As I Remember
you stay much longer my spring fever will come on and I
shall get so many things there will be no money left for
you. Besides Mr. Pendleton is going to the Bucknor's some
day next week and I am going to get him to stop for me, and
if you are home I shall invite you to go along. Beek Fish
will be there the same evening with his flute. He told Emily
B. that his sister [Mrs. Thomas Pym Remington of
Philadelphia] had written them that you had been in
Philadelphia and that she was so delighted to see you.
Leslie Irving told me that he had seen a letter in the
Commercial Advertiser from Thomas Turner [subsequently Rear
Admiral Turner, U.S.N.] to Hamilton Fish. He thought of
sending it to you, but he thought some one else had probably
done so. I hear that they [the Fishes] are to have a party.
The Bankheads [General James Bankhead's daughters] are going
to spend the summer at West Point. Pa and Jim are better. Pa
rode out yesterday and walked out to-day. He has been in a
great state of excitement about General Scott. It was
reported two days ago that he was killed and he was afraid
it was true. Vera Cruz, I believe, is taken. I cannot write
any longer, I'm so tired. I will send Cornelia's [Cornelia
Scott] purse by H. Forbes [Harriet Forbes, Mrs. Colhoun of
Philadelphia].
M. CAMPBELL.
Saturday April 10th.
Pa thinks it is time for you to come home. Do you know of
any opportunity? I shall not send anything to you. You see
you never will take my advice in anything. I told you to
bring your pink dress with you but you would not. I suppose
I shall not hear from you again. Pa says you can do as you
please about staying longer.
Elizabeth, New Jersey, was a quaint old town whose inhabitants seemed
almost exclusively made up of Barbers, Ogdens and Chetwoods, with a
sprinkling of De Harts. There was a steamboat plying between
Elizabethport (now a part of the City of Elizabeth) and New York, and we
were its frequent patrons. Ursino, the country seat of the Kean family,
then as now was one of the historic places of the neighborhood. As I
remember the beautiful old home, it was occupied by John Kean, father of
the late senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey. At an earlier period the
latter's great-grandfather had married Susan Livingston, a daughter of
Peter Van Brough Livingston of New York, and resided at Ursino. After
the death of her husband she married Count Julian Niemcewicz, who was
called the "Shakespeare of Poland" and who came to America with
Kosciusco, upon whose staff he had served. She was also the grandmother
of Mrs. Hamilton Fish. Another noted estate in the same general
neighborhood, was "Abyssinia," owned and occupied for a long period by
the Ricketts family, whose walls were highly decorated by one of its
artistic members. I am informed that it still stands but that it is
used, alas, for mechanical purposes!
I recall with intense pleasure another of my visits to New Jersey when I
was a guest at the home of General and Mrs. Scott in Elizabeth. Isabella
Cass of Detroit, daughter of General Lewis Cass, was also there at the
same time. She attended school in Paris while her father was Minister to
France and received other educational advantages quite unusual for women
at that time. While residing in Washington at a subsequent period she
was regarded as one of the reigning belles. She married a member of the
Diplomatic Corps from the Netherlands and lived and died abroad. A
constant visitor of the Scott family whom I recall with great pleasure
was Thomas Turner, subsequently an Admiral in our Navy. He was a
Virginian by birth and a near relative of General Robert E. Lee; but,
though possessing the blood of the Carters, he remained during the Civil
War loyal to the national flag. His wife was Frances Hailes Palmer of
"Abyssinia."
Still another guest of the Scotts in Elizabeth was the erratic but
decidedly brilliant Doctor William Starbuck Mayo. Although Mrs. Scott
was a Mayo, they were not related. He was from the northern part of the
State of New York, while Mrs. Scott, as is well known, was from
Virginia. Doctor Mayo, however, was an ardent admirer of Mrs. Scott and
made the fact apparent in much that he said and did. He was the author
of several works, one of which was a romance entitled "Kaloolah," which
he dedicated to Mrs. Scott. When I met him in Washington he was on his
first bridal tour, although pretty well advanced in years. His bride was
Mrs. Henry Dudley of New York, whose maiden name was Helen Stuyvesant.
She was the daughter of Nicholas William Stuyvesant and one of the heirs
of the large estate of Peter G. Stuyvesant. During Van Buren's
administration, Doctor Mayo was a social light in Washington.
There was another Dr. Mayo--Robert Mayo of Richmond--who, in some
respects, created a temporary commotion in public life in Washington and
elsewhere. He was a Virginian by birth, and at one time figured
prominently as a politician. He engaged in the presidential campaign of
1828 as an ardent partisan of General Jackson and during that period
edited in Richmond the _Jackson Democrat_. He subsequently, however,
parted company with his presidential idol, and in 1839 published a
volume entitled, "Political Sketches of Eight Years in Washington,"
which is almost exclusively devoted to an arraignment of General
Jackson's administration. In an original letter now before me, written
by Martin Van Buren to Governor William C. Bouck, of New York, which has
never before appeared in print, he speaks in an amusing manner of Dr.
