ollowing
tribute to her husband in the preface of his Life:--

"Admiral Dahlgren was a man of science, of inventive genius, of
professional skill; but beyond all these, he was a _patriot_. While
climbing, at first with slow and toilsome but reliant steps, and, later
on, with swifter, surer progress, that summit to which his genius urged
him, he was often and again confronted by the clamor of discontent, the
jealousies of his profession, and the various forms of opposition his
rapid, upward course evoked; and until the present generation of actors
in the great drama in which he played so conspicuous part shall have
passed away, it will be difficult to gain an impartial opinion. Yet
Death having arrested his ultimate conceptions while yet midway in his
career, and set the final seal upon his actions, we are content to leave
the verdict of a 'last appeal' to his beloved country and the hearts of
a grateful people."

Two years later I attended another meeting of this Historical Society at
the residence of Henry Strong, who built and owned the house on K Street
now occupied by Mrs. Stephen B. Elkins, and for a time resided there. It
was a brilliant assemblage and it deemed itself fortunate in having
Moncure D. Conway, the distinguished historical writer and essayist, as
the orator of the evening. He spoke upon the leaders of the Federal
party during the formative period of our national government, and soon
made it apparent that his sympathies were not with them. He was strongly
denunciatory of the Federalists, going so far even as to brand some of
them as traitors, and especially criticized Jay's Treaty with England in
1794 which was their pet creation. He spoke at some length of Oliver
Wolcott, one of the most prominent Federalists of that day, entirely
ignorant meanwhile of the fact that some members of the Tuckerman
family, his descendants, were in the audience. At this time Mr. Conway
was writing the life of Thomas Paine, which has since been published,
and the morning after his lecture on the Federal party he called upon me
to ascertain whether any unpublished information relating to Paine,
which might aid him in his projected biography of the latter, was to be
found in the private papers of James Monroe which were in my possession.
During our conversation I ventured to remark to Mr. Conway that possibly
he was not aware that the previous evening certain descendants of Oliver
Wolcott were in his audience. He responded