THE GOVERNMENT YIELDS ITS PRISONER
By the early spring of ’6 the faces of old friends began to reappear in
the Northern cities. New York, which I necessarily visited at times
during those eventful months, when not at the Fort with Mr. Clay or
beseeching the President on his behalf, was crowded with Southern
people, many of whom were returning from abroad, or were industriously
seeking to reëstablish business connections. In the capital one met on
every hand friends of the ante-bellum days, saddened and changed, it
might be, in fortune, but brave-spirited and walking with heads upright
and hearts strong to meet the future. “I am persuaded that our States
and people are to be prosperous, despite the portentous clouds which are
now around us,” wrote Mr. Mallory, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, where,
now an invalid, he was constrained to remain; “and that the day is not
far distant when you and your incomparable lord, with other congenial
spirits, will smile at fate and look back to the paths we are now
treading with more of pride than of sorrow! My love to Clay. God love
him! What would I not give to be able to serve him!”
A spirit as loyal and comforting to us pervaded the circle of old-time
associates in Washington, and permeated the newer ones who had gathered
about me in my adversity. Mrs. Parker, the brilliant hostess of the
Buchanan days, who now so hospitably had thrown open her home to me,
proved an unsparing and faithful friend. Her hospitality to me and to
the legion of other friends who flocked to offer their sympathy and
services to me was unstinted, and the several members of her family vied
with each other in extending their kindnesses and protection to me.
Among the friends who reappeared in Washington about this time, my diary
notes the calls upon me early in ’6 of fair Constance Cary and her
fiancé, Burton Harrison,[71] long since released from the imprisonment
which, for a time, he shared with Mr. Davis; of my kinswoman, Mrs. Polk,
of North Carolina, and of Madame Le Vert, the brilliant Octavia Walton,
who, almost three decades before, had led all other fascinating beauties
in the capital. Accompanied by her daughters, Mme. Le Vert had returned
to the North to intercede for the pardons of General Beauregard and
others of her kin and friends. Her comings and goings were heralded
everywhere. She was the distinguished member of the Southern coterie in
New York, whence frequent trips were made to the capital, and it was
commonly remarked that the charm of her personality had suffered no
diminution with the increase of years.
Our beloved General Lee, who had been summoned to Washington to appear
before the Reconstruction Committee, was the lion of the day. I saw him
several times, surrounded by hosts of admirers, the ladies begging for
mementoes, buttons—anything, in fact, he might be persuaded to give up,
while he, modest and benevolent, yielded helplessly to their demands. It
was during these months that I became acquainted with the lovely Mme. de
Podestad, General Lee’s kinswoman, who was both witty and beautiful. For
a number of years, as the wife of one of the Spanish Minister’s suite,
she was a conspicuous member of Washington society. Going thence to
Spain, she became lady-in-waiting to the Queen. Madame de Podestad was a
devoted admirer of her heroic kinsman, and I saw much of her in those
memorable days of ’6.
[Illustration:
MRS. A. S. PARKER
of Washington, D. C.
]
It was a time of intense political excitement. The strife over the Civil
Rights bill was the absorbing topic everywhere. The “returning good
sense of the people,” upon which the President so long had appeared to
depend, was less apparent than he had hoped, and to many astute minds
the air seemed to vibrate with premonitions of the Government’s
overthrow. Cabinet changes were so earnestly desired that a discussion
of that body became part of every conversation. Mr. Johnson’s absorption
in the progress of the Civil Rights bill was so great, that, upon my
return from a visit to my husband, early in April, realising the
inadvisability and the inconsiderateness of pressing my demands at that
moment, I yielded to the urgings of my friends and entered upon a short
season of diversion. I remember to have visited, in company with Senator
Bright and Mr. Voorhees, the studio of Vinnie Reames, whose vogue in
Washington was then at its height; and I indulged in a pleasure trip to
Baltimore, where a great fair was in progress which had been arranged by
the patriotic ladies of that city. Contributions had poured in, and half
the capital was in attendance.
“Mrs. Johnson sent a superb basket of flowers,” reads the account I sent
home, “which was raffled for sixty dollars! A portrait of the President
was bought and sent to her. Also General Johnston’s and General Lee’s
were bought and sent to their wives. Mr. Corcoran won the portrait of
‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Admiral Semmes was present one day, and he and I
promenaded the rooms together. Though not the ‘Pirate’s Bride,’ I was
proud of his company. A _robe de chambre_ for Mr. Davis and a superb
pillow for Mr. Clay are in my possession. Will take them soon! Ross
Wynans,” I added, in describing the more generous donations sent to the
energetic ladies, “has sent one hundred thousand dollars, and an English
gentleman twenty-five thousand!”
Admiral Semmes was the most recent of the State prisoners to be
released, and his appearance at the fair was the signal for a lively
enthusiasm. By this time Mr. Stephens, our late Vice-President, was a
free man, and thrice had called upon me in Washington to offer
sympathetic suggestions concerning the case of my husband, so
inexplicably detained. Our dear friend, ex-Secretary of the Navy
Mallory, had been given his liberty early in March.
“Deeply anxious about your good husband,” Mr. Mallory wrote, early in
April, “I have deferred writing to you from day to day since my release,
confident that I would soon be able to congratulate you upon his
release. Persuaded that he will never be called upon seriously to
respond to the charge upon which he was incarcerated, and unable to
perceive any reason or motive for discriminating between him and others,
myself included, who laboured in the Confederate cause, I am at a loss
to conceive why this confinement _continues_. Of course, I fully
appreciate the character of the struggle between the two great
departments of the Government, and the embarrassments which it throws in
the President’s path; and hence I attribute to this cause all which
affects Mr. Clay, and which I cannot otherwise account for. But the
restoration of civil law throughout the country opens a way which his
friends may very properly take ... and I have been prepared to learn it
has been entered upon!”
A resort to the _habeas corpus_ proceedings thus suggested by Mr.
Mallory had already been discussed by Judge Black as a step to be taken
when all other efforts had proved unsuccessful. By the fourteenth of
March, Mr. Johnson’s courage to act in behalf of Mr. Clay had risen to
the point of procuring for him the liberty of the Fort without guard,
from sunrise to sunset, which order I had carried at once to General
Miles.
“I have not yet called upon the President,” I wrote father upon my
return from Fortress Monroe, on the 29th of March, “but will report
myself to-morrow and ask of him that no revocation of the late order
shall be made. I shall urge Mr. Clay’s release, if only temporary, that
he may come and see you and help you arrange your business.... The
Radical pressure on the President is fearful. They have expelled Foote,
and have persuaded Stewart, of Nevada, his son-in-law, to desert his
colours and cause, and they may pass the veto over the President’s manly
veto of the Civil Rights bill. But President Johnson will fall, if fall
he must, battling!”
The records of my calls upon the Executive during the weeks that
followed almost might be traced by the many pencilled cards sent me by
Mr. Johnson from time to time.
“It will be impossible for me to see you until it is too late. I am
pressed to death!” reads one. “There is a committee here in
consultation; I cannot tell what time they will leave. I fear too late,
but see if in twenty minutes,” runs another. And a third, “Some matters
of importance are now transpiring. I will see you at any time, but would
prefer passing the answer until Saturday.” Weeks passed thus in futile
calls and beseechings, until, having tested every expedient to hasten
the President to the fulfilling of his promise, my patience was
exhausted.
“Again I am under the necessity of writing,” I began in a letter to my
sister, dated the fourteenth of April, “without announcing my husband’s
release! Nor can I give you any definite information save what I mean to
do and wish others to do. I am at this moment from the President’s; did
not see him, but left a note inquiring when I could, and [asked] to be
informed by note, which he often does in my case. He _shall_ tell me in
this interview whether he means speedily to release Mr. Clay. If not,
then I will have issued the writ of _habeas corpus_, unless Judge Black
oppose it!”
At eleven o’clock at night, however, I added, “The President sent for me
to-night, and I have strong hopes that Mr. Clay will be released in a
few days! I will telegraph you immediately when it occurs. I pray Heaven
it may be ere this reaches you!”
Three days later, accompanied by my faithful friend, Mrs. Bouligny, I
again called upon the President. It was eight o’clock in the evening.
