The ladies of the White House; or, In the home of the presidents. Being a complete history of the social and domestic lives of the presidents from Washington to the present time--1789-1881

Front matter

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Preface

The Ladies of the White House have had no biographers. The custom of the Republic, which relegates back to private life those who have served it, has made it difficult to gather much of stirring interest concerning the women who have made the social history of the different administrations. From privacy they came, to privacy they were returned, and the world took little cognizance of them beyond noting the entertainments they gave, and the success that attended their dinners and receptions.

In the historical works of the age — even in the biographies of the Presidents themselves — not much has been said of women, who, for the most part, were powerful adjuncts to their popularity, and exerted great influence over their lives. The most that has been written of them heretofore were descriptions in the daily papers of the appearance of the lady of the White House on some public occasion, and with this the world has been content until now. We have had a hundred years of domestic honor in the White House — a hundred years which has added much to the glory of the country abroad, and it is but fitting that women, who have held the highest social and semi-official position in the nation, should be made historic subjects. No better time than the present could be found for filling this serious gap in general American history. The moral influence that has been exerted by the untarnished reputations and high social qualities of the wopien who have successively filled the position of Hostess of the Presidents' House, cannot be estimated. Without the effective and intelligent aid they rendered, no administration would have been satisfactory ; and though the political historian may ignore such service, the right-thinking, honorable men or women of this country have a higher appreciation of the services rendered by these ladies, who were the power behind the throne, cfjual in social influence to the throne itself, and a historical work bearing upon their lives is a valuable contribution to the nation's official history.

4 PREFACE.

Such a one is now offered to the people of this country. It is a complete work, comprising a biographical sketch of every President's wife and hostess of the Executive Mansion from Mrs. Washington down to Mrs. Garfield.

The information contained in the volume has never been compiled in any other form, and there are many historical facts of a most interesting nature for the first time presented to the public. The book contains the portraits of the wives of the Presidents, and of the ladies who presided over the Mansion during the administrations of unmarried Presidents. At a time when the women of this country are commanding the attention of the civilized world by reason of their higher education, superior mental attributes, and exalted social status, such a book is of exceptional value.

The mechanical execution of the work will commend itself to all lovers of excellence in book-making. Nothing has been left undone that would make it worthy of the ladies whose records it contains. The unusual attractions of the theme, the style in which it is published, and the place in the country's history which such a book fills, conspire to render it a work which the public and private libraries of this country cannot afford to be without ; they cannot be called complete without a copy of the " Ladies of the White House."

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE WHITE HOUSE face title page. -J

MARTHA WASHINGTON ( Vignette) face page 39 ' Q

MARTHA WASHINGTON "

ABIGAIL ADAMS "

MARTHA JEFFERSON "

DOROTHY P. MADISON "

LOUISA CATHARINE ADAMS "

RACHEL JACKSON "

MRS. MARTIN VAN BUREN "

ANGELICA VAN BUREN "

LETITIA CHRISTIAN TYLER "

MRS. JAMES K. POLK "

ABIGAIL FILLMORE "

HARRIET LANE "

<RS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN "

MRS. ANDREW JOHNSON "

MARTHA PATTERSON "

MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT "

NELLIE GRANT SARTORIS "

LUCY WEBB HAYES "

LUCRETIA RUDOLPH GARFIELD "

MONTICELLO " "

MONTPELIER " "

FIRST RESIDENCE OF ANDREW JACKSON " "

HERMITAGE " " " »*7 y/'

WHEATLAND " " "

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126 ^

333 ^

.339-^

366^

400 ^

457^

498 ^

573 ^

612^'

628 ^

665 •

147 ■■

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Contents

MARTHA W^ASHINGTON.

Personal appearance of Mrs. Custis — Introduced to Colonel Washington — Traditions relating to their first interview — The body-servant's long wait for his master's appearance — His orders to put up the horses for the night — The wooing of the soldier lover — Returns from the seat of government to offer himself — Engagement — Marriage — The wedding at the " White House " — The Virginia home of the bride — A most joyous and happy event — The girlhood of Martha Dandridge — The belle of Williamsburg — Her first marriage — Death of her eldest son — Colonel Custis — His fine character and romantic nature — Happy married life with him — Left with two children — She manages her estate after her husband's death — Residence near her father's home — Twenty-six years old when she becomes Mrs. Washington — Had never known care or poverty — Her high social position — Removal to Mount Vernon — Again the mistress of a wealthy planter's home — Often with Washington in Williamsburg while he was a member of the Legislature — Her life a happy one — Washington's great consideration for her — Only letter preserved that was written by him to her — Mrs. Washington before her death destroyed all her letters — This one overlooked — His assurance that he is unwilling to part with her and their children, at the time that he is made Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army — His only unhappiness due to her loneliness — Urges her to be content, and not complain of what he could not avoid — Makes his will in her favor, and hopes that his " dear Patsy" is pleased with its provisions — Her visits to him — Travels in her private carriage to his head-quarters each year — The servants wish his return home — Washington anxious about her, and after her arrival sent letters of thanks to all who had been attentive to her — The officers glad to see her — Once insulted in Philadelphia through party bitterness — Sensitive to her husband's fair fame — Mrs.

