Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-14
SOCIAL PRECEDENCE.
4 Question That Has Agitated OH
ciaI Circles Settled by Marriage.


ciaI Circles Settled by Marriage.
From tie PhiladelD1,a Times.
The nuptial ceremony in the White
House among other happy results has set
at rest that absLruse problem in the So
cial economy of the executive household
which has been agitating Washington
since the installation of the widower
President Arthur in the place of the muir
dered Garfield. There had been widowed
Presidents before. The wife of Jefferson
had died nearly 20 years before her husband
became President. Their highly Guilt
waited and beautiful daughters, Mrs. Ran
dolph and Mrs. Eppes, divided tne honors
OF the social regime, relieved, when
absent, by Dolly Payne Madison, the
buXom, busting, somewhat rollicking
Quaker wife of his Secretary of State.
Mrs. jackson, a delicate, sensitive
woman, was overwhelmed into eternal
sleep just before her husbands
born OF partisan malice and
heaped upon the idol Of her heart, the
brave old hero of Pensacola and New Or
leans. Her two nieces, Mrs. Andrew
Donelson and Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr.,
did the honors Of the w bite House during
those stormy times of political antago-
nisms and social and domestic scandals.
'
eyed beauty OF South Carolina, the wife of
the son of Martin Van Buren,, was ad-
vanced to the place of presiding lady, the
rlghtful occupant OF that place having
been dead fully twenty years when that
scion of Knickerbocker blood entered up
on the duties of chief magistrate. The
death OF the first Mrs. Tyler in the White
House caused the social duties of this
early part of the administration to devolve
hsax VIII a nj ho PR -
high tunctionary later conferred that
honor upon Julia Gardner, of New York,
by making that queenly lady his wife.
That superb daughter of Pennsylvania,
Harriet Lane, niece, adorned the social
environments of James Buchanan, in his
high Office of President.
In those days of elegant manners and
regard for social cOnVentionalities and
proprieties among the high-bOrn and cul-
tured ladies North and South, who were
the leaders of society at the capital, this
question of the first lady OF the land, the
President not having a wife, was never
mOoted. No one doubted the right of the
President TO invest some lady member of
the family-a daughter, a sister or a
niece-with the domestic and social pre-
negatives of his high station. 1t was
during the captivating social reign of
Mary Arthur McElroy, the petite and
pretty sister of President Arthur, that
Blue Grass statesmen and danes under.
took to force this heretica doctrine into
the social forms of official life. The wife
of the Speaker was exalted as the first
lady of the land and held a rump court at
one OF the hotels.
The Inauguration of Grover Cleveland
revived this vigorous controversy in a
more formidable shape. In the admins
tTation of President Arthur there was
simply President pro TEN. OF the Senate,
then in the line of succession to the eX-
ecutive office, but whose wife was an in
valid, and upon which frail assumption
the wife of the Speaker aspired to the
honors OF reigning queen. The election
of Thomas A. Hendricks as Vice Presi-
dent placed the wife of that officer next
in line in the van of the aspiring fashion
of the feminine world of the seat OF gov
eminent. Mrs. Hendricks had made the
appointment of the rugged "Joe' Nc
Donald a political impOssibility, and
when Miss Rose Cleveland took her place
as the presiding lady of the White House
notice was served against her assuming
social precedence as first lady Of the land.
President Cleveland, with an exhibit
ton of sagacity in fine points OF etiquette
surpassed only by the delicate sensibili-
ties displayed in his love, cOurtship and
marriage, clipped the wings of this
threatened rebellion in the social world
by giving to the late Miss Katharine
Bayard, the daughter of his Secretary of
state. the place of precedence next to
Miss Cleveland at the initial levee held
under the auspices of his administration.
The wife of the Vice President was ig-
nored as a claimant not only to the post
of first lady, but even of the hOnOrs of the
first social entertainment.
The act of Jan. 10, 1886, the first act on
the American statute books to lay down
a distinct order OF official precedence,
designating the Secretary OF State and
after him. in specified order, the other
members Of the Cabinet as the respective
successors to the Presidential office, in
event of the demise of the President and
Vice President, dispOses of all preten-
siOns of the wife of the Speaker 10 the
social honor OF being the first lady in
the land. The marriage OF the President
has settled the new social problem as to
whether the rule of precedence applicable
TO the Cabinet successors TO the political
prerOgatives of the Presidential oflice,Sin
event of a vacancy. would not extend to
the ladies OF their families. Had the
President not married, the Secretary or
State, being a widOwer, Mrs. Manning,
the wife of the Secretary OF the Treasury,
would have mad claims to social recOgni-
ton which the wife of the Speaker never
had by statute, custom or common sense.