A Day at the the First Presidential Assassination Attempt, 1835

The Illustrated Journal of Samuel Hewitt, Congressional Page

Jan 06, 2026

∙ Paid

Samuel Hewitt, Age 16, congressional page serving under Representative James K. Polk of Tennessee. Born in Baltimore to a widowed seamstress, Samuel secured his position through a family connection to a Tennessee merchant. He has served in the Capitol for eight months.

January 30, 1835 — 5:47 AM
Mrs. Crockett’s Boarding House, C Street Near the Capitol, Washington City

Photorealistic 16x9 photograph interior of a cramped 1835 Washington DC boarding house bedroom at pre-dawn lit only by single guttering tallow candle on rough wooden nightstand casting deep amber shadows A 16-year-old young man with slender _image_1

The creak of frozen floorboards. Darkness cut only by a single tallow candle guttering on a shared nightstand. The smell of rendered animal fat, stale wool blankets, and the chamber pot not yet emptied from the night. The metallic taste of a dry mouth. Three other young men stir in two narrow beds pushed against walls patched with newsprint. Frost patterns creep across the single window. The distant crow of a rooster. The sound of Mrs. Crockett banging a pot downstairs—the signal. Cold so penetrating it aches in the joints.

January 30, 1835 — 6:23 AM
Kitchen of Mrs. Crockett’s Boarding House, C Street

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