XV * ' ft 6 '^ "^^O^ .* ^^0^ .^^ : *^ ■^o'« /o-^.--^^ <^;''^.^' / » « s ^^0^ -^^0^ ."^ "^^o^ . . ^ \> ^ ^ * « /■ -%> V ^ ^ • ^ ^ ^ ^ i5 o^ o "-„ 0,% <^ ^^^ ° %.^^^ '^^^ ^^^^^ /^A^= '^^^o .^^ /a^ MEMORIES OF MANY MEn'' ^nb (if Some iDomcn: ^ PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS EMPERORS, KINGS, QUEENS, PRINCES, PRESIDENTS, STATES- MEN, AUTHORS, AND ARTISTS, AT HOME AND ABROAD, DURING THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. By MAUNSELL B. FIELD. ^NEW Y( ORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE ' 18 7 4. y PREFACE. T" MAKE no pretensions to have written any thing in this little book which rises to the dignity of even minor history. I know that it is all liable to be treated with disdainful scorn by the serious and dignified muse whose recording pen traces the solemn and heroic rec- ords of the world's march through time, and the immor- tal achievements of the great. And yet it seems to me that the random, hajD-hazard recollections of men and things herein set down can hardly fail to entertain and amuse, although they may not instruct the curious read- er. If my anecdotes are sometimes trivial, most of them, at least, concern persons famous, some in civil, and some in military life. If their perusal should not add any thing to the real knowledge which you already possess of those to whom they relate, they may, nevertheless, succeed in presenting to you in bolder relief some of the peculiarities which distinguished them. I have made no attempt to be otherwise than desul- tory. I have wandered on through the garden of mem- ory, dreamily and almost at random, plucking here and there, it might be flowers, and it might be weeds, as they presented themselves to my hand ; and I vent- ure to offer them, unsymmetrically arranged and loosely A ii PREFACE. tied together, for your acceptance. Some of them you may find worthy to be pressed and preserved with your own collections ; and others you may drop by the way- side, as having neither fragrance nor beauty. In either event, I shall be content. How many of those about whom I have written have passed away ! Webster, and Adams, and Yan Bueen, and PiEKCE, and Maecy, and Scott, and Soule, and Lin- coln, and Sewaed, and Stanton, and Fessenden, and Geeeley, and Chase, are all gone ! The martyr Presi- dent was carried through the land in a triumphal march to a now neglected and crumbling tomb ! But yester- day I followed the remains of the great Chief Justice to their temporary resting-place in the beautiful George- town Cemetery. Ieving, and Thackeeay, and Dice:ens, and IIawthoene, and Coopee, and James, and Willis, and PoE, have passed before us to the silent land. The Empeeoe Napoleon III. no longer wields a sceptre, but is again an exile in England, and fills there an exile's grave ! Wellington, Palmeeston, and Macaulay have dropped the sword, the portfolio, and the pen ! I feel that it is a privilege to have seen such men, and to have known most of them ; and it has made me happy during the brief, drowsy hours of a summer vacation to seek relief from the duties of an arduous profession by wandering back into the past in their company. M. B. F. New York, October, 1873. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART L— ABROAD. CHAPTER I. An Interview with Edward Everett. — The Duke of "Wellington at the Horse Guards, and in the Lords. — Count d'Orsay's Inter- erence with the Mob. — Minister King and his Negro Major- domo. — M. Guizot and M. Thiers. — The Duke de Nemours at the Races. — The Duke d'Aumale returning from Algeria. — The Duke de Montpensier at a Concert. — The King of Holland : on Horseback; inhisPicture-Galleiy; his Habits. — Minister Wheat- on. — The King of Prussia at Potsdam. — The Crown Prince and Piincess of Prussia in Switzerland. — The Emperor and Empress of Austria, and the Archduchess Sophia. — The " Festive" IVIr. Jenifer. — The Archduke Charles of Austria and his Daughter at Baden. — The Grand-duke of Tuscany. — Charles Albert of Sar- dinia. — The Eccentric Hereditary Grand-duke of Lucca: his Peculiarities, and his Tragical Death. — An Indiscreet " Brum- magem " Man. — The Duke d'Ossuna. — The Marquis de St. Jago. — Pope Gregory XVI., and Cardinal Mezzofanti. — The Eoman Nobility. — Charles Dickens in Rome : Sight-seeing and Carnival- making. — King Bomba of Naples : his Vulgarity and Brutality. — Sultan Abdul Medjid. — Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, his Senile Gallantry. — Ibrahim Pasha and Abbas Pasha. — Prince Albert of Prussia at the Second Cataract. — Sofia, the Discarded Wife of Abbas Pasha. — The Greek Revolution of 1844. — Prince Mavrocordato. — The Beautiful Women of Athens. ^Washing- iy TABLE OF C0NT:ENTS. ton Irving at Madrid. — An Anecdote of Dickens in New York Pages 13-31 CHAPTER II. Prince Lucien Murat : liis Appearance, Manners, and Reputation. — His Story about liis Uncle, Josepli Bonaparte. — His Election to the Frencli Legislative Assembly. — Sj)ring and Early Summer Weather in England. — George N. Sanders and George W, Ken- dall. — Lord Fitzroy Somerset, a Chance Traveling Companion, — The Iron Duke and the Chartists. — Yankee Curiosity. — Dis- jiersing the Mob. — Roasting a Cockney. — Queen Victoria at the Opera 32-44 CIIAPTEE III. Ralph Waldo Emerson iu London. — A Visit with him to the New Houses of Parliament. — A Call ujjon Sir Benjamin Brodie. — A Mysterious Foreigner. — Loyalty of the English Lower Middle- Classes. — A Future Emperoi*. — Baroness Coutts and Mrs. Bates. — Lady Blessington. — Mitchel, the Manager of the St. James' Theatre. — A Problematical Hoax. — An Anglicized Knicker- bocker. — Queer Shop Signs 45-56 CHAPTER IV. Acting Secretary of Legation in France. — Sweets of Diplomatic Life. — Yankee "Cheek." — A Virginian Gentleman. — Slaveholder and Abolitionist. — Presenting Uni^resentables. — Donn Piatt. — A Blunt Soldier. — Sponging a Uniform. — Chapeau vs. Chimney- pot. — Diplomatic Catastrophe 67-74 CHAPTER V. Secretary Marcy and the Ostend Dispatch. — The Author starts for Madrid. — Riding Spanish. — Pierre Soul6. — His Duel with M, Turgot. — A Baited Minister. — A Spanish Constituent Cortes. — Wheedling the Queen-mother. — The Blciclc Warrior Aflfaii". — Pre- TABLE OF CONTENTS. y paring for an Audience. — Spanish Etiquette. — Baffling a Cham- Ijerlain. — The " Innocent Isabel." — Royal Aflfability. — A Press- ing Imitation. — Baffled again 75-94 CHAPTER YI. The " Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin." — The Duke and the Duchess of Alva. — A Drive with Mr. Soule. — He resigns in Disgust. — His Confidence in the Ostend " Platform." — Farewell to Madrid. — Mr. Mason stricken down by a Paralytic Stroke . 95-100 CHAPTER yn. President of the Board of United States Commissioners at the Ex- position in Paris. — Perplexities and Annoyances. — The Sewing- Machine People. — Mr, Goodyear's Vulcanized India-Rubber. — Plon-Plon.— The Princess Mathilde Demidofi".— An " Enfant Ter- rible." — A Would-be Leader of the French Democracy. — The Bourbons' Blunder 101-110 CHAPTER VIII. Stupidity or Malice? — A Gathering of Royal Personages. — The Empress Eugenie. — The Emperor Intrigued. — India-Rubber Cannon-Balis. — Horace Greeley at the Exposition. — He gets into Trouble. — He is carried off to Clichy. — A Dinner to the Ameri- can Commissioners. — "Parson Adams in Jail." — Seeing Good Society 111-133 CHAPTER IX. An Odd Fish in Paris. — Self-titled Humanes. — The American Eagle Soars. — A Free and Easy Dii^lomatist. — An Attemj)ted Assassi- nation. — Some of the Emperor's Characteiistics. — A Royal Anx- ious Mother. — The Emperor's Irony. — Guizot and Vattemarre. — Ex-President Van Buren, Majors Mordecai and Delafield, and Captain McClellan in Paris. — The Marquis of Farintosh. — Thackeray's Knowledge of the French. — A Money Lord's Po- vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. liteness. — A Hebrew Funeral. — Award of tlie Cross of tlie Legion of Honor 123-136 CHAPTER X. The Ways of tlie English. — The Duchess of Sutherland and Mrs. Stowe. — A Negro Sculptor. — Some of Lady Byron's Peculiari- ties. — Macaulay at Home. — A Dinner with Thackeray at the Reform Club. — Thackeray and Dickens. — Tom Taylor, Dramatist instead of Parson. — A Party at Mrs. S. C. Hall's: Professor Owen, Jenny Lind, Lover, and Hawthorne present. — British Eloquence, with Mention of Lord Derby, the Bishop of Oxford, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Grey, the Marquis of Clanricarde, the Earl of Hard- wicke, the Earl of Carnarvon, Mr. Disraeli, " Lord John," Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Palmerston. — The Indecorum of the British Senate. — Giving Mr. Bull " his Papers." — A Terrific Scream by the American Eagle. — The Commons in a Twitter, — Her Majes- ty's Friendliness to the States 137-153 TABLE OF CONTENTS. yii PART IL— AT HOME. CHAPTER I. Aaron Burr at Riclimond Hill. — Red Jacket. — General Jackson's "Weeper," and General Pierce's Umbrella. — Presidents, Past and Future. — A Visit to Franklin Pierce at Rye Beach. — His Story about his Nomination. — His Friendship for Nathaniel Hawthorne. — Political Chowder. — Pierce as President: One Thing to All Men. — Office-seeking and Office-seekers. — A Joke of the Secretary of State. — Appointment and DisapjDoint- ment. — James Buchanan. — Love's Last Shift. — A Final Inter- view 155-174 CHAPTER II. " Sam " Houston, and " Mike " Walsh.— Daniel Webster.— Tyler, Fillmore, and Van Burcn. — John Van Bm'cn. — A Pun on Cass's Name. — John Van Buren as a Politician . . . 175-184 CHAPTER III. Dickens in Cincinnati. — G. P. R. James. — James and Sir Walter Scott. — James's Impressions of Horace Greeley. — The Journey to Hell Gate. — James and Sir Hamilton Seymour. — The Sedg- ■wicks and the Literary Coterie at and near Stockbridge. — A Disgusted Idler. — Fanny Kemble in Private. — Melville and Holmes. — Twin Authorshii). — Hawthorne's Shyness. — James as an Official. — Consul-making. — Anecdotes of Campbell, Hogg, and Byron. — " Alexander in the Tent of Darius" . 185-314 CHAPTER IV. Thackeray at the Century Club. — Jenny Lind and Barnum. — Public Charity. — Miss Lind and her Persecutors. — Her Detesta- tion of Humbug and Abhorrence for Negroes . . 215-220 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. General Scott. — Anecdotes related by him. — His Friendshii) with Sir John Harvey. — His Opinion of McClellan, Lee, and Grant. — Fitz-Greene Halleck. — Edgar A. Poe, and his Lecture u^Don " The Universe."— Rufus W. Griswold and N. P. Willis.— John Quincy Adams and Albert Gallatin. — Charles Francis Ad- ams and ex-President Monroe.— The "Monroe Letter." — Colo- nel James Monroe. — His Experience as "a Friend" . 321-328 CHAPTER VI. Prince Napoleon and the Princess Clotilde in New York. — The Prince's Visit to Mr. Benkard's House, and to the Picture- Galleries of Mr. Belmont and Mr. Aspinwall. — A Dinner in Brooklyn. — He offers to procure Arms for the United States. — He visits Lake Superior and the West. — Dinner to him at the Union Club. — " Vive la France !" — An Entertainment on board the Prince's Yacht 229-337 CHAPTER YII. A Visit to Montreal for the Pui-pose of Inviting the Prince of Wales to New York. — An Official Eeception. — Dinner vs. Ball. — Lunching with the Prince. — Preparations for the Ball. — Re- ception of the Prince at New York. — How he s^jent his Time. — The Ball. — He attends Service at Trinity Church. — An Eco- nomical Committee 238-349 CHAPTER Vni. ^ Howell Cobb, a Secessionist. — An Empty Treasury. — General Dix appointed Secretary of the Treasury. — A Loyal Democrat. — Mr. Cisco visits Secretaiy Chase. — The Sinews of War. — Negotia- tions with the Banks. — The Government again in Difficulties. — Replenishing the Treasuiy. — Any Thing for Money. — Confiden- tial and Semi-official Correspondence with Washington. — The TABLE OP CONTENTS. JX Purchase of the Merchants' Exchange Company's Building for a Custom-House. — The Great Draft Riot. — The Writer invited to Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury . 250-2G1 CHAPTER IX. Mr. Seward. — The Emancipation Proclamation. — ]VIr. Stanton. — Mr. Chase's Diary. — Was Mr. Cameron Dismissed ? — General Mc- Clellan. — Thurlow Weed Governor of New Yorh. — Mr. Welles. — Mr. Chase the Foremost Member of Mr. Lincoln's Cab- inet 363-274 CHAPTER X. John D. Van Buren in Washington. — The Difficulties of Taxation. — Mistakes of Mr. Chase and of Mr. Pitt. — Mr. Lincoln's Inability to appreciate Mr. Chase. — Mr. Chase's Delicacy. — His Presi- dential Aspirations. — Scolding Dignitaries. — His Scrupulous- ness in signing Warrants. — Mr. Lincoln's Savings. — How a State Dinner was Paid for. — Mr. Chase passing Counterfeits of his own Currency. — Assaulted in his own DejDartment. — His Opinion of General Butler. — Visit to the General at Fortress Monroe. — An Incident of the Taylor Campaign. — Mr. Colfax and Mr. Washburne Competitors for the Speakership.l^Mr. Hen- ry G. Stebbins, a Member of the Committee on Ways and Means. — Mr. Wood's AsjDirations for the same Position. — The Swearing Treasurer. — The Blood of John Brown. — A Cool Government Clerk.— A Pretty Thief.— Frederick Douglass . . 275-295 CHAPTER XI. How Mr. Chase came to leave the Treasury Department. — Can- vassing the Senate. — Mr. Chase Resigns. — IVIr. Fessenden is appointed Secretary. — Mr. Lincoln Explains. — Mr. Chase is Stubborn. — Mr. Chase's Four Resignations. — A Characteristic Letter 296-306 A2 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Mr. Fessenden as Secretary of the Treasury. — Mr. Hartley. — " Tite Barnacle " in Wasliington. — Mr. Lincoln's Sectarian Preferences. — " A Little Story."— Mr. Lincoln and the Fan- Sex.— Mr. Lin- coln's Kindness. — General Nye's Republican Saint. — Greeley as Chesterfield. — Greeley walks Seward around the Block. — The Foreign Ministers in Washington .... 307-330 CHAPTER XIII. Mr, Lincoln's Assassination; Death -bed Scenes, and Funer- al o 331-339 PART I. ABROAD. ^ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN AND OF SOME WOMEN. PART I. CHAPTER I. I "WENT abroad for the first time in the spring of the year 1843, and remained absent from America until the month of December in the year 1845. During the intervening period I traveled through all the countries of Europe, except Russia, made the tour of the Seven Churches in Asia Minor, and ascended the Nile as far as the second cataract. I was very young at the time, and my experiences were mostly those of an ordinary traveler. As I am not writing a book of travels, I do not propose giving here any extended account of them. I shall limit myself to a slight, sketchy recital of some trifling incidents connected with distinguished persons whom I happened casually to see. Mr. Edwakd Evekett was at that time our Minister at the Court of St. James, I was the bearer to him of a letter of introduction from Mr. Benjamin F. Bdtlek, who had been Attorney-General of the United States under Peesident Yan Bueen. I found Mr. Eveeett as frigid as an iceberg. His reserve was constitutional. He was as polished as his own writings, but ecpally cold. 14 MEMORIES OF MANY 3£EN. To a yomig man just out of college, this sort of reception operated like a wet blanket. After my first call, I never ventured upon him again. I feared taking cold. I had the good fortune to see the famous Duke of Wellington several times on horseback, going to or re- turning from the Horse Guards, and once in the House of Lords. He was very feeble, and very bowed and bent, and much anxiety was felt on account of his per- sistent habit of riding instead of driving ; but the old warrior was determined to back his steed as long as he possessed the strength to mount him. Every man re- moved his hat on meeting the Duke, and he saluted all in turn with a quick military movement of his forefinger to his own. He was then Commander-in-chief. I saw him in the House of Lords, and heard him speak. The Peers then occupied their old apartment in Westminster Hall; it was very small, and there was scant room for visitors, and no seats at all for them. When the Duke rose to speak, his tones were so low as to be almost inaudible to me. He hemmed and hawed, after the English manner, and there were painfully long pauses between his sen- tences. To one who could only see and not hear, it was a disajipointing exhibition. At this time there M^ere iron shutters upon the front of Apsley House, his town residence, which were always kept closed. This was a reminder of ingratitude to the populace, who had stoned his windows on account of his opposition to the Reform Bill. The attack might have had serious consequences had it not been for the gallant interference of Count d'Oksay, who, although a Frencli- inan, succeeded in shaming the mob. KINGS, ORANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 15 Our Minister to France at that period was Mr. Wm. R. King, of Alabama, afterward Yiee - President of the United States, who, with his accomplished niece, Mrs. Ellis, dispensed charming hospitality at the Legation. Mr. King had brought with him from home a negro, whom he made the major-domo of liis household, and who acquired a surprising ascendency over the other servants and the tradespeople who supplied the family. He was strictly honest himself, and would not permit others to peculate ; and this is a terrible hardship to the underlings of a Parisian establishment. He accompa- nied his master every where. He always coupled his own name with that of Mr, King, and constantly em- ployed the expression, " Me and the Minister." Mr. King was a tall, stiff, stately Southerner, and a dignified and high-toned gentleman. In Paris I attended several meetings of the Chamber of Deputies, and one of the House of Peers. I saw both M. GuizoT and M. Thieks, and heard the former speak. I recollect one thing he said which raised a terrific storm of indignation — "La France a besoin de se sentir gou- vernee !" (France requires to feel herself governed !) I never saw the king, Louis Philippe ; but upon dif- ferent occasions I saw three of his sons, who are still living. I attended one day in the summer of the year 1843 the races in the Champ de Mars. The Due de Nemouks was then the leading patron of the turf in France, and he had a private stand upon the course. The carriage in which I came was stationed so far off that, although I could make out that this stand was filled with people, I was unable to distinguish any faces. After the first i-ace was over, I aliglited from the vehicle. IQ MEMORIES OF 31 ANT MEN. intending to walk across the course and have a look at the Prince, who I w^as informed was one of the party. When I got to the stand it was empty, and I supposed that he had gone home. Lighting a cigar, 1 turned back until I reached the centre of the course, where I stood some time, watching what was going on. Near me was a young man, who did not particularly attract my at- tention, in conversation with an older one. I only no- ticed that he wore very ill-fitting clothes, and had a very decided lisp in his speech. After a while he took a case from his pocket, and, selecting a cigar, asked me for a light. A few minutes later an officer approached him, bareheaded, and asked when Monseigneur would have his guard. I then knew that the young man was the Dec DE l^EMOUKS. The Due d'Aumale I saw the next year, when he re- turned from the w\ar in Algeria. He made a triumphal entry into Paris at the head of his regiment, if I recol- lect aright, the Seventeenth Light Infantry, and marched down the Avenue of the Champs Elysees. lie was on foot ; his uniform was very seedy, and his boots covered with mud. The regiment had camped outside the walls the night before in order to make its entrance in the day-time, and it w^as said that the Prince, before starting upon the march, had for effect bedabbled his boots in a gutter. The Due DE MoNTPENSiEK, who was then not much more than a boy, I saw at a monster concert in the Champs Elysees. Among the pieces performed was the chorus from the opera of Charles VI., ^^ Jamais V Anglais ne regnera en FranceP'' (Never shall the English reign in France !) Peeling between the two nations was run- KINGS, GBANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 17 ning high at that time, and the applause was tremendous. The Prince, by his enthusiastic clapping, split his gloves. His unlucky marriage with the sister of the Queen of Spain was one of the principal causes which led to the hurling of his father from the throne. I twice saw the late King of Holland at the Hasrue, He was reputed the most daring horseman in Europe ; and at the breaking out of the revolution which re- sulted in the separation of Belgium from Holland, he performed the feat of riding from Bnissels to the Hague in a single day. The first time that I saw him was upon a Sunday afternoon, when I was walking, accompanied by a valet de jplace^ on an almost deserted street on the outskirts of the town. Presently there came in view a horse, dashing headlong in our direction ; and, turning in alarm to my companion, I exclaimed, " There is a runaway !" " It is the King," he replied, and in a mo- ment his Majesty passed us at the same furious gait. He had a foraging cap upon his head and a cigar in his mouth, and, without in the least relaxing his speed, he bowed and touched his cap. Behind him, at a long dis- tance, came two panting and blowing aids, and behind them again two Court carriages. They were all return- ing from a country palace where they had been dining. It was said that no aid to the King could stand the serv- ice more than two or three years at the utmost, and the position was not at all in request. A few days afterward I was loitering in the Koyal Picture-gallery attached to the Palace. Besides myself there happened to be nobody there but a French artist, who was making a very creditable copy of an important picture. Soon I entered into conversation with this 18 3IEM0ItIES OF MANY HEX. gentleman, and while I was so engaged, a door opened and the King walked briskly in. Instead of crossing the room, as we supposed it his intention to do, he came directly to ns, and began to compliment the artist npon his picture, lie then talked to me for a long time, and tendered me many civilities. At length, offering ns each a cigar, he withdrew as he had entered. On one side of the gallery there stood, npon a pedestal, stuffed, the white horse which the King, then Pkince of Okange, had ridden at Waterloo. He was a fearful spendthrift. His father was not only a king, bnt also the most successful merchant and speculator in Enrope, and upon his death he left an enor- mous fortune to his sou. The latter managed not only to squander the whole of it in a reign of abont seven years, but also to accumulate debts, whicii compelled the sale, after his death, of his pictures and other effects. He was a very ill-favored man, although the Orange family is noted as an uncommonly fine race. The King was the Grant of his day in respect of smoking. He was ne^'er without a cigar. He even smoked at the opera. When he did this, he occupied a latticed proscenium box, where you could not see him, but whence the odor of the to- bacco emerged and impregnated the entire atmosphere of the house. He was a great linguist, and otherwise ac- complished ; but his reputation as a man was scandalous, and he made the Hao-ue durino; his reio-n the rendezvous of some of the vilest characters in Europe. I was well accredited to Mr. Henry Wiieaton, our Minister at Berlin, and the distinguished wi'iter upon in- ternational law. Upon my arrival I sent my letter with my card to the Legation, and the next day the Minister KINOS, GRANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 19 called upon me, and, not finding me within, left for me my own card, with " Mr. Wheaton for " written over my name. It was surprising that such a solecism in manners should be committed by a diplomatist of Mr. Wheaton's experience. Of course, no offense was intended ; but I did not return the call. The King of Prussia, elder brother to the present Emperor of Germany, I saw once at Potsdam, as he w^as entering his carriage. He was a rough, coarse, red- faced German, and w^ore an immense military cloak of Prussian gray. He afterward became 'mad, or rather imbecile — from an excessive addiction to champagne, it was said. The present Eaipeeor, then Crown Prince, I accidentally met one day upon a by-way in Switzerland. I had left the vettura in which I was traveling to walk to a water-fall, only accessible to pedestrians. I overtook several Germans, with whom I entered into conversation. One of them, who seemed to be the leader of the party, was particularly polite to me. When we again reached the highway, I saw, drawn up on the side of the road, two handsome traveling carriages, with two fourgons, or luggage-vans, behind them, and I thus became aware that my chance companions were people of consequence. In the foremost of the carriages were two ladies, and the chief personage, after an exchange of compliments with me, said that he would be pleased to present me to his wife before we separated. Accordingly I handed him my card, and he presented me to the " Ceown Peestcess OF Peussia." He very cordially invited me to again visit Berlin, assuring me that it would afford him pleas- ure to be of service to me there. We spoke French to- gether. Had I understood German, which I did not, I 20 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. might perhaps have learned earher in our interview the rank of my fellow-traveler. At Vienna, I saw the Empekor Ferdinand, of Austria, a man of low stature and defective intelligence, with tlie overhanging under-lip of the Hapsburgs; and the Em- press, an unusually tall woman, who looked like a giant- ess by the side of her diminutive husband. The Arch- duchess Sophia, mother to the present Emperor (who succeeded upon the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand), was called in those days the most beautiful woman in Austria. Our Charge d' Affaires in Vienna was Mr. Jeni- fer, of Maryland. He was an old dandy and beau, and he had pictures of the lovely Archduchess hung in every room of his house. I shall never forget a dinner at which he produced real Johannisberger of the highest grade, presented to him by Prince Metternich, and other wines of equal fame, all the gifts of titled and distinguished friends. I saw the great Archduke Charles, the most distin- guished adversary of the first Napoleon next to the Duke OF Wellington, at Baden, near Vienna. He was a tall, slender old man, with the unmistakable features of his imperial house, and was walking in the public garden, with his daughter leaning upon his arm, but otherwise unattended. He was himself in plain citizen's dress, and so simple a costume as that worn by the Arch- duchess w^ould disgust a Fifth Avenue belle. Hats were respectfully doffed to them, but otherwise they moved among the crowd like any one else. And so it is all over the Continent of Europe, but not so in England, un- less a great change has occurred there. Members of im- perial and royal families are accustomed to walk the KINGS, GRANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS 21 streets and frequent public places very much as every body else does. Fancy Queen Victoria taking a prome- nade with the Peince of Wales on Bond Street ! I frequently saw the Gkand-duke of Tuscany in Flor- ence. He w^as an Austrian Prince, and a plain, farmer- looking person, with a sailor's roll in his gait. The King of Sardinia at that time was Charles Al- bert, the father of Victor Emmanuel, the present King of Italy. Unlike his son, he was of very lofty stature, overtopping most of his subjects by a head. The angle of his forehead and nose was unusually acute, and his face altogether a very peculiar one. I came upon a very singular personage during my visit to Turin. I was one day sitting alone in the dining- room of my hotel, waiting for my dinner to be served. There were a great many ladies and gentlemen in the room at the same time, either dining or ex23ecting to dine. Presently there entered a very tall young man,* dressed, or rather overdressed, in the most outre Paris fashion, who seated himself at a round table, hitherto unoccupied, which stood between two windows which opened upon the street. His first act was to roll up a napkin into a ball, and throw it at the head of a waiter in a distant part of the room, for the purpose of attract- ing his attention. Shortly afterward he was joined by two young ofiicers in uniform, and I observed a defer- ence in their manner toward him which strangely com- ported with his ill-bred conduct. Every few minutes he would spring from his seat, rush to one of the windows, shout to some passer-by at the top of his voice, and wave a napkin as if in salutation. All the time he talked so loud as to drown all other conversation in the room. I 22 31EM0RIES OF ifANY MEX. noticed tliat the ladies smiled beliind their fans ; but nei- ther their gentlemen companions nor the people of the hotel seemed to pay any attention to his eccentricities. After dinner I went for a walk to the public promenade. I had been sauntering about for some time, when I saw approaching an English drag drawn by four magnificent horses. In the inside were three military gentlemen, and lying upon the roof at full length, his long legs dangling over on the one side, and his head extended be- yond the other, was the strange young man whom I had seen at dinner. There was a crowd of pedestrians, and as the drag rolled on he kissed his hand and fluttered a pocket-handkerchief at the ladies. I knew nobody there, and I did not venture to ask who he was. But after I had returned to the hotel, I went straight to the proprietor and inquired about him. He informed me that he was the Heeeditaky Gkand-duke of Lucca, and nephew to • Chaeles Albeet, to whose pious care his father had in- trusted him. The King at first gave him apartments in the royal palace, but he conducted himself so outra- geously that it soon became necessary to send him adrift. He was the scandal of all decent people in Turin. He had been turned out of many of the best houses for his shameful behavior. He had ever so many horses of his own, but he seldom drove any but hired ones. He would sometimes come to the hotel at noon, and order a dinner for forty, to be ready at six o'clock. He was both a mountebank and a blackguard. Some years later this same harlequin made a visit to the Queen of Spain at Madrid. The local newspapers were full of accounts of his eccentricities. He would never descend the palace stairs by walking down, like KINGS, GRANDEES, AND E2IBASSAD0RS. 23 other mortals, but always slid down the baluster, like an untamed school-boy. Still later, and after lie had become Gkand-duke, he was secretly assassinated in his capital. The matter was never thoroughly elucidated to the public, but it was supposed that the blow was dealt by the hand of one whom he had grossly wronged. I went from Marseilles to Civita Vecchia in a French steamer. There was a full complement of cabin passen- gers from all countries, besides a band of Catalonian peas- ants in the steerage, who were making a pilgrimage to Rome. At dinner, on the first day out, I chanced to be seated next but one to a middle-aged Birmingham man, who had been ordered to Italy by his physician. . I had fallen into a chance conversation earlier in the day with this person, and from his robust appearance should not have taken him for an invalid. He had never before been out of England, and his mind was full of all sorts of insular prejudices. Nearly opposite to me at table sat a quiet person, whose air, complexion, dress, and manners were those of an English gentleman. As soon as the soup was served,"Brummagem" began to talk in a loud voice, for the benefit, apparently, of all the company. He ex- pi-essed in the most ex cathedra manner his dogmatic opinions upon every subject that presented itself to his mind. Finally he slid to the most dangerous of all top- ics, especially in such a place, the relative merits, or rather demerits, of the different nationalities. He spoke in the freest terms of denunciation of French, Germans, and Italians, and wound up, by way of climax, with the remark that of all blackguards in the world tlie Span- 24 MEMORIES OF 3IANY 3IEJV. iards were the greatest ! Pie had hardly uttered these words, before, from the liand of the quiet gentleman op- posite, there came a bottle of claret, with such force that it not only struck "Brummagem" in the breast, but hurled him from his seat. The bottle broke, the blood -red liquid saturated his person and his clothing, and there ensued a scene of dire confusion. His injuries were, however, but trifling, and that evening, instead of seek- ing redress from him, he apologized to his assailant, who turned out to be the Spanish Duke d'Ossuna. The Duke, who had been educated in England, and resided there many years, was eti route for I^aples, of which his ancestors had been viceroys, and where his family still had large possessions. All the frequenters of the Cafe de Paris thirty years ago, at that time the most fashionable restaurant in the French capital, will recollect the formal and eccentric Maequis de St. Jago, who some years later succeeded to the Dukedom of Ossuna. It is still said of that princely family in Spain, that the possessor of the title can travel from Madrid to Naples by land, and sleep in his own house every night. I saw good old Pope Geegoey XVI. in Pome — the venerable, simple-minded Dominican monk. I had also the advantage of a long interview with Caedinal Mez- zoFANTi, the greatest linguist of modern times. He was short in stature, and extremely coarse in appearance, the last person in the world whom one would have picked out as an eminent scholar. The College of Cardinals was composed of some of the noblest-looking men in Europe ; and it was disappointing to see one of the most distinecuished of their number fall far short of the aver- DICKENS AND THE CARNIVAL. 25 age good looks of his order. Some of the Roman no- bility were strange-looking old fossils. I shall never for- get old Pkince Coksini, with his enormous thumb-ring and dirty finger-nails. I met CiiAKLES Dickens in Rome the winter that I was there. I felt very ill-disposed toward him at that time, as did most of my countrymen, on account of his "American ISTotes," then recently published. We met, as sight-seers do in Rome, every where. I particularly recall the circumstance that at one of the most imposing ceremonies at Saint Peter's, during holy week, I kept my eye upon Mr. Dickens, w^ho was standing listlessly leaning against a column, apparently paying no atten- tion whatever to what was going on ; and yet, in his book on Rome, he gives a most minute and graphic de- scription of that very ceremony. His powers of rapid absorption and of accurate retention must have exceeded those of other men. During the carnival, I formed one of a party of twelve, composed of Leutze and other artists, American and French, who, travestied in the costume of the !N^eapolitan Punchinello, and armed with twelve hundred pounds of confetti in sacks, drove up and down the Corso in an open char-d-hanc, warring and being warred upon. Our first serious encounter was with the members of the French Embassy, who, less numerous than ourselves, were rash enough to attack us. Them we quickly subdued ; and then, upon their proposal, w^e entered into a treaty with them of offensive and defensive alliance, it being stipu- lated, among other things, that they were all the time to follow in our wake. It was also agreed that our united forces should bear down upon any person who was B 26 MEMOEIES OF MANY MEN. obnoxious to any one of ns. Presently Mr. Dickens's carriage came along, descending the narrow street on one side as we ascended it on tlie other. Mrs. Dickens and others were inside. Mr, Dickens, in a blouse, and with a wire screen before his face, was in tlie rumble. Just as he got opposite, there was a stoppage in both lines. I immediately gave the word for attack, and the weight of the avalanche of confetti tliat fell upon that devoted head nobody could calculate. Dickens stood it as long as he could, but was finally compelled to conceal his head beneath the seat of the rumble. We were masked, and, of course, unrecognizable. It was fools' play at best, but all the world turns fool at a Roman carnival. ' King Boimba, of Naples, Avas a first-class specimen of disreputable royalty. He was obese, vulgar, and filtliy to the eye, and was said to be the most ill-bred man in Europe, but of this I had no personal opportunity to form an opinion. Among other stories that were circulated about him was the following : It was said that soon after his second marriage, a court ball was given at the Palace in honor of the event. The Queen had been dancing, and the King pretended to conduct her to a chair ; but just as she was about sitting down, he withdrew it, so that she came in confusion to the floor. In her mortification, she turned upon him and said, " When I married you, I supposed that I was marrying a king, whereas I find that I have married a lazzarone !" Whereupon, by way of climax, he slapped her face before the whole assembly ! One expects to find a king at least a gentleman, but this is not the fact with all of them. I once saw the Sultan Abdul Medjid on horseback MEHEMET ALL 27 as he was going, on a Friday, from the Seraglio to the Mosque of Saint Sophia. His dress was European, even to the patent-leather boots, except that he wore a red Turk- ish fez upon his head. He was about thirty at the time, but so enfeebled by excesses that he had to be lifted on and off his horse. His features were regular and hand- some, his complexion pale, his eyes, hair, and beard jet black. He looked like an Italian (his mother was one), and almost like a gentleman. In Cairo I often saw old Meheisiet Alt, who, although he looked like a boor, was every inch a king. He was very aged and decrepit, but, like the Duke of Welling- ton, would go on horseback. A party of us, mounted on donkeys, was one day going to Boulac, the port of Cairo. Among us there was a very charming and beau- tiful young English lady, on her way home with her husband from India. We happened, shortly after leav- ing Cairo, to meet the old Pasha, followed by a suite. He looked all over our party, and then motioned us with his hand to stop. When we had done so, he called some of his people to assist him to dismount. When he reached the ground, he toddled up to the English lad}^, kissed her upon the cheek with the utmost gravity, to her equal amazement and confusion, and then, with aid, remoimted his steed. As we passed on, he benignantly kissed his hand to the fair Islander, and touched his fez to the rest of us. I also saw in Cairo his two sons, Ibeahesi Pasha, the conqueror of Syria, and Abbas Pasha, then Gover- nor of Cairo, and afterward Yiceroy of Egypt. Tlie latter was a very brutal-looking prince, and possessed but little of the ability of his father and his brother. I have mentioned that I made the ascent of the Kile. 28 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. The river was not navigable quite so far as the second cataract, and we were compelled to strand our boat about a mile and a half before reaching it, and make the rest of the distance on foot across the desert. Just before we arrived at the place of disembarkment, we no- ticed another boat, flying the Prussian flag, immediately ahead of us, the people from which had just come ashore. Seeing us approaching, they waited for us to land. When we did so, mutual salutations passed, and we started to- gether to walk to the place of our ultimate destination in that country. Gradually we paired off into couples, and there fell to my companionship a stout, middle-aged German, to whom walking was such an effort that we soon dropped behind all the others of the party. As he was getting very much blowed, and as I was younger and more active than he, he asked me for my arm, and so we trudged on together, talking and laughing, until we reached the sandstone rock which projects over the cataract, the Ultima Thule of our journey, and upon which it was the custom of adventurous travelers to cut their names in memorial of their visit. We had provided ourselves with knives for the purpose, and when we two arrived, all the others were already busily engaged in carving their names upon the surface of the stone. My fat friend, to whom climbing was an impossibility, seated himself at the base, while I ascended to a more elevated position. After finishing my work, I came down again and looked at his inscription. He was just completing the last letters of " Pkinz ALBKEcnT von Pkeussen." I bowed to him, and told him that I had not been aware of the rank of my companion. He laughed, and said that when he left Cairo he had given orders that all rec- A DISCARDED SULTANA. 29 ognition of his rank should be dropped. He could see 110 sense in class distinction in a barbarous land. I found him a downright sensible fellow, and we jogged back to- getlier to our respective boats. That evening we supped with him and his companions, and the next morning they breakfasted with us, our cooks vying with each other to produce the most sumptuous feast. We then parted, dropped into the rapid current, and never met again. On our voyage up the river we stopped, among other places, at Esueh, for the purpose of visiting the ruins of the temple of that name. "We found established there a colony of Almes, or dancing girls, at the head of which was Sofia, a discarded wife of Abbas Pasha. She was a Circassian, and reputed to be the handsomest woman in the East. I have certainly never seen a more perfect specimen of female beauty in any other part of the world. Her husband had detected her several years before talk- ing to a Greek at the corner of the street. For this of- fense he condemned her to be put into a sack and thrown into the Xile. But the European consuls interfered to save her, and induced him to commute the barbarous punishment into that of perpetual banishment to this place, situated a thousand miles distant from Cairo. An- nually, and upon the anniversary of her arrival there, she addressed a letter to the Pasha, begging that she should be permitted to return. But to none of these appeals did she ever receive a reply. I have in my possession a very pleasing picture of her in colored crayons, taken by Mr. Campbell, an artist, and nephew to Campbell the poet, who accompanied us upon our expedition. When our departing boat drifted out into the stream as we left Esneh, we saw her, in her floating, silken robes, standing, 30 ULElfORIES OF MANY MEN. after the Scriptural manner, npon lier " house-top," and waving us an adieu. She had discarded the Eastern fashion of veiling the face. Poor creature ! she had nothing to gain by adliering to it. I saw some pretty Georgian slave girls in Cairo and in Constantinople ; but none of them were to be compared with ]ier for perfec- tion of face and of form, and for attractiveness of man- ner. She was worthy to be the heroine of one of Tom Moore's Eastern tales. I happened to be in Athens just after the Revolution of February, 1S44, and while there was a large foreign fleet assembled in the bay of the Pirasus, and a Constitu- ent Parliament in session in the town. Many of the members of this Parliament were robber chieftains from the mountains, and superb-looking fellows. ISTot one half of them could read or write. The President was Lord Byron's Prince Maveocoedato — a stout, intelligent-look- ing person. The handsomest woman in Atliens was the Queen — Oxno's wife — and the next handsomest, Miss BoTZABis, her first maid of honor, and daughter to Ilal- leck's Marco Botzaeis — not Botzaeis, with the accent upon the a, as he incorrectly places it. When I was in Madrid, Mr. Washington Ieving, whom I had known since I was a boy, represented our govei-n- ment at the Spanish Court. I had just come up from Andalusia, and had spent more than a week in Granada, devoting the greater part of the time to the Alhambi-a, which was then being restored. I was surprised to learn from Mr. Irving that since he had arrived in Spain in a diplomatic capacity he had never once revisited the sub- ject of one of his earliest and greatest literary triumphs. However, he seemed to take great interest in my account mvmO AND DICKEXS. 31 of the condition of tlie old Moorish palace, and of what bad become of those -who lived there when be wrote about it. His health was not very good, and he suffered from that overpowering propensity to sleep so common to overtaxed brains. I never saw Mr. Irving betray any excitement but once in my life, and that was upon an oc- casion when I dined with him in Madrid. The name of Dickens happened to be introduced, and he became very lieated in telling me about his relations with that author. Finally he could no longer contain himself, and, jumping from his seat, he walked up and down the floor in great apparent agitation, lie told me that he had correspond- ed with Dickens long before they ever met. That both from his writings and his letters he had formed the highest conception of his personal character. That un- der these circumstances Dickens arrived at New York, and he, Irving, called upon him at his hotel. That im- mediately after sending in his card he was invited to Mr. Dickens's pai'lor, and, as he entered the room, that gentleman met him, napkin in hand. He had been dining, and the table was covered with a vulgar pro- fusion of food, and the table-cloth was stained with gravy and wine. Wringing his hand, Dickens's first salutation was, " Irving, I am delighted to see you ! What will you drink, a mint julep or a gin cocktail V "■ The idea of inviting me to drink juleps and cocktails!" naively exclaimed Mr. Irving. He found Dickens outrageously vulgar — in dress, manners, and mind. And none of us young people were then more incensed against him for his "American Kotes" and "Martin Chuzzlewit" than was the irentle Goldsmith of American literature. CHAPTER II. IIST the spring of the year 1848 I made a flying trip to Europe for the benefit of my liealth ; a trip entirely impremeditated three hours before it was undertaken. I was sitting at the breakfast-table at nine o'clock in the morning, feeling very ill from the effects of overworlc, when one present suggested that I should do well to make a break, and take a run across the Atlantic. By twelve o'clock, noon, of the same day, I was steaming down New York harbor on board of a Cunarder, bound for Liver- pool. "We had a delightful passage, to which the agree- ableness of my fellow-passengers largely contributed. One of the most pleasing and entertaining of them was Pkince LrciEN Murat, next to whom I accidentally happened to occupy a seat at table. He was going to France, to derive what advantage he could from the rev- olution of the previous February. I found him a most good-humored, jovial companion, possessing withal a good deal of a certain kind of wit and shrewdness. He was extremely careless about his person, a voracious feeder, and the most formidable snorer I ever met. Unfortu- nately for me, his state-room was directly opposite mine, and, as he always slept with his door open, I enjoyed the full benefit of the terrific noises he made in his sleep. More than once, after lying awake for hours, I used in sheer desperation to hurl my boots at his berth, which rather forcible protest he always took very amiably. His PRINCE LUCIEN MUEAT. g3 proportions were already of the Daniel Lambert order, but tliey increased considerably afterward. The last time I saw him was in the year 1855, at Paris. He was then in full uniform, and covered with orders and dec- orations ; and the brilliancy of his attire, united to the prodigiousness of his person, made him a sight to behold. What changes his fortunes have undergone. To be ele- vated from a sort of Xew Jersey squatter to be a mem- ber of the imperial family of France, with at one time a squint at the throne of Naples, again to sink to the posi- tion of an offshoot of an outcast dj-nasty ! The Prince used to wear upon his head a very old, dirty, and dilapidated soft felt hat, which in its best es- tate could hardly have been ornamental. Aj)ropos of this hat, he told me that, before he left home, his wife, who remained in this country to await events, insisted that he should procure a proper black hat as soon as he reached town ; that unless he would promise to do so, she declined to accompany him here and see him off. That he told her he could not afford the extravagance, and, if she imposed so unreasonable a condition upon giving him her company to Xew York, she might stay in New Jersey, He had with him the famous white plume which used to distinguish his father upon the field of battle, or rather tiie wdialebone remains of it, the feath- ers having long ago fallen victims to time and the moths. He had acquired a great and somewhat unenviable reputation in Kew Jersey as a horse-jockey. It was said that he would start off from home for a journey upon the back of a sorry Eosinante, and return, after an ab- sence of several weeks, driving a stylish pair of hoi'ses before an elegant carriage ; the whole being the result B2 34 MEMORIES OF IfANY MEN. of a series of successful svxtjys. He possessed a great natural taste for meclianics, and, from his conversation, seemed to consider Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, the great- est genius of the age. I was very much amused with a conversation I had with him one afternoon about his uncle, Joseph Bona- parte. I v\'ell remembered the ex-king, for as a child I had spent several years as a boarder at the school of the brotliers Peugnet, in New York, distinguished offi- cers of the Grand Army, at whose house Joseph was a frequent Sunday visitor. I will try to repeat what the Prince said, as nearly as I can recollect it, in his own words. "My Uncle Joseph was a very estimable man, with one great weakness — his excessive and ridiculous affec- tation of philosophy and martyrdom. He had been King of Spain ; and yet he had become resigned to live in obscurity in a Republic ! He used to bore me to deatli witli this nonsense, until one day I lost my patience and almost my temper. ' I am weary of these absurd pre- tensions,' I said to him. ' You are not half the philoso- pher I am. Compare for a moment our respective fates. You were born a miserable Corsican peasant. You liap- pened to have a brother who possessed more brains than are frequently allotted to mankind. He grasped the sceptre of the world, and elevated you to the rank of a sovereign. You had not a very quiet time of it in your exalted position, it is true, and 3'ou were soon compelled to descend from it. But you came to the ground un- harmed — with not a feather ruffled ; and while your il- lustrious brother was completing his destiny on a barren rock in the midst of a distant ocean, you retired in safety PRINCE LUCIEN MUEAT. 35 to this cliarming place, where you are living like a prince, surrounded by all the refinements of life, with the com- fortable income of sixty thousand dollars per annum. I, on the contrary, was born upon the steps of a throne. My father was shot in Italy ; I was condemned to a like fate at Gibraltar ; I escaped with extreme difficulty, and with nothing but my life ; I got to America, and have been ever since a poor New Jersey farmer. And I take things as they come, without even imagining that I have cause for complaint. To say nothing of martyrdom, I am a hundred times more a philosopher than you are.' " We arrived at Liverpool on a Sunday — the very day on which the election for members of the Legislative Assembly was to take place in France. Immediately after landing, the Prince and I went together to the Adelphi Hotel, and there learned that, as luck would have it, the election had been postponed one week. The Prince, whose elder brother Acuille had died in Florida some years before, and who was consequently the head of the family, believed that if he could reach his father's department in time, he would be sure to be elected. He accordingly started at once for London, crossed the Chan- nel, hastened down to his father's native town, and an- nounced himself a candidate. Other arrangements had been made, and other candidates were already in the field ; but the name of Mukat operated as a spell, and he overcame all opposition, and was triumphantly return- ed. Since then, and so long as the Empire lasted, his fortunes constantly tended upward, with the slight draw- back, however, that he was always hopelessly in debt. I called upon him in Paris in 1S55. He was not in town ; but a few days later he sent an aid to rac to invite me 36 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. to Ills chateau at Biizenval, near liueil. Unfortunatelj for me, my engagements at the time would not permit me to accept this invitation. I subsequently saw him once, as I have intimated, at a public ceremony, but had no opportunity of speaking to him. It was early in April when I reached England, after the voyage to which I have referred. I think that the most charming weather I have ever known in any part of the woi'ld I have found in the British Islands during the months of April, May, and June — particularly the two latter. N^othing can be more strongly contrasted than the London of that period of the year and the London of November. In the month of June particularly, actual night is there reduced to a duration of not more than three or four hours, twilight extending into midnight, and dawn dispelling the brief darkness between three and four o'clock in the morning. In my opinion the English climate is greatly misap- preciated by foreigners. The sun is not always obscured by fogs, as many hasty tourists, judging by their excep- tional experience, assert. I am confident that nowhere else can out-door exercise be taken with enjoyment so many days of the year and so many hours of the day as in England. One has always sensations of physical com- fort there which one never experiences any wliere else. This is undoubtedly attributable to the moisture with which the atmosphere is impregnated, and which exer- cises a most soothing influence upon the nervous sj^stem. Here the dryness of the air keeps us constantly strung up above concert pitch. We are all the time under the influence of an artificial stimulus. Our candles burn at both ends. Many of our national peculiarities, botli phys- SANDERS AND SOMERSET. 37 ical and moral, are attributable to tliis. The reader will please excuse the foregoing deviation from my crooked lane of narrative. Among my other fellow-passengers was the late Geoege IST. Sanders, then of Kentucky, going abroad for the first time with the object of negotiating a contract with the French Government for the sale of a large stock of Colt's revolving pistols. When I first noticed Mr. Sanders walking upon the deck of the steam-ship, clad in a suit of light gray homespun, and with a shapeless fur cap upon his head, his costume, coupled with his features of the Southern Kussian type, led me to mistake him for a Kalmuck Tartar. I soon came to know him well, and thus began an intimacy which lasted, with some interruptions, until his death in New York last August. Another passenger was Geokge W. Kendall, editor of The New Orleans Picayune^ and then a sheep farmer in Texas, the forerunner of the Aetemus Waeds and the Mi\jjk Twains who have since made American humor known as a national characteristic. Mr. Kendall w^as going to Paris to procure illustrations for a book which he had just completed upon the Mexican "War. As I have already mentioned, we arrived at Liverpool on Sunday. On the next (Monday) afternoon, Sandees, Kendall, and myself started by the evening express train for London. As we were all smokers, we desired to obtain a carriage where we could enjoy our weeds w^ithout interruption. On all the European railways, ex- cept in Germany, there are regulations prohibiting smok- ing, but their violation is ahvays connived at by the guard (for a consideration), provided that no occupant of the same carriage objects. Tlic first-class carriages 38 MEMORIES OF MAST MEX. contain but six seats, and hence it is not always diiiicult to make up a unanimous party. In the present instance we feed the official in advance for the purpose of secur- ing a place all to ourselves. Just as he was unlocking the door of a hitherto unoccupied carriage for us to entei', an elderly Englishman, whose high breeding was mani- fest, and who had lost one arm, came up, and remarking that he did not think he could be mistaken in taking us for Americans, inquired if we had any objection to his joining our party, as he inferred from the cigars already in our mouths that we proposed to smoke. Of course we readily assented, and this was the commencement of one of the most agreeable journeys I ever made by rail. Our accidental companion turned out to be Loed Fitzeot SoMEESET, afterward Loed Eaglan. In his capacity of chief of staff to the Duke of Wellixgtox, he had been on a special mission to some of the great manufacturing towns to watch the movements of the disaffected Chart- ists, from whom a formidable demonstration was expect- ed in London upon the occasion of the presentation of tlieir monster petition to the House of Commons, which was to take place in the course of a few days. It will be remembered that this eclio of the Paris revolution of tlie previous February was looked forward to through- out England, by the orderly classes, with great aj^pre- liension. AYe arrived at London in the evening, and parted from our distinguished traveling companion with mutual as- surances of the pleasure we had derived from our chance acquaintance. My friends had rooms engaged at Mor- ley's Hotel, on Trafalgar Square, and although I, an old hahitue of London, was onlv too familiar with tliat poc- THE IRON DUEE AM) THE CHARTISTS. 39 ond-class inn with first-class prices, I was unwilling to forego their company, and therefore ordered my cab to the same destination. I found that nothing else was tlioiight of or talked about at the capital but the Chartist business. There was very serious and wide-spread alarm, in which the Government, to all appearances, largely participated, Aprojjos of this, I will mention a circumstance of com- paratively secret history. The Duke of Wellington was sent for by the Queen, and requested to take su- preme command of the troops upon the occasion. This he consented to do, with the proviso, howe^'er, that he should possess an absolute dictatorship for the time be- ing, and be, under no circumstances, subject to receive orders from the Home Department. This condition was acceded to, and there is no doubt that, had an attack upon London been attempted, he would have proceeded to the utmost extremities in its defense. The Court retired to the Isle of Wight a day or two before, and Punch and the other wits amused themselves vastly at the expense of Prince Albert, who, as a field-marshal, should have remained at tlie post of danger. It was supposed that her Majesty was peremptory upon the subject, and over- ruled any martial propensities which her consort might possess. Great preparations were made for the defense of the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and other public edifices — especially the Bank, the treasure in M'hich was likely to attract the cupidity of a revolutionary mob. The roof was protected by sand -bags, behind which marksmen could be safely placed. The night before tlie anticipated outbreak, Iai"ge stores of muskets and am- 40 MEMOBIES OF MANY HEN. munition were conveyed tliere and to otlier places from the Admiralty. My friend Kendall came to grief that night from his excessive curiosity. About nine o^ clock in the evening he made his way down past the Houses of Parliament to the head of Westminster Bridge, where cannon were planted to rake the insurgents who were ex- pected to come over on the morrow from their camping- ground on Kennington Common. Here lie was oi-dered hack in very peremptory fashion. Strolling up White- hall, lie managed in some way to slip by the sentinel and to get into the court -yard of the Admiralty, admission to which was for the nonce prohibited. Here he was pounced upon in short order. In vain he protested that he was only an enterprising Yankee, actuated by no worse motive than curiosity. He was carried off to durance vile, and only liberated the next day upon es- tablishing his identity and his harmlessness. The most exaggerated rumors were circulated in ref- erence to the numbers of the hostile masses collected on the Surrey side. The general estimate did not fall short of thirty or forty thousand, which was afterward proved to be a grossly excessive one. The preservation of the peace was primarily intrusted to the police, and, in addition to the regular force, a large number of special constables was enrolled for the occa- sion. The military was of course only to be called out as a last resort. Some twenty Americans, who lodged at Morley's, myself and my friends included, offered our services as specials, which offers were unhesitatingly ac- cepted. And when the time came, each armed with a formidable club wiiicli he had received from the author- ities, we were as ready as any of her Majesty's loyal sub- BISPEBSINO THE MOB. 41 jects to do battle in defense of law and order. It was rather an interesting and exciting sight as, at nine o'clock on the morning when the demonstration was to come off, I was quietly taking my tea and muffins, and looking out of the coffee-room window upon Trafalgar Square. The whole area was densely filled, principally by a large body of police, who were going through their military evolutions with the precision of soldiers. Among them was a small corps of mounted constabulary, ready for a charge down Parliament Street if occasion should re- quire it. A good many roughs were scattered about, but they gave no indications of any but the most peaceful intentions. At ten o'clock I emerged from the hotel, and took a short stroll up the Haymarket. The shops were every where closed, and the streets were filled with people. I only remained out about half an hour, and then re- turned to my quarters. About eleven o'clock I noticed unusual indications of preparation among the police upon the square, and short- ly afterward a dense mass, composed of the lowest class of the populace, came struggling up Parliament Street, and began to pour in upon the open area. They were singing and shouting, and seemed more impelled by the love of a frolic than by any thing more serious. In a moment about a dozen policemen charged at a full gallop, and the mob, by some remarkable power of elas- tic self-compression, instantly made way for them in ev- ery direction, laughing and hurrahing as they did so. This brilliant cavalry conj) decided, as it were, the fate of the day. The Chartists did not attempt to cross the river, overawed, probably, by the reception which they 43 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEN. knew was prepared for them. After that there was nothing but amusing episodes. It was known that Lon- don was full of French revolutionary agents, and wher- ever these gentry showed themselves, they w^ere treated by the populace with any thing but distinguished con- sideration. I saw one unfortunate ajjostle of liberty, equality, and fraternity so severely ducked in the basin of one of the fountains of Trafalgar Square, that I was afraid the poor Gaul was taking his last (and perhaps his first) bath. The rest of the day was a sort of carnival. No one attempted to transact any business, and the shops remain- ed closed. Fun was universal, and the special consta- bles, whose name was legion, paraded the streets with the consciousness that their valor had not been very se- verely tried. That evening the monster petition was rolled upon a barrow into the House of Commons, and duly presented by its godfather, Fergus O'Connor. The next day I happened to be at the railway station as Fp:r- Gus was leaving for the country. Poor fellow, he died insane many years ago, and I am not quite certain that his insanity was then of recent date. That evening Sanders and Kendall went together to the opera. They affected extreme rusticity, and absolute ignorance in regard to every thing pertaining to that or to any other similar performance. They purposely made the most uncouth remarks, and asked the most absurd questions of those who happened to be seated near them. A well-intentioned but oflicious Cockney wine -dealer came to their rescue — one of those weak-minded cits who so abound in London. Ilira they at once decided to unmercifully quiz. During the remainder of the per- ROASTING A COCKNEY. 43 foi'mancG they poured into liis ears the most marvel- ous stories of American savagery, and tliey found his credulity quite equal to their united powers of invention. After tlie play was over they invited him to snp with them at Morley's. lie accepted the invitation. They related to him the most horrible stories of Indian butch- ery until his very hair stood on end. About two o'clock in the morning they began a war -dance, accompanied by tlie most hideous howlings, when suddenly, brandish- ing some of Sanders's sample revolvers, they chased the now tlioroughly " demoralized " Briton from the house. The noise which the tormentors made, added to the shrieks of alarm uttered by their victim, aroused every body in the hotel, and came near resulting in the summary and ignominious ejection from it of those who had created the disturbance. The next morning, being gentlemen at heart, they called upon the frightened vendor of imitation sherry, and that very afternoon they all dined together at the Star and Garter at Richmond, upon terms of the most cordial and affectionate friend- ship. One or two evenings afterward, the Court having re- turned to Buckingham Palace, the Queen went in state to the opera. I took especial pains to be there, for I ex- pected an extraordinary exhibition of loyalty. And I was not disappointed. The opera was "Don Giovanni" - — a work which calls for the entire strength, both male and female, of the company. The house was packed from pit to dome. Her Majesty entered while the orcliestra was playing tlie overture. In a moment the entire au- dience arose, and cried with one voice for " God save the Queen !" The orchestra ceased playing, the prompter's 44 ]\>mMOBIES OF MANY MEN. bell tinkled, the curtain was drawn np and displayed all the principal artists ranged in a semicircle upon the stage. At a signal from the condnctor a prelude was played, and then Gkisi advanced to the footlights, and with the glorious voice she then possessed, sang the first verse, the whole house standing, her Majesty included. The chorus was taken up by the other singers and by the entire pit. Then Makio sang a verse, and then Per- siANi, and then Tamburesti, and then Lablaciie. I never saw such a scene of wild enthusiasm. It was so con- tagious that I am confident the Queen had no more loyal subject there that evening than myself. The boxes entirely forgot their usual frigid propriety, and marchion- esses and countesses vied with each other in clapping their hands and waving their handkerchiefs. CHAPTER III. UPON the occasion of this visit to London I had tlie pleasure to meet and to make the acquaint- ance of Ralph Waldo Emekson, the foremost American philosopher and critic, and the gentlest and most amiable of men. Mr. EaiEESON had letters to Sie Chaeles Baeey, the architect of the new Houses of Parliament, not then completed, and we called together upon him. Sik Chaeles received us stiffly, and with but scant courtesy of manner ; but he extended to us facilities for visiting and examiniug this structure, in some respects one of the most remarkable of modern times ; although I can not help considering it, in its entirety very inferior to our own Is"ational Capitol at Washington. Mr. Emeeson and I also passed much time together in the British Museum, whose varied collections possess an interest for the culti- vated mind, hardly, if at all, equaled by those of any other establishment in Europe, and compared with which the best of our own arc petty and insignificant. When we parted after a few short days of companionship, I looked upon Mr. Emeeson's acquaintance as a treasure to be preserved and enlarged by me in the future ; but in the progress of lives devoted, by chance or incliuation, to widely different activities, it has never since been my fortune to meet him. His name already inspired me with awe when we first came together. The simplicity of his nature, and his instinctive abhorrence of all shams. 40 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. soon dispelled the embarrassment of admiration, and sub- stituted in its stead the ease of familiar and unaffected intercourse. I have mentioned that I had gone over to England in tlie pursuit of health. I was the bearer of a let- ter of introduction from a distinguished physician of New York to the eminent Sik Benjamin Bkodie. I called upon Sm Benjamin sooit after my arrival in Lon- don, when he made an appointment for me to come again at nine o'clock on the morning immedi?itely suc- ceeding the operatic fete to which I have referred. Punctually at the appointed hour I arrived at his house in Saville Row. The servant who admitted me told me that Sik Benjamin was engaged with some ladies, who had come from a long distance in the country ex- pressly to consult him, and that he therefore begged that I would await his leisure. Accordingly I was shown into the library, where I found a cheerful fire, and the morning papers spread out upon a table. Drawing up an arm-chair to one corner of the fire-place, I seated my- self, crossed my legs, and was soon deeply immersed in the leviathan columns of The Times. I had been reading perhaps ten minutes, when the door opened, and another gentleman was ushered into the room by the flunky. The stranger was a short, thick- set man, evidently a foreigner, and dressed in an irre- proachable suit of mourning. I glanced at him furtively from my newspaper, and settled it in my own mind that he must be a German. In accordance with English cus- tom, not the slightest recognition of the other's presence passed between us. He hovered over the table a mo- ment, selected a paper from among several still lying A MYSTERIOUS FOREIGNER. 