine work. When factories become as fre- quent as fashionables, and when commerce is as active as pol- itics, and when the nation's capital is belted by brilliant country towns like Chester, Norristown, Germantown, Media, West Chester, Manayunk, Frankford, and Camden (New Jersey), near old Philadelphia, a daily newspaper will be a pleasing and profitable investment. [November 17, 1872.] LXXXVIII. From his high place as President of the new Convention to reform the Constitution of Pennsylvania, William M. Meredith can overlook the eventful past, in which for half a century he has been a commanding figure. As he aids to smooth the path of the future he will be largely aided by the light of his long experience. Mr. Meredith is now in his seventy-fourth year. He has, therefore, reached the philosophic age, and like the traveler who, at the close of a protracted journey, reaches the crest of a mountain, and surveys all he has seen, he may rest in supreme content upon the retrospect. In the very hall in which Mr. Meredith now presides, he was, thirty-five years ago, a member of a similar convention from the city of Phila- delphia. He was then about thirty-seven, one of the youngest of the delegates, and als'o one of the most distinguished. The stately character of his ripened age is the fulfillment of his early manhood. None of the old men of the Convention of 1837 surpassed Mr. Meredith in mental gifts and solid judgment, and there were some far advanced in the vale of years at that time. Thaddeus Stevens was a delegate from the County of Adams, and was in his forty-fourth yean Ritner was Governor of Penn- R ^86 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. sylvania, and Stevens was the acknowledged leader of the anti- Masonic party — in fact, the controller of the State administra- tion. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia, was president of the convention, the deau ideal of a gentleman, jurist, and citizen. I can recall him, when, as a boy, I sat in the galleries and watch- ed his courteous manners and impartial rulings. Of medium height, there was that in his sad and saturnine face, in the glance of his eye, and the tones of his voice, which gave un- speakable dignity to the Chair. Parties were in no pleas- ant mood. No such era of good feeling pervaded the peo- ple as at the present day, when other delegates are called to amend our fundamental law, surrounded by every inducement to avoid a prejudiced and partial course. The Democrats had lost the State by the Wolf and Muhlenberg quarrel in 1835-36, and were rapidly reuniting to regain it in 1838. Mr. Stevens carried things with a high hand. He boldly wielded the pat- ronage of the State administration to strengthen Governor Rit- ner; he attacked the Masonic Order, and had some of the most eminent of its members summoned before his Committee of In- vestigation. He assumed the leadership of his party in the Reform Convention. Yet in despite of his dogmatism there was an indescribable charm about Thaddeus Stevens. If he was a violent partisan, he was a generous friend and a chival- ric foe. If he struck hard with his clenched hand, he gave and forgave freely with his open one ; and though often intolerant and illogical in his war upon secret societies — as he afterward proved in 1854, when he joined the Know-Nothings — his splen- did championship of universal education and his support of universal emancipation, made men forget his sharp sayings, and compelled admiration if they did not arouse affection. Young Meredith was not disposed to follow the imperious New-Englander, and there was an early conflict between them. The attack upon the Masons was particularly distasteful to Meredith, and he revolted from the attempt to introduce politics REPLY TO THADDEUS STEVENS. 387 into the convention. At last the storm broke. On the 5th of June, 1837, Mr. Meredith paid his respects to Mr. Stevens in a remarkable speech, of which the following is a specimen : " Mr. President, when the home of my birth and affections was causelessly assailed, I defended her. What man would have done less? I defended her with warmth. Who would have wished me to do it coldly ? It is said that I used strong language, and yet, sir, I used the feeblest of all the words that were rushing from my heart to my lips. This is the very head of my offense. For this I am thrown, like a captive Christian, naked into the arena, where the Great Unchained of Adams is baying at my throat, while my vulpine friend from Franklin eats smoothly into my vitals ; and, like the Spartan fool, I hug him to my bosom. Alas, sir ! what a spectacle do we here exhibit ! What monuments of weakness are we leaving for posterity ! How far is our position below the true and just standard of a body charged with functions such as these we are appointed to fulfill. In all the other States discussions on the framing of their constitutions have been temperate and deliberate. Even the hot-blooded South can consider its organic laws calmly, coolly, and dispassionately. Here alone, here in Pennsylvania, we seem resolved to prove to the world that if we can not deter- mine every thing according to the dictates of absolute wdsdom, we can at least debate with indecent heat, and degrade the as- sembled majesty of the people by party strife and personal bit- terness. In all that I have said, sir, I have been actuated by a desire merely to discharge my duty by defending my constit- uents and myself. I entertain no hostility to the gentleman from Adams. Indeed, why should I ? On the contrary, no man admires more than I do his great abilities. I avow that he displays talents which, wdthin their proper sphere, are, in my experience, unsurpassed, if not unrivaled. In party tactics and small manoeuvres I have never seen his equal, and do not ex- pect to meet his superior. Who can forget the mingled sar- 388 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. casm, eloquence, and pathos of his harangue on the assistant doorkeeper ? Or who was not dehghted with the precision, ac- curacy, and effect of our evolutions under his drill through the election of officers ? The gentleman is an honor to his halberd. How close was his formation of our column ! How rapidly did he deploy us into line ! How skillfully was our front dressed ! How rigorously were the deserters shot ! Never did a more accomplished orderly report a company ' formed ' on a parade ground. It is very true, I fear, that while he was putting us through the manual exercise in the court-yard, the enemy were climbing in at the back windows, for I observe that we have six secretaries, whereas I do not remember to have voted for more than two. However, this is but the fortune of war, and detracts nothing from his merit. Has he not glory enough ? The gen- tleman has other duties to perform. To him it belongs to su- perintend the executive administration. The Masons, we know, are ordered for punishment, and when the day arrives when they are to be had up at the triangle, we shall doubtless see him in the fervent fulfillment of his employment, with his ready instru- ment well prepared, and we shall hear ' The long resounding line and frequent lash.' " Do not all these occupations furnish sufficient scope for the ambition or activity of the gentleman's character.? Why will he grasp at more ? What has he to do with the basis of repre- sentation ? Within the limits of his appropriate functions, he commands from us a respect not unmingled with a certain awe. But instead of confining himself within those limits, he seems occasionally to run beyond himself, mistakes his yellow cotton shoulder-knots for golden epaulettes, and his halberd for a lead- ing-staff, mounts a ragged hobby, and when we are perhaps in the midst of an important affair, in the face and under the fire of the enemy, down gallops our mad sergeant along the line, and insists on our suspending all other operations that we may be instantly put through some unknown pose, or some ne\v I MEN OF THE REVOLUTION. 