Part 11 (2/2)

IX ALONG THE BYPATHS OF HISTORY

THE WIDOW OF GEN GAINES CLAIMS PROPERTY AT NEW ORLEANS WORTH 30,000,000--HER SUCCESS AFTER MUCH LITIGATION--THE WIDOW OF JOHN H

EATON, SECRETARY OF WAR--A CLOUD ON HER REPUTATION--HER HUSBAND A FRIEND OF GEN JACKSON--A DUEL BETWEEN RANDOLPH AND CLAY--HOSTILITY OF THE LEADERS OF WAshi+NGTON SOCIETY TO MRS EATON--SECRETARY EATON DISLIKED BY HIS COLLEAGUES--CONSEQUENT DISRUPTION OF JACKSON'S CABINET--MRS EATON'S POVERTY IN HER OLD AGE

Nearly a third of a century ago, as the guest in a Washi+ngton house, I had the opportunity ofMrs Gaines, theof General Eduished officer of the War of 1812, and Mrs Eaton, theof the Hon John H Eaton of Tennessee, for a number of years a Senator fro the adested interesting events in our history, I gladly availed myself of the invitation to meet them

I found Mrs Gaines an old lady of sifted with rare powers of conversation She spoke freely of her great lawsuits, one of which was then pending in the Supreht of the wonderful career of the little woo, werepublic than that of Myra Clark Gaines She was born in New Orleans in the early days of the century; was the daughter of Daniel Clark, who died in 1813, the owner of a large portion of the land upon which the city of New Orleans was afterwards built She was his only heir, and soon after attaining her majority, instituted a suit, or series of suits, for the recovery of her property After years of litigation, the seriously controverted fact of her being the lawful heir of Daniel Clark was established, and the contest, which was to wear out two generations of lawyers, began in dead earnest

The value of the property involved in the litigation then exceeded thirty millions of dollars At the time I saw her, she had just arrived froument of one of her suits in the Supreme Court She had already received nearly six ation, and she assured er, if necessary, to obtain her rights, and that she expected to recover every dollar to which she was rightfully entitled The air of confidence hich she spoke, and the pluck manifested in her every word and motion, convinced me at once that the only possible question as to her ultimate success was that of time And so indeed it proved, for,

”When like a clock worn out with eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still,”

numerous suits, in which she had been successful in the lower courts, were still pending in the higher

She toldthe interview, that she could nainning of her contest, all of ere now in their graves

Her litigation was the one absorbing thought of her life, her one topic of conversation

General Gaines had died h several decades and against a host of adversaries, --she had, with courage unfaltering and patience that knew no shadoeariness, prosecuted single-handed and alone

In view of the enoration, the nuendered, the records of our American courts will be searched in vain for a parallel to the once faainst the city of New Orleans

At the close of this intervieas soon in conversation with the older of the two ladies Mrs Eaton was then near the close of an eventful life, one indeed without an approxio, there were few persons in the village of Washi+ngton to whoer

Her father was the proprietor of a well-known, old-style tavern on Pennsylvania Avenue, which, during the sessions of Congress, included a statesmen of that day

Of this number were Benton, Randolph, Eaton, Grundy, and others equally well known The daughter, a girl of rare beauty, on account of her vivacity and grace soon becareat favorite with all

She ithout question one of the belles of Washi+ngton

It was difficult for me to realize that the care-worn face before ton days

Distress, poverty, slander possibly, had e, but after all,

”the surest poison is Tiered, however, and her erect fored respect in any assembly

While yet in her teens, she had married a purser in the Navy, who soon after died by his own hand, while on a cruise in the Mediterranean A year or two after his death, with reputation somewhat clouded, she married the Honorable John H Eaton, then a Senator from Tennessee He wasstatesmen of the day, and had rendered brilliant service in the can which terminated so triumphantly at New Orleans He was the devoted personal and political friend of General Jackson, his earliest biographer, and later his earnest advocate for the Presidency Indeed, thein view the election of ”Old Hickory” was inaugurated by Major Eaton assisted by Amos Kendall and Francis P Blair

This was in 1824, before the days of national conventions

Eaton visited several of the States in the interest of his old commander, and secured the hearty co-operation of ree through his personal efforts that the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and Tennessee proposed the nareat office

The Presidential contest of that year marked an epoch in our political history It was at the close of the Monroe adle for supremacy which immediately folloas the precursor of an era of political strife which left its deep and lasting impress upon the country Of the four candidates in the field, tereCabinet of President Monroe: John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, and Willia candidates were Henry Clay, the eloquent and accomplished Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Andrew Jackson, ”the hero of New Orleans” The candidates were all of the same party, that founded by Jefferson; the sun of the once powerful Federalists had set, and the Whig party was yet in the future

No one of the candidates receiving a majority of the electoral vote, the election devolved upon the House of Representatives

Mr Clay being the lowest upon the list, the choice by constitutional requirement was to be made from his three competitors The influence of the Kentucky states the votes of a bare iven by the sole representative from Illinois, the able and brilliant Daniel P Cook, a friend of Mr Clay

The sad sequel was the defeat of Cook at the next Congressional election, his immediate retirement from public life, and early and lamented death