Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-02
same time. tina. he never liked Washington


Was only question of time. Horace
Greeley said the same thing, and demanded a
transfer to New York as the natural and
commercial seat of power on the continent,
and therefore the proper place for the Federal
capital. On the other hand, the late veneer
able Thomas Ewing, Washburne of Wiscon-
sin, General Sherman, General Grant and
other high names, advanced to the front in
favor of Washington, and gave unanswerable
reasons for the retention of the capital here.
Their arguments were enforced by Que potent
consideration which few people have dwelt
upon. The easy fall of Washington in 1914.
when attacked by the British, had filed
many thong htful persons with apprehensions
that Washington was weak place naturally.
and. if menaced by serious danger, position
which would prove untenable. This popular
idea was not oispelled till the war of 1861 SO
dispelled it. The city of Washington was
then proved to be one of the most impreg-
nable positions, when properly defended, 10
the United States. The approaches TO
it were found to be long and circuitous
to an enemy, aud its environs and
natural defenses well adapted for resistance
to the most formidable assaults. So it has
come to pass that the traditional reasons Of
patriotism, historical exploits, vast public
the faith of the permanency of the capital,
have all been reinf lrced by the demonstrated
fact that Washington City itself in military
sense is one of the most improbable points
in the Union. Washington, John q lincy
Adams, Grant and Garfield, are the only
Presidents known to have owned real estate
at the capital.
THE HISTORY OF THE WHITE HoUsR
Is the history of the Presidential families
from John Adams down. In letter to her
daughter. Mrs. Smith. written November 81,
1900. and probably the first letter ever VIZ t.
ten in the White House by its mistress, Mrs.
Abigail Adams writes as follows:
The house is upon grand and superb scale, re-
quiriDg about thirty servants to attend and KEEP
| the apartments in proper order and perform the
ordinary business OF the house ard stables-an es
| tablishmt mt very we'll proportional to the Presi
dents salary. 1he lighting Of the apartments, from
the kitchen to the parlor and chambers, is a tax
indeed and the fires we are obi ged to keep TO Sc
cure US from daily agues is another very cheering
comfort. If they will put up some bells and let me
have wood enough TO keep fires, design to be
pleased. Surrounded with forests, can you believe
that wood is not be had because people cannot be
found to cut and cart it? We have indeed come into
| a new country You must keep all this to yourself
and when asked how like it, say that write you
the situation is beautiful which is true. The house
ment finished, and all withinsde, except the pas
terng, has been done since Briesler (the Steward
came. We have not the least fence, yard or Other
convenience without, and the great unfinished
audience-room 1.-THE East Parlor) make drying
room Of, to hang up the clothes in. The principal
| stairs are not up, aud will not be this winter.
It is remarkable that every Northern Pres
ideut has saved some Of his salary, while the
| contrary is true of every Southerner but one.
| The Adamses were the original Yankees Of
| the White House. They kept the uu6nishs I'd
mansion in righteous sort of way, drsnk tea
and lemonade, shopped cheap and went to
church through mud and STOW.
Jtfferson liked his social glass; he used
colored help to do the chores he had to pay
his own Secretary, like all the rest d,wn to
| Jackson's time, provide his own library and
wife, who had been widow. ike Mrs. Wash
ington and aftsrward Mrs Madison. died long
before his accession, and he had
HOUSE FULL OF DAUGHTERS
And adopted daughters. A great-grand-
daughter of his is a clerk in the Patent Office
a. this time. In his days atheists, painters,
editors, Bohemians, and carpet-baggers of all
sorts, foreign and domestic, made free with
the White House. But there was great
man and great statesman in it, and the PEG.
pie realized the fact, whoever might go and
come.
In Mrs. James Madison the White House
found its first brilliant mistress She is ad.
miringly called by her individual name Dolly
Madison. She had no children, and there
was clear field for outside company. 1t is
Questionable if the house has at any time
since been SO well administered. The whole
cost of the now completed Presidents house,
| D. II p,l 1 AL
called, had been 1888, 207. After the British
burned it, during its occupancy, it cost S301,-
400 % to rebuild it, and add two porticoes.
The burning happened so unexpectedly that
one of Hrs Madison's great dinners was eaten
by the British, all smoking as they found it.
The President was away. When he returned
they opened house at the Octagon, on the
corner Ct Eighteenth street aud New York
avenue. The custom of making New Years
calls in Washington was introduced by Madi-
son, January l, 1910. In 1915 he held his
New Years levee in Colonel Tayloe's house,
the Octagon above mentioned. After Madi-
son died, his stately Wi low rentsd house
near the White House, and kept up nil |
form Of ex-Presidential court, which was re-
spected by the official callers on New Years
and other formal days. Mr. Monroe's wife
was the wealthy Miss Cortright, of New York,
handsome and graceful, but thought naughty.
She came to preside in the White House at
an era when all parties harmonized, and The
6rstterm of her husband's administration, from
1917 to 1921, has been pronounced the period
of the best society in Washington. Gentle
men of high character and high breeding
aboun1ed in both houses of Congress, and
many of the foreign Ministers were distin-
guishe1 for talent, learning, and elegant man
ners. Mrs. Monroe was out of health, but her
daughter, Mrs. George Hay, who had attend
ed Madame Campans famous boarding
school at Paris, and was there the intimate
friend of Hortense Beauharnais. largely took
her mothers place, and was witty and ac-
complished and 9 great favorits in society.
By this time the White House had been all
RESTORED AND FURNISHED.
James Hoban built both the original and the
reconstructed mansions, after plan minifed
from the palace at Versailles. The Marine
Band first played at the Executive Mansion
on New Years day, 1922, and has done SO
every New Years day since, as is its custom
also at ell state dinners there. In 1924 the
doors OF the White House were thrown opsn
for the first time on New Years day to the
miscellaneous public. The Intelliggn. "a. Of
the next day congratulates its readers on the
decorous department of the people on that
occasion. The winter OF 1926 was one of the
most brilliant ever known in Washington.
It was the period OF the exciting
election in the House of Representa-,
tives. when Mr.. Adams, Mr.. Clay,
and General Jackson were candidates for the
Presidency. The Marquis de Lafayette was
here as the guest of Congress, occupying
apartments at Browns, the then leading no.
tel. In the last week Of December, 1924,
Congress had voted him 100000 for his
long-ago services in the Revolution. On the
1st of January the reception at the Presi-
dents was unusually brilliant. for among the
guests were the Marquis de Lafayette and his
son George Washington Lafayette, Harrison
Gray Otis of Boston, the northern Chester
field; Governor Gore of Massachusetts,,
Stephen Van Rensselaer,, the Patron of New
York; Rufus King, MIR. Clay, Mr.. Webster,
Mr.. Calhoun, Mr. Crawford, Mr.. Everett.
Mr.. Hayne of South Carolina, General ack-
son, and many other distinguished persons,
with the Ladies of their households, all resi-
dent in Washington during that remarkable
winter. In 1926 the President began holding
lavees on an evening of eech alternate We *.
The East Room was opened in 1928. The
frs. private house in Washington to initiate
the New York custom of
RECEIVING ON NEW YEAR DAY,
Which President Monroe had seen there in
1870, and brought south to Washington, was
that Of the late 0gle Tayloe, in 1880. on La
=