ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 EARLY REPUBLIC 
 
 MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD
 
 e Old Corner Book 
 
 Store, Inc. 
 Mton, - Mast
 
 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC
 
 BOOKS BY 
 
 MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 
 
 OLD BOSTON DAYS AND WAYS 
 
 ROMANTIC DAYS IN OLD BOSTON
 
 MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD AND HER ELDEST SON. 
 
 From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence now in the possession of the Historical 
 Society of Pennsylvania.
 
 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 EARLY REPUBLIC 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 
 
 AUTHOR OF " OLD BOSTON DAYS AND WAYS," 
 "GOETHE AND HIS WOMAN FRIENDS," ETC. 
 
 With Numerous Illustrations 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1912 
 Jf
 
 Copyright, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, October, 1912 
 
 THE COLONIAL PRESS 
 C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. 8. A.
 
 3f gnu are fott& of mmattr* reafc
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 ALL the visitors to America, during and just 
 after the Revolution, wrote with enthusiasm, 
 upon their return home, of the hospitality which 
 they here enjoyed and of the beautiful women 
 who administered it. Boston, New York, 
 Philadelphia and the Southern cities each cher- 
 ishes fondly so far as its own traditions go 
 the memory of that gracious era and of those 
 identified with it. But how little Bostonians 
 know of early New York, how dense is the ig- 
 norance of Philadelphians concerning the tradi- 
 tions of New Orleans! Yet would it not add 
 materially to our rich heritage as Americans, 
 if the local history and noble heroes of other 
 cities than our own evoked our keen enthusiasm? 
 
 The author, however, who sets out, in a single 
 book, to promote this admirable end is con- 
 fronted at once with a very great difficulty; 
 that of selection. For no Philadelphian wants 
 to read details about early Baltimore how- 
 ever admirable he might find in any book ex- 
 haustive treatment of his own dear city. Hap- 
 pily, each of the cities here studied has been 
 found to possess some story or some institution
 
 viii FOREWORD 
 
 of its own which might well become a part of 
 common knowledge in this young and lusty land 
 of ours. America can use more heroes, too, 
 than we are wont to think. Jefferson and Andrew 
 Jackson should not be mere names in this year 
 of Progressivism ; Abigail Adams and Theodosia 
 Burr ought to be the fond familiar friends of 
 awakening American womanhood. 
 
 Of course, the diaries, histories, reminiscences 
 and letters consulted in the preparation of a 
 book of this kind bulk very large; so large that 
 their mere enumeration would cover many 
 pages. For the most part, therefore, acknowl- 
 edgments have been made in the body of the 
 book. But I wish to mention here my gratitude 
 to the Houghton Mifflin Company for various 
 quotations' from works which they control; to 
 Charles Scribner's Sons; publishers of Margaret 
 Bayard Smith's First Forty Years of Washing- 
 ton Society; to Harper and Brothers for their 
 courtesy in permitting the use of some anec- 
 dotes first printed in their publications; to 
 the Century Company for similar courtesies, 
 and to G. P. Putnam's Sons for several cita- 
 tions from their edition of Washington Irving's 
 works. 
 
 To individuals who have aided me by their 
 counsel and by the loan of family or much- 
 cherished portraits; to writers who have given 
 me the benefit of their ripe wisdom and scholarly
 
 FOREWORD ix 
 
 research; to librarians who have gladly lent 
 time and interest my warm gratitude is also 
 given. One of the great joys which comes to an 
 author in the preparation of a work of this kind 
 is the discovery that America, even today, has 
 something of the spirit of that Cooperative 
 Commonwealth towards which the Reformer 
 yearns lingering remnants, very likely, of 
 the team-play brotherliness which made possible 
 the early Republic. 
 
 M. C. C. 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1912.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD vii 
 
 I. PHILADELPHIA 1 
 
 II. NEW YORK 73 
 
 III. WASHINGTON 156 
 
 IV. BALTIMORE 243 
 
 V. CHARLESTON 291 
 
 VI. RICHMOND AND SOME FAMOUS VIRGINIAN 
 
 HOMES 338 
 
 VII. NEW ORLEANS 379 
 
 VIII. BOSTON AND SOME OTHER CITIES OF NEW 
 
 ENGLAND 397 
 
 INDEX 433
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MBS. BENEDICT ARNOLD AND HER ELDEST SON Frontispiece 
 
 From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence now in the possession of 
 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 MAJOR ANDRE" 20 
 
 From a painting by himself. 
 
 SECOND STREET, PHILADELPHIA, ABOUT 1800 ... 21 
 
 CONGRESS HALL AND CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE, PHILA- 
 DELPHIA, ABOUT 1800 21 
 
 MRS. MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON 44 
 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart now in the possession of the Penn- 
 sylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 
 
 THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA, ABOUT 1800 ... 45 
 HIGH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, ABOUT 1800 ... 45 
 Miss SALLY MCKEAN 52 
 
 Who became the Marchioness de Casa Yrujo. From the painting by 
 Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Mrs. Thomas McKean of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 MRS. WALTER STEWART 52 
 
 From the painting by Charles Wilson Peale. 
 
 SARAH FRANKLIN BACHE 53 
 
 DR. CASPAR WISTAR 53 
 
 FRAUNCES' TAVERN IN 1867 74 
 
 THE ATHENAEUM WASHINGTON OF STUART ... 75 
 
 From the original in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. 
 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY JAMES 
 SAVAGE 86 
 
 From the portrait by James Savage in the possession of Brooks Adams, 
 Quincy, Massachusetts. 
 
 HOUSES OPPOSITE BOWLING GREEN ON BROADWAY ' . 87 
 
 MACOMB HOUSE, WASHINGTON'S SECOND NEW YORK 
 RESIDENCE . . , . . 87 
 
 THE MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, NEW YORK, ABOUT 1830 92 
 
 From a drawing by C. Burton. 
 
 MRS. CHAUNCEY GOODRICH 93 
 
 From a miniature in the possession of Charles A . Brinley of Phila- 
 delphia.
 
 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PACIMO PAGE 
 
 MRS. JOHN JAY 98 
 
 From the painting by Daniel Huntington, enlarged from a miniature 
 in a bracelet. 
 
 CITY HALL AND ITS PARK, NEW YORK, ABOUT 1835 . 99 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 OLD ST. PAUL'S, NEW YORK 110 
 
 AARON BURR . . .111 
 
 From a painting attributed to Gilbert Stuart in the possession of 
 Princeton University. 
 
 THE WEST FRONT OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK . 120 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE IN 1792 . 121 
 
 PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK 130 
 
 From a drawing by C. Burton. 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 131 
 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN 1825 148 
 
 After a portrait by S. F. B. Morse. 
 
 TAMMANY HALL IN 1830 149 
 
 From Valentine's Manual. 
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 158 
 
 From the portrait by Trumbutt in the possession of the Yale Uni- 
 versity School of Fine Arts. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. . . i 159 
 
 MRS. MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH .... 176 
 
 From the portrait by Stuart in the possession of Mrs. Algernon Coo- 
 lidge of Boston. 
 
 DOLLY MADISON 177 
 
 From a miniature by James Peale in the possession of her great- 
 niece, Miss Lucia B. Cutts of Boston. 
 
 JAMES MADISON 184 
 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Bowdoin 
 College. 
 
 HOME OF WASHINGTON IRVING AT SUNNYSIDE . . . 185 
 MRS. JAMES MONROE 200 
 
 From the miniature painted by Senl in Paris in 1794. 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 201 
 
 From the portrait by Leslie in the possession of Brooks Adams, 
 Quincy, Massachusetts. 
 
 MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 210 
 
 From the portrait by Leslie in the possession of Brooks Adams, 
 Quincy, Massachusetts. 
 
 A VIEW OF THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON DURING JACK- 
 SON'S ADMINISTRATION 211 
 
 From an old print.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE 258 
 
 From the miniature by Augustin, made in Paris in 1814, now n the 
 possession of Edward Biddle, of Philadelphia. 
 
 BALTIMORE STREET, BALTIMORE, IN STAGE - COACH DAYS 259 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, BALTIMORE, 
 ABOUT 1830 ...... . . ' . .282 
 
 From an old print. . 
 
 THE BATTLE MONUMENT, BALTIMORE, ABOUT 1835 . 283 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, IN 1780 . . . . 292 
 CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, ABOUT 1830 . . . 293 
 MR. AND MRS. RALPH IZARD 312 
 
 From the painting by Copley in the possession of the Boston Museum of 
 Fine Arts. 
 
 THEODOSIA BURR 313 
 
 From the portrait by St. Memin. 
 
 HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT 326 
 
 From a miniature in the possession of Dr. Francis Coffin Martin of 
 Boston. 
 
 THE NAG'S HEAD PORTRAIT OF THEODOSIA BURR^ . . 327 
 
 F-rom the original in the possession of Mrs. John P. Overman, Eliza- 
 beth City, North Carolina. 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND 338 
 
 THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND 339 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 HENRY CLAY 346 
 
 From the portrait by S. F. B. Morse in the possession of the Metropoli- 
 tan Museum of Art, New York. 
 
 THE MONUMENTAL CHURCH, RICHMOND .... 347 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 THE ALLAN MANSION, RICHMOND 354 
 
 In which Edgar Allan Poe lived as a lad. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S TOMB AT MOUNT VERNON . . . 355 
 ELEANOR PARKS CUSTIS 366 
 
 From a painting by Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Mrs. Edwin 
 A. S. Lewis of New York. 
 
 MOUNT VERNON . . . . . . . . . 367 
 
 THE ARCHBISHOPRIC, OLDEST HOUSE IN NEW ORLEANS . 380 
 
 JACKSON SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS . . .''..- . 381 
 
 THE OLD FRENCH MARKET, NEW ORLEANS . . . 392 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON 393 
 
 From the portrait by Sully in the possession of the Corcoran Art Gal- 
 lery, Washington. 
 
 PARLOR OF THE DOROTHY Q. HOUSE, QUINCY, MASS. . 404
 
 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 GOVERNOR LANGDON HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, N. H. . . 405 
 GUEST CHAMBER OF THE LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORT- 
 LAND, ME. . . . -, ' -. . . '..-.. . . 412 
 KITCHEN OF THE LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORTLAND, ME. 413 
 MRS. R. C. DERBY 416 
 
 From the miniature by Malbone in the possession of the Metro- 
 politan Museum of Art, New York. 
 
 MRS. EDWARD BLAKE . 417 
 
 From the miniature by Malbone in the possession of Miss Julia 
 Robins, Boston. 
 
 BOSTON COMMON AND THE STATE HOUSE, 1830 . . 424 
 
 From the painting by George Harvey in the possession of the Bos- 
 tonian Society. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER 425 
 
 From the portrait by Stuart in the possession of George Fred Williams, 
 Dedharn, Massachusetts
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 is the finest town, the 
 best built and the most wealthy in the 
 United States," stoutly maintained Bris- 
 sot de Warville (1788) in his naive volume of 
 Travels. The time to which our author refers 
 is, of course, that of the early Republic; but 
 inasmuch as a good deal of Philadelphia's social 
 prestige had been carried over from the days of 
 the British Occupation, days in which Major 
 Andre and Peggy Shippen together participated 
 in the Mischianza of illustrious memory, 
 it seems worth while to tell briefly the story of 
 that brilliant affair and to restate clearly the 
 known facts concerning Mrs. Arnold's relation 
 to the clever young British officer. 
 
 Peggy Shippen Arnold certainly realized to 
 the full the delectable desire expressed by
 
 2 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Ibsen's neurotic Hedda, when she exclaimed, 
 " Oh, that I might have my fingers in the des- 
 tiny of a man! " History, to be sure, pretty 
 unanimously acquits Andre's cotillion partner 
 of any wicked complicity in what afterwards 
 happened. Nor is there the least evidence that 
 what Andre felt for pretty Peggy was more than 
 the pleasure any gallant young man takes in the 
 witty companionship of a dainty maiden who is 
 sufficiently his junior. At the time of the Mis- 
 chianza, indeed, Andre's heart had not really 
 recovered from the blow dealt him by Honora 
 Sneyd when she chose to become the second wife 
 of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (and the step- 
 mother of Maria Edgeworth, the novelist) rather 
 than accept the portionless hand of her hand- 
 some young adorer. There are extant some 
 letters written by young Andre to a girl who was 
 the friend both of Honora and of himself, in 
 which there are frequent references to the 
 scantiness of his family fortunes and to the 
 bearing of this fact on his prospects of future 
 happiness. 
 
 Almost the only tangible evidence that there 
 ever had been a fortune in the Andre family 
 rested, it would seem, on an old coach drawn by 
 " two long tail nags." And as frankly as he 
 confesses his poverty young Andre avows the 
 hopelessness of his affection for Honora. In 
 one letter he writes, " My zephyrs are wafted
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 3 
 
 through cracks in the wainscott; for murmur- 
 ing streams I have dirty kennels; for bleating 
 flocks grunting pigs and squalling birds that 
 incessantly warble! " Not a favorable spot, 
 obviously, for the cultivation of the muse. No 
 wonder he soon came to feel that, as a change, 
 he could even enter trade. On November 1, 
 1769, he wrote, " I have now completely sub- 
 dued my aversion to the profession of a mer- 
 chant, and hope in time to acquire an inclina- 
 tion for it. Yet, God forbid I should ever love 
 what I am to make the object of my attention, 
 that vile trash which I care not for but only as 
 it may be a future means of procuring the bless- 
 ing of my soul. Thus all my mercantile calcu- 
 lations go to the tune of dear Honora. When an 
 impertinent consciousness whispers in my ear 
 that I am not of the right stuff for a merchant 
 I draw my Honora's picture from my bosom 
 and the sight of that dear Talisman so inspirits 
 my industry that no toil appears oppressive." 
 It was this same picture of Honora, painted 
 by himself, and preserved in a locket, that Andre 
 saved from his captors (by hiding it in his 
 mouth) when, having surrendered to Mont- 
 gomery (at St. John's in 1775), he with the 
 other prisoners of war was commanded to strip 
 for examination. Yet Honora had then for two 
 years been the wife of the fascinating Edge- 
 worth and it had probably been in the hope
 
 4 .ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of drowning in an adventurous career in America 
 the sorrow of her loss that Andre joined the 
 British army over here. Following his capture 
 by Montgomery, he was conveyed to Lancaster, 
 Pennsylvania, where for four months he was 
 confined as a prisoner in the house of Caleb Cope. 
 Then he was transferred to Carlisle and, after 
 that, was in short order exchanged and made a 
 member of Sir Henry Clinton's military family, 
 with promotion from his rank as captain to that 
 of major. 
 
 It was, however, Andre's social gifts rather 
 than any military skill he may have possessed 
 which made him a favorite in Philadelphia. 
 He was graceful and handsome, could draw, 
 paint, and write poetry, and he had charming 
 manners. He seemed, indeed, particularly en- 
 dowed to plan and carry through the famous 
 social function which Howe's officers designed 
 to mark their chief's departure from the Quaker 
 City and to rebuke his recall to England. In 
 an elaborate letter, written to a friend in Lon- 
 don and published several years after Andre's 
 death, we see reflected the young man's delight 
 in this extraordinary fte which has ever since 
 been regarded as the high-water mark in Phila- 
 delphia's social history. 1 
 
 As the title of the fete implies, several differ- 
 ent kinds of entertainment were included in this 
 
 t 1 In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1788.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 5 
 
 splendid celebration of May 18, 1778. The 
 initial feature was a grand regatta in three divis- 
 ions. First came the Ferret galley, on board of 
 which were several general officers and ladies; 
 then the Hussar galley, bearing Sir William and 
 Lord Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, their suite and 
 many ladies, while the Cornwallis galley, with 
 General Knyphausen and suite, three British 
 generals and several more fair ladies brought up 
 in the rear. In front of each galley went three 
 flatboats with bands of music; five flatboats, 
 lined with green cloth and filled with ladies and 
 gentlemen attended each side of the large ships, 
 and these were in turn attended by several 
 barges to keep off the swarm of boats in the river. 
 Colors and streamers floated gaily from the 
 participating ships, while all the vessels lying at 
 anchor near by were also magnificently deco- 
 rated. 
 
 The rendezvous for this interesting regatta- 
 pageant was at Knight's Wharf, at the northern 
 extremity of the city. At half -past four the 
 company embarked, floating slowly down the 
 river to the strains of appropriate music until 
 they arrived opposite Market Wharf, where all 
 rested their oars and, in obedience to a pre- 
 viously arranged signal, " God Save the King " 
 was sung and cheered by all hands to the echo. 
 The landing was at the Old Fort, a little south 
 of the town, and thence, after a due ritual of
 
 6 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 salutes, the company from the boats proceeded 
 to Walnut Grove, the mansion of Joseph Whar- 
 ton, through an avenue formed by two files of 
 grenadiers, each supported by a line of light 
 horse, to the building prepared for the next 
 feature. Here was " discovered " a spacious 
 lawn lined with troops and prepared for the ex- 
 hibition of a tilt and tournament. Two pavilions 
 had been provided for the ladies, with seats 
 rising one above the other, the places of 
 honor on the front seats having been allotted to a 
 group of maidens dressed as Turkish princesses 
 and wearing in their turbans the favors for which 
 the gallant knights were presently to contend. 
 
 A blare of trumpets sounded in the distance. 
 And now a band of knights in ancient habits 
 of white and red silk, mounted on gray horses 
 caparisoned in the same colors and attended by 
 squires on foot, by heralds and by trumpeters, 
 entered the lists. Lord Cathcart was chief of 
 these knights and appeared in honor of Miss 
 Auchmuty. One squire bore his lance, another 
 his shield, and two coal-black slaves, dressed in 
 blue and white silk with silver clasps on their 
 bare necks and arms, held his stirrups. After 
 making a circuit of the square and saluting the 
 ladies, the members of his band ranged them- 
 selves in line with the pavilion graced by the 
 ladies of their device. Then the herald, after a 
 flourish of trumpets, proclaimed a challenge
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 7 
 
 and asserted the superiority in wit, beauty, and 
 accomplishment of the ladies of the Blended 
 Rose, whose claims would now be defended ac- 
 cording to the ancient laws of chivalry. 
 
 Thrice was the challenge repeated ere another 
 herald and trumpeters, advancing from the 
 opposite side of the square, proclaimed defiance 
 in the name of the knights of the Burning Moun- 
 tain. Black and orange were the colors of these 
 servitors, while their chief, Captain Watson, ap- 
 pearing in honor of Miss Franks, bore for his 
 device a heart with a wreath of roses, and for 
 his motto Love and Glory. This band also 
 rode round the lists and drew up in front of the 
 White Knights. Then the gauntlet was thrown 
 down, lifted and the encounter was on! For 
 some minutes all fought, and then the two chiefs, 
 spurring to the center, engaged in a single com- 
 bat which grew more and more fierce until the 
 marshal of the field, rushing between them, de- 
 clared that the ladies both of the Blended Rose 
 and of the Burning Mountain were satisfied with 
 the proofs of love and valor already given and 
 commanded their knights to desist. The bands 
 filed off in different directions, bowing low, as 
 they passed the pavilion, to the beautiful ladies 
 there ensconced. 
 
 The whole company then marched in proces- 
 sion, through triumphal arches built in the 
 Tuscan order, to a garden on the other side, and
 
 8 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 ascended to a spacious hall painted in imitation 
 of Siena marble. Here were tea and other re- 
 freshments. And now the valiant knights, kneel- 
 ing down, received from the fair fingers of their 
 chosen ones the favors which they had won in 
 the tournament. In the ballroom, where dan- 
 cing continued until ten o'clock, were eighty -five 
 mirrors reflecting the light from thirty-four 
 branches fitted with wax candles; and to lend 
 further brilliance to the scene there was soon a 
 magnificent display of fireworks. 
 
 Supper, however, was the crowning glory of 
 the day. This was served at the stroke of mid- 
 night, when large folding doors, which had 
 hitherto been concealed, were suddenly thrown 
 open, revealing a splendid and spacious hall 
 richly painted and brilliantly illuminated, the 
 central feature of which was a table set out, 
 according to Major Andre's account, with four 
 hundred and thirty covers and twelve hundred 
 dishes ! At the close of the feast the herald and 
 trumpeters of the Blended Rose entered the 
 room, and proclaimed, first, the health of the 
 king and royal family, then the health of the 
 knights and their ladies. Each toast was ac- 
 companied by a flourish of music in good old 
 medieval style. After which the company re- 
 turned to the ballroom and dancing continued 
 till four o'clock. Very weary the Mischianza 
 belles must have been when they finally reached
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 9 
 
 home. For this entertainment had made a 
 record for length as well as for elegance ! 
 
 The next day the mirrors and lusters borrowed 
 from Philadelphia's leading citizens were quietly 
 returned, and very shortly Sir William Howe 
 took his departure. But the pageant given in 
 the English general's honor caused tongues to 
 wag for many a month in England as well as 
 in the camps of the American army. Naturally 
 the patriot generals, who had been enduring 
 bitter privations in the cause of independence, 
 were most cutting in their comments on the 
 extravagance of the celebration, and one cer- 
 tainly sympathizes with the feeling which, on 
 July 12, prompted General Wayne to write, 
 " Tell those Philadelphia ladies who attended 
 Howe's assemblies and levees that the heavenly, 
 sweet, pretty, redcoats the accomplished gen- 
 tlemen of the guards and grenadiers, have been 
 humbled on the plains of Monmouth. The 
 knights of the Blended Roses and of the Burn- 
 ing Mount have resigned their laurels to rebel 
 officers, who will lay them at the feet of those 
 virtuous daughters of America who cheerfully 
 gave up ease and affluence in a city for liberty 
 and peace of mind in a cottage." 
 
 Though all the loyalist maidens of Philadel- 
 phia the Chews, the Whites, the Craigs, the 
 Redmans and the Burds had a share in the 
 festivities of that glorious day, the most promi-
 
 10 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 nent girl in the fete was the beautiful Miss 
 Margaret Shippen, who was soon to become the 
 wife of Benedict Arnold. Arnold had begun 
 life as a druggist in New Haven, Connecticut, 
 not far from Norwich, the town of his birth, 
 and there had married an estimable woman who 
 died about the time the war began. Though of 
 a reckless and adventurous nature, the traitor 
 seems to have been tenderly devoted to this 
 wife, and it was perhaps the sorrow of her loss 
 which first turned him definitely towards the 
 crooked ways which were to prove his undoing. 
 Sparks argues from the constant affection felt 
 for the man by his gentle sister, Hannah Arnold, 
 that there existed in his domestic character 
 better traits than could be inferred from his 
 public conduct. Other writers, pressing further 
 this same line of reasoning, find in a fond hus- 
 band's desire to indulge the extravagance of a 
 charming young wife the explanation of Arnold's 
 treachery. This, however, seems to me to be 
 working too hard the injunction, " Cherchez la 
 femme! " Arnold was a spendthrift before ever 
 he met Margaret Shippen. 
 
 But it was perhaps unfortunate that a man of 
 his weak will and impressionable nature should 
 have been put in command at Philadelphia in 
 the wake of the Mischianza and at a time when 
 only the utmost integrity and the finest tact 
 could have enabled any commander to give en-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 11 
 
 tire satisfaction. Stories began very early to 
 be whispered about to his discredit. One set of 
 people said that it was nothing short of a scandal, 
 in view of the distressed condition of the country, 
 for Arnold to be living as he was and to be court- 
 ing the favor of Tories. Another set charged 
 him with extortion and with commercial specu- 
 lations of doubtful repute. 
 
 The note of extravagance and display, which 
 had been struck in Philadelphia before Howe's 
 departure, was not suffered to die away under 
 Arnold. He soon established himself at Mount 
 Pleasant, once characterized by John Adams as 
 " the most magnificent seat in Pennsylvania," 
 furnished it expensively, drove a coach and four, 
 and gave splendid entertainments, to which were 
 always invited the friends of the lovely Miss 
 Shippen. He had fallen in love with the Tory 
 belle at first sight and, within three months, was 
 declaring his passion thus eloquently: 
 
 " DEAR MADAM : Twenty times have I taken 
 up my pen to write to you and as often has my 
 trembling hand refused to obey the dictates of 
 my heart a heart which, though calm and 
 serene amid the clashing of arms and all the din 
 and horrors of war, trembles with diffidence and 
 the fear of giving offence when it attempts to 
 address you on a subject so important to its 
 happiness. Dear madam, your charms have
 
 12 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 lighted up a flame in my bosom which can never 
 be extinguished; your heavenly image is too 
 deeply impressed ever to be effaced. My pas- 
 sion is not founded on personal charms only: 
 that sweetness of disposition and goodness of 
 heart that sentiment and sensibility which 
 so strongly mark the character of the lovely 
 Miss P. Shippen render her amiable beyond 
 expression, and will ever retain the heart she 
 has once captivated. 
 
 " On you alone my happiness depends. And 
 will you doom me to languish in despair? Shall 
 I expect no return to the most sincere, ardent 
 and disinterested passion? Do you feel no pity 
 in your gentle bosom for the man who would 
 die to make you happy? May I presume to hope 
 it is not impossible I may make a favourable 
 impression on your heart? Friendship and es- 
 teem you acknowledge. Dear Peggy! suffer 
 that heavenly bosom (which cannot know itself 
 the cause of pain without a sympathetic pang) 
 to expand with a sensation, more soft, more 
 tender than friendship. A union of hearts is 
 undoubtedly necessary to happiness. But give 
 me leave to observe that true and permanent 
 happiness is seldom the effect of an alliance 
 formed on a romantic passion, where fancy gov- 
 erns more than judgment. Friendship and es- 
 teem, founded on the merit of the object, is the 
 most certain basis to found a lasting happiness
 
 upon. And when there is a tender and ardent 
 passion on one side, and friendship and esteem 
 on the other, the heart (unlike yours) must be 
 callous to every tender sentiment if the taper of 
 love is not lighted up at the flame. 
 
 " I am sensible your prudence and the affec- 
 tion you bear your amiable and tender parents 
 forbid your giving encouragement to the ad- 
 dresses of anyone without their approbation. 
 Pardon me, dear madam, for disclosing a passion 
 I could no longer confine in my tortured bosom. 
 I have presumed to write to your papa and have 
 requested his sanction to my addresses. Suffer 
 me to hope for your approbation. Consider be- 
 fore you doom me to misery which I have not 
 deserved but by loving you too extravagantly. 
 Consult your own happiness, and, if incompat- 
 ible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch; for 
 may I perish if I would give you one moment's 
 inquietude to purchase the greatest possible 
 felicity to myself! Whatever my fate may be 
 my most ardent wish is for your happiness, and 
 my latest breath will be to implore the blessings 
 of Heaven on the idol and only wish of my soul. 
 
 " Adieu, dear madam, and believe me unalter- 
 ably your sincere admirer and devoted humble 
 servant, 
 
 " B. ARNOLD. 
 
 " September 25, 1778 
 " Miss Peggy Shippen."
 
 14 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 According to some authorities the Shippen 
 family were most distressed that their beloved 
 Peggy returned the love of Arnold. This, how- 
 ever, " not so much from political feeling as from 
 distrust of the man, objection to his origin and 
 dislike of his private character so far as it was 
 known. Arnold was not, in fact, a gentleman. 
 His birth and early education were low; and 
 his peddling and smuggling-trade with the is- 
 lands, his traffic in cattle and horses could have 
 improved neither his manners nor his morals." 
 Yet there is extant a letter written by Peggy's 
 grandfather, Edward Shippen, Sr., which contains 
 quite a jovial allusion to the prospect of wel- 
 coming soon as a member of his family " Gen- 
 eral Arnold, a fine gentleman ! " l 
 
 Perhaps the most astounding thing about this 
 whole alliance was the ease with which Arnold 
 acquitted himself in the matter of a proper (?) 
 marriage settlement. Here his trickiness served 
 him in good stead. For events proved that what 
 he really settled upon the woman he was to take 
 for a bride was a large mortgage held against the 
 estate of Mt. Pleasant. This incumbrance, which 
 had so reduced the amount of money necessary to 
 be paid down for the place as to put it within 
 Arnold's purchasing power, subsequently cut out 
 altogether Peggy Shippen's interest in the estate. 
 
 1 Thomas Balch, in Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the 
 Provincial History of Pennsylvania.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 15 
 
 In the matter of age, as well as in that of 
 family and wealth, there was a striking disparity 
 between these two. Miss Shippen was scarcely 
 twenty years old while Arnold was a widower 
 of thirty -five with three sons. But it was the 
 story of Honora Sneyd and Richard Edgeworth 
 over again. A handsome face, a gallant bear- 
 ing and the habit of success with women quite 
 outweighed the disadvantage of middle age, and, 
 by the spring of 1779, Benedict Arnold, the 
 former Connecticut apothecary, was the exult- 
 ant husband of Margaret Shippen, daughter 
 of one of Philadelphia's proudest families. Natu- 
 rally, he now more than ever invited to his house 
 the friends of the Shippen family. And quite 
 as naturally he was now more than ever criti- 
 cized for his friendliness with Tories. General 
 Reed wrote indignantly to General Greene 
 that Arnold had actually given a party at which 
 " not only common Tory ladies, but the wives 
 and daughters of persons proscribed by the 
 State, and now with the enemy at New York " 
 were present in considerable numbers. Arnold, 
 when confronted with this accusation, replied 
 that he had never considered it the part of a true 
 soldier to persecute in private life the wives and 
 daughters of the enemy. But, of course, this 
 sophistical retort convinced no one. 
 
 On the woman he loved the effect of the petty 
 persecution which now came to be visited upon
 
 16 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Arnold was (as often happens) to make her 
 cling more closely than before to the man her 
 heart had chosen. But it is only a coincidence, 
 I am sure, that just at the time that they were 
 married, Arnold first wrote to Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton in disguised handwriting and under the sig- 
 nature of " Gustavus," describing himself as 
 an American officer of high rank, who, through 
 disgust at the French alliance and other pro- 
 ceedings of Congress, might perhaps be per- 
 suaded to go over to the British, provided he 
 could be indemnified for any losses he might 
 incur by so doing. The correspondence thus 
 begun was kept up at intervals, Clinton's replies 
 being penned by Major John Andre, his adju- 
 tant-general, over the signature of " John An- 
 derson." For nearly eighteen months, indeed, 
 the letters continued under fictitious names but 
 with the gradual knowledge on the part of both 
 principals as to whom the other party was. 
 
 Andre and Mrs. Arnold, too, occasionally 
 wrote to each other now, and Arnold did not 
 scruple, through this means, to convey certain 
 messages to the English side. But Mrs. Arnold 
 was, all the while, quite innocent of wrong, and 
 the tale that she once confessed complicity in 
 the treacherous plot J is usually discredited. 
 
 1 A letter from Major Andrg to Arnold's wife, offering to secure 
 supplies from New York of certain millinery articles for her use is 
 generally supposed to cover a meaning understood by Arnold 
 alone.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 17 
 
 After his marriage, except when absent to 
 attend the court-martial in camp, Arnold was 
 pretty constantly in Philadelphia until the 
 middle of July, 1780; and it was there that his 
 first child by his second marriage, Edward 
 Shippen Arnold, was born. The family's re- 
 moval to West Point and Arnold's hasty de- 
 parture from that place, following his dis- 
 covery of Andre's arrest, were also events 
 of that summer of 1780, a very tragic summer, we 
 may believe, for the lovely girl who so short a 
 time before had married her handsome general, 
 full of high hopes for the future. Some friends 
 of the Shippen family assert that the young wife 
 would have been glad to return to her father's 
 home for good upon the discovery of her hus- 
 band's treachery, but if such was her desire she 
 was effectually prevented from realizing it by 
 this notice, served upon her within a month after 
 she had rejoined her own people in Philadel- 
 phia, following Arnold's defection: 
 
 "IN COUNCIL 
 
 Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 27, 1780. 
 " The Council, taking into consideration the 
 case of Mrs. Margaret Arnold (the wife of Bene- 
 dict Arnold, an attainted traitor with the enemy 
 at New York), whose residence in this city has 
 become dangerous to the public safety, and
 
 18 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 this Board being desirous as much as possible 
 to prevent any correspondence and intercourse 
 being carried on with persons of disaffected 
 character in this State and the enemy at New 
 York, and especially with the said Benedict 
 Arnold; therefore 
 
 " RESOLVED, That the said Margaret Arnold 
 depart this State within fourteen days from the 
 date hereof, and that she do not return again 
 during the continuance of the present war." 
 
 Nor could the Council be induced to with- 
 draw this decree although considerable pressure 
 was brought to bear upon them to do so. " It 
 makes me melancholy every time I think of her 
 reunion to that infernal villain," wrote Major 
 Edward Burd, who had married Peggy Shippen's 
 sister. " The sacrifice was an immense one at 
 her being married to him at all. It is much more 
 so to be obliged against her will, to go to the 
 arms of a man who appears to be so very black." 
 Major Burd was probably here expressing his 
 own views of Arnold rather than those of his 
 sister-in-law, although Washington Irving as- 
 serts 1 that it was " strongly against Mrs. Ar- 
 nold's will that she rejoined her husband in 
 New York." However this may be, she bore 
 him four children after she had left Philadel- 
 phia, three sons who grew up to be officers in 
 
 1 Life of George Washington. Washington Irving.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 19 
 
 the British army and a daughter who married 
 into the East Indian service. Edward Shippen 
 Arnold, who had been born in Philadelphia, 
 died in India in 1813, having won high distinc- 
 tion in the service of the king. 
 
 The form in which the people's indignation 
 at Arnold's act expressed itself in Philadel- 
 phia was characteristic of the age. The night 
 after the news of his flight was received a hollow 
 paper effigy with a light inside and an inscrip- 
 tion in large letters on the breast, was carried 
 through the streets and then hung upon a gal- 
 lows. On the last day of September (1780) a 
 much more striking manifestation took place. 
 An effigy of Arnold, dressed in regimentals but 
 having two faces, was placed on a stage in the 
 body of a cart and drawn through the city be- 
 hind musicians playing the " Rogue's March," 
 to a spot in front of the Coffee House at 
 Front and Market Streets and there burned. 
 Towering over the figure in the cart stood the 
 devil, with the conventional pitchfork, holding 
 a bag of money in his hand. In front was a 
 transparency representing Arnold, kneeling to 
 the devil, who was about to pull him into the 
 flames. 
 
 For Andre, however, who was forced to pay 
 with his life for the American's treachery, the 
 people as well as the Continental officers appear 
 to have felt only pity. A curtain which he had
 
 20 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 painted for the Southwark Theatre at the time 
 of the Occupation remained in use until the 
 building was burned down (May 8, 1823), quite 
 proof enough, it seems to me, that no spirit of 
 revenge pursued the memory of the young Eng- 
 lishman's stay in Philadelphia. It had been this 
 same Southwark Theatre, it is interesting to 
 note, which before the Revolution was the scene 
 of the first play by an American author ever 
 produced in this country. This was on April 
 24, 1767, the piece bearing the name of The 
 Prince of Parthia and its author being Thomas 
 Godfrey, Jr. of Philadelphia. 
 
 In this production of an original American 
 play, and, indeed, in almost all of the early the- 
 atrical ventures recorded in the stage history 
 of Philadelphia, a leading actor was Lewis Hal- 
 lam, whose English company had made so great 
 a success in New York in 1753 that they were 
 urged by the more liberal-minded Philadelphians 
 to visit the Quaker City also. The matter was 
 not arranged without opposition, and a goodly 
 quantity of printer's ink was used in arguments 
 pro and con, but eventually this forward step 
 was taken and on April 25, 1754, Philadelphia's 
 first regular theatrical season was inaugurated. 
 The background of the company's efforts at this 
 time was a temporary theatre in a warehouse 
 situated in King or Water Street between Pine 
 and Lombard Streets, but in 1759 they came
 
 MAJOR ANDRE. 
 
 From a painting by himself.
 
 1. SECOND STREET, NORTH FROM MARKET STREET, ABOUT 1800, SHOW- 
 
 ING CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 2. CONGRESS HALL, AND THE CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE, ABOUT 1800.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 21 
 
 back to occupy a permanent theatre erected for 
 them at the corner of Cedar and Vernon Streets. 
 The opposition to play-acting was acute in some 
 quarters that year, however, and Mr. Hallam 
 again went elsewhere with his artists, staying 
 away this time for more than five years. Then 
 (November 12, 1776) he reopened in the new 
 house (much larger than the last) situated at 
 the corner of South and Apollo Streets, which so 
 long utilized Andre's curtain. Graydon, 1 in his 
 Memoirs, declares that Hallam " was in Phila- 
 delphia as much the soul of the Southwark 
 Theatre as ever Garrick was of Drury Lane; 
 and if, as Dr. Johnson allows, popularity in 
 matters of taste is unquestionable evidence of 
 merit, we cannot withhold a considerable por- 
 tion of it from Mr. Hallam, notwithstanding 
 his faults." (Ranting was one of these faults.) 
 The Provincial Congress had come out flatly 
 in 1774, however, with the determination to 
 " discourage every species of extravagance and 
 dissipation, especially horse-racing, and all kinds 
 of gaming, cock-fighting, exhibition of shows, 
 plays and other expensive diversions and enter- 
 tainments." It naturally had not helped to 
 soften this prejudice against the theatre that the 
 British officers gave regular dramatic perform- 
 ances during the Occupation. Accordingly when, 
 
 1 Memoirs of a Life Passed Chiefly in Pennsylvania, by Alex- 
 ander Graydon.
 
 22 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 after the return of the Continental Congress, a 
 company of actors (whose names are not known) 
 announced some plays, Congress promptly passed 
 a resolution prohibiting " any person holding 
 an office under the United States " from attend- 
 ing. Subsequently the law was made even more 
 stringent, and though. Lewis Hallani tried hard 
 to have the provision repealed, during the ses- 
 sion of 1784-85, he was not successful in this 
 effort and so could do nothing better than open 
 his theatre, March 1, 1785, for " miscellaneous 
 entertainments and singing! " Later, growing 
 bolder, he added readings of scenes from plays. 
 Theatrical history in Philadelphia during the 
 next few years recounts one long succession of 
 ingenious evasions of the law. 1 Finally, the 
 community put the matter of repealing the law 
 to a petition-vote in the honest endeavor to 
 arrive at a true expression of public opinion on 
 the matter. The result was that the theatre was 
 again made legal and, with the return of Con- 
 gress to the city, became distinctly fashionable. 
 Brilliant seasons continued at the Southwark 
 until 1794, when the popularity of the older house 
 was supplanted by that of the Chestnut Street 
 Theatre, brave in " two rows of boxes, Corin- 
 thian columns and pale rose-colour panels." A 
 member of the Chestnut Street company early 
 in the new century was the Elizabeth Arnold, 
 
 1 Cf. Old Boston Days and Ways, p. 427.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 23 
 
 who afterwards married David Poe, then a hand- 
 some Southern law-student, and became the 
 mother of the famous poet. Another early actor 
 at the Chestnut Street was Spencer H. Cone, 
 who, after several successful seasons as a Thes- 
 pian, became successively an editor, a captain 
 of artillery, and a Baptist minister. His early 
 passion for the stage cropped out again in his 
 granddaughter, Kate Claxton. The story of 
 the old South Street or Southwark Theatre was 
 not yet closed, however, for in 1807 the first 
 French dramatic company that ever appeared 
 in Philadelphia opened there; Charles Durang, 
 who wrote a History of the Philadelphia Stage, 
 was long the manager here; and it was in this 
 place, also, that Joseph Jefferson's mother made 
 her first appearance in Philadelphia. 
 
 At the time the Chestnut Street welcomed 
 its first audience it was acknowledged to be 
 the finest theatre in America. Its seating ca- 
 pacity was two thousand, of whom nine hun- 
 dred could be accommodated in the boxes, and 
 its initial company was very strong both as 
 to numbers and talent. In this house it was 
 that John Howard Payne, afterwards cele- 
 brated as the author of " Home, Sweet Home " 
 made his Philadelphia debut (December 5, 1809) 
 in the part of Hamlet. Durang says of him, 
 " His youth and beauty of figure were highly 
 prepossessing. But sixteen years of age and
 
 24 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 petite in stature, yet he appeared the epitome 
 of a Prince Hamlet in soul and manner. His 
 face beamed with intelligence and his bearing 
 was of the most courtly mould. He was vigor- 
 ous without rant; chaste but not dull. He por- 
 trayed all the quick thought, restless disposi- 
 tion and infirm philosophy of Hamlet with great 
 judgment and tact." 
 
 Philadelphia's first great theatrical furor was 
 excited by the arrival in 1811 of George Freder- 
 ick Cooke, the English tragedian. In those days 
 there was no advance seat sale, the method being 
 for servants, or those temporarily retained by 
 intending playgoers, to stand in line for places, 
 and when the doors were opened, rush in to 
 seize seats in which they remained until their 
 employers came to claim them. As early as the 
 Sunday evening preceding Cooke's first per- 
 formance the steps of the theatre were covered 
 with men prepared to spend the night, some of 
 whom actually took off their hats and put on 
 nightcaps. By Monday morning the streets 
 were impassable and by evening the crowd was 
 so great that it was evident that ticket-holders, 
 especially ladies, would not be able to make their 
 way through it without danger. Accordingly, 
 a placard was displayed saying that those who 
 held admission tickets could go in through the 
 stage door. This so clogged that approach, how- 
 ever, that when Cooke arrived, he was obliged
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 25 
 
 to make himself known before even he could 
 force a passage through. He did this by calling 
 out, " I am like that man going to be hanged who 
 told the crowd they would have no fun unless 
 they made way for him! " Contemporary criti- 
 cisms make one feel that his performance was 
 almost worth the trouble it cost to see it; and 
 when one reflects that the first-night receipts 
 $1,604, came from prices so modest that boxes 
 brought only one dollar, one sighs for the " good 
 old days." Cooke was the first of the English 
 " stars " to visit Philadelphia, but many lights 
 of lesser magnitude now followed in his train 
 and most of them went to the Chestnut Street. 
 It was therefore a heavy blow to the drama in 
 Philadelphia when that playhouse burned down 
 on April 2, 1820. Plans for rebuilding were 
 immediately made, however, so that it was still 
 in the Chestnut Street Theatre that the elder 
 Booth and Charles Mathews scored their early 
 Philadelphia successes. It was here also (July 
 5, 1826), that Edwin Forrest made his first ap- 
 pearance in his native city as a star." 
 
 To the annals of the Walnut Street Theatre, 
 however, belongs the proud occasion of Forrest's 
 debut; and it was there, also, that this very 
 great actor made his last appearance on a Phila- 
 delphia stage in 1871. On November 27, 1820, 
 it was announced that " a young gentleman of 
 this city " would play young Norval, and, two
 
 26 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 months later, a performance " for Master For- 
 rest's benefit " was advertised. 
 
 Edwin Forrest was then fourteen years of age. 
 He was born in a small frame house numbered 
 51 on George, afterwards Guilford, Street, and 
 his father was a runner for the old United States 
 Bank. But, this not being a very remunerative 
 occupation, little Edwin had early to shift for 
 himself and so made his debut upon the stage of 
 life, as many another eminent man before and 
 since has done, by being the " devil " of a news- 
 paper office. This work he left to enter a cooper- 
 shop. His only contact with the tubs seems, 
 however, to have been when he turned them up- 
 side down and on the thus-improvised platform 
 spouted Shakespeare and other poets for the 
 edification of his fellow-workmen. Then he 
 became a clerk and joined an amateur theat- 
 rical company. To appear professionally as 
 young Norval was now an easy transition. 
 
 Two days after Edwin Forrest's benefit (in 
 January, 1821) another notable event occurred 
 at the Walnut Street Theatre Edmund Kean 
 made his first appearance in Philadelphia. The 
 character he had chosen was that of Richard III, 
 and many of his auditors, remembering Cooke's 
 wonderful performance, were inclined to view 
 the newcomer coldly. But, as the play pro- 
 gressed, Kean's great powers began to reveal 
 themselves and the applause which greeted his
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 27 
 
 final scenes was such that he was speedily 
 offered another engagement. His second stay in 
 the city terminated disastrously, however, for, 
 whether from drink or from the dawning of that 
 mental malady which afterwards afflicted him, 
 he so conducted himself, while on the stage, that 
 there ensued a riot which was long remembered 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 This unpleasant occurrence did not tend to 
 make the city any less hospitable, happily, to 
 the two Kembles, father and daughter, when 
 they came along in 1832, playing " Romeo and 
 Juliet" together, and giving finished perform- 
 ances of other masterpieces, also. Fanny Kem- 
 ble's letters about her experiences in the Quaker 
 City are delightful reading. In speaking of the 
 " Romeo and Juliet " she says that, in spite of 
 the manifest absurdity of her father's acting 
 Romeo to his own child's Juliet, " the perfection 
 of his art makes it more youthful, graceful, ar- 
 dent and lover-like a better Romeo, in short, 
 than the youngest pretender to it nowadays." 
 Evidently the Philadelphians thought so, too, 
 for they were exceedingly nice to the Kembles, 
 especially Fanny. Even the Quakers, who dis- 
 approved of the theatre, recognized the exquis- 
 ite quality of this child of the stage, it would 
 appear. " And how doth Fanny? " questioned 
 the master of a Quaker shop of one of her party 
 who was doing some shopping. " I was in hopes
 
 28 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 she might have wanted something; we should 
 have great pleasure in attending upon her." 
 ' Was not that nice? " the sweet girl exclaims, 
 in her letter home, adding, " I went thither to- 
 day and bought myself a lovely sober-coloured 
 gown! " 
 
 It should not, however, be thought that 
 theatre-going was the sole amusement of Phila- 
 delphia at this period. Quite a surprising vari- 
 ety of sports and entertainments disclose them- 
 selves, indeed, as one reads the memoirs and 
 diaries of the time. Before the Revolution such 
 barbarous amusements as cock-fighting, bull- 
 baiting and bear-baiting were frequently in- 
 dulged in, especially cock-fighting, which 
 seems then to have been " the sport for gentle- 
 men!" Watson in his Annals quotes from a 
 letter of Dr. William Shippen to Dr. Gardiner 
 (in 1735) announcing that he has sent his friend 
 " a young game-cock to be depended upon," 
 and giving as a reason for not sending an old 
 cock that " our young cockers have contrived 
 to kill and steal all I had." The Philadelphians, 
 too, showed their English ancestry by their 
 fondness for horseflesh, pacers, rather oddly, 
 being deemed the most genteel horses. And 
 horses were raced though the Society of 
 Friends, at a very early period, expressed strong 
 disapproval of horse-racing and did all that they 
 could to discourage it.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 29 
 
 Even the Quakers, however, indulged in some 
 forms of water-sports. Elizabeth Drinker's de- 
 lightful Diary contains many references to dips 
 in the surf enjoyed by her " dear Henry " during 
 their visits to New York, and fishing and skating 
 clubs, as natural recreations which could be 
 freely indulged in by all, were deservedly popu- 
 lar. Graydon boldly dubbed the Philadelphians 
 " the best skaters in the world." " Though they 
 have never reduced it to rules, like the London- 
 ers, nor connected it with their business like 
 Dutchmen, I will yet hazard that opinion," he 
 declares. In support of which judgment one 
 may quote the following anecdote of the painter 
 West, as rehearsed in Dunlap's History of Art. 
 West had the Philadelphia skill in skating and, 
 while in America, had formed the acquaintance 
 on the ice with Colonel (afterwards General) 
 Howe. But they entirely lost track of each 
 other until one day when the painter, having 
 fastened on his skates at the Serpentine, was 
 astonishing the timid tyros of London by the 
 rapidity of his motions and the graceful figure 
 which he made. Some one cried, * West ! 
 West! " It was Colonel Howe. " I am glad 
 to see you," said he, " and not the less so that 
 you come in good time to vindicate my praises 
 of American skating." Whereupon West dis- 
 played his great skill to the gentlemen to whom 
 Howe introduced him and made for himself
 
 30 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 many admiring friends who afterwards com- 
 missioned him to paint their portraits. 
 
 Card-playing, even for amusement, never 
 prevailed to any great extent in Philadelphia, 
 and that in an age when gaming was elsewhere 
 the pet vice of the fashionable. Witty Rebecca 
 Franks, when off on a visit to New York, wrote 
 back, " Few ladies here know how to entertain 
 company in their own houses unless they intro- 
 duce the card table. . . . The Philadelphians 
 have more cleverness in the turn of an eye than 
 those of New York have in their whole compo- 
 sition. With what ease have I seen a Chew, a 
 Penn, an Oswald, an Allen and a thousand others, 
 entertain a large circle of both sexes, the con- 
 versation, without the aid of cards, never flag- 
 ging nor seeming in the least strained or stupid." 
 Billiards, too, were anathema in Philadelphia 
 until a resourceful writer discovered in this 
 amusement an analogy to marbles, and so re- 
 moved the curse. " Both games," he lucidly 
 pointed out, " are played with balls; the only 
 difference is that the one is made of common 
 stone, the other of ivory, and that the one is 
 driven forward by the hand and the other with 
 a stick. Now, I cannot see why anything sinful 
 can be attributed to an elephant's tooth more 
 than to a stone, or how the crime is greater by 
 propelling a ball with a stick instead of the hand, 
 or by playing it on a table and in a room instead
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 31 
 
 of at a corner of the street and on the ground." 
 Thenceforward billiards was respectable. 
 
 Of out-door places of public resort there were 
 several in old Philadelphia. One, fitted up on 
 the plan of the public gardens in London and 
 situated at the Lower Ferry of the Schuylkill, 
 was opened shortly after the Revolution and 
 known as Gray's Gardens. Soon there came a 
 rival called Harrowgate, where a mineral spring 
 had been discovered, in whose properties, how- 
 ever, the proprietor of the place seems not to 
 have put all his trust, inasmuch as he adver- 
 tised, besides his mineral water, " the best of 
 liquors of all and every kind." The Wigwam 
 baths, on the banks of the Schuylkill, at the foot 
 of Race Street, sounds, however, the most allur- 
 ing place of them all. For in this establishment, 
 fitted up in 1791 by John Coyle, was to be found 
 a bowling green, two shower baths, and one 
 plunging bath, besides good things to eat. 
 Priest, in his Travels Through the United States, 
 1793-97, says, " One evening at six o'clock, a 
 party of pleasure went to a tea-garden and tav- 
 ern romantically situated on the banks of the 
 Schuylkill, famous for serving up coffee in style. 
 On the table there were coffee, cheese, sweet- 
 cakes, hung beef, sugar, pickled salmon, butter, 
 crackers, ham, cream, and bread. The ladies 
 all declared it was a most charming relish." 
 
 Fireworks, known as " grand pyrotechnic dis-
 
 32 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 plays," were always popular in Philadelphia, 
 and for museums full of curiosities the people 
 also had a wholesome fondness. Keeping such 
 museums was a very respectable occupation, too, 
 because, for a long time, only gentlemen en- 
 gaged in it. Charles Wilson Peale, the painter, 
 was one of these. Peale's first museum was in 
 his residence, corner of Third and Lombard 
 Streets, but when his collections so increased 
 as to make these quarters too small the Philo- 
 sophical Society offered him the use of its build- 
 ing in Fifth Street, below Chestnut. To this 
 place it was that all Philadelphia for years took 
 its visiting country cousins to see the mammoth, 
 whose rehabilitation, by Peale and his clever 
 sons, had been celebrated by the serving of a 
 collation, inside the huge skeleton, to twelve gentle- 
 men whom Peale desired thus to honor! An- 
 other feature of this fascinating resort was a 
 collection of stuffed monkeys, dressed as human 
 beings and engaged in some of the occupations 
 familiar to man. Peale's Museum was ulti- 
 mately absorbed by the Philadelphia Museum 
 Company situated at the corner of Ninth and 
 Sansom Streets, and here, besides the Peale por- 
 traits, the mammoth and the monkeys, there was 
 long shown a notable collection of life-like wax 
 figures (owned by Nathan Dunn, who had been 
 a merchant in China) and representing properly- 
 costumed Chinese men and women, looking and
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 33 
 
 bearing themselves exactly as the Chinese people 
 then did in their streets and native bazaars. 
 ' The store-keeper was behind his counter just 
 as he was to be seen in the streets of Canton, with 
 rolls of real silk upon the shelves of his shop. 
 A tawny-skinned customer was represented 
 making his selection of goods; a clerk was busy 
 at his desk making entries in his books with the 
 aid of a camel's hair pencil and a stick of India 
 ink; a beggar was soliciting alms; the walls 
 were adorned with wise maxims from Confu- 
 cius. In the narrow apartment, which repre- 
 sented the open street, were Chinese coolies 
 trotting along with some luxurious individual 
 suspended in a sedan chair from bamboo poles; 
 the Chinese barber was seen plying his trade 
 upon the 'nob' of a customer in the open air; 
 the itinerant tinker was blowing his fire to com- 
 mence operations upon a cracked dinner-pot; 
 an ancient cobbler was busy upon a damaged 
 shoe; and even the boatman, who spends his 
 entire life upon a frail skiff upon the Canton 
 River, was represented with his wife and his 
 little ones, on board a real boat taken from the 
 river by Mr. Dunn, with all its real fixtures and 
 appurtenances complete even to the gourd which 
 was tied to the young amphibious Celestials to 
 keep them afloat in case of a sudden dip in the 
 river." l As the day of the moving picture and 
 
 1 History of Chestnut Street, by Casper Souder, Jr.
 
 34 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of cheap Cook tours around the world had then 
 not come, it will be understood that this exhibi- 
 tion was a much-prized source of entertainment 
 and instruction in Philadelphia. 
 
 There were permanent circuses, too, when 
 the Republic was still very young. But they 
 were looked upon as rather doubtful amusements, 
 and when one of them, Ricketts' circus, burned 
 up, in the course of a representation of Don 
 Juan, which realistically depicted that fasci- 
 nating philanderer being consumed by the fires 
 of hell, the catastrophe was declared by some 
 to be a judgment of Providence on a grossly 
 impious act. Sensible Elizabeth Drinker ap- 
 pears not to have shared in this narrow view, 
 however, for she merely quotes the account of 
 the fire as published in Claypole's paper * of 
 December 18, 1799, and makes no comment 
 whatever on it. 
 
 Against masked dancing parties Philadelphia 
 sternly set its face. Dancing masters of many 
 kinds and grades had for some time practised 
 their profession quite undisturbed, but when, 
 in 1804, Monsieur Epervil made an attempt to 
 introduce masquerade balls, an Act of Assembly 
 promptly declared this form of entertainment 
 to be a common nuisance. That the evil to be 
 suppressed was supposed to be a very serious 
 
 1 Philadelphia published no less than eight daily papers at this 
 period!
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 35 
 
 one is shown by the fact that Section I of the 
 prohibiting act provided that " every house- 
 keeper within the Commonwealth who shall 
 knowingly permit and suffer a masquerade or 
 masked ball to be given in his or her house, any 
 person who shall set on foot, promote or en- 
 courage any masquerade or masked ball, and 
 every person who shall knowingly attend or be 
 present at any masquerade or masked ball in 
 mask or otherwise, being thereof legally con- 
 victed, . . . shall for each and every offence be 
 sentenced to an imprisonment not exceeding 
 three months, and to pay a fine not exceeding 
 one thousand or less than fifty dollars, and to 
 give security in such sum as the court may direct 
 to keep the peace and be of good behavior for 
 one year." 
 
 Dancing itself was not frowned down, how- 
 ever. Even before the middle of the eighteenth 
 century there were several different dancing sets 
 among the " world's people " of the town. A 
 dancing assembly was formed, probably for the 
 first time, in 1740, though what is known as the 
 First Dancing Assembly was not organized until 
 eight years later. The membership in this latter 
 group comprised representatives from nearly 
 all the prominent Philadelphia families who 
 were not Quakers, and its formation marks the 
 beginning of an important epoch in the social 
 and family history of the city. The subscrip-
 
 36 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 tion price was forty shillings, but it was family 
 and not wealth which constituted the qualifi- 
 cation for membership; when the daughter of 
 Michael Hillegas, the first treasurer of the 
 United States, married a prosperous jeweler 
 and goldsmith of Market Street she was com- 
 pelled to forego her former place, the families 
 of mechanics, however wealthy, being rigorously 
 excluded. Somewhat later another assembly, 
 not so exclusive, was formed, and it is said that 
 when General Washington was invited to both 
 balls on the same night he put in an appearance 
 at both and stayed precisely as long at one place 
 as the other. 
 
 The Marquis de Chastellux gives a racy ac- 
 count of one of these subscription balls which he 
 attended while visiting Philadelphia after the 
 Revolution. " A manager or master of cere- 
 monies presides at these methodical amusements; 
 he presents to the gentlemen and ladies, dan- 
 cers, billets folded up containing each a number; 
 thus fate decides the male or female partner 
 for the whole evening. All the dances are pre- 
 viously arranged and the dancers are called in 
 their turns. These dances, like the toasts we 
 drink at table, have some relation to politics; 
 one is called the Success of the Campaign, an- 
 other the Defeat of Burgoyne, and a third Clin- 
 ton's Retreat. The managers are generally 
 chosen from among the most distinguished offi-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 37 
 
 cers of the army. . . . Colonel Mitchell was 
 formerly the manager but when I saw him he had 
 descended from the magistracy and danced like 
 a private citizen. He is said to have exercised 
 his office with great severity and it is told of 
 him that a young lady who was figuring in a 
 country dance, having forgotten her turn by 
 conversing with a friend, was thus addressed 
 by him, ' Give over, Miss, mind what you are 
 about. Do you think you come here for your 
 pleasure? ' 
 
 Of the ladies to be met with at these and sim- 
 ilar social functions de Chastellux speaks rather 
 slightingly but the Duke de Rochefoucauld- 
 Liancourt, who was in Philadelphia about five 
 months towards the close of the year 1794, de- 
 clares with incomparable gallantry, " In the 
 numerous assemblies of Philadelphia it is im- 
 possible to meet with what is called a plain 
 woman." Rochefoucauld, to be sure, saw the 
 city's very choicest daughters, for he brought 
 many letters of introduction and was very cor- 
 dially received in the best homes. Moreover, 
 the time of which he wrote was a dozen years 
 later than that of de Chastellux's visit; dozens 
 of promising girls might have grown up to be 
 superb women in that interval. Yet valuable 
 as are the descriptions of Philadelphia furnished 
 us by these various clever Frenchmen who came 
 to America at this period and went back to
 
 38 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 write books about what they saw, it is only after 
 one has read them all and made one's own de- 
 ductions from the sum-total of their impressions 
 that one arrives at what was probably the real 
 truth. 
 
 Brissot de Warville has left us a delightful 
 description of Philadelphia about 1788, which 
 gives perhaps as true a contemporary picture as 
 can be found of the way the city looked then: 
 " At ten o'clock in the evening," he says, " all 
 is tranquil in the streets; the profound silence 
 which reigns there is only interrupted by the 
 voice of the watchmen, who are in small numbers 
 and who form the only patrole. The streets are 
 lighted by lamps, placed like those of London. 
 
 " On the side of the streets are footways of 
 brick, and gutters constructed of brick or wood. 
 Strong posts are placed to prevent carriages 
 from passing on the footways. All the streets 
 are furnished with public pumps in great num- 
 bers. At the door of each house are placed two 
 benches where the family sit at evening to take 
 the fresh air and amuse themselves from look- 
 ing at the passengers. It is certainly a bad cus- 
 tom as the evening air is unhealthful, and the 
 exercise is not sufficient to correct this evil, for 
 they never walk here: they supply the want of 
 walking by riding out into the country. They 
 have few coaches at Philadelphia. You see 
 many handsome waggons which are used to
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 39 
 
 carry the family into the country; they are a 
 kind of long carriage, light and open, and many 
 contain twelve persons. They have many chairs 
 and sulkeys open on all sides; the former may 
 carry two persons, the latter only one. 
 
 " Philadelphia is built on a regular plan; 
 long and large streets cross each other at right 
 angles: this regularity is at first embarrassing 
 to a stranger; he has much difficulty in finding 
 himself, especially if the streets are not in- 
 scribed, and the doors not numbered. It is 
 strange that the Quakers, who are so fond of 
 order, have not adopted these two conveniences ; 
 that they have not borrowed them from the 
 English, of whom they have borrowed so many 
 things. 
 
 " Already they have carpets in Philadelphia, 
 elegant carpets; it is a favorite taste with the 
 Americans; they receive it from the interested 
 avarice of their old masters, the English. A 
 carpet in summer is an absurdity; yet they 
 spread them in this season, and from vanity: 
 this vanity excuses itself by saying that the car- 
 pet is an ornament; that is to say, they sacrifice 
 reason and utility to show. 
 
 'The Quakers have likewise carpets; but 
 the rigorous ones blame this practice. They 
 mentioned to me an instance of a Quaker from 
 Carolina, who, going to dine with one of the 
 most opulent at Philadelphia, was offended at
 
 40 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 finding the passage from the door to the stair- 
 case covered with a carpet, and would not enter 
 the house; he said that he never dined in a house 
 where there was luxury; and that it was better 
 to clothe the poor than to clothe the earth. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the fatal effects that might 
 be expected here from luxury, we may say with 
 truth that there is no town where morals are 
 more respected. Adultery is not known here: 
 there is no instance of a wife of any sect who has 
 failed in her duties. This I am told is owing 
 to what may be called the civil state of women. 
 They marry without dower; they bring to their 
 husbands only the furniture of their houses, 
 and they wait the death of their parents, before 
 they come to the possession of their property." 
 An explanation, if not a very noble one, of what 
 seemed to Brissot the extraordinary chastity 
 of the Philadelphia women! 
 
 " The State House where the Legislature as- 
 sembles, is a handsome building," our chroni- 
 cler then declares thus bringing us to the 
 reconstruction period in Philadelphia. The 
 manner in which the official families of the city 
 entertained themselves at this stage of our 
 country's development is interesting. Wash- 
 ington tried as hard and as naively as anyone to 
 divert himself after the strain of the war. The 
 theatre, the circus, balloon ascensions, even cock- 
 fights were visited by him, as we see from the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 41 
 
 scrupulous care with which he recorded his va- 
 rious expenditures. Once he gave nine shillings 
 to a man " who brought an elk to exhibit," and 
 we find that he went with impartial avidity to 
 see an automaton, a dancing bear, a puppet 
 show, wax-works, and a tiny menagerie made 
 up only of a tiger and a lioness. For lotteries, 
 then in good repute, he had a distinct passion, 
 though he was never lucky about drawing 
 things. " By profit and loss, in two chances 
 in raffling for encyclopaedia Britannica which I 
 did not win 1/4," is a characteristic entry 
 in his account book. 
 
 That the man at the head of the country's 
 activities must greatly have needed diversion, 
 while the Constitution was being framed, we 
 may well believe. The delegates chosen for 
 this Herculean task assembled in Philadelphia, 
 in May, 1787, and went immediately to work 
 in the old State House, whose walls had previ- 
 ously echoed the Declaration of Independence. 
 By September they were able to submit the 
 document, on which they had labored so hard 
 for four months, to the various States for ratifi- 
 cation, and on April 30th, 1789, Washington 
 was duly inaugurated. Thus the United States 
 possessed at last a settled government and a 
 visible head. Soon, now, Philadelphia was to be 
 the capital for ten years, and that in spite of the 
 murmurs of those officials who found the native
 
 42 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 complacency very irritating and the cost of 
 living appallingly high. " The city is large and 
 elegant," writes Oliver Wolcott to his wife, 
 :< but it did not strike me with the astonishment 
 which the citizens predicted." 
 
 Abigail Adams, too, was only mildly pleased 
 with the place which was now for some years 
 to be her home. ' The Schuylkill," she writes 
 her daughter, Nov. 21, 1790, " is no more like 
 the Hudson than I to Hercules. . . . When we 
 arrived we found the first load of our furniture 
 being taken into a house all green-painted, and 
 the workmen there with their brushes in hand. 
 . . . No wood nor fodder had been provided 
 beforehand, so we could only turn about, and 
 go to the City Tavern for the night. 
 
 :< The next morning was pleasant, and I ven- 
 tured to come up and take possession. But 
 what confusion! Boxes, barrels, chairs, tables, 
 trunks, etc., everything to be arranged, and few 
 hands to accomplish it. ... The first object 
 was to get fires; the next to get up beds; 
 but the cold, damp rooms, the new paint, etc., 
 proved almost too much for me. On Friday 
 we arrived here, and late on Saturday evening 
 we got our furniture in. On Sunday Thomas 
 was laid up with the rheumatism; on Monday I 
 was obliged to give Louis an emetic; on Tuesday 
 Mrs. Briesler was taken with her old pain in her 
 stomach; and to complete the whole, on Thurs-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 43 
 
 day Polly was seized with a violent pluritic fever. 
 She has been twice bled, a blister upon her side, 
 and has not been out of bed since, only as she's 
 taken up to have her bed made. And every day, 
 the stormy ones excepted, from eleven until 
 three, the house is filled with ladies and gentle- 
 men. All this is no more nor worse than I ex- 
 pected, I bear it without repining, and feel thank- 
 ful that I have weathered it without a relapse, 
 though some days I have not been able to sit 
 up. 
 
 " Mrs. Bingham has been twice to see me. 
 I think she is more amiable and beautiful than 
 ever. . . . I've not yet begun to return visits 
 as the ladies expect to find me at home. . . . 
 Mrs. Lear was in to see me yesterday and as- 
 sures me that I am much better off than Mrs. 
 Washington will be when she arrives, for that 
 their house is not likely to be completed this 
 year. And when all is done it will not be Broad- 
 way." 
 
 The Mrs. Bingham to whom Abigail Adams 
 here makes admiring allusion, was for many 
 years the leading spirit of Philadelphia society. 
 The daughter of Thomas Willing and a relative of 
 the famous family of Shippens, to whom several 
 references have already been made, she was mar- 
 ried Oct. 26th, 1780 (being then only sixteen!), 
 to William Bingham, United States Senator from 
 Pennsylvania. John Jay, whose own wife was
 
 44 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 so lovely that she was once mistaken at the 
 theatre in Paris for the exquisite Marie An- 
 toinette, wrote from Spain to felicitate Mr. 
 Bingham on his nuptials " with one of the most 
 lovely of her sex." A few years after the mar- 
 riage Mr. and Mrs. Bingham went abroad and 
 spent some time in France, where she was pre- 
 sented at the court of Louis XVI and attracted 
 much attention among the nobles and aristoc- 
 racy. Her dress at a certain dinner given by the 
 Lafayettes is described as of " black velvet with 
 pink satin sleeves and stomacher, a pink satin 
 petticoat, and over it a skirt of white crepe 
 spotted all over with gray fur; the sides of the 
 gown open in front, and the bottom of the coat 
 trimmed with paste. It was superb." 
 
 After spending some time at The Hague Mrs. 
 Bingham accompanied her husband to England, 
 where " her elegance and beauty attracted more 
 attention than was perhaps willingly expressed 
 in the old Court of George the Third." Great 
 as was the reputation of American women for 
 beauty, Mrs. Adams wrote that she had never 
 seen a lady in England who could bear com- 
 parison with Mrs. Bingham. And from London 
 Miss Adams later wrote of this fascinating 
 woman, " She is coming quite into fashion here 
 and is very much admired. The hairdresser 
 who dresses us on Court-days inquired of 
 mamma whether she knew the lady so much
 
 Copyrighted, 1898, by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 
 
 MRS. MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON (BORN ELIZABETH WILLING.) 
 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart now in the possession of the Pennsylvania Academy 
 
 of Fine Arts. 
 Page 47.
 
 1. THIRD STREET FROM SPRUCE STREET, ABOUT 1800. 
 2. HIGH STREET FROM NINTH STREET, ABOUT 1800.
 
 talked of here from America Mrs. Bingham. 
 He has heard of her . . . and at last speaking 
 of Miss Hamilton he said with a twirl of his 
 comb, ' Well, it does not signify, but the Ameri- 
 can ladies do beat the English all to nothing.' ' 
 From which authoritative pronouncement, one 
 must conclude that Mrs. Bingham was, indeed, 
 a woman of rare beauty. She possessed im- 
 mense wealth also, which enabled her to live 
 in very great luxury, and inasmuch as her hus- 
 band upon his return to Philadelphia built in 
 Third Street above Spruce a mansion-house 
 modeled on the Duke of Manchester's residence, 
 she was able to entertain in a truly splendid 
 fashion. 
 
 One of the foreign customs introduced into 
 Philadelphia society by Mrs. Bingham was that 
 of the servants' announcing the names of guests 
 on their arrival at a party, at different stages of 
 the way from the hall to the drawing-room. 
 One evening a visitor, to whom this was an in- 
 novation, hearing his name called out repeatedly 
 while he was removing his outer garments, cried 
 out, " Coming! " " Coming! " and in a louder 
 tone as he heard his name at the drawing-room 
 door, " Coming! As soon as I can get my great- 
 coat off!" 
 
 The first masquerade ball in Philadelphia is 
 said to have been given at Mrs. Bingham's, but 
 this lady did not greatly patronize the theatre,
 
 46 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and so was refused on any terms the private 
 box which she begged Manager Wignell to grant 
 her. She offered to furnish and decorate the 
 box at her own expense, but she insisted on keep- 
 ing the key and allowing no one to enter with- 
 out her permission; this the manager would not 
 permit for fear of offending the fierce spirit of 
 liberty and equality in the masses. When the 
 Viscount de Noailles, brother-in-law of La- 
 fayette, visited America in the summer of 1795, 
 he was a guest of the Binghams, and when Louis 
 Philippe was here he is said to have sought a 
 daughter of the family in marriage. But the 
 senator declined the alliance. " Should you 
 ever," he said, " be restored to your hereditary 
 position you will be too great a match for my 
 daughter; if not, she is too great a match for 
 
 you." 
 
 Quite different from the elegance of the enter- 
 tainments given at the Bingham mansion, was 
 the simplicity of life in Washington's home. 
 Though Robert Morris's house, the best in the 
 city, was taken for the President's residence, the 
 mode of life there was notably simple. " On 
 Friday last," wrote Abigail Adams, Dec. 26th, 
 1790, " I went with Charles to the drawing- 
 room, being the first of my appearance in public. 
 The room became full before I left it, and the 
 circle very brilliant. How could it be otherwise, 
 when the dazzling Mrs. Bingham and her
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 47 
 
 beautiful sisters 1 were there; the Misses Allen, 
 and the Misses Chew; in short, a constellation 
 of beauties? " A more categorical description 
 of this interesting affair may be found in a letter 
 sent by Miss Sally McKean back to a friend in 
 New York: " You never could have had such 
 a drawing-room; it was brilliant beyond any- 
 thing you could imagine; and though there was 
 a great deal of extravagance there was so much 
 of Philadelphia taste in everything, that it must 
 have been confessed the most delightful occasion 
 of the kind ever known in this country." 
 
 By this time Mrs. Adams appears to have 
 ceased to mourn for the joys of " Broadway." 
 " If I were to accept one-half the invitations 
 I receive," she wrote, Jan. 8, 1791, " I should 
 spend a very dissipated winter. Even Saturday 
 evening is not excepted, and I refused an invi- 
 tation of that kind for this evening. I have 
 been to one assembly. The dancing was very 
 good; the company the best; the President and 
 Madame, the Vice-President and Madame, Min- 
 isters of State and their Madames, etc. ; but the 
 room despicable. 
 
 ' The managers [of the theatre] have been 
 very polite to me and my family. I have been 
 to one play, and here again we have been treated 
 
 1 0ne of these "sisters" was Mrs. Major William Jackson (born 
 Elizabeth Willing), whose portrait, by Stuart, is now owned by the 
 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
 
 48 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 with much politeness. The actors came and 
 informed us that a box was prepared for us. 
 The Vice-President thanked them for their 
 civility, and told them he would attend when- 
 ever the President did. And last Wednesday 
 we were all there. The house is equal to most 
 of the theatres we meet with out of France. It 
 is very neat and prettily fitted up; the actors 
 did their best; ' The School for Scandal ' was 
 the play. I missed the divine Farren, but upon 
 the whole it was very well performed. On 
 Tuesday next I go to a dance at Misses Chews, 
 and on Friday sup at Mr. Clymer's; so you see 
 I am likely to be amused." So well amused, 
 indeed, was Mrs. Adams that by the time she 
 came to leave Philadelphia she wrote thus cor- 
 dially of the place: " From its inhabitants I 
 have received every mark of politeness and 
 civility. The ladies are well educated, well 
 bred and well dressed. There is much more so- 
 ciety than in New York." 
 
 From the pen of Wansey, an English traveler 
 who took breakfast with President Washington 
 in June, 1794, we get a vivid description of the 
 domestic manners which then obtained in the 
 First Household of the Land. Mrs. Washing- 
 ton, we are told, made tea and coffee, and there 
 was sliced tongue, dry toast, and bread and but- 
 ter. Miss Eleanor Custis, a girl of sixteen, sat 
 nearest the hostess, and next came her grandson
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 49 
 
 George. One servant, who wore no livery, 
 waited on the table; and a silver urn for hot 
 water was the only expensive piece of table 
 furniture. The President was at that time in 
 his sixty-third year but looked rather younger 
 than Mrs. Washington. She was short, robust 
 in figure and very plainly dressed ; her gray hair 
 turned up under a plain cap. 
 
