USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historic homes in Washington : its noted men and women and a century in the White House > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
149
HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, AND CLEVELAND,
the "weather clerk" had made, and more anxious than ever that Inaugural Day should be changed. Despite the weather it was a grand and imposing procession. President Hayes and President-elect Garfield rode in an open barouche drawn by four horses.
The Senate Chamber and galleries had rapidly filled with a distinguished throng. The center of attraction was in the front seat in the gallery opposite the Vice- President's desk, where sat the mother of the President- elect with his wife and Mrs. Hayes.
The sweet-faced old lady who sat af the head of the seat drew the attention of the whole audience. Next to her was Mrs. Hayes, and at her right Mrs. Garfield. A running conversation was kept up among the three, in which old Mrs. Garfield, by her quaint and witty remarks, often provoked the others to laughter.
AN HISTORICAL SCENE.
The Senators were seated on the left side of the chamber. Among them were John Sherman, Roscoe Conkling, Don Cameron, John A. Logan, David Davis, all earnest lookers-on. Two veteran Senators sat near whose days in the Senate were numbered when the hands of the clock reached 12-Thurman and Hamlin. Hamlin sat with head bowed, a silent spectator to events, while the clock ticked away the remaining moments of his Senatorial career. Thurman sought solace in his snuff-box, and, with due reverence, took his parting pinch of Senatorial snuff. The historical bandanna was once more thrown to the breeze.
Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, came in, arm in arm with James G. Blaine. Gallant Phil Sheridan was heartily applauded when he walked in and took his seat beside Gen. Han cock.
The Diplomatic Corps, the Judges of Supreme Court, and the Cabinet appeared, soon followed by the President and the President-elect. Vice-President Arthur came last, and was presented to the Senate by Vice-President
150
HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
Wheeler. His appearance was dignified. His short speech was given in the quiet, manly, elegant way he had of doing all things. He took the oath of office and exactly at 12 o'clock the 16: Congress was adjourned sine die, the Senate clock having been turned back five minutes to accomplish it .. Mr. Bassett was often called upon to per- form this act during his 40 years of service, but the turn- ing back of the hands of time did not prevent his entering the season of the "sere and yellow leaf." From the brown- haired page he became the white-headed veteran.
The center of interest was at once transferred to the east front of the Capitol, where Mr. Garfield read his address, which was delivered with eloquence and in a forcible manner. At its close Chief Justice Waite administered the oath. After the congratulations of President Hayes and the Chief Justice, Mr. Garfield turned around and took his aged mother by the hand and kissed her, an act that made a great impression upon the audience, and many a heart rejoiced with her, who had watched her son from boyhood and poverty to manhood and the highest elevation in the gift of Americans. Mr. Garfield next kissed his wife, then shook the hand of Mrs. Hayes, and of all the others who came within his reach.
In the meantime the elements were more kind. The sun was shining brightly when the cavalcade returned, . and the festivities ended with a magnificent display of fireworks and the Inaugural ball in the Museum Building. Mrs. Eliza Garfield was the first President's mother who lived in the White House.
This is no place to follow the intricate thread of politics. Amid all the differences of opinion, President Garfield managed with success to appoint a Cabinet not antagonis- tic to any following.
James G. Blaine, of Maine, was Secretary of State; William Windom, of Minnesota, Secretary of the Treasury; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, Secretary of War; William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, Secretary of the Navy; S. J. Kirk- wood, of Iowa, Secretary of the Interior; Wayne Mcveigh, of Pennsylvania, Attorney-General; Thomas L. James, of New York, Postmaster-General
1
151
HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, AND CLEVELAND.
WVe turn the leaf of history which takes us into the valley and the shadow of our Nation's life. We would forget that such things have been, but the specter will not down.
ASSASSIN'S DEADLY WORK.
All the associations connected with President Garfield's brief Administration and life in the White House and its terrible ending are still fresh in the public mind as on that fateful morning when the fearful news ran through the streets of Washington, "The President is shot." He had barely grasped the reins of Government when the as- sassin's hand laid him low. His enemy was a man whose name is unworthy a place in history to be handed down to posterity; one which should fade from the memory of mankind and never pass the lips of mortal.
The world knows the end, and the world misses James A. Garfield. He occupied a place for which the people thought him fitted, and his Administration gave promise of good results. A nobler service awaited him, but, in the transition, Columbia's eyes were dimmed and her heart was left desolate.
