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"QUINCY, May 20, 1804.
"Had you been no other than the private inhabitant of Monticello, I should ere this time have addressed you in that sympathy which a recent event has awakened in my bosom; but reasons of various kinds withheld iny pen, until the powerful feeling of my heart burst through the restraint, and called upon me to shed the tear of sorrow over the departed remains of your beloved and deserving daughter; an event which I sincerely mourn.
"The attachment which I formed for her when you com- mitted her to my care upon her arrival in a foreign land. under circumstances peculiarly interesting, has remained with me to this day; and the account of her death, which I read in a late paper, recalled to my recollection the tender scene of her separation from me, when, with the strongest sensibility, she clung round my neck, and wet my bosom with her tears, saying: 'Oh! now I have learned to love you, why will they take me away from you?'
- "It has been some time since I conceived that any event in this life could call forth feelings of natural sympathy. But I know how closely entwined round a parent's heart are those cords which bind the parental to the filial bosom, and when snapped asunder, how agonizing the pangs. I have tasted of the bitter cup, and bow with reverence and submission before the great Dispenser of it, without whose permission and overruling providence not a sparrow falls to the ground.
"That you may derive comfort and consolation, in this day of your sorrow and affliction, from that only source calculated to heal the wounded heart, and a firm belief in the being, perfection and attributes of God, is the sincere wish of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, "ABIGAIL ADAMS."
Perhaps this letter was the beginning of the restoration of the pleasant relations between Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, which never ought to have been interrupted by partisan bitterness.
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There came a time in later years when a stronger tie was drawing them together. They were getting to be among the last of the surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson feelingly alludes to it in a letter written to Mr. Adams; and there is something par- ticularly touching in the fast that, after years of devoted love and labor for their country, ruling the land and mold- ing the Nation, they should at last pass beyond, into the presence of the Ruler of all Nations, on the same day, almost the same hour, the anniversary-July 4, 1826-of the glorious independence of their beloved country.
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Mr. Madison was Secretary of State for Mr. Jefferson eight years.
The Capital was almost a wilderness. The White House was separated from the Capitol by a marsh, and was surrounded by the debris of unfinished buildings. Thick woods, with openings here and there, where a house could be seen, formed the setting of this palatial home. Venerable oaks spread their branches over the house, and were a sort of relief to the uninclosed, barren field in which the Executive Mansion was built.
It was a place in which Mrs. Madison felt quite as much at ease while Mr. Jefferson was President, as when she became its presiding genius. She entered the Presi- dential Mansion at a time when party strife was at its highest. While she held opinions of her own, grounded on what she believed to be the right, she extended the same privilege to every one, and all were alike welcome in the home of the President.
From out of her great and generous heart she poured the oil of gladness upon the troubled sea of politics, and contending factions were harmonized. Men of varied politics met at her table, and public strife and bitterness were for a time forgotten.
But the "piping time of peace" only hovered over the Nation; the clouds of the War of 1812 were gathering in the horizon of National affairs. Notwithstanding Jefferson's and Madison's sympathy with France, one of the strong party measures on which they were elected, France, or
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Napoleon, did not hesitate to strike at America's com- merce when it served him to do so. Yet we could hardly expect such a man to respect National friendship, when he was found ready to shatter his own household to further the ends of personal ambition. The same year that saw Dolly Madison the Lady of the White House witnessed the Empress Josephine's departure from the home of Na- poleon, and a few months later his marriage to Marie Louise. The eve that watched the march of destiny saw, from the hour that Josephine turned her back upon the palace, broken-hearted, to wend her way to Malmaison, Napoleon's star begin to wane, and before Mr. Madison's Administration was ended, Napoleon Bonaparte was at St. Helena, and Louis XVIII. on the throne.
In the meantime the American people, smarting under the insults of Great Britain, had adopted the war-cry of ·"Free trade and sailors' rights," and were ready to fight.
