phia, and, with Aaron Burr, boarded at the house of her father, Mr. Payne. She was then the Widow Todd. The future President promptly fell in love with her. But having some doubts about her mental qualities, he one day handed her a book to read and asked her to give him her opinion of it. She gave the book to Burr with the request that he would write a letter for her to copy. This he did with his usual brilliance; and Madison, on receiving the note, was fully convinced that his ladylove's intellect was equal to her beauty. He at once offered himself and was accepted.

As a social leader, however, Mrs. Madison was her husband's superior, although he was a well-bred and hospitable man. She was phenomenal in several ways. She never forgot a face or a name. At one time a gentleman approached her whom she had not seen for twenty-six years and said: "Mrs. Madison, I am confident you do not remember me." But she instantly mentioned his name and the time and place of their former meeting. She always gave her special attention to the diffident and embarrassed among her guests. Once a tall, awkward backwoodsman came to a reception at the White House. After standing painfully in a corner for an hour or more, he at last summoned courage to take a cup of the coffee that was being handed around. Mrs. Madison had been trying to reach him, and at this moment approached and addressed him. He was so frightened that he dropped the saucer from his trembling left hand and thrust the cup into his trousers' pocket with his right. Mrs. Madison quietly said: "The crowd is so great here that one cannot avoid being jostled. I will see that you have another cup of coffee. How is your excellent mother? I once knew her very well." With such homely talk she soon beguiled him from his bashfulness and enabled him to forget his mortification. It is not wonderful that when she retired from the Executive Mansion on March 4, 1817, she left behind a multitude of regretful friends.

Madison survived the close of his public life for nineteen years, passed

A

in dignified comfort and happiness at his estate of Montpelier, Va., where he died on June 28, 1836. He left his widow what would have been a comfortable fortune had she not spent most of it to pay the debts of her drinking and gambling son, Payne Todd. part of the estate was the fine house at the southeast corner of Madison Place and H Street, now the home of the Cosmos," the largest scientific club in the world. It had been built about 1825 by Richard Cutts, the brother-inlaw of Mrs. Madison.*

It came into the ex-President's possession the year before his death, in settlement of a debt. But Mrs. Madison was too poor to occupy it, and rented it successively to Attorney-General Crittenden, to the Hon. William C. Preston, of South Carolina, and to James I. Roosevelt, member of Congress from New York. On March 3, 1837, an act of Congress was approved by President Jackson, appropriating $30,000 to purchase Madison's diary of the debates and events connected with the framing of the Federal Constitution. This money enabled Mrs. Madison to live in her city house; and the same year she very gladly returned to the capital, which she had always tenderly loved. Her return was a renewal in private life of all her social triumphs from 1801 to 1817, for eight years as the wife of Jefferson's Secretary of State, and for another eight years as the wife of the President. But it was a new generation that crowded to do her honor. Looking over the company on the occasion of her first reception, she said to an old friend at her side: "What a difference twenty years make in the face of society! Here are young men and women not born when I left the capital, whose names are familiar, but whose faces are

Nepotism seems to have been known, and charged upon women as well as men, even in those simplehearted days. When Mrs. Madison fled from the city in 1814, taking only this family of relatives with her, these lines were published:

"My sister Cutts, and Cutts, and I,
And Cutts's children three,

Will fill the coach; so you must ride
On horseback after we."

These papers were published in three volumes in 1840. On May 31, 1848, $25,000 was appropriated for the purchase of Madison's unpublished papers, then owned by his widow; and they were given to the public in 1856.

unknown to me." At sixty-five, however, she retained all the fascination of her girlhood and young womanhood. She was heartily interested in both the old and the young. Her kindness of heart and gentleness of manner were unfailing. Her home fairly rivalled the White House as a social centre. On New Year's days the same distinguished crowd that paid their respects to the President hastened across the square to greet Mrs. Madison with all good wishes. On every Fourth of July her parlors were thronged.

Four months before her death, in her seventy-eighth year, the young sister of Admiral Dahlgren called upon her, and rising to leave, said: "Mrs. Madison, I have a new autograph album, and I must have you write in it before any one else." Throwing her arms about her young friend, Mrs. Madison said: "Well, you darling little flatterer, if you will get me a good quill, I will do it. I cannot write with these new fangled steel pens." So Miss Dahlgren sent her the best quill pen to be found and received her album with the beautifully written autograph of which the following is a fac-simile.

Clellan, who was accustomed to leave it in great splendor to review the armies across the Potomac, attended by his distinguished staff, which included the Prince de Joinville, the Duc de Chartres, and the Comte de Paris. The interior is now much changed. In Mrs. Madison's day the entrance was on Lafayette Square, but otherwise its external appearance has been preserved.

