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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 20 May 1850
Manuscript letter
Washington. May 20th 1850.
Dearest darling,
I write you in a huge hotel called the National, built over the old Gadsbys, with a court & fountain in the centre, surrounded by open corridors, making very airy promenades & a great play ground for the children who are very well & happy here & have gained greatly. We have very good rooms, & tho’ the table lacks the order & elegance of the other cities we are very comfortable on the whole, & enjoying ourselves with the fine weather, by no means too warm as yet, & the varieties of people one sees here.
We came here last Wednesday, dining at Baltimore, & found my father & Jewett one day in advance of us. The former disappointed us much in his thinness & continued cough but feels well & Dr Mifflin assures me it is only a slight irritation in the throat which will be removed as he grows stronger. Deacon & Crownin [p. 2] shield both look miserably ill & are anxious to get home but do not like to leave here while the weather continues so cool. The latter is impatient to see his wife who I hope is improving. They say father looks vastly better than he did on arriving at Charleston, & he goes out with us every where without fatigue, & is gaining every day evidently.
Thursday, the day after our arrival, we made official calls with Mrs Winthrop, (who is looking charmingly & seems very happy) upon the important personages here, - on Lady Bulwer who is not so plain or disagreeable as I have heard her described. She is certainly not pretty, with a very pale, lifeless complexion & a very awkward figure, increased by a natural diffidence, but is certainly a lady & has easy, pleasant manners, evidently anxious to please. Her husband I have not yet seen tho’ we met her again at Mrs Winthrops Saturday evening, at a small party made in our honor, where were several interesting people, Mrs Fremont among others, an [p. 3] intelligent, nice young woman I thought, because she professed great admiration for my husband & came expressly to see him &c &c! She told me of her California life, how charmed she was with it &c. I am very desirous to see her husband as he has long been a hero of mine, so we bandied compliments very graciously. Her father, old Benton, a huge, heavy man took me in to supper & told me Fremont was physically very fragile looking, & wore ladies gloves & shoes!
Friday – just as we were setting forth to show the children the Capital (the grounds are looking most lovely) Fanny Calderon drove up in her pretty little phaeton (like yours) with servants in livery & went with us, chatting of old times Greenough’s Washington looks, as I wished, nobly upon the rich green lawn behind the Capitol, shining against the blue sky, the hand raised as if to receive the ball the ridiculous Columbus upon the steps is apparently hurling at him. The face is particularly grand, & the attitude most expressive & simple. All that [p. 4] hand pointing to the distant heaven implies might be profitably studied by those who frequent the building he seems to guard. I have not yet been inside the two chambers but henry came back disgusted with the Senate’s lack of noble heads. Saturday we had a beautiful dinner at the Calderons (she has the best cook here) so tastefully served & so excellent, with Bañuelos the very handsome & agreeable Spanish Secretary for my neighbor & the Russian one for Harriets, to whom the same epithets might be applied. In the evening we went to Mrs Winthrops as mentioned above. I forgot to say that Friday evening was the levée at the White House & we were introduced to the President & saw the curious crowd, in every variety of costume, thronging the handsome rooms. They never looked so palace-like & elegant as now. As my name was announced by Mrs Winthop, the old General warmly grasped my hand, & suddenly darted at Henry saying “This must be Mr Longfellow – I remember him well” which amused us not a little, as they never met before. Perhaps he had [p. 5] seen a portrait or fancied he knew him. He has a very cordial, hearty manner, & seems as fresh & good natured as if he had not to see people all day long. Very like the statuettes, only not so grim. Not unlike an amiable grocer! Mrs Bliss is a quiet little body, very simply dressed, & a universal favorite. The old lady never appears, & is sighing, they say, for the four years to be over, that she may return to her quiet country life.