· Chester A. Arthur took the oath of office immediately upon the death of President Garfield. The friends nearest to him know how his sensitive nature shrank from the great responsibility. They know, too, that during the days when the President's life hung in the balance, when the hopes of a vast and sensitive populace were swayed by every bulletin from the sick-chamber, the Vice-Presi- dent was battling with an illness brought upon him by over-anxiety, from which there was no abatement save on the days when brighter reports came from the President.
No President was ever called upon to take the guidance of the Ship of State under such trying circumstances; but President Arthur was not the man to falter when the hour of duty came. With manly courage and dignified pres- ence he gathered up the reins that had been dropped, and guided the affairs of State with skill and discretion.
152
1
HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
His first official duty was to issue a proclamation ap- pointing the day of Gen. Garfield's funeral a day of humiliation and mourning. President Arthur took the office under a cloud of distrust, dislike, and prejudice; but his methods of appointment and of policy were broad and expansive, and calculated for the good of all, without regard to obligations of a partisan character. Distrust was soon supplanted by confidence, and dissensions by united action; order was brought out of confusion, and the country was blessed by a pure and conservative Administration.
During the time that he presided as Chief Magistrate of the Nation the White House was the social center of the Capital. President Arthur never forgot his personal dignity and that he represented a Republic which was an object of interested scrutiny to the whole civilized world. His taste was for the graceful things of life, and he did much, with the aid of his sister, Mrs. John E. McElroy, to raise the tone of official society at Washington.
Mr. Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Hern- don, a daughter of Capt. Herndon, who perished on the ill-fated Central America. Mrs. Arthur, whose rare accomplishments endeared her to many, died suddenly in 1880, leaving two children, Nellie and Allen. Her por- trait, encased in a chaste Venetian frame, was always kept on a table in his private chamber, and each morning a vase of fresh flowers was placed beside it, a loving bene- diction from a wounded heart that never healed.
President Arthur's last official act gave to his Adminis- tration a noble end. He sent to the Senate a message bearing date March 4, 1885, nominating Ulysses S. Grant General on the Retired List of the Army, with full pay. The nomination was confirmed in open session amid the applause of the crowded galleries.
He left the White House with his health shattered, and died at his home on Lexington avenue, New York, in November, 1886.
Four Republican Presidents, who had filled the office with honor, had gone to their rest. Two of theso died a. violent death and were mourned by the whole world. A
153
HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, AND CLEVELAND.
third, who was so honored in his death as to be followed to his last resting place by an army of citizens and soldiers, so lived as to receive honors throughout the civilized world such as no other man has received.
President Arthur, whose honored name is added to this roll, stands alone as being the one especial Vice-President in the history of the Republic who, having succeeded to the Presidency, did not disappoint those by whom he was elected; but, like every other, he failed to secure an elec- tion to the office he had filled. Accident gave him rank, but honored reputation he won, and his countrymen will say of him that he served them with rare fidelity.
ADVENT OF A MAN LITTLE KNOWN.
The 22d quadrennial change of the political forces of the United States brought to the Presidential chair a man comparatively unknown in National affairs. The County of Erie, in the State of New York, made him its Sheriff; the municipality of Buffalo made him its Mavor; the Commonwealth of New York made him its Governor, and the United States made him their Presi- dent.
His Private Secretary, Daniel Scott Lamont, was man whose integrity and loyalty have never been ques-' tioned. He held a position during the four years of Mr. Cleveland's first Administration very near to the person of the President. He was a man of quick perceptions, was prompt in action, and a safe adviser. It is said that since Tobias Lear was Secretary to George Washington., no other man was so completely a part of the official and unofficial life of the President as Daniel Lamont.
Grover Cleveland was first inaugurated President March 4, 1885. It was during this Administration, in 1886, that an enactment of Congress was passed regu- lating the Presidential succession, by precedence, of the members of the Cabinet. This rule repealed the old law by which the President pro tem. of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives came in the line
154
HISTORIC HOMES LY WASHINGTON.
of the Presidency in case of the death, resignation, re- moval or inability of both the President and Vice-Presi- dent of the United States. The new law substituted for the line of succession the Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, the Attorney-General, the Postmaster-General, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Interior. They therefore rank accordingly in the Administration in its ceremonial and social affairs.
