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Horne.</title> + + +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- + +body {font-size: 1em; text-align: justify; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + +h1 {font-size: 120%; text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h2 {font-size: 115%; text-align: center; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h3 {font-size: 105%; text-align: center; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 2em; line-height: 2em;} + +a:focus, a:active { outline:#ffee66 solid 2px; background-color:#ffee66;} +a:focus img, a:active img {outline: #ffee66 solid 2px; } + +hr {width: 20%; text-align: center;} + +ul {list-style-type: none;} +ul li {line-height: 1.5em;} + +table {border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; + width: 95%; margin-left: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em;} +p.tn {margin-left: 10%; width: 80%; font-size: 80%; text-indent: 0em;} + +.pagenum {visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; right:0; text-align: right; + font-size: 10px; + font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; + font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; + color: #C0C0C0; background-color: inherit;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} +.small {font-size: 70%;} +.smaller {font-size: smaller;} +.italic {font-style: italic;} + +.noindent {text-indent: 0em;} +.center {text-align: center;} +.right {text-align: right;} + +.poem30 {text-indent: 0em; margin-left: 30%; font-size: 95%;} + +.figcenter {text-align: center; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +.figcenter p {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} + +.floatright {float: right; clear: right; text-align: center; + padding: 5px; margin: 0 0 0 7px;} + +.floatleft {float: left; clear: left; text-align: center; + padding: 5px; margin: 0 7px 0 0;} + +.ralign85 {position: absolute; right: 15%; top: auto;} +.ralign95 {position: absolute; right: 5%; top: auto;} +--> +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 4 of 8, by Various + +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: Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 4 of 8 + A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more + than 200 of the most prominent personages in History + +Author: Various + +Editor: Charles F. Horne + +Release Date: August 27, 2008 [EBook #26424] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN, FAMOUS WOMEN, VOL. 4 *** + + + + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Christine P. Travers and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="tn">Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all +other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been maintained.</p> + +<a id="img001" name="img001"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="600" height="347" alt="" title=""> +<p>The Berlin Conference.</p></div> + +<h1>GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN</h1> + +<p class="noindent center italic">A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of</p> + +<p class="center noindent">THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY</p> + +<p class="center noindent">Vol. IV.</p> + +<a id="img002" name="img002"></a> +<div class="p2 figcenter"> +<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="400" height="481" alt="Frontpage." title=""> +</div> + +<p class="p4 noindent center"><span class="smaller">Copyright, 1894, BY SELMAR HESS</span><br> +<span class="smcap">edited by Charles F. Horne</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center noindent smaller"><span class="smcap">New-York: Selmar Hess Publisher</span><br> +Copyright, 1894, by <span class="smcap">Selmar Hess</span>.</p> + +<a id="toc" name="toc"></a> +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii"></a>(p. iii)</span> CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV.</h2> + + +<ul> +<li>SUBJECT +<span class="ralign85">AUTHOR</span> <span class="ralign95">PAGE</span></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>JOHN ADAMS, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Edwin Williams,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page251">251</a></span></li> + +<li>Letter from Adams to a friend on the "Destiny of America," +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page252">252</a></span></li> + +<li>LOUIS AGASSIZ, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Asa Gray,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page350">350</a></span></li> + +<li>PRINCE VON BISMARCK, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Prince Outisky,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page385">385</a></span></li> + +<li>SIMON BOLIVAR, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Hon. John P. St. John,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page306">306</a></span></li> + +<li>EDMUND BURKE, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Dr. Heinrich Geffcken,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page226">226</a></span></li> + +<li>JEAN FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Georg Ebers,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page311">311</a></span></li> + +<li>GROVER CLEVELAND, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Clarence Cook,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page403">403</a></span></li> + +<li>GEORGES CUVIER, +<span class="ralign85 italic">John Stoughton, D.D.,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page287">287</a></span></li> + +<li>CHARLES DARWIN, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Arch. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page355">355</a></span></li> + +<li>BENJAMIN DISRAELI, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Harriet Prescott Spofford,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page370">370</a></span></li> + +<li>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page231">231</a></span></li> + +<li>LÉON GAMBETTA, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page363">363</a></span></li> + +<li>WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Justin McCarthy,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page377">377</a></span></li> + +<li>HORACE GREELEY, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Noah Brooks,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page345">345</a></span></li> + +<li>ALEXANDER HAMILTON, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page265">265</a></span></li> + +<li>PATRICK HENRY, +<span class="ralign85 italic">General Bradley T. Johnson,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page236">236</a></span></li> + +<li>ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Louis Agassiz,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page292">292</a></span></li> + +<li>ANDREW JACKSON, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Thomas Wentworth Higginson,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page317">317</a></span></li> + +<li>THOMAS JEFFERSON, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Hon. John B. Henderson,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page256">256</a></span></li> + +<li>ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Terence Vincent Powderly,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page338">338</a></span></li> + +<li>WILLIAM MCKINLEY, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Rossiter Johnson,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page398">398</a></span></li> + +<li>MARIA THERESA, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Anna C. Brackett,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page221">221</a></span></li> + +<li>COUNT DE MIRABEAU, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Charles S. Hathaway,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page273">273</a></span></li> + +<li>ISAAC NEWTON, +<span class="ralign85 italic">John Stoughton, D.D.,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page211">211</a></span></li> + +<li>DANIEL O'CONNELL, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Justin McCarthy,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page300">300</a></span></li> + +<li>CHARLES STEWART PARNELL, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Thomas Davidson,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page395">395</a></span></li> + +<li>JEAN HENRI PESTALOZZI, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Harriet Martineau,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page282">282</a></span></li> + +<li>PETER THE GREAT, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page215">215</a></span></li> + +<li>MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page278">278</a></span></li> + +<li>WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Hon. Charles E. Fitch,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page332">332</a></span></li> + +<li>LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page360">360</a></span></li> + +<li>GEORGE WASHINGTON, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page242">242</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="italic">Letter from Washington to his adopted daughter +on the subject of "Love,"</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page250">250</a></span></li> + +<li>DANIEL WEBSTER, +<span class="ralign85 italic">Rev. Dr. Tweedy,</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page326">326</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="italic">Letter from Webster to his friend Brigham on +the "Choice of a Profession,"</span> +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page331">331</a></span></li> + +<li>WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND, +<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page205">205</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<p class="center noindent">VOLUME IV.</p> +<p class="p2 noindent center">PHOTOGRAVURES</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Illustration list"> +<colgroup> + <col width="60%"> + <col width="30%"> + <col width="10%"> +</colgroup> +<tr> +<td>ILLUSTRATION</td> +<td class="right">ARTIST</td> +<td class="right">To face<br>page<td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE BERLIN CONFERENCE,</td> +<td class="italic right">Anton von Werner</td> +<td class="italic right"><a href="#img001">Frontispiece</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE THIRD ESTATE TAKES REFUGE IN THE TENNIS + COURT,</td> +<td class="italic right">Étienne Lucien Mélingue</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img020">276</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>PESTALOZZI, THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND,</td> +<td class="italic right">Konrad Grob</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img024">286</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE ENROLLMENT OF VOLUNTEERS, 1870,</td> +<td class="italic right">Alfred Paul de Richemont</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img040">368</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>BISMARCK BEFORE PARIS,</td> +<td class="italic right">Ludwig Braun</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img047">390</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="p2 noindent center">WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Illustration list"> +<colgroup> + <col width="60%"> + <col width="30%"> + <col width="10%"> +</colgroup> + +<tr> +<td>COUNCIL OF WAR AFTER THE LANDING OF WILLIAM OF + ORANGE,</td> +<td class="italic right">H. G. Glindoni</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img004">208</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>NEWTON ANALYZING THE RAY OF LIGHT,</td> +<td class="italic right">Loudan</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img006">212</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT SAVED AT THE FOOT + OF THE ALTAR,</td> +<td class="italic right">Steuben</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img008">216</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>BURKE, JOHNSON, AND THEIR FRIENDS,</td> +<td class="italic right">James E. Doyle</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img011">228</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS TO WASHINGTON,</td> +<td class="italic right">Armand Dumaresq</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img015">246</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>ROBESPIERRE'S ARREST,</td> +<td class="italic right">François Flameng</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img022">280</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A. LINCOLN,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img034">340</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>HAWARDEN CASTLE, THE HOME OF GLADSTONE,</td> +<td class="italic right">G. Montbard</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img043">378</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>GLADSTONE'S FIRST HOME RULE BILL,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img044">382</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>PROCLAMATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE AT VERSAILLES,</td> +<td class="italic right">Anton von Werner</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img046">386</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>PARNELL TESTIFYING AGAINST THE "TIMES,"</td> +<td class="italic right">Walter Wilson</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img048">396</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>PRESIDENT MCKINLEY TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE,</td> +<td class="italic right">A. de Thulstrup</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img050">402</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>THE CEREMONY AT GROVER CLEVELAND'S MARRIAGE,</td> +<td class="italic right">A. de Thulstrup</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#img052">406</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND<br> +(1650-1702)</h3> + +<a id="img003" name="img003"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="250" height="364" alt="William III." title=""> +</div> + +<p>William, Prince of Orange, the third king of England of that name, +born November 14, 1650, was the posthumous son of William II., Prince +of Orange, and Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I. of England. The +fortunes of his childhood did not promise that greatness which he +attained. His father had been thought to entertain designs hostile to +the liberties of the United Provinces, and the suspicions of the +father produced distrust of the son. When Cromwell dictated terms of +peace to the Dutch in 1654, one of the articles insisted on the +perpetual exclusion of the Prince of Orange from all the great offices +formerly held by his family; and this sentence of exclusion was +confirmed, so far as Holland was concerned, thirteen years after, by +the enactment of the Perpetual Edict, by which the office of +Stadtholder of Holland was forever abolished. The restoration of the +Stuarts, however, was so far favorable to the interests of the House +of Orange, as to induce the princess-royal to petition, on her son's +behalf, that he might be invested with the offices and dignities +possessed by his ancestors. The provinces of Zealand, Friesland, and +Guelderland warmly espoused her cause: even the States of Holland +engaged to watch over his education, "that he might be rendered +capable of filling the posts held by his forefathers." They formally +adopted him as "a child of the state," and surrounded him with such +persons as were thought likely to educate him in a manner suited to +his station in a free government.</p> + +<p>A storm broke upon Holland just as William was ripening into manhood; +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> and discord at home threatened to aggravate the misfortunes +of the country. The House of Orange had again become popular; and a +loud cry was raised for the instant abolition of the Perpetual Edict, +and for installing the young prince in all the offices enjoyed by his +ancestors. The Republican party, headed by the De Witts, prevented +this; but they were forced to yield to his being chosen +captain-general and high-admiral. Many persons hoped that William's +military rank and prospects would incline his uncle Charles II. to +make common cause with the friends of liberty and independence; but +the English monarch was the pensioner of the French king, and France +and England jointly declared war against the States, April 7, 1672. +The Dutch made large preparations; but new troops could not suddenly +acquire discipline and experience. The enemy meditated, and had nearly +effected, the entire conquest of the country; the populace became +desperate; a total change of government was demanded; the De Witts +were brutally massacred, and William was invested with the full powers +of stadtholder. His fitness for this high office was soon demonstrated +by the vigor and the wisdom of his measures. Maestricht was strongly +garrisoned; the prince of Orange, with a large army, advanced to the +banks of the Issel; the Dutch fleet cruised off the mouth of the +Thames, to prevent the naval forces of England and France from +joining. The following year, 1763, Louis XIV. took Maestricht; while +the Prince of Orange, not having forces sufficient to oppose the +French army, employed himself in retaking other towns from the enemy. +New alliances were formed; and the prince's masterly conduct not only +stopped the progress of the French, but forced them to evacuate the +province of Utrecht. In 1674 the English Parliament compelled Charles +II. to make peace with Holland. The Dutch signed separate treaties +with the Bishop of Munster and the Elector of Cologne. The gallantry +of the prince had so endeared him to the States of Holland, that the +offices of stadtholder and captain-general were declared hereditary in +his male descendants. Meanwhile he continued to display both courage +and conduct in various military operations against the French. The +battle of Seneffe was desperately fought. After sunset, the conflict +was continued by the light of the moon; and darkness, rather than the +exhaustion of the combatants, put an end to the contest, and left the +victory undecided. The veteran Prince of Condé gave a candid and +generous testimonial to the merit of his young antagonist: "The Prince +of Orange," said he, "has in every point acted like an old captain, +except in venturing his life too much like a young soldier."</p> + +<p>In 1675 the sovereignty of Guelderland and of the county of Zutphen +was offered to William, with the title of duke, which was asserted to +have been formerly vested in his family. Those who entertained a bad +opinion of him, and attributed whatever looked like greatness in his +character to ambition rather than patriotism, insinuated that he was +himself the main-spring of this manifest intrigue. He had at least +prudence enough to deliberate on the offer, and to submit it to the +judgment of the States of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht. They viewed +with jealousy the aristocratic dignity, and he wisely refused it. This +forbearance was rewarded by the province of Utrecht, which adopted the +precedent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> of Holland, in voting the stadtholdership +hereditary in the heirs-male of his body.</p> + +<p>The campaign of 1675 passed without any memorable event in the Low +Countries. In the following year hopes of peace were held out from the +meeting of a congress at Nimeguen; but the articles of peace were to +be determined rather by the events of the campaign than by the +deliberations of the negotiators. The French took Condé and several +other places; the Prince of Orange, bent on retaliation, sat down +before Maestricht, the siege of which he urged impetuously; but the +masterly movements of the enemy, and a scarcity of forage, frustrated +his plans. Aire had already been taken; the Duke of Orleans had made +himself master of Bouchain; Marshal Schomberg, to whom Louis had +intrusted his army on retiring to Versailles, was on the advance; and +it was found expedient to raise the siege of Maestricht. It was now +predicted that the war in Flanders would be unfortunate in its issue; +but the Prince of Orange, influenced by the mixed motives of honor, +ambition, and animosity, kept the Dutch Republic steady to the cause +of its allies, and refused to negotiate a separate peace with France. +In October, 1677, he came to England, and was graciously received by +the king, his uncle. His marriage with Mary, eldest daughter of the +Duke of York, was the object of his visit. That event gave general +satisfaction at the time; the consequences which arose from it were +unsuspected by the most far-sighted. At first the king was disinclined +to the match, then neutral; and at last favorable, in the hope of +engaging William to fall in with his designs, and listen to the +separate proposals of the French monarch. The prince, on his part, was +pleased with the prospect, because he expected that the King of +England would, at length, find himself obliged to declare against +Louis, and because he imagined that the English nation would be more +strongly engaged in his interest, and would adopt his views with +respect to the war. In this he was disappointed, though the Parliament +was determined on forcing the king to renounce his alliance with +Louis. But the States had gained no advantage commensurate with the +expense and danger of the contest in which they were engaged, and were +inclined to conclude a separate treaty. Mutual discontent among the +allies led to the dissolution of the confederacy, and a peace +advantageous to France was concluded at Nimeguen in 1678; but causes +of animosity still subsisted. The Prince of Orange, independent of +political enmity, had now personal grounds of complaint against Louis, +who deeply resented the zeal with which William had espoused the +liberties of Europe and resisted his aggressions. He could neither +bend so haughty a spirit to concessions, nor warp his integrity even +by the suggestions of his dominant passion, ambition. But it was in +the power of the French monarch to punish this obstinacy, and by +oppressing the inhabitants of the principality of Orange, to take a +mean revenge on an innocent people for the imputed offences of their +sovereign. In addition to other injuries, when the Duchy of Luxembourg +was invaded by the French troops, the commanding officer had orders to +expose to sale all the lands, furniture, and effects of the Prince of +Orange, although they had been conferred on him by a formal decree of +the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> States of the country. Whether to preserve the +appearance of justice, or merely as an insult, Louis summoned the +Prince to appear before his Privy Council in 1682, by the title of +<span class="italic">Messire Guillaume Comte de Nassau</span>, living at The Hague in Holland. +In the emergency occasioned by the probability of the Dutch frontier +being attacked in 1683, the Prince of Orange exerted all his influence +to procure an augmentation of the troops of the republic; but he had +the mortification to experience an obstinate resistance in several of +the States, especially in that of Holland, headed by the city of +Amsterdam. His coolness and steadiness, qualities invaluable in a +statesman, at length prevailed, and he was enabled to carry his +measures with a high hand.</p> + +<p>The accession of James II. to the throne of Great Britain, in 1685, +was hailed as an opportunity for drawing closer both the personal +friendship and the political alliance between the stadtholder of the +one country and the king of the other; but a totally different result +took place. The headstrong violence of James brought about a coalition +of parties to resist him; and many of the English nobility and gentry +concurred in an application to the Prince of Orange for assistance. At +this crisis, William acted with such circumspection as befitted his +calculating character. The nation was looking forward to the prince +and princess as its only resource against tyranny, civil and +ecclesiastical. Were the presumptive heir to concur in the offensive +measures, he must partake with the king of the popular hatred. Even +the continental alliances, which William was setting his whole soul to +establish and improve, would become objects of suspicion to the +English, and Parliament might refuse to furnish the necessary funds. +Thus by one course he might risk the loss of a succession which was +awaiting him; by an opposite conduct, he might profit by the king's +indiscretion, and even forestall the time when the throne was to be +his in the course of nature. The birth of a son and heir, in June, +1688, seemed to turn the scale in favor of James; but the affections +of his people were not to be recovered; it was even asserted that the +child was supposititious. This event, therefore, confirmed William's +previous choice of the side which he was to take; and his measures +were well and promptly concerted. A declaration was dispersed +throughout Great Britain, setting forth the grievances of the kingdom, +and announcing the immediate introduction of an armed force from +abroad, for the purpose of procuring the convocation of a free +parliament. In a short time, full four hundred transports were hired; +the army rapidly fell down the rivers and canals from Nimeguen; the +artillery, arms, stores, and horses were embarked; and, on October 21, +1668, the prince set sail from Helvoetsluys, with a fleet of near five +hundred vessels, and an army of more than fourteen thousand men. He +was compelled to put back by a storm; but, on a second attempt, he had +a prosperous voyage, while the king's fleet was wind-bound. He arrived +at Torbay on November 4th, and disembarked on the 5th, the anniversary +of the gunpowder treason. The remembrance of Monmouth's ill-fated +rebellion prevented the western people from joining him; but at length +several persons of consideration took up the cause, and an association +was formed for its support. At this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> last hour James +expressed his readiness to make concessions; but it was too late, they +were looked on only as tokens of fear; the confidence of the people in +the king's sincerity was gone forever. But, how much soever his +conduct deserved censure, his distresses entitled him to pity. One +daughter was the wife of his opponent; the other threw herself into +the hands of the insurgents. In the agony of his heart the father +exclaimed, "God help me! my own children have forsaken me!" He sent +the queen and infant prince to France. Public affairs were in the +utmost confusion, and seemed likely to remain so while he stayed in +the island. After many of those perplexing adventures and narrow +escapes which generally befall dethroned royalty, he at length +succeeded in embarking for the continent.</p> + +<a id="img004" name="img004"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="" title=""> +<p>Council of war after the landing of William of Orange.</p></div> + +<p>The prince issued circular letters for the election of members to a +convention, which met January 22, 1689. It appeared at once that the +House of Commons, agreeably to the prevailing sentiments both of the +nation and of those in present authority, was chiefly chosen from +among the Whig party. The throne was declared vacant by the following +vote: "That King James the Second, having endeavored to subvert the +constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between +king and people; and having, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked +persons, violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of +the kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is +thereby vacant." By the national consent, the vacancy was supplied by +his daughter Mary and her husband William jointly.</p> + +<p>The Prince of Orange lost no time in apprising the States-General of +his accession to the British throne. He assured them of his +persevering endeavors to promote the well-being of his native country, +which he was so far from abandoning, that he intended to retain his +high offices in it. War with France was renewed early in 1689 by the +States, supported by the house of Austria and some of the German +princes; nor was it difficult for William to procure the concurrence +of the English Parliament, when the object was the humiliation of +France and her arbitrary sovereign. In the spring of 1689, James +landed in Ireland with a French force, and was received by the +Catholics with marks of strong attachment. Marshal Schomberg was sent +to oppose him, but was able to effect little during the campaign of +that year. William, in the meantime, had been successful in +suppressing a Jacobite insurrection in Scotland, and embarked for +Ireland with a reinforcement in the summer of 1690. He immediately +marched against James, who was strongly posted on the River Boyne. +Schomberg passed the river in person, and put himself at the head of a +corps of French Protestants. Pointing to the enemy, he said, +"Gentlemen, behold your persecutors!" With these words he advanced to +the attack, but was killed by a random shot from the French regiments. +The death of this general was near proving fatal to the English army; +but William retrieved the fortune of the day, and totally dispersed +the opposite force. In this engagement the Irish lost 1,500 men, and +the English about one-third of that number.</p> + +<p>Disturbances again took place among the Jacobites in the Scotch +Highlands. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> A simultaneous insurrection was planned in both +kingdoms, while a descent from the French coast was to have divided +the attention of the friends of government; but the defeat of the +French fleet near Cape La Hogue, in 1692, frustrated this combined +attempt, and relieved the nation from the dread of civil war. In 1691 +the king had placed himself at the head of the Grand Alliance against +France, of which he had been the prime mover; he was, therefore, +absent on the continent during the dangers to which his new kingdom +was exposed. His repeated losses in the following campaigns rather +impaired than enhanced his military renown, though they increased his +already high reputation for personal courage. The death of Queen Mary, +which took place early in 1695, proved a severe calamity, both to the +king and the nation. She had been a vigilant guardian of her husband's +interests, which were constantly exposed to hazard by the conflicts of +party and by the disadvantages under which he labored as a foreigner. +In 1696 a congress was opened at Ryswick, to negotiate a general +peace; and William did not interpose any obstacles. In the following +year the treaty was concluded.</p> + +<p>The King of Spain's death led to the last event of great importance in +William's reign. The powers of Europe had arranged plans to prevent +the accumulation of the Spanish possessions in the houses of Bourbon +and Austria; but the French king violated all his solemn pledges, by +accepting the deceased monarch's will in favor of his own grandson, +the Duke of Anjou. In consequence of this breach of faith, +preparations were made by England and Holland for a renewal of war +with France; but a fall from his horse prevented William from further +pursuing his military career, and the glory of reducing Louis XIV. +within the bounds of his own kingdom was left to be earned by the +generals of Queen Anne. The king was nearly recovered from the +lameness consequent on his fall, when fever supervened; and he died +March 8, 1702, in the fifty-second year of his age and thirteenth of +his reign.</p> + +<p>The character of King William has been drawn with all the exaggeration +of panegyric and obloquy by opposing partisans. His native country +owes him a lasting debt of gratitude, as the second founder of its +liberty and independence; and his adopted country is bound to uphold +his memory, as its champion and deliverer from civil and religious +thraldom. In short, the attachment of the English nation to +constitutional rights and liberal government may be measured by its +adherence to the principles established at the Revolution of 1688 and +its just estimate of that sovereign and those statesmen who placed the +liberties of Great Britain on a solid and lasting foundation.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> ISAAC NEWTON<br> +By <span class="smcap">John Stoughton, D.D.</span><br> +(1642-1727)</h3> + +<a id="img005" name="img005"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="250" height="256" alt="Isaac Newton." title=""> +</div> + +<p>As a literary philosopher, Bacon surpasses Newton; as an experimental +philosopher, Newton surpasses Bacon. Newton's works contain nothing in +point of style and illustration comparable to Bacon's essays; Bacon's +works contain nothing in point of scientific discovery and +mathematical calculation comparable to Newton's "Optics" and +"Principia."</p> + +<p>Newton has been the great glory of the Royal Society; and the Royal +Society is justly proud of its most illustrious ornament. He joined it +in January, 1674, when he was excused the ordinary payment of a +shilling a week, "on account of his low circumstances as he +represented." In 1703 he was elected to the presidential chair, which +he continued to occupy until his death, in 1727. Characteristic +mementoes of him are preserved among the Royal Society's treasures. +There is a solar dial made by the boy Isaac, when, instead of studying +his grammar and learning Virgil and Horace, he was busy making +windmills and water-clocks. We fancy we see him going along the road +to Grantham on a market day with the old servant whom his mother sent +to take care of him, and then stopping by the wayside to watch the +motions of a water-wheel, reflecting upon the mechanical principles +involved in the simplest contrivances. It is pleasant, with our +knowledge of what he afterward became, to sit down on the green bank +by the river side, and to speculate upon the ignorance of the old +servant who accompanied him, and of the farmers they saluted by the +way, as to the illustrious destiny which awaited the widow's son who +lived in the manor house of Woolsthorpe. The reflecting telescope, +preserved along with the dial, was made by Newton in his thirtieth +year, and reminds us of the deep mathematical studies he was then +pursuing at Cambridge. The autograph MS. of the "Principia," also in +the possession of the Royal Society, gives increased vividness to the +picture of this extraordinary person in his study, solving mysterious +problems, and suggesting others still more mysterious; and then the +lock of silvery hair adds the last touch to fancy's picture—like a +stroke of the pencil which, when a portrait is nearly complete, gives +life and expression to the whole.</p> + +<p>Newton was portly but not tall, his silvery locks were abundant +without any <span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> baldness, and his eyes were sparkling and +piercing, though perhaps they failed to indicate the profound genius +which through them looked into the secrets of the universe. Wonderful +humility blended with his intellectual greatness. To other men he +seemed a spirit of higher rank, having almost superhuman faculties of +mental vision, wont to soar into regions which the vulture's eye hath +never seen; to himself he was but a boy playing with the shells on the +seashore, while the ocean lay undiscovered before him. Others were +taken up with what Newton accomplished, Newton was taken up with what +remained to be done. So it is ever with the highest genius; the +broader the range of view, the wider the horizon of mystery. He who +understands more than others is conscious beyond others of what still +remains to be understood.</p> + +<p>Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, on December 25, +1642, one year after the death of Galileo, and just as England was +being plunged into the confusion and miseries of civil war. Strange to +say, as a lad, at first he was inattentive to study; but being struck +a severe blow by a school-fellow, he strangely retaliated by +determining to get above him in the class, which he accomplished, and +ere long became head of the school. His play hours were employed in +mechanical contrivances, and a windmill in the course of erection on +the Grantham road was an object of intense curiosity and a source of +immense instruction. He soon had a windmill of his own, at the top of +the house in which he lived. He had also a water-clock in his bedroom, +and a mechanical carriage in the parlor, in which he could wheel +himself. Paper kites and paper lanterns were his favorite toys. In the +yard of the house he traced on a wall the movements of the sun by +means of fixed pins; the contrivance received the name of "Isaac's +dial," and was a standard of time to the country people in the +neighborhood.</p> + +<a id="img006" name="img006"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="400" height="525" alt="" title=""> +<p>Newton analysing the ray of light.</p></div> + +<p>He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, June 5, 1660, just as England +was astir with restoration festivities, and he soon devoted himself to +mathematical studies. Euclid he took in at a glance, and afterward +proceeded to master Descartes's geometry. Isaac Barrow, then Lucasian +Professor of Mathematics, became his friend and tutor; and the pupil +repaid the master's kind attention by services rendered to him in +connection with his optical lectures. In 1669, Newton succeeded Barrow +in his professorship. He rose to eminence in the university, and in +1688 was chosen its representative in the Convention parliament. In +1695 he was appointed Warden of the Mint, and was promoted to the +Mastership in 1699. After his appointment to a government office he +left Cambridge to reside in London, and occupied for a time a house in +Jermyn Street. From 1710 till two years before his death he lived +close to Leicester Square. Next door to Orange Street Chapel there +stands an old house which has seen a good many changes, and is +identified as the abode of Sir Isaac, who had been knighted by Queen +Anne in 1705. We visited it many years ago. The part of the house most +intimately associated with his name is the little observatory perched +on the roof. We were permitted to ascend into that spot, to see it +desecrated by its present use, for there we found a shoemaker busy at +his toil. A glass cupola <span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> probably crowned the observatory +in Newton's time, and evidently there was a window in each of the four +walls. So here he looked out on the London of nearly a century and a +half ago, hardly less crowded and smoky about the neighborhood than +now. Overhead, where Newton turned his eyes with most interest, we +know it was just the same; the same beautiful stars shining out on a +cold winter's night, the same planets sailing along the same blue +ocean, the same moon throwing its light over the same old city. What +observations, keen and searching, what calculations, intricate and +profound, what speculations, far-reaching and sublime, must there have +been, when one of the most gifted of mortals from that spot looked out +upon the heavens, and in thought went forth on voyages of discovery +into the distant regions of the universe! At the calm, still hour of +midnight, Sirius watching over the city of sleepers, Jupiter carrying +his brilliant lamp along his ancient pathway, every one of the +luminaries in the place appointed by Him who calleth them all by their +names—there stood the thoughtful man, with his reflecting telescope, +occupied with thoughts which we common mortals in vain endeavor to +conjecture.</p> + +<p>The first department in the field which Newton explored with +characteristic success was the study of optics. Philosophers were busy +with inquiries into the nature of light. It had been long believed +that every colored ray is equally refracted when passing through a +lens. Newton determined to analyze the prismatic hues. He made a hole +in a window-shutter, and darkening the room, let in a portion of +light, which he passed through a prism. The <span class="italic">white</span> sunbeam formed a +circular image on the opposite wall, but the <span class="italic">prismatic colors</span> formed +an image five times as long as it was broad. He was curious to know +how this came to pass. Satisfied that the length of the image in the +latter case did not arise from any irregularity in his glass, or from +any differences in the incidence of light from different parts of the +sun's disk, or from any curvature in the direction of the rays, he +concluded, after thorough reflection, that light is not <span class="italic">homogeneous</span>, +but that it consists of rays of diverse refrangibility. The red hue he +saw was less refracted than the orange, the orange less refracted than +the yellow, and the violet more than any of the rest. These important +conclusions he applied in the construction of the first reflecting +telescope ever used in the survey of the heavens, and an instrument is +preserved in Trinity College Library bearing the inscription, +"Invented by Sir Isaac Newton, and made with his own hands, 1671."</p> + +<p>At the request of the Royal Society, he published in the +"Transactions" an account of his optical discoveries, and proved that +white light is a compound of seven prismatic colors.</p> + +<p>Everybody is familiar with the story of Newton's watching the apple +fall from the tree. The tradition is fondly cherished on the spot +where the philosopher is said to have been struck by the fact. The +<span class="italic">law</span> by which the apple falls, not the <span class="italic">reason</span> which underlies the +law, formed the subject of Newton's reflections, and led to the +grandest of modern discoveries. The unknown cause of the apple's +descent is the unknown cause of the planet's motion. That was the +truth, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> simple and grand, which he brought to light and +inculcated on the world. He undertook long calculations which he +expected would prove this theory, but they failed to give the desired +result. He consequently for a time desisted from the inquiry and +turned his attention to other subjects. The error in Newton's first +calculation arose from his taking the radius of the earth according to +the received notion that a degree measured sixty miles, whereas Picard +had determined it to be sixty-nine and a half miles. This was +mentioned at a meeting of the Royal Society in 1682, at which Newton +was present. "It immediately struck him that the value of the earth's +radius was the erroneous element in his first calculation. With a +feverish interest in this result, little imagined by those present, he +hurried home, resumed his calculation with the new value, and having +proceeded some way in it, was so overpowered by nervous agitation at +its anticipated result, that he was unable to go on, and requested a +friend to finish it for him, when it came out, <span class="italic">exactly establishing +the inverse square</span> as the true measure of the moon's gravitation, and +thus furnishing the key to the whole system." Hence proceeded Newton's +immortal work, the "Principia."</p> + +<p>The sublimest conclusion which Newton drew from his cautious and +successful investigations of the laws of nature is put, with his +characteristic humility, in the form of a query: "These things being +rightly described, does it not appear from the phenomena that there is +a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who, in +infinite space (as it were in His sensory), sees the things themselves +intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly +by their immediate presence to Himself?"</p> + +<p>Newton spent his last days in Kensington. "I was, Sunday night," says +his nephew, "March 7, 1725, at Kensington, with Sir Isaac Newton in +his lodgings, just after he was come out of a fit of the gout, which +he had in both of his feet for the first time, in the eighty-third +year of his age. He was better after it, and had his health clearer +and memory stronger than I had known them for some years." A year +later the same diarist says: "April 15, 1726. I passed the whole day +with Sir Isaac Newton, at his lodgings, Orbell's Buildings, +Kensington, which was the last time I saw him." The house was lately +in existence, situated in what is called Bullingham Place, retaining, +when we visited it, a mansion-like aspect, with a large garden and +tall trees. There he died, March 20, 1727, having on the previous day +been able to read the newspaper and to hold a long conversation with +Dr. Mead.</p> + +<p>His body was laid in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, and then buried +in Westminster Abbey.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> PETER THE GREAT<br> +(1672-1725)</h3> + +<a id="img007" name="img007"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="250" height="287" alt="Peter the Great." title=""> +</div> + +<p>At the close of the sixteenth century, the dominions of Russia, or +Muscovy, as it was then more generally called, were far thrown back +from the more civilized nations of southern Europe, by the +intervention of Lithuania, Livonia, and other provinces now +incorporated in the Russian empire, but then belonging either to +Sweden or Poland. The Czar of Muscovy, therefore, possessed no +political weight in the affairs of Europe, and little intercourse +existed between the court of Moscow and the more polished potentates +whom it affected to despise as barbarians, even for some time after +the accession of the reigning dynasty, the house of Romanoff, in 1613, +and the establishment of a more regular government than had previously +been known. We only read occasionally of embassies being sent to +Moscow, in general for the purpose of arranging commercial relations. +From this state of insignificance, Peter, the first Emperor of Russia, +raised his country, by introducing into it the arts of peace, by +establishing a well-organized and disciplined army in the place of a +lawless body of tumultuous mutineers, by creating a navy, where scarce +a merchant vessel existed before, and, as the natural result of these +changes, by important conquests on both the Asiatic and European +frontiers of his hereditary dominions. For these services his +countrymen bestowed on him, yet living, the title of Great; and it is +well deserved, whether we look to the magnitude of those services, the +difficulty of carrying into effect his benevolent designs, which +included nothing less than the remodelling a whole people, or the +grasp of mind and the iron energy of will, which were necessary to +conceive such projects and to overcome the difficulties which beset +them. It will not vitiate his claim to the epithet that his manners +were coarse and boisterous, his amusements often ludicrous and +revolting to a polished taste; if that claim be questionable, it is +because he who aspired to be the reformer of others was unable to +control the violence of his own passions.</p> + +<p>The Czar Alexis, Peter's father, was actuated by somewhat of the +spirit which so distinguished the son. He endeavored to introduce the +European discipline <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> into his armies; he had it much at heart +to turn the attention of the Russians to maritime pursuits; and he +added the fine provinces of Plescow and Smolensko to his paternal +dominions. At the death of Alexis, in 1677, Peter was but five years +old. His eldest brother Theodore succeeded to the throne. Theodore +died after a reign of five years, and named Peter his successor, +passing over the second brother, Ivan, who was weak-minded. Their +ambitious sister, Sophia, stirred the strelitzi, or native militia, to +revolt in favor of Ivan, and Peter and his mother had to take refuge +in the Troitski convent. This retreat being discovered, they were +driven for protection to the church altar itself, where the religion +or superstition of the wild soldiery saved the intended victims. We +pass in silence over the remaining intrigues and insurrections which +troubled the young czar's minority. It was not until the close of the +year 1689, in the eighteenth year of his age, that he finally shook +off the trammels of his ambitious sister, and assumed in reality, as +well as in name, the direction of the state. How he had been qualified +for this task by education does not clearly appear; but even setting +aside the stories which attribute to his sister the detestable design +of leading him into all sorts of excess, and especially drunkenness, +with the hope of ruining both his constitution and intellect, it is +probable that no pains whatever had been taken to form his intellect +or manners for the station which he was to occupy. One of the few +anecdotes told of his early life is, that being struck by the +appearance of a boat on the river Yausa, which runs through Moscow, +and noticing it to be of different construction from the flat-bottomed +vessels commonly in use, he was led to inquire into the method of +navigating it. It had been built for the Czar Alexis by a Dutchman, +who was still in Moscow. He was immediately sent for; he rigged and +repaired the boat, and under his guidance the young prince learned how +to sail her, and soon grew passionately fond of his new amusement. He +had five small vessels built at Plescow, on the lake Peipus; and not +satisfied with this fresh-water navigation, hired a ship at Archangel, +in which he made a voyage to the coast of Lapland. In these +expeditions his love of sailing was nourished into a passion which +lasted through life. He prided himself upon his practical skill as a +seaman; and both at this time and afterward exposed himself and his +friends to no small hazard by his rashness in following this favorite +pursuit.</p> + +<a id="img008" name="img008"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img008.jpg" width="500" height="363" alt="" title=""> +<p>The life of Peter the Great saved at the foot of the +altar.</p></div> + +<p>The first serious object of Peter's attention was to reform the army. +In this he was materially assisted by a Swiss gentleman named Lefort; +at whose suggestion he raised a company of fifty men, who were clothed +and disciplined in the European manner, the Russian army at that time +being little better than a tribe of Tartars. As soon as the little +corps was formed, Peter caused himself to be enrolled in it as a +private soldier. It is a remarkable trait in the character of the man, +that he thought no condescension degrading which forwarded any of his +ends. In the army he entered himself in the lowest rank, and performed +successively the duties of every other; in the navy he went still +further, for he insisted on performing the menial duties of the lowest +cabin-boy, rising step by step, till he was qualified to rate as an +able seaman. Nor was this done merely <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> for the sake of +singularity; he had resolved that every officer of the sea or land +service should enter in the lowest rank of his profession, that he +might obtain a practical knowledge of every task or manœuvre which +it was his duty to see properly executed; and he felt that his +nobility might scarcely be brought to submit to what in their eyes +would be a degradation, except by the personal example of the czar +himself. Meanwhile he had not been negligent of the other arm of war; +for a number of Dutch and Venetian workmen were employed in building +gunboats and small ships of war at Voronitz, on the river Don, +intended to secure the command of the Sea of Azof, and to assist in +capturing the strong town of Azof, then held by the Turks. The +possession of this place was of great importance, from its situation +at the mouth of the Don, commanding access to the Mediterranean Sea. +His first military attempts were accordingly directed against it, and +he succeeded in taking it in 1696.</p> + +<p>In the spring of the ensuing year, the empire being tranquil and the +young czar's authority apparently established on a safe footing, he +determined to travel into foreign countries, to view with his own +eyes, and become personally and practically familiar with the arts and +institutions of refined nations. There was a grotesqueness in his +manner of executing this design, which has tended, more probably than +even its real merit, to make it one of the common-places of history. +Every child knows how the Czar of Muscovy worked in the dock-yard of +Saardam in Holland, as a common carpenter. In most men this would have +been affectation; and perhaps there was some tinge of that weakness in +the earnestness with which Peter handled the axe, obeyed the officers +of the dock-yard, and in all points of outward manners and appearance, +put himself on a level with the shipwrights who were earning their +daily bread. It seems, however, to have been the turn of Peter's mind +always to begin at the beginning; a sound maxim, though here, perhaps, +pushed beyond reasonable bounds. And his abode and occupations in +Holland formed only part of an extensive plan. On quitting Russia he +sent sixty young Russians to Venice and Leghorn to learn ship-building +and navigation, and especially the construction and management of +galleys moved by oars, which were so much used by the Venetian +republic. Others he sent into Holland, with similar instructions; +others into Germany, to study the art of war, and make themselves well +acquainted with the discipline and tactics of the German troops. So +that while his personal labor at Saardam may have been stimulated in +part by affectation of singularity, in part, perhaps, by a love of +bodily exertion common in men of his busy and ardent temper, it would +be unjust not to give him credit for higher motives; such as the +desire to become thoroughly acquainted with the art of ship-building, +which he thought so important, and to set a good example of diligence +to those whom he had sent out on a similar voyage of education.</p> + +<p>Peter remained nine months in Holland, the greatest part of which he +spent in the dock-yard of Saardam. He displayed unwearied zeal in +seeking out and endeavoring to comprehend everything of interest in +science and art, especially in visiting manufactories. In January, +1698, he sailed for London in an English <span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> man-of-war, sent +out expressly to bring him over. His chief object was to perfect +himself in the higher branches of ship-building. With this view he +occupied Mr. Evelyn's house, adjoining the dock-yard of Deptford; and +there remain in that gentleman's journal some curious notices of the +manners of the czar and his household, which were of the least refined +description. During his stay he showed the same earnestness in +inquiring into all things connected with the maritime and commercial +greatness of the country, as before in Holland; and he took away +nearly five hundred persons in his suite, consisting of naval +captains, pilots, gunners, surgeons, and workmen in various trades, +especially those connected with the naval service. In England, without +assuming his rank, he ceased to wear the attire and adopt the habits +of a common workman; and he had frequent intercourse with William +III., who is said to have conceived a strong liking for him, +notwithstanding the uncouthness of his manners. Kneller painted a +portrait of him for the king, which is said to have been a good +likeness.</p> + +<p>He left London in April, 1698, and proceeded to Vienna, principally to +inspect the Austrian troops, then esteemed among the best in Europe. +He had intended to visit Italy; but his return was hastened by the +tidings of a dangerous insurrection having broken out, which, though +suppressed, seemed to render a longer absence from the seat of +government inexpedient. The insurgents were chiefly composed of the +Russian soldiery, abetted by a large party who thought everything +Russian good, and hated and dreaded the czar's innovating temper. Of +those who had taken up arms, many were slain in battle; the rest, with +many persons of more rank and consequence, suspected of being +implicated in the revolt, were retained in prison until the czar +himself should decide their fate. Numerous stories of his extravagant +cruelties on this occasion have been told, which may safely be passed +over as unworthy of credit. It is certain, however, that considerable +severity was shown. This insurrection led to the complete remodelling +of the Russian army, on the same plan which had already been partially +adopted.</p> + +<p>During the year 1699 the czar was chiefly occupied by civil reforms. +According to his own account, as published in his journal, he +regulated the press, caused translations to be published of various +treatises on military and mechanical science and history; he founded a +school for the navy; others for the study of the Latin, German, and +other languages; he encouraged his subjects to cultivate foreign +trade, which before they had absolutely been forbidden to do under +pain of death; he altered the Russian calendar, in which the year +began on September 1st, to agree in that point with the practice of +other nations; he broke through the Oriental custom of not suffering +women to mix in general society; and he paid sedulous attention to the +improvement of his navy on the river Don. We have the testimony of Mr. +Deane, an English ship-builder, that the czar had turned his manual +labors to good account, who states in a letter to England, that "the +czar has set up a ship of sixty guns, where he is both foreman and +masterbuilder; and, not to flatter him, I'll assure your lordship it +will be the best ship <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> among them, and it is all from his own +draught: how he framed her together, and how he made the moulds, and +in so short a time as he did, is really wonderful."</p> + +<p>He introduced an improved breed of sheep from Saxony and Silesia; +despatched engineers to survey the different provinces of his +extensive empire; sent persons skilled in metallurgy to the various +districts in which mines were to be found; established manufactories +of arms, tools, stuffs; and encouraged foreigners skilled in the +useful arts to settle in Russia, and enrich it by the produce of their +industry.</p> + +<p>We cannot trace the progress of that protracted contest between Sweden +and Russia, in which the short-lived greatness of Sweden was broken: +we can only state the causes of the war and the important results to +which it led. Peter's principal motive for engaging in it was his +leading wish to make Russia a maritime and commercial nation. To this +end it was necessary that she should be possessed of ports, of which, +however, she had none but Archangel and Azof, both most inconveniently +situated, as well in respect of the Russian empire itself, as of the +chief commercial nations of Europe. On the waters of the Baltic Russia +did not possess a foot of coast. Both sides of the Baltic, both sides +of the Gulf of Finland, the country between the head of that gulf and +the Lake Ladoga, including both sides of the River Neva, and the +western side of Lake Ladoga itself, and the northern end of Lake +Peipus, belonged to Sweden. In the year 1700, Charles XII. being but +eighteen years of age, Denmark, Poland, and Russia, which had all of +them suffered from the ambition of Sweden, formed a league to repair +their losses, presuming on the weakness usually inherent in a +minority. The object of Russia was the restoration of the provinces of +Ingria, Carelia, and Wiborg, the country round the head of the Gulf of +Finland, which formerly had belonged to her; that of Poland, was the +recovery of Livonia and Esthonia, the greater part of which had been +ceded by her to Charles XI. of Sweden. Denmark was to obtain Holstein +and Sleswick. But Denmark and Poland very soon withdrew, and left +Russia to encounter Sweden single-handed. To this she was entirely +unequal; her army, the bulk of it undisciplined, and even the +disciplined part unpractised in the field, was no match for the +veteran troops of Sweden, the terror of Germany. In the battle of +Narva, a town on the river which runs out of the Peipus Lake, fought +November 30, 1700, 9,000 Swedes defeated signally near forty thousand +Russians, strongly intrenched and with a numerous artillery. Had +Charles prosecuted his success with vigor, he might probably have +delayed for many years the rise of Russia; but whether from contempt +or mistake he devoted his whole attention to the war in Poland, and +left the czar at liberty to recruit and discipline his army, and +improve the resources of his kingdom. In these labors he was most +diligent. His troops, practised in frequent skirmishes with the Swedes +quartered in Ingria and Livonia, rapidly improved, and on the +celebrated field of Pultowa broke forever the power of Charles XII. +This decisive action did not take place until July 8, 1709. The +interval was occupied by a series of small, but important additions to +the Russian territory. In 1701-2, great <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> part of Livonia and +Ingria were subdued, including the banks of the Neva, where on May 27, +1703, the city of St. Petersburg was founded. It was not till 1710 +that the conquest of Courland, with the remainder of Livonia, +including the important harbors of Riga and Revel, gave to Russia that +free navigation of the Baltic Sea which Peter had longed for as the +greatest benefit which he could confer upon his country.</p> + +<p>After the battle of Pultowa Charles fled to Turkey, where he continued +for some years, shut out from his own dominions, and intent chiefly on +spiriting the Porte to make war on Russia. In this he succeeded; but +hostilities were terminated almost at their beginning by the battle of +the Pruth, fought July 20, 1711, in which the Russian army, not +mustering more than forty thousand men, and surrounded by five times +that number of Turks, owed its preservation to Catherine, first the +mistress, at this time the wife, and finally the acknowledged partner +and successor of Peter on the throne of Russia. By her coolness and +prudence, while the czar, exhausted by fatigue, anxiety, and +self-reproach, was laboring under nervous convulsions, to which he was +liable throughout life, a treaty was concluded with the vizier in +command of the Turkish army, by which the Russians preserved indeed +life, liberty, and honor, but were obliged to resign Azof, to give up +the forts and burn the vessels built to command the sea bearing that +name, and to consent to other stipulations, which must have been very +bitter to the hitherto successful conqueror. Returning to the seat of +government, his foreign policy for the next few years was directed to +breaking down the power of Sweden, and securing his new metropolis by +prosecuting his conquests on the northern side of the Gulf of Finland. +Here he was entirely successful; and the whole of Finland itself, and +of the gulf, fell into his hands. These provinces were secured to +Russia by the peace of Nieustadt, in 1721. Upon this occasion the +senate or state assembly of Russia requested him to assume the title +of Emperor of all the Russias, with the adjunct of Great, and Father +of his Country.</p> + +<p>If our sketch of the latter years of Peter's life appears meagre and +unsatisfactory, it is to be recollected that the history of that life +is the history of a great empire, which it would be vain to condense +within our limits, were they greater than they are. Results are all +that we are competent to deal with. From the peace of Nieustadt, the +exertions of Peter, still unremitting, were directed more to +consolidate and improve the internal condition of the empire, by +watching over the changes which he had already made, than to effect +farther conquests, or new revolutions in policy or manners. He died +February 8, 1725, leaving no surviving male issue. Some time before he +had caused the Empress Catherine to be solemnly crowned and associated +with him on the throne, and to her he left the charge of fostering +those schemes of civilization which he had originated.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> MARIA THERESA<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="smaller">[1]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Anna C. Brackett</span><br> +(1717-1780)</h3> + +<a id="img009" name="img009"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img009.jpg" width="250" height="312" alt="Maria Theresa." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, was born May 13, 1717, daughter +of Charles VI. of the house of Hapsburg—ruling Austria for more than +four hundred years—and of Elizabeth of Brunswick. From her father she +inherited the "deadly Hapsburg tenacity," and from her mother much +good sense and capacity for managing affairs, all of which stood her +in good stead. She was especially fortunate in three things: that she +lived in the time of Frederick the Great of Prussia, for thus she had +given to her a chance to know of what stuff she was made; that she did +not marry him, as was proposed by the great Eugene; and that she did +not live to see the beautiful head of her daughter, Marie Antoinette, +fall under the guillotine. Though the court of Charles VI. rivalled in +ceremonial observance that of Spain, the little archduchess was reared +in almost Spartan simplicity of dress and food. From Jesuit text-books +she learned her history and geography, and she spoke several +languages, none of which, however, could she ever write or spell quite +correctly. But chiefly she was taught the pre-eminent dignity and +power of the Hapsburgs, and the necessary indivisibility of the +Austrian state. She learned to hunt, to shoot, and to dance, and at +suppers of state she and her little sister were sometimes allowed to +present to their stately mother her gloves and fan when the emperor +rose. She had an aversion to business and great diffidence of her own +capacity, and though the emperor took her to the council of state at +the time of the Polish election, when she was only sixteen, he yet +failed to give her any real knowledge of the commonest forms of +business. In this austere court, never seeing a smile on her father's +face, she grew up, "the prettiest little maiden in the world," to a +radiant woman, heir-expectant to the throne by virtue of the Pragmatic +Sanction, an order of state by means of which the Emperor Charles VI. +had undertaken to settle the Austrian succession.