Washington not fond of dress — The spinning-wheels and looms in her house — Washington's inaugural suit the handiwork of his household — She wears " a simple russet gown and white handkerchief about her neck" to a ball given in her honor — Two of her dresses woven from the ravelings of brown silk stockings and old crimson chair-covers — Washington's return to Mount Vernon — called again from his retirement — Mrs. Wasliington's crowning glory — Some other attributes — Her life an interesting one, veiwed historically — Mrs. Washington not much of a reader — A good d.Tughter and mother, but not a notable housekeeper — Her husband the manager of tlie establishment — The children governed by him — A source of regret that he had no sons and daughters — His countrymen glad that there was no parental tie to diverthim from his publicservice— Death of Miss Custis — John Parke Custis with General Washington — His young wife and children at Mount Vernon — Mrs. "Washington at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78 — Death of her son — General Washington adopts her two grandchildren, and returns to Mount Vernon with the mourners— Mrs. Washington's first reception as wife of the Chief Magistrate — Pleased with her lofty position— The levees held at the Republican Court — The residence of the President in New York — The etiquette of the mansion — Mrs. Washington's views on the subject of her elevation — A letter to a friend, in which her philosophy is shown — Removal of seat of government to Philadelphia — Letter of the Rev.

II. Abigail Adams

Abigail Smith, the daughter of a New England Congregationalist minister, was born at Weymouth, in 1744. Her father was the settled pastor of that place for more than forty years, and her grandfather was also a minister of the same denomination in a neighboring town.

The younger years of her life were passed in the quiet seclusion of her grandfather's house; and under the instructions of her grandmother, she imbibed most of the lessons which were the most deeply impressed upon her mind. "I have not forgotten," she says in a letter to her own daughter, in the year 1795, "the excellent lessons which I received from my grandmother at a verv early period of life; I frequently think they made a more durable impression upon my mind than those which I received from my own parents. This tribute is due to the memory of those virtues, the sweet remembrance of which will nourish, though she has long slept with her ancestors."

Separated from the young members of her own family, and never subjected to the ordinary school routine, her imaginative faculties bade fair to develop at the expense of her judgment, but the austere religion of her ancestors, and the daily example of strict compliance to forms,

prevented the too great indulgence of fancy. She had

SS ABIGAIL ADAMS,

many relations both on the father's and mother's side, and with these she was upon as intimate terms as circumstances would allow. The distance between the homes of the young people was, however, too great, and the means of their parents too narrow, to admit of very frequent personal intercourse, the substitute for which was a rapid interchange of written communication. "The women of the last century," observes Mr. Charles Francis Adams in his memoir of his grandmother, "were more remarkable for their letter-writing propensities, than the novelreading and more pretending daughters of this era: their field was larger, and the stirring events of the times made it an object of more interest. Now, the close connection between all parts of this country, and rapid means of transmittino- intellio^ence throuo-h the medium of telegraphs and newspapers, renders the slow process of writing letters unnecessary, save in instances of private importance. The frugal habits of the sparsely settled country afforded little material for the fashionable chit-chat which forms so large a part of the social life of to-day, and the limited education of woman was another drawback to the indulgence of a pleasure in which they really excelled. Upon what, then, do we base the assertion that they were remarkable for their habits of writing? Even though self-taught, the young ladies of Massachusetts were certainly readers, and their taste was not for the feeble and nerveless sentiments, but was derived from the deepest wells of English literature. Almost every house in the colony possessed

