USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historic homes in Washington : its noted men and women and a century in the White House > Part 4
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"There appeared to be but two really comfortable habi- tations within the bounds of the city, one of which be- longed to Dudley Carroll, Esq., and the other to Notley Young.
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"The roads in every direction were muddy and unim- proved. A sidewalk was attempted in one instance by a covering formed of the chips of the stones which had been hewn for the Capitol. It extended but a little way and was of little value; for in dry weather the sharp pavement cut out shoes, and in wet weather covered them with white mortar. In short, it was a new settlement."
CHRISTENING OF WASHINGTON.
On the 22d of November, with the Houses of Congress in joint session, Th mas Jefferson presiding, President Adams made the annual address, fr m which period it was considered that the National Capital was christ ned, and that for all time it would remain in the City of Wash- ington.
The accommodations of the District at that time were so meager that it was with great difficulty that members of Congress obtained any of the conveniences that they had enjoyed in New York and Philadelphia.
The friends of the District expected speedy growth of the city, and that the public buildings would arise like Aladdin's palace; but the sequel has shown that not until the regime of that age had passed away did Washington become the pride of the Nation.
Among the houses projected by the builders of this great Capital was the President's residence, now familiar- ly known all over the wor das he "White House."
Wash ngton, himself, officiated1 at the Masonic laying of the corner-stone, but never I wd it; yet under his eye the structure rose in form and co __ eliness, and he had the . satisfaction of walking through it, with his wife, a few weeks before his death.
It is a grand edifice, fashioned after the palace of the Duke of Leinster, in Dublin, by the famous architect, Hoban. It is most delightfully situated on the 20-acre reservation known as the President's Grounds, fronting on Pennsylvania Avenue, and running back to the Poto- mas River very near the Davy Burns Cottage. In fact, it is a part of the disputed fields and possessions of that
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tenacious old Scotchman. The grounds are now beauti- fully cultivated. The house is built in the Grecian style of architecture, having on the north side a grand portico supported by Ionic columns and a semi-circular colon- nade on the south. "Spacious corridors, grand salons, lofty ceilings, state and private dining-rooms, library and living-rooms, do credit to the ability of Hoban, and should be the admiration of every American.
When President and Mrs. Adams arrived here, in 1800, they found everything connected with the establishment in a deplorable condition, which she has described so minutely in a letter to her daughter, that it is given here to show some of the difficulties that surrounded them.
MRS. ADAMS'S LETTER.
"WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 1800
"MY DEAR CHILD:
"I arrived here on Sunday last, and without meeting with any accident worth mentioning, except losing our- selves when we left Baltimore, and going eight or nine miles on the Frederick road, by which means we were obliged to go the other eight through woods, where we wandered two hours without finding a guide, or a path; fortunately, a straggling black came up with us, and we engaged him as a guide to extricate us from our difficulty. But woods are all you see from Baltimore until you reach the city, which is only so in name.
"Here and there is a small cot without a glass window, ·interspersed among the forests, through which you travel miles without seeing any human being. In the city 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 com- fort in them. The river which runs up to Alexandria is in full view from my window, and I see the vessels as they pass and repass. The house is upon a grand and superb scale, requiring about 30 servants to attend and keep the apartments in proper order. and perform the ordinary .
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business of the home and stables; an establishment very well proportioned to the Presidential salary.
"The lighting of the apartments, from the kitchen to the parlors and chambers, is a tax indeed; and the fires we are obliged to keep to secure us from daily agues is another very cheering comfort.
"To assist us in this great castle, and render less attend- ance 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 inconvenience that I do not know what to do or how to do.
"The ladies in Georgetown, and in the city, have, many of them, visited me. Yesterday I returned 15 visits; but such a place as Georgetown appears! why, our Milton is beautiful-but no comparisons. 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 anywhere for three months; but surrounded by forests, would you believe that wood is not to be had, because people cannot be found to cut and cart it? Breisler entered into a con- tract with a man to supply him with wood. A small part -a few cords only-has he been able to get. Most of that was expended to dry the walls of the house before . we came'in, and yesterday the man told him it was im- possible to procure it cut and carted for him. He has recourse io coals, but we cannot get grates made and set. We have, indeed, come into a new country.