47 there, settled himself iu a chair at the opposite corner of the fii-e- place, and followed my example by devoting himself to the news of the day. After a time I became tired of reading, and threw down my journal. The stranger, a few minutes later, did the same thing. I then had an opportunity to more particularly scan his person. He was a heavy, dull, im- passive-looking man, and his half-closed eyelids gave a peculiar expression to his face. I observed tliat his arms and legs indicated great strength, but he did not look like a person of much activity. His arms were very long, aud his legs quite short ; he stood of low stature, and sat decidedly tall. He kept rubbing the side of his nose gently Avith his forefinger — a habit which I fre- quently had occasion afterward to observe in the same j)erson. For some minutes we sat like two fools, or like two thoroughly well-bred Englishmen (by no means con- vertible terms, however), pretending to gaze at the fire. At length my companion opened the way for conversa- tion by observing that it was a fine day. His accent, which was very marked, struck me as decidedly Teu- tonic, and confirmed me in the impression that he was a German. I assented to his observation, and, the ice once broken, we soon got on together famously — he taking me for an Englishman, and I taking liim for a German. From one subject we passed to another, until he intro- duced that of the Chartist affair, upon which he talked so well that I became greatly interested. He was un- bounded in liis praises of the good sense displayed by the English people, particularly the lower middle-classes — meaning the shop-keepers and the artisans. He was happy that he had possessed the opportunity to see so 48 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. satisfactory and striking an exhibition of tliis. "A vio- lent revolution will ne^•er succeed in Great Britain in this century, at least," he went on to say, " although your institutions are in a state of continuous revolutionary progress, so to speak. There is a vast difference between the classes to which I have alluded here and the corre- sponding ones on the Continent, especially in France. Every thing continues to move on here in old and well- worn grooves. The London shop-keeper of to-day fol- lows the same business, at the same stand, which his fa- ther and grandfather followed before him. He has the sense to comprehend and appreciate the difficulty of making a livelihood amid the competition of so dense a population, sliould he once get oif the track. In a word, he knows that in a general scramble he has more chances of losing than of gaining. Hence, apart- from his feel- ing of loyalty, which is deep-rooted, and impels him to- ward governmental and dynastic conservatism, his inter- est, as he understands it, would suffice to induce him to stand by the institutions of the country, should the at- tempt be made to overthrow them by violence. Your agricultural population is only instinctively, not intelli- gently loyal. I do not mean at all to imply, by any thing I have said, that your shop-keepers and artisans are not dissatisfied with many things, and do not claim and will not always exercise the right of unlimited grum- bling. But at the bottom they know that j^our Constitu- tion is a self-purifying machine, and that there is a nev- er-ceasing tendency toward improvement. On the con- trary, notwithstanding all that experience has shown him since the commencement of the Revolution of 178 9, the average French bourgeois can not be convinced that an- A FUTUHH EMFEROB. 49 other violent change will not better his condition by some means which he can neither explain nor distinctly comprehend. His hopes always outweigh his fears, and his interests are always subordinated to his passions. He can neither be easily governed, nor can he easily govern himself." I do not wish to be understood to quote these as the precise words of my interlocutor, but they substantially reproduce what he said. AVe must have been talking together at least half an hour, when Sm Benjamin opened a door which commu- nicated by a passage-way to his study, and, bowing to my companion, called me in — probably because I alone had an appointment. As soon as we w^ere seated, he asked me if I knew who it was whom I had left be- hind me in the library. I told him that I did not ; that I thought he was a German ; that, at all events, he was a remarkably intelligent man, although he did not look at all so. " Well," he said, with a smile, " that is Louis Napoleon !" This, be it remembered, was a few weeks before the Prince passed over to France to take his seat as a member of the Legislative Assembly. I asked Sir Benjamin what was the motive of his visit to him. He told me that he had some trouble about the heart — whether organic or functional,! did not inquire. I nev- er met Louis Napoleon again until I saw him in Paris, six years later, Emperor of the French. And here, perhaps, I ouglit to stop, as my personal reminiscences of the exiled Prince go no farther. But the subject is a tempting one, and, as accident has brought me into contact with several persons who knew him during his first residence in England, the reader will C 50 MEMOEIES OF 3IANY MEN. probably excuse me if I draw a little upon the recollec- tions of others. One of the best friends he ever had on the north side of the channel was Bakoness (then Miss Bukdett) Coutts. This estimable lady was nnceasing in her kindness to him, and, what is still more, she was the first person to appreciate his abilities at any thing like their true value. So high an estimate of them did she form and express, that her friends were both pained and amused at what they considered her good-natured but most unfounded prejudice in his favor. The fast young men of London, whose society he affected, generally pronounced him an idiot. This was especially true of his associates of the notorious Coventry Club, which was afterward broken up by the police. He was also very kindly received at the house of Mr. Bates, of the great firm of Baeing Bkotu- EES, at East Sheene. Mrs. Bates, like most English ladies of the day, held tobacco-smoke in horror ; but the Prince, when a visitor, was allowed, as a special favor, to smoke in his own room; and upon such occasions the other gentlemen present were told that if they desired to smoke they might do so in the same place. One evening something occurred to make him very anxious to return immediately to London. He had no carriage of his own with him, and was very reluctant to ask Mr. Bates to lend him one. In this dilemma he went to a friend of mine, who happened to be visiting at the house, and asked him if he minded requesting another gentleman with whom he was intimate to let hhn have the use of his brougham for a drive to town, without mentioning by whom it was desired. My friend unhesi- tatingly complied with the request ; but the owner of the LADY BLESSmOTON. 5J^ brougham insisted upon knowing wlio was to use it, say- ing that he supposed it was " that bloody fool, Louis ISTa- POLEON," and, if so, that he should not have it. And it was only with great difficulty that he was finally induced to yield the point. Lady Blessington and Count d'Oesay were like a sis- ter and a brother to him. The gates of Gore House were open to him at all hours, and he freely availed him- self of the tendered hospitality. The only reproach of serious ingratitude of which I have ever heard him ac- cused refers to his alleged neglect of these persons when, during his presidency, they came over to Paris after pe- cuniary reverses had broken up the Lady's London es- tablishment. So far as D'Oksay is concerned, it is true that the President tardily conferred upon him the office of Superintendent of the Fine Arts, the honors and emoluments of which he did not live long to enjoy. His neglect of Lady Blessington, although not excus- able, may be partly accounted for by the peculiar position which her ladyship occupied in English society. He may have hesitated to invite her to his balls and receptions, fearing to give too much offense to her countrywomen, who crowded them. At any rate, he delayed a long time before doing so. Lady Blessington, besides being a charming woman, was one of the most brilliant w'its of her day. Shortly after the breaking out of the Revolution of 1848, a for- eign embassador in London asked her what she thought of M. DE Lamartine, who was then playing a conserva- tive role. " He reminds me," she instantly replied, " of an incendiary who has turned fireman." She had been in Paris for some time, unnoticed by the President, when 52 2IE210RIES OF MANY MEX at last she received an invitation from him to a ball at tlie Elysee Bourbon. This she accepted, and as soon as the President saw her enter the room he advanced to her, and, extending both hands, said he was glad to see lier, and asked her if she purposed remaining long in Earis. "No," she promptly answered; "i?t> yoiiT'' No one in London, it is said, had a more open hand for the future Emperor than Mitchel, the manager of the St. James' Theatre. It may be remarked that no borrower of money ever more scrupulously returned it than did Louis Napoleon. AVlien he and the Empress paid the Queen a visit in l85tt or 1855 — I forget which — he had been but a few hours in London before lie sent for Mitchel, with whom he familiarly conversed for a long time, showing that, with the change in his fortunes, he had not forgotten old friends. It is related — but of course I can not vouch for the truth of the story — that upon one occasion a wag im- posed upon the credulity of the exiled Prince by a foi-ged letter of invitation to dine with the Queen at Windsor. Now in those days her Majesty was on terms of great in- timacy with the Orleans famil}^, and completely ignored poor Louis Napoleon, having declined to even receive liim at Court. However surprised, therefore, he must have been at so unexj^ccted a mark of royal favor, it would seem that he did not suspect its want of genuine- ness. Donning a uniform, and arraying his groom in a gorgeous livery, he drove to Windsor, where he discov- ered that he had been hoaxed ; and it is said that the Queen was not gracious enough to do any thing to re- lieve his mortification. If this is not a canard, he after- ward had an ample revenge : he both visited and re- AN ANGLICIZED KNICEEBBOCKER. 53 ceived lier Majesty while he was supposed to be the most powerful monarch in the world. I recollect meeting a gentleman who was well ac- quainted with the Prince in England. He told me that lie once went out hunting with him and his cousin, PiiiNCE Napoleon (Jerome). As they were driving to covert, Louis Napoleon w^as dull and moody, whereas his cousin was full of excitement about the anticipated sport. But the moment they backed their horses they changed characters ; the one became full of energy and daring, the other subsided into quiet, if not timidity. During the presidency, Lord Aberdeen, afterw^ard British Prime Minister, went over to Paris with the real, if not the avowed, object of studying the President. He remained there more than a fortnight, constantly in Louis Napoleon's society, and dining with him almost every day. Just before he left to return to England, he wrote a private letter to a friend, who afterward showed me the following extract from it: "As to the President, I can make nothing of him but a dismal, dreary creat- ure !" AVas he, or was he not, mistaken in his apprecia- tion ? At this time my dear friend, John Eomeyn Bkodiiead, whom I had known from my boyhood up, and whom I only a few months ago followed to his last resting-place, was Secretary of the United States Legation, under George Bancroft, as Minister. Poor Brodiiead, wdio was one of the most amiable, was also one of the most nervous of men. During his residence in England he had become almost painfully Anglicized, and any de- parture from English usages and etiquette occasioned him the keenest and most genuine distress. Once I went 54 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. with iiim to look for lodgings for a common friend. Among the honses which we visited, in qnest of what we wanted, was one kept by a person of ^■ery ladylike ap- pearance and manners, and on leaving I saluted her by removing my hat, as we should do upon a like occasion to any respectable woman in America or in France. Seeing my action, Brodhead shot off as if he had been exploded from a gun, and at first I was in a state of in- nocent amazement as to what could have produced this extraordinary exodus. lie soon rejoined me, as I was slowly walking away. He was out of breath and pant- ing, and, with an expression of deep injury upon his countenance, he asked me how I could be guilty of the solecism of taking off my hat to a lodging-house keeper ! "Don't you know," he said, " that it is never done in En- gland?" As I didn't know it,I had to oy^ jpeccavi. UiDon another occasion, Bkodhead, Sanders, Prentiss, and I went to Dolly's famous old chop-house in the City to dine. Dolly's was a more j^rimitive place than Garko- w^AY^'s, or than Xed's and the other similar establish- ments which have recently sprung up in the neighbor- hood of the Eoyal Exchange. You went there for chops, steaks, potatoes, and beer, which were all served to 3'ou in perfection ; but for any thing more elaborate and lux- urious it was not the habit to call. Some one of the party, however — I forget who — ordered champagne; whereat Brodhead, disgusted with our ignorance, incon- tinently withdrew ; and it was only the next day that I learned that to order champagne at a chop-house was an evidence of barbarous bringing-up not to be endured by a civilized man! Brodhead afterward held for four years the office of Naval Officer of the Port of New York. QUEER SHOP SIGN'S. 55 He is best known to the public, however, by his " History of the State of New York," a work of enormous research, written with great care and discrimination, to the com- position of which he devoted the declining years of his life, with an assiduity which not only affected his health, but unquestionably hastened his decease. At one time he was sent to Holland by the State of !New York to col- lect documents affecting our early history, and while he was in London he industriously prosecuted his researches in the State-Paper Office. He had in his veins some of our best Colonial blood, both Dutch and English, and he always entertained against the "pestilent Yankees" al- most as strong a prejudice as some of his progenitors in New Netherlands. As I sauntered through the streets of London, I was often struck by the many singular names over the shop doors. You find no such variety of strange patronymics in America. It is well known that Dickens selected the very peculiar names of some of his characters from real ones, which his ever-observant eyes fell upon as he walked the streets of the metropolis. I noticed upon a sign over a door on St. Martin's Lane the name of " Quilp." I think it was a farrier's shop. This reminds me of a Scotchman of the same trade who used to keep his shop in Church Street, New York, at the top of an alley-way. At the entrance was a sign bearing the following canny inscription : " Sinclair Lithgow, horse-slioeing smith, Warks up this close wi' a' his pith. He dis his wark baith weel and soon, But likes the siller -when 'tis done." 56 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. I remember a shop near Westminster Bridge, over which was painted, without punctuation, "Till late Daeke;" meaning, as we should express it, " Till, successor to Darke." Wlien the words first attracted my attention, I thought that they were intended to indicate that the shop was kept open until late in the evening. CHAPTEE lY. I'N the autumn of the year 1854 1 again visited Europe. I stayed in England but a few days, and went thence to Paris, where I engaged apartments in expectation of a prolonged sojourn in that capital. I had no very def- inite plans for the future, and looked forward to the enjoyment for a considerable period, at least, of rest and leisure. But, as has always happened to me, these ex- pectations were not destined to be realized. I had not been in Paris a week before I was invited by the Hon- orable JonN Y. Mason, then our Minister to France, to occupy the position of Secretary of Legation, wliicli chanced to be temporarily vacant. I accepted it without much rellection. I supposed that the office was one which involved but little labor, and the incumbency of which must necessarily be of the most agreeable charac- ter. It did not take me long to find out how greatly I had been mistaken. The current work — the answering daily of scores of letters and the transcribing of dis- patches — was enough to occupy one industrious person. But, added to this, when I took possession of the place I found every thing fearfully in arrear, and for weeks I was kept at my desk until a late hour in the evening. It was true that we had one or two ornamental attaches, but to do any thing in consideration of having the honor to bear the title upon their visiting cards never occurred to them. Again, all tlie social embarrassments of the Le- C2 5S MUMOEIES OF 3IANY MEN. gation — and tliey were both numerous and trying — were thrust upon the Secretary. Hundreds of our countrymen, of proverbial modesty, who were entitled at the utmost to have their passports vised, would ask of us the most unreasonable facilities and tlie most unheard of favors. Citizens not even accredited by letters of introduction would insist upon private audiences of the Emperor, and, no matter how politely you declined to act as the medium of their laudable ambition, they would anathe- matize you, and threaten to "go for" your official head immediately after their return to America. Crack-brain- ed inventors would ask you to do the most impossible things for them in connection with the several Depart- ments of the Government, even to bringing them without circumlocution to the fountain of power ; and your mild- est protests only subjected you to contumely and abuse. I particularly remember one lunatic who had come over with a new projectile, of which he had a Avooden model which looked like a rolling-pin tapered down to a point at one end. Of course he did not speak a word of French — they never do— and he pestered the life out of me, until, in an unguarded moment, I yielded, and consented to accompany him to the War Department. It is unnecessary to say that we were politely received, and invited to leave our model with the accompanying ex- planations, with the assurance that they would be prompt- ly submitted to an artillery commission for examination and report. About a fortnight afterward, my tormentor received an official invitation to call again at the Depart- ment and receive the report of the examiners. Of course, I was again badgered into accompanying him. Wlien we arrived, we were conducted to a bureau of the [" SWEETS OF DIPLOMATIC LIFE. 59 Department presided over by a captain of artillery. This gentleman proceeded in the most delicate manner to ex- plain to me in French that the same invention had been submitted to his Government so long ago as the year 1827 by a Swedish officer, that it had then been thoroughly tested, and that it was found to be absolutely worthless. At every moment, while he was speaking, my companion impatiently interrupted him by asking me, " What does he say ? What does he say V I waited until the state- ment was completed, and then translated it into English to the inventor. " Tell him that he is an infernal ass !" he shouted, when I had got through. The French of- ficer smiled, and, resuming, said to me : " I can make every allowance for your friend's disappointment, and, of course, in nowise hold you responsible for his indis- cretion, but be pleased to advise him that when he is again disposed to express himself in such unreserved terms toward a stranger, he first make sure that he does not understand English !" Ladies would sometimes be so unreasonable as to ask us to do them the trifling favor of sending oxev small parcels for them in the dispatch- bag. I remember that once, upon opening the London dispatch-bag, we found in it a corset, which the fair owner liad inclosed as a model b}^ which she desired her corsetilre to fabricate for lier a new one. But the great- est calamity to us was when an official ball ov fete was to be given by some high officer of the Government or by the Municipality of Paris. Whenever this happened we would be hunted down for invitations. Where many asked, the greater number had to be disappointed. The American residents always thought that they had a su- perior claim upon the Legation, under whose immediate 60 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEX. protection tliey fancied that they lived. The travelers, on the contrary, thought that, because their opportunities were fewer, they were entitled to the first consideration. Those who succeeded did not thank you, and those who failed devoted you to the infernal gods. I have partic- ularly in mind a grand ball, which the City of Paris gave at the Hotel de Ville to the King of Poktugal. Earon IIaussmann, the Prefect of the Seine, sent an early notice of the projected ^ez^e to our Legation, coupled with the request that we would transmit to him a list of tlie American ladies and gentlemen for whom we de- sired invitations. Judge Mason protested that he would have nothing to do with the matter. I was almost in despair. Tlie only device that occurred to me was to post up in the Legation a paper to be signed by those who desired to go. Before the time arrived to make application, the names on that list had swollen to^I should be afraid to say how many hundreds. Conscious of the impropriety which I was committing, I fired the entire catalogue at Baron IIaussmann. The next day he returned it to me, with a letter in which he said that, while it always afforded him the greatest pleasure to oblige the United States Legation to the extent of his ability, he was, nevertheless, compelled to inform me that we had asked for more invitations to that ball than could be accorded to all the foreign nationalities united ; but that if we would revise it, and send him thirty-five selected names, it would afford him the highest gratifica- tion to immediately forward cards to them. To have to select thirty-five out of perhaps eight liundred ! I for- get how we did it ; but the yision of outraged fathers, indignant mammas, and liysterical daughters still floats A VIRGINIAN GENTLEMAN. Q\ before me. I am sure that for this one act my memory is still execrated by hundreds of worthy and virtuous citizens of both sexes. Our compatriots in distress, who had gotten themselves into Clichy, or worse, added to the amenities of tlie situation. So that, as I premised, the position of Secretary of Legation in France did not prove to me to be one of unalloyed delight. Nor is it one that any young gentleman who looks to the office as a stepping-stone to political preferment at home would do well to accept (if only he can get it), at least until he has thoroughly reconnoitered the situation, and be- come convinced that it is now a seat of more roses and fewer thorns than I found it — pressed into the service and receiving no recompense beyond the consciousness of good intentions, and discharging its duties as long as I did, chiefly it would seem at the bidding of the Neme- sis of work, which has pursued me through my life and been the bane of my existence. Judge Mason was a fine specimen of the Virginian of the old school, and in many respects a remarkable man. The day after the presentation of his credentials to the Emperor of the French as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, the official Moniteur announced the event, calling him His Excellency Johnny — instead of John Y. — Mason. The paragraph must have been written ])y some traveled Frenchman, who had had a familiar John, to him known as Johnny, and who supposed that John Y., if so the name had first reached him, was the erroneous spelling of some countryman not so well up as himself in En- glish names. The Judge had been on the bench in his native state, and was at one time Attorney-General, 62 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. and at another Secretary of the ISTavy. lie was a man of commanding presence and of the most generous im- pulses, which he sometimes indulged to an extent that defied prudence, as he had a large family, and his pri- vate means were very limited. His intelligence was of a very high order, and his knowledge of questions of state and of political economy thorough and accurate. He was an earnest advocate of free-trade, and reasoned more cogently in its fa^'or than any one else whom I ever listened to. The Emperor took great pleasure and in- terest in hearing him talk upon this subject, and many an hour did they pass together ttte-d-tete at Saint Cloud dis- cussing it. At the same time, Mr. Mason possessed the tenderness and almost the weakness of a woman. His prejudices for and against persons were of the strongest and most obstinate character, and he sometimes indulged them unreasonably and extravagantly^ His sensibilities and his emotional character were morbidly develoj^ed. In a word, his mind was strong and his moral tempera- ment weak, so that he always reminded me of a power- ful steam-engine propelling a feeble and ill-contrived vessel. In spite of all, if j'ou were his friend, you could not help loving him, for his impulses were noble and his affection warm and devoted. If there were any two things in the world that the Judge preferred to all oth- ers, they were Virginia hams and Virginia tobacco. A plentiful supply of both was frequently brought over to him by the pursers of the steamers from Kew York to Havre, and when a fresh provision of hams arrived there was sure to be feasting at the Legation. Tlie Judge had an amiable, accomplished, and hospitable family, and his eldest daughter supplied by her social SLAVEHOLDER AXD ABOLITIONIST. 53 tact whatever there was of deficiency in that respect in her fatlier's composition. It was either in the winter of 1854-5, or in the fol- lowing spring, that Chakles Suivenee came to Paris to seek medical advice for the injm-ies inflicted npon him by Peeston Beooks, of South Carolina, who, it v;ill be re- membered, assaulted him with a heavy cane while seated in his chair in the Senate-chamber, after the adjourn- ment for the day of that body. If there was any thing in the world that Mr. Mason hated beyond all others it was an abolitionist, and from what he said about Mr. SuMNEE we were all in the direst apprehension lest, if that gentleman should call upon the Minister, a very dis- agreeable scene might be the consequence. It was in vain that I ai'gued to the Judge tiiat in his capacity of our national representative he was bound to receive with politeness and consideration any United States Senator who should present himself. lie utterly refused to ac- knowledge the correctness of my reasoning. It turned out accidentally that Mr. Suimnee called at a time when Mr. Mason happened to be not at home. AVhen the Judge found the card, he declared with emphasis that nothing would induce him to return the call. Two days thereafter, however, the Minister's cards were left at the Senator's lodgings ; but the former never knew any thing about it, and the latter was not informed that they came to him without authority. Mr. Mason's conduct toward Hoeace Geeeley, who came to Paris in the summer of 1855, was quite differ- ent. It is certain that Mr. Geeeley was as advanced an abolitionist as Mr. Scisinee; but then he did not hold public office. Tlie Judge made just the opposite dis- (34 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. tinction here to that which appeared to me a natural one. Mr. Gkeeley told me that when he first called upon the Minister he felt very uncertain about the re- ception which awaited him ; that to his surprise he found his political opponent not only kind, but even cordial. He continued all the time that he remained in Paris to receive marked attention from Mr. Mason. Upon sev- eral occasions he spoke to me about this matter, and ex- pressed with much feeling his sense of the politeness of the Minister. The highest object of ambition of the average Amer- ican man and woman who came to Paris in those days was a presentation at Court, with a vista of future invi- tations to the Tuileries. Wholesale presentations usual- ly were accorded at uncertain intervals of time, at which were gathered together representatives of nearly all the nations of the earth. Preceding the arrival of their Maj- esties, our people were usually gathered together in the same room with the Mexicans and South Americans. Sometimes we occupied an apartment with some of the nationalities of Continental Europe ; but never by any cliance were we and the English caged together. I pre- sume that the French notion was that under no circum- stances could we be trusted to live together in the har- mony of a happy family. There were frequently ridic- ulous and sometimes mortifying incidents at these pres- entations. I recollect one of them appointed for a Sunday, the usual day for such ceremonies, the notices for which were only issued on Saturday afternoon, and not received by many of the persons interested until the next morning. Gentlemen were required to present themselves " ^/i uniformed'' and ladies, " en toilette de PRESENTING UNPRESENTABLES. 55 vilW'' — tins latter expression meaning in full visiting dress. The embarrassment which resulted from the tardiness of the notice may be imagined. The men rushed frantically to Woodman's, on the Boulevard des Italiens, that accomplished knight of the shears beiug purveyor-general of court-dresses to yankeedoodledom in Paris, and constantly keeping on hand an assortment ready made, which he hired out as raasquerade-cos- tumers do. Those who were so fortunate as to present themselves on Saturday evening not only had the first choice, but were in time to have the alterations made necessary to give something of a fit; whereas the un- fortunates of Sunday morning had to take what was left as they found it. Such a battalion as presented itself at the Palace at noon could only be conipared to Falstaff's regiment, or an old-fashioned country militia company. There were coats too big for their wearers, and coats too small ; sleeves too long, and sleeves too short ; trowsers dragging under the heel of the boot, and trowsers not reaching down to the ankle-joint; a miscellany o:^ cocked hats, and a confusion of swords that would trip up the inexperi- enced wearers. And all these incongruous articles of at- tire, apart from their unsuitableness to each individual case, were worn wuth the awkwardness peculiar to nov- ices in court-dress. The women were more fortunate, being generally provided with all the necessary articles of adornment, as nothing unusual to them was required. Charming as most of them were, there were a few whose appearance was such as to keep their male companions in countenance. You wnll at any time find in Paris a cer- tain number of peripatetic American ladies, whose whole QQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. being is shrouded in mystery — who come no one knows whence, and, after a time, go no one knows whither. They usually travel under the convenient title of widows, and are looking after some important interests which ap- pear to be of a foggy and indescribable character, I re- member npon the occasion in question one lady M'liom nobody knew, or could tell how she got there, and whose appearance attracted some attention. She wore a rusty black silk dress, cut very high in the neck, an enormous shell-cameo brooch, and a Canton crape shawl, which had been originally white in years long past, but which was then, to speak plainly, most disgustingly dirty. Aft- er a line had been formed on our side of the room, find- ing herself inconvenienced by the lieat, she removed this shawl, and threw it carelessly upon the back of an arm- chair, of which several were standing in a row opposite. A few minutes later a chamberlain, or aid, lounged into the room, and stood for a moment by the fire-place. Suddenly he glanced at this suspicious-looking garment, and he stuck a glass into his eye to examine it more par- ticularly. Then an expression of horror overspread his countenance, and, stepping upon the points of his toes, he advanced to it with great deliberation, skewered it upon the tip of his sword, gravely recrossed the room with it, and threw it down out of sight in a corner. It was not a pleasant thing to see done, but the owner of the offending article was an "unprotected female," and her ideas of " toilette de vilW^ were evidently not up to the standard of the French Court. Imagine, then, the American presentees, ranged as at drill, awaiting the Imperial approach. On the other side of the same room was drawn up a delegation of Span- BONN PIATT. Qij iards, Mexicans, and South Americans. In an adjoin- ing apartment, the door of which was open, were con- gregated the English and Germans, the greater part of the former (the men, I mean) in scarlet yeomanry uni- forms, M'jtli an occasional sprinkling of stunning High- land costumes. The British ladies, in general elegance of mise, and beauty and grace of person, bore no com- parison to our fair countrywomen. Why are the En- glish women so unaccountably awkward ? why have they such distressingly large hands and feet ? and why is their taste in dress so almost universally bad ? Beau- tiful complexions and well-developed forms can not alto- gether atone for these deficiencies, hardly even kind hearts and cultivated minds. Upon this particular occasion our Minister, having been taken suddenly ill, was unexpectedly absent. A Secretary of Legation can not present. That most face- tious of living humorists, Donn Piatt, then Secretary, was, however, in attendance. A chamberlain was to make the presentations, and before the time ai-rived he called Piatt to him, and requested him to give him a list of the persons to be presented, in the order in which they stood, and to especially mention for what, if any thing, any of them were distinguished, as the Emperor always desired to particularly notice persons entitled to more than a passing word from him. Heaven only knows what Piatt said about most of the party ; but standing in about the middle of the line was a Mr. Geoesbeck, and, calling particular attention to him, Piatt told the cham- berlain that he was a member of Congress from Ohio. Their Majesties visited the English and German apart- ment first. At last they crossed our threshold, the Em- gg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. peror followed by a male suite and the Empress by a fe- male one. I happened to be standing next the door, and the Emperor stopped directly in front of me, while the Empress passed on to the farther extremity of the line. His Majesty, upon that occasion, merely exchanged with me a few commonplaces, and then addressed himself to my next neighbor. I continued to keep my eye upon him in his downw^ard progress, until he crossed the Em- press in her advance in my direction. A moment after- ward he accosted Mr. Geoesbeck, and the chamberlain at the same time whispered into his ear what he supposed that gentleman to be. "Ah !" said his Majesty, smiling, " I understand that you are a member of Congress from Ohio, Mr. Geoesbeck." " No, sir, I am not," answered Mr. Groesbeck; "but I have a cousin who once was." He probably never knew to whom he was indebted for the title. The Emperor bit his lip, and was evidently -s'astly amused. This one presentation was but a specimen of numer- ous others. I will not undertake to describe a certain private audience at which I assisted, which was had of the Emperor at about tlie same time by the Hon. Mr. Washbeene, now our Minister to France, and then a member of Congress from Illinois ; the Hon. Mr. Geow, then a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, and sub- secpiently Speaker of the House of Representatives ; the Hon. Mr. Hareington, late Minister to Sw^itzerland ; and the Hon. Mr. Morgan, a member of Congress from AVest- ern New York. All the country knows that Donn Piatt is an incor- rigible wag. He used to give an account of the recep- tion by their Majesties of a distinguished soldier, which A BLUNT SOLDIER. qq he related with the greatest gravity and the most minute details, and to this day I have never been able to com- prehend how much of truth and how much of invention there was in it. I know that I shall fail to do the sub- ject justice, but, nevertheless, I can not refrain from making the attempt. Immediately after the occurrence of what is known in our diplomatic history as the " Black Warrior Affair," our Government sent to Madrid, as a special bearer of dispatches, Colonel Sumnee, of the United States Army, who afterward became so famous as General Sumner during the \yar of the Eebellion. The Colonel, upon his arrival at Paris from AVashington, made no stay there, but pushed on directly to Madrid. He conveyed instructions to Mr. Soule, our Minister to Spain, to lay the case before the Spanish Government, and to demand an immediate apology, togetiier with reparation. Mr. SouLE accordingly addressed a peremptory dispatch to Mr. LuzLEiAGA, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and asked for a reply within twenty-four hours. The allotted time passed, and no reply came. Mr. Soule then wrote still more peremptorily, saying that he could detain his mes- senger, an officer of rank, but one day longer. Before the expiration of this second day an answer came, couched in those terms of- extreme courtesy which Spanish offi- cials always employ, but to the effect that, inasmuch as the Government had as yet received no report of the matter in question from its agents in Cuba, it must de- cline for the present any consideration of the subject. Whereupon Colonel Sumnee incontinently packed his portmanteau and hurried back to Paris. Having a few days at his disposal before he was compelled to return to 70 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. America, he devoted tliem to seeing the principal sights of the French capital. Among other things, he enter- tained an ardent desire to have an audience of the Em- peror and Empress, and Judge Mason, who was usually reluctant to ask these favors, finally consented to do so, and the matter was arranged. The next Sunday, at one o'clock, was the time appointed. Colonel Sumner was stopping with Mr. McRea, of North Carolina, the United States Consul in Paris, who lived somewhere on the Kne de Rivoli, mt qvatrihne or au ci)iquieme. Xow Judge Mason knew the Colonel to be a bluif, brusque soldier, who had spent most of his life fighting Indians on the frontier, and who, as Piatt said, while sitting one day with Jeffeeson Davis on a log in Mexico, during our war with that country, had been the joint-inventor with him of the inverted chim- ney-pot which for so many years formed the regulation head-gear of our army. At all events, from his brief communications with him, the Minister did not take him to be a courtly man. So, on the Saturday evening pre- ceding the appointed Sunday, Mr. Mason ordered his car- riage after dinner, and directed the coachman to drive to Mr. McEea's residence. When he reached that gen- tleman's apartment, he found the Colonel in the dining- room in his shirt-sleeves, with an old uniform coat and trowsers, both covered with spots and stains, spread out upon a table, and which, with a sponge saturated M'ith benzine, he was vigorously scouring. At this sight a cold perspiration started out upon the Judge's brow. " Why, Colonel, what is that V he exclaimed, " That," said the Colonel, " is my uniform, which I intend to wear to-mor- row." " You certainly can not think of appearing before CHAPEAU vs. GHIMNET-POT. Yl the Emperor and Empress in such a frightful suit of clothes as that — all the scrubbing in the world will not remove those spots of dirt ; not to mention that it would be shabby, even if clean," resumed the Minister. " Well," rejoined the Colonel, " it is the only uniform that I pos- sess. It is true that it shows the effects of service ; I don't think that the Emperor will think any the worse of it on that account. So I 7nust wear it, or not go at alh" This alternative was, of course, not to be thought of ; and, with a very uneasy feeling, Mr. Mason, after a short call, took his leave, promising to return on the mor- row punctually at twelve o'clock, to take up the Colonel and convey him to the Tuileries. The next day the Judge was punctual in keeping his appointment. Indeed, in his anxiety he somewhat an- ticipated the hour. He climbed up the four or five flights of stairs with much pufiing and blowing, and when he entered the Consul's drawing-room he found the Colonel quite ready, ensconced in his rusty blue, and with one of the inverted chimney-pots already referred to upon his head. The Minister gazed at him for some moments in speechless horror, and then broke out with, " I tell you what it is. Colonel, I can stand the uniform, but hang me if I will accompany you to the Palace unless you dis- pense with that frightful object which you have upon your head." " But what shall I do for a hat ?" queru- lously asked the Colonel. " This is our regulation cap, and if it is good enough to wear in the presence of the Pres- ident of the United States, it is certainly sufficiently so to wear in that of the Emperor of the French." But the Judge's foot was down this time, and he would not yield. So he and the Colonel and Mr. McRea sat down togeth- 72 3£EM0RIES OF MANY 3IEK er, and, after a long consultation, it was decided that the latter should go to a shop and purchase a military chap- eau, which should be substituted for the obnoxious arti- cle. In the mean time it was getting late, and Mr. Ma- son was becoming fidgety and anxious. They all descend- ed the stairs together, and while the Minister and the Colonel entered the former's carriage, the Consul dashed on toward the Rue de la Paix in quest of the chapeau, for which the others were to await his return. Mr. Mc- Rea was absent a long time; he had to go all the way to the Rue Richelieu ; but just as the Judge was about to col- lapse from utter despair, he returned, triumphantly carry- ing in his hand an elegant laced chapeau, with a magnifi- cent tricolored plume attached to it. He hastily passed it in through the carriage window, and Mr. Mason or- dered the coachman to drive to the Palace. The Colo- nel held the chapeau in his hands, twirling it from side to side, and curiously eying it. At length he burst out, " Judge, you objected to my hat, but I'll be hanged if I will go before the Emperor with this one." "Why, what is the matter with it ''P asked the Minister. " Do you think that I will present myself to him with this infernal tricolored plume ?" was the rejoinder. "Well, then, take it out," said Mr. Mason. The Colonel proceeded to tug away at it, but without any success. Either he did not know how to detach it, or else it was too securely fasten- ed for him to do so. Finding that his efforts were in vain, he began to tear out the feathers one by one, and to throw them out of the window, until the vertical whale- bone alone, remained. While he was thus occupied, the Minister, after some preliminary hemming and hawing, addressed him somewhat as follows: "Colonel, vou are a A DIPLOMATIC CATASTROPHE. 73 man of the world, and therefore there can be no occasion for me to caution you in regard to your bearing in the presence of their Majesties. But there is one thing which I desire you to keep in mind, and that is that the Em- press is a Spaniard, and extremely susceptible upon all questions affecting her own, country. The business wliicli took you to Madrid was one of a very disagree- able nature, and, I think that, in conversing with the Empress, you will do well to avoid even mentioning that you have been to Spain." "You are quite right, Mr. Ma- son," replied the Colonel ; " rest assured that I shall say nothing about it." The distance which they had to drive was but a short one, and by this time they had reached the Tuileries. They were promptly ushered into the au- dience-chamber, and a few minutes thereafter the Em- peror entered. Every thing passed off charmingly, and the gentlemen had been for some ten or fifteen minutes engaged in an easy and agreeable conversation, when her Majesty walked into the room, attended by a lady of honor. Colonel Sumner was presented, and some- how immediately lost his head. After the first words of courteous greeting, he appalled Judge Mason by telling the Empress that he had just returned from a visit to her native land, and regretted extremely that his business there was of such a nature that he was only able to re- main in the country two days. " Shall I be indiscreet if I inquire what was the character of the business which compelled so short a visit?" asked the Empress, in her sweetest tones. " Madame," replied the Colonel, in no- wise disconcerted, " I took to Mr. Soulb dispatches in re- lation to the Black Warrio?' outrage!" " How, sir !" ask- ed her Majesty, flashing with indignation ; " do you call D 74 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. that an outrage — the vessel that took over Lopez and liis infamous gang of pirates ?" " I beg to observe to you, Madame," rejoined the Colonel, "that the Black Warrior was not even built until long after Lopez had been exe- cuted," " It matters not," answered the Empress; "you Americans seem to think that because France is engaged in a war with Russia you can insult Spain with impunity. Permit me to tell you that Spain is abundantly able to take care of herself, so far as you are concerned ; that if she is not, France is not so crippled but that she can come to her aid ; and that if, notwithstanding all, it shall become necessary to do so, w^e will liberate the negroes in Cuba, and thus revolutionize your own country!" "Ma- dame !" answered the Colonel, drawing himself up to his full height, " I beg to say, with the highest respect for your Majesty, that we are not afraid of Spain, that we are not afraid of Spain and France together, that we are not afraid of Spain and France together and the niggers in Cuba to boot !" How Judge Mason dashed from the Palace, wildly tearing his hair, Piatt used to relate with picturesque details. I do not know whether his story had much, little, or even any foundation in fact. Se non e vero, e ben trovato. CHAPTER V. SOMETIME during the month of December, 1854, we received at the Legation an answer from Governor Marcy, then Secretary of State, to the famous Ostend dis- patch iij^on the subject of the acquisition of Cuba, which was the result of a conference between Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Soule, and had been jointly signed by these three diplomatic representatives of the United States in Europe. This answer not only took issue with almost every proposition enunciated in the trimie dis- patch, but, more than this, it assailed arguments and conclusions which had not been advanced in it at all. Mr. Mason was at a loss to comprehend this apparent waste of logic, although I do not think that he was per- sonally displeased with the issue of the business. For several days he and I did nothing but read over and talk about this document from Governor Marcy, and the pe- cuhar animus which inspired it continued as incompre- hensible to us at last as it had been at first. The same mail that brought to Mr. Mason his copy of this dispatch brought two other copies to Mr. Buchanan, at London. Of these, one was intended for himself, and the other he w^as requested to forward to Mr. Soule, at Madrid, by the hands of a confidential messenger — some person of approved trustworthiness and discretion. Aft- er keeping it about a fortnight, without finding any such person, he transmitted it to Mr. Mason, informing him of 76 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEX. liis inability, and begging him to find means to forward it to its destination. Mr. Mason thought that Mr. Bu- chanan did this in order to save the expense of a mes- senger to the contingent fund of his Legation. How- ever that may be, when Mr. Mason received the docu- ment, he was at as great a loss as Mr. Buchanan had been to find a person who would undertake the task and to whom he felt justified in intrusting it. For several days Mr. Mason spoke to me about the matter, hovering around nearer and nearer, and at last he ventured to ask me, as a favor to himself and to the Government, to take charge of this dispatch. It was midwinter, and I knew what a journey to Madrid meant at that season of the year. I was reluctant to go, but could not make up my mind to refuse. So it was finally settled that I should leave Paris the next afternoon. Before I started, Mr. Mason over and over again warned me against the fascinations of Mr. Soule. He represented him to me as a perfect bird-charmer, and, while he desired me to be upon the most cordial terms with him, he was very much afraid that he would absorb me. Had he a recent experience of his own in mind ? I can not say. I had never met Mr. Soule, but I went to the encounter forewarned and forearmed. So far as Bayonne, the journey was a very easy one, being even then performed almost entirely by rail. There was only a short interruption toward its southern ex- tremity, where you were compelled to take the diligence for a few hours. I was so unfortunate as to reach Ba- yonne the very day after one of the English " Queen's Mes- sengers " had started for Madrid alone in his own carriage. Had I been in time, I am certain that he would have ex- RIDING SPANISH. YY tended to me tlie courtesy of a seat. As it was, I had to take the Spanish mail — a miserable, dilapidated, rickety vehicle, with accommodations for only two passengers. My chance companion was a young Mexican. We were some seventy-six hours on the road, and esteemed our- selves fortunate that we reached our destination at last without serious accident. We were not robbed, nor e^•en attacked, although we met at Yittoria the passengers of a diligence who had had a serious encounter with high- waymen. It is true that we upset twice, both times at night ; but as neither of us suffered any thing worse than slight contusions, we felt that, considering the condition of the road, we had every reason to be thankful. The cold was intense, and we had the full benefit of it, as there was not a window in our crazy conveyance that could be securely closed. I had a good provision of shawls and wraps, which proved, however, so insufficient that one evening, while we stopped at a post-house to change horses, I ran into a small j>osa(la attached to it, and purchased the blankets from one of the beds. We arrived at Madrid eai'ly in the morning, and I immediately proceeded to the Fonda de la Yiscaina, in the Calle Mayor, near the Puerta del Sol. After what the French call a copious breakfast, at about nine o'clock I started for Mr. Soule's house, which was situated at no great distance from my hotel. He M'as living entirely alone, and in great seclusion. His wife and son were somewhere in the French Pyrenees, and he had quarrel- ed with his Secretary of Legation, Mr. Peeet, and re- moved all the government archives to his own residence. I was at once admitted to his presence, and handed to him my letter of introduction with the dispatch. The 78 MEMOBIES OF MANY MEN. former was most cordial. I should have mentioned that before I left Paris, Mr. Mason had stipulated that I should not be detained in Madrid more than two or three days, and this stipulation was incorporated in his letter presenting me to Mr. Soule. After the first compli- ments, as the dispatch was very voluminous, Mr. Soule obser^•ed to me that I had undoubtedly read it, and therefore could acquaint him with its contents. I pro- ceeded to do so, when he turned upon me almost fierce- ly, saying that I 7nust be mistaken, that Mr. Maecy never could have given utterance to such views. I quietly as- sured him that I was 7iot mistaken, that I had read the dispatch several times, and that Mr. Mason himself had been very much surprised by it. Finally he told me that he was so overwhelmed by the news that he found it necessary to be alone ; at the same time placing his car- riage at my disposal, and inviting me to return to dinner at six o'clock. Upon parting from him, I went over to the Foreign Office to call upon my friend the Vizconde DEL Ponton, whom I had known in "Washington several years before. The remainder of the morning I spent in the Royal Picture-gallery, which I have always thought, every thing considered, the most magnificent in the world — not forgetting Paris, Dresden, Florence, or Rome. After dressing for dinner, I returned to Mr. Soule at a little before six. I found him just where I had left him in the morning. "If you will believe me, Mr. Field," he said, " I have done nothing whatever since we parted but walk up and down this room, and read that dispatch over and over again. I could almost repeat it verbatim. My amazement is without limit. I am stunned. Of one thing only I am certain, and that is, that it is PIERRE SOULE. /^g tlie irresponsible work of Mr. Majicy. Tlie President can neither have inspired nor sanctioned it. You must dismiss from your mind all thought of leaving this place for some days. I require time to reflect and determine what course of action it is my duty to take under these most unexpected circumstances." I dined with him that day, and almost every other day for three weeks thereafter. Our party usually consisted only of ourselves and of a poor priest, whom Mr. Soule had saved from some political proscription by conferring upon him the title of Chaplain to the United States Le- gation. Notwithstanding the irksomeness of my deten- tion, I can never suiiiciently acknowledge the cordiality, kindness, and confidence with which I was treated by the accomplished Minister. It would be out of place here to enter into any discussion of his political princi- ples or his diplomatic career. But I can not refrain from saying that a more delightful companion, or a more thor- ough-bred man of the world, it has never been my fortune to meet. The life he led at that time was a singularly quiet and domestic one ; he seldom left his house unless called out by public business. His relations to the Court were, as they always had been, most friendly and inti- mate ; and if he was not liked by the aristocracy and the press, at all events they respected his courage. During his absence from Spain the previous summer, the news- papers assailed him, day after day, with the bitterest abuse, and with the most violent threats in case he should ever dare show himself again in Madrid. As soon as he returned, they became as silent as the grave, and up to the time of his final departure he was never again an- noyed by word or act. 80 MEMORIES OF 31 ANY MEN. One afternoon I drove with him over the Toledo bridge to the ground of his famous duel with M. Turgot, the French Embassador, the particulars of which he explained to me upon the spot. A perfect reconciliation never took place between the combatants. It will be recollected that M. TcEGOT was severely wounded in the thigh, and rendered a cripple for life. For a long time he was eon- fined to his bed, and when I saw him in Madrid he walked painfully upon crutches. Many months after the duel Mr. SouLE had occasion to call upon the Minister of For- eign Affairs. He happened to be occupied at the mo- ment, and Mr. Soule was conducted to the ante-chamber to wait until he should be disengaged. There he found, in solitary possession, his old adversary, whom he had not met since they retired from the field of combat. ISTo rec- ognition took place between them, and the meeting could not fail to be awkward and embarrassing to both parties. A very intelligent American gentleman, who had re- sided a number of years in Madrid, explained to me his theory of the origin of the difiiculty, which struck me as very plausible. It was as follows : That very decided unpopularity had preceded Mr. Soule to Spain in con- sequence of his supposed views in reference to the Island of Cuba ; that he came there a Frenchman of humble birth, who had left his country at an early age on ac- count of his extreme political opinions, to represent a republic of which he had become an adcp'ed citizen. That he found there, as Embassador from imperial France, a nobleman of ancient lineage, whose family had for centuries been identified with the elder Bourbons, and who had himself but recently left the legitimist ranks. The result was what, perhaps, might have been naturally A BAITED MINISTER. gl expected. From the moment that they came together, M. TuEGOT exhibited a prejudice which he sought iieitlier to control nor to conceaL If Mr. Socle had been an American, instead of a Frenchman, this prejudice would, probably, not have existed at all, or, if it had, it would have been very much less decided and acrimonious. As it was, it manifested itself in a continuous series of petty slights, each too insignificant to be formally noticed, but in the aggregate extremely galling. Nor did the annoy- ance stop here. Others took their cue from the Embas- sador of France, so that the American Minister's position soon became a very uncomfortable one. Mr. Soule was not the man to brook this sort of thing long. And when he fought M. Tuegot, his object was probably as much to right himself generally with society, and earn its re- spect and fear, if not its love, as to resent the particular insult which brought about the issue. I do not assert the above to be positively true, but it is the surmise of a close observer of the circumstances at the time. "While I was in Madrid there was a Constituent Cortes in session, called into existence by the revolution of the previous June. I had a seat in the diplomatic box, and frequently attended its meetings. I have seen much of both houses of the British Parliament, of the French Chambers, of the Hungarian Diet, and of other delibera- tive assemblies at home and abroad ; but never have I seen elsewhere such an assemblage of dignified, elo- quent, and intellectual-looking men as composed that Cortes. Integrity and patriotism seemed stamped upon every countenance. And yet, if what I heard of them was true, such a body of political prostitutes and unprin- cipled knaves never before sat together in one room. D2 82 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. Every evening hosts of the deputies were visitors at Mr. Soule's house. They would begin to arrive singly soon after dinner, and would keep on coming until one or two o'clock in the morning. Long after the lights were extinguished in the lower hall, gentlemen, muffled up in their cloaks so as to defy recognition, would ring at the 2)07't<^-cochere of the American Minister. I was never formally introduced to any of these persons, but the next morning Mr. Soule would inform me that I had met such and such a distinguished member of the Cortes the evening before. They represented all the parties and all the factions, and exactly for what purpose tliey came there I never could com2:)rehend. Since the Black Warrior business, all chances for the acquisition of Cuba by our Government seemed to be at an end. Up to the time of that unfortunate occurrence, Mr. Soijle was very confident that he would succeed in his efforts to negotiate the purchase of the island. If he had only had five hundred thousand dollars secret service money, he felt sure that he could accomplish it. The Cortes, being a constituent body, could do more radical things than an ordinary parliamentary one. lie would under no con- sideration attempt to corrupt the members — certainly not. But he would lend them money upon their own application, and thus as effectually secure their favor for the measure he desired to promote. Such diplomacy, I am happy to be able to say, our Government never re- sorted to in its better days ; and it is to be hoped that it never will do so in these more degenerate times. I be- lieve that Mr. Soule applied for, or at all events suggested, such a subsidy, but the application or suggestion was not for a moment entertained at Washington. Mr. Soule WHEEDLING A QUEEX. g3 was convinced that lie had brought the ex-Queen Chris- tina entirely over to his views ; but I doubt, after all, whether that very astute lady was not rather the mysti- fier than the mystilied. He told me that he used to sj^eud wliole evenings in familiar ttte-d-tete with her, talking over the Cuban question. His line of agument, he said, was as follows : That Spain was in urgent need of a system of railways, and of other public improve- ments, in order to develop her resources. That her credit was at so low a point that it was impossible for her to borrow even sufficient money to make a commencement. That the one hundred or one hundred and twenty mill- ions of dollars which the United States were willino; to give for Cuba would accomplish this. That in answer to the objection that Spain had a large mercantile marine dependent upon the commerce of her West Indian colo- nies, and which would be deprived of employment if these islands, especially Cuba, should slip from her hands, he would guarantee that it should be stipulated in the treaty of sale that Spanish and American bottoms en- gaged in that trade should be upon precisely the same footing for ten years after the treaty should go into oper- ation. So that, from fxj>atriotic point of view, he did not see how her Majesty could hesitate. So far as her own personal interests were concerned, the case w^as an equal- ly strong one. She owned a very large property in Cuba. That property should be carefully secured to her by a secret clause in the treaty, and under American domin- ion it would be certain to increase tenfold in value. This argument ad homi^iem, or rather ad feminam, if she accepted the premises, was, I fancy, quite as likely to affect favorably .the royal mind as that addressed to her 84 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK regard for the public interests of her country. However, as I have said, the Black Warrior business deranged all Mr. Soule's combinations. lie felt terribly incensed against our Government for their conduct toward him- self in that matter. The dispatch which Colonel Sum- nek had brought to him was very peremptory in its tone. In addressing himself to Mr. Luzueiaga, he adopted the precise language of Mr.MAECY to himself, only changing the formal commencement and ending. He threw down the gauntlet to Spain, as it were. The reply which he received was a snub in civil form — at all events, a re- fusal to comply with his demand. He entertained no doubt whatever that when news of that refusal should reach Washington, he would be ordered to demand his passports and leave Spain, and that war would follow. He considered it due to himself that, having literally obeyed instructions, he should be thus sustained. In- stead of which, after a considerable interval of delay, Mr.MAECY quietly instructed him to re -open negotia- tions! To him this was an intolerable grievance, for his opportunity in every way had passed. About ten days after my arri\al at Madrid, Mr. Soule had occasion to request an audience of Queen Isabella for the purpose of presenting an autographic letter from Pkesident Pierce, condoling with her upon the loss of I forget what relative. He was good enough to say that he desired me to accompany him upon the occasion. I objected that I had no uniform, which I presumed would be an insuperable difficulty in the way of my admission to the royal presence. But he told me that I had no oc- casion for concern on that account, as he would let me have one belonging to his son, which would do perfectly, PBEPARIXG FOB AN A UDIENCE. §5 as we were about the same size. A number of days passed, and no notice whatever was taken of the applica- tion for an audience. Mr. Soul6 became daily more and more impatient and vexed, until he finally threatened to me that he would demand his passports for this personal insult, as he conceived it to be. I had a good deal of difficulty to quiet him, and induce him to refrain from any hasty and ill-considered action ; for his mind and temper were for many reasons in a very morbid condition at that time. At last, when I called at his house one morning, he informed me that he liad just been notified by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that the Queen would receive him at seven o'clock that evening, and that an earlier appointment had not been made because her Maj- esty had been indisposed. He promised to immediately look up his son's uniform, and to send it over to my hotel by five o'clock, and he desired me to meet him again, prepared to go to the Palace, at half -past six sharp. At five o'clock, instead of receiving the uniform, I got a let- ter from him, to the effect that he could not find it, that liis son must have taken it away with him, and that I must come to him in an ordinary evening suit, being careful, however, to wear black gloves, as the Court was in mourning, and that he w^ould answer for the rest. I had nothing to do but to comply, which I did with many miso;ivino;s. Mr. SouLE had an engagement to dine that evening with Lord Howden, the British Embassador. He wrote a note of excuse, stating that he had received the Queen's commands to present himself at the Palace. His Lord- ship replied that he would not excuse him, but should wait dinner until midnight, if he did not come sooner. 36 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. Punctually at a quarter before seven o'clock, Mr. Soule and I entered his carriage to start for the Palace. He wore the Benjamin Franklin costume, which h^s been so often described, and which became him extremely well. It consisted of a black velvet coat, cut single- breasted, and with a standing collar elaborately em- broidered with black silk, black velvet breeches, black silk stockings, shoes with black buckles, a black dress sword, and a black chapeau without plume — every thing as black as Erebus. He looked as Edgar of Ravens- wood might have looked upon a state occasion ; his black eyes, black locks, and pale complexion completing the fanciful resemblance. The Palace at Madrid is situated at one extremity of the city, and directly over the Manzanares. It is a very elegant structure, but only one eighth of the size of the building originally projected. No finer apartment than the throne-room is to be found in any palace in Eu- rope. On arriving, we entered a large vestibule, paved with marble, and flush with the carriage-way in front. Here we found an extraordinarily numerous guard on duty. I never saw any thing like the number at any other sim- ilar place. As we passed them we uncovered, and they saluted us with a clang of their muskets which might have been heard to the distance of half a mile. Turn- ing to the right, we commenced, hat in hand, the ascent of the noble marble staircase. When we reached the first landing, a body of halberdiers stationed there, in a uniform of the sixteenth century, rang their halberds upon the stone tiles with deafening emphasis. Bowing our acknowledgments, we proceeded to mount the return SPANISH ETIQUETTE. 