As I Remember: Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century

lonely hours. The idea of their publication was highly distasteful to me until the often repeated importunities of many of those whose judgment commands my respect persuaded me that some of the facts and incidents I have recalled would prove of interest to a large circle of readers. The narrative is concerned with persons and events that have interested me during the busy hours of a lengthy life. I have been deeply impressed by the changes wrought by time in the modes of education, which are now so much at variance with those of my childhood, and in the manners and customs of those with whom I have mingled. I should be guilty of an act of grave injustice if I failed to express my grateful acknowledgments for the aid so unselfishly rendered, in a score of ways, by my daughter, Mrs. Roswell Randall Hoes, without which these pages would not, and could not, have been written. M. Gouverneur. CONTENTS I. Early Long Island Days 1 II. New York and Some New Yorkers 21 III. School-days and Early Friends 50 IV. Life and Experiences in the Metropolis 69 V. Long Branch, Newport and Elsewhere 96 VI. Some Distinguished Acquaintances 118 VII. Fashion and Letters 138 VIII. Washington in the Forties 170 IX. Social Leaders in Washington Life 194 X. Diplomatic Corps and Other Celebrities 229 XI. Marriage and Continued Life in Washington 256 XII. Sojourn in China and Return 288 XIII. The Civil War and Life in Maryland 312 XIV. Visit to the Far South and Return to Washington 335 XV. To the Present Day 365 ILLUSTRATIONS page Mrs. Gouverneur Frontispiece Samuel L. Gouverneur, Junior 116 Mrs. John Still Winthrop, née Armistead, by Sully 146 Mrs. Charles Eames, née Campbell, by Gambadella 178 Brigadier General Winfield Scott, U.S.A., by Ingham 202 Mrs. James Munroe, née Kortright, by Benjamin West 258 Miniature of James Monroe, painted in Paris in 1794 by Semé 284 Mrs. Gouverneur's three daughters, Miss Gouverneur, Mrs. Roswell Randall Hoes, Mrs. William Crawford Johnson 310 AS I REMEMBER EARLY LONG ISLAND DAYS I do not know of a spot where, had I been accorded the selection, I should have preferred first to see the light of day, nor one more in keeping with the promptings of sentiment, than the southern shore of Long Island, N.Y., where I was born. My home was in Queens County, on the old…