Part 21 (2/2)

After my return to Maryland, the home of our adoption, we abandoned the idea of country life, sold our residence and took up our abode in Frederick My children were now reaching an age when education becae of the Frederick Fee, as an excellent place to which to sendthis period of transition that it was ood fortune to meet for the first tiinia, as a native of Frederick and a daughter of Gideon Bantz Her two older daughters, Hallie, theof US Senator Stephen B Elkins, and Kate, who subsequently became the wife of Robert M G Brown of the US Navy, were boarding pupils at the same school; and Mrs Davis frequently visited thehters formed an intimate friendshi+p with Mrs Brohouest in our Washi+ngton ho survived her mother for only a few months, and her memory is hallowed in irl of so ton and elsewhere for her woence and fine presence Grace, another of Mrs Davis' daughters, is now Mrs Arthur Lee of Washi+ngton, but was born after my earlier acquaintance with her mother in Frederick Loved and adton surrounded by an exclusive coterie, and devotes much of her time and means to works of philanthropy

The prominent authoress, Mrs Elizabeth F Ellet, was repeatedly our guest while ere living in Frederick A volume of her poems had appeared as early as 1835, and she subsequently published quite a nuarded When she first came to visit us, her ”Women of the American Revolution” had just appeared and her journey to Maryland was for the purpose of collecting data for a nehich later was published under the title of ”The Court Circles of the Republic” Besides being a gifted writer, Mrs Ellet had considerable histrionic ability, and I have now beforean account of an entertainiven by me in her honor when she recited from ”Pickwick Papers”, ”Widow Bedott” and ”The Lost Heir”

Another party at which iven to Mrs Ellet in Frederick by Mrs Charles E Trail, a gifted wohly appreciated intellectual accomplishments wherever found

My first acquaintance with the Hon Joseph Holt, who at the tian in Frederick in 1869 He was a Kentuckian by birth and, after serving for a time as Postmaster General under President Buchanan, succeeded, in 1860, John B Floyd of Virginia as Secretary of War He uest of the Rev Dr and Mrs George Diehl He was a typical Kentuckian, over six feet tall, and inimpressed by his intellectual ability

After we returned to Washi+ngton to live, in 1873, Judge Holt was a constant visitor at our hoiven in his residence on Capitol Hill Although I have been in society more or less all of my life, I can say without hesitancy that he more perfectly understood and practiced the art of entertaining--it certainly _is_ an art, and possessed by but few--than any other person I have ever known His second wife, as Miss Margaret Anderson Wickliffe of Kentucky, had died in 1860 and, as he had no children, he was living entirely alone

Froe Holt I was deeply impressed by the cloud of sadness that seemed to envelop him, and I never learned until I had known him many years and really called hi and injustice Without entering into exhaustive details, the e Advocate General of the Ar officer before the Military Commission convened by order of President Johnson for the trial of Mrs Mary E Surratt and others for cos and sentence of the Coned by a majority of its members in which they ”respectfully pray the President, in consideration of the sex and age of the said Mary E Surratt, if he can, upon all the facts in the case, find it consistent with his sense of duty to the country, to commute the sentence of death, which the Court have been constrained to pronounce, to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life” This recommendation for executive clemency remained unknown to the public until it was incidentally referred to by the Hon Edwards Pierrepont, counsel for the government in the trial of Mrs Surratt's son in 1867 This was followed in subsequent years, and after Andrew Johnson had ceased to be President, by a controversy in which reflections were e Holt by the charge that he had never presented the recommendation for clemency to the President The matter finally sifted itself down to a question of personal veracity between the ex-President and Judge Holt, in which the latter affirmed that ”he drew the President's attention specially to the recommendation in favor of Mrs Surratt, which he read and freely commented on”; and was contradicted by the ex-President in the assertion that ”in acting upon her case no recommendation for a commutation of her punishment was mentioned or subly held him indirectly responsible for Mrs

