|
|
EXCERPTS FROM PARLOR POLITICS
"PRESIDENT JEFFERSON IN WASHINGTON
CITY"
(from Chapter 1)
[After Jefferson has greeted the new First
Minister to the United States from Great Britain, Anthony
Merry, for the first time "actually standing in slippers
down at the heels," which during their interview he "tossed.
. . up in the air and caught. . . with his big toe," Merry
arrives at a state dinner presumably given in his
honor]
[The Merrys] first shock, upon entering the room,
was discovering Louis Andre Pichon, the French charge
d'affaires. England and France were at war, after all, and
diplomatic custom should have prevented the social and
political awkwardness of their common presence. Jefferson's
flouting of this convention, the Merrys would soon learn,
originated not in unstudied ignorance but in deliberate
planning. The president had gone so far as to press Pichon
to cut short his business in Baltimore in order to
attend.
The spark that would ignite the flames of the etiquette
war came when dinner was announced. According to social and
diplomatic custom, Jefferson should have led the way,
escorting the lady of honor, Mrs. Merry, followed by Mr.
Merry and the lady of second rank, Mrs. Madison. . . .
Instead, at the announcement Jefferson took the arm of the
lady next to him, Dolley Payne Todd Madison, and escorted
her into dinner, though Dolley demurred, whispering, "Take
Mrs. Merry." The other guests were dumbfounded. The wife of
the Spanish minister, born Sally McKean of Philadelphia,
declared to Dolley, "This will be the cause of war!" Madison
led Elizabeth Merry into the dining room, leaving the
flabbergasted Anthony Merry to scramble for a seat. As he
reached for a respectable place near the wife of the Spanish
minister, an agile congressman slid past him and claimed the
spot. . . . The British minister called for his carriage as
soon as the meal was over.
"DOLLEY MADISON TAKES COMMAND"
(from Chapter 2)
[An imposing and elegant woman in appearance as
well as in persona, Dolley Madison dressed and entertained
regally, and often found herself--as at the first Inaugural
Ball--"almost pressed to death" by a crowd eager to have "a
peep at her."]
Dolley also dominated a more ordinary social form, the
state dinner. Thomas Jefferson held his small dinners
frequently, but the Madisons' versions were more lavish
events, held once a week, and included as many as thirty
guests. . . . These occasions took time and money, but all
Washington hosts and guests recognized them as "powerful
political factors. . .and even more so under the tactful
sway of 'Queen Dolly'." Dolley restored enough ceremony for
the proceedings to go forward smoothly but insisted on an
informal atmosphere. In contrast to Jefferson's almost
paranoid use of dumbwaiters to ensure his control over the
proceedings, at a Madison dinner a slave or servant stood
behind each guest to assure proper, personal service.
At these official dinners Dolley, quite contrary to
custom, took the seat at the head of the table, placing
Edward Coles, James's secretary and her kinsman, at the
foot. Surprisingly, though many observers commented on this
startling sight, none expressed censure or disapproval.
Several pointed out that the arrangement spared the
president from leading the conversation, pouring wine, or
seeing to his guests' needs. Casual observers and close
friends agreed that James, quite convivial in small groups,
fell silent in large companies. Dolley, on the other hand,
flourished as the leader of the table, directing the flow of
conversation, expressing her own opinions to legislators,
and persuading them to accept her husband's views. If she
was not always successful in this endeavor, she went far
toward softening her husband's rivals.
"MRS. ADAMS CAMPAIGNS FOR THE
PRESIDENCY"
(from Chapter 4)
[During the era of the early Republic, no one ran
for national office; there were no speeches, rallies, or
events. A candidate could write to the newspaper under the
guise of supplying biographical information (as John Quincy
did) or explaining a political position (as Calhoun did),
but the chief method of assuring one's nomination was to
arouse the zeal of one's political friends and, through a
network of supporters, create a favorable image of one's
self in the public mind. Parties, balls, dinners, and White
House drawing-room receptions were ideal for this
purpose.]
As the 1824 election neared, society divided into
"separate battalions," and social circles grew smaller even
as candidates endeavored to attract more and more
supporters. … Long before people used the word party,
in the sense of "political party," they used the word's
meaning of "social event" to suggest political cohesion, as
Margaret Bayard Smith did when she spoke of having a "right
down Crawford party, " a "party" of "fifteen or twenty"
theatergoers--"senators and members"--assembled to show
public support for ["her candidate"] William
Crawford.
In the gendered world of the early Republic, social
events were considered women's work, no matter what their
political uses might have been. . . .As a result of
Washington City's peculiar needs in that era, women found
themselves central personages, sometimes to their delight
and other times to their distress. . . .Louisa Catherine's
ambivalence took the same (though exaggerated) form as that
of other politically connected elite women: denying or
disclaiming any interest in or taste for politics, usually
immediately before engaging in a political discussion or
action.
In spite of regarding these duties as "literally. . .the
torments of my life," she turned society into a
science…. Large parties and balls had always been part
of her social campaign, but "Mrs. Adams's Tuesday nights"
served quite a different purpose… . Though it might
seem that Louisa Catherine's regularly scheduled soirees
evolved naturally from the practice of giving frequent
parties, she quite consciously instituted the subscription
aspect that made them different and aroused controversy. In
December 1819 she mentioned that she "open[ed] my
campaign, having given a general invitation for every
Tuesday during the winter."
|