</p> + +<p>At nineteen she was "beautiful to soul and eye," tall and slight, with +brilliant complexion, sparkling gray eyes, and a profusion of golden +wavy hair. She had an aquiline nose,—strange to say for a Hapsburg, +an exceedingly lovely mouth,—and very beautiful hands and arms. Her +voice was sharp but musical, and her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> quick speech and +animated gestures betrayed an ardent and impetuous nature, though she +never lost her high and dignified bearing. Her anger was easily +roused, but never lasted long, especially when a fault had been +committed against herself, and when she knew that she had been too +angry she tried to atone by overflowing kindness. She needed only to +be convinced that a thing was wrong, to give it up. Whatever she did +she did with her whole heart, and gratitude was one of her strongest +characteristics. Withal she kept a constant and steadfast soul, and +her nature was delicate and refined; she was a worthy sister of +Isabella of Castile. At nineteen, largely through her own persistence, +she escaped being made a sacrifice to the political needs of Austria +in being given to the heir of Philip V. of Spain, and married the man +of her choice, Francis Stephen, the grandson of that Duke of Lorraine +who, in 1683, together with John Sobieski, King of Poland, had saved +Vienna from the Turks. Her husband was of comely person and suave +manners, kind-hearted, though not strong nor brilliant. To him she +bore five sons and eleven daughters. She was looking forward to the +birth of her eldest son, when, at the age of twenty-three, October 20, +1740, she was proclaimed by the heralds Sovereign Archduchess of +Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, for her father lay dead in +Vienna, and all the cares and anxieties of government had fallen upon +her shoulders. Austria was not one nation, but composed of many +differing and scattered peoples jealous of their ancient rights, among +whom there could be no sense of unity, and in his many disastrous wars +her father had lost several of its possessions. There was the +depression of defeat and mismanagement among the state-counsellors, +there were only $65,000 in the treasury, and an army of but 68,000 +soldiers. The powers that had given in their adhesion to the Pragmatic +Sanction were tardily and but half acknowledging her succession, and +from France she could get nothing but dissimulation and uncertainty. +On November 1st the young royal wife was joyfully and peacefully +creating her husband Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, +and co-regent, and conferring upon him the Bohemian electoral vote. In +less than six weeks from that day the Elector of Bavaria had laid +formal claim to her throne, Frederick of Prussia had marched his +troops into Silesia, one of her finest provinces, calling it his own, +and the war of the Austrian Succession was on for seven long years; +for the high, heroic heart would not yield one inch, and the sovereign +ruler of Austria had met with fine Hapsburg scorn the insulting +proposition of the King of Prussia that he would gladly support her +right to the throne of her ancestors, provided she would resign to his +obliging majesty the whole of Silesia.</p> + +<p>The aged counsellors who took it upon themselves to dictate to the +young and inexperienced ruler soon found out their mistake. The little +girl who had displayed an aversion for business was now a woman with +talent for its details, only eager for instruction in order to make up +her own mind. The army must be increased and improved, and the people +aroused to enthusiasm, if Frederick was to be checked. And it was not +Frederick alone that was to be feared, for a great coalition of +European powers was formed against her, and she had but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> +England and Saxony to depend on for help, while the enemy was already +within her dominions. March 13, 1741, her son Joseph was born, and by +September 11th the young mother was in Hungary to urge its people to +come to the aid of the threatened country in its extremity. In deep +mourning and still pale and delicate, holding the little archduke in +her arms, her appeal to the Hungarian nobles roused them to lofty +enthusiasm and gained their unswerving devotion. She never forgot +this, and when she lay dying, spoke of them with grateful affection. +The war went on with varying fortunes, but she kept heart and hope, +though by the end of 1741 the powers were plotting the partition of +Austria as a probable event. By 1743 the luck had changed; the +Austrian army had redeemed itself, and Maria Theresa was fancying that +she should be able to conquer Prussia. It was about this time that she +began greatly to rely on Kaunitz, who afterward became Prime Minister, +and who shaped for all the after-years of her reign the policy of her +rule. The old ministers left her by her father were not able to meet +the new difficulties, and the sovereign was often in great anxiety +amid conflicting and hesitating counsels, for it was nothing less than +the very existence of the country that was at stake. She was +thirty-one years old when the war came to an end by the peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, the particulars of which were entrusted to Kaunitz +while he was ambassador at London. By that treaty Maria Theresa gained +the final guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction, though she had to cede +two of her Italian duchies to the Spanish Bourbons, and Glatz and the +much-desired Silesia to the "bad neighbor," as she always called +Frederick. She was twenty-eight when she had the pleasure of seeing +her husband elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, gaining as his +wife the title of empress, and being thus often spoken of as the +empress-queen.</p> + +<p>The war was over, but she knew full well that it was only for a short +time, and she spent the eight years of restless peace that followed, +in the most unremitting efforts to enable her country to endure the +next attack. She had proved that she could create heroes out of common +men; she was now to extort praise even from Frederick of Prussia for +"accomplishing designs worthy of a great man." A military academy was +created at Vienna; order and economy were brought into the treasury +and the army; she established camps of instruction and went herself to +visit them, recompensing brave officers, calling forth abilities and +emulation. The Department of Justice was disjoined from that of the +Police, a superior court was established, and the direction of the +finances given to a special council, reporting every week to the +empress. She often consulted men who were not in office upon matters +of policy, and thus got many valuable suggestions. Meantime Kaunitz +was ambassador at Paris, and had been bending all his efforts to +secure a French alliance, which seemed to him of so much importance +that he even induced his royal mistress to write to the Pompadour with +a view to securing the influence of Louis XV. in the impending war. +This was not the only time that Maria Theresa sacrificed the woman in +her to the ruler, for though above all breath of scandal, and +devotedly attached to husband and children, she never forgot that she +was Austria, and must maintain <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> her inheritance. Then came on +the Seven Years' War, in which she had as allies almost all Europe, +though at its close she had to give up the last hope of ever regaining +Silesia, which was as dear to her as Calais to Mary of England, +Frederick agreeing to vote for Joseph as successor to his father as +emperor. It was in this war, after the victory of Kolin, that she +founded the military order of Maria Theresa, the beautiful cross of +which is still the highest and most coveted Austrian decoration. At +the end of the war she was forty-six years old, and it was only two +years after, August 18, 1765, that she herself made the shroud for her +husband, and put on the mourning which was to last for fifteen years. +Ever after that she spent in seclusion the whole month of August and +the 18th of every other month, thus breaking the routine of her busy +days. I give in brief the account of one of these: Rising at five or +six, according to the season, prayer, dressing, hearing mass, +breakfast, work till nine on petitions and reports, a second mass, a +visit to her children, more work till dinner at one, and again work. +This she was apt to do in a sentinel-guarded arbor to which she would +go from the palace, carrying despatches and papers in a tray slung by +a cord round her neck. Vespers at six, an evening card-party, supper, +a walk at eight, and then sleep. After the death of Francis she made +her son Joseph joint-ruler, but soon found herself obliged to limit +his authority to the care of the army. At fifty the small-pox greatly +marred her beauty, though she was now at the age when the constant +beauty of soul of her life shone fair on the lofty face. When she was +fifty-three she bade good-by to the little fifteen-years-old Marie +Antoinette, going, as she hoped, to assure the alliance of France, +never to see her again. To her for the rest of Maria Theresa's life, +as to the other married daughters, went a courier every three weeks +with letters, which have been preserved, and may still be read for +knowledge of the mother and empress. At fifty-five Maria Theresa +became a party to the partition of Poland, and because this +transaction is regarded as a blot upon her character, I give in full +the words which she sent to Kaunitz when she returned to him the +signed agreement. She was then fifty-five years old, and keen memories +of 1741 and of her young life must have stirred the trembling pen as +she wrote on it: "<span class="italic">Placet</span>, because so many great and learned men wish +it; but when I have been long dead, people will see what must come +from the violation of everything that until now has been deemed holy +and right." And then on a slip of paper sent with the document stood +these words: "When all my countries were attacked, and I no longer +knew where I might go quietly to lie in, I stood stiff on my good +right and the help of God. But in this affair, when not only clear +justice cries to Heaven against us, but also all fairness and +common-sense condemn us, I must confess that all the days of my life I +have never felt so troubled, and I am ashamed to show myself before +the people. Let the prince consider what an example we give to the +world, when, for a miserable slice of Poland or of Moldavia and +Wallachia, we risk the loss of our honor and reputation. I feel that I +am alone, and no longer in health and strength; and therefore, +although not without my greatest sorrow I allow matters to take their +own course."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> The heaviest burdens and greatest trials of her life were now +over. The fruit of her careful plans was beginning to be reaped in +prosperity, and a long period of tranquillity had come. She turned all +her attention to reforms: academies were established, among others one +for the education of the Magyar noble youth in Vienna, that these +might become the more surely incorporated with the Austrian system. +The public schools were reconstituted, the monasteries reformed, and +no longer allowed to furnish asylums for criminals. Priests were +forbidden to be present at the making of wills, and the Inquisition +was suppressed. Through most convincing efforts on the part of +Kaunitz, the Jesuits had been finally expelled from the country. +Agriculture, trade, and commerce were encouraged, though by the advice +of England the navy was given up. Inoculation for the small-pox was +introduced, and a hospital for its treatment, as well as a home for +veteran soldiers, built in Vienna. When she was sixty, the war of the +Bavarian Succession was happily ended, in opposition to the will of +Joseph, by her most untiring efforts. Servitude and the torture had +been abolished; the taxes, on a better basis, were bringing in large +returns; a standing army had been created, the monarchy lifted and +strengthened, and the court and the people stood together against +oppression from the aristocracy. Austria had been carried from the +Middle Ages into modern times, and was no longer a conglomeration but +a nation.</p> + +<p>Maria Theresa had reached the age of sixty-three when the brave +religious spirit, over which flattery had had no power, was waiting in +pain and anguish but not in fear the hour of its release. The generous +and open hand could no longer give; the heart so keenly sensitive to +criticism was to dread it no more; the eyes that, as she had written +to Marie Antoinette, had shed so many relieving tears were nevermore +to need that relief. "You are all so timid," she said, "I am not +afraid of death. I only pray to God to give me strength to the end." +She did not forget Poland, she gratefully remembered Hungary, and +then, with the cry, "To Thee! I am coming!" she sank back dead, in the +arms of the son whom, as a little baby, she had held up in her brave +arms to plead for the loyalty of the Hungarian nobles. The high +imperial heart had ceased to beat, the house of Hapsburg had come to +an end, and Joseph II., of the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, was the +sovereign ruler of Austria.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig001" name="sig001"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig001.jpg" width="300" height="36" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> EDMUND BURKE<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="smaller">[2]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Dr. Heinrich Geffcken</span><br> +(1730-1797)</h3> + +<a id="img010" name="img010"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img010.jpg" width="250" height="278" alt="Edmund Burke." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Edmund Burke, the great British politician, and one of the greatest +political philosophers that ever lived, was born at Dublin, January 1, +1730, as son of a petty attorney. Conformably to the wishes of his +father, he began to study law in London, but found it so little +attractive that, encouraged by eminent men, particularly by Johnson, +he turned to literary pursuits. His first work, "Vindication of +Natural Society" (1756), which at once won him fame, is a keen satire +on Bolingbroke, showing that the attacks of that writer upon revealed +religion might as well be turned against all social and political +institutions. His reputation was still enhanced by the "Philosophical +Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful" +(1757); and at the same time he showed, by publishing "Dodd's Annual +Register," that he was equally gifted for politics. As a preliminary +for practical activity in that domain, he became private secretary of +Gerard Hamilton, the lieutenant-general's assistant for Ireland, but +soon found that his chief's smart mediocrity only wanted to turn to +advantage the secretary's scantily rewarded talent. He returned to +London (1764), and at once entered upon the political career in which +he was to play so eminent a part.</p> + +<p>The Grenville ministry was dismissed and replaced by an administration +of rather heterogeneous elements, under Lord Rockingham, not a great +statesman, but combining unblemished character and solid gifts with +rank and wealth. Burke became his private secretary and influential +adviser, being at the same time elected a member for Wendover. Matters +then were in a very critical state: while discontent was fast rising +in America and commerce trembling for its colonial trade, two parties +were fiercely opposed in Parliament. Pitt deemed it treason against +the Constitution and to the colonies to tax America without its +consent. Grenville declared it treason to crown and legislature to +abandon that right. Burke, though in principle more inclining to Pitt, +advised a middle course by redressing the grievances of the colonies, +while maintaining the dignity of the crown. The government proposed +(January, 1766) to repeal Grenville's Stamp Act, but to guard the +constitutional rights of the mother-country by a "Declaratory +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> Act." In the debate on these bills Burke made his maiden +speech, which called forth universal admiration; a friend wrote to +him, "You have made us hear a new eloquence." The bills passed, but +the ministry, mined by both parties, soon afterward was obliged to +resign. Burke summed up its activity in an excellent pamphlet, "A +Short Account of a Late Short Administration," and now entered into +opposition against Lord Chatham's ministry, which he called "a +tessellated pavement without cement." On the other hand, he +victoriously refuted the attacks of the Grenvilles against Rockingham, +in his "Observations on the Present State of the Nation," exhibiting +the emptiness of his opponents' declamations on the declining wealth +of the country, and proving that its resources were fast increasing.</p> + +<p>Burke rises still higher in the "Thoughts on the Causes of the Present +Discontents" (1770), a powerful plea for the British Constitution in +its development from 1688, and exhibiting the full maturity of his +talent. He denies that the prevailing discontents are due to some +factious libellers exciting the people, who have no interest in +disorder, but are only roused by the impatience of suffering. The +discontents were real, and their cause was a perversion of the true +principles on which the Constitution rested. As hitherto, business had +gone alternately through the hands of Whigs and Tories, the opposition +controlling the government; but now a court faction had sprung up +called "the king's friends," a double cabinet, acting as irresponsible +wire-pullers behind the scenes. These men deriving, like Janissaries, +a kind of freedom from the very condition of their servitude, were +sitting in secondary, but efficient, departments of office and in the +household of the royal family, so as to occupy the avenues to the +throne and to forward or frustrate the execution of any measure +according to their own interests; they endeavored to separate the +crown from the administration, and to divide the latter within itself. +To this cabal it was owing that British policy was brought into +derision in those foreign countries which, a while ago, trembled at +the power of England's arms. Above all, they tried to pervert the +principles of Parliament by raising divisions among the people, by +influencing the elections, by separating representatives from their +constituents, and by undermining the control of the legislature over +the executive. They maintained that all political connections were in +their nature factious; but free commonwealths were ever made by +parties, <span class="italic">i.e.</span>, bodies of men united for promoting by their joint +endeavors the national interest upon great leading principles in which +they were agreed; government by parties was the very soul of +representative institutions; it had raised England to her present +power and protected the liberty of the people; while the cant, +"measures not men," had always been the pretext for getting loose from +every honorable engagement.</p> + +<p>Burke finds the remedy in restoring the Constitution to its original +principles; all patriots must form a firm combination against the +cabal; a just connection between representatives and constituents must +be re-established; Parliament ought not to meddle with the privileges +of the executive, but exercise real control upon the acting powers of +the state, and if necessary, not be afraid to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> resort to +impeachment, "that great guardian of the purity of the Constitution;" +finally, if all means fail, there must be an interposition of the body +of the people itself—"an unpleasant remedy but legal, when it is +evident that nothing else can hold the Constitution to its true +principles."</p> + +<p>He at the same time displayed a prominent activity in Parliament, +where soon all internal questions gave way to the great contest with +America. In 1771 he had accepted the place of an agent for New York, +had become intimately acquainted with Franklin, and won a deep insight +into American affairs. Of the six duties imposed by Townshend's +Revenue Act (1767) five had been repealed, the tea duty alone +remained. December 18, 1773, the cargo of an East Indian tea-ship was +thrown into the sea at Boston, and the first armed conflict ensued. +Court and government were resolved to put down this rebellion; Burke, +on the contrary, supported in his great speech "On American Taxation" +Rose-Fuller's motion (April, 1774) for suppressing the last duty. +England had no right to tax the colonies, nor had she ever pretended +to do so before Grenville's Stamp Act; that, as well as the most +important duties of the Revenue Act, had been repealed; the tea-duty +was slight and it produced short of nothing, the cost of collection +devouring it to the bone; for the Americans refused to buy imported +tea, and they were right to do so; having inherited English principles +they resisted for the same reason for which Hampden had resisted the +payment of the trifling ship-money, because the principle on which it +was demanded would have made him a slave. It would be a signal folly +to maintain the shadow of a duty and to risk the loss of an empire +merely because the preamble of the Revenue Act said it was expedient +that a revenue should be raised in his majesty's dominions in America.</p> + +<a id="img011" name="img011"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img011.jpg" width="500" height="356" alt="" title=""> +<p>Burke, Johnson and their friends.</p></div> + +<p>The blindness of the majority turned away from those wise counsels. +Parliament was dissolved. Burke, elected for Bristol, forthwith +introduced thirteen resolutions, which he defended in his celebrated +speech for "Conciliation with the Colonies" (March 22, 1775). As he +had told his constituents his aim was to reconcile British superiority +with American liberty, he proposed to remove the ground of the +difference in order to restore the former confidence of the colonies +in the mother-country. "Fighting is not the best way of gaining a +people of more than two millions, in which the fierce spirit of +liberty is probably stronger than in any other country, and that +liberty is founded upon English principles." Now, a fundamental point +of our Constitution is that the people have power of "granting their +own money;" the colonial assemblies have uncontested competence to +raise taxes, and have frequently granted them for imperial purposes; +sometimes so liberally that, in 1743, the Commons resolved to +reimburse the expense; no method for procuring a representation in +Parliament of the colonies has hitherto been advised, consequently no +revenue by imposition has been raised before the Stamp Act; we +therefore ought to acknowledge that only the general assemblies can +grant "aids to his Majesty." To enforce the reverse principle is not +only unjust, but impossible, "when three thousand miles of ocean lie +between us and them. Seas roll and months pass between the order and +the execution. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> We may impoverish the colonies and cripple +our own most important trade, but it is preposterous to make them +unserviceable, in order to keep them obedient." The motions were +rejected; three years afterward, when it was too late, Burke's +opponent, Lord North, proposed a similar plan.</p> + +<p>In 1780 Burke introduced his bill for "Economical reform in support of +several petitions to correct the gross abuses in the management of +public expenditure before laying fresh burdens upon the people." His +speech derives a particular interest from its defining the difference +of timely and gradual reformation from hasty and harsh, making clear +work. The former was an amicable and temperate arrangement with a +friend in power, leaving room for growth; the latter was imposing +terms upon a conquered enemy under a state of inflammation. In 1782 +Lord North was obliged to resign, and Rockingham became again premier, +Burke paymaster-general of the army. He now carried his economical +reform, abolishing sinecures, suppressing useless expenses, and +cutting down salaries, among which was his own.</p> + +<p>After Rockingham's death and the overthrow of the short Shelburne +administration, Burke turned his activity to the misgovernment of +India; his speeches in support of Fox's East-India Bill (December 1, +1783), and on the Nabob of Arcot's debts (February 15, 1783), show +that he had thoroughly mastered that intricate subject. He violently +denounced the oppression exercised by the company, a prelude to his +campaign against Warren Hastings, which he continued for eight years. +His speech justifying the impeachment of the governor-general, said +Erskine, "irresistibly carried away its brilliant audience by a +superhuman eloquence."</p> + +<p>Burke in this contest was, as always, animated by the purest motives, +but his passion went too far in comparing Hastings to Verres, and did +not sufficiently allow for the difficult circumstances in which his +adversary was placed. Without the latter's unscrupulous energy, India +would have been lost. Hastings finally was acquitted, but Burke's +attacks nevertheless had the effect of uncovering and redressing the +prevailing abuses.</p> + +<p>The last period of Burke's life is filled up by his great struggle +against the French revolution. Already in 1769 he had prophetically +asserted that the derangement of French finances must infallibly lead +to a violent convulsion, the influence of which upon France and even +Europe could be scarcely divined; now he directed the attention of the +House (February 4, 1790) to the dangers of the revolution, by which +the French had shown themselves "the ablest architects of ruin," +pulling down all their domestic institutions, making "a digest of +anarchy" called "the rights of men," and establishing a ferocious, +tyrannical, and atheistical democracy. It might be said that they had +done service to England, a rival, by reducing their country to +impotence and expunging it out of the system of Europe; but, by the +vicinity of the two countries, their present distemper might prove +more contagious than the gilded tyranny of Louis XIV. had been, and +"much as it would afflict him, he would abandon his best friends and +join with his worst enemies to oppose all violent exertions of the +spirit of innovation, which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> by tearing to pieces the +contexture of the state prevented all real reformation;" the last +passage alluding to the apology of Fox, hitherto his closest friend, +for French proceedings.</p> + +<p>These ideas Burke more fully developed in his famous "Reflections on +the Revolution in France" (1790); liberals maintained that by this +work he had deserted the cause of liberty; conservatives asserted that +he had become the stoutest champion of order combined with rational +freedom. It must be acknowledged that Burke erred by judging the state +of France before the revolution too favorably; if he justly +appreciated the pernicious influence of Rousseau, "that great +professor and hero of vanity," he ought to have discerned that a +nation, the higher classes of which were undermined by materialism and +unbelief, while the masses lived in deep misery, was incapable of a +temperate reform; the follies and terrors of the revolution were the +children of the sins of the "ancien régime." But how amply has history +confirmed his judgment on the revolution itself! While Fox admired the +constitution of 1791 as "the most astonishing and glorious edifice of +liberty that ever was erected," Burke foresaid that this +constitutional king would be torn from his throne by the mob, that the +wildest anarchy would put France in confusion, and that after its +exhaustion an unlimited military despotism would be established.</p> + +<p>This work, which produced a European sensation, receives its true +light by Burke's "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs" (1791). His +former friends having sided with Fox, he refuted the reproach of +having abandoned his principles by an elaborate comparison of the +English revolution of 1688 with that of France. His later writings, +among which the "Thoughts on French Affairs" (1791) and "Thoughts on a +Regicide Peace" (1796) are the principal, were directed against the +foreign influence of the revolutionary system, "France being no more a +state but a faction, which must be destroyed or will destroy Europe." +Here again Burke was wrong; if France was a revolutionary crater, the +safest way was to let it burn out in itself, while the insane +aggression of continental powers only confirmed the reign of terror. +Burke would go to war for the idea of prescriptive right; Pitt +declined to fight for the French monarchy, and would make war only for +the defence of English interests.</p> + +<p>Although Burke had the satisfaction of gaining the majority for his +views, he retired from Parliament in 1794; a pension which he obtained +he defended in the "Letter to a Noble Lord," a dignified plea, "pro +domo." One of his last works was "Thoughts and Details on Scarcity" +(1795). In a time when political economy was still in a state of +infancy, he held the most enlightened opinions on all questions +relating to it; his doctrines on prices, wages, rent, etc., are still +worth reading. Above all, he opposes indiscreet government tampering +with the trade of provisions. "Once habituated to get cheap bread, the +people will never be satisfied to get it otherwise, and on the first +scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them."</p> + +<p>Burke died July 8, 1797. His was a character of unblemished purity, +manly uprightness, and perfect disinterestedness. He was a +conservative of the truest <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> and best kind, but in his later +years went too far in supporting existing institutions merely because +they existed. Lacking practical accommodation to circumstances, he +would probably not have been a great minister; neither was he a +consummate parliamentary tactician and debater, nevertheless he stands +in the first ranks of statesmen and orators. Lord Brougham goes too +far in calling his speeches spoken dissertations; they were carefully +prepared set speeches. In them, as in his writings, we admire the most +varied information, philosophical acuteness, penetrating sagacity, +curious felicity of expression, and an eloquence embracing the full +range and depth of the subject. Fox avowed that he had learned more +from Burke than from all other men and authors, and for the same +reason his works will remain a mine of political wisdom. The only +drawback is that in his eagerness he sometimes overstated his case, +and, embittered by the struggles of his later years, occasionally +condescended to expressions bordering upon scurrility.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig002" name="sig002"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig002.jpg" width="200" height="55" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + +<h3>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN<br> +(1706-1790)</h3> + +<a id="img012" name="img012"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img012.jpg" width="250" height="278" alt="Benjamin Franklin." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Though eminent qualities are generally necessary to the acquisition of +permanent fame, the life of Franklin affords signal proof that +moderate talents, judiciously directed, when aided by industry and +perseverance, will enable a man to render signal services to his +country and his kind, and give him a claim to the homage of posterity. +He was the fifteenth child of a tallow-chandler in Boston, where he +was born January 17, 1706. His father at first intended to educate him +for the church, but finding that the expense was likely to exceed his +means, he took the boy home after he had acquired little more than the +elements of learning, to assist him in his own trade. The boy greatly +disliked the nature of the employment, and was very anxious to become +a sailor. Fortunately for him his friends controlled his inclinations; +instead of going to sea he was apprenticed to his eldest brother, +James, who was a printer. Franklin records in his Memoirs that though +he had only at this time entered his twelfth year he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span> paid so +much attention to his business that he soon became proficient in all +its details, and, by the quickness with which he executed his work, +obtained a little leisure, which he devoted to study. His studious +habits were noticed by a gentleman named Adams, who had a large +collection of books, which he placed at the disposal of Franklin; +among these were some volumes of poetry, which fired his emulation, +and he began to compose little pieces in verse. Two of these were +printed by his brother and sold as street-ballads, but they were, as +he informs us, wretched doggerel, and the ridicule thrown on them by +his father deterred him from similar attempts. But though he laid +aside poetry, he did not abandon his ambition to become a good English +writer; he studied the art of composition with great labor, being +rewarded by the consciousness of improvement.</p> + +<p>Franklin's self-denial and power of control over his appetites were +not less remarkable than his industry. Having, at the age of sixteen, +read a work which recommended vegetable diet, he determined to adopt +the system, and undertook to provide for himself upon his brother's +allowing him one-half of the ordinary expenses of board. On this +pittance he not only supported himself, but contrived, by great +abstemiousness, to save a portion of it, which he devoted to the +purchase of books. He soon had an opportunity of testing his literary +progress; in 1720 his brother commenced the publication of a +newspaper, the second which had appeared in America, called the <span class="italic">New +England Courant</span>. This paper, at a time when periodicals were rare, +attracted most of the literary men of Boston to the house of the +proprietor; their conversation, and particularly their remarks on the +authorship of the various articles contributed to the paper, revived +Franklin's literary ambition; he sent some communications to the +journal in a feigned hand; they were inserted, and he tells us that +"he had the exquisite pleasure to find that they met with approbation, +and that, in the various conjectures respecting the author, no one was +mentioned who did not enjoy a high reputation in the country for +talents and genius." He was thus encouraged to reveal his secret to +his brother, but he did not obtain the respect and fraternal +indulgence which he had anticipated. James Franklin was a man of +violent temper; he treated Benjamin with great harshness, and often +proceeded to the extremity of blows.</p> + +<p>An article which appeared in the <span class="italic">Courant</span> having given offence to the +authorities, James was thrown into prison for a month, and the +management of the paper devolved on Benjamin. He conducted it with +great spirit, but with questionable prudence, for he made it the +vehicle of sharp attacks on the principal persons in the colony. This +gave such offence that when James was liberated from prison, an +arbitrary order was issued that he should no longer print the paper +called the <span class="italic">New England Courant</span>. To evade this order it was arranged +that Benjamin's indentures should be cancelled in order that the paper +might be published in his name, but at the same time a secret contract +was made between the parties, by which James was entitled to his +brother's services during the unexpired period of apprenticeship. A +fresh quarrel, however, soon arose, and Benjamin separated from his +brother, taking what he has confessed to be an unfair <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> +advantage of the circumstance that the contract could not be safely +brought forward.</p> + +<p>The circumstance produced an unfavorable impression on the minds of +the printers in Boston, and Franklin, finding it impossible to obtain +employment in his native town, resolved to seek it in New York. Aware +that his father would be opposed to this measure, he was compelled to +sell his books to raise money for defraying the expenses of his +journey. America was at this time very thinly inhabited; there were no +public conveyances on the roads, the inns were few, and their +accommodations miserable; but Franklin had accustomed himself to hard +fare, and he did not allow the inconvenience he endured to interfere +with his enjoyment of new scenery. On reaching New York he found that +the printers there had no occasion for his services, and he continued +his journey to Philadelphia. Having obtained employment in that city +from a printer named Keimer, Franklin continued to devote his leisure +hours to literature. The respectability of his appearance and the +superior tone of his conversation began soon to be remarked; they led +to his being introduced to several eminent men, and particularly to +Sir William Keith, the Governor of Pennsylvania, who frequently +invited him to his table. Keith urged Franklin to commence business on +his own account, and when the young man had ineffectually applied for +assistance to his father in Boston, he advised him to go to London and +form a connection with some of the great publishing houses, promising +him letters of credit and recommendation. Franklin sailed for London, +but the promised letters were never sent; and he found himself, on his +arrival in England, thrown entirely on his own resources.</p> + +<p>Having soon obtained employment, he exhibited to his fellow-workmen an +edifying example of industry and temperance, by which many of them +profited. He also published a little work of a sceptical tendency, +which procured him introductions to some eminent men, but which he +afterward lamented as one of the greatest errors of his life. After +remaining about eighteen months in England, he returned to +Philadelphia as a clerk to Mr. Denham, and on the death of that +gentleman went back once more to his old employer, Keimer. About this +time he established a debating society, or club of persons of his own +age, for the discussion of subjects connected with morals, politics, +and natural philosophy. These discussions gradually assumed political +importance, and had a great effect in stimulating the public mind +during the War of Independence.</p> + +<p>Having quarrelled with Keimer, Franklin entered into partnership with +a young man named Meredith, and commenced publishing a paper in +opposition to one which had been started by his former employer. +Meredith proving negligent of business, Franklin was enabled by his +friends to dissolve the partnership, and to take the entire business +into his own hands. His steady adherence to habits of industry and +economy had brought him comparative wealth; and he now married Miss +Read, whom he had met on his first arrival in Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>In 1732 Franklin began the publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac," +which soon became celebrated for its important lessons of practical +morality. These <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> were subsequently collected in a little +volume, and are still highly esteemed both in England and America. His +high character for probity and intelligence induced the citizens of +Philadelphia to intrust him with the management of public affairs; he +was appointed clerk of the general assembly, postmaster, and alderman, +and was put by the governor into the commission of the peace. All the +hours he could spare from business he now devoted to objects of local +utility, and the city of Philadelphia is indebted to him for some of +its finest buildings and best institutions. As his wealth increased he +obtained leisure to devote himself to the study of philosophy, and to +take a leading part in political life.</p> + +<p>We shall first look at his philosophical labors, by which his name +first became known abroad. His attention was drawn to the subject of +electricity in 1746, by some experiments exhibited by Dr. Spence, who +had come to Boston from Scotland. These isolated experiments were made +with no regard to system, and led to no results. A glass tube, and +some other apparatus that had been sent to Franklin by a friend in +London, enabled him to repeat and verify these experiments. He soon +began to devise new forms of investigation for himself, and at length +made the great discovery, which may be said to be the foundation of +electrical science, that there is a positive and negative state of +electricity. By this fact he explained the phenomenon of the Leyden +phial, which at that time excited great attention in Europe, and had +foiled the sagacity of its principal philosophers. In the course of +his investigations he was led to suspect the identity of lightning and +the electric fluid; and he resolved to test this happy conjecture by a +direct experiment. His apparatus was simply a paper-kite with a key +attached to the tail. Having raised the kite during a thunder-storm, +he watched the result with great anxiety; after an interval of painful +suspense, he saw the filaments of the string exhibit by their motion +signs of electrical action; he drew in the kite, and, presenting his +knuckles to the key, received a strong spark, which of course decided +the success of the experiment. Repeated sparks were drawn from the +key, a phial was charged, a shock given, and the identity of lightning +with the electric fluid demonstrated beyond all possibility of doubt.</p> + +<p>Franklin had from time to time transmitted accounts of his electrical +experiments to his friend, Mr. Collinson, in England, in order that +they should be laid before the Council of the Royal Society; but, as +they were not published in the "Transactions" of that learned body, +Collinson gave copies of the communications to Cave, for insertion in +the <span class="italic">Gentleman's Magazine</span>. Cave resolved to publish them in a +separate form, and the work, soon after its appearance, became +generally recognized as the text-book of electrical science. It was +translated into French, German, and Latin; the author's experiments +were repeated, and verified by the leading philosophers of France, +Germany, and even Russia; the Royal Society atoned for its former +tardiness by a hearty recognition of their value, and Franklin was +elected a member of their body without solicitation or expense. The +universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Oxford subsequently +conferred upon him the honorary title of Doctor of Laws.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> We must pass more briefly over Franklin's political career. +In 1753 he was appointed Deputy Postmaster of the American colonies. +The post-office, which had previously supplied no revenue to the +Government, became very productive under his management, and yielded +three times as much as the post-office in Ireland. Nor was this the +only service he rendered to the Government. At the time of Braddock's +unfortunate expedition against the French and Indians, he provided +conveyances for the troops and stores at his own risk; he took a +leading part in obtaining a militia bill, and he proposed a plan for +the union of the several colonies in a common system of defence +against the Indians. These measures greatly increased his influence +and popularity.</p> + +<p>Pennsylvania was at this period a proprietary government, and the +proprietary body claimed exemption from taxation. In consequence of +the disputes to which these claims gave rise, he was sent to England +by the General Assembly, as agent for the provinces. He performed his +duties with such zeal and ability, that he was appointed agent for the +provinces of Massachusetts, Georgia, and Maryland; and, on his return +to America in 1762, received not only the thanks of the House of +Assembly, but a grant of £5,000. Previous to his return he made a +short visit to the continent, and was everywhere received with great +honor, especially at the court of Louis XV.</p> + +<p>In the year 1764, the American colonies, alarmed at the system of +taxation with which they were menaced by the British, resolved that +Franklin should be sent to England, no longer as an agent, but as the +general representative of the States. In this character he arrived in +London about forty years after his first appearance in that city as a +distressed mechanic. His own mind was strongly impressed by the +contrast; he went to the printing-office where he had worked, +introduced himself to the men employed there, and joined in a little +festival in honor of printing. He officially presented to Mr. +Grenville a petition against the Stamp Act, but finding that the +minister was not deterred from his purpose, he zealously exerted +himself to organize an opposition to the measure. When it was proposed +to repeal the bill in the following year, Franklin was examined before +the House of Commons; the effect of his evidence was decisive, and the +Stamp Act was repealed.</p> + +<p>The quarrel with the colonies, however, grew more and more bitter; and +while Franklin's words were always of peace, he championed the +American cause with power and dignity. Attempts were made to win him +over to the side of the Government, by offers of high honors and +liberal emoluments; but threats and promises were alike unavailing to +divert him from his course. He lingered in England, hoping that some +turn in public affairs would avert the fatal necessity of war; but +when the petition of the American Congress was rejected, and Lord +Chatham's plan of reconciliation outvoted, he resolved to return home +and share the fortunes of his countrymen. His departure was hastened +by the intelligence that the ministers intended to arrest him on a +charge of fomenting rebellion in the colonies; he narrowly escaped +this danger, and on landing in America, he was elected a member of +Congress.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> Soon after the declaration of independence was issued, Dr. +Franklin was sent as ambassador to France, to solicit aid for the +infant republic. On his first arrival, in 1776, he was not officially +received; but when the intelligence of the English losses had given +courage to the French court, negotiations were formally commenced, and +on February 7, 1778, he had the honor of signing the first treaty +between the United States and a foreign power. He remained at the +French court as ambassador until the end of the war, when, as an +American plenipotentiary, he signed the treaty of Paris, by which +Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. At the +close of the negotiations (November, 1782), he was anxious to be +recalled; but his diplomatic services were too highly valued to be +spared, and he remained at Paris three years longer, during which +period he negotiated treaties with Sweden and with Prussia. His +residence in France was cheered by the enthusiasm with which he was +regarded by all classes, particularly persons of literature and +science; his departure from that city was lamented as a general loss +to society.</p> + +<p>Honors of every kind awaited him on his return to his native land; he +was appointed President of the State of Pennsylvania, and a member of +the Federal Convention, by which the American Constitution was framed. +But old age, and a painful disease, to which he had been long subject, +compelled him to retire into the bosom of his family. Notwithstanding +his sufferings, he preserved his affections and faculties unimpaired +to the last, and died tranquilly, April 17, 1790. The American +Congress, and the National Assembly of France, both went into mourning +on receiving the intelligence of his death.</p> + +<p>Franklin's powers were useful rather than brilliant; his philosophical +discoveries were the result of patience and perseverance; with a +warmer imagination he would probably have been misled by speculative +theory, like so many of his contemporaries. His industry and his +temperance were the sources of his early success, and they nurtured in +him that spirit of independence which was the leading characteristic +of his private and public career.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>PATRICK HENRY<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="smaller">[3]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">General Bradley T. Johnson</span><br> +(1736-1799)</h3> + +<a id="img013" name="img013"></a> +<div class="floatright"> +<img src="images/img013.jpg" width="250" height="312" alt="Patrick Henry." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia, May 29, 1736; died +in Charlotte County, Virginia, June 6, 1799. He was the son of Colonel +John Henry, of Mount Brilliant, a Scotchman by birth, who was the +nephew of Dr. William Robertson, the historian. Henry received only +the limited education accessible in the rural locality in which he was +born, consisting of the rudiments of an English training and +absolutely no acquaintance with the classics. His early youth was +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> spent on the plantation, occupied with the amusements of his +age and his epoch; fishing and hunting gave him acquaintance with the +fields, the streams, and the forests, and the observation of nature, +her changes, her forces, and her moods. The habits thus formed evolved +in part the great power of introspection and analysis of the feelings +of men which afterward gave him such control of them.</p> + +<p>At the age of fifteen he was placed in a country store as assistant +salesman, or clerk. After a year's experience, his father purchased a +small stock of goods for him, and set him up on his own account in +partnership with his brother William.</p> + +<p>This adventure came to grief in a year, and then Henry, at the age of +eighteen, married Miss Shelton, the daughter of a neighboring farmer.</p> + +<p>The young couple were settled on a farm by the joint efforts of their +parents, where they endeavored to win a subsistence with the +assistance of two or three servants. In two years he sold out and +invested in another mercantile undertaking. In a few years this ended +in bankruptcy, leaving him without a dollar and with a wife and an +increasing family to support. He was devoted to music, dancing, and +amusement, and was incapable of continuous physical or intellectual +labor. He had devoted himself to desultory reading of the best kind, +and made himself acquainted with the history of England, of Greece, +and of Rome. He therefore undertook to win a support by the profession +and the practice of the law, and after a brief pretence of +preparation, by the generosity of the bar at that period, was admitted +to practice. The vigor of his intellect, his powerful logic, and his +acute analysis induced the examining committee to sign his +certificate.</p> + +<p>That committee consisted of Mr. Lyons, then the leader of the +Provincial bar, afterward president-judge of the Supreme Court of +Appeals of Virginia; Mr. John Lewis, an eminent lawyer, and John +Randolph, afterward knighted and as Sir John Randolph, the king's +Attorney General for Virginia. Henry was twenty-four when admitted to +the bar, and for three years did nothing.</p> + +<p>Under the law of Virginia the people, without regard to religious +belief, were bound to pay a tax of so many pounds of tobacco per poll +for the support of the clergy. The parson of each parish was entitled +to sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per annum. When the price of +tobacco was low this imposition was borne not without grumbling. When +short crops or increased demand raised the price, the General Assembly +of the colony by law allowed the people the option to pay their +poll-tax in tobacco, or to commute it at the fixed price of 16<span class="italic">s.</span> and +8<span class="italic">d.</span> per hundred. When the market price was above that the tax was +paid in currency; when it was below, in tobacco. When tobacco rose to +50<span class="italic">s.</span> per hundred the parsons demanded tobacco for their salaries +instead of 16<span class="italic">s.</span> 8<span class="italic">d.</span> per <span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> hundred. The King in council +declared the Commutation Act void, and the parsons brought suit for +their salaries. The defendants pleaded the Commutation Act in defence; +to this plea the plaintiffs demurred; and the court, as it was bound +to do, gave judgment for the plaintiff on the demurrer. The only +question then left was the <span class="italic">quantum</span> of damages, to be assessed by a +jury. The case selected for a test was the case of the Rev. James +Maury against the sheriff of Hanover County and his sureties. It was +set for trial at the December term of the County Court of Hanover, +1763. Henry was retained for the defendant, and made an argument so +forcible, so conclusive, and so eloquent that it has made his fame as +"the greatest orator who ever lived," as Mr. Jefferson wrote of him. +He took the ground that allegiance and protection in government are +reciprocal, that the King of Great Britain had failed to protect the +people of Virginia in their rights as Englishmen, and that therefore +they owed no allegiance to him and he had no right to declare laws +made by them void, therefore his nullification of the Commutation Act +was void and of no effect. The jury found for the plaintiff with one +penny damages, and thus ended the attempt to rely upon the power of +the king to set aside laws made by Virginia for her own government.</p> + +<p>It was the first announcement in America of the radical revolutionary +doctrine that government is a matter of compact with the people, and +when the former breaks the agreement, the latter are absolved from +obedience to it.</p> + +<p>The next year Henry removed to Louisa County and was employed by +Dandridge in the contested election case of Dandridge <span class="italic">v.</span> Littlepage +before the House of Burgesses for a seat in that body. When the Stamp +Act passed in 1765, Mr. William Johnson, member of the House of +Burgesses for Louisa County, resigned his place to make way for Henry, +who was elected to fill the vacancy.</p> + +<p>This body consisted of some of the ablest and most illustrious +Americans who ever lived. George Washington, Peyton Randolph, Richard +Bland, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee were all +members, and Henry at the first session won a place in the front rank +among them. In May, 1765, he introduced a series of resolutions, +reiterating and enlarging the propositions of the parson's case, and +declaring that the people of Virginia are entitled to all the rights +of British subjects, and that they alone, through their General +Assembly, "have the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions +on this colony," and that any attempt by any other authority "has a +manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom." +They were opposed by the old members, but the eloquent logic of Henry, +backed by Johnston, a member from Fairfax, carried them by a close +vote, the last one by a majority of one.</p> + +<p>In this debate, Henry in a passion of eloquence exclaimed, "Cæsar had +his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George III.—--" +"Treason," cried the Speaker and the House—--"may profit by their +example. If this be treason, make the most of it."</p> + +<p>The next day, the House in a panic, reconsidered, rejected, and +expunged <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> from the <span class="italic">Journal</span> the last resolution, which +asserted the sole right of taxation in Virginia, and denied it to +Parliament.</p> + +<p>Henry continued a member of the House of Burgesses from Louisa County +until the close of the Revolution. He led Virginia in resistance to +the tax on tea, and in organizing armed resistance to the Mother +Country by all the colonies. He was among the first of the Americans +who understood that liberty could only be preserved by defending it by +force.</p> + +<p>He was sent as a deputy from Virginia to the first Continental +Congress, which met at Philadelphia in September, 1774. He at once +took a commanding influence in that body, and on its adjournment in +October, returned home.</p> + +<p>In March, 1776, he attended the Convention of Virginia held in +Richmond. Here he moved that "this colony be immediately put in a +state of defence, and that a committee be appointed to prepare a plan +for embodying, assigning, and disciplining such a number of men as may +be sufficient for that purpose." Bland, Harrison, Pendleton, and +Nicholas, all vigorously opposed these resolutions as leading +inevitably and logically to revolution and separation; but Henry, in a +storm of patriotic, eloquent enthusiasm, carried everything, uttering +those deathless sentences, "Our brethren are already in the field! Why +stand we here idle. What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they +have?</p> + +<p>"Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of +chains and slavery?</p> + +<p>"Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but +as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"</p> + +<p>The resolutions were carried and Henry made chairman of the committee +to organize the colony. He proceeded with great vigor to form +companies of cavalry or infantry in every county. On April 20, 1775, +Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, seized the powder of the colony and +placed it on the armed schooner Magdalene. The country rose at once. +Henry, as captain, marched the independent company of Hanover on +Williamsburgh, to compel the governor to pay for or restore the +powder. Five thousand armed men were marching from the counties to +reinforce him, when Lord Dunmore, through the intercession of Peyton +Randolph, paid Henry for the powder and induced the volunteers from +Hanover, Frederick, Berkeley, and other counties to return to their +homes. As soon as they had returned, Dunmore issued a proclamation +denouncing Henry and his comrades as traitors and rebels.</p> + +<p>Henry was elected by the Virginia Convention one of the deputies to +the second Continental Congress. He was also elected colonel of the +first Virginia Regiment, and "commander-in-chief of all the forces +raised and to be raised for the defence of the colony." Lord Dunmore +having erected a fortification south of Norfolk, at Great Bridge, +Colonel Woodford, with the second Virginia Regiment, was sent by the +Committee of Safety to drive him away, which he did promptly and well. +Henry claimed the right to command this expedition himself, but his +claim was not admitted by the committee, and his authority was +disclaimed by Colonel Woodford. Henry insisted upon having <span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> +the question of rank between them decided, and the committee decided +in favor of Colonel Henry. Yet when brigadiers were selected by +Congress to command the troops of Virginia in the Continental Army, +Andrew Lewis was made brigadier, Henry colonel of the first regiment. +He promptly refused the Continental commission, and resigned the one +held in the service of Virginia. Henry's conduct was justified in the +opinion of his contemporaries and of posterity. He had led the colony +at the risk of life and fortune, he had organized and led the first +movement of troops against the royal authority, he had been appointed +commander-in-chief and colonel of the First Regiment, and then had +been superseded in command by another, without excuse or +justification. He was thus driven out of the military service by petty +intrigues and small jealousies of smaller men, and the country +deprived of his great abilities in the military field.</p> + +<p>On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention instructed their deputies in +Congress "to declare the United Colonies free and independent States," +and on June 29th adopted a form of State government and elected Mr. +Henry governor. During the winter of 1776-77 was the darkest period of +the revolution, and it has been charged that it was proposed to create +him dictator; but his friends have always denied this, and it seems +with truth, for he was re-elected governor, May 30th, 1777. He was a +firm supporter of General Washington through all the trials of that +period, and firmly stood by him against the intrigue in the army to +supersede him with Gates. He was again elected governor in the spring +of 1778, and the next year declined a re-election because in his +opinion he was ineligible. His wife, Miss Shelton, died in 1775, +leaving him the father of six children, and in 1777 he married +Dorothea, daughter of Nathaniel W. Dandridge.</p> + +<p>After the expiration of his gubernatorial service he retired to his +estate in Henry County. He was elected to the General Assembly for +that County in 1780, and he continued to represent it until after the +revolution. He took the ground of amnesty to the Tories and the +resumption of commercial intercourse with Great Britain. In 1784, he +introduced and urged the passage of a bill to promote inter-marriages +with the Indians, which failed to pass from his being again elected +governor on November 17, 1784, for the term of three years.</p> + +<p>He declined a re-election, and was appointed one of the deputies from +Virginia to the Constitutional Convention to meet in Philadelphia. The +order of appointment being George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund +Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, George Mason and George Wythe. +He, however, was too poor to perform the duties of the office and was +obliged to return to the practice of the law. He was sent as a member +from Prince Edward to the convention to consider the Federal +Constitution which had been framed at Philadelphia. The convention met +at Richmond, June 2, 1788.</p> + +<p>It was composed of the most illustrious men that Virginia ever +produced, and was probably the ablest body that ever convened in any +country in any age. James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund +Pendleton, George Nicholas, George Mason, Jarvis, Grayson, and Henry, +Lee, and Randolph were among the members. Henry vigorously opposed the +ratification of the new constitution <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> on the ground that it +would establish a government of the people in place of a government of +the States, and would create a consolidated government with omnipotent +power, without check or balance, and lead to a great and mighty empire +and an absolute despotism. The Federal party carried the ratification +under the lead of Madison and Marshall by a majority of ten.</p> + +<p>In the ensuing General Assembly Henry opposed the election of Madison +as one of the first senators under the new constitution, and secured +that of Richard Henry Lee and Grayson to represent Virginia in the +first Congress. He also drafted and had passed resolutions calling +upon Congress to call a Constitutional Convention of the States to +cure by amendments the many defects in the Federal Constitution which +were indicated by the amendments proposed to it by Virginia. The +Convention was never called, but ten of the amendments were adopted by +Congress and ratified by the States.</p> + +<p>He declined a re-election to the General Assembly in 1791, and retired +to private life. In November, 1791, he appeared before the Federal +Court in Richmond, for the defendant in the case of the British debts. +The question involved was the right of Virginia to confiscate, during +the war, debts due by her citizens to subjects of Great Britain. With +Henry was John Marshall, and in the argument Henry made the greatest +legal effort of his life.</p> + +<p>In November, 1795, he was again elected Governor of Virginia, but +declined on account of his age. He was offered the mission to Spain by +Washington during his first term, and to France during his +second—both of which positions he declined. Alarmed at the position +taken by the Virginia resolutions of 1798, he became a candidate for, +and was elected to the General Assembly from Charlotte County in 1799. +But the Virginia Legislature was opposed to his views, and reiterated +those set forth in the resolution of 1798.</p> + +<p>His health had been infirm for several years, and he died June 6, +1799. The General Assembly passed resolutions recording their love and +veneration for his name and fame, and ordered a bust of him to be +procured and set up in one of the niches of the hall of the House of +Delegates. It is now in the capitol at Richmond.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig003" name="sig003"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig003.jpg" width="200" height="78" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> GEORGE WASHINGTON<br> +(1732-1799)</h3> + +<a id="img014" name="img014"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img014.jpg" width="300" height="312" alt="George Washington." title=""> +</div> + +<p>George Washington was born at Bridge's Creek, in Westmoreland County, +Va., on February 22, 1732. The first of the family who settled in +Virginia came from Northampton, but their ancestors are believed to +have been from Lancashire, while the ancient stock of the family is +traced to the De Wessyngtons of Durham. George Washington's father, +Augustine, who died, after a sudden illness, in 1743, was twice +married. At his death he left two surviving sons by the first +marriage, and by the second, four sons (of whom George was the eldest) +and a daughter. The mother of George Washington survived to see her +son President. Augustine Washington left all his children in a state +of comparative independence; to his eldest son by the first marriage +he left an estate (afterward called Mount Vernon) of twenty-five +hundred acres and shares in iron works situated in Virginia and +Maryland; to the second, an estate in Westmoreland. Confiding in the +prudence of his widow, he directed that the proceeds of all the +property of her children should be at her disposal till they should +respectively come of age; to George were left the lands and mansion +occupied by his father at his decease; to each of the other sons, an +estate of six or seven hundred acres; a suitable provision was made +for the daughter.</p> + +<p>George Washington was indebted for all the education he received to +one of the common schools of the province, in which little was taught +beyond reading, writing, and accounts. He left it before he had +completed his sixteenth year; the last two years of his attendance had +been devoted to the study of geometry, trigonometry, and surveying. He +had learned to use logarithms. It is doubtful whether he ever received +any instruction in the grammar of his own language; and although, when +the French officers under Rochambeau were in America, he attempted to +acquire their language, it appears to have been without success. From +his thirteenth year he evinced a turn for mastering the forms of +deeds, constructing diagrams, and preparing tabular statements. His +juvenile manuscripts have been preserved; the handwriting is neat, but +stiff. During the last <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> summer he was at school, he surveyed +the fields adjoining the school-house and the surrounding plantations, +entering his measurements and calculations in a respectable +field-book. He compiled about the same time, from various sources, +"Rules of Behavior in Company and Conversation." Some selections in +rhyme appear in his manuscripts, but the passages were evidently +selected for the moral and religious sentiments they express, not from +any taste for poetry. When a boy he was fond of forming his +school-mates into companies, who paraded and fought mimic battles, in +which he always commanded one of the parties. He cultivated with ardor +all athletic exercises. His demeanor and conduct at school are said to +have won the deference of the other boys, who were accustomed to make +him the arbiter of their disputes.