Having detected, as I believed, a disposition on Mr. Johnson’s part yet
further to procrastinate, notwithstanding his recent promises that he
would order Mr. Clay’s release, I was resolved not to leave the White
House again without the requisite papers. I announced this intention to
the President as he greeted us, asking him at the same time whether he
would not spare me another moment’s anxiety and write me the
long-petitioned-for order for Mr. Clay’s release.
Mr. Johnson’s mood was light. He repeated some of the _on dits_ of the
day, trying in various ways to divert me from my object, to which,
however, I as often persistently returned. From time to time other
visitors entered to claim the President’s attention; or, he excused
himself while he went into a Committee meeting which was being held in
an adjoining room. During such an interval I sat at the President’s desk
and scribbled a short letter in pencil to Mr. Clay. It was dated:
“EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
April 17, 1866.
“My precious husband!” I wrote. “Behold me seated in the library of
this house, in the President’s chair, writing you the ‘glad tidings
of great joy!’ The President has just gone in for a few moments to
see some gentlemen, and will bring me your _release papers_ when he
returns! He told me on the fourteenth that he would try to have
them, but not to be too hopeful. So I came with some misgiving, to
be relieved and rejoiced. Ere this will reach you, you will be
informed by telegram of the release. I will telegraph you
to-night.... Judge Black anxiously desires to see you, also Judge
Hughes, both kind friends to me!”
It was still early in the evening when I wrote this buoyant epistle,
which immediate after-events scarcely bore out. The President returned
again and again to my companion and me, but ten o’clock arrived and
still the papers had not been given me. I was growing more and more
impatient, but upon reiterating my intention not to leave without the
papers, the President became somewhat jocular. He invited Mrs. Bouligny
and me to make ourselves comfortable, his words being accompanied by an
evasive smile. My soul rose up in resentment at this!
“You seem to be inclined to treat this matter lightly, Mr. President,” I
said hotly. “I am indignant! I want the paper!” Alas! my protest did not
win me a direct compliance. The hands of a nearby clock already pointed
to eleven when, the President having seated himself at a desk or
writing-table that stood at hand, I rose and stepped to his side.
“Mr. President,” I said, “are you going to give me that paper? I will
not go until you do!” My words were hurled at him angrily. He looked up
at me curiously, and the half-cynical smile on his face changed. It was
as if, notwithstanding the ardour with which I had urged my demand
throughout the evening, he now for the first time realised I was not to
be put off.
“Give me the paper, Mr. Johnson!” I urged. “I am resolved to have it!”
My imperative demand at last proved effectual. The President turned
without further demur and wrote a brief note, which, upon calling an
attendant, he sent out immediately. In a few moments the messenger
returned, bearing a paper which read as follows:
“WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
“April 17, 1866.
“ORDERED:
“That _Clement C. Clay, Jr._, is hereby released from confinement
and permitted to return to and remain in the _State of Alabama_, and
to visit such other places in the United States as his personal
business may render absolutely necessary, upon the following
conditions, viz.: That he takes the oath of allegiance to the United
States, and gives his parole of honour, to conduct himself as a
loyal citizen of the same, and to report himself in person at any
time and place to answer any charges that may hereafter be preferred
against him by the United States.
“By order of the President,
“E. D. TOWNSEND,
“Ass’t Adgt. General.”
The paper, prepared by the hand of an amanuensis, had been written at
and dated from the Executive Mansion, and a space beneath had been
reserved for the name of the Secretary of War. When it reached my hand,
however, the words at the top, viz.: “Executive Mansion,” had been
crossed out and “War Department” substituted; the space for signature
had been filled in with the name of Mr. Stanton’s assistant, General
Townsend, and the words “Secretary of War” (below) had been crossed out.
The changes were made in a different ink from that used in the body of
the paper. The document was a curious additional proof of Mr. Stanton’s
personal indisposition to release his illegally detained prisoner, and
of Mr. Johnson’s equal evasion of the responsibility of freeing him. As
neither name appeared upon the document, it would seem as if a “muddle”
had been intended in the event of some later complications arising.
[Illustration:
JEFFERSON DAVIS and CLEMENT C. CLAY, JR.
(after release from Fortress Monroe)
]
It was already toward the midnight hour when this document was handed to
me. I seized it eagerly, and, thanking the President for at last
performing the act for which I had so long pleaded, I hurried to the
carriage which had been in waiting and ordered the coachman to drive
with all haste to the telegraph office. As I parted from the President
he expressed the warmest good wishes for Mr. Clay’s health and our
future, and pressed upon me an autographed _carte de visite_, which I
took with no less surprise than pleasure, being glad to see in the
politician before me this evidence of the inner, sympathetic man. Though
our horses dashed down the avenue at breakneck speed, it was within a
few moments of twelve o’clock when I hurried into the telegraph office.
“Can you send a telegram to-night?” I asked.
“Yes, Madam,” was the reply.
Inexpressibly relieved, I dictated these words:
“HONOURABLE C. C. CLAY, Fort Monroe.
“You are released! Have written you to-night.
“V. C. C.”
The President’s telegram to the Fortress having been sent simultaneously
with mine, my husband was given his freedom the next day. There
remained, however, yet a few duties to perform ere I might join him at
Petersburg, whence we together were to return to our beloved home; to
Alabama, with its purple and russet mountains and spreading valleys, its
warm hearts and loyal friends, and where waited the feeble and eager
father, ex-Governor Clay, whose remaining tenure of life was to be so
short. There were kindnesses to be acknowledged ere I left the capital,
and on every side I met detaining hands overwhelming me with
congratulations on my success at last. The evening before my departure,
the venerable former Vice-President of the Confederate States called
upon me to extend his good wishes for the future. Being deterred from
coming in person, Judge Black wrote several notes full of his
characteristic impulsiveness.
“Dear Madam,” his messages ran, “tell your great and good husband I
could do nothing for him, because his magnificent wife left nobody else
a chance to serve him! I would have been proud to have some share in his
defense, but circumstances have denied me the honour. I rejoice none the
less in his happy deliverance, and I have no right to envy you the
privilege which you have used so grandly, of vindicating his stainless
name. His liberation under the circumstances is a full acknowledgment
that the charges against him in the proclamation are infamously
false.... Your note of yesterday evening literally took my breath away.
After you had done so much for yourself and I had done so little, nay,
less than nothing, you address me as if I had been your benefactor
merely because I rejoiced in your success.... If I say but little, you
must not, therefore, suppose that I shall ever forget your amazing
eloquence, your steadfast courage under circumstances which might have
appalled the stoutest heart; your unshaken faith where piety itself
might almost have doubted the justice of God; the prudence with which
you instinctively saw what was best to be done, and the delicacy which
never allowed the charms of the lady to be lost in the great qualities
of the heroine. These things are written down at full length in the book
of my memory, where every day I turn the leaf to read them.... I cannot
forget your sad look when I saw you at Mrs. Parker’s the last time. Do
not allow yourself to doubt the ultimate triumph of justice. _God has
recorded among His unalterable decrees that no lie shall live forever!_
“Remember, if I can serve you it will always seem like a privilege to do
it. In feudal times, when the liege man did homage to his suzeraine, he
put his head between her hands (if it was a queen or a lady) and
declared himself hers to do her commands; to be the friend of her
friends, and the enemy of her enemies, for life and limb and earthly
honours. Imagine the homage vowed in proper form, and claim your
authority as suzeraine whenever you please. I ought to add that Mrs.
Black was so wrought upon by your conversation that she has longed to
see you again, and her whole heart, an honest and good one as ever beat,
is yours.”
“You went to work like a true wife,” was the message sent by my dear old
mess-mate, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, “and God blessed you for it. Did you see
Mr. Holt? I have heard he was our bitterest enemy. Can it be so?”
“Ten thousand thanks to God, my dear friend, for your release!” wrote
Mr. Mallory to my husband. “May He punish with rigorous justice ... your
unjustifiable and most cruel incarceration! My wife and I, if
indescribables would permit us, would dance for joy to-day at the news
of your release. Love to your wife! God bless her bright spirit and
noble heart; and may we meet in Florida, one acre of whose barrens I
would not give for all New England!”
