7. General William Floyd, one of the delegates of New York.
7. General William Floyd, one of the delegates of New York.
“I sincerely lament,†he said, “the misadventure which has happened, from whatever cause it may have happened. Should it be final, however, the world still presents the same and many other sources of happiness, and you possess many within yourself. Firmness of mind and unintermitting occupation will not long leave you in pain. No event has been more contrary to myexpectations, and these were founded on what I thought a good knowledge of the ground. But of all machines, ours is the most complicated and inexplicable.â€
A curious coincidence connected with three of the four first Presidents is, that they married widows, and each had been at a previous time seriously interested in other ladies. It is also remarkable that neither Washington, Jefferson, Madison, or his successor, had sons, and two of them were childless.
Mrs. Madison was not a learned woman, but decidedly a talented one, and her name will ever be a synonym for all that is charming and agreeable.
A warm admirer of hers was convincing a friend that she was not vain. “But,†said the other, “you tell me she used rouge and powder.†“Yes, yes, she did,†he replied, “but it was to please and gratify those who were thrown with her, not because she was fond of admiration.â€
Mrs. Trist, the daughter of Mrs. Randolph, in reply to my request for her description of Mrs. Madison, sent me the following:
“My recollections of Mrs. Madison are of the most agreeable nature, and were formed from a long, intimate acquaintance beginning in my childhood, and ending only with her life. She had a sweet, natural dignity of manner which attracted while it commanded respect; a proper degree of reserve without stiffness in company with strangers; and a stamp of frankness and sincerity which, with her intimate friends, became gayety andeven playfulness of manner. There was, too, a cordial, genial, sunny atmosphere surrounding her, which won all hearts—I think one of the secrets of her immense popularity. She was said to be, during Mr. Madison’s administration, the most popular person in the United States, and she certainly had a remarkable memory for names and faces. No person introduced to Mrs. Madison at one of the crowded levees at the White House required a second introduction on meeting her again, but had the gratification of being recognized and addressed by his or her own name. Her son, Payne Todd, was a notoriously bad character. His misconduct was the sorrow of his mother’s life. Mr. Madison, during his lifetime, bore with him like a father, and paid many of his debts, but he was an incorrigible spendthrift. His heartless, unprincipled conduct embittered the last years of his mother’s life, and no doubt shortened it.â€
An anecdote is related of Mrs. Madison, in connection with Mrs. Merry, wife of the British Minister, and Thomas Moore, the poet. Mr. and Mrs. Merry were invited to dine with President Jefferson; when dinner was announced, Mrs. Madison happened to be standing and talking to the President, at some distance from Mrs. Merry, and he offered his arm to her and conducted her to the table, where she always presided when no members of his family were present. This attention to the wife of the Secretary of State was considered by Mrs. Merry as an insult. “Such a stir was made by the angry ambassador, that Mr. Madison wrote to Mr. Monroe (whohad succeeded Mr. King as our Minister to England), apprising him of the facts, to enable him to answer an expected call of the British Government for official explanations. Mr. Monroe, however, got his first information from a friendly British under-secretary, who intimated that he would soon probably hear of the matter through a different channel. The Minister was delighted. Within a very short period, the wife of an English under-secretary had been accorded precedence over his own, under analogous circumstances. He had no great fund of humor, but the absurdity of the whole affair, and the excellent materials in his possession for a reply to a call for explanations, struck him in a most amusing light. Shaking with merriment, he hinted to his informant the satisfaction the call would give him. He never afterward heard a lisp on the subject.â€
President Jefferson had abolished all etiquette in regard to official precedence when he went in office, and Mrs. Merry knew this, but she never forgave the occurrence, and never afterward went to the White House. Mrs. Madison regretted being the innocent cause of such a trouble, but she was spared further notoriety by the absence of the British Minister or his family ever afterward at the President’s reunions. The affair was not, however, destined to end here, for after the first clamor had subsided, the President, through another foreign Minister, inquired if Mr. and Mrs. Merry would accept an invitation to a family dinner. It was understood that they would accept, and Mr. Jefferson wrote the invitationhimself. Mr. Merry addressed a note to the Secretary of State to know if he was invited in his private or official capacity; “if in the one, he must obtain the permission of his sovereign; if in the other, he must receive an assurance in advance that he would be treated as became his position.†Mr. Madison ended the correspondence with a very dry note. Thomas Moore, who was travelling in the United States at this time, and being a friend of Mrs. Merry’s, and disgusted with his reception, fell to lampooning the President and everything American, except a few attentive Federal gentlemen and ladies.