On the 9th of June, 1812, the urbane, peace-loving Madison, as President of the United States, declared war against Great Britain, and, as is well known, in course of time the British entered Washington. It was through these trying hours that Mrs. Madison was seen at her best. Her heroism during the battle of Bladensburg and the advance of the enemy into the city is one of her great- est triumphs. The familiar letter to her sister at Mount Vernon, written during the hours of suspense, tells us what heroism was necessary to carry her through the ordeal:
"TUESDAY, Aug. 23, 1814.
"DEAR SISTER:
"My husband left me yesterday to join Gen. Winder. He inquired anxiously whether I had the courage to re- main in the President's House until his return on the morrow, or succeeding day, and on my assuring him that I had no fear but for him and the success of our army, he left me, beseeching me to take care of myself and of the Cabinet papers, public and private.
"I have since received two dispatches from him, written with a pencil; the last is alarming, because he desires that I should be ready at a moment's warning to enter my
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carriage and leave the city; that the enemy seem stronger than has been reported, and that it might happen that they would enter the city with intention to destroy it.
"I am accordingly 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 transportation. I am determined not to go myself until I see Mr. Madison safe, and he can accompany me, as I hear much hostility toward him.
"Dissatisfaction stalks around us. My. friends and acquaintances are all gone, even Col. C. with his 100 men who are stationed at guard in this inclosure.
. "French John, a faithful domestic, with his usual activity and resolution, offers to spike the cannon at the gate, and lay a train of powder which would blow up the British, should they enter the house. To the last propo- sition I positively object, without being able, however, to make him understand why all advantages in war may not be taken."
"WEDNESDAY MORNING, 12 o'clock.
"Since sunrise I have been turning my spy-glass in every direction, and watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discover the approach of my dear husband and friends, but alas! I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions, as if there was a lack of arms or spirit to fight for their own firesides."
"3 o'clock.
"Will you believe it, my dear sister, we have had a battle, or skirmish, near Bladensburg, and I am still here within sound of the cannon? Mr. Madison comes not. May God protect him! Two messengers, covered with dust, came to bid me fly, but I wait for him. At this late hour a wagon has been procured. I have filled it with plate and most valuable portable articles belonging to the house. Whether it will reach its destination-the Bank of Maryland-or fall into the hands of the British soldiers events must determine. Our friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture of Gen. Washington is secured, and it requires to be un-
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screwed from the wall. This process was found too tedious for these precarious moments. I have ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas taken out; it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentle- men of New York for safe keeping.
"And now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road I am directed to take.
"When I shall again write you, or where I shall be to- morrow, I cannot tell."
Their escape across the Potomac into Virginia, the pillaging and burning of the Capitol and the White House are facts familiar to all.
The story that Mrs. Madison had issued cards for a dinner party, not expecting the enemy would reach the city that night-that preparations for the dinner were going on, and that the British soldiers found, when they marched into the White House, a bountiful dinner spread with covers for 30 guests, is only equalled by the one that she cut the canvas of Gen. Washington's portrait out with a carving-knife. Her own letter refutes that; and as to the dinner, an old and trusty servant who closed the house says, "Such was the excitement that day that no cooking was done, scarcely even for the family," which is alto- gether the most probable.
When they returned to the Capital, it was to find the White House in ashes, and the smoke still rising from the heaps of blackened ruins.
Many offers of houses were made. Mrs. Madison arrived first and went to her sister, Mrs. Cutts, to await the return of the President, who, after looking about, rented the house on the corner of New York avenue and Eight- eenth street, called the "Octagon," and owned by Col. Tayloe, where they lived that Winter, and where the treaty of peace was signed.
Late in the afternoon of Feb. 14, 1815, there came thundering down Pennsylvania avenue a coach and four foaming steeds, in which was Mr. Henry Carroll, the bearer of the treaty of peace between the American and British Commissioners. The carriage was followed by
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cheers and congratulations as it sped on toward the office of the Secretary of State, James Monroe; and then to the President's, where the treaty was signed, in the octagon room upstairs.
Mr. Madison afterward rented the house on the north- west corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Nineteenth street, where they resided until the President's House was rebuilt.
. Mr. Gobright, in his "Men and Things in Washington," says: "An old citizen has informed me that the 'levee' of Mr. Madison, in February, 1816, was remembered for years as the most brilliant ever held up to that date in the Executive Mansion."