389 movement to the shoulder of his own devising, and which none of us ever heard of before. And then, upon the least demur at compliance with his odd demands, he rides furiously into our ranks, breaking his halberd over the head of one, lending a horse's kick to another, covering a third from head to foot with mud, throwing our battalion into inextricable confusion, and exposing us to inevitable defeat. And all these misfortunes are to be suffered because one gentleman has not learned to dis- criminate between yellow cotton and gold lace ! No, sir ! they can not be much longer suffered. We would not touch a hair of our eccentric's head, nor even of the tail of his hobby. At present I merely beg to remonstrate kindly and gently with him, as I have been doing, against his persistence in these lu- dicrous yet injurious assaults upon those who, however feebly and humbly, are endeavoring to discharge their duty." The rejoinder of Mr. Stevens was very severe and even per- sonal. Reading it over, now when the Great Commoner is in his grave, it seems a loud report over a very small matter, and stands in curious contrast with his immortal utterances in the great struggle for the life and liberty of a nation. The protest of Mr. Meredith against party politics in a Constitutional Con- vention is more pertinent, and may be profitably studied by the delegates to the body now in session. [November 28, 1872.] LXXXIX. We shall have many interesting historical developments dur- ing our preparations for the great Centennial. The men and measures of the Revolution will reappear in a new light, and the contrast between the past and present will be drawn in ra- diant colors. In reading over a few of the periodicals of the 390 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. last quarter of the last century I found some incidents and passages in the lives of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, that may have been forgotten by the very old and have cer- tainly never been read by the very young. One of these is the following original letter of General Washington to the dis- tinguished Matthew Carey, whose no less distinguished son, Henry C. Carey, is still living in Philadelphia, at an advanced age, the centre of a circle of loving friends: "Mount Vernon, July 21, 1788. "Sir, — If I had more leisure I should most willingly give you any such communications (that might be within my reach) as would serve to keep up the reputation of your Miiseu7n. At present, occupied as I am with agricult- ure and correspondence, I can promise little. Perhaps some gentlemen connected with me may make some selections from my repositories ; and I beg you will be persuaded that I can have no rehutance to pet'init any thing to be comnm7iicated that might tend to establish tnith, extend knowledge^ excite virtue, and promote happiness amo7ig mankind. " With best wishes for success, I am, sir, your most ob't h'ble serv't, " Go. Washington. " Mr. Matthew Carey, Editor of the Anicrican Mtcsetim:' Here are the qualities that make the modern philosopher and journalist. Matthew Carey was anxious to preserve for poster- ity the treasures that George Washington had collected in his illustrious career, and Washington responds gracefully to the request. The closing sentence in italics is Washington's ideal of the creed of a patriot, and a fine index of his own character. Jefferson's tribute to Washington is very beautiful : " I own," he says, " I regard it, though but a single view of the character of Washington, as one of transcendent impor- tance, that the commencement of the Revolution found him al- ready prepared and mature for the work, and that on the day which his commission was signed by John Hancock — the im- mortal seventeenth of June, 1775— a day on which Providence kept an even balance with the cause, and while it took from us a Warren, gave us a Washington — he was just as consummate JEFFERSON S ESTIMATE OF ROYALTY. 391 a leader for peace as for war, as when, eight years after, he re- signed that commission at Annapolis." But he did not hesitate to counsel and even to criticise his chief, as the following will show : "Paris, May 2,1788. "7'^ General Washington : " I had intended to have written a word to your Excellency on the sub- ject of the new Constitution, but I have already spun out my letter to an immoderate length. I will just observe, therefore, that, according to my ideas, there is a great deal of good in it. There are two things, however, which I dislike strongly : '■'■ First. The want of a declaration of rights. " I am in hopes the opposition in Virginia will remedy this, and produce such a declaration. ^^ Second. The perpetual re-eligibility of the President. " This, I fear, will make that an office for life, first, and then hereditary. I was such an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe, I am ten thou- sand times more so since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries which may not be traced to their king as its source ; nor a good which is not derived from the small fibres of republican- ism existing among them. I can further say, with safety, that there is not a crowned head in Europe whose talents or merits could entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America !" What a picture he draws of the European sovereigns in 1789 : " I often amuse myself with contemplating the characters of the then reign- ing sovereigns of Europe. Louis XVI, was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, he of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and dispatched two couriers a week one thousand miles to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature, and so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as re- gents, exercised the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gus- tavus, of Sweden, and Joseph, of Austria, were really crazy, and George, of England, you know was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked up to have lost her com- mon-sense. In this state Bonaparte found Europe, and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle." 392 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. Reluctant to undertake a public tour while President, he seems to have had pretty much the notion of Washington, in that respect, that our people have of Grant : "Washington, June 19, 1807. "71? Governor Stdlivan : " With respect to the tour my friends to the North have proposed that I should make in that quarter, I have not made up my final opinion. The course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military, the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the affec- tions of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the claims which he had on the public homage." ON CIVIL SERVICE. "Washington, July 17, 1807. " I have never removed a man merely because he was a Federalist. I have never wished them to give a vote at an election but according to their own wishes. But, as no Government could discharge its duties to the best advantage of its citizens if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting instead of executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage and influences of their offices against the Government and its measures, I have only requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe." GLAD TO GET RID OF THE PRESIDENCY. "Washington, March 2, 1809. " To Af. Diipont de Nemours : " Never did a prisoner, released from chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight; but the enormi- ties of the times in which I have lived have forced me to take a part in re- sisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political pas- sions." In his Memoirs he often sketches his associates and con- temporaries. John Adams is " vain and irritable," but as " dis- interested as the being who made him." Pendleton, of Vir- ginia, "the ablest man in debate I have ever met," "without the poetic fancy of Mr. Patrick Henry, his sublime imagination, or his lofty and overwhelming diction." He was in love with James Madison, "who never wandered from his subject into BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 393 vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language pure, clas- sical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his