Part 15 (2/2)
Webster's opinion on a question of constitutional law?” ”And why not? I tell you I can read the Constitution as well as Mr Webster, and I say that the 'Fugitive-Slave Law' is unconstitutional--is an outrage, and an irace to your humanity and to your republicanis it He is a hu or an ass--an ass, if he believes such an infamous law to be constitutional, and if he does not believe it, he is a hu it”
The Count's sarcastic reference to Secretary Seward is equally a
It seems that one of his duties, while in the State Department, was to keep a close watch upon the European newspapers for overnment, and also to furnish the Secretary of State, when requested, with opinions on diplomatic questions, or, as Gurowski expressed it, ”to read the Ger a fool of hih, but the latter was rather difficult!
In 1854 Gurowski published his book, ”Russia as it is,” which was soon followed by another work entitled, ”America and Europe” Both of theovernment position, it became a difficult matter for him to eke out a maintenance, and his disposition, if possible, beca party I took part by chance in an ani Suddenly hted upon Count Gurowski, who had just entered the roo him to my side I asked him in facetious tones how many men he had killed He quickly responded, ”Wonly (only) two!”
Count Gurowski's fund of knowledge was in hly remarkable, especially upon his favorite theme of royalty and nobility, past and present He was intensely disliked by the Diploarded him as a Russian spy, a suspicion which, of course, ithout the slightest foundation Baron Waldemar Rudolph Raasloff, the Danish Minister, once refused to enter a box at the opera where I was seated because Guroas one of the party The Count see to diplomats and their affairs which were unknown to others--a fact which naturally aroused dislike and jealousy He once announced to ation were in a state of great good humor, as their salaries had been raised that day
I once heard a ation say to another: ”Gurowski is an emanation of the Devil” ”The Devil, you say,” was the response, ”why, he is the Devil hiner the Count's exile by the Russian governh position in Russia Evidently controlled by his prejudices, he replied: ”It must be a family of contrasts, as his position in this country is certainly a low one” If he intended to convey the impression that the Count was ”low” in his pocket, his statement was certainly correct, but not otherwise It is true that his unhappy disposition made him more enemies than friends, but he was by no means devoid of admirable traits, even if he so frequently preferred to conceal the qualities only were presented to my sister, Mrs Eames, who alelcomed him to her house One day when he called the condition of his health seeuest He accepted the invitation, but did not long survive, and in the spring of 1866 his turbulent spirit passed ahile under my sister's roof Much respect was paid to his ton attended his funeral He is buried in the Congressional Cerave Little was generally known of his immediate family relations, but Robert Carter, one of his most intimate friends and the author of the article in _The Atlantic Monthly_, already referred to, states that he was a er and had a son in the Russian Navy and a hter in Switzerland
Early in life his brother, Count Ignatius Gurowski, met the Infanta Isabella de Bourbon, sister of the Prince Consort of Spain, while she was receiving her education at the _Sacre Coeur_ in Paris, and eloped with her They were pensioned by the Spanish governn and made their home in Brussels I have heard, however, that when Isabella was forced from the throne the pension ceased and their circumstances becanatius Gurowski's brother-in-law, suggested to hiht be well for him to be created a Duke of the realnation ”I would prefer,” said Gurowski, ”being an old Count to a new Duke!”
Soo I saw the statenatius Guroere living in the United States This suggests, although reo: ”Have we a Bourbon a, of course, to the last Dauphin, whom many believed to exist in the person of the Rev Eleazer Williams, who resided in St Lawrence County, New York The Rev Dr Francis L Hawks had such an abiding faith that Williams was actually the Dauphin that he wrote an article in 1853 for _Putnaazine_ expressive of his views If the newspaper story and Dr Hawks's claily been the retreat of more than one o I was surprised to hear it stated that the father of Kuroki, the fanatius Gurowski This information, I am infor his education in Europe ”My uncle Kuroki,” he is said to have written, ”is of Polish origin His father was a Polish nobleman by the name of Kourowski, who fled from Russia after the Revolution of 1831 He finally went to japan and married a japanese As the name of Kourowski is difficult to pronounce in japanese, my uncle pronounced it Kuroki The General's father, upon his death bed said to hieance upon the Russians for their cruel treatment of unhappy Poland”
One of the ton was Caleb Cushi+ng I first met him when he was Attorney-General in President Pierce's Cabinet, and the friendshi+p foruests at , and Miss Emily Harper, whom he accompanied, told me that he especially commented upon that portion of the service which reads, ”those whoether, let no man put asunder” His remarks evidently appealed to her as an ardent Ro to be the most eminent scholar of the country, and Wendell Phillips went still further and said: ”I regard Mr Cushi+ng as the ” His habit was one of constant acquirement He hat I should call ”a Northern inated in 1835, and was first applied to Martin Van Buren I have heard Cushi+ng defend slavery with great eloquence and although, like hiarded that institution, in some respects, as far less iniquitous than the infamous opium trade which so enriched British and A ri inherited a decided antipathy for Great Britain, and it was once said that he carried this prejudice so far that he refused to visit England This state article, writtenhisincidents connected with his visit of a few days in London when he and Mr Cushi+ng were _en route_ to Spain ”Mr Cushi+ng's headwear,” he writes, ”was a silk hat which must have been the fashi+on of about the tihtly pointed at the top and there was, so to say, no back or front to it and there was no band for it As I knew he intended paying several visits, I asked hie his hat, which at the tihter one