 Wansey visited Mrs. Bingham also, and made 
 the following note in his diary: " June 8, 1794. 
 I dined this day with Mrs. Bingham to whom I 
 had letters of introduction. I found a magnifi- 
 cent house and gardens in the best English style, 
 with elegant and even superb furniture. The 
 chairs of the drawing-room were from Seddons, 
 in London, of the newest taste, the backs 
 in the form of a lyre with festoons of crimson 
 and yellow silk; the curtains of the room, a 
 festoon of the same; the carpet one of Moore's 
 most expensive patterns. The room was papered 
 in the French taste, after the style of the Vati- 
 can at Rome. In the garden was a profusion of 
 lemon, orange, and citron trees, and many aloes 
 and other exotics." From the bill of sale pub- 
 lished in the United States Gazette of Nov. 16th, 
 1805, four years after Mrs. Bingham's death, 
 one gathers that every elegance then known in 
 the way of household furniture had its place 
 in this sumptuous establishment; and as one 
 reads over the list of arm-chairs, fire-screens,
 
 50 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 looking-glasses, mahogany sideboards, busts, and 
 pictures which once formed the setting for this 
 beautiful woman's social success, it becomes 
 easy to picture her apartment on a festal day 
 thronged with its galaxy of beauties and its 
 brilliant public men wearing the elegant costume 
 of the times. Washington at some such recep- 
 tion was thus attired, according to Asbury 
 Dickens: " He was dressed in a full suit of the 
 richest black velvet; his lower limbs in short 
 clothes, with diamond knee-buckles and black 
 silk stockings. His shoes, which were brightly 
 japanned, were surmounted with large square 
 silver buckles. His hair, carefully displayed in 
 the manner of the day, was richly powdered 
 and gathered behind into a black silk bag, on 
 which was a bow of black ribbon. In his hand 
 he held a plain cocked hat, decorated with the 
 American cockade. He wore by his side a light 
 slender dress-sword in a green shagreen scab- 
 bard with a richly ornamented hilt." 
 
 Thus at any rate Washington was probably 
 arrayed at his own receptions, very formal af- 
 fairs held every second Tuesday between three 
 and four in the afternoon, the " scene being 
 set " by the simple expedient of carrying his 
 dining-room chairs out and so turning that room 
 into a reception-hall. But if Washington's house 
 was modest his equipage was distinctly impo- 
 sing. He drove abroad in a big cream-colored
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 51 
 
 coach globular in shape and ornamented in the 
 French style with cupids in scant but flowing 
 drapery, and wreaths of flowers crowning all. 
 A tall German coachman, "possessing an aqui- 
 line nose," handled the reins, and the horses 
 were two beautiful long-tailed Virginia bays. 
 The President walked as well as rode about 
 the town, however, and was in the habit of 
 strolling every day at noon to set his watch by 
 Clark's standard at Front and High Streets, 
 gravely saluting the porters who uncovered as 
 he passed. Great as was his personal dignity 
 he had no false pride, as some writers would 
 seem to have us feel. Nor did he possess, either, 
 that exaggerated sense of the deference due to 
 him which has tended to make him so wooden 
 a figure to succeeding generations. 
 
 On the President's birthday handsome par- 
 ties were always given, and Mr. Isaac Weld, 
 in his Travels, speaks of one birthday, when 
 Washington received from eleven o'clock in 
 the morning until three in the afternoon in the 
 large parlor of the first floor of his house in 
 Market Street between Fifth and Sixth, while 
 Mrs. Washington received in her drawing-room 
 upstairs. These birthday parties, which usu- 
 ally ended in a ball, were as eagerly anticipated 
 by the belles of that day as dancing parties are 
 now. Miss Sarah Cox, looking happily forward 
 to the birth-night ball to be given President
 
 52 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Washington in Philadelphia on his anniversary 
 of 1797, says: ' The common topic of conver- 
 sation here is the Birth night, which is next 
 Wednesday. ... I talk of taking two pair of 
 shoes with me for I danced one pair nearly out 
 at the last Assembly and I am sure if I could 
 do that when it had nothing to do with the 
 President, what shall I do when I have his 
 presence to inspire me." 
 
 Compared with such balls as Mrs. Bingham 
 gave, however, these birthday functions were 
 simplicity itself. Her hospitality was as lavish 
 as it was constant and it was largely due to 
 her magnificent entertainments that Philadel- 
 phia, at this period, attained its very high rank 
 as a social center. A number of brilliant dip- 
 lomatic marriages were made during Washing- 
 ton's second administration, one of the most 
 interesting being that of the Spanish Minister 
 to the United States, the Sefior Martinez de 
 Yrujo, afterwards created Marquis de Casa 
 Yrujo, to lovely Sally McKean, one of whose 
 sprightly letters was quoted above. A contem- 
 porary writer tells us that at President John 
 Adams's inauguration this Spaniard wore " his 
 hair powdered like a snowball; with dark striped 
 silk coat lined with satin, black silk breeches, 
 white silk stockings, shoes, and buckles. He had 
 by his side an elegant-hilted small-sword and his 
 chapeau, tipped with white feathers, under his
 
 O .o
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 53 
 
 arm." One does not wonder that Miss Sally 
 succumbed to the charms of this resplendent 
 person whom she had met at a dinner soon after 
 his arrival in Philadelphia. 
 
 As it happens we have a pen-picture of this 
 meeting! For " among the first to arrive," 
 a contemporary writer tells us, "was Chief 
 Justice McKean, accompanied by his lovely 
 daughter, Miss Sally. She wore a blue satin 
 dress trimmed with white crape and flowers, 
 and petticoat of white crape richly embroid- 
 ered, and across the front a festoon of rose 
 colour caught up with flowers. The next to 
 arrive was Sefior Don Carlos Martinez de Yrujo, 
 a stranger to almost all the guests. 1 He spoke 
 with ease but with a foreign accent, and was 
 soon lost in amazement at the beauty and grace 
 of Miss McKean. . . . The acquaintance thus 
 commenced, resulted in the marriage of Miss 
 McKean to Senor Martinez de Yrujo at Phila- 
 delphia, April 10, 1798." 
 
 The Honorable Samuel Breck, to whose 
 Reminiscences we are indebted for many racy 
 accounts of people and happenings in the Phil- 
 adelphia of this period, was a warm friend of 
 the Binghams, and by reason of his foreign edu- 
 cation was able to be of considerable social 
 service to this gifted hostess when the Due de 
 
 1 The winter preceding his marriage De Yrujo resided at 315 
 High Street.
 
 54 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the ecclesiastical dip- 
 lomat Talleyrand and other Frenchmen of simi- 
 lar distinction were there entertained. Not that 
 Mrs. Bingham herself was in any way unequal 
 to the situation! From a letter sent her by 
 Thomas Jefferson, then still abroad, we see that 
 salon life in France was perfectly familiar to her. 
 Jefferson, in this letter, appears to be rallying 
 her, indeed, on her previously expressed fond- 
 ness for it. ' Tell me truly and honestly," he 
 urges, " do you not find the tranquil pleasures 
 of America preferable to the empty bustle of 
 Paris? For to what does that bustle tend? At 
 eleven o'clock it is day, chez madame. The cur- 
 tains are drawn. Propped on bolsters and pil- 
 lows and her head scratched into a little order, 
 the bulletins of the sick are read and the billets 
 of the well. She writes to some of her acquaint- 
 ances and receives the visits of others. 
 
 " If the morning is not very thronged, she 
 is able to get out and hobble around the cage 
 of the Palais Royal; but she must hobble 
 quickly, for the coiffeur's turn is come; and a 
 tremendous turn it is! Happy, if he does not 
 make her arrive when dinner is half over! The 
 torpitude of digestion a little passed, she flutters 
 half an hour through the streets, by way of 
 paying visits, and then to the spectacles. These 
 finished, another half hour is devoted to dodging 
 in and out of the doors of her very sincere friends,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 55 
 
 and away to supper. After supper, cards; and 
 after cards, bed; to rise at noon the next day 
 and to tread, like a mill-horse, the same trodden 
 circle over again. ... If death or bankruptcy 
 happen to trip us out of the circle, it is matter 
 for the buzz of the evening and is completely 
 forgotten by the next morning. 
 
 " In America, on the other hand, the society 
 of your husband, the fond cares of the children, 
 the arrangements of the house, the improve- 
 ments of the grounds, fill every moment with a 
 healthy and a useful activity. . . . The inter- 
 vals of leisure are filled with the society of real 
 friends, whose affections are not thinned to a 
 cobweb by being spread over a thousand ob- 
 jects. This is the picture in the light it is pre- 
 sented to my mind." 
 
 How accurately he had sketched Mrs. Bing- 
 ham's manner of life in America Jefferson soon 
 had opportunity to learn, for, upon his return to 
 his native land, he was often at her home. His 
 own home, at this period, was in the country l 
 near Gray's Ferry and he often speaks of wander- 
 ing on the banks of the Schuylkill, with his 
 younger daughter, Maria, who was in the habit 
 of spending her Sundays out of doors with him. 
 
 1 The limits of Philadelphia at the time of Washington's admin- 
 istration were very narrow in comparison with those of to-day. 
 Front, Second, Third and Fourth Streets, on the Delaware side, 
 were its principal avenues, and it did not from any point extend 
 much west of Sixth Street.
 
 56 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 His life was not then marked by the extreme 
 simplicity which afterwards came to be asso- 
 ciated with his name; he kept five horses and had 
 four or five men-servants in his establishment 
 in addition to his French steward, Petit, and his 
 daughter's maid. 
 
 The country-place par excellence of the early 
 Republican Philadelphia was, however, that of 
 Robert Morris. It was called "The Hills," 
 and Mrs. Drinker, in her Diary, writes of her 
 daughter and her young friends having gone to 
 see its greenhouse as one of the sights of the 
 town. Samuel Breck, in his Recollections, says, 
 ' There was a luxury in the kitchen, table, par- 
 lour and street equipage of Mr. and Mrs. Morris 
 that was to be found nowhere else in America. 
 Bingham's was more gaudy but less comfortable. 
 It was the pure and unalloyed which the Morrises 
 sought to place before their friends, without the 
 abatements that so frequently accompany the 
 displays of fashionable life. No badly-cooked 
 or cold dinners at their table; no pinched fires 
 upon their hearths; no paucity of waiters; no 
 awkward loons in their drawing-rooms. . . . 
 We have no such establishments now. God in 
 his mercy gives us plenty of provisions but it 
 would seem as if the devil possessed the cooks." 
 Morris's city residence, after he had given up 
 the Richard Penn house to Washington, was 
 at the comer of Sixth and Market Streets.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 57 
 
 Washington was often here to drink tea, for of 
 Mrs. Morris as of Mrs. Bingham he was very 
 fond. These two ladies shared with Mrs. 
 Walter Stewart the distinction of being sent 
 portraits of the first President at the time of 
 his retirement from public life. 
 
 Mrs. Stewart was a charming Irish beauty, 
 the daughter of Blair McClenachen, a retired 
 merchant of great wealth, who had purchased 
 the Chews' celebrated place at Germantown. 
 So much did Washington admire Mrs. Stewart 
 that he made .one of his rare jokes for her bene- 
 fit. When she and her husband, who had been 
 a colonel in the Continental Army, were sailing 
 for Europe in 1785 Washington wrote his former 
 companion-in-arms: " Mrs. Washington joins 
 me in wishing you a good and prosperous voy- 
 age and in compliments to Mrs. Stewart. Tell 
 her if she don't think of me often, I shall not 
 easily forgive her and will scold her and beat 
 her soundly too at piquet the next time 
 I see her." 
 
 Tea-drinking was a regular dissipation of 
 those days, and Washington seems heartily to 
 have enjoyed this diversion at the homes of 
 his friends. Other public men who came over 
 here fell easily into this social habit also; from 
 the Prince de Broglie's description of his first 
 tea-drinking here in August, 1782 (Mrs. Morris 
 being his hostess), we learn that it was the
 
 58> ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 custom of the time to put the spoon across the 
 cup when the desire was " to bring this warm 
 water question to an end." Unhappily, how- 
 ever, the prince was not informed of this bit of 
 etiquette until he had already drunk twelve 
 cups of tea! Perhaps it was because people 
 consumed such immense quantities of tea, among 
 other things, that the cost of living was so high 
 in the Philadelphia of this period. Abigail 
 Adams, in one of her letters in 1790, declared: 
 ' Every article has become almost double in 
 price." And in the documents and diaries of 
 the time there is constant complaint about the 
 exceedingly high cost of everything. Prices which 
 had become inflated during the Revolution, 
 owing to the depreciation of the currency, were 
 appallingly slow in getting down again to their 
 normal level. 
 
 The letters from Mrs. Bache to her father, 
 Dr. Franklin, when he was our Minister to 
 France, give us a vivid insight into this: "If 
 I was to mention the prices of the common neces- 
 saries of life, it would astonish you," she writes. 
 " I should tell you that I had seven table-cloths 
 of my own spinning, chiefly wove before we left 
 Chester County; it was what we were spinning 
 when you went. I find them very useful, and 
 they look very well, but they now ask four times 
 as much for weaving as they used to ask for the 
 linen. ... I am going to write cousin Jonathan
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 59 
 
 Williams to purchase me linen for common 
 sheets . . . they really ask me six dollars for 
 a pair of gloves, and I have been obliged to pay 
 fifteen pounds fifteen shillings for a common 
 calamanco petticoat without quilting that I 
 once could have got for fifteen shillings. I buy 
 nothing but what I really want and wore out 
 my silk ones before I got this." 1 In another 
 letter she writes: ' The present you sent me 
 this month two years, I received a few weeks 
 ago; 'tis a prize indeed. It came open, without 
 direction or letter, and has come through three 
 or four hands. I have received six pairs of 
 gloves, nine papers of needles, a bundle of thread 
 and five papers of pins. . . . The last person 
 to whose care they were given left them at a 
 hair-dresser's with directions not to send them 
 to me till he was gone. Their being all open 
 makes me suspect I have not all; what I have 
 received makes me rich. I thought them long 
 ago in the enemies' hands. The prices of every- 
 thing here are so much raised that it takes a 
 fortune to feed a family in a very plain way : a 
 pair of gloves 7 dollars, one yard of common 
 gauze 24 dollars, and there never was so much 
 pleasure and dressing going on ; old friends meet- 
 ing again, the Whigs in high spirits, and stran- 
 gers of distinction among us. . . .1 have 
 
 1 Letters to Benjamin Franklin from his Family and Friends, 
 1751-1790, New York, 1859.
 
 60 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 dined at the Minister's . . . and have lately 
 been several times invited abroad with the 
 General and Mrs. Washington. He always in- 
 quires after you in the most affectionate manner 
 and speaks of you highly. We danced at Mrs. 
 Powell's your birthday, or night I should say, 
 in company together, and he told me it was the 
 anniversary of his marriage; it was just twenty 
 years that night. 
 
 " My boy and girl are in health. The latter 
 has ten teeth, can dance, sing and make faces, 
 tho' she cannot talk, except the words no and 
 be done, which she makes great use of." 
 
 Franklin's reply is amusing to those who re- 
 flect how well the old gentleman was enjoying 
 himself in France. " I was charmed," he de- 
 clares, " with the account you gave me of your 
 industry, the tablecloths of your own spinning 
 and so on; but the latter part of the paragraph, 
 that you had sent for linen from France because 
 weaving and flax were grown dear, alas! that 
 dissolved the charm; and your sending for long 
 black pins, and lace and feathers! disgusted me 
 as much as if you had put salt into my straw- 
 berries. The spinning, I see, is laid aside, and 
 you are to be dressed for the ball ! You seem not 
 to know, my dear daughter, that, of all the 
 dear things in this world, idleness is the dearest, 
 except mischief. . . . When I began to read 
 your account of the high prices of goods ... I
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 61 
 
 expected you would conclude with telling me, 
 that everybody as well as yourself was grown 
 frugal and industrious; and I could scarce be- 
 lieve my eyes, in reading forward, ' that there 
 never was so much pleasure and dressing going 
 on; ' and that you yourself wanted black pins 
 and feathers from France to appear, I suppose, 
 in the mode! This leads me to imagine, that 
 perhaps it is not so much that the goods are 
 grown dear as that money is grown cheap." 
 Characteristically, Franklin had hit the mark. 
 And, also characteristically, he then proceeds to 
 send his daughter only the necessary articles for 
 which she had asked, tagging thereto these terse 
 observations: "If you wear [out] your cambric 
 ruffles as I do and take care not to mend the 
 holes, they will come in time to be lace; and 
 feathers, my dear girl, they may be had in 
 America from every cock's tail." 1 
 
 A very famous Philadelphia institution, which 
 dates from 1799 and of which one is reminded 
 as one speaks of the great Franklin, was the 
 salon for gentlemen, long held informally, on 
 Sunday nights, under the hospitable High Street 
 roof of that other distinguished American scien- 
 tist, Dr. Caspar Wistar. These gatherings were 
 destined to grow into the celebrated Wistar 
 parties, expanding, in the course of years, from 
 a few guests to a large club, from the friendliness 
 
 1 Works of Franklin, Sparks, Vol. VIII, p. 374.
 
 62 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of Sunday evenings to the more formal elegance 
 of Saturdays, and from the cakes and wine no 
 company of men ever found satisfying, to such 
 " real food " as is consumed today at club gather- 
 ings. In 1811 ice-cream, nuts and raisins con- 
 stituted the " refreshments," but following the 
 more formal organization of the Philosophical 
 Society, after the death of Dr. Wistar in 1818, 
 these airy trifles were abandoned for all time 
 and the club began to gain that reputation 
 for excellent and substantial dinners which 
 made so deep an impression upon Thackeray 
 at the time of his American visit. It was in 
 honor of Dr. Wistar that Thomas Nuttall 
 called the luxuriant vine, with its graceful 
 clusters of purple flowers, now known the world 
 over as wistaria. Dr. Wistar's country-seat 
 was in Germantown. 
 
 How so many Philadelphians who enter- 
 tained largely could at this period live for any 
 length of time each year " out of town " is a 
 puzzle. For the streets were in a shocking con- 
 dition and for a long while there were few car- 
 riages. 1 Even as late as 1797, if one may trust 
 the figures given in the Travels of William Priest, 
 there were only eight hundred and six two and 
 four wheel pleasure carriages in the whole city! 
 Nor was walking a very popular means of trans- 
 
 1 Watson mentions a Philadelphia belle who went to a ball in full 
 dress on horseback.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 63 
 
 portation, a fact the less to be wondered at when 
 one learns that, until the dawn of the nineteenth 
 century, absolutely no distinction was made by 
 shoemakers between the right and left feet. A 
 certain William Young, who lived at 128 Chest- 
 nut Street, claimed to have introduced this valu- 
 able improvement about 1800, and sometime 
 afterwards his spouse promised that she would 
 " by the direction of her husband, cause her 
 sex also to have right and left feet, to stand 
 and walk with facility and ease and pleasure. 
 Why should not they be at ease as well as the 
 gentlemen? " she demands. 
 
 This early nineteenth century Philadelphia, 
 had a shifting charm and alluring quaintness of 
 its own which was by no American writer more 
 truly appreciated than by Washington Irving. 
 And although, from the very nature of things, 
 Irving is more closely associated with old New 
 York than with any other city, his memory is 
 enduringly linked to the history of Philadel- 
 phia, also, because Philadelphia was the home 
 of Rebecca Gratz, whom Scott, through Irving, 
 has made immortal as the " Rebecca " of Ivan- 
 hoe. 
 
 The tender affection which existed between 
 Irving and Rebecca Gratz was largely owing to 
 the fact that the Philadelphia Jewess had been 
 the lifelong friend of Matilda Hoffman, 1 Irving's 
 
 1 Miss Hoffman, was a relative, too, of Charles Jones Fenno.
 
 64 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 first, last, and only love. Miss Hoffman died 
 in April, 1809, at the age of eighteen, Miss Gratz, 
 who was ten years her senior, holding her ten- 
 derly in her arms. Irving was then twenty-six 
 and he suffered poignantly. It happened that 
 Rebecca Gratz had undergone a similar experi- 
 ence, for she had lost through a drowning acci- 
 dent Charles Jones Fenno, a young Christian 
 whom she loved and who devotedly loved her. 
 Inasmuch as several members of her family had 
 already intermarried with the Clays, the Schuy- 
 lers, and other Gentile families, it would not have 
 been strange if this exquisite maiden with the 
 lustrous black eyes had followed their example. 
 But she refused Fenno in life, and after his death 
 steadfastly said " no " to the ardent wooing of 
 many other Christians because she considered 
 herself spiritually his. Yet she continued to be 
 the warm friend of the men and women of her 
 lover's race and throughout her long life 
 (she lived to be very old) was tenderly cher- 
 ished by all those so fortunate as to know her 
 well. 
 
 The Gratz family mansion in Philadelphia was 
 known far and wide as the center of a refined 
 and elegant hospitality. Rebecca's brother, 
 Hyman, was the founder of the Pennsylvania 
 Academy of Fine Arts, and with him the lovely 
 girl was wont to travel south in winter and to 
 Saratoga Springs in summer always as the center
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 65 
 
 of an admiring circle. Irving came often to be 
 their guest, and through him it was that 
 Thomas Sully, the painter, made Rebecca's 
 acquaintance. Sully painted a portrait of her 
 which is said to be one of his most success- 
 ful works. Malbone, also, did a miniature of 
 her. 
 
 Very interesting personal recollections of Re- 
 becca Gratz have come to me from Mrs. Tudor 
 Hart, who, when she was about eight years old, 
 went with her sister Delia Tudor (afterwards 
 Mrs. Skip with Wilmer of Baltimore) and their 
 mother, to visit Miss Gratz. " My mother," 
 says my informant, " was the niece of Charles 
 Fenno, and Miss Gratz's greeting to her was 
 unforgettably touching in its tenderness and 
 affection. Miss Gratz had a dignity of bearing 
 quite royal in its aspect, although one felt it to 
 be entirely natural and not assumed. Her in- 
 dividuality was of such charm that it would be 
 quite impossible for any one who had ever had 
 the privilege of meeting her to forget the expe- 
 rience. Her manner to my mother was very 
 beautiful. With an indescribable tenderness 
 (as to an own and dearly loved niece) she put 
 her arm about her at meeting, kissed her most 
 affectionately, and said * Well, my dear, how 
 are you? ' The words are not so much in them- 
 selves, but to even a child on-looker they seemed 
 to mean everything that was most intimately
 
 66 
 
 affectionate and real. Moreover, those were not 
 the days when one was more or less hugged and 
 ' my deared ' by nearly everybody. Times have 
 changed; one is now quite likely to be ' my 
 deared ' by the first strange shop-lady of whom 
 one asks the price of a pair of stockings in any 
 big department store! I do not say modern 
 customs may not be in some respects better 
 but they are certainly different. 
 
 " Miss Gratz, who was then seventy and who 
 had not seen for many years this niece of her 
 long-deceased lover, met my mother as one 
 genuinely very near and dear to her, greeting 
 her as though, since their ' meeting, there had 
 been but a short lapse of time. The effect upon 
 me, even as a young child, of her abiding affec- 
 tion was extraordinary. Her personality, too, 
 was, as I say, of a kind never to be forgotten. 
 In stature she impressed one as being very tall, 
 but whether this came from the fact that she 
 was so in reality, or because of her extreme 
 erectness and dignity of bearing, I cannot say. 
 I remember, however, that on the day we dined 
 with her and spent the evening at her house I 
 was immensely impressed, as she preceded us 
 to the dining-room, with her arrow-like erect- 
 ness as well as with the more than sylph -like 
 trimness of her waist-line. Her whole appear- 
 ance and bearing were not those of an aged or 
 even middle-aged woman, but of an ideal girl
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 67 
 
 princess. Her eyes were large, singularly power- 
 ful, and of piercing radiance; yet they had 
 withal a mellow softness indescribably affect- 
 ing to the beholder. Her complexion at that 
 time was of a darkish and yet clear pallor 
 like the tint on the leaf of a pressed tea 
 rose. 
 
 " She was dressed in a very plain gown with- 
 out ornament of any sort. Her hair was, or 
 impressed one as being, of an intense blackness. 
 Now I had not been ' primed up ' when taken 
 to see Miss Gratz. I am not sure that my sister 
 and I even knew then that she was at all a re- 
 markable person. We did know, I think, that 
 she was a Jewish lady of wealth and good family 
 who, although greatly attached to my great- 
 uncle (who had died in early youth) and he to 
 her, steadily refused marriage with him because 
 of their difference in religion. We knew, also, 
 that, when she heard he could not live, she went 
 at once to him and nursed him faithfully un- 
 til his death and that they (my great-uncle 
 and she) had before this made a binding and 
 solemn mutual agreement to devote their lives 
 to good works and to the memory of their ill- 
 starred love. 
 
 ' The whole story, as my mother had heard it, 
 we were told later. Her uncle, Charles Fenno, 
 and Rebecca Gratz had loved not as in these 
 modern days, as it were between flights in an
 
 68 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 aeroplane from one divorce court to another, 
 but as in those days when people had time 
 to form character and loved as they builded 
 homes, to have them last. True love was 
 then felt to be too great and too real a thing to 
 fill anything less than a lifetime. Miss Gratz 
 always considered that there was a spiritual 
 marriage; consequently the relatives of Charles 
 Fenno were ever to her as her own people and 
 were treated as such. When Julia Hoffman, a 
 cousin of Charles Fenno's, was unexpectedly 
 left destitute at her parent's death, Miss Gratz 
 immediately took her into her own home, where 
 she was always treated as a real relative would 
 have been. This fact it may have been which 
 gave rise to the report that there had been a 
 marriage a thing my mother, who must have 
 known, always denied. 
 
 " Now, as to the manner of Charles Fenno's 
 death. He perished, when twenty-three, as a 
 result of almost fabulously great exertions 
 made, during a shipwreck, in the effort to save 
 the life of a lady who was of no interest to him 
 save for the fact that she was a woman and one 
 whom no one else could or would risk trying to 
 save. He was then put on shore to die. Life 
 had, however, become of virtually no value to 
 him, I feel. Having had the privilege of seeing 
 Miss Gratz, I can quite understand that a man 
 who had missed the happiness of a union with
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 69 
 
 her could feel little joy in the prospect of a long 
 life spent without her." 
 
 A particularly tragic element in the renun- 
 ciation of these two noble souls is brought out 
 by the fact that certain members of the Fenno 
 family have since believed that their line, too, 
 was of Jewish origin! "Had they then been 
 able to prove this," declares Mrs. Hart (who 
 seems herself quite to support the idea), " the 
 fact that some individuals in the family had 
 incidentally embraced Christianity would have 
 been no real bar, even in Miss Gratz's mind, 
 to her own union with Mr. Fenno. For it is 
 first and foremost the race amalgamation which 
 the religion of the Jew teaches him is the abom- 
 ination of abominations in marriage and as such 
 never to be entered into. 
 
 " Altogether, a study of Miss Gratz's charac- 
 ter is a peculiarly fascinating one and also 
 an illuminating one to many persons the 
 generality of people having no conception of the 
 unusually strong spiritual side to some persons 
 of pure Jewish origin, and this in spite of the 
 fact that these high traits of character are by no 
 means unusual among Hebrews of refined or 
 exalted birth. George Eliot (Mrs. Lewes), who 
 knew many Jews, has clearly shown this in 
 describing characters such as that of Daniel 
 Deronda." 
 
 The quiet elegance of life in Miss Gratz's
 
 70 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 home made a deep impression upon the child. 
 " I remember the exceedingly nice table ap- 
 pointments," she says, " the good training of 
 the servants, the style though without os- 
 tentation in which everything was served. 
 The dinner was a late one, too, a custom then 
 almost unheard of in American families, save 
 in a few of the most exclusive and the wealthi- 
 est, and there was a butler to wait on table. 
 One of the dishes was a sirloin roast of beef with 
 shredded horse radish on top as served in Eng- 
 land, and I remember how particularly delicious 
 as well as tender the beef was. I mention this 
 because I have so generally heard that all roast 
 or boiled meats served by Jews are unpalatably 
 tough. Another thing I had never seen before, 
 and which particularly charmed me in Miss 
 Gratz's house, was the serving of fruit after 
 dinner in the drawing-room, to which it was 
 brought by the butler, very daintily set out and 
 arranged on a tray, in a way I had never then 
 seen although our family was supposed to lead 
 in Boston l in matters of luxury in table and 
 other household appointments. The serving 
 of the fruit in the drawing-room may not have 
 been a customary thing with Miss Gratz, how- 
 ever, but a tactful expedient for breaking the 
 
 1 For a considerable account of the Tudor family, together with 
 pictures of Charles Jones Fenno and Rebecca Gratz, see my Old 
 Boston Days and Ways.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 71 
 
 tedium of a long dinner to those two of 
 her guests who were children. 1 It would 
 have been like her to have devised some 
 such plan to cater to the restlessness of the 
 young." 
 
 Though the story of the way in which Re- 
 becca Gratz of Philadelphia came to be Scott's 
 " Rebecca " has often been told, it seems of 
 sufficient interest to be here repeated. Scott 
 and Irving met for the first time in the fall of 
 the year 1817, Scott being then forty-six and 
 in the brilliancy of his early fame, and Irving 
 thirty -four with a fast increasing literary repu- 
 tation. They became warmly attached to each 
 other, their conversation in due time turning, as 
 even men's conversation occasionally does, to 
 personal affairs. Irving spoke of Miss Hoffman 
 and of the Jewish friend who had often visited 
 her in New York. He described the latter's 
 wonderful beauty, related the story of her firm 
 adherence to her religion, and dwelt, as he well 
 might, on her sweet and unselfish character. 
 Scott was deeply interested and immediately 
 decided to introduce a Jewish female character 
 into Ivanhoe, the plot for which was then just 
 
 1 Miss Gratz had brought up the two orphan children of her 
 sister, Rachel Gratz Moses, a boy, and the girl who afterward married 
 a Mr. Joseph in Canada and whose English grandson, some years 
 ago, became Mrs. Tudor Hart's son-in-law. Thus a marriage 
 actually took place, eventually, between two collateral descendants. 
 of the severed lovers.
 
 72 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 shaping itself in his mind. The book was fin- 
 ished in December, 1819, and the first copy was 
 sent to Irving. With it went a letter asking 
 " How do you like your Rebecca? Does the 
 Rebecca I have pictured compare well with the 
 pattern given? " Miss Gratz quite understood 
 that she was the source of the character, a rela- 
 tive of hers l asserts, but she always deftly 
 changed the subject when allusion was made to 
 the matter. 
 
 1 Gratz Van Rensselaer in the Century Magazine of September, 
 1882.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ' T F there is a town on the American conti- 
 nent where English luxury displays its 
 follies it is New York. In the dress of 
 the women you will see the most brilliant silks, 
 gauzes, hats and borrowed hair. . . . The men 
 take their revenge in the luxury of the table." 
 Which might, though penned so long ago, 1 be 
 a somewhat unkind characterization of the New 
 York of our own day! 
 
 Samuel Breck, however, though he wrote 
 of almost the same time, gives us quite a differ- 
 ent picture. "As a colonial town it was a 
 place of considerable trade," he says, "but we 
 found it then [in 1787] a place of dilapidation. 
 Having been in the hands of the enemy for 
 seven years and visited during that time by an 
 extensive conflagration ... it had not at all 
 recovered from the effects of the war. New 
 York in 1787 was but a poor place with about 
 twenty-three thousand people. We anchored 
 opposite a filthy little wooden shed called the 
 
 1 By Brissot de Warville in 1788.
 
 74 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 
 
 Fly Market, and when our boat reached the 
 shore we had to climb up a wharf that was 
 tumbling to pieces. Some twenty or thirty 
 vessels lay at the other wharfs, and these shores 
 that now exhibit a forest of masts and a stir 
 of commerce surpassed in the whole world by 
 two cities only [Mr. Breck was writing about 
 1830 and his allusion is to London and Liver- 
 pool] were then naked and silent." 
 
 Happily, New York, then as now, had tre- 
 mendous faith in its future greatness; and this 
 faith it was which enabled it so quickly to 
 rebuild itself and so impressively to enlarge 
 its commerce that, in spite of its deficiencies 
 and limitations, it seemed the logical place in 
 which to establish the nation's capital. Soon 
 after 1785 stage lines had begun to connect the 
 city with Albany, Boston, and Philadelphia, 
 and though the journey from the New England 
 capital occupied six days, traveling from three 
 o'clock in the morning until ten at night (!) a 
 good many people essayed the trip, and business 
 at New York grew apace. 
 
 Taverns naturally played an important part 
 in the life of that staging day, one of the most 
 interesting being Fraunces' Tavern, at the south- 
 east corner of Pearl and Broad Streets, a hos- 
 telry which, though it has been, since 1904, 
 the property of the Sons of the Revolution, 
 still welcomes guests for excellent dinners just
 
 FRAUNCES' TAVERN IN 1867. IN ITS LONG ROOM WASHINGTON TOOK HIS 
 FAMOUS FAREWELL OF HIS OFFICERS.
 
 THE ATHENAEUM WASHINGTON OF STUART. 
 From the original in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 75 
 
 as it did in Colonial days. Here it was that 
 Washington took his famous farewell of his 
 officers. The scene of this historic occurrence 
 was in the " Long Room " of the Tavern on 
 the second floor and the time was December 4, 
 1783, ten days after the defeated British army 
 had marched sullenly down Broadway to take 
 their departure by boats. 
 
 General Washington rode to the Tavern on 
 horseback, and " we had been assembled but 
 a few moments," says Col. Benjamin Talmadge 
 in his Memoirs, " when his Excellency entered 
 the room. His emotion, too strong to be con- 
 cealed, seemed to be reproduced by every officer 
 present. After partaking of a slight refreshment 
 in almost breathless silence, the General rilled 
 his glass with wine and, turning to the officers, 
 said with a heart full of love and gratitude, 
 ' I now take leave of you. I most devoutly 
 wish that your latter days may be as prosperous 
 and as happy as your former ones have been 
 glorious and honourable.' After the officers 
 had taken a glass of wine, the General added, 
 * I cannot come to each of you, but shall be 
 obliged if each of you will come and take me 
 by the hand.' General Knox being nearest 
 to him, turned to the Commander in Chief, who, 
 suffused in tears, was incapable of utterance, 
 but grasped his hand when they embraced 
 each other in silence. In the same affectionate
 
 76 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 manner every officer in the room marched up 
 to, kissed and parted with his Commander in 
 Chief. Such a scene of sorrow and weeping 
 I had never before witnessed, and I hope may 
 never be called upon to witness again. Not a 
 word was uttered to break the solemn silence 
 that presided or to interrupt the tenderness of 
 the scene. The simple thought that we were 
 about to part with the man who had conducted 
 us through a long and bloody war and under 
 whose conduct the glory and the independence 
 of our country had been achieved, and that we 
 should see his face no more in this world, 
 seemed to be utterly insupportable. Already 
 the time of separation had come, and waving 
 his hand to his grieving children around him, 
 he left the room, and passing through a corps 
 of light infantry who were paraded to receive 
 him, he walked silently to Whitehall, where a 
 barge was waiting. We all followed in mourn- 
 ful silence to the wharf, where a prodigious 
 crowd had assembled to witness the departure 
 of the man who, under God, had been the great 
 agent in establishing the glory and independence 
 of these United States. As soon as he was seated 
 the barge put off into the river, and when out 
 in the stream our great and beloved General 
 waved his hat and bade us a silent adieu." 
 Samuel Fraunces, though a West Indian by 
 birth, had proved a staunch friend of the patriot
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 77 
 
 cause when the Revolution broke out and had 
 worthily played his part in the stirring events 
 of the time. He was one of the first whom 
 Washington in his successful days rewarded. 
 For when the general who had bidden his officers 
 farewell in the Long Room of Fraunces' Tavern 
 returned to New York to be inaugurated Pres- 
 ident of the United States, he promptly made 
 Fraunces steward of his household, a post for 
 which the Boniface was admirably fitted and 
 which he filled with satisfaction to all concerned. 
 Sometimes, to be sure, he was over-zealous 
 in his desire to provide for the President's 
 table the best the market afforded. 
 
 Once, as related by Mr. Griswold in his 
 " Republican Court," he brought home from 
 the old Fly Market a fine shad for which, be- 
 cause it was early in the season, he had to pay 
 a very good price. The next morning the fish 
 was duly served in the best style for breakfast 
 and Washington had no sooner seated himself 
 at table than he sniffed its delicate fragrance 
 and asked what they had there. " A fine shad/' 
 replied the steward. "Indeed," said Washing- 
 ton, " it's early for shad, isn't it? How much did 
 you pay for it?" "Two dollars." "Two 
 dollars ! " echoed the head of the nation, aghast. 
 ' Two dollars for a fish ! Take it away. I can- 
 not encourage such extravagance at my table. 
 I shall not touch it." The shad was accordingly
 
 78 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 removed, and Fraunces, who had no such 
 economical scruples, made a hearty meal upon 
 it in his own room. 
 
 The Fly Market referred to in this anecdote 
 seems at first glance to bear very little relation- 
 ship to the Valley for which it was named. But 
 V'ly or Fly was recognized by all good Knicker- 
 bockers to be an abbreviation of valley and re- 
 ferred to Maiden Lane, 1 the Valley where the 
 Dutch maidens used to wash their linen in early 
 New York times. The transition to Fly came 
 from the fact that the Dutch burghers pro- 
 nounced their v's like fs. A whole chapter 
 might be written on the butchers of the Fly 
 Market, one of whom was no less a person than 
 Henry Astor, elder brother of John Jacob Astor, 
 and an important factor in the establishment 
 of the better known New Yorker's fortune. 
 
 The New York house in which Washington 
 took up his residence, when he came to the city 
 in 1789 as the nation's first President, was that 
 on the corner of Cherry and Franklin Streets, 
 near Franklin Square, referred to varyingly as 
 number 10, and as number 3 Cherry Street, 
 and known as the Franklin house. 2 It is 
 difficult from contemporary writers to get any 
 true idea as to the kind of house it was, for the 
 Quakers called it a " Palace," while the French 
 
 1 Jefferson resided at 57 Maiden Lane after his return from France. 
 
 2 The site is now occupied by one of the piers of Brooklyn Bridge.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 79 
 
 Minister, writing to his home government 
 about it, spoke of it as " a humble dwelling." 
 Categorically, the house was of brick, had three 
 stories and was amply lighted by a number of 
 small-paned windows. A heavy brass knocker 
 was on the single paneled front door, which 
 was reached by one of the two short flights of 
 steps leading up from the sidewalk on either 
 side of a tiny porch. For a private citizen it was 
 a large house, but for Washington's official 
 residence it soon proved to be inadequate. 
 What with offices and reception rooms and 
 sleeping accommodations for ex-aides and private 
 secretaries five in all as well as for his 
 foster-children, Nellie and George Washington 
 Parke Custis, the " Palace " was badly crowded 
 from the first. 
 
 As soon as Mrs. Washington arrived system- 
 atic entertaining began: levees, dinners and 
 Drawing Rooms, all of which provoked ad- 
 verse criticism on the ground that they were 
 " aristocratical." The levees were appointed 
 at first for two days weekly -- Tuesday and 
 Friday from two to three; later, for one 
 day only, Tuesday, from three to four. Ladies 
 were not expected at these particular functions, 
 nor were gentlemen - - unless their standing 
 was of a certain importance. The master of 
 ceremonies on these occasions was Col. Hum- 
 phreys, and there is a story that once he tricked
 
 80 
 
 the President into receiving in great state by 
 throwing open the door of the presence-room 
 and exclaiming " The President of the United 
 States! " Washington was tremendously dis- 
 concerted, and after that levee saw to it that 
 his receptions were simplicity itself. Standing 
 in a room from which the chairs had been re- 
 moved, he was then wont to greet very simply 
 the guests who came up to him and made their 
 silent bow. One hand held his cocked hat on 
 these occasions, and the other probably rested 
 on the hilt of his sword. For he did not shake 
 hands as visitors were presented and, when all 
 had arrived, he passed from one guest to another 
 chatting for a few minutes with each. 
 
 The weekly dinners of state on Thursdays 
 at four in the afternoon were much more im- 
 pressive. Fraunces then prepared delicious 
 and wonderful things for the delectation of 
 the invited guests, who numbered from ten 
 to twenty-two persons besides the " family." 
 (The private secretaries were always present.) 
 Roast beef, veal, lamb, turkey, duck and varie- 
 ties of game, with jelly, fruit, nuts and raisins, 
 were wont on these occasions to be placed upon 
 the table before the guests came in. But there 
 was careful attention to the appearance of the 
 viands and upon the central table, set off by a 
 long mirror made in sections and framed in 
 silver, were usually shown " chaste mytho-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 81 
 
 logical statuettes." To serve the guests half 
 a dozen or more waiters were on hand wearing 
 the brilliant Washington livery. Mrs. Washing- 
 ton, rather oddly, usually sat at the head of 
 the table, and Mr. Lear, the President's private 
 secretary, at the foot. The President himself 
 was always at the side of the table in the middle. 
 Receiving an invitation to one of these dinners 
 appears not to have been considered a command, 
 as is now the case. For we find in Washington's 
 diary enumeration of the guests invited at 
 different times, and once (July 1, 1790) this 
 note is added: 
 
 ' The Chief Justice and his lady, Gen. 
 Schuyler, and Mrs. Izard were also invited, but 
 were otherwise engaged." 
 
 A vivid description of one of these presidential 
 dinners has come down to us in the Journal of 
 William Maclay, senator from Pennsylvania. 
 Mr. Maclay found little to his liking in public 
 life and his comments on the men and manners 
 of the time are often delightfully caustic. John 
 Adams he bitterly hated, Alexander Hamilton 
 he frankly despised, and Morris he appears to 
 have distrusted though his relations with him, 
 as a fellow-Pennsylvanian, were on the surface 
 more or less friendly. The Maclay Journal, 
 because written down day by day while the 
 events therein recorded were fresh in the writer's 
 mind, is most entertaining reading. For Senator
 
 82 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Maclay never slighted trifles, as many another 
 man would have done in his place. Who else 
 would have cherished for us that delectable bit 
 of gossip, related at her own table by Mrs. 
 Morris, to the effect that once, when she had 
 been dining at the President's, the sauce of an 
 elegant-looking entree had proved to be made 
 with " cream so rancid that, on taking some of 
 it, she had to pass her handkerchief to her mouth 
 and rid herself of the morsel; on which she 
 whispered the fact to the President . . . and he 
 changed his plate immediately. ' But,' added 
 Mrs. Morris with a titter, * Mrs. Washington 
 ate a whole heap of it ! ' 
 
 The senator's own invitation to dine at the 
 President's table did not come until two months 
 later than this. Perhaps Mrs. Washington, 
 suspecting his critical tendencies, had waited 
 to be quite sure all would be as it should. Such, 
 at any rate, appears to have been the case, for 
 Mr. Maclay cordially pronounces the dinner, 
 " the best of the kind I ever was at!" He 
 characteristically adds, however, that " the 
 room was disagreeably warm." As why should 
 it not be in New York City at four o'clock of 
 an August afternoon? The full list of those 
 present on this occasion were: " President and 
 Mrs. Washington, Vice-President and Mrs. 
 Adams, the Governor and his wife, Mr. Jay 
 and wife, Mr. Langdon and wife, Mr. Dalton
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 83 
 
 and a lady (perhaps his wife) and a Mr. Smith, 
 Mr. Bassett of the Delaware State, myself, 
 Lear, Lewis, the President's two secretaries. 
 The President and Mrs. Washington sat op- 
 posite each other in the middle of the table; 
 the two secretaries, one at each end. First 
 was the soup; fish roasted and boiled; meats, 
 gammon [smoked ham], fowls, etc. This was 
 the dinner. The middle of the table was gar- 
 nished in the usual tasty way, with small 
 images, artificial flowers, etc. The dessert was, 
 first apple-pies, pudding, etc., then iced creams, 
 jellies, etc.; then water-melons, musk-melons, 
 apples, peaches, nuts. 
 
 " It was the most solemn dinner ever I sat 
 at. Not a health drank, scarce a word said 
 until the cloth was taken away. Then the 
 President, filling a glass of wine, with great 
 formality drank to the health of every individual 
 by name around the table. Everybody imi- 
 tated him and charged glasses and such a 
 buzz of ' health, sir,' and ' health, madam,' and 
 ' thank you, sir,' and ' thank you, madam ' 
 never had I heard before. Indeed I had liked 
 to have been thrown out in the hurry; but I 
 got a little wine in my glass and passed the 
 ceremony. The ladies sat a good while and the 
 bottles passed about; but there was a dead 
 silence almost. Mrs. Washington at last with- 
 drew with the ladies.
 
 84 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 " I expected the men would now begin but 
 the same stillness remained. The President 
 told of a New England clergyman who had lost 
 a hat and wig in passing a river called the Brunks. 
 He smiled and everybody else laughed. [Is 
 there a joke here?] He now and then said a 
 sentence or two on some common subject and 
 what he said was not amiss [Oh, grudging Mr. 
 Maclay ! ] Mr. Jay tried to make a laugh by 
 mentioning the circumstance of the Duchess of 
 Devonshire leaving no stone unturned to carry 
 Fox's election. [It will be recalled that she bar- 
 tered kisses for votes.] There was a Mr. Smith 
 who mentioned how Homer described ^Eneas 
 leaving his wife and carrying his father out of 
 flaming Troy. He had heard somebody (I 
 suppose) witty on the occasion; but if he had 
 ever read it he would have said Virgil. The 
 President kept a fork in his hand, when the 
 cloth was taken away, I thought for the pur- 
 pose of picking nuts. He ate no nuts, how- 
 ever, but played with the fork, striking on 
 the edge of the table with it. We did not sit 
 long after the ladies retired. The President 
 rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee; the com- 
 pany followed. I took my hat and came 
 home." 
 
 Nor had the senator from Pennsylvania any 
 more enthusiastic praise for the levees. "At 
 such meetings," he wrote, " nothing is regarded
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 85 
 
 or valued but the qualifications that flow from 
 the tailor, barber, or dancing-master. To be 
 clean shaved, shirted and powdered, to make 
 your bows with grace and to be master of small 
 chat on the weather, play, or newspaper anec- 
 dote of the day, are the highest qualifications 
 necessary. Levees may be extremely useful 
 in old countries where men of great fortune 
 are collected, as it may keep the idle from being 
 much worse employed. But here I think they 
 are hurtful. . . . From these small beginnings 
 I fear we shall follow on nor cease till we have 
 reached the summit of court etiquette, and all 
 the frivolities, fopperies and expense practiced 
 in European governments." It is scarcely 
 necessary to add, after citing these two passages 
 from Mr. Maclay's Journal, that the senator 
 from Pennsylvania was no longer young, found 
 himself very forlorn away from his home and 
 family and suffered torture with rheuma- 
 tism. 
 
 Mrs. Washington's Drawing Rooms, held 
 from seven till nine on Friday evenings, were 
 stately and interesting. Attended by all that 
 was fashionable, elegant, and refined in the 
 society of that day, :< there was, none the less, 
 no place for the intrusion of the rabble in crowds, 
 or for the mere coarse and boisterous partisan, 
 the vulgar electioneerer, or the impudent place- 
 hunter." Mrs. Washington was quite as careful
 
 86 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to have only the right people at her parties as 
 was her husband at his. 
 
 The President, at these Friday evening re- 
 ceptions, signified, by carrying neither sword 
 nor hat, that he was only " unofficially present." 
 Precisely at seven o'clock he would enter the 
 room and take his stand beside Mrs. Washing- 
 ton. Ladies, attended always by gentlemen, 
 then came in, courtesied low and silently, and 
 sat down. When the guests had ceased to 
 arrive, the President walked about and talked 
 to the interested women. The one exciting in- 
 cident which has come down to us regarding 
 these Drawing Rooms is connected with Miss 
 Mary Mclvers, a noted belle, who on a certain 
 occasion wore an ostrich feather head-dress 
 so monstrously tall that it caught fire from the 
 candles of the chandelier, as Miss Mclvers 
 stood happily talking in the centre of the room. 
 The " hero " of this occasion was Major Jack- 
 son, aid-de-camp to the President, who flew 
 to the rescue, clapped the burning plumes in 
 his hands, and saved the lady with all possible 
 gallantry. ' There was no undue rustling of 
 stiff brocades or ruffling of pretty manners," 
 comments Miss Leila Herbert, 1 " for it was then, 
 as now, good form for ladies to be perturbed 
 only by mice and cows." 
 
 The costumes worn by these well-bred ladies 
 
 1 The First American, p. 55.
 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON. 
 
 From the portrait by James Savage in the possession of Brooks Adams, Quincy, Massa- 
 chusetts.
 
 >,[ m till 
 
 liiroli- 
 
 111 
 
 
 1. HOUSES OPPOSITE BOWLING GREEN ON BROADWAY. 
 
 2. MACOMB HOUSE, WASHINGTON'S SECOND NEW YORK RESIDENCE 
 WHILE PRESIDENT.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 87 
 
 and gentlemen must have gone far to compel 
 elegant behavior. Washington was wont to 
 appear in purple satin or drab broadcloth, 
 when not arrayed in black velvet set off with 
 shining buttons, pearl satin waistcoat, fine 
 linen and lace. And Mrs. Washington, though 
 buxom and not very tall, by carefully chosen 
 gowns and a peculiar head-dress known, ac- 
 cording to Watson's Annals, as the " Queen's 
 Nightcap " added height to her appearance 
 and so enhanced the impression of gentle dignity 
 which she never failed to convey. 
 
 It is doubtless due to Mrs. Washington's 
 slight stature rather than to the facts of the 
 matter that we find her represented in Hunting- 
 ton's famous picture of the Republican Court 
 as standing upon a slight elevation above most 
 of her guests. Some of her particular friends 
 are near her in this picture and some who 
 were not actually in New York at the time the 
 painting was made are here also! Similarly 
 Nellie Custis and George Washington Parke 
 Custis, both of whom were far too young to 
 have been present at a formal Drawing Room, 
 save for the purpose of having their portraits 
 painted, stand in the canvas close to their 
 grandmother. Mrs. Robert Morris, Mrs. John 
 Jay, Lady Kitty Duer, Mrs. Ralph Izard, Mrs. 
 James Beekman, Mrs. George Clinton, Mrs. 
 Robert R. Livingston, Mrs. Walter Livingston,
 
 88 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Mrs. John Bayard, and Mrs. Alexander Ham- 
 ilton were other of the ladies in Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's immediate circle; the faces of many of 
 them may be distinguished in the picture. 
 But there are some rather startling anachro- 
 nisms in the work. General Nathanael Greene, 
 who died before the new government was even 
 instituted, is there as large as life, and the Duke 
 of Orleans, afterwards King of the French, is 
 represented as making his bow to Mrs. Washing- 
 ton at the same time that the Duke of Kent, 
 father of the late Queen Victoria, was likewise 
 so engaged. This in spite of the fact that the 
 two dukes were in America at quite different 
 times. Inasmuch, however, as the painting 
 is extraordinarily accurate in the matter of 
 costumes, as well as with regard to the faces and 
 figures represented, the net result is of great his- 
 torical interest. The background of the work is 
 the second New York residence of the Washing- 
 tons, the Macomb house on Broadway, to which 
 they removed in the spring of 1790, after the Presi- 
 dent returned from his tour of the Eastern States. 
 " Courts," it may here be said, were not at 
 all to Mrs. Washington's taste, nor did the label 
 of " Republican " serve to make her particular 
 brand of " court " acceptable; we have ample 
 assurance that she would " much rather have 
 been at home " 1 than officiating in New York 
 
 1 So she wrote once in a letter to Mercy Warren.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 89 
 
 as First Lady of the Land. To Mrs. Fanny 
 Washington, then keeping house at Mt. Vernon, 
 she wrote: 
 
 " New York, October 22, 1789." 
 " MY DEAR FANNY, I have by Mrs. 
 Sims sent you a watch; it is one of the cargoe, 
 that I have so long mentioned to you that was 
 expected, I hope it is such a one as will please 
 you it is of the newest fashion if that has any 
 influence on your taste, the chain is of Mr. 
 Lear's choosing and such as Mrs. Adams the 
 Vice president's lady and those in the polite circle 
 wear. 
 
 " Mrs. Sims will give you a better account of 
 the fashions than I can I live a very dull 
 life hear and know nothing that passes in the 
 town I never goe to any public place in- 
 deed I think I am more like a State prisoner than 
 anything else; there is certain bounds set for 
 me which I must not depart from and as I 
 cannot doe as I like I am obstinate and stay at 
 home a great deal. 
 
 ' The President set out this day week on a 
 tour to the eastward; Mr. Lear and Mr. Jack- 
 son attended him my dear children has had 
 very bad colds but thank God they are getting 
 better. My love and good wishes attend you 
 and all with you remember me to Mr. and 
 Mrs. L. Wn [Lund Washington] how is the poor
 
 90 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 child kiss Marie, I send her two little handker- 
 chiefs to wipe her nose. Adue." 
 
 The President, too, appears to have been home- 
 sick very often while in New York. Writing 
 to a friend in Virginia, who had alluded to ru- 
 mors of presidential pomp, he explains that the 
 real reason his Tuesday callers do not sit down 
 is because the room would not hold enough chairs 
 even if sitting at such times had been the 
 custom. The dignity of office, he adds, has 
 " God knows no charms for me. I had rather 
 be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about 
 me, than to be attended at the seat of govern- 
 ment by the officers of state and the representa- 
 tives of every power in Europe." As evidence 
 that extreme simplicity in his domestic life 
 was the note he would have preferred to sustain 
 we have Judge Wingate's description of the 
 first presidential dinner: " The President made 
 his whole dinner upon a boiled leg of mutton. 
 It was his usual practice to eat of but one dish. 
 As there was no chaplain present the President 
 himself said a very short grace as he was sitting 
 down. After the dinner and dessert were finished 
 one glass of wine was passed around the table 
 and no toast. . . ." 
 
 It was while living in the Franklin house that 
 Washington, at the request of Congress, wrote 
 pur first Thanksgiving proclamation, setting
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 91 
 
 apart for that festival a Thursday of November, 
 1789. Here, too, the first New Year's reception 
 of the head of the American nation was held. 
 Writes Washington in his diary: 
 
 " The Vice-President, the Governor, the 
 Senators, Members of the House of Represen- 
 tatives in town, foreign public characters, and 
 all the respectable citizens came between the 
 hours of twelve and three o'clock to pay the 
 compliments of the season to me; and in the 
 afternoon a great number of gentlemen and 
 ladies visited Mrs. Washington on the same 
 occasion." 
 
 In the February of 1790 the presidential 
 family moved to the larger house they had long 
 felt to be necessary. Thus it is with the Macomb 
 residence on Broadway that Washington's 
 later months in New York are to be associated. 
 This house was the finest private dwelling in 
 the city and commanded from the rear a delight- 
 ful view of the Hudson and the Jersey shore. 
 It was now easy for Washington to slip out of 
 his back door, clad in his old clothes, and go 
 fishing, when he wished so to relieve the strain 
 of his public and official duties. As a fisherman 
 he was as successful as in his various other ac- 
 tivities. " All the fish come to his hook," 
 the captain who was wont to take him out once 
 declared. The Washingtons' stay in the spacious 
 Macomb house was only a short one however.
 
 92 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Scarcely six months after they had there taken 
 up their residence it was decided that Phila- 
 delphia should for some years be the capital 
 city in New York's stead and so, once again, 
 the presidential family must " move." The 
 General had hoped to slip away quietly, un- 
 observed by the crowd whom he loved, yet 
 dreaded. Imagine his chagrin, therefore, 
 when, just as he was congratulating himself 
 that his plot to conceal his departure by getting 
 off early in the morning had succeeded, the 
 raucous notes of an artillery band were heard 
 under his office window, accompanied by the 
 scurrying footsteps of a thousand devoted 
 people come to watch their beloved chief as 
 he took his departure from America's first 
 capital. 
 
 But though New York had ceased to be the 
 seat of the national assembly, it remained, as 
 it was bound to do, the commercial and hence 
 the real social centre of American life. Wash- 
 ington, with his astounding sense of compara- 
 tive values, prophesied that such must be the 
 case. To Richard Parkinson, whom he was enter- 
 taining at his home in Mt. Vernon, he said: 
 " Baltimore would be the risingest town in 
 America except the Federal City, Philadelphia 
 would decline; but New York would always 
 maintain eminent commercial rank from its 
 position and from the frost not stopping the
 
 THE MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, NEW YORK, ABOUT 1830. 
 
 From a drawing by C. Burton.
 
 Photograph by the Phillips Studio. 
 
 MRS. CHAUNCEY GOODRICH. 
 
 From a miniature in the possession of Charles A. Brinley 
 of Philadelphia.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 93 
 
 navigation so early and sometimes not at all." 
 With the commercial development of New 
 York or, indeed, of any city this book 
 is not particularly concerned; but we must not 
 ignore the fact that to the wealth which this 
 development made possible is due much of the 
 brilliancy and charm of early Republican so- 
 ciety. 
 
 When Chauncey Goodrich of New York mar- 
 ried Mary Ann Wolcott of Connecticut and 
 brought her (October, 1789) to his native city 
 to live for a time, one more very beautiful 
 woman was to be found in Knickerbocker 
 drawing-rooms. The Wolcott women appear 
 to have all been belles. The wife of Oliver Wol- 
 cott of Connecticut (who was, first, Auditor 
 of the Treasury, and later succeeded Hamilton 
 as Secretary) had less beauty but was noted 
 for her graceful manners, and few could be 
 compared with her for culture and refinement. 
 When the British minister remarked to Tracy 
 at a dance: * Your countrywoman, Mrs. 
 Wolcott, would be admired even at St. James's," 
 the senator replied, " Sir, she is admired even 
 on Litchfield Hill." A member of Congress 
 called this lady a "divine woman"; another 
 11 the magnificent Mrs. Wolcott"; and some 
 compared her to Mrs. Bingham. 
 
 Second to none of the New York women, 
 either native or imported, in beauty and charm
 
 94 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 was Mrs. John Jay, born Sarah Livingston. 
 She it was who was mistaken for Queen Marie 
 Antoinette once, upon entering the theatre in 
 Paris. Just before the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion, being then eighteen, she had married John 
 Jay, a young lawyer of very good family con- 
 nection, who was called almost at once to 
 take an important public office. Subsequently 
 for some years his services to his country kept 
 him from the side of his lovely wife, who passed 
 the greater part of her time at the residence of 
 her father, with occasional visits to her husband's 
 parents at their country place in Rye, West- 
 chester County, New York. When Mr. Jay 
 was appointed minister to Spain in 1779 his 
 wife went with him, however, and when Con- 
 gress decreed that Mr. Jay should go to Paris 
 to help Franklin negotiate peace treaties, Mrs. 
 Jay was launched at once into the most brilliant 
 Paris circles of the day. For the Queen, whom 
 she so strikingly resembled, Mrs. Jay had a 
 warm admiration. To Mrs. Robert Morris 
 she wrote (November 14, 1782), " She is so 
 handsome and her manner so engaging that, 
 almost forgetful of Republican principles, I 
 was ready, while in her presence, to declare her 
 born to be a queen. There are, however, many 
 traits in her character worthy of imitation, 
 even by Republicans; and I cannot but admire 
 her resolution to superintend the education of
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 95 
 
 Madame Royale, her daughter, to whom she 
 has allotted chambers adjoining her own, and 
 persists in refusing to name a governess for 
 her." 
 
 Among the first to welcome Mrs. Jay to 
 Paris were the Marquis and Marchioness de 
 Lafayette. The acquaintanceship between the 
 ladies soon ripened into friendship and their 
 letters are marked by a tone of sincere affection. 
 John Adams's daughter, writing from Paris 
 in 1785, tells us that Madame de Lafayette said 
 that " she and Mrs. Jay were agreed that, 
 while pleasure might be found abroad, happiness 
 was to be had only at home and in the society 
 of one's family and friends." 
 
 In the Franklin circle at Passy the charming 
 American was a prime favorite. The " Sage," 
 as Mirabeau afterwards dubbed him, had lost 
 neither his love of beauty nor his taste in judg- 
 ing of it, even though he was seventy-six at 
 this time. He was constantly surrounded by 
 the fair women and gifted men of the day and 
 the letters which passed between him and Mrs. 
 Jay (and which Mrs. Ellet reprints in her 
 Queens of American Society] give us vivid 
 glimpses of social life in the Paris of that day. 
 Before Mrs. Jay left Madrid he had sent her 
 his portrait with these words : " Mrs. Jay does 
 me much honour in desiring to have one of the 
 prints that have been ma.de of her countryman.
 
 96 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 I send what has been said to be the best of 
 five or six engraved by different hands from 
 different paintings. The verses at the bottom 
 are truly extravagant. But you must know 
 that the desire of pleasing by a perpetual use 
 of compliments in this polite nation has so 
 used up all the common expressions of appro- 
 bation that they have become flat and insipid 
 and to use them almost implies censure. Hence 
 music, which formerly might be sufficiently 
 praised when it was called bonne, to go a little 
 farther they called excellente, then superbe, 
 magnifique, exquisite, celeste, all of which being 
 in their turn worn out there remains only 
 divine, and when that is grown as insufficient as 
 its predecessors I think they must return to 
 common speech and common sense, as from 
 vying with one another in fine and costly paint- 
 ings on their coaches, since I first knew the 
 country, not being able to go further in that 
 way, they have returned lately to plain carriages, 
 painted without arms or figures in one uniform 
 colour." 
 
 Here is another of the Doctor's little notes: 
 " Dr. Franklin regrets exceedingly that his 
 health does not permit the honour and pleasure 
 of waiting upon Mr. and Mrs. Jay according to 
 their obliging invitation. He hopes Mr. and 
 Mrs. Jay will condescend to indemnify him for 
 the loss he sustains by honouring him with their
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 97 
 
 company at dinner on Saturday next. The 
 doctor would be happy to see Mr. Munroe [their 
 nephew] at the same time. Passy 9th October, 
 1782." 
 
 There has been preserved for us, also, in 
 connection with Mr. and Mrs. Jay, a charming 
 account of one of Franklin's experiments in 
 magnetism. To her husband, absent at Bath, 
 the lady wrote, November 18, 1783: "Dr. 
 Franklin charged me to present you his com- 
 pliments, whenever I write to you, but forbids 
 my telling you how much pains he takes to 
 excite my jealousy at your stay. The other 
 evening, at Passy, he produced several pieces 
 of steel; the one he supposed you at Chaillot, 
 which, being placed near another piece, which 
 was to represent me, it was attracted by that 
 and presently united ; but when drawn off from 
 me and near another piece, which the doctor 
 called an English lady, behold the same effect! 
 The company enjoyed it much and urged me 
 to revenge; but all could not shake my confi- 
 dence in my beloved friend." 
 
 The " friend " appears to have taken this 
 excellent fooling in very good part, for he replies, 
 " It gives me pleasure to hear that our friend, 
 the Doctor, is in such good spirits. Though his 
 magnets love society, they are nevertheless 
 true- to the pole, and in that I hope I resemble 
 them." Which shows that this early Repub-
 
 * ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 lican husband, though nine years removed from 
 courting days, had not lost the power to write 
 love-letters to his wife. 
 
 The warm friendship between the Jays and 
 Doctor Franklin was never allowed to lapse. 
 Affectionate notes from the Sage of Passy 
 came to them often after they had returned to 
 America, and, when Franklin himself returned, 
 Jay welcomed him in a cordial letter. In refer- 
 ence to the Doctor's proposed visit to New York 
 he declared, " Mrs. Jay is exceedingly pleased 
 with this idea, and sincerely joins with me in 
 wishing to see it realized. Her attachments 
 are very strong and that to you being founded 
 on esteem, and the recollection of kind offices, 
 is particularly so." 
 
 The absence from New York of the Jays for 
 nearly five years (they returned in the summer 
 of 1784) had only tended to make them more 
 welcome as social leaders of the day. To 
 beauty and sweet womanliness Mrs. Jay now 
 added the cosmopolitan polish bestowed by 
 long residence near European courts. From 
 her " Dinner and Supper List for 1787 and '8," 
 which chances to have been preserved we see 
 that the most cultivated men and women of the 
 day, whether Europeans on visits over here or 
 residents of other American cities who chanced 
 to be in New York, were entertained by her. 
 Among the older families of New York men-
 
 MRS. JOHN JAY. 
 From the painting by Daniel Huntington, enlarged from a miniature in a bracelet.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 99 
 
 tioned in her list the names of the Beekmans, 
 the Bronsons, the Clintons, the Clarksons, the 
 Crugers, the Sterlings, the De Peysters, the 
 Livingstons, the Morrises, the Rutherfurds, 
 the Schuylers, the Van Homes, the Van Cort- 
 landts, the Van Rensselaers, the Verplancks 
 and the Watts, constantly occur. The letters 
 and diaries of the time, too, are full of allusions 
 to hospitalities enjoyed at the home of the 
 Jays, a three-story dwelling of hewn stone which 
 stood at what was then 133 Broadway. 
 
 In the spring of 1794 Mr. Jay, who for some 
 time had been Chief Justice, was sent by Wash- 
 ington as special ambassador to England to 
 negotiate with Lord Grenville the treaty which 
 bears his name. At Mrs. Jay's earnest request 
 their young son, Peter Augustus, then in his 
 nineteenth year, accompanied his father on 
 this expedition. But that the wife and mother 
 left behind was soon suffering sorely from fears 
 for the safety of her two beloved ones we see 
 from this letter: 
 
 " Oh, my dear Mr. Jay, how greatly do 
 circumstances alter our ideas of things. I've 
 known the time when in your company I could 
 have enjoyed a storm like this. At present I 
 cannot nor would I wish to describe the painful 
 fancies it gives birth to. I know you disap- 
 prove the anticipation of evils, but, indeed, my 
 best of husbands, such a storm as this is enough
 
 100 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to prostrate one's reason. At this season of 
 the year it is so unusual. The poplars this 
 morning were on the ground and the cherries, 
 still unripe, were blown from the trees before 
 the dining-room window into the stable-yard. 
 Frank has raised the poplars. When I droop 
 who shall raise me, if the wide ocean should 
 swallow up my husband and child ? " 
 
 Happily, however, no such catastrophe oc- 
 curred. Mr. Jay returned home in safety, hav- 
 ing acquitted himself with honor to his country, 
 and subsequently for two terms served his state 
 as Governor. The young son, too, benefited 
 greatly by the experience, just as his mother 
 had thought he would, and came back to take 
 up his place in the New York of his day and 
 to be married to the lovely daughter of General 
 Clarkson, whose home was on Pearl Street. The 
 following account of their wedding has come down 
 to us: 
 
 " The company assembled about half -past 
 seven, and were received in the drawing-room, 
 which was on the north side of the house on the 
 second floor, its three windows looking out upon 
 Pearl Street. Among the guests were Governor 
 Jay, Miss Anne Brown, the Rutherfurds, Bay- 
 ards, Le Roys, Van Homes, Munroes, Wallaces 
 and others. Bishop Moore arrived a quarter 
 before eight, and at eight the bride, followed by 
 her bridesmaids, entered the room and was re-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 101 
 
 ceived by the groom and his attendants. The 
 bridesmaids were the Misses Anne Jay, Helen 
 Rutherfurd, Anna Maria Clarkson, Cornelia Le 
 Roy and Susan and Catharine Bayard. The 
 groomsmen were Robert Watts, Jr., John Cox 
 Morris, Dominick Lynch, George Wechman, 
 Benjamin Ledyard and B. Woolsey Rogers. 
 
 '' The bride was dressed in white silk covered 
 with white crape or gauze. Pearls adorned her 
 hair, encircled her neck and were clasped around 
 her arms. Her maids wore white muslin, made 
 in the style of the Empire and embroidered in 
 front, and each carried a fan, a present from the 
 bride. * Drab flesh-colored ' small clothes, flesh- 
 colored silk stockings, white vests and coats 
 varying in color to suit the taste of the wearer 
 made up the attire of the gentlemen, which 
 corresponded with that of the groom, whose 
 coat was of a light color. The ceremony was 
 then performed by the Bishop, and Mrs. Jay 
 received the congratulations of her friends. 
 
 " A great variety of refreshments was then 
 handed round on trays by colored waiters, and 
 in the dining room below, upon a side table, a 
 collation was spread of which the elderly people 
 partook. The groomsmen drank a bottle of 
 wine together before separating, and the eve- 
 ning's festivities were over at twelve o'clock. 
 On the next day Mr. and Mrs. Jay went on a 
 visit to Edgerston, on the Passaic, a little above
 
 102 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Belleville, the residence of Hon. John Rutherfurd. 
 On Saturday Mrs. Rutherfurd entertained the 
 bridal party at a breakfast, and on Monday 
 they returned to the city. Mr. Jay received 
 his friends on the morning of the succeeding 
 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and Mrs. 
 Jay's receptions were in the evenings of Thurs- 
 day, Friday and Saturday." * 
 
 This account of Peter Augustus Jay's wedding 
 has been quoted in full not only because of 
 its inherent interest but because it shows that 
 the leaven of extreme simplicity which consti- 
 tuted the contribution of the French Revolu- 
 tion to American social life had begun its work. 
 Franklin was in France from 1776 to 1785, but 
 neither he nor John Adams appear to have 
 sensed in the least the impending catastrophe. 
 Jefferson succeeded Franklin, arriving March 
 10, 1785, and before he came home in 1789 he 
 could not help seeing that trouble was brewing. 
 But he blinked the deep-seated nature of the 
 popular unrest, believing that the extravagance 
 of the Queen was the primary cause of dissen- 
 sion. Thus he was able to sail for America 
 firm in the conviction that " within a year one 
 of the greatest of recorded revolutions would 
 have been affected without bloodshed." 2 
 
 1 Colonial Days and Dames: Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, p. 210. 
 
 2 Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution: 
 Charles Downer Hazen, p. 53.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 103 
 
 Strange that these men could not scent the 
 breath of Revolution when its fiery blasts 
 were almost in their faces! 
 
 Sentimentally, however, Americans revelled 
 in the protest when its actual significance had 
 once been grasped. Some contemplated it 
 with feelings of pleasure and pride as destined 
 to spread abroad their own ideas, and many 
 eagerly welcomed it as an ally in the propaga- 
 tion of doctrines in which they believed but 
 which had not yet won general acceptance. 
 The songs, dances and cockades of the Revolu- 
 tionists were eagerly adopted. Wansey, who 
 traveled in this country in the summer of 1794, 
 wrote that at least one in every ten persons he 
 met in the streets wore the tricolored cockade, 
 the men in their hats, the women on their 
 breasts. Streets were rebaptized, to the end 
 that Liberty might be always in the public 
 eye, and marriage notices frequently recorded 
 that " Citizen " X had been married to 
 " Citess " Y, the ceremony having been per- 
 formed by "Citizen" Z! The notices of the 
 Jay wedding are happily without these affecta- 
 tions, but the note of simplicity, attributable 
 to recent excesses in this way, is none the less 
 clearly discernible. 
 
 A favorite recreation place in these days of 
 old New York was the Battery, while Castle 
 Garden, near by, was long a fashionable resort
 
 104 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 for the best families. In the streets adjoining 
 and fronting the Battery stood handsome old 
 homes, of which Richard Grant White, writing 
 from boyhood memories, says: "Long after 
 the uptown movement began people who were 
 already housed near the Battery, or who could 
 afford to get houses there, lingered lovingly 
 around it, and well they might do so, for a 
 place of city residence more delightful or con- 
 venient could not be found. Within five or 
 ten minutes walk of Wall and South Streets, 
 where the great merchants had their counting 
 houses, it was yet entirely removed from busi- 
 ness, and its surroundings made mere living 
 there a pleasure. State Street, the eastern 
 boundary of the Battery, was unsurpassed, 
 if it was ever equalled, as a place of town resi- 
 dence; for living there was living on a park with 
 a grand water view. The prospects from the 
 windows and balconies of the old State Street 
 houses included the bay with its islands, and 
 the shore of New Jersey. In summer the western 
 breezes blew upon these windows straight from 
 the water. The sight here on spring and summer 
 and autumn evenings when splendid sunsets 
 common then but rare now because of changes 
 in the surrounding country which have affected 
 the formation and disposition of the clouds, 
 made the firmament and water blaze with 
 gold and color, seemed sometimes in their gor-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 105 
 
 geousness almost to surpass the imagination. 
 It was a matter of course that such a place should 
 be chosen as the site of the homes of wealthy 
 people. The houses were most of them very 
 simple in their exterior; but they had an air 
 of large and elegant domesticity which proved 
 them the homes of people of taste and char- 
 acter." 
 
 Until the middle years of the last century 
 Battery Park, or Battery Walk, remained as it 
 had been during the colonial period, the most 
 frequented promenade of the town. It is curious 
 to think of the way in which this place once came 
 near to seeing the end of the wily Talleyrand. 
 Because Robespierre wished to bring the un- 
 frocked priest to the guillotine he had fled from 
 France to England, and then (in 1794) to this 
 country. During his New York sojourn he had 
 an extraordinary experience on the Battery, 
 the story of which as afterwards recounted to 
 his secretary, Bourdaleau, makes thrilling read- 
 ing. 1 A certain Beaumetz, with whom Talley- 
 rand had fled from France and engaged in 
 commercial speculation, was about to depart 
 with him in a small vessel for India, there to 
 improve their fortunes further. " Everything 
 was in readiness for our departure; we were 
 waiting for a fair wind with the most eager ex- 
 
 1 It is here quoted, by permission of the J. B. Lippincott Company, 
 from R. R. Wilson's New York: Old and New.
 
 106 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 pectation, prepared to embark at any hour 
 of the day or night in obedience to the warning 
 from the captain. This state of uncertainty 
 seemed to irritate the temper of Beaumetz, 
 who one day entered our lodging, evidently 
 laboring under great excitement, although com- 
 manding himself to appear calm. I was en- 
 gaged at the moment in writing letters to Eu- 
 rope. Looking over my shoulder he said with 
 forced gaiety, * What need to waste time in 
 penning letters? They will never reach their 
 destination. Come with me and let us take a 
 turn on the Battery; perhaps the wind may 
 chop round; we may be nearer our departure 
 than we imagine.' 
 