adver- saries by civility and softness of expression, he rose to the em- inent station which he held in the great National Convention of 1787." George Wythe, also of Virginia, "was a man of the first order of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of the Revolution." "Lafayette is a most valuable auxiliary to me," Jefferson writes from Paris ; " he has a great deal of sound genius, is well remarked by the king, and rising in popu- larity." But no character shines with a purer lustre than that of Ben- jamin Franklin, who, besides being a natural philosopher, was also a politician and a statesman. Jefferson writes about him from Paris, September ii, 1785, as follows : " At a large table where I dined the other day, a gentleman from Switzerland expressed his apprehensions for the fate of Dr. Franklin, as he said he had been informed that he would be received with stones by the people, who w^ere generally dis- satisfied with the Revolution, and incensed against all those who had assisted in bringing it about. I told him his appre- hensions were just, and that the people of America would prob- ably salute Dr. Franklin with the same stones that they had thrown at the Marquis Lafayette P Could I better conclude this letter of reminiscences than by the following extract from Franklin's reply to Lord Howe, com- mander of the British forces, dated Philadelphia, July 30, 1776 ? " It is impossible we should think of submission to a govern- ment that has, with the most wanton barbarity and cruelty, burned our defenseless towns in the midst of winter, excited the savages to massacre our peaceful farmers, and set our slaves to murder their masters ; and is even now sending foreign mer- cenaries to deluge our country with blood. These atrocious injuries have extinguished every spark of affection for that parent-country we once held so dear; but, were it possible for R 2 394 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN, US to forget and forgive them, it is not possible for you, I mean the British nation, to forgive the people you have so heavily injured." [December i, 1872.] xc. What a delicious volume that famous man of the world, Sam Ward, who is every body's friend, from black John who drives his hack to the jolly Senator who eats his dinners and drinks his wine — from the lady who accepts his bouquet to the prat- tling child who hungers for his French candies — what a jewel of a book he could make of the good things he has heard at his thousand " noctes ambrosianae !" He is again domesticated at John Welcker's, in Washington City, where, during the session, he will preside like a very prince of good fellows, attending to business and pleasure at the same time. Such men are treas- ures in many ways. They live to make themselves and others happy. They have seen so much of the world that they have ceased to quarrel with other men's ideas. They have lost their reverence for mere names, but not their love for genuine great- ness. True cosmopolites, they are every where at home. Eager to know all that is going on, they will give you in return for your news or jokes hours full of gossip and stories. They know every body if every body does not know them, and, as they are always well-bred gentlemen, they never descend to vulgarity or slang. To sit at Ward's table, to see him manage a dinner, and to hear him call out his guests, not to speak of his master- ship of the cuisine, including his science in wines, is to enjoy something more than the delicacies he spreads before you. He would have made a capital companion for Sheridan or Tom Moore, and doubtless spent many a joyous night with James T. SAM WARD. 395 Brady and John T. Sullivan. I heard him relate how he helped a friend with the present Emperor of Brazil, a few days ago, and I question if ever Lever wrote a more amusing incident. Sam Ward belongs to the old school, though he is full of the progress of the new era. He looks very like the late David Paul Brown, dresses with equal care and taste, and his heart is as big as was the heart of that good man and grandiloquent orator. " Once on a time," many years ago, I saw Webster, Benton, John M. Clayton, James Buchanan, Judge Douglas, and William R. King at dinner. I was a sort of David Copperfield among them — a minnow among Tritons. But I never shall forget their conversation and their humor. Buchanan was a capital host. He did not tell a good story, but he enjoyed one; and when Webster was roused he kept a table in a roar. And " Col- onel King," as they used to call the bachelor Senator from Ala- bama, was amusing in his dry way. Douglas was almost un- rivaled. His repartee was a flash, and his courtesy as knightly as if he had been born in the best society. But none of them could surpass Sam Ward either in giving a good dinner or in seasoning it with Attic wit and Chesterfieldian politeness. Rough John C. Rives, of The Globe, was a different character. His anecdotes always had a special flavor, and never a sting. One day, when Douglas and a few of us were standing in " the Hole in the Wall," a celebrated resort for Senators and mem- bers, Rives came in and joined us. It was in 1854, just after Douglas had introduced his bill to repeal the Missouri Com- promise Line. Rives, like his partner, Francis P. Blair, was op- posed to it, and made no hesitation in saying so. Douglas twitted him about getting out of the party lines, and tried to convince him that his measure was right. "I don't like it, Douglas, and never can like it. It is uncalled for. It reminds me of the fellow who, having gone pretty nearly through all the foUies of life, took it into his head to hire a bully to do his fight- 396 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. ing. He made a contract with the stoutest bruiser he could find, and they started on their journey down the Mississippi. At every landing the quarrel was picked by the one and the battle fought by the other. It was tough work sometimes, but rather enjoyable. At last they reached New Orleans. On the levee they found a stout, brawny stevedore, and, after some chaffing, a row was started, and the two began to pummel each other. They were well matched, but, aided by his experience, the bully beat the stevedore. * I say, boss,' said his fighting man, ' I give up this job ; you is too much for me ! I don^t see any 7'easo?t in that ere last fight y Of course, the laugh was against Judge Douglas, and none relished the hit more than himself. But perhaps nobody at a dinner-table of the present day is so welcome as James W. Nye, Senator from Nevada. I wish I could congratulate him upon his certain re-election, though Mr. Jones, who will probably succeed him, is himself a character, and will make his mark. Governor Nye will always be a noted personage. His memory is prodigious, his wit electric. A face of singular fascination and a manner debonair, in his Senatorial seat he recalls the best ideals of the past. Social, genial, gen- erous, he takes possession of a dinner-table at once. His mag- netism seems to pervade the whole company, and when he tells a story, always relating to some incident familiar to the guests, and illustrated by quaint expressions, with a bright eye and musical voice, the gravest must bow to his irresistible influ- ence. He dines with Sam Ward frequently, when it will be worth much to be present. [December 8, 1872.] HORACE GREELEY. 