Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN. [ARTICLE]

REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN.

BY BEN : PERLEY POORE.

Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minister to the United States, died sod-’ denly at Boston on the 19th of SeptemT>er, 1867. He had been attacked with diphtheria at Narragansett Pier, and had gohe to Boston for medical advice, but he arrived too late. He recognized Senator Surnner, who hastened to bis bedside, but was unable to speak to Jiim. Sir Frederick was the younger brother of Lord Elgin. He was born in 1814, was educated at Christ’s Church College, Oxford, and subsequently was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn. Educated for di jUomatic service, he began his career in Lord Ashburton’s suite, when he came to Washington in 1842,. on his special mission regarding the northeastern boundary question. At this time Rufus Choate said of him that he was “the Corinthian part of the British Legation;” He was colonial secretary at Hong Kong, China, for two years. For three or four years he was employed in the diplomatic service of his country in South America and Egypt. In 1855 he went with his brother, Elgin, to China, and was in netiv»! service there for some years. After this he was sent as British envoy to Japan, where he rendered very important service for his country. Soon after his return to England, in 1865, he was appointed to succeed Lord Lyons as British Minister at Washington, and •was presented to President Johnson immediately after the funeral of President Lincoln. While in China his official relations with the Hon. Anson Burlingame ripened into personal intinfacy, and on the visit of the latter home, there were reciprocated between these gentlemen the most cordial expressions of respect and friendship. He lived in excellent style in. Washington, was very hospitable to his acquaintances and friends, whom he frequently entertained at his well-spread table, and was noted for that love of horses which has almost become a passion with Englishmen. To the public in general the deceased wore that stiff’ and formal appearance which characterizes the class of countrymen to which he belonged, but in private life he is said to have been very social, conversational, and entertaining. He always expressed great admiration and friendship for the United States, and it was principally the knowledge of this feeling which occasioned his appointment as minister to Washington. The only one of our institutions he objected to was the railroad legislation which prohibited a gentleman entering certain cars unless accompanied by a lady. As the. deceased minister usually desired to ride in other cars than those filled with smokers and tobacco-chewers, whenever he traveled he was under the judicious necessity of taking his cook with him, as a means of obtaining admittance to the ladies’ car. David Crockett was the roughest diamond that ever sparkled in the House of Representatives. Reared in the cabin of has father, a Revolutionary soldier, who was a pioneer settler in Tennessee, he became noted as a marksman, a bear-hunter, and an Indianftghter. In due time he was sent to the Legislature, and in 1827 he came to Congress. Wearing a home-spun suit, with a waistcoat matle from the skin of a panther which he had shot, he attracted some attention, and the most absurd stories were told of his prowess. He told some good stories, but the greater part of his remarks were coarse and vulgar. It so happened, however, that he became arrayed against Gen. Jackson on au Indian bill, and when the President sent a friend to him to tell him that he must support the bill if he desired re-election, he replied; “I believe the measure is unjust and wicked, and I shall fight it, let the consequences be what they- may. -I- -am willing to be with G-en. Jackson in everything I believe right and honest, but beyond that I won’t go for any man in creation. I would sooner be honest and politically blanked than hypocritically immortalized.” The Whigs took liim up, and he visited Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, receiving marked attention and many presents in each city. When he returned to Tennessee and went into the canvas, he found that President Jackson was too much for him, and he was beaten by about -three hundred votes. He went to Texas, where he fought gallantly, and was killed when the Alamo was taken and its garrison was slaughtered. His son, John W., served as a Whig inCongress from 1837 to 1841. He then removed to New Orleans, where he edited a paper for a while, and then returned to Tennessee, where he died in 1852. Several lives of Crockett were published, written by others. Of the many sayings credited to him, the most popular one; was, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” -A—__JMrs. Lincoln created an excitement in the Autumn of 1867, by ottering for sale, in a small, upstairs room on Broadway in New York, xvhat purported to be her wardrobe ‘ while she was at the White House. Ladies who inspected it said that the object of this exhibition could not have been to realize money from the sale of the collection. With the exception of some lace and cainel’shair shawls, and a few diamond rings, there was nothing wliieh any lady could wear, or which would not have been a disgrace to a second-hand-clothes shop; the ; dresses —those that had been made up and worn—were crushed, oldfashiomxl, and trimmed without taste. The skirts were too short for any but a .very short person, and of the commonest muslins, grenadines and berages; all were made extremely low in the neck, and could not be availably, for any purpose. There were some brocaded silk skirts in large heavy patterns, which had been made but not worn, but these were unaccompanied by any waists, whil e the price put upon them and of the other articles was exorbitant.. The opinion was that the exhibition was intended to stimulate Congress to make Mrs. Lincoln a large appropriation. Those Republicans who had subscribed to the fund of SIOO,OOO paid to Mrs. Lincoln after the death of; her lamented husband, were very angry. The general opinion was that the exhibition was an advertising dodge which some of Mrs. Lipooln’s indiscreet

friends had persuaded her to adopt. Thurlow Weed created a decided sensation by taking up the cudgels in defence of his party, end published a letter stathig that the Republicans, through Congress, “would have made proper arrangements for the mainteiwpoce of Lincoln had she so comported herself as to inspire respect. ” He further intimated “that no President’s wife ever before Accumulated such valuable effects, and that those aecumulations are suggestive of ‘fat contracts and corrupt disposal of patronage,’” He continued that “eleven of Mr. Lim coin’s new linen shirts were sold” almost before the remains which wer> shrouded in the twelfth had started “for that Ixiurne from whence no traveller returns. ” Not only was Mr. Weed censured in this country, but in England. The London Telegraph said: “To attack Mrs. Lincoln is to insult the illustrious memory of Abraham .Lincoln, and to slander a gentle lady. Far and wide she has been known as an admirable and charitable woman, an irreproachable wife, and a devoted mother. She is entitled to more than ‘respect’ from the American people. They owe her reverence, for her very name’s sake. If fifty thousand swords wer e to have leapt from their scabbards to avenge the slightest insult offered to Marie Antoinette, a million cf American hearts and hands would be quick to relieve the wants of the widow of the emancipator; and if this deplorable tale could be true, which we decline to believe, the American public wants no stimulus from abroad to take such an incident at once from the evil atmosphere of electioneering, and to deal with the necessities of Abraham Lincoln’s family in a- manner befitting the national dignity.”