87 flight. At the head of it we found more halberdiers, who did precisely as their compaijions below had done. We then entered a door to the left, and found ourselves in a spacious ante -chamber filled with officials in uniform, but without side-arms ; the inferiority of their grade be- ing thus indicated. These persons bowed to us in the most deferential manner ; but I could not avoid observ- ing that my plain black coat was attracting attention, and I began to feel decidedly uncomfortable. Maintain- ing oui' dignity by rather haughty and condescending salutations, we moved on into another room, very like the previous one, except that it was crowded with officers of superior rank loith side-arms. It was evident that matters were arranged upon the principle of a theatrical climax. Hence we emerged into the so-called " Embas- sadors' Waiting-room," which far excelled in size all the apartments through which we had reached it. It is here that the diplomatic body was summoned when a royal heir or heiress was expected to make its appear- ance. Tedious hours were sometimes sj)ent there upon such occasions. As soon as the baby was born, it was brought in upon a silver dish and exhibited to the as- sembled ministers, who thereupon attested the birth with due formalities. We moved up slowly to the farther extremity of the room, and stationed ourselves to the right of a closed door. Opposite us stood about a dozen of the highest grandees of Spain, headed by the diminutive Duke of Medina Celt, all in gorgeous array, blazing with stars and orders. They had just come from an audience with the Queen. After a moment's hesitation, the little noble- man above named crossed over with solemn deliberation, gg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. and, facing Mr. Soule, bowed nearly to the ground with overpowering gravity. He then turned to me, and sa- luted me with less formality. All the others in turn went through the same performance. Presently there advanced toward us a brisk, fidgety personage with gray hair. He proved to be the " Introducer of Embassa- dors," or, as he would be elsewhere called, the chamber- lain. Tapping a' gold snuff-box, he opened the lid and offered a pinch to my chief, behind whom I was stand- ing, at the distance of a step or two. " I am glad to see you well, Mr. Soule," he commenced, presenting his hand. " Your audience is, I think, set down for seven o'clock, and I believe her Majesty is ready to receive you." While he said this, his eyes kept wandering from Mr. Soule to me, and he scanned me from head to foot. After a moment's pause, he resumed: "But, Mr. Soule, you assuredly do not expect this gentleman to accom- pany you ?" " I beg your pardon ; I certainly do," answered Mr. Soule. " This gentleman is Secretary of the United States Legation at Paris " (I was only so, as I have ex- plained, ad interim). " He has come to me with very important dispatches, and for the present is attached to my LegatioiL There are very peculiar reasons M'hy I am anxious that he should see her Majesty on this occa- sion." " It is quite impossible, my dear sir — quite impossible. There are two insuperable objections. In the first place, no audience has been requested for him ; and, in the next place, he is not in uniform. It is only the other day that the French Embassador wished to present a gentleman connected with the diplomacy of his countiy, BAFFLING A CHAMBEBLAIN. 89 who was in uniform, but for whom an audience had not been asked, and he was not allowed to do so." " Nothing," answered Mr. Soule, " would be farther from my wish than to violate the etiquette of her Maj- esty's Court upon a trifling pretext. This gentleman is not in uniform only because he left Paris in great haste, and brought none with him. As I have already said, I have special motives for wishing him to see the Queen, and, under the circumstances, I must request you to take her Majesty's _p(?;'5(9?2(2Z coinmands upon the subject." There was no answering this ; so the unfortunate chamberlain bowed with a rueful countenance, and went to refer the matter to the tribunal of last resort. As soon as the door closed upon him, Mr. Soule took my arm, and we slowly paced up and down the room. " It is all right now," he whispered to me ; " the Queen is the best-natured person in the world, and I am sure that she will not turn you away." His prophecy proved correct, for presently the " In- troducer of Embassadors " returned, and with a look in his face as if some dire misfortune had befallen the Spanish monarchy, said that her Majesty was ready to receive us both. ThereujDon he preceded us through a passage-way to the open door of a moderately sized drawing-room, upon the threshold of which he bowed profoundly, and then backed himself out of sight. As we entered by this door, Isabella II. entered by another door from the diagonal corner. The movement seemed to be a simultaneous one. I was a little behind Mr. Soule, to the right. The instant he perceived the Queen he bowed to the floor, and I followed his example, 90 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. as lie bad instructed me to do in all things. At the same instant down came her Majesty in the way that school-girls call "making a cheese." One step with each foot, and the ceremony was repeated on both sides. And so on some six or seven times, until we met at a marble table in the centre of the room. Mr. Soule, hold- ing the President's letter in his hand, then commenced in a low tone a very fluent and elegant little speech in French, at the conclusion of which he laid the letter upon the table. While this was going on, the Queen stood with her right hand resting upon the table, and with a look which plainly indicated that she considered such business a bore. I had an ample opportunity to take mental notes of her appearance. If my impres- sions were not flattering, they were, at least, unpreju- diced, and I must sacrifice gallantry to truth. " The Innocent Isabel," as she was styled in her youth, is considerably above the average stature of her sex, and of ample dimensions every way. Her forehead is low, and her nose and chin unmistakably Bourbon. She wore a black dress very decolletee^ and the charms which it partly concealed were evidently of ponderous proportions. Upon her hands, which are very large, and which looked swollen, she wore lace mitts, not gloves, leaving the fingers bare. Her whole skin was red, and had the appearance of being affected by some cutaneous disorder, wdiich I have understood is the case, I certain- ly did not fall in love with her Majesty at first sight. I have heard others declare her handsome; but there is nothing about which there is a greater difference of opin- ion than female beauty. When Mr. Soule had finished his address, she replied ROYAL AFFABILITY. 9^ at less length, in remarkably good French, but with a very decided Spanish accent. This done, she drew a lit- tle sigh and paused a moment, and then abruptly asked, in a much louder voice, and with a total change of man- ner : " Well, Mr. SouLE^ and how is Madame Soule ?" " She was very well, your Majesty, when I last heard from her. She is in the French Pyrenees." " I tliought she could not be in Madrid, for I have missed her for some time. When you next write to her, remember me to her. Ah ! Mr. Soule, neither I nor my mother will ever forget your kindness during those hor- rible days of June." I can not say that the Queen's eyes were here suf- fused with tears, but her countenance exhibited much emotion. Her manner during the above dialogue had been as familiar as that of any ordinary well-bred per- son. In her last remark she alluded to the revolution of the previous June, when Chkistina's life was threatened, and when Mr. Soule alone of the diplomatic body offer- ed her the protection of his house and his flag. Mr. Soule then kindly turned toward me, and apolo- gized to the Queen for having brought me with him in so unceremonious a manner, explaining that, as I might not improbably see the President before long, he wished that her Majesty might avail herself of the opportunity to send to him any verbal message she might desire. She smiled, and gave me a commission which it is un- necessary to repeat, but which was full of kind and friendly expressions of feeling. She then asked me how much longer I intended to remain in Madrid. I an- swered only a few days, as I had already overstayed my 92 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEX time. " Oh," slie replied, " you must certainly stop for my ball next week. Do you know, Mr. Soule, it will be my fii'st really gala ball since I have been upon the throne ?" " I should be most happy to do so, your Majesty," I rej)lied ; " but, in the first place, I have no uniform." " Oh, Mr. SorLE will manage that. Will you not, Mr. SouLE ?" " Certainly, your Majesty." " But then there is another impediment," I went on to say. "I am in the public service, and my instructions are to return to Paris the moment my business here is accomplished." " Now," she continued, with a smile, " if you w^ere a subject of mine, I would command you to wait. But you Americans are an independent and self-willed race. Still I presume that, if you will Jiot obey my orders, you will those of Mr. Soule. Mr. Soule, please order him to stay." " I order you, sir, to obey her Majesty's commands." I bowed, and said I would — but I didn't. After this hadinage, there followed a pause of suffi- cient length to indicate that the audience was at an end. Perceiving this, Mr. Soule backed a step and bowed as he had done on entering. I ditto. Majesty ditto. And so we kept it up, facing each other all the time, until at last both parties disappeared at the same moment through their respective doors. AVhen we again found oursehes in tlie Embassadors' Waiting-room, there was the old chamberlain, who evi- dently belonged to that genus of fossils who believe that a breach of etiquette is sufficient to make the firmament BAFFLED AGAIN. 93 fall; Advancing to me, he put his arm aronncl my neck affectionately, and said : " Do you know, sir, that an exception has this evening been made in your favor which I venture to say has never before been made in the history of the Spanish monarcliy ? I am confident that no person was ever be- fore presented to a Spanish sovereign without being ei- ther in court-dress or in uniform !" I assumed an air of offended dignity, as if piqued by the impediments which he had at first thrown in my way, and replied : " I acknowledge the value of the com- pliment, but I can appropriate no portion of it to my- self. It all belongs to my Minister. I counted for nothing in her Majesty's condescension. She did not even know my name." " Well,"" he answered, " it was a compliment to both." But I stuck to my original proposition, in which I was unquestionably right. " We are going," he resumed, " to have a grand ball at the Palace next week, when the Court goes out of mourning. You must come." " I am much obliged to you," I replied ; " but I ha\e already received an invitation from the highest source — from her Majesty herself. If any thing could induce me to remain for the fete, it would be her gracious re- quest to me to do so." Thereupon the old gentleman had nothing further to say, except that he hoped to see me there. AVe shook hands with him and commenced our egress, which was accomplished in the same manner that our en- trance had been. When we got outside the abode of roy- alty, Mr. SouLE went to his dinner-party, and I went home. 94 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. The most shocking and disgusting — I might ahnost say incredible — stories were told about the Queen at that time. All classes seemed to vie in speaking ill of her, and the foulest anecdotes about her private life were related to whomsoever would give a listening ear. In- deed, if 3'ou believed one half that you heard, all society in Madrid, emulating the example of the Court, was sunk to the lowest depths of social degradation. How- ever that may have been, I saw nothing any where but perfect decorum. CHAPTER YI. MR. SOULE treated me with imlimited confidence. He threw open his dispatch books to me, and in- vited me to examine the written history of his mission. I availed myself liberally of his offer. One day I came across a dispatch written by him to the Secretary of State, bearing about the same date as that of the famous Ostend Manifesto. The first paragraph in it referred to that document, and this induced me to read it with care. What was my surprise to find it a sort of " Key to Un- cle Tom's Cabin" — an elaboration and explanation of that manifesto ! Every point made in the manifesto was cleverly and craftily denuded of all diplomatic reserve in the dispatch, and pushed to the most extreme conclu- sions; and positions were taken far in advance of any in the joint document. It seemed to say to Mr. Makcy — " We spoke ambiguously, because it would not have been prudent to speak more clearly ; we said so and so, but we meant so and so." Here was the veil lifted from my eyes. I could now understand why Mr. Makcy had written as he had to the three Ministers. He had pre- sumed, or he had affected to presume, that this personal dispatch had been addressed to him by the Minister to Spain after he had submitted it to his colleagues, who were acting with him in the same business. I asked Mr. SonLE no questions upon the subject, because I felt that it would be indelicate for me even to suggest the possi- bility that he had given a personal interpretation to the 96 MEMORIES OF MANY AIEK manifesto about which his associates M'ere not informed. But the incident made a deep impression upon my mind. While in Madrid I had frequent opportunities of seeing the Duke of Alva, brother-in-law to the Esiperok Na- poleon, whom I thought he very much resembled in per- son. I also saw the Duchess several times, at the opera and elsewhere. Although pleasing in appearance, she was not nearly so beautiful a woman as her sister, the Empress. The Opera-house at Madrid was at that time one of the most elegant and comfortable theatres in Eu- rope. The house belonged to the Government, which gave the use of it, rent free, to a first-class, responsible company. It was here that I first heard Yerdi's " Trova- tore," before it had been produced at all in Paris. I had been in Madrid more than two weeks, and was be- coming vej*y impatient'at my prolonged detention, when one afternoon Mr. Soule invited me to drive out with him. Up to this time I had daily had the exclusive use of his carriage, as he was not himself in the habit of go- ing out. After some preliminary conversation upon oth- er subjects, he told me that he had at last decided upon the course of action which was the best for him to take. That he was more and more convinced that Mr. Makcy was the person exclusively responsible for the change which had taken place in the policy of our Government regarding the Island of Cuba. That he felt sure that the President had not been a participant in the error, or that, if he had been, it would be easy to convince him of his mistake. He also felt terribly aggrieved by the Sec- retary of State, because he had not sustained him in the action which he took in the Black ^Yarrior business, al- though it was that ofiicer who had himself prescribed that 3IR. SOULE RESIGNS IN DISGUST. 97 action. Under these circumstances, lie thought that, as Congress was then in session, his best plan was to return immediately to Washington, and manipulate that body in the interest of his own policy. There was but one difficulty in the way, and that was to determine to whom temporarily to turn over the Legation. That he had now seen me sufficiently to acquire confidence in my discre- tion, and he had the following proposition to make to me, viz., that I should accept the position of Charge d'Af- faires ad interim; that he would guarantee me the oc- cupation of the office for one year, and that I should have nothing to do but to be entirely inactive, except in obeying instructions to the letter, attending to the rou- tine business, keeping my ears open, and advising our Government fully as to every thing that should occur in Madrid directly or remotely affecting our interests. I immediately objected that, as there was a Secretaiy to the American Legation then*in office, I did not see how he could place its control in other hands. He answered that he had considered that, and that he w^ould be re- sponsible that a satisfactory arrangement would be made as soon as he should reach home. But I had other ob- jections, not necessary here to repeat, which rendered my acceptance impossible. I told him so very decidedly, and he seemed both disappointed and chagrined. "Well," he said, "there is then no alternative left to me but to resign." I felt distressed at appearing so ungrateful for all his kindness, and urged him as strongly as I could to reconsider this determination. But I failed to move him. His mind had evidently been made up to retire from his office in the event that he should be unable to make the arrangement which he had proposed to me. E 98 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. This one matter settled, there was nothing to keep me longer in Madrid. Accordingly I had myself booked for the first vacant seat in the Malle-Poste for France, which was only to be obtained by applying several days ahead. During the interval I made repeated attempts to per- suade Mr. SouLE to reconsider his resignation, but all without effect. The last day of my sojourn in Spain I dined with him, and, while availing myself of that oppor- tunity to thank him for all his kindness and confidence, I asked him how much of what I had seen, heard, and read since I had been with him he desired me to con- sider personally confidential, and how much I was at lib- erty to communicate to Mr. Mason. He answered that he had no reserve whatever to impose upon me, so far as Mr. Mason was concerned ; that I was quite at liberty to speak to him with the utmost freedom about all that I had learned. " However," he said, " rest assured, and do all that you can to keep *Mr. Mason in the belief, that the question of the acquisition of Cuba is going to be the principal plank in the Democratic platform at the next national convention of the party. Xo one can se- cure the Presidential nomination at that time who shall /^ not be thoroughly committed to that doctrine. If they adhere firmly to it, either Mr. Mason or Mr. Buchanan will probably be the nominee ; and Mr. Mason is not the least likely of the two, because Mr. Buchanan has long occupied a position of party leadership which is sure to engender those animosities and jealousies which have so often proved fatal to the aspirations of our most distin- guished men. I, being a foreigner by birth, am consti- tutionally ineligible, even were I, which I am not, so conceited as to believe that, under any circumstances, I FAREWELL TO MADRID. 99 might be selected. Besides, these gentlemen are equally responsible with me for the authorship of the Ostend dispatch, and, should they ever weaken in relation to the policy therein enunciated, the world would say that they had been tioisted around my finger ; and, certainly, two gentlemen of such distinguished talents would never permit this to be said of them in respect to so humble an individual as mj'self !" By the bye, I will here paren- thetically remark that I have always understood that the Ostend Manifesto was originally written by Mr, Soule, and that it was then re^•ised by Mr. Buchaxan ; but that it still remained so extreme in its utterances that neither he nor Mr. Mason would have signed it had they not been cajoled into so doing by their astute and specious colleague. Mr. SouLE then handed to me his resignation as United States Minister to Spain, addressed to the President, un- der cover to the Secretary of State, with instructions to have it forwarded from Paris to Liverpool, and placed on board a steamer there by a messenger, who should not be informed of the contents of the package with which he M'as charged. He also desired that the fact that he had resigned should be kept a close secret be- tween Mr. Mason and myself. It was, in fact, so kept, and the first knowledge of it in Paris M-as obtained through the medium of American newspapers. Mr. Soule accompanied me to the post-carriage, and saw me off. He took leave of me with the same cordial- ity with which he had all the time treated me. He has been dead now several years, and I never saw him after- ward. My journey back to Bayonne was not so disagreeable ^ IQQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. as that to Madrid had been. At least we met with no positive mishaps. My comjpagnon de voyage was a charming young Spanish Marquis, and his agreeable conversation went far to make me forget the discom- forts of the road. I got back to Paris veiy early in the morning, and at about nine o'clock went over to Judge Mason's house to breakfast with him. After breakfast we retired to his private ofiice. I first told him about Mr. Soule's resig- nation, and handed it to him, and, before proceeding fur- ther, he made arrangements to forward it to Liverpool. I then gave liini an unreserved and circumstantial ac- count of my visit to Spain. I spoke to him of the private dispatch which accompanied the Ostend Manifesto, as- suming that he already knew all about it. But not only did its existence prove to have been unknown to him, but my communication threw him into a parox^^sm of excitement and indignation. Nothing that I could say had the effect of quieting him. At first he insisted upou immediately sending to Mr. Buchanan a full account of it — that very afternoon. I urged him not to be so hasty, as, with the view which he took of the matter, lie might seriously and unnecessarily compromise me with Mr. SouLE. With mucli effort, I succeeded in persuad- ing him to wait a few days. That very evening he was stricken, down by a paralytic stroke. A second stroke some years afterward proved fatal to him. I have al- ways surmised tiiat the excitement into which he was thrown by what I told him upon that occasion precipi- tated the first attack. CHAPTER VII. I FOUND upon my return that Donn Piatt the Sec- retary, was back from America, and my official re- lations to the Legation were thns terminated. I also found awaiting me an unsolicited commission from his Excellency Hoeatio Seymouk, Governor of New York, appointing me Commissioner from that state to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855. There was already in Paris a number of Commissioners from other states of the Union, and the time had arrived to commence the preliioinary arrangements. Both the French Govern- ment and the Imperial Commission refused to hold of- ficial communication with these numei'ous American Commissioners, and tlie only course open to us was to organize as a body and appoint officers to represent us. In this manner I became President of the Board of United States Commissioners, and, as their representa- tive, was brought into relations with many distinguished people. I forget how many Commissioners we had in all. Certainly there were as many Commissioners as ex- hibitors, all of whom received their appointments from the Executives of their respective states, the Federal Government doing nothing in the premises. We had no money at our disposal except our individual means. I was compelled to expend a great deal of money out of my own pocket, for which I never received a return. My labors were very great, and sometimes of the most 102 MEMOKIES OF MANY MEN. perplexing character. The greater number of my col- leagues had come to Paris for " a good time," and sup- posed that a passj)ort as Commissioner would aid them in having it; but very few of them had any notion of doing any work. Many of the exhibitors sent us their articles from home, leaving it entirely to us to take care of them, and make all the preparations for their exhibition. The exhibitors who came themselves, or who were represented by agents, gave us a world of trouble in various ways. Some sent articles totally unfit to be shown even in a local country fair. Others, in their unseemly scramble for de- sirable space, worried and harassed us almost bej^ond en- durance. I remember one of them, who called upon me in regard to an enormous stuffed American eagle which he had lost somewhere that morning in the Exhibition building. lie had wandered into it, speaking nothing but English, and with the eagle in his arms, in quest of the temporary ofiice of the American Commissioners. lie did not happen to light upon any one to whom he could make himself understood, and, after beating about from point to point, he finally brought up in the Prussian of- fice, where he deposited his eagle without explanations. When he returned for it, he got lost, and could not find the place where he had left it. In his distress he came to me. It took us a long time to find that eagle, but we finally did recover the hapless bird. The place assigned to us in the Palace of Industry, as it was called, was of large dimensions and most advan- tageously situated, facing, as it did, the main central entrance to the building. We had a large place upon the principal floor, and also another in the gallery di- rectly over it. No matter how one might spread them THE GREAT ''EXPOSITION:' IQS out, we had not articles enough to fill all this. Before any arrangements were completed, Sm William Logan and Mr. Stekey Hunt arrived in Paris with the complete and admirably selected collection of Canadian products. They found that Mr. Cole, the British Commissioner, had omitted to reserve any space for its exhibition, and all the room in the building liad been already assigned to the several nationalities. Having no other resource, they applied to me, and I was happy to have it in my power to place at their disposal our space in the gallery, for which we really had no use. As the United States, of all the peoples, made the very worst show for what they might have done and should have done,' so I think Cana- da made comparatively the best. The inhabitants of the provinces who desired to exhibit were requested to send their articles to Montreal, and then the Government pur- chased those which it considered worthy to be shown at the Great Exhibition. The Colonial Government was the exhibitor, but the individual inventors and producers re- ceived their measure of credit and profit. The sewing-machine people gave us a fearful amount of trouble. They insisted upon having the most consj)ic- uous places in the main building — and they constantly quarreled among themselves for the choice of these — in- stead of complying with the regulation of the Imperial Commission, which required all machinery to be exhibit- ed in the Annexe, or supplemental building. There were only a few of them in existence at that time. AVhat must it have been in Vienna this summer, now that there are myriads of them ? Well, they urged and press- ed us so that we were finally compelled to allow them to try the experiment, warning them, however, that they 104 JUUlfOSIES OF MAXT MEX. would be certain to be driven from tbeir ground as soon as they began to operate. One afternoon, just before the Exhibition was formally opened, the Yankee girls, brought over for the purpose, took their seats at their machines, which were placed upon an elevated platform, and the buzzing and whirring commenced. Just at that moment Pkince Napoleon (Jerome), who was a,t the head of the Imperial Commission, happened to enter the build- ing upon a tour of inspection. Hearing the sound, he at once searched for the cause. When he perceived it, he rushed toward the unfortunate sewing-machines, and with an expressive gesture shouted to his assistants, '"' Balayez- moi tout cela /" (Sweep all that away !) I did not feel that I could conscientiously protest against this judg- ment, and so Singer and Grover & Baker and the rest of them were compelled to retire to the machinery hall. Our people took a great many prizes at the Exhibi- tion in projDortion to the number of exhibitors. Per- haps the most creditable exhibition of all was that of Goodyeae's articles of vulcanized India rubber. These were comparative novelties then, and were manufactured by Mr. Goodteak in France under his patents there, al- though his inventions had been made and perfected, and originally patented, in this country. After he had gone to a good deal of expense in fitting up the compartment which we had assigned to him, tlie French Exhibition authorities insisted that he should exhibit with them. This he was unwilling to do, and he desired us to make an energetic appeal. We were as anxious as himself to prevent another nation from appropriating to itself the credit of these admirable inventions. But in vain did I ascend the hierarchy of authority. They were all inflex- PLON-PLOK iQ^ ible. I pointed out to them that in their own list of printed questions which exhibitors were required to an- swer in writing was this: "Does the exhibitor present himself as manufacturer or as inventor f^ leaving it to be inferred that he had the privilege of exhibiting in ei- ther capacity. No ; they were determined to have Mr. GooDYEAE, and would not forego their claim to him. After much discussion, I determined to have recourse to Pkince ISTapoleon himself, and, with this object in view, I addressed him a letter, asking him when it would suit his convenience to grant me an audience. A reply promptly came, making an early appointment at his res- idence at the Palais Royal, or, as it was then called, the Palais Imperial. Prince Napoleon, as all the world knows, is the son of Jekome, the youngest brother of the first Emperor, by a daughter of the King of Wlirtemberg. A previous marriage of his father, contracted in extreme youtli in this country, with Miss Patterson, of Baltimore, was annulled ; and it has been decided, after litigation in France, that the rights of the issue of that marriage are limited to the use of the family name. The Prince has one sister, the beautiful Prestcess Mathilde, who sepa- rated from her husband, the Russian Prince DEmnoFF, on account of his alleged cruelty. This allegation seems to have been well-founded, inasmuch as the Emperor Nicholas espoused her cause, and compelled him to pay to her a handsome annuity as long as he lived. Prince Napoleon — or, as he is familiarly called, Plon-Plon — is tall and portly, but round-shouldered, and somewhat awkward in his gait. His head is of the unmistakable Bonaparte type, common to every member of the fam- E 2 106 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. ily I have ever seen, except the late Emperor, who did not possess the faintest trace of it. So marked is this type, that any one familiar with it could not fail to in- stantly recognize it whenever he accidentally met one of the blood in any part of the world. It is a curious fact that the beautiful antique bust in the Vatican, at Rome, of the Emperoe Augustus when a youth, might perfectly serve for that of the Empeeoe Napoleon I. at the same age, and bears a strong likeness to all his family, with the single exception above mentioned. The Prince was in his youth a good deal under the tu- telage and guidance of his Imperial cousin, who treated him as a spoiled child, and whom he was as unlike as possible. Although a man of genius, and one of the fore- most orators of Europe, he has always been looked upon as a sort of enfant terrible; and with good cause, if one half of the anecdotes related of his indiscretion and vio- lence are true. It was rumored that terrible altercations frequently took place between himself and the wearer of the purple, to which he was heir-presumptive, until the birth of the Prince Imperial put his nose out of joint for the succession. The story goes that he once so far for- got himself, after an angry discussion with the Emperor, as to tell him that he was nothing but "a kite in an eagle's nest." This is said to have occurred previously to the Crimean "War. It will be recollected that the Pi-ince served in that war, but returned to France some time in the winter of 1854-5, before the surrender of Sebasto- pol. A few months later the Emperor made up his mind to assume command of the army in person, and went so far as to have his baggage forwarded to Constantinople. The Prince, who has a considerable taste for intrigue, AN ''EKFANT TERRIBLE:' IO7 was very anxious to remain in Paris during liis cousin's contemplated absence ; Init this by no means accorded with tlie Imperial views. The Emperor is said to have told him that if he went himself he would insist upon his accompanying him, to which the Prince flatly refused his consent. Thereupon it is reported that the Em- peror put an end to the conversation by telling him that he should take him with him, if he had to take him in irons. The contemplated expedition never took place, so there was no occasion to execute this threat. AjpTO]]os of the Prince's Crimean campaign, his repu- tation for courage has never stood high with his country- men, and many reports to his disadvantage were circu- lated during the war. I happened accidentally to see a letter from Sebastopol, addressed by an officer of high rank to a friend in Paris, and describing one of the en- gagements — which particular one I can not now remem- ber. Among other things, he said : " Le Prince, a ma grande surpinse, s'est conduit a merveille" (The Prince, to my great surprise, behaved admirably). Great weight was attached to this reluctant testimony by those who knew the writer. The Prince at that time affected extremely radical po- litical opinions, aspiring to the leadership of the French Democracy. These pretensions did not then receive much recognition ; indeed, he was decidedly unpopular with the very class that he desired to conciliate. He could not show himself at one of the Parisian theatres without meeting with a very cold reception. The people seemed to have no confidence in his sincerity, and were indisposed to excuse certain acts of glaringly bad taste in his private life. The publicity with which he seemed 108 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. to take pains to surround his relations with a distinguish- ed tragic actress, long since dead, offended the popular sense of propriety. The French are very particular about external decencies, and this extends even to those among them who are very liberal about private morals. They think, with the Spartans, that detection, and not crime, should be visited with punishment. Particularly, they can not endure that persons in high station should parade their immoralities before the public. Now it was said that the Prince used to drive at all hours to the residence of the lady referred to in an Imperial carriage, with servants in the Imperial livery, and that the carriage would frequently be left standing at the door a very long time, to the great scandal of the neighborhood. They said that upon one occasion h* was notified some time after he had entered the house, by a superior officer of police, that an indignant mob was collected outside, and that, unless the carriage was dismissed, he could not be responsible for the consequences. Many will undoubted- ly recollect with what severity Charivari used to handle the alleged relations between the late Duke of Orleans, father of the Count of Paris, and the same lady many years ago. To return to my interview with the Prince upon the subject of the exhibition of Mr. Goodyeae's India rubber. I had to wait a long time in the ante-chamber, as he was closeted with somebody else when I entered. This ante- chamber was a plain room, ornamented, however, with two objects of art (there were no others) which attracted attention. These were marble busts of Eachel, the one as Tragedy and the other as Comedy, placed on pedestals in diagonal corners of the room. THE BOURBONS' BLUNDER. 109 After a while I was admitted to his presence, and I had no difficulty whatever in persuading him that I was right in my controversy with his official inferiors. The necessary orders upon the subject were given by him the next day, and they were peremptory and final. This mat- ter disposed of, we fell into a general conversation about a variety of subjects. All the time that it lasted the Prince was incessantly smoking cigarettes. Among other tilings, he asked me if I knew that when Charles X. es- caped from France to England, after the revolution of 1830, he crossed the Channel in an American ship ? I told him that I never knew it, or, if I had known it, had forgotten it. " Yes," he said, " she was called the Charles Carroll, and a remarkably fine vessel she was. The King was ac- companied, among others, by a French Admiral and sev- eral naval officers, and he was standing surrounded by them on the quarter-deck shortly after they got under way. He had been silent for some minutes, when, look- ing up to the Admiral, he remarked, ' This is a magnifi- cent ship.' ' She is, indeed, Sire,' was the reply. ' Have we any equal to her in our commercial marine?' asked the King. ' We have not,' answered the Admiral. Here the King was again silent, and for some time kept his eyes fixed upon the deck. After a while he drew a sigh, and said, ' Ah ! that was the greatest mistake ever made in the history of the French monarchy !' ' To what do you refer. Sire V inquired the Admiral. ' To the es- pousal by my brother, Louis XYI., of the cause of the American Colonies against Great Britain,' he answered. And that is ray opinion, too," said the Prince, laughing, and slapping me playfully upon the leg. 110 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. lie was quite riglit, in so far as tlie fate of the Boue- BON family was concerned. They joined us in our strug- gle, not because they loved us, but because they hated England. The establishment of a republic upon this side of the Atlantic precipitated the revolution of 17S9 in France, cost the reigning monarch his head, and has cost his successors their crown. CHAPTEE VIII. DUEING the months of May and June, 1865, Peince Napoleon had receptions at the Palais Imperial every Saturday evening. At these receptions were gath- ered together all tlie most distinguished people who happened to be in Paris. The number of invitations w^as very limited, there being never more than two hun- dred and fifty persons in the rooms at one time, so that there was no crowd. The apartments are very fine, much finer than those which were used for similar pur- poses at the Tuileries. The Prince, who was then a bachelor, did the honors, assisted by his sister. His fa- ther was only occasionally present. At my first visit, I was accompanied by the Mexican Secretary of Legation, Mr. EscANDON. When we got to the first door, an usher on duty asked our names and titles, that he might an- nounce us. My friend handed him his card. Not hap- pening to have one with me, I wrote my name upon a piece of paper, and under it, in French, " President of the Board of United States Commissioners to the Uni- versal Exposition." What was my dismay and mortifica- tion to hear called out, as I made my entrance, " The President of the United States !" Whether it was stu- pidity or malice, who could tell ? — probably the former. Fortunately for me, the Prince was standing with only one or two persons in the outer apartment. lie laughed meaningly as he gave me his hand, but made no allusion in words to my discomfiture. 112 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. There was a most extraordinary galaxy of celebrities present that evening. Among others, I may enumerate the ex-Queen Chbistina, of Spain, with her husband, the Duke of Rianzakes, and her three beautiful daughters, the eldest of whom was the dashing Peincess Czartok- isKi ; Prince Luceen Bonaparte, from Rome ; the late King of Portugal, and his brother, the Duke of Oporto, the present King, the latter not being more than fourteen or fifteen years of age. The King was a slight, fair- haired, German -looking boy (his father was a Coburg), timid as a girl, and blush- ing whenever he was spoken to. He wore a pair of gloves immensely too large for his hands, which (his hands) he seemed to be in continual distress what to do with. He was almost swallowed up in the broad ribbon of a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of France, which etiquette required him to wear, the Emperor upon the same occasion wearing the broad ribbon of the Tower and Sword of Portugal, The Duke of Oporto was a rosy, plump, cool little fellow, incased in the oddest little dress-coat imaginable, the skirts of which were a mere apology for covering. Besides the foregoing, there were the late Duke of Brunswick, with thickly painted face, wearing a black silk wig, a black silk dress-coat, of extraordinary cut and of his own manufacture — and of which no civilized tailor would have been guilty — and solitaire diamonds, of enor- mous size and value, for waistcoat buttons ; the Duke OF Holstein, and I know not how many others. It will be remembered that when the DuivE of Brunswick w^as many years ago driven from his throne and his dukedom, he took the precaution to carry the crown-jewels with EUOENIE. 113 him, and for the rest of his days he was famous as the greatest collector of diamonds in Europe. He was said to know more about them than any person engaged in the trade. His numerous other eccentricities were well known to the people of London and of Paris, in which two capitals, at different times, he resided nearly half a century. I had been for about an hour wandering from room to room, unintentionally overhearing at one time a very curious conversation between the Princess Mathilde and the Duke of Brunswick at the hitffet, when the Em- peror and the Empress arrived. After making a tour of the apartments, her Majesty seated herself upon a sofa in the largest of them, with a lady of honor at each side of her. I never saw her look so charming as she did that evening. She was, as usual at that time, most becomingly dressed. I say at that time, because when she first arrived from Spain she indulged in the strong colors and decided contrasts which the ladies of that country, when not in faultless black, affect, and the French dressmakers had great difficulty in correcting this bad taste. When she first took her seat, as I have men- tioned, I was standing, at some distance, directly opposite the sofa ; and I found it so agreeable an occupation to look at her, and was so protected from the appearance of exceptional intrusiveness by having others near me similarly employed, that I did not move. I noticed that the Emperor was standing at her right, conversing with the Papal Nuncio, but, after observing the fact, I bestow- ed no further attention upon him or his movements. A few minutes had thus passed, when somebody, whose approach I had not seen, said good-evening to me in 114: MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. rreiicli. I hastily turned, and to my amazement recog- nized the Emperor. I understood perfectly that he must have some particular reason for addressing me, one of the veiy least distinguished or conspicuous persons pres- ent. After a few commonplaces, he remarked that he had that afternoon walked through our department of the Exposition (this was just before it was opened to the public), that he had seen many things there which interested him, but that nothing had so much pleased him as Mr. Goodyeak's vulcanized India rubber. That among Mr. Goodyear's articles, however, he had noticed something which had mfrigued him then, and continued to intrigue him ever since. That he very much regret- ted that I was not present at the time of his visit. Here I interrupted him to say that I very much regretted it myself, and that, if he had sent me an intimation of his purpose, I would have been certain to attend. " Well," he answered, " In one corner I saw, stacked as one sees them in an artillery -yard, a pile of vulcanized India-rub- ber cannon-balls ! There was nobody there to answer the inquiries which I desired to make. Perhaps you can explain the matter to me." I had not even seen the balls in question, and had to say so. " I can not imagine," resumed his Majesty, " how any preparation of India rubber can be used iov projectiles. It has often occurred to me that, in combination with other materials, it might, from its quality of elasticity, be made useful for defe7is- ive purposes — for instance, in breastworks." I was com- pelled to admit that it was equally mysterious to me how Mr. GooDYEAK could have seriously thought of making cannon-balls of it. After so unsatisfactory an interview, the Emperor probably did not think that it would be INDIA-RUBBER CANNON-BALLS. 115 civil to immediately leave me. So he asked me if I took much interest in military matters. I answered that I did not any more than civilians usually do. He then asked me if I had noticed the new cuirasses which he had just given the Imperial Guard. I told him that I had ; but that I knew nothing of the difference between them and the old ones, except the appearance. " Well," he said, " I will tell you. They weigh so much less," stating a very long fraction, " and their power of resist- ance is so much greater," mentioning one that was equal- ly long. He then went on to explain to me various mat- ters of military detail, and finally asked me if I had heard the news of a French success in the Crimea which had that afternoon reached Paris. I replied that I had. "^A h'lenP he said, stroking his moustache and smiling; " Cest encourageant, mats nous somines encore asses loin de SebastojpolP' (Well ! it is encouraging; but we are still far enough off from Sebastopol !) With this observation, which would have affected the stock markets of Europe had it reached the Bourse, he bowed and withdrew. I was at that time residing in the Champs Elysees, very near the Palace of Industry. The next morning I went over before breakfast for the purpose of obtaining information upon the subject which had so intrigued the Emperor. I went directly to Mr. Goodteak's compart- ment, and, sure enough, found the balls there, just as they had been described to me. It was too early for me to expect to see Mr. Goodyear himself, but there was a per- son in charge. I asked him what in the world he ex- pected to do with India-rubber cannon-balls. "They are not cannon - balls," he answered ; *' they are foot- 116 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. balls !" I am sorry to say that I never had the oppor- tunity to set the Emperor right npon the subject. Among my fellow-Commissioners to the Exposition was my good old friend Hoeace Geeeley, It was at that time in Mr. Geeeley's career when he still affected very old white overcoats and equally old white hats. This peculiarity of summer attire caused him to attract more attention on the street in Paris than would have been attracted by a score of Japanese, Chinese, and South- Sea Islanders. Of this he appeared serenely unconscious. I remember one high-priced or gala day at the Exhibition, when all the fashion, elegance, and distinction of Paris were assembled there. Wliile I was standing in our own part of the building, Hoeace entered in his usual costume. Telling me that he wanted to show me some- thing, and seizing me by tlie arm, he started off, with his peculiar plowman's lope, dragging me along througli a space which the astonished visitors opened for us on either side. Wonder was expressed upon every face. All the way down the principal gallery we went, until we reached its farther extremity, a distance which I would be afraid to express in feet. What he desired to show me was well worth seeing. It was some specimens, in the Austrian department, of printing and book-bind- ing, executed at the Imperial Press in Vienna, which ex- celled every thing else of the same character to be found in the Exposition. A very droll circumstance happened in connection with this visit of Mr. Geeeley to Paris, w^iich he has but partly described in his " Kecollections of a Busy Life." I will only relate what occurred under my own pei'sonal observation. HORACE GREELEY IN TROUBLE. 117 I liad issued invitations for a dinner to ray fellow- Commissioners and other distinguished gentlemen from the United States, to take place at the Trois Freres ProveTK^mox on Saturday evening, June the second, at six o'clock. I arranged with Mr. Piatt to come to the Le- gation at half-past five, when he was to drive me down to the restaurant. My own residence was in the imme- diate neighborhood of the Legation, and Mr. Piatt occu- pied an apartment in the same building with it. At a little before the api3ointed time I started from home to keep the engagement. As I turned into the street upon which the Legation building was situated, I saw an ordi- nary ^^crig, or street-cab, drawn up before the door, and Piatt standing, in his shirt-sleeves, talking to its occu- pants. They were three in all, two of them upon the back seat and one upon the front seat. As I approached nearer, I recognized one of those upon the back seat as Horace Gkeeley, w^ho was to dine with me that day. The other two were very ordinary-looking Frenchmen. All were talking and gesticulating violently, and as Mr. Gkeeley spoke no French, and Mr. Piatt very little in- deed, and the two Frenchmen no English, the whole was a Babel of unintelligible jargon. The moment that Mr. Gkeeley saw me coming, his countenance, which had hitherto worn an expression of the deepest distress, was illumined by a ray of hopeful satisfaction. AVhen I got near enough to hear him, he explained to me that he had been arrested at the instance of a French sculptor, who had sent a statue for exhibition to tlie World's Fair at New York, of which Mr. Gkeeley was one of the man- agers, because this statue, which he valued at fifteen thousand francs, or three thousand dollars, had been re- llg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. turned to him in a mutilated condition. He claimed that the managers had guaranteed the safety of all the articles exhibited, and that therefore Mr. Gkeeley was responsible to him for his loss. Hence he had com- menced a civil action for damages against him, and had obtained an order for his arrest. That he was taken be- fore the judge who had granted the order, and that the magistrate had consented that the huissiers, or bailiffs, who had him in charge should accompany him to the American Legation, and had ordered that, if the officers thereof would agree to become responsible for the amount, in case judgment should go against Mr. Gree- ley, he was to be forthwith released. I translated this statement to the bailiffs, who admitted its correctness in all respects except as to the conditions for the release. They said that the judge's instructions to them were not to let Mr. Gkeeley go nnless some gentleman of the Le- gation w^ould consent to make a deposit in money of the sum at issue. When I told this to Mr. Gkeeley, he em- phatically denied its accuracy, and made an effort to el- bow himself out of the cab, in order to enforce his ex- planations to me more at his ease. Seeing this, the bail- iffs supposed that he was endeavoring to take sanctuary within the Legation, where, by international law, it would be impossible to arrest him. So they shoved him back with some show of force, and, getting out themselves upon the sidew^alk, tied their tricolored scarfs around their waists. At this proceeding Mr. Piatt laughed sar- castically, which threw them into a terrible passion. They desired to be informed if he intended " to ridicule the coloi-s of France." Piatt's hilarity continued, and it was all that I could do to brino- matters back to the CARRIED OFF TO CLIGHY. HQ basis of quiet discussion. In the mean time, Mr. Gkee- LEY, paralyzed by the efforts which he had made, was sit- ting back in the cab with the most woe-begone look of martyrdom upon his face that can be imagined. Final- ly, finding that the officers were inexorable in carrying out the judge's order, as they understood it, I offered to draw my check for the amount involved. This propo- sition they discussed for a moment between themselves, and then declined it as unacceptable, upon the not un- reasonable ground that, as it was long after bank hours, it would be impossible for them to ascertain that night whether the check was good or not. There, therefore, remained nothing farther to be done. When I commu- nicated to Mr. Greeley the failure of all my efforts to save him from Clichy, the apathy of despair overcame him, and he exclaimed, in that piping treble which we all remember, " Take me to jail ! take me to jail !" As lie was about to be driven off, we assured him that every thing possible would be done to effect his liberation upon the morrow. The bailiffs re-entered the cab, and it drove away. By this time it was nearly half-past six, and Mr. Piatt vv'as not yet dressed. The first thing done was to dis- patch a messenger to Mrs, Greeley, at their residence somewhere outside the Arc de I'Etoile. Then Mr. Piatt made a hasty toilet, and we started for the Trois Freres. A roomful of angry gentlemen was awaiting me, indig- nant that the host was not only not present to receive them upon their arrival, but had actually kept them waiting three quarters of an hour after the time ap- pointed for dinner. This necessitated a public explana- tion from rae of the cause of my delay, which I made 120 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. upon the spot. lu this way the most prominent Ameri- cans then in Paris were informed tliat their expected fellow -guest and distinguished countryman, Hoeace Gkeeley, was to spend that night behind the bars of the debtors' prison of the Rue de Clichy. With this single drawback, the dinner passed off, I be- lieve, to the entire satisfaction of all j^resent. Among the convives were Mr. O'Sullivan, Minister to Portu- gal ; Mr. Belmoisit, Minister to Holland ; General Thom- as, Assistant Secretary of State ; Charles Astor Bkis- TED, Esq. ; several United States Consuls ; and all my fel- low-Commissioners — whose name was legion. The Hon. A. C. Dodge, the newly appointed Minister to Spain, left for the Peninsula that morning, and thus deprived me of the expected pleasure of his company. Mr. Mason was too ill to attend, but he sent me a very feeling and com- plimentary letter of apology. The authorities so little understood American gentlemen that they had expressed some anxiety, which had reached my ears, lest the oppor- tunity should be availed of to ventilate revolutionary doctrines, and possibly insult the Imperial Government. The difference does not yet seem to be every where un- derstood between the orderly and elevated republicanism of the United States and the pandemoniacal red repub- licanism of Continental Europe. Thank Heaven ! they have nothing in common. The next, Sunday, morning, without any unseemly hur- ry, I went to the Clichy Prison, at about ten o'clock. Upon presenting my card, I had no great difficulty in gaining admittance into the warden's room, and thence I was gradually forwarded to tlie interior of the prisoi], after a series of innumerable checks and receipts. - The SEEING GOOD SOCIETY. 121 prisoners were allowed to receive their friends on San- day, but it was almost as difficult to get into the place as to get out of it. It seemed that during all the previous hour there had been a constant stream of visitors for Horace Geeeley, and the prison authorities were be- wildered to imagine who their singular-looking but evi- dently distinguished new charge could be. Finally 1 penetrated to the large common room in which the pris- oners and their friends were assembled. It presented altogether a singular scene. In one corner squatted a laboring man in his blouse, surrounded by his wife and children, who had brought him some delicacies for his Sunday dinner. In another corner lounged a fashiona- bly dressed young gentleman, evidently of the genus fast, in earnest conversation with a still more fashiona- bly dressed young woman, as evidently of the genus faster. The room was filled with the most strangely contrasted groups. Standing in the middle of it, wear- ing his old white overcoat, and with his hat on the back of his head, his countenance wreathed in smiles, flanked on either -side by a United States Minister, stood Horace Greeley. To refrain from laiighing was impossible. " Mr. Greeley," I saidj " you irresistibly remind me of Parson Adams in jail !" His lassitude and alarm were all gone, and he was in the very highest spirits. " Field," he replied to me, "this has been one of the most fortu- nate incidents in my life. Without it, I doubt if I ever shojild ha\-e had the opportunity to see good society. You know that I know nothing about it at home. I have never associated with the people who compose it there. I dare say they are very good people, but tbey are not my people. Now we have two classes of in^ F ]^22 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. mates here — aristocrats and plebeians. Scarcely had I arrived last evening, when I was waited upon by a dele- gation of the aristocrats, and invited to join their mess. Of course, I accepted. We breakfast at ten and pay three francs, and dine at half-past six for four francs. The pleheians breakfast and dine earlier, and at much lower prices. Last evening at dinner we had a f)rince at the head of the table, and I was flanked on one side by a count and on the other side by a baron. If I only remain here long enough, I shall not only learn the French language, but good manners into the bargain." And so he ran on, his auditors hardly knowing whether they were laughing with him or at him. All our efforts to get him out that day were, however, fruitless. We sent for lawyers in every direction, but all the lawyers were amusing themselves, and none of them could be found at liome. On Monday Mr. Greeley was restored to liberty. When Mr. Piatt used to tell the story, more s2co, he related that as soon as Mrs. Gkeeley heard what had liappened, she immediately proceeded to pack Mr. Gree- ley's luggage, which consisted of a fine-tooth comb and a night-shirt, and then incontinently rushed to the prison. That the moment she was introduced to the presence of her husband, she frantically threw up her hands and ex- claimed, " Why, father !" to which he responded, with a like gesture, " Why, mother !" I fear that this was an apocryphal joke of Piatt's. At the trial of his case, Mr, Greeley came off victor. CHAPTER IX. nnilEEE M'as a very odd fish iu Paris during the sura- -■- mer of 1S55. He came from somewhere on our western frontier, and crossed from Xew York to Havre in the North Star. He dressed in a complete suit of furs, and during the voyage slept on deck every night. He appeared to be a very intelligent man, and had plenty of money, but was very eccentric, and even disgusting, in his habits. He stopped at Meurice's Hotel, in Paris, and soon became the wonder of the crowds of cockneys who frequented that house. Standing in the centre of the court-yard, and describing around him a magic circle of tobacco-juice, lie would tell the most marvelous stories, with a look which plainly said, '' You had better not ex- press any doubts, if you do not want a bowie-knife be- tween your ribs." A highly cultivated friend of mine, who had made his acquaintance, was once guilty of the imprudence of inviting him to walk. After a time they arrived at the Cathedral of Xotre Dame, which they en- tered. As soon as they had done so, the frontier's-man began to look about, as if anxiously searching for some- thing. Presently he espied a marble font, or receptacle for holy water. His face at once lit up, and, advancing to within six feet of it, lie with the most accurate aim discharged a stream of tobacco-juice directly into it. A sacristan, who happened to be passing, came up, full of exasperation at the sacrilege. It was diificult to persuade 124 3IEMdklES OF MANY MEN. him that the stranger thought the font was intended for a spittoon. The American students — humanes they called them- selves — in the Latin quarter were a queer set. Among them were two young medical men from Louisiana, who had come over to enter the Russian service, but had never ffot farther than Paris. One of them carried a card, which he seriously presented to every Frenchman to whom he was introduced, on which was engraved for a crest a device of two alligators fighting with their tails, and beneath that the name Le Baron cV AttaJcajMs. The crest of the other was a stalk of sugar-cane, and he sported the name of Le Comte de Plaquemine. I met in the street one day an acquaintance from New York, and not a very young man either, who was making his first visit abroad. He was delighted to see me, for I spoke French and he did not ; and I was supposed to know all the ropes, whereas he had just arrived. The first business to be attended to, as is usually the case with traveling Americans, was a visit to the tailor. This was dispatched. Then came the bootmaker's turn. This was likewise attended to. Then some pocket-handkerchiefs w^ere required, which it was desired should be very elegant. So I took my friend to Doucet's, on the Hue de la Paix. When we entered the shop, it so happened that neither M. DoucET nor any of his assistants were in ; they had retired temporarily somewhere into a back room. Lying on a counter were some beautiful specimens of cambric, each elaborately embroidered in one corner with a coro- net and initials. They at once attracted my friend's at- tention and admiration. Lie asked me what the coronet meant. I explained to him that it indicated that the THE AMEEICAN EAGLE SOARS. ^25 owner was a nobleman. This he doubted ; he fancied that the coronet might be only an unmeaning ornament. He had a great mind to have some handkerchiefs similar- ly embroidered. I begged him not to think of doing any thing so ridiculous, and just then M.Doucet, who spoke English, re-entered the shop. " Whose handkerchiefs are these, M.Doucet?" I asked. "They belong to Prince P , a Russian," was the reply. I supposed that this explanation would silence my companion, and so for a time it did. At length a happy thought seemed to strike him, and he abruptly asked the tradesman if he could not embroider an American Eagle upon some handker- chiefs for him ! Doucet could hardly keep his counte- nance, lie replied, with as much gravity as he could command, that it might undoubtedly be done, but that he was not acquainted with the peculiarities of our na- tional bird. Thereupon my friend triumphantly drew a silver dollar from his pocket, and tlirew it upon the coun- ter ! The handkerchiefs were selected, and the order was booked, and, I presume, executed ; but I made no in- quiry, and registered a mental vow that from that day forward I would ne\-er again allow myself to be per- suaded to accompany an Amei'ican upon a shopping ex- pedition. And yet I once unintentionally broke my vow. I had turned from the Boulevard des Italiens into the Eue de Richelieu one day, when I was overtaken by an Amer- ican Envoy Extraordinary, who had just reached Paris on his way to liis residence. He was a man of gigantic stature, w^ho had been a Senator from one of the West- ern States. On his right shoulder he carried a horrible baby, about a year old, clad in an abominable pink flan- 126 3rE3I0RIES OF 3IANT MEK nel dress ! Of course, the distinguished diplomatist spoke no French, or he never would have been appointed to represent the Stars and Stripes any where upon the Con- tinent of Europe. He was in quest of a trunk, and he forthwith pressed me into the ser\ice of aiding him to effect tlie purchase of one. The attention which that un- happy baby — which made itself heard as well as seen — at- tracted to us was enough to drive a civilized beinc: mad. The father, however, accepted it with the utmost serenity. I have been unsuccessfully trying to recall the name of the Italian shoemaker who fired at the Emperor on the Cliamps Elysees some time in the spring or early summer of the year 1855. He was an emissary from London, but died, if I recollect aright, without disclosing the names of his confederates. He had provided him- self with two pistols — one a revolver, and the other an ordinary double-barreled pistol. He fired two shots from the side of the road at his Majesty, who was on liorseback and quite near him, but neither of them took effect. I happened to be in a carriage with some friends at a distance of only a few hundred yards in the rear, near enough to see the puffs of smoke. I then noticed the immediate gathering of a group of people, and ob- served a man being dragged into a cab. We were on our way to the Bois de Boulogne, and, anxious to ascertain what had happened, Ave ordered our coachman to drive on rapidly. AVhen we reached the Barriere de I'Etoile, we stopped a moment, and, in answer to our inquiries, were informed that the Emperor had been fired at, that he had escaped any injury, and that he had pushed on for the Bois, escorted by his aids, ISTey and Fleuey, on horseback. TVe were also told that the Empress and her AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION. 127 ladies, in two Court carriages, had preceded liim some ten minutes, and could as yet know nothing of the occur- rence. With the hope of overtaking him before he reached the Bois, we put our horses to the top of their speed. But he must have ridden very rapidly, for we saw nothing of him until we came to the lake, when we observed the mounted party, followed by the carriages, coming toward us on their return. We at once reined up on the side of the drive, and, standing uncovered, awaited their approach. The Bois was very crowded that afternoon, but the news of the occurrence had evi- dently not yet reached there. As Napoleon passed us, we saluted him, and in so significant a manner that he could not doubt that we knew of the attempted assassi- nation. He bowed in return, and I shall never forget his look. His teeth were closely set, and his face was liter- ally of the color of old parchment. That this indicated fear, I do not for a moment believe. The man did not know what fear is. It only exhibited the strong emotion under which he was laboring. When the Empress came up, she was smiling and chatting with the lady on her left, and was evidently entirely ignorant of the fact that her husband's life had just been in imminent peril. As soon as the cortege passed, we wheeled into line and tried to keep up with it. But we could not do so — our horses were not equal to the task ; and when the Imperial party reached the Triumphal Arch, we were already a long way behind. By this time the news had spread through Paris like wild-lire, and the Avenue of the Champs Elysees was one dense mass of human beings. Every where as the Emperor appeared he was vocifer- ously cheered, and he had not proceeded far before 128 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. the pressure became so great that he was compelled to dismount from his horse and walk the rest of the way to the Tuileries. Among the many talents which the Emperor possessed, he was said to be unsurpassed as a judge of horses. As a rider, I never saw his equal, unless it was the late King of Holland. Insignificant on foot, he was superb on horseback. From the length of his body, he looked like a tall man wdien mounted, and he and his steed composed a perfect centaur. To see hira thundering along at a re- view with the cent gardes at his heels was a magnificent spectacle. It was not very often that he was seen in a carriage. Occasionally he got himself up in gorgeous attire and accompanied the Empress for a drive. And sometimes of a morning you met him driving with his own hands a pair of spanking baj's up the Avenue of the Champs Elysees, accompanied by a single groom. But he went mostly on Iiorseback. He commonly M'ore, when riding for pleasure, an old blue frock-coat, the seams of which were white from wear, and he indulged in a pair of old linen or cotton gloves distressing to behold. His tact was great, and he sometimes did things very gracefully. When the Russian war was over, he deter- mined to make General Bosquet a Marshal. Accord- ingly he invited him to a grand dinner at the Tuileries. After the cloth was removed, the Emperor requested all present to fill their glasses for a toast. He then pro- posed the health of Marshal Bosquet, who was taken entirely b}' surprise. While the works for the completion of the Louvre were going on, the Emperor used often to stroll there, A ROYAL ANXIOUS MOTHER. 