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
Mr. Jefferson was elected Vice-President on the ticket with President
John Adams, and at the end of this administration he was elected to fill
the first position in the gift of the nation. On the fourth of March,
1801, he was inaugurated President of the United States. His daughter
Martha was living at her husband’s country home near Monticello, the
mother of several children, and Marie, who had previously married Mr.
Eppes, of Eppington, was happily situated at Monticello, awaiting her
father’s promised visit in early summer.
Sir Augustus Foster, who was Secretary of Legation at Washington to the
British Minister, Mr. Merry, has given some rather entertaining accounts
of the state of society there in the time of Jefferson. “In going to
assemblies, one had to drive three or four miles within the city bounds,
and very often at the risk of an overturn, or of being what is termed
stalled, or stuck in the mud, when one can neither go backward nor
forward, and either loses one’s shoes or one’s patience. Cards were a
great resource of an evening, and gaming was all the fashion, for the
men who frequented society were chiefly from Virginia or the Western
States, and were very fond of brag, the most gambling of all games. Loo
was the innocent diversion of the ladies, who when they were looed,
pronounced the word in a very mincing manner.
“The New Englanders, generally speaking, were very religious, but though
there were many exceptions, I cannot say so much for the Marylanders,
and still less for the Virginians. But in spite of its inconveniences
and desolate aspect, it was, I think, the most agreeable town to reside
in for any length of time. The opportunity of collecting information
from Senators and Representatives from all parts of the country—the
hospitality of the heads of the Government and the Corps Diplomatique—of
itself supplied resources such as could nowhere else be looked for.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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