New Britain herald., 1930-02-07

same place James Buchanan was nearly killed by sewer gas, Jenny Lind, Dickens, Thackeray, Anthony Trollopc and many others stayed at , the National, and its bar, Ballroom land banquet rooms were familiar to Calhoun, Webster and Hayne. Just Another Hotel Now ! Tor years now the National has been just one of the old and dc crcpit hotels on the avenue, though the government will pay s5SQ,00O for it. The District of Columbia na- tional guard will use the place as ! hcadquarters for a while and then it will be razcd and the site used 1 for a new municipal center for Washington.
 John Gadsby, who often ate and drank with George Washington at his famous tavern in nearby Alex aulr.u Va. came here and cstab- u4ncd Inc National in la@7.
 Andrew Jackson moved in when nc came lo hr inaugur1tod in 1929. receiving hundreds of visitors and G.,isine his cabinet there. In the evening after his inauguration he liroi in his rooms with John C.. Calhoun. who was 10 become his bitter enemy II must have been Il picturesque scene, for candles sup piled tho light.
 From time 10 item inc hotel vas
 
 personal slaves.
 President t-clcct and Mrs. Polk were there before the inauguration of lS45 and so was George M. Dal- las. elected vice president, who while staying in the hotel accepted a challenge 10 q. duel which was only aycrtel by Folks intervention.
 At thc outset Of the Zachary Fay Tor administration. beginning in .1E49, Henry Clay. then in his seven tics. came 10 congress for the last time. IS 4 senator. Uc lived in Suite 32 at the National, a parlor and bedroom. The parlor became famous in the old mans last days, for many visited him there. The winter of 1651-52 was q bad one and Clay developed q hard cold. be- ing confined indoors nearly all the , time. Late in April he wired his son. who was at his bedside when . lie died on the 29th. His last words, / after he had called for water and : grasped his sons hand. were: T be- ) licyc. my son, l am gong.' \ Murder in 1851 - John Wilkes Booth, the actor dc ; scribrd by Benjamin Pcrley Poorc } IS "conviyial iu his habits, spright- . ly and genial in conversation and q , fayorite among the ladies at the National" lived in Room 22S dur ing April, 1865. He shot Lincoln in ] Ford's theater few blocks away OH l tho night of the 14tl Of that month ! and thern is no doubt that details
 Of the plot were worked out in = Room @2S. Some Of the conspirators y visited him there in the days pre- : ccding the assassination.
 The hotel had a sensational mur- s der in 1851 when Edward II. Full | Ter proprietor Of the Willard hotel
 WAS shot in tine lobby by Lieutenant g James W. Schaumbore. whom hC ; had whipped and publicly denounced
 because Of an unpaid board bill. U In the ladies' salon Senator Zach y ariah Chandler of Michigan anc U Daniel W. Noorhccs Of Indiana ., denied q scat in congress for al -, legged disloyalty duting the civil war ! met in combat which set Nariou
 distinguished ladies fleeing, shriek
 ing and fainting. Noorhcos crashe
 down on Chandler's head with
 heavy glass decanter and Chandle
 smashed chair on inc head 0 ! Noorhccs. After that it was fist | fight, ending ill q draw.
 Dickens described the hotel am
 its life in thc fortics in his Amer ican Notes"