</p> + +<p>From the time of his leaving school till the latter part of 1753, +Washington was unconsciously preparing himself for the great duties he +had afterward to discharge. An attempt made to have him entered in the +Royal Navy, in 1746, was frustrated by the interposition of his +mother. The winter of 1748-49 he passed at Mount Vernon, then the seat +of his brother Lawrence, in the study of mathematics and the exercise +of practical surveying. George was introduced about this time to the +family of Lord Fairfax, his brother having married the daughter of +William Fairfax, a member of the Colonial Council, and a distant +relative of that nobleman. The immense tracts of wild lands belonging +to Lord Fairfax, in the valley of the Alleghany Mountains, had never +been surveyed; he had formed a favorable estimate of the talents of +young Washington, and intrusted the task to him. His first essay was +on some lands situated on the south branch of the Potomac, seventy +miles above its junction with the main branch. Although performed in +an almost impenetrable country, while winter yet lingered in the +valleys, by a youth who had only a month before completed his +sixteenth year, it gave so much satisfaction that he soon after +received a commission as public surveyor, an appointment which gave +authority to his surveys, and enabled him to enter them in the county +offices.</p> + +<p>The next three years were devoted without intermission, except in the +winter months, to his profession. There were few surveyors in +Virginia, and the demand for their services was consequently great, +and their remuneration ample. Washington spent a considerable portion +of these three years among the Alleghanies. The exposures and +hardships of the wilderness could be endured only for a few weeks +together, and he recruited his strength by surveying, at intervals, +tracts and farms in the settled districts. Even at that early age his +regular habits enabled him to acquire some property; and his probity +and business talent obtained for him the confidence of the leading men +of the colony.</p> + +<p>At the time he attained his nineteenth year the frontiers were +threatened with Indian depredations and French encroachments. To meet +this danger the province was divided into military districts, to each +of which an adjutant-general with the rank of major was appointed. +George Washington was commissioned to one of these districts, with a +salary of £150 per annum. There were many provincial officers (his +brother among the number) in Virginia, who had served in the +expedition <span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> against Carthagena and in the West Indies. Under +them he studied military exercises and tactics, entering with alacrity +and zeal into the duties of his office. These pursuits were varied by +a voyage to Barbadoes, and a residence of some months in that colony, +in company with his brother Lawrence, who was sent there by his +physicians to seek relief from a pulmonary complaint. Fragments of the +journal kept by George Washington on this excursion have been +preserved; they evince an interest in a wide range of subjects, and +habits of minute observation. At sea the log-book was daily copied, +and the application of his favorite mathematics to navigation studied; +in the island, the soil, agricultural products, modes of culture, +fruits, commerce, military force, fortifications, manners of the +inhabitants, municipal regulations and government, all were noted in +this journal. Lawrence Washington died in July, 1752, leaving a wife +and infant daughter, and upon George, although the youngest executor, +devolved the whole management of the property, in which he had a +residuary interest. The affairs of the estate were extensive and +complicated, and engrossed much of his time and thoughts for several +months. His public duties were not, however, neglected. Soon after the +arrival of Governor Dinwiddie the number of military divisions was +reduced to four and the northern division allotted to Washington. It +included several counties, which he had visited at stated intervals, +to train and instruct the military officers, inspect the men, arms, +and accoutrements, and establish a uniform system of manœuvres and +discipline.</p> + +<p>In 1753 the French in Canada pushed troops across the lakes, and at +the same time bodies of armed men ascended from New Orleans to form a +junction with them, and establish themselves on the upper waters of +the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie resolved to send a commissioner to confer +with the French officer in command, and inquire by what authority he +occupied a territory claimed by the British. This charge required a +man of discretion, accustomed to travel in the woods, and familiar +with Indian manners. Washington was selected, notwithstanding his +youth, as possessed of these requisites. He set out from Williamsburg +on October 31, 1753, and returned on January 16, 1754. He discovered +that a permanent settlement was contemplated by the French within the +British territory, and notwithstanding the vigilance of the garrison, +he contrived to bring back with him a plan of their fort on a branch +of French Creek, fifteen miles south of Lake Erie, and an accurate +description of its form, size, construction, cannon, and barracks.</p> + +<p>In March, 1754, the military establishment of the colony was increased +to six companies. Colonel Fry, an Englishman of scientific +acquirements and gentlemanly manners, was placed at the head of them, +and Washington was appointed second in command. His first campaign was +a trying but useful school to him. He was pushed forward, with three +small companies, to occupy the outposts of the Ohio, in front of a +superior French force, and unsupported by his commanding officer. +Relying upon his own resources and the friendship of the Indians, +Washington pushed boldly on. On May 27th he encountered and defeated a +detachment of the French army under M. De Jumonville, who fell in the +action. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> Soon after Colonel Fry died suddenly, and the chief +command devolved upon Washington. Innis, the commander of the North +Carolina troops, was, it is true, placed over his head, but the new +commander never took the field. An ill-timed parsimony had occasioned +disgust among the soldiers, but Washington remained unshaken. +Anticipating that a strong detachment would be sent against him from +Fort Duquesne as soon as Jumonville's defeat was known there, he +intrenched himself on the Great Meadows. The advance of the French in +force obliged him to retreat, but this operation he performed in a +manner that elicited a vote of thanks from the House of Burgesses. In +1755 Colonel Washington acceded to the request of General Braddock to +take part in the campaign as one of his military family, retaining his +former rank. When privately consulted by Braddock, "I urged him," +wrote Washington, "in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, +if he even did it with a small but chosen band, with such artillery +and light stores as were necessary, leaving the heavy artillery and +baggage to follow with the rear division by slow and easy marches." +This advice prevailed. Washington was, however, attacked by a violent +fever, in consequence of which he was only able to rejoin the army on +the evening before the battle of the Monongahela. In that fatal affair +he exposed himself with the most reckless bravery, and when the +soldiers were finally put to rout, hastened to the rear division to +order up horses and wagons for the wounded. The panic-stricken army +dispersed on all sides, and Washington retired to Mount Vernon, which +had now, by the death of his brother's daughter without issue, become +his own property. His bravery was universally admitted, and it was +known that latterly his prudent counsels had been disregarded.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of the same year he was appointed to reorganize the +provincial troops. He retained the command of them till the close of +the campaign of 1758. The tardiness and irresolution of provincial +assemblies and governors compelled him to act during much of this time +upon the defensive; but to the necessity hence imposed upon him of +projecting a chain of defensive forts for the Ohio frontier, he was +indebted for that mastery of this kind of war, which afterward availed +him so much. Till 1758 the Virginia troops remained on the footing of +militia; and Washington having had ample opportunities to convince +himself of the utter worthlessness of a militia in time of war, in the +beginning of that year prevailed upon the Government to organize them +on the same footing as the royal forces. At the same time that +Washington's experience was extending, his sentiments of allegiance +were weakened by the reluctance with which the claims of the +provincial officers were admitted, and the unreserved preference +uniformly given to the officers of the regular army. At the close of +1758 he resigned his commission and retired into private life.</p> + +<p>On January 6, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow with +two children. "Mr. Custis," says Mr. Sparke, "had left large landed +estates, and £45,000 sterling in money. One-third of this property she +held in her own right; the other two-thirds being equally divided +between her two children." Washington had a considerable fortune of +his own at the time of his marriage, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> consisting of the +estate at Mount Vernon, and large tracts of land which he had selected +during his surveying expeditions and obtained grants of at different +times. He now devoted himself to the management of this extensive +property, and to the guardianship of Mrs. Washington's children, and +till the commencement of 1763 was, in appearance at least, principally +occupied with these private matters. He found time, however, for +public civil duties. He had been elected a member of the House of +Burgesses before he resigned his commission, and although there were +commonly two, and sometimes three sessions in every year, he was +punctual in his attendance from beginning to end of each. During the +period of his service in the Legislature he frequently attended on +such theatrical exhibitions as were then presented in America, and +lived on terms of intimacy with the most eminent men of Virginia. At +Mount Vernon he practised on a large scale the hospitality for which +the Southern planters have ever been distinguished. His chief +diversion in the country was the chase. He exported the produce of his +estates to London, Liverpool, and Bristol, and imported everything +required for his property, and domestic establishment. His industry +was equal to his enterprise; his day-books, ledgers and letter-books +were all kept by himself and he drew up his own contracts and deeds. +In the House of Burgesses he seldom spoke, but nothing escaped his +notice, and his opinion was eagerly sought and followed. He assumed +trusts at the solicitation of friends, and was much in request as an +arbitrator. He was, probably without being himself aware of it, +establishing a wide and strong influence, which no person suspected +till the time arrived for exercising it.</p> + +<p>On March 4, 1773, Lord Dunmore prorogued the intractable House of +Burgesses. Washington had been a close observer of every previous +movement in his country, though it was not in his nature to play the +agitator. He had expressed his disapprobation of the Stamp Act in +unqualified terms. The non-importation agreement, drawn up by George +Mason in 1769, was presented to the members of the dissolved House of +Burgesses by Washington. In 1773 he supported the resolutions +instituting a committee of correspondence and recommending the +legislatures of the other colonies to do the same. He represented +Fairfax County in the Convention which met at Williamsburg, in August, +1774, and was appointed by it one of the six Virginian delegates to +the first General Congress. On his return from Congress he was +virtually placed in command of the Virginian Independent Companies. In +the spring of 1775 he devised a plan for the more complete military +organization of Virginia; and on June 15th of that year, he was +elected commander-in-chief of the continental army by Congress.</p> + +<a id="img015" name="img015"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img015.jpg" width="600" height="377" alt="" title=""> +<p>The surrender of Cornwallis to Washington.</p></div> + +<p>The portion of Washington's life which we have hitherto been passing +in review, may be considered as his probationary period—the time +during which he was training himself for the great business of his +life. His subsequent career naturally subdivides itself into two +periods—that of his military command and that of his presidency. In +the former we have Washington the soldier; in the latter, Washington +the statesman. His avocations from 1748 to 1775 were as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> +good a school as can well be conceived for acquiring the +accomplishments of either character. His early intimacy and connection +with the Fairfax family had taught him to look on society with the +eyes of the class which takes a part in government. His familiarity +with applied mathematics and his experience as a surveyor on the wild +frontier lands, had made him master of that most important branch of +knowledge for a commander—the topography of the country. His +experience as a parade officer, as a partisan on the frontier, and as +the commander of considerable bodies of disciplined troops, had taught +him the principles both of the war of detail and the war of large +masses. On the other hand, his punctual habits of business, his +familiarity with the details both of agriculture and commerce, and the +experience he had acquired as trustee, arbitrator, and member of the +House of Burgesses, were so many preparatory studies for the duties of +a statesman. He commenced his great task of first liberating and then +governing a nation, with all the advantages of this varied experience, +in his forty-third year, an age at which the physical vigor is +undiminished, and the intellect fully ripe. He persevered in it, with +a brief interval of repose, for upward of twenty years, with almost +uniform success, and with an exemption from the faults of great +leaders unparalleled in history.</p> + +<p>Washington was elected commander-in-chief on June 15, 1775; he +resigned his commission into the hands of the President of Congress on +December 23, 1783. His intermediate record as a general, and as the +steadfast and undismayed leader of an apparently hopeless struggle, we +pass over here. It is the entire history of the American Revolution.</p> + +<p>We must also pass briefly over the interval which separates the epoch +of Washington the soldier from that of Washington the statesman—the +few years which elapsed between the resignation of his command in +1783, and his election as first President of the United States, in +February, 1789. It was for him no period of idleness. In addition to a +liberal increase of hospitality at Mount Vernon, and indefatigable +attention to the management of his large estates, he actively promoted +in his own State, plans of internal navigation, acts for encouraging +education, and plans for the civilization of the Indians. He also +acted as delegate from Virginia to the Convention which framed the +first constitution of the United States. We now turn to contemplate +him as president.</p> + +<p>Washington left Mount Vernon for New York, which was then the seat of +Congress, on April 16, 1789. His journey was a triumphal procession. +He took the oath of office on April 30th, with religious services, +processions, and other solemnities.</p> + +<p>The new president's first step was to request elaborate reports from +the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of War, and the +Commissioners of the Treasury. The reports he read, and condensed with +his own hand, particularly those of the Treasury board. The voluminous +official correspondence in the public archives, from the time of the +treaty of peace till the time he entered on the presidency, he read, +abridged, and studied, with the view of fixing in his mind every +important point that had been discussed, and the history of what had +been done.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> His arrangements for the transaction of business and the +reception of visitors were characterized by the same spirit of order +which had marked him when a boy and when at the head of the army. +Every Tuesday, between the hours of three and four, he was prepared to +receive such persons as chose to call. Every Friday afternoon the +rooms were open in like manner for visits to Mrs. Washington. He +accepted no invitations to dinner, but invited to his own table +foreign ministers, officers of the government, and others, in such +numbers as his domestic establishment could accommodate. The rest of +the week-days were devoted to business appointments. No visits were +received on Sunday, or promiscuous company admitted; he attended +church regularly, and the rest of that day was his own.</p> + +<p>The organization of the executive departments was decreed by act of +Congress during the first session. They were the Departments of +Foreign Affairs (afterward called the Department of State, and +including both foreign and domestic affairs), of the Treasury, and of +War. It devolved upon the president to select proper persons to fill +the several offices. Jefferson was appointed Secretary of State; +Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; and Knox, Secretary of War. +Randolph had the post of Attorney-General. Jay was made Chief-Justice. +After making these appointments he undertook a tour through the +Eastern States, and returned to be present at the opening of Congress, +in January, 1790.</p> + +<p>In his opening speech he recommended to the attention of the +Legislature a provision for the common defence; laws for naturalizing +foreigners; a uniform system of currency, weights, and measures; the +encouragement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures; the +promotion of science and literature; and an effective system for the +support of the public credit. The last topic gave rise to protracted +and vehement debates. At last Hamilton's plan for funding all the +domestic debts was carried by a small majority in both Houses of +Congress. The president suppressed his sentiments on the subject while +it was under debate in Congress, but he approved the act for funding +the public debt, and was from conviction a decided friend to the +measure. It now became apparent to the most unreflecting that two +great parties were in the process of formation, the one jealous of +anything that might encroach upon democratic principles; the other +distrustful of the power of institutions so simple as those of the +United States to preserve tranquillity and the cohesion of the state. +Jefferson was the head of the Democratic, Hamilton of what was +afterward called the Federalist party. Washington endeavored to +reconcile these ardent and incompatible spirits. His own views were +more in accordance with those of Hamilton; but he knew Jefferson's +value as a statesman, and he felt the importance of the president +remaining independent of either party. The two secretaries, however, +continued to diverge in their political course, and ultimately their +differences settled into personal enmity.</p> + +<p>The president's term of office was drawing to a close, and an anxious +wish began to prevail that he should allow himself to be elected for a +second term. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Randolph—who did not exactly +coincide with either—all shared in this anxiety, and each wrote a +long letter to Washington, assigning <span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> reasons for his +allowing himself to be re-elected. He yielded; and on March 4, 1793, +he took the oath of office in the senate chamber.</p> + +<p>The first question that came before the cabinet after the re-election, +rendered more decided the differences which already existed. The +European parties, of which the court of England and the French +republic were the representatives, were eager to draw the United +States into the vortex of their struggle. The president and his +cabinet were unanimous in their determination to preserve neutrality, +but the aristocratic and democratic sections of the cabinet could not +refrain from displaying their respective biases and their jealousy of +each other. Foreign affairs were mingled with domestic politics, and +the Democratic and Federalist parties became avowedly organized. +Washington was for a time allowed to keep aloof from the contest—not +for a long time. A circumstance insignificant in itself increased the +bitterness of the contest out of doors. Democratic societies had been +formed on the model of the Jacobin clubs of France. Washington +regarded them with alarm, and the unmeasured expression of his +sentiments on this head subjected him to a share in the attacks made +upon the party accused of undue fondness for England and English +institutions.</p> + +<p>Advices from the American minister in London representing that the +British cabinet was disposed to settle the differences between the two +countries amicably, Washington nominated Mr. Jay to the Senate as +Envoy-extraordinary to the court of Great Britain. The nomination, +though strenuously opposed by the Democratic party, was confirmed in +the Senate by a majority of two to one. The treaty negotiated by Jay +was received at the seat of government in March, 1795, soon after the +session of Congress closed. The president summoned the Senate to meet +in June to ratify it. The treaty was ratified. Before the treaty was +signed by the president it was surreptitiously published. It was +vehemently condemned, and public meetings against it were held to +intimidate the executive. The president, nevertheless, signed the +treaty on August 18th. When Congress met in March, 1796, a resolution +was carried by a large majority in the House of Representatives, +requesting the president to lay before the house the instructions to +Mr. Jay, the correspondence, and other documents relating to the +negotiations. Washington declined to furnish the papers; a vehement +debate ensued, but in the end the hostile majority yielded to the +exigency of the case and united in passing laws for the fulfilment of +the treaty.</p> + +<p>The two houses of Congress met again in December. Washington had +published on September 15th his farewell address to the United States. +He now delivered his last speech to Congress, and took occasion to +urge upon that body the gradual increase of the navy, a provision for +the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, the establishment +of a national university, and of a military academy. Little was done +during the session; public attention was engrossed by the presidential +election. Adams, the Federalist candidate, had the highest number of +votes; Jefferson, the Democratic candidate (who was consequently +declared vice-president), the next. Washington's commanding character +and isolation from party, had preserved this degree of strength to the +holders of his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> own political views. He was present as a +spectator at the installation of his successor, and immediately +afterward returned to Mount Vernon.</p> + +<p>He survived till December 14, 1799, but except when summoned in May, +1798, to take the command of the provincial army, on the prospect of a +war with France, did not again engage in public business.</p> + +<p>The character of Washington is one of simple and substantial +greatness. His passions were vehement but concentrated, and thoroughly +under control. An irresistible strength of will was combined with a +singularly well-balanced mind, with much sagacity, much benevolence, +much love of justice. Without possessing what may be called genius, +Washington was endowed with a rare quickness of perception and +soundness of judgment, and an eager desire of knowledge. His extremely +methodical habits enabled him to find time for everything, and were +linked with a talent for organization. During the War of Independence +he was the defensive force of America; wanting him, it would almost +appear as if the democratic mass must have resolved itself into its +elements. To place Washington as a warrior on a footing with the +Cæsars, Napoleons, and Wellingtons, would be absurd. He lost more +battles than he gained. But he kept an army together and kept up +resistance to the enemy, under more adverse circumstances than any +other general ever did. His services as a statesman were similar in +kind. He upheld the organization of the American state during the +first eight years of its existence, amid the storms of Jacobinical +controversy, and gave it time to consolidate. No other American but +himself could have done this, for of all the American leaders he was +the only one whom men felt differed from themselves. The rest were +soldiers or civilians, Federalists or Democrats; but he was +Washington. The awe and reverence felt for him were blended with +affection for his kindly qualities, and except for a brief period +toward the close of his second presidential term, there has been but +one sentiment entertained toward him throughout the Union—that of +reverential love. His was one of those rare natures which greatness +follows without their striving for it.</p> + +<hr> + +<p>The following extract is from a letter written by him to his adopted +daughter, Nellie Custis, on the subject of love:<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="smaller">[4]</span></a></p> + +<p>"Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is therefore +contended that it cannot be resisted. This is true in part only, for +like all things else, when nourished and supplied plentifully with +aliment it is rapid in progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may +be stifled in its birth or much stunted in its growth. For example: a +woman (the same may be said of the other sex) all beautiful and +accomplished, will, while her hand and heart are undisposed of, turn +the heads and set the circle in which she moves on fire. Let her +marry, and what is the consequence? The madness ceases and all is +quiet again. Why? Not because there is any diminution in the charm of +the lady, but because there <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> is an end of hope. Hence it +follows that love may, and therefore ought to be, under the guidance +of reason, for although we cannot avoid first impressions, we may +assuredly place them under guard; and my motives for treating on this +subject are to show you, while you remain Eleanor Parke Custis, +spinster, and retain the resolution to love with moderation, the +propriety of adhering to the latter resolution, at least until you +have secured your game, or the way by which it may be accomplished.</p> + +<p>"When the fire is beginning to kindle, and your heart growing warm, +propound these questions to it: Who is this invader? Have I a +competent knowledge of him? Is he a man of good character; a man of +sense? For, be assured, a sensible woman can never be happy with a +fool. What has been his walk in life? Is he a gambler, a spendthrift, +or drunkard? Is his fortune sufficient to maintain me in the manner I +have been accustomed to live, and my sisters do live? and is he one to +whom my friends can have no reasonable objection? If these +interrogatories can be satisfactorily answered there will remain but +one more to be asked; that, however, is an important one: Have I +sufficient ground to conclude that his affections are engaged by me? +Without this the heart of sensibility will struggle against a passion +that is not reciprocated—delicacy, custom, or call it by what epithet +you will, having precluded all advances on your part. The declaration, +without the <span class="italic">most indirect</span> invitation of yours, must proceed from the +man, to render it permanent and valuable, and nothing short of good +sense, and an easy, unaffected conduct can draw the line between +prudery and coquetry. It would be no great departure from truth to say +that it rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough-paced coquette +dies in celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others +by encouraging looks, words, or actions, given for no other purpose +than to draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected.... +Every blessing, among which a good husband when you want one, is +bestowed on you by yours affectionately."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>JOHN ADAMS<br> +By <span class="smcap">Edwin Williams</span><br> +(1735-1826)</h3> + +<a id="img016" name="img016"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img016.jpg" width="250" height="326" alt="John Adams." title=""> +</div> + +<p>John Adams, the second president of the United States, was born on the +19th of October (old style), 1735, in that part of the town of +Braintree (near Boston), Massachusetts, which has since been +incorporated by the name of Quincy. He was the fourth in descent from +Henry Adams, who fled from persecution in Devonshire, England, and +settled in Massachusetts about the year 1630. Another of the ancestors +of Mr. Adams was John Alden, one of the Pilgrim founders of the +Plymouth <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> colony in 1620. Receiving his early education in +his native town, John Adams, in 1751, was admitted a member of Harvard +College, at Cambridge, where he graduated in regular course four years +afterward. On leaving college he went to Worcester, for the purpose of +studying law, and at the same time to support himself, according to +the usage at that time in New England, by teaching in the +grammar-school of that town. He studied law with James Putnam, a +barrister of eminence, by whom he was afterward introduced to the +acquaintance of Jeremy Gridley, then attorney-general of the province, +who proposed him to the court for admission to the bar of Suffolk +County, in 1758, and gave him access to his library, which was then +one of the best in America.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams commenced the practice of his profession in his native town, +and by travelling the circuits with the court, became well known in +that part of the country. In 1766, by the advice of Mr. Gridley, he +removed to Boston, where he soon distinguished himself at the bar by +his superior talents as counsel and advocate. At an earlier period of +his life his thoughts had begun to turn on general politics, and the +prospects of his country engaged his attention. Soon after leaving +college he wrote a letter to a friend, dated at Worcester, October 12, +1755, which evinces so remarkable a foresight that it is fortunate it +has been preserved. We make the following extracts: "Soon after the +Reformation a few people came over into this new world for conscience' +sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great +seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me, if we can remove +the turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the exactest +computation, will, in another century, become more numerous than +England herself. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves +is to disunite us. <span class="italic">Divide et impera</span>. Keep us in distinct colonies, +and then some great men in each colony, desiring the monarchy of the +whole, will destroy each other's influence, and keep the country in +equilibrio. Be not surprised that I am turned politician; the whole +town is immersed in politics. I sit and hear, and, after being led +through a maze of sage observations, I sometimes retire and, by laying +things together, form some reflections pleasing to myself. The produce +of one of these reveries you have read above." Mr. Webster observes: +"It is remarkable that the author of this prognostication should live +to see fulfilled to the letter what could have seemed to others, at +the time, but the extravagance of youthful fancy. His earliest +political feelings were thus <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> strongly American, and from +this ardent attachment to his native soil he never departed."</p> + +<p>In 1764 he married Abigail Smith, daughter of Rev. William Smith, of +Weymouth, and grand-daughter of Colonel Quincy, a lady of uncommon +endowments and excellent education. He had previously imbibed a +prejudice against the prevailing religious opinions of New England, +and became attached to speculations hostile to those opinions. Nor +were his views afterward changed. In his religious sentiments he +accorded with Dr. Bancroft, a Unitarian minister of Worcester, of +whose printed sermons he expressed his high approbation. In 1765 Mr. +Adams published an essay on canon and feudal law, the object of which +was to show the conspiracy between Church and State for the purpose of +oppressing the people.</p> + +<p>In 1770 he was chosen a representative from the town of Boston, in the +Legislature of Massachusetts. The same year he was one of the counsel +who defended Captain Preston and the British soldiers who fired at his +order upon the inhabitants of Boston. Captain Preston was acquitted, +and Mr. Adams lost no favor with his fellow-citizens by engaging in +this trial. As a member of the Legislature he opposed the royal +governor, Hutchinson, in his measures, and also wrote against the +British Government in the newspapers. In 1774 he was elected a member +of the Massachusetts Council, and negatived by Governor Gage. In this +and the next year he wrote on the Whig side, the pamphlets called "Nov +Anglus," in reply to essays, signed "Massachusitensis," in favor of +the British Government, by Sewall, the attorney-general. The same year +he was appointed a member of the Continental Congress, from +Massachusetts, and in that body, which met at Philadelphia, he became +one of the most efficient and able advocates of liberty. In the +Congress which met in May, 1775, he again took his seat, having been +reappointed as a delegate. In 1775 he seconded the nomination of +Washington as commander-in-chief of the army, and in July, 1776, he +was the adviser and great supporter of the Declaration of +Independence. It was reported by a committee composed of Thomas +Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. +Livingston. During the same year he, with Dr. Franklin and Edward +Rutledge, was deputed to treat with Lord Howe for the pacification of +the colonies. He declined at this time the offer of the office of +Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>In December, 1777, Mr. Adams was appointed a commissioner to the court +of France; and with the exception of one short interval, during which +he aided in the framing of the Massachusetts State Constitution, he +spent the following eleven years in diplomatic services abroad. He +arranged the treaties of the United States with most foreign nations +during that time, was associated with Franklin and Jay in signing the +treaty of peace with England, and was our first English minister.</p> + +<p>The services of Mr. Adams in the cause of his country, at home and +abroad, during the period to which we have referred, it is believed, +were not excelled by those of any other of the patriots of the +Revolution. In the language of one of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> his eulogists (Mr. J. +E. Sprague, of Massachusetts), "Not a hundred men in the country could +have been acquainted with any part of the labors of Mr. Adams—they +appeared anonymously, or under assumed titles; they were concealed in +the secret conclaves of Congress, or the more secret cabinets of +princes. Such services are never known to the public; or, if known, +only in history, when the actors of the day have passed from the +stage, and the motives for longer concealment cease to exist. As we +ascend the mount of history, and rise above the vapors of party +prejudice, we shall all acknowledge that we owe our independence more +to John Adams than to any other created being, and that he was the +Great Leader of the American Revolution."</p> + +<p>When permission was given him to return from Europe, the Continental +Congress adopted the following resolution: "Resolved, That Congress +entertain a high sense of the services which Mr. Adams has rendered to +the United States, in the execution of the various important trusts +which they have from time to time committed to him; and that the +thanks of Congress be presented to him for the patriotism, +perseverance, integrity, and diligence with which he has ably and +faithfully served his country." Such was the testimonial of his +country, expressed through the national councils, at the termination +of his revolutionary and diplomatic career.</p> + +<p>During the absence of Mr. Adams in Europe, the Constitution of the +United States had been formed and adopted. He highly approved of its +provisions, and on his return, when it was about to go into operation, +he was selected by the friends of the Constitution to be placed on the +ticket with Washington as a candidate for one of the two highest +offices in the gift of the people. He was consequently elected +vice-president, and on the assembling of the Senate he took his seat, +as president of that body, at New York, in April, 1789. Having been +re-elected to that office in 1792, he held it, and presided in the +Senate with great dignity, during the entire period of the +administration of Washington, whose confidence he enjoyed, and by whom +he was consulted on important questions. In his valedictory address to +the Senate he remarks: "It is a recollection of which nothing can ever +deprive me, and it will be a source of comfort to me through the +remainder of my life that, on the one hand, I have for eight years +held the second situation under our Constitution, in perfect and +uninterrupted harmony with the first, without envy in the one, or +jealousy in the other, so, on the other hand, I have never had the +smallest misunderstanding with any member of the Senate."</p> + +<p>In 1790 Mr. Adams wrote his celebrated "Discourses on Davila;" they +were anonymously published at first, in the <span class="italic">Gazette of the United +States</span>, of Philadelphia, in a series of numbers; they may be +considered as a sequel to his "Defence of the American Constitutions." +He was a decided friend and patron of literature and the arts, and +while in Europe, having obtained much information on the subject of +public institutions, he contributed largely to the advancement of +establishments in his native State for the encouragement of arts, +sciences, and letters.</p> + +<p>On the retirement of General Washington from the presidency of the +United <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> States, Mr. Adams was elected his successor, after a +close and spirited contest with two rivals for that high office; Mr. +Jefferson being supported by the Democratic or Republican party, while +a portion of the Federal party preferred Mr. Thomas Pinckney, of South +Carolina, who was placed on the ticket with Mr. Adams. The result was +the election of Mr. Adams as president, and in March, 1797, he entered +upon his duties in that office. He came to the presidency in a stormy +time. In the language of Colonel Knapp, "the French revolution had +just reached its highest point of settled delirium, after some of the +paroxysms of its fury had passed away. The people of the United States +took sides, some approving, others deprecating, the course pursued by +France. Mr. Adams wished to preserve a neutrality, but found this +quite impossible. A navy was raised with surprising promptitude, to +prevent insolence and to chastise aggression. It had the desired +effect, and France was taught that the Americans were friends in +peace, but were not fearful of war when it could not be averted. When +the historian shall come to this page of our history, he will do +justice to the sagacity, to the spirit, and to the integrity of Mr +Adams, and will find that he had more reasons, and good ones, for his +conduct, than his friends or enemies ever gave him."</p> + +<p>In his course of public policy, when war with France was expected, he +was encouraged by addresses from all quarters, and by the approving +voice of Washington. He, however, gave dissatisfaction to many of his +own political party, in his final attempts to conciliate France, and +in his removal of two members of his cabinet toward the close of his +administration. Under these circumstances, notwithstanding Mr. Adams +was the candidate of the Federal party for re-election as president, +and received their faithful support, it is not strange that his +opponents, with the advantage in their favor of the superior +popularity of Mr. Jefferson, succeeded in defeating him. For this +event, the correspondence of Mr. Adams shows that he was prepared, and +he left the arduous duties of chief magistrate probably with less of +disappointment than his enemies expected.</p> + +<p>Immediately after Mr. Jefferson had succeeded to the presidency, in +1801, Mr. Adams retired to his estate at Quincy, in Massachusetts, and +passed the remainder of his days in literary and scientific leisure, +though occasionally addressing various communications to the public. +He gave his support generally to the administration of Mr. Jefferson, +and the friendship between these distinguished men was revived by a +correspondence, and continued for several years previous to their +death. When the disputes with Great Britain eventuated in war, Mr. +Adams avowed his approbation of that measure, and in 1815 he saw the +second treaty of peace concluded with that nation, by a commission of +which his son was at the head, as he had been himself in that +commission which formed the treaty of 1783.</p> + +<p>In 1816 the Republican party in Massachusetts, which had once +vehemently opposed him as president of the United States, paid him the +compliment of placing his name at the head of their list of +presidential electors. In 1820 he was chosen a member of the State +Convention to revise the constitution of Massachusetts, which body +unanimously solicited him to act as their president. This he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> +declined on account of his age, but he was complimented by a vote of +the convention acknowledging his great services, for a period of more +than half a century, in the cause of his country and of mankind.</p> + +<p>The last years of the long life of Mr. Adams were peaceful and +tranquil. His mansion was always the abode of elegant hospitality, and +he was occasionally enlivened by visits from his distinguished son, +whom, in 1825, he had the singular felicity of seeing elevated to the +office of President of the United States. At length, having lived to a +good old age, he expired, surrounded by his affectionate relatives, on +July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of that independence which he +had done so much to achieve. A short time before his death, being +asked to suggest a toast for the customary celebration, he replied, "I +will give you—Independence forever." Mr. Jefferson died on the same +day. A similar coincidence occurred five years afterward, in the death +of President Monroe, July 4, 1831.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams was of middle stature and full person, and when elected +president, was bald on the top of his head. His countenance beamed +with intelligence, and moral as well as physical courage. His walk was +firm and dignified to a late period of his life. His manner was slow +and deliberate, unless he was excited, and when this happened he +expressed himself with great energy. He was ever a man of purest +morals, and is said to have been a firm believer in Christianity, not +from habit and example, but from diligent investigation of its proofs.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>THOMAS JEFFERSON<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="smaller">[5]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Hon. John B. Henderson</span><br> +(1743-1826)</h3> + +<a id="img017" name="img017"></a> +<div class="floatright"> +<img src="images/img017.jpg" width="200" height="274" alt="Thomas Jefferson." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Thomas Jefferson was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, Albemarle +County, Va. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a descendant of a Welsh +family which came to Virginia before the Pilgrims landed in +Massachusetts. The father's income was derived from a large farm +adjoining that of William Randolph, whose daughter, Jane, he married +in 1738. Monticello, the future residence of his son Thomas, was a +part of this farm. Peter Jefferson was a leader among the men of his +day and received expressions of public confidence from the voters of +his county. He died in 1759, having directed that Thomas should +complete his education in William and Mary College at Williamsburg, +then the capital of the colony.</p> + +<p>Thomas entered the college and by assiduous application he soon built +upon the learning acquired in the public and private schools of his +county, an education quite liberal and advanced for that period.</p> + +<p>He was tall, and in youth somewhat awkward in manner. What he lacked, +however, in personal grace was at once forgotten in the vivacity of +his conversation, made doubly charming by the extent and variety of +his learning. During his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> collegiate days he formed a close +friendship with Patrick Henry, John Marshall, and others who afterward +became distinguished in American history. He was always welcome in the +house of Governor Fauquier, from whom he learned much of the social, +political, and parliamentary life of the old world. It was here that +he first met George Wythe, a gifted and talented young lawyer, who +afterward became Chancellor of the State.</p> + +<p>After leaving college he entered upon the study of the law in the +office of his friend Mr. Wythe, and with this and the management of +his father's estate he found himself abundantly occupied.</p> + +<p>In 1767 he was admitted to the bar, and for several years devoted +himself to the practice of his profession. It is quite probable that, +in consequence of his inability to speak and his utter incapacity for +forensic controversy, his career at the bar would not have reached the +highest distinction. What he lacked, however, in the power of speech, +found ample compensation in the strength, beauty, and elegance of +expression which he commanded with the pen. This extraordinary talent +was destined soon to find abundant employment in defending the rights +of the people against the oppressive acts of the mother-country. +Patrick Henry had already argued the "Parsons' Cause" in December, +1763, and Jefferson himself, as a college student at Williamsburg, had +listened to the impassioned speech of Henry in the Virginia House of +Burgesses against the Stamp Act of Parliament. But the fiery eloquence +of his friend Henry only fanned a flame that already burned in the +breast of Jefferson. Impulsive by nature, by education and training a +democrat, he naturally espoused the cause of his countrymen. The +peculiar condition of the colonies furnished the opportunity to +Jefferson's wonderful faculty for writing. The orator could not be +heard by all the people of the colonies; but the products of the pen +could be carried to the most secluded hamlet. And truly in Jefferson's +hands the pen was "mightier than the sword."</p> + +<p>The first year after opening his law office, at the age of +twenty-five, he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses from +Albemarle, his native county, and on taking his seat the following +May, the controversy between the royal governor and the assembly at +once began. Jefferson prepared the resolutions in reply to the +executive speech; and on the third day of the session the passage of +other resolutions, in the form of a bill of rights, caused the +governor to dissolve the assembly. Jefferson was again elected to the +House of Burgesses, and in 1774, was elected a delegate to the State +convention.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> On account of illness he failed to reach the convention, but +he prepared and forwarded to its president a draft of instructions +which he hoped would be adopted for the guidance of those to be sent +by the body as delegates to the General Congress of the colonies. For +this paper, afterward published as "A Summary View of the Rights of +British America," the name of Jefferson was inserted in a bill of +attainder brought into the English Parliament.</p> + +<p>After a short detention in the House of Burgesses, in which he drafted +the reply of Virginia to the "conciliatory proposition" of Lord North, +he proceeded to Philadelphia as a delegate to the General Congress, in +which he took his seat on June 21, 1775.</p> + +<p>When Jefferson entered the Congress, conditions existing between the +mother country and the colonies had already reached the point of open +rebellion. It is true that the taxes had all been repealed except the +import tax on tea, but the repeals had been invariably accompanied +with the assertion of an unlimited right to tax without the consent of +the colonies. English troops had been quartered in Boston, and English +war-ships occupied its harbor. The right of deportation to, and trial +in, England for offences committed in America, was still claimed by +both king and Parliament. The battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill had +now been fought, and Washington had already been commissioned as +commander-in-chief of the colonial armies.</p> + +<p>In this condition of affairs Massachusetts and Virginia, in which had +been most keenly felt the oppressive acts of the mother country, were +quite ready for open and avowed rebellion. But in many of the other +colonies the sense of loyalty and the ties of friendship were yet +sufficiently strong to induce the hope of continued union.</p> + +<p>It was therefore not until June 7, 1776, that Virginia, through +Richard Henry Lee, introduced into Congress at Philadelphia the +resolutions for a final separation; and a few days thereafter a +committee was appointed to prepare the Declaration of Independence. +Jefferson was placed at the head of this committee, his colleagues +consisting of Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. +Livingston. The declaration was prepared by Jefferson, and when +submitted to Dr. Franklin and John Adams for criticism, some verbal +amendments suggested by them were made. It was then reported to +Congress on June 28th, and after debate and other slight amendments by +the body itself, it was adopted and signed on July 4, 1776.</p> + +<p>Whatever the merits or demerits of the paper, it is essentially the +work of Jefferson. It has been much criticised, both in its substance +and its form. It is quite certain, however, that since its +promulgation there has been, not only in the United States but abroad, +a continually increasing tendency to accept and apply its principles +in the practical affairs of government. As an eloquent arraignment of +tyranny, a denunciation of oppression and an inspiration to +resistance, it stands perhaps unequalled among the products of human +intellect. As appropriately said by another, the paper is "consecrated +in the affections of Americans and praise may seem as superfluous as +censure would be unavailing."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> So soon as the colonies had become united in the cause of +forcible resistance, Jefferson returned to his own State to commence +perhaps the most useful and beneficent work of his life. He had again +been elected to Congress, but with the prescience of the seer, he +chose the seemingly less important place of representative to the +Legislature of his State. He took his seat on October 7, 1776. On the +11th of the same month he asked leave to present a bill to establish +courts of justice in the State of Virginia; on the next day, to +authorize tenants <span class="italic">en tail</span> to convey their estates in fee simple. +This was immediately followed by other bills for the utter overthrow +of primogeniture and the whole law of entails.</p> + +<p>His reformatory spirit did not stop with these radical measures. He +found another danger in the conservatism and aristocratic tendencies +of the established church of the State. In his judgment the whole body +of law and custom inherited from England must be thoroughly +exterminated, to the end that English influence might be driven from +the land. In his judgment English institutions had been cunningly +devised in the interest of monarchy. Their purpose, he believed, was +to create and maintain distinctions in society, and to perpetuate and +strengthen an aristocratic caste as the ally and support of the crown. +So long as they existed there was constant danger of relapse from the +high purposes of the rebellion. In Jefferson's regard, they were +inconsistent with the principles of the revolution now proclaimed, and +sooner or later would be found its open or secret enemies.</p> + +<p>For these reforms the old aristocracy of his State denounced him as a +Jacobin, and the established church denounced him as an infidel.</p> + +<p>Jefferson continued to serve in the House of Delegates during the +years 1777 and 1778, and in addition to the measures already named, he +secured laws to establish elementary and collegiate education in the +State, and to prohibit the further importation of slaves into +Virginia. He also sought to inaugurate a system of gradual +emancipation; but slavery was already so thoroughly engrafted on the +social system of the people, that even Jefferson, Wythe, and Mason +could not dislodge it. Jefferson, in 1821, referring to his failure in +this regard, said: "it was found that the public mind would not yet +bear the proposition, nor will it bear it, even to this day; yet the +day is not distant, when it must bear and adopt it, or worse will, +follow. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than +that these people are to be free."</p> + +<p>On retiring from the Legislature he was elected governor of the State. +The period of his service in this position was unfortunate for his +fame. He was essentially a civilian, neither having, nor pretending to +have, military skill or knowledge. The war had now been transferred to +the Southern States. Cornwallis had overrun Georgia and South +Carolina, defeated Gates at Camden, and was pushing north for the +desolation of Virginia. The State had already become impoverished by +its liberal contributions of money, men, and arms to the general +cause, and was now powerless for its own defence. The hated Benedict +Arnold was able to ascend the James River to Richmond, dispersing the +Legislature <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> and burning the town. Tarleton afterward +penetrated as far as Charlottesville—Jefferson and the Legislature +narrowly escaping capture. Jefferson felt keenly the situation, and at +the expiration of his term retired to Monticello, humiliated and +overwhelmed by unjust criticism and undeserved censure. His gloom and +melancholy were made still more sad at this period, by the death of +his wife, whom he had married in 1772. But the privilege of neither +obscurity nor rest was reserved for him. The winter session of 1783 +found him again in the General Congress abolishing the English system +of coinage and providing for the government of the Northwestern +territory, which had been ceded to the confederation by Virginia.</p> + +<p>In 1784 he was named as a minister plenipotentiary to Europe at large, +to assist Adams and Franklin in the negotiation of commercial +treaties. In 1785 he became minister to France in the place of Dr. +Franklin, who had resigned; and in March, 1790, in pursuance of a +previous acceptance, he entered the Cabinet of President Washington as +Secretary of State.</p> + +<p>Already the germs of two great conflicting parties had been sown. The +debates in the convention that framed the Constitution, and still more +manifestly the controversies in the State Conventions called to +consider the adoption of the instrument, had developed the +differences, which, in theory at least, have distinguished political +parties ever since. The colonies had been chiefly settled by +Englishmen. No people are more tenacious than they of preconceived +opinions, or more averse to the abandonment of ancient forms and +customs. A strong attachment to the institutions of England still +remained with the people of the colonies. With many of them the whole +object of the revolution was political separation from the mother +country. They heartily desired independence and freedom, and they had +willingly risked their lives to secure them. But the freedom they +sought was the right, if they chose, to establish and perpetuate those +cherished institutions of the mother-country for themselves. They +would enjoy them still, and make them a lasting inheritance for their +posterity, but free from the power and dominion of Europe.</p> + +<p>Such persons had revolted not against England, but against England's +wrongful acts; not against the authority of law, but against the +perversion of law. To them the Declaration of Independence was a +splendid piece of rhetoric intended only to inflame the mind with a +sense of injury, and to nerve the heart to determined resistance. Like +the Marseillaise hymn, it was merely to be repeated on entering the +battle. Like the bugle blast, it served only to stimulate the soul and +shut out all other sounds while the contest lasted. Not so with +Jefferson and his followers. The Declaration of Independence truly +reflected their political sentiments. To them the revolution meant +something more than mere separation. It looked to the total +repudiation of the English system of government, and the substitution +of the rule of the people. They admitted the inefficiency of the +articles of confederation, and were willing to accept nationality in a +modified form. But to them the Constitution as framed in 1787 was +armed with the most dangerous powers. They accepted it merely as a +choice of evils, trusting <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> by strict construction and future +amendment to give it eventually the form and mould of their own views.</p> + +<p>The President, in selecting his ministers, sought to compromise these +antagonisms by giving the parties equal representation in his Cabinet. +Between two such men, however, as Jefferson, his Secretary of State, +and Alexander Hamilton, his Secretary of the Treasury, there could be +no permanent co-operation. So eager, indeed, was Jefferson to +inaugurate the controversy, that he really began the battle of strict +construction before his peculiar principles had been seriously +invaded. Time has long since demonstrated that, in his opposition to +Hamilton's financial measures, he was clearly wrong. The truth seems +to be, that in this branch of politics, Jefferson was without +knowledge or practical skill.</p> + +<p>In his discussions with the English minister touching violations of +the late treaty of peace, and in the controversy with Spain in respect +to the right of navigating the Mississippi River through her territory +to the Gulf, Jefferson displayed his usual ability.</p> + +<p>The declaration of war by France, now a republic, against England, +precipitated upon the Government of the United States a number of +difficult and troublesome questions of international law. They were +especially irritating because of the personal feelings involved in +their discussion and settlement. A profound sense of gratitude to +France for assistance in the late revolutionary struggle, was felt by +all classes in America, while the Republicans were especially open and +undisguised in their expressions of sympathy for the French people. +And but for the imprudent conduct of the French minister, Genet, the +supremacy of the Federal party might have been seriously jeopardized +in the beginning of Washington's second term. The conduct of this +functionary was so insolent and exacting as to excite disgust for +himself, and to cool in a marked degree the zeal of the Republicans in +their support of the new republic.</p> + +<p>While Jefferson's sympathy with France was perhaps too manifest, and +while his personal conduct in the Cabinet touching this question was +not altogether kind to the president, and in other respects liable to +criticism, his correspondence with the French Government, when finally +published, was found to have been based upon the highest principles of +international right and dictated by a proper sense of the dignity and +character of his own country.</p> + +<p>Jefferson's proud nature had for several years, chafed under the +continued success of Federal measures. Washington had manifestly +ignored his counsel in the Cabinet, and favored Hamilton in the +administration of the Government. Jefferson was piqued and chagrined +beyond further endurance. He hated Hamilton with an intensity due only +to an open enemy of the country.</p> + +<p>In this state of mind, on December 31, 1793, he resigned from the +Cabinet, and again sought the seclusion and quiet of his farm at +Monticello. But his pen was never idle. He was untiring in the +dissemination of his peculiar views of government. With emotions +intensified by strong convictions of right his contributions to the +political literature of the day were vigorous and peculiarly +attractive. He continued to be the acknowledged leader of the +Republican party, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> and was promptly named as its candidate +for president in 1796, to succeed General Washington, who had declined +a third term. Between him and John Adams, the candidate of the Federal +party, the vote was very close, Adams receiving 71 electoral votes and +Jefferson 68. Under the provisions of the Constitution as they existed +at the time, Adams became President and Jefferson Vice-President.</p> + +<p>During Adams' term were passed the Alien and Sedition laws, as well as +others, unnecessary and of doubtful constitutionality, which proved to +be fatal and ruinous mistakes of the Federal party. Jefferson and +Madison's threats of State repudiation against Federal legislation, as +enunciated in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, furnished good +arguments, of course, for the continued existence of a truly national +party. But the seeds of decay had been sown. Adams was vain, +impulsive, rash, and violent. Jefferson was far more deliberate, with +larger views of statesmanship and a better knowledge of the people. He +had abundant cunning and the ready adaptation of partisan skill.</p> + +<p>In a contest of four years between such leaders, it is not strange +that when the election of 1800 came on, Jefferson should receive 73 +electoral votes while Adams received but 65.</p> + +<p>Although Jefferson was elected over Adams, he was not yet elected over +Aaron Burr, who had received an equal number of votes for president +with himself. In reality no vote had been intended for Burr as +President—the purpose being to elect Jefferson President and Burr +Vice-President.</p> + +<p>Under the constitutional provision already referred to, the election +was remitted to the House of Representatives. Finally, by the aid of +Hamilton, who only hated Jefferson less than he hated Burr, the +controversy was decided in favor of the former.</p> + +<p>The moment Jefferson became president his whole character seemed to be +changed. Instead of the relentless partisan of the past, he became the +apostle of benevolence and charity. His inaugural address, in that +florid rhetoric of which he was master, enunciated principles of +government to which no friend of human liberty could object. The +spirit of conciliation breathed in every sentence. "Every difference +of opinion," he said, "is not a difference of principle. We have +called by different names brethren of the same principles. We are all +Republicans—we are all Federalists.... Let us then, with courage and +confidence, pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our +attachment to our Union and representative government."</p> + +<p>The short-lived peace of Europe had re-established American commerce +on the ocean, and general prosperity pervaded all departments of +business. Indeed, the wise moderation of the president had brought the +most agreeable disappointment to his enemies. Federalists were not +removed from office for political reasons, and the country settled +down into the conviction that Republican success after all, might +prove to be a beneficent change.</p> + +<p>As already stated, the Northwest territory, extending from the Ohio to +the Mississippi River, had formerly belonged to Virginia, and perhaps +no public man of his day so well understood as did Jefferson, the +importance and needs of that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> vast domain. Spain, as the +owner of Louisiana, held supreme control of New Orleans and the lower +Mississippi.</p> + +<p>While Secretary of State under Washington, Jefferson would have been +content with the acquisition of the Island of New Orleans, and the +free navigation of the Mississippi River. Circumstances had now +changed. He was himself president. Spain had suddenly conveyed +Louisiana to France, and Napoleon was meditating the abrogation of the +peace of Amiens and the declaration of war against England. In such a +war France could not well retain her distant possessions against the +superior naval power of her old and grasping enemy. Napoleon had a +property which in case of war, he was likely to lose. He had resolved +on war, and for that purpose needed money, which, fortunately, the +American Treasury could furnish at once.</p> + +<p>Instead of the Island of New Orleans the President's dream now +embraced the whole of the Louisiana purchase, extending from the +Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.</p> + +<p>Livingston, of New York, the associate of Jefferson, in 1776, on the +Committee to frame the Declaration of Independence, was now Minister +to France, but he was unfortunately embarrassed by his committal to +the acquisition of New Orleans alone. Monroe's term, as Governor of +Virginia, had just expired. He had formerly served the country most +acceptably at the French court. He was the devoted friend, personally +and politically, of Jefferson. They were both committed to the "strict +construction" theory of the Constitution. This narrow view of the +instrument, on which their party had come into power, absolutely +forbade the acquisition of territory by purchase. But Louisiana was +necessary not only to the growth, but to the maintenance of the Union. +It mattered not that the professions of the Republican party had to be +violated. The prize outweighed the virtue of party consistency. +Jefferson himself was forced to admit the want of power, but having +resolved on the act, he said: "The less that is said about any +constitutional difficulty the better." Again he said: "It will be +desirable for Congress to do what is necessary in silence."