128 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XIV 



i Don t you see? Them three miserable cusses are coming 

 back to me again/ &quot; 



I also at that period made the acquaintance of Senator 

 Gray of Delaware, who seemed to me ideally fitted for his 

 position as a member of the Upper House in Congress. 

 Speaker Heed also made a great impression upon me as a 

 man of honesty, lucidity, and force. The Secretary of 

 State, Mr. Olney, I saw frequently, and was always im 

 pressed by the sort of bulldog tenacity which had gained 

 his victory over Lord Salisbury in the arbitration matter. 



But to give even the most hasty sketch of the members 

 of the Supreme Court, the cabinet, and of both houses of 

 Congress whom I met would require more time than is at 

 my disposal. 



This stay in Washington I enjoyed much. Our capital 

 city is becoming the seat of a refined hospitality which 

 makes it more and more attractive. Time was, and that 

 not very long since, when it was looked upon as a place of 

 exile by diplomatists, and as repulsive by many of our 

 citizens ; but all that is of the past : the courtesy shown by 

 its inhabitants is rapidly changing its reputation. 



Perhaps, of all the social enjoyments of that time, the 

 most attractive to me was an excursion of the American 

 Geographical Society to Monticello, the final residence of 

 President Jefferson. Years before, while visiting the Uni 

 versity of Virginia at Charlottesville, I had been intensely 

 interested in that creation of Mr. Jefferson and in the 

 surroundings of his home; but the present occupant of 

 Monticello, having been greatly annoyed by visitors, was 

 understood to be reluctant to allow any stranger to enter 

 the mansion, and I would not intrude upon him. But now 

 house and grounds were freely thrown open, and upon a 

 delightful day. The house itself was a beautiful adapta 

 tion of the architecture which had reached its best develop 

 ment at the time of Jefferson s stay in France; and the 

 decorations, like those which I had noted years before in 

 some of the rooms of the university, were of an exquisite 

 Louis Seize character. 



