The Ladies of the White House; Or, in the Home of the Presidents: Being a Complete History of the Social and Domestic Lives of the Presidents from Washington to the Present Time—1789–1881Holloway, Laura C. (Laura Carter)
History
The Ladies of the White House; Or, in the Home of the Presidents: Being a Complete History of the Social and Domestic Lives of the Presidents from Washington to the Present Time—1789–1881
Holloway, Laura C. (Laura Carter)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography
I do not say this because I feel dissatisfied with my
present station, for everybody and everything conspire to make me as
contented as possible in it; yet I have learned too much of the vanity
of human affairs to expect felicity from the scenes of public life. I am
still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may
be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our
happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our
circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us
in our minds, wherever we go.”
The second year of Washington’s administration, the seat of government
was removed to Philadelphia. Mrs. Washington was sick when she started
on the journey, and remained in Philadelphia until she was strong enough
to go on to Mount Vernon.
The late Rev. Ashbel Green, for a long time President of Princeton
College, and one of the early Chaplains of Congress, in speaking of the
seat of government, said: “After a great deal of writing and talking and
controversy about the permanent seat of Congress under the present
Constitution, it was determined that Philadelphia should be honored with
its presence for ten years, and afterward the permanent location should
be in the city of Washington, where it now is. In the meantime, the
Federal city was in building, and the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted
a sum of money to build a house for the President, perhaps with some
hope that this might help to keep the seat of the general government in
the Capital; for Philadelphia was then considered as the Capital of the
State. What was lately the University of Pennsylvania, was the structure
erected for the purpose. But as soon as General Washington saw its
dimensions, and a good while before it was finished, he let it be known
that he would not occupy it, and should certainly not go to the expense
of purchasing suitable furniture for such a dwelling; for it is to be
understood, in those days of stern republicanism, nobody thought of
Congress furnishing the President’s house; or if perchance such a
thought did enter into some aristocratic head, it was too unpopular to
be uttered. President Washington therefore rented a house of Mr. Robert
Morris, in Market street, between Fifth and Sixth, on the south side,
and furnished it handsomely but not gorgeously.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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