</p> + +<p>With these views he despatched Monroe to Paris. For obvious reasons +written instructions were avoided; but it is quite certain that +unlimited discretion to the Minister had resulted from a careful +comparison of views.</p> + +<p>It was under these circumstances that in 1803 the vast domain known as +"The Louisiana Purchase" was obtained by the United States for the +paltry consideration of fifteen million dollars.</p> + +<p>This of itself added immensely to Jefferson's popularity. Internal +taxation had been abolished. Rigid economy of administration had been +introduced. The public debt was in the course of rapid extinction. The +rigorous ceremonials of former administrations had given place to the +simplest forms, and the temples of power had been made accessible to +the humblest citizen. The country enjoyed great prosperity, and a +spirit of contentment pervaded the land.</p> + +<p>Jefferson's second election, in 1804, was almost without +opposition—his vote being 162 to 14 for C. C. Pinckney, the Federal +candidate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span> The second term of the President was far less successful than +the first. A political exigency in France had forced the sale of +Louisiana, and its opportune purchase had given Jefferson unbounded +popularity, and linked his name with the future greatness of his +country. But the impending hostilities producing that exigency had now +been declared. France and England were again in open war, and each, to +wound the other, had recklessly trampled upon the rights of the United +States. English orders in council blockaded the ports of France, and +Napoleon's Berlin decrees equally closed those of England against +neutral commerce. The right of search was claimed by both powers, and +offensively exercised by England. Time had now brought its inevitable +revenges. Jefferson was again confronted by conditions in which he +manifested more or less of weakness and incapacity. In peace his +statesmanship was always creditable, and at times, truly magnificent. +In the presence of war he was too often vacillating and incompetent. +The embargo on the commerce of his own country, which he suggested, +was hardly less injurious than the wrongs of which he complained. The +remedy was worse, if possible, than the disease.</p> + +<p>Aaron Burr, in contesting for the presidency in 1801, had forfeited +the confidence of his own party, and for killing Hamilton in a duel in +1804, he had incurred the hatred of the Federalists, and lost the +respect of all parties. In his desperation he had organized an +expedition to proceed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers with a +view, as was supposed, of invading Mexico, or segregating from the +United States a portion of its territory. He was arrested for treason +and brought to Richmond, where he was finally tried for a high +misdemeanor in organizing forces against Spain within the United +States. In this prosecution, as in the impeachment of Judge Chase of +the Supreme Court, executive encouragement and aid were offensively +open and notorious.</p> + +<p>When the embargo had almost ruined the commercial States of the Union, +it was modified by a non-intercourse act with France and England, to +take effect on March 4, 1809, the last day of Jefferson's term.</p> + +<p>At the close of his second term Jefferson permanently retired from +office, and spent his remaining years at Monticello.</p> + +<p>By a singular coincidence both he and John Adams died on July 4, 1826, +just fifty years after they had signed the Declaration of +Independence.</p> + +<p>The brief facts already recited clearly indicate the character of the +man. He was a bold and original thinker. With him mere precedent was +without weight. By nature he was a democrat, plain, simple, and +unostentatious. He not only believed in the capacity of the people for +self-government, but in their honest wish to govern aright. In the +struggle of the Revolution his devotion to the rights of the people +against English tyranny took the form of religious enthusiasm. In +France he witnessed the sufferings and misery of the down-trodden +poor, whose wild vengeance he believed to be justified by the long +ages of oppression and wrong under which they had groaned.</p> + +<p>He distrusted power and naturally sought to restrict its exercise. +Hating monarchy, he feared to delegate large powers of government even +in republican <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span> forms. Hating an aristocracy, he encouraged +the masses to demand equality in civil, political, and social rights.</p> + +<p>His political inconsistencies resulted from the usual impossibility of +reconciling theory and practice. When his opponents were in power, +their purposes, he thought, were accomplished through violations of +the constitution. An equally dangerous exercise of power by his +friends failed to excite his alarm. Feeling conscious within himself +of an honest purpose to subserve the good of the people and to +perpetuate their liberties, he found ready justification for every act +having, in his judgment, those ends in view.</p> + +<p>America has produced no man so dear to the masses of its people as +Thomas Jefferson. He was an iconoclast, but the images broken by him +were the idols of a past age, and no longer deserved the worship of a +free people.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig004" name="sig004"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig004.jpg" width="250" height="41" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + +<h3>ALEXANDER HAMILTON<br> +(1757-1804)</h3> + +<a id="img018" name="img018"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img018.jpg" width="250" height="302" alt="Alexander Hamilton." title=""> +</div> + +<p>The parentage of Alexander Hamilton is given by his son and biographer +as of mingled Scottish and French ancestry—Scottish on the father's +side, Huguenot on the mother's. Students of the doctrine of +temperaments may find something to ponder over in such a fusion under +the genial ray of the southern sun. Given the key, they may unlock +with it many cabinets in the idiosyncrasy of the future Hamilton; +Scottish perseverance and integrity, French honor and susceptibility, +tropical fervor. Be that as it may, Alexander Hamilton first saw the +light in the West India island, St. Christopher, January 11, 1757. His +father was a trader or captain, sailing between the islands of the +archipelago, whose business brought him into relation with Nicholas +Cruger, a wealthy merchant of Santa Cruz, in intimate relation with +New York, in whose counting-house the son was placed at the age of +twelve. He was a boy of quick intellect, in advance of his years, and +had already made much of limited opportunities of instruction, as we +may learn from an exceedingly well-penned epistle, addressed thus +early to a school-fellow who had found his way to New York. In this +remarkable letter, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> the boy seems to have written with +prophetic instinct. "To confess my weakness, Ned," he says, "my +ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling condition of a +clerk or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and would +willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my +station.... I mean to prepare the way for futurity.... I shall +conclude by saying, I wish there was a war." This may be regarded as a +boyish rhapsody; but all boys are not given to such rhapsodies.</p> + +<p>The clerk had his hours for study as well as for the counting-room, +and doubtless practised his pen in composition, for we hear of his +writing an account of a fearful hurricane which visited the island, a +narrative which appears to have been published, since it attracted the +attention of the governor. These evidences of talent determined his +friends to send him to New York to complete his education. He came, +landing at Boston in the autumn of 1772, and was received at New York +by the correspondents of Dr. Knox, a clergyman who had become +interested in his welfare in Santa Cruz. He was immediately introduced +to the school of Francis Barber, at Elizabethtown, where he enjoyed +the society of the Boudinots, Livingstons, and other influential +people of the colony. He studied early, and at the close of the year +presented himself to Doctor Witherspoon, at Princeton, with a request +to be permitted to overleap some of the usual collegiate terms +according to his qualifications. As this was contrary to the usage of +the place, he entered King's College, now Columbia, in New York, with +the special privileges he desired. In addition to the usual studies, +he attended the anatomical course of Clossey. Colonel Troup, at this +time his room-fellow, testifies to his earnest religious feeling, a +very noticeable thing in a youth of his powers. He wrote verses +freely—among them doggerel burlesques of the productions of the +ministerial writers of the day.</p> + +<p>The Revolution was now fairly getting under way, and in the opening +tumultuous scenes in New York, strong hands were wanted at the wheel. +Hamilton, at the age of seventeen, in 1774, did not hesitate in making +his decision. He entered the field against the dashing young president +of the college, Myles Cooper, of convivial memory, in a reply in +Holt's <span class="italic">Gazette</span> to some Tory manifesto of that divine. About this +time, after the adjournment of Congress, at the close of the year, he +also published a pamphlet in vindication of the measures of Congress, +against the attacks of Seabury and Wilkins. The contest, however, was +one which was not to be decided by the pen alone. The old prerogative +lawyers and divines were not to be shaken out of their seats by the +constitutional arguments of such young counsellors as Hamilton and +Jay. The hard hands of the committee of mechanics were much more +demonstrative. Myles Cooper, Seabury, and their brethren very +naturally suspected the logic, and laughed at the novel measures of +the day by which the popular party in their restrictive, +non-importation measures proposed to dispense with the wisdom of Lords +and Commons, and starve themselves into independence. It is well +sometimes to look at that side of the question, too.</p> + +<p>But all the pooh-poohing in the world over the best wine in the +colony, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> not to stop the affair which had commenced. +Volunteers were drilling, men of sound heads and stout hearts were +getting ready for action. There were certain cannon to be removed from +the Battery; Hamilton was engaged in the duty with his comrades, +"Hearts of oak" they called themselves; a boat approached from the +man-of-war Asia, in the harbor; the citizens fired; the fire was +returned from the ship, and one of Hamilton's company was killed. The +Liberty Boys spread the alarm and gathered in a mob, threatening to +attack the college and seize its president, Myles Cooper. Hamilton, +who was no friend to riot, little as he was afraid of discussion or of +force, interposed with a speech from the college steps, while the +president, roused from his bed, half naked, took refuge on the shore, +wandering over the island in the night to the old Stuyvesant mansion, +whence he was the next day finally removed from America in his +Majesty's vessel, the Kingfisher. The royal governor, Tryon, took +refuge in the Asia shortly after.</p> + +<p>Hamilton now turned his attention in earnest to military affairs, +making choice of the artillery service, in which he gained some +instruction from a British soldier, and by aid of the popular leader, +McDougal, received from the convention the appointment of captain of +the Provincial Company of Artillery. He had only recently completed +his nineteenth year. It was early, but not so very early for a man of +genius; for the child in such cases is the father of the man, and +youth is an additional spur to exertion. But this was not all. The +young captain was engaged, not only in the gymnastics of drilling +recruits, but he was reading, thinking, and working out problems in +political economy for himself—and the future. Dr. Johnson said that +he learned little after eighteen; Hamilton would seem to have laid the +foundation at least, of all his knowledge before twenty. "His military +books of this period," says his son, "give an interesting exhibition +of his train of thought. In the pay-book of his company, amid various +general speculations and extracts from the ancients, chiefly relating +to politics and war, are intermingled tables of political arithmetic, +considerations on commerce, the value of the relative productions +which are its objects, the balance of trade, the progress of +population, and the principles on which depends the value of a +circulating medium; and among his papers there remains a carefully +digested outline of a plan for the political and commercial history of +British America, compiled at this time." There is the germ in all this +of the Secretary of the Treasury.</p> + +<p>The battle of Long Island now ensued on the vain attempt to resist the +landing of Howe and his British troops, followed by the masterly +retreat of Washington, in which Hamilton brought up the rear. The +subsequent American proceedings in the evacuation of the city, the +passage from the island to Westchester, and the subsequent retreat +before Cornwallis through the Jerseys under Washington, if they had +little of glory, at least required their full share of military +determination and endurance. Hamilton was active throughout the +campaign. At White Plains and on the Raritan, at Trenton and +Princeton, his artillery did good service. When he entered Morristown, +his original company of a hundred was reduced <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> by the +accidents of war to twenty-five. Here, on March 1, 1777, leaving the +line of the army, he became attached to the staff of Washington as his +aid. This was the commencement of that half military, half civil +relation which identified Hamilton in joint labors and councils with +the Father of his Country.</p> + +<p>Hamilton became, in fact, the right-hand man of Washington, not only +during the war, but throughout his subsequent political career, and no +better proof than this can be had at once of the sagacity of +Washington in selecting his instruments, and of the honor and worth of +Hamilton in so long and so successfully maintaining this distinguished +position. In the staff of the commander-in-chief, Hamilton, we are +told, acquired the title, "The Little Lion." His spirit and courage +were shown in numerous instances, particularly in the battle of +Monmouth, where Lee exposed bravery to such violent hazards, an affair +out of which grew a duel between that officer and Colonel John +Laurens, one of Washington's aids, in which Hamilton was the second of +his friend and associate. Nor was Hamilton's counsel less serviceable +in interviews with the French officers, and those frequent +negotiations with the different portions of the army, and with +Congress, which were among the hardest necessities of Washington's +campaigns.</p> + +<p>The relation of Hamilton to Washington, as a member of his military +family, was suddenly brought to a termination at head-quarters on the +Hudson, in February, 1781. The difference arose in a momentary +forgetfulness of temper on the part of Washington. For some purpose of +consultation he required the presence of Hamilton, who was detained +from keeping the appointment on the instant, for it appears to have +been a delay of but a few moments. Washington, however, was impatient, +and meeting Hamilton at the head of the stairs, angrily exclaimed, +"Colonel Hamilton, you have kept me waiting at the head of the stairs +these ten minutes; I must tell you, sir, you treat me with +disrespect." Hamilton firmly replied, "I am not conscious of it, sir; +but since you have thought it necessary to tell me so, we part." "Very +well, sir," said Washington, "if it be your choice," or something to +that effect, and the friends separated. Washington immediately opened +the way for the Secretary's continuance at his post, but, without any +feeling of asperity, the overture was declined. Hamilton, however, +proffered his services and counsel. With no other man than Washington, +indeed, could the subordinate relation have continued so long, and +Hamilton had often thought of renouncing it; but he saw in Washington +the man for the times, the great representative of a great cause, for +which minor considerations must be sacrificed. Writing at this moment +to Schuyler, he says, "The General is a very honest man; his +competitors have slender abilities and less integrity. His popularity +has often been essential to the safety of America, and is still of +great importance to it. These considerations have influenced my past +conduct respecting him, and will influence my future. I think it is +necessary he should be supported."</p> + +<p>Hamilton was now desirous to resume active service in the line, and +after some discussion as to rank, received the command of a New York +battalion of light infantry, which he led right manfully at the siege +of Yorktown. He was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> anxious to signalize himself at this +crowning act of the war by some distinguished exercise of bravery, and +when, at an advanced period of the approaches, a redoubt was to be +stormed, he eagerly solicited the forlorn hope from Washington. +Advancing to the charge with characteristic spirit, at the point of +the bayonet, exposed to a heavy fire, he struggled through the ditch, +and surmounting the defences, took the work in the most brilliant +manner. He gallantly arrested the slaughter at the first moment, and +thus placed his humanity upon a level with his bravery.</p> + +<p>The war being now brought to an end, Hamilton turned his attention to +the law, and in a few months' ardent devotion—the devotion of +Hamilton was always ardent—at Albany to the study with the aid of his +friend, Colonel Troup, and the stimulus of his recent marriage, +qualified himself thoroughly for the practice of the profession. He +was admitted to the Supreme Court at its July term, 1782. About the +same time, at the solicitation of Robert Morris, the financier of +Congress, he accepted the appointment of receiver of the continental +taxes in the State of New York, with the understanding that his +exertions were to be employed in impressing upon the Legislature the +wants and objects of the Government. In pursuance of this, he urged +resolutions which were unanimously adopted in July, 1782, recommending +the call of a convention for the purpose of revising and amending the +Articles of Confederation. He was also elected by the Legislature of +this year a member of Congress. He bore an active part in its debates, +and was greatly employed in its important financial measures.</p> + +<p>On the final departure of the British from New York, in 1783, Hamilton +became a resident of the city with his family, and devoted himself +assiduously to the practice of his profession. He was constantly, +however, looked to as a public man. We find him, in 1784, appealing to +the public under the signature of Phocion, in favor of more liberal +and enlightened views in regard to the loyalists of the late +Revolution, and their rights of property. In 1786 he is a member of +the State Assembly, and in September of the same year among the +delegates of the five States which, at the instance of Virginia, met +at Annapolis to confer on the commercial interests of the country; a +too limited representation, indeed, to achieve the objects in view, +but the precursor of the great Federal Convention at Philadelphia of +the following year.</p> + +<p>We have seen Hamilton's early studies of the theoretical workings of +government. His practical experience, in the army of Washington, of +the imperfections of Congress and the defects of the old +confederation, was not likely to let him forget the subject. Authority +in government, rules in legislation, financial measures, taxes, loans, +and a bank, were topics constantly before his mind. The Convention of +1787 gave him, at length, the wished-for opportunity to enter upon a +full discussion of his plans in a cause and before an audience worthy +of his powers. Washington was the presiding officer, Franklin was in +attendance; it was a congregation of notables—Rufus King, Oliver +Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, William Livingston, Robert Morris, +Gouverneur Morris, John Dickinson, Luther Martin, James Madison, +George Wythe, John Rutledge, and others as worthy. Much <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> has +been said of Hamilton's course in this Convention, and of his advocacy +of monarchical views. It is true that a plan of government which he +supported in a speech of length and eloquence, provided several +features, as the life tenure of the President and senators, and the +appointment of State officers by the General Government, which, in the +interpretation of some minds, as Patrick Henry used to express it, +"was an awful squinting toward monarchy;" but, on the other hand, it +should be remembered that the Convention was a meeting for +consultation, with closed doors, in a committee of the whole, in which +perfect freedom in the interchange of views was desirable; that, in +the view of our own day, other members displayed heresies quite as +obnoxious, and that in the final resolves of the Constitution, +Hamilton, with the others, yielded his prejudices, and became the firm +defender of the instrument as it was adopted, and substantially now +stands.</p> + +<p>Remember the age of Hamilton at this time—twenty-nine; a greater +prodigy in the Convention at Philadelphia than the youth in the army +of Washington. To no one probably are we more indebted for the +Constitution than to Hamilton. The Convention which laid the +instrument before the country for its adoption had scarcely adjourned, +when, in company with Madison and Jay, he took up the pen in its +explanation and defence, in the celebrated series of papers, "The +Federalist," originally published in the New York <span class="italic">Daily Advertiser</span>. +Hamilton began and closed the work. Of its eighty-five papers much the +greater portion, it is believed, were written by him.</p> + +<p>The discussion of the financial and military powers, the executive and +the judiciary, fell to his pen. In the New York Convention he was +again the efficient advocate of the adoption of the Constitution. In a +separate series of papers, signed Philo Publius, published in another +journal, Hamilton, assisted by his friends, met various objections, +the discussion of which would have marred the unity of "The +Federalist," which was thus left a classical commentary upon the +Constitution.</p> + +<p>Having been thus instrumental in forming the Constitution, Hamilton +was destined to be one of the most active agents of its powers. When +the new government went into operation, under its provisions he was +summoned by Washington, to the discharge of one of the most onerous +duties of the department, in his appointment as Secretary of the +Treasury. He continued in office six years, marking his +administration—for such it was in his province—by his report and +measures for the funding of the public debt, the excise revenue +system, which he was called upon to assert in arms during the +insurrection of Western Pennsylvania, and the creation of a National +Bank. His reports on these subjects, and on manufactures, in which he +advocated protection, are among the most important contributions of +their kind to our national archives. In allusion to the financial +measures of Hamilton, and their success at the time in the welfare of +the country, Daniel Webster, in a speech at New York, half a century +afterward, exclaimed: "He smote the rock of the national resources, +and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead +corpse of the public, and it sprung upon its feet."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> The measures of Hamilton, however, were not adopted without +opposition. Jefferson was their persistent opponent; local interests +and State pretensions arose to thwart the measures of Government, and +gave birth to the party feuds of Federalism and its opponents. A +growing element of disaffection was added to the political caldron in +the relations with England and the disturbing influences of the +principles of the French Revolution. Hamilton bore the brunt of much +of this popular opposition, which came to a crisis in the discussions +attending the British Treaty of Jay, in 1794, as he defended its +provisions in the papers signed "Camillus," while it was before the +country, and advocated its leading neutrality principles in "The +Letters of Pacificus," published by him the previous year. When France +had wearied out all indulgence by her aggressions on the high seas, +and by her treatment of our ministers at Paris, and Washington was +again called to the field in anticipation of an expected invasion, +Hamilton was appointed second in command, and now employed himself in +the organization of the army. On the death of Washington he became +commander-in-chief. On the conclusion of a treaty with France the army +disbanded.</p> + +<p>In the intervals of these public duties, Hamilton was actively +employed in his profession in the higher courts of the State. The late +Chancellor Kent afterward recalled his "clear, elegant, and fluent +style and commanding manner. He never made any argument in court +without displaying his habit of thinking and resorting at once to some +well-founded principle of law, and drawing his deductions logically +from his premises. Law was always treated by him as a science, founded +on established principles. His manners were gentle, affable, and kind. +He appeared to be frank, liberal, and courteous in all his +professional intercourse."</p> + +<p>The last important trial in which Hamilton was engaged, the case of +the People against Harry Croswell, in the Supreme Court, a few months +before his untimely death, is memorable also for his maintenance of +the right of juries to determine the law as well as the fact in cases +of libel.</p> + +<p>The party politics of the time had been broken up in the simplicity of +their outline by the administration of John Adams. Aaron Burr was the +most prominent intriguer in the field. He had attained the +vice-presidency, and the choice hung for a while suspended between him +and Jefferson for the presidency. Between the two, Hamilton, who had +formed an unfavorable opinion of the character of Burr, preferred his +old antagonist, Jefferson, and cast his influence accordingly. When +Burr afterward sought the office of Governor of New York, in a contest +with a member of his own Republican party, in which he relied upon the +support of the Federalists, he was defeated by Hamilton, who made no +secret of his opposition. Smarting under the failure of his intrigue, +Burr determined to challenge the honest man who stood in his way to +power. He had no ground of personal offence bringing Hamilton within +any justifiable pretensions even of the lax code of the duellist. The +expressions which he called upon him to avow or disavow, were vague, +and were based upon the report of a person who specified neither time, +place, nor the words. It was a loose matter of hearsay <span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span> which +was alleged—evidently a wanton provocation to a murderous duel. Burr +demanded so broad a retraction from Hamilton of all he might have +said, that compliance was impossible. It was an attempt to procure an +indorsement of his character at the cost of the moral character of the +indorser. Hamilton despised the manœuvre, but perceiving that a +meeting was forced upon him, and unhappily determining, contrary to +his better judgment, that his usefulness would be destroyed in the +public affairs of the times if he avoided the contest, fell into the +fatal snare.</p> + +<p>He executed his will, in which he made provision for his family and +creditors, thinking tenderly of his wife, enjoining his children to +bear in mind she had been to them the most devoted and best of +mothers. On the night preceding the appointment he wrote a paper +declaring his intention to throw away his fire, and acquitting himself +before the world of the malice of the duellist, while he rested his +conduct upon his usefulness to his country. The next morning, July +11th, they met at Weehawken; the weapons were pistols, the distance +ten paces. The duel was fought within a few feet of the shore, in a +woodland scene beneath the cliff opposite the present inhabited +portion of New York, at a spot now traversed or closely approached by +the river road, but then readily accessible only by water. Hamilton +fell at the first fire, mortally wounded, his pistol-shot striking at +random a twig some seven feet above the head of his antagonist. Burr +fled, a wanderer over the earth. Hamilton was carried across the +river, supported by Pendleton and Dr. Hosack, to the house of his +friend, Mr. Bayard, at Greenwich. He was there enabled to take +farewell of his family, and receive the last consolations of religion +from the hands of Bishop Moore. He died on the afternoon of Thursday, +July 12, 1804.</p> + +<p>The reception of the fatal news sent a thrill of horror through the +community. The brilliant, fiery youth of Hamilton, which had lighted +his countrymen to victory and a place among the nations—Hamilton, the +counsellor of Washington, the consummate statesman of the +Constitution, the reliance of the State, the hope of the future: +visions such as these were contrasted in the popular mind with his +wretched fall. We perhaps darken the shades of the picture, for time +and proof have added to the greatness of Hamilton, and Burr waited not +for death to exhibit the penury of his fame. But the men who knew the +heart of Hamilton, who saw in him the bulwark of the State, his +contemporaries, wept his fate with no common lamentation. New York +gave her public honors to his grave. Gouverneur Morris, with strenuous +words, delivered the funeral oration by the side of his bier, under +the portico of old Trinity; and Mason, the pulpit orator of his time, +thundered his strong sentences at the crime which had robbed the world +of Hamilton.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span> COUNT DE MIRABEAU<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="smaller">[6]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Charles S. Hathaway</span><br> +(1749-1791)</h3> + +<a id="img019" name="img019"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img019.jpg" width="250" height="316" alt="Mirabeau." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Count de Mirabeau, one of the most eminent +among the great authors, orators, and statesmen of France, was born on +March 9, 1749 on his father's estate at Bignon, near Nemours.</p> + +<p>The earliest of Mirabeau's ancestors of whom there is any notable +record, was Jean Riquetti, a prominent merchant at Marseilles, who, in +1570, bought the château and estate of Mirabeau, near Pertuis, from +the well-known Provençal family of Barras and who, a few years later, +acquired the title of Esquire.</p> + +<p>In 1685, one hundred and fifteen years after the purchase above +mentioned, Honoré Riquetti, lineal descendant of the Marseilles +merchant, obtained the title of Marquis de Mirabeau, and there was +born to this marquis a son, Jean Antoine Riquetti, who achieved a +worthy record as a soldier, but whose prominent place in history is +due to the fact that he was the grandfather of the great Mirabeau.</p> + +<p>Victor Riquetti, son of this second Marquis de Mirabeau and father of +the great, the Count de Mirabeau, was in his early manhood an +indifferent soldier, but he afterward became distinguished as a writer +and leader in French politics. His wife (the mother of Count de +Mirabeau) was Marie Geneviève, daughter of M. de Vassan, a brigadier +in the French army, she being, also, the widow of the Marquis de +Saulyebœuf. This union, entered into without a previous meeting +between the principals to the contract, and at a time when the Marquis +de Mirabeau was well started in his career as a politician, was not a +happy one. The new husband was more loyal to politics than to his +wife, so that, when their son, who was destined to achieve fame, was +but thirteen years old, there was a separation between the parents by +mutual consent.</p> + +<p>Thus, in outline, is indicated the ancestry of Mirabeau through a +period of nearly two centuries, and, meagre as the showing is, it is +evident that he was the scion of a long line of wealth and nobility, +his paternal ancestors having served with credit as soldiers, while +his father was eminent as a politician. There is a second group of +facts which bear interestingly upon the career under discussion. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span> Mirabeau the great was born at a time when more than +two-thirds of France was in the hands of privileged classes—the king, +the nobility, and the clergy—and at a time, too, when the structure +founded upon years of feudalism and absolutism was about to be shaken +to its base by the magic of popular public opinion.</p> + +<p>Under such conditions, at such a time, and from such stock, occurred +the birth of Mirabeau the great; a coming into the world of a babe +"scarce half made up;" a child with a head so large that it was a dire +deformity, with one foot sadly twisted, and with a tongue that was +tied; in brief, an infant ogre born with teeth. So great was the +chagrin of the father that he made no effort to conceal his dislike +for the misshapen child. Hence, when at three years of age the little +one was left wretchedly pitted by a severe attack of small-pox, its +fate was listed. It must not, could not, bear the name of Mirabeau.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when the youngster was fourteen years old—after several +years of instruction under the private tutorship of Lachabeaussière, +<span class="italic">père</span>—he was entered under the fictitious name of "Pierre Buffière," +at a private military school in Paris. Here, strong of limb, body, and +mind, industrious and aggressive, he remained for four years. Then his +father placed him in the Berry regiment of cavalry, which regiment had +been commanded, sixty-two years before, by his grandfather.</p> + +<p>This event marked the end of a boyhood which had been clouded by an +almost entire absence of paternal favor, and wholly free from maternal +care—the mother's absence having been secured by the father, by a +<span class="italic">lettre de cachet</span>. In addition, that boyhood had been irritated and +embittered by a continuous and exasperating development of his natural +personal disfigurement. His enormous head grew less in harmony with +his torso, his lips and nose became thick and heavy, great moles +revealed themselves upon his cheeks, and in every way, physically, his +growth was a perpetual disappointment.</p> + +<p>However, he was now (1767) the eighteen-year old "Pierre Buffière," a +lieutenant of cavalry, conscious of his exceptional mental strength +and somewhat vain thereof, and full of ambition and determination to +win as he wished and in spite of all of his many obstacles. +Unfortunately, but most naturally, considering his temperament, the +first test of his will, his passion, and his determination, resulted +in his victory. He won the affection of a young woman to whom his +colonel had long been devoted, and the scandal resulting therefrom +caused the father to obtain a <span class="italic">lettre de cachet</span>, by authority of +which the indiscreet young man was placed in confinement in the Isle +of Rhé. Immediately the prisoner began his first illustration of his +ability to gain to his own purposes the ability and influence of +others—one of his strongest and most useful characteristics. Within +two months he had secured the esteem and confidence of his jailer, so +that that official soon made a most favorable report, upon the +strength of which Mirabeau was accepted as a volunteer to accompany +the French expedition sent (in 1769) to conquer Corsica. So well did +the young soldier conduct himself during this campaign, that he was +not only promoted to a captaincy in the dragoons, but he effected a +partial reconciliation with his father, returned to Provence, was +permitted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> to assume his true name and title, and was +presented at court. In June, 1772, he married, by his father's advice, +Marie Émile de Covet, only daughter of the Marquis de Marignane. She +came to him portionless, and he, impetuous, ambitious, and +extravagant, became, during the next two years, deeply involved in +debt. The marriage was a failure. Again the father utilized the +<span class="italic">lettre de cachet</span>, and a second time was Mirabeau a prisoner (August +23, 1774), this time in the Château d'If, at Marseilles. Here it was +that he wrote his first work of which we have any exact knowledge, its +title being: "Essai sur le Despotisme."</p> + +<p>In the following year he was transferred from the Château d'If to the +Castle of Joux, where he was less strictly confined. He had the +freedom of the place and frequent opportunities for visiting the +near-by town of Pontarlier. It was in this town that he first met +Marie Thérèse, the Marchioness de Monnier, the young and attractive +wife of an aged magistrate. A love affair was the result, and it +culminated in August, 1776, in an elopement, first to Switzerland and +then to Amsterdam. For over nine months the fugitive pair lived +together in the Dutch capital, Mirabeau, under the assumed name of St. +Mathieu, earning a livelihood as a pamphleteer and by making +translations for Holland publishers. Meanwhile the tribunal of +Pontarlier had condemned both parties—Mirabeau to be beheaded and his +companion (his "Sophie," as she is most widely known) to imprisonment +for life. On May 14, 1777, they were arrested at Amsterdam, and +Mirabeau was imprisoned by a <span class="italic">lettre de cachet</span> in the Castle of +Vincennes, while Sophie was surrendered to the Pontarlier authorities.</p> + +<p>For three and a half years thereafter Mirabeau was in confinement, a +term which proved sufficient to temper his passion, and during which +he wrote his well-known "Letters to Sophie," the "Erotica Biblion," +and "My Conversion." He also wrote, during this time, his first worthy +political production, the "Lettres de Cachet." He was released from +this imprisonment on December 13, 1780, and at once sought out Sophie, +to quarrel with and leave her, and so, fortunately, end the most +disgraceful portion of his life.</p> + +<p>Mirabeau, now thirty-one years old, and, according to the times, most +liberally experienced in the ways of the then turbulent world, +undertook, as his first task, the removal of the sentence of death +which still confronted him. Not only did he succeed in this, but, by +his plausibility and eloquence, he shifted the entire cost of the +proceedings to the shoulders of the complainant—the aged magistrate +he had so grossly wronged. His next venture was an effort before the +tribunal of Aix, to compel his wife to return to him. Here he failed, +as also he failed in an effort to compromise a suit pending between +his father and mother. Not only that, but by his pleadings his mother +became forever alienated from him, and by reason of his bitter attacks +upon the rulings of the court he was forced to leave Paris. Locating +at Amsterdam, he began his lasting and respectable relations with +Madame de Nehra, daughter of Zwier van Haren, a Dutch writer and +politician. She was a woman of education and refinement, who exercised +a valuable influence over his rapidly growing celebrity, bringing out +his good qualities, subduing his undesirable characteristics, and +encouraging all <span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span> of his better ambitions. It was at her +suggestion that he went to England, after a brief stay in Holland, +while she repaired to Paris. His mission—which he accomplished—was +to publish his "Considérations sur l'Ordre de Cincinnatus" and his +"Doutes sur la Liberté de l'Escaut;" while her mission, also +successful, was to establish peace between Mirabeau and the +authorities at the French capital.</p> + +<p>During twenty years of the thirty-six years he had lived, Mirabeau had +been, either through his father's intervention or by his own acts, a +constant topic of consideration by the French authorities. On the +other hand, by virtue of his writings, his declared enmity to all +forms of tyranny and oppression, and his distaste for pretence, he had +become a popular idol. He was, as Carlyle puts it, "a swallower of +formulas," and it seems he had the ability to digest such food thus +taken. Therefore, upon his return to Paris in April, 1785, he made a +series of attacks upon agiotage, or stock jobbing, most effectively +assaulting the Compagnie des Eaux and the Banque de St. Charles. While +such efforts proved offensive to the government, it caused such an +appreciation of his ability that he was sent, in June, 1786, on a +secret mission to Berlin. He remained there for half a year, and +during that time he secured the material for his notable work, +"Histoire Secrète de la Cour de Berlin." Among other writings which he +produced about this time were his "Moses Mendelssohn, ou la Réforme +politique des Juifs," and his pamphlet "Dénonciation de l'Agiotage," +aimed against the policy of Calonne. Again he was in danger of the +<span class="italic">lettre de cachet</span>, and so he repaired to Brunswick, where he finished +his work "De la Monarchie Prussienne," which was published in 1788.</p> + +<p>Up to 1789, Mirabeau had been a dramatic character, an individual +revelation of theatric passion, a figure-piece single and alone; but +the climax was at hand. The achievement of American independence had +been an object-lesson most potent. Louis and his queen, Marie +Antoinette, could not check the storm, and for the first time in one +hundred and seventy-three years, France was to have an assembly of the +nation by its representatives. The "third estate" was aroused and the +States-General was summoned. Mirabeau, having a deep-rooted desire to +provide for France a government in accord with the wishes and intent +of a majority of the people, and having been rejected by the noblesse +of his own district, presented himself to the "third estate," as a +candidate. He was elected both for Aix and for Marseilles, and he +decided to sit for Aix. Naturally an enthusiast, he was present (May +4, 1789) at the opening of the States-General, but with excellent +sagacity he entered that body as an independent. To the end of his +life, twenty-three months later, he maintained that independence.</p> + +<a id="img020" name="img020"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img020.jpg" width="600" height="402" alt="" title=""> +<p>The Third Estate takes refuge in the tennis + court</p></div> + +<p>When, being shut out in the rain from the great hall of the Estates, +the "third estate" established themselves in the adjacent +tennis-court, and when, being ejected from there, they came together +again and forced the king to recognize them as the representatives of +the nation; through all these earlier and wiser stages of the great +revolt, Mirabeau was the leader and director. But when, on June 5, +1789, a resolution was passed by the delegates declaring +themselves—the people, the Commons of France—to be the National +Assembly, he spoke and worked bravely <span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> and eloquently +against abandoning the old order of things before formulating an exact +and sufficient policy as its successor. He declared the action a hasty +one, and finally avoided the issue in the only way possible, by +absenting himself when the vote was taken. And yet, eight days later, +at the close of the royal sitting, he bade the grand master of +ceremonies: "Go and tell your master we are here by the power of the +people, and that we are only to be driven out by that of the bayonet."</p> + +<p>He advised the Assembly against the publication of pompous +proclamations, and classed the demonstration of the night of August +4th as a theoretical display of liberty wholly without practical +value. He was opposed to mob-law, and in no sense was he dazzled by +the fall of the Bastille. He pleaded in favor of the royal right to +veto, and proclaimed that he was willing, even, to advocate a +"restoration of the king's legitimate authority as the only means of +saving France."</p> + +<p>He was a leader of magnificent power, enthusiastic in the advocacy and +support of his convictions; a statesman who would not speak, write or +do, in politics, anything not in accord with his estimate as to what +was right. True, he was accused of treason for speaking in support of +the king's right to proclaim war or peace, but three days thereafter +he defended himself against the charge, and with overwhelming success. +He was a leader who worked prodigiously. In addition to his duties as +a member of the Assembly, he was also publisher and editor of a paper +first called the <span class="italic">Journal des États-Généraux</span>, later the <span class="italic">Lettres à +mes Constituants</span>, and at last the <span class="italic">Courrier de Provence</span>. As clerk of +the Comité Diplomatique of the Assembly and because of his thorough +knowledge of foreign affairs, he was the constant adviser of +Montmorin, the foreign secretary. Thus, by his wise appreciation of +the subject, he established harmony between the Assembly and +Montmorin, and so prevented foreign intervention, at the same time +maintaining the honor of France abroad. But this bulwark to the +nation's safety was about to topple and fall, precipitated by its own +decay. As in all things, Mirabeau had been colossal in his excesses, +and like them, the punishment was great. He wished to live, but he did +not fear death. Early in 1791 the structure began to weaken, and +realizing that the time was at hand, Mirabeau carefully collected all +of his writings, and after classifying them, forwarded them to his +firm friend and companion, Sir Gilbert Elliott, in England. So far as +he was able, he continued to contribute to the guidance and protection +of his country. He was patient and fearless, his only regret taking +the form of a pardonable conceit that, could he but live, the +Revolution could be controlled and guided, that the awful Reign of +Terror, so soon to follow, could be averted. The progress of his +decline was without hindrance, in spite of all that science could +devise. It is reported that, as he looked out from his sick-room, on +the day of his death, on the brilliant spring-time sun, he said: "If +he is not God, he is at least his cousin-german." Those were, it is +said, his last spoken words, although some time later when unable to +articulate, he feebly held a pen in his hand as he wrote the single +word: "dormir." And so, on April 2, 1791, he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> died. Thus +ended the life of a wondrous statesman; a singular career, of which +Carlyle (in his "French Revolution") says: "Strange lot! Forty years +of that smouldering with foul fire-damp and vapor enough; then victory +over that;—and like a burning mountain, he blazes heaven high; and +for twenty-three resplendent months pours out, in flame and molten +fire-torrents, all that is in him, the Pharos and the Wondersign of an +amazed Europe;—and then lies hollow, cold, forever."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig005" name="sig005"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig005.jpg" width="250" height="65" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3>MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE<br> +(1758-1794)</h3> + +<a id="img021" name="img021"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img021.jpg" width="250" height="307" alt="Robespierre." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Maximilien Isidore Robespierre, the leader of the most violent of +those theorizers who overthrew the French monarchy, the exponent of +all that deep-rooted hatred which the commoners of France, as the +result of long centuries of oppression, harbored against their king, +nobles, and clergy; Robespierre, who ruled the infant republic during +her first bold defiance of united Europe, yet whose name has become, +even among his countrymen, a symbol of horror, was born at Arras, in +1758. His father was an advocate in the supreme council of Artois, +and, ruined by his dissipation, had left France long before the +revolution. An orphan at the age of nine, and without fortune, +Maximilien was indebted to the benevolent protection of the Bishop of +Arras, M. de Conzié, for the situation of bursar of the College of +Louis XIV. We are assured that from his infancy he manifested a cruel, +reserved, and timid disposition, and an ardent love of liberty and +independence. After having passed through his studies, and obtained +the honor of being chosen by his fellow-students to address Louis +XVI., upon the entrance of that prince into Paris, he returned to +Arras, where, having become an advocate of the council of Artois, he +composed strictures against the magistrates of that province. A daring +enthusiast, in 1789 he was elected, on account of his revolutionary +principles, by the third estate of Artois, to a seat in the +Constituent Assembly. We shall not follow him in detail in that +assembly: we shall simply remark, that he spoke much without obtaining +any particular influence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> and evinced himself constantly the +enthusiastic champion of the people. Robespierre, in all his +harangues, appears to foresee events. The avowed enemy of royalty, we +behold him on the side of republicanism, of which he ventured to alter +the name on the day when the Assembly decreed the French government +monarchical. We behold him again, after the arrest of the king at +Varennes, resuming his projects for the destruction of that monarch, +preparing the movements which took place at the Champ-de-Mars, on July +14, 16, 17, 1791, and attacking, on the 14th, in the Assembly, the +principle of the inviolability of the sovereign, in the hope of having +him arraigned; but at the end of the sitting, finding his opinion +rejected, he began to tremble for his temerity, and required that they +should not provoke the ruin of persons who had engaged in that affair.</p> + +<p>If Robespierre was unable to distinguish himself among the orators of +the Constituent Assembly; if his principles appeared obnoxious to the +innovators acting from sentiment in 1789; if they often drew upon him +the indignation of his colleagues; they were the means of his +acquiring among the Jacobins that reputation and favor which, daily +increasing, rendered him at last the idol of the people and the ruler +of the government. He was called "The Incorruptible." The day of the +closing of the Assembly, the populace surrounded him on his coming out +of the hall, put a crown of oak upon his head, placed him in a +carriage, and, taking out the horses, dragged him to his house, +exclaiming as they moved, "Behold the friend of the people, the great +defender of Liberty!" Robespierre was fully sensible of the advantages +which might result from his alliance with the Jacobins. He devoted +himself entirely to the direction of a club bearing that name, and +refused, in order to give up his whole time to the objects they had in +view, the office of accuser in the criminal tribunal at Paris, to +which he had been appointed. Until his election to a seat in the +Convention, he was never seen personally to engage in those +insurrections which produced the atrocious attack upon the king, nor +in the horrible massacres which, in 1792, covered Paris with murder +and blood, and the French name with eternal opprobrium. He refused +even to preside at the tribunal of August 10th, because, as he said, +"He had long since denounced and accused the conspirators, whom this +tribunal was ordained to judge." But he had scarcely entered the +Convention when he resolved to raise his faction upon the ruins of all +the others, and his power upon the destruction of those factions which +he might employ. To attain this end, he was seen at first to +strengthen the ties by which he had already been united to Marat and +Danton, and to avail himself particularly of the latter, in order to +overthrow the Girondins, who, from the fifth session, had suspected +his ambition, and accused him of aspiring to the dictatorship. It was +during this struggle that Louvet pronounced against him that very +eloquent harangue, which Madame Roland called the "Robespierreiad." +Assisted by his brother and by Danton, Robespierre, in the sitting of +November 5th, overpowered the Girondins, and went to the Jacobins to +enjoy the fruits of his victory, where Merlin de Thionville declared +him an eagle, and a barbarous reptile. From that moment he never +ceased to promote the death of Louis XVI., with an asperity and a +perseverance almost incredible. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> In short, until the fatal +day of the martyrdom of that amiable and unfortunate prince, he +continually importuned the tribune to pronounce upon him (according to +the expression of one of his colleagues) <span class="italic">des vociférations de +cannibale</span>, and the most atrocious prejudgments. It is almost +superfluous to add, that he voted for his death on the day of the +nominal appeal to the nation.</p> + +<p>Within any moderate limits, it would be impossible to give the details +of this monstrous proceeding. Of all the disorders which had occurred +during the stormy period which had seen him on the throne of France, +Louis was accused. He was assigned counsel; and MM. Tronchet, +Lamoignon, Malesherbes, and De Séze, with his approbation, undertook +his defence. Their exertions, though creditable to themselves, were of +no avail; and on January 16, 1793, after hearing them in his defence, +and his solemn denial of the crimes laid to his charge, and after a +sitting of nearly thirty-four hours, the punishment of death was +awarded.</p> + +<p>Constant in his hatred of the Girondins, Robespierre attacked them +with great vehemence until May 31st, when he obtained a complete +triumph. His most dangerous enemies among the men of that faction were +outlawed, and others arrested. The success of this day rendered him +absolute ruler of the Convention, and founded that tyrannical empire +which only terminated with his life.</p> + +<a id="img022" name="img022"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img022.jpg" width="500" height="366" alt="" title=""> +<p>Robespierre's arrest.</p></div> + +<p>Among the factions which had lent him their assistance, the +Hebertistes were the first that separated from his cause. This faction +aspired to sole dominion, but the good fortune or the address of +Robespierre was able at once to oppose to it the Jacobins and the +Cordeliers, and it sunk in March, 1794, under their united efforts. +Danton, who had been particularly serviceable on this occasion, whose +energy had been of such utility, who had aided him in sweeping away +the other factions; Danton, in short, whom he ought to have considered +as the instrument of his power, became a formidable enemy, after being +for a length of time a most devoted friend and faithful ally. The two +parties were at issue; one or the other must necessarily be overcome. +The cunning of Robespierre triumphed over the inconsiderate ardor of +his rival, whom he took pains to render unpopular by sending him to +enrich himself in Belgium. A few days afterward he was accused, +arrested, and conveyed to the scaffold with Desmoulins, La Croix, +Fabre, and others. In the course of the same month (April, 1794) he +delivered over to the Revolutionary Tribunal the remainder of the +party of the Hebertistes, and that of the Cordeliers, whom he degraded +by the name of Atheists, and from that moment to the period of his +downfall he met no opposition. It was then that his language assumed a +different tone. "I must be," "it is necessary," "I will," were his +general expressions; and the Convention, as he himself called it, was +only his <span class="italic">machine à décrets</span>. What is worthy of remark is, that +France, groaning under the struggles of different parties, should +applaud the conduct of Robespierre, from an idea that she would be +less miserable under a single tyrant. His new plan of religion, +ridiculous as it was, gained him some adherents; but it must be +evident to every reflecting mind that Robespierre must have conceived +himself at the head of the government, since he, whose sole object had +hitherto been to destroy, attempted to rebuild. It is impossible to +conjecture how long his power might <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span> have continued, had he +spared his colleagues, and if he had not incited to resistance men +who, until then, had blindly executed his orders, and who desired +nothing more than to continue to serve and obey him; but in +sacrificing the leaders of the Revolutionary Government, Robespierre +sought a support in the moderate party. This policy ruined him; those +whose destruction he had meditated occasioned his downfall. Danger, +however, inspired him with courage. From June 10th, Ruamps and Bourdon +de l'Oise, in particular, had expressed some distrust of the Committee +of Public Safety, which produced a discussion in which Robespierre, +speaking with an air of despotism, had the good fortune to silence +them. This was the moment he should have chosen to overwhelm the +party, which redoubled its intrigues for his destruction; and at whose +head Tallien rendered himself remarkable. His friend, St. Just, +advised him to strike the first blow. Robespierre had passed several +days in retirement, occupied in projecting, at a moment when he ought +to have acted. When he reappeared on the 26th, at the Convention, his +partisans abandoned him; he in vain endeavored to regain the ground he +had lost. Sensible of the danger which threatened him, he called +together his most intimate friends on the night of the 26th. St. Just +pressed him immediately to act. He hesitated for twenty-four hours, +and this delay was the sentence of his death. The next day +Billaud-Varennes removed the veil, and Robespierre having rushed to +the tribune to reply to him, the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" +drove him instantly from the assembly. A few minutes after a decree +was passed for his arrest, and that of St. Just, Couthon, and Lebas. +"The robbers triumph," he exclaimed, on turning to the side of the +conquerors. He was afterward conducted to the Luxembourg, and in a +little time removed from that palace and conveyed to the tribune which +had delivered him up. He for some instants cherished the hopes of a +triumph; the national guard, under the command of Henriot, assembled +in his defence. But the Convention having put him out of the +protection of the law, the Parisians abandoned him, and at three +o'clock in the morning he found himself with his accomplices in the +power of the officers of the Convention. At the moment he was about to +be seized he discharged a pistol at his head, which only fractured his +lower jaw; others say it was fired by Medal, one of the gendarmes, who +had stepped forward to arrest him, and against whom he defended +himself. He was immediately conducted to the Commune, from thence +conveyed to the Conciergerie, and executed on the same day, July 28, +1794.</p> + +<p>His last moments presented a terrific scene; his mouth full of blood, +his eyes half closed, his head bound up with a bloody handkerchief, he +was thrown into the same cell which had been successively inhabited by +Hébert, Danton, and Chaumette. When he quitted the prison to meet his +punishment, the proscribed persons obstructing the passage, the jailer +cried out, "Make way for monsieur the incorruptible!" He was conveyed +in a cart between Henriot and Couthon; the people halted before the +house, two women danced before the wagon, and one of them exclaimed; +"Your sufferings intoxicate us with joy! You will descend to hell, +accompanied by the curses of all wives and mothers." The executioner, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> in order to dispatch him, rudely tore away the bandage from +his wound. He uttered a cry of horror; his lower jaw separated itself +from the upper. The blood again flowed, and his head exhibited a +spectacle of the most frightful kind. He died at the age of +thirty-six.</p> + +<p>Robespierre was not a monster; his life attests it; nor was he solely +guilty of the atrocities which signalized his reign. By his downfall +he was loaded with all those iniquities which, had he triumphed, he +would have attributed to his opponents.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>JEAN HENRI PESTALOZZI<br> +By <span class="smcap">Harriet Martineau</span><br> +(1746-1827)</h3> + +<a id="img023" name="img023"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img023.jpg" width="250" height="298" alt="Jean Henri Pestalozzi." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Those of us who can look back forty years must well remember the fancy +that society took, on a sudden, to interrogate children. It is an odd +thing to recall now one of the strangest fashions of a period full of +wild fashions. After a long term of insular seclusion, through the +war, we welcomed all sorts of foreigners to our soil, and all manner +of foreign notions to our minds. The grand discovery of the benefit of +questioning children made great way in the country, and among some of +the best-hearted people in it. Wherever one went, among the educated +classes, one found the same thing going on. Children of all ages, but +especially the younger, were undergoing cross-examination from morning +till night. It was a terrible time for them. I have seen some fall +into a habit of tears when asked a question which they could not +answer. I have seen more fall into a habit of glib lying, under the +teazing constraint. I have seen tempers ruined for life by the +constant irritation, and most old people can probably say that they +have seen promising intellects frittered away; minds above the average +at the outset of life rendered incurably desultory, shallow, and +conceited. If there are readers of Wordsworth who are puzzled at this +day about the drift of his poem, called "Anecdote for Fathers, Showing +how the Practice of Lying May be Taught," <span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> let them remember +that it was written at a time when "the Pestalozzian system" was in +vogue in England, and throughout Europe; and then they will see what a +good lesson it yields. If, at this day, the image flits across our +memories of some pale child, with a fretful brow, red eyes, and a +constant disposition to get out of the room, or to hide behind the +window curtains, when spoken to, we may refer that image back to the +days of the "Pestalozzian system," as it was fashionably understood in +this country.</p> + +<p>It was a cruel injustice to Pestalozzi to render him responsible for +all this mischief. His mission was, not to craze children's brains and +break their hearts, but the very contrary. We, in fact, gave his name +to a mere reaction from a mistake of our own—to one kind of ignorance +into which we fell in our escape from another.</p> + +<p>In our desire for popular education, early in the century, we had +supposed the thing to be done was to put certain facts into the +learner's mind—to lay them upon his memory, as it were. To quicken +and spread the process, we set children who had learned a thing one +minute to teach it to other children the next. This did not answer. We +called it "the Lancasterian system," and supposed the nation would be +educated in a trice. When we found, at the end of ten or twenty years, +that boys and girls left school after sitting nine years on the +benches, unable to do any good with book or pen, while they had lost +their home-training in the workshop, the field, or the dairy, we were +ready for a reaction; and to that reaction we most unjustly gave the +name of "Pestalozzian system."</p> + +<p>The notion was that we had been all wrong in putting knowledge into +children's heads; and that the right way was to get ideas out of them. +Henceforth we were to develop faculties, and not impose knowledge. It +was a great day for us when the conception was formed, and began to +spread. Without it, education would never have advanced even as far as +it has. But we blundered over it sadly at first; and among our +mistakes, it was not the least that we christened our follies after +Pestalozzi. Every great step in social progress is taken in the name +of some representative man. It is the business of those who come after +to absolve those representatives from the disrepute of mistakes which +were none of theirs; and we may hope that Pestalozzi's memory has long +been clear from the charge of torturing on the rack of +cross-examination the generation of children whom he loved so well. +What it was that he did propose is best seen by looking at his life; +for, if he was not a very practical man in the sense of wisely +conducted affairs, he was still less of a theorist. He knew very well +what he meant and what he wanted; but he had no compact system to +propose, grounded on any new theory of the human faculties. The +foremost man in the educational revolution of modern times, he obeyed +his instincts, and left it for incompetent followers to make a scheme +of doctrine out of what he said and did.</p> + +<p>What were those instincts? And how did he use them?</p> + +<p>We first see him as a very peculiar little boy, whose best friend was +his mother's maid, Barbara. His name is Italian, but he was a Swiss. +His ancestors had been citizens of Milan; but one of them, becoming +Protestant at the time of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span> Reformation, had to seek a +Protestant country to live in, and went to Zurich. The father of this +little John Henry was a physician. He died so early that he left a +very bare provision for his widow and their only son; and, aware of +the prudence that their circumstances would require, he recommended +them, on his death-bed, to the care of the trusty maid Barbara, who +fully justified the confidence. She carried them through with an +appearance of respectability on the smallest means, and nourished the +pride of narrow circumstances in the boy, in striving to avoid the +opposite fault of meanness. She told him that no Pestalozzi had ever +eaten the bread of dependence, and that his mother's self-denial +raised him above the degradation suffered by many another orphan in +Zurich. These lessons and Barbara's own character, account for much of +the passionate advocacy of the claims and the independence of the +poor, and of the respect for their virtue, which were the chief +features of the whole life of the man. From six years old, when his +father died, he looked upon all orphans with an interest compounded of +fellow-feeling and of lofty pity for their inferiority in +independence. His great, but as yet unconscious, desire was to help +the whole class to independence.