he presidential mansion, and with her there is no need of limiting
statement in modification of the praise bestowed.

When the time came for Buchanan to surrender into the hands of a
stronger man the reins of government, Miss Lane retired with him to
Wheatland, his country seat, where the pair spent together the stormy
years of the Civil War. In 1866, Miss Lane married Henry Elliott
Johnston, of Baltimore, who died in 1884, his two sons, all that were
born of the marriage, having preceded him to the grave. Thus Mrs.
Johnston was left alone; and thus she still lives on, the sole remaining
link between the White House of the days before the Civil War and the
present time. She alone, of all who ruled as social queen of the country
in the time when this meant far more than now, is left to us; and she
lives in the same quiet dignity with which she once placed the stamp of
her individuality upon the social functions of the presidential mansion
and made them truly noteworthy. Upon the accession of Edward VII. of
England, that king, who had been elaborately entertained by Miss Lane
and her uncle at the White House during his visit to this country in
1860, sent to Mrs. Johnston a personal invitation to be present at his
approaching coronation; and his cordial letter showed in what high
esteem he held the gracious lady whose kindness to him in his youth had
dwelt so long in his memory. It was a deserved recognition of the charm
that had made notable the last lady ruler of the White House in its days
of social eminence, and the act was as graceful as deserved.

So, in Harriet Lane Johnston, we find the last surviving memory of the
court society of the elder days of our country. With her exit from the
White House went also the traditions of the social past, and with her
exit from life will go also the last of a line of acknowledged rulers,
little less than regal in their dignities, of the social world of
America.

It is now necessary to turn again to the subject of the war between the
sections. Darker and darker grew the threatening cloud, until it was
rent by a bolt which fell with fatal effect and set the whole land in a
blaze. This was the famous insurrection of John Brown, which knew its
inception and inglorious end at Harper's Ferry. It is not easy for us at
this time to appreciate the aspects of "John Brown's raid," as it
presented itself to the North and the South, and the aspect which it
especially bore to the women of th