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diff --git a/old/12771.txt b/old/12771.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7819cf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12771.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17467 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Famous Americans of Recent Times, by James +Parton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Famous Americans of Recent Times + +Author: James Parton + +Release Date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #12771] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AMERICANS OF RECENT TIMES*** + + +E-text prepared by Curtis A. Weyant, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +FAMOUS AMERICANS OF RECENT TIMES + +By + +JAMES PARTON + +Author of "Life of Andrew Jackson," "Life and Times of Aaron Burr," +"Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," etc. + +1867 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: J.C. Calhoun] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + HENRY CLAY + + DANIEL WEBSTER + + JOHN C. CALHOUN + + JOHN RANDOLPH + + STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE + + JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND THE NEW YORK HERALD + + CHARLES GOODYEAR + + HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH + + COMMODORE VANDERBILT + + THEODOSIA BURR + + JOHN JACOB ASTOR + + + + +NOTE + +The papers contained in this volume were originally published in the +_North American Review_, with four exceptions. Those upon THEODOSIA +BURR and JOHN JACOB ASTOR first appeared in _Harper's Magazine_; that +upon COMMODORE VANDERBILT, in the _New York Ledger_; and that upon +HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH, in the _Atlantic Monthly_. + + + + +HENRY CLAY. + +The close of the war removes the period preceding it to a great +distance from us, so that we can judge its public men as though we +were the "posterity" to whom they sometimes appealed. James Buchanan +still haunts the neighborhood of Lancaster, a living man, giving and +receiving dinners, paying his taxes, and taking his accustomed +exercise; but as an historical figure he is as complete as Bolingbroke +or Walpole. It is not merely that his work is done, nor that the +results of his work are apparent; but the thing upon which he wrought, +by their relation to which he and his contemporaries are to be +estimated, has perished. The statesmen of his day, we can all now +plainly see, inherited from the founders of the Republic a problem +impossible of solution, with which some of them wrestled manfully, +others meanly, some wisely, others foolishly. If the workmen have not +all passed away, the work is at once finished and destroyed, like the +Russian ice-palace, laboriously built, then melted in the sun. We can +now have the requisite sympathy with those late doctors of the body +politic, who came to the consultation pledged not to attempt to +_remove_ the thorn from its flesh, and trained to regard it as the +spear-head in the side of Epaminondas,--extract it, and the patient +dies. In the writhings of the sufferer the barb has fallen out, and +lo! he lives and is getting well. We can now forgive most of those +blind healers, and even admire such of them as were honest and not +cowards; for, in truth, it _was_ an impossibility with which they had +to grapple, and it was not one of their creating. + +Of our public men of the sixty years preceding the war, Henry Clay was +certainly the most shining figure. Was there ever a public man, not at +the head of a state, so beloved as he? Who ever heard such cheers, so +hearty, distinct, and ringing, as those which his name evoked? Men +shed tears at his defeat, and women went to bed sick from pure +sympathy with his disappointment. He could not travel during the last +thirty years of his life, but only make progresses. When he left his +home the public seized him and bore him along over the land, the +committee of one State passing him on to the committee of another, and +the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his +ear. The country seemed to place all its resources at his disposal; +all commodities sought his acceptance. Passing through Newark once, he +thoughtlessly ordered a carriage of a certain pattern: the same +evening the carriage was at the door of his hotel in New York, the +gift of a few Newark friends. It was so everywhere and with +everything. His house became at last a museum of curious gifts. There +was the counterpane made for him by a lady ninety-three years of age, +and Washington's camp-goblet given him by a lady of eighty; there were +pistols, rifles, and fowling-pieces enough to defend a citadel; and, +among a bundle of walking-sticks, was one cut for him from a tree that +shaded Cicero's grave. There were gorgeous prayer-books, and Bibles of +exceeding magnitude and splendor, and silver-ware in great profusion. +On one occasion there arrived at Ashland the substantial present of +twenty-three barrels of salt. In his old age, when his fine estate, +through the misfortunes of his sons, was burdened with mortgages to +the amount of thirty thousand dollars, and other large debts weighed +heavily upon his soul, and he feared to be compelled to sell the home +of fifty years and seek a strange abode, a few old friends secretly +raised the needful sum, secretly paid the mortgages and discharged the +debts, and then caused the aged orator to be informed of what had been +done, but not of the names of the donors. "Could my life insure the +success of Henry Clay, I would freely lay it down this day," exclaimed +an old Rhode Island sea-captain on the morning of the Presidential +election of 1844. Who has forgotten the passion of disappointment, the +amazement and despair, at the result of that day's fatal work? Fatal +we thought it then, little dreaming that, while it precipitated evil, +it brought nearer the day of deliverance. + +Our readers do not need to be reminded that popularity the most +intense is not a proof of merit. The two most mischievous men this +country has ever produced were extremely popular,--one in a State, the +other in every State,--and both for long periods of time. There are +certain men and women and children who are natural heart-winners, and +their gift of winning hearts seems something apart from their general +character. We have known this sweet power over the affections of +others to be possessed by very worthy and by very barren natures. +There are good men who repel, and bad men who attract. We cannot, +therefore, assent to the opinion held by many, that popularity is an +evidence of shallowness or ill-desert. As there are pictures expressly +designed to be looked at from a distance by great numbers of people at +once,--the scenery of a theatre, for example,--so there are men who +appear formed by Nature to stand forth before multitudes, captivating +every eye, and gathering in great harvests of love with little effort. +If, upon looking closely at these pictures and these men, we find them +less admirable than they seemed at a distance, it is but fair to +remember that they were not meant to be looked at closely, and that +"scenery" has as much right to exist as a Dutch painting which bears +the test of the microscope. + +It must be confessed, however, that Henry Clay, who was for +twenty-eight years a candidate for the Presidency, cultivated his +popularity. Without ever being a hypocrite, he was habitually an +actor; but the part which he enacted was Henry Clay exaggerated. He +was naturally a most courteous man; but the consciousness of his +position made him more elaborately and universally courteous than any +man ever was from mere good-nature. A man on the stage must overdo his +part, in order not to seem to underdo it. There was a time when almost +every visitor to the city of Washington desired, above all things, to +be presented to three men there, Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, whom to +have seen was a distinction. When the country member brought forward +his agitated constituent on the floor of the Senate-chamber, and +introduced him to Daniel Webster, the Expounder was likely enough to +thrust a hand at him without so much as turning his head or +discontinuing his occupation, and the stranger shrunk away painfully +conscious of his insignificance. Calhoun, on the contrary, besides +receiving him with civility, would converse with him, if opportunity +favored, and treat him to a disquisition on the nature of government +and the "beauty" of nullification, striving to make a lasting +impression on his intellect. Clay would rise, extend his hand with +that winning grace of his, and instantly captivate him by his +all-conquering courtesy. He would call him by name, inquire respecting +his health, the town whence he came, how long he had been in +Washington, and send him away pleased with himself and enchanted with +Henry Clay. And what was his delight to receive a few weeks after, in +his distant village, a copy of the Kentuckian's last speech, bearing +on the cover the frank of "H. Clay"! It was almost enough to make a +man think of "running for Congress"! And, what was still more +intoxicating, Mr. Clay, who had a surprising memory, would be likely, +on meeting this individual two years after the introduction, to +address him by name. + +There was a gamy flavor, in those days, about Southern men, which was +very pleasing to the people of the North. Reason teaches us that the +barn-yard fowl is a more meritorious bird than the game-cock; but the +imagination does not assent to the proposition. Clay was at once +game-cock and domestic fowl. His gestures called to mind the +magnificently branching trees of his Kentucky forests, and his +handwriting had the neatness and delicacy of a female copyist. There +was a careless, graceful ease in his movements and attitudes, like +those of an Indian, chief; but he was an exact man of business, who +docketed his letters, and could send from Washington to Ashland for a +document, telling in what pigeon-hole it could be found. Naturally +impetuous, he acquired early in life an habitual moderation of +statement, an habitual consideration for other men's self-love, which +made him the pacificator of his time. The great compromiser was +himself a compromise. The ideal of education is to tame men without +lessening their vivacity,--to unite in them the freedom, the dignity, +the prowess of a Tecumseh, with the serviceable qualities of the +civilized man. This happy union is said to be sometimes produced in +the pupils of the great public schools of England, who are savages on +the play-ground and gentlemen in the school-room. In no man of our +knowledge has there been combined so much of the best of the forest +chief with so much of the good of the trained man of business as in +Henry Clay. This was one secret of his power over classes of men so +diverse as the hunters of Kentucky and the manufacturers of New +England. + +It used to be accounted a merit in a man to rise to high station from +humble beginnings; but we now perceive that humble beginnings are +favorable to the development of that force of character which wins the +world's great prizes. Let us never again commend any one for "rising" +from obscurity to eminence, but reserve our special homage for those +who have become respectable human beings in spite of having had every +advantage procured for them by rich fathers. Henry Clay found an Eton, +and an Oxford in Old Virginia that were better for _him_ than those of +Old England. Few men have been more truly fortunate in their education +than he. It was said of a certain lady, that to know her was a liberal +education; and there really have been, and are, women of whom that +could be truly averred. But perhaps the greatest good fortune that can +befall an intelligent and noble-minded youth is to come into intimate, +confidential relations with a wise, learned, and good old man, one who +has been greatly trusted and found worthy of trust, who knows the +world by having long taken a leading part in its affairs, and has +outlived illusions only to get a firmer footing in realities. This, +indeed, is a liberal education; and this was the happiness of Henry +Clay. Nothing in biography is so strange as the certainty with which a +superior youth, in the most improbable circumstances, finds the mental +nourishment he needs. Here, in the swampy region of Hanover County, +Virginia, was a barefooted, ungainly urchin, a poor widow's son, +without one influential relative on earth; and there, in Richmond, sat +on the chancellor's bench George Wythe, venerable with years and +honors, one of the grand old men of Old Virginia, the preceptor of +Jefferson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, the most learned +man in his profession, and one of the best men of any profession. Who +could have foreseen that this friendless orphan, a Baptist preacher's +son, in a State where to be a "dissenter" was social inferiority, +should have found in this eminent judge a friend, a mentor, a patron, +a father? + +Yet it came about in the most natural way. We catch our first glimpse +of the boy when he sat in a little log school-house, without windows +or floor, one of a humming score of shoeless boys, where a +good-natured, irritable, drinking English schoolmaster taught him to +read, write, and cipher as far as Practice. This was the only school +he ever attended, and that was all he learned at it. His widowed +mother, with her seven young children, her little farm, and two or +three slaves, could do no more for him. Next, we see him a tall, +awkward, slender stripling of thirteen, still barefoot, clad in +homespun butternut of his mother's making, tilling her fields, and +going to mill with his bag of corn strapped upon the family pony. At +fourteen, in the year 1791, a place was found for him in a Richmond +drug-store, where he served as errand-boy and youngest clerk for one +year. + +Then occurred the event which decided his career. His mother having +married again, her husband had influence enough to procure for the lad +the place of copying clerk in the office of the Court of Chancery. The +young gentlemen then employed in the office of that court long +remembered the entrance among them of their new comrade. He was +fifteen at the time, but very tall for his age, very slender, very +awkward, and far from handsome. His good mother had arrayed him in a +full suit of pepper-and-salt "figginy," an old Virginia fabric of silk +and cotton. His shirt and shirt-collar were stiffly starched, and his +coat-tail stood out boldly behind him. The dandy law clerks of +metropolitan Richmond exchanged glances as this gawky figure entered, +and took his place at a desk to begin his work. There was something in +his manner which prevented their indulgence in the jests that usually +greet the arrival of a country youth among city blades; and they +afterwards congratulated one another that they had waited a little +before beginning to tease him, for they soon found that he had brought +with him from the country an exceedingly sharp tongue. Of his first +service little is known, except the immense fact that he was a most +diligent reader. It rests on better authority than "Campaign Lives," +that, while his fellow-clerks went abroad in the evening in search of +pleasure, this lad stayed at home with his books. It is a pleasure +also to know that he had not a taste for the low vices. He came of +sound English stock, of a family who would not have regarded +drunkenness and debauchery as "sowing wild oats," but recoiled from +the thought of them with horror. Clay was far from being a saint; but +it is our privilege to believe of him that he was a clean, temperate, +and studious young man. + +Richmond, the town of the young Republic that had most in it of the +metropolitan, proved to this aspiring youth as true a University as +the printing-office in old Boston was to Benjamin Franklin; for he +found in it the culture best suited to him and his circumstances. +Chancellor Wythe, then sixty-seven years of age, overflowing with +knowledge and good nature, was the president of that university. Its +professors were the cluster of able men who had gone along with +Washington and Jefferson in the measures which resulted in the +independence of the country. Patrick Henry was there to teach him the +arts of oratory. There was a flourishing and famous debating society, +the pride of the young men of Richmond, in which to try his +half-fledged powers. The impulse given to thought by the American +Revolution was quickened and prolonged by the thrilling news which +every vessel brought from France of the revolution there. There was an +atmosphere in Virginia favorable to the growth of a sympathetic mind. +Young Clay's excellent handwriting brought him gradually into the most +affectionate relations with Chancellor Wythe, whose aged hand trembled +to such a degree that he was glad to borrow a copyist from the clerk's +office. For nearly four years it was the young man's principal duty to +copy the decisions of the venerable Chancellor, which were curiously +learned and elaborate; for it was the bent of the Chancellor's mind to +trace the law to its sources in the ancient world, and fortify his +positions by citations from Greek and Latin authors. The Greek +passages were a plague to the copyist, who knew not the alphabet of +that language, but copied it, so to speak, by rote. + +Here we have another proof that, no matter what a man's opportunities +are, he only learns what is congenial with his nature and +circumstances. Living under the influence of this learned judge, Henry +Clay might have become a man of learning. George Wythe was a "scholar" +in the ancient acceptation of the word. The whole education of his +youth consisted in his acquiring the Latin language, which his mother +taught him. Early inheriting a considerable fortune, he squandered it +in dissipation, and sat down at thirty, a reformed man, to the study +of the law. To his youthful Latin he now added Greek, which he studied +assiduously for many years, becoming, probably, the best Greek scholar +in Virginia. His mind would have wholly lived in the ancient world, +and been exclusively nourished from the ancient literatures, but for +the necessities of his profession and the stirring political events of +his later life. The Stamp Act and the Revolution varied and completed +his education. His young copyist was not attracted by him to the study +of Greek and Latin, nor did he catch from him the habit of probing a +subject to the bottom, and ascending from the questions of the moment +to universal principles. Henry Clay probed nothing to the bottom, +except, perhaps, the game of whist; and though his instincts and +tendencies were high and noble, he had no grasp of general truths. +Under Wythe, he became a staunch Republican of the Jeffersonian +school. Under Wythe, who emancipated his slaves before his death, and +set apart a portion of his estate for their maintenance, he acquired a +repugnance to slavery which he never lost. The Chancellor's learning +and philosophy were not for him, and so he passed them by. + +The tranquil wisdom of the judge was counteracted, in some degree, by +the excitements of the debating society. As he grew older, the raw and +awkward stripling became a young man whose every movement had a +winning or a commanding grace. Handsome he never was; but his ruddy +face and abundant light hair, the grandeur of his forehead and the +speaking intelligence of his countenance, more than atoned for the +irregularity of his features. His face, too, was a compromise. With +all its vivacity of expression, there was always something that spoke +of the Baptist preacher's son,--just as Andrew Jackson's face had the +set expression of a Presbyterian elder. But of all the bodily gifts +bestowed by Nature upon this favored child, the most unique and +admirable was his voice. Who ever heard one more melodious? There was +a depth of tone in it, a volume, a compass, a rich and tender harmony, +which invested all he said with majesty. We heard it last when he was +an old man past seventy; and all he said was a few words of +acknowledgment to a group of ladies in the largest hall in +Philadelphia. He spoke only in the ordinary tone of conversation; but +his voice filled the room as the organ fills a great cathedral, and +the ladies stood spellbound as the swelling cadences rolled about the +vast apartment. We have heard much of Whitefield's piercing voice and +Patrick Henry's silvery tones, but we cannot believe that either of +those natural orators possessed an organ superior to Clay's majestic +bass. No one who ever heard him speak will find it difficult to +believe what tradition reports, that he was the peerless star of the +Richmond Debating Society in 1795. + +Oratory was then in the highest vogue. Young Virginians did not need +to look beyond the sea in order to learn that the orator was the man +most in request in the dawn of freedom. Chatham, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, +and Pitt were inconceivably imposing names at that day; but was not +Patrick Henry the foremost man in Virginia, only because he could +speak and entertain an audience? And what made John Adams President +but his fiery utterances in favor of the Declaration of Independence? +There were other speakers then in Virginia who would have had to this +day a world-wide fame if they had spoken where the world could hear +them. The tendency now is to undervalue oratory, and we regret it. We +believe that, in a free country, every citizen should be able to stand +undaunted before his fellow-citizens, and give an account of the faith +that is in him. It is no argument against oratory to point to the +Disraelis of both countries, and say that a gift possessed by such men +cannot be a valuable one. It is the unmanly timidity and +shamefacedness of the rest of us that give to such men their +preposterous importance. It were a calamity to America if, in the +present rage for ball-playing and boat-rowing, which we heartily +rejoice in, the debating society should be forgotten. Let us rather +end the sway of oratory by all becoming orators. Most men who can talk +well seated in a chair can _learn_ to talk well standing on their +legs; and a man who can move or instruct five persons in a small room +can learn to move or instruct two thousand in a large one. + +That Henry Clay cultivated his oratorical talent in Richmond, we have +his own explicit testimony. He told a class of law students once that +he owed his success in life to a habit early formed, and for some +years continued, of reading daily in a book of history or science, and +declaiming the substance of what he had read in some solitary +place,--a cornfield, the forest, a barn, with only oxen and horses for +auditors. "It is," said he, + + "to this early practice of the art of all arts that I am + indebted for the primary and leading impulses that + stimulated my progress, and have shaped and moulded my + entire destiny." + +We should be glad to know more of this self-training; but Mr. Clay's +"campaign" biographers have stuffed their volumes too full of eulogy +to leave room for such instructive details. We do not even know the +books from which he declaimed. Plutarch's Lives were favorite reading +with him, we accidentally learn; and his speeches contain evidence +that he was powerfully influenced by the writings of Dr. Franklin. We +believe it was from Franklin that he learned very much of the art of +managing men. Franklin, we think, aided this impetuous and +exaggerating spirit to acquire his habitual moderation of statement, +and that sleepless courtesy which, in his keenest encounters, +generally kept him within parliamentary bounds, and enabled him to +live pleasantly with men from whom he differed in opinion. Obsolete as +many of his speeches are, from the transient nature of the topics of +which they treat, they may still be studied with profit by young +orators and old politicians as examples of parliamentary politeness. +It was the good-natured and wise Franklin that helped him to this. It +is certain, too, that at some part of his earlier life he read +translations of Demosthenes; for of all modern orators Henry Clay was +the most Demosthenian. Calhoun purposely and consciously imitated the +Athenian orator; but Clay was a kindred spirit with Demosthenes. We +could select passages from both these orators, and no man could tell +which was American and which was Greek, unless he chanced to remember +the passage. Tell us, gentle reader, were the sentences following +spoken by Henry Clay after the war of 1812 _at_ the Federalists who +had opposed that war, or by Demosthenes against the degenerate Greeks +who favored the designs of Philip? + + "From first to last I have uniformly pursued the just and + virtuous course,--asserter of the honors, of the + prerogatives, of the glory of my country. Studious to + support them, zealous to advance them, my whole being is + devoted to this glorious cause. I was never known to walk + abroad with a face of joy and exultation at the success of + the enemy, embracing and announcing the joyous tidings to + those who I supposed would transmit it to the proper place. + I was never known to receive the successes of my own country + with trembling, with sighs, with my eyes bent to the earth, + like those impious men who are the defamers of their + country, as if by such conduct they were not defamers of + themselves." + +Is it Clay, or is it Demosthenes? Or have we made a mistake, and +copied a passage from the speech of a Unionist of 1865? + +After serving four years as clerk and amanuensis, barely earning a +subsistence, Clay was advised by his venerable friend, the Chancellor, +to study law; and a place was procured for him in the office of the +Attorney-General of the State. In less than a year after formally +beginning his studies he was admitted to the bar. This seems a short +preparation; but the whole period of his connection with Chancellor +Wythe was a study of the law. The Chancellor was what a certain other +chancellor styles "a full man," and Henry Clay was a receptive youth. + +When he had obtained his license to practise he was twenty years of +age. Debating-society fame and drawing-room popularity do not, in an +old commonwealth like Virginia, bring practice to a lawyer of twenty. +But, as a distinguished French author has recently remarked of Julius +Caesar, "In him was united the elegance of manner which wins, to the +energy of character which commands." He sought, therefore, a new +sphere of exertion far from the refinements of Richmond. Kentucky, +which Boone explored in 1770, was a part of Virginia when Clay was a +child, and only became a State in 1792, when first he began to copy +Chancellor Wythe's decisions. The first white family settled in it in +1775; but when our young barrister obtained his license, twenty-two +years after, it contained a white population of nearly two hundred +thousand. His mother, with five of her children and a second husband, +had gone thither five years before. In 1797 Henry Clay removed to +Lexington, the new State's oldest town and capital, though then +containing, it is said, but fifty houses. He was a stranger there, and +almost penniless. He took board, not knowing where the money was to +come from to pay for it. There were already several lawyers of repute +in the place. "I remember," said Mr. Clay, forty-five years after, + + "how comfortable I thought I should be if I could make one + hundred pounds a year, Virginia money; and with what delight + I received my first fifteen-shilling fee. My hopes were more + than realized. I immediately rushed into a successful and + lucrative practice." + +In a year and a half he was in a position to marry the daughter of one +of the first men of the State, Colonel Thomas Hart, a man exceedingly +beloved in Lexington. + +It is surprising how addicted to litigation were the early settlers of +the Western States. The imperfect surveys of land, the universal habit +of getting goods on credit at the store, and "difficulties" between +individuals ending in bloodshed, filled the court calendars with land +disputes, suits for debt, and exciting murder cases, which gave to +lawyers more importance and better chances of advancement than they +possessed in the older States. Mr. Clay had two strings to his bow. +Besides being a man of red tape and pigeon-holes, exact, methodical, +and strictly attentive to business, he had a power over a Kentucky +jury such as no other man has ever wielded. To this day nothing +pleases aged Kentuckians better than to tell stories which they heard +their fathers tell, of Clay's happy repartees to opposing counsel, his +ingenious cross-questioning of witnesses, his sweeping torrents of +invective, his captivating courtesy, his melting pathos. Single +gestures, attitudes, tones, have come down to us through two or three +memories, and still please the curious guest at Kentucky firesides. +But when we turn to the cold records of this part of his life, we find +little to justify his traditional celebrity. It appears that the +principal use to which his talents were applied during the first years +of his practice at the bar was in defending murderers. He seems to +have shared the feeling which then prevailed in the Western country, +that to defend a prisoner at the bar is a nobler thing than to assist +in defending the public against his further depredations; and he threw +all his force into the defence of some men who would have been "none +the worse for a hanging." One day, in the streets of Lexington, a +drunken fellow whom he had rescued from the murderer's doom cried out, +"Here comes Mr. Clay, who saved my life." "Ah! my poor fellow," +replied the advocate, "I fear I have saved too many like you, who +ought to be hanged." The anecdotes printed of his exploits in cheating +the gallows of its due are of a quality which shows that the power of +this man over a jury lay much in his manner. His delivery, which +"bears absolute sway in oratory," was bewitching and irresistible, and +gave to quite commonplace wit and very questionable sentiment an +amazing power to please and subdue. + +We are far from thinking that he was not a very able lawyer. Judge +Story, we remember, before whom he argued a cause later in life, was +of opinion that he would have won a high position at the bar of the +Supreme Court, if he had not been early drawn away to public life. In +Kentucky he was a brilliant, successful practitioner, such as Kentucky +wanted and could appreciate. In a very few years he was the possessor +of a fine estate near Lexington, and to the single slave who came to +him as his share of his father's property were added several others. +His wife being a skilful and vigorous manager, he was in independent +circumstances, and ready to serve the public, if the public wished +him, when he had been but ten years in his Western home. Thus he had a +basis for a public career, without which few men can long serve the +public with honor and success. And this was a principal reason of the +former supremacy of Southern men in Washington; nearly all of them +being men who owned land, which slaves tilled for them, whether they +were present or absent. + +The young lawyer took to politics very naturally. Posterity, which +will judge the public men of that period chiefly by their course with +regard to slavery, will note with pleasure that Clay's first public +act was an attempt to deliver the infant State of Kentucky from that +curse. The State Constitution was to be remodelled in 1799. Fresh from +the society of Chancellor Wythe, an abolitionist who had set free his +own slaves,--fresh from Richmond, where every man of note, from +Jefferson and Patrick Henry downwards, was an abolitionist,--Henry +Clay began in 1798, being then twenty-one years of age, to write a +series of articles for a newspaper, advocating the gradual abolition +of slavery in Kentucky. He afterwards spoke on that side at public +meetings. Young as he was, he took the lead of the public-spirited +young men who strove to purge the State from this iniquity; but in the +Convention the proposition was voted down by a majority so decisive as +to banish the subject from politics for fifty years. Still more +honorable was it in Mr. Clay, that, in 1829, when Calhoun was maturing +nullification, he could publicly say that among the acts of his life +which he reflected upon with most satisfaction was his youthful effort +to secure emancipation in Kentucky. + +The chapter of our history most abounding in all the elements of +interest will be that one which will relate the rise and first +national triumph of the Democratic party. Young Clay came to the +Kentucky stump just when the country was at the crisis of the struggle +between the Old and the New. But in Kentucky it was not a struggle; +for the people there, mostly of Virginian birth, had been personally +benefited by Jefferson's equalizing measures, and were in the fullest +sympathy with his political doctrines. When, therefore, this brilliant +and commanding youth, with that magnificent voice of his, and large +gesticulation, mounted the wagon that usually served as platform in +the open-air meetings of Kentucky, and gave forth, in fervid oratory, +the republican principles he had imbibed in Richmond, he won that +immediate and intense popularity which an orator always wins who gives +powerful expression to the sentiments of his hearers. We cannot wonder +that, at the close of an impassioned address upon the Alien and +Sedition Laws, the multitude should have pressed about him, and borne +him aloft in triumph upon their shoulders; nor that Kentucky should +have hastened to employ him in her public business as soon as he was +of the requisite age. At thirty he was, to use the language of the +stump, "Kentucky's favorite son," and incomparably the finest orator +in the Western country. Kentucky had tried him, and found him +perfectly to her mind. He was an easy, comfortable man to associate +with, wholly in the Jeffersonian taste. His wit was not of the highest +quality, but he had plenty of it; and if he said a good thing, he had +such a way of saying it as gave it ten times its natural force. He +chewed tobacco and took snuff,--practices which lowered the tone of +his health all his life. In familiar conversation he used language of +the most Western description; and he had a singularly careless, +graceful way with him, that was in strong contrast with the vigor and +dignity of his public efforts. He was an honest and brave young man, +altogether above lying, hypocrisy, and meanness,--full of the idea of +Republican America and her great destiny. The splendor of his talents +concealed his defects and glorified his foibles; and Kentucky rejoiced +in him, loved him, trusted him, and sent him forth to represent her in +the national council. + +During the first thirteen years of Henry Clay's active life as a +politician,--from his twenty-first to his thirty-fourth year,--he +appears in politics only as the eloquent champion of the policy of Mr. +Jefferson, whom he esteemed the first and best of living men. After +defending him on the stump and aiding him in the Kentucky Legislature, +he was sent in 1806, when he was scarcely thirty, to fill for one term +a seat in the Senate of the United States, made vacant by the +resignation of one of the Kentucky Senators. Mr. Jefferson received +his affectionate young disciple with cordiality, and admitted him to +his confidence. Clay had been recently defending Burr before a +Kentucky court, entirely believing that his designs were lawful and +sanctioned. Mr. Jefferson showed him the cipher letters of that +mysterious and ill-starred adventurer, which convinced Mr. Clay that +Burr was certainly a liar, if he was not a traitor. Mr. Jefferson's +perplexity in 1806 was similar to that of Jackson in 1833,--too much +money in the treasury. The revenue then was fifteen millions; and, +after paying all the expenses of the government and the stipulated +portion of the national debt, there was an obstinate and most +embarrassing surplus. What to do with this irrepressible surplus was +the question then discussed in Mr. Jefferson's Cabinet. The President, +being a free-trader, would naturally have said, Reduce the duties. But +the younger men of the party, who had no pet theories, and +particularly our young Senator, who had just come in from a six weeks' +horseback flounder over bridgeless roads, urged another solution of +the difficulty,--Internal Improvements. But the President was a +strict-constructionist, denied the authority of Congress to vote money +for public works, and was fully committed to that opinion. + +Mr. Jefferson yielded. The most beautiful theories will not always +endure the wear and tear of practice. The President, it is true, still +maintained that an amendment to the Constitution ought to precede +appropriations for public works; but he said this very briefly and +without emphasis, while he stated at some length, and with force, the +desirableness of expending the surplus revenue in improving the +country. As time wore on, less and less was said about the amendment, +more and more about the importance of internal improvements; until, at +last, the Republican party, under Clay, Adams, Calhoun, and Rush, went +as far in this business of road-making and canal-digging as Hamilton +himself could have desired. Thus it was that Jefferson rendered true +his own saying, "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans." +Jefferson yielded, also, on the question of free-trade. There is a +passage of a few lines in Mr. Jefferson's Message of 1806, the year of +Henry Clay's first appearance in Washington, which may be regarded as +the text of half the Kentuckian's speeches, and the inspiration of his +public life. The President is discussing the question, What shall we +do with the surplus? + + "Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advantage to + foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few articles of + more general and necessary use, the suppression, in due + season, will doubtless be right; but the great mass of the + articles upon which impost is paid are foreign luxuries, + purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford + themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly + prefer its continuance, and application to the great + purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and + such other objects of public improvement as it may be + thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of + Federal powers. By these operations, new channels of + communication will be opened between the States, the lines + of separation will disappear, their interests will be + identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble + bonds." + +Upon these hints, the young Senator delayed not to speak and act; nor +did he wait for an amendment to the Constitution. His first speech in +the Senate was in favor of building a bridge over the Potomac; one of +his first acts, to propose an appropriation of lands for a canal round +the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville; and soon he brought forward a +resolution directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report a system +of roads and canals for the consideration of Congress. The seed of the +President's Message had fallen into good ground. + +Returning home at the end of the session, and reentering the Kentucky +Legislature, we still find him a strict follower of Mr. Jefferson. In +support of the President's non-intercourse policy (which was +Franklin's policy of 1775 applied to the circumstances of 1808), Mr. +Clay proposed that the members of the Legislature should bind +themselves to wear nothing that was not of American manufacture. A +Federalist, ignorant of the illustrious origin of this idea, ignorant +that the homespun system had caused the repeal of the Stamp Act, and +_would_ have postponed the Revolution but for the accident of +Lexington, denounced Mr. Clay's proposition as the act of a shameless +demagogue. Clay challenged this ill-informed gentleman, and a duel +resulted, in which two shots were exchanged, and both antagonists were +slightly wounded. Elected again to the Senate for an unexpired term, +he reappeared in that body in 1809, and sat during two sessions. +Homespun was again the theme of his speeches. His ideas on the subject +of protecting and encouraging American manufactures were not derived +from books, nor expressed in the language of political economy. At his +own Kentucky home, Mrs. Clay, assisted by her servants, was spinning +and weaving, knitting and sewing, most of the garments required in her +little kingdom of six hundred acres, while her husband was away over +the mountains serving his country. "Let the nation do what we Kentucky +farmers are doing," said Mr. Clay to the Senate. "Let us manufacture +enough to be independent of foreign nations in things essential,--no +more." He discoursed on this subject in a very pleasant, humorous +manner, without referring to the abstract principle involved, or +employing any of the technical language of economists. + +His service in the Senate during these two sessions enhanced his +reputation greatly, and the galleries were filled when he was expected +to speak, little known as he was to the nation at large. We have a +glimpse of him in one of Washington Irving's letters of February, +1811: + + "Clay, from Kentucky, spoke against the Bank. He is one of + the finest fellows I have seen here, and one of the finest + orators in the Senate, though I believe the youngest man in + it. The galleries, however, were so much crowded with ladies + and gentlemen, and such expectations had been expressed + concerning his speech, that he was completely frightened, + and acquitted himself very little to his own satisfaction. + He is a man I have great personal regard for." + +This was the anti-bank speech which General Jackson used to say had +convinced him of the impolicy of a national bank, and which, with +ingenious malice, he covertly quoted in making up his Bank Veto +Message of 1832. + +Mr. Clay's public life proper began in November, 1811, when he +appeared in Washington as a member of the House of Representatives, +and was immediately elected Speaker by the war party, by the decisive +majority of thirty-one. He was then thirty-four years of age. His +election to the Speakership on his first appearance in the House gave +him, at once, national standing. His master in political doctrine and +his partisan chief, Thomas Jefferson, was gone from the scene; and +Clay could now be a planet instead of a satellite. Restive as he had +been under the arrogant aggressions of England, he had schooled +himself to patient waiting, aided by Jefferson's benign sentiments and +great example. But his voice was now for war; and such was the temper +of the public in those months, that the eloquence of Henry Clay, +seconded by the power of the Speaker, rendered the war unavoidable. + +It is agreed that to Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of +Representatives, more than to any other individual, we owe the war of +1812. When the House hesitated, it was he who, descending from the +chair, spoke so as to reassure it. When President Madison faltered, it +was the stimulus of Clay's resistless presence that put heart into him +again. If the people seemed reluctant, it was Clay's trumpet harangues +that fired their minds. And when the war was declared, it was he, more +than President or Cabinet or War Committee, that carried it along upon +his shoulders. All our wars begin in disaster; it was Clay who +restored the country to confidence when it was disheartened by the +loss of Detroit and its betrayed garrison. It was Clay alone who could +encounter without flinching the acrid sarcasm of John Randolph, and +exhibit the nothingness of his telling arguments. It was he alone who +could adequately deal with Quincy of Massachusetts, who alluded to the +Speaker and his friends as "young politicians, with their pin-feathers +yet unshed, the shell still sticking upon them,--perfectly unfledged, +though they fluttered and cackled on the floor." Clay it was whose +clarion notes rang out over departing regiments, and kindled within +them the martial fire; and it was Clay's speeches which the soldiers +loved to read by the camp-fire. Fiery Jackson read them, and found +them perfectly to his taste. Gentle Harrison read them to his +Tippecanoe heroes. When the war was going all wrong in the first year, +President Madison wished to appoint Clay Commander-in-Chief of the +land forces; but, said Gallatin, "What shall we do without him in the +House of Representatives?" + +Henry Clay was not a man of blood. On the contrary, he was eminently +pacific, both in his disposition and in his politics. Yet he believed +in the war of 1812, and his whole heart was in it. The question +occurs, then, Was it right and best for the United States to declare +war against Great Britain in 1812? The proper answer to this question +depends upon another: What ought we to think of Napoleon Bonaparte? If +Napoleon _was_, what English Tories and American Federalists said he +was, the enemy of mankind,--and if England, in warring upon him, _was_ +fighting the battle of mankind,--then the injuries received by neutral +nations might have been borne without dishonor. When those giant +belligerents were hurling continents at one another, the damage done +to bystanders from the flying off of fragments was a thing to be +expected, and submitted to as their share of the general ruin,--to be +compensated by the final suppression of the common foe. To have +endured this, and even to have submitted, for a time, to the searching +of ships, so that not one Englishman should be allowed to skulk from +such a fight, had not been pusillanimity, but magnanimity. But if, as +English Whigs and American Democrats contended, Napoleon Bonaparte was +the armed soldier of democracy, the rightful heir of the Revolution, +the sole alternative to anarchy, the _legitimate_ ruler of France; if +the responsibility of those enormous desolating wars does not lie at +his door, but belongs to George III. and the Tory party of England; if +it is a fact that Napoleon always stood ready to make a just peace, +which George III. and William Pitt refused, _not_ in the interest of +mankind and civilization, but in that of the Tory party and the allied +dynasties,--then America was right in resenting the searching and +seizure of her ships, and right, after exhausting every peaceful +expedient, in declaring war. + +That this was really the point in dispute between our two parties is +shown in the debates, newspapers, and pamphlets of the time. The +Federalists, as Mr. Clay observed in one of his speeches, compared +Napoleon to "every monster and beast, from that mentioned in the +Revelation down to the most insignificant quadruped." The Republicans, +on the contrary, spoke of him always with moderation and decency, +sometimes with commendation, and occasionally he was toasted at their +public dinners with enthusiasm. Mr. Clay himself, while lamenting his +enormous power and the suspension of ancient nationalities, always had +a lurking sympathy with him. "Bonaparte," said he in his great war +speech of 1813, + + "has been called the scourge of mankind, the destroyer of + Europe, the great robber, the infidel, the modern Attila, + and Heaven knows by what other names. Really, gentlemen + remind me of an obscure lady, in a city not very far off, + who also took it into her head, in conversation with an + accomplished French gentleman, to talk of the affairs of + Europe. She, too, spoke of the destruction of the balance of + power; stormed and raged about the insatiable ambition of + the Emperor; called him the curse of mankind, the destroyer + of Europe. The Frenchman listened to her with perfect + patience, and when she had ceased said to her, with + ineffable politeness, 'Madam, it would give my master, the + Emperor, infinite pain if he knew how hardly you thought of + him.'" + +This brief passage suffices to show the prevailing tone of the two +parties when Napoleon was the theme of discourse. + +It is, of course, impossible for us to enter into this question of +Napoleon's moral position. Intelligent opinion, ever since the means +of forming an opinion were accessible, has been constantly judging +Napoleon more leniently, and the Tory party more severely. We can only +say, that, in our opinion, the war of 1812 was just and necessary; and +that Henry Clay, both in supporting Mr. Jefferson's policy of +non-intercourse and in supporting President Madison's policy of war, +deserved well of his country. Postponed that war might have been. But, +human nature being what it is, and the English government being what +it was, we do not believe that the United States could ever have been +distinctly recognized as one of the powers of the earth without +another fight for it. + +The war being ended and the Federal party extinct, upon the young +Republicans, who had carried on the war, devolved the task of +"reconstruction." Before they had made much progress in it, they came +within an ace of being consigned to private life,--Clay himself having +as narrow an escape as any of them. And here we may note one point of +superiority of the American government over others. In other countries +it can sometimes be the interest of politicians to foment and declare +war. A war strengthens a tottering dynasty, an imperial _parvenu_, an +odious tyrant, a feeble ministry; and the glory won in battle on land +and sea redounds to the credit of government, without raising up +competitors for its high places. But let American politicians take +note. It is never _their_ interest to bring on a war; because a war is +certain to generate a host of popular heroes to outshine them and push +them from their places. It may sometimes be their duty to advocate +war, but it is never their interest. At this moment we see both +parties striving which shall present to the people the most attractive +list of military candidates; and when a busy ward politician seeks his +reward in custom-house or department, he finds a dozen lame soldiers +competing for the place; one of whom gets it,--as he ought. What city +has presented Mr. Stanton with a house, or Mr. Welles with fifty +thousand dollars' worth of government bonds? Calhoun precipitated the +country into a war with Mexico; but what did he gain by it but new +bitterness of disappointment, while the winner of three little battles +was elected President? Henry Clay was the animating soul of the war of +1812, and we honor him for it; but while Jackson, Brown, Scott, Perry, +and Decatur came out of that war the idols of the nation, Clay was +promptly notified that _his_ footing in the public councils, _his_ +hold of the public favor, was by no means stable. + +His offence was that he voted for the compensation bill of 1816, which +merely changed the pay of members of Congress from the pittance of six +dollars a day to the pittance of fifteen hundred dollars a year. He +who before was lord paramount in Kentucky saved his seat only by +prodigious efforts on the stump, and by exerting all the magic of his +presence in the canvass. + +No one ever bore cutting disappointment with an airier grace than this +high-spirited thorough-bred; but he evidently felt this apparent +injustice. Some years later, when it was proposed in Congress to +pension Commodore Perry's mother, Mr. Clay, in a speech of five +minutes, totally extinguished the proposition. Pointing to the vast +rewards bestowed upon such successful soldiers as Marlborough, +Napoleon, and Wellington, he said, with thrilling effect: + + "How different is the fate of the statesman! In his quiet + and less brilliant career, after having advanced, by the + wisdom of his measures, the national prosperity to the + highest point of elevation, and after having sacrificed his + fortune, his time, and perhaps his health, in the public + service, what, too often, are the rewards that await him? + Who thinks of _his_ family, impoverished by the devotion of + his attention to his country, instead of their advancement? + Who proposes to pension him,--much less his _mother_?" + +He spoke the more feelingly, because he, who could have earned more +than the President's income by the practice of his profession, was +often pinched for money, and was once obliged to leave Congress for +the sole purpose of taking care of his shattered fortune. He felt the +importance of this subject in a national point of view. He wrote in +1817 to a friend: + + "Short as has been my service in the public councils, I have + seen some of the most valuable members quitting the body + from their inability to sustain the weight of these + sacrifices. And in process of time, I apprehend, this + mischief will be more and more felt. Even now there are few, + if any, instances of members dedicating their lives to the + duties of legislation. Members stay a year or two; curiosity + is satisfied; the novelty wears off; expensive habits are + brought or acquired; their affairs at home are neglected; + their fortunes are wasting away; and they are compelled to + retire." + +The eight years of Mr. Monroe's administration--from 1817 to +1825--were the most brilliant period of Henry Clay's career. His +position as Speaker of the House of Representatives would naturally +have excluded him from leadership; but the House was as fond of +hearing him speak as he could be of speaking, and opportunities were +continually furnished him by going into Committee of the Whole. In a +certain sense he was in opposition to the administration. When one +party has so frequently and decidedly beaten the party opposed to it, +that the defeated party goes out of existence, the conquering party +soon divides. The triumphant Republicans of 1816 obeyed this law of +their position;--one wing of the party, under Mr. Monroe, being +reluctant to depart from the old Jeffersonian policy; the other wing, +under Henry Clay, being inclined to go very far in internal +improvements and a protective tariff. Mr. Clay now appears as the +great champion of what he proudly styled the American System. He +departed farther and farther from the simple doctrines of the earlier +Democrats. Before the war, he had opposed a national bank; now he +advocated the establishment of one, and handsomely acknowledged the +change of opinion. Before the war, he proposed only such a tariff as +would render America independent of foreign nations in articles of the +first necessity; now he contemplated the establishment of a great +manufacturing system, which should attract from Europe skilful +workmen, and supply the people with everything they consumed, even to +jewelry and silver-ware. Such success had he with his American System, +that, before many years rolled away, we see the rival wings of the +Republican party striving which could concede most to the +manufacturers in the way of an increased tariff. Every four years, +when a President was to be elected, there was an inevitable revision +of the tariff, each faction outbidding the other in conciliating the +manufacturing interest; until at length the near discharge of the +national debt suddenly threw into politics a prospective +surplus,---one of twelve millions a year,--which came near crushing +the American System, and gave Mr. Calhoun his pretext for +nullification. + +At present, with such a debt as we have, the tariff is no longer a +question with us. The government must have its million a day; and as +no tax is less offensive to the people than a duty on imported +commodities, we seem compelled to a practically protective system for +many years to come. But, of all men, a citizen of the United States +should be the very last to accept the protective system as final; for +when he looks abroad over the great assemblage of sovereignties which +he calls the United States, and asks himself the reason of their rapid +and uniform prosperity for the last eighty years, what answer can he +give but this?--_There is free trade among them_. And if he extends +his survey over the whole earth, he can scarcely avoid the conclusion +that free trade among all nations would be as advantageous to all +nations as it is to the thirty-seven States of the American Union. But +nations are not governed by theories and theorists, but by +circumstances and politicians. The most perfect theory must sometimes +give way to exceptional fact. We find, accordingly, Mr. Mill, the +great English champion of free trade, fully sustaining Henry Clay's +moderate tariff of 1816, but sustaining it only as a temporary +measure. The paragraph of Mr. Mill's Political Economy which touches +this subject seems to us to express so exactly the true policy of the +United States with regard to the tariff, that we will take the liberty +of quoting it. + + "The only case in which, on mere principles of political + economy, protecting duties can be defensible, is when they + are imposed temporarily, (especially in a young and rising + nation,) in hopes of naturalizing a foreign industry, in + itself perfectly suitable to the circumstances of the + country. The superiority of one country over another in a + branch of production often arises only from having begun it + sooner. There may be no inherent advantage on one part, or + disadvantage on the other, but only a present superiority of + acquired skill and experience. A country which has this + skill and experience yet to acquire may, in other respects, + be better adapted to the production than those which were + earlier in the field; and, besides, it is a just remark of + Mr. Rae, that nothing has a greater tendency to promote + improvement in any branch of production, than its trial + under a new set of conditions. But it cannot be expected + that individuals should, at their own risk, or rather to + their certain loss, introduce a new manufacture, and bear + the burden of carrying it on, until the producers have been + educated up to the level of those with whom the processes + are traditional. A protecting duty, continued for a + reasonable time, will sometimes be the least inconvenient + mode in which the nation can tax itself for the support of + such an experiment. But the protection should be confined to + cases in which there is good ground of assurance that the + industry which it fosters will after a time be able to + dispense with it; nor should the domestic producers ever be + allowed to expect that it will be continued to them beyond + the time necessary for a fair trial of what they are capable + of accomplishing."[1] + +In the quiet of his library at Ashland, Mr. Clay, we believe, would, +at any period of his public life, have assented to the doctrines of +this passage. But at Washington he was a party leader and an orator. +Having set the ball in motion, he could not stop it; nor does he +appear to have felt the necessity of stopping it, until, in 1831, he +was suddenly confronted by three Gorgons at once,--a coming Surplus, a +President that vetoed internal improvements, and an ambitious Calhoun, +resolved on using the surplus either as a stepping-stone to the +Presidency or a wedge with which to split the Union. The time to have +put down the brakes was in 1828, when the national debt was within +seven years of being paid off; but precisely _then_ it was that both +divisions of the Democratic party---one under Mr. Van Buren, the other +under Mr. Clay--were running a kind of tariff race, neck and neck, in +which Van Buren won. Mr. Clay, it is true, was not in Congress +then,--he was Secretary of State; but he was the soul of his party, +and his voice was the voice of a master. In all his letters and +speeches there is not a word to show that he then anticipated the +surplus, or the embarrassments to which it gave rise; though he could +not have forgotten that a very trifling surplus was one of the chief +anxieties of Mr. Jefferson's administration. Mr. Clay's error, we +think, arose from his not perceiving clearly that a protective tariff, +though justifiable sometimes, is always in itself an evil, and is +never to be accepted as the permanent policy of any country; and that, +being an evil, it must be reduced to the minimum that will answer the +temporary purpose. + +In estimating Henry Clay, we are always to remember that he was an +orator. He had a genius for oratory. There is, we believe, no example +of a man endowed with a genius for oratory who also possessed an +understanding of the first order. Mr. Clay's oratory was vivified by a +good heart and a genuine love of country; and on occasions which +required only a good heart, patriotic feeling, and an eloquent tongue, +he served his country well. But as a party leader he had sometimes to +deal with matters which demanded a radical and far-seeing intellect; +and then, perhaps, he failed to guide his followers aright. At +Washington, during the thirteen years of his Speakership, he led the +gay life of a popular hero and drawing-room favorite; and his position +was supposed to compel him to entertain much company. As a young +lawyer in Kentucky, he was addicted to playing those games of mere +chance which alone at that day were styled gambling. He played high +and often, as was the custom then all over the world. It was his +boast, even in those wild days, that he never played at home, and +never had a pack of cards in his house; but when the lawyers and +judges were assembled during court sessions, there was much high play +among them at the tavern after the day's work was done. In 1806, when +Mr. Clay was elected to the Senate, he resolved to gamble no +more,--that is, to play at hazard and "brag" no more,--and he kept his +resolution. Whist, being a game depending partly on skill, was not +included in this resolution; and whist was thenceforth a very favorite +game with him, and he greatly excelled in it. It was said of him, as +it was of Charles James Fox, that, at any moment of a hand, he could +name all the cards that remained to be played. He discountenanced high +stakes; and we believe he never, after 1806, played for more than five +dollars "a corner." These, we know, were the stakes at Ghent, where he +played whist for many months with the British Commissioners during the +negotiations for peace in 1815. We mention his whist-playing only as +part of the evidence that he was a gay, pleasant, easy man of the +world,--not a student, not a thinker, not a philosopher. Often, in +reading over his speeches of this period, we are ready to exclaim, +"Ah! Mr. Clay, if you had played whist a little less, and studied +history and statesmanship a great deal more, you would have avoided +some errors!" A trifling anecdote related by Mr. Colton lets us into +the Speaker's way of life. "How can you preside over that House +to-day?" asked a friend, as he set Mr. Clay down at his own door, +_after sunrise_, from a party. "Come up, and you shall see how I will +throw the reins over their necks," replied the Speaker, as he stepped +from the carriage.[2] + +But when noble feeling and a gifted tongue sufficed for the occasion, +how grandly sometimes he acquitted himself in those brilliant years, +when, descending from the Speaker's lofty seat, he held the House and +the crowded galleries spellbound by his magnificent oratory! His +speech of 1818, for example, favoring the recognition of the South +American republics, was almost as wise as it was eloquent; for, +although the provinces of South America are still far from being what +we could wish them to be, yet it is certain that no single step of +progress was possible for them until their connection with Spain was +severed. Cuba, today, proves Mr. Clay's position. The amiable and +intelligent Creoles of that beautiful island are nearly ready for the +abolition of slavery and for regulated freedom; but they lie +languishing under the hated incubus of Spanish rule, and dare not risk +a war of independence, outnumbered as they are by untamed or +half-tamed Africans. Mr. Clay's speeches in behalf of the young +republics of South America were read by Bolivar at the head of his +troops, and justly rendered his name dear to the struggling patriots. +He had a clear conviction, like his master, Thomas Jefferson, that the +interests of the United States lie chiefly _in America_, not Europe; +and it was a favorite dream of his to see the Western Continent +occupied by flourishing republics, independent, but closely allied,--a +genuine Holy Alliance. + +The supreme effort of Mr. Clay's Congressional life was in connection +with the Missouri Compromise of 1821. He did not originate the plan of +compromise, but it was certainly his influence and tact which caused +the plan to prevail. Fortunately, he had been absent from Congress +during some of the earlier attempts to admit Missouri; and thus he +arrived in Washington in January, 1821, calm, uncommitted, and welcome +to both parties. Fierce debate had wrought up the minds of members to +that point where useful discussion ceases to be possible. Almost every +man had given personal offence and taken personal offence; the two +sides seemed reduced to the most hopeless incompatibility; and the +affair was at a dead lock. No matter what the subject of debate, +Missouri was sure, in some way, to get involved in it; and the mere +mention of the name was like a spark upon loose gunpowder. In +February, for example, the House had to go through the ceremony of +counting the votes for President of the United States,--a mere +ceremony, since Mr. Monroe had been re-elected almost unanimously, and +the votes of Missouri were of no importance. The tellers, to avoid +giving cause of contention, announced that Mr. Monroe had received two +hundred and thirty-one votes, including those of Missouri, and two +hundred and twenty-eight if they were excluded. At this announcement +members sprang to their feet, and such a scene of confusion arose that +no man could make himself heard. After a long struggle with the riot, +the Speaker declared the House adjourned. + +For six weeks Mr. Clay exerted his eloquence, his arts of +pacification, and all the might of his personality, to bring members +to their senses. He even had a long conference with his ancient foe, +John Randolph. He threw himself into this work with such ardor, and +labored at it so continuously, day and night, that, when the final +triumph was won, he declared that, if Missouri had been kept out of +the Union two weeks longer, he should have been a dead man. +Thirty-four years after these events Mr. S.G. Goodrich wrote: + + "I was in the House of Representatives but a single hour. + While I was present there was no direct discussion of the + agitating subject which already filled everybody's mind, but + still the excitement flared out occasionally in incidental + allusions to it, like puffs of smoke and jets of flame which + issue from a house that is on fire within. I recollect that + Clay made a brief speech, thrilling the House by a single + passage, in which he spoke of '_poor, unheard Missouri_' she + being then without a representative in Congress. His tall, + tossing form, his long, sweeping gestures, and, above all, + his musical yet thrilling tones, made an impression upon me + which I can never forget." + +Mr. Clay, at length, had completed his preparations. He moved for a +committee of the House to confer with a committee of the Senate. He +himself wrote out the list of members whom he desired should be +elected, and they were elected. At the last conference of the joint +committees, which was held on a Sunday, Mr. Clay insisted that their +report, to have the requisite effect upon Congress and the country, +must be unanimous; and unanimous it was. Both Houses, with a +surprising approach to unanimity, adopted the compromise proposed; and +thus was again postponed the bloody arbitrament to which the +irrepressible controversy has since been submitted. + +Clay's masterly conduct on this occasion added his name to the long +list of gentlemen who were mentioned for the succession to Mr. Monroe +in 1825. If the city of Washington had been the United States, if the +House of Representatives had possessed the right to elect a President, +Henry Clay might have been its choice. During the thirteen years of +his Speakership not one of his decisions had been reversed; and he had +presided over the turbulent and restive House with that perfect +blending of courtesy and firmness which at once restrains and charms. +The debates just before the war, during the war, and after the war, +had been violent and acrimonious; but he had kept his own temper, and +compelled the House to observe an approach to decorum. On one occasion +he came into such sharp collision with the excitable Randolph, that +the dispute was transferred to the newspapers, and narrowly escaped +degenerating from a war of "cards" to a conflict with pistols. But the +Speaker triumphed; the House and the country sustained him. On +occasions of ceremony the Speaker enchanted every beholder by the +superb dignity of his bearing, the fitness of his words, and the +tranquil depth of his tones. What could be more eloquent, more +appropriate, than the Speaker's address of welcome to Lafayette, when +the guest of the nation was conducted to the floor of the House of +Representatives? The House and the galleries were proud of the Speaker +that day. No one who never heard this captivator of hearts can form +the slightest conception of the penetrating effect of the closing +sentences, though they were spoken only in the tone of conversation. + + "The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence + would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his + country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes which + had taken place; to view the forests felled, the cities + built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways + constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of + learning, and the increase of population. General, your + present visit to the United States is a realization of the + consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst of + posterity. Everywhere you must have been struck with the + great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since + you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, + alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the + forest which then covered its site. In one respect you + behold us unaltered, and this is in the sentiment of + continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and + profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of + his country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates + in the field and in the cabinet, for the multiplied + blessings which surround us, and for the very privilege of + addressing you which I now exercise. This sentiment, now + fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, will + be transmitted with unabated vigor down the tide of time, + through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit + this continent, to the latest posterity." + +The appropriateness of these sentiments to the occasion and to the man +is evident to every one who remembers that Lafayette's love of George +Washington was a Frenchman's romantic passion. Nor, indeed, did he +need to have a sensitive French heart to be moved to tears by such +words and such a welcome. + +From 1822 to 1848, a period of twenty-six years, Henry Clay lived the +strange life of a candidate for the Presidency. It was enough to ruin +any man, body and soul. To live always in the gaze of millions; to be +the object of eulogy the most extravagant and incessant from one half +of the newspapers, and of vituperation still more preposterous from +the other half; to be surrounded by flatterers interested and +disinterested, and to be confronted by another body intent on +misrepresenting every act and word; to have to stop and consider the +effect of every utterance, public and private, upon the next +"campaign"; not to be able to stir abroad without having to harangue a +deputation of political friends, and stand to be kissed by ladies and +pump-handled by men, and hide the enormous bore of it beneath a fixed +smile till the very muscles of the face are rigid; to receive by every +mail letters enough for a large town; to have your life written +several times a year; to be obliged continually to refute calumnies +and "define your position"; to live under a horrid necessity to be +pointedly civil to all the world; to find your most casual remarks and +most private conversations getting distorted in print,--this, and more +than this, it was to be a candidate for the Presidency. The most +wonderful thing that we have to say of Henry Clay is, that, such were +his native sincerity and healthfulness of mind, he came out of this +fiery trial still a patriot and a man of honor. We believe it was a +weakness in him, as it is in any man, to set his heart upon living +four years in the White House; but we can most confidently say, that, +having entered the game, he played it fairly, and bore his repeated +disappointments with genuine, high-bred composure. The closest +scrutiny into the life of this man still permits us to believe that, +when he said, "I would rather be right than be President," he spoke +the real sentiments of his heart; and that, when he said to one of his +political opponents, "Tell General Jackson that, if he will sign my +Land Bill, I will pledge myself to retire from public life and never +to re-enter it," he meant what he said, and would have stood to it. It +is our privilege to believe this of Henry Clay; nor do we think that +there was ever anything morbidly excessive in his desire for the +Presidency. He was the head and choice of a great political party; in +the principles of that party he fully believed; and we think he did +truly desire an election to the Presidency more from conviction than +ambition. This may not have been the case in 1824, but we believe it +was in 1832 and in 1844. + +The history of Henry Clay's Presidential aspirations and defeats is +little more than the history of a personal feud. In the year 1819, it +was his fortune to incur the hatred of the best hater then +living,--Andrew Jackson. They met for the first time in November, +1815, when the hero of New Orleans came to Washington to consult with +the administration respecting the Indian and military affairs of his +department. Each of these eminent men truly admired the other. Jackson +saw in Clay the civil hero of the war, whose fiery eloquence had +powerfully seconded its military heroes. Clay beheld in Jackson the +man whose gallantry and skill had done most to justify the war in the +sight of the people. They became immediately and cordially intimate. +Jackson engaged to visit Ashland in the course of the next summer, and +spend a week there. On every occasion when Mr. Clay spoke of the +heroes of the war, he bestowed on Jackson the warmest praise. + +In 1818 General Jackson invaded Florida, put to death two Indian +chiefs in cold blood, and executed two British subjects, Arbuthnot and +Armbrister.[3] During the twenty-seven days' debate upon these +proceedings, in 1819, the Speaker sided with those who disapproved +them, and he delivered a set speech against Jackson. This speech, +though it did full justice to General Jackson's motives, and contained +a fine eulogium upon his previous services, gave the General deadly +offence. Such was Jackson's self-love that he could not believe in the +honesty of any opposition to him, but invariably attributed such +opposition to low personal motives. Now it was a fact well known to +Jackson, that Henry Clay had expected the appointment of Secretary of +State under Mr. Monroe; and it was part of the gossip of the time that +Mr. Monroe's preference of Mr. Adams was the reason of Clay's +occasional opposition to measures favored by the administration. We do +not believe this, because the measures which Mr. Clay opposed were +such as he _must_ have disapproved, and which well-informed posterity +will forever disapprove. After much debate in the Cabinet, Mr. Monroe, +who was peculiarly bound to Jackson, and who had reasons of his own +for not offending him, determined to sustain him _in toto_, both at +home and in the courts of Spain and England. Hence, in condemning +General Jackson, Mr. Clay was again in opposition to the +administration; and the General of course concluded, that the Speaker +designed, in ruining him, merely to further his own political schemes. +How he boiled with fury against Mr. Clay, his published letters +amusingly attest. "The hypocrisy and baseness of Clay," wrote the +General, "in pretending friendship to me, and endeavoring to crush the +Executive through me, makes me despise the villain." + +Jackson, as we all know, was triumphantly sustained by the House. In +fact, Mr. Clay's speech was totally unworthy of the occasion. Instead +of argument and fact, he gave the House and the galleries beautiful +declamation. The evidence was before him; he had it in his hands; but, +instead of getting up his case with patient assiduity, and exhibiting +the damning proofs of Jackson's misconduct, he merely glanced over the +mass of papers, fell into some enormous blunders, passed over some +most material points, and then endeavored to supply all deficiencies +by an imposing eloquence. He even acknowledges that he had not +examined the testimony. "It is _possible_," said he, "that a critical +examination of the evidence _would_ show" that Arbuthnot was an +innocent trader. We have had occasion to examine that evidence since, +and we can testify that this conjecture was correct. But why was it a +_conjecture_? Why did Mr. Clay neglect to convert the conjecture into +certainty? It fell to him, as representing the civilization and +humanity of the United States, to vindicate the memory of an honorable +old man, who had done all that was possible to prevent the war, and +who had been ruthlessly murdered by men wearing the uniform of +American soldiers. It fell to him to bar the further advancement of a +man most unfit for civil rule. To this duty he was imperatively +called, but he only half did it, and thus exasperated the tiger +without disabling him. + +Four years passed. In December, 1823, General Jackson reappeared in +Washington to take his seat in the Senate, to which he had been +elected by his wire-pullers for the purpose of promoting his interests +as a candidate for the Presidency. Before he left home two or three of +his friends had besought him to assume a mild and conciliatory +demeanor at the capitol. It would never do, they told him, for a +candidate for the Presidency to threaten to cut off the ears of +gentlemen who disapproved his public conduct; he must restrain himself +and make friends. This advice he followed. He was reconciled with +General Winfield Scott, whom, in 1817, he had styled an "assassin," a +"hectoring bully," and an "intermeddling pimp and spy of the War +Office." He made friends with Colonel Thomas H. Benton, with whom he +had fought in the streets of Nashville, while he still carried in his +body a bullet received in that bloody affray. With Henry Clay, too, he +resumed friendly intercourse, met him twice at dinner-parties, rode +and exchanged visits with him, and attended one of the Speaker's +Congressional dinners. + +When next these party chieftains met, in the spring of 1825, it was +about to devolve upon the House of Representatives to decide which of +three men should be the next President,--Jackson, Adams, or Crawford. +They exchanged visits as before; Mr. Clay being desirous, as he said, +to show General Jackson that, in the vote which he had determined to +give, he was influenced only by public considerations. No reader needs +to be informed that Mr. Clay and his friends were able to decide the +election, and that they decided it in favor of Mr. Adams. We believe +that Mr. Clay was wrong in so doing. As a Democrat he ought, we think, +to have been willing to gratify the plurality of his fellow-citizens, +who had voted for General Jackson. His motives we fully believe to +have been disinterested. Indeed, it was plainly intimated to him that, +if he gave the Presidency to General Jackson, General Jackson would +make him his heir apparent, or, in other words, his Secretary of +State. + +The anger of General Jackson at his disappointment was not the blind +and wild fury of his earlier days; it was a deeper, a deadlier wrath, +which he governed and concealed in order to wreak a feller vengeance. +On the evening of the day on which the election in the House occurred +there was a levee at the Presidential mansion, which General Jackson +attended. Who, that saw him dart forward and grasp Mr. Adams cordially +by the hand, could have supposed that he then entirely believed that +Mr. Adams had stolen the Presidency from him by a corrupt bargain with +Mr. Clay? Who could have supposed that he and his friends had been, +for fourteen days, hatching a plot to blast the good name of Mr. Adams +and Mr. Clay, by spreading abroad the base insinuation that Clay had +been bought over to the support of Adams by the promise of the first +place in the Cabinet? Who could have supposed that, on his way home to +Tennessee, while the newspapers were paragraphing his magnanimity in +defeat, as shown by his behavior at the levee, he would denounce Adams +and Clay, in bar-rooms and public places, as guilty of a foul compact +to frustrate the wishes of the people? + +It was calumny's masterpiece. It was a rare stroke of art to get an +old dotard of a member of Congress to publish, twelve days _before_ +the election, that Mr. Clay had agreed to vote for Mr. Adams, and that +Mr. Adams had agreed to reward him by the office of Secretary of +State. When the vote had been given and the office conferred, how +plausible, how convincing, the charge of bargain! + +It is common to censure Mr. Clay for accepting office under Mr. Adams. +We honor him for his courage in doing so. Having made Mr. Adams +President, it had been unlike the gallant Kentuckian to shrink from +the possible odium of the act by refusing his proper place in the +administration. The calumny which anticipated his acceptance of office +was a defiance: _Take office if you dare_! It was simply worthy of +Henry Clay to accept the challenge, and brave all the consequences of +what he had deliberately and conscientiously done. + +In the office of Secretary of State Mr. Clay exhibited an admirable +talent for the despatch of business. He negotiated an unusual number +of useful treaties. He exerted himself to secure a recognition of the +principles, that, in time of war, private property should enjoy on the +ocean the same protection as on land, and that paper blockades are not +to be regarded. He seconded Mr. Adams in his determination not to +remove from office any man on account of his previous or present +opposition to the administration; and he carried this policy so far, +that, in selecting the newspapers for the publication of the laws, he +refused to consider their political character. This was in strict +accordance with the practice of all previous administrations; but it +is so pleasant to recur to the times when that honorable policy +prevailed, that we cannot help alluding to it. In his intercourse with +foreign ministers, Mr. Clay had an opportunity to display all the +charms of an unequalled courtesy: they remained his friends long after +he had retired. His Wednesday dinners and his pleasant evening +receptions were remembered for many years. How far he sympathized with +Mr. Adams's extravagant dreams of a system of national works that +should rival the magnificent structures of ancient Rome, or with the +extreme opinions of his colleague, Mr. Rush, as to the power and +importance of government, we do not know. He worked twelve hours a day +in his office, he tells us, and was content therewith. He was the last +high officer of the government to fight a duel. That bloodless contest +between the Secretary of State and John Randolph was as romantic and +absurd as a duel could well be. Colonel Benton's narrative of it is at +once the most amusing and the most affecting piece of gossip which our +political annals contain. Randolph, as the most unmanageable of +members of Congress, had been for fifteen years a thorn in Mr. Clay's +side, and Clay's later politics had been most exasperating to Mr. +Randolph; but the two men loved one another in their hearts, after +all. Nothing has ever exceeded the thorough-bred courtesy and tender +consideration with which they set about the work of putting one +another to death; and their joy was unbounded when, after the second +fire, each discovered that the other was unharmed. If all duels could +have such a result, duelling would be the prettiest thing in the +world. + +The election of 1828 swept the administration from power. No man has +ever bowed more gracefully to the decision of the people than Henry +Clay. His remarks at the public dinner given him in Washington, on his +leaving for home, were entirely admirable. Andrew Jackson, he said, +had wronged him, but he was now the Chief Magistrate of his country, +and, as such, he should be treated with decorum, and his public acts +judged with candor. His journey to Ashland was more like the progress +of a victor than the return homeward of a rejected statesman. + +He now entered largely into his favorite branch of rural business, the +raising of superior animals. Fifty merino sheep were driven over the +mountains from Pennsylvania to his farm, and he imported from England +some Durham and Hertford cattle. He had an Arabian horse in his +stable. For the improvement of the breed of mules, he imported an ass +from Malta, and another from Spain. Pigs, goats, and dogs he also +raised, and endeavored to improve. His slaves being about fifty in +number, he was able to carry on the raising of hemp and corn, as well +as the breeding of stock, and both on a considerable scale. Mrs. Clay +sent every morning to the principal hotel of Lexington thirty gallons +of milk, and her husband had large consignments to make to his factor +in New Orleans. His letters of this period show how he delighted in +his animals and his growing crops, and how thoughtfully he considered +the most trifling details of management. His health improved. He told +his old friend, Washington Irving, that he found it was as good for +men as for beasts to be turned out to grass occasionally. Though not +without domestic afflictions, he was very happy in his home. One of +his sons graduated second at West Point, and two of his daughters were +happily married. He was, perhaps, a too indulgent father; but his +children loved him most tenderly, and were guided by his opinion. It +is pleasing to read in the letters of his sons to him such passages as +this: + + "You tell me that you wish me to receive your opinions, not + as commands, but as advice. Yet I must consider them as + commands, doubly binding; for they proceed from, one so + vastly my superior in all respects, and to whom I am under + such great obligations, that the mere intimation of an + opinion will be sufficient to govern my conduct." + +The President, meanwhile, was paying such homage to the farmer of +Ashland as no President of the United States had ever paid to a +private individual. General Jackson's principal object--the object +nearest his heart--appears to have been to wound and injure Henry +Clay. His appointments, his measures, and his vetoes seem to have been +chiefly inspired by resentment against him. Ingham of Pennsylvania, +who had taken the lead in that State in giving currency to the +"bargain" calumny, was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Eaton, who +had aided in the original concoction of that foul slander, was +appointed Secretary of War. Branch, who received the appointment of +Secretary of the Navy, was one of the few Senators who had voted and +spoken against the confirmation of Henry Clay to the office of +Secretary of State in 1825; and Berrien, Attorney-General, was +another. Barry, appointed Postmaster-General, was the Kentuckian who +had done most to inflict upon Mr. Clay the mortification of seeing his +own Kentucky siding against him. John Randolph, Clay's recent +antagonist in a duel, and the most unfit man in the world for a +diplomatic mission, was sent Minister to Russia. Pope, an old Kentucky +Federalist, Clay's opponent and competitor for half a lifetime, +received the appointment of Governor of the Territory of Arkansas. +General Harrison, who had generously defended Clay against the charge +of bargain and corruption, was recalled from a foreign mission on the +fourth day after General Jackson's accession to power, though he had +scarcely reached the country to which he was accredited. In the place +of General Harrison was sent a Kentuckian peculiarly obnoxious to Mr. +Clay. In Kentucky itself there was a clean sweep from office of Mr. +Clay's friends; not one man of them was left. His brother-in-law, +James Brown, was instantly recalled from a diplomatic post in Europe. +Kendall, the chief of the Kitchen Cabinet, had once been tutor to Mr. +Clay's children, and had won the favor of Jackson by lending a +dexterous hand in carrying Kentucky against his benefactor. Francis +Blair, editor of the Globe, had also been the particular friend and +correspondent of Mr. Clay, but had turned against him. From the +Departments in Washington, all of Mr. Clay's known friends were +immediately removed, except a few who had made themselves +indispensable, and a few others whom Mr. Van Buren contrived to spare. +In nearly every instance, the men who succeeded to the best places had +made themselves conspicuous by their vituperation of Mr. Clay. He was +strictly correct when he said, "Every movement of the President is +dictated by personal hostility toward me"; but he was deceived when he +added that it all conduced to his benefit. Every mind that was both +just and well-informed warmed toward the object of such pitiless and +demoniac wrath; but in what land are minds just and well-informed a +majority? + +It was not only the appointments and removals that were aimed at Mr. +Clay. The sudden expulsion of gray hairs from the offices they had +honored, the precipitation of hundreds of families into poverty,--this +did not satisfy the President's vengeance. He assailed Henry Clay in +his first Message. In recommending a change in the mode of electing +the President, he said that, when the election devolves upon the House +of Representatives, circumstances may give the power of deciding the +election to one man. "May he not be tempted," added the President, "to +name his reward?" He vetoed appropriations for the Cumberland Road, +because the name and the honor of Henry Clay were peculiarly +identified with that work. He destroyed the Bank of the United States, +because he believed its power and influence were to be used in favor +of Mr. Clay's elevation to the Presidency. He took care, in his +Message vetoing the recharter of the Bank, to employ some of the +arguments which Clay had used in opposing the recharter of the United +States Bank in 1811. Miserably sick and infirm as he was, he consented +to stand for reelection, because there was no other candidate strong +enough to defeat Henry Clay; and he employed all his art, and the +whole power of the administration, during his second term, to smooth +Mr. Van Buren's path to the Presidency, to the exclusion of Henry +Clay. Plans were formed, too, and engagements made, the grand object +of which was to keep Clay from the Presidency, even after Mr. Van +Buren should have served his anticipated eight years. General Jackson +left Washington in 1837, expecting that Martin Van Buren would be +President until 1845, and that he would then be succeeded by Thomas H. +Benton. Nothing prevented the fulfilment of this programme but the +financial collapse of 1837, the effects of which continued during the +whole of Mr. Van Buren's term, and caused his defeat in 1840. + +Mr. Clay accepted the defiance implied in General Jackson's conduct. +He reappeared in Washington in 1831, in the character of Senator and +candidate for the Presidency. His journey to Washington was again a +triumphal progress, and again the galleries were crowded to hear him +speak. A great and brilliant party gathered round him, strong in +talents, character, property, and supposed to be strong in numbers. He +at once proved himself to be a most unskilful party leader. Every +movement of his in _that_ character was a mistake. He was precipitate +when he ought to have been cautious, and cautious when nothing but +audacity could have availed. The first subject upon which he was +called upon to act was the tariff. The national debt being within two +or three years of liquidation, Calhoun threatening nullification, and +Jackson vetoing all internal improvement bills, it was necessary to +provide against an enormous surplus. Clay maintained that the +_protective_ duties should remain intact, and that only those duties +should be reduced which protected no American interest. This was done; +the revenue was reduced three millions; and the surplus was as +threatening as before. It was _impossible_ to save the protective +duties entire without raising too much revenue. Mr. Clay, as it seems +to us, should have plainly said this to the manufacturers, and +compelled his party in Congress to warn and save them by making a +judicious cut at the protective duties in 1832. This would have +deprived Calhoun of his pretext, and prepared the way for a safe and +gradual reduction of duties in the years following. Such was the +prosperity of the country in 1832, that the three millions lost to the +revenue by Mr. Clay's bill were likely to be made up to it in three +years by the mere increase in the imports and land sales. + +Mr. Clay's next misstep was one of precipitation. General Jackson, +after a three years' war upon the Bank, was alarmed at the outcry of +its friends, and sincerely desired to make peace with it. We know, +from the avowals of the men who stood nearest his person at the time, +that he not only wished to keep the Bank question out of the +Presidential campaign of 1832, but that he was willing to consent, on +very easy conditions, to a recharter. It was Mr. Clay's commanding +influence that induced the directors of the Bank to press for a +recharter in 1832, and force the President to retraction or a veto. So +ignorant was this able and high-minded man of human nature and of the +American people, that he supposed a popular enthusiasm could be +kindled in behalf of a _bank_! Such was the infatuation of some of his +friends, that they went to the expense of circulating copies of the +veto message gratis, for the purpose of lessening the vote for its +author! Mr. Clay was ludicrously deceived as to his strength with the +masses of the people,--the _dumb_ masses,--those who have no eloquent +orators, no leading newspapers, no brilliant pamphleteers, to speak +for them, but who assert themselves with decisive effect on election +day. + +It was another capital error in Mr. Clay, as the leader of a party, to +run at all against General Jackson. He should have hoarded his +prestige for 1836, when the magical name of Jackson would no longer +captivate the ignorant voter. Mr. Clay's defeat in 1832, so +unexpected, so overwhelming, lamed him for life as a candidate for the +Presidency. He lost faith in his star. In 1836, when there _was_ a +chance of success,--just a chance,--he would not suffer his name to +appear in the canvass. The vote of the opposition was divided among +three candidates,--General Harrison, Hugh L. White, and Daniel +Webster; and Mr. Van Buren, of course, had an easy victory. +Fortunately for his own happiness, Mr. Clay's desire for the +Presidency diminished as his chances of reaching it diminished. That +desire had never been morbid, it now became exceedingly moderate; nor +do we believe that, after his crushing defeat of 1832, he ever had +much expectation of winning the prize. He knew too well the arts by +which success is assured, to believe that an honorable man could be +elected to the Presidency by honorable means only. + +Three other attempts were made to raise him to the highest office, and +it was always Andrew Jackson who struck him down. In 1840, he was set +aside by his party, and General Harrison nominated in his stead. This +was Jackson's doing; for it was the great defeat of 1832 which had +robbed Clay of prestige, and it was General Jackson's uniform success +that suggested the selection of a military candidate. Again, in 1844, +when the Texas issue was presented to the people, it was by the adroit +use of General Jackson's name that the question of annexation was +precipitated upon the country. In 1848, a military man was again +nominated, to the exclusion of Henry Clay. + +Mr. Clay used to boast of his consistency, averring that he had never +changed his opinion upon a public question but once. We think he was +much too consistent. A notable example of an excessive consistency was +his adhering to the project of a United States Bank, when there was +scarcely a possibility of establishing one, and his too steadfast +opposition to the harmless expedient of the Sub-treasury. The +Sub-treasury system has now been in operation for a quarter of a +century. Call it a bungling and antiquated system, if you will; it has +nevertheless answered its purpose. The public money is taken out of +politics. If the few millions lying idle in the "Strong Box" do no +good, they at least do no harm; and we have no overshadowing national +bank to compete with private capital, and to furnish, every few years; +a theme for demagogues. Mr. Clay saw in the Sub-treasury the ruin of +the Republic. In his great speech of 1838, in opposition to it, he +uttered, in his most solemn and impressive manner, the following +words:-- + + "Mr. President, a great, novel, and untried measure is + perseveringly urged upon the acceptance of Congress. That it + is pregnant with tremendous consequences, for good or evil, + is undeniable, and admitted by all. We firmly believe that + it will be _fatal to the best interests of this country, and + ultimately subversive of its liberties_." + +No one acquainted with Mr. Clay, and no man, himself sincere, who +reads this eloquent and most labored speech, can doubt Mr. Clay's +sincerity. Observe the awful solemnity of his first sentences:-- + + "I have seen some public service, passed through many + troubled times, and often addressed public assemblies, in + this Capitol and elsewhere; but never before have I risen in + a deliberative body under more oppressed feelings, or with a + deeper sense of awful responsibility. Never before have I + risen to express my opinions upon any public measure fraught + with such tremendous consequences to the welfare and + prosperity of the country, and so perilous to the liberties + of the people, as I solemnly believe the bill under + consideration will be. If you knew, sir, what sleepless + hours reflection upon it has cost me, if you knew with what + fervor and sincerity I have implored Divine assistance to + strengthen and sustain me in my opposition to it, I should + have credit with you, at least, for the sincerity of my + convictions, if I shall be so unfortunate as not to have + your concurrence as to the dangerous character of the + measure. And I have thanked my God that he has prolonged my + life until the present time, to enable me to exert myself, + in the service of my country, against a project far + transcending in pernicious tendency any that I have ever had + occasion to consider. I thank him for the health I am + permitted to enjoy; I thank him for the soft and sweet + repose which I experienced last night; I thank him for the + bright and glorious sun which shines upon us this day." + +And what _was_ the question at issue? It was whether Nicholas Biddle +should have the custody of the public money at Philadelphia, and use +the average balance in discounting notes; or whether Mr. Cisco should +keep it at New York in an exceedingly strong vault, and not use any of +it in discounting notes. + +As the leader of a national party Mr. Clay failed utterly; for he was +neither bad enough to succeed by foul means, nor skilful enough to +succeed by fair means. But in his character of patriot, orator, or +statesman, he had some brilliant successes in his later years. When +Jackson was ready to concede _all_ to the Nullifiers, and that +suddenly, to the total ruin of the protected manufacturers, it was +Clay's tact, parliamentary experience, and personal power that +interposed the compromise tariff, which reduced duties gradually +instead of suddenly. The Compromise of 1850, also, which postponed the +Rebellion ten years, was chiefly his work. That Compromise was the +best then attainable; and we think that the country owes gratitude to +the man who deferred the Rebellion to a time when the United States +was strong enough to subdue it. + +Posterity, however, will read the speeches of Mr. Clay upon the +various slavery questions agitated from 1835 to 1850 with mingled +feelings of admiration and regret. A man compelled to live in the +midst of slavery must hate it and actively oppose it, or else be, in +some degree, corrupted by it. As Thomas Jefferson came at length to +acquiesce in slavery, and live contentedly with it, so did Henry Clay +lose some of his early horror of the system, and accept it as a +necessity. True, he never lapsed into the imbecility of pretending to +think slavery right or best, but he saw no way of escaping from it; +and when asked his opinion as to the final solution of the problem, he +could only throw it upon Providence. Providence, he said, would remove +the evil in its own good time, and nothing remained for men but to +cease the agitation of the subject. His first efforts, as his last, +were directed to the silencing of both parties, but most especially +the Abolitionists, whose character and aims he misconceived. With John +C. Calhoun sitting near him in the Senate-chamber, and with +fire-eaters swarming at the other end of the Capitol, he could, as +late as 1843, cast the whole blame of the slavery excitement upon the +few individuals at the North who were beginning to discern the +ulterior designs of the Nullifiers. Among his letters of 1843 there is +one addressed to a friend who was about to write a pamphlet against +the Abolitionists. Mr. Clay gave him an outline of what he thought the +pamphlet ought to be. + + "The great aim and object of your tract should be to arouse + the laboring classes in the Free States against abolition. + Depict the consequences to them of immediate abolition. The + slaves, being free, would be dispersed throughout the Union; + they would enter into competition with the free laborer, + with the American, the Irish, the German; reduce his wages; + be confounded with him, and affect his moral and social + standing. And as the ultras go for both abolition and + amalgamation, show that their object is to unite in marriage + the laboring white man and the laboring black man, and to + reduce the white laboring man to the despised and degraded + condition of the black man. + + "I would show their opposition to colonization. Show its + humane, religious, and patriotic aims; that they are to + separate those whom God has separated. Why do the + Abolitionists oppose colonization? To keep and amalgamate + together the two races, in violation of God's will, and to + keep the blacks here, that they may interfere with, degrade, + and debase the laboring whites. Show that the British nation + is co-operating with the Abolitionists, for the purpose of + dissolving the Union, etc." + +This is so very absurd, that, if we did not know it to express Mr. +Clay's habitual feeling at that time, we should be compelled to see in +it, not Henry Clay, but the candidate for the Presidency. + +He really thought so in 1843. He was perfectly convinced that the +white race and the black could not exist together on equal terms. One +of his last acts was to propose emancipation in Kentucky; but it was +an essential feature of his plan to transport the emancipated blacks +to Africa. When we look over Mr. Clay's letters and speeches of those +years, we meet with so much that is short-sighted and grossly +erroneous, that we are obliged to confess that this man, gifted as he +was, and dear as his memory is to us, shared the judicial blindness of +his order. Its baseness and arrogance he did not share. His head was +often wrong, but his heart was generally right. It atones for all his +mere errors of abstract opinion, that he was never admitted to the +confidence of the Nullifiers, and that he uniformly voted against the +measures inspired by them. He was against the untimely annexation of +Texas; he opposed the rejection of the anti-slavery petitions; and he +declared that no earthly power should ever induce him to consent to +the addition of one acre of slave territory to the possessions of the +United States. + +It is proof positive of a man's essential soundness, if he improves as +he grows old. Henry Clay's last years were his best; he ripened to the +very end. His friends remarked the moderation of his later opinions, +and his charity for those who had injured him most. During the last +ten years of his life no one ever heard him utter a harsh judgment of +an opponent. Domestic afflictions, frequent and severe, had chastened +his heart; his six affectionate and happy daughters were dead; one son +was a hopeless lunatic in an asylum; another was not what such a +father had a right to expect; and, at length, his favorite and most +promising son, Henry, in the year 1847, fell at the battle of Buena +Vista. It was just after this last crushing loss, and probably in +consequence of it, that he was baptized and confirmed a member of the +Episcopal Church. + +When, in 1849, he reappeared in the Senate, to assist, if possible, in +removing the slavery question from politics, he was an infirm and +serious, but not sad, old man of seventy-two. He never lost his +cheerfulness or his faith, but he felt deeply for his distracted +country. During that memorable session of Congress he spoke seventy +times. Often extremely sick and feeble, scarcely able, with the +assistance of a friend's arm, to climb the steps of the Capitol, he +was never absent on the days when the Compromise was to be debated. It +appears to be well attested, that his last great speech on the +Compromise was the immediate cause of his death. On the morning on +which he began his speech, he was accompanied by a clerical friend, to +whom he said, on reaching the long flight of steps leading to the +Capitol, "Will you lend me your arm, my friend? for I find myself +quite weak and exhausted this morning." Every few steps he was obliged +to stop and take breath. "Had you not better defer your speech?" asked +the clergyman. "My dear friend," said the dying orator, "I consider +our country in danger; and if I can be the means, in any measure, of +averting that danger, my health or life is of little consequence." +When he rose to speak, it was but too evident that he was unfit for +the task he had undertaken. But, as he kindled with his subject, his +cough left him, and his bent form resumed all its wonted erectness and +majesty. He may, in the prime of his strength, have spoken with more +energy, but never with so much pathos and grandeur. His speech lasted +two days, and, though he lived two years longer, he never recovered +from the effects of the effort. Toward the close of the second day, +his friends repeatedly proposed an adjournment; but he would not +desist until he had given complete utterance to his feelings. He said +afterwards that he was not sure, if he gave way to an adjournment, +that he should ever be able to resume. + +In the course of this long debate, Mr. Clay said some things to which +the late war has given a new interest. He knew, at last, what the +fire-eaters meant. He perceived now that it was not the few abhorred +Abolitionists of the Northern States from whom danger to the Union was +to be apprehended. On one occasion allusion was made to a South +Carolina hot-head, who had publicly proposed to raise the flag of +disunion. Thunders of applause broke from the galleries when Mr. Clay +retorted by saying, that, if Mr. Rhett had really made that +proposition, and should follow it up by corresponding acts, he would +be a TRAITOR; "and," added Mr. Clay, "I hope he will meet a traitor's +fate." When the chairman had succeeded in restoring silence, Mr. Clay +made that celebrated declaration which was so frequently quoted in +1861: + + "If Kentucky to-morrow should unfurl the banner of + resistance unjustly, I will never fight under that banner. I + owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union,--a + subordinate one to my own State." + +He said also: + + "If any one State, or a portion of the people of any State, + choose to place themselves in military array against the + government of the Union, I am for trying the strength of the + government. I am for ascertaining whether we have a + government or not." + +Again: + + "The Senator speaks of Virginia being my country. This + UNION, sir, is my country; the thirty States are my country; + Kentucky is my country, and Virginia no more than any State + in the Union." + +And yet again: + + "There are those who think that the Union must be preserved + by an exclusive reliance upon love and reason. That is not + my opinion. I have some confidence in this instrumentality; + but, depend upon it that no human government can exist + without the power of applying force, and the actual + application of it in extreme cases." + +Who can estimate the influence of these clear and emphatic utterances +ten years after? The crowded galleries, the numberless newspaper +reports, the quickly succeeding death of the great orator,--all aided +to give them currency and effect. We shall never know how many +wavering minds they aided to decide in 1861. Not that Mr. Clay really +believed the conflict would occur: he was mercifully permitted to die +in the conviction that the Compromise of 1850 had removed all +immediate danger, and greatly lessened that of the future. Far indeed +was he from foreseeing that the ambition of a man born in New England, +calling himself a disciple of Andrew Jackson, would, within five +years, destroy all compromises, and render all future compromise +impossible, by procuring the repeal of the first,--the Missouri +Compromise of 1821. + +Henry Clay was formed by nature to please, to move, and to impress his +countrymen. Never was there a more captivating presence. We remember +hearing Horace Greeley say that, if a man only saw Henry Clay's back, +he would know that it was the back of a distinguished man. How his +presence filled a drawing-room! With what an easy sway he held captive +ten acres of mass-meeting! And, in the Senate, how skilfully he showed +himself respectfully conscious of the galleries, without appearing to +address them! Take him for all in all, we must regard him as the first +of American orators; but posterity will not assign him that rank, +because posterity will not hear that matchless voice, will not see +those large gestures, those striking attitudes, that grand manner, +which gave to second-rate composition first-rate effect. He could not +have been a great statesman, if he had been ever so greatly endowed. +While slavery existed no statesmanship was possible, except that which +was temporary and temporizing. The thorn, we repeat, was in the flesh; +and the doctors were all pledged to try and cure the patient without +extracting it. They could do nothing but dress the wound, put on this +salve and that, give the sufferer a little respite from anguish, and, +after a brief interval, repeat the operation. Of all these physicians +Henry Clay was the most skilful and effective. He both handled the +sore place with consummate dexterity, and kept up the constitution of +the patient by stimulants, which enabled him, at last, to live through +the appalling operation which removed the cause of his agony. + +Henry Clay was a man of honor and a gentleman. He kept his word. He +was true to his friends, his party, and his convictions. He paid his +debts and his son's debts. The instinct of solvency was very strong in +him. He had a religion, of which the main component parts were +self-respect and love of country. These were supremely authoritative +with him; he would not do anything which he felt to be beneath Henry +Clay, or which he thought would be injurious to the United States. +Five times a candidate for the Presidency, no man can say that he ever +purchased support by the promise of an office, or by any other +engagement savoring of dishonor. Great talents and a great +understanding are seldom bestowed on the same individual. Mr. Clay's +usefulness as a statesman was limited by his talent as an orator. He +relied too much on his oratory; he was never such a student as a man +intrusted with public business ought to be. Hence he originated +nothing and established nothing. His speeches will long be interesting +as the relics of a magnificent and dazzling personality, and for the +light they cast upon the history of parties; but they add scarcely +anything to the intellectual property of the nation. Of American +orators he was the first whose speeches were ever collected in a +volume. Millions read them with admiration in his lifetime; but +already they have sunk to the level of the works "without which no +gentleman's library is complete,"--works which every one possesses and +no one reads. + +Henry Clay, regarded as a subject for biography, is still untouched. +Campaign Lives of him can be collected by the score; and the Rev. +Calvin Colton wrote three volumes purporting to be the Life of Henry +Clay. Mr. Colton was a very honest gentleman, and not wanting in +ability; but writing, as he did, in Mr. Clay's own house, he became, +as it were, enchanted by his subject. He was enamored of Mr. Clay to +such a degree that his pen ran into eulogy by an impulse which was +irresistible, and which he never attempted to resist. In point of +arrangement, too, his work is chaos come again. A proper biography of +Mr. Clay would be one of the most entertaining and instructive of +works. It would embrace the ever-memorable rise and first triumphs of +the Democratic party; the wild and picturesque life of the early +settlers of Kentucky; the war of 1812; Congress from 1806 to 1852; the +fury and corruption of Jackson's reign; and the three great +compromises which postponed the Rebellion. All the leading men and all +the striking events of our history would contribute something to the +interest and value of the work. Why go to antiquity or to the Old +World for subjects, when such a subject as this remains unwritten? + +[Footnote 1: Mill's Principles of Political Economy, Book V. Ch. X. +sec. 1.] + +[Footnote 2: Daniel Webster once said of him in conversation: "Mr. +Clay is a great man; beyond all question a true patriot. He has done +much for his country. He ought long ago to have been elected +President. I think, however, he was never a man of books, a hard +student; but he has displayed remarkable genius. I never could imagine +him sitting comfortably in his library, and reading quietly out of the +great books of the past. He has been too fond of the world to enjoy +anything like that. He has been too fond of excitement,--he has lived +upon it; he has been too fond of company, not enough alone; and has +had few resources within himself. Now a man who cannot, to some +extent, depend upon himself for happiness, is to my mind one of the +unfortunate. But Clay is a great man; and if he ever had animosities +against me, I forgive him and forget them." + +These words were uttered at Marshfield when the news reached there +that Mr. Clay was dying.] + +[Footnote 3: This is the correct spelling of the name, as we learn +from a living relative of the unfortunate man. It has been hitherto +spelled Ambrister.] + + + +DANIEL WEBSTER. + +Of words spoken in recent times, few have touched so many hearts as +those uttered by Sir Walter Scott on his deathbed. There has seldom +been so much of mere enjoyment crowded into the compass of one +lifetime as there was into his. Even his work--all of his best +work--was only more elaborate and keenly relished play; for +story-telling, the occupation of his maturity, had first been the +delight of his childhood, and remained always his favorite recreation. +Triumph rewarded his early efforts, and admiration followed him to the +grave. Into no human face could this man look, nor into any crowd of +faces, which did not return his glance with a gaze of admiring love. +He lived precisely where and how it was happiest for him to live; and +he had above most men of his time that disposition of mind which makes +the best of bad fortune and the most of good. But when his work and +his play were all done, and he came calmly to review his life, and the +life of man on earth, this was the sum of his reflections, this was +what he had to say to the man to whom he had confided his daughter's +happiness: + + "Lockhart, I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, + be a good man,--be virtuous,--be religious,--be a good man. + Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie + here." + +So do we all feel in view of the open coffin, much as we may differ as +to what it _is_ to be good, virtuous, and religious. Was this man, who +lies dead here before us, faithful to his trust? Was he sincere, pure, +just, and benevolent? Did he help civilization, or was he an obstacle +in its way? Did he ripen and improve to the end, or did he degenerate +and go astray? These are the questions which are silently considered +when we look upon the still countenance of death, and especially when +the departed was a person who influenced his generation long and +powerfully. Usually it is only the last of these questions which +mortals can answer with any certainty; but from the answer to that one +we infer the answers to all the others. As it is only the wise who +learn, so it is only the good who improve. When we see a man gaining +upon his faults as he advances in life, when we find him more +self-contained and cheerful, more learned and inquisitive, more just +and considerate, more single-eyed and noble in his aims, at fifty than +he was at forty, and at seventy than he was at fifty, we have the best +reason perceptible by human eyes for concluding that he has been +governed by right principles and good feelings. We have a right to +pronounce such a person _good_, and he is justified in believing us. + +The three men most distinguished in public life during the last forty +years in the United States were Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and +Daniel Webster. Henry Clay improved as he grew old. He was a +venerable, serene, and virtuous old man. The impetuosity, +restlessness, ambition, and love of display, and the detrimental +habits of his earlier years, gave place to tranquillity, temperance, +moderation, and a patriotism without the alloy of personal objects. +Disappointment had chastened, not soured him. Public life enlarged, +not narrowed him. The city of Washington purified, not corrupted him. +He came there a gambler, a drinker, a profuse consumer of tobacco, and +a turner of night into day. He overcame the worst of those habits very +early in his residence at the capital. He came to Washington to +exhibit his talents, he remained there to serve his country; nor of +his country did he ever think the less, or serve her less zealously, +because she denied him the honor he coveted for thirty years. We +cannot say this of Calhoun. He degenerated frightfully during the last +twenty years of his life. His energy degenerated into intensity, and +his patriotism narrowed into sectionalism. He became unteachable, +incapable of considering an opinion opposite to his own, or even a +fact that did not favor it. Exempt by his bodily constitution from all +temptation to physical excesses, his body was worn out by the intense, +unhealthy working of his mind. False opinions falsely held and +intolerantly maintained were the debauchery that sharpened the lines +of his face, and converted his voice into a bark. Peace, health, and +growth early became impossible to him, for there was a canker in the +heart of the man. His once not dishonorable desire of the Presidency +became at last an infuriate lust after it, which his natural sincerity +compelled him to reveal even while wrathfully denying it. He +considered that he had been defrauded of the prize, and he had some +reason for thinking so. Some men avenge their wrongs by the pistol, +others by invective; but the only weapons which this man could wield +were abstract propositions. From the hills of South Carolina he hurled +paradoxes at General Jackson, and appealed from the dicta of Mrs. +Eaton's drawing-room to a hair-splitting theory of States' Rights. +Fifteen hundred thousand armed men have since sprung up from those +harmless-looking dragon's teeth, so recklessly sown in the hot +Southern soil. + +Of the three men whom we have named, Daniel Webster was incomparably +the most richly endowed by nature. In his lifetime it was impossible +to judge him aright. His presence usually overwhelmed criticism; his +intimacy always fascinated it. It so happened, that he grew to his +full stature and attained his utmost development in a community where +human nature appears to be undergoing a process of diminution,--where +people are smaller-boned, less muscular, more nervous, and more +susceptible than their ancestors. He possessed, in consequence, an +enormous physical magnetism, as we term it, over his fellow-citizens, +apart from the natural influence of his talents and understanding. +Fidgety men were quieted in his presence, women were spellbound by it, +and the busy, anxious public contemplated his majestic calm with a +feeling of relief, as well as admiration. Large numbers of people in +New England, for many years, reposed upon Daniel Webster. He +represented to them the majesty and the strength of the government of +the United States. He gave them a sense of safety. Amid the flighty +politics of the time and the loud insincerities of Washington, there +seemed one solid thing in America, so long as he sat in an arm-chair +of the Senate-chamber. When he appeared in State Street, slowly +pacing, with an arm behind him, business was brought to an absolute +stand-still. As the whisper passed along, the windows filled with +clerks, pen in mouth, peering out to catch a glimpse of the man whom +they had seen fifty times before; while the bankers and merchants +hastened forth to give him salutation, or exchange a passing word, +happy if they could but catch his eye. At home, and in a good mood, he +was reputed to be as entertaining a man as New England ever held,--a +gambolling, jocund leviathan out on the sea-shore, and in the library +overflowing with every kind of knowledge that can be acquired without +fatigue, and received without preparation. Mere celebrity, too, is +dazzling to some minds. While, therefore, this imposing person lived +among us, he was blindly worshipped by many, blindly hated by some, +calmly considered by very few. To this hour he is a great influence in +the United States. Perhaps, with the abundant material now accessible, +it is not too soon to attempt to ascertain how far he was worthy of +the estimation in which his fellow-citizens held him, and what place +he ought to hold in the esteem of posterity. At least, it can never be +unpleasing to Americans to recur to the most interesting specimen of +our kind that has lived in America since Franklin. + +He could not have been born in a better place, nor of better stock, +nor at a better time, nor reared in circumstances more favorable to +harmonious development. He grew up in the Switzerland of America. From +a hill on his father's New Hampshire farm, he could see most of the +noted summits of New England. Granite-topped Kearsarge stood out in +bold relief near by; Mount Washington and its attendant peaks, not yet +named, bounded the northern horizon like a low, silvery cloud; and the +principal heights of the Green Mountains, rising near the Connecticut +River, were clearly visible. The Merrimack, most serviceable of +rivers, begins its course a mile or two off, formed by the union of +two mountain torrents. Among those hills, high up, sometimes near the +summits, lakes are found, broad, deep, and still; and down the sides +run innumerable rills, which form those noisy brooks that rush along +the bottom of the hills, where now the roads wind along, shaded by the +mountain, and enlivened by the music of the waters. Among these hills +there are, here and there, expanses of level country large enough for +a farm, with the addition of some fields upon the easier acclivities +and woodlands higher up. There was one field of a hundred acres upon +Captain Webster's mountain farm so level that a lamb could be seen on +any part of it from the windows of the house. Every tourist knows that +region now,--that wide, billowy expanse of dark mountains and vivid +green fields, dotted with white farm-houses, and streaked with silvery +streams. It was rougher, seventy years ago, secluded, hardly +accessible, the streams unbridged, the roads of primitive formation; +but the worst of the rough work had been done there, and the +production of superior human beings had become possible, before the +Webster boys were born. + +Daniel Webster's father was the strong man of his neighborhood; the +very model of a republican citizen and hero,--stalwart, handsome, +brave, and gentle. Ebenezer Webster inherited no worldly advantages. +Sprung from a line of New Hampshire farmers, he was apprenticed, in +his thirteenth year, to another New Hampshire farmer; and when he had +served his time, he enlisted as a private soldier in the old French +war, and came back from the campaigns about Lake George a captain. He +never went to school. Like so many other New England boys, he learned +what is essential for the carrying on of business in the +chimney-corner, by the light of the fire. He possessed one beautiful +accomplishment: he was a grand reader. Unlettered as he was, he +greatly enjoyed the more lofty compositions of poets and orators; and +his large, sonorous voice enabled him to read them with fine effect. +His sons read in his manner, even to his rustic pronunciation of some +words. Daniel's calm, clear-cut rendering of certain noted +passages--favorites in his early home--was all his father's. There is +a pleasing tradition in the neighborhood, of the teamsters who came to +Ebenezer Webster's mill saying to one another, when they had +discharged their load and tied their horses, "Come, let us go in, and +hear little Dan read a psalm." The French war ended, Captain Webster, +in compensation for his services, received a grant of land in the +mountain wilderness at the head of the Merrimack, where, as miller and +farmer, he lived and reared his family. The Revolutionary War summoned +this noble yeoman to arms once more. He led forth his neighbors to the +strife, and fought at their head, with his old rank of captain, at +White Plains and at Bennington, and served valiantly through the war. +From that time to the end of his life, though much trusted and +employed by his fellow-citizens as legislator, magistrate, and judge, +he lived but for one object,--the education and advancement of his +children. All men were poor then in New Hampshire, compared with the +condition of their descendants. Judge Webster was a poor, and even +embarrassed man, to the day of his death. The hardships he had endured +as soldier and pioneer made him, as he said, an old man before his +time. Rheumatism bent his