From Mr. Lamar, “dear old Lushe,” the following tender word came: “Ah,
my friend, you know not how often, how constantly my heart has been with
you! Often in the watches of the night, when all around was hushed in
sleep, have I wept over your fate!... I have not time to write now,
except to beg you to come right here and make your abode with me. We
have a large house. Oh, do, Mr. Clay, do come and see me! I would share
the last dollar I have with you. Come, my friend, _and live with me_,
and let us henceforth be inseparable. Please come. I believe the sight
of you will restore my health; at least, if anything can.
“Your devoted brother, L. Q. C. LAMAR.”[72]
The sight of these letters of long ago sets the tears gushing, and
awakens a thousand tender memories of kind hearts that long since ceased
to beat to the emotions of pain or pleasure. Oh! the vast army of men
and women who, by their sympathy in those last crucial days of my
experiences in the capital, were a buoy to my courage, and that of my
husband, broken in health, and heart, and spirit, as we turned back to
our home in Alabama!
The news of his mother’s death, which came to Mr. Clay a few days after
his release from Fortress Monroe, fell upon him like a pall. I could not
induce him to visit Washington, to which city powerful friends had
invited him. He had but one wish; to return to his stricken father, far
from the turbulent political centre, where a man’s life and honour were
but as a pawn in the hands of the unscrupulous politicians of that day.
A few months and his father had passed away, gladdened, despite the
vicissitudes of his later days, that his cherished son at last was
restored to him. We laid the tired body beside that of the little
mother. Together they sleep in the valley that smiles up so perennially
to the crest of Monte Sano. A few years of effort for my sake, to retain
an interest in the world which to his broken heart appeared so cruel and
hollow, and my husband withdrew to our mountain home, sweet with the
incense of the cedars; to his books and the contemplation of nature; to
the companionship of the simple and the young. Yet a few more years, and
he, too, fell wearily to sleep, and was put to rest beside those he had
so well loved. I can think of no more fitting close to this portion of
my memories than these brief quotations, from some of the hundreds of
tributes which came from all quarters of the land, like the upwelling of
healing springs in the desert, when at last I was left alone.
One who sat in the Senate Chamber in Washington, scanning a later
generation of his fellows, all eager in the strife for the fame that is
the guerdon of the true statesman, wrote thus of Mr. Clay, his
predecessor:
“You knew him best, having proved him, by a long association in the
sacred character of wife, in many years of trial filled with memorable
vicissitudes, as a true and knightly gentleman, a devout Christian, a
loyal husband and friend, a patriot of the sternest type, a statesman of
great ability, and the devoted son of Alabama. _In my course of thought
and conduct, as his successor in the Senate, I have thought it well to
accept his standard as that which would best help me worthily to
represent our beloved State. Mr. Clay left a character here which stands
greatly to the credit of the State, and will be quoted long after we
have passed away, in proof of the character of the people he so worthily
represented. His name and public history in the Senate are a cause of
pride to our people._
“Your sincere friend,
“JOHN T. MORGAN.”
And one who had been our intimate friend for more than thirty years,
Bishop Henry C. Lay, wrote of my dear one thus:
“How gentle and kind he was! How fond of young things, and how tender to
the weak and helpless! Especially was he a singularly devoted husband,
giving you his admiration and his confidence.... Life seemed very full
of promise to him in those days. It was a sad change when the storm
arose, with its exile, imprisonment, disappointed hopes, retirement into
seclusion and inaction! Truly your life, with its opposite poles in
Washington and Alabama, has been a varied one!”
THE END
INDEX
Acklin, Miss Corinne, 97, 117.
Adams, J. Q., 62.
Aiken, Frederick A., 309, 320.
Alabama, University of, 17.
Aldrich, Reverend Mr., 241.
Apothleohola, 108–10.
Arrington, Anne, 3.
Arrington, General William, 3.
Ashley, Lord, 117.
Astor, John Jacob, 42.
Ayr, Colonel, 307.
Baggioli, Signor, 97.
Baker, General, 279–80.
Bannister, Reverend J. M., 183.
Barrow, Commodore, 174.
Barry, Mrs. Captain du, 222.
Bass, Mrs. (of Mississippi), 72.
Battle, Alfred, 6–7.
Battle, Mrs. Alfred, 6–11.
Battle, William, 7.
Bayard, Thomas F., 92, 117–18.
Bayard, The Misses, 78.
Baylor, Eugene, 132.
Beauregard, General G. T., 188–9, 368.
Benjamin, Judah P., 238–42.
Bennett, James Gordon, 118.
Benning, General, 205.
Benton, Thomas Hart, 42, 77, 80, 150.
Bertinatti, The Chevalier, 38, 40, 71–2.
Bickley, Captain R. W., 298.
Bierne, Miss Bettie, 36.
Big Spring, 162.
Birmingham, Alabama, 17.
Bishop, Mme. Anna, 104.
Black, Judge Jeremiah S., 300, 309–10, 314, 329, 362, 370, 376.
Blair, Montgomery, 152.
Blakeman, Captain, 332–33.
Blind Tom, 104–5.
Blount, Mrs., 95.
Bochsa, The harpist, 104.
Bodisco, Baron Alexandre de, 25, 31, 39.
Bodisco, Baroness, 31–4.
Bodisco, Waldemar, 34.
Boileau, Mme. Gauldrée, 78–9.
Bouligny, J. E., 119.
Bouligny, Mrs. M. E. P., 81, 281, 318, 364–6, 373.
Bozio, Mme., 101.
Bragg, General Braxton, 191.
Breckinridge, General J. C., 173.
Bright, Senator John, 369.
Brooks, Maria Brewster, 9.
Brooks, Preston, 51, 95.
Brooks-Sumner encounter, 104.
Brougham, John, 103.
Brown, Aaron V., 69, 70.
Brown, Mrs. Aaron V., 69.
Brown, Senator A. G., 140.
Brown, John Potts, 237.
Brown, Robert W., 187.
Brown, Miss Rose, 43.
Buchanan, James, 20, 63, 77, 87, 90, 106, 108, 150.
Buckner, Simon B., 173.
Buell, General D. C., 172.
Buena Vista, 68.
Burlingame, Anson, 142.
Butler, Senator A. P., 218.
Calhoun, John C., 77.
Camerana, Marchisa Incisa de, 72.
Campbell, Miss Henrietta, 76.
Campbell, John A., 64, 74–5, 178, 243.
Campbell, Mrs. John A., 76.
Capers, Bishop, 17.
Carlisle, J. M., 292, 320.
Cary, Clarence, 174.
Cary, Miss Constance, 174–5.
Cass, Miss Belle, 30.
Cass, Lewis, 77.
Castle Garden, 101.
Catron, Judge John, 74.
Catron, Mrs. Judge John, 74.
Cavendish, Lord, 117.
Chaillu, Paul du, 111.
Chambers, Judge William L., 55.
Chapman, Governor Reuben, 182.
Chase, Chevy, 28.
Chase, Salmon P., 58.
Chestnut, Mrs. General, 43, 50, 206, 227.
Clarke, Daniel, 82.
Clay “Castle,” 18.
Clay, C. C., Sr., 19, 74, 83, 88, 109–10, 236, 281, 375.
Clay, Mrs. C. C., Sr., 19, 35.
Clay, Clement Claiborne, 11, 15, 17, 88, 97, 132, 139, 143–7, 157, 161,
193, 195, 204, 242, 245, 248.
Clay, Henry, 77, 88.
Clay, Hugh Lawson, 28, 154, 164, 206, 235–6, 242–4.
Clay, Mrs. Hugh Lawson, 166, 175, 191, 195, 243.
Clay, James B., 88.
Clay, J. Withers, 228, 236–7, 254.
Clay, Mrs. J. Withers, 284–5, 340.
Clemens, Jere, 13–14, 19–21, 161.
Cleveland, Grover, 75, 92, 118.
Clingman, Gen’l Thomas L., 95, 307.
Clopton, David, 43.
Clopton, Mrs. David, 55.
_Clyde_, The _William. P._, 260.
Cobb, Howell, 30, 121, 210, 240–2, 248.
Cobb, Mrs. Howell, 30.
Cobb, W. R. W., 21, 23.
Cohen, Miss, 104.
Coke, Mrs., 71.
Collier, Miss Evelyn, 50.
Collier, Governor H. W., 4, 15, 17, 44.
Collier, Mrs. H. W., 6–9.
Columbus, Mississippi, 15.
Colquitt, Alfred, 195.
Comer, Major Anderson, 191.
Comer, Miss L., 84, 128, 135, 215.
Cooper, Elva E., 352.
Cooper, Dr. George E., 333, 350–2–3.
Corcoran, Louise, 121.
Corcoran, W. W., 120, 123, 308.
Corcoran & Riggs, 81.
Crampton, British Minister, 25, 36.
Craven, Dr. John J., 298, 333, 345.
Crisp, The Comedian, 10.
Crittenden, John J., 77, 83.
Crittenden, “Lady,” 84–5, 140–1.
Croxton, General, 279.
Culver, George, 155.
Curry, J. L. M., 43, 55.
Curry, Mrs. J. L. M., 55.
Cushing, Caleb, 64.
Cushman, Charlotte, 103, 139.
Cutting, Mrs. Brockholst, 95.
Cutts, Miss Addie, 35, 106.
Dahlgreen’s Raid, 203.
Davis, Jefferson, 68–9, 75, 147, 157, 173, 235, 244–6, 256–262, 298,
348.
Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, 54, 134, 167, 206, 256–7, 265, 301, 347.
Dean, Julia, 102.
“Dearborns,” 5.
Dickens, Asbury, 77.
Doane, Bishop, 138.
Dobbin, Secretary of Navy, 64–8.
Dolan, Pat, 57.
Douglas, Mrs. Stephen A., 35, 133, 310
Dowdell, Congressman, 20, 23, 25, 48, 49.
Drake, Major, 4.
Drew, Mrs., 176.
Duke, Colonel Basil, 191.
Du Val, Mrs. Gabriel, 170.
Eames, ex-Minister to Venezuela, 140.
Earle, Mrs. Mattie Orr, 52.
Ebbitt House, 25, 42, 51, 59, 314.
Echols, Major W. H., 302–5, 315.
Eggleston, Colonel, 248–51.
Emily, 61, 101, 130, 169, 242, 278.
Endicott, Mrs., 79.
_Enquirer_, The Richmond, 26, 237.
Erlanger, Baron d’, 30.
Evans, Augusta, 207.
Evarts, William M., 344.
Ewing, Thomas, 288.
Fern, Fanny, 58.
Fillmore, President, 83.
Fitzpatrick, Benj., 20, 55, 147.
Fitzpatrick, Mrs., 25, 55, 57, 91, 377.
Fitzpatrick, Master Benny, 55–7.
Fitzsimmons, Miss Catherine, 213.
Flash, Captain Harry, 197.
Forrest, Edwin, 102.
Fort, Mr., 4.
Fort, Martha, 4, 15.
Fort, Mary, 4.
Fortress Monroe, 94, 240, 261–2, 269, 281, 298, 334–7, 345–52, 378–9.
Fraley, Captain, 260.
Frémont, Mrs. Jessie Benton, 78–80.
French, Dr., 284–5.
French, General S. D., 199.
Gaines, General, 82–3.
Gaines, Mrs. Myra Clarke, 82–3.
Gamble, Mrs. (of Louisville, Ky.), 303.
Gamester, The, 10.
Gardner, Charles, 25.
Garfield, James A., 62.
Garland, James, 307.
Garner, Colonel, 192.
Garnett, Muscoe, 50.
Garrett, Mr., 107–8.
Gautier’s, 31, 70.
Georgetown, 28, 31.
Gilbert, Mrs., 103.
Glentworth, Hamilton, 138.
Gordon, General John B., 206.
Gottschalk, Louis, 49.
Granger, General, 331.
Grant, U. S., 20, 315–17, 357.
Grant, Mrs. U. S., 316, 317.
Greeley, Horace, 330.
Green Academy, 160–3.
Green, Duff, 300.
Greenhow, Mrs. 35.
Grey Eagle, The, 155–6.
Grisi, Mme., 101.
Guthrie, Secretary James V., 30, 70
Gwin, Senator W. M., 86, 126, 132.
Gwin, Mrs. W. M., 126–37, 152.
Haldeman, R. J., 289, 292, 357.
Halleck, General H. W., 260.
Hamersley, Mrs. 120.
Hammond, E. S., 212.
Hammond, Senator J. H., 96, 213, 231–2.
Hammond, Mrs. J. H., 219, 232.
Hammond, Paul, 232.
Hammond, Mrs. Paul, 36, 215.
Hampton, Colonel Wade, 213.
Harper & Mitchell, 110.
Harper’s Ferry, 165, 306.
Harrison, Burton, 174, 368.
Harrison, President, 83.
Havilland, Major de, 129.
Henry, Professor, 76, 111.
Henry, Senator, 203.
Herbert, Mrs. Hilary A., 9.
Herstein, Robert, 302.
Hill, Benjamin H., 247.
Hill, Miss Henrietta, 247.
Hilliard, Miss, 46, 127, 138.
Hitchcock, Major, 333.
Holcombe, Professor James P., 209, 229.
Holt, Joseph, 54, 148, 271–5, 287–314, 320–28, 364.
Holt, Mrs. Joseph, 127.
Homestead Bill, 21.
Hood, General J. B., 239.
Hotel, Brown’s, 42, 51.
Hotel, National, 23.
Hotel, Spottswood, 167.
Hotel, St. Charles, 82.
Hotel, Willard’s, 112, 306–7, 315.
Howard, Mrs., 95.
Howell, Miss Maggie, 256, 260, 265.
Hudson, Lieutenant, 266.
Hughes, Judge, 309–10, 362.
Hulseman, Baron, 44, 89.
Hunt, John, 160.
Hunter, R. M. T., 75.
Huntsville, Alabama, 17–8, 157, 164, 172.
Hurlburt, General Stephen A., 222.
Ihrie, General, 307–315.
Institute, Hydropathic, 22.
_Intelligencer_, The Washington, 325.
Irving, Washington, 13.
Ives, Mrs. Cora Semmes, 173, 174.
Jackson, Thomas Jonathan (“Stonewall”), 188.
Japanese Embassy, 110–113.
Johnson, Andrew, 35, 288, 311–12, 318–29, 340–4, 354, 361, 364, 371–3.
Johnson, Colonel George, 192.
Johnson, Reverdy, 75.
Johnson, Colonel Robert, 318.
Johnston, Albert Sidney, 172.
Johnston, Dr., 93.
Johnston, Joseph E., 152, 188, 236.
Johnston, Mrs. Joseph E., 167.
Johnston, Mrs. W. D., 255.
Jones, General George Wallace, 77, 80–1, 129.
Jones, Mrs. Thomas Benton, 78.
Kean, Charles, 10.
Keck, Lieutenant, 252, 254.
Keitt, Lawrence M., 95–6.
Keitt, Mrs. Lawrence M., 96.
Kennedy, Mrs., 313.
Key, Francis Barton, 95–6, 130, 133.
Kierulf, Miss Rose, 90.
King, Butler, 174.
Lamar, Colonel, 205.
Lamar, Mrs. Lucius Mirabeau, 255.
Lamar, L. Q. C., 43, 48, 75, 181, 204, 377.
Lamar, Mrs. L. Q. C., 48, 130.
Lane, Miss Harriet, 89, 90, 104, 114–130.
Lanier, Clifford A., 55, 197–9.
Lanier, Sidney, 197–9, 201.
Lay, Bishop Henry C., 379.
Lee, Robert E., 189, 227, 242, 368.
Lee, Mrs. Robert E., 201.
Leese, Mrs. William, 90.
Le Vert, Mme., 12–17, 35, 213, 368.
Lincoln, Abraham, 75, 119, 245.
Lind, Jenny, 101, 105.
Ligon, Governor, 55.
Logan, General John A., 184.
Longstreet, General James, 187–8, 358.
Lubbuck, ex-Governor Francis R., 258.
