XI.
ANGELICA VAN BUREN.
The era in which Hannah Van Buren lived was far removed from her husband’s ascension to the Presidency, for she had been dead seventeen years, when, in 1837, that event occurred. He remained a widower, and, but for the presence of his accomplished daughter-in-law, his administration would have been socially a failure. The prestige of his high position was not complete until the honors were shared with his young relative.
Angelica Singleton, the daughter of Richard Singleton, Esq., was born in Sumpter District, South Carolina. Her grandfather Singleton, and her great-grandfather General Richardson, served with distinction in the revolutionary war. On the maternal side, her grandfather, John Coles, Esq., of Albemarle county, Virginia, was the intimate and valued friend of Presidents Jefferson and Madison, and two of his sons were respectively their private secretaries during their Presidential terms.
Miss Singleton’s early advantages were in keeping with her elevated social position. To complete an education superior to the generality of her sex at that day, she spent several years at Madame Grelaud’s seminary, in Philadelphia. The winter previous to her marriage, she passed in Washington, in the family of her kinsman, Senator William C. Preston. Soon after her arrival, her cousin, the justly celebrated Mrs. Madison, procured the appointment of a day to present her to the President, accompanied also by Senator Preston’s family. Her reception was a very flattering one, and she became a great favorite with President Van Buren. In November of the year following (1838), she was married at her father’s residence, to Colonel, then Major, Van Buren, the President’s eldest son, and his private secretary—a graduate of West Point and long an officer in the army. Her first appearance as the lady of the White House was on the following New Year’s day, when, supported by the ladies of the cabinet, she received with the President.
The following brief though favorable cotemporaneous notice of that occasion is taken from a long and racy account by a correspondent of the Boston Post, of the movements at the capital on New Year’s day:
“The Executive Mansion was a place of much more than usual attraction in consequence of the first appearance there of the bride of the President’s son and private secretary, Mrs. Abram Van Buren. She is represented as being a lady of rare accomplishments, very modest, yet perfectly easy and graceful in her manners, and free and vivacious in her conversation. She was universally admired and is said to have borne the fatigue of a three hours’ levee with a patience and pleasantry which must be inexhaustible to last one through so severe a trial. A constant current set from the President’s house to the modest mansion of the much respected lady of ex-President Madison. Ex-President Adams and his lady were also cordially greeted at their residence by a number of friends.”
Mrs. Van Buren is the only daughter of South Carolina who has graced the White House as hostess, and her life there was rendered as entirely agreeable as the combined influences of wealth, station, and refinement could make it. The reminiscences of her early life carry us back to a period when South Carolina enjoyed the distinction of sharing with Virginia the honor of being the seat of elegant hospitality and refined culture. Under the benign influences of a matchless climate and great wealth, the people of the Palmetto State enjoyed the leisure and opportunity of developing all those characteristics which adorn humanity and render life attractive. The citizens of this State were fortunate in being the descendants of the best families of Virginia, and Mrs. Van Buren was a most pleasing representative of this old aristocracy.
Perhaps no aristocracy in this country was ever so entirely modeled after the ways and habits of the English nobility as that of Virginia and South Carolina. The people were enabled, through the institution of slavery, to keep up a style of living impossible under other conditions, and they had the wealth and the inclination to be its successful imitators. They were a monarchial class in a republican government.
The position of Mrs. Van Buren’s family was always such that all the avenues of intellectual enjoyment were open to her, while her natural endowments were of that high order which rendered cultivation rapid and pleasant. Added to her many gifts was the irresistible one of beauty of form and deportment. The engraving, from a portrait by Inman, painted soon after the time of her marriage, represents the exceeding loveliness of her charming person. More potent than mere regularity of features is the gentle, winning expression of her clear black eyes; and the smile about her finely chiselled lips betokens the proud serenity of her most fortunate life.
Mrs. Van Buren was, on her mother’s side, descended from a long line of ancestors, and the genealogical tables of the family discover many of the leading names of American politicians and statesmen. Aside from mere wealth, they possessed abilities which, in many instances, secured them the highest position in the gift of their government. Prominent among these was her uncle, Mr. Stevenson, Minister to England. In the spring of 1839, Colonel and Mrs. Van Buren made a rapid visit to Europe, returning at the request of the President in the following fall in time for the session of Congress. While abroad, they enjoyed the most unusual social advantages, being members of the President’s family, and she a niece of the American ambassador, who had been a resident of London several years. They were in London during the whole of the season of the year following the queen’s coronation, which derived especial brilliancy from the presence of the present Emperor of Russia, Prince Henry of Orange, and other foreigners of note.
No American lady has ever visited Europe under similar circumstances. Nor have any of her countrywomen made a more lasting impression than did this young representative of the President’s family. By her cultivated, unassuming manners she made herself most agreeable to the court circles of England, and maintained in the saloons of royalty the simplicity and dignity of her republican education.
Mrs. Stevenson was the chaperon of Mrs. Van Buren on all public occasions, and the recollections of evenings spent with her at “Almack’s,” at the Palace, and in the society of the cultured and noble, were always sunny memories in the heart of her niece.
Major Van Buren’s position as private secretary rendered their unexampled and most fortunate visit to England of short duration. To reach America before the meeting of Congress, they left London for the continent. In the course of their hurried tour, they passed some weeks in Paris, and were presented by the American minister, General Cass, to the king and queen. They were invited to dine at St. Cloud, and were received with the kind, unceremonious manner which, it is well known, distinguished all the members of that branch of the Orleans family. After dinner, Louis Philippe conducted them through the rooms of the Palace, even to the door of the sleeping apartment, as he supposed, of his grandson, the Comte De Paris, at which he knocked without obtaining any response. The queen, having been told by Mrs. Van Buren on her return of what had happened, said, laughingly, “Ah! that is all the king knows about it! After his mother left with the Duc D’Orleans for Algiers, I caused the child to be removed to a room nearer my own.” She then proposed to send for him, and for her Wurtemberg grandchild also, but unfortunately for the gratification of her guest’s natural curiosity, the little princes were fast asleep.
After the expiration of President Van Buren’s term of office, Mrs. Van Buren and her husband lived with him at Lindenwald through several years of his retirement, passing much of the winter months with her parents in South Carolina, and in 1848 establishing themselves in the city of New York, which has since been their home uninterruptedly, except by visits to the South, rendered necessary by the death of her father and the consequent charge of her patrimonial estate, and by a three years’ absence in Europe, superintending the education of their sons.
Mrs. Van Buren’s middle life was spent in New York, where she lived a pleasant existence, surrounded by her family, and in the midst of a charming social circle. Her career was an exceptionally prosperous one, and she enjoyed life thoroughly. She was a cultivated, elegant-mannered person, considerate of others, sweet in disposition, and gracious in speech. Her home was the centre of elegant hospitality, and in the gayest city on this continent she was accounted a society leader. She was an unselfish woman, and she was never tardy in employing her gifts or her means in behalf of others. Prosperous and educated to the enjoyment of wealth; cultured and inclined to appreciate all that was pleasing and beautiful in life, her career is a delightful one to chronicle. She knew sorrow in the early death of two of her children; and in later years the loss of relatives and friends cast a momentary gloom about her. But few earthly lives have been so unvaryingly even and free from strong contrasts. Up to the time of her death (which occurred the 29th of December, 1878) she was a lady upon whom it was a pleasure to look; whose bearing discovered aristocratic lineage, and cultivation under happy conditions.