From the President General’s Mailbox: 5th Continental Congress

One of the best parts of serving as the 45^th President General is receiving all sorts of interesting mail from members, organizations, scholarship recipients, award winners, etc. Several months ago, I was delighted to receive an intriguing envelope from Susan Watkins, who has been a member of the Gen. Israel Putnam Chapter of Massachusetts since 1963. While sorting through her late mother’s papers, which “had survived, unopened, for several moves,” Ms. Watkins came upon reports of the 5^th Continental Congress, which had been conducted in the auditorium of a church in Washington, D.C., in February 1896. The 20 typed pages were presumably delivered as the report of chapter delegates at their March 5, 1896, meeting.

The pages were matched by our Historian General’s Office to the Official Proceedings published in the April 1896 DAR Magazine in order to confirm that they did, indeed, reflect the events of the National Society’s fifth annual congress. They were written by four women, whose National Numbers confirm them as early members. Unlike the formal proceedings, the women also recorded social events, notable attendees, decorations, clothing and other interesting highlights. While space does not allow me to include everything that they recorded, I thought that you might be interested in reading their insights via a few excerpted reflections from our annual meeting more than 125 years ago. (I have inserted occasional parenthetical references for clarity.)

“Mrs. Roberdeau Buchanan, Rec. Sec. General, had one of the most trying positions of any of the officers of the Congress and her patience is remarkable. She said the society had doubled in membership during the past year. In closing, Mrs. Buchanan gave a list of the banner states. Conn. leads in having 30 chapters and a membership of 1,649. New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts follow … New York City has the greatest number of members in any city or town. … Mrs. Philip Hichborn, Registrar General, stated that 4,306 Applications had been received, of which 4,020 had been verified.” 

“On Wed. morning considerable time was spent in discussing whether male or female attorneys should be employed by the National Board, which was finally left to the judgment of the National Officers. It was a very amusing debate in which the ‘new woman’ figured conspicuously”

“The (Wednesday) afternoon session was must turbulent, the scene at times defied description… Under very trying circumstances, when every one was trying to speak at once, Mrs. Foster called upon Mrs. Miranda Tulloch to preside; she did very well but could not keep the delegates in check, and the more latitude given them the worse they were. Nearly the entire afternoon was spent in discussion of the society magazine…(it) has been a bone of contention for a long time and it was picked clean.”

“One day (DAR Member) Mrs. U.S. Grant entered the church and was escorted to the platform. The ladies received her with generous handclapping, remaining on their feet until Mrs. Grant had taken her seat at the right of the President General.”

“An interesting group of children assembled at the White House and were made welcome by Mrs. Cleveland. They were members of the National Society Children of the American Revolution, and the cordial handshake and kindly ‘good morning’ extended to them by the wife of the President was a greeting that will doubtless be remembered by the little ones for many years to come….they proceeded singly into the Blue Parlor, where Mrs. Cleveland stood alone and shook hands with each.” (At the time, 57 C.A.R. societies contained 700 members.)