"You must keep this all to yourself, and when asked how I like it, say that I write you that the situation is beautiful, which is true.
"The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished; and all inside, except the plastering, has been done since Breisler came. We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience without, and the great unfinished audience-room I make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The principal stairs are not yet up, and will not be this Winter. Six chambers are made comfortable. Two are occupied by the Presi- dent and Mr. Shaw, two lower rooms, one for a common parlor, one for a levee-room. Upstairs, there is the oval
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room, which is designed for the drawing-room, and has the crimson furniture in it. It is very handsome now, but when completed it will be beautiful.
"If the 12 years in which this place has been considered as the future seat of Government had been improved, as they would- have been if in New England, very many of the inconveniences would have been removed.
"It is a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement, and the more I view it, the more I am delighted with it.
"Since I.sat down to write, I have been called down to a servant from Mount Vernon, with a billet from Maj. Custis, and a haunch of venison, and a kind congratula- tory letter from Mrs. Lewis, upon my arrival in the city, with Mrs. Washington's love, inviting me to Mount Ver- non. When health permitting, I will go before leaving this place.
"Two articles we are much distressed for; the one is bells, but the more important is wood; yet you cannot see wood for trees. No arrangement has been made, but by promises never performed, to supply the newcomers with fuel. Of promises Breisler has received his full share.
"He has procured several cords of wood, but six or seven of that was kindly burnt up to dry the walls of the house, which ought to have been done by the Commissioners, but which, if left to them, would have remained undone to this day. Congress poured in; but, shiver! shiver! no wood-cutters nor carters to be had at any rate.
"We are now indebted to a Philadelphia wagon for bring- ing us, through the first clerk in the Treasurer's office, one cord and a half of wood, which is all we have for this house, where 12 fires are constantly required, and we are told the roads will soon be so bad that it cannot be drawn.
"Breisler procured 200 bushels of coal, or we must have suffered. This is the situation of almost every person. The public officers have sent to Philadelphia for wood- cutters and wagons. The vessel which had my clothes and other materials has not arrived. The ladies are impatient for a drawing-room. I have no looking-glasses but dwarfs for this house; not a twentieth part lamps enough to.light it. Many things were stolen, many were
1.
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broken by the removal. Amongst the number my tea china is more than half missing. Georgetown affords nothing. My rooms are very pleasant and warm whilst the doors of the halls are closed.
"You can scarce believe that here in this wilderness I should find myself so occupied as I do. My visitors, some of them, come three and four miles; the return of one of them is the work of a day. Most of these ladies reside in Georgetown, or in scattered parts of the city, at two and three miles distant."
Mrs. Adams had an opportunity to display her remark- able executive ability and consummate tact, to get the mansion in condition to hold the first levee, Jan. 1, 1801.
The oval room, on the second floor, was connected with a drawing-room, and the sparse furniture so deftly ar- ranged that none but the initiated knew of the planning and anxious hours spent over the affair.
Washington having been driven to the establishment of levees while President, when the seat of Government was in New York City, they were continued in Philadel- phia and could not be dispensed with in the new Capital, notwithstanding the impracticability of such ceremoni- ous affairs, with the President's House unfinished and everything in chaos.
Mrs. Adams was the daughter of a New England minister, and as the wife of Mr. Adams when he was struggling up the ladder of prosperity and fame had been thoroughly disciplined in experiences; hence we find her successfully conducting the levees, presiding at dinners, and on all occasions of ceremony required by the imperative rules of etiquet then in vogue, returning calls, receiving visitors, and at the same time fully con- versant with the affairs of state which absorbed her con- scientious husband. It is not astonishing that such a parentage should have produced a son who succeeded his father as Chief Magistrate of the Nation. Her talent and refinement were innate. She never attended school, , nor had any of the opportunities that the young people of modern times enjoy.
. Mary, her elder sister, married Richard Cranch, an
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Englishman, who had settled near their home, and who was subsequently made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Massachusetts. He was father of the late Wil- liam Cranch, of Washington, who presided so long and with such dignity over the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia.
There is a story that when the eldest daughter was married, Mr. Smith preached a sermon to his people from the text: "And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her."