form, once so erect and vigorous. Black care +subdued his spirits, once so joyous and elastic. Such were the fathers +of fair New England. + +This strong-minded, uncultured man was a Puritan and a Federalist,--a +catholic, tolerant, and genial Puritan, an intolerant and almost +bigoted Federalist. Washington, Adams, and Hamilton were the civilians +highest in his esteem; the good Jefferson he dreaded and abhorred. The +French Revolution was mere blackness and horror to him; and when it +assumed the form of Napoleon Bonaparte, his heart sided passionately +with England in her struggle to extirpate it. His boys were in the +fullest sympathy with him in all his opinions and feelings. They, too, +were tolerant and untheological Puritans; they, too, were most +strenuous Federalists; and neither of them ever recovered from their +father's influence, nor advanced much beyond him in their fundamental +beliefs. Readers have, doubtless, remarked, in Mr. Webster's oration +upon Adams and Jefferson, how the stress of the eulogy falls upon +Adams, while cold and scant justice is meted out to the greatest and +wisest of our statesmen. It was Ebenezer Webster who spoke that day, +with the more melodious voice of his son. There is a tradition in New +Hampshire that Judge Webster fell sick on a journey in a town of +Republican politics, and besought the doctor to help him speedily on +his way home, saying that he was born a Federalist, had lived a +Federalist, and could not die in peace in any but a Federalist town. + +Among the ten children of this sturdy patriot and partisan, eight were +ordinary mortals, and two most extraordinary,--Ezekiel, born in 1780, +and Daniel, born in 1782,--the youngest of his boys. Some of the elder +children were even less than ordinary. Elderly residents of the +neighborhood speak of one half-brother of Daniel and Ezekiel as +penurious and narrow; and the letters of others of the family indicate +very plain, good, commonplace people. But these two, the sons of their +father's prime, inherited all his grandeur of form and beauty of +countenance, his taste for high literature, along with a certain +energy of mind that came to them, by some unknown law of nature, from +their father's mother. From her Daniel derived his jet-black hair and +eyes, and his complexion of burnt gunpowder; though all the rest of +the children except one were remarkable for fairness of complexion, +and had sandy hair. Ezekiel, who was considered the handsomest man in +the United States, had a skin of singular fairness, and light hair. He +is vividly remembered in New Hampshire for his marvellous beauty of +form and face, his courtly and winning manners, the weight and majesty +of his presence. He was a signal refutation of Dr. Holmes's theory, +that grand manners and high breeding are the result of several +generations of culture. Until he was nineteen, this peerless gentleman +worked on a rough mountain farm on the outskirts of civilization, as +his ancestors had for a hundred and fifty years before him; but he was +refined to the tips of his finger-nails and to the buttons of his +coat. Like his more famous brother, he had an artist's eye for the +becoming in costume, and a keen sense for all the proprieties and +decorums both of public and private life. Limited in his view by the +narrowness of his provincial sphere, as well as by inherited +prejudices, he was a better man and citizen than his brother, without +a touch of his genius. Nor was that half-brother of Daniel, who had +the black hair and eyes and gunpowder skin, at all like Daniel, or +equal to him in mental power. + +There is nothing in our literature more pleasing than the glimpses it +affords of the early life of these two brothers;--Ezekiel, robust, +steady-going, persevering, self-denying; Daniel, careless of work, +eager for play, often sick, always slender and weakly, and regarded +rather as a burden upon the family than a help to it. His feebleness +early habituated him to being a recipient of aid and favor, and it +decided his destiny. It has been the custom in New England, from the +earliest time, to bring up one son of a prosperous family to a +profession, and the one selected was usually the boy who seemed least +capable of earning a livelihood by manual labor. Ebenezer Webster, +heavily burdened with responsibility all his life long, had most +ardently desired to give his elder sons a better education than he had +himself enjoyed, but could not. When Daniel was a boy, his large +family was beginning to lift his load a little; the country was +filling up; his farm was more productive, and he felt somewhat more at +his ease. His sickly youngest son, because he was sickly, and only for +that reason, he chose from his numerous brood to send to an academy, +designing to make a schoolmaster of him. We have no reason to believe +that any of the family saw anything extraordinary in the boy. Except +that he read aloud unusually well, he had given no sign of particular +talent, unless it might be that he excelled in catching trout, +shooting squirrels, and fighting cocks. His mother, observing his love +of play and his equal love of books, said he "would come to something +or nothing, she could not tell which"; but his father, noticing his +power over the sympathies of others, and comparing him with his +bashful brother, used to remark, that he had fears for Ezekiel, but +that Daniel would assuredly make his way in the world. It is certain +that the lad himself was totally unconscious of possessing +extraordinary talents, and indulged no early dream of greatness. He +tells us himself, that he loved but two things in his youth,--play and +reading. The rude schools which he trudged two or three miles in the +winter every day to attend, taught him scarcely anything. His father's +saw-mill, he used to say, was the real school of his youth. When he +had set the saw and turned on the water, there would be fifteen +minutes of tranquillity before the log again required his attention, +during which he sat and absorbed knowledge. + + "We had so few books," he records in the exquisite fragment + of autobiography he has left us, "that to read them once or + twice was nothing. We thought they were all to be got by + heart." + +How touching the story, so well known, of the mighty struggle and long +self-sacrifice it cost this family to get the youth through college! +The whole expense did not average one hundred and fifty dollars a +year; but it seemed to the boy so vast and unattainable a good, that, +when his father announced his purpose to attempt it, he was completely +overcome; his head was dizzy; his tongue was paralyzed; he could only +press his father's hands and shed tears. Slender indeed was his +preparation for Dartmouth. From the day when he took his first Latin +lesson to that on which he entered college was thirteen months. He +could translate Cicero's orations with some ease, and make out with +difficulty and labor the easiest sentences of the Greek Reader, and +that was the whole of what was called his "preparation" for college. +In June, 1797, he did not know the Greek alphabet; in August of the +same year he was admitted to the Freshman Class of Dartmouth on +engaging to supply his deficiencies by extra study. + +Neither at college nor at any time could Daniel Webster be properly +called a student, and well he knew it. Many a time he has laughed, in +his jovial, rollicking manner, at the preposterous reputation for +learning a man can get by bringing out a fragment of curious knowledge +at the right moment at college. He was an absorbent of knowledge, +never a student. The Latin of Cicero and Virgil was congenial and easy +to him, and he learned more of it than the required portion. But even +in Latin, he tells us, he was excelled by some of his own class; and +"his attainments were not such," he adds, "as told for much in the +recitation-room." Greek he never enjoyed: his curiosity was never +awakened on the edge of that boundless contiguity of interesting +knowledge, and he only learned enough Greek to escape censure. He +said, forty years after, in an after-dinner speech: + + "When I was at school I felt exceedingly obliged to Homer's + messengers for the exact literal fidelity with which they + delivered their messages. The seven or eight lines of good + Homeric Greek in which they had received the commands of + Agamemnon or Achilles they recited to whomsoever the message + was to be carried; and as they repeated them verbatim, + sometimes twice or thrice, it saved me the trouble of + learning so much Greek." + +It was not at "school" that he had this experience, but at Dartmouth +College. For mathematics, too, he had not the slightest taste. He +humorously wrote to a fellow-student, soon after leaving college, that +"all that he knew about conterminous arches or evanescent subtenses +might be collected on the pupil of a gnat's eye without making him +wink." At college, in fact, he was simply an omnivorous reader, +studying only so much as to pass muster in the recitation-room. Every +indication we possess of his college life, as well as his own repeated +assertions, confirms the conclusion that Nature had formed him to use +the products of other men's toil, not to add to the common fund. Those +who are conversant with college life know very well what it means when +a youth does not take to Greek, and has an aversion to mathematics. +Such a youth may have immense talent, and give splendid expression to +the sentiments of his countrymen, but he is not likely to be one of +the priceless few of the human race who discover truth or advance +opinion. It is the energetic, the originating minds that are +susceptible to the allurements of difficulty. + +On the other hand, Daniel Webster had such qualities as made every one +feel that he was the first man in the College. Tall, gaunt, and +sallow, with an incomparable forehead, and those cavernous and +brilliant eyes of his, he had much of the large and tranquil presence +which was so important an element of his power over others at all +periods of his life. His letters of this time, as well as the +recollections of his fellow-students, show him the easy, humorous, +rather indolent and strictly correct "good-fellow," whom professors +and companions equally relished. He browsed much in the College +library, and had the habit of bringing to bear upon the lesson of the +hour the information gathered in his miscellaneous reading,--a +practice that much enlivens the monotony of recitation. The half-dozen +youths of his particular set, it appears, plumed themselves upon +resembling the early Christians in having all things in common. The +first to rise in the morning--and he must have been an early riser +indeed who was up before Daniel Webster--"dressed himself in the best +which the united apartments afforded"; the next made the best +selection from what remained; and the last was happy if he found rags +enough to justify his appearance in the chapel. The relator of this +pleasant reminiscence adds, that he was once the possessor of an +eminently respectable beaver hat, a costly article of resplendent +lustre. It was missing one day, could not be found, and was given up +for lost. Several weeks after "friend Dan" returned from a distant +town, where he had been teaching school, wearing the lost beaver, and +relieving its proprietor from the necessity of covering his head with +a battered and long-discarded hat of felt. How like the Daniel Webster +of later years, who never could acquire the sense of _meum_ and +_tuum_, supposed to be the basis of civilization! + +Mr. Webster always spoke slightingly of his early oratorical efforts, +and requested Mr. Everett, the editor of his works, not to search them +out. He was not just to the productions of his youth, if we may judge +from the Fourth-of-July oration which he delivered in 1800, when he +was a Junior at Dartmouth, eighteen years of age. This glowing psalm +of the republican David is perfectly characteristic, and entirely +worthy of him. The times that tried men's souls,--how recent and vivid +they were to the sons of Ebenezer Webster, who had led forth from the +New Hampshire hills the neighbors at whose firesides Ezekiel and +Daniel had listened, open-mouthed, to the thousand forgotten incidents +of the war. Their professors of history were old John Bowen, who had +once been a prisoner with the Indians; Robert Wise, who had sailed +round the world and fought in the Revolution on _both_ sides; George +Bayly, a pioneer, who saw the first tree felled in Northern New +Hampshire; women of the neighborhood, who had heard the midnight yell +of savages; and, above all, their own lion-hearted father, who had +warred with Frenchmen, Indians, wild nature, British troops, and +French ideas. "O," wrote Daniel once, "I shall never hear such +story-telling again!" It was not in the cold pages of Hildreth, nor in +the brief summaries of school-books, that this imaginative, +sympathetic youth had learned that part of the political history of +the United States--from 1787 to 1800--which will ever be its most +interesting portion. He learned it at town-meetings, in the +newspapers, at his father's house, among his neighbors, on election +days; he learned it as an intelligent youth, with a passionately loyal +father and mother, learned the history of the late war, and is now +learning the agonizing history of "reconstruction." This oration is +the warm and modest expression of all that the receptive and +unsceptical student had imbibed and felt during the years of his +formation, who saw before him a large company of Revolutionary +soldiers and a great multitude of Federalist partisans. He saluted the +audience as "Countrymen, brethren, and fathers." The oration was +chiefly a rapid, exulting review of the history of the young Republic, +with an occasional pomposity, and a few expressions caught from the +party discussions of the day. It is amusing to hear this young +Federalist of 1800 speak of Napoleon Bonaparte as "the gasconading +pilgrim of Egypt," and the government of France as the "supercilious, +five-headed Directory," and the President of the United States as "the +firm, the wise, the inflexible Adams, who with steady hand draws the +disguising veil from the intrigues of foreign enemies and the plots of +domestic foes." It is amusing to read, as the utterance of Daniel +Webster, that "Columbia is now seated in the forum of nations, and the +empires of the world are amazed at the bright effulgence of her +glory." But it is interesting to observe, also, that at eighteen, not +less fervently than at forty-eight, he felt the importance of the +message with which he was charged to the American people,--the +necessity of the Union, and the value of the Constitution as the +uniting bond. The following passage has, perhaps, more in it of the +Webster of 1830 than any other in the oration. The reader will notice +the similarity between one part of it and the famous passage in the +Bunker Hill oration, beginning "Venerable men," addressed to the +survivors of the Revolution. + + "Thus, friends and citizens, did the kind hand of overruling + Providence conduct us, through toils, fatigues, and dangers, + to independence and peace. If piety be the rational exercise + of the human soul, if religion be not a chimera, and if the + vestiges of heavenly assistance are clearly traced in those + events which mark the annals of our nation, it becomes us on + this day, in consideration of the great things which have + been done for us, to render the tribute of unfeigned thanks + to that God who superintends the universe, and holds aloft + the scale that weighs the destinies of nations. + + "The conclusion of the Revolutionary War did not accomplish + the entire achievements of our countrymen. Their military + character was then, indeed, sufficiently established; but + the time was coming which should prove their political + sagacity, their ability to govern themselves. + + "No sooner was peace restored with England, (the first grand + article of which was the acknowledgment of our + independence,) than the old system of Confederation, + dictated at first by necessity, and adopted for the purposes + of the moment, was found inadequate to the government of an + extensive empire. Under a full conviction of this, we then + saw the people of these States engaged in a transaction + which is undoubtedly the greatest approximation towards + human perfection the political world ever yet witnessed, and + which, perhaps, will forever stand in the history of mankind + without a parallel. A great republic, composed of different + States, whose interest in all respects could not be + perfectly compatible, then came deliberately forward, + discarded one system of government, and adopted another, + without the loss of one man's blood. + + "There is not a single government now existing in Europe + which is not based in usurpation, and established, if + established at all, by the sacrifice of thousands. But in + the adoption of our present system of jurisprudence, we see + the powers necessary for government voluntarily flowing from + the people, their only proper origin, and directed to the + public good, their only proper object. + + "With peculiar propriety, we may now felicitate ourselves on + that happy form of mixed government under which we live. The + advantages resulting to the citizens of the Union are + utterly incalculable, and the day when it was received by a + majority of the States shall stand on the catalogue of + American anniversaries second to none but the birthday of + independence. + + "In consequence of the adoption of our present system of + government, and the virtuous manner in which it has been + administered by a Washington and an Adams, we are this day + in the enjoyment of peace, while war devastates Europe! We + can now sit down beneath the shadow of the olive, while her + cities blaze, her streams run purple with blood, and her + fields glitter with a forest of bayonets! The citizens of + America can this day throng the temples of freedom, and + renew their oaths of fealty to independence; while Holland, + our once sister republic, is erased from the catalogue of + nations; while Venice is destroyed, Italy ravaged, and + Switzerland--the once happy, the once united, the once + flourishing Switzerland--lies bleeding at every pore!" + +He need not have been ashamed of this speech, despite the lumbering +bombast of some of its sentences. All that made him estimable as a +public man is contained in it,--the sentiment of nationality, and a +clear sense of the only means by which the United States can remain a +nation; namely, strict fidelity to the Constitution as interpreted by +the authority itself creates, and modified in the way itself appoints. +We have never read the production of a youth which was more prophetic +of the man than this. It was young New England that spoke through him +on that occasion; and in all the best part of his life he never +touched a strain which New England had not inspired, or could not +reach. + +His success at college giving him ascendency at home, he employed it +for the benefit of his brother in a manner which few sons would have +dared, and no son ought to attempt. His father, now advanced in years, +infirm, "an old man before his time" through hardship and toil, much +in debt, depending chiefly upon his salary of four hundred dollars a +year as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and heavily taxed to +maintain Daniel in college, had seen all his other sons married and +settled except Ezekiel, upon whom he leaned as the staff of his +declining years, and the main dependence of his wife and two maiden +daughters. Nevertheless, Daniel, after a whole night of consultation +with his brother, urged the old man to send Ezekiel to college also. +The fond and generous father replied, that he had but little property, +and it would take all that little to carry another son through college +to a profession; but he lived only for his children, and, for his own +part, he was willing to run the risk; but there was the mother and two +unmarried sisters, to whom the risk was far more serious. If they +consented, he was willing. The mother said: + + "I have lived long in the world, and have been happy in my + children. If Daniel and Ezekiel will promise to take care of + me in my old age, I will consent to the sale of all our + property at once, and they may enjoy the benefit of that + which remains after our debts are paid." + +Upon hearing this, all the family, we are told, were dissolved in +tears, and the old man gave his assent. This seems hard,--two stout +and vigorous young men willing to risk their aged parents' home and +dignity for such a purpose, or for any purpose! In the early days, +however, there was a singular unity of feeling and interest in a good +New England family, and there were opportunities for professional men +which rendered the success of two such lads as these nearly certain, +if they lived to establish themselves. Nevertheless, it was too much +to ask, and more than Daniel Webster would have asked if he had been +properly alive to the rights of others. Ezekiel shouldered his bundle, +trudged off to school, where he lived and studied at the cost of one +dollar a week, worked his way to the position of the second lawyer in +New Hampshire, and would early have gone to Congress but for his +stanch, inflexible Federalism. + +Daniel Webster, schoolmaster and law-student, was assuredly one of the +most interesting of characters. Pinched by poverty, as he tells us, +till his very bones ached, eking out his income by a kind of labor +that he always loathed (copying deeds), his shoes letting in, not +water merely, but "pebbles and stones,"--father, brother, and himself +sometimes all moneyless together, all dunned at the same time, and +writing to one another for aid,--he was nevertheless as jovial a young +fellow as any in New England. How merry and affectionate his letters +to his young friends! He writes to one, soon after leaving college: + + "You will naturally inquire how I prosper in the article of + cash; finely, finely! I came here in January with a horse, + watch, etc., and a few rascally counters in my pocket. Was + soon obliged to sell my horse, and live on the proceeds. + Still straitened for cash, I sold my watch, and made a shift + to get home, where my friends supplied me with another horse + and another watch. My horse is sold again, and my watch + goes, I expect, this week; thus you see how I lay up cash." + +How like him! To another college friend, James Hervey Bingham, whom he +calls, by turns, "brother Jemmy," "Jemmy Hervey," and "Bingham," he +discourses thus: + + "Perhaps you thought, as I did, that a dozen dollars would + slide out of the pocket in a Commencement jaunt much easier + than they would slide in again after you got home. That was + the exact reason why I was not there.... I flatter myself + that none of my friends ever thought me greatly absorbed in + the sin of avarice, yet I assure you, Jem, that in these + days of poverty I look upon a round dollar with a great deal + of complacency. These rascal dollars are so necessary to the + comfort of life, that next to a fine wife they are most + essential, and their acquisition an object of prime + importance. O Bingham, how blessed it would be to retire + with a decent, clever bag of Rixes to a pleasant country + town, and follow one's own inclination without being + shackled by the duties of a profession!" + +To the same friend, whom he now addresses as "dear Squire," he +announces joyfully a wondrous piece of luck: + + "My expenses [to Albany] were all amply paid, and on my + return I put my hand in my pocket and found one hundred and + twenty dear delightfuls! Is not that good luck? And these + dear delightfuls were, 'pon honor, all my own; yes, every + dog of them!" + +To which we may add from another source, that they were straightway +transferred to his father, to whom they were dear delightfuls indeed, +for he was really getting to the end of his tether. + +The schoolmaster lived, it appears, on the easiest terms with his +pupils, some of whom were older than himself. He tells a story of +falling in with one of them on his journey to school, who was mounted +"on the ugliest horse I ever saw or heard of, except Sancho Panza's +pacer." The schoolmaster having two good horses, the pupil mounted one +of them, strapped his bag to his own forlorn animal and drove him +before, where his odd gait and frequent stumblings kept them amused. +At length, arriving at a deep and rapid river, + + "this satire on the animal creation, as if to revenge + herself on us for our sarcasms, plunged into the river, then + very high by the freshet, and was wafted down the current + like a bag of oats! I could hardly sit on my horse for + laughter. I am apt to laugh at the vexations of my friends. + The fellow, who was of my own age, and my room-mate, half + checked the current by oaths as big as lobsters, and the old + Rosinante, who was all the while much at her ease, floated + up among the willows far below on the opposite side of the + river." + +At the same time he was an innocent young man. If he had any wild oats +in his composition, they were not sown in the days of his youth. +Expecting to pass his life as a country lawyer, having scarcely a +premonition of his coming renown, we find him enjoying the simple +country sports and indulging in the simple village ambitions. He tried +once for the captaincy of a company of militia, and was not elected; +he canvassed a whole regiment to get his brother the post of adjutant, +and failed. At one time he came near abandoning the law, as too high +and perilous for him, and settling down as schoolmaster and clerk of a +court. The assurance of a certain six hundred dollars a year, a house, +and a piece of land, with the prospect of the clerkship by and by, was +so alluring to him that it required all the influence of his family +and friends to make him reject the offer. Even then, in the flush and +vigor of his youth, he was _led_. So was it always. He was never a +leader, but always a follower. Nature made him very large, but so +stinted him in propelling force, that it is doubtful if he had ever +emerged from obscurity if his friends had not urged him on. His +modesty in these innocent days is most touching to witness. After a +long internal conflict, he resolved, in his twentieth year, to "make +one more trial" at mastering the law. + + "If I prosecute the profession, I pray God to fortify me + against its temptations. To the wind I dismiss those light + hopes of eminence which ambition inspired and vanity + fostered. To be 'honest, to be capable, to be faithful' to + my client and my conscience, I earnestly hope will be my + first endeavor." + +How exceedingly astonished would these affectionate young friends have +been, if they could have looked forward forty years, and seen the +timid law-student Secretary of State, and his ardent young comrade a +clerk in his department. They seemed equals in 1802; in 1845, they had +grown so far apart, that the excellent Bingham writes to Webster as to +a demigod. + +In these pleasant early letters of Daniel Webster there are a thousand +evidences of a good heart and of virtuous habits, but not one of a +superior understanding. The total absence of the sceptical spirit +marks the secondary mind. For a hundred and fifty years, _no_ young +man of a truly eminent intellect has accepted his father's creeds +without having first called them into question; and this must be so in +periods of transition. The glorious light which has been coming upon +Christendom for the last two hundred years, and which is now beginning +to pervade the remotest provinces of it, never illumined the mind of +Daniel Webster. Upon coming of age, he joined the Congregational +Church, and was accustomed to open his school with an extempore +prayer. He used the word "Deist" as a term of reproach; he deemed it +"criminal" in Gibbon to write his fifteenth and sixteenth chapters, +and spoke of that author as a "learned, proud, ingenious, foppish, +vain, self-deceived man," who "from Protestant connections deserted to +the Church of Rome, and thence to the faith of Tom Paine." And he +never delivered himself from this narrowness and ignorance. In the +time of his celebrity, he preferred what Sir Walter Scott called "the +genteeler religion of the two," the Episcopal. In his old age, his +idea of a proper sermon was incredibly narrow and provincial. He is +reported to have said, late in life:-- + + "Many of the ministers of the present day take their text + from St. Paul, and preach from the newspapers. When they do + so, I prefer to enjoy my own thoughts rather than to listen. + I want my pastor to come to me in the spirit of the Gospel, + saying, 'You are mortal! your probation is brief; your work + must be done speedily; you are immortal too. You are + hastening to the bar of God; the Judge standeth before the + door.' When I am thus admonished, I have no disposition to + muse or to sleep." + +This does not accord with what is usually observed in our churches, +where sermons of the kind which Mr. Webster extolled dispose many +persons to sleep, though not to muse. + +In the same unquestioning manner, he imbibed his father's political +prejudices. We hear this young Federalist call the Republican party +"the Jacobins," just as the reactionists and tories of the present day +speak of the present Republican party as "the radicals." It is amusing +to hear him, in 1802, predict the speedy restoration to power of a +party that was never again to taste its sweets. "Jacobinism and +iniquity," he wrote in his twentieth year, "are so allied in +signification, that the latter always follows the former, just as in +grammar 'the accusative case follows the transitive verb.'" He speaks +of a young friend as "too honest for a Democrat." As late as his +twenty-second year, he was wholly unreconciled to Napoleon, and still +wrote with truly English scorn of "Gallic tastes and Gallic +principles." There is a fine burst in one of his letters of 1804, when +he had been propelled by his brother to Boston to finish his law +studies:-- + + "Jerome, the brother of the Emperor of the Gauls, is here; + every day you may see him whisking along Cornhill, with the + true French air, with his wife by his side. The lads say + that they intend to prevail on American misses to receive + company in future after the manner of Jerome's wife, that + is, in bed. The gentlemen of Boston (i.e. we Feds) treat + Monsieur with cold and distant respect. They feel, and every + honest man feels, indignant at seeing this lordly + grasshopper, this puppet in prince's clothes, dashing + through the American cities, luxuriously rioting on the + property of Dutch mechanics or Swiss peasants." + +This last sentence, written when he was twenty-two years old, is the +first to be found in his published letters which tells anything of the +fire that was latent in him. He was of slow growth; he was forty-eight +years of age before his powers had reached their full development. + +When he had nearly completed his studies for the bar, he was again +upon the point of abandoning the laborious career of a lawyer for a +life of obscurity and ease. On this occasion, it was the clerkship of +his father's court, salary fifteen hundred dollars a year, that +tempted him. He jumped at the offer, which promised an immediate +competency for the whole family, pinched and anxious for so many +years. He had no thought but to accept it. With the letter in his +hand, and triumphant joy in his face, he communicated the news to Mr. +Gore, his instructor in the law; thinking of nothing, he tells us, but +of "rushing to the immediate enjoyment of the proffered office." Mr. +Gore, however, exhibited a provoking coolness on the subject. He said +it was very civil in the judges to offer such a compliment to a +brother on the bench, and, of course, a respectful letter of +acknowledgment must be sent. The glowing countenance of the young man +fell at these most unexpected and unwelcome words. They were, to use +his own language, "a shower-bath of ice-water." The old lawyer, +observing his crestfallen condition, reasoned seriously with him, and +persuaded him, against his will, to continue his preparation, for the +bar. At every turning-point of his life, whenever he came to a parting +of the ways, one of which must be chosen and the other forsaken, he +required an impulse from without to push him into the path he was to +go. Except once! Once in his long public life, he seemed to venture +out alone on an unfamiliar road, and lost himself. Usually, when great +powers are conferred on a man, there is also given him a strong +propensity to exercise them, sufficient to carry him through all +difficulties to the suitable sphere. Here, on the contrary, there was +a Great Eastern with only a Cunarder's engine, and it required a tug +to get the great ship round to her course. + +Admitted to the bar in his twenty-third year, he dutifully went home +to his father, and opened an office in a New Hampshire village near +by, resolved never again to leave the generous old man while he lived. +Before leaving Boston, he wrote to his friend Bingham, "If I am not +earning my bread and cheese in exactly nine days after my admission, I +shall certainly be a bankrupt";--and so, indeed, it proved. With great +difficulty, he "hired" eighty-five dollars as a capital to begin +business with, and this great sum was immediately lost in its transit +by stage. To any other young man in his situation, such a calamity +would have been, for the moment, crushing; but this young man, +indifferent to _meum_ as to _tuum_, informs his brother that he can in +no conceivable way replace the money, cannot therefore pay for the +books he had bought, believes he is earning his daily bread, and as to +the loss, he has "_no uneasy sensations on that account_." He +concludes his letter with an old song, beginning, + + "Fol de dol, dol de dol, di dol, + I'll never make money my idol." + +In the New Hampshire of 1805 there was no such thing possible as +leaping at once into a lucrative practice, nor even of slowly +acquiring it. A country lawyer who gained a thousand dollars a year +was among the most successful, and the leader of the bar in New +Hampshire could not earn two thousand. The chief employment of Daniel +Webster, during the first year or two of his practice, was collecting +debts due in New Hampshire to merchants in Boston. His first tin sign +has been preserved to the present day, to attest by its minuteness and +brevity the humble expectations of its proprietor. "D. Webster, +Attorney," is the inscription it bears. The old Court-House still +stands in which he conducted his first suit, before his own father as +presiding judge. Old men in that part of New Hampshire were living +until within these few years, who remembered well seeing this tall, +gaunt, and large-eyed young lawyer rise slowly, as though scarcely +able to get upon his feet, and giving to every one the impression that +he would soon be obliged to sit down from mere physical weakness, and +saying to his father, for the first and last time, "May it please your +Honor." The sheriff of the county, who was also a Webster, used to say +that he felt ashamed to see the family represented at the bar by so +lean and feeble a young man. The tradition is, that he acquitted +himself so well on this occasion that the sheriff was satisfied, and +clients came, with their little suits and smaller fees, in +considerable numbers, to the office of D. Webster, Attorney, who +thenceforth in the country round went by the name of "All-eyes." His +father never heard him speak again. He lived to see Daniel in +successful practice, and Ezekiel a student of law, and died in 1806, +prematurely old. Daniel Webster practised three years in the country, +and then, resigning his business to his brother, established himself +at Portsmouth, the seaport of New Hampshire, then a place of much +foreign commerce. Ezekiel had had a most desperate struggle with +poverty. At one time, when the family, as Daniel observed, was +"heinously unprovided," we see the much-enduring "Zeke" teaching an +Academy by day, an evening school for sailors, and keeping well up +with his class in college besides. But these preliminary troubles were +now at an end, and both the brothers took the places won by so much +toil and self-sacrifice. + +Those are noble old towns on the New England coast, the commerce of +which Boston swallowed up forty years ago, while it left behind many a +large and liberally provided old mansion, with a family in it enriched +by ventures to India and China. Strangers in Portsmouth are still +struck by the largeness and elegance of the residences there, and +wonder how such establishments can be maintained in a place that has +little "visible means of support." It was while Portsmouth was an +important seaport that Daniel Webster learned and practised law there, +and acquired some note as a Federalist politician. + +The once celebrated Dr. Buckminster was the minister of the +Congregational church at Portsmouth then. One Sunday morning in 1808, +his eldest daughter sitting alone in the minister's pew, a strange +gentleman was shown into it, whose appearance and demeanor strongly +arrested her attention. The slenderness of his frame, the pale yellow +of his complexion, and the raven blackness of his hair, seemed only to +bring out into grander relief his ample forehead, and to heighten the +effect of his deep-set, brilliant eyes. At this period of his life +there was an air of delicacy and refinement about his face, joined to +a kind of strength that women can admire, without fearing. Miss +Buckminster told the family, when she went home from church, that +there had been a remarkable person with her in the pew,--one that she +was sure had "a marked character for good or evil." A few days after, +the remarkable person came to live in the neighborhood, and was soon +introduced to the minister's family as Mr. Daniel Webster, from +Franklin, New Hampshire, who was about to open a law office in +Portsmouth. He soon endeared himself to every person in the minister's +circle, and to no one more than to the minister himself, who, among +other services, taught him the art of preserving his health. The young +man, like the old clergyman, was an early riser, up with the dawn in +summer, and long before the dawn in winter; and both were out of doors +with the sun, each at one end of a long saw, cutting wood for an +appetite. The joyous, uncouth singing and shouting of the newcomer +aroused the late sleepers. Then in to breakfast, where the homely, +captivating humor of the young lawyer kept the table in a roar, and +detained every inmate. "Never was there such an actor lost to the +stage," Jeremiah Mason, his only rival at the New Hampshire bar, used +to say, "as he would have made." Returning in the afternoon from +court, fatigued and languid, his spirits rose again with food and +rest, and the evening was another festival of conversation and +reading. A few months after his settlement at Portsmouth he visited +his native hills, saying nothing respecting the object of his journey; +and returned with a wife,--that gentle and high-bred lady, a +clergyman's daughter, who was the chief source of the happiness of his +happiest years, and the mother of all his children. He improved in +health, his form expanded, his mind grew, his talents ripened, his +fame spread, during the nine years of his residence at this thriving +and pleasant town. + +At Portsmouth, too, he had precisely that external stimulus to +exertion which his large and pleasure-loving nature needed. Jeremiah +Mason was, literally speaking, the giant of the American bar, for he +stood six feet seven inches in his stockings. Like Webster, he was the +son of a valiant Revolutionary officer; like Webster, he was an +hereditary Federalist; like Webster, he had a great mass of brain: but +his mind was more active and acquisitive than Webster's, and his +nineteen years of arduous practice at the bar had stored his memory +with knowledge and given him dexterity in the use of it. Nothing shows +the eminence of Webster's talents more than this, that, very early in +his Portsmouth career, he should have been regarded at the bar of New +Hampshire as the man to be employed against Jeremiah Mason, and his +only fit antagonist. Mason was a vigilant, vigorous opponent,--sure to +be well up in the law and the facts of a cause, sure to detect a flaw +in the argument of opposing counsel. It was in keen encounters with +this wary and learned man that Daniel Webster learned his profession; +and this he always acknowledged. "If," he said once in conversation,-- + + "if anybody thinks I am somewhat familiar with the law on + some points, and should be curious to know how it happened, + tell him that Jeremiah Mason compelled me to study it. _He_ + was my master." + +It is honorable, too, to both of them, that, rivals as they were, they +were fast and affectionate friends, each valuing in the other the +qualities in which he was surpassed by him, and each sincerely +believing that the other was the first man of his time and country. +"They say," in Portsmouth, that Mason did not shrink from +remonstrating with his friend upon his carelessness with regard to +money; but, finding the habit inveterate and the man irresistible, +desisted. Webster himself says that two thousand dollars a year was +all that the best practice in New Hampshire could be made to yield; +and that that was inadequate to the support of his family of a wife +and three little children. Two thousand dollars in Portsmouth, in +1812, was certainly equal, in purchasing power, to six thousand of the +ineffectual things that now pass by the name of dollars; and upon such +an income large families in a country town contrive to live, ride, and +save. + +He was a strenuous Federalist at Portsmouth, took a leading part in +the public meetings of the party, and won great distinction as its +frequent Fourth-of-July orator. All those mild and economical measures +by which Mr. Jefferson sought to keep the United States from being +drawn into the roaring vortex of the great wars in Europe, he opposed, +and favored the policy of preparing the country for defence, not by +gunboats and embargoes, but by a powerful navy of frigates and ships +of the line. His Fourth-of-July orations, if we may judge of them by +the fragments that have been found, show that his mind had +strengthened more than it had advanced. His style wonderfully improved +from eighteen to twenty-five; and he tells us himself why it did. He +discovered, he says, that the value, as well as the force, of a +sentence, depends chiefly upon its meaning, not its language; and that +great writing is that in which much is said in few words, and those +words the simplest that will answer the purpose. Having made this +notable discovery, he became a great eraser of adjectives, and toiled +after simplicity and directness. Mr. Everett quotes a few sentences +from his Fourth-of-July oration of 1806, when he was twenty-four, +which shows an amazing advance upon the effort of his eighteenth year, +quoted above:-- + + "Nothing is plainer than this: if we will have commerce, we + must protect it. This country is commercial as well as + agricultural. _Indissoluble bonds connect him who ploughs + the land with him who ploughs the sea_. Nature has placed us + in a situation favorable to commercial pursuits, and no + government can alter the destination. Habits confirmed by + two centuries are not to be changed. An immense portion of + our property is on the waves. Sixty or eighty thousand of + our most useful citizens are there, and are entitled to such + protection from the government as their case requires." + +How different this compact directness from the tremendous fulmination +of the Dartmouth junior, who said:-- + + "Columbia stoops not to tyrants; her spirit will never + cringe to France; neither a supercilious, five-headed + Directory nor the gasconading pilgrim of Egypt will ever + dictate terms to sovereign America. The thunder of our + cannon shall insure the performance of our treaties, and + fulminate destruction on Frenchmen, till the ocean is + crimsoned with blood and gorged with pirates!" + +The Fourth-of-July oration, which afterwards fell into some disrepute, +had great importance in the earlier years of the Republic, when +Revolutionary times and perils were fresh in the recollection of the +people. The custom arose of assigning this duty to young men covetous +of distinction, and this led in time to the flighty rhetoric which +made sounding emptiness and a Fourth-of-July oration synonymous terms. +The feeling that was real and spontaneous in the sons of Revolutionary +soldiers was sometimes feigned or exaggerated in the young law +students of the next generation, who had merely read the history of +the Revolution. But with all the faults of those compositions, they +were eminently serviceable to the country. We believe that to them is +to be attributed a considerable part of that patriotic feeling which, +after a suspended animation of several years, awoke in the spring of +1861 and asserted itself with such unexpected power, and which +sustained the country during four years of a peculiarly disheartening +war. How pleasant and spirit-stirring was a celebration of the Fourth +of July as it was conducted in Webster's early day! We trust the old +customs will be revived and improved upon, and become universal. Nor +is it any objection to the practice of having an oration, that the +population is too large to be reached in that way; for if only a +thousand hear, a million may read. Nor ought we to object if the +orator _is_ a little more flowery and boastful than becomes an +ordinary occasion. There is a time to exult; there is a time to +abandon ourselves to pleasant recollections and joyous hopes. +Therefore, we say, let the young men reappear upon the platform, and +show what metal they are made of by giving the best utterance they can +to the patriotic feelings of the people on the national anniversary. +The Republic is safe so long as we celebrate that day in the spirit of +1776 and 1861. + +At least we may assert that it was Mr. Webster's Fourth-of-July +orations, of which he delivered five in eleven years, that first made +him known to the people of New Hampshire. At that period the two +political parties could not unite in the celebration of the day, and +accordingly the orations of Mr. Webster had much in them that could be +agreeable only to Federalists. He was an occasional speaker, too, in +those years, at meetings of Federalists, where his power as an orator +was sometimes exerted most effectively. No speaker could be better +adapted to a New England audience, accustomed from of old to weighty, +argumentative sermons, delivered with deliberate, unimpassioned +earnestness. There are many indications that a speech by Daniel +Webster in Portsmouth in 1810 excited as much expectation and comment +as a speech by the same person in the Senate twenty years after. But +he was a mere Federalist partisan,--no more. It does not appear that +he had anything to offer to his countrymen beyond the stately +expression of party issues; and it was as a Federalist, pure and +simple, that he was elected, in 1812, a member of the House of +Representatives, after a keenly contested party conflict. His majority +over the Republican candidate was 2,546,--the whole number of voters +being 34,648. + +The Federalists, from 1801 to 1825, were useful to the country only as +an Opposition,--just as the present Tory party in England can be only +serviceable in its capacity of critic and holdback. The Federalists +under John Adams had sinned past forgiveness; while the Republican +party, strong in being right, in the ability of its chiefs, in its +alliance with Southern aristocrats, and in having possession of the +government, was strong also in the odium and inconsistencies of its +opponents. Nothing could shake the confidence of the people in the +administration of Thomas Jefferson. But the stronger a party is, the +more it needs an Opposition,--as we saw last winter in Washington, +when the minority was too insignificant in numbers and ability to keep +the too powerful majority from doing itself such harm as might have +been fatal to it but for the President's well-timed antics. Next to a +sound and able majority, the great need of a free country is a +vigorous, vigilant, audacious, numerous minority. Better a factious +and unscrupulous minority than none at all. The Federalists, who could +justly claim to have among them a very large proportion of the rich +men and the educated men of the country, performed the humble but +useful service of keeping an eye upon, the measures of the +administration, and finding fault with every one of them. Daniel +Webster, however, was wont to handle only the large topics. While Mr. +Jefferson was struggling to keep the peace with Great Britain, he +censured the policy as timorous, costly, and ineffectual; but when Mr. +Madison declared war against that power, he deemed the act unnecessary +and rash. His opposition to the war was never carried to the point of +giving aid and comfort to the enemy; it was such an opposition as +patriotic "War Democrats" exhibited during the late Rebellion, who +thought the war might have been avoided, and ought to be conducted +more vigorously, but nevertheless stood by their country without a +shadow of swerving. + +He could boast, too, that from his boyhood to the outbreak of the war +he had advocated the building of the very ships which gave the infant +nation its first taste of warlike glory. The Republicans of that time, +forgetful of what Paul Jones and others of Dr. Franklin's captains had +done in the war of the Revolution, supposed that, because England had +a thousand ships in commission, and America only seventeen, therefore +an American ship could not venture out of a harbor without being +taken. We have often laughed at Colonel Benton's ludicrous confession +of his own terrors on this subject. + +"Political men," he says, + + "believed nothing could be done at sea but to lose the few + vessels which we had; that even cruising was out of the + question. Of our seventeen vessels, the whole were in port + but one; and it was determined to keep them there, and the + one at sea with them, if it had the luck to get in. I am + under no obligation to make the admission, but I am free to + acknowledge that I was one of those who supposed that there + was no salvation for our seventeen men-of-war but to run + them as far up the creek as possible, place them under the + guns of batteries, and collect camps of militia about them + to keep off the British. This was the policy at the day of + the declaration of the war; and I have the less concern to + admit myself to have been participator in the delusion, + because I claim the merit of having profited from + experience,--happy if I could transmit the lesson to + posterity. Two officers came to Washington,--Bainbridge and + Stewart. They spoke with Mr. Madison, and urged the + feasibility of cruising. One half of the whole number of the + British men-of-war were under the class of frigates, + consequently no more than matches for some of our seventeen; + the whole of her merchant marine (many thousands) were + subject to capture. Here was a rich field for cruising; and + the two officers, for themselves and brothers, boldly + proposed to enter it. + + "Mr. Madison had seen the efficiency of cruising and + privateering, even against Great Britain, and in our then + infantile condition, during the war of the Revolution; and + besides was a man of sense, and amenable to judgment and + reason. He listened to the two experienced and valiant + officers; and without consulting Congress, which perhaps + would have been a fatal consultation (for multitude of + counsellors is not the counsel for _bold_ decision), + reversed the policy which had been resolved upon; and, in + his supreme character of constitutional commander of the + army and navy, ordered every ship that could cruise to get + to sea as soon as possible. This I had from Mr. Monroe." + +This is a curious example of the blinding effect of partisan strife, +and of the absolute need of an Opposition. It was the hereditary +prejudice of the Republicans against the navy, as an "aristocratic" +institution, and the hereditary love of the navy cherished by the +Federalists as being something stable and British, that enlivened the +debates of the war. The Federalists had their way, but failed to win a +partisan advantage from the fact, through their factious opposition to +the military measures of the administration. Because the first attempt +at the seizure of Canada had failed through the incompetency of +General Hull, which no wisdom of man could have foreseen, Daniel +Webster called upon the government to discontinue all further attempts +on the land, and fight the war out on the sea. "Give up your futile +projects of invasion," said he in 1814. + + "Extinguish the fires that blaze on your inland borders." + "Unclench the iron grasp of your embargo." "With all the war + of the enemy on your commerce, if you would cease to make + war upon it yourselves, you would still have some commerce. + That commerce would give you some revenue. Apply that + revenue to the augmentation of your navy. That navy, in + turn, will protect your commerce." + +In war time, however, there are _two_ powers that have to do with the +course of events; and very soon the enemy, by his own great scheme of +invasion, decided the policy of the United States. Every port was +blockaded so effectively that a pilot-boat could not safely go out of +sight of land, and a frigate was captured within sight of it. These +vigilant blockaders, together with the threatening armament which +finally attacked New Orleans, compelled every harbor to prepare for +defence, and most effectually refuted Mr. Webster's speech. The "blaze +of glory" with which the war ended at New Orleans consumed all the +remaining prestige of the Federalist party, once so powerful, so +respectable, and so arrogant. + +A member of the anti-war party during the existence of a war occupies +a position which can only cease to be insignificant by the misfortunes +of his country. But when we turn from the partisan to the man, we +perceive that Daniel Webster was a great presence in the House, and +took rank immediately with the half-dozen ablest debaters. His +self-possession was perfect at all times, and at thirty-three he was +still in the spring and first lustre of his powers. His weighty and +deliberate manner, the brevity, force, and point of his sentences, and +the moderation of his gestures, were all in strong contrast to the +flowing, loose, impassioned manner of the Southern orators, who ruled +the House. It was something like coming upon a stray number of the old +Edinburgh Review in a heap of novels and Ladies' Magazines. +Chief-Justice Marshall, who heard his first speech, being himself a +Federalist, was so much delighted to hear his own opinions expressed +with such power and dignity, that he left the House, believing that +this stranger from far-off New Hampshire was destined to become, as he +said, "one of the very first statesmen of America, and perhaps the +very first." His Washington fame gave him new _eclat_ at home. He was +re-elected, and came back to Congress in 1815, to aid the Federalists +in preventing the young Republicans from being too Federal. + +This last sentence slipped from the pen unawares; but, ridiculous as +it looks, it does actually express the position and vocation of the +Federalists after the peace of 1815. Clay, Calhoun, Story, Adams, and +the Republican majority in Congress, taught by the disasters of the +war, as they supposed, had embraced the ideas of the old Federalist +party, and were preparing to carry some of them to an extreme. The +navy had no longer an enemy. The strict constructionists had dwindled +to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph. The younger +Republicans were disposed to a liberal, if not to a latitudinarian +construction of the Constitution. In short, they were Federalists and +Hamiltonians, bank men, tariff men, internal-improvement men. Then was +afforded to the country the curious spectacle of Federalists opposing +the measures which had been among the rallying-cries of their party +for twenty years. It was not in Daniel Webster's nature to be a +leader; it was morally impossible for him to disengage himself from +party ties. This exquisite and consummate artist in oratory, who could +give such weighty and brilliant expression to the feelings of his +hearers and the doctrines of his party, had less originating power, +whether of intellect or of will, than any other man of equal eminence +that ever lived. He adhered to the fag end of the old party, until it +was absorbed, unavoidably, with scarcely an effort of its own, in +Adams and Clay. From 1815 to 1825 he was in opposition, and in +opposition to old Federalism revived; and, consequently, we believe +that posterity will decide that his speeches of this period are the +only ones relating to details of policy which have the slightest +permanent value. In fact, his position in Congress, as a member of a +very small band of Federalists who had no hope of regaining power, was +the next thing to being independent, and he made an excellent use of +his advantage. + +That Bank of the United States, for example, of which, in 1832, he was +the ablest defender, and for a renewal of which he strove for ten +years, he voted _against_ in 1816; and for reasons which neither he +nor any other man ever refuted. His speeches criticising the various +bank schemes of 1815 and 1816 were serviceable to the public, and made +the bank, as finally established, less harmful than it might have +been. + +So of the tariff. On this subject, too, he always followed,--never +led. So long as there was a Federal party, he, as a member of it, +opposed Mr. Clay's protective, or (as Mr. Clay delighted to term it) +"American system." When, in 1825, the few Federalists in the House +voted for Mr. Adams, and were merged in the "conservative wing" of the +Republican party, which became, in time, the Whig party, then, and +from that time forward to the end of his life, he was a protectionist. +His anti-protection speech of 1824 is wholly in the modern spirit, and +takes precisely the ground since taken by Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, +and others of the new school. It is so excellent a statement of the +true policy of the United States with regard to protection, that we +have often wondered it has been allowed to sleep so long in the tomb +of his works. And, oh! from what evils might we have been +spared,--nullification, surplus-revenue embarrassments, hot-bed +manufactures, clothing three times its natural price,--if the +protective legislation of Congress had been inspired by the Webster of +1824, instead of the Clay! Unimportant as this great speech may now +seem, as it lies uncut in the third volume of its author's speeches, +its unturned leaves sticking together, yet we can say of it, that the +whole course of American history had been different if its counsels +had been followed. The essence of the speech is contained in two of +its phrases: "Freedom of trade, the general principle; restriction, +the exception." Free trade, the object to be aimed at; protection, a +temporary expedient. Free trade, the interest of all nations; +protection, the occasional necessity of one. Free trade, the final and +universal good; protection, the sometimes necessary evil. Free trade, +as soon as possible and as complete as possible; protection, as little +as possible and as short as possible. The speech was delivered in +reply to Mr. Clay; and, viewed merely _as_ a reply, it is difficult to +conceive of one more triumphant. Mr. Webster was particularly happy in +turning Mr. Clay's historical illustrations against him, especially +those drawn from the history of the English silk manufacture, and the +Spanish system of restriction and prohibition. Admitting fully that +manufactures the most unsuited to the climate, soil, and genius of a +country _could_ be created by protection, he showed that such +manufactures were not, upon the whole, and in the long run, a benefit +to a country; and adduced, for an illustration, the very instance +cited by Mr. Clay,--the silk manufacture of England,--which kept fifty +thousand persons in misery, and necessitated the continuance of a kind +of legislation which the intelligence of Great Britain had outgrown. +Is not the following brief passage an almost exhaustive statement of +the true American policy? + + "I know it would be very easy to promote manufactures, at + least for a time, but probably for a short time only, if we + might act in disregard of other interests. We _could_ cause + a sudden transfer of capital and a violent change in the + pursuits of men. We _could_ exceedingly benefit some classes + by these means. But what then becomes of the interests of + others? The power of collecting revenue by duties on + imports, and the habit of the government of collecting + almost its whole revenue, in that mode, will enable us, + without exceeding the bounds of moderation, to give great + advantages to those classes of manufactures which we may + think most useful to promote at home." + +One of his happy retorts upon Mr. Clay was the following:-- + + "I will be so presumptuous as to take up a challenge which + Mr. Speaker has thrown down. He has asked us, in a tone of + interrogatory indicative of the feeling of anticipated + triumph, to mention any country in which manufactures have + flourished without the aid of prohibitory laws.... Sir, I am + ready to answer this inquiry. + + "There is a country, not undistinguished among the nations, + in which the progress of manufactures has been more rapid + than in any other, and yet unaided by prohibitions or + unnatural restrictions. That country, the happiest which the + sun shines on, is our own." + +Again, Mr. Clay had made the rash remark that it would cost the +nation, _as_ a nation, nothing to convert our ore into iron. Mr. +Webster's reply to this seems to us eminently worthy of consideration +at the present moment, and at every moment when the tariff is a topic +of debate. + + "I think," said he, "it would cost us precisely what we can + least afford, that is, _great labor_.... Of manual labor no + nation has more than a certain quantity; nor can it be + increased at will.... A most important question for every + nation, as well as for every individual, to propose to + itself, is, how it can best apply that quantity of labor + which it is able to perform.... Now, with respect to the + quantity of labor, as we all know, different nations are + differently circumstanced. Some need, more than anything, + work for hands; _others require hands for work_; and if we + ourselves are not absolutely in the latter class, we are + still, most fortunately, very near it." + +The applicability of these observations to the present condition of +affairs in the United States--labor very scarce, and protectionists +clamoring to make it scarcer--must be apparent to every reader. + +But this was the last of Mr. Webster's efforts in behalf of the +freedom of trade. In the spring of 1825, when it devolved upon the +House of Representatives to elect a President, the few Federalists +remaining in the House became, for a few days, an important body. Mr. +Webster had an hereditary love for the house of Adams; and the aged +Jefferson himself had personally warned him against Andrew Jackson. +Webster it was who, in an interview with Mr. Adams, obtained such +assurances as determined the Federalists to give their vote for the +New England candidate; and thus terminated the existence of the great +party which Hamilton had founded, with which Washington had +sympathized, which had ruled the country for twelve years, and +maintained a vigorous and useful opposition for a quarter of a +century. Daniel Webster was in opposition no longer. He was a defender +of the administration of Adams and Clay, supported all their important +measures, and voted for, nay, advocated, the Tariff Bill of 1828, +which went far beyond that of 1824 in its protective provisions. +Taunted with such a remarkable and sudden change of opinion, he said +that, New England having been compelled by the act of 1824 to transfer +a large part of her capital from commerce to manufactures, he was +bound, as her representative, to demand the continuance of the system. +Few persons, probably, who heard him give this reason for his +conversion, believed it was the true one; and few will ever believe it +who shall intimately know the transactions of that winter in +Washington. But if it _was_ the true reason, Mr. Webster, in giving +it, ruled himself out of the rank of the Great,--who, in every age and +land, lead, not follow, their generation. In his speech of 1824 he +objects to the protective system on _general_ principles, applicable +to every case not clearly exceptional; and the further Congress was +disposed to carry an erroneous system, the more was he bound to lift +up his voice against it. It seems to us that, when he abandoned the +convictions of his own mind and took service under Mr. Clay, he +descended (to use the fine simile of the author of "Felix Holt") from +the rank of heroes to that of the multitude for whom heroes fight. He +was a protectionist, thenceforth, as long as he lived. If he was right +in 1824, how wrong he was in 1846! In 1824 he pointed to the high +wages of American mechanics as a proof that the protective system was +unnecessary; and he might have quoted Adam Smith to show that, in +1770, wages in the Colonies were just as high, compared with wages in +Europe, as in 1824. In 1846 he attributed high wages in America to the +operation of the protective system. In 1824 free trade was the good, +and restriction the evil; in 1846 restriction was the good, and free +trade the evil. + +Practical wisdom, indeed, was not in this man. He was not formed to +guide, but to charm, impress, and rouse mankind. His advocacy of the +Greek cause, in 1824, events have shown to be unwise; but his speech +on this subject contains some passages so exceedingly fine, noble, and +harmonious, that we do not believe they have ever been surpassed in +extempore speech by any man but himself. The passage upon Public +Opinion, for example, is always read with delight, even by those who +can call to mind the greatest number of instances of its apparent +untruth. + + "The time has been, indeed, when fleets, and armies, and + subsidies were the principal reliances, even in the best + cause. But, happily for mankind, a great change has taken + place in this respect. Moral causes come into consideration + in proportion as the progress of knowledge is advanced; and + the public opinion of the civilized world is rapidly gaining + an ascendency over mere brutal force.... It may be silenced + by military power, but it cannot be conquered. It is + elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of + ordinary warfare. It is that impassible, unextinguishable + enemy of mere violence and arbitrary rule, which, like + Milton's angels, + + "'Vital in every part,... + Cannot, but by annihilating, die.' + + "Until this be propitiated or satisfied, it is vain for power + to talk either of triumphs or of repose. No matter what + fields are desolated, what fortresses surrendered, what + armies subdued, or what provinces overrun.... There is an + enemy that still exists to check the glory of these + triumphs. It follows the conqueror back to the very scene of + his ovations; it calls upon him to take notice that Europe, + though silent, is yet indignant; it shows him that the + sceptre of his victory is a barren sceptre; that it shall + confer neither joy nor honor; but shall moulder to dry ashes + in his grasp. In the midst of his exultation, it pierces his + ear with the cry of injured justice; it denounces against + him the indignation of an enlightened and civilized age; it + turns to bitterness the cup of his rejoicing, and wounds him + with the sting which belongs to the consciousness of having + outraged the opinion of mankind."--_Works_, Vol. III. pp. + 77, 78. + +Yes: if the conqueror bad the moral feeling which inspired this +passage, and if the cry of injured justice could pierce the flattering +din of office-seekers surrounding him. But, reading the paragraph as +the expression of a _hope_ of what may one day be, how grand and +consoling it is! The information given in this fine oration respecting +the condition of Greece and the history of her struggle for +independence was provided for him by the industry of his friend, +Edward Everett. + +One of the minor triumphs of Mr. Webster's early Congressional life +was his conquest of the heart of John Randolph. In the course of a +debate on the sugar tax, in 1816, Mr. Webster had the very common +fortune of offending the irascible member from Virginia, and Mr. +Randolph, as his custom was, demanded an explanation of the offensive +words. Explanation was refused by the member from Massachusetts; +whereupon Mr. Randolph demanded "the satisfaction which his insulted +feelings required." Mr. Webster's reply to this preposterous demand +was everything that it ought to have been. He told Mr. Randolph that +he had no right to an explanation, and that the temper and style of +the demand were such as to forbid its being conceded as a matter of +courtesy. He denied, too, the right of any man to call him to the +field for what he might please to consider an insult to his feelings, +although he should be "always prepared to repel in a suitable manner +the aggression of any man who may presume upon such a refusal." The +eccentric Virginian was so much pleased with Mr. Webster's bearing +upon this occasion, that he manifested a particular regard for him, +and pronounced him a very able man for a Yankee. + +It was during these years that Daniel Webster became dear, beyond all +other men of his time, to the people of New England. Removing to +Boston in 1816, and remaining out of Congress for some years, he won +the first place at the New England bar, and a place equal to the +foremost at the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Not one +of his legal arguments has been exactly reported, and some of the most +important of them we possess merely in outline; but in such reports as +we have, the weight and clearness of his mind are abundantly apparent. +In almost every argument of his, there can be found digressions which +relieve the strained attention of the bench, and please the unlearned +hearer; and he had a happy way of suddenly crystallizing his argument +into one luminous phrase, which often seemed to prove his case by +merely stating it. Thus, in the Dartmouth College case, he made a rare +display of learning (furnished him by associate counsel, he tells us); +but his argument is concentrated in two of his simplest sentences:--1. +The endowment of a college is private property; 2. The charter of a +college is that which constitutes its endowment private property. The +Supreme Court accepted these two propositions, and thus secured to +every college in the country its right to its endowment. This seems +too simple for argument, but it cost a prodigious and powerfully +contested lawsuit to reduce the question to this simplicity; and it +was Webster's large, calm, and discriminating glance which detected +these two fundamental truths in the mountain mass of testimony, +argument, and judicial decision. In arguing the great steamboat case, +too, he displayed the same qualities of mind. New York having granted +to Livingston and Fulton the exclusive right to navigate her waters by +steamboats, certain citizens of New Jersey objected, and, after a +fierce struggle upon the waters themselves, transferred the contest to +the Supreme Court. Mr. Webster said: "The commerce of the United +States, under the Constitution of 1787, is a unit," and "what we call +the waters of the State of New York are, for the purposes of +navigation and commerce, the waters of the United States"; therefore +no State can grant exclusive privileges. The Supreme Court affirmed +this to be the true doctrine, and thenceforth Captain Cornelius +Vanderbilt ran his steamboat without feeling it necessary, on +approaching New York, to station a lady at the helm and to hide +himself in the hold. Along with this concentrating power, Mr. Webster +possessed, as every school-boy knows, a fine talent for amplification +and narrative. His narration of the murder of Captain White was almost +enough of itself to hang a man. + +But it was not his substantial services to his country which drew upon +him the eyes of all New England, and made him dear to every son of the +Pilgrims. In 1820, the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth celebrated the +anniversary of the landing of their forefathers in America. At the +dinner of the Society, that day, every man found beside his plate five +kernels of corn, to remind him of the time when that was the daily +allowance of the settlers, and it devolved upon Daniel Webster to show +how worthy they were of better fare. His address on this anniversary +is but an amplification of his Junior Fourth-of-July oration of 1800; +but what an amplification! It differed from that youthful essay as the +first flights of a young eagle, from branch to branch upon its native +tree, differ from the sweep of his wings when he takes a continent in +his flight, and swings from mountain range to mountain range. We are +aware that eulogy is, of all the kinds of composition, the easiest to +execute in a tolerable manner. What Mr. Everett calls "patriotic +eloquence" should usually be left to persons who are in the gushing +time of life; for when men address men, they should say something, +clear up something, help forward something, accomplish something. It +is not becoming in a full-grown man to utter melodious wind. +Nevertheless, it can be truly said of this splendid and irresistible +oration, that it carries that kind of composition as far as we can +ever expect to see it carried, even in this its native land. What a +triumphant joy it must have been to an audience, accustomed for three +or four generations to regard preaching as the noblest work of man, +keenly susceptible to all the excellences of uttered speech, and who +now heard their plain old fathers and grandfathers praised in such +massive and magnificent English! Nor can it be said that this speech +says nothing. In 1820 it was still part of the industry of New England +to fabricate certain articles required by slave-traders in their +hellish business; and there were still descendants of the Pilgrims who +were actually engaged in the traffic. + +"If there be," exclaimed the orator, + + "within the extent of our knowledge or influence any + participation in this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here, + upon the rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It + is not fit that the land of the Pilgrims should bear the + shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, I see the + smoke of the furnaces where manacles and fetters are still + forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who by + stealth and at midnight labor in this work of hell, foul and + dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of + misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or let it + cease to be of New England."--_Works_, Vol. I. pp. 45, 46. + +And he proceeds, in language still more energetic, to call upon his +countrymen to purge their land of this iniquity. This oration, widely +circulated through the press, gave the orator universal celebrity in +the Northern States, and was one of the many causes which secured his +continuance in the national councils. + +Such was his popularity in Boston, that, in 1824, he was re-elected to +Congress by 4,990 votes out of 5,000; and such was his celebrity in +his profession, that his annual retainers from banks, insurance +companies, and mercantile firms yielded an income that would have +satisfied most lawyers even of great eminence. + +Those were not the times of five-thousand-dollar fees. As late as +1819, as we see in Mr. Webster's books, he gave "advice" in important +cases for twenty dollars; his regular retaining fee was fifty dollars; +his "annual retainer," one hundred dollars; his whole charge for +conducting a cause rarely exceeded five hundred dollars; and the +income of a whole year averaged about twenty thousand dollars. Twenty +years later, he has gained a larger sum than that by the trial of a +single cause; but in 1820 such an income was immense, and probably not +exceeded by that of any other American lawyer. Most lawyers in the +United States, he once said, "live well, work hard, and die poor"; and +this is particularly likely to be the case with lawyers who spend six +months of the year in Congress. + +Northern members of Congress, from the foundation of the government, +have usually gratified their ambition only by the sacrifice of their +interests. The Congress of the United States, modelled upon the +Parliament of Great Britain, finds in the North no suitable class of +men who can afford to be absent from their affairs half the year. We +should naturally choose to be represented in Washington by men +distinguished in their several spheres; but in the North, almost all +such persons are so involved in business that they cannot accept a +seat in Congress, except at the peril of their fortune; and this +inconvenience is aggravated by the habits that prevail at the seat of +government. In the case of a lawyer like Daniel Webster, who has a +large practice in the Supreme Court, the difficulty is diminished, +because he can usually attend the court without seriously neglecting +his duties in Congress,--usually, but not always. There was one year +in the Congressional life of Mr. Webster when he was kept out of the +Supreme Court for four months by the high duty that devolved upon him +of refuting Calhoun's nullification subtilties; but even in that year, +his professional income was more than seven thousand dollars; and he +ought by that time, after thirty years of most successful practice, to +have been independent of his profession. He was not, however; and +never would have been, if he had practised a century. Those habits of +profusion, that reckless disregard of pecuniary considerations, of +which we noticed indications in his early days, seemed to be part of +his moral constitution. He never appeared to know how much money he +had, nor how much he owed; and, what was worse, he never appeared to +care. He was a profuse giver and a careless payer. It was far easier +for him to send a hundred-dollar note in reply to a begging letter, +than it was to discharge a long-standing account; and when he had +wasted his resources in extravagant and demoralizing gifts, he deemed +it a sufficient answer to a presented bill to ask his creditor how a +man could pay money who had none. + +It is not true, therefore, that the frequent embarrassments of his +later years were due to the loss of practice by his attendance in +Congress; because, in the years when his professional gains were +smallest, his income was large enough for the wants of any reasonable +man. Nevertheless, we cannot deny that when, in 1827, by his +acceptance of a seat in the Senate, he gave himself permanently to +public life, he made a sacrifice of his pecuniary interests which, for +a man of such vast requirements and uncalculating habits, was very +great. + +But his reward was also very great. On that elevated theatre he soon +found an opportunity for the display of his talents, which, while it +honored and served his country, rendered him the foremost man in that +part of it where such talents as his could be appreciated. + +All wars of which we have any knowledge have consisted of two parts: +first, a war of words; secondly, the conflict of arms. The war of +words which issued in the late Rebellion began, in 1828, by the +publication of Mr. Calhoun's first paper upon Nullification, called +the South Carolina Exposition; and it ended in April, 1861, when +President Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand troops, +which excited so much merriment at Montgomery. This was a period of +thirty-three years, during which every person in the United States who +could use either tongue or pen joined in the strife of words, and +contributed his share either toward hastening or postponing the final +appeal to the sword. Men fight with one another, says Dr. Franklin, +because they have not sense enough to settle their disputes in any +other way; and when once they have begun, never stop killing one +another as long as they have money enough "to pay the butchers." So it +appeared in our case. Of all the men who took part in this preliminary +war of words, Daniel Webster was incomparably the ablest. He seemed +charged with a message and a mission to the people of the United +States; and almost everything that he said in his whole life of real +value has reference to that message and that mission. The necessity of +the Union of these States, the nature of the tie that binds them +together, the means by which alone that tie can be kept strong,--this +was what he came charged to impart to us; and when he had fully +delivered this message, he had done his work. His numberless speeches +upon the passing questions of the day,--tariff, Bank, currency, +Sub-treasury, and the rest,--in which the partisan spoke rather than +the man may have had their value at the time, but there is little in +them of durable worth. Those of them which events have not refuted, +time has rendered obsolete. No general principles are established in +them which can be applied to new cases. Indeed, he used often to +assert that there _were_ no general principles in practical +statesmanship, but that the government of nations is, and must be, a +series of expedients. Several times, in his published works, can be +found the assertion, that there is no such thing as a science of +political economy, though he says he had "turned over" all the authors +on that subject from Adam Smith to his own time. It is when he speaks +of the Union and the Constitution, and when he is rousing the +sentiment of nationality, that he utters, not, indeed, eternal truths, +but truths necessary to the existence of the United States, and which +can only become obsolete when the nation is no more. + +The whole of his previous life had been an unconscious preparation for +these great debates. It was one of the recollections of his childhood, +that, in his eighth year, he had bought a handkerchief upon which was +printed the Constitution of 1787, which he then read through; and +while he was a farmer's boy at home, the great question of its +acceptance or rejection had been decided. His father's party was the +party for the Constitution, whose only regret concerning it was, that +it was not so much of a constitution as they wished it to be. The +Republicans dwelt upon its defects and dangers; the Federalists, upon +its advantages and beauties: so that all that this receptive lad heard +of it at his father's fireside was of its value and necessity. We see +in his youthful orations that nothing in the history of the continent +struck his imagination so powerfully as the spectacle of thirty-eight +gentlemen meeting in a quiet city, and peacefully settling the terms +of a national union between thirteen sovereign States, most of which +gave up, voluntarily, what the sword alone was once supposed capable +of extorting. In all his orations on days of national festivity or +mourning, we observe that his weightiest eulogy falls upon those who +were conspicuous in this great business. Because Hamilton aided in it, +he revered his memory; because Madison was its best interpreter, he +venerated his name and deferred absolutely to his judgment. It was +clear to his mind that the President can only dismiss an officer of +the government as he appoints him, by and with the advice and consent +of the Senate; but he would not permit himself to think so against Mr. +Madison's decision. His own triumphs at the bar--those upon which he +plumed himself---were all such as resulted from his lonely broodings +over, and patient study of, the Constitution of his country. A native +of one of the smallest of the States, to which the Union was an +unmixed benefit and called for no sacrifice of pride, he grew up into +nationality without having to pass through any probation of States' +rights scruples. Indeed, it was as natural for a man of his calibre to +be a national man as it is for his own Monadnock to be three thousand +feet above the level of the sea. + +The South Carolina Exposition of 1828 appeared to fall still-born from +the press. Neither General Jackson nor any of his nearest friends seem +to have been so much as aware of its existence; certainly they +attached no importance to it. Colonel Benton assures us, that to him +the Hayne debate, so far as it related to constitutional questions, +seemed a mere oratorical display, without adequate cause or object; +and we know that General Jackson, intimately allied with the Hayne +family and strongly attached to Colonel Hayne himself, wished him +success in the debate, and heard with regret that Mr. Webster was +"demolishing" him. Far, indeed, was any one from supposing that a +movement had been set on foot which was to end only with the total +destruction of the "interest" sought to be protected by it. Far was +any one from foreseeing that so poor and slight a thing as the +Exposition was the beginning of forty years of strife. It is evident +from the Banquo passage of Mr. Webster's principal speech, when, +looking at Vice-President Calhoun, he reminded that ambitious man +that, in joining the coalition which made Jackson President, he had +only given Van Buren a push toward the Presidency,--"No son of +_theirs_ succeeding,"--it is evident, we say, from this passage, and +from other covert allusions, that he understood the game of +Nullification from the beginning, so far as its objects were personal. +But there is no reason for supposing that he attached importance to it +before that memorable afternoon in December, 1830, when he strolled +from the Supreme Court into the Senate-chamber, and chanced to hear +Colonel Hayne reviling New England, and repeating the doctrines of the +South Carolina Exposition. + +Every one knows the story of this first triumph of the United States +over its enemies. Daniel Webster, as Mr. Everett records, appeared to +be the only person in Washington who was entirely at his ease; and he +was so remarkably unconcerned, that Mr. Everett feared he was not +aware of the expectations of the public, and the urgent necessity of +his exerting all his powers. Another friend mentions, that on the day +before the delivery of the principal speech the orator lay down as +usual, after dinner, upon a sofa, and soon was heard laughing to +himself. Being asked what he was laughing at, he said he had just +thought of a way to turn Colonel Hayne's quotation about Banquo's +ghost against himself, and he was going to get up and make a note of +it. This he did, and then resumed his nap. + +Notwithstanding these appearances of indifference, he was fully roused +to the importance of the occasion; and, indeed, we have the impression +that only on this occasion, in his whole life, were all his powers in +full activity and his entire mass of being in full glow. But even then +the artist was apparent in all that he did, and particularly in the +dress which he wore. At that time, in his forty-eighth year, his hair +was still as black as an Indian's, and it lay in considerable masses +about the spacious dome of his forehead. His form had neither the +slenderness of his youth nor the elephantine magnitude of his later +years; it was fully, but finely, developed, imposing and stately, yet +not wanting in alertness and grace. No costume could have been better +suited to it than his blue coat and glittering gilt buttons, his ample +yellow waistcoat, his black trousers, and snowy cravat. It was in some +degree, perhaps, owing to the elegance and daintiness of his dress +that, while the New England men among his hearers were moved to tears, +many Southern members, like Colonel Benton, regarded the speech merely +as a Fourth-of-July oration delivered on the 6th of January. Benton +assures us, however, that he soon discovered his error, for the +Nullifiers were not to be put down by a speech, and soon revealed +themselves in their true character, as "irreconcilable" foes of the +Union. This was Daniel Webster's own word in speaking of that faction +in 1830,--"irreconcilable." + +After this transcendent effort,--perhaps the greatest of its kind ever +made by man,--Daniel Webster had nothing to gain in the esteem of the +Northern States. He was indisputably our foremost man, and in +Massachusetts there was no one who could be said to be second to him +in the regard of the people: he was a whole species in himself. In the +subsequent winter of debate with Calhoun upon the same subject, he +added many details to his argument, developed it in many directions, +and accumulated a great body of constitutional reasoning; but so far +as the people were concerned, the reply to Hayne sufficed. In all +those debates we are struck with his colossal, his superfluous +superiority to his opponents; and we wonder how it could have been +that such a man should have thought it worth while to refute such +puerilities. It was, however, abundantly worth while. The assailed +Constitution needed such a defender. It was necessary that the +patriotic feeling of the American people, which was destined to a +trial so severe, should have an unshakable basis of intelligent +conviction. It was necessary that all men should be made distinctly to +see that the Constitution was not a "compact" to which the States +"acceded," and from which they could secede, but the fundamental law, +which the people had established and ordained, from which there could +be no secession but by revolution. It was necessary that the country +should be made to understand that Nullification and Secession were one +and the same; and that to admit the first, promising to stop short at +the second, was as though a man "should take the plunge of Niagara and +cry out that he would stop half-way down." Mr. Webster's principal +speech on this subject, delivered in 1832, has, and will ever have, +with the people and the Courts of the United States, the authority of +a judicial decision; and it might very properly be added to popular +editions of the Constitution as an appendix. Into the creation of the +feeling and opinion which fought out the late war for the Union a +thousand and ten thousand causes entered; every man who had ever +performed a patriotic action, and every man who ever from his heart +had spoken a patriotic word, contributed to its production; but to no +man, perhaps, were we more indebted for it than to the Daniel Webster +of 1830 and 1832. + +We cannot so highly commend his votes in 1832 as his speeches. General +Jackson's mode of dealing with nullification seems to us the model for +every government to follow which has to deal with discontented +subjects:--1. To take care that the laws are obeyed; 2. To remove the +real grounds of discontent. This was General Jackson's plan. This, +also, was the aim of Mr. Clay's compromise. Mr. Webster objected to +both, on the ground that nullification was rebellion, and that no +legislation respecting the pretext for rebellion should be entertained +until the rebellion was quelled. Thus he came out of the battle, dear +to the thinking people of the country, but estranged from the three +political powers,--Henry Clay and his friends, General Jackson and his +friends, Calhoun and his friends; and though he soon lapsed again +under the leadership of Mr. Clay, there was never again a cordial +union between him and any interior circle of politicians who could +have gratified his ambition. Deceived by the thunders of applause +which greeted him wherever he went, and the intense adulation of his +own immediate circle, he thought that he too could be an independent +power in politics. Two wild vagaries seemed to have haunted him ever +after: first, that a man could merit the Presidency; secondly, that a +man could get the Presidency by meriting it. + +From 1832 to the end of his life it appears to us that Daniel Webster +was undergoing a process of deterioration, moral and mental. His +material part gained upon his spiritual. Naturally inclined to +indolence, and having an enormous capacity for physical enjoyment, a +great hunter, fisherman, and farmer, a lover of good wine and good +dinners, a most jovial companion, his physical desires and tastes were +constantly strengthened by being keenly gratified, while his mind was +fed chiefly upon past acquisitions. There is nothing in his later +efforts which shows any intellectual advance, nothing from which we +can infer that he had been browsing in forests before untrodden, or +feeding in pastures new. He once said, at Marshfield, that, if he +could live three lives in one, he would like to devote them all to +study,--one to geology, one to astronomy, and one to classical +literature. But it does not appear that he invigorated and refreshed +the old age of his mind, by doing more than glance over the great +works which treat of these subjects. A new language every ten years, +or a new science vigorously pursued, seems necessary to preserve the +freshness of the understanding, especially when the physical tastes +are superabundantly nourished. He could praise Rufus Choate for +reading a little Latin and Greek every day,--and this was better than +nothing,--but he did not follow his example. There is an aged merchant +in New York, who has kept his mind from growing old by devoting +exactly twenty minutes every day to the reading of some abstruse book, +as far removed from his necessary routine of thought as he could find. +Goethe's advice to every one to read every day a short poem, +recognizes the danger we all incur in taking systematic care of the +body and letting the soul take care of itself. During the last ten +years of Daniel Webster's life, he spent many a thousand dollars upon +his library, and almost ceased to be an intellectual being. + +His pecuniary habits demoralized him. It was wrong and mean in him to +accept gifts of money from the people of Boston; it was wrong in them +to submit to his merciless exactions. What need was there that their +Senator should sometimes be a mendicant and sometimes a pauper? If he +chose to maintain baronial state without a baron's income; if he chose +to have two fancy farms of more than a thousand acres each; if he +chose to keep two hundred prize cattle and seven hundred choice sheep +for his pleasure; if he must have about his house lamas, deer, and all +rare fowls; if his flower-garden must be one acre in extent, and his +books worth thirty thousand dollars; if he found it pleasant to keep +two or three yachts and a little fleet of smaller craft; if he could +not refrain from sending money in answer to begging letters, and +pleased himself by giving away to his black man money enough to buy a +very good house; and if he could not avoid adding wings and rooms to +his spacious mansion at Marshfield, and must needs keep open house +there and have a dozen, guests at a time,--why should the solvent and +careful business men of Boston have been taxed, or have taxed +themselves, to pay any part of the expense? + +Mr. Lanman, his secretary, gives us this curious and contradictory +account of his pecuniary habits:-- + + "He made money with ease, and spent it without reflection. + He had accounts with various banks, and men of all parties + were always glad to accommodate him with loans, if he wanted + them. He kept no record of his deposits, unless it were on + slips of paper hidden in his pockets; these matters were + generally left with his secretary. His notes were seldom or + never regularly protested, and when they were, they caused + him an immense deal of mental anxiety. When the writer has + sometimes drawn a check for a couple of thousand dollars, he + has not even looked at it, but packed it away in his + pockets, like so much waste paper. During his long + professional career, he earned money enough to make a dozen + fortunes, but he spent it liberally, and gave it away to the + poor by hundreds and thousands. Begging letters from women + and unfortunate men were received by him almost daily, at + certain periods; and one instance is remembered where, on + six successive days, he sent remittances of fifty and one + hundred dollars to people with whom he was entirely + unacquainted. He was indeed careless, but strictly and + religiously honest, in all his money matters. He knew not + how to be otherwise. The last fee which he ever received for + a single legal argument was $11,000.... + + "A sanctimonious lady once called upon Mr. Webster, in + Washington, with a long and pitiful story about her + misfortunes and poverty, and asked him for a donation of + money to defray her expenses to her home in a Western city. + He listened with all the patience he could manage, expressed + his surprise that she should have called upon him for money, + simply because he was an officer of the government, and + that, too, when she was a total stranger to him, reprimanded + her in very plain language for her improper conduct, and + _handed her a note of fifty dollars_. + + * * * * * + + "He had called upon the cashier of the bank where he kept an + account, for the purpose of getting a draft discounted, when + that gentleman expressed some surprise, and casually + inquired why he wanted so much money? 'To spend; to buy + bread and meat,' replied Mr. Webster, a little annoyed at + this speech. + + "'But,' returned the cashier, 'you already have upon deposit + in the bank no less than three thousand dollars, and I was + only wondering why you wanted so much money,' + + "This was indeed the truth, but Mr. Webster had forgotten + it." + +Mr. Lanman's assertion that Mr. Webster, with all this recklessness, +was religiously honest, must have excited a grim smile upon the +countenances of such of his Boston readers as had had his name upon +their books. No man can be honest long who is careless in his +expenditures. + +It is evident from his letters, if we did not know it from other +sources of information, that his carelessness with regard to the +balancing of his books grew upon him as he advanced in life, and kept +pace with the general deterioration of his character. In 1824, before +lie had been degraded by the acceptance of pecuniary aid, and when he +was still a solvent person, one of his nephews asked him for a loan. +He replied: + + "If you think you can do anything useful with a thousand + dollars, you may have that sum in the spring, or sooner, if + need be, on the following conditions:--1. You must give a + note for it with reasonable security. 2. The interest must + be payable annually, and must be paid at the day without + fail. And so long as this continues to be done, the money + not to be called for--the principal--under six months' + notice. I am thus explicit with you, because you wish me to + be so; and because also, having a little money, and but a + little, I am resolved on keeping it." + +This is sufficiently business-like. He _had_ a little money +then,--enough, as he intimates, for the economical maintenance of his +family. During the land fever of 1835 and 1836, he lost so seriously +by speculations in Western land, that he was saved from bankruptcy +only by the aid of that mystical but efficient body whom he styled his +"friends"; and from that time to the end of his life he was seldom at +his ease. He earned immense occasional fees,---two of twenty-five +thousand dollars each; he received frequent gifts of money, as well as +a regular stipend from an invested capital; but he expended so +profusely, that he was sometimes at a loss for a hundred dollars to +pay his hay-makers; and he died forty thousand dollars in debt. + +The adulation of which he was the victim at almost every hour of his +existence injured and deceived him. He was continually informed that +he was the greatest of living men,--the "godlike Daniel"; and when he +escaped even into the interior of his home, he found there persons who +sincerely believed that making such speeches as his was the greatest +of all possible human achievements. All men whose talents are of the +kind which enable their possessor to give intense pleasure to great +multitudes are liable to this misfortune; and especially in a new and +busy country, little removed from the colonial state, where +intellectual eminence is rare, and the number of persons who can enjoy +it is exceedingly great. We are growing out of this provincial +propensity to abandon ourselves to admiration of the pleasure-giving +talents. The time is at hand, we trust, when we shall not be struck +with wonder because a man can make a vigorous speech, or write a good +novel, or play Hamlet decently, and when we shall be able to enjoy the +talent without adoring the man. The talent is one thing, and the man +another; the talent may be immense, and the man little; the speech +powerful and wise, the speaker weak and foolish. Daniel Webster came +at last to loathe this ceaseless incense, but it was when his heart +was set upon homage of another kind, which he was destined never to +enjoy. + +Another powerful cause of his deterioration was the strange, strong, +always increasing desire he had to be President. Any intelligent +politician, outside of the circle of his own "friends," could have +told him, and proved to him, that he had little more chance of being +elected President than the most insignificant man in the Whig party. +And the marvel is, that he himself should not have known it,--he who +knew why, precisely why, every candidate had been nominated, from +Madison to General Taylor. In the teeth of all the facts, he still +cherished the amazing delusion that the Presidency of the United +States, like the Premiership of England, is the natural and just +reward of long and able public service. The Presidency, on the +contrary, is not merely an accident, but it is an accident of the last +moment. It is a game too difficult for mortal faculties to play, +because some of the conditions of success are as uncertain as the +winds, and as ungovernable. If dexterous playing could have availed, +Douglas would have carried off the stakes, for he had an audacious and +a mathematical mind; while the winning man in 1856 was a heavy player, +devoid of skill, whose decisive advantage was that he had been out of +the game for four years. Mr. Seward, too, was within an ace of +winning, when an old quarrel between two New York editors swept his +cards from the table. + +No: the President of the United States is not prime minister, but +chief magistrate, and he is subject to that law of nature which places +at the head of regular governments more or less respectable Nobodies. +In Europe this law of nature works through the hereditary principle, +and in America through universal suffrage. In all probability, we +shall usually elect a person of the non-committal species,--one who +will have lived fifty or sixty years in the world without having +formed an offensive conviction or uttered a striking word,--one who +will have conducted his life as those popular periodicals are +conducted, in which there are "no allusions to politics or religion." +And may not this be part of the exquisite economy of nature, which +ever strives to get into each place the smallest man that can fill it? +How miserably out of place would be a man of active, originating, +disinterested spirit, at the head of a strictly limited, +constitutional government, such as ours is in time of peace, in which +the best President is he who does the least? Imagine a live man thrust +out over the bows of a ship, and compelled to stand as figure-head, +lashed by the waves and winds during a four years' voyage, and +expected to be pleased with his situation because he is gilt! + +Daniel Webster so passionately desired the place, that he could never +see how far he was from the possibility of getting it. He was not such +timber as either Southern fire-eaters or Northern wire-pullers had any +use for; and a melancholy sight it was, this man, once so stately, +paying court to every passing Southerner, and personally begging +delegates to vote for him. He was not made for that. An elephant does +sometimes stand upon his head and play a barrel-organ, but every one +who sees the sorry sight sees also that it was not the design of +Nature that elephants should do such things. + +A Marshfield elm may be for half a century in decay without exhibiting +much outward change; and when, in some tempestuous night, half its +bulk is torn away, the neighborhood notes with surprise that what +seemed solid wood is dry and crumbling pith. During the last fifteen +years of Daniel Webster's life, his wonderfully imposing form and his +immense reputation concealed from the public the decay of his powers +and the degeneration of his morals. At least, few said what perhaps +many felt, that "he was not the man he had been." People went away +from one of his ponderous and empty speeches disappointed, but not ill +pleased to boast that they too had "heard Daniel Webster speak," and +feeling very sure that he could be eloquent, though he had not been. +We heard one of the last of his out-of-door speeches. It was near +Philadelphia, in 1844, when he was "stumping the State" for Henry +Clay, and when our youthful feelings were warmly with the object of +his speech. What a disappointment! How poor and pompous and pointless +it seemed! Nor could we resist the impression that he was playing a +part, nor help saying to ourselves, as we turned to leave the scene, +"This man is not sincere in this: he is a humbug." And when, some +years later, we saw him present himself before a large audience in a +state not far removed from intoxication, and mumble incoherence for +ten minutes, and when, in the course of the evening, we saw him make a +great show of approval whenever the clergy were complimented, the +impression was renewed that the man had expended his sincerity, and +that nothing was real to him any more except wine and office. And even +then such were the might and majesty of his presence, that he seemed +to fill and satisfy the people by merely sitting there in an +arm-chair, like Jupiter, in a spacious yellow waistcoat with two +bottles of Madeira under it. + +All this gradual, unseen deterioration of mind and character was +revealed to the country on the 7th of March, 1850. What a downfall was +there! That shameful speech reads worse in 1867 than it did in 1850, +and still exerts perverting power over timid and unformed minds. It +was the very time for him to have broken finally with the +"irreconcilable" faction, who, after having made President Tyler +_snub_ Daniel Webster from his dearly loved office of Secretary of +State, had consummated the scheme which gave us Texas at the cost of +war with Mexico, and California as one of the incidents of peace. +California was not down in their programme; and now, while claiming +the right to make four slave States out of Texas, they refused to +admit California to freedom. _Then_ was it that Daniel Webster of +Massachusetts rose in the Senate of the United States and said in +substance this: These fine Southern brethren of ours have now stolen +all the land there is to steal. Let us, therefore, put no obstacle in +the way of their peaceable enjoyment of the plunder. + +And the spirit of the speech was worse even than its doctrine. He went +down upon the knees of his soul, and paid base homage to his own and +his country's irreconcilable foes. Who knew better than Daniel Webster +that John C. Calhoun and his followers had first created and then +systematically fomented the hostile feeling which then existed between +the North and the South? How those men must have chuckled among +themselves when they witnessed the willing degradation of the man who +should have arraigned them before the country as the conscious enemies +of its peace! How was it that no one laughed outright at such billing +and cooing as this? + + * * * * * + +_Mr. Webster_.--"An honorable member [Calhoun], whose health does not +allow him to be here to-day--" + +_A Senator_,--"He is here." + +_Mr. Webster_.--"I am very happy to hear that he is; may he long be +here, and in the enjoyment of health to serve his country!" + +And this:-- + +_Mr. Webster_.--"The honorable member did not disguise his conduct or +his motives." + +_Mr. Calhoun_.--"Never, never." + +_Mr. Webster_.--"What he means he is very apt to say." + +_Mr. Calhoun_.--"Always, always." + +_Mr. Webster_.--"And I honor him for it." + +And this:-- + +_Mr. Webster_.-- + + "I see an honorable member of this body [Mason of Virginia] + paying me the honor of listening to my remarks; he brings to + my mind, Sir, freshly and vividly, what I learned of his + great ancestor, so much distinguished in his day and + generation, so worthy to be succeeded by so worthy a + grandson." + +And this:-- + +_Mr. Webster_.-- + + "An honorable member from Louisiana addressed us the other + day on this subject. I suppose there is not a more amiable + and worthy gentleman in this chamber, nor a gentleman who + would be more slow to give offence to anybody, and he did + not mean in his remarks to give offence. But what did he + say? Why, Sir, he took pains to run a contrast between the + slaves of the South and the laboring people of the North, + giving the preference in all points of condition and comfort + and happiness to the slaves." + +In the course of this speech there is one most palpable contradiction. +In the beginning of it, the orator mentioned the change of feeling and +opinion that had occurred as to the institution of slavery,--"the +North growing much more warm and strong against slavery, and the South +growing much more warm and strong in its support." "Once," he said, +"the most eminent men, and nearly all the conspicuous politicians of +the South, held the same sentiments,--that slavery was an evil, a +blight, a scourge, and a curse"; but now it is "a cherished +institution in that quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great +religious, social, and moral blessing." He then asked how this change +of opinion had been brought about, and thus answered the question: "I +suppose, sir, this is owing to the rapid growth and sudden extension +of the COTTON plantations in the South." And to make the statement +more emphatic, he caused the word _cotton_ to be printed in capitals +in the authorized edition of his works. But later in the speech, when +he came to add his ponderous condemnation to the odium in which the +handful of Abolitionists were held,--the _elite_ of the nation from +Franklin's day to this,--then he attributed this remarkable change to +_their_ zealous efforts to awaken the nobler conscience of the +country. After giving his own version of their proceedings, he said: + + "Well, what was the result? The bonds of the slaves were + bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more + strongly fastened. Public opinion, which in Virginia had + begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was opening out + for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut + itself up in its castle." + +But all would not do. He bent the knee in vain. Vain too were his +personal efforts, his Southern tour, his Astor House wooings,--the +politicians would have none of him; and he had the cutting +mortification of seeing himself set aside for a Winfield Scott. + +Let us not, however, forget that on this occasion, though Daniel +Webster appeared for the first time in his life as a leader, he was in +reality still only a follower,--a follower, not of the public opinion +of the North, but of the wishes of its capitalists. And probably many +thousands of well-meaning men, not versed in the mysteries of +politics, were secretly pleased to find themselves provided with an +excuse for yielding once more to a faction, who had over us the +immense advantage of having made up their minds to carry their point +or fight. If his was the shame of this speech, ours was the guilt. He +faithfully represented the portion of his constituents whose wine he +drank, who helped him out with his notes, and who kept his atmosphere +hazy with incense; and he faithfully represented, also, that larger +number who wait till the wolf is at their door before arming against +him, instead of meeting him afar off in the outskirts of the wood. Let +us own it: the North yearned for peace in 1850,--peace at almost any +price. + +One of the most intimate of Mr. Webster's friends said, in a public +address: + + "It is true that he desired the highest political position + in the country,--that he thought he had fairly earned a + claim to that position. And I solemnly believe that because + that claim was denied his days were shortened." + +No enemy of the great orator ever uttered anything so severe against +him as this, and we are inclined to think it an error. It was probably +the strength of his desire for the Presidency that shortened his life, +not the mere disappointment. When President Fillmore offered him the +post of Secretary of State, in 1850, it appears to have been his +preference, much as he loved office, to decline it. He longed for his +beautiful Marshfield, on the shore of the ocean, his herds of noble +cattle, his broad, productive fields, his yachts, his fishing, his +rambles in the forests planted by his own hand, his homely chats with +neighbors and beloved dependents. "Oh!" said he, "if I could have my +own will, never, never would I leave Marshfield again!" But his +"friends," interested and disinterested, told him it was a shorter +step from the office of Secretary of State to that of President than +from the Senate-chamber. He yielded, as he always did, and spent a +long, hot summer in Washington, to the sore detriment of his health. +And again, in 1852, after he had failed to receive the nomination for +the Presidency, he was offered the place of Minister to England. His +"friends" again advised against his acceptance. His letter to the +President, declining the offer, presents him in a sorry light indeed. + + "I have made up my mind to think no more about the. English + mission. My principal reason is, that I think it would be + regarded as a descent I have been accustomed to give + instructions to ministers abroad, and not to receive them." + +Accustomed! Yes: for two years! It is probable enough that his +acceptance of office, and his adherence to it, hastened his death. +Four months after the words were written which we have just quoted, he +was no more. + +His last days were such as his best friends could have wished them to +be,--calm, dignified, affectionate, worthy of his lineage. His burial, +too, was singularly becoming, impressive, and touching. We have been +exceedingly struck with the account of it given by Mr. George S. +Hillard, in his truly elegant and eloquent eulogy upon Mr. Webster, +delivered in Faneuil Hall. In his last will, executed a few days +before his death, Mr. Webster requested that he might be buried +"without the least show or ostentation, but in a manner respectful to +my neighbors, whose kindness has contributed so much to the happiness +of me and mine." His wishes were obeyed; and he was buried more as the +son of plain, brave Captain Ebenezer Webster, than as Secretary of +State. "No coffin," said Mr. Hillard, + + "concealed that majestic frame. In the open air, clad as + when alive, he lay extended in seeming sleep, with no touch + of disfeature upon his brow,--as noble an image of reposing + strength as ever was seen upon earth. Around him was the + landscape that he had loved, and above him was nothing but + the dome of the covering heavens. The sunshine fell upon the + dead man's face, and the breeze blew over it. A lover of + Nature, he seemed to be gathered into her maternal arms, and + to lie like a child upon a mother's lap. We felt, as we + looked upon him, that death had never stricken down, at one + blow, a greater sum of life. And whose heart did not swell + when, from the honored and distinguished men there gathered + together, six plain Marshfield farmers were called forth to + carry the head of their neighbor to the grave. Slowly and + sadly the vast multitude followed, in mourning silence, and + he was laid down to rest among dear and kindred dust." + +In surveying the life and works of this eminent and gifted man, we are +continually struck with the evidences of his magnitude. He was, as +we have said, a very large person. His brain was within a little of +being one third larger than the average, and it was one of the +largest three on record. His bodily frame, in all its parts, was on +a majestic scale, and his presence was immense. He liked large +things,--mountains, elms, great oaks, mighty bulls and oxen, wide +fields, the ocean, the Union, and all things of magnitude. He liked +great Rome far better than refined Greece, and revelled in the immense +things of literature, such as Paradise Lost, and the Book of Job, +Burke, Dr. Johnson, and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid. Homer he never +cared much for,--nor, indeed, anything Greek. He hated, he loathed, +the act of writing. Billiards, ten-pins, chess, draughts, whist, he +never relished, though fond to excess of out-door pleasures, like +hunting, fishing, yachting. He liked to be alone with great +Nature,--alone in the giant woods or on the shores of the resounding +sea,--alone all day with his gun, his dog, and his thoughts,---alone +in the morning, before any one was astir but himself, looking out upon +the sea and the glorious sunrise. What a delicious picture of this +large, healthy Son of Earth Mr. Lanman gives us, where he describes +him coming into his bedroom, at sunrise, and startling him out of a +deep sleep by shouting, "Awake, sluggard! and look upon this glorious +scene, for the sky and the ocean are enveloped in flames!" He was akin +to all large, slow things in nature. A herd of fine cattle gave him a +keen, an inexhaustible enjoyment; but he never "tasted" a horse: he +had no horse enthusiasm. In England he chiefly enjoyed these five +things, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Smithfield Cattle +Market, English farming, and Sir Robert Peel. Sir Robert Peel he +thought was "head and shoulders above any other man" he had ever met. +He greatly excelled, too, in describing immense things. In speaking of +the Pyramids, once, he asked, + + "Who can inform us by what now unknown machines mass was + thus aggregated, to mass, and quarry piled on quarry, till + solid granite seemed to cover the earth and reach the + skies." + +His peculiar love of the Union of these States was partly due, +perhaps, to this habit of his mind of dwelling with complacency on +vastness. He felt that he wanted and required a continent to live in: +his mind would have gasped for breath in New Hampshire. + +But this enormous creature was not an exception to the law which +renders giants harmless by seaming them with weakness, but for which +the giants would possess the earth. If he had been completed +throughout on the plan on which he was sketched, if he had been as +able to originate as he was powerful to state, if he had possessed +will proportioned to his strength, moral power equal to his moral +feeling, intellect on a par with his genius, and principle worthy of +his intellect, he would have subjugated mankind, and raised his +country to a point from which it would have dropped when the +tyrannizing influence was withdrawn. Every sphere of life has its +peculiar temptations, which there is only one thing that can enable a +man to resist,--a religious, i.e. a disinterested devotion to its +duties. Daniel Webster was one of those who fell before the seductions +of his place. He was not one of those who find in the happiness and +prosperity of their country, and in the esteem of their +fellow-citizens, their own sufficient and abundant reward for serving +her. He pined for something lower, smaller,--something personal and +vulgar. He had no religion,--not the least tincture of it; and he +seemed at last, in his dealings with individuals, to have no +conscience. What he called his religion had no effect whatever upon +the conduct of his life; it made him go to church, talk piously, puff +the clergy, and "patronize Providence,"--no more. He would accept +retaining fees, and never look into the bundles of papers which +accompanied them, in which were enclosed the hopes and the fortune of +anxious households. He would receive gifts of money, and toss into his +waste-paper basket the list of the givers, without having glanced at +its contents; thus defrauding them of the only recompense in his power +to grant, and the only one they wished. It shocked him if his +secretary came to the dinner-table in a frock-coat, and he would +himself appear drunk before three thousand people. And yet, such was +the power of his genius, such was the charm of his manner, such the +affectionateness of his nature, such the robust heartiness of his +enjoyment of life, that honorable men who knew his faults best loved +him to the last,--not in spite of them, but partly in consequence of +them. What in another man they would have pronounced atrocious, +appeared in him a kind of graceful rollicking helplessness to resist. + +Such, as it seems to our very imperfect judgment, was Daniel Webster, +one of the largest and one of the weakest of men, of admirable genius +and deplorable character; who began life well and served his-country +well and often, but held not out faithful to the end. American +statesmen are called to a higher vocation than those of other +countries, and there is nothing in the politics of America which _can_ +reward a man of eminent ability for public service. If such a person +feels that his country's happiness and greatness will not be a +satisfying recompense for anything he can do for her, let him, as he +values his peace and soul's health, cling to the safe obscurity of +private life. + + + +JOHN C. CALHOUN + +There were two ways of getting to South Carolina in Colonial times. +The first immigrants, many of whom were men of capital, landed at +Charleston, and, settling in the fertile low country along the coast, +became prosperous planters of rice, indigo, and corn, before a single +white inhabitant had found his way to the more salubrious upper +country in the western part of the Province. The settlers of the upper +country were plain, poorer people, who landed at Philadelphia or +Baltimore, and travelled southward along the base of the Alleghanies +to the inviting table-lands of the Carolinas. In the lower country, +the estates were large, the slaves numerous, the white inhabitants +few, idle, and profuse. The upper country was peopled by a sturdier +race, who possessed farms of moderate extent, hewn out of the +wilderness by their own strong arms, and tilled by themselves with the +aid of few slaves. Between the upper and the lower country there was a +waste region of sandy hills and rocky acclivities, uninhabited, almost +uninhabitable, which rendered the two sections of one Province +separate communities scarcely known to one another. Down almost to the +beginning of the Revolutionary War, the farmers of the upper country +were not represented in the Legislature of South Carolina, though they +were then as numerous as the planters of the lower country. Between +the people of the two sections there was little unity of feeling. The +lordly planters of the lower country regarded their Western +fellow-citizens as provincial or plebeian; the farmers of the upper +country had some contempt for the planters as effeminate, +aristocratic, and Tory. The Revolution abased the pride, lessened the +wealth, and improved the politics of the planters; a revised +Constitution, in 1790, gave preponderance to the up-country farmers in +the popular branch of the Legislature; and thenceforth South Carolina +was a sufficiently homogeneous commonwealth. + +Looking merely to the public career of Calhoun, the special pleader of +the Southern aristocracy, we should expect to find him born and reared +among the planters of the low country. The Calhouns, on the contrary, +were up-country people,--farmers, Whigs, Presbyterians, men of +moderate means, who wielded the axe and held the plough with their own +hands, until enabled to buy a few "new negroes," cheap and savage; +called new, because fresh from Africa. A family party of them +(parents, four sons, and a daughter) emigrated from the North of +Ireland early in the last century, and settled first in Pennsylvania; +then removed to Western Virginia; whence the defeat of Braddock, in +1755, drove them southward, and they found a permanent abode in the +extreme west of South Carolina, then an unbroken wilderness. Of those +four sons, Patrick Calhoun, the father of the Nullifier, was the +youngest. He was six years old when the family left Ireland; +twenty-nine, when they planted the "Calhoun Settlement" in Abbeville +District, South Carolina. + +Patrick Calhoun was a strong-headed, wrong-headed, very brave, honest, +ignorant man. His whole life, almost, was a battle. When the Calhouns +had been but five years in their forest home, the Cherokees attacked +the settlement, destroyed it utterly, killed one half the men, and +drove the rest to the lower country; whence they dared not return till +the peace of 1763. Patrick Calhoun was elected to command the mounted +rangers raised to protect the frontiers, a duty heroically performed +by him. After the peace, the settlement enjoyed several years of +tranquillity, during which Patrick Calhoun was married to Martha +Caldwell, a native of Virginia, but the daughter of an Irish +Presbyterian emigrant. During this peaceful interval, all the family +prospered with the settlement which bore its name; and Patrick, who in +his childhood had only learned to read and write, availed himself of +such leisure as he had to increase his knowledge. Besides reading the +books within his reach, which were few, he learned to survey land, and +practised that vocation to advantage. He was especially fond of +reading history to gather new proofs of the soundness of his political +opinions, which were Whig to the uttermost. The war of the Revolution +broke in upon the settlement, at length, and made deadly havoc there; +for it was warred upon by three foes at once,--the British, the +Tories, and the Cherokees. The Tories murdered in cold blood a brother +of Patrick Calhoun's wife. Another of her brothers fell at Cowpens +under thirty sabre-wounds. Another was taken prisoner and remained for +nine months in close confinement at one of the British Andersonvilles +of that day. Patrick Calhoun, in many a desperate encounter with the +Indians, displayed singular coolness, courage, adroitness, and +tenacity. On one memorable occasion, thirteen of his neighbors and +himself maintained a forest fight for several hours with a force of +Cherokees ten times their number. When seven of the white men had +fallen, the rest made their escape. Returning three days after to bury +their dead, they found upon the field the bodies of twenty-three +Indian warriors. At another time, as his son used to relate, he had a +very long combat with a chief noted for the certainty of his aim,--the +Indian behind a tree, the white man behind a fallen log. Four times +the wily Calhoun drew the Indian's fire by elevating his hat upon his +ramrod. The chief, at last, could not refrain from looking to see the +effect of his shot; when one of his shoulders was slightly exposed. On +the instant, the white man's rifle sent a ball through it; the chief +fled into the forest, and Patrick Calhoun. bore off as a trophy of the +fight his own hat pierced with four bullets. + +This Patrick Calhoun illustrates well the North-of-Ireland character; +one peculiarity of which is the possession of _will_ disproportioned +to intellect. Hence a man of this race frequently appears to striking +advantage in scenes which demand chiefly an exercise of will; while in +other spheres, which make larger demands upon the understanding, the +same man may be simply mischievous. We see this in the case of Andrew +Jackson, who at New Orleans was glorious; at Washington almost wholly +pernicious; and in the case of Andrew Johnson, who was eminently +useful to his country in 1861, but obstructive and perilous to it in +1866. For these Scotch-Irishmen, though they are usually very honest +men, and often right in their opinions, are an uninstructable race, +who stick to a prejudice as tenaciously as to a principle, and really +suppose they are battling for right and truth, when they are only +wreaking a private vengeance or aiming at a personal advantage. +Patrick Calhoun was the most radical of Democrats; one of your +despisers of conventionality; an enemy of lawyers, thinking the common +sense of mankind competent to decide what is right without their aid; +a particular opponent of the arrogant pretensions of the low-country +aristocrats. When the up-country people began to claim a voice in the +government, long since due to their numbers, the planters, of course, +opposed their demand. To establish their right to vote, Patrick +Calhoun and a party of his neighbors, armed with rifles, marched +across the State to within twenty-three miles of Charleston, and there +voted in defiance of the plantation lords. Events like this led to the +admission of members from the up-country; and Patrick Calhoun was the +first to represent that section in the Legislature. It was entirely +characteristic of him to vote against the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, on the ground that it authorized other people to tax +Carolinians; which he said was taxation without' representation. That +was just like a narrow, cranky, opinionative, unmanageable Calhoun. + +Devoid of imagination and of humor, a hard-headed, eager politician, +he brought up his boy upon politics. This was sorry nourishment for a +child's mind, but he had little else to give him. Gambling, hunting, +whiskey, and politics were all there was to relieve the monotony of +life in a Southern back settlement; and the best men naturally threw +themselves upon politics. Calhoun told Miss Martineau that he could +remember standing between his father's knees, when he was only five +years old, and listening to political conversation. He told Duff Green +that he had a distinct recollection of hearing his father say, when he +was only nine, that that government is best which allows to each +individual the largest liberty compatible with order and tranquillity, +and that improvements in political science consist in throwing off +needless restraints. It was a strange child that could remember such a +remark. As Patrick Calhoun died in 1795, when his son was thirteen +years old, the boy must have been very young when he heard it, even if +he were mistaken as to the time. Whether Patrick Calhoun ever touched +upon the subject of slavery in his conversations with his children, is +not reported. We only know that, late in the career of Mr. Calhoun, he +used to be taunted by his opponents in South Carolina with having once +held that slavery was good and justifiable only so far as it was +preparatory to freedom. He was accused of having committed the crime +of saying, in a public speech, that slavery was like the "scaffolding" +of an edifice, which, after having served its temporary purpose, would +be taken down, of course. We presume he said this; because +_everything_ in his later speeches is flatly contradicted in those of +his earlier public life. Patrick Calhoun was a man to give a reason +for everything. He was an habitual theorizer and generalize!', without +possessing the knowledge requisite for safe generalization. It is very +probable that this apology for slavery was part of his son's slender +inheritance. + +John Caldwell Calhoun--born in 1782, the youngest but one in a family +of five children--was eighteen years old before he had a thought of +being anything but a farmer. His father had been dead five years. His +only sister was married to that famous Mr. Waddell, clergyman and +schoolmaster, whose academy in North Carolina was for so many years a +great light in a dark place. One of his brothers was a clerk in a +mercantile house at Charleston; another was settled on a farm near by; +another was still a boy. His mother lived upon the paternal farm; and +with her lived her son John, who ploughed, hunted, fished, and rode, +in the manner of the farmers' sons in that country. At eighteen he +could read, write, and cipher; he had read Rollin, Robertson, +Voltaire's Charles XII., Brown's Essays, Captain Cook, and parts of +Locke. This, according to his own account, was the sum of his +knowledge, except that he had fully imbibed his father's decided +republican opinions. He shared to some degree his father's prejudice, +and the general prejudice of the upper country, against lawyers; +although a cousin, John Ewing Calhoun, had risen high in that +profession, had long served in the Legislature of South Carolina, and +was about to be elected United States Senator on the Jeffersonian +side. As late as May 1800, when he was past eighteen, preference and +necessity appeared to fix him In the vocation of farmer. The family +had never been rich. Indeed, the great Nullifier himself was a +comparatively poor man all his life, the number of his slaves never +much exceeding thirty; which is equivalent to a working force of +fifteen hands or less. + +In May, 1800, Calhoun's elder brother came home from Charleston to +spend the summer, bringing with him his city notions. He awoke the +dormant ambition of the youth, urged him to go to school and become a +professional man. But how could he leave his mother alone on the farm? +and how could the money be raised to pay for a seven years' education? +His mother and his brother conferred upon these points, and satisfied +him upon both; and in June, 1800, he made his way to the academy of +his brother-in-law, Waddell, which was then in Columbia County, +Georgia, fifty miles from the home of the Calhouns. In two years and a +quarter from the day he first opened a Latin grammar, he entered the +Junior Class of Yale College. This was quick work. Teachers, however, +are aware that late beginners, who have spent their boyhood in +_growing_, often stride past students who have passed theirs in +stunting the growth of mind and body at school. Calhoun, late in life, +often spoke of the immense advantage which Southern boys had over +Northern in not going so early to school, and being so much on +horseback and out of doors. He said one day, about the year 1845: + + "At the North you overvalue intellect; at the South we rely + upon character; and if ever there should be a collision that + shall test the strength of the two sections, you will find + that character is stronger than intellect, and will carry + the day." + +The prophecy has been fulfilled. + +Timothy Dwight, Calvinist and Federalist, was President of Yale +College during Calhoun's residence there, and Thomas Jefferson, +Democrat and freethinker, was President of the United States. Yale was +a stronghold of Federalism. A brother of the President of the College, +in his Fourth-of-July oration delivered at New Haven four months after +the inauguration of Jefferson and Burr, announced to the students and +citizens, that "the great object" of those gentlemen and their +adherents was "to destroy every trace of civilization in the world, +and to force mankind back into a savage state." He also used the +following language: + + "We have now reached the consummation of democratic + blessedness. We have a country governed by blockheads and + knaves; the ties of marriage, with all its felicities, are + severed and destroyed; our wives and daughters are thrown + into the stews; our children are cast into the world from + the breast forgotten; filial piety is extinguished; and our + surnames, the only mark of distinction among families, are + abolished. Can the imagination paint anything more dreadful + this side hell?" + +These remarkable statements, so far from surprising the virtuous +people of New Haven, were accepted by them, it appears, as facts, and +published with general approval. From what we know of President +Dwight, we may conclude that he would regard his brother's oration as +a pardonable flight of hyperbole, based on truth. He was a Federalist +of the deepest dye. + +Transferred to a scene where such opinions prevailed, it cost the +young republican no great exertion either of his intellect or his +firmness or his family pride to hold his ground. Of all known men, he +had the most complete confidence in the infallibility of his own mind. +He used to relate, that in the Senior year, when he was one of very +few in a class of seventy who maintained republican opinions, +President Dwight asked him, "What is the legitimate source of power?" +"The people," answered the student. Dr. Dwight combated this opinion; +Calhoun replied; and the whole hour of recitation was consumed in the +debate. Dr. Dwight was so much struck with the ability displayed by +the student, that he remarked to a friend that Calhoun had talent +enough to be President of the United States, and that we should see +him President in due time. In those innocent days, an observation of +that nature was made of every young fellow who showed a little spirit +and a turn for debate. Fathers did not _then_ say to their promising +offspring, Beware, my son, of self-seeking and shallow speaking, lest +you should be consigned to the White House, and be devoured by +office-seekers. People then regarded the Presidency as a kind of +reward of merit, the first step toward which was to get "up head" in +the spelling-class. There is reason to believe that young Calhoun took +the prediction of the Doctor very seriously. He took everything +seriously. He never made a joke in his life, and was totally destitute +of the sense of humor. It is doubtful if he was ever capable of +unbending so far as to play a game of football. + +The ardent political discussions then in vogue had one effect which +the late Mr. Buckle would have pronounced most salutary; they +prevented Dr. Dwight's severe theology from taking hold of the minds +of many students. Calhoun wholly escaped it. In his speeches we find, +of course, the stock allusions of a religious nature with which all +politicians essay to flatter their constituents; but he was never +interested in matters theological. A century earlier, he might have +been the Jonathan Edwards of the South, if there had been a South +then. His was just the mind to have revelled in theological +subtilties, and to have calmly, closely, unrelentingly argued nearly +the whole human race into endless and hopeless perdition. His was just +the nature to have contemplated his argument with complacency, and its +consequences without emotion. + +Graduating with credit in 1804, he repaired to the famous Law School +at Litchfield in Connecticut, where he remained a year and a half, and +won general esteem. Tradition reports him a diligent student and an +admirable debater there. As to his moral conduct, that was always +irreproachable. That is to say, he was at every period of his life +continent, temperate, orderly, and out of debt. In 1806, being then +twenty-four years of age, he returned to South Carolina, and, after +studying a short time in a law office at Charleston, he went at last +to his native Abbeville to complete his preparation for the bar. He +was still a law student at that place when the event occurred which +called him into public life. + +June 22d, 1807, at noon, the United States frigate Chesapeake, +thirty-eight guns, left her anchorage at Hampton Roads, and put to +sea, bound for the Mediterranean. The United States being at peace +with all the world, the Chesapeake was very far from being in proper +man-of-war trim. Her decks were littered with furniture, baggage, +stores, cables, and animals. The guns were loaded, but rammers, +matches, wadding, cannon-balls, were all out of place, and not +immediately accessible. The crew were merchant sailors and landsmen, +all undrilled in the duties peculiar to an armed ship. There had been +lying for some time at the same anchorage the British frigate Leopard, +fifty guns; and this ship also put to sea at noon of the same day. The +Leopard being in perfect order, and manned by a veteran crew, took the +lead of the Chesapeake, and kept it until three in the afternoon, when +she was a mile in advance. Then she wore round, came within speaking +distance, lowered a boat, and sent a lieutenant on board the American +ship. This officer bore a despatch from the admiral of the station, +ordering any captain who should fall in with the Chesapeake to search +her for deserters. The American commander replied that he knew of no +deserters on board his ship, and could not permit a search to be made, +his orders not authorizing the same. The lieutenant returned. As soon +as he had got on board, and his boat was stowed away, the Leopard +fired a full broadside into the American frigate. The American +commodore, being totally unprepared for such an event, could not +return the fire; and therefore, when his ship had received twenty-one +shot in her hull, when her rigging was much cut up, when three of her +crew were killed and eighteen wounded, the commodore himself among the +latter, he had no choice but to lower his flag. Then the search was +made, and four men, claimed as deserters, were taken; after which the +Leopard continued her course, and the crippled Chesapeake returned to +Hampton Roads. The American commander was sentenced by a court-martial +to five years' suspension for going to sea in such a condition. The +English government recalled the admiral who ordered, and deprived of +his ship the captain who committed, this unparalleled outrage, but +made no other reparation. + +No words of ours could convey any adequate idea of the rage which this +event excited in the people of the United States. For a time, the +Federalists themselves were ready for war. There were meetings +everywhere to denounce it, and especially in the Southern States, +always more disposed than the Northern to begin the shedding of blood, +and already the main reliance of the Republican party. Remote and +rustic Abbeville, a very Republican district, was not silent on this +occasion; and who so proper to draw and support the denunciatory +resolutions as young Calhoun, the son of valiant Patrick, fresh from +college, though now in his twenty-sixth year? The student performed +this duty, as requested, and spoke so well that his neighbors at once +concluded that he was the very man, lawyer as he was, to represent +them in the Legislature, where for nearly thirty years his father had +served them. At the next election, in a district noted for its +aversion to lawyers, wherein no lawyer had ever been chosen to the +Legislature, though many had been candidates, he was elected at the +head of his ticket. His triumph was doubtless owing in a great degree +to the paramount influence of his family. Still, even we, who knew him +only in his gaunt and sad decline, can easily imagine that at +twenty-six he must have been an engaging, attractive man. Like most of +his race, he was rather slender, but very erect, with a good deal of +dignity and some grace in his carriage and demeanor. His eyes were +always remarkably fine and brilliant. He had a well-developed and +strongly set nose, cheek-bones high, and cheeks rather sunken. His +mouth was large, and could never have been a comely feature. His early +portraits show his hair erect on his forehead, as we all remember it, +unlike Jackson, whose hair at forty still fell low over his forehead. +His voice could never have been melodious, but it was always powerful. +At every period of his life, his manners, when in company with his +inferiors in age or standing, were extremely agreeable, even +fascinating. We have heard a well-known editor, who began life as a +"page" in the Senate-chamber, say that there was no Senator whom the +pages took such delight in serving as Mr. Calhoun. "Why?"