President Cleveland chose for his premier Thomas Francis Bayard, of Delaware. Mr. Bayard was 16 years Senator of the United States. His home in Washington during these years was the center of a refined and culti- vated society. For more than 40 years some member of the Bayard family had served in the United States Senate.
The most noticeable figure in Mr: Cleveland's Cabinet was, perhaps, Daniel Manning; and probably his retire- ment, from impaired health, was one of the saddest ex- periences that came to the President during his Adminis- tration, for his absence withdrew from the President the counsel and advice of a devoted friend. Mr. Manning was succeeded by Assistant Secretary Charles Stebbins Fairchild, which was a recognition of his services per- formed in the office for more than a year. Mrs. Fairchild was the first lady of the Cabinet after the sad death of Mrs. Bayard. She carried the honors with dignity and grace. She was a niece of Horatio Seymour, of New York.
Mrs. Manning was a descendant of Chancellor Livings- ton, who administered the oath of office to President Washington. During her two years' residence in Wash- ington she made many warm friends. She was a woman of captivating grace, and carried with her much of the charm of the women of the halcyon days of the Washing- ton regime. When she took her departure she carried with her the regrets of Washington society, official and otherwise.
Mr. William Crowninshield Endicott was Mr. Cleve- land's Secretary of War. His wife was Miss Ellen Pea- body, daughter of George Peabody, of Salem, Mass. Mr. Endicott's mother was the niece of Jacob Crowninshield,
a
-
155
HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, AND CLEVELAND.
President Jefferson's Secretary of the Navy. Their daughter, Mary C. Endicott, married Hon. Joseph Cham- berlain, of England, during the time that their father held the portfolio of War.
The appointment to the Attorney-Generalship by Presi- dent Cleveland of the Hon. Augustus H. Garland was the cause of some adverse criticism by Mr. Cleveland's friends. He was a Tennesseean by birth but an Arkansan by adoption. He helped to pass the ordinance of secession of his State in 1861, and to make laws for the Confederacy. He was refused a seat in the Senate in 1867, but was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1874 and sent to the Senate in 1876 and 1883. He was thought to be one of the most progressive of the Southern Democratic Senators. He advocated accepting the results of the war between the North and the South, and undoubtedly President Cleve- land's idea was to meet such a sentiment half way.
William Freeman Vilas, of Wisconsin, was Postmaster- General. He served under Grant during the war, and was a great admirer of the old hero. Mrs. Vilas was the daughter of Dr. Fox, an eminent physician of Milwaukee. Until her health became precarious, their home was made very attractive to the social world.
The Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney, was the wealthy man of the Cabinet, and entertained with a royal hand. He is a man of princely generosity where charities are deserving. He made hosts of friends in and out of his Department. He was the active manager of the Democratic campaign in New York in 1884.
Mrs. Flora Payne Whitney, daughter of the millionaire Senator from Ohio, and one of the leaders in the Standard Oil monopoly, was a charming hostess. She presided over the household entertainments in a manner becoming her position. In the dispensing of kindly charities her hand was not withheld, and her womanly virtues found ready recognition. The departure of the Whitney family from Washington was deeply regretted by the friends they : had made, not alone among those of high degree, but among the poor and lowly, which is praise indeed. Mrs. Whitney's untimely and sudden death from an affection
-
156
HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
of the heart not long after her retirement to private life was the occasion of universal regret among those who had known her in the zenith of her social glory at the National Capital.
Lucius Quintus Curtius Lamar, Secretary of the In- terior, was an old time Southern statesman. At the time he was made a member of this Cabinet he was a widower. He was a conspicuous member of Congress in Buchanan's time, and helped to take the Southern States out of the Union. He was a seceder and soldier of the rebellion, and a member of Congress in the solidified Union in 1873; a Senator in 1877, until Mr. Cleveland called him into his Cabinet, and before the end of his pro- motion drew to a close, he was asked by the President to go up higher, and was appointed one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. As his name might indicate, his career has covered varied lines in and out of the country.
President Cleveland entered upon his official and social duties a bachelor. His sister, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, for a time dispensed the hospitalities of the White House with becoming dignity. Somehow politics and state craft became entangled with the thread of Hymen, and a wedding in the White House was the result. His mar- riage to Miss Frances Folsom occurred on the 2d of June, 1886, in the Red Room of the Executive Mansion.
