castle. Over the red English bricks of its walls, time and clinging tribes of lichens had thrown a soft tinting of purple and gray, while a stately avenue of Lombardy poplars led away from the mossy stone steps of the entrance, adding grandeur to the picturesqueness of the place. Many times during the siege of York were the leading spirits of the revolution gathered at Eltham (which was not far from Yorktown) as guests of Colonel Burwell Bassett, who was a brother-in-law of General Washington and of Governor Harrison, having married the sister of Mrs. Washington. Tradition tells much that should be gathered into the folk-lore of our country, of those great days and great men. Of Elizabeth, the daughter of the house who was wedded to Benjamin Harrison, Dwight in the Lives of the Signers says: "She was considered in her youth a beautiful person," and in later life was "a woman of eminent piety and benevolence, uniting in herself the brightest ornaments of the female character." The offspring of this union were numerous, but many died in infancy. There were seven who survived to maturity; the third son, William Henry, being most noted as the ninth President of the United States, and grandfather to our present President. He was born at the family residence, Berkeley, on February 9th, 1773. At the age of nineteen he entered the army as ensign, and the next year was elevated to the position of lieutenant, and acted as aid to General Wayne in his expedition against the western Indians. In 1795 he was promoted to a captaincy, but resigned in 1797 upon being appointed secretary of the northwestern territory. Chosen to represent that territory in congress in 1799, upon its division in 1807 he became governor of the new territory of Indiana, and superintendent of treaty negotiations with the Indians. Upon the outbreak of hostilities with them in 1811, he won at Tippecanoe his famous historic victory, and subsequently, as majorgeneral commanding the western army, he defeated the British forces at the battle of the Thames. After concluding a treaty with the Indians in 1814, he resigned his commission, and in 1816 was elected member of congress from Cincinnati, and in 1819 became a member of the senate of Ohio. His next step, in 1824, was to the United States senate, and in 1828 he was appointed minister to Colombia, which office he held for less than a year, when he voluntarily retired into private life. At the urgent appeal of the Whig party in 1836, he became candidate for the presidency, and, though unsuccessful, was renominated in 1840, defeating Van Buren, his former opponent, by an overwhelming majority, after a campaign incarnate with enthusiasm and historic importance for the new methods then introduced into politics. The Harrison campaign was the genesis of some of the most unique and characteristic features of western elections. He was also the author of a small work entitled A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Ohio Valley, which was published at Cincinnati in 1838. But there are times when joy is suddenly strangely turned to mourning by some terrible transition, and the exultant cheers, which had greeted General Harrison's inauguration on the 4th of March, were changed to tears and sighs upon the 4th of April, when the country, irrespective of party, was mourning the death of its chief magistrate, in the very inception of his administration. From a beautiful poem written by N. P. Willis upon this tragic event, there may be an appropriate quotation : "What! soared the old eagle to die at the sun, Lies he still with spread wings, at the goal he has won; He went on with his old stride, from glory to glory." Of the sons left by President William Henry Harrison, the Hon. John Scott Harrison was the father of our present President. This brings the reader so closely to our own times that his honorable record need not be repeated. He was a noble gentleman, of irreproachable character, and very popular in the west, who served with distinction in congress, and might have won higher honors had he sought them. Those who best knew him speak with enthusiasm of his mental and personal gifts, which inspired the highest respect and esteem. He was twice married, and both of his wives are said to have been lovely women; the second was Miss Erwin, the mother of our President. It is pleasing to note that, like the Adams family, the Harrisons, who were also among the noble pioneers of our country's prosperity, have given the nation two Presidents, and the state of Virginia two governors. The direct succession of our new chief magistrate from the Master John Harrison of Smith's History may be given in a partial genealogical tree, as follows: Master John Harrison, first governor of Virginia in 1623, Benjamin Harrison, of Surrey, Virginia, born in 1645 ; father of Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, date of birth unknown, died April, 1710; father of the second Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, the third Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, William Henry Harrison, President of the United States, died April, 1841; John Scott Harrison; father of Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, inaugurated March 4, 1889. To describe the Harrison coat of arms according to heraldic vernacular, as given in Burke's Peerage, would require a student of the noble art to translate lucidly, but there are strength and significance in the crest that can be readily recognized, as it is "surmounted by an anchor erect, entwined by a cable, all gold." Honors seem to be hereditary in the Harrison family. As the historian Grigsby tells us: "From 1623 to this date, a period of two centuries and a half, the name of Harrison has been distinguished for the patriotism, the intelligence, and the moral worth of those who have borne it." blea B Washington VOL. XXI.-No. 5.-28. THE HISTORIC QUADRILLE The requisites for an appropriate celebration of the centenary year of Washington's inauguration as first President of the United States, though multifarious, with proper discrimination, are not of difficult selection. Some of them are so obvious that their guidance may be confidently accepted and unhesitatingly followed. The event intended to be celebrated is the inauguration of the government-memorable by the installation of Washington as its first President. His was the figure that dominated the ceremony, and his the presence that infused with life an inert constitution and animated with motion a torpid government. At his touch the instruments of executive authority were created, and simultaneously the representatives of its legislative and judicial departments assumed and exercised the functions of constitutional government. A century of years reveals to us these instruments and representatives as the coadjutors and aids of Washington in inaugurating a governmentthe crowning act of his life. Their names, indelibly woven into that historic scene, are disclosed to us now through the vista of a century. They embellish the column surmounted by his figure, and are intrinsic parts, indissoluble with the event intended to be celebrated. The device, therefore, which recalls them cannot be inappropriate to an occasion designed to celebrate an event in which they were conspicuous. Of a certainty, other names there be, associated with other events of equal moment, and with other periods of equal consequence to the cause of popular government. But their derivative lustre would be without significance in a centennial celebration of Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. Now, the public has at different times been informed through various sources of the struggle in places of authority, of opinions unfavorable to this obvious view. Much stress seems, not improperly, to have been bestowed upon the ladies to take part in a quadrille with which it is purposed that the grand ball of the Washington Centennial shall be opened. Its value will consist solely in the faithfulness with which its emblematic composition shall reflect the history it is meant to illustrate. The tableau of the living, to effectually represent the last century's historic scene, that it may punctually recall it, should be composed exclusively of the immediate descendants of those who enacted it. To intersperse among them the representatives of names illustrious by other events would impart an incongruity fatal to its effect. The picture that would restore the lineaments of the past should at least be suggestive of its salient features. Without this, the drapery of dress will express but a senseless tabard, and the historic quadrille become but meaningless mummery. The gentlemen of the quadrille, in the character of their present incumbents, should represent the chief magistracy of the government, and the offices subordinate to it. But its emblematic symmetry will suffer if it fail to represent those who served them under Washington, and united with him in inaugurating the government. This only can be accomplished by the ladies selected for the quadrille-selected, not for the grace and sprightliness of youth, but exclusively as the appropriate representatives by descent of the official companions of Washington-the descendants of the Adamses, the Jeffersons, the Hamiltons, the Knoxes, the Livingstons, the Clintons, the Jays, the Schuylers, the Langdons, the Duanes, the Van Rensselaers, and the Kings. Neither their histrionic competency nor their terpsichorean agility should be consulted. The venerable past should be exemplified by the dignity of their presence. Muscular vigor would be better left to the dizzy round of the genial dance. The many difficulties of those charged with these responsible duties are not to be forgotten. A careful adherence, however, to the characteristics of the event about to be celebrated, the historic idea in all its significance, and a discreet selection of the means to illustrate them, will relieve of doubt and assure success. A slight departure might make the theme of ridicule which should be a subject of applause. March, 1889. |