--"Because he +was so democratic."--"How democratic?"--"He was as polite to a page as +to the President of the Senate, and as considerate of his feelings." +We have heard another member of the press, whose first employment was +to report the speeches of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, bear similar +testimony to the frank, engaging courtesy of his intercourse with the +corps of reporters. It is fair, therefore, to conclude that his early +popularity at home was due as much to his character and manners as to +his father's name and the influence of his relatives. + +He served two years in the Legislature, and in the intervals between +the sessions practised law at Abbeville. At once he took a leading +position in the Legislature. He had been in his seat but a few days +when the Republican members, as the custom then was, met in caucus to +nominate a President and Vice-President of the United States. For Mr. +Madison the caucus was unanimous, but there was a difference with +regard to the Vice-Presidency, then filled by the aged George Clinton +of New York, who represented the anti-Virginian wing of the party in +power. Mr. Calhoun, in a set speech, opposed the renomination of +Governor Clinton, on the ground that in the imminency of a war with +England the Republican party ought to present an unbroken front. He +suggested the nomination of John Langdon of New Hampshire for the +second office. At this late day we cannot determine whether this +suggestion was original with Mr. Calhoun. We only know that the caucus +affirmed it, and that the nomination was afterwards tendered to Mr. +Langdon by the Republican party, and declined by him. Mr. Calhoun's +speech on this occasion was the expression of Southern opinions as to +the foreign policy of the country. The South was then nearly ready for +war with England, while Northern Republicans still favored Mr. +Jefferson's non-intercourse policy. In this instance, as in so many +others, we find the Slave States, which used to plume themselves upon +being the conservative element in an else unrestrainable democracy, +ready for war first, though far from being the worst sufferers from +England's piracy's. We should have had _no_ war from 1782 to 1865, but +for them. We also find Mr. Calhoun, in this his first utterance as a +public man, the mouthpiece of his "section." He has been styled the +most inconsistent of our statesmen; but beneath the palpable +contradictions of his speeches, there is to be noticed a deeper +consistency. Whatever opinion, whatever policy, he may have advocated, +he always spoke the sense of what Mr. Sumner used to call the Southern +oligarchy. If _it_ changed, _he_ changed. If he appeared sometimes to +lead it, it was by leading it in the direction in which it wanted to +go. He was doubtless as sincere in this as any great special pleader +is in a cause in which all his powers are enlisted. Calhoun's mind was +narrow and provincial. He could not have been the citizen of a large +place. As a statesman he was naturally the advocate of something +special and sectional, something not the whole. + +Distinguished in the Legislature, he was elected, late in 1810, by a +very great majority, to represent his district in Congress. In May, +1811, he was married to a second-cousin, Floride Calhoun, who brought +a considerable accession to his slender estate. November 4, 1811, he +took his seat in the House of Representatives. Thus, at the early age +of twenty-nine, he was fairly launched into public life, with the +advantage, usually enjoyed then by Southern members, of being +independent in his circumstances. Though unknown to the country, his +fame had preceded him to Washington; and the Speaker, Mr. Clay, gave +him a place on the Committee on Foreign Relations. This Committee, +considering that Congress had been summoned a month earlier than usual +for the express purpose of dealing with foreign relations, was at once +the most important and the most conspicuous committee of the House. + +Mr. Calhoun's first session gave him national reputation, and made him +a leader of the war party in Congress. We could perhaps say _the_ +leader, since Mr. Clay was not upon the floor. After surveying the +novel scene around him for six weeks, he delivered his maiden +speech,--a plain, forcible, not extraordinary argument in favor of +preparing for war. It was prodigiously successful, so far as the +reputation of the speaker was concerned. Members gathered round to +congratulate the young orator; and Father Ritchie (if he was a father +then) "hailed this young Carolinian as one of the master spirits who +stamp their names upon the age in which they live." This speech +contains one passage which savors of the "chivalric" taint, and +indicates the provincial mind. In replying to the objection founded on +the expenses of a war, he said: + + "I enter my solemn protest against this low and 'calculating + avarice' entering this hall of legislation. It is _only fit + for shops and counting-houses_, and ought not to disgrace + the seat of power by its squalid aspect. Whenever it touches + sovereign power, the nation is ruined. It is too + short-sighted to defend itself. It is a compromising spirit, + always ready to yield a part to save the residue. It is too + timid to have in itself the laws of self-preservation. + Sovereign power is never safe but under the shield of + honor." + +This was thought very fine talk in those simple days among the simple +Southern country members. + +As the session progressed, Mr. Calhoun spoke frequently, and with +greater effect. Wisely he never spoke. In his best efforts we see that +something which we know not what to name, unless we call it +_Southernism_. If it were allowable to use a slang expression, we +should style the passages to which we refer effective bosh. The most +telling passage in the most telling speech which he delivered at this +session may serve to illustrate our meaning. Imagine these short, +vigorous sentences uttered with great rapidity, in a loud, harsh +voice, and with energy the most intense:-- + + "Tie down a hero, and he feels the puncture of a pin; throw + him into battle, and he is almost insensible to vital + gashes. So in war. Impelled alternately by hope and fear, + stimulated by revenge, depressed by shame, or elevated by + victory, the people become invincible. No privation can + shake their fortitude; no calamity break their spirit. Even + when equally successful, the contrast between the two + systems is striking. War and restriction may leave the + country equally exhausted; but the latter not only leaves + you poor, but, even when successful, dispirited, divided, + discontented, with diminished patriotism, and the morals of + a considerable portion of your people corrupted. Not so in + war. In that state, the common danger unites all, + strengthens the bonds of society, and feeds the flame of + patriotism. The national character mounts to energy. In + exchange for the expenses and privations of war, you obtain + military and naval skill, and a more perfect organization of + such parts of your administration as are connected with the + science of national defence. Sir, are these advantages to be + counted as trifles in the present state of the world? Can + they be measured by moneyed valuation? I would prefer a + single victory over the enemy, by sea or land, to all the + good we shall ever derive from the continuation of the + Non-importation act. I know not that a victory would produce + an equal pressure on the enemy; but I am certain of what is + of greater consequence, it would be accompanied by more + salutary effects to ourselves. The memory of Saratoga, + Princeton, and Eutaw is immortal. It is there you will find + the country's boast and pride,--the inexhaustible source of + great and heroic sentiments. But what will history say of + restriction? What examples worthy of imitation will it + furnish to posterity? What pride, what pleasure will our + children find in the events of such times? Let me not be + considered romantic. This nation ought to be taught to rely + on its courage, its fortitude, its skill and virtue, for + protection. These are the only safeguards in the hour of + danger. Man was endued with these great qualities for his + defence. There is nothing about him that indicates that he + is to conquer by endurance. He is not incrusted in a shell; + he is not taught to rely upon his insensibility, his passive + suffering, for defence. No, sir; it is on the invincible + mind, on a magnanimous nature, he ought to rely. Here is the + superiority of our kind; it is these that render man the + lord of the world. Nations rise above nations, as they are + endued in a greater degree with these brilliant qualities." + +This passage is perfectly characteristic of Calhoun, whose speeches +present hundreds of such inextricable blendings of truth and +falsehood. + +We have the written testimony of an honorable man, still living, +Commodore Charles Stewart, U. S. N., that John C. Calhoun was a +conscious traitor to the Union as early as 1812. In December of that +year, Captain Stewart's ship, the Constitution, was refitting at the +Washington Navy Yard, and the Captain was boarding at Mrs. Bushby's, +with Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and many other Republican members. +Conversing one evening with the new member from South Carolina, he +told him that he was "puzzled" to account for the close alliance which +existed between the Southern planters and the Northern Democracy. + +"You," said Captain Stewart, + + "in the South and Southwest, are decidedly the aristocratic + portion of this Union; you are so in holding persons in + perpetuity in slavery; you are so in every domestic quality, + so in every habit in your lives, living, and actions, so in + habits, customs, intercourse, and manners; you neither work + with your hands, heads, nor any machinery, but live and have + your living, not in accordance with the will of your + Creator, but by the sweat of slavery, and yet you assume all + the attributes, professions, and advantages of democracy." + +Mr. Calhoun, aged thirty, replied thus to Captain Stewart, aged +thirty-four:-- + + "I see you speak through the head of a young statesman, and + from the heart of a patriot, but you lose sight of the + politician and the sectional policy of the people. I admit + your conclusions in respect to us Southrons. That we are + essentially aristocratic, I cannot deny; but we can and do + yield much to democracy. This is our sectional policy; we + are from necessity thrown upon and solemnly wedded to that + party, however it may occasionally clash with our feelings, + for the conservation of our interests. It is through our + affiliation with that party in the Middle and Western States + that we hold power; but when we cease thus to control this + nation through a disjointed democracy, or any material + obstacle in that party which shall tend to throw us out of + that rule and control, we shall then resort to the + dissolution of the Union. The compromises in the + Constitution, under the circumstances, were sufficient for + our fathers, but, under the altered condition of our country + from that period, leave to the South no resource but + dissolution; for no amendments to the Constitution could be + reached through a convention of the people under their + three-fourths rule." + +Probably all of our readers have seen this conversation in print +before. But it is well for us to consider it again and again. It is +the key to all the seeming inconsistencies of Mr. Calhoun's career. He +came up to Congress, and took the oath to support the Constitution, +secretly resolved to break up the country just as soon as the Southern +planters ceased to control it for the maintenance of their peculiar +interest. The reader will note, too, the distinction made by this +young man, who was never youthful, between the "statesman" and the +"politician," and between the "heart of a patriot" and "the sectional +policy of the people." + +Turning from his loathsome and despicable exposition to the +Congressional career of Mr. Calhoun, we find no indication there of +the latent traitor. He was merely a very active, energetic member of +the Republican party; supporting the war by assiduous labors in +committee, and by intense declamation of the kind of which we have +given a specimen. In all his speeches there is not a touch of +greatness. He declared that Demosthenes was his model,--an orator who +was a master of all the arts? all the artifices, and all the tricks by +which a mass of ignorant and turbulent hearers can be kept attentive, +but who has nothing to impart to a member of Congress who honestly +desires to convince his equals. Mr. Calhoun's harangues in the +supposed Demosthenean style gave him, however, great reputation out of +doors, while his diligence, his dignified and courteous manners, +gained him warm admirers on the floor. He was a messmate of Mr. Clay +at this time. Besides agreeing in politics, they were on terms of +cordial personal intimacy. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, was but +five years older than Calhoun, and in everything but years much +younger. Honest patriots pointed to these young men with pride and +hope, congratulating each other that, though the Revolutionary +statesmen were growing old and passing away, the high places of the +Republic would be filled, in due time, by men worthy to succeed them. + +When the war was over, a strange thing was to be noted in the politics +of the United States: the Federal party was dead, but the Republican +party had adopted its opinions. The disasters of the war had convinced +almost every man of the necessity of investing the government with the +power to wield the resources of the country more readily; and, +accordingly, we find leading Republicans, like Judge Story, John +Quincy Adams, and Mr. Clay, favoring the measures which had formerly +been the special rallying-cries of the Federalists. Judge Story spoke +the feeling of his party when he wrote, in 1815: + + "Let us extend the national authority over the whole extent + of power given by the Constitution. Let us have great + military and naval schools, an adequate regular army, the + broad foundations laid of a permanent navy, a national bank, + a national bankrupt act," + +etc., etc. The strict-constructionists were almost silenced in the +general cry, "Let us be a Nation." In the support of _all_ the +measures to which this feeling gave rise, especially the national +bank, internal improvements, and a protective tariff, Mr. Calhoun went +as far as any man, and farther than most; for such at that time was +the humor of the planters. + +To the principle of a protective tariff he was peculiarly committed. +It had not been his intention to take part in the debates on the +Tariff Bill of 1816. On the 6th of April, while he was busy writing in +a committee-room, Mr. Samuel D. Ingham of Pennsylvania, his particular +friend and political ally, came to him and said that the House had +fallen into some confusion while discussing the tariff bill, and +added, that, as it was "difficult to rally so large a body when once +broken on a tax bill," he wished Mr. Calhoun would speak on the +question in order to keep the House together. "What can I say?" +replied the member from South Carolina. Mr. Ingham, however, +persisted, and Mr. Calhoun addressed the House. An amendment had just +been introduced to leave cotton goods unprotected, a proposition which +had been urged on the ground that Congress had no authority to impose +any duty except for revenue. On rising to speak, Mr. Calhoun at once, +and most unequivocally, committed himself to the protective principle. +He began by saying, that, _if the right to protect had not been called +in question, he would not have spoken at all_. It was solely to assist +in establishing _that_ right that he had been induced, without +previous preparation, to take part in the debate. He then proceeded to +deliver an ordinary protectionist speech; without, however, entering +upon the questioner constitutional right. He merely dwelt upon the +great benefits to be derived from affording to our infant manufactures +"immediate and ample protection." That the Constitution interposed no +obstacle, was assumed by him throughout. He concluded by observing, +that a flourishing manufacturing interest would "bind together more +closely our widely-spread republic," since + + "it will greatly increase our mutual dependence and + intercourse, and excite an increased attention to internal + improvements,--a subject every way so intimately connected + with the ultimate attainment of national strength and the + perfection of our political institutions." + +He further observed, that "the liberty and union of this country are +inseparable," and that the destruction of either would involve the +destruction of the other. He concluded his speech with these words: +"Disunion,--this single word comprehends almost the sum of our +political dangers, and against it we ought to be perpetually guarded." + +The time has passed for any public man to claim credit for +"consistency." A person who, after forty years of public life, can +truly say that he has never changed an opinion, must be either a +demigod or a fool. We do not blame Mr. Calhoun for ceasing to be a +protectionist and becoming a free-trader; for half the thinking world +has changed sides on that question during the last thirty years. A +growing mind must necessarily change its opinions. But there _is_ a +consistency from which no man, public or private, can ever be +absolved,--the consistency of his statements with fact. In the year +1833, in his speech on the Force Bill, Mr. Calhoun referred to his +tariff speech of 1816 in a manner which excludes him from the ranks of +men of honor. He had the astonishing audacity to say: + + "I am constrained in candor to acknowledge, for I wish to + disguise nothing, that the protective principle was + recognized by the Act of 1816. How this was overlooked at + the time, it is not in my power to say. _It escaped my + observation_, which I can account for only on the ground + that the principle was new, and that my attention was + engaged by another important subject." + +The charitable reader may interpose here, and say that Mr. Calhoun may +have forgotten his speech of 1816. Alas! no. He had that speech before +him at the time. Vigilant opponents had unearthed it, and kindly +presented a copy to the author. We do not believe that, in all the +debates of the American Congress, there is another instance of flat +falsehood as bad as this. It happens that the speech of 1816 and that +of 1833 are both published in the same volume of the Works of Mr. +Calhoun (Vol. II. pp. 163 and 197). We advise our readers who have the +time and opportunity to read both, if they wish to see how a false +position necessitates a false tongue. Those who take our advice will +also discover why it was that Mr. Calhoun dared to utter such an +impudent falsehood: his speeches are such appallingly dull reading, +that there was very little risk of a busy people's comparing the +interpretation with the text. + +It was John C. Calhoun who, later in the same session, introduced the +bill for setting apart the dividends and bonus of the United States +Bank as a permanent fund for internal improvements. His speech on this +bill, besides going all lengths in favor of the internal improvement +system, presents some amusing contrasts with his later speeches on the +same subject. His hearers of 1835 to 1850 must have smiled on reading +in the speech of 1817 such sentences as these:-- + + "I am no advocate for _refined arguments_ on the + Constitution. The instrument was not intended as a thesis + for the logician to exercise his ingenuity on. It ought to + be construed with plain good-sense." "If we are restricted + in the use of our money to the enumerated powers, on what + principle can the purchase of Louisiana be justified?" "The + uniform sense of Congress and the country furnishes better + evidence of the true interpretation of the Constitution than + the most refined and subtle arguments." + +Mark this, too:-- + + "In a country so extensive and so various in its interests, + what is necessary for the common interest may apparently be + opposed to the interest of particular sections. _It must be + submitted to as the condition of our greatness_." + +Well might he say, in the same speech:-- + + "We may reasonably raise our eyes to a most splendid future, + if we only act in a manner worthy of our advantages. If, + however, neglecting them, we permit a low, sordid, selfish, + _sectional_ spirit to take possession of this House, this + happy scene will vanish. We will divide; and, in its + consequences, will follow misery and despotism." + +With this speech before him and before the country, Mr. Calhoun had +not the candor to avow, in later years, a complete change of opinion. +He could only go so far as to say, when opposing the purchase of the +Madison Papers in 1837, that, "at his entrance upon public life, he +had _inclined_ to that interpretation of the Constitution which +favored a latitude of powers." Inclined! He was a most enthusiastic +and thorough-going champion of that interpretation. His scheme of +internal improvements embraced a network of post-roads and canals from +"Maine to Louisiana," and a system of harbors for lake and ocean. He +kindled, he glowed, at the spectacle which his imagination conjured +up, of the whole country rendered accessible, and of the distant +farmer selling his produce at a price not seriously less than that +which it brought on the coast. On this subject he became animated, +interesting, almost eloquent. And, so far from this advocacy being +confined to the period of his "entrance upon political life," he +continued to be its very warmest exponent as late as 1819, when he had +been ten years in public life. In that year, having to report upon the +condition of military roads and fortifications, his flaming zeal for a +grand and general system of roads and canals frequently bursts the +bounds of the subject he had to treat. He tells Congress that the +internal improvements which are best for peace are best for war also; +and expatiates again upon his dazzling dream of "connecting Louisiana +by a durable and well-finished road with Maine, and Boston with +Savannah by a well-established line of internal navigation." The +United States, he said, with its vast systems of lakes, rivers, and +mountains, its treble line of sea-coast, its valleys large enough for +empires, was "a world of itself," and needed nothing but to be +rendered accessible. From what we know of the way things are managed +in Congress, we should guess that he was invited to make this report +for the very purpose of affording to the foremost champion of internal +improvements an opportunity of lending a helping hand to pending +bills. + +Mr. Calhoun served six years in the House of Representatives, and grew +in the esteem of Congress and the country at every session. As it is +pleasing to see an old man at the theatre entering into the merriment +of the play, since it shows that his heart has triumphed over the +cares of life, and he has preserved a little of his youth, so is it +eminently graceful in a young man to have something of the seriousness +of age, especially when his conduct is even more austere than his +demeanor. Mr. Clay at this time was addicted to gaming, like most of +the Western and Southern members, and he was not averse to the bottle. +Mr. Webster was reckless in expenditure, fond of his ease, and loved a +joke better than an argument. In the seclusion of Washington, many +members lived a very gay, rollicking life. Mr. Calhoun never gambled, +never drank to excess, never jested, never quarrelled, cared nothing +for his ease, and tempered the gravity of his demeanor by an admirable +and winning courtesy. A deep and serious ambition impelled and +restrained him. Like boys at school, Clay and Webster were eager +enough to get to the head of the class, but they did not brood over it +all the time, and never feel comfortable unless they were conning +their spelling-book; while little Calhoun expended all his soul in the +business, and had no time or heart left for play. Consequently he +advanced rapidly for one of his size, and was universally pointed at +as the model scholar. Accidents, too, generally favor a rising man. +Mr. Calhoun made an extremely lucky hit in 1815, which gave members +the highest opinion of his sagacity. In opposing an ill-digested +scheme for a national bank, he told the House that the bill was so +obviously defective and unwise, that, if news of peace should arrive +that day, it would not receive fifteen votes. News of peace, which was +totally unexpected, did arrive that very hour, and the bill was +rejected the next day by about the majority which he had predicted. At +the next session, he won an immense reputation for firmness. An act +was passed changing the mode of compensating members of Congress from +six dollars a day to fifteen hundred dollars a year. We were a nation +of rustics then; and this harmless measure excited a disgust in the +popular mind so intense and general, that most of the members who had +voted for it declined to present themselves for re-election. Calhoun +was one of the guilty ones. Popular as he was in his district, +supported by two powerful family connections,--his own and his +wife's,--admired throughout the State as one who had done honor to it +upon the conspicuous scene of Congressional debate,--even he was +threatened with defeat. Formidable candidates presented themselves. In +these circumstances he mounted the stump, boldly justified his vote, +and defended the odious bill. He was handsomely re-elected, and when +the bill was up for repeal in the House he again supported it with all +his former energy. At the conclusion of his speech, a member from New +York, Mr. Grosvenor, a political opponent, with whom Calhoun had not +been on speaking terms for two years, sprang to his feet, enraptured, +and began to express his approval of the speech in ordinary +parliamentary language. But his feelings could not be relieved in that +manner. He paused a moment, and then said:-- + + "Mr. Speaker, I will not be restrained. No barrier shall + exist which I will not leap over for the purpose of offering + to that gentleman my thanks for the judicious, independent, + and national course which he has pursued in this House for + the last two years, and particularly upon the subject now + before us. Let the honorable gentleman continue with the + same manly independence, aloof from party views and local + prejudices, to pursue the great interests of his country, + and fulfil the high destiny for which it is manifest he was + born. The buzz of popular applause may not cheer him on his + way, but he will inevitably arrive at a high and happy + elevation in the view of his country and the world." + +Such scenes as this enhance the prestige of a rising man. Members weak +at home envied at once and admired a man who was strong enough to +bring over his constituents to his opinion. He was fortunate, too, in +this, that a triumph so striking occurred just before he left the +House for another sphere of public life. He had what the actors call a +splendid exit. + +The inauguration of Mr. Monroe on the 4th of March, 1817, ushered in +the era of good feeling, and gave to Henry Clay the first of his long +series of disappointments. As Secretaries of State had usually +succeeded their chiefs in the Presidency, the appointment of Mr. Adams +to that office by Mr. Monroe was regarded almost in the light of a +nomination to the succession. To add to Mr. Clay's mortification, be +was tendered the post of Secretary of War, which he had declined a +year before, and now again declined. The President next selected +General Jackson, then in the undimmed lustre of his military renown, +and still holding his Major-General's commission. He received, +however, a private notification that General Jackson would not accept +a place in the Cabinet. The President then offered the post to the +aged Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky, who had the good sense to +decline it. There appear to have been negotiations with other +individuals, but at length, in October, 1817, the place was offered to +Mr. Calhoun, who, after much hesitation, accepted it, and entered upon +the discharge of its duties in December. His friends, we are told, +unanimously disapproved his going into office, as they believed him +formed to shine in debate rather than in the transaction of business. + +Fortune favored him again. Entering the office after a long vacancy, +and when it was filled with the unfinished business of the war,--fifty +million dollars of deferred claims, for one item,--he had the same +easy opportunity for distinction which a steward has who takes charge +of an estate just out of chancery, and under a new proprietor who has +plenty of money. The sweeping up of the dead leaves, the gathering of +the fallen branches, and the weeding out of the paths, changes the +aspect of the place, and gives the passer-by a prodigious idea of the +efficiency of the new broom. The country was alive, too, to the +necessity of coast and frontier defences, and there was much building +of forts during the seven years of Mr. Calhoun's tenure of place. +Respecting the manner in which he discharged the multifarious and +unusual duties of his office, we have never heard anything but +commendation. He was prompt, punctual, diligent, courteous, and firm. +The rules which he drew up for the regulation of the War Department +remained in force, little changed, until the magnitude of the late +contest abolished or suspended all ancient methods. The claims of the +soldiers were rapidly examined and passed upon. It was Mr. Calhoun who +first endeavored to collect considerable bodies of troops for +instruction at one post. He had but six thousand men in all, but he +contrived to get together several companies of artillery at Fortress +Monroe for drill. He appeared to take much interest in the expenditure +of the ten thousand dollars a year which Congress voted for the +education of the Indians. He reduced the expenses of his office, which +was a very popular thing at that day. He never appointed nor removed a +clerk for opinion's sake. In seven years he only removed two clerks, +both for cause, and to both were given in writing the reasons of their +removal. There was no special merit in this, for at that day to do +otherwise would have been deemed infamous. + +Mr. Calhoun, as a member of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, still played the +part of a national man, and supported the measures of his party +without exception. Scarcely a trace of the sectional champion yet +appears. In 1819, he gave a written opinion favoring the cession of +Texas in exchange for Florida; the motive of which was to avoid +alarming the North by the prospective increase of Slave States. In +later years, Mr. Calhoun, of course, wished to deny this; and the +written opinions of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet on that question mysteriously +disappeared from the archives of the State Department. We have the +positive testimony of Mr. John Quincy Adams, that Calhoun, in common +with most Southern men of that day, approved the Missouri Compromise +of 1820, and gave a written opinion that it was a constitutional +measure. That he was still an enthusiast for internal improvements, we +have already mentioned. + +The real difficulty of the War Department, however, as of the State +Department, during the Monroe administration, was a certain +Major-General Andrew Jackson, commanding the Military Department of +the South. The popularity of the man who had restored the nation's +self-love by ending a disastrous war with a dazzling and most +unexpected victory, was something different from the respect which we +all now feel for the generals distinguished in the late war. The first +honors of the late war are divided among four chieftains, each of whom +contributed to the final success at least one victory that was +essential to it. But in 1815, among the military heroes of the war +that had just closed General Jackson stood peerless and alone. His +success in defending the Southwest, ending in a blaze of glory below +New Orleans, utterly eclipsed all the other achievements of the war, +excepting alone the darling triumphs on the ocean and the lakes. The +deferential spirit of Mr. Monroe's letters to the General, and the +readiness of every one everywhere to comply with his wishes, show that +his popularity, even then, constituted him a power in the Republic. It +was said in later times, that "General Jackson's popularity could +stand anything," and in one sense this was true: it could stand +anything that General Jackson was likely to do. Andrew Jackson could +never have done a cowardly act, or betrayed a friend, or knowingly +violated a trust, or broken his word, or forgotten a debt. He was +always so entirely certain that he, Andrew Jackson, was in the right, +his conviction on this point was so free from the least quaver of +doubt, that he could always convince other men that he was right, and +carry the multitude with him. His honesty, courage, and inflexible +resolution, joined to his ignorance, narrowness, intensity, and +liability to prejudice, rendered him at once the idol of his +countrymen and the plague of all men with whom he had official +connection. Drop an Andrew Jackson from the clouds upon any spot of +earth inhabited by men, and he will have half a dozen deadly feuds +upon his hands in thirty days. + +Mr. Calhoun inherited a quarrel with Jackson from George Graham, his +_pro tempore_ predecessor in the War Department, This Mr. Graham was +the gentleman ("spy," Jackson termed him) despatched by President +Jefferson in 1806 to the Western country to look into the mysterious +proceedings of Aaron Burr, which led to the explosion of Burr's +scheme. This was enough to secure the bitterest enmity of Jackson, who +wholly and always favored Burr's design of annihilating the Spanish +power in North America, and who, as President of the United States, +rewarded Burr's followers, and covertly assisted Houston to carry out +part of Burr's project. Graham had sent orders to Jackson's +subordinates directly, instead of sending them through the chief of +the Department. Jackson, after due remonstrance, ordered his officers +not to obey any orders but such as were communicated by or through +himself. This was a high-handed measure; but Mr. Calhoun, on coming +into power, passed it by without notice, and conceded the substance of +Jackson's demand,--as he ought. This was so exquisitely pleasing to +General Jackson, that he was well affected by it for many years +towards Mr. Calhoun. Among the younger public men of that day, there +was no one who stood so high in Jackson's regard as the Secretary of +War. + +The Florida war followed in 1818. When the report of General Jackson's +invasion of Florida, and of the execution of Arbuthnot and Armbrister +reached Washington, Mr. Calhoun was the only man in the Cabinet who +expressed the opinion that General Jackson had transcended his powers, +and ought to be brought before a court of inquiry. This opinion he +supported with ardor, until it was overruled by the President, who was +chiefly influenced by Mr. Adams, the Secretary of State. How keenly +General Jackson resented the course of Mr. Calhoun on this occasion, +when, eleven years afterwards, he discovered it, is sufficiently well +known. We believe, however, that the facts justify Calhoun and condemn +Jackson. Just before going to the seat of war, the General wrote +privately to the President, strongly recommending the seizure of +Florida, and added these words: + + "This can be done without implicating the government. Let it + be signified to me through any channel (say, Mr. J. Rhea) + that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to + the United States, and in sixty days it will be + accomplished." + +General Jackson dwells, in his "Exposition" of this matter, upon the +fact that Mr. Calhoun was the first man in Washington who read this +letter. But he does not say that Mr. Calhoun was aware that Mr. Rhea +had been commissioned to answer the letter, and had answered it in +accordance with General Jackson's wishes. And if the Rhea +correspondence justified the seizure of Florida, it did not justify +the execution of the harmless Scottish trader Arbuthnot, who, so far +from "instigating" the war, had exerted the whole of his influence to +prevent it. It is an honor to Mr. Calhoun to have been the only man in +the Cabinet to call for an inquiry into proceedings which disgraced +the United States and came near involving the country in war. We have +always felt it to be a blot upon the memory of John Quincy Adams, that +he did not join Mr. Calhoun in demanding the trial of General Jackson; +and we have not been able to attribute his conduct to anything but the +supposed necessities of his position as a candidate for the +succession. + +Readers versed in political history need not be reminded that nearly +every individual in the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe had hopes of succeeding +him. Mr. Adams had, of course; for he was the premier. Mr. Crawford, +of course; for it had been "arranged" at the last caucus that he was +to follow Mr. Monroe, to whose claims he had deferred on that express +condition. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, +and De Witt Clinton of New York, had expectations. All these gentlemen +had "claims" which both their party and the public could recognize. +Mr. Calhoun, too, who was forty-two years of age in Mr. Monroe's last +year of service, boldly entered the lists; relying upon the united +support of the South and the support of the manufacturing States of +the North, led by Pennsylvania. That against such competitors he had +any ground at all to hope for success, shows how rapid and how real +had been his progress toward a first-rate national position. If our +readers will turn to the letters of Webster, Story, Wirt, Adams, +Jackson, and others of that circle of distinguished men, they will see +many evidences of the extravagant estimation in which he was held in +1824. They appear to have all seen in him the material for a +President, though not yet quite mature for the position. They all +deemed him a man of unsullied honor, of devoted patriotism, of perfect +sincerity, and of immense ability,--so assiduously had he played the +part of the good boy. + +How the great popularity of General Jackson was adroitly used by two +or three invisible wire-pullers to defeat the aspirations of these too +eager candidates, and how from the general wreck of their hopes Mr. +Calhoun had the dexterity to emerge Vice-President of the United +States, has been related with the amplest detail, and need not be +repeated here. Mr. Calhoun's position seemed then to combine all the +advantages which a politician of forty-three could desire or imagine. +By withdrawing his name from the list of candidates in such a way as +to lead General Jackson to suppose that he had done so in _his_ favor, +he seemed to place the General under obligations to him. By secretly +manifesting a preference for Mr. Adams (which he really felt) when the +election devolved upon the House of Representatives, he had gained +friends among the adherents of the successful candidate. His +withdrawal was accepted by the public as an evidence of modesty +becoming the youngest candidate. Finally he was actually +Vice-President, as John Adams had been, as Jefferson had been, before +their elevation to the highest place. True, Henry Clay, as Secretary +of State, was in the established line of succession; but, as time wore +on, it became very manifest that the re-election of Mr. Adams, upon +which Mr. Clay's hopes depended, was itself exceedingly doubtful; and +we accordingly find Mr. Calhoun numbered in the ranks of the +opposition. Toward the close of Mr. Adams's Presidency, the question +of real interest in the inner circle of politicians was, not who +should succeed John Quincy Adams in 1829, but who should succeed +Andrew Jackson in 1833; and already the choice was narrowing to two +men,--Martin Van Buren and John C. Calhoun. + +During Mr. Calhoun's first term in the Vice-Presidency,--1825 to +1829,--a most important change took place in his political position, +which controlled all his future career. While he was Secretary of +War,--1817 to 1824,--he resided with his family in Washington, and +shared in the nationalizing influences of the place. When he was +elected Vice-President, he removed to a plantation called Fort Hill, +in the western part of South Carolina, where he was once more +subjected to the intense and narrow provincialism of the planting +States. And there was nothing in the character or in the acquirements +of his mind to counteract that influence. Mr. Calhoun was not a +student; he probed nothing to the bottom; his information on all +subjects was small in quantity, and second-hand in quality. Nor was he +a patient thinker. Any stray fact or notion that he met with in his +hasty desultory reading, which chanced to give apparent support to a +favorite theory or paradox of his own, he seized upon eagerly, paraded +it in triumph, but pondered it little; while the weightiest facts +which controverted his opinion he brushed aside without the slightest +consideration. His mind was as arrogant as his manners were courteous. +Every one who ever conversed with him must remember his positive, +peremptory, unanswerable "_Not at all, not at all_" whenever one of +his favorite positions was assailed. He was wholly a special pleader; +he never summed up the testimony. We find in his works no evidence +that he had read the masters in political economy; not even Adam +Smith, whose reputation was at its height during the' first half of +his public life. In history he was the merest smatterer, though it was +his favorite reading, and he was always talking about Sparta, Athens, +and Rome. The slenderness of his far tune prevented his travelling. He +never saw Europe; and if he ever visited the Northern States, after +leaving college, his stay was short. The little that he knew of life +was gathered in three places, all of which were of an exceptional and +artificial character,--the city of Washington, the up-country of South +Carolina, and the luxurious, reactionary city of Charleston. His mind, +naturally narrow and intense, became, by revolving always in this +narrow sphere and breathing a close and tainted atmosphere, more and +more fixed in its narrowness and more intense in its operations. + +This man, moreover, was consumed by a poor ambition: he lusted after +the Presidency. The rapidity of his progress in public life, the high +offices he had held, the extravagant eulogiums he had received from +colleagues and the press, deceived him as to the real nature of his +position before the country, and blinded him to the superior chances +of other men. Five times in his life he made a distinct clutch at the +bawble, but never with such prospect of success that any man could +discern it but himself and those who used his eyes. It is a +satisfaction to know that, of the Presidency seekers,--Clay, Webster, +Calhoun, Douglas, Wise, Breckenridge, Tyler, Fillmore, Clinton, Burr, +Cass, Buchanan, and Van Buren,--only two won the prize, and those two +only by a series of accidents which had little, to do with their own +exertions. We can almost lay it down as a law of this Republic, that +no man who makes the Presidency the principal object of his public +life will ever be President. The Presidency is an accident, and such +it will probably remain. + +Mr. Vice-President Calhoun found his Carolina discontented in 1824, +when he took up his abode at Fort Hill. Since the Revolution, South +Carolina had never been satisfied, and had never had reason to be. The +cotton-gin had appeased her for a while, but had not suspended the +operation of the causes which produced the stagnation of the South. +Profuse expenditure, unskilful agriculture, the costliest system of +labor in the world, and no immigration, still kept _Irelandizing_ the +Southern States; while the North was advancing and improving to such a +degree as to attract emigrants from all lands. The contrast was +painful to Southern men, and to most of them it was mysterious. +Southern politicians came to the conclusion that the cause at once of +Northern prosperity and Southern poverty was the protective tariff and +the appropriations for internal improvements, but chiefly the tariff. +In 1824, when Mr. Calhoun went home, the tariff on some leading +articles had been increased, and the South was in a ferment of +opposition to the protective system. If Mr. Calhoun had been a wise +and honest man, he would have reminded his friends that the decline of +the South had been a subject of remark from the peace of 1783, and +therefore could not have been caused by the tariff of 1816, or 1820, +or 1824. He would have told them that slavery, as known in the +Southern States, demands virgin lands,--must have, every few years, +its cotton-gin, its Louisiana, its Cherokee country, its _something_, +to give new value to its products or new scope for its operations. He +might have added that the tariff of 1824 was a grievance, did tend to +give premature development to a manufacturing system, and was a fair +ground for a national issue between parties. The thing which he did +was this: he adopted the view of the matter which was predominant in +the extreme South, and accepted the leadership of the extreme +Southern, anti-tariff, strict-constructionist wing of the Democratic +party. He echoed the prevailing opinion, that the tariff and the +internal improvement system, to both of which he was fully committed, +were the _sole_ causes of Southern stagnation; since by the one their +money was taken from them, and by the other it was mostly spent where +it did them no good. + +He was, of course, soon involved in a snarl of contradictions, from +which he never could disentangle himself. Let us pass to the year +1828, a most important one in the history of the country and of Mr. +Calhoun; for then occurred the first of the long series of events +which terminated with the surrender of the last Rebel army in 1865. +The first act directly tending to a war between the South and the +United States bears date December 6, 1828; and it was the act of John +C. Calhoun. + +It was the year of that Presidential election which placed Andrew +Jackson in the White House, and re-elected Mr. Calhoun to the +Vice-Presidency. It was the year that terminated the honorable part of +Mr. Calhoun's career and began the dishonorable. His political +position in the canvass was utterly false, as he himself afterwards +confessed. On the one hand, he was supporting for the Presidency a man +committed to the policy of protection; and on the other, he became the +organ and mouthpiece of the Southern party, whose opposition to the +protective principle was tending to the point of armed resistance to +it. The tariff bill of 1828, which they termed the bill of +abominations, had excited the most heated opposition in the cotton +States, and especially in South Carolina. This act was passed in the +spring of the very year in which those States voted for a man who had +publicly endorsed the principle involved in it; and we see Mr. Calhoun +heading the party who were electioneering for Jackson, and the party +who were considering the policy of nullifying the act which he had +approved. His Presidential aspirations bound him to the support of +General Jackson; but the first, the fundamental necessity of his +position was to hold possession of South Carolina. + +The burden of Mr. Calhoun's later speeches was the reconciliation of +the last part of his public life with the first. The task was +difficult, for there is not a leading proposition in his speeches +after 1830 which is not refuted by arguments to be found in his public +utterances before 1828. In his speech on the Force Bill, in 1834, he +volunteered an explanation of the apparent inconsistency between his +support of General Jackson in 1828, and his authorship of the "South +Carolina Exposition" in the same year. Falsehood and truth are +strangely interwoven in almost every sentence of his later writings; +and there is also that vagueness in them which comes of a superfluity +of words. He says, that for the strict-constructionist party to have +presented a candidate openly and fully identified with their opinions +would have been to court defeat; and thus they were obliged either to +abandon the contest, or to select a candidate "whose opinions were +intermediate or doubtful on the subject which divided the two +sections,"--a candidate "who, at best, was but a choice of evils." +Besides, General Jackson was a Southern man, and it was hoped that, +notwithstanding his want of experience, knowledge, and self-control, +the advisers whom he would invite to assist him would compensate for +those defects. Then Mr. Calhoun proceeds to state, that the contest +turned chiefly upon the question of protection or free trade; and the +strife was, which of the two parties should go farthest in the +advocacy of protection. The result was, he says, that the tariff bill +of 1828 was passed,--"that disastrous measure which has brought so +many calamities upon us, and put in peril the liberty and union of the +country," and "poured millions into the treasury beyond the most +extravagant wants of the country." + +The passage of this tariff bill was accomplished by the tact of Martin +Van Buren, aided by Major Eaton, Senator from Tennessee. Mr. Van Buren +was the predestined chief of General Jackson's Cabinet, and Major +Eaton was the confidant, agent, and travelling manager of the +Jacksonian wire-pullers, besides being the General's own intimate +friend. The events of that session notified Mr. Calhoun that, however +manageable General Jackson might be, he was not likely to fall into +the custody of the Vice-President. General Jackson's election being +considered certain, the question was alone interesting, who should +possess him for the purposes of the succession. The prospect, as +surveyed that winter from the Vice-President's chair, was not assuring +to the occupant of that lofty seat. If General Jackson could not be +used as a fulcrum for the further elevation of Mr. Calhoun, would it +not be advisable to begin to cast about for another? + +The tariff bill of 1828 was passed before the Presidential canvass had +set in with its last severity. There was time for Mr. Calhoun to +withdraw from the support of the man whose nearest friends had carried +it through the Senate under his eyes. He did not do so. He went home, +after the adjournment of Congress, to labor with all his might for the +election of a protectionist, and to employ his leisure hours in the +composition of that once famous paper called the "South Carolina +Exposition," in which protection was declared to be an evil so +intolerable as to justify the nullification of an act founded upon it. +This Exposition was the beginning of our woe,--the baleful egg from +which were hatched nullification, treason, civil war, and the +desolation of the Southern States. Here is Mr. Calhoun's own account +of the manner in which what he correctly styles "_the double +operation_" was "pushed on" in the summer of 1828:-- + + "This disastrous event [the passage of the tariff bill of + 1828] opened our eyes (I mean myself and those immediately + connected with me) as to the full extent of the danger and + oppression of the protective system, and the hazard of + failing to effect the reform intended through the election + of General Jackson. With these disclosures, it became + necessary to seek some other ultimate, but more certain + measure of protection. We turned to the Constitution to find + this remedy. We directed a more diligent and careful + scrutiny into its provisions, in order to understand fully + the nature and character of our political system. We found a + certain and effectual remedy in that great fundamental + division of the powers of the system between this government + and its independent co-ordinates, the separate governments + of the States,--to be called into action to arrest the + unconstitutional acts of this government by the + interposition of the States,--the paramount source from + which both governments derive their power. But in relying on + this our ultimate remedy, we did not abate our zeal in the + Presidential canvass; we still hoped that General Jackson, + if elected, would effect the necessary reform, and thereby + supersede the necessity for calling into action the + sovereign authority of the State, which we were anxious to + avoid. With these views the two were pushed with equal zeal + at the same time; which double operation commenced in the + fall of 1828, but a few months after the passage of the + tariff act of that year; and at the meeting of the + Legislature of the State, at the same period, a paper known + as the South Carolina Exposition was reported to that body, + containing a full development, as well on the constitutional + point as on the operation of the protective system, + preparatory to a state of things which might eventually + render the action of the State necessary in order to protect + her rights and interest, and to stay a course of policy + which we believed would, if not arrested, prove destructive + of liberty and the Constitution."--_Works_, II. 396. + +Mr. Calhoun omits, however, to mention that the Exposition was not +presented to the Legislature of South Carolina until after the +Presidential election had been decided. Nor did he inform his hearers +that the author of the paper was Mr. Vice-President Calhoun. Either +there was a great dearth of literary ability in that body, or else Mr. +Calhoun had little confidence in it; for nearly all the ponderous +documents on nullification given to the world in its name were penned +by Mr. Calhoun, and appear in his collected works. If the Legislature +addressed its constituents or the people of the United States on +_this_ subject, it was he who prepared the draft. The South Carolina +Exposition was found among his papers in his own handwriting, and it +was adopted by the Legislature with only a few alterations and +suppressions. There never was a piece of mischief more completely the +work of one man than the nullification troubles of 1833-34. + +The South Carolina Exposition, when Mr. Calhoun had completed it, was +brought before the public by one of the usual methods. The Legislature +of South Carolina passed the following resolutions:-- + + "_Resolved_, That it is expedient to protest against the + unconstitutional and oppressive operation of the system of + protective duties, and to have such protest entered on the + journals of the Senate of the United States. Also, to make a + public exposition of our wrongs, and of the remedies within + our power, to be communicated to our sister States, with a + request that they will co-operate with this State in + procuring a repeal of the tariff for protection, and an + abandonment of the principle; and if the repeal be not + procured, that they will co-operate in such measures as may + be necessary for averting the evil. + + "_Resolved_, That a committee of seven be raised to carry + the foregoing resolution into effect." + +The resolution having been carried, the following gentlemen were +appointed to father Mr. Calhoun's paper: James Gregg, D.L. Wardlaw, +Hugh S. Legare, Arthur P. Hayne, William C. Preston, William Elliott, +and R. Barnwell Smith. The duty of this committee consisted in causing +a copy of Mr. Calhoun's paper to be made and presenting it to the +Legislature. This was promptly done; and the Exposition was adopted by +the Legislature on the 6th of December, 1828. Whether any protest was +forwarded to the Secretary of the United States Senate for insertion +in the journal does not appear. We only know that five thousand copies +of this wearisome and stupid Exposition were ordered to be printed, +and that in the hubbub of the incoming of a new administration it +attracted scarcely any attention beyond the little knot of original +nullifiers. Indeed, Mr. Calhoun's writings on this subject were +"protected" by their own length and dulness. No creature ever read one +of them quite through, except for a special purpose. + +The leading assertions of this Exposition are these:--1. Every duty +imposed for protection is a violation of the Constitution, which +empowers Congress to impose taxes for revenue only. 2. The _whole_ +burden of the protective system is borne by agriculture and commerce. +3. The _whole_ of the advantages of protection accrue to the +manufacturing States. 4. In other words, the South, the Southwest, and +two or three commercial cities, support the government, and pour a +stream of treasure into the coffers of manufacturers. 5. The result +must soon be, that the people of South Carolina will have either to +abandon the culture of rice and cotton, and remove to some other +country, or else to become a manufacturing community, which would only +be ruin in another form. + +Lest the reader should find it impossible to believe that any man out +of a lunatic asylum could publish such propositions as this last, we +will give the passage. Mr. Calhoun is endeavoring to show that Europe +will at length retaliate by placing high duties upon American cotton +and rice. At least that appears to be what he is aiming at. + + "We already see indications of a commercial warfare, the + termination of which no one can conjecture, though our fate + may easily be. The last remains of our great and once + flourishing agriculture must be annihilated in the conflict. + In the first instance we will[1] be thrown on the home + market, which cannot consume a fourth of our products; and, + instead of supplying the world, as we would with free trade, + we would be compelled to abandon the cultivation of three + fourths of what we now raise, and receive for the residue + whatever the manufacturers, who would then have their policy + consummated by the entire possession of our market, might + choose to give. Forced to abandon our ancient and favorite + pursuit, to which our soil, climate, habits, and peculiar + labor are adapted, at an immense sacrifice of property, we + would be compelled, without capital, experience, or skill, + and with a population untried in such pursuits, to attempt + to become the rivals, instead of the customers, of the + manufacturing States. The result is not doubtful. If they, + by superior capital and skill, should keep down successful + competition on our part, we would be doomed to toil at our + unprofitable agriculture,--selling at the prices which a + single and very limited market might give. But, on the + contrary, if our necessity should triumph over their capital + and skill, if, instead of raw cotton we should ship to the + manufacturing States cotton yarn and cotton goods, the + thoughtful must see that it would inevitably bring about a + state of things which could not long continue. _Those who + now make war on our gains would then make it on our labor_. + They would not tolerate that those who now cultivate our + plantations, and furnish them with the material and the + market for the product of their arts, should, by becoming + their rivals, take bread from the mouths of their wives and + children. The committee will not pursue this painful + subject; but as they clearly see that the system if not + arrested, must bring the country to this hazardous + extremity, neither prudence nor patriotism would permit them + to pass it by without raising a warning voice against an + evil of so menacing a character."--_Works_, VI. 12. + +The only question which arises in the mind of present readers of such +passages (which abound in the writings of Mr. Calhoun) is this: Were +they the chimeras of a morbid, or the utterances of a false mind? +Those who knew him differ in opinion on this point. For our part, we +believe such passages to have been inserted for the sole purpose of +alarming the people of South Carolina, so as to render them the more +subservient to his will. It is the stale trick of the demagogue, as +well as of the false priest, to subjugate the mind by terrifying it. + +Mr. Calhoun concludes his Exposition by bringing forward his remedy +for the frightful evils which he had conjured up. That remedy, of +course, was nullification. The State of South Carolina, after giving +due warning, must declare the protective acts "null and void" in the +State of South Carolina after a certain date; and then, unless +Congress repealed them in time, refuse obedience to them. Whether this +should be done by the Legislature or by a convention called for the +purpose, Mr. Calhoun would not say; but he evidently preferred a +convention. He advised, however, that nothing be done hastily; that +time should be afforded to the dominant majority for further +reflection. Delay, he remarked, was the more to be recommended, +because of + + "the great political revolution which will displace from + power, on the 4th of March next, those who have acquired + authority by setting the will of the people at defiance, and + which will bring in an eminent citizen, distinguished for + his services to his country and his justice and patriotism"; + +under whom, it was hoped, there would be "a complete restoration, of +the pure principles of our government." This passage Mr. Calhoun could +write _after_ witnessing the manoeuvres of Mr. Van Buren and Mr. +Eaton! If the friends of Mr. Adams had set the will of the people at +defiance on the tariff question, what had the supporters of General +Jackson done? In truth, this menace of nullification was the second +string to the bow of the Vice-President. It was not yet ascertained +which was going to possess and use General Jackson,--the placid and +flexible Van Buren, or the headstrong, short-sighted, and +uncomfortable Calhoun. Nullification, as he used daily to declare, was +a "reserved power." + +At the time of General Jackson's inauguration, it would have puzzled +an acute politician to decide which of the two aspirants had the best +chance of succeeding the General. The President seemed equally well +affected toward both. One was Secretary of State, the other +Vice-President. Van Buren, inheriting the political tactics of Burr, +was lord paramount in the great State of New York, and Calhoun was +all-powerful in his own State and very influential in all the region +of cotton and rice. In the Cabinet Calhoun had two friends, and one +tried and devoted ally (Ingham), while Van Buren could only boast of +Major Eaton, Secretary of War; and the tie that bound them together +was political far more than personal. In the public mind, Calhoun +towered above his rival, for he had been longer in the national +councils, had held offices that drew upon him the attention of the +whole country, and had formerly been distinguished as an orator. If +any one had been rash enough in 1829 to intimate to Mr. Calhoun that +Martin Van Buren stood before the country on a par with himself, he +would have pitied the ignorance of that rash man. + +Under despotic governments, like those of Louis XIV. and Andrew +Jackson, no calculation can be made as to the future of any public +man, because his future depends upon the caprice of the despot, which +cannot be foretold. Six short weeks--nay, not so much, not +six--sufficed to estrange the mind of the President from Calhoun, and +implant within him a passion to promote the interests of Van Buren. +Our readers, we presume, all know how this was brought to pass. It was +simply that Mr. Calhoun would _not_, and Mr. Van Buren _would_ call +upon Mrs. Eaton. All the other influences that were brought to bear +upon the President's singular mind were nothing in comparison with +this. Daniel Webster uttered only the truth when he wrote, at the +time, to his friend Dutton, that the "Aaron's serpent among the +President's desires was a settled purpose of making out the lady, of +whom so much has been said, a person of reputation"; and that this +ridiculous affair would "probably determine who should be the +successor to the present chief magistrate." It had precisely that +effect. We have shown elsewhere the successive manoeuvres by which +this was effected, and how vigorously but unskillfully Calhoun +struggled to avert his fate. We cannot and need not repeat the story; +nor can we go over again the history of the Nullification imbroglio, +which began with the South Carolina Exposition in 1828, and ended very +soon after Calhoun had received a private notification that the +instant news reached Washington of an overt act of treason in South +Carolina, the author and fomenter of that treason would be arrested +and held for trial as a traitor. + +One fact alone suffices to prove that, in bringing on the +Nullification troubles, Calhoun's motive was factious. When General +Jackson saw the coming storm, he did two things. First, he prepared to +maintain the authority of the United States by force. Secondly, he +used all his influence with Congress to have the cause of Southern +discontent removed. General Jackson felt that the argument of the +anti-tariff men, in view of the speedy extinction of the national +debt, was unanswerable. He believed it was absurd to go on raising ten +or twelve millions a year more than the government could spend, merely +for the sake of protecting Northern manufactures. Accordingly, a bill +was introduced which aimed to do just what the nullifiers had been +clamoring for, that is, to reduce the revenue to the amount required +by the government. If Mr. Calhoun had supported this measure, he could +have carried it. He gave it no support; but exerted all his influence +in favor of the Clay Compromise, which was expressly intended to save +as much of the protective system as could be saved, and which reduced +duties gradually, instead of suddenly. Rather than permit the abhorred +administration to have the glory of pacificating the country, this +lofty Roman stooped to a coalition with his personal enemy, Henry +Clay, the champion and the soul of the protectionist party. + +No words can depict the bitterness of Calhoun's disappointment and +mortification at being distanced by a man whom he despised so +cordially as he did Van Buren. To comprehend it, his whole subsequent +career must be studied. The numerous covert allusions to the subject +in his speeches and writings are surcharged with rancor; and it was +observed that, whenever his mind reverted to it, his manner, the tone +of his voice, and every gesture testified to the intensity of his +feelings. "Every Southern man," said he on one occasion, + + "who is true to the interests of his section, and faithful + to the duties which Providence has allotted him, will be + forever excluded from the honors and emoluments of this + government, which will be reserved only for those who have + qualified themselves by political prostitution for admission + into the Magdalen Asylum." + +His face, too, from this time, assumed that haggard, cast-iron, +intense, introverted aspect which struck every beholder. + +Miss Martineau, in her Retrospect of Western Travel, has given us some +striking and valuable glimpses of the eminent men of that period, +particularly of the three most eminent, who frequently visited her +during her stay in Washington. This passage, for example, is highly +interesting. + + "Mr. Clay sitting upright on the sofa, with his snuffbox + ever in his hand, would discourse for many an hour in his + even, soft, deliberate tone, on any one of the great + subjects of American policy which we might happen to start, + always amazing us with the moderation of estimate and speech + which so impetuous a nature has been able to attain. Mr. + Webster, leaning back at his ease, telling stories, cracking + jokes, shaking the sofa with burst after burst of laughter, + or smoothly discoursing to the perfect felicity of the + logical part of one's constitution, would illuminate an + evening now and then. Mr. Calhoun, the cast-iron man, who + looks as if he had never been born and could never be + extinguished, would come in sometimes to keep our + understandings on a painful stretch for a short while, and + leave us to take to pieces his close, rapid, theoretical, + illustrated talk, and see what we could make of it. We found + it usually more worth retaining as a curiosity, than as + either very just or useful. His speech abounds in figures, + truly illustrative, if that which they illustrate were true + also. But his theories of government (almost the only + subject upon which his thoughts are employed), the squarest + and compactest that ever were made, are composed out of + limited elements, and are not, therefore, likely to stand + service very well. It is at first extremely interesting to + hear Mr. Calhoun talk; and there is a never-failing evidence + of power in all that he says and does, which commands + intellectual reverence; but the admiration is too soon + turned into regret, into absolute melancholy. It is + impossible to resist the conviction, that all this force can + be at best but useless, and is but too likely to be very + mischievous. _His mind has long lost all power of + communicating with any other_. I know of no man who lives in + such utter intellectual solitude. He meets men and harangues + by the fireside as in the Senate; he is wrought like a piece + of machinery, set going vehemently by a weight, and stops + while you answer; he either passes by what you say, or + twists it into a suitability with what is in his head, and + begins to lecture again. Of course, a mind like this can + have little influence in the Senate, except by virtue, + perpetually wearing out, of what it did in its less + eccentric days; but its influence at home is to be dreaded. + There is no hope that an intellect so cast in narrow + theories will accommodate itself to varying circumstances; + and there is every danger that it will break up all that it + can in order to remould the materials in its own way. Mr. + Calhoun is as full as ever of his Nullification doctrines; + and those who know the force that is in him, and his utter + incapacity of modification by other minds, (after having + gone through as remarkable a revolution of political opinion + as perhaps any man ever experienced,) will no more expect + repose and self-retention from him than from a volcano in + full force. Relaxation is no longer in the power of his + will. I never saw any one who so completely gave me the idea + of possession. Half an hour's conversation with him is + enough to make a necessitarian of anybody. Accordingly, he + is more complained of than blamed by his enemies. His + moments of softness by his family, and when recurring to old + college days, are hailed by all as a relief to the vehement + working of the intellectual machine,--a relief equally to + himself and others. These moments are as touching to the + observer as tears on the face of a soldier." + +Of his appearance in the Senate, and of his manner of speaking, Miss +Martineau records her impressions also:-- + + "Mr. Calhoun's countenance first fixed my attention; the + splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a load of + stiff, upright, dark hair, the stern brow, the inflexible + mouth,--it is one of the most remarkable heads in the + country." + + "Mr. Calhoun followed, and impressed me very strongly. While + he kept to the question, what he said was close, good, and + moderate, though delivered in rapid speech, and with a voice + not sufficiently modulated. But when he began to reply to a + taunt of Colonel Benton's, that he wanted to be President, + the force of his speaking became painful. He made + protestations which it seemed to strangers had better have + been spared, 'that he would not turn on his heel to be + President,' and that 'he had given up all for his own brave, + magnanimous little State of South Carolina.' While thus + protesting, his eyes flashed, his brow seemed charged with + thunder, his voice became almost a bark, and his sentences + were abrupt, intense, producing in the auditory a sort of + laugh which is squeezed out of people by the application of + a very sudden mental force. I believe he knew not what a + revelation he made in a few sentences. _They were to us + strangers the key, not only to all that was said and done by + the South Carolina party during the remainder of the + session, but to many things at Charleston and Columbia which + would otherwise have passed unobserved and unexplained_." + +This intelligent observer saw the chieftain on his native heath:-- + + "During my stay in Charleston, Mr. Calhoun and his family + arrived from Congress, and there was something very striking + in the welcome he received, like that of a chief returned to + the bosom of his clan. He stalked about like a monarch of + the little domain, and there was certainly an air of + mysterious understanding between him and his followers." + +What Miss Martineau says of the impossibility of Calhoun's mind +communicating with another mind, is confirmed by an anecdote which we +have heard related by Dr. Francis Lieber, who, as Professor in the +College of South Carolina, was for several years the neighbor and +intimate acquaintance of Mr. Calhoun. The learned Professor, upon his +return from a visit to Europe, called upon him, and in the course of +the interview Mr. Calhoun declared, in his positive manner, that the +slaves in the Southern States were better lodged, fed, and cared for +than the mechanics of Europe. Dr. Lieber, being fresh from that +continent, assured the Secretary of State that such was not the fact, +as he could testify from having resided in both lands. "Not at all, +not at all," cried Calhoun dogmatically, and repeated his wild +assertion. The Doctor saw that the poor man had reached the condition +of absolute unteachableness, and dropped the subject. There could not +well be a more competent witness on the point in dispute than Dr. +Lieber; for, besides having long resided in both continents, it was +the habit and business of his life to observe and ponder the effect of +institutions upon the welfare of those who live under them. Calhoun +pushed him out of the witness-box, as though he were an idiot. + +A survey of the last fifteen years of Calhoun's life discloses nothing +upon which the mind can dwell with complacency. On the approach of +every Presidential election, we see him making what we can only call a +_grab_ at a nomination, by springing upon the country some unexpected +issue designed to make the South a unit in his support. From 1830 to +1836, he exhausted all the petty arts of the politician to defeat +General Jackson's resolve to bring in Mr. Van Buren as his successor; +and when all had failed, he made an abortive attempt to precipitate +the question of the annexation of Texas. This, too, being foiled, Mr. +Van Buren was elected President. Then Mr. Calhoun, who had for ten +years never spoken of Van Buren except with contempt, formed the +notable scheme of winning over the President so far as to secure his +support for the succession. He advocated all the test measures of Mr. +Van Buren's administration, and finished by courting a personal +reconciliation with the man whom he had a hundred times styled a fox +and a political prostitute. This design coming to naught, through the +failure of Mr. Van Buren to reach a second term, he made a wild rush +for the prize by again thrusting forward the Texas question. Colonel +Benton, who was the predetermined heir of Van Buren, has detailed the +manner in which this was done in a very curious chapter of his "Thirty +Years." The plot was successful, so far as plunging the country into a +needless war was concerned; but it was Polk and Taylor, not Calhoun, +who obtained the Presidency through it. Mr. Calhoun's struggles for a +nomination in 1844 were truly pitiable, but they were not known to the +public, who saw him, at a certain stage of the campaign, affecting to +decline a nomination which there was not the slightest danger of his +receiving. + +We regret that we have not space to show how much the agitation of the +slavery question, from 1835 to 1850, was the work of this one man. The +labors of Mr. Garrison and Mr. Wendell Phillips might have borne no +fruit during their lifetime, if Calhoun had not made it his business +to supply them with material. "I mean to _force_ the issue upon the +North," he once wrote; and he did force it. On his return to South +Carolina after the termination of the Nullification troubles, he said +to his friends there, (so avers Colonel Benton, "Thirty Years," Vol. +II. p. 786,) + + "that the South could never be united against the North on + the tariff question; that the sugar interest of Louisiana + would keep her out; and that the basis of Southern union + must be shifted to the slave question." + +Here we have the key to the mysteries of all his subsequent career. +The denial of the right of petition, the annexation of Texas, the +forcing of slavery into the Territories,--these were among the issues +upon which he hoped to unite the South in his favor, while retaining +enough strength at the North to secure his election. Failing in all +his schemes of personal advancement, he died in 1850, still protesting +that slavery is divine, and that it must rule this country or ruin it. +This is really the sum and substance of that last speech to the +Senate, which he had not strength enough left to deliver. + +We have run rapidly over Mr. Calhoun's career as a public man. It +remains for us to notice his claims as a teacher of political +philosophy, a character in which he influenced his countrymen more +powerfully after he was in his grave than he did while living among +them. + +The work upon which his reputation as a thinker will rest with +posterity is his Treatise on the Nature of Government. Written in the +last year of his life, when at length all hope of further personal +advancement must have died within him, it may be taken as the +deliberate record or summary of his political opinions. He did not +live to revise it, and the concluding portion he evidently meant to +enlarge and illustrate, as was ascertained from notes and memoranda in +pencil upon the manuscript. After the death of the author in 1850, the +work was published in a substantial and elegant form by the +Legislature of South Carolina, who ordered copies to be presented to +individuals of note in science and literature, and to public +libraries. We are, therefore, to regard this volume, not merely as a +legacy of Mr. Calhoun to his countrymen, but as conveying to us the +sentiments of South Carolina with regard to her rights and duties as a +member of the Union. Events since its publication have shown us that +it is more even than this. The assemblage of troublesome communities +which we have been accustomed to style "the South," adopted this work +as their political gospel. From this source the politicians of the +Southern States have drawn all they have chosen to present to the +world in justification of their course which bears the semblance of +argument; for, in truth, Mr. Calhoun, since Jefferson and Madison +passed from the stage, is almost the only thinking being the South has +had. His was a very narrow, intense, and untrustworthy mind, but he +was an angel of light compared with the men who have been recently +conspicuous in the Southern States. + +This treatise on government belongs to the same class of works as +Louis Napoleon's Life of Caesar, having for its principal object one +that lies below the surface, and the effect of both is damaged by the +name on the title-page. The moment we learn that Louis Napoleon wrote +that Life of Caesar, the mind is intent upon discovering allusions to +recent history, which the author has an interest in misrepresenting. +The common conscience of mankind condemns him as a perjured usurper, +and the murderer of many of his unoffending fellow-citizens. No man, +whatever the power and splendor of his position, can rest content +under the scorn of mankind, unless his own conscience gives him a +clear acquittal, and assures him that one day the verdict of his +fellow-men will be reversed; and even in that case, it is not every +man that can possess his soul in patience. Every page of the Life of +Caesar was composed with a secret, perhaps half-unconscious reference +to that view of Louis Napoleon's conduct which is expressed with such +deadly power in Mr. Kinglake's History of the Crimean War, and which +is so remarkably confirmed by an American eyewitness, the late Mr. +Goodrich, who was Consul at Paris in 1848. Published anonymously, the +Life of Caesar might have had some effect. Given to the world by +Napoleon III., every one reads it as he would a defence by an +ingenious criminal of his own cause. The highest praise that can be +bestowed upon it is, that it is very well done, considering the object +the author had in view. + +So, in reading Mr. Calhoun's disquisition upon government, we are +constantly reminded that the author was a man who had only escaped +trial and execution for treason by suddenly arresting the treasonable +measures which he had caused to be set on foot. Though it contains but +one allusion to events in South Carolina in 1833, the work is nothing +but a labored, refined justification of those events. It has been even +coupled with Edwards on the Will, as the two best examples of subtle +reasoning which American literature contains. Admit his premises, and +you are borne along, at a steady pace, in a straight path, to the +final inferences: that the sovereign State of South Carolina +possesses, by the Constitution of the United States, an absolute veto +upon every act of Congress, and may secede from the Union whenever she +likes; and that these rights of veto and secession do not merely +constitute the strength of the Constitution, but _are_ the +Constitution,--and do not merely tend to perpetuate the Union, but are +the Union's self,--the thing that binds the States together. + +Mr. Calhoun begins his treatise by assuming that government is +necessary. He then explains why it is necessary. It is necessary +because man is more selfish than sympathetic, feeling more intensely +what affects himself than what affects others. Hence he will encroach +on the rights of others; and to prevent this, government is +indispensable. + +But government, since it must be administered by selfish men will feel +more intensely what affects itself than what affects the people +governed. It is, therefore, the tendency of all governments to +encroach on the rights of the people; and they certainly will do so, +if they can. The same instinct of self-preservation, the same love of +accumulation, which tempts individuals to over-reach their neighbors, +inclines government to preserve, increase, and consolidate its powers. +Therefore, as individual selfishness requires to be held in check by +government, so government must be restrained by _something_. + +This something is the constitution, written or unwritten. A +constitution is to the government what government is to the people: it +is the restraint upon its selfishness. Mr. Calhoun assumes here that +the relation between government and governed is naturally and +inevitably "antagonistic." He does not perceive that government is the +expression of man's love of justice, and the means by which the people +cause justice to be done. + +Government, he continues, must be powerful; must have at command the +resources of the country; must be so strong that it can, if it will, +disregard the limitations of the constitution. The question is, How to +compel a government, holding such powers, having an army, a navy, and +a national treasury at command, to obey the requirements of a mere +piece of printed paper? + +Power, says Mr. Calhoun, can only be resisted by power. Therefore, a +proper constitution must leave to the governed the _power_ to resist +encroachments. This is done in free countries by universal suffrage +and the election of rulers at frequent and fixed periods. This gives +to rulers the strongest possible motive to please the people, which +can only be done by executing their will. + +So far, most readers will follow the author without serious +difficulty. But now we come to passages which no one could understand +who was not acquainted with the Nullification imbroglio of 1833. A +philosophic Frenchman or German, who should read this work with a view +to enlightening his mind upon the nature of government, would be much +puzzled after passing the thirteenth page; for at that point the +hidden loadstone begins to operate upon the needle of Mr. Calhoun's +compass, and he is as Louis Napoleon writing the Life of Caesar. + +Universal suffrage, he continues, and the frequent election of rulers, +are indeed the primary and fundamental principles of a constitutional +government; and they are sufficient to give the people an effective +control over those whom they have elected. But this is all they can +do. They cannot make rulers good, or just, or obedient to the +constitution, but only faithful representatives of the majority of the +people and executors of the will of that majority. The right of +suffrage transfers the supreme authority from the rulers to the body +of the community, and the more perfectly it does this, the more +perfectly it accomplishes its object. Majority is king. But this king, +too, like all others, is selfish, and will abuse his power if he can. + +So, we have been arguing in a circle, and have come back to the +starting-point. Government keeps within bounds the selfishness of the +people; the constitution restrains the selfishness of the government; +but, in doing so, it has only created a despot as much to be dreaded +as the power it displaced. We are still, therefore, confronted by the +original difficulty. How are we to limit the sway of tyrant Majority? + +If, says Mr. Calhoun, all the people had the same interests, so that a +law which oppressed one interest would oppress all interests, then the +right of suffrage would itself be sufficient; and the only question +would be as to the fitness of different candidates. But this is not +the case. Taxation, for example: no system of taxation can be arranged +that will not bear oppressively upon some interests or section. +Disbursements, also: some portions of the country must receive back, +in the form of governmental disbursements, more money than they pay in +taxes, and others less; and this may be carried so far, that one +region may be utterly impoverished, while others are enriched. King +Majority may have his favorites. He may now choose to favor +agriculture; now, commerce; now, manufactures; and so arrange the +imports as to crush one for the sake of promoting the others. "Crush" +is Mr. Calhoun's word. "One portion of the community," he says, + + "may be crushed, and another elevated on its ruins, by + systematically perverting the power of taxation and + disbursement, for the purpose of aggrandizing or building up + one portion of the community at the expense of the other." + +_May_ be. But has not the most relentless despot an interest in the +prosperity of his subjects? And can one interest be crushed without +manifest and immediate injury to all the others? Mr. Calhoun says: +That this fell power to crush important interests _will_ be used, is +exactly as certain as that it _can_ be. + +All this would be unintelligible to our foreign philosopher, but +American citizens know very well what it means. Through this fine +lattice-work fence they discern the shining countenance of the colored +person. + +But now, what remedy? Mr. Calhoun approaches this part of the subject +with the due acknowledgment of its difficulty. The remedy, of course, +is Nullification; but he is far from using a word so familiar. There +is but one mode, he remarks, by which the majority of the whole people +can be prevented from oppressing the minority, or portions of the +minority, and that is this: + + "By taking the sense of each interest or portion of the + community, which may be unequally and injuriously affected + by the action of the government, separately, through its own + majority, or in some other way by which its voice can be + expressed; and to require the consent of each interest, + either to put or to keep the government in motion." + +And this can only be done by such an "organism" as will "give to each +division or interest either a concurrent voice in making and executing +the laws or _a veto on their execution_." + +This is perfectly intelligible when read by the light of the history +of 1833. But no human being unacquainted with that history could +gather Mr. Calhoun's meaning. Our studious foreigner would suppose by +the word "interest," that the author meant the manufacturing interest, +the commercial and agricultural interests, and that each of these +should have its little congress concurring in or vetoing the acts of +the Congress sitting at Washington. _We_, however, know that Mr. +Calhoun meant that South Carolina should have the power to nullify +acts of Congress and give law to the Union. He does not tell us how +South Carolina's tyrant Majority is to be kept within bounds; but only +how that majority is to control the majority of the whole country. He +has driven his problem into a corner, and there he leaves it. + +Having thus arrived at the conclusion, that a law, to be binding on +all "interests," i.e. on all the States of the Union, must be +concurred in by all, he proceeds to answer the obvious objection, that +"interests" so antagonistic could never be brought to unanimous +agreement. He thinks this would present no difficulty, and adduces +some instances of unanimity to illustrate his point. + +First, trial by jury. Here are twelve men, of different character and +calibre, shut up in a room to agree upon a verdict, in a cause upon +which able men have argued upon opposite sides. How unlikely that they +should be able to agree unanimously! Yet they generally do, and that +speedily. Why is this? Because, answers Mr. Calhoun, they go into +their room knowing that nothing short of unanimity will answer; and +consequently every man is _disposed_ to agree with his fellows, and, +if he cannot agree, to compromise. "Not at all." The chief reason why +juries generally agree is, that they are not interested in the matter +in dispute. The law of justice is so plainly written in the human +heart, that the fair thing is usually obvious to disinterested minds, +or can be made so. It is interest, it is rivalry, that blinds us to +what is right; and Mr. Calhoun's problem is to render "antagonistic" +interests unanimous. We cannot, therefore, accept this illustration as +a case in point. + +Secondly, Poland. Poland is not the country which an American would +naturally visit to gain political wisdom. Mr. Calhoun, however, +repairs thither, and brings home the fact, that in the turbulent Diet +of that unhappy kingdom every member had an absolute veto upon every +measure. Nay, more: no king could be elected without the unanimous +vote of an assembly of one hundred and fifty thousand persons. Yet +Poland lasted two centuries! The history of those two centuries is a +sufficient comment upon Mr Calhoun's system, to say nothing of the +final catastrophe, which Mr. Calhoun confesses was owing to "the +extreme to which the principle was carried." A sound principle cannot +be carried to an unsafe extreme; it is impossible for a man to be too +right. If it is right for South Carolina to control and nullify the +United States, it is right for any one man in South Carolina to +control and nullify South Carolina. One of the tests of a system is to +ascertain where it will carry us if it _is_ pushed to the uttermost +extreme. Mr. Calhoun gave his countrymen this valuable information +when he cited the lamentable case of Poland. + +From Poland the author descends to the Six Nations, the federal +council of which was composed of forty-two members, each of whom had +an absolute veto upon every measure. Nevertheless, this confederacy, +he says, became the most powerful and the most united of all the +Indian nations. He omits to add, that it was the facility with which +this council could be wielded by the French and English in turn, that +hastened the grinding of the Six Nations to pieces between those two +millstones. + +Rome is Mr. Calhoun's next illustration. The _Tribunus Plebis_, he +observes, had a veto upon the passage of all laws and upon the +execution of all laws, and thus prevented the oppression of the +plebeians by the patricians. To show the inapplicability of this +example to the principle in question, to show by what steps this +tribunal, long useful and efficient, gradually absorbed the power of +the government, and became itself, first oppressive, and then an +instrument in the overthrow of the constitution, would be to write a +history of Rome. Niebuhr is accessible to the public, and Niebuhr knew +more of the _Tribunus Plebis_ than Mr. Calhoun. We cannot find in +Niebuhr anything to justify the author's aim to constitute patrician +Carolina the _Tribunus Plebis_ of the United States. + +Lastly, England. England, too, has that safeguard of liberty, "an +organism by which the voice of each order or class is taken through +its appropriate organ, and which requires the concurring voice of all +to constitute that of the whole community." These orders are King, +Lords, and Commons. They must all concur in every law, each having a +veto upon the action of the two others. The government of the United +States is also so arranged that the President and the two Houses of +Congress must concur in every enactment; but then they all represent +the _same_ order or interest, the people of the United States. The +English government, says Mr. Calhoun, is so exquisitely constituted, +that the greater the revenues of the government, the more stable it +is; because those revenues, being chiefly expended upon the lords and +gentlemen, render them exceedingly averse to any radical change. Mr. +Calhoun does not mention that the majority of the people of England +are not represented in the government at all. Perhaps, however, the +following passage, in a previous part of the work, was designed to +meet their case:-- + + "It is a great and dangerous error to suppose that all + people are equally entitled to liberty. It is a reward to be + earned, not a blessing to be gratuitously lavished on all + alike;--a reward reserved for the intelligent, the + patriotic, the virtuous, and deserving; and not a boon to be + bestowed on a people too ignorant, degraded, and vicious to + be capable either of appreciating or of enjoying it." + +Mr. Calhoun does not tell us who is to _bestow_ this precious boon. He +afterwards remarks, that the progress of a people "rising" to the +point of civilization which entitles them to freedom, is "necessarily +slow." How very slow, then, it must be, when the means of civilization +are forbidden to them by law! + +With his remarks upon England, Mr. Calhoun terminates his discussion +of the theory of government. Let us grant all that he claims for it, +and see to what it conducts us. Observe that his grand position is, +that a "numerical majority," like all other sovereign powers, will +certainly tyrannize if it can. His remedy for this is, that a local +majority, the majority of each State, shall have a veto upon the acts +of the majority of the whole country. But he omits to tell us how that +local majority is to be kept within bounds. According to his +reasoning, South Carolina should have a veto upon acts of Congress. +Very well; then each county of South Carolina should have a veto upon +the acts of the State Legislature; each town should have a veto upon +the behests of the county; and each voter upon the decisions of the +town. Mr. Calhoun's argument, therefore, amounts to this: that one +voter in South Carolina should have the constitutional right to +nullify an act of Congress, and no law should be binding which has not +received the assent of every citizen. + +Having completed the theoretical part of his subject, the author +proceeds to the practical. In his first essay he describes the +"organism" that is requisite for the preservation of liberty; and in +his second, he endeavors to show that the United States _is_ precisely +such an organism, since the Constitution, rightly interpreted, _does_ +confer upon South Carolina the right to veto the decrees of the +numerical majority. Mr. Calhoun's understanding appears to much better +advantage in this second discourse, which contains the substance of +all his numerous speeches on nullification. It is marvellous how this +morbid and intense mind had brooded over a single subject, and how it +had subjugated all history and all law to its single purpose. But we +cannot follow Mr. Calhoun through the tortuous mazes of his second +essay; nor, if we could, should we be able to draw readers after us. +We can only say this: Let it be granted that there _are_ two ways in +which the Constitution can be fairly interpreted;--one, the Websterian +method; the other, that of Mr. Calhoun. On one of these +interpretations the Constitution will work, and on the other it will +not. We prefer the interpretation that is practicable, and leave the +other party to the enjoyment of their argument. Nations cannot be +governed upon principles so recondite and refined, that not one +citizen in a hundred will so much as follow a mere statement of them. +The fundamental law must be as plain as the ten commandments,--as +plain as the four celebrated propositions in which Mr. Webster put the +substance of his speeches in reply to Mr. Calhoun's ingenious defence +of his conduct in 1833. + +The author concludes his essay by a prophetic glance at the future. He +remarks, that with regard to the future of the United States, as then +governed, only one thing could be predicted with absolute certainty, +and that was, that the Republic could not last. It might lapse into a +monarchy, or it might be dismembered,--no man could say which; but +that one of these things would happen was entirely certain. The +rotation-in-office system, as introduced by General Jackson, and +sanctioned by his subservient Congress, had rendered the Presidential +office a prize so tempting, in which so large a number of men had an +interest, that the contest would gradually cease to be elective, and +would finally lose the elective form. _The incumbent would appoint his +successor_; and "thus the absolute form of a popular, would end in the +absolute form of a monarchical government," and there would be no +possibility of even rendering the monarchy limited or constitutional. +Mr. Calhoun does not mention here the name of General Jackson or of +Martin Van Buren, but American readers know very well what he was +thinking of when he wrote the passage. + +Disunion, according to Mr. Calhoun, was another of our perils. In view +of recent events, our readers may be interested in reading his remarks +on this subject, written in 1849, among the last words he ever +deliberately put upon paper:-- + + "The conditions impelling the government toward disunion are + very powerful. They consist chiefly of two;--the one arising + from the great extent of the country; the other, from its + division into separate States, having local institutions and + interests. The former, under the operation of the numerical + majority, has necessarily given to the two great parties, in + their contest for the honors and emoluments of the + government, a geographical character, for reasons which have + been fully stated. This contest must finally settle down + into a struggle on the part of the stronger section to + obtain the permanent control; and on the part of the weaker, + to preserve its independence and equality as members of the + Union. The conflict will thus become one between the States + occupying the different sections,--that is, between + organized bodies on both sides,--each, in the event of + separation, having the means of avoiding the confusion and + anarchy to which the parts would be subject without such + organization. This would contribute much to increase the + power of resistance on the part of the weaker section + against the stronger in possession of the government. With + these great advantages and resources, it is hardly possible + that the parties occupying the weaker section would consent + quietly, under any circumstances, to break down from + independent and equal sovereignties into a dependent and + colonial condition; and still less so, under circumstances + that would revolutionize them _internally_, and put their + very existence as a people at stake. Never was there an + issue between independent States that involved greater + calamity to the conquered, than is involved in that between + the States which compose the two sections of the Union. The + condition of the weaker, should it sink from a state of + independence and equality to one of dependence and + subjection, would be more calamitous than ever before befell + a civilized people. It is vain to think that, with such + consequences before them, they will not resist; especially, + when resistance _may_ save them, and cannot render their + condition worse. That this will take place, unless the + stronger section desists from its course, may be assumed as + certain; and that, if forced to resist, the weaker section + would prove successful, and the system end in disunion, is, + to say the least, highly probable. But if it should fail, + the great increase of power and patronage which must, in + consequence, accrue to the government of the United States, + would but render certain and hasten the termination in the + other alternative. So that, at all events, to the one or to + the other--to monarchy or disunion--it must come, if not + prevented by strenuous or timely efforts." + +This is a very instructive passage, and one that shows well the +complexity of human motives. Mr. Calhoun betrays the secret that, +after all, the contest between the two sections is a "contest for the +honors and emoluments of the government," and that all the rest is but +pretext and afterthought,--as General Jackson said it was. He plainly +states that the policy of the South is rule or ruin. Besides this, he +intimates that there is in the United States an "interest," an +institution, the development of which is incompatible with the +advancement of the general interest; and either that one interest must +overshadow and subdue all other interests, or all other interests must +unite to crush that one. The latter has been done. + +Mr. Calhoun proceeds to suggest the measures by which these calamities +can be averted. The government must be "restored to its federal +character" by the repeal of all laws tending to the annihilation of +State sovereignty, and by a strict construction of the Constitution. +The President's power of removal must be limited. In earlier times, +these would have sufficed; but at that day the nature of the disease +was such that nothing could reach it short of an organic change, which +should give the weaker section a negative on the action of the +government. Mr. Calhoun was of opinion that this could best be done by +our having two Presidents,--one elected by the North and the other by +the South,--the assent of both to be necessary to every act of +Congress. Under such a system, he thought,-- + + "The Presidential election, instead of dividing the Union + into hostile geographical parties, the stronger struggling + to enlarge its powers, and the weaker to defend its rights, + as is now the case, would become the means of restoring + harmony and concord to the country and the government. It + would make the Union a union in truth,--a bond of mutual + affection and brotherhood; and not a mere connection used by + the stronger as the instrument of dominion and + aggrandizement, and submitted to by the weaker only from the + lingering remains of former attachment, and the fading hope + of being able to restore the government to what it was + originally intended to be,--a blessing to all." + +The utter misapprehension of the purposes and desires of the Northern +people which this passage betrays, and which pervades all the later +writings of Mr. Calhoun, can only be explained by the supposition that +he judged them out of his own heart. It is astounding to hear the +author of the annexation of Texas charging the North with the lust of +dominion, and the great Nullifier accusing Northern statesmen of being +wholly possessed by the mania to be President. + +Webster, Clay, and Calhoun,--these were great names in their day. When +the last of them had departed, the country felt a sense of +bereavement, and even of self-distrust, doubting if ever again such +men would adorn the public councils. A close scrutiny into the lives +of either of them would, of course, compel us to deduct something from +his contemporary renown, for they were all, in some degree, at some +periods, diverted from their true path by an ambition beneath an +American statesman, whose true glory alone consists in serving his +country well in that sphere to which his fellow-citizens call him. +From such a scrutiny the fame of neither of those distinguished men +would suffer so much as that of Calhoun. His endowments were not +great, nor of the most valuable kind; and his early education, hasty +and very incomplete, was not continued by maturer study. He read +rather to confirm his impressions than to correct them. It was +impossible that he should ever have been wise, because he refused to +admit his liability to error. Never was mental assurance more +complete, and seldom less warranted by innate or acquired superiority. +If his knowledge of books was slight, his opportunities of observing +men were still more limited, since he passed his whole life in places +as exceptional, perhaps, as any in the world,--Washington and South +Carolina. From the beginning of his public career there was a canker +in the heart of it; for, while his oath, as a member of Congress, to +support the Constitution of the United States, was still fresh upon +his lips, he declared that his attachment to the Union was conditional +and subordinate. He said that the alliance between the Southern +planters and Northern Democrats was a false and calculated compact, to +be broken when the planters could no longer rule by it. While he +resided in Washington, and acted with the Republican party in the +flush of its double triumph, he appeared a respectable character, and +won golden opinions from eminent men in both parties. But when he was +again subjected to the narrowing and perverting influence of a +residence in South Carolina, he shrunk at once to his original +proportions, and became thenceforth, not the servant of his country, +but the special pleader of a class and the representative of a +section. And yet, with that strange judicial blindness which has ever +been the doom of the defenders of wrong, he still hoped to attain the +Presidency. There is scarcely any example of infatuation more +remarkable than this. Here we have, lying before us at this moment, +undeniable proofs, in the form of "campaign lives" and "campaign +documents," that, as late as 1844. there was money spent and labor +done for the purpose of placing him in nomination for the highest +office. + +Calhoun failed in all the leading objects of his public life, except +one; but in that one his success will be memorable forever. He has +left it on record (see Ben on, II. 698) that his great aim, from 1835 +to 1847, was to force the slavery issue on the North. "It is our +duty," he wrote in 1847, "to force the issue on the North." "Had the +South," he continued, "or even my own State, backed me, I would have +forced the issue on the North in 1835"; and he welcomed the Wilmot +Proviso in 1847, because, as he privately wrote, it would be the means +of "enabling us to force the issue on the North." In this design, at +length, when he had been ten years in the grave, he succeeded. Had +there been no Calhoun, it is possible--nay, it is not improbable--that +that issue might have been deferred till the North had so outstripped +the South in accumulating all the elements of power, that the +fire-eaters themselves would have shrunk from submitting the question +to the arbitrament of the sword. It was Calhoun who forced the issue +upon the United States, and compelled us to choose between +annihilation and war. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Calhoun had still Irish enough in his composition to +use "will" for "shall."] + + + +JOHN RANDOLPH. + +In June, 1861, Dr. Russell, the correspondent of the London Times, was +ascending the Mississippi in a steamboat, on board of which was a body +of Confederate troops, several of whom were sick, and lay along the +deck helpless. Being an old campaigner, he had his medicine-chest with +him, and he was thus enabled to administer to these men the medicines +which he supposed their cases required. One huge fellow, attenuated to +a skeleton by dysentery, who appears to have been aware of his +benefactor's connection with the press, gasped out these words: + + "Stranger, remember, if I die, that I am Robert Tallon of + Tishimingo County, and that I died for States' Rights. See, + now, they put that in the papers, won't you? Robert Tallon + died for States' Rights." + +Having thus spoken, he turned over on his blanket, and was silent. Dr. +Russell assures his readers that this man only expressed the nearly +unanimous feeling of the Southern people at the outbreak of the war. +He had been ten weeks travelling in the Southern States, and he +declared that the people had but one battle-cry,--"States' Rights, and +death to those who make war upon them!" About the same time, we +remember, there was a paragraph going the rounds of the newspapers +which related a conversation said to have taken place between a +Northern man and a Southern boy. The boy happening to use the word +"country," the Northerner asked him, "What is your country?" To which +the boy instantly and haughtily replied, "SOUTH CAROLINA!" + +Such anecdotes as these were to most of us here at the North a +revelation. The majority of the Northern people actually did not know +of the _existence_ of such a feeling as that expressed by the Carolina +boy, nor of the doctrine enunciated by the dying soldier. If every boy +in the Northern States old enough to understand the question had been +asked, What is your country? every one of them, without a moment's +hesitation, would have quietly answered in substance thus: "Why, the +United States, of course";--and the only feeling excited by the +question would have been one of surprise that it should have been +asked. And with regard to that "battle-cry" of States' Rights, seven +tenths of the voters of the North hardly knew what a Southern man +meant when he pronounced the words. Thus we presented to the world the +curious spectacle of a people so ignorant of one another, so little +homogeneous, that nearly all on one side of an imaginary line were +willing to risk their lives for an idea which the inhabitants on the +other side of the line not only did not entertain, but knew nothing +about. We observe something similar in the British empire. The +ordinary Englishman does not know what it is of which Ireland +complains, and if an Irishman is asked the name of his country, he +does not pronounce any of the names which imply the merging of his +native isle in the realm of Britain. + +Few of us, even now, have a "realizing sense," as it is called, of the +strength of the States' Rights feeling among the Southern people. Of +all the Southern States in which we ever sojourned, the one that +seemed to us most like a Northern State was North Carolina. We stayed +some time at Raleigh, ten years ago, during the session of the +Legislature, and we were struck with the large number of reasonable, +intelligent, upright men who were members of that body. Of course, we +expected to find Southern men all mad on one topic; but in the +Legislature of North Carolina there were several individuals who could +converse even on that in a rational and comfortable manner. We were a +little surprised, therefore, the other day, to pick up at a book-stall +in Nassau Street a work entitled: + + "The North Carolina Reader, Number III. Prepared with + Special Reference to the Wants and Interests of North + Carolina. Under the Auspices of the Superintendent of Common + Schools. Containing Selections in Prose and Verse. By C.H. + Wiley. New York: A.S. Barnes and Burr." + +The acute reader will at once surmise that the object of this series +of school readers was to instil into the minds of the youth of North +Carolina a due regard for the sacredness and blessed effects of our +peculiar institution. But for once the acute reader is mistaken. No +such purpose appears, at least not in Number III.; in which there are +only one or two even distant allusions to that dread subject. Onesimus +is not mentioned; there is no reference to Ham, nor is there any +discourse upon long heels and small brains. The great, the only object +of this Reader was to nourish in the children of the State the feeling +which the boy expressed-when he proudly said that his country was +South Carolina. Nothing can exceed the innocent, childlike manner in +which this design is carried out in Number III. First, the children +are favored with a series of chapters descriptive of North Carolina, +written in the style of a school geography, with an occasional piece +of poetry on a North Carolina subject by a North Carolina poet. Once, +however, the compiler ventures to depart from his plan by inserting +the lines by Sir William Jones, "What constitutes a State?" To this +poem he appends a note apologizing for "breaking the thread of his +discourse," upon the ground that the lines were so "applicable to the +subject," that it seemed as if the author "must have been describing +North Carolina." When the compiler has done cataloguing the fisheries, +the rivers, the mountains, and the towns of North Carolina, he +proceeds to relate its history precisely in the style of our school +history books. The latter half of the volume is chiefly occupied by +passages from speeches, and poems from newspapers, written by natives +of North Carolina. It is impossible for us to convey an idea of the +innutritiousness and the inferiority of most of these pieces. North +Carolina is the great theme of orator and poet. + +"We live," says one of the legislators quoted, + + "in the most beautiful land that the sun of heaven ever + shone upon. Yes, sir, I have heard the anecdote from Mr. + Clay, that a preacher in Kentucky, when speaking of the + beauties of paradise, when he desired to make his audience + believe it was a place of bliss, said it was a Kentucky of a + place. Sir, this preacher had never visited the western + counties of North Carolina. I have spent days of rapture in + looking at her scenery of unsurpassed grandeur, in hearing + the roar of her magnificent waterfalls, second only to the + great cataract of the North; and while I gazed for hours, + lost in admiration at the power of Him who by his word + created such a country, and gratitude for the blessings He + had scattered upon it, I thought that if Adam and Eve, when + driven from paradise, had been near this land, they would + have thought themselves in the next best place to that they + had left." + +We do not aver that the contents of this collection are generally as +ludicrous as this specimen; but we do say that the passage quoted +gives a very fair idea of the spirit and quality of the book. There is +scarcely one of the North Carolina pieces which a Northern man would +not for one reason or another find extremely comic. One of the reading +lessons is a note written fifteen years ago by Solon Robinson, the +agricultural editor of the Tribune, upon the use of the long leaves of +the _North Carolina_ pine for braiding or basket-work; another is a +note written to accompany a bunch of _North Carolina_ grapes sent to +an editor; and there are many other newspaper cuttings of a similar +character. The editor seems to have thought nothing too trivial, +nothing too ephemeral, for his purpose, provided the passage contained +the name of his beloved State. + +How strange all this appears to a Northern mind! Everywhere else in +Christendom, teachers strive to enlarge the mental range of their +pupils, readily assenting to Voltaire's well-known definition of an +educated man: "One who is _not_ satisfied to survey the universe from +his parish belfry." Everywhere else, the intellectual class have some +sense of the ill-consequences of "breeding in and in," and take care +to infuse into their minds the vigor of new ideas and the nourishment +of strange knowledge. How impossible for a Northern State to think of +doing what Alabama did last winter, pass a law designed to limit the +circulation in that State of Northern newspapers and periodicals! What +Southern men mean by "State pride" is really not known in the Northern +States. All men of every land are fond of their native place; but the +pride that Northern people may feel in the State wherein they happened +to be born is as subordinate to their national feeling, as the +attachment of a Frenchman to his native province is to his pride in +France. + +Why this difference? It did not always exist. It cost New York and +Massachusetts as severe a struggle to accept the Constitution of 1787 +as it did Virginia. George Clinton, Governor of New York, had as much +State pride as Patrick Henry, orator of Virginia, and parted as +reluctantly with a portion of the sovereignty which he wielded. If it +required Washington's influence and Madison's persuasive reasoning to +bring Virginia into the new system, the repugnance of Massachusetts +was only overcome by the combined force of Hancock's social rank and +Samuel Adams's late, reluctant assent. + +On this subject let us hear Samuel Adams for a moment as he wrote to a +friend in 1788:-- + + "I confess, as I enter the building I stumble at the + threshold. I meet with a national government instead of a + federal union of sovereign states. I am not able to conceive + why the wisdom, of the Convention led them to give the + preference to the former before the latter. If the several + States in the Union are to be one entire nation under one + Legislature, the powers of which shall extend to every + subject of legislation, and its laws be supreme and control + the whole, the idea of sovereignty in these States must be + lost. Indeed, I think, upon such a supposition, those + sovereignties ought to be eradicated from the mind, for they + would be _imperia in imperio_, justly deemed a solecism in + politics, and they would be highly dangerous and destructive + of the peace, union, arid safety of the nation. + + "And can this National Legislature be competent to make laws + for the _free_ internal government of one people, living in + climates so remote, and whose habits and particular + interests are, and probably always will be, so different? Is + it to be expected that general laws can be adapted to the + feelings of the more eastern and the more southern parts of + so extensive a nation? It appears to me difficult, if + practicable. Hence, then, may we not look for discontent, + mistrust, disaffection to government, and frequent + insurrections, which will require standing armies to + suppress them in one place and another, where they may + happen to arise. Or, if laws could be made adapted to the + local habits, feelings, views, and interests of those + distant parts, would they not cause jealousies of partiality + in government, which would excite envy and other malignant + passions productive of wars and fighting? But should we + continue distinct sovereign States, confederated for the + purpose of mutual safety and happiness, each contributing to + the federal head such a part of its sovereignty as would + render the government fully adequate to those purposes and + _no more_, the people would govern themselves more easily, + the laws of each State being well adapted to its own genius + and circumstances, and the liberties of the United States + would be more secure than they can be, as I humbly conceive, + under the proposed new constitution."--_Life of Samuel + Adams_, Vol. III, p. 251. + +This passage is one of the large number in the writings of that time +to which recent events have given a new interest; nor is it now +without salutary meaning for us, though we quote it only to show the +reluctance of some of the best citizens of the North to come into a +national system. Suppose, to-day, that the United States were invited +to merge their sovereignty into a confederation of all the nations of +America, which would require us to abolish the city of Washington, and +send delegates to a general congress on the Isthmus of Darien! A +sacrifice of pride like that was demanded of the leading States of the +Union in 1787. Severe was the struggle, but the sacrifice was made, +and it cost the great States of the North as painful a throe as it did +the great States of the South. Why, then, has State pride died away in +the North, and grown stronger in the South? Why is it only in the +Southern States that the doctrine of States' Rights is ever heard of? +Why does the Northern man swell with national pride, and point with +exultation to a flag bearing thirty-seven stars, feeling the remotest +State to be as much his country as his native village, while the +Southern man contracts to an exclusive love for a single State, and is +willing to die on its frontiers in repelling from its sacred soil the +national troops, and can see the flag under which his fathers fought +torn down without regret? + +The study of John Randolph of Virginia takes us to the heart of this +mystery. He could not have correctly answered the question we have +proposed, but he _was_ an answer to it. Born when George Washington, +Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and James Madison were Virginia +farmers, and surviving to the time when Andrew Jackson was President +of the United States, he lived through the period of the decline of +his race, and he was of that decline a conscious exemplification. He +represented the decay of Virginia, himself a living ruin attesting by +the strength and splendor of portions of it what a magnificent +structure it was once. "Poor old Virginia! Poor old Virginia!" This +was the burden of his cry for many a year. Sick, solitary, and half +mad, at his lonely house in the wilderness of Roanoke, suffering from +inherited disease, burdened with inherited debt, limited by inherited +errors, and severed by a wall of inherited prejudice from the life of +the modern world, he stands to us as the type of the palsied and dying +State. Of the doctrine of States' Rights he was the most consistent +and persistent champion; while of that feeling which the North +Carolina Reader No. III. styles "State pride," we may call him the +very incarnation. "When I speak of my country," he would say, "I mean +the Commonwealth of Virginia." He was the first eminent man in the +Southern States who was prepared in spirit for war against the +government of the United States; for daring the Nullification +imbroglio of 1833, he not only was in the fullest accord with Calhoun, +but he used to say, that, if a collision took place between the +nullifiers and the forces of the United States, he, John Randolph of +Roanoke, old and sick as he was, would have himself buckled on his +horse, Radical, and fight for the South to his last breath. + +But then he was a man of genius, travel, and reading. We find him, +therefore, as we have said, a _conscious_ witness of his Virginia's +decline. Along with a pride in the Old Dominion that was fanatical, +there was in this man's heart a constant and most agonizing sense of +her inferiority to lands less beloved. By no tongue or pen--not by +Summer's tongue nor. Olmstead's pen--have more terrible pictures been +drawn of Virginia's lapse into barbarism, than are to be found in John +Randolph's letters. At a time (1831) when he would not buy a +pocket-knife made in New England, nor send a book to be bound north of +the Potomac, we find him writing of his native State in these terms:-- + + "I passed a night in Farrarville, in an apartment which, in + England, would not have been thought fit for my servant; nor + on the Continent did he ever occupy so mean a one. Wherever + I stop it is the same: walls black and filthy; bed and + furniture sordid; furniture scanty and mean, generally + broken; no mirror; no fire-irons; in short, dirt and + discomfort universally prevail; and in most private houses + the matter is not mended. The cows milked a half a mile off, + or not got up, and no milk to be had at any distance,--no + jordan;--in fact, all the old gentry are gone, and the + _nouveaux riches_, when they have the inclination, do not + know how to live. _Biscuit_, not half _cuit_; everything + animal and vegetable smeared with butter and lard. Poverty + stalking through the land, while we are engaged in political + metaphysics, and, amidst our filth and vermin, like the + Spaniard and Portuguese, look down with contempt on other + nations,--England and France especially. We hug our lousy + cloak around us, take another _chaw of tub-backer_, float + the room with nastiness, or ruin the grate and fire-irons, + where they happen not to be rusty, and try conclusions upon + constitutional points." + +What truth and painting in this passage! But if we had asked this +suffering genius as to the cause of his "country's" decline, he would +have given us a mad answer indeed. He would have said, in his wild +way, that it was all Tom Jefferson's doing, sir. Tom Jefferson +abolished primogeniture in Virginia, and thus, as John Randolph +believed, destroyed the old families, the life and glory of the. +State. Tom Jefferson was unfaithful to the States' Rights and +strict-constructionist creed, of which he was the expounder and +trustee, and thus let in the "American system" of Henry Clay, with its +protective tariff, which completed the ruin of the agricultural +States. This was his simple theory of the situation. These were the +reasons why he despaired of ever again seeing, to use his own +language, + + "the Nelsons, the Pages, the Byrds, and Fairfaxes, living in + their palaces, and driving their coaches and sixes, or the + good old Virginia gentlemen in the Assembly drinking their + twenty and forty bowls of rack punches, and madeira and + claret, in lieu of a knot of deputy sheriffs and hack + attorneys, each with his cruet of whiskey before him, and + puddle of tobacco-spittle between his legs." + +He was as far from seeing any relation of cause and effect between the +coaches, palaces, and bowls of punch, and the "knot of deputy +sheriffs," as a Fenian is from discerning any connection between the +Irish rackrenting of the last century, and the Irish beggary of this. +Like conditions produce like characters. How interesting to discover +in this republican, this native Virginian of English stock, a perfect +and splendid specimen of a species of tory supposed to exist only in +such countries as Poland, Spain, Ireland, and the Highlands of +Scotland, but which in reality does abound in the Southern States of +this Union,--the tory, conscious of his country's ruin, but clinging +with fanatical and proud tenacity to the principles that ruined it. + +Dear tobacco, virgin land, and cheap negroes gave the several families +in Virginia, for three generations, a showy, delusive prosperity, +which produced a considerable number of dissolute, extravagant men, +and educated a few to a high degree of knowledge and wisdom. Of these +families, the Randolphs were the most numerous, and among the oldest, +richest, and most influential. The soldiers of the late army of the +Potomac know well the lands which produced the tobacco that maintained +them in baronial state. It was on Turkey Island (an island no more), +twenty miles below Richmond; close to Malvern Hill of immortal memory, +that the founder of the family settled in 1660,--a Cavalier of ancient +Yorkshire race ruined in the civil wars. Few of our troops, perhaps, +who rambled over Turkey Bend, were aware that the massive ruins still +visible there, and which served as negro quarters seven years ago, are +the remains of the great and famous mansion built by this Cavalier, +turned tobacco-planter. This home of the Randolphs was so elaborately +splendid, that a man served out the whole term of his apprenticeship +to the trade of carpenter in one of its rooms. The lofty dome was for +many years a beacon to the navigator. Such success had this Randolph +in raising tobacco during the fifty-one years of his residence upon +Turkey Island, that to each of his six sons he gave or left a large +estate, besides portioning liberally his two daughters. Five of these +sons reared families, and the sons of those sons were also thriving +and prolific men; so that, in the course of three generations, +Virginia was full of Randolphs. There was, we believe, not one of the +noted controlling families that was not related to them by blood or +marriage. + +In 1773, when John Randolph was born, the family was still powerful; +and the region last trodden by the Army of the Potomac was still +adorned by the seats of its leading members. Cawsons, the mansion in +which he was born, was situated at the junction of the James and +Appomattox, in full view of City Point and Bermuda Hundred, and only +an after-breakfast walk from Dutch Gap. The mansion long ago +disappeared, and nothing now marks its site but negro huts. Many of +those exquisite spots on the James and Appomattox, which we have seen +men pause to admire while the shells were bursting overhead, were +occupied sixty years ago by the sumptuous abodes of the Randolphs and +families related to them. Mattoax, the house in which John Randolph +passed much of his childhood, was on a bluff of the Appomattox, two +miles above Petersburg; and Bizarre, the estate on which he spent his +boyhood, lay above, on both sides of the same river. Over all that +extensive and enchanting region, trampled and torn and laid waste by +hostile armies in 1864 and 1865, John Randolph rode and hunted from +the time he could sit a pony and handle a gun. Not a vestige remains +of the opulence and splendor of his early days. Not one of the +mansions inhabited or visited by him in his youth furnished a target +for our cannoneers or plunder for our camps. A country better adapted +to all good purposes of man, nor one more pleasing to the eye, hardly +exists on earth; but before it was trodden by armies, it had become +little less than desolate. The James River is as navigable as the +Hudson, and flows through a region far more fertile, longer settled, +more inviting, and of more genial climate; but there are upon the +Hudson's banks more cities than there are rotten landings upon the +James. The shores of this beautiful and classic stream are so +unexpectedly void of even the signs of human habitation, that our +soldiers were often ready to exclaim: + + "Can this be the river of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas? + Was it here that Jamestown stood? Is it possible that white + men have lived in this delightful land for two hundred and + fifty-seven years? Or has not the captain of the steamboat + made a mistake, and turned into the wrong river?" + +One scene of John Randolph's boyhood reveals to us the entire +political economy of the Old Dominion. He used to relate it himself, +when denouncing the manufacturing system of Henry Clay. One ship, he +would say, sufficed, in those happy days, for all the commerce of that +part of Virginia with the Old World, and that ship was named the +London Trader. When this ship was about to sail, all the family were +called together, and each member was invited to mention the articles +which he or she wanted from London. First, the mother of the family +gave in her list; next the children, in the order of their ages; next, +the overseer; then the _mammy_, the children's black nurse; lastly, +the house servants, according to their rank, down even to their +children. When months had passed, and the time for the ship's return +was at hand, the weeks, the days, the hours were counted; and when the +signal was at last descried, the whole household burst into +exclamations of delight, and there was festival in the family for many +days. + +How picturesque and interesting! How satisfactory to the tory mind! +But alas! this system of exhausting the soil in the production of +tobacco by the labor of slaves, and sending for all manufactured +articles to England, was more ruinous even than it was picturesque. No +middle class could exist, as in England, to supply the waste of +aristocratic blood and means; and in three generations, rich and +beautiful Virginia, created for empire, was only another Ireland. But +it was a picturesque system, and John Randolph, poet and tory, +revelled in the recollection of it. "Our Egyptian taskmasters," he +would say, meaning the manufacturers of Pennsylvania, New York, New +Jersey, and New England, "only wish to leave us the recollection of +past times, and insist upon our purchasing their vile _domestic_ +stuffs; but it won't do: no wooden nutmegs for old Virginia." + +His own pecuniary history was an illustration of the working of the +system. His father left forty thousand acres of the best land in the +world, and several hundred slaves, to his three boys; the greater part +of which property, by the early death of the two elder brothers, fell +to John. As the father died when John was but three years old, there +was a minority of eighteen years, during which the boy's portion +should have greatly increased. So far from increasing, an old debt of +his father's--a _London_ debt, incurred for goods brought to a joyous +household in the London Trader--remained undiminished at his coming of +age, and hung about his neck for many years afterward. Working two +large estates, with a force of negroes equivalent to one hundred and +eighty full field hands, he could not afford himself the luxury of a +trip to Europe until he was fifty years old. The amount of this debt +we do not know, but he says enough about it for us to infer that it +was not of very large amount in comparison with his great resources. +One hundred and eighty stalwart negroes working the best land in the +world, under a man so keen and vigilant as this last of the noble +Randolphs, and yet making scarcely any headway for a quarter of a +century! + +The blood of this fine breed of men was also running low. Both the +parents of John Randolph and both of his brothers died young, and he +himself inherited weakness which early developed into disease. One of +his half-brothers died a madman. "My whole name and race," he would +say, "lie under a curse. I feel the curse clinging to me." He was a +fair, delicate child, more like a girl than a boy, and more inclined, +as a child, to the sports of girls than of boys. His mother, a fond, +tender, gentle lady, nourished his softer qualities, powerless to +govern him, and probably never attempting it. Nevertheless, he was no +girl; he was a genuine _son_ of the South. Such was the violence of +his passions, that, before he was four years old, he sometimes in a +fit of anger fell senseless upon the floor, and was restored only +after much effort. His step-father, who was an honorable man, seems +never to have attempted either to control his passions or develop his +intellect. He grew up, as many boys of Virginia did, and do, +unchecked, unguided, untrained. Turned loose in a miscellaneous +library, nearly every book he read tended to intensify his feelings or +inflame his imagination. His first book was Voltaire's Charles XII., +and a better book for a boy has never been written. Then he fell upon +the Spectator. Before he was twelve he had read the Arabian Nights, +Orlando, Robinson Crusoe, Smollett's Works, Reynard the Fox, Don +Quixote, Gil Bias, Tom Jones, Gulliver, Shakespeare, Plutarch's Lives, +Pope's Homer, Goldsmith's Rome, Percy's Reliques, Thomson's Seasons, +Young, Gray, and Chatterton,--a gallon of sack to a penny's worth of +bread. A good steady drill in arithmetic, geography, and language +might have given his understanding a chance; but this ill-starred boy +never had a steady drill in anything. He never remained longer at any +one school than a year, and he learned at school very little that he +needed most to know. In the course of his desultory schooling he +picked up some Latin, a little Greek, a good deal of French, and an +inconceivable medley of odds and ends of knowledge, which his +wonderful memory enabled him to use sometimes with startling effect. + +Everywhere else, in the whole world, children are taught that +virtue is self-control. In the Southern States, among these +tobacco-lords, boys learned just the opposite lesson,--that virtue is +self-indulgence. This particular youth, thin-skinned, full of talent, +fire, and passion, the heir to a large estate, fatherless, would have +been in danger anywhere of growing up untrained,--a wild beast in +broadcloth. In the Virginia of that day, in the circle in which he +lived, there was nothing for him in the way either of curb or spur. He +did what he pleased, and nothing else. All that was noble in his +life,--those bursts of really fine oratory, his flashes of good sense, +his occasional generosities, his hatred of debt, and his eager haste +to pay it,--all these things were due to the original excellence of +his race. In the very dregs of good wine there is flavor. We cannot +make even good vinegar out of a low quality of wine. + +His gentle mother taught him all the political economy he ever took to +heart. "Johnny," said she to him one day, when they had reached a +point in their ride that commanded an extensive view, + + "all this land belongs to you and your brother. It is your + father's inheritance. When you get to be a man, you must not + sell your land: it is the first step to ruin for a boy to + part with his father's home. Be sure to keep it as long as + you live. Keep your land, and your land will keep you." + +There never came a time when his mind was mature and masculine enough +to _consider_ this advice. He clung to his land as Charles Stuart +clung to his prerogative. + +All the early life of this youth was wandering and desultory. At +fourteen, we find him at Princeton College in New Jersey, where, we +are told, he fought a duel, exchanged shots twice with his adversary, +and put a ball into his body which he carried all his life. By this +time, too, the precocious and ungovernable boy had become, as he +flattered himself, a complete atheist. One of his favorite amusements +at Princeton was to burlesque the precise and perhaps ungraceful +Presbyterians of the place. The library of his Virginian home, it +appears, was furnished with a great supply of what the French mildly +call the literature of incredulity,--Helvetius, Voltaire, Rousseau, +Diderot, D'Alembert, and the rest. The boy, in his rage for knowledge, +had read vast quantities of this literature, and, of course, embraced +the theory of the writers that pushed denial farthest. For twenty-two +years, he says in one of his letters, he never entered a church. Great +pleasure it gave him to show how superior the Mahometan religion was +to the Christian, and to recite specimens of what he took delight in +styling Hebrew jargon. The Psalms of David were his special aversion. + +Almost all gifted and fearless lads that have lived in Christendom +during the last hundred years have had a fit of this kind between +fifteen and twenty-five. The strength of the tendency to question the +grounds of belief must be great indeed to bear away with it a youth +like this, formed by Nature to believe. John Randolph had no more +intellectual right to be a sceptic, than he had a moral right to be a +republican. A person whose imagination is quick and warm, whose +feelings are acute, and whose intellect is wholly untrained, can find +no comfort except in belief. His scepticism is a mere freak of vanity +or self-will. Coming upon the stage of life when unbelief was +fashionable in high drawing-rooms, he became a sceptic. But Nature +will have her way with us all, and so this atheist at fifteen was an +Evangelical at forty-five. + +His first political bias was equally at war with his nature. John +Randolph was wholly a tory; there was not in his whole composition one +republican atom. But coming early under the direct personal influence +of Thomas Jefferson, whose every fibre was republican, he, too, the +sympathetic tory of genius, espoused the people's cause. He was less +than twenty-two years, however, in recovering from _this_ false +tendency. + +Summoned from Princeton, after only a few months' residence, by the +death of his mother, he went next to Columbia College, in the city of +New York, where for a year or two he read Greek with a tutor, +especially Demosthenes. At New York he saw the first Congress under +the new Constitution assemble, and was one of the concourse that +witnessed the scene of General Washington's taking the oath on the +balcony of the old City Hall. It seemed to this Virginia boy natural +enough that a Virginian should be at the head of the government; not +so, that a Yankee should hold the second place and preside over the +Senate. Forty years after, he recalled with bitterness a trifling +incident, which, trifling as it was, appears to have been the origin +of his intense antipathy to all of the blood of John Adams. The +coachman of the Vice-President, it seems, told the brother of this +little republican tory to stand back; or, as the orator stated it, +forty years after, "I remember the manner in which my brother was +spurned by the coachman of the Vice-President for coming too near the +arms emblazoned on the vice-regal carriage." + +Boy as he was, he had already taken sides with those who opposed the +Constitution. The real ground of his opposition to it was, that it +reduced the importance of Virginia,--great Virginia! Under the new +Constitution, there was a man on the Western Continent of more +consequence than the Governor of Virginia, there were legislative +bodies more powerful than the Legislature of Virginia. This was the +secret of the disgust with which he heard it proposed to style the +President "His Highness" and "His Majesty." _This_ was the reason why +it kindled his ire to read, in the newspapers of 1789, that "the most +honorable Rufus King" had been elected Senator. It was only Jefferson +and a very few other of the grand Virginians who objected for higher +and larger reasons. + +In March, 1790, Mr. Jefferson reached New York, after his return from +France, and entered upon his new office of Secretary of State under +General Washington. He was a distant relative of our precocious +student, then seventeen years of age; and the two families had just +been brought nearer together by the marriage of one of Mr. Jefferson's +daughters to a Randolph. The reaction against republican principles +was at full tide; and no one will ever know to what lengths it would +have gone, had not Thomas Jefferson so opportunely come upon the +scene. At his modest abode, No. 57 Maiden Lane, the two Randolph +lads--John, seventeen, Theodorick, nineteen--were frequent visitors. +Theodorick was a roistering blade, much opposed to his younger +brother's reading habits, caring himself for nothing but pleasure. +John was an eager politician. During the whole period of the reaction, +first at New York, afterward at Philadelphia, finally in Virginia, +John Randolph sat at the feet of the great Democrat of America, +fascinated by his conversation, and generally convinced by his +reasoning. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that he was a blind +follower of Mr. Jefferson, even then. On the question of States' +Rights, he was in the most perfect accord with him. But when, in 1791, +the eyes of all intelligent America were fixed upon the two +combatants, Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, Burke condemning, Paine +defending, the French Revolution, the inherited instincts of John +Randolph asserted themselves, and he gave all his heart to Burke. Lord +Chatham and Edmund Burke were the men who always held the first place +in the esteem of this kindred spirit. Mr. Jefferson, of course, +sympathized with the view of his friend Paine, and never wavered in +his belief that the French Revolution was necessary and beneficial. A +generous and gifted nation strangled, moved him to deeper compassion +than a class proscribed. He dwelt more upon the long and bitter +provocation, than upon the brief frenzy which was only one of its dire +results. Louis XIV. and Louis XV., picturesque as they were, excited +within him a profounder horror than ugly Marat and Robespierre. He +pitied haggard, distracted France more than graceful and high-bred +Marie Antoinette. In other words, he was not a tory. + +There was a difference, too, between Mr. Jefferson and his young +kinsman on the points upon which they agreed. Jefferson was a States' +Rights man, and a strict constructionist, because he was a republican; +Randolph, because he was a Virginian, Jefferson thought the government +should be small, that the people might be great; John Randolph thought +the government should be small, that Virginia might be great. Pride in +Virginia was John Randolph's ruling passion, not less in 1790; than in +1828, The welfare and dignity of man were the darling objects of +Thomas Jefferson's great soul, from youth to hoary age. + +Here we have the explanation of the great puzzle of American +politics,--the unnatural alliance, for sixty years, between the +plantation lords of the South and the democracy of the North, both +venerating the name of Jefferson, and both professing his principles. +It was not, as many suppose, a compact of scurvy politicians for the +sake of political victory. Every great party, whether religious' or +political, that has held power long in a country, has been founded +upon conviction,--disinterested conviction. Some of the cotton and +tobacco lords, men of intellect and culture, were democrats and +abolitionists, like Jefferson himself. Others took up with +republicanism because it was the reigning affectation in their circle, +as it was in the chateaux and drawing-rooms of France. But their State +pride it was that bound them as a class to the early Republican party. +The Southern aristocrat saw in Jefferson the defender of the +sovereignty of his State: the "smutched artificer" of the North +gloried in Jefferson as the champion of the rights of man. While the +Republican party was in opposition, battling with unmanageable John +Adams, with British Hamilton, and with a foe more powerful than both +of those men together, Robespierre,--while it had to contend with +Washington's all but irresistible influence, and with the nearly +unanimous opposition of educated and orthodox New England,--this +distinction was not felt. Many a tobacco aristocrat cut off his +pig-tail and wore trousers down to his ankles, which were then the +outward signs of the inward democratic grace. But time tries all. It +is now apparent to every one that the strength of the original +Democratic party in the South was the States' Rights portion of its +platform, while in the North it was the sentiment of republicanism +that kept the party together. + +Young politicians should study this period of their country's history. +If ever again a political party shall rule the United States for sixty +years, or for twenty years, it will be, we think, a party resembling +the original Republican party, as founded in America by Franklin, and +organized under Jefferson. Its platform will be, perhaps, something +like this: simple, economical government machinery; strict +construction of the Constitution; the rights of the States +scrupulously observed; the suffrage open to all, without regard to +color or sex,--_open_ to all, but _conferred_ only upon men and women +capable of exercising it. + +John Randolph agreed upon another point with Mr. Jefferson: lie was an +abolitionist. But for the English debt which he inherited, it is +extremely probable that he would have followed the example of many of +the best Virginians of his day, and emancipated his slaves. He would, +perhaps, have done so when that debt was discharged, instead of +waiting to do it by his last will, but for the forlorn condition of +freedmen in a Slave State. His eldest brother wrote, upon the division +of the estate, in 1794: + + "I want not a single negro for any other purpose than his + immediate emancipation. I shudder when I think that such an + insignificant animal as I am is invested with this + monstrous, this horrid power." + +He told his guardian that he would give up all his land rather than +own a slave. There was no moment in the whole life of John Randolph +when he did not sympathize with this view of slavery, and he died +expressing it. But though lie was, if possible, a more decided +abolitionist than Jefferson, he never for a moment doubted the innate +superiority of a Virginia gentleman to all the other inhabitants of +America. He had not even the complaisance to take his hair out of +queue, nor hide his thin legs in pantaloons. He was not endowed by +nature with understanding enough to rise superior to the prejudices +that had come down to him through generations of aristocrats. He was +weak enough, indeed, to be extremely vain of the fact that a +grandfather of his had married one of the great-granddaughters of +Pocahontas, who, it was believed, performed the act that renders her +famous at Point of Rocks on the Appomattox, within walking distance of +one of the Randolph mansions. It is interesting to observe what an +unquestioning, childlike faith he always had in the superiority of his +caste, of his State, and of his section. He once got so far as to +speak favorably of the talents of Daniel Webster; but he was obliged +to conclude by saying that he was the best debater he had ever known +_north of the Potomac_. + +This singular being was twenty-six years of age before any one +suspected, least of all himself, that he possessed any of the talents +which command the attention of men. His life had been desultory and +purposeless. He had studied law a little, attended a course or two of +medical lectures, travelled somewhat, dipped into hundreds of books, +read a few with passionate admiration, had lived much with the ablest +men of that day,--a familiar guest at Jefferson's fireside, and no +stranger at President Washington's stately table. Father, mother, and +both brothers were dead. He was lonely, sad, and heavily burdened with +property, with debt, and the care of many dependants. His appearance +was even more singular than his situation. At twenty-three he had +still the aspect of a boy. He actually grew half a head after he was +twenty-three years of age. + + "A tall, gawky-looking, flaxen-haired stripling, apparently + of the age of sixteen or eighteen, with complexion of a good + parchment color, beardless chin, and as much assumed + self-consequence as any two-footed animal I ever saw." + +So he was described by a Charleston bookseller, who saw him in his +store in 1796, carelessly turning over books. "At length," continues +this narrator, + + "he hit upon something that struck his fancy; and never did + I witness so sudden, so perfect a change of the human + countenance. That which was before dull and heavy in a + moment became animated, and flashed with the brightest beams + of intellect. He stepped up to the old gray-headed gentleman + (his companion), and giving him a thundering slap on the + shoulder, said, 'Jack, look at this!'" + +Thus was he described at twenty-three. At twenty-six he was half a +head taller, and quite as slender as before. His light hair was then +combed back into an elegant queue. His eye of hazel was bright and +restless. His chin was still beardless. He wore a frock-coat of light +blue cloth, yellow breeches, silk stockings, and top-boots. Great was +the love he bore his horses, which were numerous, and as good as +Virginia could boast. It is amusing to notice that the horse upon +which this pattern aristocrat used to scamper across the country, in +French-Revolution times, was named _Jacobin_! + +It was in March, 1799, the year before the final victory of the +Republicans over the Federal party, that the neighbors of John +Randolph and John Randolph himself discovered, to their great +astonishment, that he was an orator. He had been nominated for +Representative in Congress. Patrick Henry, aged and infirm, had been +so adroitly manipulated by the Federalists, that he had at length +agreed to speak to the people in support of the hateful administration +of John Adams. John Randolph, who had never in his life addressed an +audience, nor, as he afterwards declared, had ever imagined that he +could do so, suddenly determined, the very evening before the day +named for the meeting, to reply to Patrick Henry. It was an open-air +meeting. No structure in Virginia could have contained the multitude +that thronged to hear the transcendent orator, silent for so many +years, and now summoned from his retirement by General Washington +himself to speak for a Union imperilled and a government assailed. He +spoke with the power of other days? for he was really alarmed for his +country; and when he had finished his impassioned harangue, he sunk +back into the arms of his friends, as one of them said, "like the sun +setting in his glory." For the moment he had all hearts with him. The +sturdiest Republican in Virginia could scarcely resist the spell of +that amazing oratory. + +John Randolph rose to reply. His first sentences showed not only that +he could speak, but that he knew the artifices of an old debater; for +he began by giving eloquent expression to the veneration felt by his +hearers for the aged patriot who had just addressed them. He spoke for +three hours, it is said; and if we may judge from the imperfect +outline of his speech that has come down to us, he spoke as well that +day as ever he did. States' Rights was the burden of his speech. That +the Alien and Sedition Law was an outrage upon human nature, he may +have believed; but what he _felt_ was, that it was an outrage upon the +Commonwealth of Virginia. He may have thought it desirable that all +governments should confine themselves to the simple business of +compelling the faithful performance of contracts; but what he +_insisted upon_ was, that the exercise by the government of the United +States of any power not expressly laid down in the letter of the +Constitution was a wrong to Virginia. If John Adams is right, said he, +in substance, then Virginia has gained nothing by the Revolution but a +change of masters,--New England for Old England,--which he thought was +_not_ a change for the better. + +It was unnecessary, in the Virginia of 1799, for the head of the house +of Randolph to be an orator in order to secure an election to the +House of Representatives. He was elected, of course. When he came +forward to be sworn in, his appearance was so youthful, that the Clerk +of the House asked him, with the utmost politeness, whether he had +attained the legal age. His reply was eminently characteristic of the +tobacco lord: "Go, sir, and ask my _constituents_: they sent me here." +As there was no one present authorized by the Constitution to box the +ears of impudent boys on the floor of the House, he was sworn without +further question. It has often occurred to us that this anecdote, +which John Randolph used to relate with much satisfaction, was typical +of much that has since occurred. The excessive courtesy of the +officer, the insolence of the Virginia tobacconist, the submission of +the Clerk to that insolence,--who has not witnessed such scenes in the +Capitol at Washington? + +It was in December, 1799, that this fiery and erratic genius took his +seat in the House of Representatives. John Adams had still sixteen +months to serve as target for the sarcasm of the young talent of the +nation. To calm readers of the present day, Mr. Adams does really seem +a strange personage to preside over a government; but the cairn reader +of the present day cannot realize the state of things in the year +1800. We cannot conceive what a fright the world had had in the +excesses of the French Revolution, and the recent usurpation of +General Bonaparte. France had made almost every timid man in +Christendom a tory. Serious and respectable people, above forty, and +enjoying a comfortable income, felt that there was only one thing left +for a decent person to do,--to assist in preserving the _authority_ of +government. John Adams, by the constitution of his mind, was as much a +tory as John Randolph; for he too possessed imagination and talent +disproportioned to his understanding. To be a democrat it is necessary +to have a little pure intellect; since your democrat is merely a +person who can, occasionally, see things and men as they are. New +England will always be democratic enough as long as her boys learn +mental arithmetic; and Ireland will always be the haunt of tories as +long as her children are brought up upon songs, legends, and +ceremonies. To make a democratic people, it is only necessary to +accustom them to use their minds. + +Nothing throws such light upon the state of things in the United +States in 1800, as the once famous collision between these two natural +tories, John Adams and John Randolph, which gave instantaneous +celebrity to the new member, and made him an idol of the Republican +party. In his maiden speech, which was in opposition to a proposed +increase of the army, he spoke disparagingly of the troops already +serving, using the words _ragamuffins_ and _mercenaries_. In this +passage of his speech, the partisan spoke, not the man. John Randolph +expressed the real feeling of his nature toward soldiers, when, a few +years later, on the same floor, he said: "If I must have a master, let +him be one with epaulets; something which I can look up to; but not a +master with a quill behind his ear." In 1800, however, it pleased him +to style the soldiers of the United States ragamuffins and +mercenaries; which induced two young officers to push, hustle, and +otherwise discommode and insult him at the theatre. Strange to relate, +this hot Virginian, usually so prompt with a challenge to mortal +combat, reported the misconduct of these officers to the President of +the United States. This eminently proper act he did in an eminently +proper manner, thanks to his transient connection with the Republican +party. Having briefly stated the case, he concluded his letter to the +President thus: + + "The independence of the legislature has been attacked, and + the majesty of the people, of which you are the principal + representative, insulted, and your authority contemned. In + their name, I demand that a provision commensurate with the + evil be made, and which will be calculated to deter others + from any future attempt to introduce the reign of terror + into our country. In addressing you in this plain language + of man, I give you, sir, the best proof I can afford of the + estimation in which I hold your office and your + understanding; and I assure you with truth, that I am, with + respect, your fellow-citizen, John Randolph." + +This language so well accords with our present sense of the becoming, +that a person unacquainted with that period would be unable to point +to a single phrase calculated to give offence. In the year 1800, +however, the President of the United States saw in every expression of +the letter contemptuous and calculated insult. "The majesty of the +people," forsooth! The President merely their "representative"! "plain +language of man"! and "with respect, your fellow-citizen"! To the +heated imaginations of the Federalists of 1800, language of this kind, +addressed to the President, was simply prophetic of the guillotine. So +amazed and indignant was Mr. Adams, that he submitted the letter to +his Cabinet, requesting their opinion as to what should be done with +it. Still more incredible is it, that four members of the Cabinet, in +writing, declared their opinion to be, that "the contemptuous language +therein adopted requires a public censure." They further said, that, + + "if such addresses remain unnoticed, we are apprehensive + that a precedent will be established which must necessarily + destroy the ancient, respectable, and urbane usages of this + country." + +Some lingering remains of good-sense in the other member of the +Cabinet prevented the President from acting upon their advice; and he +merely sent the letter to the House, with the remark that he +"submitted the whole letter and its tendencies" to their +consideration, "without any other comments on its matter and style." + +This affair, trivial as it was, sufficed in that mad time to lift the +young member from Virginia into universal notoriety, and caused him to +be regarded as a shining light of the Republican party. The splendor +of his talents as an orator gave him at once the ear of the House and +the admiration of the Republican side of it; while the fury of his +zeal against the President rendered him most efficient in the +Presidential canvass. No young man, perhaps, did more than he toward +the election of Jefferson and Burr in 1800. He was indeed, at that +time, before disease had wasted him, and while still enjoying the +confidence of the Republican leaders and subject to the needed +restraints of party, a most effective speaker, whether in the House or +upon the stump. He had something of Burke's torrent-like fluency, and +something of Chatham's spirit of command, with a piercing, audacious +sarcasm all his own. He was often unjust and unreasonable, but never +dull. He never spoke in his life without being at least attentively +listened to. + +Mr. Jefferson came into power; and John Randolph, triumphantly +re-elected to Congress, was appointed Chairman of the Committee of +Ways and Means,--a position not less important then than now. He was +the leader of the Republican majority in the House. His social rank, +his talents, his position in the House of Representatives, the +admiration of the party, the confidence of the President, all united +to render him the chief of the young men of the young nation. It was +captivating to the popular imagination to behold this heir of an +ancient house, this possessor of broad lands, this orator of genius, +belonging to the party of the people. He aided to give the Republican +party the only element of power which it lacked,--social +consideration. The party had numbers and talent; but it had not that +which could make a weak, rich man vain of the title of Republican. At +the North, clergy, professors, rich men, were generally Federalists, +and it was therefore peculiarly pleasing to Democrats to point to this +eminent and brilliant Virginian as a member of their party. He +discharged the duties of his position well, showing ability as a man +of business, and living in harmony with his colleagues. As often as he +reached Washington, at the beginning of a session, he found the +President's card (so Colonel Benton tells us) awaiting him for dinner +the next day at the White House, when the great measures of the +session were discussed. It was he who moved the resolutions of respect +for the memory of that consummate republican, that entire and perfect +democrat, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. It was he who arranged the +financial measures required for the purchase of Louisiana, and made no +objection to the purchase. During the first six years of Mr. +Jefferson's Presidency, he shrank from no duty which his party had a +right to claim from him. Whatever there might he narrow or erroneous +in his political creed was neutralized by the sentiment of nationality +which the capital inspires, and by the practical views which must +needs be taken of public affairs by the Chairman of the Committee of +Ways and Means. + +These were the happy years of his life, and the most honorable ones. +Never, since governments have existed, has a country been governed so +wisely, so honestly, and so economically as the United States was +governed during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Randolph himself, +after twenty years of opposition to the policy of this incomparable +ruler, could still say of his administration, that it was the only one +he had ever known which "seriously and in good faith was disposed to +give up its patronage," and which desired to go further in depriving +itself of power than the people themselves had thought. "Jefferson," +said John Randolph in 1828, "was the only man I ever knew or heard of +who really, truly, and honestly, not only said, _Nolo episcopari_, but +actually refused the mitre." + +For six years, as we have said, Mr. Randolph led the Republican party +in the House of Representatives, and supported the measures of the +administration,--all of them. In the spring of 1807, without apparent +cause, he suddenly went into opposition, and from that time opposed +the policy of the administration,--the whole of it. + +Why this change? If there were such a thing as going apprentice to the +art of discovering truth, a master in that art could not set an +apprentice a better preliminary lesson than this: Why did John +Randolph go into opposition in 1807? The gossips of that day had no +difficulty in answering the question. Some said he had asked Mr. +Jefferson for a foreign mission, and been refused. Others thought it +was jealousy of Mr. Madison, who was known to be the President's +choice for the succession. Others surmised that an important state +secret had been revealed to other members of the House, but not to +him. These opinions our tyro would find very positively recorded, and +he would also, in the course of his researches, come upon the +statement that Mr. Randolph himself attributed the breach to his +having beaten the President at a game of chess, which the President +could not forgive. The truth is, that John Randolph bolted for the +same reason that a steel spring resumes its original bent the instant +the restraining force is withdrawn. His position as leader of a party +was irksome, because it obliged him to work in harness, and he had +never been broken to harness. His party connection bound him to side +with France in the great contest then raging between France and +England, and yet his whole soul sympathized with England. This native +Virginian was more consciously and positively English than any native +of England ever was. English literature had nourished his mind; +English names captivated his imagination; English traditions, +feelings, instincts, habits, prejudices, were all congenial to his +nature. How hard for such a man to side officially with Napoleon in +those gigantic wars! Abhorring Napoleon with all a Randolph's force of +antipathy, it was nevertheless expected of him, as a good Republican, +to interpret leniently the man who, besides being the armed soldier of +democracy, had sold Louisiana to the United States. Randolph, +moreover, was an absolute aristocrat. He delighted to tell the House +of Representatives that he, being a Virginian slaveholder, was _not_ +obliged to curry favor with his coachman or his shoeblack, lest when +he drove to the polls the coachman should dismount from his box, or +the shoeblack drop his brushes, and neutralize their master's vote by +voting on the other side. How he exulted in the fact that in Virginia +none but freeholders could vote! How happy he was to boast, that, in +all that Commonwealth, there was no such thing as a ballot-box! "May I +never live to see the day," he would exclaim, "when a Virginian shall +be ashamed to declare aloud at the polls for whom he casts his vote!" +What pleasure he took in speaking of his Virginia wilderness as a +"barony," and signing his name "John Randolph of Roanoke," and in +wearing the garments that were worn in Virginia when the great tobacco +lords were running through their estates in the fine old picturesque +and Irish fashion! + +Obviously, an antique of this pattern was out of place as a leader in +the Republican party. For a time the spell of Jefferson's winning +genius, and the presence of a powerful opposition, kept him in some +subjection; but in 1807 that spell had spent its force, and the +Federal party was not formidable. John Randolph was himself again. The +immediate occasion of the rupture was, probably, Mr. Jefferson's +evident preference of James Madison as his successor. We have a right +to infer this, from the extreme and lasting rancor which Randolph +exhibited toward Mr. Madison, who he used to say was as mean a man for +a Virginian as John Quincy Adams was for a Yankee. Nor ought we ever +to speak of this gifted and unhappy man without considering his +physical condition. It appears from the slight notices we have of this +vital matter, that about the year 1807 the stock of vigor which his +youth had acquired was gone, and he lived thenceforth a miserable +invalid, afflicted with diseases that sharpen the temper and narrow +the mind. John Randolph _well_ might have outgrown inherited +prejudices and limitations, and attained to the stature of a modern, a +national, a republican man. John Randolph _sick_--radically and +incurably sick--ceased to grow just when his best growth would +naturally have begun. + +The sudden defection of a man so conspicuous and considerable, at a +time when the Republican party was not aware of its strength, struck +dismay to many minds, who felt, with Jefferson, that to the Republican +party in the United States were confided the best interests of human +nature. Mr. Jefferson was not in the least alarmed, because he knew +the strength of the party and the weakness of the man. The letter +which he wrote on this subject to Mr. Monroe ought to be learned by +heart by every politician in the country,--by the self-seekers, for +the warning which it gives them, and by the patriotic, for the comfort +which it affords them in time of trouble. Some readers, perhaps, will +be reminded by it of events which occurred at Washington not longer +ago than last winter.[1] + + "Our old friend Mercer broke off from us some time ago; at + first, professing to disdain joining the Federalists; yet, + from the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified + with them. Without carrying over with him one single person, + he is now in a state of as perfect obscurity as if his name + had never been known. Mr. J. Randolph is in the same track, + and will end in the same way. His course has excited + considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the + weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent in + pieces by demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the + scene with a different eye, and draw a different augury from + it. In a House of Representatives of a great mass of good + sense, Mr. Randolph's popular eloquence gave him such + advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the + House; and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, + principles of duty and patriotism induced many of them to + swallow humiliations he subjected them to, and to vote as + was right, as long as he kept the path of right himself. The + sudden departure of such a man could not but produce a + momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment + only. The good sense of the House rallied around its + principles, and, without any leader, pursued steadily the + business of the session, did it well, and by a strength of + vote which has never before been seen.... The augury I draw + from this is, that there is a steady good sense in the + legislature and in the body of the nation, joined with good + intentions, which will lead them to discern and to pursue + the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and + that no _ignis fatuus_ will be able to lead them long + astray." + +Mr. Jefferson predicted that the lost sheep of the Republican fold +would wander off to the arid wastes of Federalism; but he never did +so. His defection was not an inconsistency, but a return to +consistency. He presented himself in his true character thenceforth, +which was that of a States' Rights fanatic. He opposed the election of +Mr. Madison to the Presidency, as he said, because Mr. Madison was +weak on the sovereignty of the States. He opposed the war of 1812 for +two reasons:--1. Offensive war was in itself unconstitutional, being a +_national_ act. 2. War was nationalizing. A hundred times before the +war, he foretold that, if war occurred, the sovereignty of the States +was gone forever, and we should lapse into nationality. A thousand +times after the war, he declared that this dread lapse had occurred. +At a public dinner, after the return of peace, he gave the once +celebrated toast, "States' Rights,--_De mortuis nil nisi bonum_." As +before the war he sometimes affected himself to tears while dwelling +upon the sad prospect of kindred people imbruing their hands in one +another's blood, so during the war he was one of the few American +citizens who lamented the triumphs of their country's arms. In his +solitude at Roanoke he was cast down at the news of Perry's victory on +the lake, because he thought it would prolong the contest; and he +exulted in the banishment of Napoleon to Elba, although it let loose +the armies and fleets of Britain upon the United States. "That +insolent coward," said he, "has met his deserts at last." This +Virginia Englishman would not allow that Napoleon possessed even +military talent; but stoutly maintained, to the last, that he was the +merest sport of fortune. When the work of restoration was in progress, +under the leadership of Clay and Calhoun, John Randolph was in his +element, for he could honestly oppose every movement and suggestion of +those young orators,--national bank, protective tariff, internal +improvements, everything. He was one of the small number who objected +to the gift of land and money to Lafayette, and one of the stubborn +minority who would have seen the Union broken up rather than assent to +the Missouri Compromise, or to _any_ Missouri compromise. The question +at issue in all these measures, he maintained, was the same, and it +was this: Are we a nation or a confederacy? + +Talent, too, is apt to play the despot over the person that possesses +it. This man had such a power of witty vituperation in him, with so +decided a histrionic gift, that his rising to speak was always an +interesting event; and he would occasionally hold both the House and +the galleries attentive for three or four hours. He became accustomed +to this homage; he craved it; it became necessary to him. As far back +as 1811, Washington Irving wrote of him, in one of his letters from +Washington: + + "There is no speaker in either House that excites such + universal attention as Jack Randolph. But they listen to him + more to be delighted by his eloquence and entertained by his + ingenuity and eccentricity, than to be convinced by sound + doctrine and close argument." + +As he advanced in age, this habit of startling the House by unexpected +dramatic exhibitions grew upon him. One of the most vivid pictures +ever painted in words of a parliamentary scene is that in which the +late Mr. S.G. Goodrich records his recollection of one of these +displays. It occurred in 1820, during one of the Missouri debates. A +tall man, with a little head and a small oval face, like that of an +aged boy, rose and addressed the chairman. + +"He paused a moment," wrote Mr. Goodrich, + + "and I had time to study his appearance. His hair was + jet-black, and clubbed in a queue; his eye was black, small, + and painfully penetrating. His complexion was a + yellowish-brown, bespeaking Indian blood. I knew at once + that it must be John Randolph. As he uttered the words, 'Mr. + Speaker!' every member turned in his seat, and, facing him, + gazed as if some portent had suddenly appeared before them. + 'Mr. Speaker,' said he, in a shrill voice, which, however, + pierced every nook and corner of the hall, 'I have but one + word to say,--one word, sir, and that is to state a fact. + The measure to which the gentleman has just alluded + originated in a dirty trick!' These were his precise words. + The subject to which he referred I did not gather, but the + coolness and impudence of the speaker were admirable in + their way. I never saw better acting, even in Kean. His + look, his manner, his long arm, his elvish + fore-finger,--like an exclamation-point, punctuating his + bitter thought,--showed the skill of a master. The effect of + the whole was to startle everybody, as if a pistol-shot had + rung through the hall."--_Recollections_, Vol. II. p. 395. + +Such anecdotes as these, which are very numerous, both in and out of +print, convey an inadequate idea of his understanding; for there was +really a great fund of good sense in him and in his political creed. +Actor as he was, he was a very honest man, and had a hearty contempt +for all the kinds of falsehood which he had no inclination to commit. +No man was more restive under debt than he, or has better depicted its +horrors. Speaking once of those Virginia families who gave banquets +and kept up expensive establishments, while their estates were covered +all over with mortgages, he said: "I always think I can see the +anguish under the grin and grimace, like old Mother Cole's dirty +flannel peeping out beneath her Brussels lace." He was strong in the +opinion that a man who is loose in money matters is not trustworthy in +anything,--an opinion which is shared by every one who knows either +life or history. "The time was," he wrote, + + "when I was fool enough to believe that a man might be + negligent of pecuniary obligations, and yet be a very good + fellow; but long experience has convinced me that he who is + lax in this respect is utterly unworthy of trust in any + other." + +He discriminated well between those showy, occasional acts of +so-called generosity which such men perform, and the true, habitual, +self-denying benevolence of a solvent and just member of society. +"Despise the usurer and the miser as much as you will," he would +exclaim, "but the spendthrift is more selfish than they." But his very +honesty was most curiously blended with his toryism. One of his +friends relates the following anecdote:-- + + "Just before we sailed, the Washington papers were received, + announcing the defeat of the Bankrupt Bill by a small + majority. At that moment, I forgot that Randolph had been + one of its most determined opponents, and I spoke with the + feelings of a merchant when I said to him,-- + + "'Have you heard the very bad news from Washington this + morning?' + + "'No, sir,' replied he, with eagerness; 'what is it?' + + "'Why, sir, I am sorry to tell you that the House of + Representatives has thrown out the Bankrupt Bill by a small + majority.' + + "'Sorry, sir!' exclaimed he; and then, taking off his hat + and looking upwards, he added, most emphatically, 'Thank God + for all his mercies!' + + "After a short pause he continued: 'How delighted I am to + think that I helped to give that hateful bill a kick. Yes, + sir, this very day week I spoke for three hours against it, + and my friends, who forced me to make the effort, were good + enough to say that I never had made a more successful + speech; it must have had _some_ merit, sir; for I assure + you, whilst I was speaking, although the Northern mail was + announced, not a single member left his seat to look for + letters,--a circumstance which had not occurred before + during the session!' + + "I endeavored to combat his objections to a Bankrupt Bill + subsequently, but, of course, without any success: _he felt + as a planter, and was very jealous of the influence of + merchants as legislators_." + +There are flashes of sense and touches of pathos in some of his most +tory passages. As he was delivering in the House one of his emphatic +predictions of the certain failure of our experiment of freedom on +this continent, he broke into an apology for so doing, that brought +tears to many eyes. "It is an infirmity of my nature," said he, + + "to have an obstinate constitutional preference of the true + over the agreeable; and I am satisfied, that, if I had had + an only son, or what is dearer, an only daughter,--which God + forbid!--I say, God forbid, for she might bring her father's + gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; she might break my + heart, or worse than that--what? Can anything be worse than + that? Yes, sir, I _might break hers_!" + +His fable, too, of the caterpillar and the horseman was conceived in +arrogance, but it was pretty and effective. Every tory intellect on +earth is pleased to discourse in that way of the labors of the only +men who greatly help their species,--the patient elaborators of truth. +A caterpillar, as we learn from this fable, had crawled slowly over a +fence, which a gallant horseman took at a single leap. "Stop," says +the caterpillar, + + "you are too flighty; you want connection and continuity; it + took me an hour to get over; you can't be as sure as I am + that you have really overcome the difficulty, and are indeed + over the fence." + +To which, of course, the gallant horseman makes the expected +contemptuous reply. This is precisely in the spirit of Carlyle's +sneers at the political economists,--the men who are not content to +sit down and howl in this wilderness of a modern world, but bestir +themselves to discover methods by which it can be made less a +wilderness. + +There is so much truth in the doctrines of the original States' Rights +party,--the party of Jefferson, Madison, and Patrick Henry,--that a +very commonplace man, who learned his politics in that school, is able +to make a respectable figure in the public counsels. The mere notion +that government, being a necessary evil, is to be reduced to the +minimum that will answer the purposes of government, saves from many +false steps. The doctrine that the central government is to confine +itself to the duties assigned it in the Constitution, is a guiding +principle suited to the limited human mind. A vast number of claims, +suggestions, and petitions are excluded by it even from consideration. +If an eloquent Hamiltonian proposes to appropriate the public money +for the purpose of enabling American manufacturers to exhibit their +products at a Paris Exhibition, the plainest country member of the +Jeffersonian school perceives at once the inconsistency of such a +proposition with the fundamental principle of his political creed. He +has a compass to steer by, and a port to sail to, instead of being +afloat on the waste of waters, the sport of every breeze that blows. +It is touching to observe that this unhappy, sick, and sometimes mad +John Randolph, amid all the vagaries of his later life, had always a +vein of soundness in him, derived from his early connection with the +enlightened men who acted in politics with Thomas Jefferson. The +phrase "masterly inactivity" is Randolph's; and it is something only +to have given convenient expression to a system of conduct so often +wise. He used to say that Congress could scarcely do too little. His +ideal of a session was one in which members should make speeches till +every man had fully expressed and perfectly relieved his mind, then +pass the appropriation bills, and go home. And we ought not to forgot +that, when President John Quincy Adams brought forward his schemes for +covering the continent with magnificent works at the expense of the +treasury of the United States, and of uniting the republics of both +Americas into a kind of holy alliance, it was Randolph's piercing +sarcasm which, more than anything else, made plain to new members the +fallacy, the peril, of such a system. His opposition to this wild +federalism involved his support of Andrew Jackson; but there was no +other choice open to him. + +Seldom did he display in Congress so much audacity and ingenuity as in +defending General Jackson while he was a candidate for the Presidency +against Mr. Adams. The two objections oftenest urged against Jackson +were that he was a military chieftain, and that he could not spell. +Mr. Randolph discoursed on these two points in a most amusing manner, +displaying all the impudence and ignorance of the tory, inextricably +mingled with the good sense and wit of the man. "General Jackson +cannot write," said a friend. "Granted," replied he. "General Jackson +cannot write because he was never taught; but his competitor cannot +write because he was not teachable." He made a bold remark in one of +his Jacksonian harangues. "The talent which enables a man to write a +book or make a speech has no more relation to the leading of an army +or a senate, than it has to the dressing of a dinner." He pronounced a +fine eulogium on the Duke of Marlborough, one of the worst spellers in +Europe, and then asked if gentlemen would have had that illustrious +man "superseded by a Scotch schoolmaster." It was in the same +ludicrous harangue that he uttered his famous joke upon those schools +in which young ladies were said to be "finished." "Yes," he exclaimed, +"_finished_ indeed; finished for all the duties of a wife, or mother, +or mistress of a family." Again he said: + + "There is much which it becomes a second-rate man to know, + which a first-rate man ought to be ashamed to know. No head + was ever clear and sound that was stuffed with + book-learning. My friend, W.R. Johnson, has many a groom + that can clean and dress a racehorse, and ride him too, + better than he can." + +He made the sweeping assertion, that no man had ever presided over a +government with advantage to the country governed, who had not in him +the making of a good general; for, said he, "the talent for government +lies in these two things,--sagacity to perceive, and decision to act." +Really, when we read this ingenious apology for, or rather eulogy of, +ignorance, we cease to wonder that General Jackson should have sent +him to Russia. + +The religious life of Randolph is a most curious study. He experienced +in his lifetime four religious changes, or conversions. His gentle +mother, whose name he seldom uttered without' adding with tender +emphasis, "God bless her!" was such a member of the Church of England +as gentle ladies used to be before an "Evangelical" party was known in +it. She taught his infant lips to pray; and, being naturally trustful +and affectionate, he was not an unapt pupil. But in the library of the +old mansion on the Appomattox, in which he passed his forming years, +there was a "wagon-load" of what he terms "French infidelity," though +it appears there were almost as many volumes of Hobbes, Shaftesbury, +Collins, Hume, and Gibbon, as there were of Diderot, D'Alembert, +Helvetius, and Voltaire. These works he read in boyhood; and when he +came to mingle among men, he found that the opinions of such authors +prevailed in the circles which he most frequented. Just as he, a +natural tory, caught some tincture of republicanism from Jefferson and +his friends, so he, the natural believer, adopted the fashion of +scepticism, which then ruled the leading minds of all lands; and just +as he lapsed back into toryism when the spell which drew him away from +it had spent its force, so he became, in the decline of his powers, a +prey to religious terrors. For twenty-two years, as we have said, he +held aloof from religion, its ministers, and its temples. The disease +that preyed upon him so sharpened his temper, and so perverted his +perceptions of character, that, one after another, he alienated all +the friends and relations with whom he ought to have lived; and he +often found himself, between the sessions of Congress, the sole white +tenant of his lonely house at Roanoke,--the sick and solitary +patriarch of a family of three hundred persons. He sought to alleviate +this horrid solitude by adopting and rearing the orphaned sons of old +friends; to whom, when he was himself, he was the most affectionate +and generous of guardians. But even they could not very long endure +him; for, in His adverse moods, he was incarnate Distrust, and, having +conceived a foul suspicion, his genius enabled him to give it such +withering expression that it was not in the nature of a young man to +pass it by as the utterance of transient madness. So they too left +him, and he was utterly alone in the midst of a crowd of black +dependants. We see from his letters, that, while he saw the +impossibility of his associating with his species, he yet longed and +pined for their society and love. Perhaps there never lived a more +unhappy person. Revering women, and formed to find his happiness in +domestic life, he was incapable of being a husband; and if this had +not been the case, no woman could have lived with him. Yearning for +companionship, but condemned to be alone, his solace was the +reflection that, so long as there was no one near him, he was a +torment only to himself. "Often," he writes in one of his letters, + + "I mount my horse and sit upon him for ten or fifteen + minutes, wishing to go somewhere, but not knowing where to + ride; for I would escape anywhere from the incubus that + weighs me down, body and soul; but the fiend follows me _en + croupe_.... The strongest considerations of duty are barely + sufficient to prevent me from absconding to some distant + country, where I might live and die unknown." + +A mind in such a state as this is the natural prey of superstition. A +dream, he used to say, first recalled his mind to the consideration of +religion. This was about the year 1810, at the height of those hot +debates that preceded the war of 1812. For nine years, he tells us, +the subject gradually gained upon him, so that, at last, it was his +first thought in the morning and his last at night. From the atheism +upon which he had formerly plumed himself, he went to the opposite +extreme. For a long time he was plunged into the deepest gloom, +regarding himself as a sinner too vile to be forgiven. He sought for +comfort in the Bible, in the Prayer-book, in conversation and +correspondence with religious friends, in the sermons of celebrated +preachers. He formed a scheme of retiring from the world into some +kind of religious retreat, and spending the rest of his life in +prayers and meditation. Rejecting this as a cowardly desertion of the +post of duty, he had thoughts of setting up a school for children, and +becoming himself a teacher in it. This plan, too, he laid aside, as +savoring of enthusiasm. Meanwhile, this amiable and honest gentleman, +whose every error was fairly attributable to the natural limitations +of his mind or to the diseases that racked his body, was tormented by +remorse, which would have been excessive if he had been a pirate. He +says that, after three years of continual striving, he still dared not +partake of the Communion, feeling himself "unworthy." "I was present," +he writes, "when Mr. Hoge invited to the table, and I would have given +all I was worth to have been able to approach it." Some inkling of his +condition, it appears, became known to the public, and excited great +good-will towards him on the part of many persons of similar belief. + +Some of his letters written during this period contain an almost +ludicrous mixture of truth and extravagance. He says in one of them, +that his heart has been softened, and he "_thinks_ he has _succeeded_ +in forgiving all his enemies"; then he adds, "There is not a human +being that I would hurt if it were in my power,--not even Bonaparte." +In another place he remarks that the world is a vast mad-house, and, +"if what is to come be anything like what has passed, it would be wise +to abandon the bulk to the underwriters,--the worms." In the whole of +his intercourse with mankind, he says he never met with but three +persons whom he did not, on getting close to their hearts, discover to +be unhappy; and they were the only three he had ever known who had a +religion. He expresses this truth in language which limits it to one +form or kind of religion, the kind which he heard expounded in the +churches of Virginia in 1819. Give it broader expression, and every +observer of human life will assent to it. It is indeed most true, that +no human creature gets much out of life who has no religion, no sacred +object, to the furtherance of which his powers are dedicated. + +He obtained some relief at length, and became a regular communicant of +the Episcopal Church. But although he ever after manifested an extreme +regard for religious things and persons, and would never permit either +to be spoken against in his presence without rebuke, he was very far +from edifying his brethren by a consistent walk. At Washington, in the +debates, he was as incisive and uncharitable as before. His +denunciations of the second President Adams's personal character were +as outrageous as his condemnation of parts of his policy was just. Mr. +Clay, though removed from the arena of debate by his appointment to +the Department of State, was still the object of his bitter sarcasm; +and at length he included the President and the Secretary in that +merciless philippic in which he accused Mr. Clay of forgery, and +styled the coalition of Adams and Clay as "the combination of the +Puritan and the Blackleg." He used language, too, in the course of +this speech, which was understood to be a defiance to mortal combat, +and it was so reported to Mr. Clay. The reporters, however, +misunderstood him, as it was not his intention nor his desire to +fight. Nevertheless, to the astonishment and sorrow of his religious +friends, he accepted Mr. Clay's challenge with the utmost possible +promptitude, and bore himself throughout the affair like (to use the +poor, lying, tory cant of the last generation) "a high-toned Virginia +gentleman." Colonel Benton tells us that Mr. Randolph invented an +ingenious excuse for the enormous inconsistency of his conduct on this +occasion. A duel, he maintained, was private war, and was justifiable +on the same ground as a war between two nations. Both were lamentable, +but both were allowable when there was no other way of getting redress +for insults and injuries. This was plausible, but it did not deceive +_him_. He knew very well that his offensive language respecting a man +whom he really esteemed was wholly devoid of excuse. He had the +courage requisite to expiate the offence by standing before Mr. Clay's +pistol; but he could not stand before his countrymen and confess that +his abominable antithesis was but the spurt of mingled ill-temper and +the vanity to shine. Any good tory can fight a duel with a respectable +degree of composure; but to own one's self, in the presence of a +nation, to have outraged the feelings of a brother-man, from the +desire to startle and amuse an audience, requires the kind of valor +which tories do not know. "Whig and tory," says Mr. Jefferson, "belong +to natural history." But then there is such a thing, we are told, as +the regeneration of the natural man; and we believe it, and cling to +it as a truth destined one day to be resuscitated and purified from +the mean interpretations which have made the very word sickening to +the intelligence of Christendom. Mr. Randolph had not achieved the +regeneration of his nature. He was a tory still. In the testing hour, +the "high-toned Virginia gentleman" carried the day, without a +struggle, over the communicant. + +During the last years of his life, the monotony of his anguish was +relieved by an occasional visit to the Old World. It is interesting to +note how thoroughly at home he felt himself among the English gentry, +and how promptly they recognized him as a man and a brother. He was, +as we have remarked, _more_ English than an Englishman; for England +does advance, though slowly, from the insular to the universal. Dining +at a great house in London, one evening, he dwelt with pathetic +eloquence upon the decline of Virginia. Being asked what he thought +was the reason of her decay, he startled and pleased the lords and +ladies present by attributing it all to the repeal of the law of +primogeniture. One of the guests tells us that this was deemed "a +strange remark from a _Republican_" and that, before the party broke +up, the company had "almost taken him for an aristocrat." It happened +sometimes, when he was conversing with English politicians, that it +was the American who defended the English system against the attacks +of Englishmen; and so full of British prejudice was he, that, in +Paris, he protested that a decent dinner could not be bought for +money. Westminster Abbey woke all his veneration. He went into it, one +morning, just as service was about beginning, and took his place among +the worshippers. Those of our readers who have attended the morning +service at an English cathedral on a week-day cannot have forgotten +the ludicrous smallness of the congregation compared with the imposing +array of official assistants. A person who has a little tincture of +the Yankee in him may even find himself wondering how it can "pay" the +British empire to employ half a dozen reverend clergymen and a dozen +robust singers to aid seven or eight unimportant members of the +community in saying their prayers. But John Randolph of Roanoke had +not in him the least infusion of Yankee. Standing erect in the almost +vacant space, he uttered the responses in a tone that was in startling +contrast to the low mumble of the clergyman's voice, and that rose +above the melodious amens of the choir. He took it all in most serious +earnest. When the service was over, he said to his companion, after +lamenting the hasty and careless manner in which the service had been +performed, that he esteemed it an honor to have worshipped God in +Westminster Abbey. As he strolled among the tombs, he came, at last, +to the grave of two men who had often roused his enthusiasm. He +stopped, and spoke: + + "I will not say, Take off your shoes, for the ground on + which you stand is holy; but, look, sir, do you see those + simple letters on the flagstones beneath your feet,--W.P. + and C.J.F. Here lie, side by side, the remains of the two + great rivals, Pitt and Fox, whose memory so completely lives + in history. No marble monuments are necessary to mark the + spot where _their_ bodies repose. There is more simple + grandeur in those few letters than in all the surrounding + monuments, sir." + +How more than English was all this! England had been growing away from +and beyond Westminster Abbey, William Pitt, and Charles James Fox; but +this Virginia Englishman, living alone in his woods, with his slaves +and his overseers, severed from the progressive life of his race, was +living still in the days when a pair of dissolute young orators could +be deemed, and with some reason too, the most important persons in a +great empire. A friend asked him how he was pleased with England. He +answered with enthusiasm,-- + + "There never was such a country on the face of the earth as + England, and it is utterly impossible that there can be any + combination of circumstances hereafter to make such another + country as Old England now is!" + +We ought not to have been surprised at the sympathy which the English +Tories felt during the late war for their brethren in the Southern +States of America. It was as natural as it was for the English +Protestants to welcome the banished Huguenots. It was as natural as it +was for Louis XIV. to give an asylum to the Stuarts. The traveller who +should have gone, seven years ago, straight from an English +agricultural county to a cotton district of South Carolina, or a +tobacco county of Virginia, would have felt that the differences +between the two places were merely external. The system in both places +and the spirit of both were strikingly similar. In the old parts of +Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you had only to get +ten miles from a railroad to find yourself among people who were +English in their feelings, opinions, habits, and even in their accent. +New England differs from Old England, because New England has grown: +Virginia was English, because she had been stationary. Happening to be +somewhat familiar with the tone of feeling in the South,--the _real_ +South, or, in other words, the South ten miles from a railroad,--we +were fully prepared for Mr. Russell's statement with regard to the +desire so frequently expressed in 1861 for one of the English princes +to come and reign over a nascent Confederacy. Sympathies and +antipathies are always mutual when they are natural; and never was +there a sympathy more in accordance with the nature of things, than +that which so quickly manifested itself between the struggling +Southern people and the majority of the ruling classes of Great +Britain. + +Mr. Randolph took leave of public life, after thirty years of service, +not in the most dignified manner. He furnished another illustration of +the truth of a remark made by a certain queen of Denmark,--"The lady +doth protest too much." Like many other gentlemen in independent +circumstances, he had been particularly severe upon those of his +fellow-citizens who earned their subsistence by serving the public. It +pleased him to speak of members of the Cabinet as "the drudges of the +departments," and to hold gentlemen in the diplomatic service up to +contempt as forming "the tail of the _corps diplomatique_ in Europe." +He liked to declaim upon the enormous impossibility of _his_ ever +exchanging a seat in Congress for "the shabby splendors" of an office +in Washington, or in a foreign mission "to dance attendance abroad +instead of at home." When it was first buzzed about in Washington, in +1830, that General Jackson had tendered the Russian mission to John +Randolph, the rumor was not credited. An appointment so exquisitely +absurd was supposed to be beyond even Andrew Jackson's audacity. The +offer had been made, however. Mr. Randolph's brilliant defence of +General Jackson's bad spelling, together with Mr. Van Buren's +willingness to place an ocean between the new administration and a +master of sarcasm, to whom opposition had become an unchangeable +habit, had dictated an offer of the mission, couched in such seductive +language that Mr. Randolph yielded to it as readily as those ladies +accept an offer of marriage who have often announced their intention +never to marry. Having reached the scene of his diplomatic labors at +the beginning of August, he began to perform them with remarkable +energy. In a suit of black, the best, he declared, that London could +furnish, he was presented to the Emperor and to the Empress, having +first submitted his costume to competent inspection. Resolute to do +his whole duty, he was not content to send his card to the diplomatic +corps, but, having engaged a handsome coach and four, he called upon +each member of the diplomatic body, from the ambassadors to the +secretaries of legation. Having performed these labors, and having +discovered that a special object with which he was charged could not +then be accomplished, he had leisure to observe that St. Petersburg, +in the month of August, is not a pleasant residence to an invalid of +sixty. He describes the climate in these terms:-- + + "Heat, dust impalpable, pervading every part and pore ... + Insects of all nauseous descriptions, bugs, fleas, + mosquitoes, flies innumerable, gigantic as the empire they + inhabit, who will take no denial. This is the land of + Pharaoh and his plagues,--Egypt and its ophthalmia and + vermin, without its fertility,--Holland, without its wealth, + improvements, or cleanliness." + +He endured St. Petersburg for the space of ten days, then sailed for +England, and never saw Russia again. When the appropriation bill was +before Congress at the next session, opposition members did not fail +to call in question the justice of requiring the people of the United +States to pay twenty thousand dollars for Mr. Randolph's ten days' +work, or, to speak more exactly, for Mr. Randolph's apology for the +President's bad spelling; but the item passed, nevertheless. During +the reign of Andrew Jackson, Congress was little more than a board of +registry for the formal recording of his edicts. There are those who +think, at the present moment, that what a President hath done, a +President may do again. + +It was fortunate that John Randolph was in retirement when Calhoun +brought on his Nullification scheme. The presence in Congress of a man +so eloquent and so reckless, whose whole heart and mind were with the +Nullifiers, might have prevented the bloodless postponement of the +struggle. He was in constant correspondence with the South Carolina +leaders, and was fully convinced that it was the President of the +United States, not "the Hamiltons and Haynes" of South Carolina, who +ought to seize the first pretext to concede the point in dispute. No +citizen of South Carolina was more indignant than he at General +Jackson's Proclamation. He said that, if the people did not rouse +themselves to a sense of their condition, and "put down this wretched +old man," the country was irretrievably ruined; and he spoke of the +troops despatched to Charleston as "mercenaries," to whom he hoped "no +quarter would be given." The "wretched old man" whom the people were +to "put down" was Andrew Jackson, not John C. Calhoun. + +We do not forget that, when John Randolph uttered these words, he was +scarcely an accountable being. Disease had reduced him to a skeleton, +and robbed him of almost every attribute of man except his capacity to +suffer. But even in his madness he was a representative man, and spoke +the latent feeling of his class. The diseases which sharpened his +temper unloosed his tongue; he revealed the tendency of the Southern +mind, as a petulant child reveals family secrets. In his good and in +his evil he was an exaggerated Southerner of the higher class. He was +like them, too, in this: they are not criminals to be punished, but +patients to be cured. Sometimes, of late, we have feared that they +resemble him also in being incurable. + +As long as Americans take an interest in the history of their country, +they will read with interest the strange story of this sick and +suffering representative of sick and suffering Virginia. To the last, +old Virginia wore her ragged robes with a kind of grandeur which was +not altogether unbecoming, and which to the very last imposed upon +tory minds. Scarcely any one could live among the better Southern +people without liking them; and few will ever read Hugh Garland's Life +of John Randolph, without more than forgiving all his vagaries, +impetuosities, and foibles. How often, upon riding away from a +Southern home, have we been ready to exclaim, "What a pity such good +people should be so accursed!" Lord Russell well characterized the +evil to which we allude as "that fatal gift of the poisoned garment +which was flung around them from the first hour of their +establishment." + +The last act of John Randolph's life, done when he lay dying at a +hotel in Philadelphia, in June, 1833, was to express once more his +sense of this blighting system. Some years before, he had made a will +by which all his slaves were to be freed at his death. He would +probably have given them their freedom before his death, but for the +fact, too evident, that freedom to a black man in a Slave State was +not a boon. The slaves freed by his brother, forty years' before, had +not done well, because (as he supposed) no land had been bequeathed +for their support. Accordingly, he left directions in his will that a +tract of land, which might be of four thousand acres, should be set +apart for the maintenance of his slaves, and that they should be +transported to it and established upon it at the expense of his +estate. "I give my slaves their freedom" said he in his will, "to +which my conscience tells me they are justly entitled." On the last +day of his life, surrounded by strangers, and attended by two of his +old servants, his chief concern was to make distinctly known to as +many persons as possible that it was really his will that his slaves +should be free. Knowing, as he did, the aversion which his +fellow-citizens had to the emancipation of slaves, and even to the +presence in the State of free blacks, he seemed desirous of taking +away every pretext for breaking his will. A few hours before his +death, he said to the physician in attendance: "I confirm every +disposition in my will, especially that concerning my slaves whom I +have manumitted, and for whom I have made provision." The doctor, soon +after, took leave of him, and was about to depart. "You must not go," +said he, "you cannot, you shall not leave me." He told his servant not +to let the doctor go, and the man immediately locked the door and put +the key in his pocket. The doctor remonstrating, Mr. Randolph +explained, that, by the laws of Virginia, in order to manumit slaves +by will, it was requisite that the master should _declare_ his will in +that particular in the presence of a white witness, who, after hearing +the declaration, must never lose sight of the party until he is dead. +The doctor consented, at length, to remain, but urged that more +witnesses should be sent for. This was done. At ten in the morning, +four gentlemen were ranged in a semicircle round his bed. He was +propped up almost in a sitting posture, and a blanket was wrapped +round his head and shoulders. His face was yellow, and extremely +emaciated; he was very weak, and it required all the remaining energy +of his mind to endure the exertion he was about to make. It was +evident to all present that his whole soul was in the act, and his eye +gathered fire as he performed it. Pointing toward the witnesses with +that gesture which for so many years had been familiar to the House of +Representatives, he said, slowly and distinctly: "I confirm all the +directions in my will respecting my slaves, and direct them to be +enforced, particularly in regard to a provision for their support." +Then, raising his hand and placing it upon the shoulder of his +servant, he added, "Especially for this man." Having performed this +act, his mind appeared relieved, but his strength immediately left +him, and in two hours he breathed his last. + +The last of the Randolphs, and one of the best representatives of the +original masters of Virginia, the high-toned Virginia gentleman, was +no more. Those men had their opportunity, but they had not strength of +character equal to it. They were tried and found wanting. The +universe, which loves not the high-toned, even in violins, disowned +them, and they perished. Cut off from the life-giving current of +thought and feeling which kept the rest of Christendom advancing, they +came to love stagnation, and looked out from their dismal, isolated +pool with lofty contempt at the gay and active life on the flowing +stream. They were not teachable, for they despised the men who could +have taught them. But we are bound always to consider that they were +subjected to a trial under which human virtue has always given way, +and will always. Sudden wealth is itself sufficient to spoil any but +the very best men,--those who can instantly set it at work for the +general good, and continue to earn an honest livelihood by faithful +labor. But those tobacco lords of Virginia, besides making large +fortunes in a few years, were the absolute, irresponsible masters of a +submissive race. And when these two potent causes of effeminacy and +pride had worked out their proper result in the character of the +masters, then, behold! their resources fail. Vicious agriculture +exhausts the soil, false political economy prevents the existence of a +middle class, and the presence of slaves repels emigration. Proud, +ignorant, indolent, dissolute, and in debt, the dominant families, one +after another, passed away, attesting to the last, by an occasional +vigorous shoot, the original virtue of the stock. All this poor John +Randolph represented and was. + +Virginia remains. Better men will live in it than have ever yet lived +there; but it will not be in this century, and possibly not in the +next. It cannot be that so fair a province will not be one day +inhabited by a race of men who will work according to the laws of +nature, and whom, therefore, the laws of nature will co-operate with +and preserve. How superior will such Virginians be to what Dr. Francis +Lieber styles the "provincial egotism" of State sovereignty! + +[Footnote 1: 1865-6.] + + + +STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE. + +Within the memory of many persons still alive, "old Girard," as the +famous banker was usually styled, a short, stout, brisk old gentleman, +used to walk, in his swift, awkward way, the streets of the lower part +of Philadelphia. Though everything about him indicated that he had +very little in common with his fellow-citizens, he was the marked man +of the city for more than a generation. His aspect was rather +insignificant and quite unprepossessing. His dress was old-fashioned +and shabby; and he wore the pig-tail, the white neck-cloth, the +wide-brimmed hat, and the large-skirted coat of the last century. He +was blind of one eye; and though his bushy eyebrows gave some +character to his countenance, it was curiously devoid of expression. +He had also the absent look of a man who either had no thoughts or was +absorbed in thought; and he shuffled along on his enormous feet, +looking neither to the right nor to the left. There was always a +certain look of the old mariner about him, though he had been fifty +years an inhabitant of the town. When he rode it was in the plainest, +least comfortable gig in Philadelphia, drawn by an ancient and +ill-formed horse, driven always by the master's own hand at a good +pace. He chose still to live where he had lived for fifty years, in +Water Street, close to the wharves, in a small and inconvenient house, +darkened by tall storehouses, amid the bustle, the noise, and the +odors of commerce. His sole pleasure was to visit once a day a little +farm which he possessed a few miles out of town, where he was wont to +take off his coat, roll up his shirt-sleeves, and personally labor in +the field and in the barn, hoeing corn, pruning trees, tossing hay, +and not disdaining even to assist in butchering the animals which he +raised for market. It was no mere ornamental or experimental farm. He +made it pay. All of its produce was carefully, nay, scrupulously +husbanded, sold, recorded, and accounted for. He loved his grapes, his +plums, his pigs, and especially his rare breed of Canary-birds; but +the people of Philadelphia had the full benefit of their increase,--at +the highest market rates. + +Many feared, many served, but none loved this singular and lonely old +man. If there was among the very few who habitually conversed with him +one who understood and esteemed him, there was but one; and he was a +man of such abounding charity, that, like Uncle Toby, if he had heard +that the Devil was hopelessly damned, he would have said, "I am sorry +for it." Never was there a person more destitute than Girard of the +qualities which win the affection of others. His temper was violent, +his presence forbidding, his usual manner ungracious, his will +inflexible, his heart untender, his imagination dead. He was odious to +many of his fellow-citizens, who considered him the hardest and +meanest of men. He had lived among them for half a century, but he was +no more a Philadelphian in 1830 than in 1776. He still spoke with a +French accent, and accompanied his words with a French shrug and +French gesticulation. Surrounded with Christian churches which he had +helped to build, he remained a sturdy unbeliever, and possessed the +complete works of only one man, Voltaire. He made it a point of duty +to labor on Sunday, as a good example to others. He made no secret of +the fact, that he considered the idleness of Sunday an injury to the +people, moral and economical. He would have opened his bank on +Sundays, if any one would have come to it. For his part, he required +no rest, and would have none. He never travelled. He never attended +public assemblies or amusements. He had no affections to gratify, no +friends to visit, no curiosity to appease, no tastes to indulge. What +he once said of himself appeared to be true, that he rose in the +morning with but a single object, and that was to labor so hard all +day as to be able to sleep all night. The world was absolutely nothing +to him but a working-place. He scorned and scouted the opinion, that +old men should cease to labor, and should spend the evening of their +days in tranquillity. "No," he would say, "labor is the price of life, +its happiness, its everything; to rest is to rust; every man should +labor to the last hour of his ability." Such was Stephen Girard, the +richest man who ever lived in Pennsylvania. + +This is an unpleasing picture of a citizen of polite and amiable +Philadelphia. It were indeed a grim and dreary world in which should +prevail the principles of Girard. But see what this man has done for +the city that loved him not! Vast and imposing structures rise on the +banks of the Schuylkill, wherein, at this hour, six hundred poor +orphan boys are fed, clothed, trained, and taught, upon the income of +the enormous estate which he won by this entire consecration to the +work of accumulating property. In the ample grounds of Girard College, +looking up at its five massive marble edifices, strolling in its shady +walks or by its verdant play-grounds, or listening to the cheerful +cries of the boys at play, the most sympathetic and imaginative of men +must pause before censuring the sterile and unlovely life of its +founder. And if he should inquire closely into the character and +career of the man who willed this great institution into being, he +would perhaps be willing to admit that there was room in the world for +one Girard, though it were a pity there should ever be another. Such +an inquiry would perhaps disclose that Stephen Girard was endowed by +nature with a great heart as well as a powerful mind, and that +circumstances alone closed and hardened the one, cramped and perverted +the other. It is not improbable that he was one of those unfortunate +beings who desire to be loved, but whose temper and appearance combine +to repel affection. His marble statue, which adorns the entrance to +the principal building, if it could speak, might say to us, "Living, +you could not understand nor love me; dead, I compel at least your +respect." Indeed, he used to say, when questioned as to his career, +"Wait till I am dead; my deeds will show what I was." + +Girard's recollections of his childhood were tinged with bitterness. +He was born at Bordeaux in 1750. He was the eldest of the five +children of Captain Pierre Girard, a mariner of substance and +respectability. He used to complain that, while his younger brothers +were taught at college, his own education was neglected, and that he +acquired at home little more than the ability to read and write. He +remembered, too, that at the age of eight years he discovered, to his +shame and sorrow, that one of his eyes was blind,--a circumstance that +exposed him to the taunts of his companions. The influence of a +personal defect, and of the ridicule it occasions, upon the character +of a sensitive child, can be understood only by those whose childhood +was embittered from that cause; but such cases as those of Byron and +Girard should teach those who have the charge of youth the crime it is +to permit such defects to be the subject of remark. Girard also early +lost his mother, an event which soon brought him under the sway of a +step-mother. Doubtless he was a wilful, arbitrary, and irascible boy, +since we know that he was a wilful, arbitrary, and irascible man. +Before he was fourteen, having chosen the profession of his father, he +left home, with his father's consent, and went to sea in the capacity +of cabin-boy. He used to boast, late in life, that he began the world +with sixpence in his pocket. Quite enough for a cabin-boy. + +For nine years he sailed between Bordeaux and the French West Indies, +returning at length with the rank of first mate, or, as the French +term it, lieutenant of his vessel. He had well improved his time. Some +of the defects of his early education he had supplied by study, and it +is evident that he had become a skilful navigator. It was then the law +of France that no man should command a vessel who was not twenty-five +years old, and had not sailed two cruises in a ship of the royal navy. +Girard was but twenty-three, and had sailed in none but +merchant-vessels. His father, however, had influence enough to procure +him a dispensation; and in 1773 he was licensed to command. He appears +to have been scarcely just to his father when he wrote, sixty-three +years after: + + "I have the proud satisfaction of knowing that my conduct, + my labor, and my economy have enabled me to do one hundred + times more for my relations than they all together have ever + done for me since the day of my birth." + +In the mere amount of money expended, this may have been true; but it +is the _start_ toward fortune that is so difficult. His father, +besides procuring the dispensation, assisted him to purchase goods for +his first commercial venture. At the age of twenty-four, we find him +sailing to the West Indies; not indeed in command of the vessel, but +probably as mate and supercargo, and part owner of goods to the value +of three thousand dollars. He never trod his native land again. Having +disposed of his cargo and taken on board another, he sailed for New +York, which he reached in July, 1774. The storm of war, which was soon +to sweep commerce from the ocean, was already muttering below the +horizon, when Stephen Girard, "mariner and merchant," as he always +delighted to style himself, first saw the land wherein his lot was to +be cast. For two years longer, however, he continued to exercise his +twofold vocation. An ancient certificate, preserved among his papers, +informs the curious explorer, that, + + "in the year 1774, Stephen Girard sailed as mate of a vessel + from New York to [New] Orleans, and that he continued to + sail out of the said port until May, 1776, when he arrived + in Philadelphia commander of a sloop," + +of which the said Stephen Girard was part owner. + +Lucky was it for Girard that he got into Philadelphia just when he +did, with all his possessions with him. He had the narrowest escape +from capture. On his way from New Orleans to a Canadian port, he had +lost himself in a fog at the entrance of Delaware Bay, swarming then +with British cruisers, of whose presence Captain Girard had heard +nothing. His flag of distress brought alongside an American captain, +who told him where he was, and assured him that, if he ventured out +to-sea, he would never reach port except as a British prize. "_Mon +Dieu_!" exclaimed Girard in great panic, "what shall I do?" "You have +no chance but to push right up to Philadelphia," replied the captain. +"How am I to get there?" said Girard; "I have no pilot, and I don't +know the way." A pilot was found, who, however, demanded a preliminary +payment of five dollars, which Girard had not on board. In great +distress, he implored the captain to be his security for the sum. He +consented, a pilot took charge of the sloop, the anchor was heaved, +and the vessel sped on her way. An hour later, while they were still +in sight of the anchorage, a British man-of-war came within the capes. +But Dr. Franklin, with his oared galleys, his _chevaux de frise_, his +forts, and his signal-stations, had made the Delaware a safe harbor of +refuge; and Girard arrived safely at Philadelphia on one of the early +days of May, 1776. Thus it was a mere chance of war that gave Girard +to the Quaker City. In the whole world he could not have found a more +congenial abode, for the Quakers were the only religious sect with +which he ever had the slightest sympathy. Quakers he always liked and +esteemed, partly because they had no priests, partly because they +disregarded ornament and reduced life to its simplest and most obvious +utilities, partly because some of their opinions were in accord with +his own. He had grown up during the time when Voltaire was sovereign +lord of the opinions of Continental Europe. Before landing at +Philadelphia, he was already a republican and an unbeliever, and such +he remained to the last. The Declaration of Independence was +impending: he was ready for it. The "Common Sense" of Thomas Paine had +appeared: he was the man of all others to enjoy it. It is, however, +questionable if at that time he had English enough to understand it in +the original, since the colloquy just reported with the American +captain took place in French. He was slow in becoming familiar with +the English language, and even to the end of his life seemed to prefer +conversing in French. + +He was a mariner no more. The great fleet of Lord Howe arrived at New +York in July. Every harbor was blockaded, and all commerce was +suspended. Even the cargoes of tobacco despatched by Congress to their +Commissioners in France, for the purchase of arms and stores, were +usually captured before they had cleared the Capes. Captain Girard now +rented a small store in Water Street, near the spot where he lived for +nearly sixty years, in which he carried on the business of a grocer +and wine-bottler. Those who knew him at this time report that he was a +taciturn, repulsive young man, never associating with men of his own +age and calling, devoted to business, close in his dealings, of the +most rigorous economy, and preserving still the rough clothing and +general appearance of a sailor. Though but twenty-six years of age, he +was called "old Girard." He seemed conscious of his inability to +please, but bore the derision of his neighbors with stoical +equanimity, and plodded on. + +War favors the skilful and enterprising business-man. Girard had a +genius for business. He was not less bold in his operations than +prudent; and his judgment as a man of business was well-nigh +infallible. Destitute of all false pride, he bought whatever he +thought he could sell to advantage, from a lot of damaged cordage to a +pipe of old port; and he labored incessantly with his own hands. He +was a thriving man during the first year of his residence in +Philadelphia; his chief gain, it is said, being derived from his +favorite business of bottling wine and cider. + +The romance, the mystery, the tragedy of his life now occurred. +Walking along Water Street one day, near the corner of Vine Street, +the eyes of this reserved and ill-favored man were caught by a +beautiful servant-girl going to the pump for a pail of water. She was +an enchanting brunette of sixteen, with luxuriant black locks curling +and clustering about her neck. As she tripped along with bare feet and +empty pail, in airy and unconscious grace, she captivated the +susceptible Frenchman, who saw in her the realization of the songs of +the forecastle and the reveries of the quarter-deck. He sought her +acquaintance, and made himself at home in her kitchen. The family whom +she served, misinterpreting the designs of the thriving dealer, +forbade him the house; when he silenced their scruples by offering the +girl his hand in marriage. Ill-starred Polly Lumm! Unhappy Girard! She +accepted his offer; and in July, 1777, the incongruous two, being +united in matrimony, attempted to become one. + +The war interrupted their brief felicity. Philadelphia, often +threatened, fell into the hands of Lord Howe in September, 1777; and +among the thousands who needlessly fled at his approach were "old +Girard" and his pretty young wife. He bought a house at Mount Holly, +near Burlington, in New Jersey, for five hundred dollars, to which he +removed, and there continued to bottle claret and sell it to the +British officers, until the departure of Lord Howe, in June, 1778, +permitted his return to Philadelphia. The gay young officers, it is +said, who came to his house at Mount Holly to drink his claret, were +far from being insensible to the charms of Mrs. Girard; and tradition +further reports that on one occasion a dashing colonel snatched a +kiss, which the sailor resented, and compelled the officer to +apologize for. + +Of all miserable marriages this was one of the most miserable. Here +was a young, beautiful, and ignorant girl united to a close, +ungracious, eager man of business, devoid of sentiment, with a violent +temper and an unyielding will. She was an American, he a Frenchman; +and that alone was an immense incompatibility. She was seventeen, he +twenty-seven. She was a woman; he was a man without imagination, +intolerant of foibles. She was a beauty, with the natural vanities of +a beauty; he not merely had no taste for decoration, he disapproved it +on principle. These points of difference would alone have sufficed to +endanger their domestic peace; but time developed something that was +fatal to it. Their abode was the scene of contention for eight years; +at the expiration of which period Mrs. Girard showed such symptoms of +insanity that her husband was obliged to place her in the Pennsylvania +Hospital. In these distressing circumstances, he appears to have +spared no pains for her restoration. He removed her to a place in the +country, but without effect. She returned to his house only to render +life insupportable to him. He resumed his old calling as a mariner, +and made a voyage to the Mediterranean; but on his return he found his +wife not less unmanageable than before. In 1790, thirteen years after +their marriage, and five after the first exhibition of insanity, Mrs. +Girard was placed permanently in the hospital; where, nine months +after, she gave birth to a female child. The child soon died; the +mother never recovered her reason. For twenty-five years she lived in +the hospital, and, dying in 1815, was buried in the hospital grounds +after the manner of the Quakers. The coffin was brought to the grave, +followed by the husband and the managers of the institution, who +remained standing about it in silence for several minutes. It was then +lowered to its final resting-place, and again the company remained +motionless and silent for a while. Girard looked at the coffin once +more, then turned to an acquaintance and said, as he walked away, "It +is very well." A green mound, without headstone or monument, still +marks the spot where the remains of this unhappy woman repose. Girard, +both during his lifetime and after his death, was a liberal, though +not lavish, benefactor of the institution which had so long sheltered +his wife. + +Fortunes were not made rapidly in the olden time. After the +Revolution, Girard engaged in commerce with the West Indies, in +partnership with his brother John; and he is described in an official +paper of the time as one who "carried on an extensive business as a +merchant, and is a considerable owner of real estate." But on the +dissolution of the partnership in 1790, when he had been in business, +as mariner and merchant, for sixteen years, his estate was valued at +only thirty thousand dollars. The times were troubled. The French +Revolution, the massacre at St. Domingo, our disturbed relations with +England, and afterwards with France, the violence of our party +contests, all tended to make merchants timid, and to limit their +operations. Girard, as his papers indicate, and as he used to relate +in conversation, took more than a merchant's interest in the events of +the time. From the first, he had formally cast in his lot with the +struggling Colonists, as we learn from a yellow and faded document +left among his papers:-- + + "I do hereby certify that Stephen Girard, of the city of + Philadelphia, merchant, hath voluntarily taken the oath of + allegiance and fidelity, as directed by an act of the + General Assembly of Pennsylvania, passed the 13th day of + June, A.D. 1777. Witness my hand and seal, the 27th day of + October, A.D. 1778. + + "JNO. ORD. + No. 1678." + +The oath was repeated the year following. When the French Revolution +had divided the country into two parties, the Federalists and the +Republicans, Girard was a Republican of the radical school. He +remembered assisting to raise a liberty-pole in the Presidency of John +Adams; and he was one of Mr. Jefferson's most uncompromising adherents +at a time when men of substance were seldom found in the ranks of the +Democrats. As long as he lived, he held the name of Thomas Jefferson +in veneration. + +We have now to contemplate this cold, close, ungainly, ungracious man +in a new character. We are to see that a man may seem indifferent to +the woes of individuals, but perform sublime acts of devotion to a +community. We are to observe that there are men of sterling but +peculiar metal, who only shine when the furnace of general affliction +is hottest. In 1793, the malignant yellow-fever desolated +Philadelphia. The consternation of the people cannot be conceived by +readers of the present day, because we cannot conceive of the +ignorance which then prevailed respecting the laws of contagion, +because we have lost in some degree the habit of panic, and because no +kind of horror can be as novel to us as the yellow-fever was to the +people of Philadelphia in 1793. One half of the population fled. Those +who remained left their houses only when compelled. Most of the +churches, the great Coffee-House, the Library, were closed. Of four +daily newspapers, only one continued to be published. Some people +constantly smoked tobacco,--even women and children, did so; others +chewed garlic; others exploded gunpowder; others burned nitre or +sprinkled vinegar; many assiduously whitewashed every surface within +their reach; some carried tarred rope in their hands, or bags of +camphor round their necks; others never ventured abroad without a +handkerchief or a sponge wet with vinegar at their noses. No one +ventured to shake hands. Friends who met in the streets gave each +other a wide berth, eyed one another askance, exchanged nods, and +strode on. It was a custom to walk in the middle of the street, to get +as far from the houses as possible. Many of the sick died without +help, and the dead were buried without ceremony. The horrid silence of +the streets was broken only by the tread of litter-bearers and the +awful rumble of the dead-wagon. Whole families perished,--perished +without assistance, their fate unknown to their neighbors. Money was +powerless to buy attendance for the operation of all ordinary motives +was suspended. From the 1st of August to the 9th of November, in a +population of twenty-five thousand, there were four thousand and +thirty-one burials,--about one in six. + +Happily for the honor of human nature, there are always, in times like +these, great souls whom base panic cannot prostrate. A few brave +physicians, a few faithful clergymen, a few high-minded citizens, a +few noble women, remembered and practised what is due to humanity +overtaken by a calamity like this. On the 10th of September, a notice, +without signature, appeared in the only paper published, stating that +all but three of the Visitors of the Poor were sick, dead, or missing, +and calling upon all who were willing to help to meet at the City Hall +on the 12th. From those who attended the meeting, a committee of +twenty-seven was appointed to superintend the measures for relief, of +whom Stephen Girard was one. On Sunday, the 15th, the committee met; +and the condition of the great hospital at Bush Hill was laid before +them. It was unclean, ill-regulated, crowded, and ill-supplied. Nurses +could not be hired at any price, for even to approach it was deemed +certain death. Then, to the inexpressible astonishment and admiration +of the committee, two men of wealth and importance in the city offered +personally to take charge of the hospital during the prevalence of the +disease. Girard was one of these, Peter Helm the other. Girard appears +to have been the first to offer himself. "Stephen Girard," records +Matthew Carey, a member of the committee, + + "sympathizing with the wretched situation of the sufferers + at Bush Hill, voluntarily and unexpectedly offered himself + as a manager to superintend that hospital. The surprise and + satisfaction excited by this extraordinary effort of + humanity can be better conceived than expressed." + +That very afternoon, Girard and Helm went out to the hospital, and +entered upon their perilous and repulsive duty. Girard chose the post +of honor. He took charge of the interior of the hospital, while Mr. +Helm conducted its out-door affairs. For sixty days he continued to +perform, by day and night, all the distressing and revolting offices +incident to the situation. In the great scarcity of help, he used +frequently to receive the sick and dying at the gate, assist in +carrying them to their beds, nurse them, receive their last messages, +watch for their last breath, and then, wrapping them in the sheet they +had died upon, carry them out to the burial-ground, and place them in +the trench. He had a vivid recollection of the difficulty of finding +any kind of fabric in which to wrap the dead, when the vast number of +interments had exhausted the supply of sheets. "I would put them," he +would say, "in any old rag I could find." If he ever left the +hospital, it was to visit the infected districts, and assist in +removing the sick from the houses in which they were dying without +help. One scene of this kind, witnessed by a merchant, who was +hurrying past with camphored handkerchief pressed to his mouth, +affords us a vivid glimpse of this heroic man engaged in his sublime +vocation. A carriage, rapidly driven by a black man, broke the silence +of the deserted and grass-grown street. It stopped before a frame +house; and the driver, first having bound a handkerchief over his +mouth, opened the door of the carriage, and quickly remounted to the +box. A short, thick-set man stepped from the coach and entered the +house. In a minute or two, the observer, who stood at a safe distance +watching the proceedings, heard a shuffling noise in the entry, and +soon saw the stout little man supporting with extreme difficulty a +tall, gaunt, yellow-visaged victim of the pestilence. Girard held +round the waist the sick man, whose yellow face rested against his +own; his long, damp, tangled hair mingled with Girard's; his feet +dragging helpless upon the pavement. Thus he drew him to the carriage +door, the driver averting his face from the spectacle, far from +offering to assist. Partly dragging, partly lifting, he succeeded, +after long and severe exertion, in getting him into the vehicle. He +then entered it