397 XCI. Death is busy among the brave and the gifted. William Prescott Smith, George Gordon Meade, Horace Greeley, have been called in the prime of life and usefulness. They faded suddenly from the ranks of men ; and nothing remains save the memory of the exquisite humor and kindness of the one, the modest courage of the other, the various resources and cease- less benevolence of the last. But none of the many that have been summoned will live so long in our hearts, not even William H. Seward, the venerable sage who led the way full of honors and of years, as the silver-haired philosopher of the New York Tribune, The incidents preceding his death, the manner of it, and the rare events that followed and crowned it, will supply material fifty years hence for a most touching drama. In one respect the tributes to his memory must always be unequaled. I mean the literary laurels laid upon his grave by his associates of the press. The eulogies upon Washington and Lincoln were more numerous, perhaps, but they were not so original, and cer- tainly not more sincere. Differing from the worship of Lincoln, martyr as he was, what was said of Greeley came as warm from the impulses of his enemies as from the impulses of his friends. To employ Mr. Sumner's splendid figure : " Parties are always for the living; and now, standing at the open grave of Horace Greeley, we are admonished to forget the strife of party, and to remember only truth, country, and mankind, to which his honest life was devoted. In other days the horse and armor of the de- parted chieftain have been buried in the grave where he re- posed. So, too, may we bury the animosities if not the badges of the past. Then, indeed, will there be victory for the dead which all will share." Every journalist who has written, and all have written, has, with some unforgotten exceptions, poured his warmest affections into the sobbing hearts of a sympathizing 398 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. people. Each has done his best, and many have surpassed themselves. There has been an intellectual rivalry among these masters of the pen. Who will not cherish the glorious effusion of the New York World on Friday, December i, 1872, the fer- vent eulogy of the New York Herald^ and the splendid homage of Theodore Tilton in the Golden Age, Sam Bowles in the Spring- field Republican, William Cassidy in the Albany Argus, W. F. Storey in the Chicago Tifnes, and their contemporaries. North and South, East and West ? Preserved, as they will be, in one or more volumes, they will be a monument to Horace Greeley more enduring than the loftiest column of bronze or marble, though covered with bass-reliefs, and gorgeous in compliments carved by cunning hands. The last time I saw Mr. Greeley was at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia, several weeks before the Cincinnati Convention. The interview had been arranged by one of the gentlemen of The Tribune at Mr. Greeley's request, and we had a long and confidential talk. I am quite sure he did not then entertain the remotest idea of his nomination against General Grant, and though he was earnest in expressing the belief that the man could be found to defeat Grant, he listened patiently to my earnest appeal to him. I told him that both of us owed alle- giance to the Republican mission, that General Grant deserved re-election, that there was not the slightest prospect of defeat- ing his renomination, and that I longed to see the great Tribune in the lead of what would be an assured victory. He was un- usually genial and kind, and I have always believed that, when we parted, he was carefully reconsidering his course. He used no harsh words in speaking of the President, and seemed to be animated only by solicitude for the country, and never once re- ferred to himself as a possible Presidential candidate. As I sat, Wednesday, December 4, in the Church of the Di- vine Paternity, New York City, and noticed the multitude of representative men — Thurlow Weed's aged form; Chief Justice GREELEY'S FUNERAL RITES. 399 Chase, with bare and bending head; William Evart's spare fig- ure and mobile face ; General Dix, the Governor elect of New York — among the pall-bearers ; the President, his secretaries, and part of his Cabinet; the crowds of editors from all parts of the country — and heard the sacred music and the magnificent discourse of Dr. Chapin, I thought of the death and burial of the great Frenchman, Mirabeau, April, 1791. Very different were the two men, but their lives were equally eventful and their last hours equally dramatic. Mirabeau was exhausted by his frequent public speaking. Five great orations in one day finished him ; and when brought to his final hour, he exclaimed, "To-day I shall die; envelop me in perfumes; crown me with flowers, and surround me with music, so that I may deliver my- self peaceably to sleep." Our poor friend did not call for odors or roses or sweet strains ; they came from the spontaneous love of his saddened friends. Like America with him, however, Mirabeau's death extinguished all the envies and enmities of the French. Party feuds dissolved in tears over his body, and he passed to his rest through an avenue of hundreds of thou- sands of former foes. Says the historian : " The proceedings of the Assembly were immediately sus- pended, a general mourning ordered, and a magnificent funeral prepared. * We will all attend !' exclaimed the whole Assembly. In the Church of Saint Genevieve a monument was erected to his memory, with the inscription : 'a GRATEFUL COUNTRY TO GREAT MEN.' " It was situated next to that of Descartes. His funeral took place the day after his death. All the authorities, the depart- ments, the municipalities, the popular societies, the Assembly, and the army accompanied the procession ; and this orator ob- tained more honors than ever had been conferred on the pomp- ous funerals which proceeded to Saint Denis. Thus terminated the career of this extraordinary man, who has been greatly 400 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. blamed, who effected much good and much evil, and whose genius was equally adapted to both. Having vanquished the aristocracy, he turned upon those who contributed to his vic- tory, arrested their course by his eloquence, and commanded their admiration even while he provoked their hostility." But how different the recollection of these two men ! Mira- beau is rarely recalled, and only as an impassioned tribune — a man of sentiment rather than of action, with few fixed convic- tions. Greeley will live as a marvelous aggregate, strong in good works, his fame growing riper with the increasing fruits of his gigantic labors for humanity. [December 15, 1872.] XCII. I AM reading, with infinite zest, John Forster's second volume of the Life of Charles Dickens. Every page is a new pleasure, every chapter a new revelation of the better side of the truest friend of humanity in the literary world. Neither Shakespeare, nor Byron, nor Walter Scott, nor Tom Moore, nor Alfred Ten- nyson, deigned to show so honest a devotion to the poor and the unfortunate as Charles Dickens. He always seized the holi- days, and especially Christmas, to extend his warnings to the rich and his encouragement to the poor. ** Blessings on your kind heart," wrote the great Jeffrey, of the Edinburgh Review, in 1842, after he had read "The Christmas Carol ;" "you should be happy yourself, for you may be sure you have done more good by this little publication, fostered more kindly feelings, and prompted more positive acts of beneficence than can be traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom." " Who can listen," exclaimed Thackeray, " to objections regard- ing such a book as this ? It seems to me a national benefit, CHARLES DICKENS. 