Surratt's execution, and against such a charge he naturally rebelled until the day of his death The most cruel feature of the whole affair, however, and the one which probably diddays of Judge Holt's life, was the personal disloyalty of an eminent citizen of his own State, who had been his intimate friend from youth I refer to James Speed, Andrew Johnson's Attorney General In 1883, after most of the prominent actors in the scene were dead and the aniely allayed--at a tinizedbehind a final refutation of the calumnies that had been heaped upon him--he appealed to Speed, who, he believed he had reason to assume was in possession of the exact facts of the case; but all that could be wrung from him were evasive words to the effect that he saw the petition for cle whether it was before or after Mrs Surratt's execution, and that he did not ”feel at liberty to speak of as said at cabinet e of letters followed between the two in which Speed excused himself for six months on the pleas of bereavelasses, when he finally replied:--”After very mature and deliberate consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot say more than I have said” It is no wonder, then, that Holt, driven to desperation by such treatment, wrote to Speed:--”Your forbearance towards Andrew Johnson, of whose dishonorable conduct you have been so well advised, is a great mystery to me With the stench of his baseness in your nostrils you have been all tenderness for him, while for meyou have been as i the summer of 1888 in Princeton, Massachusetts, I read in the _North American Review_ for July of the sa to the Surratt question between Holt and Speed in 1883 Knowing Judge Holt as I did, having fir hi withal how keenly through all these years he had felt the sting of thy letter It was not long before I received his reply, and I copy it here, as I believe it casts an additional sidelight upon a subject which caused this brilliant and high- from which he never wholly recovered I add several more letters written to me by him which are beautiful in expression but pathetic in character

WAshi+NGTON, August 26th, 1888

Mrs M Gouverneur,

My dear Madam:

Your kind letter of the 14th instant was quite a surprise, but a very agreeable one I assure you My reply has been thus long delayed from an impression that it would probably more certainly reach your hands if addressed to you at Frederick

I have read and re-read your letter with increasing gratification and thankfulness Truly arateful for the friendly spirit that proh an examination of the Speed correspondence as your _resume_ of it discloses That _resuical force of a first-class lawyer's brief Indeed, I was on the point of asserting that you have a good lawyer's head on your shoulders, but prefer saying that you have a head which obeying the inspirations of your heart enables you to discern and _appreciate_ the truth and extricate it, as well, frolements of chicanery and fraud Be assured, my dear Madam, that I shall treasure up your letter fondly, at once as a consolation and as a powerful support of the endeavors which I have beenfor years to rescuefalser or fouler ever fell from the lips of men or devils

It was a severe shock for my faith in human nature when General Speed--hom I had maintained relations of cordial friendshi+p for some fifty years--suddenly allowed himself to become a compliant coadjutor of Andrew Johnson in his diabolical plot to destroythe truth, which he voluntarily assumed for himself and in which--without explanation or defense--he persisted down to his grave, a all of that time he _knew_ me to be innocent, as well as I myself knew and know it, and this he never denied

Alas, Alas! what a masquerade is human life, and amid its heady currents how rarely do we pause to think of the possibilities that lurk under the disguise of its spotless reputations!

I should be rejoiced to hear that the Summer has strewed flowers and only flowers on the paths of your ”outing,” and that you will be able to return to Washi+ngton glad of heart and reinvigorated for the social duties in which you find and bestow so much pleasure For ht to be the best place, and hence I have re under my own roof a contentment that has left ht the seashore and the mountain slopes You yourself, however, acted wisely and well in going away, since the world is still pressing to _your_ lips the sparkling cups, which for ratulate you on Miss Rose's approaching ood as to announce, and sincerely hope that all the bright visions which the co fulfilment The invitation hich you have honored me is accepted with thanks, and I shall attend the cere as I shall how closely your own happiness is bound up with that of your daughter[3]

Faithfully and gratefully your friend,

J HOLT

WAshi+NGTON, Nov 3d, 1888

My dear Mrs Gouverneur:

I am in receipt of your very welcome letter of the 1st instant and hasten to send the ”Index” as requested Hope ityour application I shall preserve the Admiral's [Rear Admiral Francis A Roe, USN] ee of Mrs Stanard is also very grateful to me Her favorable opinion is theand so well

And now, ood friend, how can I sufficiently thank you for your generous interest in this trouble of mine--which has been a thorn in ly kind offices which have been so effectively exercised in connection with it? Be assured that while my poor words cannot adequately express it, ratitude for the tokens of good hich you have so honored and gladdened me

I feel much complimented by so early a receipt of the invitation to Miss Rose's wedding, and I shall have great joy in being present

Faithfully yours,