Part 22 (2/2)

The Frederick County agricultural fairs, as far back as oes, have always been a feature of special interest not only to the farion but also froone days souished men of the nation made addresses at these ”cattle shows,” as they were called by the country folk I recall the visit of President Grant on one of these occasions when he was the guest of Mrs Margaret Goldsborough

He was accompanied by General Sher of the day these distinguished guests arrived Mrs Goldsborough gave a dinner in their honor, which Mr Gouverneur and I attended The entertain old Maryland fa chicken, fried to perfection, at one end of the table together with an old ham on the opposite end To these were added ”side triht President Grant was then filling his first terh Mr Gouverneur had known hiuished man As a whole ere a uest

General Sherman, however, as usual made up for all deficiencies in this line, and as he sat next to reeable conversationalist This dinner party proved a great social success and at its conclusion a number of prouests of honor

The next year Horace Greeley was the orator of the day at the Frederick fair, and it fell to our lot to entertain hi letter to my husband:--

NEW YORK TRIBUNE, New York, Oct 1, 1871

Dear Sir:

I expect to be duly on hand to fulfil ement to speak at your County Fair and to stop with you, if that shall be agreeable to those who have invited me Will you please see Mr C H Keefer who invites me and say to him that I aladly accept your invitation

Yours,

HORACE GREELEY

S L Gouverneur, Esq, Frederick, Maryland

As Mr Greeley about this ti upon the political horizon as a prospective presidential candidate, much interest was naturally centered in his visit His appearance was decidedly interesting He was of the blond type, pastbut _a la nomy, but if the question had been asked I should have said that his most pro this memorable visit the characteristic white hat,his presidential candidacy becae I am the fortunate possessor of two of these souvenirs They are made of white metal and are attached to brown ribbons, the color of the latter standing for B Gratz Brown, the candidate for Vice-President upon the Greeley ticket

This visit was the pleasing forerunner of a sincere friendshi+p between my husband and Horace Greeley In our intinized as never before his conscientious purpose and intellectual power, and Mr Gouverneur was so deeply i character that later in the same year he started a newspaper in Frederick, which he called _The Maryland Herald_, with a view of advocating his nomination for the Presidency My husband had never before been especially interested in politics, but he now entered the political arena with all the enthusias in Frederick, was chosen a delegate to the National Liberal Republican Convention in Cincinnati, which resulted in the noely composed of Republicans who had become dissatisfied with the Grant administration, it will be remembered that its candidates were subsequently endorsed by the Democratic party at its convention in Baltimore, and that the fusion of such hitherto discordant political elen The venerable Thorandson of the author of the Declaration of Independence, although he had reached the advanced age of eighty years, was chosen as the tes of the Cincinnati delegates were replete with interest and the enthusias the uproarious de Greeley's nomination, Mr Gouverneur's friend, John Cochrane of New York, of whoave expression to his delight in an Indian war dance, and other usual scenes of boyish hilarity prevailed

My husband's paper had been the first of the Maryland press, and long before the Convention, to place the name of Greeley at the head of its columns, but others followed, and for a time the ain strength and to assume formidable proportions Subsequent events, however, proved that it would have been better if the newborn babe had been strangled at its birth, as it was destined to enjoy but a brief and precarious existence Although the movement commanded the support of the united Democracy and enlisted the active sympathies of able men from the Republican ranks--such as Carl Schurz, Whitelaw Reid, Charles A Dana, Charles Francis Adams, Lyman Trumbull, David Davis, Andrew G Curtin and many more--the voice of the people pronounced for Grant, and in the latter part of the same month that witnessed his defeat, poor Greeley died of a broken heart!

Greeley's defeat was a severe blow to Mr Gouverneur As the member from Maryland of the national coed in the contest with his characteristic ardor, and his strenuous but unsuccessful efforts had made inroads upon his health that he could but ill afford Under the circuhly expedient, and we accordingly decided to break up our attractive hoton, where so much of Mr Gouverneur's life had been spent and where I, too, had so many pleasant associations It was in the suan our second Washi+ngton life in a house which we bought on Corcoran Street, near Fourteenth Street It was one of a row of dwellings built as an investuished banker, and was in a portion of the city which still abounded in vacant lots Houses in our vicinity were so widely scattered that we had an almost uninterrupted view of that part of the District boundary which is now Florida Avenue As these were the days of horse cars, it was my habit to stand ina long distance off, although we lived half a block from the route, which was on Fourteenth Street The entire northwestern section of the city, which is now a seely a sea of vacant lots The only house on Dupont Circle was ”Stewart Castle,” and the fashi+onable part of the city was still that portion below Pennsylvania Avenue, bounded on the east by Seventeenth Street, although the general trend in the erection of fine residences was towards the northwest Many of the streets were not paved, but the _regime_ of Alexander R Shepherd, faed all of this, and the work of grading co ordeal for property owners, as it left rade, while many from the ranks of the poorer classes, unable to meet the necessary assessments, were forced to part with their homes In the course of several years, however, the situation righted itself Cellars were dug and English basements became prevalent, and it is only occasionally that one now sees a house far above the level of the street We so, and without a doubt he ton the beautiful city it is to-day, but he accomplished it only at a tremendous cost--the sacrifice ofof the streets ooden blocks; and I waslaid on Fourteenth Street, as I recalled the tiBroadway, and I also well reenerated and decayed I was told, however, that this form of block was an improvement upon the old style, and was induced to believe it until I saw Fourteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue masses of holes and ruts!

