Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-06-12

OAO III ~ btAtA1h 0AnOaoaaatA - FsNNN
ccssors raised a similar question. un-
fortunately after the event instead Of
before. For a long time the feeling
vas intensely disagreeable, and at one
time bade fair to become serious. f
"a literary interest is added to the
occurrence by the fact that Tom Moore
The poet. then visiting America, seized
upon 1t as the theme for one of the
slanderous and vindictiye letters thai
he wrote to his friends In England. He
was an intimate associate OF the Eng
lish minister and his wife, and his con.
d%olcnces with the latter on the ''af-
front" to which she had been subject
ed did much to fan the fame Of the
lady's fury.
President Jefferson was the offender.
Minister Merry and his wife were the
compliments In the diplomatic cause
celebre of 1904. They were at the
5 white house. having accepted The
presidents invitation to dinner. Mr..
Jefferson happened. when dinner was
announced, to be conversing with Mrs.
Madison, the wife Of his secretary of
state. He accompanied her to the Ia
BILE. Mrs. Merry was at some distance
from the president at the time OF the
announcement, but this fact she re-
garded as In no way palliative Of what
she considered the insult TO which she
had been subjected. The president Of
the youthful republic had given to the
wife of his minister precedence over
the wife of old England's representa-
tive!
Mrs. Merry was furious. A vain,
fault finding woman, imbued with a ma
tive contempt for free institutions, she
seized upon the incident 40 a msans
possibly of fomenting a petty diplomat
ic fuss. of which she would be the CEN
ter. BY her flattery she had so com
pletely won the little poet that he saw
America and Americans through her
eyes only, and when little Moore
then, by the by, q man Of only about
five and twenty-wrote of the mon
strous" occurrence to his mother from
Baltimore on June 10, 1904. he used this
language:
81 stopped at Washington with nj.
and Mrs. Merry for neal a week; they
have been treated with the most point
ed i~ncivility by the present Democratic
president, Mr.. Jefferson, and 1t is only
the -precarious situation of Great
Britain which could possibly induce 1t
to overlook such indecent, though at
the same time petty, hostility"
TheeMerrys did not lack sympathy in
Washington, where the Federalists
readily aided Mrs. Merry in her en-
deavors Il have a British minister
show that an insult to his wife was a
mighty serious international affair. Mr..
Merry, being a dutiful husband, as we'll
as a Jealous representative, waxed
frantic, and before long the tempest
in the teapotehad become SO very tu-
multuous that Secretary Madison COM
municated with Mr.. Monroe-then min
lister to England-on the subject. 1t
seemed at the time possible that the
American minister might be called up
on to explain the 'incivility' to Mrs.
Merry, and Mr.. Madison thought it wise
to inform the minister as to the facts.
F. Mr.. Monroe was promptly equal to
the occasion. No attempt was made
by the British foreign Office toscalr his
attention officially to the lamented in
cidentg but a British under secretary,
acting under instruction probably, did
bring the subject up to Mr.. Monroe, at
the same tim5 i~ntil@tins that an off,
cial communication would follow.
Though a grave man, Mr., Monroe
could not keeping treating the matter
in a spirit of fun. He gave his infor-
mant to understand that he considered
the affair too absurd for serious con-
sideration. At the same time, while
dilating with unwonted merriment of
the humorous features Of the case, he
slyly called the under secretary's at
tention to the fact that should the af-
fair should reach diplomatic import
ance, he had a stu quoque" ready in
the shape of a .countercharge of inciv-
ility, In fact, not long before, the wife
of an English under SECRETARY, at a
state dinner in England, hadlbeen ac-
corded precedence over Mr.. Monroe.
The Merry affront incident was
closed and the excitement attending 1t
soon passed away, as far as concerned
all but the Merrys. They continued to
a ssmonstrously offended persons.
Mr.. Merry never visited the white
house a on official business. Mrs.
Merry refused tosg Q there at all. Pres
ident Jefferson, desiring to establish a
more agreeable state of AFFAIRS, inquired
through a diplomatic medium whether
Mr.. and Mrs. Merry would honor him
to a family dinner. On Mr.. Merry's
assent he sem the invitation in his
own hand writing. Mn Merry, doubt
less under conjugal dhress, formally
addressed Secretary of State Madison
asking whether he was invited in his
personal or official capacity, II the
he must obtain the permission
Of his sovereign before accepting; if
the latter, he must be assured of treat
becoming his exalted position.
Here is what Mr.. Madison replied:
The president instrhcts be to say
that Mr.. and Mrs. Merry are at liberty
to act as they ,please pa q matter Ct
such small moment" -~
This ended the correspondence.
Whether or not the Merry s temper inn
that Of their polr friend didn't.
He continued to write savagely of the
land and people whose honored guest
he was sOf Norfolk, va, he wrote:
Nothing is to be seR in the streets
but dogs aud negroes; and the few la
dies that pass for while are the most
nnlovelypieces Of crodzery I ever set
~ eyes upon. : Poor Mrs.
Merry has been as illtreated by the
mosquitoes as she has been by every
else. They have bit her into n