Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2

by Benjamin Perley Poore

Mr. Henry, as private Secretary, was charged with the expenditure of the library fund, the payment of the steward, messengers, and also with the expenditures of the household, which were paid out of the President's private purse. These latter expenditures generally exceeded the President's salary in the winter months, because President Buchanan enjoyed entertaining and entertained liberally from inclination. In summer, the social entertaining being much less, and the President being at the Soldiers' Home, the expenses were much less. The President's annual salary, then twenty-five thousand dollars, did not defray the actual household expenses of the Executive Mansion. Other Presidents had saved a considerable part of their salaries, but Mr. Buchanan had to draw upon his private means, not only for his expenses, but for his generous charities. He also made it a rule, which other Presidents had neglected, not to accept presents of any value, even from his most intimate friends or political supporters, and it was a part of the duty of his private secretary, Mr. Henry, to return any gifts at once with the thanks of the President.

[Facsimile] James Buchanan JAMES BUCHANAN was born in Franklin County, Pa., April 22d, 1791; entered the Legislature of Pennsylvania when twenty-three years of age; was elected to Congress, 1820, where he served five terms; was Minister to St. Petersburg, 1831-1833; was United States Senator, 1833-1845; was Secretary of State under Polk, 1845-1849; was Minister to England, 1853-1856; was President of the United States, 1857- 1861; died June 1st, 1868.

CHAPTER III. THE GATHERING TEMPEST.

The clouds which had long been hovering portentously in our skies now began to spread and to blacken all around the heavens. This was greatly intensified on all sides by the daring raid of John Brown, of Ossawattomie, Kansas. Locating on a farm near Harper's Ferry, Va., he organized a movement looking toward a general slave insurrection. Seizing the Armory of the United States Arsenal buildings, all of which were destroyed during the war, he inaugurated his scheme, and for a few hours had things his own way. But troops were rapidly concentrated; Brown's outside workers were captured or shot; the Arsenal building was fired into; one of his sons was killed, another mortally wounded, and when the doors were forced Brown was found kneeling between their bodies. His arrest, trial, and execution were speedily accomplished, but all the thunders of a coming storm henceforth rolled all around the heavens.

At the South, the leaders used the excitement created by this affair to consolidate public opinion in their section and to cast opprobrium on the Republicans at the North. They saw that their ascendancy in the national councils was hastening to a close, and that if they were to carry out their cherished plans for a dissolution of the Union, and for the establishment of a Southern Confederacy, they must strike the blow during the Administration of Mr. Buchanan. Meanwhile Washington ran riot with costly entertainments in society and secret suppers, at which the Abolitionists of the North and the Secessionists of the South, respectively, plotted and planned for the commencement of hostilities.

One of the neutral grounds, where men of both parties met in peace, was the superbly furnished gambling-house of Pendleton, on Pennsylvania Avenue, known to its frequenters as "The Hall of the Bleeding Heart," though he preferred the appellation, "The Palace of Fortune." Pendleton belonged to one of the first families of Virginia, and his wife, a most estimable lady, was the daughter of Robert Mills, the architect of the Treasury. His rooms were hung with meritorious pictures, and the art of wood-carving was carried to great perfection in the side-boards, secretaries, and tables, which served the various purposes of the establishment. The dining and supper tables were loaded with plate of pure metal. The cooking would not have shamed the genius of Soyer, and it was universally admitted that the wines were such as could have been selected only by a connoisseur. This incomparable provider had ten thousand dollars invested in his cellar and his closet.

The people who nightly assembled to see and to take part in the entertainments of the house consisted of candidates for the Presidency, Senators and Representatives, members of the Cabinet, editors and journalists, and the master workmen of the third house, the lobby. Pendleton's, in its palmiest days, might have been called the vestibule of the lobby. Its most distinguished professors might be found there. They lent money to their clients when the "animal scratched too roughly," that is to say, when the play ran against them, and they became "broke," as they sometimes did. Pendleton himself was an operator in the lobby. His professional position gave him great facilities. He assisted in the passage of many useful bills of a private nature, involving considerable sums of money. A broker in parliamentary notes is an inevitable retainer of broker votes.

In the outer parlors, as midnight approached, might have been seen leading members of Congress, quietly discussing the day's proceedings, the prospects of parties, and the character of public men. A few officers of the army added to the number and variety of the groups which occupied this apartment. Here all were drinking, smoking, and talking, generally in a bright and jocose vein. Servants were gliding about with cigars, toddies, cocktails, and "whisky-straights" on little silver trays. Among them were two "old Virginny" darkies, very obliging and popular, who picked up many quarters and halves, and not a few "white fish," representing one dollar each.

But the third room was the haunt of the tiger! The company around the faro table would be playing mostly with counters of red, circular pieces of ivory, called fish, or chips, each of which represented five dollars. A few who were nearly "broke" would be using the white ones of one-fifth the value. The players were silent as the grave, because some of them were "in great luck," and large piles of red chips were standing upon different cards to abide the event of the deal, but, alas! the close of the deal was unfavorable, and before the little silver box, from which the cards were drawn, yielded the last of the pack, the most of the red piles had been drawn to the bank side. But some of them had doubled, and the owners drew them down as capital for the chances of the next deal. If one had great good fortune and some prudence, while possessor of the red piles before named, he would leave the house with his few hundreds or thousands of dollars; but the chances were that between midnight and dawn the gamesters would all retire minus the money they had brought into the place, and all they had been able to borrow from friends.

There were, however, exceptions. The largest amount ever won from the proprietor at Pendleton's was twelve hundred dollars, for a stake of one hundred dollars. When Humphrey Marshall was appointed Minister to China by President Pierce, in 1852, he lost his "outfit" and six months' pay, and was forced to accept a loan from Pendleton to enable him to reach the scene of his diplomatic labors. When Pendleton died, Mr. Buchanan attended his funeral, and several leading Democratic Congressmen were among his pall-bearers. His effects, including the furniture of his gambling-house, were sold at auction, attracting crowds of the most fashionable people in Washington, and probably for the first time since the descent of Proserpine, the gates of Hades were passed by troops of the fair sex.