Lumley, Mr., 37.
Lyons, Lord, 141.
“Macaire, Robert” (play of), 10.
Magruder, Colonel John B., 152.
Mallory, Miss Ruby, 176.
Mallory, Stephen R., 30, 147, 170, 177, 195, 209, 235, 246, 249, 313,
367, 370, 377.
Mallory, Mrs. S. R., 158, 167.
Marcy, Miss Nellie, 63.
Marcy, William L., 62.
Marcy, Mrs. W. L., 63.
Mario, Signor, 101.
Marlboro, Duchess of, 120.
Marshall, Chief Justice, 74.
Marshall, Henry, 174.
Mason, Miss Emily, 201.
Massonis, The, 39.
Maury, The Misses, 78, 92.
Maury, Dr. Thos., 358.
Maury, Professor, 76.
May, Dr., 51, 358,
Maynard Rifle, 105.
McClellan, General G. F., 63.
McClelland, Secretary, 64.
McClung, Alex. Keith, 15–16.
McDaniels, The, 201.
McEwan, Captain, 298.
McLean, John, 77.
McKim, Charles, 273.
McQueen, General and Mrs., 51, 56.
Memphis, Tennessee, 72, 157, 222.
Mercer, General, 274.
Merrick, Mrs. Judge, 54.
Miles, General Nelson A., 267–8, 275, 292–3, 296, 334, 345.
Miles, Porcher, 36.
Miller, Major, 307.
Mississippi, Territory of, 4, 160.
Mitchell, General O. M., 181, 183.
Mitchell, Miss, 183–4.
Mobile Meadows, 10.
Montague, Mr., 11.
Monterey, 15.
Moore, Sydenham, 188, 190.
Morgan, General J. H., 169.
Morgan, Senator J. T., 153, 378.
Morris Island, 143.
Morrow, Dr., 110, 112.
Muhlenberg, Lieutenant, 334.
Myers, Lieutenant Henry, 126.
Myers, Mr. Frederick, 274.
Napier, Lord, 30, 89, 114, 117, 133.
Napier, Lady Nina, 114.
Nashville Female Academy, 15.
Nashville, Tennessee, 15, 172, 236.
New York _Herald_, 355–6.
New York _News_, 237.
Nicolay & Hay, 73, 86.
Norwalk, Connecticut, 27.
O’Conor, Charles, 290–1.
Orr, James L., 20, 51, 314.
Orr, Mrs. James L., 52–3.
Ouseley, Sir William Gore, 134.
Palmer (Heller), 38–40.
Parepa, Rosa, 101.
Parker, Mrs. A. S., 119, 281, 321, 340, 367.
Parker, Reverend Henry E., 148.
Parrish, Mr., 123.
Partington, Mrs., 128–137.
Patterson, Mrs., 339.
Patti, Adelina, 37.
Pember, Mrs. Phoebe, 201, 277.
Pendleton, George H., 146, 304–5.
Pendleton, Mrs. George H., 89, 130, 303.
Pennsylvania Avenue, 28, 42, 102, 306.
Perry, Commodore M. C., 110.
Pettigrew, General James G., 188.
Phillips, Philip, 229, 248, 254.
Phillips, Mrs. Philip, 151, 201.
Phillips, The Misses, 104.
Pierce Administration, 27.
Pierce, Franklin, 28, 59–63, 68, 87, 106.
Pierce, Mrs. Franklin, 28.
Pierce, T. W., 271.
Pillow, General Gideon J., 69, 172.
“Pocahontas” (Play), 103.
Polk, Mrs., 71, 368.
Poore, Ben Perley, 128.
Pope, Colonel, 160.
Podestad, Mme. de, 368.
Potomac, The, 28.
Prescott, Harriet, 64.
Price, Lilly, 120.
Pryor, Mrs. Roger A., 44, 47, 179.
Pritchard, Colonel, 258, 261.
Pugh, George E., 146.
Pugh, Mrs. George E., 44–47, 89, 97, 133, 146, 303–4.
Raasloff, Minister from Denmark, 150.
Ramsey, Admiral, 95.
Ramsey, Marian, 95.
Randolph, Mrs., 173.
_Rattlesnake, The_, 227, 241.
Reagan, John H., 258.
Reames, Vinnie, 369.
Redd, Mrs., 225, 233.
Reedy, Miss, 169.
Rhett, Colonel Robert Barnwell, 355–6.
Rich, Mrs., 90–94.
Richmond, Va., 168, 206, 236, 239.
Richmond _Enquirer_, 26, 237.
Riggs, Mrs. George, 37.
Riggs & Corcoran, 308.
Robinson, Reverend Stuart, 287
Roddy, General, 183.
Rogers, Representative, 325.
Rountree, Mlle., 94.
Ruffin, Edmund, 145–6.
Sanders, Miss Narcissa, 69.
Sandidge, “Little Jimmy,” 131.
Sartiges, Countess de, 30.
Scarlett, Lieutenant, 136.
Schaumberg, Miss Emily, 116.
Scott, Alfred, 315.
Scott, Captain, 33.
Semmes, Mrs. Myra Knox, 174.
Semmes, Raphael, 144, 370.
Semmes, Thomas H., 246, 249.
Seward, Frederick, 81.
Seward, Senator W. H., 58, 81, 131, 136, 238.
Sewing Machines, The New, 103.
Seven Pines, Battle of, 187.
Shea, George, 292.
Sherman, General W. T., 230, 232–3, 239.
Shipman, Lieutenant Lemuel, 298.
Shorter, Eli S., 164.
Sickles, Daniel E., 52, 97, 118.
Sickles, Mrs. Daniel E., 52.
Slidell, Mrs. John, 29.
Smith, General Gustavus W., 188.
Smith, General Kirby E., 154, 246.
Smith, Judge William, 160.
Smithsonian Institution, 124.
Soulé, Congressman, 174.
Sparrow, General, 229.
Spence, Alice, 184.
Spicer, Emily, 65, 66, 90.
Spicer, Commander W. F., 65, 66.
Spofford, Mr., 64.
Staeckl, Baron de, 38–9.
Stafford, General, 205.
Stafford, Samuel M., 9.
Stannard, Mrs., 174.
Stanton, Edwin M., 289, 312–14, 344, 361, 364.
_Star of the West_, 143.
Stars, Falling of the, 7.
Stephens, Alex. H., 242, 258, 370.
Stevens, Miss, 50, 95.
Stevens, Thaddeus, 356.
Stone Mountain, 17.
Stover, Mrs., 338.
Stuart, General J. E. B., 170.
St. Thomas, Island of, 150.
Taney, Roger B., 73–4.
Tayloe, Ogle, 307.
Tayloe, Mrs. Ogle, 30, 119, 307.
Tennessee, Palisades of, 19.
Tetlow, Captain J. B., 298.
Thackeray, W. M., 104.
Thomas, A. J., 104.
Thomas, General B. M., 278.
Thompson, Mrs. Jacob, 29, 86.
Thomson, Mrs. J. R., 118.
Thomson, William, 91.
Toombs, Senator Robert, 30, 243.
Toombs, Mrs. Robert, 86.
Townsend, General E. D., 374.
Tracy, General E. D., 155, 165–6, 190, 193.
Tree, Ellen, 10.
Tucker, Lee, 174.
Tunstall, Brian, 10.
Tunstall, Sir Cuthbert, 10.
Tunstall, George, 232.
Tunstall, Peyton Randolph, 3.
Tunstall, Thomas B., 9, 13, 14, 26.
Tunstall, Tom Tait, 90.
Tuscaloosa, Ala., 4, 6, 9, 15, 17, 109.
Tyler, ex-President John, 144.
Vallandigham, Clement L., 146.
Vallette, Captain Octave, 207–8.
Vogell, Dr. Henry C., 335.
Voorhees, Daniel, 369.
Walker, Aunt Dolly, 205.
Walker, Leroy Pope, 182.
Walker, R. J., 75, 357.
Walton, Octavia, 35, 368.
War, Black Hawk, 80.
War, Revolutionary, 3.
Ward, Miss Josephine, 118.
Warrior, The Black, 109.
Watterson, Henry, 47.