Mayo. I insert the whole letter, as his allusions to General Jackson are
of exceptional interest. No one can well deny that the parting
admonition of Polonius to his son Laertes is a masterpiece of human
wisdom, but this letter of the "Sage of Lindenwald" to Governor Bouck
reveals ability by no means inferior to that of this wise councilor of
Denmark.
[EX-PRESIDENT VAN BUREN TO GOV. WILLIAM C. BOUCK OF N.Y.]
Confidential.
Lindenwald,
Jan^y. 17th 1843.
My dear Sir,
I embrace the occasion of a short visit of my son Major Van
Buren to Albany before he goes South to drop you a few
lines. Although I have not admitted it in my conversations
with those who are given to croaking, and thus alarm our
friends, I have nevertheless witnessed with the keenest
regret the distractions among our friends at Albany; & more
particularly in relation to the state printing. It is
certainly a lamentable winding up of a great contest
admirably conducted &, as we supposed, gloriously
terminated. Without undertaking to decide who is right or
who is wrong, and much less to take any part in the
unfortunate controversy, I cannot but experience great pain
from the eying of so bitter a controversy in the face of the
enemy among those who once acted together so honorably & so
usefully, and for all of whom I have so much reason to
cherish feelings of respect & regard. Permit me to make one
suggestion, & that relates to the importance of a speedy
decision, one way or the other. Nothing is so injurious in
such cases as delay. It is almost better to decide wrong
than to protract the contest. Every day makes new enemies &
increases the animosities of those who have already become
so, & extends them to other subjects; and yet nothing is so
natural as to desire to put off the decision of
controversies among friends. Most happy would I be to find
that you had been able to mitigate, if not altogether to
obviate, existing difficulties by providing places for one
or more of the competitors in other branches of the public
service to which they are adapted & with which they would be
as well satisfied.
It has afforded me unfeigned satisfaction to learn, as I do
from all quarters, that you keep your own secrets in regard
to appointments, & don't feed every body with promises or
what they construe into promises--a practice which so many
public men are apt to fall into, & by which they make
themselves more trouble & subject themselves to more
discredit than they dream of. Persevere in that course,
consider carefully every case & make the selection which
your own unbiassed judgment designates as the best, & above
all let the people see as clear as day that you do not yield
yourself to, or make battle against, any cliques or sections
of the party, but act in good faith and to the best of your
ability for the good of the whole, and you may be assured
that the personal discontents which you would to some extent
occasion, if you had the wisdom of Solomon & were pure as an
angel, will do you no harm & be exceedingly evanescent in
their duration. The Democratic is a reasonable & a just
party & more than half of the business is done when they are
satisfied that the man they have elected means to do right.
The difficulty with a new administration is in the
beginning. At the start little matters may create a distrust
which it will take a series of good acts to remove. But once
a favourable impression is made & the people become
satisfied that the right thing is intended, it takes great
errors, often repeated, to create a counter current. Will
you excuse me if, from a sincere desire for your success, I
go farther & touch upon matters not political, or at least
not wholly so? Your situation of course excites envy &
jealousy on the part of some. It is impossible from the
character of man that it should be otherwise, bear yourself
ever so meekly & you cannot avoid it. There will therefore
in Albany, as well as elsewhere, be people who will make ill
natured remarks & there will be still more who will make it
their business, in the hope of benefitting themselves, to
bring you exaggerated accounts of what is said, and if they
lack materials they will tell you, if they find that you
like to listen to small things, a great deal that never has
been said. It is my deliberate opinion that these
mischievous gossips cause public men more vexation, yes, ten
fold, than all the cares & anxieties of office taken
together. I have seen perhaps as much of this as any man of
my age, & claim to be a competent judge of the evil & its
remedies. The greatest fault I ever saw in our excellent
friend Gen^l. Jackson, was the facility with which (in
carrying out his general principle that it was the duty of
the President to hear all) he leant his ear, though not his
confidence, to such people. Though very sagacious & very apt
to put the right construction upon all such revelations, it
was still evident that he was every day more or less annoyed
by them. I endeavored to satisfy him of the expediency of
shutting their mouths, but did not succeed, & I am as sure
as I can be of any such thing that if the truth could be
known it would appear that he had experienced more annoyance
from such sources than from all the severe trials through
which he had to pass & did pass with such unfading glory.
Having his case before me, I determined to profit by the
experience I had acquired in so good a school. I had no
sooner taken possession of the White House than I was beset
by these harpies. The way in which I treated the whole crew,
with variations of course according to circumstances, will