Avenue, next to the Unitarian Church. His dining-room
was in the basement story, and it was seldom that he had not friends
at his hospitable table. Monica, the old colored woman, continued
to be his favorite cook, and her soft-shell crabs, terrapin, fried
oysters, and roasted canvas-back ducks have never been surpassed
at Washington, while she could make a regal Cape Cod chowder, or
roast a Rhode Island turkey, or prepare the old-fashioned New
Hampshire "boiled dinner," which the "expounder of the Constitution"
loved so well. Whenever he had to work at night, she used to make
him a cup of tea in an old britannia metal teapot, which had been
his mother's and he used to call this beverage his "Ethiopian
nectar." The teapot was purchased of Monica after Mr. Webster's
death by Henry A. Willard, Esq., of Washington, who presented it
to the Continental Museum at Indian Hill Farm, the author's
residence.

Under the influence of the new Administration, Congress passed the
several compromise measures in Mr. Clay's bill as separate acts.
The debate on each one was marked by acrimony and strong sectional
excitement, and each one was signed by President Fillmore amid
energetic protests from the Northern Abolitionists and the Southern
Secessionists. The most important one, which provided for the
rendition of fugitive slaves, he referred to Attorney-General
Crittenden before signing it, and received his opinion that it was
constitutional. When it was placed on the statute book, the Union
members of the House of Representatives organized a serenade to
President Fillmore and his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster.
The President bowed his acknowledgments from a window of the
Executive Mansion, but Mr. Webster came out on the broad doorstep
of his home, with a friend on either side of him holding a candle,
and, attired in a dressing gown, he commenced a brief speech by
saying, "Now is the summer--no! Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this son of York." This ended the speech
also.

The wife of President Fillmore was the daughter of the Rev. Lemuel
Powers, a Baptist clergyman. She was tall, spare, and graceful,
with auburn hair, light blue eyes, and a fair complexion. Before
her marriage she had taught school, and she was remarkably well-
informed, but somewhat reserved in her intercourse with strangers.
She did not come to Washington until after her husband became
President, and her delicate health