Wayne, James M., 77.
Weed, Thurlow, 58.
Wesselhœft, Dr., 22.
Wheeler’s Brigade, 232.
Wheeler, General Joseph, 234, 259.
White House, The, 26, 85, 106, 130, 339, 354.
Whittle, Major and Mrs., 229, 242, 254, 278, 279.
Wickliffe, Sisters, 54, 202.
Wigfall, Louis T., 246–7.
Williams, General A. S., 35.
Williams, Buxton, 185–6.
Williams, Harriet, 31.
Wilson, Henry A., 358–9, 360–1.
Wilson, General James H., 250, 254, 276.
Winder, General John H., 187.
Winter, Mrs. Annie, 207, 258.
Wirt, General and Mrs. Wm., 69.
Withers, Miss Hattie, 127.
Withers, General Jones M., 164, 192.
Withers, Mrs. Jones M., 223.
Withers, Robert, 244.
Withers, Dr. Thomas, 153, 348.
Wood, Benjamin, 289.
Woods, Colonel, 278.
Wynans, Ross, 369.
Wyeth, John A., 279.
Yancey, William L., 16, 180–1.
Yulee, David L., 147, 274.
Yulee, Mrs. David L., 54, 202–3.
Zollicoffer, General Felix K., 172, 197.
-----
Footnote 1:
Apropos of this reference to Mrs. Douglas, Col. Henry Watterson said
to me: “Her passport into Washington society was her relationship to
Mistress Dolly Madison, who was her grandaunt. It is true, Mr. James
Madison Cutts, Mrs. Douglas’s father, was a department clerk, but he
was the nephew of the former mistress of the White House. Mrs. Douglas
was very beautiful,” Colonel Watterson continued. “I remember stepping
into the Douglas library one morning, and coming upon her unexpectedly
as she was dusting some bit of precious bric-à-brac, over which she
extended a personal care. She was _en negligée_, and, as the colour
mounted her cheek, upon my unexpected appearance, I thought I had
never seen so beautiful, so rosy a girl. I told Douglas so!” A. S.
Footnote 2:
Writing to Mrs. Clay from the Department of the Interior, late in
1885, E. V. D. Miller said of Mr. Lamar, then Secretary of the
Interior: “Those nearest in his labours only understand and have
compassion for him, to try to save him all we can. He would take us
_all_ in his arms, and confer the greatest benefits on us if he could;
and a more tender, appreciative, industrious, kind-hearted man I have
never been associated with, to say nothing of his giant intellect and
cultivated brain and taste. I never knew him until I came to this
office with him and saw him in all these entangling relations. I used
to get angry and avoid him because I thought he neglected my requests
and was so indifferent that there seemed to be a lack of respect; but
a closer knowledge of the demands upon him have disarmed me entirely,
and I fight him no longer.” A. S.
Footnote 3:
As Governor of Ohio.
Footnote 4:
“President Pierce was one of the handsomest men I have ever seen!” was
the remark of Colonel Watterson to me, while dwelling on those
ante-bellum personages. A. S.
Footnote 5:
“I remember,” said General Joseph Wheeler, “hearing of those
innovations, and that the guests entered the dining-room two by two,
and left it in the same order, to the music of the orchestra. They
introduced the custom of announcing the arrival of each guest at
receptions, by having a functionary call the name, aloud, a novelty
against which a good many rebelled.” A. S.
Footnote 6:
Wrote the Assistant Attorney-General, William A. Maury, in 1885, to
Judge Campbell: “I called on the President in company with Judge
Gilbert and Mr. Corcoran, and, a most fitting opportunity having
occurred in the course of our talk, I pleased the President greatly by
telling him you said he was the biggest man who had been in the White
House since you were a child! Which Mr. Corcoran supplemented by
saying, ‘And Judge Campbell is a man who means what he says!’”
Footnote 7:
Held between Messrs. Cleveland, President-elect, and Bayard in the
official residence, which is segregated from the Capitol.
Footnote 8:
Asbury Dickens, Clerk of the Senate.
Footnote 9:
In a letter dated New York, April 6, 1861, a correspondent, the
intimate associate of James Gordon Bennett, wrote as follows: “I have
been in Washington twice since I had the pleasure of seeing you, and I
can say truthfully, that ... the _ensemble_ of the personnel of the
White House has sadly changed, more befitting a restaurant than the
House of the President. They tell me many droll stories of them, and
all are deservedly rich. ‘Old Abe’ tells stories and Mrs. Lincoln
simpers. They keep a household of those horrid ... people with them
all the time, _mais assez_!”
Footnote 10:
Some time after Clement C. Clay’s return to the Confederate States,
this cane was purloined by some unknown person. Years passed; one day
Mr. Clay received an inquiry as to whether he had ever owned a cane on
which his name appeared below that of the Kentucky Senator’s; the
writer explained that he wished to know its history and to return the
cane to its rightful owner. Eager for the recovery of his valued
souvenir, Mr. Clay responded; but his unknown correspondent, having
gained the information he sought, lapsed into silence. Said Mrs. Clay,
in relating this incident, “And we never heard more of the cane!” A.
S.
Footnote 11:
This story, though quite commonly repeated, has been rather
effectually disproved by scientists. It obtained currency for many
years, however. A. S.
Footnote 12:
A notable vehicle of this sort was purchased in Philadelphia by Mrs.
Clay, at a cost of $1,600, and was carried to Alabama, where, among
the foliaged avenues of beautiful Huntsville, it attracted universal
attention. It was a capacious and splendid equipage, lined with amber
satin, and was drawn by the high-bred horses, “Polk” and “Dallas.”
From Mrs. Clay’s possession this gorgeous landau passed into that of
Governor Reuben Chapman, and, in the course of years, by various
transfers, into the hands of a station hackman, of colour! A. S.
Footnote 13:
A reference to Mrs. Emory, a notably attractive member of Washington
society.
Footnote 14:
Nevertheless, the chronicler named in rapid succession as among Mrs.
Clay’s attendants, Lord Napier, Sir William Gore Ouseley, K.C.B., and
many prominent figures in the capital. “Mrs. Senator Clay,” he added
in prose, “with knitting in hand, snuff-box in pocket, and ‘Ike the
Inevitable’ by her side, acted out her difficult character so as to
win the unanimous verdict that her personation of the loquacious
_malapropos_ dame was the leading feature of the evening’s
entertainment. Go where she would through the spacious halls, a crowd
of eager listeners followed her footsteps, drinking in her instant
repartees, which were really superior in wit and appositeness, and,
indeed, in the vein of the famous dame’s cacoëthes, even to the
original contribution of Shillaber to the nonsensical literature of
the day.” A. S.
Footnote 15:
While this playful exchange of ideas was going on, Senator Clay stood
near his Northern confrère, with whom his relations were always
courteous and kindly. At Mrs. Clay’s parting sally, Senator Seward
turned to the lady’s husband and remarked, “Clay, she’s superb!”
“Yes,” replied Senator Clay; “when she married me America lost its
Siddons!” A. S.
Footnote 16:
Major Anderson, in command at Fort Sumter.
Footnote 17:
January 9, 1861.
Footnote 18:
General L. Pope Walker.
Footnote 19:
“Talk of disunion, threats of disunion, accusations of intentions of
disunion lie scattered plentifully through the political literature of
the country from the very formation of the Government,” say Messrs.
Nicolay and Hay. See vol. II, page 296, of “Abraham Lincoln.” Also,
“Benton’s Thirty Years’ View.” Vol. II, page 786.
Footnote 20:
This fact is emphasised by Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. See vol. I, page
142, “Abraham Lincoln.”
Footnote 21:
Now United States Senator from Alabama.
Footnote 22:
Judge Smith was the grandfather of Mrs. Meredith Calhoun, who, with
her husband, played a brilliant part in Paris society when Eugénie’s
triumphs were at their height. A. S.
Footnote 23:
John E. Moore became celebrated on the bench: He declined the office
of territorial judge, offered him by President Pierce, but was serving
as judge in a military court when he died, in 1864. He was a brother
of Colonel Sydenham Moore, who fell at the battle of Seven Pines. A.
S.