ABIGAIL'S MARRIAGE.
Two years later, his second daughter, Abigail, was about to marry John Adams, then a lawyer in good prac- tice. Some of the parishioners manifested disapproba- tion; for the profession of the law, for a long time in the Colonial history of Massachusetts, was hardly thought to be an honest calling; besides, the family of Mr. Adams was not thought to be on an equal footing with that of the minister. His father was a small farmer near Bain- bridge, hence the match was not considered good enough for the minister's daughter. It was said that Mr. Smith once asked Abigail: "Who is this young Adams, and what does he expect to do?"
She replied: "I know who he is. I do not know what he is going to do, but I do know who it is that is going with him, wherever he goes."
It is quite probable that the objections of his parishioners reached Mr. Smith's ears, for it is said that soon after the marriage took place, he replied to them, in a sermon from the text, Luke, 7:33: "For John came neither eating bread, nor drinking wine; and ye say, he hath a devil."
But nothing daunted, Abigail Adams went on, from the day of her marriage to the day of her death, with well balanced judgment and cheerfulness of soul, brightening her husband's pathway.
It matters not where we find her; whether at her own fireside, with her family around her, at Quincy; or when called upon to separate from husband and son, to let them
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cross the seas, leaving the hearthstone desolate; or sitting upon Penn's Hill listening to the roar of cannon; or in her letters to Jefferson and other statesmen; or standing before George the Third and the haughty Queen Char- lotte, as representative of the first Republican Court; or presiding in the President's House as First Lady of this glorious Republic, Abigail Adams was always the tender mother, the inspiration of her husband, the grand example, the regnant woman.
Her letter to her husband on learning of his election to the Presidency is a model of deep piety and wifely devotion:
"You have this day to declare yourself head of a Nation. And now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people, give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and bad! 'For who is able to judge this, thy so great a people,' were the words of a royal sovereign, and not less appli- cable to him who is invested with the Chief Majestry of a Nation, though he wears not a crown and the robes of royalty. My thought and meditations are with you, though personally absent, and my petitions to heaven are that the things that make for you peace may not be hid- den from your eyes. My feelings are not those of osten- tation upon the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important trusts and numer- ous duties connected with it.
"That you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily prayer of Yours, . "A. A."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Adams, though very quiet in their tastes, conformed to the customs of the times, both in dress and in style of entertainment. The President ap- peared always at state dinners and levees in a richly em- broidered coat, silk stockings, huge silver buckles on his shoes, and powdered wig.
Their career in the Executive Mansion was characterized by many brilliant entertainments and genuine hospitality.
CHAPTER V
THE WHITE HOUSE DURING THE JEFFERSON AND MADISON ADMINISTRATIONS.
THE WIFE AND DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT JEFFERSON-THEIR LIFE IN EUROPE-MRS. ADAMS AND MARY IN LONDON-LETTER OF MRS. ADAMS TO MRS. CRANCH-HER FONDNESS FOR MARY. MARY'S GRIEF AT PARTING -- A BEAUTIFUL GIRL-MR. JEFFER- SON LEAVES EUROPE-MARIE'S MARRIAGE TO MR. RANDOLPH. MARY'S TO MR. EPPES-EVERYTHING CRUDE IN THE WHITE HOUSE-JEFFERSONIAN SIMPLICITY-A HORSEBACK RIDE TO THE CAPITOL-JACK EPPES'S SIXTEEN HUNDRED DOLLAR FOUR-IN-HAND-SLUSH KING AND MUD MONARCH-KNEE BREECHES, BUCKLED SHOES, RUFFLED WRISTBANDS-PRIEST AND DEMOCRAT-JEFFERSON'S AVERSION TO POMP-FRENCH INFLUENCE-"LEVEES DONE AWAY"-"OVERLAND TRAVEL." THE FIRST CHILD BORN IN THE WHITE HOUSE-MRS. MADISON ASSISTS MR. JEFFERSON-JEFFERSON'S CANON OF ETIQUET. MR. ADAMS AND MR. JEFFERSON ESTRANGED-HAMILTON AND BURR-MRS. ADAMS WRITES MR. JEFFERSON-MR. ADAMS AND MR. JEFFERSON DIE JULY 4, 1826-THE CAPITAL A WIL- DERNESS-PARTY