At this congregated the Justices of the Supreme Court, present in their gowns, at the head. of whom was Chief- Justice Marshall. The Peace Commissioners to Ghent, Gallatin, Bayard, Clay and Russell, were in the company. Mr. Adams was absent. The heroes of the War of 1812, Generals with their Aids, in full dress, Federalists and Republicans of both Houses of Congress, citizens and strangers, were thrown together as friends, to be thankful for the present and to look forward with delight to a great future. The most notable feature was the magnificent display of the Diplomatic Corps.
It was on this occasion that Mr. Bagat, the French Minister, made the remark, so familiar to all, that Mrs. Madison "looked every inch a Queen."
Mr. Madison was about 66 years of age when he retired from public life to Montpelier, to return to Washington no . more.
Mrs. Madison, however, after Mr. Madison's death, came to Washington and lived for years in a house on the corner of H street and Lafayette Square. Both sleep the sleep that knows no waking at Montpelier, in West Vir- ginia; while the world continues to think of him as an honest, just man, and of her as without a rival in the queenly graces and kindness of heart which made her pre-eminently the most popular woman who has ever presided over the White House.
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CHAPTER VL
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JAMES MONROE AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
THE WHITE HOUSE REBUILT-MR. MONROE INAUGURATED PRESI- DENT-AN AGE OF HEROIC DEVOTION-MR. MONROE AS SEN- ATOR-MINISTER TO FRANCE-SECRETARY OF STATE-AMERI- CA A CHILD AMONG NATIONS-MR. MONROE PLEDGED HIS OWN CREDIT FOR HIS COUNTRY-MARRIED ELIZABETH KORTRIGHT-SHE VISITS MADAME LA FAYETTE IN PRISON. THE TWO MOST INFLUENTIAL MEN IN THE WORLD-POOR MARIE ANTOINETTE-THE WHITE HOUSE WHEN MRS. MONROE ENTERED IT-THE EAST ROOM A PLAYROOM-A BRILLIANT
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LEVEE-HENRY CLAY'S COMPROMISE ' BILL-THE MONROE DOCTRINE-SURROUNDED BY INTELLECTUAL GIANTS-JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ELECTED PRESIDENT-MARRIED LOUISA CATHERINE JOHNSON-MINISTER TO BERLIN, RUSSIA, AND THE COURT OF ST. JAMES-SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER MONROE-SOCIAL AFFAIRS DEMAND A CABINET MEETING. MRS. ADAMS'S BALL-A RED-LETTER DAY FOR JACKSON. A YEAR OF CONTENTION AND STRIFE-THE HOUSE ELECTS THE PRESIDENT-INAUGURATED PRESIDENT MARCH 4, 1825. MRS. ADAMS THE PRESIDING GENIUS OF THE WHITE HOUSE. LA FAYETTE'S FAREWELL VISIT.
Congress ordered the White House to be rebuilt in 1815. In 1818 it was ready once more for occupancy. It was more beautiful than ever. From 1817 to 1825 was un- doubtedly the period of the best society in Washing- ton. Mr. Monroe was inaugurated President March 5, 1817. Thus far the Presidents had been men, who had passed through the fiery ordeal of a revolution for principle; men who had pledged their lives, their for- tunes, and their sacred honor to maintain and give suc- cess to the cause for which so much blood and treasure had been spent.
Mr. Monroe could hardly have been other than the man he was, after having been reared in such an age, surround- ed by such men, and governed by such circumstances. It was an age of heroic devotion, of manly self-sacrifice. In 1776 Monroe had just graduated from college, and im- mediately joined the army as a cadet.
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From 1790 to 1794 he was United States Senator. He was appointed the latter part of the year Minister to France, and afterwards to the Court of St. James. He was Madi- son's Secretary of State during part of his Administra- tion.
When he was Minister to France and England this country was but a child among Nations, and when the older Nations of the earth were shaken to the foundations by the disturbing causes of the French Revolution, it re- quired a man of peculiar genius to sustain America's rights, dignity and honor abroad.