</p> + +<p>It does not appear why he devoted himself, as he grew up, to the study +of languages. Probably he had no choice as to the course of his +training; but we find him, so early as the age of eighteen, leaving +that study and preparing himself with great zeal for the pulpit. His +deeply religious nature might well indicate this career; but he early +failed in it and gave it up. His first attempt to preach ended in +mortification, and it is not difficult to perceive why. His education +must have been defective, for, to the end of his long life, he spoke a +jargon of German or French, sometimes mixing the two; a kind of +language which none but his intimates could comprehend. His +articulation was defective; his countenance was so ugly as to be +forbidding; and, during the latter part of his life at least, his +personal habits were worse than slovenly. The failure in the pulpit is +not wonderful; nor yet that in the law, which he tried next. He turned +again to his first pursuit, and published some philological writings. +While eager about a new method of teaching Latin, he one day took up +Rousseau's "Émile," and the book determined the whole course of his +life.</p> + +<p>Insisting that the pursuit of learning was the most unnatural of human +occupations, he not only gave it up, but burned all his papers; not +only his notes, but manuscripts on Swiss law and Swiss history. He +would live henceforth as a son of the soil. He sold his small +patrimony to buy a bit of land to farm; married the daughter of a +merchant of Zurich, and began domestic life at two and twenty. His +wife's connection gave him an interest in a cotton manufactory; and he +became well acquainted with two classes of laborers at once. The +discovery of their intellectual degradation shocked him. Both the +farm-laborers and the spinners were so inferior to the poor of his +imagination, that he was at once stimulated and dismayed. He was +thirty when he set about the sort of work which made him the world's +benefactor. He collected about fifty poor and desolate children on his +little estate, lived with them in a state of hardship, taught them +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> to work, and to think, and to read, and made friends of +them. In the absence of other assistants, he adopted the plan of +setting them to teach one another; a feature of his method which +recommended it where the Lancasterian system existed. Having no skill, +and no prudence in the management of affairs, he was soon ruined, and +the establishment was broken up.</p> + +<p>This was the occasion of his giving us the book which made his name +famous all over Europe. To explain his views, and to get immediate +means of support, he wrote "Leonard and Gertrude," which might soon +after be seen on the tables of all benevolent and literary persons in +all countries. Its disclosure of continental peasant life was perhaps +the first charm to us; but it also changed the character of +educational effort in England as elsewhere. Perhaps this popularity +gave the good man honor in his own country.</p> + +<p>After the Revolutionary War in Switzerland, the Canton of Unterwalden +was overrun with wretched children who seemed to belong to nobody. +They prowled about the burned hamlets, and infested town and country +like little wolves. The government asked Pestalozzi to take charge of +some of them, and offered him some little aid. It was a singular +spectacle when this uncouth man, then in the vigor of his years (it +was in 1798), entered the ruins of a ravaged convent, with his mob of +one hundred and fifty outcast children. He was all alone with them; +and some of them were sickly and stunted; many were fretful; and not a +few ferocious, or malicious, or impudent, or full of suspicion and +falsehood. He lived and labored among them, nursed them, taught them, +and soon began to open their minds and gain their hearts. In a little +while their avidity for knowledge astonished him. The facts of the +case indicate that he had an aptitude for communicating with +children's minds that amounted to genius. Our mistake, twenty years +later, was in supposing that the virtue lay in that part of the method +which could be imitated. Pestalozzi, conversing with young creatures +who had never supposed that anybody cared for them, surprised them by +his interest in what they felt and thought. His questions roused their +faculties, and sent a glow through their feelings; and their +improvement transcended all precedent. Reports of his conversation and +his achievements set others to work; and there was such an +interrogation of children as was never dreamed of before.</p> + +<p>One question which Pestalozzi asked of this set of pupils is +memorable. They had seen Altdorf in flames. About those blackened +ruins there were again desolate children, living as they could. +Pestalozzi sounded the minds of his pupils as to doing something in +the case. When they eagerly desired to take in twenty among them, +Pestalozzi asked them whether they could bear the consequences. They +must work harder even than now; they must live yet more barely; they +might have to share their dinners and their clothes with strangers +whom they might not like. He would not allow a rash decision. He made +them fully understand what they were undertaking, and put off the +settlement of the question. Still, the pupils said, "Let them come!"</p> + +<p>The ravage of the war swept away this institution; but Pestalozzi +could never again be overlooked. His special function was recognized +at home and abroad. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span> His books were translated into many +languages; and the emperors and kings of Europe were eager to apply +his wisdom to the education of their people. He was summoned to Paris +to join a consultation on the interests of Switzerland, ordered by +Napoleon. But he made his escape from Paris at the first possible +moment; he did not want imperial patronage which interfered with his +work at home; but he would have nothing to do with politics. He +desired to live with children and the poor, to open their minds, and +make them good and happy.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if he had attained his utmost wishes when the town of +Yverdun offered him its castle and grounds for a school, with perfect +freedom as to the management. For a few years the promise of +educational advancement was truly splendid. Some of Pestalozzi's own +pupils became able and devoted assistants; and other young men of the +highest qualifications devoted themselves as apostles of his mission. +Here and there over Europe establishments arose where boys, and +sometimes girls, were trained at once in industry and intellectual +progress. Those who were in the gardens, or the harvest field, or the +dairy at one time of the day, were studying languages, mathematics, or +music at other hours. And where this direct imitation of the Swiss +establishments was not attempted, there was a visible improvement in +methods of instruction. We learned to see that books and education, +books and teaching, are not the same thing. Oral instruction came into +use elsewhere than at mothers' knees; and amid some gross abuses, "the +Pestalozzian system" began to work great good.</p> + +<p>There is almost always some dreary chapter in the history of these +representative men. In Pestalozzi's there were several; but the +dreariest of all was the last.</p> + +<p>There never was a movement which depended more entirely for success on +the personal qualifications of its agents. We need not look further +than the next street, or the next house, to see how one person differs +from another in the faculty of genuine intercourse with children's +minds. The smallness of the number of the well-endowed with this +power, is the best reason for the large use of books in schools; and +Pestalozzi's genius for companionship with inferior minds caused a too +exclusive recourse to oral instruction. Thus, when assistants came +upon the scene, there was diversity, disagreement, disappointment, and +no little disorder. We need not go into the painful story of warring +tempers and incompatible interests. The institution declined for some +years, and then was broken up—the government of the Canton warning +the manager of the concern, who acted in Pestalozzi's name, to leave +the country.</p> + +<a id="img024" name="img024"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img024.jpg" width="500" height="390" alt="" title=""> +<p>Pestalozzi, the children's friend.</p></div> + +<p>It needs no explanation that Pestalozzi was in some respects weak. The +failure of all his establishments and his inability to keep out of +debt show this. His faculties of imagination and sympathy overpowered +the rest of his mind. He early seized a great truth—that of the claim +of every human being to the full development of his faculties, +whatever they may be; and the concentration of his strongest powers on +this great truth made him a social reformer of a high order. He was +not a philosopher; he was not a man of good sense, or temper, or +practical ability, generally speaking; though sense, temper, and +ability appeared <span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> to be all transcendent in the particular +direction taken by his genius. Among his inferiors—and particularly +friendless children—he was a prophet and apostle; among men he was a +child, and sometimes a perverse one.</p> + +<p>He died at the age of eighty-one, preserving, in the midst of great +pain, his enthusiasm for justice, his special love for children and +the poor, and his strong religious sentiment. Two days before his +death he spoke long and nobly, while taking leave of his family and +his enterprises. His country, and we hope the world, has remembered +his good offices to society, and forgiven his foibles.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>GEORGES CUVIER<br> +By <span class="smcap">John Stoughton, D.D</span>.<br> +(1769-1832)</h3> + +<a id="img025" name="img025"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img025.jpg" width="250" height="275" alt="Cuvier." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier was born at Montbéliard, a +place of manufacturing industry about forty miles from Besançon, now +within the French dominions, then a little principality pertaining to +the Duke of Wurtemberg. Young Cuvier was remarkable for his +intelligence and precocity; and an incident in his boyish days +indicated the bent of his genius, and the sphere of knowledge and +discovery in which as a man he was destined to excel. He found one +day, among his father's books, Buffon's work on natural history, and +it suggested the idea of copying and coloring the plates, after he had +carefully studied the text. The contents formed his chief reading for +many years. The relatives of Cuvier were poor. His father was a +pensioned officer in a Swiss regiment in the service of France. His +mother was an affectionate, godly, wise woman. To her early lessons in +Latin, geography, and drawing, and to her communications of religion, +he always acknowledged himself much indebted. He went to the public +gymnasium at the age of ten, and remained there for four years, +bearing off prizes for learning and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span> athletics. Through the +patronage of a Wurtemberg princess he was sent to the university of +Stuttgart, where he pursued a course of scientific study, particularly +in the division relating to natural history. There he acquitted +himself with distinction, not only in that special department, but +also in the most sacred branch of learning. "The young Cuvier," said +his examiners, "has shown just notions of Christianity well adapted to +his years," and "considerable skill" in reading the Greek Testament.</p> + +<p>Circumstances compelled him in early life to do something toward +earning a livelihood, and in 1794 he became tutor in a French +Protestant family living in the castle of Fiquainville, near Fécamp. +In that little Norman fishing-town he found much to gratify his +curiosity; and he might often be seen scouring the country after +birds, butterflies, and other insects; or prying into nooks and +corners on the shore, after shell-fish and other marine productions; +while the treasures of the boundless sea inspired wonder, with a +longing to explore its depths and to become acquainted with the forms +of life hidden under its waters.</p> + +<p>He appears to have continued in the family of Count d'Hericy for +nearly seven years. He was introduced to the <span class="italic">savants</span> of Paris by his +researches, and accepted an invitation to remove thither in 1795. He +reached the French metropolis just after the horrors of the +Revolution. Papers written by him already on his favorite subject had +brought him into notice; and he found congenial employment in the +Jardin des Plantes—the home of his after-studies and the sphere of +his scientific exploits. There he worked and lectured, and obtained +the office of assistant to the aged professor of comparative anatomy. +In the year of his appointment, he made a mark in the study which he +rendered so famous, by a memoir on the Megalonyx, a fossil animal +known by a few of its bones, and which, contrary to received opinion, +he boldly proved to have been a gigantic sloth. This was the first of +those able comparisons of the fossil with the present world which +revolutionized geology, extended comparative anatomy, and absolutely +created the science of palæontology. He was also appointed to a +professorship of natural philosophy in the College of France; then he +rose, step by step, under the favor and patronage of Napoleon, who +made him an inspector-general of schools; secretary to the French +Institute; councillor of the new Imperial University, and organizer of +reformed colleges in Italy, Holland, and Germany, after the vast +extension of the empire. Even at Rome he was thus employed in 1813; +and though a Protestant, he there won the good opinion of the +authorities. The conquest and banishment of the great ruler of France +did not spoil the fortunes of Cuvier; for, after the restoration of +Louis XVIII., he was confirmed by that monarch in the office of state +councillor, to which he had been appointed by the emperor, and in 1819 +he was made a baron of France.</p> + +<p>Just before this he visited England, and was received with the highest +honors. Another visit followed in 1830. An amusing circumstance +occurred on one of these occasions, indicative of his wide-spread fame +amid the lower as well as the upper classes of society. When in +London, owing to the absence of his valet, he sent for a barber to +shave him. When the operation was finished he offered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> +payment. "I am too much honored," replied the Gascon—for such the +operator happened to be, "by having shaved the greatest man of the +age, to accept any recompense." M. Cuvier allowed him the honor to the +full extent, and engaged him to perform the function repeatedly, for +which, at length, he was willing to pocket payment.</p> + +<p>Cuvier's life must have been most laborious. The same year in which he +was made baron, he became president of the Committee of the Interior; +and the numerous and various affairs which there passed under his +review, and required his examination, were perfectly wonderful; +together with his scientific employments, they seem more than any +mortal man could accomplish. But by economy of time and distribution +of labor, concentration of thought, retentiveness of memory, and a +profound knowledge of principles in every department, he acquitted +himself in a manner which secured universal admiration.</p> + +<p>Charles X., of France, and the King of Wurtemberg, vied with each +other in the honors they conferred on Cuvier; and on the accession of +Louis Philippe to the French throne the new sovereign continued the +favors shown by his predecessors, and in 1832 made the baron a French +peer. But his end was now drawing nigh. "Gentlemen," he said one day +to his hearers, in opening a new course of lectures, "these will be +the objects of our future investigations, if time, health, and +strength shall be given to me to continue and finish them with you." +But an overwrought brain the very next day produced paralysis, and the +distinguished statesman and philosopher died at the age of +sixty-three, on May 13, 1832.</p> + +<p>Down to the time of Cuvier, the classification of animal life had been +most imperfect and unsatisfactory. The basis adopted by Ray was open +to criticism. Comparative anatomy, rising into importance during the +eighteenth century, continued through that period in a state of +infancy. Linnæus and Buffon rendered valuable service; but all former +students in this branch of science were surpassed by Cuvier. A curious +anecdote is recorded of the ignorance of natural objects which +continued even after the opening of the present century. When the +committee of the French Academy were employed in preparing the +well-known Academy dictionary, Cuvier came one day into the room where +they were holding a session. "Glad to see you, M. Cuvier," said one of +the forty; "we have just finished a definition which we think quite +satisfactory, but on which we should like to have your opinion. We +have been defining the word 'crab,' and explained it thus: 'Crab, a +small red fish, which walks backward.'" "Perfect, gentlemen," said +Cuvier; "only, if you will give me leave, I will make one small +observation in natural history. The crab is not a fish, it is not red, +and it does not walk backward. With these exceptions your definition +is excellent."</p> + +<p>Cuvier was the first to give a really philosophical view of the animal +world in reference to the plan on which each animal is constructed. +There are, he says, four such plans—four forms on which animals +appear to have been modelled, and of which the ulterior divisions, +with whatever titles naturalists have decorated them, are only very +slight modifications, founded on the development or addition of some +parts which do not produce any essential change in the plan. These +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span> four great branches of the animal world are the +<span class="italic">vertebrata</span>, <span class="italic">mollusca</span>, <span class="italic">articulata</span>, and <span class="italic">radiata</span>.</p> + +<p>Comparative anatomy found in Cuvier a student who appreciated its +importance and revived its efficiency and honors. He saw more +distinctly than anyone before, that large classes of animals, when +carefully examined, are but modifications of a common type; that, for +example, there is after all a strong resemblance, when their skeletons +are looked at, between a man and a bird, and also a complete analogy +between the human skull and the head of a fish. It was in the pursuit +after such analogies that Cuvier was led into the track where he found +the basis of his new anatomical classifications.</p> + +<p>For his wonderful volumes on fossil animals, Cuvier had made some +preparation by an essay, presented in 1810 to the Academy, on the +geology of the basin of Paris, a district singularly rich in fossil +remains. Montmartre and its vicinity, covered with buildings and +crowded with people, would not strike many observers as a promising +field for scientific exploration; but it is the peculiarity of genius +to read instruction where others can find only a blank, or a record of +commonplace character. Cuvier discovered in the geological +construction and the fossil remains of the Paris basin, elements for +the solution of the most critical scientific questions, relative not +only to that locality, but to the globe at large. Long before, he had +begun to treasure up facts, the collocation of which ultimately +constituted his marvellous additions to human knowledge. In 1800 he +finds a few teeth, in following years a few bones; and after many +years' patience and skill he ascertains and demonstrates the existence +and place of a number of tapir-like animals which he classed as +<span class="italic">Lophiodon Paleotherium</span> and <span class="italic">Anoplotherium</span>, formerly abounding on +the banks of the ponds which have left their mud and marl in the +tertiary strata of the Paris basin. His anticipations seemed like +prophecies, based, as they were, on a tooth or a bone; but subsequent +discoveries enabled him to verify them all, so that they became parts +of scientific and general knowledge. The effect of these discoveries +on the scientific world was prodigious.</p> + +<p>"The great work of Cuvier," says Lord Brougham, "stands among those +rare monuments of human genius and labor, of which each department of +exertion can scarcely ever furnish more than one, eminent therefore +above all the other efforts made in the same kind. In the stricter +sciences, the 'Principia' of Newton, and in later times its +continuation and extension in La Place's 'Mécanique Céleste;' in +intellectual philosophy, Locke's celebrated work; in oratory, +Demosthenes; in poetry, Homer, leave all competitors behind by the +common consent of mankind; and Cuvier's researches in fossil osteology +will probably be reckoned to prefer an equal claim to distinction +among the works on comparative anatomy."</p> + +<p>"If," says Cuvier, "you have but the extremity of a bone well +preserved, you may, by attention, consideration, and the aid of +resources which analogy furnishes to skill, determine all the rest as +well as if you had the entire skeleton submitted to you."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> The great scientific value of the work lies in its +comparative anatomy, creating as it were (as we have said) the science +of palæontology at a leap; but there are in it also sundry other +philosophical deductions in geology, such as the following: that in +the strata called primitive there are no remains of life or organized +existence;—that all organized existences were not created at the same +time, but at different times, probably very remote from each other, +vegetables before animals, the mollusca and fishes before reptiles, +and the latter before the mammalia;—that the transition limestone +exhibits remains of the lowest forms of existence; and the chalk and +clay conceal the remains of fishes, reptiles, and quadrupeds, beings +of a former order of things, which have now disappeared;—that among +fossil remains no vestige appears of man or his works; that the fossil +remains in the more recent strata are those which approach nearest to +the present type of the corresponding living species; and that these +strata show the former prevalence of fresh water as well as sea-water.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary sagacity of Cuvier, coupled with his extensive +knowledge, qualified him for the execution of this herculean task. His +power of geological classification sprang out of his zoölogical skill, +and he was a great pioneer in previously unexplored fields of +research, where relations between the organic and inorganic changes of +the earth were revealed to the eye of the philosopher. "His guiding +ideas had been formed, his facts had been studied, by the assistance +of all the sciences which could be made to bear upon them. In his +geological labors he seems to see some beautiful temple, not only firm +and fair in itself, but decorated with sculptures and painting, and +rich in all that art and labor, memory and imagination, can contribute +to its beauty."</p> + +<p>These remarks occur in connection with Whewell's sketch of the +contributions to science made by Cuvier: "I may observe, that he is +allowed by all to have established on an indestructible basis many of +the most important generalizations which zoölogy now contains; and the +principal defect which his critics have pointed out has been that he +did not generalize still more widely and boldly. It appears, +therefore, that he cannot but be placed among the great discoverers in +the studies which he pursued; and this being the case, those who look +with pleasure on the tendency of the thoughts of the greatest men to +an intelligence far higher than their own, must be gratified to find +that he was an example of this tendency, and that the acknowledgment +of a creative purpose, as well as a creative power, not only entered +into his belief, but made an indispensable and prominent part of his +philosophy."</p> + +<p>"Beauty, richness, abundance," says Cuvier, "have been the ways of the +Creator, no less than simplicity. We conceive nature to be simply a +production of the Almighty, regulated by a wisdom the laws of which +can only be discovered by observation."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="smaller">[7]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Louis Agassiz</span><br> +(1769-1859)</h3> + +<a id="img026" name="img026"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img026.jpg" width="250" height="284" alt="Humboldt." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Humboldt—Alexander Von Humboldt, as he always called himself, though +he was christened with the names of Frederick Heinrich Alexander—was +born in 1769, on September 14th, in that memorable year which gave to +the world those philosophers, warriors, and statesmen who have changed +the face of science and the condition of affairs in our century. It +was in that year that Cuvier also and Schiller were born; and among +the warriors and statesmen, Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and +Canning are children of 1769, and it is certainly a year of which we +can say that its children have revolutionized the world. Of the early +life of Humboldt I know nothing, and I find no records except that in +his tenth year he lost his father, who had been a major in the army +during the seven years' war, and afterward a chamberlain to the King +of Prussia. But his mother took excellent care of him, and watched +over his early education. The influence she had upon his life is +evident from the fact that, notwithstanding his yearning for the sight +of foreign lands, he did not begin to make active preparations for his +travels during her lifetime. In the winter of 1787-1788 he was sent to +the University of Frankfort on the Oder, to study finances. He was to +be a statesman; he was to enter high offices, for which there was a +fair chance, owing to his noble birth and the patronage he could +expect at court. He remained, however, but a short time there.</p> + +<p>Not finding these studies to his taste, after a semestre's residence +in the university we find him again at Berlin, and there in intimate +friendship with Wildenow, then professor of botany, and who at that +time possessed the greatest herbarium in existence. Botany was the +first branch of natural science to which Humboldt paid especial +attention. The next year he went to Göttingen—being then a youth of +twenty years; and here he studied natural history with Blumenbach, and +thus had an opportunity of seeing the progress zoölogy was making in +anticipation of the great movement by which Cuvier placed zoölogy on a +new foundation.</p> + +<p>For it is an unquestionable fact that in first presenting a +classification of the animal kingdom based upon a knowledge of its +structure, Blumenbach in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> measure anticipated Cuvier; +though it is only by an exaggeration of what Blumenbach did that an +unfair writer of later times has attempted to deprive Cuvier of the +glory of having accomplished this object upon the broadest possible +basis. From Göttingen he visited the Rhine, for the purpose of +studying geology, and in particular the basaltic formations of the +Seven Mountains. At Mayence he became acquainted with George Forster, +who proposed to accompany him on a journey to England. You may imagine +what impression the conversation of that active, impetuous and +powerful man had upon the youthful Humboldt. They went to Belgium and +Holland, and thence to England, where Forster introduced him to Sir +Joseph Banks. Thus the companions of Captain Cook in his first and +second voyages round the world, who were already venerable in years +and eminent promoters of physical science not yet established in the +popular favor, were the early guides of Humboldt in his aspirations +for scientific distinction. Yet Humboldt had a worldly career to +accomplish. He was to be a statesman, and this required that he should +go to the Academy of Commerce at Hamburg. He remained there five +months, but could endure it no longer, and he begged so hard that his +mother allowed him to go to Freyberg and study geology with Werner, +with a view of obtaining a situation in the Administration of Mines. +See what combinations of circumstances prepare him for his great +career, as no other young man ever was prepared. At Freyberg he +received the private instruction of Werner, the founder of modern +geology, and he had as his fellow-student no less a man than Leopold +Von Buch, then a youth, to whom, at a later period, Humboldt himself +dedicated one of his works, inscribing it "to the greatest geologist," +as he was till the day of his recent death. From Freyberg he made +frequent excursions into the Hartz and Fichtelgeberg and surrounding +regions, and these excursions ended in the publication of a small work +upon the subterranean flora of Freyberg ("Flora Subterranea +Fribergensis"), in which he described especially those cryptogamous +plants, or singular low and imperfect formations which occur in the +deep mines. But here ends his period of pupilage. In 1792 he was +appointed an officer of the mines (Oberbergmeister). He went to +Beyreuth as director of the operations in those mines belonging to the +Frankish provinces of Prussia. Yet he was always wandering in every +direction, seeking for information and new subjects of study. He +visited Vienna, and there heard of the discoveries of Galvani, with +which he made himself familiar; went to Italy and Switzerland, where +he became acquainted with the then celebrated Professors Jurine and +Pictet, and with the illustrious Scarpa. He also went to Jena, formed +an intimate acquaintance with Schiller and Goethe, and also with +Loder, with whom he studied anatomy. From that time he began to make +investigations of his own, and these investigations were in a line +which he has never approached since, being experiments in physiology. +He turned his attention to the newly-discovered power by which he +tested the activity of organic substances; and it is plain, from his +manner of treating the subject, that he leaned to the idea that the +chemical process going on in the living body of animals furnished a +clew to the phenomena of life, if it was not life itself. This may +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span> be inferred from the title of the book published in +1797—"Ueber die gereizte Muskel und Nervenfaser, mit Vermuthungen +über den chemischen Process des Lebens, in Thieren und Pflanzen."</p> + +<p>In these explanations of the phenomena we have the sources of the +first impulses in a direction which has been so beneficial in +advancing the true explanation of the secondary phenomena of life; but +which, at the same time, in its exaggeration as it prevails now has +degenerated into the materialism of modern investigators.</p> + +<p>In that period of all-embracing activity, he began to study astronomy. +His attention was called to it by Baron Von Zach, who was a prominent +astronomer of the time, and who at that time was actively engaged upon +astronomical investigations in Germany. He showed Humboldt to what +extent astronomy would be useful to him, in his travels, in +determining the position of places, the altitude of mountains, etc.</p> + +<p>So prepared, Humboldt now broods over his plans of foreign travel. He +has published his work on the muscular and nervous fibre at the age of +twenty-eight. He has lost his mother; and his mind is now inflamed +with an ungovernable passion for the sight of foreign and especially +tropical lands. He goes to Paris to make preparation by securing the +best astronomical, meteorological and surveying instruments. Evidently +he does not care where he shall go, for on a proposition of Lord +Bristol to visit Egypt he agrees to it. The war prevents the execution +of this plan, and he enters into negotiations to accompany the +projected expedition of Captain Baudin to Australia; but when +Bonaparte, bent on the conquest of Egypt, started with a scientific +expedition, Humboldt wishes to join it. He expects to be one of the +scientific party, and to reach Egypt by way of Barbary.</p> + +<p>But all these plans failing, he goes to Spain with the view of +exploring that country, and finding perhaps some means of joining the +French expedition in Egypt from Spain. While in Madrid he is so well +received at the court—a young nobleman so well instructed has access +everywhere—and he receives such encouragement from persons in high +positions, that he turns his thoughts to an exploration of the Spanish +provinces of America. He receives permission not only to visit them, +but instructions are given to the officers of the colonies to receive +him everywhere and give him all facilities, to permit him to transport +his instruments, to make astronomical and other observations, and to +collect whatever he chooses; and all that only in consequence of the +good impression he has made when he appeared there, with no other +recommendation than that of a friend who happened to be at that time +Danish minister to the court of Madrid. But with these facilities +offered to him, he sails in June, 1799, from Corunna, whence he +reaches Teneriffe, makes short explorations of that island, ascending +the peak, and sailing straightway to America, where he lands in Cumana +in the month of July, and employs the first year and a half in the +exploration of the basin of the Orinoco and its connection with the +Amazon. This was a journey of itself, and completed a work of +scientific importance, establishing the fact that the two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span> +rivers were connected by an uninterrupted course of water. He +established for the first time the fact that there was an extensive +low plain, connected by water, which circled the high table-land of +Guiana. It was an important discovery in physical geography, because +it changed the ideas about water-courses and about the distributions +of mountains and plains in a manner which has had the most extensive +influence upon the progress of physical geography. It may well be said +that after this exploration of the Orinoco, physical geography begins +to appear as a part of science. From Cumana he makes a short excursion +to Havana, and hearing there of the probable arrival of Baudin on the +west coast of America, starts with the intention of crossing at +Panama. He arrives at Carthagena, but was prevented by the advance of +the season from crossing the Isthmus, and changed his determination +from want of precise information respecting Baudin's locality. He +determines to ascend the Magdalena River and visit Santa Fé de Bogota, +where, for several months, he explores the construction of the +mountains, and collects plants and animals; and, in connection with +his friend, Bonpland, who accompanied him from Paris, he makes those +immense botanical collections, which were afterward published by +Bonpland himself, and by Kunth after Bonpland had determined on an +expedition to South America. In the beginning of 1802 he reaches +Quito, where, during four months, he turns his attention to everything +worth investigating, ascends the Chimborazo, to a height to which no +human foot had reached, anywhere; and, having completed this survey +and repeatedly crossed the Andes, he descends the southern slope of +the continent to the shore of the Pacific at Truxillo, and following +the arid coast of Peru, he visits finally Lima.</p> + +<p>I will pass lightly over all the details of his journey, for they are +only incidents in that laborious exploration of the country which is +best appreciated by a consideration of the works which were published +in consequence of that immense accumulation of materials gathered +during those explorations. From Lima, or rather from Callao, he sails +in 1802 for Guayaquil and Acapulco, and reaches Mexico in 1803, where +he makes as extensive explorations as he had made in Venezuela and the +Andes, and after a stay of about a year, and having put all his +collections and manuscripts in order, revisits Cuba for a short time, +comes to the United States, makes a hurried excursion to Philadelphia +and Washington, where he is welcomed by Jefferson, and finally returns +with his faithful companion Bonpland to France, accompanied by a young +Spanish nobleman, Don Carlo de Montufar, who had shared his travels +since his visits to Quito.</p> + +<p>At thirty-six years of age Humboldt is again in Europe with +collections made in foreign lands, such as had never been brought +together before. But here we meet with a singular circumstance. The +German nobleman, the friend of the Prussian and Spanish courts, +chooses Paris for his residence, and remains there twenty-two years to +work out the result of his scientific labor; for since his return, +with the exception of short journeys to Italy, England and Germany, +sometimes accompanying the King of Prussia, sometimes alone, or +accompanied by scientific friends, he is entirely occupied in +scientific labors and studies. So <span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> passes the time to the +year 1827, and no doubt he was induced to make this choice of a +residence by the extraordinary concourse of distinguished men in all +branches of science with whom he thought he could best discuss the +results of his own observations. I shall presently have something to +say about the works he completed during that most laborious period of +his life. I will only add now, that in 1827 he returned to Berlin +permanently, having been urged of late by the King of Prussia again +and again to return to his native land. And there he delivered a +series of lectures preparatory to the publication of "Cosmos;" for in +substance, even in form and arrangement, these lectures, of which the +papers of the day gave short accounts, are a sort of prologue to the +"Cosmos," and a preparation for its publication. In 1829, when he was +sixty years of age, he undertakes another great journey. He accepts +the invitation of the Emperor Nicholas to visit the Ural Mountains, +with a view of examining the gold mines, and localities where platina +and diamonds had been found, to determine their geological relation. +He accomplished the journey with Ehrenberg and Gustavus Rose, who +published the result of their mineralogical and geological survey, in +a work of which he is the sole author; while Humboldt published under +the title of "Asiatic Fragments of Geology and Climatology," his +observations of the physical and geographical features made during +that journey. But he had hardly returned to Berlin when in consequence +of the revolution of 1830, he was sent by the King of Prussia as +extraordinary ambassador to France, to honor the elevation of Louis +Philippe to the throne. Humboldt had long been a personal friend of +the Orleans family, and he was selected ambassador on that occasion on +account of these personal relations. From 1830 to 1848 he lived +alternately in Berlin and in Paris, spending nearly half the time in +Paris and half the time in Berlin, with occasional visits to England +and Denmark; publishing the results of his investigations in Asia, +making original investigations upon various things and especially +pressing the establishment of observatories, and connected magnetic +observations all over the globe, for which he obtained the +co-operation of the Russian government and that of the government of +England; and at that time those observations in Australia and in the +Russian empire to the borders of China, were established which have +led to such important results in our knowledge of terrestrial +magnetism. Since 1848 he has lived uninterruptedly in Berlin, where he +published on the anniversary of his eightieth year a new edition of +those charming first flowers of his pen; his "Views of Nature," the +first edition of which was published in Germany in 1808. This third +edition appeared with a series of new and remodelled annotations and +explanations; and that book in which he first presented his views of +nature, in which he drew those vivid pictures of the physiognomy of +plants and of their geographical distribution is now revived and +brought to the present state of science.</p> + +<p>The "Views of Nature" is a work which Humboldt has always cherished, +and to which in his "Cosmos" he refers more frequently than to any +other work. It is no doubt because there he has expressed his deepest +thoughts, his most impressive views, and even foreshadowed those +intimate convictions which he never <span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> expressed, but which he +desired to record in such a manner that those that can read between +the lines might find them there; and certainly there we find them. His +aspiration has been to present to the world a picture of the physical +world from which he would exclude everything that relates to the +turmoil of human society, and to the ambitions of individual men. A +life so full, so rich, is worth explaining in every respect, and it is +really instructive to see with what devotion he pursues his work. As +long as he is a student he is really a student and learns faithfully, +and learns everything he can reach. And he continues so for +twenty-three years. He is not one of those who is impatient to show +that he has something in him, and with premature impatience utters his +ideas, so that they become insuperable barriers to his independent +progress in later life. Slowly and confident of his sure progress, he +advances, and while he learns he studies also independently of those +who teach him. He makes his experiments, and to make them with more +independence he seeks for an official position. During five years he +is a business man, in a station which gives him leisure. He is +superintendent of the mines, but the superintendent of the mines who +can do much as he pleases; and while he is thus officially engaged +journeying and superintending, he prepares himself for his independent +researches. And yet it will be seen he is thirty years of age before +he enters upon his American travels—those travels which will be said +to have been the greatest undertaking ever carried to a successful +issue, if judged by the results; they have as completely changed the +basis of physical science as the revolution which took place in France +about the same time has changed the social condition of that land. +Having returned from these travels to Paris, there begins in his life +a period of concentrated critical studies. He works his materials, and +he works them with an ardor and devotion which are untiring; and he is +not anxious to appear to have done it all himself. Oltmann is called +to his aid to revise his astronomical observations, and his +barometrical measurements by which he has determined the geographical +position of seven hundred different points and the altitude of more +than four hundred and fifty of them.</p> + +<p>The large collection of plants which Bonpland had begun to illustrate, +but of which his desire of seeing the tropics again has prevented the +completion he intrusts to Kunth. He has also brought home animals of +different classes, and distributes them among the most eminent +zoölogists of the day.</p> + +<p>To Cuvier he intrusts the investigation of that remarkable batrachian, +the Aæolotel, the mode of development of which is still unknown, but +which remains in its adult state in a condition similar to that of the +tadpole of the frog during the earlier period of its life. Latreille +describes the insects, and Valenciennes the shells and the fishes; but +yet to show that he might have done the work himself, he publishes a +memoir on the anatomical structure of the organs of breathing in the +animals he has preserved, and another upon the tropical monkeys of +America, and another upon the electric properties of the electric eel. +But he was chiefly occupied with investigations in physical geography +and climatology. The first work upon that subject is a dissertation on +the geographical distribution <span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> of plants, published in 1817. +Many botanist travellers had observed that in different parts of the +world there are plants not found in others, and that there is a +certain arrangement in that distribution; but Humboldt was the first +to see that this distribution is connected with the temperature of the +air as well as with the altitudes of the surface on which they grow, +and he systematized his researches into a general exposition of the +laws by which the distribution of plants is regulated. Connected with +this subject he made those extensive investigations into the mean +temperature of a large number of places on the surface of the globe, +which led to the drawing of those isothermal lines so important in +their influence in shaping physical geography, and giving accuracy to +the mode of representing natural phenomena. Before Humboldt we had no +graphic representation of complex natural phenomena which made them +easily comprehensible, even to minds of moderate cultivation. He has +done that in a way which has circulated information more extensively, +and brought it to the apprehension more clearly than it could have +been done by any other means.</p> + +<p>It is not too much to say that this mode of representing natural +phenomena has made it possible to introduce in our most elementary +works the broad generalizations derived from the investigations of +Humboldt in South America; and that every child in our schools has his +mind fed from the labors of Humboldt's brain, wherever geography is no +longer taught in the old routine.</p> + +<hr> + +<p>Humboldt was born near the court. He was brought up in connection with +courtiers and men in high positions of life. He was no doubt imbued +with the prejudices of his caste. He was a nobleman of high descent. +And yet the friend of kings was the bosom friend of Arago, and he was +the man who could, after his return from America, refuse the highest +position at the court of Berlin, that of the secretaryship of public +instruction, preferring to live in a modest way in Paris, in the +society of all those illustrious men, who then made Paris the centre +of intellectual culture. It was there where he became one of that +Société d'Arceuil, composed of all the great men of the day, to which +the paper on "Isothermal Lines" was presented, and by which it was +printed, as all papers presented to it were, for private distribution. +But from his intimate relations, especially to the court of Prussia, +some insinuations have been made as to the character of Humboldt. They +are as unjust as they are severe in expression. He was never a +flatterer of those in power. He has shown it by taking a prominent +position, in 1848, at the head of those who accompanied the victims of +the revolution of that year to their last place of rest. But while he +expressed his independence in such a manner, he had the kindliest +feeling for all parties. He could not offend, even by an expression, +those with whom he had been associated in early life; and I have no +doubt that it is to that kindliness of feeling we must ascribe his +somewhat indiscriminate patronage of aspirants in science, as well as +men who were truly devoted to its highest aims. He may be said to have +been, especially in his latter years, the friend of every cultivated +man, wishing to lose <span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> no opportunity to do all the good of +which he was capable; for he had a degree of benevolence and +generosity which was unbounded. I can well say that there is not a man +engaged in scientific investigations in Europe, who has not received +at his hands marked tokens of his favor, and who is not under deep +obligations to him. May I be permitted to tell a circumstance which is +personal to me in that respect, and which shows what he was capable of +doing while he was forbidden an opportunity of telling it. I was only +twenty-four years of age when in Paris, whither I had gone with means +given me by a friend; but was at last about to resign my studies from +want of ability to meet my expenses. Professor Mitscherlich was then +on a visit to Paris, and I had seen him in the morning, when he asked +me what was the cause of my depressed feelings; and I told him that I +had to go for I had nothing left. The next morning as I was seated at +breakfast in front of the yard of the hotel where I lived, I saw the +servant of Humboldt approach. He handed me a note, saying there was no +answer and disappeared. I opened the note, and I see it now before me +as distinctly as if I held the paper in my hand. It said:—</p> + +<p>"My friend, I hear that you intend leaving Paris in consequence of +some embarrassments. That shall not be. I wish you to remain here as +long as the object for which you came is not accomplished. I enclose +you a check of £50. It is a loan which you may repay when you can."</p> + +<p>Some years afterward, when I could have repaid him, I wrote, asking +for the privilege of remaining forever in his debt, knowing that this +request would be more consonant to his feelings than the recovery of +the money, and I am now in his debt. What he has done for me, I know +he has done for many others; in silence and unknown to the world. I +wish I could go on to state something of his character, his +conversational powers, etc., but I feel that I am not in a condition +to speak of them. I would only say that his habits were very peculiar. +He was an early riser, and yet he was seen at late hours in the salons +in different parts of Paris. From the year 1830 to 1848, while in +Paris, he had been charged by the King of Prussia to send reports upon +the condition of things there. He had before prepared for the King of +Prussia a report on the political condition of the Spanish colonies in +America, which no doubt had its influence afterward upon the +recognition of the independence of those colonies. The importance of +such reports to the government of Prussia may be inferred from a +perusal of his political and statistical essays upon Mexico and Cuba. +It is a circumstance worth noticing, that above all great powers, +Prussia has more distinguished, scientific, and literary men among her +diplomatists than any other state. And so was Humboldt actually a +diplomatist in Paris, though he was placed in that position, not from +choice, but in consequence of the benevolence of the king, who wanted +to give him an opportunity of being in Paris as often and as long as +he chose.</p> + +<p>But from that time there were two men in him—the diplomatist, living +in the Hôtel des Princes, and the naturalist who roomed in the Rue de +la Harpe, in a modest apartment in the second story; where his +scientific friends had access to him every day before seven. After +that he was frequently seen working <span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> in the library of the +Institute, until the time when the grand seigneur made his appearance +at the court or in the salons of Paris.</p> + +<p>The influence he has exerted upon the progress of science is +incalculable. I need only allude to the fact that the "Cosmos," +bringing every branch of natural science down to the comprehension of +every class of students, has been translated into the language of +every civilized nation of the world, and gone through several +editions. With him ends a great period in the history of science, a +period to which Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Gay-Lussac and De Candolle, +and Robert Brown belonged.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>DANIEL O'CONNELL<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8" title="Go to footnote 8"><span class="smaller">[8]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Justin McCarthy</span><br> +(1775-1847)</h3> + +<a id="img027" name="img027"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img027.jpg" width="250" height="305" alt="O'Connell." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Daniel O'Connell, undoubtedly one of the greatest Irishmen that ever +lived, and according to Mr. Lecky perhaps the greatest political +agitator that the modern world has known, was born August 6, 1775, in +the county of Kerry, in Ireland. His parents were of good family, but +comparatively poor, his father being a second son. Later on, Daniel +was adopted by an uncle, through whom he came in for the property of +Darrynane, made famous by his name. He was sent when a boy—the fact +is worth noticing—to the first school kept openly by a Catholic +priest since the establishment of the penal laws. Afterward he became +a student in France—in St. Omer and in Douay, until the outbreak of +the French Revolution made it unsafe for him to remain longer in +France—or at all events until his family believed that it would not +be safe for him to remain there any longer. The excesses of the +Revolution greatly shocked and horrified the young O'Connell, and +indeed the effect of that early shock was felt by him all through his +career. He became impressed with an almost morbid detestation of all +forms of blood-shedding; and for a while after his return to Ireland +he firmly believed himself to be a Conservative in politics. But the +system of administration which prevailed in Great Britain and Ireland +under Conservative governments soon convinced him that he could have +nothing to do with Conservatism, and he very soon became—what +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> he ever after continued to be—a Liberal as regarded Imperial +policy, and indeed something more than a Liberal—what we should now +call a Radical. He studied for the bar, and was, to all appearance, +little inclined for anything but law and field sports. He was a keen +sportsman, and, like another distinguished Irishman, "all his life +long he loved rivers, and poets who sang of rivers." He made rapid way +in his profession, and soon became one of the foremost advocates in +Ireland. He was a safe, shrewd, keen lawyer as well as a great +advocate—the two parts do not always go together. He was a master of +the art of cross-examination and he was a magnificent speaker—his +speeches were aflame with humor, and pathos, and passion. His voice +was one of immense power and sweetness and variety of tone. Mr. +Disraeli in one of his books, when praising to the highest the superb +voice of the great Sir Robert Peel, says that he had never heard its +superior "except indeed in the thrilling tones of O'Connell." The +Irish advocate had the advantage, too, of a commanding presence. He +was tall and moulded in almost herculean form, and he had eyes which +were often compared with those of Robert Burns—the light of genius +was in them. There is a full-length picture of him in the Reform Club, +London, which enables one to understand how stately and imposing his +presence must have been.</p> + +<p>The career of O'Connell would appear to have been easily marked out +for him. He was the foremost advocate in Ireland; he was making a +large income; he had inherited a considerable property—what was there +for him but to go on and prosper; make money, hunt, shoot, fish, and +be happy. He could not indeed obtain any of the honors or dignities of +his profession. He could not even be a king's counsel, and wear a silk +gown. His religion cut him off from all such marks of distinction—for +he was a member of the Catholic Church. But no penal laws prevented +him from addressing juries and winning verdicts and attracting popular +admiration and making money. He was very happily married—a genuine +love-match, it would seem to have been, and the love lasted. Moreover +he was strongly and almost unreasonably opposed to all manner of +agitation that bordered on rebellion or even on sedition. He was +positively unjust, he was utterly unreasonable, in his estimate of the +rebellion of 1798 and Robert Emmet's abortive effort in 1803. He never +did full justice even to the brave men who were concerned in these +movements. He had an absolute detestation for all manner of secret +societies. He knew too well that they only ended in betrayal by some +traitor who had contrived to be admitted to their ranks. Under such +conditions and with such views what was there to induce the successful +and prosperous advocate who loved peace and who hated social +disturbance, to mix himself up with political affairs at a time when +national politics meant for a patriotic Irishman only social +exclusion, danger, poverty, and even ruin?</p> + +<p>O'Connell could not help himself. He had to walk, as Carlyle says of a +very different man, "his own wild road whither that led him." +O'Connell's wild road—the road that he had to walk, led him to the +leadership of two great national movements.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> To understand what O'Connell fought against we must, of +course, understand O'Connell's time. It is not easy for an American +reader to understand it without some thought and without the endeavor +to grasp the reality of a state of things quite outside his own living +experience. When O'Connell began his career in politics the Act of +Union had but lately been passed. That Act of Union deprived Ireland +of the more or less independent Parliament which she had had for +generations and even for centuries. It was indeed a Parliament "more +or less" independent—less, perhaps, much rather than more. Still +there had been always a recognition of Irish nationality in the +existence of any form of Irish Parliament. The troubles between +England and her American colonies—between England and France—had led +to the concession of what we now know as Grattan's Parliament—the +nearest form of Home Rule Ireland had ever enjoyed since her conquest +by the descendants of the great Norman kings. But it was a Parliament +of Protestants—no Catholic, in a nation of which five-sixths were +Catholics, could sit in the National Parliament or even give a vote +for a member of that National Parliament. Grattan's Parliament was +exclusively Protestant; but yet, with all its imperfections, so +nationalist was it in spirit that it was willing, under Grattan's +inspiration, to enable Roman Catholics to vote for the election of +members of the Irish House of Commons. But Grattan and his friends +were anxious to go much farther. They demanded a complete political +equality for the Roman Catholics. A society was formed for the purpose +of conducting the agitation. Its leaders were almost all +Protestants—many of them were Protestants from Ulster. The stupid +bigotry of George the Third bluntly refused Catholic Emancipation; and +the Society of United Irishmen became a rebellious organization. The +rebellion of 1798 broke out and was crushed after terrible bloodshed. +Then, when Ireland was wholly at the mercy of England, Pitt brought in +his proposal for an Act of Union. After much resistance from all that +was patriotic in Ireland and all that was sympathetic in England, the +Act of Union was carried—by fraud and force and bribery and purchase. +It has to be remembered with satisfaction that some of the noblest +Englishmen of the time were as strenuously opposed to such a measure +as Grattan himself. Pitt had made liberal promises about Catholic +Emancipation while he was striving to carry the Act of Union, but when +the Act was passed he dropped all talk about Catholic Emancipation, +and pleaded as his excuse that the king would not listen to any +further proposals on the subject. O'Connell's first political speech +was made in January, 1800, at a meeting of Catholics held in Dublin to +protest against the Act of Union.</p> + +<p>Something else had to be done, however, before it could be possible in +Ireland to encounter the Act of Union with anything like a successful +constitutional agitation. The right had to be obtained for a Catholic +to sit in Parliament. The Catholic Association had been formed for the +purpose, and O'Connell became its recognized leader, and, more than +that, the recognized leader of the Irish people. Meanwhile there were +constant efforts made in Parliament for the emancipation of the +Catholics. Sir Robert Peel, who had begun his career as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> +Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had become +Secretary of State for the Home Department—and it may be well to +mention to American readers that the Irish Secretaryship is really a +subordinate part of the Home Office. Peel, as Home Secretary, was +necessarily kept in constant touch with everything going on in +Ireland. He was greatly impressed by some of the debates in the House +of Commons. He was especially impressed by an observation which Lord +Brougham, then Mr. Brougham, made in a speech supporting Catholic +Emancipation, to the effect that not one of those who spoke against +emancipation had ventured even to suggest that things could remain as +they then were. Something will have to be done, Peel said to himself. +What is the something to be? The new king, George the Fourth, in whose +succession to the throne O'Connell and Thomas Moore and the Irish +people generally had had so much hope, was doggedly opposed to the +political relief of the Catholics.</p> + +<p>Accident helped to bring about a settlement of the question. A sudden +vacancy occurred in the Parliamentary representation of the County of +Clare, owing to the fact that the former representative had accepted +office in the government, and had therefore to offer himself for +re-election. The leaders of the Catholic Association determined on the +bold policy of putting forward a candidate to contest the seat. +O'Connell, of course, was recognized by everyone as the man to fight +the battle. He willingly accepted the responsibility. Even moderate +men, partly sympathetic, shook their heads when they heard of this +determination. "O'Connell will end his life on the gallows" was the +confident prediction of some who passed among their neighbors for +sensible persons. The Viceroy of Ireland predicted that O'Connell +would take care to maintain good order in Clare during the election. +O'Connell's opponent predicted that O'Connell would not dare to come +to Clare in person; that he would not run the risk of confronting his +enemies. O'Connell ran the risk—he was not a man likely to be afraid +of risks. He went to Clare. The enthusiasm was wild, but the order was +perfect. O'Connell, the excluded Catholic, was elected by a majority +of more than two to one. The result set Peel thinking. What he thought +we have in his own words. Was it possible to take no account of "that +political and religious excitement which was quickening the pulse and +fluttering the bosom of the whole Catholic population—which had +inspired the serf of Clare with the resolution and the energy of a +freeman?" No, it was not possible. Peel soon made up his mind.</p> + +<p>O'Connell presented himself at the bar of the House of Commons later +on, but not until after Peel and Wellington had crammed emancipation +down the king's throat and compelled him to accept it. Wellington +seems to have reasoned much in this way: "I know nothing about the +question—Peel knows all about it; Peel thinks it will be for the good +of the king and the country to pass Catholic Emancipation; the king, I +am sure, does not know any more about the matter than I do, and I am +prepared to go with Peel, and the king must come with us. Peel thinks +there must be civil war if we don't pass Catholic Emancipation, and I +have had too much of war in my time—and I don't propose to stand +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span> a civil war—not if I know it." The king had, of course, to +give way in the end, and Catholic Emancipation was passed. It was +passed rather ungraciously. It was accompanied by a quite superfluous +measure suppressing the Catholic Association, which had in fact +already dissolved itself, its work being done, and invalidating the +election of O'Connell. Perhaps, without these sops to religious +bigotry, an act for the emancipation of the Catholics could not then +have been carried through the Houses of Parliament. O'Connell +presented himself at the bar of the House of Commons and claimed a +right to take his seat. He was called upon to swear the old +oaths—what we may fairly call the anti-Catholic oaths. Of course he +refused. A new writ was ordered for Clare, and O'Connell was +triumphantly returned. The struggle was over.</p> + +<p>The remainder of O'Connell's life was devoted mainly to the cause of +Repeal of the Union—in other words, the cause of Home Rule. He +organized the great system of monster meetings—vast out-of-door +gatherings, which he swayed as he pleased by the magic of his +eloquence, his humor, his passion, and the charm of his wonderful +voice. No doubt he sometimes used very strong language; no doubt some +of the younger men fully believed that he meant rebellion—that he had +rebellion up his sleeve if his demands were not conceded. The meetings +were always held on the Sunday; were indeed, regarded as, in a certain +sense, religious celebrations. The meeting of October 8, 1843, was to +be held on the historic ground of Clontarf, and it was expected to be +the greatest of all the assemblages, although some of them had drawn +together a crowd of nearly a quarter of a million of men. The +Government issued a proclamation prohibiting the meeting, and +O'Connell bowed to the prohibition. He sent messengers in every +direction countermanding the assembling of men, in order to prevent +any chance of that disorder and bloodshed which he had always shrunk +from and abhorred. He and some of his friends, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy +among the rest, were put on their trial on a charge of sedition. Most +of them were found guilty and sentenced to fine and imprisonment. They +were confined in Richmond Prison, Dublin. Their incarceration did not +last long, and indeed, was what might be called "internment" rather +than actual imprisonment. A majority of the law lords in the House of +Peers, the final tribunal, annulled the sentences on the ground that +the jury had been unfairly chosen—was packed, in fact. O'Connell and +his colleagues were set free after a few months; but the leader never +recovered his former ascendency over the political movement of +Ireland. He was growing old; he had been reckless of his great +physical resources, he had been unsparing of his strength; and +undoubtedly, the younger men in the agitation fell away from him when +he had made it clear that he never meant, under any conditions, to +lead them into revolution. A number of his young and brilliant +followers set up a party of their own—the Young Ireland +Confederation—which after his death drifted into a generous, but +hopeless, rebellion. The Young Ireland movement, however, quickened +and established a national literature which had an immense effect on +subsequent political history in Ireland. The Irish famine of 1846 and +1847 was a terrible blow to O'Connell in his rapidly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> +weakening health. His last speech in the House of Commons was an +appeal for a generous help to Ireland, and a prediction, which proved +only too true, that if generous help were not given, one-fourth of +Ireland's population must perish by starvation. His physicians ordered +him to the Continent, and he passionately longed to reach Rome and die +under the shadow of the Vatican. He had during some of his years led a +wild life, and he had killed a man in a duel—a duel which was +literally forced upon him, but for which he always felt deeply +penitent. His ultimate longing had come to be a quiet death in the +papal city. He was not graced so far. He died in Genoa on May 15, +1847.