THE "LITTLE MOTHER' IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 675 siding there with him. General Grant's parents were living during his administration, and his father was also a frequent guest there. But the "Little Mother" in the White House now is the first one who has looked upon a President son, and the nation is as much pleased with the respect and reverence shown her as with any honor bestowed upon the Chief Magistrate. It adds increased interest to the household which now occupies the house of the Presidents and dispenses its hospitality.. The administration is but entered upon its career; the inauguration festivities are but just ended, and the few occasions on which the President's wife has appeared in. public are hardly sufficient to give an idea of what her fame is to be. But backed by so clear a record as she has behind her, and strengthened by the hearty co-operation of those about her in public and private life, and assured of the good-will of the American people, Mrs. Garfield will fitly represent her countrywomen, and be another representative woman, wife and mother, a worthy successor of the long line of good women who have preceded her in the high position to which she has been called through the election of her husband to be the Twentieth President of the United States. XXVII. "THE WHITE HOUSE." THE Corner-stone of the Presidents' House was laid on the 13th of October, 1792, and the building was constructed after the designs and under the directions of Captain James Hobon, Architect. After its destruction by the British, in 1814, the interior was rebuilt by Captain Hobon. It is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont Avenues, which radiate from this point as centre. The house is constructed of Virginia free-stone, which is excessively porous, and consequently would cause great dampness in the interior, were it not for a thick coat of white lead, which is applied about once in ten years at an enormous expense. The rock used in the construction of the foundation was quarried by Captain Samuel Smallwood (afterward mayor of Washington), on the banks of Rock creek, from the lower or K-street bridge, as far as Lyonshouse wharf. The grounds were formerly enclosed with a high stone wall. The old sycamore trees which stand in the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the mansion, occupy a line running parallel with the former site of that wall. The portico on the north front was added THE WHITE HOUSE. 677 to the building during the administration of President Jackson. The latitude to the nearest second, 38° 53′ 12", north. Longitude of the Presidents' House from the Paris. observatory, 79° 17′ 16′′, west. In 1793, about eighty paces west of the brick arch on Pennsylvania Avenue, a log was thrown over the Tiber, which served as a bridge over which the procession passed, headed by General George Washington. Here the boys caught herring and other fish. The waters of the Tiber occasionally extended in places over the present Pennsylvania Avenue, the road to the Presidents' House being considerably north of it, and along which a traveller in that day might pass from the Capitol square to the former without seeing a human being. The house of David Burns, which stood in the grounds south of the Presidents' House, is now owned by his descendants, and is an object of interest to all who remember Washington's notion of him as the "obstinate" Mr. Burns. In 1796, as President Washington passed the Presidents' House (then building), a salute of sixteen guns was fired by the artillery company stationed at that point. The Presidents' House is situated in the western part of the city, on a plot of ground of twenty acres; fortyfour feet above high-water mark. It has a southern and a northern front; the southern sloping towards the Potomac and commanding a view of it. A semi-circu lar balcony extends out from the Parlors on this side and overlooks the private garden near by, and the public grounds beyond. The high basement gives the house a third story on this side. On both fronts the grounds are laid out with taste and planted with forest-trees and shrubbery. The walks are of gravel, broad and delightful. The mansion is two stories and very lofty, one hundred and seventy feet front, and eighty-six feet deep. The northern front is ornamented with a lofty portico of four Ionic columns in front and three on either side. Beneath this portico drive the carriages of visitors; immediately opposite the front door, across the open vestibule or hall, is the Reception Room. The East Room is eighty feet long, forty feet wide, and twentytwo high. There are four mantels of marble with Italian black, and gold fronts, and very handsome grates; each mantel is surmounted with a French mirror, the plates of which measures one hundred and fifty-eight inches, framed in splendid style. Four other large mirrors, two at each end of the room, reflect the rays from three large chandeliers, from which depend glass pendants, which glitter in the light like diamonds; each chandelier has twenty-seven burners. In front of the Presidents' House, in a small enclosure, is the bronze statue of Jefferson, presented to the government by Captain Levy, of the United States army, who was, at that time (1840) owner of Monticello. The statue stands on a pedestal: in his left THE WHITE HOUSE. 679 hand Jefferson holds a scroll of the Declaration of Independence, and in his right hand a pen, as though he had just finished that immortal instrument, and was anticipating the glorious results of its influence; the terror it would strike among the foes of freedom; the strength with which it would nerve the patriot's heart; the bitter opposition which it would meet with from some; the joy with which it would be hailed by more; and, if adopted, the high destinies which awaited Young America. It now occupies an eligible position, and will long stand in honor alike of the great man it so faithfully represents, and of the noble spirit of patriotism that secured and presented it to the nation. It formerly stood in the Rotunda of the Capitol. The Presidents' House, during Mr. Jefferson's administration, stood unenclosed, on a piece of waste and barren ground, separated from the Capitol by an almost impassable marsh. That building was not half completed, and standing as it did amidst the rough masses of stone and other materials collected for its construction, and half-hidden by the venerable oaks that still shaded their native soil, looked more like a ruin in the midst of its fallen fragments and coëval shades, than a new and rising edifice. The silence and solitude of the surrounding space were calculated to enforce this idea, for beyond the Capitol hill as far as the eye could reach, the city, as it was called, lay in a state of nature, covered with thick groves and forest-trees, wide and level |