 " The day was fine and I suffered myself to 
 be persuaded. We walked through the crowded 
 streets to the Battery, Beaumetz seizing my 
 arm and hurrying me along. When we had 
 arrived at the Esplanade he quickened his steps 
 still more until we reached close to the water's 
 edge. He talked loud and quickly, admiring 
 in energetic terms the beauty of the scenery, 
 the ships riding at anchor, and the busy scene 
 on the peopled wharf. Suddenly he paused, 
 for I had freed my arm from his grasp and stood 
 immovable before him. Staying his wild and 
 rapid steps I fixed my eyes upon him. He turned 
 aside, cowed and dismayed. * Beaumetz!' I 
 cried, * you mean to murder me ! You intend
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 107 
 
 to throw me into the sea. Deny it, monster, 
 if you can! ' 
 
 " The maniac stared at me for a moment, but 
 I took especial care not to avert my gaze from 
 his countenance, and he quailed beneath it. 
 He stammered a few incoherent words and 
 strove to pass me, but I barred his passage with 
 extended arms. He looked vacantly right and 
 left and then flung himself upon my neck and 
 burst into tears. : 'Tis true, my friend, 'tis 
 true,' he cried. ' The thought has haunted 
 me day and night like a flash from the lurid 
 fire of hell. It was for this I brought you. Look ! 
 You stand within a foot of the edge of the 
 parapet; in another instant the work would 
 have been done.' The demon had left him; 
 his eye was unsettled and the white foam stood 
 in bubbles on his parched lips, but he was no 
 longer tossed by the same mad excitement 
 under which he had been labouring; he suffered 
 me to lead him home without a word. A few 
 days of bleeding, repose and abstinence restored 
 him to his former self, and what is most extra- 
 ordinary, the circumstance was never mentioned 
 between us. My fate," Talleyrand concluded 
 tersely, " was at work." 
 
 Talleyrand's lodging was on the Blooming- 
 dale Road, and there, also, Louis Philippe stayed 
 while in New York at the end of the eighteenth 
 century. It was Gouverneur Morris who gave
 
 108 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the Citizen King money with which to journey 
 to America and who furnished him with un- 
 limited credit during his two years of wandering 
 in the United States. The bourgeois king's 
 after-treatment of this loan showed how very 
 little royal he was in matters of honor. * When 
 he came into his own again," writes Morris's 
 biographer, "he at first appeared to forget his 
 debt entirely, and when his memory was jogged, 
 he merely sent Morris the original sum without 
 a word of thanks; whereupon, Morris, rather 
 nettled, and as prompt to stand up for his rights 
 against a man in prosperity as he had been to 
 help him when in adversity, put the matter 
 in the hands of his lawyer, through whom he 
 ^notified Louis Philippe that if the affair was 
 to be treated on a merely business basis it 
 should then be treated in a strictly business 
 way, and the interest for the twenty years that 
 had gone by should be forwarded also. This 
 was done, although not until after the death of 
 Morris, the sum refunded being seventy thou- 
 sand francs." 
 
 Another royal (?) Frenchman associated with 
 the Bloomingdale Road is Joseph Bonaparte, 
 ex-king of Spain, who sought a refuge in America 
 soon after the close of the second war with 
 England and who, during his first weeks in New 
 York, lived in the country-seat of the Post 
 family, at what is now One Hundred and Twenty-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 109 
 
 third Street. Before leaving the State of New 
 York Bonaparte settled down on a large tract 
 of land he had acquired in Jefferson County, 
 installing (1822) as mistress of the villa he had 
 there built Annette Savage, of whom he was 
 wont to speak as " the beautiful Quaker girl." 
 When he returned to Europe in 1830 his " Ameri- 
 can wife " and the daughter who had been born 
 to them remained in Northern New York, the 
 girl eventually marrying a man named Benton. 
 Forty years later Mrs. Benton was able, 
 through friends, to urge her claim to recogni- 
 tion as a Bonaparte and Napoleon III made an 
 appointment to receive her at the Tuileries. 
 No sooner did his eyes rest upon her than he 
 exclaimed, "I recognize you as a Bonaparte." 
 And forthwith the union of Joseph Bonaparte 
 and Annette Savage was legitimized and Mrs. 
 Benton received at court as the first cousin of 
 the emperor! After Napoleon's downfall she 
 returned to America and supported herself by 
 teaching music. " She died in humble lodgings 
 at Richfield Springs," records Rufus Rockwell 
 Wilson," 1 and was laid to rest, on a stormy 
 day of December, 1891, in the cemetery of the 
 Presbyterian Church, at Oxbow, New York, 
 only four persons standing beside the grave of 
 this daughter of a king." 
 
 Jerome Bonaparte, when in New York, was 
 
 1 In New York, Old and New.
 
 110 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 most often to be found at the elegant home of 
 Stephen Jumel and his wife, a house perhaps 
 more freighted with romance * than any other 
 of New York so far mentioned. It was this 
 house to which Roger Morris took as a bride 
 Mary Philipse who, tradition has it, had pre- 
 viously declined the hand of George Washing- 
 ton. They lived here together until the Rev- 
 olution, when Colonel Morris, who had once 
 worn the king's uniform and so felt himself 
 bound by honor to preserve a condition of 
 neutrality, was compelled with other " Tories " 
 to depart for England. The Morris mansion 
 was seized by the Continental troops, and here, 
 curiously enough, Washington for a time had 
 his headquarters. When peace was concluded 
 Morris returned to New York but, finding that 
 his own and his wife's property had been con- 
 fiscated, sadly turned his steps again to England, 
 where he is said to have died of a broken heart. 
 The title of the house beside the Kingsbridge 
 Road remained in dispute until 1810, when John 
 Jacob Astor bought up the claim of the Morris 
 heirs. A little later Astor sold the place to 
 Stephen Jumel, a Frenchman by birth, who, 
 while yet a young man, had emigrated to 
 the island of San Domingo and there made a 
 
 1 The Jumel Mansion, Fraunces' Tavern and old St. Paul's are 
 the three buildings of a public or semi-public character, dating 
 from pre-Revolutionary days, that still atand on the island of Man- 
 hattan.
 
 OLD ST. PAUL'S, NEW YORK. HERE WASHINGTON ATTENDED A SERVICE 
 HELD IN HONOR OF HIS INAUGURATION. HERE, TOO, HE REGULARLY 
 WORSHIPPED WHILE NEW YORK WAS THE NATION'S CAPITAL.
 
 AARON BURR. 
 From a painting attributed to Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Princeton Unirersity.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 111 
 
 fortune. The insurrection of the blacks under 
 the leadership of the famous Toussaint 1'Ouver- 
 ture, put an end to this, however, and after 
 a part of his fortune had been seized and 
 destroyed Jumel disposed of the remainder 
 and fled to America, reaching New York in 
 1798. 
 
 There he soon met and fell in love with the 
 beautiful woman who was later to become the 
 reluctant wife of Aaron Burr's old age. This 
 woman's early history, which has only in recent 
 years become fully known, accounts for much 
 that is repugnant in her character. For a long 
 time even her parentage was a mystery but 
 it was then established that a sailor named 
 Bowen was her father and a widow called Phoebe 
 Kelly her mother. The history of Phoebe Kelly, 
 as written in the town records of Providence, 
 makes rather unsavory reading. It appears 
 that she came to Providence from Taunton in 
 1769. Three years later the people of the town 
 razed an old building which had been the rendez- 
 vous of whites and blacks of the lowest order, 
 and Phoebe Bowen, who was in the house at 
 the time, was brought before the Town Council. 
 Again in 1785, another disorderly house, of 
 which Phoebe was an inmate, was broken up 
 and she was imprisoned. The Town Council 
 ordered her two children, Polly and Betsey 
 the latter subsequently Madame Jumel at that
 
 112 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 time twelve and ten years old, respectively, to 
 to be sent to the workhouse. 
 
 The next known of Betsey Bowen is when she 
 became an inmate of the house of Freelove 
 Ballou, on Charles Street, Providence, in 1794. 
 This Mrs. Ballou was a woman of unsavory 
 reputation, and claimed to be a female doctor, 
 midwife, and probably a procuress. It was 
 asserted that while Betsey was an inmate of 
 this house she gave birth to George Washington 
 Bowen. After this she is again lost to view 
 for a series of years, and it is not improbable 
 that, with her loose habits and a craving for 
 excitement and pleasure, she drifted into New 
 York. There her face seems to have made her 
 fortune, and with that cleverness born of her 
 free and easy life and her disposition to enter 
 into intrigue for her own advancement she formed 
 an alliance, about 1806, with Stephen Jumel, 
 " who sailed a dozen ships and was king of the 
 market until 1812." 
 
 Jumel purchased the Morris mansion as a 
 home for his bride. The old house was refitted 
 with hangings, plate and furniture brought from 
 France, the drawing-room being furnished with 
 chairs and divans that had been the property 
 of Marie Antoinette. Madame Jumel was not 
 admitted to what was then considered the 
 upper ten of New York society, but her New 
 Year's feasts were counted among the mem-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 113 
 
 orable social events of the period and her gener- 
 ous hospitality was heartily welcomed by many. 
 Though living a little out of town she was near 
 enough to allow her each day to display upon 
 the city's streets her gaudy and showy equi- 
 page. She seems to have had a particular fond- 
 ness for horses and in her drives always employed 
 four to draw her carriage; while at Saratoga 
 she surprised as well as amused many of the 
 summer sojourners by being driven about in 
 a huge carriage of bright yellow, drawn by 
 four horses, with riders clad in amazing liveries. 
 In 1815 the true character of the woman, 
 which displayed qualities of treachery and in- 
 gratitude, was illustrated by a clever and suc- 
 cessful ruse by which she gained possession of 
 nearly the entire estate of her husband. M. 
 Jumel, who proposed to go to France for the 
 purpose of prosecuting claims for the spoli- 
 ation of his property at San Domingo, before 
 doing so conveyed to trustees the greater part 
 of his property, to be held for Madame Jumel 
 during her lifetime, and at her death to be 
 transferred to him or .to his heirs. 
 
 Madame Jumel accompanied her husband 
 to France, and while there he decided to dispose 
 of his property in the United States and to 
 settle in his native country. Madame Jumel 
 made a pretence of agreement to this new move, 
 and offered to become the agent of her husband
 
 114 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 for the sale of his property in America. She 
 was given a power of attorney by her husband 
 in 1826 which authorized her to sell for his 
 benefit all his real estate in the State of New 
 York. With this important and all-powerful 
 document Madame Jumel returned to this 
 country and immediately took entire control 
 of the estates of her husband. She leased prop- 
 erty, collected rents, and in fact transacted 
 the entire business necessary in such matters; 
 recognizing the advantage she now had and 
 seeing the opportunity now presented of possess- 
 ing herself of her husband's large fortune, she 
 carried the scheme to ultimate success. In her 
 letters to her husband she urged him not to sell 
 the property, as had at first been determined 
 upon, advancing as the reason for her change 
 of opinion that the property had already 
 largely increased in value and was becoming 
 more valuable day by day. On the other 
 hand, while deceiving her husband by these 
 letters, she was for a period of two years 
 carrying out her preconceived scheme for the 
 capture of the fortune, and had conveyed at 
 different times during that period, by the au- 
 thority given her in the power of attorney, 
 all the property owned by her husband, 
 with the exception of some sixty-five acres 
 of unimproved land at High Bridge. These 
 conveyances were made to an alleged niece of
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 115 
 
 Madame Jumel, who had been adopted by 
 her, and the property was reconveyed to Madame 
 Jumel by the niece. It seems that M. Jumel 
 was never informed of the transfers made by his 
 wife, and up to the day of his death, in May, 
 1832, remained in ignorance of the fact that she 
 and not he was the then-owner of his immense 
 estate, valued at $3,000,000. 
 
 To aid Madame Jumel in the legal difficulties 
 which inevitably ensued after her husband's 
 death the services of Aaron Burr, then seventy- 
 eight years old, but still active and retaining 
 much of his old-time fascination, were retained. 
 Soon he was dining with the charming widow, 
 then just in her prime, and ere many months 
 had passed was ardently pressing his suit for 
 her hand. When he proposed marriage she 
 promptly refused him but he, not a whit dis- 
 concerted, retorted that he would come out 
 again on a certain day, bringing a clergyman 
 with him and he proved to be as good as his 
 word. On a sunny afternoon of July, 1833, 
 he came riding up to the great portico of her 
 house, accompanied by the same minister who, 
 half a century before, had married him to 
 the mother of his beloved Theodosia; and he 
 insisted that Madame Jumel should then and 
 there become his wife. Alarmed and dismayed, 
 but fearing a scandal she reluctantly consented 
 and they were married in the big drawing-room.
 
 116 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Parton, than whom we could have no better 
 authority, says that Burr, having now put at 
 rest his lurking fear lest old age should find him 
 poor and homeless, forgot to humor wisely the 
 good fortune that had come to him and rapidly 
 squandered his wife's wealth. Naturally there 
 were bitter quarrels, followed by tardy recon- 
 ciliations. In 1834 came a permanent separa- 
 tion which Madame Jumel effectively clinched 
 by employing as counsel the son and namesake 
 of the man whom Burr had killed in a duel ! She 
 lived until 1865. Her former home, with the 
 plot upon which it stands, became in 1901 the 
 property of the city of New York. 
 
 Only a mile away (at the corner of Tenth 
 Avenue and One Hundred and Forty-second 
 Street) there long stood, also, the house 1 from 
 which Alexander Hamilton rode forth early 
 on the morning of July 11, 1804, to meet his 
 untimely death. 
 
 The real cause of Burr's bitter hatred of 
 Hamilton was the latter's political activity 
 against him. The occasion of their meeting 
 was the press publication of some derogatory 
 remarks made by Hamilton about Burr in 
 private letters. Burr had now ready to hand 
 a long-sought excuse for a private quarrel and, 
 the duel being then a recognized means of 
 
 1 Thia was Hamilton's " country-seat "; his city residence was 
 at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 117 
 
 settling such difficulties, Hamilton could not 
 refuse the challenge. The results of their 
 historic encounter on the heights of Wee- 
 hawken were for Hamilton death; and for Burr 
 an enforced banishment which lasted for many 
 years. Later the murderer * partially rehabili- 
 tated himself, as has been already shown; 
 and in his more serious moments he never failed 
 to render due respect to the qualities of the 
 man he had killed. 
 
 That Burr was very poor and very lonely 
 during the last years of his life was perhaps 
 his punishment for the sins of his young man- 
 hood. Parke Godwin, son-in-law of William 
 Cullen Bryant, has left us a picture of Hamilton's 
 slayer weeping at the grave of his ancestors, 
 which certainly makes us far more inclined to 
 pity than to belabor Aaron Burr. 
 
 " It was during my student days at Prince- 
 ton," Godwin says, " where I graduated in 1834. 
 One afternoon, in the late autumn, I went with 
 
 1 That Burr was regarded as a murderer and a sensualist by rep- 
 resentative " good citizens " of the day becomes very clear as one 
 reads the contemporary writings. Dr. John W. Francis, M. D., 
 LL. D. says, (in Old New York, p. 18) " On the very afternoon of 
 that fatal day, while the whole city was in consternation and on the 
 look-out, Burr had already reached his domicile on Richmond Hill 
 and was luxuriating in his wonted bath, with Rousseau's Confessions 
 in his hands for his mental sustenance." In Philip Hone's Diary 
 under date of July 3, 1833, we read, " The celebrated Col. Burrxvas 
 married on Monday evening, to the equally celebrated Mrs. Jumel. 
 It is benevolent of her to keep the old man in his latter days. One 
 good turn deserves another! "
 
 118 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 a fellow-student for a stroll, and finally, at his 
 suggestion, we turned into the town cemetery 
 and walked among the graves of the distin- 
 guished men buried there. 
 
 " We were approaching that part of the cem- 
 etery in which the presidents of Princeton were 
 buried when I noticed an old man standing 
 there perfectly still, with his hat off, his head 
 bent, and apparently in deep meditation. Some- 
 thing about the man's figure and, perhaps, 
 his clothes for he wore the conventional 
 garments of an earlier time led me suddenly 
 to suspect that it was Aaron Burr, up to whom 
 my father had led me, a bashful schoolboy, so 
 many years before. I motioned to my compan- 
 ion to stop, and I moved a little to one side, 
 so that I might see the man's face in profile 
 at least, and when I did that I knew for a cer- 
 tainty that it was Aaron Burr. 
 
 " His face was very grave, and its feeble 
 owner, as he stood bowed over the graves of 
 his father and Jonathan Edwards, his grand- 
 father, who were both presidents of Princeton, 
 was oblivious apparently to everything that 
 was going on about him. Silently my companion 
 and I watched him, and I am sure that as we 
 strained our eyes, with a feeling of awe, towards 
 him, we beheld the tears course down his withered 
 cheeks and fall upon the mounds before him. 
 And I at least suddenly found myself thinking
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 119 
 
 that this would be his last visit to the grave, and 
 that Burr himself realized it. I believe that 
 this turned out to be the case. 
 
 " For perhaps ten minutes he stood there just 
 as we had first seen him. At last he turned 
 slowly it seemed reluctantly away, and 
 with his head still bent, his hands clasped be- 
 hind him, and his few straggling gray locks 
 all but sweeping his coat collar, he walked with 
 trembling steps out of the cemetery, not having 
 seen us, or, if he had, making no sign to that 
 effect. 
 
 " Two years or so later Aaron Burr himself 
 was at rest at last beside his father in that old 
 burying ground." 
 
 Hamilton's grave is in the cemetery adjoin- 
 ing Trinity Church; and there rest also Albert 
 Gallatin, the greatest financier, after Ham- 
 ilton, which this country has produced, 
 William Bradford, the first New York printer 
 and newspaper publisher, Robert Fulton, and 
 many other worthies whose names would be 
 immediately recognized if here rehearsed. Yet 
 I have never heard that flowers are often fur- 
 tively scattered on the graves of any of these 
 great men; and such is true of the grave of 
 Charlotte Temple, which may also be found in 
 this historic spot. An old New Yorker, writing 
 to the Evening Post (September 12, 1903), de- 
 clared, " When I was a boy the story of Char-
 
 120 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 lotte Temple was familiar in the household of 
 every New Yorker. The first tears I ever saw 
 in the eyes of a grown person were shed for her. 
 In that churchyard are graves of heroes, phi- 
 losophers and martyrs, whose names are familiar 
 to the youngest scholar and whose memory is 
 dear to the wisest and best. Their graves, 
 though marked by imposing monuments, win 
 but a glance of curiosity, while the turf over 
 Charlotte Temple is kept fresh by falling tears." 
 Read Mrs. Rowson's story 1 if you would 
 understand why this is true. For in spite of 
 its old-fashioned tone, its halting grammar and 
 its somewhat obtrusive moralizing, this romance 
 is as freshly moving today as when its first 
 American edition appeared in 1 794 . In a previous 
 book of mine I have given an extended sketch 
 of Mrs. Rowson's life so I will here confine myself 
 to New York's connection with the novel which 
 made her famous. She always maintained that 
 the story of Charlotte Temple was a true story, 
 and it is pretty well established now that the 
 Montraville of the romance was her own cousin, 
 Colonel John Montresor, who, when lieutenant 
 in the British army, induced the original of 
 the " Charlotte " in the story " to leave her 
 home (in 1774) and embark with him and his 
 
 1 A. new edition with carefully-restored text and valuable notes 
 has recently been published by Funk and Wagnalls. 
 1 Old Boston Days and Ways, p. 433.
 
 THE WE.ST FRONT OF TRINITY CHURCH SHOWING GRAVE - YARD. 
 Prom an old print.
 
 THOMAS PAINE IN 1792. 
 Page 152.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 121 
 
 regiment for New York, where he most cruelly 
 abandoned her." Mrs. Rowson herself said, 
 in the Preface to Charlotte Temple, printed two 
 years after the death of the officer in question: 
 " The circumstances on which I have founded 
 this novel were related to me some little time 
 since by an old lady who had personally known 
 Charlotte," This " old lady " was probably 
 the Mrs. Beauchamp of the story, whose hus- 
 band was an officer in the English army and 
 served in America. Mrs. Rowson heard the 
 story from Mrs. Beauchamp after the Revolu- 
 tion, when the army had returned and they first 
 met in England. It was in England that the 
 book was written, and there in 1790 it was first 
 published. " I have thrown over the whole," 
 continues the Preface, " a slight veil of fiction 
 and substituted names and places according 
 to my own fancy. The principal characters 
 are now consigned to the silent tomb: it can 
 therefore hurt the feelings of no one." 
 
 Charlotte's " tomb " is in the northern 
 part of Trinity Churchyard, between the eastern 
 pathway and the iron fence that faces Broadway, 
 and is marked by a long brownstone slab, well 
 sunk into the surrounding soil and bearing with- 
 out date or other inscription the name " Char- 
 lotte Temple." In the absence of authenticated 
 records local historians, of course, object from 
 time to time that there is absolutely nothing
 
 122 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to prove that this is the grave of the heroine 
 of Mrs. Rowson's story. But in the family of 
 Mrs. Rowson there has come down from the 
 writer herself a fixed belief that the stone is 
 authentic; and Mrs. Rowson survived Char- 
 lotte's death forty-nine years, time enough, 
 surely, in which to establish an effective denial. 
 Not that this is the original stone or that it still 
 marks the resting-place of Charlotte's ashes, 
 save in a poetic sense! After the visit, in 1800, 
 of Charlotte's daughter to her mother's grave, 
 the first simple uninscribed headstone was re- 
 placed by the one which still survives; and some- 
 what later Charlotte's remains were removed 
 to England. The betrayed girl's real name is 
 believed to have been Charlotte Stanley and 
 it is further understood that she was the daugh- 
 ter of an English clergyman and the grand- 
 daughter of an English earl. The house to 
 which Charlotte was taken by her betrayer, 
 described in the story as a " small house a few 
 miles from New York," has been identified 
 by Henry B. Dawson 1 as situated at what is 
 now the corner of Pell Street and the Bowery. 
 Which means that the house was then really 
 in the country. For the word bouwerij is 
 Dutch for farm or country-seat, and Bowery 
 
 1 Introduction to " New York City During the American 
 lion; being a Collection of Original Papers Belonging to the Mercantile 
 Library Association," published in 1861.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 123 
 
 Lane, so called because it ran through the country 
 estate of Peter Stuyvesant, was then largely 
 given over to the houses of well-to-do citizens. 
 (It will be recalled that it was while Mrs. Beau- 
 champ was " walking in the garden, leaning 
 on her husband's arm," that she heard " poor 
 Charlotte " playing the harp and singing a 
 heartbreaking song in her garden, which ad- 
 joined.) 
 
 Very many interesting reminiscences hover 
 about this end of the Bowery. From the Bull's 
 Head Tavern at number 17 the Boston stage 
 was wont to take its noisy departure, and one 
 of Washington Irving's biographers credits to 
 the comings and goings that the impressionable 
 boy here witnessed the famous writer's " ram- 
 bling propensity." For half a century the 
 Bull's Head remained the most popular meet- 
 ing-place of the butchers of the town l and the 
 drovers of the countryside. Then it was torn 
 down and in 1826 a theatre the New York, 
 soon to be called the American and not long 
 
 1 According to the Autobiography of N. T. Hubbard the population 
 of New York in 1798 was about 70,000. At this time there were 
 no buildings in Broadway above Chambers Street except scatter- 
 ing ones and " there were not sixty houses, in all, in Brooklyn 
 from the Navy Yard to the South Ferry. We then crossed to Brook- 
 lyn in small boats. The fare was 6d . Some years after a horse-boat? 
 conveyed passengers across the river." For a condensed but illumi- 
 nating statement of the astonishing rapidity with which the city 
 grew, between this time and 1825, see McMaster's History of the 
 People of the United States, Vol. V, p. 122 el seq.
 
 124 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 thereafter to become the Bowery was erected 
 on its site. 
 
 Four times in the course of the years this 
 Bowery playhouse was burned down and re- 
 built. For fifty years almost every English- 
 speaking actor of note trod its stage. The 
 house opened with a company which included 
 Ann Duff and George Barrett; Charlotte Cush- 
 man made here her first New York appearance 
 as Lady Macbeth in 1836; George Jones, known 
 in old age as the eccentric Count Johannes 
 but then a young and handsome actor, here won 
 success; and on this stage, also, Priscilla Cooper, 
 who was later to be lady of the White House 
 during the presidency of her husband's father, 
 John Tyler, delighted for a period that curious 
 product of the early nineteenth century, the 
 Bowery Boy, 
 
 Bowery Boys were youths who worked for 
 their living on week days but in the evenings 
 and on holidays aimed only to be dandies and 
 firemen. Dayton thus describes a typical rep- 
 resentative of this peculiarly New York prod- 
 uct which went out with the Civil War: " His 
 hair was one of his chief cares and from appear- 
 ance the engrossing object of his solicitude. It 
 was cropped at the back of the head as closely 
 as scissors could cut, while the long front locks 
 were stiffened with bear's grease and then 
 rolled and pushed until they shone like glass
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 125 
 
 bottles. His face was closely shaven as beards 
 in any shape were considered effeminate and so 
 forbidden by his creed. A black straight broad- 
 brimmed hat, polished as highly as the hot iron 
 could effect, was worn with a pitch forward 
 and a slight inclination to one side intended 
 to impart a rakish air. A large shirt collar 
 turned down and loosely fashioned so as to 
 expose the full proportions of the brawny neck; 
 a black frock coat with skirts extending below 
 the knee; a flashy satin or velvet vest cut so 
 low as to expose the entire bosom of a shirt 
 often embroidered; trousers tight to the knee 
 and thence gradually swelling in size to the 
 bottom so as nearly to conceal feet encased in 
 high polished boots " these were his habil- 
 iments. Jewelry that flashed, perfume that 
 cried out for recognition and a voice pitched 
 like a fire trumpet, completed the picture of 
 the Bowery Boy. He walked with arms akimbo 
 when on parade, and if anybody jostled him 
 he was insulted; and when he was insulted, 
 he fought. Rough, rather than tough, another 
 of his admiring biographers records that, desir- 
 ous of punching somebody at all times, he es- 
 pecially liked to punch persons who were rude 
 or cruel to the female sex, and that he scorned 
 to use any weapons save those that nature gave 
 him. So, with his fists and the vigorous use 
 of a language all his own, this curious creature
 
 126 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 compelled the awe, if not the respect, of the New 
 York of his time. 
 
 The first New York theatre of which we have 
 definite information was situated on the east side 
 of Nassau Street, previously known as Kip 
 Street, in the vicinity of the Dutch Church. 
 The auditorium here accommodated barely three 
 hundred persons, and Murray and Kean were the 
 managers. Their company was disbanded on 
 July 8, 1751 and, six months thereafter, the 
 " Nassau Street Theatre " was reopened by 
 Robert Upton. The Hallams, who should be 
 considered the real fathers of the American 
 stage, and of whom we have heard in the Phil- 
 adelphia chapter, are, however, the actors best 
 known in connection with this house. Their 
 plays were well put on and drew large and ap- 
 preciative audiences. The next theatre in New 
 York was situated on Cruger's wharf and opened 
 on December 28, 1758, with Rowe's " Jane 
 Shore "; in a couple of months it was announ- 
 cing its last performance. 
 
 A somewhat longer and much more exciting 
 career was enjoyed by the Chapel Street Theatre, 
 situated near Nassau Street, on the south side 
 of Beekman Street, then styled Chapel Street. 
 Through " cards " preserved to us in the col- 
 umns of Gaine's Mercury we have convincing 
 proof that the audience at this house sometimes 
 thoroughly enjoyed itself. The first reads:
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 127 
 
 " Complaints having been several times made 
 that a number of gentlemen crowd the stage and 
 very much interrupt the performance, and as it is 
 impossible that the actors, when thus obstructed, 
 should do'that justice to their parts they otherwise 
 would, it will be taken as a particular favour if no 
 gentleman is offended that he is absolutely re- 
 fused admission at the stage door, unless he has 
 previously secured himself a place in either the 
 stage or upper boxes." The other card states: 
 " Theatre in New York, May 3, 1762. A pistole 
 reward will be given to whoever can discover 
 the person who was so very rude as to throw 
 Eggs from the Gallery upon the stage last 
 Monday, by which the Cloaths of some ladies 
 and gentlemen were spoiled, and the performance 
 in some measure interrupted. D. Douglass." 
 The Chapel Street Theatre was superseded 
 by the John Street Theatre, situated near 
 Broadway. Performances here began at six 
 o'clock, ladies sending their servants at four 
 to keep seats for them. One member of a com- 
 pany which acted here before the Revolution 
 was a granddaughter of Colley Cibber. During 
 the occupation of New York by the British 
 amateur performances were several times given 
 here for charity, the actors being the brilliant 
 young officers of the invading army. After 
 the Revolution there was the same endeavor 
 to suppress the drama in New York that we have
 
 128 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 seen in other cities. But nothing was accom- 
 plished, Washington and Adams sturdily attend- 
 ing performances at the John Street house 
 whenever opportunity offered. The last per- 
 formance which took place here occurred in 
 January, 1798. 
 
 None of the houses thus far named equals 
 in interest, however, the Park Theatre, whose 
 history is second to that of no other playhouse 
 in America. It stood on Park Row, facing what 
 was then the lower part of City Hall Park, with 
 a frontage of eighty feet and a depth of one hun- 
 dred and sixty-five feet. Theatre Alley at the 
 back of this site gets its name logically. Two 
 thousand persons could easily be seated within 
 the auditorium of this house. And though it 
 boasted no architectural magnificence, it had 
 cost its managers, Hodgkinson and Dunlap, no 
 less than $130,000 when it opened, in a some- 
 what unfinished condition, on January 29, 1798. 
 Hodgkinson almost immediately retired from 
 the management leaving the control to William 
 Dunlap, first historian of the American theatre. 
 But Dunlap was soon forced into bankruptcy, 
 and several other managers, also, found them- 
 selves at this time unable to make money here. 
 
 After the first building had burned down and 
 another had replaced it (in 1821) brighter days 
 dawned. Edmund Simpson then came to be 
 manager for more than a quarter of a century,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 129 
 
 and during this time most of the great actors 
 of the day were here presented. Cooke, Kean, 
 Kemble, Booth and Wallack are only a few of 
 the illustrious names associated with the history 
 of this house. Cooke's first appearance in 
 America occurred here on November 21, 1810, 
 and Dr. Francis, who greatly admired his work, 
 tells us in his Old New York that he " eclipsed 
 all predecessors." A little over two years later 
 the great actor died in New York and was 
 buried in St. Paul's Churchyard. There is 
 extant a painting containing a portrait of Kean 
 and Dr. Francis at his tomb. Through the 
 trees of the picture may be descried the outlines 
 of the second Park Theatre. It was at the Park 
 Theatre in 1822 that Junius Brutus Booth first 
 appeared as Richard III. Francis records that 
 " although this actor lacked judgment he pos- 
 sessed genius." Also in 1822 appeared here 
 Charles Mathews, Sr., frightened nearly out of 
 his wits, as Dr. Francis humorously admits, 
 at discovering that New York was undergoing 
 one of its periodic attacks of yellow fever just 
 as he arrived. 
 
 At the Park in 1826, Macready, Edwin 
 Forrest and James H. Hackett each made a 
 New York debut, and there on Wednesday 
 evening, September 1, 1830, Charles Kean re- 
 ceived the plaudits of the discriminating. Here 
 also it was that Charles Kemble and his daugh-
 
 130 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 ter, Frances Anne Kemble, scored their initial 
 American success, the former in the title role 
 of " Hamlet " and the latter as Bianca in 
 " Fazio." 
 
 Nor were the triumphs of the Park confined to 
 the drama, for the first Italian opera ever heard 
 in the Western world, Rossini's " The Barber 
 of Seville," was produced on its stage in Novem- 
 ber, 1825, with Manuel Garcia, the incomparable 
 tenor, as Almaviva, and his daughter, Maria 
 Garcia, as Rosina. The " Signorina," as Maria 
 was called by the critics of the day, made an im- 
 mediate and a prolonged success by reason of 
 her beautiful face, charming manners and golden 
 voice. Twice a week for nearly a year fashion- 
 able New York flocked to hear her sing. Then 
 the father set off for Mexico and the daughter 
 married Eugene Malibran, a French merchant 
 resident in New York, who was supposed to be 
 wealthy but soon turned out to be a bankrupt. 
 He was imprisoned for debt and his young wife, 
 thrown on her own resources, secured a position 
 in the choir of Grace Church, then in Broadway 
 below Rector Street, and played several engage- 
 ments in the theatre afterwards known as the 
 Bowery. Then she left for Paris, where her 
 career was one succession of triumphs until 
 her untimely death at the age of twenty-nine. 
 
 Inasmuch as for half a century the Park 
 Theatre was the background of all that is most
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 131 
 
 interesting in New York's dramatic history it 
 is pleasant to know something of how the house 
 looked. Its walls were of brick; its stuccoed 
 front and wooden steps were painted gray and 
 lined with black to imitate blocks of granite; 
 and in a niche of the front wall stood a bust of 
 Shakespeare. The pit was furnished with wooden 
 benches and the first tier divided into a series 
 of lock-boxes. Men about town, bachelors 
 and clerks occupied the pit, families and women 
 the tier of boxes. A separate stairway led to 
 the gallery and to the third tier, which came 
 to be a meeting-place for the dissolute of both 
 sexes; the gallery was given up to apprentice- 
 boys, servants, sailors and negroes, the last 
 named occupying a place apart. Drinking-bars, 
 in connection with apple, pie and peanut stands 
 were adjacent to the pit, gallery and third tier. 
 Peanuts were munched in the pit; apples and 
 oranges, during recess in the boxes. Mrs. 
 Trollope 1 records that it was not uncommon 
 to see male occupants of the first tier in shirt 
 sleeves, but this could scarcely have been true 
 on the occasions when distinguished players 
 
 1 Unexpected confirmation of this lady's strictures of us be- 
 cause of our bad manners may be found in newspaper advertise- 
 ments early in the century. The New York Evening Post of March 
 2, 1802, acquaints those who would become patrons of the Juvenile 
 Assembly, held at the Old Assembly Rooms, 68 Williams street, 
 that gentlemen, when they appear in a ball room wear full dress 
 and never " lounge into the room in boots."
 
 132 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 from abroad graced the boards. A picture of 
 the interior of the Park, on the November 
 evening of 1822 when it reopened after the 
 fire to make Charles Mathews welcome, dis- 
 plays a truly brilliant scene with " all society >! 
 on hand. 1 The proprietors at this time were 
 John K. Beekman and John Jacob Astor, the 
 former familiarly called ' Theatre Jack " by 
 reason of his love of theatricals, and the latter 
 known as the interested patron of whatever con- 
 tributed to the higher life of New York. 
 
 John Jacob Astor was in many ways a most 
 interesting and a highly romantic character. 
 Born in 1763, in the village of Waldorf, in 
 Baden, the son of a butcher, he eventually 
 came to be one of the most distinguished figures 
 of New York and that, too, I need scarcely add, 
 for other reasons than his financial acumen and 
 his great wealth. An older brother, Henry, 
 had preceded him to New York and had there 
 established himself in his father's useful if 
 humble trade. John Jacob desired to follow 
 him and so left Waldorf at the age of sixteen, 
 set out on foot for the Rhine, worked his passage 
 down the river on a freighter and arrived in 
 due time at London where his eldest brother 
 had some time since established a thriving 
 
 1 This is a water-color drawing made by John Searle for William 
 Bayard, Esq., and showing Mathews on the stage as well as many 
 carefully identified social celebrities in the audience. The original 
 may be seen at the rooms of the New York Historical Society.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 133 
 
 piano factory. Here the youth stayed for three 
 years diligently acquiring English and carefully 
 " saving up " for the time when he might realize 
 his cherished dream of going to America. No 
 sooner was the independence of the United 
 States declared than Astor, by this time a sturdy 
 lad of twenty, invested one third of his hard- 
 earned savings in a ticket for Baltimore. Inas- 
 much as he had to cross the Atlantic in mid- 
 winter he was subjected to a long and wearisome 
 voyage but, characteristically, he turned this 
 to good advantage by cultivating the acquaint- 
 ance of a German fellow-passenger, who had 
 built up a profitable business in furs and skins 
 and who confided to his absorbed young friend 
 the secrets of his success how with a few 
 trinkets skins could be bought from the Indians 
 and sold with great profit to the furriers of New 
 York, but more especially how very profitable 
 it was to buy furs in America and sell them in 
 London. 
 
 Astor landed in Baltimore in March, 1784, 
 and proceeded promptly to New York, where 
 his brother, Henry, who was very glad to see him 
 secured for him a position as clerk in a Gold 
 Street fur store with a wage of two dollars a 
 week and an opportunity to acquire an expert 
 knowledge of furs. The following summer 
 young Astor made his first trip to the fur country 
 and bought a cargo of pelts. He also learned
 
 134 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 a number of Indian dialects and so was in a 
 position to buy advantageously. Thus by 
 1786 he had sufficient faith in himself to com- 
 mand a few hundred dollars of borrowed capital 
 and so set up a little shop in Water Street. Here, 
 not being able at the outset to afford a clerk, 
 he did everything for himself. In the buying 
 season he went, pack on back, far into the In- 
 dian country; the rest of the year he personally 
 prepared the skins for market. From the very 
 first he prospered, not the least lucky of his 
 ventures being the matrimonial one through 
 which he acquired a wife with a small dowry 
 and a genius for business that rivalled his own. 
 The opening of the new century found him the 
 employer of an army of buyers, trappers and 
 Indians. Soon, too, he was able to take ad- 
 vantage of his shipmate's hint that London 
 afforded a better market than did New York 
 for furs, and he chartered a vessel which went 
 over there laden with furs and returned bearing 
 musical instruments. Ere long he was sending 
 vessels around the world, carrying furs to Eng- 
 land, France and Germany and European manu- 
 factures to the Orient; from China he would 
 bring back tea to New York. 
 
 " He seemed," writes Rufus Rockwell Wilson, 
 " to possess an almost intuitive knowledge of 
 the various markets in which he traded, and 
 despite the immense proportions his business
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 135 
 
 had now assumed, he personally superintended 
 every part of it, exercising a minute inspection 
 even to the smallest details." Astor's office 
 at this time was in Vesey Street and his ware- 
 houses in Greenwich between Liberty and Cort- 
 landt Streets. Of his " great national venture," 
 which was not so utterly a success as his earlier 
 enterprises had been, there is not space here 
 to write in any detail. Suffice it to say that, 
 instead of making him, at middle life, the richest 
 man in the world he was only the richest man 
 in America. Great faith in the development of 
 Manhattan Island led him to invest large sums 
 in real estate there, following what seemed to 
 him the probable direction of the city's growth 
 and thus, when he died at the age of eighty- 
 five, he left behind him a fortune of thirty 
 millions. 
 
 Much more interesting than Astor's wealth, 
 however, is the way the man himself grew with 
 his opportunities. He was always eager to 
 improve his mind and enrich his life and so was 
 the fondly cherished friend of many artists and 
 men of letters. Washington Irving was devoted 
 to him, and was glad, when his personal sorrows 
 pressed hardest upon him, to take refuge from 
 the world in Astor's beautiful summer place 
 near what is now Eighty -Eighth Street. "I 
 cannot tell you," the literary man once wrote 
 a friend from this spot, " how sweet and delight-
 
 136 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 ful I have found this retreat; with its lawn 
 in front and garden in the rear. The lawn 
 sweeps down to the water-edge and full in front 
 of the house is the little strait of Hell Gate, 
 which forms a constantly moving picture. . . . 
 I have written more since I have been here 
 than I have ever done in the same space of 
 time." 
 
 Washington Irving, of course, peculiarly be- 
 longs to New York both by reason of his in- 
 timate personal connection with the city and 
 because of his delightful Knickerbocker's His- 
 tory. This work (published in 1807) by its 
 broad humor won for its author a reputation 
 which decided for all time that he was cut out 
 for a literary man rather than for a lawyer. 
 Irving was only twenty-four when the book 
 appeared; and he was only twenty-six when he 
 encountered that experience which, for many 
 years, saddened his life and gave a tinge of 
 melancholy to his writings. For then it was 
 that Matilda Hoffman, the exquisite maiden 
 whom he had hoped to make his wife, died in the 
 eighteenth year of her age. Irving never alluded 
 to this part of his history, but after his death, 
 in a repository of which he always kept the 
 key, was found a package marked on the outside 
 " Private Mems." Herein was discovered a 
 fragment in his own handwriting telling the 
 reason for his celibacy. Here also was a minia-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 137 
 
 ture of great beauty enclosed in a case, and a 
 slip of paper, on which was written, " Matilda 
 Hoffman." His nephew, many years later, 
 reprinted some of the memoranda thus avail- 
 able. 1 
 
 " We saw each other every day," the con- 
 fession runs, " and I became excessively at- 
 tached to her. . . . The passion was terribly 
 against my studies. I felt my own deficiency and 
 despaired of ever succeeding at the bar. I 
 could study anything else rather than law and 
 had a fatal propensity to belles-lettres. I had 
 gone on blindly like a boy in love; but now 
 I began to open my eyes and be miserable. I 
 had nothing in purse nor in expectation. I 
 anticipated nothing from my legal pursuits, 
 and had done nothing to make me hope for 
 public employment or political elevation. I 
 had begun a satirical and humourous work (The 
 History of New York) in company with one 
 of my brothers; but he had gone to Europe 
 shortly after commencing it, and my feelings 
 had run into so different a vein, that I could not 
 go on with it. I became low-spirited and dis- 
 heartened and didn't know what was to be- 
 come of me. 
 
 " In the midst of this struggle and anxiety 
 Matilda was taken ill with a cold. Nothing 
 was thought of it at first; but she grew rapidly 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Washington Irving: New York, 1867.
 
 138 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 worse and fell into a consumption. I cannot 
 tell you what I suffered. The ills I have under- 
 gone in this life have been dealt out to me drop 
 by drop, and I have tasted all their bitterness. 
 I saw her fade rapidly away; beautiful and more 
 beautiful and more angelical to the very last. . . . 
 I was by her when she died; I was the last one 
 she looked upon. . . . For a long time I seemed 
 to care for nothing; the world was a blank to 
 me. I abandoned all thoughts of the law. I 
 went into the country; but could not bear 
 solitude yet could not enjoy society. There 
 was a dismal horror continually in my mind that 
 made me fear to be alone. I had often to get 
 up in the night and seek the bedroom of my 
 brother, as if the having a human being by 
 me would relieve me of my own thoughts. 
 
 " Months elapsed before my mind would 
 resume any tone; but the despondency I had 
 suffered for a long time in the course of this 
 attachment, and the anguish that attended its 
 catastrophe, seemed to give a turn to my whole 
 character, and throw some clouds into my dis- 
 position, which have ever since hung about 
 it. ... I was naturally susceptible and tried 
 to form other attachments, but my heart would 
 not hold on; and it would continually recur 
 to what it had lost; and whenever there was a 
 pause in the hurry of novelty or excitement, I 
 would sink into dismal dejection. For years
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 139 
 
 I could not talk on the subject of this hopeless 
 regret; I could not even mention her name; 
 but her image was continually before me, and 
 I dreamt of her incessantly." 
 
 As evidence of the romantic tenderness with 
 which Irving cherished the memory of this 
 early love it may be cited that all through life 
 he kept by him Matilda's Bible and Prayer- 
 book. Yet even those closest to him never 
 ventured to mention her name, one instance 
 only having come down to us of an exception 
 to this. Then it was Matilda's father who made 
 the reference and that in his own house thirty 
 years after the lovely girl's death! A grand- 
 daughter had been requested to play for Mr. 
 Hoffman some favorite piece upon the piano 
 and in extracting her music from the drawer 
 had accidentally brought forth a piece of em- 
 broidery with it. ' Washington," said the older 
 man, picking up the faded relic, " this is a 
 piece of poor Matilda's workmanship." In- 
 stantly Irving, who had been conversing gaily 
 a moment before, sunk into utter silence 
 and in a few moments got up and left the 
 house. 
 
 One of the most delightful bits of New York 
 description which Irving has left us is his ac- 
 count of a voyage up the Hudson before the 
 day of steamboats. " In the good old times," 
 he says, " before steamboats and railroads had
 
 140 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 annihilated time and space and driven all poetry 
 and romance out of travel, a voyage to Albany 
 was equal to a voyage to Europe at present and 
 took almost as much time. We enjoyed the 
 beauties of the river in those days; the features 
 of note were not all jumbled together, nor the 
 towns or villages huddled one into the other by 
 railroad speed as they are now. 
 
 " I was to make the voyage under the pro- 
 tection of a relative of mature age; one experi- 
 enced in the river. His first care was to look 
 out for a favourite sloop, and captain, in which 
 there was great choice. The constant voyaging 
 in the river-craft by the best families of New 
 York and Albany made the merits of captains 
 and sloops matters of notoriety and discussion 
 in both cities. Captains were mediums of 
 communication between separated friends and 
 families. On the arrival of one of them at either 
 place, he had messages to deliver and communica- 
 tions to execute which took him from house 
 to house. ... In this way the captains of 
 Albany sloops were personages of more note 
 in the community than captains of European 
 packets or steamships at the present day. . . . 
 
 " At length the sloop actually got under way. 
 As she worked out of the dock into the stream 
 there was a great exchange of last words be- 
 tween friends on board and friends on shore and 
 much waving of handkerchiefs when the sloop
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 141 
 
 was out of hearing. Our captain was a worthy 
 man, native of Albany, one of the old Dutch 
 stock. His crew was composed of blacks reared 
 in the family, and belonging to him; for negro 
 slavery still existed in the state. All his com- 
 munications with them were in Dutch. They 
 were obedient to his orders; though they oc- 
 casionally had much previous discussion on the 
 wisdom of them and were sometimes positive 
 in maintaining an opposite opinion. This was 
 especially the case with an old gray-headed 
 negro who had sailed with the captain's father 
 when the captain was a mere boy and who 
 was very crabbed and conceited on points of 
 seamanship. I observed that the captain gen- 
 erally let him have his own way." 
 
 The day of steam was, however, at hand and 
 the very year which gave Diedrich Knicker- 
 bocker to literature gave Fulton's first passen- 
 ger boat, the Clermont to navigation. Fulton 
 was the son of a Scotch innkeeper settled in 
 Pennsylvania, and had begun life as an artist, 
 studying for several years with Benjamin West 
 in London. But the application of the steam- 
 engine to ship propulsion had early begun to 
 interest him and when chance threw into his 
 way, at Paris, Robert R. Livingston, then Ameri- 
 can minister to the French court, who was also 
 an enthusiast on this subject, he began to focus 
 his experiments upon the production of a boat
 
 142 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the average speed of which should be not less 
 than four miles an hour. Livingston had se- 
 cured the exclusive right for a term of years 
 to steam navigation in all waters within the 
 limits of New York State provided he could 
 produce a boat meeting this particular condition, 
 and Fulton, therefore, set himself diligently 
 to work to turn out such a boat. The Cler- 
 mont, in its very first journey to Albany, 
 averaged five miles an hour! At just about 
 the same time, it is interesting to note, Colonel 
 John Stevens of Hoboken, who for a dozen 
 years had been experimenting along this same 
 line, perfected his Phoenix, through which 
 he won the mastery of the adjacent waters of 
 the ocean. It was a dozen years more, however, 
 before any steamboat actually crossed the At- 
 lantic; and then the trip (made by the Sa- 
 vannah in May, 1819) occupied twenty - two 
 days. Another twenty years passed ere the 
 new method of travel came into general use. 
 New Yorkers had not yet acquired the habit 
 of going abroad each summer. 
 
 The evolution of the feeling that summer is 
 the natural time for a universal hegira is very 
 interesting for at the period of the Revolution 
 there were not even c?a?/-excursions of irresistible 
 attractiveness. A small party could ride out 
 to Murray Hill in a hired carriage and be gone 
 half a day for fourteen shillings, or by paying
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 143 
 
 two shillings more could reach Gracie's Point 
 opposite Hell Gate. But Long Branch and 
 Saratoga were only just beginning to be known; 
 in 1789 about a dozen respectable persons, in- 
 cluding two or three New Yorkers, found them- 
 selves " at a wretched tavern at Saratoga." 
 Their opportunities for pleasure were such as 
 may be had in a place where bathing accommo- 
 dations " consist of an open log hut, with a 
 large trough, similar to those in use for feeding 
 swine, which receives the water from the spring; 
 into this you roll from off a bench! " 1 
 
 Mostly New Yorkers still summered in New 
 York, snatching from the experience what 
 pleasures they could. Horse-racing was a great 
 solace; and as the hour set for the races was 
 invariably one o'clock it would seem that the 
 city summer could scarcely have been so in- 
 tolerable then as it is now. After the race 
 in which the horses usually ran instead of trotted 
 the more select portion of the spectators 
 would travel to one or another of the garden 
 club-houses on the river-bank, for supper. 
 Those who were not of " society " would journey 
 to a public music-garden to drink tea or 
 something stronger to the accompaniment 
 of sweet sounds. One very popular place of 
 this kind was called Vauxhall, a name, indeed, 
 successively applied to several different places 
 
 Watson.
 
 144 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the best known of which survived until 1855 
 at just about where the Astor Library now stands. 
 Niblo's Garden dates from 1830. l 
 
 No description that has come down to us of 
 attractions at these later resorts equals in charm, 
 however, that left by the Rev. William Burnaby, 
 an English traveller, who visited the city in 
 the last days of the colonial period and has told 
 us of " several houses pleasantly situated up the 
 East River, near New York, where it is common 
 to have turtle-feasts. These happen once or 
 twice a week. Thirty or forty gentlemen and 
 ladies meet and dine together; drink tea in 
 the afternoon, fish and amuse themselves 
 until evening, and then return home in 
 Italian chaises, a gentleman and lady in each 
 chaise." 
 
 Castle Garden, which in later years we have 
 come to associate with incoming tides of Eu- 
 ropean immigration, was a very fashionable 
 resort in the twenties of the last century. On 
 summer evenings its rows of wooden benches 
 would be thronged by the quality of the town; 
 and there Lafayette landed, on his return to 
 America in 1824, "on a carpeted stairway 
 
 1 Early in 1830, also, we find in Philip Hone's Diary a delightful 
 allusion to Delmonico's, then just launched. " We satisfied our 
 curiosity but not our appetites," writes Hone, " and I think we are 
 prepared, when our opinions are asked, to say with the Irishman 
 who used lamp-oil with his salad instead of olive-oil, that, if it were 
 not for the name of the thing, he had as lief eat butter."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 145 
 
 arranged for the occasion, under an arch richly 
 decorated with flags and wreaths of laurel." 
 Later, after the nation's guest had made a tour 
 of other cities, " a splendid fete and gala was 
 given to him at Castle Garden, which for gran- 
 deur, expense and entire effect was never before 
 witnessed in this country. About six thousand 
 persons were assembled in that immense area, 
 and the evening being clear and calm, the whole 
 passed off happily, owing to the excellent ar- 
 rangements of the committee." 
 
 Nothing which may be written of the early 
 Republic, either in connection with New York 
 or any of the other cities, is more satisfying than 
 the welcome we extended to Lafayette in 1824. 
 The noble old Frenchman had absolutely no 
 idea what awaited him and on the voyage over 
 was heard to make anxious inquiries of his 
 fellow-passengers as to the cost of living and 
 the price of travel in America. Obviously, he 
 was fearful that his depleted purse might not 
 be able to cope with the exigencies of the sit- 
 uation! As his ship neared New York harbor, 
 a great number of sailing-craft of all kinds, 
 some bearing bands of music and all flying flags, 
 met his eye and he asked as innocently as did 
 the other passengers, " What does it mean? " 
 He finally conjectured that it must betoken 
 some anniversary of the American Republic 
 of which he had not heard. Yet all this was,
 
 146 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of course, to greet him. 1 And throughout his 
 long journey it was everywhere the same. 
 
 Lafayette's New York headquarters were at 
 the City Hotel, a house which was to the opening 
 years of the last century what the Astor House 
 became to its middle period. Here on February 
 22, 1819, a grand ball had been given by the 
 Fourteenth Regiment in honor of General Andrew 
 Jackson, and here, at a considerably later time, 
 Dickens was entertained. It was a favorite 
 resort of literary men when they were in funds. 
 At other times they were more likely to be 
 found at the Shakespeare Tavern at the corner 
 of Nassau and Fulton Streets. 
 
 One writer has said that the Shakespeare 
 Tavern was to New York in the early nine- 
 teenth century what the Mermaid was to London 
 in the days of Shakespeare and the Turk's 
 Head and St. James Coffee House to that same 
 city at the time of Garrick, Goldsmith and Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds. From the fact that the 
 Shakespeare's manager, Thomas Hodgkinson, 
 was brother of the one-time manager of the 
 Park Theatre it became, and long continued, 
 a great resort for the wits of the day. And for 
 
 1 Watson gives an interesting anecdote to prove that the Revo- 
 lution had meant, in some degree at any rate, the abolition of class- 
 distinctions in America. " But where are the people? " Lafayette 
 is said to have inquired as he looked at the prosperous folk come out 
 to greet him. Before the Revolution any workman wore his leather 
 apron when on the street, " and never had on a long coat."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 147 
 
 workers and writers who were not so witty, 
 too ! Here De Witt Clinton was wont to discuss 
 his project of the Erie Canal and beneath this 
 hospitable roof towards the end of its life (it 
 was demolished in 1836) merchants, politicians 
 and " military men " gathered often for stimulus 
 and refreshment. 
 
 As the nineteenth century was nearing the 
 end of its first quarter there began to be founded 
 the forerunners of those hosts of Bohemian 
 eating-clubs which now flourish in New York. 
 Perhaps the most interesting of these was the 
 Bread and Cheese Club, originated in 1824 
 through the instrumentality of James Feni- 
 more Cooper. The selection of members for 
 nomination to this fraternity rested entirely 
 with Cooper, the ballots used being made of 
 bread and of cheese. A cheese ballot served as 
 does the more commonplace blackball in clubs 
 which have no ambition to seem " unusual." 
 Former politicians, poets, merchants and law- 
 yers made up the membership here and on at 
 least one occasion something quite interesting 
 happened. Dr. Francis, who tells the story, 1 
 labels it " curious as well as rare." A theatrical 
 benefit, it seems, had been announced at the 
 Park Theatre with " Hamlet " for the play. But, 
 through some odd chance, no skull was avail- 
 able for the graveyard scene and, at a late 
 
 1 In his Old New York.
 
 148 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 hour, a subordinate of the theatre hurried to 
 the office of Dr. Francis for a skull. " I was 
 compelled," he says, " to loan the head of my 
 old friend, George Frederick Cooke [the actor]. 
 ' Alas, poor Yorick ! ' 
 
 " The skull was returned in the morning; 
 but on the ensuing evening, at a meeting of 
 the Cooper Club, the circumstance becoming 
 known to several of the members, and a general 
 desire being expressed to investigate phrenolog- 
 ically the head of the great tragedian, the article 
 was again released from its privacy, when Daniel 
 Webster, Henry Wheaton and many others who 
 enriched the meeting of that night, applied 
 the principles of craniological science to the 
 interesting specimen before them." 
 
 Dr. Francis also records that the publishers 
 of New York early demonstrated their belief 
 in the commercial value of social gatherings. 
 As early as 1802, he tells us, he attended a 
 publishers' party at the old City Hotel under 
 the auspices of the venerable Matthew Carey. 
 Thirty years later he was one of a large assembly 
 brought together by a Harper's dinner. Later 
 still, on a similar occasion, he heard Bryant 
 eloquently rejoice in the fact that the promise 
 of American authorship, given by the appearance 
 of Cotton Mather, had at last been redeemed. 
 None the less, Francis shrewdly endorses, " as 
 a result of personal observation and individual
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN 1825. 
 After a portrait by S. F, B. Morse.
 
 - ; 
 B '1
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 149 
 
 experience " the remark of the playwright, 
 George Colman: "Authorship, as a profession, 
 is a very good walking-stick, but very bad 
 crutches ! " 
 
 A famous gathering-place for politicians was 
 Tammany Hall, built in 1811 on the site of 
 what is now the Sun building. The Journal 
 of William Maclay contains a puzzled reference 
 to a Tammany celebration of 1790 which he 
 characterizes as " a grotesque scene." " It 
 being the old first of May," he says, " the Sons 
 of Tammany had a grand parade through the 
 town in Indian dresses. Delivered a talk at 
 one of their meeting-houses and went away to 
 dinner. There seems to be some kind of scheme 
 laid of erecting some kind of order or society 
 under this denomination, but it does not seem 
 well digested as yet. The expense of the dresses 
 must have been considerable and the money 
 paid out on clothing might have dressed a num- 
 ber of their ragged beggars." 
 
 From this allusion to " their ragged beggars " 
 it would appear that one, at least, of the original 
 objects of this society which dates from the 
 Revolution had been benevolence. Chiefly, 
 however, the organization was formed for the 
 purpose of being aggressively American. Tam- 
 many, whom they decided to elect as their pa- 
 tron saint, had been an Indian chief of the Dele- 
 ware nation who lived in the seventeenth cen-
 
 150 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 tury and signed the treaty with Penn. It 
 was decided that he should be canonized as an 
 offset to the foreign saints, Andrew, Patrick 
 and George, each of whom had his own society 
 and his devoted followers. For a time all the 
 officers of St. Tammany's Society were native- 
 born Americans and they never wearied of 
 proclaiming their democracy in contra -dis- 
 tinction to the Cincinnati, whose membership, 
 because hereditary, was held to be aristocratic 
 in its tendencies. Some years later, the words, 
 Columbian Order, were grafted upon Tammany's 
 original name. The pernicious association of 
 the Society with ring politics came later still 
 and so is beyond the scope of this book. 
 
 Of distinguished writers, who are immediately 
 recognized as belonging to the very first rank, 
 New York had astonishingly few at this period 
 of the early Republic. There was Irving, of 
 course, of whom considerable has already been 
 said; and there were, also, Bryant and Cooper, 
 with Poe just coming to the surface at the time 
 (in the early thirties) we have set as the limit 
 of the present work. The other men, however, 
 whom James Grant Wilson has loyally celebrated 
 as " Knickerbocker Authors " l are hardly 
 more than names to the average reader of today. 
 Fitz-Greene Halleck, 2 James Kirke Paulding and 
 
 1 In the Memorial History of The City of New York, vol. iv. 
 
 2 Dickens greatly admired Halleck's " Marco Bozzaris."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 151 
 
 Joseph Rodman Drake may have meant much 
 to their own and the next generation, but their 
 work is not read today and, save for their genial 
 personalities, they would not be even mentioned 
 here. Cooper, on the contrary, will always 
 be honored as the author of The Spy (first 
 published in New York in 1821) whether other 
 of his books continue to be widely read or not. 
 Similarly " Thanatopsis " will never allow Will- 
 iam Cullen Bryant to be forgotten, " Home 
 Sweet Home " will force us occasionally to 
 recall the stormy career of John Howard Payne 
 and that other Paine, author of The Age 
 of Reason will continue to be remembered, 
 also, if only to prove how impotent persecution 
 and misconception are to stifle real nobility 
 of thought and expression! 
 
 Cooper offers a delightful example of the 
 accidental author, so to say. The story is 
 told that, as he sat, one day, reading to his 
 wife from an English society novel, he put down 
 the book with the remark, "I believe I could 
 write a better novel myself." 'Write one!" 
 his helpmeet said. And so he went to work, with 
 the result that, in November, 1820, Precaution 
 made its appearance in New York adding one 
 more to the wretched school of imitative English 
 fiction whose tiresome sameness had induced 
 its creation. Yet Cooper's friends saw in the 
 book promise of real power and they urged him
 
 152 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to try again, offering the excellent advice that, 
 this time, he stay on this side of the Atlantic 
 and deal with the men and manners of which 
 he had first-hand knowledge. He did so, and, 
 in 1821, appeared the first truly American 
 novel, founded upon the adventures of a real 
 spy employed by John Jay during the Revolu- 
 tion. Yet Cooper did not then know that he had 
 produced a masterpiece and was as much sur- 
 prised as were his publishers at the speedy recog- 
 nition his book attained. Within six months of 
 the day of issue the story passed through three 
 editions in America, was dramatized and acted 
 with success, was published in England, was 
 translated into French, and gained for its 
 unknown writer l the title of " a distinguished 
 American novelist." When it was announced 
 that The Spy would be followed by The Pi- 
 oneers public interest in this new writer's work 
 became so great that thirty-five hundred cop- 
 ies of his picture of frontier life and manners 
 were sold during the forenoon of the day of 
 publication! What is more, his fame continued 
 to increase and his work was eagerly bought and 
 read up to the time of his death in 1851. 
 
 As for the fame of Thomas Paine, who died 
 in New York, in 1809 that seems to grow 
 
 1 The novel was published as The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground, 
 by the author of Precaution. 2 vols. New York: Wiley and Halsted, 
 1821.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 153 
 
 rather than to decrease with the years. When 
 Paine came to America from England in 
 1774 his Quaker ancestry and the letters he 
 bore from Franklin led him to settle in Phila- 
 delphia, where, as editor of the Pennsylvania 
 Gazette, he was immediately able to render 
 immense service to the cause of the colonies. 
 Edmund Randolph, a devout churchman, wri- 
 ting long after the author's death, ascribed 
 American independence primarily to George 
 III and next to Thomas Paine. For besides 
 column upon column of newspaper support 
 Paine gave considerable money to the cause. 
 Common Sense sold half a million copies at 
 two shillings a copy and all this income was 
 contributed to the patriots and their needs! 
 Moreover, Paine himself fought at the front 
 for his adopted country, headed liberally a 
 subscription which tided Washington over his 
 most trying financial crisis, helped Laurens 
 effect the six million dollar loan from the French 
 king and in return received from the Republic 
 in its prosperous days only the most meagre 
 and grudging of recognitions. From 1787 until 
 1802 Paine was absent from this country, and 
 it was England and France which then gave 
 him blows and buffets. But during this time 
 he wrote his Rights of Man and The Age 
 of Reason, the latter a work which has been 
 so persistently misquoted that its author's
 
 154 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 name is anathema today in most respectable 
 circles. Yet the tone of this book is noble and 
 reverent throughout and some of its doctrines 
 are now recognized as not inimical to religion. 
 
 Ill health, persecution and an ever-increasing 
 poverty conspired to send Paine to a humble 
 little lodging in Greenwich to pass his closing 
 days, and there, as it happens, he attracted the 
 attention of John Randel, Junior, engineer 
 to the Commissioners who prepared the present 
 City Plan. "I boarded in the city," Mr. 
 Randel writes, " and in going to the office passed 
 almost daily the house in Herring Street (later 
 Bleecker Street) where Thomas Paine resided, 
 and frequently in fair weather saw him sitting 
 at the south window of the first-story room of 
 that house. The sash was raised and a small 
 table or stand placed before him, with an open 
 book placed upon it which he appeared to be 
 reading. He had his spectacles on, his left 
 elbow rested upon the table or stand, and his 
 chin rested between the thumb and fingers of 
 his hand; his right hand lay upon his book, 
 and a decanter containing liquor of the colour 
 of rum or brandy was standing next his book 
 or beyond it. I never saw Thomas Paine at 
 any other place or in any other position." 
 
 During Paine's last days two worthy divines 
 of the neighborhood endeavored to bring him 
 to a realizing sense of the error of his ways.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 155 
 
 They were not successful in this attempt and 
 the aged author instructed his housekeeper 
 not to let them in if they should call again. 
 So, when they returned to the attack the 
 good woman denied them admission, saying 
 to them, simply, as she did so, " If God does not 
 change his mind I'm sure no human can." And 
 no human did. Thomas Paine died in his 
 unbelief and was buried in the grave beyond 
 New Rochelle now marked by a monument 
 which a later generation erected to his memory. 
 The spot in which his remains rest is, however, 
 unknown; for William Cobbett took them from 
 New Rochelle to England, in 1818, and where 
 they were finally deposited has always remained 
 a mystery.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON always mod- 
 estly designated as "the Federal City" the 
 capital on the Potomac through which 
 his name was to be memorialized. He was most 
 anxious, however, that this city should stand 
 just where it does and that every endeavor should 
 be made to develop it into a centre worthy of 
 a great and growing Republic. His letters offer 
 abundant evidence that, as early as 1791, he 
 was busying himself with the details of the under- 
 taking; and soon after this he was strenuously 
 arguing with old David Burnes, who owned and 
 wished to keep a large lot of land in a valuable 
 part of the new " ten mile square," that his 
 country's needs should take precedence of 
 personal convenience in the matter of holding 
 this site. Tradition tells us that Burnes there- 
 upon retorted: " Oh, I suppose you think people 
 here are going to take every grist that comes from 
 you as pure grain ; but what would you have been 
 if you had not married the Widow Custis? "
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 157 
 
 Burnes's reluctance to entertain a capital 
 unawares was eventually overcome, however, 
 and Pierre Charles 1'Enfant was entrusted with 
 the task of making and executing the necessary 
 plans. Jefferson contributed largely to 1'Enfant's 
 information concerning beautiful cities. " In 
 compliance with your request," wrote the Vir- 
 ginian (in April, 1791), "I have examined my 
 papers and found the plans of Frankfort-on- 
 the-Mayne, Carlsruhe, Paris, Amsterdam, Stras- 
 burg, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, 
 Marseilles, Turin, and Milan, which I send in 
 a roll by the post. They are on large and ac- 
 curate scale, having been procured by me while 
 in those respective cities myself. As they are 
 connected with notes I made in my travels, and 
 often necessary to explain them to myself, I will 
 beg your care of them and to return them when 
 they are no. longer useful to you, leaving you 
 absolutely free to keep them as long as useful. 
 I am happy that the President has left the plan- 
 ning of the town in such good hands, and I 
 have no doubt it will be done to general satis- 
 faction." 
 
 The way in which a capital site was awarded 
 to a Southern State is an interesting piece of 
 political history. New York did not lightly 
 relinquish the honor that had been accorded 
 her, and New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, 
 as well as Pennsylvania, coveted the distinction.
 
 158 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 In all, no less than twenty-four different sites 
 were proposed! Finally the House passed a 
 bill selecting Pennsylvania but the Southern 
 members, led by Madison, bitterly resented 
 this and the measure was defeated in the Senate. 
 The selection of the Potomac site was the result 
 of a compromise reached only after a sectional 
 struggle so fierce as to threaten the very life 
 of the new nation. 
 
 Gladstone once remarked that the United 
 States furnished the first instance in history 
 of the establishment of a national capital by 
 legislative enactment. This enactment was, 
 however, the outgrowth of a political trade, 
 so to say, for which Alexander Hamilton was 
 bitterly blamed, at the time, by his fellow New 
 Yorkers. The government was trying to fund 
 its debts and one of the questions was whether 
 it should also assume the debts incurred by 
 the several States while carrying on the war. 
 The Northern States were in favor of so doing, 
 because they had furnished the greater portion 
 of men and means; but those of the South ob- 
 jected as it would increase their proportion. 
 Hamilton found that some Southern votes 
 would be necessary to carry the measure; and 
 in connection with Jefferson, who wished to 
 have the capital located in Virginia, or as near 
 as possible, it was arranged that the latter should 
 induce the Virginia delegation to vote for the
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 From the portrait by Trumbull in the possession of the Yale University School of Fine 
 
 Arts.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 159 
 
 general assumption of the indebtedness, while 
 Hamilton was to induce the New York delega- 
 tion to give up their preference for the location 
 of the capital in their chief city. This plan 
 was carried out, but to placate Philadelphia 
 it was decreed that the capital should remain 
 there ten years. Then the nation's household 
 was to be removed to the banks of the Potomac. 
 L'Enfant had the brains, and the knowledge 
 which should have made him a most successful 
 leader in this important piece of town-plan- 
 ning. 1 But he, also, had so much * ' temperament ' ' 
 that no one could work with him. His limita- 
 tions were admirably summed up by Washing- 
 ton when he said, " Major 1'Enfant is as well 
 qualified for the work as any man living, but 
 the knowledge of this fact magnifies his self- 
 esteem." And 1'Enf ant's self-esteem could not 
 bear magnifying. So obstructive and un-co- 
 operative did the gifted architect soon become 
 that he had to be brusquely retired and his 
 post, as head of the enterprise, given to Andrew 
 Ellicott, a self-educated young Pennsylvania 
 Quaker, who had been his assistant. The story 
 of the building of Washington is full, indeed, of 
 jealousies and bickerings on the part of the 
 various architects who had a share in the en- 
 terprise. On this account, as well as because 
 
 1 His dream of a fair city is now, after a hundred years, to be 
 logically worked out!
 
 160 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of the many physical difficulties to be overcome, 
 work progressed slowly. When Washington 
 looked last upon the new city, shortly before 
 his death in 1799, it was still only a straggling 
 settlement in the woods, almost wholly devoid 
 of streets, with thirty or forty residences, 
 these for the most part small and uncomfortable, 
 and an unfinished Capitol and President's 
 House. A few months after the President's 
 death John Cotton Smith, than a member of 
 Congress from Connecticut, wrote thus of 
 the place: 
 
 " Our approach to the city was accompanied 
 with sensations not easily described. One wing 
 of the Capitol only had been erected, which 
 with the President's House, a mile distant 
 from it, both constructed with white sandstone, 
 were shining objects in dismal contrast with 
 the scene around them. Instead of recognizing 
 the avenues and streets portrayed on the plan 
 of the city, not one was visible, unless we ex- 
 cept a road with two buildings on each side of it 
 called New Jersey Avenue. The Pennsylvania, 
 leading, as is laid down on paper, from the Capi- 
 tol to the Presidential mansion, was then nearly 
 the whole distance a deep morass covered with 
 alder-bushes, which were cut through the in- 
 tended avenue during the ensuing winter. Be- 
 tween the President's House and Georgetown 
 a block of houses had been erected, which bore
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 161 
 
 the name of the Six Buildings. There were 
 also two other blocks consisting of two or three 
 dwelling-houses, in different directions, and 
 now and then an isolated wooden habitation; 
 the intervening spaces and, indeed, the surface 
 of the city generally, being covered with scrub - 
 oak bushes on the higher grounds, and on the 
 marshy soil either trees or some sort of shrubbery. 
 Nor was the desolate aspect of the place aug- 
 mented by the number of unfinished edifices 
 which had been abandoned." 
 
 The removal of the department archives 
 from Philadelphia to Washington was effected 
 in the spring of 1800 and the following month 
 President Adams paid a visit of inspection to 
 the new capital on his way to Quincy for the 
 summer. 
 
 It but remained for Mrs. Adams to inspect 
 the callow city. We are very glad that she was 
 not content merely to pour out in the bosom 
 of her family her deep disappointment at what 
 she found; for American literature would be 
 considerably poorer without the following letter, 
 sent to her daughter, on November 21, 1800: 
 
 " I arrived here on Sunday last and without 
 meeting any accident worth noticing, except 
 losing ourselves when we left Baltimore and 
 going eight or nine miles on the Frederick road, 
 by which means we were obliged to go the other 
 night through woods, where we wandered
 
 162 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 two hours without finding a guide or the path. 
 . . . Woods are all you see until you reach the 
 tity, which is only so in name. . . . There are 
 buildings enough if they were compact and 
 finished, to accommodate Congress and those 
 attached to it; but as they are, and scattered 
 as they are, I see no great comfort for them. 
 The river, which runs up to Alexandria, is in 
 full view of my window, and I see the vessels 
 as they pass and repass. The house is on a 
 grand and superb scale, requiring about thirty 
 servants to attend and keep the apartments 
 in proper order, and perform the ordinary 
 business of the house and stables; an estab- 
 lishment very well proportioned to the Presi- 
 dent's salary. The lighting the apartments 
 from kitchen to parlours and chambers is a tax 
 indeed; and the fires we are obliged to keep to 
 secure us from daily agues is another very cheer- 
 ing comfort. To assist us in this great castle 
 and render less attendance necessary bells are 
 wholly wanting, not one single one being hung 
 through the whole house and promises are all 
 you can obtain. This is so great an inconve- 
 nience that I know not what to do or how to do 
 ... if they will put me up some bells and let 
 me have wood enough to keep fires I design to 
 be pleased. I could content myself almost 
 anywhere three months. . . . There is not a 
 single apartment finished. . . . We have not
 
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 163 
 
 the least fence, yard or other convenience with- 
 out, and the great unfinished audience-room I 
 make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes 
 in. The principal stairs are not up and will 
 not be this winter. Six chambers are made 
 comfortable; two are occupied by the president 
 and Mr. Shaw; two lower rooms, one for a 
 common parlour, and one for a levee-room. 
 Upstairs there is the oval room which is de- 
 signed for the drawingroom, and has the crim- 
 son furniture in it. It is a very handsome room 
 now but when completed it will be beautiful. 
 If the twelve years, in which this place has been 
 considered as the future seat of government, 
 had been improved, as they would have been 
 in New England, very many of the present 
 inconveniences would have been removed. But 
 it is a beautiful spot, capable of every improve- 
 ment." 
 
 Capable of every improvement Washington 
 long remained. Gouverneur Morris wittily 
 declared it " the best city in the world for a 
 future residence." And Oliver Wolcott wrote 
 his wife, " I have made every exertion to secure 
 good lodgings near the office, but shall be com- 
 pelled to take them at the distance of more than 
 half a mile. There are, in fact, but few houses 
 at any one place, and most of them small, 
 miserable huts which present an awful contrast 
 to the public buildings. The people are poor,
 
 164 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and as far as I can judge, they live like fishes 
 by eating each other" 
 
 In respect to its business quarters Congress 
 was fairly well off, to be sure, for the completed 
 wing of the Capitol afforded sufficient room for 
 the sessions of both branches and $9,000 had 
 been appropriated for furnishing it. Consider- 
 ably less fortunate, as we have seen, were the 
 members in the matter of personal accommoda- 
 tion. If they lived in Georgetown, where there 
 was agreeable society, they had to travel to and 
 fro over very bad roads and, if they took lodgings 
 near the Capitol, they were pretty certain to 
 be uncomfortably crowded and pitifully cramped 
 in their social pleasures. A letter from Gallatin 
 to his wife shows us how very real were the hard- 
 ships which these early legislators had to endure : 
 " Our location," he wrote (January 15, 1801), 
 " is far from being pleasant or even convenient. 
 Around the Capitol are seven or eight boarding 
 houses, one tailor, one shoemaker, one printer, 
 a washing-woman, a grocery shop, a pamphlet 
 and stationery shop, a small dry goods shop, 
 and an oyster house. This makes the whole 
 of the Federal City as connected with the Cap- 
 itol. At the distance of three fourths of a mile, 
 on or near the Eastern Branch, lie scattered the 
 habitations of Mr. Law, of Mr. Carroll, the 
 principal proprietors of the ground, half a 
 dozen houses, a very large but perfectly empty
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 165 
 
 warehouse, and a wharf graced by not a single 
 vessel. And this makes the whole intended 
 commercial part of the city, unless we include 
 in it what is called the Twenty Buildings, 
 being so many unfinished houses. ... I am 
 at Conrad and Munn's, where I share the room 
 of Mr. Varnum and pay at the rate, I think, 
 including attendance, wood, candles and liquors, 
 of 15 dollars per week. At table, I believe, we 
 are from twenty -four to thirty, and, was it 
 not for the presence of Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. 
 Brown, would look like a refectory of monks." 
 
