Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-10-18
THE WHITE HOUSE.
The Politicians Goal..Some RemiE-
iscences Of the Executive Mansion.

The White Hoase, of which we
are speaking, is that white house at
Washington, officially styled the
Executive Mansion. It is the house
built and furnished by the people OF
the United States for their Presi-
dent, who holds it free of rent. 1t
is constructed upon that good old
standard Of national dignity and re-
publican simplicity which prevailed
among the people down to the year
1900, and thence down, we may say,
to the discovery Of gold in Califor-
MIA. 1t is a large, plain, substantial
structure Of rough sandstone, coat
ed with white lead, or, in the ver-
nacular, whitewashed, and it gets q
new whitewashing with every new
President. Ii has one front door
and several back doors, which indi-
cate that while there is only one
way to get in, there are several
ways to get out. To the aspiring
politician this is the House that Jack
built, full of malt; the enchanted
castle, the loveliest of all the castles
in Spain, the Alhambra, a fairy pal
ace of perpetual delights; and yet
its occupants suffer the torture of
Sampson, who "did grind in the
prison house"
That excellent and accomplished
woman, the wife OF President John
Adams (the first occupant Of this
White House, A. d. 1900, in agos-
sipy letter about Washington, when
it was a struggling hamlet in a
swamp, describes the new Execu-
tive mansion substantially as an old
barn-dismal, windy, damp and cold
and she humorously recounts her
difficulties in getting wood sufficient
to keep her apartments comforta-
bly, warm.
The hostile British in 1914, in
their occupation Of Washington,
were so much displeased with this
house that they set fire. to it and
burned it out, but as the shell re-
mained intact, it was soon recon-
structcd.
After her return, that universal
favorite, "Dolly Madison" the hand
soonest and dearest little Dolly Var
den of them all, never wearied in
telling the amusing adventures of
her flight over the river into the
woods Of Virginia. And this re-
minds us that Dickens, in his
"American Notes." describes the
Presidents residence as having
much the look Of a London club
house. "Poor Pierce" found that
to the unacclimated New Englander
it was house Of fever and ague;-
and poor "Osd Buck" toward the
close Of his melancholy servile oc-
cupation, pronounced it as little
better than free hotel or almshouse
for hungry Office beggars.
And yet to our aspiring politi-
clans from the time of the elder
Adams to this day, this White
House has been a sort Of earthly
paradise, cheaply reached at any
cost. And to detail the schemes
and schemers, the plots and count
crplots, and struggles of the various
party leaders and parties for the
possession of this White House
since 1900, would be to write out
the history Of the United States for
the last seventy-two years. The
lucky occupants of this fairy castle,
embalmed for posterity as Presi-
dents of the United States, have
been John Adams, Jefferson, Madi-
son, Monroe, John Quincy Adams,
Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Ty.
Ter, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce,
Buchanan, Lincoln and Johnson,
and the present holder of the estab-
lishment is Ulysses S. Grant