The old man took off his ancient hat, examined it critically and then said slowly and deliberately, as if delivering an opinion on the bench, 'No, sir, I think that I shall wait and see what the fashi+ons are in Madrid' It was said with much earnestness, as if it had been a state question A third person would have found it irresistibly funny, but there was nothing laughable in it to General Cushi+ng In fact, his sense of hurim order” He also writes: ”The oldthe whole period of ht a score of fresh cigars He bought the them in public for he almost invariably had a stuar and the ansould be, 'Thank you, sir, I think I have one,' and out would come a dilapidated case, from which he would shake from one to half a dozen butts as the supply ran”
While Cushi+ng was Attorney-General under President Pierce, he formed a friendshi+p with Madame Calderon de la Barca, of whom I have already spoken, who, upon his arrival in Madrid, was one of the first persons to greet hih social position at the Spanish court Cushi+ng and she thoroughly enjoyed the renewal of their earlier friendshi+p in Washi+ngton, and the last visit he made in Madrid hen he bade her a final farewell In 1843, and prior to hiswas appointed by President Tyler Minister to China, where his able diplonition and ad reed by the President to deliver in person to the Emperor It raphy submitted to the ”Brother of the Sun and the Sister of the Moon and Stars” Had the President of the United States been called upon to address a country Sunday School, he could hardly have exhibited a more conscious effort to adapt himself to the level of his hearers This is the letter:--
I, John Tyler, President of the United States of America--which states are Maine, New Hampshi+re, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabaan--send this letter of peace and friendshi+p, signed by reat ereat part of the world The Chinese are numerous You have millions and e as China, though our people are not so nureat rivers of China When he sets he looks upon e in the United States Our territories extend froreat ocean to the other; and on the e are divided only froreat rivers and going constantly towards the setting sun we sail to japan and the Yellow Sea
Now, reat countries should be at peace It is proper and according to the will of heaven that they should respect each other and act wisely I therefore send to your Court Caleb Cushi+ng one of the wise and learned men of this country On his first arrival in China he will inquire for your health He has strict orders to go to your great city of Pekin and there to deliver this letter He will have with him secretaries and interpreters
The Chinese love to trade with our people and sell them tea and silk for which our people pay silver and sometimes other articles But if the Chinese and Americans will trade there should be rules so that they shall not break your laws or our laws Our , is authorized to ulate trade Let it be just Let there be no unfair advantage on either side Let the people trade not only at Canton, but also at Ahai, Fushan and all such other places as es both to China and the United States, provided they do not break your laws or our laws We shall not take the part of the evil doers We shall not uphold them that break your laws Therefore we doubt that you will be pleased that our er of peace, with this letter in hand, shall coreat officers will, by your order, ulate the affairs of trade, so that nothing may happen to disturb the peace between China and Aned by your own ined by reat council, the Senate
And so n
Written at Washi+ngton this twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-three
Your good friend,
JOHN TYLER, President
Mr Cushi+ng accordingly negotiated our first treaty with China on the 3d of July of the following year, and his ability at that time, as well as thereafter, won for him, irrespective of party affiliations, an enviable place in the history of American diplomacy He was sent upon his mission to Spain in 1874 by the party which he had opposed froanization, and his diplomatic erudition was indispensable to the State Depart the Grant administration
Certain events in the career of Mr Cushi+ng serve to recall the days of Mr and Mrs Franklin Pierce, whose lives were clouded by a grief that saddened the whole of their subsequent career A short tiuration, the President-elect with Mrs Pierce and their only son, a lad of immature years, were on their way to Andover in Massachusetts, when the child was accidentally killed Mrs Pierce never could be diverted frorief-stricken expression of this first Lady of the Land
Her hter of the Rev Dr Jesse Appleton, President of Bowdoin College During the Pierce ade John Cadwalader, the father of the present John Cadwalader of Philadelphia, was a ress The son was then aresemblance to the President's son that one day when Mrs Pierce met him she was completely overcome After this boy had become a man and had attained exceptional e incident of his earlier days
I was very intimately acquainted with Elizabeth and fanny MacNeil, President Pierce's nieces, ere occasional visitors at the White House They were daughters of General John MacNeil, USA, who had acquitted himself with distinction in the War of 1812 Elizabeth ineer Corps of the Army, and fanny became the wife of Colonel Chandler E Potter, USA Dr Thomas Miller was our faton froinia Collins Jones, daughter of Walter Jones, an e the Pierce administration he was physician to the President's family
CHAPTER XI
MARRIAGE AND CONTINUED LIFE IN WAshi+NGTON
I met my future father-in-law, Sa, New York Mr Gouverneur, accompanied by his second wife, then a bride, as Miss Mary Digges Lee, of Needwood, Frederick County, Maryland, and a granddaughter of Thouest of Gouverneur Keift that fortune as well as nature can bestow To quote the words of Eliab King friend of his and who for ton press, ”he even possessed a seductive voice” General Scott, prior to e into the fa in Mr