And so he was--a man of tremendous force of character, yet of surpassing sweetness of disposition; singularly disdainful of office, and indeed of preferment of every sort; a profuse maker and a prodigal spender of money; who, his needs and recognition assured, cared nothing at all for what he regarded as the costly glories of the little great men who rattled round in places often much too big for them.
Immediately succeeding Mr.Polk, and such a youth in appearance, he attracted instant attention.

His father, my grandfather, allowed him a larger income than was good for him--seeing that the per diem then paid Congressmen was altogether insufficient--and during the earlier days of his sojourn in the national capital he cut a wide swath; his principal yokemate in the pleasures and dissipations of those times being Franklin Pierce, at first a representative and then a senator from New Hampshire.
Fortunately for both of them, they were whisked out of Washington by their families in 1843; my father into the diplomatic service and Mr.
Pierce to the seclusion of his New England home.

They kept in close touch, however, the one with the other, and ten years later, in 1853, were back again upon the scene of their rather conspicuous frivolity, Pierce as President of the United States, my father, who had preceded him a year or two, as editor of the Washington Union, the organ of the Administration.
When I was a boy the national capital was still rife with stories of their escapades.

One that I recall had it that on a certain occasion returning from an excursion late at night my father missed his footing and fell into the canal that then divided the city, and that Pierce, after many fruitless efforts, unable to assist him to dry land, exclaimed, "Well, Harvey, I can't get you out, but I'll get in with you," suiting the action to the word.

And there they were found and rescued by a party of passers, very well pleased with themselves.
My father's absence in South America extended over two years.