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Five page hand-written letter by Mary Collings writing to her mother from her residence in Washington D.C. dated March 2nd 1889 .
Mrs. Collings gives a very personal account of the inaugural ceremonies and meeting President Cleveland and his demeanor and appearance among other related political topics.
The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former Senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections (and second within 12 years) in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.
*Here are just some of the highlights of this letter for your enjoyment. Please take the opportunity to read the letter in full.
*The crowd this morning on Pennsylvania Avenue is terrible…It seems of life and limb to join it on Monday. The Star (Newspaper) say’s tonight that the parade will probably be the most imposing since the Grand Reunion in 1863!
*I was present at the President’s last reception… but one. But I never felt sorry for Cleveland until I saw him. Until then I never had no thought what a national defeat meant? Poor old fellow he had been lately compelled to witness the election of his political “defeat” unfold in the stands for spectators of his rivals triumph . If he resented that destiny that permitted jubilant Republicans to mingle with party sympathizers before him, nothing of the kind in his manner was kind and courteous. This was very different from his pictures which made him look older his mustache and hair being gray…and there is no frown on his face. He must be very short as I had to stoop to speak to him. His voice is astonishingly like of our friend E.P.Evans. Garfield is numerously represented here, to my surprise more than Lincoln or Grant.
*A place of sad interest is in the depot Garfield was shot.
*There is a heroic bronze statue of him (Garfield) in the western portico of the Capitol. In addition a statue of him in the Hall of Representatives and a mosiac of him in the senate. And a full length portrait of him in the White House.
*I have gone twice to Dr. Lundesland’s church to hear see (President Cleveland) and I am going to the Metropolitan to see the beautiful Chinese who came in for a share of Piatts ridicule of Grant (President Ulysses S. Grant)
ref: Collings/Kirker/Gibson archive ephemera box
Mrs. Collings gives a very personal account of the inaugural ceremonies and meeting President Cleveland and his demeanor and appearance among other related political topics.
The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former Senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections (and second within 12 years) in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.
*Here are just some of the highlights of this letter for your enjoyment. Please take the opportunity to read the letter in full.
*The crowd this morning on Pennsylvania Avenue is terrible…It seems of life and limb to join it on Monday. The Star (Newspaper) say’s tonight that the parade will probably be the most imposing since the Grand Reunion in 1863!
*I was present at the President’s last reception… but one. But I never felt sorry for Cleveland until I saw him. Until then I never had no thought what a national defeat meant? Poor old fellow he had been lately compelled to witness the election of his political “defeat” unfold in the stands for spectators of his rivals triumph . If he resented that destiny that permitted jubilant Republicans to mingle with party sympathizers before him, nothing of the kind in his manner was kind and courteous. This was very different from his pictures which made him look older his mustache and hair being gray…and there is no frown on his face. He must be very short as I had to stoop to speak to him. His voice is astonishingly like of our friend E.P.Evans. Garfield is numerously represented here, to my surprise more than Lincoln or Grant.
*A place of sad interest is in the depot Garfield was shot.
*There is a heroic bronze statue of him (Garfield) in the western portico of the Capitol. In addition a statue of him in the Hall of Representatives and a mosiac of him in the senate. And a full length portrait of him in the White House.
*I have gone twice to Dr. Lundesland’s church to hear see (President Cleveland) and I am going to the Metropolitan to see the beautiful Chinese who came in for a share of Piatts ridicule of Grant (President Ulysses S. Grant)
ref: Collings/Kirker/Gibson archive ephemera box
