ndover in
Massachusetts, when the child was accidentally killed. Mrs. Pierce never
could be diverted from her all-absorbing sorrow, and I shall always
remember the grief-stricken expression of this first Lady of the Land.
Her maiden name was Jane Means Appleton, and she was the daughter of the
Rev. Dr. Jesse Appleton, President of Bowdoin College. During the Pierce
administration, Judge John Cadwalader, the father of the present John
Cadwalader of Philadelphia, was a member of Congress. The son was then a
mere lad, but he bore such a strong resemblance to the President's son
that one day when Mrs. Pierce met him she was completely overcome. After
this boy had become a man and had attained exceptional eminence at the
bar, he feelingly alluded to this touching incident of his earlier days.

I was very intimately acquainted with Elizabeth and Fanny MacNeil,
President Pierce's nieces, who were occasional visitors at the White
House. They were daughters of General John MacNeil, U.S.A., who had
acquitted himself with distinction in the War of 1812. Elizabeth
married, as before stated, General Henry W. Benham of the Engineer Corps
of the Army, and Fanny became the wife of Colonel Chandler E. Potter,
U.S.A. Dr. Thomas Miller was our family physician for many years. He
came to Washington from Loudoun County, Virginia, and married Miss
Virginia Collins Jones, daughter of Walter Jones, an eminent lawyer.
During the Pierce administration he was physician to the President's
family.

CHAPTER XI

MARRIAGE AND CONTINUED LIFE IN WASHINGTON

I met my future father-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, Sr., for the first
time in Cold Spring, New York. Mr. Gouverneur, accompanied by his second
wife, then a bride, who was Miss Mary Digges Lee, of Needwood, Frederick
County, Maryland, and a granddaughter of Thomas Sim Lee, second Governor
of the same state, was the guest of Gouverneur Kemble. When I first knew
Mr. Gouverneur he possessed every gift that fortune as well as nature
can bestow. To quote the words of Eliab Kingman, a lifelong friend of
his and who for many years was the Nestor of the Washington press, "he
even possessed a seductive voice." General Scott, prior to my marriage
into the family, remarked to me that there "was something in Mr.
Gouverneur lacking of greatness."

The history of my husband's family is so well known that it seems almost
superfluous to dwell upon it, but, as these reminiscences are purely
personal, I