GOLDWIN SMITH.

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ANECDOTES

OF

PUBLIC MEN

BV

JOHN W. FORNEY

WHILE HE WAS

CLERK OP THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SECRETARY OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

EDITOR OF THE ORGAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (tHB WASHINGTON DAILY UNION)

FROM 1851 TO 1855

AND EDITOR OF THE ORGAN OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

(THE WASHINGTON DAILY CHRONICLE)

FROM 1862 TO 1868

Volume II.

NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

All rights reserved.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

The immense success of the first volume of my "Anecdotes of Public Men " encouraged the preparation of the new series now presented to the public; and the reader will find, I hope, in this large variety of characters and scenes, the same kindly spirit to the living and the dead. Written in the turmoil of great excitement at Washington, while I was in a high official position, and in Philadelphia after I had voluntarily resigned all office, and in a foreign country when I was acting as the American Commissioner to promote the success of the Cen- tennial Exhibition, between the years 1874 and 1876, 1 claim the indulgence of the press for all mistakes and omissions.

This second volume appears after an exciting political cam- paign, in which I supported the Democratic candidate for President, on the plea of sincere devotion to the conciliation of the sections. It was that which led me to vote for Gen- eral Hancock; and it is my hope that his victorious com- petitor may keep the same aim before him all through his administration. I am rather proud of the fact that there is not a page in this book inconsistent with my own earnest desire to do justice to the motives of all men, of whatever rank, religion, party, or country. Published at a time when the passions of a great presidential struggle are slowly dying, and when all our people are looking forward to a new era of production and prosperity, I feel that this volume will be read with pleasure, and perhaps with profit, in all the states.

J.W.F.

ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

I.

JAMES W. NYE, THE HUMOROUS ORATOR.

When James W. Nye was a very young man, not more than thirty, he was appointed one of the Common Pleas judges for his native county of Madison, N. Y., and gave great satis- faction by. his popular manners, personal courage, and large humanities. Nye was always a favorite with the old Demo- cratic leaders of the Empire State, especially with Martin Van Buren and William L. Marcy. Although an extreme Demo- cratic partisan, his ready humor and instinctive generosity made him the chief of a considerable following. Few men surpassed him in private conversation or public speaking, as those who enjoyed his society and heard his speeches during the war need not be reminded. But to the incident I intended to relate : When he became Judge of the Madison courts, he one day visited the county prison in the character of an in- spector, and was surprised to find among the inmates a lad of twelve or thirteen years of age, sent there to await his trial on a charge of theft. Struck by his youthful appearance, he asked him whether he was guilty of the charge laid against him, to which the boy at once replied in the affirmative. He said his father and mother were miserably poor, and that, in desperation, he had broken into a corn-crib and supplied the family with. corn. Believing, from the lad's manner, that he was worthy of

I*

lO ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

being reclaimed, he called on a neighbor and had him bailed out to make his appearance at court. At the opening of the sessions the lad and his surety were on hand, and the young jud^e appealed to the District Attorney to enter a iiol. pros.^ which that officer sternly declined, on the ground that the ac- cused had confessed his guilt, and that the ends of justice must be vindicated. " Well, then," said Judge Nye, " I will state the facts to the jury and take the responsibility." The jury was empanelled, and the case came on, and the District Attorney presented the facts with much feeling, after which the judge said that he would simply state what he knew of the case with- out calling counsel for the defence. After relating what he had heard in the jail from the lips of the boy (and you may be sure he did his best to correct the emphatic presentation by the of- ficer of the law), he turned to the jury-box and declared that he did not believe there was a man of the twelve that would coolly vote to send this young creature with a blasted reputa- tion out upon a cold and heartless world.

