As I Remember
frequently danced to them. The waltz in my day was a fine art and its
votaries were numerous. I recall the fact that Edward James of Albany, a
witty young gentleman with whom I occasionally danced, was such a
devotee to the waltz that, not possessing sufficient will power to
resist its charms and having a delicate constitution, he nearly danced
himself into another world. Two attractive young brothers, Thomas H. and
Daniel Messinger, who were general beaux in society, played their parts
most successfully in the social world by their graceful dancing, and no
ball was considered complete without their presence. These brothers
were associated in the umbrella industry, and Miss Lydia Kane, some of
whose witty remarks I have already quoted, dubbed them the "reigning
beaux!" Daniel Messinger eventually married Miss Elizabeth Coles
Neilson, a daughter of Anthony Bleecker Neilson, and became a Lieutenant
Colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War.
The British Consul General in New York from 1817 to 1843 was James
Buchanan. He was Irish by birth, and many young British subjects
visiting the United States made his home their headquarters. He had
several daughters and, as the whole family was social in its tastes, I
often enjoyed meeting these sturdy representatives of John Bull at his
house. Those I knew best came from "the land of brown heath and shaggy
wood," as in our family we were naturally partial to Scotchmen and, as a
rule, regarded them as desirable acquaintances. Many of these were
graduates of Glasgow University and young men of unusual culture and
refinement. I especially remember Mr. McCorquodale, a nephew of Dr.
Thomas Chalmers, the distinguished Presbyterian Divine of Scotland. He
met his future wife in New York in the person of a wealthy and
attractive widow. Her maiden name I do not recall, although I am
acquainted with certain facts concerning her lineage. She was the
granddaughter of Madame de Genlis.
I doubt whether any of these young Scotchmen whom I met remained
permanently in this country, as they always seemed too loyal to the
"Land o' Cakes" to entirely expatriate themselves. Another young
Scotchman, Mr. Dundas, whom I knew quite well through the Buchanans,
embarked for his native land on board the steamer _President_. This ship
sailed in the spring of 1841 and never reached her destination. What
became of her was never known and her fate remains to this day one of
the mysteries of the sea. In the fall of 1860 the U.S. man-of-war
_Levant_, on her voyage from the Hawaiian Islands to Panama, disappeared
in the same mysterious manner in the Pacific Ocean; and, as was the case
with the _President_, no human being aboard of her was ever heard of
again. There were many conjectures in regard to the fate of this ship,
but the true story of her doom has never been revealed. I remember two
of the officers who perished with her. One of them was Lieutenant Edward
C. Stout, who had married a daughter of Commodore John H. Aulick,
U.S.N., and whose daughters, the Misses Julia and Minnie Stout, are well
remembered in Washington social circles; and the other was Purser Andrew
J. Watson, who was a member of one of the old residential families of
the District of Columbia.
CHAPTER VIII
WASHINGTON IN THE FORTIES
My first visit to Washington was in 1845. I started from New York at
eight o'clock in the morning and reached Philadelphia late the same
afternoon. I broke the journey by spending the night at Jones's Hotel in
the lower part of the city, which was the usual stopping place of
travelers who made this trip. A few years later when the journey from
New York to Washington was made in twelve hours, it was thought that
almost a miracle had been performed.
Mrs. Winfield Scott in 1855 characterized the National Capital as "an
ill-contrived, ill-arranged, rambling, scrambling village"; and it was
certainly all of that when I first saw it. It is not improbable that the
cause of this condition of affairs was a general feeling of uncertainty
as to whether Washington would remain the permanent seat of government,
especially as the West was naturally clamoring for a more centrally
located capital. When I first visited the city the ubiquitous
real-estate agent had not yet materialized, and corner lots, now so much
in demand, could be purchased at a small price. Taxation was moderate
and Congress, then as now, held itself responsible for one-half of the
taxes. As land was cheap there was no necessity for economy in its use,
and spacious fronts were built regardless of back-buildings. In other
cases, when one's funds were limited, the rear of the house was first
built and later a more imposing front was added. The contrast between
the houses of New York, built closely together in blocks, and those in
Washington, with the abundant space around them, was a great surprise
to me. Unlike many other cities, land in Washington, then, as now, was
sold and taxed by the square foot.
