Dorothy Payne, Quakeress Part 7

[Footnote 43: The mosaics of the necklace represent Temple of Minerva, Tomb of Caecelia Nutallis, Bridge of Colla, Pontius Luga.n.u.s, Colosseum of Flavius Vespasia.n.u.s, Pontius Salasius, Temple of Vesta, Temple of Venus, Tomb of Caius Coeustus, Temple of Jupiter Tonans, and the Temple of Jupiter Stattor.]

[Footnote 44: From the Ferdinand J. Dreer collection at Pennsylvania Historical Society.]

[Footnote 45: Minutes of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Northern District.--Adjourned meeting, 13th of 8 mo, 1793.--Friends are appointed to a.s.sist women Friends in preparing a testimony against the misconduct of Lucy Was.h.i.+ngton, late Paine, who has accomplished her marriage by the a.s.sistance of a hireling priest contrary to the discipline established amongst us.

27th of 8 mo, 1793.--Testimony against Lucy Was.h.i.+ngton, late Payne, who had by birth a right of members.h.i.+p among us, having disregarded the wholesome order of our Discipline in the accomplishment of her marriage with a person not in members.h.i.+p with us, before an hireling priest, and without the consent of her Mother, after being precautioned against such outgoing. We therefore testify that the said Lucy Was.h.i.+ngton is no longer a member of our religious Society. Nevertheless desiring she may be favored with a due sense of her deviation and seek to be rightly restored.]

[Footnote 46: Dorothy Madison was disowned Twelfth month 20th, 1794, by the monthly meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, on account of her marriage.]

[Decoration]

CHAPTER III.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON AND THE WHITE HOUSE.

When Jefferson became President, in 1801, Madison was made Secretary of State. The capital had been moved the year before to Was.h.i.+ngton, and the Madisons settled on F street, between 13th and 14th. From this time Dolly's history is well known. She became at once the center of the social life of the capital; all eyes were turned her way, and she soon won the hearts of the people.

Mary Payne, Dolly's younger sister, was married in 1800 to Congressman J. G. Jackson, of Virginia, and Anna Payne was married in 1804 to Senator Richard Cutts,[47] from Maine, then part of Ma.s.sachusetts. With her three daughters in Was.h.i.+ngton, Mary Payne was soon ready to follow, and henceforth made her home with Dolly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Colonel Samuel Was.h.i.+ngton.]

On June 4, 1805, Dolly writes: "Yesterday we had brother George, Thornton and Laurence Was.h.i.+ngton to spend the day, and I enjoyed the sound of Virginia hilarity echoing through the house. George coughs incessantly, and looks thin and hoa.r.s.e, but has no idea of dying."

He died a few years later, when traveling with his servant in the south, and Lucy with her three boys came to live with the Madisons. Her great-grandson, John Augustine Was.h.i.+ngton, owns Harewood, where from the wall the portrait of Lucy Payne Was.h.i.+ngton smiles a welcome to the stranger, and in the old terraced garden[48] with its rare plants, the lilac hedge planted by her sister Dolly each springtime fills the air with fragrance.

"Here's the garden she walked across; Down this side of the gravel walk She went, while her robe's edge brushed the box, And here she paused in her gracious talk To point me a moth on the milk-white phlox."

Here also are the portraits of George Steptoe, and the "gay fox-loving squire," Samuel Was.h.i.+ngton, his father, the loving husband of five wives, who laid them one by one in the little family burying plot near by, where now he himself and many of his descendants sleep the last sleep.

"In ancient graves, where trailing vines And tender wild flowers grow."

In 1807 a great grief came to Dolly in the loss of her beloved mother, who did not live to see her mistress of the White House. Mary Coles had been a belle and beauty during her girlhood.[49] At the home of her cousin, Colonel John Coles, of Enniscorthy,[50] in Albemarle county, she had met men who were destined for grave responsibilities in later years.

John Coles and his son, Colonel John, who inherited this estate, entertained with lavish hospitality. They had a fine stock of horses, and for the hunting season such men as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Patrick Henry, Wirt, Edmunds, and many others, were guests here for weeks.

Shortly after her mother's death Dolly writes:

"Deep affliction, my dear friend, has for some time past arrested my pen! My beloved & tender Mother left us forever on the 20th of October last--She was in Virgi^a with my youngest sister when she died without suffering or regret. The loss is only ours, & for that only ought we her children to mourn.

"Mr. Madison unites with me in best wishes & regard for you and yours.

D. P. Madison[51].

The following unpublished letter[52] from James Madison to his brother-in-law, George Steptoe Was.h.i.+ngton, is interesting as giving an account of the early troubles with Great Britain that finally led to the War of 1812:

Was.h.i.+ngton, Dec^r 7, 1807.

Dear Sir

Having lately rec'd a few no^s of Cobbets[53] Register, I enclose them with a few newspapers of our own for your amus.e.m.e.nt, by a winter's fire side.