</p> + +<p>As a politician O'Connell was absolutely consistent. He was in favor +of liberty for Ireland, but he was in favor of liberty for every other +country. His definition of liberty was practical and not merely +declamatory. He was in favor of equal rights for all men before the +law; he was in favor of a free press, a free vote, and as nearly as +possible a manhood suffrage. He was in many ways far in advance of the +English liberals of his day. When the question of slavery in the West +Indian colonies was under discussion in Parliament, he went farther +for abolition than even the professed philanthropists and +emancipationists, the Clarksons and the Buxtons, were inclined to go. +He was almost fanatically opposed to the advocates of the slave system +in the United States, and he refused to receive any help in money from +them to carry on his Repeal agitation. He declined to endure any +political dictation from the Vatican, although he was a most devoted +Roman Catholic. He would take, he said, without question his religion +from Rome, but not his politics. There was no great cause of freedom +upheld all through the world in his time, but he clung to it and +cleaved to it. The writer of this article once talked to Mr. Gladstone +about O'Connell, well knowing that in early life Mr. Gladstone had +been a great admirer of O'Connell's abilities. Mr. Gladstone told many +anecdotes of O'Connell's personal energy in pursuit of any purpose +which he believed to be just, and in illustration of his wonderful +mastery over even a thoroughly hostile audience. When asked what he +believed to be O'Connell's principal characteristic, Mr. Gladstone +paused for a while and thought the question out, and then gravely and +deliberately answered: "I should think his greatest characteristic was +a passion of philanthropy." A passion of philanthropy! Is it possible +to have a nobler epitaph pronounced on one than that—and pronounced +by such a man? No man in our modern history was ever so bitterly and +savagely denounced in England as O'Connell. No words were too rough +for him. He was commonly called in English newspapers the "Big +Beggarman." He was accused every day, of making a fortune out of the +contributions of a half-starving people. The truth was that all and +much more than all the money raised by the Irish people, was spent on +the agitation for repeal of the Union. The truth was that O'Connell +gave up his splendid practice at the bar, for the sake of advocating +the Irish national cause. The truth was that he spent his own money +and reduced his own property to all but pauperism, for the sake of +advancing the same cause. The truth was that he died poor, leaving his +children poor. But he had his reward. A man whom Mr. Gladstone could +describe <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> as possessed above all other things by a passion of +philanthropy, may leave his memory safely in the charge of those whose +best interests he honestly strove to serve.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig006" name="sig006"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig006.jpg" width="250" height="54" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + +<h3>SIMON BOLIVAR<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9" title="Go to footnote 9"><span class="smaller">[9]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Hon. John P. St. John</span><br> +(1783-1830)</h3> + +<a id="img028" name="img028"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img028.jpg" width="250" height="309" alt="Bolivar." title=""> +</div> + +<p>So far as the world knew, the birth of Simon Bolivar at Caracas, +Venezuela, on July 24, 1783, was of no greater importance than that of +any other child. Perhaps but one person entertained the slightest +thought that he would ever be the hero of many battles and the +liberator of his countrymen; and that person was his mother. A mother, +as a rule, always in her imagination anticipates a brilliant future +for her boy. If Bolivar's mother was not an exception to this rule, +surely her highest anticipations were fully realized in the wonderful +career of her son.</p> + +<p>His father, Juan Vincente Bolivar y Ponte, and his mother, Maria +Concepcion Palacios y Sojo, were descendants of noble families in +Venezuela. Nothing unusual occurred in his school-boy days to +distinguish him from others of his age and rank. He was attentive to +his studies, warm-hearted, generous, and always a favorite among his +associates. When he had made sufficient advancement in his studies at +home, and had arrived at the proper age, he was sent to Madrid, where +he remained several years, during which time he completed his +education.</p> + +<p>Bolivar was now a full-grown man, and as a source of needed recreation +after years of hard study, he spent some time in visiting places of +special interest in the south of Europe. On his journey he stopped for +a time at the French capital, where he witnessed the closing scenes of +the French revolution. This was the hour of Napoleon's greatest glory. +He was the acknowledged military hero of the age. All France bowed at +his feet. Is it not probable that here was where Bolivar caught the +inspiration that led him to make an effort to be to his own <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> +country, what Napoleon was to France? From Paris Bolivar returned to +Madrid, where, in 1801, he married the daughter of Don N. Toro, uncle +of the Marquis of Toro, in Caracas. He soon sailed with his young +bride for his native country, but it was only a little while until she +fell a victim to yellow fever. The sudden and unexpected death of his +young wife, to whom he was intensely devoted, so shattered his health +and frustrated his plans, that he wended his way back to Europe, where +he remained until 1809, when he returned through the United States to +his own country. His remembrance of the closing scenes of the French +revolution, and the realization as he passed through the United States +of the blessings of her free institutions, no doubt account in some +measure for the fact that, as soon as he reached Venezuela, he joined +the movement then crystallizing into an aggressive warfare for +independence, and a larger degree of freedom for his own countrymen.</p> + +<p>In 1810 he received a colonel's commission from the revolutionary +junta, and was associated with Luis Lopez Mendez in a mission to the +court of Great Britain, which was rendered fruitless by England +announcing her position in relation to the troubles in Venezuela as +one of strict neutrality. On July 5, 1811, Venezuela formally declared +her independence from the mother-country. This brought on a clash of +arms at once.</p> + +<p>The Spanish troops under Monteverde, owing to a lack of concert of +action on the part of the "patriots," forced Bolivar, with his little +band of volunteers, to abandon the important post of Puerto Cabello, +and flee to Curaçao, which was reached in safety, while Monteverde at +the head of the Spanish troops gained control of Venezuela.</p> + +<p>Chafing under defeat, Bolivar, in September, 1812, repaired to +Carthagena, where a commission was given him to make war upon the +Spanish troops along the Magdalena River. Although his army numbered +but 500 men, he succeeded in driving the enemy, not only from the +country along the Magdalena River, but entered Venezuela, and forced +his way westward to the important towns of Merida and Truxillo, where +the people gladly welcomed him and rallied to his support. Encouraged +by his success, and embittered by the brutalities of the enemy, as he +pressed forward he issued his noted proclamation of "War to the +death."</p> + +<p>He soon routed Monteverde's army at Lastoguanes, forcing him to take +refuge in Puerto Cabello, while Bolivar pushed forward, entering +Caracas in triumph August 4, 1813. But the tide of battle soon turned. +The Royalists concentrated all their available force, and a number of +bloody battles ensued, and finally Bolivar's men, inferior in numbers, +were badly defeated near Cura. The fall of Caracas soon followed, and +before the close of the year 1814 the Royalists were again in full +possession of Venezuela. Though defeated, Bolivar was not dismayed. He +had great faith in the righteousness of his cause, and his +consciousness of this fact seemed to give him that courage which never +knows defeat.</p> + +<p>He next went to Tunja, where the revolutionary congress was in +session, and notwithstanding the misfortunes of war and the bitter +opposition of a few personal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>(p. 308)</span> enemies, his enthusiastic +reception showed that he still retained the confidence and respect of +the people. He was soon given command of an expedition against Santa +Fé de Bogota, where Don Cundinamarca had refused official recognition +of the new union of the provinces, which, without any conflict of +arms, was crowned with success by the surrender of the rebellious +leaders. For this service Bolivar received the special thanks of +Congress. The Royalists having captured Santa Martha, Bolivar was +ordered to retake it, but failed in his attempt.</p> + +<p>In May, 1814, he resigned his commission, and went to Kingston, +Jamaica, where an attempt was made to assassinate him, which resulted, +by a mistake, in the murder of another. Later on he went to Aux Cayes, +in Hayti, where President Petion assisted him in organizing an +expedition which, though it succeeded in reaching the main-land in +May, 1816, eventually failed. But Bolivar's past experience had taught +him not to go wild over a victory, nor be discouraged by a defeat, so +he returned to Aux Cayes, where he secured reinforcements, and in +December landed his troops, first at Marguerite, and then at +Barcelona. At this point a provisional government was formed and all +the available military force was promptly organized, and placed in +readiness to resist the invasion of Morillo, who was at the head of a +strong, well-disciplined army of Royalists. The opposing forces met on +February 16, 1817, and a desperate battle, lasting three days, ensued, +resulting in a complete rout of the Royalists, who, while retreating +in great disorder, were assailed with such impetuosity by small bands +of patriots, as to make their overthrow complete.</p> + +<p>Being now the undisputed commander-in-chief, Bolivar seemed +irresistible. Victory after victory crowned his efforts, until he +established his head-quarters at Angostura, on the Orinoco. From this +point, after a thorough reorganization of his forces, he pressed +forward over the Cordilleras, and effected a junction with the army +headed by General Santander, commander of the Republican forces in New +Granada. The armies thus united proved to be invincible. The entire +march was characterized by a succession of victories, ending in a +complete overthrow of the enemy on August 7, 1819, at Bojaca, which +gave him full possession, not only of Bogota, but of all New Granada. +This brilliant achievement attracted the attention of the civilized +world then, and as we read about it now, it forcibly reminds us, in +its conception, the skill and rapidity of its execution, and its +results, of the wonderful march of Sherman from Atlanta to the sea. +Taking advantage of the great prestige his marvellous victories had +given him with the people, he procured the passage of a fundamental +law, December 17, 1819, uniting Venezuela and New Granada under one +government, to be known as the Republic of Colombia, of which Bolivar +was made president.</p> + +<p>Bolivar was now at the head of the grandest army he had ever +commanded. The Royalists, under Morillo, having been beaten at several +points, induced Bolivar, at Truxillo on November 20, 1820, to consent +to an armistice for six months, which he did; no doubt with the hope +that meantime a treaty of peace might be effected and the war thus +brought to an end.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>(p. 309)</span> Subsequent events, however, gave strong reasons to believe +that the armistice was a mere ruse to gain time while Morillo could be +recalled and General Torre placed in command. Bolivar, no doubt +incensed by this apparent trick, determined, upon the expiration of +the armistice, to strike a blow that would not soon be forgotten; +which he did at Carabolo, by attacking and completely routing General +Torre's command, compelling the fleeing fragments to seek shelter in +Puerto Cabello, where two years after they surrendered to Paez. This +practically closed the war in Venezuela. On August 30, 1821, the +constitution of Colombia was adopted amid great rejoicing, with +Bolivar as president and Santander as vice-president. But there was +more work to do, and no one could do it so well as Bolivar. He +determined that nowhere should the Royalists have a foothold in the +whole country. He attacked them at Pichincha, in Ecuador, and after a +desperate struggle they were forced to retreat in disorder, while +victorious Bolivar with his enthusiastic followers triumphantly +entered Quito, June 22, 1822. Next Lima was taken, but owing to the +dissensions among the Republican factions in Peru, Bolivar was +compelled to abandon the city, which was again occupied by the +Royalists, while he withdrew to Truxillo.</p> + +<p>Having thoroughly reorganized his forces, and gotten everything in +good condition for an aggressive warfare, he again assaulted the +Royalists with unrelenting vigor, driving them before him, and finally +administering a crushing defeat on the plains of Junin, August 6th; +after which he returned to Lima, leaving Sucre, who had already +displayed great military skill and bravery, to complete the work. This +he did, by gaining a great victory at Ayacucho, which completely +dispersed the Royalists, reducing their possessions in Peru to the +Castles of Callao, which Rodil, after a little over a year's +successful resistance, was compelled to surrender.</p> + +<p>Upper Peru having detached itself from Buenos Ayres, was organized as +a separate state under the name of Bolivia, in honor of the man who +had accomplished so much for its freedom, and who by the first +Congress of the new republic, which convened in August, 1825, was made +perpetual Protector, and requested to prepare for it a constitution.</p> + +<p>The country having been freed from armed resistance on the part of the +Royalists, it next became Bolivar's duty to provide laws for the +proper government of the people. Time proved this to be a more +difficult task than meeting an open enemy on the field of battle. Many +local leaders had been developed during the struggle for independence, +among whom no little ill feeling was aroused by their scramble for +recognition. Then there were some who were jealous of Bolivar's great +popularity and influence with the people. They were busy in trying to +turn public opinion against him by telling the people that he would +use his power to add to, rather than lighten, their burdens. This +feeling was intensified when he presented his plan of government for +Bolivia to Congress on May 25, 1826, accompanied by an address in +which he doubted the wisdom of extending the right of franchise +indiscriminately to the people, and showed clearly his preference for +a centralization of power, by proposing a president for life clothed +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>(p. 310)</span> with supreme executive powers, including the right to name +his successor. It was charged by his enemies that this would be a +monarchy in fact, and a republic only in name.</p> + +<p>Meantime Paez, military commander in Venezuela, refused to recognize +the constituted authorities, and assumed an attitude of open +rebellion. But the presence in a short time of Bolivar, his old +commander, followed by a personal interview and a decree of general +amnesty, resulted in a complete restoration of peace and loyal +adherence to the government. Bolivar and Santander having been +re-elected to the respective offices of president and vice-president, +Bolivar, before the time fixed by law for him to take the oath of +office, resigned the presidency of the republic, with a view to +retiring into private life, and thus refuting the charges made against +him by personal enemies, that he was simply working in his own +interest, and for his own personal aggrandizement.</p> + +<p>But in response to Santander's earnest appeal, and a resolution of +Congress urging him to resume his position as president, Bolivar went +to Bogota, and there took upon himself the oath of office.</p> + +<p>He soon issued three decrees: One granting general amnesty, another +calling a national convention at Ocana, and a third for the +establishment of constitutional order throughout Colombia. All eyes +were now turned to the national convention at Ocana, which was to +assemble in March, 1828. This was made the more important by the fact +that it was to determine whether Bolivar's plan for a strong +centralized government, backed up by ample military force, or a +government controlled more directly by the great body of the people, +should prevail. The events of the past year had served rather to +strengthen Bolivar's position, and the action of the convention seems +to have crystallized it into law, for a decree soon followed, dated +August 27, 1828, giving to Bolivar supreme power over Colombia, which +he continued to exercise until his death, which occurred at San Pedro, +on December 17, 1830.</p> + +<p>Thus closes the life of one of the most remarkable characters the +world has ever known. He possessed the intrepid courage and dash of a +Sherman, the unrelenting firmness of a Grant, and the tenderness of a +Lincoln. Local revolts against lawful authority always yielded to his +personal presence and counsel. We fail to find in his history a single +act of cruelty recorded against him. His proclamation of "War to the +death," was a military necessity. The Royalists had shown no mercy to +his soldiers. They had refused to treat them as prisoners of war. They +had fired upon his flag of truce. They gave no quarter to +revolutionists, but put them to death wherever found. And there was +but one alternative left, and that was, unpleasant as it must have +been to a man of such kindly nature, to meet such brutalities by a +threat of retaliation in kind. The proclamation was not prompted by a +spirit of cruelty, but rather by a love for humanity. It had the +effect which he no doubt intended it should, and that was to secure +the same treatment for his soldiers when captured, that the civilized +world acknowledged due to prisoners of war. He was in no sense +mercenary. He expended nine-tenths of his fortune for his country's +freedom, and when voted a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311"></a>(p. 311)</span> million dollars by Congress he +promptly declined it. He was always magnanimous, even to his bitterest +enemies. He died comparatively poor. His remains sleep at Caracas, the +place of his birth. His soul is with God. Monuments have been erected +to his memory, one at Caracas and another at Lima. But his life-work +has erected a monument in the hearts of his countrymen that will never +perish. He sowed the seed for the harvest of a better government and +higher civilization for all Spanish America. The influence of his +example is not confined to his own country, but is felt throughout the +civilized world. To-day, among the brightest and best of the world's +good and great men, may justly be placed the name of Simon Bolivar.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig007" name="sig007"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig007.jpg" width="300" height="105" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3>JEAN FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10" title="Go to footnote 10"><span class="smaller">[10]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Georg Ebers</span><br> +(1790-1832)</h3> + +<a id="img029" name="img029"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img029.jpg" width="300" height="176" alt="The pyramids of Gyzeh." title=""> +</div> + +<p>The deciphering of hieroglyphics is one of the greatest achievements +of the human race in this century. Jean François Champollion was the +man who accomplished this great feat. He is surnamed "<span class="italic">le jeune</span>," the +younger, to distinguish him from his elder brother, Champollion +Figeac, whose life was one of paternal devotion and the most unselfish +sacrifice for his younger brother. Both were born in Figeac, in the +south of France, François on December 23, 1790. He made his home, +however, in the beautiful little town of Grenoble, situated on the +hills near the valley of the Isère. It was to this place that +Champollion Figeac, who was here engaged as director of the town +library, and later on as professor of Greek at the university, drew +his twelve years younger brother François, who, at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>(p. 312)</span> the age +of nine, went to live with his elder brother, filled with the proudest +hopes for the future, and grateful for the care and devotion bestowed +upon him.</p> + +<p>At that time, naturally, all eyes were turned toward Egypt, where the +First Consul, Bonaparte, had led the army of the Republic, accompanied +by a host of celebrated men of science. The newly opened world of +monuments on the banks of the Nile excited the greatest interest in +everybody; but for few did it have as strong an attraction as for +Champollion Figeac, who had occupied himself long previously with the +study of the history and language of the ancient Egyptians. +Furthermore, he and his brother François came, so to say, into +indirect contact with the great expedition. For the famous +mathematician Fourier, who had gone out with it, became afterward +prefect of Grenoble, and one of Figeac's warmest and most intimate +friends.</p> + +<p>François, who, at the age of twelve, was already fully master of the +classic languages, had, surrounded by the rich collection of books +placed in his brother's care, drifted into a territory which is not +embraced in the usual high-school curriculum, viz., the Oriental +languages. While still at school, and during his leisure hours, he +mastered with wonderful energy, aided as it was by an almost +phenomenal power for acquiring knowledge, the Hebrew and most other +Semitic languages, as also Sanscrit and Persian. As, however, Egypt +had the greatest attraction for him, he also studied the Coptic +dialect, the language of the Egyptians during the early centuries +after Christ, which was written in Greek letters with some few others +added. Withal, the remarkable youth was cheerful and companionable, +finding time even to practise his poetic gifts; nor did his physical +development suffer through the severe exertion of his mind. His +portrait, in the Louvre in Paris, represents him in manhood with +bronzed skin, easily allowing him to be recognized as a native of the +South of France. His nose is slightly bent, his forehead lofty, his +hair black and of great abundance. The dark eyes, shaded by heavy +brows, express serenity—earnest and profound sincerity—while his +well-formed mouth gives evidence of winning manners and the +friendliness of his nature.</p> + +<p>At the age of seventeen he submitted his first work, a geography of +ancient Egypt, to the Academy of Grenoble, which, notwithstanding his +extreme youth, conferred upon him the degree of associate. Soon after +he followed a course of lectures at the Oriental College of Paris. +With youthful zeal he availed himself of the numerous educational +advantages at his disposal in this great city, and gained even then +the notice of the most prominent men of his profession. After two +years' time, not quite twenty years of age, he was called to a +position at the University of Grenoble.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon rested in this town on his way from Elba to Paris, in +1815, he appointed the elder Champollion as his private secretary.</p> + +<p>The close relationship into which this position brought Figeac to the +emperor, and his republican ideas after Napoleon's downfall—which +ideas were shared by his brother François—were circumstances which, +in later years, became great obstacles to their further advancement. +They were looked upon as characters <span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313"></a>(p. 313)</span> dangerous to the state, +and were deprived of their positions, while the Institute of France +even withheld from François its protection.</p> + +<p>The brothers were banished to their old homestead, Figeac, where they +found leisure in abundance to complete several unfinished works; and +when in 1818, through the influence of the Duke of Decazes, their +banishment was pronounced at an end, François had completed his great +work, "L'Égypte sous les Pharaons."</p> + +<p>This work, of the utmost importance at the time, in the preparation of +which the Coptic sources were freely drawn upon, won François his lost +chair at the Grenoble University. After he had secured this post he +was encouraged to found a home of his own. Rose Blanc was the +bride-elect, with whom he was united in a most happy marriage until +his death.</p> + +<p>Since many years François had occupied himself with the monument which +gave promise to the possibility of deciphering hieroglyphics.</p> + +<p>During the French expedition, as it happened, the talisman was found +which was to become the key to disclose the mystery of the language +and the written signs of the Ancient Egyptians—the tablet or the key +of Rosetta, a stone-plate made of black granite. Three inscriptions, +written in different signs, covered the originally rectangular surface +of the tablet. The uppermost one, considerably injured, showed the +hieroglyphics, which were familiar through the obelisks and other +Egyptian monuments; the second inscription was obscure; while the +third and lowest inscription, which had suffered but little injury, +consisted of Greek letters clear to every philologist. It proclaimed +that the tablet contained a decree of the Egyptian priesthood, in +honor of the fifth king of the house of the Ptolemies, and that this +was written in the holy language, in that of the people of Egypt, and +in Greek, on the same tablet. Here was, therefore, a somewhat +extensive text in two of the three modes of writing of the Egyptians +of which Clemens of Alexandria makes mention, with a Greek translation +of the same. The fortunes of war brought this extraordinary monument +into the hands of the English. It was placed in the British Museum, +and care was taken that copies of the three inscriptions should reach +the various Egyptologists, among them Champollion.</p> + +<p>The demotic inscription—that is to say, the text in the writing of +the people, was one of the most inviting to decipher, because the +signs composing it seemed to be letters representing sound. This was +sedulously attempted by several scientists, and with the best results +by the great French Orientalist, De Sacy, and by the Swede, Akerblad. +But though the former by a mechanical method recognized correctly the +meaning of several groups, and though Akerblad had even ascertained +most of the signs of the demotic alphabet, still they were both +incapable of discerning the elements of which the demotic writing is +composed.</p> + +<p>The great English physician and naturalist, Thomas Young, who also +occupied himself with the three various texts, made better progress. +Taking advantage and making use of the parts that had been revealed to +him by demotic and hieroglyphic text, he succeeded, in a mechanical +way, and by intelligent comparisons <span class="pagenum"><a id="page314" name="page314"></a>(p. 314)</span> in deciphering the names +Ptolemaios and Berenike, and in recognizing even the hieroglyphic +signs for numbers. Still the true nature of the Egyptian writing was +not revealed to him either. In their particulars his ascertainments +are untrue, for in the names he had in no way discovered the +alphabetic signs of which they were composed.</p> + +<p>As to the remainder of the inscription he thought that it consisted of +such drawn signs or forms with symbolical significance as might be +found interpreted in the "Hieroglyphica of Horapollon."</p> + +<p>That those groups of hieroglyphics surrounded by a frame (cartouche) +are the names of kings, had been contended long before by the Dane +Zoëge, Barthélemy, and others. The framed hieroglyphics on the tablet +of Rosetta could, as the Greek text taught, signify but the name of +Ptolemaios. Champollion also had originally held the same erroneous +opinion as Young and his predecessors. Though he succeeded in defining +several groups of characters of the people's writing, like Akerblad, +by comparison, he, even as late as 1821, in his essay on +hieroglyphics, entitled "De l'Écriture hiératique des Anciens +Égyptiens," declares them to be symbolical signs and figures.</p> + +<p>But he knew of Young's successful comparisons with Greek names; and +when Mr. Bankes brought a small obelisk to England from the island of +Philæ, on which the framed group of hieroglyphics were bound to +contain the names of Ptolemaios and Cleopatra, because a Greek +inscription at the foot of the obelisk mentioned these royal names, a +firm starting-point was created by Champollion, from which he was to +succeed in removing the mass of obstacles which had stood in the way +of all previous explorations and researches.</p> + +<p>He made his basis the supposition that the framed names were +constructed of alphabetic signs. The name Ptolemaios was known through +the tablet of Rosetta. If the second name on Bankes's obelisk were +Cleopatra, a comparison of the two names should confirm this. The +first letter in the name Ptolemaios being a "p" it should occur as +fifth letter in Cleopatra. And this was actually the case. The third +letter in Ptolemaios, the "o," was found again as the fourth one in +Cleopatra. The fourth sign in Ptolemaios, "l," a lion, occurred +correctly as the second one in Cleopatra. By further comparison every +sign was correctly found, and when Champollion had deciphered a group +of signs which he took to be Alexander, and again found every letter +in its right place, he could assure himself that hieroglyphics also +were based on the phonetic system.</p> + +<p>He soon, with the aid of the letters discovered in the above-mentioned +groups, deciphered other well-known names of kings, and in this way +acquired a knowledge of the whole hieroglyphic alphabet. But the many +hundred forms and signs, of which the holy scriptures of the Egyptians +are composed, could not well be of an altogether alphabetic nature, +and a further study of the subject brought the explorer to the +conclusion that ideographs were interspersed among the alphabetical +signs in order to make the alphabetic words more comprehensive. For +instance, after a masculine proper name the picture of a man was +drawn, and after every word connected with the motion of walking, the +picture of two pacing legs. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315"></a>(p. 315)</span> Besides this, he found that some +sounds could be represented by different hieroglyphics. With this the +most important elements of hieroglyphics were disclosed, and it was +all accomplished in one year, from 1821-22. When François, after a +period of extraordinary mental exertion, appeared before his brother +one morning with all the proofs in his hands, calling to him, "<span class="italic">Je +tiens l'affaire; vois!</span>" (I have found it; look here!) he fell to the +floor fainting, worn out by the immense exertions of the last few +months.</p> + +<p>It required some time for him to recover his health; but Figeac read, +on September 17, 1822, his brother's pamphlet at the Academy in Paris. +It appeared under the name of "Lettre à M. Dacier," and contained the +details of his discovery.</p> + +<p>That day decided Champollion's future career. As early as the year +following he published his new work, "Précis du système +hiéroglyphique," after which Louis Philippe of Orleans had the +discovery officially announced before the Oriental Association, and +Louis XVIII. made it his royal duty to lighten Champollion's future +work.</p> + +<p>The "Précis" embraces the foregoing results of his discovery, and +considering the short space of time in which all this was +accomplished, it appears marvellous that François could thus early +determine the most important elements of the hieroglyphic system in +their minute details so correctly. In 1824 the king sent him to Italy, +where he profited principally by the splendid collection of Egyptian +antiquities in Turin. In 1826 Charles X. appointed him director of the +Egyptian Museum in the Louvre, which Champollion founded by purchasing +at Liverno the celebrated "Salt Collection."</p> + +<p>Soon after his return to France the king sent him on a mission to +Egypt, where he remained from August, 1828, till the end of 1829. The +Italian Rosellini joined him on the Nile.</p> + +<p>His "Lettres écrites d'Égypte et de la Nubie" render his observations +and impressions and describe his life and adventures in Egypt, in a +most entertaining and instructive style. The many and various +inscriptions, copied there by him, are all quoted in his great work on +monuments, entitled, "Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie," and in +his posthumous work, "Notices descriptives conformes aux manuscrits +autographes rédigés sur les lieux."</p> + +<p>Soon after his return to Paris (in March, 1830), by which time his +health had commenced to fail, he was elected a Member of the Academy, +and in March, 1831, was appointed professor at the "College de +France." The solidity and instructiveness of his lectures brought the +most celebrated leaders in science to hear him, but there were +destined to be but few of the lectures, as he all too soon felt +himself too weak to continue them. On March 4, 1832, at his old +homestead Figeac, a stroke of apoplexy ended his active life of +achievement.</p> + +<p>His great discovery was at first vigorously attacked. Erring minds +declaring the system of the great Frenchman to be wrong, and +submitting others of their own, as the Russian Klaproth and the German +Seyffarth, disturbed Champollion's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name="page316"></a>(p. 316)</span> peace; still more +bitterly, however, was he pursued by the envy and hatred of his +political opponents.</p> + +<p>Even when the laurel already decorated his brow, they saw to it that +the thorns were not wanting in the wreath. Especially in England +various efforts were made to have, not him, but Thomas Young, +recognized as the discoverer of the science of deciphering +hieroglyphics. But though Young had succeeded previously to +Champollion in deciphering some hieroglyphic names in a mechanical +way, yet the genial Englishman mistook, during the whole course of his +activity, the real character of hieroglyphic writing. To Champollion, +on the other hand, it was left to recognize their nature and +construction, so that science must acknowledge him to be the +discoverer of the true nature of the system of hieroglyphical writing.</p> + +<p>Shortly before his death it was vouchsafed him to proclaim to his +loyal brother, "<span class="italic">Voici ma carte pour la postérité</span>," pointing to the +manuscript of his "Egyptian Grammar," of which the last chapter was +still missing. It contains the germs from which all similar works have +sprung, which since have perfected and enlarged that of Champollion; +it showed the path in which all subsequent grammarians were to walk. +The results of Young's discoveries remain without influence upon the +progress of the science, and have found a place long since among old +relics.</p> + +<p>François Champollion's work is the seed, which even at the present day +brings forth the richest fruits. When he died, at the age of +forty-two, he left the world not only his "Egyptian Grammar," but also +pioneer works in other branches of his science.</p> + +<p>His "Panthéon Égyptien" (1823-25) dealt with Egyptian mythology; his +excellent knowledge of Coptic is clearly seen in many of his works; +and his "Egyptian Dictionary of Hieroglyphics" (1841-44) is, bearing +in mind the time when it was written, a work of marvellous +accomplishment.</p> + +<p>This dictionary, with several other works and manuscripts of his +literary estate, which the French Government had purchased for the sum +of fifty thousand francs, were faithfully and lovingly edited and +published after his death by his elder brother, Figeac. These +posthumous works bear witness not only to the overwhelming industry of +this great worker and explorer, but also to the loving unselfishness +of his brother, who sacrificed a great part of his time and activity +in editing and arranging the manuscripts of the departed. The +"Grammar," the "Monuments," the "Dictionary," were all published by +Figeac. At "Père Lachaise" Cemetery, in Paris, a weather-beaten +obelisk and a broken stone tablet indicate the spot where the remains +of François Champollion rest.</p> + +<p>A monument which was erected in his honor at his native town, Figeac, +bears the well-chosen inscription which so frequently occurs among the +titles of the Pharaohs in hieroglyphics, "'<span class="italic">anch zete</span>," i.e., +"everlasting." A beautiful sentence, which Chateaubriand addressed to +the faithful brother and co-worker of the great searcher, is also +inscribed on the statue of François Champollion, le <span class="pagenum"><a id="page317" name="page317"></a>(p. 317)</span> jeune. +It reads: "Ses admirables travaux auront la durée des monuments qu'il +nous a fait connaître." (His admirable works will last as long as the +monuments which he has taught us to understand.)<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig008" name="sig008"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig008.jpg" width="200" height="72" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3>ANDREW JACKSON<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11" title="Go to footnote 11"><span class="smaller">[11]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span><br> +(1767-1845)</h3> + +<a id="img030" name="img030"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img030.jpg" width="300" height="358" alt="Andrew Jackson." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Dr. Von Holst, the most philosophic of historians, when he passes from +the period of John Quincy Adams to that of his successor, is +reluctantly compelled to leave the realm of pure history for that of +biography, and to entitle a chapter "The Reign of Andrew Jackson." +This change of treatment could, indeed, hardly be helped. Under Adams +all was impersonal, methodical, a government of laws and not of men. +With an individuality quite as strong as that of Jackson—as the whole +nation learned ere his life ended—it had yet been the training of his +earlier career to suppress himself, and be simply a perfect official. +His policy aided the vast progress of the nation, but won no credit by +the process. Men saw with wonder the westward march of an expanding +people, but forgot to notice the sedate, passionless, orderly +administration that held the door open and kept the peace <span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318"></a>(p. 318)</span> +for all. In studying the time of Adams, we think of the nation; in +observing that of Jackson, we think of Jackson himself. In him we see +the first popular favorite of a nation now well out of +leading-strings, and particularly bent on going alone. By so much as +he differed from Adams, by so much the people liked him better. His +conquests had been those of war, always more dazzling than those of +peace; his temperament was of fire, always more attractive than one of +marble. He was helped by what he had done, and by what he had not +done. Even his absence of diplomatic training was almost counted for a +virtue, because all this training was necessarily European, and the +demand had ripened for a purely American product.</p> + +<p>It had been quite essential to the self-respect of the new republic, +at the outset, that it should have at its head men who had coped with +European statesmen on their own soil and not been discomfited. This +was the case with each of the early successors of Washington, and in +view of his manifest superiority this advantage was not needed. +Perhaps it was in a different way a sign of self-respect that the new +republic should at last turn from this tradition, and take boldly from +the ranks a strong and ill-trained leader, to whom all European +precedent—and, indeed, all other precedent, counted for nothing. In +Jackson, moreover, there first appeared upon our national stage the +since familiar figure of the self-made man. Other presidents had +sprung from a modest origin, but nobody had made an especial point of +it. Nobody had urged Washington for office because he had been a +surveyor's lad; nobody had voted for Adams because stately old ladies +designated him as "that cobbler's son." But when Jackson came into +office the people had just had almost a surfeit of regular training in +their chief magistrates. There was a certain zest in the thought of a +change, and the nation certainly had it.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that Jackson was in many ways far above the +successive modern imitators who have posed in his image. He was +narrow, ignorant, violent, unreasonable; he punished his enemies and +rewarded his friends. But he was, on the other hand—and his worst +opponents hardly denied it—chaste, honest, truthful, and sincere. It +was not commonly charged upon him that he enriched himself at the +public expense, or that he deliberately invented falsehoods. And as he +was for a time more bitterly hated than anyone who ever occupied his +high office, we may be very sure that these things would have been +charged had it been possible. In this respect the contrast was +enormous between Jackson and his imitators, and it explains his +prolonged influence. He never was found out or exposed before the +world, because there was nothing to detect or unveil; his merits and +demerits were as visible as his long, narrow, firmly set features, or +as the old military stock that encircled his neck. There he was, +always fully revealed; everybody could see him; the people might take +him or leave him—and they never left him.</p> + +<p>Moreover, there was, after the eight years of Monroe and the four +years of Adams, an immense popular demand for something piquant and +even amusing, and this quality they always had from Jackson. There was +nothing in the least <span class="pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319"></a>(p. 319)</span> melodramatic about him; he never posed +or attitudinized—it would have required too much patience; but he was +always piquant. There was formerly a good deal of discussion as to who +wrote the once famous "Jack Downing's" letters, but we might almost +say that they wrote themselves. Nobody was ever less of a humorist +than Andrew Jackson, and it was therefore the more essential that he +should be the cause of humor in others. It was simply inevitable that +during his progresses through the country there should be some amusing +shadow evoked, some Yankee parody of the man, such as came from two or +three quarters under the name of Jack Downing. The various records of +Monroe's famous tours are as tame as the speeches which these +expeditions brought forth, and John Quincy Adams never made any +popular demonstrations to chronicle; but wherever Jackson went there +went the other Jack, the crude first-fruits of what is now known +through the world as "American humor." Jack Downing was Mark Twain and +Hosea Biglow and Artemus Ward in one. The impetuous President enraged +many and delighted many, but it is something to know that under him a +serious people first found that it knew how to laugh.</p> + +<p>The very extreme, the perfectly needless extreme, of political +foreboding that marked the advent of Jackson furnished a background of +lurid solemnity for all this light comedy. Samuel Breck records in his +diary that he conversed with Daniel Webster in Philadelphia, March 24, +1827, upon the prospects of the government. "Sir," said Mr. Webster, +"if General Jackson is elected, the government of our country will be +overthrown; the judiciary will be destroyed; Mr. Justice Johnson will +be made Chief-Justice in the room of Mr. Marshall, who must soon +retire, and then in half an hour Mr. Joseph Washington and Mr. Justice +Story will resign. A majority will be left with Mr. Johnson, and every +constitutional decision hitherto made will be reversed." As a matter +of fact, none of these results followed. Mr. Justice Johnson never +became Chief-Justice; Mr. Marshall retained that office till his death +in 1835; Story and Washington also died in office; the judiciary was +not overthrown, nor the government destroyed. But the very ecstasy of +these fears stimulated the excitement of the public mind. No matter +how extravagant the supporters of Jackson might be, they could hardly +go farther in that direction than did the Websters in the other.</p> + +<p>But it was not the fault of the Jackson party if anybody went beyond +them in exaggeration. An English traveller, William E. Alexander, +going in a stage-coach from Baltimore to Washington in 1831, records +the exuberant conversation of six editors, with whom he was shut up +for hours. "The gentlemen of the press," he says, "talked of 'going +the whole hog' for one another, of being 'up to the hub' (nave) for +General Jackson, 'who was all brimstone but the head, and that was +aqua-fortis,' and swore if anyone abused him he ought to be 'set +straddle on an iceberg, and shot through with a streak of lightning.'" +Somewhere between the dignified despair of Daniel Webster, and the +adulatory slang of these gentry we must look for the actual truth +about Jackson's administration. The fears of the statesman were not +wholly groundless, for it is always hard to count in advance upon the +tendency of high office to make men more reasonable. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320"></a>(p. 320)</span> The +enthusiasm of the editors had a certain foundation; at any rate it was +a part of their profession to like stirring times, and they had now +the promise of them. After four years of Adams, preceded by eight +years of Monroe, any party of editors in America, assembled in a +stage-coach, would have showered epithets of endearment on the man who +gave such promise in the way of lively items. No acute journalist +could help seeing that a man had a career before him who was called +"Old Hickory" by three-quarters of the nation, and who made "Hurrah +for Jackson!" a cry so potent that it had the force of a popular +decree.</p> + +<p>There was, indeed, unbounded room for popular enthusiasm in the review +of Jackson's early career. Born in such obscurity that it is doubtful +to this day whether he was born in South Carolina, as he himself +claimed, or on the North Carolina side of the line, as Mr. Parton +thinks, he had a childhood of poverty and ignorance. He was taken +prisoner as a mere boy during the Revolution, and could never forget +that he had been wounded by a British officer whose boots he had +refused to brush. Afterward, in a frontier community, he was +successively farmer, shopkeeper, law-student, lawyer, district +attorney, judge, and Congressman, being first Representative from +Tennessee, and then Senator, and all before the age of thirty-one. In +Congress Albert Gallatin describes him "as a tall, lank, +uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of hair hanging over his +brows and face, and a queue down his back tied in an eel-skin; his +dress singular, his manners and deportment those of a backwoodsman." +He remained, however, but a year or two in all at Philadelphia—then +the seat of national government—and afterward became a planter in +Tennessee, fought duels, subdued Tecumseh and the Creek Indians, +winning finally the great opportunity of his life by being made a +Major-General in the United States army on May 31, 1814. He now had +his old captors, the British, with whom to deal, and entered into the +work with a relish. By way of preliminary he took Pensacola, without +any definite authority, from the Spaniards, to whom it belonged, and +the English whom they harbored; and then turned, without orders, +without support, and without supplies, to undertake the defence of New +Orleans.</p> + +<p>Important as was this city, and plain as it was that the British +threatened it, the national authorities had done nothing to defend it. +The impression prevailed at Washington that it must already have been +taken, but that the President would not let it be known. The +<span class="italic">Washington Republican</span> of January 17, 1815, said, "That Mr. Madison +will find it convenient and will finally determine to abandon the +State of Louisiana we have not a doubt." A New York newspaper of +January 30th, quoted in Mr. Andrew Stevenson's eulogy on Jackson, +said, "It is a general opinion here that the city of New Orleans must +fall." Apparently but one thing averted its fall—the energy and will +of Andrew Jackson. On his own responsibility he declared martial law, +impressed soldiers, seized powder and supplies, built fortifications +of cotton bales, if nothing else came to hand. When the news of the +battle of New Orleans came to the seat of government it was almost too +bewildering for belief. The British veterans of the Peninsular War, +whose march wherever they had landed had heretofore seemed a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321"></a>(p. 321)</span> +holiday parade, were repulsed in a manner so astounding that their +loss was more than two thousand, while that of the Americans was but +thirteen. By a single stroke the national self-respect was restored; +and Henry Clay, at Paris, said "Now I can go to England without +mortification."</p> + +<p>All these things must be taken into account in estimating what Dr. Von +Holst calls "the reign of Andrew Jackson." After this climax of +military success he was for a time employed on frontier service, again +went to Florida to fight Englishmen and Spaniards, practically +conquering that region in a few months, but this time with an +overwhelming force. Already his impetuosity had proved to have a +troublesome side to it; he had violated neutral territory, had hung +two Indians without justification, and had put to death, with no +authority, two Englishmen, Ambrister and Arbuthnot. These +irregularities did not harm him in the judgment of his admirers; they +seemed in the line of his character and helped more than they hurt +him. In the winter of 1823-24 he was again chosen a Senator from +Tennessee. Thenceforth he was in the field as a candidate for the +Presidency, with two things to aid him—his own immense popularity and +a friend. This friend was one William B. Lewis, a man in whom all the +skilful arts of the modern wire-puller seemed to be born full-grown.</p> + +<p>There was at that time (1824) no real division in parties. The +Federalists had been effectually put down, and every man who aspired +to office claimed to be Democratic-Republican. Nominations were +irregularly made, sometimes by a Congressional caucus, sometimes by +State legislatures. Tennessee, and afterward Pennsylvania, nominated +Jackson. When it came to the vote, he proved to be by all odds the +popular candidate. Professor W. G. Sumner, counting up the votes of +the people, finds 155,800 votes for Jackson, 105,300 for Adams, 44,200 +for Crawford, 46,000 for Clay. Even with this strong popular vote +before it, the House of Representatives, balloting by States, elected +on the first trial John Quincy Adams. Seldom in our history has the +cup of power come so near to the lips of a candidate and been dashed +away again. Yet nothing is surer in a republic than a certain swing of +the pendulum afterward, in favor of any candidate to whom a special +injustice has been done, and in the case of a popular favorite like +Jackson, this might have been foreseen to be irresistible. His +election four years later was almost a foregone conclusion, but, as if +to make it wholly sure, there came up the rumor of a "corrupt bargain" +between the successful candidate and Mr. Clay, whose forces had indeed +joined with those of Mr. Adams to make a majority. For General Jackson +there could be nothing more fortunate. The mere ghost of a corrupt +bargain is worth many thousand votes to the lucky man who conjures up +the ghost.</p> + +<p>When it came the turn of the Adams party to be defeated, in 1828, they +attributed this result partly to the depravity of the human heart, +partly to the tricks of Jackson, and partly to the unfortunate +temperament of Mr. Adams. The day after a candidate is beaten +everybody knows why it was, and says it was just what anyone might +have foreseen. Ezekiel Webster, writing from New Hampshire, laid the +result chiefly on the candidate, whom everybody disliked, and who +would <span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name="page322"></a>(p. 322)</span> persist in leaving his bitter opponents in office. The +people, he said, "always supported his cause from a cold sense of +duty, and not from any liking of the man. We soon satisfy ourselves," +he added, "that we have discharged our duty to the cause of any man +when we do not entertain for him one personal kind feeling, nor +cannot, unless we disembowel ourselves, like a trussed turkey, of all +that is human within us." There is, indeed, no doubt that Mr. Adams +helped on his own defeat, both by his defects and by what would now be +considered his virtues. The trouble, however, lay further back. +Ezekiel Webster thought that "if there had been at the head of affairs +a man of popular character like Mr. Clay, or any man whom we were not +compelled by our natures, instinct, and fixed fate to dislike, the +result would have been different." But we can now see that all this +would really have made no difference at all. Had Mr. Adams been +personally the most attractive of men, instead of being a +conscientious iceberg, the same result would have followed, the people +would have felt that Jackson's turn had come, and the demand for the +"old ticket" would have been irresistible.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the next election, that of 1828, was easily settled. +Jackson had 178 electoral votes; Adams but 83—more than two to one. +Adams had not an electoral vote south of the Potomac or west of the +Alleghanies, though Daniel Webster, writing to Jeremiah Mason, had +predicted that he would carry six Western and Southern States. In +Georgia no Adams ticket was even nominated, he being there unpopular +for one of his best acts—the protection of the Cherokees. On the +other hand, but one Jackson elector was chosen from New England, and +he by less than two hundred majority.</p> + +<hr> + +<p>On the day of his inauguration the president was received in +Washington with an ardor that might have turned a more modest head. On +the day when the new administration began (March 4, 1829), Daniel +Webster wrote to his sister-in-law, with whom he had left his children +that winter: "To-day we have had the inauguration. A monstrous crowd +of people is in the city. I never saw anything like it before. Persons +have come five hundred miles to see General Jackson, and they really +seem to think that the country is rescued from some frightful danger." +It is difficult now to see what this peril was supposed to be; but we +know that the charges of monarchical tendency made against John Adams +had been renewed against his son—a renewal that seems absurd in case +of a man so scrupulously republican that he would not use a seal ring, +and so unambitious that he always sighed after the quieter walks of +literature. Equally absurd was the charge of extravagance against a +man who kept the White House in better order than his predecessors on +less than half the appropriation—an economy wholly counterbalanced in +some minds by the fact that he had put in a billiard-table. But +however all this may have been, the fact is certain that no president +had yet entered the White House amid such choruses of delight; nor did +it happen again until Jackson's pupil, Van Buren, yielded, amid equal +popular enthusiasm, to another military hero, Harrison.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323"></a>(p. 323)</span> For the social life of Washington the President had one +advantage which was altogether unexpected, and seemed difficult of +explanation by anything in his earlier career. He had at his command +the most courteous and agreeable manners. Even before the election of +Adams, Daniel Webster had written to his brother: "General Jackson's +manners are better than those of any of the candidates. He is grave, +mild, and reserved. My wife is for him decidedly." And long after, +when the president was to pass in review before those who were perhaps +his most implacable opponents, the ladies of Boston, we have the +testimony of the late Josiah Quincy, in his "Figures from the Past," +that the personal bearing of this obnoxious official was most +unwillingly approved. Mr. Quincy was detailed by Governor Lincoln, on +whose military staff he was, to attend President Jackson everywhere +when visiting Boston in 1833; and this narrator testifies that, with +every prejudice against Jackson, he found him essentially "a knightly +personage—prejudiced, narrow, mistaken on many points, it might be, +but vigorously a gentleman in his high sense of honor, and in the +natural, straightforward courtesies which are easily distinguished +from the veneer of policy." Sitting erect on his horse, a thin, stiff +type of military strength, he carried with him in the streets a +bearing of such dignity that staid old Bostonians, who had refused +even to look upon him from their windows, would finally be coaxed into +taking one peep, and would then hurriedly bring forward their little +daughters to wave their handkerchiefs. He wrought, Mr. Quincy +declares, "a mysterious charm upon old and young;" showed, although in +feeble health, a great consideration for others; and was in private a +really agreeable companion. It appears from these reminiscences that +the president was not merely the cause of wit in others, but now and +then appreciated it himself, and that he used to listen with delight +to the reading of the "Jack Downing" letters, laughing heartily +sometimes, and declaring: "The Vice-President must have written that. +Depend upon it Jack Downing is only Van Buren in masquerade." It is a +curious fact that the satirist is already the better remembered of the +two, although Van Buren was in his day so powerful as to preside over +the official patronage of the nation and to be called the "Little +Magician."</p> + +<hr> + +<p>The two acts with which the administration of President Jackson will +be longest identified are his dealings with South Carolina in respect +to nullification, and his long warfare with the United States Bank. +The first brought the New England States back to him, and the second +took them away again. He perhaps won rather more applause than he +merited by the one act, and more condemnation than was just for the +other. Let us first consider the matter of nullification. When various +Southern States—Georgia at first, not South Carolina, taking the +lead—had quarrelled with the tariff of 1828, and openly threatened to +set it aside, they evidently hoped for the co-operation of the +President; or at least for that silent acquiescence he had shown when +Georgia had been almost equally turbulent on the Indian question and +he would not interfere, as his predecessor had done, to protect the +treaty rights of the Indian tribes. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324"></a>(p. 324)</span> whole South was +therefore startled when he gave, at a banquet on Jefferson's birthday +(April 13, 1830), a toast that now seems commonplace—"The Federal +Union; it must be preserved." But this was not all; when the time came +he took vigorous, if not altogether consistent, steps to preserve it.</p> + +<p>When, in November, 1832, South Carolina for the first time officially +voted that certain tariff acts were null and void in that State, the +gauntlet of defiance was fairly thrown down, and Jackson took it up. +He sent General Scott to take command at Charleston, with troops near +by, and two gunboats at hand; he issued a dignified proclamation, +written by Livingston (December 10, 1832), which pronounced the act of +South Carolina contradictory to the Constitution, unauthorized by it, +and destructive of its aims. So far so good; but unfortunately the +president had, the week before (December 4, 1832), sent a tariff +message to Congress, of which John Quincy Adams wrote, "It goes far to +dissolve the Union into its original elements, and is in substance a +complete surrender into the hands of the nullifiers of South +Carolina." Then came Mr. Clay's compromise tariff of 1833, following +in part the line indicated by this message, and achieving, as Mr. +Calhoun said, a victory for nullification, leaving the matter a drawn +game at any rate.</p> + +<p>The action of Jackson thus accompanied settled nothing; it was like +valiantly ordering a burglar out of your house with a pistol, and +adding a suggestion that he will find a portion of the family silver +on the hall-table, ready packed for his use, as he goes out.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the burglar was gone for the moment, and the president +had the credit of it. He had already been re-elected by an +overwhelming majority in November, 1832, receiving 219 electoral +votes, and Clay 49, while Floyd had the 11 votes of South Carolina +(which still chose electors by its Legislature—a practice now +abandoned), and Wirt the 7 of Vermont. Van Buren was chosen +vice-president, being nominated in place of Calhoun by the Democratic +National Convention, which now for the first time came into operation. +The president was now at his high-water mark of popularity—always a +dangerous time for a public man. His vehement nature accepted his +re-election as a proof that he was right in everything, and he grew +more self-confident than ever. More imperiously than ever, he ordered +about friends and opponents, and his friends repaid it by guiding his +affairs, unconsciously to himself. Meantime he was encountering +another enemy of greater power, because more silent, than Southern +nullification, and he was drifting on to his final contest with the +United States Bank.</p> + +<p>Sydney Smith says that every Englishman feels himself able, without +instruction, to drive a pony-chaise, conduct a small farm, and edit a +newspaper. The average American assumes, in addition to all this, that +he is competent to manage a bank. President Jackson claimed for +himself in this respect no more than his fellows; the difference was +in strength of will and in possession of power. A man so ignorant that +a member of his own family, according to Mr. Trist, used to say that +the general did not believe the world was round, might easily convince +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name="page325"></a>(p. 325)</span> himself that he knew all about banking. As he had, besides +all this, very keen observation and great intuitive judgment of +character, he was probably right in his point of attack. There is +little doubt that the Bank of the United States, under Nicholas +Biddle, concentrated in itself an enormous power; and it spent in four +years, by confession of its directors, $58,000 in what they called +self-defence "against politicians." When on July 10, 1832, General +Jackson, in a message supposed to have been inspired by Amos Kendall, +vetoed the bill renewing the charter of the bank, he performed an act +of courage, taking counsel with his instincts. But when in the year +following he performed the act known as the "Removal of the Deposits," +or, in other words, caused the public money to be no longer deposited +in the National Bank and its twenty-five branches, but in a variety of +State banks instead, then he took counsel of his ignorance.</p> + +<p>The consequence, immediate or remote, was an immense galvanizing into +existence of State banks, and ultimately a vast increase of paper +money. The Sub-Treasury system had not then been thought of; there was +no proper place of deposit for the public funds; their possession was +a direct stimulus to speculation; and the president's cure was worse +than the disease. All the vast inflation of 1835 and 1836 and the +business collapse of 1837 were due to the fact not merely that Andrew +Jackson brought all his violent and persistent will to bear against +the United States Bank, but that when he got the power into his own +hands he did not know what to do with it. Not one of his +biographers—hardly even a bigoted admirer, so far as I know—now +claims that his course in this respect was anything but a mistake. "No +monster bank," says Professor W. G. Sumner, "under the most malicious +management, could have produced as much havoc, either political or +financial, as this system produced while it lasted." If the bank was, +as is now generally admitted, a dangerous institution, Jackson was in +the right to resist it; he was right even in disregarding the enormous +flood of petitions that poured in to its support. But to oppose a +dangerous bank does not necessarily make one an expert in banking. The +utmost that can be said in favor of his action is that the calamitous +results showed the great power of the institution he overthrew, and +that if he had let it alone the final result might have been as bad.