129 cigar in month, to watch their progress. Upon one oc- casion he had not been there long when he noticed a gronp of stone-clitters talking together earnestly. Pres- ently one of them, cap in hand, advanced toward him in a hesitating and abashed sort of way. " My Emperor," said the man, " I have made a bet of five francs with one of my companions that you will permit me to light my pipe from your cigar," " You have lost, my friend," an- swered his Majesty, laughing ; " but here is the money to pay your bet and treat your friends besides," at the same time placing two golden Napoleons into his hand. lie thus managed to preserve both his dignity and his popu- larity. "When Queen Yictoeia was in Paris, the Emperor was particularly attentive to the Prince of Wales, then a boy. This made the Queen very uneasy. She was afraid that her son might be badly influenced — that he might be in- duced to smoke cigars, or do something still more hor- rid. It is related that one day, after both families had been lunching at the Palace of the Elysee Bourbon, the Emperor suddenly disappeared with the Prince, whereat the maternal anxiety and distress were most acute. It turned out that they had gone by themselves for a two hours' drive. I am sure that he was never fond of this country. I have some reasons for so thinking which I do not con- sider myself at liberty to mention. But he was very civil to our countrymen in Paris, and sometimes very patient with them. I know a Spanish gentleman of rank who was once sent to the States upon a special mission. He had been a friend of the Empress in Madrid, long before she as- F2 130 MEMORIES OF 3IANY 3IEN. pired to a crown. On his return from America lie stopped in Paris. Immediately after arriving, lie ad- dressed a note to her Majesty, requesting the honor of an interview. lie received a prompt reply, in which she said that she regretted that, in consequence of the ab- sence of her husband at Boulogne, she could not see any one ; but that he would be back in a fortnight, when she would be most happy to receive my friend. According- ly, after the delay indicated, an invitation came to him to taJhe tea at Saint Cloud. He went, and spent the even- ing en petit comite with their two Majesties. The Em- peror did not talk much. He was reading the newspa- pers, or more likely pi-etending to read them, nearly all the time. The Empress was ver}' particular in her ques- tions about this country. "Were the women so handsome as she was induced to believe by the beauty of some whom she had seen in Paris'^ Was there so much luxury in the great cities as she had been told ? Was Kew York so fine a town as she had heard ? I am justified in be- lieving that my friend gave a pretty favorable account of every thing. Finally, her Majesty asked him, all things considered, which he preferred, Paris or New York ? " Paris, of course," he replied. Hereupon the Emperor withdrew his head from behind his paper, and, with a grim and ironical smile, exclaimed, '■^Quel mauvais gout /" (What a bad taste !) I had the honor of knowing M. GnzoT at this time. After translating into French for publication the Presi- dent's Annual Message to Congress, and also some of the accompanying documents, I was requested to do into English an address which M. Guizot delivered before the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences upon the in- GUIZOT AND VATTEMARRE. \^\ tellectual activity of the United States. This circum- stance brought me into personal contact with that emi- nent statesman. His character and the tone of liis mind are rather Enghsh than French, and so, indeed, is his ap- pearance ; but when he speaks, aUhough remarkably so- ber in gesticulation for a Frenchman, he could not possi- bly be mistaken for any thing else. He is a Protestant, as is well known, and, after the downfall of Louis Phi- lippe, under whom he was Prime Minister, he was offered the professorship of modern history in the University of Oxford, which he declined. I spent many hours in his library at his modest residence. He was an old man then, and must be an octogenarian now. I also saw much of that strange character, M. Alex- ANDEE Vatteimarke. Originally a physician, and finding that he could not suj)port himself in that profession, he turned ^^ prestidigitateur^^ or magician, and, under an assumed name, being very skillful, became famous all over Europe. Having accumulated a moderate fortune, he retired to private life, and devoted the remainder of his days to promoting literary exchanges between the different countries of the world. In this last pursuit he was enthusiastic and indefatigable, and deserved great credit for his self-sacrificing industry. At his house I met the elder Dumas, who was his friend, and several other literary celebrities. I exchanged cards wath M. de TocQTTEviLLE, the distinguished political writer, but had not the good fortune to meet him. Ex-Peesident Yan Buken M^as also in Paris at the time of the Exposition, and I had the pleasure of being a great deal in his company. He was quite as courtly, and almost as active, as when he was President of the 132 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. United States some fifteen years earlier. I have a num- ber of letters which he addressed to me in May, 1855, written in that slanting manner across the paper which is so familiar to those who cori-esponded with him during the last years of his life. His favorite son, Martin, on account of whose health Mr. Van Bueen came abroad, died in Paris, and the remarks of the Abbe Cocqueeel at the grave were as eloquent as any to which I e^■er listened. All Mr. Van Bueen's sons except one have now passed away. John and Abeaham and Maetin are dead ; Smith, the youngest, alone survives. The engineer officers commissioned by the United States Government to examine and report upon the mil- itary operations in the Crimea were also in Paris at about this time. They were Majoe Del afield, Ma joe Moede- CAi, and Captain (since Geneeal) Geoege B. McClel- LAN. I had the pleasure of meeting tliem several times. I particularly recall one occasion when they were all in uniform, with those extraordinary regulation caps to which I have referred upon their heads. They were just getting into a cab, and their appearance attracted a crowd of gamins to the spot. These caps were the only pecul- iar thing they had about them, and must have been the principal cause of the gathering. They did not receive those facilities for visiting the French camp in the Crimea which they had the right to expect. Indeed, I understood that they were treated with scant courtesy by all tlie belligerents except the Russians. I was one day walking up the Avenue of tlie Champs Elysees when I met Mr. Tiiackeeay, the author, whom I had last seen in America. lie joined me, and we had proceeded some distance when he recognized a young THE ''MARqriS OF famintosh:' 133 gentleman on the otlier side of the street. The stranger, a tall and uncommonly handsome person, immediately crossed over to meet, him, and I stepped aside. I over- heard Thackeray ask him what had brought him to Paris. lie answered that he had come for pleasure. "And have you found it';!" drawled Thackeray, with a slight sneer in his voice, as if pleasure, as a pursuit, was an unworthy object for any man's ambition. When they parted, and Thackeray again took my arm, he said to me, " Of course you know the yonng man with whom I was just speaking ?" I answered that I did not. " You don't mean to tell me," he continued, " that you, who have been so much in London, don't know him ?" I assured him that I had no recollection that I had ever before met the gentleman. " Why," he said, " that is the Marquis of Farintosh." " And who is the Mar- quis OF Farintosh ?" I pursued. " Why, the Marquis OF Bath, of course," he replied. This led to a conver- sation about several other characters in his books. He told me that his own mother was the prototype of Helen Pendennis, but that the copy fell very far short of tlie original. He also told me who had sat for the portrait of Harry Foker, but all the town knows about that. I then remarked to him that he must have been inti- mately acquainted with many French families of the best class ; that his French characters were more accu- rately and delicately drawn than those of any other En- glish writer whom I had ever read — and to this opinion I still adhere. He assured me that, on the contrary, he had never in his life been intimate in a single French family. This is very surprising, for he has exhibited in his books the most profound knowledge of the nature of 134 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. the French, as well as of tlieir manners, and ho has dis- sected the former and depicted the latter with the most wonderful skill, and without any false deductions or tendency to caricature. A few days afterward I called upon him at his lodg- ings in company with my old college classmate, Donald G. Mitchell, better known to the literary world as 17c Marvel. Upon receiving our cai'ds, Mr. TnACKEliAY in- vited us to come in, but we found him in one of those moods of surly incivility in which I have seen him a number of times. He was probably busy writing, al- though, if my recollection is correct, we saw no evidence of it; and, after remaining a very few minutes, we beat a retreat, I regretted very much that Mr. Mitchell, who had never before seen him, was so unfortunate as to drop upon him when he was in this unamiable state of temper. The reader will long since have observed with M'hat little plan or system I wander from subject to subject, like an old woman and some old men. And yet, per- haps, if he be one of those who like to let conversation flow in its natural bent, and who dislike the use of stilts in books as much as on dry land, he will find no great fault with my discursiveness. To return to the Exposition. The heads of the various Commissions organized themselves jnto a body for pur- poses of mutual conference and protection, and we used to meet every Thursday evening at the residence of Bar- on Jaisies de Rothschild, the Austrian Commissioner, and who was also Austrian Consul-General. The Baron was a portly Hebrew gentleman, with light hair and com- plexion, and a tendency to redness about the eyes. He A 3I0XEY LORD'S POLITENESS. 135 was very abrupt and brusque in liis manners, as was nat- ural for a financier wlio held the purse-strings of mon- archs, and he made himself extremely disliked by some of his associates. Upon one occasion he kept us waiting for him more than an hour after tlie appointed time, without any explanation whatever, and it M-as all that a few of us could do to prevent the Commissioners from leaving the house in a body. When he did join us finally, he merely casually mentioned that he had friends to din- ner, but without taking the pains even to couch the state- ment in the form of an apology. At these meetings the Commissioners received the refreshment of a cup of tea. The Baron spoke a number of times with me of several persons in New York, but his object was apparently rath- er to learn about their financial standing than the social consideration in which they were held. The old Baeon Salomon de Rothschild died in Paris during the summer of 1855. The following is a trans- lation of the invitation to the funeral which I received, and which can not fail to be curious to my American readers : Sm, — The Baron and the Baroness Anselme de Rothschild, the Baron and the Baroness James de Rothschild, the Baron and the Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild and their children, the Baron and the Baroness Adolphe de Rothschild, the B.aron and the Baroness "Willy de Rothschild and their children, the Barons Alphonse, Gustave, Salomon, and Edmond de Roths- child, the Misses Louise and Alice de Rothschild, and the Bar- ons Nathaniel, Ferdinand, and Salomon de Rothschild, the Baron Amschel de Rothschild, Madame Worms, Madame Sich- EL, Madame Montefiore, Madame Beypus, the Baron and the Baroness Lionel de Rothschild and their children, the Baron and the Baroness Anthony de Rothschh^d and their children, 136 ME3fORIES OF MANY MEN. the Baron and the Baroness Mayer de Rothschild and their children, the Baron and the Baroness Mayer-Charles de Roths- child and their children, Mr. and Madame Adolphe Beyfus, Mr. and Madame S. Sichel and Mr. J. Sichel, Have the honor to inform you of the irreparable loss they have experienced by the decease of the Baron Salomon de Rothschild, who died at his hotel. No. 17 Rue Lafitte, the 27th of July, 1855, at the age of eighty-two years, their well-beloved father, father-in- law, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, and uncle; And invite you to attend the funeral on Tuesday, the 3 1st of July, at nine o'clock. The funeral will take place from the residence of the deceased. Before the Exposition came to a close, I was called away from Paris by private business. The United States made but an indifferent show at this great World's Fair. Still a comparatively large number of medals and diplo- mas was awarded to our exhibitors. Among ourselves matters worked harmoniously, and nothing scandalous was ever charged upon our unpaid Commission. If our services received no particular acknowledgment at home, they w^ere amply recognized upon the spot. Our fellow- citizens in France exhibited their appreciation of them in every way open to them, and the Emperor awarded to some of us the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Be- fore the year expired, the permanent position of Secre- tary of the United States Legation in France was ten- dered to me by Pkesident Pieece ; but the office had lost many of its charms for me, and I respectfully declined the offer. CHAPTEE X. TOWARD the close of the year 1855 I again went abroad, and took up my temporary residence in England. I became very fond of England, as I think there is reason that every intelligent American should. Very few of our people, however, are accustomed to stop there any considerable time, in their hurry on their arrival to reach the Continent, and on their return to get liome. Paris is the American man's, and especially the American woman's, paradise. But, after all, for a home, I prefer England to France, and London to Paris. En- glish society is a cold and repulsive mystery to us at first. Our gregarious habits, like those of the French, render it natural for us to make and to desire to make chance acquaintances. This yon can not do to any great extent in England, although you may do it with the English when they are traveling in other lands. You may reside in England many years, and hiow nobody. But if j-on have a proper introduction to one person, it carries with it the acquaintance of all belonging to the circle in which he moves. The English, so cold and re- served with strangers, are the kindest and most cordial people in tlie world with their friends. According to my experience, an American is always especially favored by them. They hardly look upon him as a foreigner. I have frequently heard this form of phrase, " Oh ! there were two or three Americans and half a dozen foreign- 138 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. ers." And friendship in England means a vast deal more than it does in some other parts of the world. Many of their social usages are the reverse of ours, and have a better foundation in common-sense. For instance : liere Brown and Jones are walking upon the street; they meet Eobinson, who is a friend of Brown, but not ac- quainted with Jones; forthwith Brown introduces the two strangers to each other, and they affectionately shake hands ; after a brief conversation, they part without shak- ing hands ; and the probability is that Jones and Eobin- son will never meet again, or, if they do, will forget that they had ever met before. In England, however, no in- troduction ever takes place casually. If made, it is with a purpose, and with the assumption of responsibility as to its suitableness in all respects. When persons j)revi- ously unacquainted are introduced, they do not shake hands. But they do on parting, and whenever they again meet and separate. Giving the hand is looked upon as a pledge of friendship, not as a mere expression of civil recognition. Almost every thing is deeper, stronger, and heartier in England than with us. All is surrounded tliere by a thick rind, hard to penetrate, but when you have once got within it, you come upon a rich, fruity core. Shams and superficialities are not so abun- dant tliere as elsewhere, notwithstanding the satirizing of themselves by their native Juvenals. I remained in England upon this occasion until some time in the month of July, 1857. I had not been there very long, when I received a call one day fi*om a mulatto sculptor fj-om New Orleans, Avho had exhibited some very creditable and promising works at the recent Paris Exposition. By some chance the Duchess of Suther- THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND AND MBS. STOWE. 139 LAND had been attracted to his studio in Paris before the oj)ening of the Exposition, and it was indirectly through her agency that my attention had been originally called to him. I am not quite certain of his name, but think that it was Wakbekg. The poor, foolish fellow, having exhausted his means, had come over to London to find liis Duchess, hoping that she would relieve his wants and give him the advantage of her protection. Upon going to Sutherland House, he was informed that the Duchess was then in Scotland, and would not return to town for several weeks. He also learned that Mrs. IIae- EiET Beecher Stowe was with her Grace. In his disap- pointment lie looked me up, having, I believe, not a sin- gle other acquaintance in the great city. To make mat- ters worse for him, he had brought with him a charming little quadroon wife, of whose existence I had hitherto known nothing. They were residing in a wretchedly squalid place on the Surrey side, and were in imminent danger of starvation. I did the little that I could to re- lieve their immediate wants, and gave him an order for a bust. I had not the honor of Mrs. Stowe's acquaint- ance, nor have I ever since met the lady. But I took the liberty of immediately writing her a full account of my protege, knowing that it would be laid under the Duchess's eye. At that time I had some doubts about Mrs. Stowe's sincerity in the cause of the negroes. I was not sure that she was any thing more than a writer of sensational fiction. An answer soon came, to the ef- fect that the Duchess and herself would be in London in a few days, when the matter should have attention. When these ladies did return, they associated with them- selves in their benevolent purpose Lady Bykon, and, for 14:0 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEK aught I know to the contrary, some others. Shortly thereafter they took a nice snite of apartments for War- berg, as I shall call him, and his wife, in the artists' qnar- -ter, on one of the streets leading into Bedford Square, paid the rent in advance, and furnished them with every comfort. After a further interval of time, Warberg informed me that the same ladies had arranged to send him to Italy, that he might have the opportunity of pursuing his studies in the studio of a famous sculptor. Never since that time have I doubted Mrs. Stowe's sincerity in the great work of African eman- cipation. It was not my fortune to personally meet Lady Byron ; but in the eyes of many people her eccentricities and restlessness were evidences of a deranged mind. It was said that she let her house (on Park Lane, I believe), fur- nished, for a year or longer, and almost immediately tried to rescind the bargain and re-enter into possession. Fail- ing in this, she hired another furnished house, of which she became tired in the course of a month or so. She managed to get rid of this one, and then took another. And so on to the end of the chapter. Some people M'ho knew her, did not hesitate to call her downright mad. Under these circumstances, it is not unreasonable to be- lieve that the horrible revelations which she made to Mrs. Stowe, in relation to the cause of the separation be- tween herself and her poet-husband, were but the hallu- cinations of a diseased brain. It was at about this time that I received an invitation to breakfast with Mr. Macaulay, who was not yet ele- vated to the Peerage, at his chambers in the Albany. I found him a bluff, downright sort of person, not at all MACAULAY AT HOME. l^\ like my preconceived ideal of the author of the essay on Milton. I am not quite sure whether he was or was not at that time in the Ministry. Our breakfast was tete-ci-tete, and my host did all the talking. He had no " brilliant flashes of silence," as Sydney Smith remarked of him upon another occasion. We were together about an hour and a lialf, and most of the conversation turned upon the institutions of this countiy, and their probable future fate. Mr. Macaulay shocked me by prophesy- ing with the utmost confidence that slavery was certain to break up our Government w^ithin ten years from that time, and that in the no very distant future two divided confederacies would, by their own weight, and from the operation of other causes, drop into half a dozen broken states, with military despotisms ruling over them. This was an extraordinary prediction to an American car in the year 1S5C. At that time we none of us thought of the possibility of an impending crisis. Slavery brought us to a civil war, within even less than the limit of Macaulay's prophecy. He M'as mistaken in foreseeing a dissolution of the Union, as immediately involved in the struggle which that institution provoked. And it is to be hoped that he was equally in error in his vaticina- tions in respect to our ultimate fate. I tried to per- suade him to reduce what he had said to writing, and permit it to be read before the New York Historical So- ciety ; but he declined, excusing himself on account of his overwhelming engagements. He spoke to me of the Chartist demonstration in 1848, about w^hicli I have already written, and told me that the number of the disaffected collected on Kennington Common, which had been popularly supposed at the time 142 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. not to fall short of thirty or forty thousand, did not, in fact, exceed seven thousand. He said that the Govern- ment had resorted to the photograph in order to accu- rately estimate the number. That knowing the area of the Common, and computing the number of people who could stand on it side by side, and possessing a picture showing to what extent the space was covered with human beings, and in what closeness of proximity they stood, they were thus enabled to determine how many they were. I used to see a good deal of Mr, Thackeray. He was living at that time in his new house in Brompton, which he told me he had purchased, together with the furni- ture contained in it, from the proceeds of his lectures in America upon the Four Georges. When I found him at home he w^as sometimes engaged in dictating to his daughter, and my calls upon these occasions were necessarily brief. His health was not vei*y good, and he often dictated lying upon the bed, while Miss Thackeray sat upon a chair at its side, with a table before her upon which she wrote. I dined with him one day at the Eeform Club. He was a great gourmet, although not a great eater, and that day he was suffer- ing from a severe headache. After the soup and the fish had both been removed, he told me that the next dish would be one of his own invention. It proved to be a boiled pheasant, with a soubise sauce, and it was really delicious. Between us we could not eat more than lialf of the bird, and he sent what remained with his compliments to a friend who was dining on the other side of the room. Such a proceeding would look odd in one of our New York Clubs, but I presume that it could not be unusual there. THACKERAY AND DICKENS. 143 After dinner we withdrew, or rather ascended, to tlie smoking-room, where Mr. Thackeray introduced me to several members of Parliament, and, excusing liimself on account of his headache, retired, leaving me to be enter- tained by them, I have always found it a severe ordeal to be left to the tender mercies of a member of Parlia- ment. They are so well informed about this country, so familiar with the Federalist and other writings of the Fathers, and so thoroughly versed in our more recent history, that it is not very easy to hold up one's own end of the rope in a conversation with them turning upon these subjects. And these are the subjects upon which they naturally desire to hear an American talk. I was one day walking with Mr. Thackeeay, when something was said by me about Mr. Dickens. There- upon Thackeeay, in the most naive manner in the world, remarked to me that it was very strange, but neverthe- less a fact, that Dickens's publishers sold five copies of any one of his books for one copy which Ms booksellers sold of any of his. It did not appear to me so very sin- gular, but I did not say so. The one appealed to only the cultivated class, the other to all classes. The one was a great humorist and moral anatomist, and the other a great humanitarian. I then referred to the rumor, at that time in general circulation, that Dickens was in pecuniary embarrassments by reason of his extravagant living, and was contemplating a flight from England to avoid his creditors. Tiiackekay with great warmth de- nied this story as a gross calumny. He said that he was acquainted with Dickens's affairs, and that, so far from exceeding his means, he had always lived within them. He complained very much of the annoyances of notori- 144: MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. ety. He said that he could not walk a foot in London without being recognized, and that he found this a great penalty for literary fame. I once saw the famous dramatic author, Tom Taylor, at the theatre, w^hile I was in England at this time. He wore his hair long, and combed behind his ears, and w^as much changed in apjiearance since I saw him at Ti'inity College, Cambridge, in the year 1843. He was then studying for holy orders, and was private tutor to one of my particular friends. I remember that he gave me a delightful breakfast there, and that, notwithstanding the gravity of his contemplated profession, he was one of the most amusing and jocular personages that I fell in with. SuEKiDAN Knowles exchanged play -writing for the pulpit, and Tom Taylok discarded clerical robes for the pen of the dramatist. One of the most delightful houses which I visited in London was that of Mr. S. C. Hall and his accomplished wife, who both held high positions in the world of let- ters as well as socially. Mrs. Hall had the faculty of bringing together in her di-awing-rooms people the most distinguished in all the walks of life. I met there one evening Professor Owen, Jenny Lind, Lover, Haw^- THORNE, Miss Poole, and I don't know whom besides. Professor Owen looked like one of his own pre-Adamite fossils reanimated. I had not seen Jenny Lind since we parted in America, after her extraordinary musical tour through this country. She looked thin and wan, very unlike the vigorous Swedish peasant-like w^oman whom I had so well known. As I entered the room, she crossed it to meet me, and we seated ourselves upon a sofa, and had a long chat about old times upon this side 0MNIU3I OATHERmr. I45 of the Atlantic. Lover sat down to the piano and war- hied, as Tom Mooee is said to have done, rather than sang, " The Low-backed Car," and others of his own composi- tions. I had heard him many years before in the old Burton theatre on Chambers Street, in New York, but the drawing-room, rather than the stage, was evidently the proper place for him. Hawthorne's superb head was by all odds the finest in the room. He looked genial, and, inirahile dictu! appeared at his ease. To me, who had not seen him since he lived at Lenox, in Massa- chusetts, this transformation appeared marvelous. I sat down by his side, and he talked brilliantly for half an lidur, without exhibiting any of the shyness which for years had made him a perfect recluse. It was said that he was still unapproachable in his Consulate at Liver- pool, but he appeared completely humanized at Mrs. Hall's. Miss Poole sang still more charmingly than she used to do in New York, I fear to say how many years ago, when she was tlie delight of Metropolitan au- diences. I was a very frequent attendant at the meetings of the two Houses of Parhament, and had many opportunities of listening to some of the most eminent statesmen and orators of Great Britain. Among them there were ^•ery few who were eloquent, as eloquence is understood in this country. There were many good, sensible, down- right talkers — men w^ith no nonsense about them. In- deed, there are very few persons to whom eloquence would be permitted in the British forum. Bosh and humbug have become the national aversion, and if a man has any thing to say, they wish him to say it in the simplest manner ; and, if he has nothing to say, they do G 146 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. not want to hear him at all. The truth is that both the Commons and the Lords meet for business, and not for buncombe. I heard a great many more good speakers in the Lords than in the Commons. This seems nat- ural enough when we remember that nearly all the Lords have had a preliminary training, and sometimes a long one, in the Commons before being called to the Upper House. The only man in either House to whom I listened, who possessed the unmistakable gift of eloquence, as we in America understand it, was the late Eakl of Derby. He was fluent, forcible, and imaginative; and his invective and sarcasm were very powerful. He had a strong tendency toward liberalism in his youth, and his father sent him to this country to cure him of it— a remedy which in his case proved effectual, for he hard- ened in his politics as he advanced in life. I recollect one occasion when the Bisuop of Oxford, afterward Bishop of Winchester — the same "svho was killed last August by a fall from his horse — one of the most fluent and forcible speakers in the Whig ranks, had been ad- dressing the House at considerable length upon some question which I do not at present recall. He was fol- lowed by the little Duke of Argyll, one of the Whig leaders, who has an amazing gift of language, in a bit- ter harangue of half an hour's length, every word of which was directed at Lord Derby personally. When the Duke sat down, the Earl arose, and, advancing to the woolsack, made a powerful speech in reply to that of the Bishop, without noticing the Duke, as if he was an adversary unworthy of his attention. Among the other speakers in the House of Lords who BRITISH ELOQUENCE. I47 pleased me most were the dyspeptic and bitter Loed Gkey and the Makquis of Clanricaede among tlie Whigs, and the bhiff Eael of Hardwicke among the Tories. Loed Claneicaede, who married the daughter of Peime Ministee Canning, w^as said to be the most ill- favored man in the United Kingdom. lie was at one time Embassador to Unssia, and at another Postmaster- General. Notwithstanding his lack of good looks, he was the most noted man in Great Britain for his gallant- ries, always excepting the Eael of Caedigan. I heard the young Eael of Caenaevon, of whom great things were expected, make his maiden speech, and although at its close Lord Deeby complimented him, as in duty bound (he is a Tory), it appeared to me both in manner and in matter an effort that would have been unworthy of an American school-boy of fifteen. In the Commons I heard very little agreeable speaking, hardly any from the leaders. Mr. Diseaeli has much of the English stammer and stutter, and his tones are deep and monot- onous. Eael Russell, who, as Loed John, was then in the Commons, is tedious to a degree that is almost unen- durable. Mr, Gladstone is impressive, but his sentences are so involved that it is painful to follow him. Loed Palmeeston was fearful with his hesitations and his mumblings, and his ohs and his ahs. There was noth- ing remarkable in his speeches except his skill as a tactician. I never knew him to meet an argument squarely, and endeavor to answer it. His usual ma- noeuvre was to attempt to turn his enemy's flank, raise a side issue, and, if possible, get up a laugh at his expense. There was something about him, h&wever, which always carried the House with him. He was prodigiously mag- 143 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. iietic. lie always appeared to me the incarnation of Jolm-Bull-ism ; and it was from this fact, I believe, that he acquired much of his popularity. He was the average Englishman, as Abraham Lincoln w^as the average Amer- ican, He was that sort of a man that, if he happened to be shaving in his bedroom in his shirt-sleeves, and heard a row in the street below, would be very likely to drop his razor, and with lathered face rush down stairs to take a part in the intUe. He generally sat on the front ministerial bench, with his colleagues on either side of him, and his hat drawn down over his eyes. Occasion- ally he would jump up suddenly, and go off into the wine- room for a glass of sherry, or into tlie lobby for a chat ; but while he sat in the House, he never moved or spoke until he arose to close the debate. There was that in his character and in his appearance which made you rec- ognize him as an old hoy as long as he lived. At this time he was in deep mourning for Loed Cowper, Lady Palmerston's son by a former marriage. English travelers have said a great deal about the in- decorum of our Houses of Congress. At the time, ante helium, when arguments were sometimes enforced by revolvers, and "when violent epithets were occasionally launched in debate, there was a good deal of truth in their strictures. Mais nous avo7is change, tout cela. In the .British Houses of Parliament the disorder and indecorum which prevail affect foreigners very disagree- ably. The wearing of hats, the free and easy attitudes, sitting and lounging, indulged in by the members, and the unpleasant noises which sometimes prevail, the En- glish are so accustomed to as to be unconscious of their singularity. I venture to say that to-day, unless there GIVING 3IR. BULL ''HIS PAPERS:' ^49 has been a great chauge in that regard on the other side of the water, the American Senate and House of Representatives are far more dignified and orderly bod- ies than tlie Britisli Houses of Lords and Commons. Of all the speakers to whom I remember to have list- ened in the House of Commons, Mr. Whiteside, the Tory barrister, pleased me most. He is an Irishman, and for an Irishman to secure an attentive audience in that fo- rum, he must speak uncommonly well. Mr. Whiteside liad a short time before written a book on Italy, which has not its equal in the English language — not even ex- cepting Mr. Hillakd's. I believe that he is now Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. During a part of the time that I resided in England, the relations between that country and our own were very much disturbed by complications and embarrass- ments growing out of the Central American and enlist- ment difficulties, as they were called. The Government at Washington had proceeded to the extremity of dis- missing Mr. Ceampton, the British Envoy, together with the Consuls at New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. Tliis action produced a very deep feeling in England. The Thnes thundered from day to day in ominous tones. Every body was talking about the possibility of war with America, not flippantly, I must own, but with deep feeling and sincere regret. Mr. ArPLETON, of Maine, our Secretary of Legation in London, and afterward Minister to Russia, applied to The Times unsuccessfully for a hearing in its columns. What was refused to him was conceded to me. This was probably because he was an official and I only a private citizen. I wrote two long letters advocating the American side, which were 150 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. printed, and upon each occasion The Times devoted its leader of the succeeding day to an answer. The imme- diate question just then was, should Mr. Dallas be dis- missed from London in retaliation for Mr. Crampton's dismissal from Washington ? Almost every body thought that he would be. At this juncture I met one morning, in a Bayswater om- nibus going to the city, the venerable General Caivipbell, our Consul in London at that time. There were one or two other persons in the 'bus who were acquainted with the General, and conversation naturally turned upon the subject of the impending difhculties between the two countries. Finally one of the other gentlemen court- eously asked the General how he thought a war would result, if it should unfortunately occur. The days of spread-eagleism were not yet over, and the General, who was an old war-horse, immediately answered, with more force than politeness, " Such a war, sir, which God for- bid, would never cease until tlie American flag was waving over the Tower, at one end of London, and Buck- ingham Palace at the other!" The subject of conversa- tion was immediately changed. At last The Globe, the evening ministerial journal, an- nounced that, at a Cabinet Council, it had been decided to tender his passports to Mr. Dallas. Every body con- sidered that announcement as ofticial. As soon as I read it, I called upon my friend, Admiral Walcot, member for Christchurch, for an order to the House of Commons for that evening. There was already a great rush for seats, and the Admiral requested me to meet him at the House upon the opening of the session, when he would do the best in his power for me. I went early, but every THE COMMONS IN A TWITTER. 151 seat in tlie gallery was already disposed of. The Admi- ral succeeded, however, in seating me in the compart- ment reserved for the Peers ; but I was in danger of be- ing compelled to vacate the position at any moment, if required by one who was legitimately entitled to it. Tor several hours, during the time when committee business is usually disposed of, there was a thin House. At length the members began to drop in by the dozen at a time, from their clubs and tlieir dinners. Mr. McGkegok, the member from Glasgow, whom I knew, and who after- ward came to so sad a fate, had been diniug altogether too freely. He was in a great state of excitement, and kept rushing from his seat to me to inform me of the rumors which were floating through the House, and which other members brought to his ear. Then ensued a very uninteresting debate upon some unimportant ques- tion, which I thought would never come to an end. At leno-th it closed, and there was a division of the House, and all who were not members were compelled to leave for the nonce. It appeared to me a very long time before we were permitted to return. Soon after I had resumed my seat, however, Mr. Diseaeli arose, amid pro- found silence, and begged to ask what decision, if any, her Majesty's Government had arrived at in respect to the retention or dismissal of the United States Minister. When he resumed his seat. Lord Palmerston got up, and in a low voice, and with a manner wliich seemed to me to indicate infinite disgust, said that, after due con- sideration, it had been decided to take no present action in the matter ! Mr. Disraeli and his Tory adherents looked thunderstruck ; they evidently had made up their minds that Mr. Dallas would be dismissed, and had 152 3IEM0RIES OF 3i:ANY MEX. prepared to avail themselves of what they thought would prove a political blunder. I rushed out of the House, took the first cab, and ordered the driver to Mr. Dallas's residence, on Portland Place. I wanted to be the first to convey the important news to him. But I failed in this : a more expeditious countryman had got there before me. I afterward heard, upon pretty good authority, that it had been decided, at a Cabinet meeting, to send Mr. Dallas home, the only vote in the negative being that of Mr. Yernon Smith. That, in the mean time, Madamp: Van de Weyee, the wife of the Belgian Minister, and the daughter of Mr. Bates, and one of the Queen's favorite friends, had been to her Majesty upon the sub- ject. That thereupon the Queen had sent for Lokd Pal]vierston, and ordered a reversal of the decision. That the Government did not care to go to the country upon the question, and had therefore withheld their res- ignations. Whether this is true or not, we Americans hardly know what a good friend the Queen has always been to us. In more instances than one the weight of her prerogative has been thrown in our favor. Mr. Crampton deserved his dismissal for his action in the enlistment business ; but I hope that the occasion may never again arise which will require so harsh a proceed- ing oil the part of the American Government toward a diplomatic representative of Great Britain. PART II. AT HOME. G2 PART II. CHAPTEK L THE first man, famous or infamous, in the annals of our country whom I recollect seeing is Aakon Buee. I was a mere child, and he was already a withered old man, who used to w-alk up and down Broadway, with his eyes bent upon the ground, never raising them for recognition. He was at that time residing upon Staten Island, where he afterward died, equally barren in friends and fortune. The late Judge Aaeon Vandeepoel, of New York, described to me a party, or ratlier an orgy, that Buee had at his house, at Eichmond Hill, on the night before his duel with Alexandee Hamilton. Buee was up near- ly or quite all night, and was among the gayest of the gay. This, " parva componere magnis," recalls the inci- dent of the Duke of Wellington's presence at the Duch- ess OF Beunswick's ball in Brussels the night before the Battle of Waterloo. The venerable James A. Hamilton told me that his father lingered until some time in the afternoon of the day after that on which he was shot, and that he was the last person to whom the great Federalist spoke. Another almost daily walker in the same street in those days was the noble-looking, half-civilized chief of the Seneca Indians, Red Jacket. He carried his head 156 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. aloftj except when occasionally compelled to let it droop from an over-dose of the white man's fire-water. lie derived his name from an elegantly embroidered jacket which was presented to him by a British officer during the Revolution, and he wore upon his breast a silver medal, the gift of General Washington. The next of our distinguished public men of whom I have any remembrance is General Jackson, then Pres- ident of the United States, upon the occasion of his visit to New York in the year 1833. I was but a small boy at the time, and I remember standing upon the steps of the American Museum, where the Herald building is now, to see the procession on its passage up Broadway. The President was on horseback, and w^ore upon his head a white hat almost covered by an enormous "weeper," with pendant bands, such as mutes wear at funerals in England. This was for Mrs. Jackson, then recently de- ceased. I had never before seen one of these strange em- blems of mourning, which were peculiar to the South and Southwest of the country. As he was passing from Castle Garden to the Battery, the bridge which then con- nected them broke down, and, although he reached terra firma in safety, several of those w^ho followed him were precipitated into the water. Many years afterward I saw President Pierce, as he rode at the head of a procession to take part in the inaugural ceremonies of the Kew York World's Fair. There was a pouring rain, and he protect- ed the Presidential head with an umbrella. I do not know which impressed me as most odd. General Jack- son's "weeper" or General Pierce's umbrella. I saw Mr. Van Buren in the summer of the year 1840 at the Executive Mansion. To me, at that time a stu- PRESIDESTS, PAST AND FUTURE. I57 dent at Yale College, a President of the United States was an object of awe — an awe which I regret to say, on my own account, soon passed away with advancing years. I can see him in my mind's eye now, as I then saw him in the flesh, dressed in faultless black, with natty boots, sitting before a sea-coal fire, which he vigorously stirred during the pauses in the conversation. On my return from that, my first, visit to Washington, I stopped in Baltimore. The Democratic National Con- vention was in session, and in vain I went from hotel to hotel in quest of lodgings. I finally brought up in a second-class hostelry called the " Fountain Inn," which may or may not still exist, and there I was so fortunate as to find a vacant billiard-table, upon which I was per- mitted to pass the night, but not to sleep. I was terribly " demoralized " the next day, and started for New York by the first train. I was strangely impressed by the roughness and coarseness of a majority of the delegates and others who attended that Convention. It was years after tliis before chance threw me into contact with any of the j^ersons who have played leading parts in our national history. Early in the month of Au- gust, of the year 1852, provided with a letter of intro- duction from Charles O'Conor, I sought at Concord, New Hampshire, where he resided, Franklin Pierce, then recently nominated by the Democratic National Convention as their candidate for the Presidency at the ensuing election in November. Not finding General Pierce at home, I followed him to Pye Beach, a water- ing-place upon the coast, where he was passing a few days with his only child, a boy of thirteen, who was deli- cate, and required the tonic of sea-bathing. After se- 158 ME2I0RIES OF 3IANT MEN. curing a room at the bote], I inquired for the General, and was informed that he was not then within. Present- ly there came into the hotel office, where I was standing, a slender, smooth-faced man, apparently of middle age, very carelessly dressed, with rumpled linen and a shock- ingly bad white hat, who was pointed out to me as the person of whom I was in quest. I delivered to him my letter, and he received me with great cordiality, imme- diately inviting me to accompany him to his own room. I had a very long and delightful conversation with him. He was entirely unaffected, and « remarkably picturesque talker. He told me how surprised he was at his own nomination, and the circumstances under which he had received the news of it. He was stopping, with Mrs. PiEECE, at the Tremont House, in Boston, at the time of the opening of the session of the Convention. There was balloting after balloting, and it was not until just be- fore the thirty-fifth that his name was at all mentioned, it then being introduced by the delegation from Virginia. It was not at first received in a manner to indicate the probability of its adoption. But the moment she heard that it had been brought forward, Mrs. Pierce, who was an invalid, became very nervous and alarmed lest he should be finally selected. General Pierce did not ex- plain to me why she was apprehensive, but, in common with every body else, I understood it. She had persuaded him some years before to resign his seat in the United States Senate, where he was conspicuous for one unhappy personal habit. And she feared that if elected President he might again relapse into the same habit, a possibility the thought of which was unendurable to her sensitive mind. He went on to say tllat one afternoon, while the FIERCE AND JIAWTHORXE. 159 action of tlie Convention was still undecided, he ordered a carriage for a drive to Mount Auburn, As he was de- scending the steps of the hotel to enter the carriage, into which Mrs. Piekce had preceded him, he purchased an extra edition of a newspaper which was just issued. Casting his eye over the head-lines, he saw that no choice of a candidate had yet been made, and a telegram pre- dicted that all the chances were in favor of one of his competitors. Entering the carriage, lie placed the news- paper in his wife's hand, and, pointing to this paragraph, told her to read it, and it would set her mind at ease. He then directed the coachman to drive on. About an hour after they had left the hotel, and while they were driv- ing within the inclosure of the Cemetery, they were overtaken by a mounted messenger, who brought the news that the General had been nominated on the forty- ninth ballot. Mrs. PiEECE fainted upon the receipt of the intelligence, as if a disaster, instead of a triumph, had come to her husband. He asked me if I knew Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, his class-mate at college, and life-long friend. Upon my answering in the negative, he gave me a whim- sical account of the eccentricities of that great genius. He said that it was several years since they had met, when only two days before Hawthorne called upon him at the hotel where we then were. The General happened to be in his room at the time. Hawthorne, upon enter- ing, wrung his hand, and then, without a word of saluta- tion, abruptly threw himself upon a lounge at the other side of the room. Here he lay for several minutes, with- out speaking, and tangling himself into all sorts of con- tortions. At last, with an expression of sympathy and IQQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. woe upon his countenance, he gazed npon the General's face, and exclaimed, " Frank, I pity you ! Indeed, I do, from the bottom of my heart !" In the moment of tri- umpli, tlie object of his sympathy, probably, did not ap- preciate the regrets of either his wife or his friend. After more of this light talk, Mr. Pieece finally entered upon the domain of politics. He was sure that he would be elected, and he gave me unequivocally to understand that to Mr. Chaeles O'Conoe he intended to offer the portfolio of Attorney-General in his Cabinet. We had been together some two hours when I got up to take my leave. lie asked me how long I intended to remain at the Beach, and I replied that it was my pur- pose to go by the early morning train to Boston. He told me that I must abandon that idea, that Caleb Gush- ing was coming in his yacht from Newburyport the next day, that they were to have a chowder party, and that he would be pleased to have my company. I had really no occasion for Iiaste, so I thanked him, and, without de- murrer, accepted the invitation. I met him at breakfast the next morning, and soon after breakfast accompanied him to the beach for his son's bath. I never saw more tender watchfulness ex- hibited by a parent. He dressed and undressed the child himself, and while the boy was in the water his attention was so engrossed by him that it was impossible to pursue any conversation. Alas ! in less than a month from that time the poor lad was dashed to pieces upon the rocks by a railway accident, leaving his father's heart crushed and desolate. It was not until eleven o'clock on that morning that Mr. Cdshing's " yacht," as he called it, or " fishing-sloop," POLITICAL CHOWDEE. \Q\ as it miglit with more nautical propriety be designated, cast anchor off the beach. That gentleman came ashore, and after remaining a few minutes, during which I had the pleasure of being introduced to him, he re-embarked, accompanied by the future President and myself. No time was lost in getting under way, and we all began to catch fish for the chowder which was the pretext for our expedition. The mackerel were running in innu- merable shoals, and we soon had a supply far in excess of our expected wants. An expert in a red-flannel shirt then connnenced, with fish, salt pork, potatoes, and bis- cuits, the preparation of the savory dish, which was soon steaming under our watering mouths. I had never tasted chowder before, and have never tasted it since — at least, not the genuine, simon-pure article, served up to appease appetites sharpened by the sea-air. The meal disposed of, there was much private talk, doubtless upon matters of politics, between the General and our host, in which I was not invited to participate. We remained out all the afternoon, and the shades of evening were approach- ing when we again stood off Eye Beach. The wind had been freshening, and by this time there was such a surf rolling that the "yacht" could not approach very near the shore. She ran in as close as she could, and then a small boat was lowered to convey Mr. Pieece and myself to the beach, Mr. Gushing intending to sail home ■with- out landing. "We got on well enough until we were near the shore, when a huge wave rolled in and upset our boat. The water was up to our necks, but we struggled along until we reached dry land. As we were shaking ourselves like water-dogs, I begged the General to remember, if he should ever become President, that IQ2 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. there had been a time when he and I were " alone in the same boat." I may as well go directly on and relate what after- ward happened between this peculiar man and myself, lie was always so amiable, so friendly in his manner, so affectionate even in his demonstrations^ that I never could continue angry with him forty-eight consecutive hours, although the provocations which he gave me were frequent enough and gross enough to make me break w4th him forever. I presume that my own experience was similar to that of thousands of others. He was so absurdly false to his promises, that, where it did not cut too hard, it was positively ludicrous. And yet I never in my own mind accused him of insincerity. He M'as a weak, imaginative, almost brilliant, undetermined man, who said in the morning that he would do something, and when he said it meant it, but who changed his mind in the afternoon if the smallest obstacle interfei'ed with his purpose. He was no more to be relied upon than Horace Skimpole or Micawber. He had no fixed will of his own, and all through his administration he was bat- tledored and shuttlecocked about by Jefferson Davis and William L. Maecy, the master minds of his very able Cabinet. Most of the state-papers which appeared under his signature were attributed to the pen of Mr. CusiiiNG, who became his Attorney-General instead of Mr. O'CoNOK. He exhibited the same vacillation to all. Besides the instance just cited, he offered to General Dix, whom he had at one time intended to make Secre- tary of State, the mission to France, and then appointed Mr. Mason. As I believe, this arose not from duplicity, but from unsteadiness. But whatever theoiy in the ONE THING TO ALL MEN. 163 premises be the correct one, lie succeeded in alienating from himself the personal support of many of the veiy best members of his party. I had the audacity at that time to aspire to the office of United States Charge d'' Affaires at the Court of Sar- dinia. From personal observation, I had satisfied myself that there was a great future in store for that little coun- try. Besides, there was the opportunity to negotiate a treaty of commerce, which might largely extend our Mediterranean trade. So, armed with the very best vouchers and recommendations, I began my experience as an office-seeker by going to Washington on the second day of March, in the year 1853, two days before the in- auguration of President Pierce. On the morning of the third, I called upon him in that drawing-room which forms the south-east corner of Willard's Hotel, and which has been the reception-room of so many incoming and outgoing Presidents. When I entered, there were already probably twenty persons as- sembled there, about a dozen of whom were standing in a row, and with them the General was then engaged. The moment he saw me he advanced with both hands outstretched, after the manner of the French, and, telling me how delighted he was to see me, drew me away from the crowd to one of the windows. He proceeded to say that he most especially desired to see me at the Execu- tive Mansion the next day, immediately after the inaugu- ration — that I must on no account fail to come, and un- der no circumstances be later than four o'clock. He made no explanation of the reason which impelled him to urge so early an interview, but left me with a very decided impression that I had the good fortune to enjoy his highest favor. 1^4: 3IE2I0RIES OF MANY MEN. I repeated his request to an older and more experi- enced friend, who advised me, notwithstanding it, not to be so precipitate in making my first call upon the new President. He said that he could not fail to be very fatigued after the inaugural ceremonies ; and that it cer- tainly would be in bad taste, as well as impolitic, to in- trude upon him at such a moment. I thought the advice good, and followed it. I allowed two days to pass be- fore I presented myself at the White House. When, at last, I did so, I was without delay ushered into the Pres- idential presence. I reminded Mr. Piekce of his invita- tion to me to call sooner, and explained to him the rea- sons of delicacy which had ]3revented me from doing so. He was " delighted," " charmed " to see me, and invited me to a seat. He sat down by me, and chatted with me in the most agreeable manner about almost every thing in the world ; but not one word did he say personal to myself. I was all the time expecting it, but it never came. Finally, when it would ha^'e been indecent to remain any longer, I left. He accompanied me to the outer door, and begged me to " call again to-morrow." I did not go again the next day, but allowed two or three days to intervene before I once more sought an in- terview with the "head of the nation." Upon this oc- casion I was received as before, " with effusion." By this time I had made up my mind that, if the mountain would not come to Mohammed, Mohammed would go to the mountain. So, having brought with me all my docu- ments, I determined to force the fighting, and began at once to explain, without circumlocution, what I wanted. I asked the President to read my papers ; but this he de- clined to do, saying that my original letter to him from OFFICE- SEEKING AND OFFICE-SEEKERS. Ig5 Charles O'Conok answered every purpose, and that it would afford him the ^'ery highest satisfaction to comply with my wishes. I would please file my papers in the Secretary of State's office, and give myself no further concern npon the subject. There might be a little de- lay in announcing the diplomatic appointments, as some of the more important ones at home first required atten- tion ; but mine was his personal affair, and, under all cir- cumstances, should be made. I think, then, that I was justified in considering myself booked for Turin for the next four years. The President asked me to dine with him that day, which I did. The next day I called npon Governor Marcy, the Secretary of State, handed him my papers, and explained to him what the President had said. He was always friendly to me, and he expressed, and I have no doubt sin- cerely, his gratification, and his perfect acquiescence in the President's proposed action. I recollect, as an amus- ing incident, that in the course of our conversation he insisted that Genoa was in Tuscany, and not in Sardinia. As far as I was personally concerned, I saw no reason to remain longer in "Washington ; but the incoming of a new administration is always full of excitement and in- terest, and there was besides much in our Isew York matters in which I felt a deep concern. In those days the New York Democracy was divided into two factions, severally known by the euphonious titles of " Hunkers " and " Barn-burners," or " Hard- shells " and " Soft-shells." I was affiliated with the "Hunkers." Between those two factions there was a fierce struggle waging for the possession of the Federal offices in the citv of New York. And even within the 166 MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. ranks of eacli there were competing candidates. For instance, both Mr. John J. Cisco and Mr. Augustus ScHELL desired to be made Collector of the Port. It was claimed in behalf of the former that, upon the oc- casion of his declining a noniination for the office of Mayo]-, it was arranged that he should have the unani- mous support of liis faction, the " Hunkers," for tlie Col- lectorship; and that Mr. Schell, who belonged to the same subdivision of the party, was committed to the transaction. But when the time came to make the ap- pointment, Mr. Schell, who seems not to have considered himself so committed, allowed his friends to press his own name for the same position. The result was that Secketaey Maecy cut the knot by having his old friend, Mr. IIeman J. Kedfield, who happened to be accident- ally in Washington, after spending the winter in Flor- ida, made Collector of the Port of ISTew York. At the same time, to Mr. Cisco was tendered the ofKce of Assist- ant Treasurer of the United States in that city, which he was at first very reluctant to accept. Fortunately for the country and for himself, he finally was induced to yield to the persuasions of his friends, and to take the position. He continued to hold it until the first day of July, in the year ISe-i, when he peremptorily i-esigned it, his health having become seriously impaired by so long a term of arduous official service. For eleven years, and under tiiree successive administrations, he had dis- charged the at all times severe, and during the war over- whelming, duties of liis office with the greatest ability, fidelity, judgment, and delicacy. He several times be- fore his final withdrawal had tendered his resignation, but no President or Secretai-y of the Treasury, even al- OFFICE- SEEKING AND OFFICE-SEEKERS. \Q1 though of opposite politics to his own, liad consented to accept it. At a later period, under Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Schell be- came Collector of the Port, and discharged the duties of the office in a manner entirely acceptable to the Gov- ernment. He was very vigilant in regard to smuggling, and the wags used to say that his name should be changed from Augustus Schell to Augustus Seizek. Before any final decision was arrived at by General Pierce and his Cabinet in regard to the New York Col- lectorslTip, Mr. Marcy sent for me to inquire whether the late Mr. John M. Beadhurst, wlio was then an old man, still retained tlie vigor of former years, telling me that, if I could give a satisfactory answ^er to the question, the office would be placed at his disposal. I was com- pelled to tell him that the gentleman to M'hom he refer- red had been prostrated by a stroke of paralysis some time before, and that the condition of his health render- ed it impossible for him to discharge any laborious du- ties. All the Federal appointments in the city of Xew York were simultaneously announced. They were about equal- ly distributed between the two factions. On the same day, and after they had been made public, I was dining at Willard's Hotel. Mr. Marcy, who was temporarily stopping there, occupied a seat at the same table, opposite to me. I had a bottle of hock, and I asked the Secretary to take wine with me. As the w^aiter was filling his glass, he facetiously exclaimed, " Hie, haec, hoc !" "All right. Governor," I replied ; " something neuter will not hurt you after the very decidedly masculine and femi- nine appointments which have just been made!" He 158 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. laiiglied ; and I then asked him whether he had recom- mended them, or simply acquiesced in them. As some of them were known to be very objectionable to him, he did not vouchsafe any reply. He was an inveterate snuffer, and was constantly to be seen with his long fore- finger and thumb applying a pinch to his nose, his head in the mean while cast down in deep meditation. About this time he received a letter which afforded him immense amusement, and which he showed to every body whom he met. It was from a person in West Troy, New York, who begged to remind him that he had been a private in a company commanded by the Governor, when he marched to the Canadian frontier in the year 1813. He supposed that he might have long since for- gotten his very existence, and he therefore took the liber- ty to inform him that, after the war was ended, he had settled in "West Troy as a mechanic of some sort, had married, and had reared a family of children. He had been reasonably prosperous all his life, and had until recently been in the enjoyment of uninterrupted domestic happiness. But since the election a strange and insane passion had taken possession of his wife. She was un- alterably determined to be the wife of the Postmaster at "West Troy, even if, in order to be so, she were compelled to commit bigamy ! Under these circumstances, he ap- pealed to his old commander to save him from a life of future wretchedness, and his wife from destruction, by getting him appointed to the office. The Secretary en- joyed the joke so hugely that, after some inquiries about his correspondent's fitness, he went to Postmaster- Gen- eral Campbell, and had the commission made out for him. APPOINTMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT. \Q^ Havino; received renewed assurances from the Presi- dent that my matter was finally settled, I returned home to await results. Weeks passed away without any action in relation to the foreign aj)pointments. I was confined to my bed with a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, when one day the morning newspaper was brought me to read. It con- tained a complete list of the new diplomatic appointees, and my name was not included. A gentleman from Vir- ginia was to go to Sardinia. After a while I returned to Washington. The Presi- dent received me with open arms, as he had always pre- viously been accustomed to do. I remember that he wore a stunning dressing-gown of black velvet, lined with cherry-colored silk, which some admiring lady had sent to him. lie used to wear it not only in his private apart- ments, but also in the executive rooms, when he received the dignitaries of the Senate and others upon business. Before I could begin the speech of mild reproach whicli I had prepared for the occasion, he cut me off by telling me that, notwithstanding his interest in my behalf, it had been determined, for reasons which I could better com- prehend than he could explain, to send Mr. August Bel- mont to Holland, and that this rendered it impossible to accord another position of the same character and grade to the city of New York. It was believed that Mr. Bel- mont had contributed largely of his means toward the election, and Mr. Daniel E. Sickles had been in Wash- ington ever since the inauguration in the interest of that gentleman, as was supposed. The President went on to say that I had arrived at Washington at a very opportune moment, and that it H 170 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. was within my power to do a great favor to liimself,as well as to Mr. Buchanan, then lately appointed Minister to England. Mr. Appleton, of Maine, who had been commissioned as his Secretary of Legation, for private reasons iiad suddenly been compelled to abandon the thought of accompanying him. Mr. Buchanan was be- sieged by applicants for the place, and would be delight- ed to be spared further annoyance by having a suitable appointment made for him. " I expect Buchanan here," he said, " every minute." In a word, he offered me the office. At first I positively declined, and urged many objections. Among others, I mentioned that I had no personal acquaintance with Mr. Buchanan, that the com- pensation was very small, and that I did not possess suf- ficient private means to enable me to live as the Secretaiy of the American Legation in London ought to live. He pooh-poohed all this ; told me that as Mr. Buchanan was a bachelor we could keep house together, and thus reduce expenses, and finally insisted that I should go directly to Mr. Makcy with directions from him to make out my commission. I was carried away by him as by a torrent ; and before I hardly knew what I was doing, I found my- self in the presence of the Secretary of State, who listen- ed to my statement with evident surprise, " What can the President mean," he asked, " by saying that he ex- pects Mr. Buchanan at the Executive Mansion every minute ? I have no reason to think that he even in- tends to visit Washington again before sailing for En- gland." He then went on to say that he doubted much whether Mr. Buchanan would be so pleased as the Pres- ident supposed at an appointment made without pre- viously consulting him ; that he was one of the leading JAMES BUCHANAN. \^\ statesmen of the country, and that, in his judgment, it would not answer to saddle a Secretary of Legation upon him, as might be done in the case of some of " those other fellows." That he would make out the com- mission, as directed ; but that in the mean time he ad- vised me as a friend to go to Wheatland, and have a conference with Mr, Buchanan upon the subject. Thereupon I went directly back to the President. He told me that he did not intend to be understood as ex- pecting Mr. Buchanan every minute at the Executive Mansion, but in "Washington. lie urged me to take the first train for Philadelphia, and thence to Lancaster. He was certain that I would find it with Mr. Buchanan just as he had told me. He sat down and wrote a very strong letter to him, of which I was to be the bearer. I took leave of him, and very foolishly, and against my own better judgment, started for Wheatland. When I arrived there, I found the old statesman at home. He received me courteously, and carefully read my letter of introduction. He then told me that he had already been treated with such gross discourtesy by the President that it was very doubtful whether he would not throw up his commission, and not go to England at all. That, at all events, he did not intend to return to Washington. That about a fortnight before he had written an important letter to the President, which re- quired, and should have received, a prompt answer. That no reply coming, after the interval of a week he had addressed him another, and, in decided language, re- quested that it have immediate attention. And that the first word which he had since received from the Execu- tive was the letter which I presented to him, and which 172 MEMOBIES OF 3fANY MEN. in no way referred to the subject of his two commnnica- tions. As to tlie Secretaryship of Legation, he went on to explain to me that, before Mr. Appleton was appoint- ed, the office had been influentially sohcited for two gen- tlemen, one of them a friend of his own from Pennsyl- vania, whom, he admitted, he did not consider competent to discharge the duties, and the other a South Carolinian, who possessed every necessary qualification for the posi- tion. That he had not again heard from either of them since Mr. Appleton had declined, and that, under all the circumstances, he was not yet prepared to definitely ex- press himself. Of course, I felt, for the time, infinitely disgusted with the President, although I had no occasion to find fault with Mr. Buchanan. He assured me that he M'ould give the subject his best consideration, and com- municate with me before he sailed, if he sailed at all. I parted from him, and never saw him again. The thou- sands who knew him w^ll never forget his white neck- cloth tied awry, and his head perched on one side like that of an inquisitive bird. I returned home, and shortly afterward went to Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, for the summer. While there I received a civil letter from Mr. Buchanan, telling me that he had selected for his Secretary of Legation a gen- tleman of great abilities and unquestionable fitness. A few days later, Mr. Daniel E. Sickles was gazetted as tlie apjDointee. I have always understood that Mr. Maecy, with whom Mr. Sickles was not a favorite, declined to sign his commission, and that it was finally signed by Mr. Dudley Mann, the Assistant Secretary of State. I again went to Washington late in the summer. The President took me to his heart as usual. It was impos- LOVE'S LAST SHIFT. 