These, these were all they gave the tomb;
She watches o’er them, while she wears
The freshness of immortal bloom.
Note.—President Fillmore died at his residence in Buffalo, March 8th, 1874.
XVIII.
MARY ABIGAIL FILLMORE.
The only daughter of President Fillmore was, during her father’s administration, in consequence of her mother’s ill-health, the Lady of the White House, and as such deserves more mention than the limits of this sketch will allow. She was remarkable for her mental and intensely affectional nature, and discovered during her brief life only those traits which served to render her a source of interest and admiration. As a child, she was precocious; latterly in life, her physical health was so entirely good that it overcame every tendency to brain ascendency.
She was well fitted, by education and a long residence in Washington, to adorn the high station she was destined to fill, and acquitted herself there, as in every other position, with great dignity and self-possession.
Her talents were varied, nor was she a dull scholar at anything she attempted. With the French, German, and Spanish languages, she was thoroughly conversant; so thorough, indeed, was her mastery of the former that a French professor declared her accent equal to that of his own countrymen.
Her taste for sculpture was fostered by association with a loved schoolmate, the since renowned Harriet Hosmer.
Had her life been spared, she would have become famous through the exercise of some one of the many talents given her, but in less than a year after her mothers death she, too, passed away. Her father and brother were left alone for a few days, that she might go and see her aged grandparents. From this journey she did not return. A message in the night-time roused her parent from his slumber to hasten to her, and though no time was lost, it was too late. She was nearing the golden gates of the spirit-land, when those two of a once happy band reached her bedside.