</p> + +<p>Two new States were added to the Union in President Jackson's +time—Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837). The population of the +United States in 1830 had risen to nearly thirteen millions +(12,866,020). There was no foreign war during his administration, +although one with France was barely averted; and no domestic contest +except with the Florida Indians—a contest in which these combatants +held their ground so well, under the half-breed chief Osceola, that he +himself was only captured by the violation of a flag of truce, and +that even to this day, as the Indian Commissioners tell us, some three +hundred of the tribe remain in Florida. The war being equally carried +on against fugitive slaves called Maroons, who had intermarried with +the Indians, did something to prepare the public mind for a new +agitation which was to remould American political parties, and to +modify the Constitution of the nation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326"></a>(p. 326)</span> It must be remembered that the very air began to be filled in +Jackson's time with rumors of insurrections and uprisings in different +parts of the world. The French revolution of the Three Days had roused +all the American people to sympathy, and called forth especial +enthusiasm in such cities as Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston. The +Polish revolution had excited universal interest, and John Randolph +had said "The Greeks are at your doors." All these things were being +discussed at every dinner-table, and the debates in Virginia as to the +necessity of restricting the growing intelligence of the slaves had +added to the agitation. In the session of 1829-30 a bill had passed +the Virginia Assembly by one majority, and had failed in the Senate, +prohibiting slaves being taught to read or write; and the next year it +had passed almost unanimously. There had been, about the same time, +alarms of insurrection in North Carolina, so that a party of slaves +were attacked and killed by the inhabitants of Newbern; alarms in +Maryland, so that fifty blacks had been imprisoned on the Eastern +Shore; alarms in Louisiana, so that reinforcements of troops had been +ordered to Baton Rouge; and a traveller had written even from +Richmond, Va., on February 12th, that there were constant fears of +insurrections, and special patrols. Then came the insurrection of Nat +Turner in Virginia—an uprising described minutely by myself +elsewhere; the remarkable inflammatory pamphlet called "Walker's +Appeal," by a Northern colored man—a piece of writing surpassed in +lurid power by nothing in the literature of the French Revolution; and +more potent than either or both of these, the appearance of the first +number of the <span class="italic">Liberator</span>, in Boston. When Garrison wrote, "I am in +earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat +a single inch, and I will be heard," Andrew Jackson for once met a +will firmer than his own, because more steadfast and moved by a +loftier purpose. Thenceforth, for nearly half a century, the history +of the nation was the history of the great anti-slavery contest.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>DANIEL WEBSTER<br> +By <span class="smcap">Rev. Dr. Tweedie</span><br> +(1782-1852)</h3> + +<a id="img031" name="img031"></a> +<div class="floatright"> +<img src="images/img031.jpg" width="250" height="297" alt="Daniel Webster." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Daniel Webster, the American statesman, was born in the town of +Salisbury, in the county of Merrimack, New Hampshire, America, on +January 18, 1782. His mother, a woman of deep piety, was his first +teacher; his father was a man of singular but quiet energy, and the +training of the youthful statesman was well fitted to prepare him, at +least in some respects, for the work which it fell to his lot to +perform. From his mother's lips were first received the vital truths +of the Bible; and the first copy of that book ever owned by Webster +was her gift. Long subsequent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name="page327"></a>(p. 327)</span> to this period, and in the +full blaze of his fame, he could say that he had never been able to +recollect the time when he could not read the Bible, and supposed that +his first schoolmistress began to teach him when he was three or four +years of age. His first school-house was built of logs, and stood +about half a mile from his father's house, not very far from the +beautiful Merrimack. All was then humble enough with this great +American statesman. He attended school only during the winter months, +and assisted his father in the business of his farm and his mill as +soon as he had strength for doing so. He was, however, the brightest +boy at school; and when the tempting reward of a knife was promised to +the scholar who committed to memory the greatest number of verses from +the Bible, Daniel came with whole chapters, which the master could not +find time to hear him repeat in full. The boy secured the knife, and +his delighted teacher subsequently told the father of that child that +"he would do God's work injustice" if gifts so promising were not +nurtured at college.</p> + +<p>But that consummation was not to be very soon realized. For some time +Daniel had to assist his father at a saw-mill; but so resolute was he +in acquiring knowledge and training the mind while toiling with the +body, that the operations at the mill were systematically interspersed +with studies well fitted to form and to brace the embryo patriot for +his great life-work. The saw took about ten minutes to cleave a log, +and young Webster, after setting the mill in motion, learned to fill +up these ten minutes with reading. As a patriot, a statesman, an +orator, and a scholar, he became famous, and was called the greatest +intellectual character of his country; and we see where he laid the +foundation of his greatness—by persistent and invincible ardor even +in early boyhood. That magnanimous kindliness and tenderness of heart, +which entered so largely into his character, was fostered amid such +scenes; and of all the men whose memories we are fain to embalm, he +ranks among the least indebted to casualty, and the most to +indefatigable earnestness, for the position to which he eventually +rose. Amid the forest wilds of America his perseverance laid the +foundation of power, of learning, of fame, and of goodness.</p> + +<p>A simple incident which happened about this period decided his +life-pursuit. He discovered a copy of the "Constitution of the United +States," as drawn up by some of her ablest statesmen. It was printed +upon a cotton handkerchief which he purchased in a country store with +what was then his all, and which amounted to twenty-five cents. He was +about eight years of age when that took place, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328"></a>(p. 328)</span> and learned +then, for the first time, either that there were United States, or +that they had a Constitution.</p> + +<p>From this date, or about the year 1790, his path through life was +decided, not formally, but really, not by any avowal, but by a +fostered predilection. Meanwhile other influences were at work. The +father of this New Hampshire boy was strict in his religious opinions +and observances, and the son had to conform, sometimes with a grudge +at the restraint, but with effects of a vitally beneficial nature to +the future patriot. His father then kept a place of entertainment, +where teamsters halted to bait, and the attractions of the place were +increased by the fact that young Webster often regaled those visitors +by his readings. The Psalms of David were his favorite, and there, +when only about seven years of age, he first imparted that pleasure by +his oratory which he afterward carried up to the highest level which +an American citizen can reach. To that humble abode Webster once +returned in his declining years, and with streaming eyes descanted on +the various events of the home of his youth.</p> + +<p>The school which he attended during the winter months was about three +miles from his father's house, and he had often to travel thither +through deep snow. At the age of fourteen he attended a somewhat more +advanced academy for a few months, and his first effort at public +speaking there was a failure. He burst into tears; his antipathy to +public declamation appeared insurmountable, and neither frowns nor +smiles could overcome the reluctance. It was overcome, for when young +Webster felt the power which was in him, he boldly employed it. At +first, however, he was a failure as a public speaker. With all this, +he went forward in the acquisition of knowledge and the bracing of his +mind; and in his fifteenth year he once undertook to repeat five +hundred lines of Virgil, if his teacher would consent to listen.</p> + +<p>About this time the elder Webster disclosed to his son his purpose to +send him to college. The talents of the boy and the counsels of +friends pointed out that as a proper path, and that son himself will +describe the effects of his father's information. "I could not speak," +he says. "How could my father, I thought, with so large a family, and +in such narrow circumstances, think of incurring so great an expense +for me, and I laid my head on his shoulder and wept." That boy, +however, had further difficulties to surmount. He had to leave one of +his schools to assist his father in the hay harvest; he had, moreover, +the hindrance of a slender and sickly constitution; but the Bible, +side by side with some standard authors, had now become his English +classics, while Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Demosthenes, and others, were +his manuals in ancient literature. It was knowledge pursued under +unusual difficulties, but, in spite of all, acquired to an unusual +extent. So indomitable and persistent was the boy that in a few months +he mastered the difficulties of the Greek tongue, and finally +graduated at Dartmouth when he was eighteen years of age. Incidents +are recorded which show that during his residence at college he was +determined to hold the first place or none.</p> + +<p>It was at Dartmouth that Webster's patriotism first flashed forth with +true American ardor, a harbinger to his whole future career. He had +now mastered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page329" name="page329"></a>(p. 329)</span> his boyish aversion to oratory, and on July 4, +1800, the twenty-fourth anniversary of American Independence, he +delivered an oration full of patriotic sentiment, manifesting the +decided bent of his mind, and deserving a place, in the opinion of +some, among the works which he subsequently published. He was then +only eighteen years of age.</p> + +<p>To increase the straitened funds of the family, Daniel Webster for +some time kept a school at Freyburg, in Maine. His income there, eked +out by other means, which were the wages of indomitable industry, +enabled him to send his brother, Ezekiel, to college—the grand object +which he had in view in becoming a schoolmaster. He was, however, all +the while prosecuting his studies in law, and in the year 1805 entered +on the duties of a legal practitioner at Boston. His familiar title in +the country where he resided was "All eyes," and he used them with +singular advantage. In Boston, at Portsmouth, and elsewhere, he +continued these pursuits, and he thus early adopted some of the maxims +which guided him through life. "There are evils greater than poverty;" +"What bread you eat, let it be the bread of independence;" "Live on no +man's favor;" "Pursue your profession;" "Make yourself useful to the +world.... You will have nothing to fear." Such were his convictions, +and he embodied them in deeds. One instance of his generosity is +recorded at this period. His father had become embarrassed; the +devoted son hastened to liquidate his father's debt, and he did it +with a decision like that which signalized him all his days. He +resided as a lawyer at Portsmouth for about nine years.</p> + +<p>It was in the year 1812 that Webster was first elected a member of +Congress, and he reached that elevation by his masterly ability in the +affairs of his profession. By persistent patience first, and then by +resistless power, he took up the foremost position in the sphere in +which he moved. He appeared in the majesty of intellectual grandeur, +like one who was all might and soul, and poured forth the stores of an +opulent mind in a manner which was entirely his own. His words had +both weight and fire; and the contrast is now great between the boy +who broke down and wept at his first declamation, and the man, bending +opponents to his will by his energy and indomitable zeal. The laurel +of victory, it has been fondly said, was proffered to him by all, and +bound his brow for one exploit till he went forth to another. In his +thirtieth year he entered the field of politics, like one who had made +up his mind to be decided, firm, and straightforward; and such was the +serenity of this great soul, amid wild commotions, that the enthusiast +mistook it for apathy, the fierce for lukewarmness. It was the great +calm of profound conviction, borne up by a thorough reliance on the +right—the right as to time, as to degree, and as to resources for the +battle of life. From the day on which he threw himself into the +political arena, he belonged to the United States, and not to his +native county alone. Crowds soon gathered round one who had mastered +so many difficulties, and taken his place among the kingly men who +rule the spirits whom they are born first to subdue, and then to bind +to themselves by the spell of genius.</p> + +<p>It is well known that this man, so humble in his origin, yet so +masterly in his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page330" name="page330"></a>(p. 330)</span> mind, passed through all the gradations of +rank that are open to an American citizen, up to the right hand of the +highest. We have seen when he entered Congress. In 1841 he became +Secretary of State, and from that period bore the place in American +politics which would be readily conceded, in this ardent country, to +one who was deemed and called "the master mind of the world." In his +love of freedom, Webster has been likened to Washington, or expressly +called his equal in regard to patriotism and true greatness. It is not +wonderful, therefore, that this patriot's friends proposed him as +President of the United States. He failed, and felt the failure, but +soothed his disappointment by the conviction that no man "could take +away from him what he had done for his country." Those who loved and +admired him thought that the word president would have dimmed the +lustre of the name of Daniel Webster; and they add, in regard to his +disappointment, "if we must sorrow that what men expected can never +come to pass, let us not weep for him but for our country." Others, +however, were of opinion that Webster was "rejected and lost"; while +those who look deeper at the causes of events may see, in that +disappointment, the needful antidote administered by the Supreme +Wisdom to ward off the danger of too universal a success. This gifted +and ambitious man was suffered to take an active part in the +government of one of the greatest of the nations. By his bold and +manly grasp of American interests, he did much to weld the different +States more closely into one. He negotiated, on the part of his +country, some of the most important treaties which promote the peace +and the amity of nations, for example, what is called the Ashburton +treaty with Great Britain; and it would have seemed too much for one +mortal, successful as Webster had already been, to be lifted to an +official level with princes. That was denied him; his empire was not +countries—it was minds. He was to be trained for a nobler exaltation +than a throne.</p> + +<p>Little has yet been said regarding Webster as an orator. It was mainly +in that respect, however, that he surpassed his fellows, and mainly by +that means was he enabled to ascend to the high position which he held +so long. The versatility of his powers was very great, and the mode in +which he sometimes employed them was not a little remarkable. He had, +on one occasion, spent several hours with his colleagues in adjusting +some important questions involving the interests of kingdoms; and on +returning home he sportively sallied forth and purchased some eggs, on +the principle of seeing how extremes meet, in regard to occupation as +well as in other respects. But there were serious things mixed with +his jests; and as an orator, Webster stands in the first rank, if not +foremost, in the New World. When it was known that he was to speak, +the excitement sometimes amounted to a furor, and a hundred dollars +have been paid for a ticket of admission to hear him. Meanwhile the +avenues that led to his arena were blocked up by the crowds pressing +for admittance; and when he did appear, it was to rouse, to agitate, +and convulse. He felt what he said in his inmost soul, and his words +were winged with fire, even while they were massively powerful, and +connected with a logic which tolerated no breaks in the chain.</p> + +<p>Webster reached the allotted term of mortal existence, and in his +seventy-first <span class="pagenum"><a id="page331" name="page331"></a>(p. 331)</span> year passed away alike from the frowns and the +applause of mortals. On the morning of Sabbath, October 24, 1852, he +was summoned away. Though much enfeebled, his mind was calm, and he +died with the confidence of a little child, reposing on the mercy of +his God as revealed in the Saviour. Among his last utterances was +this, "Heavenly Father, forgive my sins, and welcome me to thyself +through Christ Jesus." His very last words were, "I still live," and +his loving, weeping friends took them up as a prediction of that +immortality on which he was about to enter. Through life he had +hallowed the Sabbath, and he died upon it. The autumn was his favorite +season, and he passed away amid its mellow glories, after +affectionately and solemnly taking leave of his weeping wife, +children, kindred, and friends, down to the humblest members of his +household. His death, it is supposed, was hastened by injuries +received by the breaking down of his carriage; but it did not find him +unprepared. Long years before he had erected his own tomb; and there, +on a plain marble slab over the door, the visitor reads the simple +inscription—<span class="smcap">Daniel Webster</span>.</p> + +<p>Some ten thousand friends, countrymen, and lovers, helped to lay him +there, and one of the orations pronounced in connection with his +departure was thus touchingly closed: "The clasped hands—the dying +prayers—oh, my fellow-citizens, this is a consummation over which +tears of pious sympathy will be shed, after the glories of the forum +and the senate are forgotten."</p> + +<p>The following letter to a friend on the choice of a profession, +written by Webster when only twenty years of age, is reprinted from +"The Life of Daniel Webster" by George Ticknor Curtis, through the +courtesy of D. Appleton & Co., the publishers, and with the permission +of the widow and heirs of the author.</p> + +<p>"What shall I do? Shall I say, 'Yes, gentlemen,' and sit down here to +spend my days in a kind of a comfortable privacy, or shall I +relinquish these prospects, and enter into a profession, where my +feelings will be constantly harrowed by objects either of dishonesty +or misfortune, where my living must be squeezed from penury (for rich +folks seldom go to law), and my moral principle continually be at +hazard? I agree with you that the law is well calculated to draw forth +the powers of the mind, but what are its effects on the heart? Are +they equally propitious? Does it inspire benevolence, and awake +tenderness; or does it, by a frequent repetition of wretched objects, +blunt sensibility, and stifle the still small voice of mercy?</p> + +<p>"The talent with which Heaven has intrusted me is small, very small, +yet I feel responsible for the use of it, and am not willing to +pervert it to purposes reproachful and unjust; nor to hide it, like +the slothful servant, in a napkin.</p> + +<p>"Now, I will enumerate the inducements that draw me toward the law: +First, and principally, it is my father's wish. He does not dictate, +it is true, but how much short of dictation is the mere wish of a +parent, whose labors of life are wasted on favors to his children? +Even the delicacy with which the wish is expressed gives it more +effect than it would have in the form of a command. Secondly, my +friends generally wish it. They are urgent and pressing. My father +even offers me—I will sometime tell you what—and Mr. Thompson offers +my tuition gratis, and to relinquish his stand to me.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name="page332"></a>(p. 332)</span> "On the whole, I imagine I shall make one more trial in the +ensuing autumn. If I prosecute the profession, I pray God to fortify +me against its temptations. To the winds 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. I believe you, +my worthy boy, when you tell me what are your intentions. I have long +known and long loved the honesty of your heart. But let us not rely +too much on ourselves; let us look to some less fallible guide to +direct us among the temptations that surround us."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12" title="Go to footnote 12"><span class="smaller">[12]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Hon. Charles E. Fitch</span><br> +(1801-1872)</h3> + +<a id="img032" name="img032"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img032.jpg" width="250" height="264" alt="William Henry Seward." title=""> +</div> + +<p>William Henry Seward, the American statesman, was born in Florida, +Orange County, N. Y., May 16, 1801, and died at Auburn, in the same +State, October 10, 1872. Precocious in his studies, he pursued his +preliminary education in his native village, and, at the age of +fifteen, entered, as a sophomore, Union College, then under the +presidency of Eliphalet Nott, between whom and his pupil a life-long +friendship, illustrated by mutual confidence and counsel, was early +established. Seward's college course, especially brilliant in rhetoric +and the classics, was interrupted in his senior year by a residence of +six months, as a teacher, in Georgia, where previous impressions +against African slavery were confirmed by observation of its workings. +Returning to college, he was graduated with high honors in 1820, the +subject of his Commencement oration being "The Integrity of the +American Union."</p> + +<p>He was admitted to the bar at Utica, in October, 1822, and in January, +1823, settled at Auburn as a partner of Judge Elijah Miller, whose +daughter he married in October, 1824. Although certain features of the +law—its technicalities and uncertainties—were repugnant to him, he +was soon in the full tide of professional success, and, in the opening +of the circuit courts to equity jurisprudence, found <span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333"></a>(p. 333)</span> much +that was in harmony with his sense of justice. He was also, from the +first, interested in politics, for which he had decided genius. He +came upon the stage in the closing days of "The Era of Good Feeling," +under President Monroe, when parties were again dividing upon the +issues that have mainly obtained throughout the constitutional era. He +approved the principles of Hamilton, although his boyish training had +been in the Jeffersonian school. Enunciating his views with precision +and felicity of diction, his voice and pen were in constant request, +and he rapidly rose to distinction until, in 1834, he was the +acknowledged leader in the State of the Whig party and its candidate +for governor.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he had supported De Witt Clinton, the champion of internal +improvements, and in 1824 drafted, for the Republican Convention of +his county a trenchant address, detailing the history and criticising +the aims of the "Albany Regency," which inspired the hostility to that +famous clique that compassed its overthrow fourteen years later. Among +his notable utterances of this period were an address on Grecian +independence, at Auburn, in 1827; a Fourth-of-July oration, at +Syracuse, in 1831, in which Calhoun's dogma of secession was +denounced, and an eulogy on La Fayette, at Auburn, in 1834. In 1828 he +presided over the Young Men's Convention, at Utica, in behalf of the +renomination of President Adams, and declined a congressional +nomination. In 1830 he was elected by the Anti-Masons to the State +Senate, and was re-elected in 1832. He had a prominent and an +influential part in the deliberations of that body, although its +youngest member, and in the political minority, whose addresses to the +people he wrote at the close of each session. His most notable +speeches were those for the common-school and canal systems, the +abolition of imprisonment for debt, the amelioration of prison +discipline, and the reform of the militia law, and against corporate +monopolies, increasing judicial salaries, Governor Marcy's loan law, +and the removal of the deposits by President Jackson. The Senate was +then a constituent portion of the Court of Errors, the tribunal of +last resort, and Seward delivered many opinions which materially +enhanced his legal reputation. In one instance he carried, with +substantial unanimity, the court with him, against the views of the +presiding judge, the eminent Chancellor Walworth. In 1833 he made a +rapid tour of Europe, embodying his reflections in letters to the +Albany <span class="italic">Evening Journal</span>, then edited by Thurlow Weed, between whom +and Seward there was, for fifty years, an intimate and unbroken +attachment, unique in political annals.</p> + +<p>In 1838 he was again the Whig candidate for governor, and defeated +Governor Marcy, his former rival, his victory being the precursor of +the national Whig triumph in 1840, in which year he was re-elected. He +was inaugurated, January 1, 1839, his message to the Legislature +embracing, with a masterly exposition of Whig policies, certain +suggestions of his own concerning immigration, education, and +eleemosynary institutions that revealed the catholic spirit and the +philosophical habit which, despite his party fealty, he consistently +exhibited. This message outlined the conduct of the administration +that succeeded—enlightened in its scope, liberal to all classes, +distinctly loyal to the Union, yet jealously <span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334"></a>(p. 334)</span> guarding +against any infringement of the rights of the State. It widened +educational privileges, urged the prosecution of the public works, +including the enlargement of the Erie Canal, granted franchises to +railways, removed imprisonment for debt and the remaining guarantees +of slavery from the statute-books, composed the anti-rent troubles and +executed the laws within the insurrectionary section, perfected the +banking system, and proposed jury trials for fugitive slaves and a +constitutional amendment abolishing the property qualification for the +colored suffrage.</p> + +<p>Governor Seward's regard for the dignity of the State was displayed by +his refusal to discharge from custody, without trial, one Alexander +McLeod, a citizen of Canada, held for the burning of the steamer +Caroline, in New York waters, although the demand of the British +government, to that effect, was supplemented by the request of +Presidents Harrison and Tyler. His abhorrence of slavery was +accentuated in his denial of the application of the Governor of +Virginia for the rendition of seamen charged with the abduction of a +slave, upon the ground that the offence, if defined as a crime in +Virginia, was not so in New York, and he did not hesitate to add that +his feelings coincided with his conception of his constitutional +prerogative. When a Democratic Assembly subsequently passed +resolutions disapproving his action, he declined to transmit them to +the Virginia authorities, and he also failed to respond to a similar +requisition from South Carolina. His proposition for the employment of +Roman Catholic teachers in the common schools showed his independence +of partisan behest and popular clamor.</p> + +<p>Leaving office in 1843, he passed the next six years in professional +labors, varied by occasional addresses of a literary or patriotic +cast, and by many Whig speeches in the campaigns of 1844 and 1848. To +his practice in the State courts was united that in patent cases, +which not only brought him a lucrative clientage, but largely +increased his acquaintance with public men at Washington. His +gubernatorial service had given him national fame, and he was, +although not in public life, esteemed as one of the national leaders +of his party. In the courts he commanded respect for the clearness and +strength of his arguments, but, even there, he was at his best when +his heart inspired his speech with fervor, as in his pleas for Van +Zandt and others charged with harboring fugitive slaves. The defence +of Greeley, in the Cooper libel suit, and of the Michigan rioters, may +be cited as instances of his persuasiveness before juries, but that in +the case of William Freeman is celebrated both for its own quality and +the intrepidity of its author. Gladstone has characterized it as the +greatest forensic effort in the English language, not excluding the +masterpieces of Erskine. It is a plea for the life of a brutalized +negro who butchered a whole family under circumstances of peculiar +atrocity. The deed was without excuse or palliation, save in the +insanity of the perpetrator, of which Seward became convinced, and +volunteered as counsel amid the surprise, imprecations, and threats of +the Auburn community, where the case was at issue. The moment was a +supreme one for him, but he did not hesitate. Without reward, or the +hope of reward, even in the gratitude of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page335" name="page335"></a>(p. 335)</span> insensate +wretch for whom he risked professional standing and public favor, he +worked as indefatigably as though the weightiest honors and emoluments +depended thereon, from the impanelling of the jury to the failure of +executive clemency; but Freeman's death in prison and the autopsy that +disclosed the morbid condition of his brain fully vindicated Seward's +analysis and exalted him in public regard.</p> + +<p>On March 4, 1849, coincident with the accession of General Taylor to +the presidency, Seward entered the United States Senate, having been +chosen thereto by a large majority of the Legislature of New York. +When he took his seat, the Whig party was already divided upon the +slavery question, and Seward, by virtue of his previous utterances and +his skill as a politician, became the exponent of the free-soil +element, as also the representative of the administration, an +unprecedented trust to be confided to a senator in his first term. He +thus found himself in opposition to Webster and Clay, and especially +to the "Omnibus" bill of the latter, a measure intended to reconcile +conflicting claims concerning the admission of new States, the status +of slavery in the Territories, and the protection to be accorded it in +the free States. On March 11, 1850, he made a speech, generally +pronounced to be his ablest, as it is certainly his most noteworthy +deliverance, in which he declared that there is a law higher than the +Constitution, whose authority may be invoked in legislation for the +national domain. The death of General Taylor brought him into +collision with President Fillmore, who hailed from New York, and was +largely indebted for his vice-presidential nomination to Seward's +kindly offices. Fillmore urged the adoption of the compromise scheme +and signed the separate bills therefor as they successively passed +Congress, thereby incurring censure at the North, while Seward +retained his ascendency with the anti-slavery masses throughout the +country, as well as with the Whigs of New York.</p> + +<p>He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855 by a combination of Whigs and +Anti-Nebraska Americans, and on October 12th, of that year, at Albany, +formally announced his adhesion to the new Republican party. In the +Senate he easily ranked as one of its most polished and effective +speakers who, while resolutely maintaining his own convictions, +scrupulously preserved the amenities of debate. He especially +distinguished himself by his earnest, yet unavailing, resistance to +the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Among his popular addresses of +conspicuous merit are those on "The Elements of Empire in America," at +Union College, 1843; "Daniel O'Connell," at New York, 1847; "John +Quincy Adams," before the New York Legislature, 1848; "The Destiny of +America," at Columbus, O., and "The True Basis of American +Independence," at New York, 1853; "The Development of the American +People," at Yale College 1854, and "The Irrepressible +Conflict"—<span class="italic">i.e.</span>, between freedom and slavery—at Rochester, N. Y., +1858. He made an extended tour in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine, in +1859.</p> + +<p>The Republicans met in National Convention at Chicago, in 1860, +flushed with anticipated success. Northern opposition to the extension +of slavery had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name="page336"></a>(p. 336)</span> combined, and the Democracy was being +resolved into antagonistic factions. Seward's nomination for the +presidency seemed assured. He was the foremost statesman in his party. +He had crystallized its ideas, interpreted its creed, and marshalled +its forces. He had an enthusiastic following who believed that the +occasion had met the man; but there were others who objected that his +very superiority would provoke assault against him, which might hurt +the cause for which he stood. They reasoned against his availability, +and their argument prevailed. He led on the first two ballots in the +convention, but, on the third, Abraham Lincoln, then comparatively +unknown, became the Republican standard-bearer. Seward met this +reverse tranquilly, rebuked certain manifestations of disaffection, +proffered the candidate his hearty support, and, in a series of +remarkably able and eloquent speeches, extending from Massachusetts to +Kansas, contributed materially to his election.</p> + +<p>Seward accepted the portfolio of State in Lincoln's cabinet and +immediately assumed the gravest responsibilities. American relations +with foreign governments during the Civil War were uniformly serious +and sometimes perilous. The duties of the Secretary of State were +exacting and delicate. Seward, by his tact and discretion, as well as +his courage and wisdom, kept peace with the world, without debasing +the honor or forfeiting the rights of the republic. One of the most +intricate issues arose in the first year of the war. It is known as +the Trent case. Mason and Slidell, Confederate envoys to England and +France respectively, were forcibly taken by an American naval +commander from a British vessel and lodged in Fort Warren. The +American public was exultant over the capture and protested vigorously +against their release; but Seward had to decide officially the +question of their surrender to the British Government, and, when the +demand was duly made, he yielded to it, basing his conclusion, with +admirable adroitness, not only upon international comity, but also +upon American precedents. The president, at first disposed to take the +contrary view, conceded the force of Seward's argument, the people +acquiesced, and a war with England was avoided. Seward's state papers +and despatches are models of style, and by their frankness of +statement and hopefulness of tone did much to sustain the Union cause +abroad. In accord with Lincoln in holding that the paramount task of +the Government was to subdue rebellion against it and discouraging +precipitate movements for the abolition of slavery, he was also in +accord with the president in the policy of emancipation, as ultimately +formulated, and, on January 1, 1863, attested the proclamation which +has made the name of Lincoln immortal. He proclaimed the adoption of +the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, by which slavery was +abolished, December 18, 1865, and of the Fourteenth, conferring +suffrage and civil rights upon the freedmen, July 26, 1868. On +February 3, 1865, he attended, with the president, the so-called Peace +Conference, in Hampton Roads, with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and +Campbell, the Confederate commissioners. The conference was fruitless, +owing to the inflexible determination of the president not to +entertain any proposals that did not involve the complete restoration +of the national authority as a condition precedent.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337"></a>(p. 337)</span> Lincoln began his second term March 4, 1865, Seward remaining +in the cabinet. On April 5th, Seward was badly injured by being thrown +from his carriage. Nine days thereafter Lincoln visited him in his +sick chamber. It was their last meeting. On the same evening Lincoln +was assassinated, and the murder of Seward was attempted. He was +stabbed in several places in the head and throat, and for several days +his life was despaired of, but he slowly recovered, and in June +resumed his desk in the State Department, President Johnson having +urged him to retain it. He continued in office throughout Johnson's +administration, favoring the reconstruction policy of his chief, +without, however, incurring the active hostility of his Republican +friends. Distinctive events of his second term were his maintenance of +the Monroe doctrine, in the refusal to recognize the French empire in +Mexico, and the purchase of Alaska, which was in consonance with views +long entertained by him as to the propriety of the expansion of the +territory of the United States upon the continent of North America. In +the best sense of the term he was an advocate of "Manifest Destiny," +and was proud of the acquisition of the Russian territory at the Far +North. A treaty which he negotiated for the cession of the Danish West +India islands of St. Thomas and St. John failed of ratification by the +Senate.</p> + +<p>He retired to private life March 4, 1869, and within the next three +years visited Alaska and Mexico, and made a journey around the world, +being everywhere received with official welcome and popular acclaim. +The last few months of his life were passed at his home, where he +dictated the story of his travels and began his "Autobiography," +which, even in its unfinished state, is a charming narrative.</p> + +<p>Seward achieved greatness as an executive, a legislator, and a +diplomatist; was one of the most accomplished writers of his time, and +was second only to Lincoln, among civilians, in conserving American +nationality and enlarging American liberties. There is a statue to his +memory in Madison Square, New York, and, on November 15, 1888, another +was unveiled in front of the Auburn homestead, William M. Evarts +delivering the oration. Charles Francis Adams also paid his tribute, +in an address at the Capitol, in Albany, 1873, upon invitation of the +New York Legislature. Seward published a volume on the "Life and +Public Services of John Quincy Adams," 1849. His "Essays, Speeches, +and Extracts from his Diplomatic Correspondence," etc., edited by +George E. Baker, with a memoir, embrace five volumes. His adopted +daughter published his "Travels Around the World," 1873, and his +"Autobiography," to 1834, has been supplemented by a "Memoir" by his +son, Frederick W. Seward, with extracts from his letters and +selections from his "Table Talk."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig009" name="sig009"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig009.jpg" width="200" height="53" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338"></a>(p. 338)</span> ABRAHAM LINCOLN<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13" title="Go to footnote 13"><span class="smaller">[13]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Terence Vincent Powderly</span><br> +(1809-1865)</h3> + +<a id="img033" name="img033"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img033.jpg" width="300" height="140" alt="A house." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Born in obscurity and poverty, with health and a good disposition as a +heritage from nature, and with Christian parents as teachers and +guides, Abraham Lincoln—sixteenth president of the United +States—entered upon life's journey through toil and vicissitude to +fame and immortality.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the president, was born in Union, Pa., +and in 1759 removed with his parents to a point near Harrisonburg, Va. +John Hanks and Squire Boone, father of Daniel Boone, were neighbors of +the Lincolns at Union; the former took up his residence at +Harrisonburg, Va., and Squire Boone removed to Holman's Ford, on the +Yadkin River, in North Carolina. When he was twenty-one years old, +Abraham Lincoln went to North Carolina to visit his old neighbors, the +Boones, and while there met and married Mary Shipley. He built a log +cabin on the banks of the Yadkin and lived there several years. Here +it was that Thomas Lincoln, father of the president, was born. Shortly +after his birth his parents, in 1778, removed to Kentucky and settled +near Elizabethtown, in Hardin County. In 1784, when Thomas was but six +years old, his father was killed by the Indians. There were no schools +in that neighborhood, and Thomas Lincoln grew to manhood without +receiving an education. Joseph Hanks, son of John Hanks, removed to +Kentucky about the time that Abraham Lincoln moved there from North +Carolina. His daughter, Nancy Hanks, who was born and educated in +Virginia, grew up a playmate of Thomas Lincoln, and in 1806 became his +wife. Thomas Lincoln selected a farm near Hodgensville, now the county +seat of Larue County, Ky., built a log cabin containing but one room, +in which, on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the future president, +was born. A poor farmer, with no education and no capital other than +his labor, Thomas Lincoln found little to encourage his stay in +Kentucky. The institution of slavery, which lived on the toil of the +black man, threw a dark shadow across the path of the "poor white" who +could claim no title to property in human flesh and sinew, and in 1817 +he removed from Kentucky to Spencer County, Ind., and settled in the +forest at Pigeon Creek, near the town of Gentryville. On October 5, +1818, Mrs. Lincoln died and was laid to rest at the foot of a tree on +the farm which her husband had hewed out of the forest with his axe.</p> + +<p>Eighteen months after the death of his wife, Mr. Lincoln married Mrs. +Sarah <span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339"></a>(p. 339)</span> Bush Johnston, a widow who had been a neighbor of his +in Kentucky. To his stepmother Abraham became very much attached, and +he always entertained the greatest respect and affection for her. His +education was very simple, his school days few, and his books fewer +still. Before leaving Kentucky he learned to read while listening to +his mother as she gave lessons to his father. In 1814, a Catholic +priest, Zachariah Riney, who travelled through the country, opened a +school in an untenanted cabin at Hodgensville, and for a few weeks +gave instructions to the youth of the neighborhood. Abraham attended +this school during its brief existence. In 1822 Azel Dorsey was +employed as teacher at Pigeon Creek, Ind., and during his short stay +Abraham Lincoln was his most attentive pupil. Two years after, Abraham +went to school for several months, and in 1824 his school days came to +an end. His time at school did not exceed twelve months altogether. In +the meantime he had read Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's +"Pilgrim's Progress," Æsop's "Fables," The Bible, and Weems's "Life of +Washington." In 1824 his father, in need of his assistance as a +bread-winner, began to instruct him in the carpenter trade. In 1825 he +was employed at $6 a month to manage a ferry across the Ohio River at +Gentry's Landing, near the mouth of Anderson Creek. His wages were +paid to his father. The first money he earned for himself came in the +shape of two half-dollars paid to him by two gentlemen whose trunks he +transferred from the shore to a passing steamer. In 1828 Mr. Gentry +engaged him to go to New Orleans on a flat-boat with a load of +produce. In 1830 John Hanks, who had removed from Kentucky to +Illinois, wrote to Thomas Lincoln, urging him to move to that State. +Acting on the advice, Mr. Lincoln removed to Illinois and settled at a +point some ten miles west of Decatur. Abraham Lincoln drove the ox +team which hauled the household effects of the family, and wearing a +coon-skin cap, jean jacket, and a pair of buckskin trousers, he +entered the State poor, friendless, and unknown. Thirty years later he +left Illinois the foremost man in the nation, and known to all the +world. He assisted his father in clearing fifteen acres of land, and +split the rails with which to build the fence. Although of age, he had +no money, and having but a scant supply of clothing, made a bargain +with Nancy Miller to make him a pair of trousers. For each yard of +cloth required he split four hundred fence-rails, and as he was over +six feet in height it took fourteen hundred rails to pay for his +trousers. On April 19, 1831, he went to New Orleans with a flat-boat +load of pigs, corn, pork, and beef; the pigs refusing to walk, Lincoln +carried them aboard in his arms. John Hanks and Lincoln's +half-brother, John Johnston, accompanied him on the trip. While in New +Orleans he first saw men and women sold as slaves, and as every +instinct of his nature revolted at the spectacle, he said to John +Hanks: "If ever I get a chance to hit that institution, I'll hit it +hard." Returning from New Orleans, he went to New Salem to clerk in +the store of Denton Offut. While waiting for a shipment of goods he +acted as clerk on a local election board, and thus filled his first +political position. During his stay in New Salem he was frequently +called on to exercise his great strength in quelling disturbances, and +inspired the turbulent element of the place with a wholesome respect +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name="page340"></a>(p. 340)</span> for his powers of muscular persuasion. He was not +quarrelsome, never engaged in contention, but never hesitated to take +his own part or that of another who might need a helping hand. He +subscribed for the Louisville <span class="italic">Journal</span>, and generously read its +contents aloud to those who gathered in the store. During the Black +Hawk war he enlisted as private in a company which was raised in the +neighborhood, and was at once elected captain. In a short time the +company was mustered out, and he re-enlisted in an "Independent Spy +Battalion" which continued in service until the end of the war. On +returning to New Salem he announced himself an independent candidate +for the Legislature, and at a meeting held during the canvass made his +first political speech in these words: "Fellow-citizens: I presume you +know who I am; I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by +many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics +can be briefly stated. I am in favor of the internal improvement +system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and +political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, it will +be all the same."</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1832 he became a partner of a man named Berry, in the +purchase and management of a store. They had no money, but gave their +notes. Berry became dissipated, lost interest in the business, and the +firm failed. In 1833 President Jackson appointed Lincoln postmaster of +New Salem; he remained postmaster until 1836. While holding the office +Lincoln voluntarily established the "free delivery" system in New +Salem by carrying the letters around in his hat. He began the study of +law, and was soon after appointed deputy surveyor. The note he gave on +going into partnership with Berry had been sold to a man who wanted +his money, and in the fall of 1834 the sheriff levied on and sold his +instruments to satisfy the debt. In that year he was elected to the +Legislature, and borrowed the money with which to purchase a suit of +clothes to go to the State capital at Vandalia. He was re-elected to +the Legislature in 1836, and during the canvass declared his +principles as follows:</p> + +<p>"I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in +bearing its burdens; consequently, I go for admitting all whites to +the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, <span class="italic">by no means +excluding females</span>."</p> + +<p>A few years later, when questioned concerning that utterance, he said:</p> + +<p>"All questions of social and moral reform find lodgement first with +enlightened souls, who stamp them with their approval. In God's own +time they will be organized into law, and thus woven into the fabric +of our institutions."</p> + +<a id="img034" name="img034"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img034.jpg" width="400" height="565" alt="" title=""> +<p>A. Lincoln.</p></div> + +<p>In 1836 he met Stephen A. Douglas for the first time, at the State +capital. In 1837 he was admitted to the bar, in 1838 re-elected to the +Legislature, and again in 1840. The capital had been removed from +Vandalia to Springfield, and in partnership with John T. Stuart he +began the practice of law in that city in 1839. On November 4, 1842, +he was married to Mary Todd, daughter of Hon. Robert S. Todd. In the +presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844 he canvassed the State as a +presidential elector on the whig ticket; and in both campaigns was +pitted, in joint debate, against Stephen A. Douglas. In 1846 he was +elected to the thirtieth Congress, and was the only whig +representative in that body from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341"></a>(p. 341)</span> Illinois. On January 12, +1848, he made his first speech in Congress, on a resolution which he +offered calling on the president to provide a statement relating to +the war with Mexico. On January 16, 1849, he introduced a bill to +abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and to compensate the +owners of the liberated slaves. He declined a re-election to Congress, +and in 1849 was an unsuccessful candidate for United States senator. +In 1850 he refused to accept the appointment as Governor of Oregon, +tendered him by President Fillmore. For a few years he gave no +attention to political matters, but the introduction in Congress of +the bill to admit Nebraska and Kansas to the Union, and the agitation +for the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," aroused his interest, and +in a short time he became the leader of a new party in the State. All +who opposed the repeal of that compromise, of whatever party, were +known as "Anti-Nebraska" in the beginning, but gradually they began to +call themselves "Republicans," and as such they carried most of the +"Free State" elections of 1854. Senator Douglas, in defending his +course on the "Nebraska Bill," made speeches through Illinois. On +October 1, 1854, Lincoln, in reply to one of these speeches, in +speaking of slavery said:</p> + +<p>"I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just +influence in the world; it enables the enemies of free institutions to +taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt +our sincerity; is at war with the vital principles of civic liberty; +contrary to the Declaration of Independence; and maintains that there +is no right principle of action but self-interest.... No man is good +enough to govern another man without the other's consent.... I object +to the Nebraska Bill because it assumes there can be moral right in +the enslaving of one man by another."</p> + +<p>He was a candidate for United States Senator in 1855, but his +withdrawal from the contest gave the election to Mr. Trumbull. In 1856 +he received one hundred and ten votes for vice-president at the first +Republican national contention, and canvassed the State as one of the +presidential electors. During this canvass he said:</p> + +<p>"Sometimes when I am speaking I feel that the time is soon coming when +the sun shall shine and the rain fall on no man who shall go forth to +unrequited toil.... How it will come about, when it will come, I +cannot tell; but that time will surely come."</p> + +<p>The Supreme Court of the United States, on March 6, 1857, committed +itself to the perpetuation of slavery in the "Dred Scott" decision, +and that act, together with the question of admitting Kansas to the +Union as a slave or free State, furnished the argument for the +legislative campaign of 1858, in which Lincoln was a candidate for +United States senator against Stephen A. Douglas. In his speech +accepting the nomination he, in referring to the agitation for the +abolition of slavery, said:</p> + +<p>"In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been +reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I +believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half +free. I do not expect the Union <span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>(p. 342)</span> to be dissolved, I do not +expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be +divided."</p> + +<p>On May 16, 1860, the second Republican national convention met in +Chicago, and on the third ballot nominated Lincoln for the presidency +over William H. Seward, who was at that time the idol of the radical +element of the party. Not many who listened to the clergyman who +delivered the prayer at the opening of the convention, gave serious +thought to these prophetic words as they fell from his lips:</p> + +<p>"We entreat Thee that at some future, but no distant, day the evil +which now invests the body politic shall not only have been arrested +in its progress, but wholly eradicated from the system."</p> + +<p>The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas; the +slave-holding, Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge, and +a Constitutional Union party nominated John Bell. The Electoral +College gave Lincoln 180 votes, Breckenridge 72, Bell 39, and Douglas +12. In his inaugural address Lincoln said:</p> + +<p>"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the +institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have +no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."</p> + +<p>Although his inaugural breathed peace and conciliation in every line, +it had no effect on the hot-headed advocates of secession. The war +began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and ended +with his death. On April 15th, he issued his first call for troops, +and during his administration the total number called for was +2,759,049. With the exception of Russia, the foreign powers exhibited +evidences of hostility to the Union, and when urged to retaliation +Lincoln said: "One war at a time, if you please, gentlemen." On May +20, 1862, he signed the Homestead Law, a boon of inestimable value to +settlers on land. On January 1, 1863, he issued the "Emancipation +Proclamation" which stamped the seal of eternal truth on the +Declaration of Independence. On November 19, 1863, at the dedication +of the Gettysburg Cemetery, he, in concluding a speech which should be +committed to memory by every citizen of the nation, said:</p> + +<p>"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining +before us.... That we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have +died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of +freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the +people shall not perish from the earth."</p> + +<p>On June 8, 1864, he was renominated by the Republican national +convention, General McClellan was nominated by the Democrats, and at +the election Lincoln received 212 of the 233 electoral votes cast. In +concluding his inaugural address, March 4, 1865, he said:</p> + +<p>"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes +His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should +dare to ask God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of +other men's faces; but let us <span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>(p. 343)</span> judge not, that we be not +judged.... Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty +scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it +continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the +sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so, still, it must be +said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous +altogether. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with +firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish +the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him +who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to +do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among +ourselves and with all nations."</p> + +<p>On the evening of April 14, 1865, while seated in a box at Ford's +Theatre, witnessing the play, "Our American Cousin," he was shot by an +actor, J. Wilkes Booth, and at twenty-two minutes past seven on the +morning of the 15th his life ended. His body was embalmed and taken, +in funeral procession, from Washington through Baltimore, Harrisburg, +Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago to +Springfield, and was buried on May 4th at Oak Ridge Cemetery. On +October 15, 1874, his remains were taken up and placed in a tomb +beneath a magnificent and elegantly designed monument consisting of a +statue of the martyred president and an obelisk of imposing +appearance.</p> + +<p>No pen can do justice to the character of Lincoln, for the world will +never know of the trials, embarrassments, and misgivings which beset +him from his infancy in the backwoods to his tomb in Springfield. +During his administration he never knew a moment free from anxiety. +Each day he faced a new problem, and finding no precedent to guide him +in its solution, he acted in accordance with his own good common +sense, and proved equal to every emergency. Frequently misunderstood +by the nation and her foremost men, he removed all doubts by the touch +of the statesman when the time was ripe. To fully estimate the +statesman we must know the man, and as years go by the full nobility +of his private character will be disclosed to the world in all its +simple grandeur. His was "a spirit of the greatest size and divinest +metal" which no temptation could allure from the course of right. His +administration was the most trying that could fall to the lot of man, +no other furnished so many opportunities to amass wealth through +speculation and intrigue, but greed and avarice were strangers to his +nature, and no stain rests upon his memory. He was slow to arrive at +conclusions, but when deliberation gave birth to conviction he +unfalteringly strove for the right. His education was practical, not +theoretical, and was acquired in the school of nature and among men +rather than among books. The basis of his life was earnestness. No +rhetorical display marked his speech, but his oratory fastened the +attention, appealed to reason and carried conviction to the hearts of +his listeners. He valued public opinion, for he said:</p> + +<p>"With public sentiment nothing can fail; without public sentiment +nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes +deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344"></a>(p. 344)</span> He opposed the extension of slavery rather than its +abolition; but as he divined the real sentiments of its advocates he +realized that enduring peace would not bless the nation while the +institution lived, a menace to free labor and industrial prosperity. +He professed no religion, for his great heart throbbed in sympathy +with all humanity, and he would not be separated from even the +humblest among men by the artificial barriers of creed. He believed in +the gospel of liberty and would guarantee it to all men through +constitutional enactment. When he became president he found slavery +intrenched behind the bulwarks of constitutional law and judicial +decision; he found a united South, resolute in her determination to +perpetuate slavery in the nation; a vacillating North, divided in its +sentiment on the great question of property in man. He found the +nation in the throes of civil war, and died in the triumphal hour of +his country's deliverance, with the sceptre of slavery shattered, her +fetters broken and in rust, and her power crumbled to ashes.</p> + +<p>Public criticism never annoyed him, and he was not averse to taking +counsel from the poorest among men. It was love of country, not +selfish ambition, which turned his attention to public life, and +toward the end of his administration he was rewarded by public +confidence and a respect for his honesty and singleness of aim toward +the good of the nation. He had a great relish for story-telling and +used his fund of anecdote to good advantage in illustrating points in +conversation.</p> + +<p>His administration stands the guide-post of the centuries, set by the +Eternal as the dividing line between the serfdom of the past and the +freedom of the future. His monument stands the altar of a nation's +fame, and his name will live to guide the world to enfranchisement.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig010" name="sig010"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig010.jpg" width="250" height="147" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345"></a>(p. 345)</span> HORACE GREELEY<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14" title="Go to footnote 14"><span class="smaller">[14]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Noah Brooks</span><br> +(1811-1872)</h3> + +<a id="img035" name="img035"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img035.jpg" width="250" height="312" alt="Horace Greeley." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Horace Greeley was one of the few persons whose manhood fulfilled the +precocious promise of his youth. He could read before he could speak +plainly, and at the age of six he had declared that his purpose in +life was to be a printer. At eleven he tried to be apprenticed at the +village printing-office and was unsuccessful; at the age of fourteen +he was taken on as an apprentice in the office of the <span class="italic">Northern +Spectator</span>, at East Poultney, Vt.</p> + +<p>His family were of Scotch-Irish origin, but had lived in the northern +part of New Hampshire for several generations. Horace was born in +Amherst, N. H., February 3, 1811. So quick of apprehension was he, and +so active was his intellect, that the commonest of common-school +education was for him sufficient. His schooling was only that which he +could obtain during three or four months in winter; for at other +seasons of the year he labored in the field with his father and +brothers; and when he went to be an apprentice for five years in the +printing-office, he was paid a very slender pittance, the greater part +of which he gave to his father, whose income was probably next to +nothing.</p> + +<p>In June, 1830, the newspaper office in which young Greeley was +learning his trade became insolvent, and Greeley, then in his +twentieth year, was released from his indentures. He tramped from +office to office as a journeyman printer, and his father having +removed to the then "new country of western Pennsylvania," the +youngster, with ten dollars in his pocket, walking part way and part +way earning his passage on a tug-boat, entered the city of New York, +August 18, 1831. For days he sought in vain for employment among the +printing-offices of the metropolis. He was gawky, poorly clad, and +doubtless presented a very grotesque appearance to the cityfied people +to whom he vainly applied for employment. Finally he effected an +entrance into one of the printing-offices of the city, and, much to +the surprise of those who sneered at his ungainly and unpromising +figure, he straightway proved himself to be a competent, careful, and +skilful printer. For fourteen months or more, he picked up odd jobs in +the offices of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346"></a>(p. 346)</span> the newspapers, always making friends and +always managing to save a little money.</p> + +<p>Finally, at the beginning of 1833, in partnership with Francis V. +Story, a printer, he established a penny paper called <span class="italic">The Morning +Post</span>. This venture failed, but Greeley and Story saved from the wreck +two-thirds of their capital, which was $150, all told, and still had +on hand their type and materials. They now became master job-printers +and made small contracts with persons who had newspaper printing to +give out. In his New England boyhood Greeley had occasionally +contributed to the columns of the newspapers on which he worked, and +now he resumed that employment. He wrote for several of the feeble +newspapers of the time, and on the death of his partner, Francis +Story, he associated himself with Jonas Winchester. The firm +prospered, and in 1834 was strong enough to establish a weekly +literary newspaper called <span class="italic">The New Yorker</span>. The first number of this +paper appeared on March 22, 1834, and it sold one hundred copies; for +the three months next succeeding this was the average of its weekly +circulation. The paper gradually increased in popularity, and the name +of its Editor-in-Chief, Horace Greeley, was now known and respected. +He furnished editorials also to the <span class="italic">Daily Whig</span> and to other +journals, and was selected by William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed for +the editorship of a campaign paper called <span class="italic">The Jeffersonian</span>, +published in Albany. This was a Whig newspaper printed weekly, and the +audacity, aggressiveness, and ability with which it was edited +commanded the respect of its readers. <span class="italic">The Jeffersonian</span> was finally +suspended in the spring of 1839, and during the presidential canvass +of the following year, Greeley, foreseeing the activity of the +campaign, seized upon the opportunity to establish a new campaign +paper called <span class="italic">The Log Cabin</span>. This journal at once achieved the +extraordinary circulation of twenty thousand copies for its first +edition. It succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations of its +founders, H. Greeley & Company, and in a few weeks the circulation ran +up to sixty thousand, eighty thousand, and even ninety thousand +copies, a newspaper circulation in those days absolutely +unprecedented. <span class="italic">The Log Cabin</span> was characterized by the homely wit, +the unsparing logic, and the terseness and vigor of expression which +were always Horace Greeley's most marked traits as a journalist.</p> + +<p>After the campaign of 1840 <span class="italic">The Log Cabin</span> became a family political +paper, and on April 10, 1841, its name was supplanted by that of <span class="italic">The +New York Tribune</span>. Its home was at 30 Ann Street, and Horace Greeley, +its editor, promised that it should be "worthy of the hearty approval +of the virtuous and refined, and a welcome visitant to family +firesides."</p> + +<p>As an editor Mr. Greeley was eccentric, and his marked personal traits +were perceptible in his management of his newspaper. He was severely +temperate, although opposed to prohibition as impracticable; he was in +favor of a high protective tariff, opposed to slavery, predisposed to +vegetarian diet, and at times manifested a proclivity to the doctrines +of Fourier and Prudhomme.