himself, closed the door, and the carriage drove away +towards the hospital. + +A man who can do such things at such a time may commit errors and +cherish erroneous opinions, but the essence of that which makes the +difference between a good man and a bad man must dwell within him. +Twice afterwards Philadelphia was visited by yellow-fever, in 1797 and +1798. On both occasions, Girard took the lead, by personal exertion or +gifts of money, in relieving the poor and the sick. He had a singular +taste for nursing the sick, though a sturdy unbeliever in medicine. +According to him, nature, not doctors, is the restorer,--nature, aided +by good nursing. Thus, after the yellow-fever of 1798, he wrote to a +friend in France: + + "During all this frightful time, I have constantly remained + in the city; and, without neglecting my public duties, I + have played a part which will make you smile. Would you + believe it, my friend, that I have visited as many as + fifteen sick people in a day? and what will surprise you + still more, I have lost only one patient, an Irishman, who + would drink a little. I do not flatter myself that I have + cured one single person; but you will think with me, that in + my quality of Philadelphia physician I have been very + moderate, and that not one of my _confreres_ has killed + fewer than myself." + +It is not by nursing the sick, however, that men acquire colossal +fortunes. We revert, therefore, to the business career of this +extraordinary man. Girard, in the ancient and honorable acceptation of +the term, was a merchant; i.e. a man who sent his own ships to foreign +countries, and exchanged their products for those of his own. +Beginning in the West India trade, with one small schooner built with +difficulty and managed with caution, he expanded his business as his +capital increased, until he was the owner of a fleet of merchantmen, +and brought home to Philadelphia the products of every clime. +Beginning with single voyages, his vessels merely sailing to a foreign +port and back again, he was accustomed at length to project great +mercantile cruises, extending over long periods of time, and embracing +many ports. A ship loaded with cotton and grain would sail, for +example, to Bordeaux, there discharge, and take in a cargo of wine and +fruit; thence to St. Petersburg, where she would exchange her wine and +fruit for hemp and iron; then to Amsterdam, where the hemp and iron +would be sold for dollars; to Calcutta next for a cargo of tea and +silks, with which the ship would return to Philadelphia. Such were the +voyages so often successfully made by the Voltaire, the Rousseau, the +Helvetius, and the Montesquieu; ships long the pride of Girard and the +boast of Philadelphia, their names being the tribute paid by the +merchant to the literature of his native land. He seldom failed to +make very large profits. He rarely, if ever, lost a ship. + +His neighbors, the merchants of Philadelphia, deemed him a lucky man. +Many of them thought they could do as well as he, if they only had his +luck. But the great volumes of his letters and papers, preserved in a +room of the Girard College, show that his success in business was not +due, in any degree whatever, to good fortune. Let a money-making +generation take note, that Girard principles inevitably produce Girard +results. The grand, the fundamental secret of his success, as of all +success, was that _he understood his business_. He had a personal, +familiar knowledge of the ports with which he traded, the commodities +in which he dealt, the vehicles in which they were carried, the +dangers to which they were liable, and the various kinds of men +through whom he acted. He observed everything, and forgot nothing. He +had done everything himself which he had occasion to require others to +do. His directions to his captains and supercargoes, full, minute, +exact, peremptory, show the hand of a master. Every possible +contingency was foreseen and provided for; and he demanded the most +literal obedience to the maxim, "Obey orders, though you break +owners." He would dismiss a captain from his service forever, if he +saved the whole profits of a voyage by departing from his +instructions. He did so on one occasion. Add to this perfect knowledge +of his craft, that he had a self-control which never permitted him to +anticipate his gains or spread too wide his sails; that his industry +knew no pause; that he was a close, hard bargainer, keeping his word +to the letter, but exacting his rights to the letter; that he had no +vices and no vanities; that he had no toleration for those calamities +which result from vices and vanities; that his charities, though +frequent, were bestowed only upon unquestionably legitimate objects, +and were never profuse; that he was as wise in investing as skilful in +gaining money; that he made his very pleasures profitable to himself +in money gained, to his neighborhood in improved fruits and +vegetables; that he had no family to maintain and indulge; that he +held in utter aversion and contempt the costly and burdensome +ostentation of a great establishment, fine equipages, and a retinue of +servants; that he reduced himself to a money-making machine, run at +the minimum of expense;--and we have an explanation of his rapidly +acquired wealth, He used to boast, after he was a millionaire, of +wearing the same overcoat for fourteen winters; and one of his clerks, +who saw him every day for twenty years, declares that he never +remembered having seen him wear a new-looking garment but once. Let us +note, too, that he was an adept in the art of getting men to serve him +with devotion. He paid small salaries, and was never known in his life +to bestow a gratuity upon one who served him; but he knew how to make +his humblest clerk feel that the master's eye was upon him always. +Violent in his outbreaks of anger, his business letters are singularly +polite, and show consideration for the health and happiness of his +subordinates. + +Legitimate commerce makes many men rich; but in Girard's day no man +gained by it ten millions of dollars. It was the war of 1812, which +suspended commerce, that made this merchant so enormously rich. In +1811, the charter of the old United States Bank expired; and the +casting-vote of Vice-President George Clinton negatived the bill for +rechartering it. When war was imminent, Girard had a million dollars +in the bank of Baring Brothers in London. This large sum, useless then +for purposes of commerce,--in peril, too, from the disturbed condition +of English finance,--he invested in United States stock and in stock +of the United States Bank, both being depreciated in England. Being +thus a large holder of the stock of the bank, the charter having +expired, and its affairs being in liquidation, he bought out the +entire concern; and, merely changing the name to Girard's Bank, +continued it in being as a private institution, in the same building, +with the same coin in its vaults, the same bank-notes, the same +cashier and clerks. The banking-house and the house of the cashier, +which cost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, he bought for one +hundred and twenty thousand. The stock, which he bought at four +hundred and twenty, proved to be worth, on the winding up of the old +bank, four hundred and thirty-four. Thus, by this operation, he +extricated his property in England, invested it wisely in America, +established a new business in place of one that could no longer be +carried on, and saved the mercantile community from a considerable +part of the loss and embarrassment which the total annihilation of the +bank would have occasioned. + +His management of the bank perfectly illustrates his singular and +apparently contradictory character. Hamilton used to say of Burr, that +he was great in little things, and little in great things. Girard in +little things frequently seemed little, but in great things he was +often magnificently great. For example: the old bank had been +accustomed to present an overcoat to its watchman every Christmas; +Girard forbade the practice as extravagant;--the old bank had supplied +penknives gratis to its clerks; Girard made them buy their own;--the +old bank had paid salaries which were higher than those given in other +banks; Girard cut them down to the average rate. To the watchman and +the clerks this conduct, doubtless, seemed little. Without pausing to +argue the question with them, let us contemplate the new banker in his +great actions. He was the very sheet-anchor of the government credit +during the whole of that disastrous war. If advances were required at +a critical moment, it was Girard who was promptest to make them. When +all other banks and houses were contracting, it was Girard who stayed +the panic by a timely and liberal expansion. When all other paper was +depreciated, Girard's notes, and his alone, were as good as gold. In +1814, when the credit of the government was at its lowest ebb, when a +loan of five millions, at seven per cent interest and twenty dollars +bonus, was up for weeks, and only procured twenty thousand dollars, it +was "old Girard" who boldly subscribed for the whole amount; which at +once gave it market value, and infused life into the paralyzed credit +of the nation. Again, in 1816, when the subscriptions lagged for the +new United States Bank, Girard waited until the last day for receiving +subscriptions, and then quietly subscribed for the whole amount not +taken, which was three million one hundred thousand dollars. And yet +again, in 1829, when the enormous expenditures of Pennsylvania upon +her canals had exhausted her treasury and impaired her credit, it was +Girard who prevented the total suspension of the public works by a +loan to the Governor, which the assembling Legislature might or might +not reimburse. + +Once, during the war, the control of the coin in the bank procured him +a signal advantage. In the spring of 1813, his fine ship, the +Montesquieu, crammed with tea and fabrics from China, was captured by +a British shallop when she was almost within Delaware Bay. News of the +disaster reaching Girard, he sent orders to his supercargo to treat +for a ransom. The British admiral gave up the vessel for one hundred +and eighty thousand dollars in coin; and, despite this costly ransom, +the cargo yielded a larger profit than that of any ship of Girard's +during the whole of his mercantile career. Tea was then selling at war +prices. Much of it brought, at auction, two dollars and fourteen cents +a pound, more than four times its cost in China. He appears to have +gained about half a million of dollars. + +From the close of the war to the end of his life, a period of sixteen +years, Girard pursued the even tenor of his way, as keen and steady in +the pursuit of wealth, and as careful in preserving it, as though his +fortune were still insecure. Why was this? We should answer the +question thus: Because his defective education left him no other +resource. We frequently hear the "success" of such men as Astor and +Girard adduced as evidence of the uselessness of early education. On +the contrary, it is precisely such men who prove its necessity; since, +when they have conquered fortune, they know not how to avail +themselves of its advantages. When Franklin had, at the age of +forty-two, won a moderate competence, he could turn from business to +science, and from science to the public service, using money as a +means to the noblest ends. Strong-minded but unlettered men, like +Girard, who cannot be idle, must needs plod on to the end, adding +superfluous millions to their estates. In Girard's case, too, there +was another cause of this entire devotion to business. His domestic +sorrows had estranged him from mankind, and driven him into himself. +Mr. Henry W. Arey, the very able and high-minded Secretary of Girard +College, in whose custody are Girard's papers, is convinced that it +was not the love of money which kept him at work early and late to the +last days of his life. + +"No one," he remarks, + + "who has had access to his private papers, can fail to + become impressed with the belief that these early + disappointments furnish the true key to his entire + character. Originally of warm and generous impulses, the + belief in childhood that he had not been given his share of + the love and kindness which were extended to others changed + the natural current of his feelings, and, acting on a warm + and passionate temperament, alienated him from his home, his + parents, and his friends. And when in after time there were + super-added the years of bitter anguish resulting from his + unfortunate and ill-adapted marriage, rendered even more + poignant by the necessity of concealment, and the consequent + injustice of public sentiment, and marring all his cherished + expectations, it may be readily understood why constant + occupation became a necessity, and labor a pleasure." + +Girard himself confirms this opinion. In one of his letters of 1820, +to a friend in New Orleans, he says:-- + + "I observe with pleasure that you have a numerous family, + that you are happy and in the possession of an honest + fortune. This is all that a wise man has the right to wish + for. As to myself, I live like a galley-slave, constantly + occupied, and often passing the night without sleeping. I am + wrapped up in a labyrinth of affairs, and worn out with + care. I do not value fortune. The love of labor is my + highest ambition. You perceive that your situation is a + thousand times preferable to mine." + +In his lifetime, as we have remarked, few men loved Girard, still +fewer understood him. He was considered mean, hard, avaricious. If a +rich man goes into a store to buy a yard of cloth, no one expects that +he will give five dollars for it when the price is four. But there is +a universal impression that it is "handsome" in him to give higher +wages than other people to those who serve him, to bestow gratuities +upon them, and, especially, to give away endless sums in charity. The +truth is, however, that one of the duties which a rich man owes to +society is to be careful _not_ to disturb the law of supply and demand +by giving more money for anything than a fair price, and _not_ to +encourage improvidence and servility by inconsiderate and profuse +gifts. Girard rescued his poor relations in France from want, and +educated nieces and nephews in his own house; but his gifts to them +were not proportioned to his own wealth, but to their circumstances. +His design evidently was to help them as much as would do them good, +but not so much as to injure them as self-sustaining members of +society. And surely it was well for every clerk in his bank to know +that all he had to expect from the rich Girard was only what he would +have received if he had served another bank. The money which in loose +hands might have relaxed the arm of industry and the spirit of +independence, which might have pampered and debased a retinue of +menials, and drawn around the dispenser a crowd of cringing beggars +and expectants, was invested in solid houses, which Girard's books +show yielded him a profit of three per cent, but which furnished to +many families comfortable abodes at moderate rents. To the most +passionate entreaties of failing merchants for a loan to help them +over a crisis, he was inflexibly deaf. They thought it meanness. But +we can safely infer from Girard's letters and conversation that he +thought it an injury to the community to avert from a man of business +the consequences of extravagance and folly, which, in his view, were +the sole causes of failure. If there was anything that Girard utterly +despised and detested, it was that vicious mode of doing business +which, together with extravagant living, causes seven business men in +ten to fail every ten years. We are enabled to state, however, on the +best authority, that he was substantially just to those whom he +employed, and considerately kind to his own kindred. At least he meant +to be kind; he did for them what he really thought was for their good. +To little children, and to them only, he was gracious and affectionate +in manner. He was never so happy as when he had a child to caress and +play with. + +After the peace of 1815, Girard began to consider what he should do +with his millions after his death. He was then sixty-five, but he +expected and meant to live to a good age. "The Russians," he would +say, when he was mixing his _olla podrida_ of a Russian salad, +"understand best how to eat and drink; and I am going to see how long, +by following their customs, I can live." He kept an excellent table; +but he became abstemious as he grew older, and lived chiefly on his +salad and his good claret. En-joying perfect health, it was not until +about the year 1828, when he was seventy-eight years of age, that he +entered upon the serious consideration of a plan for the final +disposal of his immense estate. Upon one point his mind had been long +made up. "No man," said he, "shall be a gentleman on _my_ money." He +often, said that, even if he had had a son, he should have been +brought up to labor, and should not, by a great legacy, be exempted +from the necessity of labor. "If I should leave him twenty thousand +dollars," he said, "he would be lazy or turn gambler." Very likely. +The son of a man like Girard, who was virtuous without being able to +make virtue engaging, whose mind was strong but rigid and +ill-furnished, commanding but uninstructive, is likely to have a +barren mind and rampant desires, the twin causes of debauchery. His +decided inclination was to leave the bulk of his property for the +endowment of an institution of some kind for the benefit of +Philadelphia. The only question was, what kind of institution it +should be. + +William J. Duane[1] was his legal adviser then,--that honest and +intrepid William J. Duane who, a few years later, stood calmly his +ground on the question of the removal of the deposits against the +infuriate Jackson, the Kitchen Cabinet, and the Democratic party. +Girard felt all the worth of this able and honorable lawyer. With him +alone he conversed upon the projected institution; and Mr. Duane, +without revealing his purpose, made inquiries among his travelled +friends respecting the endowed establishments of foreign countries. +For several months before sitting clown to prepare the will, they +never met without conversing upon this topic, which was also the chief +subject of discourse between them on Sunday afternoons, when Mr. Duane +invariably dined at Mr. Girard's country-house. A home for the +education of orphans was at length decided upon, and then the will was +drawn. For three weeks the lawyer and his client were closeted, +toiling at the multifarious details of that curious document. + +The minor bequests were speedily arranged, though they were numerous +and well considered. He left to the Pennsylvania Hospital, thirty +thousand dollars; to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, twenty thousand; to the +Orphan Asylum, ten thousand; to the Lancaster public schools, the same +sum; the same for providing fuel for the poor in Philadelphia; the +same to the Society for the Relief of Distressed Sea-Captains and +their families; to the Freemasons of Pennsylvania, for the relief of +poor members twenty thousand; six thousand for the establishment of a +free school in Passyunk, near Philadelphia; to his surviving brother, +and to his eleven nieces, he left sums varying from five thousand +dollars to twenty thousand; but to one of his nieces, who had a very +large family, he left sixty thousand dollars. To each of the captains +who had made two voyages in his service, and who should bring his ship +safely into port, he gave fifteen hundred dollars; and to each of his +apprentices, five hundred. To his old servants, he left annuities of +three hundred and five hundred dollars each. A portion of his valuable +estates in Louisiana he bequeathed to the corporation of New Orleans, +for the improvement of that city. Half a million he left for certain +improvements in the city of Philadelphia; and to Pennsylvania, three +hundred thousand dollars for her canals. The whole of the residue of +his property, worth then about six millions of dollars, he devoted to +the construction and endowment of a College for Orphans. + +Accustomed all his life to give minute directions to those whom he +selected to execute his designs, he followed the same system in that +part of his will which related to the College. The whole will was +written out three times, and some parts of it more than three. He +strove most earnestly, and so did Mr. Duane, to make every paragraph +so clear that no one could misunderstand it. No candid person, +sincerely desirous to understand his intentions, has ever found it +difficult to do so. He directed that the buildings should be +constructed of the most durable materials, "avoiding useless ornament, +attending chiefly to the strength, convenience, and neatness of the +whole." _That_, at least, is plain. He then proceeded to direct +precisely what materials should be used, and how they should be used; +prescribing the number of buildings, their size, the number and size +of the apartments in each, the thickness of each wall, giving every +detail of construction, as he would have given it to a builder. He +then gave briefer directions as to the management of the institution. +The orphans were to be plainly but wholesomely fed, clothed, and +lodged; instructed in the English branches, in geometry, natural +philosophy, the French and Spanish languages, and whatever else might +be deemed suitable and beneficial to them. "I would have them," says +the will, "taught facts and things, rather than words or signs." At +the conclusion of the course, the pupils were to be apprenticed to +"suitable occupations, as those of agriculture, navigation, arts, +mechanical trades, and manufactures." + +The most remarkable passage of the will is the following. The Italics +are those of the original document. + + "I enjoin and require that _no ecclesiastic, missionary, or + minister of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise + any station or duty whatever in the said College; nor shall + any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a + visitor, within the premises appropriated to the purposes of + the said College_. In making this restriction, I do not mean + to cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatsoever; + but as there is such a multitude of sects, and such a + diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire to keep the + tender minds of the orphans, who are to derive advantage + from this bequest, free from the excitement which clashing + doctrines and sectarian controversy are so apt to produce; + my desire is, that all the instructors and teachers in the + College shall take pains to instil into the minds of the + scholars _the purest principles of morality_, so that, on + their entrance into active life, they may, _from inclination + and habit_, evince _benevolence toward their + fellow-creatures_, and _a love of truth, sobriety, and + industry_, adopting at the same time such religious tenets + as their _matured reason_ may enable them to prefer." + +When Mr. Duane had written this passage at Girard's dictation, a +conversation occurred between them, which revealed, perhaps, one of +the old gentleman's reasons for inserting it. "What do you think of +that?" asked Girard. Mr. Duane, being unprepared to comment upon such +an unexpected injunction, replied, after a long pause, "I can only say +now, Mr. Girard, that I think it will make a great sensation." Girard +then said, "I can tell you something else it will do,--it will please +the Quakers." He gave another proof of his regard for the Quakers by +naming three of them as the executors of his will; the whole number of +the executors being five. + +In February, 1830, the will was executed, and deposited in Mr. +Girard's iron safe. None but the two men who had drawn the will, and +the three men who witnessed the signing of it, were aware of its +existence; and none but Girard and Mr. Duane had the least knowledge +of its contents. There never was such a keeper of his own secrets as +Girard, and never a more faithful keeper of other men's secrets than +Mr. Duane. And here we have another illustration of the old man's +character. He had just signed a will of unexampled liberality to the +public; and the sum which he gave the able and devoted lawyer for his +three weeks' labor in drawing it was three hundred dollars! + +Girard lived nearly two years longer, always devoted to business, and +still investing his gains with care. An accident in the street gave a +shock to his constitution, from which he never fully recovered; and in +December, 1831, when he was nearly eighty-two years of age, an attack +of influenza terminated his life. True to his principles, he refused +to be cupped, or to take drugs into his system, though both were +prescribed by a physician whom he respected. + +Death having dissolved the powerful spell of a presence which few men +had been able to resist, it was to be seen how far his will would be +obeyed, now that he was no longer able personally to enforce it. The +old man lay dead in his house in Water Street. While the public out of +doors were curious enough to learn what he had done with his money, +there was a smaller number within the house, the kindred of the +deceased, in whom this curiosity raged like a mania. They invaded the +cellars of the house, and, bringing up bottles of the old man's choice +wine, kept up a continual carouse. Surrounding Mr. Duane, who had been +present at Mr. Girard's death, and remained to direct his funeral, +they demanded to know if there was a will. To silence their indecent +clamor, he told them there was, and that he was one of the executors. +On hearing this, their desire to learn its contents rose to fury. In +vain the executors reminded them that decency required that the will +should not be opened till after the funeral. They even threatened +legal proceedings if the will were not immediately produced; and at +length, to avoid a public scandal, the executors consented to have it +read. These affectionate relatives being assembled in a parlor of the +house in which the body of their benefactor lay, the will was taken +from the iron safe by one of the executors.[2] + +When he had opened it, and was about to begin to read, he chanced to +look over the top of the document at the company seated before him. No +artist that ever held a brush could depict the passion of curiosity, +the frenzy of expectation, expressed in that group of pallid faces. +Every individual among them expected to leave the apartment the +conscious possessor of millions, for no one had dreamed of the +probability of his leaving the bulk of his estate to the public. If +they had ever heard of his saying that no one should be gentleman upon +his money, they had forgotten or disbelieved it. The opening +paragraphs of the will all tended to confirm their hopes, since the +bequests to existing institutions were of small amount. But the reader +soon reached the part of the will which assigned to ladies and +gentlemen present such trifling sums as five thousand dollars, ten +thousand, twenty thousand; and he arrived erelong at the sections +which disposed of millions for the benefit of great cities and poor +children. Some of them made not the slightest attempt to conceal their +disappointment and disgust. Men were there who had married with a view +to share the wealth of Girard, and had been waiting years for his +death. Women were there who had looked to that event as the beginning +of their enjoyment of life. The imagination of the reader must supply +the details of a scene which we might think dishonored human nature, +if we could believe that human nature was meant to be subjected to +such a strain. It had been better, perhaps, if the rich man, in his +own lifetime, had made his kindred partakers of his superabundance, +especially as he had nothing else that he could share with them. They +attempted, on grounds that seem utterly frivolous, to break the will, +and employed the most eminent counsel to conduct their cause, but +without effect. They did, however, succeed in getting the property +acquired after the execution of the will; which Girard, disregarding +the opinion of Mr. Duane, attempted by a postscript to include in the +will. "It will not stand," said the lawyer. "Yes it will," said +Girard. Mr. Duane, knowing his man, was silent; and the courts have +since decided that his opinion was correct. + +Thirty-three years have passed since the city of Philadelphia entered +upon the possession of the enormous and growing estate with which Mr. +Girard intrusted it. It is a question of general interest how the +trust has been administered. No citizen of Philadelphia needs to be +informed, that, in some particulars, the government of their city has +shown little more regard to the manifest will of Girard than his +nephews and nieces did. If he were to revisit the banks of the +Schuylkill, would he recognize, in the splendid Grecian temple that +stands in the centre of the College grounds, the home for poor +orphans, devoid of needless ornament, which he directed should be +built there? It is singular that the very ornaments which Girard +particularly disliked are those which have been employed in the +erection of this temple; namely, pillars. He had such an aversion to +pillars, that he had at one time meditated taking down those which +supported the portico of his bank. Behold his College surrounded with +thirty-four Corinthian columns, six feet in diameter and fifty-nine in +height, of marble, with capitals elaborately carved, each pillar +having cost thirteen thousand dollars, and the whole colonnade four +hundred and forty thousand! And this is the abode of poor little boys, +who will leave the gorgeous scene to labor in shops, and to live in +such apartments as are usually assigned to apprentices! + +Now there is probably no community on earth where the number of +honorable men bears a larger proportion to the whole population than +in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a community of honest dealers and +faithful workmen. It is a matter of the highest interest to know how +it could happen that, in such a city, a bequest for such a purpose +should be so monstrously misappropriated. + +The magnitude of the bequest was itself one cause of its +misappropriation, and the habits of the country were another. When we +set about founding an institution, our first proceeding is to erect a +vast and imposing edifice. When we pronounce the word College, a +vision of architecture is called up. It was natural, therefore, that +the people of Philadelphia, bewildered by the unprecedented amount of +the donation, should look to see the monotony of their city relieved +by something novel and stupendous in the way of a building; and there +appears to have been no one to remind them that the value of a school +depends wholly upon the teachers who conduct it, provided those +teachers are free to execute their plans. The immediate cause, +however, of the remarkable departure from the will in the construction +of the principal edifice was this: the custody of the Girard estate +fell into the hands of the politicians of the city, who regarded the +patronage appertaining thereunto as part of the "spoils" of victory at +the polls. As we live at a time when honest lovers of their country +frequently meditate on the means of rescuing important public +interests from the control of politicians, we shall not deem a little +of our space ill bestowed in recounting the history of the +preposterous edifice which Girard's money paid for, and which Girard's +will forbade. + +On this subject we can avail ourselves of the testimony of the late +Mr. Duane. During his own lifetime he would not permit the following +narrative to be published, though he allowed it to be used as a source +of information. We can now give it in his own words:-- + + "In relation to the Girard College, _the whole community of + Philadelphia, and all political parties in it_, are + culpable. At the time of Mr. Girard's death there was a + mixture of Democrats and Federalists in our Councils: the + former preponderating in number. It is said that of all + steps the first is the most important, and that the first + proceeding has either a good or a bad influence in all that + follow. Now, what was the first step of the Democratic + Councils, after Mr. Girard's death, in relation to the + College? Were they satisfied with the plan of it as + described in his will? Did they scout the project of + building a palace for poor orphans? Were there no views to + offices and profits under the trust? As I was in the Select + Council at the time myself, I can partly answer these + questions. Instead of considering the plan of a College + given in the will a good one, the Democratic Councils + offered rewards to architects for other plans. And as to + offices, some members of Councils looked forward to them, to + say nothing of aspirants out of doors. + + "I have ever been a Democrat in principle myself, but not so + much of a modern one in practice as to pretend that the + Democratic party are free from blame as to the College. If + they had been content with Mr. Girard's plain plan, would + they have called in architects for others? + + "If they had been opposed to pillars and ornaments, why did + they invite scientific men to prepare pictures and plans + almost inevitably ornamental? If they had been so careful of + the trust funds, why did they stimulate the community, by + presenting to them architectural drawings, to prefer some + one of them to the simple plan of Girard himself? Besides, + after they had been removed from power, and saw preparations + made for a temple surrounded with costly columns, why did + they not invoke the Democratic Legislature to arrest that + proceeding? If they at any time whatever did make such an + appeal, I have no recollection of it. For party effect, much + may have been said and done on an election day, but I am not + aware that otherwise any resistance was made. No doubt there + were many good men in the Democratic party in 1831-2, and + there always have been many good men in it; but I doubt + whether those who made the most noise about the College on + election days were either the best Democrats or the best + men. The leaders, as they are called, were just as factious + as the leaders of their opponents. _The struggle of both for + the Girard Fund was mainly with a view to party influence._ + How much at variance with Mr. Girard's wishes this course + was, may readily be shown. + + "Immediately after his death in 1831, his will was published + in the newspapers, in almanacs, and in other shapes likely + to make its contents universally known. In it he said: 'In + relation to the organization of the College and its + appurtenances, I leave necessarily many details to the + mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia, and their + successors; and I do so with the more confidence, as, from + the nature of my bequests and the benefit to result from + them, I trust that my fellow-citizens will observe and + evince especial care and anxiety in selecting members for + their City Councils and other agents,' + + "What appeal could have been more emphatic than this? How + could the testator have more delicately, but clearly, + indicated his anxiety that his estate should be regarded as + a sacred provision for poor orphans, and not 'spoils' for + trading politicians? + + "In this city, however, as almost everywhere else, to the + public discredit and injury, our social affairs had been + long mingled with the party questions of the Republic. At + each rise or fall of one or the other party, the 'spoils' + were greedily sought for. Even scavengers, unless of the + victorious party, were deemed unworthy to sweep our streets. + Mr. Girard's estate, therefore, very soon became an object + of desire with each party, in order to increase its strength + and favor its adherents. Instead of selecting for the + Councils the best men of the whole community, as Mr. Girard + evidently desired, the citizens of Philadelphia persisted in + preserving factious distinctions, and in October, 1832, the + Federal candidates prevailed. + + "The triumphant party soon manifested a sense of their newly + acquired power. Without making any trial whatever of the + efficiency of the rules prepared by their predecessors for + the management of the Girard trusts, they at once abolished + them; and there were various other analogous evidences of + intolerance. + + "Without asserting that party passions actuated them, + certain it is, that those who were now in power placed none + of Mr. Girard's intimate friends in any position where they + could aid in carrying out his views. No serious application + was ever made, to my knowledge, to one of them for + explanation on any point deemed doubtful. On the contrary, + objections made by myself and others to the erection of a + gorgeous temple, instead of a plain building for orphans, + were utterly disregarded. + + "A majority of the citizens of Philadelphia as a political + class, and not a majority, as a social community, as + trustees of a fund for orphans, having thus got entire + control of the Girard estate, they turned their attention to + the plans of a College collected by their Democratic + predecessors. Neither of the parties appears to have + originally considered whether the plan described in the will + ought not to be followed, if that could be done practically. + The main desire of both so far seems to have been to build + in the vicinity of this city a more magnificent edifice than + any other in the Union. + + "At this time, Mr. Nicholas Biddle was in the zenith of his + power. Hundreds of persons, who at the present day find + fault with him, were then his worshippers. He could command + any post which he was willing to fill. I do not pretend that + he sought any post, 'but it suited his inclinations to be at + the head of those who were intrusted by Councils with the + construction of the College. Over his colleagues in this, as + in another memorable instance, he seems to have had an + absolute control. The architect, also, whose plan had been + preferred, appears to have considered himself bound to adapt + it to Mr. Biddle's conceptions of true excellence. And you + now behold the result,--a splendid temple in an unfinished + state, instead of the unostentatious edifice contemplated by + Mr. Girard. + + "Is all this surprising V Why should Democrats think it so? + It was by them that plans and pictures of architects were + called for. Why should their opponents be astonished? It was + by them that a _carte blanche_ seems to have been given to + Mr. Biddle in relation to the plans and the College. Is Mr. + Biddle culpable? Is there no excuse for one so strongly + tempted as he was, not merely to produce a splendid edifice, + but to connect his name, in some measure, with that of its + founder? While I am not an apologist for Mr. Biddle, I am + not willing to cast blame upon him alone for the waste of + time and money that we have witnessed. As a classical + scholar, a man of taste, and a traveller abroad, it was not + unnatural that he should desire to see near his native city + the most magnificent edifice in North America. Having all + the pride and sense of power which adulation is calculated + to produce, the plain house described in his will may have + appeared to him a profanation of all that is beautiful in + architecture, and an outrage at once against all the Grecian + orders. In short, the will of Mr. Girard to the contrary, + Mr. Biddle, like another distinguished person, may have + said, 'I take the responsibility.'" + + "It is true that this responsibility was a serious one, but + less so to Mr. Biddle than to the City Councils. They were + the trustees, and ought to have considered Mr. Girard's will + as law to them. They should have counted the cost of + departing from it. They ought to have reflected that by + departing from it many orphans would be excluded from the + benefits of education. They should have considered whether a + Grecian temple would be such a place as poor orphans + destined to labor ought to be reared in. The Councils of + 1832-3, therefore, have no apology to offer. But Mr. Biddle + may well say to all our parties: 'You are all more in fault + than I am. You Democrats gave rewards for plans. You + Federalists submitted those plans to me, and I pointed out + the one I thought the best, making improvements upon it. A + very few persons, Mr. Ronaldson, Mr. Duane, and one or two + others alone objected; while the majority of my + fellow-citizens, the Councils, and the Legislature, all + looked on at what I was doing, and were silent.'" + +While erecting an edifice the most opposite to Girard's intentions +that could be contrived by man, the architect was permitted to follow +the directions of the will in minor particulars, that rendered the +building as inconvenient as it was magnificent. The vaulted ceilings +of those spacious rooms reverberated to such a degree, that not a +class could say its lesson in them till they were hung with cotton +cloth. The massive walls exuded dampness continually. The rooms of the +uppermost story, lighted only from above, were so hot in the summer as +to be useless; and the lower rooms were so cold in winter as to +endanger the health of the inmates. It has required ingenuity and +expense to render the main building habitable; but even now the +visitor cannot but smile as he compares the splendor of the +architecture with the homely benevolence of its purpose. The Parthenon +was a suitable dwelling-place for a marble goddess, but the mothers of +Athens would have shuddered at the thought of consigning their little +boys to dwell in its chilling grandeurs. + +We can scarcely overstate the bad effect of this first mistake. It has +constantly tended to obscure Mr. Girard's real purpose, which was to +afford a plain, comfortable home, and a plain, substantial education +to poor orphans, destined to gain their livelihood by labor. Always +there have been two parties in the Board of Directors: one favoring a +scheme which would make the College a _college_; the other striving to +keep it down to the modest level of the founder's intentions. That +huge and dazzling edifice seems always to have been exerting a +powerful influence against the stricter constructionists of the will. +It is only within the last two years that this silent but ponderous +argument has been partially overcome by the resolute good-sense of a +majority of the Directors. Not the least evil consequent upon the +erection of this building was, that the delay in opening the College +caused the resignation of its first President, Alexander D. Bache, a +gentleman who had it in him to organize the institution aright, and +give it a fair start. It is a curious fact, that the extensive report +by this gentleman of his year's observation of the orphan schools of +Europe has not been of any practical use in the organization of Girard +College. Either the Directors have not consulted it, or they have +found nothing in it available for their purpose. + +The first class of one hundred pupils was admitted to the College on +the first day of the year 1848. The number of inmates is now six +hundred. The estate will probably enable the Directors to admit at +length as many as fifteen hundred. It will be seen, therefore, that +Girard College, merely from the number of its pupils, is an +institution of great importance. + +Sixteen years have gone by since the College was opened, but it cannot +yet be said that the policy of the Directors is fixed. These +Directors, appointed by the City Councils, are eighteen in number, of +whom six go out of office every year, while the Councils themselves +are annually elected. Hence the difficulty of settling upon a plan, +and the greater difficulty of adhering to one. Sometimes a majority +has favored the introduction of Latin or Greek; again, the +manual-labor system has had advocates; some have desired a liberal +scale of living for the pupils; others have thought it best to give +them Spartan fare. Four times the President has been changed, and +there have been two periods of considerable length when there was no +President. There have been dissensions without and trouble within. As +many as forty-four boys have run away in a single year. Meanwhile, the +Annual Reports of the Directors have usually been so vague and so +reticent, that the public was left utterly in the dark as to the +condition of the institution. Letters from masters to whom pupils have +been apprenticed were published in the Reports, but only the letters +which had nothing but good to say of the apprentices. Large numbers of +the boys, it is true, have done and are doing credit to the College; +but the public have no means of judging whether, upon the whole, the +training of the College has been successful. + +Nevertheless, we believe we may say with truth that invaluable +experience has been gained, and genuine progress has been made. To +maintain and educate six hundred boys, even if those boys had +enlightened parents to aid in the work, is a task which would exhaust +the wisdom and the tact of the greatest educator that ever lived. But +these boys are all fatherless, and many of them motherless; the +mothers of many are ignorant and unwise, of some are even vicious and +dissolute. A large number of the boys are of very inferior endowments, +have acquired bad habits, have inherited evil tendencies. It would be +hard to overstate the difficulty of the work which the will of Girard +has devolved upon the Directors and teachers of Girard College. +Mistakes have been made, but perhaps they have not been more serious +or more numerous than we ought to expect in the forming of an +institution absolutely unique, and composed of material the most +unmanageable. + +There are indications, too, that the period of experiment draws to an +end, and that the final plan of the College, on the basis of +common-sense, is about to be settled. Mr. Richard Vaux, the present +head of the Board of Directors, writes Reports in a style most +eccentric, and not always intelligible to remote readers; but it is +evident that his heart is in the work, and that he belongs to the +party who desire the College to be the useful, unambitious institution +that Girard wished it to be. His Reports are not written with +rose-water. They say _something_. They confess some failures, as well +as vaunt some successes. We would earnestly advise the Directors never +to shrink from taking the public into their confidence. The public is +wiser and better than any man or any board. A plain statement every +year of the real condition of the College, the real difficulties in +the way of its organization, would have been far better than the +carefully uttered nothings of which the Annual Reports have generally +consisted. It was to Philadelphia that Girard left his estate. The +honor of Philadelphia is involved in its faithful administration. +Philadelphia has a right to know how it is administered. + +The President of the College is Major Richard Somers Smith, a graduate +of West Point, where he was afterwards a Professor. He has served with +distinction in the Army of the Potomac, in which he commanded a +brigade. To learn how to be an efficient President of Girard College +is itself a labor of years; and Major Smith is only in the second year +of his incumbency. The highest hopes are indulged, however, that under +his energetic rule, the College will become all that the public ought +to expect. He seems to have perceived at once the weak point of the +institution. + +"I find in the College," he says in one of his monthly reports, + + "a certain degree of impatience of study, an inertness, a + dragging along, an infection of 'young-Americanism,' a + disposition to flounder along through duties half done, + hurrying to reach--what is never attained--an 'easy + success'; and I observe that this state of things is + confined to the higher departments of study. In the + elementary departments there is life; but as soon as the boy + has acquired the rudiments of his English or common-school + education, he begins to chafe, and to feel that it Is time + for him to _go out_, and to make haste to 'finish (!) his + studies,'--which of course he does without much heart." + +And again:--- + + "The 'poor white male orphan,' dwelling for eight or ten + years in comfort almost amounting to luxury, waited upon by + servants and machinery in nearly all his domestic + requirements, unused to labor, or laboring only + occasionally, with some reward in view in the form of extra + privileges, finds it hard to descend from his fancied + elevation to the lot of a simple apprentice; and his + disappointment is not soothed by the discovery that with all + his learning he has not learned wherewithal to give ready + satisfaction to his master." + +It has been difficult, also, to induce the large manufacturers to take +apprentices; they are now accustomed to place boys at once upon the +footing of men, paying them such wages as they are worth. Men who +employ forty boys will not generally undertake the responsibilities +involved in receiving them as bound apprentices for a term of years. + +To remedy all these evils, Major Smith proposes to add to the College +a Manual Labor Department, in which the elder boys shall acquire the +rudiments of the arts and trades to which they are destined. This will +alleviate the tedium of the College routine, assist the physical +development of the boys, and send them forth prepared to render more +desirable help to their employers. The present Board of Directors +favor the scheme. + +In one particular the College has fulfilled the wishes of its founder. +He said in his will, + + "I desire that by every proper means, a pure attachment to + our republican institutions, and to the sacred rights of + conscience, as guaranteed by our happy Constitution, shall + be formed and fostered in the minds of the scholars." + +Three fourths of the whole number of young men, out of their time, who +were apprenticed from Girard College, have joined the Union army. We +must confess, also, that a considerable number of its apprentices, +_not_ out of their time, have run away for the same purpose. With +regard to the exclusion of ecclesiastics, it is agreed on all hands +that no evil has resulted from that singular injunction of the will. +On the contrary, it has served to call particular attention to the +religious instruction of the pupils. The only effect of the clause is, +that the morning prayers and the Sunday services are conducted by +gentlemen who have not undergone the ceremony of ordination. + +The income of the Girard estate is now about two hundred thousand +dollars a year, and it is increasing. Supposing that only one half of +this revenue is appropriated to the College, it is still, we believe, +the largest endowment in the country for an educational purpose. The +means of the College are therefore ample. To make those means +effective in the highest degree, some mode must be devised by which +the politics of the city shall cease to influence the choice of +Directors. In other words, "Girard College must be taken out of +politics." The Board of Directors should, perhaps, be a more permanent +body than it now is. At the earliest possible moment a scheme of +instruction should be agreed upon, which should remain unchanged, in +its leading features, long enough for it to be judged by its results. +The President must be clothed with ample powers, and held responsible, +not for methods, but results. He must be allowed, at least, to +nominate all his assistants, and to recommend the removal of any for +reasons given; and both his nominations and his recommendations of +removal, so long as the Directors desire to retain his services, +should be ratified by them. He must be made to feel strong in his +place; otherwise, he will be tempted to waste his strength upon the +management of committees, and general whitewashing. Human nature is so +constituted, that a gentleman with a large family will not willingly +give up an income of three thousand dollars a year, with lodging in a +marble palace. If he is a strong man and an honorable, he will do it, +rather than fill a post the duties of which an ignorant or officious +committee prevent his discharging. If he is a weak or dishonest man, +he will cringe to that committee, and expend all his ingenuity in +making the College show well on public days. It might even be well, in +order to strengthen the President, to give him the right of appeal to +the Mayor and Councils, in case of an irreconcilable difference of +opinion between him and the Directors. Everything depends upon the +President. Given the right President, with power enough and time +enough, and the success of the College is assured. Given a bad +President, or a good one hampered by committees, or too dependent upon +a board, and the College will be the reproach of Philadelphia. + +It is a question with political economists, whether, upon the whole, +such endowments as this are a good or an evil to a community. There is +now a considerable party in England, among whom are several clergymen +of the Established Church, who think it would be better for England if +every endowment were swept away, and thus to each succeeding +generation were restored the privilege of supporting all its poor, +caring for all its sick, and educating all its young. Dr. Chalmers +appears to have been inclined to an opinion like this. It will be +long, however, before this question becomes vital in America. Girard +College must continue for generations to weigh heavily on +Philadelphia, or to lighten its burdens. The conduct of those who have +charge of it in its infancy will go far to determine whether it shall +be an argument for or against the utility of endowments. Meanwhile, we +advise gentlemen who have millions to leave behind them not to impose +difficult conditions upon the future, which the future may be unable +or unwilling to fulfil; but either to bestow their wealth for some +object that can be immediately and easily accomplished, or else +imitate the conduct of that respectable and public-spirited man who +left five pounds towards the discharge of his country's debt. + +[Footnote 1: The facts which follow I received from the lips and from +the papers of this revered man, now no more.--J.P.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Duane.] + + + +JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND THE NEW YORK HERALD + +A few years ago it seemed probable that the people of the United +States would be supplied with news chiefly through the agency of +newspapers published in the city of New York. We were threatened with +a paper despotism similar to that formerly exercised in Great Britain +by the London Times; since, when one city furnishes a country with +newspapers, one newspaper is sure, at length, to gain such a +predominance over others that its proprietor, if he is equal to his +position, wields a power greater than ought to be intrusted to an +individual. There have been periods when the director of the London +Times appeared to be as truly the monarch of Great Britain as Henry +VIII. once was, or as William Pitt during the Seven Years' War. It +was, we believe, the opinion of the late Mr. Cobden, which Mr. +Kinglake confirms, that the editor of the London Times could have +prevented the Crimean War. Certainly he conducted it. Demosthenes did +not more truly direct the resources of Athens against Philip, than did +this invisible and anonymous being those of the British Empire against +Russia. The first John Walter, who was to journalism what James Watt +was to the steam-engine, had given this man daily access to the ear of +England; and to that ear he addressed, not the effusions of his own +mind, but the whole purchasable eloquence of his country. He had +relays of Demosthenes. The man controlling such a press, and fit to +control it, can bring the available and practised intellect of his +country to bear upon the passions of his countrymen; for it is a fact, +that nearly the whole literary talent of a nation is at the command of +any honorable man who has money enough, with tact enough. The editor +who expends fifty guineas a day in the purchase of three short essays +can have them written by the men who can do them best. What a power is +this, to say three things every morning to a whole nation,--to say +them with all the force which genius, knowledge, and practice united +can give,--and to say them without audible contradiction! Fortunate +for England is it that this power is no longer concentrated in a +single man, and that the mighty influence once wielded by an +individual will henceforth be exerted by a profession. + +We in America have escaped all danger of ever falling under the +dominion of a paper despot. There will never be a Times in America. +Twenty years ago the New York news and the New York newspaper reached +distant cities at the same moment; but since the introduction of the +telegraph, the news outstrips the newspaper, and is given to the +public by the local press. It is this fact which forever limits the +circulation and national importance of the New York press. The New +York papers reach a village in Vermont late in the afternoon,--six, +eight, ten hours after a carrier has distributed the Springfield +Republican; and nine people in ten will be content with the brief +telegrams of the local centre. At Chicago, the New York paper is forty +hours behind the news; at San Francisco, thirty days; in Oregon, +forty. Before California had been reached by the telegraph, the New +York newspapers, on the arrival of a steamer, were sought with an +avidity of which the most ludicrous accounts have been given. If the +news was important and the supply of papers inadequate, nothing was +more common than for a lucky newsboy to dispose of his last sheets at +five times their usual price. All this has changed. A spirited local +press has anticipated the substance of the news, and most people wait +tranquilly for the same local press to spread before them the +particulars when the tardy mail arrives. Even the weekly and +semi-weekly editions issued by the New York daily press have probably +reached their maximum of importance; since the local daily press also +publishes weekly and semi-weekly papers, many of which are of high +excellence and are always improving, and have the additional +attraction of full local intelligence. If some bold Yankee should +invent a method by which a bundle of newspapers could be shot from New +York to Chicago in half an hour, it would certainly enhance the +importance of the New York papers, and diminish that of the rapidly +expanding and able press of Chicago. Such an invention is possible; +nay, we think it a probability. But even in that case, the local news, +and, above all, the local advertising, would still remain as the basis +of a great, lucrative, honorable, and very attractive business. + +We believe, however, that if the local press were annihilated, and +this whole nation lived dependent upon the press of a single city, +still we should be safe from a paper despotism; because the power of +the editorial lessens as the intelligence of the people in-creases. +The prestige of the editorial is gone. Just as there is a party in +England who propose the omission of the sermon from the church service +as something no longer needed by the people, so there are journalists +who think the time is at hand for the abolition of editorials, and the +concentration of the whole force of journalism upon presenting to the +public the history and picture of the day. The time for this has not +come, and may never come; but our journalists already know that +editorials neither make nor mar a daily paper, that they do not much +influence the public mind, nor change many votes, and that the power +and success of a newspaper depend finally upon its success in getting +and its skill in exhibiting the news. The word _newspaper_ is the +exact and complete description of the thing which the true journalist +aims to produce. The news is his work; editorials are his play. The +news is the point of rivalry; it is that for which nineteen twentieths +of the people buy newspapers; it is that which constitutes the power +and value of the daily press; it is that which determines the rank of +every newspaper in every free country. + +No editor, therefore, will ever reign over the United States, and the +newspapers of no one city will attain universal currency. Hence the +importance of journalism in the United States. By the time a town has +ten thousand inhabitants, it usually has a daily paper, and in most +large cities there is a daily paper for every twenty thousand people. +In many of the Western cities there are daily newspapers conducted +with great energy, and on a scale of expenditure which enables them to +approximate real excellence. Many of our readers will live to see the +day when there will be in Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, +and San Francisco daily newspapers more complete, better executed, and +produced at greater expense than any newspaper now existing in the +United States. This is a great deal to say, in view of the fact, that, +during the late war, one of the New York papers expended in war +correspondence alone two thousand dollars a week. Nevertheless, we +believe it. There will never be _two_ newspapers in any one city that +can sustain such an expenditure, but in fifteen years from, to-day +there will be one, we think, in each of our great cities, and besides +that one there will be four or five struggling to supplant it, as well +as one or two having humbler aims and content with a lowlier position. + +It is plain that journalism will henceforth and forever be an +important and crowded profession in the United States. The daily +newspaper is one of those things which are rooted in the necessities +of modern civilization. The steam-engine is not more essential to us. +The newspaper is that which connects each individual with the general +life of mankind, and makes him part and parcel of the whole; so that +we can almost say, that those who neither read newspapers nor converse +with people who do read them are not members of the human +_family_;--though, like the negroes of Guinea, they may become such in +time. They are beyond the pale; they have no hold of the electric +chain, and therefore do not receive the shock. + +There are two mornings of the year on which newspapers have not +hitherto been published in the city of New York,--the 5th of July, and +the 2d of January. A shadow appears to rest on the world during those +days, as when there is an eclipse of the sun. We are separated from +our brethren, cut off, lost, alone; vague apprehensions of evil creep +over the mind. We feel, in some degree, as husbands feel who, far from +wife and children, say to themselves, shuddering, "What things _may_ +have happened, and I not know it!" Nothing quite dispels the gloom +until the Evening Post--how eagerly seized--assures us that nothing +very particular has happened since our last. It is amusing to notice +how universal is the habit of reading a morning paper. Hundreds of +vehicles and vessels convey the business men of New York to that +extremity of Manhattan Island-which may be regarded as the +counting-house of the Western Continent. It is not uncommon for every +individual in a cabin two hundred feet long to be sitting absorbed in +his paper, like boys conning their lessons on their way to school. +Still more striking is it to observe the torrent of workingmen pouring +down town, many of them reading as they go, and most of them provided +with a newspaper for dinner-time, not less as a matter of course than +the tin kettle which contains the material portion of the repast. +Notice, too, the long line of hackney-coaches on a stand, nearly every +driver sitting on his box reading his paper. Many of our Boston +friends have landed in New York at five o'clock in the morning, and +ridden up town in the street cars, filled, at that hour, with women +and boys, folding newspapers and throwing off bundles of them from +time to time, which are caught by other boys and women in waiting. +Carriers are flitting in every direction, and the town is alive with +the great business of getting two hundred thousand papers distributed +before breakfast. + +All this is new, but it is also permanent. Having once had daily +papers, we can never again do without them; so perfectly does this +great invention accord with the genius of modern life. The art of +journalism is doubtless destined to continuous improvement for a long +time to come; the newspapers of the future will be more convenient, +and better in every way, than those of the present day; but the art +remains forever an indispensable auxiliary to civilization. And this +is so, not by virtue of editorial essays, but because journalism +brings the events of the time to bear upon the instruction of the +time. An editorial essayist is a man addressing men; but the skilled +and faithful journalist, recording with exactness and power the thing +that has come to pass, is Providence addressing men. The thing that +has actually happened,--to know that is the beginning of wisdom. All +else is theory and conjecture, which may be right and may be wrong. + +While it is true that the daily press of the city of New York is +limited by the telegraph, it has nevertheless a very great, an +unapproached, national importance. We do not consider it certain that +New York is always to remain the chief city of the United States; but +it holds that rank now, and must for many years. Besides being the +source of a great part of our news, it was the first city that +afforded scope for papers conducted at the incredible expense which +modern appliances necessitate. Consequently its daily papers reach the +controlling minds of the country. They are found in all reading-rooms, +exchanges, bank parlors, insurance-offices, counting-rooms, hotels, +and wherever else the ruling men of the country congregate. But, above +all, they are, and must be, in all newspaper offices, subject to the +scissors. This is the chief source of their importance. Not merely +that in this way their contents are communicated to the whole people. +The grand reason why the New York papers have national importance is, +that it is chiefly through them that the art of journalism in the +United States is to be perfected. They set daily copies for all +editors to follow. The expenditure necessary for the carrying on of a +complete daily newspaper is so immense, that the art can only be +improved in the largest cities. New York is first in the field; it has +the start of a quarter of a century or more; and it therefore devolves +upon the journalists of that city to teach the journalists of the +United States their vocation. It is this fact which invests the press +of New York with such importance, and makes it so well worth +considering. + +It is impossible any longer to deny that the chief newspaper of that +busy city is the New York Herald. No matter how much we may regret +this fact, or be ashamed of it, no journalist can deny it. We do not +attach much importance to the fact that Abraham Lincoln, the late +lamented President of the United States, thought it worth while, +during the dark days of the summer of 1864, to buy its support at the +price of the offer of the French mission. He was mistaken in supposing +that this paper had any considerable power to change votes; which was +shown by the result of the Presidential election in the city of New +York, where General McClellan had the great majority of thirty-seven +thousand. Influence over opinion no paper can have which has itself no +opinion, and cares for none. It is not as a vehicle of opinion that +the Herald has importance, but solely as a vehicle of news. It is for +its excellence, real or supposed, in this particular, that eighty +thousand people buy it every morning. Mr. Lincoln committed, as we +cannot help thinking, a most egregious error and fault in his purchase +of the editor of this paper, though he is in some degree excused by +the fact that several leading Republicans, who were in a position to +know better, advised or sanctioned the bargain, and leading +journalists agreed not to censure it. Mr. Lincoln could not be +expected to draw the distinction, between the journalist and the +writer of editorials. He perceived the strength of this +carrier-pigeon's pinions, but did not note the trivial character of +the message tied to its leg. Thirty or forty war correspondents in the +field, a circulation larger than any of its rivals, an advertising +patronage equalled only by that of the London Times, the popularity of +the paper in the army, the frequent utility of its maps and other +elucidations,--these things imposed upon his mind; and his wife could +tell him from personal observation, that the proprietor of this paper +lived in a style of the most profuse magnificence,--maintaining costly +establishments in town and country, horses, and yachts, to say nothing +of that most expensive appendage to a reigning house, an heir +apparent. + +Our friends in the English press tell us, that the Herald was one of +the principal obstacles in their attempts to guide English opinions +aright during the late struggle. Young men in the press would point to +its editorials and say: + + "This is the principal newspaper in the Northern States; + this is the Times of America; can a people be other than + contemptible who prefer such a newspaper as this to journals + so respectable and so excellent as the Times and Tribune, + published in the same city?" "As to (American) journalism," + +says Professor Goldwin Smith, "the New York Herald is always kept +before our eyes." That is to say, the editorial articles in the +Herald; not that variety and fulness of intelligence which often +compelled men who hated it most to get up at the dawn of day to buy +it. A paper which can detach two or three men, after a battle, to +collect the names of the killed and wounded, with orders to do only +that, cannot lack purchasers in war time. Napoleon assures us that the +whole art of war consists in having the greatest force at the point of +contact. This rule applies to the art of journalism; the editor of the +Herald knew it, and had the means to put it in practice. + +Even here, at home, we find two opinions as to the cause of the +Herald's vast success as a business. One of these opinions is +this,--the Herald takes the lead because it is such a bad paper. The +other opinion is,--the Herald takes the lead because it is such a good +paper. It is highly important to know which of these two opinions is +correct; or, in other words, whether it is the Herald's excellences as +a newspaper, or its crimes as a public teacher, which give it such +general currency. Such success as this paper has obtained is a most +influential fact upon the journalism of the whole country, as any one +can see who looks over a file of our most flourishing daily papers. It +is evident that our daily press is rapidly becoming Heraldized; and it +is well known that the tendency of imitation is to reproduce all of +the copy excepting alone that which made it worth copying. It is +honorable to the American press that this rule has been reversed in +the present instance. Some of the more obvious good points of the +Herald have become universal, while as yet no creature has been found +capable of copying the worst of its errors. + +If there are ten bakers in a town, the one that gives the best loaf +for sixpence is sure, at last, to sell most bread. A man may puff up +his loaves to a great size, by chemical agents, and so deceive the +public for a time; another may catch the crowd for a time by the +splendor of his gilt sheaf, the magnitude of his signs, and the +bluster of his advertising; and the intrinsically best baker may be +kept down, for a time, by want of tact, or capital, or some personal +defect. But let the competition last thirty years! The gilt sheaf +fades, the cavities in the big loaf are observed; but the ugly little +man round the corner comes steadily into favor, and all the town, at +length, is noisy in the morning with the rattle of his carts. The +particular caterer for our morning repast, now under consideration, +has achieved a success of this kind, against every possible obstacle, +and under every possible disadvantage. He had no friends at the start, +he has made none since, and he has none now. He has had the support of +no party or sect. On the contrary, he has won his object in spite of +the active opposition of almost every organized body in the country, +and the fixed disapproval of every public-spirited human being who has +lived in the United States since he began his career. What are we to +say of this? Are we to say that the people of the United States are +competent to judge of bread, but not of newspapers? Are we to say that +the people of the United States prefer evil to good? We cannot assent +to such propositions. + +Let us go back to the beginning, and see how this man made his way to +his present unique position. We owe his presence in this country, it +seems, to Benjamin Franklin; and he first smelt printer's ink in +Boston, near the spot where young Ben Franklin blackened his fingers +with it a hundred years before. Born and reared on the northeastern +coast of Scotland, in a Roman Catholic family of French origin, he has +a French intellect and Scotch habits. Frenchmen residing among us can +seldom understand why this man should be odious, so French is he. A +French naval officer was once remonstrated with for having invited him +to a ball given on board a ship of war in New York harbor. "Why, what +has he done?" inquired the officer. "Has he committed murder? Has he +robbed, forged, or run away with somebody's wife?" "No." "Why then +should we not invite him?" "He is the editor of the New York Herald." +"Ah!" exclaimed the Frenchman,--"the Herald! it is a delightful +paper,--it reminds me of my gay Paris." This, however, was thirty +years ago, when Bennett was almost as French as Voltaire. He was a +Frenchman also in this: though discarding, in his youth, the doctrines +of his Church, and laughing them to scorn in early manhood, he still +maintained a kind of connection with the Catholic religion. The whole +of his power as a writer consists in his detection of the evil in +things that are good, and of the falsehood in things that are true, +and of the ridiculous in things that are important. He began with the +Roman Catholic Church,--"the holy Roman Catholic Church," as he once +styled it,--adding in a parenthesis, "all of us Catholics are devilish +holy." Another French indication is, that his early tastes were +romantic literature _and_ political economy,--a conjunction very +common in France from the days of the "philosophers" to the present +time. During our times of financial collapse, we have noticed, among +the nonsense which he daily poured forth, some gleams of a superior +understanding of the fundamental laws of finance. He appears to have +understood 1837 and 1857 better than most of his contemporaries. + +In a Catholic seminary he acquired the rudiments of knowledge, and +advanced so far as to read Virgil. He also picked up a little French +and Spanish in early life. The real instructors of his mind were +Napoleon, Byron, and Scott. It was their fame, however, as much as +their works, that attracted and dazzled him. It is a strange thing, +but true, that one of the strongest desires of one of the least +reputable of living men was, and is, to be admired and held in lasting +honor by his fellow-men. Nor has he now the least doubt that he +deserves their admiration, and will have it. In 1817, an edition of +Franklin's Autobiography was issued in Scotland. It was his perusal of +that little book that first directed his thoughts toward America, and +which finally decided him to try his fortune in the New World. In May, +1819, being then about twenty years of age, he landed at Halifax, with +less than five pounds in his purse, without a friend on the Western +Continent, and knowing no vocation except that of book-keeper. + +Between his landing at Halifax and the appearance of the first number +of the Herald sixteen years elapsed; during most of which he was a +very poor, laborious, under-valued, roving writer for the daily press. +At Halifax, he gave lessons in book-keeping for a few weeks, with +little profit, then made his way along the coast to Portland, whence a +schooner conveyed him to Boston. He was then, it appears, a soft, +romantic youth, alive to the historic associations of the place, and +susceptible to the varied, enchanting loveliness of the scenes +adjacent, on land and sea. He even expressed his feelings in verse, in +the Childe Harold manner,--verse which does really show a poetic habit +of feeling, with an occasional happiness of expression. At Boston he +experienced the last extremity of want. Friendless and alone he +wandered about the streets, seeking work and finding none; until, his +small store of money being all expended, he passed two whole days +without food, and was then only relieved by finding a shilling on the +Common. He obtained at length the place of salesman in a bookstore, +from which he was soon transferred to the printing-house connected +therewith, where he performed the duties of proof-reader. And here it +was that he received his first lesson in the art of catering for the +public mind. The firm in whose employment he was were more ambitious +of glory than covetous of profit, and consequently published many +works that were in advance of the general taste. Bankruptcy was their +reward. The youth noted another circumstance at Boston. The newspaper +most decried was Buckingham's Galaxy; but it was also the most eagerly +sought and the most extensively sold. Buckingham habitually violated +the traditional and established decorums of the press; he was +familiar, chatty, saucy, anecdotical, and sadly wanting in respect for +the respectabilities of the most respectable town in the universe. +Every one said that he was a very bad man, _but_ every one was +exceedingly curious every Saturday to see "what the fellow had to say +this week." If the youth could have obtained a sight of a file of +James Franklin's Courant, of 1722, in which the youthful Benjamin +first addressed the public, he would have seen a still more striking +example of a journal generally denounced and universally read. + +Two years in Boston. Then he went to New York, where he soon met the +publisher of a Charleston paper, who engaged him as translator from +the Spanish, and general assistant. During the year spent by him at +Charleston he increased his knowledge of the journalist's art. The +editor of the paper with which he was connected kept a sail-boat, in +which he was accustomed to meet arriving vessels many miles from the +coast, and bring in his files of newspapers a day in advance of his +rivals. The young assistant remembered this, and turned it to account +in after years. At Charleston he was confronted, too, with the late +peculiar institution, and saw much to approve in it, nothing to +condemn. From that day to this he has been but in one thing +consistent,--contempt for the negro and for all white men interested +in his welfare, approving himself in this a thorough Celt. If, for one +brief period, he forced himself, for personal reasons, to veil this +feeling, the feeling remained rooted within him, and soon resumed its +wonted expression. He liked the South, and the people of the South, +and had a true Celtic sympathy with their aristocratic pretensions. +The salary of an assistant editor at that time was something between +the wages of a compositor and those of an office-boy. Seven dollars a +week would have been considered rather liberal pay; ten, munificent; +fifteen, lavish. + +Returning to New York, he endeavored to find more lucrative +employment, and advertised his intention to open, near the site of the +present Herald office, a "Permanent Commercial School," in which all +the usual branches were to be taught "in the inductive method." His +list of subjects was extensive,--"reading, elocution, penmanship, and +arithmetic; algebra, astronomy, history, and geography; moral +philosophy, commercial law, and political economy; English grammar, +and composition; and also, if required, the French and Spanish +languages, by natives of _those countries_." Application was to be +made to "J.G.B., 148 Fulton Street." Applications, however, were not +made in sufficient number, and the school, we believe, never came into +existence. Next, he tried a course of lectures upon Political Economy, +at the old Dutch Church in Ann Street, then not far from the centre of +population. The public did not care to hear the young gentleman upon +that abstruse subject, and the pecuniary result of the enterprise was +not encouraging. He had no resource but the ill-paid, unhonored +drudgery of the press. + +For the next few years he was a paragraphist, reporter, scissorer, and +man-of-all-work for the New York papers, daily and weekly, earning but +the merest subsistence. He wrote then in very much the same style as +when he afterwards amused and shocked the town in the infant Herald; +only he was under restraint, being a subordinate, and was seldom +allowed to violate decorum. In point of industry, sustained and +indefatigable industry, he had no equal, and has never since had but +one. One thing is to be specially noted as one of the chief and +indispensable causes of his success. _He had no vices_. He never drank +to excess, nor gormandized, nor gambled, nor even smoked, nor in any +other way wasted the vitality needed for a long and tough grapple with +adverse fortune. What he once wrote of himself in the early Herald was +strictly true: + + "I eat and drink to live,--not live to eat and drink. Social + glasses of wine are my aversion; public dinners are my + abomination; all species of gormandizing, my utter scorn and + contempt. When I am hungry, I eat; when thirsty, drink. Wine + or viands taken for society, or to stimulate conversation, + tend only to dissipation, indolence, poverty, contempt, and + death." + +This was an immense advantage, which he had in common with several of +the most mischievous men of modern times,--Calhoun, Charles XII., +George III., and others. Correct bodily habits are of themselves such +a source of power, that the man who has them will be extremely likely +to gain the day over competitors of ten times his general worth who +have them not. Dr. Franklin used to say, that if Jack Wilkes had been +as exemplary in this particular as George III., he would have turned +the king out of his dominions. In several of the higher kinds of +labor, such as law, physic, journalism, authorship, art, when the +competition is close and keen, and many able men are near the summit, +the question, who shall finally stand upon it, often resolves itself +into one of physical endurance. This man Bennett would have lived and +died a hireling scribe, if he had had even one of the common vices. +Everything was against his rising, except alone an enormous capacity +for labor, sustained by strictly correct habits. + +He lived much with politicians during these years of laborious +poverty. Gravitating always towards the winning side, he did much to +bring into power the worst set of politicians we ever had,--those who +"availed" themselves of the popularity of Andrew Jackson, and who were +afterwards used by him for the purpose of electing Martin Van Buren. +He became perfectly familiar with all that was petty and mean in the +political strifes of the day, but without ever suspecting that there +was anything in politics not petty and mean. He had no convictions of +his own, and therefore not the least belief that any politician had. +If the people were in earnest about the affairs of their country, +(_their_ country, not his,) it was because the people were not behind +the scenes, were dupes of their party leaders, were a parcel of fools. +In short, he acquired his insight into political craft in the school +of Tammany Hall and the Kitchen Cabinet. His value was not altogether +unappreciated by the politicians. He was one of those whom they use +and flatter during the heat of the contest, and forget in the +distribution of the spoils of victory. + +He made his first considerable hit as a journalist in the spring of +1828, when he filled the place of Washington correspondent to the New +York Enquirer. In the Congressional Library, one day, he found an +edition of Horace Walpole's Letters, which amused him very much. "Why +not," said he to himself, "try, a few letters on a similar plan from +this city, to be published in New York?" The letters appeared. Written +in a lively manner, full of personal allusions, and describing +individuals respecting whom the public are always curious,--free also +from offensive personalities,--the letters attracted much notice +and were generally copied in the press. It is said that some of the +ladies whose charms were described in those letters were indebted to +them for husbands. Personalities of this kind were a novelty then, +and mere novelty goes a great way in journalism. At this period +he produced almost every kind of composition known to periodical +literature,--paragraphs and leading articles, poetry and love-stories, +reports of trials, debates, balls, and police cases; his earnings +ranging from five dollars a week to ten or twelve. If there had been +then in New York one newspaper publisher who understood his business, +the immense possible value of this man as a journalist would have been +perceived, and he would have been secured, rewarded, and kept under +some restraint. But there was no such man. There were three or four +forcible writers for the press, but not one journalist. + +During the great days of "The Courier and Inquirer," from 1829 to +1832, when it was incomparably the best newspaper on the continent, +James Gordon Bennett was its most efficient hand. It lost him in 1832, +when the paper abandoned General Jackson and took up Nicholas Biddle; +and in losing him lost its chance of retaining the supremacy among +American newspapers to this day. We can truly say, that at that time +journalism, as a thing by itself and for itself, had no existence in +the United States. Newspapers were mere appendages of party; and the +darling object of each journal was to be recognized as the organ of +the party it supported. As to the public, the great public, hungry for +interesting news, no one thought of it. Forty years ago, in the city +of New York, a copy of a newspaper could not be bought for money. If +any one wished to see a newspaper, he had either to go to the office +and subscribe, or repair to a bar-room and buy a glass of something to +drink, or bribe a carrier to rob one of his customers. The circulation +of the Courier and Inquirer was considered something marvellous when +it printed thirty-five hundred copies a day, and its business was +thought immense when its daily advertising averaged fifty-five +dollars. It is not very unusual for a newspaper now to receive for +advertising, in one day, six hundred times that sum. Bennett, in the +course of time, had a chance been given to him, would have made the +Courier and Inquirer powerful enough to cast off all party ties; and +this he would have done merely by improving it as a vehicle of news. +But he was kept down upon one of those ridiculous, tantalizing, +corrupting salaries, which are a little more than a single man needs, +but not enough for him to marry upon. This salary was increased by the +proprietors giving him a small share in the small profits of the +printing-office; so that, after fourteen years of hard labor and +Scotch economy, he found himself, on leaving the great paper, a +capitalist to the extent of a few hundred dollars. The chief editor of +the paper which he now abandoned sometimes lost as much in a single +evening at the card-table. It probably never occurred to him that this +poor, ill-favored Scotchman was destined to destroy his paper and all +the class of papers to which it belonged. Any one who now examines a +file of the Courier and Inquirer of that time, and knows its interior +circumstances, will see plainly enough that the possession of this man +was the vital element in its prosperity. He alone knew the rudiments +of his trade. He alone had the physical stamina, the indefatigable +industry, the sleepless vigilance, the dexterity, tact, and audacity, +needful for keeping up a daily newspaper in the face of keen +competition. + +Unweaned yet from the politicians, he at once started a cheap party +paper, "The Globe," devoted to Jackson and Van Buren. The party, +however, did not rally to its support, and it had to contend with the +opposition of party papers already existing, upon whose manor it was +poaching. The Globe expired after an existence of thirty days. Its +proprietor, still untaught by such long experience, invested the wreck +of his capital in a Philadelphia Jackson paper, and struggled +desperately to gain for it a footing in the party. He said to Mr. Van +Buren and to other leaders, Help me to a loan of twenty-five hundred +dollars for two years, and I can establish my Pennsylvanian on a +self-supporting basis. The application was politely refused, and he +was compelled to give up the struggle. The truth is, he was not +implicitly trusted by the Jackson party. They admitted the services he +had rendered; but, at the same time, they were a little afraid of the +vein of mockery that broke out so frequently in his writings. He was +restive in harness. He was devoted to the party, but he was under no +party illusions. He was fighting in the ranks as an adventurer or +soldier of fortune. He fought well; but would it do to promote a man +to high rank who knew the game so well, and upon whom no man could get +any _hold_? To him, in his secret soul, Martin Van Buren was nothing +(as he often said) but a country lawyer, who, by a dexterous use of +the party machinery, the well-timed death of De Witt Clinton, and +General Jackson's frenzy in behalf of Mrs. Eaton, had come to be the +chosen successor of the fiery chieftain. The canny Scotchman saw this +with horrid clearness, and saw nothing more. Political chiefs do not +like subalterns of this temper. Underneath the politician in Martin +Van Buren there was the citizen, the patriot, the gentleman, and the +man, whose fathers were buried in American soil, whose children were +to live under American institutions, who had, necessarily, an interest +in the welfare and honor of the country, and whose policy, upon the +whole, was controlled by that natural interest in his country's +welfare and honor. To our mocking Celt nothing of this was apparent, +nor has ever been. + +His education as a journalist was completed by the failure of his +Philadelphia scheme. Returning to New York, he resolved to attempt no +more to rise by party aid, but henceforth have no master but the +public. On the 6th of May, 1835, appeared the first number of the +Morning Herald, price one cent. It was born in a cellar in Wall +Street,--not a basement, but a veritable cellar. Some persons are +still doing business in that region who remember going down into its +subterranean office, and buying copies of the new paper from its +editor, who used to sit at a desk composed of two flour-barrels and a +piece of board, and who occupied the only chair in the establishment. +For a considerable time his office contained absolutely nothing but +his flour-barrel desk, one wooden chair, and a pile of Heralds. "I +remember," writes Mr. William Gowans, the well-known bookseller of +Nassau Street, + + "to have entered the subterranean office of its editor early + in its career, and purchased a single copy of the paper, for + which I paid the sum of one cent United States currency. On + this occasion the proprietor, editor, and vendor was seated + at his desk, busily engaged writing, and appeared to pay + little or no attention to me as I entered. On making known + my object in coming in, he requested me to put my money down + on the counter, and help myself to a paper; all this time he + continuing his writing operations. The office was a single + oblong underground room; its furniture consisted of a + counter, which also served as a desk, constructed from two + flour-barrels, perhaps empty, standing apart from each other + about four feet, with a single plank covering both; a chair, + placed in the centre, upon which sat the editor busy at his + vocation, with an inkstand by his right hand; on the end + nearest the door were placed the papers for sale." + +Everything appeared to be against his success. It was one poor man in +a cellar against the world. Already he had failed three times; first, +in 1825, when he attempted to establish a Sunday paper; next, in 1832, +when he tried a party journal; recently, in Philadelphia. With great +difficulty, and after many rebuffs, he had prevailed upon two young +printers to print his paper and share its profits or losses, and he +possessed about enough money to start the enterprise and sustain it +ten days. The cheapness of his paper was no longer a novelty, for +there was already a penny paper with a paying circulation. He had cut +loose from all party ties, and he had no influential friends except +those who had an interest in his failure. The great public, to which +he made this last desperate appeal, knew him not even by name. The +newsboy system scarcely existed; and all that curious machinery by +which, in these days, a "new candidate for public favor" is placed, +at no expense, on a thousand news-stands, had not been thought +of. There he was alone in his cellar, without clerk, errand-boy, +or assistant of any kind. For many weeks he did with his own hands +everything,--editorials, news, reporting, receiving advertisements, +and even writing advertisements for persons "unaccustomed to +composition." He expressly announced that advertisers could have their +advertisements written for them at the office, and this at a time when +there was no one to do it but himself. The extreme cheapness of the +paper rendered him absolutely dependent upon his advertisers, and yet +he dared not charge more than fifty cents for sixteen lines, and he +offered to insert sixteen lines for a whole year for thirty dollars. + +He at once produced an eminently salable article. If just such a paper +were to appear to-day, or any day, in any large city of the world, it +would instantly find a multitude of readers. It was a very small +sheet,--four little pages of four columns each,--much better printed +than the Herald now is, and not a waste line in it. Everything _drew_, +as the sailors say. There was not much scissoring in it,--the scissors +have never been much esteemed in the Herald office,--but the little +that there was all told upon the general effect of the sheet. There is +a story current in newspaper offices that the first few numbers of the +Herald were strictly decorous and "respectable," but that the editor, +finding the public indifferent and his money running low, changed his +tactics, and filled his paper with scurrility and indecency, which +immediately made it a paying enterprise. No such thing. The first +numbers were essentially of the same character as the number published +this morning. They had the same excellences and the same defects: in +the news department, immense industry, vigilance, and tact; in the +editorial columns, the vein of Mephistophelean mockery which has +puzzled and shocked so many good people at home and abroad. A leading +topic then was a certain Matthias, one of those long-bearded religious +impostors who used to appear from time to time. The first article in +the first number of the Herald was a minute account of the origin and +earlier life of the fellow,--just the thing for the paper, and the +sure method of exploding _him_. The first editorial article, too, was +perfectly in character:-- + +"In _debuts_ of this kind," said the editor, + + "many talk of principle--political principle, party + principle--as a sort of steel-trap to catch the public. We + mean to be perfectly understood on this point, and therefore + openly disclaim all steel-traps,--all principle, as it is + called,--all party,--all politics. Our only guide shall be + good, sound, practical common-sense, applicable to the + business and bosoms of men engaged in every-day life. We + shall support no party, be the organ of no faction or + coterie, and care nothing for any election or any candidate, + from President down to constable. We shall endeavor to + record facts on every public and proper subject, stripped of + verbiage and coloring, with comments, when suitable, just, + independent, fearless, and good-tempered. If the Herald + wants the mere expansion which many journals possess, we + shall try to make it up in industry, good taste, brevity, + variety, point, piquancy, and cheapness." + +He proceeded immediately to give a specimen of the "comments" thus +described, in the form of a review of an Annual Register just +published. The Register informed him that there were 1,492 "rogues in +the State Prison." His comment was: "But God only knows how many out +of prison, preying upon the community, in the shape of gamblers, +blacklegs, speculators, and politicians." He learned from the Register +that the poor-house contained 6,547 paupers; to which he added, "and +double the number going there as fast as indolence and intemperance +can carry them." The first numbers were filled with nonsense and +gossip about the city of New York, to which his poverty confined him. +He had no boat with which to board arriving ships, no share in the +pony express from Washington, and no correspondents in other cities. +All he could do was to catch the floating gossip, scandal, and folly +of the town, and present as much of them every day as one man could +get upon paper by sixteen hours' labor. He laughed at everything and +everybody,--not excepting himself and his squint eye,--and, though his +jokes were not always good, they were generally good enough. People +laughed, and were willing to expend a cent the next day to see what +new folly the man would commit or relate. We all like to read about +our own neighborhood: this paper gratified the propensity. + +The man, we repeat, really had a vein of poetry in him, and the first +numbers of the Herald show it. He had occasion to mention, one day, +that Broadway was about to be paved with wooden blocks. This was not a +very promising subject for a poetical comment; but he added: "When +this is done, every vehicle will have to wear sleigh-bells as in +sleighing times, and Broadway will be so quiet that you can pay a +compliment to a lady, in passing, and she will hear you." This was +nothing in itself; but here was a man wrestling with fate in a cellar, +who could turn you out two hundred such paragraphs a week, the year +round. Many men can growl in a cellar; this man could laugh, and keep +laughing, and make the floating population of a city laugh with him. +It must be owned, too, that he had a little real insight into the +nature of things around him,--a little Scotch sense, as well as an +inexhaustible fund of French vivacity. Alluding, once, to the "hard +money" cry, by which the lying politicians of the day carried +elections, he exploded that nonsense in two lines: "If a man gets the +wearable or the eatable he wants, what cares he whether he has gold or +paper-money?" He devoted two sentences to the Old School and New +School Presbyterian controversy: "Great trouble among the +Presbyterians just now. The question in dispute is, whether or not a +man can do anything towards saving his own soul." He had, also, an +article upon the Methodists, in which he said that the two religions +nearest akin were the Methodist and the Roman Catholic. We should add +to these trifling specimens the fact, that he uniformly maintained, +from 1835 to the crash of 1837, that the prosperity of the country was +unreal, and would end in disaster. Perhaps we can afford space for a +single specimen of his way of treating this subject; although it can +be fully appreciated only by those who are old enough to remember the +rage for land speculation which prevailed in 1836:-- + + "THE RICH POOR--THE POOR RICH.--'I have made $50,000 since + last January,' said one of these real-estate speculators to + a friend. + + "'The dense you have,' said the other, looking up in + astonishment 'Why, last January you were not worth a + twenty-dollar bill.' + + "'I know that; but I now calculate I'm worth full $50,000, + if not $60,000.' + + "How have you made it?' + + "'By speculating in real estate. I bought three hundred lots + at Goose Island at $150 apiece; they are now worth $400. I + would not sell them for $350 apiece, I assure you.' + + "' Do you think so?' + + "'Sartain. I have two hundred and fifty lots at Blockhead's + Point, worth $150 a piece; some on them are worth $200. I + have one hundred lots at Jackass Inlet, worth at least $100, + at the very lowest calculation. In short, I'm worth a hull + $60,000.' + + "'Well, I'm glad to hear it. You can pay me now the $500 you + have owed me for these last four years. There's your note, I + believe,' said he, handing the speculator a worn piece of + paper that had a piece of writing upon it. + + "The speculator looked blank at this. 'Oh! yes--my--now I'd + like--suppose,' but the words could not form themselves into + a perfect sentence. + + "'I want the money very much,' said the other; 'I have some + payments to make to-morrow.' + + "'Why, you don't want cash for it surely.' + + "'Yes, but I do. You say you are worth $60,000,--surely $500 + is but a trifle to pay; do let me have the cash on the nail, + if you please.' + + "'Oh!--by--well--now--do tell--really, I have not got the + money at present.' + + "'So you can't pay it, eh? A man worth $60,000, and can't + pay an old debt of $500?' + + "'Oh! yes I can--I'll--I'll--just give you my note for it at + ninety days.' + + "'The D--l you will! A man worth $60,000, and can't pay $500 + for ninety days! what do you mean?' + + "'Well now, my dear sir, I'm worth what I say. I can pay + you. There's my property,' spreading out half a dozen very + beautiful lithographs; 'but really I can't raise that amount + at present. Yesterday, I had to give three per cent a month + for $4,000 to save my whole fortune. I had to look out for + the mortgages. Take my note; you can get it discounted for + three per cent.' + + "'No, I can't. If you will give me $250 for the debt, I + shall give the other half to pay the interest on your + mortgages.'.... + + "Whether the proposition has been accepted we shall know + to-morrow; but we have many such rich people."--_Herald_, + Oct. 28, 1836. + +But it was not such things as these that established the Herald. +Confined as he was to the limits of a single town, and being compelled +to do everything with his own hands, he could not have much in his +columns that we should now call "news." But what is news? The answer +to that question involves the whole art, mystery, and history of +journalism. The time was when news signified the doings of the king +and his court. This was the staple of the first news-letter writers, +who were employed by great lords, absent from court, to send them +court intelligence. To this was soon added news of the doings of other +kings and courts; and from that day to this the word _news_ has been +continually gaining increase of meaning, until now it includes all +that the public are curious to know, which may be told without injury +to the public or injustice to individuals. While this man was playing +fantastic tricks before high Heaven, his serious thoughts were +absorbed in schemes to make his paper the great vehicle of news. Early +in the second month, while he was still losing money every day, he hit +upon a new kind of news, which perhaps had more to do with the final +success of the Herald than any other single thing. His working day, at +that time, was sixteen or seventeen hours. In the morning, from five +to eight, he was busy, in the quiet of his room, with those light, +nonsensical paragraphs and editorials which made his readers smile in +spite of themselves. During the usual business hours of the morning, +he was in his cellar, over his flour-barrel desk, engaged in the +ordinary routine of editorial work; not disdaining to sell the morning +paper, write advertisements, and take the money for them. + +About one o'clock, having provided abundant copy for the compositors, +he sallied forth into Wall Street, picking up material for his +stock-tables and subjects for paragraphs. From four to six he +was at his office again, winding up the business, of the day. In +the evening he was abroad,--at theatre, concert, ball, or public +meeting,--absorbing fresh material for his paper. He converted +himself, as it were, into a medium through which the gossip, scandal, +fun, and nonsense of this great town were daily conveyed back to it +for its amusement; just as a certain popular preacher is reported to +do, who spends six days in circulating among his parishioners, and on +the seventh tells them all that they have taught him. + +Now Wall Street, during the years that General Jackson was disturbing +the financial system by his insensate fury against the United States +Bank, was to journalism what the Army of the Potomac was in the year +1864. The crash of 1837 was full two years in coming on, during which +the money market was always deranged, and moneyed men were anxious and +puzzled. The public mind, too, was gradually drawn to the subject, +until Wall Street was the point upon which all eyes were fixed. The +editor of the Herald was the first American journalist to avail +himself of this state of things. It occurred to him, when his paper +had been five weeks in existence, to give a little account every day +of the state of affairs in Wall Street,--the fluctuations of the money +market and their causes,--the feeling and gossip of the street. He +introduced this feature at the moment when General Jackson's +embroilment with the French Chambers was at its height, and when the +return of the American Minister was hourly expected. Some of our +readers may be curious to see the first "money article" ever published +in the United States. It was as follows:-- + + "COMMERCIAL. + + "Stocks yesterday maintained their prices during the session + of the Board, several going up. Utica went up 2 per cent; + the others stationary. Large quantities were sold. After the + Board adjourned and the news from France was talked over, + the fancy stocks generally went down 1 to 1-1/2 per cent; + other stocks quite firm. A rally was made by the bulls in + the evening, under the trees, but it did not succeed. There + will be a great fight in the Board to-day. The good people + up town are anxious to know what the brokers think of Mr. + Livingston. We shall find out, and let them know. + + "The cotton and flour market rallied a little. The rise of + cotton in Liverpool drove it up here a cent or so. The last + shippers will make 2-1/2 per cent. Many are endeavoring to + produce a belief that there will be a war. If the impression + prevails, naval stores will go up a good deal. Every eye is + outstretched for the Constitution. Hudson, of the Merchants' + News Room, says he will hoist out the first flag. Gilpin, of + the Exchange News Room, says he will have her name down in + his Room one hour before his competitor. The latter claims + having beat Hudson yesterday by an hour and ten minutes in + chronicling the England."--_Herald_, June 13, 1835. + +This was his first attempt. The money article constantly lengthened +and increased in importance. It won for the little paper a kind of +footing in brokers' offices and bank parlors, and provided many +respectable persons with an excuse for buying it. + +At the end of the third month, the daily receipts equalled the daily +expenditures. A cheap police reporter was soon after engaged. In the +course of the next month, the printing-office was burnt, and the +printers, totally discouraged, abandoned the enterprise. The +editor--who felt that he had caught the public ear, as he +had--contrived, by desperate exertions, to "rake the Herald out of the +fire," as he said, and went on alone. Four months after, the great +fire laid Wall Street low, and all the great business streets +adjacent. Here was his first real opportunity as a journalist; and how +he improved it!