Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/112

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THE REPUBLICAN COURT.

General Mifflin, who was there also, "added to the vivacity of a Frenchman every obliging characteristic;" and Colonel Duer, Secretary to the Treasury Board, united to great abilities much goodness of heart. Soon after, the young student of democracy was invited to a dinner party at the house of Cyrus Griffin, the President of Congress, and he gives us a glimpse of the toilettes of the ladies, whereof, for a Parisian, he seems to have been somewhat fastidiously critical:

"Mr. Griffin is a Virginian,[1] of very good abilities, of an agreeable figure, affable and polite. I saw at his house, at dinner, seven or eight women, all dressed in great hats, plumes, &c. It was with pain that I remarked much of pretension in some of these women; one acted the giddy, vivacious; another, the woman of sentiment. This last had many pruderies and grimaces. Two among them had their bosoms very naked. I was scandalized at this indecency among republicans. A President of Congress is far from being surrounded with the splendor of European monarchs; and so much the better. He is not durable in his station; and so much the better. He does not give pompous dinners; he never forgets that he is a simple citizen, and will soon return to the station of one; and so much the better. He has fewer parasites, and less means of corruption. I remarked, that his table was freed from many usages observed elsewhere: no fatiguing presentations, no toasts, so annoying in a numerous society. Little wine was drank after the women had retired. These traits will give you an idea of the temperance of this country — temperance, the leading virtue of republicans."

Among the houses at which M. Brissot dined, was Mr. Jay's.

  1. ↑ M. de Warville was slightly mistaken; Mr. Gritfin was a native of England, and connected by marriage with an ancient and noble family of Scotland; but he had been conspicuous for his devotion to American liberty, and few men from Virginia shared more largely the respect and confidence of Washington.
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