Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-03-22
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PRESIDENTS ON HORSEBACK. ~
"REMINISCENCES FROM THE TIME OF WASHING
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PRESIDENTS ON HORSEBACK. ~
"REMINISCENCES FROM THE TIME OF WASHING.
TON DOWN. 49,.
Washington's state carriages were highly
ornamental. The one built in Philadelphia
was drawn by six horses. In this, in 1871
he made his long journey to the South, &C.
companied as far as Delaware BY Mr.. Jeffer-
son and General Knox. The state coach he
used in New York was built in that city, and
in this, also drawn by six horses, he made bis
journey through New England. Near the
end of his life, on the 29th Of May, 1899, he
wrote: II begin my diurnal course with the
sun :" and having described his days business
he proceeds: by the time I have accom-
pished these matters, breakfast "a little after
7 oclock) is ready !; this being over, l mount
my horse and ride round the farms" }
John Adams, President after Washington,
was an entirely different character. AL
though, of course, compelled by the primitive
condition of the country to use the horse oc.
casionally, be was so much Of a student, schol-
ar and statesman, that his career may have
been called rather secluded one; but his
wife, Mrs. Adams, had many fashionable
tastes, and was forty-6ve when summoned
from Europe, by the selection of her husband
as ce.President. At that time they lived
at Bush Hill, near Philadelphia and moth
ing can be more amusing than her letter des-
cribing her Journey from Philadelphia to
Washington, through York and Maryland,
when her husband became Chief Magistrate,
and when our national capital was something
like the capital of new Western territory
to-day. Thomas Jefferson, who was eight
years President of the United States, from
1901 to 1909, was as much contrast to Ad-
ams as Adams was to Washington. Not a
military man, he was essentially horseman.
When he was lad he not only played the
fiddle, but doubtless took part in more than
one of the rustic races of the neighborhood.
He was keen hunter; as eager after fox
as Washington himself" says biographer.
Swift of foot and sound Of wind coming
fresh and alert after long days clambering
hunt" He generally travelled on horseback,
with bis fiddle, and it was merry house in
Hanover county, where he met for the first
time, a jovial blade named Patrick Henry.
Everybody in those primitive days owned or
rnde horse, and Jefferson, like George
Wythe, John Marshall, Henry Clay, John
Randolph, and all his contemporaries and
successors, was compelled to use this sort of
manly exercise You remember the story of
his Inauguration. He went to the cap't"'
without parade or ostentation. His son-in-
law was completing the purchase of four
coach horses, price 1900 with which the
President elect hoped to contend with the
yellow mud of Washington, but rs neither
horse nor coach had arrived, he rode on horse
back to the capital without a servant in his
train, dismounted without assistance, hitched
the bride of his horse to the palisades, walked
in, and was sworn. . - -..'.'-.
James Madison almost broke down bis
health by his severe studies, and although
undoubtedly a horseman, as proved by his
military services when the British attacked
Washington during his administration in
1914, he was so devoted to books that during
his novitiate at Princeton college in New
Jersey, he allowed himself bat three hours
sleep and devoted the day to study. james
Monroe, his successor, also serving for eight
years in the Presidency, was brave soldier
in the Revolutionary war, pupil of Thomas
Jefferson, and although one of the ablest of
the Virginia statesmen, accustomed to the
peris OF the field.
And John Quincy Adams, who came after
him as President in 1925, austere and cold as
he was. was regular horseman, and swim
mer, and fisherman and pedestrian. After
Adams came the iron President, old Hickory,
a snewy wrestler in his youth, the frontier
pioneer, the fierce Indian warrior, man who
would fight at the drop of hat, the general
who whipped a trained British army with un-
trained troops behind cotton bags; who, so to
speak, literally rode into the Presidency, and
to his last hour preserved his indomitable ma
ture The turf was source Of profit, as we'll
as pleasure to Andrew Jackson. The early
Nashville race course at Glover Bottom, close
to Jackson's store on Stone river, was the
scene of many ofhis exploits. 1t is just large
enough for mile course, with space for spec
tators and their vehicles. Here he tried the
PAGES of his renowned horse Truxton when he
first brought him from Virginia. Here he
tried his racing colts here every Spring and
Autumn he attended the races, the most "a
ger of the motley throng. The ownership of
Truxton, says Parton, from whose splendid
biography l gather these facts, rendered Jack
son the leader of the turf for many years. --~
After him came William Henry Harrison,
the hero of Tppecanoe, in his time familiar
with horses, who died in the first month of
his administration, and was succeeded by
John Tyler, Virginian, who although much
offs politician, was also good rider. After
him came James K. Polk, another four years
President, reared to equestrian sports in Ten
nessee, though, like Tyler, rather student
and more accustomed to ride his circuit and
to 90 to political meetings on horseback, than
to follow the turf He was succeeded by
Geu. Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista, brave
as his own sword, familiar with cavalry and
artillery and all the dread mysteries of war,
who lived only eighteen months after his
election, and who like Gen. jackson, we find
on horseback in canvass and in marble all
over the continent. The quiet Milard Fill
more filled out his term. Then came Frank
Pierce, soldier and gentleman, one of the most
striking men that ever sat in saddle. James
Buchanan served out the next four years,
from 1857 to 1861. In early life he was some
thing of horseman, and used to tell how be-
fore be was of age he rode through the blue
grass of Kentucky.
Then came the martyred President, Abra.
ham Lincoln, reared among the rough man.
ners and customs of Kentucky, then trans
ferred to the equally rugged experiences of
Illinois. He rode through the unsettled
prairies of the great State, in whose bosom he
now sleeps the sleep that knows no human
wakening. Of Andrew Johnson's Presiden-
tial interval little need be said. He certain
ly was not addicted to equestrian feats in
Washington. Last scene of all, comes Ulys.
ses S. Grant Like Washington, jackson,
Taylor and Pierce, his military experience