--spending one half of every day among the ruins, +note-book in hand, and the other half over his desk, writing out what +he had gathered. He spread before the public reports so detailed, +unconventional, and graphic, that a reader sitting at his ease in his +own room became, as it were, an eyewitness of those appalling scenes. +His accounts of that fire, and of the events following it, are such as +Defoe would have given if he had been a New York reporter. Still +struggling for existence, he went to the expense (great then) of +publishing a picture of the burning Exchange, and a map of the burnt +district. American journalism was born amid the roaring flames of the +great fire of 1835; and no true journalist will deny, that from that +day to this, whenever any very remarkable event has taken place in the +city of New York, the Herald reports of it have generally been those +which cost most money and exhibited most of the spirit and detail of +the scene. For some years every dollar that the Herald made was +expended in news, and, to this hour, no other journal equals it in +daily expenditure for intelligence. If, to-morrow, we were to have +another great fire, like that of thirty years ago, this paper would +have twenty-five men in the streets gathering particulars. + +But so difficult is it to establish a daily newspaper, that at the end +of a year it was not yet certain that the Herald could continue. A +lucky contract with a noted pill-vender gave it a great lift about +that time;[1] and in the fifteenth month, the editor ventured to raise +his price to two cents. From that day he had a business, and nothing +remained for him but to go on as he had begun. He did so. The paper +exhibits now the same qualities as it did then,--immense expenditure +and vigilance in getting news, and a reckless disregard of principle, +truth, and decency in its editorials. + +Almost from the first month of its existence, this paper was deemed +infamous by the very public that supported it. We can well remember +when people bought it on the sly, and blushed when they were caught +reading it, and when the man in a country place who subscribed for it +intended by that act to distinctly enroll himself as one of the +ungodly. Journalists should thoroughly consider this most remarkable +fact. We have had plenty of infamous papers, but they have all been +short-lived but this. This one has lasted. After thirty-one years of +life, it appears to be almost as flourishing to-day as ever. The +foremost of its rivals has a little more than half its circulation, +and less than half its income. A marble palace is rising to receive +it, and its proprietor fares as sumptuously every day as the ducal +family who furnished him with his middle name. + +Let us see how the Herald acquired its ill name. We shall then know +why it is still so profoundly odious; for it has never changed, and +can never change, while its founder controls it. Its peculiarities are +_his_ peculiarities. + +He came into collision, first of all, with the clergy and people of +his own Church, the Roman Catholic. Thirty years ago, as some of our +readers may remember, Catholics and Protestants had not yet learned to +live together in the same community with perfect tolerance of one +another's opinions and usages; and there were still some timid persons +who feared the rekindling of the fagot, and the supremacy of the Pope +in the United States. A controversy growing out of these apprehensions +had been proceeding for some time in the newspapers when this impudent +little Herald first appeared. The new-comer joined in the fray, and +sided against the Church in which he was born; but laid about him in a +manner which disgusted both parties. For example:-- + + "As a Catholic, we call upon the Catholic Bishop and clergy + of New York to come forth from the darkness, folly, and + superstition of the tenth century. They live in the + nineteenth. There can be no mistake about it,--they will be + convinced of this fact if they look into the almanac.... + + "But though we want a thorough reform, we do not wish them + to discard their greatest absurdities at the first breath. + We know the difficulty of the task. Disciples, such as the + Irish are, will stick with greater pertinacity to + absurdities and nonsense than to reason and common sense. We + have no objection to the doctrine of Transubstantiation + being tolerated for a few years to come. We may for a while + indulge ourselves in the delicious luxury of creating and + eating our Divinity. A peculiar taste of this kind, like + smoking tobacco or drinking whiskey, cannot be given up all + at once. The ancient Egyptians, for many years after they + had lost every trace of the intellectual character of their + religion, yet worshipped and adored the ox, the bull, and + the crocodile. They had not discovered the art, as we + Catholics have done, of making a God out of bread, and of + adoring and eating him at one and the same moment. This + latter piece of sublimity or religious cookery (we don't + know which) was reserved for the educated and talented + clergy from the tenth up to the nineteenth century. Yet we + do not advise the immediate disturbance of this venerable + piece of rottenness and absurdity. It must be retained, as + we would retain carefully the tooth of a saint or the + jawbone of a martyr, till the natural progress of reason in + the Irish mind shall be able, silently and imperceptibly, to + drop it among the forgotten rubbish of his early loves, or + his more youthful riots and rows. + + "There must be a thorough reformation and revolution in the + American Catholic Church. Education must be more attended + to. We never knew one priest who believed that he ate the + Divinity when he took the Eucharist. If we must have a Pope, + let us have a Pope of our own,--an American Pope, an + intellectual, intelligent, and moral Pope,--not such a + decrepit, licentious, stupid, Italian blockhead as the + College of Cardinals at Rome condescends to give the + Christian world of Europe." + +This might be good advice; but no serious Protestant, at that day, +could relish the tone in which it was given. Threatening letters were +sent in from irate and illiterate Irishmen; the Herald was denounced +from a Catholic pulpit; its carriers were assaulted on their rounds; +but the paper won no friends from the side which it affected to +espouse. Every one felt that to this man _nothing_ was sacred, or +August, or venerable, or even serious. He was like an unbeliever in a +party composed of men of various sects. The Baptist could fairly +attack an Episcopalian, because he had convictions of his own that +could be assaulted; but this stranger, who believed nothing and +respected nothing, could not be hit at all. The result would naturally +be, that the whole company would turn upon him as upon a common foe. + +So in politics. Perhaps the most serious and sincere article he ever +wrote on a political subject was one that appeared in November, 1836, +in which he recommended the subversion of republican institutions and +the election of an emperor. If he ever had a political conviction, we +believe he expressed it then. After a rigmarole of Roman history and +Augustus Caesar, he proceeded thus:--- + + "Shall we not profit by these examples of history? Let us, + for the sake of science, art, and civilization, elect at + this election General Jackson, General Harrison, Martin Yan + Buren, Hugh White, or Anybody, we care not whom, the EMPEROR + of this great REPUBLIC for life, and have done with this + eternal turmoil and confusion. Perhaps Mr. Van Buren would + be the best Augustus Caesar. He is sufficiently corrupt, + selfish, and heartless for that dignity. He has a host of + favorites that will easily form a Senate. He has a court in + preparation, and the Praetorian bands in array. He can pick + up a Livia anywhere. He has violated every pledge, adopted + and abandoned every creed, been for and against every + measure, is a believer in all religions by turns, and, like + the first Caesar, has always been a republican and taken + care of number one. He has called into action all the ragged + adventurers from every class, and raised their lands, + stocks, lots, and places without end. He is smooth, + agreeable, oily, as Octavianus was. He has a couple of sons, + also, who might succeed him and preserve the imperial line. + We may be better off under an Emperor,--we could not be + worse off as a nation than we are now. Besides, who knows + but Van Buren is of the blood of the great Julius himself? + That great man conquered all Gaul and Helvetia, which in + those days comprised Holland. Caius Julius Caesar may thus + have laid the foundation of a royal line to be transmitted + to the West. There is a prophecy in Virgil's 'Pollio' + evidently alluding to Van. But of this another day." + +A man who writes in this way may have readers, but he can have no +friends. An event occurred in his first year which revealed this fact +to him in an extremely disagreeable manner. There was then upon the +New York stage a notoriously dissolute actor, who, after outraging the +feelings of his wife in all the usual modes, completed his infamy by +denouncing her from the stage of a crowded theatre. The Herald took +her part, which would naturally have been the popular side. But when +the actor retorted by going to the office of the Herald and committing +upon its proprietor a most violent and aggravated assault, +accompanying his blows with acts of peculiar indecency, it plainly +appeared, that the sympathies of the public were wholly with the +actor,--not with the champion of an injured woman. His hand had been +against every man, and in his hour of need, when he was greatly in the +right, every heart was closed against him. Not the less, however, did +the same public buy his paper, because it contained what the public +wanted, i.e. the news of the day, vividly exhibited. + +The course of this curious specimen of our kind during the late war +was perfectly characteristic. During the first two years of the war he +was inclined to think that the Rebels would be successful so far as to +win over the Democratic party to their side, and thus constitute +Jefferson Davis President of the United States. If he had any +preference as to the result of the contest, it was probably this. If +the flag of the United States had been trailed in the mud of Nassau +Street, followed by hooting ruffians from the Sixth Ward, and the +symbol of the Rebellion had floated in its stead from the cupola of +the City Hall, saluted by Captain Rynders's gun, it would not have +cost this isolated alien one pang,--unless, perchance, a rival +newspaper had been the first to announce the fact. _That_ indeed, +would have cut him to the heart. Acting upon the impression that the +Rebellion, in some way, would triumph, he gave it all the support +possible, and continued to do so until it appeared certain that, +whatever the issue of the strife, the South was lost for a long time +as a patron of New York papers. + +The key to most of the political vagaries of this paper is given in a +single sentence of one of its first numbers: "_We have never been in a +minority, and we never shall be_" In his endeavors to act upon this +lofty principle, he was sadly puzzled during the war,--so difficult +was it to determine which way the cat would finally jump. He held +himself ready, however, to jump with it, whichever side the dubious +animal might select. At the same time, he never for an instant relaxed +his endeavors to obtain the earliest and fullest intelligence from the +seat of war. Never perhaps did any journal in any country maintain so +great an expenditure for news. Every man in the field representing +that paper was more than authorized--he was encouraged and +commanded--to incur any expense whatever that might be necessary +either in getting or forwarding intelligence. There were no rigid or +grudging scrutiny of reporters' drafts; no minute and insulting +inquiries respecting the last moments of a horse ridden to death in +the service; no grumbling about the precise terms of a steamboat +charter, or a special locomotive. A reporter returning from the army +laden with information, procured at a lavish expense, was received in +the office like a conqueror coming home from a victorious campaign, +and he went forth again full of courage and zeal, knowing well that +every man employed on the Herald was advancing himself when he served +the paper well. One great secret of success the proprietor of the +Herald knows better than most;--he knows how to get out of those who +serve him all there is in them; he knows how to reward good service; +he knows a man's value to him. There is no newspaper office in the +world where real journalistic efficiency is more certain to meet +prompt recognition and just reward than in this. Not much may be said +to a laborious reporter about the hits he is making; but, on some +Saturday afternoon, when he draws his salary, he finds in his hands a +larger amount than usual. He hands it back to have the mistake +corrected, and he is informed that his salary is raised. + +The Herald, too, systematically prepares the way for its reporters. +Some of our readers may remember how lavishly this paper extolled +General McClellan during the time of his glory, and indeed as long as +he held the chief command. One of the results of this policy was, +that, while the reporters of other papers were out in the cold, +writing in circumstances the most inconvenient, those of the Herald, +besides being supplied with the best information, were often writing +in a warm apartment or commodious tent, not far from head-quarters or +at head-quarters. As long as General Butler held a command which gave +him control over one of the chief sources of news, the Herald hoarded +its private grudge against him; but the instant he was removed from +command, the Herald was after him in full cry. If, to-morrow, the same +General should be placed in a position which should render his office +a source of important intelligence, we should probably read in the +Herald the most glowing eulogiums of his career and character. + +What are we to think of a man who is at once so able and so false? It +would be incorrect to call him a liar, because he is wanting in that +sense of truth by violating which a man makes himself a liar. We +cannot call him a traitor, for his heart knows no country; nor an +infidel, for all the serious and high concerns of man are to him a +jest. _Defective_ is the word to apply to such as he. As far as he +goes, he is good; and if the commodity in which he deals were cotton +or sugar, we could commend his enterprise and tact. He is like the +steeple of a church in New York, which was built up to a certain +height, when the material gave out, and it was hastily roofed in, +leaving the _upper half_ of the architect's design unexecuted. That +region of the mind where conviction, the sense of truth and honor, +public spirit and patriotism have their sphere, is in this man mere +vacancy. But, we repeat, as far as he _is_ built up, he is very well +constructed. Visit him: you see before you a quiet-mannered, +courteous, and good-natured old gentleman, who is on excellent terms +with himself and with the world. If you are a poor musician, about to +give a concert, no editor is more likely than he to lend a favorable +ear to your request for a few lines of preliminary notice. The persons +about him have been very long in his employment, and to some of them +he has been munificently liberal. The best of them appear to be really +attached to his person, as well as devoted to his service, and they +rely on him as sailors rely on a captain who has brought them safe +through a thousand storms. He has the Celtic virtue of standing by +those who stand by him developed to the uttermost degree. Many a +slight favor bestowed upon him in his days of obscurity he has +recompensed a thousand-fold since he has had the power to do so. We +cannot assign a very exalted rank in the moral scale to a trait which +some of the lowest races possess in an eminent degree, and which +easily runs into narrowness and vice; nevertheless, it is akin to +nobleness, and is the nearest approach to a true generosity that some +strong natures can attain. + +What are we to say of the public that has so resolutely sustained this +paper, which the outside world so generally condemns? We say this. +Every periodical that thrives supplies the public with a certain +description of intellectual commodity, which the public is willing to +pay for. The New York Ledger, for example, exists by furnishing +stories and poetry adapted to the taste of the greatest number of the +people. Our spirited friends of The Nation and Round Table supply +criticism and that portion of the news which is of special interest to +the intellectual class. The specialty of the daily newspaper is to +give that part of the news of the day which interests the whole +public. A complete newspaper contains more than this; but it ranks in +the world of journalism exactly in the degree to which it does _this_. +The grand object of the true journalist is to be fullest, promptest, +and most correct on the one uppermost topic of the hour. That secured, +he may neglect all else. The paper that does this oftenest is the +paper that will find most purchasers; and no general excellence, no +array of information on minor or special topics, will ever atone for a +deficiency on the subject of most immediate and universal interest. +During the war this fundamental truth of journalism was apparent to +every mind. In time of peace, it is less apparent, but not less a +truth. In the absence of an absorbing topic, general news rises in +importance, until, in the dearth of the dogdays, the great cucumber +gets into type; but the great point of competition is still the +same,--to be fullest, quickest, and most correct upon the subject +_most_ interesting at the moment. + +But every periodical, besides its specialty on which it lives, gives +its readers something more. It need not, but it does. The universal +Ledger favors its readers with many very excellent essays, written for +it by distinguished clergymen, editors, and authors, and gives its +readers a great deal of sound advice in other departments of the +paper. It need not do this; these features do not materially affect +the sale of the paper, as its proprietor well knows. The essays of +such men as Mr. Everett and Mr. Bancroft do not increase the sale of +the paper one hundred copies a week. Those essays are read and +admired, and contribute their quota toward the education of the +people, and reflect honor upon the liberal and enterprising man who +publishes them; but scarcely any one buys the paper for their sake. +People almost universally buy a periodical for the special thing which +it has undertaken to furnish; and it is by supplying this special +thing that an editor attains his glorious privilege and opportunity of +addressing a portion of the people on other topics. This opportunity +he may neglect; he may abuse it to the basest purposes, or improve it +to the noblest, but whichever of these things he does, it does not +materially affect the prosperity of his paper,--always supposing that +his specialty is kept up with the requisite vigor. We have gone over +the whole history of journalism, and we find this to be its Law of +Nature, to which there are only apparent exceptions. + +All points to this simple conclusion, which we firmly believe to be +the golden rule of journalism:--that daily newspaper which has the +best corps of reporters, and handles them best, _necessarily_ takes +the lead of all competitors. + +There are journalists who say (we have often heard them in +conversation) that this is a low view to take of their vocation. It is +of no importance whether a view is high or low, provided it is +correct. But we cannot agree with them that this is a low view. We +think it the highest possible. Regarded as instructors of the people, +they wield for our warning and rebuke, for our encouragement and +reward, an instrument which is like the dread thunderbolt of Jove, at +once the most terrible and the most beneficent,--_publicity_. Some +years ago, a number of ill-favored and prurient women and a number of +licentious men formed themselves into a kind of society for the +purpose of devising and promulgating a theory to justify the +gratification of unbridled lust. They were called Free-Lovers. To have +assailed their nightly gatherings in thundering editorial articles +would have only advertised them; but a detailed _report_ of their +proceedings in the Tribune scattered these assemblies in a few days, +to meet no more except in secret haunts. Recently, we have seen the +Fenian wind-bag first inflated, then burst, by mere publicity. The +Strong Divorce Case, last year, was a nauseous dose, which we would +have gladly kept out of the papers; but since it had to appear, it was +a public benefit to have it given, Herald-fashion, with all its +revolting particulars. What a punishment to the guilty! what a lesson +to the innocent! what a warning to the undetected! How much beneficial +reflection and conversation it excited! How necessary, in an age of +sensation morals and free-love theories, to have self-indulgence +occasionally exhibited in all its hideous nastiness, and without any +of its fleeting, deceptive, imaginary charms! The instantaneous +detection of the Otero murderers last autumn, and of the robbers of +Adams's express-car last winter, as related in the daily papers, and +the picture presented by them of young Ketchum seated at work in the +shoe-shop of Sing-Sing Prison, were equivalent to the addition of a +thousand men to the police force. Herein lies the power of such a +slight person as the editor of the Herald. It is not merely that he +impudently pulls your nose, but he pulls it in the view of a million +people. + +Nor less potent is publicity as a means of reward. How many brave +hearts during the late war felt themselves far more than repaid for +all their hardships in the field and their agony in the hospital by +reading their names in despatches, or merely in the list of wounded, +and thinking of the breakfast-tables far away at which that name had +been spied out and read with mingled exultation and pity. "Those who +love me know that I did my duty,--it is enough." + +Our whole observation of the daily press convinces us that its power +to do good arises chiefly from its giving the news of the day; and its +power to do harm chiefly from its opportunity to comment upon the +news. Viewed only as a vehicle of intelligence, the Herald has taught +the journalists of the United States the greater part of all that they +yet know of their profession; regarded as an organ of opinion, it has +done all that it was ever possible for a newspaper to do in perverting +public opinion, debauching public taste, offending public morals, and +dishonoring the national character. + +The question arises, Why has not this paper been long ago outdone in +giving the news? It has always been possible to suppress it by +surpassing it. Its errors have given its rivals an immense advantage +over it; for it has always prospered, not in consequence of its +badness, but of its goodness. We are acquainted with two foolish young +patriots who were wrought up to such a frenzy of disgust by its +traitorous course during the first half of our late war, that they +seriously considered whether there was any way in which they could so +well serve their country in its time of need, as by slaying that +pernicious and insolent editor; but both of those amiable lunatics +were compelled occasionally to buy the paper. Of late, too, we have +seen vast audiences break forth into wild hootings at the mention of +its name; but not the less did the hooters buy it the next morning. +Nevertheless, as soon as there exists a paper which to the Herald's +good points adds the other features of a complete newspaper, and +avoids its faults, from that hour the Herald wanes and falls speedily +to the second rank. + +Two men have had it in their power to produce such a +newspaper,--Horace Greeley and Henry J. Raymond. In 1841, when the +Herald was six years old, the Tribune appeared, edited by Mr. Greeley, +with Mr. Raymond as his chief assistant. Mr. Greeley was then, and is +now, the best writer of editorials in the United States; that is, he +can produce a greater quantity of telling editorial per annum than any +other individual. There never lived a man capable of working more +hours in a year than he. Strictly temperate in his habits, and +absolutely devoted to his work, he threw himself into this enterprise +with an ardor never surpassed since Adam first tasted the sweets of +honorable toil. Mr. Raymond, then recently from college, very young, +wholly inexperienced, was endowed with an admirable aptitude for the +work of journalism, and a power of getting through its routine +labors,--a sustained, calm, swift industry,--unsurpassed at that time +in the American press. The business of the paper was also well managed +by Mr. McElrath. In the hands of these able men, the new paper made +such rapid advances, that, in the course of a few months, it was +fairly established, and in a year or two it had reached a circulation +equal to that of the Herald. One after another, excellent writers were +added to its corps;--the vigorous, prompt, untiring Dana; George +Ripley, possessing that blending of scholarship and tact, that wisdom +of the cloister and knowledge of the world, which alone could fit a +man of great learning and talent for the work of a daily newspaper; +Margaret Fuller, whose memory is still green in so many hearts; Bayard +Taylor, the versatile, and others, less universally known. + +Why, then, did not this powerful combination supplant the Herald? If +mere ability in the writing of a newspaper; if to have given an +impulse to thought and enterprise; if to have won the admiration and +gratitude of a host of the best men and women in America; if to have +inspired many thousands of young men with better feelings and higher +purposes than they would else have attained; if to have shaken the +dominion of superstition, and made it easier for men to think freely, +and freely utter their thought; if to have produced a newspaper more +interesting than any other in the world to certain classes in the +community;--if all these things had sufficed to give a daily paper the +first position in the journalism of a country, then the Tribune would +long ago have attained that position; for all these things, and many +more, the Tribune did. But they do not suffice. Such things may be +incidental to a great success: they cannot cause it. Great +journalism--journalism pure and simple--alone can give a journal the +first place. If Mr. Raymond had been ten years older, and had founded +and conducted the paper, with Mr. Greeley as his chief writer of +editorials,--that is, if the _journalist_ had been the master of the +journal, instead of the writer, the politician, and the +philanthropist,--the Tribune might have won the splendid prize. Mr. +Greeley is not a great journalist. He has regarded journalism rather +as a disagreeable necessity of his vocation, and uniformly abandoned +the care of it to others. An able man generally gets what he ardently +seeks. Mr. Greeley produced just such a paper as he himself would have +liked to take, but not such a paper as the public of the island of +Manhattan prefers. He regards this as his glory. We cannot agree with +him, because his course of management left the field to the Herald, +the suppression of which was required by the interests of +civilization. + +The Tribune has done great and glorious things for us. Not free, of +course, from the errors which mark all things human, it has been, and +is, a civilizing power in this land. We hope to have the pleasure of +reading it every day for the rest of our lives. One thing it has +failed to do,--to reduce the Herald to insignificance by surpassing it +in the particulars in which it is excellent. We have no right to +complain. We only regret that the paper representing the civilization +of the country should not yet have attained the position which would +have given it the greatest power. + +Mr. Raymond, also, has had it in his power to render this great +service to the civilization and credit of the United States. The Daily +Times, started in 1852, retarded for a while by a financial error, has +made such progress toward the goal of its proprietors' ambition, that +it is now on the home stretch, only a length or two behind. The editor +of this paper is a journalist; he sees clearly the point of +competition; he knows the great secret of his trade. The prize within +his reach is splendid. The position of chief journalist gives power +enough to satisfy any reasonable ambition, wealth enough to glut the +grossest avarice, and opportunity of doing good sufficient for the +most public-spirited citizen. What is there in political life equal to +it? We have no right to remark upon any man's choice of a career; but +this we may say,--that the man who wins the first place in the +journalism of a free country must concentrate all his powers upon that +one work, and, as an editor, owe no allegiance to party. He must stand +above all parties, and serve all parties, by spreading before the +public that full and exact information upon which sound legislation is +based. + +During the present (1865-6) session of Congress we have had daily +illustration of this truth. The great question has been, What is the +condition of the Southern States and the feeling of the Southern +people? All the New York morning papers have expended money and labor, +each according to its means and enterprise, in getting information +from the South. This was well. But every one of these papers has had +some party or personal bias, which has given it a powerful interest to +make out a case. The World and News excluded everything which tended +to show the South dissatisfied and disloyal. The Tribune, on the other +hand, diligently sought testimony of that nature. The Times, also, +being fully committed to a certain theory of reconstruction, naturally +gave prominence to every fact which supported that theory, and was +inclined to suppress information of the opposite tendency. The +consequence was, that an inhabitant of the city of New York who simply +desired to know the truth was compelled to keep an eye upon four or +five papers, lest something material should escape him. This is +pitiful. This is utterly beneath the journalism of 1866. The final +pre-eminent newspaper of America will soar far above such needless +limitations as these, and present the truth in _all_ its aspects, +regardless of its effects upon theories, parties, factions, and +Presidential campaigns. + +Presidential campaigns,--that is the real secret. The editors of most +of these papers have selected their candidate for 1868; and, having +done that, can no more help conducting their journals with a view to +the success of that candidate, than the needle of a compass can help +pointing awry when there is a magnet hidden in the binnacle. Here, +again, we have no right to censure or complain. Yet we cannot help +marvelling at the hallucination which can induce able men to prefer +the brief and illusory honors of political station to the substantial +and lasting power within the grasp of the successful journalist. He, +if any one,--he more than any one else,--is the master in a free +country. Have we not seen almost every man who has held or run for the +Presidency during the last ten or fifteen years paying assiduous and +servile court, directly or indirectly, or both, to the editor of the +Herald? If it were proper to relate to the public what is known on +this subject to a few individuals, the public would be exceedingly +astonished. And yet this reality of power an editor is ready to +jeopard for the sake of gratifying his family by exposing them in +Paris! Jeopard, do we say? He has done more: he has thrown it away. He +has a magnet in his binnacle. He has, for the time, sacrificed what it +cost him thirty years of labor and audacity to gain. Strange weakness +of human nature! + +The daily press of the United States has prodigiously improved in +every respect during the last twenty years. To the best of our +recollection, the description given of it, twenty-three years ago, by +Charles Dickens, in his American Notes, was not much exaggerated; +although that great author did exaggerate its effects upon the morals +of the country. His own amusing account of the rival editors in +Pickwick might have instructed him on this latter point. It does not +appear that the people of Eatanswill were seriously injured by the +fierce language employed in "that false and scurrilous print, the +Independent," and in "that vile and slanderous calumniator, the +Gazette." Mr. Dickens, however, was too little conversant with our +politics to take the atrocious language formerly so common in our +newspapers "in a Pickwickian sense"; and we freely confess that in the +alarming picture which he drew of our press there was only too much +truth. + + "The foul growth of America," wrote Mr. Dickens, "strikes + its fibres deep in its licentious press. + + "Schools may be erected, east, west, north, and south; + pupils be taught, and masters reared, by scores upon scores + of thousands; colleges may thrive, churches may be crammed, + temperance may be diffused, and advancing knowledge in all + other forms walk through the land with giant strides; but + while the newspaper press of America is in or near its + present abject state, high moral improvement in that country + is hopeless. Year by year it must and will go back; year by + year the tone of public feeling must sink lower down; year + by year the Congress and the Senate must become of less + account before all decent men; and, year by year, the memory + of the great fathers of the Revolution must be outraged more + and more in the bad life of their degenerate child. + + "Among the herd of journals which are published in the + States, there are some, the reader scarcely need be told, of + character and credit. From personal intercourse with + accomplished gentlemen connected with publications of this + class I have derived both pleasure and profit. But the name + of these is Few, and of the others Legion; and the influence + of the good is powerless to counteract the mortal poison of + the bad. + + "Among the gentry of America, among the well-informed and + moderate, in the learned professions, at the bar and on the + bench, there is, as there can be, but one opinion in + reference to the vicious character of these infamous + journals. It is sometimes contended--I will not say + strangely, for it is natural to seek excuses for such a + disgrace--that their influence is not so great as a visitor + would suppose. I must be pardoned for saying that there is + no warrant for this plea, and that every fact and + circumstance tends directly to the opposite conclusion. + + "When any man, of any grade of desert in intellect or + character, can climb to any public distinction, no matter + what, in America, without first grovelling down upon the + earth, and bending the knee before this monster of + depravity; when any private excellence is safe from its + attacks, and when any social confidence is left unbroken by + it, or any tie of social decency and honor is held in the + least regard; when any man in that free country has freedom + of opinion, and presumes to think for himself, and speak for + himself, without humble reference to a censorship which, for + its rampant ignorance and base dishonesty, he utterly + loathes and despises in his heart; when those who most + acutely feel its infamy and the reproach it casts upon the + nation, and who most denounce it to each other, dare to set + their heels upon and crush it openly, in the sight of all + men,--then I will believe that its influence is lessening, + and men are returning to their manly senses. But while that + Press has its evil eye in every house, and its black hand in + every appointment in the state, from a President to a + postman,--while, with ribald slander for its only stock in + trade, it is the standard literature of an enormous class, + who must find their reading in a newspaper, or they will not + read at all,--so long must its odium be upon the country's + head, and so long must the evil it works be plainly visible + in the Republic. + + "To those who are accustomed to the leading English + journals, or to the respectable journals of the Continent of + Europe, to those who are accustomed to anything else in + print and paper, it would be impossible, without an amount + of extract for which I have neither space nor inclination, + to convey an adequate idea of this frightful engine in + America. But if any man desire confirmation of my statement + on this head, let him repair to any place in this city of + London where scattered numbers of these publications are to + be found, and there let him form his own opinion." + +From a note appended to this passage, we infer that the newspaper +which weighed upon the author's mind when he wrote it was the New York +Herald. The direct cause, however, of the general license of the press +at that time, was not the Herald's bad example, but Andrew Jackson's +debauching influence. The same man who found the government pure, and +left it corrupt, made the press the organ of his own malignant +passions by bestowing high office upon the editors who lied most +recklessly about his opponents. In 1843 the press had scarcely begun +to recover from this hateful influence, and was still the merest tool +of politicians. The Herald, in fact, by demonstrating that a newspaper +can flourish in the United States without any aid from politicians, +has brought us nearer the time when no newspaper of any importance +will be subject to party, which has been the principal cause of the +indecencies of the press. + +The future is bright before the journalists of America. The close of +the war, by increasing their income and reducing their expenses, has +renewed the youth of several of our leading journals, and given them a +better opportunity than they have ever had before. The great error of +the publishers of profitable journals hitherto has been the wretched +compensation paid to writers and reporters. To this hour there is but +one individual connected with the daily press of New York, not a +proprietor, who receives a salary sufficient to keep a tolerable house +and bring up a family respectably and comfortably; and if any one +would find that individual, he must look for him, alas! in the office +of the Herald. To be plainer: decent average housekeeping in the city +of New York now costs a hundred dollars a week; and there is but one +salary of that amount paid in New York to a journalist who owns no +property in his journal. The consequence is, that there is scarcely an +individual connected with a daily paper who is not compelled or +tempted to eke out his ridiculous salary by other writing, to the +injury of his health and the constant deterioration of his work. Every +morning the public comes fresh and eager to the newspaper: fresh and +eager minds should alone minister to it. No work done on this earth +consumes vitality so fast as carefully executed composition, and +consequently one of the main conditions of a man's writing his best is +that he should write little and rest often. A good writer, moreover, +is one of Nature's peculiar and very rare products. There is a mystery +about the art of composition. Who shall explain to us why Charles +Dickens can write about a three-legged stool in such a manner that the +whole civilized world reads with pleasure; while another man of a +hundred times his knowledge and five times his quantity of mind cannot +write on any subject so as to interest anybody? The laws of supply and +demand do not apply to this rarity; for one man's writing cannot be +compared with another's, there being no medium between valuable and +worthless. How many over-worked, under-paid men have we known in New +York, really gifted with this inexplicable knack at writing, who, well +commanded and justly compensated, lifted high and dry out of the +slough of poor-devilism in which their powers were obscured and +impaired, could almost have made the fortune of a newspaper! Some of +these Reporters of Genius are mere children in all the arts by which +men prosper. A Journalist of Genius would know their value, understand +their case, take care of their interest, secure their devotion, +restrain their ardor, and turn their talent to rich account. We are +ashamed to say, that for example of this kind of policy we should have +to repair to the office named a moment since. + +This subject, however, is beginning to be understood, and of late +there has been some advance in the salaries of members of the press. +Just as fast as the daily press advances in real independence and +efficiency, the compensation of journalists will increase, until a +great reporter will receive a reward in some slight degree +proportioned to the rarity of the species and to the greatness of the +services of which he is the medium. By reporters, we mean, of course, +the entire corps of news-givers, from the youth who relates the +burning of a stable, to the philosopher who chronicles the last vagary +of a German metaphysician. These laborious men will be appreciated in +due time. By them all the great hits of journalism have been made, and +the whole future of journalism is theirs. + +So difficult is the reporter's art, that we can call to mind only two +series of triumphant efforts in this department,--Mr. Russell's +letters from the Crimea to the London Times, and N.P. Willis's +"Pencillings by the Way," addressed to the New York Mirror. Each of +these masters chanced to have a subject perfectly adapted to his taste +and talents, and each of them made the most of his opportunity. +Charles Dickens has produced a few exquisite reports. Many ignorant +and dull men employed on the New York Herald have written good reports +_because_ they were dull and ignorant. In fact, there are two kinds of +good reporters,--those who know too little, and those who know too +much, to wander from the point and evolve a report from the depths of +their own consciousness. The worst possible reporter is one who has a +little talent, and depends upon that to make up for the meagreness of +his information. The best reporter is he whose sole object is to +relate his event exactly as it occurred, and describe his scene just +as it appeared; and this kind of excellence is attainable by an honest +plodder, and by a man of great and well-controlled talent. If we were +forming a corps of twenty-five reporters, we should desire to have +five of them men of great and highly trained ability, and the rest +indefatigable, unimaginative, exact short-hand chroniclers, caring for +nothing but to get their fact and relate it in the plainest English. + +There is one custom, a relic of the past, still in vogue in the +offices of daily papers, which is of an absurdity truly exquisite. It +is the practice of paying by the column, or, in other words, paying a +premium for verbosity, and imposing a fine upon conciseness. It will +often happen that information which cost three days to procure can be +well related in a paragraph, and which, if related in a paragraph, +would be of very great value to the newspaper printing it. But if the +reporter should compress his facts into that space, he would receive +for his three days' labor about what he expended in omnibus fare. Like +a wise man, therefore, he spreads them out into three columns, and +thus receives a compensation upon which life can be supported. If +matter must be paid for by the column, we would respectfully suggest +the following rates: For half a column, or less, twenty dollars; for +one column, ten dollars; for two columns, five dollars; for three +columns, nothing; for any amount beyond three columns, no insertion. + +To conclude with a brief recapitulation:-- + +The commodity in which the publishers of daily newspapers deal is +news, i.e. information respecting recent events in which the public +take an interest, or in which an interest can be excited. + +Newspapers, therefore, rank according to their excellence as +_newspapers_; and no other kind of excellence can make up for any +deficiency in the one thing for which they exist. + +Consequently, the art of editorship consists in forming, handling, and +inspiring a corps of reporters; for inevitably that newspaper becomes +the chief and favorite journal which has the best corps of reporters, +and uses them best. + +Editorial articles have their importance. They can be a powerful means +of advancing the civilization of a country, and of hastening the +triumph of good measures and good men; and upon the use an editor +makes of his opportunity of addressing the public in this way depends +his title to our esteem as a man and fellow-citizen. But, in a mere +business point of view, they are of inferior importance. The best +editorials cannot make, nor the worst editorials mar, the fortune of a +paper. Burke and Macaulay would not add a tenth part as many +subscribers to a daily paper as the addition to its corps of two +well-trained, ably-commanded reporters. + +It is not law which ever renders the press free and independent. +Nothing is free or independent in this world which is not powerful. +Therefore, the editor who would conquer the opportunity of speaking +his mind freely, must do it by making his paper so excellent as a +vehicle of news that the public will buy it though it is a daily +disgust to them. + +The Herald has thriven beyond all its competitors, because its +proprietor comprehended these simple but fundamental truths of his +vocation, and, upon the whole, has surpassed his rivals both in the +getting and in the display of intelligence. We must pronounce him the +best journalist and the worst editorialist this continent has ever +known; and accordingly his paper is generally read and its proprietor +universally disapproved. + +And finally, this bad, good paper cannot be reduced to secondary rank +except by being outdone in pure journalism. The interests of +civilization and the honor of the United States require that this +should be done. There are three papers now existing--the Times, the +Tribune; and the World--which ought to do it; but if the conductors of +neither of these able and spirited papers choose to devote themselves +absolutely to this task, then we trust that soon another competitor +may enter the field, conducted by a journalist proud enough of his +profession to be satisfied with its honors. There were days last +winter on which it seemed as if the whole force of journalism in the +city of New York was expended in tingeing and perverting intelligence +on the greatest of all the topics of the time. We have read numbers of +the World (which has talent and youthful energy enough for a splendid +career) of which almost the entire contents--correspondence, +telegrams, and editorials--were spoiled for all useful purposes by the +determination of the whole corps of writers to make the news tell in +favor of a political party. We can truly aver, that journalism, pure +and simple,--journalism for its own sake,--journalism, the +dispassionate and single-eyed servant of the whole public,--does not +exist in New York during a session of Congress. It ought to exist. + +[Footnote 1: We copy the following from Mr. Gowan's narrative: + + "Dr. Benjamin Brandreth, of well and wide-spread reputation, + and who has made more happy and comfortable, for a longer or + shorter time, as the case may be, by his prescriptions than + any other son of Aesculapius, hailed me one day as I jumped + from a railroad car passing up and along the shores of the + Hudson River, and immediately commenced the following + narrative. He held in his hand a copy of the New York + Herald. 'Do you know,' said he, holding up the paper to my + face, 'that it was by and through your agency that this + paper ever became successful?' I replied in the negative. + 'Then,' continued he, 'I will unfold the secret to you of + how you became instrumental in this matter. Shortly after my + arrival in America, I began looking about me how I was to + dispose of my pills by agents and other means. Among others, + I called upon you, then a bookseller in Chatham Street. + After some conversation on the subject of my errand, a + contract was soon entered into between us,--you to sell and + I to furnish the said pills; but,' continued he, 'these + pills will be of no use to me or any one else unless they + can be made known to the public, or rather the great herd of + the people; and that can only be done by advertising through + some paper which goes into the hands of the many. Can you + point out to me any such paper, published in the city?' + After a short pause I in substance said that there had + lately started a small penny paper, which had been making a + great noise during its existence; and I had reason to + believe it had obtained a very considerable circulation + among that class of people which he desired to reach by + advertising, and so concluded that it would be the best + paper in the city for his purpose, provided he could make + terms with the owner, who, I had no doubt, would be well + disposed, as in all probability he stood in need of + patronage of this kind. 'I immediately,' continued the + doctor, 'adopted your advice, went directly to Mr. Bennett, + made terms with him for advertising, and for a long time + paid him a very considerable sum weekly for the use of his + columns, which tended greatly to add to both his and my own + treasury. The editor of the Herald afterwards acknowledged + to me that but for his advertising patronage he would have + been compelled to collapse. Hence,' said he, 'had I never + called on you, in all probability I should not have had my + attention turned to the New York Herald; and, as a + consequence, that sheet would never have had my advertising; + and that paper would have been a thing of the past, and + perhaps entirely forgotten.'"] + + + +CHARLES GOODYEAR. + +The copy before us, of Mr. Goodyear's work upon "Gum-Elastic and its +Varieties," presents at least something unique in the art of +book-making. It is self-illustrating; inasmuch as, treating of +India-rubber, it is made of India-rubber. An unobservant reader, +however, would scarcely suspect the fact before reading the Preface, +for the India-rubber covers resemble highly polished ebony, and the +leaves have the appearance of ancient paper worn soft, thin, and dingy +by numberless perusals. The volume contains six hundred and twenty +pages; but it is not as thick as copies of the same work printed on +paper, though it is a little heavier. It is evident that the substance +of which this book is composed cannot be India-rubber in its natural +state. Those leaves, thinner than paper, can be stretched only by a +strong pull, and resume their shape perfectly when they are let go. +There is no smell of India-rubber about them. We first saw this book +in a cold room in January, but the leaves were then as flexible as old +paper; and when, since, we have handled it in warm weather, they had +grown no softer. + +Some of our readers may have heard Daniel Webster relate the story of +the India-rubber cloak and hat which one of his New York friends sent +him at Marshfield in the infancy of the manufacture. He took the cloak +to the piazza one cold morning, when it instantly became as rigid as +sheet-iron. Finding that it stood alone, he placed the hat upon it, +and left the articles standing near the front door. Several of his +neighbors who passed, seeing a dark and portly figure there, took it +for the lord of the mansion, and gave it respectful salutation. The +same articles were liable to an objection still more serious. In the +sun, even in cool weather, they became sticky, while on a hot day they +would melt entirely away to the consistency of molasses. Every one +remembers the thick and ill-shaped India-rubber shoes of twenty years +ago, which had to be thawed out under the stove before they could be +put on, and which, if left under the stove too long, would dissolve +into gum that no household art could ever harden again. Some decorous +gentlemen among us can also remember that, in the nocturnal combats of +their college days, a flinty India-rubber shoe, in cold weather, was a +missive weapon of a highly effective character. + +This curious volume, therefore, cannot be made of the unmanageable +stuff which Daniel Webster set up at his front door. So much is +evident at a glance. But the book itself tells us that it can be +subjected, without injury, to tests more severe than summer's sun and +winter's cold. It can be soaked six months in a pail of water, and +still be as good a book as ever. It can be boiled; it can be baked in +an oven hot enough to cook a turkey; it can be soaked in brine, lye, +camphene, turpentine, or oil; it can be dipped into oil of vitriol, +and still no harm done. To crown its merits, no rat, mouse, worm, or +moth has ever shown the slightest inclination to make acquaintance +with it. The office of a Review is not usually provided with the means +of subjecting literature to such critical tests as lye, vitriol, +boilers, and hot ovens. But we have seen enough elsewhere of the +ordeals to which India-rubber is now subjected to believe Mr. +Goodyear's statements. Remote posterity will enjoy the fruit of his +labors, unless some one takes particular pains to destroy this book; +for it seems that time itself produces no effect upon the India-rubber +which bears the familiar stamp, "GOODYEAR'S PATENT." In the dampest +corner of the dampest cellar, no mould gathers upon it, no decay +penetrates it. In the hottest garret, it never warps or cracks. + +The principal object of the work is to relate how this remarkable +change was effected in the nature of the substance of which it treats. +It cost more than two millions of dollars to do it. It cost Charles +Goodyear eleven most laborious and painful years. His book is written +without art or skill, but also without guile. + +He was evidently a laborious, conscientious, modest man, neither +learned nor highly gifted, but making no pretence to learning or +gifts, doing the work which fell to him with all his might, and with a +perseverance never surpassed in all the history of invention and +discovery. Who would have thought to find a romance in the history of +India-rubber? We are familiar with the stories of poor and friendless +men, possessed with an idea and pursuing their object, amid obloquy, +neglect, and suffering, to the final triumph; of which final triumph +other men reaped the substantial reward, leaving to the discoverer the +barren glory of his achievement,--and that glory obscured by +detraction. Columbus is the representative man of that illustrious +order. We trust to be able to show that Charles Goodyear is entitled +to a place in it. Whether we consider the prodigious and unforeseen +importance of his discovery, or his scarcely paralleled devotion to +his object, in the face of the most disheartening obstacles, we feel +it to be due to his memory, to his descendants, and to the public, +that his story should be told. Few persons will ever see his book, of +which only a small number of copies were printed for private +circulation. Still fewer will be at the pains to pick out the material +facts from the confused mass of matter in which they are hidden. +Happily for our purpose, no one now has an interest to call his merits +in question. He rests from his labors, and the patent, which was the +glory and misery of his life, has expired. + +Our great-grandfathers knew India-rubber only as a curiosity, and our +grandfathers only as a means of erasing pencil-marks. The first +specimens were brought to Europe in 1730; and as late as 1770 it was +still so scarce an article, that in London it was only to be found in +one shop, where a piece containing half a cubic inch was sold for +three shillings. Dr. Priestley, in his work on perspective, published +in 1770, speaks of it as a new article, and recommends its use to +draughtsmen. This substance, however, being one of those of which +nature has provided an inexhaustible supply, greater quantities found +their way into the commerce of the world; until, in 1820, it was a +drug in all markets, and was frequently brought as ballast merely. +About this time it began to be subjected to experiments with +a view to rendering it available in the arts. It was found useful +as an ingredient of blacking and varnish. Its elasticity was +turned to account in France in the manufacture of suspenders and +garters,--threads of India-rubber being inserted in the web. In +England, Mackintosh invented his still celebrated water-proof coats, +which are made of two thin cloths with a paste of India-rubber between +them. In chemistry, the substance was used to some extent, and its +singular properties were much considered. In England and France, the +India-rubber manufacture had attained considerable importance before +the material had attracted the attention of American experimenters. +The Europeans succeeded in rendering it useful because they did not +attempt too much. The French cut the imported sheets of gum into +shreds, without ever attempting to produce the sheets themselves. +Mackintosh exposed no surface of India-rubber to the air, and brought +no surfaces of India-rubber into contact. No one had discovered any +process by which India-rubber once dissolved could be restored to its +original consistency. Some of our readers may have attempted, twenty +years ago, to fill up the holes in the sole of an India-rubber shoe. +Nothing was easier than to melt a piece of India-rubber for the +purpose; but, when applied to the shoe, it would not harden. There was +the grand difficulty, the complete removal of which cost so much money +and so many years. + +The ruinous failure of the first American manufacturers arose from the +fact that they began their costly operations in ignorance of the +existence of this difficulty. They were too fast. They proceeded in +the manner of the inventor of the caloric engine, who began by placing +one in a ship of great magnitude, involving an expenditure which +ruined the owners. + +It was in the year 1820 that a pair of India-rubber shoes was seen for +the first time in the United States. They were covered with gilding, +and resembled in shape the shoes of a Chinaman. They were handed about +in Boston only as a curiosity. Two or three years after, a ship from +South America brought to Boston five hundred pairs of shoes, thick, +heavy, and ill-shaped, which sold so readily as to invite further +importations. The business increased until the annual importation +reached half a million pairs, and India-rubber shoes had become an +article of general use. The manner in which these shoes were made by +the natives of South America was frequently described in the +newspapers, and seemed to present no difficulty. They were made much +as farmers' wives, made candles. The sap being collected from the +trees, clay lasts were dipped into the liquid twenty or thirty times, +each layer being smoked a little. The shoes were then hung up to +harden for a few days; after which the clay was removed, and the shoes +were stored for some months to harden them still more. Nothing was +more natural than to suppose that Yankees could do this as well as +Indians, if not far better. The raw India-rubber could then be bought +in Boston for five cents a pound, and a pair of shoes made of it +brought from three to five dollars. Surely here was a promising basis +for a new branch of manufacture in New England. It happened too, in +1830, that vast quantities of the raw gum reached the United States. +It came covered with hides, in masses, of which no use could be made +in America; and it remained unsold, or was sent to Europe. + +Patent-leather suggested the first American attempt to turn +India-rubber to account. Mr. E.M. Chaffee, foreman of a Boston +patent-leather factory conceived the idea, in 1830, of spreading +India-rubber upon cloth, hoping to produce an article which should +possess the good qualities of patent-leather, with the additional one +of being water-proof. In the deepest secrecy he experimented for +several months. By dissolving a pound of India rubber in three quarts +of spirits of turpentine, and adding lampblack enough to give it the +desired color, he produced a composition which he supposed would +perfectly answer the purpose. He invented a machine for spreading it, +and made some specimens of cloth, which had every appearance of being +a very useful article. The surface, after being dried in the sun, was +firm and smooth; and Mr. Chaffee supposed, and his friends agreed with +him, that he had made an invention of the utmost value. At this point +he invited a few of the solid men of Roxbury to look at his specimens +and listen to his statements. He convinced them. The result of the +conference was the Roxbury India-rubber Company, incorporated in +February, 1833, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars. + +The progress of this Company was amazing. Within a year its capital +was increased to two hundred and forty thousand dollars. Before +another year had expired, this was increased to three hundred +thousand; and in the year following, to four hundred thousand. The +Company manufactured the cloth invented by Mr. Chaffee, and many +articles made of that cloth, such as coats, caps, wagon-curtains and +coverings. Shoes, made without fibre, were soon introduced. Nothing +could be better than the appearance of these articles when they were +new. They were in the highest favor, and were sold more rapidly than +the Company could manufacture them. The astonishing prosperity of the +Roxbury Company had its natural effect in calling into existence +similar establishments in other towns. Manufactories were started at +Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, and Staten Island, +with capitals ranging from one hundred thousand dollars to half a +million; and all of them appeared to prosper. There was an +India-rubber mania in those years similar to that of petroleum in +1864. Not to invest in India-rubber stock was regarded by some shrewd +men as indicative of inferior business talents and general dulness of +comprehension. The exterior facts were certainly well calculated to +lure even the most wary. Here was a material worth only a few cents a +pound, out of which shoes were quickly made, which brought two dollars +a pair! It was a plain case. Besides, there were the India-rubber +Companies, all working to their extreme capacity, and selling all they +could make. + +It was when the business had reached this flourishing stage that +Charles Goodyear, a bankrupt hardware merchant of Philadelphia, first +had his attention directed to the material upon which it was founded. +In 1834, being in New York on business, he chanced to observe the sign +of the Roxbury Company, which then had a depot in that city. He had +been reading in the newspapers, not long before, descriptions of the +new life-preservers made of India-rubber, an application of the gum +that was much extolled. Curiosity induced him to enter the store to +examine the life-preservers. He bought one and took it home with him. +A native of Connecticut, he possessed in full measure the Yankee +propensity to look at a new contrivance, first with a view to +understand its principle, and next to see if it cannot be improved. +Already he had had some experience both of the difficulty of +introducing an improved implement, and of the profit to be derived +from its introduction. His father, the head of the firm of A. Goodyear +and Sons, of which he was a member, was the first to manufacture +hay-forks of spring steel, instead of the heavy, wrought-iron forks +made by the village blacksmith; and Charles Goodyear could remember +the time when his father reckoned it a happy day on which he had +persuaded a farmer to accept a few of the new forks as a gift, on the +condition of giving them a trial. But it was also very fresh in his +recollection that those same forks had made their way to almost +universal use, had yielded large profits to his firm, and were still a +leading article of its trade, when, in 1830, the failure of Southern +houses had compelled it to suspend. He was aware, too, that, if +anything could extricate the house of A. Goodyear and Sons from +embarrassment, it was their possession of superior methods of +manufacturing and their sale of articles improved by their own +ingenuity. + +Upon examining his life-preserver, an improvement in the inflating +apparatus occurred to him. When he was next in New York he explained +his improvement to the agent of the Roxbury Company, and offered to +sell it. The agent, struck with the ingenuity displayed in the new +contrivance, took the inventor into his confidence, partly by way of +explaining why the Company could not then buy the improved tube, but +principally with a view to enlist the aid of an ingenious mind in +overcoming a difficulty that threatened the Company with ruin. He told +him that the prosperity of the India-rubber Companies in the United +States was wholly fallacious. The Roxbury Company had manufactured +vast quantities of shoes and fabrics in the cool months of 1833 and +1834, which had been readily sold at high prices; but during the +following summer, the greater part of them had melted. Twenty thousand +dollars' worth had been returned, reduced to the consistency of common +gum, and emitting an odor so offensive that they had been obliged to +bury it. New ingredients had been employed, new machinery applied, but +still the articles would dissolve. In some cases, shoes had borne the +heat of one summer, and melted the next. The wagon-covers became +sticky in the sun, and rigid in the cold. The directors were at their +wits' end;--since it required two years to test a new process, and +meanwhile they knew not whether the articles made by it were valuable +or worthless. If they stopped manufacturing, that was certain ruin. If +they went on, they might find the product of a whole winter dissolving +on their hands. The capital of the Company was already so far +exhausted, that, unless the true method were speedily discovered, it +would be compelled to wind up its affairs. The agent urged Mr. +Goodyear not to waste time upon minor improvements, but to direct all +his efforts to finding out the secret of successfully working the +material itself. The Company could not buy his improved inflator; but +let him learn how to make an India-rubber that would stand the +summer's heat, and there was scarcely any price which it would not +gladly give for the secret. + +The worst apprehensions of the directors of this Company were +realized. The public soon became tired of buying India-rubber shoes +that could only be saved during the summer by putting them into a +refrigerator. In the third year of the mania, India-rubber stock began +to decline, and Roxbury itself finally fell to two dollars and a half. +Before the close of 1836, all the Companies had ceased to exist, their +fall involving many hundreds of families in heavy loss. The clumsy, +shapeless shoes from South America were the only ones which the people +would buy. It was generally supposed that the secret of their +resisting heat was that they were smoked with the leaves of a certain +tree, peculiar to South America, and that nothing else in nature would +answer the purpose. + +The two millions of dollars lost by these Companies had one result +which has proved to be worth many times that sum; it led Charles +Goodyear to undertake the investigation of India-rubber. That chance +conversation with the agent of the Roxbury Company fixed his destiny. +If he were alive to read these lines, he would, however, protest +against the use of such a word as _chance_ in this connection. He +really appears to have felt himself "called" to study India-rubber. He +says himself:-- + + "From the time that his attention was first given to the + subject, a strong and abiding impression was made upon his + mind, that an object so desirable and important, and so + necessary to man's comfort, as the making of gum-elastic + available to his use, was most certainly placed within his + reach. Having this presentiment, of which he could not + divest himself under the most trying adversity, he was + stimulated with the hope of ultimately attaining this + object. + + "Beyond this he would refer the whole to the great Creator, + who directs the operations of mind to the development of the + properties of matter, in his own way, at the time when they + are specially needed, influencing some mind for every work + or calling.... Were he to refrain from expressing his views + thus briefly, he would ever feel that he had done violence + to his sentiments." + +This is modestly said, but his friends assure us that he felt it +earnestly and habitually. It was, indeed, this steadfast conviction of +the possibility of attaining his object, and his religious devotion to +it, that constituted his capital in his new business. He had little +knowledge of chemistry, and an aversion to complicated calculations. +He was a ruined man; for, after a long struggle with misfortune, the +firm of A. Goodyear and Sons had surrendered their all to their +creditors, and still owed thirty thousand dollars. He had a family, +and his health was not robust. Upon returning home after conversing +with the agent of the Roxbury Company, he was arrested for debt, and +compelled to reside within the prison limits. He melted his first +pound of India-rubber while he was living within those limits, and +struggling to keep out of the jail itself. Thus he began his +experiments in circumstances as little favorable as can be imagined. +There were only two things in his favor. One was his conviction that +India-rubber _could_ be subjugated, and that he was the man destined +to subjugate it. The other was, that, India-rubber having fallen to +its old price, he could continue his labors as long as he could raise +five cents and procure access to a fire. The very odium in which +business-men held India-rubber, though it long retarded his final +triumph, placed an abundance of the native gum within the means even +of an inmate of the debtor's prison, in which he often was during the +whole period of his experimenting. He was seldom out of jail a whole +year from 1835 to 1841, and never out of danger of arrest. + +In a small house in Philadelphia, in the winter of 1834--35, he began +his investigations. He melted his gum by the domestic fire, kneaded it +with his own hands, spread it upon a marble slab, and rolled it with a +rolling-pin. A prospect of success flattered him from the first and +lured him on. He was soon able to produce sheets of India-rubber which +appeared as firm as those imported, and which tempted a friend to +advance him a sum of money sufficient to enable him to manufacture +several hundred pairs of shoes. He succeeded in embossing his shoes in +various patterns, which gave them a novel and elegant appearance. +Mindful, however, of the disasters of the Roxbury Company, he had the +prudence to store his shoes until the summer. The hot days of June +reduced them all to soft and stinking paste. His friend was +discouraged, and refused him further aid. For his own part, such +experiences as this, though they dashed his spirits for a while, +stimulated him to new efforts. + +It now occurred to him, that perhaps it was the turpentine used in +dissolving the gum, or the lampblack employed to color it, that +spoiled his product. He esteemed it a rare piece of luck to procure +some barrels of the sap not smoked, and still liquid. On going to the +shed where the precious sap was deposited, he was accosted by an +Irishman in his employ, who, in high glee, informed him that he had +discovered the secret, pointing to his overalls, which he had dipped +into the sap, and which were nicely coated with firm India-rubber. For +a moment he thought that Jerry might have blundered into the secret. +The man, however, sat down on a barrel near the fire, and, on +attempting, to rise, found himself glued to his seat and his legs +stuck together. He had to be cut out of his overalls. The master +proceeded to experiment with the sap, but soon discovered, that the +handsome white cloth made of it bore the heat no better than that +which was produced in the usual manner. + +It is remarkable, that inventors seldom derive direct aid from the +science of their day. James Watt modestly ascribes to Professor Black +part of the glory of his improvements in the steam-engine; but it +seems plain from his own narrative, that he made his great invention +of the condenser without any assistance. Professor Black assisted to +instruct and form him; but the flash of genius, which made the +steam-engine what we now see it, was wholly his own. The science of +Glasgow was diligently questioned by him upon the defects of the old +engine, but it gave him no hint of the remedy. It was James Watt, +mathematical-instrument maker, earning fourteen shillings a week, who +brooded over his little model until the conception of the condenser +burst upon him, as he was taking his Sunday afternoon stroll on +Glasgow Green. Goodyear had a similar experience. Philadelphia has +always been noted for its chemists and its chemical works, and that +city still supplies the greater part of the country with manufactured +drugs and chemists' materials. Nevertheless, though Goodyear explained +his difficulties to professors, physicians, and chemists, none of them +could give him valuable information; none suggested an experiment that +produced a useful result. We know not, indeed, whether science has +ever explained his final success. + +Satisfied that nothing could be done with India-rubber pure and +simple, he concluded that a compound of some substance with +India-rubber could alone render the gum available. He was correct in +this conjecture, but it remained to be discovered whether there was +such a substance in nature. He tried everything he could think of. For +a short time he was elated with the result of his experiments with +magnesia, mixing half a pound of magnesia with a pound of gum. This +compound had the advantage of being whiter than the pure sap. It was +so firm that he used it as leather in the binding of a book. In a few +weeks, however, he had the mortification of seeing his elegant white +book-covers fermenting and softening. Afterwards, they grew as hard +and brittle as shell, and so they remain to this day. + +By this time, the patience of his friends and his own little fund of +money were both exhausted; and, one by one, the relics of his former +prosperity, even to his wife's trinkets, found their way to the +pawnbroker. He was a sanguine man, as inventors need to be, always +feeling that he was on the point of succeeding. The very confidence +with which he announced a new conception served at length to close all +ears to his solicitations. In the second year of his investigation he +removed his family to the country, and went to New York, in quest of +some one who had still a little faith in India-rubber. His credit was +then at so low an ebb that he was obliged to deposit with the landlord +a quantity of linen, spun by his excellent wife. It was never +redeemed. It was sold at auction to pay the first quarter's rent; and +his furniture also would have been seized, but that he had taken the +precaution to sell it himself in Philadelphia, and had placed in his +cottage articles of too little value to tempt the hardest creditor. + +In New York,--the first resort of the enterprising and the last refuge +of the unfortunate,--he found two old friends; one of whom lent him a +room in Gold Street for a laboratory, and the other, a druggist, +supplied him with materials on credit. Again his hopes were flattered +by an apparent success. By boiling his compound of gum and magnesia in +quicklime and water, an article was produced which seemed to be all +that he could desire. Some sheets of India-rubber made by this process +drew a medal at the fair of the American Institute in 1835, and were +much commended in the newspapers. Nothing could exceed the smoothness +and firmness of the surface of these sheets; nor have they to this day +been surpassed in these particulars. He obtained a patent for the +process, manufactured a considerable quantity, sold his product +readily, and thought his difficulties were at an end. In a few weeks +his hopes were dashed to the ground. He found that a drop of weak +acid, such as apple-juice or vinegar and water, instantly annihilated +the effect of the lime, and made the beautiful surface of his cloth +sticky. + +Undaunted, he next tried the experiment of mixing quicklime with pure +gum. He tells us that, at this time, he used to prepare a gallon jug +of quicklime at his room in Gold Street, and carry it on his shoulder +to Greenwich Village, distant three miles, where he had access to +horse-power for working his compound. This experiment, too, was a +failure. The lime in a short time appeared to consume the gum with +which it was mixed, leaving a substance that crumbled to pieces. + +Accident suggested his next process, which, though he knew it not, was +a step toward his final success. Except his almost unparalleled +perseverance, the most marked trait in the character of this singular +man was his love for beautiful forms and colors. An incongruous +garment or decoration upon a member of his family, or anything tawdry +or ill-arranged in a room, gave him positive distress. Accordingly, we +always find him endeavoring to decorate his India-rubber fabrics. It +was in bronzing the surface of some India-rubber drapery that the +accident happened to which we have referred. Desiring to remove the +bronze from a piece of the drapery, he applied aquafortis for the +purpose, which did indeed have the effect desired, but it also +discolored the fabric and appeared to spoil it. He threw away the +piece as useless. Several days after, it occurred to him that he had +not sufficiently examined the effect of the aquafortis, and, hurrying +to his room, he was fortunate enough to find it again. A remarkable +change appeared to have been made in the India-rubber. He does not +seem to have been aware that aquafortis is two fifths sulphuric acid. +Still less did he ever suspect that the surface of his drapery had +really been "vulcanized." All he knew was, that India-rubber cloth +"cured," as he termed it, by aquafortis, was incomparably superior to +any previously made, and bore a degree of heat that rendered it +available for many valuable purposes. + +He was again a happy man. A partner, with ample capital, joined him. +He went to Washington and patented his process. He showed his +specimens to President Jackson, who expressed in writing his approval +of them. Returning to New York, he prepared to manufacture on a great +scale, hired the abandoned India-rubber works on Staten Island, and +engaged a store in Broadway for the sale of his fabrics. In the midst +of these grand preparations, his zeal in experimenting almost cost him +his life. Having generated a large quantity of poisonous gas in his +close room, he was so nearly suffocated that it was six weeks before +he recovered his health. Before he had begun to produce his fabrics in +any considerable quantity, the commercial storm of 1836 swept away the +entire property of his partner, which put a complete stop to the +operations in India-rubber, and reduced poor Goodyear to his normal +condition of beggary. Beggary it literally was; for he was absolutely +dependent upon others for the means of sustaining life. He mentions +that, soon after this crushing blow, his family having previously +joined him in New York, he awoke one morning to discover that he had +neither an atom of food for them, nor a cent to buy it with. Putting +in his pocket an article that he supposed a pawnbroker would value, he +set out in the hope of procuring enough money to sustain them for one +day. Before reaching the sign, so familiar to him, of the three Golden +Balls, he met a terrible being to a man in his situation,--a creditor! +Hungry and dejected, he prepared his mind for a torrent of bitter +reproaches; for this gentleman was one whose patience he felt he had +abused. What was his relief when his creditor accosted him gayly with, +"Well, Mr. Goodyear, what can I do for you to-day?" His first thought +was, that an insult was intended, so preposterous did it seem that +this man could really desire to aid him further. Satisfied that the +offer was well meant, he told his friend that he had come out that +morning in search of food for his family, and that a loan of fifteen +dollars would greatly oblige him. The money was instantly produced, +which enabled him to postpone his visit to the pawnbroker for several +days. The pawnbroker was still, however, his frequent resource all +that year, until the few remains of his late brief prosperity had all +disappeared. + +But he never for a moment let go his hold upon India-rubber. A timely +loan of a hundred dollars from an old friend enabled him to remove his +family to Staten Island, near the abandoned India-rubber factory. +Having free access to the works, he and his wife contrived to +manufacture a few articles of his improved cloth, and to sell enough +to provide daily bread. His great object there was to induce the +directors of the suspended Company to recommence operations upon his +new process. But so completely sickened were they of the very name of +a material which had involved them in so much loss and discredit, that +during the six months of his residence on the Island he never +succeeded in persuading one man to do so much as come to the factory +and look at his specimens. There were thousands of dollars' worth of +machinery there, but not a single shareholder cared even to know the +condition of the property. This was the more remarkable, since he was +unusually endowed by nature with the power to inspire other men with +his own confidence. The magnates of Staten Island, however, involved +as they were in the general shipwreck of property and credit, were +inexorably deaf to his eloquence. + +As he had formerly exhausted Philadelphia, so now New York seemed +exhausted. He became even an object of ridicule. He was regarded as an +India-rubber monomaniac. One of his New York friends having been asked +how Mr. Goodyear could be recognized in the street, replied: "If you +see a man with an India-rubber coat on, India-rubber shoes, an +India-rubber cap, and in his pocket an India-rubber purse, with not a +cent in it, that is he." He was in the habit then of wearing his +material in every form, with the twofold view of testing and +advertising it. + +In September, 1836, aided again by a small loan, he packed a few of +his best specimens in his carpet-bag, and set out alone for the cradle +of the India-rubber manufacture,--Roxbury. The ruin of the great +Company there was then complete, and the factory was abandoned. All +that part of Massachusetts was suffering from the total depreciation +of the India-rubber stocks. There were still, however, two or three +persons who could not quite give up India-rubber. Mr. Chaffee, the +originator of the manufacture in America, welcomed warmly a brother +experimenter, admired his specimens, encouraged him to persevere, +procured him friends, and, what was more important, gave him the use +of the enormous machinery standing idle in the factory. A brief, +delusive prosperity again relieved the monotony of misfortune. By his +new process, he made shoes, piano-covers, and carriage-cloths, so +superior to any previously produced in the United States as to cause a +temporary revival of the business, which enabled him to sell rights to +manufacture under his patents. His profits in a single year amounted +to four or five thousand dollars. Again he had his family around him, +and felt a boundless confidence in the future. + +An event upon which he had depended for the completeness of his +triumph plunged him again into ruin. He received an order from the +government for a hundred and fifty India-rubber mail-bags. Having +perfect confidence in his ability to execute this order, he gave the +greatest possible publicity to it. All the world should now see that +Goodyear's India-rubber was all that Goodyear had represented it. The +bags were finished; and beautiful bags they were,--smooth, firm, +highly polished, well-shaped, and indubitably water-proof. He had them +hung up all round the factory, and invited every one to come and +inspect them. They were universally admired, and the maker was +congratulated upon his success. It was in the summer that these fatal +bags were finished. Having occasion to be absent for a month, he left +them hanging in the factory. Judge of his consternation when, on his +return, he found them softening, fermenting, and dropping off their +handles. The aquafortis did indeed "cure" the surface of his +India-rubber, but only the surface. Very thin cloth made by this +process was a useful and somewhat durable article; but for any other +purpose, it was valueless. The public and signal failure of the +mail-bags, together with the imperfection of all his products except +his thinnest cloth, suddenly and totally destroyed his rising +business. Everything he possessed that was salable was sold at auction +to pay his debts. He was again penniless and destitute, with an +increased family and an aged father dependent upon him. + +His friends, his brothers, and his wife now joined in dissuading him +from further experiments. Were not four years of such vicissitude +enough? Who had ever touched India-rubber without loss? Could he hope +to succeed, when so many able and enterprising men had failed? Had he +a right to keep his family in a condition so humiliating and painful? +He had succeeded in the hardware business; why not return to it? There +were those who would join him in any rational under-taking; but how +could he expect that any one would be willing to throw more money into +a bottomless pit that had already ingulfed millions without result? +These arguments he could not answer, and we cannot; the friends of all +the great inventors have had occasion to use the same. It seemed +highly absurd to the friends of Fitch, Watt, Fulton, Wedgwood, +Whitney, Arkwright, that they should forsake the beaten track of +business to pursue a path that led through the wilderness to nothing +but wilderness. Not one of these men, perhaps, could have made a +reasonable reply to the remonstrances of their friends. They only +felt, as poor Goodyear felt, that the steep and thorny path which they +were treading was the path they _must_ pursue. A power of which they +could give no satisfactory account urged them on. And when we look +closely into the lives of such men, we observe that, in their dark +days, some trifling circumstance was always occurring that set them +upon new inquiries and gave them new hopes. It might be an _ignis +fatuus_ that led them farther astray, or it might be genuine light +which brought them into the true path. + +Goodyear might have yielded to his friends on this occasion, for he +was an affectionate man, devoted to his family, had not one of those +trifling events occurred which inflamed his curiosity anew. During his +late transient prosperity, he had employed a man, Nathaniel Hayward by +name, who had been foreman of one of the extinct India-rubber +companies. He found him in charge of the abandoned factory, and still +making a few articles on his own account by a new process. To harden +his India-rubber, he put a very small quantity of sulphur into it, or +sprinkled sulphur upon the surface and dried it in the sun. Mr. +Goodyear was surprised to observe that this process seemed to produce +the same effect as the application of aquafortis. It does not appear +to have occurred to him that Hayward's process and his own were +essentially the same. A chemical dictionary would have informed him +that sulphuric acid enters largely into the composition of aquafortis, +from which he might have inferred that the only difference between the +two methods was, that Hayward employed the sun, and Goodyear nitric +acid, to give the sulphur effect. Hayward's goods, however, were +liable to a serious objection: the smell of the sulphur, in warm +weather, was intolerable. Hayward, it appears, was a very illiterate +man; and the only account he could give of his invention was, that it +was revealed to him in a dream. His process was of so little use to +him, that Goodyear bought his patent for a small sum, and gave him +employment at monthly wages until the mail-bag disaster deprived him +of the means of doing so. + +In combining sulphur with India-rubber, Goodyear had approached so +near his final success that one step more brought him to it. He was +certain that he was very close to the secret. He saw that sulphur had +a mysterious power over India-rubber when a union could be effected +between the two substances. True, there was an infinitesimal quantity +of sulphur in his mail-bags, and they had melted in the shade; but the +surface of his cloth, powdered with the sulphur and dried in the sun, +bore the sun's heat. Here was a mystery. The problem was, how to +produce in a _mass_ of India-rubber the change effected on the surface +by sulphur and sun? He made numberless experiments. He mixed with the +gum large quantities of sulphur, and small quantities. He exposed his +compound to the sun, and held it near a fire. He felt that he had the +secret in his hands; but for many weary months it eluded him. + +And, after all, it was an accident that revealed it; but an accident +that no man in the world but Charles Goodyear could have interpreted, +nor he, but for his five years' previous investigation. At Woburn one +day, in the spring of 1839, he was standing with his brother and +several other persons near a very hot stove. He held in his hand a +mass of his compound of sulphur and gum, upon which he was expatiating +in his usual vehement manner,--the company exhibiting the indifference +to which he was accustomed. In the crisis of his argument he made a +violent gesture, which brought the mass in contact with the stove, +which was hot enough to melt India-rubber instantly; upon looking at +it a moment after, he perceived that his compound had not melted in +the least degree! It had charred as leather chars, but no part of the +surface had dissolved. There was not a sticky place upon it. To say +that he was astonished at this would but faintly express his ecstasy +of amazement. The result was absolutely new to all experience, +--India-rubber not melting in contact with red-hot iron! A man must +have been five years absorbed in the pursuit of an object to +comprehend his emotions. He felt as Columbus felt when he saw the +land-bird alighting upon his ship, and the driftwood floating by. But, +like Columbus, he was surrounded with an unbelieving crew. Eagerly he +showed his charred India-rubber to his brother, and to the other +bystanders, and dwelt upon the novelty and marvellousness of his fact. +They regarded it with complete indifference. The good man had worn +them all out. Fifty times before, he had run to them, exulting in some +new discovery, and they supposed, of course, that this was another of +his chimeras. + +He followed the new clew with an enthusiasm which his friends would +have been justified in calling frenzy, if success had not finally +vindicated him. He soon discovered that his compound would not melt at +any degree of heat. It next occurred to him to ascertain at how low a +temperature it would char, and whether it was not possible to _arrest_ +the combustion at a point that would leave the India-rubber elastic, +but deprived of its adhesiveness. A single experiment proved that this +was possible. After toasting a piece of his compound before an open +fire, he found that, while part of it was charred, a rim of +India-rubber round the charred portion was elastic still, and even +more elastic than pure gum. In a few days he had established three +facts;--first, that this rim of India-rubber would bear a temperature +of two hundred and seventy-eight degrees without charring; second, +that it would not melt or soften at any heat; third, that, placed +between blocks of ice and left out of doors all night, it would not +stiffen in the least degree. He had triumphed, and he knew it. He +tells us that he now "felt himself amply repaid for the past, and +quite indifferent as to the trials of the future." It was well he was +so, for his darkest days were before him, and he was still six years +from a practicable success. He had, indeed, proved that a compound of +sulphur and India-rubber, in proper proportions and in certain +conditions, being subjected for a certain time to a certain degree of +heat, undergoes a change which renders it perfectly available for all +the uses to which he had before attempted in vain to apply it. But it +remained to be ascertained what were those proper proportions, what +were those conditions, what was that degree of heat, what was that +certain time, and by what means the heat could be best applied. + +The difficulty of all this may be inferred when we state that at the +present time it takes an intelligent man a year to learn how to +conduct the process with certainty, though he is provided, from the +start, with the best implements and appliances which twenty years' +experience has suggested. And poor Goodyear had now reduced himself, +not merely to poverty, but to isolation. No friend of his could +conceal his impatience when he heard him pronounce the word +India-rubber. Business-men recoiled from the name of it. He tells us +that two entire years passed, after he had made his discovery, before +he had convinced one human being of its value. Now, too, his +experiments could no longer be carried on with a few pounds of +India-rubber, a quart of turpentine, a phial of aquafortis, and a +little lampblack. He wanted the means of producing a high, uniform, +and controllable degree of heat,--a matter of much greater difficulty +than he anticipated. We catch brief glimpses of him at this time in +the volumes of testimony. We see him waiting for his wife to draw the +loaves from her oven, that he might put into it a batch of +India-rubber to bake, and watching it all the evening, far into the +night, to see what effect was produced by one hour's, two hours', +three hours', six hours' baking. We see him boiling it in his wife's +saucepans, suspending it before the nose of her teakettle, and hanging +it from the handle of that vessel to within an inch of the boiling +water. We see him roasting it in the ashes and in hot sand, toasting +it before a slow fire and before a quick fire, cooking it for one hour +and for twenty-four hours, changing the proportions of his compound +and mixing them in different ways. No success rewarded him while he +employed only domestic utensils. Occasionally, it is true, he produced +a small piece of perfectly vulcanized India-rubber; but upon +subjecting other pieces to precisely the same process, they would +blister or char. + +Then we see him resorting to the shops and factories in the +neighborhood of Woburn, asking the privilege of using an oven after +working hours, or of hanging a piece of India-rubber in the "man-hole" +of the boiler. The foremen testify that he was a great plague to them, +and smeared their works with his sticky compound; but, though they all +regarded him as little better than a troublesome lunatic, they all +appear to have helped him very willingly. He frankly confesses that he +lived at this time on charity; for, although _he_ felt confident of +being able to repay the small sums which pity for his family enabled +him to borrow, his neighbors who lent him the money were as far as +possible from expecting payment. Pretending to lend, they meant to +give. One would pay his butcher's bill or his milk bill; another would +send in a barrel of flour; another would take in payment some articles +of the old stock of India-rubber; and some of the farmers allowed his +children to gather sticks in their fields to heat his hillocks of sand +containing masses of sulphurized India-rubber. If the people of New +England were not the most "neighborly" people in the world, his family +must have starved, or he must have given up his experiments. But, with +all the generosity of his neighbors, his children were often sick, +hungry, and cold, without medicine, food, or fuel. One witness +testifies: "I found (in 1839) that they had not fuel to burn nor food +to eat, and did not know where to get a morsel of food from one day to +another, unless it was sent in to them." We can neither justify nor +condemn their father. Imagine Columbus within sight of the new world, +and his obstinate crew declaring it was only a mirage, and refusing to +row him ashore! Never was mortal man surer that he had a fortune in +his hand, than Charles Goodyear was when he would take a piece of +scorched and dingy India-rubber from his pocket and expound its +marvellous properties to a group of incredulous villagers. Sure also +was he that he was just upon the point of a practicable success. Give +him but an oven, and would he not turn you out fire-proof and +cold-proof India-rubber, as fast as a baker can produce loaves of +bread? Nor was it merely the hope of deliverance from his pecuniary +straits that urged him on. In all the records of his career, we +perceive traces of something nobler than this. His health being always +infirm, he was haunted with the dread of dying before he had reached a +point in his discoveries where other men, influenced by ordinary +motives, could render them available. + +By the time that he had exhausted the patience of the foremen of the +works near Woburn, he had come to the conclusion that an oven was the +proper means of applying heat to his compound. An oven he forthwith +determined to build. Having obtained the use of a corner of a factory +yard, his aged father, two of his brothers, his little son, and +himself sallied forth, with pickaxe and shovels, to begin the work: +and when they had done all that unskilled labor could effect towards +it, he induced a mason to complete it, and paid him in bricklayers' +aprons made of aqua-fortized India-rubber. This first oven was a +tantalizing failure. The heat was neither uniform nor controllable. +Some of the pieces of India-rubber would come out so perfectly "cured" +as to demonstrate the utility of his discovery; but others, prepared +in precisely the same manner, as far as he could discern, were +spoiled, either by blistering or charring. He was puzzled and +distressed beyond description; and no single voice consoled or +encouraged him. Out of the first piece of cloth which he succeeded in +vulcanizing he had a coat made for himself, which was not an +ornamental garment in its best estate; but, to prove to the +unbelievers that it would stand fire, he brought it so often in +contact with hot stoves, that at last it presented an exceedingly +dingy appearance. His coat did not impress the public favorably, and +it served to confirm the opinion that he was laboring under a mania. + +In the midst of his first disheartening experiments with sulphur, he +had an opportunity of escaping at once from his troubles. A house in +Paris made him an advantageous offer for the use of his aquafortis +process. From the abyss of his misery the honest man promptly replied, +that that process, valuable as it was, was about to be superseded by a +new method, which he was then perfecting, and as soon as he had +developed it sufficiently he should be glad to close with their +offers. Can we wonder that his neighbors thought him mad? + +It was just after declining the French proposal that he endured his +worst extremity of want and humiliation. It was in the winter of +1839--40. One of those long and terrible snow-storms for which New +England is noted had been raging for many hours, and he awoke one +morning to find his little cottage half buried in snow, the storm +still continuing, and in his house not an atom of fuel nor a morsel of +food. His children were very young, and he was himself sick and +feeble. The charity of his neighbors was exhausted, and he had not the +courage to face their reproaches. As he looked out of the window upon +the dreary and tumultuous scene, "fit emblem of his condition," he +remarks, he called to mind that, a few days before, an acquaintance, a +mere acquaintance, who lived some miles off, had given him upon the +road a more friendly greeting than he was then accustomed to receive. +It had cheered his heart as he trudged sadly by, and it now returned +vividly to his mind. To this gentleman he determined to apply for +relief, if he could reach his house. Terrible was his struggle with +the wind and the deep drifts. Often he was ready to faint with +fatigue, sickness, and hunger, and he would be obliged to sit down +upon a bank of snow to rest. He reached the house and told his story, +not omitting the oft-told tale of his new discovery,--that mine of +wealth, if only he could procure the means of working it! The eager +eloquence of the inventor was seconded by the gaunt and yellow face of +the man. His generous acquaintance entertained him cordially, and lent +him a sum of money, which not only carried his family through the +worst of the winter, but enabled him to continue his experiments on a +small scale. O.B. Coolidge, of Woburn, was the name of this +benefactor. + +On another occasion, when he was in the most urgent need of materials, +he looked about his house to see if there was left one relic of better +days upon which a little money could be borrowed. There was nothing +except his children's school-books,--the last things from which a +New-Englander is willing to part. There was no other resource. He +gathered them up and sold them for five dollars, with which he laid in +a fresh stock of gum and sulphur, and kept on experimenting. + +Seeing no prospect of success in Massachusetts, he now resolved to +make a desperate effort to get to New York, feeling confident that the +specimens he could take with him would convince some one of the +superiority of his new method. He was beginning to understand the +causes of his many failures, but he saw clearly that his compound +could not be worked with certainty without expensive apparatus. It was +a very delicate operation, requiring exactness and promptitude. The +conditions upon which success depended were numerous, and the failure +of one spoiled all. To vulcanize India-rubber is about as difficult as +to make perfect bread; but the art of bread-making was the growth of +ages, and Charles Goodyear was only ten years and a half in perfecting +his process. Thousands of ingenious men and women, aided by many happy +accidents, must have contributed to the successive invention of bread; +but he was only one man, poor and sick. It cost him thousands of +failures to learn that a little acid in his sulphur caused the +blistering; that his compound must be heated almost immediately after +being mixed, or it would never vulcanize; that a portion of white lead +in the compound greatly facilitated the operation and improved the +result; and when he had learned these facts, it still required costly +and laborious experiments to devise the best methods of compounding +his ingredients, the best proportions, the best mode of heating, the +proper duration of the heating, and the various useful effects that +could be produced by varying the proportions and the degree of heat. +He tells us that many times, when, by exhausting every resource, he +had prepared a quantity of his compound for heating, it was spoiled +because he could not, with his inadequate apparatus, apply the heat +soon enough. + +To New York, then, he directed his thoughts. Merely to get there cost +him a severer and a longer effort than men in general are capable of +making. First he walked to Boston, ten miles distant, where he hoped +to be able to borrow from an old acquaintance fifty dollars, with +which to provide for his family and pay his fare to New York. He not +only failed in this, but he was arrested for debt and thrown into +prison. Even in prison, while his father was negotiating to secure his +release, he labored to interest men of capital in his discovery, and +made proposals for founding a factory in Boston. Having obtained his +liberty, he went to a hotel, and spent a week in vain efforts to +effect a small loan. Saturday night came, and with it his hotel bill, +which he had no means of discharging. In an agony of shame and +anxiety, he went to a friend, and entreated the sum of five dollars to +enable him to return home. He was met with a point-blank refusal. In +the deepest dejection, he walked the streets till late in the night, +and strayed at length, almost beside himself, to Cambridge, where he +ventured to call upon a friend and ask shelter for the night. He was +hospitably entertained, and the next morning walked wearily home, +penniless and despairing. At the door of his house a member of his +family met him with the news that his youngest child, two years of +age, whom he had left in perfect health, was dying. In a few hours he +had in his house a dead child, but not the means of burying it, and +five living dependants without a morsel of food to give them. A +storekeeper near by had promised to supply the family, but, +discouraged by the unforeseen length of the father's absence, he had +that day refused to trust them further. In these terrible +circumstances, he applied to a friend upon whose generosity he knew he +could rely, one who had never failed him. He received in reply a +letter of severe and cutting reproach, enclosing seven dollars, which +his friend explained was given only out of pity for his innocent and +suffering family. A stranger, who chanced to be present when this +letter arrived, sent them a barrel of flour,---a timely and blessed +relief. The next day the family followed on foot the remains of the +little child to the grave. + +A relation in a distant part of the country, to whom Goodyear revealed +his condition, sent him fifty dollars, which enabled him to get to New +York. He had touched bottom. The worst of his trials were over. In New +York, he had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of two +brothers, William Rider and Emory Eider, men of some property and +great intelligence, who examined his specimens, listened to his story, +believed in him, and agreed to aid him to continue his experiments, +and to supply his family until he had rendered his discovery +available. From that time, though he was generally embarrassed in his +circumstances, his family never wanted bread, and he was never obliged +to suspend his experiments. Aided by the capital, the sympathy, and +the ingenuity of the brothers Rider, he spent a year in New York in +the most patient endeavors to overcome the difficulties in heating his +compound. Before he had succeeded, their resources failed. But he had +made such progress in demonstrating the practicability of his process, +that his brother-in-law, William De Forrest, a noted woollen +manufacturer, took hold of the project in earnest, and aided him to +bring it to perfection. Once more, however, he was imprisoned for +debt. This event conquered his scruples against availing himself of +the benefit of the bankrupt act, which finally delivered him from the +danger of arrest. We should add, however, that, as soon as he began to +derive income from his invention, he reassumed his obligations to his +old creditors, and discharged them gradually. + +It was not till the year 1844, more than ten years after he began to +experiment, and more than five years after discovering the secret of +vulcanization, that he was able to conduct his process with absolute +certainty, and to produce vulcanized India-rubber with the requisite +expedition and economy. We can form some conception of the +difficulties overcome by the fact, that the advances of Mr. De Forrest +in aid of the experiment reached the sum of forty-six thousand +dollars,--an amount the inventor did not live long enough to repay. + +His triumph had been long deferred, and we have seen in part how much +it had cost him. But his success proved to be richly worth its cost. +He had added to the arts, not a new material merely, but a new class +of materials, applicable to a thousand diverse uses. His product had +more than the elasticity of India-rubber, while it was divested of all +those properties which had lessened its utility. It was still +India-rubber, but its surfaces would not adhere, nor would it harden +at any degree of cold, nor soften at any degree of heat. It was a +cloth impervious to water. It was paper that would not tear. It was +parchment that would not crease. It was leather which neither rain nor +sun would injure. It was ebony that could be run into a mould. It was +ivory that could be worked like wax. It was wood that never cracked, +shrunk, nor decayed. It was metal, "elastic metal," as Daniel Webster +termed it, that could be wound round the finger or tied into a knot, +and which preserved its elasticity almost like steel. Trifling +variations in the ingredients, in the proportions, and in the heating, +made it either as pliable as kid, tougher than ox-hide, as elastic as +whalebone, or as rigid as flint. + +All this is stated in a moment, but each of these variations in the +material, as well as every article made from them, cost this +indefatigable man days, weeks, months, or years of experiment. It cost +him, for example, several years of most expensive trial to obviate the +objection to India-rubber fabrics caused by the liability of the gum +to peel from the cloth. He tried every known textile fabric, and every +conceivable process before arriving at the simple expedient of mixing +fibre with the gum, by which, at length, the perfect India-rubber +cloth was produced. This invention he considered only second in value +to the discovery of vulcanization. The India-rubber shoe, as we now +have it, is an admirable article,--light, strong, elegant in shape, +with a fibrous sole that does not readily wear, cut, or slip. As the +shoe is made and joined before vulcanization, a girl can make +twenty-five pairs in a day. They are cut from the soft sheets of gum +and joined by a slight pressure of the hand. But almost every step of +this process, now so simple and easy, was patiently elaborated by +Charles Goodyear. A million and a half of pairs per annum is now the +average number made in the United States by his process, though the +business languishes somewhat from the high price of the raw materials. +The gum, which, when Goodyear began his experiments, was a drug at +five cents a pound, has recently been sold at one dollar and twenty +cents a pound, with all its impurities. Even at this high price the +annual import ranges at from four to five millions of pounds. + +Poor Richard informs us that Necessity never makes a good bargain. Mr. +Goodyear was always a prey to necessity. Nor was he ever a good man of +business. He was too entirely an inventor to know how to dispose of +his inventions to advantage; and he could never feel that he had +accomplished his mission with regard to India-rubber. As soon as he +had brought his shoemaking process to the point where other men could +make it profitable, he withdrew from manufacturing, and sold rights to +manufacture for the consideration of half a cent per pair. Five cents +had been reasonable enough, and would have given him ample means to +continue his labors. Half a cent kept him subject to necessity, which +seemed to compel him to dispose of other rights at rates equally low. +Thus it happened that, when the whole India-rubber business of the +country paid him tribute, or ought to have paid it, he remained an +embarrassed man. He had, too, the usual fate of inventors, in having +to contend with the infringers of his rights,--men who owed their all +to his ingenuity and perseverance. We may judge, however, of the +rapidity with which the business grew, by the fact that, six years +after the completion of his vulcanizing process, the holders of rights +to manufacture shoes by that process deemed it worth while to employ +Daniel Webster to plead their cause, and to stimulate his mind by a +fee of twenty-five thousand dollars. It is questionable if Charles +Goodyear ever derived that amount from his patents, if we deduct from +his receipts the money spent in further developing his discovery. His +ill-health obliged him to be abstemious, and he had no expensive +tastes. It was only in his laboratory that he was lavish, and there he +was lavish indeed. His friends still smiled at his zeal, or reproached +him for it. It has been only since the mighty growth of the business +in his products that they have acknowledged that he was right and that +they were wrong. They remember him, sick, meagre, and yellow, now +coming to them with a walking-stick of India-rubber, exulting in the +new application of his material, and predicting its general use, while +they objected that his stick had cost him fifty dollars; now running +about among the comb factories, trying to get reluctant men to try +their tools upon hard India-rubber, and producing at length a set of +combs that cost twenty times the price of ivory ones; now shutting +himself up for months, endeavoring to make a sail of India-rubber +fabric, impervious to water, that should never freeze, and to which no +sleet or ice should ever cling; now exhibiting a set of cutlery with +India-rubber handles, or a picture set in an India-rubber frame, or a +book with India-rubber covers, or a watch with an India-rubber case; +now experimenting with India-rubber tiles for floors, which he hoped +to make as brilliant in color as those of mineral, as agreeable to the +tread as carpet, and as durable as an ancient floor of oak. There is +nothing in the history of invention more remarkable than the devotion +of this man to his object. No crusader was ever so devoted to his vow, +no lover to his mistress, as he was to his purpose of showing mankind +what to do with India-rubber. The doorplate of his office was made of +it; his portrait was painted upon and framed with it; his book, as we +have seen, was wholly composed of it; and his mind, by night and day, +was surcharged with it. He never went to sleep without having within +reach writing materials and the means of making a light, so that, if +he should have an idea in the night, he might be able to secure it. +Some of his best ideas, he used to say, were saved to mankind by this +precaution. + +It is not well for any man to be thus absorbed in his object. To +Goodyear, whose infirm constitution peculiarly needed repose and +recreation, it was disastrous, and at length fatal. It is well with no +man who does riot play as well as work. Fortunately, we are all +beginning to understand this. We are beginning to see that a devotion +to the business of life which leaves no reserve of force and time for +social pleasures and the pursuit of knowledge, diminishes even our +power to conduct business with the sustained and intelligent energy +requisite for a safe success. That is a melancholy passage in one of +Theodore Parker's letters, written in the premature decline of his +powers, in which he laments that he had not, like Franklin, joined a +club, and taken an occasional ramble with young companions in the +country, and played billiards with them in the evening. He added, that +he intended to lead a better life in these particulars for the future; +but who can reform at forty-seven? And the worst of it is, that +ill-health, the natural ally of all evil, favors intensity, lessening +both our power and our inclination to get out of the routine that is +destroying us. Goodyear, always sick, had been for so many years the +slave of his pursuit, he had been so spurred on by necessity, and +lured by partial success, that, when at last he might have rested, he +could not. + +It does not become us, however, who reap the harvest, to censure him +who wore himself out in sowing the seed. The harvest is +great,--greater than any but he anticipated. His friends know now that +he never over-estimated the value of his invention. They know now what +he meant when he said that no one but himself would take the trouble +to apply his material to the thousand uses of which it was capable, +because each new application demanded a course of experiments that +would discourage any one who entered upon it only with a view to +profit. The India-rubber manufacture, since his death, has increased +greatly in extent, but not much in other respects, and some of the +ideas which he valued most remain undeveloped. He died, for example, +in the conviction that sails of India-rubber cloth would finally +supersede all others. He spent six months and five thousand dollars in +producing one or two specimens, which were tried and answered their +purpose well; but he was unable to bring his sail-making process to an +available perfection. The sole difficulty was to make his sails as +light as those of cloth. He felt certain of being able to accomplish +this; but in the multiplicity of his objects and the pressure of his +embarrassments, he was compelled to defer the completion of his plans +to a day that never came. + +The catalogue of his successful efforts is long and striking. The +second volume of his book is wholly occupied with that catalogue. He +lived to see his material applied to nearly five hundred uses, to give +employment in England, France, Germany, and the United States to sixty +thousand persons, who annually produced merchandise of the value of +eight millions of dollars. A man does much who only founds a new kind +of industry; and he does more when that industry gives value to a +commodity that before was nearly valueless. But we should greatly +undervalue the labors of Charles Goodyear, if we regarded them only as +opening a new source of wealth; for there have been found many uses of +India-rubber, as prepared by him, which have an importance far +superior to their commercial value. Art, science, and humanity are +indebted to him for a material which serves the purposes of them all, +and serves them as no other known material could. + +Some of our readers have been out on the picket line during the war. +They know what it is to stand motionless in a wet and miry rifle-pit, +in the chilling rain of a Southern winter's night. Protected by +India-rubber boots, blanket, and cap, the picket man performs in +comparative comfort a duty which, without that protection, would make +him a cowering and shivering wretch, and plant in his bones a latent +rheumatism to be the torment of his old age. Goodyear's India-rubber +enables him to come in from his pit as dry as he was when he went into +it, and he comes in to lie down with an India-rubber blanket between +him and the damp earth. If he is wounded, it is an India-rubber +stretcher, or an ambulance provided with India-rubber springs, that +gives him least pain on his way to the hospital, where, if his wound +is serious, a water-bed of India-rubber gives ease to his mangled +frame, and enables him to endure the wearing tedium of an unchanged +posture. Bandages and supporters of India-rubber avail him much when +first he begins to hobble about his ward. A piece of India-rubber at +the end of his crutch lessens the jar and the noise of his motions, +and a cushion of India-rubber is comfortable to his armpit. The +springs which close the hospital door, the bands which exclude the +drafts from doors and windows, his pocket comb and cup and thimble, +are of the same material. From jars thermetically closed with +India-rubber he receives the fresh fruit that is so exquisitely +delicious to a fevered mouth. The instrument case of his surgeon and +the storeroom of his matron contain many articles whose utility is +increased by the use of it, and some that could be made of nothing +else. His shirts and sheets pass through an India-rubber +clothes-wringer, which saves the strength of the washerwoman and the +fibre of the fabric. When the government presents him with an +artificial leg, a thick heel and elastic sole of India-rubber give him +comfort every time he puts it to the ground. An India-rubber pipe with +an inserted bowl of clay, a billiard-table provided with India-rubber +cushions and balls, can solace his long convalescence. + +In the field, this material is not less strikingly useful. During this +war, armies have marched through ten days of rain, and slept through +as many rainy nights, and come out dry into the returning sunshine, +with its artillery untarnished and its ammunition uninjured, because +men and munitions were all under India-rubber. When Goodyear's ideas +are carried out, it will be by pontoons of inflated India-rubber that +rivers will be crossed. A pontoon-train will then consist of one wagon +drawn by two mules; and if the march is through a country that +furnishes the wooden part of the bridge, a man may carry a pontoon on +his back in addition to his knapsack and blanket. + +In the naval service we meet this material in a form that attracts +little attention, though it serves a purpose of perhaps unequalled +utility. Mechanics are aware, that, from the time of James Watt to the +year 1850, the grand desideratum of the engine builder was a perfect +joint,--a joint that would not admit the escape of steam. A +steam-engine is all over joints and valves, from most of which some +steam sooner or later would escape, since an engine in motion produces +a continual jar that finally impaired the best joint that art could +make. The old joint-making process was exceedingly expensive. The two +surfaces of iron had to be most carefully ground and polished, then +screwed together, and the edges closed with white lead. By the use of +a thin sheet of vulcanized India-rubber, placed between the iron +surfaces, not only is all this expense saved, but a joint is produced +that is absolutely and permanently perfect. It is not even necessary +to rub off the roughness of the casting, for the rougher the surface, +the better the joint. Goodyear's invention supplies an article that +Watt and Fulton sought in vain, and which would seem to put the +finishing touch to the steam-engine,--if, in these days of +improvement, anything whatever could be considered finished. At +present, all engines are provided with these joints and valves, which +save steam, diminish jar, and facilitate the separation of the parts. +It is difficult to compute the value of this improvement, in money. We +are informed, however, by competent authority, that a steamer of two +thousand tons saves ten thousand dollars a year by its use. Such is +the demand for the engine-packing, as it is termed, that the owners of +the factory where it is chiefly made, after constructing the largest +water-wheel in the world, found it insufficient for their growing +business, and were obliged to add to it a steam-engine of two hundred +horse-power. The New York agent of this company sells about a million +dollars' worth of packing per annum. + +Belting for engines is another article for which Goodyear's compound +is superior to any other, inasmuch as the surface of the India-rubber +clings to the iron wheel better than leather or fabric. Leather +polishes and slips; India-rubber does not polish, and holds to the +iron so firmly as to save a large percentage of power. It is no small +advantage merely to save leather for other uses, since leather is an +article of which the supply is strictly limited. It is not uncommon +for India-rubber belts to be furnished, which, if made of leather, +would require more than a hundred hides. Emery-wheels of this material +have been recently introduced. They were formerly made of wood coated +with emery, which soon wore off. In the new manufacture, the emery is +kneaded into the entire mass of the wheel, which can be worn down till +it is all consumed. On the same principle the instruments used to +sharpen scythes are also made. Of late we hear excellent accounts of +India-rubber as a basis for artificial teeth. It is said to be +lighter, more agreeable, less expensive, than gold or platina, and not +less durable. We have seen also some very pretty watch-cases of this +material, elegantly inlaid with gold. + +It thus appears, that the result of Mr. Goodyear's long and painful +struggles was the production of a material which now ranks with the +leading compounds of commerce and manufacture, such as glass, brass, +steel, paper, porcelain, paint. Considering its peculiar and varied +utility, it is perhaps inferior in value only to paper, steel, and +glass. We see, also, that the use of the new compound lessens the +consumption of several commodities, such as ivory, bone, ebony, and +leather, which it is desirable to save, because the demand for them +tends to increase faster than the supply. When a set of ivory +billiard-balls costs fifty dollars, and civilization presses upon the +domain of the elephant, it is well to make our combs and our +paper-knives of something else. + +That inventions so valuable should be disputed and pirated was +something which the history of all the great inventions might have +taught Mr. Goodyear to expect. We need not revive those disputes which +embittered his life and wasted his substance and his time. The +Honorable Joseph Holt, the Commissioner who granted an extension to +the vulcanizing patent in 1858, has sufficiently characterized them in +one of the most eloquent papers ever issued from the Patent Office:-- + + "No inventor probably has ever been so harassed, so trampled + upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of + infringers known in the parlance of the world, with no + exaggeration of phrase, as 'pirates,' The spoliations of + their incessant guerilla warfare upon his defenceless rights + have unquestionably amounted to millions. In the very front + rank of this predatory band stands one who sustains in this + case the double and most convenient character of contestant + and witness; and it is but a subdued expression of my + estimate of the deposition he has lodged, to say that this + Parthian shaft--the last that he could hurl at an invention + which he has so long and so remorselessly pursued--is a + fitting finale to that career which the public justice of + the country has so signally rebuked." + +Mr. Holt paid a noble tribute to the class of men of whose rights he +was the official guardian:-- + + "All that is glorious in our past or hopeful in our future + is indissolubly linked with that cause of human progress of + which inventors are the _preux chevaliers_. It is no poetic + translation of the abiding sentiment of the country to say, + that they are the true jewels of the nation to which they + belong, and that a solicitude for the protection of their + rights and interests should find a place in every throb of + the national heart. Sadly helpless as a class, and offering, + in the glittering creations of their own genius, the + strongest temptations to unscrupulous cupidity, they, of all + men, have most need of the shelter of the public law, while, + in view of their philanthropic labors, they are of all men + most entitled to claim it. The schemes of the politician and + of the statesman may subserve the purposes of the hour, and + the teachings of the moralist may remain with the generation + to which they are addressed, but all this must pass away; + while the fruits of the inventor's genius will endure as + imperishable, memorials, and, surviving the wreck of creeds + and systems, alike of politics, religion, and philosophy, + will diffuse their blessings to all lands and throughout all + ages." + +When Mr. Goodyear had seen the manufacture of shoes and fabrics well +established in the United States, and when his rights appeared to have +been placed beyond controversy by the Trenton decision of 1852, being +still oppressed with debt, he went to Europe to introduce his material +to the notice of capitalists there. The great manufactories of +vulcanized India-rubber in England, Scotland, France, and Germany are +the result of his labors; but the peculiarities of the patent laws of +those countries, or else his own want of skill in contending for his +rights, prevented him from reaping the reward of his labors. He spent +six laborious years abroad. At the Great Exhibitions of London and +Paris, he made brilliant displays of his wares, which did honor to his +country and himself, and gave an impetus to the prosperity of the men +who have grown rich upon his discoveries. At the London Exhibition, he +had a suite of three apartments, carpeted, furnished, and decorated +only with India-rubber. At Paris, he made a lavish display of +India-rubber jewelry, dressing-cases, work-boxes, picture-frames, +which attracted great attention. His reward was, a four days' sojourn +in the debtors' prison, and the cross of the Legion of Honor. The +delinquency of his American licensees procured him the former, and the +favor of the Emperor the latter. + +We have seen that his introduction to India-rubber was through the +medium of a life-preserver. His last labors, also, were consecrated to +life-saving apparatus, of which he invented or suggested a great +variety. His excellent wife was reading to him one evening, in London, +an article from a review, in which it was stated that twenty persons +perished by drowning every hour. The company, startled at a statement +so unexpected, conversed upon it for some time, while Mr. Goodyear +himself remained silent and thoughtful. For several nights he was +restless, as was usually the case with him when he was meditating a +new application of his material. As these periods of incubation were +usually followed by a prostrating sickness, his wife urged him to +forbear, and endeavor to compose his mind to sleep. "Sleep!" said he, +"how can I sleep while twenty human beings are drowning every hour, +and I am the man who can save them?" It was long his endeavor to +invent some article which every man, woman, and child would +necessarily wear, and which would make it impossible for them to sink. + +He experimented with hats, cravats, jackets, and petticoats; and, +though he left his principal object incomplete, he contrived many of +those means of saving life which now puzzle the occupants of +state-rooms. He had the idea that every article on board a vessel +seizable in the moment of danger, every chair, table, sofa, and stool, +should be a life-preserver. + +He returned to his native land a melancholy spectacle to his +friends,--yellow, emaciated, and feeble,--but still devoted to his +work. He lingered and labored until July, 1860, when he died in New +York, in the sixtieth year of his age. Almost to the last day of his +life he was busy with new applications of his discovery. After +twenty-seven years of labor and investigation, after having founded a +new branch of industry, which gave employment to sixty thousand +persons, he died insolvent, leaving to a wife and six children only an +inheritance of debt. Those who censure him for this should consider +that his discovery was not profitable to himself for more than ten +years, that he was deeply in debt when he began his experiments, that +his investigations could be carried on only by increasing his +indebtedness, that all his bargains were those of a man in need, that +the guilelessness of his nature made him the easy prey of greedy, +dishonorable men, and that his neglect of his private interests was +due, in part, to his zeal for the public good. + +Dr. Dutton of New Haven, his pastor and friend, in the Sermon +dedicated to his memory, did not exaggerate when he spoke of him as + + "one who recognized his peculiar endowment of inventive + genius as a divine gift, involving a special and defined + responsibility, and considered himself called of God, as was + Bezaleel, to that particular course of invention to which he + devoted the chief part of his life. This he often expressed, + though with his characteristic modesty, to his friends, + especially his religious friends. His inventive work was his + religion, and was pervaded and animated by religious faith + and devotion. He felt like an apostle commissioned for that + work; and he said to his niece and her husband, who went, + with his approbation and sympathy, as missionaries of the + Gospel to Asia, that he was God's missionary as truly as + they were." + +Nothing more true. The demand for the raw gum, almost created by him, +is introducing abundance and developing industry in the regions which +produce it. As the culture of cotton seems the predestined means of +improving Africa, so the gathering of caoutchouc may procure for the +inhabitants of the equatorial regions of both continents such of the +blessings of civilization as they are capable of appropriating. + +An attempt was made last winter to procure an act of Congress +extending the vulcanizing patent for a further period of seven years, +for the benefit of the creditors and the family of the inventor. The +petition seemed reasonable. The very low tariff paid by the +manufacturers could have no perceptible effect upon the price of +articles, and the extension would provide a competence for a worthy +family who had claims upon the gratitude of the nation, if not upon +its justice. The manufacturers generally favored the extension, since +the patent protected them, in the deranged condition of our currency, +from the competition of the foreign manufacturer, who pays low wages +and enjoys a sound currency. The extension of the patent would have +harmed no one, and would have been an advantage to the general +interests of the trade. The son of the inventor, too, in whose name +the petition was offered, had spent his whole life in assisting his +father, and had a fair claim upon the consideration of Congress. But +the same unscrupulous and remorseless men who had plundered poor +Goodyear living, hastened to Washington to oppose the petition of his +family. A cry of "monopoly" was raised in the newspapers to which they +had access. The presence in Washington of Mrs. Goodyear, one of the +most retiring of women, and of her son, a singularly modest young man, +who were aided by one friend and one professional agent, was denounced +as "a powerful lobby, male and female," who, having despoiled the +public of "twenty millions," were boring Congress for a grant of +twenty millions more,--all to be wrung from an India-rubber-consuming +public. The short session of Congress is unfavorable to private bills, +even when they are unopposed. These arts sufficed to prevent the +introduction of the bill desired, and the patent has since expired. + +The immense increase in the demand for the gum has frequently +suggested the inquiry whether there is any danger of the supply +becoming unequal to it. There are now in Europe and America more than +a hundred and fifty manufactories of India-rubber articles, employing +from five to five hundred operatives each, and consuming more than ten +millions of pounds of gum per annum. The business, too, is considered +to be still in its infancy. Certainly, it is increasing. Nevertheless, +there is no possibility of the demand exceeding the supply. The belt +of land round the globe, five hundred miles north and five hundred +miles south of the equator, abounds in the trees producing the gum, +and they can be tapped, it is said, for twenty successive seasons. +Forty-three thousand of these trees were counted in a tract of country +thirty miles long and eight wide. Each tree yields an average of three +table-spoonfuls of sap daily, but the trees are so close together that +one man can gather the sap of eighty in a day. Starting at daylight, +with his tomahawk and a ball of clay, he goes from tree to tree, +making five or six incisions in each, and placing under each incision +a cup made of the clay which he carries. In three or four hours he has +completed his circuit and comes home to breakfast. In the afternoon he +slings a large gourd upon his shoulder, and repeats his round to +collect the sap. The cups are covered up at the roots of the tree, to +be used again on the following day. In other regions the sap is +allowed to exude from the tree, and is gathered from about the roots. +But, however it is collected, the supply is superabundant; and the +countries which produce it are those in which the laborer needs only a +little tapioca, a little coffee, a hut, and an apron. In South +America, from which our supply chiefly comes, the natives subsist at +an expense of three cents a day. The present high price of the gum in +the United States is principally due to the fact that greenbacks are +not current in the tropics; but in part, to the rapidity with which +the demand has increased. Several important applications of the +vulcanized gum have been deferred to the time when the raw material +shall have fallen to what Adam Smith would style its "natural price." + +Charles Goodyear's work, therefore, is a permanent addition to the +resources of man. The latest posterity will be indebted to him. + + + +HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH + +Is there anything in America more peculiar to America, or more curious +in itself, than one of our "fashionable" Protestant churches,--such as +we see in New York, on the Fifth Avenue and in the adjacent streets? +The lion and the lamb in the Millennium will not lie down together +more lovingly than the Church and the World have blended in these +singular establishments. We are far from objecting to the coalition, +but note it only as something curious, new, and interesting. + +We enter an edifice, upon the interior of which the upholsterer and +the cabinet-maker have exhausted the resources of their trades. The +word "subdued" describes the effect at which those artists have aimed. +The woods employed are costly and rich, but usually of a sombre hue, +and, though elaborately carved, are frequently unpolished. The light +which comes through the stained windows, or through the small diamond +panes, is of that description which is eminently the "_dim_, +religious." Every part of the floor is thickly carpeted. The pews +differ little from sofas, except in being more comfortable, and the +cushions for the feet or the knees are as soft as hair and cloth can +make them. It is a fashion, at present, to put the organ out of sight, +and to have a clock so unobtrusive as not to be observed. Galleries +are now viewed with an unfriendly eye by the projectors of churches, +and they are going out of use. Everything in the way of conspicuous +lighting apparatus, such as the gorgeous and dazzling chandeliers of +fifteen years ago, and the translucent globes of later date, is +discarded, and an attempt is sometimes made to hide the vulgar fact +that the church is ever open in the evening. In a word the design of +the fashionable church-builder of the present moment is to produce a +richly furnished, quietly adorned, dimly illuminated, ecclesiastical +parlor, in which a few hundred ladies and gentlemen, attired in +kindred taste, may sit perfectly at their ease, and see no object not +in harmony with the scene around them. + +To say that the object of these costly and elegant arrangements is to +repel poor people would be a calumny. On the contrary, persons who +show by their dress and air that they exercise the less remunerative +vocations are as politely shown to seats as those who roll up to the +door in carriages, and the presence of such persons is desired, and, +in many instances, systematically sought. Nevertheless, the poor are +repelled. They know they cannot pay their proportion of the expense of +maintaining such establishments, and they do not wish to enjoy what +others pay for. Everything in and around the church seems to proclaim +it a kind of exclusive ecclesiastical club, designed for the +accommodation of persons of ten thousand dollars a year, and upward. +Or it is as though the carriages on the Road to Heaven were divided +into first-class, second-class, and third-class, and a man either +takes the one that accords with his means, or denies himself the +advantage of travelling that road, or prefers to trudge along on foot, +an independent wayfarer. + +It is Sunday morning, and the doors of this beautiful drawing-room are +thrown open. Ladies dressed with subdued magnificence glide in, along +with some who have not been able to leave at home the showier articles +of their wardrobe. Black silk, black velvet, black lace, relieved by +intimations of brighter colors, and by gleams from half-hidden +jewelry, are the materials most employed. Gentlemen in uniform of +black cloth and white linen announce their coming by the creaking of +their boots, quenched in the padded carpeting. It cannot be said of +these churches, as Mr. Carlyle remarked of certain London ones, that a +pistol could be fired into a window across the church without much +danger of hitting a Christian. The attendance is not generally very +large; but as the audience is evenly distributed over the whole +surface, it looks larger than it is. In a commercial city everything +is apt to be measured by the commercial standard, and accordingly a +church numerically weak, but financially strong, ranks, in the +estimation of the town, not according to its number of souls, but its +number of dollars. We heard a fine young fellow, last summer, full of +zeal for everything high and good, conclude a glowing account of a +sermon by saying that it was the direct means of adding to the church +a capital of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. He meant +nothing low or mercenary; he honestly exulted in the fact that the +power and influence attached to the possession of one hundred and +seventy-five thousand dollars were thenceforward to be exerted on +behalf of objects which he esteemed the highest. If therefore the +church before our view cannot boast of a numerous attendance, it more +than consoles itself by the reflection, that there are a dozen names +of talismanic power in Wall Street on its list of members. + +"But suppose the Doctor should leave you?" objected a friend of ours +to a trustee, who had been urging him to buy a pew in a fashionable +church. + +"Well, my dear sir," was the business-like reply; "suppose he should. +We should immediately engage the very first talent which money can +command." + +We can hardly help taking this simple view of things in rich +commercial cities. Our worthy trustee merely put the thing on the +correct basis. He frankly _said_ what every church _does_, ought to +do, and must do. He stated a universal fact in the plain and sensible +language to which he was accustomed. In the same way these +business-like Christians have borrowed the language of the Church, and +speak of men who are "good" for a million. + +The congregation is assembled. The low mumble of the organ ceases. A +female voice rises melodiously above the rustle of dry-goods and the +whispers of those who wear them. So sweet and powerful is it, that a +stranger might almost suppose it borrowed from the choir of heaven; +but the inhabitants of the town recognize it as one they have often +heard at concerts or at the opera; and they listen critically, as to a +professional performance, which it is. It is well that highly +artificial singing prevents the hearer from catching the words of the +song; for it _would_ have rather an odd effect to hear rendered, in +the modern Italian style, such plain straightforward words as these:-- + + "Can sinners hope for heaven + Who love this world so well? + Or dream of future happiness + While on the road to hell?" + +The performance, however, is so exquisite that we do not think of +these things, but listen in rapture to the voice alone. When the lady +has finished her stanza, a noble barytone, also recognized as +professional, takes up the strain, and performs a stanza, solo; at the +conclusion of which, four voices, in enchanting accord breathe out a +third. It is evident that the "first talent that money can command" +has been "engaged" for the entertainment of the congregation; and we +are not surprised when the information is proudly communicated that +the music costs a hundred and twenty dollars per Sunday. + +What is very surprising and well worthy of consideration is, that this +beautiful music does not "draw." In our rovings about among the noted +churches of New York,--of the kind which "engage the first talent that +money can command,"--we could never see that the audience was much +increased by expensive professional music. On the contrary, we can lay +it down as a general rule, that the costlier the music, the smaller is +the average attendance. The afternoon service at Trinity Church, for +example, is little more than a delightful gratuitous concert of boys, +men, and organ; and the spectacle of the altar brilliantly lighted by +candles is novel and highly picturesque. The sermon also is of the +fashionable length,--twenty minutes; and yet the usual afternoon +congregation is about two hundred persons. Those celestial strains of +music,--well, they enchant the ear, if the ear happens to be within +hearing of them; but somehow they do not furnish a continuous +attraction. + +When this fine prelude is ended, the minister's part begins; and, +unless he is a man of extraordinary bearing and talents, every one +present is conscious of a kind of lapse in the tone of the occasion. +Genius composed the music; the "first talent" executed it; the +performance has thrilled the soul, and exalted expectation; but the +voice now heard may be ordinary, and the words uttered may be homely, +or even common. No one unaccustomed to the place can help feeling a +certain incongruity between the language heard and the scene +witnessed. Everything we see is modern; the words we hear are ancient. +The preacher speaks of "humble believers," and we look around and ask, +Where are they? Are these costly and elegant persons humble believers? +Far be it from us to intimate that they are not; we are speaking only +of their appearance, and its effect upon a casual beholder. The +clergyman reads, + + "Come let _us_ join in sweet accord," + +and straightway four hired performers execute a piece of difficult +music to an audience sitting passive. He discourses upon the +"pleasures of the world," as being at war with the interests of the +soul; and while a severe sentence to this effect is coming from his +lips, down the aisle marches the sexton, showing some stranger to a +seat, who is a professional master of the revels. He expresses, +perchance, a fervent desire that the heathen may be converted to +Christianity, and we catch ourselves saying, "Does he mean _this_ sort +of thing?" When we pronounce the word Christianity, it calls up +recollections and associations that do not exactly