It is needless to say that an instantaneous acquittal followed. After the adjournment of the court, the judge sent for the boy and found that he and his parents were very destitute, but that he was naturally bright and intelligent, ambitious to learn, in good health, and had previously borne an excellent character. Governor Marcy was at that time Secretary of War under Pres- ident James K. Polk. To him, therefore, as one of his closest friends, whose lead he had followed in the Democratic party from his first vote. Judge Nye wrote a letter relating the story as I have tried to tell it, and asking him to secure for the lad the appointment of cadet at the Military Academy. In answer. Governor Marcy said that he regretted his inability to comply with this request; that the possible vacancies at West Point had been filled in advance both by the Congressmen and the President from his list at large, but that he had it in his power to send him to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The Jad

EDWARD EVERETT. II

was accordingly entered among the acolytes of that admirable institution, and, by good conduct and close application, rose rapidly in the service. During the war he was one of the ablest of Admiral Farragut's captains; and it was always very agreea- ble to sit by and hear Nye, who himself grew rapidly in the es- teem and confidence of his country, relate this simple story, and especially the success which had crowned his efforts to save his protege from a life of shame, and set him forward in the path of honorable distinction. The rescued boy became in after- years a brave and brilliant seaman, and Nye grew from a coun- ty judge to be Governor of Nevada in 1861, and then a Senator in Congress when the Territory became a State, beginning his term in 1865 and closing it in 1873. So that it may be said that in his case, at least, the best way to help one's self is to help our fellow-creatures. James W. Nye was born in Madi- son County, New York, June 10, 1815, and died December 25, 1876.

II.

EDWARD EVERETT, THE CLASSIC ORATOR.

Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, was the ideal of public and private virtue. He was placid, cool, exact, and conscien- tious, yet always imaginative, and sometimes impassioned. Daniel Webster, who was in most things a highly contrasted character, summarized his friend and biographer as follows :

" We all remember him — some of us personally ; myself, cer- tainly, with great interest — in his deliberations in the Congress of the United States, to which he brought such a degree of learning and ability and eloquence as few equalled and none surpassed. He administered afterwards, satisfactorily to his fellow-citizens, the duties of the chair of the Commonwealth. He then, to the great advantage of his country, went abroad.

'12 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

He was deputed to represent his Government at the most im- portant court of Europe j and he carried thither many qualities, most of them essential, and all of them ornamental and useful, to fill that high station. He had education and scholarship. He had a reputation at home and abroad. More than all, he had an acquaintance with the politics of the world, with the laws of this country and of nations, with the history and policy of the countries of Europe. And how well these qualities en- abled him to reflect honor upon the literature and character of his native land, not we only, but all the country and all the world, know. He has performed this career, and is yet at such a period of life that I may venture something upon the char- acter and privilege of my countrymen when I predict that those who have known him long and know him now, those who have seen him and see him now, those who have heard him and hear him now, are very likely to think that his coun- try has demands upon him for future efforts in its service."

And on the 21st of July, 1852, three months before his own death, Mr. Webster wrote to Everett: "We now and then see stretching across the heavens a clear, blue, cerulean sky, with- out cloud or mist or haze. And such appears to me our ac- quaintance, from the time when I heard you for a week recite your lessons in the little school-house in Short Street to the date hereof."

I met Mr. Everett several times, but the occasion most to be remembered was my interview with him at the residence of Charles Macalester, 1016 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, May 12, 1859, when he was called here to pronounce his splendid ora- tion on "The Character of Washington," for the benefit of the Mount Vernon fund, then admirably administered by the ladies of America, of whom Madam Berghmanns, the accomplished daughter of Mr. Macalester, now Mrs. Leighton, was the acting regent. This was ih^ fourth time it was heard in Philadelphia. The effect produced by that consummate intellectual picture—

EDWARD EVERETT. 1 3

as perfect in its details and as polished in its style and utter- ance as any of the works of the greatest artist — can never be forgotten by the hundreds of thousands who hung entranced upon the accents of the orator. Repeated North and South, as the most finished tribute ever paid by genius to patriot- ism, its influence was the greater because it added more than eighty thousand dollars to the amount necessary to purchase the Washington estate from the heirs.