EARLY EDUCATION. 89

some old heir-looms in the shape of standard books, even if the number was limited to the Bible and dictionary. Many, especially ministers, could display relics of their Enelish ancestors' intellicjence in the libraries handed down to them, and the study of their contents was evident in many of the grave correspondences of that early time." To learning, in the ordinary sense of that term, she could make no claim. She did not enjoy an opportunity to acquire even such as there might have been, for the delicate' state of her health forbade the idea of sending her away from home to obtain them. In speaking of her deficiencies, the year before her death, she says: "My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunity which the present day offers, and which even our common country schools now afford. / never was sent to any school, I was always sick." Although Massachusetts ranked then, as it does now, first in point of educational facilities, it is certainly remarkable that its women received such entire neglect. "It is not impossible," says Mr. Adams, "that the early example of Mrs. Hutchison, and the difficulties in which the public exercise of her gifts involved the colony, had established in the public mind a conviction of the danger that may attend the meddling of women with abstruse points of doctrine; and these, however they might confound the strongest intellects, were nevertheless the favorite topics of thought and discussion in that generation."

While the sons of a family received every possible advantage compatible with the means of the father, the daughter's interest, as far as mental culture was concerned, was generally ignored. To aid the mother in manual household labor, and by self-denial and increased industry to forward the welfare of the brothers, was the most exalted height to which any woman aspired. To women there was then no career open, no life-work to perform outside the narrow walls of home. Every idea of self-culture was swallowed up in the wearying routine of practical life, and what of knowledge they obtained, was from the society of the learned, and the eagerness with which they treasured and considered the conversations of others.

On the 26th of October, 1764, Abigail Smith was married to John Adams. She was at the time twenty years old. The match, although a suitable one in many respects, was not considered brilliant, since her ancestors were among the most noted of the best class of their day, and he was the son of a farmer of limited means, and as yet a lawyer without practice. Mrs. Adams was the second of three daughters, whose characters were alike strong and remarkable for their intellectual force. The fortunes of two of them confined its influence to a sphere much more limited than that which fell to the lot of Mrs. Adams. Mary, the eldest, was married in 1762 to Richard Cranch, an English emigrant, who subsequently became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Massachusetts. Elizabeth, the youngest, was twice married ; first to the Reverend John Shaw, minister of Haverhill, and after his death, to the

0I5JECTI0NS TO HER MARRIAGE. 9 1

Reverend Mr. Peabody, of New Hampshire. This anecdote is told in connection with the marriage of Mrs. Adams. When her eldest sister was married, her father preached to his people from the text, " And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The disapprobation to his second daughter's choice was due to the prejudice entertained against the profession of the law. Mr. Adams, besides being a lawyer, was the son of a small farmer of the middle class in Braintree, and was thought scarcely ofood enouoh to match with the minister's dauehter, descended from a line of ministers in the colony. Mr. Smith's parishioners were outspoken In their opposldon, and he replied to them Immediately, after the marriage took place. In a sermon, in which he niade pointed allusion to the objection against lawyers. His text on this occasion was, " For John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say. He hath a dcviiy Mr, Smith, it may be as well to add, was in the habit of making application of texts to events which in any manner interested himself or his congregation. In a colony founded so exclusively upon motives of religious zeal as Massachusetts was, it necessarily followed that the ordinary distinctions of society were In a great degree subverted, and that the leaders of the church, though without worldly possessions to boast of, were the most In honor everywhere. If a festive entertainment was meditated, the minister was sure to be first on the list of those invited. If any assembly of citizens was held, he must be there to open the business with prayer. If a political measure was in agitation, he was among the first whose opinions were to be consulted. He was not infrequently the family physician. Hence the objection to Mr. Adams by her friends was founded on the fact that she was the daug-hter and orrand-daupfhter of a minister, and his social superior according to the opinions of zealous Christians, whose prejudices were extreme toward a calling they deemed hardly honest.

Ten years of quiet home life succeeded her marriage, during which time little transpired worthy of record. " She appears to have passed an apparently very happy life, having her residence in Braintree, or in Boston, accordine as the state of her husband's liealth, tlien rather impaired, or that of his professional practice, made the change advisable. Within this period she became the mother of a daughter and of three sons."

