Dorothy Payne, Quakeress Part 8

One of the most characteristic stories told of her was that about the two old ladies from a western town, who, after seeing the Capital, had stopped on a corner near the White House, reluctant to leave without first seeing the President's wife, whose fame in some ways exceeded his own. They finally made known their wishes to a pa.s.ser-by, who, being one who had access to the White House, ushered them in, and laughingly told their wish to Dolly. She arose from the breakfast table and went quickly to them, surprising them by the simplicity of her appearance, being dressed in a plain gray stuff dress and white ap.r.o.n, with a white linen kerchief crossed on her breast. Gaining courage from her warm reception, one of the old ladies murmured, "If I could but go home and tell my daughters I had kissed you!" And the wish was scarcely uttered until it was a reality for them both, and they departed with a story worth telling in their western home.

She was a notable housekeeper, too, after the hospitable ways of old Virginia, and looked well to the ways of her household, usually ere her guests had left their beds.

Any history of Dolly Madison seems incomplete without seeing her through Washington Irving's eyes. He attended a levee in 1811, then held from seven to ten o'clock, and writes:

"I was soon ushered into the blazing splendor of Mrs. Madison's drawing-room. Here I was most graciously received. I found a crowded collection of great and little men, of ugly old women and beautiful young ones, and in ten minutes was hand and glove with half the people in the a.s.semblage. Mrs. Madison is a fine, portly, buxom dame, who has a smile and a pleasant word for everybody. Her sisters, Mrs. Cutts and Mrs. Washington, are like the two merry wives of Windsor, but as to Jemmy Madison--ah! poor Jemmy!--he is but a withered little apple-John."

On March 11, 1812, Lucy Payne Washington was married to Judge Thomas Todd, of the Supreme Court, a widower with five children, and went to live at Lexington, Kentucky. Although Dolly missed her greatly, she wrote, "How wise Lucy is!" She had had many admirers, and these words were in recognition of the wisdom of her choice.

This was the first wedding to take place in the White House, but we have searched in vain to find any record of it in the papers of the day or elsewhere. It was probably a comparatively quiet affair, and unlike our recent weddings there.

Elizabeth Henry, sister of Patrick Henry, married General William Campbell. Her daughter, Sarah Campbell, married Francis Preston, and was the mother of the Hon. William Campbell Preston, of South Carolina, who in his journal describes a visit to the White House, when he was only eighteen.

"I and my conductor proceeded in the hack in utter silence. The appearance of the house and grounds was very grand. There was a mult.i.tude of carriages at the door. Many persons were going in and coming out, and especially many in grand regimentals. Upon entering the room there were fifteen or twenty persons. Mr. Madison turned toward us, and the General said, presenting me. 'My young kinsman, Mr. President, who has come to pay his respects to you and Mrs.

Madison.' The President was a little man, with a powdered head, having an abstracted air and a pale countenance. Around the room was a blaze of military men and naval officers in brilliant uniforms. The furniture of the room, with the brilliant mirrors, was very magnificent. While we stood Mrs. Madison entered, a tall, portly, elegant lady with a turban on her head and a book in her hand. She advanced straight to me, and extending her left hand said, 'Are you William Campbell Preston, son of my old friend and most beloved kinswoman, Sally Campbell?' I a.s.sented. She said, 'Sit down, my son; for you are my son, and I am the first person who ever saw you in this world.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Montpellier.

The ancestral estate inherited by James Madison, in Orange County, Va.

Courtesy of Mrs. du Pont.]

After such a greeting, little wonder that his awkwardness and terror disappeared, and a "romantic admiration for this magnificent woman took its place."

One more glimpse of Dolly may be given here as we pa.s.s rapidly over these scenes, and also over the later ones at Montpellier,[58] whose chronicles have already been so well written, to linger awhile over her declining years ere taking leave forever. She herself has drawn this picture.

Ingersoll's history contains the following letter from "the lady who there, with a spirit of gentle fort.i.tude, presided." It was written to her sister Lucy, who was then visiting at Mount Vernon,[59] the home of General Washington, eighteen miles from the federal city.

Tuesday, Aug. 23d, 1814.

Dear Sister:

My husband left me yesterday morning to join General Winder. He inquired anxiously whether I had courage or firmness to remain in the President's house until his return on the morrow, or succeeding day; and on my a.s.surance that I had no fear but for him and the success of our army, he left me, beseeching me to take care of myself, and of the cabinet papers, public and private. I have since received two dispatches from him, written with a pencil; but the last is alarming, because he desires I should be ready at a moment's warning to enter my carriage and leave the city; that the enemy seemed stronger than had been reported, and that it might happen that they would reach the city with intention to destroy it.... I am accordingly ready; I have pressed as many cabinet papers into trunks as will fill one carriage; our private property must be sacrificed, as it is impossible to procure wagons for its transportation. I am determined not to go myself until I see Mr. Madison safe, and he can accompany me--as I hear of much hostility towards him ...

disaffection stalks arounds us.... My friends and acquaintances are all gone,--even Colonel C--with his hundred men, who were stationed as a guard in the enclosure.... French John (a faithful domestic), with his usual activity and resolution, offers to spike the cannon at the gates, and to lay a train of powder which would blow up the British should they enter the house. To the last proposition I positively object, without being able, however, to make him understand why all advantages in war may not be taken.

