Thirty-six years in the White House

Preface

I am greatly indebted to my friend, Mrs. Rosalie O. Goulding, for valuable assistance in the preparation of this book. Her experience as a journalist has enabled her to^ advise me in many matters, and acting on her advice, I have endeavored in my Recollections to relate only such events as appear to be worthy of preservation.

THOMAS F. PENDEL.

r^

TO MR. THOMAS F. PENDEL OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The sacred task of personal care, As portal sentry, standing there. Protecting him who bore the weight Of flashing Mars, and Chief of State.

True, swordless sentry watching all. As brave as love, a living wall, To trust, protect from foe, or spy — For that, in ecstasy, would die.

No slumber in the hours of dread. Who watched each step and breath in bed When midnight second's solemn gloom Was brooding danger, certain doom.

Through peaceful public's fatal call. Great Lincoln fell from villain's ball. While sentry guarded martyr's chair. And ever since remaining there.

J. H. Beidler.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I — Under President Lincoln g

II — Under President Johnson 51

Chapter I

I was born on Analostan Island, near Aqueduct Bridge, at Georgetown, D. C, May 29, 1824. Grandfather Thomas Pendel came from Ireland prior to the Revolutionary War. My maternal grandparents were from Pennsylvania, of old Dutch stock. Grandfather Pendel was in business in Alexandria in the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and accumulated $100,- 000, which he spent in aiding the Revolutionary cause, in which he took an active part. His remains lie in the churchyard oi Christ Church, Alexandria, where General Washington used to worship.

Father Thomas Pendel was in the Indian Wars, previous to the War of 18 12, and also took part in this war. He was an artilleryman, and at the call for volunteers on Lake Erie, reported for duty on an American brig tO' fight an English frigate. He was in the battle of Black Rock, which site is now the city of Buffalo, and lost an arm by a passing ball from the British. For this he received a pension of ninety dollars a year.

I enlisted in the Marine Corps on March 5,

1846, at Philadelphia; and on February 5,

In 1861, or 1862, the Metropolitan Police was established by Congress at the Capital, and I made application for and received an appointment on the force. I made the first arrest, with the assistance of "Buck" Essex. The case was that of a fellow named Grady, one of the English Hill toug-hs. A roundsman said to us, "Boys, you take a walk down Seventh Street, and if you see anything going on, take a hand in it." Just as we got opposite the Patent Office, this Grady had assaulted, or rather was assaulting, a young fellow with a whip. I went up and grabbed him and put him under arrest, then took him tO' Squire Dunn's court and preferred charges against him. The Squire was busy writing for some time. When he got through he handed me the paper he was writing, and I was so green at the business I did not know what it was, so said: "What is this, Squire?" He repHed, "Why, that is the paper of commitment for this fellow. Take him to jail."

On November 3, 1864, Sergeant John Cronin, Alfonso Dunn, Andrew Smith, and myself were ordered toi report at the First Precinct, in the old City Hall, at one o'clock in the afternoon. We supposed we were to be detailed for detective work in New York City o^n acco'unt of the great riot then on there, especially as we were ordered to report in citizens' clothes, to conceal our revolvers, and to be sure to have them all clean and in good order. We arrived at the City Hall, and then were told where we were toi go, which was to the President's Mansion, there to report to^ Marshal Lanham, at that time United States Marshal of the District of Columbia, and a bosom friend of Abraham Lincoln.

These were days that tried men's hearts, and women's, too. Men were falling at the front by hundreds, both in the Union and in the Confederate armies. There was weeping and mourning all over the land. Our nation

II was trembling with anxiety; we were all hoping that the great strife was over or soon to be.

Marshal Lanham took iis upstairs and into the President's office, where we were introduced to him and to his two secretaries, Mr. Nicolay and Mr. Hay, the latter now being Secretary of State. We were then instructed to keep a sharp lookout in the different parts of the house, more particularly in the East Room and at the door of the President's office. After we had been on duty about three days, Sergeant John Cronin came to me and said, "Pendel, I want you to take my place near the President's office, and I will send 3^our dinner to you." I took his place, and he sent my dinner up to me, but I think that was the last duty on the force he ever performed. He had other business in the city.

