856. BONAPARTE (Jerome), Marriage of.—
A report reaches us from Baltimore,
* * * that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother
of the First Consul, is married to Miss Patterson,
of that city. The effect of this measure
on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me
to suppose; but as it might occur to him,
prima facie, that the Executive of the United
States ought to have prevented it, I have
thought it advisable to mention the subject to
you, that, if necessary, you may by explanation
set that idea to rights. You know that by
our laws, all persons are free to enter into
marriage, if of twenty-one years of age, no one
having a power to restrain it, not even their
parents; and that under that age, no one can
prevent it but the parent or guardian. The
lady is under age, and the parents, placed between
her affections, which were strongly fixed,
and the considerations opposing the measure,
yielded with pain and anxiety to the former.
Mr. Patterson is the President of the Bank
of Baltimore, the wealthiest man in Maryland,
perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll;
a man of great virtue and respectability;
the mother is the sister of the lady of General
Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station
of the family in society is with the first of
the United States. These circumstances fix
rank in a country where there are no hereditary
titles.—
To Robert R. Livingston. Washington ed. iv, 510.
Ford ed., viii, 277.
(W.
Nov. 1803)