173 sible to entertain malice against him. There was a new Consul to Le appointed at London, and, notwithstanding my past experiences, I ventured to ask him for the ap- pointment. I must do him the justice to say that upon this occasion he gave me an evasive ans^ver. He insisted, however, that I should come and dine with him tliat af- ternoon. I accepted the invitation, and was received by him in the Blue Room at the appointed hour. There was but one other guest, a very old gentleman, with an enor- mous ruffle to his shirt, whom he introduced to me as General Campbell, of Texas. At dinner we were the only three persons present. Mrs. Piekce never came down when there was company. I noticed that the Pres- ident took no wine, but placed his hand upon his glass every time the butler passed him. The conversation was neither very interesting nor very dull, and was ren- dered very formal by Mr. CAMrBELL introducing the word " sir " between every three or four words that he uttered, after the old-fashioned American habit. After dinner, we again returned to the Blue Room, and in a few minutes rose to depart. The President followed us, with one arm around the neck of each. He then turned to the old gentleman, and told him that he did not wish him to consider his introduction to me as a casual one; that he had intentionally brought us together, as we were both among his dearest friends, and that he hoped we would ourselves become very close friends. It is un- necessary to say that we were both surprised at this effu- sion, and I, at least, failed to comprehend the occasion for it. As we went out it was raining. General Caisipbell had an umbrella, but I was unprovided with one. The venerable gentleman insisted upon accompanying me to ][74r MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. Willard's Hotel, although his own road led in the oppo- site direction. The next day he called npon me soon after breakfast. A few days later it was given to the public that General Kobekt S. Campbell was appointed Consul to London, and the mystery of Mr. Pierce's con- duct was solved. Once more, and only once, I visited Washington dur- ing the time of his administration. This was in the year 1854. I called to take leave of him, as I was going abroad as a private citizen. He seemed to love me even more than ever. He told me that I did quite right to go, and that he would "jump" me into the first diplo- matic vacancy that should occur in Europe. These were his very w^ords ; but I knew him thoroughly by this time, and placed no reliance upon his promise. The position of Secretary of Legation in France was, however, form- ally tendered to mo in the year 1855, to be declined. I saw Mr. Pierce but once again. This was after the expiration of his official term, and just after his return from a visit to Europe. I accidentally met him on Washington Street, in Boston. He wore a flaming scarlet neck-cloth, and a suit of clothes of some very light material, which ill became a man of his years and position. He was as affectionate as of old, and appar- ently as serenely unconscious that I ever had any cause to complain of him. Certainly if I had, I did not treas- ure it up, and I remember no more delightful chat than the one I had with him that afternoon about old times. I have written the foregoing pages not to ventilate the wrongs of a disappointed office-seeker, but to illustrate some of the peculiarities of a man who once held the first position in our country. CHAPTEK II. AT this time General " Sam " Houston was one of the United States Senators from Texas. He was, physically, a magnificent specimen of manhood. His dress was extravagantly oiitre^ suggestive of both the f rontier's-man and the Indian. He possessed a great mind and a great heart, and his many peculiarities were harm- less and endearing, rather than repulsive. His courtesy to women was remarkable, and he never addressed one otherwise than as " lady." " Good-morning, lady^'' was his invariable salutation to any fair friend whom he met at the breakfast-table or elsewhere during the earlier hours of the day. He resided at Willard's when in Wash- ington ; and although his room was replete with the ap- pliances of civilized life, he discarded, or pretended to discard, the use of many of them. Buffalo robes were spread upon the carpet, and upon these he slept in prefer- ence to using the bed. He had a printed poster upon the wall bearing the words, " My hour for retiring is* nine o'clock." This was a silent monition to visitors to withdraw when that hour arrived. But it was the popu- lar belief that the restless old warrior was in the habit of nightly pacing the floor until the small hours of the morning, before he sought repose upon his extemporized couch of skins. The eccentric, able, honest, and cynical " Mike" Walsh was then a member of the House of Representatives 170 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. from Kew York. Mike was the perpetrator of many practical jokes, wliicli furnished subjects for "Washington gossip. A fellow-member of the House, whose private avocation was that of a hotel-keeper, rose to make his elaborately prepared maiden speech. As he proceeded, Mike, whose seat was distant from his, would, at every panse, call out in his deep, bass voice, loud enough to be heard by those in his immediate neighborhood, but not so loud as to reach the orator's ear, " John, a pitcher of ice-water to Ko. 122 !" "William, answer the bell of No. 139 !" etc., etc. Upon the same fellow-member he played the rather rough joke of sending him an invitation, in the name of the President, to dine at the Executive Mansion. That there might be no occasion for an answer, the in- vitation was only delivered an hour before the appoint- ed time for dinner. The victim, suspecting nothing, ar- rayed himself in evening dress, and started for the White House. He was closely followed by Mike, and half a dozen of his cronies whom he had let into the secret, for the purpose of witnessing the discomfiture of the unex- pected guest. As the President had liappened to go to Baltimore that very afternoon, this discomfiture was com- plete. AVhether the then somewhat unsophisticated suf- ferer ever discovered or not who had played this "Hea- then Chinee " trick upon him, I am not aware. I saw Daniel Webster under the following circum- stances. In the month of November, in the year 1851, I accompanied Mr. Augustus Schell to Washington, for the purpose of persuading Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, to consent to deliver a Memorial Address be- fore the New York Historical Society on the twenty- third day of the next month. Mr. AVebster had previ- DANIEL WEBSTER. 177 ously declined a written invitation to do so, but we were successful in overcoming his objections. Accordingly he came to New Yorlc at the proper time, and took lodg- ings, as he always did when in that city, at the Astor House. At about seven o'clock of the evening appoint- ed for the address, Mr. Schell and I called there with a carriage for the purpose of conducting Mr. Webster to Niblo's Theatre, the place selected for its delivery. He kept us waiting a long time in his drawing-room, while he was dressing in his bedroom. When he at last came out to us he looked wan and exhausted, and appeared al- most inanimate. He was accompanied by his private secretary, Mr. Abbott ; and while we were driving from the hotel to the theatre, hardly a word was spoken by any of the party. Once only Mr. Webstee opened his mouth, and, in those deep, sepulchral tones which those who have heard them will never forget, asked, " Abbott, what is that quotation from EuKirrDES ?" When we ar- rived at the theatre, the distinguished orator was met by a committee of the society and conducted to a private room, that he might rest and refresh himself before pre- senting himself to the public. Knowing his habits at that time, they had provided a bottle of excellent old brandy for his use, which, with a pitcher of water and a tum- bler, stood upon a table in the room. Advancing to it, Mr. Webstek almost filled the tumbler with the spirit, and then, tempering it with about a table-spoonful of wa- ter, drank it down in two or three gulps. The bottle was then put aside for future use ; and almost immedi- ately thereafter Mr. Webster w^as conducted to the stage and presented to the audience by the president of the society, the late ex-Ltectenant-Goveenor Luther Bra- H2 178 3IEM0RIES OP 3IANY MEN. DISH. He was, of course, received with vociferous ap- plause, and without delay commenced his address. At first his voice was so low as to be scarcely audible, his utterance was hesitating, and his choice of words fre- quently unhappy. Gradually, as the stimulus of the brandy operated upon him, he warmed up and became fluent and eloquent ; and when he had finished, it was conceded that he had made one of the most masterly and successful of his later efforts. By this time he was again exhausted and overpowered by the weariness and listlessness which had become habitual to liim. He was reconducted to the committee-room, that he might take some more of the brandy before returning to his hotel ; but, unfortunately, in the mean time some toper had scented the bottle to its hiding-place, and there was not a drop left in it. Mr. Scuell and myself accompanied him home, and left him moi'e aj^athetic than we had found him. He had been persuaded to remain in New York an- other da}^, for the purpose of presiding at a meeting to be held the next evening in honor of the then recently deceased novelist, James Fenimoke Cooper. I had known Mr. Coopee during the later years of his life, and used to see him occasionally when he visited ISTew York. He was an amazingly fluent talker as well as speaker and writer ; and he affected an intense bitterness against the institutions of his native country in his conversation as well as in his writings. I can see him now, in my mind's eye, standing with his back to the fire-place in my office, with his legs apart and his coat-tails under his arms, pouring out diatribes which did not seem half in earnest. DANIEL WEBSTER. 179 The following preliminary notice appeared in tlie New York newspapers of the day : "At a meeting of friends of the late JAMES FENIMORE COOP- ER, held in the City Hall, in the city of New York, pursuant to no- tice, the following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to make the necessary arrangements for a suitable demonstration of respect for Mr. Cooper's memory : Washington Irving, George BajsCroft, GuLiAN C.Verplanck, Lewis Gaylord Clark, John Duer, John A. Dix, James K. Paulding, George P. Morris, John W. Francis, Samuel Osgood, Richard B. Kimball, Charles Anthon, Francis L. Hawks, Charles F. Briggs, WiLLiAJvi C. Bryant, Maunsell B. Field, William W. Campbell, Parke Godwin, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Jonathan M. Wainwright, RuFus W. Griswold, Donald G. Mitchell, Charles King, N. P. Willis. "At a subsequent meeting of the Committee, held at the Astor House, on the 25th of November, it was reported by a si^ecial Com- mittee that negotiations were in progress with Mr. H. Greenough for a monument to IVIr. Cooper ; that Mr. Bryant had consented to pronounce a discourse on the life and genius of Mr. Cooper, on the evening of the 24th of December, at Tripler Hall ; and that Daniel Webster had consented to preside on that occasion. " Washington Irving, President. " Fitz-Greene Halleck, RuFus W. Griswold, ' Secretaries.- The meeting was a crowded and a brilliant one. Mr. "Webstek, in his opening address, faltered and hesitated, and talked as if he did not know the difference between Fenimore Cooper and Mcngo Parke. Mr. Bryant's dis- course was, as was to be expected, an appreciative and elegant essay, but his delivery of it was, as is usual with ISO MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. him, without animation. Then followed some of the most brilliant and magnetic speeches to which I ever listened. Kev. Dr. Bethune, one of the finest ora- tors of any country or any time, made the room ring with applause at his eloquent periods. Geoege Ban- croft, the Eev. Dr. Osgood, Dr. John W. Francis, and Mr. G. P. K. James, followed with feeling tributes to the memory of the great novelist. Mr. Webstee, who had been half asleep, became aroused. When all the speak- ers of the evening had concluded, he arose from his chair, advanced to the edge of the platform, and deliv- ered a short closing address of marvelous elegance and appropriateness, his glowing and admirably constructed paragraphs falling upon the audience like a magnificent funeral dirge after lighter music. Stimulus was essen- tial to his wearied faculties, and whether it came in the form of brandy or of eloquence, it served alike to vivify them into temporary animation. And this was the last of the Cooper movement, so well initiated and so successfully carried on to this point. There is no monument in Central Park or elsewhere, so far as I know, to the spirited, waywai'd romancer, any more than there is to the gentle Irving. Shame upon New York if statues of both do not soon adorn that mao;- nificent pleasure-ground of which its citizens are so just- ly proud ! I never saw John Tylee when he was President of the United States. A very good story was told of him at the time that he succeeded as Vice-President to the Chief Magistracy upon the death of President Harrison. It was said that he commissioned his Irish coachman to pur- chase a cari'iage for him. After seai-chini>; "Washington FILLMORE AND VAN BUREX. ^gl a day or two, Pat came to his master and reported that he had found a very liandsome one for sale, but that it had been used a few times. " That will never do," an- swered Mr. Tyler ; " it Avould not be proper for the Pres- ident of the United States to drive a second-hand car- riage." "And, sure, what are you but a second-hand President ?" was the prompt and unanswerable reply. I saw Mr. Fillmoke, another " second-hand " President, in Washington, but had no acquaintance with him. He looked the President better than any man whom I have ever seen who occupied the office. It was somewhat singular that a lawyer who never held more than a sec- ondary rank at a provincial bar should attain so eminent a position. He certainly was one of the most discreet Presidents we ever had, and his administration was an eminently successful one. Mrs. Fillmore died a few days after the inauguration of Mr. Pierce, in one of the same rooms in Willard's Hotel which that gentleman had just quitted. I saw the venerable ex-President in Albany last spring, upon the occasion of the delivery of a eulogy upon the late Mr, Seward before the New York State Government by Mr. Charles Francis Adams. Mr. Fill- more looked the same fresh, dignified gentleman that he did when at the head of the nation. It is a subject of congratulation that our Chief Magistrates, after their re- tirement, have always comported themselves- in a manner to do credit to themselves and the country. I knew the late John Van Buren, as who did not? There never lived another man in this country who wasted such opportunities and such talents. His power to adapt himself to all sorts of people and to all kinds of occasions was simply marvelous. His faculty of ready 182 IfEMORIES OF 3rANY MEN. and apt speech, his equal happiness as a stump and an after-dinner orator, his brilliant wit, and his occasional cynicism, united to make liim a remarkable character. He was an indifferent leader, but an admirable executive. When lie led a portion of his party at Buffalo, in the year 1848, to repudiate the nomination made by the I^ational Convention of General Cass for the Presidency, simply on account of the disappointment of his father, the un- successful competitor of Cass, he did much to wreck liis own political fortunes, although he unwittingly planted a germ there which grew to be a powerful agent in the regeneration of the country. Speaking of General Cass reminds me of a pun which was once perpetrated upon his name. It will be recol- lected that he was United States Minister to France wliile Louis Philippe was king. When he returned home from his mission, he wrote and published a rather weak book, under the title of " France : its King, Court, and Government." Somebody was ridiculing the book in the presence of a wag, who thereupon remarked that it was impossible for Cass to cross the sea {c) without making an ass of himself. But to return to John Van Buren. During the au- tumn of the year 1851 there was a terrible contest wag- ing between the " Hunker " and " Barn-burner " factions of the dominant party in the city of New York. An excellent but very young gentleman, afterward a mem- ber of Congress, and now holding a high office under the municipal government of that city, happened to be the " Hunker" candidate as delegate from the Fifteenth Ward to the State Convention to be held at Syracuse, in oppo- sition to John Van Buken, wlio was the " Barn-burner " JOHN VAN BUBEN. I33 nominee. There was a great deal of excitement at tlie polls, possibly some " ballot-stuffing." The result was that the gentleman anonymously referred to was return- ed, and received the certificate of election, w^hile Yajst BuEEN announced that he would go to Syracuse to con- test the seat. Accordingly, the day before the convention was to as- semble, I with several others started for Syracuse in company with our candidate. We arrived at Albany in tlie evening, and went to Congress Hall for suppfer. When we entered the dining-room, whom should we find there but Joun Van Buren seated at the head of the table, and flanked on either side by several of his prom- inent adherents. Our man and ourselves took seats at the same table, somewhat lower down, and Mr. Yan Bu- EEN, who knew me, saluted me. This was like waving a red flag at an enraged bull. Our candidate, who sat next to me, at once began to abuse Yan Bueen to me in very savage terms. Presently the latter, who knew him as well as he knew me, turned to me, and in his usual drawling tone, but in quite a loud voice, said, "Field, who is that young man who sits next you?" "That, Mr. Yan Bueen," I answered, "is Mr. ." " Oil ! that is Mr. , is it ?" he rejoined ; " well, please give him my compliments, and tell him that he is a confounded young politician." Hereat my friend waxed only the more angry and violent in his expressions. When we arrived at Syracuse, our infuriated candi- date threatened to take personal vengeance upon Yan Bueen in case he attempted to contest his seat. The convention at its first meeting appointed a committee of three on credentials, composed of two "' Hunkers " and 134 MEMOBIES OF 3IANT MEN. one " Barn-biirner." They were to meet that afternoon in the hotel where we lodged. At the designated time we watched them as they went up stairs to their room, and saw both and Yan Bdren follow separately after them. An hour passed, and we became very nn- easy. "VVe feared that a personal encounter might actu- ally take place between the contestants. Shortlj' after- ward, to our great surprise, we saw Van Buren and our friend coming down together. Van Buren having his arm around the other's neck, and both laughing in the best of humor. It appeared that Van Buren told the committee that he did not think that, under any cir- cumstances, he could e-^pect the seat to be awarded to him by a tribunal so constituted, and therefore declined to present his claim. He made a funny speech, and by his inimitable facetiousness appeased the angry feel- ings of his opponent, and hence the tableau which M'e witnessed. Friendship between them was cemented over several bottles of champagne, and their personal animosi- ties were buried for all time. CHAPTER III. IN the spring of the year 1S42 I was returning North, after spending the winter in Cuba and New Orleans. I stopped a day or two at Cincinnati for the purpose of visiting an old college friend. Upon my arrival there, my friend informed me that Mr. Charles Dickens was in town, and was to hold a levee at his hotel that morn- ing. He was going to it, and asked me to accompany him. At that time I had that admiration, almost hero- M'oi'ship, for Dickens M'hich was common to all young men in this country immediately after the publication of his earlier works. I therefore readily accepted the invitation, and we were soon in the presence of the dis- tinguished novelist. There were not many persons in the room when we entered. Immediately behind us followed a small English gentleman of subdued and timid manners. Mr. Dickens was standing in front of the fire-place, with his coat-tails under his arms, gor- geously attired, and covered with velvet and jewelry. Mi'S. Dickens was lounging upon a sofa at the farther end of the room. We were duly presented by an usher, or master of ceremonies, and, after exchanging a few words with the author of " Pickwick," retired to give place to tlie little Englishman who was behind us. Upon being introduced, this gentleman deferentially remarked, " I had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Dickens, at Mr. Lovek's, in shire, two years ago." Dickens 186 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEK looked liira steadily in the face for a minute, and then answered in a loud voice, " I never was there in my life !" " I beg your pardon," replied his interlocutor, overcome w^ith confusion; "it was in the winter, and" (naming several persons) " were there at the same time." Dickens again gave him a withering look, and after a pausj3 repeated in a still more elevated tone, " I tell you, sir, I never was there in my life !" Here Mrs. Dickens interposed, and, addressing her husband, said, "WI13', Charles, you certainly were there, and I was there with you; don't you remember the occurrence?" Mr. Dick- ens glared at her almost fiercely, and, advancing a step or two, with his right hand raised, fairly shouted, " I tell you, I never was there in my life !" 1 had never been so disenchanted in all my days. The unfortunate En- glishman withdrew without another w^ord, and I and my friend retired disgusted. I tlien for the first time reluctantly appreciated the fact that a man may be a great author without being a gentleman, a conclusion which I have frequently seen verified in my more ma- ture years. I became acquainted with Mr. G. P. R. James very soon after his arrival in this country in the year 1850. His initials stood for Geoege Payne Rainsford, but some wag had once dubbed him George Prince liegent, and this was believed to be his real name by many who did and many who did not know him. His original in- tention in coming to America was to settle in Canada, but he abandoned that purpose after he had been here a short time. He had three sons, none of them then grown to manhood, and he thought it better for them to cast their fate in a new country than to remain in Eui-ope. O. p. R. JAMES. 187 He had recently, too, met with very severe pecuniary re- verses. He had contracted with a London bookseller for the publication of a uniform edition of his novels, to be illustrated with steel ens-ravino-s. Tlie eno-raviuffs were all ordered and in course of execution, when, after the appearance of a few of the volumes, the bookseller failed. The engraver brought an action against Mr. Jaivies as a j)artner with the publisher in the contract with him, was successful in his suit, and the author, whose fortune in this instance was similar to that of Sir Walter Scott in another, was compelled to pay several thousand pounds sterling. This was a severe blow to him, and although he had excellent and powerful friends at home, such as the late Duke of Northum- berland and the present Duke of AVELLmcTON, Mr. James, who was then residing at Heidelberg, in Ger- many, made up his mind to turn his face westward. He came to London before sailing, and among other leave- taking calls made one upon the Duee of NoRTHU]\tBER- LAND. I have often heard him relate with much emo- tion what occurred upon the occasion. He told the story of his misfortunes and his purposes to the Duke, who listened to the I'ecital with close attention. When it was finished, his noble auditor exerted himself to the utmost to dissuade him from carrying out his intention of leaving Europe. Finding that his arguments failed of the desired effect, the Duke asked to be excused for a moment. Presently he returned, accompanied by the Duchess, and holding in his hand a check upon his bank- ers to Mr. James's order, signed, but in blank, begged him to accept it and fill in the amount. Tlie Duchess added her own entreaties to those of her husband. Mr, Igg MUJIOSIES OF 3IANT MEN. James firmly, but with overflowing heart, refused to accept auy thing, even in the form of a loan. The Duke and Duchess had no children, and could afford to be, as they were, munificently liberal. The Duke, better known by his earlier title of Lord Pkuduoe, was an un- sung Maecenas to artists and literary men. Mr. Jaivies was a gentleman by birth, and a Tory — of a very mild form, however — in politics. His father was an ofiicer in the British Navy, and commanded the frig- ate which bombarded New London in the War of 1812. Young James was originally in the army, and after a short service upon the Continent during the Napoleonic wars, was wounded, taken prisoner, and detained upon parole in France until after the battle of Waterloo. An incident which occurred during his confinement there cast a gloom upon the rest of his life. For some cause which he never explained to me, he became engaged in a duel with a French oflicer. He escaped unhurt him- self, but wounded his adversary, who died after linger- ing for months. I have still in my possession the old- fashioned pistols with which this duel was fought, which my deceased friend presented to me at the time of our early acquaintance. It was during the period of his captivity that he devoted himself, for want of other oc- cupation, to thoroughly reading up French history, and storing his mind with that mass of details upon which he was accustomed to draw for his future novels with- out having to refer to books. After the pacification, he returned to England with the intention of devoting himself to a dii)lomatic career. Llis father had some interest with Lord Lfv'eepool, then Prime Minister, and he secured from him the promise JAMES AND SIR WALTER SCOTT. J^§9 of an early vacancy for his son. Shortly afterward LoKD LivEKPOOL infomicd Captain James that he could give his son the position of Secretary to an Extraordi- nary Embassy about to be sent to China, but that he did not advise him to accept it, as it was only of a temporary character, and would not necessarily lead to preferment, whereas he expected to be able soon to find for him a position in the regular corps. Following this advice, the proffered place was declined, and a week there- after Lord Liverpool suddenly died of a stroke of ap- oplexy. ^ In the mean time young James had written "Riche- lieu," his first Avork of fiction. He had kept his manuscript concealed from his father, who belonged to the old class of the Laikd of ArcniNLECK, who considered it a deg- radation for a gentleman to print a book. He managed, however, to obtain an introduction to Sir Walter Scott ; and, taking his manuscript with him, he went to Abbots- ford, and with the temerity of a fledgling, asked Sir Walter to read it, and give him his opinion of it. This the great man promised to do. Six months passed, and no news came from Scotland. One day JxVmes was riding in Bond Street, when his horse shying, pressed against the side of a carriage which happened to be passing. There was but one person in it. Putting out his head to see what was the matter, this person, who happened to be Sir Walter, who had just come to town, recog- nized the young author, and invited him to call upon him at his hotel the next morning. James went, of course, and, to his surprise and delight, received from Sir Wal- ter the warmest encomium of his book. He was further so kind as, at his request, to reduce to writing what he 190 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. had said of it. Possessed of this, Mr. James easily found a publisher, to whom, however, he sold his copyright for a song. " Richelieu " was immensely successful, and his next books, of which he retained the ownership, brought him vei-y large prices for tliose days. When Mr. James first came to Xew York, he took lodgings M'ith his family at the Kew York Hotel. lie had not been here a week before I began to see him al- most daily. For some time he was busy presenting his letters of introduction. Among others, he had one to IIoEACE Gkeeley, and he personally called with it upon the philosopher. He found him within, and directly aft- er his interview with him, he came to me. He summed up the impression produced upon him by Mr. Gkeeley by saying that he had " the head of a Soceates and the face of a baby !" Mr. James soon found a residence in a hotel incompati- ble with the prosecution of any literary labor. So many people constantly called upon him that he had no com- mand whatever of his own time. Accordingly he desired to find a place, a little out of town, if possible, where he could be comparatively free from intrusion. After some looking around, he was offered and finally made an agree- ment to hire Mr. Chaeles Astoe Bkisted's house at Hell Gate, opposite Astoria. The house, which originally be- longed to Mr. Beisted's grandfather, the late Mr. Joun Jacob Astoe, was not adapted to winter occupation, and was only partly furnished. After he had removed to it, James came to me with a plaintive account of his difli- culties in getting into it, and of his discomforts when he got there. A day or two thereafter he sent me tlie following amusing lines, and was to finish the story of THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. 191 his mishaps in a second " fytte," which, liowever, I pre- sume he never wrote, as it never came to hand. THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. Dear Field, I will give you a picture, in verse, Of disasters it grieves my steel-pen to rehearse, As trotting fast on the high-road to the devil, All cookless, and manless, with coachman uncivil, We set out by some strange arrangement of Fate, To make our abode just outside of Hell Gate. But first let me show you the course of the packing. The cramming, the jamming, the wracking, the cracking ; With boxes too few to contain all our store, And each minute bringing some thingumbob more; While Walter, and Courtney, and Florence, and I, To put gallons in pmt-pots laboriously try. And Charlie himself must have finger in pie. The scene was the parlor, the whole was dramatic, And wanting in naught but a little salt attic : In her own quiet chamber, hard by, " Stabat Mater," And first of the histrions, " loquitur Pater." G. P. R— "Come bustle, come bustle, come bundle the traps. Come pack up the bonnets and poke in the caps! The porters are damning. The doors are all slamming, Portmanteaus are cramming; Come, fill uj) the gaps !" C. — " Oh, dear me ! oh, dear ! How marvelous queer ! Here's Whipple's oration got in the elop-pail !" G. P. R.— " Leave it there, And don't stare, It will very well fare. 192 M-EMOBIES OF MANY MEN. One half the world's verse, More than half of its prose Is slop, and at last to the slop-pail it goes." F. — " Here are Everett's speeches ; oh, where shall they go?" G. P. R. — "On Fame's highest platform, where clouds are below. And sunshine above them, and clearness around, And flowers few, but lovely, besjjangle the ground — But I'm thinking of tropes, when I should think of locks. For Cicero, printed, must go in a box — Put him in beside SuiiNER — " F. — " They'll never agree." G. P.R.— "Jam them tight. They can't fight. At least for one night, However opposed to each other they be." W. — "Here are Irveng and Lovtell and Hawthorne and Holmes, And Bryant and Tuckerman, too ; And hundreds of vagrant poetical tomes — Oh, dearie me ! what shall I do ?" G. P. R. — "Put Irving and Addison close side by side. And Goldsmith as near as may be; Three such kindred siairits may well take a ride, E'en were it to Eternity. 'Tis but to Hell Gate, And the fiat of Fate Has decreed that they should not go in: For the devil himself. Though a covetous elf. Would not suffer such spirits within. The English poet would preach peace To damned souls longing for release; The Irishman would teach simplicity To knaves condemned for earth's duplicity; THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. 193 And tears and smiles at Irvlng's voice Would deck the face of hard remorse, Till, all forgetful of the curse, Hell's tenants would themselves rejoice, And Rip Vai^ Winkxe's solemn souls. With laughter cheer theii* game at bowls. Put them in ! put them in ! 'Tis a traveling sin To waste time in iJacking a box to a pin. If the binding is hurt, 'Tis but the bard's shirt; He himself will be found All immortal and sound Whatever may happen to damage his skin." C. — " Here's Mr. Thackeray." G. P. R. — " He rhymes to quackery." W. — "Here's Charlie Dickens, And his whole brood of chickens." F. — " Here are Hallaji and Hunt, And Johnson and Blunt, And a score or two more Lying round on the floor." G. P. R. — "Cram them in ! cram them in ! 'Tis a traveling sin To waste time in packing a box to a pin." W. — "Here are papers. And tapers. And rapiers. And callers. And things from the drapers." C. — " Here are pistols, And crystals, And rifles. And trifles, 194 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. And holsters, And bolsters, And beds made of osier. And things from the hosier, And boxes of furs. To say nothing of curs, And poor little Frizzy."* G. P. R. — "You make my head dizzy. Cram them in ! cram them in ! 'Tis a traveling sin To waste time in packing a box to a pin." W.— "They're all in at last!" C. — " Don't get on so fast ! Here are lucifer matches. And a box for dispatches." F. — "A pair of nail-nippers. An old pair of slijapers That came from Morocco, And lots of rococco." G. P. R. — " All presents from friends I shall never see more, Till the journey of life, like this journey, is o'er ; But their gifts still to fancy shall call back their faces. And yield the dead present the past's living graces. Oh ! put them by safe, for an hour oft may come When I long for some sight to remind me of home — Of that home o'er the waters, where hope's early sight First presented the world all resplendent and bright ; Where memories crowd, and the flowers of past years Blossomed forth in life's mom to be watered by tears : Like the lily, that opens its breast for one day, And closes forever at evening's last ray ! The dear ones around us the present may cheer, But we can not forget there were others as dear. * A certain traveled and highly accomplished spaniel — a friend of the family. THE JOUBNEY TO HELL GATE. ^95 Kind friends may be near us — bright skies overhead — But we still must remember the land of our dead ; And, though this new world my dead ashes may share, One half of my heart is, at least, buried there ! On, on with your work W.— " It is done " C— " Oh, what fun ! We shall get there ere nightfall, as sure as a gun !" G. P. R. — " But the cart's breaking down with the weight of the packages." W. — " Ere 'tis home, there will be a rare number of crack- ages." G. P. R. — " And the wine's left behind, t'other end of the city ; "We must temperate dine — " C. — " Dear me, what a pity !" G. P. R. — " Well, you all get into the carriage and go. And I will ran oflF to the stores down below; Of barrels and bottles make speedy purveyance, And follow you fast in some other conveyance." 'Tis all done — They are gone, Wife, daughter, and sons. Cart, carriage, and boxes, beds, bolsters, and guns ; While, like a sea-weed on some oyster-bed thrown, I am left on the pave of New York alone. [Ye end of ye Fu'ste Fytte.] It will be seen from the foregoing specimen that Mr. James wrote capital squibs. I find a copy of another transcribed in my scrap-book, where two were concern- ed, and where I am not sure that James came off with the highest honors. 196 ME3I0RIES OF MANY MEX. On the 25th day of December (Christmas), 1840, when the excitement in diplomatic circles upon the subject of the so-called Eastern question was at its height, he dined with Sir Hamilton and Lady Seymouk in Brussels. Sey- mour's note of invitation ran : "Will you and yoor wife come and eat a turkey with us ?" The dinner was a very good one, but there was no turkey ; and on the fol- lowing day Mr. James sent to him the lines below : " On the kotorious Breach of Political Faith committed by Sir G. Hamilton Seymour, G. C. H., etc., etc., etc.. Her Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiahy at the Court of Belgium, on the 25th of December, 1840. " Most perfidious, most base of all living ministers, You deserve to fall back to the rank of plain misters; Your star taken oflF, and your chain only serving To fetter your ankles selon your deserving. Don't think that my charge is some trumpery matter Of Court etiquette. It is greater and fatter; Fit cause throughout Europe to sj^read conflagration, Set king against kaiser, and nation 'gainst nation. 'Tis a fraud diplomatic — a protocol broken — The breach of a treaty both written and si)oken — A matter too bad for e'en Thiers's digestion — The loss of an empire, the great Eastern question ! In vain would you move my ambition or pity — In vain would you ofl'er me province or city — Neither Bordeaux, nor Xeres, nor eke all Chami^agne, Can, make me forgetful of promises vain. Such pitiful make-vreights I send to perdition; 'Twas Turl'cy you promised — at least a partition. 'Twas TurTccy you promised — you've broken your word. 'Twas Turley you promised — and where is the bird ?" To the above, Seymouk sent the following answer with- in an hour after he received it : AN EQUIVOCAL COMPLIMENT. 197 " Of Eastern affairs most infernally sick, No wonder I failed to my promise to stick. With the subject of Turkey officially Crammed, If Turkey I dined on, I swore I'd be d — d. But, at least, my good friend, and the thought should bring peace. If I gave you no TurJcc!/, I gave you no Greece !" While Mr. James was residing at Hell Gate, a gentle- man of wealth, and of the best social standing in New York, came to see me, and requested me to appoint a time when I would drive there with him and introduce him to the novelist. A day and an hour were decided upon sufficiently far ahead to enable me to notify Mr. James about it. When the time arrived, we went there in my friend's carriage, and the desired introduction took place. After the usual words of salutation had passed between them, the visitor observed to Mr. James that he was a great admirer of his novels, that he believed he had read all that were published, and that there was one among them which he vastly preferred to all the others." " And which is that ?" asked James. " Tlie Last Days of Pompeii !" was the answer. " That is Bulwer's, not mine," replied the mortified novelist. It was awkward enough for all present, and James never forgave that man, as few in his place would do. I am in the habit of meeting him in the street almost daily, and I never do so without thinking of his unpardonably absurd mis- take. I once heard something which was so good that I could not forbear repeating it to the creator of the " soli- tary horseman." It ran thus : A lady spending the sum- mer in the country was thrown upon the not very exten- 198 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. sive resources of a village circulating-library for books. She was one day pleased to find there, and took home with her, a copy of an English edition of one of James's novels in two volumes. She read them through with de- light, and only after finishing discovered that she had been perusing the first volume of one work and the sec- ond volume of another! Nothing but our great inti- macy could excuse me for telling this to James, but he winced under it, Mr. James passed the next summer at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he hired the Ash- burner House furnished. I had already spent several successive summers in that lovely spot. There was no neighborhood in America at that time so distinguished for its literary society. The Sedgwicks were the most conspicuous family, and their influence had done much to attract cultivated people there. Mrs. Susan Sedg- wick, widowed daughter-in-law of Theodoke Sedgwick, some time Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, resided in the old manor-house at Stockbridge, and Mrs. Heney Sedgwick lived in the same village. Mr. and Mrs. Chaeles Sedgwick, and Miss Cathaeine Sedgwick, the authoress, resided at Len- ox, five miles off. With them Mrs. Pieece Butlee, nee Fanny Kemble, was a frequent visitor, until she pur- chased a residence for herself in the vicinity. Doctor Olivee Wendell Holmes had a summer-seat near Pitts- field, in the same county. Heeman Melville, the au- thor of " Typee" and " Omoo," occupied a fine old place between Pittsfield and Lenox. jN'athaniel Hawthoene resided in a little box of a house, which looked like a district school-house, near the Lenox Lake. Geoege Wil- liam CuETis frequented Lenox, as Daeley, the artist, THE SEDQWICKS. I99 and David Dudley Field did Stockbridge, where Mrs. Field owned an old family residence ; Cyrus W. Field was a frequent visitor there, and the Rev. Dr. Okville Dewey made his home at Sheffield, south of Stockbridge. Besides those whom I have named, there were numerous other distinguished people who were constantly coming and going. There is no more beautiful interior coun- ty in America than Berkshire, and there was none oth- er in those days where refinement and culture were so universal. Every wliere the influence of the Sedg- wicKS made itself felt, and affected the tone of society. This reminds me of a little story. About this time Mr. SiGOUENEY Bakker, SOU of the famous banker Jacob Barker, of l^ew York and New Orleans, came to Lenox to visit his sister, who had a beautiful estate there. Mr. Barker was well known as a young gentleman of fashion, and a society man. Some three weeks after his arrival, a friend who had just come from New York called upon him and found him at home. "Well, Barker," he asked, "what do you do with yourself here ?" " Oh, nothing," was the listless answer. " "Why, don't you shoot ? I understand that there is capital woodcock-shooting in the neighborhood." " Oh, no ; I never shoot." " And I am told that there is excellent trout -fishing in the mountain streams. You fish, of course?" "Never did such a thing in my life," Bar- ker indolently replied. "But the society here is charming, and that is exactly in your line. You surely enjoy that?" "I never go out any more." "Why, what in the world has happened to you, old fellow?" " Well," drawled Sigourney, " I suppose that you won't let me off until I confess the whole truth, and here it is : 200 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. For the first ten days that I was here, I was out all the time at evening parties, picnics, expeditions to the ice- glen, and all sorts of things. I was charmed for a while; but at last, when I was driving home of an evening, it came to seem to me that the katydids and the frogs and the tree-toads had but one song, and that was ' Sedg- wick ! Sedg-wick ! Sedg-wick !' Since then I have kept to the house, and the most seductive invitations fail to lure me from it." Every body there remembers Mrs. Pierce Blttler, who was always called by her maiden name of Fanny Kemble. She was certainly a lady of great genius, gift- ed with many masculine accomplishments. I distinctly remember a certain evening party at the Sedgwick Man- or-house. When I arrived, I found Mrs. Butlee at the piano in the front drawing-room, singing Spanish ballads, which she did very sweetly and effectively. After a time she ceased singing and entered into conversation with me. Her arms, which she called her " deformities," were bare, and they, as well as her face, were very much burned by the sun. She told me that she had been out all the day alone upon the lake, fishing ; that she had had no din- ner; that when she returned to the house, she for the first time heard of the party for that evening, and that she had not had the time to both eat and dress without detaining the rest of the family. The result was that she had not tasted food since breakfast, and felt very faint and exhausted. All this time she was carelessly drum- ming the keys of the piano. At length she arose from her seat and slowly sauntered into the back drawing-room, while I remained standing where I was. After a short interval, hearing very loud talking in the other room, I FANNY KEMBLE IN PRIVATE. £01 lounged into it to see what it meant. The rear of the house was very near the Housatonic, and it had a bay- window on that side. Seated in this window, with her back to the river, was Fanny Kemble, and sitting on either side of her were the Rev. Dr. Parkek and the Rev. Justin Field, both clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Thereupon I drew up a chair, and, facing the lady, completed i\\ej)artie carree. She was doing the talk- ing just then, and her subject was horses, for which ani- mals she had a passionate fondness. From horses in gen- eral, she soon passed to war or cavalry horses. " By the bye," she went on to say, " this reminds me that the last time I was in England I met Sir Haery Smith. He told me that he was a captain of horse at Waterloo, but that his command was not called into action during the day. In the afternoon the Duke of Wellington, at the head of his staff, rode up to where he was, and called to him, ' Come, sir, get your troop in motion — get your troop in motion !' Now Sir Harry did not yet know any thing about the fortunes of the day ; so, saluting his commander, he hesi- tatingly asked, ' Which way, sir V " As she gave the Duke's reply, she rose to her feet like a tragedy queen, and, with clenched hand, shouted, " Forward, sir, by God !" At this her immediate auditors started as if electrified ; but she calmly resumed her chair, and went on with the conversation as if unconscious that she had violated any of the proprieties. She soon fell a-talking about the transmigration of souls, Brahminism, and I can not recall what besides. When I withdrew from the party she was still engaged with some subject of mys- tical theology. And this reminds me of a little excursion which Dae- 12 202 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. LEY, tlie artist, and myself once made together from Stockbridge. We started in a buggy to call upon Mel- ville, intending to go from there to Dr. Holmes's, then to the hotel at Pittstield to dine, and thence home. We found Melville, whom I had always known as the most silent man of my acquaintance, sitting on the porch in front of his door. He took us to a particular spot on his place to show us some superb trees. lie told me that he spent much time there jpatting them ioj)on the lack. When we were about to start for Dr. Holmes's, we invited Melville to accompany us, and he accepted. We found the poet-physician, to whom I w^as presented for the first time, at home, and he took us into a room at the back of his house, which overlooked the mountains. For some time the talk, in which all tried to participate, dragged, and I feared that our visit would only result in boring our host, if not ourselves. At length, somehow, the con- versation drifted to East India religions and mythologies, and soon there arose a discussion between Holmes and Melville, which was conducted with the most amazing skill and brilliancy on both sides. It lasted for hours, and Daeley and I had nothing to do but to listen. I never chanced to hear better talking in my life. It was so absorbing that we took no note of time, and the Doc- tor lost his dinner, as we lost ours. We took tea at Pitts- field, instead of dining there, and reached home late in the evening. But I have very discourteously left Mr. James all this time standing in his new house with his boxes unpacked. It took him a very short time to convert it into a home, and to fall into regular liabits of living there. His nat- ure w^as so genial, and liis fund of recollections and an- TWIN AUTHORSHIP. 203 ecdotes so inexhaustible, that he soon became the friend of every man, woman, and child who lived in his neigh- borhood. He bought property there ; but I fear that, notwithstanding his long India-rubber boots and affec- tation of rustic attire, he was not a success as a farmer. In the mean time he was also industriously pegging away at book-making, although to the casual observer he appeared to be the least occupied man in the place. He never did any literary work after eleven o'clock A.M. until evening. He was not accustomed to put his own hand to paper, when composing, but always employed an amanuensis. At this time he had in his service in that capacity the brother of an Irish baronet, who spoke and wrote English, French, German, and Italian, and whom I had procured for him at the modest stipend of five dol- lars a week. When James was dictating, he always kept a paper of snuff upon the table on which his secretary wrote, and he would stride up and down the room, stop- ping every few minutes for a fresh supply of the titil- lating powder. He never looked at the manuscript, or made any corrections except upon proof-sheets. During the first few weeks that he and I were togeth- er at Stockbridge, I related to him several detached in- cidents in my own experience which I thought he might advantageously work up in his fictions. One day he told rae that he was determined that we should write a novel together. The idea appeared to me an absurd one, and I discouraged it in every possible way, among other things telling him that I was sure that either of us could better write a book alone than we could write one to- gether. But he would not be denied, and moreover he insisted that we should set to work at once. I con- 204 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. tinned to object, but saying I "would ne'er consent — consented." It was a very few evenings after this conversation that we met at his house to construct our plot. After two hours' consideration, we completed it; but I may as well mention that, before we reached the middle of the book, we had deviated so far from it that we had to recast it. Our daily habit while engaged upon this work was as follows: At seven o'clock every evening we would re- tire into his library, and each read to the other what he had written on that day. Some filing and dovetailing was generally necessary to make the parts fit. Then we would determine what each was to do the next day — up to what point he was to carry the story. Now the hero was mine, and the heroine was Mr. James's, and we were constantly and inevitably, in the progress of the tale, each distorting the ideal conception of the other. But we got over this the best way we could. After our evening's consultation, we retii'ed to the dining-room, and usually supped upon a finnie haddocic, prepared in national style by a Scotch cook. Mr. James threw all his heart, which was as fresh as that of a boy, into a book. While he was writing a story, it was a reality to him. I remember tliat in our joint work, the wife at one time ran away from her husband, for we married our hero and heroine in the middle of the book, and left them, like young bears, to find all their troubles after- ward. She left a letter behind her, explaining her rea- sons for going. It fell to Mr. James's lot to write that letter, and when he read it to me his voice was choked, and he was overcome by emotion. James's style was so well known to the public, and mine not at all, that I HAWTHOMNE'S SHYNESS. 205 naturally endeavored to assimilate mine to his, and with good success, as the sequel proved. In five weeks after the book was commenced it was finished, and it was published under the title of " Adrian ; or, The Clouds of the Mind." It was very kindly received by the critics, and attracted attention by the singularity of its dual authorship. I remember that my esteemed fi-iend, Mr. EiCHAKD Geant White, reviewed it at length in the N'ew Yorh CovjTier and Enquirer. lie undertook to assign particular passages to each of us, and in almost every instance he was mistaken. There was an old house de- scribed in the first chapter. Mr. White said that if I had written that, I had better undertake to write " Re- jected Addresses." Now, every word of it M'as mine. I had in my mind the old " Salstonstall " house, near New Haven. One day James and I started to call upon Hawthgene. As we approached his dwelling, we saw him in a vege- table garden at the side of it. As soon as he noticed our approacli, he concealed himself, like a frightened school-boy, behind the house, and when we asked for him at the door, we w^ere told that he was not at home. Tradition related that nobody had succeeded in inter- viewing him since he had first settled at Lenox. Some time in the year 1852 Mr. Jaisies was appointed Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Norfolk, Virginia, and later at Richmond, in the same state. In 1858 he was made British Consul- General at Yenice, and left this country forever. I was with him during the last even- ing that he spent in America, at the Union Place Hotel, in New York. Washington Ieving, between wdiom and himself there existed a sincere friendship:), was also with 206 IfEMOEIES OF IfANT MEN. US. Jaivies was telling us about all the kindness which he had received in Virginia. " They're a warm-hearted people — they're a warm-hearted people !" he said, while tears came into his eyes. The next morning I accom- panied him to the steamer, and took my final leave of him. He died in Venice, after a comparatively short residence there. If he was sometimes a tedious writer, he was always the best story-teller that I ever listened to. lie had known almost every body in his own country, and he never forgot any thing. The literary anecdotes alone which I have heard him relate would sufiice to fill an ordinary volume. He was a big-hearted man, too — tender, merciful, and full of religious sentiment ; a good husband, a devoted father, and a fast friend. If I dwell longer upon him than upon some others who occupy a higher niche in the temple of fame, it is because I knew him so well, and there always existed so affectionate a regard between us. I have already mentioned that in consequence of their alleged connivance in the enlistment of soldiers for the British Army upon American soil during the Crimean War, the Washington Government not only dismissed her Majesty's Minister at that capital, but also withdrew their exequaturs from her Consuls at New York, Phila- delphia, and Cincinnati. When I was in England in the year 1856, I made some efforts to induce Mr. Jaivies's friends to secure for him the vacant Consulship at New York. But his own political party was not tlien in pow- er, and whatever attempt, if any, was made by them, failed of success. Lokd Derby's adherents did not like to ask favors of Lord Palmeeston's administration. CONSUL-MAKING. 207 Among others, I wrote in his behalf to the Dukes of Northumberland and "Wellington and the Marquis of Dalhousie, \v]io had just returned home from the Gov- ernor-Generalship of India. I received the following replies to my letters : " NoKTHUMBERLAi^D HoiJSE, June 20, 1856. " Sir, — I entirely agree with you in tlie expressions contained in your letter of tlie 18tli inst. in favor of Mr. James. I have long had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and, therefore, have long es- teemed and respected him. But I can not consent to take a part in the transaction you propose, as it would not produce the effect you anticipate. Yours faithfully, NoRTnuMBERLAND. " Maunsell B. Field, Esq." " London, June 19, 1856. " Sir, — I am much obliged to you for your letter. " A few days since I had an opportunity of talking to Lord Clarendon respecting Mr. James, and I have hopes that his posi- tion may be improved. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient, humble servant, Wellington. " M. B. Field, Esq." " Edinburgh, June 30, 1856. " Sm, — Your letter of the 18th inst. did not reach me until very lately, in consequence of my having left London before it was de- livered at my address there. " I can not pretend to the possession of any influence with her Majesty's Ministers; and I am, of course, ignorant of the course they intend to pursue with regard to the Consuls from whom the exequatur has been withdrawn. " But you judge rightly in believing that I should be glad to serve Mr. James if I could ; and if a proper opportunity for doing so should present itself, I will not let it jDass. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, DALnousiE. " M. B. Field, Esq." I have already devoted so much space to Mr. James that it would be hardly fair to detain the reader to list- 208 2fEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. en to many of the anecdotes which I heard from him. He had been personally acquainted with Scott, Camp- bell, SoLTHEY, WoEDswoETH, De Qdincey, Byeon, and all the brilliant galaxy of poets and prose writers which illuminated the earlier part of the present century. He told me that the first time he met the author of the "Pleasures of Hope" he was taken to his residence, which was at Camden Town, or one of the other suburbs of London. It- was a poor place ; and he found the great lyric poet in a green-baize jacket, smokiug a clay pipe ! Campbell sometimes showed at Longman's literary din- ners. Upon these occasions a screen was placed behind liis chair, and behind that screen stood a table with a de- canter of spirits upon it. To the latter he made such frequent application that he was usually under the din- ner-table before the fish was removed. James intimately knew Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd." They were one clay dining together at a table Avhere Hogg happened to be seated next to a daughter of Sik Wn^LiAM Deysdale. She was a charming young lady — unaffected, affable, and clever. To some remark which he made, she replied, " You're a funny man, Mr. Hogg ;" to which he instantly rejoined, "And ye're a nice las- sie, Miss Deysdale. Xearly all girls are like a bundle of pens cut by the same machine — ye're not of the bundle." Jajvies once arranged a party for an excursion to Lake St. Mary, and it was proposed to stop at Hogg's house on the way, and take him up. Before they reach- ed it, however, they saw a man fishing in the Yarrow, not very far from the high-road. The fisherman, as soon as he noticed a carriageful of people, whose attention was apparently attracted to himself, gathered up his rod. HOGG AXD BYROK 209 and started to run in an opposite direction as fast as liis legs conld carry liim. James descended from the car- riage, and shouted after him at the top of his voice. But it was of no use — the fugitive never stopped until he reached an elevated spot of ground, when he turned around to watch the movements of the intruders. Rec- ognizing James, he laughingly returned his greeting, and, approaching him, said — I translate his Scotch dialect into the vernacular — " Why, James, my boy, how are you ? I took you for some of those rascally tourists who come down upon me in swarms, and eat me out of house and home." His fears removed, he accompanied the party to the lake, and they had a merry day of it. Hogg's egotism was veiy amusing. Witness the fol- io wino; extract from his " Familiar Anecdotes of Sir Wal- ter Scott :" "One of Sir Walter's representatives has taken it upon him to assert that Sir Walter held me in the lowest con- tempt ! He never was further wrong in his life ; but Sir Walter would have been still further wrong if he liad done so. Of that, posterity will judge." James was a mere youth at the time of his acquaint- ance with Byron. The latter used to call him "little devil," and at one time proposed taking him abroad with liim. He had frequent opportunities of noticing By- eon's lameness ; and upon a certain occasion, when they happened to meet at a fashionable hatter's on the Strand, liis attention was particularly attracted to it. When he came in, the poet was seated before a table with his feet crossed under it. The boy (for boy he was) being some- what piqued because Byron had not interrupted the con- versation in which he was engaged, to be civil to him, 210 MEMORIES OP MANY MEK withdrew to the other side of the shop. Standing there, leaning against a counter, he satisfied his own mind that the lame foot was the left one. In this statement he disagreed with Mooke. The biographer says in a note : " In speaking of this lameness at the commencement of my work, I forbore, both from my own doubts upon the subject, and the great variance I found in the recollec- tions of others, from stating in which of his feet the lameness existed. It will, indeed, with difficulty be be- lieved what uncertainty I found upon this point, even among those most intimate with him. Mr. Hunt, in his book, states it to have been the left foot that was de- formed; and this, though contrary to my own impression, and, as it appears, also to the fact, was the opinion I found also of others who had been much in the habit of living with him. On applying to his early friends at Southwell, and to the shoemaker of that town who work- ed for him, so little were they prepared to answer with any certainty on the subject, that it was only by recol- lecting that the lame foot ' was the oif one in going up the street,' they at last came to the conclusion that his right limb was the one affected ; and Mr. Jackson, his preceptor in pugilism, was, in like manner, obliged to call to mind whether his noble pupil was a right or left hand hitter before he could arrive at the same decision." And yet, after all, I am inclined to think that James was right and Moore mistaken. Many years ago I met at the " Sailor's Snug Harbor," near Port Richmond, Staten Island, a venerable old pen- sioner named William Giedham. He was the son of an English sailing-master who fell at Trafalgar, and had himself seen many years' service in the British Navy. In BYRON'S PERSONAL TRAITS. 211 the year 1810 he was a seaman attached to the fi-igate Salsette, Captain Bathukst, on board of which Loeu Bykon embarked at Smyrna on the 11th of April in that year, and in which he remained as a guest, except when on shore at Constantinople, until he was landed at the Island of Zea, toward the end of the succeeding July. GiKDnAM, being all this time cockswain of the Captain's gig, and always accompanying Lord Bykon in his frequent excursions upon the water, had abundant op- portunities of observing the peculiarities of the noble poet. When LoED Byeon and Lieutenant Ekenhead per- formed the feat of swimming from Sestos to Abydos, GiEDHAM steered the boat that folloM^ed them. Ac- cording to his statement, three or four times before they reached their destination, Byeon swam up to the boat, and, holding on to the side for a minute or two, took some refreshment to strengthen him. Ekenhead, he asserted, was much the better swimmer of the two ; that is, he swam faster and more gracefully. When they reached the opposite shore, neither of them appeared to be exhausted. It was Byeon's habit while at Constantinople to swim early every morning in the Bosphorus. Upon these oc- casions GiEDHAM represented himself to have been his only companion. lie rowed him out daily, he said, to a particular spot at six o'clock. His Lordship, who al- ways provided himself with two eggs and a few biscuits, would, after undressing, toss one of the eggs into the air with all his strength. Then, noticing where it struck the water, he would swim after it. This proceeding he would repeat with the other egg, and afterward dress himself, eat his biscuits, and return to town. 212 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. I questioned GiEDnAM about Bteon's lameness. He said that he had a very distinct remembrance of it. The heel of one of the poet's boots was from three eighths to one half of an inch higher than the other, and the toes of tlie foot to which it belonged he turned in when walk- ing. This inequality of gait was, however, so slight that a person might be some time in his company without perceiving it. Gikdiiam was sure that the left foot was tlie imperfect one. He noticed that when he was in the water he was almost powerless with the left leg. His at- tention was so frequently called to this circumstance, that he was certain that he could not be mistaken in his recollection of it. At this period of his life Bykon appeared much older than he really was. He was born on the 22d of January, 1788, and consequently, in May, 1810, was a little more than two-and-twenty. And yet to the eyes of my in- formant he then looked at least thirt}^ He was already quite corpulent. His shoulders were broad and his waist slender. When undressed, however, his limbs appeared less muscular than one would expect to find them. His manners were affable, communicative, and joyous. He was a great favorite with the sailors, both on account of his liberality and the frankness of his intercourse with them. HoBHOusE, who was of the party, and whose bear- ing was more reserved and aristocratic, was less liked. Byeon's dress upon ordinary occasions was exceeding- ly plain and unpretending. He had an English love for soap and water, and was always scrupulously neat about his person. When on board the frigate, he spent most of his mornings in the Captain's cabin, reading and writing. Upon the plain of Troy, Giedham remained three days BYBON'S PERSONAL TRAITS. 