White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

To make the White House wholesome and attractive for the New Year reception of 1866, the first function of their rêgime, was a gigantic task to which Mrs. Patterson devoted her energy and created a great transformation. Congress had appropriated $30,000—a mere bagatelle against the necessities of repairing and cleaning a supply of worn-out equipment.

The dingy carpet of the great East Room was covered with fresh white linen, as were also the shabbiest pieces of the furniture. The other carpets were removed, leaving the oilcloth beneath them. Flowers were used in quantities, and the air of cheerfulness and welcome that pervaded the place, where happy children’s voices were heard, destroyed much of the gloom that had settled over the mansion with the tragedy and funeral of the previous spring.

President Johnson received in the Blue Room with Mrs. Patterson at his side. She made a charming picture in a regal gown of rich black velvet with elegant point lace trimmings, a white japonica in her hair. She showed much skill in keeping political friction out of her drawing-room. The great value of her calm, diplomatic social charm was apparent to everyone, and her unfailing graciousness won continual regard and admiration.

Her hobby was her dairy. She introduced into the White House the newest, most spotless dairy equipment, and her daily routine of duty began with her regular early morning visit to supervise her milk pans. Her dress covered by a large print apron, she showed a vast pride in her shining pans and spotless crocks and the quality of her butter, and took as great delight in conducting friends through her dairy as through the conservatory. She made all of the butter used in the mansion during her father’s term, and was proud of the accomplishment. To her is credited this statement: “We are plain people from the mountains of Tennessee, brought here through a national calamity. We trust too much will not be expected of us.” When making this statement, she was the daughter of a President and the wife of a United States Senator, and she had no need to explain or deprecate her discharge of the duties of the position which she graced with such success to the end of her father’s administration.

In the White House, President Johnson’s life was as simply conducted as when he had worked at his bench. He arose at six o’clock, read the papers carefully, breakfasted at eight, visited with the family and his wife a few minutes before entering his office, where he remained until lunch. In the afternoon, conferences and callers occupied him until four o’clock, when he returned to the family group, visiting until dinner, which was served at five. Then he would either walk or ride for a while. In the evening, when there were no formal functions, he received callers from nine to eleven. He had very few intimate friends, but such as were his cronies came to his room whenever they chose. Nothing delighted the President more than to gather up the three little Andrews and such of the rest of the family as could go, and stage an impromptu picnic in the country. He was a different person in the midst of his family, for then he relaxed and entered into all of the fun and interests of the group. When the boys and girls wanted to ask him something, they trooped into his office without permission or ceremony, for they knew they were welcome. His pronounced fondness for children was not well known. They had many joyous times with him in the privacy of the home group, where, in dressing gown and slippers, he would join in the popcorn feasts and the chestnut and apple roasts.

The new President made much history in the months between his induction into the office on April 15th and the assembling of the Thirty-ninth Congress the following December. He was engrossed in the question of reëstablishing the seceded states, which was the thought in every mind and the topic on every tongue.

From the beginning of his rêgime, he made it clear that his own policy toward the restoration of the Southern states was exactly that which Abraham Lincoln had so definitely expressed; that the Government of the United States was erected as a perpetuity; that the Constitution provides for the admission of the states, but not for their secession or destruction. Said President Johnson: “A rebellious state, when it comes out of a rebellion, is still a state. I hold it a high duty to protect and to secure to those states a republican form of government, but such a state must be restored by its friends, not smothered by its enemies.”

As first step toward accomplishing the restoration of the civil status of the South, Johnson bent all his energies to the task of encouraging and aiding the states to make the required pledges of allegiance. This he regarded as a political and economic necessity and his most important duty as the Executive of the nation.

On May 9th, Johnson issued an order declaring that all acts, proceedings of the political, military, and civil organizations which had been in a state of rebellion against the authority of the United States within the State of Virginia were null and void and that the various heads of the Federal government should proceed to reorganize civil authority in the state. He also appointed Francis H. Pierpoint governor with power to reëstablish civil government.

From May 29th to July 13th, he issued similar proclamations appointing provisional governors for North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida, with authority and instructions to reorganize state governments. These governments had been partially reorganized when the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery, had been submitted to them and ratified by them by the time Congress assembled. Mass meetings and conventions were held daily throughout the South, where the terms for readmission to the Union were discussed. These terms required them to renounce the Confederate debt and the right of secession, and to abolish slavery.