WASHINGTON, D. C., January 10, 1866.
DEAR UNCLE:— Mrs. Grant is an unpretending, affectionate, motherly person who makes a good impression on everybody. Her naïveté is genuine and very funny at times. Boston sent a fund for a library to Grant. [Senator] Sumner and [Congressman] Hooper called to see Mrs. Grant about it. They asked her how much library room or space she had. "Well," she said, "I have given no attention to that. We have an old bookcase upstairs that isn't half full. It has a few Patent Office Reports and some other books in it. I don't think any of them are interesting books. I never read much. When I was a little girl my father gave me Josephus and another history. I forget what it was. I tried to read it and couldn't.” Sumner suggested “Rollins’ Ancient History.” "Yes, that is it. I couldn't read it and I haven't read much since. The Patent Office Reports I tried to read once, but couldn't. I put a lounge in the room where the bookcase is. I thought anybody who read the Patent Office Reports would want to lie down.”
Sumner asked her if she had read her husband’s report. She said: “When he was writing it, he was sometimes a little cross if interrupted. I came into his room and looked over his shoulder. He was pretty short. I asked him how he got along. He handed me three pages and I read them, but he didn't seem to want me, and I went out. I read what the New York Herald said about the general's report. It said it was the best since Cæsar's reports. So I called the general Cæsar. But after [a] while he didn't seem to like it, and said I must stop it.”
I think Mrs. Valette will appreciate this if she can read it.
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