Dolly Madison - Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison

MEMOIRS AND LETTERS

OF

DOLLY MADISON

WIFE OF JAMES MADISON,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

EDITED BY

HER. GRAND-NIECE,

LUCIA BEVERLY CUTTS

1886

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Dolly Madisons favorite niece was Mary Cutts, the daughter of her sister Ana and Richard Cutts. It was Mary Cutts who saved and transcribed her aunts letters and twice attempted a biography of Dolly. One manuscript is in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard; the other is at the Library of Congress. Neither saw publication. The book youre reading was the first published biography of Dolly Madison and drew from the Mary Cutts collection.

Lucia Beverly Cutts (1851June 10, 1934) was Dollys grand-niece, the daughter of Ana Payne Cutts granddaughter. Little can be found about Lucia Cutts beyond directory entries and a Massachusetts death index. She apparently never married and died in Boston.

IN undertaking a little sketch of this nature, I am quite conscious that a relative has peculiar temptations to be partial,a temper of mind which Mrs. Madison, in the great simplicity of her character, would most cordially have disliked; and therefore, though the skill may be wanting, the endeavor will be to give facts, anecdotes, and letters, as they were handed down by near relatives, privileged to live in her household and enjoy her confidence, suppressing nothing that could interest the many who admire and respect her memory. As those who have seen Mrs. Madisons features and heard her voice are becoming yearly fewer, the number who take an interest in bygone days, and the prominent men and women who figured in history and society, when our country was yet in its infancy, is rapidly increasing; indeed, our great-grandmothers and grandfathers shape themselves before our eyes, and assume new interest, as pictures of the life and influences of those early days are brought before us.

I propose to lay before the public a series of private letters, written, without the most remote idea of publication, by a woman to her nearest and dearest relations; and their value consists in the fact, capable of no misconception, that they furnish an exact transcript of the feelings of the writer, in times of no ordinary trial.

If it were possible to get at the expression of feelings by women in the heart of a community more frequently, recorded in a shape designed to be confidential, it would serve to present the surest and most unfailing idea of its general character.

Whether deliberating in the Senate, or fighting in the field, our strength against Great Britain was never that of numbers, nor of wealth, nor of genius; it drew its nourishment from a more potent source: from the sentiment that pervaded the dwellings of the entire population. How much this sentiment did then, and does now, depend upon the character of our women will be too readily understood to require explanation.

The domestic hearth is the scene of the almost exclusive sway of women, and great as the influence thus exercised undoubtedly is, it escapes observation in such manner that history rarely takes much account of it. The maxims of religion, faith, hope, and charity, are instilled by them into the teachings of infancy, thus supplying the only high and pure motives of which mature manhood can, in its subsequent action, ever boast.

John Payne, the grandfather of Mrs. Madison, was an English gentleman of wealth and education, who emigrated to this country and settled on the James River, in the county of Goochland, Virginia. He married Anna Fleming, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Fleming, second son of the Earl of Wigton, of Scotland, and also an emigrant to the Colony, who landed at Jamestown and established himself in Kent County, where he lived until his death.

John Payne the second, the father of Mrs. Madison, left home at an early age to take charge of a plantation in North Carolina given him by his father. He there married Mary Coles, daughter of William Coles, a native of Enniscorthy, Ireland. Her mother, whose maiden name was Philpot, was an aunt of Virginias orator, Patrick Henry.

The devout believer in the transmission of family qualities will be content with the inheritance of Dolly Madison from this mother and grandmother, both noted for their beauty and popularity. Mary Coles was a great belle, having many admirers,among them the young Thomas Jefferson, whose promising talents were even then appreciated. In spite, however, of the persistency of friends, John Payne was the favored suitor, and shortly after his marriage purchased an estate in Hanover County, Virginia, within driving distance of Coles Hill, the residence of his father-in-law.

Towards the close of her life, Mrs. Madison frequently recalled the home of her childhood, dwelling upon the great black marble mantelpieces, supported by white figures. The house was called Scotch-town because of the emigrants, and was surrounded by a number of small brick houses, attached to the main building, which was very large, having as many as twenty rooms on a floor.

John Payne was the father of six children, of whom the second is the subject of this memoir. Much might be said of unusual charms discovered by adoring parents during her infancy. Dorothy Payne first opened her eyes on this world, which she was destined so thoroughly to enjoy, on the 20th May, 1772, in North Carolina, where her parents were visiting; and was named Dorothy for her mothers aunt, Mrs. Patrick Henry.

Both father and mother were strict members of the Society of Friends, and Dollys childhood was passed quietly in their country home until she reached the age of twelve years. A favorite with all, she was the particular pet and companion of her grandmother, who often made her happy by surreptitious presents of old-fashioned jewelry, and not daring to wear them before her father and mother, she sewed them into a bag, which was tied around her neck, and concealed beneath her little frock. Almost the first grief of her childhood was the loss of this precious bag, discovered in school, after a long ramble through the woods, during which the string must have become unfastened, scattering the treasure where days of searching proved of no avail.

The cultivation of the female mind at that time was regarded with utter indifference) It may have been that the example of Mrs. Hutchinson in the early Colony days had not yet effaced from the mind of the public a conviction of the danger that may attend the meddling of women with abstruse points of doctrine. And also it was the fashion to ridicule learned women. The little country school to which Dolly Payne wended her way for the first twelve years was of the simplest description. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were all that was considered necessary, and though her educational advantages were greater after their removal to Philadelphia, her life until she married was rigidly simple and quiet, giving no scope for that intuitive tact and knowledge of character which was so conspicuous in after years

Equipped with a white linen mask to keep every ray of sunshine from the complexion, a sun-bonnet sewed on her head every morning by her careful mother, and long gloves covering the hands and arms, one can see the prim little figure starting off for school, with books under her arm, and the dear but wicked baubles safely hidden beneath the severely plain Quaker dress.

MR. PAYNE was one of the first of his sect in Virginia to become doubtfuland later conscientiously scrupulousabout the right of slavery. He was called a fanatic, but persisted in his views, selling his plantation and giving freedom to all the slaves. Several of the most devoted servants refused to go, and these he took with him to Philadelphia, whither he moved with his family in 1786, with but one aim in viewthe better maintenance of his religious character. There he became an Elder, spoke with great effect at the Meetings, and was called a Quaker preacher.