was the reason he dined at Mrs. White's last Sunday. He receives invitations constantly every day I believe, to dine out."

General Washington's Diary at this time bears witness to the accuracy of this piece of "antedeluvian gossip.' In it he says: "Dined at Dr. White's (Bishop of Penn.), dined with Bingham (Mrs. Bingham née Willing was the leader of fashion in Philadelphia at that time), with President Adams, 180 High Street, and also with Robert Morris" who was then in the debtor's apartment of the old Walnut Street Prison at Sixth and Walnut. Robert Morris who practically financed the Revolution had become bankrupt and suffered the rigors of the law. Stoddert is said by family tradition to have lent him $30,000 dollars—which he lost by Morris's failure.

The only record of the table talk of the "Cincinnatus of the West" is "that even General Washington talked of ladies wearing wigs" and Mrs. Stoddert bows to him as an arbiter of fashion-a new rôle for the hero of Valley Forge and Trenton.

Washington died on the 14th of December, 1799. On the 26th of the same month there was a memorial service for him in Philadelphia, and Ben. Stoddert and James McHenry were two of the pall bearers, according to the account in the Centinel newspaper of that week. Elizabeth Stoddert22 wrote to "My dear Miss Lowndes," her Mother's sister, of the "Funeral Eulogium by General Lee" and of "the most splendid procession ever seen in America."

In 1800 the Government removed to Washington and the "Navy Office" was established at 2107 Pennsylvania Avenue. The family of the Secretary returned

22 Afterwards wife of Dr. Thomas Ewell and mother of Lt. Gen. Ewell, C. S. A.

to their old home in Georgetown, where Mrs. Stoddert died a few years later and is buried at Addison's Chapel in Maryland. She left eight children and Mr. Stoddert proved himself a tender and judicious father to them, and they regarded him with a fondness and admiration rare in these days of parental criticism.

Before the Government was removed to Washington, McHenry resigned the Secretaryship of War and Mr. Adams wrote to Stoddert as follows:

"TO BENJAMIN STODDERT.

"PHILADELPHIA, 26 May, 1800. "Sir,—I hereby request you on the 1st of June, or whenever Mr. McHenry shall leave the war office, to take upon you the charge of that office, and I hereby invest you with full power and authority to exercise all the functions of secretary of the department of war, and charge you with all the duties and obligations attached by law to that office, until a successor regularly appointed and commissioned shall appear to relieve you.

"I am, etc.,

"JOHN ADAMS."

"B. STODDERT TO JOHN ADAMS.

"PHILADELPHIA, 26 May, 1800.

"Sir, I have the honor of your direction of this day's date, for me to take upon myself the charge of the war office, and to exercise all the functions of secretary of the department of war, from the first day of June, or from the time Mr. McHenry shall leave the office, until a successor regularly appointed and commissioned shall appear to relieve me; which I shall attend to with great cheerfulness, but under the hope that I may be soon relieved from the duties enjoined on me. "I have the honor to be etc., etc.,

"BEN. STODDERT.”

In March, 1801, when Jefferson became President, Mr. Stoddert was invited to remain in office, and did so for one month. Thus he was Secretary of the Navy

under two rival Administrations, and of War also for some weeks, but owing to the unpopularity of the Federalists, neither Mr. Adams nor he received the credit due that Administration for creating "the nucleus of the gallant little Navy which won such triumphs over England in 1812."

Charles W. Goldsborough, who was appointed to office in the Navy Department in 1798, served in it continuously for nearly forty years. He said of Stoddert's appointment as Secretary, that it was the best that could have been made, as "to the most ardent patriotism he united an inflexible integrity, a discriminating mind, great capacity for business and a most persevering industry.

An apparent proof of his success in organization is that in this very year of 1916 "The Judge Advocate General has lately recommended the codification of the articles for the government of the navy. There has been no revision of the articles since 1800, and many of them are antiquated. They were formulated to apply to the navy in the days of sailing ships."

The appropriation for the Navy which Mr. Stoddert's report (as head of the organized department) influenced Congress to make on February 25, 1799, was for one million dollars, less than has lately been allowed for one Navy Yard. With that amount he managed to build a Navy,-which John Adams says "called suddenly into existence by a great national exigency, has raised us in our own esteem and by the protection afforded our commerce, has effected to the extent of our expectations the objects for which it was created. ''23

The last appearance in public of Major Stoddert was 23''Life and Works of John Adams," by Charles Francis Adams, Vol. IX, page 145. Little, Brown & Co., 1854.

at the funeral of his old friend, General Lingan, who was killed during the attack of a Baltimore mob on A. C. Hanson, editor in 1812 of the Baltimore Federal Republican newspaper. General "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, who was sent to put down the revolt, received grave injuries from which he never recovered. Lingan's mangled body was not allowed to be given to his family, 24 but the people assembled in multitudes near Georgetown for funeral services, at which Colonel Stuart and Major Stoddert, both old Revolutionary soldiers, supported on the platform the venerable Major Musgrove, "disfigured by wounds received in the midnight defence of the Federal journal." The oration was by G. W. P. Custis, Washington's adopted grand

son.

The man who won the confidence of Washington, the affection of Adams, the esteem of Jefferson, the intimate friendship of Lighthorse Harry Lee and Francis Scott Key, the respect of Aaron Burr, the warm support of Truxton and Decatur, was, as he said of himself, but a "poor politician." Yet he gave to his country the unstinted service of his best years and never forfeited his integrity for place, power or wealth. He died in 1813 and was laid at Addison's Chapel, Maryland, beside his wife. His best legacy to his children was the record of his patriotic life, and the motto which inspired it

DENIQUE DECUS.

24 Says G. W. P. Custis in his "Recollections," Charles Oscar Paullin,

WALTER LENOX, THE THIRTEENTH MAYOR OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.

BY ALLEN C. CLARK.

(Read before the Society, May 16, 1916.)

"His honor, the Mayor," was Walter Lenox titled; he was the thirteenth in the mayoral line. It is not necessary to tax the imagination to create a personage to dignifiedly bow to the salutation; for Walter Lenox has a counterpart in the facial lineaments even to the cut of the beard in the novelist, Charles Dickens. Walter's American ancestry were father and grandsire. The primal ancestor came from Scotland and settled in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the time the seat of the royal government.

Walter Lenox, the grandfather, married Miss Carter, of Williamsburg. Of their children was Peter, born in the city named, 1771. The father lost most of his fortune consequent to the war of the American Revolution,' and Peter, about 1802, came to the federal seat of government to find his fortune. He married Miss Margaret Wilkinson; they had a family fortune of thirteen children.

Peter Lenox was the foreman and then the Clerk of Works at the President's House. He was the Clerk of Works at the Capitol from October 31, 1817, to 1829. He had a lumber business and was early engaged in the

1 Peter was ambitious of a liberal education. He had no patrimony. He acquired the means of support for a few years. He entered the public schools of Richmond. He was forced to relinquish his design because of feeble strength and engage in active employment.

2 In the City Directory "Chief Carpenter."