STRIFE RAN HIGH-OIL ON THE TROUBLED SEA OF POLITICS-THE "PIPING TIMES OF PEACE" ONLY HOV- ERED OVER THE NATION-NAPOLEON'S FRIENDSHIP/ A PRE TENSE-A STROKE AT AMERICA'S COMMERCE-READY TO SHATTER HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD-PERSONAL AMBITION-JOSE- PHINE BROKENHEARTED-NAPOLEON AT ELBA-LOUIS XVIII. ON THE THRONE-FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS. MADISON DECLARES WAR-THE BRITISH ENTER WASHINGTON. MRS. MADISON AT HER BEST-HER GREAT TRIUMPH-HER LETTER TO HER SISTER-READY TO FLEE-SAVES WASHING- TON'S PORTRAIT AND THE STATE PAPERS-SHE LEAVES THE HOUSE-ESCAPES TO VIRGINIA-THE DINNER PARTY A CANARD-THE WHITE HOUSE IN ASHES-THE "OCTAGON" THEIR HOME-FRENCH TREATY SIGNED THERE-GRAND LEVEE IN 1816-RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE-SLEEPS AT MONTPELIER.
* "Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, entered the White House March 4, 1801. His wife had died 19 years before, leaving two daughters, who grew to womanhood. During Mr. Jefferson's stay in
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Europe these daughters were with him. Marie went with him in 1784, and resided in a convent during ler father's stay. In 1787 Mary, who was but eight years of age, reached London in care of a maid. Mrs. Adams received her, and thus writes of her to her sister, Mrs. Cranch, at hor e.
"I have had with me for a fortnight a little daughter of Mr. Jefferson's, who arrived here with a young negro girl, servant, from Virginia. Mr. Jefferson wrote me some months ago that he expected them, and desired me to receive them. I did so, and was amply rewarded for my trouble. A finer child of her age I never saw; so ma- ture an understanding, so womanly a behavior, and so much sensibility united, are rarely to be met with.
"I grew so fond of her and she was so attached to me, that when Mr. Jefferson sent for her, they were obliged to force the little creature away.
"She is but eight years old. She would sit sometimes and describe to me the parting with her aunt, who brought her up, the obligations she was under to her, and the love she had for her little cousins, till the tears would run streams down her cheeks; and how I had been her friend, and she loved me; her people would break her heart by making her go again. She clung around me, so that I could not help shedding tears at parting with her. She was the favorite of every one in the house. I regret that such fine spirits must be spent in the walls of a convent. She is a beautiful girl, too."
Mr. Jefferson left Europe with his daughter in 1789. Marie married Thomas Maine Randolph, jr., and Mary married Mr. Eppes, of Virginia.
When Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated President of the United States, Marie was living at her husband's country home near Monticello; Mary was happily situated at Monticello.
We have seen how crude everything was connected with the White House during Mr. Adams's Administra- tion; and how sorely taxed was Mrs. Adams, with her superior tact and economic experience, to sustain the official grandeur expected in the President's House. It
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could hardly be expected that Mr. Jefferson, as the candi- date of the Anti-Federalists, and without a wife, could effect much change in the domestic or social administra- tion of the Executive Mansion.
Much has been written and more been rung upon the ears of the public of "Jeffersonian simplicity." We read of his mounting his horse and riding to the Capitol to take the oath and deliver his Inaugural address; but we hear very little of Jack Eppes having been sent to Virginia to purchase a four-in-hand, for which he paid $1,600, not reaching the Capital in time for the ceremony; and of the dilemma for a time to know how Mr. Jefferson was to get to the Capital, for in the Spring slush was king and mud monarch on Pennsylvania avenue. We hear, too, of his simplicity in dress, appearing in "blue coat, brass buttons, blue pantaloons, and coarse shoes tied with leather shoe- strings," rather than the knee-breeches and big buckled low-cut shoes then in vogue; but we have pictures of him in knee-breeches, buckled shoes, ruffled wristbands, etc., and if "apparel oft proclaims the man," his pictures repre- sent one of quite a different type from the one first de- scribed.
