Evening star., 1936-03-15
BY John Claeen Proctor.


things Tom Moore said about the new
Capital we're true. Indeed, the city
was really 80 magniflcently distant"
that it could only be seen on the map.
Diplomatic representatives just shud-
dered at the thought of leaving New
York or Philadelphia to come here,
and when Sir Robert Liston, the Brit
ish Minister, realized that the lega-
ton would be moved here, he feigned
illness and requested leave, although
he seems to have agreed to move his
majeSty's property to the District Of
Columbia, being assisted in so doing
by Edward Thornton, who soon was to
become charge d'affaires, for Minister
Liston soon sailed for the West Indies.
Accommodations in the District of
Columbia at this period were at a
premium, and for the little time Sir
Robert stayed here he probably put up
at Tunniclff's Tavern, located on a
part of the site where is low the
United States Supreme Court Build
ing, or at a similar place in George
town. However, during his brief stay
in this city he does not seem to have
created any great excitement, for Mrs.
Thornton, in her diary for November
1s, 1900, merely states, Mr.. Liston
and Mr.. Thornton. his secretary,
called" and on the following day,
"After dinner the gentlemen walked
to Tunnicliff's Tavern to wait on Mr..
Liston."
Edward Thornton, who attended to
the crowns affairs until the appoint
ment of Anthony Merry in 1903, re-
sided in Georgetown. but Minister and
Mrs. Merry decided to move elsewhere
and took up their residence in the
Thomas Peter houses, 2618-2620 K
street northwest, and here they re-
manned until 1906, when the Minister
was given a leave which he probably
did not request. When he came here
he was one of only four diplomatic
representatives at the Capital. 1t was
during his term Of Office, though, that
he received his historic visit from the
Irish poet, Thomas Moore, who paid
his respects to Congress in these lines:
''Now turn thine eyes where faint the
moonlight falls
On yonder dome-and in those
princely halls,
If thou canst hate, as, oh! that soul
must hate,
Which loves the virtuous and reyeres
the great.
If thou canst loathe and execrate
with me
That Gallo garbage of philosophy
That nauseous SLAYER Of these frantic
With which false liberty dilutes her
crimes!
If thou hast got within thy free
born breast
One pulse that beats more proudly
than the rest
With honest scorn for that inglorious
soul,
Which creeps and winds beneath
mob's control,
Which courts rabble's smile, the
rabble's nod,
And makes, like Egypt, every breast
its god!
There, in those wallS-but, burning
tongue, forbear,
Rank must be reverenc'd, even the
rank that's there"
MERRY had in his service here at
A'A one time a man named Jean
Pierre Sioussat, who later became the
first master of ceremonies at the
White House. Sioussat, it seems, was
born in Paris in 1881, and saw the
"Reign of Terror" there when he was
IL years Of age. He often told IN
a graphic manner. it is said, of the
exciting scenes he witnessed during
that horrible period, and how, on jan
uary 81, 1893, his father raised him
above the crowd, to witness the be-
heading of King Louis XVI and a
few months later the guillotining of
Marie Antoinette.
Soon after this his parents died, and
he became a ward of the church. He
was educated for the priesthood, but
at the age of II he ran away and
Joined the merchant marine and sub
sequently the French Navy. When
the vessel he was attached to came to
New York in 1904, he made good his
escape by swimming ashore.
The old home where Minister Merry
resided still stands, though somewhat
modified, and a bronze tablet on the
house, numbered 1920, reads: George
Washington was guest in this house
on his last night in this city, August g.,
1795. David Montague Erskine, Brit
ish Minister and friend of America,
. occupied it 1805-09 Erected by D. A.
r. Committee on Historic Spots, D. c..
1911"
Following Minister Merry into the
Thomas Peter residence or residences,
for both seem to have been occupied
by his Britannia majeSty's representa-
tive, came the Hon. David Montague
Erskine with his American wife, the
former Fanny Cadwallader of Phila-
delphia. He was succeeded by Francis
James Jackson, who, according to au-
thentic sources, was received here by
his predecessor and conducted to the
best inn in the city. In his letters
he clearly indicates his subsequent
residence in Washington, when he
says that he would probably get into
ErSkine's house, "the same that Merry
had, soon after he leaves it," and his
statement that it consisted Of two
common three -windowed houses, built
together, and with communications
opened between them," surely tailed
with the K street residences.
1t was Minister Jackson who did us
q great favor by helping to prove con-
clusively that the White House was
so called before it was burned by the
British in 1914, for, according to VIII
helmus Bogart Bryan, he used the
name white House" in referring to
the presidential residence in a letter
written from London to Thomas Pic
kering, April "a, 1911.
However, apparently, Mr.. jackson
did not prove to be the right man
in the right place, and it was not
long before he became persona non
grata, which is a diplomatic way OF
-..,1..n arJ.rns~ x,o,,r hot uyha ats fhe