Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-19
PRESIDENT POLK,s WIDOW.
A Famous Woman as Seen at HON
I.oH

A Famous Woman as Seen at Home
Her Undying Love.
[Col Mcclure in Philadelphia Times.l
Just forty years ago, ON the 9th of March,
1845, Mrs. James K. Polk entered the White
House at Washington as the wife of the
President and chief lady of the land. She
had then reached even beyond the full noon
tide of her years, more than forty winters
had entered into the story of her honored
ife.-.F Few of the people of the present have
personal recollections of the gentle grace and
easy dignity with which she shone in the cir
cles of the nations most cultured men and
women of the day; but the pleasant tradition
of the White House that makes the name of
Mrs. Madison illustrious the most beloved
of the early mistresses of the home of the
President is supplemented by the lingering
memories of the oft-repeated tributes in
every section of the land which tell of the
well merited and more than generous homage
paid to Mrs. Polk while presiding as the
central figure of the social jewels of the re-
public. She welcomed at her hospitable
board the Clays, the Websters, the Calhouns,
the Bentons, the Bells, the Buchanans of our
history, and in all the bitter conflicts of the
disputing giants of the last generation the
more than respect that grows into the rev.
erence of affection was commanded from all
by the lady Of the White House. Soon after
the retirement of her honored husband from
tie highest civil trust in the world he was
suddenly called, in the full vigor of his life,
to join the great majority beyond, and the
whole nation mourned the common bereave-
ment it suffered by the death of James K.
Polk. Widowed and alone, Mrs Polk fitted
the dreamless couch of the dead in the green
lawn that fronted their beautiful home in
Nashville and there the ashes of the lord re-
pose, in daily view of the one whose life has
had single sorrow that makes all other sor
rows fade into forgetfulness. Unforgettlng
as if unforgotten, the modest panoply that
covers the tomb of her buried love is
the shrine to which go out the devotions of
each succeeding day, and the room in which
the ex-President sank calmly into the sleep
of death has stood unaltered and unoccupied,
save as widowed love returns to the altar of
blighted but unwearied affection. Thus
while full generation has come and gone
has Mrs. Polk kept faithful vigil over her
husbands dust and her husbands honor.
She has seen ten Presidents follow Mr.. Polk
in the chair he worthily filled, and is
likely to see the eleventh successor before the
long halt shall come.
Of all the women of the land, the widow
of James K. Polk has long been accorded the
largest measure of the nations respect and
reverence. While ever faithful to the one
bright memory of her long and beautiful life,
she has made friend and stranger, old and
young, high and low, welcome to her hospit-
able home, and the visitor to Nashville who
does not cross the threshold of Mrs. Polk's
home and receive her welcome is forgetful
of one of the most delightful opportunities.
Every day her house bears the greeting of
the journeying stranger, and the bright
faces of childhood, of early man and woman
hood. and of ripened age come and go the
grand old lady smiles upon them with the
weight of more than four-score years upon
her. I saw her in the midst of large re-
ception she had given to Philadelphia ladies,
and although bowed with age and unable to
stand without support, she was sprightly
any of the many accomplished ladies who as
sisted in her queenly hospitality. and her I'M
clouded memory and unabated interest in
public men and public events made her ever
the center of attraction