Page:An Epistle to Posterity.djvu/64

CHAPTER III

Washington in the Forties — General Franklin Pierce — The Mexican War — John Quincy Adams, Lincoln, Calhoun, Benton, and Clay — A Sight for Northern "Doughfaces" — The 7th-of-March Speech — Chester Harding — Two Stories of Webster — President Tyler's Inauguration — State Balls and Dinners — The Society of the Capital Half a Century Ago.

The life in New England was a studious one, but not gay, although the irrepressible spirit of sixteen got some dancing out of it. The vision of Washington to come was a not ungrateful one, and, although I have referred to it before, I may be allowed to speak for a moment of the political situation which obtained when I exchanged New England for Washington. My father had always been very kind and familiar in his talks with his children about politics as well as everything else. I had hated General Jackson as a child, as the Scotch children hated the Bruce; and although I had seen with my own eyes that Mr. Van Buren was not an ogre, I had still a very poor opinion of his character. A girl brought up in the old Whig party had no idea which favored "Locofocos," as the Democrats were called. Antislavery agitation at the North was growing more intense every day. We had gone through the Mexican war. I knew by heart the name of every hero in it; we were waiting to know now what was to become of the territory won by that war. Our friend and neighbor General Franklin Pierce, although my father's political foe, was a very agreeable guest at our dinner-table. He had gone to the