The illustrious Everett looked the character he was. Gen- tle, courteous, kind, with a musical voice, a face of singular be- nevolence, a figure erect and graceful, and an air of high yet modest culture, his conversation was exceedingly fascinating. He seemed anxious to hear what I had to say, and possessed the secret of listening, so rare among public men, who often dogmatize in their colloquies, and seem impatient while others are talking. This was nearly two years before the war, and we compared views freely. Mr. Everett was naturally conserva- tive. His school was that of Robert C. Winthrop, Abbott Law- rence, William H. Graham, John Bell, and John J. Crittenden — never extreme or "loud," but instinctively moderate and well- poised. He loved his country, and therefore opposed human slavery ; but he hated war as a resort to be avoided at every hazard but honor. He was in no sense an enthusiast or a par- tisan, but all his convictions and impulses were for the Union. I was then engaged in a severe conflict with Mr. Buchanan's Administration. He sympathized with me, but he pleaded for wisdom and toleration, and evidently recoiled from a conflict between the sections. It was in this spirit that his gorgeous oration on " The Character of Washington" was composed and repeated as a tribute and a warning. All who heard it, plain citizen or captious critic, surrendered to its magnificent com- parisons and invocations.

Edward Everett was educated as a Unitarian clergyman, and at nineteen was accounted one of the most eloquent

14 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

preachers m Boston. As early as 1819, when Washington city was a wild desert of a place, and when a journey from New England took longer than a journey to Russia to-day, he pronounced a sermon in the Capitol which literally took the scholars and statesmen by storm. James Madison was President, with John Quincy Adams Secretary of State. Joseph Story was on the Supreme Bench of the United States, and was much attracted by the young divine, then only twenty- six. He wrote that " the sermon was truly splendid, and was heard with a breathless silence. The audience was very large, and being in that magnificent apartment of the House of Rep- resentatives, it had vast effect. I saw Mr. King, of New York, and Mr. Otis, of Massachusetts, there. They were both very much affected with Mr. Everett's sermon, and Mr. Otis wept bitterly. There were some very touching appeals to our most delicate feelings on the loss of our friends. Mr. Everett was almost universally admired as the most eloquent of preachers." Seated at Mr. Everett's side forty years after this, I could only regret that what he said could not have been transferred to paper. He spoke as one inspired, and with a fulness, com- pleteness, and simplicity I had never noticed in any other pub- lic man. Perhaps no better insight into his nature could be desired than his own account of the numerous repetitions of his great Washington discourse. As we read that diary, and then turn to the discourse itself, and study the long roll of his other works, we shall feel the truth of the tributes of Daniel Webster and Joseph Story; we shall echo what Mr. Hay ward said of him in the London Quarterly Revieut for December, 1840: "Edward Everett is one of the most remarkable men living;" what Jared Sparks, his successor in the presidency of Harvard College, said of him in the North American Revieiv for April, 1825: "Professor Everett's recapitulatory remarks and closing reflections are uttered in a style of uncommon brill- iancy and richness, and constitute altogether a rare specimen

EDWARD EVERETT. 1 5

of eloquence and fine writing;" what Professor Edouard Rend Laboulaye wrote in the yournal dcs Dcbats in October, 1853: "It is curious to follow the public life of such a man, and that is easy to do in the two volumes before us. Mere, as in all of his literary works and political harangues, as well as in all the discourses pronounced by Mr. Everett for the last thirty years, he is found en rapport with his fellow-citizens. The subjects are naturally very various, but the thought is always the same, and returns to one point, intellectual education, the morality and the patriotism of the people. This unity is in the word as well as in the life of the author;" what George Stillman Hillard said in the North American Revieiu for January, 1837: "His knowledge is so extensive and the field of his allusions so wide, the most familiar views in passing through his hands gather such a halo of luminous illustrations that their likeness seems transformed, and we entertain doubts of their identity;" what Henry T. Tuckerman wrote : " If Webster is the Michael An- gelo of American oratory, Everett is the Raphael." Justice Story, in 1840, repeated his glowing praise of twenty years be- fore when he declared, " What I desire is that, in addition to the many beautiful — ay, exquisitely beautiful — specimens of your genius which we have had upon occasional topics, you would now meditate some great work for posterity which shall make you known and felt through all time as we, your contempora- ries, now know and esteem you. This should be the crowning future purpose of your life. ' If I should live to see it, I should hail it with the highest pleasure; if I am dead, pray remember that it was one of the thoughts which clung most closely to me to the very last."

