310 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



he, unsolicited, offered us letters to his friends. Although 

 not a splendid man, he was a wise and good President. 

 Twenty-five years have passed since this visit at Washing- 

 ton, and I will copy from a letter which I wrote at the time, 

 the impression which I then received. " The magnificence 

 of the exterior of the public buildings quite equalled my 

 expectations, and the city itself is more considerable and 

 more respectable in its appearance than some people will 

 allow. As I sit writing in my chamber, the grand Poto- 

 mac winds and stretches far away, and reminds me of the 

 St. Lawrence at Montreal and Quebec. Arlington House, 

 the seat of George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., grand- 

 son of Mrs. Washington, makes an imposing appearance 

 on a high hill upon the opposite side of the river. The 

 carriage is at the door to take us to the Capitol, for no- 

 body walks here, in this rudimentary city, where, as our 

 Senator Tracy used to say, ' it is three miles to anything.' " 

 In many visits to Washington in later years, I have seen it 

 gradually filling up, until it is no longer a skeleton city, and 

 now numbers 50,000 people. We visited Arlington then 

 (1824), and I was there again in 1852, after the lapse of 

 twenty-eight years, and found everything very much im- 

 proved. The hospitable proprietor made this brief visit 

 very pleasant. Mrs. Custis was living, and the house was 

 rich in relics of Washington : his plate in many forms ; 

 his portrait at the period of Braddock's campaign, dressed 

 in the full and flowing costume of that day ; and, in the 

 visit of 1824, Mrs. Custis showed me the bed on which 

 General Washington died, and offered it in hospitality for 

 my repose, if repose would indeed come when memory 

 recalled the death-scene. Mrs. Custis gave me a terra 

 cotta medallion of Dr. Franklin, which used to hang in 

 General Washington's study or office at Mount Vernon ; 

 and Mrs. Custis sent to Mrs. Trumbull a saucer of the 

 Presidential period at Philadelphia, from a set made for 

 Mrs. Washington in China. A napkin also was sent, be- 