Next week is full of engagements, most of which I shall omit, for fear of fatigue But we find the life here so easy & entertaining that we shall remain thro’ the week, & rest only a day, on our return, in each city. I called on Mrs Fisher in Phil. but did not see her. I hear her mother is dying. Mrs Coleman there & Mifflin here seem to think Mrs Middleson Jr innocent. I never saw Washington look so well – as yet no dust, & every thing so green & in such good order. The upper part is really like a royal city. We breakfast tomorrow with the Websters, & then pay our respects to Mrs [p. 6] Bliss & to Mrs Ewing, Secretary of the Interior’s wife, who receives that day. Mr Clay has the parlor next ours & looks in often for a short chat. Last night Henry & I had him all to ourselves, the rest having gone to Mrs Winthrops. He is agreeable & easy as ever & his sweet-toned voice does not yet falter. It is amusing here to hear politics discussed so frankly, & opponents abuse each other in conversation with a good nature not known among us.
Mary says that the South are still bent on Dissolution, not from any angry feeling but a settled conviction, absurd as it is, that Charleston will immediately become a New York & they will rise on our min. Jealousy of the North is at the bottom of it, & it therefore seems hard to cure, for self-interest, when really awakened, is very long lived. If they had the energy & character which our freedom gives us, of course they could [crossed out: do] as easily rival us now as if separated, but they are foolish enough not to see the true reason of their failure.
[p. 7] All dread an interminable session for neither party can yield.
We went to the little Unitarian church yesterday & heard a good sermon in the right spirit, purifying to this air.
Henry finds his Uncle Commodore Wadsworth sadly infirm from paralysis, quite motionless & without speech, a most painful wreck of a very handsome man. His cousin Louisa, a fair girl of seventeen, we took with us to the Levée. The chicks have been to the Patent Office highly delighted with its curiosities, & are keeping up journals, by the help of their papa, which may amuse them some years hence.
I hope you & yours are all well, & wishing I had leisure to write you a less hurried letter fill the rest of this sheet with love in its most concentrated form. Remember us kindly to your brothers – ever darling
thine – Fanny E. L.
Dearest darling,
I write you in a huge hotel called the National, built over the old Gadsbys, with a court & fountain in the centre, surrounded by open corridors, making very airy promenades & a great play ground for the children who are very well & happy here & have gained greatly. We have very good rooms, & tho’ the table lacks the order & elegance of the other cities we are very comfortable on the whole, & enjoying ourselves with the fine weather, by no means too warm as yet, & the varieties of people one sees here.
We came here last Wednesday, dining at Baltimore, & found my father & Jewett one day in advance of us. The former disappointed us much in his thinness & continued cough but feels well & Dr Mifflin assures me it is only a slight irritation in the throat which will be removed as he grows stronger. Deacon & Crownin [p. 2] shield both look miserably ill & are anxious to get home but do not like to leave here while the weather continues so cool. The latter is impatient to see his wife who I hope is improving. They say father looks vastly better than he did on arriving at Charleston, & he goes out with us every where without fatigue, & is gaining every day evidently.
Thursday, the day after our arrival, we made official calls with Mrs Winthrop, (who is looking charmingly & seems very happy) upon the important personages here, - on Lady Bulwer who is not so plain or disagreeable as I have heard her described. She is certainly not pretty, with a very pale, lifeless complexion & a very awkward figure, increased by a natural diffidence, but is certainly a lady & has easy, pleasant manners, evidently anxious to please. Her husband I have not yet seen tho’ we met her again at Mrs Winthrops Saturday evening, at a small party made in our honor, where were several interesting people, Mrs Fremont among others, an [p. 3] intelligent, nice young woman I thought, because she professed great admiration for my husband & came expressly to see him &c &c! She told me of her California life, how charmed she was with it &c. I am very desirous to see her husband as he has long been a hero of mine, so we bandied compliments very graciously. Her father, old Benton, a huge, heavy man took me in to supper & told me Fremont was physically very fragile looking, & wore ladies gloves & shoes!