On the first Sabbath morning, as nearly as I can remember, a few days after our going on duty and the occurrences with Cronin which resulted in his leaving, it being the first Sabbath we were on duty at the White House, we were in a little waiting room on the right-hand side of the stairs. This roo^m is now sometimes used by the President as a smoking room, and also as a reception room for those calling on the President and his family socially. Where the elevator now is used tO' be a pair of little old-fashioned stairs. You would go up a few steps and come to a landing; up a few more steps and another landing, and so ofi. This was a favorite stairway of Mr. Lincoln's, for he used it more than any other in the house. When he came downstairs that Sunday morning we were all chatting, and by "we" I mean Edward Burke, his old coachman, Edward McManus, Alfonso Dunn, and myself. When Mr. Lincoln came into the room he said, "Which one of you gentlemen will take a walk with me as far as Secretary Stanton's house? He is sick in bed and I want to see him." As I had seen a good deal of the world and had been placed with public men of high station, I immediately arose and said, "Mr. President, I will walk with you." After we had passed out of the front door and were still on the main portico^, but out of the hearing of any one, the President said to^ me, "I have received a great many threatening letters, but I have no fear of them." I said, "Mr. President, because a man does not fear a thing is no reason why it should not occur." He replied, "That is a fact."

After we got of¥ the portico, going east, I said, "Mr. President, there has been many a good, brave man who has lost his life simply because he did not fear." Then he remarked in a thoughtful way, "That is so; that is so."

Then we passed along out the eastern gate and across Pennsylvania Avenue tO' Secretary Stanton's house, which was opposite Franklin Square on the north side of K Street, near the late Senator Sherman's residence. It was an elegant building. I stepped up and rang the bell, and the servant who came to the door admitted us at once. We were shown into the private parlor, and the President said to me, "Now you remain down here; I am going upstairs into Secretary Stanton's room; he is sick in bed." I said, "All right, Mr. President." I picked up a book and passed the time examining it until the President returned. On the way back to the White House the President was silent a long time, thinking of the grave problems of the day, I presume.

After a while he began tO' talk, and in the course of the conversation I mentioned Senator Harlan, and said, "Mr. President, Senator

Tinder President Lincoln

Harlan seems to be a very good man." He replied, "Yes, Senator Harlan is a good man." It always seemed to me a singular coincidence that very soon after this conversation Mr. Lincoln appointed Senator Harlan as one of his Cabinet ofificers. Afterwards Robert Lincoln married his daughter Mary, whom I knew very well, as I did also her mother and father.

Almost every day about ten o'clock I would accompany Mr. Lincoln to the War Department. He was exceedingly anxious about General Sherman's army, which was at that time marching through the South. On one occasion he remarked to me that he felt very uneasy about Sherman's army, since he had not been able to receive any information regarding it for three weeks. In going over to the War Department I used to try to expedite his leaving the White House as much as possible, because people would always hang around and wait to see Mr. Lincoln, and would thrust notes into his hands as he passed and in many ways annoy him. One day just as we got to the front door, after going out of the private corridor, there was a nurse who had been in the East Room with an infant in her arms and a little tot walking by her side. Just as we were about to pass out of the door, she got in front oi us. I took hold of the little tot gently, and moved her to one side so that we could get out. The President noticed this action, and rather disapproved of my moving the child to^ let him pass and said, "That's all right; that's all right." The interpretation I put upon his words was that he would sooner have been annoyed by people thrusting letters into his hands than make a little child move aside for him to pass. When we did get out he started off rapidly. Mr. Lincoln did not seem to be walking very fast, but it kept me hustling to keep up with him; so much so that although I was pretty tall myself, I had a curiosity tO' know how tall the President was. One day as we were about to leave the White House, I asked the President his height. He replied, 'T am just six feet three inches in my stocking feet."