The wife of the President, or the one who presides at his household, holds the same relation to the social struc- ture as the President does to the body politic. He is su- preme in rank as the President, and she ranks above all others in the social world. Therefore she is not expected to return calls. She may hold receptions, open to all, and can make appointments for informal visits from strangers in the city. She receives the first visit from every one. and is not expected to return either, though she is at liberty to do so if she desires.
Mrs. Cleveland won admiration for the discretion shown in all social, informal, or ceremonial relations which the duties of First Lady of the Land made incum- bent upon her.
.. .
CHAPTER XIV.
BENJAMIN HARRISON, PRESIDENT.
REMARKABLE WOMEN HAVE FILLED THE WHITE HOUSE-WHAT WONDERS HAVE THE YEARS WROUGHT-MRS. ADAMS LOST IN THE WOODS-MRS. HARRISON FOUND A CITY FAIR TO LOOK UPON-MRS. MCKEE AND HER CHILDREN-THE WHITE HOUSE A HIGH SOCIAL CENTER-JAMES G. BLAINE, SECRETARY OF STATE-THE FIRST INCUMBENT, THOMAS JEFFERSON-WIL- LIAM WINDOM, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY-ALEXANDER HAMILTON FIRST HELD THIS OFFICE-REDFILD PROCTOR, SECRETARY OF WAR-BENJAMIN TRACY, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY-JOHN WANAMAKER, POSTMASTER GENERAL-JOHN W. NOBLE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR-WILLIAM HENRY HAR- RISON MILLER, ATTORNEY-GENERAL-JEREMIAH M. RUSK, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE-THE CABINET CENTENNIAL YEAR-PRESIDENT HARRISON AS HE IS TO HIS PEOPLE.
In looking back upon the wives of the Presidents the verdict must be that, with few exceptions, they have been women of remarkable intelligence and rare qualities. But what wondrous changes have been witnessed since the rine began! Mrs. Adams, on her troublous way to the Capital, was lost in the woods between Baltimore andWashington; Mrs. Benjamin Harrison was brought triumphantly over rivers and mountains and whirled into the Capital City surrounded by the luxuries of a palace car.
Mrs. Adams in 1800 found "here and there a small cot without a glass window," interspersed in the forests; in the city a few buildings amid bogs and morasses. "The White House," she wrote, "is upon a grand and superb scale, but not a single apartment finished." Mrs. Harri- son found a city fair to look upon; the "grand and superb" house dim with age, and the people clamoring for a home worthy the Chief Executive.
Mrs. Adams found the lighting of the apartments a "tax indeed," when wax tapers and tallow dips were the illuminating power; and thus it came that one servant was provided for this position by the powers that in those days footed all the household bills, from dish-towels to gold spoons.
(157)
158
HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON,
Mrs. Adams said in 1800, "bells were wholly wanting; so great an inconvenience, I do not know what to do." In 1889 Mrs. Harrison had but to touch a button to put her into communication with the remotest corner of the house. Did not little Benjamin, when alone one day in his grand- father's office, climb to his table, and by a touch here and there with his baby hand set the whole force of secretaries clerks and messengers on a chase to do his majesty's bidding?
And, too, Mrs. Adams was distressed for wood. She "could not even see wood for the trees," it all having been burnt up by Briesler to dry the walls of the house before their coming; and so she had to "shiver, shiver; no wood- cutters and no carters."
As we come along down the line of fair and stately women who have lived under this roof, we find many names whose influence over the rulers of the Nation has given to posterity a spotless and heroic memory; and we have still another to add to the line of the ladies of the White House. Caroline Scott Harrison honored her station by her rare qualities of mind and heart more than it could honor her. Born and reared in an atmosphere of justice, truth and intelligence, she not only ornamented the White House, but honored American womanhood. With her family around her, with her daughter, Mrs. McKee, and the grandchildren, who touched the Nation's heart, a sweet domestic picture was presented.
Dr. Scott, the father of Mrs. Harrison, and Mrs. Scott Lord, the sister, made a marked feature in the social and the home life of the White House. The venerable father was not only the object of devotion to his daughters, but he enjoyed the respect of hosts of friends.
