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

by Benjamin Perley Poore

CHAPTER XXII. GENERAL GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

General Grant, having been elected President by a majority of nearly one million and a-half of votes, was inaugurated on Thursday, the 4th of March, 1869. The national metropolis was crowded with those who had come to witness the historic event, many of them veterans who rejoiced in the elevation of their Old Commander to the highest civic office in the gift of the American people.

The military escort was composed of regulars and volunteers, several companies of the latter being colored men. Then came President Johnson and the President-elect in an open landau, drawn by four white horses, Mr. Johnson looking soured and sad, while General Grant, displaying no signs of elation, waved his hat in response to the cheers with which he was greeted all the way from the White House to the Capitol. Next came the Vice-President-elect, Mr. Colfax, in a carriage with a member of the Senatorial Committee of Arrangements, and the civic associations followed. There were the Tanners, the Invincibles, the Wide Awakes, the Grant and Colfax Clubs, and the Colored Republicans, each organization with its band, its banners, and its badges. The Washington Fire Department, their brightly polished engines drawn by spirited horses, brought up the rear.

On arriving at the Capitol, the President and President-elect and the Vice-President-elect were escorted to the Senate Chamber, where, four years previously, Mr. Johnson had disgraced himself by his drunken harangue. The Supreme Court was already there, with the Diplomatic Corps, gorgeously arrayed in their court costumes, and a number of prominent army and navy officers in full uniform. In the galleries were ladies gayly dressed, whose opera-glasses had been turned on the distinguished personages below as they had successively entered, and who kept up such a buzzing chat that it was almost impossible for the Senators to transact the closing business of the expiring session.

At twelve o'clock Mr. Colfax was sworn in as Vice-President, and afterward administered the oath to the new Senators. Some of those applying, however, had served in the Confederate army, and were not able to take what was known as the "iron-clad oath." A procession was then formed of those present on the floor of the Senate, which moved through the rotunda to the east front of the Capitol, where the President-elect was hailed by hearty cheers. He advanced to the front of the platform, and the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Chase, followed by an artillery salute from a light battery near by, while the whistles of the steam fire-engines joined in the clangor, the band played, and thousands of voices cheered.

When silence was restored, President Grant drew from his coat pocket six or seven pages of foolscap, adjusted his glasses, and with great deliberation read in a conversational tone his message to the citizens of the Republic and to the world, a plain, practical, common-sense document, in which he declared that he should on all subjects have a policy of his own to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Soon after he began to read his message his little daughter, somewhat alarmed by the clamor and the throng, ran from her mother to his side, and took hold of his hand, which she held until a chair was placed for her, when she sat down, seemingly assured that no harm could reach her. When the President had concluded he shook hands with his wife, and afterward received the congratulations of many official and unofficial persons, who crowded around and greeted him, before he could return to his carriage and start, escorted as when he came, to the White House. The interest taken in this occasion by the President's old comrades in arms was something wonderful. Every soldier hailed his election as a compliment to the army.

That night General Grant and wife attended the inauguration ball, which was held in the north wing of the new Treasury Department, then just completed. There was a great crowd, and the single flight of stairs proved insufficient for those who wished to pass up or down, causing great dissatisfaction, especially on the part of Horace Greeley and others, who found that the best hats and coats had been taken from the improvised cloak-rooms early in the evening.

General Grant had kept the formation of his Cabinet a profound secret, and their names were not known until he sent their nominations to the Senate on the day after his inauguration. The nomination of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, as Secretary of State, created some surprise, as it had been understood that he was to be sent to France as Minister Plenipotentiary. It was soon known, however, that Mr. Washburne only desired to preside over the Department of State for a few days, ostensibly for the prestige it would give him in diplomatic circles abroad, but really that he might appoint some of his political henchmen to profitable consulates. At the end of six days' service, Mr. Hamilton Fish was nominated and confirmed as his successor. Mr. Fish was of orthodox Knickerbocker stock, and the services of his father, Colonel Nicholas Fish, gave him a hereditary right to belong to the Society of the Cincinnati, over the central organization of which he presided as Captain- General. He had served acceptably in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and as a War Governor of the State of New York he had displayed considerable executive talent. He was rather a large, British-looking man, with leg-of-mutton side- whiskers, a stout nose, and a pleasant expression of countenance, especially when he was chuckling over his success in humbugging some verdant news-gatherer on diplomatic matters.

It was the especial social duty of Secretary Fish to entertain the foreign diplomats in Washington, to settle their little disputes on questions of etiquette, and to make them reasonably happy. Every winter he dined and wined them, and, although his dining-room in the Morgan House was of goodly size, he was forced to make a three days' job of it. So on Monday he had the Envoys Extraordinary, on Tuesday the Ministers Resident, and on Wednesday the Chargè d'Affaires, with a few personal friends to fill up the gaps. The Senate and House Foreign Committees were next entertained at dinner, and then the leading members of either House expected to put their Congressional legs under the Fish mahogany. Meanwhile Mrs. and Miss Fish had to go the grand rounds to leave their cards on the wives and daughters of Senators and Representatives, and to be "at home" every Wednesday to receive visits from them and the rest of society in turn.

The Secretary of State is considered the "Premier" of the Administration, but General Grant regarded the Secretaryship of the Treasury as the most important position in his Cabinet. The Republic was at peace with other nations, and the military and naval forces, which had grown to such enormous proportions during the war, had been economically reduced, but the Treasury was an immense, overgrown organization, with its collections of customs and of internal revenue duties, its issues of interest-bearing bonds and of national bank-notes, the coinage of money, the revenue marine service, the coast survey, and the life-saving stations, all of which had been expanded during the war until the clerks and employees were numbered by thousands. General Grant wished to place at the head of this establishment a business man who could prune off its excrescences and reform its abuses. The place was offered to the millionaire merchant, Mr. A. T. Stewart, of New York, who accepted it with pleasure, and at once had a suite of rooms in the Ebbitt House, with a private entrance, fitted up for his occupancy until he could go to housekeeping. A few days before the 4th of March he came to Washington and occupied these rooms, with Judge Hilton as his companion and adviser.