213 with the poet. On their return to the water's edge, there was some delay about the boat. Loed Byron directed that his writing-desk be brought to him, which he placed upon his knees, and before they were ready to embark he had " covered a sheet of paper with verses." Upon another occasion, Giedhaisi was sent with a boat from Scutari, where Lokd Byron happened to be with Captain Bathuest, to get some casks of wine. Upon its return, the boat was upset, and the casks floated off. By- eon's anxiety was all for the man, the Captain's for the wine — probably because he knew that the man was in no danger. When Byron was landed at the Island of Zea, he went ashore with a kid under each arm. It is proper for me to add that, having myself visited that part of the world, and being tolerably familiar with its topography, I was able to confirm in my own mind the accuracy of Giedham's descriptions. His recollec- tions of the poet were given with but few leading ques- tions from me, and there was an air of truth about him which satisfied me that he was drawing upon his memory, and not " spinning a yarn." I asked him, for my ow^n in- . formation, the meaning of the word " Salsette," the name of Captain Bathurst's frigate. He replied that it is the name of an island near Bombay — that he was himself at Bombay w^ith the frigate, and that he sailed in her in all ten years. In the year 1815, disgusted with the small- ness of a pension which his sisters were receiving from the Government, he left the service. Since then he had been employed in merchant vessels belonging principally to Philadelphia and New York, until laid upon the shelf by age. AVhen I saw him he was about seventy years old, and a fine specimen of an intelligent, veteran tar. 214 3IE3I0RIES OF MANY MEN. There are many engraved portraits of Lord Byron, but it is said that none of them are very like him. Mr. James assured me that the face of the Macedonian mon- arch in Paul Veronese's celebrated picture of "Alex- ander in the Tent of Darius," in Venice, is the exact im- age of his Lordship, Standing before it one day with a lady, he mentioned the extraordinary likeness to her, when the cicerone who accompanied them said, "Ah, sir ! I see that you knew my old master well. Many a time since his death have I stood and gazed upon that face, which recalled his own so vividly !" That picture has a curious history, and I may well deviate here a moment to relate it. The artist was in- vited by a hospitable family to spend some time with them at their villa upon the banks of the Brenta. While in the house, his habits were very peculiar. He remained in his room the greater part of the time, and refused to allow any one to enter it upon any pretext. The maid was not even permitted to make his bed, and every morning she found the sweepings of the room at the door, whence she was at liberty to remove them. One day the painter suddenly disappeared. The door of the room was found open. The sheets were gone from the bed. The frightened servant reported to the master that they had been stolen. A search was instituted. In one corner of the room was found a large roll. Upon open- ing it, it proved to be a magnificent picture — the famous " Alexander in the Tent of Darius." Upon close inspec- tion it was discovered that it was painted upon the sheets of the bed ! The artist had left it as a present to the family, and had taken this curious method to show his gratitude for their kindness. CHAPTER IV. I HAD a less intimate acquaintance with Thackekay when in this country than with James, but I also knew the former very well. We used constantly to meet on Saturday evenings at the Century Club, of New York, which then occupied a modest house on Clinton Place. Mr. Thackeray very much enjoyed the company and the entertainment that he always found there, and sometimes protracted his visits late into the night. He usually un- bent his bow to a very slack cord, and his propensity to ironical teasing he seldom laid aside. I happened to be there one evening after all had left except Thackeeay, Geoege William Curtis, and Leutze, the painter. Thack- eray and Curtis fell to talking about a most respectable young lady whom we all knew. Thackeray was unlim- ited in his expressions of admiration for her, in some of which Mr. Curtis, in the most gentleman-like manner, declined to concur. We were all surprised, and, I confess, somewhat shocked to hear Thackeray close the discussion by say- ing, "Well, Curtis, you may say what you please about her, but she is a devilish good fellow !" He then took out his watch, said that it was late, and that he must go home. " To-morrow," he said, " I have to accompany a lady to church. In the afternoon I shall go to Philadel- phia. When I arrive there, I mean to go directly to the Club, and forthwith begin to intoxicate myself." Of 216 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. course, this was mere badinage, but it was Thackeray all over. Jenny Lind, the world-renowned singer, arrived at New York on a Sunday, in the month of September, in the year 1850. I had hardly reached my office on Mon- day morning before a messenger came there from her, bringing a letter of introduction in her favor, I think from the Bakings, of London, to my law-partner, Mr. John Jay, with the request that he would immediately call upon her at the Irving House, where she was then stopping. Mr. Jay happened to have recently gone abroad, and I sent Miss Lind word to that effect. The messenger soon returned with the request that I would come in his stead. As soon as I could dispose of some urgent business, I started for the hotel, which was in the building at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, now occupied by Delmonico. Upon my arrival, I men- tioned whom I desired to see, and was at once accost- ed by a stranger, who introduced himself to me as Mr. Baknum. He offered to accompany me to Miss Lind's drawing-room, and I followed him up stairs. On the way, he turned to me and said, " I am going to intro- duce you to an angel, sir — to an angel !" AVe entered the drawing-room, but it was vacant, and Mr. Barnum went to call the distinguished artist. He presently re- turned, saying that she would come directly, and while we were waiting he poured into my ear ceaseless praises of her. After a short delay, the object of his admiration entered the room, and Mr. Barnum presented me to her. She wore a summer dress, cut low in the neck and with short sleeves, and she looked to ine wonderfully substan- tial for an angel. "We soon got to business. It apj)eared JENNY LIND. 217 that she had come to America without any formal con- tract with Mr. Baknum. There was nothing between tliem but a very vague memorandum which had been executed at Bremen, I believe, by herself and an agent of the great showman on his behalf. She desired me to prepare a proper agreement, and we three sat down to- gether and settled its terms. When, the next day, I had completed it, and had du- plicate copies made of it, I returned to the hotel and submitted it to my client and to Mr. Baknum, and it ap- peared to be perfectly satisfactory to both of them. Thereupon the two copies were duly signed, sealed, wit- nessed, and exchanged. A day or two afterward the first rehearsal took place at Castle Garden, and I attended it. Never before and never since has New York witnessed such a furor as the advent of Jenny Lind produced. Mr. Baenum, with unexampled skill and tact, fanned the public ex- citement, which he liad largely created, to fever heat. Upon the occasion of this rehearsal, tlie entire Battery was covered with one dense mass of humanity. When the performance was over. Miss Lind took my arm to re- turn to Iier carriage, which she had left standing oppo- site the Bowling Green. Immediately after we made our exit from the Garden, the crowd pressed upon us so wildly that the police had difficulty in forcing a passage for us. Some endeavored to thrust petitions for charity into her hand, and the only object of others was to grat- ify their curiosity by gazing into her face. The popu- lace made up their minds that I must be Baenum, and I was repeatedly addressed by that name. It was with no small difficulty, and after a great deal of embarrassment K 218 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. to me, that we finally readied tlie carriage and drove away. After a time Miss Lind became dissatisfied with her contract, and I was sent for to revise it. Mr. Baknum made the required concessions. I prepared a substitute, and this also was duly executed. Before the first concert came off, it was announced in the newspapers that Miss Lind intended to inaugurate her career in America by presenting her share of the proceeds to public charities in the city of New York. I believe that the suggestion came from Mr. Barnum, and it was a master-stroke of policy. The day after that con- cert I again saw Miss Lind, and received from her about eleven thousand dollars for distribution. I asked her to what institutions I was to present it, and she told me to select them myself. Accordingly I consulted with two or three gentlemen, and made out a list which I submit- ted to her for her approbation. She approved it, with- out hardly reading it, and I started upon my mission of mercy. Before I had got through it, I almost regret- ted that I had consented to be her almoner. Scarcely any body — there were a few praiseworthy exceptions — was satisfied. At almost every establishment at which I called, they tried to persuade me that a larger allotment should have been made to their particular institution, and that its needs and deservings were so much greater than those of such a sister one. Of course, we had been strictly impartial. We had no motive whatever to be otherwise. Kow the best of it is that, as I have since had reason to believe, the receipts of that first concert fell far short of Mr. Bajbntjm's expectations, and that the public might JENNY LIND. 219 not suspect the fact, lie himself furnished a large portion of the money which figured as Miss Lind's share. Again and again Miss Lind desired changes made in the contract to her own advantage, and every time Mr. Baenum yielded. Whatever his motive, he was most obliging and complaisant, and although I have never since met him, I have always esteemed him for the good- nature and liberality which he exhibited at this time in his business relations with Miss Lind. I believe that she received every farthing that belonged to her, and that he treated her with the most scrupulous honor. Of what occurred afterward, I have not so much personal knowl- edge. Mr. Jay returned from Europe, and became the more immediate adviser of our fair client. In June, 1851, after singing at ninety-five concerts under Mr. Bae- num's management, the contract between them, which she had the privilege to extend to one hundred and fif- ty, was rescinded by mutual agreement, but at her re- quest. The performances which she afterward gave in the States were on her own account. I believe that the immediate cause of the ruj^ture was that Baenum desired her to sing in a building in Phila- delphia which she denominated a circus. I heard that she told him that she was not a horse, and, therefore, would not appear there. Miss Lind soon removed from the Irving House to the New York Hotel, and it Mas there that I saw her most frequently. The barytone of the troupe which accom- panied her, who was in the same house, was madly in love with her, and he used to lie in bed all day, weeping and howling over his unrequited affection. The way in which she was hounded for charity all the time was dis- 220 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. graceful to tlie country. Besides receiving scores of let- ters, she was daily besieged by male and female beggars, who obtained access to her upon every pretext, and who tormented her for donations for themselves or others. The impudence of some of these j^eople was almost incred- ible. I once saw her play the tragedy queen to perfection in her own drawing-room. One of her countrymen was an importunate petitioner for assistance, and not receiv- ing at iirst a favorable reply, became insolent. The manner in which she ordered him from her presence would have done credit to Kachel or Ristori. I am ashamed to be compelled to say that many American ladies urged their pleas in behalf of objects, some of them undoubtedly meritorious, with an importunity which overstepped the bounds of propriety. Miss LiND was a calm, sensible, conscientious woman of high principles, rather calculating than emotional. She detested humbug — a word which was constantly in her mouth. I was with her when a telegram was shown to her, mentioning the enormous sum that was paid in Boston for a choice of seats at her first concert. " What a fool !" she exclaimed, referring to the purchaser. She had an abhorrence for negroes, which she could not overcome. " They are so ugly," she used to say. CHAPTER V. T" FIRST became acquainted witli General Winfield -*- Scott in the spring of the year 1853, after his defeat for the Presidency by Feanklin Pierce. He was un- doubtedly very much chagrined that one of liis least dis- tinguished lieutenants in Mexico had been preferred by the American people to himself for the highest position within their gift ; but he made no unseemly exhibition of his feelings. He was then living in his house in Twelfth Street, in ISTew York ; and I particularly remem- ber one evening which I spent there, when one of the few persons in the world who could venture to take a liberty with him, galled him to the quick by lavish praises of Feanklin Pieece. This person had just returned from Washington, and spoke of the President as the most pol- ished gentleman in America, and as in all respects fitted for his exalted position. One could not help feeling that this was done with the intent to annoy the old sol- dier. But he gave no sign of impatience or vexation. One afternoon, in the summer of the year 1863, I started for West Point by the steam-boat Mary Poivell. A few minutes after myself. General Scott came on board, accompanied by his friend, Mr. Vail, of the Bank of Commerce, who escorted him to the boat. The Gen- eral took a seat in the cabin, and I took one at his side, and we did not remove from them during the entire passage. I had much agreeable talk with him. He told 222 MEMORIES OF MANY MEJST. me that after he was taken prisoner at the battle of Queenstown Heights, in October, 1812, orders came in the evening to remove him to an interior place, distant some miles from the frontier. He was very indignant at what he considered an unnecessary and ungenerous proceed- ing. When he reached the end of his journey, he was informed that he was brought there only that he might participate in a ball which was about to take place. But here a difficulty arose. He had not a proper suit of clothes with him, and, as he was six feet four inches high, he could not reasonably expect to supply the defi- ciency by borrowing. But it so happened that Sik John Hakvey, the Adjutant-General of the British Army, who was present, was precisely the same stature as himself, and from him he borrowed all that he needed for the occasion. He and Sir John grew to be fast friends. Sib John subsequently became Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, and, later. Governor of Nova Scotia. Dur- ing the boundary troubles between Maine and New Brunswick in the year 1839, when a recourse to arms seemed imminent on both sides, our Government sent Geneeal Scott to that province to co-operate with Sm John in keeping the peace, and allaying the disturbed feeling which existed. Their joint efforts were success- ful, and the matter was finally adjusted by the Ashbur- ton Treaty concluded at Washington in the year 1842. He told me that during the last war with Great Brit- ain, before an action began between the two armies, it was customary for the respective commanders to ride forward, accompanied by their staffs, and formally salute each other. Each then returned to his own lines, and the battle opened. IIcCLELLAN, LEE, AND OEANT. 223 General Scott expressed to me his great gratification that in the War of tlie Rebellion more than fifty per cent, of the ofiicers of the regular army who were born in Virginia had remained loyal to the flag. The per- centage of excess was not large, only four or five, I think he said. lie had himself been at pains to make a care- ful estimate, and he was certain of its correctness. I asked him his opinion of McClellan, Lee, and Geant. He told me that he had never been so disap- pointed in any one as he had been in Geokge B. McClel- lan. Of Lee he remarked, in somewhat tm-gid language, that " EoBEET E. Lee had never but once in his life been guilty of an act unworthy a Christian, a soldier, and a gentleman !" lie said that he only remembered Geant as a young lieutenant of average merit in Mexico. He little foresaw the eminence which that " young lieuten- ant" was to attain in both military and civil life ! He has in his career presented the antithesis of what "Washington Irving once said to my friend Charles As- TOR Bristed. Bristed was sjjeaking to him of some- body as a "promising young man." "Ah ! Charles," an- swered Irving, " most of us are promissory notes, only too liable to be protested at maturity !" Geant did not promise much in his youth, but his performances at ma- turity have excelled those of a generation of " promising young men." • I nsed very often to see the poet Fitz-Geeene Hal- LECK, but had not a personal acquaintance with him. He was stiff, angular, and clean-shaved; wore a high, standing shirt-collar, and in the finest weather carried a green cotton umbrella under his arm. Lie was for many years book-keeper to the late John Jacob Astoe. He 224 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. used to tell tliat gentleman that if lie only Lad an inde- pendent income of two hundred dollars a year he could live contented. Mr. Astok, by his will, left to his old book-keeper just what he had professed would satisfy him. But his son, William B. Astoe, increased the an- nuity to an amount which enabled the aged poet to live comfortably in his native Connecticut until his death. Edgar A. Poe I remember seeing on a single occa- sion. He announced a lecture to be delivered at the Society Library building on Broadway, under the title of the " Universe." It was a stormy night, and there w^ere not more than sixty persons present in the lecture-room. I have seen no portrait of Poe that does justice to his pale, delicate, intellectual face and magnificent eyes. His lecture w^as a rhapsody of the most intense brill- iancy. He appeared inspired, and his inspiration affect- ed the scant audience almost painfully. He wore his coat tightly buttoned across his slender chest ; his eyes seemed to glow like those of his own raven, and he kept us entranced for two hours and a half. The late Mr. Putnam, the publisher, told me that the next day the wayward, luckless poet presented himself to him with the manuscript of the "Universe." He told Putnam that in it he solved the whole problem of life ; that it would immortalize its publisher as well as its author ; and, what was of less consequence, that it would biing to him the fortune which he had so long and so vainly been seeking. Mr. Putnam, while an admirer of genius, was also a cool, calculating man of business. As such, he could not see the matter in exactly the same light as the poet did, and the only result of the interview was that he lent Poe a shilling to take him home to Fordham, FOE, WILLIS, AND J. Q. ADA3IS. 225 where he then resided. After poor Foe's death, the late RuFus W. Griswold, not altogether immaculate himself, treated his memory with undue severity. I had a cor- respondence ujjon the subject with his fellow-poet and old-time friend, N. P. Willis, who earnestly deprecated Geiswold's harshness, I knew Mr. Willis very well in- deed, and have passed many delightful hours at his house, while he resided in New York. He had commit- ted many errors in his life — as who has not ? But, un- like some, age purified him. I recollect meeting him one day in Broadway, when his salutation to me was, "I am sixty years old to-day !" I first became acquainted with him in New Haven, when I was a mere boy, and he was at the zenith of his fame. He graduated at Yale College in the year 1827. He was always an immense dandy, and there was a college tradition that while there he dressed in white broadcloth, which he had imported expressly for himself from England. Ex -President John Quincy Adams I saw for the only time during the winter which preceded his death. The venerable statesman came to New York, on his way to Washington, to take his seat in the House of Eepre- sentatives. On the evening of his arrival, the New York Historical Society, of which I was then one of the Secre- taries, held its monthly meeting, and 1 was sent with one other member to Mr. Adams's hotel to invite him to at- tend it. He consented to do so, and on our way up town he asked me about its prominent members. Among oth- ers, I spoke in strong terms of Mr. George Gibes, dwell- ing particularly upon the fact that he was a grandson of Olivee Wolcott. I entirely forgot the quarrel that had occurred, and tlie bitter enmity which had grown out of K 2 226 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. it, between John Adams and Mr. Wolcott. A descent from one whom liis father had so dishked could hardly be a recommendation to the son. The even more ven- erable Albert Gallatin was the President of the Society at that time, and the meeting between these two old public servants was interesting and affecting to those of younger generations who stood aronnd them. Mr. Chaeles Fkancis Adams, himself an elderly man now, looks wonderfully like his father, and his intellectual and moral similarity to him are equally remarkable. In- telligent, learned, stubborn, and brave, tenacious in all things and compromisers in none, they stand out as the most distinguished representatives of the most remarka- ble family which this country has yet produced. Some two years ago Mr. Chaeles Feancis Adams read a very able paper before the same Historical Society upon the American doctrine of neutralit}^ He took occasion to treat the memory of ex-Peesident Moneoe with great severity, especially denouncing him for his " Yiew of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the United States," commonly called the " Monroe Letter." Mr. Moneoe was appointed in 1794 by Peesident Wash- ington Minister to France, to succeed Gouveeneue Moe- Eis. His first act upon his arrival in Paris was to fra- ternize with the President of the National Assembly by publicly presenting him with a United States flag, and receiving in turn from him one of tlie French Republic. His subsequent conduct was such as to seriously interfere with the successful negotiation of a treaty in England by Mr. Jay. For this violation of the neutral policy of our Government, Geneeal Washington recalled him in Au- gust, 1796. Upon his arrival at Norfolk, on his return, THE ADAMSES AND TEE MUNROES. 227 lie received a public ovation. Stung by the unmerited disgrace, as lie considered it, which had been inflicted upon him, he very soon afterward wrote the paper re- ferred to, denouncing the President, and sent it to Phil- adelphia to be printed. Soon repenting his action, he wrote to the printer countermanding the order. Un- fortunately, one hundred copies had already got out ; and these he made every effort to buy up and suppress. A reconciliation took place between himself and Wasuing- TON, and they continued on friendly terms ever after- ward. These last -mentioned facts I learned from Colonel James Monroe, a nephew of the ex-President, in early life an officer upon General Scott's staff, and afterward a member of Congress from the city of New York. I mentioned them to Mr. Adams, who had never before heard of the attempt to suppress the "Monroe Letter" which was made by its author. It is supposed that there are very few copies of this letter in existence, and Mr. Adams informed me that he had two of them in his own library. Colonel Moneoe was a Virginia gen- tleman of the old school. He told me that he had been a " friend " in sixteen affairs of honor, and had in every in- stance arranged a satisfactory settlement without a fight. He was second to Mr. Cutting, of New York, in his quar- rel with Mr. Beeckeneidge, of Kentucky. This was a very difficult case to settle, but settled it was. He never went out but once himself, and then when very young. Although in the army, he served in some capacity in one of our frigates during the Algerine War. He quarreled upon some unimportant matter with a naval officer, and early one morning they took the field under the walls of a convent on the coast of Spain. After preliminaries 228 ME2I0RIES OF 3IANY 3IEN. were arranged, his adversary advanced to him and said, " Lieutenant Monkoe, I have been in the wrong ; I beg your pardon." " My dear fellow," answered Monkoe, " if you had not been quite so quick, I should have an- ticipated you, and said exactly what you have said." He always declined to mention the name of his antagonist. CHAPTER VL TN the year 1861, Peince Napoleon (Jerome), accom- -■- panied by his wife, the Princess Clotilde, daughter of Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, and a numerous suite, arrived in a steam yacht at the port of New York. Be- fore landing, he invited me to dine with him on board his yacht, and I accepted the invitation. I found the Prince veiy much as he was, in appearance at least, when I had last seen him in Paris. There was a good deal of conversation at dinner about the Lake Superior copper mines — a subject upon which the Prince was minutely informed, and about which I knew little or nothing. lie had numerous nuggets, or specimens, of this ore upon a table in his cabin, and to these he constantly referred for purposes of illustration. The dinner was not a very good one. I remember particularly that the bread was detestable. A day or two afterward he came ashore with his im- mediate party, and took possession of the rooms at the New York Hotel which had previously been secured for their occupation. The Princess was not pretty, but she was a kind, unassuming, devotional little lady, who won the hearts of all who had occasion to pass much time in her company. She had but one lady of honor with her, a sprightly little Duchess, the widow of the oldest son of one of the first Napoleon's marshals, and together they made their drawing-room on Washino-ton Place a de- 230 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. lio^htful resort for those who had the advantao;e of their acquaintance. The Chevalier Bertinatti, the Itahan Minister in Washington, was a constant attendant upon the daughter of his king. As the Prince's oldest acquaintance in this country, it devolved upon me to show him the sights of New York. Together we visited the Custom-House, the United States Treasury and Assay Office, the Astor Library, the Kew York Historical Society's collections, the Cooper Union, the Novelty Works, and numerous other places and in- stitutions. But what I most desired him to see was a first-class New York private dwelling. Accordingly, with the permission of the owner, I accompanied him to the palatial residence at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth Street, then belonging to and occupied by Mr. Benkaed, and now the house of the Manhattan Club. Nothing in New York interested the Prince so much. He was delighted w^itli it. He went from cellar to garret, carefully examining the furnace, the boiler, the cro ton -water arrangements, the speaking-tubes, and all those appurtenances of a model American dwelling which we are accustomed to designate "modern im- provements." This inspection occupied several hours, and when we left he expressed the opinion that in do- mestic architecture and appliances for comfort we were in advance of the rest of the world. "You know the state apartments in the Palais Imperial, and they are magnificent," he said ; " but did you ever see the rooms in which we have to live there ?" I told him that I had not. "Well," he resumed, "they are small, wretched holes, unprovided with any of the ingenious and labor- saving contrivances which I have just seen, and so un- PRINCE NAPOLEON IN NEW TORE. 231 comfortable that when I was first married I was ashamed to take my wife to them." Afterward I escorted the Prince and Princess to the picture-galleries of Mr. Belmont and Mr. Aspinwall, who, being themselves absent from town, kindly permit- ted them to be thrown open for the pnrpose. On the 19th of September, the Chevalier Bektinatti gave a magnificent dinner to the Prince at the residence of the Duke di Licignano, the Italian Consul-General at New York, in First Place, in Brooklyn. Sitting next to the Prince, all my talk with him on that occasion was npon the snbject of the war, and I told him about the enormous price which our Government was compelled to pay for arms, and with what difiiculty it procured them at all. I will here observe that his sympathies were thoroughly and warmly enlisted in favor of the Union, and against the supremacy of the slaveholding South. He professed great admiration for the American people. To what I told him about our condition in re- spect of arms, he at once replied that he could arrange the whole matter for us. lie said that they had an ex- cess beyond their requirements of altered muskets in tlie French arsenals, and that he could procure them for us at cost, which was about half the price that we were then paying. That, besides, the Swedish Government possessed a very large supply of muskets of the best quality, and that he had sufiicient influence to secure some of them also for us ; that from these two countries we could draw enough for our present needs ; that Switzerland was also well provided with arms, but that the Government of that country would not part with any of them. If I could be made the ao;ent in this trans- 232 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. action, he would guarantee the result. He told me that through him the Italians had received one hundred thou- sand stands of arms from the Imperial Government, and that they had not yet paid a single franc on account of the purchase. In conclusion, he advised me to immedi- ately communicate with the authorities at Washington. At this time I had no intimacy with any member of the Cabinet except Seceetaey Chase, and to him I ad- dressed a letter, giving an account of my conversation with the Prince. I received the following reply under date of October 3 : "My dear Sir, — Accept my thanks for your veiy interesting letter and for the valuable infomiation it contained. I fear nego- tiations in respect to arms through Mr. Schuyx,er are in such a condition that the Government will not be able to avail itself of your valuable services. Had I known some weeks since what I know now, important advantages might have been derived to the common cause. " I shall always be glad to hear from you. " Yours truly, S. P. Chase. " Maunsell B. Field, Esq." So the matter fell through, and the occasion never arose to revive it. The Prince carried out his purpose of going to Lake Superior, and also made a somewhat extensive tour through the "West, During his absence from New York, the Princess passed nearly all her time with the ladies of the Sacred Heart at their convent at Manhattan ville. After his return a magnificent dinner was given to him by the members of the Union Club, at their liouse at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first Street. Ex- GovERNOR John A. King, of New York, then President DINNER TO PRINCE NAPOLEON. 233 of the Club, received him, and ex-Yice-Chancelloe and Judge Anthony L. Robertson presided. The Prince found the dinner admirable, and was particularly pleased with the wines, which he pronounced equal to any that he had ever tasted at the Imperial table or elsewhere. The Prince's particular attention Avas attracted to Mr. Leonard Jerome, and he said that, meeting him in any part of the world, he should take him for a French cav- alry general. The following clipping from a newspaper of the next morning gives an accurate account of the affair : •' The dinner given to Prince Napoleon at the Union Club last evening was pronounced a capital success by the guests. "At the door-way of the Club-house stood the inevitable Brown, who acted as Master of Ceremonies. The interior of the building was profusely decorated with natural flowers, and Dodworth's Band discoursed music unseen behind a lattice -work erected in the hall, playing, among other things, ^ Partant 2wur la Si/rie,'' as the ai)propriate invitation music to the dinner. Judge A.L. Robertson, Secretary of the Club, occupied the chair. Mr. Maunsell B. Field, as an acquaintance of the Prince and Im- perial family abroad, very jaroperly held the place of a virtual Master of Ceremonies, having superintended all the preliminary arrangements of the banquet, and been aj^pointed to the delicate office of placing the guests. " In addition to the members of the Club, there were present at the dinner : His Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon (Jerome) ; Colonel Ragon, the celebrated Frenclx officer who led the attack upon the Malakoflf; Captain Bontils, of the French Navy, and formerly Governor of Gaudeloui^e ; Captain de Buisson, Comman- der of the Imperial yacht ; M.Maurice Sand, son of the celebrated George Sand ; M. Mercier, French Minister to Washington ; M. HocMELLE ; the Marquis de Montholon, French Consul-General at this jiort, accompanied by his Vice- Consul; Mr. Bertinatti, Italian Minister to the United States, and the Duke di Licignano, 234: 3IEM0RJES OF MANY MEN. Italian Consul -General at New York. Tlie Vicomte de Beau- mont, and Colonel Ferri Pisani, though invited, were unavoid- ably absent, the latter being replaced by Lieutenant Becque, of the yacht. " The restraint natural to Republicans who have to entertain representatives of a foreign nobility was removed as early as pos- sible after the ceremonious placing of the guests, and a general conversation soon i)revailed around the table. " After the removal of the cloth, the Chaii-man, Judge Robert- son, proposed the health of the French Emperor, which was re- plied to in a sjieech of great cordiality by the Prince. He ex- pressed himself with an unexijected freedom from restraint, and was received with frequent applause. In return, he proposed the ' Welfare of the United States,' which, as need not be said, the party drank with great enthusiasm. After other toasts, and a free interchange of kindly sentiments, the Prince was escorted to his hotel by his friend, Mr. Field. By an unfortunate delay, General Wool and his party came to the Club-house to pay their respects to the Prince and his entertainers just after his Highness had de- parted." At a dinner given to tlie Prince at the Revere House, in Boston, Dr. Oliver "Wendell Holmes read the fol- lowing spirited lines : "VIVE LA FRANCE! "The land of sunshine and of song! Her name your hearts divine ; To her the banquet's vows belong Whose breasts have poured its wine; Our trusty friend, our true ally Through varied change and chance : So fill your flashing goblets high — I give you VrvE la France ! "FZ"F^ LA FRANCE!'' 235 "Above our hosts in triiDle folds The self-same colors spi'ead, Where Valor's truthful arm upholds The blue, the white, the red ; Alike each nation's glittering crest Reflects tl;e morning's glance — Twin eagles, soaring east and west : Once more, then, Viye la France ! " Sister in trial ! who shall count Thy generous friendship's claim, Whose blood ran mingling in the fount That gave our laud its name, Till Yorktown saw in blended line Our conquering arms advance. And Victory's double garlands twine Our banners? Vive la France! " O land of heroes ! in our need One gift froni heaven we crave — To stanch those wounds that vainly bleed — The wise to lead the brave ! Call back one CaiDtain of thy past From glory's marble trance, Whose name shall be a bugle-blast To rouse us ! Vive la France ! "Pluck Conde's baton from the trench, Wake up stout Charles Martel, Or find some woman's hand to clench The sword of La Pucelle ! Give us one hour of old Turenne, One lift of Bayard's lance — Nay, call Marengo's chief again To lead us ! Vive la France ! "Ah, hush ! our welcome Guest shall hear But sounds of peace and joy ; No angry echo vex thine ear, Fair daughter of Savoy! 236 3IEM0BIES OF 3IANY MEN. Once more ! the land of arms and arts, Of glory, grace, romance ; Her love lies "warm in all our hearts ! God bless her ! Vive la France !" I made the following translation of the above lines into very indifferent Frencli verse, and read it at a din- ner given at the same Cliib-hoiise some time later to the Admiral commanding the French fleet on the North American station : VIVE LA FRANCE! Tcn-e de la chanson, du soleil bien aimSe, Qui nous verses le jus divin, Terre des doux nectars, vos cceurs vous Font nommee, A toi les vceux de ce festin ; A Tallig fidfele, ami de notre enfance, Qui i^artagea notre destin ! Debout ! et que, le verre plein, Chacun repute ce refrain : " Vive la France !" Les trois memes couleurs de triples plis abritent De nos soldats les loyaux rangs ; Sur les champs de I'honneur quand vaillament s'agitent Les gtendars rouges, bleus, blancs ; A I'aurore du jour le double aigle s'61ance Embrassant de ses yeux ardents L'emi^ire de deux continents ! 'Remj)lissons encore et buvons : " Vive la France !" O ! sceur qui partageas nos revers et nos peines ! Pourrons nous oublier le don Du sang de tes enfixnts repandu dans nos plaines Pour le salut de notre nom ? Jusqu'au jour ou gaicmcnt en double front s'avance La phalange de nos guerriers, Tressant ensemble les lauriers Pour les drapeaux d'Yorktown, chantons: "Vive la France!" ''VIVE LA FRANCE r 237 Terre cles clievaliers ! en ce jour de misSre, Dgcouvrant notre flauc sanglant, Nous demandons au ciel eu notre humble j)ri&re Un sage, guide du vaillant ! Des guerriers dont tes fils gardeut la souvenance Pour nous evoque les grands noms ; Mgl6s au bruit de nos claii-ons, Qu'ils dispersent nos ennemis : " Yive la France !" Le baton que Conde lan^a dans la tranchee, Ou le fer de Charles Martel, Ou bien de Jeaxne d'Aro la foudroyante 6j)ge, Pour nous attendent ton appel ! Prete nous de Bayard TincorruiDtible lance, Un jour de Turenne, ou plutot La grande ombre de Marengo ! Vainqueurs, nous les suivrons au cri : " Vive la France !" Mais chut ! qu'un chant de paix, que des accents de joie Charment I'hote que nous futons ; Qu'aucun accent guerrier, tille de la Savoie, Jusqu'a; toi ne porte ses sons ! A toi, terre des arts ! SL toi, douce espgrance De la valeur, de la beaute ! Par nous que ce cri repute Arrive au Seigneur tout-puissant : " Vive la France !" The evening before the Prince and Princess sailed on their return to France thej gave a charming enter- tainment to a party of ladies and gentlemen on board the yacht, in return for some of the courtesies extended to themselves. CHAPTEE yil. SOON after tlie Prince of Wales arrived in Amer- ica in the year 1860, certain citizens of New York held a meeting at the Merchants' Bank for the pnr- pose of inviting him to that city, and of tendering him some special civilities. A Committee was formed, and, after much consideration, it was decided to offer him a dinner. Many preferred a ball ; but some of the most eminent members of the Committee had scruples upon the subject. Mr. Petek Coopee was appointed Chairman, and I Secretary, of the Committee. We had an invitation to a dinner, at such time as the Prince should designate, appropriately engrossed ; and it was de- termined that a delegation from our number should pro- ceed to Montreal, and there present it to him in person. Among those who went upon this mission were ex- GovERNOE Hamilton Fish, ex-Goyeenoe John A. King, Mr. John Jacob Astoe, Mr. Robeet L. Kennedy, and my- self, as Secretary of the Committee. When we arrived at the railway station upon the St. Lawrence, opposite to Montreal, upon the 23d of August, we were met there by the American Consul-General in the British Provinces, who informed us that the Mayor of Montreal, Mr. Rodiee, was awaiting us upon the other side, in order to receive us officially. This was very annoying intelli- gence to us. There were ladies in our party, and they, as well as ourselves, were covered with dust and be- THE PEINCE OF WALES. 239 grimed by cinders. When we landed from the feri-y- boat wliich transported us across, sure enough there was the Mayor in full regalia, chain and all. We had set- tled it that Mr. Fisn must be the spokesman for us — very much to that gentleman's disgust. The Mayor made us a grandiloquent address in broken English, and Mr, Fish, his person ensconced in a linen duster, and with a traveling-bag in each hand, made a neat and even ele- gant reply. In the mean time the landing-place was covered by a miscellaneous crowd, principally composed of small boys, who shouted and cheered us. Then his Honor informed us that carriages were in waiting to conduct us to our hotel. They consisted of three or four of the ordinary Montreal street cabs, and we en- tered them, and were soon comfortably housed in Saint Lawrence Hall. I will here remark that a very extor- tionate bill for those cabs was sent to us in the course of a day or two, which we paid without demurrer. On the afternoon of Friday, the 24th, the Prince ar- rived in town, and we were officially invited to be pres- ent upon the occasion. Saturday was distinguished by the formal opening of the Victoria Bridge. We were also provided wntli tickets to witness that ceremony, and we made the journey in the Prince's private car by his invitation. He received us with the greatest courtesy, shaking hands with us according to American usage, and treating us in every respect with marked attention. That evening Loed Lyons and Geneeal Beuce, the Prince's " Go^■ernor," called upon us at our hotel. They made merely a brief visit, in Mdiich the special business which had brought us to Montreal was only referred to in very general terms. But the next day 240 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. they came again, and at that interview tlie conver- sation was very free. The Englishmen would have preferred any thing to a dinner. The Prince could not himself speak : he was to be in the States in- cognito, under the title of Lord Renfrew. Nor would it answer that any one should speak for him. Besides, at a large dinner it was to be apprehended that remarks might be made by some of the speakers which would become subjects for future regret. Tlie Prince was very young. He was fond of amusement. A dinner, if there were no other objections to it, might be too heavy an affair to entertain him. In a word, they were sorry that we had decided for a dinner, although none the less mindful of the kindly feeling which had prompted the purpose, etc., etc., etc. And with this they left us, and we Americans remained for consultation. They had given us a cue, and we decided, in behalf of our constituents, to take the responsibility of following it. We unanimously determined to substitute a ball in place of the dinner, and, having done so, notified General Beuce to that effect. lie was delighted, and was sure that the Prince would be charmed to accept. The next thing was to secure the services of a scriv- ener to re-engross the invitation which we had brought with us, so as to make it apply to a ball instead of a din- ner. One was very soon found, who executed his com- mission with great celerity. Thereupon we were asked to lunch with the Prince on Monday afternoon, at General Sir William Fenwick Williams's house in the suburbs, where his Royal High- ness was stopping. This was to be the occasion for pre- sentinc: our invitation. THE PRINCE OF WALES BALL. 241 Our party included several persons besides those I have named. One of lis had come in great haste, and had brought no dress coat with him ; but he found a friend in town wlio supplied the deficiency. At the luncheon, the Prince and all his suite w^ere in full uni- form. All the Americans Avere suitably attired, and con- formed to the usages of polite society, except one gentle- man who sat opposite the Prince, and who ate with his knife, and wore a white waistcoat upon which the but- tons were missing. lie had, how^ever, supplied their places with pins, and these pins were very provokingly visible. After dinner we retired to a reception-room, and there the invitation was read to the Prince by Mr. King, and accepted by him in a few hesitating words. We then )-eturned to New York, reported our action to those who had sent us, and received their approval. The work of preparation commenced, and terribly labori- ous and trying work it was. The scheme adopted %vas to have a Committee of four hundred gentlemen, to be duly elected by the smaller Committee already formed. Each member of the Committee was to pay seventy dollars, and to be entitled to seven tickets ; but he was required to submit a list of the jDersons for whom he intended them to an Executi^•e Committee, who passed upon their eligibility. Of these seven tickets, at least four must be for ladies ; but this was afterward reduced to three. Be- sides, every ticket had to be countersigned by a member of the sub-Committee on Tickets and Finance, and also by the member of the Committee at whose request it was issued. Seven sub-Committees were constituted — viz., one on Invitations, one on Tickets and Finance^ one on Reception, one on House and Music, one on L 242 ME3I0BIES OF 31 ANT MEN. Decorations, one on Police and Carriages, and one on S'U'2')2)er and Floor. From the reports wliicli we received from tliese sub- Committees, we were soon induced to believe that we should require more money than we had in hand. There was a supper-room 'to be built expressly for the occasion, and other expenses to be incurred which we had not at first thought of. Accordingly, we made an additional assessment of thirty dollars each upon the four hundred members of the General Committee, which was prompt- ly paid into the treasury. All K^ew York soon became wild upon the subject of this ball. Venerable citizens who had never attended a place of public amusement in their lives humiliated themselves in every possible way in order to have their names placed upon the Committee. Ladies begged for tickets almost upon bended knees. Such importunities were never addressed to a Prime Minister as were be- seechingly poured into the ears of those members of the Committee who had the misfortune to be prominent in the affair. The applications for complimentary invita- tions were also overwhelming. The Press, too, was very exacting. Before coming to Kew York, the Prince made a jour- ney to the West, to Virginia, to Washington, and to Phil- adelphia. At Washington he lodged in the Executive Mansion, and it is said that Pkesident Buchanan used to surreptitiously convey choice cigars into his room after his mentors had retired for the night. He left Phila- delphia with his suite early on the morning of Thursday, the 11th of October. Mr. Augustus Schell, then Col- lector of the Port of New York, invited a distinguished RECEPTION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 243 party to embark on board tlie United States revenue cutter Harriet Lane, Captain Faunce, at half-23ast eight o'clock that morning, to proceed to Perth Amboj to meet and accompany the Prince and his suite to the city. The train from Philadelphia arrived on time, and a little aft- er twelve his Royal Highness, followed by the Ddke of Newcastle, the Eael of St. Germans, and the other gen- tlemen who accompanied him, all in dusty garments, and wearing " shocking bad" white hats, stepped on board the cutter. It took some time to get their luggage on board, and then to the music of a royal salute the Harriet Lane started upon her return trip. The day was ^ery lovely, and with a single exception every thing passed off very agreeably. One old and rather prosy gentleman deemed it especially incumbent upon him to entertain the Prince. Por some time he monopolized his attention, and was ev- idently boring him to the very limit of his boyish pa- tience. Seeing this, some of us held counsel together, and decided that General Scott must head a relief party. The old soldier carried out our suggestion with perfect success, and during the remainder of the pas- sage the Prince was at liberty to converse with whom he pleased. After an elegant luncheon had been served, the Prince went upon the upper deck, and, with several of the juniors, smoked cigars of a very superior qual- ity which he produced from his pocket — probably some of Mr. Buchanan's. Afterward we went forward, and ex-Jcdge Roosevelt, then United States District Attor- ney, undertook to point out to the Prince the principal objects of interest in the harbor, and to explain the as- sociations connected with some of them. While so do- ing, he had occasion to refer to a date in English history. 244 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. The Prince courteously corrected him. Mr, Eoosevelt politely insisted that he was right. The Duke of New- castle happened to be standing near, but out of ear-shot. His Koyal Highness called him, and merely asked him what was the date in dispute. The Duke unhesitatingly confirmed the Prince's recollection of it. We reached the pier at twenty minutes past two. On entering Castle Garden the Prince was received by the Mayor, Fernando Wood, and a delegation of both Boards of the Common Conncil. He immediately re- tired to the room of the Commissioners of Emigration, and exchanged his citizen's dress for the uniform of a Colonel in the British Army. He then mounted a horse expressly brought for bis use from the Provinces, and reviewed upon the Battery the First Division of New York State Militia, under the command of Majoe-Gen- eeal Sanford. Afterward he entered an open carriage drawn by six horses, accompanied by the Mayor, the Duke of Newcastle, and the Earl of St. Germans, and drove to the City Hall, wdiere he received the honor of a marching review. When he re-entered his car- riage the day was already so far advanced that it was dark before he reached his quarters at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. All along the route he was vociferously cheered by the unprecedented multitude of people that filled Broad\yay; but the disappointment occasioned by the delay in carrying out the military programme, and the consequent inability of patient sight-seers to scan the Prince's features at so late an hour, called out many im- precations upon the devoted head of the commanding General. It had been desired and intended that the Prince THE PRINCE OB' WALES IN NEW YORK. 245 should ride np Broadway on horseback. He himself preferred to do so, and the horse which he mounted on the Battery had been expressly brought on for the pur- pose. But some in authority thought tliat the street was too slippery, and therefore dangerous. Besides, there M'as a vague apprehension on the part of the English gentlemen that some of her Majesty's expatriated sub- jects, who constitute so large a proportion of the popu- lation of the metropolitan city, might attempt to harm and insult him, if too much exposed. There was not much foundation for their fears. Only once while in New York did he receive any discourtesy, and that w^as at the hands of an insane English mechanic, who was promptly arrested. The question of how he should dress w^as also one that was much discussed. As he traveled through the States as Lord Benfreiu, his own suite, as well as Loed Lyons, did not think that it comported with his incognito to ap- pear otherwise than in ordinary citizen's costume. Our people thought differently. They desired to receive him as the Prince of Wales, the son of Queen Yictoeia. The matter was finally compromised by the arrange- ment that he should wear his military uniform at the review, and the ribbon of the Order of the Garter at the ball. While the Prince remained in New York he was kept pretty constantly on tlie move. Mayoe Wood gave a cliarming breakfast in his honor, at his residence, Wood Lawn, Bloomingdale. He called upon Geneeal Scott at his house on Twelfth Street. He lunched with the British Consul in New York, Mr. Aechibald, He had sev- eral photographs taken by Beady and Gueney. He visited 246 3IEM0EIES OF MANY MEN. the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Mount Washington, the University of the City of New York, the New York Free Academy (as then designated), the Cooper Institute, the Astor Library, etc. There was also a superb torchlight procession of the New York Fire Department in his hon- or. At that time the Department boasted of only one steamer, all the otliers being the old-fashioned engines worked by hand. Now there are none but steamers. The ball took place on the evening of Friday, the 12th of October. A deputation of the reception Committee, of which I was one, went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at about nine o'clock, to escort the Prince and liis immediate suite to the Academy of Music. All his party soon made their appearance in the drawing-room, but the Prince himself kept us waiting a long time. Finally he too came in, and, after shaking hands with us, retired to the entrance-door, and was for some time hopelessly engaged in an effort to force his not very small hands into a pair of gloves altogether too tight for them. After a mo- ment I stej^ped up to him, and he said to me in an un- dertone, " These gloves were sent to me by a lady in this house, with the request that I should wear them to-night ; I don't know who she is. They are much too small for me ; but I intend to work my hands into them, if I can." He finally succeeded. He added, " I am a little late to-night, because I have been writing home to my mother." Although much older than himself, I was so much younger than the sexagenarians who chiefly had possession of him that he seemed to take xcyj kindly to me. I have no intention to particularly describe the ball. It was magnificent ; but, in spite of all the efforts of tlie THE PRINCE OF WALES BALL. 247 Committee, tliere were too many elderly persons. Thir- ty-three exceptional tickets had been issued to young " dancing-men." The contretemps of the falling in of a portion of the floor was most unfortunate. The Com- mittee had made very particular inquiries about its solid- ity, and had been assured that it was perfectly safe. The accident partly arose from the weight of an immense throng of people who collected around the Prince and concentrated upon one spot. The crowd was suffocating. The Committee had been misled as to the capacity of the house, and people deserted the upper boxes and swelled the tide below. At one time it was feared that some must have gained admission by presenting spurious tickets ; but, upon a count, it was found that there were only three tliousand and twenty-five tickets in the boxes, while three thousand one hundred and ninety-five paid and complimentary ones had been legitimately issued. Of those entitled to come, one hundred and seventy had stayed away. The Committee had a great deal of trouble about the matter of partners for the Prince. Every woman in New York was dying to dance with him ; and husbands, fathers, and brothers urgently pressed the claims of their fair relatives. Finally, the Committee referred the whole matter to Mr. William Butlek Duncan, loitli jpoioer. This gentleman, as brave as he is courteous, undertook the obnoxious task of making selections, and performed it as judiciously and satisfactorily as it was possible to do. Still, of course, there were grumblers. Female am- bition upon such a subject was insatiable. The next Sunday the Prince attended divine service in Trinity Church. There were four bishops and thirty- 248 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. five clergymen present. A full choral service was per- formed by nine men and fourteen boys. He was pre- sented with a very handsome Bible, and almost equally liandsome Prayer-book. The former was a royal octavo volume, bound in red morocco, with a large gold clasp, upon which was engraved a Prince of Wales plume, with the motto "Tt'A Dien^ On the cover was the following inscription in gold letters : " To his Royal Higliness, Albert Edward, Prince of "Wales, from the Corporation of Trinity Church, New York, in memory of the munificence of the Crown of England. Nineteenth Sunday aft- er Trinity, A.D. 1860." The Prayer-book was bound in brown Eussia leather, and had two silver clasps. On the inside was engraved the Garter, surmounted by a crown, with the motto, '''■Iloni soil qui mat y ^ense^^ and the royal standard of England in the centre. On the opposite page was in- scribed : " To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, from Frakcis Vin- ton, D.D., and Frederick Ogilby, D.D., the clergymen in charge of Trinity Church, Ncw York, as a memorial of the Nineteenth Sun- day after Trinity." The Eev. Dr.YmxoN preached from the following text: " Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the Mngdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault ; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. ^ " Then said these men. We shall not fiind any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God" (Dan. vi., 4, 5). The Prince and his party took their departure from AN ECONOJSLICAL COMMITTEE. 249 Xew York on the next, Monday, morning at ten o'clock. I called upon Mm at his hotel to take leave of him. He was very kind and cordial, and when informed that his carriage was waiting, he walked with me from his drawing-room to it, holding my hand boy-fashion all the way. He was at that time as amiable and good-natm'ed a youth as I ever met. When the ball Committee came to finally settle its ac- counts, the following was the result : Total amount received . . . $41,006 65 " " expended . . . 28,746 65 Balance on hand $13,260 00 Or $30 G5 for each of the four hundred subscribers, which was returned to them by checks of the Treasurer, Mr. EoYAL Phelps. I believe that there is no other instance on record of a Committee charged with the expenditure of money which did not spend the whole of it. In almost every other similar case that I have ever heard of there has been a deficiency. If for no other reason than the foregoing, the Prince of Wales ball in New York is entitled to be distinguished from every other public festival of wliich our metropolitan annals contain any mention. L 2 CHAPTER YIII. rpOWAED the close of the year 1860, after the elec- -*- tion of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, but before the Legislatures of any of the states had passed ordi- nances of secession, it became necessary for the United States Government to negotiate a loan of ten millions of dollars. As the national credit up to this time continued unimpaired, the rate of interest was fixed at five per cent. But financiers were already beginning to be somewhat distrustful about the future of the country, and it was only through the unremitting exertions of the Hon. John J. Cisco, the Assistant Treasurer at ISTew York, that the whole amount was finally subscribed. In accordance with the terms of the loan, one per cent, of the amount taken by each subscriber was deposited by him at the time of making the subscription. A day or two after the transaction was thus far completed, the Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury, arrived in New York. When he came to the Treasury, Mr. Cisco warmly congratulated him upon the success of the loan. His reply was, " Cisco, the people who have taken it are a pack of d — d fools. It will never be paid. The country is going to be broken to pieces. Georgia is going out of the Union ; and when she goes, I shall go with her." " Why, Mr. Secretary," rejoined Mr. Cisco, "lam amazed to find you a secessionist." Tlie bonds were to be ]-»aid for by installments. Before AN EMPTY TREASURY. 251 the time for the final payment arriNed, several of the states had attempted to withdraw from the Union. Of the ten millions subscribed, only about seven millions in all was paid. Several prominent banking-houses in ISTew York and Washington refused to fulfill their obhgations, and allowed their deposits of one per cent, to be forfeited. Mr. Cobb withdrew from the Cabinet, as he had threat- ened to do, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas, of Mary- land. In the mean time, nearly all the money in the Treasury had been nsed for ordinary disbursements. There was a large amount of interest upon the public debt due upon the first of Januarj^, lS61,and the means were unprovided to meet it. The Secretary wished Mr. Cisco to use for this purpose the moneys placed to the credit of the disbursing oflicers of the Government, but he peremptorily declined to do so. Mr. Thomas was un- able to command the confidence of the people of the North. At this juncture, a correspondence ensued be- tween himself and Mr. Cisco, and he finally, with the ap- probation of the President, whom he consulted upon the subject, authorized that officer to obtain a Treasury -note loan, at the unprecedented rate of twelve per cent, per annum, in order to save the Government from going to protest upon its interest. But even this was not an easy thing to do in the state of feeling which prevailed among capitalists. As a last resort, on the evening of the thirty-first of December, Mr. Cisco, accompanied by Mr. Yail, Cashier of the Bank of Commerce, drove to the residences of the largest holders of the public debt in New York and Brooklyn. They represented to those gentlemen the fearful depreciation in the value of their property which must inevitably oc- 252 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. cur if the interest due on the morrow should not be promptly paid. The result was that they returned home at a very late hour, having contracted for a sufficient amount of notes to save the Government from the im- pending catastrophe. Although Mr. Cisco was then and afterward satisfied that Seceetaky Thoivias was a loyal man, so far as his purposes were concerned, still it is naturally presumable that in feeling he sympathized with the section of coun- try to which he belonged. At all events, it was appar- ent that without another change in the Treasury Depart- ment there would be no more money forthcoming to the national coffers from New York. At this juncture Mr. Cisco w^rote to Peesident Buchanan, recommending the appointment of General John A. Dix as Secretary of the Treasury. A few days later a delegation of Bank Presidents and others proceeded to Washington for the purpose of urging the change. Shortly afterward the President telegraphed to General Dix that he desired him to come to Washington. The General complied with the request, and, upon his arrival at the capital, Mr. Bu- chanan insisted that he should be his guest at the Execu- tive Mansion. They talked together that evening, and again the next morning at breakfast. The result was the immediate appointment of General Dix as Secretary of the Treasury. The advent as Financial Minister of this most respected, and most worthy to be respected, of all American statesmen, restored to the moneyed people of the ISTorth all that confidence in the Government which was possible in the unsettled condition of public affairs which then existed. Mr. Dix continued a Cabinet officer only until the sue- A LOYAL DE2I0CEAT. 253 ceediiig fourth of March, when Mr. Lincoln coming in as President, Mr. S. P. Chase, of Ohio, became his Secre- tary of the Treasury. As soon as the new Administration was organized, Mr. Cisco sent to Mr. Chase his resignation as Fiscal Agent of the Government in Xew York, witli the request that he would immediately present it to the President, and secure the appointment of his successor at an early day. Some time passed and he heard nothing in reply. Hav- ing opposed Mr. Lincoln's election, he was surprised at this delay. Besides, the condition of his health was such that he was anxious to be promptly relieved from the responsibilities of his office, which had been great in the past, and promised to become overwhelming in the future. In the mean time no less than three gentlemen, emi- nent in the Republican party, and friends of Mr. Chase, called upon Mr. Cisco at different times, for the purpose of obtaining detailed information upon the subject of the finances. They all admitted that they came in behalf of the Secretary. Mr. Cisco resented this action as a slight to himself, and informed them that, if the Secretary desired the information in question, the proper course would be for him to ask it directly from his own Fiscal Agent. Then came a letter of apology from Mr. Chase, whose only excuse was his want of personal acquaintance with him. At the same time he assured him that he had satis- fied himself as to his thorough loyalty, his fidelity, and his eminent ability. A short time afterward he again wrote to him, request- ing him to remain in the Treasury, mentioning that sucli 254 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. was also the desire of the President. This was followed by a letter from Mr. Lincoln himself to the same effect. Under these circumstances, Mr. Cisco thought it his duty to yield to their w^ishes, and withdrew his resignation. Shortly after it was settled that he should continue in office, I accepted an invitation from Mr. Cisco to come to him in a confidential capacity. As soon as Congress met they passed an Act authorizing the appointment of a Deputy Assistant Treasurer of the United States at N^ew York, and the position was immediately tendered to me and accepted. I continued to hold it until I went to Washington in the year 1863, as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Tiie number of clerks employed in the New York Treasury office when I first entered it did not exceed twenty-five or thirty. The enormous volume of business which presently devolved upon it, as the medium through wliich the public loans were negotiated and collected, soon required the employment of a clerical force exceed- ing one hundred in number. The new Administration liad not been a very long time in office, when Mr. Chase sent for Mr. Cisco, whom he had never met, to come to Washington. By his invi- tation he went as a guest to the Secretary's house, at the corner of E and Sixth Streets. In their first interview, which took place in the evening, Mr. Chase told him that he desired his presence in order to consult with him in regard to a financial policy for the country. Upon this occasion they had a very protracted conversation, in wliich each was evidently endeavoring to take the meas- ure of the other. " We are going to have a long, bloody, and costly war," said Mr. Cisco; "the only possible poli(7 THE SINEWS OF WAR. 255 is that of long bonds and strong taxation," " How, sir V replied the Secretary ; " are you not aware that we shall soon have seventy-five thousand men in the field ?" At this time some people high in place were talking about a sixty-days' war, and Mr. Chase evidently shared this most mistaken impression. "As to strong taxation," he continued, "the people of this countiy will not bear it, and there is no need for it." Nevertheless, Mr. Cisco ad- hered to his expressed opinion, and assigned his reasons for it. Mr. Chase eyed him curiously, as if he was medi- tating whether he, after all, could be a secessionist in disguise. The next morning they had another long talk before breakfast. Mr. Chase told Mr. Cisco that he had been very much impressed by his views, that he had been all night thinking over what he had said, but that he could not " go in " for strong taxation, " Without it," rej^lied Mr. Cisco, " we shall inevitably drift into a suspension of specie payments." " JSTever," rejoined Mr. Chase, " so long as I am Secretary of the Treasury !" Mr, Cisco also believed that taxation would hasten the termination of the war. In conclusion, he told Mr. Chase that what- ever policy he should decide upon, he might rely upon his earnest co-operation to aid him in carrying it out. Thus commenced, from the very beginning, that series of successful expedients, that hand-to-mouth policy, which carried us along so far without a financial disaster. Shortly after this, and when some grand negotiation had become necessary, Mr. Chase visited ISTew York, and met the leading bank-oflicers and capitalists of that city, and of Boston and Philadelphia, at Mr. Cisco's house, on the nineteenth of August, 18G1. There was much desul- 256 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK tory discussion at the beginiiig ; and tlien Mr. Chase, after being pushed to the wall to say what he wanted, proposed a loan of fifty millions of dollars in Seven-thirty Treasury notes, with the privilege of converting them into Twenty- year bonds, with the option to the subscribers to take fifty millions more, and again the further sum of fifty millions — one hundred and fifty millions in all. Many regarded it as a most plausible suggestion, and a meeting of the oflicers of the Clearing-IIouse banks was called for the next day at the American Exchange Banking-house. At this meeting both Mr. Chase and Mr. Cisco were present. A protracted discussion took place, and there was some earnest opposition to the proposition. Mr. Stevens, of the Bank of Commerce, and Mr. Tayloe, of the City Bank, favored it, but Mr. Gallatin, of the National Bank, vehemently opposed it. Mr. Knapp, of the Me- chanics' Bank, said that, if the obligations of the Govern- ment should become worthless, the property of the banks would become so too. Finally, after the meeting had lasted several hours, a resolution was adopted to accept substantially the terms proposed by the Secretar3\ After the adjournment of the meeting, Mr. Chase said to Mr. Cisco, "Well, we have fifty millions, but how about the next fifty ?" " The banks will take them," answered Mr. Cisco ; " do you not see that they have stepped into the same boat with you ?" " And will they also take the last fifty ?" asked the Secretar3^ " They will lend you another fifty millions ; but then will come the suspension of specie payments," answered his subordi- nate. " Xever, while I am Secretary of the Treasury !" was the confident reply. The banks, after disposing of the first fifty millions THE GOVERNMENT IN DIFFICULTIES. 257 of Treasury notes, availed themselves of their privilege to take another like amount of them. They afterward refused to advance any more money against these notes, but agreed to take fifty millions in six per cent, bonds, redeemable after twenty years, at a rate that equalized them to similar seven per cent, bonds. On Saturday, December the thirtieth, 1861, the banks decided to suspend specie payments on Monday, January the first, 1862. They, earned their resolution into effect, and the Governmen)^ simultaneously adopted the same course in respect to its ordinary disbursements. The Government was again in straits to pay its inter- est' on the public debt. There were demand notes out to the amount of sixty millions of dollars ; and as these were receivable at the Custom-IIouse the same as gold, and did not command so high a premium, duties on im- ports were almost exclusively paid in them, and little or wo specie was received. About the same time, too, the principal of the " Texas Indemnity Bonds" fell due, and although the amount of them was small — say two or three millions — the embarrassment was by so much increased. "Pay both principal and interest in paper!" said the Secretary. It is easy to see what the effect of such a course w^ould have been. It was of vital importance to continue to pay in coin both the interest and the prin- cipal of the public debt as they matured. At this time the banks had large stores of gold in their vaults for which they had no use. Mr. Cisco proposed to borrow it from them. Mr. Chasc did not believe that they would lend it at all, or, if at all, only upon extortion- ate terms. Mr. Cisco succeeded in borrowing all that was wanted at the rate oifour j)er cent, jper annum, on 258 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. notes payable on ten days' notice after thirty days. Mr. Chase only consented to this arrangement on the Satur- day preceding the Monday on which the bonds and the interest fell due. I remember that the Park Bank lent us a million. A few days afterward, and after the money had been used, the President of that institution became frightened, and, coming to the Treasury, asked to have his coin returned. Mr. Cisco told him to imme- diately send down his carts to receive it. This rather staggered him, for he had expected a flat refusal, and he then made up his mind to let the matter stand over till the morrow, w^hen he could consult his directors. The next day he returned and said, " I shall leave it for the present." But he was told that he must choose between adhering to the terms of his agreement and removing his specie at once. He decided to do the former. An enormous amount in paper on deposit as a tempo- rary loan upon the foregoing conditions was afterward procured. The money accumulated as in a savings bank. This gave the Government the use of a hundred millions of dollars. At one time the banks came very near failing on pa- per. The Treasury was then full of money. We gave them what they needed, and took their certified checks in return. Nearly ninety per cent, of all the early loans negoti- ated were taken in ]N"ew York. The Seven-thirty notes became very popular. The Treasury acted as the agent of the banks in disposing of tliem to the public. There were also private agents appointed for the same purpose. All classes of society, and persons of both sexes, came to subscribe for them. I remember that a hackney coach- ANY THING FOB MONEY. 