During the Rebellion, the "Molly Mc- Guires" up in the State of Pennsylvania had been giving the Government a great deal of trouble, as a result of the officers endeavoring to enforce the draft which had been proclaimed all over the United States. These fel-

i6 lows did, indeed, put onr Government toi a great deal of unnecessary trouble. The "Molly McGuires" were one of the toughest elements that ever infested the State of Pennsylvania. Many a good man was put out of the way by these roughs, and it could never be found out who committed the deed, or when or how it was done. Consequently, the Government had to put its strong arm down on these men. Quite a number of them were sent to the prisons. One day a number of people were shown into the President's office. Finally all left except two tall, gaunt Irish women, who were truly pictures of despair. They went up to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Howdy, Mishter President. We've cum tO' see yers, sir; to see if yers wouldn't pardon our husbands out of prison, sir." This was said in whining, woe-begone voices, and well-pretended looks of despair on their faces. "We would like to have yers pardon 'emi out of prison, sir, so as to help support us, sir," they added, in wailing tones. The President sized them up. He was a great reader of human nature. Then, in the same identical twang the Irish women had used, he said, "If yers hushbands had not been resisting the draft, they would not now be in prison; so they can stay in prison." The two Irish women, without further words, turned away and left in double quick time.

I recall another incident that serves tO' show the gentle nature of the great President and what manner of man he was. There came to the White House one day another Irish woman. She was well advanced in years, and was accompanied by her little daughter, who could read and write, and who was a very bright little child.

She took a seat and waited for the President until he had finished with the other visitors. She then came forward with her little daughter. She was tidy and neat in her person, and very modest in manner. She said, "Mr. President, my husband is down sick at the hospital in Fredericksburg, and I would like to have him discharged, for yers have my husband and two sons, all three, in the army, and I need the help of one of them, either one of my sons or my husband." The President said, "You make an affidavit to that effect and bring it back to me." In the course of a day or so she returned again, and the President so arranged it that she could g-o down and take the order

i8

TJnder President Lincoln

for the husband's or son's discharge. She had been gone probably three weeks, and the matter had passed out of my mind, when one day she returned to the White House. When she came up to speak to the President her voice was full of sorrow, and she was nearly crying as she said, "Mr. President, when I got down there he was dead. Now yers have two sons yet. I want to see if yer won't discharge one to help me get along, and yers can have the other one." Then the President said to her as he had done before. "You make an affidavit to that effect and bring it to me." She did so, and returned with the affidavit to the President. After he had arranged it sO' that she was to get one of her sons back, she stepped up to him and said, "Mr. President, may God bless you, and may you live many long years." After she had left the room and there was nobody in the office with the President but myself, he said to me, looking up into my face, "I believe that the old woman is honest."

One day an artist brought a painting of the President which he wanted him to see. I went in and said, "Mr. President, there is a man out there whO' has a painting he wants you tO' see." He replied, "Fetch him in."

The artist came tugging the picture in a large, heavy frame. He put it down and waited for the President to speak. It was considered quite a big thing for an artist to get the President's opinion of his painting. Mr. Lincoln looked at the picture for some time without saying anything. Then, with considerable humor in his eye, he said to the artist, "Why, yes, that is a ver}'- good picture of me, and do you know why?" The artist was all worked up at the President's attitude, and was so confused he could not reply. "Well," continued Mr. Lincoln, "I'll tell you why it is the best picture of me; it is the ugliest." The artist was rather taken back for a few moments, but went away perfectly satisfied.

Along about four o'clock one afternoon there were a number of people waiting outside to see the President. He looked up at me from his desk and said, "Pendleton, how many people are out there?" I replied, "Mr. President, there are quite a number." I shall never forget his next remark. He got up, came over tO' the window, looked at the crowd of people waiting, and then said, "Turn them in; turn them in," just like an old farmer used to say to me, "Tom, pull down the bars and turn in the cows."

One day a paymaster's wife came in, very stylishly dressed, and said, "Mr. President, I would like my husband to be relieved at the front and some other man sent in his place." Mr. Lincoln looked up, and said, "Madam, I cannot do that. It would necessitate sending another paymaster in his place, so^ he will have to remain at his post."

Another time a major called. He was anxious to get in to General Hancock's corps, then being organized. He told the President he would like to get in this corps, and left his papers with him. In the course of a few days he returned and reminded Mr. Lincoln of the fact of having left his application and requested a reply. Mr. Lincoln said to him, "Yes, I have read your papers, but I do not find anything very strong in them." "Why," said the major, "don't you see what General Hancock said?" "Yes," replied the President, "he says you are a gallant officer." "What more could you want him to say?" asked the major in surprise. "Why," replied Mr. Lincoln, "he does not say that you are a sober officer." The man carried signs of dissipation on his face. He marched out of the ofHce with his papers under his arm, and that was the last time I ever saw the pompous major.