Perhaps Mr. Webster's condensation of the career of Edward Everett, printed above, gives a sufficient idea of the events crowded into it. He was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the nth of April, 1794, and died at Boston on the i6th of Janu- ary, 1865, literally in harness, just after he had returned from the

1 6 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

delivery of an oration at Savannah for tlie relief of its suffering inhabitants. He may be said to have lived in the service of religion, literature, and public affairs at least fifty-three years, for he was ordained a Unitarian pastor v.'hen he was not nineteen, and from that to his final hour labored incessantly, and with a loving heart, for the benefit of his fellow-creatures. He spoke an address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824; was a Represen- tative in Congress ten years, from 1825 to 1835; Governor of Massachusetts four years, from 1836 to 1840; Minister to Eng- land from 1841 to 1845; President of Harvard University from 1846 to 1849; Secretary of State, as the successor of Daniel Webster, from November, 1852,10 March, 1853; and United States Senator from that time until his retirement, on account of ill-health, in 1854. He ran as Vice-President with John Bell on the Conservative ticket in i860. But it would require more space than I can give to enumerate his various writings on ev- ery subject — scientific, literary, political, and patriotic. • These treasures lie before me in the four volumes of his orations, pub- lished by Little & Brown, of Boston, and I could fill columns with their jewels — their apostrophes to liberty, to Christianity, to poetry, to patriotism ; to art, whether of painting or of sculpt- ure ; to nature in all her varied forms ; and to every conceiva- ble object entering into the pleasures, sufferings, and necessi- ties of our common kind.

But the rebellion made a great change in Mr. Everett. After all his efforts for peace, after all his sacrifices on the Conserva- tive side, his separation from political friends, and especially his labors to impress upon the people of the South the neces- sity for obedience to the laws, everything that was aggressive and resentful in his nature — if, indeed, he ever indulged such feelings — was roused when the dreadful fact was revealed that the slaveholders had resolved to attack the Government. On the 19th of April, 1861 (the very day the Massachusetts troops were fired upon in Balti'more), he* made his first speech against

EDWARD EVERETT. 1 7

the rebellion, in Chester Square, Boston, concluding as follows : " All hail to the flag of the Union ! Courage to the heart, and strength to the hand, to which, in all time, it shall be intrusted. May it ever wave in unsullied honor over the dome of the Cap- itol ; from the country's strongholds, on the tented field, on the wave-rocked topmast. It was originally displayed on the ist of January, 1776, from the headquarters of Washington, whose lines of circumvallation around beleaguered Boston traversed the fair spot where we now stand ; and as it was first given to the breeze within the limits of our beloved State, so may the last spot where it shall cease to float in honor and triumph be the soil of our own Massachusetts."

Then came other invocations and appeals on the same sub- ject, varied by exquisite literary essays, some in the interest of the farmers, some in honor of the venerated dead, some for the education of the poor, until we come down to what deserves to be called the crowning act of his life — the address at the con- secration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, on the 19th of November, 1863. This was the last time I ever saw Edward Everett; and if I lived a thousand years, the scene, with all its incidents, would remain deep and vivid in my memor}^, only surpassed in intensity and endurance by the tragedy of the as- sassination of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was seated be- tween Edward Everett and William H. Seward, on the main stand, and around them were the other members of the Cabi- net, and the great War Governors — Curtin of Pennsylvania, Morton of Indiana, Parker of New Jersey, Todd of Ohio, John Brough, the Governor-elect, and ex-Governor Dennison, of the same State. General Meade could not attend, because he was detained at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, was kept in Wash- ington by official duties. The procession and crowd were im- mense, and included men of all parties and conditions. It was a cold and gloomy day, in sympathy, perhaps, with the mourn-

l8 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

ful occasion, and with the hearts of the living mass throbbing for the thousands of heroes who slept beneath the sod. On all sides stretched the battle-field; and from Cemetery Hill the eloquent words of Everett were spoken, followed by the more brief and more immortal sentences of Abraham Lincoln. As I recur to that day, it is mournful to recall the many who hon- ored it that have since been summoned to their final account : Lincoln, Everett, Seward, Meade, Chase, Todd, Brough, Caleb N. Smith, Edwin M. Stanton, and many, many more.