259 man left liis carriage at the door, and came rushing in to ns with a hundred dollars in his hand for a note of that denomination. A clergyman wrote from a West- ern city that he desired to do every thing within his power to support the Government, but that he had no money. He had, however, a very good horse, and he re- quested to be informed whether we could not give him a hundred-dollar Seven-thirty Treasury note for it. As soon as specie payments were suspended, small sil- ver change disappeared from circulation with marvelous rapidity. Postage - stamps came into use in its place. They were a most inconvenient and disgusting substitute for the metal which the public had been accustomed to, and as soon as possible they were replaced by what lias ever since been known as "Fractional Currencj'." For a long time this currency could not be produced with suf- ficient rapidity to meet the popular demand. The im- portunities of the people for it were like petitions for charity. During all the time that I was in the Kew York branch of the Treasury, in addition to the official correspond- ence, one or more letters, some semi-official and some al- together confidential, passed daily between the Secretaiy and the Assistant Treasurer. If those letters could be published, they would furnish the most interesting page in the financial history of the war. They contain a free discussion of every expedient presented, and the record of every purpose formed. 1 am proud to say that never upon a single occasion did a Government financial secret pass the four walls of the Treasury building until com- municated to the entire community. That institution was the despair of the speculators. ISTo pump applied there ever drew water. 2g0 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEK The Government building on Wall Street hitherto em- ployed as the Treasury soon ceased to furnish the nec- essary accommodations and security for the ever expand- ino- business of the office. An arrano-emeut was finallv effected, involving some complicated negotiations, where- by the Treasury was transferred to the Custom-IIouse, at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, and the Cus- tom-IIouse removed to the Merchants' Exchange build- ing, where it still is. Mr. Barney, tlie Collector, was very unwilling to be disturbed. The Government hired the Exchange building for three years, at an annual rent of sixty or sixty-five thousand dollars, ^\\i\\ the privilege of buying it for a million of dollars at any time during the term. When the time was about to expire, Mr. Fes- SENDEN was Secretary of the Treasury, and it was with some difficulty that he was induced to recommend the purchase to Congress. lie did so, however ; the neces- sary Act was passed, and the matter consummated. I presume that the ground alone is now worth three mill- ions of dollars. During the riots of July, 1863, very grave apprehen- sions were entertained lest an organized attempt should be made to sack the Treasury. Accordingly cs'ery thing was prepared to resist an attack. Arms were distributed to all tlie employes, and hand-grenades and carboys of vitriol were placed at every window. There was a mili- tary guard of raw troops about the building nearly all the time, but we apprehended more danger from it than from the rioters. We kept a loaded mitrailleuse facing the Pine Street entrance, and we had two field-j^ieces worked by gunners from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A battery of artillery was kept upon Nassau Street, and THE GREAT DRAFT RIOT. 261 there was a gun-boaf lying at the foot of Wall Street with shotted guns commanding the street. All through the nights there were mounted pickets stationed at the doors, principally for communication with the Custom- Ilouse; and we had relays of confidential agents all over the city, watching the movements of the rioters. When one evening they surged down Greenwich Street, destroying every thing that came in their way, we thought that they were making for us. Had they come, they would have met with a warm reception. The chances are very great that they would never have suc- ceeded in penetrating into the building, and, if they had done so, it is certain that they would have failed to get access to the treasure, then very large in amount, con- tained in the vaults. But they deemed it prudent, after learning the preparation made to receive them, to keep away ; and we came off free of cost, except the expense of provisioning so large a number of men as we had there all the time. In those trying times the civil servants of the Govern- ment suffered as well as the military, and the desk had its martyrs as well as the field. Incessant labors from early morning till late at night, and sometimes all night, with overwhelming responsibility and anxiety, were hard- ly less fatal than the enemy's guns. In the summer of the year 1863, the Hon. George Haeeington, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, broke down completely in health, and by the advice of his physicians determined to seek repose and relaxation by withdrawing for a time from public affairs and vis- iting Europe. In this emergency, Secretaey Chase in- vited me to Washington. CHAPTER IX. IENTEEED upon my new duties as Assistant Secre- tary of the Treasury upon the first day of October, 1863, and continued in the discharge of them, under Sec- retaries Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch, until the first of July, 1865, when, with impaired strength and energy, I was transferred by Pkesident Johnson, at my own re- quest, to a Federal ofiice in the city of New York. On the morning of the Sunday succeeding that of my arrival at "Washington, I, in company with Mr. Chase, attended service at the St. John's Episcopal Church. Mr. Sewakd occupied the pew directly in front of us. On our walk homeward, Mr. Chase spoke to me in ex- tremely kind terms of the Secretary of State, saying that, since they had been associated together as mem- bers of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, he had learned to esteem and respect him much more than he had done in former years in the Senate. I soon after had an occasion to repeat these remarks to Mr. Sewaed, to whom the re- cital seemed to afford much gratification. He referred, in turn, to Mr. Chase's handsome conduct in resigning his seat in the Cabinet immediately after he had him- self temporarily withdrawn from it under pressure from the Senate, and the embarrassment from which this con- siderate action of his colleague had relieved both the President and himself. From that time forward my personal relations with Mr. Sewaed became quite inti- ME. SEWARD. 263 mate. I used frequently to meet him socially at tlie ta- bles of the foreign Ministers, and I often visited him at his own house. The latter was particularly the case during the months of July and August in the year 1864. The intense heat had depleted "Washington, driving from the city every body except those officials Avho found it impossible to get away. The great Bedouin camp had struck its tents for a season. One's evening visiting list thus became very much circumscribed, and Secee- TARY Seward's house w^as one of the few where one could call with any probability of finding the master at home. At this time I often passed uninterrupted hours in his company. I frequently found him swinging in a hammock, which was slung upon the back porch, and smoking the inevitable cigar of portentous size and strength. As a smoker, Mr. Seward was in no way be- hind General Grant. Sometimes, however, our inter- views took place in the front parlor. The conversation was always of the most unreserved and familiar charac- ter. Upon one occasion, I remarked to the Secretary that I supposed he had kept a diary, or at least memo- randa, of every thing that had occurred at Cabinet meet- ings since the incoming of the Administration. He told me, in reply, that during several months in the begin- ning he had very faithfully done so ; but that vei-y soon the personal relations between some of his colleagues be- came so inharmonious, and so much unworthy bickering, and even quarreling, was indulged in upon these occa- sions, that he discontinued making a record, and de- stroyed the notes which he had already taken. He said that a truthful statement of these occurrences, if ever published, would bring disgrace upon the country, 264 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK and that they had better be buried in oblivion. Mr. Seward expressed the very higliest opinion of Mr. Lin- coln as a politician. Indeed, I think it must be con- ceded by all who liad intimate opportunities to study that remarkable man, that Mr. Lincoln was the most con- summate politician that this country has yet produced, except perhaps his great rival, Stephen A. Douglas. He was in politics what the Lo7idon Times is in journalism — never leading public opinion, but always following its wave so closely that, when it breaks, it is found swim- ming upon the crest. To the unobservant he appeared to lead, whereas he only followed. He had an unerring and rapid perception of the popular will, and the policy which he from time to time adopted was but the crys- tallization of that will. Mr. Seward told me the story of the Emancipation Proclamation, and, as he related it, it was strikingly il- lustrative of this characteristic of Mr. Lincoln. Months before it was issued, it was the subject of constant dis- cussion at the meetings of the Cabinet. Day after day the most earnest and acrimonious debates took place in relation to the propriety or impropriety of the Pj-esident issuing such a proclamation. Although an attentive list- ener to these discussions of his Secretaries, Mr. Lincoln did not take an acti^^e part in them. So much was this the case that several, at least, of his advisers were very un- certain as to what his ultimate determination upon the subject would be. So bitter did the controversy grow, that it resulted, after a time, not only in a breach of personal, and to some extent even official relations be- tween certain of the Cabinet officers, but eventually even in a prolonged discontinuance of Cabinet meet- THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 265 ings. During the interregnum matters which had been usually discussed and disposed of at such meetings had to be settled by inter-departmental correspondence. One of the other Secretaries, with the obvions purpose of mi- noying — I nse a mild word — Mr. Chase, addressed sever- al very important official communications directly to me, ignoring the head of the Department. This condition of tilings lasted until one day Mr. Sewakd received an autographic letter from the President requesting him to attend, without fail, a meeting of the Cabinet which he proposed to hold on the morrow. All the other Secre- taries received similar letters, and not one of them knew or entertained any confident conjecture about the par- ticular purpose for which they were called together. At the appointed time Mr. Lincoln waited until they were all assembled, having been unusually reticent to the first comers. lie then addressed them somewhat as follows : " Gentlemen, I have asked you to come here that I may have the opportunity of reading to you a proclamation which I am about to issue. Before proceeding to read it, however, I desire to say that not only do I not in- vite any discussion about the propriety or impropriety of its issue, but that I am ^nnoilling to listen to any. My mind is made up. On the contrary, as to matters of form, I wish you all to make any suggestions that may occur to you." He then drew from his pocket a manuscript, and to the amazement of some, if not of all, there assembled, proceeded to read the Emancijjation Proclamation. When he had finished, for a while no- body spoke. Mr. Sewakd was the first to break the silence, and to recommend a verbal alteration. Mr. Lest- coLN adopted it without a word of objection. Other M 2GG MEMORIEH OF 31 ANT 3IEN. gentlemen suggested further changes. Mr. Lincoln ac- cepted them all without discussion. When nobody had any more suggestions to make, the meeting broke up, and the Ministers soon dispersed. The next day the emancipation from slavery of four millions of human beings in the United States was published to the world. Mr. Lincoln had waited until the people were ripe for it ; and what he had at first looked upon as inopportune, he had at last regarded as expedient and necessary. Mr. Sewakd's version of how Mr. Stanton came into the Cabinet afforded another illustration in point. For a long time the maladministration and non-administra- tion of the War Department had been a matter of the most serious concern to Mr. Sewaed and several of his col- leagues. At one time, with the hope of relief, some of the duties of that Department were transferred to the State Department, and later others were turned over to the Treasury Department. But, notwithstanding this, the conduct of the War Department was constantly be- coming worse and worse. The most serious apprehen- sions were entertained by those members of the Cabinet who conversed together upon the subject; but none of them ventured to call Mr. Lincoln's attention to so deli- cate a matter. They were, nevertheless, both surprised and distressed at his apparent blindness or indifference to so obvious and momentous an evil. "While things were in this condition," said Mr. Sewaed, " there was a ring at my door-bell one evening, and, as soon as the serv- ant had answered it, the President walked into the room. He sat down by me on this sofa upon wdiich we are now sitting, and abruptly commenced talking about the con- dition of the War Department. He soon made it ap])ar- MR. STANTON. 2G7 ent that he had all along observed and known as much about it as any of us, if not more, and that he liad been np to that time restrained from taking decisive action, both because he hoped for an amendment in its administration, and because he had a natural reluctance to sever intimate official relations with a gentleman who had been one of his competitors for the Presidential nomination. However, his mind was now settled, and he had come to consult me about a successor to Mr. Cam- EKON." Mr. Stanton's name was introduced. I can not now recollect whether Mr. Sewakd said that it was first mentioned by Mr. Lincoln or by himself. At all e\ents, it was very favorably considered by both, and, after some later negotiations, the War portfolio was tendered to and accepted by that gentleman. Mr. Sewakd told nie that he believed that at the time of the conversation just referi'ed to Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton had never met, except upon the occasion, years before, when they were together employed in a lawsuit in Cincinnati, and when Mr. Stanton so unmercifully snubbed his as- sociate that the latter withdrew in disgust from the case. I take the following extract from one of the little diaries in which Mr. Chase was accustomed to jot down daily occurrences and transcribe some of his most secret thoughts. He wrote with a pencil, and, as he was in the habit of carrying these books loose in his pocket, much of the writing is wholly or partly obliterated. I have, however, been able to make out the following, but not without a great deal of difficulty : " 1862, January 12th. — At church in the morning. Good, plain sermon. Wished much to join in commimion, but felt myself too 2GS MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. subject to temptation to sin. After cliurcli went to see CiUiERON by appointment ; but being obliged to meet the President, etc., at one, could only excuse myself. At President's found Generals McDowell, Franklin, and Meigs, and Sewakd and Blair. Meigs decided against dividing forces, and in flivor of battle in front. President said McClellan's health was much improved, and thought it best to adjourn till to-morrow, and have all then present attend with McC. at three. Home, and talk and read- ing. Dinner. Cameron came in. Advised loan in Holland, and recommended Brooks, Lewis, and another whom I have forgotten. Then turned to Department matters, and we talked of his going to Russia and Stanton as successor, and he j^roposed I should again see the President. I first proposed seeing Seward, to which he assented. He declared himself determined to maintain himself at the head of his Department if he remained, and to resist here- after all interference. I told him I would in that event stand by him faithfully. He and I drove to WillarcVs, where I left him, and went myself to Seward's. I told him at once what was in my mind — that I thought the President and Cameron were both willing that C. should go to Russia. He seemed to receive the matter as new, ezcejit so far as suggested by me last night. Wanted to know who would succeed Cajieron. I said Holt and Stanton had been named ; that I feared Holt might embarrass us on the slavery question, and might not prove quite equal to the emergency ; that Stanton was a good lawyer and full of energy ; but I could not, of course, judge him as an executive officer as well as he (S.) could, for he knew him when he was in Buchanan's Cab- inet. Seward replied that he saw much of him then ; that he was of great force — full of expedients, and thoroughly loyal. Finally he agreed to the whole thing, and j^romised to go with me to talk with the President about it to-morrow. Just at this point Cam- eron came in with a letter from the President proposing his nomi- nation to Russia in the morning ! He was quite offended, sup- posing the letter intended as a dismissal, and, therefore, discour- teous. We both assured him it could not be so. Finally he con- cluded to retain the letter till morning, and then go and see the President. Seward was expecting General Butler, and Cam- MR. CEASE'S DIARY. 269 ERON said lie ought to be sent oflF immediately. I said, ' Well, let's leave Sewaed to order liim off at once.' C. laughed, and we went off together, I taking him to his house. Before parting, I told him what had passed between me and Seward concerning Stanton, with which he was gratified. I advised him to go to the President in the morning, express his thanks for the consideration with which his wishes, made known through me as well as by himself orally, had been treated, and tell him frankly how desirable it was to him that his successor should be a Peunsylvauian, and should be Stan- ton. I said I thought that his wish, supported as it would be by Seward and myself, would certainly be gratified, and told him that the President had already mentioned Stanton in a way which indicated that no objection on his j)art would be made. I said also that, if he wished, I would see Seward, and would go to the President after he had left him, and urge the point. He asked why not come in when he should be there, and I assented to this. We parted, and I came home. A day which may have — and seemingly must have — great bearing on affairs. Oh, that my heart and life were so pure and right before God that I might not hurt our great cause ! I fear Mr. Seward may think Cameron's com- ing into his house pre-arranged, and that I was not dealing frank- ly. I feel satisfied, however, that I have acted right, and with just deference to all concerned, and have in no resjiect deviated from the truth." There is more upon the same subject in the book, but, unfortunately, it can not be deciphered with any cer- tainty. Since copying the foregoing, I have been informed upon excellent authority that the President's letter to Mr. Cameron was very brief, and that the following was the exact language that he used: "I have made up my mind to accept your resignation, and tender you the mis- sion to St. Petersburg." That this was all. That Mr. Cameeon, though he had talked of resigning, had made neither a written nor verbal offer to do so. Now was 270 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. Mr. Camekon justified or not in considering this a dis- missal?'^ My informant, whose communication is in writing, continues as follows : " Four months before tliis,t Mr. Lincoln expressed a probable intention to make changes in two Dci)artments, but certainly in one — the War Department. Mr. Stanton, at that time a resident of Washington, contemplated removing to New York ; but a com- munication having been made to him from an entkely trustworthy source that Mr. Lincoln would regard his removal from Washing- ton as inopportune, coupled with an intimation that he w^ould probably soon be wanted in an important position under the Ad- ministration, he remained in the Federal city. The President's long delay in making sign in fulfillment of his expectations angered Stanton, and within a very few days before his appoint- ment he said bitter things not only of the Rejiublicans generally, but of Mr. Lincoln personally. Mr. Lincoln, in explaining the grounds of the intended change in the War Department, referred in severe terms to Mr. Camekon's bad management, saying, among other things, that when absent from Washington he had given telegraphic orders for the transfer of troojDs and munitions of war, of which no record had been made in the Dejjartment. Serious embarrassment and confusion had resulted. The President ex- pressed disapprobation also^of some of Mr. Cameron's personal affiliations." It may not be generally known, but it is nevertheless true, that Mr. Seward entertained great admiration and a most sincere regard for General Geokge B. McClel- LAN, or " Geoege," as Mr. Lincoln used familiarly and affectionately to call him. Once, when speaking of the General, Mr. Seward told me that he considered him one * It is well knowai that Mr. Cajieron took Mr. Lincoln's letter so much to heart that Mr. Chase was induced to take it back to the President, whom he persuaded to substitute for it another let- ter containing expressions of regret and of compliment. t This happened in September, 18G1, in the early part of the mont'.i. GENERAL McCLELLAK 2Y1 of the most forbearing, self-controlled, and patient men whom he had ever known. He only remembered a single occasion npon which he displayed an implacable feeling of resentment. This was after his rnpture with Mr. Stanton, and his retirement from the command of the Army of the Potomac. The rebel invaders were pour- ing North, and the battle which is known to ns by the name of "Antietam" was to be fonglit. There was a panic in Washington, and, after much consid- eration, it was determined to invite Geneeal McClel- LAN to again head our forces. Mr. Sewakd was se- lected to convey the invitation to him and urge its ac- ceptance. To his surprise and disappointment, he at first found " George " inexorable. He felt that Mr. Stanton had treated him with too much injustice to permit him to accept the offer consistently with his own self-respect. For a long time he would not recede from his refusal, and it was only after repeated urging by Mr. Sewakd that he was induced to undertake to fight the one battle, it being, however, distinctly understood that there should be no personal reconciliation between himself and the Secretary of War. At the dinner-parties of the foreign Ministers, whicli Mr. Sewaed, being Secretary of State, frequently at- tended, he was looked upon as rather a tedious guest. Speaking no language but English, he compelled the conversation to be carried on in a tongue which was not familiar to many of those usually present. Mr, Sewaed told me that soon after his first election as Governor of the State of New York, he had occasion to make a short journey from Albany by stage-coach^ The day was fine, and he asked the driver's permission 272 ME3I0RIES OF MANY MEN. to mount the box and occupy a seat by bis side. This favor was griiniblingly granted by Jehn, who was en- tirely unacquainted with the Governor's person. Mr. Sewaed endeavored to propitiate him by presenting to him a choice cigar; the ice soon thawed, and they en- tered into an earnest conversation. After a wliile the coachman turned to him, and abruptly asked him who he was. Mr. Seward replied that people called him the Governor of New York. This was met by his compan- ion with a laugh of incredulity. Mr. Sewakd then said that they could not proceed far without meeting some- body who knew him, who would confirm his statement. Presently they came up to a person on foot, with whom Mr. Sewaed was acquainted, and he requested the driver to stop the coach. Hailing the man at the side of the road, Mr. Sewaed told him that his identity had been questioned, and asked him if he was not, in fact, the Governor. " Certainly not," was the unexpected answer. " Pray, then, who is V asked the astonished statesman. " Why, Thuelow Weed, of course," was the promj)t re- ply. Mr. Sewaed laughed over the story as if the scene were still vividly before him. I have mentioned that at one time there was an abso- lute discontinuance of Cabinet meetings, and that during that period very important matters, which were usually disposed of at such meetings, became the subject of cor- respondence between the several Departments. A very protracted and very able correspondence passed between the Treasury and the ISTavy Departments in relation to certain regulations issued by the former, affecting what was called "restricted trade." The Navy objected to these regulations, whose enforcement, it was claimed, 3IR. WELLES. 273 would tend to interfere with an efficient blockade. On our side, Mr. Chase himself wrote every letter, and it is needless to say that they were very ably written. The letters from the Navy Department were, however, to say the least, equally able; and I could not help feeling that we were even a little overmatched in the controversy. Fox, the Assistant Secretary, we all said must have writ- ten those letters ; they conld have no other author. But it afterward turned out that they had been written by the Secretary, Mr. Welles, and that neither Mr. Fox nor any body else had even been consulted about them. This circumstance greatly raised my estimate of Mr. Welles; and from my subsequent intercourse with him I became convinced that he was one of the ablest, and in every respect one of the best of Mr. Lincoln's imme- diate advisers. The country lias never done him any thing like justice. His patriarchal looks, his immense wig, his flowing beard, and his somewhat stolid man- ners, and the names of "Father Welles" and "Noak" applied to him by the slang talkers and writers of the day, created an altogether false impression of him in the public mind. Whenever I had occasion to call upon him officially, I always found him, perhaps to a greater de- gree than any of his associates, well up in all the details of the Department over which he presided. His per- sonal management of its affairs was intelligent, thorough, and efficient. More, perhaps, than any other of his col- leagues, he was given to minding his own business, and in the discharge of duty he was as inflexible as an old Eoman. It affords me pleasure to have here the opportunity to pay a brief tribute to a public officer who has, apparently, ^l 2 2Y4 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. been so little appreciated by a country wliicli be so in- telligently and so faitbfully served. I think that, all tbings considered, Mr. Chase sbould be rated first among the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. In intellectual greatness, he certainly was the foremost. I have so many reasons for affectionate regard for him and for devotion to his memory, that, however truthful a wit- ness, I know that I am liable to be considered a partial oue. That Mr. Chase, as a financial minister, fell into occa- sional errors, I am the. last person in the world to dispute. But who is there that in those terribly difllcult times would not have fallen into them ? He always had the good sense, which has not been common to all his suc- cessors, to constantly consult with those who had more practical experience than he himself possessed ; and, ex- cept his great fundamental mistake at the commence- ment, he probably made as few as would have been made by any other person in his place. CHAPTEE X. UNTIL the winter of 18G1-2, Congress could not be induced to take np the subject of internal taxes. For the first year, the war was conducted without a reve- nue ; for the import duties liad fallen to a sum scarcely adequate to peace expenditures. When the committees of Congress went to work, Mr. Chase determined to prepare also, on his part, a scheme of internal taxation. To assist him, at the suggestion of Mr. Cisco, he invited to Wash- ington the Hon. John D. Van Bueen, a distinguished citizen of New York, of opposite politics to his own. Mr. Van Buken remained two months at the capital, as a volunteer nnpaid attache of the Treasury Department, in daily consultation with the Secretary. Some time be- fore the Committee of Ways and Means had its Bill ready to report, Mr. Van Bueen completed one for Mr. Chase, levying taxes which, it was estimated, would yield over two hundred millions of dollars per annum. No in- come tax was included, Mr. Van Bueen, after examin- ing the decisions, coming to the conclusion that it was a direct tax, and therefore unconstitutional unless levied upon each state in proportion to population ; in which view Mr. Chase at that time acquiesced. This Bill was examined and, in some details, corrected by Mr. Chase, and sent by him to the Committee of Ways and Means ; but his note, accompanying it, w^as not so worded as to make it absolutely his own measure. The Committee 276 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. had already made progress in. but had not completed, a scheme of its own. The advance sheets of its Bill, fur- nished to the Treasury Department, showed that it pro- ceeded upon the theory of taxing every thing under the sun. The Bill submitted by Mr. Chase had only ten or fifteen separate subjects of taxation. Under it the num- ber of officials and the expense of collection would have been much less than under that of the Committee. One illustration will suffice on this point. The Bill submit- ted by the Secretary levied a tax of half a cent a mile on railroad ])assengers ; which would have yielded a large revenue, the amount of which could be accurately esti- mated by the statistics given in the railroad report of the State Engineer of New York, and the reports of some other states ; and all of wliich tax would have been collected by the railroads at the same time with their own fai'es. So a tax of one cent was proposed on every passenger by horse-railroads and ferries. This would have yielded a very considerable revenue — several mill- ions of dollars. The Committee did levy a tax on horse- railroads and ferries, but put it down to about one third of a cent. The ferries and railroads charged an addi- tional cent to their passengers, but two thirds of this went into their private treasuries. Another tax of the same nature, cheap of collection, served to illustrate a kind of patriotism that was very common in those days. All the moneyed interests were clamorous for taxation, but every body wanted the taxes laid on every body else than themselves. It was proposed to tax consumers of illuminating gas fifty cents a thousand cubic feet, to be collected with the monthly bills of the gas companies. This brought a swarm of presidents of gas companies THE DIFFICULTIES OF TAXATION. 277 from every quarter to Wasliington. They were loud and inianimous in their admissions that the Government must provide for itself an abundant revenue, but insisted tliat such a tax as this would bring absolute ruin on the gas companies. One of them from New York never for- o-ave Mr. Yan Buren for not being convinced by his ar- guments that, under such a tax, all the gas-consumers would go back at once to the use of tallow candles. Avery valuable suggestion was made by Mr, Bigelow, of Boston, the well-known inventor of the carpet-loom. It was that all the internal taxes should be collected not in money, but in Government stamps ; that the Treasury should issue stamps of various denominations up to a thousand dollars, good only in payment of taxes ; and that the tax-payer should simply return his tax-bill to the Collector, with the necessary amount of canceled stamps affixed to it. This would have had many advan- tages. It would have reduced greatly the machinery and the number of officials to be engaged in collecting the taxes, and it would have secured the Treasury abso- lutely against losses by the dishonesty of its agents. There would have been no handling of money except at the sub-Treasuries, where, at wholesale, the stamps were to be sold, Avith an allowance to compensate the retail sellers. Moreover, the Treasury would thus have received its revenue always in advance. This proposal of Mr. Bigelow was accepted by Mr. Yan Buren, and urged by him upon Mr. Chase. It may be doubted, however, whether there was any desire among members of Con- gress to keep down the number of officials to be created under the new tax system. The more offices, the more home patronage for eacli Kepresentative. 278 3LEM0IiIES OF 3IANY MEN. The Committee of Congress had become attached to its own scheme, and adhered to it. It was manifestly anxious to make the taxes light, and hoped to do so by scattering them upon all things. Some of its members, in conversation, laughed at the tax of fifty cents a gallon on whisky, proposed in the Bill submitted by Mr. Chase, as being absm-dly heavy; their own Bill levying only about one fourth as much. Yet, in a year or two. Congress went to the other extreme, and put the tax at two dollars a gallon, giving rise, by excessive temptation, to an or- ganized system of whisky frauds. The Committee ex- pected that its Bill would yield a revenue of nearly two hundred millions of dollars ; the most moderate es- timate among the members was one hundred and sixty millions of dollars. Mr.YAN Bueen was urged by some of them to estimate its results, and he put them down as not exceeding sixty millions of dollars net. The returns for the year showed, I believe, about seventy millions of dollars gross. The same mistake was made by Mr. Chase and by Congress as that which Mr. Pitt confessed he had made in the Napoleonic wars. Heavy taxes should have been imposed at the outset. The people were ready for taxa- tion, but their agents were timid. We resorted to all sorts of expedients, bringing ruin upon our credit ; and then had at last to come to the same amount of taxation which, if laid in the beginning, would have kept our credit always high. With the example and the confes- sion of Mr. Pitt before us, our public men were less ex- cusable than he. A tax of two hundred millions of dol- lars, levied in the first year of the war, would, in Mr. Van Bueen's opinion, have enabled us to borrow freely and MR. CHASE. 279 to keep lip sjjecie payments ; would have served, by the demonstration of our strength, as a warning to foreign powers disposed to meddle ; would have discouraged the enemy, compelled themselves to resort at the outset to irredeemable paper money ; and would have greatly shortened the contest. It would have avoided, probably, two thirds of our public debt. From how much demor- alization and sin it would have saved us is beyond calcu- lation. It was, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, the opinion of the venerable Azakiaii C. Flagg, formerly Comptroller of the State of New York, that the Government could afford to expend one thousand millions a year and yet maintain specie payments. Our annual expenditures, even when measured by depreciated paper money, did not come up to this. The French proverb that " no man is a hero to his valet de cliamhre^'' has a wider significance than it ex- presses. It means that the great become little to those who are intimately associated with them. I have come into contact with many of those wdiom the world calls great, and, after a personal acquaintance with them, have found them very small. But, in the case of Mr. Chase, 1 can honestly and sincerely say that, after the closest re- lations with him, both official and private, daring a period of time which tried men's brains as well as their souls, I parted from him with a higher appreciation of his mag- nificent mind and character than I entertained when I only knew him as one of the leaders of the land. lie had conspicuous weaknesses, but they only served to throw his great qualities into more prominent relief. We all remember the movement that was made, pre- 2 so MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. vions to Mr. Lincoln's second nomination at Baltimore, to bring Mr. CiixVSE forward as a competing candidate. That Mr. Chase was himself in nowise reluctant can not be denied, although I know that he all along doubted that such a movement had any chance of success. In those days he failed to appreciate Mr. Lincoln at his true value, as, I think, Mr. Lincoln failed to appreciate him. Indeed, it would be impossible to imagine two men more unlike, and having fewer points of contact. Mr. Lincoln, at least, was entirely deiicient in what the phrenologists call reverence. Ko man wdio ever lived could be in his presence and doimnate him, as the French express it. There is a certain sort of intellectual atmosphere differ- ent from, if not higher than that in which he moved, and he troubled himself very little about it, or about those who dwelt in it. At any rate, he instinctively conceded nothing of superiority to any body, and often failed to comprehend those whose mental plane was different from his own. Mr. Chase honestly felt his superiority to Mr. Lincoln in some respects, and could not be reconciled to his undignified manners and strange ways. While the movement to bring Mr. Chase forward as a Presiden- tial candidate w^as in agitation, a United States Senator, who actively participated in it, one day came into my of- fice in a towering rage. Striking his fist upon my desk, he said to me that he considered Chase the (using a very strong expletive) fool in the world. He then w^ent on to tell me that he and others had been unsuccessfully laboring with the Secretary to induce him to issue a " cotton permit " to somebody, precisely as he would issue one to any respectable person ; only that the profits were to be applied in the interest of his nomination, instead of SCOLDING DIGNITARIES. 281 going into private pockets. There was an ainonnt of principle and delicacy involved in Mr. Chase's refusal which the Senatorial mind utterly failed to appreciate. When speaking of Mr. Chase's Presidential aspirations, I am reminded, as Mr. Lincoln used to say, of a little story. When I first went to Washington, the Secretary occupied for his ofiice a room on the south side of the Treasury building, with a beautiful outlook dowm the Potomac. Soon afterward it was proposed that he should remove to certain elaborately ornamented and elegantly furnished rooms on the west side of the building, which had been arranged for his occupation by Mr. Mullett, the architect of the Department. Mr. Chase had consented to make the change ; but after the new rooms were ready he delayed removing. Several times he appointed a day to do so, but when the time came he had changed his mind. One afternoon, while he was still hesitating, I was standing with him at one of the windows of the largest of the new rooms which faced the Executive Mansion. Turning to me, he asked me to assign one sufficient reason why he should change his quarters. I told him that there was at least one obvious advantage in the exchange, and that was, if he should come to these offices, he would always he ahle to heep his eye li^on the White House! Mr. Chase was a man of extremely nervous tempera- ment, and he would sometimes be A'ery violent, and oc- casionally even unjust, while swept by a gale of passion. On one occasion Senator Fessenden came into my room in a terrible rage, occasioned by a scolding which he had received from the Secretary. Goveknok Beough, of Ohio, visited Washington in the year 1864, and being 2S2 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. an experienced railroad man and familiar with the cost of transportation, explained to Mr. Chase the fearful ex- travagance of the Quartermaster's Department in the West. Mr. Stanton, unfortunately for himself, happen- ed to come into the Secretary's room shortly after the Governor had left it, when he received such a verbal castio-ation at the hands of Mr. Chase as few men would have ventured to inflict upon the great War Seca-etary. What was more remarkable, however, he bore it- with great meekness. But Mr. Chase was always just after the moment of anger had passed, and knew how to be magnanimous. Among the innumerable duties of the Assistant Secre- tary of the Treasury, who was the executive officer of a Department employing at that time in Washington three thousand persons, was that of taking daily to the Secre- tary the warrants for his signature. Any body can read- ily imagine how numerous they always were, what a great scope of indebtedness they covered, and what large sums many of them represented. When tliey reached him they had already been through the auditing offices, the Register's office, and the Treasurer's office, and only awaited the Secretary's signature to be complete. Some- how, Mr. Chase did not seem to think that he was dis- charging a merely ministerial duty when he signed them. On the contrary, notwithstanding the valuable time that it occupied to do so, he always carefully scru- tinized every one of them, and hardly a day passed that he did not laj^ aside a dozen or more unsigned for future explanations. I happened once to be with the Secretary when the President, without knocking, and unannounced, as was MR. LINCOLN'S SAVINGS. 283 his halnt, entered the room. His rusty black hat vras on the back of his head, and he wore, as was his custom, an old gray shawl across his shoulders. To the best of my recollection, this occurred in tlie spring of the year lS6-i. I said good-morning to Mr. Lincoln, and then, as was the established etiquette when the President called, withdrew from the office. As Mr. Lincoln, in his infrequent visits to the Secretary, usually remained a long time, I sup- posed that I had my freedom for at least half an hour, and proceeded to attend to the accumulation of business which awaited me in my own room. But I was mis- taken. In less than five minutes I M-as summoned to return to the Secretary. Mr. Schuckees, his private secretary, entered the room at the same time that I did. The President was gone, and there was lying npon one end of Mr. Chase's desk a confused mass of Treasury notes, Demand notes. Seven-thirty notes, and other rep- resentatives of value. Mr. Chase told us that this lot of money had . j ust been brought by Mr. Lincoln, who de- sired to have it converted into bonds. He informed us that the President said that it amounted to sixty-eight thousand dollars, but that he had not counted it. Gen- eral Splmnek, the Treasurer, was then sent for. When the General came up from his office down stairs, he, Mr. SciiucKERS, and myself, proceeded together to count the money. The amount proved to be, as represented, just sixty-eight thousand dollars, which was certainly a large sum for Mr. Lincoln to have saved from his salary in three years. Possibly a good deal of this money may have been anonymous gifts. However, it may be said that there was very clever financiering done in the White House in those days, about which the President was sup- 284 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. posed to liave little or no knowledge. He only knew that the establishment was conducted in a marvelonsly economical manner. I had it from a Senator, Avho was appointed chairman of an investigating committee npon the subject at a secret session of the Senate, that a state dinner was paid for out of an appropriation for fertilizers for tlie grounds connected wdth the Executive Mansion. How far this " Heathen Chinee" business Avas carried, it w^ould probably be difficult to ascertain at this distance of time. One thing only is certain, and that is that Mr. Lincoln wt^s personally thoroughly honest. I remember a very absurd incident connected with Mr. Chase. He and I happened to be going together one evening from ISTew York to Washington. We engaged a coach at the Fifth Avenue Hotel to convey us to the Cortlandt Street Ferry. Wlien w^e arrived there, alight- ing from the carriage, Mr. Chase paid the driver, and we hastened toward the boat. We had not gone far, how- ever, before the driver, who did not know his distinguish- ed " fare," shonted to the Secretary to come back. We accordingly retraced our steps, and when we had again reached the carriage, the coachman exclaimed: "Halloo, old man, what do you mean by trying to pass bogus stamps on me? I have a great mind to have you arrested !" He then placed into Mr. Chase's hand two tifty-cent frac- tional notes, which he asserted lie had just received from him in part payment. The Secretai-y looked at^them, and, saying that he conld not see that they were bad, handed them to me for examination. I at once perceived that they were not only bad, but even ver?/ bad, being obviously impressions from a wooden block. I so in- formed Mr, Chase, and he gave others for them. But GENERAL BUTLER. 285 it always struck me as a huge joke tliat he had been de- tected in the attempt, innocent though it was, to pass counterfeits of his own currency. Very soon after he became Secretary of the Treasury, and before his person was known to many of the em- ployes of the Department, he entered the Treasury build- ing one Sunday, and, disregarding the protest of the watchman at tlie door, attempted to pass up staii's to liis own room. There was a regulation prohibiting any one from coming in on that day except upon an order of the Secretary or of the Assistant Secretary. Finding his calls disregarded, the watchman started in pursuit of the in- truder just as he readied the top step. Seizing Mr. Chase by the collar, he was about to use violence, when the lat- ter quietly asked him if it was his purpose to eject the Secretary from his own Department. The man, fright- ened at his act, attempted to excuse himself for his ig- norance in assailing his chief, but Mr. Chase cut him short by commending him for faithfully discharging his duty. Keturning to his mate, he rubbed his hands and exclaimed to him, " That keeps me here at least four years longer !" Mr. Chase always entertained a very exalted opinion of General Butler's executive ability. I remember once, that as the General left the Secretary's room, the latter turned to me and said, " There is the fittest man in the United States to be Secretary of War!" During the winter of 1863-4, when the General was in com- mand at Fortress Monroe, I took a revenue cutter and, accompanied by some friends, among whom were H. A. Risley, Esq., of the Treasury Department, the father of Mr. Seward's adopted daughter, and Arthur Leary, 286 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK Esq., of New York, paid liim a visit. Among otlier civili- ties, the General entertained ns at dinner. The dinner was an excellent one, and was served upon old-fashioned blue china. The General remarked that he did not sup- pose it would injuriously affect our appetites to be in- formed that we were dining off a service w^hich belonged to EX-GovEENOR Heney A. Wise, of Virginia. There was a good deal of animated conversation at table, and one of those present expressed the opinion that when our civil war should be over, such a military spirit would have been engendered in the American people that we would become a nation of filibusters. " It is very likely," answered the General, " that we shall go about the world with a chip upon our shoulder !" An excursion to Hampton, and a review of the first negro regiment ever raised, was proposed after dinner by the General. Accordingly, four saddle horses, one for him, two for his aids, and one for myself, besides two ambulances for the others of the party, were brought to the door with but little delay. As I was no equestrian, I declined the horse in favor of Mr. Risley, who is the most modest man in the world, and who deprecatingly accepted it ; while I hastened to ensconce myself in the interior of an ambulance. It was a piercingly cold day, and Mr. Risley was as inexperienced a horseman as my- self ; but this I only learned afterward. The reins of the ambulance were reluctantly taken by Mr. Leaky. The General used very short stirrups, and sat on his liorse like a monkey ; but he went like the wind. Mr. RrsLEY galloped at liis side, looking like a centaur, and with a wonderfully complacent expression of counte- nance. And yet he was suffering martyrdom, and for AN INCIDENT OP THE TAYLOR CAMPAIGN. 2S7 ten days thereafter was unable to sit npriglit. Mr. Leaky endured agony — his hands were ahiiost frozen. I was comparatively comfortable. I do not think tljat Mr. RiSLEY quite forgave me for a long time, although he is the most amiable man of my acquaintance. I went on to Washington once during the war in a private car placed at my disposal by the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad Company, and meeting Genekal Butler at the station, invited him to share it with me. In order to give sleeping accommodations to the ladies who accom- panied him, he and I had to sit up all night. I passed the time smoking, and listening to his delightful and in- structive talk. I suppose that General Butler knows more about more subjects than any other man in this country, unless it be Caleb Cushing. He is a kind, true, fast friend, and at the same time the most obliging, the bravest, and the most calumniated man living. A reference just above to ex-Governor Wise reminds me of a little incident. I was traveling in the Southern States daring the winter of 1859, and I happened to meet at Montgomery, Alabama, a Virginia gentleman M'ho had formerly been in the ISavy, and was afterward a member of the National Congress from his native state. He told me that during the Taylor campaign he stumped that state in favor of the hero of Buena Yista, while Governor Wise did the same thing on the other side. After the fashion that then prevailed in the South and the Southwest, the two speakers traveled together, and alternated in addressing their audiences. They arrived, in the course of their journey, at Lynchburg, where it was the Governor's turn to speak iirst. In his address he dwelt largely u])on the incapacity and unfitness of Gen- 288 3IEM0RIES OF 3IANT MEN. ERAL Taylor for the Presidency, said that he liad been unable to write his own disjjatches, and that they were all written by his son-in-law, Colonel Bliss. He harped a long time upon his ignorance, e^•en calling him " Old Ignorance." When my informant rose to reply, he made a short address upon the political issues involved in the election, and then closed with the remark that, in answer to what his friend had said about General Taylor's ig- norance, his only reply was that, "Where ignorance is £liss, 'tis folly to be WiseT^ at the same time pointing his finger at the Governor. Mr. Colfax, late Yice-President, and Mr. Wasuburne, now Minister to France, were competing candidates for the Speakership of the Thirty-eighth Congress. Some three weeks before the time for Congress to meet, Mr. Colfax came to AVashington, and immediately entered upon an active canvass for the post to which he aspired. Mr.WASHBURNE Only made his appearance at a very late moment, and was surprised to find that the question of the Speakership was already virtually settled against him. He complained to Mr. Chase that I was interfering in Mr. Colfax's behalf ; and the Secretar}^ sent for me, and cautioned me against doing any thing in favor of or against either candidate, as they were both very good friends to our Department, Now what I had done, and all that I had done, in the premises was this : Before the organization of the House of Representatives, Mr. Edavin Croswell, formerly of the Albany Argus, came to me in Washington in behalf of the Hon. Henry G. Stebbins, member of Congress elect from the first New York district. It is very likely that he came without Mr. Stebbins's knowledge. He desired to liave that gentleman made a MR. STEBBINS AND GENERAL SPINNER. 289 member of the Committee of \yays and Means, and, at his instance, I not only gave him a letter to Mr. Colfax upon the subject, but also called several times npon that gentleman to nrge liim to appoint Mr. Stebbins upon that Committee, in case he should be the successful candi- date for the Speakership. After Mr. Colfax's election, and before he had announced the committees, he told me that although he could not promise to comply with my wish, still, if Mr. Stebbins should, after all, find his name upon the list of committees where I desired to see it, I was at liberty to say to him that it was through my intervention that the matter was accomplished. Mr. Stebbins received the appointment, and by his course amply justified the Speaker's action. Although a Demo- crat, he ardently supported the Go\ernment, and during liis brief term of service made two of the soundest and most eloquent financial speeches that were delivered dur- ing the war. His health soon failed, and he was com- pelled to withdraw for a time from all business. Mr. Chase told me that the Hon. Feknando Wood called upon him several times, with a view to a place upon the same committee. Mr. Chase was very much j)leased with Mr. Wood at these interviews. I could relate several anecdotes of General Spin- ner, the United States Treasurer, and the author of the amazing autograph which graces our national money, but I shall confine myself to a single one which he him- self told me. The General is equally noted for his hon- esty and his profanity. Before he was made Treasurer of the United States by President Lincoln, he had been a member of Congress from the Herkimer District, New York. Senator Wade, of Ohio, was as conspicuous for N 290 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. the use of strong language as was Mr. Spinnek. Shortly after the accession of the latter to office, he made an even- ing call upon. Mrs. Wade. In course of conversation, it came out that he was no longer a member of the House of Eepresentatives, as that lady supposed. " That ex- plains," she said, "Mr. Wade's astonishingly increased profanity. Formerly he used to swear for the Senate and you for the House. Now he has to swear for both !" At one time, when there was a constant apprehension that Washington would be attacked, we organized a regi- ment in the Treasury Department for home service. As I was anxious to do all in my power to encourage the enterprise, I enlisted as a raw recruit in the com- pany of which Colonel Jones, of the Treasurer's office, was Captain. General Spinner, who was a veteran, joined the same company as a private. At the drills, I was always perpetrating the most awkward move- ments, and upon one occasion came very near putting out with my bayonet the eyes of a fellow-soldier who stood just behind me. He bore my homicidal attempt with all meekness, because I was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. It used to be delightful to witness the fervor and energy with which General Spinner went through the manual. We had a very fine band of music, entirely composed of Department clerks, and the bray of their brazen instruments, as we marched through the echoing corridors of the Treasury building of an evening, still lingers in my ears. Mr. Chase was induced, at a certain period, to adopt for the use of the Government, for its paper obligations, what was called a "membrane paper," which it was claimed rendered counterfeiting impossible. The print- THE BLOOD OF JOHN BROWX. 291 ing was done in the Department, and the Secretary sup- posed that this paper was so carefully guarded and watched that it was impossible for the smallest piece of it to be abstracted or to get astray. He used to keep a little specimen of it, about four inches long by three wide, upon his desk, and to explain to those to whom he showed it that he had himself been compelled to give a receipt for it before he was allowed to take it, so scru- pulous was the care with which it was guarded. It hap- pened that I once had occasion to go down to the room where this paper was received, and where the sheets were counted before being stored in an apartment below. There were two doors to this room upon one of the cor- ridors, and they were both open. The corridor was full of laborers, standing in a line, who had come to receive their pay from the disbursing agent. Upon a counter in the room were heaped sheets of the precious paper. A pile of mutilated sheets stood in one corner. Two women, upon their knees scrubbing the floor, were the only occupants of the room, the person in charge having temporarily gone elsewhere. I immediately ejected the women, locked both doors, and carried the keys to the Secretary. This little incident changed liis views in re- lation to the Cerberus-like watchfulness with which his paper had been guarded. "We had at that time an elephant on our hands in the Department in the person of a brother of John Beown, "whose soul is marching on." Fkedeeick Bko^vn had been successively detailed to almost every bureau, and after a few days dismissed from each as incompetent and insubordinate. He was a harmless, garrulous old man, who used to obstruct a corridor for hours, pouring out a 292 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. ceaseless stream of talk upon whomsoever ■would stop to listen to liim. Finally lie became a nuisance that had to be in some way abated ; but we were loth to abandon altogether a man so connected. So we had him ap- pointed keeper of a light-house, situated upon a rock far off the coast of North Carolina ! lie was employed at one time in the office of the Light-House Board, of which the Secretary of the Treasury is, ex-ojjicio, Chair- man, and of which Admiral Shubrick was then the acting chief. Brown had the habit of sitting with his feet elevated upon a table even in the presence of his official superiors. He was remonstrated with, and told that he ought, at least, to resume a decent position when Admiral Shubrick entered the room. " I don't see why I should," he auswered ; "the Admiral doesn't take down his feet when / come in !" Upon another occasion Admiral Shubrick, desiring to send him out with a communication, asked him — " Mr. Brown, do you know wdiere the Xavy Department is ?" " No," answ^ered Brown. " Do you know where the War Department is ?" " No." " Do you know where Wild- er's building is?" "No." "Well," emphatically de- manded the old Admiral, '■^wliat do you know?" "I know," coolly rej)lied Brown, " that Admiral Dams is a gentleman," One day the Superintendent of the printing of fraction- al currency came into my office accompanied by a beauti- ful but very pale girl of about sixteen. I was engaged, but I saw that he had something urgent to say, and so I immediately gave him my attention. He told me that for some time past there had been frequent thefts of entire sheets of fractional currency from Iiis office, al- A PRETTY THIEF. 293 thougli he bad supposed that he had adopted such checks as would render any abstraction impossible; that the amount taken at each successive time was larger than at the previous one ; that the entire sum was altogether about twelve hundred dollars, whereof some four hun- dred had been stolen only two or three days before ; that he had not dared to say any thing about it to the Secretary, and that he had just detected the little girl who was with him as the culprit. I turned to the girl, and asked her if the charge against her was true. With increasing pallor, but without shedding a tear, she ad- mitted that it was. I directed the Superintendent to take her up stairs again, and await further orders, and I sent a messenger for Police Detective Claevoe. Just then a middle-aged lady, who had been waiting my leisure, walked up to my desk and urged her claims to be appointed a clerk in the Department. I court- eously made to her tlie stereotyped statement that we had thousands of applicants and no vacancies; and when I had finished, she turned upon me in a vixenish way and said : " If I were only young and pretty, like the young person who has just gone out, you would give me a place, as you have undoubtedly given her one." I made no reply, but I could not avoid thinking how dif- ferently she would have spoken had she known upon what business that poor cliild had been brought to me. Before Clarvoe came I had communicated with the Secretary upon the subject, and he very properly de- manded the immediate arrest of the thief. So I was compelled to hand her over to the detective for incarcer- ation, and I requested him to report to me as soon as possible all that he could ascertain about the case. The 294 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. ensuing day lie returned to me, and gave me her whole history. She was the daughter of an extensive import- ing merchant in one of our great cities, who had failed in business soon after the commencement of the war, and had then, regardless of his family, committed suicide. Some of the friends of the unfortunate man commanded influence sufficient to procure for the daughter the posi- tion which she held in the mechanical department of the Treasury. Soon afterward her mother went to the bad, and took up with a Portuguese blockade-runner. These two together corrupted the child. Every penny that she liad abstracted had been taken at their instance, and for the benefit of one or the other of them. He had traced the money last stolen to one of the principal dry- goods shops in Washington, where she had purchased silk dresses and other articles for her mother, and paid for them with the uncut sheets, which the proprietor had very strangely accepted. Both the man and the woman had left "Washington directly after the arrest. There was nothing to be recovered. I thought this a pretty hard case, and so said to the Secretary ; but he insisted that it was liis duty to criminally prosecute the girl for the sake of the example. Of course he was right in principle. But I then asked him where he supposed the public, if informed of the transaction, would at- tach most blame, to this tempted, unsophisticated girl, or to the Treasury Department, which surrounded its manufacture of paper money with such insufficient checks as to render the abstraction possible? lie un- derstood this as I intended it, and forthwith directed that the matter be dropped, upon the single condition that the girl should go away from the capital and not FBEDEBICK DOUGLASS. 295 return there. I sent for Clakvoe, and communicated to liim the Secretary's decision. I then ascertained that, instead of taking the child to jail, he had placed her in his own house in charge of his wife, who had kindly cared for her all the time. We discovered several other thefts in the Department during my time, but in every other instance we recovered the entire amount that had been taken. I saw Feedekick Douglass several times in Washing- ton, and he impressed me, as he did every one else, by his remarkable intelligence. I once heard him, born a slave, get decidedly the better of Pkesident Johnson in a political discussion ; and I was present upon another occasion when he talked about banking to Mr. Feeeman Claeke, of the Committee of Ways and Means, with an astonishing ability and apparent familiarity with the subject. CHAPTEE XI. A CORRECT version of the circumstances which in- duced and accompanied Mr. Chase's withdrawal from Mr, Lincoln's Cabinet has never, to my kno^vledge, been given to the public. About the first of June, 1864, Mr. Cisco tendered to the President, through the Secre- tary of the Treasury, his peremptory resignation of the office of Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York, to take effect immediately after the close of the fiscal year, viz., on tlie first of July. Efforts were unsuccessfully made to induce him to withdraw it, and it then became necessary to find somebody to take his place. A furious competition for the oflice immediate- ly sprang up. Mr. Chase, after a few days, went to New York, where he remaiued some time. lie offered the position to three leading bankers, but they declined it. He then returned to Washington, and remained in- active upon the subject until very late in the month. One morning he sent for me, and told me that he had some time before decided to nominate me to the Presi- dent, but that, equally to his surprise and regret, a gen- tleman of high position and great influence had called upon him and objected to the nomination. However, he had ordered his carriage, and intended to go direct- ly to the Senate, and canvass that body upon the sub- ject; and if he found that I would be confirmed, he would send my name to the President that very after- CANVASSING THE SENATE. 297 noon. In conclusion, he desired me to call at his house at five o'clock. Accordingly, at the appointed time I went there. Mr. Chase told me that he had spent two hours upon the floor of the Senate, and that he thought I would be unanimously confirmed ; that even the gentleman who opposed me would not, he believed, carry his opposition so far as to vote against my confirmation. I thus knew that the gentleman to wdiom he had referred in the morning was a Senator, and I fancied that he must be a Senator from New York. As I was acquainted with the favorable disposition of one of them toward me, I had no difiiculty in concluding in my own mind who it was that was hostile to my nomination. Mr. Chase had already sent my name to the President, and he desired me to leave for New York that very evening, so as to ar- range for my oflicial bonds, and be prepared to assume the duties of the office on the first of July. I objected to this, under the circumstances ; but I promised the Sec- retary that I would take my departure immediately aft- er Mr. Lincoln should nominate me to the Senate. The next day a recommendation that I be appointed, signed by every Union member of the Lower House from the State of New York, was transmitted to the President, and the friendly Senator called upon him to indorse it. However, I w^as not nominated to the Senate on that day. The following morning Mr. Chase again sent for me, and told me that he had received a letter from Mr. Lincoln, in which he expressed a disinclination to nom- inate me on account of the opposition of one of the New York Senators, and invited him to a conference N2 298 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. upon the subject. Mr. Chase, instead of calling, replied by letter. For several days communications were pass- ing between liim and the President. This correspond- ence, however, I have never seen. Finally, one day as I was discharging my official duties as usual, with the room full of people, Mr. Schuckees rushed in, and whis- pered into my ear, " We have no longer a Secretary ; Mr. Chase has resigned, and the President has accepted his resignation !" Thereupon I went directly to Mr. Chase, and asked him if the news which I had just heard was true. Fie answered in the affirmative. I then requested his permission to tender my own resig- nation to the President. He told me that such action would look factious, and must not be thought of. Then Mr. Lincoln nominated to the Senate ex-Gov- EENOK Tod, of Ohio, as Secretary of the Treasury. At this nomination the Senate and the country stood aghast. A Senatorial Committee called upon the President, and asked him to withdraw the nomination of Mr. Tod, but he refused to do so. Fortunately that gentleman, who knew that he had no chance to be conffi-med, cut the knot by declining the appointment. The afternoon of the day of the acceptance of Mr. Chase's resignation, I was upon the floor of the House of Representatives. Members flocked around me, eager for information, and I was addressed by the facetious title of " Cabinet-smasher." Tlien Congress and the country, with a united voice, demanded the appointment of Mr. Fessenden, at that time Chairman of the Committee on Finance in the Senate. Never did a man more reluctantly accept of- fice. He knew better than any body else liis want of ME. LINCOLN EXPLAINS. 