Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-28
TIE LOVES oFoue STATESMEN
How Webster P,ppcd the Question
Love Affairs of Clay, calhoun.
Douglas. Wise. DAvy Crockett,
Brewster, InRalis, Conger,
Vance, Malone and
nthpF


presidential campaign comprised a con
inuous washing of dirty linen ana the
mode after which the & eat ma, makes
love has become as important as his vote
on the tariff o civil Sc vice efor q. Most
of our statesmen, however, have a r
domestic eco Dis, md the mar iapes of
m ny of them have been marriages of
love. Old zen, tor Benton was devoted
to his wife and he would neve attend any
place of fes ivity or amusement after her
death. The wife of Senator
Allen bet err known as "Fog
horn" Allen, died here at Wan
ington duiiug the winter Of l947, before
the days OF ra,lrta 20, and the old senator
carried her corpse home to Ohio over t1e
noun aims, riding beside it on hortebsck
durir G the day, and wa ching it az night
thrt ughout the cold, dreary journey. I'M
al no laid it at last beside her father,
Gov. Arthur, In the beautiful cemetery
at Obi licothe. Daniel Wetsser's tw
marriages. were MARI g 8 of love. His
first wife was GrGc3 File cher, the daugh.
ter of a New Hampshire clergyman
Webster married her when he was 26
y sars of age end while he was yet a poor
lawyer. nis p PIP ng the question was
mot dslicetejy one Miss Grace had
been wiudu & a skein of yarn while he
had hel1 1t for h,r on his long arms. The
skein had become tangled. and durir g its
uutwisting the hands of the two lovers
had come ve,y close together. As the
knot be ame un id Mr.. Webster said
1--WE have succeeded, Miss G ace, In IN
tyii G this knot; can we not
now tie another which will remain tied
"a long az we liv,l" Miss G a e
blushed and a kiss, it is said, sealed the
bargain. The two lived happily for
eigh cen years, when Mrs. ebste died
in New Y ork on he way to Washington,
whe e her husband was a member of con
gress. She was i'll ,hre weeks, during
which time Webster watched at he bed
side, but two yea s after she died he
married aga n. webste s second wife
was Caroline lie Roy, a New York lady,
tall, bro n haired and beautiful. she
presided over his establ shment here and
accompanied him to EUROPE, where she
cined with tn que n. she always adj
d es2ed her husban / as "Mr. " ebster, 3"
and his tavorite Term for her was ''Lady
Caroline"
K. John G.. Calhoun m'rried his cousin,
and the property he got with her made
his political life { ee from financial ca es.
henry Clay mari d Lucretia Bart, a
relative of Tom Benton, who had a good
dowry and understood how to keep house.
jeff Davis married fot his hrst wife the
daughter of Zach Taylor, and h s father
in law decidedly objec ed to the match.
He would have little to do w tn
DAVIS unit after the battle of Bueua
Vista, where Davis excited I. ylor's ad-
miration by his bravery. Gen Element
eloped with Tom Beu'on's laughter, and
il was some time before old Benton grew
reconciled to the match. When he did,
however, he became infatuated with Fra
IN mt and he considered him, next to
himte'f, the greatest a In the country.
Mrs. Fremont is still living, and the
hairs Of herzelf and her husband have
grown gay in theic married life. It is
81 id that neither of them has ever regret
ted their elopement.
James Buchanan, Alexander Stephens
and John Randolph of Ro,noke were
each disappointed in love when they
arrived at the age Of manhood and they
all remsined true t. their first affection.
They said but little about it aud the sub
ject was forbidden ground TO their dear
est frIelds Randolph onoe spoke Of his
Il se as one for whom he cared more III IN
hi, own soul or the God that made it and
from S ephon's PIP rs we ind hot he fe
in love Shile he VS. y t a boy at echo !
The frat wife of Stephen A. Douglas
was North Carolina woman and a elave
owner. His second wife he got here in
Washington. She was very beautiful,
and 1t is said she was a poor girl. She
was msnY years younger than Douglas,
and several years alta he died she mar
ried again. David Davis present wife is
tw snty eight years younger than ths old
senst IF, and, ashe is worth about three
millions, she will bs well fixed if he
should drop Off.
Henry A. Wise, the noted Virginia
statesman of Tyler's day, WAS married
hree times. His third wife survives
tin, and is, | think, living at Richmond
to-day. His fret love was the daughter
| Of one of his professors at college, a Miss
jennings, whom he married i'll Tennessee.
His second wife was a daughter Of John
Sargent, the whig candidate for vice
president in 1882. Wise proposed &c
Nj IS Sargent on tho dome of the capitol
here, and on of the results of the mar
risge WIS John Sergeant Wise, the pras'
emit member of congress from Virginia,
who wa born at Rio Jsneieo, where
Henry A. Wise WAS Off ciatipg as minister
at the the time. AS John Wise was not
born in the United States, he cu
uever be presiden-, though 1t is said tina
at the moment of his birth his father, de-
termined to have him born under the
American flag, ran up a doz,n on differ
ent parts OF the consular mansion.
Senator Sam Houston, the president o
the republic of Texas, was the youpges'
man who had ever governed the state o.
Tennessee, when he fell IN love with
pretty girl at the state capital. He wal
the governor If the state, good lookir s
and q splendid catch, After his MAJ
ii age he found his wife loved another snC
she had bsen forced by her parents t.
marry him. He left the governors chair
and telling his wife TO get a divorce oil
the ground Of desertion, went to III,
frontier and Joined a tribe of Cher Ike,
Indians. Here he married q squsw il
indian fashion, and soon became
chief. He was drinking hard and going
u the dogs, when n day he was tolc
of the troubles in Texss and the battle o.
the Almo was described to him. FL,
Strengthened himself up, determined to bs
4 man again and went forth to his brave