respects to the guests of honor.

The next year Horace Greeley was the orator of the day at the Frederick
fair, and it fell to our lot to entertain him. He wrote the following
letter to my husband:--

NEW YORK TRIBUNE, New York, Oct. 1, 1871.

Dear Sir:

I expect to be duly on hand to fulfil my engagement to speak
at your County Fair and to stop with you, if that shall be
agreeable to those who have invited me. Will you please see
Mr. C. H. Keefer who invites me and say to him that I am
subject to his order and, with his consent, I shall gladly
accept your invitation.

Yours,

HORACE GREELEY.

S. L. Gouverneur, Esq.,
Frederick, Maryland.

As Mr. Greeley about this time was appearing upon the political horizon
as a prospective presidential candidate, much interest was naturally
centered in his visit. His appearance was decidedly interesting. He was
of the blond type, past middle life and in dress anything but _a la
mode_. I am no student of physiognomy, but if the question had been
asked I should have said that his most prominent trait of character was
benevolence. He wore during this memorable visit the characteristic
white hat, miniature imitations of which during his presidential
candidacy became a campaign badge. I am the fortunate possessor of two
of these souvenirs. They are made of white metal and are attached to
brown ribbons, the color of the latter standing for B. Gratz Brown, the
candidate for Vice-President upon the Greeley ticket.

This visit was the pleasing forerunner of a sincere friendship between
my husband and Horace Greeley. In our intimate association of a few days
we recognized as never before his conscientious purpose and intellectual
power, and Mr. Gouverneur was so deeply impressed by his remarkable
ability and sterling character that later in the same year he started a
newspaper in Frederick, which he called _The Maryland Herald_, with a
view of advocating his nomination for the Presidency. My husband had
never before been especially interested in politics, but he now entered
the political arena with all the enthusiasm of his intense nature, and,
at a mass meeting in Frederick, was chosen a delegate to the National
Liberal Republican Convention in Cincinnati, which resulted in the
nomination of Greeley and Brown. Although this party was largely
composed of Republicans who had become dissatisfied with the Gra