He also took command of the Ship of State just before she was plunged into peril. It is well known that when the Treasury was exhausted and the National credit was so low that it was impossible to raise funds for the de- fense of New Orleans, Monroe, with patriotic devotion, pledged his own credit to raise the necessary means.
From the time he graduated from college he was in public life, and is always spoken of as "one of the purest public servants" that ever lived. He was polished in manners, punctilious in all the relations of life, and al- ways dressed with care, usually appearing in dark-blue coat, buff vest, doeskin breeches, top-boots, a military cocked hat of the fashion of the Revolution, with a bow of black ribbon worn as a cockade, and he is now sometimes called "the last of the cocked hats." He married Eliza- beth Kortright, of New York. Her friends thought she made a great mistake in refusing many brilliant offers for a plain member of Congress.
It is the era in which men and women live that often gives them opportunities to stamp their influence on the public.
Mrs. Monroe lived at a time the most eventful in the history of Nations, and whatever of good reports we find in her record worthy of emulation made its impress not only on the age in which she lived, but on all subsequent ages.
The lives of many of the grand women whose patience, fortitude, and courage would have graced many a Roman character, have almost passed froni memory with the
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century that witnessed their heroism; but the women of the 19th century cannot afford to be ignorant of the history, privations, and experiences of these women, whose lives were beautiful in their simplicity and earnest- ness.
The pioneers of liberty were sustained by their wisdom. There was a moral principle in the field, to which the women of the country had trained the populace to do homage.
During Mr. Monroe's Ministery to Paris Mrs. Monroe made her visit to Madame La Fayette in prison. The Marquis de La Fayette was adored by the Americans, and the indignities heaped upon his wife could not be silently accepted by either our Minister or his wife. Mr. Monroe decided to risk displeasure by sending his wife to see Madame La Fayette.
The carriage of the American Minister appeared at the jail; the keeper advanced to know the object of her visit. Mrs. Monroe, putting on the dignity of which she was capable, made known her business. Her request was complied with. But a few minutes elapsed ere the jailer returned, bringing Madame La Fayette, attended by a guard.
The Marchioness sank at her feet, unable to manifest her joy from weakness. That afternoon she was to have been beheaded, and had been expecting all day the sum- mons to prepare for execution. Instead of a visit from the executioner, we can judge of her surprise and joy to see a woman -- a friend-the wife of the American Ambassa- dor. This unexpected visit changed the plans of the officials, and to the surprise of all she was liberated the next morning.
It is well known that she sent her son, George Wash- ington, to America, to the care of Gen. George Wash- ington, procured American passports, went to Vienna, and had an interview with the Empress. She reached the prison of her husband, and signed her consent "to share his captivity in all its details." The two most influential men in the world at that time, George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, inter-
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ested themselves in the prisoners' behalf, and they were released, after an imprisonment of five years for him and 22 months for Madame La Fayetie.
NO HELP FOR THE QUEEN.
But poor Marie Antoinette had no American Am- bassador to intercede for her while languishing in prison. The aid afforded to the American Colonies, of which she was an enthusiastic advocate, added to the financial em- barrassments in which France found itself, caused her to write, April 9, 1787: "Dearly enough do we pay to-day for our rejoicing and enthusiasm over the American war."
Paris was then considered the center of all enjoyment. Mrs. Monroe entertained with great elegance, and her entertainments given after she entered the White House were marked by the same quiet splendor. Mrs. Monroe was an elegant and accomplished woman, and if she copied from foreign courts, her charming dignity of man- ner and warmth of heart peculiarly fitted her for her exalted station.
The White House when they entered it was meagerly furnished. The furniture was not of a kind befitting the house of the President, and the debris from the old build- ing lay in heaps over the grounds. In the early part of the Administration their children occupied the East Room as a playroom. The country being at peace once more, the Government ordered a silver service of plate, and the stately furniture which adorned the East Room was pur- chased in Paris. Each piece was ornamented with the royal crown of Louis XVIII .; this was removed, and the American eagle took its place before it was sent from Paris.
One could not look at this furniture without recalling the long roll of names of men and women who stand out grandly in our country's history, and whose memories are associated with this stately room; its chairs, its tables, its ottomans, occupying the same places as when they were there in living presence.