The business with England has come to a stop there, and is to be transferred to this place. The British Gov^t. would not admit, even formally, into the case of the Chesapeake, a discussion of the general princ.i.p.al of impressments; and the inefficacy of any arrangement not embracing the whole subject, for placing the two countries in the relation of secure & permanent friends.h.i.+p, was thought to require a joint provision. It had been calculated with great confidence here that the offer authorized for putting an end to the general practice of G. B. was so favorable to her interest as well as so liberal in itself, that it would be instantly embraced, and that the great difficulty on the general subject being surmounted, the affair of the Chesapeake would be met on both sides with dispositions which would render it the more manageable.

The different course insisted on will necessarily leave around the subject all the thorns which mutual pride and honor, wise and false, will have planted there; and even in case the parties shall succeed in removing this ground of contest, the old one, on which a species of contest tending to rupture has been commenced, will remain. From the sensibility produced in this country by the British practice of taking seamen, and ours in greater number than their own, it can hardly be supposed that the practice will be tolerated after a refusal of the liberal & conciliatory subst.i.tute proposed on our part. Let us not however despair that things may take a better turn. If the new envoy brings as sincere disposition to remove obstacles to peace & harmony as he will find here, this cannot fail to be the case.

Inclosed are a few lines for Mr^s. Was.h.i.+ngton from her sister, to whom I beg you to offer my sincere affection.

With great esteem & regard I remain D^r Sir yr. friend & bro^r James Madison

Cap^t G. S. Was.h.i.+ngton

Benjamin H. Latrobe,[54] having been made architect of the capitol with the t.i.tle of Surveyor of the Public Buildings, removed his family to Was.h.i.+ngton in 1807. To him we owe the corn-stalk columns with capitals of ripened ears in the vestibule of the Capitol, which Mrs. Trollope declared the most beautiful things she had seen in primitive America.

He also designed the capitals of tobacco leaves and flowers crowning the columns in the vestibule of the old Senate Chamber, now the Supreme Court Room. He was likewise the architect of the St. John's Church.

At the beginning of Madison's administration, in 1809, Congress appropriated $6,000 towards furnis.h.i.+ng the White House, of which work he had charge; and mirrors, china, household linen, knives and other necessaries were bought, as were also sofas, chairs and hangings, not forgetting a pianoforte, for $458, and a guitar, for $28.

The Madison coach was built by Fielding, of Philadelphia, at the modest price of $1,500. It was drawn by four horses.

Mrs. Latrobe and Dolly had soon become friends, as the following note[55] shows. It was written while James Madison was the Secretary of State:

To Mrs. Latrobe:

My dear friend: I have read your books with pleasure & return them with many thanks. I intended to have presented them myself yesterday, but could not get my carriage in time. I long to see you, & hope you will not fail to send for the ride when you wish it, as I expect M^r. Latrobe has left you for Phil^a & that you will indulge low spirits. How is Lidia & the little ones? I have been sick for several days, & on this we shall have Doc^r Wistar of Phil^a to dine with us. He is an old friend, & I shall be gratified in having some account of our mutual acquaintances.

We have nothing new in this quarter except Mrs. Fulton[56] the Bride, who arrived from New York 3 days ago. She was a Miss Livingston, & perhaps known to you. Even with this elegant addition to the City I feel melancholy without knowing wherefore.

Can I send you anything? Can I do anything for you? If yes, will you still think of me with confidence & affection? I desire it from you if a faithful & tender friends.h.i.+p _has favor in your eyes_.

Adieu for the moment,

[Ill.u.s.tration: Signature of D P Madison]

8^th July 1808.

At Madison's first inauguration Dolly wore buff-colored velvet and pearl ornaments, with a Paris turban with bird-of-Paradise plumes, and "looked and moved a queen." The inaugural ball was held at Long's Hotel, and about four hundred people were present. The first "four hundred."

At the request of her husband she had laid aside her Quaker dress on her marriage. However, she clung to the Quaker ways, to its soft "thee" and "thou" that fell so pleasantly from her tongue, and even, in a measure, to its dress. During the eight years when, as wife of the Secretary of State, she and her sisters, Lucy and Anna, were often called on by Jefferson[57] to do the honors of the White House, she wore her "pretty Quaker cap." Indeed it was not until she came there as its mistress that she reluctantly laid it aside as "no longer suitable to her surroundings."

She has sometimes been accused of adhering less strictly to some of the more essential beliefs of Quakerism, for which her father had suffered so much.

Dolly was perhaps never a great woman, but she was infinitely better, a loving one. Her days were filled with

"Little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."

Her manner was irresistibly charming. Her memory of faces, her ready sympathy, delicate tact and Irish wit made her many admirers and friends, and her memory to-day is held in a loving remembrance such as is felt for no other one of the mistresses of the White House.