It was on this occasion that Edward Everett proclaimed the great thought that, however the passions of the conflict might rage, the time must come when all would be forgiven and for- gotten. And even as he spoke, the issue was not decided — sixteen months of wounds, death, tears, and sorrow were yet to come. The haughty crest of the rebellion was bowed, but not broken. The great captain. Grant, had not yet taken the tiger by the throat, nor laid his conquering sword on Richmond town ; Vicksburg had fallen, but the capital of the Confeder- acy was still the rendezvous of the enemy ; the seas were still swept by their corsairs, and thousands in the busy walks of life were soon to be summoned to the fated carnival. It was in that hour that Edward Everett spoke these words, only one of the myriad passages which crowd that unequalled and never- to-be-forgotten tribute, showing that even when the great work had not been completed, when the South was bristling with de- fiance and revenge, he pleaded for the end of war and the be- ginning of peace :

" But the hour is coming, and now is, when the power of the leaders of the rebellion to delude and inflame must cease. There is no bitterness on the part of the masses. The people of the South are not going to wage an eternal war for the wretched pretexts by which this rebellion is sought to be jus- tified. The bonds that unife us as one people — a substantial community of origin, language, belief, and law (the four great

EDWARD EVERETT. 1 9

ties that hold the societies of men together); common, rational, and political interests; a common history; a common pride in a glorious ancestry; a common interest in this great heritage of blessings ; the very geographical features of the country ; mighty rivers that cross the lines of climate, and thus facilitate the interchange of natural and industrial products, while the wonder-working arm of the engineer has levelled the moun- tain-walls which separate the East and the West, compelling your own Alleghanies, my Maryland and Pennsylvania friends, to open wide their everlasting doors to the chariot-wheels of traffic and travel : these bonds of union are of perennial force and energy, while the causes of alienation are imaginary, facti- tious, and transient. The heart of the people North and South is for the Union. Indications too plain to be mistaken an- nounce the fact both in the East and the West of the States in rebellion. In North Carolina and Arkansas the fatal charm at length is broken. At Raleigh and Little Rock the lips of honest and brave men are unsealed, and an independent press is unlimbering its artillery. When its rifled cannon shall be- gin to roar, the hosts of treasonable sophistry, the mad delu- sions of the day, will fly like the rebel army through the pass- es of yonder mountain. The weary masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag again floating upon their cap- itals, and they sigh for the return of the peace, prosperity, and happiness which they enjoyed under a government whose power was felt only in its blessings. And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and you from remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction on these hon- ored graves. You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here. You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause of the country that the men of the East and the West, the men of the nineteen sister States, stood side by side on the perilous ridges of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union that they shall lie side by side till a clarion

20 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

louder than that which marshalled them to the combat shall awaken their slumbers. God bless the Union ! It is dearer to us for the blood of the brave men which has been shed in its defence. The spots on which they stood and fell, these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war; the fields beyond the ridge where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, as- sured, by his forethought and self-sacrifice, the triumph of the two succeeding days ; the little streams that wind through the hills, on whose banks in after-times the wondering ploughman will turn up, with the rude weapons of savage warfare, the fear- ful missiles of modern artillery. Seminary Ridge; Peach Or- chard ; Cemetery, Gulp, and Wolf Hill ; Round Top ; Little Round Top — honorable names, henceforward dear and famous, no lapse of time, no distance of space, shall cause you to be for- gotten ! * The whole earth,' said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow-citizens who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian war — * the whole earth is a sepulchre of il- lustrious men.' All time, he might have added, is the millenni- um of their glory. Surely I would do no injustice to the other noble achievements of the war which have reflected such hon- or on both arms of the service, and have entitled the army and the navy of the United States, their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and richest rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country there will be no brighter page than that which relates to the battle of Gettysburg."