 The Mr. Law referred to in this letter (and 
 of whom Wolcott, writing to his wife, speaks 
 as one who " lives in great splendor ") had not 
 long before married Mrs. Washington's grand- 
 daughter, Anne Custis. The alliance was to 
 prove a most unhappy one, however, for the 
 girl was high-spirited and only nineteen, and 
 the groom, an Englishman nearly twice her 
 age, developed, as time went on, several very 
 trying eccentricities. One of these was to 
 carry in his hand a piece of dough which he 
 constantly manipulated, the loss of which 
 would cause him to lose the thread of his story. 
 Quite frequently he forgot his own name, and 
 once, when asking for letters at the post-office, 
 was unable to say to whom the letters would 
 come addressed until a friend, saluting him as 
 Mr. Law, gave him the necessary cue. Yet
 
 166 ' ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 he had been thought a great match for Miss 
 Custis inasmuch as he was the brother of an 
 English peer and of the Bishop of Wells. Law's 
 early life had been passed in India with Lord 
 Cornwallis; when he died in Washington at 
 the age of seventy-seven he was still hoping 
 and planning for the future greatness of the 
 city in which he had rashly invested his 
 all. 
 
 Scarcely did Abigail Adams get fairly settled 
 in the White House whose discomforts she had 
 so vividly described than it became clear that 
 not for long was she to remain mistress there. 
 To her son she writes : 
 
 " WASHINGTON, November 13, 1800. 
 " Well, my dear son, South Carolina has 
 behaved as your father always said she would. 
 The consequence to us, personally, is that we 
 retire from public life. For myself and family 
 I have few regrets. At my age and with my 
 bodily infirmities I shall be happier at Quincy. 
 Neither my habits, nor my education or incli- 
 nations, have led me to an expensive style of 
 living so that on that score I have little to 
 mourn for. If I did not rise with dignity I 
 can at least fall with ease, which is the more 
 difficult task. . . . My own intention is to 
 return to Quincy as soon as I conveniently can; 
 I presume in the month of January."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 167 
 
 John Adams did not take so blithely retire- 
 ment from the political field. " If I were to go 
 over my life again," we find him saying, " I 
 would be a shoemaker rather than an American 
 statesman." After which illuminating glimpse 
 of the man's deep wound at his failure to be 
 reflected we are glad to know that Mistress 
 Abigail never once faltered during this trying 
 period of transition. Her husband deeply ap- 
 preciated her " gameness." Soon after their 
 return home he wrote to one of their children, 
 * Your mother had a fine night's sleep which 
 has made her as gay as a girl." And we find 
 her, on May 3, 1801, buoyantly telling her son- 
 in-law, " I have commenced my operations of 
 dairy-woman and Mrs. Smith might see me, 
 at five o'clock in the morning, skimming my 
 milk! " Her consort, at this same dewy hour, 
 was busy with his haymakers in the fields. It 
 had not then become a problem what to do with 
 our ex-presidents. 
 
 John Adams had been born to the simple 
 life and he returned to it, after he had recovered 
 from the first blow to his self-esteem, easily 
 and naturally. Yet, while in public service, 
 he had always defended stateliness of demeanor. 
 There is amusing evidence that the leveling 
 tendency chargeable to the French Revolution, 
 and ardently advocated by Jefferson, piqued 
 and annoyed him extremely. In a letter which
 
 168 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 he wrote to Dr. Rush in 1811 he said: "In 
 point of Republicanism all the difference I 
 ever knew or could discover between you and 
 me, or between Jefferson and me, consisted 
 (1) In the difference between speeches and 
 messages, I was a monarchist because I thought 
 a speech more manly, more respectful to Congress 
 and the nation. Jefferson and Rush preferred 
 messages. (2) I held levees once a week that 
 all my time might not be wasted by idle visits, 
 Jefferson's whole eight years was a levee. (3) 
 I dined a large company once a week, Jefferson 
 dined a dozen every day. (4) Jefferson and 
 Rush were for liberty and straight hair. I 
 thought curled hair was as Republican as 
 straight." 
 
 It is, of course, a fact that Jefferson made a 
 cult of simplicity. Vulgarity, his political op- 
 ponents called it, when he walked from his 
 lodgings to the Capitol to be inaugurated and, 
 having been sworn into office by Chief Justice 
 Marshall, returned to his boarding-place, as 
 he had come on foot. Certainly his was not 
 Simon-pure simplicity. Otherwise there would 
 have been no need of eleven servants (slaves) 
 from his plantation, besides a French cook and 
 steward and an Irish coachman to conduct the 
 affairs of his bachelor establishment. For the 
 new President being a widower whose married 
 daughters preferred their own homes for the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 169 
 
 most part to " queening it " in Washington, 
 the White House was now without a mis- 
 tress. 
 
 Of none of the early Presidents is there so 
 engaging a romance to be told as of Jefferson. 
 The lady he had married, nearly thirty years 
 before this time, was Mrs. Martha Skelton, a 
 beautiful and accomplished young widow with 
 soft hazel eyes and luxuriant auburn hair. 
 She walked, rode and danced with inimitable 
 grace and spirit and was renowned throughout 
 the Old Dominion as a player upon the harpsi- 
 cord. Of course, such a woman, who had wealth 
 in addition to personal charms, was much sought 
 after by the eligible youth of her county. Two 
 of these once chanced to meet at the door of her 
 house and were shown into a room adjoining 
 one where she was singing and playing the harp- 
 sichord to the accompaniment of Mr. Jefferson's 
 violin and voice. The suitors listened for a 
 stanza or two; then they crept quietly away 
 convinced that they had absolutely no chance 
 against the musical caller within. Jefferson 
 had ten happy years of married life with this 
 lovely woman and he never sought a successor 
 for her. During part of the time that he was in 
 Washington as President his daughter, who had 
 married Thomas Mann Randolph, himself a 
 member of Congress, made the White House her 
 home but, for the most, he had to borrow, on
 
 170 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 state occasions, the presence of Mrs. Madison l 
 as hostess. 
 
 A unique feature of the campaign preceding 
 Jefferson's election was the extraordinary dem- 
 onstration of belief in him made by Elder 
 Leland and his followers, of Cheshire in New 
 England. By his opponents Jefferson had been 
 declared a foreigner in his tastes, un-American, 
 unpatriotic and a French infidel. 2 Certain of 
 his opponents went so far as to say that, if 
 he were elected, Sunday would no longer be 
 observed and churches throughout the country 
 
 1 From the " collection of period costumes " being arranged at 
 the old National Museum, Washington, as this book goes to press, 
 it appears that, about this time, Mrs. Madison introduced into 
 Republican circles the empire gown made famous in Paris by the 
 lovely Recamier and the women of Napoleon's court. The waist- 
 line was entirely obscured by this fashion and the bodice shortened, 
 in some cases, to an inch. A portrait of Mrs. Madison, showing 
 her in such a toilet is extant. The figures in the " collection " 
 during the Monroe period show, on the contrary, that black dresses, 
 especially of velvet and satin, have now come into vogue and that 
 bodices gradually lengthened until the waist-line dropped to its 
 natural level. Skirts were now very full and very much flounced. 
 With the advent of the Quincy Adamses came the reign of the 
 grotesque leg-o'-mutton sleeve, short full skirt and gigantic poke 
 bonnet. This lasted through Jackson's administration as well. 
 The shoulders of women's gowns were at this time so much " ex- 
 tended," that ladies had to edge sidewise through doors. And when 
 Jackson was running for president the wives and sisters of his 
 partisans wore calico printed with great medallions bearing his 
 rugged features! 
 
 2 In refutation of these absurd slanders Mrs. Samuel Harrison 
 Smith was glad to write that during Mr. Jefferson's first winter 
 in Washington he regularly worshipped at the rude church which 
 the Episcopalians of the place had fitted up in a building formerly 
 used as a tobacco-house.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 171 
 
 would be closed! Elder Leland of Cheshire 
 believed none of these things and, having pre- 
 viously preached many sturdy electioneering 
 sermons in Jefferson's behalf, proposed to his 
 people, as soon as the election was secure, 
 that they should celebrate the victory by making 
 for the new President the biggest cheese the 
 world had ever seen. " Every man and woman 
 who owned a cow," was on a certain day, 
 writes Dr. Manasseh Cutler, then a member of 
 Congress, " to give for this cheese all the milk 
 yielded that day only no Federal cow must 
 contribute a drop. A huge cider press was 
 fitted up to make it in, and on the appointed 
 day the whole county turned out with pails 
 and tubs of curd, the girls and women in their 
 best gowns and ribbons, and the men in their 
 Sunday coats and clean shirt-collars. The 
 cheese was put to press with prayer and hymn 
 singing and great solemnity. When it was well 
 dried it weighed sixteen hundred pounds. It 
 was placed on a sleigh and elder Leland drove 
 with it all the way to Washington. It was a 
 journey of three weeks. All the country had 
 heard of the big cheese and came out to look 
 at it as the elder drove along." Six horses were 
 used to draw this unique offering and on its 
 side it bore a label inscribed : " The greatest 
 cheese in America for the greatest man in 
 America ! "
 
 172 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 The elder and his offering were most cordially 
 received at Washington. Jefferson was himself 
 a farmer and so interested in cheeses. He was, 
 also, interested to prove himself thoroughly 
 democratic and a true Apostle of Simplicity. 
 The chief article of furniture in his own particu- 
 lar room at the White House was a long table 
 with a set of carpenter's tools tucked away in 
 the drawers of one side, and a set of gardener's 
 tools similarly disposed at its other end. There 
 was no affectation in Jefferson's love of the out- 
 of-doors and in his deep affection for trees. 
 Once at a dinner party he exclaimed abruptly, 
 " How I wished that I possessed the powers of 
 a despot!" then explaining, in answer to the 
 astonished look called forth by a declaration 
 so opposed to his disposition and principles, 
 " I wish I was a despot that I might save the 
 noble beautiful trees that are daily falling sac- 
 rifices to the cupidity of their owners, or the 
 necessity of the poor. The unnecessary felling 
 of a tree perhaps the growth of centuries 
 seems to me a crime little short of murder; it 
 pains me to an unspeakable degree." 
 
 In the window recesses of the room used as an 
 office by this President who so loved Nature 
 were flowers and plants to which he attended 
 personally. " And among his roses and gera- 
 niums," Mrs. Smith tells us, " was suspended 
 the cage of his favourite mocking-bird, which
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 173 
 
 he cherished with peculiar fondness, not only 
 for its melodious powers, but for its uncommon 
 intelligence and affectionate disposition, of 
 which qualities he gave surpassing instances. 
 It was the constant companion of his solitary 
 and studious hours. Whenever he was alone 
 he opened the cage and let the bird fly about 
 the room. After flitting for a while from one 
 object to another, it would alight on his table 
 and regale him with its sweetest notes, or perch 
 on his shoulder and take its food from his lips. 
 Often, when he retired to his chamber, it would 
 hop up the stairs after him, and while he took 
 his siesta, would sit on his couch and pour 
 forth its melodious strains. How he loved this 
 bird! How he loved his flowers! He could not 
 live without something to love and, in the 
 absence of his darling grandchildren, his bird 
 and his flowers became objects of tender 
 
 care." 
 
 Apart from this one room the White House 
 of Jefferson's day appears to have been a bare 
 and unhomelike place. It was scantily furnished 
 with articles brought from Philadelphia and 
 which had been used by General Washington. 
 From respect to their former possessor Jefferson 
 retained these, worn and shabby though they 
 were. In the drawing-room was the same crim- 
 son damask furniture that had been used in 
 Philadelphia and only the most meagre and
 
 174 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 simple additional articles had been provided 
 by the government for the more spacious man- 
 sion. The large East Room was still unfinished. 
 But this mattered little to Jefferson. He had 
 no mind to " entertain " largely. One of the 
 first things he did after coming to the White 
 House was to abolish the levees which Washing- 
 ton and Adams had punctiliously maintained, 
 limiting to January first and the Fourth of 
 July public receptions at the Executive Mansion. 
 At other times persons were privileged to call 
 as they pleased. Sometimes they were greatly 
 disturbed by what they encountered. It is 
 said that a foreign functionary who went one 
 morning to pay the President a visit of ceremony 
 found that gentleman just drawing on his 
 boots and prepared with a shoe-brush to give 
 them a polishing touch. Of course the visitor 
 was shocked. So shocked that the story seems 
 to me apocryphal. A Virginian brought up to 
 be waited upon by slaves was not one to be 
 brushing his own shoes; but of course those who 
 resented the perfectly tenable social rules Jef- 
 ferson had promulgated would draw upon their 
 imaginations for stories which should make 
 the Democratic President ridiculous. 
 
 The basic idea of Jefferson's social rules was 
 that " when brought together in society all 
 are perfectly equal, whether foreign or domestic, 
 titled or untitled, in or out of office." In ac-
 
 cordance with this idea Mr. Jefferson, at one 
 of his rare state dinners, committed the " un- 
 pardonable sin " of taking in the lady who stood 
 next to him Mrs. Madison, and requesting 
 his guests to do the same. Mr. Merry, the newly 
 appointed British minister, thus found himself 
 obliged to offer his arm to his own wife! And 
 he more likely she never forgave Jefferson 
 for the slight this choice of Mrs. Madison had 
 put upon the English lady. Sir Augustus Foster 
 loyally upheld his chief and his chief's lady in 
 their resentment, deprecatingly comparing the 
 present lack of " etiquette " at the Executive 
 Mansion with the " good old days." " Mr. 
 Jefferson," he argued hotly, " knew only too 
 well what he was about he had lived in too 
 good society at Paris, where he was employed 
 as Minister from the United States previously 
 to the French Revolution. . . not to set a 
 value on the decencies and proprieties of life. 
 But he was playing a game for retaining the 
 highest office in a State where manners are 
 not a prevailing feature in the great mass of 
 society." 
 
 Perhaps Jefferson was " playing a game." 
 At any rate he was persistent in adhering to his 
 stand, once taken. When some of the fashionable 
 ladies, who were affronted that he had abolished 
 levees, one day swarmed down upon his home 
 by a concerted arrangement, he went in among
 
 176 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 them, dusty as he was from his ride, and while 
 apologizing for his spurs and disarranged cos- 
 tume, bade them welcome with such studied 
 charm that they could not miss the conviction 
 that the joke was on them instead of on the 
 President. Dr. Manasseh Cutler on the other 
 hand records so many dinners at "his Demo- 
 cratic Majesty's " that we may well believe 
 the story that Jefferson made himself poor by 
 his liberality while at the White House. Lemaire, 
 who was the purveyor for the household, told 
 Edmund Bacon, the steward from Jefferson's 
 Virginia estate, Monticello, that he frequently 
 spent fifty dollars upon one day's marketing. 
 Which one may easily credit after reading that 
 the bill of fare besides having on it fried eggs 
 and fried beef often included, as on one 
 occasion when Dr. Cutler was there, turkeys, 
 ducks, " the new foreign dish macaroni," ices, 
 and various fancy -pudding dishes, among them 
 " a new kind of pudding, very porous and light, 
 inside white as milk of curd, covered with cream 
 sauce." 
 
 The lady who did the honors at Jefferson's 
 dinners whenever neither of the President's 
 daughters was available and it was necessary 
 that some woman act as hostess, was Mrs. 
 James Madison, wife of the Secretary of State. 
 Thus began that extraordinary career of social 
 ascendency at Washington which, with only
 
 MRS. MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 
 Fro-n the portrait by Stuart in the possession of Mrs. Algernon Coolidge of Boston.
 
 y 
 
 DOLLY MADISON. 
 
 From a miniature by James Peale in the possession of her great-niece, Miss Lucia B. 
 Cutts of Boston.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 177 
 
 a few interruptions, lasted for over forty years! 
 Mrs. Madison still retained at this time much 
 of that exquisite beauty which was embalmed 
 by James Peale in the charming miniature made 
 just about the time of her marriage to Madison 
 and herewith reproduced. It is pleasant to see 
 that, when sitting to Peale, Mistress Dolly 
 wore her Quaker cap. From her later life it is 
 hard to recall that she was a Quaker by birth. 
 Even as a child, indeed, there seems to have been 
 very little of the Quaker about her training. 
 Both her mother and her grandmother had been 
 belles and they evidently had resolved that the 
 dainty Dolly should lose no jot or tittle of her 
 dower of good looks by any neglect on their 
 part. So she was sent to school with long gloves 
 on her hands and arms and with a close sun- 
 bonnet and a white linen mask on her face. But 
 in this attention to her outward charms, her 
 inward graces were not neglected. No more 
 sweet and lovely character may be found in 
 all our history than that of Dolly Madison. 
 At nineteen she had been married by her father 
 to Mr. Todd, a lawyer of Philadelphia, and within 
 two years had borne this worthy man two 
 children, the first of whom, John Payne Todd, 
 lived to be the joy and the heartbreaking sorrow 
 of her womanhood. Ere she was twenty -two, 
 however, both her husband and her second 
 baby had died, and thus it was that, in 1794,
 
 178 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 she was being sought out in Philadelphia by 
 all the eligible men of the day, among them 
 James Madison, twenty years her senior, who 
 arranged that Aaron Burr should take him to 
 the Payne home and introduce him to the 
 fascinating young widow. When Dolly came 
 down that day " in a mulberry colored satin, 
 and a silk tulle handkerchief over her neck, 
 and on her head an exquisitely dainty little 
 cap from which an uncropped curl would es- 
 cape " she must have looked very much as in 
 our picture. We do not at all wonder that 
 James Madison fell head over heels in love with 
 her and promptly set about to make her his 
 wife. When Mrs. Washington heard of the 
 engagement she told Mistress Dolly that she 
 was very glad indeed " for James Madison would 
 make her a good husband." Which appears to 
 have been a true prophecy. 
 
 It is also true that no wife was ever more 
 devoted to a husband than this lovely woman 
 to her "great little Madison." Dr. Mitchell, 
 who was in turn representative and senator 
 from New York, said of her in 1802: " She has 
 a fine person and a most engaging countenance, 
 which pleases, not so much from mere symmetry 
 or complexion as from expression. Her smile, 
 her countenance and her manners are so en- 
 gaging, that it is no wonder that . . . with 
 her fine blue eyes and large share of anima-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 179 
 
 tion, she should be, indeed, a QUEEN OF 
 HEARTS." 
 
 In and out of the drawing-rooms of George- 
 town, where this lady " queened it," there flitted, 
 early in Jefferson's administration, a poet who 
 could very well, had it happened to occur to him, 
 have celebrated Mrs. Madison's unique charms. 
 This was Tom Moore, then twenty -four years old. 
 Because slight and dandified, Moore had so 
 little impressed Jefferson, when the latter met 
 him at a reception, that after the merest word 
 or two the poet was allowed by the President 
 to get lost in the crowd. This the gifted Irish- 
 man could not forgive and so fell to lampooning 
 Jefferson and pretty much everything else Ameri- 
 can. But not Niagara Falls ! I have been priv- 
 ileged to examine the scarcely-legible manu- 
 script journal in which Moore recorded his 
 enthusiasm over the beauty of the falls and one 
 there sees that his emotion was so great that he 
 could scarcely find words to express it. " Never 
 shall I forget," he wrote, " the impression I 
 felt at the first partial glimpse of them, which 
 we got as the carriage climbed over the hill 
 that overlooks them. We were not near enough 
 to be agitated by the terrific effects of the scene 
 but I saw through the trees this mighty flow 
 of waters descending with [manuscript illegible] 
 magnificence and received just enough of its 
 grandeur to set imagination on the wing. ... I
 
 180 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 felt as if approaching the very residence of 
 the Deity. 1 The tears started into my eyes 
 and I remained, for some moments after we 
 had lost sight of the scene, in that delicious 
 absorption which only pious enthusiasm can 
 produce. . . . My whole heart ascended toward 
 the Divinity in a swell of devout admiration 
 which I never before experienced. Oh, bring 
 an atheist here and he cannot return an atheist. 
 I pity the man who can coldly sit down to write 
 a description of these ineffable wonders. ... It 
 is impossible, by pen or by pencil, to convey the 
 faintest idea of their magnificence. Painting 
 is lifeless; the most burning words of poetry 
 have all been lavished upon inferior subjects. 
 One should have new combinations of language 
 to describe the falls of Niagara ! " 
 
 ' Why, he is a poet after all ! " Jefferson is said 
 to have exclaimed when, years after his lampoon- 
 ing at Moore's hands, he was given a volume 
 of the Irish melodies. " So this is the little man 
 who satirized me so ! " The great Democrat, it is 
 thus clear, bore the little Irishman no malice; 
 indeed Moore shared with Burns the leisure 
 hours of the retired statesman. 
 
 1 It is interesting to set alongside of this outburst of splendid faith 
 in a good and gracious Creator Thomas Paine's belief that " the- 
 ology should be studied in the works or books of the creation." 
 Thus studied it " causes the mind to become at once enlightened and 
 serene. Information and adoration go hand in hand." (Existence 
 of God.)
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 181 
 
 Jefferson was very glad to go " back to the 
 farm " when his time came to lay down the 
 cares of office. There is no question that he 
 could have had a third term as President, if 
 he had allowed himself to be nominated, but 
 he accepted as wise the precedent established 
 by Washington in this matter and blithely re- 
 linquished to his successor, James Madison, 
 his post as Chief Executive. Never was he 
 more witty and more charming than at Mrs. 
 Madison's first reception in the White House. 
 As the ladies pressed near him, a friend whis- 
 pered jestingly, " You see, they will follow you." 
 " That is as it should be," answered Jefferson, 
 " since I am too old to follow them. I remem- 
 ber," he added, " when Dr. Franklin's friends 
 were taking leave of him in France, the ladies 
 almost smothered him with embraces. On his 
 introducing me to them as his successor, I 
 told them that among the rest of his privileges, 
 I wished he would transfer this one to me. But 
 he answered, ' No, no; you are too young a 
 
 man.' 
 
 What appears to have been Washington's 
 first inaugural ball was given at Davis's Hotel 
 the evening that Jefferson relinquished to Mad- 
 ison the " heavy burden " of a President. It 
 is said that " upwards of four hundred persons 
 graced the scene, which was not a little enlivened 
 by the handsome display of female fashion
 
 182 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and beauty." Of course the " Lady President- 
 ess " was the centre of all eyes on this occasion. 
 And that not only because she was a Queen of 
 Hearts; she must also have been a splendid 
 figure to look upon in her gown of yellow velvet, 
 her neck and arms hung with pearls and her 
 head surmounted by a Parisian turban, from 
 which nodded a bird-of-paradise plume. 
 
 No more Jeffersonian simplicity now at the 
 White House! A contemporary writer tells 
 us that the Presidential mansion was refurnished 
 " splendidly " throughout; and it is probably 
 true that Dolly Madison procured all the splen- 
 dor she could for the modest sum of five thou- 
 sand dollars allowed for the purpose. An ad- 
 ditional thousand was granted Mr. Latrobe, 
 we learn, for the curtains, chairs and sofas of 
 the drawing-room, which was done all in yellow 
 satin damask. Here Mrs. Madison was soon 
 receiving her own friends, her husband's and 
 those who came just to pay their respects, with 
 that sunniness of manner which has made her 
 name almost a synonym for tact and hospitality. 
 Even shy and awkward youths from the country 
 were at once put at their ease by her. William 
 C. Preston, in his unpublished journal, 1 gives 
 an instance of this from his own experience 
 which may well stand as typical: He was then 
 eighteen and so full of self -consciousness. 
 
 1 Quoted by Mrs. Ellet in Court Circles of the Republic.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 183 
 
 No wonder there had been " utter silence in 
 the hack! " as he made his way to the White 
 House. He says, '* The appearance of the 
 house and grounds was very grand. There 
 was a multitude of carriages at the door; many 
 persons were going in and coming out ; especially 
 many in gaudy regimentals. Upon entering a 
 room where there were fifteen or twenty persons, 
 Mr. Madison turned toward us, and the General 
 said, presenting me, ' My young kinsman, Mr. 
 Preston, who has come to present his respects 
 to you and Mrs. Madison.' The President was 
 a little man with a powdered head, having an 
 abstracted air and a pale countenance, with but 
 little flow of courtesy. Around the room was 
 a blaze of military men and naval officers in 
 brilliant uniforms. The furniture of the room 
 with the brilliant mirrors was very magnificent. 
 ' While we stood Mrs. Madison entered 
 a tall, portly elegant lady, with a turban on her 
 head and a book in her hand. She advanced 
 straight to me and, extending her left hand, 
 said: 'Are you William Campbell Preston, 
 the son of my old friend and most beloved kins- 
 woman, Sally Campbell? ' I assented. She 
 said: * Sit down, my son; for you are my son 
 and I am the first person who ever saw you in 
 this world. Mr. Madison, this is the son of 
 Mrs. Preston, who was born in Philadelphia.' 
 The President shook hands with me cordially.
 
 184 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 . . . All this was performed with an easy 
 grace and benignity which no woman in the 
 world could have exceeded. My awkwardness 
 and terror suddenly subsided into a romantic 
 admiration for the magnificent woman before 
 me." 
 
 Washington Irving gives us a similarly agree- 
 able snap-shot impression of one of these Draw- 
 ing Rooms, where he found " a crowded collection 
 of great and little men, of ugly old women 
 and beautiful young ones. . . . Mrs. Madison 
 is a fine, portly buxom dame, who has a smile 
 and a pleasant word for everybody. Her sisters, 
 Mrs. Cutts and Mrs. Washington, are like the 
 two merry wives of Windsor; but as to Jemmy 
 Madison ah ! poor Jemmy ! he is but a 
 withered little apple- John." 
 
 From a passage in another Irving letter, writ- 
 ten about this same time, we learn how really 
 primitive in some ways the social life of the time 
 was even in the nation's capital. ' When you 
 see my good friend Mrs. Renwick," he writes 
 Mrs. Hoffman, " tell her I feel great compunc- 
 tion at having deprived her of her Tartan pladdie 
 all winter; but if it will be any gratification to 
 her she may be assured it has been of signal 
 comfort to me, and has occasionally served as a 
 mantle to some of the prettiest girls in Washington" 
 
 This is the more interesting when it is re- 
 called that Mrs. Renwick was the heroine of
 
 JAMES MADISON. 
 From the portrait by Gilbert Stiiart in the possession of Bowdoin College.
 
 i g
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 185 
 
 Burns's " Blue-eyed Lassie ", that she had 
 often as a girl met Burns at her father's fireside 
 and had inspired in him, besides the verses to 
 her blue eyes, which are printed in every collec- 
 tion of his works, the song " When first I saw my 
 Jeanie's face," which is scarcely known at all 
 but whose charming last stanza makes it well 
 worth reprinting here. 
 
 " But gang she east, or gang she west, 
 'Twixt Nith and Tweed all over, 
 While men have eyes, or ears or taste, 
 She'll always find a lover." 
 
 It was to the lovely lass of Annandale, whom 
 the Scotch bard had thus celebrated, and whose 
 New York home was a cherished resort of 
 Irving's, that the author of the Sketch Book 
 was indebted for the slip of ivy from Melrose, 
 which, planted with her own hands, runs now 
 in rich luxuriance over the walls of Sunny side. 
 
 We must, however, hark back to Washington 
 with its gracious " Lady Presidentess " and 
 her " withered little apple- John " of a " Jemmy." 
 Unquestionably Mrs. Madison was much hap- 
 pier in social life than the President could 
 possibly be. He took no pleasure in the crowded 
 dinners and parties which meant much to her. 
 Moreover he was bowed down by heavy cares 
 of state; for the War of 1812 was at hand. 
 Presently a British fleet actually sailed up into
 
 186 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Virginia waters and the White House family 
 were told that the enemy had come determined 
 to " burn them out," Admiral Cockburn send- 
 ing the President's wife word that he would very 
 soon make his bow at her drawing-room door 
 and his officers pleasantly adding that they 
 would capture the beautiful Mrs. Madison and 
 " make a show of her in England! " It appears, 
 too, that the British came fairly near fulfilling 
 these threats. For peace-loving James Madison 
 was no leader of armies and, when he saw the 
 bayonets of the enemy glittering in the distance, 
 he ingloriously directed his companions to 
 leave Blandensburg to the commanding general. 
 Whereupon, he and Armstrong and Monroe 
 clambered into a waiting carriage and drove 
 rapidly away in the direction of Washington. 
 Much sport was afterwards made of this retreat 
 of the Commander-in-Chief from the field of 
 battle and a New York newspaper writer 
 wittily declared that 
 
 "'Fly, Monroe, fly! Run, Armstrong, run!' 
 Were the last words of Madison." 
 
 Dolly proved herself really heroic, however. 
 To her sisters she wrote as the enemy drew near, 
 " I am ready. I have pressed as many Cabinet 
 papers into trunks as to fill one carriage. 
 Our private property must be sacrificed, as 
 it is impossible to procure wagons for its trans-
 
 portation. I am determined not to go myself 
 until I see Mr. Madison safe and he can ac- 
 company me. My friends and acquaintances are 
 
 all gone, even Colonel C with the hundred 
 
 men, who were stationed as a guard in this 
 enclosure." Only after two messengers had 
 arrived from Mr. Madison, urging her flight, 
 did the plucky woman consent to set forth 
 without her husband. Before leaving she pro- 
 vided for the safety of the large picture of 
 General Washington by Stuart, which was 
 hanging in the dining-room, by causing it to 
 be removed from its heavy frame and commit- 
 ting it to the care of Jacob Barker and Robert 
 G. L. Depeyster, who temporarily secreted it 
 in a farmhouse outside the city. 
 
 To the struggle which culminated in this 
 attack upon Washington it is that we owe the 
 " Star Spangled Banner " and, though the story 
 of the special crisis which gave occasion to that 
 song really belongs to the Baltimore chapter, 
 Francis Scott Key must here be mentioned be- 
 cause his home at this period was in George- 
 town. Georgetown is, also, associated with 
 another American whom we remember as the 
 author of a single song John Howard Payne. 
 For there in Oak Hill Cemetery rest today the 
 mortal remains of the homeless poet who, 
 in touching strains, has celebrated for all time 
 the sweet and tender joys of home.
 
 188 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Washington had known Payne in life, too, how- 
 ever. For he was often in the city, during the 
 period of the Early Republic, visiting Joel Bar- 
 low, 1 poet and philosopher, who upon his return 
 from a mission to France, in 1805, had built his 
 mansion Kalorama on a natural terrace above 
 Rock Creek, not far from Twenty-first Street. 
 The Barlows were great friends of the Madisons 
 and there is extant a delightful letter written them 
 by Mistress Dolly, during one of their visits to 
 France, in which she requests that they send 
 her " by a safe vessel large head-dresses, a 
 few flowers, feathers, gloves and stockings, 
 black and white, with anything else pretty and 
 suitable for an economist." 
 
 When the President and Mrs. Madison re- 
 turned to Washington, forty-eight hours after 
 their flight, they found their home a black and 
 still-smoking ruin. Admiral Cockburn and his 
 men had spectacularly worked their will. For 
 some months now the Presidential headquarters 
 were in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard 
 Cutts on F Street and then the Madisons re- 
 moved to the Octagon, which Colonel John 
 Tayloe generously placed at their disposal. 
 
 Colonel Tayloe was reputed to be the richest 
 Virginian of his time and no house in all Wash- 
 
 1 It was to this Joel Barlow that Elizabeth Whitman, generally 
 believed to have furnished Hawthorne with the central idea of 
 The Scarlet Letter, wrote the only letters of hers which have been 
 preserved. See my Old New England Churches, p. 23 et seq.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 189 
 
 ington has seen more of magnificent entertain- 
 ing than this splendid one at the junction of 
 New York Avenue and Eighteenth Street. 
 The reception given here by the President and 
 Mrs. Madison after the signing of the Treaty 
 of Ghent, is described by residents of the capital 
 as the most brilliant ever held in Washington. 
 Mrs. Madison, knowing that peace was assured 
 and that her beloved husband had been restored 
 to popularity, was especially happy. Now, even 
 more than previously in the White House, in- 
 deed, her parties and receptions were brilliancy 
 itself. It may very well have been at about this 
 time that the Friend from Philadelphia whom 
 she had invited to dinner replied to her toast, 
 " Here's to thy absent broadbrim, Friend Hal- 
 lowell," with the undaunted, " And here's to 
 thy absent kerchief, Friend Dorothy! " Wash- 
 ington ladies were rather exaggeratedly de- 
 colletee at this period. Mrs. Sea ton wrote that 
 Madame Bonaparte, having set the fashion in 
 this way, 1 was eagerly imitated by all the 
 
 1 Was it of Madame Bonaparte, we wonder, that Mrs. Smith 
 wrote, in 1804: " An elegant and select party was given her by Mrs. 
 Robert Smith; her appearance was such that it threw all the com- 
 pany into confusion, and no one dar'd to look at her but by stealth. 
 . . . Her dress was the thinnest sarcenet and white crepe. . . ; 
 there was scarcely any waist to it and no sleeves; her back, her bosom, 
 part of her waist and her arms were uncovered and the rest of her 
 form visible. She was engaged the next evening at Madam P's . . . 
 and several ladies sent her word, if she wished to meet them there 
 she must promise to have more clothes on."
 
 190 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 belles. " But without equal eclat, as Madame 
 Bonaparte has certainly the most transcend- 
 ently beautiful back and shoulders that ever 
 were seen." Mrs. Seaton, also, professed her- 
 self much shocked at the amount of powder 
 and rouge used by the Washington women. 
 " Mrs. Madison is said to rouge, but it is not 
 evident to my eyes, and I do not think it true, 
 as I am well assured I saw her colour come and 
 go at the naval ball." Mrs. Seaton was the 
 wife of the editor of the National Intelligencer 
 and she has photographically described 1 for us 
 many a splendid party of the day. She is not 
 above telling us, too, how and when and what 
 Washington people ate in the privacy of home 
 as well as at levees for which we are very grate- 
 ful to her. "It is customary," she writes her 
 mother, " to breakfast here at nine o'clock, 
 dine at four and drink tea at eight, which divi- 
 sion 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 and cold bread, 
 and, if by invitation, unless the party is very 
 splendid, you have a few sweet-cakes, mac- 
 carroons [sic] from the confectioner's. This 
 is the extent. Once I saw a ceremony of pre- 
 serves at tea. But the deficiency is made up 
 
 1 In William Winston Seaton: A Biographical Sketch.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 191 
 
 by the style at dinner, with extravagant wines 
 etc. Pastry and puddings going out of date and 
 wine and ice-creams coming in, does not suit 
 my taste, and I confess to preferring Raleigh 
 hospitality. I have never even heard [here] of 
 warm bread at breakfast." 
 
 Mrs. Madison's levee of New Year's Day, 
 1814, has been so vividly described by Mrs. 
 Seaton that we can almost see the paint rolling 
 down from the ladies' cheeks as she pictures 
 this sad result of over-heated apartments. '' The 
 marine band, stationed in the ante-room, con- 
 tinued playing in spite of the crowd pressing 
 on their very heads. But if our pity was ex- 
 cited for these hapless musicians, what must 
 we not have experienced for some members of 
 our own sex, who, not foreseeing the excessive 
 heat of the apartments, had more reason to 
 apprehend the efforts of nature to relieve her- 
 self from the effects of the confined atmos- 
 phere. [!] You will perhaps not understand that I 
 allude to the rouge which some of our fashion- 
 ables had laid on with unsparing hand, and 
 which, assimilating with the pearl-powder, 
 dust and perspiration, made them altogether 
 unlovely to soul and to eye. 
 
 " Her majesty's appearance was truly regal, 
 dressed in a robe of pink satin trimmed elab- 
 orately with ermine, a white velvet and satin 
 turban, with nodding ostrich plumes and a
 
 192 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 crescent in front, gold chain and clasps around 
 the waist and wrists. 'Tis here the woman 
 who adorns the dress, and not the dress that 
 beautifies the woman. I cannot conceive a 
 female better calculated to dignify the station 
 which she occupies in society than Mrs. Madison. 
 Amiable in private life and affable in public, 
 she is admired and esteemed by the rich and 
 beloved by the poor. You are aware that she 
 snuffs; but in her hands the snuff-box seems 
 only a gracious implement with which to charm. 
 Her frank cordiality to all guests is in contrast 
 to the manner of the President, who is very 
 formal, reserved and precise, 1 yet not wanting 
 in a certain dignity. Being so low of stature, 
 he was in imminent danger of being confounded 
 with the plebeian crowd; and was pushed and 
 jostled about like a common citizen, but 
 not so with her ladyship ! The towering feathers 
 and excessive throng distinctly pointed out her 
 station wherever she moved." It is to Mrs. 
 Seaton, too, that we owe that famous story 
 
 1 Mrs. Smith, who knew Madison in his home-life, tells us re- 
 peatedly, however, that his excessive dignity was only his public 
 manner. It appears that he was really an incessant humorist and, 
 at Montpelier, used to set his table guests daily into roars of laughter 
 over his stories and his whimsical way of telling them. As late as 
 1828 she writes, while visiting at the Madisons' home, " Mr. Madison 
 retains all the sportiveness of his character. His little blue eyes . . . 
 have not lost the look of mischief that used to lurk in their corners, 
 and which vanished and gave place to an expression ever solemn, 
 when the conversation took a serious turn."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 193 
 
 about the exceedingly good breakfast Lafayette 
 made when he was at Washington: six fine 
 bay perch, considerable bread, Bordeaux, 
 and hominy, and, to top off, a whole canvas- 
 back duck! Not that Lafayette had developed 
 into a gourmand but that he was made vora- 
 ciously hungry by being so much in the open 
 air, speech-making and viewing processions. 
 
 Mrs. Benjamin W. Crowninshield of Salem, 
 whose husband was to be Secretary of the Navy 
 under Monroe, wrote home delightfully chatty 
 letters about Washington in the winter of 1815- 
 1816. Almost immediately after her arrival 
 she went " with our girls to see Mrs. Madison. 
 She lives in the same block with us. I did not 
 alter my dress. Well, we rung at the door, 
 the servant showed us up to the room no 
 one there. It was a large room, had three 
 windows in front, blue window curtains which 
 appeared to be of embossed cambric damask 
 pattern, red silk fringe. The floor was covered 
 with dark blue cloth, two little couches covered 
 with blue patch, a small sideboard with I don't 
 recollect what on it. 
 
 " In about two minutes the lady appeared, 
 received us very agreeably, noticed the children 
 much, inquired their names, because she told 
 them she meant to be much acquainted with 
 them. You could not but feel at your ease in 
 her company. She was dressed in a white
 
 194 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 cambric gown, buttoned all the way up in 
 front, a little strip of work along the button- 
 holes, but ruffled around the bottom. A peach- 
 bloom-coloured silk scarf with a rich border over 
 her shoulders by her sleeves. She had on a 
 spencer of satin the same color, and likewise 
 a turban of velour gauze, all of peach bloom. 
 She looked very well indeed." 
 
 Mrs. Crowninshield has also preserved for 
 us a picture of Mrs. Madison at the New Year's 
 Levee of 1816. " Such a crowd I never was in. 
 It took ten minutes to push and shove ourselves 
 through the dining-room; at the upper part 
 of it stood the President and his lady, all stand- 
 ing and a continual moving in and out. 
 Two other small parlours open and all full 
 likewise the entry. In every room was a table 
 with wine punch and cakes and the servants 
 squeezing through with waiters for those who 
 could not get to the table. Some of the ladies 
 were dressed very elegantly, beautiful bonnets 
 and pelisses, shawls, etc. Mrs. Madison was 
 dressed in a yellow satin, embroidered all over 
 with sprigs of butterflies, not two alike in the 
 dress; made high on the neck; a little cape, 
 long sleeves, and a white bonnet with feathers. 
 ... At three it was all over and done. I was 
 disappointed in my pelisse. First, it was made 
 too short it was then pieced down and the 
 border quilted; it really looked handsomer
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 195 
 
 but she charged ten dollars more than she en- 
 gaged to make it for." 
 
 Nothing in all Washington, indeed, appears 
 to have made so great an impression upon 
 Mrs. Crowninshield as Mrs. Madison's frocks. 
 Sometimes the First Lady is in " sky blue 
 striped velvet ! " Again she is in black velvet 
 with gold embroidery and a gorgeous turban. 
 Womanlike, Mrs. Crowninshield herself began 
 to long for more and handsomer gowns, remark- 
 ing that she feared to be " taken for a piece 
 of furniture " if she presented herself again at 
 the Drawing Room in the same dress she had 
 several times worn. Yet if the New England 
 lady lacked the fine gowns of the Southern 
 women she also lacked their unpleasant habit 
 of taking snuff. "The first thing Mrs. Todd 
 does on her coming in," she writes, "is to take 
 from the shelf a tin box of snuff and pass it 
 round. I keep this box handy as all the ladies 
 take snuff, but I have not got in the fashion yet, 
 nor I don't mean to learn any bad habits." 
 
 One bad habit she did learn, though: she 
 played cards for money! It happened in this 
 wise. * Yesterday was delightful weather (Feb- 
 ruary 23, 1816). . . . Went to the Navy Yard 
 to see the monument and the ruins. Heard 
 good music. Returned and walked the pave- 
 ment till dinner time. It is paved in front of 
 the seven buildings, so we go out of our houses,
 
 196 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and sometimes we muster a large party if it 
 is pleasant. Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Todd 
 on one side and Mrs. Monroe's family on the 
 other, and the ladies of our family, and we can 
 always find gentlemen. They sit in the door- 
 way reading papers. . . . Last evening I was at 
 Mrs. Monroe's our neighbor quite a large 
 party. . . . We played loo and I won I am 
 afraid to say how much, but shall give it to the 
 orphan asylum. I am going this morning to carry 
 my winnings to Mrs. Madison." * For Mrs. 
 Madison was a " directress " of the Washington 
 Orphan Asylum. Her name may be found on 
 its books for one year as the donor of twenty 
 dollars and a cow ! She herself played for money 
 early in her Washington career but she subse- 
 quently gave up the practice and declared her- 
 self sorry that she had ever indulged in it. 
 
 In 1817 " Jemmy " Madison was succeeded 
 by " Jemmy " Monroe. The journals of the 
 day were wont to characterize the latter as 
 " the last of the cocked hats," in recognition, 
 doubtless, of the fact that Monroe was the last 
 of the Presidents to adhere to the old-fashioned 
 style of dress dark blue coat, buff vest, doeskin 
 buff -colored breeches, top boots and the mili- 
 tary cocked hat of the Revolutionary era. 
 Jefferson once remarked of Monroe that he was 
 so perfectly honest that " if his soul were 
 
 1 Letters of Mary Boardman Crowninshield, 1815-1816.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 197 
 
 turned inside out, not a spot would be found 
 on it." So noble a man was worthy of a noble 
 wife, and such an one he found in Miss Eliza 
 Kortwright of New York, a lady who appears 
 to have possessed remarkable beauty as well 
 as all the fine womanly graces. Inasmuch as 
 she had been with her husband when he served 
 his country as Minister to France she had the 
 social gift also which residence abroad is likely 
 to bestow. 
 
 Of the two daughters who officiated with her 
 as ladies of the White House the elder, Eliza, 
 had had the advantage of education under Ma- 
 dame Campan in the celebrated school at St. 
 Germain. The first really authenticated ap- 
 pearance of this little girl, indeed, is in Madame 
 Campan's Private Memoirs where she is men- 
 tioned as walking with her father and teacher 
 in the beautiful St. Germain's wood in the year 
 1794, a very memorable year to ardent demo- 
 crats like Madame Campan l and Mr. Monroe. 
 Quite naturally they were talking of the advan- 
 tages to be derived from life in a Republic 
 like America. Suddenly the little maiden by 
 their side was discovered to be saying, " Yes, 
 papa, but there are no streets in America like 
 these," pointing out to the fine highways. 
 
 1 The brother of Madame Campan, Citizen Genet, married 
 Cornelia Tappan Clinton (daughter of New York's governor), and 
 fixed his residence here.
 
 198 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 " Very true, my dear," replied the American 
 Minister; " our nation may be compared to 
 a newly-formed household we are in want of 
 many things. But we possess the finest thing 
 of all liberty." 
 
 One of Eliza Monroe's friends at St. Germain 
 was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter 
 of Josephine, and the attachment thus formed 
 was never allowed to lapse. When the American 
 girl grew up and married her first child was 
 named Hortensia after the Queen of Holland, 
 and there are still preserved in the family some 
 charming letters sent by the famous French- 
 woman at this time to the American whom she 
 had come to love while both were Madame 
 Campan's pupils. 
 
 One of Mrs. Monroe's levees at the White 
 House has been thus pictured by Mrs. Tuley, 
 then of Virginia: * " Mr. Monroe was standing 
 near the door, and as we were introduced we 
 had the honour of shaking hands with him and 
 passing the usual congratulations of the season. 
 My impressions of Mr. Monroe are very pleasing. 
 He is tall and well formed. His dress was plain 
 and in the old style, small clothes, silk hose, 
 knee-buckles, and pumps fastened with buckles. 
 His manner was quiet and dignified. . . . 
 
 * We passed on and were presented to Mrs. 
 Monroe and her two daughters, Mrs. Judge 
 
 1 The entire letter was later reprinted in the Phdqdolphia Times.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 199 
 
 Hay, and Mrs. Gouverneur, who stood by their 
 mother and assisted her in receiving. Mrs. 
 Monroe's manner is very gracious and she is a 
 regal -looking lady. Her dress was superb black 
 velvet; neck and arms bare and beautifully 
 formed; her hair in puffs and dressed high on 
 the head and ornamented with white ostrich 
 plumes; around her neck an elegant pearl 
 necklace. ... In Paris she was called * la 
 belle Americaine.' 
 
 " Mrs. Judge Hay (the President's eldest 
 daughter) is very handsome also tall and 
 graceful, and, I hear, very accomplished . . . 
 her dress was crimson velvet, gold cord and 
 tassel round the waist, white plumes in the hair, 
 handsome jewelry, bare neck and arms. The 
 other daughter, Mrs. Gouverneur, is also very 
 handsome dress, rich white satin, trimmed 
 with a great deal of blonde lace, embroidered 
 with silver thread, bare neck and arms, pearl 
 jewelry and white plumes in the hair. By the 
 by, plumes in the hair seem to be the most 
 fashionable style of head dress for married ladies. 
 
 " All the lower rooms were opened, and 
 though well filled, not uncomfortably so. The 
 rooms were warmed by great fires of hickory 
 wood in the large open fire-places, and with the 
 handsome brass andirons and fenders quite re- 
 mind me of our grand old wood fires in Virginia. 
 Wine was handed about in wine-glasses on large
 
 200 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 silver salvers by coloured waiters, dressed in 
 dark livery, gilt buttons etc. I suppose some 
 of them must have come from Mr. Monroe's 
 old family seat, ' Oak Hill ' Virginia." 
 
 Another woman letter-writer of this period 
 has recorded that the President's wife " is 
 certainly the Ninon of the day and looks more 
 beautiful than any woman of her age I ever saw. 
 She did the honours of the White House with 
 perfect simplicity." But though Mrs. Monroe 
 did these honors well she did not do them often. 
 She had lived in Washington long enough and 
 had seen enough of the social life of the last 
 administration to realize that White House 
 entertaining could no longer be conducted on the 
 generous lines established by Mrs. Madison. 
 Very soon after her husband came into office, 
 therefore, she made her position in this matter 
 known. Mrs. Seaton writes (in 1818) : " It is said 
 that the dinner-parties of Mrs. Monroe will be 
 very select. Mrs. Hay returned the visits paid 
 to her mother, making assurances, in the most 
 pointedly polite manner, that Mrs. Monroe 
 will be happy to see her friends morning or 
 evening, but that her health is totally inade- 
 quate to visiting at present! Mrs. Hay is 
 understood to be her proxy." In order to make 
 quite clear the position of the latest First Lady 
 in this matter of calls John Quincy Adams, 
 then Secretary of State, drew up a code of
 
 MRS. JAMES MONROE. 
 
 From the miniature painted by Sene in Paris in 1794.
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 From the portrait by Leslie in the possession of Brooks Adams, Quincy, Massachusetts.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 201 
 
 social etiquette, very similar to that formerly 
 used by President Washington and so practical, 
 from the official standpoint, that with a few 
 modifications it has sufficed, ever since, to 
 regulate social life in the capital. 
 
 As might be expected Mrs. Monroe's recep- 
 tions were the more highly regarded just be- 
 cause they were infrequent. Phoebe Morris, 
 writing to Mrs. Madison, January 19, 1824 
 says, " Mrs. Monroe is really going to have a 
 Drawing Room on Wednesday. You have no 
 doubt seen the description of Mrs. Hay's 
 personal elegance of deportment and costume 
 in the papers. We all attended Mrs. Adams's 
 reception on the 8th, and it was really a very 
 brilliant party, and admirably well arranged. 
 The ladies climbed the chairs and benches to 
 see General Jackson [Jackson and John Quincy 
 Adams were rival candidates for the Presidency 
 at this time] and Mrs. Adams very gracefully 
 took his arm and walked through the apart- 
 ments with him, which gratified the general 
 curiosity." 
 
 But though Jackson, as " Hero of New Or- 
 leans," was so eagerly stared at on this occasion, 
 it was John Quincy Adams and not he whom the 
 people chose the following year to be head of the 
 nation. No more patriotic and honorable man 
 ever lived than this sixth President of the United 
 States. And no public officer has ever been so
 
 202 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 little understood. Austere and utterly lacking 
 at first acquaintance in genial human qualities 
 he repelled most persons who came in contact 
 with him. He knew this, too, and once remarked 
 humorously that his excellent mother's dictum 
 that " children should be seen and not heard " 
 had wrought his social ruin. In a previous book 
 of mine l I have quoted a youthful letter of 
 Quincy Adams's in which he complained that 
 too many of the Boston belles, encountered 
 during a gay visit to that city, were " like a 
 beautiful apple that is insipid to the taste." 
 He had no mind to choose such an one for a 
 wife. The woman he married has, on the con- 
 trary, been characterized as the most scholarly 2 
 who ever presided over the White House. 
 Born, educated and married in London, where 
 her father was first American consul, Louisa 
 Catherine Johnson added to the social grace com- 
 mon to those bred up in courts very real culture 
 and a deep love of domestic life. She and her hus- 
 band were perfectly congenial, for she well knew 
 that the man's heart was of gold and strove ever 
 to help him make the best of himself to the out- 
 side world. Necessarily, though, her husband's 
 manner of life considerably affected the social 
 functions over which it was her duty to preside. 
 
 1 See Old Boston Days and Ways, p. 401. 
 
 2 She was wont to read Plato in the intervals of social and domes- 
 tic duties!
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 203 
 
 For instance: White House receptions had to 
 break up well before ten o'clock in order that 
 the President might get to bed early! He had 
 to be up betimes; in winter at five, that he 
 might go abroad for a two hours walk under the 
 light of the moon and stars, nearly always re- 
 turning in time to see the sun rise from his 
 favorite eastern window. Then he made his 
 own fire and sat down to read three chapters 
 of the Bible with the accompaniment of various 
 commentaries before breakfast. On summer 
 mornings a swim in the Potomac took the place 
 of the walk, the President, who was a strong 
 swimmer, often remaining in the water two hours 
 or more. But he characteristically takes him- 
 self to task in his Diary for thus indulging in 
 swimming merely that he might show of 
 what feats he was capable! 
 
 Early rising was the only excess, however, in 
 which President Adams indulged. The same 
 thing was true of President Quincy of Harvard, 
 and both gentlemen were therefore likely to 
 take gentle little cat-naps whenever they were 
 seated quietly anywhere for ten minutes at 
 a time. One day, we are told, they went to- 
 gether into Judge Story's lecture-room to hear 
 that distinguished jurist read his lecture to a 
 law school class. The Judge received the vis- 
 itors with his usual politeness, placed them on the 
 platform by his side, in full view of the class,
 
 204 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and then went on with his talk. In a very few 
 minutes both Presidents were fast asleep! The 
 Judge paused a moment, then, pointing to the 
 sleeping dignitaries, said, " Gentlemen, you see 
 before you a melancholy example of the evil 
 effects of early rising." This remark was fol- 
 lowed by a shout of laughter which, of course^ 
 at once aroused the visitors from their slumbers. 
 A kinsman of these early risers, Josiah Quincy 
 of Boston, has left us perhaps the best picture 
 that we have of Washington society at just 
 this time. To the dinners of the day considerable 
 space is given l particularly to one dinner which 
 he enjoyed in the home of Daniel Webster, then 
 a member of the House and just coming into 
 his own as a figure of national importance. 
 The beautiful affection which existed between 
 Webster and his wife made an especially deep 
 impression upon young Quincy, then himself 
 but five years out of college and with a keen 
 eye for such relationships. " It was like organ 
 music," he says, " to hear Webster speak to 
 or of the being upon whom his affections re- 
 posed, and whom, alas ! he was so soon to lose. 
 I am sure that those who knew the man only 
 when this tenderest relation had been terminated 
 by death, never knew him in his perfect sym- 
 metry. Whatever evil-speakers may choose 
 to say about the subsequent career of Daniel 
 
 1 In Figures of the Past, by Josiah Quincy.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 205 
 
 Webster, he was at that time * whole as the 
 marble, founded as the rock.' ' Mr. Quincy also 
 enjoyed the hospitality of the Vice-President, 
 who " contrary to custom, had come up to the 
 capital and was actually doing the work of his 
 place. The usage had been for the holders of 
 this office to stay quietly at home, draw their 
 salaries and allow some senator to preside in the 
 upper house." 
 
 Miss Calhoun, the Vice-President's daughter, 
 delighted young Quincy by her intelligent 
 grasp on the political situation. " I well re- 
 member," he says, " the clearness with which 
 she presented the Southern view and the in- 
 genuity with which she parried such objections 
 as I was able to present. The fashionable ladies 
 of the South had received the education of 
 political thought and discussion to a degree 
 unknown among their sisters of the North. 
 ' She can read bad French and play a few tunes 
 upon the piano,' said a cynical friend of mine 
 concerning a young lady who had completed 
 the costly education of a fashionable school 
 in New York, * but upon my word she does not 
 know whether she is living in a monarchy or 
 a republic/ The sneer would never have been 
 applied to the corresponding class at the South. 
 These ladies were conversant with political 
 theories, and held definite political opinions." 
 
 The social features of Washington at the
 
 206 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 time of this visit, were evening parties. : ' The 
 company assembled about eight," our author 
 tells us, " and began to break up shortly before 
 eleven, having enjoyed the recreation of dancing, 
 card-playing, music or conversation. Every- 
 body in the city who occupied the necessary 
 social position appeared at these gatherings; 
 and being at the age when the tinsel of Vanity 
 Fair is at its full glitter, I enjoyed them highly. 
 My first Washington party was at Mrs. Wirt's, 
 where I was taken as a stranger by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Webster. ... 1 was there presented to 
 a lady whose beauty was the admiration of 
 Washington and whose name was, consequently, 
 upon every tongue, at least something like 
 her name; for society had decreed that this 
 fair woman should be known as Mrs. Florida 
 White, her husband being a delegate from our 
 most southern territory. Very splendid in her 
 beauty was Mrs. White." This Mrs. White 
 it was who was afterwards known in Paris as 
 " la belle sauvage " by reason of an incident 
 which amusingly illustrates the dense ignorance 
 which then obtained in France concerning Am- 
 erican life and customs. A fancy dress ball 
 was to be given by one of the members of the 
 Bonaparte family and, on receiving her invita- 
 tion, Mrs. White asked her hostess what she 
 should wear. " An American costume, of 
 course," was the prompt reply. " But," said
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 207 
 
 Mrs. White, " we have no original American 
 costumes; we follow your fashions." The 
 Frenchwoman was not to be convinced, how- 
 ever, that natives of Kentucky (Mrs. White's 
 birthplace) were not, when at home, arrayed 
 as are the Indians and so, accepting the hint, 
 Mrs. White appeared at the ball as an Indian 
 girl, gay with beads and feathers, a quiver at 
 her back and a bow in her hand. Mrs. Edward 
 Livingston and her charming daughter, Miss 
 Cora Livingston, were other women whom the 
 visitor from Massachusetts met and admired 
 at Mrs. Wirt's party. Of Mrs. Livingston we 
 shall hear more when we come to the New 
 Orleans chapter. Suffice it here to say that her 
 Washington salon at this time was no less famous 
 than the one she had previously conducted 
 in the chief city of Louisiana. 
 
 Watching Washington's first waltz was an- 
 other of Josiah Quincy's delectable experiences 
 during this visit to the capital in 1826. The 
 scene was a " public ball " and the chief per- 
 former Baron Stackelburg, " who whirled 
 through the mazes of this dance with a huge 
 pair of dragoon spurs bound to his heels. The 
 danger^of interfering with the other dancers, 
 which seemed always imminent, was skilfully 
 avoided by the Baron, who received a murmur 
 of appreciative applause as he led his partner 
 to her seat. The question of the decorum of
 
 208 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 this strange dance was distinctly raised upon 
 its first appearance, and it was nearly twenty- 
 five years later before remonstrances ceased 
 to be heard. How far the waltz and its suc- 
 cessors of a similar character may be compatible 
 with feminine modesty is a question which 
 need not here be discussed. It is sufficient to 
 say that, socially speaking, it has proved an 
 unmitigated nuisance. It has utterly routed 
 the intellectual element that was once conspic- 
 uous even in fashionable gatherings. It has 
 not only given society over to the young and 
 inexperienced, but, by a perverse process of 
 wnnatural selection, it has pushed to the front 
 by no means the best specimens of these." 
 
 Mr. Quincy on the evils of the waltz is much 
 less vital and suggestive than Mr. Quincy on 
 the evils of aristocratic government, however. 
 So I want to turn back to his dinner at the Cal- 
 houns' and to some conversation which there 
 went on. " Mr. Calhoun, with the fore sight 
 of a politician," we are told, " was accustomed 
 to make himself agreeable to young men ap- 
 pearing in Washington who might possibly 
 rise to influence in their respective communities. 
 It was probably with a view to such a contin- 
 gency that he favoured me with a long disserta- 
 tion upon public affairs. He never alluded 
 to the subject of slavery though it was easy 
 to see that reference to this interest shaped
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 209 
 
 his opinions about tariff, State rights, internal 
 improvements, and other questions, with which, 
 on the surface, it had small connection. The 
 concluding words of this aggressive Democrat 
 made an ineffaceable impression upon my mind. 
 They were pronounced in a subdued tone of 
 esoteric confidence, such as an ancient augur 
 might have used to a neophyte in his profession. 
 Substantially they were these: ' Now, from 
 what I have said to you, I think you will see 
 that the interests of the gentlemen of the North 
 and those of the South are identical.' I can 
 quote no utterance more characteristic of the 
 political Washington of twenty-six than this. 
 The inference was that the ' glittering general- 
 izations ' of the Declaration were never meant 
 to be taken seriously. Gentlemen were the natural 
 rulers of America, after all. It has taken all 
 the succeeding half-century to reach a vital 
 belief that the people and not gentlemen (using 
 the word, of course, in its common and narrow 
 sense) are to govern this country. It will take 
 much more than another half-century before 
 the necessary and (in the end) beneficent con- 
 sequences of this truth shall be fully realized." 
 
 Already, however, the issue between " gentle- 
 men " and " the people " had come to be a 
 clear-cut one in Washington. As the four years 
 term of John Quincy Adams drew to a close 
 the opposition which had long been felt towards
 
 210 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 him grew very bitter and very vocal. Because 
 he was cold and reserved he was charged with 
 being a monarchist and an aristocrat. It was 
 further alleged against him: that he had married 
 an English woman; that he was rich, and that 
 he had received large sums of public money, 
 some of which he had spent in installing a 
 billiard room in the White House (!). Against 
 Andrew Jackson plenty of half -true things were 
 also urged but the " Hero of New Orleans " 
 was the people's choice nevertheless, so that we 
 find the second Adams solemnly recording in 
 his diary, almost as his mother had done thirty 
 years before, when to his father, also, had been 
 denied the honor of a second term, " The places 
 that have known us shall know us no more." 
 
 Yet Mrs. Adams went out, as she had come 
 in, with impressive social grace. At her last 
 Drawing Room the great audience chamber, 
 never before opened and then only just finished, 
 was thrown open for dancing, a thing unheard 
 of before at a Drawing Room. 
 
 In strange contrast with the dignity of pre- 
 vious Presidential inaugurations was that of 
 Andrew Jackson, if we may trust contemporary 
 reports. ' When the President's address was 
 concluded," says Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, 1 
 
 1 Mrs. Smith was the wife of the editor of the National Intelligencer, 
 which conservative organ necessarily disapproved of the " People " 
 and the " People's President."
 
 MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
 From the portrait by Leslie in the possession of Brooks Adams, Quincy, Massachusetts.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 211 
 
 " the barricades gave way before the multitude, 
 who forced a passage to shake hands with the 
 choice of the people. General Jackson mounted 
 his horse, having walked to the Capitol, and then, 
 such a cortege followed ! Countrymen, laborers, 
 white and black, carriages, wagons, and carts, 
 all pursuing him to the President's house. . . . 
 The closing scene was in disgusting contrast 
 with the simplicity of the impressive drama 
 of the inaugural oath! The President was 
 literally pursued by a motley concourse of 
 people, riding, running, helter-skelter, striving 
 who should first gain admittance into the Exec- 
 utive Mansion, where it was understood that 
 refreshments were to be distributed. The halls 
 were filled with a disorderly rabble of negroes, 
 boys, women, and children scrambling for the 
 refreshments designed for the drawing-rooms, 
 the people forcing their way into the saloons, 
 mingling with the foreigners and citizens sur- 
 rounding the President. . . . China and glass 
 to the amount of several thousand dollars were 
 broken in the struggle to get at the ices and 
 cakes, though punch and other drinkables 
 had been carried out in tubs and buckets to 
 the people; but had it been in hogsheads it 
 would have been insufficient besides unsatis- 
 factory to the mob, who claimed equality in all 
 things. . . . The confusion became more and 
 more appalling. At one moment the President,
 
 212 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 who had retreated until he was pressed against 
 the wall of the apartment, could only be se- 
 cured against serious danger by a number of 
 gentlemen linking arms and forming themselves 
 into a barrier. It was then that the windows 
 were thrown open and the living torrent found 
 an outlet. ... It was the People's day, the 
 People's President and the People would rule." 
 What manner of man was this " People's 
 President? " The answers which the contempo- 
 rary documents of Jackson's day give to this 
 query depend altogether upon the inherited prej- 
 udices and political bias of their respective 
 writers. Josiah Quincy suggests that there were 
 two Andrew Jacksons, one the person whom 
 he himself attempted to describe, the other 
 '' the Jackson of comic myth." That the com- 
 posite Jackson had in him, however, much that 
 was admirable one is forced to admit after read- 
 ing the following from the pen of a writer who, 
 by birth and training, was little predisposed to 
 be favorably impressed by the newcomer at the 
 White House. " Although I have only a holiday 
 acquaintance with the General," wrote Mr. 
 Quincy, " and although a man certainly puts 
 on his best manners when undergoing a public 
 reception, the fact was borne in upon me that 
 the seventh President was, in essence, a knightly 
 personage, prejudiced, narrow, mistaken upon 
 many points, it might be, but vigorously a
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 213 
 
 gentleman in his high sense of honor and in the 
 natural straightforward courtesies which are 
 easily to be distinguished from the veneer of 
 policy." 
 
 Jackson was the first President to lack the 
 advantage of early association with those to 
 whom the amenities of life mean much. By 
 the time he was twenty-one he had worked at 
 the saddler's trade, taught school, been clerk 
 in a store, served as constable, studied law and 
 got a lawyer's license. His boyhood days were 
 passed in a Carolina pine-woods where, as Parton 
 says, " he learned to read, to write, to cast ac- 
 counts little more. . . . He was never a well- 
 informed man. He never was addicted to 
 books. He never learned to write the English 
 language correctly, though he often wrote it 
 eloquently and vigorously." A man's man, 
 with a life full, in its early years, of betting, 
 racing, cock-fighting, and carousing, Jackson 
 supplies a striking example of a character com- 
 pletely transformed by tender, passionate love 
 for a good woman. So much did this woman 
 mean to him, indeed, that he made many griev- 
 ous mistakes in judgment, after he had been 
 elected to the presidency, out of sheer chival- 
 rous regard for her sainted memory and for 
 what she had suffered in life. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson never coveted a place in the 
 White House. When the news of the General's
 
 214 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 election reached her, in her Tennessee home, she 
 said, " Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I'm glad; 
 for my own sake I never wished it." She had 
 not been happy in Washington when her hus- 
 band was senator there. For a time, indeed, it 
 seemed doubtful if any of the society leaders 
 of the day would call on her! The reason for 
 this hesitation lay in the fact that legally, the 
 General's " Rachel " as he called her, had not 
 been free of her first husband when her second 
 took her to wife. That this was the fault of 
 neither but was rather blamable to the loose 
 divorce laws of the time is quite true but it is 
 plain, none the less, as Sumner points out, 
 " that Jackson himself was to blame for con- 
 tracting a marriage under ambiguous circum- 
 stances, and for not protecting his wife's honour 
 by precautions, such as finding out the exact 
 terms of the act of the Legislature of Virginia. 
 Having put her in a false position, against which, 
 as a man and a lawyer, he should have protected 
 her, he was afterwards led, by his education and 
 the current ways of thinking in the society 
 about him, to try to treat the defects of his 
 marriage certificate by shooting any man who 
 dared to state the truth, that said certificate 
 was irregular. The circumstances of the mar- 
 riage were such as to provoke scandal at the 
 time, and this scandal, which in the case of a 
 more obscure man would have died out during
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 215 
 
 thirty years of honourable wedlock, came up 
 over and over again during Jackson's career." 
 
 The bare facts of the case are that Jackson, 
 when a young man, had settled in West Tennes- 
 see and was taken to board by Mrs. Donelson, 
 the mother of Mrs. Lewis Robards. Robards 
 mistreated his wife and, on one occasion, Jack- 
 son, roused beyond self-control as he witnessed 
 the man's brutality, said with that straight- 
 forwardness and utter want of tact which ever 
 marked his course, "If I had such a wife I 
 would not willingly bring a tear to her beautiful 
 eyes." To which Robards wrathfully retorted, 
 " Well, perhaps it is a mistake, but she is not 
 your wife." From that time on jealousy mingled 
 with cruelty in the husband's treatment and 
 things became so bad that Mrs. Robards was 
 urged by her mother and her friends to desert 
 the man. This she ultimately did by journeying 
 from Nashville to Natchez under the protection 
 of a little party of gentlemen of whom Jackson 
 was one. Recent Indian disturbances in the 
 country through which they were to pass had 
 rendered a considerable escort necessary and 
 Jackson, because of his strong right arm, had 
 been urged by Colonel Stark, an old friend of 
 the Done] sons, to be of the party. 
 
 Soon af :er this the young lawyer learned" that 
 Robards had applied for a divorce from his 
 wife, and, without waiting to assure himself
 
 216 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 that it had been granted, he asked Mrs. Donel- 
 son for permission to marry her daughter. :< Mr. 
 Jackson," this good woman queried, " would 
 you sacrifice your life to save my child's good 
 name? " ' Ten thousand lives, madam, if I 
 had them," the youth replied with fervor. 
 And he meant it, too. From the time of their 
 marriage, in the summer of 1791, until his wife's 
 death, the year he was made President, Jack- 
 son showed himself always a tender lover and, 
 on more than one occasion, faced death at the 
 hands of an enemy because of slurring things 
 which had been said of the woman he adored. 
 He could fight for her but she could only die for 
 him. The story goes that, soon after the elec- 
 tion, being in Nashville on a shopping expedition, 
 she found herself very weary and went to the 
 principal inn of the place to rest before starting 
 on the twelve-mile ride to the Hermitage. 
 There, while reclining on a sofa in the back parlor, 
 she overheard through the closed folding-doors 
 some of the cruel slanders of her which had been 
 current campaign gossip, set off by ugly sug- 
 gestions as to the possibility of getting rid of 
 her and sarcastic references to the load the Gen- 
 eral would have to carry if he brought such a 
 wife to the White House. All through the long 
 drive home the cruel words kept ringing in her 
 ears and when her husband met her at Stone's 
 River, after his custom, he noticed that she
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 217 
 
 looked worn and unhappy. ' ' What is the matter, 
 my love? " he inquired anxiously, but could 
 draw nothing from her. To her niece, however, 
 she confided what had occurred, adding that 
 she felt sure that what the gossips had said was 
 true, that she would be of no advantage to her 
 husband in the White House and that she did 
 not wish to go there and disgrace him. Never 
 the same woman after that day at Nashville, 
 she grew more and more feeble as the time for 
 her husband's departure drew near, and almost 
 on its eve she slipped quietly into the great 
 Beyond. 
 
 Jackson's grief was terrible. Nor was he 
 ever quite the same man afterwards. And his 
 wrath against gossip and gossipers was simply 
 unbounded. When asked on his death-bed 
 if he forgave his enemies, he replied, " All ex- 
 cept those who slandered my Rachel to death." 
 
 Only in the light of his poignant sorrow, 
 which he felt to be distinctly chargeable to 
 slander, can we at all understand the extreme 
 position President Jackson took in the famous 
 affair of Mrs. Eaton and the Cabinet ladies. 
 Mrs. Eaton, born Peggy O'Neal, was the daugh- 
 ter of a Washington tavern-keeper, at whose com- 
 fortable old-fashioned house many members of 
 Congress boarded while in the Federal City. 
 Major Eaton, Senator from Tennessee, had lived 
 at this house for ten years and had seen pretty,
 
 218 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 saucy Peggy grow up, become the wife of 
 Purser Timberlake of the United States Navy 
 and the mother of two children. The year be- 
 fore Jackson became President Timberlake had 
 committed suicide in a fit of despondency 
 induced, it was said, by previous intoxication. 
 He had been on duty in the Mediterranean 
 at the time and Mrs. Timberlake had not been 
 with him. Washington had continued to be her 
 home after her marriage as before. Thus, when 
 the death of her husband left her free to enter- 
 tain other marriage proposals, it was not diffi- 
 cult for Major Eaton, who had long admired her 
 (and with whom, indeed, her name had on 
 various occasions been suggestively linked), to 
 ask her to become his wife. They were married 
 in January, 1829, just a few weeks before Gen- 
 eral Jackson arrived at the seat of government. 1 
 All of which might have been well enough had 
 not Major Eaton been appointed Secretary of 
 War and had not President Jackson decreed 
 that to Mrs. Eaton, as to the wives of other 
 Cabinet members, all honor and respect should 
 be accorded. ' The spiteful cats who plagued 
 the life out of my patient Rachel shall not 
 scratch this brave little Peggy!" he swore; 
 and he refused to be moved by the story that 
 
 " General Jackson's enemies laugh and divert themselves with 
 the idea of what a suitable lady in waiting Mrs. Eaton will make to 
 Mrs. Jackson," wrote Mrs. Smith at the tune.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 219 
 
 Mrs. Eaton had borne a bad reputation in 
 Washington from her girlhood; that she had 
 herself instructed the servants to call her chil- 
 dren Eaton and not Timberlake on the ground 
 that that was their rightful name; that Eaton 
 and Mrs. Timberlake had often traveled to- 
 gether as husband and wife etc. etc. etc. Andrew 
 Jackson honestly considered this case to be 
 parallel with his dear dead Rachel's and for 
 him that was enough. 
 
 Mrs. Calhoun, however, positively refused to 
 receive Mrs. Eaton, and thus the strained re- 
 lations already existing between the President 
 and Mr. Calhoun were increased. The Sec- 
 retary of State, Mr. Van Buren, however, being 
 a widower and anxious to oblige his chief, ar- 
 ranged that the fair Peggy be made guest of 
 honor at some dancing parties in which he per- 
 suaded two legation bachelors to join him as 
 hosts, and for a little while it looked as if the 
 lady might be launched in spite of everything. 
 Imagine, therefore, the consternation of these 
 complaisant gentlemen when they beheld sub- 
 stantial Cabinet dames float away and vanish 
 into thin air upon the approach of the radiant 
 and faultlessly attired Mrs. Eaton while cotillion 
 after cotillion dissolved into its original elements 
 when she was given the place at its head. At 
 a very elegant ball, given by the Russian Min- 
 ister, (another bachelor), Mrs. Huygens, wife
 
 220 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of the Dutch Minister, when confronted with 
 the alternative of sitting next to Mrs. Eaton, 
 who had been placed at head of the supper table, 
 or leaving the room, chose the latter course and 
 with great dignity withdrew upon the arm of 
 her husband. It was for this offence that the 
 President threatened to send the minister home. 
 
 He even sent his beloved niece, Mrs. Donelson, 
 home when she refused to bend to his will in 
 this matter! Though compelled, as mistress 
 of the White House, to receive Mrs. Eaton, she 
 absolutely refused to visit her. " Anything else, 
 uncle, I will do for you," she declared, " but 
 not that." ' Then go back to Tennessee, my 
 dear," replied the President. And back to 
 Tennessee she went, her husband, who had been 
 the General's private secretary, of course going 
 with her. Happily, they were both persuaded 
 to return, after an absence of six months, by 
 the interposition of friends. 
 
