My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands, Dictated in My Seventy-Fourth YearTrain, George Francis
History
My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands, Dictated in My Seventy-Fourth Year
Train, George Francis
Train, George Francis, 1829-1904
I had charge of the Colonial Governors, who were the guests of the city,
and of the President, and I escorted them from Boston to Charlestown.
There were Sir John A. MacDonald, of Canada; Governor Tilly, of New
Brunswick; the Honorable Joseph Howe, ex-Governor of Nova Scotia; and
Millard Fillmore, President of the United States. President Fillmore and
Sir John MacDonald rode on the back seat of the first carriage, and Howe
and Tilly on the front seat. Somehow, Boston seemed to regard the
colonial officials as equal to, if not a little better than the
President. I suppose this was because of the sentiment of Bunker Hill,
and because the presence of British representatives was a matter of
pride and gratification.
But the day was to end in gloom. As I was in the midst of the gaiety and
at the height of my exultation, a messenger handed me a despatch. I tore
it open, and found that it was from a friend in Louisville, Ky., and
contained a warning. Miss Davis, to whom I was betrothed, lived in
Louisville, and I was soon to marry her there. The telegram urged me to
hasten my journey, as the report of the coming marriage had created a
great deal of bad feeling. My friend advised me to lay aside everything
and go to Louisville with all possible despatch.
I could not imagine, at first, what this meant. It seemed to convey only
some presage of disaster. I left the gay scenes of the parade and
hurried to my room at the hotel. There I made instant preparation for a
trip to Louisville.
Before leaving Boston, however, I learned what it was that had caused my
friend in Louisville so much concern. Some time before, there had been a
marriage of a Kentucky girl with a Northerner--the much-talked of
wedding of Bigelow Lawrence and Miss Sallie Ward. It had aroused a great
deal of bitter feeling, because of the increasing tension and friction
between the North and the South. This was none of my affair; nor did I
share the feeling on either side. Indeed, at that time, I knew little
and cared less about the sectional differences between the North and
South. The only interest I had in the South at that time was a
commercial one in our shipping business, and the more personal interest
attaching to that portion of the South that held my future wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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