These, as I have said, were glowing words, never to be for- gotten. As they fell from Mr. Everett's lips, he looked like a prophet of. old, and every heart palpitated Amen. But the

EDWARD EVERETT. 21

great scene of all was when Abraham Lincohi rose, and, in his plain, unpretending wa}', spoke thatmarvellous epic, which will live as long as language, and will be spoken in every country, under every sky, by every people ready to fight and die for their freedom :

" Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war; we are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this; but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we can- not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus fiir so nobly carried on. It is rather for us here to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us ; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain. That the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and the Government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

And so ends this chapter, I fear already too long; but the character of Edward Everett, though much spoken of, is not so completely understood as it ought to be, and in my delineation of it I found it so much more absorbing than I expected that I am sure my readers will be as much interested in its study as I have been.

22 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

III.

RICHARD RUSH, THE DIPLOMATIST.

Richard Rush, son of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Pevinsylvania, and grandson of Richard Stockton, of New Jer- sey, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, was of the school of Edward Everett, more precise and formal, and far less imaginative. I have been recalling his past residence in Paris, since reading the news from France indicating the efforts to re- store the Napoleonic empire under the Prince Imperial. I met Mr. Rush repeatedly during his life, and more than once heard him speak of his relations to public men at home and abroad, and I can see him in my mind's eye, with his careful dress and studied manners, and almost hear his slow and measured accents. He wrote much, and was a pleasant talker. He fairly rounded the circle of politics, and filled many positions. He was ap- pointed Attorney-general of Pennsylvania in January, 1811, and State Treasurer in November of the same year; again Attorney- general of the State from i8i4toi8i7j Secretaryof State of the United States, under James Madison, in 1816 ; Minister to Eng- land from 1817 to 1825, under both Monroe and John Quincy Adams; Secretary of the Treasury from 1825 to 1829, under the latter; and candidate for Vice-President with John Quincy Adams, in 1828, against General Jackson. His relations with Mr. Adams were most intimate, and affected his whole career. In 183 1 he became an anti-Mason, and in 1834 wrote a pow- erful report against the Bank of the United States, and ever afterwards co-operated with the Democratic party. He was selected Minister to France in 1847-1848, and figured during the reign of Louis Philippe, and saw the beginning of the rule of Louis Napoleon. President Polk had nominated Charles jared Ingersoll for that position, but the Senate refused to con- firm the appointment; and Mr. Rush happening in Washington

RICHARD RUSH. 23

as one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, he called on the Chief Magistrate, who was so much struck by his bear- ing and his talents that he sent in his name for that high mis- sion. This glance at his career discloses his political senti- ments; but nothing in it is so agreeable as the manner in which he disposed of his leisure abroad and at home. His "Residence at the Court of London," from 1817 to 1825, is a diary of surpassing interest, abounding in personal anecdotes and incidents of the British Minister, Lord Castlereagh, who committed suicide in August, 1822, after a most brilliant life; of Wilberforce, the Duke of Wellington, Brougham, George Can- ning, Mr. Erskine, Mr. Stratford Canning, and hundreds of oth- ers of almost equal celebrity. His notes of the numerous dip- lomatic consultations and social reunions are charmingly writ- ten. He was in London when George the Third died; saw the coronation of George the Fourth, July 20, 1821 ; and was present as a private citizen in London at the death of his suc- cessor, William the Fourth, and the accession of Queen Victo- ria, in 1837. His " Occasional Productions," published in i860, were not less interesting. Here we find a view of "Washington in Domestic Life," made up from personal letters of Washing- ton to his private secretary. Colonel Lear ; also Colonel Lear's account of Washington's conduct when he heard of the treason of Major Andre, and of his great excitement over St. Clair's de- feat by the Indians in 1791 ; also, the opening of Congress in Philadelphia, in 1794 or 1795, by Washington, as ^^- Rush saw it when he was a boy ; and other recollections. There are fine sketches of John C. Calhoun and George Canning ; but the chapters entitled " A Glance at the Court and Government of Louis Philippe and the French Revolution of 1848 " are of un- usual interest for their bearing upon the France of the present day, as we see it in the light of passing events.

