FOOTNOTES:
[10] This house was the residence of Aaron Burr at the time of his duel with Alexander Hamilton.
[11] Mrs. Robinson’s statement that a carpet was spread from the wharf for the President to walk upon was authenticated, more than sixty years later, by an eyewitness of the scene. Dr. Atlee, in 1850, while substitute-resident at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, met a man of eighty-two who, when he learned that the young physician was named Walter Franklin Atlee, exclaimed at the coincidence, saying that he remembered having seen General Washington come up the river in a boat, and walk on a carpet to Walter Franklin’s house, where he and Mrs. Washington were to reside.
[12] “Lady Cathcart was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Peter Pindar celebrates her at Weymouth in connection with the king’s insensate manners:
‘Cæsar spies Lady Cathcart with a book;
He flies to know what ’tis—he longs to look.
“What’s in your hand, my lady? let me know?”—
“A book, an’t please your majesty?”—“Oho!
Book’s a good thing—good thing,—I like a book.
Very good thing, my lady,—let me look.
War of America! my lady, hae?
Bad thing, my lady! fling, fling that away.”’”
Life of Major John André, by Winthrop Sargent, p. 147.
[13] See Army List, 1778.
[14] This pleasantry on the part of the French minister seems to have been taken au sérieux by certain writers as pointing to some obscurity of origin, while the fact is substantiated by various authorities that Eléonore-François-Elie, Comte de Moustier, entered the diplomatic service at eighteen, and after representing his country at several foreign courts was twice offered the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs by Louis XVI.
[15] United States Gazette, May 9, 1789.
[16] It is interesting to turn from these Republican festivities to read in the journal of a Moravian minister, written in New York during the occupation of the British, of King’s and Queen’s “Birthnight Balls,” “Coronation Day” celebrations, and rejoicings over the arrival of “His Royal Highness, Prince William Henry, the third son of our dear King, an amiable young Prince, who gave satisfaction to all who saw him.”—Diary of Ewald Gustav Schaukirk.
[17] “The old Beekman house, built by James Beekman, and standing three miles from the City Hall in New York, was the scene of a number of interesting events. During the British possession of the city it was occupied by the commander-in-chief of their army, and one room at the head of a flight of stairs was occupied by Major André the night before proceeding up the river on his ill-fated expedition to West Point, while (strange providence) but a few yards distant still stands [1848] the green house where Captain Nathan Hale, of the American army, received his trial and condemnation as a spy.”—Jerome B. Holgate.
[18] Evidently referring to the Bee family of S. C.