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gave a dinner to the President-elect on the 3d of March; and while Grant attended to the grave political complications of the hour, and arranged for the private inauguration of his successor in advance of the public one, Mrs. Grant dispensed her parting hospitalities under these delicate and unwonted circumstances.
She did not accompany her husband to the Capitol to see another man installed in the place which he had held; and it may not be improper to say just here, that as perhaps any wife in her situation would have been, Mrs. Grant was unwilling to have her husband retire; she had desired him to become a candidate for another term, and the dignity with which she relinquished her own honors and place receives to my mind an added illustration when this sentiment is known.
She prepared a suitable entertainment for the new occupants of the Executive Mansion, on their return from the Capitol to take her place from her. She invited the members of General Grant's Cabinet and their families, her own especial associates during the years of her pre-eminence, as well as others whom she thought it would be agreeable to the new President to meet.
She directed the establishment to be put in complete order so that its future mistress might find all that was necessary even to supply her table for at least a day; and having superintended the removal of the personal effects of her own family, the lady who had presided so long at the White House was ready to receive her successor and the new President when they arrived from the inauguration.
Then Mrs. Grant took the arm of President Hayes, and considering herself still the hostess, as she actually was, she sat at the head of the table.
Ex-President Grant of course took in Mrs. Hayes, and after the luncheon, which was an entertainment befitting the occasion, GeneralGrant and Mrs. Grant bade good-bye to the house where they had spent so many proud and happy hours.
Several of the ladies of the Cabinet told me of this scene, and confessed that they themselves
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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