harmonize with the +scene around us. We think rather of the fishermen of Palestine, on the +lonely sea-shore; of the hunted fugitives of Italy and Scotland; we +think of it as something lowly, and suited to the lowly,--a refuge for +the forsaken and the defeated, not the luxury of the rich and the +ornament of the strong. It may be an infirmity of our mind; but we +experience a certain difficulty in realizing that the sumptuous and +costly apparatus around us has anything in common with what we have +been accustomed to think of as Christianity. + +Sometimes, the incongruity reaches the point of the ludicrous. We +recently heard a very able and well-intentioned preacher, near the +Fifth Avenue, ask the ladies before him whether they were in the habit +of speaking to their female attendants about their souls' +salvation,--particularly those who dressed their hair. He especially +mentioned the hair-dressers; because, as he truly remarked, ladies are +accustomed to converse with those _artistes_, during the operation of +hair-dressing, on a variety of topics; and the opportunity was +excellent to say a word on the one most important. This incident +perfectly illustrates what we mean by the seeming incongruity between +the ancient cast of doctrine and the modernized people to whom it is +preached. We have heard sermons in fashionable churches in New York, +laboriously prepared and earnestly read, which had nothing in them of +the modern spirit, contained not the most distant allusion to modern +modes of living and sinning, had no suitableness whatever to the +people or the time, and from which everything that could rouse or +interest a human soul living on Manhattan Island in the year 1867 +seemed to have been purposely pruned away. And perhaps, if a clergyman +really has no message to deliver, his best course is to utter a jargon +of nothings. + +Upon the whole, the impression left upon the mind of the visitor to +the fashionable church is, that he has been looking, not upon a living +body, but a decorated image. + +It may be, however, that the old conception of a Christian church, as +the one place where all sorts and conditions of men came together to +dwell upon considerations interesting to all equally, is not adapted +to modern society, wherein one man differs from another in knowledge +even more than a king once differed from a peasant in rank. When all +were ignorant, a mass chanted in an unknown tongue, and a short +address warning against the only vices known to ignorant people, +sufficed for the whole community. But what form of service can be even +imagined, that could satisfy Bridget, who cannot read, and her +mistress, who comes to church cloyed with the dainties of half a dozen +literatures? Who could preach a sermon that would hold attentive the +man saturated with Buckle, Mill, Spencer, Thackeray, Emerson, +Humboldt, and Agassiz, and the man whose only literary recreation is +the dime novel? In the good old times, when terror was latent in every +soul, and the preacher had only to deliver a very simple message, +pointing out the one way to escape endless torture, a very ordinary +mortal could arrest and retain attention. But this resource is gone +forever, and the modern preacher is thrown upon the resources of his +own mind and talent. There is great difficulty here, and it does not +seem likely to diminish. It may be, that never again, as long as time +shall endure, will ignorant and learned, masters and servants, poor +and rich, feel themselves at home in the same church. + +At present we are impressed, and often oppressed, with the too evident +fact, that neither the intelligent nor the uninstructed souls are so +well ministered to, in things spiritual, as we could imagine they +might be. The fashionable world of New York goes to church every +Sunday morning with tolerable punctuality, and yet it seems to drift +rapidly toward Paris. What it usually hears at church does not appear +to exercise controlling influence over its conduct or its character. + +Among the churches about New York to which nothing we have said +applies, the one that presents the strongest contrast to the +fashionable church is Henry Ward Beecher's. Some of the difficulties +resulting from the altered state of opinion in recent times have been +overcome there, and an institution has been created which appears to +be adapted to the needs, as well as to the tastes, of the people +frequenting it. We can at least say of it, that it is a living body, +and _not_ a decorated image. + +For many years, this church upon Brooklyn Heights has been, to the +best of the visitors to the metropolis, the most interesting object in +or near it. Of Brooklyn itself,--a great assemblage of residences, +without much business or stir,--it seems the animating soul. We have a +fancy, that we can tell by the manner and bearing of an inhabitant of +the place whether he attends this church or not; for there is a +certain joyousness, candor, and democratic simplicity about the +members of that congregation, which might be styled Beecherian, if +there were not a better word. This church is simply the most +characteristic thing of America. If we had a foreigner in charge to +whom we wished to reveal this country, we should like to push him in, +hand him over to one of the brethren who perform the arduous duty of +providing seats for visitors, and say to him: + + "There, stranger, you have arrived; _this_ is the United + States. The New Testament, Plymouth Rock, and the Fourth of + July,--_this_ is what they have brought us to. What the next + issue will be, no one can tell; but this is about what we + are at present." + +We cannot imagine what the brethren could have been thinking about +when they ordered the new bell that hangs in the tower of Plymouth +Church. It is the most superfluous article in the known world. The +New-Yorker who steps on board the Fulton ferry-boat about ten o'clock +on Sunday morning finds himself accompanied by a large crowd of people +who bear the visible stamp of strangers, who are going to Henry Ward +Beecher's church. You can pick them out with perfect certainty. You +see the fact in their countenances, in their dress, in their demeanor, +as well as hear it in words of eager expectation. They are the kind of +people who regard wearing-apparel somewhat in the light of its +utility, and are not crushed by their clothes. They are the sort of +people who take the "Tribune," and get up courses of lectures in the +country towns. From every quarter of Brooklyn, in street cars and on +foot, streams of people are converging toward the same place. Every +Sunday morning and evening, rain or shine, there is the same +concourse, the same crowd at the gates before they are open, and the +same long, laborious effort to get thirty-five hundred people into a +building that will seat but twenty-seven hundred. Besides the ten or +twelve members of the church who volunteer to assist in this labor, +there is employed a force of six policemen at the doors, to prevent +the multitude from choking all ingress. Seats are retained for their +proprietors until ten minutes before the time of beginning; after that +the strangers are admitted. Mr. Buckle, if he were with us still, +would be pleased to know that his doctrine of averages holds good in +this instance; since every Sunday about a churchful of persons come to +this church, so that not many who come fail to get in. + +There is nothing of the ecclesiastical drawing-room in the +arrangements of this edifice. It is a very plain brick building, in a +narrow street of small, pleasant houses, and the interior is only +striking from its extent and convenience. The simple, old-fashioned +design of the builder was to provide seats for as many people as the +space would hold; and in executing this design, he constructed one of +the finest interiors in the country, since the most pleasing and +inspiriting spectacle that human eyes ever behold in this world is +such an assembly as fills this church. The audience is grandly +displayed in those wide, rounded galleries, surging up high against +the white walls, and scooped out deep in the slanting floor, leaving +the carpeted platform the vortex of an arrested whirlpool. Often it +happens that two or three little children get lodged upon the edge of +the platform, and sit there on the carpet among the flowers during the +service, giving to the picture a singularly pleasing relief, as though +they and the bouquets had been arranged by the same skilful hand, and +for the same purpose. And it seems quite natural and proper that +children should form part of so bright and joyous an occasion. Behind +the platform rises to the ceiling the huge organ, of dark wood and +silvered pipes, with fans of trumpets pointing heavenward from the +top. This enormous toy occupies much space that could be better +filled, and is only less superfluous than the bell; but we must pardon +and indulge a foible. We could never see that Mr. Forrest walked any +better for having such thick legs; yet they have their admirers. Blind +old Handel played on an instrument very different from this, but the +sexton had to eat a cold Sunday dinner; for not a Christian would stir +as long as the old man touched the keys after service. But not old +Handel nor older Gabriel could make such music as swells and roars +from three thousand human voices,---the regular choir of Plymouth +Church. It is a decisive proof of the excellence and heartiness of +this choir, that the great organ has not lessened its effectiveness. + +It is not clear to the distant spectator by what aperture Mr. Beecher +enters the church. He is suddenly discovered to be present, seated in +his place on the platform,--an under-sized gentleman in a black stock. +His hair combed behind his ears, and worn a little longer than usual, +imparts to his appearance something of the Puritan, and calls to mind +his father, the champion of orthodoxy in heretical Boston. In +conducting the opening exercises, and, indeed, on all occasions of +ceremony, Mr. Beecher shows himself an artist,--both his language and +his demeanor being marked by the most refined decorum. An elegant, +finished simplicity characterizes all he does and says: not a word too +much, nor a word misused, nor a word waited for, nor an unharmonious +movement, mars the satisfaction of the auditor. The habit of living +for thirty years in the view of a multitude, together with a natural +sense of the becoming, and a quick sympathy with men and +circumstances, has wrought up his public demeanor to a point near +perfection. A candidate for public honors could not study a better +model. This is the more remarkable, because it is a purely spiritual +triumph. Mr. Beecher's person is not imposing, nor his natural manner +graceful. It is his complete extirpation of the desire of producing an +illegitimate effect; it is his sincerity and genuineness as a human +being; it is the dignity of his character, and his command of his +powers,--which give him this easy mastery over every situation in +which he finds himself. + +Extempore prayers are not, perhaps, a proper subject for comment. The +grand feature of the preliminary services of this church is the +singing, which is not executed by the first talent that money can +command. When the prelude upon the organ is finished, the whole +congregation, almost every individual in it, as if by a spontaneous +and irresistible impulse, stands up and sings. We are not aware that +anything has ever been done or said to bring about this result; nor +does the minister of the church set the example, for he usually +remains sitting and silent It seems as if every one in the +congregation was so full of something that he felt impelled to get up +and sing it out. In other churches where congregational singing is +attempted, there are usually a number of languid Christians who remain +seated, and a large number of others who remain silent; but here there +is a strange unanimity about the performance. A sailor might as well +try not to join in the chorus of a forecastle song as a member of this +joyous host not to sing. When the last preliminary singing is +concluded, the audience is in an excellent condition to sit and +listen, their whole corporeal system having been pleasantly exercised. + +The sermon which follows is new wine in an old bottle. Up to the +moment when the text has been announced and briefly explained, the +service has all been conducted upon the ancient model, and chiefly in +the ancient phraseology; but from the moment when Mr. Beecher swings +free from the moorings of his text, and gets fairly under way, his +sermon is modern. No matter how fervently he may have been praying +supernaturalism, he preaches pure cause and effect. His text may savor +of old Palestine; but his sermon is inspired by New York and Brooklyn; +and nearly all that he says, when he is most himself, finds an +approving response in the mind of every well-disposed person, whether +orthodox or heterodox in his creed. + +What is religion? That, of course, is the great question. Mr. Beecher +says: Religion is the slow, laborious, self-conducted EDUCATION of the +whole man, from grossness to refinement, from sickliness to health, +from ignorance to knowledge, from selfishness to justice, from justice +to nobleness, from cowardice to valor. In treating this topic, +whatever he may pray or read or assent to, he _preaches_ cause and +effect, and nothing else. Regeneration he does not represent to be +some mysterious, miraculous influence exerted upon a man from without, +but the man's own act, wholly and always, and in every stage of its +progress. His general way of discoursing upon this subject would +satisfy the most rationalized mind; and yet it does not appear to +offend the most orthodox. + +This apparent contradiction between the spirit of his preaching and +the facts of his position is a severe puzzle to some of our +thorough-going friends. They ask, How can a man demonstrate that the +fall of rain is so governed by unchanging laws that the shower of +yesterday dates back in its causes to the origin of things, and, +having proved this to the comprehension of every soul present, finish +by _praying_ for an immediate outpouring upon the thirsty fields? We +confess that, to our modern way of thinking, there is a contradiction +here, but there is none at all to an heir of the Puritans. We reply to +our impatient young friends, that Henry Ward Beecher at once +represents and assists the American Christian of the present time, +just because of this seeming contradiction. He is a bridge over which +we are passing from the creed-enslaved past to the perfect freedom of +the future. Mr. Lecky, in his 'History of the Spirit of Rationalism,' +has shown the process by which truth is advanced. Old errors, he says, +do not die because they are refuted, but _fade out_ because they are +neglected. One hundred and fifty years ago, our ancestors were +perplexed, and even distressed, by something they called the doctrine +of Original Sin. No one now concerns himself either to refute or +assert the doctrine; few people know what it is; we all simply let it +alone, and it fades out. John Wesley not merely believed in +witchcraft, but maintained that a belief in witchcraft was essential +to salvation. All the world, except here and there an enlightened and +fearless person, believed in witchcraft as late as the year 1750. That +belief has not perished because its folly was demonstrated, but +because the average human mind grew past it, and let it alone until it +faded out in the distance. Or we might compare the great body of +beliefs to a banquet, in which every one takes what he likes best; and +the master of the feast, observing what is most in demand, keeps an +abundant supply of such viands, but gradually withdraws those which +are neglected. Mr. Beecher has helped himself to such beliefs as are +congenial to him, and shows an exquisite tact in passing by those +which interest him not, and which have lost regenerating power. There +_are_ minds which cannot be content with anything like vagueness or +inconsistency in their opinions. They must know to a certainty whether +the sun and moon stood still or not. His is not a mind of that cast; +he can "hover on the confines of truth," and leave the less inviting +parts of the landscape veiled in mist unexplored. Indeed, the great +aim of his preaching is to show the insignificance of opinion compared +with right feeling and noble living, and he prepares the way for the +time when every conceivable latitude of mere opinion shall be allowed +and encouraged. + +One remarkable thing about his preaching is, that he has not, like so +many men of liberal tendencies, fallen into milk-and-waterism. He +often gives a foretaste of the terrific power which preachers will +wield when they draw inspiration from science and life. Without ever +frightening people with horrid pictures of the future, he has a sense +of the perils which beset human life here, upon this bank and shoal of +time. How needless to draw upon the imagination, in depicting the +consequences of violating natural law! Suppose a preacher should give +a plain, cold, scientific exhibition of the penalty which Nature +exacts for the crime, so common among church-going ladies and others, +of murdering their unborn offspring! It would appall the Devil. +Scarcely less terrible are the consequences of the most common vices +and meannesses when they get the mastery. Mr. Beecher has frequently +shown, by powerful delineations of this kind, how large a part +legitimate terror must ever play in the services of a true church, +when the terrors of superstition have wholly faded out. It cannot be +said of his preaching, that he preaches "Christianity with the bones +taken out." He does not give "twenty minutes of tepid exhortation," +nor amuse his auditors with elegant and melodious essays upon virtue. + +We need not say that his power as a public teacher is due, in a great +degree, to his fertility in illustrative similes. Three or four +volumes, chiefly filled with these, as they have been caught from his +lips, are before the public, and are admired on both continents. Many +of them are most strikingly happy, and flood his subject with light. +The smiles that break out upon the sea of upturned faces, and the +laughter that whispers round the assembly, are often due as much to +the aptness as to the humor of the illustration: the mind receives an +agreeable shock of surprise at finding a resemblance where only the +widest dissimilarity had before been perceived. + +Of late years, Mr. Beecher never sends an audience away half +satisfied; for he has constantly grown with the growth of his splendid +opportunity. How attentive the great assembly, and how quickly +responsive to the points he makes! That occasional ripple of +laughter,--it is not from any want of seriousness in the speaker, in +the subject, or in the congregation, nor is it a Rowland Hill +eccentricity. It is simply that it has pleased Heaven to endow this +genial soul with a quick perception of the likeness there is between +things unlike; and, in the heat and torrent of his speech, the +suddenly discovered similarity amuses while it instructs. Philosophers +and purists may cavil at parts of these sermons, and, of course, they +are not perfect; but who can deny that their general effect is +civilizing, humanizing, elevating, and regenerating, and that this +master of preaching is the true brother of all those high and bright +spirits, on both sides of the ocean, who are striving to make the soul +of this age fit to inhabit and nobly impel its new body? + +The sermon over, a livelier song brings the service to a happy +conclusion; and slowly, to the thunder of the new organ, the great +assembly dissolves and oozes away. + +The Sunday services are not the whole of this remarkable church. It +has not yet adopted Mrs. Stowe's suggestion of providing +billiard-rooms, bowling-alleys, and gymnastic apparatus for the +development of Christian muscle, though these may come in time. The +building at present contains eleven apartments, among which are two +large parlors, wherein, twice a month, there is a social gathering of +the church and congregation, for conversation with the pastor and with +one another. Perhaps, by and by, these will be always open, so as to +furnish club conveniences to young men who have no home. Doubtless, +this fine social organization is destined to development in many +directions not yet contemplated. + +Among the ancient customs of New England and its colonies (of which +Brooklyn is one) is the Friday-evening prayer-meeting. Some of our +readers, perhaps, have dismal recollections of their early compelled +attendance on those occasions, when, with their hands firmly held in +the maternal grasp, lest at the last moment they should bolt under +cover of the darkness, they glided round into the back parts of the +church, lighted by one smoky lantern hung over the door of the +lecture-room, itself dimly lighted, and as silent as the adjacent +chambers of the dead. Female figures, demure in dress and eyes cast +down, flitted noiselessly in, and the awful stillness was only broken +by the heavy boots of the few elders and deacons who constituted the +male portion of the exceedingly slender audience. With difficulty, and +sometimes, only after two or three failures, a hymn was raised, which, +when in fullest tide, was only a dreary wail,--how unmelodious to the +ears of unreverential youth, gifted with a sense of the ludicrous! How +long, how sad, how pointless the prayers! How easy to believe, down in +that dreary cellar, that this world was but a wilderness, and man "a +feeble piece"! Deacon Jones could speak up briskly enough when he was +selling two yards of shilling calico to a farmer's wife sharp at a +bargain; but in that apartment, contiguous to the tombs, it seemed +natural that he should utter dismal views of life in bad grammar +through his nose. Mrs. Jones was cheerful when she gave her little +tea-party the evening before; but now she appeared to assent, without +surprise, to the statement that she was a pilgrim travelling through a +vale of tears. Veritable pilgrims, who do actually meet in an oasis of +the desert, have a merry time of it, travellers tell us. It was not so +with these good souls, inhabitants of a pleasant place, and +anticipating an eternal abode in an inconceivably delightful paradise. +But then there was the awful chance of missing it! And the reluctant +youth, dragged to this melancholy scene, who avenged themselves by +giving select imitations of deaconian eloquence for the amusement of +young friends,--what was to become of _them_? It was such thoughts, +doubtless, that gave to those excellent people their gloomy habit of +mind; and if their creed expressed the literal truth respecting man's +destiny, character, and duty, terror alone was rational, and laughter +was hideous and defiant mockery. What room in a benevolent heart for +joy, when a point of time, a moment's space removed us to that +heavenly place, or shut us up in hell? + +From the time when we were accustomed to attend such meetings, long +ago, we never saw a Friday-evening meeting till the other night, when +we found ourselves in the lecture-room of Plymouth Church. + +The room is large, very lofty, brilliantly lighted by reflectors +affixed to the ceiling, and, except the scarlet cushions on the +settees, void of upholstery. It was filled full with a cheerful +company, not one of whom seemed to have on more or richer clothes than +she had the moral strength to wear. Content and pleasant expectation +sat on every countenance, as when people have come to a festival, and +await the summons to the banquet. No pulpit, or anything like a +pulpit, cast a shadow over the scene; but in its stead there was a +rather large platform, raised two steps, covered with dark green +canvas, and having upon it a very small table and one chair. The +red-cushioned settees were so arranged as to enclose the green +platform all about, except on one side; so that he who should sit upon +it would appear to be in the midst of the people, raised above them +that all might see him, yet still among them and one of them. At one +side of the platform, but on the floor of the room, among the settees, +there was a piano open. Mr. Beecher sat near by, reading what appeared +to be a letter of three or four sheets. The whole scene was so little +like what we commonly understand by the word "meeting," the people +there were so little in a "meeting" state of mind, and the subsequent +proceedings were so informal, unstudied, and social, that, in +attempting to give this account of them, we almost feel as if we were +reporting for print the conversation of a private evening party. +Anything more unlike an old-fashioned prayer-meeting it is not +possible to conceive. + +Mr. Beecher took his seat upon the platform, and, after a short pause, +began the exercises by saying, in a low tone, these words: "Six +twenty-two." + +A rustling of the leaves of hymn-books interpreted the meaning of this +mystical utterance, which otherwise might have been taken as +announcing a discourse upon the prophetic numbers. The piano confirmed +the interpretation; and then the company burst into one of those +joyous and unanimous singings which are so enchanting a feature of the +services of this church. Loud rose the beautiful harmony of voices, +constraining every one to join in the song, even those most unused to +sing. When it was ended, the pastor, in the same low tone, pronounced +a name; upon which one of the brethren rose to his feet, and the rest +of the assembly slightly inclined their heads. It would not, as we +have remarked, be becoming in us to say anything upon this portion of +the proceedings, except to note that the prayers were all brief, +perfectly quiet and simple, and free from the routine or regulation +expressions. There were but two or three of them, alternating with +singing; and when that part of the exercises was concluded, Mr. +Beecher had scarcely spoken. The meeting ran alone, in the most +spontaneous and pleasant manner; and, with all its heartiness and +simplicity, there was a certain refined decorum pervading all that was +done and said. There was a pause after the last hymn died away, and +then Mr, Beecher, still seated, began, in the tone of conversation, to +speak, somewhat after this manner. + +"When," said he, + + "I first began to walk as a Christian, in my youthful zeal I + made many resolutions that were well meant, but indiscreet. + Among others, I remember I resolved to pray, at least once, + in some way, every hour that I was awake. I tried faithfully + to keep this resolution, but never having succeeded a single + day, I suffered the pangs of self-reproach, until reflection + satisfied me that the only wisdom possible, with regard to + such a resolve, was to break it. I remember, too, that I + made a resolution to speak upon religion to every person + with whom I conversed,--on steamboats, in the streets, + anywhere. In this, also, I failed, as I ought; and I soon + learned that, in the sowing of such seed, as in other + sowings, times and seasons and methods must be considered + and selected, or a man may defeat his own object, and make + religion loathsome." + +In language like this he introduced the topic of the evening's +conversation, which was, How far, and on what occasions, and in what +manner, one person may invade, so to speak, the personality of +another, and speak to him upon his moral condition. The pastor +expressed his own opinion, always in the conversational tone, in a +talk of ten minutes' duration; in the course of which he applauded, +not censured, the delicacy which causes most people to shrink from +doing it. He said that a man's personality was not a macadamized road +for every vehicle to drive upon at will; but rather a sacred +enclosure, to be entered, if at all, with, the consent of the owner, +and with deference to his feelings and tastes. He maintained, however, +that there _were_ times and modes in which this might properly be +done, and that every one _had_ a duty to perform of this nature. When +he had finished his observations, he said the subject was open to the +remarks of others; whereupon a brother instantly rose and made a very +honest confession. + +He said that he had never attempted to perform the duty in question +without having a palpitation of the heart and a complete "turning +over" of his inner man. He had often reflected upon this curious fact, +but was not able to account for it. He had not allowed this repugnance +to prevent his doing the duty; but he always had to rush at it and +perform it by a sort of _coup de main_; for if he allowed himself to +think about the matter, he could not do it at all. He concluded by +saying that he should be very much obliged to any one if he could +explain this mystery. + +The pastor said: "May it not be the natural delicacy we feel, and +ought to feel, in approaching the interior consciousness of another +person?" + +Another brother rose. There was no hanging back at this meeting; there +were no awkward pauses; every one seemed full of matter. The new +speaker was not inclined to admit the explanation suggested by the +pastor. "Suppose," said he, + + "we were to see a man in imminent danger of immediate + destruction, and there was one way of escape, and but one, + which _we_ saw and he did not, should we feel any delicacy + in running up to him and urging him to fly for his life? Is + it not a want of faith on our part that causes the + reluctance and hesitation we all feel in urging others to + avoid a peril so much more momentous?" + +Mr. Beecher said the cases were not parallel. Irreligious persons, he +remarked, were not in imminent danger of immediate death; they might +die to-morrow; but in all probability they would not, and an ill-timed +or injudicious admonition might forever repel them. We must accept the +doctrine of probabilities, and act in accordance with it in this +particular, as in all others. + +Another brother had a puzzle to present for solution. He said that he +too had experienced the repugnance to which allusion had been made; +but what surprised him most was, that the more he loved a person, and +the nearer he was related to him, the more difficult he found it to +converse with him upon his spiritual state. Why is this? "I should +like to have this question answered," said he, "if there _is_ an +answer to it." + +Mr. Beecher observed that this was the universal experience, and he +was conscious himself of a peculiar reluctance and embarrassment in +approaching one of his own household on the subject in question. He +thought it was due to the fact that we respect more the personal +rights of those near to us than we do those of others, and it was more +difficult to break in upon the routine of our ordinary familiarity +with them. We are accustomed to a certain tone, which it is highly +embarrassing to jar upon. + +Captain Duncan related two amusing anecdotes to illustrate the right +way and the wrong way of introducing religious conversation. In his +office there was sitting one day a sort of lay preacher, who was noted +for lugging in his favorite topic in the most forbidding and abrupt +manner. A sea-captain came in who was introduced to this individual. + +"Captain Porter," said he, with awful solemnity, "are you a captain in +Israel?" + +The honest sailor was so abashed and confounded at this novel +salutation, that he could only stammer out an incoherent reply; and he +was evidently much disposed to give the tactless zealot a piece of his +mind expressed in the language of the quarter-deck. When the solemn +man took his leave, the disgusted captain said, "If ever I should be +coming to your office again, and that man should be here, I wish you +would send me word, and I'll stay away." + +A few days after, another clergyman chanced to be in the office, no +other than Mr. Beecher himself, and another captain came in, a +roistering, swearing, good-hearted fellow. The conversation fell upon +sea-sickness, a malady to which Mr. Beecher is peculiarly liable. This +captain also was one of the few sailors who are always sea-sick in +going to sea, and gave a moving account of his sufferings from that +cause. Mr. Beecher, after listening attentively to his tale, said, + + "Captain Duncan, if I was a preacher to such sailors as your + friend here, I should represent hell as an eternal voyage, + with every man on board in the agonies of sea-sickness, the + crisis always imminent, but never coming." + +This ludicrous and most unprofessional picture amused the old salt +exceedingly, and won his entire good-will toward the author of it; so +that, after Mr. Beecher left, he said, "That's a good fellow, Captain +Duncan. I like _him_, and I'd like to hear him talk more." + +Captain Duncan contended that this free-and-easy way of address was +just the thing for such characters. Mr. Beecher had shown him, to his +great surprise, that a man could be a decent and comfortable human +being, although he was a minister, and had so gained his confidence +and good-will that he could say _anything_ to him at their next +interview. Captain Duncan finished his remarks by a decided expression +of his disapproval of the canting regulation phrases so frequently +employed by religious people, which are perfectly nauseous to men of +the world. + +This interesting conversation lasted about three quarters of an hour, +and ended, not because the theme seemed exhausted, but because the +time was up. We have only given enough of it to convey some little +idea of its spirit. The company again broke into one of their cheerful +hymns, and the meeting was dismissed in the usual manner. + +During the whole evening not a canting word nor a false tone had been +uttered. Some words were used, it is true, and some forms practised, +which are not congenial to "men of the world," and some doctrines were +assumed to be true which have become incredible to many of us. These, +however, were not conspicuous nor much dwelt upon. The subject, too, +of the conversation was less suitable to our purpose than most of the +topics discussed at these meetings, which usually have a more direct +bearing upon the conduct of life. Nevertheless, is it not apparent +that such meetings as this, conducted by a man of tact, good sense, +and experience, must be an aid to good living? Here were a number of +people,--parents, business-men, and others,--most of them heavily +burdened with responsibility, having notes and rents to pay, customers +to get and keep, children to rear,--busy people, anxious people, of +extremely diverse characters, but united by a common desire to live +nobly. The difficulties of noble living are very great,--never so +great, perhaps, as now and here,--and these people assemble every week +to converse upon them. What more rational thing could they do? If they +came together to snivel and cant, and to support one another in a +miserable conceit of being the elect of the human species, we might +object. But no description can show how far from that, how opposite to +that, is the tone, the spirit, the object, of the Friday-evening +meeting at Plymouth Church. + +Have we "Liberals"--as we presume to call ourselves--ever devised +anything so well adapted as this to the needs of average mortals +struggling with the ordinary troubles of life? We know of nothing. +Philosophical treatises, and arithmetical computations respecting the +number of people who inhabited Palestine, may have their use, but they +cannot fill the aching void in the heart of a lone widow, or teach an +anxious father how to manage a troublesome boy. There was an old lady +near us at this meeting,--a good soul in a bonnet four fashions +old,--who sat and cried for joy, as the brethren carried on their +talk. She had come in alone from her solitary room, and enjoyed all +the evening long a blended moral and literary rapture. It was a +banquet of delight to her, the recollection of which would brighten +all her week, and it cost her no more than air and sunlight. To the +happy, the strong, the victorious, Shakespeare and the Musical Glasses +may appear to suffice; but the world is full of the weak, the +wretched, and the vanquished. + +There was an infuriate heretic in Boston once, whose antipathy to what +he called "superstition" was something that bordered upon lunacy. But +the time came when he had a child, his only child, and the sole joy of +his life, dead in the house. It had to be buried. The broken-hearted +father could not endure the thought of his child's being carried out +and placed in its grave without _some_ outward mark of respect, _some_ +ceremonial which should recognize the difference between a dead child +and a dead kitten; and he was fain, at last, to go out and bring to +his house a poor lame cobbler, who was a kind of Methodist preacher, +to say and read a few words that should break the fall of the darling +object into the tomb. The occurrence made no change in his opinions, +but it revolutionized his feelings. He is as untheological as ever; +but he would subscribe money to build a church, and he esteems no man +more than an honest clergyman. + +If anything can be predicated of the future with certainty, it is, +that the American people will never give up that portion of their +heritage from the past which we call Sunday, but will always devote +its hours to resting the body and improving the soul. All our +theologies will pass away, but this will remain. Nor less certain is +it, that there will always be a class of men who will do, +professionally and as their settled vocation, the work now done by the +clergy. That work can never be dispensed with, either in civilized or +in barbarous communities. The great problem of civilization is, how to +bring the higher intelligence of the community, and its better moral +feeling, to bear upon the mass of people, so that the lowest grade of +intelligence and morals shall be always approaching the higher, and +the higher still rising. A church purified of superstition solves part +of this problem, and a good school system does the rest. + +All things improve in this world very much in the same way. The +improvement originates in one man's mind, and, being carried into +effect with evident good results, it is copied by others. We are all +apt lazily to run in the groove in which we find ourselves; we are +creatures of habit, and slaves of tradition. Now and then, however, in +every profession and sphere, if they are untrammelled by law, an +individual appears who is discontented with the ancient methods, or +sceptical of the old traditions, or both, and he invents better ways, +or arrives at more rational opinions. Other men look on and approve +the improved process, or listen and imbibe the advanced belief. + +Now, there appears to be a man upon Brooklyn Heights who has found out +a more excellent way of conducting a church than has been previously +known. He does not waste the best hours of every day in writing +sermons, but employs those hours in absorbing the knowledge and +experience which should be the matter of sermons. He does not fritter +away the time of a public instructor in "pastoral visits," and other +useless visitations. His mode of conducting a public ceremonial +reaches the finish of high art, which it resembles also in its +sincerity and simplicity. He has known how to banish from his church +everything that savors of cant and sanctimoniousness,--so loathsome to +honest minds. Without formally rejecting time-honored forms and +usages, he has infused into his teachings more and more of the modern +spirit, drawn more and more from science and life, less and less from +tradition, until he has acquired the power of preaching sermons which +Edwards and Voltaire, Whitefield and Tom Paine, would heartily and +equally enjoy. Surely, there is something in all this which could be +imitated. The great talents with which he is endowed cannot be +imparted, but we do not believe that his power is wholly derived from +his talent. A man of only respectable abilities, who should catch his +spirit, practise some of his methods, and spend his strength in +getting knowledge, and not in coining sentences, would be able +anywhere to gather round him a concourse of hearers. The great secret +is, to let orthodoxy slide, as something which is neither to be +maintained nor refuted,--insisting only on the spirit of Christianity, +and applying it to the life of the present day in this land. + +There are some reasons for thinking that the men and the organizations +that have had in charge the moral interests of the people of the +United States for the last fifty years have not been quite equal to +their trust. What are we to think of such results of New England +culture as Douglas, Cass, Webster, and many other men of great +ability, but strangely wanting in moral power? What are we to think of +the great numbers of Southern Yankees who were, and are, the bitterest +foes of all that New England represents? What are we to think of the +Rings that seem now-a-days to form themselves, as it were, +spontaneously in every great corporation? What of the club-houses that +spring up at every corner, for the accommodation of husbands and +fathers who find more attractions in wine, supper, and equivocal +stories than in the society of their wives and children? What are we +to think of the fact, that among the people who can afford to +advertise at the rate of a dollar and a half a line are those who +provide women with the means of killing their unborn children,--a +double crime, murder and suicide? What are we to think of the moral +impotence of almost all women to resist the tyranny of fashion, and +the _necessity_ that appears to rest upon them to copy every +disfiguration invented by the harlots of Paris? What are we to think +of the want both of masculine and moral force in men, which makes them +helpless against the extravagance of their households, to support +which they do fifty years' work in twenty, and then die? What are we +to think of the fact, that all the creatures living in the United +States enjoy good health, except the human beings, who are nearly all +ill? + +When we consider such things as these, we cannot help calling in +question a kind of public teaching which leaves the people in +ignorance of so much that they most need to know. Henry Ward Beecher +is the only clergyman we ever heard who habitually promulgates the +truth, that to be ill is generally a sin, and always a shame. We never +heard him utter the demoralizing falsehood, that this present life is +short and of small account, and that nothing is worthy of much +consideration except the life to come. He dwells much on the enormous +length of this life, and the prodigious revenue of happiness it may +yield to those who comply with the conditions of happiness. It is his +habit, also, to preach the duty which devolves upon every person, to +labor for the increase of his knowledge and the general improvement of +his mind. We have heard him say on the platform of his church, that it +was disgraceful to any mechanic or clerk to let such a picture as the +Heart of the Andes be exhibited for twenty-five cents, and not go and +see it. Probably there is not one honest clergyman in the country who +does not fairly earn his livelihood by the good he does, or by the +evil he prevents. But not enough good is done, and riot enough evil +prevented. The sudden wealth that has come upon the world since the +improvement of the steam-engine adds a new difficulty to the life of +millions. So far, the world does not appear to have made the best use +of its too rapidly increased surplus. "We cannot sell a twelve-dollar +book in this country," said a bookseller to us the other day. But how +easy to sell two-hundred-dollar garments! There seems great need of +something that shall have power to spiritualize mankind, and make head +against the reinforced influence of material things. It may be that +the true method of dealing with the souls of modern men has been, in +part, discovered by Mr. Beecher, and that it would be well for persons +aspiring to the same vocation to _begin_ their preparation by making a +pilgrimage to Brooklyn Heights. + + + +COMMODORE VANDERBILT.[1] + +The Staten Island ferry, on a fine afternoon in summer, is one of the +pleasantest scenes which New York affords. The Island, seven miles +distant from the city, forms one of the sides of the Narrows, through +which the commerce of the city and the emigrant ships enter the +magnificent bay that so worthily announces the grandeur of the New +World. The ferry-boat, starting from the extremity of Manhattan +Island, first gives its passengers a view of the East River, all alive +with every description of craft; then, gliding round past Governor's +Island, dotted with camps and crowned with barracks, with the national +flag floating above all, it affords a view of the lofty bluffs which +rise on one side of the Hudson and the long line of the mast-fringed +city on the other; then, rounding Governor's Island, the steamer +pushes its way towards the Narrows, disclosing to view Fort Lafayette, +so celebrated of late, the giant defensive works opposite to it, the +umbrageous and lofty sides of Staten Island, covered with villas, and, +beyond all, the Ocean, lighted up by Coney Island's belt of snowy +sand, glistening in the sun. + +Change the scene to fifty-five years ago: New York was then a town of +eighty thousand people, and Staten Island was inhabited only by +farmers, gardeners, and fishermen, who lived by supplying the city +with provisions. No elegant seats, no picturesque villas adorned the +hillsides, and pleasure-seekers found a nearer resort in Hoboken. The +ferry then, if ferry it could be called, consisted of a few +sail-boats, which left the island in the morning loaded with +vegetables and fish, and returned, if wind and tide permitted, at +night. If a pleasure party occasionally visited Staten Island, they +considered themselves in the light of bold adventurers, who had gone +far beyond the ordinary limits of an excursion. There was only one +thing in common between the ferry at that day and this: the boats +started from the same spot. Where the ferry-house now stands at +Whitehall was then the beach to which the boatmen brought their +freight, and where they remained waiting for a return cargo. That was, +also, the general boat-stand of the city. Whoever wanted a boat, for +business or pleasure, repaired to Whitehall, and it was a matter of +indifference to the boatmen from Staten Island, whether they returned +home with a load, or shared in the general business of the port. + +It is to one of those Whitehall boatmen of 1810, that we have to +direct the reader's attention. He was distinguished from his comrades +on the stand in several ways. Though master of a Staten Island boat +that would carry twenty passengers, he was but sixteen years of age, +and he was one of the handsomest, the most agile and athletic, young +fellows that either Island could show. Young as he was, there was that +in his face and bearing which gave assurance that he was abundantly +competent to his work. He was always at his post betimes, and on the +alert for a job. He always performed what he undertook. This summer of +1810 was his first season, but he had already an ample share of the +best of the business of the harbor. + +Cornelius Vanderbilt was the name of this notable youth,--the same +Cornelius Vanderbilt who has since built a hundred steamboats, who has +since made a present to his country of a steamship of five thousand +tons' burden, who has since bought lines of railroad, and who reported +his income to the tax commissioners, last year at something near three +quarters of a million. The first money the steamboat-king ever earned +was by carrying passengers between Staten Island and New York at +eighteen cents each. + +His father, who was also named Cornelius, was the founder of the +Staten Island ferry. He was a thriving farmer on the Island as early +as 1794, tilling his own land near the Quarantine Ground, and +conveying his produce to New York in his own boat. Frequently he would +carry the produce of some of his neighbors, and, in course of time, he +ran his boat regularly, leaving in the morning and returning at night, +during the whole of the summer, and thus he established a ferry which +has since become one of the most profitable in the world, carrying +sometimes more than twelve thousand passengers in a day. He was an +industrious, enterprising, liberal man, and early acquired a property +which for that time was affluence. His wife was a singularly wise and +energetic woman. She was the main stay of the family, since her +husband was somewhat too liberal for his means, and not always prudent +in his projects. Once, when her husband had fatally involved himself, +and their farm was in danger of being sold for a debt of three +thousand dollars, she produced, at the last extremity, her private +store, and counted out the whole sum in gold pieces. She lived to the +great age of eighty-seven, and left an estate of fifty thousand +dollars, the fruit of her own industry and prudence. Her son, like +many other distinguished men, loves to acknowledge that whatever he +has, and whatever he is that is good, he owes to the precepts, the +example, and the judicious government of his mother. + +Cornelius, the eldest of their family of nine children, was born at +the old farm-house on Staten Island, May 27, 1794. A healthy, vigorous +boy, fond of out-door sports, excelling his companions in all boyish +feats, on land and water, he had an unconquerable aversion to the +confinement of the school-room. At that day, the school-room was, +indeed, a dull and uninviting place, the lessons a tedious routine of +learning by rote, and the teacher a tyrant, enforcing them by the +terrors of the stick. The boy went to school a little, now and then, +but learned little more than to read, write, and cipher, and these +imperfectly. The only books he remembers using at school were the +spelling-book and Testament. His real education was gained in working +on his father's farm, helping to sail his father's boat, driving his +father's horses, swimming, riding, rowing, sporting with his young +friends. He was a bold rider from infancy, and passionately fond of a +fine horse. He tells his friends sometimes, that he rode a race-horse +at full speed when he was but six years old. That he regrets not +having acquired more school knowledge, that he values what is commonly +called education, is shown by the care he has taken to have his own +children well instructed. + +There never was a clearer proof than in his case that the child is +father of the man. He showed in boyhood the very quality which has +most distinguished him as a man,--the power of accomplishing things in +spite of difficulty and opposition. He was a born conqueror. + +When he was twelve years old, his father took a contract for getting +the cargo out of a vessel stranded near Sandy Hook, and transporting +it to New York in lighters. It was necessary to carry the cargo in +wagons across a sandy spit. Cornelius, with a little fleet of +lighters, three wagons, their horses and drivers, started from home +solely charged with the management of this difficult affair. After +loading the lighters and starting them for the city, he had to conduct +his wagons home by land,--a long distance over Jersey sands. Leaving +the beach with only six dollars, he reached South Amboy penniless, +with six horses and three men, all hungry, still far from home, and +separated from Staten Island by an arm of the sea half a mile wide, +that could be crossed only by paying the ferryman six dollars. This +was a puzzling predicament for a boy of twelve, and he pondered long +how he could get out of it. At length he went boldly to the only +innkeeper of the place, and addressed him thus:-- + + "I have here three teams that I want to get over to Staten + Island. If you will put us across, I'll leave with you one + of my horses in pawn, and if I don't send you back the six + dollars within forty-eight hours you may keep the horse." + +The innkeeper looked into the bright, honest eyes of the boy for a +moment and said:-- + +"I'll do it." + +And he did it. The horse in pawn was left with the ferryman on the +Island, and he was redeemed in time. + +Before he was sixteen he had made up his mind to earn his livelihood +by navigation of some kind, and often, when tired of farm work, he had +cast wistful glances at the outward-bound ships that passed his home. +Occasionally, too, he had alarmed his mother by threatening to run +away and go to sea. His preference, however, was to become a boatman +of New York harbor. On the first of May, 1810,--an important day in +his history,--he made known his wishes to his mother, and asked her to +advance him a hundred dollars for the purchase of a boat. She +replied:-- + +"My son, on the twenty-seventh of this month you will be sixteen years +old. If, by your birthday, you will plough, harrow, and plant with +corn that lot," pointing to a field, "I will advance you the money." + +The field was one of eight acres, very rough, tough, and stony. He +informed his young companions of his mother's conditional promise, and +several of them readily agreed to help him. For the next two weeks the +field presented the spectacle of a continuous "bee" of boys, picking +up stones, ploughing, harrowing, and planting. To say that the work +was done in time, and done thoroughly, is only another way of stating +that it was undertaken and conducted by Cornelius Vanderbilt. On his +birthday he claimed the fulfilment of his mother's promise. +Reluctantly she gave him the money, considering his project only less +wild than that of running away to sea. He hurried off to a neighboring +village, bought his boat, hoisted sail, and started for home one of +the happiest youths in the world. His first adventure seemed to +justify his mother's fears, for he struck a sunken wreck on his way, +and just managed to run his boat ashore before she filled and sunk. + +Undismayed at this mishap, he began his new career. His success, as we +have intimated, was speedy and great. He made a thousand dollars +during each of the next three summers. Often he worked all night, but +he was never absent from his post by day, and he soon had the cream of +the boating business of the port. + +At that day parents claimed the services and the earnings of their +children till they were twenty-one. In other words, families made +common cause against the common enemy, Want. The arrangement between +this young boatman and his parents was that he should give them all +his day earnings and half his night earnings. He fulfilled his +engagement faithfully until his parents released him from it, and with +his own half of his earnings by night he bought all his clothes. He +had forty competitors in the business, who, being all grown men, could +dispose of their gains as they chose; but of all the forty, he alone +has emerged to prosperity and distinction. Why was this? There were +several reasons. He soon came to be the best boatman in the port. He +attended to his business more regularly and strictly than any other. +He had no vices. His comrades spent at night much of what they earned +by day, and when the winter suspended their business, instead of +living on the last summer's savings, they were obliged to lay up debts +for the next summer's gains to discharge. In those three years of +willing servitude to his parents, Cornelius Vanderbilt added to the +family's common stock of wealth, and gained for himself three +things,--a perfect knowledge of his business, habits of industry and +self-control, and the best boat in the harbor. + +The war of 1812 suspended the commerce of the port, but gave a great +impulse to boating. There were men-of-war in the harbor and garrisons +in the forts, which gave to the boatmen of Whitehall and Staten Island +plenty of business, of which Cornelius Vanderbilt had his usual share. +In September, 1813, during a tremendous gale, a British fleet +attempted to run past Fort Richmond. After the repulse, the commander +of the fort, expecting a renewal of the attempt, was anxious to get +the news to the city, so as to secure a reinforcement early the next +day. Every one agreed that, if the thing could be done, there was but +one man who could do it; and, accordingly, young Vanderbilt was sent +for. + +"Can you take a party up to the city in this gale?" + +"Yes," was the reply; "but I shall have to carry them part of the way +under water." + +When he made fast to Coffee-House slip, an hour or two after, every +man in the boat was drenched to the skin. But there they were, and the +fort was reinforced the next morning. + +About this time, the young man had another important conversation with +his mother, which, perhaps, was more embarrassing than the one +recorded above. He was in love. Sophia Johnson was the maiden's +name,--a neighbor's lovely and industrious daughter, whose affections +he had wooed and won. He asked his mother's consent to the match, and +that henceforth he might have the disposal of his own earnings. She +approved his choice, and released him from his obligations. During the +rest of that season he labored with new energy, saved five hundred +dollars, and, in December, 1813, when he laid up his boat for the +winter, became the happy husband of the best of wives. + +In the following spring, a great alarm pervaded all the sea-board +cities of America. Rumors were abroad of that great expedition which, +at the close of the year, attacked New Orleans; but, in the spring and +summer, no one knew upon which port the blow would fall. The militia +of New York were called out for three months, under a penalty of +ninety-six dollars to whomsoever should fail to appear at the +rendezvous. The boatmen, in the midst of a flourishing business, and +especially our young husband, were reluctant to lose the profits of a +season's labor, which were equivalent, in their peculiar case, to the +income of a whole year. An advertisement appeared one day in the +papers which gave them a faint prospect of escaping this disaster. It +was issued from the office of the commissary-general, Matthew L. +Davis, inviting bids from the boatmen for the contract of conveying +provisions to the posts in the vicinity of New York during the three +months, the contractor to be exempt from military duty. The boatmen +caught at this, as a drowning man catches at a straw, and put in bids +at rates preposterously low,--all except Cornelius Vanderbilt. + +"Why don't you send in a bid?" asked his father. + +"Of what use would it be?" replied the son. "They are offering to do +the work at half-price. It can't be done at such rates." + +"Well," added the father, "it can do no harm to try for it." + +So, to please his father, but without the slightest expectation of +getting the contract, he sent in an application, offering to transport +the provisions at a price which would enable him to do it with the +requisite certainty and promptitude. His offer was simply fair to both +parties. + +On the day named for the awarding of the contract, all the boatmen but +him assembled in the commissary's office. He remained at the +boat-stand, not considering that he had any interest in the matter. +One after another, his comrades returned with long faces, sufficiently +indicative of their disappointment; until, at length, all of them had +come in, but no one bringing the prize. Puzzled at this, he strolled +himself to the office, and asked the commissary if the contract had +been given. + +"O yes," said Davis; "that business is settled. Cornelius Vanderbilt +is the man." + +He was thunderstruck. + +"What!" said the commissary, observing his astonishment, is it you?" + +"My name is Cornelius Vanderbilt." + +"Well," said Davis, "don't you know why we have given the contract to +you?" + +"No." + +"Why, it is because we want this business _done_, and we know you'll +do it." + +Matthew L. Davis, as the confidant of Aaron Burr, did a good many +foolish things in his life, but on this occasion he did a wise one. +The contractor asked him but one favor, which was, that the daily load +of stores might be ready for him every evening at six o'clock. There +were six posts to be supplied: Harlem, Hurl Gate, Ward's Island, and +three others in the harbor or at the Narrows, each of which required +one load a week. Young Vanderbilt did all this work at night; and +although, during the whole period of three months, he never once +failed to perform his contract, he was never once absent from his +stand in the day-time. He slept when he could, and when he could not +sleep he did without it. Only on Sunday and Sunday night could he be +said to rest. There was a rare harvest for boatmen that summer. +Transporting sick and furloughed soldiers, naval and military +officers, the friends of the militia men, and pleasure-seekers +visiting the forts, kept those of the boatmen who had "escaped the +draft," profitably busy. It was not the time for an enterprising man +to be absent from his post. + +From the gains of that summer he built a superb little schooner, the +Dread; and, the year following, the joyful year of peace, he and his +brother-in-law. Captain De Forrest, launched the Charlotte, a vessel +large enough for coasting service, and the pride of the harbor for +model and speed. In this vessel, when the summer's work was over, he +voyaged sometimes along the Southern coast, bringing home considerable +freights from the Carolinas. Knowing the coast thoroughly, and being +one of the boldest and most expert of seamen, he and his vessel were +always ready when there was something to be done of difficulty and +peril. During the three years succeeding the peace of 1815, he saved +three thousand dollars a year; so that, in 1818, he possessed two or +three of the nicest little craft in the harbor, and a cash capital of +nine thousand dollars. + +The next step of Captain Vanderbilt astonished both his rivals and his +friends. He deliberately abandoned his flourishing business, to accept +the post of captain of a small steamboat, at a salary of a thousand +dollars a year. By slow degrees, against the opposition of the +boatmen, and the terrors of the public, steamboats had made their way; +until, in 1817, ten years after Fulton's experimental trip, the long +head of Captain Vanderbilt clearly comprehended that the supremacy of +sails was gone forever, and he resolved to ally himself to the new +power before being overcome gone forever, and he resolved to ally +himself to the new power before being overcome by it. Besides, he +protests, that in no enterprise of his life has his chief object been +the gain of money. Being in the business of carrying passengers, he +desired to carry them in the best manner, and by the best means. +Business has ever been to him a kind of game, and his ruling motive +was and is, to play it so as to win. _To carry his point_, that has +been the motive of his business career; but then his point has +generally been one which, being carried, brought money with it. + +At that day, passengers to Philadelphia were conveyed by steamboat +from New York to New Brunswick, where they remained all night, and the +next morning took the stage for Trenton, whence they were carried to +Philadelphia by steamboat. The proprietor of part of this line was the +once celebrated Thomas Gibbons, a man of enterprise and capital. It +was in his service that Captain Vanderbilt spent the next twelve years +of his life, commanding the steamer plying between New York and New +Brunswick. The hotel at New Brunswick, where the passengers passed the +night, which had never paid expenses, was let to him rent free, and +under the efficient management of Mrs. Vanderbilt, it became +profitable, and afforded the passengers such excellent entertainment +as to enhance the popularity of the line. + +In engaging with Mr. Gibbons, Captain Vanderbilt soon found that he +had put his head into a hornet's nest. The State of New York had +granted to Fulton and Livingston the exclusive right of running +steamboats in New York waters. Thomas Gibbons, believing the grant +unconstitutional, as it was afterwards declared by the Supreme Court, +ran his boats in defiance of it, and thus involved himself in a long +and fierce contest with the authorities of New York. The brunt of this +battle fell upon his new captain. There was one period when for sixty +successive days an attempt was made to arrest him; but the captain +baffled every attempt. Leaving his crew in New Jersey (for they also +were liable to arrest), he would approach the New York wharf with a +lady at the helm, while he managed the engine; and as soon as the boat +was made fast he concealed himself in the depths of the vessel. At the +moment of starting, the officer (changed every day to avoid +recognition) used to present himself and tap the wary captain on the +shoulder. + +"Let go the line," was his usual reply to the summons. + +The officer, fearing to be carried off to New Jersey, where a +retaliatory act threatened him with the State's prison, would jump +ashore as for life; or, if carried off, would beg to be put ashore. In +this way, and in many others, the captain contrived to evade the law. +He fought the State of New York for seven years, until, in 1824, Chief +Justice Marshall pronounced New York wrong and New Jersey right. The +opposition vainly attempted to buy him off by the offer of a larger +boat. + +"No," replied the captain, "I shall stick to Mr. Gibbons till he is +through his troubles." + +That was the reason why he remained so long in the service of Mr. +Gibbons. + +After this war was over, the genius of Captain Vanderbilt had full +play, and he conducted the line with so much energy and good sense, +that it yielded an annual profit of forty thousand dollars. Gibbons +offered to raise his salary to five thousand dollars a year, but he +declined the offer. An acquaintance once asked him why he refused a +compensation that was so manifestly just. + +"I did it on principle," was his reply. "The other captains had but +one thousand, and they were already jealous enough of me. Besides, I +never cared for money. All I ever have cared for was to carry my +point." + +A little incident of these years he has sometimes related to his +children. In the cold January of 1820, the ship Elizabeth--the first +ship ever sent to Africa by the Colonization Society--lay at the foot +of Rector Street, with the negroes all on board, frozen in. For many +days, her crew, aided by the crew of the frigate Siam, her convoy, had +been cutting away at the ice; but, as more ice formed at night than +could be removed by day, the prospect of getting to sea was +unpromising. One afternoon, Captain Vanderbilt joined the crowd of +spectators. + +"They are going the wrong way to work," he carelessly remarked, as he +turned to go home. "I could get her out in one day." + +These words, from a man who was known to mean all he said, made an +impression on a bystander, who reported them to the anxious agent of +the Society. The agent called upon him. + +"What did you mean, Captain, by saying that you could get out the ship +in one day?" + +"Just what I said." + +"What will you get her out for?" + +"One hundred dollars." + +"I'll give it. When will you do it?" + +"Have a steamer to-morrow, at twelve o'clock, ready to tow her out. +I'll have her clear in time." + +That same evening, at six, he was on the spot with five men, three +pine boards, and a small anchor. The difficulty was that beyond the +ship there were two hundred yards of ice too thin to bear a man. The +captain placed his anchor on one of his boards, and pushed it out as +far as he could reach; then placed another board upon the ice, laid +down upon it, and gave his anchor another push. Then he put down his +third board, and used that as a means of propulsion. In this way he +worked forward to near the edge of the thin ice, where the anchor +broke through and sunk. With the line attached to it, he hauled a boat +to the outer edge, and then began cutting a passage for the ship. + +At eleven the next morning she was clear. At twelve she was towed into +the stream. + +In 1829, after twelve years of service as captain of a steamboat, +being then thirty-five years of age, and having saved thirty thousand +dollars, he announced to his employer his intention to set up for +himself. Mr. Gibbons was aghast. He declared that he could not carry +on the line without his aid, and finding him resolute, said:-- + +"There, Vanderbilt, take all this property, and pay me for it as you +make the money." + +This splendid offer he thankfully but firmly declined. He did so +chiefly because he knew, the men with whom he would have had to +co-operate, and foresaw, that he and they could never work comfortably +together. He wanted a free field. + +The little Caroline, seventy feet long, that afterward plunged over +Niagara Falls, was the first steamboat ever built by him. His progress +as a steamboat owner was not rapid for some years. The business was in +the hands of powerful companies and wealthy individuals, and he, the +new-comer, running a few small boats on short routes, labored under +serious disadvantages. Formidable attempts were made to run him off +the river; but, prompt to retaliate, he made vigorous inroads into the +enemy's domain, and kept up an opposition so keen as to compel a +compromise in every instance. There was a time, during his famous +contest with the Messrs. Stevens of Hoboken, when he had spent every +dollar he possessed, and when a few days more of opposition would have +compelled him to give up the strife. Nothing saved him but the belief, +on the part of his antagonists, that Gibbons was backing him. It was +not the case; he had no backer. But this error, in the very nick of +time, induced his opponents to treat for a compromise, and he was +saved. + +Gradually he made his way to the control of the steamboat interest. He +has owned, in whole or in part, a hundred steam vessels. His various +opposition lines have permanently reduced fares one half. +Superintending himself the construction of every boat, having a +perfect practical knowledge of the business in its every detail, +selecting his captains well and paying them justly, he has never lost +a vessel by fire, explosion, or wreck. He possesses, in a remarkable +degree, the talent of selecting the right man for a place, and of +inspiring him with zeal. Every man who serves him _knows_ that he will +be sustained against all intrigue and all opposition, and that he has +nothing to fear so long as he does his duty. + +The later events in his career are, in some degree, known to the +public. Every one remembers his magnificent cruise in the North Star, +and how, on returning to our harbor, his first salute was to the +cottage of his venerable mother on the Staten Island shore. To her, +also, on landing, he first paid his respects. + +Every one knows that he presented to the government the steamer that +bears his name, at a time when she was earning him two thousand +dollars a day. He has given to the war something more precious than a +ship: his youngest son, Captain Vanderbilt, the most athletic youth +that ever graduated at West Point, and one of the finest young men in +the country. His friends tell us that, on his twenty-second birthday +he lifted nine hundred and eight pounds. But his giant strength did +not save him. The fatigues and miasmas of the Corinth campaign planted +in his magnificent frame the seeds of death. He died a year ago, after +a long struggle with disease, to the inexpressible grief of his +family. + +During the last two or three years, Commodore Vanderbilt has been +withdrawing his capital from steamers and investing it in railroads. +It is this fact that has given rise to the impression that he has been +playing a deep game in stock speculation. No such thing. He has +_never_ speculated; he disapproves of, and despises speculation; and +has invariably warned his sons against it as the pursuit of +adventurers and gamblers. "Why, then," Wall Street may ask, "has he +bought almost the whole stock of the Harlem railroad, which pays no +dividends, running it up to prices that seem ridiculous?" We can +answer this question very simply: he bought the Harlem railroad to +_keep_. He bought it as an investment. Looking several inches beyond +his nose, and several days ahead of to-day, he deliberately concluded +that the Harlem road, managed as he could manage it, would be, in the +course of time, what Wall Street itself would call "a good thing." We +shall see, by and by, whether he judged correctly. What was the New +Jersey railroad worth when he and a few friends went over one day and +bought it at auction? Less than nothing. The stock is now held at one +hundred and seventy-five. + +After taking the cream of the steamboat business for a quarter of a +century, Commodore Vanderbilt has now become the largest holder of +railroad stock in the country. If tomorrow balloons should supersede +railroads, we should doubtless find him "in" balloons. + +Nothing is more remarkable than the ease with which great business men +conduct the most extensive and complicated affairs. At ten or eleven +in the morning, the Commodore rides from his mansion in Washington +Place in a light wagon, drawn by one of his favorite horses, to his +office in Bowling Green, where, in two hours, aided by a single clerk, +he transacts the business of the day, returning early in the afternoon +to take his drive on the road. He despises show and ostentation in +every form. No lackey attends him; he holds the reins himself, With an +estate of forty millions to manage, nearly all actively employed in +iron works and railroads, he keeps scarcely any books, but carries all +his affairs in his head, and manages them without the least anxiety or +apparent effort. + +We are informed by one who knows him better almost than any one else, +that he owes his excellent health chiefly to his love of horses. He +possesses the power of leaving his business in his office, and never +thinking of it during his hours of recreation. + +Out on the road behind a fast team, or seated at whist at the +Club-House, he enters gayly into the humors of the hour. He is rigid +on one point only;--not to talk or hear of business out of business +hours. + +Being asked one day what he considered to be the secret of success in +business, he replied:-- + +"Secret? There is no secret about it. All you have to do is to attend +to your business and go ahead." + +With all deference to such an eminent authority, we must be allowed to +think that that is not the whole of the matter. Three things seem +essential to success in business: 1. To _know_ your business. 2. To +attend to it. 3. To keep down expenses until your fortune is safe from +business perils. + +On another occasion he replied with more point to a similar +question:-- + +"The secret of my success is this: I never tell what I am going to do +till I have done it." + +He is, indeed, a man of little speech. Gen. Grant himself is not more +averse to oratory than he. Once, in London, at a banquet, his health +was given, and he was urged to respond. All that could be extorted +from him was the following:-- + +"Gentlemen, I have never made a fool of myself in my life, and I am +not going to begin now. Here is a friend of mine (his lawyer) who can +talk all day. He will do my speaking." + +Nevertheless, he knows how to express his meaning with singular +clearness, force, and brevity, both by the tongue and by the pen. Some +of his business letters, dictated by him to a clerk, are models of +that kind of composition. He is also master of an art still more +difficult,--that of _not_ saying what he does not wish to say. + +As a business man he is even more prudent than he is bold. He has +sometimes remarked, that it has never been in the power of any man or +set of men to prevent his keeping an engagement. If, for example, he +should bind himself to pay a million of dollars on the first of May, +he would at once provide for fulfilling his engagement in such a +manner that no failure on the part of others, no contingency, private +or public, could prevent his doing it. In other words, he would have +the money where he could be sure of finding it on the day. + +No one ever sees the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt on a subscription +paper, nor ever will. In his charities, which are numerous and +liberal, he exhibits the reticence which marks his conduct as a man of +business. His object is to render real and permanent service to +deserving objects; but to the host of miscellaneous beggars that +pervade our places of business he is not accessible. The last years of +many a good old soul, whom he knew in his youth, have been made happy +by a pension from him. But of all this not a syllable ever escapes +_his_ lips. + +He has now nearly completed his seventy-first year. His frame is still +erect and vigorous; and, as a business man, he has not a living +superior. Every kind of success has attended him through life. +Thirteen children have been born to him,--nine daughters and four +sons,--nearly all of whom are living and are parents. One of his +grandsons has recently come of age. At the celebration of his golden +wedding, three years ago, more than a hundred and forty of his +descendants and relations assembled at his house. On that joyful +occasion, the Commodore presented to his wife a beautiful little +golden steamboat, with musical works instead of an engine,--emblematic +at once of his business career and the harmony of his home. If ever he +boasts of anything appertaining to him, it is when he is speaking of +the manly virtues of his son lost in the war, or when he says that his +wife is the finest woman of her age in the city. + +Commodore Vanderbilt is one of the New World's strong men. His career +is one which young men who aspire to lead in practical affairs may +study with profit. + +[Footnote 1: This narrative of the business-life of Commodore +Vanderbilt was written immediately after I had heard him tell the +story himself. It was written at the request of Robert Bonner, Esq., +and published by him in the New York Ledger of April 8, 1865. I should +add, that several of the facts given were related to me at various +times by members of Mr. Vanderbilt's family.] + + + +THEODOSIA BURR. + +New York does well to celebrate the anniversary of the day when the +British troops evacuated the city; for it was in truth the birthday of +all that we now mean by the City of New York. One hundred and +seventy-four years had elapsed since Hendrick Hudson landed upon the +shores of Manhattan; but the town could only boast a population of +twenty-three thousand. In ten years the population doubled; in twenty +years trebled. Washington Irving was a baby seven months old, at his +father's house in William Street, on Evacuation Day, the 25th of +November, 1783. On coming of age he found himself the inhabitant of a +city containing a population of seventy thousand. When he died, at the +age of seventy-five, more than a million of people inhabited the +congregation of cities which form the metropolis of America. + +The beginnings of great things are always interesting to us. +New-Yorkers, at least, cannot read without emotion the plain, +matter-of-fact accounts in the old newspapers of the manner in which +the city of their pride changed masters. Journalism has altered its +modes of procedure since that memorable day. No array of headings in +large type called the attention of readers to the details of this +great event in the history of their town, and no editorial article in +extra leads commented upon it. The newspapers printed the merest +programme of the proceedings, with scarcely a comment of their own; +and, having done that, they felt that their duty was done, for no +subsequent issue contains an allusion to the subject. Perhaps the +reader will be gratified by a perusal of the account of the evacuation +as given in Rivington's Gazette of November 26, 1783. + +New York, November 26:--Yesterday in the Morning the American Troops +marched from Haerlem, to the Bowery-Lane--They remained there until +about One o'Clock, when the British Troops left the Posts in the +Bowery, and the American Troops marched into and took Possession of +the City, in the following Order, _viz._ + +1. A Corps of Dragoons. + +2. Advance Guard of Light Infantry. + +3. A Corps of Artillery. + +4. Battalion of Light Infantry. + +5. Battalion of Massachusetts Troops. + +6. Rear Guard. + +After the Troops had taken Possession of the City, the GENERAL +[Washington] and GOVERNOR [George Clinton] made their Public Entry in +the following Manner: + +1. Their Excellencies the General and Governor, with their Suites, on +Horseback. + +2. The Lieutenant-Governor, and the Members of the Council, for the +Temporary Government of the Southern District, four a-breast. + +3. Major General Knox, and the Officers of the Army, eight a-breast. + +4. Citizens on Horseback, eight a-breast. + +5. The Speaker of the Assembly, and Citizens, on Foot, eight a-breast. + +Their Excellencies the Governor and Commander in Chief were escorted +by a Body of West-Chester Light Horse, under the command of Captain +Delavan. + +The Procession proceeded down Queen Street [now Pearl], and through +the Broadway, to _Cape's_ Tavern. + +The Governor gave a public Dinner at _Fraunces's_ Tavern; at which the +Commander in Chief and other General Officers were present. + +After Dinner, the following Toasts were drank by the Company: + +1. The United States of America. + +2. His most Christian Majesty. + +3. The United Netherlands. + +4. The king of Sweden. + +5. The American Army. + +6. The Fleet and Armies of France, which have served in America. + +7. The Memory of those Heroes who have fallen for our Freedom. + +8. May our Country be grateful to her military children. + +9. May Justice support what Courage has gained. + +10. The Vindicators of the Rights of Mankind in every Quarter of the +Globe. + +11. May America be an Asylum to the persecuted of the Earth. + +12. May a close Union of the States guard the Temple they have erected +to Liberty. + +13. May the Remembrance of THIS DAY be a Lesson to Princes. + +The arrangement and whole conduct of this march, with the tranquillity +which succeeded it, through the day and night, was admirable! and the +grateful citizens will ever feel the most affectionate impressions, +from that elegant and efficient disposition which prevailed through +the whole event. + +Such was the journalism of that primitive day. The sedate Rivington, +for so many years the Tory organ, was in no humor, we may suppose, to +chronicle the minor events of the occasion, even if he had not +considered them beneath the dignity of his vocation. He says nothing +of the valiant matron in Chatham Row who, in the impatience of her +patriotism, hoisted the American flag over her door two hours before +the stipulated moment, noon, and defended it against a British provost +officer with her broomstick. Nor does he allude to the great scene at +the principal flag-staff, which the retiring garrison had plentifully +greased, and from which they had removed the blocks and halyards, in +order to retard the hoisting of the stars and stripes. He does not +tell us how a sailor-boy, with a line around his waist and a pocket +full of spikes, hammered his way to the top of the staff, and restored +the tackling by which the flag was flung to the breeze before the +barges containing the British rear-guard had reached the fleet. It was +a sad day for Mr. Rivington, and he may be excused for not dwelling +upon its incidents longer than stern duty demanded. + +The whole State of New York had been waiting impatiently for the +evacuation of the City. Many hundreds of the old Whig inhabitants, who +had fled at the entrance of the English troops seven years before, +were eager to come again into possession of their homes and property, +and resume their former occupations. Many new enterprises waited only +for the departure of the troops to be entered upon. A large number of +young men were looking to New York as the scene of their future +career. Albany, which had served as the temporary capital of the +State, was full of lawyers, law-students, retired soldiers, merchants, +and mechanics, who were prepared to remove to New York as soon as +Rivington's Gazette should inform them that the British had really +left, and General Washington taken possession. As in these days +certain promises to pay are to be fulfilled six months after the +United States shall have acknowledged the independence of a certain +Confederacy, so at that time it was a custom for leases and other +compacts to be dated from "the day on which the British troops shall +leave New York." Among the young men in Albany who were intending to +repair to the city were two retired officers of distinction, Alexander +Hamilton, a student at law, and Aaron Burr, then in the second year of +his practice at the bar. James Kent and Edward Livingston were also +students of law in Albany at that time. The old Tory lawyers being all +exiled or silenced, there was a promising field in New York for young +advocates of talent, and these two young gentlemen had both contracted +marriages which necessitated speedy professional gains. Hamilton had +won the daughter of General Schuyler. Burr was married to the widow of +a British officer, whose fortune was a few hundred pounds and two fine +strapping boys fourteen and sixteen years of age. + +And Burr was himself a father. Theodosia, "his only child," was born +at Albany in the spring of 1783. When the family removed to New York +in the following winter, and took up their abode in Maiden Lane,--"the +rent to commence when the troops leave the city,"--she was an engaging +infant of seven or eight months. We may infer something of the +circumstances and prospects of her father, when we know that he had +ventured upon a house of which the rent was two hundred pounds a year. +We find him removing, a year or two after, to a mansion at the corner +of Cedar and Nassau streets, the garden and grapery of which were +among the finest in the thickly settled portion of the city. Fifty +years after, he had still an office within a very few yards of the +same spot, though all trace of the garden of Theodosia's childhood had +long ago disappeared. She was a child of affluence. Not till she had +left her father's house did a shadow of misfortune darken its portals. +Abundance and elegance surrounded her from her infancy, and whatever +advantages in education and training wealth can produce for a child +she had in profusion. At the same time her father's vigilant stoicism +guarded her from the evils attendant upon a too easy acquisition of +things pleasant and desirable. + +She was born into a happy home. Even if we had not the means of +knowing something of the character of her mother, we might still infer +that she must have possessed qualities singularly attractive to induce +a man in the position of Burr to undertake the charge of a family at +the outset of his career. She was neither handsome nor young, nor had +she even the advantage of good health. A scar disfigured her face. +Burr,--the brilliant and celebrated Burr,--heir of an honored name, +had linked his rising fortunes with an invalid and her boys. The event +most abundantly justified his choice, for in all the fair island of +Manhattan there was not a happier family than his, nor one in which +happiness was more securely founded in the diligent discharge of duty. +The twelve years of his married life were his brightest and best; and +among the last words he ever spoke were a pointed declaration that his +wife was the best woman and the finest lady he had ever known. It was +her cultivated mind that drew him to her. "It was a knowledge of your +mind," he once wrote her, + + "which first inspired me with a respect for that of your + sex, and with some regret I confess, that the ideas you have + often heard me express in favor of female intellectual power + are founded in what I have imagined more than in what I have + seen, except in you." + +In those days an educated woman was among the rarest of rarities. The +wives of many of our most renowned revolutionary leaders were +surprisingly illiterate. Except the noble wife of John Adams, whose +letters form so agreeable an oasis in the published correspondence of +the time, it would be difficult to mention the name of one lady of the +revolutionary period who could have been a companion to the _mind_ of +a man of culture. Mrs. Burr, on the contrary, was the equal of her +husband in literary discernment, and his superior in moral judgment. +Her remarks, in her letters to her husband, upon the popular authors +of the day, Chesterfield, Rousseau, Voltaire, and others, show that +she could correct as well as sympathize with her husband's taste. She +relished all of Chesterfield except the "indulgence," which Burr +thought essential. She had a weakness for Rousseau, but was not +deluded by his sentimentality. She enjoyed Gibbon without stumbling at +his fifteenth and sixteenth-chapters. The home of Theodosia presents +to us a pleasing scene of virtuous industry. The master of the house, +always an indomitable worker, was in the full tide of a successful +career at the bar. His two step-sons were employed in his office, and +one of them frequently accompanied him in his journeys to distant +courts as clerk or amanuensis. No father could have been more generous +or more thoughtful than he was for these fatherless youths, and they +appeared to have cherished for him the liveliest affection. Mrs. Burr +shared in the labors of the office during the absence of her lord. All +the affairs of this happy family moved in harmony, for love presided +at their board, inspired their exertions, and made them one. One +circumstance alone interrupted their felicity, and that was the +frequent absence of Burr from home on business at country courts; but +even these journeys served to call forth from all the family the +warmest effusions of affection. + +"What language can express the joy, the gratitude of Theodosia!" +writes Mrs. Burr to her absent husband, in the fifth year of their +marriage. + + "Stage after stage without a line. Thy usual punctuality + gave room for every fear; various conjectures filled every + breast. One of our sons was to have departed to-day in quest + of the best of friends and fathers. This morning we waited + the stage with impatience. Shrouder went frequently before + it arrived; at length returned--_no letter_. We were struck + dumb with disappointment. Barton [eldest son] set out to + inquire who were the passengers; in a very few minutes + returned exulting--a packet worth the treasures of the + Universe. Joy brightened every face; all expressed their + past anxieties, their present happiness. To enjoy was the + first result. Each made choice of what they could best + relish. Porter, sweet wine, chocolate, and sweetmeats made + the most delightful repast that could be enjoyed without + thee. The servants were made to feel their lord was well; + are at this instant toasting his health and bounty. While + the boys are obeying thy dear commands, thy Theodosia flies + to speak her heartfelt joy--her Aaron safe--mistress of the + heart she adores, can she ask more? Has Heaven more to + grant?" + +What a pleasing picture of a happy family circle is this, and how +rarely are the perils of a second marriage so completely overcome! It +was in such a warm and pleasant nest as this that Theodosia Burr +passed the years of her childhood. + +Charles Lamb used to say that babies had no right to our regard merely +_as_ babies, but that every child had a character of its own by which +it must stand or fall in the esteem of disinterested observers. +Theodosia was a beautiful and forward child, formed to be the pet and +pride of a household. "Your dear little Theo," wrote her mother in her +third year, "grows the most engaging child you ever saw. It is +impossible to see her with indifference." From her earliest years she +exhibited that singular fondness for her father which afterward became +the ruling passion of her life, and which was to undergo the severest +tests that filial affection has ever known. When she was but three +years of age her mother would write: "Your dear little daughter seeks +you twenty times a day; calls you to your meals, and will not suffer +your chair to be filled by any of the family." And again: + + "Your dear little Theodosia cannot hear you spoken of + without an apparent melancholy; insomuch that her nurse is + obliged to exert her invention to divert her, and myself + avoid to mention you in her presence. She was one whole day + indifferent to everything but your name. Her attachment is + not of a common nature." + +Here was an inviting opportunity for developing an engaging infant +into that monstrous thing, a spoiled child. She was an only daughter +in a family of which all the members but herself were adults, and the +head of which was among the busiest of men. + +But Aaron Burr, amidst all the toils of his profession, and in spite +of the distractions of political strife, made the education of his +daughter the darling object of his existence. Hunters tell us that +pointers and hounds _inherit_ the instinct which renders them such +valuable allies in the pursuit of game; so that the offspring of a +trained dog acquires the arts of the chase with very little +instruction. Burr's father was one of the most zealous and skillful of +schoolmasters, and from him he appears to have derived that pedagogic +cast of character which led him, all his life, to take so much +interest in the training of _proteges_. There was never a time in his +whole career when he had not some youth upon his hands to whose +education he was devoted. His system of training, with many excellent +points, was radically defective. Its defects are sufficiently +indicated when we say that It was pagan, not Christian. Plato, +Socrates, Cato, and Cicero might have pronounced it good and +sufficient: St. John, St. Augustine, and all the Christian host would +have lamented it as fatally defective. But if Burr educated his child +as though she were a Roman girl, her mother was with her during the +first eleven years of her life, to supply, in some degree, what was +wanting in the instructions of her father. + +Burr was a stoic. He cultivated hardness. Fortitude and fidelity were +his favorite virtues. The seal which he used in his correspondence +with his intimate friends, and with them only, was descriptive of his +character and prophetic of his destiny. It was a Rock, solitary in the +midst of a tempestuous ocean, and bore the inscription, "_Nee flatu +nee fluctu_"--neither by wind nor by wave. It was his principle to +steel himself against the inevitable evils of life. If we were asked +to select from his writings the sentence which contains most of his +characteristic way of thinking, it would be one which he wrote in his +twenty-fourth year to his future wife: "That mind is truly great which +can bear with equanimity the trifling and unavoidable vexations of +life, and be affected only by those which determine our substantial +bliss." He utterly despised all complaining, even of the greatest +calamities. He even experienced a kind of proud pleasure in enduring +the fierce obloquy of his later years. One day, near the close of his +life, when a friend had told him of some new scandal respecting his +moral conduct, he said: "That's right, my child, tell me what they +say. I like to know what the public say of me,--the _great_ public!" +Such words he would utter without the slightest bitterness, speaking +of the _great_ public as a humorous old grandfather might of a +wayward, foolish, good little child. + +So, at the dawn of a career which promised nothing but glory and +prosperity, surrounded by all the appliances of ease and pleasure, he +was solicitous to teach his child to do and to endure. He would have +her accustomed to sleep alone, and to go about the house in the dark. +Her breakfast was of bread and milk. He was resolute in exacting the +less agreeable tasks, such as arithmetic. He insisted upon regularity +of hours. Upon going away upon a journey he would leave written orders +for her tutors, detailing the employments of each day; and, during his +absence, a chief topic of his letters was the lessons of the children. +_Children_,--for, that his Theodosia might have the advantage of a +companion in her studies, he adopted the little Natalie, a French +child, whom he reared to womanhood in his house. "The letters of our +dear children," he would write, + + "are a feast. To hear that they are employed, that no time + is absolutely wasted, is the most flattering of anything + that could be told me of them. It insures their affection, + or is the best evidence of it. It insures in its + consequences everything I am ambitious of in them. Endeavor + to preserve regularity of hours; it conduces exceedingly to + industry." + +And his wife would answer: + + "I really believe, my dear, that few parents can boast of + children whose minds are so prone to virtue. I see the + reward of our assiduity with inexpressible delight, with a + gratitude few experience. My Aaron, they have grateful + hearts." + +Or thus: "Theo [seven years old] ciphers from five in the morning +until eight, and also the same hours in the evening. This prevents our +riding at those hours." + +When Theodosia was ten years old, Mary Wollstonecraft's eloquent +little book, "A Vindication of the Eights of Woman," fell into Burr's +hands. He was so powerfully struck by it that he sat up nearly all +night reading it. He showed it to all his friends. "Is it owing to +ignorance or prejudice," he wrote, "that I have not yet met a single +person who had discovered, or would allow the merit of this work?" The +work, indeed, was fifty years in advance of the time; for it +anticipated all that is rational in the opinions respecting the +position and education of women which are now held by the ladies who +are stigmatized as the Strong-minded, as well as by John Mill, Herbert +Spencer, and other economists of the modern school. It demanded fair +play for the _understanding_ of women. It proclaimed the essential +equality of the sexes. It denounced the awful libertinism of that age, +and showed that the-weakness, the ignorance, the vanity, and the +seclusion of women prepared them to become the tool and minion of bad +men's lust. It criticised ably the educational system of Rousseau, +and, with still more severity, the popular works of bishops and +priests, who chiefly strove to inculcate an abject submission to man +as the rightful lord of the sex. It demonstrated that the sole +possibility of woman's elevation to the rank of man's equal and friend +was in the cultivation of her mind, and in the thoughtful discharge of +the duties of her lot. It is a really noble and brave little book, +undeserving of the oblivion into which it has fallen. No intelligent +woman, no wise parent with daughters to rear, could read it now +without pleasure and advantage. + +"Meekness," she says, + + "may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of + man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify + a noble mind that pants and deserves to be _respected_. + Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship... A girl whose + spirits have not been damped by inactivity, or innocence + tainted by false shame, will always be a romp, and the doll + will never excite attention unless confinement allows her no + alternative Most of the women, in the circle of my + observation, who have acted like rational creatures, have + accidentally been allowed to run wild, as some of the + elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate Men have + better tempers than women because they are occupied by + pursuits that interest the _head_ as well as the heart. I + never knew a weak or ignorant person who had a good temper + Why are girls to be told that they resemble angels, but to + sink them below women? They are told that they are only like + angels when they are young and beautiful; consequently it is + their persons, not their virtues, that procure them this + homage It is in vain to attempt to keep the heart pure + unless the head is furnished with ideas Would ye, O my + sisters, really possess modesty, ye must remember that the + possession of virtue, of any denomination, is incompatible + with ignorance and vanity! Ye must acquire that soberness of + mind which the exercise of duties and the pursuit of + knowledge alone inspire, or ye will still remain in a + doubtful, dependent situation, and only be, loved while ye + are fair! The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring + grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty being the + child of reason cannot long exist with the sensibility that + is not tempered by reflection.... With what disgust have I + heard sensible women speak of the wearisome confinement + which they endured at school. Not allowed, perhaps, to step + out of one broad path in a superb garden, and obliged to + pace, with steady deportment, stupidly backward and forward, + holding up their heads and turning out their toes, with + shoulders braced back, instead of bounding forward, as + Nature directs to complete her own design, in the various + attitudes so conducive to health. The pure animal spirits, + which make both mind and body shoot out and unfold the + tender blossoms of hope, are turned sour and vented in vain + wishes or pert repinings, that contract the faculties and. + spoil the temper; else they mount to the brain, and, + sharpening the understanding before it gains proportionable + strength, produce that pitiful cunning which disgracefully + characterizes the female mind,--and, I fear, will ever + characterize it while women remain the slaves of power." + +In the spirit of this book Theodosia's education was conducted. Her +mind had fair play. Her father took it for granted that she could +learn what a boy of the same age could learn, and gave her precisely +the advantages which he would have given a son. Besides the usual +accomplishments, French, music, dancing, and riding, she learned to +read Virgil, Horace, Terence, Lucian, Homer, in the original. She +appears to have read all of Terence and Lucian, a great part of +Horace, all the Iliad, and large portions of the Odyssey. "Cursed +effects," exclaimed her father once, + + "of fashionable education, of which both sexes are the + advocates, and yours eminently the victims. If I could + foresee that Theo would become a mere fashionable woman, + with all the attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, + adorned with whatever grace and allurement, I would + earnestly pray God to take her forthwith hence. But I yet + hope by her to convince the world what neither sex appears + to believe, that women have souls." + +How faithfully, how skilfully he labored to kindle and nourish the +intelligence of his child his letters to her attest. He was never too +busy to spare a half-hour in answering her letters. In a country +court-room, in the Senate-chamber, he wrote her brief and sprightly +notes, correcting her spelling, complimenting her style, reproving her +indolence, praising her industry, commenting on her authors. Rigorous +taskmaster as he was, he had a strong sense of the value of just +commendation, and he continued to mingle praise very happily with +reproof. A few sentences from his letters to her will serve to show +his manner. + +(In her tenth year.)-- + + "I rose up suddenly from the sofa, and rubbing my head, + 'What book shall I buy for her?' said I to myself. 'She + reads so much and so rapidly that it is not easy to find + proper and amusing French books for her; and yet I am so + flattered with her progress in that language that I am + resolved she shall, at all events, be gratified. Indeed I + owe it to her.' So, after walking once or twice briskly + across the floor, I took my hat and sallied out, determined + not to return till I had purchased something. It was not my + first attempt. I went into one bookseller's shop after + another. I found plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, + fit for the generality of children nine or ten years old. + 'These,' said I, 'will never do. Her understanding begins to + be above such things'; but I could see nothing that I would + offer with pleasure to an _intelligent, well-informed_ girl + nine years old. I began to be discouraged. The hour of + dining was come. 'But I will search a little longer,' I + persevered. At last I found it. I found the very thing I + sought. It is contained in two volumes octavo, handsomely + bound, and with prints and registers. It is a work of fancy, + but replete with instruction and amusement. I must present + it with my own hand." + +He advised her to keep a diary; and to give her an idea of what she +should record, he wrote for her such a journal of one day as he should +like to receive. + +_Plan of the Journal_.-- + + "Learned 230 lines, which finished Horace. Heigh-ho for + Terence and the Greek Grammar to-morrow. Practised two hours + less thirty-five minutes, which I begged off. Hewlett + (dancing-master) did not come. Began Gibbon last evening. I + find he requires as much study and attention as Horace; so I + shall not rank the reading of _him_ among amusements. Skated + an hour; fell twenty times, and find the advantage of a hard + head. Ma better,--dined, with us at table, and is still + sitting up and free from pain." + +She was remiss in keeping her journal; remiss, too, in writing to her +father, though he reminded her that he never let one of _her_ letters +remain unanswered a day. He reproved her sharply. "What!" said he, + + "can neither affection nor civility induce you to devote to + me the small portion of time which I have required? Are + authority and compulsion then the only engines by which you + can be moved? For shame, Theo. Do not give me reason to + think so ill of you." + +She reformed. In her twelfth year, her father wrote: "Io triumphe! +there is not a word misspelled either in your journal or letter, which +cannot be said of one you ever wrote before." And again: + + "When you want punctuality in your letters, I am sure you + want it in everything; for you will constantly observe that + you have the most leisure when you do the most business. + Negligence of one's duty produces a self-dissatisfaction + which unfits the mind for everything, and _ennui_ and + peevishness are the never-failing consequence." + +His letters abound in sound advice. There is scarcely a passage in +them which the most scrupulous and considerate parent could +disapprove. Theodosia heeded well his instructions. She became nearly +all that his heart or his pride desired. + +During the later years of her childhood, her mother was grievously +afflicted with a cancer, which caused her death in 1794, before +Theodosia had completed her twelfth year. From that time, such was the +precocity of her character, that she became the mistress of her +father's house and the companion of his leisure hours. Continuing her +studies, however, we find her in her sixteenth year translating French +comedies, reading the Odyssey at the rate of two hundred lines a day, +and about to begin the Iliad. "The happiness of my life," writes her +father, "depends upon your exertions; for what else, for whom else, do +I live?" And, later, when all the world supposed that his whole soul +was absorbed in getting New York ready to vote for Jefferson and Burr, +he told her that the ideas of which _she_ was the subject that passed +daily through his mind would, if committed to writing, fill an octavo +volume. + +Who so happy as Theodosia? Who so fortunate? The young ladies of New +York, at the close of the last century, might have been pardoned for +envying the lot of this favorite child of one who then seemed the +favorite child of fortune. Burr had been a Senator of the United +States as soon as he had attained the age demanded by the +Constitution. As a lawyer he was second in ability and success to no +man; in reputation, to none but Hamilton, whose services in the +Cabinet of General Washington had given him great celebrity. Aged +members of the New York bar remember that Burr alone was the +antagonist who could put Hamilton to his mettle. When other lawyers +were employed against him, Hamilton's manner was that of a man who +felt an easy superiority to the demands upon him; he took few notes; +he was playful and careless, relying much upon the powerful +declamation of his summing up. But when Burr was in the case,--Burr +the wary, the vigilant, who was never careless, never inattentive, who +came into court only after an absolutely exhaustive preparation of his +case, who held declamation in contempt, and knew how to quench its +effect by a stroke of polite satire, or the quiet citation of a +fact,--then Hamilton was obliged to have all his wits about him, and +he was observed to be restless, busy, and serious. There are now but +two or three venerable men among us who remember the keen encounters +of these two distinguished lawyers. The vividness of their +recollection of those scenes of sixty years ago shows what an +impression must have been made upon their youthful minds. + +If Hamilton and Burr divided equally between them the honors of the +bar, Burr had the additional distinction of being a leader of the +rising Democratic Party; the party to which, at that day, the youth, +the genius, the sentiment, of the country were powerfully drawn; the +party which, by his masterly tactics, was about to place Mr. Jefferson +in the Presidential chair after ten years of ineffectual struggle. + +All this enhanced the _eclat_ of Theodosia's position. As she rode +about the island on her pony, followed at a respectful distance, as +the custom then was, by one of her father's slaves mounted on a +coach-horse, doubtless many a fair damsel of the city repined at her +own homelier lot, while she dwelt upon the many advantages which +nature and circumstances had bestowed upon this gifted and happy +maiden. + +She was a beautiful girl. She inherited all her father's refined +beauty of countenance; also his shortness of stature; the dignity, +grace, and repose of his incomparable manner, too. She was a plump, +petite, and rosy girl; but there was that in her demeanor which became +the daughter of an affluent home, and a certain assured, indescribable +expression of face which seemed to say, Here is a maiden who to the +object of her affection could be faithful against an execrating +world,--faithful even unto death. + +Burr maintained at that time two establishments, one in the city, the +other a mile and a half out of town on the banks of the Hudson. +Richmond Hill was the name of his country seat, where Theodosia +resided during the later years of her youth. It was a large, massive, +wooden edifice, with a lofty portico of Ionic columns, and stood on a +hill facing the river, in the midst of a lawn adorned with ancient +trees and trained shrubbery. The grounds, which extended to the +water's edge, comprised about a hundred and sixty acres. Those who now +visit the site of Burr's abode, at the corner of Charlton and Varick +streets, behold a wilderness of very ordinary houses covering a dead +level. The hill has been pared away, the ponds filled up, the river +pushed away a long distance from the ancient shore, and every one of +the venerable trees is gone. The city shows no spot less suggestive of +rural beauty. But Richmond Hill, in the days of Hamilton and Burr, was +the finest country residence on the island of Manhattan. The wife of +John Adams, who lived there in 1790, just before Burr bought it, and +who had recently travelled in the loveliest counties of England, +speaks of it as a situation not inferior in natural beauty to the most +delicious spot she ever saw. "The house," she says, + + "is situated upon an eminence; at an agreeable distance + flows the noble Hudson, bearing upon its bosom the fruitful + productions of the adjacent country. On my right hand are + fields beautifully variegated with grass and grain, to a + great extent, like the valley of Honiton, in Devonshire. + Upon my left the city opens to view, intercepted here and + there by a rising ground and an ancient oak. In front, + beyond the Hudson, the Jersey shores present the exuberance + of a rich, well-cultivated soil. The venerable oaks and + broken ground, covered with wild shrubs, which surround me, + give a natural beauty to the spot, which is truly + enchanting. A lovely variety of birds serenade me morning + and evening, rejoicing in their liberty and security; for I + have, as much as possible, prohibited the grounds from + invasion, and sometimes almost wished for game-laws, when my + orders have not been sufficiently regarded. The partridge, + the woodcock, and the pigeon are too great temptations to + the sports-men to withstand." + +Indeed the whole Island was enchanting in those early days. There were +pleasant gardens even in Wall Street, Cedar Street, Nassau Street; and +the Battery, the place of universal resort, was one of the most +delightful public grounds in the world,--as it will be again when the +Spoiler is thrust from the places of power, and the citizens of New +York come again into the ownership of their city. The banks of the +Hudson and of the East River were forest-crowned bluffs, lofty and +picturesque, and on every favorable site stood a cottage or a mansion +surrounded with pleasant grounds. The letters of Theodosia Burr +contain many passages expressive of her intense enjoyment of the +variety, the vivid verdure, the noble trees, the heights, the pretty +lakes, the enchanting prospects, the beautiful gardens, which her +daily rides brought to her view. She was a dear lover of her island +home. The city had not then laid waste the beauty of Manhattan. There +was only one bank in New York, the officers of which shut the bank at +one o'clock and went home to dinner, returned at three, and kept the +bank open till five. Much of the business life of the town partook of +this homely, comfortable, easy-going, rural spirit. There was a mail +twice a week to the North, and twice a week to the South, and many of +the old-fashioned people had time to live. + +Not so the younger and newer portion of the population. We learn from +one of the letters of the ill-fated Blennerhassett, who arrived in New +York from Ireland in 1796, that the people were so busy there in +making new docks, filling in the swamps, and digging cellars for new +buildings, as to bring on an epidemic fever and ague that drove him +from the city to the Jersey shore. He mentions, also, that land in the +State doubled in value every two years, and that commercial +speculation was carried on with such avidity that it was more like +gambling than trade. It is he that relates the story of the +adventurer, who, on learning that the yellow-fever prevailed fearfully +in the West Indies, sent thither a cargo of coffins in nests, and, +that no room might be lost, filled the smallest with gingerbread. The +speculation, he assures us, was a capital hit; for the adventurer not +only sold his coffins very profitably, but loaded his vessel with +valuable woods, which yielded a great profit at New York. At that +time, also, the speculation in lots, corner lots, and lands near the +city, was prosecuted with all the recklessness which we have been in +the habit of supposing was peculiar to later times. New York was New +York even in the days of Burr and Hamilton. + +As mistress of Richmond Hill, Theodosia entertained distinguished +company. Hamilton was her father's occasional guest. Burr preferred +the society of educated Frenchmen and Frenchwomen to any other, and he +entertained many distinguished exiles of the French Revolution. +Talleyrand, Volney, Jerome Bonaparte, and Louis Philippe were among +his guests. Colonel Stone mentions, in his Life of Brant, that +Theodosia, in her fourteenth year, in the absence of her father, gave +a dinner to that chieftain of the forest, which was attended by the +Bishop of New York, Dr. Hosack, Volney, and several other guests of +distinction, who greatly enjoyed the occasion. Burr was gratified to +hear with how much grace and good-nature his daughter acquitted +herself in the entertainment of her company. The chief himself was +exceedingly delighted, and spoke of the dinner with great animation +many years after. + +We have one pleasant glimpse of Theodosia in these happy years, in a +trifling anecdote preserved by the biographer of Edward Livingston, +during whose mayoralty the present City Hall was begun. The mayor had +the pleasure, one bright day, of escorting the young lady on board a +French frigate lying in the harbor. "You must bring none of your +sparks on board, Theodosia," exclaimed the pun-loving magistrate; "for +they have a magazine here, and we shall all be blown up." Oblivion +here drops the curtain upon the gay party and the brilliant scene. + +A suitor appeared for the hand of this fair and accomplished girl. It +was Joseph Alston of South Carolina, a gentleman of twenty-two, +possessor of large estates in rice plantations and slaves, and a man +of much spirit and talent. He valued his estates at two hundred +thousand pounds sterling. Their courtship was not a long one; for +though she, as became her sex, checked the impetuosity of his advances +and argued for delay, she was easily convinced by the reasons which he +adduced for haste. She reminded him that Aristotle was of opinion that +a man should not marry till he was thirty-six. "A fig for Aristotle," +he replied; "let us regard the _ipse dixit_ of no man. It is only want +of fortune or want of discretion," he continued, "that could justify +such a postponement of married joys. But suppose," he added, + + "(_merely for instance_,) a young man nearly two-and-twenty, + already of the _greatest_ discretion, with an ample fortune, + were to be passionately in love with a young lady almost + eighteen, equally discreet with himself, and who had a + 'sincere friendship' for him, do you think it would be + necessary to make him wait till thirty? particularly where + the friends on both sides were pleased with the match." + +She told him, also, that some of her friends who had visited +Charleston had described it as a city where the yellow-fever and the +"yells of whipped negroes, which assail your ears from every house," +and the extreme heat, rendered life a mere purgatory. She had heard, +too, that in South Carolina the men were absorbed in hunting, gaming, +and racing; while the women, robbed of their society, had no pleasures +but to come together in large parties, sip tea, and look prim. The +ardent swain eloquently defended his native State:-- + +"What!" he exclaimed, + + "is Charleston, the most delightfully situated city in + America, which, entirely open to the ocean, twice in every + twenty-four hours is cooled by the refreshing sea-breeze, + the Montpelier of the South, which annually affords an + asylum to the planter and the West Indian from every + disease, accused of heat and unhealthiness? But this is not + all, unfortunate citizens of Charleston; the scream, the + yell of the miserable unresisting African, bleeding under + the scourge of relentless power, affords music to your ears! + Ah! from what unfriendly cause does this arise? Has the God + of heaven, in anger, here changed the order of nature? In + every other region, without exception, in a similar degree + of latitude, the same sun which ripens the tamarind and the + anana, ameliorates the temper, and disposes it to gentleness + and kindness. In India and other countries, not very + different in climate from the southern parts of the United + States, the inhabitants are distinguished for a softness and + inoffensiveness of manners, degenerating almost to + effeminacy; it is here then, only, that we are exempt from + the general influence of climate: here only that, in spite + of it, we are cruel and ferocious! Poor Carolina!" + +And with regard to the manners of the Carolinians he assured the young +lady that if there was one State in the Union which could justly claim +superiority to the rest, in social refinement and the art of elegant +living, it was South Carolina, where the division of the people into +the very poor and the very rich left to the latter class abundant +leisure for the pursuit of literature and the enjoyment of society. + +"The possession of slaves," he owns, + + "renders them proud, impatient of restraint, and gives them + a haughtiness of manner which, to those unaccustomed to + them, is disagreeable; but we find among them a high sense + of honor, a delicacy of sentiment, and a liberality of mind, + which we look for in vain in the more commercial citizens of + the Northern States. The genius of the Carolinian, like the + inhabitants of all southern countries, is quick, lively, and + acute; in steadiness and perseverance he is naturally + inferior to the native of the North; but this defect of + climate is often overcome by his ambition or necessity; and, + whenever this happens, he seldom fails to distinguish + himself. In his temper he is gay and fond of company, open, + generous, and unsuspicious; easily irritated, and quick to + resent even the appearance of insult; but his passion, like + the fire of the flint, is lighted up and extinguished in the + same moment." + +Such discussions end only in one way. Theodosia yielded the points in +dispute. At Albany, on the 2d of February, 1801, while the country was +ringing with the names of Jefferson and Burr, and while the world +supposed that Burr was intriguing with all his might to defeat the +wishes of the people by securing his own election to the Presidency, +his daughter was married. The marriage was thus announced in the New +York _Commercial Advertiser_ of February 7:-- + + "MARRIED.