 Meanwhile the lady who was the cause of all 
 this trouble enjoyed herself to the utmost, 
 frequently entertaining her zealous champions 
 by enacting for them, in the privacy of her home, 
 little scenes from this extraordinary " Bataille 
 de Dames." Finally her husband cut the Gor- 
 dian knot by resigning as a Cabinet officer. The 
 President soon after appointed him governor 
 of the recently acquired Territory of Florida, 
 from which post he was ere long advanced to the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 221 
 
 position of Minister to Spain. At the court of 
 Madrid Mrs. Eaton spent the happiest years she 
 had ever known. General Eaton died in 1859 
 and his widow, who still retained much of her 
 remarkable beauty, eloped not long afterward 
 with an Italian adventurer who taught dancing 
 at Marini's in Washington. That the lady's 
 money and jewels were the real source of at- 
 traction in this case was soon proved by the fact 
 that, after a brief interval, the dancing-master 
 retired from the scene accompanied by the pretty 
 young granddaughter of his elderly consort. 1 
 
 Having now depicted President Jackson at 
 his worst, having shown him as the protagonist 
 of an exceedingly squalid drama, a drama in 
 which his native obstinacy appears at its very 
 crudest, let us turn and take a glimpse of him at 
 his best at home among the little children 
 whom he so dearly loved. The time is in the eve- 
 ning after the day's work is over and the scene 
 " a large parlour, scantily furnished, lighted from 
 above by a chandelier; a bright blazing fire 
 in the grate; around the fire four or five ladies 
 sewing, say Mrs. Donelson, Mrs. Andrew Jack- 
 son [wife of Jackson's adopted son], Mrs. Ed- 
 ward Livingston and another one or two; five 
 or six children from two to seven years of age, 
 
 1 Mrs. Eato^i then divorced the rascally foreigner. She survived 
 until 1879, obviously enjoying herself to the end, inasmuch as her 
 last words are said to have been, " I am not afraid to go but this 
 is such a beauti.ul world! "
 
 222 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 playing about the room, too, regardless of doc- 
 uments and work-baskets. At a distant end 
 of the apartment the President, seated in an 
 arm-chair, wearing a long loose coat, smoking 
 a long reed pipe, with a red clay bowl, exhibiting 
 the combined dignity of a patriarch, a monarch 
 and an Indian chief. A little behind the Presi- 
 dent, Edward Livingston, Secretary of State, 
 reading to him, in a low tone, a dispatch from 
 the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. The 
 President listens intently yet with a certain 
 bland assurance, as though he were saying to 
 himself, * Say you so, Monsieur? We shall see 
 about that.' The ladies glance toward him now 
 and then, with fond admiration expressed in 
 their countenances. The children are too loud 
 occasionally in their play. The President in- 
 clines his ear closer to the Secretary, and waves 
 his pipe absently, but with an exquisite, smiling 
 tenderness toward the noisy group, which, Mrs. 
 Donelson perceiving, she lifts her finger, and 
 whispers admonition.'* 
 
 Mrs. Trollope, who never gave a more favor- 
 able picture of any American than she felt 
 absolutely obliged to do, describes impressively 
 a visit made by Jackson to Cincinnati soon after 
 his election to the Presidency. " More than one 
 private carriage," she says, " was stationed at 
 the water's edge to await the general's orders, 
 but they were dismissed upon the information
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 223 
 
 that he would walk to the hotel. Upon receiving 
 this information the silent crowd divided itself 
 in a very orderly manner, leaving a space for 
 him to walk through them. He did so, uncovered, 
 though the distance was considerable and the 
 weather very cold; but he alone (with the ex- 
 ception of a few European gentlemen who were 
 present) was without a hat. 1 He wore his gray 
 hair carelessly, but not ungracefully arranged, 
 and spite of his harsh gaunt features, he looked 
 like a gentleman and a soldier. He was in deep 
 mourning having very recently lost his wife; they 
 were said to have been very happy together. 2 " 
 
 1 There is considerable evidence that Jackson, in spite of his raga- 
 muffin boyhood, had a finer feeling for the etiquette of the hat than 
 most American men of his time. One of the old slaves on his plan- 
 tation told a visitor who was making inquiries about the life which 
 Jackson there led with his wife that the General, after Mrs. Jack- 
 son's death, was wont to visit some trees he and his Rachel had 
 planted together and, upon leaving them, " would take off his hat, 
 just like they was a lady! " 
 
 2 So happy that never a day passed without the General's remem- 
 bering with thanksgiving to God all that she had meant to him. 
 N. P. Trist, who became Jackson's private secretary early in the 
 Presidency, tells of going to the General's room one night after he 
 had retired and says: " I found Jackson sitting at a little table, 
 with his wife's miniature, a very large one, before him propped up 
 against some books and between him and the picture an open book 
 which bore the mark of long use. This book was her Prayer-Book. 
 The miniature he always wore next to his heart, suspended around 
 his neck by a strong black cord. The last thing he did every night 
 before going to rest was to read in that book with that picture before 
 his eyes." This miniature was done in 1819 (when Mrs. Jackson 
 was 32) by Anna C. Peale. The gown is that which the General's 
 wife wore at the ball given him in New Orleans before his departure, 
 after the victory of January 8.
 
 224 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Plenty of other contemporary chroniclers, to 
 be sure, can be found who will present a much 
 less pleasing picture of this extraordinary man. 
 In those days no domestic scene was too intimate 
 and no social function too impressive to lack 
 its " chiel amang them takin' notes." And al- 
 ways the notes were printed. There were ardent 
 Jackson sheets and virulent Anti-Jackson sheets, 
 the Globe being the best representative of the 
 former and the Intelligencer of the latter. 
 Jefferson * had been the godfather of this 
 " National Smoothing-plane," as the Federalists 
 dubbed it, and Samuel Harrison Smith, other- 
 wise, " Silky Milky Smith," its first editor. The 
 obtuse quality of the paper and its ownership 
 may be gathered from the fact that, when its 
 proprietor, the elder Gales, sat to Charles King 
 to have his portrait painted, insisting that 
 a copy of the Intelligencer be shown in his hand, 
 he quite failed to perceive that, by displaying 
 the words " Dry Goods " very legibly at the 
 top of the page as though at the head of the 
 advertising columns, the painter was taking his 
 revenge ! 
 
 Solid columns of advertising on the front 
 pages and inside fulsome praise for all whose 
 favor was worth currying characterized this 
 
 1 Yet it appears that news in which Jefferson was deeply interested 
 continued to reach his South-Land very slowly. It took Kentucky 
 from November, 1812, until the following February to learn of Madi- 
 son's election!
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 225 
 
 paper during Jackson's time. Notices of " blush- 
 ing virgins " who had been selling for the benefit 
 of helpless orphans " the goods their own fair 
 fingers had made " abound. No wonder the 
 paper failed to satisfy the ardent temperament 
 of Jackson. He desired a vigorous and dominant 
 organ that should announce his "policies"; 
 and with this end in view he brought on from 
 Kentucky Frank Blair, who founded the Globe 
 and soon made himself and his co-workers a 
 power in Washington. In its issue of April 20, 
 1831, the Globe editorially, and quite frankly, 
 may be found declaring that " it will be devoted 
 in the future as it has been hitherto to the 
 discussion and maintenance of the principles 
 which brought General Jackson into office." 
 The same issue states that it will also advocate 
 a second term for Jackson this in spite of 
 the fact that he was then only half through his 
 first term. 
 
 But if the people of Washington were in dead 
 earnest at this time over their politics they were 
 touchingly na'ive concerning their amusements. 
 The same issue of the Globe which has been al- 
 ready cited advertises a show whose chief 
 features are the " Great Anaconda of Java" 
 and the " Boa Constrictors of Ceylon " both 
 of which are declared to be " so docile that 
 the most timVd lady or child may view them with 
 safety and pleasure." There was very little
 
 226 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 else to " view " in the Washington of those days. 
 When a Philadelphia company stopped on its 
 way to Savannah there was good drama in the 
 United States Theatre, the first playhouse of 
 the city, or the Washington Theatre, opened 
 in 1820. In the latter house appeared in the 
 course of the years the elder Booth, Macready 
 and Thomas Apthorpe Cooper. It is interesting 
 to note, in passing, that to Cooper's Virginius 
 his young daughter, who afterwards married 
 Robert Tyler and during a portion of the four- 
 teenth administration presided over the White 
 House, at this time played Virginia. 
 
 Horse-racing was the chief amusement, even 
 the fashionables joining with zest in this diver- 
 sion. Mrs. Seaton gives a lively description 
 of a race she witnessed in October, 1812, and Dr. 
 Cutler thus describes the institution of the 
 race-course as he saw it in 1803. ' The race- 
 ground is an old field with something of a rising 
 in the centre. The race path is made about 
 fifty feet wide, measuring just one mile from the 
 bench of the judges round to the stage again. 
 In the centre of this circle a prodigious number 
 of booths are erected, which stand upon the 
 highest part of the ground. Under them are 
 tables spread much like the booths at Commence- 
 ment (at Cambridge), but on the top, for they 
 are all built of boards on platforms to accommo- 
 date spectators. At the time of the racing these
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 227 
 
 are filled with persons of all descriptions. On 
 the western side and without the circle is rising 
 ground, where the carriages of the most respect- 
 able people take their stand. These, if they were 
 not all Democrats, I should call the noblesse. 
 Their carriages are elegant, and their attendants 
 and servants numerous. They are from dif- 
 ferent parts of the Southern and Middle states 
 and filled principally with ladies, and about 
 one hundred in number. . . . While the horses 
 were running the whole ground within the circle 
 was spread over with people on horseback 
 stretching round full speed to different parts 
 of the circle to see the race. This was a striking 
 part of the show, for it was supposed there were 
 about 800 on horseback, and many of them 
 mounted on excellent horses. There were about 
 200 carriages and between 3000 and 4000 people 
 black and white and yellow; of all condi- 
 tions from the President of the United States 
 to the beggar in his rags; of all ages and of 
 both sexes, for I should judge one-third were 
 females." 
 
 Another writer, Warden, tells us that " women 
 in the territory of Columbia have no reason to 
 complain of the degradation to which they are 
 exposed by the tyrant man. Free and innocent, 
 they go where they please, both before and after 
 marriage and have no need to have recourse 
 to dissimulation and cunning for their own re-
 
 228 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 pose and that of their husbands." This same 
 writer also mentions a number of " peculiar 
 customs," of which the following are some: 
 " Both sexes, whether on horseback or on foot, 
 wear an umbrella in all seasons; in summer, to 
 keep off the sunbeams, in winter as a shelter from 
 the rain and snow; in spring and autumn to 
 intercept the dews of the evening. Persons of 
 all ranks canter their horses, which movement 
 fatigues the animal, and has an ungraceful ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 " Boarders in boarding-houses, or in taverns," 
 this entertaining chronicler further records, 
 " sometimes throw off the coat during the heat 
 of summer; and in winter, the shoes, for the 
 purpose of warming the feet at the fire cus- 
 toms which the climate only can excuse." 
 
 In a curious little book, Description of Eti- 
 quette at Washington City, by E. Cooley, M. D., 
 which appears to have been published in 
 Philadelphia in 1830, there are printed detailed 
 rules for the proper conduct of visitors to Wash- 
 ington! Here we learn that from noon until 
 dinner time at four o'clock is the proper time 
 for making morning calls; that ladies, when at- 
 tending sessions of the Supreme Court, go in, 
 " resting on the left arm " of the gentleman 
 who is acting as their escort; that it is " quite 
 uncommon to see a gentleman and lady walk 
 out together without her resting on the gentle-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 229 
 
 man's arm - unless they are fresh arrivals "; 
 and that on Sunday the streets are left almost 
 entirely to the colored people, " who dress them- 
 selves very fine, male and female, and walk out 
 arm in arm, in imitation of the white belles and 
 beaux." In odd juxtaposition with these coun- 
 sels of frivolity Dr. Cooley prints the Declara- 
 tion of Independence and the Constitution of 
 the United States. 
 
 Foreign visitors, especially those of high 
 literary reputation, were immensely " lionized " 
 in the Washington of the middle thirties, even 
 such sensible women as Mrs. Samuel Harrison 
 Smith putting themselves to great trouble and 
 expense for the sake of " doing the proper thing." 
 When Harriet Martineau came to Washington, 
 in 1835, the fact that she was deaf, very serious- 
 minded and the author of books so profound 
 that almost none of the Washington women had 
 read them did not prevent her from being feted 
 nearly to death. A very amusing account of 
 Mrs. Smith's preliminary preparations for the 
 dinner she purposed giving Miss Martineau is 
 found in a letter to her sister. 1 ' The day pre- 
 vious," she writes, " I sent for Henry Orr, 
 whom I had always employed when I had com- 
 pany and who is the most experienced and 
 fashionable waiter in the city. ' Henry,' said 
 I, when he came, ' I am going to have a small 
 
 1 The First Forty Years of Washington Society.
 
 230 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 dinner party but, though small, I wish it to be 
 peculiarly nice, everything of the best and most 
 fashionable.' ' 
 
 Whereupon Henry proceeds to tell her that 
 even for a " small genteel dinner " thirty dishes 
 of meat are absolutely necessary. ' For side 
 dishes,' quoth he, * you will have a very small 
 ham, a small turkey, on each side of them par- 
 tridges, mutton chops or sweetbreads, a macaroni 
 pie, an oyster pie ' ' That will do, that will 
 do, Henry, now for vegetables.' ' Well, ma'am, 
 stewed celery, spinach, salsify, cauliflower.' ' In- 
 deed, Henry, you must substitute potatoes, 
 beets, &c.' ' Why ma'am, they will not be 
 genteel but, to be sure, if you say so, it must be 
 so. Mrs. Forsyth, the other day, would have 
 a plum pudding, she will keep to old fashions.' 
 ' What, Henry, plum pudding out of fashion? ' 
 * La, yes, ma'am, all kinds of puddings and pies.' 
 ' Why, what then must I have at the head and 
 foot of the table? ' ' Forms of ice-cream at 
 the head, and a pyramid of anything, grapes, 
 oranges or anything handsome at the foot.' 
 
 " ' And the other dishes? ' pursued Mrs. 
 Smith eagerly. ' Jellies, custards, blanc-mange, 
 cakes, sweetmeats and sugar-plums,' answered 
 the unperturbed Henry. ' No nuts, raisins, 
 figs? ' * Oh, no ma'am they are quite vulgar.' ' 
 Yet as these two talk on it develops that, the 
 day before, at one of the magnificent dinners
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 231 
 
 given for " the great English lady," Henry, 
 who was waiting on table, had particularly 
 noticed, with an eye to future business, what she 
 ate and found that " a little turkey and a mite 
 of ham " was all absolutely all that she 
 took so absorbed were she and Mr. Clay in 
 their discussion of national debts ! * They tells 
 me ma'am," Henry confides, " that she is the 
 greatest writer in England. ... If not another 
 besides her was invited you ought to have a 
 grand dinner. ... I dare say, ma'am," he 
 tempted, " she'll put you in one of her books, 1 
 so you should do your very best." 
 
 Yet eight dishes of meat were all to which 
 Mrs. Smith would consent. The next day, 
 when she hastened upstairs from the dining- 
 room, she found Miss Martineau and her com- 
 panion, Miss Jeffries, combing their hair in 
 quite a comfortable and homely fashion. ' You 
 see," said the great English writer, " we have 
 complied with your request and come sociably 
 to pass the day with you. We have been walk- 
 
 1 Miss Martineau did, as a matter of fact, put most of her Ameri- 
 can experiences in her book, Society in America. A good many 
 mistakes may be found in this work and rather too much dogmatism 
 as well. But John Graham Brooks, who has made a special study 
 of books which foreigners have written about America, declares that 
 " at that time, not two books had been written on the United States 
 so full of truth, so enriched by careful observation and stated with 
 more sobriety." George Eliot once declared Miss Martineau to 
 be " the only Englishwoman who possesses thoroughly the art of 
 writing."
 
 232 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 ing all the morning, our lodgings were too distant 
 to return, so we have done as those who have 
 no carriages do in England when they go to 
 pass a social day." Mrs. Smith offered combs, 
 brushes &c but Miss Martineau, showing the 
 enormous pockets in her dress, said that they 
 were provided with all that was necessary, and 
 pulled out " nice little silk shoes, silk stockings, 
 a scarf for her neck, little lace mits, a gold chain 
 and some other jewelry, and soon, without chang- 
 ing her dress, was prettily equipped for dinner or 
 evening company." 
 
 Even with only eight dishes of meat the din- 
 ner was a success, too. Not being served until 
 the then-very-late hour of five o'clock, the cur- 
 tains were drawn and the candles lighted; and 
 Miss Martineau, notwithstanding the fact that 
 those who wished to talk with her had to do so 
 through a tube, delighted them all by her charm 
 and intelligence. "Ease and animation per- 
 vaded the whole of the company," concludes 
 Mrs. Smith, happily, " we had some delightful 
 singing from the young ladies Scotch songs 
 to perfection. It was eleven o'clock before the 
 party broke up! " 
 
 A very interesting, but little understood, 
 character of the early Republican period in 
 Washington was Anne Roy all, publicist and 
 editor. John Quincy Adams once bestowed 
 upon Mrs. Royall the title " virago-errant in
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 233 
 
 enchanted armor "; most books about Washing- 
 ton refer to her, as " that common scold, Anne 
 Roy all." None the less, the fact remains that 
 Mrs. Roy all was one of the most vigorous and 
 picturesque personages of her time, a woman 
 quite worthy of the scholarly and gallant biog- 
 raphy l recently written about her by Sarah 
 Harvey Porter. 
 
 A pioneer journalist, Mrs. Royall had the 
 unique privilege of talking with every man who 
 became President of the United States from 
 George Washington to Abraham Lincoln in- 
 clusive. Hence her personal history is more 
 " closely intertwined with, and more analogous 
 to, the growth of our Republic than that of 
 any other woman of whom record is preserved." 
 It is, however, chiefly because Mrs. Royall is 
 " very good fun " that Miss Porter, according 
 to her own words, has resurrected her; and it is 
 because the story of Mrs. Royall will help us 
 to understand the times of which she was a 
 part that I wish here to retrace her career. 
 Born in Maryland in 1769, she lived, until she 
 was thirteen, on the Indian -haunted frontier of 
 Pennsylvania. At the age of twenty-eight she 
 met and married Captain Royall, many years 
 her senior, and to him it was that she owed the 
 education which made her able to do a man's 
 work in the world at a time when most women 
 
 1 The Life and Times of Anne Royatt: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1909.
 
 234 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 were tender, sheltered and helpless things. 
 " Captain Roy all constantly led Anne to the 
 contemplation of the principles of just govern- 
 ment as laid down by his master Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, and this training in state politics," declares 
 Miss Porter, " was the foundation of Mrs. 
 Roy all's newspaper work long afterward." 
 
 Then her husband died and Mrs. Roy all lost, 
 for a time, the power to find a solace in books. 
 But she traveled much at this period of her 
 life, going from town to town with three slaves 
 and a courier and drinking in the impressions 
 which were afterwards to serve her so well. 
 She was not yet pressed for money, as she came 
 to be when her husband's nephew broke the 
 will by which she had been left comfortably 
 off. How very individual a person she had al- 
 ready become we see, however, from some letters 
 which, about this time, she sent to a young 
 lawyer-friend. " Novels," she there declares, 
 " corrupt the morals of our females and engender 
 hardness of heart to real distress. Those most 
 pleased with fictitious distress have hearts 
 as hard as iron." Such was not Mrs. Royall's 
 own heart. Wherever she went she extended 
 a helping hand to women who needed her, be- 
 lieving that nothing more calls for changing 
 in this world than woman's inhumanity to 
 woman. Once when her young correspondent's 
 " conventional male " views had aroused her
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 235 
 
 resentment she wrote, * You ask whether I 
 would have ladies ' take such persons into their 
 homes, associate with them? ' Yes, if they 
 repent; I would not only take them into my 
 house but unto my bosom. I would wipe the 
 tears from their eyes I would soothe their 
 sorrows, and support them in the trying hour. 
 I would divide my last morsel with them. For 
 those who would not repent if they were 
 hungry, I would feed them; if they were naked 
 I would clothe them; and much more, if they 
 were sick I would minister unto them; I would 
 admonish them and I would then have done. 
 What did our Saviour? I would not revile them. 
 I would not persecute them." And Anne Roy all 
 lived up to the womanly charity that she 
 preached. So consistently a Christian was she 
 that her humble dwelling in Washington served 
 almost continually as a refuge for some homeless, 
 fallen woman ! Yet she was persecuted, actually 
 persecuted by the religious press of her time! 
 
 Two reasons there were for this, or, I may 
 better say, two explanations: Anne Royall 
 believed in and defended Masonry and she 
 disbelieved in and attacked canting Evangel- 
 icalism. Hence we find the New England Re- 
 ligious Weekly declaring, during the Jackson 
 era, " Mistress Anne Royall ... is now ap- 
 plying herself to her old vocation with all the 
 virulence of a Meg Merrilies. The old hag
 
 236 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 publishes a weekly paper at Washington, ycleped 
 the Paul Pry, which is a strong Jackson print 
 and contains all the scum, billingsgate and filth 
 extant." Mrs. Royall, after reprinting this 
 unflattering picture of herself and her paper, 
 comments dryly, " Wonder in what part of the 
 Bible he found that? " 
 
 Not that the lady herself treated too gently 
 those who did not agree with her. Noble as 
 she was in certain aspects, it is undeniable that 
 she often dipped her pen in venom. To those 
 she did not like she accorded words quite as 
 bitter as her praise was fulsome on other oc- 
 casions. This was, however, due in part to 
 the very great hardships of her life in Washing- 
 ton. When she had first arrived in the city with 
 which her name was for so long to be associated 
 she was a stranger, penniless and in bad health. 
 Moreover, she was a lone woman and she 
 was fifty -five years old. She was then preparing 
 and securing subscriptions to her initial book, 
 Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the 
 United States, and one of the first calls she made 
 was upon John Quincy Adams, at this time 
 Secretary of State under President Monroe. 
 It is greatly to this good man's credit that he 
 received the little woman courteously, paid his 
 subscription to her book in advance, invited 
 her to call on Mrs. Adams at their residence 
 in F Street, and promised to give his earnest
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 237 
 
 support to her claim for the pension of a Rev- 
 olutionary officer's widow. This promise he 
 scrupulously fulfilled, and Mrs. Roy all never 
 forgot his kindness to her that morning when 
 she was an utter stranger in a strange city. 
 
 The book for which Adams had subscribed 
 came out two years later, and within five years 
 after that, while constantly traveling, Mrs. 
 Royall issued no less than eleven volumes! 
 A contemporary reviewer 1 thus characterizes 
 her work: " She marches on, speaking her mind 
 freely, and unpacks her heart in words of cen- 
 sure or praise as she feels. Sometimes she lets 
 fall more truths than the interested reader would 
 wish to hear, and at others overwhelms her 
 friends with a flattery still more appalling. At 
 any rate, hit or miss, the sentiments she gives 
 are undoubtedly her own; nor will it be denied 
 that she has given some very good outlines of 
 character. Her book is more amusing than any 
 novel we have read for years." Writing nearly 
 a century later, I can add that her books are 
 sprightly in style and hence make good read- 
 ing. 
 
 It was not, however, until she had hit upon 
 the device of compiling books whose chief feature 
 should be pen portraits of famous living people 
 that Mrs. Royall became a real power in Wash- 
 ington. " I wish to write books that people 
 
 1 In The Boston Commercial. ,
 
 238 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 will read," she said in frank explanation of this 
 departure, " and I find there is nothing like 
 throwing in plenty of spice. Possibly a gentle- 
 man may not like his portrait (for which he can 
 give no reason) yet twenty other gentlemen may, 
 and may buy the book for the sake of the por- 
 trait." But Mrs. Royall's " spice " must not 
 be confused with that of modern sensationalism. 
 There was nothing of the blackmailer about her; 
 she never pried into closets to discover family 
 skeletons. The names of her newspapers, Paul 
 Pry and the Huntress were most unfortunate, 
 for they connote the kind of thing her work 
 distinctly was not. Her concern, as a journalist, 
 was that the state be kept free from the church ; 
 that Masons 1 receive credit for noble idealism 
 instead of abuse; that canting " Missionaries " 
 be shown up as the hypocrites they often were; 
 and that the CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 UNITED STATES (the object of her adoration) 
 be carefully and on all occasion safeguarded. 
 Of course, she was in many ways the child of 
 her time and, like her contemporaries, handled 
 without gloves those whom she believed to be 
 enemies of the country. Thus it was that she 
 came to be indicted as a common scold. Only 
 narrowly, indeed, did this doughty old woman 
 escape a ducking in the Potomac (in 1829) 
 
 1 The Anti-Masons were, at this time, a powerful and well-or- 
 ganized political faction.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 239 
 
 under the provisions of an obsolete law then 
 exhumed for her benefit! 
 
 That Anne Royall was a woman of tremendous 
 courage is proved by the fact that, the very 
 next year after being thus persecuted, she started 
 her first Washington paper, the Paul Pry. 
 A four-page paper, with selected material and 
 advertisements on the two outside pages, this 
 sheet, on its inside, was devoted to editorials 
 and to political and local news, all of which was 
 deeply colored by Mrs. Royall's personal preju- 
 dices. One article, in an early issue, was against 
 " Old Maids," then a term of reproach because 
 there were at that time in our country plenty 
 of men to go around. Mrs. Royall did not 
 coin the phrase " race-suicide," but she was 
 probably the first American to preach against 
 that evil in print, Miss Porter thinks, adding 
 that she was certainly the first woman to do so. 
 
 For Andrew Jackson, whose personality dom- 
 inated the United States throughout most of 
 the years during which Mrs. Royall was a news- 
 paper editor, the Paul Pry fought valiantly 
 not, as might be supposed, because Jacksonians 
 had bought up the sheet, but because Mrs. 
 Royall warmly admired Jackson the man. Miss 
 Porter quotes a delightful story about a dinner 
 which Jackson and the little-old-woman-journal- 
 ist together enjoyed on one occasion. She had 
 called in to present one of her books to the Presi-
 
 240 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 dent and, when she opened her budget, he saw 
 a partridge in the feather which she had bought 
 for her dinner. He invited her in and the poor 
 old woman made a hearty meal with him. 
 
 Anne Royall was, indeed, poor; but not so 
 poor that she would sell the silence of her little 
 sheet on a question which seemed to her vital. 
 Once, when she was hungry and cold and very 
 depleted as to wardrobe, she was offered two 
 thousand dollars for such silence. But she re- 
 fused the bribe. " Some people think we write 
 for money," she then said, " and so we do, but 
 we are not a hireling writer." So effectively, 
 indeed, did she attack what seemed to her evils 
 that, on more than one occasion, she was sub- 
 jected to physical violence. But this did not 
 deter her from fighting for the causes to which 
 she had pledged allegiance. One of these was 
 opposing a law to stop the transportation of 
 mail on Sunday, another opposition to a threat- 
 ened nullification of the tariff laws. Mrs. 
 Royall and that other famous journalist of 
 our own day, Ida Tarbell, appear to be the only 
 women America has produced with ability 
 to grasp the ins and outs of tariff legislation! 
 
 Nothing but the necessity of " repairing our 
 clothes " caused the Huntress and the Paul 
 Pry to skip an issue. " No paper will be issued 
 from this office this week," we sometimes find 
 the editor announcing. " We really must take
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 241 
 
 one week once in ten years to fix up our ward- 
 robe, which is getting shabby! " Truly had 
 Anne Royall said, " You might stop my breath 
 if you stop my pen." Even at eighty-five she 
 was putting out her two little sheets on time, 
 confiding to her readers, in the Huntress of 
 June 24, 1854, that " we are getting strong and 
 feel as blithe and gay as ever." Her end was 
 near, however; for the following month she 
 issued (July 2) what was to prove her Valedic- 
 tory. Here she says editorially : ' We trust 
 in Heaven for three things : First, that Members 
 may give us the means to pay for this paper 
 perhaps three or four cents a Member a few of 
 them are behind hand in their subscriptions, but 
 the fault is not theirs; it was owing to Sally's 
 sickness. Others, again, have paid us from two 
 to six dollars. Our printer is a poor man. We 
 have only thirty -one cents in the world, and for 
 the first time since we have resided in this city 
 thirty -one years we were unable to pay our 
 last month's rent. . . . Second, that Washington 
 may escape that dreadful scourge, the cholera. 
 Our third prayer is [and these were Anne Roy all's 
 last printed words] that the UNION OF THESE 
 STATES MAY BE ETERNAL." 
 
 Though Mrs. Royall's later life falls outside 
 the period to which this book intends, for the 
 most, to limit itself, her entire career has here 
 been included because she really belongs in
 
 242 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the early Republic. I regard her, indeed, as 
 a forgotten heroine of that far-away time and 
 I am glad to honor her, as has Dr. Ainsworth 
 R. Spofford, 1 " because, in a ruder age than ours, 
 she conquered adversity and ate her hard- 
 earned bread in the sweat of her brow." 
 
 1 In a paper on " Early Washington Journalists."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 
 UP to the time of the Revolution Baltimore 
 increased very slowly in size. One chron- 
 icler tells us that, in 1752, the settlement 
 had only twenty-five houses and two hundred 
 inhabitants. (A Rooseveltian family for each 
 house!) Even as late as 1773 the town had 
 no newspaper, merchants sending their advertise- 
 ments to Annapolis and Philadelphia until that 
 happy day when William Goddard, who had 
 for some years been a successful publisher in 
 Pennsylvania, removed to Maryland and issued 
 (Friday morning, October 20, 1773,) his first 
 copy of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore 
 Advertiser. At this early period Fairs were held 
 at stated intervals, thus doing something to 
 promote exchange; but Baltimore had not yet 
 become the chief town of the Province nor gained 
 any great commercial ascendency. 
 
 Delightfully simple appear to have been the 
 social customs of the place in these pre-Revolu- 
 tionary days. As it drew towards evening, the
 
 244 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 old diarists tell us, it was the custom of the 
 family, " especially the female part," to dress 
 up neatly and sit on the street porch. Callers 
 went from porch to porch in their neighborhood 
 to sit awhile and converse. Merchants then 
 lived on the same spot where they pursued their 
 business and their wives and daughters very 
 often served in the stores. The retail dry -goods 
 business was mostly in the hands of widows or 
 maiden ladies. At Christmas, dinners and sup- 
 pers went the round of every social circle, and 
 they who partook of the former were also ex- 
 pected to remain for the latter. Men and women 
 then hired out by the year as servants in a fashion 
 which would have delighted Mrs. Trollope, 1 
 the former getting sixteen to twenty pounds 
 annually for their labor and the latter about 
 half these sums. Yet even out of these small 
 wages people were able to " lay up money," 
 as the phrase goes, and so, when ready for mar- 
 riage, could buy the bed, bedding and silver tea- 
 spoons and the spinning-wheel and " dresser >! 
 absolutely essential to a self-respecting house- 
 hold of that day. Where the contracting parties 
 were " well off," getting married involved a 
 large expenditure for entertainment, however. 
 Those who came to dine remained for tea and 
 supper, also. And for two days punch was dealt 
 out in profusion. 
 
 1 Cf. Domestic Manners of the Americans, p. 61.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 245 
 
 Happily cookery in general was plainer then 
 than now. Chocolate was served morning and 
 evening coffee as a beverage being little used. 
 Of furniture most households had only the 
 necessary things prior to the War of Independ- 
 ence, sofas, carpets, sideboards and marble 
 mantels being practically unknown. " A white 
 floor sprinkled with clean white sand, large 
 tables and heavy, high-backed chairs of solid 
 walnut or mahogany were considered all that a 
 parlour needed. Upstairs there would be a show 
 parlour, not used except upon gala occasions, and 
 then not to dine in." 
 
 One very curious custom which had some 
 vogue in the Baltimore of this period was that 
 of transplanting teeth. A certain Doctor Le 
 Mayeur, a dentist of Philadelphia, had con- 
 ceived the idea of buying the front teeth of 
 those willing to sell and placing the same in 
 the mouths of those anxious to replace losses. 
 Two guineas was often paid the person with a 
 tooth to trade. And several respectable ladies 
 of Baltimore invested in these articles, gladly 
 living on milk and soft food for two months for 
 the sake of their greatly improved appearance 
 when the bough ten teeth had "grown in." One of 
 the " Mischianza " belles had such teeth, we are 
 disenchantingly told. Which one, however, 
 deponent saith not. I fervently hope it was not 
 our lovely Peggy Shippen!
 
 246 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 While the Revolution was in progress, a 
 spirit of enterprise began to show itself in Balti- 
 more and during the early days of the Republic l 
 trade in the staple productions of Maryland - 
 particularly tobacco grew apace. Organized 
 amusements, too, now come to the fore, the 
 dancing assembly soon obtaining high vogue. 
 The subscription here was 3 155, admitting 
 " no gentleman under 21 years, nor lady under 
 18. The supper consisted of tea, chocolate, 
 and rusk. Everything was conducted by rule 
 of six married managers, who distributed places 
 by lot, and partners were engaged for the evening, 
 leaving nothing to the success of forwardness 
 or favoritism. Gentlemen always drank tea 
 with the parents of the ladies who were their 
 partners, the day after the assembly a sure 
 means of producing a more lasting acquaintance, 
 if mutually desirable." 2 Invitations to these 
 functions were printed on the backs of playing- 
 cards, blank cards not being then obtainable 
 in America. To these balls guests, women as 
 well as men, often rode in full dress on horse- 
 back. For prior to 1800 not over half a dozen 
 four-wheel carriages could be found in the entire 
 city. 
 
 The theatre-going spirit appears to have been 
 
 1 Baltimore town became a city December 31, 1796, with a pop- 
 ulation of about 20,000. 
 
 2 Scharfs Chronicles,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 247 
 
 active in Maryland even before Baltimore had 
 evolved beyond the village stage. Annapolis, 
 indeed, claims the first theatre, in point of time, 
 ever erected in the United States! 'This," 
 we read, 1 *' was a neat brick building, taste- 
 fully arranged, and competent to contain be- 
 tween five and six hundred persons. It was 
 built upon ground which had been leased from 
 St. Ann's Protestant Episcopal Church, which 
 lease expired about the year 1820, when the 
 church took possession of the theatre." Thus, 
 at the time when Baltimore had only its " 25 
 houses and 200 inhabitants," the " Beaux' Strat- 
 agem " was being performed (July 13, 1752) at 
 a theatre in nearby Annapolis! In Baltimore 
 no temple to the dramatic muse was erected 
 for another thirty years. The following play- 
 bill was then published in the papers of the day : 
 
 THE NEW THEATRE IN BALTIMORE 
 
 Will Open, This Evening, being the 15th of January, 1782, 
 With an HISTORICAL TRAGEDY, called 
 
 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 Containing The Distresses and death of King Henry 
 VI. in the Tower; The inhuman Murder of the young 
 Prince ; the Usurpation of the Throne by Richard; the 
 Fall of the Duke of Buckingham; the landing of Rich- 
 mond at Milfords Haven; the Battle of Bosworth Field, 
 and Death of Richard, which put an end to the Conten- 
 
 iScharfs Chronicles, p. 113..
 
 248 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 tion between the Houses of York and Lancaster; with 
 many other Historical Passages. 
 
 King Richard, by Mr. Wall. 
 
 Earl of Richmond ") By Gentlemen for their Amuse- 
 And Tressel > ment. 
 
 King Henry, by Mr. Tilyard; Duke of Buckingham, 
 by Mr. Shakespeare; Prince Edward, by a young Gentle- 
 man; Duke of York, by Miss Wall; Lord Stanley, Mr. 
 Lindsay; Catesby, by Mr. Killgour; Ratcliff, by Mr. 
 Atherton; Lady Anne, by Mr. Bartholomew; Queen 
 Elizabeth, by Mrs. Wall. 
 
 An OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE by MR. WALL, 
 
 to which will be added a FARCE, called 
 
 MISS IN HER TEENS 
 Or The Medley of Lovers. 
 
 Boxes: one Dollar: Pit Five Shillings; Galleries 9d. 
 
 Doors to be open at Half-past Four, and will begin at 
 Six o'clock. 
 
 No persons can be admitted without Tickets, which 
 may be had at the Coffee House in Baltimore, and at 
 Lindlay's Coffee House on Fells-Point. 
 
 %.* No Persons will on any pretence be admitted behind 
 the Scenes. 
 
 Concerning this old Play House John P. 
 Kennedy, writing l in the middle of the last 
 century of the Baltimore of long ago, has much 
 that is delightful to say: " It stood in Holliday 
 Street on the site afterwards occupied by a 
 * theatre.' What a superb thinglt was ! speak- 
 
 1 In Our Country, Baltimore, 1864.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 249 
 
 ing now as my fancy imagined it then. It had 
 something of the splendor of a great barn, 
 weather-hoarded, milk white, with many win- 
 dows, and to my conception, looked with a 
 hospitable, patronizing, tragi-comic greeting 
 down upon the street. It never occurred to 
 me to think of it as a piece of architecture. It 
 was something above that a huge mystical 
 Aladdin's lamp that had a magic to repel criti- 
 cism and was filled with wonderful histories. 
 There Blue Beard strangled his wives and hung 
 them on pegs in the Blue Chamber; . . . and 
 there the Babes in the Wood went to sleep 
 under the coverlet provided for them by the 
 charitable robins that swung down upon wires, 
 
 which we thought was even superior to the 
 ordinary manner of flying; and the ghost of 
 Gaffer Thumb came up through the floor, as 
 white as a dredge box of flour could make him 
 
 much more natural than any common ghost 
 we had seen. . . . The age now, is too fast for 
 the old illusions and the theatre deals in re- 
 spectable swindlers, burglars and improper 
 young ladies as more consonant with the public 
 favour than our old devils, ghosts and assassins, 
 which were always in their true colors and were 
 sure to be severely punished when they perse- 
 cuted innocence. 
 
 " The players were part and parcel of the 
 play-house and therefore shared in the juvenile
 
 250 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 admiration with which it was regarded. . . . 
 The players understood this, and therefore did 
 not allow themselves to grow too familiar. 
 One company served Baltimore and Phila- 
 delphia, and they had their appointed seasons 
 a few months or even weeks at a time, and 
 they played only three times a week. ' The 
 actors are coming hither, my lord,' would seem 
 to intimate that this was the condition of things 
 at Elsinore one company and a periodical 
 visit. In old Baltimore, too, there was universal 
 gladness when the word was passed round 
 * the players are come.' It instantly became 
 everybody's business to give them a good re- 
 ception. . . . When our players came with their 
 short seasons, their three nights in a week, and 
 their single company they were received as 
 public benefactors, and their stay was a period 
 of carnival. The boxes were engaged for every 
 night. Families all went together, young and 
 old. Smiles were on every face: the town was 
 happy. The elders did not frown on the drama, 
 the clergy levelled no cannon against it, the 
 critics were amiable. The chief actors were in- 
 vited into the best company, and I believe their 
 personal merits entitled them to all the esteem 
 that was felt for them." 
 
 Of the Kembles, whom we find being hos- 
 pitably entertained at Baltimore in 1833, this 
 last statement is certainly true. What Fanny
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 251 
 
 Kemble says about the courtesies she received 
 here and of the way the town impressed her 
 is very interesting and so worth while to quote 
 even if it does take us a little too far ahead in 
 point of time. " Baltimore, itself, as far as I 
 have seen it, strikes me as a large rambling 
 red-brick village on the outskirts of one of our 
 manufacturing towns, Birmingham or Manches- 
 ter. It covers an immense extent of ground, 
 but there are great gaps and vacancies in the 
 middle . . . which at present give it an un- 
 tidy, unfinished straggling appearance. 
 
 * While my father and I were exploring about 
 together yesterday, we came to a print-shop, 
 whose window exhibited an engraving of Reyn- 
 olds's Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, and 
 Lawrence's picture of my uncle John in Hamlet. 
 We stopped before them, and my father looked 
 with a good deal of emotion at these beautiful 
 representations of his beautiful kindred, and 
 it was a sort of sad surprise to meet them in 
 this other world where we are wandering, aliens 
 and strangers. This is the newest-looking place 
 we have yet visited, the youngest in appearance 
 in this young world; and I have experienced 
 today a disagreeable instance of its immature 
 civilization, or at any rate, its small proficiencies 
 in the elegances of life. I wanted to ride but, 
 although a horse was to be found, no such thing 
 as a side-saddle could be procured at any livery-
 
 252 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 stable or saddler's in the town, so I have been 
 obliged to give up my projected exercise. . . . 
 
 ' There is a foreign I mean continental 
 custom here, which is pleasant. They have a 
 table d'hote dinner at two o'clock, and while it 
 is going on a very tolerable band plays all man- 
 ner of Italian airs and German waltzes, and as 
 there is a fine long corridor into which my room- 
 door opens, with a window at each end, I have 
 a very agreeable promenade, and take my exer- 
 cise to this musical accompaniment. . . . Our 
 windows are all wide open; the heat is in- 
 tense. 1 . . . 
 
 " In a week's time we are going on to Wash- 
 ington, where we shall find dear Washington 
 Irving, whom I think I shall embrace, for Eng- 
 land's sake as well as his own. We have letters 
 to the President, to whom we are to be presented, 
 and to his rival, Henry Clay, and to Daniel 
 Webster, whom I care more to know than 
 either of the others. ... I spent yesterday with 
 some very pleasant people here, who are like 
 old-fashioned English folk, the Catons, Lady 
 Wellesley's father and mother. They are just 
 now in deep mourning for Mrs. Caton's father, 
 the venerable Mr. Carroll, who was upward of 
 ninety-five years old when he died, and was the 
 last surviving signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence. I saw a lovely picture by Law- 
 
 1 Though it was January I
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 253 
 
 rence of the eldest of the three beautiful sisters, 
 the daughters of Mrs. Caton, who have all 
 married Englishmen of rank. (The Marchioness 
 of Wellesley, the Duchess of Leeds, and Lady 
 Stafford. The fashion of marrying in England 
 seems to be traditional in this family. Miss 
 McTavish, niece of these ladies, married Mr. 
 Charles Howard, son of the Earl of Carlisle.) 
 The Baltimore women are celebrated for their 
 beauty, and I think they are the prettiest 
 creatures I have ever seen as far as their faces 
 
 go." 
 
 Of the " three beautiful Catons," as they were 
 called, Mary Ann (the Marchioness of Wellesley) 
 had married Robert Patterson, brother of Mrs. 
 Jerome Bonaparte, for her first husband. She 
 was the lady whom the Duke of Wellington long 
 admired and who, when a widow, consoled her- 
 self (in 1825) by espousing his brother, then 
 Viceroy of Ireland. It was of this famous 
 beauty that Richard Lalor Shiel, who saw her 
 as a mature woman at a ball in Dublin, said, with 
 quite unconscious condescension, " Nobody 
 would have suspected that she had not 
 originally belonged to the proud aristocracy 
 to which she had been recently annexed. She 
 had nothing of la bourgeoise parvenue. She ex- 
 ecuted her courtesies with a remarkable grace- 
 fulness, and her stateliness sat as naturally 
 upon her as though she inherited it by royal
 
 254 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 descent! " She died at Hampton Court in 
 December, 1853. 
 
 Following Fanny Kemble has, however, led 
 us too far ahead in our story of Baltimore. 
 For the town was still a pretty primitive place 
 even if its daughters were marrying into the 
 nobility of Europe. Hogs ran loose in the 
 streets early in the century and for many years 
 later, 1 engaged apparently in the function of 
 the scavengers. 
 
 For the Baltimore of this period, " when 
 building lots were for the most part still sold 
 by the acre, " though passing out of the village 
 phase, had not yet left behind it its village lim- 
 itations and its village peculiarities. It had 
 its heroes and its fine old gentlemen, its ac- 
 complished lawyers, divines, physicians and 
 public-spirited merchants. The people all knew 
 them and treated them with amiable deference. 
 Society, too, had a more aristocratic air then than 
 later not because the educated and wealthy 
 assumed more, but because the community it- 
 self had a better appreciation of personal worth, 
 and voluntarily gave it the healthful privilege 
 of taking the lead in the direction of manners 
 and in the conducting of public affairs. This 
 was, perhaps, the lingering characteristic of 
 colonial life, which the Revolution had not 
 effaced. 
 
 1 Von Ra inner.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 255 
 
 The avenue of a fine afternoon was a very 
 delightful promenade in spite of the pigs, we 
 must conclude. For there might be seen " ma- 
 trons and damsels, some with looped up skirts, 
 some in brocade luxuriantly displayed over hoops, 
 with comely boddices supported by stays dis- 
 closing perilous waists, and with sleeves that 
 clung to the arm as far as the elbow, where they 
 were lost in ruffles that stood off like the feathers 
 of the bantam. . . . And then such faces! so 
 rosy, spirited and sharp ; with the hair drawn 
 over a cushion . . . tight enough to lift the eye- 
 brows into a rounder curve, giving a pungent 
 supercilious expression to the countenance. . . . 
 Then they stepped away in such a mincing gait, 
 in shoes of many colours with formidable points 
 at the toes and high tottering heels delicately 
 cut in wood; and in towering peaked hats, 
 garnished with feathers that swayed aristocrat- 
 ically backward and forward at each step, as 
 if they took pride in the stately paces of the 
 wearer. In the train of these goodly groups 
 came the gallants who upheld the chivalry 
 of the age; cavaliers of the old school, full 
 of starch and powder: most of them the iron 
 gentlemen of the Revolution, with leather 
 faces. ... It was, indeed, a sight worth seeing, 
 when one of these weather-beaten gallants 
 accosted a lady on the street. There was a bow 
 which required the whole width of the pavement,
 
 256 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 a scrape of the foot and the cane thrust with 
 a flourish under the left arm and projecting 
 behind in a parallel line with the cue. And noth- 
 ing could be more piquant than the lady's 
 return of the salutation, in a curtsey that brought 
 her, with bridled chin and a most winning glance, 
 halfway to the ground." 1 
 
 Even the seasons, if we may trust Mr. Ken- 
 nedy, knew how to comport themselves with 
 more dignity then than now. " There were none 
 of your soft Italian skies and puny affectation 
 of April in December. But winter strutted 
 in, like a. peremptory bandit on the stage, as 
 one who knew his power and wasn't to be trifled 
 with, and took possession of sky and field and 
 river in good earnest, flinging his snowy cloak 
 upon the ground as a challenge to all comers, 
 determined that it should lie there until he 
 chose to take it up and continue his journey. 
 And the nights seemed to be made on purpose 
 for frolicks [sic] they were so bright and crisp 
 and so inviting to the jovial spirits of the time 
 who, crowded in sleighs, sped like laughing 
 phantoms over every highway, echoing back 
 the halloos of boys that, at every street 
 corner, greeted them with vollies of snow-balls. 
 And the horse-bells, jangling the music of rev- 
 elry from many a near and many a distant 
 quarter, told of the universal mirth that fol- 
 1 Kennedy.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 257 
 
 lowed upon the track of the old-fashioned win- 
 ter." Not at all a bad place for young people 
 to grow up in, it would appear even if Eliza- 
 beth Patterson did attribute to the dulness of 
 her home town her unfortunate marriage with 
 the cad-brother of the great Napoleon. 
 
 A good deal of romance has been wasted on 
 the relations between these two self-seeking 
 young people and, but for the fact that this 
 marriage of an American to a Bonaparte is 
 a subject of perennial interest, it would not be 
 worth while to retell here this disappointingly 
 sordid story. For, since the lady's letters have 
 come to light, it has grown quite clear that she 
 married Jerome for his name and rank and that 
 he married her because in that way only could 
 he possess her beautiful person, which had cap- 
 tivated his easily -kindled passion. Young as 
 he was he had already had several affaires, and 
 Sir Augustus Foster tells us l that, before even 
 he met Elizabeth Patterson, Jerome had been 
 taking advantage, in Washington, of the custom 
 by which a young lady occasionally entrusted 
 herself alone, in this country, to the escort of 
 one whom she supposed to be a gentleman. In 
 a word, he early demonstrated the truth of that 
 mot, attributed to his American wife, when, quite 
 disenchanted, she declared him: " un Hard qui 
 s'est glise par hazard entre deux Napoleons" 
 
 1 See Quarterly Review of 1841.
 
 258 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 The Emperor himself she never ceased to admire 
 even though he was consistently scornful of 
 her and steadfastly refused to receive her. Per- 
 haps he feared that even his resolution might 
 yield to the influence of her great charm and 
 wonderful beauty, beauty so striking that it 
 drew from Madame Recamier the compliment, 
 
 ' Vous etes la plus belle femme au monde, plus 
 belle meme que la parfaite Pauline Borghese." 
 
 " Mais $a est bien, impossible," was the clever 
 reply, " vue que ma belle soeur est parfaitement 
 belle." 
 
 Jerome Bonaparte had always had over- 
 whelming desire to own beautiful things. There 
 is a story to the effect that, when only fifteen, 
 he purchased a traveling-case with silver, ivory 
 and mother-of-pearl fittings, the cost of which 
 was 10,000 francs. The bill for this trifle came 
 in due time to Napoleon, who, at dinner-time, 
 said to his brother, " So, sir, it is you who in- 
 dulge in ten thousand franc travelling-cases." 
 
 ' Yes," said Jerome, quite unembarrassed. " You 
 see I am like that. I only care for beautiful 
 things." 
 
 Nor did he in the least scruple about the 
 means by which he obtained what he wanted. 
 In the memoirs of Mademoiselle Cochelet, a 
 schoolfellow of Hortense Beauharnais under 
 Madame Campan, is told the tale of a youthful 
 trick once played by Jerome upon his uncle,; Abbe
 
 MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE. 
 
 From the miniature by Augustin, made in Paris in 1814, now in 
 the possession of Edward Biddle, of Philadelphia.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 259 
 
 Fesch, when he wanted pocket-money, a tale 
 which, although pretty flagrant, is said to have 
 elicited only a laugh of appreciation when related 
 to the First Consul ! Jerome, it seems, had spent 
 all his quarter's pocket-money in advance and 
 now urgently required twenty-five louis. All 
 his brothers were away except Napoleon whom 
 he dared not ask; and his mother had not the 
 money in hand to give him. So he sought out 
 his uncle Fesch whom he found with a dinner 
 company to entertain. He was, however, in- 
 vited to remain; which he did. After dinner 
 a move was made to the salon for coffee. Seeing 
 his uncle enter an adjoining room Jerome fol- 
 lowed, made his request and was refused. In 
 a trice the boy had drawn the sword he was 
 wearing and, pointing to one of his uncle's 
 priceless Van Dycks on the wall, he said, 
 * That fellow appears to be laughing at me; 
 I must avenge myself upon him." The agitated 
 priest caught the lad's arm as he was making 
 for the picture, Jerome again mentioned the 
 twenty-five louis, the uncle gave way, the sword 
 was sheathed, and an embrace followed the 
 bargain. 
 
 Thus it was to a spoilt child possessing the 
 vices of a dissipated man that Elizabeth Patter- 
 son, despite the protests of her family, united her- 
 self in marriage on the Christmas Eve of 1803. 
 Their wedding notice may be found in the Federal
 
 260 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Gazette of Tuesday, December 27. It reads as 
 follows : " Married, on Saturday evening last, 
 by the Reverend Bishop Carroll, Mr. Jerome 
 Bonaparte, youngest brother of the First Consul 
 of the French Republic, to Miss Elizabeth 
 Patterson, eldest daughter of William Patterson, 
 Esquire, of this city." This was the marriage 
 to sustain which Pope Pius VII braved the anger 
 of the most powerful man in Europe. No wonder 
 all the American Bonapartes are devout Cath- 
 olics ! 
 
 That William Patterson, from the very first, 
 heartily disapproved of this marriage and did 
 everything in his power to prevent it from being 
 consummated there seems no shadow of doubt. 
 Nor can one read his letters to his daughter 
 without feeling that she deserved on account 
 of her later conduct as well as because of her 
 youthful indiscretion the censure in her 
 father's will one passage in which runs as 
 follows: " The conduct of my daughter, Betsey, 
 has through life been so disobedient that in no 
 instance has she ever consulted my opinions 
 or feelings; indeed she has caused me more 
 anxiety and trouble than all my children put 
 together, and her folly and misconduct have 
 occasioned me a train of expense that, first and 
 last, has cost me much money." In accordance 
 with which he left Elizabeth less than any of 
 his other children. Some have called his con-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 261 
 
 duct cruel; it does not so seem to me after ex- 
 amining as much of the evidence on both sides 
 as I have been able to command. 
 
 There is a good deal of such evidence, first 
 and last, inasmuch as the entire series of English 
 and French letters on this subject fell, early 
 in the seventies of the last century, into the 
 hands of a Philadelphia publisher 1 who had 
 purchased them from a Baltimore paper-maker. 
 The latter obtained them as waste paper directly 
 from Mr. William Patterson's old warehouse on 
 Gay Street. Madame Bonaparte was then still 
 living and when the proof sheets of the greater 
 part of the book were sent to her for examination 
 and comment she replied that " the publication 
 of the volume was a matter of perfect indiffer- 
 ence to her! " 
 
 That a woman of eighty-seven was too old to 
 be bothered with any such decision as the publi- 
 cation of these letters involved would be at once 
 conceded but for the fact that Madame Bona- 
 parte, up to the age of ninety, was in the habit 
 of personally conducting her extensive business 
 affairs. Thus we are forced to conclude that she 
 really unshed to have all the facts about her 
 extraordinary marriage revealed. Up to the 
 time of her last illness, indeed, she cherished 
 each bit of finery associated with her early 
 triumphs and was never weary of rehearsing 
 
 1 W. T. R. Saffel.
 
 262 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to her friends the stories with which these were 
 connected. Nor did her interest in European 
 politics ever disappear though she cared 
 nothing at all for American affairs, always 
 considering it her great misfortune that she 
 had been born under the Stars and Stripes. 
 When negroes were admitted to Congress 
 she is said to have caustically remarked that 
 " baboons were in the Senate, and monkeys 
 in the House, which was carrying republican 
 principles out to their legitimate ends." 
 One wonders, after reading this, whether 
 it was Elizabeth Patterson's misfortunes which 
 made her bitter or her congenital acerbity of 
 temper which invited her misfortunes. While 
 she was still young, handsome and envied, it 
 was universally said of her, " She charms by 
 her eyes and slays with her tongue." 
 
 Even caustic wit, 1 however, is forgiven to 
 a girl of sufficient beauty and Elizabeth Pat- 
 terson's sharp tongue did not in the least pre- 
 vent her from being the belle of Baltimore at 
 the time (1803) when Captain Jerome Bona- 
 parte and his suite arrived in the town for a 
 short visit. These two, who were long to pose 
 as America's most romantic lovers, encountered 
 each other for the first time at the Baltimore 
 
 1 Didier says truly, in the preface to his Life and Letters of 
 Madame Bonaparte that this girl appears to have possessed the 
 savoir faire of Chesterfield, the cold cynicism of Rochefoucauld and 
 the practical economy of Franklin!
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 263 
 
 races, Elizabeth looking irresistibly charming 
 in a buff silk dress, a lace fichu, and a leghorn 
 hat with pink tulle trimmings and black plumes. 
 There is a story that she then became somehow 
 caught by a gold chain which formed part of 
 the magnificent attire of the First Consul's 
 brother and that she was thereby reminded of 
 a prophecy, made to her as a child, to the effect 
 that she would one day be a great lady in France. 
 This sounds apocryphal ; but so, for that matter, 
 do many of the proven incidents in the remark- 
 able story of these young lovers. For they be- 
 came lovers almost at once following their 
 formal introduction at the house of Honorable 
 Samuel Chase, one of the Maryland signers 
 of the Declaration of Independence and the 
 father-in-law of Commodore Barney, through 
 whom Jerome had come to Baltimore. In a 
 few weeks they were engaged; without, however, 
 it need scarcely be added, the consent of Mr. 
 Patterson. That gentleman, indeed, foreseeing 
 the great risk his daughter would run in marry- 
 ing the minor and dependent brother of Na- 
 poleon, tried, by sending his daughter to Vir- 
 ginia, to break off the intimacy. But the ex- 
 periment was useless. The two were in com- 
 munication all the time, and upon the lady's 
 return to Baltimore, the last of October, a 
 marriage license was at once taken out by them. 
 In less than a week after this a warning letter
 
 264 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 reached the harassed father informing him that 
 Captain Bonaparte had no intention of sticking 
 to this bride but " would be the first to turn 
 your daughter off, and laugh at her credulity." 
 Again, Mr. Patterson tried to use his authority 
 to the end that the marriage be not consum- 
 mated. But Miss Patterson declared that marry 
 this man she would, adding that " she would 
 rather be the wife of Jerome Bonaparte for an 
 hour than the wife of any other man for life." 
 At least, this is what she is reputed to have 
 said and it was obviously the appropriate 
 speech for a girl madly in love. From her sub- 
 sequent letters, however, we must conclude 
 that what really dazzled her about Jerome was 
 his nearness to a European kingdom. Moreover, 
 she longed unspeakably to get away from Balti- 
 more which she seems actually to have " hated 
 and loathed." 1 
 
 So, less than four months after their first 
 meeting, these obstinate young people realized 
 their desire, Mr. Patterson having, however, 
 taken all possible precaution that the union 
 should be indissoluble. The religious ceremony 
 was performed, as has been said, by Bishop, 
 afterwards Archbishop Carroll, and the marriage 
 contract drawn up by Alexander J. Dallas, who 
 was later to be Secretary of the Treasury. 
 Among those who witnessed the wedding were 
 
 1 See her letter to her father of December 4, 1829.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 265 
 
 
 
 M. Sotin, the French consul at Baltimore, 
 Alexander Le Camus, then Jerome's secretary 
 and afterwards Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 of the kingdom of Westphalia, as well as the 
 Mayor of Baltimore and several other leading 
 citizens. Jerome's costume on this festive oc- 
 casion was sumptuous in the extreme. His 
 coat was of purple satin, laced and embroidered, 
 the white satin-lined skirts reaching to his heels. 
 He wore knee-breeches, his shoes had diamond 
 buckles and his hair was powdered. Of the 
 bride's clothes one of the guests is reported to 
 have said that he could have put them all in 
 his pocket. Another witness relates in horror 
 that she wore " only a single garment under- 
 neath! " Very likely. She probably considered 
 her Indian muslin gown, embellished with old 
 lace and pearls, about all the clothing that was 
 necessary. For on an occasion not long after- 
 ward Mrs. Washington is found commenting 
 rather scathingly on the extreme liberality with 
 which Mrs. Bonaparte displays her shoulders; 
 and Phoebe Morris, in a letter dated February 
 17, 1812, refers to the fact that, at a ball, this 
 lovely matron's " sylphic form " was so " thinly 
 veiled as to display all the graces of a Venus 
 de Medicis." 
 
 Immediately following the marriage the young 
 couple proceeded to the Pattersons' estate, 
 " Homestead," outside Baltimore, for their
 
 266 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 honeymoon and, shortly afterwards, they went 
 to Washington where they were entertained by 
 the French Minister and enjoyed for several 
 weeks all the gayety of which the national 
 capital was capable. Later they made a long 
 tour to the Northern and Eastern States, and 
 in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Albany and 
 elsewhere, were tendered one continuous round 
 of hospitality. 
 
 Meanwhile the French Consul-General had 
 sent Talleyrand word that the alliance they had 
 both been fearing was now a reality; and Mr. 
 Patterson, having first written (February 10, 
 1804) to the Honorable Robert R. Livingston, 
 American Minister to France, that he "had 
 never directly or indirectly countenanced or 
 gave Mr. Bonaparte the smallest encouragement 
 to address my daughter. . . but finding that 
 the mutual attachment they had formed for 
 each other was such that nothing short of force 
 and violence could prevent their union, had 
 consented to it with much reluctance " now 
 dispatched his son Robert to France to see what 
 could be done towards reconciling the First 
 Consul to the marriage. In passing through 
 London on his way to Paris young Mr. Patter- 
 son obtained letters of introduction from Miss 
 Monroe, daughter of James Monroe, to Joseph- 
 ine's daughter with whom the former had es- 
 tablished a lasting friendship while at Madame
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 267 
 
 Campan's school. These and Madame Campan's 
 own intercessions she was on very intimate 
 terms with the family of the First Consul be- 
 sides being interested in Americans from the 
 fact that her brother had married the daughter 
 of De Witt Clinton were expected to be of 
 considerable service in softening the Great 
 Man's wrath. 
 
 But it was all of no avail. Napoleon, from 
 the very first, was as adamant toward Jerome 
 in this matter of his marriage, treating him as 
 a naughty child, who was also a disobedient 
 subject, and steadfastly refusing to recognize 
 either the legality of the union or the rights 
 of the beautiful young wife. Lucien Bonaparte, 
 however, heartily assured Robert Patterson 
 that the whole family, with the exception of the 
 Consul, highly approved the match, and he gave 
 Jerome the excellent advice that he become an 
 American citizen and proceed to carve out his 
 own fortune in the land where he had found his 
 wife. But this counsel suited Elizabeth as 
 little as it suited her husband ; I fancy that she 
 even preferred to such " mistaken kindness " 
 the uncompromising cruelty of Napoleon's 
 fiat, interpreted by the French Minister of 
 Marine thus: "Jerome has received orders, 
 in his capacity of lieutenant of the fleet, to come 
 back to France by the first French frigate re- 
 turning thither; and the execution of this
 
 268 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 order, on which the First Consul insists in the 
 most positive manner, can alone regain him his 
 affection. But what the First Consul has pre- 
 scribed for me, above everything, is to order 
 you to prohibit all captains of French vessels 
 from receiving on board the young person to 
 whom the Citizen Jerome has connected himself, 
 it being his intention that she shall by no means 
 come into France, and his will that, should she 
 arrive, she be suffered not to land, but be sent 
 immediately back to the United States." 
 
 This, then, was the dampening news from 
 France that reached the young couple in the 
 summer of 1804 while they were enjoying to 
 the full the brilliant social life of New York. 
 There arrived also a document which declared 
 that " by an act of llth Ventose, all the civil 
 officers of the Empire are prohibited from re- 
 ceiving on their registers the transcription of 
 the act of celebration of a pretended marriage 
 that Jerome Bonaparte has contracted in a 
 foreign country during the age of minority, 
 without the consent of his mother, and without 
 previous publication in the place of his nativity.'* 
 Jerome must have begun to fear, as he read 
 this, that, in this connection as in many later 
 ones, protests would have absolutely no strength 
 against his brother's iron will. 
 
 Yet he still put on a bold front, declaring that 
 he would soon sail for France and would take
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 269 
 
 with him his fair young wife whom Napoleon 
 had only to see to accept as a member of the 
 family. A start was made, in a ship sailing from 
 Philadelphia for Cadiz towards the end of Octo- 
 ber. But a dangerous gale overtook their craft, 
 and, having narrowly escaped with their lives, 
 they again found themselves in America. The 
 " proper thing " would have been for Madame 
 Bonaparte to be overwhelmed with thanksgiving 
 at being thus rescued from a watery grave. 
 But, instead, she blithely made an excellent meal 
 of roast goose and apple sauce, at the home of 
 the people who took her in, running back and 
 forth at intervals, from the house to the yard, 
 to see how well her handsome clothes on the 
 line were drying after the shipwreck! * This 
 was the last attempt of the young Bonapartes 
 to sail for Europe that year. 
 
 In the spring of the following year/ however, 
 the voyage was actually accomplished in one of 
 Mr. Patterson's own vessels, the Erin, which he 
 was glad to provide for the purpose. With the 
 party went William Patterson, Junior, a brother 
 of Elizabeth; Le Camus, Jerome's secretary, 
 and Garnier, Jerome's doctor, of whom the young 
 wife, who was expecting a child, might have 
 sore need ere the journey ended. The passage 
 was quite uneventful, though, as we learn by 
 
 1 A very elegant wadded pelisse, which she had on when thrown 
 into the water, very nearly proved her destruction.
 
 270 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 this letter, sent back to Mr. Patterson, in Je- 
 rome's own hand and with his own English. 
 
 " ON BOARD OF THE ERIN, 
 the 2d April 1805 
 
 " I have the pleasure of writing to you, dear 
 father, from the arbous of Lisbon where we 
 arrive this morning the 21st day of our departure 
 from Cape Henry. We shall be obliged to per- 
 form a quarantine of 16 days, but I have al- 
 ready found the way for not doing it, and in 
 three days I shall be ready to proceed on my 
 long, monotonne and fatiging journey. My 
 feelings for you, my second mother, and all 
 your good family are very well known to you, 
 and it is easier for me to feel them than to ex- 
 press them. I have left one of my family and 
 will be soon among the other, But the pleasure 
 and satisfaction of being in my first will never 
 make me forgot my second. 
 
 " My dear wife has fortunately supported 
 the fatigues of our voyage perfectly well. She 
 has been very sick, but you know as well as 
 anybody that seasick never has killed nobody. 
 
 " I pray you, dear father, to do not forget 
 me near my friends, and particularly General 
 and Mrs. Smith and family, Nancy, Dallas, 
 and Dr. McHenry, and remember that you 
 solemnly promised me to never show my letters, 
 and to burn them after having read it. B "
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 271 
 
 This letter, Saffell assures us, was in the waste 
 paper package already mentioned, endorsed, 
 in the handwriting of Madame Bonaparte's 
 father, " Bonaparte, Lisbon, April 1805 re- 
 ceived 15th May." Mr. Patterson ,had the 
 precise habits of a man of business. There is no 
 reason to believe that he ever showed the letter; 
 but he certainly did not burn it. As indeed it 
 would have been very wrong for him to do in 
 dealing with any son-in-law in Jerome Bona- 
 parte's situation! 
 
 If immediate proof of Napoleon's despotic 
 power was needed by the travelers it was 
 found in the French guard he at once caused to 
 be placed around the Erin and in the tone his 
 ambassador was instructed to take towards 
 Jerome's wife. This emissary pointedly in- 
 quired what he could do for Miss Patterson. 
 To which the Baltimore beauty replied with 
 spirit, " Tell your master that Madame Bona- 
 parte is ambitious, and demands her rights as 
 a member of the imperial family." But de- 
 manding rights was not to obtain them 
 from Napoleon. Nor was the boy-husband's 
 mother allowed to intercede for him, as she 
 would have been glad to do. To her the Emperor 
 explained himself (in a letter written from the 
 neighborhood of Turin, on April 22) in a way 
 which, when conveyed to Jerome, left no doubt 
 whatever of his brother's inflexibility: " Mr.
 
 272 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Jerome Bonaparte," this epistle runs, " has 
 reached Lisbon with the woman with whom he 
 is living. I have sent orders to this prodigal 
 son to proceed to Milan by way of Perpignan, 
 Toulouse, Grenoble, and Turin. I have let him 
 know that, if he diverges from this route, he 
 will be arrested. Miss Patterson, who is living 
 with him, has taken the precaution of bringing 
 her brother with her. I have given the order 
 that she is to be sent back to America. If 
 she evades the orders which I have given, and 
 comes to Bordeaux or Paris, she will be taken 
 back to Amsterdam, there to be put on board 
 the first American vessel. I shall treat this 
 young man severely if, at the only interview 
 which I shall grant him, he shows himself 
 unworthy of the name which he bears, and per- 
 sists in wishing to continue his intrigue. If he 
 is not prepared to wash out the dishonour which 
 he has brought on my name by abandoning his 
 flag for a wretched woman, I shall give him up 
 forever and perhaps make an example to teach 
 young soldiers the sacredness of their duties, 
 and the enormity of their crime when they 
 desert their flag for a woman. Write to him on 
 the supposition that he is going to Milan; tell 
 him that I have been a father to him, that his 
 duty towards me is sacred, and that he has no 
 longer any salvation except in following my in- 
 structions. Speak to his sisters that they may
 
 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 273 
 
 write to him also; for when I have pronounced 
 his sentence I shall be inflexible, and his life 
 will be blasted forever." 1 
 
 Poor Madame Mere, who had consented to 
 the marriage, if only after the event, must 
 have been sorely perplexed, upon receiving this 
 brutal letter, as to her mother's duty! But 
 she appears to have obediently counselled Je- 
 rome to hasten to meet his brother. So, bidding 
 a tender farewell to Elizabeth, the harassed 
 young husband set off for Italy through Spain, 
 not yet without hope, it would appear, that he 
 would be able to bend the imperial will to his 
 desire by disclosing the astonishing beauty of 
 the girl whom he had made his wife. It chanced 
 that, on his way, he met Junot, who had just 
 been appointed Minister to Portugal; to him 
 and to his wife, who has preserved the incident 
 for us, he exhibited a miniature which showed 
 Madame Jerome in all her exquisite loveliness 
 and declared solemnly that he was strong in 
 the justice of his cause and was firmly resolved 
 never to abandon this wife he dearly loved and 
 in whom " are united all the qualities that can 
 render a woman enchanting." With the young 
 husband as he rode off, firm in this noble senti- 
 ment, was his friend and secretary, Le Camus, 
 who at the time impressed Madame Junot favor- 
 ably, though she later came to feel that he took 
 
 1 Lecestre, Lettres Inediles de Napoleon, I., p. 47,
 
 274 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Napoleon's side and helped to persuade Jerome 
 that his wife must be abandoned. Le Camus 
 knew on which side his bread was buttered. 
 
 From various points along the way the " prod- 
 igal son " dispatched to his hard-hearted brother 
 letters begging for an opportunity to explain 
 his conduct. But the first word he received in 
 reply was this, which surely did not tend to 
 raise in him any false hopes of forgiveness. 
 " I have received your letter of this morning. 
 There are no faults which you have committed 
 which may not be effaced in my eyes by a sin- 
 cere repentance. Your marriage is null both 
 in a religious and legal point of view. I will 
 never acknowledge it. Write to Miss Patterson 
 to return to the United States, and tell her it 
 is not possible to arrange things differently. 
 I will grant her a pension of 60,000 francs during 
 her life, on condition that, in no event she shall 
 bear my name, 1 to which she has no right, 
 her marriage being non-existent. You yourself 
 must make her understand that you have not 
 been and are not able to change the nature of 
 things. Your marriage being thus annulled 
 of your own free will,[!] I will restore to you my 
 friendship. ..." 
 
 When Jerome was at length admitted to 
 the presence of his brother, Napoleon thus ad- 
 
 1 Yet he always allowed her to sign her receipts for this money 
 " Elizabeth Bonaparte "!
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 275 
 
 dressed him: " So, sir, you are the first of the 
 family who has shamefully abandoned his post. 
 It will require many splendid actions to wipe 
 off that stain from your reputation. As to your 
 love affair with your little girl, I pay no regard to 
 it." Napoleon was, however, soon to find out 
 that this marriage could not be so easily set 
 aside. Though he had now been crowned 
 Emperor, he had been only First Consul of 
 France at the time of the marriage and so could 
 have no control over the members of his family. 
 Jerome's mother and his eldest brother, Joseph, 
 were the only persons whose consent was neces- 
 sary and they concurred in approving the mar- 
 riage, which had been celebrated by the highest 
 dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church in 
 America in accordance with the prescribed rites 
 of that body. But of this more anon. 
 
 What, meanwhile, of the beautiful young 
 wife who, a stranger in a strange land, felt her- 
 self forced to sail for Amsterdam because ex- 
 cluded by Napoleon from every port over which 
 he had control? Even at the Dutch city, as the 
 event proved, she was not to be admitted. 
 Her ship was obliged to turn back to Dover 
 where, on May 19, she was finally allowed to 
 disembark. And at Camberwell, near London, 
 July 7, 1805, her first and only child was born. 
 He was named Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte 
 after the husband from whom she believed her-
 
 276 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 self only temporarily parted. Five weeks later, 
 in a letter to her father, she says of this husband : 
 ' We imagine that Bonaparte is in some measure 
 a prisoner, and we must wait patiently to know 
 how he will act; in the meantime it would be 
 extremely imprudent for me to go out or see 
 anyone, and I must avoid getting into any 
 scrapes which I might be led into from thinking 
 he would desert me. No matter what I think, 
 it is unjust to condemn until we have some cer- 
 tainty greater than at present, and my conduct 
 shall be such as if I had a perfect reliance on 
 him. I think that by returning to the United 
 States, it would seem as if I had yielded the 
 point, and by next spring everything will be 
 decided." 
 
 None the less, mother and child sailed back 
 to Baltimore, three months after this letter was 
 written; and they were there, occupying a 
 position detestable above all others to one of 
 her pride, that of an injured heroine of ro- 
 mance when Napoleon tried (May, 1805) 
 unsuccessfully to bribe 1 Pope Pius VII to 
 annul Jerome's marriage. In his letter to the 
 Pope Napoleon made no attempt to state cor- 
 rectly the facts of the marriage. His brother, 
 he declared, had been united to a " Protestant 
 young woman," after only a month's residence 
 
 J With the letter went a magnificent gold tiara studded with 
 diamonds and rubies.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 277 
 
 in the United States, by " a Spanish priest 
 who had so far forgotten his duties as to pro- 
 nounce the benediction." He added that he 
 could easily have the union broken in Paris but 
 preferred that it should be annulled in Rome 
 " on account of the example to sovereign fam- 
 ilies marrying Protestants." Cardinal Fesch, 
 as well as Napoleon, appears to have believed 
 that the Pope would readily enough grant 
 Napoleon's request. But this the Pontiff quite 
 positively declined to do. He pierced through 
 the network of misrepresentations with which 
 Napoleon had endeavored to confuse the issues 
 of the case, examined all the precedents which 
 might be held to have a bearing on the matter, 
 and then declared that, glad as he would be to 
 oblige Napoleon, he found no reasons whatever 
 for annulling a marriage duly performed by 
 the Bishop of Baltimore. Marriages between 
 Protestants and Catholics, although disap- 
 proved of by the Church, are nevertheless ac- 
 knowledged as valid, he pointed out. 
 
