Page:An Epistle to Posterity.djvu/71

48 Mr. Webster talked one evening of his past, the past of the "Reply to Hayne." He told us how Mrs. Gales had saved it for him, as she could read her husband's shorthand, which no one else could. I remember that Miss Susan Benton was of this party — a very gifted girl, and the daughter of the great Missouri Senator. Mr. Seward often joined us in our after-dinner walks to the Capitol. These twilight strolls to these beautiful grounds were very fashionable then. We dined at five o'clock, and had a long summer evening to get rid of. How primitive Washington was in those days! But what good society this was during the long session!

A small, straggling city, with very muddy streets in winter; plain living and high thinking; rather uncomfortable quarters in the hotels and boarding-houses; here and there a grand house, but not many of them; the White House, serene and squalid; a few large public buildings; the Capitol, with its splendid dome, like an architect's dream, overhanging and dominating the scene, as it does to-day, one of the most splendid public buildings in the civilized world. Such was the early Washington to me.

I came to Washington as a very young girl, and was, of course, dazzled. I have only indistinct memories as to having seen the last years of Mr. Polk's administration and the first of General Taylor's. That was my first inauguration, and I remember it very well. What a cold, driving March day it was! What dreary waiting in a crowded part of the rotunda and the Supreme Court room! We had two friends — Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, and Mr. Justice Wayne, of the Supreme Court — to put us through, and so we had very good chances. I remember now the impressive group as Judge Taney