Besides the Executive Mansion, no building was erected on Lafayette Square until the close of the War of 1812, when St. John's Church was built. The first private house was that of Commodore Stephen Decatur, at the southwest corner of H Street and Jackson Place. It was built in 1819, the architect being Latrobe, the mastermind of our unequalled Capitol. It remains to this day substantially unchanged, and is one of the most elegant interiors in the city. The exterior is extremely plain. The grounds are spacious and entirely enclosed.

Decatur was brave and patriotic. His famous toast was characteristic: "My country: may she be always in the right; but right or wrong-my country." He distinguished himself

Washington Faby 14th 1849.

After Mrs. Madison's death this house was sold to Admiral Wilkes, who occupied it until the civil war. In 1862 it was the head-quarters of General Mc

DR. Madjar

rain of shot from one hundred and forty-one guns. Admiral Nelson pronounced this "the most daring act of the age." Decatur had his full share in the War of 1812, and at its close completely and finally humbled the Barbary States, for which he had the gratitude of all Europe; and President Madison, in his Annual Message to the Congress, December, 1815, said: "The high character of the American commander was brilliantly sustained on this occasion."

When Decatur came to reside in Washington he had all the fame and fascination that always attach to the hero of battles and of victories. These were supplemented by the unusual attractiveness of his wife. She was beautiful and highly educated, and despite the shadow of her birth, had been the reigning belle of Norfolk. She had elegant manners and splendid conversational powers. Jerome Bonaparte offered himself to her, but she refused him, o the advice of her friend, the Hon. Robert G. Harper, who assured her that the Emperor Napoleon would never recognize such a marriage. His judgment was shown to be correct when Jerome afterward married Miss Patter

son, of Baltimore. The Decaturs at once became social leaders, but for only a single season.

Early in March, 1820, at a dinner given by Decatur, the conversation turned on the late war, and he spoke very severely of Commodore Barron for not returning from Europe to bear his part in that struggle. One of the guests reported this to Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, and he to Commodore Barron. Ill feeling between Decatur and Barron dated back to 1808, when the former was a member of a court-martial to try the latter for surrendering the Chesapeake to the British man-of-war Leopard. Barron was convicted and suspended from rank and pay for five years. He also believed that Decatur's influence had availed to keep him on land when he desired active sea-service as a means of restoring his reputation. He was therefore ready to take fire at Decatur's dinner-table talk. Angry letters passed between them. Elliott probably fermented the strife. He had a grudge against Decatur, who held in his hands letters from Commodore Perry reflecting severely on Elliott. Commodore

Dale did his best to effect an adjustment, assuring Decatur that Barron was a man of honor, undeserving of the severe remarks made about him over the wine. But a challenge had been given and accepted, and according to the standards of honor at that day, retreat was impossible. Commodore Morris was asked by Decatur to be his second; he declined, saying the duel was entirely needless; that peace ought to be made, and offering his services in that interest. They were refused and preparations went forward as secretly as possible.

On Saturday evening, March 19th, Decatur gave a very handsome party to Mrs. Gouverneur, the newly married daughter of President Monroe. Several of the guests observed in their host an unusual solemnity of manner. He was exceptionally devoted to his wife, and when she sang, accompanying herself upon the harp, he stood in the centre of the semi-circle about her, brilliant in his full uniform, but absorbed and melancholy. During the evening he said to his next friend, Commodore Porter, who was to give a similar entertainment for Mrs. Gouverneur the following week, "I may spoil your party."

Ogle Tayloe records that he met Decatur early in the day preceding the duel, and that he looked ill and seemed abstracted;

On Wednesday morning, March 22d, Decatur quietly left his house at daybreak, walked to Beale's Hotel, near the Capitol, took breakfast with his second, Commodore Bainbridge, and reached the duelling ground at Bladensburgh about nine o'clock. Barron was already there with his second, Commodore Elliott. Barron was wounded in the hip, where Decatur, who was an unfailing shot, had declared beforehand that he should hit him. Decatur's wound was in the abdomen, and was at once seen to be mortal. As they lay bleeding, Decatur asked: "Why did you not return to America when the

war broke out?" "I had not the means," replied Barron. "Why did you not inform me of your situation?" asked Decatur; "I would gladly have furnished you with the requisite funds." When reproached for not having made this explanation before and thus secured an apology from Decatur, Bar

that he met him again late in the afternoon of the same day and was greatly impressed by his solemn manner. On this occasion he saw Decatur accost Commodore Macdonough, take his arm and pace the pavement with him for some time. Macdonough afterward said: "I knew nothing of the contemplated duel or I would have prevented it." Commodore Stewart said the same in regard to himself.

ron replied: "I would explain nothing while under his insult."

Decatur was carried home about noon and placed on a couch in the library at the left of the hall on the first floor. His wife said she' as too stricken to see him. He dd during the evening. At his funeral on Saturday, the 25th, attended by vast numbers of citizens and by almost the whole Congress, John Randolph, of