In 1817, President Madison’s term expired, and his Secretary of State, James Monroe, assumed the duties of President. Washington had so long been the home of Mrs. Madison, that it was with much regret she prepared to leave the city. Many and dear were her friends, and the society of relatives was another strong link binding her to the city.
Always fond of agricultural pursuits, Mr. Madison joyfully returned to his beautiful and peaceful home. Montpelier was within less than a day’s ride of Monticello, and in the estimate of a Virginian, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison were neighbors.
TheNational Republican, of November 2d, 1831, thus speaks of Mr. and Mrs. Madison:
PIERSON. ENGMONTPELIER—THE HOME OF PRESIDENT MADISON.
MONTPELIER—THE HOME OF PRESIDENT MADISON.
MONTPELIER—THE HOME OF PRESIDENT MADISON.
“How must they look in these days on the tempestuous sea of liberty; on the dangers incident to the little barks now floating on its agitated surface. Can they feel for the safety of that on which embarked the fortunes of Henry Clay? We hope and trust they do; and at any rate we rejoice that, safe in port, they can review with just pride and pleasure their own safe and triumphant voyage, and can recollect the auspicious day of their landing. One of them the rallying point, the beginning and end of the cabinet in all of its just works, and the other the chief ornament and glory of the drawing-room, in the purest and most intelligent days of our Republic.â€
“Embosomed among the hills which lie at the foot of the South Mountain, is the paternal estate of Mr. Madison. A large and commodious mansion, designed more for comfort and hospitality than ornament and display, rises at the foot of a high wooded hill, which, while it affords shelter from the northwest winds, adds much to the picturesque beauty of the scene. The grounds around the house owe their ornaments more to nature than art, as, with the exception of a fine garden behind, and a wide-spread lawn before the house, for miles around the ever-varying and undulating surface of the ground is covered with forest trees. The extreme salubrity of the situation induced the proprietor to call it Montpelier.
“One wing of the house during her lifetime was exclusively appropriated to the venerable and venerated mother of Mr. Madison, to which were attached offices and gardens, forming a separate establishment, where this aged matron preserved the habits and the hoursof her early life, attended by old family slaves, and surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
“Under the same roof, divided only by a partition-wall, were thus exhibited the customs of the beginning and end of a century; thus offering a strange but most interesting exhibition of the differences between the old and the new age. By only opening a door, the observer passed from the elegancies, refinements, and gayeties of modern life into all that was venerable, respectable, and dignified in gone-by days; from the airy apartments—windows opening to the ground, hung with light silken drapery, French furniture, light fancy chairs, gay carpets, etc., etc., to the solid and heavy carved and polished mahogany furniture darkened by age, the thick rich curtains, and other more comfortable adjustments of our great-grandfathers’ times. It was considered a great favor and distinction by the gay visitors who thronged Mrs. Madison’s hospitable mansion, to be admitted to pay the homage of their respect to his reverend mother.†A lady who visited Montpelier in 1836, when the latter was in her ninety-seventh year, said of her:
“She still retained all her faculties, though not free from the bodily infirmities of age. She was sitting, or rather reclining, on a couch; beside her was a small table filled with large, dark, and worn quartos and folios of most venerable appearance. She closed one as we entered, and took up her knitting which lay beside her. Among other inquiries, I asked her how she passed her time. ‘Iam never at a loss,’ she replied; ‘this and these (touching her knitting and her books) keep me always busy; look at my fingers, and you will perceive I have not been idle.’ In truth, her delicate fingers were polished by her knitting-needles. ‘And my eyes, thanks be to God, have not failed me yet, and I read most part of the day; but in other respects I am feeble and helpless, and owe everything to her,’ pointing to Mrs. Madison, who sat by us. ‘She is my mother now, and tenderly cares for all my wants.’ My eyes were filled with tears as I looked from the one to the other of these excellent women, and thought of the tender ties by which they were united. Never, in the midst of a splendid drawing-room, surrounded by all that was courtly and brilliant, all that was admired and respected—the centre of attraction—the object of admiration—never was Mrs. Madison so interesting, so lovely, so estimable as in her attendance on this venerable woman, the acknowledged object of her grateful affection.
