Our city is full of strangers, who have been attracted among us by the approaching inauguration. There is nothing new, and I have nothing of local interest to communicate at this time.
Very truly your friend,
John B. Blake.
[181]. A favorite dog.
[183]. His correspondent had urged him to “write a few lines on the death of Mr. Lincoln, which will soothe the bitter prejudices of the extremists of his party against you and your friends.”
[184]. For furnishing the White House.
[185]. This refers to Mr. Capen’s great work, “The History of Democracy; or, Political Progress Historically Illustrated,” by Nahum Capen, LL.D. The first volume was published in 1875.
[186]. This child, James Buchanan Johnston, an object of the fondest interest to his great-uncle, grew to be a fine and very promising youth of fifteen, of great loveliness of character and marked intellectual powers. He died in Baltimore on the 25th of March, 1881. His younger brother, Henry, the only remaining child of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, was taken by his parents to Europe in the autumn of 1881. He died at Nice on the 30th of October, 1882. Dark clouds have gathered over lives that were once full of happiness and hope.
[187]. The frontispiece of the first volume of this work is from a portrait painted by Eicholtz for Mr. Buchanan’s sister, Mrs. Lane, just before he went to Russia. It was engraved for this work by Sartain, of Philadelphia. The frontispiece of the second volume is a full length, by J. C. Buttre, of New York, engraved for this work, in a reduced size, from a larger plate by the same artist.
[188]. Only a few days before his death, in a conversation with Mr. Swarr, when the hope was expressed that he might still live to see his public life vindicated, he spoke on this subject as follows: “My dear friend, I have no fear of the future. Posterity will do me justice. I have always felt, and still feel, that I discharged every duty imposed on me conscientiously. I have no regret for any public act of my life; and history will vindicate my memory from every unjust aspersion.”