From the days of Abigail Adams to the present, the cares and responsibilities resting upon the presiding lady of the White House had increased in geometrical pro- gression, until the position was far from being a flowery bed of ease.
By the people the President's wife is thought of as the ·social leader and queen of the drawing-room. The prac- tical side of life hardly enters the popular mind, but especi-
1
159
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
ally is the practical side dominant in a character like Mrs. Harrison's. Mrs. Harrison was a devoted wife, mother, and model housekeeper. To this affectionate domestic life was added a fine culture and high intellectual quality, as well as a marked artistic ability, for Mrs. Harrison's talent in painting was well-known.
President Harrison knew the wishes of the people when he asked James G. Blaine to accept the portfolio of State. He knew that friends would hold up his hands and the opposition would fear his decision. From the first in- cumbent, Thomas Jefferson, to the present, no man of greater ability has filled this office.
Mr. Harrison's chosen Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. William Windom, was another appointment that did him credit. Alexander Hamilton, the first man to hold the office, who entered it when there was not money enough in the Treasury to meet current expenses, to say nothing of paying a debt of tens of millions, yet saved the National credit against mighty odds; his first official act being to recommend that the domestic and foreign war debt should be paid dollar for dollar. In his supreme sagacity he put forth those great state papers on finance, whose embodi- ment into laws fixed the duties on all foreign productions and taxed with judgment the necessities and luxuries of life.
He established a system that has met all exigencies, saved the National credit, paid the National war debt of the Revolution and of 1812; and in the war of the rebellion, when the expenses of a day were more than a year's in- come in Hamilton's time, this policy met all demands. The National credit was maintained, the country was prosperous, and the United States Treasury vaults full to overflowing.
It is said that it takes more wisdom to keep money and judiciously handle it, than it does to make it. Therefore President Harrison chose wisely when he placed William Windom at the head of the financial Department.
In the centennial year of Cabinet organization it spoke well for the leaders of the Republic that there was no sign of going backward. Since 1789, when one of New
160
HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
England's bravest Generals, Henry Knox, came into possession of the first portfolio of the Secretary of War, all along the century's line of war ministers we find brave men. Monroe, of Virginia; Crawford, of Georgia; Calhoun, of South Carolina; Marcy, of New York; Cam- eron and Stanton, of Pennsylvania; Grant, of Illinois- all, have been eminent chieftains whose valor has been proved in times of need.
In times of peace there is no cessation of this work. The Regular Army is the skeleton upon which, in times of war, the forces of the Republic form. The President chose his councillor from the clear atmosphere of the New England hills, where, just a hundred years ago, George Washington went for Henry Knox to occupy the post taken by Secretary Proctor.
The Department of the Navy was first an auxiliary of the Army, but in 1789 became a full-fledged Department, and its head honored by a seat at the Cabinet table, filled by Benjamin Stoddard, of Maryland. Superior men have been called from civil life to represent this Depart- ment; among them may be named Crowinshield and George Bancroft, of Massachusetts; John Branch and Wm. A. Graham, of North Carolina; Levi Woodbury and Wm. E. Chandler, of New Hampshire; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut; Wm. C. Whitney, and, lastly, President Harrison's choice. The President gave a careful look ahead when he made Benjamin F. Tracy Secretary of the Navy.
The British Parliament in 1710, in the reign of Queen Anne, established a general postoffice for her Majesty's Dominions. By this act one chief letter-office was estab- lished in New York, and others at convenient places in her Majesty's Provinces in America. These postal facilities were preserved as far as possible when the yoke of allegi- ance to the Crown was thrown off. Benjamin Franklin was appointed General Deputy Postmaster of the Colonie's in 1753. Two years from this time he gave notice that the mail to New England, which formerly started once a fortnight in Winter, should start once a week all the year, whereby answers to letters might be obtained between
BENJAMIN HARRISON. . 161
Philadelphia and Boston once in three weeks, which used to require six weeks.
Samuel Osgood was the first Postmaster-General under the Federal Government, at a salary of $1,500 per annum. His appointment dates to 1789. Not until President Jackson's Administration, 1829, was the Postmaster- General recognized as an ex-officio Cabinet Minister. Among America's distinguished sons who have been honored by appointments as heads of this office were Amos Kendall, Jos. Holt, Horatio King, Montgomery Blair, and John A. J. Creswell; powerful men when the country needed giant help.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.