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296 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
dominated by Katharine Garrison Chapin, a poetess who also was
the wife of Francis Biddle (Biddle had been Attorney General of
the United States when Ezra was indicted for treason). When a
member of her group, Inez Boulton, suggested that a small house
be erected on the grounds of St. Elizabeths, to be paid for by
private subscription so that Ezra could carry on his work during
his incarceration, the project was immediately endorsed and
dubbed "the Biddle hut". The idea was that it later would be consecrated
as a shrine. Ezra would still be under guard within the
walls of St. Elizabeths, obedient to the terms of his commitment
and not posing a threat to the government, so that there seemed
to be no valid objection to the idea.
Nevertheless, one was found. The story was circulated that
"poor Ezra" was too mad to be allowed to occupy his little hut,
for he might wander out into one of the roadways that traverse the
grounds of St. Elizabeths and be struck down. None of the
poetasters in Mrs. Biddle's circle had ever bothered to visit Ezra,
who often strode about the grounds of the hospital, much more
alert, keen and vigorous than the shambling, dejected members of the
staff. The objection was accepted, and the project was abandoned.
Dorothy Pound told me that soon after her arrival in Washington,
she was invited to an "evening" at the Biddles'. She took in
the crowd, in her mild way, and was startled to see an exceptionally
fierce pair of eyes glaring at her from across the room. The
protruding orbs belonged to none other than Justice Felix Frankfurter,
one of her husband's most determined ideological opponents.
Dorothy Pound took her leave, nor did she visit the Biddles
again. As she remarked, she didn't care to be in the same room
with "such people".
Perhaps Ezra had encouraged her to accept this initial invitation,
for he was quite interested in that family. Nicholas Biddle had
been the American sponsor of the Bank of the United States, although
the real influence behind it was a European family. Ezra
often quoted to me a passage from the published correspondence
of Nicholas Biddle, which was not brought out until a century after
his death. The item was from a letter to Tom Cooper, dated May
8, 1837, in which Biddle boasted, "and as to mere power, I have