There are many yet living in Philadelphia who remember the great meeting in Independence Square in 1848, when Louis

24 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

Philippe, " the Citizen King," was driven out of Paris with his family, and the fervid resolutions of sympathy that were adopt- ed, engrossed, signed by the officers and committees, enclosed in a silver case, and sent to Mr. Rush, to be presented to La- martine, the poetic, imaginative, and kind-hearted President of the Provisional Government which rose upon the ruins of the Orleans dynasty. The demonstration included all parties, and our proffer of sympathy was only part of the chorus that thrilled our own country and convulsed the world. Germany, Italy, Ireland, Hungar}^, even England, felt the uprising in France. The overthrow of the Mexican arms; the election of General Taylor to the Presidency; the acquisition of California ; the fiery speeches of Thomas Francis Meagher; the meteor career of Kossuth, his welcome in America by the people and by the two Houses of Congress; the downfall of Lamartine; the short government of Cavaignac; the revolutions in Paris; the flight of the Pope, and the election of Louis Napoleon as President of France, virtually set the world on fire ; and two continents throbbed with a delirium compounded of thirst for gold, for liberty, and for revolution. During most of these scenes, Rich- ard Rush was American Minister at Paris, and wrote the graph- ic chapters to which I have referred. He was intimate with the family of the amiable French King, Louis Philippe, and met almost daily Guizot, Thiers, and their contemporaries. From the 2ist of July, 1847, to the 23d of February, 1848, Mr. Rush enjoyed the delightful society of diplomatists and scholars. He formed the acquaintance of the veteran Humboldt, who had dined with his father, Dr. Rush, in Philadelphia. He con- versed with the French King about the triumphs of our arms in Mexico; compared notes with the members of the Academy, maintained a delightful intercourse with Mr. Walsh, the inval- uable American Consul in Paris ; introduced George Bancroft, then our Minister at London, to the Court circles, and watched the growing conflicts of the hour. At last the storm broke.

RICHARD RUSH. 25

February 23, 1848, and in three days the King, Queen, and all the royal family were fugitives. Then came Lamartine and Cavaignac, and then the concerted effort in fiivor of Louis Na- poleon.

The revolution fell like a thunder-clap upon Paris. On the 25th of February the King signed an abdication in favor of the Comte de Paris, the Duchess of Orleans to be Regent. On the same day the royal family were all scattered and gone. Louis Napoleon was then an exile in London, himself and his rela- tives banished under the law of 1832, but all active in restoring themselves to power at the earliest moment, and ready to seize every advantage. The revolution which displaced the King was followed by the Provisional Government, headed by Lamar- tine ; but he had hardly time to breathe before the Red Repub- licans began to operate against him. On the 2d of March, 1848, Prince Louis Napoleon returned to Paris from London, and declared his desire to rank himself under the flag of the Republic; and, in the meanwhile, his cousins, Pierre and Prince Jerome Bonapartie (Plonplon), were elected members of the National Assembly. On the nth of May the Provisional Gov- ernment was dissolved, and on the 15th another revolution broke out, and was suppressed with difficulty. Louis Napo- leon, having returned to London, addressed a letter to the As- sembly, dated May 25, in which he demands to know why he alone of all the Bonaparte family has been banished from France, and renews his claim to the rights that belong to him as a French citizen. On the loth of June cries in favor of Louis Napoleon were heard among the troops, and he was denounced in the Assembly as a Pretender, the cause being that he had just been elected a member of that body by three provinces and by the city of Paris. On the T3th his cousin, the present Prince Napoleon, defended the absent Louis, and demanded "common justice " for him. This scene was followed by re- newed cfies among the troops outside of Vive V Empereu?' ! An IL— 2

26 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.