299 fitness for an executive position. He said that bis place, and his only place, was in a forensic assembly. During his administration of the affairs of the Treasury he con- fided much to his subordinates, who had more practical experience than himself ; and I trust and believe that he was faithfully served. Mr. Chase had been out of the Department nearly two months, when I happened to be spending an evening with Mr. Sewakd. In the course of the conversation, I referred to the transaction which had resulted in an exchange of the Treasury portfolio, and explained the reasons which had induced Mr. Lincoln to decline nom- inating me as Assistant Treasurer at New York, as I then understood them — viz., that he was unwilling to appoint to so important an office one of Democratic antecedents ; that he had recognized the propriety of retaining Mr. Cisco, notwithstanding his politics, on account of his em- inent services before and since the war; but that he thought that, if a change was to be made, the ofiice should be treated as strictly party property. Mr. Sew- akd assured me that I took an entirely erroneous view of the matter, and advised me to seek a personal ex- planation from the President. I asked Mr. Sewaed to have a preliminary talk with Mr. Lincoln upon the subject, which he kindly promised to do. I may here observe that Mr. Chase's feeling had been that the As- sistant Treasurer at New York being his right arm, he ought not to be interfered with in making a selection. A few days later I walked over to the Executive Man- sion at about two o'clock in the afternoon. The Presi- dent's ante-chamber was crowded with people awaiting an audience ; but as soon as Mr. Lincoln received my 300 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. card he gave orders to admit me. I expected to be with him ten minutes, at the utmost, but lie detained me nearly two hours. The interview was, altogether, one of the most interesting and amusing I ever had in my life. The President received me with great cordiality, and I began to repeat to him substantially what I had said to Mr. Sewaed. He listened to me laughingly, but impatiently, shaking his head all the time. When I had got through, he said : " You are altogether on the wrong track. Why, didn't I nominate, as Cjiase''s suc- cessor, Dave Tod, who has been all his life a Democrat, and who worked and voted for Douglas and against me ? No, sir ; I will tell you all about it. The Kepub- lican party in your state is divided into two factions, and I can't afford to quarrel with either of them. By ac- cident, rather than by any design of mine, the radi- cals have got possession of the most important Federal offices in ISTew York. I care nothiug whatever about your personal politics. You were pressed by Mr. Chase and opposed by Senator . Had I, under these circumstances, consented to your appointment, it would have been another radical triumph, and I couldn't afford one. That is all that there is about it, so far as you are concerned. But I'll tell you what happened at the time between m^^self and Chase. One day, early in June, Chase came to me and said, 'Mr. President, Cisco has resigned at New York, and I am going on there to see who is the best man to put into his place.' " Here Mr. LmcoLN's face assumed an indescribably droll expres- sion, and, drawing his head toward mine, and placing his enormous hand upon my knee, he said, " That, you MR. CHASE IS stubborn: 39 1 understand, was a peg that would fit any hole /" The President continued : " Well, Chase went to New York, and in due time returned, I suppose, but he did not come near me. In the mean time there was the fiercest contest waging for the vacant ofiice that I re- member since I have been in this jplacey (This is the manner in which Mr. Lincoln always referred to his po- sition as President.) " I must confess that 3'ou were the most numerously indorsed, but opposed you. The next time that I heard from Chase upon the subject was when he wrote to me requesting me to nominate you. I answered his communication, and asked him to come and see me, and talk over the matter. Instead of doing so, he wrote me again, saying that he would have you and nobody else. And so we fired letters at each other for two or three days. I offered to nominate either of three gentlemen who happened to be acceptable to Sen- ator ; but Chase objected to all of them. Final- ly, as I was sitting here at my desk one morning, with the room full of people, a letter from the Treasury De- partment was brought to me. I opened it, recognized Chase's handwriting, read the first sentence, and infer- red from its tenor that this matter was in the way of satisfactory adjustment. I was truly glad of this, and, laying the envelope with its inclosure down upon the desk, went on talking. People were coming and going all the time till three o'clock, and I forgot all about Chase's letter. At that hour it occurred to me that I would go down stairs and get a bit of lunch. My wife happened to be away, and they had failed to call me at the usual time. While I was sitting alone at table m.y tlioughts reverted to Chase's letter, and I determined to 302 MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. answer it just as soon as I slionld go up stairs again. Well, as soon as I was back here, I took pen and paper and prepared to write ; but then it occurred to me that I might as well read the letter before I answered it. I took it out of the envelope for that purpose, and, as I did so, another inclosure fell from it upon the floor. I picked it. up, read it, and said to myself, ' Halloo, this is a horse of another color P It was his resignation. I put my pen into my mouth, and grit my teeth upon it. I did not long reflect. I very soon decided to accept it, and I nominated Dave Tod to succeed him. " But there is a history behind all this which I don't mind telling you. Are you aware that this was the fourth time that Chase had tendered me his resignation ? No ? "Well, it was. I will tell you how it all happened. The first occasion was when Sewakd tendered his, after the Republican Senators had passed resolutions hostile to him. Chase soon followed suit, and by so doing ren- dered me a great favor, which I shall ever hold in grate- ful remembrance. Matters were fixed v-p, and neither of them left the Cabinet. " Some time after this there was a Collector of Customs on the Pacific coast, one of Chase's men, who was rep- resented to me to be a worthless vagabond, and even a defaulter. I spoke to Chase about him ; but he had en- tire confidence in him, and refused to listen to any thing to his disadvantage. While matters stood thus, Chase one day told me that he felt overworked, and proposed taking a little trip down the Potomac, but that he would not be gone longer than two days. I said, ' All right, Mr. Secretary,' and we shook hands and parted. As luck would have it, I was waited upon the very next day by MR. LINCOLN YIELDS. 3O3 a delegation of all tlie gentlemen from the Pacific coast, both official and unofiicial, who then happened to be in "VYasliiugton. They filed formal charges with me against the Collector to whom I have referred, and demanded his immediate removal. I told them that the Secretary of the Treasury was out of town, that it wonld be dis- courteous to him if I acted upon the matter in his ab- sence, but that he would return in one or two days at the latest, and I invited them to call upon me again in about a week, when I promised, under all circumstances, a definite answer to their request. A week passed. No Chase. The delegation returned, and as I was thor- oughly convinced of not only the propriety of, but even the necessity for the act, I removed the Collector, and appointed another in his stead. The first notice that I received of Chase's return was about three days after- wai'd, when I found his resignation lying upon my table. I waited until evening, and then ordered my carriage and drove to his house. I found him in the oflice to the left as you enter the door. I went directly up to him with the resignation in my hand, and, putting my arm around his neck, said to him, ' Chase, here is a pa- per with which I wish to have nothiug to do; take it back, and be reasonable.' I then explained to him what had occurred while he was away. I told him that the man whom I had appointed happened to have been dead several weeks ; that I couldn't replace the person whom I had removed — that was impossible — but that I would appoint any one else whom he should select for the place. It was difficult to bring him to terms; I had to plead with him a long time, but I finally succeeded, and heard nothing more of that resignation. 304: MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. " You remember," Mr. Lincoln continued, " that when Hiram Baeney was appointed, at the beginning of this Administration, Collector of the Port of New York, every body supposed that he was Chase's selection, and nobody else's. Now Baeney was as much my choice as he was Chase's ; and when — Chase, Sewakd, and myself standing round that table — Barney's appointment was decided upon, I believe that I was the most gratified person then present. Well, I have just as great confi- dence in Mr. Barney's integrity and patriotism now as I had then. But after a time things got very mixed in the New York Custom-House, and the establishment was being run almost exclusively in tlie interest of the rad- icals, I felt very great delicacy in doing any thing that might be offensive to my friend Barney. And yet some- thing had to be done. There was no use in attempting to bring Chase over to my views. But I tried it, and failed. Then I waited for a time. At last I made up my mind to take action, hoping to be able to afterward reconcile Chase to it. So I sent for Seward, and told him that he must find a diplomatic position in Europe for Barney. Seward said that it was not an easy thing to do; but I was peremptory, and told him it must be done. After two or three days Seward came back, and reported to me that he had found the place. Just then Chase became aware of my little conspiracy. He was very angry ; and he told me that the day that Mr. Barney left the New York Custom-House, with or without his own consent, he, Chase, would withdraw from the Secretary- ship of the Treasury. Well, I hacked doivn again. Now I ask you, as a reasonable man, whether, when the resig- nation with which you are concerned came, I cov2d, with an}' self-respect, hesitate to accept it ?" A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER. 305 This is the substance of what Mr. Lincoln told me that afternoon. When I got home in the evening, I took notes of the conversation, and I have here endeavored to reproduce his part of it as faithfully as possible. It was Mr. Chase's nature to connnand, not to obey. lie would have made an admirable President, but he could not sub- ordinate himself to any superior authority. I have in my possession a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Chase to the President, under date of January 13, 1S64. It is, apparently, in reply to two received from him, one upon the subject of Mr. Bakney's removal, and the oth- er complaining about a biographical sketch of himself which Mr. Chase had permitted to be written for a mag- azine published in the city of Philadelphia. It is as follows : " My dear Sir, — I am to-day fifty-six years old. I have never, consciously and deliberately, injured a fellow-man. It is too late for me to begin by sacrificing to clamor tlie reputation of a man wliom I have known for more than twenty years, and whose re- pute for honesty has been all that time unsullied. I shall not rec- ommend the removal of Mr. Barney except upon such show of his misconduct or incapacity as makes it my duty to do so. In such a case I shall not shrink from my duty. " I pretend no inditference to the consequences, personal to my- self, which you refer to as likely to follow this avowal on my part. But the api^roval of my own conscience is dearer to me than po- litical position, and I shall clioerfully sacrifice the latter to pre- serve the former. " I received some days ago your note in relation to a biograph- ical sketch to be printed in a Philadelphia periodical. It was a matter in which I had no concern. If any body wants my auto- graph, and I have time, I give it ; if any body wants to take my daguerreotype or photograph, and I have time, I sit for it ; if any body wants to take my life, in the way of a biographical sketch, / let Mm take it, and, if I have time, give such information as is 306 ME3WEIES OF MANY HEN. ■wanted, that lie may take it the more easily. Some friends wanted sucli a sketch i^rcijared, and engaged a gentleman to prepare it. The publisher of the American Exchange and Rcvieic — a resiiectable periodical, by the way, I am told — was about to print a series of such sketches, and proposed to begin with that of me. How could I object ? He asked for subscriptions, and obtained them. How could I control or suiiervise that ? I was veiy busy with the affairs of my Department, and had no time to look after such matters, even had I been aware of what was being done. If I had been consulted, I should certainly have objected to any subscription by Mr. Jay Cooke or his brother ; excej^t such a moderate one as any friend might have made. Not that any wrong was intended or done, but because the act was subject to misconstruction, and there are so many to misconstrue. Mr. Jay Cooke is a friend; and though he did not subscribe to the sketch, he doubtless sanctioned the subscription of his brother Henry, who is also a friend (and the son of a friend), whose friendshiiJ was formed when I was j)ower- less to bestow favors. Neither of the brothers, nor the father, have ever received at my hands, since I have had some power, any favor which they have not earned by strenuous and untiring labors for the public interest; nor any which my worst enemy would not have received as freely had he rendered the same services. What Mr. H. D. CooKE did about the unfortunate biograjjhy was done of his own accord, without prompting from me, and his brother's approval was given in the same way. " You will pardon me if I write as one somewhat moved. It makes me hate i^ublic life when I realize how powerless are the most faithful labors and the most upright conduct to i^rotect any man from carping envy or malignant denunciations ; and how little he can expect even from the best and most intelligent when such noises prevail. It is almost equally painful to think how little friends are disjDOsed to bear with the mistakes and inadvertencies of other friends, and how ready to make me responsible for them as well as my own. Very sincerely yours, " S. P. Chase. " To the President." CHAPTER XII. "VTR. FESSENDEN, while he was Secretary of the -^*-^ Treasury, was a martyr to dyspepsia. He was much more familiar in his manners than Mr. Chase, and failed to inspire his subordinates with that awe which his predecessor had always done. He came to be very much liked. I do not remember any of the moderns who could stand np successfully against him in an imj)romptu discussion in the Senate. It is said that, before the war, Jeffeeson Davis feared to cross swords with him more than he did with any other member of that body. Mr. Fessenden hated Mr. Sumneb, and Mr. Sumner very much disliked Mr. Fessenden. Upon one and the same day, Mr. Fessenden spoke to me of Mr. Scmnee as " no gentleman," and Mr. Sumnek designated Mr. Fessenden as " a mere Senatorial gladiator." I believe that their relations improved, if they did not become actual friends, before Mr. Fessenden's death. I remember that one day, immediately after a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Fessenden, entering his room in the De- jDartment where I was awaiting his return, advanced to- M^ard me with glowing countenance, and said, "I tell you Mr. Field, Mr. Lincoln is more of a politician than all liis Cabinet put together !" Before he had the oj^portn- nity to explain what had so excited his enthusiasm, some- body came in upon business, and the matter was dropped. Mr. Fessenden told me what an unruly lad he had 308 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. been when a student at Bowdoin College, I think he said that he was finally dismissed without receiving a de- gree. At any rate, he mentioned that when he left there, in more or less disgrace, he told the President or the Fac- ulty tliat he would return in less than five years as a Trustee o£ the institution — and he did it. During my time, the present Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon. Joun F. Hartley, was Chief Clerk. This excellent and modest gentleman was a college con- temporary of Mr. Fessenden. He has now been con- nected with the Department nearly forty years ; and is, unquestionably, the best revenue lawyer in the country. Ex-Senatok Joun p. Hale, of New Hampshire, told me that Franklin Pierce, William Pitt Fessenden, Na- thaniel Hawthorne, Hugh McCulloch, John F. Hart- ley, and himself, were all at Bowdoin College, Maine, at the same time, although not all in the same class; and that, had they then been told that among their number there was one who was destined to achieve great future distinction, all would have agreed that Hartley must be the man. Going to Washington for his health more than a generation ago, he accepted a clerkship in the Treas- ury Department, and thei'e he has ever since remained. In every Department of the Government there are to be found a few of these old oflicials, whose services have become almost indispensable, and who have grown so accustomed to a life of routine that they can not eman- cipate themselves from it. Such wei-e my old friends Mr, West, Mr. Wood, and Mr. Handy, all since deceased ; and my college class-mate, Mr. Gaines, and others, who still remain. There used to be a clerk in the Remster's ofiice who ''TITE BARXACLE'' IN WASHINGTON. 309 beloiiired to one of those Wasliino-ton families which ever since the foundation of the Government liave con- sidered themselves, by prescriptive right, entitled to be provided for by it. At the same time, his father was chief of one of the bureaus in the War Department, and he had a brother who was employed in the Inte- rior Department. He had also another brother who had been in the Army, but, becoming disabled by ill- ness, had been honorably discharged. For tJiis brother, too, he was determined to secure a place in the civil service. With this object he went from Department to Department, but always without success. Finally he determined to go directly to the President himself, and to appeal to him to intervene in behalf of the dis- charged soldier. Mr. Lincoln, it would seem, had lieard of the case before the Treasury clerk secured the au- dience with him which he sought. When the inter- view had terminated, the disappointed clerk rushed back to our Department and into my office, and com- menced, in the most indiscreet and intemperate man- ner, to express his disgust with the President. "It is a disgrace to the country," he said, " that such a boor should be President of the United States !" I drew from him the story of what had occurred between the Pres- ident and himself, and it was something like this : Mr. Lincoln received him kindly, and listened to his request. "Why don't you go directly to the Secretaries'^" he ask- ed. " I have been to them all, and failed with all," was the answer. " Hasn't your brother sufficiently recovered his health to enable him to return to the Army?" in- quired the President. " N"o, sir, he has not," was the re- ply. " Let me see," continued Mr. Lincoln, " I believe 310 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. that yon yourself are a clerk in one of tlie Departments — which one is it ?" " The Treasury Department, sir." " I thought so. lias your brother as good clerical capacity as you possess ?" " Yes, sir." " I think that I have some- where met your father. Doesn't he hold an ofdce in Washington?" "Yes, sir; he is chief of the bu- reau in the War Department." " Oh, yes ; I now recol- lect him perfectly well. Has your brother good refer- ences as to character V " Yes, sir ; the very best." " Is there any other of your family holding office under the Government ?" " Yes, sir ; I have a younger brother in the Interior Department." "Well, then, all I have to say to you, Mr. , is that there are too many hogs and too little fodder .^" I was once in Mr, Lincoln's company when a sectarian discussion arose. He himself looked very grave, and made no observation until all the others had finished what they had to say. Then, with a twinkle of the eye, he remarked that he preferred the Episcoj^alians to every other sect, because they are equally indifferent to a man's religion and his politics. This is not quite so bad as the remark attributed to the revivalist preacher. Elder Knapp, that " it is easier for a codfish to climb a tree, tail foremost, with a loaf of bread in his mouth, than for an Episcopalian to go to heaven." It happened that at one time a blockade-runner going out of Charleston harbor was captured, and on board of her were found certain dispatches from the Spanish Con- sul in that city for his own Government. These dispatch- es were very improperly opened by the captor, and then forwarded to the State Department at Washington. Mr. ''A LITTLE story:' 311 Seward, immediately after tliey reached his hands, sent for the Spanish Minister, Mr. Tassaea, and, with expres- sions of great regret that the envelopes had been tampered with, offered him the dispatches. The Minister, highly indignant, declined to receive them. Then Mr. Seward proposed to forward them to their destination through the medium of our own agents. This proposition was equally unacceptable, and the Secretary of State was at a loss what to do. He shortly afterward explained the difficulty to the President, whom it reminded of " a little story." " When I lived in Indiana," he said, " there re- sided very near us an old negro, known as Uncle Josh. He was a very pious darkey, but was so infirm that it was impossible for him to go to the neighboring school- house to listen to any itinerant preacher who might hap- pen to discourse there on a Sunday. However, in order to make up as far as possible for his own inability to at- tend, he always compelled his grandchildren to go ; and they were required, not only to recollect the text, but also to be able to give the old man some account of the sermon. On one occasion a Methodist came and preached. He told the congregation that there were two kinds of people in this world, Methodists and Baptists ; that the Methodists followed a road that led to heaven, and the Baptists one that led to hell. The next Sunday there presented himself a hard-shell Baptist, who had heard about the sermon of his Methodist brother. He told his auditors that it was true that there were two kinds of people in the world, Methodists and Baptists, and that they followed different roads ; but that it was the Baptist road that led to heaven, and the Methodist road that led to hell. When old Uncle Josh heard this, 312 MEMOBIES OF MANY MEN. he scratched his •wool, and said : ' Each one says that there are only two roads, and that his own leads to heaven, and the other to hell. Well, this old nigger will go across lots !' Sewaed, you will have to go across lots !" Story-telling was often with Mr. Lincoln a defensive weapon, which he emj)loyed with great skill. Frequent- ly, when he was unwilling to grant a request, he would tell a story. It was so much easier to do this than to refuse outright. Many a petitioner was dismissed by him, overcome with laughter, and forgetting, perhaps, until he was outside the house, that his visit had been a failure. With civility the President was not overbur- dened, and his manners were any thing but acceptable to the fair sex. I used constantly to observe in Wash- ington during the wai*, that, whereas all men appeared more or less abashed on a23proachiDg, at least for the first time, the nation's leaders, the ladies shared in none of this difhdence. On one occasion a lady was talking to Mr. Lincoln, asking a favor at that, and he remained sitting while she stood. After a while he arose and drew up another chair, as she supposed with the intention of of- fering it to her. Nothing of the sort. He stretched out his own long legs upon it. This was more than female patience could endure. " Mr. Lincoln," exclaimed the lady, " I think you are the worst-bred man in the world." " Halloo," asked the President, " what have I done now ?" The lady explained, and Mr. Lincoln, in the best temper, admitted that he believed she was right. But Mr. Lincoln did not always deal exclusively in burlesque. He received once a call from a delegation of bank Presidents, at one of the gloomiest periods of the war, when depression and even discouragement prevailed MR. LINCOLN'S KINDNESS. 313 in many places. One of the financial gentlemen asked the President if his confidence in the fnture was not be- ginning to be shaken. " Xot in the least," he answered. " When I was a young man in Illinois," he continued, " I boarded for a time with a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. One night I was aroused from my sleep by a rap at my door, and I heard the deacon's voice exclaim- ing, 'Arise, Abraham, the day of judgment has come!' I sprang from my bed, and rushed to the window ; and there I saw the stars falling in a shower. But I looked beyond those falling stars, and far back in the heavens I saw — fixed, apparently, and immovable — the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted. ISTo, gentlemen ; the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now !" Mr. Lincoln possessed extraordinary kindness of heart when his feelings could be reached. He was fond of dumb animals, especially cats. I have seen him fondle one for an hour. Helplessness and suffering touched him when they appealed directly to his senses, or when you could penetrate through his intelligence to them. His imagination was not vivid. He might know as a fact that whole hecatombs were lying upon a battle-field in the agonies of death without being very deeply af- fected. One afternoon I happened to be in Baltimore, and met there one of the most eminent physicians of the city, who told me a pitiful story. A gentleman of large wealth and of the highest social position was lying in liis own house in the last stages of consumption. He sym- pathized with the rebel cause, but had never aided it by deed or money. He had an only daughter and child, who had been educated in Paris, and who liad been a O 31-4 J^rEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. recognized belle at home. She married there her cousin, and went to reside with him in Virginia. When the war broke out, her husband was appointed a General in the Confederate service, and was killed in one of the first engagements. He left his widow with an infant. For a long time she made vain efforts to go to her father. Finally, accompanied by her child and a negro nurse, she followed in the wake of Eakly's raid into Pennsyl- vania. Sometimes she walked, and sometimes she was permitted to ride upon a baggage-wagon, until she finally reached the Pennsylvania mountains — poor, exhausted, and ill. But even here her troubles were not at an end, for our authorities refused to allow her to go to Balti- more to join her dying father. It so happened that, vis- iting Baltimore when a vei'y young man, I received many courtesies at the hands of this gentleman. I expressed a desire to call upon him, and, jumping into the doctor's gig, I accompanied him to the house. I found my old friend in a very shocking condition. I expressed to him my sympathy and my desire to do any thing within my power to bring father and daughter once again together. He thanked me, but assured me that my efforts would prove vain. General Dix, while in command there, and others, had done all that they could, but Mr. Stanton was inexorable. I parted from him, and returned to Washington. The next day I went to Mr. Lincoln and told him the story, much better, I hope, than I have told it here. I succeeded in moving him, and in obtaining directly from him a telegraphic order permitting the lady to come to Baltimore, and to reside there under surveil- lance. I never heard any thing more about it, but pre- sume that the order was carried out, unless the brutal OENEMAL NYE'S REPUBLICAN SAINT. 3^5 Stanton overruled it, which he was quite capable of doing. Probably next to Mr. Lincoln, the best story-teller in "Washington was Senator Nye, of Nevada, commonly known as "Jm ISTye." Unfortunately, however, like some of Mr. Lincoln's, many of his stories will not bear repetition. I remember a dinner that was given at Wash- ington in the club-room at Willard's, by the representa- tives of the leading express companies, upon the occasion of the conclusion of a contract with tlie Treasury De- partment for the transportation of national bank-notes, and w^hich was attended by a veiy distinguished com- pany. If my memory does not fail me upon that point, among others present was General Grant. At all events, Nye was there in the happiest possible mood. After the cloth was removed, he kept the table in a con- tinuous roar of laughter, as he has done before and since " many a time and oft," Among the best of his stories was the following, which he related M'ith a gravity and an unction that it would be impossible to imitate upon paper. In brief, and divested of Nye's solemn details and rich verbiage, it ran somewhat as follows : While Nye was Governor of Nevada, there came to Carson City an old man who had been, with varying luck, wandering among the mines of California since the first discovery of gold there in 1849. At last he had succeeded in accu- mulating a snug fortune, and he had come to Carson to visit an old companion in those early days, who was then residing there. The visitor very soon after his arrival fell ill. His host, who was a pious man, begged to be permitted to call a clergyman, but the guest obstinately refused to allow it. He rapidly grew worse, and his 316 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK condition soon became critical. But all his friend's im- portunities that he should see a clergyman proved un- availing. Finally the physician in attendance declared that the sick man had but a few hours to live; and the host's conscience impelled him to renew the attack, and to tell his friend that, if he adhered to his determination, and continued to refuse to indicate a preference for a clergyman of any particular denomination, he limiself was determined to send for his own pastor. The mori- bund, who was rapidly sinking, turned his head upon his pillow, and, articulating with difficulty, replied : " I can't see — what occasion — I have — for the services — of a cler- gyman. I never — voted — the Democratic — ticket — in my life." While I was in Washington, Hoeace Geeeley used occasionally to visit us there. I remember that he once breakfasted with me, if I recollect aright, tete-d-tete. Mr. Geeeley had long before this discarded Graham bread and a vegetable diet, and had grown to be a very hearty devourer of animal food. After breakfast I lighted a ci- gar, and offered one to him, although I knew that he did not smoke. Of course, he declined it. lie was in cap- ital humor, and, turning to me, he asked me if I knew that he claimed to be the most polite man in the coun- try. I told him that I recognized his many excellent qualities, but was not aware that he was especially re- markable for the graces of politeness. lie assured me that he was, and told me that he had never been beaten in politeness but once in his life. That happened, he said, many years ago, before the days of railroads. Early one morning he left Baggs's Hotel, at Utica, in the stage- coach, westward bound. There was but one passenger OREELET AS CHESTERFIELD. 317 besides himself — a gentleman of very prepossessing ap- pearance, with whom he soon fell into conversation. After a while the stranger slowly and, as it were, me- chanically drew a cigar-case from his pocket, and, open- ing it, tendered it to Mr. Gkeeley, who declined the prof- ered offer. The conversation was resumed ; and present- ly the stranger, extracting a cigar from the case, placed it in his mouth, and returned the case to his pocket. An- other interval of talk ensued, when the stranger abruptly but deferentially remarked to Mr. Geeeley, " I hope, sir, you have no objection to a cigar 1" "None in the world, sir," replied Mr. Gkeeley, " when it is not alight." " Oh," replied his companion, " I had not the most re- mote thought of lighting it !" Thereupon Mr. Geee- ley felt that he had been conquered in politeness; and he afterward ascertained that the victor was the famous Captain Sherman, of Lake Champlain. He also told me that when he was residing in one of the up-town streets of New York, and before the disso- lution of the political firm of " Seward, "Weed, and Gree- ley," Mr. Sewaed came to breakfast with him one day, just as he had then been breakfasting w^ith me. The breakfast finished, Sewaed lighted a cigar, just as I had done. Now Mrs. Geeeley happened to be ill in a room just over that in which the gentlemen were, and her hus- band knew that just so soon as the cigar-smoke should make its way to her nostrils through the flue of the chim- ney, she would descend upon them like an avalanche in whatever costume she happened just then to be. " I was fearfully terrified," said Mr. Geeeley; " and, starting up, I said to Sewaed, ' Sewaed, it's a fine day ; let's take a lit- tle walk.' In less time than I can tell it I had him out of 318 MEMORIES OF AfANY MEN. the house, and we walked round and round the block more than an hour. And the best of it is that Sewakd doesn't know to this day what my motive was in so un- ceremoniously dragging him away from the house that morning." He told the story so earnestly and so quaint- ly that I hardly knew while he was relating it whether I was laughing witli him or at him. It was by means of a letter of introduction from Mr. Geeeley that I made the acquaintance in Washington of the late Majok Charles G. IlALriNE, better known to the literary public by his nom de jplume of Miles O ''lieilly. Mr. Geeeley thought that the Major, who was a War Democrat.^ could furnish us important information about the condition of tlie New York Custom -House. It turned out, however, that all that he could tell us of a reliable character we already knew. Tlie Major pos- sessed much talent as a song and squib writer, but he was only an indifferent politician. The confidence with which he used to stammer out his reading of the politi- cal horoscope was very amusing to those who knew him. With a single exception, the foreign Ministers accred- ited to our Government during the war of tlie Eebellion had very little faith in the ultimate success of the Union cause. That exception was Beetinatti, the Italian. I met him the day after that on which we received au- thentic intelligence of the Bull Run disaster. He de- clared to me his conviction that it was the most fortu- nate thing that could have happened to us ; that it would serve to unite and arouse the people of the loj^al states ; and that the end would be the abolition of slavery, and the re-establishment of a Union free in fact as well as in LORD LYONS. 319 name. Who of iis tlien made a more promising and more intelligent forecast of our national future ? LoKD Lyons, whatever his opinions, which he was too trained a diplomatist to express, did excellent service to our country as well as to his own. He and Mr. Sewakd acted as two policemen to keep the peace between Great Britain and the States. Loed Lyons was a most intelli- gent, cultivated, and laborious man. Lie had extraor- dinary flashes of wit, and, like Washington Ikying in his later years, the habit of suddenly falling asleep, any where and at the most inopportune moments. He treat- ed the juniors of his legation with great kindness, but he compelled them to work. Some of these young gentle- men, who had been in the habit of kicking their heels in Paris and Vienna, rather chafed under the restraint of compulsory business hours. Of all houses, Lord Lyons preferred the Russian Minister's, because there he felt perfectly at home. lie and a lot more of us used to con- gregate npon the steps of that hospitable mansion, and on the sidewalk in front of it, during the intolerably hot summer nights, when sleep was an impossibility, and sip tea a la Russe until almost daylight. In this connection, were there occasion to do so, I might speak more of the friendly Bektinatti, who just before the end of his mis- sion here married a beautiful widow, the possessor of large estates in Mississippi, which she secured from con- fiscation by her diplomatic alliance ; and say something of that exaggerated cherub, the amiable Piper ; the jovial, card -loving Stoeckl; the dissatisfied Mercier; the crafty Blondeel ; the kind but timid Yon Gerolt ; ScHLELDEN, the glvcr of Gothic dinners, at which alwaj's figured that famous " Heidelberg wine ;" the good-hu- 320 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. mored and hospitable Lisboa ; tlie somewliat saturnine Tassaea; the courtly and elegant Bakkeda; and that eccentric invalid, Geoegi, And I might talk about the scenes of liorror after the battles of the Wilderness, when for days long files of ambulances filled with the wound- ed and dyiug passed through the unpaved streets of Washington, on their way to the hospitals on the out- skirts of the city ; of the admirable administration of those hospitals ; of touching incidents which I witnessed in their wards ; and of a thousand other things of daily or occasional occurrence. But let it all pass — at least for the nonce. CHAPTER XIII. IT was an April afternoon in the year 1865. I was driving alone on tlie Fourteenth Street road in the direction of the Soldiers' Home. Presently I heard a clatter behind me, and, looking out of the carriage-win- dow, I saw Mr. Lincoln approaching on horseback, fol- lowed by the usual cavalry escort. He soon came up to me, and, while he rode for some time at my side, we conversed together upon indifferent subjects. I noticed that he was in one of those moods when "melancholy seemed to be dripping from him," and his eye had that expression of profound weariness and sadness which I never saw in other human eye. After a while he put spurs to his horse and hurried on, and he and his fol- lowers were soon lost to view. The next evening I was sitting alone in the reading- room of Willard's Hotel, where I resided during the ab- sence of my family from Washington. Presently I was joined by Mr. Mellen, Special Agent of the Treasury Department. I never saw the hotel so apparently de- serted as it was that evening. The usually crowded cor- ridors were empty. Ten o'clock came, and Mr. Mellen left me to retire to his room. I then picked up the even- ing newspaper, intending, after I had read it, to follow his example. Scarcely had I commenced reading, when two men rushed headlong into the hotel, shouting that the President had been shot at Ford's Theatre ! I sprang 02 322 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. from my seat to follow tliem to the office, but before I could reach it a third person entered, more calm than the two who had preceded him, and confirmed their statement. I immediately dashed up stairs and called Mr. Mellen. He was already partly undressed, but he got ready as soon as possible, and together we rushed down E Street to the theatre. We found assembled in front of it about a hundred persons, many of whom knew us. They crowd- ed around us, and each of them had a different story to tell about what had occurred. We learned that five min- utes before our arrival Mr. Lincoln had been carried over to the house of Petersen, a German tailor, in Tenth Street, and directly oj^posite the theatre. I do not re- member what became of Mr. Mellen, but I at once en- tered the house, the street door of which was standing open. In the hall I met Miss IIareis, the daughter of Sen- ator Harris, of New York, who had been one of the Presidential party at the theatre. As soon as she saw me, she exclaimed, " Oh, Mr. Field, the President is dying ! but for heaven's sake do not tell Mrs. Lincoln !" I in- quired where Mrs. Lincoln was, and was informed that she was in the front parlor. I entered the parlor, and found her there entirely alone. She was standing by a marble-topped table in the centre of the room, with her bonnet on and gloved, just as she had come from the theatre. As I came in she exclaimed, " Why didn't he shoot me ? Why didn't he shoot me ? Why didn't he shoot me V I asked her if there was any thing that I could do, and she begged me to run for Dr. Stone, the President's family physician. I started to do so, but met in the hall Major Eckert, of the War Department, ASSASSmATION' OF MR. LINCOLN. 323 who told me that the doctor had ah-eadj been sent for, and, not having yet arrived, he was himself going to bring him. I returned to tlie parlor, made tliis explana- tion to Mrs. Lincoln, and inquired if there was any thing else that she desired me to do. She requested me to try to find Dr. Hall, a retired physician of the high- est reputation. It took me a long time to reach him, for he lived at a distance, but I finally succeeded, and started with him to walk back to Peteesen's house. As we approached it, we found a military cordon drawn around the door, and, although the doctor was permitted to pass, the same privilege was refused to me. I returned to Willard's Hotel, and went up to the room of Mr. Kufus Andrews, then recently Surveyor of the Port of New York, where I met the late City Judge Russell. I remained there perhaps two hours, and then again started for Petersen's house, accompanied by Mr. Andrews. When we arrived there we found the guard withdrawn, and had no difficulty in getting in. We proceeded directly to the room in which Mr. Lincoln was lying, a small extension room at the end of the hall, from Avhich you descended to it by two steps. The room was plainly furnished, and there were some prints hanging upon the walls. The President was lying transversely across the cottage bedstead, as he was too tall to be placed in any other position. His head was supported upon two pillows on the side nearest the windows, and his feet rested against the opposite end of the foot -board. Dr. Stone was sitting upon the bed. Secretary Welles occupied a rocking-chair, which he did not vacate, I believe, during the entire night. Sur- geon-General Barnes was sitting in an ordinary chair 324 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. by tlie bedside, holding Mr. Lincoln's left band. All the other persons in the room were standing. Senator Sitm- NEK and RoBEKT Lincoln were, the greater part of the time, leaning over the head-board. The others who were in the room during the whole or a part of the night, were Seceetaey McCullocii, Seceetaky Stanton, Sec- EETAEY USIIEE, AtTOENEY - GeNEEAL SpEED, CiIIEF JUS- TICE Chase, Goveenoe Faewell, of Wisconsin, Gov- EENOE Oglesby, of lUiiiois, Speake:e Colfax, Geneeals IIalleck, Meigs, and Augur, Assistant Seceetaey of the Inteeioe Otto, Congeessman Faenswoeth, of Illi- nois, Assistant Suegeon-Geneeal Ceane, Colonel John Hay, the President's Assistant Private Secretaiy, Colo- nel Todd, the Eev. Dr. Gueley, Charlie, Mr. Lincoln's body servant, and perhaps a few others whom I do not at present recall. From time to time Mrs. Lincoln was brought into the room, but she never remained there long. The President's eyes were closed and ecchymose. Pelow the lids and around the cheek-bones the flesh was black. Blood and brains were oozing from the wound in his head upon the uppermost of the pillows which supported it. He had been stripped of all clothing, and whenever one of the physicians turned down the sheet which cover- ed his person, in order to feel the beatings of his heart, his brawny chest and immensely muscular arms revealed the hero of many a successful wrestling-match in his youthful days at ]N"ew Salem. Ilis breathing was for a long time loud and stertorous, ending in deep-drawn sighs. He was totally unconscious from the moment that he was struck by the assassin's bullet. Except his breathing, and the sobbing of his wife, son, and devoted servant, not a sound was to be " THE KING IS dead:' 325 heard in that chamber for hours. The dropping of a pin would have been audible. "What a tragic episode in life's history was this to all there assembled ! And not only to us, but to the nation and to the world ! His pulse was vacillating all through the night — at times strong and rapid, and at others feeble and slow. His vital power was prodigious, or he would have died within ten minutes after he was shot. The night wore on, long and anxious, and finally the gray dawn of a dull and rainy morning began to creep slowly into the room. And still the martyr lived — if liv- ing it could be called. The town clocks struck seven. Almost immediately afterward the character of the President's breathing changed. It became faint and low. At intervals it al- together ceased, until we thought him dead. And then it would be again resumed. I was standing directly op- posite his face, with my watch in my hand. At last, at just twenty-two minutes past seven, he ceased to breathe. When it became certain to all that his soul had taken its flight, Dr. Gueley dropped upon his knees by the bedside and uttered a fervent prayer. Never was a sup- plication wafted to the. Creator under more solemn cir- cumstances. When it was finished, most of the persons assembled began slowly to withdraw from the chamber of death. I, however, with a few others, remained. We closed the eyes completely, and placed silver coins upon them, and with a pocket-handkerchief we tied up the jaw, which had already begun to fall. Mr. Stanton threw open the 326 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. two windows of the room. Jnst then Petersen entered, and rudely drawing the upper pillow from under the head of the dead, tossed it into the yard. Shortly after- ward we retired from the room. Mr. Stanton locked the door, and stationed a sentry in front of it. I then went into the front parlor, where I found Dr. Gueley again praying. Mrs. Lincoln was lying upon a sofa, moaning, and her son E-obekt was standing at lier head. When Dr. Gukley had finished his prayer, Egbert Lincoln assisted his mother to rise, and together we walked to the front door. The President's carriage was standing before the house in the dripping rain, as it had stood there all through that terrible night. As Mrs. Lin- coln reached the door-steps, she cast a hurried glance at the theatre opposite, and three times repeated, " Oh, that dreadful house !" She was then helped into the carriage, which drove away. Perhaps the most affecting incident connected with this drama occurred an hour later. Mr. Lincoln's body, inclosed in a plain wooden box, around which was wrapped the American flag, was borne from the house by six private soldiers ; then placed in an ordinary hearse, behind which the soldiers marched like mourners; and so carried to the Executive Mansion. As the cortege passed along, it attracted but little attention, for but few persons knew what burden was being carried past their doors. It was fitting that this great man of the people — plain Uncle Abe then, as in years gone by in his West- ern home — should pass through the silent streets of the capital under the escort of common men. The rude backwoodsman, who had become a Moses to lead a peo- ple to deliverance from servitude, when dead, first fell ''LOXO LIVE THE KING:' 327 into tlie arms of men humble as lie himself had been. But none the less was the pageantry which followed ap- propriate for that President of the United States whose name is destined to stand upon the roll of our nation's history only second to that of the immortal Washington. I walked back to Willard's alone that morning. Just as I turned from Tenth into E Street, I met the Chief Justice hurrying in the opposite direction. His eyes were bloodshot, and his entire face was distorted as I had never before seen it. " Is he dead ?" he asked. I answered, " Yes," and gave him a very brief account of Mr. Lincoln's last moments. He passed on, and half an hour later he proceeded to the Kirkwood House, accom- panied by some of the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabi- net, and administered there the oath of office to Andrew Johnson, as President of the United States. When I reached my hotel, I went directly to my room, and after washing and arranging my disordered dress, I came down to breakfast. The tables were crowded with ladies and gentlemen, the greater number of whom had only that morning heard of the tragedy, and they were eating as quietly, and apparently as unconcernedly, as if nothing unusual liad occurred. I distinctly remember how this jarred upon my overwrought feelings. The contrast between the two scenes was too violent to be endured long. I could not eat, so I lighted a cigar, and walked up to the Treasury building. I went directly to my own office, and threw myself upon a lounge. Pres- ently Mr. Haktlet and one or two of the bureau officers came in to me. There were but very few of the persons employed in the Department who came there at all that 328 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. day. No interruption of business was formally an- nounced, but there was nobody tliere to transact any. Gloom, despondency, and even alarm pervaded all Gov- ernment circles. It was known that Mr. Sewakd and his son Fkedeeick had been stricken down. It was re- ported that Mr. Stanton had been laid in wait for. The wildest rumors about the extent of the conspiracy were circulated. Nothing was positively known, not even that it was Wilkes Booth who had murdered Mr. Lincoln. I remember that somebody brought me a revolver, and insisted that I should carry it for my own protection. Presently a reporter from the N'ew Yorh Times obtained access to me, and insisted that I should write for his paper an account of the President's death. I excused myself upon the plea of weariness ; but he would not let me off until I had dictated to him a statement, which he took down in short-hand. Then followed a reporter of the PMladeljpMa Inquirer^ and I had to do the same thing for him. I believe that these were the only cir- cumstantial accounts of the last scenes which were pub- lished at the time, perhaps at any time. My head felt dazed, and I took a street car and went to Georgetown. I called upon Father Early, the principal of the Col- lege there, and he told me about a mysterious person who had been lurking around their grounds the previous night. Then I came home, and being by this time com- pletely exhausted, went directly to bed, and soon fell into a profound sleep. Three days afterward followed Mr. Lincoln's funeral, of which my colleague, Mr. Harrington, had the princi- pal charge. The various official bodies who were to at- tend it met before proceeding to the Executive Mansion THE CURTAIN FALLS. 329 in separate rooms assigned to each of tliem in the Treas- ury building. They were to go thence to the Wliite House in the reverse order of dignity, and it was my duty to so marshal them that there should be no break in the procession. And here occurred one of those little conflicts of etiquette which will sometimes obtrude them- selves upon the m.ost solemn occasions. The Chief Jus- tice insisted that the diplomatic body precede himself and his associates, while the foreign representatives de- manded that the Supreme Court precede them. The rooms occupied by the disputants were distant from each other. I had to run from one to the other. Finally Bakon Von Geeolt, the dean of the diplomatic corps, gave wsij Jbr the occasion, without prejudice, however, to any claims, etc. As I saw Mr. Lincoln lying in state in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, his appearance was quite un- like what it had been immediately after his death. The black had gone from his eyes and his face, which had re- sumed a natui-al color. This, I was informed, was the work of an artist. The pencil had been employed to produce the change. While his corpse was being carried in procession through the cities of the land, before it was exposed to public gaze, the coffin was opened, the dnst was brushed from the face, and the discolored parts were retouched. And so he went to his rest ! INDEX. Abbas Pasha, 27; Sofia, his Dis- carded Wife, 29. Adams, Charles Francis, on Presi- dent Monroe, 226. Adams, John Quincy, 225. Adrian ; or, the Clouds of the Mind, 205. AflTectionate Behavior of President Pierce, 173. Albrecht, Prince of Prussia, 28. Alexander in the Tent of Darius, the Painting of, 2U. Alva, the Duke and Duchess of, 96. Apsley House, Closed Shuttersof, 14. Argyll, Duke of, Attacks Lord Der- by, 146. Aspinwall's Picture-Gallery, 231. Assassination of Napoleon III., At- tempted, 126. Assassination of President Lincoln, 321 et seq. Astor's, John Jacob, Bequest to Halleck, 224. Athens in 1844, 30; the Beautiful Queen, 30. Audiences, Anecdotes of Private, 68. Aumale,Duc d'. Entering Paris, 16. Ball to H. E. IT. the Prince of Wales, 241 et seq. Bank Presidents Consulted by Sec- retary Chase, 256. Earn-hurners and Hunkers, 182. Bai-ker, Mr. Sigourney, 199. Barney, Collector of the Port of New York, 260, 304. Barnum and Jenny Lind, 216 et seq. Barreda, the Courtly and Elegant, 320. Barry, Sir Charles, the Architect, 45. Bates, of Baring Brothers, 50. Bath, the Young Marquis of. Lord Farintosh, 133. Belmont, August, Minister to Hol- land, 169 ; his Picture-Gallery, 231. Benkard's Eesidence, Prince Napo- leon's Admiration of, 230. Bertinatti, the Italian Minister, gives a Dinner to Prince Napo- leon, 231 ; his BeHef in the Union, 318. Bethune, Eev. Dr., 180. Bigelow, of Boston, on Taxation, 277. "Black Warrior Affair," the, 69. Blessington, Countess of, 51 ; her Mot about Lamartine, 51. Blondeel, the Crafty, 319. Bomba, King of Naples, Brutal Treatment of his Wife, 26. Bonaparte, Joseph, Anecdote of, 34. Butzaris, the Handsome Miss, 30. Bowdoin College, Distinguished Fellow-students at, 308. Bradhurst, Mr. John M., 167. Brodhead, John R., in London, 53 ; his Anglicized Ways, 54 ; Naval 332 INDEX. Officer in New York, 54 ; his His- tory of New York, 55. Brodie, Sir Benjamin, the Great Surgeon, 46. Brough, Governor, of Ohio, 281. Brown, Frederick, Brother of Old John, 291 ; Anecdotes of, 292. "Brummagem" Manners, 23; Punishment for, 24. Brunswick, the Late Duke of, 112. Buchanan ,^nd the "Ostend Mani- festo," 75 ; Careful of Expenses, 76 ; at Wheatland, 171 ; Minis- ter to England, 172 ; with Prince of Wales, 243. Burr, Kecollections of Aaron, 155. Butler, General Benj. F., Chase's Opinion of, 285 ; Author's Opin- ion of, 286. Byron, Eccentricities of Lady, 140. Byron, his Lameness, 210; Swims the Hellespont, 211 ; his Appear- ance,212; Anecdotes of, 2 11-2 13. Cabinet, Bickerings in Lincoln's, 263. Cameron's, Simon, Dismissal from the Cabinet, 267 et seq. Campbell, Robert S., Appointed Consul in London, 173, 174; Anecdote of, 150. Campbell, the Unfortunate Habits of the Poet, 208. Canadian Exhibitors at the Paris Palace of Industry, 103. Carnarvon, the Earl of, 147. Carnival, the Eoman, 25. Cass, Pun on Name of Senator, 182. Champagne in an English Chop- house, 54. Charles of Austria, Archduke, 20. Charles X., Anecdote of, 109. Chartist Demonstration in 1848,39 ; Macaulay's Estimate of Number in the, 142. Chase, S. P., Appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 253 ; Consults J. J. Cisco, 254 ; Visits New York, 255 ; and Seward, 262 ; Extract from his Diary, 267 ; his Mental Calibre, 280; his Honesty of Purpose, 280 ; Pres- idential Aspirations of, 281 ; Nervous Temperament, 281; ScoldingBrother Secretaries,28] ; Careful Discharge of his Duties, 282 ; Opinion of Lincoln's Econ- omy, 284 ; Passing Counterfeit Currency, 284 ; his Opinion of General Benj. F. Butler, 285 ; Story of his Repeated Resigna- tions, 298 et seq. ; Letter to the President, 305. Christina, Ex-Queen of Spain, and her Family, 1 1 2. Cisco, John J. , 166; and Howell Cobb, 250 ; his Anxiety about the Credit of the Country, 252 ; Resigns the Fiscal Agency, 253 ; Withdraws his Resignation, 254; Opinions as to the War, 255 ; Borrows Gold at Four per Cent., 257. Clanricarde, Marquis of, 147. Clarvoe, Kind Conduct of Detect- ive, 295. Climate, Influence of the English, 36. Clotilde, Princess, in New York, 229 et seq. Cobb, Howell, and the First Gov- ernment Loan, 250. Cockney, Quizzing a, 42. Colfiix, the Late Vice-President, 288. Commission of Military Engineers to Europe, 132. Commissioners to Paris Exhibition, their Perplexities and Worries, 102 et seq. INDEX. 333 Constituent Cortes at Madrid : Ap- pearance and Eeal Character of the Members, 81. Cooke, Jay and II. D., 306. Cooper, James Fenimore, 1 78 ; Re- spect for his Memory, 179. Counterfeit Currency passed by Sec- retary Chase, 28i. Coutts, Baroness, 50. Crampton's Dismissal, Complica- tions arising out of, 150 et seq. Cross of the Legion of Honor, Awards of the, 136. Cuba : Soule on the Acquisition of the Island by the United States, 98. Curtis, Geo. WiUiam, 198. Gushing, Caleb, and President Pierce, 160. Czartoriski, the Dashing Princess, 112. Dalliousie, Letter from the Mar- quis of, 207. Darley, the Artist, 198. Derby, Eloquence of the Late Earl of, 146. Diary, Extract from Mr. Chase's, 267. Dickens, Charles, his Treatment during the Carnival at Rome, 25 ; Washington Irving's Indig- nation at his Rough Manners, 31; Rude Behavior of, 185. Dinners to Prince Napoleon in New York, 233 ; in Boston, 231. Disraeli in the House of Commons, 147. Dix, John A., Appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 252. Dolley's Chop-house, 54. D'Orsay, Count, and Apsley House, 14, 51. Douglas, Stephen A. , 264. Douglass, Frederick, 295. Duels : Soule' with Turgot, 80 ; Cutting with Breckenridge, 227; Colonel James Monroe and a Naval Lieutenant, 227. Dumas the Elder, 131, Ekenhead, Lieutenant, swims from Sestos to Abydos, 211. Emancipation Proclamation, Story of the, 264. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, in Lon- don, 45. Emperor Napoleon and Goodyear's Foot-balls, 114. England as a Home, 137 ; the Man- ners of the People, 1 38. English Climate, Influence of, 36. Episcopalians and President Lin- coln, 310. _ Esneh, Visit to, 29. Eugenie, the Empress, and the " Black Warrior Affair," 73. Europe, First Visit to, 13 ; Second Visit, 32 ; Third Visit, 57 ; Fourth Visit, 137. Everett, Chilling Reception by Hon. Edward, 13. Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria, 20. Fessenden, W. P., Relations with Chase, 281 ; Appointed Secretary of Treasury, 298 ; Martyr to Dys- pepsia, 307 ; Relations with Sum- ner, 307. Field, David Dudley and Cyrus W. , 199. Field, Rev. Justin, 201. Fillmore, Ex-President, 181. Flagg, Azariah C, on Expenditures, 279. Foreign Ministers in Washington, Sentiments of, 318. 33J: INDEX. Fractional Currency, Issue of and Demand for, 259. Francis, Dr. John W., 180. French Court, Presentations at the, 64. Gallatin, Albert, 226. Gallatin, James, of the National Bank, 256. Gas-Company Presidents and Tax- ation, 276. Georgi, an Eccentric Invalid, 320. Girdham's, William, Anecdotes of Byron, 210 et seq. Goodyear's India Rubber at the Paris Exhibition, 104 ; his Can- non-balls, 114. Grant, General Scott's KecoUections of, 223. Greeley, Horace, 63 ; Commissioner to Paris Exhibition, 116 ; Arrest on Civil Process, 117; in the Prison of Clichy, 120 ; his Good- humor, 121 ; Donn Piatt's Ac- count of the Affair, 122 ; Anec- dotes of, 816. Gregory XVI. , Pope of Rome, 24. Grey, Earl, Dyspeptic and Bitter, 147. Griswold, Rufus A., 225. Groesbeck, Anecdotes of Mr., 68. Guizot, M., 130 ; fiimous Mot, 15. Hall, Mr. S. C, Hospitality of, 144. Halleck, Fitz-Greene, and John Ja- cob Astor, 223. Halpine, Chas. G. {Miles O'Reilly'), 318. Hardwicke, the Bluff Earl of, 147. Harriet Lane, Prince of Wales on board of the, 242. Harrington, Geo., Assistant Secre- tary of the Treasury, 26 1 . Hartley, John F., of the Treasury, 308. Hawthorne, N., 198; in London, 145 ; Anecdotes of, 159. Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd," Anecdotes of, 208, 209. Holland, King of, some Account of, 17. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 198, 202 ; his Poem, F^/ye la France! 234. Houston, Sam, of Texas, 175. Huvianes : American Students in Paris, 124. Hunkers and Barn-burners, 182. Ibrahim Pasha, 27. Income Tax thought Unconstitu- tional, 275. Indecorum of Parliament and Con- gress, 148. Irving, Washington, Minister to Spain, 30 ; his First Interview with Charles Dickens, 31 ; his Promising Young Man, 223. Isabella II. , Queen of Spain : Prop- erty in Cuba, 83 ; Soule' asks for an Audience, 84 ; the Palace and the Guards, 87 ; Reception of American Minister, 89 ; the Inno- cent Isabel's Appearance, 00 ; her Good-nature and Gratitude, 91 ; invites Author to a Ball, 92 ; Public Estimate of her Charac- ter, 94. Jackson, General, in Kew York, 156. James, G. P. R. , Early Life and his English Friends, 187; his First Novel, 190 ; Arrives in New York, 190; Residence at Hell Gate, 190 ; Poetical Description of, 191 ; Witty Effusion, 196 ; at Stockbridge, Mass., 197; Consul at Norfolk, Va., 205 ; his Exten- sive Acquaintance with Authors, 208 ; Anecdote of " the Ettrick INDEX. 335 Shepherd," 208 ; Acquaintance with Byron, 210. Jenifer, of Mar^-land, Minister at Vienna, 20. Jerome, Mr. Leonard, 233. Johnson, Andrew, Sworn in as President, 327. Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, 108 ; Anec- dotes of, 200. Kendall, Geo. W., of N. 0. Pica- yune, 38 ; Arrested in London, 40. King, Wm. R., Minister to France, 15. Knapp, Elder, a Remark of, 310. Knapp, Shepherd, of the Mechanics' Bank, 256. Leary, Arthur, of New York, 285. Lee, General Scott's Opniion of Robert E., 223. Licignano, Duke di, 231. Lincoln, Accession to Presidency, 253 ; as a Politician, 2G1, 307 ; his Proclamation of Emancipa- tion, 265 ; Dismisses Cameron, 269; Affection for McClellan, 270 ; Estimate of his Cabinet, 274; his Economy, 284; Ex- plains his Acceptance of Chase's Resignation, 300 ; his Style of Designating the Presidency, 301 ; Humorous Talk, 310 ; Story-tell- ing, 312 ; INIanners with Ladies, 312; his Belief in the Union, 313 ; his Kind-heartedness, 313; his Assassination, 321 et seq. ; his Death, 325 ; his Funeral, 328. Lind, Jenny, ]\Ieeting with, 144 her Arrival in New York, 216 Appears at Castle Garden, 217 Barnum's Master-stroke of Pol- icy, 218; her Changes of Agree- ment, 219 ; Playing Tragedy Queen, 220; Hatred oi Humbug and Negroes, 220. Lisboa, the Good-humored and Hos- pitable, 320. London and the Chartists, 39 et seq. Louis Napoleon, First Meeting with, 46 ; his Opinion of Middle-class English, 48 ; his Friends in En- gland, 50 ; Fashionable Opinion of him, 51; as President, 52; Lord Aberdeen's Opinion, 53 ; Intercourse with the Queen of England, 52 ; on Horseback, 52. Lover, Sam, and his Songs, 145. Lucca, Grand Duke of, Eccentrici- ties of, 22 ; his Death, 23. Lyons, Lord, the English Minister, 319. Macaulay, Intercourse witli T. B., 140 ; his Prophecy as to the Fu- ture of the United States, 141. Madrid, Visit to, 30, 76, 11 et seq. Marcy, and the ' ' Ostend Manifes- to," 75 ; Secretary of State, 165- 1 68 ; Refuses to Sign Sickles's Commission as Secretary of Le- gation in England, 172. Mason, John Y., Minister to France, 57 et seq. Mathilde, Princess Demidoff, 105. Mavrocordato, Prince, 30. McClellan, General Scott's Opinion of Geo. B., 223; Quarrel with Stanton, 271 ; Lincoln's Affec- tion for, 270. " Me and the Minister," 15. Mehemet Ali, his Gallantry to a Lady, 27. Melville, Herman, 198, 202. Membrane Pajier, 290 ; Anecdote regarding, 291. Mercier, the Dissatisfied, 319. 336 INDEX. Mezzofanti, Appearance of Cardi- nal, 24. Mitchel, the Theatrical Manager, and Louis Napoleon, 52. Mitchell, D. G. [ik Marvel), and Thackeray, 134. Monroe, Colonel James, 227. Monroe as Minister to France, 226. "Monroe Letter," the, 227. Montpensier, Due de, at a Concert, 16. Montreal, Committee from New York City in, 239 et seq. Morley's Hotel, Second-class at First-class Prices, 39. Mulatto Sculptor in England, a, 138; his Difficulties, 139; Kind- ness of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 140. Murat, Prince Lucien, 32 ; his Ec- centricities, 33 ; Ilorse-jockeying, 33; his Anecdote of his Uncle, Joseph Bonaparte, 34 ; his Suc- cess in France, 35. Names of English Shop-keepers, 55. Napoleon III., attempted Assassin- ation of, 126 ; his Coolness and Courage, 127 ; on Horseback, 128 ; his Tact, 129 ; his Habits, 129; Dislike to the United States, 129 ; with the Empress in Private, 130. See, also, Louis Napoleon. Napoleon (Prince Jerome) and his Wife in New York, 229 ct scq. Nemours, Due de, 15. Nile, up the, 28. Northumberland, Letter from the Duke of, 207. Nye, James, of Nevada, his Story- telling Powers, 315. O'Connor, Fergus, and the Chartist Petition, 42. Oporto, the Duke of, 112. Osgood, Eev. Dr., 180. Ossuna, Anecdote of the Due d', 24. "Ostend Manifesto," the, and Sec- retary Marcy, 75 ; the Writer of it, 99. Owen, pre-Adamite Appearance of Prof., 144. Palmerston, Personal Magnetism of Lord, 147. Paris Exhibition of 1855, 101 et seq. Parker, Rev. Dr., 201. Parliament, Attendance on Houses of, 145. Patriotism of a Western Clergy- man, 259. Piatt, Donn, Secretaiy at Paris, 67. Picture -Gallery at Madrid, the Royal, 78. Pierce, President, and his Umbrel- la, 156 ; First Introduction to, 157; his Nomination, 159 ; Fish Chowder with, 160 ; Upset in the Surf, 161 ; his Presidential Ca- reer, 162 et seq. Piper, the Amiable, 319. Pitt's, Wm., English Taxes, 278. Plon-Plon, 105. Poe, Lecture by Edgar A., 224. Portugal, the King of, 112. Presentations at the French Court, 64. President of the United States, Au- thor Announced as the. 111. Prince Napoleon (Jerome), 104; his Personal Appearance, 105 ; his Relations with the Emperor, 1 06 ; his Crimean Record, 107 ; his Political Opinions, 107; his Mo- rality, 108; his Residence, 109 ; Weekly Receptions, 111. Prince of Wales. See Wales. Prussia, Encounter with the Crown Prince of, 19. IXDEX. 337 Pun oil the K ame of General Cass, 182. Queen Victoria at the Opera, 43 ; Friendly to the United States, 152. Quizzing a Cockney, 42. Raglan, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, 38. Red Jacket, the Indian Chief, 15"). Redfield, Heman J., Collector of the Port of New York, 1G6. Renfrew, Lord, the Prince of Wales as, 245. Republicanism in the United States and Europe, 120. Rianzares, Duke of, 112. Riots of July, 18G3, in N. Y. City, 260. Risley, II. A., of tlie Treasury De- partment, 28G. Roosevelt, Ex-Judge, and the Prince of Wales, 243. Rothschild, Baron James de, 134 ; his Cad Manners, 135 ; Invita- tion to a Funeral, 155. Russell, Lord John, in the House of Commons, 147. Sanders, George N., of Kentucky, 37. Sardinia, Appearance of the King of, 21. Schell, Augustus, 106 ; Augustus Seizer, 167. Schleiden, the Giver of Gothic Din- ners, 319. Scott, General Winfield, Anecdotes of, 221. Secession, Threatenings of, 250. Secretary of Legation in Paris, Troubles of a, 57 et seq. Sedgwick, the Family of, 198. Senator, the, and his Baby, 125. Seven-Thirty Treasury Notes, Pro- posed Issue of, 256 ; Popularity of, 258. Seward, W. A., Secretary of State, 262 ; a Tiresome Guest, 271 ; Anecdote told by him, 272. Sewing-Machines at the Paris Ex- hibition, 103. Shopping with American Strangers, 125. Shubrick, Admiral, 292. Shuckers, Mr., Secretary to S. P. Chase, 298. Sickles, Daniel E., Buchanan's Sec- retary of Legation, 172. Sofia, Discarded W^ife of Abbas Pasha, 29. Somerset, Lord Fitzroy, afterward Lord Raglan, 38. Sophia, the Beautiful Archduchess, 20. Soule', Pierre, Minister to Spain, 76 ; Reception of Author, 77 ; Indignation at Marcy's Dispatch, 78 ; Relations with the Court, 79 ; his Duel with Turgot, 80 ; Polit- ical Intrigues with Qneen Isabel- la, 83 ; Resigns his Mission, 99. Special Constables, American Citi- zens in London acting as, 40. Specie Payment, Suspension of. Prognosticated, 255, 256 ; Opin- ions of Secretary Chase, 255, 256 ; Suspended Monday, Jan. 1, 1862, 257. Spinner, General, Anecdotes of, 289. St. Jago, Formal and Eccentric Marquis de, 24. Stamps, Government, 277. Stanton appointed Secretary of War, 267. Stebbins, II. G., of New York, 288. Stevens, John A., of the Bank of Commerce, 256. Stoeckl, the Jovial and Card-lov- ing, 319. 338 INDEX. Story-telling, Lincoln's, 312. Stowe, Mrs. Ilaniet Beecher, her Sincerity, 140. Students from America in Paris, 12+. Sultan Abdul Medjid, 20. Sumner, Charles, and John Y. Ma- son, G3 ; his Opinion of Fessen- den, 307. Sumner, Colonel, at the French Court, 69. Tassara, the Spanish Minister, and the Captured Dispatches, 311; somewhat Saturnine, 320. Taylor,Moses,ofthe City Bank, 256. Taylor, Tom, the Dramatist, 144. Tax-bills of 1861-2, 275 et seq. Thackeray, W. M., 132 ; the Pro- totypes of his Fictitious Charac- ters, 133 ; his Knowledge of French Character, 133 ; his Brusque Manners, 134; at his Home in London, 142 ; Talks of Dickens, 143 ; Anecdote of, 292. Thefts in the Treasury Department, 292. Thomas, of Maryland, Secretary of the Treasury, 251. Tod, Governor, of Ohio, Nominated as Secretary of the Treasury, 298. Travels, Extent of Early, 13. Treasury of the United States Emp- ty, 251 ; First Expedients to Fill it, 252 ; Loans in New York, 255 et seq. ; Proposed Issue of Seven- Thirty Notes, 256 ; Author Ap- pointed Assistant Secretary, 262. Turin, Stay in, 21. Tuscany, Grand-duke of, 21. Tyler, President, and his Irish Coachman, 181. Union Club Dinner to Prince Na- poleon, 232. United States' First Loan in 1861, • 250 ; Howell Cobb's Opinion, 251 ; Thomas, of Maryland, 251 ; Cis- co's Expedients, 251 ; Seven-thir- ty Notes, 256 ; Six-twenty Bonds, 257 ; Fractional Currency, 259. Vail, Cashier of the Bank of Com- merce, Sustaining Credit of the Government, 251. Van Buren, E.x-President, in Paris, 132. Van Buren, the late John, 181-184. Van Buren, John D., 275. Vattemarre, M. Alexandre, 131. Veronese, Paul, Anecdote of the Painter, 214. Victoria Bridge, Formal Opening of the, 239. Victoria of England Friendly to the United States, 1 52. Vive la France ! by Dr. O. W. Holmes, 234; Translated into French by the Author, 235. Von Gerolt, the Kind but Timid, 3 19. Wade's, Senator, Profanity, 290. Wales, the Prince of, to be Invited to New York, 238 ; Committee of Arrangements, 238; Keceptionin Montreal, 239 ; Lunch with, 241 ; Arrangements for a Grand Ball, 242 ; Prince and President, 243 ; Arrives in New York, 243 ; Re- view of Troo])s, 244 ; Sights of New ITork, 245; at the Ball, 246; at Trinity Church, 247; Bible and Prayer-book Presented to him, 248 ; leaves New York, 249 ; Expenses of the Ball, 249. Walsh, Hon. Mike, Practical Joker, 176. Washburne, E. B., Candidate for Speaker, 288. Washington, D. C, Prince of Wales visits, 243. INDEX. 339 War Department, ^Managemenf in the, 266. Webster, Daniel, 176-180. Weed, Thurlow, Governor of New York, 272._ Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, 273. Wellington, Appearance of the Duke of, 14; and the Chartists, 39 ; Letter from, 207. Wheaton's, Henry, Breach of Eti- quette, 19. Whisky, Taxes on, 278. Whiteside, the Tory Barrister, 149. Wilberforce, Eloquence of Bishop, 146. Williams, Lunch with Prince of Wales at House of General Sir W. Femvick, 240. Willis, N. P., 225. Wise, Henry A., his Dinner Ser- vice, 286 ; Anecdote of, 287. Wood, Fernando, and Mr. Chase, 289. THE END. 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