MRS. ABRAM VAN BUREN.

THE era in which Mrs. Martin Van Buren lived, was so far removed from her husband's ascension to the Presidency, that her life is of but little interest in connection with this period. She had been dead seventeen years, when, in 1837, he took possession of the White House.

But for the presence of his accomplished daughterin-law, his administration would have been socially a failure; the prestige of his high position was not complete until the honors were shared with his young rel

ative.

Angelica Singleton, the daughter of Richard Singleton, Esq., was born in Sumpter District, South Carolina. Her grandfather, Singleton, and her great-grandfather General Richardson, served with distinction in the revolutionary war. On the maternal side, her grandfather, John Coles, Esq., of Albemarle County, Virginia, was the intimate and valued friend of Presidents Jefferson and Madison, and two of his sons were respectively their private secretaries during their Presidential terms.

Miss Singleton's early advantages were in keeping with her elevated social position. To complete an education superior to the generality of her sex at that day, she spent several years at Madame Grelaud's seminary, in Philadelphia. The winter previous to her

marriage, she passed in Washington, in the family of her kinsman, Senator William C. Preston. Soon after her arrival, her cousin, the justly celebrated Mrs. Madison, procured the appointment of a day to present her to the President, accompanied also by Senator Preston's family. Her reception was a very flattering one, and she became a great favorite with President Van Buren. In November of the year following (1838), she was married at her father's residence, to Colonel, then Major, Van Buren, the President's eldest son, and his private secretary-a graduate of West Point and long an officer in the army. Her first appearance as the lady of the White House was on the following New Year's day, when, supported by the ladies of the cabinet, she received with the President.

The following brief, though favorable cotemporaneous notice of that occasion is taken from a long and racy account by a correspondent of the Boston Post, of the movements at the capital on New Year's day:

"The Executive Mansion was a place of much more than usual attraction in consequence of the first appearance there of the bride of the President's son and private secretary, Mrs. Abram Van Buren. She is represented as being a lady of rare accomplishments, very modest, yet perfectly easy and graceful in her manners, and free and vivacious in her conversation. She was universally admired and is said to have borne the fatigue of a three hours' levee with a patience and pleasantry which must be inexhaustible to last one through so severe a trial. A constant current set from the President's house to the modest mansion of the

much respected lady of ex-President Madison. ExPresident Adams and his lady were also cordially greeted at their residence by a number of friends."

Mrs. Van Buren is the only daughter of South Carolina who has graced the White House as hostess, and her life there was rendered as entirely agreeable as the combined influences of wealth, station, and refinement could make it. The reminiscences of her early life carry us back to a period when South Carolina enjoyed the distinction of sharing with Virginia the honor of being the seat of elegant hospitality and refined culture. Under the benign influences of a matchless climate and great wealth, the people of the Palmetto State enjoyed the leisure and opportunity of developing all those characteristics which adorn humanity and render life attractive. The citizens of this state were fortunate in being the descendants of the best families of Virginia, and Mrs. Van Buren is a most pleasing representation of this old aristocracy.

The degradation of the manners and morals of the country, infecting as it does every part of our national character, which we know has undermined the aristocratic tendencies of southern society, but renders the contemplation of a representative of the past all the more pleasing, and in the subject of our sketch we have the purest type of a class once powerful, now rapidly becoming extinct.

The position of Mrs. Van Buren's family was always such that all the avenues of intellectual enjoy. ment were open to her, while her natural endowments were of that high order which rendered cultivation