Friday – just as we were setting forth to show the children the Capital (the grounds are looking most lovely) Fanny Calderon drove up in her pretty little phaeton (like yours) with servants in livery & went with us, chatting of old times Greenough’s Washington looks, as I wished, nobly upon the rich green lawn behind the Capitol, shining against the blue sky, the hand raised as if to receive the ball the ridiculous Columbus upon the steps is apparently hurling at him. The face is particularly grand, & the attitude most expressive & simple. All that [p. 4] hand pointing to the distant heaven implies might be profitably studied by those who frequent the building he seems to guard. I have not yet been inside the two chambers but henry came back disgusted with the Senate’s lack of noble heads. Saturday we had a beautiful dinner at the Calderons (she has the best cook here) so tastefully served & so excellent, with Bañuelos the very handsome & agreeable Spanish Secretary for my neighbor & the Russian one for Harriets, to whom the same epithets might be applied. In the evening we went to Mrs Winthrops as mentioned above. I forgot to say that Friday evening was the levée at the White House & we were introduced to the President & saw the curious crowd, in every variety of costume, thronging the handsome rooms. They never looked so palace-like & elegant as now. As my name was announced by Mrs Winthop, the old General warmly grasped my hand, & suddenly darted at Henry saying “This must be Mr Longfellow – I remember him well” which amused us not a little, as they never met before. Perhaps he had [p. 5] seen a portrait or fancied he knew him. He has a very cordial, hearty manner, & seems as fresh & good natured as if he had not to see people all day long. Very like the statuettes, only not so grim. Not unlike an amiable grocer! Mrs Bliss is a quiet little body, very simply dressed, & a universal favorite. The old lady never appears, & is sighing, they say, for the four years to be over, that she may return to her quiet country life.
Next week is full of engagements, most of which I shall omit, for fear of fatigue But we find the life here so easy & entertaining that we shall remain thro’ the week, & rest only a day, on our return, in each city. I called on Mrs Fisher in Phil. but did not see her. I hear her mother is dying. Mrs Coleman there & Mifflin here seem to think Mrs Middleson Jr innocent. I never saw Washington look so well – as yet no dust, & every thing so green & in such good order. The upper part is really like a royal city. We breakfast tomorrow with the Websters, & then pay our respects to Mrs [p. 6] Bliss & to Mrs Ewing, Secretary of the Interior’s wife, who receives that day. Mr Clay has the parlor next ours & looks in often for a short chat. Last night Henry & I had him all to ourselves, the rest having gone to Mrs Winthrops. He is agreeable & easy as ever & his sweet-toned voice does not yet falter. It is amusing here to hear politics discussed so frankly, & opponents abuse each other in conversation with a good nature not known among us.
Mary says that the South are still bent on Dissolution, not from any angry feeling but a settled conviction, absurd as it is, that Charleston will immediately become a New York & they will rise on our min. Jealousy of the North is at the bottom of it, & it therefore seems hard to cure, for self-interest, when really awakened, is very long lived. If they had the energy & character which our freedom gives us, of course they could [crossed out: do] as easily rival us now as if separated, but they are foolish enough not to see the true reason of their failure.
[p. 7] All dread an interminable session for neither party can yield.
We went to the little Unitarian church yesterday & heard a good sermon in the right spirit, purifying to this air.
Henry finds his Uncle Commodore Wadsworth sadly infirm from paralysis, quite motionless & without speech, a most painful wreck of a very handsome man. His cousin Louisa, a fair girl of seventeen, we took with us to the Levée. The chicks have been to the Patent Office highly delighted with its curiosities, & are keeping up journals, by the help of their papa, which may amuse them some years hence.
I hope you & yours are all well, & wishing I had leisure to write you a less hurried letter fill the rest of this sheet with love in its most concentrated form. Remember us kindly to your brothers – ever darling
thine – Fanny E. L.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-020#016
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1850 (1011/002.001-020), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1850 (1011/002.001-020), (LONG-FileUnitName)
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Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Number Catalog : LONG 20257
Title: Finding Aid to the Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow (1817-1861) Papers, 1825-1961 (bulk dated: 1832-1861)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
2016-01-30
05/20/1850
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1850. (1011/002.001-020#016)
Public Can View
Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:52:29 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:52:29 PM
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