Footnote 24:
Of Mrs. Clay herself, renowned for her histrionic talent, Mrs. Ives
wrote: “It was the hope of having you take the part of Mrs. Malaprop
that encouraged me to undertake the amateur production of Sheridan’s
play. I felt sure that if all others failed, your acting would redeem
all deficiencies. You carried the audience by storm.... I can see you
yet, in imagination, in your rich brocaded gown, antique laces and
jewels, high puffed and curled hair, with nodding plumes which seemed
to add expression to your amusing utterances!” A. S.
Footnote 25:
I asked Mrs. Milton Humes, daughter of ex-Governor Chapman, concerning
these war-time search-parties. “I remember distinctly,” she answered,
“seeing them look into preserve jars and _cut-glass decanters_, until
my mother’s risibles no longer could be repressed. ‘You don’t expect
to find General Walker in that brandy bottle, do you?’ she asked.” A.
S.
Footnote 26:
Dr. J. M. Bannister, at the ripe age of eighty-six, still continues in
active pastoral charge of the Church of the Nativity in Huntsville. A.
S.
Footnote 27:
Harry, son of Buxton Williams.
Footnote 28:
James Camp Turner, of Alabama, died at Manassas.
Footnote 29:
It ended in April, 1865.
Footnote 30:
Then in the Mounted Signal Service, Milligan’s Battalion, from
Georgia, and on the staff of General S. D. French, now of Florida.
A.S.
Footnote 31:
Son of Senator Hammond, of South Carolina.
Footnote 32:
Many of these possessions are still retained by Messrs. Spann and
Harry Hammond.
Footnote 33:
To overcome these conditions, the Right-Reverend William Capers,
distinguished in the Methodist Church, organised a wide system of
missionary work among the plantation negroes, whereby preaching and
catechising by white ministers took place once a month. Many of the
great planters assisted in this good work, Senator R. Barnwell Rhett,
Sr., being prominently associated with Bishop Capers. Senator Rhett
built a large church, which was attended by the negroes from five
plantations, and regularly by his own family. A. S.
Footnote 34:
Mother of the unfortunate Mrs. Maybrick.
Footnote 35:
A recent writer attributes to those experiences, the coffee
substitutes which now, forty years later, have “ruined the American
coffee trade.” A. S.
Footnote 36:
Shortly after his arrival in Canada, Mr. Clay heard of General Lee’s
lost favourite. The animal, a fine Newfoundland, had been taken from
the Lee home at Arlington by a Federal soldier, who sold it to a
Captain Anderson (commanding an English vessel) for one hundred
dollars. After some months of inquiry and negotiation, Mr. Clay
secured the dog, and personally brought him back to the Confederate
States. A. S.
Footnote 37:
Horace Greeley.
Footnote 38:
Printed in Richmond _Enquirer_, and quoted liberally throughout the
North.
Footnote 39:
The family coachman.
Footnote 40:
A gentleman in the War Department—to whom I spoke of a violent protest
uttered against General Wheeler’s confiscations, by one Betts (who
sent his complaint, long as a Presidential message, to Senator Clay,
in Richmond)—smiled a little. “Well,” he said, “Wheeler always would
feed his men, you know!” A. S.
Footnote 41:
Speaking of that episode, Mrs. Hammond said to me: “It was months
before we succeeded in finding the silver again. Though we dug the
ground over and over in every direction where we thought it was, we
couldn’t even find the blazes for a long time.” A. S.
Footnote 42:
A cartoon which appeared about this time in a Richmond paper was a
graphic demonstration of the shrunk value of Confederate money. It
represented a man going to and returning from market. In the first
scene he carried a bushel basket piled high with current bills; in the
second, the basket was empty, and in his hand was an infinitesimal
package, which was supposed to contain a beef steak! A. S.
Footnote 43:
The actual amount offered for Mr. Clay’s apprehension was $25,000;
but, in the dissemination of the proclamation through the press, the
larger sum was repeatedly given as the amount offered—being so quoted
by General Wilson and others. See Records of the Rebellion, series I,
vol. XLIX, page 733.
Footnote 44:
Then widow of Congressman Bouligny, of Louisiana, and now Mrs. George
Collins Levey, of London, England.
Footnote 45:
Desk.
Footnote 46:
“It were as easy,” wrote one editor, “to suspect General Lee of
duplicity, or General Butler of magnanimity, as to think Mr. Clay
guilty of the crimes imputed to him!”
Footnote 47:
Neither this application, nor any communication sent by Mrs. Clay to
Judge Holt, met with the recognition of acknowledgment. A. S.
Footnote 48:
A reference to Holt’s Report, dated December 8, 1865, will show how
little either Mr. Pierce or this great legal light apprehended the
audacity of the inquisitorial Military Commission, of which the
Secretary of War and Joseph Holt made two. A. S.
Footnote 49:
Several years later Mr. Stevens reiterated these statements to one of
the editors of the New York _Tribune_, who again quoted Mr. Stevens’s
remarks in an able editorial. A. S.
Footnote 50:
The letter reads “ult.,” but, being obviously an error, is here
changed. A. S.
Footnote 51:
Copies of those addressed by Mr. Clay to the Secretary of War and to
President Johnson. A. S.
Footnote 52:
Dr. Craven was already in communication with Dr. Withers, of
Petersburg, Va., Mr. Clay’s cousin, who, through the courtesy of his
fellow-practitioner, was enabled to contribute occasionally to Mr.
Clay’s comfort and welfare. A. S.
Footnote 53:
New York _Daily News_.
Footnote 54:
To pass by less irreproachable witnesses, the following incident
illustrative of Mr. Stanton’s _brusquerie_ to women was told by the
Reverend Elisha Dyer. “While sitting in Mr. Stanton’s private office,
a well-dressed lady entered. She was rather young, and very
captivating. Approaching the Secretary, she said, ‘Excuse me, but I
_must_ see you!’ My old friend at once assumed the air of a bear. In a
stern voice he said, ‘Madam, you have no right to come into this
office, and you must leave it! No, Madam,’ he continued, when she
tried to speak, ‘not one word!’ And, calling an orderly, he said,
‘Take this woman out!’” A. S.
Footnote 55:
Mr. Scott’s daughter is the wife of the widely known Dr. Garnett, of
Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Footnote 56:
The letter here given is from a copy furnished Mrs. Clay by Robert
Morrow, Secretary in 1866.
Footnote 57:
For months Mr. Holt’s Report was steadily refused to the public.
Referring to this secretive conduct, in July, 1866, A. J. Rogers said,
in the House of Representatives, “Secrecy has surrounded and shrouded,
not to say protected, every step of these examinations. In the words
of the late Attorney-General, ‘Most of the evidence upon which they
[the charges] are based was obtained _ex parte_, without notice to the
accused, and whilst they were in custody in military prisons. _Their
publication might wrong the Government._’ ...” The Secretary of War,
February 7, 1866, writes to the President that the publication of the
Report of the Judge Advocate General is incompatible with the public
interests. “This report,” continues Mr. Rogers, “in the testimony it
quotes, will show that the interests of the country would never have
suffered by the dispensing with illegal secrecy, but that the
interests and fame of the Judge Advocate General himself would suffer
in the eyes of all the truth-loving and justice-seeking people on
earth.” A. S.
Footnote 58:
Hyams, alias Harris, was one of the witnesses who, six months before
the date of Mr. Holt’s Report, had been exposed by the Rev. Stuart
Robinson, and who, six months later, or less, himself confessed his
perjuries to the Judiciary Committee. A. S.
Footnote 59:
But not _unimpeachable_, as later events proved. They were afterward
denounced by Mr. Holt as unprincipled perjurers and _the cause of all
his trouble_. A. S.
Footnote 60:
In fact, as will have been seen elsewhere, Mr. Clay arrived in South
Carolina on the fourth of February, 1865, after a full month’s
journeying by stormy sea from Nova Scotia to Bermuda; thence on the
ill-fated _Rattlesnake_, which, failing to make its way into port at
Wilmington, now in the hands of the Federals, with delay and
circumlocution, ran the blockade at Charleston, only to perish under
the very ramparts of Fort Moultrie. His return, therefore, was
sufficiently dramatic, and known to hundreds of _truly unimpeachable_
witnesses, had the Judge Advocate allowed Mr. Clay to know the charges
against him or given him an opportunity for denial. A. S.
