210 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

and escorted into the city by the Wilmington Light Horse, a
volunteer organization, under the command of Colonel Cowan.
The entrance into the town was made on Market Street, the
boundary being on Fifth. They then proceeded down Market
to Front and up Front to the Wilmington Hotel, where the
usual formalities of a grand reception were tendered to the
President.

‘His Excellency was the guest, while here, of Robert Coch-
ran, Esq., who resided on Second Street, between Chestnut and
Mulberry; and John C. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, and his
Lady, received the hospitalities of Dr. A. J. DeRosset, sr., at
the brick house standing on the corner of Market and Third
Streets. It was on Thursday that the President arrived here,
and on Friday, accompanied by Judge Murphey, he paid a visit
to Wrightsville. On his return he partook of a dinner with the
citizens at the Wilmington Hotel and the next day left this
place on the steamer Prometheus for Fort Johnston, from
whence he proceeded immediately to Georgetown, S. C.”

At the dinner given in his honor, Hanson Kelly, Esq., pre-
sided, assisted by Robert Cochran, Esq. The former was magis-
trate of police (now the office of mayor), and the latter was the
collector of customs for the district of Cape Fear. There were
a number of patriotic toasts drunk, the list being published in
the papers of the day, and among those who responded were the
President, Hon. John C. Calhoun, J. R. London, Esq., Gen.
James Owen, Judge Archibald Murphey, Colonel Cleary,
Robert Cochran, Esq., John D. Jones, Esq., Gen. Thomas
Davis, William B. Meares, Esq., and Alfred Moore, Esq., all
prominent citizens of the Cape Fear in that day and time.

In a formal letter addressed to the President by Hanson
Kelly, Esq., on behalf of the citizens, occurs this sentiment:
“Events, the most propitious, have rendered your administra-
tion an epoch of national security and aggrandizement. The
united voice of your country, from Maine to Mexico, proclaim
the wisdom of councils honorable to you; and in their result,
glorious to our extended empire.” To this letter, the President
responded, as follows:

Srr: On the principle on which I have thought it proper to visit our
Atlantic frontier, this town, with its relation to the ocean, had a just
claim to attention. It was always my intention to visit it when TI
should be able to examine the Southern coast; and I am much gratified
in having done it, as, in addition to the satisfaction of having per-

Notable Incidents 911

formed an interesting part of my public duty, it has afforded me an
opportunity of becoming acquainted with a portion of my fellow-
citizens, whose kind reception and obliging attention I shall always
recollect with great interest. To secure you in peace, and all the
advantages in commerce which a kind Providence has enabled you to
enjoy, and all the protection in war, to which your situation may ex-
pose you, are objects which will never fail to receive the unwearied at-
tention of the General Government in all its branches, according to
their respective powers. On my exertions, in those concerns which fall
within the department which I have the honor to fill, you may con-
fidently rely. In the late event to which you allude, I concur in all
the favorable anticipations which you have suggested of its happy
effects on the best interests of our country. In contemplating this
epoch we must all derive peculiar satisfaction from the reflection
that it was the result of an arrangement by which our differences were
settled with a friendly power, and our peace secured against the pros-
pect of early interruption, on conditions equally honorable to both
parties.
Should I be able by my future conduct in the public service to carr
with me into retirement the same favorable opinion of my fellow-
citizens which you have kindly expressed of the past, it will afford me
the high consolation to which I have invariably aspired.
JAMES MONROE.

James K, Poxx, the eleventh President of the United States,
just after his retirement, visited Wilmington, upon invitation
of its citizens. The files of the newspapers published here at
the time, which will be found in the Wilmington Public Lib-
rary, contain reports of his reception. From the Commercial,
issue of Thursday, March 8, 1849, we clip this mention of his
visit :

“The ex-President, Mr. Polk, and Lady and Niece, together
with Mr. Secretary Walker and Niece, and Mr. Grahame, solic-
itor of the Treasury, and Lady, reached our town at 10 o’clock
yesterday morning. Their arrival was heralded by the boom-
ing of cannon, the ringing of bells, and the floating aloft of ban-
ners and streamers from stalls, housetops, and mastheads. The
magistrate of police, Col. James T. Miller, the Committee of
Arrangements, and a large concourse of citizens were ready at
the railroad to receive the ex-President and suite, and they were
greeted by Colonel Miller in a brief and cordial address, to
which the ex-President warmly responded. The whole suite
was then escorted, according to the program heretofore pub-
lished, to Mrs. Swann’s boarding-house, on the balcony of which,
in view and hearing of the assembled crowd, Mr. William Hill
welcomed the ex-President and suite in a cordial, chaste, and