---At Albany, on the 2d instant, by the Rev. Mr. + JOHNSON, JOSEPH ALSTON, of South Carolina, to THEODOSIA + BURR, only child of AARON BURR, Esq." + +They were married at Albany, because Colonel Burr, being a member of +the Legislature, was residing at the capital of the State. One week +the happy pair passed at Albany. Then to New York; whence, after a few +days' stay, they began their long journey southward. Rejoined at +Baltimore by Colonel Burr, they travelled in company to Washington, +where, on the 4th of March, Theodosia witnessed the inauguration of +Mr. Jefferson, and the induction of her father into the +Vice-Presidency. Father and child parted a day or two after the +ceremony. The only solid consolation, he said in his first letter to +her, that he had for the loss of her dear companionship, was a belief +that she would be happy, and the certainty that they should often +meet. And, on his return to New York, he told her that he had +approached his home as he would "the sepulchre of all his friends." +"Dreary, solitary, comfortless. It was no longer _home_." Hence his +various schemes of a second marriage, to which Theodosia urged him. He +soon had the comfort of hearing that the reception of his daughter in +South Carolina was as cordial and affectionate as his heart could have +wished. + +Theodosia now enjoyed three as happy years as ever fell to the lot of +a young wife. Tenderly cherished by her husband, whom she devotedly +loved, caressed by society, surrounded by affectionate and admiring +relations, provided bountifully with all the means of enjoyment, +living in the summer in the mountains of Carolina, or at the home of +her childhood, Richmond Hill, passing the winters in gay and luxurious +Charleston, honored for her own sake, for her father's, and her +husband's, the years glided rapidly by, and she seemed destined to +remain to the last Fortune's favorite child. One summer she and her +husband visited Niagara, and penetrated the domain of the chieftain +Brant, who gave them royal entertainment. Once she had the great +happiness of receiving her father under her own roof, and of seeing +the honors paid by the people of the State to the Vice-President. +Again she spent a summer at Richmond Hill and Saratoga, leaving her +husband for the first time. She told him on this occasion that every +_woman_ must prefer the society of the North to that of the South, +whatever she might say. "If she denies it, she is set down in my mind +as insincere and weakly prejudiced." But, like a fond and loyal wife, +she wrote, "Where you are, there is my country, and in you are centred +all my wishes." + +She was a mother too. That engaging and promising boy, Aaron Burr +Alston, the delight of his parents and of his grandfather, was born in +the second year of the marriage. This event seemed to complete her +happiness. For a time, it is true, she paid dearly for it by the loss +of her former robust and joyous health. But the boy was worth the +price. "If I can see without prejudice," wrote Colonel Burr, "there +never was a finer boy"; and the mother's letters are full of those +sweet, trifling anecdotes which mothers love to relate of their +offspring. Her father still urged her to improve her mind, for her own +and her son's sake, telling her that all she could learn would +necessarily find its way to the mind of the boy. "Pray take in hand," +he writes, "some book which requires attention and study. You will, I +fear, lose the habit of study, which would be a greater misfortune +than to lose your head." He praised, too, the ease, good-sense, and +sprightliness of her letters, and said truly that her style, at its +best, was not inferior to that of Madame de Sevigne. + +Life is frequently styled a checkered scene. But it was the peculiar +lot of Theodosia to experience during the first twenty-one years of +her life nothing but prosperity and happiness, and during the +remainder of her existence nothing but misfortune and sorrow. Never +had her father's position seemed so strong and enviable as during his +tenure of the office of Vice-President; but never had it been in +reality so hollow and precarious. Holding property valued at two +hundred thousand dollars, he was so deeply in debt that nothing but +the sacrifice of his landed estate could save him from bankruptcy. At +the age of thirty he had permitted himself to be drawn from a +lucrative and always increasing professional business to the +fascinating but most costly pursuit of political honors. And now; when +he stood at a distance of only one step from the highest place, he was +pursued by a clamorous host of creditors, and compelled to resort to a +hundred expedients to maintain the expensive establishments supposed +to be necessary to a Vice-President's dignity. His political position +was as hollow as his social eminence. Mr. Jefferson was firmly +resolved that Aaron Burr should not be his successor; and the great +families of New York, whom Burr had united to win the victory over +Federalism, were now united to bar the further advancement of a man +whom they chose to regard as an interloper and a parvenu. If Burr's +private life had been stainless, if his fortune had been secure, if he +had been in his heart a Republican and a Democrat, if he had been a +man earnest in the people's cause, if even his talents had been as +superior as they were supposed to be, such a combination of powerful +families and political influence might have retarded, but could not +have prevented, his advancement; for he was still in the prime of his +prime, and the people naturally side with a man who is the architect +of his own fortunes. + +On the 1st of July, 1804, Burr sat in the library of Richmond Hill +writing to Theodosia. The day was unseasonably cold, and a fire blazed +upon the hearth. The lord of the mansion was chilly and serious. An +hour before he had taken the step which made the duel with Hamilton +inevitable, though eleven days were to elapse before the actual +encounter. He was tempted to prepare the mind of his child for the +event, but he forebore. Probably his mind had been wandering into the +past, and recalling his boyhood; for he quoted a line of poetry which +he had been wont to use in those early days. "Some very wise man has +said," he wrote, + + "'Oh, fools, who think it solitude to be alone!' + +"This is but poetry. Let us, therefore, drop the subject, lest it lead +to another, on which I have imposed silence on myself." Then he +proceeds, in his usual gay and agreeable manner, again urging her to +go on in the pursuit of knowledge. His last thoughts before going to +the field were with her and for her. His last request to her husband +was that he should do all that in him lay to encourage her to improve +her mind. + +The bloody deed was done. The next news Theodosia received from her +father was that he was a fugitive from the sudden abhorrence of his +fellow-citizens; that an indictment for murder was hanging over his +head; that his career in New York was, in all probability, over +forever; and that he was destined to be for a time a wanderer on the +earth. Her happy days were at an end. She never blamed her father for +this, or for any act of his; on the contrary, she accepted without +questioning his own version of the facts, and his own view of the +morality of what he had done. He had formed her mind and tutored her +conscience. He _was_ her conscience. But though she censured him not, +her days and nights were embittered by anxiety from this time to the +last day of her life. A few months later her father, black with +hundreds of miles of travel in an open canoe, reached her abode in +South Carolina, and spent some weeks there before appearing for the +last time in the chair of the Senate; for, ruined as he was in fortune +and good name, indicted for murder in New York and New Jersey, he was +still Vice-President of the United States, and he was resolved to +reappear upon the public scene, and do the duty which the Constitution +assigned him. + +The Mexican scheme followed. Theodosia and her husband were both +involved in it. Mr. Alston advanced money for the project, which was +never repaid, and which, in his will, he forgave. His entire loss, in +consequence of his connection with that affair, may be reckoned at +about fifty thousand dollars. Theodosia entirely and warmly approved +the dazzling scheme. The throne of Mexico, she thought, was an object +worthy of her father's talents, and one which would repay him for the +loss of a brief tenure of the Presidency, and be a sufficient triumph +over the men who were supposed to have thwarted him. Her boy, +too,--would he not be heir-presumptive to a throne? + +The recent publication of the "Blennerhassett Papers" appears to +dispel all that remained of the mystery which the secretive Burr chose +to leave around the object of his scheme. We can now say with almost +absolute certainty that Burr's objects were the following: The throne +of Mexico for himself and his heirs; the seizure and organization of +Texas as preliminary to the grand design. The purchase of lands on the +Washita was for the three-fold purpose of veiling the real object, +providing a rendezvous, and having the means of tempting and rewarding +those of the adventurers who were not in the secret. We can also now +discover the designed distribution of honors and places: Aaron L, +Emperor; Joseph Alston, Head of the Nobility and Chief Minister; Aaron +Burr Alston, heir to the throne; Theodosia, Chief Lady of the Court +and Empire; Wilkinson, General-in-Chief of the Army; Blennerhassett, +Embassador to the Court of St. James; Commodore Truxton (perhaps), +Admiral of the Navy. There is not an atom of new _evidence_ which +warrants the supposition that Burr had any design to sever the Western +States from the Union. If he himself had ever contemplated such an +event, it is almost unquestionable that his followers were ignorant of +it. + +The scheme exploded. Theodosia and her husband had joined him at the +home of the Blennerhassetts, and they were near him when the +President's proclamation dashed the scheme to atoms, scattered the +band of adventurers, and sent Burr a prisoner to Richmond, charged +with high treason. Mr. Alston, in a public letter to the Governor of +South Carolina, solemnly declared that he was wholly ignorant of any +treasonable design on the part of his father-in-law, and repelled with +honest warmth the charge of his own complicity with a design so +manifestly absurd and hopeless as that of a dismemberment of the +Union. Theodosia, stunned with the unexpected blow, returned with her +husband to South Carolina, ignorant of her father's fate. He was +carried through that State on his way to the North, and there it was +that he made his well-known attempt to appeal to the civil authorities +and get deliverance from the guard of soldiers. From Richmond he wrote +her a hasty note, informing her of his arrest. She and her husband +joined him soon, and remained with him during his trial. + +At Richmond, during the six months of the trial, Burr tasted the last +of the sweets of popularity. The party opposed to Mr. Jefferson made +his cause their own, and gathered round the fallen leader with +ostentatious sympathy and aid. Ladies sent him bouquets, wine, and +dainties for his table, and bestowed upon his daughter the most +affectionate and flattering attentions. Old friends from New York and +new friends from the West were there to cheer and help the prisoner. +Andrew Jackson was conspicuously his friend and defender, declaiming +in the streets upon the tyranny of the Administration and the perfidy +of Wilkinson, Burr's chief accuser. Washington Irving, then in the +dawn of his great renown, who had given the first efforts of his +youthful pen to Burr's newspaper, was present at the trial, full of +sympathy for a man whom he believed to be the victim of treachery and +political animosity. Doubtless he was not wanting in compassionate +homage to the young matron from South Carolina. Mr. Irving was then a +lawyer, and had been retained as one of Burr's counsel; not to render +service in the court-room, but in the expectation that his pen would +be employed in staying the torrent of public opinion that was setting +against his client. Whether or not he wrote in his behalf does not +appear. But his private letters, written at Richmond during the trial, +show plainly enough that, if his head was puzzled by the confused and +contradictory evidence, his heart and his imagination were on the side +of the prisoner. + +Theodosia's presence at Richmond was of more value to her father than +the ablest of his counsel. Every one appears to have loved, admired, +and sympathized with her. "You can't think," wrote Mrs. +Blennerhassett, "with what joy and pride I read what Colonel Burr says +of his daughter. I never could love one of my own sex as I do her." +Blennerhassett himself was not less her friend. Luther Martin, Burr's +chief counsel, almost worshipped her. "I find," wrote Blennerhassett, + + "that Luther Martin's idolatrous admiration of Mrs. Alston + is almost as excessive as my own, but far more beneficial to + his interest and injurious to his judgment, as it is the + medium of his blind attachment to her father, whose secrets + and views, past, present, or to come, he is and wishes to + remain ignorant of. Nor can he see a speck in the character + or conduct of Alston, for the best of all reasons with him, + namely, that Alston has such a wife." + +It plainly appears, too, from the letters and journal of +Blennerhassett, that Alston did all in his power to promote the +acquittal and aid the fallen fortunes of Burr, and that he did so, not +because he believed in him, but because he loved his Theodosia. + +Acquitted by the jury, but condemned at the bar of public opinion, +denounced by the press, abhorred by the Republican party, and still +pursued by his creditors, Burr, in the spring of 1805, lay concealed +at New York preparing for a secret flight to Europe. Again his devoted +child travelled northward to see him once more before he sailed. For +some weeks both were in the city, meeting only by night at the house +of some tried friend, but exchanging notes and letters from hour to +hour. One whole night they spent together, just before his departure. +To her he committed his papers, the accumulation of thirty busy years; +and it was she who was to collect the debts due him, and thus provide +for his maintenance in Europe. + +Burr was gay and confident to the last, for he was strong in the +belief that the British Ministry would adopt his scheme and aid in +tearing Mexico from the grasp of Napoleon. Theodosia was sick and +sorrowful, but bore bravely up and won her father's commendation for +her fortitude. In one of the early days of June father and daughter +parted, to meet no more on earth. + +The four years of Burr's fruitless exile were to Theodosia years of +misery. She could not collect the debts on which they had relied. The +embargo reduced the rice-planters to extreme embarrassment. Her +husband no longer sympathized with her in her yearning love for her +father, though loving her as tenderly as ever. Old friends in New York +cooled toward her. Her health was precarious. Months passed without +bringing a word from over the sea; and the letters that did reach her, +lively and jovial as they were, contained no good news. She saw her +father expelled from England, wandering aimless in Sweden and Germany, +almost a prisoner in Paris, reduced to live on potatoes and dry bread; +while his own countrymen showed no signs of relenting toward him. In +many a tender passage she praised his fortitude. "I witness," she +wrote, in a well-known letter, + + "your extraordinary fortitude with new wonder at every new + misfortune. Often, after reflecting on this subject, you + appear to me so superior, so elevated above all other men; I + contemplate you with such a strange mixture of humility, + admiration, reverence, love, and pride, that very little + superstition would be necessary to make me worship you as a + superior being; such enthusiasm does your character excite + in me. When I afterward revert to myself, how insignificant + do my best qualities appear! My vanity would be greater if I + had not been placed so near you; and yet my pride is our + relationship. I had rather not live than not be the daughter + of such a man." + +Mr. Madison was President then. In other days her father had been on +terms of peculiar intimacy with Madison and his beautiful and +accomplished wife. Burr, in his later years, used to say that it was +he who had brought about the match which made Mrs. Madison an inmate +of the Presidential mansion. With the members of Madison's Cabinet, +too, he had been socially and politically familiar. When Theodosia +perceived that her father had no longer a hope of success in his +Mexican project, she became anxious for his return to America. But +against this was the probability that the Administration would again +arrest him and bring him to trial for the third time. Theodosia +ventured to write to her old friend, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the +Treasury, asking him to interpose on her father's behalf. A letter +still more interesting than this has recently come to light. It was +addressed by Theodosia to Mrs. Madison. The coldest heart cannot read +this eloquent and pathetic production without emotion. She writes:-- + + "MADAM,--You may perhaps be surprised at receiving a letter + from one with whom you have had so little intercourse for + the last few years. But your surprise will cease when you + recollect that my father, once your friend, is now in exile; + and that the President only can restore him to me and his + country. + + "Ever since the choice of the people was first declared in + favor of Mr. Madison, my heart, amid the universal joy, has + beat with the hope that I, too, should soon have reason to + rejoice. Convinced that Mr. Madison would neither feel nor + judge from the feelings or judgment of others, I had no + doubt of his hastening to relieve a man whose character he + had been enabled to appreciate during a confidential + intercourse of long continuance, and whom [he] must know + incapable of the designs attributed to him. My anxiety on + this subject, has, however, become too painful to be + alleviated by anticipations which no events have yet tended + to justify; and in this state of intolerable suspense I have + determined to address myself to you, and request that you + will, _in my name_, apply to the President for a removal of + the prosecution now existing against AARON BURR. I still + expect it from him as a man of feeling and candor, as one + acting for the world and for posterity. + + "Statesmen, I am aware, deem it necessary that sentiments of + liberality, and even justice, should yield to considerations + of policy; but what policy can require the absence of my + father at present? Even had he contemplated the project for + which he stands arraigned, evidently to pursue it any + further would now be impossible. There is not left one + pretext of alarm even to calumny; for bereft of fortune, of + popular favor, and almost of friends, what could he + accomplish? And whatever may be the apprehensions or the + clamors of the ignorant and the interested, surely the + timid, illiberal system which would sacrifice a man to a + remote and unreasonable possibility that he might infringe + some law founded on an unjust, unwarrantable suspicion that + he would desire it, cannot be approved by Mr. Madison, and + must be unnecessary to a President so loved, so honored. + Why, then, is my father banished from a country for which he + has encountered wounds and dangers and fatigue for years? + Why is he driven from his friends, from an only child, to + pass an unlimited time in exile, and that, too, at an age + when others are reaping the harvest of past toils, or ought + at least to be providing seriously for the comfort of + ensuing years? I do not seek to soften you by this + recapitulation. I only wish to remind you of all the + injuries which are inflicted on one of the first characters + the United States ever produced. + + "Perhaps it may be well to assure you there is no truth in a + report lately circulated, that my father intends returning + immediately. He never will return to conceal himself in a + country on which he has conferred distinction. + + "To whatever fate Mr. Madison may doom this application, I + trust it will be treated with delicacy. Of this I am the + more desirous as Mr. Alston is ignorant of the step I have + taken in writing to you, which, perhaps, nothing could + excuse but the warmth of filial affection. If it be an + error, attribute it to the indiscreet zeal of a daughter + whose soul sinks at the gloomy prospect of a long and + indefinite separation from a father almost adored, and who + can leave unattempted nothing which offers the slightest + hope of procuring him redress. What, indeed, would I not + risk once more to see him, to hang upon him, to place my + child on his knee, and again spend my days in the happy + occupation of endeavoring to anticipate all his wishes. + + "Let me entreat, my dear Madam, that you will have the + consideration and goodness to answer me as speedily as + possible; my heart is sore with doubt and patient waiting + for something definitive. No apologies are made for giving + you this trouble, which I am sure you will not deem irksome + to take for a daughter, an affectionate daughter, thus + situated. Inclose your letter for me to A.J. Frederic + Prevost, Esq., near New Rochelle, New York. + + "That every happiness may attend you, + + "Is the sincere wish of + + "THEO. BURR ALSTON." + +This letter was probably not ineffectual. Certain it is that +government offered no serious obstacle to Burr's return, and +instituted no further proceedings against him. Probably, too, +Theodosia received some kind of assurance to this effect, for we find +her urging her father, not only to return, but to go boldly to New +York among his old friends, and resume there the practice of his +profession. The great danger to be apprehended was from his creditors, +who then had power to confine a debtor within limits, if not to throw +him into prison. "_If the worst comes to the worst_" wrote this fond +and devoted daughter, "_I will leave everything to suffer with you_." +The Italics are her own. + +He came at length. He landed in Boston, and sent word of his arrival +to Theodosia. Rejoiced as she was, she replied vaguely, partly in +cipher, fearing lest her letter might be opened on the way, and the +secret of her father's arrival be prematurely disclosed. She told him +that her own health was tolerable; that her child, then a fine boy of +eleven, was well; that "his little soul warmed at the sound of his +grandfather's name"; and that his education, under a competent tutor, +was proceeding satisfactorily. She gave directions respecting her +father's hoped-for journey to South Carolina in the course of the +summer; and advised him, in case war should be declared with England, +to offer his services to the government. He reached New York in May, +1812, and soon had the pleasure of informing his daughter that his +reception had been more friendly than he could have expected, and that +in time his prospects were fair of a sufficiently lucrative practice. + +Surely, now, after so many years of anxiety and sorrow, +Theodosia--still a young woman, not thirty years of age, still +enjoying her husband's love---might have reasonably expected a happy +life. Alas! there was no more happiness in store for her on this side +of the grave. The first letter which Burr received from his son-in-law +after his arrival in New York contained news which struck him to the +heart. + +"A few miserable weeks since," writes Mr. Alston, "and in spite of all +the embarrassments, the troubles, and disappointments which have +fallen to our lot since we parted, I would have congratulated you on +your return in the language of happiness. With my wife on one side and +my boy on the other, I felt myself superior to depression. The present +was enjoyed, the future was anticipated with enthusiasm. One dreadful +blow has destroyed us; reduced us to the veriest, the most sublimated +wretchedness. That boy, on whom all rested,--our companion, our +friend,--he who was to have transmitted down the mingled blood of +Theodosia and myself,--he who was to have redeemed all your glory, and +shed new lustre upon our families,--that boy, at once our happiness +and our pride, is taken from us,--_is dead_. We saw him dead. My own +hand surrendered him to the grave; yet we are alive. But it is past. I +will not conceal from you that life is a burden, which, heavy as it +is, we shall both support, if not with dignity, at least with decency +and firmness. Theodosia has endured all that a human being could +endure; but her admirable mind will triumph. She supports herself in a +manner worthy of your daughter." + +The mother's heart was almost broken. + +"There is no more joy for me," she wrote. + + "The world is a blank. I have lost my boy. My child is gone + forever. May Heaven, by other blessings, make you some + amends for the noble grandson you have lost! Alas! my dear + father, I do live, but how does it happen? Of what am I + formed that I live, and why? Of what service can I be in + this world, either to you or any one else, with a body + reduced to premature old age, and a mind enfeebled and + bewildered? Yet, since it is my lot to live, I will endeavor + to fulfil my part, and exert myself to my utmost, though + this life must henceforth be to me a bed of thorns. + Whichever way I turn, the same anguish still assails me. You + talk of consolation. Ah! you know not what you have lost. I + think Omnipotence could give me no equivalent for my boy; + no, none,--none." + +She could not be comforted. Her health gave way. Her husband thought +that if anything could restore her to tranquillity and health it would +be the society of her father; and so, at the beginning of winter, it +was resolved that she should attempt the dangerous voyage. Her father +sent a medical friend from New York to attend her. + +"Mr. Alston," wrote this gentleman, + + "seemed rather hurt that you should conceive it necessary to + send a person here, as he or one of his brothers would + attend Mrs. Alston to New York. I told him you had some + opinion of my medical talents; that you had learned your + daughter was in a low state of health, and required unusual + attention, and medical attention on her voyage; that I had + torn myself from my family to perform this service for my + friend." + +And again, a few days after:-- + + "I have engaged a passage to New York for your daughter in a + pilot-boat that has been out privateering, but has come in + here, and is refitting merely to get to New York. My only + fears are that Governor Alston may think the mode of + conveyance too undignified, and object to it; but Mrs. + Alston is fully bent on going. You must not be surprised, to + see her very low, feeble, and emaciated. Her complaint is an + almost incessant nervous fever." + +The rest is known. The vessel sailed. Off Cape Hatteras, during a gale +that swept the coast from Maine to Georgia, the pilot-boat went down, +and not one escaped to tell the tale. The vessel was never heard of +more. So perished this noble, gifted, ill-starred lady. + +The agonizing scenes that followed may be imagined. Father and husband +were kept long in suspense. Even when many weeks had elapsed without +bringing tidings of the vessel, there still remained a forlorn hope +that some of her passengers might have been rescued by an +outward-bound ship, and might return, after a year or two had gone by, +from some distant port. Burr, it is said, acquired a habit, when +walking upon the Battery, of looking wistfully down the harbor at the +arriving ships, as if still cherishing a faint, fond hope that his +Theo was coming to him from the other side of the world. When, years +after, the tale was brought to him that his daughter had been carried +off by pirates and might be still alive, he said: "No, no, no; if my +Theo had survived that storm, she would have found her way to me. +Nothing could have kept my Theo from her father." + +It was these sad events, the loss of his daughter and her boy, that +severed Aaron Burr from the human race. Hope died within him. Ambition +died. He yielded to his doom, and walked among men, not melancholy, +but indifferent, reckless, and alone. With his daughter and his +grandson to live and strive for, he might have done something in his +later years to redeem his name and atone for his errors. Bereft of +these, he had not in his moral nature that which enables men who have +gone astray to repent and begin a better life. + +Theodosia's death broke her husband's heart. Few letters are so +affecting as the one which he wrote to Burr when, at length, the +certainty of her loss could no longer be resisted. + + "My boy--my wife--gone both! This, then, is the end of all + the hopes we had formed. You may well observe that you feel + severed from the human race. She was the last tie that bound + us to the species. What have we left? ... Yet, after all, he + is a poor actor who cannot sustain his little hour upon the + stage, be his part what it may. But the man who has been + deemed worthy of the heart of _Theodosia Burr_, and who has + felt what it was to be blessed with such a woman's, will + never forget his elevation." + +He survived his wife four years. Among the papers of Theodosia was +found, after her death, a letter which she had written a few years +before she died, at a time when she supposed her end was near. Upon +the envelope was written,--"My husband. To be delivered after my +death. I wish this to be read _immediately_, and before my burial." +Her husband never saw it, for he never had the courage to look into +the trunk that contained her treasures. But after his death the trunk +was sent to Burr, who found and preserved this affecting composition. +We cannot conclude our narrative more fitly than by transcribing the +thoughts that burdened the heart of Theodosia in view of her departure +from the world. First, she gave directions respecting the disposal of +her jewelry and trinkets, giving to each of her friends some token of +her love. Then she besought her husband to provide at once for the +support of "Peggy," an aged servant of her father, formerly +housekeeper at Richmond Hill, to whom, in her father's absence, she +had contrived to pay a small pension. She then proceeded in these +affecting terms:-- + + "To you, my beloved, I leave our child; the child of my + bosom, who was once a part of myself, and from whom I shall + shortly be separated by the cold grave. You love him now; + henceforth love him for me also. And oh, my husband, attend + to this last prayer of a doting mother. Never, never listen + to what any other person tells you of him. Be yourself his + judge on all occasions. He has faults; see them, and correct + them yourself. Desist not an instant from your endeavors to + secure his confidence. It is a work which requires as much + uniformity of conduct as warmth of affection toward him. I + know, my beloved, that you can perceive what is right on + this subject as on every other. But recollect, these are the + last words I can ever utter. It will tranquillize my last + moments to have disburdened myself of them. + + "I fear you will scarcely be able to read this scrawl, but I + feel hurried and agitated. Death is not welcome to me. I + confess it is ever dreaded. You have made me too fond of + life. Adieu, then, thou kind, thou tender husband. Adieu, + friend of my heart. May Heaven prosper you, and may we meet + hereafter. Adieu; perhaps we may never see each other again + in this world. You are away, I wished to hold you fast, and + prevented you from going this morning. But He who is wisdom + itself ordains events; we must submit to them. Least of all + should I murmur. I, on whom so many blessings have been + showered,--whose days have been numbered by bounties,--who + have had such a husband, such a child, and such a father. O + pardon me, my God, if I regret leaving these. I resign + myself. Adieu, once more, and for the last time, my beloved. + Speak of me often to our son. Let him love the memory of his + mother, and let him know how he was loved by her. Your wife, + your fond wife, + + "THEO. + + "Let my father see my son sometimes. Do not be unkind toward + him whom I have loved so much, I beseech you. Burn all my + papers except my father's letters, which I beg you to return + him. Adieu, my sweet boy. Love your father; be grateful and + affectionate to him while he lives; be the pride of his + meridian, the support of his departing days. Be all that he + wishes; for he made your mother happy. Oh! my heavenly + Father, bless them both. If it is permitted, I will hover + round you, and guard you, and intercede for you. I hope for + happiness in the next world, for I have not been bad in + this. + + "I had nearly forgotten to say that I charge you not to + allow me to be stripped and washed, as is usual. I am pure + enough thus to return to dust. Why, then, expose my person? + Pray see to this. If it does not appear contradictory or + silly, I beg to be kept as long as possible before I am + consigned to the earth." + + + +JOHN JACOB ASTOR. + +We all feel some curiosity respecting men who have been eminent in +anything,--even in crime; and as this curiosity is natural and +universal, it seems proper that it should be gratified. JOHN JACOB +ASTOR, surpassed all the men of his generation in the accumulation of +wealth. He began life a poor, hungry German boy, and died worth twenty +millions of dollars. These facts are so remarkable, that there is no +one who does not feel a desire to know by which means the result was +produced, and whether the game was played fairly. We all wish, if not +to be rich, yet to have more money than we now possess. We have known +many kinds of men, but never one who felt that he had quite money +enough. The three richest men now living in the United States are +known to be as much interested in the increase of their possessions, +and try as hard to increase them, as ever they did. + +This universal desire to accumulate property is right, and necessary +to the progress of the race. Like every other proper and virtuous +desire, it may become excessive, and then it is a vice. So long as a +man seeks property honestly, and values it as the means of +independence, as the means of educating and comforting his family, as +the means of securing a safe, dignified, and tranquil old age, as the +means of private charity and public beneficence, let him bend himself +heartily to his work, and enjoy the reward of his labors. It is a fine +and pleasant thing to prosper in business, and to have a store to fall +back upon in time of trouble. + +The reader may learn from Astor's career how money is accumulated. +Whether he can learn from it how money ought to be employed when it is +obtained, he must judge for himself. In founding the Astor Library, +John Jacob Astor did at least one magnificent deed, for which +thousands unborn will honor his memory. That single act would atone +for many errors. + +In the hall of the Astor Library, on the sides of two of the pillars +supporting its lofty roof of glass, are two little shelves, each +holding a single work, never taken down and seldom perused, but +nevertheless well worthy the attention of those who are curious in the +subject of which they treat, namely, the human face divine. They are +two marble busts, facing each other; one of the founder of the +Library, the other of its first President, Washington Irving. A finer +study in physiognomy than these two busts present can nowhere be +found; for never were two men more unlike than Astor and Irving, and +never were character and personal history more legibly recorded than +in these portraits in marble. The countenance of the author is round, +full, and handsome, the hair inclining to curl, and the chin to +double. It is the face of a happy and genial man, formed to shine at +the fireside and to beam from the head of a table. It is an open, +candid, liberal, hospitable countenance, indicating far more power to +please than to compel, but displaying in the position and carriage of +the head much of that dignity which we are accustomed to call Roman. +The face of the millionaire, on the contrary, is all strength; every +line in it tells of concentration and power. The hair is straight and +long; the forehead neither lofty nor ample, but powerfully developed +in the perceptive and executive organs; the eyes deeper set in the +head than those of Daniel Webster, and overhung with immense bushy +eyebrows; the nose large, long, and strongly arched, the veritable +nose of a man-compeller; the mouth, chin, and jaws all denoting +firmness and force; the chest, that seat and throne of physical power, +is broad and deep, and the back of the neck has something of the +muscular fulness which we observe in the prize-fighter and the bull; +the head behind the ears showing enough of propelling power, but +almost totally wanting in the passional propensities which waste the +force of the faculties, and divert the man from his principal object. +As the spectator stands midway between the two busts, at some distance +from both, Irving has the larger and the kinglier air, and the face of +Astor seems small and set. It is only when you get close to the bust +of Astor, observing the strength of each feature and its perfect +proportion to the rest,--force everywhere, superfluity nowhere,--that +you recognize the monarch of the counting-room; the brain which +nothing could confuse or disconcert; the purpose that nothing could +divert or defeat; the man who could with ease and pleasure grasp and +control the multitudinous concerns of a business that embraced the +habited and unhabited globe,--that employed ships in every sea, and +men in every clime, and brought in to the coffers of the merchant the +revenue of a king. That speechless bust tells us how it was that this +man, from suffering in his father's poverty-stricken house the +habitual pang of hunger, arrived at the greatest fortune, perhaps, +ever accumulated in a single lifetime; you perceive that whatever +thing this strong and compact man set himself to do, he would be +certain to achieve unless stopped by something as powerful as a law of +nature. + +The monument of these two gifted men is the airy and graceful interior +of which their busts are the only ornament. Astor founded the Library, +but it was probably his regard for Irving that induced him to +appropriate part of his wealth for a purpose not in harmony with his +own humor. Irving is known to us all, as only wits and poets are ever +known. But of the singular being who possessed so remarkable a genius +for accumulation, of which this Library is one of the results, little +has been imparted to the public, and of that little the greater part +is fabulous. + +A hundred years ago, in the poor little village of Waldorf, in the +duchy of Baden, lived a jovial, good-for-nothing butcher, named Jacob +Astor, who felt himself much more at home in the beer-house than at +the fireside of his own house in the principal street of the village. +At the best, the butcher of Waldorf must have been a poor man; for, at +that day, the inhabitants of a German village enjoyed the luxury of +fresh meat only on great days, such as those of confirmation, baptism, +weddings, and Christmas. + +The village itself was remote and insignificant, and though situated +in the valley of the Rhine, the native home of the vine, a region of +proverbial fertility, the immediate vicinity of Waldorf was not a rich +or very populous country. The home of Jacob Astor, therefore, seldom +knew any medium between excessive abundance and extreme scarcity, and +he was not the man to make the superfluity of to-day provide for the +need of to-morrow; which was the more unfortunate as the periods of +abundance were few and far between, and the times of scarcity extended +over the greater part of the year. It was the custom then in Germany +for every farmer to provide a fatted pig, calf, or bullock, against +the time of harvest; and as that joyful season approached, the village +butcher went the round of the neighborhood, stopping a day or two at +each house to kill the animals and convert their flesh into bacon, +sausages, or salt beef. During this happy time, Jacob Astor, a merry +dog, always welcome where pleasure and hilarity were going forward, +had enough to drink, and his family had enough to eat. But the merry +time lasted only six weeks. Then set in the season of scarcity, which +was only relieved when there was a festival of the church, a wedding, +a christening, or a birthday in some family of the village rich enough +to provide an animal for Jacob's knife. The wife of this idle and +improvident butcher was such a wife as such men usually contrive to +pick up,--industrious, saving, and capable; the mainstay of his house. +Often she remonstrated with her wasteful and beer-loving husband; the +domestic sky was often overcast, and the children were glad to fly +from the noise and dust of the tempest. + +This roistering village butcher and his worthy, much-enduring wife +were the parents of our millionaire. They had four sons: George Peter +Astor, born in 1752; Henry Astor, born in 1754; John Melchior Astor, +born in 1759; and John Jacob Astor, born July 17, 1763. Each of these +sons made haste to fly from the privations and contentions of their +home as soon as they were old enough; and, what is more remarkable, +each of them had a cast of character precisely the opposite of their +thriftless father. They were all saving, industrious, temperate, and +enterprising, and all of them became prosperous men at an early period +of their career. They were all duly instructed in their father's +trade; each in turn carried about the streets of Waldorf the basket of +meat, and accompanied the father in his harvest slaughtering tours. +Jovial Jacob, we are told, gloried in being a butcher, but three of +his sons, much to his disgust, manifested a repugnance to it, which +was one of the causes of their flight from the parental nest. The +eldest, who was the first to go, made his way to London, where an +uncle was established in business as a maker of musical instruments. +Astor and Broadwood was the name of the firm, a house that still +exists under the title of Broadwood and Co., one of the most noted +makers of pianos in England. In his uncle's manufactory George Astor +served an apprenticeship, and became at length a partner in the firm. +Henry Astor went next. He alone of his father's sons took to his +father's trade. It used to be thrown in his teeth, when he was a +thriving butcher in the city of New York, that he had come over to +America as a private in the Hessian army. This may only have been the +groundless taunt of an envious rival. It is certain, however, that he +was a butcher in New York when it was a British post during the +revolutionary war, and, remaining after the evacuation, made a large +fortune in his business. The third son, John Melchior Astor, found +employment in Germany, and arrived, at length, at the profitable post +of steward to a nobleman's estate. + +Abandoned thus by his three brothers, John Jacob Astor had to endure +for some years a most cheerless and miserable lot. He lost his mother, +too, from whom he had derived all that was good in his character and +most of the happiness of his childhood. A step-mother replaced her, +"who loved not Jacob," nor John Jacob. The father, still devoted to +pleasure, quarrelled so bitterly with his new wife, that his son was +often glad to escape to the house of a schoolfellow (living in 1854), +where he would pass the night in a garret or outhouse, thankfully +accepting for his supper a crust of dry bread, and returning the next +morning to assist in the slaughter-house or carry out the meat. It was +not often that he had enough to eat; his clothes were of the poorest +description; and, as to money, he absolutely had none of it. The +unhappiness of his home and the misconduct of his father made him +ashamed to join in the sports of the village boys; and he passed much +of his leisure alone, brooding over the unhappiness of his lot. The +family increased, but not its income. It is recorded of him that he +tended his little sisters with care and fondness, and sought in all +ways to lessen the dislike and ill-humor of his step-mother. + +It is not hardship, however, that enervates a lad. It is indulgence +and luxury that do that. He grew a stout, healthy, tough, and patient +boy, diligent and skilful in the discharge of his duty, often +supplying the place of his father absent in merry-making. If, in later +life, he overvalued money, it should not be forgotten that few men +have had a harder experience of the want of money at the age when +character is forming. + +The bitterest lot has its alleviations. Sometimes a letter would reach +him from over the sea, telling of the good fortune of a brother in a +distant land. In his old age he used to boast that in his boyhood he +walked forty-five miles in one day for the sole purpose of getting a +letter that had arrived from England or America. The Astors have +always been noted for the strength of their family affection. Our +millionaire forgot much that he ought to have remembered, but he was +not remiss in fulfilling the obligations of kindred. + +It appears, too, that he was fortunate in having a better schoolmaster +than could generally be found at that day in a village school of +Germany. Valentine Jeune was his name, a French Protestant, whose +parents had fled from their country during the reign of Louis XIV. He +was an active and sympathetic teacher, and bestowed unusual pains upon +the boy, partly because he pitied his unhappy situation, and partly +because of his aptitude to learn. Nevertheless, the school routine of +those days was extremely limited. To read and write, to cipher as far +as the Rule of Three, to learn the Catechism by heart, and to sing the +Church Hymns "so that the windows should rattle,"--these were the sole +accomplishments of even the best pupils of Valentine Jeune. Baden was +then under the rule of a Catholic family. It was a saying in Waldorf +that no man could be appointed a swineherd who was not a Catholic, and +that if a mayoralty were vacant the swineherd must have the place if +there were no other Catholic in the town. Hence it was that the line +which separated the Protestant minority from the Catholic majority was +sharply defined, and the Protestant children were the more thoroughly +indoctrinated. Rev. John Philip Steiner, the Protestant pastor of +Waldorf, a learned and faithful minister, was as punctilious in +requiring from the children the thorough learning of the Catechism as +a German sergeant was in exacting all the niceties of the parade. +Young Astor became, therefore, a very decided Protestant; he lived and +died a member of the Church in which he was born. + +The great day in the life of a German child is that of his +confirmation, which usually occurs in his fourteenth year. The +ceremony, which was performed at Waldorf every two years, was a +festival at once solemn and joyous. The children, long prepared +beforehand by the joint labors of minister, schoolmaster, and parents, +walk in procession to the church, the girls in white, the boys in +their best clothes, and there, after the requisite examinations, the +rite is performed, and the Sacrament is administered. The day +concludes with festivity. Confirmation also is the point of division +between childhood and youth,--between absolute dependence and the +beginning of responsibility. After confirmation, the boys of a German +peasant take their place in life as apprentices or as servants; and +the girls, unless their services are required at home, are placed in +situations. Childhood ends, maturity begins, when the child has tasted +for the first time the bread and wine of the Communion. Whether a boy +then becomes an apprentice or a servant depends upon whether his +parents have been provident enough to save a sum of money sufficient +to pay the usual premium required by a master as compensation for his +trouble in teaching his trade. This premium varied at that day from +fifty dollars to two hundred, according to the difficulty and +respectability of the vocation. A carpenter or a blacksmith might be +satisfied with a premium of sixty or seventy dollars, while a +cabinet-maker would demand a hundred, and a musical instrument maker +or a clock-maker two hundred. + +On Palm Sunday, 1777, when he was about fourteen years of age, John +Jacob Astor was confirmed. He then consulted his father upon his +future. Money to apprentice him there was none in the paternal +coffers. The trade of butcher he knew and disliked. Nor was he +inclined to accept as his destiny for life the condition of servant or +laborer. The father, who thought the occupation of butcher one of the +best in the world, and who needed the help of his son, particularly in +the approaching season of harvest, paid no heed to the entreaties of +the lad, who saw himself condemned without hope to a business which he +loathed, and to labor at it without reward. + +A deep discontent settled upon him. The tidings of the good fortune of +his brothers inflamed his desire to seek his fortune in the world. The +news of the Revolutionary War, which drew all eyes upon America, and +in which the people of all lands sympathized with the struggling +colonies, had its effect upon him. He began to long for the "New +Land," as the Germans then styled America; and it is believed in +Waldorf that soon after the capture of Burgoyne had spread abroad a +confidence in the final success of the colonists, the youth formed the +secret determination to emigrate to America. Nevertheless, he had to +wait three miserable years longer, until the surrender of Cornwallis +made it certain that America was to be free, before he was able to +enter upon the gratification of his desire. + +In getting to America, he displayed the same sagacity in adapting +means to ends that distinguished him during his business career in New +York. Money he had never had in his life, beyond a few silver coins of +the smallest denomination. His father had none to give him, even if he +had been inclined to do so. It was only when the lad was evidently +resolved to go that he gave a slow, reluctant consent to his +departure. Waldorf is nearly three hundred miles from the seaport in +Holland most convenient for his purpose. Despite the difficulties, +this penniless youth formed the resolution of going down the Rhine to +Holland, there taking ship for London, where he would join his +brother, and, while earning money for his passage to America, learn +the language of the country to which he was destined. It appears that +he dreaded more the difficulties of the English tongue than he did +those of the long and expensive journey; but he was resolved not to +sail for America until he had acquired the language, and saved a +little money beyond the expenses of the voyage. It appears, also, that +there prevailed in Baden the belief that Americans were exceedingly +selfish and inhospitable, and regarded the poor emigrant only in the +light of prey. John Jacob was determined not to land among such a +people without the means of understanding their tricks and paying his +way. In all ways, too, he endeavored to get a knowledge of the country +to which he was going. + +With a small bundle of clothes hung over his shoulder upon a stick, +with a crown or two in his pocket, he said the last farewell to his +father and his friends, and set out on foot for the Rhine, a few miles +distant. Valentine Jeune, his old schoolmaster, said, as the lad was +lost to view: "I am not afraid of Jacob; he '11 get through the world. +He has a clear head and everything right behind the ears." He was then +a stout, strong lad of nearly seventeen, exceedingly well made, though +slightly undersized, and he had a clear, composed, intelligent look in +the eyes, which seemed to ratify the prediction of the schoolmaster. +He strode manfully out of town, with tears in his eyes and a sob in +his throat,--for he loved his father, his friends, and his native +village, though his lot there had been forlorn enough. While still in +sight of Waldorf, he sat down under a tree and thought of the future +before him and the friends he had left. He there, as he used to relate +in after-life, made three resolutions: to be honest, to be +industrious, and not to gamble,--excellent resolutions, as far as they +go. Having sat awhile under the tree, he took up his bundle and +resumed his journey with better heart. + +It was by no means the intention of this sagacious youth to walk all +the way to the sea-coast. There was a much more convenient way at that +time of accomplishing the distance, even to a young man with only two +dollars in his pocket. The Black Forest is partly in Astor's native +Baden. The rafts of timber cut in the Black Forest, instead of +floating down the Rhine in the manner practised in America, used to be +rowed by sixty or eighty men each, who were paid high wages, as the +labor was severe. + +Large numbers of stalwart emigrants availed themselves of this mode of +getting from the interior to the sea-coast, by which they earned their +subsistence on the way and about ten dollars in money. The tradition +in Waldorf is, that young Astor worked his passage down the Rhine, and +earned his passage-money to England as an oarsman on one of these +rafts. Hard as the labor was, the oarsmen had a merry time of it, +cheering their toil with jest and song by night and day. On the +fourteenth day after leaving home, our youth found himself at a Dutch +seaport, with a larger sum of money than he had ever before possessed. +He took passage for London, where he landed a few days after, in total +ignorance of the place and the language. His brother welcomed him with +German warmth, and assisted him to procure employment,--probably in +the flute and piano manufactory of Astor and Broadwood. + +As the foregoing brief account of the early life of John Jacob Astor +differs essentially from any previously published in the United +States, it is proper that the reader should be informed of the sources +whence we have derived information so novel and unexpected. The +principal source is a small biography of Astor published in Germany +about ten years ago, written by a native of Baden, a Lutheran +clergyman, who gathered his material in Waldorf, where were then +living a few aged persons who remembered Astor when he was a sad and +solitary lad in his father's disorderly house. The statements of this +little book are confirmed by what some of the surviving friends and +descendants of Mr. Astor in New York remember of his own conversation +respecting his early days. He seldom spoke of his life in Germany, +though he remembered his native place with fondness, revisited it in +the time of his prosperity, pensioned his father, and forgot not +Waldorf in his will; but the little that he did say of his youthful +years accords with the curious narrative in the work to which we have +alluded. We believe the reader may rely on our story as being +essentially true. + +Astor brought to London, according to our quaint Lutheran, "a pious, +true, and godly spirit, a clear understanding, a sound youthful +elbow-grease, and the wish to put it to good use." During the two +years of his residence in the British metropolis, he strove most +assiduously for three objects: 1. To save money; 2. To acquire the +English language; 3. To get information respecting America. Much to +his relief and gratification, he found the acquisition of the language +to be the least of his difficulties. Working in a shop with English +mechanics, and having few German friends, he was generally dependent +upon the language of the country for the communication of his desires; +and he was as much surprised as delighted to find how many points of +similarity there were between the two languages. In about six weeks, +he used to say, he could make himself understood a little in English, +and long before he left London he could speak it fluently. He never +learned to write English correctly in his life, nor could he ever +speak it without a decided German accent; but he could always express +his meaning with simplicity and force, both orally and in writing. +Trustworthy information respecting America, in the absence of maps, +gazetteers, and books of travel, was more difficult to procure. The +ordinary Englishman of that day regarded America with horror or +contempt as perverse and rebellious colonies, making a great to-do +about a paltry tax, and giving "the best of kings" a world of trouble +for nothing. He probably heard little of the thundering eloquence with +which Fox, Pitt, Burke, and Sheridan were nightly defending the +American cause in the House of Commons, and assailing the infatuation +of the Government in prosecuting a hopeless war. As often, however, as +our youth met with any one who had been in America, he plied him with +questions, and occasionally he heard from his brother in New York. +Henry Astor was already established, as a butcher on his own account, +wheeling home in a wheelbarrow from Bull's Head his slender purchases +of sheep and calves. But the great difficulty of John Jacob in London +was the accumulation of money. Having no trade, his wages were +necessarily small. Though he rose with the lark, and was at work as +early as five in the morning,--though he labored with all his might, +and saved every farthing that he could spare,--it was two years before +he had saved enough for his purpose. In September, 1783, he possessed +a good suit of Sunday clothes, in the English style, and about fifteen +English guineas,--the total result of two years of unremitting toil +and most pinching economy; and here again charity requires the remark +that if Astor the millionaire carried the virtue of economy to an +extreme, it was Astor the struggling youth in a strange land who +learned the value of money. + +In that month of September, 1783, the news reached London that Dr. +Franklin and his associates in Paris, after two years of negotiation, +had signed the definitive treaty which completed the independence of +the United States. Franklin had been in the habit of predicting that +as soon as America had become an independent nation, the best blood in +Europe, and some of the finest fortunes, would hasten to seek a career +or an asylum in the New World. Perhaps he would have hardly recognized +the emigration of this poor German youth as part of the fulfilment of +his prophecy. Nevertheless, the news of the conclusion of the treaty +had no sooner reached England than young Astor, then twenty years old, +began to prepare for his departure for the "New Land," and in November +he embarked for Baltimore. He paid five of his guineas for a passage +in the steerage, which entitled him to sailors' fare of salt beef and +biscuit. He invested part of his remaining capital in seven flutes, +and carried the rest, about five pounds sterling, in the form of +money. + +America gave a cold welcome to the young emigrant. The winter of +1783-4 was one of the celebrated severe winters on both sides of the +ocean. November gales and December storms wreaked all their fury upon +the ship, retarding its progress so long that January arrived before +she had reached Chesapeake Bay. Floating ice filled the bay as far as +the eye could reach, and a January storm drove the ship among the +masses with such force, that she was in danger of being broken to +pieces. It was on one of those days of peril and consternation, that +young Astor appeared on deck in his best clothes, and on being asked +the reason of this strange proceeding, said that if he escaped with +life he should save his best clothes, and if he lost it his clothes +would be of no further use to him. Tradition further reports that he, +a steerage passenger, ventured one day to come upon the quarter-deck, +when the captain roughly ordered him forward. Tradition adds that that +very captain, twenty years after, commanded a ship owned by the +steerage passenger. When the ship was within a day's sail of her port +the wind died away, the cold increased, and the next morning beheld +the vessel hard and fast in a sea of ice. For two whole months she +remained immovable. Provisions gave out. The passengers were only +relieved when the ice extended to the shore, and became strong enough +to afford communication with other ships and with the coasts of the +bay. Some of the passengers made their way to the shore, and travelled +by land to their homes; but this resource was not within the means of +our young adventurer, and he was obliged to stick to the ship. + +Fortune is an obsequious jade, that favors the strong and turns her +back upon the weak. This exasperating delay of two months was the +means of putting young Astor upon the shortest and easiest road to +fortune that the continent of America then afforded to a poor man. +Among his fellow-passengers there was one German, with whom he made +acquaintance on the voyage, and with whom he continually associated +during the detention of the winter. They told each other their past +history, their present plans, their future hopes. The stranger +informed young Astor that he too had emigrated to America, a few years +before, without friends or money; that he had soon managed to get into +the business of buying furs of the Indians, and of the boatmen coming +to New York from the river settlements; that at length he had embarked +all his capital in skins, and had taken them himself to England in a +returning transport, where he had sold them to great advantage, and +had invested the proceeds in toys and trinkets, with which to continue +his trade in the wilderness. He strongly advised Astor to follow his +example. He told him the prices of the various skins in America, and +the prices they commanded in London. With German friendliness he +imparted to him the secrets of the craft: told him where to buy, how +to pack, transport, and preserve the skins; the names of the principal +dealers in New York, Montreal, and London; and the season of the year +when the skins were most abundant. All this was interesting to the +young man; but he asked his friend how it was possible to begin such a +business without capital. The stranger told him that no great capital +was required for a beginning. With a basket of toys, or even of cakes, +he said, a man could buy valuable skins on the wharves and in the +markets of New York, which could be sold with some profit to New York +furriers. But the grand object was to establish a connection with a +house in London, where furs brought four or five times their value in +America. In short, John Jacob Astor determined to lose no time after +reaching New York, in trying his hand at this profitable traffic. + +The ice broke up in March. The ship made its way to Baltimore, and the +two friends travelled together to New York. The detention in the ice +and the journey to New York almost exhausted Astor's purse. He arrived +in this city, where now his estate is valued at forty millions, with +little more than his seven German flutes, and a long German head full +of available knowledge and quiet determination. He went straight to +the humble abode of his brother Henry, a kindly, generous, jovial +soul, who gave him a truly fraternal welcome, and received with +hospitable warmth the companion of his voyage. + +Henry Astor's prosperity had been temporarily checked by the +evacuation of New York, which had occurred five months before, and +which had deprived the tradesmen of the city of their best customers. +It was not only the British army that had left the city in November, +1783, but a host of British officials and old Tory families as well; +while the new-comers were Whigs, whom seven years of war had +impoverished, and young adventurers who had still their career to +make. During the Revolution, Henry Astor had speculated occasionally +in cattle captured from the farmers of Westchester, which were sold at +auction at Bull's Head, and he had advanced from a wheelbarrow to the +ownership of a horse. An advertisement informs us that, about the time +of his brother's arrival, this horse was stolen, with saddle and +bridle, and that the owner offered three guineas reward for the +recovery of the property; but that "for the thief, horse, saddle, and +bridle, ten guineas would be paid." A month after, we find him +becoming a citizen of the United States, and soon he began to share in +the returning prosperity of the city. + +In the mean time, however, he could do little for his new-found +brother. During the first evening of his brother's stay at his house +the question was discussed, What should the young man do in his new +country? The charms of the fur business were duly portrayed by the +friend of the youth, who also expressed his preference for it. It was +agreed, at length, that the best plan would be for the young man to +seek employment with some one already in the business, in order to +learn the modes of proceeding, as well as to acquire a knowledge of +the country, The young stranger anxiously inquired how much premium +would be demanded by a furrier for teaching the business to a novice, +and he was at once astonished and relieved to learn that no such thing +was known in America, and that he might expect his board and small +wages even from the start. So, the next day, the brothers and their +friend proceeded together to the store of Robert Bowne, an aged and +benevolent Quaker, long established in the business of buying, curing, +and exporting peltries. It chanced that he needed a hand. Pleased with +the appearance and demeanor of the young man, he employed him (as +tradition reports) at two dollars a week and his board. Astor took up +his abode in his master's house, and was soon at work. We can tell the +reader with certainty what was the nature of the youth's first day's +work in his adopted country; for, in his old age, he was often heard +to say that the first thing he did for Mr. Bowne was to beat furs; +which, indeed, was his principal employment during the whole of the +following summer,--furs requiring to be frequently beaten to keep the +moths from destroying them. + +Perhaps among our readers there are some who have formed the +resolution to get on in the world and become rich. We advise such to +observe how young Astor proceeded. We are far from desiring to hold up +this able man as a model for the young; yet it must be owned that in +the art of prospering in business he has had no equal in America; and +in _that_ his example may be useful. Now, observe the secret. It was +not plodding merely, though no man ever labored more steadily than he. +Mr. Bowne, discovering what a prize he had, raised his wages at the +end of the first month. Nor was it _merely_ his strict observance of +the rules of temperance and morality, though that is essential to any +worthy success. The great secret of Astor's early, rapid, and uniform +success in business appears to have been, that he acted always upon +the maxim that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! He labored unceasingly at Mr. +Bowne's to _learn the business_. He put all his soul into the work of +getting a knowledge of furs, fur-bearing animals, fur-dealers, +fur-markets, fur-gathering Indians, fur-abounding countries. In those +days a considerable number of bear skins and beaver skins were brought +directly to Bowne's store by the Indians and countrymen of the +vicinity, who had shot or trapped the animals. These men Astor +questioned; and neglected no other opportunity of procuring the +information he desired. It used to be observed of Astor that he +absolutely loved a fine skin. In later days he would have a superior +fur hung up in his counting-room as other men hang pictures; and this, +apparently, for the mere pleasure of feeling, showing, and admiring +it. He would pass his hand fondly over it, extolling its charms with +an approach to enthusiasm; not, however, forgetting to mention that in +Canton it would bring him in five hundred dollars. So heartily did he +throw himself into his business. + +Growing rapidly in the confidence of his employer, he was soon +intrusted with more important duties than the beating of furs. He was +employed in buying them from the Indians and hunters who brought them +to the city. Soon, too, he took the place of his employer in the +annual journey to Montreal, then the chief fur mart of the country. +With a pack upon his back, he struck into the wilderness above Albany, +and walked to Lake George, which he ascended in a canoe, and having +thus reached Champlain he embarked again, and sailed to the head of +that lake. Returning with his furs, he employed the Indians in +transporting them to the Hudson, and brought them to the city in a +sloop. He was formed by nature for a life like this. His frame was +capable of great endurance, and he had the knack of getting the best +of a bargain. The Indian is a great bargainer. The time was gone by +when a nail or a little red paint would induce him to part with +valuable peltries. It required skill and address on the part of the +trader, both in selecting the articles likely to tempt the vanity or +the cupidity of the red man, and in conducting the tedious negotiation +which usually preceded an exchange of commodities. It was in this kind +of traffic, doubtless, that our young German acquired that +unconquerable propensity for making hard bargains, which was so marked +a feature in his character as a merchant. He could never rise superior +to this early-acquired habit. He never knew what it was to exchange +places with the opposite party, and survey a transaction from _his_ +point of view. He exulted not in compensating liberal service +liberally. In all transactions he kept in view the simple object of +giving the least and getting the most. + +Meanwhile his brother Henry was flourishing. He married the beautiful +daughter of a brother butcher, and the young wife, according to the +fashion of the time, disdained not to assist her husband even in the +slaughter-house as well as in the market-place. Colonel Devoe, in his +well-known Market Book, informs us that Henry Astor was exceedingly +proud of his pretty wife, often bringing her home presents of gay +dresses and ribbons, and speaking of her as "de pink of de Bowery." +The butchers of that day complained bitterly of him, because he used +to ride out of town fifteen or twenty miles, and buy up the droves of +cattle coming to the city, which he would drive in and sell at an +advanced price to the less enterprising butchers. He gained a fortune +by his business, which would have been thought immense, if the +colossal wealth of his brother had not reduced all other estates to +comparative insignificance. It was he who bought, for eight hundred +dollars, the acre of ground on part of which the old Bowery Theatre +now stands. + +John Jacob Astor remained not long in the employment of Robert Bowne. +It was a peculiarity of the business of a furrier at that day, that, +while it admitted of unlimited extension, it could be begun on the +smallest scale, with a very insignificant capital. Every farmer's boy +in the vicinity of New York had occasionally a skin to sell, and bears +abounded in the Catskill Mountains. Indeed the time had not long gone +by when beaver skins formed part of the currency of the-city. All +Northern and Western New York was still a fur-yielding country. Even +Long Island furnished its quota. So that, while the fur business was +one that rewarded the enterprise of great and wealthy companies, +employing thousands of men and fleets of ships, it afforded an opening +to young Astor, who, with the assistance of his brother, could command +a capital of only a very few hundred dollars. In a little shop in +Water Street, with a back-room, a yard, and a shed, the shop furnished +with only a few toys and trinkets, Astor began, business about the +year 1786. He had then, as always, the most unbounded confidence in +his own abilities. He used to relate that, at this time, a new row of +houses in Broadway was the talk of the city from their magnitude and +beauty. Passing them one day, he said to himself: "I'll build some +time or other a greater house than any of these, and in this very +street." He used also to say, in his old age: "The first hundred +thousand dollars--that was hard to get; but afterward it was easy to +make more." + +Having set up for himself, he worked with the quiet, indomitable ardor +of a German who sees clearly his way open before him. At first he did +everything for himself. He bought, cured, beat, packed, and sold his +skins. From dawn till dark, he assiduously labored. At the proper +seasons of the year, with his pack on his back, he made short +excursions into the country, collecting skins from house to house, +gradually extending the area of his travels, till he knew the State of +New York as no man of his day knew it. He used to boast, late in life, +when the Erie Canal had called into being a line of thriving towns +through the centre of the State, that he had himself, in his +numberless tramps, designated the sites of those towns, and predicted +that one day they would be the centres of business and population. +Particularly he noted the spots where Rochester and Buffalo now stand, +one having a harbor on Lake Erie, the other upon Lake Ontario. Those +places, he predicted, would one day be large and prosperous cities, +and that prediction he made when there was scarcely a settlement at +Buffalo, and only wigwams on the site of Rochester. At this time he +had a partner who usually remained in the city, while the agile and +enduring Astor traversed the wilderness. + +It was his first voyage to London that established his business on a +solid foundation. As soon as he had accumulated a few bales of the +skins suited to the European market, he took passage in the steerage +of a ship and conveyed them to London. He sold them to great +advantage, and established connections with houses to which he could +in future consign his furs, and from which he could procure the +articles best adapted to the taste of Indians and hunters. But his +most important operation in London was to make an arrangement with the +firm of Astor & Broadwood, by which he became the New York agent for +the sale of their pianos, flutes, and violins. He is believed to have +been the first man in New York who kept constantly for sale a supply +of musical merchandise, of which the annual sale in New York is now +reckoned at five millions of dollars. On his return to New York, he +opened a little dingy store in Gold Street, between Fulton and Ann, +and swung out a sign to the breeze bearing the words:--FURS AND +PIANOS. + +There were until recently aged men among us who remembered seeing this +sign over the store of Mr. Astor, and in some old houses are preserved +ancient pianos, bearing the name of J.J. Astor, as the seller thereof. +Violins and flutes, also, are occasionally met with that have his name +upon them. In 1790, seven years after his arrival in this city, he was +of sufficient importance to appear in the Directory thus:--ASTOR, +J.J., Fur Trader, 40 Little Dock Street (now part of Water Street). + +In this time of his dawning prosperity, while still inhabiting the +small house of which his store was a part, he married. Sarah Todd was +the maiden name of his wife. As a connection of the family of +Brevoort, she was then considered to be somewhat superior to her +husband in point of social rank, and she brought him a fortune, by no +means despised by him at that time, of three hundred dollars. She +threw herself heartily into her husband's growing business, laboring +with her own hands, buying, sorting, and beating the furs. He used to +say that she was as good a judge of the value of peltries as himself, +and that her opinion in a matter of business was better than that of +most merchants. + +Of a man like Astor all kinds of stories will be told, some true, some +false; some founded upon fact, but exaggerated or distorted. It is +said, for example, that when he went into business for himself, he +used to go around among the shops and markets with a basket of toys +and cakes upon his arm, exchanging those articles for furs. There are +certainly old people among us who remember hearing their parents say +that they saw him doing this. The story is not improbable, for he had +no false pride, and was ready to turn his hand to anything that was +honest. + +Mr. Astor still traversed the wilderness. The father of the late +lamented General Wadsworth used to relate that he met him once in the +woods of Western New York in a sad plight. His wagon had broken down +in the midst of a swamp. In the _melee_ all his gold had rolled away +through the bottom of the vehicle, and was irrecoverably lost; and +Astor was seen emerging from the swamp covered with mud and carrying +on his shoulder an axe,--the sole relic of his property. When at +length, in 1794, Jay's treaty caused the evacuation of the western +forts held by the British, his business so rapidly extended that he +was enabled to devolve these laborious journeys upon others, while he +remained in New York, controlling a business that now embraced the +region of the great lakes, and gave employment to a host of trappers, +collectors, and agents. He was soon in a position to purchase a ship, +in which his furs were carried to London, and in which he occasionally +made a voyage himself. He was still observed to be most assiduous in +the pursuit of commercial knowledge. He was never weary of inquiring +about the markets of Europe and Asia, the ruling prices and +commodities of each, the standing of commercial houses, and all other +particulars that could be of use. Hence his directions to his captains +and agents were always explicit and minute, and if any enterprise +failed to be profitable it could generally be distinctly seen that it +was because his orders had not been obeyed. In London, he became most +intimately conversant with the operations of the East-India Company +and with the China trade. China being the best market in the world for +furs, and furnishing commodities which in America had become +necessaries of life, he was quick to perceive what an advantage he +would have over other merchants by sending his ships to Canton +provided with furs as well as dollars. It was about the year 1800 that +he sent his first ship to Canton, and he continued to carry on +commerce with China for twenty-seven years, sometimes with loss, +generally with profit, and occasionally with splendid and bewildering +success. + +It was not, however, until the year 1800, when he was worth a quarter +of a million dollars, and had been in business fifteen years, that he +indulged himself in the comfort of living in a house apart from his +business. In 1794 he appears in the Directory as "Furrier, 149 +Broadway." From 1796 to 1799 he figures as "Fur Merchant, 149 +Broadway." In 1800 he had a storehouse at 141 Greenwich Street, and +lived at 223 Broadway, on the site of the present Astor House. In +1801, his store was at 71 Liberty Street, and he had removed his +residence back to 149 Broadway. The year following we find him again +at 223 Broadway, where he continued to reside for a quarter of a +century. His house was such as a fifth-rate merchant would now +consider much beneath his dignity. Mr. Astor, indeed, had a singular +dislike to living in a large house. He had neither expensive tastes +nor wasteful vices. His luxuries were a pipe, a glass of beer, a game +of draughts, a ride on horseback, and the theatre. Of the theatre he +was particularly fond. He seldom missed a good performance in the +palmy days of the "Old Park." + +It was his instinctive abhorrence of ostentation and waste that +enabled him, as it were, to glide into the millionaire without being +observed by his neighbors. He used to relate, with a chuckle, that he +was worth a million before any one suspected it. A dandy bank-clerk, +one day, having expressed a doubt as to the sufficiency of his name to +a piece of mercantile paper, Astor asked him how much he thought he +was worth. The clerk mentioned a sum ludicrously less than the real +amount. Astor then asked him how much he supposed this and that +leading merchant, whom he named, was worth. The young man endowed them +with generous sum-totals proportioned to their style of living. +"Well," said Astor, "I am worth more than any of them. I will not say +how much I am worth, but I am worth more than any sum you have +mentioned." "Then," said the clerk, "you are even a greater fool than +I took you for, to work as hard as you do." The old man would tell +this story with great glee, for he always liked a joke. + +In the course of his long life he had frequent opportunities of +observing what becomes of those gay merchants who live up to the +incomes of prosperous years, regardless of the inevitable time of +commercial collapse. It must be owned that he held in utter contempt +the dashing style of living and doing business which has too often +prevailed in New York; and he was very slow to give credit to a house +that carried sail out of proportion to its ballast. Nevertheless, he +was himself no plodder when plodding had ceased to be necessary. At +the time when his affairs were on their greatest scale, he would leave +his office at two in the afternoon, go home to an early dinner, then +mount his horse and ride about the Island till it was time to go to +the theatre. He had a strong aversion to illegitimate speculation, and +particularly to gambling in stocks. The note-shaving and stock-jobbing +operations of the Rothschilds he despised. It was his pride and boast +that he gained his own fortune by legitimate commerce, and by the +legitimate investment of his profits. Having an unbounded faith in the +destiny of the United States, and in the future commercial supremacy +of New York, it was his custom, from about the year 1800, to invest +his gains in the purchase of lots and lands on Manhattan Island. + +We have all heard much of the closeness, or rather the meanness, of +this remarkable man. Truth compels us to admit, as we have before +intimated, that he was not generous, except to his own kindred. His +liberality began and ended in his own family. Very seldom during his +lifetime did he willingly do a generous act outside of the little +circle of his relations and descendants. To get all that he could, and +to keep nearly all that he got,--those were the laws of his being. He +had a vast genius for making money, and that was all that he had. + +It is a pleasure to know that sometimes his extreme closeness defeated +its own object. He once lost seventy thousand dollars by committing a +piece of petty injustice toward his best captain. This gallant sailor, +being notified by an insurance office of the necessity of having a +chronometer on board his ship, spoke to Mr. Astor on the subject, who +advised the captain to buy one. + +"But," said the captain, "I have no five hundred dollars to spare for +such a purpose; the chronometer should belong to the ship." + +"Well," said the merchant, "you need not pay for it now; pay for it at +your convenience." + +The captain still objecting, Astor, after a prolonged higgling, +authorized him to buy a chronometer, and charge it to the ship's +account; which was done. Sailing-day was at hand. The ship was hauled +into the stream. The captain, as is the custom, handed in his account. +Astor, subjecting it to his usual close scrutiny, observed the novel +item of five hundred dollars for the chronometer. He objected, +averring that it was understood between them that the captain was to +pay for the instrument. The worthy sailor recalled the conversation, +and firmly held to his recollection of it. Astor insisting on his own +view of the matter, the captain was so profoundly disgusted that, +important as the command of the ship was to him, he resigned his post. +Another captain was soon found, and the ship sailed for China. Another +house, which was then engaged in the China trade, knowing the worth of +this "king of captains," as Astor himself used to style him, bought +him a ship and despatched him to Canton two months after the departure +of Astor's vessel. Our captain, put upon his mettle, employed all his +skill to accelerate the speed of his ship, and had such success, that +he reached New York with a full cargo of tea just seven days after the +arrival of Mr. Astor's ship. Astor, not expecting another ship for +months, and therefore sure of monopolizing the market, had not yet +broken bulk, nor even taken off the hatchways. Our captain arrived on +a Saturday. Advertisements and handbills were immediately issued, and +on the Wednesday morning following, as the custom then was, the +auction sale of the tea began on the wharf,--two barrels of punch +contributing to the _eclat_ and hilarity of the occasion. The cargo +was sold to good advantage, and the market was glutted. Astor lost in +consequence the entire profits of the voyage, not less than the sum +named above. Meeting the captain some time after in Broadway, he +said,-- + +"I had better have paid for that chronometer of yours." + +Without ever acknowledging that he had been in the wrong, he was glad +enough to engage the captain's future services. This anecdote we +received from the worthy captain's own lips. + +On one occasion the same officer had the opportunity of rendering the +great merchant a most signal service. The agent of Mr. Astor in China +suddenly died at a time when the property in his charge amounted to +about seven hundred thousand dollars. Our captain, who was not then in +Astor's employ, was perfectly aware that if this immense property fell +into official hands, as the law required, not one dollar of it would +ever again find its way to the coffers of its proprietor. By a series +of bold, prompt, and skilful measures, he rescued it from the official +maw, and made it yield a profit to the owner. Mr. Astor acknowledged +the service. He acknowledged it with emphasis and a great show of +gratitude. He said many times:-- + +"If you had not done just as you did, I should never have seen one +dollar of my money; no, not one dollar of it." + +But he not only did not compensate him for his services, but he did +not even reimburse the small sum of money which the captain had +expended in performing those services. Astor was then worth ten +millions, and the captain had his hundred dollars a month and a family +of young children. + +Thus the great merchant recompensed great services. He was not more +just in rewarding small ones. On one occasion a ship of his arrived +from China, which he found necessary to dispatch at once to Amsterdam, +the market in New York being depressed by an over-supply of China +merchandise. But on board this ship, under a mountain of tea-chests, +the owner had two pipes of precious Madeira wine, which had been sent +on a voyage for the improvement of its constitution. + +"Can you get out that wine," asked the owner, "without discharging the +tea?" + +The captain thought he could. + +"Well, then," said Mr. Astor, "you get it out, and I'll give you a +demijohn of it. You'll say it's the best wine you ever tasted." + +It required the labor of the whole ship's crew for two days to get out +those two pipes of wine. They were sent to the house of Mr. Astor. A +year passed. The captain had been to Amsterdam and back, but he had +received no tidings of his demijohn of Madeira. One day, when Mr. +Astor was on board the ship, the captain ventured to remind the great +man, in a jocular manner, that he had not received the wine. + +"Ah!" said Astor, "don't you know the reason? It isn't fine yet. Wait +till it is fine, and you'll say you never tasted such Madeira." The +captain never heard of that wine again. + +These traits show the moral weakness of the man. It is only when we +regard his mercantile exploits that we can admire him. He was, +unquestionably, one of the ablest, boldest, and most successful +operators that ever lived. He seldom made a mistake in the conduct of +business. Having formed his plan, he carried it out with a nerve and +steadiness, with such a firm and easy grasp of all the details, that +he seemed rather to be playing an interesting game than transacting +business. "He could command an army of five hundred thousand men!" +exclaimed one of his admirers. That was an erroneous remark. He could +have commanded an army of five hundred thousand tea-chests, with a +heavy auxiliary force of otter skins and beaver skins. But a commander +of men must be superior morally as well as intellectually. He must be +able to win the love and excite the enthusiasm of his followers. Astor +would have made a splendid commissary-general to the army of Xerxes, +but he could no more have conquered Greece than Xerxes himself. + +The reader may be curious to know by what means Mr. Astor became so +preposterously rich. Few successful men gain a single million by +legitimate commerce. A million dollars is a most enormous sum of +money. It requires a considerable effort of the mind to conceive it. +But this indomitable little German managed, in the course of sixty +years, to accumulate twenty millions; of which, probably, not more +than two millions was the fruit of his business as a fur trader and +China merchant. + +At that day the fur trade was exceedingly profitable, as well as of +vast extent. It is estimated that about the year 1800 the number of +peltries annually furnished to commerce was about six millions, +varying in value from fifteen cents to five hundred dollars. When +every respectable man in Europe and America wore a beaver skin upon +his head, or a part of one, and when a good beaver skin could be +bought in Western New York for a dollar's worth of trash, and could be +sold in London for twenty-five English shillings, and when those +twenty-five English shillings could be invested in English cloth and +cutlery, and sold in New York for forty shillings, it may be imagined +that fur-trading was a very good business. Mr. Astor had his share of +the cream of it, and that was the foundation of his colossal fortune. +Hence, too, the tender love he felt for a fine fur. + +In the next place, his ventures to China were sometimes exceedingly +fortunate. A fair profit on a voyage to China at that day was thirty +thousand dollars. Mr. Astor has been known to gain seventy thousand, +and to have his money in his pocket within the year. He was remarkably +lucky in the war of 1812. All his ships escaped capture, and arriving +at a time when foreign commerce was almost annihilated and tea had +doubled in price, his gains were so immense, that the million or more +lost in the Astorian enterprise gave him not even a momentary +inconvenience. + +At that time, too, tea merchants of large capital had an advantage +which they do not now enjoy. A writer explains the manner in which the +business was done in those days:-- + + "A house that could raise money enough thirty years ago to + send $260,000 in specie, could soon have an uncommon + capital, and this was the working of the old system. The + Griswolds owned the ship Panama. They started her from New + York in the month of May, with a cargo of perhaps $30,000 + worth of ginseng, spelter, lead, iron, etc., and $170,000 in + Spanish dollars. The ship goes on the voyage, reaches + Whampoa in safety (a few miles below Canton). Her supercargo + in two months has her loaded with tea, some china ware, a + great deal of cassia or false cinnamon, and a few other + articles. Suppose the cargo, mainly tea, costing about + thirty-seven cents (at that time) per pound on the average. + + "The duty was enormous in those days. It was twice the cost + of the tea, at least: so that a tea cargo of $200,000, when + it had paid duty of seventy-five cents per pound (which + would be $400,000), amounted to $600,000. The profit was at + least fifty per cent on the original cost, or $100,000, and + would make the cargo worth $700,000. + + "The cargo of teas would be sold almost on arrival (say + eleven or twelve months after the ship left New York in May) + to wholesale grocers, for their notes at four and six + months,--say for $700,000. In those years there was _credit + given by the United States_ of nine, twelve, and eighteen + months! So that the East-India or Canton merchant, after his + ship had made one voyage, had the use of government capital + to the extent of $400,000, on the ordinary cargo of a China + ship. + + "No sooner had the ship Panama arrived (or any of the + regular East-Indiamen), than her cargo would be exchanged + for grocers' notes for $700,000. These notes could be turned + into specie very easily, and the owner had only to pay his + bonds for $400,000 duty, at nine, twelve, and eighteen + months, giving him time actually to send two more ships with + $200,000 each to Canton, and have them back again in New + York before the bonds on the first cargo were due. + + "John Jacob Astor at one period of his life had several + vessels operating in this way. They would go to the Pacific + (Oregon) and carry from thence furs to Canton. These would + be sold at large profits. Then the cargoes of tea to New + York would pay enormous duties, which Astor did not have to + pay to the United States for a year and a half. His tea + cargoes would be sold for good four and six months paper, or + perhaps cash; so that for eighteen or twenty years John + Jacob Astor had what was actually a free-of-interest loan + from Government of over _five millions_ of dollars."[1] + +But it was neither his tea trade nor his fur trade that gave Astor +twenty millions of dollars. It was his sagacity in investing his +profits that made him the richest man in America. When he first trod +the streets of New York, in 1784, the city was a snug, leafy place of +twenty-five thousand inhabitants, situated at the extremity of the +Island, mostly below Cortlandt Street. In 1800, when he began to have +money to invest, the city had more than doubled in population, and had +advanced nearly a mile up the Island. Now, Astor was a shrewd +calculator of the future. No reason appeared why New York should not +repeat this doubling game and this mile of extension every fifteen +years. He acted upon the supposition, and fell into the habit of +buying lands and lots just beyond the verge of the city. One little +anecdote will show the wisdom of this proceeding. He sold a lot in the +vicinity of Wall Street, about the year 1810, for eight thousand +dollars, which was supposed to be somewhat under its value. The +purchaser, after the papers were signed, seemed disposed to chuckle +over his bargain. + +"Why, Mr. Astor," said he, "in a few years this lot will be worth +twelve thousand dollars." + +"Very true," replied Astor; "but now you shall see what I will do with +this money. With eight thousand dollars I buy eighty lots above Canal +Street. By the time your lot is worth twelve thousand dollars, my +eighty lots will be worth eighty thousand dollars"; which proved to be +the fact. + +His purchase of the Richmond Hill estate of Aaron Burr was a case in +point. He bought the hundred and sixty acres at a thousand dollars an +acre, and in twelve years the land was worth fifteen hundred dollars a +lot. In the course of time the Island was dotted all over with Astor +lands,--to such an extent that the whole income of his estate for +fifty years could be invested in new houses without buying any more +land. + +His land speculations, however, were by no means confined to the +little Island of Manhattan. Aged readers cannot have forgotten the +most celebrated of all his operations of this kind, by which he +acquired a legal title to one third of the county of Putnam in this +State. This enormous tract was part of the estate of Roger Morris and +Mary his wife, who, by adhering to the King of Great Britain in the +Revolutionary War, forfeited their landed property in the State of New +York. Having been duly attainted as public enemies, they fled to +England at the close of the war, and the State sold their lands, in +small parcels, to honest Whig farmers. The estate comprised fifty-one +thousand one hundred and two acres, upon which were living, in 1809, +more than seven hundred families, all relying upon the titles which +the State of New York had given. Now Mr. Astor stepped forward to +disturb the security of this community of farmers. It appeared, and +was proved beyond doubt, that Roger and Mary Morris had only possessed +a _life-interest_ in this estate, and that, therefore, it was only +that life-interest which the State could legally confiscate. The +moment Roger and Mary Morris ceased to live, the property would fall +to their heirs, with all the houses, barns, and other improvements +thereon. After a most thorough examination of the papers by the +leading counsel of that day, Mr. Astor bought the rights of the heirs, +in 1809, for twenty thousand pounds sterling. At that time Roger +Morris was no more; and Mary his wife was nearly eighty, and extremely +infirm. She lingered, however, for some years; and it was not till +after the peace of 1815 that the claims of Mr. Astor were pressed. The +consternation of the farmers and the astonishment of the people +generally, when at length the great millionaire stretched out his hand +to pluck this large ripe pear, may be imagined. A great clamor arose +against him. It cannot be denied, however, that he acted in this +business with moderation and dignity. Upon the first rumor of his +claim, in 1814, commissioners were appointed by the Legislature to +inquire into it. These gentlemen, finding the claim more formidable +than had been suspected, asked Mr. Astor for what sum he would +compromise. The lands were valued at six hundred and sixty-seven +thousand dollars, but Astor replied that he would sell his claim for +three hundred thousand. The offer was not accepted, and the affair +lingered. In 1818, Mary Morris being supposed to be at the point of +death, and the farmers being in constant dread of the writs of +ejectment which her death would bring upon them, commissioners were +again appointed by the Legislature to look into the matter. Again Mr. +Astor was asked upon what terms he would compromise. He replied, +January 19, 1819:-- + + "In 1813 or 1814 a similar proposition was made to me by the + commissioners then appointed by the Honorable the + Legislature of this State, when I offered to compromise for + the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, which, + considering the value of the property in question, was + thought very reasonable; and, at the present period, when + the life of Mrs. Morris is, according to calculation, worth + little or nothing, she being near eighty-six years of age, + and the property more valuable than it was in 1813, I am + still willing to receive the amount which I then stated, + with interest on the same, payable in money or stock, + bearing an interest of--per cent, payable quarterly. The + stock may be made payable at such periods as the Honorable + the Legislature may deem proper. This offer will, I trust, + be considered as liberal, and as a proof of my willingness + to compromise on terms which are reasonable, considering the + value of the property, the price which it cost me, and the + inconvenience of having so long laid out of my money, which, + if employed in commercial operations, would most likely have + produced better profits." + +The Legislature were not yet prepared to compromise. It was not till +1827 that a test case was selected and brought to trial before a jury. +The most eminent counsel were employed on the part of the +State,--Daniel Webster and Martin Van Buren among them. Astor's cause +was entrusted to Emmet, Ogden, and others. We believe that Aaron Burr +was consulted on the part of Mr. Astor, though he did not appear in +the trial. The efforts of the array of counsel employed by the State +were exerted in vain to find a flaw in the paper upon which Astor's +claim mainly rested. Mr. Webster's speech on this occasion betrays, +even to the unprofessional reader, both that he had no case and that +he knew he had not, for he indulged in a strain of remark that could +only have been designed to prejudice, not convince, the jury. + +"It is a claim for lands," said he, + + "not in their wild and forest state, but for lands the + intrinsic value of which is mingled with the labor expended + upon them. It is no every-day purchase, for it extends over + towns and counties, and almost takes in a degree of + latitude. It is a stupendous speculation. The individual who + now claims it has not succeeded to it by inheritance; he has + not attained it, as he did that vast wealth which no one + less envies him than I do, by fair and honest exertions in + commercial enterprise, but by speculation, by purchasing the + forlorn hope of the heirs of a family driven from their + country by a bill of attainder. By the defendants, on the + contrary, the lands in question are held as a patrimony. + They have labored for years to improve them. The rugged + hills had grown green under their cultivation before a + question was raised as to the integrity of their titles." + +A line of remark like this would appeal powerfully to a jury of +farmers. Its effect, however, was destroyed by the simple observation +of one of the opposing counsel:-- + +"Mr. Astor bought this property confiding in the justice of the State +of New York, firmly believing that in the litigation of his claim his +rights would be maintained." + +It is creditable to the administration of justice in New York, and +creditable to the very institution of trial by jury, that Mr. Astor's +most unpopular and even odious cause was triumphant. Warned by this +verdict, the Legislature consented to compromise on Mr. Astor's own +terms. The requisite amount of "Astor stock," as it was called, was +created. Mr. Astor received about half a million of dollars, and the +titles of the lands were secured to their rightful owners. + +The crowning glory of Mr. Astor's mercantile career was that vast and +brilliant enterprise which Washington Irving has commemorated in +"Astoria." No other single individual has ever set on foot a scheme so +extensive, so difficult, and so costly as this; nor has any such +enterprise been carried out with such sustained energy and +perseverance. To establish a line of trading-posts from St. Louis to +the Pacific, a four-months' journey in a land of wilderness, prairie, +mountain, and desert, inhabited by treacherous or hostile savages; to +found a permanent settlement on the Pacific coast as the grand _depot_ +of furs and supplies; to arrange a plan by which the furs collected +should be regularly transported to China, and the ships return to New +York laden with tea and silks, and then proceed once more to the +Pacific coast to repeat the circuit; to maintain all the parts of this +scheme without the expectation of any but a remote profit, sending +ship after ship before any certain intelligence of the first ventures +had arrived,--this was an enterprise which had been memorable if it +had been undertaken by a wealthy corporation or a powerful government, +instead of a private merchant, unaided by any resources but his own. +At every moment in the conduct of this magnificent attempt Mr. Astor +appears the great man. His parting instructions to the captain of his +first ship call to mind those of General Washington to St. Clair on a +similar occasion. "All the accidents that have yet happened," said the +merchant, "arose from too much confidence in the Indians." The ship +was lost, a year after, by the disregard of this last warning. When +the news reached New York of the massacre of the crew and the +blowing-up of the ship, the man who flew into a passion at seeing a +little boy drop a wineglass behaved with a composure that was the +theme of general admiration. He attended the theatre the same evening, +and entered heartily into the play. Mr. Irving relates that a friend +having expressed surprise at this, Mr. Astor replied:-- + +"What would you have me do? Would you have me stay at home and weep +for what I cannot help?" + +This was not indifference; for when, after nearly two years of weary +waiting, he heard of the safety and success of the overland +expedition, he was so overjoyed that he could scarcely contain +himself. + +"I felt ready," said he, "to fall upon my knees in a transport of +gratitude." + +A touch in one of his letters shows the absolute confidence he felt in +his own judgment and abilities, a confidence invariably exhibited by +men of the first executive talents. + +"Were I on the spot," he wrote to one of his agents when the affairs +of the settlement appeared desperate, + + "and had the management of affairs, I would defy them all; + but, as it is, everything depends upon you and the friends + about you. Our enterprise is grand and deserves success, and + I hope in God it will meet it. If my object was merely gain + of money, I should say: 'Think whether it is best to save + what we can and abandon the place'; but the thought is like + a dagger to my heart." + +He intimates here that his object was not merely "gain of money." What +was it, then? Mr. Irving informs us that it was desire of fame. We +should rather say that when nature endows a man with a remarkable gift +she also implants within him the love of exercising it. Astor loved to +plan a vast, far-reaching enterprise. He loved it as Morphy loves to +play chess, as Napoleon loved to plan a campaign, as Raphael loved to +paint, and Handel to compose. + +The war of 1812 foiled the enterprise. "But for that war," Mr. Astor +used to say, "I should have been the richest man that ever lived." He +expected to go on expending money for several years, and then to gain +a steady annual profit of millions. It was, however, that very war +that enabled him to sustain the enormous losses of the enterprise +without injury to his estate, or even a momentary inconvenience. +During the first year of the war he had the luck to receive two or +three cargoes of tea from China, despite the British cruisers. In the +second year of the war, when the Government was reduced to borrow at +eighty, he invested largely in the loan, which, one year after the +peace, stood at one hundred and twenty. + +Mr. Astor at all times was a firm believer in the destiny of the +United States. In other words, he held its public stock in profound +respect. He had little to say of politics, but he was a supporter of +the old Whig party for many years, and had a great regard, personal +and political, for its leader and ornament, Henry Clay. He was never +better pleased than when he entertained Mr. Clay at his own house. It +ought to be mentioned in this connection that when, in June, 1812, the +merchants of New York memorialized the Government in favor of the +embargo, which almost annihilated the commerce of the port, the name +of John Jacob Astor headed the list of signatures. + +He was an active business man in this city for about forty-six +years,--from his twenty-first to his sixty-seventh year. Toward the +year 1830 he began to withdraw from business, and undertook no new +enterprises, except such as the investment of his income involved. His +three daughters were married. His son and heir was a man of thirty. +Numerous grandchildren were around him, for whom he manifested a true +German fondness; not, however, regarding them with equal favor. He +dispensed, occasionally, a liberal hospitality at his modest house, +though that hospitality was usually bestowed upon men whose presence +at his table conferred distinction upon him who sat at the head of it. +He was fond, strange as it may seem, of the society of literary men. +For Washington Irving he always professed a warm regard, liked to have +him at his house, visited him, and made much of him. Fitz-Greene +Halleck, one of the best talkers of his day, a man full of fun, +anecdote, and fancy, handsome, graceful, and accomplished, was a great +favorite with him. He afterward invited the poet to reside with him +and take charge of his affairs, which Mr. Halleck did for many years, +to the old gentleman's perfect satisfaction. Still later Dr. Cogswell +won his esteem, and was named by him Librarian of the Astor Library. +For his own part, though he rather liked to be read to in his latter +days, he collected no library, no pictures, no objects of curiosity. +As he had none of the wasteful vices, so also he had none of the +costly tastes. Like all other rich men, he was beset continually by +applicants for pecuniary aid, especially by his own countrymen. As a +rule he refused to give: and he was right. He held beggary of all +descriptions in strong contempt, and seemed to think that, in this +country, want and fault are synonymous. Nevertheless, we are told that +he did, now and then, bestow small sums in charity, though we have +failed to get trustworthy evidence of a single instance of his doing +so. It is, no doubt, absolutely necessary for a man who is notoriously +rich to guard against imposture, and to hedge himself about against +the swarms of solicitors who pervade a large and wealthy city. If he +did not, he would be overwhelmed and devoured. His time would be all +consumed and his estate squandered in satisfying the demands of +importunate impudence. Still, among the crowd of applicants there is +here and there one whose claim upon the aid of the rich man is just. +It were much to be desired that a way should be devised by which these +meritorious askers could be sifted from the mass, and the nature of +their requests made known to men who have the means and the wish to +aid such. Some kind of Benevolent Intelligence Office appears to be +needed among us. In the absence of such an institution we must not be +surprised that men renowned for their wealth convert themselves into +human porcupines, and erect their defensive armor at the approach of +every one who carries a subscription-book. True, a generous man might +establish a private bureau of investigation; but a generous man is not +very likely to acquire a fortune of twenty millions. Such an +accumulation of wealth is just as wise as if a man who had to walk ten +miles on a hot day should, of his own choice, carry on his back a +large sack of potatoes. A man of superior sense and feeling will not +waste his life so, unless he has in view a grand public object. On the +contrary, he will rather do as Franklin did, who, having acquired at +the age of forty-two a modest competence, sold out his thriving +business on easy terms to a younger man, and devoted the rest of his +happy life to the pursuit of knowledge and the service of his country. +But we cannot all be Franklins. In the affairs of the world +millionaires are as indispensable as philosophers; and it is fortunate +for society that some men take pleasure in heaping up enormous masses +of capital. + +Having retired from business, Mr. Astor determined to fulfil the vow +of his youth, and build in Broadway a house larger and costlier than +any it could then boast. Behold the result in the Astor House, which +remains to this day one of our most solid, imposing, and respectable +structures. The ground on which the hotel stands was covered with +substantial three-story brick houses, one of which Astor himself +occupied; and it was thought at the time a wasteful and rash +proceeding to destroy them. Old Mr. Coster, a retired merchant of +great wealth, who lived next door to Mr. Astor's residence, was +extremely indisposed to remove, and held out long against every offer +of the millionaire. His house was worth thirty thousand dollars. Astor +offered him that sum; but the offer was very positively declined, and +the old gentleman declared it to be his intention to spend the +remainder of his days in the house. Mr. Astor offered forty thousand +without effect. At length the indomitable projector revealed his +purpose to his neighbor. + +"Mr. Coster," said he, "I want to build a hotel. I have got all the +other lots; now name your own price." + +To which Coster replied by confessing the real obstacle to the sale. + +"The fact is," said he, "I can't sell unless Mrs. Coster consents. If +she is willing, I'll sell for sixty thousand, and you can call +to-morrow morning and ask her." + +Mr. Astor presented himself at the time named. + +"Well, Mr. Astor," said the lady in the tone of one who was conferring +a very great favor for nothing, "we are such old friends that I am +willing for your sake." + +So the house was bought, and with the proceeds Mr. Coster built the +spacious granite mansion a mile up Broadway, which is now known as +Barnum's Museum. Mr. Astor used to relate this story with great glee. +He was particularly amused at the simplicity of the old lady in +considering it a great favor to him to sell her house at twice its +value. It was at this time that he removed to a wide, two-story brick +house opposite Niblo's, the front door of which bore a large silver +plate, exhibiting to awestruck passers-by the words: "MR. ASTOR." Soon +after the hotel was finished, he made a present of it to his eldest +son, or, in legal language, he sold it to him for the sum of one +dollar, "to him in hand paid." + +In the decline of his life, when his vast fortune was safe from the +perils of business, he was still as sparing in his personal +expenditures, as close in his bargains, as watchful over his +accumulations as he had been when economy was essential to his +solvency and progress. He enjoyed keenly the consciousness, the +feeling of being rich. The roll-book of his possessions was his Bible. +He scanned it fondly, and saw with quiet but deep delight the +catalogue of his property lengthening from month to month. The love of +accumulation grew with his years until it ruled him like a tyrant. If +at fifty he possessed his millions, at sixty-five his millions +possessed him. Only to his own children and to their children was he +liberal; and his liberality to them was all arranged with a view to +keeping his estate in the family, and to cause it at every moment to +tend toward a final consolidation in one enormous mass. He was ever +considerate for the comfort of his imbecile son. One of his last +enterprises was to build for him a commodious residence. + +In 1832, one of his daughters having married a European nobleman, he +allowed himself the pleasure of a visit to her. He remained abroad +till 1835, when he hurried home in consequence of the disturbance in +financial affairs, caused by General Jackson's war upon the Bank of +the United States. The captain of the ship in which he sailed from +Havre to New York has related to us some curious incidents of the +voyage. Mr. Astor reached Havre when the ship, on the point of +sailing, had every state-room engaged; but he was so anxious to get +home, that the captain, who had commanded ships for him in former +years, gave up to him his own state-room. Head winds and boisterous +seas kept the vessel beating about and tossing in the channel for many +days. The great man was very sick and still more alarmed. At length, +being persuaded that he should not survive the voyage, he asked the +captain to run in and set him ashore on the coast of England. The +captain dissuaded him. The old man urged his request at every +opportunity, and said at last: "I give you tousand dollars to put me +aboard a pilot-boat." He was so vehement and importunate, that one day +the captain, worried out of all patience, promised that if he did not +get out of the Channel before the next morning, he would run in and +put him ashore. It happened that the wind changed in the afternoon and +wafted the ship into the broad ocean. But the troubles of the sea-sick +millionaire had only just begun. A heavy gale of some days' duration +blew the vessel along the western coast of Ireland. Mr. Astor, +thoroughly panic-stricken, now offered the captain ten thousand +dollars if he would put him ashore anywhere on the wild and rocky +coast of the Emerald Isle. In vain the captain remonstrated. In vain +he reminded the old gentleman of the danger of forfeiting his +insurance. + +"Insurance!" exclaimed Astor, "can't I insure your ship myself?" + +In vain the captain mentioned the rights of the other passengers. In +vain he described the solitary and rock-bound coast, and detailed the +difficulties and dangers which attended its approach. Nothing would +appease him. He said he would take all the responsibility, brave all +the perils, endure all the consequences; only let him once more feel +the firm ground under his feet. The gale having abated, the captain +yielded to his entreaties, and engaged, if the other passengers would +consent to the delay, to stand in and put him ashore. Mr. Astor went +into the cabin and proceeded to write what was expected to be a draft +for ten thousand dollars in favor of the owners of the ship on his +agent in New York. He handed to the captain the result of his efforts. +It was a piece of paper covered with writing that was totally +illegible. + +"What is this?" asked the captain. + +"A draft upon my son for ten thousand dollars," was the reply. + +"But no one can read it." + +"O yes, my son will know what it is. My hand trembles so that I cannot +write any better." + +"But," said the captain, + + "you can at least write your name. I am acting for the + owners of the ship, and I cannot risk their property for a + piece of paper that no one can read. Let one of the + gentlemen draw up a draft in proper form; you sign it; and I + will put you ashore." + +The old gentleman would not consent to this mode of proceeding, and +the affair was dropped. + +A favorable wind blew the ship swiftly on her way, and Mr. Astor's +alarm subsided. But even on the banks of Newfoundland, two thirds of +the way across, when the captain went upon the poop to speak a ship +bound for Liverpool, old Astor climbed up after him, saying, "Tell +them I give tousand dollars if they take a passenger." + +Astor lived to the age of eighty-four. During the last few years of +his life his faculties were sensibly impaired; he was a child again. +It was, however, while his powers and his judgment were in full vigor +that he determined to follow the example of Girard, and bequeath a +portion of his estate for the purpose of "rendering a public benefit +to the city of New York." He consulted Mr. Irving, Mr. Halleck, Dr. +Cogswell, and his own son with regard to the object of this bequest. +All his friends concurred in recommending a public library; and, +accordingly, in 1839, he added the well-known codicil to his will +which consecrated four hundred thousand dollars to this purpose. To +Irving's Astoria and to the Astor Library he will owe a lasting fame +in the country of his adoption. + +The last considerable sum he was ever known to give away was a +contribution to aid the election to the Presidency of his old friend +Henry Clay. The old man was always fond of a compliment, and seldom +averse to a joke. It was the timely application of a jocular +compliment that won from him this last effort of generosity. When the +committee were presented to him, he began to excuse himself, evidently +intending to decline giving. + +"I am not now interested in these things," said he. + + "Those gentlemen who are in business, and whose property + depends upon the issue of the election, ought to give. But I + am now an old man. I haven't anything to do with commerce, + and it makes no difference to me what the government does. I + don't make money any more, and haven't any concern in the + matter." + +One of the committee replied: + + "Why, Mr. Astor, you are like Alexander, when he wept + because there were no more worlds to conquer. You have made + all the money, and now there is no more money to make." The + old eye twinkled at the blended compliment and jest. + +"Ha, ha, ha! very good, that's very good. Well, well, I give you +something." + +Whereupon he drew his check for fifteen hundred dollars. + +When all else had died within him, when he was at last nourished like +an infant at a woman's breast, and when, being no longer able to ride +in a carriage, he was daily tossed in blanket for exercise, he still +retained a strong interest in the care and increase of his property. +His agent called daily upon him to render a report of moneys received. +One morning this gentleman chanced to enter his room while he was +enjoying his blanket exercise. The old man cried out from the middle +of his blanket,-- + +"Has Mrs. ---- paid that rent yet?" + +"No," replied the agent. + +"Well, but she must pay it," said the poor old man. + +"Mr. Astor," rejoined the agent, "she can't pay it now; she has had +misfortunes, and we must give her time." + +"No, no," said Astor; "I tell you she can pay it, and she will pay it. +You don't go the right way to work with her." + +The agent took leave, and mentioned the anxiety of the old gentleman +with regard to this unpaid rent to his son, who counted out the +requisite sum, and told the agent to give it to the old man as if he +had received it from the tenant. + +"There!" exclaimed Mr. Astor when he received the money, "I told you +she would pay it, if you went the right way to work with her." + +Who would have twenty millions at such a price? + +On the twenty-ninth of March, 1848, of old age merely, in the presence +of his family and friends, without pain or disquiet, this remarkable +man breathed his last. He was buried in a vault in the church of St. +Thomas in Broadway. Though he expressly declared in his will that he +was a member of the Reformed German Congregation, no clergyman of that +church took part in the services of his funeral. The unusual number of +six Episcopal Doctors of Divinity assisted at the ceremony. A bishop +could have scarcely expected a more distinguished funeral homage. Such +a thing it is in a commercial city to die worth twenty millions! The +pall-bearers were Washington Irving, Philip Hone, Sylvanus Miller, +James G. King, Isaac Bell, David B. Ogden, Thomas J. Oakley, Ramsey +Crooks, and Jacob B. Taylor. + +The public curiosity with regard to the will of the deceased +millionaire was fully gratified by the enterprise of the Herald, which +published it entire in five columns of its smallest type a day or two +after the funeral. The ruling desires of Mr. Astor with regard to his +property were evidently these two: 1. To provide amply and safely for +his children, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces; 2. To keep his +estate, as much as was consistent with his desire, in one mass in the +hands of his eldest son. His brother Henry, the butcher, had died +childless and rich, leaving his property to Mr. William B. Astor. To +the descendants of the brother in Germany Mr. Astor left small but +sufficient pensions. + +To many of his surviving children and grandchildren in America he left +life-interests and stocks, which seem designed to produce an average +of about fifteen thousand dollars a year. Other grandsons were to have +twenty-five thousand dollars on reaching the age of twenty-five, and +the same sum when they were thirty. His favorite grandson, Charles +Astor Bristed, since well known to the public as an author and poet, +was left amply provided for. He directed his executors to "provide for +my unfortunate son, John Jacob Astor, and to procure for him all the +comforts which his condition does or may require." For this purpose +ten thousand dollars a year was directed to be appropriated, and the +house built for him in Fourteenth Street, near Ninth Avenue, was to be +his for life. If he should be restored to the use of his faculties, he +was to have an income of one hundred thousand dollars. The number of +persons, all relatives or connections of the deceased, who were +benefited by the will, was about twenty-five. To his old friend and +manager, Fitz-Greene Halleck, he left the somewhat ridiculous annuity +of two hundred dollars, which Mr. William B. Astor voluntarily +increased to fifteen hundred. Nor was this the only instance in which +the heir rectified the errors and supplied the omissions of the will. +He had the justice, to send a considerable sum to the brave old +captain who saved for Mr. Astor the large property in China imperilled +by the sudden death of an agent. The minor bequests and legacies of +Mr. Astor absorbed about two millions of his estate. The rest of his +property fell to his eldest son, under whose careful management it is +supposed to have increased to an amount not less than forty millions. +This may, however, be an exaggeration. Mr. William B. Astor minds his +own business, and does not impart to others the secrets of his +rent-roll. The number of his houses in this city is said to be seven +hundred and twenty. + +The bequests of Mr. Astor for purposes of benevolence show good sense +and good feeling. The Astor Library fund of four hundred thousand +dollars was the largest item. Next in amount was fifty thousand +dollars for the benefit of the poor of his native village in Germany. +"To the German Society of New York," continued the will, + + "I give thirty thousand dollars on condition of their + investing it in bond and mortgage, and applying it for the + purpose of keeping an office and giving advice and + information without charge to all emigrants arriving here, + and for the purpose of protecting them against imposition." + +To the Home for Aged Ladies he gave thirty thousand dollars, and to +the Blind Asylum and the Half-Orphan Asylum each five thousand +dollars. To the German Reformed Congregation, "of which I am a +member," he left the moderate sum of two thousand dollars. These +objects were wisely chosen. The sums left for them, also, were in +many-cases of the amount most likely to be well employed. Twenty-five +thousand dollars he left to Columbia College, but unfortunately +repented, and annulled the bequest in a codicil. + +We need not enlarge on the success which has attended the bequest for +the Astor Library,--a bequest to which Mr. William B. Astor has added, +in land, books, and money, about two hundred thousand dollars. It is +the ornament and boast of the city. Nothing is wanting to its complete +utility but an extension of the time of its being accessible to the +public. Such a library, in such a city as this, should be open at +sunrise, and close at ten in the evening. If but _one_ studious youth +should desire to avail himself of the morning hours before going to +his daily work, the interests of that one would justify the directors +in opening the treasures of the library at the rising of the sun. In +the evening, of course, the library would probably be attended by a +greater number of readers than in all the hours of the day together. + +The bequest to the village of Waldorf has resulted in the founding of +an institution that appears to be doing a great deal of good in a +quiet German manner. The German biographer of Mr. Astor, from whom we +have derived some particulars of his early life, expatiates upon the +merits of this establishment, which, he informs us, is called the +Astor House. + +"Certain knowledge," he says, + + "of Astor's bequest reached Waldorf only in 1850, when a + nephew of Mr. Astor's and one of the executors of his will + appeared from New York in the testator's native town with + power to pay over the money to the proper persons. He kept + himself mostly in Heidelberg, and organized a supervisory + board to aid in the disposition of the funds in accordance + with the testator's intentions. This board was to have its + head-quarters in Heidelberg, and was to consist of + professors in the University there, and clergymen, not less + than five in all. The board of control, however, consists of + the clergy of Waldorf, the burgomaster, the physician, a + citizen named every three years by the Common Council, and + the governor of the Institution, who must be a teacher by + profession. This latter board has control of all the + interior arrangements of the Institution, and the care of + the children and beneficiaries. The leading objects of the + Astor House are: 1. The care of the poor, who, through age, + disease, or other causes, are incapable of labor; 2. The + rearing and instruction of poor children, especially those + who live in Waldorf. Non-residents are received if there is + room, but they must make compensation for their board and + instruction. Children are received at the age of six, and + maintained until they are fifteen or sixteen. Besides school + instruction, there is ample provision for physical culture. + They are trained in active and industrious habits, and each + of them, according to his disposition, is to be taught a + trade, or instructed in agriculture, market-gardening, the + care of vineyards, or of cattle, with a view to rendering + them efficient farm-servants or stewards. It is also in + contemplation to assist the blind and the deaf and dumb, + and, finally, to establish a nursery for very young children + left destitute. Catholics and Protestants are admitted on + equal terms, religious differences not being recognized in + the applicants for admission. Some time having elapsed + before the preliminary arrangements were completed, the + accumulated interest of the fund went so far toward paying + for the buildings, that of the original fifty thousand + dollars not less than forty-three thousand have been + permanently invested for the support of the Institution." + +Thus they manage bequests in Germany! The Astor House was opened with +much ceremony, January 9,1854, the very year in which the Astor +Library was opened to the public in the city of New York. The day of +the founder's death is annually celebrated in the chapel of the +Institution, which is adorned by his portrait. + +These two institutions will carry the name of John Jacob Astor to the +latest generations. But they are not the only services which he +rendered to the public. It would be absurd to contend that in +accumulating his enormous estate, and in keeping it almost entirely in +the hands of his eldest son, he was actuated by a regard for the +public good. He probably never thought of the public good in +connection with the bulk of his property. Nevertheless, America is so +constituted that every man in it of force and industry is necessitated +to be a public servant. If this colossal fortune had been gained in +Europe it would probably have been consumed in what is there called +"founding a family." Mansions would have been built with it, parks +laid out, a title of nobility purchased; and the income, wasted in +barren and stupid magnificence would have maintained a host of idle, +worthless, and pampered menials. Here, on the contrary, it is expended +almost wholly in providing for the people of New York the very +commodity of which they stand in most pressing need; namely, _new +houses_. The simple reason why the rent of a small house in New York +is two thousand dollars a year is, because the supply of houses is +unequal to the demand. We need at this moment five thousand more +houses in the city of New York for the decent accommodation of its +inhabitants at rents which they can afford to pay. The man who does +more than any one else to supply the demand for houses is the patient, +abstemious, and laborious heir of the Astor estate. He does a good +day's work for us in this business every day, and all the wages he +receives for so much care and toil is a moderate subsistence for +himself and his family, and the very troublesome reputation of being +the richest man in America. And the business is done with the minimum +of waste in every department. In a quiet little office in Prince +Street, the manager of the estate, aided by two or three aged clerks +(one of them of fifty-five years' standing in the office), transacts +the business of a property larger than that of many sovereign princes. +Everything, also, is done promptly and in the best manner. If a tenant +desires repairs or alterations, an agent calls at the house within +twenty-four hours, makes the requisite inquiries, reports, and the +work is forthwith begun, or the tenant is notified that it will not be +done. The concurrent testimony of Mr. Astor's tenants is, that he is +one of the most liberal and obliging of landlords. + +So far, therefore, the Astor estate, immense as it is, appears to have +been an unmixed good to the city in which it is mainly invested. There +is every reason to believe that, in the hands of the next heir, it +will continue to be managed with the same prudence and economy that +mark the conduct of its present proprietor. We indulge the hope that +either the present or some future possessor may devote a portion of +his vast revenue to the building of a new order of tenement houses, on +a scale that will enable a man who earns two dollars a day to occupy +apartments fit for the residence of a family of human beings. The time +is ripe for it. May we live to see in some densely populated portion +of the city, a new and grander ASTOR HOUSE arise, that shall +demonstrate to the capitalists of every city in America that nothing +will pay better as an investment than HOUSES FOR THE PEOPLE, which +snail afford to an honest laborer rooms in a clean, orderly, and +commodious palace, at the price he now pays for a corner of a dirty +fever-breeding barrack! + +[Footnote 1: Old Merchants of New York. First Series.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AMERICANS OF RECENT TIMES*** + + +******* This file should be named 12771.txt or 12771.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/7/7/12771 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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