The public has also been informed that when the Fed- eralists fell from power the age of politeness passed away. Peter Parley Goodrich lamented the decline of the good old custom of youngsters giving respectful salutations" to their elders in passing. "It was at this period," he tells us, "that the well-executed bow subsided first into a vulgar nod, half-ashamed and half-impudent, and then, like the pendulum of a clock, totally ceased." He adds, "When Jefferson came in, rudeness and irreverence were deemed the true mode for Democrats," a statement which he illus- trates by one of his anecdotes.
"How are you, priest?" said a rough fellow to a clergy- man.
"How are you, Democrat?" was the clergyman's retort.
"How do you know I am a Democrat?" asked the man.
"How do you know I am a priest?" asked the clergyman.
"I know you to be a priest by your dress," answered the man.
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"I know you to be a Democrat by. your address," replied the parson.
Parton says he is afraid it is true, and he fears much of the superior breeding of the gentlemen of the "old school," of which we are so frequently reminded, was a thing of bows and ceremonies which expressed the homage claimed by rank, instead of that friendly consideration due from man to man.
Mr. Jefferson had spent so much time with Mr. and Mrs. Adams during their incumbency of the Executive Man- sion, both in Philadelphia and after their occupancy of the White House, that he had little to learn in the line of etiquet or domestic administration when called to succeed Mr. Adams as President. His political hobby of equality, however, led him to express great aversion for the "Re- publican Court," and the pomp attending the copy of royalty in matters of State and social intercourse. How much credit or discredit is due France for the molding of Jefferson's character, will always remain an enigma. That his long residence there was historically important, all will agree. That he brought back with him a policy which at once entered into the formation of the character of this new Nation, is well known. How much this in- fluence' has affected the body politic of this Nation will never be known; or what the difference would have been if, in the distribution of offices in 1784, Congress had sent Jefferson to London instead of Paris, and appointed John Adams to Paris instead of London.
As soon as Mr. Jefferson was in the White House, he announced that "Levees are done away." Everybody was welcome, and his desire was that every one should , feel at home. The President's House was the seat of hospitality.
Mrs. Randolph and Mrs. Eppes alternated in the honors of presiding; but with their own large families, and the difficulties attending a journey from Monticello to Wash- ington, in those days of "overland" traveling by one's own conveyance, or the slow coaches, or on horseback, made it a matter of great effort for them to be in constant attend- ance. MIrs. Randolph was unable to make more than
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two visits during her father's terms. On one of these her son was born, James Madison Randolph being the first child born in the White House. She was a lovely woman with rare accomplishments.
Fortunately for Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison was his Secretary of State, and Mrs. Madison and her sister, Miss Payne (afterwards Mrs. Cutts) were ever ready to assist Mr. Jefferson in matters of etiquet and entertainment.
The many little notes addressed to Mrs. Madison by Mr. Jefferson, show how much he depended upon her "to take care of female friends expected," and other social matters.
As much as Mr. Jefferson desired to ignore the question of ceremony, he was obliged to pay attention to official affairs of this kind, and therefore we have to-day a canon of etiquet formulated by him.
It was a very democratic arrangement of matters of State, socially, and one the family of the President to-day could hardly fulfill. One feature was the time on which calls at the Executive Mansion should be returned.
Many additions in the way of furnishing were made to the White House during Jefferson's Administrations; because, while professionally very unpretentious, Mr. Jefferson had dallied long enough at the French Court in the profligate age of Napoleon, to acquire a taste for the elegancies of Parisian society, and he therefore gradually drifted into much more pretentious surroundings toward the close of his life in the White House than he promised in the beginning.
The affairs of state did not always sit lightly. Partisan feeling ran high. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson had be- come estranged personally and politically; but it is be- lieved that the men foremost in the country's service had the country's good at heart, however much they might differ as to the means to be employed to bring it about.
The code duello had taken away the great Hamilton. Aaron Burr, after killing this matchless statesman, was tried for treason. Death entered the family circle and bore away the President's daughter Mary, who, though at the White House but little, was much to her father. It
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JEFFERSON AND MADISON ADMINISTRATIONS,
was on the occasion of her death that Mrs. Adams wrote him the touching letter herewith appended:
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