 Napoleon's own Council of State proved much 
 more complaisant, and, in October of the fol- 
 lowing year, the American marriage was de- 
 clared null ecclesiastically in Paris. In the 
 August of 1807 Jerome's flabby hand was 
 bestowed upon Sophia-Dorothea-Frederika- 
 Catherine of Wlirtemberg. None the less, 
 this astonishing deserter continued at intervals
 
 278 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to write to his American wife! After leaving 
 her at Lisbon, in April, 1805, he had addressed 
 to her frequent and tender letters, repeatedly 
 declaring that she was the sole object of his 
 love and that for her he would be willing to 
 give up even his life. Up to the year 1812, in- 
 deed, he continued to write to her, though after 
 he had been declared free of his marriage his ex- 
 pressed interest was in his son rather than in 
 his son's mother. In 1808 he attempted, with 
 Napoleon's consent, to bring the young Jerome 
 Napoleon to Westphalia. Naturally, Elizabeth 
 and her family flatly refused this proposition. 
 Which seems only to have whetted the King of 
 Westphalia's desire to re-establish connections 
 with the American Bonapartes for, in November 
 of that same year, he actually wrote to offer 
 the woman he had so heartlessly abandoned the 
 principality of Smalkalden, in Westphalia, with 
 a pension of 200,000 francs a year! She replied 
 that, though Westphalia was a large kingdom 
 it was not large enough for two queens. More- 
 over, she preferred being sheltered under the 
 wing of an eagle, she said, to hanging from the 
 bill of a goose. The eagle was, of course, Na- 
 poleon, who, up to the date of his Fall, kept his 
 promise of allowing her 60,000 francs a year. 
 This last rebuff kept Jerome silent for three 
 years. Then he wrote to her as follows : " My 
 dear Elisa, what a long time it is since I have
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 279 
 
 received any news of you and of my son ! In the 
 whole world you could never find a better or 
 more tender friend than me. I have many 
 things to write to you; but as I can but fear 
 that this letter may be intercepted, I limit my- 
 self to giving you news of myself and asking you 
 for news of you and my son. Be assured that 
 all will be arranged sooner or later. The .Em- 
 peror is certainly the best as he is the greatest 
 of men." This letter was signed " Votre affec- 
 tionne et bon ami Jerome-Napoleon." 
 
 And she really believed him! In spite of her 
 contempt for him and in spite of her distrust of 
 his honor she all her life long hugged the delusion 
 that Jerome really loved her. Yet, characteris- 
 tically, the year after Napoleon's downfall, she 
 forestalled any attempt this " bon ami " might 
 make to claim a share in her fortune by divor- 
 cing him under a special act of the legislature of 
 Maryland. 
 
 And now, to educate her child " as his rank 
 demanded " and to give herself the pleasures 
 of that society to which she felt she rightly 
 belonged, Elizabeth Patterson again took up 
 life in Europe. " Although you have always 
 taken me for a fool," she writes her father, 
 " that, I assure you, is not my character here. 
 . . . Nature never intended me for obscurity." 
 The pleasures of Paris, for which she had so 
 long sighed in vain, were now enjoyed by her
 
 280 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 to the full. For, though the Empire had fallen, 
 Paris was very gay and very brilliant and upon 
 this American woman, whose sufferings had 
 made her a heroine, the sentimental Frenchmen 
 proceeded to pour out a wealth of adulation. 
 Louis XVIII expressed a wish to see her at 
 Court but she declined to be presented, saying 
 that, as she had received a pension from the 
 Emperor, she would not appear at the Court of 
 his successor, ingratitude not being one of her 
 vices. 
 
 With Talleyrand praising her wit, Madame de 
 Stael extolling her beauty, and all the leading 
 men and women of the day 1 cultivating her 
 acquaintance, Madame Bonaparte was at the 
 height of her career. To her father, who 
 continued to be troubled by her disdain of 
 home-pleasure, she wrote, " I am not half 
 so foolish as you imagine or I should, per- 
 haps, have been more contented. There is 
 but one single chance of securing tranquillity 
 for the future years which I may have to live, 
 and that is to remain in Europe. I can never 
 be satisfied in America. . . ."! Of the "ex- 
 King of Westphalia " she speaks in this letter 
 of 1816 with the utmost indifference. He was 
 living at this time at the court of Wurtemberg. 
 
 1 It was at this time (1814) that she had painted for Mr. James 
 Craig, brother of Mrs. Nicholas Biddle, wife of the financier, the 
 miniature by Augustin reproduced in this book.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 281 
 
 Their paths never crossed again, though once 
 they met for a moment (in 1822) in the gallery 
 of the Pitti Palace in Florence. On seeing her, 
 Jerome started and, whispering to the Princess 
 of Wiirtemberg, " That is my American wife," 
 led his second spouse down a side aisle and so 
 avoided what might have been an embarrassing 
 encounter. 
 
 The only child of this Europe-loving woman 
 and of her husband-who-would-be-king greatly 
 preferred America, however, to any land be- 
 yond the sea and poignantly disappointed his 
 mother by marrying an American girl! One, 
 too, who lived in Baltimore! " I would rather 
 die, than marry any one in Baltimore," she scorn- 
 fully declared when told the news, " but if my 
 son does not feel as I do upon this subject, of 
 course he is quite at liberty to act as he likes 
 best. As the woman has money I shall not for- 
 bid the marriage. . . ." l 
 
 And so the boy who, in 1820, had written 
 to his grandfather, " Since I have been in Europe 
 I have dined with princes and princesses and all 
 the great people in Europe [he was made much 
 of by his father's family as he approached the 
 marriageable age], but I have not found a dish 
 as much to my taste as the roast beef and beef- 
 steaks I ate in South Street " 2 came back at 
 
 1 Madame Bonaparte to William Patterson, December, 1829. 
 a The home of William Patterson.
 
 282 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 last to found in Baltimore the family of American 
 Bonapartes. Inevitably, as has been said, 
 they were all devoted Roman Catholics and 
 so have done much to build up in the middle 
 South the prestige of that Church which had 
 served them so well in their time of need. The 
 same Pope, Pius VII, who braved the anger of 
 Napoleon for the sake of what seemed to him 
 right, erected Baltimore, in 1808, into an archi- 
 episcopal see, the Archbishop chosen being 
 Dr. John Carroll, son of Daniel Carroll of Upper 
 Marlboro and cousin of Charles Carroll of 
 Carroll ton. In 1789 Dr. Carroll had founded 
 Georgetown University at Washington; the 
 Cathedral at Baltimore was the second monu- 
 ment to this good man's zeal and devotion. 
 
 Mrs. Trollope, who was in America in 1829-30 
 and visited Baltimore among other cities, has a 
 good deal to say in praise of the place, particu- 
 larly the Cathedral, " considered by all Americans 
 as a magnificent church, though it can scarcely 
 be so classed by any one who has seen the 
 churches of Europe. Its interior, however, has 
 an air of neatness that amounts to elegance. 
 The form is a Greek cross, having a dome in 
 the centre; . . . On each side of the high altar 
 are chapels to the Savior and the Virgin. The 
 altars in these as well as the high altar are of 
 native marbles of different colours, and some of 
 the specimens are very beautiful. The decora-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 283 
 
 tions of the altar are elegant and costly. . . . 
 We attended mass in this church the Sunday 
 after our arrival and I was perfectly astonished 
 at the beauty and splendid appearance of the 
 ladies who filled it. Excepting on a very brilliant 
 Sunday at the Tuileries I never saw so showy 
 a display of morning costume, and I think I never 
 saw anywhere so many beautiful women at one 
 glance. 
 
 " Baltimore is, I think, one of the handsomest 
 cities to approach in the Union," continues this 
 usually-adverse critic. " The noble column 
 erected to the memory of Washington and the 
 Catholic Cathedral with its beautiful dome, 
 being built on a commanding eminence are 
 seen at a great distance. As you draw nearer 
 many other domes and towers become visible, 
 and as you enter Baltimore Street, you feel 
 that you are arrived in a handsome and populous 
 city. ... It has several handsome buildings 
 and even the private dwelling-houses have a 
 look of magnificence, from the abundance of 
 white marble with which many of them are 
 adorned. The ample flights of steps and the lofty 
 door-frames, are in most of the best houses 
 formed of this beautiful material. This has 
 been called the city of monuments, from its 
 having the stately column erected to the memory 
 of General Washington, and which bears a 
 colossal statue of him at the top; and another
 
 284 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 pillar of less dimensions recording some vic- 
 tory, I forget which." 
 
 The victory which Mrs. Trollope " forgot " 
 was the expulsion of the British troops from the 
 city an important incident of the War of 
 1812. To the men who perished on this oc- 
 casion and during the bombardment of Fort 
 McHenry the Battle Monument so called was 
 erected. To us this encounter is of especial 
 interest because it furnished the inspiration 
 for the one really great song of the early Re- 
 publican period. I mean, of course, " The 
 Star Spangled Banner," the words of which were 
 written by Francis Scott Key. 
 
 Key was born in Maryland, August 9, 1780. 
 He was the son of John Ross Key, a Revolu- 
 tionary officer, and was impregnated from his 
 earliest youth with loyalty to the flag he was 
 afterward to celebrate. He studied law in the 
 office of his uncle, and began to practice, but 
 subsequently removed to Washington, where he 
 became district attorney for the District of 
 Columbia. 
 
 The War of 1812, which his song so nobly 
 commemorates, had for some time seemed to run 
 almost entirely in favor of England. Washington 
 had been captured and burned, and Baltimore 
 itself was threatened with speedy destruction. 
 From this latter city, in 1814, under a flag of 
 truce, and with proper credentials from Presi-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 285 
 
 dent Madison, young Key set out to procure 
 the release of a physician friend, who, though 
 a non-combatant, had been taken prisoner and 
 was in the hands of Vice-Admiral Cochrane, 
 just then planning a concerted attack by land 
 and sea upon Fort McHenry, the key to Balti- 
 more. Key's arrival could scarcely have been 
 more ill timed. But the Admiral agreed to 
 release the friend and treated his envoy with 
 considerable courtesy. Only he refused to allow 
 the young lawyer to return just then, for fear 
 that the projected attack would be betrayed to 
 the enemy. 
 
 The bombardment of the fort began on the 
 morning of September 13, 1814, and Key was 
 obliged to witness it from the ship whose 
 guest he had perforce become. The Admiral 
 had boasted that he would be able to carry 
 McHenry in a few hours, and that the city itself 
 must then surely fall. Yet, for all that he threw 
 some 1,800 shells, only four of the little party 
 within the fort were killed. 
 
 Just about daybreak on the fourteenth the 
 firing ceased, and Key and a friend walked the 
 deck impatiently, waiting for light that they 
 might see the result of the previous day's bom- 
 bardment. At last they were rewarded by 
 beholding the stars and stripes still floating 
 over the American fort. 
 
 At that moving moment, when, through his
 
 286 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 field-glass, Key first caught sight of the proudly 
 waving banner still floating over the fort the 
 British had not been able to carry, he hastily 
 jotted down on the back of a letter he happened 
 to have in his pocket, the opening stanzas of 
 the poem that was to become so celebrated. 
 
 He finished it on the boat as he was going to 
 Baltimore (inasmuch as the attack had failed, 
 the Americans were now at liberty to return 
 to the city) and he wrote out a good copy in 
 the hotel there immediately after his arrival. 
 So did he succeed in catching the " rocket's 
 red glare." The piece was at first called " The 
 Bombardment of Fort McHenry." It was 
 printed, together with an account of its com- 
 position, in the Baltimore American September 
 21 of the same year. The tune to which it 
 was and is still sung is " Anacreon in Heaven," 
 an air bold, warlike and majestic even if 
 it does try to the breaking point the average 
 American voice. 
 
 When ' The Star Spangled Banner " was 
 sung for the first time in public at the Holli- 
 day Street Theatre the chorus was led by 
 Charles Durang, who had himself been one of 
 the little garrison which guarded the six-gun 
 battery at North Point. 
 
 Another young poet with whom Baltimore has 
 interesting associations is Edgar Allan Poe. 1 
 1 Poe is buried in Baltimore, too, in Westminster Churchyard.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 287 
 
 It was here, indeed, that Foe's first love-affair 
 ran its ill-starred course. The girl in the case 
 was named Mary, and she lived on Essex Street 
 in the " old town," not far from the house at 
 which Poe, who had then just left West Point, 
 was boarding. She used to see him a slim, 
 well-knit figure, tightly encased in a long black 
 frock coat, pale and clean-shaven, with a broad, 
 white forehead and that look of pain around the 
 mouth, which, combined with his wonderful eyes 
 and his fascinating manners, made him a verita- 
 able hero of romance going back and forth 
 to the office where he then toiled; and to see 
 him was to fall in love with him. Virginia 
 Clemm was only a child of ten at this time and 
 she acted as Cupid's messenger between her 
 handsome cousin and the maiden Mary. Long 
 afterwards Mary entrusted a full account of 
 all this and of the poet's deep and abiding pas- 
 sion for her to a kinsman 1 and he, treasuring 
 the details carefully, gave them to the world 
 two years after her death. She and Poe were 
 then too much engrossed in their own emotions, 
 she said, to talk about the poetic aspirations of 
 the young lover ; but he was wont to quote Burns's 
 " Mary " poems to this sweetheart of the same 
 name, as they sat together of an evening on the 
 wide Baltimore stoop of her home or wandered 
 in the moonlight over the sightly hills nearby. 
 
 1 See Augustus van Cleef in Harper's Monthly for March, 1889.
 
 288 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Once, when they were thus walking on a 
 summer evening a night which seemed made 
 for lovers, Poe tried to persuade his sweet- 
 heart to go in with him to a minister, whose 
 house they were just then passing. " We intend 
 to be married sometime, why not now? " he 
 urged. But she, knowing he was not yet in 
 any position to take upon himself the burden of 
 a wife, gently said him nay and led the way 
 quickly home. Mary's father, it appears, was 
 not at all in favor of the match. And Mary, 
 herself, though she loved her handsome young 
 adorer, was a good deal afraid of him. For he 
 had a quick, passionate temper, scoffed at the 
 religion which meant much to her, showed him- 
 self possessed of very little self-control and 
 was exceedingly jealous. 
 
 Their first quarrel came about as a result of 
 his quite groundless jealousy of a friend of her 
 brother's for whom she chanced to be sing- 
 ing the poet's favorite song, " Come rest in this 
 bosom." While the music was going on, Poe, 
 with one hand behind his back, walked up and 
 down the room and bit the nails of the other hand 
 to the quick as he struggled for self-control. 
 Suddenly, utterly beside himself with jealousy, 
 he strode to the side of the piano, snatched the 
 music from the rack and threw it on the floor! 
 Mary, with a tantalizing laugh, sang the song 
 through to the end. But there were bitter
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 289 
 
 words, we scarcely need to be told, after the 
 friend had gone away. 
 
 The final and decisive quarrel came one night 
 when Poe, who had been expected all the eve- 
 ning but had failed to appear, arrived about ten 
 o'clock, with signs of liquor on him. His sweet- 
 heart had seen him nearly every day for a 
 year, but never before, she says, had he given 
 any evidence of drink. This night, while on 
 his way to call upon her, he had fallen in with 
 some old West Point friends and they had all 
 gone to Barnum's Hotel for a champagne sup- 
 per. He was so contrite for having broken his 
 engagement that Mary finally consented to 
 sit out on the stoop with him for a little while 
 before going to bed. But the drink had evi- 
 dently gotten into his blood; for, that night, 
 he did or said something (even to her relatives 
 Mary, as an old lady, would not say what) 
 that so shocked and surprised her that she 
 ran away from him around to the back of the 
 house and quickly made her way up the stairs 
 to her mother's room. Even here Poe pursued 
 her and but for her mother's sturdy interposi- 
 tion might not have been easily sent home. 
 For he passionately asserted that the girl was 
 "already his wife in the sight of Heaven!" 
 and claimed his right to go to her. 
 
 Mary appears to have had a mind and a will 
 of her own. For to the stormy letter which
 
 290 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 followed that night's disgraceful scene she paid 
 no attention and their lover-like relations came 
 definitively to an end. They never met again 
 until both were married.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CHARLESTON 
 
 T T is to Charleston that one should go to 
 enjoy American society in all its luxury," 
 declared Achille Murat. 1 " There the vari- 
 ous circles, composed of planters, lawyers and 
 physicians, form the most agreeable society I 
 have ever known. The manners of the South 
 have a perfect elegance; the mind is highly culti- 
 vated; and conversation turns upon an infinite 
 variety of subjects with spirit, grace and facility." 
 The letter in which ^ this warmly enthusiastic 
 paragraph about Charleston appears is dated 
 1832, the very end of our epoch. But Josiah 
 Quincy, who visited Charleston just before the 
 Revolution (having come thither from Boston 
 " for his health ") had similarly pleasant things 
 to say of the town and of its society. 
 
 Mr. Quincy was a close observer and his 
 Journal is most interesting. He tells us of his 
 amazement at the appearance of the harbor, 
 crowded with ships more than any other in 
 America; of the town with its picturesque 
 buildings; and of the people and their enter- 
 
 1 In Moral and Political Sketch of the United States: London, 1833.
 
 292 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 tainments. He records that he went to a dancing 
 assembly where the music was bad and the 
 dancing good; to a St. Cecilia concert of which 
 he says that it was held in a large and inele- 
 gant building withdrawn from the street. Mr. 
 David Deas had, he adds, given him a ticket, 
 on presenting which he was passed from servant 
 to servant and finally ushered in. The music 
 was grand, especially the bass viol and French 
 horns. The first violinist, a Frenchman, played 
 the best solo he had ever heard. His salary 
 was five hundred guineas. Most of the per- 
 lormers were gentlemen amateurs. He comments 
 on the richness of dress of both ladies and gentle- 
 men; says that there were two hundred and 
 fifty ladies present and it was called no great 
 number. The ladies are " in taciturnity during 
 the performance greatly before our [Boston] 
 ladies; in noise and flirtation after the music 
 is over, pretty much on a par. If our ladies 
 have any advantage, it is in white and red, 
 vivacity and spirit. The gentlemen many of 
 them dressed with elegance and richness un- 
 common with us. Many with swords on." 
 
 To Lord Charles Greville Montagu, the 
 Governor, who was sailing the next day for 
 England Mr. Quincy was duly introduced. 
 There appears to have been absolutely no bitter- 
 ness in Charleston against the mother country. 
 And then Mr. Quincy went to a dinner at Miles
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 293 
 
 Brewton's " with a large company, a most 
 superb house said to have cost him 8000 
 sterling." A handsome bird, probably a macaw, 
 was in the room during dinner, and everything 
 was very comfortable even luxurious. Mr. 
 Quincy went to the races, too. " Spent this 
 day, March 3d," he writes, " in viewing horses, 
 riding over the town, and receiving complimen- 
 tary visits." The New England gentleman adds 
 proudly that, besides seeing at the races a fine 
 collection of excellent and very high-priced 
 horses, he " was let a little into a singular art 
 and mystery of the turf." Obviously he, like 
 Achille Murat, found the hospitable Southern- 
 ers highly agreeable people. As inojeed why 
 should they not be? Charleston was in a 
 very prosperous and happy condition just then. 
 Commerce was flourishing, and the interior of 
 the State was gradually filling up and forming, 
 as it were, a background for the metropolis. 
 Earlier in the city's history the Spaniards and 
 the Indians had been troublesome, but now all 
 fear of them was removed and peace reigned 
 at home and abroad. 
 
 To be sure, the passage of the Stamp Act had 
 aroused resistance here as in every other self- 
 respecting city of the Colonies. And when all 
 the taxes were finally removed except that 
 on tea Charleston folk promptly stored their 
 consignments of tea in damp cellars and pro-
 
 294 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 hibited the men to whom this commodity had 
 been billed from offering it for sale. Armed 
 resistance to the power of Great Britain fol- 
 lowed soon after this, and on June 28, 1776, 
 the memorable battle of Fort Moultrie was 
 fought. To follow the Revolutionary War as 
 it dragged itself painfully along in this southern 
 city is no part of our plan. Yet it would be a 
 great pity to pass without mention the particu- 
 larly terrible story of Colonel Hayne. The 
 whole country was struck with consternation 
 when it first heard of this brave soldier's danger, 
 and it became frozen with horror ere the tale's 
 last chapter was told. For Hayne was a planter 
 of good family and high character who had com- 
 manded a troop of horse during the war. 
 When Charleston capitulated his company was 
 disbanded and, like his comrades, he accepted 
 the proffered parole and retired to his plantation. 
 Soon, however, the parole was revoked and the 
 cruel question put to him, " Will you or will 
 you not become the subject of his Majesty? " 
 Hayne promptly answered that he would not; 
 but the British were especially anxious to secure 
 his allegiance because of the great influence 
 he possessed in his own neighborhood, and, first 
 bribes and then threats were used to make him 
 answer the query in the affirmative. Mean- 
 while his domestic circumstances were painful 
 in the extreme, so painful that, for the nonce,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 295 
 
 he had little inclination to enroll himself with 
 either army. For one child had died, two others 
 were desperately ill, and his wife's life was de- 
 spaired of. 
 
 While things at home were in this condition 
 he was summoned to appear in all haste before 
 the commandant at Charleston and there he 
 was told that his liberty depended upon his 
 signing a declaration that he acknowledged 
 himself a British subject; yet Colonel Patterson 
 added that this would not commit him to bear- 
 ing arms against his countrymen. Hayne was 
 most unwilling to sign such a paper, but, in 
 order to return to his dying wife, he did put 
 his name to the document taking the precaution, 
 however, to leave with his friend, Dr. Ramsay, 
 another paper in which he declared that the 
 signature to the hated bond had been " forced 
 on him by hard necessity." " I will never bear 
 arms against my country," he said further; 
 " my masters can require no service of me but 
 what is enjoined by the old militia law of the 
 Province, which substitutes a fine in lieu of 
 personal service. This I will pay as the price of 
 my protection. If my conduct should be cen- 
 sured by my countrymen, I beg that you will 
 remember this conversation, and bear witness 
 for me that I do not mean to desert the cause of 
 America." 
 
 The harassed man thereupon returned to
 
 296 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 his family. Some time after his wife died. 
 Then, once again, Hayne was threatened with 
 imprisonment unless he joined the British 
 army. Indignant at this breach of faith and 
 considering himself released by it from obliga- 
 tion to his promise, Hayne accepted a commis- 
 sion in the American army, raised a company 
 of his neighbors, and began a vigorous campaign. 
 In the course of a bold expedition he was cap- 
 tured and tried, as a traitor, by a hastily 
 gathered court-martial, which summarily con- 
 demned him to death. The horror which spread 
 over the country, when the news of his sentence 
 was announced, is indescribable. In Charleston 
 itself petitions signed by both Whigs and Tories 
 and by women as well as men were offered in 
 his behalf. In the large drawing-room of the 
 Brewton House the sister of the condemned 
 man's dead wife knelt, with his little children, 
 to implore Lord Rawdon for mercy; and even 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, who had lately re- 
 turned from England ill unto death with an 
 agonizing disease, had himself carried on a 
 litter into the presence of his Lordship to ask 
 the boon of life for Hayne. But to each and all 
 Rawdon was obdurate. He would not even 
 grant the request of the British officers that 
 Hayne should be accorded the death of a soldier 
 instead of the punishment of a spy. 
 
 Even more cruel than the refusal of all these
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 297 
 
 requests was the failure, on the part of the gov- 
 erning powers, to let the prisoner know what 
 manner of death awaited him. Not until he had 
 passed the town gates in King Street on his 
 way from the prison to the place of execution 
 did he learn, by coming face to face with the 
 gibbet, the shameful death which was to be his ! 
 Yet it was with a firm step that he ascended 
 the cart, with a quiet voice that he repeated 
 after the clergyman the few prayers chosen for 
 the occasion, and with a gesture full of dignity 
 that he himself gave the signal to the hangman. 
 No wonder this man's name is always coupled 
 in his native State with the word, " martyr." 
 
 Charleston had been one of the earliest cities 
 to suffer from the declaration of war with Great 
 Britain and it was one of the very last to be 
 freed from the duty and necessity of fighting. 
 The occupation of the city by the enemy lasted 
 until December, 1782. Then, the very day the 
 redcoats marched out, the Americans marched 
 in. Moultrie, who was of the latter company, 
 and who had the good luck to be there only 
 because he had been exchanged for General 
 Burgoyne, records, " It was a proud day 
 for me and I felt myself much elated at seeing 
 the balconies, the doors and windows crowded 
 with the patriotick fair, the aged citizens and 
 others congratulating us on our return home, 
 saying * God bless you, gentlemen/ ' You
 
 298 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 are welcome, gentlemen.' Both citizens and 
 soldiers shed tears of joy. It was an ample 
 reward for the triumphant soldiers, after all 
 the hazards and fatigues of war which they had 
 gone through, to be the instrument of releasing 
 friends and fellow-citizens from captivity and 
 restoring them to their liberties and the posses- 
 sion of their city and country again." 
 
 But the town, alas! which, in 1778 had been 
 a thriving, prosperous place, each house of which 
 rejoiced in its own yard and garden, was now a 
 pile of ugly ruins. The plantations, too, were 
 pictures of desolation. And no man could say 
 where the money which should restore prosperity 
 was to come from. Rice proved to be the prod- 
 uct which spelled release from poverty in this 
 particular section of the South -land. And then, 
 after tide-water rice, came cotton. Ralph Izard, 
 as early as 1774, had seen the possibilities which 
 lay in the cultivation of cotton, and now many 
 another land-owner saw them, also. 
 
 Soon prosperity was actually at hand ! Plenty 
 of evidence can be found from the pages of 
 travelers that, by 1790, Charleston was again 
 a very pretty place of residence. Though the 
 houses were many of them of wood, they were 
 large and airy, and the fashion of having piazzas 
 was becoming almost universal. The streets, 
 to be sure, were narrow purposely so in 
 order that the sun might be excluded. But this
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 299 
 
 worked to the advantage of those householders 
 who chanced not to command any piazza. 
 One fine old gentleman was always accustomed 
 to take his tea, in fine summer weather, on the 
 broad sidewalk in front of his door. After the 
 table had been brought out and arranged, pass- . 
 ing friends would stop for a cup and a chat. 
 Others, who chanced to be walking that way, 
 crossed the street and went by on the other side. 
 Charleston had good manners. 
 
 For Washington's Southern tour in 1791 the 
 city, of course, put on its very best bib and tucker. 
 The house in which he was entertained then be- 
 longed to Thomas Hey ward and had been rented 
 and handsomely furnished by the authorities 
 for the occasion. From it the President made 
 a little journey to visit the fortifications, and to 
 it he returned after numerous breakfasts, din- 
 ners and balls, all of which he scrupulously re- 
 corded in his journal. 
 
 ' Went to a concert where were 400 ladies, 
 the number and appearance of wch exceeded 
 anything I had ever seen." 
 
 " Breakfast with Mrs. Rutledge, lady of 
 Chief Justice, then absent on the Circuit. 
 Dinner with gentlemen of the Cincinnati." 
 
 " Was visited about two o'clock by a great 
 number of the most respectable ladies of Charles- 
 ton, the first honour of the kind I had ever ex- 
 perienced, as flattering as singular."
 
 300 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Moreover, there was a state dinner at the 
 Exchange, and at the City Hall a concert and 
 ball. For this last occasion the ladies self- 
 sacrificingly wore " fillets of white riband in- 
 terwoven in their head-dress with the head of 
 Washington painted on them, and the words, 
 ' Long live the President,' in gilt letters. Every 
 hand that could hold a pencil, professional or 
 amateur, was enlisted to furnish these ban- 
 deaux." * And on Sunday the guest of honor 
 attended divine service at both the historic 
 churches of the town. In the morning St. 
 Philip's 2 welcomed him; in the afternoon St. 
 Michael's. The pew which he occupied in the 
 latter edifice is preserved inviolate unto this day. 
 
 To the Cincinnati of Charleston, with whose 
 members Washington, in his Diary, mentions 
 dining in the course of this visit, is due great 
 credit for their long-continued and finally suc- 
 cessful efforts to bring into disrepute the costly 
 custom of duelling. How strongly entrenched 
 the custom was is shown by the fact that when, 
 
 1 Reminiscences of Charleston: Charles Fraser. 
 
 2 St. Philip's Parish (the first and oldest in South Carolina and 
 coeval with the Colony) dates from 1670, A. D. There have been 
 three St. Philip's parish churches, viz: the first stood where St. 
 Michael's now stands; the second, provided for by the act of March 
 1, 1710-11, and standing where the present one now stands, was com- 
 pleted in 1723 and was destroyed by fire in 1835, whereupon the 
 third and present one was erected. St. Michael's Parish was es- 
 tablished by the act of June 14, 1751, and its church (still standing) 
 was completed in 1761. See Dalcho's History of the Church in South 
 Carolina.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 301 
 
 after Hamilton's death, General Charles Cotes- 
 worth Pinckney, as the President of the Cincin- 
 nati, addressed a letter to the President of the 
 State Society protesting at this " barbarous 
 custom " to which General Hamilton had " fallen 
 a victim," nothing whatever came of the matter. 
 This, too, in spite of the fact that every man 
 felt the deep truth of General Pinckney 's 
 assertion, " Duelling is no criterion of bravery, 
 for I have seen cowards fight duels, and I am 
 convinced real courage may often be better 
 shown in the refusal than in the acceptance of 
 a challenge. If the Society of the Cincinnati," 
 he insisted, " were to declare their abhorrence 
 of this practice, and announce the determination 
 of all their members to discourage it as far as 
 they had influence, and on no account either 
 to send or to accept a challenge, it might tend 
 to annul this odious custom." Yet it was not 
 until a whole quarter of a century later, when 
 General Thomas Pinckney had succeeded his 
 brother as President-general of the society, 
 that a quarrel such as would ordinarily have 
 called for a duel was for the first time settled 
 by a " Court of Honor " composed of members 
 of the Cincinnati. The precedent thus estab- 
 lished appears to have had some effect for 
 duelling gradually became less frequent, " until 
 it fell in 1866 with the civilization of which it 
 was a part."
 
 302 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 To the doctrines disseminated by the French 
 Revolution Charleston was eagerly responsive 
 the brave men who had had a large share in 
 the struggle of 1776 trustfully thinking that 
 Lafayette was to be another Washington and 
 France a power through which Europe should 
 be regenerated. At public entertainments the 
 American and French colors often waved to- 
 gether and the tri-colored cockade w T as generally 
 worn. Many Jacobin clubs were formed; the 
 Due de Liancourt-Rochefoucauld, in his pub- 
 lished travels, has an amused reference to the 
 fact that " the principles of the French dema- 
 gogues predominated long in Charleston." Mr. 
 Charles Fraser, whose delightful Reminiscences 
 give us the best available picture of Charleston's 
 early "Republican enthusiasms, recalls that a 
 grand civic pageant took place January 1, 
 1793, in honor of the National Assembly of 
 France. " So great was the public enthusiasm," 
 he declares, " that, on the eve of that day, the 
 bells of St. Michael's were chimed, and a salute of 
 thirteen guns fired by the artillery. The same 
 honours were repeated on the morning following, 
 and in the course of the day, a procession of 
 French and American citizens paraded the streets 
 of Charleston, headed by the Governor. . . . 
 In passing before the French Protestant Church 1 
 
 1 The French Protestant Church belongs to the very early history 
 of Charleston. A building in which the Huguenot form of worship
 
 the Consul, as an expiation for the persecutions 
 of Louis XIV against that church, took off his 
 hat, and saluted with the national colours. 
 On arriving at St. Philip's Church, the place 
 appointed for the religious ceremonies of the 
 day, two salutes were fired by the regiment of 
 infantry, an animated oration was delivered 
 by the Rev. Mr. Coste, the Te Deum was sung, 
 and the service closed by the Hymne de Marseil- 
 lois, accompanied with the organ. In the after- 
 noon a grand fete was given at William's Coffee- 
 house, prepared for two hundred and fifty per- 
 sons. Two sets of toasts, French and English, 
 were drunk." As for July 14, the anniversary 
 of the destruction of the Bastille, that was cele- 
 brated as if it were an American festival! 
 
 When this ardent faith in the beneficence of 
 the Revolution was perforce violently shaken 
 by the acts of the demagogues, Charlestonians 
 actually suffered. The banishment of Lafayette 
 stirred people to their depths, for it was well 
 remembered that he had been America's great 
 friend in time of need. The greatest indignation 
 was, indeed, felt in Charleston because Washing- 
 ton did not at once demand the release of this 
 great and good man. And it was a young Caro- 
 
 was carried on has stood on the southeast corner of Church and 
 Queen Streets ever since 1687 (about). The first building was des- 
 troyed by fire in 1740, a second met the same fate in 1796 but was 
 rebuilt in 1797. This last edifice was remodeled and enlarged in 
 1845.
 
 304 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 linian, Francis Kinloch Huger, 1 who made that 
 gallant attempt to liberate the prisoner at 
 Olmutz which forms one of the most thrilling 
 chapters of early Republican history. 
 
 Huger was only a child of three when he first 
 met Lafayette; by chance, it was at his father's 
 house, on North Island, South Carolina, that 
 the young Frenchman passed the first night of 
 his stay in America. (He and the Baron de 
 Kalb had taken to the boats, from the vessel 
 which had brought them across the Atlantic, 
 in order to avoid British cruisers.) This was in 
 1776. The attempted rescue of Lafayette came 
 in 1794, when Huger had just attained his 
 majority. The profession chosen by the brave 
 young South Carolinian was that of a surgeon 
 and he thus came into contact at Vienna with 
 the clever young physician of Hanover, Dr. 
 Bollmann, who had been engaged by friends of 
 Lafayette to discover the latter's prison and at- 
 tempt his rescue. Bollmann had already been at 
 work on the matter for a year when he fell in 
 with Huger, and he had then just succeeded 
 in establishing connections with the famous 
 prisoner at Olmutz by means of some French 
 books, on the margins of which a plan of escape 
 had been written in lemon- juice characters found 
 to be easily legible upon being held to the fire. 
 
 1 Huger was born in Charleston in 1773 and died there in 1855. 
 In 1811 he married the daughter of General Thomas Pinckney.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 305 
 
 When Huger was told the plan that had been 
 made to rescue Lafayette some day when he 
 should be out riding he was eager to help. 
 Accordingly, he and Bollmann hired a post- 
 chaise and a servant, besides two horses, one of 
 which had been trained to carry double. Then 
 they made the journey of one hundred and fifty 
 miles to Olmutz. Arriving there the servant 
 with the chaise was dispatched to Hoff, a town 
 about twenty -five miles from Olmutz on the road 
 they hoped soon to be traveling with Lafayette 
 under their care. Then, at the hour when they 
 knew the prisoner was given his airing, the 
 rescuers started to meet him. They recognized 
 him easily by his pre-arranged gesture (raising 
 his hat and wiping his forehead with his hand- 
 kerchief), quickly overpowered the guard who 
 kept at his side as he alighted to take his exercise, 
 and then Huger, bidding the General mount one 
 of the horses, directed him to " Go to Hoff." 
 Unfortunately this direction was given in Eng- 
 lish and was understood by Lafayette to be 
 " Go off." Obediently, he let his horse canter 
 slowly away. 
 
 Thus very valuable moments were lost, mo- 
 ments during which the mounted soldier, who 
 had been riding behind the prisoner's carriage, 
 was able to gallop back and report the rescue. 
 Unhappily, too, Lafayette had taken the horse 
 trained to carry double, so that either Bollmann
 
 306 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 or Huger must needs waive the chance of escape. 
 The latter insisted that the Hanoverian, who 
 spoke German, could most effectively serve 
 Lafayette, and so gave up to him the remaining 
 horse. But the sacrifice was of no avail for 
 all three men were soon captured, Huger 
 being chained for many days to the floor of 
 a dungeon from which all light had been ex- 
 cluded, and denied any opportunity to commu- 
 nicate with the outside world. After eight 
 months he and Bollmann were released, the 
 judges having been bribed by their friends. 
 Lafayette was not set free for another three 
 years. 
 
 Another highly creditable connection of the 
 city with the French Revolution was the ready 
 and generous help accorded by Charlestonians 
 to the St. Domingo refugees who had been 
 driven out of their island by the horrible mas- 
 sacres of 1792. The mother of Joseph Jefferson 
 was one of these refugees. Her charming face 
 and gentle manners, as a child of ten, attracted 
 the attention of the daughter of General Mac- 
 pherson into whose home she was taken and 
 tenderly cared for until she arrived at woman's 
 estate. To this great increase of French pop- 
 ulation in Charleston and the natural fondness 
 which the French people have for theatricals 
 was due the establishment of a French theatre 
 in the town, in 1794, with a good company of
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 307 
 
 comedians, pantomimists, rope-dancers and the 
 like. A rendering of the Marseillaise in which 
 the audience joined was long a feature here. 
 Later, the building was converted into a public 
 hall for concerts and dancing assemblies and 
 here, so long as it continued to be a musical 
 society, met the St. Cecilia. 
 
 This musical organization, which Mr. Quincy 
 speaks of having enjoyed when he was in Charles- 
 ton before the Revolution, is as peculiarly 
 a product of the city we are now considering 
 as were the Wistar parties a distinctly Phila- 
 delphian institution. It met on a Thursday 
 ' Thursday being St. Cecilia's day." It was 
 begun in the year 1737 as an amateur concert 
 society and amateurs long continued to com- 
 pose the bulk of its membership; General C. C. 
 Pinckney and Mr. Ralph Izard were both of 
 the St. Cecilia in their youth. The society 
 was formally organized in 1762 and has gone on to 
 the present day excepting during the war periods. 
 
 When it was learned that President Monroe 
 was to visit Charleston the St. Cecilia attempted 
 to muster all its forces to do him honor; but 
 evidently the club's musical ardor had now de- 
 clined, for the committee was obliged to report 
 that only five performers could be found for 
 a concert and it was proposed to give a 
 ball instead. For this occasion a combination 
 appears to have been effected, but in 1822 the
 
 308 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 concert was definitely abandoned and the ball 
 came in to take its place. Membership in this 
 interesting organization is by election at annual 
 meetings and the fact that an aspirant's father 
 or grandfather was formerly a member greatly 
 helps his chances. But worthy " new " people 
 are by no means excluded and when a man is 
 once elected the names of the ladies of his house- 
 hold are forthwith placed upon the St. Cecilia's 
 list there to remain until the day of their death 
 unless they have previously left the city. The 
 managers of the organization are elected by 
 the general membership and upon them rests 
 all the care of the three balls given each season, 
 the first in January and the second and third 
 in February, the latter being carefully arranged 
 to avoid Lent. A charming feature is that at 
 such balls the latest bride is always taken down 
 to supper by the president. These suppers are 
 very elegantly served, for the Society owns its 
 own plate, damask, china and glass and the serv- 
 ants of members are enlisted to serve as waiters. 
 Another unique social institution of Charles- 
 ton, which continued through many years, were 
 the breakfasts given by Mr. Poinsett, a gentle- 
 man interesting to all Americans as the person 
 for whom the gorgeous Poinsettia was named. 
 The only son of a wealthy physician of Huguenot 
 descent this gracious host was a citizen of the 
 world in the finest meaning of the words. But
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 309 
 
 he was a good American before everything else 
 and was glad to return to America, and represent 
 his city in Congress establishing himself, during 
 the intervals of the sessions, in a small cottage 
 surrounded by trees and by the flowers which 
 were the passion of his life. His breakfasts, 
 given once a week, were deservedly famous for 
 only men who knew how to talk and women who 
 were endowed with either beauty or "charm or 
 both were bidden. Late in life Mr. Poinsett 
 married a widow who possessed both wealth and 
 good looks and was an Izard besides! Thence- 
 forth he was more than ever a prominent figure 
 in the life of his native town. 
 
 A town in which a meal so little promising 
 as breakfast could be made to take high social 
 rank would naturally offer very great opportu- 
 nities to the amenities which cluster about the 
 tea-table. " In the days of the early Republic 
 it was a common custom for ladies at Charleston 
 to send their compliments to a friend, soon 
 after breakfast, saying that if not engaged in 
 the evening, they would take tea with her," 
 Mr. Fraser recalls. He says, also, that he once 
 heard these same worthy matrons compared, 
 as they sat side by side in a row at a ball, to 
 " a Roman Senate " ! Yet they were not merely 
 chaperons. For, formerly, dancing was not the 
 exclusive amusement of the young. At the 
 first public assembly after the Revolutionary
 
 310 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 War the ball was opened by a minuet between 
 General Moultrie, in full regimentals, and " a 
 lady of suitable years," whom he afterwards 
 married. General Moultrie was not a day less 
 than fifty -three at this time; what the lady's 
 " suitable years " totalled we are not informed. 
 While we are speaking of dancing it may be 
 noted that, in Charleston, at this period was 
 to be seen that same tendency to the extremely 
 decollete in ball gowns of which we have heard 
 in connection with Washington society and 
 certain Baltimore belles. But, as if to compen- 
 sate for undressed shoulders, the head was 
 literally burdened with head-dress, frizzes and 
 wigs. And that despite the fact that it was 
 well known that there was a direct relation 
 between the prevalence of the guillotine in 
 France and the vogue of wigs in Charleston ! 
 
 By the time it had become well reestablished 
 in prosperity Charleston began to have its 
 " season " even as London has. But at a 
 different time of year. For in this southern 
 city the call to town-gaiety came at the end of 
 January, when a joyous succession of St. Cecilias, 
 Dancing Assembles and Philharmonic Concerts 
 made life in the city seem exceedingly good to 
 the young people, while, for " father," there was 
 the Jockey Ball in the midst of a week of races. 
 These races long made Charleston the centre 
 of travel for all who could afford to travel.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 311 
 
 Partly, very likely, because of the personal 
 interest everywhere taken by the planters in 
 the raising and training of horses the enthu- 
 siasm produced by this annual festival was such 
 as can scarcely be conceived today. " Schools 
 were dismissed," Mr. Praser tells us, " and the 
 Courts were adjourned. Clergymen thought 
 it no impropriety to see a well-contested race; 
 and if grave physicians played truant, they were 
 sure to be found in the crowd on the race- 
 ground. Every stable in the city was emptied 
 every saddle and bridle put into requisition, 
 and those who could procure neither horse, 
 saddle nor bridle enlisted as pedestrians. The 
 concourse itself presented quite a showy and 
 animated spectacle, from the number of well- 
 dressed and well-mounted horsemen, and from 
 the display of equipages and liveries. The 
 whole week was devoted to pleasure and the 
 interchanges of conviviality; nor were the 
 ladies unnoticed, for the Race ball, given to 
 them by the Jockey Club, was always the most 
 splendid of the season." 
 
 It should not, however, be thought that this 
 festival of the races had only its frivolous and 
 self-indulgent side. It was, also, of tremendous 
 commercial importance. For it was in race- 
 week that the planter settled accounts with his 
 factor. The factor seems to have been the pur- 
 chasing agent of the country family, as well as
 
 312 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of his immediate employer, the planter. And 
 he was likewise the selling agent, receiving the 
 rice and cotton, when sent to market, and get- 
 ting for it the best possible price from the mer- 
 chant to whom he sold it. Moreover, the factor 
 kept all the accounts connected with the plan- 
 tation and did what he could to make them 
 understood by his over-lord. That was a day 
 when many a planter could read Homer and 
 make a speech to explain the Constitution; 
 but from the very nature of things he could 
 not solve correctly a simple problem of arith- 
 metic. This, then, and pretty much every- 
 thing else that was hard or disagreeable, fell 
 to the lot of the factor. Small wonder that 
 Carolina's gentlemen not infrequently found 
 their affairs in a hopeless muddle at some stage 
 or other of their lives. To trust an employe is 
 all very well; but constantly to deny him either 
 cooperation or intelligent interest is to put a 
 premium upon dishonesty. 
 
 Let us now, however, return to the planter's 
 country-home as the planter himself was wont 
 to do directly his week of racing was over. By 
 the first of March he was back on his ancestral 
 acres and by April the ladies were there, too, 
 eager to en joy the coming of spring in the country. 
 But by May they would have to go away again, 
 for the streams and ponds of the lowlands would 
 then be looking green and ugly and, in a day
 
 3 1 
 
 < 03 
 
 su
 
 THEODOSIA BURR. 
 From the portrait by St. Memin.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 313 
 
 when the virtues of quinine were not yet under- 
 stood, that meant malaria. Not until the first 
 frost had fallen would their country -homes now 
 see the women. But from November to Jan- 
 uary they would be there again, enjoying to 
 the utmost the pleasures of a country winter 
 out of doors. And Christmas, for which the 
 Legislature always adjourned, was the culmi- 
 nating home-festival of the year. 
 
 A goodly, gracious life, but one so very differ- 
 ent from that of the North that a girl coming 
 to it as a bride 1 might quite conceivably find 
 rather difficult the matter of adjusting herself 
 to its trying climate and to its constant comings 
 and goings. Theodosia Burr, who married 
 Joseph Alston and went to Charleston to live, 
 early in the nineteenth century, once said quite 
 frankly that only her great love for her husband 
 availed to make the city endurable to her. 
 
 1 Brides, of course, differed then as now in their attitude towards 
 country life. Mrs. Ralph Izard, who had been Alice de Lancey, a 
 belle of New York, before she married and went to live on her 
 husband's southern plantation " The Elms," appears to have 
 greatly enjoyed herself in her new home. It is told of her that once, 
 when her husband was ill, she personally managed his large estate 
 and wrote his business letters, besides taking care of three families of 
 children. No man more fully enjoyed Washington's confidence than 
 Ralph Izard. During the Revolutionary struggle the Izards were 
 out of the country, however, living in London, in Paris and in Rome. 
 It was in the last named city that the striking portrait, herewith 
 reproduced, was made of them by John Singleton Copley. From 
 1789-95 Ralph Izard represented his native State in the United 
 States Senate. He died in South Bay, near Charleston, in 1804, 
 aged 62,
 
 314 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Even before her marriage we find her inveigh- 
 ing against local conditions in a fashion quite 
 unusual in love-letters. But then, Theodosia 
 Burr was an exceptional person in more ways 
 than one. 
 
 Highly exceptional was she, of course, in the 
 passionate devotion she cherished for her father 
 and in the way in which she believed in him and 
 stuck to him through the many trying chapters 
 of his extraordinary career. Parton says that 
 it was the conviction that there must have been 
 much good in the man who could inspire such 
 love as Theodosia Alston gave Aaron Burr which 
 first interested him to write the latter's biog- 
 raphy. Nowadays, of course, we are constantly 
 discovering that Burr was far from being the 
 unmitigated villain American historians have too 
 long declared him. 1 
 
 The twelve years of Burr's married life un- 
 questionably mark the brightest and best 
 period of his career. He often said that Theo- 
 dosia's mother, who had been the Widow Prevost 
 when he married her, was the best woman and 
 the finest lady he had ever known; history has 
 never denied that little Theodosia was exceed- 
 ingly fortunate in the matter of this parent. 
 
 1 One ancient myth about a girl Burr is usually credited with 
 having " ruined on a wager " has been effectually exploded, within 
 ten years, by V. Lansing Collins, librarian at Princeton University. 
 See New York Sun, January 26, 1902, for article copied from the 
 Princeton Alumni Weekly.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 315 
 
 The child was born at Albany in the summer of 
 1783, Burr's residence then being in New York's 
 capital because of his political duties there. 
 The following winter the family moved to New 
 York and established a home in Maiden Lane, 
 '* the rent to commence when the troops leave 
 the city." That Burr was very prosperous at 
 this period is clear from the fact that the rent 
 thus referred to came to something like two 
 hundred pounds a year. Soon an even better 
 house was taken, a mansion at the corner of 
 Cedar and Nassau Streets surrounded by a 
 luxurious garden in which the little Theodosia 
 played happily for several years. 
 
 Charles Lamb once said that babies merely 
 as babies have no right to our regard, adding 
 that every child has a character of his own and 
 should be judged by that. Aaron Burr, who 
 came of a long line of schoolmasters and had 
 the pedagogical instinct very strongly developed, 
 seems to have been convinced of the truth of 
 this. For his little daughter had scarcely passed 
 babyhood when he began to mould her into the 
 lovely woman she afterwards became. His 
 absorbing interest in her was naturally greatly 
 facilitated by her passionate devotion to him. 
 We find from one of her mother's letters to the 
 absent husband that their daughter, then only 
 two years old, " cannot hear you spoken of 
 without an apparent melancholy; insomuch
 
 316 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 that her nurse is obliged to exert her invention 
 to divert her, and myself avoid to mention you 
 in her presence. She was one day indifferent 
 to everything but your name. Her attachment 
 is not of a common nature; though this was 
 my opinion I avoided the remark, when Mr. 
 Grant observed it to me as a singular instance." 
 
 The letters which passed between Burr and 
 his wife during these years of Theodosia's 
 childhood when, from the nature of his work, 
 he was obliged to be much away from home, 
 are full of thought about the education of this 
 gifted child. Ere she is six her father directs that 
 her writing and arithmetic must by no means 
 be neglected and, a fortnight later, we find him 
 giving orders that she be drilled two or three 
 hours a day at French and arithmetic. That the 
 child might overwork seems never to have oc- 
 curred to these devoted parents. Yet to us, as 
 we read, it seems somewhat excessive that, in 
 July weather, a little girl of eight should be 
 " writing and ciphering from five in the morn- 
 ing to eight, and also the same hours in the 
 evening." 
 
 After Burr had purchased Richmond Hill 
 riding occupied some of the hours Theodosia 
 had previously given over to ciphering and many 
 poorer children looked after her with envy as 
 she trotted about on her pretty pony followed 
 by a devoted slave. Then and for many years
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 317 
 
 she was a child of affluence. Not until she had 
 left her father's house, indeed, did a shadow of 
 misfortune fall on it or her. Except it should 
 immediately be added, the death in 1794 of 
 Mrs. Burr after a painful and lingering illness. 
 If we needed further proof that Burr's love for 
 this wife was compounded of friendship as 
 well as of passion we have only to read a single 
 one of his letters to her and there are many 
 of similar tone which he sent from Phila- 
 delphia where he was obliged to live, because 
 then a senator the year before her death. 
 " It was a knowledge of your mind," he there 
 says, " which first inspired me with a respect 
 for that of your sex. I admit, with some regret, 
 I confess, that the ideas which you have often 
 heard me express in favor of female intellectual 
 powers are founded on what I have imagined, 
 more than what I have seen, except in you" 
 A week before he had written, " Cursed effects 
 of fashionable education, of which both sexes 
 are the advocates, and yours eminently the vic- 
 tims! If I could foresee that Theo would be- 
 come a mere fashionable woman, with all the 
 attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, adorned 
 with whatever grace and allurement, I would 
 earnestly pray God to take her forthwith hence. 
 But I yet hope by her to convince the world 
 what neither sex appears to believe that 
 women have souls."
 
 318 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Surely it was not a mere libertine who wrote 
 that. Nor a libertine who sat up all night a 
 week later, in Philadelphia, reading the revolu- 
 tionary book of the age on Woman's Rights. 
 ' You have heard me speak of Miss Wollstone- 
 craft," Burr then wrote his wife, " who has 
 done something on the French Revolution; she 
 has also written a book entitled * Vindication 
 of the Rights of Woman.' I had heard it spoken 
 of with a coldness little calculated to excite at- 
 tention; but as I read with avidity and pre- 
 possession everything written by a lady, I 
 made haste to procure it and spent the last 
 night, almost the whole of it, in reading it. 
 Be assured that your sex has in her an able ad- 
 vocate. It is, in my opinion, a work of genius. 
 She has successfully adopted the style of Rous- 
 seau's Emilius, and her comments on that work, 
 especially what relates to female education, 
 contains more sense than all the other criti- 
 cisms upon him which I have seen put together. 
 I promise myself much pleasure in reading it 
 to you." (Burr, like most pedagogical persons, 
 had the reading-aloud habit.) 
 
 At eleven Theodosia began the study of 
 Greek, and from that time on until her marriage 
 her education was as nearly like that of a young 
 man as the time of which she was a part would al- 
 low. Yet the more distinctly womanly accom- 
 plishments were by no means neglected. A
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 319 
 
 young French woman, Natalie 1'Age, was taken 
 into the family in order that Theodosia might 
 have the advantages of French conversation, 
 and music had early been included in her 
 curriculum, as we find from the following letter 
 which she wrote her stepbrother when only 
 nine. The letter is refreshingly free from the 
 prig-like qualities we might have expected to 
 find in a child educated with such extreme 
 care. 
 
 " PELHAM, October the 20th, 1792. 
 
 " DEAR BROTHER: I hope the mumps have left 
 you. Mine left me a week ago. . . . Papa has 
 been here and is gone again. He and the French- 
 man has had a fray, so he keeps in fine order. 
 The day before papa went away we had your 
 good pig for diner. Mr. Chapron is in Phila- 
 delphia at the point of death with the putrid 
 fever, and Mr. Luet, an english music master, 
 had an elegant forte-piano which papa bought 
 for me: it cost 33 Guineas, and it is just come 
 home. 
 
 " I am tired of affectionate, not of being it 
 but of writing it, so I leave it out; I am your 
 sister, 
 
 "THEODOSIA B. BURR." 
 
 The italicized words (and there are several 
 more of them in the full letter) are Theodosia's
 
 320 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 own admissions of discovered slips in spelling 
 or grammar. According to her father's plan 
 she would use these same words and expressions 
 again in the next letter she might write, taking 
 care, however, not to repeat the original mis- 
 takes. 
 
 Parton has said that Mary Wollstonecraft's 
 book was fifty years in advance of the time and 
 this seems to me a moderate statement. Yet 
 Burr immediately recognized the work's value 
 and applied to the education of his only child 
 the high principles therein advocated. In 
 championing the new author's idea that in- 
 tellectual rather than sexual intercourse should 
 be the thing chiefly sought in marriage be- 
 cause it alone could endow that institution with 
 lasting happiness Burr was but acting on 
 the experience of his own married life. Ad- 
 mirable as were many of the women whom the 
 great and good men of this period had chosen 
 for their wives Mrs. Burr perhaps stands alone 
 as the intellectual companion of her mate. In 
 literary judgment she was quite her husband's 
 equal; in moral judgment she was his superior. 
 And so he did not fear to let their girl child read 
 Horace and Terence in the original at ten, and 
 attack the Greek grammar, speak French and 
 study Gibbon not long after that date. So it 
 came about that Theodosia Burr was the best 
 educated woman of her time and country, and
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 321 
 
 one, too, who in other ways satisfied her father's 
 ideal of a perfect woman nobly planned. On the 
 eve of his duel with Hamilton Burr wrote to 
 her, " You have completely satisfied all that 
 my heart and affections had hoped for, or ever 
 wished." 
 
 When Theodosia was fourteen she took her 
 place at the head of her father's household and 
 became his constant companion in the intervals 
 when his duties admitted of his being at home. 
 Her command of the French language enabled 
 her to acquit herself with distinction when 
 Jerome Bonaparte, Talleyrand or Volney were 
 her father's guests. At seventeen, she was a 
 recognized belle with many admirers ever in her 
 wake. The man who was to capture this prize 
 among women was, however, a Charleston youth, 
 Joseph Alston, who, though only twenty-two, 
 had already studied law and been admitted to 
 the bar this, too, in spite of the fact that he 
 was possessed of considerable wealth in his 
 own right and needed not to bestir himself. 
 It was of the family home of the Alstons, " The 
 Oaks," that Josiah Quincy wrote thus ap- 
 preciatively in his journal during that visit 
 to Charleston in 1773, reference to which has 
 been made earlier in this chapter: "March 23. 
 Spent the night at Mr. Joseph Alston's, a 
 gentleman of immense income, all of his own 
 acquisition. His plantations, negroes, gardens
 
 322 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 etc. are in the best order I have ever seen. He 
 has propagated the Lisbon and Wine Island 
 grapes with great success. I was entertained 
 with true hospitality and benevolence by his 
 family." This Joseph Alston died when his 
 namesake and grandson, who was later to marry 
 Theodosia Burr, was but a boy. In his will 
 was the provision that young Joseph, besides 
 inheriting " The Oaks," should be given the 
 most liberal possible education. 
 
 Consequently, when Theodosia Burr began to 
 quote Aristotle to her lover in order to prop up 
 her conviction that " a man should not marry 
 until he is six and thirty," that lover, being then 
 only two and twenty and very much in love, 
 replied in a very long, sufficiently learned but 
 withal undeniably ardent letter the gist of 
 which was that he did not care a fig what Aris- 
 totle had said about this matter, for he wanted 
 to marry her right off. Already, however, 
 Theodosia had relented. Before his elaborate 
 arguments had had time to reach her we find her 
 writing that she and her father were to leave 
 New York for Albany in about two weeks, re- 
 maining there until February 10, after which 
 time, she intimates, " my movements will de- 
 pend upon my father and you." Joseph Alston 
 was no laggard in love. In the New York Com- 
 mercial Advertiser of February 7, 1801, we, there- 
 fore, find this notice:
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 323 
 
 " MARRIED At Albany, on the 2nd instant, 
 by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, Joseph Alston of 
 South Carolina, to Theodosia Burr, only child 
 of Aaron Burr, Esq." 
 
 Before the marriage Theodosia had told her 
 lover that some of her friends, who had visited 
 Charleston, had described it as a city of yellow 
 fever and extreme heat, where the men were so 
 absorbed in hunting, gaming and racing that 
 the women scarcely ever enjoyed their society 
 and had no pleasures but to come together in 
 large parties, sip tea and look prim. Alston had 
 thereupon sworn that he would be ever at her 
 side; and events proved that he had not spoken 
 falsely. Their marriage was a singularly happy 
 one, indeed, and though Theodosia never ceased 
 to yearn for her father's companionship, she 
 was able to assure her husband " Where you are, 
 there is my country, and in you are centred all 
 my wishes." Yet she was undoubtedly in 
 better health and spirits when at the North; 
 the climate of South Carolina did not agree with 
 her, try as she would to make the best of it. 
 In the sultry summers she fled to the mountains 
 and in the winter she was admired, caressed 
 and sought after in Charleston not only for 
 her husband's and father's sake but also for her 
 own. Burr was now Vice-President, of course, 
 and at the very height of his popularity. For no
 
 324 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 child ever born in America did the prospects seem 
 more brilliant than for his grandson and name- 
 sake, born in the home of the Alstons on June 
 29, 1802 just before Theodosia was twenty. 
 
 Theodosia's twenty-first birthday may be 
 said to mark the beginning of her years of sad- 
 ness. Her father celebrated the day with a 
 dinner-party at Richmond Hill for which he 
 had her portrait taken down from the wall and 
 placed in her chair at the table. ' We laughed 
 an hour, danced an hour and drank your health," 
 he wrote. But before this letter reached her 
 the tragedy of Weehawken had been enacted 
 and Burr's sun had started to set. In several 
 ways, it now developed that the bright prospects 
 of Hamilton's slayer were illusory in the extreme. 
 His property had been supposed to be worth two 
 hundred thousand dollars; but he was found 
 to be very deeply in debt. Moreover, his politi- 
 cal position, even before the duel, was 
 scarcely less hollow than his social eminence. 
 For Jefferson had determined that Aaron Burr 
 should not be his successor in the office of Presi- 
 dent. To Theodosia, however, it merely seemed 
 that luck was against her father and, of course, 
 her womanly loyalty and tenderness was more 
 than ever stimulated in his behalf. 
 
 In December, 1805, Burr made the acquaint- 
 ance of the Blennerhassetts and enlisted their 
 interest, as he had already enlisted that of
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 325 
 
 Alston and Theodosia, in his Mexican scheme. 
 For years it was supposed that Blennerhassett 
 had some deep political reason for wishing to 
 join Burr's " conspiracy," but in an article 
 not long ago put out, by Therese Blennerhassett 
 Adams, 1 a connection, it is disclosed that the 
 real reason Blennerhassett so avidly joined in 
 the scheme was because he wished to remove 
 himself even further from those who knew him : 
 Harman Blennerhassett had been forced by his 
 marriage with his own niece, the daughter of 
 his sister Catherine, to give up his position and 
 his patrimony in his own country. And though 
 there were only a few on this side of the water 
 who knew his sad history, he stood in constant 
 dread lest the real facts of the case come to 
 the knowledge of his children. For this reason 
 he was glad to join Burr. The Blennerhassetts 
 were always very happy together, it might here 
 be added, and the story that Burr destroyed their 
 domestic peace should be branded as another 
 of the fictions of history. 
 
 Their story would seem to be sufficiently 
 strange and startling without recourse to fiction. 
 The man, at the age of thirty -one and when heir 
 to a splendid estate in Ireland, had been sent 
 to escort home from school the daughter of his 
 sister. But falling in love with her, he married 
 her instead ! She was only eighteen at the time 
 
 1 Century Magazine, July, 1901.
 
 326 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and so, of course, was far less blamed than he. 
 But she refused to give up the mate her heart 
 had chosen and so, selling his property in Ire- 
 land, Blennerhassett sailed with her for America. 
 The establishment they set up on their island 
 in the Ohio represented an investment of $60,000, 
 and perhaps the most blameworthy act of Burr's 
 life was that, through his Mexican scheme, he 
 embarrassed these people who had such great 
 need of wealth to soften the sorrows of their life. 
 (The Blennerhassetts had five children; in 
 these days of " eugenics " there is perhaps no 
 need to add that, of the five, not one turned out 
 a comfort to the parents. ' The fathers have 
 eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
 set on edge.") 
 
 To Theodosia and her husband Burr's arrest, 
 as a result of this Mexican venture, came as 
 a great shock. They stood valiantly by him, 
 however, as he was tried for treason before 
 Chief Justice Marshall at Richmond, and their 
 loyalty had scarcely less to do than Luther 
 Martin's eloquence with Burr's acquittal. Mar- 
 tin was one of the foremost geniuses of the Mary- 
 land bar at this period and his respect for Mrs. 
 Alston was profound. Blennerhassett once said 
 in this connection, " I find that Luther Martin's 
 idolatrous admiration of Mrs. Alston is almost 
 as excessive as my own, but far more beneficial 
 to his interests and injurious to his judgment,
 
 HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. 
 
 From a miniature in the possession of Dr. Francis Coffin Martin 
 of Boston.
 
 THE NAG'S HEAD PORTRAIT OF THEODOSIA BURR (?). 
 
 From the original in the possession of Mrs. John P. Overman, Elizabeth City, Xorth 
 
 Carolina.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 327 
 
 as it is the medium of his blind attachment to 
 her father, whose secrets and views, past, present 
 and to come, he is and wishes to remain ignorant 
 of. Nor can he see a speck in the character of 
 Alston, for the best of reasons with him namely 
 that Alston has such a wife." 
 
 But though Burr was acquitted he was a 
 persona non grata in America. The following 
 year, therefore, he prepared to sail for Europe. 
 In advance of his departure, Theodosia journeyed 
 to New York for the purpose of arranging that 
 the debts due him should come to her. She 
 would then remit to him. Burr was gay and 
 confident to the last and they parted in high 
 spirits at any rate his spirits were high 
 on June 7, 1808. They never saw each other 
 again! That summer Theodosia spent at Sara- 
 toga and the following winter she passed in 
 retirement in New York. Her father's history, 
 during the next four years, may be followed in 
 detail by perusing the Diary in which he records 
 his adventures in the various courts of Europe. 
 To read this book as recently published in full 
 for the delectation of bibliophiles, is to under- 
 stand the Aaron Burr of the early nineteenth 
 century and to catch a glimpse, too, of the man 
 he subsequently became. The writer of the 
 Diary is a less noble figure than the fond father 
 who directed Theodosia's early education. But 
 he is by no means a despicable person. He made
 
 328 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 it a rule never to accept an invitation to a 
 meal unless he had the means to buy one for 
 himself and he held to this even when it meant, 
 as it sometimes did, going hungry because re- 
 mittances from home had failed to reach him. 
 Charles Felton Pidgin has taken the trouble 
 to reduce to statistical form the social attentions 
 Burr chronicles in the Diary and he finds that 
 in four years he had 52 invitations to breakfast, 
 199 to dinner, and 67 to luncheon, tea or supper. 
 His rides and walks by invitation numbered 
 46; there were 166 persons who called upon 
 him, and he made 653 visits of a business or 
 social nature. So it cannot truthfully be said 
 that Burr was either an outcast or a recluse 
 during his sojourn in Europe. 
 
 For Theodosia, meanwhile, life was very sad 
 indeed. ' The world," we find her writing to 
 her father, " begins to cool terribly around me. 
 You would be surprised how many I supposed 
 attached to me have abandoned the sorry losing 
 game of disinterested friendship." Besides the 
 cooling of old friends Theodosia now for the 
 first time experienced real need of money! 
 The embargo had reduced the rice planters to 
 want and Alston had lost in the Mexican venture 
 funds that he would now have been very glad 
 to command. (This is the money which he 
 forgave Burr in his will.) Moreover, the young 
 wife's health was in a precarious state and
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 329 
 
 the letters from her father were infrequent and 
 discouraging. 
 
 Burr would by now have been very glad to 
 come home but he found great difficulty in se- 
 curing the necessary passport. The most potent 
 factor in facilitating his long-delayed return was 
 probably a letter which Theodosia wrote Mrs. 
 Madison, in her father's behalf, a few months 
 after Madison's elevation to the Presidency. 
 Burr, it will be recalled, had introduced Madison 
 to the Widow Todd. So at length the exile 
 was permitted to sail for home, landing in Boston, 
 penniless but with good courage, early in June, 
 1812. 
 
 This was to be the saddest year of the man's 
 whole life, a year full enough to him of sorrow 
 to serve as punishment, were such needed, 
 for any good thing he had ever left undone and 
 for all the bad deeds many or few his 
 hot blood and over-sanguine temperament had 
 led him to commit. For in the first letter which 
 he received, after he arrived in New York, 
 he learned that Aaron Burr Alston, his much- 
 loved grandson, had ceased to be. And ere he 
 had rallied from this blow he learned that the 
 ship in which his daughter had sailed from 
 Georgetown, South Carolina, to bid him welcome 
 home in New York, had been lost at sea, no man 
 knowing aught of its mysterious fate! Theo- 
 dosia was ill, as has already been said, and her,
 
 330 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 father, being unable to obtain a satisfactory 
 report of her condition, sent down to her a med- 
 ical friend, who soon reported, " I have engaged 
 a passage to New York for your daughter in 
 a pilot-boat that has been out privateering but 
 has come in here and is refitting merely to get 
 to New York. My only fears are that Governor 
 Alston [Theodosia's husband was now the chief 
 official of his State] may think the mode of 
 conveyance too undignified and object to it; 
 but Mrs. Alston is fully bent on going. You 
 must not be surprised," this letter concludes, 
 " to see her very low, feeble and emaciated. 
 Her complaint is an almost incessant nervous 
 fever." This was the time, it will be recalled, 
 of our second war with England. Theodosia's 
 husband, therefore, could not leave his post of 
 duty to accompany his wife north, as he would, 
 under ordinary circumstances, have done. But 
 her maid was with her as was also an old friend 
 of her father's. 
 
 They sailed December 30, 1812, but never 
 reached the port for which they embarked. 
 A violent storm swept the coast on the following 
 day and it was long supposed that the Patriot 
 with all on board went down off Cape Hatteras. 
 Not until weeks and months of despairing si- 
 lence had elapsed did husband and father aban- 
 don all hope, however; and during this period 
 of maddening suspense Aaron Burr acquired a
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 331 
 
 habit which clung to him to the end of his life 
 that of walking on the Battery for hours at 
 a time wistfully scanning the horizon for the 
 ship that did not come. 
 
 In a letter of farewell to her husband which 
 Theodosia had written five years earlier, on an 
 occasion when the former was away from home 
 and she despondent and ill, there is a passage 
 which runs, " Let my father see my son some- 
 times. Do not be unkind towards him whom I 
 have loved so much. Burn all my papers except 
 my father's letters which I beg you to return 
 him. Adieu, my sweet boy. Love your father; 
 be grateful and affectionate to him while he 
 lives; be the pride of his meridian, the support 
 of his departing days. Be all that he wishes 
 for he made your mother happy." This letter 
 was found by Burr, two or three years after 
 Theodosia's disappearance, in a chest of her be- 
 longings which Alston had sent him, and was 
 read, it will easily be understood, with a breaking 
 heart. 
 
 And now we come to the strangest and sad- 
 dest chapter of Theodosia's whole history, that 
 which is often referred to as her " supposed fate." 
 For many years, as has been said, it was be- 
 lieved that the vessel in which she embarked 
 had been lost at sea. But, about 1833, through 
 the confession made to his doctor by a dying 
 man in Mobile, Alabama, the story first became
 
 332 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 current that the lost vessel had been captured 
 by pirates and Mrs. Alston, among others, 
 made to " walk the plank." No confirmation 
 of this story was obtained at the time and very 
 little credence was placed in it. Some forty 
 years later, however, Charles Gayarre, author 
 of the History of Louisiana and other well- 
 known works, put out a novel entitled Fer- 
 nando de Lemos, in which the pirate incident 
 received fictional treatment. A Dr. Rhine- 
 berg is called, in the story, to the dying 
 pirate, Dominique You, who, when told that 
 his disease leaves him only a few days to live, 
 confesses painfully that " on the 3d of January, 
 1813, . . . in the latitude of Cape Hatteras 
 on the coast of North Carolina, I and my fellow- 
 pirates had met a small schooner named the 
 Patriot, which had been dismantled by a late 
 storm. . . . The officers of the vessel were 
 slaughtered and thrown overboard with the 
 rest of the crew. After this execution my men 
 rushed down below and brought up to the deck 
 a woman of surpassing beauty, deadly pale, 
 but showing no other signs of terror. She looked 
 at us with a sort of serene haughtiness, which 
 was truly wonderful. She made such an im- 
 pression on me, that I can almost fancy her 
 now standing in this chamber precisely as 
 she stood on that deck. 
 
 " ' Who are you? ' I said to her.
 
 " ' Theodosia Burr, the daughter of Aaron 
 Burr, ex-vice-president of the United States, 
 and wife of Joseph Alston, governor of South 
 Carolina,' came the calm answer." 
 
 And then, having with difficulty restrained his 
 men from visiting upon poor Theodosia a fate 
 worse than death, the pirate in this story con- 
 tinues, " I had the plank laid out. She stepped 
 on it and descended into the sea with graceful 
 composure, as if she had been alighting from a 
 carriage." 
 
 Rather surprisingly, the incorporation of this 
 incident into a widely-circulated romance ap- 
 pears not to have had much influence upon the 
 public mind. It did, however, have the effect of 
 bringing to public attention, in 1879, through the 
 Washington Post, the following story, vouched 
 for by Mrs. Stella Edwards Pierpont Drake: "In 
 1850, an old man, 1 who, years before, had been 
 a sailor, an occupant of the Cass County Poor- 
 house, Cassopolis, Michigan, in conversing with 
 a lady, the wife of a Methodist minister, about 
 his past life, filled with wrong-doing and crime, 
 said that the act which caused him the most 
 remorse was the tipping of the plank on which 
 Mrs. Alston, the daughter of Aaron Burr, 
 walked into the ocean. Said he: 'I was a sailor 
 on a pirate vessel. We captured the vessel in 
 which the lady was. When told she must walk 
 
 1 This man's name was Benjamin F. Burdick.
 
 334 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the plank into the ocean she asked for a few 
 moments alone, which was granted. She came 
 forward, when told her time had expired, dressed 
 beautifully in white, the loveliest woman I 
 had ever seen. Calmly she stepped upon the 
 plank. With eyes raised to the heavens and 
 hands crossed reverently upon her bosom, she 
 walked slowly and firmly into the ocean, with- 
 out an apparent tremor. Had I refused to per- 
 form my work, as I wish with all my heart I 
 had, my death would have been sure and cer- 
 tain.' 
 
 " This," concludes Mrs. Drake, " is the testi- 
 mony of an almost dying man, the confession 
 of the most terrible act of his life. It seems to 
 me, when an old man, 1 bemoaning his life, 
 filled with sin, makes such a confession, without 
 any provocation whatever than the unburdening 
 of his soul during his preparation for another 
 life for death came soon after that there 
 must be truth in his statement. The lady to 
 whom the confession was made repeated to my 
 grandmother, whose maiden name was Mary 
 Edwards, and who was a cousin of Aaron Burr, 
 the story as I have told it, as she had frequently 
 heard her speak of the mystery concerning the 
 death of Mrs. Alston." 
 
 Fifteen years later the New York Mail and 
 
 1 Burdick told substantially the same story to a Mrs. McComber 
 with whom he lived during his declining years.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 335 
 
 Express copied and so gave wide publicity to 
 a new version of the " pirate's story." Miss 
 Bettie F. Pool, it appears, had just published 
 in Worthingtons Magazine an article setting 
 forth that there had recently come to light on 
 the North Carolina coast a portrait which there 
 was strong reason to believe was one which 
 the ill-starred Theodosia Alston was taking 
 with her to her father on the vessel whose ul- 
 timate fate had never been determined. This 
 portrait had been found by the late Dr. W. C. 
 Pool at Nag's Head, North Carolina, in 1869, 
 through a Mrs. Mann of that place whom he 
 had professionally attended and who said the 
 picture had been given to her, years before, 
 by her first husband, one Tillett, once a mem- 
 ber of a piratical crew. Various members of 
 the Burr and Edwards families to whom Dr. 
 Pool sent photographs of the portrait pronounced 
 it, almost without exception, a likeness of 
 Theodosia Alston. 
 