Mr. Adams was elected one of the delegates on the part of Massachusetts, instructed to meet persons chosen in the same manner from the other colonies, for the purpose of consulting in common upon the course most advisable to be adopted by them. In the month of August, 1774, he left home in company with Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushings, and Robert Treat Paine, to go to Philadelphia, at which place the proposed assembly was to be held. In two months, Mr. Adams was home again. Congress met again in May, 1775, and Mr. Adams returned to Philadelphia to attend It. The long distance was traversed on horseback, and was replete

STUDIES FRENCH AT NIGHT. 93

with hardships. At Hartford he heard of the memorable incident at Lexington, only five days after his departure from Braintree. Up to this time, the trouble between the two countries had been a dispute, henceforth it resolved itself into open hostilities,

"In November, 1775," says Bancroft, "Abigail Smith, the wife of John Adams, was at her home near the foot of Penn Hill, charged with the sole care of their little brood of children ; managing their farm ; keeping house with frugality, though opening her doors to the houseless, and giving with good will a part of her scant portion to the poor ; seeking work for her own hands, and ever busily occupied, now at the spinning wheel, now making amends for having never been sent to school by learning French, though with the aid of books alone. Since the departure of her husband for Congress, the arrow of death had sped near her by day, and the pestilence that walks in darkness had entered her humble mansion. She herself was still weak after a violent illness ; her house was a hospital in every part ; and such was the distress of the neighborhood, she could hardly find a well person to assist in looking after the sick. Her youngest son had been rescued from the grave by her nursing. Her own mother had been taken away, and after the austere manner of her forefathers, buried without prayer. Woe followed woe, and one affliction trod on the heels of another. Winter was hurrying on ; during the day family affairs took off her attention, but her long evenings, broken by the sound of the Storm on the ocean, or the enemy's artillery at Boston, were lonesome and melancholy. Ever in the silent nioht ruminatino- on the love and tenderness of her departed parent, she needed the consolation of her husband's presence ; but when she read the king's proclamation, she willingly gave up her nearest friend exclusively to his perilous duties, and sent him her cheering message: 'This intelligence will make a plain path for you, though a dangerous one. I could not join to-day in the petitions of our worthy pastor for a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies. Let us separate; they are unworthy to be our brethren. Let us renounce them ; and instead of supplications, as formerly, for their prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the Almighty to blast their counsels and bring to naught all their devices.' "

Such words of patriotism falling from the lips of a woman who had just buried three members of her household, one her own mother, and who was alone with her four little children within sight of the cannonading at Boston, discovers a mind strong, and a spirit fearless and brave under scenes of harrowing distress.

Now she was alone, and she writes to her husband, " The desolation of war is not so distressing as the havoc made by the pestilence. Some poor parents are mourning the loss of three, four, and five children, and some families are wholly stripped of every member."

WORDS OF PATRIOTISM, 95

December found Mr. Adams once more at home to cheer his suffering family, but Congress demanded his presence, and after a stay of one month, he returned again to the halls of the nation, March came, and her anxious, solitary life was in nowise brightened. The distance, in those days of slow travel and bad roads, from Boston to Philadelphia was immense, and letters were precious articles hard to receive. In speaking of the anticipated attack on Boston, she says : " It has been said to-morrow and to-morrow; but when the dreadful to-morrow will be I know not," Yet even as she wrote, the first peal of tlie American guns rang out their dissonance on the chilling night winds, and the house shook and trembled from cellar to carret. • It was no time for calm thoughts now, and she left her letter unfinished to qo out and watch the lurid liohts that flashed and disappeared in the distance. Next morning she walked to Penn's Hill, where she sat listeninfj to the amaziner roar, and watchino- the British shells as they fell round about the camps of her friends. Her home at the foot of the hill was all her earthly wealth, and the careful husbanding of each year's crop her only income; yet while she ever and anon cast her eye upon it, the thoughts that welled into words were not of selfish repinings, but of proud expressions of high-souled patriotism. "The cannonade is from our army," she continues, "and the sight is one of the grandest in nature, and is of the true species of the sublime. 'Tis now an incessant roar. To-night we g6 ABIGAIL ADAMS.

shall realize a more terrible scene still ; I wish myself with you out of hearing, as I cannot assist them, but I hope to give you joy of Boston, even if it is in ruins before I send this away." But events were not ordered as she feared, and the result was more glorious than she dared hope. All the summer the army lay encamped around Boston, and in early fall her husband came home again, after an absence of nearly a year. Yet his coming brought her little satisfaction, since it was to announce the sad truth that he had been chosen Minister to France. Could he take his wife and little ones ? was the oft-recurring question. A small and not very good vessel had been ordered to carry him: the British fleet knew this, and were on the watch to capture it. On every account it was deemed best he should go alone, but he finally concluded to take his eldest son, John Quincy Adams, to bear him company, and in February, 1778, sailed for Europe.

