Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1879-10-23
Two Famous Americans.

In political life men are often called
upon 10 play the childish game OF "Puss
in the Corner" where one boy leaves his
place and another skips into 1t II he can.
Two famous Americans lives have just been
written, long years after their renown
was gained. come before me this week tor
some notice OF their careers which were
remarkable enough Albert Gallatin was
a Swiss American. and Betsey Patterson
Bonaparte was an American->wiss. who
took service under the Bonapartes tor
time and became In that way the mother
OF one liue OF that singular Bonaparte fam
ily which is the Royal OF Eu-
rope, always waiting for something TO
turn up-aud the women OF which are al
WAYS ready TO vow, like the interesting
heroine of Dickens. that they will never
desert thcIr Bonaparte. The American
Mrs Micaw6er was very unlike her Eh-
glsh coordinate; but not so respectable In
her motives. though reputable enough in
character, when judged bv the one narrow
standard which IS applied To the conduct
OF women 10 general. She was In fact, an
adventures, who made one great hit, and
wa. all her life atterward miserable In con
sequence. Albert Gallatin began liie.als
as an adyeniurer. but in shy AMI strange
way-cuttluy himself of for years from his
own family. but soon attaching himself to
tha' araai.r family the nation, aud making
his biography no small part OF tnaL ma
tion's history. Il was our nation, too
while Miss Betsey Patterson. having mar
ried her foreign lover and worn hi, name
for a few years in America and in Europe,
practically reuounced her native country
until she was fltty years old, and generally
spoke OF 1t with every sort OF contempt.
She had then exhausted the pleasures OF
her way OF life in Europe. and she returned
TO her native city of Baltimore TO be mis-
cradle and to make others miserable there.
She detested America, the adopted home
OF Gallatin, and she sete,ted Geneva. the
home OF his boyhood, almost "a much.
'.The Swiss" she wrote in 1923, "reputcd
honest, are quite as Interested aud fraudu-
lent a. the French. In Geneva they cheat,
from the highest 10 the lowest classes. No
jew has ever been able to get living 10
Geneva" In 1882 she wrote from Geneva
agaiu: "DO try 10 get me string OF white
topazes. want 10 wear il as a necklace,
aud pretend they are diamonds. Ii i u
bore to grow old. | live exclusively with
the English and Russians. The Geneyun>
are too odious for any decent person 10
live with them" \ few years before this
she had written 10 her father in Baltimore:
A parent cannot make sllk-pur-e OF a
sows ear, aud you found that you could
never make a sow's ear OF siih-pur-e.
II was impossible to bend my talents and
nv ambition 70 the obscure destiny OF Il
Baltimore househeeper. and II was absurd
TO attempt It after had married the broth
er OF an emperor. had not the meanness
OF spirit 10 descend from such an elevation
to the deplorable condition OF being the
wife of an American" The Americans
st1ui m
good taste enough to feel that l had risen
above them. and have always treated me
with the respect and Difference due TO SUI
perior.
There is much Of this stupid aud heart
less stuff in the letters OF this spoiled beau
", OF whom her father said in his will:
1.-The conduct of my daughter Betsey, has
through life. been SO disobedient that in 10
Instance has she ever consulted my opin-
ions or feelings; indeed, she has caused
me more anxiety and trouble than all my
other children put together" The story
OF her life. or of the first part of it. Is re-
mark able. and romantic, and IL is told toll
crabiy well in NJ. D;d.er's Life and Let
ter, oi Madame Bonaparte, published BY
Cuates Scrbner's Sons In New York. The
name "Bonaparte" is perhaps a misno-
iner, Tor she signed herself elizabeth
! a&itisoh ioi tut uist NikhtNSh nhu tht
last sixty-tive years of her long lite. though
she was legally and property (however
roolishly) married to young jerome Bona
parte IN December, 1903. Her letters are
often entertaining, though selfish, spiteful,
aud otherwise repulsive In tone Often
times, and the remarks she makes often in
dicate shrewdness and some wit. But the
selfishness is always uppermost. In lS49,
at the age OF sixty-f0ur, she wrote to Lady
Morgan about my late rich and unjust
parent" and said: 81 owe nothing to my
country; nobody expects me to be grateful
Tor the evil chance Of having been born
here. Society, conversation, friendship,
belong to older countries. and are not yet
cultivated in any part of the United States
which have visited" On the contrary,
Albert Gallatin. who was born in Geneva
in l761, twenty-four years before the am
bilious Betsy OF Baltimore, found "society,
conversation. friendship in all those parts
OF the United States which he visited, and
seems to have owed his prominent position
10 the administration Of Jefferson and Mad
ison quite as much to the friendship he SO
loyalty maintained with those two great
men AS to his own useful talents. or TO
what his biographer, Prof. Henry Adams
of Cambridge, calls ''that sublime conf
dence in human nature which had given to
Mr.. Jefferson and his party their single, ir
resistible claim to popular devotion" 1t
was this confidence In the people, and es-
pecially in the American people, that en-
abled Gallatin and Jefferson 10 find q pleas
ure in American life, notwithstanding the
reverse Of politics. and the social def
ciencies Of the country, which Mrs. Betsey-
Patterson Bonaparte could not experience
in her chase for happiness throughout the
courts Of Europe.
Prof Adams has done his biographers
work very skillfully, and has made his
thick volume-''rhe Life Of Albert Gala
tin"-as absorbing 10 interest rs any Am
erican political biography well can be,
where the period described 10 so remote,
and there are no military incidents or rev.
olutionary crisis to call up the Imagination
OF the reader. There are certain passaQee