4OI and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness." " It told," says Forster, his biographer, " the selfish man to rid himself of his selfishness ; the just man to make himself gen- erous ; the good-natured man to enlarge the sphere of his good nature. Dickens had identified himself with Christmas fancies. Its life and spirit, its humor in riotous abundance, of right be- longed to him. Its imaginations, as well as kindly thoughts, were his ; and its privilege to light up with some sort of com- fort the squalidest places he had made his own." "With brave and strong restraints, what is evil in ourselves was to be sub- dued ; with warm and gentle sympathies, what is bad or unre- claimed in others was to be redeemed. The Beauty was to embrace the Beast, as in the divinest of all those fables ; the star was to rise out of the ashes, as in our much-loved Cinder- ella ; and we were to. play the Valentine with our wilder broth- ers, and bring them back with brotherly care to civilization and happiness." After the "Christmas Carol" came "The Chimes," for the holidays, in 1844. This beautiful story was written in Genoa, Italy. The argument here, as in the first, was to induce the rich to help the poor, and the poor to forget their miseries. It is curious how he found the title of "The Chimes." He had the subject, but not the name of his book, in his mind, and, says Forster, " sitting down, one morning, resolute for work, such a peal of ' chimes ' arose from the city as he found to be maddening. All Genoa lay beneath him, and up from it, with some gust of wind, came in one fell sound, the clang and clash of all its steeples, pouring into his ears, again and again, in a tuneless, grating, discordant, jerking, hideous vibration, that made his ideas spin round and round till they lost themselves in a whirl of vexation and giddiness." "Only two days later came a letter, in which not a single syllable was written but *We have heard "The Chimes" at midnight. Master Shallow;' then I knew he had discovered what he wanted." His one 402 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN. great icica was always that the poor should be led out of their poverty ; the vicious out of their vices ; the unfortunate out of their misfortunes, and that Christmas was the season to enforce the moral. In Venice he said, " Ah ! when I saw those pal- aces, how I thought that to leave one's hand upon the time, lastingly upon the time, with one tender touch for the mass of toiling people that nothing could obliterate, would be to lift one's self above the dust of all the Doges in their graves, and stand upon the giant's staircase that Samson could not over- throw." In 1845 ^^ conceived that splendid Christmas ideal, "The Cricket on the Hearth." When he was deliberating it he wrote to Forster that his new story should contain "C(a;r J. Bush, late of the Russo- American Telegraph Expedition. Illustrated. Crown Bvo, Cloth, $3 00. CARLYLE'S FREDERICK THE GREAT. History of Friedrich II., called Frederick the Great. By Tiioaiab Caelyle. Portraits, Maps, Plans, &c 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $12 00. . i' . . • CARLYLE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION. Historvof the French Revolution. Newly Revised by the Author, with Index, &c.' 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. CARLYLE'S OLIVER CROMWELL. Letters and Speeches of Oliver Crom- well. With Elucidations and Connecting Narrative. 2 vols., 12mo. Cloth, $3 50. ' ' CHALMERS'S POSTHUMOUS WORKS. The Posthumous Works of Dr. Chalmers. Edited by his Sou-in-Law, Rev. William Hanna, LL.D. Complete in 9 vols.. 12mo, Cloth, $13 50. 4 Harper &" Brothers' Valuable Standard Works. COLERIDGE'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. With an Iniroductory Essay upon his Philosophical and Theological Opinions. Edited by Professor Suedh, Complete in Seven Vols. With a tine Portrait. Small Svo, Cloth, $10 50. DRAPER'S CIVIL WAR. History of the American Civil War. By John W. Draper, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of New York. In Three Vols, Svo, Cloth, $3 50 per vol. DRAPER'S INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE. A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. By John W. Drvper, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of Newr York. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. DRAPER'S AMERICAN CIVIL POLICY. Thoughts on the Future Civil Policy of America. By Joun W. Draper, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of New Y'ork. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 50. DAVIS'S CARTHAGE. Carthage and her Remains : being an Account of the Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Metropolis in Africa and other adjacent Places. Conducted under the Auspices of Her Majesty's Government. By Dr. Davis, F.R.G.S. Profusely Illus- trated with Maps, Woodcuts, Chromo-Lithographs, «fec. Svo, Cloth, $4 00. DOOLITTLE'S china. Social Life of the Chinese : with some Account of their Religious, Governmental, Educational, and Business Customs and Opinions. With special but not exclusive Reference to Fuhchau. By Rev. Justus Doolittle, Fourteen Years Member of the Fuhchau Mission of the American Board. Illustrated with more than 150 characteristic Engravings on Wood. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $5 00. DU CHAILLU'S AFRICA. Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa: with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chase of the Gorilla, the Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippo- potamus, and other Animals. By Paul B. Du Cuaii.lu. Numerous Illustrations. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. DU CHAILLU'S ASHANGO LAND. A Journey to Ashango Laud, and Further Penetration into Equatorial Africa. By Paui- B. Du Ciiaii.i.u. New Edition. Handsomely Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. EDGEWORTH'S (Miss) NOVELS. With Engravings. 10 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $15 00. GIBBON'S ROME. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edwaru GinisoN. With Notes by Rev. H. H. Milman and M. Guizot. A new Cheap Edition. To which is added a complete Index of the whole Work, and a Portrait of the Author. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. GROTE'S HISTORY' OF GREECE. 12 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $18 00. HALE'S (Mrs.) WOMAN'S RECORD. Woman's Record ; or, Biographical Sketches of all Distinguished Women, from the Creation to the Present Time. Arranged in Four Eras, with Selections from Female Writers of each Era. By Mrs. Sarah Josepiia Hale. Illustrated with more than 200 Portraits. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. HALL'S ARCTIC RESEARCHES. Arctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux: being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in the Years 18(50, 1861, and 1S62. By Charles Francis Hall. With Maps and 100 Illustrations. The Illustrations are from Original Drawings by Charles Parsons, Henry L. Stephens, Solomon Eytinge, W. S. L. Jevi'ett, and Granville Perkins, after Sketches by Captain Hall. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. HAZEN'S SCHOOL AND ARMY IN GERMANY AND FRANCE. The School and the Army in Germany and France, with a Diary of Siege Life at Versailles. By Brevet Major-General W. B. Hazen, U.S.A., Colonel Sixth Infantry. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 50. HALLAM'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Ac- cession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. Svo, Cloth, $2 00. Harper 6^ Brothers' Valuable Standard Works. 5 HALLAM'S LITERATURE. Introduction to the Literature of Europe during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. By Henry Hallam. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES, State of Europe during the Middle Ages. By Henry Hallam. Svo, Cloth, $2 00. HILDRETH'S HISTORY of the UNITED STATES. First Series : From the First Settlement of the Country to the Adoption of the Federal Con- stitution. Seoont. Series : From the Adoption of the Federal Constitu- tion to the End of the Sixteenth Congress. 6 vols., Svo, Cloth, $18 00. HARPER'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBRARY. Literal Translations. The following Volumes are now ready. Portraits. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 each. CiGSAR.— Virgil.— Sallust.— Horace.— Cicero's Orations.— Cicero's Offices, &c — Cicero on Oratory and Orators.— Tacitus (2 vols.). —Terence.— Sopuogles.— Juvenal.— Xenopuon.— Homer's Iliai> Homer's Odyssey. — Herodotus. — Demostuenes. — Tuuoydides. — .^scuYLUs.- Euripides (2 Vols.).— Livy (2 vols.). HUME'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Csisar to the Abdication of James IL, 16SS. By David Hume. A new Edition, with the Author's last Corrections and Improvements. To which is prefixed a short Account of his Life, written by Himself. With a Portrait of the Author. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. HELPS'S SPANISH CONQUEST. The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Relation to the History of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies. By Arthur Helps. 