The loneliness of the faithful wife can hardly be understood by those unacquainted with the horrors of war. Yet doubtless there are many, very many, who in the dark elooni of the civil war can record similar feelings of agony, and can trace a parallel in the solitary musings of this brave matron. The ordinary occupations of the female sex have ever confined them to a very limited sphere, and there is seldom an occasion when they can with propriety extend their exertions beyond the domestic hearth. Only through the imagination can they give unlimited scope to those

AX ENVIABLE RECORD. 97

powers which the world until recently has never understood, and which are even now but dimly defined. Had mankind given them the privileges of a liberal education, and freedom to carve their own destiny, to what dazzling heights would a mind so naturally gifted as Mrs. Adams', have attained? Circumscribed as her lot was, she has left upon the pages of history an enviable record, and while Americans forget not to do honor to her husband's zeal and greatness, her memory lends a richer perfume, and sheds a radiance round the incidents of a life upon which she wielded so beneficial an influence.

Ofttimes weather-bound and compelled to remain indoors for days, with no society save her children and domestics, it is not strange that she should be lonely. Nor could her mind dwell upon any pleasing anticipations for the future. Her husband three thousand miles away, a hostile army encompassing the country, poor and forlorn, she yet so managed and controlled her litde estate, that it served to support her, and in old age, to prove the happy asylum of her honored family. Mr. Adams knew her exposed condition, yet trusted to her judgment to protect herself and little ones. On a former occasion he had written to her " in case of danger to fly to the woods," and now he could only reiterate the same advice, at the same time feeling that she was strong and resolute to sustain herself. Six months passed, and Mrs. Adams writes to him: "I have never received a syllable from you or my dear son, and it is five months since I had an opportunity of conveying- a Hne to you. Yet I know not but you are less a sufferer than you would be to liear from us, to know our distresses, and yet be unable to relieve them. The universal cry for bread to a humane heart is painful beyond description." Mr. Adams returned to his family after an absence of eighteen months, but no sooner was he established in his happy home, than he was ordered to Great Britain to negotiate a peace. Two of his sons accompanied him on this trip. He went over night to Boston to embark early next day, and the sad heart left behind again, found relief in the following touching words : " My habitation, how disconsolate it looks ! my table, I sit down to it, but cannot swallow my food ! Oh, why was I born with so much sensibility, and why, possessing it, have I so often been called to struggle with it ? Were I sure you would not be gone, I could not withstand the temptation of coming to town though my heart would suffer over again the cruel torture of separation." Soon after this time, she wrote to her eldest son in regard to his extreme reluctance at again crossing the ocean, and for its perspicuity and terseness, for the loftiness of its sentiments, and the sound locfical advice in which it abounds, ranks itself among the first literary effusions of the century :

"My Dear Son: 'Tis almost four months since you left your native land and embarked upon the mighty

A MOTHERS ADVICE. 99

waters in quest of a foreign country. Although I have not particularly written to you since, yet you may be assured you have constantly been upon my heart and mind.

"It is a very difficult task, my dear son, for a tender parent, to bring her mind to part with a child of your years, going to a distant land ; nor could I have acquiesced in such a separation under any other care than that of the most excellent parent and guardian who accompanied you. You have arrived at years capable of improving under the advantages you will be likely to have, if you do but properly attend to them. They are talents put into your hands, of which an account will be required of you hereafter; and, being possessed of one, two, or four, see to it that you double your number.

"The most amiable and most useful disposition in a young mind is diffidence of itself; and this should lead you to seek advice and instruction from him who is your natural guardian, and will always counsel and direct you in the best manner, both for your present and future happiness. You are in possession of a natural good understanding, and of spirits unbroken by adversity and untamed with care. Improve your understanding by acquiring useful knowledge and virtue, such as will render you an ornament to society, an honor to your country, and a blessing to your parents. Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them. Adhere to diose religious sentiments and principles which were lOO ABIGAIL ADAMS.

early instilled into your mind, and remember diat you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions. Let me enjoin it upon you to attend constantly and steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your father, as you value the happiness of your mother and your own welfare. His care and attention to you render many things unnecessary for me to write, which I might otherwise do; but the inadvertency and heedlessness of youth require line upon line and precept upon precept, and, when enforced by the joint efforts of both parents, will, I hope, have a due influence upon your conduct; for, dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you in your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or orraceless child.

"You have entered early in life upon the great theatre of the world, which is full of temptations and vice of every kind. You are not wholly unacquainted with history, in which you have read of crimes which your inexperienced mind could scarcely believe credible. You have been taught to think of them with horror, and to view vice as