My elder sister Fanny had married Charles Eames, Esq., of the Washington
Bar, and my visit was to her. Mr. Eames entered Harvard in 1827 when
less than sixteen years of age, and was a classmate of Wendell Phillips
and of John Lothrop Motley, the historian. The distinguished Professor
of Harvard University, Andrew P. Peabody, LL.D., in referring to him
many years after his death said that he was "the first scholar of his
class, and was regarded as a man of unlimited power of acquisition, and
of marked ability as a public speaker." After leaving Harvard he studied
law, but ill health prevented him from practicing his profession. He
accompanied to Washington George Bancroft, President Polk's Secretary of
the Navy, by whom he was made principal correspondence clerk of the Navy
Department. He remained there but a few months when he became associate
editor of _The Washington Union_ under the well-known Thomas Ritchie,
usually known as "Father Ritchie." He was subsequently appointed by Polk
a commissioner to negotiate a treaty with the Hawaiian Islands, and took
passage upon the U.S. Frigate _Savannah_ and sailed, by way of Cape
Horn, for San Francisco. He unexpectedly found awaiting his arrival in
that city Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, Prime Minister of the King, with two young
Hawaiian princes. After the treaty was made, he returned east and for
six months edited _The Nashville Union_, when he again assumed charge of
_The Washington Union_. President Pierce subsequently appointed him
Minister to Venezuela, where he remained until 1859, and then returned
to Washington, where he practiced his profession for the remainder of
his life. It was while arguing an important case before the Supreme
Court that he was stricken, and he died on the 16th of March, 1867. He
sustained a high reputation as an admiralty lawyer as well as for his
knowledge of international jurisprudence. I have now before me a letter
addressed to his widow by Wendell Phillips only three days after his
death. It is one of the valued possessions of Mr. Eames's daughter, who
is my niece and the wife of that genial Scotchman, Alexander Penrose
Gordon-Cumming. It reads:
QUINCY, Illinois, March 19, 1867.
My dear friend,
I have just crossed from the other side of the Mississippi,
and am saddened by learning from the papers my old and dear
friend's death.
The associations that bind us together go back many, many
years. We were boys together in sunny months full of frolic,
plans and hopes. The merriment and the seriousness, the toil
and the ambition of those days all cluster round him as
memory brings him to me in the flush of his youth. I have
seen little of him of late years, as you know, but the roots
of our friendship needed no constant care; they were too
strong to die or wilt, and when we did meet it was always
with the old warmth and intimacy. I feel more alone in the
world now he has gone. One by one the boy's comrades pass
over the river and life loses with each some of its
interest.
I was hoping in coming years, as life grew less busy, to see
more of my old playmate, and this is a very unexpected blow.
Be sure I sympathize with you most tenderly, and could not
resist the impulse to tell you so. Little as we have met, I
owe to your kind and frank interest in me a sense of very
warm and close relation to you--feel as if I had known you
ever so many years. I hope our paths may lead us more
together so that I may learn to know you better and gather
some more distinct ideas of Eames' later years. All his
youth I have by heart.
With most affectionate regards believe me
Very faithfully yours,
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Mrs. Eames.
I think women never fully realize the strange tenderness
with which men cling to college mates. No matter how much
opinions or residence separate grown-up men, to have been
classmates is a tie that like blood never loosens. Any man
that has a heart feels it thrill at the sight of one of
_those_ comrades. Later friendships may be close, never so
tender--this makes boys of us again at any moment.
Unfamiliar tears obey its touch, and a singular sense of
loneliness settles down on survivors--Good-bye.
The young Hawaiian princes to whom I have just referred and who, by the
way, were mere boys, accompanied Dr. Judd to New York where my younger
brother, Malcolm, thinking he might make the acquaintance of some genial
playmates, called to see them. Upon his return from his visit his only
criticism was, "those dusky princes certainly give themselves airs."
My sister, Mrs. Eames, lived in a house on G Street near Twenty-first
Street in what was then known as the First Ward. This general section,
together with a part of Indiana Avenue, some portions of Capitol Hill,
Sixth and Seventh Streets, and all of that part of the city bounded on
the north by K Street, on the south by Pennsylvania Avenue, and westward
of Fourteenth Street to Georgetown, was at this time the fashionable
section of the city. Like many other places in its formative period,
Washington then presented the picture of fine dwelling houses and
shanties standing side by side. I remember, for example, that as late as
1870 a fine residence on the corner of I and Fifteenth Streets was
located next to a small frame house occupied by a colored undertaker.
The latter's business was prosperous, but his wealthy neighbor objected
to the constant reminder of death caused by seeing from his fine bay
window the numerous coffins carried in and out. He asked the undertaker
to name his price for his property, but he declined, and all of his
subsequent offers were ignored. Finally, after several years' patient
waiting, during which offer after offer had been politely but positively
rejected, the last one being an almost princely sum, the owner sold his
home and moved away, leaving his humble neighbor in triumphant
possession. This is simply a fair example of the conditions existing in
Washington when I first knew it.
Two rows of houses on Pennsylvania Avenue, known as the "Six and Seven
Buildings," were fashionable dwellings. Admiral David D. Porter, then a
Lieutenant in the Navy, occupied one of them. Miss Catharine L. Brooke
kept a girls' school in another, while still another was the residence
of William Lee of Massachusetts. I have been informed that while serving
in a consular office abroad, under the appointment of President Monroe,
Mr. Lee was commissioned by him to select a dinner set for the White
House.
Architects, if I remember correctly, were almost unknown in Washington
at this time. When a person was sufficiently venturesome to build a