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
Ever delighting in the society of his two children and deeply attached
to his home, Mr. Jefferson felt this blow with terrible anguish. Worthy
of so good a man’s affection, they were never so happy as in being with
their father, contributing to his comfort in numberless ways. They both
married cousins when quite young, but were never far from their
childhood’s home, and were always under his roof when he paid his
semi-annual visits there. Mrs. Randolph was a brilliant woman; and had
her tastes been less inclined to domestic life, she would have been a
renowned belle. Educated abroad and strengthened mentally by travel and
the society of the literary talent ever to be found about her father,
she became conversant with knowledge’s richest store, and surpassed most
of the women of her day in accomplishments. Though widely different in
other respects, there was much resemblance between the President and
Vice-President in the intensity of their love for their daughters.
Theodosia Burr and Martha Jefferson will be familiar names so long as
the history of this country, shall be among the things of earth. Both
intellectual companions of their only parents, both ardently attached to
fathers they deemed the wisest and greatest of earth—they have become
forever linked with the life and times of each, and covers for the one a
multitude of faults, and has made the other dear to his people. Both
were great men, adored by daughters gifted and good. Theodosia Burr has
thrown around her father’s name a romantic interest which veils many
infirmities, and adds lustre to the traits which in the eyes of the
world redeemed him.
Mrs. Adams, who had known Maria Jefferson and loved her when a child,
overcame the pride she had allowed to control her silent pen, and wrote
to Mr. Jefferson, awakening in his heart tender feelings of friendship
too long allowed to lie dormant. He replied that her former kindnesses
to his lost child made a deep impression on her mind, and that to the
last, on our meetings after long separations, “whether I had heard
lately of you,” and “how you did,” were among the earliest of her
inquiries. Mrs. Adams’ letter was as follows:
“QUINCY, _20th May, 1804_.
“Had you been no other than the private inhabitants of Monticello, I
should, ere this time, have addressed you with that sympathy which a
recent event has awakened in my bosom; but reasons of various kinds
withheld my pen, until the powerful feelings of my heart burst through
the restraint, and called upon me to shed the tear of sorrow over the
departed remains of your beloved and deserving daughter—an event which I
sincerely mourn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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