4 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 00. JAY'S WORKS. Complete Works of Rev. William Jay : comprising his Sermons, Family Discourses, Morning and Evening Exercises for every Day in the Year, Family Prayers, &c. Author's Enlarged Edition, re- vised. 3 vols., Svo, Cloth, $6 00. JEFFERSON'S DOMESTIC LIFE. The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson : compiled from Family Letters and Reminiscences by his Great-Graud- daughter, Sarah N. Randolph. With Illustrations. Crown Svo, Illu- minated Cloth, Beveled Edges, $2 50. JOHNSON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. With an Essay on his Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Esq. Por- trait of Johnson. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00^ KINGLAKE'S CRIMEAN WAR. The Invasion of the Crimea, and an Ac- count of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan. By Alexander William Kinglake. With Maps and Plans. Two Vols, ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. ~ KINGSLEY'S WEST INDIES. At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. By Charles Kingsley. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. KRUMM ACHER'S DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. David, the King of Israel : a Portrait drawn from Bible History and the Book of Psalms. By Fred- erick William Krummacher, D.D., Author of "Elijah the Tishbite," &c. Translated under the express Sanction of the Author by the Rev. M. G. Easton, M.A. With a Letter from Dr. Krummacher to his American Readers, and a Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. LAMB'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Charles Lamb. Comprising his Letters, Poems, Essays of Elia, Essays upon Shakspeare, Hogarth, &c., and a Sketch of his Life, with the Final Memorials, by T. Noon Talfourd. Portrait. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 00, LIVINGSTONE'S SOUTH AFRICA. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa ; including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loando on the West Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River Zam- besi, to the Eastern Ocean. By David Livingstone, LL.D,, D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps by Arrowsmith, and numerous lUustrationfi. 8vo, Cloth, $4 DO. 6 Harper &* Brothers' Valuable Standard Works. LIVINGSTONE'S ZAMBESI. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi aud its Tributaries, aud of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. 185S-1864. By David aud Cuaklks Livii^gstone. With Map and Illus- trations. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. MARCY'S AKMY LIFE ON THE BORDER. Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border. Comprising Descriptions of the Indian Nomads of the Plains; Explorations of New Territory; a Trip across the Rocky Mount- ains in the Winter; Descriptions of the Habits of Different Animals found in the West, and the Methods of Hunting them ; with Incidents in the Life of Different Frontier Men, &c., &c. By Brevet Brigadier-General R. B. Marcy, U.S.A., Author of "The Prairie Traveler." With numer- ous illustrations. Svo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $3 00. M'CLINTOCK & STRONG'S CYCLOPEDIA. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Prepared by the Rev. John M'Clin'tock, D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. 4 vols, now ready. Royal Svo. Price per vol., Cloth, $5 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ; Half Morocco, $S 00. MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Ancient and Modern ; in which the Rise, Progress, aud Variation of Church Power are considered in their Connection with the State of Learning and Philosophy, and the Political History of Europe during that Period. Translated, with Notes, &c., by A. Maclaine, D.D. A New Edition, continued to 1826, by C. CooTE, LL.D. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00. MAC AULA Y'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The History of England from the Accession of James II. By Tuomas Babington Maoaclav. With an Original Portrait of the Author. 5 vols., Svo, Cloth, $10 00 ; 12mo, Cloth, $7 50. NEVIUS'S CHINA. China and the Chinese: a General Description of the Country and its Inhabitants; its Civilization apd Form of Government ; its Religious and Social Institutions ; its Intercourse with other Nations ; and its Present Condition and Prospects. By the Rev. John L. Nevius, Ten Years a Missionary in China. With a Map and Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. OLIPHANT'S china and JAPAN. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mis- sion to China and Japan, in the Years 1857, '58, '59. By Laurence Olipuant. Private Secretary to Lord Elgin. Illustratious. Svo, Cloth, $3 50. OLIPHANT'S (Mrs.) LIFE OF EDWARD IRVING. The Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London. Illustrated by hia Journals aud Correspondence. By Mrs. Olii^uant. Portrait. Svo, Cloth, $3 50. POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Selected aud Edited by the Rev. Robert Aris Wii-lmott. With English and American Additions, arranged by Evert A. Duvokinok, Editor of " Cyclopaedia of American Literature." Comprising Selections from the Greatest Authors of the Age. Superbly Illustrated with 141 En- gravings from Designs by the most Eminent Artists. In elegant small 4to form, printed on Superfine Tinted Paper, richly bound in extra Cloth, Beveled, Gilt Edges, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $5 50 ; Full Turkey Morocco, $9 00. RAWLINSON'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY. A Manual of An- cient History, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. Comprising the History of Chaldaea, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, Lydia, Phoenicia, Syria, Judaea, Egypt, Carthage, Persia, Greece, Macedonia, Parthia, and Rome. By George Rawlinbon, M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. THE DESERT OF THE EXODUS. Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings ; undertaken in connection with the Ordnance Survey of Sinai and the Palestine Exploration Fund. By E. H. Pai-mer, M.A., Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. With Maps and numerous Illustra- tions from Photographs and Drawings taken on the spot by the Sinai Survey Expedition and C. F. Tyrwhitt Dmke. Crown Svo, Cloth, $3 00. Harper &* Brothers' Valuable Staficfard Works. 7 KECLUS'S THE EARTH. The Earth : a Descriptive History of the Phe- noineua and Life of the Globe. By elibee Reclus. Translated by the late B. B. Woodward, and Edited by Henry Woodward. With 234 Maps and Illustrations, and 23 Page Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. SMILES'S LIFE OF THE STEPHENSONS. The Life of George Stephen- eon, and of his Sou, Robert Stephenson ; comprising, also, a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. By Samuel Smiles, Author of "Self-Help," &c. With Steel Portraits and numerous Hlustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. SMILES'S HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS. The Huguenots: their Set- tlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland. By Samuel Smiles. With an Appendix relating to the Huguenots in America. Crown Svo, Cloth, $1 75. SHAKSPEARE. The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Dr. Johnson, G. Steevens, and others. Revised by Isaac Reed. Engravings. 6 vols.. Royal 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. SPEKE'S AFRICA. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. By Captain Joun Hanning Speke, Captain H. M.'s Indian Army, Fellow and Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Correspond- ing Member and Gold Medalist of the French Geographical Society, &c. With Maps and Portraits and numerous Illustrations, chiefly from Draw- ings by Captain Grant. Svo, Cloth, uniform with Livingstone, Barth, Burton, &c., $4 00. SPRING'S SERMONS. Pulpit Ministrations ; or, Sabbath Readings. A Series of Discourses on Christian Doctrine and Duty. By Rev. Gaudiner Spring, D.D., Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York. Portrait on Steel. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $6 00. STRICKLAND'S (Miss) QUEENS OF SCOTLAND. Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain. By Agnes Stkickland. S vols., 12mo, Cloth, $12 00. THE STUDENT'S SERIES. France. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Gibbon. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Greece. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Hume. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Rome. By Liddell. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Old Testament History. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. New Testament History. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Strickland's Queens of England. Abridged. Engravings. 12mo, Clothi $2 00. Ancient History of the East. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Hallam's Middle Ages. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. Lyell's Elements of Geology. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. TENNYSON'S COMPLETE POEMS. The Complete Poems of Alfred Ten- nyson, Poet Laureate. With numerous Illustrations by Eminent Artists, and Three Characteristic Portraits. Svo, Paper, 75 cents ; Cloth, $1 25, THOMSON'S LAND AND THE BOOK. The Land and the Book; or, Bibli- cal Illustrations drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and the Scenery of the Holy Land. By W. M. Thomson, D.D., Twenty-five Years a Missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. in Syria and Palestine. With two elaborate Maps of Palestine, an accurate Plan of Jerusalem, and several hundred Engravings, representing the Scenery, Topography, and Pro- ductions of the Holy Land, and the Costumes, Manners, and Habits of the People. 2 large 12mo vols., Cloth, $5 00. TICKNOR'S HISTORY OF SPANISH LITERATURE. With Criticisms on the particular Works, and Biographical Notices of Prominent Writers. 3 vols., Svo, Cloth, $5 00. TYERMAN'S WESLEY. TheLifeandTimesof the Rev. John Wesley, M. A., Founder of the Methodists. By the Rev. Luke Tyekman, Author of "The Life of Rev. Samuel Wesley." Portraits. 3 vols., Crown Svo, Cloth, $7 50. 8 Harper &> Brothers' Valuable Standard Works. VAMBEKY'S CENTRAL ASIA. Travels in Central Asia. Being the Ac- count of a Journey from Teheran across the Turkoman Desert, on the Eastern Shore of the Caspian, to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand, per- formed in the Year 1863. By Akminics Vaubery, Member of the Hun- garian Academy of Pesth, by whom he was sent on this Scientific Mis- bion. With Map and Woodcuts. 8vo, Cloth, $4 50. WOOD'S HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. Homes Without Hands : being a Description of the Habitations of Animals, classed according to their Principle of Construction. By J. G, Wood, M.A., F.L.S. With about 140 Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $4 50. WILKINSON'S ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. A Popular Account of their Manners and Customs, condensed from his larger Work, with some New Matter. Illustrated with 500 Woodcuts. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. ANTHON'S SMITH'S DICTIONARY OF ANTIQUITIES. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Edited by William Smith, LL.D., and Illustrated by numerous Engravings on Wood. Third American Edition, carefully Revised, and containing, also, numerous additional Articles relative to the Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology of the An- cients. By CuABLES AnTuoN, LL.D. Royal Svo, Sheep extra, $6 00. ANTHON'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. Containing an Account of the principal Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors, and intended to elucidate all the important Points connected with the Geography, His- tory, Biography, Mythology, and Fine Arts of the Greeks and Romans ; together with an Account of the Coins, Weights, and Measures of the Aucients, with Tabular Values of the same. Royal Svo, Sheep extra. $G00. .7 . i- . DWIGHT'S (Rev. Dr.) THEOLOGY. Theology Explained and Defended, in a Series of Sermons. By Timothy Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D. With a Memoir and Portrait. 4 vols., Svo, Cloth, $8 00. ENGLISHMAN'S GREEK CONCORDANCE. The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament: being an Attempt at a Verbal Con- nection between the Greek and the English Texts : including a Concord- ance to the Proper Names, with Indexes, Greek-English and Euglish- Greek. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. FOWLER'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The English Language in its Ele- ments and Forms. With a History of its Origin and Development, and a full Grammar. Designed for Use in Colleges and Schools. Revised and Enlarged. By William C. Fowler, LL.D., late Professor in Am- herst College. Svo, Cloth, $2 50. GIESELER'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. A Text-Book of Church History. By Dr. John C. L. Gieseleb. Translated from the Fourth Revised German Edition by Samuel DAvinsoN, LL.D., and Rev. John Winstanley Hull, M.A. A New American Edition, Revised and Edited by Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D., Professor in the Union Theological Sem- inary, New York. Four Volumes ready. {Jol.V. in Press.) Svo, Cloth, $2 25 per vol. HALL'S (ROBERT) WORKS. The Complete Works of Robert Hall ; with a brief Memoir of his Life by Dr. Gregory, and Observations on his Character as a Preacher by Rev. John Foster. Edited by Olintuds Gregory, LL.D., and Rev. Joseph Belcher. Portrait. 4 vols., Svo, Cloth, $8 00. HAMILTON'S (Sir WILLIAM) WORKS. Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education and University Reform. Chiefly from the Edin- turcfh Review. Corrected, Vindicated, and Enlarged, in Notes and Ap- pendices. By Sir William Hamilton, Bart. With an Introductory Essay by Rev. Robert Turnbcll, D.D. Svo, Cloth, $3 00. HUMBOLDT'S COSMOS. Cosmos : a Sketch of a Physical Deecription of the Universe. By Albxandkr Von Humboldt. Translated from the German by E. C. Orrfe. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 25. By W. C Prime. I 60 A-nSHING. I Go a-Fishing. By William C. Prime. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $2 50. BOAT-LIFE m EGYPT AND NUBIA. . Boat-Life in Egypt and Nubia. By William C. Prime. Il- lustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. TENT-LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND. Tent-Life in the Holy Land. By William C. Prime. Illus- trations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. THE OLD HOUSE BY THE EIVER. The Old House by the Eiver. By William C. Prijie. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. LATER YEAES. Later Years. By William C. Prime. 12mo, Cloth, $1 60. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. i^" Harper & Brothers will send either of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the vrice. They do honor to American Literature, and would do honor to the Literature of any Country in the World." THE RISE OF THE DUTCH KEPUBLIC. By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. New Edition. With a Portrait of Williaji of Orange. 3 vols. 8vo, Muslin, $10 50. We regard tliis work as the best contribution to modern history that has yet been made by an Americm\.~Metho(Ust Quarterlij Revietv. The "History of the Dutch Republic" is a great gift to us; but the heart and earnestness that beat through all its pages are greater, for they give us most timely inspiration to vindicate the true ideas of our country, and to compose an able history of our own.—Christiayi Examiner (Boston). This work bears on its face the evidences of scholarship and research. The arrangement is clear and effective; the style energetic, lively, and often brilliant. * * » Mr. Motley's instructive volumes will, we trust, have a circulation commen- surate with their intercut and yaXwQ.— Protestant Ejyiscopal Quarterly Review. To the illustration of this most interesting period Mr. Motley has brought the matured powers of a vigorous and brilliant mind, and the abundant fruits of pa- tient and judicious study and deep reflection. The result is, one of the most important contributions to historical literature that have been made in this coun- try.— ^ori/i American Review. We would conclude this notice by earnestly recommending our readers to pro- cure for themselves this truly great and admirable work, by the production of which the auther has conferred no less honor upon his country than he has won praise and fame for himself, and than which, we can assure them, they can find nothing more attractive or interesting within the compass of modern literature. —Evangelical Review. It is not often that we have the pleasure of commending to the attention of the lover of books a work of such extraordinary aud unexceptionable excellence as this one.— Universalist Quarterly Review. There are an elevation and a classic polish in these volumes, and a felicity of grouping and of portraiture, which invest the subject with the attractions of a living and stirring episode in the grand historic drama. — Sotithern Methodist Quarterly Review. The author writes with a genial glow and love of his subject. — Presbyterian Quarterly Review. Mr. Motley is a sturdy Republican and a hearty Protestant. Ilis style is live- ly and picturesque, and his work is an honor and an important accession to our national literature. — Church Review. Mr. Motley's Avork is an important one, the result of profound research, sincere convictions, sound principles, and manly sentiments; and even those who are most familiar with the histoiy of the period will find in it a fresh and vivid ad- dition to their previous knowledge. It does honor to American literature, and would do honor to the literature of any country in the world. — Edinburgh Re. view. A serious chasm in English historical literature has been (by this book) very remarkably filled. * * * A history as complete as industry and genius can make it now lies before us, of the first twenty years of the revolt of the United Prov- inces. * * * All the essentials of a great writer Mr. Motley eminently possesses. His mind is broad, his industry unwearied. In power of dramatic descriptiou no modern historian, except, perhaps, Mr. Carlyle, surpasses him, and in analy* Bis of cliaracter he is elaborate and distinct. — Westminster Review. Mr. Motley^ the Amirican historian of the United Nttherlands—we owe Mm Encjlish homage. — Lonuoh Times. ^Aa interesting ae a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of Euclid,** History of The United Netherlands. FROM THE DEATU OF WILLIAM TUB SILENT TO THE TWELVE YEARS* TRDOE. WITU A FULL VIEW OF TUE ENGLI8U-DUTCII STKUGGLE AGAINST SPAIN, AND OF TUE ORIGIN AND DESTRUCTION OF TUE SPANISH ARMADA. By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L., Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Author of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic." With Portraits and Map. 4 vols. Svo, Mnslin, $14 Oft Critical Soticcs. Ilia living and truthful picture of eyeuta.—Qriartcrli/ Revieiv (London), Jan . 1861. Fertile as the present age has been in historical works of the highest merit none of them can be ranked above these volnmes in the grand qualities of interest^ accuracy, and truth — Edinburgh Quarlerly Review, Jan., ISGl. This noble work — Westminster Review (London). One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the century Cor, N. y. Evening Post. The careful study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both rich and ra re. — Ballim ore Rejniblica u. Already takes a rank among standard works of history London Critic, Mr. Motley's prose epic. — London Spectator. Its pages are pregnant with instruction — London Literary Gazette. We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics which rgi- tate us now are more or less vividly presented in the History of the United Nether- lands Neif York Times. Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that produced "The Risg of the Dutch Republic;" but the new work is riper, mellower, and though equally rscy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea which breathes through Mr. Motley's histories and colors the whole texture of hU narrative, is the grandeur of that memorable struggle in the 16th century by which the human mind broke the thraldom of religions intoleranca and achieved its independence The World, N. V. The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living historians. Ilia Dutch Republic took the world by surprise ; but the favorable verdict then given 13 now only the more deliberately confirmed on the publication of the continued story under the title of the His'ory of the United Netherlands. All the nerve, and power, and substance of juicy liife are there, lending a charm to every page.— Church Journal, X. Y. Motley, indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his fighting scenes are as real, epirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad The Press (Phila.). Ilis history is as interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of Eu- clid. Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We advise every reader whose means will permit to become the owner of these fascinating volnmes, assuring him that he will never regi-et the investment Christian Intelligencer, N. Y. Published hy HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, Nevr York. t^" Harper & Brothers will send the above Work by Mail, postage pre-paid (for any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the Money. By the Author of "John Halifax." These novels form a most admirable series of popular fiction. They are marked by their faithful delineation of character, their naturalness and purity of sentiment, the dramatic interest of their plots, their beauty and force of expression, and their elevated moral tone. No current novels can be more highly recommended for the family library, while their brilliancy and ^-ivacity will make them welcome to everj- reader of cultiTated taste. HANNAH. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo, Cloth, $1 50. MOTHERLESS ; or, A Parisian Fanaily. Translated from the French of Madame De Witt, «£v Guizot. For Girls in their Teens. Illus- trated. i2mo, Cloth, $1 50. FAIR FRANCE. Impressions of a Traveller. i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. A BRAVE LADY. With Illustrations. Svo, Paper, Si co ; Cloth, $1 50; i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. A FRENCH COUNTRY FAMILY. Translated from the French of Madame De Witt, «tv Guizot. Illustrated. i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. A HERO, AND Other Tales. i2mo, Cloth, Si 25. A LIFE FOR A LIFE. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. AGATHA'S HUSBAND. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. A NOBLE LIFE. i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. AVILLION, AND Other T.\les. Svo, Paper, Si 25. CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE. i2mo, Cloth, $1 50. FAIRY BOOK, Illustrated i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. HEAD OF THE FAMILY. Svo, Paper, 75 cents ; i2mo, Cloth, $1 50. JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. Svo, Paper, 75 cents; i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. MISTRESS AND MAID. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. NOTHING NEW. Svo, Paper, 50 cents. OGILVIES. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. OLIVE. Svo, Paper, 50 cents ; i2mo. Cloth, Si 50. OUR YEAR. Illustrated. i6mo. Cloth, Gilt Edges, $1 00. STUDIES FROM LIFE. i2mo, Cloth, Si 25. THE TWO MARRIAGES. i2mo, Cloth, $1 50. THE UNKIND WORD, and Other Stories. i2mo. Cloth, Si 50. THE WOMAN^S KINGDOM. Illustrated. Svo, Paper, ^i 00; Cloth, $1 50 ; i2mo, Cloth, Si 50. BOOKS FOR GIRLS. Edited or Written by the Author of "John Halifax." Illustrated. i6mo, Cloth, 90 cents each. Now ready : LITTLE SUNSHINE'S HOLIDAY. THE COUSIN FROM INDIA. TWENTY YEARS. AGO. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. Harper & Brothers will send either of tJie abov^ works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of tht United States, on receipt of the price. ^,<5^^^:l'. 0> s ■>^^ '. ^ B- - ^^' ^ . <\V . V«.. '^^. ^^,/' .".^^J^A/^^ %'c;<- .V -t^ \-'' ■-'"', r^M^ ^/' .^x^ v^. a\-. ^ %%^ A^^'"^^. °.¥ji