After ere fairly settled in our new hohbors were our old acquaintances, Mr

and Mrs Edan, a forhbor of ours in Houston Street in New York Willia with her, and their close proxientleuist, and at an early age had accompanied his father to the Cape of Good Hope He formed an intimacy with Lord Byron at Harrohere he received the early portion of his education Byron was not then a student but was occupying a small rooan's daughters, who is still living, wroteman and her father a little boy She says: ”Lord Byron often admitted my father to his room, when he would make him repeat stories of his African life and describe the occasional appearance of an orang-outang walking through the streets of Cape Town” After his father's return to New York, Mr Hogan attended Coluraduated in 1811, and afterwards studied law He subsequently purchased land in the Black River country and did much to develop that portion of his native State The town of Hogansburg in Franklin County was naress and later resided in Washi+ngton, where he was employed in the Department of State, first as an examiner of claims and then as an official interpreter

A short distance from our home and on the same street lived Dr and Mrs

Alexander Sharp with their large and interesting fa the saton while a Captain in the Navy Dr Sharp's as a younger sister of Mrs U S Grant, and her husband was ably filling at the time the position of US Marshal of the District of Columbia A few doors from Mrs Sharp's lived her sister-in-law, theof Louis Dent; and in the same block, but nearer Thirteenth Street, were the residences of two agreeable Army families, Colonel and Mrs Almon F Rockwell and Colonel and Mrs Asa Bacon Carey, the latter of as the niece of the late Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont I formed a pleasant friendshi+p almost immediately with Mrs Sharp and was always received with much cordiality in her home Corcoran Street, in fact, from a social point of view, proved to be an ideal locality until its tranquillity was disturbed by the advent of Mr ---- and faton representative of a proly denunciatory of Grant and antagonistic to his election, while they abounded in praises of Greeley

Both Mr and Mrs ----were persons of much culture, but they were unfortunate in their selection of a hohborhood was friendly to Grant, while his fa in that part of the city, were deservedly popular My own position was one of h I was especially fond of Mrs Dent and Mrs Sharp, I could not, in view of Mr Gouverneur's active interest in the Greeley can, be quite so enthusiastic over the Grant adhbors, and, therefore, when I was invited by a mutual friend to call upon Mrs ----I had no hesitation in doing so I was taken to task for my act, however, by some of my friends, but I survived the rebuke and am still alive to tell the tale I was told that, several months after the family just referred to was established in its Corcoran Street ho unacco, when a coloreda bucket of mud in one hand and a brush in the other, ran after her and bes; but the Dents and Grants were not of the class of people to approve of such a ruffianly act, nor were any of the other decent residents in the co in connection withupon Mrs

----, I never knew of it Our relations were of the most cordial character from the first, and when her niece, Nellie Grant, wascake, coupling with it the remark that she knew of no one , I presu the Gouverneur family with the White House After the close of the Grant administration, Dr Sharp was appointed a paymaster in the Army and for many years resided with his family in Yankton, Dakota I re period we kept up an active correspondence

At this period Vice-Presidents were not so much _en evidence_ as later, and Vice-President and Mrs Schuyler Colfax lived quietly in Washi+ngton andhis life at the Capital, Mr Colfax repeatedly delivered his eloquent oration on Lincoln, which concluded with the lines of N P Willis on the death of President William Henry Harrison:--

Let us weep in our darkness, but weep not for hi, leaves millions in tears, Not for him who has died full of honor and years, Not for hih, From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky

Directly back of us on Q Street lived an old and intimate friend of randchild of Thomas Jefferson She was theof Dr David Scott Meiklehaoas a relative of Sir Walter Scott and died in early life in New York Mrs Meiklehaested by her grandfather) of Governor Thoer daughter of Thomas Jefferson She was born at Monticello and was familiarly known to her inti contrast with her elegance and dignity She bore a striking reseh a wo presence, was si in her convictions, attractive in conversation and loyal in her friendshi+ps, she and her ho to both of us that her children and ht into intimate contact Mrs