Page:The Ladies of the White House.djvu/197

Rh and made his house the most attractive place of resort in the city. During his eight years' life as Secretary of State, she dispensed with no niggard hand the abundant wealth she rightly prized, and the poor of the district loved her name as a household deity.

In 1810, Mr. Madison was elected President, and after Mr. Jefferson left the city, he removed to the White House. Under the former administration, Mrs. Madison had, during the absences of Mr. Jefferson's daughters, presided at the receptions and levees, and was in every particular fitted to adorn her position as hostess of the mansion she was called to preside over. Every one in Washington felt that her watchful care and friendly interest would be in nowise diminished by her advancement to a higher position; and the magical effects of her snuff-box were as potent in one capacity as another. The forms and ceremonials which had rendered the drawing-rooms of Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Adams dull and tedious, were laid aside, and no kind of stiffness was permitted. Old friends were not forgotten, nor new ones courted; but mild and genial to all, each person felt himself the object of special attention, and all left her presence pleased and gratified with her urbanity and refinement.

Possessing a most retentive memory, she never miscalled a name, or forgot the slightest incident connected with the personal history of any one; and therefore Impressed each individual with the idea of their importance in her esteem. Mrs. Madison's sole aim was to be