"The Winter of 1825, it is said, was one of the most brilli-
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ant ever known in Washington. It was the Winter of the exciting election in the House of Representatives, when Adams, Crawford, and Jackson were candidates for President. Marquis de La Fayette was here as the guest of Congress. Congress had voted him $200,000 for his services in the Revolutionary War.
A BRILLIANT LEVEE.
On New Year's Day a levee was given of unusual bril- liancy. Among the guests were Marquis de La Fayette, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford; Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina; Harrison Grey Otis, of Boston-the Chesterfield of the North; Stephen Van Rensselaer; Mr. Livingston, of Louisiana, and a host of others, with their wives and daughters, resi- dents of Washington during that memorable Winter. It is said that no subsequent period of Washington so- ciety has surpassed its galaxy of talent, beauty and ac complishments.
Among the important events of Mr. Monroe's Adminis- tration was the passage of Henry Clay's "Missouri Com- promise Bill," by which slavery was permitted in Missouri, but forever prohibited elsewhere north of the parallel of 35° 30'; and President Monroe's memorable message of Dec. 2, 1823, in which he advocated the policy of neither entangling ourselves in the broils of Europe, nor suffer- ing powers of the Old World to interfere with the affairs of the New, generally known as the "Monroe Doctrine."
On this occasion Mr. Monroe declared that any attempt on the part of any European power to "extend their sys- tem to any portion of this hemisphere would be regarded by the United States as dangerous to our peace and safety, and would accordingly be opposed."
Mr. Monroe was surrounded by men who, De Tocque- ville said, "would have been intellectual giants in any period of the world," like John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.
In person John Marshall was ungraceful, tall, emaci- ated, his muscles relaxed, joints so loosely connected as not only to disqualify bim, apparently, for any vigorous
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exertion of the body, but to destroy everything like har- mony in his movements. In spite of all this he was a great social favorite; his influence is known to have been foremost in Congress, with the Administration. In a word, he was a statesman, a jurist, and a Christian.
Henry Clay was the Speaker of the House. His tall, towering form, his sweeping gestures, his magnetic voice, were powerful and convincing beyond description.
John C. Calhoun, at one time Monroe's Secretary of War, was a man of splendid physique. He was tall, well proportioned, his movements graceful, handsome in form and feature, and frank and courteous in manner. His large, dark, brilliant eyes strongly impressed all who encountered them. When addressing the Senate he stood firm and erect, accompanying his delivery with angular gesticulations. Upon every subject he was original and analytical, depending upon his argument to carry his points. Known to be the father of nullification, yet Daniel Webster could say of him: "I have not in public or in private life known a more assiduous person in discharge of his duty; firm in his purposes, patriotic and honest, as I am sure he was, in the principles he espoused and in the measures he defended, I do not believe that, aside from his large regard for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent stations for the benefit of the Republic, he had a selfish motive or a selfish feeling."
Thomas H. Benton was a Senator at this time-the first Senator from the State of Missouri.
All the Departments of Government were represented by men of renowned personal character. Mr. Tompkins was Vice-President, John Quincy Adams Secretary of State, William H. Crawford Secretary of the Treasury, . John C. Calhoun Secretary of War, Smith Thompson Secretary of the Navy, John McLane Postmaster-Gen- eral, William Wirt Attorney-General.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION.
When John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States, Congress appropriated $14,000 to refurnish
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the White House. The East Room was furnished in a magnificent manner.
: Mr. Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of Joshua Johnson, of Maryland. She was born, educated, and married in London. Her advan- tages were far superior to those enjoyed by most women of her time. After John Adams was President, John Quincy was Minister . to Berlin for four years. Mrs. Adams proved herself fully competent to act her part in the social and political circles in which circumstances had placed, her.
On Mr. Adams's return to America he was elected United States Senator. In those days Washington was quite the opposite of the Washington of to-day. Then ladies thought it quite a privation to leave the gayeties of larger cities to be kept here for some eight months. But Mrs. Adams found it very congenial to her, as many of her relatives were living here.
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