“Sweet the savor of her name, And soft her sleeping bed.” [Illustration: Eng_d. by J. C. Buttre. Angelica Van Buren] XI. ANGELICA VAN BUREN. The era in which Hannah Van Buren lived was far removed from her husband’s ascension to the Presidency, for she had been dead seventeen years, when, in 1837, that event occurred. He remained a widower, and, but for the presence of his accomplished daughter-in-law, his administration would have been socially a failure. The prestige of his high position was not complete until the honors were shared with his young relative. Angelica Singleton, the daughter of Richard Singleton, Esq., was born in Sumpter District, South Carolina. Her grandfather Singleton, and her great-grandfather General Richardson, served with distinction in the revolutionary war. On the maternal side, her grandfather, John Coles, Esq., of Albemarle county, Virginia, was the intimate and valued friend of Presidents Jefferson and Madison, and two of his sons were respectively their private secretaries during their Presidential terms. Miss Singleton’s early advantages were in keeping with her elevated social position. To complete an education superior to the generality of her sex at that day, she spent several years at Madame Grelaud’s seminary, in Philadelphia. The winter previous to her marriage, she passed in Washington, in the family of her kinsman, Senator William C. Preston. Soon after her arrival, her cousin, the justly celebrated Mrs. Madison, procured the appointment of a day to present her to the President, accompanied also by Senator Preston’s family. Her reception was a very flattering one, and she became a great favorite with President Van Buren. In November of the year following (1838), she was married at her father’s residence, to Colonel, then Major, Van Buren, the President’s eldest son, and his private secretary—a graduate of West Point and long an officer in the army. Her first appearance as the lady of the White House was on the following New Year’s day, when, supported by the ladies of the cabinet, she received with the President. The following brief though favorable cotemporaneous notice of that occasion is taken from a long and racy account by a correspondent of the Boston _Post_, of the movements at the capital on New Year’s day: