Lee had just reached colonel’s rank when the Civil War broke out. He was opposed to secession, but, faithful to the traditions of State sovereignty in which he had been trained, decided5 that it was his duty to sacrifice all other ties and follow the fortunes of Virginia. After a painful interview with General Scott, who strove vainly to shake his resolution, he wrote, in the library across the hall from the drawing-room, his resignation of his commission in the United States army. Then, accompanied by his family, he set out for the South, never to return. In a few days the Federal troops took possession of the estate as important to the protection of Washington. Here McClellan worked out his plans for the reorganization of the union army following the Bull Run disaster. A few years afterward6, there being no one at hand to pay the war-tax laid on the land, it was sold under the hammer, and the Government bid it in. Before the sale had been definitely ordered, a Northern relative of the Lees came forward with an offer to pay the levy7 and costs, but the tax commissioners8 declined the tender on the ground that the delinquent9 taxpayer10 had not made it in person.
Meanwhile, the house had been turned into a military{237} hospital, and the patients who died there were buried close by. When it became necessary to have a soldiers’ burial-ground near Washington, Quartermaster-general Meigs was permitted to lay off two hundred acres of the estate for the purpose. This was the beginning of the National Cemetery11 of to-day, where about eighteen thousand soldiers and sailors have found a last resting-place.
Some time after the war, General Lee’s son brought suit for the recovery of the property and won it, the Supreme12 Court holding that the tax commissioners ought to have accepted the tender made them; but Mr. Lee compromised with the Government, conveying to it his interest for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Since then the house has been put into excellent repair, and the land about it suitably enclosed and improved. On the upper edge of the estate has been established the military post known as Fort Myer, where cavalry-training is carried to a high point, weather observations are made, and a wireless13 telegraph station exchanges despatches with the Eiffel tower in Paris. Some of the land down by the river has been made over into an experimental farm under the auspices14 of the Department of Agriculture.
Happily, the Cemetery has been kept free from tawdry memorials and inconsequential ornament15, and{238} enveloped16 in an atmosphere of dignity well fitting its sacred character. Its most impressive tomb is that dedicated17 to the Unknown Dead, which contains the remains18 of more than two thousand soldiers found on various battlefields but never identified. “Their names and deaths,” says the inscription19, “are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens honor them as their noble army of martyrs20.” Not far away is a fine amphitheater with a carpet of turf and a canopy21 of trellised vines, where memorial exercises are held annually22 on Decoration Day, the President almost always taking part. There is also a Temple of Fame, bearing the names of Washington and Lincoln, with those of the military leaders who particularly distinguished23 themselves in the Civil War. An extension has recently been made in the grounds devoted24 to sepulture, where the most conspicuous25 monument is that which commemorates26 the tragedy of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor. The base is built to represent a gun-turret29 on the deck of a man-of-war; on this are inscribed30 the names of the victims, while from the center of the turret rises a mast with a fighting-top. A larger and more ambitious amphitheater, also, has been laid out in the extension.
From Arlington we can go, by the same road that Washington trod on his trips, to Alexandria, a town{239} which fairly reeks31 with associations, from the colonial names of some of its streets—King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Duke, Duchess, Royal—to its remnants of cobblestone pavement laid by the Hessian prisoners in the Revolution. Here is the old Carlyle mansion32, where General Braddock had his headquarters before starting on his ill-fated expedition against the French and Indians. In its blue drawing-room Washington, as a young surveyor ambitious to serve his king, received the first rudiments33 of his military education; and at the foot of yonder staircase one evening stood the same Washington, expectant, while pretty Sally Fairfax tripped lightly down to join him and be led through the opening cotillion at her coming-out ball.
This must have been a splendid mansion in its time, with a terraced garden descending34 to the river-bank, and a fountain in the midst of the flower-beds. It was built on the ruins of a fort used by the early settlers against the Indians; the living-rooms of the fort became the cellar of the mansion, and the fort proper the plaza35, upon which the main hallway opens. You enter the house now through a cozy36 little tea-room established by a group of young ladies of Alexandria; and it may be your good fortune to be shown about the premises37 by one of them who is herself a member{240} of the historic Carlyle and Fairfax families and familiar with all their ancestral tales.
A prominent site in town is covered by Christ Church, where Washington worshiped, and where you can see the square family pew for which he paid the record price, thirty-six pounds and ten shillings. The church stands in a large, old-fashioned yard, sprinkled with the gravestones of men and women of local renown38. Hither, on Sundays, drove the ladies from Mount Vernon, seven miles away, in a chariot with a mahogany body, green Venetian blinds, and pictured panels, drawn39 by four horses. The General did not take kindly40 to the coach for himself, but rode beside it on his favorite saddle-horse, followed at a respectful distance by Bishop41, his colored body-servant, in scarlet42 livery. After service he would linger in the churchyard, chatting with his friends, till Bishop reminded him of the flight of time by bringing up his horse and holding the stirrup for him to mount.
A spirited historical controversy43 has been waged over the question of Washington’s attitude toward religion. The weight of evidence favors the idea that, though not bound by dogma, he had a broad faith in the philosophy of Christianity, always knelt with the rest of the congregation and joined in the responses, and occasionally remained for the communion. He{241} certainly encouraged his slaves to believe in the efficacy of prayer; for once, when a long-continued drought threatened to ruin his crops, he called his farm-hands together on Sunday morning and bade them put up their united supplication44 for rain. They did so, and to their great delight the flood-gates of heaven suddenly opened and deluged45 the earth; but the Washington family were caught in the storm on their way home from church, and could not make shelter soon enough to save Mrs. Washington’s best gown from serious damage or the General from being soaked to the skin.
In his younger days, Washington was fond of dancing, and used to come into town to attend assemblies at Clagett’s Tavern46. The assembly-hall was up-stairs. It was afterward divided into three rooms, one of which, having fallen into the hands of persons who respect its pedigree, has been pretty well preserved. In the old times it had at one end a gallery for the musicians, accessible only by a ladder, which was removed as soon as they were all in their places. This arrangement was designed to compel them to stay at their work till released, and to drink only what was passed up to them with the approval of the floor-committee.
Across the corridor from the old assembly-hall was{242} a chamber47 that later became interesting through its occupancy by an unknown woman who came to the tavern one morning in 1816, plainly in ill health. She was accompanied by a few servants, with whom she conversed48 only in French, and neither she nor they could be drawn into any communication with other persons, except what was necessary to engage accommodations and order meals. On the fourth day of her stay, there appeared on the scene a strange man, who from various indications was assumed to be her husband. An hour after his arrival she died in his arms. He buried her in St. Paul’s cemetery on the outskirts49 of the town, planting a willow-tree over her grave, and raising at its head a stone inscribed to the memory simply of “A Female Stranger,” with this stanza50 from Pope’s “Unfortunate Lady”:
“How loved, how honored once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot51.
A heap of dust alone remains of thee,
’Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.”
And the Female Stranger remains a mystery to this day, though many efforts have been made to discover her identity. A local suspicion that she was Theodosia Allston, the daughter of Aaron Burr, seems to be discredited52 by the fact that Theodosia’s disappearance53 occurred in 1812, and that her husband was{243} dead long before the Stranger came to Clagett’s Tavern.
How public-spirited a citizen Washington was is attested54 by his having laid the foundation of Alexandria’s free-school system, presented the town with its first fire-engine, organized its first militia55 company, and got up a lottery56 to raise a fund for improving the country roads thereabout. He was an earnest Freemason, and the lodge57 named for him owns a number of relics58 like the chair in which he presided as Master, his apron59, his wedding gloves, his spurs, his pruning-knife, and a penknife which his mother gave him when he was eleven years old and which he carried till he died. It has also the last authentic60 portrait of him taken from life, a pastel done by William Williams of Philadelphia.
In and around Alexandria are other points of interest, including the house in which Colonel Ellsworth was killed, and one where, it is said, Martha Washington secreted61 herself for a while during her widowhood for fear of a slave uprising; a theological seminary which has graduated, among other eminent62 divines, Bishops63 Phillips Brooks64 of Boston and Henry C. Potter of New York; and the nearly obliterated65 remains of the road which, in 1765, General Braddock began to build into the West.{244}
We can go to Mount Vernon by boat, or over a road which Congress has repeatedly, but without effect, been petitioned to acquire and improve. Already a trolley66 company has recognized a public demand and is running cars on a regular schedule from the heart of the capital city to the borders of Washington’s old estate. On the way down we pass Wellington, once the home of Tobias Lear, whom General Washington hired for two hundred dollars a year to act as tutor to the children at Mount Vernon, promoting him later to the post of private secretary. In both capacities, his employer provided, he “will sit at my table, will live as I live, will mix with the company who resort to the house, and will be treated in every respect with courtesy and proper attention.” Lear married three wives, one of them a kinswoman of the General’s. He acquired means, removed in later life to Washington, and became a merchant with a warehouse67 on the river. His tombstone in the Congressional Cemetery recites an overflowing68 list of his virtues69 and honors, and posterity70 owes him a large debt for having preserved many of the Washingtoniana most valued now by historians.
Mount Vernon became the property of the Washington family by a grant from Lord Culpepper in 1670 to John Washington, the great-grandfather of George.{245} It was christened in honor of Admiral Vernon, a friend of Lawrence Washington, the half-brother who brought George up and superintended his education. George, who received it by inheritance, willed it to his nephew Bushrod, he to his nephew John, and John to a son of the same name. Financial embarrassments71 led the last heir to part with some of the land; but to an area of a few hundred acres, including the mansion, the family tomb, and the wharf72 on the Potomac, he held fast till arrangements could be made for its purchase by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, a society of patriotic73 women who, with money privately74 raised, have restored the place and kept it in order ever since. There is good reason to doubt whether this would ever have come about but for the heroic energy of Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina, who, though a confirmed invalid75, devised and executed a plan which saved the estate from being sold to a professional showman.
Just as in Alexandria we found ourselves in touch with a George Washington who was a flesh-and-blood Virginian as distinguished from the colorless paragon76 of the standard histories, so at Mount Vernon we meet the same Washington in his character of husband, farmer, and host. Even here, however, we are not wholly beyond the penumbra77 of fiction; for only five{246} miles away is the town of Pohick, once the parish seat of Parson Weems, the inventor of the cherry-tree myth on which my generation were industriously78 fed. Although, of course, no one still living in the region can remember Washington, there are not a few who are familiar with the details of his daily life, handed down in their families from ancestors who did remember him. These make him out a very human country gentleman, who loved to ride, to shoot, to fence, and to wrestle79; who mixed business with pleasure in an occasional horse-race or real estate speculation80; who disbelieved in slavery, and was recognized by his own two hundred bondmen as a kind master, yet was noted81 for getting more work out of a negro than any other slaveholder in Virginia, and for not hesitating to administer corporal punishment to one who deserved it.
We learn from these sources that he was “as straight as an Indian, and as free in his walk”; that he was what the ladies of that day, in spite of some marks left by the smallpox82, styled “a pretty man”; that his weight of two hundred and ten pounds was all bone and muscle; and that he stood six feet and two inches tall in his shoes, which ranged in size from Number eleven to Number thirteen. His hands seem to have been his only physical deformity; they were so large{247} as to attract attention and required gloves made expressly for them, three sizes larger than ordinary. His eyes are variously described as “blue,” as “of a bluish cast and very lively,” as “a cold, light gray,” and as “so gray that they looked almost white.” These alternatives may be reconciled, perhaps, by Gilbert Stuart’s recollection that his eyes were “a light grayish blue, deep sunken in their sockets83, giving the expression of gravity of thought.” His hair was originally dark brown and fairly thick; his face was long, his nose prominent, his mouth large, and his chin firm. He suffered a good deal with toothache, particularly after his military service, and, as the rural remedy was the simplest known, he passed his last years almost toothless. This drove at least one portrait-painter into padding the front of his mouth with cotton wool, to make his lips look more natural than they did when drawn over the ill-fitting artificial teeth which he inserted for state occasions.
The great man lived well, his principal meal being a three o’clock dinner, which he washed down with five glasses of Madeira, taken with dessert. This allowance he gradually increased toward the close of his life till it reached two bottles. In sending away for sale a slave whom, though troublesome, he guaranteed as “exceedingly healthy, strong and good at{248} the hoe,” he expressed his willingness to take in part payment “a hogshead of the best rum” and an indefinite quantity of “good old spirits.” In our gout-fearing era, these data have the ring of immoderate indulgence, but measured by the standards of the eighteenth century they were temperate84 enough. It must be said for the General, also, that he was charitable in his judgment85 of the weaknesses of others, as shown by his contract with an overseer, to whom he conceded the privilege of getting drunk for a week once a year; and his campaign expenses for election to the Virginia legislature embraced a hogshead and a barrel of punch, thirty-five gallons of wine, and forty-three gallons of strong cider.
It makes us feel a little nearer to the Father of our Country to learn that he was not immune to the influence of bright eyes and dainty toilets; that he was in love, or fancied he was, with several different damsels at as many different times; and that his self-surrender occasionally declared itself in amatory verse too dreadful for belief. His most serious infatuation seems to have been with a Miss Gary, whom he courted fervently86, only to be dismissed by her father with the sordid87 reminder88: “My daughter, sir, has been accustomed to ride in her own coach!” As this was a knock-down argument for a stripling surveyor who{249}
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Ford’s Theatre, the Old Front
was just struggling to raise his professional terms to twenty-five dollars a day when employed, he went his way, but sought consolation89 in winning Martha Custis, who resembled Miss Cary almost as a twin sister.
Of Mary Washington, mother of George, we get glimpses in the familiar chat of the vicinage. She appears as a rather difficult person, who tried the methodical soul of her son by her thriftless habits and her incessant90 complaints of being out of money. For years he did his utmost to induce her to rent her plantation91 further down the State, hire out her slaves, and live on her fixed92 income thus obtained, but to no purpose. Yet after he had become so famous that he was obliged to entertain at Mount Vernon all the traveling celebrities93 of two hemispheres, she suddenly took it into her head that she would like to come and live with him. In spite of his filial piety94, candor95 compelled him to show her the impracticability of her proposal; and, though he tried to soften96 her disappointment by sending her the last seventy-five dollars in his purse, she seems to have continued dissatisfied.
George was not stingy. On the contrary, on each of three plantations97 which he farmed he kept one crib of corn always set apart for free distribution among the poor, and never let this fail, even if he had to rob{250} his own table supply or to buy corn at a dollar a bushel to make up a deficit98. He was not a rich man, but for sentimental99 reasons held on to Mount Vernon after it had ceased to be profitable property. At his death, he was worth only about seventy-five thousand dollars in his own right, and, had he lived ten years longer at the same rate, he would have died a bankrupt. It was his wife’s better investments that kept up the expenses of their home.
As we go over the old mansion, we are shown the various rooms associated with Washington’s activities, and that in which his death occurred. Notwithstanding his sturdy muscular development, his throat and chest were always weak spots; and in 1799, after a soaking and chill from a ride through a December storm, he went to bed with a cold which left him unable to swallow. Soon he realized that the end was not far off. It was characteristic of the man that he should then discharge the doctors from further useless ministrations, give such directions about his burial as he deemed important, and calmly proceed to watch the waning101 of his own pulse. After a little the hand that held his wrist relaxed and dropped upon the coverlet, and the friends gathered in the chamber knew that all was over.
On the Maryland side of the Potomac, the suburb{251} most convenient of access is Georgetown. In fact, it long ago ceased to be strictly102 a suburb, by incorporation103 with the city of Washington, from which it was separated only by Rock Creek104, a narrow tributary105 of the Potomac. Officially, it is now West Washington, and its streets have been renamed and renumbered so as to conform as nearly as practicable to the system in use in the capital. All the same, Georgetown has never lost its identity. It had a life of its own before Washington was thought of; and within my recollection the old society of Georgetown used to look askance at the “new people” with whom Washington was filling up. It is still sprinkled with hoary106 houses set in quaint107 ancestral gardens, though modernism has touched the place at so many points that we can get a glimpse of these survivals sometimes only through deep vistas108 lined with the red brick side-walls of urban blocks. The most attractive of the old mansions109, and the best preserved, is the Tudor house, built by Doctor William Thornton about 1810. It is a good specimen110 from the Georgian epoch111 in architecture, standing100 fitly in the midst of a great square of lawn, with shade trees and box hedges to correspond; and one of its traditions is that pretty little Nellie Custis went there to her first ball, though—but I leave others to struggle with the problem of conflicting dates. One{252} thing we do know, that the place has always been in the possession of kinsfolk of the Mount Vernon family.
Many amusing stories are told of Georgetown’s early days, when the Scotch112 element were so strong in its population that a man could not be appointed to the office of flour inspector114 without subscribing115 to a test oath declaring his disbelief in the doctrine116 of “transsubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper”; when the city fathers sought to save the expense of employing a surveyor to calculate the width of the Potomac at a point where a bridge was to be built, by ordering out all good citizens to pull at the opposite ends of a measuring-rope; and when the big triangle which was pounded as an alarm of fire fell from the belfry in which it hung, and fire-alarms were sounded thereafter by blowing a fish-horn through the streets. But none of these tales will have an interest for most visitors equal to the local version of the origin of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” For Georgetown was Francis Scott Key’s old home.
As the story goes, part of the British forces which marched upon Washington in the summer of 1814 passed through Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on a day when Doctor William Beanes, a prominent physician, was entertaining several friends at dinner. As the gentlemen talked, they grew more and more{253} indignant against the invaders117, and, news being brought to them at table that a few red-coated stragglers were still in town committing depredations118 after the main body of their comrades had passed on, some one suggested that the party go out and arrest these men as disturbers of the peace. This was done, but to little effect; for as soon as the stragglers got away, they hastened to catch up with the army and lodge a complaint with their officers, who at once sent back a squad119 of soldiers to arrest the arresters. Three of the dining party, including Beanes, were carried off to Admiral Cockburn’s flagship, which was lying in the Patuxent River. Cockburn, after administering a disciplinary lecture to the trio, dismissed the others but took Beanes as a prisoner on his ship to Baltimore.
Key, who was Beanes’s nephew, hastened to Baltimore as soon as he heard of the doctor’s plight120, and under a flag of truce121 went aboard the vessel122 to intercede123 with Cockburn for his uncle’s release. His plea was vain; and Cockburn would not even let him go ashore124 again till after the bombardment of Fort McHenry. When Key returned to Georgetown, he related his adventures at the next meeting of the local glee-club, and his fellow members urged him to put his narrative125 into verse. He read his production{254} at a later meeting, and the club introduced it to the public, who adopted it as the national anthem126.
Among the noted names associated with Georgetown, outside of political life, may be mentioned those of Joel Benton, the poet and essayist, who bought a farm on the Washington side of Rock Creek, since famous as the Kalorama estate; Robert Fulton, the pioneer in steam navigation, who made some of his early experiments with water-craft and submarine explosives on the small streams of the neighborhood; George Peabody, financier and philanthropist, who came as a poor boy from Massachusetts and worked as a clerk in a store in Bridge Street; William W. Corcoran, whose later career somewhat resembled Peabody’s, and whose real start in life dated from the failure of a little shop he kept in the heart of the town; and, last but not least, a youthful belle127 whose romance demands a paragraph or two of its own.
Baron128 Bodisco, Russian Minister to the United States during the Van Buren administration, lived, as did most of the foreign envoys129 of that time, in Georgetown. He was a bachelor, well on toward sixty years of age, uncompromisingly ugly, with a face covered with wrinkles, and a bald head which he tried to conceal130 under a somewhat obtrusive131 wig132. He had for visitors one winter two young nephews,{255} for whom he gave a dancing party at the legation, inviting133 all the socially eligible134 boys and girls in town. By some accident, one of his invitations miscarried and failed to reach Harriet Beall Williams, a most attractive and popular schoolgirl of sixteen. He hastened to repair his error as soon as he discovered it, and on the evening of the party hunted her up to make his apologies in person. It was a case of love at first sight. After that he contrived135 to meet her occasionally on her way to or from school, and ere long he became an avowed136 suitor for her hand. The courtship, though not displeasing137 to the girl, was for some time discouraged by her family. Finding her resolved to accept her elderly lover, however, they withdrew their active opposition138, and Beauty and the Beast, as they were commonly called, were married in June.
The Baron, who had excellent taste in everything except his own make-up, superintended all the details of the affair, even to the costumes of the bridal party. The bridesmaids were schoolmates of Miss Williams, one being Jessie Benton, then aged27 fourteen, who afterward became the wife of General John C. Fremont. The groomsmen were generally contemporaries of the groom139, so that the note of age disparity was uniform throughout. President{256} Van Buren and Henry Clay were conspicuous among the guests. At the first opportunity, the Baron took his bride to Russia and presented her at court, where she electrified140 the assembled nobility by shaking the Czar’s hand in cordial American fashion. It delighted the Czar, however, which was more to the point; and, although she did many unusual things, like declining the Czarina’s invitation to a Sunday function because she had been brought up to “keep the Sabbath,” she became a great favorite in the inner imperial circle, and loved to dwell on her foreign experiences after she came back to Georgetown to live. The Bodisco house is still pointed113 out to strangers.
Not all the historic associations of Georgetown and its neighborhood have been so peaceful. For a few miles out of town the river’s edge is dotted with sequestered141 nooks to which hot-brained gentlemen could retire on occasion, to wipe out their grievances142 in one another’s blood. The Little Falls bridge afforded such a retreat to Henry Clay and John Randolph after Randolph’s speech declaring that the “alphabet that writes the name of Thersites, of blackguard, of squalidity, refuses her letters for” Clay. The combatants took the precaution to cross the bridge far enough to avoid the jurisdiction143 of the District authorities.{257} Clay’s first shot cut Randolph’s coat near the hip28, Randolph’s did nothing. At the second word, Clay’s bullet went wild, and Randolph deliberately144 sent his into the air, remarking: “I do not fire at you, Mr. Clay!” At the same time he advanced with hand outstretched, Clay meeting him halfway145. Randolph, as they were leaving the field, pointed to the hole made by Clay’s first bullet, saying jocosely146: “You owe me a coat, Mr. Clay.” “I am glad, sir,” answered Clay, “that the debt is no greater.”
The subject of duels148 calls to mind another suburb, to wit, Bladensburg, Maryland, where the defenders149 of Washington made their brief and ineffectual stand against the invading British in 1814. Here, for sixty years, in a green little dell about a mile out of town, all sorts of personal and political feuds150 were settled with deadly weapons. The most celebrated151 of these meetings was that of March 22, 1820, between two Commodores of the American navy, Stephen Decatur and James Barren. Like most duels, it was more the work of mischief-makers than of the principals themselves.
Decatur was at the height of his fame for achievements in the War of 1812 and against the Barbary pirates; he was a fine marksman with the pistol, and had had several earlier experiences on the dueling152{258}-field. Barren, on the other hand, was under a cloud for some professional mistakes; he was six years Decatur’s senior, had no taste for dueling, and was near-sighted. Down to the last, Barron was plainly disposed to accept any reasonable concession153 and call the affair off; but Decatur was in high spirits and full of confidence.
Two shots rang out simultaneously154, and both men fell. Decatur, who was at first supposed to be dead, presently showed signs of returning animation155 and was lifted to his feet, only to stagger a few paces toward his antagonist156 and fall again. As the two men lay side by side, Barron turned his face to say to Decatur that he hoped, when they met in another world, they would be better friends than in this. Decatur responded that he had never been Barren’s enemy, and, though he cherished no animosity to Barron for killing157 him, he found it harder to forgive the men who had goaded158 them into this quarrel. Both combatants were carried back to Washington, where Barron slowly recovered from his wound; but Decatur, after a day of intense suffering, died in the house which still bears his name, at the corner of Jackson Place and H Street.
So habitually159 was this one ravine chosen for the settlement of affairs of honor that when two Representatives,{259} Jonathan Cilley of Maine and William J. Graves of Kentucky, decided in 1838 to end a dispute with rifles, they outwitted pursuit by choosing for their fight the eastern end of the Anacostia bridge on the high-road to Marlboro, Maryland; and a posse who started out to stop them went to the accustomed ground only to find it empty. This duel147 had naught160 of the dramatic quality of that between Decatur and Barren, but its effect on the public mind proved more far-reaching. Cilley was a young man of brilliant promise, highly respected as well as popular, with a wife and three little children. The quarrel was forced upon him because, in the interest of the proper dignity of Congress, he objected to a proposed investigation161 by the House of some vague and irresponsible insinuations made in a recent newspaper letter against sundry162 members who were not named or otherwise identified. Graves insisted that this speech was an insult to the author of the article, whose championship he gratuitously163 undertook.
The first two shots were thrown away on both sides. At the third fire, Cilley fell upon his face, his adversary’s bullet having killed him instantly. When the news of his death spread through Washington, indignation against Graves rose to fever heat, and his public career ended with that hour. The{260} wantonness of such a sacrifice of a useful life, where the writer who figured as the cause of the quarrel did not even take a part in it, gave special point to the condemnation164 of the false standard of honor set up by the “code.” The funeral services for Cilley at the Capitol were attended by the President and Cabinet, in testimony165 to the high esteem166 in which he had universally been held; while the Supreme Court declined its invitation in a body, as the most emphatic167 means of expressing its abhorrence168 of glossing169 murder with a thin coat of etiquette170. Ministers, not only in Washington but in all the more highly civilized171 parts of the country, denounced dueling from the pulpit, newspapers published editorials and associations adopted resolutions against it, additional legislation for the abolition172 of the practice was introduced in various legislatures, and Congress passed an act to punish, with a term in the penitentiary173, the sending or acceptance of a challenge in the District of Columbia.{261}
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Stage Entrance through which Booth Escaped
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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dwelling
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lieutenant
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decided
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afterward
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levy
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commissioners
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taxpayer
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supreme
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wireless
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auspices
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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16
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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18
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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19
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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20
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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21
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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22
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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23
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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24
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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25
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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26
commemorates
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| n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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27
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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28
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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29
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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30
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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31
reeks
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| n.恶臭( reek的名词复数 )v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的第三人称单数 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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32
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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33
rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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34
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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35
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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36
cozy
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| adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的 | |
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37
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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38
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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39
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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40
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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41
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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42
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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43
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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44
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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45
deluged
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| v.使淹没( deluge的过去式和过去分词 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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46
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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47
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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48
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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49
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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50
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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51
begot
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 )；产生，引起 | |
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52
discredited
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| 不足信的，不名誉的 | |
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53
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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54
attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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55
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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56
lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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57
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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58
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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59
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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60
authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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61
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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62
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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63
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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64
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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65
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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66
trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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67
warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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68
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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69
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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70
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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71
embarrassments
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| n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 )；难堪；局促不安；令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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72
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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73
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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74
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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75
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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76
paragon
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| n.模范，典型 | |
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77
penumbra
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| n.（日蚀）半影部 | |
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78
industriously
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79
wrestle
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|
| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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80
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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81
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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82
smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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83
sockets
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|
| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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84
temperate
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|
| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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85
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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86
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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87
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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88
reminder
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|
| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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89
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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90
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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91
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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92
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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93
celebrities
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| n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉 | |
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94
piety
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|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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95
candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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96
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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97
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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98
deficit
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| n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差 | |
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99
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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100
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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101
waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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102
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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103
incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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104
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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105
tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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106
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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107
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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108
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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109
mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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110
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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111
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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112
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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113
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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114
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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115
subscribing
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| v.捐助( subscribe的现在分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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116
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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117
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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118
depredations
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| n.劫掠，毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
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119
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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120
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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121
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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122
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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123
intercede
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| vi.仲裁，说情 | |
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124
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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125
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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126
anthem
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| n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌 | |
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127
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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128
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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129
envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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130
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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131
obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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132
wig
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| n.假发 | |
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133
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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134
eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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135
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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136
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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137
displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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138
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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139
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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140
electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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141
sequestered
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|
| adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押 | |
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142
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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143
jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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144
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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145
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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146
jocosely
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| adv.说玩笑地，诙谐地 | |
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147
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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148
duels
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| n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 )；竞争，斗争 | |
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149
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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150
feuds
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| n.长期不和，世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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151
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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152
dueling
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| n. 决斗, 抗争(=duelling) 动词duel的现在分词形式 | |
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153
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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154
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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155
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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156
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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157
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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158
goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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159
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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160
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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161
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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162
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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163
gratuitously
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| 平白 | |
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164
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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165
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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166
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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167
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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168
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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169
glossing
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| v.注解( gloss的现在分词 )；掩饰（错误）；粉饰；把…搪塞过去 | |
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170
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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171
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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172
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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173
penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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