One day a number of persons were shown into his office, and among them an old personal friend from Illinois. He at once came up to Mr. Lincoln, shook hands with him and said, ''Why, Mr. President, you look just about as you did when you were out in Illinois." Here was an opportunity for the man to forg-et affairs of state and relax from business cares and the burdens, which at that time were bearing heavily upon him. The President said, "Yes, I am about the same, and that puts me in mind of an old farmer out in Illinois who had an old horse which he put in pasture to recuperate. After the horse had grazed in the pasture some time, one of the neighbors came along and remarked to^ the owner of the old horse, 'Well, you put this horse in here to recuperate, but he looks just about the same as when you first put him in here. He neither recupes nor decupes.' And," added Mr. Lincoln, "that's just about the way it is with me." The two friends then had a very hearty laugh.

One night, while sitting in the little anteroom, I heard the doorknob turn quickly and in walked Mr. Lincoln with his shoes in his hand, and said, "Now I caught you ! Do you know what you put me in mind of?" "No, Mr. President !" I said. "Well, you put me in mind of a boy that got forty-three eggs in the barn and put them under a hen, and then came and told his mother that he had set a hen on forty-three eggs. She said, 'That cannot be true, for a hen cannot cover forty-three eggs.' 'Well, mother, I know that, but I just wanted to see her spread herself.' So I wanted to see how you would spread yourself."

In November, 1864, on the night of Mr. Lincoln's re-election, we started over to the old War Department. It was very different in those days from now. When the President wanted tO' consult any of his Cabinet members he would take a trusty guard with him, walk over to the office of the Secretary, and have a plain business talk with him. No matter whether it was day or night he would go- personally. On the night in question, Major Hay, now the Secretary of State, was on the left side and I on the right of the President, as we went over to> the old War Department.

That night he took a different course. Instead of going to the east door, he undertook to go across the grass and enter by the south door. In passing through this ground on several previous occasions I had noticed that pegs were driven in the ground and a telegraph wire stretched across them, in order to keep people from walking over the lawn. Mr. Lincoln wanted to go that way, but I suddenly remembered the pegs, and grabbed him by the arm, just as he was about to stumble over the wire, and said, "Look out, Mr. President." However, his foot did strike the wire, and in a few moments more he would have been sprawling on the ground, a very undignified position for a President, to say the least, but by grabbing him as I did I saved him from a heavy fall. "Well," said he, "I never would have thought of that." We then proceeded without further incident. When we reached the main entrance he went on with Major Hay, saying tO' me, "Now, Pendleton, you may return to the house, and I will get some of the people over here to walk back with me." One day a man with a very swarthy complexion came in wearing a silk hat and a Prince Albert coat. You would have taken him at first glance for a minister of the gospel. He co'mmenced finding fault with Mr. Stanton, the great War Secretary, accusing him of not carrying out the order that President Lincoln had given two weeks before to have a certain man liberated from prison who had been sentenced to death, but was pardoned. Mr. Lincoln listened patiently tO' his complaint, and then said, emphatically, "If it had not been for me, that man would now be in his grave. Now, sir, you claim to be a philanthropist. If you will get your Bible and turn tO' the 30th chapter of Proverbs, the loth verse, you will read these words : 'Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.' " Whereupon the man got "hufify" and went away. But as he went out, he said, angrily, "There is no such passage in the Bible." "Oh, yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "I think you will find it in the 30th chapter of Proverbs and at the loth verse." This was late in the afternoon, and I thought no' more of the occurrence. Next morning I was at Mr. Lincoln's office door as usual, about 8 o'clock, and heard some one calling out: "O Pendleton! I say, Pendleton, come in here." When I went inside Mr. Lincoln said to me, "Wait a moment." He stepped quickly into the private part of the house, through what is now the Cabinet Room, but which was then used as a waiting room, and soon reappeared with his Bible in his hand. He then sat down and read to me that identical passage he had quoted to the philanthropist, and sure enough it was found to be in the 30th chapter of Proverbs, and at the loth verse.

In those days I was not much of a Bible reader. But in 1865 I decided that all-important question whether or not I should be a follower of the Lord Jesus. I commenced reading a little old Bible that I had bought at a second-hand store and which had belonged to an old soldier. After this I always kept it with me at the White House, and would occupy my odd hours in reading from it. One day I came across that same passage which Mr. Lincoln had quoted to the angry philanthropist. The whole occurrence came back to me, and I thought what a just man was the President. He was not even willing for me to- be in doubt as to his correct quotation of a Bible passage, but must needs take his precious time to prove himself right in my eyes. How simple-hearted, yet how truly great a man he was.

