Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-12-10
UNION AND AMERICAN
OUR EsEPUDLICAy COURT.
The Ladies of the Waite HOuse-The
Coming Advent Of szrs, General Grant.

SomtnR Advent Of Mrs, General Gran
While the interested politician
are specializing, proposing and il
triguing in reference TO the Cabine
Of Gen. Grant, the ladies, far an
near, are beginning to inquire wha
sort ola person is Mrs. Gen. Grant
and what are her qualifications TO
the honors Of the White House
Here we have the interesting theme
ofthe ladies of the White HOUSE
broadly suggested, from Mrs
George Washington down to Mrs
Andy johnson. 1t is theme fol
a heavy volume, gilt edged and CO.
piously illustrated with steel engra-
wings; but for our present purpose
a few passing remarks will do.
Our republican court" under
Mrs. Washington was originally To-
Gated at No. 3 Cherry street, Frank
lin square-at that time the Wash
ington Heights of New York city,
The members of the Cabinet and of
Congress were scattered about Ia
their private residences or boarding
houses, between Franklin square
and Water street and thence along
to the Battery. The administration
of the honorG of the Executive Man.
sion by Mrs. Washington was SUBJ
stantially reproduction of the Ell
quette, costumes and ceremonies of
st. James and st. Cloud. A learned
historian on the subject says that
her levees were numerously attended
by the fashionable, elegant and re-
fined; that the rabble, the coarse
and boisterous partisan and impu-
dent place-hunter were vigorously
excluded; that full dress was re-
quired of all her visitors, and that
there was no admission for interlop-
ers "with boots, frockcoats and
roundabouts, or with patched knees
and holes at both elbows" Her
receptions were select, elegant and |
courtly.
From New York the general gov
eminent was removed to Philadel-
phia, where the same system was
maintained, and thence to the newly |
laid out but almost invisible city of |
Washington, as the permanent ma
tional capital, under President John |
Adams, in 1900 Mrs. Adams was
a highly accomplished woman of |
the colonial aristocracy and of the |
federal school, and she maintained |
as far as practicable the courtly |
forms and ceremonies of Mrs Wash
ington. But in a very interesting
letter on her new house in the ham,
let of Washington she has left upon
record the primitive expedients to
which she was driven to make things
passably neutrality-suspicious.
and makeshifts which seem to have
given her much amusement. In this
we have sufficient evidence of her
admirable qualities for the position,
the time and the place.
President Jefferson came to Wash
ington a widower. He was free
from the power behind the throne,
and, being a thoroughgoing radical
of the French school, in society as
in politics, his advent marked rad
ical revolutiOn-yes, q revolution in
dress and manners only less marked
than the changein France itself with
the overthrow of the monarchy, the
clipping of the fine feathers of the
Bourbons and the proclamation Of
the republic. Jefferson would have
no courtly ceremonies about him.
His own dress, even at his recep-
tions, being that of a plain farmer,
he had no objections to boots, frock-
coats or sleeves out at both elbows.
Everywhere the new philosophy of
life was received with acclamations,
and thus, from 1901, we may date
not only the downfall of the stately
politics, but q general decay Of the
stately society of the old federal
party.
Under the plump and rosy,
sprightly and charming Dolly !
Madison" new dispensation of So
cial life was introduced in the White
House, especially after the peace
with England of 1915. Her recep-
tons we're gay, sparkling and de-
Hghtful, and her popularity was un-
bounded, and she reigned in Wash
ington to the end Of her long and
happy life. Under Mrs. Monroe and
Mrs. John Quincy Adams we had in
the social reunions of the Executive
Mansion happy blending ofdigni-
ty, refinement and republican sim
plicity. Mrs. J. Q. Adams was the !
last of the school of Martha Wash
ington Of which she was worthy
representative.
Gen. Jackson, another widower,
like Jefferson, brought in another
change. Fashion, beauty and the
doves and loves and graces were
frightened away from the White
House by boisterous politicians, the
Nimrod Wildfires from the back
woods Of Tennessee, the bear eaters
from the canebrakes of "the Big
Muddy" and the alumni Of Tamma-
nv Hall. In truth, Old Hickory |
was so absorbed in party politics |
that before he knew what it was all |
about he found himself entangled in |
feminine Cabinet imbroglio, from |
which there was no escape but in 4 |
new Cabinet out and out. His Sec |
rotary Of State, Martin Van Buren,,
obligingly gave the hint to his col
leagues by resigning, and they all
resigned, and this was the making
ofVsn Buren,. The mantle Of Jack
son carried him into the White
House next in order of the success
sion: but, being a widOwer, too,
and wholly taken up with the politi-
clans. like his "illustrious predeces-
sor," there was nothing brilliant or
fascinating in the social administra
ton Of Van Buren, except his splen
did rig from top to toe, his shining
hat and boots, his glittering state
chariot and his royal table. He was,
in fact, a fcderalist of democratic
professions.
General Harrison, next in the
White House, promised a better state
of things with the family gathered
about him; but he was tortured to