“Much as she graced her public station, she has not been less admirable in domestic life. Neighborly and companionable among her country friends, as if she had never lived in a city; delighting in the society of the young, and never better pleased than when promoting every youthful pleasure by her participation; she still proved herself the affectionate and devoted wife during the years of suffering health of her excellent husband. Without neglecting the duties of a kind hostess, a faithful friend and relative, she soothed and enlivened, occupiedand amused, the languid hours of his long confinement; he knew, appreciated, and acknowledged the blessing which heaven had bestowed on him in giving him such a wife.â€
At about sixty-six years of age Mr. Madison retired from public life, and ever after resided on his estate in Virginia, except about two months while at Richmond as a member of the convention in 1829, which sat there to remodel the constitution of that State. His farm, his books, his friends, and his correspondence, were the sources of his enjoyment and occupation during the twenty years of his retirement. During most of that time his health, never robust, was as good as usual, and he partook with pleasure of the exercise and the conviviality in which he had always enjoyed himself.
At eighty-five years of age, though much reduced by debility, his mind was bright, his memory retentive, and his conversation highly instructive and delightful. Suffering with disease, he never repined. Serene and even lively, he still loved to discuss the constitution, to inculcate the public good, and to charge his friends with blessings for his country. He was long one of the most interesting shrines to which its votaries repaired: a relic of republican virtue which none could contemplate without reverence and edification.
On the 28th of June, 1836, he died; as serene, philosophical, and calm in the last moments of existence as he had been in all the trying occasions of life.
In the winter of 1836, Mrs. Madison wrote to PresidentJackson in regard to a manuscript left by her husband and which he intended for publication. The copyright had been offered to several publishing houses, but their offers had fallen so far below her expectations, that she determined to lay the matter before the Chief Magistrate. In a special message, the President communicated the contents of her letter to Congress, and the manuscript was purchased as a national work, and thirty thousand dollars paid her for it.
The novel and interesting features of the case, the venerable relict of one of the founders of the Republic coming before the country with a manuscript precious in its relation to its national destiny, were such that the proposition was not to be met with a cold appreciation of merits, or with nice questions of Congressional power. It was this feeling also which induced Congress to pass a subsequent act, giving to Mrs. Madison the honorary privilege of a copyright in foreign countries. The work is a record of the Debates in the congress of the convention during the years 1782–1787.
Congress also conferred the franking privilege upon Mrs. Madison, and voted her a seat upon the floor of the Senate.
The last twelve years of Mrs. Madison’s life were spent in Washington, where she mingled in the society of the young and happy, as well as the aged and recluse. Many remember her dignified bearing, and gentle, kind manner in her old age, and it was considered a pleasure to be a guest where she was to be present. On New Year’sand Fourth of July, she held public receptions, and the throng of visitors was equal to that which assembled at the President’s house. She took up her residence in Washington in 1837, in the house in which she died. This house on the southeast corner of H. street North and Madison Place was built by President Madison in 1819; after her death it was purchased by Captain Wilkes and by him enlarged. She died on the 12th of July, 1849, at age of eighty-two years. Her funeral, which was attended by a large concourse of people, took place on the 16th, from St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the interment took place at Montpelier. The grave is near by that of her husband’s, over which latter a noble monument stands. The old homestead has passed into other hands, but it will ever be associated with the illustrious man who gave it name and fame, and the fact that it is the last resting-place of the fourth President of the United States, and of his wife, will ever hallow it in the hearts of reverent Americans.