 From this time on many variations of the 
 story appeared, the shortest and clearest being 
 perhaps the following, printed in the New York 
 Times of July 2, 1901, over the signature of 
 Alexander Quarles Holladay, LL. D., who has 
 since died : " Dr. William Pool, who died a 
 few years ago, a distinguished physician of 
 Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was for many 
 years in the habit of spending some weeks of
 
 336 
 
 summer at Nag's Head, 1 a surf -bathing resort 
 on the narrow strip of sand known as the Pen- 
 insula, separating the great inner sounds of 
 North Carolina from the Atlantic. Near this 
 little summer village, years ago, lived in sullen, 
 suspicious seclusion Mrs. Tillett, the aged 
 widow of Joseph Tillett, who, as far back as 
 1808, held a sort of eminence among his fellow- 
 wreckers and fishermen, and who died before 
 1850. 
 
 " It so happened during one of Dr. Pool's 
 sojourns at Nag's Head that his professional 
 skill saved the life of the granddaughter of Mrs. 
 Tillett, the only creature for whom her mo- 
 rose old age seemed to feel strong affection, and 
 from this time the aged woman exhibited some 
 feeling of gratitude toward the generous doctor, 
 who, with each returning summer, renewed his 
 acquaintance, often ministering to her wants 
 and infirmities. At last she told him that she 
 would not live to see him return and she wished 
 to give him the only thing she possessed that 
 he might value as a small acknowledgment of 
 his long-continued kindness to her, and to his 
 surprise she placed in his hands a well-painted 
 and handsome portrait of a high-bred lady, of 
 which, in answer to his urgent inquiry, she 
 
 1 That wreckers formerly lived in this little coast settlement is 
 certain. The very name of the place, Nag's Head, came from the 
 fact that they used a lantern hung from the neck of an old nag (who 
 was then led up and down the beach) to decoy passing craft.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 337 
 
 reluctantly gave this account as coming from 
 her former husband, Joseph Tillett." And then 
 followed the story of a lost ship with any crimi- 
 nal share Tillett might have had in the scuttling 
 of it carefully omitted. " Dr. Pool never felt 
 sure," the writer of the article says, " that he 
 had been told the whole truth." He concludes: 
 ' The portrait still hangs on the walls of the 
 old Pool residence in Elizabeth City, and. is in 
 the possession of gentle people who will not 
 refuse inspection of it to any serious inquirer." 
 The daughter of the painter Sully, herself 
 a sculptor, once pronounced this portrait to 
 be clearly of Theodosia Burr Alston, it is inter- 
 esting to know, and various other authorities 
 have confirmed her view. Those who are in- 
 terested to follow all the details of the contro- 
 versy excited by the " pirate confessions " 
 and by the " claims for the portrait " are re- 
 ferred to C. F. Pidgin's painstaking review of 
 the whole matter in his book, Theodosia. The 
 portrait itself is still in an excellent state of 
 preservation and is now owned by Dr. Pool's 
 daughter, Mrs. Overman of Elizabeth City, 
 North Carolina, who has courteously sent me 
 the photograph of it herewith reproduced.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RICHMOND AND SOME FAMOUS VIRGINIAN HOMES 
 
 AT the outbreak of the Revolution Rich- 
 mond was smaller than either Freder- 
 icksburg or Norfolk and possessed far 
 less importance; its sole claim to be a capital 
 lay in its geographical situation. St. John's 
 Church, on the hill, and Col. Byrd's residence, 
 Belvidere, were the only impressive buildings 
 then to be seen as one approached the place. 
 The settlement was, in very truth, but a col- 
 lection of disjointed country villages lying around 
 a central trading-station. What the city lacked 
 in splendid architecture it made up in noble 
 men, however, chief of these being, of course, 
 Patrick Henry, that extraordinary figure whose 
 matchless courage, fiery eloquence and compell- 
 ing magnetism placed him, early in his public 
 career, among the undying heroes of our country. 
 It was in old St. John's that the second Vir- 
 ginian convention of delegates assembled in 
 March, 1775; here it was, therefore, that Henry 
 made that great speech, with its climax, " Give 
 me liberty or give me death," thus stepping
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 339 
 
 forth " at the appointed time, like one of the 
 ancient prophets, burdened with a message 
 of wisdom and hope." l 
 
 It was not, however, until 1779, when Thomas 
 Jefferson was chief officer of the State, that the 
 seat of government was removed from Williams- 
 burg to Richmond. The foundation of the new 
 Capitol was laid August 18, 1785. Jefferson 
 stood sponsor for the model which was used 
 that of the Maison Carree at Nimes, France 
 considering that structure " one of the most 
 beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious 
 morsels of architecture left us by antiquity . . . 
 very simple but noble beyond expression." 
 Unfortunately, the Richmond edifice did not 
 measure up to the hopes cherished for it; but it 
 was far from being a commonplace building. 
 
 Very great credit for the evolution of the 
 shabby little trading-place into a really im- 
 pressive city is due to Colonel John Mayo, pro- 
 prietor and founder of the celebrated Mayo 
 Bridge, just below the falls of the James River 
 at Richmond. Colonel Mayo obtained a charter 
 for this bridge in 1785 but, finding that this 
 
 1 Most of us know Patrick Henry only as an orator. He was 
 that; " by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard," George 
 Mason, himself a man of great ability, pronounced him. " But," 
 Mason continues, " his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. 
 He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this continent as well in 
 abilities as in public virtues." Henry was born at " Studley," 
 sixteen miles from Richmond, May 29, 1736.
 
 340 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 was all he was likely to obtain from the State, 
 boldly built the structure at his own expense, 
 being laughed at, the while, as an ill-balanced 
 experimenter. Only ridicule had greeted his 
 petition for a charter, one prominent member of 
 the Legislature observing " that after passing 
 that bill he supposed they would pass one to 
 build a ladder to the moon." 
 
 Colonel Mayo's wife was Abigail De Hart, of 
 Elizabeth town, New Jersey, and their eldest 
 daughter, Maria, became the reigning belle of 
 the day. She was a great beauty, wrote and 
 repeated poetry charmingly and sang and played 
 exquisitely on the harp. Moreover, she was so 
 fascinating in manner that one hundred suitors 
 are said to have been refused by her ere she 
 married General Winfield Scott. Even he did 
 not win her easily. She said him nay as Mr. 
 Scott, again as Captain Scott, and still again 
 as Colonel Scott. But when he came to her as 
 General Scott, hero of Lundy's Lane, and begged 
 for the honor of her hand, she capitulated and 
 they were married at Bellville, on the evening 
 of March 11, 1817, to the accompaniment of 
 what a letter of the times describes as " splendid 
 doings." 
 
 In a charming article entitled " Some Rich- 
 mond Portraits," published in the Harper's 
 Magazine for April, 1885, there is a little sketch 
 of Richmond Society during this period. The
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 341 
 
 cravat, we are told, was an important part 
 of a gentleman's toilet, and a Richmond ex- 
 quisite " vested himself like a silk-worm in its 
 ample folds." His valet held one end and he 
 the other of the long thin texture, the former 
 walking around his master till both ends met, 
 when they were tied in a large bow. The Rich- 
 mond exquisite who could not afford a valet 
 tied one end of his cravat to the bed-post and 
 then began the exercise which served to equip 
 him with a properly swathed neck. 
 
 A highly entertaining glimpse of Richmond 
 social life in 1807 is afforded by a racy passage 
 in one of Washington Irving's letters. " By 
 some unlucky means or other," he writes, " when 
 I first made my appearance in Richmond, I 
 got the character among three or four novel- 
 read damsels of being an interesting young man; 
 now of all characters in the world, believe me, 
 this is the most intolerable for any young man, 
 who has a will of his own to support; particularly 
 in warm weather. The tender-hearted fair 
 ones think you absolutely at their command; 
 they conclude that you must, of course, be fond 
 of moonlight walks and rides at daybreak, 
 and red-hot strolls in the middle of the day, 
 (Fahrenheit's Thermom. 98}^ in the shade) 
 and * melting-hot,' * hissing-hot ' tea parties; and 
 what is worse they expect you to talk sentiment 
 and act Romeo, and Sir Charles and King Pepin
 
 342 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 all the while. 'Twas too much for me; had I 
 been in love with any of them I believe I could 
 have played the dying swain as eloquently and 
 foolishly as most men; but not having the good 
 luck to be inspired by the tender passion, I 
 found the slavery insupportable; so I forthwith 
 set about ruining my character as speedily as 
 possible. I forgot to go to tea parties; over- 
 slept myself of a morning; I protested against 
 the moon and derided that blessed planet most 
 villainously. In a word, I was soon given up 
 as a young man of most preposterous and in- 
 corrigible opinions, and was left to do e'en just 
 as I pleased." 
 
 The occasion which had brought Irving to 
 Richmond was the trial for treason of Aaron 
 Burr, of which we have heard in a previous 
 chapter. Irving had no connection of any im- 
 portance with this cause celebre, but the presiding 
 judge, Chief Justice Marshall, was a Richmond 
 man of such high qualities and delightful sim- 
 plicity as must particularly have appealed to 
 a student and writer of Irving's temperament. 
 Judge Marshall was wont to market for himself 
 and might often be seen, at an early hour, return- 
 ing home with a pair of fowls or a basket of eggs 
 in his hand. For many years he traveled the 
 nearly two hundred miles between Richmond 
 and Raleigh, where he held Federal Court, in a 
 vehicle known as a " stick gig>" with one horse 
 
 \
 
 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 343 
 
 and no attendant. He wrote his own epitaph l 
 in order that only the bare facts of his life should 
 there find a place. 
 
 Another famous lawyer who should be con- 
 nected with the Richmond of this era in- 
 spite of the fact that we always associate him 
 chiefly with Kentucky is Henry Clay. Clay 
 was born in Hanover County, Virginia, April 
 12, 1777, the son of a Baptist minister who 
 died early. Thus it was that the boy had a 
 childhood marked by extreme poverty and was 
 obliged, at fourteen, to begin life as a handy-lad 
 in a small retail store of Richmond. The study 
 of law early began to attract him, however, and 
 he was soon admitted to the bar. His great 
 success in his profession began soon after his 
 removal to Lexington, Kentucky, which State 
 he represented in Washington for the greater 
 part of the half century between the winter of 
 1806, when he was first a senator, to the year 
 1852 when he died. He was recognized as the 
 most distinguished spokesman of the South to 
 be found in Washington. Though not so keen 
 as Calhoun he possessed the rare faculty of 
 inspiring his hearers by his fervid appeals and 
 filling them with his own enthusiasm. For the 
 election of 1832 he was run as candidate for 
 
 1 Judge Marshall's home at the time of his death, in 1835, and for 
 many years previously, was the two-story brick building (erected 
 1795) at the corner of 9th and Marshall Streets.
 
 344 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 President by the National Republican party 
 which had been formed under his leadership. 
 
 The favorite amusement of Richmond in 
 early Republican days was loo and it is sad to 
 add that the Richmond ladies played it to excess. 
 They would meet at each other's houses of 
 an afternoon, enjoy tea and gossip, and then 
 play loo for stakes which often grew quite heavy 
 as the afternoon waned. For, although the 
 sums ventured at first were always small, 
 the amounts in the pool were allowed to ac- 
 cumulate, until, with forfeits, they often to- 
 talled seventy -five or one hundred dollars. 
 ' The practice of playing thus became at last 
 a social evil; domestic duties were neglected, 
 mothers forgot their children, wives rifled the 
 pocket books of their husbands; gentlemen 
 gambled away their gold vest-buttons and ladies 
 their ear-rings and bracelets, carried away by 
 the mad spirit of loo." 
 
 All the writers of the period credit to the burn- 
 ing of the Richmond Theatre, December 26, 
 1811, the change from these light and careless 
 ways to the graver and more serious tone which 
 soon characterized Richmond society. ' The 
 families seated on the hills," one of these writers 
 says, " were a polished, refined, sociable, pleasure- 
 loving community, gathered from the different 
 counties because, from time immemorial, the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 345 
 
 wealth and fashion and beauty of Virginia had 
 assembled at the capital, particularly at the 
 time of the sessions of the General Assembly. 
 The theatre was one and but one of their oc- 
 casional amusements, and not the one of the 
 highest refinement. An old-fashioned Virginia 
 dining party, select in its company, unlimited 
 in its elegant preparations, was unbounded in 
 its refined indulgence of the appetite, and the 
 delicate attentions of social intercourse. Here 
 was the display of taste in dress, elegance in 
 manners, powers of conversation and every ac- 
 complishment that adorns society. The theatre 
 was a promiscuous gathering for a few hours, 
 less attractive than the dining or dancing party, 
 but one of the round of pleasure that occupied 
 the time of the fashionable and the wealthy. 
 " On that fatal night (December 26, 1811) the 
 benefit of an admired actor enlisted the feelings 
 of the community. Mr. Smith, Governor of the 
 State, Venable, president of the Bank of Virginia, 
 Botts, an eminent lawyer, members of the 
 Assembly, matronly ladies, fascinating belles, 
 blooming girls, officers of the army and navy, 
 men and youth from the city and country, 
 were collected in one splendid group, such as 
 a theatre seldom sees. Alas! that such a gather- 
 ing should be for death, a most terrible death! 
 An order was given about the light. The boy 
 that held the strings objected ' that it would
 
 346 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 set the scenery on fire.' The order was repeated. 
 The boy obeyed. And immediately the theatre 
 was in flames." l 
 
 Seventy-two individuals, the flower of Rich- 
 mond and the State, perished in this fire, and 
 since none of the bereaved could recognize 
 their own dead, a common burial was held. 
 The whole city was in mourning; and the whole 
 city seemed, too, with one accord to acknowledge 
 " God's providence in the concurrence of cir- 
 cumstances preceding the catastrophe. The 
 gallantry, and heroism, and blind fatality of 
 that suffering night have never been surpassed," 
 declares Dr. Foote, " and never perhaps has 
 the sudden destruction of men, women and chil- 
 dren in one overwhelming ruin produced a 
 greater moral effect . All classes in the communi ty 
 bowed down before the Lord. Christians were 
 moved to efforts of kindness and love that the gos- 
 pel might be preached abundantly in Richmond." 
 Up to this time, rather curiously, Richmond 
 had no church except the venerable and out- 
 of-the-way St. John's but this lack of conven- 
 iently-situated edifices for the accommodation 
 of different faiths gave rise to a very excellent 
 custom that of using for church-worship the 
 Hall of the House of Delegates. Here, on al- 
 ternate Sundays, Parson Buchanan, an Epis- 
 copalian, and Parson Blair, a Presbyterian, 
 1 Sketches of Virginia, by Rev. William Henry Foote, D. D,
 
 HENRY CLAY. 
 
 From the portrait by S. F. B. Morse in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
 
 New York. 
 Page 343.
 
 J fc ~ 
 
 <! O .S 
 
 os. 
 
 t' 
 
 HH 8
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 347 
 
 presided over a pulpit which disappeared on 
 week days. And, such was the spirit of toler- 
 ance and liberality which their fraternalism 
 inspired, that it soon came to be the custom 
 for the individuals of the two separate congre- 
 gations to come every Sabbath! Moreover, 
 Mr. Buchanan, being a bachelor and well- 
 to-do, gladly shared all his fees with Mr. Blair, 
 a married man blessed with a large family. 
 Once an amusing joke was played on the latter 
 by reason of this custom. Mr. Buchanan had 
 gone thirty miles into the country to perform 
 the marriage service and had hired a carriage for 
 two days with which to make the journey. His 
 fee was ten dollars. Whereupon he presented 
 his Presbyterian brother with the following bill: 
 
 The Rev. J. D. BLAIR 
 
 To the Rev. J. BUCHANAN 
 
 To hire of a carriage two days at $5 $10 
 
 To horse feed and other expenses to and fro $ 3 
 
 $13 
 By wedding fee $ 5 
 
 Balance due to J. Buchanan $ 8 
 
 Presbyterians and Episcopalians now sub- 
 scribed with equal eagerness and generosity to the 
 Monumental Church which it was determined to 
 erect on the site of the theatre, as a memorial 
 to the fire-victims, and for some time it remained
 
 348 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 undecided to which form of worship the resulting 
 edifice should be dedicated. Finally the major- 
 ity vote was cast in the interest of the Epis- 
 copalians with the result that, in February, 
 1814, Dr. Moore of New York was elected rector 
 of the church and became bishop of the diocese. 
 But the fraternal feelings remained undisturbed, 
 Mr. Buchanan continuing to extend to Mr. Blair's 
 successor the generous help he insisted to be the 
 right of a bachelor towards a brother-pastor 
 responsible for wife and children. 
 
 Among the lovely women who had perished 
 in the theatre fire was Mrs. Joseph Gallego, 
 wife of a native of Malaga, Spain, who, with 
 Jean Auguste Chevallie, had built up the famous 
 Gallego Mills of Richmond. Chevallie, whose 
 wife was the sister of Mrs. Gallego, had first 
 come to Richmond in 1790, as agent of the 
 celebrated Beaumarchais in the latter's claim 
 against the United States Government for 
 moneys advanced during the American Revo- 
 lution. This claim was finally settled in 1835, 
 at which time Beaumarchais's family accepted 
 about one-third of the sum originally demanded. 
 How there came to be a claim at all constitutes 
 one of the most romantic chapters * in the un- 
 written history of the Revolution. 
 
 1 Some of my readers may be interested to look up a paper of mine 
 on Franklin and the French Intriguers, published in Appleton's Maga- 
 zine for February, 1906.
 
 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 349 
 
 Most of us know Beaumarchais, the talented 
 son of a watchmaker, only as author of " The 
 Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of 
 Figaro." But in addition to being a literary 
 man of parts Beaumarchais was a " king's man," 
 one whose services to Louis XV had been so 
 numerous and so varied that his biographer, 
 Lomenie, was able to win a place among the 
 Immortals merely by chronicling them. One 
 of the most cherished traditions inherited by 
 Louis XVI from his grandfather was that no- 
 body could perform difficult and delicate serv- 
 ices so well as Beaumarchais. 
 
 The only individual who surpassed the watch- 
 maker's son in resourcefulness and in skill as 
 a secret-service agent was that extraordinary 
 person known as the Chevalier d'Eon, who, be- 
 cause he had once served his king at the Court 
 of Russia in the disguise of a woman, has come 
 down to us in history as a woman who pretended 
 to be a man. To Beaumarchais d'Eon " con- 
 fessed," on a certain occasion, that he was in 
 truth a woman, and to color his assertion de- 
 clared that he was at that very moment con- 
 sumed by a passion for Beaumarchais ! For once 
 the tricky watchmaker was tricked ! In Beau- 
 marchais's subsequent letters to de Vergennes, 
 the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, con- 
 cerning the proposition that France should 
 help America in her struggle for independence,
 
 350 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 there can be found no evidence that either in 
 the least suspected d'Eon to be deceiving them. 
 Bram Stoker asserts l that when d'Eon returned 
 to France modestly clad in coif and petticoats 
 he had assumed the female garb merely to 
 indulge a whim of Marie Antoinette's; the 
 fact is, however, that d'Eon was compelled by 
 Louis XVI to wear the clothes that " belonged ' : 
 to his sex if he wished to return to France at 
 all! And the interesting and curious thing, for 
 our present purpose, is, that it is the king's order 
 directing Chevalier d'Eon to assume woman's 
 clothes which supplies the introduction to Beau- 
 marchais's accredited connection with the 
 American Revolution. Beaumarchais had pre- 
 sented to the Count de Vergennes for replies 
 in the king's own hand (before his departure 
 for London, December 13, 1775) a series of 
 " essential points " regarding the Chevalier 
 d'Eon's clothes, and on the same paper, in the 
 course even of the same dialogue, he passes to 
 the American affair and seeks to gain by assault 
 the king's adhesion to plans with which he had 
 been pursuing him for some time. " Finally 
 I request before starting," he writes, " a posi- 
 tive answer to my last note, for if ever a question 
 was important it must be admitted that it is this 
 one." The " question " here alluded to was none 
 other than that of French help for the Americans. 
 
 1 In Famous Impostors.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 351 
 
 Beaumarchais's 1 desire to enlist France defi- 
 nitely on the side of America had been greatly 
 stimulated by certain talks he had enjoyed at 
 the London home of John Wilkes with Arthur 
 Lee, that mischievous person of whom Franklin 
 once said superlatively: " In sowing jealousies 
 and suspicions, in creating quarrels and mis- 
 understandings among friends, in malice, subtlety 
 and indefatigable industry Arthur Lee has, I 
 think, no equal." Lee made Beaumarchais 
 believe that England, France's " natural enemy," 
 must soon totter to ruins unless she stopped 
 making war with America. He also helped the 
 wily playwright to see that, for Beaumarchais, 
 
 1 Beaumarchais was in this affair as in all others a soldier of 
 fortune. Chevalier d'Eon, on the contrary, was a man of parts 
 whom Louis XV had been glad to honor and to trust. Court in- 
 trigues and the fact that d'Eon possessed certain papers which 
 jealous rivals greatly desired to have in their own hands inspired 
 the journey of Beaumarchais in the course of which came d'Eon's 
 extraordinary " confession." The Chevalier's object in making the 
 " confession " was doubtless that he might wring better terms from 
 Beaumarchais. It is possible that Beaumarchais, when he learned 
 that he had been duped, conceived the diabolical idea of forcing 
 d'Eon to remain a " woman," or submit to exile. M. de Flassan, 
 the grave author of the History of French Diplomacy, asserts in his 
 volume, published in 1809 (the year before d'Eon's death) that 
 " this curious person was possessed by a mania for playing the part 
 of a man." In his old age d'Eon taught sword-play in London for 
 a living, thus eking out the pension of 40 granted him by George 
 III. He died in May, 1810, and his sex was then indisputably 
 established by a post-mortem examination of his remains, made be- 
 fore several witnesses of position and repute, in accordance with the 
 wishes of the Chevalier's friends, who determined thus to settle a 
 mooted question for all time.
 
 352 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 there would be a fortune, and for him, Arthur 
 Lee, undying fame, if only France could be per- 
 suaded to send munitions of war to America 
 without seeming to take any part in the dispute. 
 Thus it came about that " Roderigue Hortalez 
 & Co." began to have much business with the 
 Congress of the United States; and because 
 of Arthur Lee's duplicity Beaumarchais, the 
 leading member of that firm, was soon forced 
 to employ an agent to " collect." But what a 
 very long way we have wandered from Rich- 
 mond because the sister of that agent's wife 
 was one of the ladies who perished in the burn- 
 ing of the theatre ! 
 
 Just before the burning of the theatre the 
 mother of Edgar Allan Poe was a member of 
 the troupe of local players. Mrs. Poe was an 
 actress of very real ability, but her health had 
 for some years now been failing and her family, 
 on the verge of destitution, soon became an 
 object for the charity of Richmond ladies. In 
 the Enquirer of November 29, 1811, appeared 
 the following card: 
 
 THE HUMANE 
 
 " On this night, Mrs. Poe lingering on the bed of 
 disease and surrounded by her children, asks your as- 
 sistance; and asks it perhaps for the last time." 
 
 A few days later, December 8, she died and 
 her two little ones, Edgar and Rosalie, were
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 353 
 
 adopted into the homes of Mrs. Allan, a young 
 married woman of twenty-five, and of her 
 friend, Mrs. MacKenzie. Each child soon re- 
 ceived in baptism, at the hands of Dr. Buchanan, 
 the family name of the home thus extended. 
 
 John Allan, who had constituted himself 
 Edgar's guardian, was in the tobacco business, 
 and so prospered, as Richmond's trade in this 
 commodity increased, that in 1815, he went 
 over to London to establish a branch office. 
 Thus it came about that the impressionable 
 dark-eyed lad who had won his wife's heart, had 
 the benefit for several formative years of English 
 schooling and an English environment. The year 
 1820 found Poe back in the Virginian city, how- 
 ever, and it was there that the early years of his 
 young manhood were passed. Woodberry 1 has 
 a charming chapter on the family of which he 
 was at this time a part and on the life he led 
 with them. ' The Allans," we learn, " be- 
 longed to the most cultivated and agreeable 
 society that Virginia knew in the days of her 
 old-fashioned and justly-famed courtesy and 
 hospitality and a boyhood spent in association 
 with such gentlemen as Edgar constantly and 
 familiarly met could not fail to be both pleasant 
 and of the highest utility in forming both manner 
 and character. ... In his home life he was 
 indulged by the ladies of the family and the 
 
 l Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. I.
 
 354 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 servants as a pet of the house. . . . For he 
 was always a favorite with women." 
 
 The first Mrs. Allan died during the West 
 Point training upon which Edgar soon embarked, 
 and her husband married, in October, 1830, a 
 lady who promptly presented him with a son 
 and heir of his own blood. This event marked 
 the end of Poe's intimate connection with Rich- 
 mond; for very soon now he went forth to make 
 his own way in the world. 
 
 A very romantic love-affair of Richmond in 
 early Republican days was that of Maria Ward 
 and John Randolph of Roanoke. The attach- 
 ment began in Randolph's early boyhood and 
 became, according to the writer 1 already re- 
 ferred to, " the one enthralling passion of Ran- 
 dolph's manhood, filling his whole being, until, 
 as he himself said, * he loved her better than his 
 own soul or Him that created it.' ' A picture 
 of Randolph, made at the period when he .was 
 the accepted lover of Maria Ward, shows him 
 to have been, then, a singularly handsome youth, 
 with dark and luminous eyes and a profusion 
 of soft black hair which would have gone far, 
 had he been much less Indian in other ways than 
 he proved himself, to establish his direct descent 
 from Pocahontas. But though he was a hand- 
 some youth and though his wooing of Maria 
 Ward was long and ardent he was never to have 
 
 1 Of Some Richmond Portraits.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 355 
 
 the happiness of calling her his wife. Why their 
 engagement came abruptly to an end no one 
 knows. But one day they parted abruptly 
 after an interview marked on her part by tears 
 and on his by a furious galloping away for all 
 time from the house which was her home. 
 
 They never met again; but, one day, learn- 
 ing that she was staying at a house in the neigh- 
 borhood, he lingered long on the porch to hear 
 her sing the songs they two had loved. And 
 while she, all unconscious of his nearness, 
 rendered one after another, the tender ballads 
 associated with their courtship he strode up and 
 down outside like a madman muttering, in the 
 anguish of his heart, " Macbeth hath murdered 
 sleep; Macbeth can sleep no more." Maria 
 Ward married Peyton Randolph, son of Ed- 
 mund Randolph, who had been Governor of 
 Virginia and Secretary of State under Washing- 
 ton. She died in 1826, still as lovely as a girl 
 though then forty-two. Her discarded lover 
 continued to be a somewhat violent person. 
 He once came in contact, while in Congress, 
 with Thomas Mann Randolph, who had married 
 Jefferson's daughter Martha. So bitter were 
 the words exchanged in their debate that a 
 duel was arranged between them but the actual 
 encounter was, happily, prevented. 
 
 Lafayette's return to Richmond, in 1824, 
 was a signal for great rejoicing and for very elab-
 
 356 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 orate entertainment. For the ball given in 
 his honor the quadrangle formed by the sur- 
 rounding buildings and galleries of the Eagle 
 Hotel was floored over and covered with awnings. 
 Yet it was to quite another part of Virginia that 
 Lafayette turned with greatest eagerness to 
 the home on the Potomac where, a few years 
 previously, he had visited Washington in his 
 retirement. The great General was now no 
 more but, for a few solemn moments, Lafayette 
 stood inside the enclosure of the tomb near 
 the river alone with the ashes of his revered 
 friend. To George Washington Lafayette 
 Mount Vernon had been a hospitable home 
 during the troubled period of the French Revo- 
 lution, its stately owner having then borne to 
 him the relation of a tender guardian. 
 
 To none of the young Frenchmen, indeed, 
 who, at this period of France's history or 
 earlier came to America does Washington 
 appear to have been indifferent. Louis Philippe 
 and his two brothers and the Due de Roche- 
 foucauld-Liancourt were among the General's 
 most welcome visitors. The latter probably 
 particularly pleased Washington by his sturdy 
 declaration: "In the days of my power, 
 under the ancient regime of France, I had 
 fifty servants to wait upon me, but yet my coat 
 was never as well brushed as now that I do it 
 myself." It was this nobleman, it will be re-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 357 
 
 membered, who had taken to Louis XVI at Ver- 
 sailles news of the storming of the Bastille, and 
 to that monarch's exclamation, " It is a revolt! " 
 had replied tersely, " Sire, it is a revolution! " 
 
 That this young Duke had the gift of writing 
 as well as that of repartee we find from his book 
 describing his travels in America. Particularly 
 keen were his observations and comments on 
 Virginian home life. " The Virginians generally," 
 he declared, " enjoy a character for hospitality 
 which they truly deserve; they are fond of 
 company; their hospitality is sincere, and may 
 perhaps be the reason for their spending more 
 than they should do; for, in general they are 
 not rich, especially in clear income. You find 
 therefore, very frequently, a table well served 
 and covered with plate, in a room where half 
 the windows have been broken for ten years 
 past, and will probably remain so ten years 
 longer. But few houses are in a tolerate state 
 of repair and no part of their buildings is kept 
 better than the stables, because the Virginians are 
 fond of hunting, races, and in short of all pleas- 
 ures and amusements that render it necessary 
 to take peculiar care of horses, which are the 
 fashion of the day." 1 
 
 Another observant Frenchman, writing at 
 about the same time, claims that the only thing 
 for which an average Virginian gentleman would 
 
 1 Travels Through the United States, 1795-97: London, 1799.
 
 358 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 exert himself even a little was the oversight of 
 his stables. Witness this account of a stren- 
 uous (?) day. " He rises about nine o'clock. 
 He, perhaps, may make an exertion to walk as 
 far as his stables to see his horse, which are 
 seldom more than fifty yards from his house. 
 He returns between nine and ten to breakfast, 
 which is generally of tea or coffee, bread and 
 butter, and very thin slices of venison, ham or 
 hung beef. He then lies down on a pallet, on 
 the floor in the coolest room in the house in his 
 shirt and trowsers [sic] only with a negro at his 
 head and another at his feet to fan him and keep 
 off the flies. Between twelve and one he takes 
 a draft of bombo or toddy, a liquor composed 
 of water, sugar, rum and nutmeg which is made 
 weak and kept cool. He dines between two and 
 three and at every table, whatever else there may 
 be, a ham and greens of cabbage are always 
 a standing dish. At dinner, he drinks cider, 
 toddy, punch, port, claret or Madeira, which is 
 generally excellent here. Having drank some 
 few glasses of wine after dinner, he returns to 
 his pallet with his two blacks to fan him and 
 continues to drink toddy or sangaree all the 
 afternoon. He does not always drink tea. 
 Between nine and ten in the evening he eats 
 a light supper of milk and fruit or wine sugar 
 and fruit and almost immediately retires to 
 bed for the night."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 359 
 
 If Washington had adopted a regimen ap- 
 proximating this he might have lived to a green 
 old age on his charming rural estate. Instead 
 he wore himself out riding about his farms 
 throughout the long hot summer, surveying 
 and carrying his compass himself. 1 
 
 There is a delightful anecdote about Washing- 
 ton as a good Samaritan to some people who 
 had met misfortune near his country-home, 
 which, I think, illustrates better than anything 
 else I have ever encountered the great man's 
 real kindliness. John Bernard, who tells this 
 story in his Retrospections of America 2 was an 
 English actor over here to practice his pro- 
 fession ; but he spent his summers touring about 
 the country. One day in the summer of 1798, 
 Bernard found himself not far from Alexandria 
 just as a chaise bearing a young man and young 
 woman was overturned in the road before him. 
 
 1 In the autumn of 1799, while thus engaged, he was thrown by 
 his horse and sustained a slight accident of which he made light; 
 and in the following December he similarly refused to take such 
 notice as would have been wise of a wetting sustained while going 
 about outdoors in a snowstorm. Yet he had then contracted the 
 cold which two days later (December 14, 1799) caused his death. 
 He was quietly buried in the old tomb on Mount Vernon's hill-side 
 after ample opportunity had been given to his lovers, friends and 
 neighbors to gaze upon his noble face as he lay on the river-piazza 
 under the open sky. Two and a half years later Mrs. Washington 
 was laid beside him. Both their tombs are now viewed each year 
 by reverent thousands in the spot which the General himself had 
 selected to be his final resting-place and to which removal of his 
 remains was made in 1837. 
 
 a Published by Harper and Brothers: New York, 1887,
 
 360 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 To assist him in caring for the couple and set- 
 ting up their overturned vehicle a horseman 
 came galloping up and for at least half an hour, 
 under the meridian sun in the middle of July, 
 the two hauled and helped and lifted together. 
 Then, the couple having been sent gratefully 
 on their way, the actor turned to survey his 
 fellow-helper and found him " a tall, erect, 
 well-made man, evidently advanced in years, 
 but who appeared to have retained all the 
 vigor and elasticity resulting from a life of 
 temperance and exercise. His dress was a 
 blue coat buttoned to his chin and buckskin 
 breeches. Though the instant he took off his 
 hat I could not avoid the recognition of familiar 
 lineaments which, indeed, I was in the habit 
 of seeing on every sign-post and over every 
 fire-place still I failed to identify him, and, 
 to my surprise, I found I was an object of equal 
 speculation in his eyes. A smile at length 
 lighted them up and he exclaimed, ' Mr. Bernard, 
 I believe? ' I bowed. * I had the pleasure of 
 seeing you perform last winter in Philadelphia/ 
 I bowed again, and he added. . . . ' You must 
 be fatigued. If you will ride up to my house, 
 which is not a mile distant, you can prevent 
 any ill-effects of this exertion by a couple of 
 hours' rest.' 
 
 " I looked round for his dwelling, and he 
 pointed to a building, which, the day before,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 361 
 
 I had spent an hour in contemplating. * Mount 
 Vernon! ' I exclaimed; and then, drawing back 
 with a stare of wonder, ' have I the honor of 
 addressing General Washington? ' With a 
 smile, whose expression of benevolence I have 
 rarely seen equalled, he offered his hand and 
 replied, ' An odd sort of introduction, Mr. 
 Bernard; but I am pleased to find that you can 
 play so active a part in private and without a 
 prompter.' ' 
 
 And then, as they rode to Mount Vernon 
 together, Bernard tells us that he could not but 
 think that he had witnessed one of the strongest 
 evidences of a great man's claim to his reputa- 
 tion " the prompt, impulsive working of a 
 heart which, having made the good of mankind 
 its religion, was never so happy as in practically 
 displaying it." That afternoon, as they were 
 waited on by a slave, Washington confessed to 
 his visitor that he not only prayed for free- 
 dom for the blacks but could " clearly foresee 
 that nothing but the rooting out of slavery 
 can perpetuate the existence of our union!" 
 
 Perhaps the very best example of Virgin- 
 ian country life in the days of the early 
 Republic may be gleaned from following the 
 daily routine of this great man after he had re- 
 tired to Mount Vernon from Philadelphia. One 
 of the final festivities given to him in the city 
 where he had served as President was a splendid
 
 362 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 banquet in a hall hung with many paintings, 
 among them one of Mount Vernon, the home to 
 which he was about to hasten and towards 
 which, as we now know, his heart had long been 
 yearning. On the day preceding his retirement 
 he wrote to Henry Knox, formerly his fellow- 
 soldier and more recently his political coadju- 
 tor, " To the weary traveller who sees a resting 
 place and is bending his body to lean thereon 
 I now compare myself. . . . But although the 
 prospect of retirement is most grateful to my 
 soul and I have not a wish to mix again in the 
 great world, or to partake in its politics, yet 
 I am not without my regrets at parting with 
 (perhaps never more to meet) the few intimates 
 whom I love; and among these, be assured, you 
 are one. . . . The remainder of my life which, 
 in the course of nature, cannot be long, will be 
 occupied in rural amusements; and though I 
 shall seclude myself as much as possible from 
 the noisy and bustling world, none would more 
 than myself be regaled by the company of those 
 I esteem, at Mount Vernon." 
 
 For a time company was impossible, however, 
 because, as Washington wrote, " there is scarcely 
 a room to put a friend into or to sit in my- 
 self without the music of hammers and the odor- 
 iferous scent of paint." Yet he was soon able 
 to welcome guests; and so found himself living 
 the ideal life he thus outlines to Oliver Wolcott:
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 363 
 
 " To make and sell a little flour annually, to 
 repair houses going fast to ruin, to build one for 
 the security of my papers of a public nature, 
 and to amuse myself in agricultural and rural 
 pursuits. ... If also I could now and then 
 meet the friends I esteem, it would fill the meas- 
 ure and add zest to my enjoyments; but if 
 ever this happens it must be under my own vine 
 and fig tree, as I do not think it probable that 
 I shall go beyond twenty miles from them." 
 
 Into the task of building up his long-neglected 
 estate Washington threw himself with character- 
 istic energy. " I begin my diurnal course with 
 the sun," he wrote James McHenry, " and if 
 my hirelings are not in their places at that 
 time I send them messages of sorrow for their 
 indisposition; . . . then comes breakfast at a 
 little after seven o'clock, and this being over 
 I mount my horse and ride around my farms, 
 which employs me until it is time to dress for 
 dinner, at which I rarely miss seeing strange 
 faces come, as they say, out of respect to me. 
 . . .*The usual time of sitting at table, a walk, 
 and tea bring me within the dawn of candle light; 
 previous to which, if not prevented by company, 
 I resolve that, as soon as the glimmering taper 
 supplies the place of the great luminary, I will 
 retire to my writing table and acknowledge 
 the letters I have received; but when the lights 
 are brought I feel tired and disinclined to engage
 
 364 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 in this work, conceiving that the next night 
 will do as well. The next night comes and with 
 it the same causes for postponement, and so 
 on. Having given you the history of a day, it 
 will serve for a year, and I am persuaded you will 
 not require a second edition of it. But it may 
 strike you that, in this detail, no mention is made 
 of any time allotted for reading. The remark 
 would be just, for I have not looked into a book 
 since I came home nor shall I be able to do it 
 until I have discharged my workmen; probably 
 not before the nights grow longer, when pos- 
 sibly I may be looking in Doomsday Book." 
 The rather melancholy reflection with which 
 this letter closes was not an uncommon mood 
 with Washington at this time. There is no 
 question about it; his arduous tasks of a life- 
 time had left him very tired. The throngs of 
 people who came to see him " out of respect " 
 wealed him, too, and because of this he soon 
 engaged that his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, 
 should plan to make his home at Mount Vernon 
 for at least a part of the time. " Your aunt 
 and I," he wrote this young man, " are both in 
 the decline of life and regular in our habits, 
 especially in our hours of rising and going to 
 bed, so I require some person (fit and proper) 
 to ease me of the trouble of entertaining com- 
 pany, particularly of nights, as it is my incli- 
 nation to retire (and unless prevented by very
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 365 
 
 particular company I always do retire) either 
 to bed or to my study soon after candle light. 
 In taking those duties (which hospitality obliges 
 one to bestow on company) off my hands, it 
 would render me a very acceptable service." 
 Lawrence Lewis accordingly made arrange- 
 ments to spend a good deal of time at Mount 
 Vernon, doing this the more gladly, we may be 
 sure, because he soon fell in love with pretty 
 Nelly Custis, 1 Mrs. Washington's granddaugh- 
 ter, who with her brother, George W. P. Custis, 
 had been adopted by the General at their fa- 
 ther's death. Washington was very fond of this 
 charming young girl and one of the most de- 
 lightful products of his pen is a letter of half- 
 humorous, half -serious advice sent her when her 
 love-affairs were perplexing her a bit and when, 
 woman-like, she had protested that she did 
 not care a fig for any of the men she knew and 
 so was determined " not to give herself a mo- 
 ment's uneasiness on their account." Washing- 
 ton shrewdly questioned her power to adhere 
 to this resolution and wrote: 2 " Men and women 
 feel the same inclination towards each other 
 now that they always have done, and which they 
 will continue to do until there is a new order of 
 things; and you, as others have done, may find 
 
 1 Lawrence Lewis and Nelly Custis were married on Washington's 
 birthday, 1799. 
 
 2 MS. letter quoted in Irving's Life of Washington.
 
 366 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 that the passions of your sex are easier raised 
 than allayed. Do not, therefore, boast too 
 soon nor too strongly of your insensibility. . . . 
 Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it 
 is therefore contended that it cannot be resisted. 
 This is true in part only, for like all things else, 
 when nourished and supplied plentifully with 
 aliment, it is rapid in its progress; but let 
 these be withdrawn, and it may be stifled in 
 its birth or much stinted in its growth. . . . 
 Although we cannot avoid first impressions, we 
 may assuredly place them under guard. . . . 
 When the fire is beginning to kindle and your 
 heart growing warm, propound these questions 
 to it. Who is this invader? Have I a competent 
 knowledge of him? Is he a man of good char- 
 acter? A man of sense? For, be assured, a 
 sensible woman can never be happy with a fool. 
 What has been his walk in life? Is his fortune 
 sufficient to maintain me in the manner I have 
 been accustomed to live, and as my sisters do 
 live? And is he one to whom my friends can 
 have no reasonable objection? If all these 
 interrogatories can be satisfactorily answered, 
 there will remain but one more to be asked; 
 that, however, is an important one. Have I 
 sufficient ground to conclude that his affections 
 are engaged by me? Without this the heart of 
 sensibility will struggle against a passion that 
 is not reciprocated."
 
 ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS. 
 
 From a painting by Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Mrs. Edwin A. S. Lewis of New 
 
 York.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 367 
 
 No man knew better than Washington all that 
 a satisfying domestic life means. To men who 
 wrote him of an approaching or a consummated 
 happy marriage he replied quite as frankly 
 and fully as he had written Nelly Custis. There 
 is extant a delightful letter sent by him to the 
 Marquis de Chastellux when that Frenchman, 
 of whom he appears to have been sincerely 
 fond, sent to him the news of his recent nuptials. 
 The letter is earlier, in point of time, than the 
 one to Nelly Custis, but it may very well be 
 given here, none the less, inasmuch as it shows 
 Washington in his most genial mood. 
 
 " MOUNT VERNON, April 25, 1788. 
 " MY DEAR MARQUIS : In reading your very 
 friendly and acceptable letter of 21st of Decem- 
 ber, 1787 [the Marquis had then been back in 
 France for five years] which came to hand by the 
 last mail, I was, as you may well suppose, 
 not less delighted than surprised to come across 
 that plain American word * my wife ' a Wife ! 
 Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly re- 
 frain from smiling to find that you are caught 
 at last. I saw, by the Eulogium you often made 
 on the happiness of domestic life in America, 
 that you had swallowed the bait and that you 
 would as surely as you are a philosopher and a 
 soldier, be taken one day or other. So your 
 day has at length come. I am glad of it with
 
 368 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 all my heart and soul. It is quite good enough 
 for you. Now you are well served for coming 
 to fight in favour of the American rebels, all 
 the way across the Atlantic ocean, by catching 
 that terrible contagion which like the small- 
 pox or the plague, a man can have only once in 
 his life, because it commonly lasts him (at 
 least with us in America I don't know how 
 you manage these matters in France) for his 
 lifetime. And yet after all the maledictions 
 you so richly merit on the subject the worst 
 wish I can find it in my heart to make against 
 Madame de Chastellux and yourself is that you 
 may neither of you get the better of this domestic 
 felicity during the course of your mortal existence. 
 
 "If so wonderful an event should have oc- 
 casioned me, my dear Marquis, to have written 
 in a strange style, you will understand me as 
 clearly as if I had said what in plain English 
 is the simple truth: do me the justice to be- 
 lieve that I take a heartfelt interest in whatever 
 concerns your happiness; and in this view I 
 sincerely congratulate you on your auspicious 
 matrimonial connection. 
 
 " I am happy to find that Mme. de Chas- 
 tellux is so intimately connected with the Duch- 
 ess of Orleans, as I have always understood that 
 this noble lady was an illustrious pattern of 
 connubial love as well as an excellent model 
 of virtue in general.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 369 
 
 " While you have been making love under 
 the banner of Hymen, the great personages of 
 the north have been making war under the in- 
 spiration or rather the infatuation of Mars. 
 Now for my part I humbly conceive you had 
 much the best and wisest of the bargain; for 
 certainly it is much more consonant to all the 
 principles of reason and religion (natural and 
 revealed) to replenish the earth with inhabitants 
 rather than de-populate it by killing those al- 
 ready in existence; besides it is the time for 
 the age of knight-errantry and mad heroism to 
 be at an end. 
 
 " Your young military men, who want to 
 reap the harvest of laurels, don't care, I suppose, 
 how many seeds of war are sown; but for the 
 sake of humanity, it is devoutly to be wished, 
 that the manly employment of agriculture and 
 the humanizing benefits of commerce, should 
 supersede the waste of war, and the rage of 
 conquest; that the swords might be turned into 
 ploughshares the spears into pruning hooks 
 and as the Scripture expresses it, * the nations 
 learn war no more.' . . . Hitherto there has 
 been much greater unanimity in the favour of 
 the proposed government here than could reason- 
 ably have been expected. Should the Consti- 
 tution be adopted (and I think it will be) 
 America will lift up her head again and in a 
 few years become respectable among the nations.
 
 370 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 It is a flattering and consolatory reflection that 
 our rising republic has the good wishes of all 
 philosophers, patriots and virtuous men in all 
 nations and that they look upon it as a kind of 
 asylum for mankind. God grant that we may 
 not be disappointed in our honest expectations 
 by our folly or perverseness ! 
 
 " With sentiments of the purest attachment 
 and esteem, I have the honour to be, my dear 
 Marquis, your most obedient and humble servant, 
 
 " GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " The Marquis de Chastellux." 
 
 This likable young Marquis had made some 
 observations of his own on Virginian home 
 life which are not without interest. ' These 
 people," he said, " have the reputation and with 
 reason of living nobly in their houses and of 
 being hospitable. They give strangers not only 
 a willing but a liberal reception. This arises 
 on one hand from their having no large towns 
 where they may assemble, by which means they 
 are little acquainted with society, except from 
 the visits they make; and, on the other, their 
 land and their negroes furnishing them with 
 every article of consumption and the necessary 
 service this renowned hospitality costs them very 
 little. . . . The chief magnificence of the Vir- 
 ginians consists in furniture, linen and plate; 
 in which they resemble our ancestors who had
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 371 
 
 neither cabinets nor wardrobes in their castles 
 but contented themselves with a well-stored 
 cellar and a handsome buffet. If they some- 
 time dissipate their fortunes it is by gaming, 
 hunting and horse-races; but the latter are 
 of some utility inasmuch as they encourage the 
 breed of horses, which are really very handsome 
 in Virginia." 
 
 The great number of slaves everywhere to 
 be encountered in the South (Chastellux says 
 there were two hundred thousand in Virginia 
 alone) suggested to this traveler the desirabil- 
 ity of wiping out this unfortunate institution. 
 The method he recommends seems to us start- 
 ling, to put it mildly: 'The best expedient," 
 he says, " would be to export a great number of 
 males, and to encourage the marriage of white 
 men with the females! " 
 
 In this connection it seems worth while to 
 add that the contemporary translator of Chas- 
 tellux's Travels, if not the Marquis himself, 
 found much that was shocking in the negro 
 situation of that day. " I have frequently seen 
 in Virginia, on visits to gentlemen's houses," 
 the latter asserts, " young negroes and negresses 
 running about or basking in the court-yard 
 naked as they came into the world . . . and 
 young negroes from sixteen to twenty years 
 old, with not an article of clothing but a loose 
 shirt, descending half way down their thighs,
 
 372 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 waiting at table where were ladies, without any 
 apparent embarrassment on one side, or the 
 slightest attempt at concealment on the other." 
 One privilege which de Chastellux enjoyed, 
 while in Virginia, was that of visiting Jefferson 
 at his charming estate, Monticello. No better 
 description than his of Jefferson at home has 
 come down to us: " The house of Mr. Jefferson 
 stands pre-eminent in these retirements; it 
 was himself who built it and preferred this sit- 
 uation; for although he possessed considerable 
 property in the neighborhood, there was nothing 
 to prevent him from fixing his residence wherever 
 he thought proper. But it was a debt nature 
 owed to a philosopher and a man of taste that, 
 in his own possessions, he should find a spot 
 where he might best study and enjoy her. He 
 calls his house Monticello (Little Mountain), 
 a very modest title, for it is situated upon a 
 very lofty one. . . . After ascending by a 
 tolerably commodious road for more than half 
 an hour, we arrived there. This house, of which 
 Mr. Jefferson was the architect and often one 
 of the workmen, is rather elegant and in the 
 Italian taste though not without fault; it con- 
 sists of one large square pavilion the entrance 
 of which is by two porticos ornamented by 
 pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of 
 a very large lofty salon which is to be decorated 
 entirely in the antique style: above it is a
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 373 
 
 library of the same form. Two small wings, 
 with only a ground floor and attic story are 
 joined to this pavilion and communicate with 
 the kitchen, offices, &c, which will form a 
 kind of basement story over which runs the 
 terrace. My object in this short description 
 is only to show the difference between this and 
 the other houses of the country; for we may 
 safely aver that Mr. Jefferson is the first Ameri- 
 can who has consulted the fine arts to know 
 how he should shelter himself from the weather. 
 " But it is on himself alone I ought to bestow 
 my time. Let me describe to you a man not 
 yet forty, tall and with a mild and pleasing 
 countenance, but whose mind and understanding 
 are ample substitutes for every exterior grace. 
 An American . . . who is at once a musician 
 skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astrono- 
 mer, a natural philosopher, legislator and states- 
 man. ... A philosopher in voluntary retire- 
 ment from the world and public business. 1 . . . 
 A mild and amiable wife, charming children of 
 whose education he himself takes charge, a 
 house to embellish, great provisions to improve, 
 and the arts and sciences to cultivate; these 
 are what remain to Mr. Jefferson after having 
 played a principal character on the theatre of 
 
 1 The period of this young nobleman's visit was that of the Rev- 
 olution, it should be recalled. His book was published in France 
 in 1786,
 
 374 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the new world. . . . The visit which I made him 
 was not unexpected, for he had long since in- 
 vited me to come and pass a few days with him 
 in the centre of the mountains; notwithstanding 
 which I found his first appearance serious, nay 
 even cold. But before I had been two hours 
 with him we were as intimate as if we had passed 
 our whole lives together. Walking, books, 
 but above all a conversation always varied and 
 interesting, always supported by that sweet satis- 
 faction experienced by two persons who, in 
 communicating their sentiments and opinions 
 are invariably in unison, and who understand 
 each other at the first hint, made four days pass 
 away like so many minutes. 1 
 
 " I recollect with pleasure that as we were 
 conversing one evening over a bowl of punch, 
 after Mrs. Jefferson had retired, our conversa- 
 tion turned on the poems of Ossian. It was a 
 spark of electricity which passed rapidly from 
 one to the other; we recollected the passages 
 in those sublime poems which particularly 
 struck us and entertained my fellow travelers 
 who fortunately knew English well and were 
 qualified to judge of their merits though they 
 had never read the poems. In our enthusiasm 
 the book was sent for and placed near the bowl 
 
 1 Chastellux's descriptions of Virginia are held to be particularly 
 valuable because they give the impressions made by the higher class 
 in Virginia upon one used to the cultivated life of France previous 
 to that country's Revolution.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 375 
 
 where, by their mutual aid, the night far ad- 
 vanced imperceptibly upon us. Sometimes 
 natural philosophy, at others politics or the 
 arts were the topics of our conversation, for 
 no object had escaped Mr. Jefferson; and it 
 seemed as if from his youth he had placed his 
 mind, as he has done his house, on an elevated 
 situation from which he might contemplate 
 the universe." 
 
 Each plantation was a little kingdom of 
 its own in the Virginia of that day, producing 
 within its own limits everything needed for 
 life except groceries and fine cloths, which were 
 brought from Richmond or some other city in 
 the wagons that carried to market the harvest 
 of flour and tobacco. Society here was classi- 
 fied, sifted and solidly established. Everybody 
 and everybody's family was known. Hence 
 the F. F. V. characterization of more recent 
 years. At the outset these Virginia families 
 universally possessed simplicity of character, 
 good faith, honesty of purpose, loyalty to a 
 conviction, and they exercised liberal hospitality 
 and spent their life in the honorable discharge 
 of their duty as they saw it. * Thackeray," 
 Mrs. Ellet says, " has given us George and Henry 
 Esmond as types of the best class in Virginia 
 society and, could he have painted a lovable 
 woman, he might have given us the feminine 
 side also. Madame Esmond, however, is but
 
 376 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 the colonial Englishwoman, losing the calmness 
 that marked the caste through the wear and 
 tear of managing ignorant servants and ten- 
 antry." 
 
 Delightfully free from all ostentation was 
 the hospitality which then began and which 
 has become the tradition of Virginian life ever 
 since. The wealth of the residents consisting 
 as it did of land and crops, there was no im- 
 posing by false appearance and no sudden in- 
 crease of expenditure was possible. " A tem- 
 porary show of splendor at the cost of real in- 
 convenience would have been regarded," one 
 writer says, " as a kind of forgery for the pur- 
 poses of an adventurer." And how free the hos- 
 pitality was! Southerners traveling in their 
 old-fashioned massive carriages drawn by two 
 or four horses and attended by mounted servants 
 would stop at any plantation in perfect assur- 
 ance of a welcome even if equipped with no 
 other introduction than the name of a mutual 
 friend. Northern travelers usually took the 
 mail coaches by the day, with relays of horses 
 every ten miles, stopping where they pleased. 
 This posting was called " taking the accommoda- 
 tion line." And men and women living upon 
 remote plantations jolted cheerfully over miles 
 of rough road to lend their presence at social 
 functions. Fox-hunting was a sport much 
 affected; but often the hunt was only an excuse
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 377 
 
 for a round of visits made on the return journey, 
 which sometimes was thus made to last a week. 
 
 To be sure, it was a provincial life. Even 
 for purposes of education the early Republican 
 Virginians did not stray far from home. Hard 
 by the Washington College, of which General 
 Lee was later president, stood the Military 
 Institute over which Stonewall Jackson presided 
 for eight years, and the Ann Smith Academy, 
 to which the daughters of prominent Virginian 
 families were sent, attended, in their own car- 
 riages and on horseback. The preservation 
 of beauty and womanly charm shared with 
 cultural subjects the hours devoted to study at 
 the famous Ann Smith. Every girl was taught 
 fine embroidery and the care of the complexion, 
 being especially warned against turning a door- 
 knob, touching a pair of tongs or indulging in 
 any other practice which might " spread the 
 hand." Long gloves and deep "sun-bonnets 
 were constantly worn for beauty's sake, by these 
 high-born Virginia maidens, Mrs. Ellet says, 
 and the eating of meat and butter discouraged, 
 as tending to fleshiness and fat. 
 
 Christmas, as might be expected, was the 
 crowning festivity of a Virginian home. Then 
 it was that the young people, back from school, 
 and their elders, returned from steering the 
 ship of state at Washington, or directing the 
 exports of the country at Richmond, had merry
 
 378 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 times together in a fashion approximating the 
 English Christmas Washington Irving has de- 
 scribed. Weeks before the festival dawned 
 jellies, cakes, puddings and pies were carefully 
 prepared, and huge casks of cider and bins of 
 luscious apples brought home. Then slaughtered 
 fowls and tempting meats were placed in waiting. 
 At midnight, on Christmas Eve, the darkies, 
 to whom the festival was particularly welcome 
 because of the gifts it brought them, would 
 set off a big log charged with powder and blow 
 an old ox-horn as a signal to begin the fun. 
 The sun would scarcely be up before the visits 
 of neighbors began, and soon there would be 
 dancing to the tune of the fiddle, eating and 
 drinking on the bounteously-spread tables and 
 good stories exchanged over huge, roaring fires 
 in the hall. Virginian home life was then at 
 its best. For unlimited hospitality was, for 
 the nonce, a duty as well as a pleasure.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 NEW ORLEANS 
 
 NEW ORLEANS does not really belong 
 to the early Republic at all, for she did 
 not come under the control of the United 
 States until 1803. Even today, the city is in 
 many ways more French than American. And 
 its history, previous to its cession to America 
 by France, as part of the Louisiana Purchase, 
 was as varied as that of a Parisian cocotte, who, 
 possessed now by this master and now by that, 
 yet retains, under every change of fortune and 
 ownership, the alluring and distinctively Parisian 
 characteristics which constitute her charm. 
 
 Of romance there was enough inherent in 
 and growing out of these early vicissitudes of 
 New Orleans to fill many books the size of this 
 one. For to satisfy the needs of a virgin country 
 fair young girls were exported from France under 
 conditions which, though they make the blood 
 boil, as one reads, set the imagination aglow as 
 well. Michelet has devoted some matchless 
 pages to this subject, and the writer of Manon 
 Lescaut has, also, made thrilling use of this
 
 380 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 cruel traffic in the bodies and souls of helpless 
 women. The newcomers soon found husbands 
 of a sort, however, among the hardy settlers of 
 the new country and, by 1727, a fresh generation 
 of native young people, Creoles without any 
 definite knowledge of the rudeness that had pre- 
 ceded their birth, had grown up in New Orleans 
 and needed to be educated. To train them and 
 teach them came the Ursulines, whose old con- 
 vent building still stands, a monument to com- 
 memorate the first institution ever founded 
 in the United States expressly for the education 
 of young women. Madeleine Hachard of Rouen 
 was one of the original Ursulines and she has 
 written of her experiences in a most engaging 
 fashion. Five months it took her to make the 
 voyage over; and then seven years were con- 
 sumed ere the sturdy convent home built for 
 the sisters was ready (in 1754) for their occupa- 
 tion. What political turmoils, what tremendous 
 upheavals of government the gentle Ursulines 
 were to witness during the years which suc- 
 ceeded! Now France, now Spain, now the 
 French Republic and now the Americans had 
 dominion, they were told, over them. Glad, 
 indeed, they must have been, to welcome sturdy 
 Andrew Jackson, when, in 1815, he came to 
 shake hands as a sign that the strife and turmoil 
 of their city were at an end! To tell in a page 
 or two how Andrew Jackson chanced to be the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 381 
 
 " hero of New Orleans " and as such went natu- 
 rally, after attending mass at the Cathedral, 
 to pay his respects to the devout women in 
 the Ursuline convent, is no easy task. Polit- 
 ically, New Orleans had been American for 
 a dozen years now; but in temperament and 
 in affection the settlement was French, first, 
 Spanish next, and American not at all. The 
 Louisianians deeply resented having been sold 
 by their mother-country and felt it as a special 
 insult that they had been sold to America. 
 The Creoles steadfastly refused to take office 
 under the new government; and, since English 
 was now the official language, felt it incumbent 
 upon them not to use it. Then, too, the delay 
 in admitting the territory into the Union and the 
 attendant debates as to whether the Louisianians 
 were qualified for self-government had naturally 
 not helped towards a better feeling between the 
 purchasers and the purchased. Industrially, 
 as will be easily understood, the Creoles suffered 
 considerably as a result of this hostility to the 
 ruling powers. Many of them were as poor as 
 they were proud and had only their natural 
 gaiety and their inveterate habit of dancing 
 to cheer them up after long days of toil for the 
 necessities of life. But in 1812, the Territory 
 of Orleans being admitted to the Union as the 
 State of Louisiana, the outlook brightened 
 considerably; and Governor Claiborne, who
 
 382 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 had served with tact and devotion through the 
 trying period of reconstruction, received the 
 compliment of being elected by the Louisianians 
 to the highest office they had to bestow. 
 
 The city was still French in its loyalties, 
 however, and when, in the early summer of 
 1814, there came the astounding news that 
 England had overthrown Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 the heart of the people instinctively ached for 
 France and their rage was enkindled against 
 England. Imagine, then, the violence of re- 
 sentment with which the news was received that, 
 as a condition of peace with France, England 
 would demand the retrocession of Louisiana 
 to Spain ! It was even said that Spain was tak- 
 ing up arms to repossess herself of her former 
 colony. 
 
 But the arms that soon put in an appear- 
 ance were English arms. And, not to go 
 further into the sinuosities of the situation, 
 it was by delivering the city from these, that 
 Andrew Jackson became the " hero of New 
 Orleans." The part played in the story by 
 Lafitte, the " pirate," and the superb fight put 
 up by General Lambert and Sir Edward Paken- 
 ham on the British side make glorious reading 
 for those who enjoy descriptions of battles. 
 Alexander Walker, who has written a fair- 
 sized book about this encounter, says that no 
 campaign in modern military history is more
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 383 
 
 brilliant than this one, in which a town of less 
 than eighteen thousand inhabitants, without 
 forts or any kind of defences, exposed to at- 
 tacks on all sides by land and water, was able, 
 with an army of less than five thousand hastily- 
 raised and poorly-equipped militia, to repel 
 ten thousand of the best soldiers in the world 
 freshly decked out in the laurels of European 
 victory. To Andrew Jackson belongs the credit 
 for it all, credit which should be accorded with 
 especial heartiness when it is remembered how 
 grudgingly his country entrusted to him the 
 opportunity for usefulness which he so mag- 
 nificently improved. 
 
 I am glad to pass over swiftly the details 
 of this bitter fight in which brave men on both 
 sides went down to a terrible death. But I 
 like to dwell on the deepened good feeling which 
 now grew up between elements which had 
 previously quite failed to understand each 
 other. When Jackson entered the city for the 
 first time after the battle of New Orleans the 
 demonstrations of joy with which he was re- 
 ceived were simply boundless. The people 
 attended him in crowds to his quarters in the 
 Faubourg Marigny and lavished upon him such 
 honors as the Southern temperament is always 
 supremely happy in bestowing. In the old 
 Cathedral, burnished up for the occasion, a 
 solemn service of thanksgiving was held at
 
 384 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Jackson's request, and in the Place d'Armes, 
 opposite, arose a great triumphal arch on whose 
 steps the hero of the day was crowned with 
 laurel at the hands of two sweet young girls 
 who had been chosen for this high office. All 
 the contentions, horrors, sufferings and troubles 
 of the war were now forgotten. And forgotten, 
 too, were the differences which had heretofore 
 retarded the natural development of the city. 
 In repelling a common enemy New Orleans, 
 despite racial and lingual distinctions, had at 
 last found itself. 
 
 Begins now the most brilliant period of the 
 city's social history, that time of many and 
 varied amusements which has made the name 
 of New Orleans synonymous with appealing 
 and picturesque play. To join the French 
 Theatre, started in a small way in 1791 by the 
 refugees of St. Domingo, and enlarged early 
 in the century to compete with the new and 
 progressive Theatre St. Philippe, 1 had come in 
 1811 the Theatre d* Orleans, the centre for more 
 than forty years of all that was gayest and most 
 alluring in the life of the city. Travelers who 
 visited New Orleans during these years have 
 much to say of this playhouse and of the social 
 life which emanated from it. The Duke of 
 Saxe-Weimar, Eisenach, who was here in 1825-26, 
 made up his mind to stay the season through, so 
 
 1 Opened in 1808 in St. Philip's Street.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 385 
 
 agreeable did he find the life of which it was the 
 centre. 
 
 " No day passed," he wrote afterwards, 
 " which did not produce something pleasant and 
 interesting. . . . Dinners, evening parties, mas- 
 querades and other amusements followed close 
 on each other. . . . There were masked balls 
 every night of the Carnival at the French 
 Theatre, which had a handsome saloon, well 
 ornamented with mirrors, with three rows of 
 seats arranged en amphitheatre. Tuesdays and 
 Fridays were the nights for the subscription 
 balls, where none but good society were ad- 
 mitted. The ladies were very pretty, with a 
 genteel French air, their dress, extremely elegant 
 after the latest Paris fashion; they dance ex- 
 cellently. Two cotillions and a waltz were 
 danced in quick succession; the musicians were 
 colored and pretty good. The gentlemen, who 
 were far behind the ladies in elegance, did not 
 long remain but hastened away to other balls, 
 and so, many of the ladies were condemned 
 to ' make tapestry.' ' Just before the Duke's 
 coming an American theatre, also, had been 
 started in New Orleans, and here the visitor 
 from Saxe- Weimar saw " Der Freischutz " 
 given. The founder of this theatre was James 
 H. Caldwell, a gentleman and scholar as well 
 as a bon vivant. His suppers, criticisms, readings 
 and repartees form an important part of the
 
 386 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 theatrical tradition of New Orleans to this 
 day. 
 
 An Englishman who visited New Orleans in 
 1828, finding very little, truth to tell, to 
 like about the place, has left the following 
 interesting description of the city as it then was : 
 "It is built very like an old French provincial 
 town: the same narrow streets, old-fashioned 
 houses, and lamps suspended by a chain across 
 the road. Many of the houses are, however, 
 picturesque, with their large projecting roofs 
 and painted sides and windows. . . . The pop- 
 ulation, including blacks, is upward of 40,000, 
 the greater part of which are still French or 
 speak only that language. The whole place 
 has quite the air of a French town. . . . Went 
 to the Cathedral this morning, an old building 
 of the mixed French and Spanish style of archi- 
 tecture. The inside was less ornamental than 
 most Catholic churches. I observed one Ma- 
 donna dressed in silk according to the latest 
 Parisian fashion. There are two Catholic 
 churches and one small Presbyterian church 
 for the whole population. . . . Walked to the 
 farthest end of the town along the banks of 
 the river and saw some beautiful little villas, 
 secluded in gardens, where many of the tropical 
 plants were growing, the banana, orange tree, 
 lime etc. and the roses, jessamine and other 
 flowers were in full bloom.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 387 
 
 " I observed many well dressed women, 
 this evening, sitting on the steps in front of 
 their houses," continues this writer. " In most 
 countries this would be considered an equivocal 
 intimation of their character, but here it is 
 done without impropriety by the most respect- 
 able. . . . There is a public ball here, two or 
 three times a week, which includes all the colored 
 ladies of the place known by the name of quad- 
 roons. Many I have seen are really beautiful 
 girls; their blood is a mixture of Indian, African 
 and French. They have generally European 
 countenances and features, very black hair and 
 eyes, and the complexion of the very darkest 
 brunette." Which brings us squarely face to 
 face with the distinctive feature of New Orleans 
 its large quadroon population and the prob- 
 lems thus engendered. 
 
 Mrs. Trollope has put the matter with ad- 
 mirable conciseness: " Our stay there was 
 not long enough," she writes, " to permit our 
 entering into society, but I was told that 
 it contained two distinct sets of people, both 
 celebrated in their way for their social meetings 
 and elegant entertainments. The first of these 
 is composed of Creole families, who are chiefly 
 planters and merchants with their wives and 
 daughters; these meet together, eat together 
 and are very grand and aristocratic; each of their 
 balls is a little Almack's, and every portly dame
 
 388 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 of the set is as exclusive in her principles as a 
 lady patroness. The other set consists of the 
 excluded but amiable quadroons, and such of 
 the gentlemen of the former class as can by 
 any means escape from the high places, where 
 pure Creole blood swells the veins at the bare 
 mention of any being tainted in the remotest 
 degree with the Negro stain. Of all the preju- 
 dices I have ever witnessed, this appears to me 
 the most violent and the most inveterate. 
 Quadroon girls, the acknowledged daughters 
 of wealthy American or Creole fathers, educated 
 with all of style and accomplishments which 
 money can procure at New Orleans, and with all 
 the decorum that care and affection can give; 
 exquisitely beautiful, graceful, gentle and ami- 
 able, they are not admitted, nay, are not on 
 any terms admissible into the society of the 
 Creole families of Louisiana. They cannot 
 marry; that is to say no money can render 
 a union with them legal or binding; yet, such 
 is the powerful effect of their very peculiar 
 grace, beauty, and sweetness of manner, that 
 unfortunately they perpetually become the ob- 
 jects of choice and affection. If the Creole 
 ladies have privilege to exercise the awful 
 power of repulsion, the gentle quadroon has 
 the sweet but dangerous vengeance of possessing 
 that of attraction. The unions formed with 
 this unfortunate race are said to be often lasting
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 389 
 
 and happy, as far as any unions can be so to 
 which a certain degree of disgrace is attached." 
 
 What Mrs. Trollope, however, quite over- 
 looked, in her statement of this inherently 
 tragic situation, Charles Dudley Warner has 
 very lucidly brought out: 1 the instinct, that is, 
 which should exist in both races against mixture 
 of blood. " Upon this rests the law of Loui- 
 siana," he says, " which forbids intermarriages 
 between the white and colored races. The time 
 may come when the colored people will be as 
 strenuous in insisting upon its execution as 
 the whites, unless there is a great change in 
 popular feeling, of which there is no sign at 
 present. It is they who will see that there is no 
 escape from the equivocal position in which 
 those nearly white in appearance find themselves 
 except by a rigid separation of races. The danger 
 is of the reversal at any time to the original type, 
 and that is always present to the offspring of any 
 one with a drop of African blood in the veins. The 
 pathos of this situation is infinite; and it cannot 
 be lessened by saying that the prejudice about 
 color is unreasonable; it exists." 
 
 Shall we not here again qualify by saying, 
 instead, that it should exist? The sad thing and 
 the baffling thing about miscegenation is that 
 the white father was never very greatly shocked 
 by his son's illegitimate connection with a col- 
 
 1 In Harper's Monthly Magazine for January, 1887.
 
 390 
 
 ored girl, and the colored mother always felt joy 
 instead of repulsion at the proposition that her 
 child become the wife of a white man. Among 
 the quadroon mothers this latter attitude was 
 exceedingly common. The great ambition of 
 the unmarried quadroon mother, especially, 
 was to have her daughter pass for white and so 
 get access to the privileged class. To reach 
 this end, there was nothing she would not at- 
 tempt, no sacrifice she was not glad to make. 
 The passage of a law declaring it a penal offence 
 for a public officer in the discharge of his func- 
 tions, when writing down the name of any 
 colored free person, to fail to add ,the quali- 
 fication " homme " or " femme de couleur libre " 
 made no great difference, for officers of the law 
 could be bribed and even the records of baptism 
 altered. 
 
 When it is recollected that, as early as 1788, 
 there were no less than fifteen hundred of these 
 free colored folk (who were never, by any chance, 
 called negro) in the colony it may be imagined 
 that, by the time of Mrs. Trollope's visit, they 
 represented a very real social problem. So keen 
 an observer as the Duke of Saxe- Weimar who, 
 in the interest of science (?), was glad to frequent 
 the quadroon balls, records that the women of 
 this class could not be detected by the color 
 of their skins, that they dressed well and grace- 
 fully and, under the eyes of their mothers, con-
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 391 
 
 ducted themselves with all modesty and pro- 
 priety. None the less, by reason of their aver- 
 sion to marrying men of their own color, the 
 better-educated and more prosperous of these 
 women naturally presented a distinct menace 
 to good morals. 
 
 How tragic the situation became when a 
 decent young white fellow fell honestly in 
 love with one of these quadroons has nowhere 
 been better brought out in fiction than in Cable's 
 exquisite story of 'Tite Poulette. 1 The girl's 
 mother, in this case, was a paid dancer in the Salle 
 de Conde, and the interest of the reader is first 
 piqued by the declaration that her child never 
 goes to the quadroon ball-room where Monsieur 
 John, the girl's father, had been wont, long ago, 
 in the good old times of duels, to disport him- 
 self with Zalli, " a palish handsome woman 
 whom you would hardly have thought to be 
 * colored.' ' In the story, however, it turns 
 out that 'Tite Poulette is not Zalli's child at 
 all and so is free to marry the honest Dutchman 
 who loves her and who has been struggling with 
 all his might against a deep conviction that, 
 in spite of his inclinations, the blacks and the 
 whites should not mingle their blood. In actual 
 life the girl would still have been a quadroon and 
 the problem would have remained. 
 
 1 In Old Creole Days, by George W. Cable, New York, Charles 
 Scribner'a Sons.
 
 392 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Many of the free colored men were quite 
 prosperous and happy, several owned cotton 
 and sugar plantations, which were worked by 
 numerous slaves, and to which such profits ac- 
 crued that they could easily send their children 
 to France for the best possible education. 
 Those who remained in France often attained 
 distinction in scientific and literary circles, 
 while those who returned to New Orleans and 
 became successful musicians, merchants, real 
 estate brokers and the like had as much ob- 
 jection to associating with the blacks on terms 
 of equality as any white man could have to 
 associating with them. At the Orleans theatre 
 they attended their mothers, wives and sisters 
 in the second tier, reserved exclusively for them, 
 and where no white person of either sex would 
 have been permitted to intrude. But they were 
 not admitted to the quadroon balls, and when 
 white gentlemen visited their families it was the 
 accepted etiquette for them never to be present. 
 The quadroons of the humbler classes were me- 
 chanics, and were most respectable; they gener- 
 ally married women of their own status and 
 led quiet lives in middle-class comfort. 
 
 Among the Creole women Mrs. Edward 
 Livingston was long the acknowledged leader. 
 Born in the island of St. Domingo in 1782, of 
 ancient and distinguished French family, she 
 early acquired a passion for books and taught
 
 Copyrighted by the Detroit Publishing Co. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 From the portrait by Sully in the possession of the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washing- 
 ton.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 393 
 
 herself to enjoy the literature of many languages. 
 At the age of thirteen she was married to 
 Moreau de Lassy, a French gentleman of fortune, 
 who took her to Jamaica to reside. But at 
 eighteen she was left a widow and, just before 
 the Revolution, returned to her parents in St. 
 Domingo. Obliged to flee, when the insurrection 
 broke out, she found herself in New Orleans 
 just as the city was undergoing its transition 
 to an American possession. Thus she soon 
 made the acquaintance of Edward Livingston, 
 a widower twenty years her senior and a lawyer 
 of great ability. Mrs. Livingston's uncle, M. 
 Jules dAvezac, who became the first director 
 of the College of New Orleans, was one of the 
 inmates of the Livingstons' Chartres Street 
 home, a house soon known all over the South 
 by reason of the warm welcome it accorded to 
 strangers of distinction and because conversation 
 of the very highest order might always be there 
 enjoyed. Here General Jackson was entertained 
 at dinner just before the battle of New Orleans, 
 bearing himself with such dignity, it is interest- 
 ing to add, that Mrs. Livingston then surrendered 
 for all time to his extraordinary personal charm. 
 Thus when the " hero of New Orleans " be- 
 came President of the United States this lady, 
 who was then herself living in Washington, 
 was able and glad to render many friendly 
 services to Mrs. Donelson, who acted as mis-
 
 394 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 tress of the White House for her widowed 
 uncle. 
 
