Perhaps no aristocracy in this country was ever so entirely modeled after the ways and habits of the English nobility as that of Virginia and South Carolina. The people were enabled, through the institution of slavery, to keep up a style of living impossible under other conditions, and they had the wealth and the inclination to be its successful imitators. They were a monarchial class in a republican government.
The position of Mrs. Van Buren’s family was always such that all the avenues of intellectual enjoyment were open to her, while her natural endowments were of that high order which rendered cultivation rapid and pleasant. Added to her many gifts was the irresistible one of beauty of form and deportment. The engraving, from a portrait by Inman, painted soon after the time of her marriage, represents the exceeding loveliness of her charming person. More potent than mere regularity of features is the gentle, winning expression of her clear black eyes; and the smile about her finely chiselled lips betokens the proud serenity of her most fortunate life.
Mrs. Van Buren was, on her mother’s side, descended from a long line of ancestors, and the genealogical tables of the family discover many of the leading names of American politicians and statesmen. Aside from mere wealth, they possessed abilities which, in many instances, secured them the highest position in the gift of their government. Prominent among these was her uncle, Mr. Stevenson, Minister to England. In the spring of 1839, Colonel and Mrs. Van Buren made a rapid visit to Europe, returning at the request of the President in the following fall in time for the session of Congress. While abroad, they enjoyed the most unusual social advantages, being members of the President’s family, and she a niece of the American ambassador, who had been a resident of London several years. They were in London during the whole of the season of the year following the queen’s coronation, which derived especial brilliancy from the presence of the present Emperor of Russia, Prince Henry of Orange, and other foreigners of note.
No American lady has ever visited Europe under similar circumstances. Nor have any of her countrywomen made a more lasting impression than did this young representative of the President’s family. By her cultivated, unassuming manners she made herself most agreeable to the court circles of England, and maintained in the saloons of royalty the simplicity and dignity of her republican education.
Mrs. Stevenson was the chaperon of Mrs. Van Buren on all public occasions, and the recollections of evenings spent with her at “Almack’s,” at the Palace, and in the society of the cultured and noble, were always sunny memories in the heart of her niece.
Major Van Buren’s position as private secretary rendered their unexampled and most fortunate visit to England of short duration. To reach America before the meeting of Congress, they left London for the continent. In the course of their hurried tour, they passed some weeks in Paris, and were presented by the American minister, General Cass, to the king and queen. They were invited to dine at St. Cloud, and were received with the kind, unceremonious manner which, it is well known, distinguished all the members of that branch of the Orleans family. After dinner, Louis Philippe conducted them through the rooms of the Palace, even to the door of the sleeping apartment, as he supposed, of his grandson, the Comte De Paris, at which he knocked without obtaining any response. The queen, having been told by Mrs. Van Buren on her return of what had happened, said, laughingly, “Ah! that is all the king knows about it! After his mother left with the Duc D’Orleans for Algiers, I caused the child to be removed to a room nearer my own.” She then proposed to send for him, and for her Wurtemberg grandchild also, but unfortunately for the gratification of her guest’s natural curiosity, the little princes were fast asleep.
After the expiration of President Van Buren’s term of office, Mrs. Van Buren and her husband lived with him at Lindenwald through several years of his retirement, passing much of the winter months with her parents in South Carolina, and in 1848 establishing themselves in the city of New York, which has since been their home uninterruptedly, except by visits to the South, rendered necessary by the death of her father and the consequent charge of her patrimonial estate, and by a three years’ absence in Europe, superintending the education of their sons.
Mrs. Van Buren’s middle life was spent in New York, where she lived a pleasant existence, surrounded by her family, and in the midst of a charming social circle. Her career was an exceptionally prosperous one, and she enjoyed life thoroughly. She was a cultivated, elegant-mannered person, considerate of others, sweet in disposition, and gracious in speech. Her home was the centre of elegant hospitality, and in the gayest city on this continent she was accounted a society leader. She was an unselfish woman, and she was never tardy in employing her gifts or her means in behalf of others. Prosperous and educated to the enjoyment of wealth; cultured and inclined to appreciate all that was pleasing and beautiful in life, her career is a delightful one to chronicle. She knew sorrow in the early death of two of her children; and in later years the loss of relatives and friends cast a momentary gloom about her. But few earthly lives have been so unvaryingly even and free from strong contrasts. Up to the time of her death (which occurred the 29th of December, 1878) she was a lady upon whom it was a pleasure to look; whose bearing discovered aristocratic lineage, and cultivation under happy conditions.
XII.
ANNA SYMMES HARRISON.
Anna Symmes, the wife of the ninth President of the United States, was born the famous year of American Independence, and but a few months after the renowned skirmish at Lexington. Her birth-place was near Morristown, New Jersey, the scene of suffering the following year, where the tracks of the blood-stained feet of the soldiers attested their forlorn condition. Soon after her birth, which occurred the 25th of July, 1775, her mother died. Bereft of her care, she was thrown upon her father’s hands for those attentions necessary for one of such a tender age, which until her fourth year he carefully bestowed. Her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Tuthill, were residing at Southhold, Long Island, and thither at the age of four years she was taken by her surviving parent. The incidents of her journey from Morristown to Long Island, then in the possession of the British, she remembered through life. Her father, the Hon. John Cleves Symmes, though at the time a Colonel in the Continental army, was so anxious to place his daughter with her grandmother, that he assumed the disguise of a British officer’s uniform and successfully accomplished his perilous undertaking. Leaving her in the home from which he had taken her mother years before, he joined his own troops and served with distinction during the war. Not until after the evacuation of New York, in the fall of 1783, did the father and child meet again, nor did she return to his New Jersey home. Under the care of her excellent grandmother, she became early imbued with a love of religious reading, and learned those early habits of industry which the young under the right influences early attain. Mrs. Tuthill was a godly woman, whose soul had been deeply stirred by the preaching of Whitfield, whom she greatly reverenced and admired. From her lips the little Anna received her first religious instructions, the good impressions of which lasted her through life. She often remarked that “from her earliest childhood, the frivolous amusements of youth had no charms for her. If ever constrained to attend places of fashionable amusement, it was to gratify others and not herself.”, In this early home of quiet and retirement, she acquired habits of order and truthfulness which characterized her conduct in after years. Her hands, even as a child, were never idle, but as a Christian virtue, she was trained to diligence, prudence, and economy. When old enough to attend school, she was placed at a seminary in East Hampton, where she remained some time, and subsequently she was a pupil of Mrs. Isabelle Graham, and an inmate of her family in New York city. Here she readily acquired knowledge, and improved the opportunities afforded her. For her teacher she ever retained the highest regard, and cherished the memory of that pious and exemplary woman through all the changes of her own life.