Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-01
GENERAL AND MRS. MCCLELLAN.
A Double Reception at the White
HOuse-'sTh Man Who ought to
Have been President,

A Washington correspondent gives the
following incidents of White House re
ception on Washington S birthday:
Mrs. Grant held another of her after
noon receptions to-day from to 4 0 clock
1t was by far the largest and most bril-
liant of any given thus far this season.
1t was also in a way highly sensational;
for, instead of one, the public really atten-
ded two receptions, of which the more un-
expected was perhaps the more welcome
and significant. General and Mrs.
Mcclellan held this latter, and that not
only within the halls of the Presidential
mansion, but in the famous Blue Room
itself, with Mrs. Grant and gorgeously
attired retinue standing a cote, and wit
nesses of the scene from beginning to end.
1t happened in this wise. The recep-
ton was at its hight The whole suite
of gorgeously furnished rooms was crowd
ed with people. The living tide was
surging and tossing with old-timed rest
lessness through the channels marked out
by the four rooms and the long corridor,
thrown open on occasions of ceremony
! like this for score of years or more.
Many had come and bowed at the shrine
of Presidential greatness, nodded pro
miscuous greetings among the crowd,
and squeezed away through the long files
of incomers, and had gone.
Others were left however, to fill their
places. Mr.. the President had come in
late from attending a fashionable we'd
ding and was at his post by the side of
Mrs. the President. The countless Dents
were ubiquitous-a power hence happy.
The affair was eliminating.
A carriage drawn by two white horses
drove up to the door. From it descended
pale, delicate-looking woman, leaning
on the arm of handsome military-look-
ing man. They slowly entered the outer
door and passed into the vestibule.
Somehow passage opened for them,
where others found only an impossible
barrier. People looked, and those in
front whispered hurriedly to those behind.
The moment they had passed, the open
space filled up as if by magic, and there
was VIOLENT pushing to the front.
In little while they had passed through
the crowd and were exchanging saluta-
tions with the Presidential party.
Then began scene, one long to be re-
membered; the present incumbents of
the White House will never forget it.
People forget them, or if they did re-
member them, they didn't care to show it.
Some one said "There is the man who
ought to have been President" and the
sentiment spread like wildhre.
In less time than it takes to tell it, the
scene of the reception was shifted and
the actors had changed places General
and Mrs. Mcclellan were for the time
being the President and his wife; and
General and Mrs. Grant outsiders -
nobody.
The real President grinned and grim
aced, and, as is his habit when in social
troubles, plucked at his beard. 1t was
comical to watch the look of chagrin and
annoyance on his face, as he in turn
watched the scene at his elbow; but
what could he do?
The situation was desperate beyond
hope, and until his unwilling rival had
quilted the field of his triumph, he stood
there in blank despair. Relief came at
last, however, but not until the reception
had come to an end.
As General Mcclellan quilted the
room, thoroughly worn out with the
handsshaking he had undergone, Mrs.
Secretary Fish came in-the most mag
dressed woman who has trod
the White House floor for ten years.