On one dark Sunday, to^ the best of my recollection, in the month of December, Mr. Lincoln started with me over to the old War Department. He had lately been very much worried about affairs of state, and seemed this day to be lost in thought. We went in the east door, and then had to climb a stairway. The steps were not exactly winding, but had a couple of landings, and led to- Secretary Stanton's door. On the way from the White House tO' the old War Department were a great many large, fine trees which were boxed, and I had often thought how easy it would be for a man to secrete himself behind one of them, wait for the President to pass that way, then jump out and kill him before the guard could prevent, though he might be ever so watchful. When we reached Secretary Stanton's office I stayed outside the door while Mr. Lincoln went in to- see him. He remained a long time. When he was ready to- return and came out of the door, I was by his side in a minute. We had walked down to the first landing, about half-way down the stairs, when we met a man coming up. He was thick-set, and wore a gray suit of clothes. The man scrutinized Mr. Lincoln very closely, and I had my eye on him all the time. The President did something very unusual for him — he looked at the man very steadily, as if trying to fix his features on his memory. Before the man reached the upper landing he turned and took another look at the President, and again Mr. Lincoln and I both looked at him. After we got out of the building, where there was nO' one near us, the President said to me, "Last night I received a letter from New York stating that there would be a man here who would attempt to take my life. In that letter was a description of the man who was said to be anxious to kill me. His size and the kind of clothes he would wear when he would make the attempt were carefully described. The man we just passed agreed exactly with the description given me in that letter."

On one occasion when quite a number of people were shown into the President's office, there was among them a young girl, rather timid looking, as though she had come from one of the small towns or a rural district. There was evidently something weighing very heavily on her heart. I supposed her brother, uncle, or some of her kindred whoi were probably in the army, had been ordered shot, or that she had some other trouble which bore very heavily upon her. When she got before the President, poor thing, she was so embarrassed that she could not open her mouth. The President saw the situation, and at once, in his kind, fatherly way said, "Now take a seat just over there, and after a little while I will see you," and presently did so.

On one occasion there was no one in the rooim but little Tad Lincoln and myself. An old-fashioned settee and some rickety chairs constituted the furniture. Those were the days when we were not thinking about furniture. Little Tad piled two or three chairs upon the settee and secreted himself behind it. Just as the President came in. Tad pitched the chairs and settee over into the middle of the floor in front of his father. The President roared out laughing. Sometimes when we would come from the War Department and pass through the same little room, little Tad would be there, and he would put his great arms around the little fellow and tug him ofT upstairs.

Mrs. Kendall, Mr. Lincoln's bosom friend, relates a sad incident which came under her observation one day as she came from the East Room. She saw over on one side of the room a young girl weeping as though her heart would break. She went over and asked her what was the trouble. The young girl said, "Oh, madam, my brother is to be shot and I cannot get to see the President !" Mrs. Kendall asked to be given the papers, and upon receiving them, she immediately went upstairs and saw the President for the young girl. She stated the case, and gave him the papers. Probably he examined them. At any rate, he said to her, "You go downstairs and tell the girl to go home and give herself no uneasiness about her brother. It will be all right."

During this period there was one of my companions, Alfonso Dunn, who was in a good deal of trouble. So^me of his relations had been drafted — two men — and each one of them had families and could not raise money enough for a substitute. Their wives were very much distressed to think they would have to go to- the front. Dunn said to me one day, "Tommy, won't you go upstairs and see Mrs. Lincoln and ask if these men may have more time in which to get a substitute?" I said,

ITiider President Lincoln

"Dunn, why don't you go up and see her yourself?" He said, "Tommy, I don't like to go." He pleaded with me so earnestly that I finally went upstairs and saw Mrs. Lincoln for him. She told me to go in and see the chief clerk and have the document drawn up; then I was to bring it in to her, and she would sign it. I did SO', and before the ten days expired peace was proclaimed. Consequently, Alfonso was happy and the two men who would otherwise have been compelled to leave their wives were also happy, I presume.