SENATOKSHIP AT ALBANY- 1864 -1865 121 



man honest, patriotic, but narrow and crabbed, who 

 turned out to be the most unfortunate choice ever made, 

 with the possible exception of John Tyler, twenty-four 

 years before. 



The convention having adjourned, a large number of 

 delegates visited Washington, to pay their respects to the 

 President, and among them myself. The city seemed 

 to me hardly less repulsive than at my first visit eight 

 years before; it was still unkempt and dirty, made in- 

 deed all the more so by the soldiery encamped about it, 

 and marching through it. 



Shortly after our arrival our party, perhaps thirty in 

 number, went to the White House and were shown into 

 the great East Room. We had been there for about ten 

 minutes when one of the doors nearest the street was 

 opened, and a young man entered who held the door 

 open for the admission of a tall, ungainly man dressed 

 in a rather dusty suit of black. My first impression was 

 that this was some rural tourist who had blundered into the 

 place ; for, really, he seemed less at home there than any 

 other person present, and looked about for an instant, as 

 if in doubt where he should go ; but presently he turned 

 toward our group, which was near the southwestern cor- 

 ner of the room, and then I saw that it was the President. 

 As he came toward us in a sort of awkward, perfunctory 

 manner his face seemed to me one of the saddest I had 

 ever seen, and when he had reached us he held out his 

 hand to the first stranger, then to the second, and so on, 

 all with the air of a melancholy automaton. But, sud- 

 denly, some one in the company said something which 

 amused him, and instantly there came in his face a most 

 marvelous transformation. I have never seen anything 

 like it in any other human being. His features were 

 lighted, his eyes radiant, he responded to sundry remarks 

 humorously, though dryly, and thenceforward was cor- 

 dial and hearty. Taking my hand in his he shook it in the 

 most friendly way, with a kindly word, and so passed 

 cheerily on to the others until the ceremony was finished. 



