James Monroe and Figure - More Sources

So when I left off on this piece of research, one of the main sources I'd found detailing James Monroe's visit to Vermont in 1817 had no mention at all of Figure - or indeed any special horse at all.

It was clearly time for a new research angle. I headed to the research library of the Vermont Historical Society*, thinking I would see if they had any letters, diaries, or other primary source accounts by those who were there that day and saw James Monroe's visit.

At first glance, this was going to be a trickier proposition than I thought. None of the manuscript collections that had been indexed and described in finding aids mentioned James Monroe, or at least not his visit to Montpelier. There was one very interesting document in which members of the militia artillery company that saluted Monroe (per the description I quoted in the previous entry) signed an agreement to share the costs of powder and shot for that salute. The absence of easily indexed finding aids made the next option a general survey of all manuscripts dating from that period and tied to Montpelier - which I held off on, pondering my next move.

There were a few files on general Morgan horse history, so while I was waiting for those to be pulled, I went into the stacks in search of secondary sources.

There have been innumerable books and articles published on Morgan horse history, and the stacks at the Vermont Historical Society's library provided an excellent overview of secondary sources.

The first two sources I went to were the two earliest and most comprehensive. Daniel Chipman Linsley's
Morgan horses: a premium essay on the origin, history, and characteristics of this remarkable American breed of horses, published in 1857. He did the first detective work to find out where Figure came from, and collected the first 240 stallions for the general Morgan pedigree. I'll have a lot to write about Linsley in the future, as it's a fascinating book on many levels, but today I was primarily interested in seeing what he had to say about Monroe's visit.

Here was my first surprise of the evening: nothing. He had nothing whatsoever to say about Figure being used as a parade mount for James Monroe, though he had plenty to say about everything else connected to Figure.

Next source: Joseph Battell's Morgan Horse Register, published in 1894, which was the next major historical treatment of Figure. Same thing: no mention at all. Zip. Zero.

Now I was starting to get worried, and I double-checked my original sources for the claim that Figure was Monroe's parade mount. The statement appears, among other places, on the website of the National Museum of the Morgan Horse, so I didn't make it up entirely!

I started reading secondary sources in earnest, skimming hard and trying to track the earliest iteration of this story. It started cropping up again in the 20th century - victory! So sometime after 1894 but before 1942, when Marguerite Henry included a fictionalized version of it in Justin Morgan Had a Horse (though she places the parade in Burlington, not Montpelier).

Where did I find it?

Eleanor Waring Burnham's Justin Morgan, Founder of His Race: The Romantic History of a Horse. Here it is on Google Books. I have a whole series of posts planned on Burnham's book, which is amazing on many levels, but the long and short? It's a children's book. YA, maybe. It is highly, highly fictionalized, in the best tradition of Black Beauty.

Here's the passage as it appears at the very end of Burnham's book; she also places the parade in question in Burlington:

Suddenly over the face of President James Monroe there passed a look of keen interest, followed by one of intense admiration.

He had caught sight of Morgan, and his eye, unerring in its judgment of horseflesh, was arrested at once by his vigorous and fearless style. He turned to a group of officials. 

"I see, gentlemen," he said in a tone of genuine appreciation "that Vermont can produce a horse worthy of her heroes!"  

A moment later he had thrown his leg over the back of the proudest horse in America!

And then the book ends.

Is this really the source of the story? Had Burnham done some actual research that led her to include the story? Did she think it was just another colorful addition to the legend? If we're meant to take everything in the book as historical fact then there are some real doozies in there

More digging is necessary!

*In the interests of full disclosure, I work for the Vermont Historical Society, though not in the research library. 

James Monroe's Visit to Vermont in 1817: One Source

One of the oft-repeated set pieces of Figure's story is that in 1817, while he belonged to Samuel Stone of Montpelier, he served as a parade mount for President James Monroe.

First things first. James Monroe visited Montpelier, and in fact the entire state of Vermont, as part of a general tour of the northern states of the US shortly after becoming president. (By "northern states" at this time we basically are to read New England.) He spent 15 weeks touring, following a tradition apparently begun by George Washington. He had won the election in a landslide, and his two terms in office were marked by strong one-party control. He was enormously popular, and riding a wave of national optimism that was coined the "Era of Good Feelings." In fact, the phrase came about following an early stop on his northern tour, a stay in Boston.

James Monroe, c. 1819

So, what of his visit to Vermont? I have a lot to dig up to see what the original source to this story is, and therefore whether to lend it credence or not.

One good source that speaks generally about Monroe's New England tour in 1817 is a pamphlet written by Samuel Putnam Waldo and published in 1819. Titled "The Tour of James Monroe, President of the United States, Through the Northern and Eastern States, in 1817: His Tour in the Year 1818; Together with a Sketch of His Life; with Descriptive and Historical Notices of the Principal Places Through which He Passed" (yes, really) it is an exhaustive and lengthy treatise of where the president spent each hour of each day on his trip, and even what he had for breakfast. Thus it is that according to this pamphlet we can track Monroe's movements in Montpelier on July 22, 1817.

At 10, he was met and welcomed by the Committee of Arrangements, at Mr. Stiles' in Berlin. The procession was then formed, under direction of the Marshals, and proceeded to Montpelier.

A little before 11, a discharge of artillery announced the near approach of the Chief Magistrate of the nation. On entering the village, he alighted from his carriage, and proceeded with the cavalcade, on horseback, to the Academy, through the Main-street, lined one each side by citizens, under direction of Joseph Howes, Esq. Returning to the head of State Street, the President dismounted, was received by the First Light Company, commanded by Lieut. E. P. Walton, and conducted to the State House under a national salute from the Washington Artillery. 

Monroe never gets on a horse again. In fact, our friend Waldo is careful to say that he walked among the people with an uncovered head. At the end of his visit, he gets back into a carriage and continues on to Burlington.

No mention at all of a special horse that he rode during this very brief (one mile? two?) procession. This from the same author who makes sure to note that lunch that day was a "cold collation provided with admirable taste and elegance." Every notable person in Montpelier who gave a speech or commanded a militia company was mentioned. No Samuel Stone. No specific horse. This pamphlet is about as good as sources get. So where does the story come from?

Next steps: newspaper and diary accounts at the time.

(Waldo's pamphlet has been scanned and is available online through Google Books; the trip to Montpelier is on pages 240 - 244.)