Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-04-17
THE DECATUR TRAGEDY.
Cincinnati Commercially

Cincinnati Commercial.l
At the age of forty-one, in the
year 1920, Stephen Decatur was
killed at Bladensburg, in a duel, by
Commodore Barron. He was the
son of Stephen Decatur, also a naval
hero. No name in history outshines
in the splendor of heroism and
chivalry that of Decatur. He was
brave, gifted, handsome, famous.
Out Of TIE affair of the Chesapeake
and the Leopard, which caused
much excitement and evaporation
at the beginning of the war with
England, grew the difficulty be-
tween Barron and Decatur which
ended in the fatal duel. Our cor
respondent writing Washington
gossip a few days ago referred to
the Decatur house ON Lafayette
Square, and said of Mrs. Decatur
that she was the queen Of the social
world and
"Her Solons were thronged with
the elite of the foreign and resi-
dent society; she gathered about
her the most cultivated and elegant
men and women-and remember,
please, all this was in the days when
the Websters, Clays and Calhouns
represented the mind of the land
and her entertainments were mar
wells. The Presidents were her
guests, and then the Presidents
rarely stepped out Of the charmed
circle that in the earlier years OF
the republic hedged in the chief
magistracy. When Commodore
Decatur was brought home to die,
the stately old house was closed,
and after his funeral his wife lived
in seclusion SO strict that her name
became a memory. She left the
scene Of her happiness, and its only
occupants for years were two ole
negroes-her former cook ant
coachman. Years after the tragedy
| went to st. Peters church, il
Georgetown, one evening. 1t wal
the eve of some great festival of tht
Catholics, and, while kneeling il
the body of the church, / noticed
fitting about the altar, arranging
flowers, wax tapers and trailing
vines, a woman whose movement
;; were so graceful that my attention
. was soon centered on her. Sh
D wore the garb of a religeuse-a blacl
dress, a serge cape, broad whit
collar and a close-ftting black bon
e net-and once, as she turned he
t head, ] caught a glimpse Of fac
still lovely enough to make me asl
the sexton who she was. 'It i
Madame Decatur, he answered
, she has a little house next the con
vent, and spends her time in sery
, ing the sick, visiting the poor, ant
praying. We think she is almos
a saint The next | heard of he
'' she had won the rest she toiled S
hard for-the sun had set on tn
tired heart and gray head"
This publication has caused to b
handed us, with permission to pull
J lish, the following letter from De
cstur's wife, written nine yeal
after he fell, We use in compos
! ton the original letter;
UNION HoTEL, GEoRGg Town,
February 10, 1929
I My DEAR SIR-After sewers
wears Of dreadful anxiety and su
penso, lam again induced to troub
YOU upon the subject of my claim
. and to implore you to use your il
fuence to have it decided this Sc
8 sion. If it is due, common iusti
requires that it should be paid wit
out further delay-and if it is n
J due, common humanity requir
iol that Congress should say SO at ono
and not keep me thus hanging
NJ from year to year until l am !
duc'd to a prison or an alms-houf
| have subsisted for the last thr
N years by selling off my wine, l
m carriage, my books and musical
lH struments; and finally, last spriI
l was oblig'd to sell at auction
the dttle furniture | had left
the - IL. LII tkot ,,.oo ,,raeaut tad