The society in Lancaster, at the time of my uncle’s early residence there, must have been quite above the average in intellectual culture and in social qualities. He was very fond, in the latter part of his life, of conversing about those times, and told a great many anecdotes of them and of the people who flourished in them. Unfortunately, they have gone from our memory, only leaving behind faint outlines of their former interest.
My uncle had the most delightful way of throwing himself back into the past scenes of his life, and, as it were, living them over again. He would tell you the whole position of affairs, make you understand the point of the story thoroughly, and then laugh in a most infectious way. When he was in a vein of conversation, and felt in the humor for going back into the past, a whole room full of people would sit all the evening, listening with delight, no one daring to interrupt, except in order, by some leading question or remark, to draw him out to talk more freely.
After his return from Washington, it was his constant habit to come into the parlor after tea, and there to spend the evening, with whatever members of the family might be staying with him. After listening, as he often did, to reading for an hour, he would begin to converse, and it was a rare treat to be a sharer in these conversations. I knew it to be a great privilege, thoroughly appreciated it at the time, but now that those evenings are forever gone, with what mingled feelings of delight and regret I look back upon them! They always ended at ten o’clock, and he very seldom sat up much after that hour, even when he had guests in the house who did not care to retire so early. “The time for all good Christians to be in bed,” he would say, and, bidding good-night, would leave us to remain as long as we saw fit.
Of course my uncle was not always in the vein of talking in the way I have described, and sometimes much preferred having others to talk to him. I have often been struck with the easy grace with which he, who had been so much a man of the world, and had associated with men and women of the highest culture, could take and show the greatest interest in the rather uninteresting details given by some humble neighbor about the sayings and doings of his family and establishment. My uncle was a Democrat, not only in political principle, but in the large and true democratic sense. He looked upon his neighbors, even those who were plain and uneducated, as his fellow-men, and treated them accordingly.
I remember his talking to me very earnestly about visiting and relieving the sick and the poor, and trying to make me realize that Christianity which could lack this fruit must be worthless.
On one occasion, when I was quite a child and on a visit to Wheatland, I saw him go anxiously to the window and look upon the night, which was cold and stormy, with sleet and snow, and I heard him say, “God help the poor to-night!” I mention this because very soon after, I think the next day, he sent some money, quite a large sum, to the mayor of Lancaster, to buy fuel for the poor. The same idea he carried out, when he made a provision in his last will for this very purpose.
My uncle was very generous to those who were in need, and very many were the persons whom he helped by gifts and loans, who would otherwise have been in great straits. He was not lavish in his expenditures. He knew exactly what he was spending, spent nothing foolishly, was careful of what money he had, and was anxious to invest what he had in such a way as that it should be remunerative[remunerative], so that when he gave, he did it from principle, because he wished to do a kindness, or because he thought it was right to do it. His heart made him always anxious to ameliorate the miseries of those around him.
He was very much interested in his family and their welfare, and to him it was that each and all looked for advice or assistance. While he did not hesitate to speak sternly when he thought duty required it—sometimes even more so than was necessary—he was always ready, even at the same time, to lend a helping hand. He was the oldest child of my grandfather who lived to grow up, and this fact, together with his eminent uprightness and wisdom, made him to be looked upon by all the different branches of the family as their head. Our particular family have great reason to remember his kindness, and we look back with great pleasure to the many visits of months at a time which we paid him, at his request, both at Wheatland and in Washington. After his death, we felt that we had lost the friend who, next to our own father, cared most for us, and one on whose sympathy and kindness we could most depend.
The accompanying qualities in my uncle’s character to his kindness were his justice and integrity. No debt of his was ever knowingly left unpaid. Even the return he made for his taxes was often larger than that of most of his neighbors, because he scrupulously returned an accurate account of his possessions to the assessors. He would not have retained in his possession the smallest sum which he thought to justly belong to another.
And this honesty showed itself quite as much in relation to public affairs as to his own. He was honest even about his time. While he was President, his time was given most scrupulously to his work. He entered his office at nine o’clock in the morning and remained there until four o’clock, when he would take a walk before dinner, which was at five o’clock. After dinner he generally spent a large part of the evening attending to business; and this was the case not for some months of the year only, but for the whole year. Except while he was making a short trip into North Carolina and during a visit of about two weeks each year at Bedford Springs, which was necessary to his health, he remained at his post for the four entire years. I remember hearing some members of his cabinet say that he loved work for work’s sake. I do not know whether this was the case or not, but certain it is that he did a great deal of work. He always went over carefully, himself, every matter presented to him by his cabinet officers, and tried to possess himself with all the ins and outs of what was going on under his administration.