 In 1822 Mr. Livingston left New Orleans 
 to enter political life in Washington, represent- 
 ing Louisiana as a member of the lower house. 
 Afterwards he became a senator, and later still 
 Secretary of State under Jackson. Meanwhile 
 Mrs. Livingston's salon became famous in 
 Washington just as it had been in New Orleans. 
 Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Wirt, Chief Justice 
 Marshall, Joseph Story and John Randolph all 
 flocked to the side of this lovely woman, con- 
 cealing, for the nonce, in her presence, the bitter 
 differences which divided them in the House or 
 Senate. John Randolph, who could give un- 
 qualified approval to very few people or things 
 in life, never wavered in his allegiance to Mrs. 
 Livingston, writing her husband when, in 1833, 
 that gentleman had been offered the position 
 of Minister to France, " Let me conjure you 
 to accept the mission, for which you are better 
 qualified than any man in the United States. 
 In Mrs. Livingston, to whom present my warm- 
 est respects, you have a most able coadjutor. 
 Dowdies, dowdies won't do for European courts, 
 Paris especially. There and at London, the 
 character of the minister's wife is almost as 
 important as his own. It is the very place for 
 her. There she would dazzle and charm." 
 
 The only daughter of the Livingstons, Cora,
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 395 
 
 who became Mrs. Thomas Pennant Barton 
 just before her father left for France, was a New 
 Orleans belle at sixteen, a Washington belle 
 at twenty and a Paris belle during the years of 
 her young wifehood. Having derived from her 
 father a sound knowledge of the political 
 questions of the day and from her mother grace, 
 beauty and a high degree of social charm, it 
 is no wonder that Josiah Quincy, a specialist 
 in descriptions of fair young women, was able 
 to ascribe to her his choicest and his most en- 
 thusiastic adjectives. I like especially, however, 
 the paragraph with which he ends his tribute, 
 linking as it does the Cora Livingston of New 
 Orleans with the gracious Mrs. Barton whose 
 name is now memorialized in the valuable Bar- 
 ton collection 1 of folio Shakespeares and some 
 twelve thousand related volumes in the posses- 
 sion of the Boston Public Library. " Interesting 
 old volumes they are," says Quincy, " highly 
 prized by the many owners through whose 
 fingers they have slipped; and containing, as 
 we all know, some good descriptions of what 
 is delightful in woman. But there will be one 
 association the less with them when I am no 
 
 1 Mr. Barton was a man of scholarly tastes, and accumulated 
 a library which, at the time of his death, was considered one of the 
 most valuable private collections hi America. He bequeathed it 
 to his wife with the request that she make such disposition of it as 
 best pleased her. Shortly before her death she arranged for its 
 transfer, in its entirety, to the city of Boston.
 
 396 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 longer able to climb the stairs which lead to Bates 
 Hall. There will then be no one left to tell 
 how their last private possessor once seemed 
 to fill the most perfect outline of a charming woman 
 that the poet has drawn"
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BOSTON AND SOME OTHER CITIES OF NEW ENG- 
 LAND 
 
 AN Englishman, who was a resident of 
 Boston at about the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century, is reputed to have de- 
 clared that everything essential to the most 
 agreeable society existed there " with one ex- 
 ception and that is the spirit of sociability." 
 In the forties the Bostonian's notion of cordial 
 hospitality seems to have been inviting the 
 stranger within his gates to occupy a place in 
 the family pew at church; Dickens says that 
 on his visit to the city he was offered as many 
 sittings as would have accommodated a score or 
 two of grown up families! And there is even a 
 story let us hope it is apocryphal of a 
 certain Bostonian who, in return for cordial 
 entertainment enjoyed by him and his wife 
 while in Europe, invited his former hostess 
 to call at his house on a Sunday evening after 
 tea, at which time his wife and himself would 
 go with her to church and give her a place in 
 their pew!
 
 398 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 All these carefully-restrained overtures to- 
 wards entertainment were of the middle nineteenth 
 century or later, however. Tracing backward the 
 history l of Boston's attitude toward the visitor 
 from without, the hospitality-temperature will 
 be found constantly on the rise. Fanny Kemble, 
 who was here in the thirties, has only praise for 
 Boston's kindliness in this way. Philip Hone, 
 who came a little earlier and wrote about his 
 experiences, is even more enthusiastic and so 
 it goes until, when we get back to the time of the 
 Marquis de Chastellux's visit, we find Bostonians 
 as cordial and as resourceful in the matter of 
 making their guests happy as even Southern- 
 ers could be. Certainly, as we read de Chas- 
 tellux's account of his visit, we are convinced 
 that he had a thoroughly " good time " while 
 here. 
 
 " Although I knew that Mr. Dumas had pre- 
 pared me a lodging," he writes, " I found it 
 more convenient to alight to Mr. Brackett's, 
 the Cromwell's Head, where I dined. After 
 dinner I went to the lodgings prepared for me at 
 Mr. Colson's a glover in the main street. As 
 I was dressing to wait on the Marquis de 
 Vaudreuil, he called upon me, and after per- 
 mitting me to finish the business of the toilet, 
 we went together to Dr. Cooper's and thence 
 
 1 See Old Boston Days and Ways and Romantic Days in Old 
 Boston.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 399 
 
 to the association ball where I was received by 
 my old acquaintance Mr. Brick [Breck] who was 
 one of the managers. Here I remained till 
 ten o'clock; the Marquis de Vaudreuil opened 
 the ball with Mrs. Temple. Then followed the 
 minuet which did honor to the French nation; 
 but I am sorry to say that the contrast was 
 considerable between the Frenchman and the 
 Americans who are in general very awkward, 
 particularly in the minuet. 
 
 ' The prettiest woman-dancers were Mrs. 
 Jarvis, her sister Miss Betsy Broom and Mrs. 
 Whitmore. The ladies were all well dressed, 
 but with less elegance and refinement than at 
 Philadelphia. The assembly room was superb 
 in a good style of architecture, well decorated 
 and well lighted. . . . And there is good order 
 and every necessary refreshment. 
 
 ' The 15th in the morning M. de Vaudreuil 
 and M. de Tombes, the French Consul, called 
 on me the moment I was going out to visit 
 them. After some conversation we went first 
 to wait on Gov. Hancock who was ill of the 
 gout and unable to receive us; thence we went 
 to Mr. Bowdoin's, Mr. Brick's and Mr. Cushing's, 
 the deputy Governor. I dined with the Marquis 
 de Vaudreuil and after dinner drank tea at 
 Mr. Bowdoin's who engaged us to supper, only 
 allowing M. de Vaudreuil and myself half an hour 
 to pay a visit to Mrs. Gushing. The evening was
 
 400 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 spent agreeably in a company of about twenty 
 persons, among whom was Mrs. Whitmore and 
 young Mrs. Bowdoin, who was a new acquaint- 
 ance for me, not having seen her at Boston when 
 I was there the preceding year. She has a mild 
 and agreeable countenance, and a character 
 corresponding with her appearance. 
 
 " The next morning I went with the Marquis 
 de Vaudreuil to pay some other visits, and 
 dined with Mr. Brick where were upwards of 
 thirty persons and among others Mrs. Tudor, 
 Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Swan, etc. The two former 
 understood French; Mrs. Tudor in particular 
 knows it perfectly and speaks it tolerably well. 
 I was very intimate with her during my stay 
 at Boston and found her possessed not only of 
 understanding but of grace and delicacy in her 
 mind and manners. After dinner tea was served 
 which, being over, Mr. Brick in some sort in- 
 sisted, but very politely, on our staying to 
 supper. This supper was on table exactly four 
 hours after we rose from dinner; it may be im- 
 agined, therefore, that we did not eat much, 
 but the Americans paid some little compliments 
 to it; for in general they eat less than we do 
 at their repasts, but as often as you choose, 
 which in my opinion is a very bad method. 
 Their aliments behave with their stomachs, 
 as we do in France on paying visits : they never 
 depart till they see others enter."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 401 
 
 In Portsmouth the Marquis had been enter- 
 tained with similar generosity, particularly by 
 the Langdons. " After dinner we went to 
 drink tea with Mr. Langdon," we read. " He 
 is a handsome man and of a noble carriage; 
 he has been a member of Congress and is now 
 one of the first people of the country. His 
 house is elegant and well-furnished and the 
 apartments admirably well wainscotted. Mrs. 
 Langdon, his wife, is young, fair and tolerably 
 handsome, but I conversed less with her than 
 with her husband in whose favour I was preju- 
 diced, from knowing that he had displayed great 
 courage and patriotism at the time of Burgoyne's 
 expedition. ... As he was marching day and 
 night, reposing himself only in the woods, a 
 negro servant who attended him said to him, 
 ' Master, you are hurting yourself, but no matter; 
 you are going to fight for liberty; I also should 
 suffer patiently if I had liberty to defend.' 
 ' Don't let that stop you,' replied Mr. Langdon. 
 ' From this moment you are free.' ' 
 
 On the way back from Portsmouth the Mar- 
 quis made a pleasurable stay at Newburyport, 
 and of that town, also, he gives us an inter- 
 esting snap-shot picture. " After passing the 
 ferry in little flat boats which held only five 
 horses each, we went to Mr. Davenport's inn, 
 where we found a good dinner ready. I had 
 letters from Mr. Wentworth to Mr. John
 
 402 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Tracy, the most considerable merchant in the 
 place; but before I had time to send them he 
 had heard of my arrival, and as I was rising 
 from table entered the room and very politely 
 invited me to pass the evening with him. . . . 
 His house stands a mile from the town in a 
 very beautiful situation; but of this I could my- 
 self form no judgment as it was already night. 
 I went, however, by moonlight to see the garden 
 which is composed of different terraces. There 
 is likewise a hot-house and a number of young 
 trees. The house is very handsome and well- 
 furnished and everything breathes that air of 
 magnificence accompanied by simplicity which 
 is only to be found among merchants. The 
 evening passed rapidly by the aid of agreeable 
 conversation and a few glasses of punch. The 
 ladies we found assembled were Mrs. Tracy, 
 her two sisters, and their cousin, Miss Lee. 
 Mrs. Tracy has an agreeable and a sensible 
 countenance and her manners correspond with 
 her appearance. At ten o'clock an excellent 
 supper was served, we drank good wine, Miss 
 Lee sang and prevailed upon Messieurs de 
 Vaudreuil and Talleyrand to sing also: towards 
 midnight the ladies withdrew but we continued 
 drinking Madeira and Xery." 
 
 So far as we know, this particular visitor from 
 over-seas did not venture out to Quincy in the 
 course of his New England tour. Had he done
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 403 
 
 so, there would have been an enthusiastic ac- 
 count, I am sure, of hospitality enjoyed in one 
 old house there. With the single exception of 
 Mount Vernon there is probably in all America 
 no Colonial mansion of more intrinsic interest 
 than the Dorothy Q House in Quincy, Massachu- 
 setts, which the Colonial Dames of the Old 
 Bay State bought about five years ago and now 
 maintain as a show-place for historical and other 
 pilgrims. Great credit is due the members of 
 this organization for the well-nigh perfect man- 
 ner in which the house has been made fresh and 
 attractive without sacrificing in the slightest 
 the traditions of Colonial architecture or doing 
 violence to any one of its romantic associations. 
 
 The Dorothy Q House is almost as old as the 
 Commonwealth itself the rear part was built 
 in 1636 and is associated with many of the 
 distinguished men and women who made the 
 Commonwealth and established its fame. The 
 estate passed out of the hands of the Quincys a 
 century ago; but in Colonial times almost all the 
 eminent members of that race were either born 
 there or lived there part of their days. John 
 Adams and John Quincy Adams frequently 
 visited the inmates of this home, and its hos- 
 pitable roof has sheltered many others known 
 to fame, such as Sir Harry Vane, Judge Sewall, 
 Benjamin Franklin and Sir Harry Frankland. 
 
 Visitors who today go to Quincy and seek
 
 404 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 out this venerable mansion find much of interest 
 to them, even if they be quite ignorant of the 
 historic side of the house. None the less the 
 various rooms should ideally be enjoyed in 
 the light of the hallowed traditions with which 
 they are indissolubly linked. Otherwise the 
 quaint furniture might just as well be in the 
 show-rooms of an enterprising dealer in an- 
 tiques. 
 
 Let us begin with the garden, here an integral 
 part of the house, as all Colonial gardens were. 
 Approaching from the street, one walks back 
 several hundred yards through magnolia and 
 mulberry trees set off with rhododendron, along 
 a narrow path neatly bordered with a relic of 
 that famous box upon which Dorothy Q dried 
 her laces nearly two hundred years ago. At 
 the left is the brook which the town of Quincy 
 has lately dammed up and over which there will 
 soon be placed a rustic bridge such as was there 
 when Agnes Surriage came to the house with 
 her handsome Sir Harry Frankland, and the 
 whole party fished for eels, which they merrily 
 cooked for supper. 
 
 At the left as one enters the noble front door 
 is the parlor, with its renowned Venus and 
 Cupid wall-paper, which was brought from Paris 
 expressly for the wedding of John Hancock 
 and his Dorothy Q. The design shows double 
 panels upon which very natural-looking Birds
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 405 
 
 of Paradise disport themselves. In one Cupid 
 appears to be wooing the shy Venus; in the 
 other she has dispatched him with an affirm- 
 ative answer, and he is proceeding happily away 
 through pendent wreaths of red flowers. It 
 seems a pity that paper so eminently fitted to 
 nuptial rites should not have graced the Han- 
 cock wedding after all. But English spies were 
 keeping a keen lookout for Patriot Hancock 
 about that time, and he was obliged to go into 
 hiding in the Lexington parsonage (now known 
 as the Clark House), where his father had been 
 born. To visit him his aunt, Mme. Lydia 
 Hancock, and his fiancee, Dorothy, took coach 
 April 18, 1775; and it was the resultant happy 
 meeting which Paul Revere interrupted when, 
 having ridden for his life to warn Hancock that 
 the British were approaching, he arrived in 
 Lexington about midnight of that memorable 
 day. Hancock had, of course, to flee again; 
 the ladies meanwhile withdrew to Fairfield, 
 Connecticut, the home of Rev. Thaddeus Burr, 
 another kinsman. And in spite of the Cupids 
 trailing their pink and blue wreaths over the 
 parlor walls of the home at Quincy the wedding 
 they were to celebrate very nearly failed] to 
 come off. 
 
 For fascinating Aaron Burr, whom no woman 
 was ever able to resist, came visiting his uncle 
 Thaddeus just then, and it required all Aunt
 
 406 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 Lydia Hancock's watchfulness to prevent an 
 elopement as a result of the desperate flirtation 
 which ensued between him and Dorothy Q. 
 On August 28, 1776, the postponed wedding 
 was celebrated at Fairfield, however, John 
 Hancock taking his wife directly to Philadelphia, 
 where they soon set up in a fine house of their 
 
 own. 1 
 
 There is much, however, besides the wedding 
 wall-paper to interest us in the parlor of the 
 Dorothy Q House. For the room is rich in 
 beautiful historic pieces. A Chippendale look- 
 ing-glass with a delicate decoration of raised 
 gold wheat on its frame attracts universal ad- 
 miration. Only one other similar glass is known, 
 and that reposes in the Dedham Historical 
 House. Beneath the wheat looking-glass is 
 a card-table of exquisite design, with corner 
 stands for candles, grooves for chips and a 
 secret drawer. Near by is an old Dutch chair 
 worm-eaten with age, and flanking it a six-legged 
 table one of the freaks of early cabinet- 
 makers which supports the oldest known of 
 hour-glasses. 
 
 Adjoining the parlor is the music-room 
 with its quaint old-fashioned spinet. Why do 
 we not have spinets in these days? This 
 
 1 See my chapter " John Hancock and his Dorothy " in Old 
 Boston Days and Ways. Much hitherto unavailable data about Han- 
 cock will doubtless be found, too, in John Hancock: The Picturesque 
 Patriot, by Lorenzo Sears, just published.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 407 
 
 question has been haunting me ever since I 
 enjoyed the privilege of playing the " William 
 Fether, London " instrument in the music- 
 room of the Dorothy Q House. The finest grand 
 piano that I have ever touched yields no such 
 pleasure. The tone produced by the picking of 
 the goose-quills against the strings is at once 
 delicate and satisfying. On the case one is 
 promised, in impressive Latin, " oblivion to 
 cares of life while playing." For once an ad- 
 vertisement does not overstate. Music-lovers, 
 revive the spinet! 
 
 Upstairs, over the parlor, is the guest-or- 
 bridal-chamber, containing a bed built for 
 Lafayette's use when on his New England visit 
 and now loaned to this house. In the room the 
 bed adorns Washington, Sir Harry Frankland, of 
 romantic memory, and Benjamin Franklin have 
 all slept. The last-named presented to his host, 
 after one of his visits, the Franklin stove there 
 today. 
 
 Another very delightful place of pilgrimage, 
 which has an intimate connection with New 
 England of the early Republican period, is 
 the hospitable brick mansion in Portland, Maine, 
 in which (1807) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
 first saw the light. Though it is now in the 
 heart of a busy city, this house, when built, 
 was on the outskirts of the town surrounded by 
 rolling green fields, with the ocean dimly dis-
 
 408 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 cernible in one direction and the austere White 
 Mountains standing grandly out against the 
 sky at the western horizon. 
 
 General Peleg Wadsworth conveyed all the 
 way from Philadelphia the bricks for his hand- 
 some new home for, before the date of its erec- 
 tion (1785), Portland had no brick houses. The 
 man who could afford such a house as this one, 
 at a time when building materials brought such 
 prices as they did immediately after the Revolu- 
 tionary War, must needs have been a person 
 of prominence and property. So, indeed, we 
 find General Wadsworth to have been. Grad- 
 uated from Harvard in 1769, he was among the 
 first to organize a company to resist the tyranny 
 of the mother country. In the fortification of 
 Roxbury and Dorchester Heights he rendered 
 valuable service, and in 1778 he was appointed 
 adjutant-general of Massachusetts. A year 
 or two later he was placed in command of the 
 troops on the Maine coast. All this time, 
 however, the doughty soldier was a citizen of 
 Plymouth, Mass. It was not until 1784 that 
 he proceeded from the Pilgrims' country to 
 Portland, bringing with him his wife (who had 
 been Miss Elizabeth Bartlett, of Plymouth), a 
 lady of fine manners and all womanly virtues, 
 " who was alike his friend and comforter in 
 hours of trial and the grace and ornament of 
 his house in the days of prosperity."
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 409 
 
 The associations of this house have been al- 
 most all those of prosperity. I have a shrewd 
 suspicion that this is one reason the place is 
 so popular. One likes to trace in imagination 
 the many pleasant happenings with which the 
 old furniture and the curious kitchen things 
 have been intimately connected, and to recall 
 that the piano, which is still in the parlor at 
 the left of the entrance hall, was the first ever 
 brought to Portland, and elicited so much ad- 
 miring curiosity that the country people were 
 wont to stand around the windows, looking 
 in when music was being played. How fraught 
 with suggestions of real neighborliness and 
 abundant leisure is the anecdote! 
 
 When the Wadsworth family moved into 
 their fine new house there were already six 
 children, Zilpah, the future mother of the poet, 
 being then a maid of seven or eight. That she 
 had something of the literary gift her distin- 
 guished son was to possess to such marked degree 
 is shown by this vivid description she wrote of 
 her father as he looked in the early days of 
 their residence under this fine old roof tree: 
 
 " Imagine to yourself a man of middle age, 
 well proportioned, with a military air, and who 
 carried himself so truly that many thought him 
 tall. His dress, a bright scarlet coat, buff small- 
 clothes and vest, full ruffled bosom, ruffles 
 over the hands, white stockings, shoes with
 
 410 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 silver buckles, white cravat bow in front, 
 hair well powdered and tied behind in a club, 
 so called." To this, one has only to add a 
 cocked hat of black felt to get General Peleg 
 Wadsworth exactly as he looks today in the 
 portrait which hangs over the mantel-piece of 
 the sitting-room. 
 
 In the stately parlor of this house were mar- 
 ried, in 1804, the parents of America's dearest 
 poet. Zilpah Wadsworth had now grown to 
 be a beautiful and gracious maiden whom 
 Stephen Longfellow, a young Harvard graduate 
 just beginning the practice of law, accounted 
 himself very fortunate to win for his bride. 
 The Longfellows had for two or three genera- 
 tions lived in Gorham, Maine, where father and 
 son were in turn lawyers of prominence and 
 where their old home still stands. The poet's 
 father grew up on this Gorham farm. 
 
 In 1808, the year after the birth of the poet, 
 the newly-wed Longfellows definitely took 
 possession of Wadsworth House. General Peleg 
 had the year preceding built another noble man- 
 sion for himself Wadsworth Hall at Hiram, 
 Maine, and 'had there removed to spend the 
 remainder of his days. The Portland house 
 thus came naturally enough to be the home of 
 his favorite daughter and of his lawyer son-in- 
 law. Here, therefore, where their life together 
 had begun, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Longfellow
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 411 
 
 spent many happy years. Here the poet's 
 six brothers and sister were born. And here 
 Anne Longfellow (Mrs. George Pierce) passed 
 almost her entire life, leaving the house, upon 
 her death in 1901, to the Maine Historical 
 Society as a memorial to her gifted brother. 
 
 No more fitting monument could well be 
 imagined. For it is with these hallowed 
 walls that all the home thoughts and reminis- 
 cences of him who is pre-eminently America's 
 Poet of Home are bound up. Moreover, it 
 was from this very house that the gifted boy 
 stole out at the age of thirteen to drop into the 
 box outside the office of the Portland Gazette 
 his first published verses, " The Battle of Lovell's 
 Pond." Other poems known to have been 
 written wholly or in part in this house, are 
 " Musings," " The Spirit of Poetry," " Burial 
 of the Minnisink," ' Where from the Eyes of 
 Day," " Song of the Birds," " Changed," " The 
 Lighthouse," and " The Rainy Day." As one 
 sits at the desk made famous by the writing of 
 this last named poem one may still see, glancing 
 out into the garden, the vista that met the poet's 
 eye. This room is now called the " Den " or 
 " Henry's Room," but it was originally the 
 sleeping apartment of General Wadsworth. The 
 walls are decorated with paper brought from 
 Paris sixty years ago. 
 
 Scarcely less interesting than the parlor
 
 412 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 with its old-time piano and the den with its 
 ink-stained mahogany desk is the family sitting- 
 room, which was once the law office of the 
 poet's father. Here are dozens of pieces of 
 furniture which fill the collector with envy. 
 But the charm of it all lies in the fact that the 
 chairs and tables, the andirons and the pictures 
 have associations as well as age. The carpet is 
 the same as was upon the floor at the time of the 
 poet's last visit to his old home, and it was 
 against this mantel that he often leaned as a 
 youth. 
 
 The poet's chair still stands by his favorite 
 windows; near it is a sewing-table that was his 
 mother's, and, on the other side, the chair his 
 father liked best. On the adjacent wall hangs 
 a gilt-framed mirror whose quaint picture and 
 row of tiny gilt balls stamp it as of his grand- 
 mother Wadsworth's day. 
 
 Just across, a doorway leads into a small 
 room built on by Stephen Longfellow for his law 
 office but now sacred to shelves and cupboards. 
 There is here a single window commanding the 
 old garden; that this room was once a favorite 
 writing place for the boy poet we must believe 
 from a letter sent to his sister Elizabeth during 
 his first visit abroad in 1829: "My poetic 
 career is finished. Since I left America I have 
 scarcely put two lines together . . . and no 
 soft poetic ray has irradiated my heart since the
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 413 
 
 Goths and Vandals crossed the Rubicon of 
 the front entry and turned the Sanctum Sanc- 
 torum of the ' Little Room ' into a china 
 closet." 
 
 No part of the house, however, is more inter- 
 esting to students of the early Republican 
 period than the kitchen, with its capacious 
 fireplace and its curious outfit of utensils long 
 since retired from use. The fireplace itself is 
 especially worth examining because of the figure 
 of a fish on an iron plate set into the brickwork on 
 the back, a thing of which one of the poet's 
 brothers has spoken as "a fish baked in 
 effigy." Here the crane still supports the pots 
 and kettles that hung from the hook a century 
 ago and all about the hearth are articles which 
 in name as well as in use are quite strange to 
 visitors of the twentieth century, a Dutch 
 oven, a tin kitchen, a plate warmer, apple 
 roaster, coffee roaster and mills, a bread toaster, 
 and waffle irons which look like a huge pair of 
 tongs. Built into the brickwork at the left is 
 the oven for baking, and at the right is a boiler 
 with the small opening underneath in which 
 a fire was made on washing days. The kitchen 
 dresser near-by is likewise attractive with its 
 display of well-shone Britannia tin and earthen 
 ware. Here may be seen the bread tray used 
 by General Lafayette when he visited Portland 
 in 1825. Here, too, are candle moulds and Ian-
 
 414 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 terns and the steelyards with which the babies 
 of the family were weighed. 
 
 Directly over the parlor, in which the mother 
 of the poet was married, is her bedroom in 
 which she died. Near here is the cradle in 
 which the baby Henry was rocked, as well as 
 a priceless collection of old gowns and bonnets, 
 among them the little cap first worn by that 
 head which was later to be crowned with laurel. 
 Here, too and this is of special interest to 
 visitors is a copy of a long-forgotten poem 
 in which Henry Longfellow protested against 
 the removal of this old building when some one 
 wished to replace it by a more modern structure. 
 
 The room to which the poet came with his 
 bride is the guest chamber across the hall. 
 The tall, four-post bedstead, with its dainty 
 hangings of dimity and its quaint coverlet sug- 
 gestive of a bygone day, is the same now as then. 
 By its side is a wood-bottom rocking-chair 
 which belonged to the first mistress of the house. 
 It was probably in this room that the poet 
 slept during frequent visits made to the house 
 after he became famous. For he never lost his 
 love for the home of his childhood and he rejoiced 
 greatly that the conflagration of July 4, 1866, 
 which obliterated so many interesting landmarks 
 in Portland, left " the family house unburned ! " 
 
 Longfellow's later life is of course associated 
 chiefly with his beautiful Cambridge home, to
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 415 
 
 which he first (in 1837) went as a boarder, 
 being then a young, unmarried professor. The 
 house was at this time the home of Mrs. Andrew 
 Craigie, whose husband had bought it (in 1793), 
 from a brother of that Tracy we found enter- 
 taining the Marquis de Chastellux when at New- 
 buryport. 
 
 Cambridge was, in those days, a mere country 
 village. If you would be thoroughly convinced 
 of this look up Josiah Quincy's vivid account 
 in Figures of the Past of a certain turkey -shoot- 
 ing he once witnessed there of which young Larz 
 Anderson of Cincinnati was the hero. 
 
 For our present purposes, however, it is more 
 to the point to turn, in this same delightful 
 volume, to Mr. Quincy's description of Daniel 
 Webster's Boston reception on June 17, 1825. 
 
 " Summer Street was as light as day, the 
 houses were brilliantly illuminated and a fine 
 band was stationed a few yards from Mr. 
 Webster's door. The rooms were filled with 
 strangers from all parts of the country. . . . Mr. 
 and Mrs. Webster received the compliments 
 of the hour with great dignity and simplicity. 
 Of the lady my journal says that * she seemed 
 highly to enjoy the success and distinction of 
 her husband, but showed not the slightest 
 symptom of vanity or elation.* 
 
 " Among the ladies to whom I was presented 
 was the famous Fanny Wright a tall young
 
 416 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 person of about thirty, of pleasing countenance 
 and wearing her hair cut short to the head. She 
 had just returned to America with all the glory 
 of having written a book about us. She was 
 destined to be still better known, at a later date, 
 as the promulgator of unpopular theories and 
 as the first of practical abolitionists. The colony 
 of emancipated slaves which she established in 
 Tennessee was one of those failures which are 
 better than many things which the world calls 
 successful. 
 
 " Lafayette was, of course, at Mr. Webster's 
 party. But the last evening reception given the 
 distinguished Frenchman [before leaving] Bos- 
 ton took place on Sunday, at the house of Mr. 
 R. C. Derby. I have noted that, on this oc- 
 casion, the General was reintroduced to a lady 
 with whom he had danced a minuet forty -seven 
 years before. 
 
 " Mr. Derby's establishment was very stylish 
 and fashionable; and the names of the guests, 
 with such titles as we were so happy as to pos- 
 sess, were loudly proclaimed by a servant as 
 we ascended the stairs. My sister's journal 
 . . . mentions that the arrangement of the 
 rooms was different from any that she had seen 
 before. ' The principal drawing-room was large 
 and brilliantly lighted, and opening from it was 
 a suite of smaller apartments, some lined with 
 paintings, others hung with silk, and illuminated
 
 MRS. R. C. DERBY. 
 
 From the miniature by Malbone in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
 
 New York.
 
 MRS. EDWARD BLAKE. 
 From the miniature by Malbone in the possession of Miss Julia Robins, Boston'.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 417 
 
 by shade-lamps and lights in alabaster vases, 
 to produce the effect of moonlight. These apart- 
 ments terminated in a boudoir only large enough 
 to hold two or three people. It was hung with 
 light blue silk and furnished with sofas and cur- 
 tains of the same hue. It also contained an im- 
 mense mirror, placed so as to reflect the rest 
 of the rooms.' This was the Boston elegance 
 of 1825." 1 And then there follows a glowing 
 description of the charms of Miss Emily Mar- 
 shall, " who," Quincy 2 declares, " as completely 
 filled the ideal of the lovely and the feminine 
 
 1 In the Boston Directory for 1825, a very cosy little volume, the 
 addresses of some of the people mentioned by Mr. Quincy are given 
 as follows: Josiah Marshall, house 24 Franklin Place; R. C. Derby, 
 27 Chestnut street; Daniel Webster, 10 Summer street. Mrs. 
 Blake was the widow of Edward Blake, Jr., and though she enter- 
 tained in her beautiful house on Bowdoin Square she cannot be 
 found in the Directory for that year, inasmuch as it was not then 
 the custom to list women householders. Mrs. Blake's maiden name 
 was Sarah Parkman. She was born October 17, 1775, and died April 
 10, 1847. The miniature herewith reproduced is by Malbone and 
 has often been pronounced the most beautiful he ever did. It is 
 now in the possession of the subject's grand-daughter. 
 
 2 As this is the last time that the name Josiah Quincy will be 
 mentioned in this volume it may be well here to distinguish between 
 the various worthies thus designated. The Josiah Quincy who 
 visited Charleston before the Revolution and wrote of his experiences 
 there was born in Boston, February 23, 1744 and died at sea, off 
 Gloucester, Mass., April 26, 1775, a victim of the pulmonary con- 
 sumption to relieve which his Southern trip had been undertaken. 
 His son was the president of Harvard College, and one of the first 
 mayors of Boston. His son (born in Boston 1802, died in Quincy 
 1882) was from 1845-49 mayor of Boston. But he is best known 
 this third Josiah Quincy as " member of the class of 1821, Harvard 
 College," and author of Figures of the Past.
 
 418 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 as did Webster the ideal of the intellectual and 
 the masculine. . . . Miss Emily Marshall," he 
 insists, " was simply perfect in face and figure 
 and perfectly charming in manners as well. . . . 
 On the seventh of February, 1823, in my descrip- 
 tion of Mrs. Blake's party come the words: 
 * Miss Marshall stood unrivalled. She is the 
 most beautiful creature I ever saw.' At Mathews's 
 last appearance before a Boston audience (Jan- 
 uary 28, 1823) I found her ' making the theatre 
 beautiful by her presence.' Again (it is the 
 night of February 13, the year following) a 
 house in Franklin Street, just by the theatre, 
 is lighted for company, and Miss Marshall 
 receives her guests with such infinite grace 
 of manner that one of them, at least, does not 
 rest before he sets down his admiration in black 
 and white. . . . With her no struggle for social 
 recognition was necessary. She simply stood 
 before us a reversion to that faultless type of 
 structure which artists have imagined in the 
 past and to that ideal loveliness of feminine dis- 
 position which poets have placed in the mythical 
 golden age." This praise seems extravagant, 
 but when it is added that workmen went with- 
 out their dinners to gaze upon Miss Marshall's 
 lovely face, that audiences at the theatre rose 
 when sheentered,to render homage to her beauty, 
 and that William Lloyd Garrison went to a 
 church presided over by a " stand-pat " parson
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 419 
 
 for the sake of feasting surreptitiously on her 
 sweet countenance, we are convinced that Quincy 
 lied not. 
 
 Philip Hone's Diary gives us the promised 
 glimpse of the cordial way in which Boston 
 entertained a visitor from New York in these 
 early Republican days. On September 8, 1828, 
 he writes, " After breakfast I commenced my 
 Boston rambles and saw most of the lions of 
 this fine city. Mr. Quincy, the Mayor, took 
 us through the new market-house, which is 
 his hobby, and well worth seeing. The length 
 of this splendid receptacle of beef, poultry and 
 potatoes is five hundred and thirty -six feet, 
 its width fifty feet, and the improvement of 
 the vicinity consequent upon its erection renders 
 it an object of admiration. We visited Faneuil 
 Hall, the armory, the noble art museum, its 
 exhibition room (where at present is exhibited 
 a collection of Stuart's portraits, for the benefit 
 of his family) , the new hotel building at the cor- 
 ner of Tremont and School streets, the docks etc. 
 After dinner, Mr. H. G. Otis called and took 
 me out to Quincy to visit the President, but 
 we found that he had departed suddenly, this 
 afternoon, for Washington. We had, however, 
 a pleasant ride, saw the Quincy railroad and 
 quarry of granite, and returned to town by 
 way of Roxbury. In the evening I went for a 
 short time to the theatre in Tremont street;
 
 420 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 a handsome theatre, but not a first-rate com- 
 pany." The following day another visit was 
 made to Quincy for the sake of viewing further 
 the railroad and the quarry, and " on our return, 
 we stopped to see a handsome edifice in the 
 village of ^ Quincy, a new meeting-house 1 
 nearly finished. It is a beautiful piece of archi- 
 tecture, and its massive columns of granite are 
 probably the best specimens of that fine material 
 which have yet been brought into use. . . . We 
 took tea with Mrs. Quincy and returned to 
 Boston in the evening." 
 
 Sunday morning finds this visitor at St. 
 Paul's Church listening to a sermon from Alonzo 
 Potter; in the afternoon he takes tea " at 
 Colonel Perkins's at Brookline who has one 
 of the finest places in the neighborhood; his 
 wall fruit and grapery are justly celebrated, 
 and are now in great perfection." On Tuesday 
 Waltham engages Mr. Hone's attention. There 
 he visits the " celebrated seat and ground of 
 Mr. Lyman, and the splendid mansion of the 
 late Governor Gore, where we were kindly re- 
 ceived and entertained by Mrs. Gore. ... I 
 dined at General Theodore Lyman's, who lives 
 in very handsome style, and has the best library 
 I have seen in Boston. Passed the evening with 
 a party at Mrs. Cunningham's. This lady,Vho 
 
 1 It is here that both John Quincy Adams and his father now lie 
 buried.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 421 
 
 is lately married, is the daughter of Rufus 
 Amory." 
 
 Why all Boston visitors had to be dragged out 
 to Quincy to view the quarries is not at all 
 clear. Fanny Kemble, who acted at the first 
 Tremont Theatre on the site now occupied 
 by Tremont Temple in the spring of 1833 
 started on this expedition of pleasure (?) at 
 six in the morning and so rode twenty miles be- 
 fore breakfast! No wonder she characterized 
 the feat as "a piece of virtue bordering on 
 heroism." 
 
 Yet she had her reward. " For," she says, 
 " the country we rode through was extremely 
 pretty, so indeed I think all the country round 
 Boston is; the only deficiency is water, running 
 water, I mean, for there are several beautiful 
 pools in its vicinity, and, turn which way you 
 will, the silver shield of the sea shining against 
 the horizon is a lovely feature of the landscape. 
 But there are no rivulets, no brooks, no spark- 
 ling, singing water courses to refresh one's senses 
 as one rides across the fields and through the 
 woodlands. 
 
 " But for the climate," continues this charm- 
 ing actress, " I should like to live in Boston very 
 much. My stay here has been delightful. It 
 is in itself a lovely place, and the country round 
 it is charming. The people are intellectual, 
 and have been most abundantly good natured
 
 422 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 and kind to me." Among the houses at which 
 the Kembles were entertained was that of Dr. 
 George Parkman who was murdered by Pro- 
 fessor Webster in 1849. 
 
 Here 1 Fanny met John Quincy Adams, whose 
 remarks on Shakespeare made her greatly 
 wonder. The matter under discussion was 
 Knowles's " Hunchback," of which the former 
 President remarked mildly that it was " by 
 no means as good as Shakespeare." 
 
 Miss Kemble records that she " looked at 
 the man in amazement, and suggested to him 
 that Shakespeare did not grow upon every bush. 
 Presently Mr. Adams began a sentence by 
 assuring me that he was a worshipper of Shake- 
 speare, and ended it by saying that Othello was 
 disgusting, King Lear ludicrous, and Romeo 
 and Juliet childish nonsense; whereat I swallowed 
 half a pint of water and nearly my tumbler, too, 
 and remained silent for what could I say? 
 
 However, in spite of this, I owe some 
 
 gratitude, for he brought to see me the 
 
 other day, whose face is more like that of a 
 good and intellectual man than almost any face 
 I ever saw. 
 
 " The climate of this place is dreadful; the 
 night before last the weather was so warm that, 
 with my window open, I was obliged to take 
 half the clothes off my bed; last night was so 
 
 1 Dr. Parkman was then living at 1 Cambridge Street.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 423 
 
 cold that, with window shut, and additional 
 covering, I could scarce get to sleep for the cold. 
 This is terrible, and forms a serious drawback 
 upon the various attractions of Boston, and to 
 me it has many. The houses are like English 
 houses; the Common is like Constitution Hill; 
 Beacon street is like a bit of Park lane, and 
 Summer street, now that the chestnut trees 
 are in bloom, is perfectly beautiful." 
 
 The excessive modesty which caused Boston, 
 in recent years, to refuse the " Bacchante " a 
 place in the courtyard of our Public Library 
 seems to have been operative at this era, also. 
 When Power's " chanting cherubs " were ex- 
 hibited it was found necessary to drape their 
 loins with linen, and like treatment was ac- 
 corded to an orang-outang which visited the 
 city about the same time. 1 Inasmuch, however, 
 as Mrs. Trollope 2 makes repeated allusions 
 to similar prudery in other cities, Bostonians 
 were perhaps not so very singular in this respect. 
 " I once mentioned to a young lady," this chron- 
 icler of our national delinquencies writes, " that 
 I thought a picnic party would be very agree- 
 able, and that I would propose it to some of 
 our friends. She agreed that it would be de- 
 lightful, but she added, ' I fear you will not suc- 
 
 1 McMaster's History of the United States, Vol. VI, p. 96. 
 
 2 The American reprint of Domestic Manners of the Americans, 
 put out in New York in 1832, insists that Captain Basil Hall must 
 have written this book, inasmuch as " no lady " could have done it.
 
 424 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 ceed; we are not used to such sort of things 
 here, and I know it is considered very indelicate 
 for ladies and gentlemen to sit down together 
 on the grass.' ' But what we must conclude, of 
 course, is that this feeling was as little typical of 
 America as was the conduct of the woman Mrs. 
 Trollope saw in a New York theatre adminis- 
 tering natural nutrition to her child between 
 the acts of a " thriller." Some of her criti- 
 cisms were well-founded, however, and many 
 of her observations highly amusing. We know 
 that, in Boston, the cows grazed on the Common. 
 Did they then go placidly home to be milked 
 as Mrs. Trollope tells us was the custom in 
 Cincinnati? ' The animals there," she says, 
 " are fed morning and evening at the door of 
 the house, with a good mess of Indian corn 
 boiled with water. While they eat they are 
 milked, and when the operation is completed 
 the milk-pail and meal-tub retreat into the 
 dwelling leaving the republican cow to walk 
 away to take her pleasure on the hills or in the 
 gutters as may suit her fancy best. They gener- 
 ally return very regularly to give and take the 
 morning and evening meal; though it more than 
 once happened to us, before we were supplied 
 by a regular milk cart, to have our jug sent 
 home empty with the sad news that ' the cow 
 was not come home and it is too late to look 
 for her to breakfast now.' Once, I remember,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 From the portrait by Stuart in the possession of George Fred Williams, Dedham, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 Page 415.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 425 
 
 the good woman told us that she had over- 
 slept herself, and that the cow had come and 
 gone again, ' not liking, I expect to hanker 
 about for nothing, poor thing.' ' Verily, as Mrs. 
 Trollope drolly observes, there is more than 
 one way of keeping a cow. 
 
 And there is more than one way of writing 
 one's impressions of life in a foreign country. 
 Literature would be much the poorer, I maintain, 
 without the pages in which Mrs. Trollope has 
 embalmed her emotions concerning our sins of 
 omission and commission during that period 
 of her visit. For it is precisely because she be- 
 came immensely stirred by what she then saw 
 and experienced that her book is excellent 
 reading where certain other volumes Baron 
 von Raumer's, for example, makes one ready 
 for a long winter's nap. And Harriet Marti- 
 neau's work, though altogether praiseworthy 
 from the point of view of accuracy, is often 
 very, very dull. 
 
 It is significant to note that different as 
 were the opinions of Mrs. Trollope and Miss 
 Martineau about most American customs and 
 institutions they quite agreed in resenting 
 the political and social subjection of women in 
 the America of this period. We have had so 
 much to do in this book with women whose social 
 position and intellectual gifts were of the high- 
 est and whose associations were all with gentle-
 
 426 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 men, that it is difficult to credit the tales of 
 disrespect for womanhood with which Mrs. 
 Trollope's pages overflow. Yet it is very likely 
 true that in the West particularly on the 
 steamboats 1 she actually did see the to- 
 bacco-chewing, ever-hatted, constantly-spitting 
 men of whom she has so much to say. And 
 these men, naturally, would be " convinced 
 to the very centre of their hearts and souls that 
 women were made for no other purpose than to 
 fabricate sweetmeats and gingerbread, construct 
 shirts, darn stockings and become mothers of 
 possible presidents." 
 
 Yet, she continues, should the women of 
 America " ever discover what their power 
 might be, and compare it with what it now is, 
 much improvement might be hoped for. Now, 
 even in Philadelphia," she insists, " women 
 who are among the handsomest, the wealthiest 
 and the most distinguished in the land have 
 not at all that influence in society which such 
 women would possess in England." And then 
 she proceeds to trace with delightful humor 
 a typical day in the life of one such woman: 
 
 * This lady shall be the wife of a lawyer in 
 the highest repute and practice. She had a 
 very handsome house with white marble steps 
 
 1 Miss Martineau declares that it was on a steamboat coming 
 back from Chicago, that she first, and for the only time in America, 
 encountered disregard of woman.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 427 
 
 and doorposts, and a delicate silver knocker 
 and door-handle. She had very handsome 
 drawing-rooms very handsomely furnished. 
 There is a sideboard in one of them but it is 
 very handsome, and has very handsome de- 
 canters and cut glass water jugs upon it; she 
 has a very handsome carriage and a very hand- 
 some free black coachman; she is always very 
 handsomely dressed; and moreover, she is very 
 handsome herself. 
 
 " She rises, and her first hour is spent in 
 the scrupulously nice arrangement of her dress; 
 she descends to her parlour, neat, stiff and 
 silent; her breakfast is brought in by her free 
 black footman; she eats her fried ham and her 
 salt fish, and drinks her coffee in silence, while 
 her husband reads one newspaper and puts an- 
 other under his elbow; and then perhaps, she 
 washes the cups and saucers. Her carriage is 
 ordered at eleven ; till that hour she is employed 
 in the pastry -room, her snow-white apron pro- 
 tecting her mouse-coloured silk. Twenty min- 
 utes before her carriage should appear she re- 
 tires to her chamber, as she calls it, shakes and 
 folds up her still snow-white apron, smooths 
 her rich dress and with nice care sets on her 
 elegant bonnet, and all the handsome et cetera; 
 then walks down stairs just at the moment that 
 her free black coachman announces to her free 
 black footman that her carriage waits. She
 
 428 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 steps into it and gives the word, * Drive to the 
 Dorcas Society.' Her footman stays at home 
 to clean the knives, but her coachman can 
 trust his horses while he opens the carriage door, 
 and his lady not being accustomed to a hand 
 or an arm, gets out very safely without, though 
 one of her own is occupied by her work-basket, 
 and the other by a large roll of all those in- 
 describable matters which ladies take as offerings 
 to Dorcas Societies. 
 
 " She enters the parlour appropriated for 
 the meeting, and finds seven other ladies, 
 very like herself, and takes her place among 
 them; she presents her contribution, which is 
 accepted with a gentle circular smile, and her 
 parings of broadcloth, her ends of riband, her 
 gilt paper and her minikin pins are added to 
 the parings of broadcloth, the ends of riband, 
 the gilt paper and the minikin pins with which 
 the table is already covered; she also produces 
 from her basket three ready-made pincushions, 
 four inkwipers, seven paper matches, and a 
 paste-board watch-case; these are welcomed 
 with acclamations and the youngest lady present 
 deposits them carefully on shelves, amid a 
 prodigious quantity of similar articles. She 
 then produces her thimble and asks for work; 
 it is presented to her and the eight ladies all 
 stitch together for some hours. Their talk is 
 of priests and of missions, of the profits from
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 429 
 
 the last sale and of their hopes from the next; 
 of their doubts whether young Mr. This or 
 young Mr. That should receive the fruits of it 
 to fit him out for Liberia; of the very ugly 
 bonnet seen at church on Sabbath morning; 
 of the handsome preacher who performed on 
 Sabbath afternoon, and of the very large col- 
 lection made on Sabbath evening. This lasts 
 till three when the carriage again appears and 
 the lady and her basket return home; she 
 mounts to her chamber, carefully sets aside 
 her bonnet and its appurtenances, puts on 
 her scalloped black silk apron, walks into the 
 kitchen to see that all is right, then into the par- 
 lour, where having cast a careful glance over the 
 table prepared for dinner, she sits down, work 
 in hand, to await her spouse. He comes, shakes 
 hands with her, spits and dines. The conversa- 
 tion is not much then and ten minutes suffice 
 for the dinner; fruit and toddy, the newspaper 
 and the work-bag succeed. In the evening, 
 the gentleman, being a savant, goes to the 
 Wistar Society, and afterward plays a snug 
 rubber at a neighbour's. The lady receives at 
 tea a young missionary and three members of 
 the Dorcas Society. And so ends her day." 
 Yet at just this time Fanny Wright, wearing 
 bloomers, was vigorously advocating, from the 
 lecture-platform, the adoption of ideas so sub- 
 versive of manners, morals and religion that,
 
 430 ROMANTIC DAYS 
 
 even today, she would find it difficult to hire 
 a hall in some American cities. None the less, 
 in Philadelphia, Quaker ladies sat on the plat- 
 form during her lectures! And in many places 
 " Fanny Wright Societies " were organized and 
 the reforms she advocated seriously under- 
 taken. 1 Which only serves to prove that women 
 stood in tremendous need of the better education 
 and the broader opportunities Harriet Marti- 
 neau demanded for them. 
 
 Quite as good arguments as can be found in 
 any of our feminist papers of today for 
 bestowing upon women the right of suffrage 
 are presented in the chapter on the " Political 
 Non-Existence of Women " of Miss Martineau's 
 thoughtful book, Society in America. As a 
 public woman, who herself knew thoroughly 
 of what she wrote, this author quotes with 
 utter scorn Jefferson's dictum, 2 ' Were our 
 state a pure democracy, in which all the inhab- 
 itants should meet together to transact their 
 business, there would yet be excluded from their 
 deliberations (1) Infants, until arrived at years 
 of discretion; (2) Slaves, from whom the un- 
 fortunate state of things with us takes away the 
 rights of will and of property; and (3) Women, 
 who to prevent depravation of morals, and am- 
 
 1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. V, 
 p. 99. 
 
 2 Correspondence, Vol. IV, p. 295.
 
 IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC 431 
 
 biguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously 
 in public meetings of men." The italics are my 
 own. But the sentiment was Thomas Jeffer- 
 son's; and the first writer who had the cleverness 
 to perceive its utter sophistry was this English- 
 woman who visited Boston late in 1835. The 
 fact that she made the journey to the New 
 England capital by railroad, as well as the fact 
 that she found considerable response in Boston 
 to her advanced views, reminds me that we have 
 now arrived really at the close of the period of 
 the " early " Republic. 
 
 THE END.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adams, Abigail, 42, 43, 44, 46, 
 
 47, 48, 58, 82, 161, 166, 167. 
 Adams, John, 11, 81, 102, 161, 
 
 167, 403, 420. 
 Adams, John Quincy, 200, 201, 
 
 202, 232, 236, 403, 420, 422. 
 Adams, Mrs. John Quincy, 201, 
 
 202, 210. 
 Adams, Therese Blennerhas- 
 
 sett, 325. 
 Allan, John, 353. 
 Alston, Governor Joseph, 315, 
 
 321, 323, 326, 327, 330. 
 Alston, Joseph, 321, 322. 
 Alston, Theodosia Burr, 313, 
 
 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 
 
 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 
 
 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 
 
 332, 333, 334, 335, 337. 
 Amory, Rufus, 421. 
 Anderson, Larz, 415. 
 Andre, Major, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 
 
 17, 19, 21. 
 Arnold, Benedict, 10, 11, 13, 14, 
 
 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 
 Arnold, Edward Shippen, 17, 
 
 19. 
 Arnold, Margaret Shippen, 1, 2, 
 
 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 
 
 18. 
 
 Astor, Henry, 78. 
 Astor, John Jacob, 78, 110, 132, 
 
 133, 134, 135. 
 
 Bache, Sarah Franklin, 58, 59, 
 
 60. 
 
 Bacon, Edmund, 176. 
 Balch, Thomas, 14. 
 Baltimore, City of, 243-290. 
 Barker, Jacob, 187. 
 Barlow, Joel, 188. 
 Barrett. George, 124. 
 
 Barton, Cora Livingston, 394, 
 
 395. 
 
 Bayard, Mrs. John, 88. 
 Bayard, William, 132. 
 Beauharnais, Hortense de, 198, 
 
 258. 
 Beaumarchais, Pierre, A. C. de, 
 
 348, 349, 350, 351, 352. 
 Beekman, Mrs. James, 87. 
 Beekman, John K., 132. 
 Bernard, John, 359, 360, 361. 
 Biddle, Mrs. Nicholas, 280. 
 Bingham, William, 43, 44, 46. 
 Bingham, Mrs. William, 43, 44, 
 
 45, 46, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57. 
 Blair, Frank, 225. 
 Blair, Rev. J. D., 346, 347. 
 Blake, Edward, Jr., 417. 
 Blennerhassett, Harman, 324. 
 
 325, 326. 
 Bonaparte, Jerome, 109, 257, 
 
 258, 259, 262, 263, 264, 265, 
 
 266, 267, 268, 270, 272, 273, 
 274, 277, 280, 281, 321. 
 
 Bonaparte, Mrs. Jerome, 189, 
 190, 253, 257, 258, 259, 260, 
 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 
 
 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 
 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 
 279, 280, 281. 
 
 Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon, 
 
 275. 
 
 Bonaparte, Joseph, 108, 109. 
 Bonaparte, Lucien, 267. 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 258, 267, 
 
 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, 382. 
 Booth, Junius Brutus, 129, 226. 
 Borghese, Pauline, 258. 
 Boston, City of, 397-431. 
 Bradford, William, 119. 
 Breck, Samuel, 53, 56, 73, 74. 
 Brewton, Miles, 293.
 
 434 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Brissot de Warville, 1, 38, 73. 
 Broglie, Prince de, 57, 58. 
 Brooks, John Graham, 231. 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 148, 
 
 150, 151. 
 Buchanan, Rev. J., 346, 347, 
 
 348, 353. 
 
 Bull's Head Tavern, 123. 
 Burd, Major Edward, 18. 
 Burdick, Benjamin F., 333, 334. 
 Burnaby, Rev. William, 144. 
 Burnes, David, 156, 157. 
 Burns, Robert, 185, 287. 
 Burr, Aaron, 115, 116, 117, 118, 
 
 119, 178, 314, 315, 316, 317, 
 
 318, 320, 323, 324, 326, 327, 
 
 328, 329, 330, 331, 333, 334, 
 
 405. 
 
 Burr, Rev. Thaddeus, 405. 
 Burr, Theodosia Prevost, 314, 
 
 317, 318, 320. 
 Byrd, Colonel, 338. 
 
 Cable, George Washington, 391. 
 Caldwell, James H., 385. 
 Calhoun, John C., 205, 208, 219, 
 
 343. 
 
 Campan, Madame, 197, 258. 
 Carey, Matthew, 148. 
 Carroll, Charles, 252, 282. 
 Carroll, Archbishop John, 260, 
 
 264, 277, 282. 
 Carroll, Daniel, 282. 
 Casa Yrujo, Marquis de, 52, 53. 
 Castle Garden, 144, 145. 
 Charleston, City of, 291-337. 
 Chase, Hon. Samuel, 263. 
 Chastellux, Marquis de, 36, 37, 
 
 367, 368, 370, 371, 372, 374, 
 
 398. 
 Chestnut Street Theatre, 22, 
 
 23, 25. 
 
 Chevalli<5, Jean Auguste, 348. 
 Claiborne, Governor, 381. 
 Clarkson, General, 100. 
 Claxton, Kate, 23. 
 Clay, Henry, 252, 343. 
 Clinton, De Witt, 147, 197, 267. 
 Clinton, Sir Henry, 4, 5, 16. 
 Cobbett, William, 155. 
 Cochelet, Mademoiselle, 258. 
 Cockburn, Admiral, 186, 188. 
 
 Collins, V. Lansing, 314. 
 
 Cone, Spencer H., 23. 
 
 Cooke, George Frederick, 24, 
 
 25, 26, 148. 
 
 Cooley, Dr. E., 228, 229. 
 Cooper, Thomas Apthorpe, 226. 
 Cooper, Priscilla, 124, 226. 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 147, 
 
 148, 150, 151, 152. 
 Cope, Caleb, 4. 
 Copley, John Singleton, 313. 
 Count Johannes, 124. 
 Cox, Sarah, 51. 
 Craig, James, 280. 
 Craigie, Mrs. Andrew, 415. 
 Crowninshield, Mrs. Benjamin 
 
 W., 193, 194, 195, 196. 
 Cushman, Charlotte, 124. 
 Custis, Eleanor Parke, 48, 79, 
 
 87, 365, 367. 
 Custis, George Washington 
 
 Parke, 49, 79. 
 Cutler, Dr. Manasseh, 171, 176, 
 
 226. 
 Cutts, Mrs. Richard, 184, 188. 
 
 Dallas, Alexander J., 264. 
 D'Avezac, Jules, 393. 
 Dawson, Henry B., 122. 
 Dayton, Abram C., 124. 
 Deas, David, 292. 
 Delmonico's, 144. 
 D'Eon, Chevalier, 349, 350, 351. 
 Depeyster, Robert G. L., 187. 
 Derby, R. C., 416, 417. 
 Dickens, Asbury, 50. 
 Dickens, Charles, 150, 397. 
 Didier, Eugene L., 262. 
 Donelson, Mrs. Emily, 220, 221, 
 
 222. 
 
 Drake, James Rodman, 151. 
 Drake, Mrs. Stella Edwards 
 
 Pierpont, 333, 334. 
 Drinker, Elizabeth, 29, 34, 56. 
 Duer, Lady Kitty, 87. 
 Duff, Ann, 124. 
 Dunlap, William, 128. 
 Dunn, Nathan, 32, 33. 
 Durang, Charles, 23, 286. 
 
 Eaton, Peggy O'Neil, 217, 218, 
 219, 220.
 
 INDEX 
 
 435 
 
 Edgeworth, Honora Sneyd, 2, 3, 
 
 15. 
 
 Edgeworth, Maria, 2. 
 Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 2, 
 
 15. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 118. 
 Ellet, Elizabeth Fries, 95, 182, 
 
 375, 377. 
 Ellicott, Andrew, 159. 
 
 Fenno, Charles Jones, 63, 64, 
 
 68, 69, 70. 
 
 Fesch, Cardinal, 259, 277. 
 Fly Market, 74, 77, 78. 
 Foote, Rev. William Henry, 346. 
 Forrest, Edwin, 25, 26, 129. 
 Foster, Sir Augustus, 175, 257. 
 Francis, Dr. John W., 117, 129, 
 
 147, 148. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 58, 60, 61, 
 
 95, 96, 97, 98, 102, 181, 348, 
 
 351, 403, 407. 
 Franks, Rebecca, 7, 30. 
 Frankland, Sir Harry, 404, 407. 
 Fraser, Charles, 300, 302, 309, 
 
 311. 
 
 Fraunces, Samuel, 76, 78, 80. 
 Fraunces' Tavern, 74, 75, 77, 
 
 110. 
 Fulton, Robert, 119, 141, 142. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, 119. 
 Gallego, Joseph, 348. 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 418. 
 Gayarre", Charles, 332. 
 Genet, " Citizen," 197. 
 Gladstone, William Ewart, 158. 
 Goddard, William, 243. 
 Godfrey, Thomas, 20. 
 Godwin, Parke, 117. 
 Gore, Governor, 420. 
 Gratz, Hyman, 64. 
 Gratz, Rebecca, 63, 64, 65, 66, 
 
 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72. 
 Graydon, Alexander, 21, 29. 
 Greene, General Nathanael, 15, 
 
 88. 
 Griswold, Rufus W., 77. 
 
 Hachard, Madeleine, 380. 
 Hall, Captain Basil, 423. 
 Hallam, Lewis, 20, 21, 22, 127. 
 
 Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 150. 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 81, 116, 
 
 117, 119, 158, 159, 321, 324. 
 Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, 88. 
 Hancock, Dorothy Quincy, 404, 
 
 405, 406. 
 
 Hancock, John, 404, 405, 406. 
 Hancock, Mme. Lydia, 405. 
 Hart, Mrs. Tudor, 65, 69, 71. 
 Hay, Eliza Monroe, 197, 198. 
 Hayne, Colonel, 294, 295, 296. 
 Hazen, Charles Downer, 102. 
 Henry, Patrick, 338, 339. 
 Heyward, Thomas, 299. 
 Hillegas, Michael, 36. 
 Hodgkinson, Thomas, 146. 
 Hoffman, Matilda, 63, 64, 136, 
 
 137, 139. 
 Holladay, Alexander Quarles, 
 
 335. 
 Hone, Philip, 117, 144, 398, 419, 
 
 4^U. 
 Howe, Sir William, 4, 5, 9, 11, 
 
 29. 
 Huger, Francis Kinloch, 304, 
 
 305, 306. 
 
 Humphreys, Col., 79. 
 Huntington, Daniel, 87. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 18, 63, 65, 
 71, 72, 123, 136, 137, 139, 150, 
 184, 185, 252, 341, 342, 365, 
 378. 
 
 Izard, Ralph, 298, 307, 313. 
 
 Izard, Mrs. Ralph, 87. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 146, 201, 210, 
 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 
 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 
 223, 239, 240, 380, 381, 382, 
 383, 384, 393, 394. 
 
 Jackson, Mrs. Andrew, 213, 214. 
 215, 216, 217, 218, 219. 
 
 Jackson, Elizabeth Willing, 47. 
 
 Jackson, Major, 86. 
 
 Jackson, Stonewall, 377. 
 
 Jay, John, 82, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 
 
 100, 152. 
 
 Jay, Mrs. John, 82, 94, 95, 96, 
 
 97, 98, 99, 100, 101. 
 Jay, Peter Augustus, 99, 100, 
 
 101, 102, 103.
 
 436 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph, 23, 306. 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 54, 55, 56, 
 
 78, 157, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 
 
 173, 174, 175, 176, 179, 180, 
 
 181, 224, 339, 372, 373, 374, 
 
 375, 430, 431. 
 Jumel, Madame, 110, 111, 112, 
 
 113, 114, 115, 116, 117. 
 Jumel Mansion, 110, 112, 114, 
 
 115. 
 Jumel, Stephen, 110, 111, 112, 
 
 113, 114, 115. 
 Junot, Madame, 273. 
 
 Kean, Charles, 129. 
 Kean, Edmund, 26, 27. 
 Kemble, Charles, 27, 129, 251. 
 Kemble, Frances Anne, 27, 130, 
 
 251, 254, 398, 421, 422. 
 Kennedy, John P., 248, 256. 
 Kent, Duke of, 88. 
 Key, Francis Scott, 187, 284, 
 
 285, 286. 
 
 King, Charles, 224. 
 Knox, General Henry, 75, 362. 
 
 Lafayette, 95, 144, 145, 146, 193, 
 
 304, 305, 306, 355, 356, 407, 
 
 413, 416. 
 Lafayette, George Washington, 
 
 356. 
 
 L'Age, Natalie, 319. 
 Lamb, Charles, 315. 
 Langdon, Gov. John, 82, 401. 
 Lassy, Moreau de, 393. 
 Law, Anne Custis, 165. 
 Lear, Tobias, 81. 
 Le Camus, Alexander, 265, 269, 
 
 273. 
 
 Lee, Arthur, 351, 352. 
 Lee, General Robert E., 377. 
 Leland, Elder, 170, 171, 172. 
 L'Enfant, Pierre Charles, 157, 
 
 159. 
 
 Lewis, Lawrence, 364, 365. 
 Livingston, Edward, 393, 394. 
 Livingston, Mrs. Edward, 207, 
 
 221, 392, 393, 394. 
 Livingston, Robert R., 141, 142, 
 
 266. 
 
 Livingston, Mrs. Robert R., 87. 
 Livingston, Mrs. Walter, 87. 
 
 Lome'nie, Louis Leonard de, 349. 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 
 
 407, 411, 412, 413, 414. 
 Longfellow, Stephen, 410, 412. 
 Lyman, General Theodore, 420. 
 Louis Philippe, 107, 108, 356. 
 
 Maclay, William, 81, 82, 84, 85, 
 
 149. 
 
 Macready, William C., 129, 226. 
 Madison, James, 158, 178, 181, 
 
 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 
 
 189, 192, 196. 
 
 Madison, Mrs. James, 175, 176, 
 177, 178, 179, 181, 182, 183, 
 
 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 
 
 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 
 329. 
 
 Malbone, Edward Greene, 65, 
 
 417. 
 
 Malibran, Eugene, 130. 
 Malibran, Madame, 130. 
 Marshall, Chief Justice, 326, 
 
 342, 343. 
 
 Marshall, Emily, 417, 418. 
 Marshall, Josiah, 417. 
 Martin, Luther, 326. 
 Martineau, Harriet, 229, 231, 
 
 232, 425, 426, 430. 
 Mason, George, 339. 
 Mather, Cotton, 148. 
 Mathews, Charles, 25, 129, 132. 
 Mayo, Colonel John, 339, 340. 
 McClenachen, Blair, 57. 
 McHenry, Fort, 284, 285, 286. 
 McHenry, James, 363. 
 Mclvers, Mary, 86. 
 McKean, Chief Justice, 53. 
 McKean, Sally, 47. 
 McMaster, John Bach, 423, 430. 
 Michelet, Jules, 379. 
 Monroe, James, 196, 197, 198, 
 
 307. 
 Monroe, Mrs. James, 197, 198, 
 
 199, 200, 201. 
 Montagu, Lord Charles Gre- 
 
 ville, 292. 
 
 Montgomery, General, 3, 4. 
 Moore, Bishop, 100, 101. 
 Moore, Thomas, 179, 180. 
 Morris, Gouverneur, |107, 108, 
 
 163.
 
 INDEX 
 
 437 
 
 Morris, Robert, 46, 56, 81. 
 Morris, Mrs. Robert, 56, 57, 82, 
 
 94. 
 
 Morris, Roger, 110. 
 Moses, Rachel Gratz, 71. 
 Moultrie, General, 297, 310. 
 Mount Vernon, 89, 90, 360, 361, 
 
 364, 367, 403. 
 Murat, Achille, 291. 
 
 Newburyport, City of, 401, 402. 
 New Orleans, City of, 379-396. 
 New Rochelle, 155. 
 New York, City of, 73-155. 
 Noailles, Viscount de, 46. 
 Nuttall, Thomas, 62. 
 
 Orleans, Duke of, 88. 
 Otis, H. G., 419. 
 Overman, Anna, 337. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, 151, 152, 153, 
 
 154, 155, 180. 
 
 Pakenham, Sir Edward, 382. 
 Parkman, Dr. George, 422. 
 Parton, James, 213, 314, 320. 
 Patterson, Robert, 253. 
 Patterson, William, 260, 261, 
 
 263, 264, 266, 269, 271, 281. 
 Paulding, James Kirke, 150. 
 Payne, John Howard, 23, 151, 
 
 187, 188. 
 
 Peale, Anna C., 223. 
 Peale, Charles Wilson, 32. 
 Penn, Richard, 46, 56. 
 Philadelphia, City of, 1-72. 
 Philipse, Mary, 110. 
 Pidgin, Charles Felton, 328, 337. 
 Pierce, Anne Longfellow, 411. 
 Pinckney, General Charles 
 
 Cotesworth, 301, 304, 307. 
 Pitti Palace, 281. 
 Poe, David, 23. 
 Poe, Edgar Allan, 150, 286, 287, 
 
 288, 289, 290, 352, 353, 354. 
 Poe, Elizabeth Arnold, 22, 23. 
 Poinsett, Joel Roberts, 308, 309. 
 Pool, Bettie F., 335. 
 Pool, Dr. William C., 335, 336, 
 
 337. 
 Pope Pius VII, 276, 277, 282. 
 
 Porter, Sarah Harvey, 233, 234, 
 
 239. 
 Portland, 407, 408, 411, 413, 
 
 414. 
 
 Portsmouth, 401. 
 Potter, Rev. Alonzo, 420. 
 Preston, William C., 182, 183. 
 Priest, William, 31, 62. 
 
 Quincy, City of, 402, 403, 404, 
 
 405, 406, 420. 
 Quincy, President Josiah, 203, 
 
 417, 419. 
 Quincy, Josiah, 204, 205, 206, 
 
 207, 208, 212, 395, 415, 417. 
 Quincy, Josiah (on Charleston), 
 
 291, 292, 293, 307, 321, 417. 
 
 Randel, John, 154. 
 Randolph, Edmund, 153, 355. 
 Randolph, John, 354, 394. 
 Randolph, Martha Jefferson, 
 
 355. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, 355. 
 Randolph, Thomas Mann, 169, 
 
 355. 
 
 R6camier, Madame, 258. 
 Richmond, City of, 338-356. 
 Robards, Lewis, 215. 
 Robespierre, Maximilien Isidore 
 
 Frangois Marie, 105. 
 Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Duke 
 
 de, 37, 54, 302, 356, 357. 
 Rowson, Susanna Haswell, 120, 
 
 121 122 
 Royall, Anne, 232, 233, 234, 235, 
 
 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241. 
 Rutherfurd, Hon. John, 102. 
 Rutledge, Chief Justice, 299 . 
 
 Saffel, W. T. R., 261, 271. 
 Saxe-Weimar, Duke of, 384, 
 
 385, 390. 
 
 Scott, Maria Mayo, 340. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 63, 71. 
 Scott, General Winfield, 340. 
 Searle, John, 132. 
 Sears, Lorenzo, 406. 
 Seaton, Mrs. William Winston, 
 
 189, 190, 191, 192, 200, 226. 
 Shakespeare Tavern, 146. 
 Shiel, Richard Lalor, 253.
 
 438 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Shippen, Edward, 14, 28. 
 Simpson, Edmund, 128. 
 Smith, John Cotton, 160. 
 Smith, Samuel Harrison, 224. 
 Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, 
 
 172, 189, 192, 210, 229, 232. 
 Souder, Casper, 33. 
 Southwark Theatre, 20, 21, 22, 
 
 23 
 
 Spofford, Ainsworth R., 242. 
 Stael, Madame de, 280. 
 " Star Spangled Banner," 284, 
 
 286. 
 
 Stewart, Mrs. Walter, 57. 
 Stevens, Col. John, 142. 
 Stoker, Bram, 350. 
 Story, Judge, 203. 
 Stuart, Gilbert, 187. 
 Sully, Thomas, 65, 337. 
 Surriage, Agnes, 404. 
 
 Talleyrand-Pe'rigord, Charles 
 
 Maurice de, 54, 105, 106, 107, 
 
 266, 280, 321. 
 
 Talmadge, Col. Benjamin, 75. 
 Tammany Hall, 149, 150. 
 Tarbell, Ida, 240. 
 Tayloe, Colonel John, 188. 
 Temple, Charlotte, 119, 120, 
 
 121, 122. 
 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 
 
 375. 
 
 Tillett, Mrs. Joseph, 336, 337. 
 Todd, John Payne, 177. 
 Tracy, John, 402. 
 Trinity Church, 119, 121. 
 Trist, N. P., 223. 
 Trollope, Mrs. Frances, 31, 222, 
 
 244, 282, 284, 387, 389, 390, 
 
 423, 424, 425, 426. 
 Tudor, Mrs. William, 400. 
 
 United States Gazette, 49. 
 Upton, Robert, 126. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, 219. 
 Van Cleef, Augustus, 287. 
 Vane, Sir Harry, 403. 
 Van Rensselaer, Gratz, 72. 
 Vergennes, Count de, 349, 350. 
 
 Wadsworth, General Peleg, 408, 
 410, 411. 
 
 Walker, Alexander, 382. 
 
 Walnut Street Theatre, 25, 26. 
 
 Wansey, Henry, 48, 49, 103. 
 
 Ward, Maria, 354, 355. 
 
 Wamer, Charles Dudley, 389. 
 
 Warren, Mercy, 88. 
 
 Washington, City of, 156-242. 
 
 Washington, General George, 
 36, 40, 41, 46, 48, 49, 50, 75, 
 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 
 
 86, 90, 156, 159, 160, 299, 300, 
 356, 359, 361, 362, 363, 364, 
 365, 367, 370, 407. 
 
 Washington, Mrs. Fanny, 89. 
 Washington, Lund, 89. 
 Washington, Martha, 48, 49, 
 51, 57, 60, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 
 
 87, 88, 89, 178, 265, 359, 365. 
 Watson, Elkanah, 143, 146. 
 Watson, J. F., 28. 
 
 Wayne, General, 9. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 148, 205, 206, 
 
 252, 415, 416. 
 Weld, Isaac, 51. 
 West, Benjamin, 29, 141. 
 Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth, 
 
 102. 
 
 Wharton, Joseph, 6. 
 Wheaton, Henry, 148. 
 White, Mrs. Florida, 206, 207. 
 White, Richard Grant, 104. 
 Whitman, Elizabeth, 188. 
 Wilkea, John, 351. 
 Wilson, James Grant, 150. 
 Wilson, Rufus Rockwell, 105, 
 
 109. 
 
 Willing, Thomas, 43. 
 Wilmer, Delia Tudor, 65. 
 Wingate, Judge, 90. 
 Wistar, Dr. Caspar, 61, 62, 307. 
 Wolcott, Oliver, 163, 165, 363. 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 318, 320. 
 Woodberry, George Edward, 
 
 353 
 Wright, Fanny, 415, 429, 430. 
 
 Young, William, 63.
 
 Here is an author who can make history as fascinating as romance. 
 
 BOSTON TBA.NSCBITT. 
 
 OLD BOSTON DAYS 
 AND WAYS 
 
 By MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 
 
 With 60 full-page plates and 26 smaller illustrations in text 
 8vo. Cloth, gilt top in box, $2.50 net 
 
 The treatment is vivacious in the fluent style which has gained a 
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 passing claim to our attention. Boston Herald. 
 
 Rich mines of material have been investigated and drawn upon. 
 Letters and long extracts from diaries written in the early days of the 
 young republic, with their quaint expressions and intimate details, 
 enhance greatly the picture of that period. The book is full of quaint 
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 By the same author 
 
 ROMANTIC DAYS IN OLD BOSTON 
 
 With 120 illustrations from old views and portraits. Over 
 400 crown octavo pages. Cloth, in box, $2.50 net 
 
 Every lover of Boston will find something to interest him in the 
 book. . . . The publishers have given the volume an excellent appear- 
 ance, for the type is large and clear, and the pictures form a fine 
 gallery of portraits of people whom we all regret not knowing. Boston 
 Transcript. 
 
 With a large collection of illustrations made with extraordinary 
 judiciousness, the portraits showing the subjects at the most important 
 moments of their career. New York Times. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACOV STREET, BOSTON
 
 A book to enjoy, re-read and to linger over. DIAL, Chicago 
 
 GOETHE 
 AND HIS WOMAN FRIENDS 
 
 By MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 
 
 With nearly 100 illustrations. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
 gilt top, in box. $3.00 net 
 
 Will be a welcome addition to Goethe literature. Boston 
 Herald. 
 
 A lively and loyal tribute to the fascination of the illus* 
 trious Goethe. Westminster Gazette. 
 
 Provokes interest at the outset and its chapters are lively, 
 intelligent and human. London Daily News. 
 
 We put the book down with a sense that we have been in 
 very varied company and well amused. London Spectator. 
 
 A fascinating description of Goethe and the women he 
 knew. There is evidence in the book of wide reading and 
 of independent research. London Standard. 
 
 Miss Crawford's sympathy is keen, her interest is unflag- 
 ging and she is entitled to the distinction of being the first 
 woman to champion the poet. Nation, New York. 
 
 This book is welcome inasmuch as it will set its readers 
 once more exploring and canvassing the mind and personality 
 of Goethe. Miss Crawford has discharged her task well. 
 London Bookman. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACOX STREET, BOSTON
 
 3 1205 02644 3877 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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