Footnote 61:
Conover was the chief witness in the cases of Mrs. Surratt and her
companions, and Mr. Holt’s charges against Mr. Clay were based on his
testimony and that of others who had been drilled in their parts by
Conover. A. S.
Footnote 62:
The public, however, was not destined to be treated to a spectacle so
likely to react to the Government’s dishonour. Mr. Holt, who for a
year caused to be denied to the prisoners (one of whom had been a
Cabinet Minister, the other a United States Senator) even the visits
of counsel, now, for some forever unexplained reason, instead of
arresting the perjurer Conover, after his admissions in the Committee
room of the House, talked to him kindly, and extended him the courtesy
of a trip to New York, in order that he _might procure further
testimony_. Once arrived, the polite swindler excused himself to his
companion, and, bowing himself out, “was not seen by him thereafter,”
said Mr. Holt; and he adds naïvely, “and up to this time he has not
communicated with me, nor has he made any effort, as I believe, to
produce the witnesses!” A. S.
Footnote 63:
In part an interview with Mr. Holt, and the whole most obviously
inspired by him.
Footnote 64:
Practically the only voice now raised in an attempt to explain or
justify the Advocate General’s unique methods. While denying his
knavishness, it had the singular appearance of developing his
foolishness. A. S.
Footnote 65:
Conover had obviated the necessity for proving, by confessing, his own
infamy. A. S.
Footnote 66:
Now for sixteen months a prisoner in Fortress Monroe, and denied trial
or counsel! A. S.
Footnote 67:
It is hard to believe that, if Mr. Holt’s reputation had survived the
doubt thrown upon it by the House Committee, in the preceding July, it
could be seriously injured by anything that might be averred by so
vile a man as his former ally, Conover. A. S.
Footnote 68:
In the preparation for the publication of these Memoirs, I found
myself continually lighting upon evidences of irregularity in the
Government’s proceedings against Mr. Clay. I was met constantly by
what appeared to be a persistent and inexplicable persecution of
Messrs. Davis and Clay (if not a plot against them, as hinted by
Representative Rogers) at the hands of the War Department, acting
through Mr. Joseph Holt. I encountered charges, not ambiguously made
against Mr. Holt, of malice, and of rancour which would be satisfied
only with the “judicial murder” of the prisoners in his hands. Charges
of malice and meanness have been made against him by living men as
frequently as by those who have passed away; men, moreover, whose
integrity of purpose has never been challenged. A rather general
condemnation of Mr. Holt appears in certain correspondence of the
sixties. It was uttered publicly in the press in the early and middle
portion of that decade. In the pamphlet alluded to and quoted from in
Chapter XXII. of these “Memoirs,” the Rev. Stuart Robinson had quoted
Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and another, to show the peculiar
estimate in which Mr. Holt was then held. “I know little,” wrote Mr.
Robinson, in June of ’5, “either of the personal or public character
of Mr. Holt.... The only well-defined impression I have of his
personal character is gained from two remarks concerning him in
1861–’2. The first, that of a venerable Christian lady, of the
old-fashioned country type, made to me: ‘Joe Holt, Sir, is the only
young man I ever knew that left this country without leaving one
friend behind him in it!’ The other, the fierce retort of the
venerable Crittenden, to a Cabinet officer, reported to me by Governor
Morehead: ‘Joseph Holt, of _Kentucky_, did you say, Sir? I tell you,
Sir, by Heaven! there is no such man as Joseph Holt, of _Kentucky_!’”
In addition to such contemporaneous public utterances concerning Mr.
Holt, I have learned much that is corroborative by word of mouth from
men whose opinions have been softened by time, and whose conspicuous
positions in national affairs establish their utterances as both
weighty and trustworthy. Said one of these, a United States Senator,
within the year (1903), “Joseph Holt was the meanest man of his time.
He was both unscrupulous and ambitious; and the _smartest_ man I ever
knew!”
Another as prominent in the nation’s affairs, said, using the same
adjective as did the Senator just quoted, “He was a peculiarly mean
man. I don’t know the true circumstances of Mr. Davis’s and Mr. Clay’s
imprisonment, but the suspicions that attached to Holt were never
proven, nor, so far as I know, investigated. After he went out of
office he seemed to have no friends. He remained in Washington. I
often saw him. Every morning he would get into a shabby old buggy and
drive to market, where he would buy his meat and vegetables, potatoes,
etc., for the day. These he would carry back to the house in his
buggy, and his cook would prepare his solitary meals for him. I never
felt anything but dislike for him,” said this gentleman, “and I don’t
know any one else who did!”
“True!” responded another gentleman, whose word has balanced national
opinion to a large extent for many years, “Mr. Holt was repugnant to
me. I think he was generally regarded as a man who had forsaken his
own section for gain. I thought him a heartless man. When he left
office he went into utter obscurity!”
These remarks, coming from sources so authoritative, lent strength to
the supposition that Mr. Holt’s behaviour toward his self-surrendered
prisoner and former friend, Clement C. Clay, if it might be traced to
its source, would, indeed, reveal a persecution at once vengeful and
malicious, springing from some personal animus. For a year I made
continuous effort to find this motive, but without success. Pitiless
enmity, supported by almost unlimited powers (vested in Mr. Holt as
Judge Advocate General, when the Government was in an unprecedented
condition of chaos), this officer surely exercised toward Messrs.
Davis and Clay; but, where was the _raison d’être_?
By an accident, “at the eleventh hour,” the paper in Mr. Clay’s
handwriting containing the sentence quoted in the preceding text came
to light. I wrote promptly to Mrs. Clay-Clopton concerning it, urging
her to try to recall, if possible, the “reasons” which Mr. Clay, in
his prison in Fortress Monroe, on the night of December 29, 1865, had
given her in explanation of Mr. Holt’s animosity toward him. Her reply
ran as follows:
“I _can_ give you, in regard of Mr. Holt’s persecution of my husband,
one very important reason! On the breaking out of the war, I think on
the secession of Mississippi, Holt, who had won both his fame and his
fortune in that State of his adoption, espoused the Southern cause.
Whether this was known to others than Mr. Davis and Mr. Clay, I do not
know. From the impression that remains on my memory, Holt communicated
in confidence to those two gentlemen alone his intention of standing
by the South. Possibly, it was said to Mr. Davis alone, as the latter
was Mississippi’s leading Senator, and by Mr. Davis repeated to Mr.
Clay. It was a common thing in those days to keep secret one’s
intentions.” [See visit of Admiral Semmes, Chapter IX.] “Whether
Holt’s decision was known to others than Mr. Davis and Mr. Clay, his
friend,” continues the letter, “I do not know. I remember Mr. Clay
telling me that Mr. Holt was a renegade and a traitor, _who had
pledged himself to the South_; but when, in his selfish ambition, he
received a higher bid from the Federal Government, he deserted our
cause and went over to the opposition. I do not recall the position
offered Mr. Holt by the Federal Government, but it was a plum he
coveted.
“You ask whether Mr. Clay and Mr. Holt ever had any dealings with each
other, political or business:
“None of any kind! Mr. Clay only knew of Holt’s base defection from
our cause and condemned him for it. My husband told me (in the
Fortress), ‘Mr. Holt knows the estimate Mr. Davis and I have of his
defection and would fain get us out of the way!’” A. S.
Footnote 69:
Governor Clay died the following autumn.
Footnote 70:
On the back of this scrap, Mr. Davis wrote in pencil, “If you get
this, say I’ve got the tobacco and will give you a puff.” Long
afterward, lest the identity of the little slip should be lost, Mr.
Clay added this comment beneath the original inscription: “Preserve!
Mr. Davis to me in prison! C. C. C.” A. S.
Footnote 71:
Mr. Harrison died in Washington, March 29, 1904. A. S.
Footnote 72:
Mr. Clay’s response to this letter is printed in Mayes’ “Life of
Lamar.” (Page 122.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as
printed.
3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Belle of the Fifties, by Virginia Clay-Clopton