attempt was made to revive the edict of banishment against Louis Napoleon, which was resisted by both his cousins, Pierre Napoleon and the present Prince Napoleon, and no action was taken upon the motion. On the 14th the Assembly voted by a great majority to admit Louis Napoleon to his seat as repre- sentative— a triumph for him and a defeat for the Government. In reply to this action, Louis Napoleon wrote a letter from Lon- don, in which he said he would prefer to remain in exile rather than be made the subject of disorder and anarchy. At this moment M. Jules Favre violently denounced him for that pas- sage in his letter in which he hinted at his desire for supreme power, a fact not less significant because he had just supported the admission of Louis Napoleon as a member of the Assembly. On the 17th Louis Napoleon wrote another letter, in which, "in order to maintain the peace of the Republic," he resigned his seat as a member of the Assembly. On the 23d another revolution broke out in Paris, which caused much bloodshed, and ended in the Assembly making General Cavaignac Dicta- tor for the time being. On the 31st of July Louis Napoleon addressed another letter from London to the Assembly, in which he stated, notwithstanding his former resignation, he had been elected to the Assembly for Corsica, which he again resigned, as he had resigned the others, adding that "he thought he ought not to return to his country until his presence in France could in no manner serve as a pretext to the enemies of the Re- public." On the 19th of September he was again elected by a still larger vote from Paris, receiving more ballots than all the other candidates; and on the 26th of the same month he for- mally took his seat, making a speech full of devotion to the Republic. On the loth of October an amendment was pro- posed that "no member of the families that have reigned in France can be elected President or Vice President of the Re- public." Louis Napoleon ascended the tribune, and said that he " did not come to speak against the amendment, bfit, in the

RICHARD RUSH. 2'J

name of the three hundred thousand electors who had chosen him, to disavow the appellation of Pretender so constantly brought against him." On the 27th of October Louis Napo- leon again addressed the Assembly in the same spirit, and on that very day the loth of December was fixed for the election for President of the Republic. On the 30th of November Louis Napoleon announced himself as a candidate, and was elected by 5,434,426 votes out of 7,324,682 votes, the opposing candidates being Cavaignac, Ledru-Rollin, Raspail, Lamartine, and General Changarnier. Cavaignac yielded to the decree, and Louis Napoleon ascended the tribune and took the oath in the words following:

" Before God, and in the presence of the French people, rep- resented by the National Assembly, I swear to remain faithful to the Republic, democratic, one and indivisible; and to fulfil all the duties which the Constitution imposes on me."

Reading through the delightful pages in which these strange events are recorded by Mr. Rush, we trace the gradual steps by which Louis Napoleon began to fulfil his aspirations. Not Julius Caesar himself, whose biographer he became ten years after, and whom he constantly held up as the original from which Napoleon the First had copied, and the ideal steadily kept before his own eyes, more craftily declined the crown of imperial Rome; and as w^e ponder his oath in the light of the succeeding twenty-three years, it is simple historic justice to say that no public character ever more deliberately violated a solemn covenant.

As in duty bound, Mr. Rush paid his respects to the new President at an early day, January i, 1849. ^^ ^^us records his presentation : " He (Louis Napoleon) spoke a few words to me, as to all, the occasion not leading to much conversation with any. I had seen him before, but only in the Assembly from the diplomatic box, and imperfectly. In stature, below rather than above the medium height, yet robust; a subdued

28 ANECDOTES OF PUHLIC MEN.

carriage; a thoughtful countenance; a blue eye, in repose rather than vivid; and darker in complexion than the French gener- ally. This was his appearance to me to-day."

I wish I could transfer the many pleasing incidents now nar- rated by Mr. Rush under Louis Napoleon's administration, but can only make room for one — alike illustrative of the admira- able tact of Chevalier Wikoff, described in my first volume (Anecdote LXXXIV), and the ready recognition of his old friend Louis :

'■^ March 13, 1849. Mr. Wikoff, of Philadelphia, called on me a few days ago, to request that I would present him to the Prince President. What need of this, I asked ? you have known the President longer than I have. I had read the account of the visit he paid the latter at Ham, when he was a State prisoner, and remembered the predictions it contained. He replied that, having recently come to Paris, he would prefer, as a stranger and an American, to be reintroduced by the Minister of his country. I replied that, although I had not been the first to suggest this, I thought he judged rightly. Accordingly, at the reception at the Palace Elysee this evening, I presented him. In doing it I had to watch