Wednesday morning, 12 o'clock.--Since sunrise I have been turning my spy-gla.s.s in every direction, and watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discern the approach of my dear husband and his friends; but alas, I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit to fight for their own firesides!

3 o'clock.

Will you believe it, my sister? We have had a battle or skirmish near Bladensburg, and I am still here, within sound of the cannons!

Mr. Madison comes not; may G.o.d protect him! Two messengers covered with dust come to bid me fly; but I wait for him.... At this late hour a wagon has been procured. I have had it filled with the plate and most valuable portable articles belonging to the house; whether it will reach its destination, the Bank of Maryland, or fall into the hands of British soldiery, events must determine.

August 24, 1814.

Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture of General Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments! I have ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvas taken out; it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York for safe keeping.

And now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road I am directed to take. When I shall again write you, or where I shall be to-morrow, I cannot tell!!

The gentlemen to whom Dolly entrusted the portrait of General Washington were Jacob Barker,[60] the Quaker banker, to whom the government was largely indebted for financial aid during the war of 1812, and Mr. De Peyster, of New York. Jacob Barker himself took it to a farmhouse near Montgomery courthouse, and later returned it to Dolly.

The Declaration of Independence was saved by Josiah King,[61] an official from the State Department, who went to the place where it hung, and took it from its frame; and Dolly took him and his precious burden with her in her flight.

With Dolly went also Mr. Carrol and her servant "Sukey." They drove to Georgetown, a short distance beyond which she spent her first night of exile, (Salona Hall, the Smoot place). She, as well as Madison, was to feel that the "_disaffection_" and "_hostility_" were realities in the few following days during which they were banished from the capital, he in hiding and she in disguise, wandering from place to place.

The night of the burning of the capitol she and her companions were refused admittance to an inn and were, for a time, exposed to the fury of the tempest of rain and hurricane that, while it wrought havoc in the city, quenched the flames and drove the British troops in confusion before it.

Monroe says the President crossed the Potomac on the evening of the 24th, accompanied by the Attorney-General and General Mason, and remained on the south side of the river, a few miles above the lower falls on the 25th.

On the morning of the 26th Madison, General Mason, Rush, Attorney-General, and others of his party rode to Brookville, Montgomery County, Md., intending to join General Winder, who had rallied his troops near the court house, where they spent the following night at the home of Caleb Bentley.

Madison sat most of the night on the porch in an old-fashioned desk chair, writing his dispatches. Sentries guarded the house, pacing to and fro around it. They found no enemies in this peaceful neighborhood, but ere morning came they had trampled under foot the garden flowers and vegetables of their hostess.

At daybreak (27th) a messenger arrived from the Secretary of State with the news of the evacuation of Washington, and the President and his party, joined by Monroe, Secretary of State, left soon afterward, arriving at Washington at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Ingersoll's History of the War of 1812 contains the following reference:

"The night following came some compensation for such punishment, the last night of Madison's exile, and eve of his restoration to almost universal favor. It was spent in the family of Quaker hosts, strangers to him, and conscientious adversaries of all war, who with primitive hospitality welcomed friend Madison and entertained him and his outcast comrades in misfortunes with the kindest and most touching attentions.

Refreshed by sweet repose under the Quaker roof they returned next day to Washington (the 27th)."

The unfortunate battle[62] of Bladensburg was long called by its contemporaries, "The Bladensburg Races!"

After the burning of the Capitol, the White House being in ruins, Madison rented the Octagon House,[63] yet standing at the corner of New York avenue and 18th street, built by Colonel John Tayloe, 3d, in 1798, and then considered one of the finest houses in the country. It was built of brick with tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of Acquia Creek sandstone, on a triangular lot, with a circular tower in front, to which the fine Ionic portico with its delicate tracery leads. Once inside you notice the curved doors, sash and woodwork, and the perfect preservation of their shape; the quaint urn-like wood stoves in niches, and the rich, solid mahogany doors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Octagon House.

Photographed by Samuel M. Brosius.]

From a second hallway a handsome stairway winds upward to the third story. To the right of the entrance was the parlor, with its fine mantel, designed by Conde, of London, with graceful figures in bas-relief, executed in a fine cement. Its estimated cost was sixteen hundred dollars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mantel in Octagon House.

Photographed by Samuel M. Brosius.]

During the burning of the city the French minister had moved into the house to save it from destruction, and had raised from its roof the white flag of the Bourbons; in this case a hastily-gathered sheet answered the purpose!

It was here that the glad tidings of peace were received, and here, in the circular room upstairs, the treaty of Ghent was signed. And when the soldiers came gladly marching home they stopped here to give volleys of cheers for Dolly, the most popular person in all the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Detail of Madison China From The White House]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 47: Adele Cutts, their granddaughter, married, first, Stephen A. Douglas; second, General George R. Williams.]

[Footnote 48: The box-wood border along the walk was planted by Martha Washington.]

[Footnote 49: Tradition says that Jefferson had been her ardent admirer and in earlier years the rival of John Payne.]

[Footnote 50: Enniscorthy is ten miles south of Monticello. Governor Thomas Jefferson took refuge here from Tarleton's troops in 1781. About eight miles below, at Scotsville, on the James River, is the place where Lafayette, improvising a road through the forest, headed off Cornwallis and drove him back to Yorktown. The portrait of Governor (Edward) Coles hangs in the hall of "Estoutville," Albemarle County.]