From the New Northwest (Portland, Or.), 4/21/1881, p. 6, c. 3

Miss Elizabeth L. Van Lew, of Richmond, Va., has written a card to the Washington Star in response to an unkind allusion to her visits to the White House, in which she says: “The purpose of my visit was to see the President; I was never permitted an interview, hence my repeated visits. I thought I had won a right, in times of peril, to courtesy and recognition there. The war which enriched many loyalists North impoverished our family. Only the most absolute need, from the great depression of my property, caused me to ask for the Richmond post office, and, with my record, I believe if the question was left to the nation, it would be decided in my favor.”

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