</p> + +<p>In his management of <span class="italic">The Tribune</span> Mr. Greeley made a wide +acquaintance with the newspaper men, politicians, and the statesmen of +the time. Among those <span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>(p. 347)</span> associated with him in the management +of his paper was Henry J. Raymond, who afterward became the founder of +<span class="italic">The New York Times</span>. Those who rendered service to <span class="italic">The Tribune</span> were +George William Curtis, Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, Bayard +Taylor, and others who subsequently achieved renown. Mr. Greeley +himself has said that of his first issue of five thousand copies of +the paper, nearly all "were with difficulty given away." <span class="italic">The Tribune</span> +was first sold at one cent a copy; in a month's time it reached a +circulation of three thousand, and a month later it had reached the +extraordinary circulation of eleven and twelve thousand. <span class="italic">The New +Yorker</span> and <span class="italic">The Log Cabin</span> had all along been managed as weekly +issues from the same office; but in September of the first year of the +establishment of <span class="italic">The Tribune</span> these were merged in what was now <span class="italic">The +New York Weekly Tribune</span>, which at once leaped to a large circulation +and became a great force throughout the country, especially in the +rural districts.</p> + +<p>In 1842 Mr. Greeley began to print in his paper one column daily of +matter on Fourierite topics, written by Albert Brisbane, and +occasionally these theories were defended in his editorial columns, +and he thereby gained a certain amount of obloquy from which he did +not readily recover. The paper had the reputation of being not only +extremely radical in its political views, but also committed to many +of the "isms" of the times. It paid much attention to the +spirit-rappings of the Fox sisters, of Rochester, and investigated the +curious phenomena with fearless open-mindedness. <span class="italic">The Tribune</span> +prospered, though not greatly, and it was evident that Mr. Greeley's +business management was never very successful; and it may be said that +his greatest success as the editor of a prosperous and profitable +newspaper was always achieved by the co-operation of wiser managers +than himself. His personal appearance was peculiar, and he very soon +became a well-known figure in the public life of New York. He usually +wore a broad-brimmed, soft white hat and a light-colored overcoat, and +his appearance, although always spotlessly neat, was characterized by +a certain disorderliness which instantly attracted attention. He had a +shrill, high-keyed voice; he was irascible in temper, and was never +the "philosopher" which those who least knew him credited him with +being. In an angry letter published in his own newspaper he referred +to the editor of <span class="italic">The Daily Times</span> as "that little villain, Raymond;" +and replying to an offensive charge against him by <span class="italic">The Evening Post</span>, +he began with, "You lie, villain, wilfully, wickedly, basely lie." +Other passages at arms like these occasionally enlivened, if they did +not disfigure, the editorial columns of <span class="italic">The Tribune</span>, over which +Greeley exercised a personal censorship which, in later years, he +found it necessary to relax. He was sincerely and ardently devoted to +the cause of Protection, to the interests of the farmer and the +laboring man, to sound money, and to all the ennobling and refining +activities of social life. In spite of a careless personal manner, and +a voice not at all agreeable to the ear, he became a popular and +greatly sought public speaker. As a lecturer in the lyceums of towns +and villages, then greatly in vogue, he was always an acceptable and +greatly admired figure.</p> + +<p>In 1848 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives +to fill <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348"></a>(p. 348)</span> a vacancy for three months. With great vigor he +charged upon several of the most prominent abuses of the time, and +selecting the practice of paying mileage to Congressmen, he assaulted +that with a vehemence which ultimately destroyed it. As a member of +Congress he also introduced the first bill to give free homesteads to +actual settlers on the public lands. He was a candidate in 1861 for +United States Senator, but was defeated by Ira Harris, of Albany. In +1864 he was one of the Republican Presidential Electors, and in 1870 +was nominated for Congress in a hopelessly Democratic district, and +was defeated. He had always been an intense opponent of human slavery, +and in 1848 his hostility to the war with Mexico was doubtless +inspired by his dread of the extension of the slave system. He was an +enthusiastic supporter of John C. Fremont, who was nominated for +President by the Republicans in 1856; and he made his newspaper so +dreaded and feared by the opposition that he was indicted in Virginia +for circulating incendiary documents through its columns. During these +years he was an incessant and untiring worker, and produced for the +columns of his own and other newspapers a prodigious amount of matter. +He had heretofore labored in politics in conjunction with William H. +Seward, Governor, and afterward United States Senator. In 1854 the +separation between Greeley, Seward, and Thurlow Weed became +established, and Mr. Seward's friends prevented the election of Mr. +Greeley as a delegate to the Republican Convention which nominated +Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Greeley, however, obtained a seat as delegate +in the Convention as a representative from the State of Oregon, and in +that capacity he, more than any other man, doubtless turned the tide +against Mr. Seward and in favor of Abraham Lincoln, who was nominated +by the Convention.</p> + +<p>At the breaking out of the Civil War Mr. Greeley manifested great +trepidation and reluctance to face the issue. He even advised in <span class="italic">The +Tribune</span> that the "Erring Sisters" be allowed to depart in peace; but +later he rallied manfully to the cause of the defence of the Union, +and his newspaper rang with impassioned appeals for the freedom of the +slaves held in bondage in the South. He incessantly urged a more +vigorous prosecution of the war, and called upon President Lincoln to +take every possible measure for the emancipation of the Southern +bondmen.</p> + +<p>In 1864, being convinced that the cause of the rebellion was gradually +weakening, he urged upon the President the policy of negotiating with +the leaders of the Confederate government for a surrender of their +warlike policy, on conditions to be arrived at by commissioners from +both sides. This proposition excited much indignation throughout the +country, and when, in answer to repeated demands from Mr. Greeley, +President Lincoln authorized him to undertake such a conference at +Niagara Falls, the people generally applauded the wisdom of the +President, as well as the disappointment of Mr. Greeley, when the +conference came to naught.</p> + +<p>After the final surrender at Appomattox and the capture of the +Confederate President, Mr. Greeley visited Richmond and signed the +bail bond of Jefferson Davis. This action raised a storm of public +censure, and he was for a time overwhelmed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349"></a>(p. 349)</span> by the wrath and +indignation of those who had been formerly associated with him in +political affairs. He defended himself with great vigor, and +fearlessly assailed those who stigmatized him as a sympathizer with +the fallen rebel chieftain. He was not friendly to the nomination of +General Grant in 1868, and disapproved of many of the schemes that +marked his administration. Returning from a visit through the Southern +States in the early years of President Grant's term, he brought to his +newspaper some vigorous and outspoken denunciations of the +"carpet-bag" governments of the formerly rebel States, and +denunciations of the "scalawags" who, he said, "were the pests of the +reconstructed States of the South." These and similar outgivings +attracted the attention of a large element of the Republican party, +and he was nominated for the Presidency, against General Grant, in +1872. Mr. Greeley's canvass was one of great picturesqueness and +industry. He made a series of speeches extending over a tour from New +England to the West, and returning to New York, which were marked by a +most wonderful originality, freshness, and brilliance; but nothing +could avail to stem the tide of prejudice which rose against him and +in favor of General Grant. He had been nominated by the so-called +Liberal Republicans and by the Democrats, but he failed to carry any +one of the Northern States, and of the other States he carried only +Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. He was +assailed during this canvass in the bitterest terms by those who +regarded him as a turncoat and a traitor, and undoubtedly the +vituperation and abuse showered upon him had the effect of +disheartening him and destroying the zest with which he had +theretofore undertaken the multifarious duties of life. He returned to +New York from an exhausting campaign, depressed in spirit and weary in +body and in mind. The death of his devoted wife added to his sorrows, +and on November 29, 1872, only a few weeks after the Presidential +election, he died at Pleasantville, N. Y., of mental and nervous +prostration. His body lay in state in the City Hall, and his funeral +was attended by the notables of the land—President Grant, who had +just been re-elected by the people, being numbered among those who +mourned at his bier.</p> + +<p>In addition to his editorial labors Mr. Greeley was the author of a +number of works, among which were "Hints toward Reforms," "Glances at +Europe," "History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension," "Overland +Journey to San Francisco," "The American Conflict," and "Recollections +of a Busy Life." He was also the founder of "The Whig Almanac," a +manual of politics, which in later years became known as "The Tribune +Almanac," and survived his demise.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig011" name="sig011"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig011.jpg" width="250" height="75" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>(p. 350)</span> LOUIS AGASSIZ<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15" title="Go to footnote 15"><span class="smaller">[15]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Asa Gray</span><br> +(1807-1873)</h3> + +<a id="img036" name="img036"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img036.jpg" width="250" height="318" alt="Louis Agassiz." title=""> +</div> + +<p>There is no need to give an abstract of the contents of these +fascinating volumes, for everybody is reading them. Most are probably +wishing for more personal details, especially of the American life; +but the editorial work is so deftly and delicately done, and "the +story of an intellectual life marked by rare coherence and unity" is +so well arranged to tell itself and make its impression, that we may +thankfully accept what has been given us, though the desired "fulness +of personal narrative" be wanting.</p> + +<p>Twelve years have passed since Agassiz was taken from us. Yet to some +of us it seems not very long ago that the already celebrated Swiss +naturalist came over, in the bloom of his manly beauty, to charm us +with his winning ways, and inspire us with his overflowing enthusiasm, +as he entered upon the American half of that career which has been so +beneficial to the interests of natural science. There are not many +left of those who attended those first Lowell Lectures in the autumn +of 1846—perhaps all the more taking for the broken English in which +they were delivered—and who shared in the delight with which, in a +supplementary lecture, he more fluently addressed his audience in his +mother-tongue.</p> + +<p>In these earliest lectures he sounded the note of which his last +public utterance was the dying cadence. For, as this biography rightly +intimates, his scientific life was singularly entire and +homogeneous—if not uninfluenced, yet quite unchanged, by the +transitions which have marked the period. In a small circle of +naturalists, almost the first that was assembled to greet him on his +coming to this country, and of which the writer is the sole survivor, +when Agassiz was inquired of as to his conception of "species," he +sententiously replied: "A species is a thought of the Creator." To +this thoroughly theistic conception he joined the scientific deduction +which he had already been led to draw, that the animal species of each +geological age, or even stratum, were different from those preceding +and following, and also unconnected by natural derivation. And his +very last published works reiterated his steadfast conviction that +"there is no evidence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351"></a>(p. 351)</span> of a direct descent of later from +earlier species in the geological succession of animals." Indeed, so +far as we know, he would not even admit that such "thoughts of the +Creator" as these might have been actualized in the natural course of +events. If he had accepted such a view, and if he had himself +apprehended and developed in his own way the now well-nigh assured +significance of some of his early and pregnant generalizations, the +history of the doctrine of development would have been different from +what it is, a different spirit and another name would have been +prominent in it, and Agassiz would not have passed away while fighting +what he felt to be—at least for the present—a losing battle. It is +possible that the "whirligig of time" may still "bring in his +revenges," but not very probable.</p> + +<p>Much to his credit, it may be said that a good share of Agassiz's +invincible aversion to evolution may be traced to the spirit in which +it was taken up by his early associate, Vogt, and, indeed, by most of +the German school then and since, which justly offended both his +scientific and his religious sense. Agassiz always "thought nobly of +the soul," and could in no way approve either materialistic or +agnostic opinions. The idealistic turn of his mind was doubtless +confirmed in his student days at Munich, whither he and his friend +Braun resorted after one session at Heidelberg, and where both +devotedly attended the lectures of Schelling—then in his later +glory—and of Oken, whose "Natur-Philosophie" was then in the +ascendant. Although fascinated and inspired by Oken's <span class="italic">à priori</span> +biology(built upon morphological ideas which had not yet been +established, but had, in part, been rightly divined) the two young +naturalists were not carried away by it, probably because they were +such keen and conscientious observers, and were kept in close +communion with work-a-day nature. As Agassiz intimates, they had to +resist "the temptation to impose one's own ideas upon nature, to +explain her mysteries by brilliant theories rather than by patient +study of the facts as we find them," and that "overbearing confidence +in the abstract conceptions of the human mind as applied to the study +of nature; although, indeed," he adds, "the young naturalist of that +day who did not share in some degree the intellectual stimulus given +to scientific pursuits by physio-philosophy would have missed a part +of his training." That training was not lost upon Agassiz. Although +the adage in his last published article, "A physical fact is as sacred +as a moral principle," was well lived up to, yet ideal prepossessions +often had much to do with his marshalling of the facts.</p> + +<p>Another professor at Munich, from whom Agassiz learned much, and had +nothing to unlearn, was the anatomist and physiologist Döllinger. He +published little, but he seems to have been the founder of modern +embryological investigation, and to have initiated his two famous +pupils, first Von Baer, and then Agassiz, into at least the rudiments +of the doctrine of the correspondence between the stages of the +development of the individual animal with that of its rank in the +scale of being, and the succession in geological time of the forms and +types to which the species belongs: a principle very fertile for +scientific zoölogy in the hands of both these naturalists, and one of +the foundations of that theory of evolution <span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352"></a>(p. 352)</span> which the +former, we believe, partially accepted, and the other wholly rejected.</p> + +<p>The botanical professor, the genial Von Martius, should also be +mentioned here. He found Agassiz a student, barely of age; he directly +made him an author, and an authority, in the subject of his +predilection. Dr. Spix, the zoölogical companion of Martius in +Brazilian exploration, died in 1826; the fishes of the collection were +left untouched. Martius recognized the genius of Agassiz, and offered +him, and indeed pressed him, to undertake their elaboration. Agassiz +brought out the first part of the quarto volume on the "Fishes of the +Brazilian Expedition of Spix and Martius" before he took his degree of +doctor of philosophy, and completed it before he proceeded to that of +doctor in medicine, in 1830. The work opened his way to fame, but +brought no money. Still, as Martius defrayed all the expenses, the net +result compared quite favorably with that of later publications. +Moreover, out of it possibly issued his own voyage to Brazil in later +years, under auspices such as his early patron never dreamed of.</p> + +<p>This early work also made him known to Cuvier; so that, when he went +to Paris, a year afterward, to continue his medical and scientific +studies—the one, as he deemed, from necessity, the other from +choice—he was received as a fellow-savant; yet at first with a +certain reserve, probably no more than was natural in view of the +relative age and position of the two men; but Agassiz, writing to his +sister, says: "This extreme but formal politeness chills you instead +of putting you at your ease; it lacks cordiality, and, to tell the +truth, I would gladly go away if I were not held fast by the wealth of +material of which I can avail myself." But only a month later he +writes—this time to his uncle—that, while he was anxious lest he +"might not be allowed to examine, and still less to describe, the +fossil fishes and their skeletons in the Museum, ... knowing that +Cuvier intended to write a work on this subject," and might naturally +wish to reserve the materials for his own use; and when the young +naturalist, as he showed his own sketches and notes to the veteran, +was faintly venturing to hope that, on seeing his work so far +advanced, he might perhaps be invited to share in a joint publication, +Cuvier relieved his anxiety and more than fulfilled his half-formed +desires.</p> + +<p>"He desired his secretary to bring him a certain portfolio of +drawings. He showed me the contents: they were drawings of fossil +fishes, and notes which he had taken in the British Museum and +elsewhere. After looking it through with me, he said he had seen with +satisfaction the manner in which I had treated this subject; that I +had, indeed, anticipated him, since he had intended at some future +time to do the same thing; but that as I had given it so much +attention, and had done my work so well, he had decided to renounce +his project, and to place at my disposition all the materials he had +collected and all the preliminary notes he had taken."</p> + +<p>Within three months Cuvier fell under a stroke of paralysis, and +shortly died. The day before the attack he had said to Agassiz, "Be +careful, and remember that work kills." We doubt if it often kills +naturalists, unless when, like Cuvier, they also become statesmen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>(p. 353)</span> But to live and work, the naturalist must be fed. It was a +perplexing problem how possibly to remain a while longer in Paris, +which was essential to the carrying on of his work, and to find the +means of supplying his very simple wants. And here the most charming +letters in these volumes are, first, the one from his mother, full of +tender thoughtfulness, and making the first suggestion about Neuchâtel +and its museum, as a place where the aspiring naturalist might secure +something more substantial than "brilliant hopes" to live upon; next, +that from Agassiz to his father, who begs to be told as much as he can +be supposed to understand of the nature of this work upon fossil +fishes, which called for so much time, labor, and expense; and, almost +immediately, Agassiz's letter to his parents, telling them that +Humboldt had, quite spontaneously and unexpectedly, relieved his +present anxieties by a credit of a thousand francs, to be increased, +if necessary. Humboldt had shown a friendly interest in him from the +first, and had undertaken to negotiate with Cotta, the publisher, in +his behalf; but, becoming uneasy by the delay, and feeling that "a man +so laborious, so gifted, and so deserving of affection ... should not +be left in a position where lack of serenity disturbs his power of +work," he delicately pressed the acceptance of this aid as a +confidential transaction between two friends of unequal age.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the relations between the "two friends," one at that time +sixty-three, and the other twenty-five, were very beautiful, and so +continued, as the correspondence shows. Humboldt's letters (we wish +there were more of them) are particularly delightful, are full of wit +and wisdom, of almost paternal solicitude, and of excellent counsel. +He enjoins upon Agassiz to finish what he has in hand before taking up +new tasks (this is in 1837), not to spread his intellect over too many +subjects at once, nor to go on enlarging the works he had undertaken; +he predicts the pecuniary difficulties in which expansion would be +sure to land him, bewails the glacier investigations, and closes with +"a touch of fun, in order that my letter may seem a little less like +preaching. A thousand affectionate remembrances. No more ice, not much +of echinoderms, plenty of fish, recall of ambassadors <span class="italic">in partibus</span>, +and great severity toward booksellers, an infernal race, two or three +of which have been killed under me."</p> + +<p>The ambassadors <span class="italic">in partibus</span> were the artists Agassiz employed and +sent to England or elsewhere to draw fossil fishes for him in various +museums, at a cost which Humboldt knew would be embarrassing. The ice, +which he would have no more of, refers to the glacier researches upon +which Agassiz was entering with ardor, laying one of the solid +foundations of his fame. Curiously enough, both Humboldt and Von Buch, +with all their interest in Agassiz, were quite unable to comprehend +the importance of an inquiry which was directly in their line, and, +indeed, they scorned it; while the young naturalist, without training +in physics or geology, but with the insight of genius, at once +developed the whole idea of the glacial period, with its wonderful +consequences, upon his first inspection of the phenomena shown him by +Charpentier in the valley of the Rhône.</p> + +<p>It is well that Humboldt's advice was not heeded in this regard. +Nevertheless he was a wise counsellor. He saw the danger into which +his young friend's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>(p. 354)</span> enthusiasm and boundless appetite for +work was likely to lead him. For Agassiz it might be said, with a +variation of the well-known adage, that there was nothing he touched +that he did not aggrandize. Everything he laid hold of grew larger +under his hand—grew into a mountain threatening to overwhelm him, and +would have overwhelmed anyone whose powers were not proportionate to +his aspirations. Established at Neuchâtel, and giving himself with +ardor to the duties of his professorship, it was surely enough if he +could do the author's share in the production of his great works on +the fossil and the fresh-water fishes, without assuming the +responsibilities and cares of publication as well, and even of a +lithographic establishment which he set up mainly for his own use. But +he carried <span class="italic">pari passu</span>, or nearly so, his work on fossil mollusca—a +quarto volume with nearly a hundred plates—his monographs of +echinoderms, living and fossil, his investigations of the +embryological development of fishes, and that laborious work, the +"Nomenclator Zoologicus," with the "Bibliographia," later published in +England by the Ray Society. Moreover, of scattered papers, those of +the Royal Society's Catalogue, which antedate his arrival in this +country, are more than threescore and ten. He had help, indeed; but +the more he had, the more he enlarged and diversified his tasks; +Humboldt's sound advice about his zoölogical undertakings being no +more heeded than his fulminations against the glacial theory.</p> + +<p>In the midst of all this, Agassiz turned his glance upon the glaciers, +and the "local phenomenon" became at once a cosmic one. So far a happy +divination; but he seems to have believed quite to the last that, not +only the temperate zones, but whole intertropical continents—at least +the American—had been sheeted with ice. The narrative in the first +volume will give the general reader a vivid but insufficient +conception of the stupendous work upon which he so brilliantly labored +for nearly a decade of years.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Cœlum, non animum, mutant</span> who come with such a spirit to a wider +and, scientifically, less developed continent. First as visitor, soon +as denizen, and at length as citizen of the American republic, Agassiz +rose with every occasion to larger and more various activities. What +with the Lowell Institute, the college in Charleston, S. C., and +Cornell University, in addition to Harvard, he may be said to have +held three or four professorships at once, none of them sinecures. He +had not been two months in the country before a staff of assistants +was gathered around him, and a marine zoölogical laboratory was in +operation. The rude shed on the shore, and the small wooden building +at Cambridge, developed under his hand into the Museum of Zoölogy—if +not as we see it now, yet into one of the foremost collections. Who +can say what it would have been if his plans and ideas had obtained +full recognition, and "expenditure" had seemed to the trustees, as it +seemed to him, "the best investment;" or if efficient filial aid, not +then to be dreamed of, had not given solid realization to the high +paternal aspirations? In like manner grew large under his hand the +Brazilian exploration, so generously provided for by a Boston citizen +and fostered by an enlightened emperor; and on a similar scale was +planned, and partly carried out, the "Contributions to the Natural +History of the United States," as the imperial quarto <span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>(p. 355)</span> work +was modestly entitled, which was to be published "at the rate of one +volume a year, each volume to contain about three hundred pages and +twenty plates," with simple reliance upon a popular subscription; and +so, indeed, of everything which this large-minded man undertook.</p> + +<p>While Agassiz thus was a magnanimous man, in the literal as well as +the accepted meaning of the word, he was also, as we have seen, a +truly fortunate one. Honorable assistance came to him at critical +moments, such as the delicate gift from Humboldt at Paris, which +perhaps saved him to science; such as the Wollaston prize from the +Geological Society in 1834, when he was struggling for the means of +carrying on the "Fossil Fishes." The remainder of the deficit of this +undertaking he was able to make up from his earliest earnings in +America. For the rest, we all know how almost everything he +desired—and he wanted nothing except for science—was cheerfully +supplied to his hand by admiring givers. Those who knew the man during +the twenty-seven years of his American life, can quite understand the +contagious enthusiasm and confidence which he evoked. The impression +will in some degree be transmitted by these pleasant and timely +volumes, which should make the leading lines of the life of Agassiz +clear to the newer generation, and deepen them in the memory of an +older one.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + +<h3>CHARLES DARWIN<br> +Extracts from "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," by <span class="smcap">Arch. Geikie, +LL.D., F.R.S.</span><br> +(1809-1882)</h3> + +<a id="img037" name="img037"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img037.jpg" width="250" height="255" alt="Charles Darwin." title=""> +</div> + +<p>By the universal consent of mankind, the name of Charles Darwin was, +even during his lifetime, among those of the few great leaders who +stand forth for all time as the creative spirits who have founded and +legislated for the realm of science. It is too soon to estimate with +precision the full value and effect of his work. The din of +controversy that rose around him has hardly yet died down, and the +influence of the doctrines he propounded is extending into so many +remote departments of human inquiry, that a generation or two may +require to pass away before his true place in the history of thought +can be definitely fixed. But the judgment of his contemporaries as to +his proud pre-eminence is not likely ever to be called in question. He +is enrolled among Dii majorum gentium, and there he will remain +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>(p. 356)</span> to the end of the ages. When he was laid beside the +illustrious dead in Westminster Abbey, there arose far and wide a +lamentation as of personal bereavement. Thousands of mourners who had +never seen him, who knew only his writings, and judged of the +gentleness and courtesy of his nature from these, and from such +hearsay reports as passed outward from the privacy of his country +home, grieved as for the loss of a friend. It is remarkable that +probably no scientific man of his day was personally less familiar to +the mass of his fellow-countrymen. He seemed to shun all the usual +modes of contact with them. His weak health, domestic habits, and +absorbing work kept him in the seclusion of his own quiet home. His +face was seldom to be seen at the meetings of scientific societies, or +at those gatherings where the discoveries of science are expounded to +more popular audiences. He shrank from public controversy, although no +man was ever more vigorously attacked and more completely +misrepresented. Nevertheless, when he died the affectionate regret +that followed him to the grave, came not alone from his own personal +friends, but from thousands of sympathetic mourners in all parts of +the world, who had never seen or known him. Men had ample material for +judging of his work, and in the end had given judgment with general +acclaim. Of the man himself, however, they could know but little, yet +enough of his character shone forth in his work to indicate its +tenderness and goodness. Men instinctively felt him to be in every way +one of the great ones of the earth, whose removal from the living +world leaves mankind poorer in moral worth as well as in intellect.</p> + +<p>Charles Darwin came of a family which from the beginning of the +sixteenth century had been settled on the northern borders of +Lincolnshire. Several of his ancestors had been men of literary taste +and scientific culture, the most noted of them being his grandfather, +Erasmus Darwin, the poet and philosopher. His father was a medical man +in large practice at Shrewsbury, and his mother a daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, of Etruria. Some interesting reminiscences are given of the +father, who must have been a man of uncommon strength of character. He +left a large fortune, and thus provided for the career his son was +destined to fulfil. Of his own early life and later years, Darwin has +left a slight but most interesting sketch in an autobiographical +fragment, written late in life for his children, and without any idea +of its ever being published. Shortly before his mother's death, in +1817, he was sent, when eight years old, to a day-school in his native +town. But even in the period of childhood he had chosen the favorite +occupation of his life: "My taste for natural history," he says, "and +more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make +out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things—shells, +seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting which +leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso, or a miser, was +very strong in me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters and +brothers ever had this taste."</p> + +<hr> + +<p>Some of the incidents of his Cambridge life which he records are full +of interest in their bearing on his future career. Foremost among them +stands the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357"></a>(p. 357)</span> friendship which he formed with Professor +Henslow, whose lectures on botany he attended. He joined in the class +excursions and found them delightful. But still more profitable to him +were the long and almost daily walks which he enjoyed with his +teacher, during the latter half of his time at Cambridge. Henslow's +wide range of acquirement, modesty, unselfishness, courtesy, +gentleness, and piety, fascinated him and exerted on him an influence +which, more than anything else, tended to shape his whole future life. +The love of travel which had been kindled by his boyish reading, now +took a deeper hold of him as he read Humboldt's "Personal Narrative" +and Herschel's "Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy." He +determined to visit Teneriffe, and even went so far as to inquire +about ships. But his desire was soon to be gratified in a far other +and more comprehensive voyage. At the close of his college life he was +fortunate enough, through Henslow's good offices, to accompany +Sedgwick in a geological excursion in North Wales. There can be little +doubt that this short trip sufficed to efface the dislike of geology +which he had conceived at Edinburgh, and to show him how much it was +in his own power to increase the sum of geological knowledge. To use +his own phrase, he began to "work like a tiger" at geology.</p> + +<p>But he now had reached the main turning-point of his career. On +returning home from his ramble with Sedgwick he found a letter from +Henslow, telling him that Captain Fitz-Roy, who was about to start on +the memorable voyage of the Beagle, was willing to give up part of his +own cabin to any competent young man who would volunteer to go with +him, without pay, as a naturalist. The post was offered to Darwin and, +after some natural objections on the part of his father, accepted.</p> + +<p>The Beagle weighed anchor from Plymouth on December 27, 1831, and +returned on October 2, 1836.</p> + +<p>On his return to England, Darwin at once took his place among the +acknowledged men of science of his country. For a time his health +continued to be such as to allow him to get through a large amount of +work. The next two years, which in his own opinion were the most +active of his life, were spent, partly at Cambridge, and partly in +London, in the preparation of his "Journal of Researches," of the +zoölogical and geological results of the voyage, and of various papers +for the Geological and Zoölogical Societies. So keen was his +geological zeal that, almost against his better judgment, he was +prevailed upon to undertake the duties of honorary secretary of the +Geological Society, an office which he continued to hold for three +years. And at each period of enforced holiday, for his health had +already begun to give way, he occupied himself with geological work in +the field. In the Midlands he watched the operations of earthworms, +and began those inquiries which formed the subject of his last +research, and of the volume on "Vegetable Mould" which he published +not long before his death. In the Highlands he studied the famous +Parallel Roads of Glen Roy; and his work there, though in after-years +he acknowledged it to be "a great failure," he felt at the time to +have been "one of the most difficult and instructive tasks" he had +ever undertaken.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>(p. 358)</span> In the beginning of 1839 Darwin married his cousin, daughter +of Josiah Wedgwood, and grand-daughter of the founder of the Etruria +Works, and took a house in London. But the entries of ill-health in +his diary grow more frequent. For a time he and his wife went into +society, and took their share of the scientific life and work of the +metropolis. But he was compelled gradually to withdraw from this kind +of existence, which suited neither of them, and eventually they +determined to live in the country. Accordingly, he purchased a house +and grounds at Down, in a sequestered part of Kent, some twenty miles +from London, and moved thither in the autumn of 1842. In that quiet +home he passed the remaining forty years of his life. It was there +that his children were born and grew up around him; that he carried on +the researches and worked out the generalizations that have changed +the whole realm of science; that he received his friends and the +strangers who came from every country to see him; and it was there +that, after a long and laborious life, full of ardor and work to the +last, he died, at the age of seventy-three, on April 19, 1882.</p> + +<p>The story of his life at Down is almost wholly coincident with the +history of the development of his views on evolution, and the growth +and appearance of the successive volumes which he gave to the world. +For the first four years his geological tastes continued in the +ascendant. During that interval there appeared three remarkable works, +his volume on "Coral Islands," that on "Volcanic Islands," and his +"Geological Observations on South America."</p> + +<p>After working up the geological results of the long voyage in the +Beagle, he set himself with great determination to more purely +geological details. While on the coast of Chili he had found a curious +new cirripede, to understand the structure of which he had to examine +and dissect many of the common forms. The memoir, which was originally +designed to describe only his new type, gradually expanded into an +elaborate monograph on the Cirripedes (barnacles) as a whole group. +For eight years he continued this self-imposed task, getting at last +so weary of it as to feel at times as if the labor had been in some +sense wasted which he had spent over it; and this suspicion seems to +have remained with him in maturer years. But when at last the two +bulky volumes, of more than one thousand pages of text, with forty +detailed plates, made their appearance, they were hailed as an +admirable contribution to the knowledge of a comparatively little +known department of the animal kingdom. In the interests of science, +perhaps, their chief value is to be recognized, not so much in their +own high merit, as in the practical training which their preparation +gave the author in anatomical detail and classification. He spoke of +it himself afterward as a valuable discipline, and Professor Huxley +truly affirms that the influence of this discipline was visible in +everything which he afterward wrote.</p> + +<p>It was after Darwin had got rid of his herculean labors over the +"Cirripede" book, that he began to settle down seriously to the great +work of his life—the investigation of the origin of the species, of +plants and animals. Briefly, it may be stated here that he seems to +have been first led to ponder over the question of the transmutation +of species, by facts that had come under his notice during the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>(p. 359)</span> South American part of the voyage in the Beagle—such as the +discovery of the fossil remains of huge animals akin to, but yet very +distinct from, the living armadillos of the same regions; the manner +in which closely allied animals were found to replace one another, as +he followed them over the continent; and the remarkable character of +the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Archipelago. "It was evident," he +says, "that such facts as these, as well as many others, could only be +explained on the supposition that species gradually become modified; +and the subject haunted me." His first note-book for the accumulation +of facts bearing on the question was opened in July, 1837, and from +that date he continued to gather them "on a wholesale scale, more +especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed +inquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners, and by +extensive reading."</p> + +<hr> + +<p>He now set to work upon that epitome of his observations and +deductions which appeared in November, 1859, as the immortal "Origin +of Species."</p> + +<p>Those who are old enough to remember the publication of this work, +cannot but marvel at the change, which, since that day, not yet thirty +years ago, has come alike upon the non-scientific and the scientific +part of the community in their estimation of it. Professor Huxley has +furnished to the biography a graphic chapter on the reception of the +book, and in his vigorous and witty style recalls the furious and +fatuous objections that were urged against it. A much longer chapter +will be required to describe the change which the advent of the +"Origin of Species" has wrought in every department of science, and +not of science only, but of philosophy. The principle of evolution, so +early broached and so long discredited, has now at last been +proclaimed and accepted as the guiding idea in the investigation of +nature.</p> + +<p>One of the most marvellous aspects of Darwin's work was the way in +which he seemed always to throw a new light upon every department of +inquiry into which the course of his researches led him to look. The +specialists who, in their own narrow domains, had been toiling for +years, patiently gathering facts and timidly drawing inferences from +them, were astonished to find that one who, in their eyes, was a kind +of outsider, could point out to them the plain meaning of things +which, though entirely familiar to them, they had never adequately +understood. The central idea of the "Origin of Species" is an example +of this in the biological sciences. The chapter on the imperfection of +the geological record is another.</p> + +<p>After the publication of the "Origin" Darwin gave to the world, during +a succession of years, a series of volumes in which some of his +observations and conclusions were worked out in fuller detail. His +books on the fertilization of orchids, on the movements and habits of +climbing plants, on the variation of animals and plants under +domestication, on the effects of cross-and self-fertilization in the +vegetable kingdom, on the different forms of flowers on plants of the +same species, were mainly based on his own quiet work in the +greenhouse and garden at Down. His volumes on the descent of man and +on the expression of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>(p. 360)</span> the emotions in man and animals, +completed his contributions to the biological argument. His last +volume, published the year before his death, treated of the formation +of vegetable mould and the habits of earthworms, and the preparation +of it enabled him to revive some of the geological enthusiasm which so +marked the earlier years of his life.</p> + +<p>Such, in briefest outline, was the work accomplished by Charles +Darwin. The admirable biography prepared by his son enables us to +follow its progress from the beginning to its close. But higher even +than the intellect which achieved the work, was the moral character +which shone through it all.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS<br> +(1797-1877)</h3> + +<a id="img038" name="img038"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img038.jpg" width="250" height="313" alt="Louis Adolphe Thiers." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Louis Adolphe Thiers, French historian, politician, and patriot, was +born at Marseilles on April 16, 1797. His father, who seems to have +belonged to a family in decayed circumstances, was a locksmith. +Through the influence of his mother, who was a Chenier, he received a +good education, first at the <span class="italic">Lycée</span> in his native city, and +subsequently (1815) at Aix, whither he was sent to study law. At Aix +he made the acquaintance of Mignet, cultivated literature rather than +the law, and won a prize for a dissertation on Vauvenargues. Called to +the bar at the age of twenty-three, he set off for Paris in the +company of Mignet. His prospects did not seem brilliant, and his +almost ludicrously squat figure and plain face were not +recommendations to Parisian society. His industry and belief in +himself were, however, unbounded, and an introduction to Lafitte, of +the <span class="italic">Constitutionnel</span>, then the leading organ of the French liberals, +gave him the chance of showing his capacity as a public writer. His +articles in the <span class="italic">Constitutionnel</span>, chiefly on political and literary +subjects, gained him the entry into the most influential salons of the +opposition. At this time he made the acquaintance of Talleyrand, +Casimir Périer, the Comte de Flahault, and Baron Louis, the financier. +Meanwhile he was rapidly—indeed too rapidly—preparing his "Histoire +de la Révolution Française." The first two volumes—there were ten in +all—appeared in 1823. This work, although it has <span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361"></a>(p. 361)</span> been +demonstrated to be very untrustworthy and inaccurate, more especially +in its estimates of persons, gave its author a prominent place among +French politicians and men of letters. About this time, too, the gift +by his admirer, Cotta, the German publisher, of a share in the +<span class="italic">Constitutionnel</span> raised him to comparative affluence. In January, +1830, he, along with Armand Carrel, Mignet, and other friends, started +the <span class="italic">National</span>, and in its columns waged relentless war on the +Polignac administration. The ministry met the opposition it had +provoked by the Ordonnances of July. Among the other repressive +measures that were taken was the sending of a commissary of police to +the office of the <span class="italic">National</span>, interdicting its publication. Its +conductors, with Thiers at their head, defied the ministry, and the +result was the revolution which drove Charles X. into exile.</p> + +<p>Thiers now entered on an active career as a politician. He was elected +deputy for the town of Aix, and was appointed secretary-general to the +minister of finance. His first appearance in the Chamber of Deputies +gave no promise of his subsequent distinction. His diminutive person, +his small face, encumbered with a pair of huge spectacles, and his +whole exterior presenting something of the ludicrous, the new deputy, +full of the impassioned eloquence of the revolutionary orators, +attempted to impart the thrilling emotions affected by Mirabeau. The +attempt provoked derision; but soon subsiding into the oratory natural +to him—simple, easy, rapid, anecdotic—he became one of the most +formidable of parliamentary speakers. Almost from the moment of his +entrance into public life he and Guizot stood forth in opposition to +each other as the champions of radicalism and conservatism, +respectively. But he was a stanch monarchist, and for a time a +favorite with Louis Philippe. In 1832 he accepted the post of minister +of the interior under Soult, exchanging it subsequently for the +ministry of commerce and public affairs, and that in turn for the +foreign office. He was universally regarded as a stronger man than any +of his chiefs during this period; but his public and private actions +alike were always marked by a certain fussy quarrelsomeness which +prevented him from being ever accounted a statesman of the first rank. +The spirited foreign policy, calculated above all things to +precipitate a quarrel between France and Great Britain, of which for +many years he was the chief advocate, is now allowed to have been a +great, and might have been a fatal, mistake. In 1836 he became +president of the council, but in August of the same year he resigned +office, and became the leader of the opposition. In 1840 he was again +summoned to office as president of the council and foreign minister. +In a few months he was a terror to the peace of Europe. He refused +Lord Palmerston's invitation to enter into an alliance with Britain, +Austria, and Prussia for the preservation of the integrity of the +Ottoman empire, from a sympathy with the principles which dictated the +first Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria, and a desire to +accomplish by diplomacy with Mehemet Ali what Bonaparte had endeavored +to effect by force of arms—the supremacy of France in these regions. +He talked menacingly of setting aside the treaties of 1815, and of +extending the French frontier to the Rhine, and is said to have +actually spent £8,000,000 on military and naval demonstrations. Then +followed the seizure of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362"></a>(p. 362)</span> the Society Islands, and a +well-founded protest by the British government against the +ill-treatment by the French of Mr. Pritchard, their consul at Tahiti. +In consequence of this Thiers was forced to resign office, and retire +into private life. He now returned to the study of French history. The +first volume of his "Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire" appeared in +1845; it was not completed till 1860. This, the most ambitious of all +Thiers's literary enterprises, must be considered a large rather than +a great work. It is a monument to its author's industry in reading, +and rises here and there to rhetorical brilliance. But that it is +inaccurate and unfair has been admitted even by French critics. Thiers +greatly overrated Napoleon, and probably to his own hurt.</p> + +<p>Thiers was not one of the promoters of the revolution which in 1848 +drove Louis Philippe from the throne. On the contrary, he would, as +prime minister summoned at the eleventh hour, have prevented it if he +could. He accepted its consequences in the form of the Republic. He +voted for the election of Prince Louis Napoleon as its president. This +action brought him much vituperation and ridicule from former +political friends. But whatever may have been the motive that inspired +it, it certainly did not help him at the time of the coup-d'état of +1851; he was arrested, imprisoned in Mazas, and banished. Next year, +however, he was allowed to return from Switzerland to France. For +eight years he was occupied with his "History of the Consulate and +Empire." He re-entered the Chamber in 1863, having been elected +liberal deputy for the Department of the Seine in opposition to the +imperialist candidate. Till the fall of the Second Empire he was +regarded as the ablest and most formidable of its more moderate and +parliamentary opponents. His speeches in the years between 1863 and +1870 were filled with taunts of the Empire on account of the loss of +prestige which had marked its history, and these must not be left out +of account when blame has to be apportioned among the authors of the +war of 1870, although he opposed it when declared by the Ollivier +ministry, and predicted defeat.</p> + +<p>The collapse of the Second Empire, however, enabled Thiers to play the +greatest of all his parts, that of "liberator of the territory." He +declined, after Sedan, to become a member of the Government of +National Defence; but he voluntarily undertook diplomatic journeys to +Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Italy, on behalf of France—a +self-imposed mission in which he was unsuccessful, but by which he +obtained the gratitude of his countrymen. He was largely instrumental +in securing for his country that armistice which permitted the holding +of a national assembly with a view to the negotiation of a peace. +Twenty constituencies chose him as their deputy. Electing to sit for +Paris, he was made head of the provisional government. He had great +difficulty in persuading the colleagues of the Assembly, and his +countrymen generally, to agree to peace on terms that were practically +dictated by Germany. But he succeeded; peace was voted March 1, 1871. +No sooner had he accomplished this task than he was face to face with +the sanguinary madness of the Commune. But this difficulty also he set +himself to surmount with characteristic energy, and succeeded. When +the seat of government was once more removed from Versailles to Paris, +Thiers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363"></a>(p. 363)</span> was formally elected (August 30) President of the +French Republic. He held office only till 1873, but during this brief +period he was probably of greater service to his country than at any +previous time in his life. He was mainly instrumental in securing the +withdrawal of the Germans from France and the payment of the war +indemnity, and in placing both the army and the civil service on a +more satisfactory footing. But in course of time the gratitude of the +country exhausted itself, and Thiers, who was old-fashioned in many of +his opinions, and as opinionative as he was old-fashioned, did not +make any new friends. He was specially detested by the Extreme Left, +whose chief, Gambetta, he styled a <span class="italic">fou furieux</span>. As a result, a +coalition of Reactionaries and Radicals was formed expressly, as it +seemed, to harass him, and even in the beginning of 1872 he tendered +his resignation. It was not accepted; and his opponents for a time +suspended their intrigues. They were revived, however, in 1873, and +resolved themselves into a resolute effort to limit the powers of the +president. This Thiers stoutly resisted. He made an appeal to the +country, but this course did not increase the strength of his +following. Finally, what he interpreted as a vote of no confidence was +carried (May 24) by a majority of sixteen. He resigned, and his place +was taken by Marshal MacMahon. He lived four years longer, and never +ceased to take an interest in politics. In 1877 he took an active part +in bringing about the fall of the ministry presided over by the Duc de +Broglie. He now leaned to the side of the Left, and was reconciled to +Gambetta, and he might once again have played a prominent part in +politics had he not died of apoplexy on September 3, 1877, at St. +Germain en Laye. He has not left behind him the memory either of a +very great statesman, or of a very great historian. But he was a man +of indomitable courage, and his patriotism, if narrow and marred with +Chauvinism, was deep and genuine. He was, perhaps, the most successful +of the large class of journalist-politicians that France has produced, +and that he was at least a personal power in literature was evidenced +by the great influence which he wielded in the Academy, of which he +became a member in 1834.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + +<h3>LÉON GAMBETTA<br> +(1838-1882)</h3> + +<a id="img039" name="img039"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img039.jpg" width="250" height="334" alt="Léon Gambetta." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Léon Michel Gambetta was born at Cahors on April 3, 1838. His father +was a tradesman dealing in crockery; his mother's maiden name was +Massabie. Léon's grandfather was a Genoese, who emigrated to France at +the beginning of this century; and as his name signifies, in the +dialect of Genoa, a liquid measure of two quarts capacity, it has been +supposed that it was conferred upon one of his forefathers as a +sobriquet. Léon Gambetta's grandfather was a poor man of no education, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364"></a>(p. 364)</span> and his only son, Léon's father, thought he had done very +well for himself when he set up a shop with the small dowry brought +him by his wife, Mlle. Massabie. The mother of Léon died while he was +a child, and he was indebted for his early teaching to his maternal +aunt and to her brother, a priest, who held a small benefice in a +village near Cahors. It was at first intended that Léon should follow +his father's trade; but, as he was a boy very apt at learning and fond +of books, his uncle and aunt decided that it would be better to put +him at the seminary, with a view to his ultimately taking holy orders. +Léon's father does not seem to have much liked this scheme, for he had +no second son who could succeed to his business; but he had a great +love for his bright-witted boy, and having conceived a high respect +for his talents, yielded to the pleasing idea that he would some day +become an ornament to the Church. This belief may be explained by the +fact that Léon was, as a child, ardently religious. When twelve years +old he wrote an ode dedicated to his "patron, St. Léon, and to all the +popes called Léon," and this composition was printed in the Catholic +journal of the diocese. In after-years some of his political enemies +tried to get hold of a copy, but failed, and published a spurious one +which they gave out for his.</p> + +<p>The career of Léon Gambetta must continue to exercise over young +advocates and journalists the same kind of fascination as that of +Napoleon I. does over young officers; and, indeed, the fact that +Bonaparte and Gambetta were both of Italian origin, and came to sudden +and great power while they were very young, was often quoted to draw a +parallel between the two. But there is this difference between +Bonaparte and Gambetta, that whereas the latter made his mark in life +later by some three or four years than the former, brilliant destinies +were prophesied for him by others besides his relations, when he was +still a child. While Bonaparte was a pupil at the school of Brienne, +his masters predicted that he would make a poor officer, because he +had no aptitude for mathematics; when Gambetta was at the seminary, +his tutors foretold that he would make a great figure in life, "but +never," they regretfully added, "as a churchman." The boy began well, +but he had evidently no vocation for the strict discipline of the +Church; he was too disputatious, not meek enough about taking blows +without returning them, and in short, too headstrong. Anticipating the +judgment which M. Grévy passed upon him when he was thirty-three years +old, his ecclesiastical masters reported of him that he was <span class="italic">un esprit +rebelle, turbulent</span>, and they advised his removal to another school.</p> + +<p>Young Gambetta was accordingly sent to the <span class="italic">lycée</span>—that is, the lay +public <span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365"></a>(p. 365)</span> school—of Cahors, and here he immediately won golden +opinions by his cleverness, his industry, and the happy vivacity of +his character. One of the half-yearly bulletins of the <span class="italic">lycée</span>, which +has been preserved in his family, records that he was "passionate +without being vindictive, and proud without arrogance." In time he +became the best Latin scholar at the school, and the most proficient +in French composition. When he was in his sixteenth year, however, an +accident, which destroyed his left eye, quelled for a time the +exuberance of his character and suddenly gave a new direction to his +studies. Fearing lest he should lose his sight altogether, he set +himself to learn the alphabet for the blind, in order that he might +read in books with raised letters; he also applied himself to the +study of music and the violin. During a whole year he was forbidden to +open a book.</p> + +<p>From Cahors Gambetta went to Paris to study law, and he quickly drew +the attention of the Imperial police upon himself by acting as +ringleader in those demonstrations which the students of the Latin +Quarter were accustomed to make in time of public excitement. Peaceful +demonstrations they always were, because the police would stand +nothing like rioting, but it was something to march at the head of a +procession carrying wreaths to the tomb of a Republican, or to lead +cabals for hissing off the stage of the Théâtre Français or the Odéon +pieces by unpopular writers, like M. Edmond About (for in those days +M. About was a Bonapartist).</p> + +<p>Gambetta's first public speech was delivered in 1861, in defence of +the Marquis Le Guillois, a nobleman of facetious humor, who edited a +comic newspaper called <span class="italic">Le Hanneton</span>. He was seized with unexpected +nervousness as he began, but before he had stammered out a dozen +sentences he was stopped by the presiding judge, who told him mildly +that no big words were required in a cause which only involved a fine +of 100 francs—"all the less so," added he, "as your client is +acquitted."</p> + +<p>Gambetta used to say after this that it took him years to recover from +the effect of the judge's quiet snub. Like many other young men of +talent, he had gone into court expecting to carry everything before +him, and had found that the art of forensic pleading is not to be +acquired without practice. He did practise most diligently, and the +speeches—some thirty in all—which he delivered in unimportant cases +during the next seven years, were conspicuous for their avoidance of +rhetorical flourish. Adolphe Crémieux had cautioned him that the +secret of oratory lies in mastering the subject of one's discourse. +"Don't try gymnastic feats until you have a firm platform to spring +from"—a maxim which a conceited young man, impatient of results, +might have despised, but which commended itself to an ambitious man +who felt that, although a chance comes to all, it is an important +point to be prepared for the chance when it does come. A plutocrat +once asked Horace Vernet to "do him a little thing in pencil" for his +album. Vernet did the little thing and asked 1,000 francs for it. "But +it only took you five minutes to draw," exclaimed the man of wealth. +"Yes, but it took me thirty years to learn to do it in five minutes," +replied Vernet. And so Gambetta, when someone remarked that he was +very lucky in having conquered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366"></a>(p. 366)</span> renown by a single speech, +broke out impetuously, "I was years preparing that speech—twenty +times I wanted to deliver it, but did not feel that I had it here +(touching his head), though it palpitated here (thumping his breast) +as if it would break my heart."</p> + +<p>The speech in question was delivered on November 17, 1868, before the +notorious Judge Delesvaux (who has been called the Jeffreys of the +Second Empire), in defence of Louis Charles Delescluze, editor of the +<span class="italic">Réveil</span>. The <span class="italic">Réveil</span> had started a subscription for erecting a +monument to the memory of the Representative Baudin, who was killed at +the <span class="italic">coup-d'état</span> of 1851, and the Government unwisely instituted a +prosecution against the editor. It was late in the afternoon when the +case was called on after a number of others, but the sixth chamber was +crowded with journalists and barristers, as it always was on Fridays, +when Delesvaux—a man with hawk-like features and a flaming +complexion—would sit "tearing up newspaper articles with beak and +talons," as Émile de Girardin said of him. Just before Gambetta rose, +Delesvaux observed, "I suppose you have not much to say; so it will +hardly be worth while to have the gas lighted." "Never mind the gas, +sir, I will throw light enough on this affair," answered Gambetta; and +it was amid the laughter produced by this joke that he began. His +genius found vent that day, and he spoke from first to last without a +halt. Reviewing his client's case, he brought Napoleon III. himself to +book, and recalled the circumstances under which Baudin had died, +"defending that Republican Constitution which President Louis +Bonaparte, in contempt of his oath, had violated." At this, Judge +Delesvaux half rose in his seat and endeavored to stop the speaker, +but a positive roar from the whole crowd in court forced him to sit +down. It was a sign of the approaching political earthquake that +Delesvaux should have sat down in that way, for he was a man of great +resolution; but he must have felt then as if the earth were trembling +under him. So Gambetta continued to speak, denouncing with +unimaginable energy the tyrannies and turpitudes of the reign which +had confiscated all the liberties of France, till at last he concluded +with this magnificent peroration, which was rendered most solemn by +the increasing darkness of the court and the intense attentive silence +of the audience: "In every country but this you see the people +commemorate as a holiday the date which brought the reigning dynasty +to the throne. You alone are ashamed of the day which gave you a +blood-stained crown—the December 2d when Baudin died! Well, that day +which you reject, we Republicans will keep holy. It shall be the day +of mourning for our martyrs and the festival of our hopes!"</p> + +<p>When Gambetta left the court after this, it was felt by all who had +heard him that he was the coming man of the Republican party; and next +day opposition journals of every shade of opinion, from one end of +France to the other, acclaimed him as a future leader.</p> + +<p>Within the next two years the Republican party made such rapid strides +that to regain his prestige the French emperor felt that a glorious +war was necessary. The leader of the moderate reformers, M. Ollivier, +was won over, and was forced upon Prussia. Gambetta and the +Republicans felt that they had every cause for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367"></a>(p. 367)</span> fear when +matters had taken this turn. Relying upon Marshal Lebœuf's +assurances that "everything was ready," they saw the prospect of a +short sensational campaign like that against Austria in 1859, to be +followed by some high-handed stroke of home policy that would sweep +most of them into prison or exile. Gambetta could not refrain from +bitterly upbraiding Ollivier. "You will find that you have been fooled +in all this," he said; "for when the war is over you will be thrown +aside like a squeezed orange." "I think my fate will be a happier one +than yours, unless you mend your manners," answered Ollivier dryly. +Three weeks after this, however, everything was changed. The imperial +armies had been beaten at Woerth and Forbach; the Ollivier cabinet had +fallen amid popular execration (hardly deserved); and Gambetta, forced +by circumstances into a position of great influence, received a +private visit from Madame Bazaine, who prayed him to agitate that her +husband might be appointed as the commander-in-chief of the armies. +Gambetta was too sincerely patriotic to feel any partisan satisfaction +at the reverse which Napoleon III.'s armies had suffered; and in +stirring up the Republicans in the Chamber and in the press to clamor +for the appointment of Bazaine, he believed he was urging the claims +of a competent soldier who was being kept from the chief command +solely by dynastic jealousies. He was to learn, a couple of months +later, how much he had been mistaken in his estimate of Bazaine's +talents and rectitude of purpose; and, indeed, Bazaine's conduct +toward Gambetta and the Republicans from first to last was the more +inexplicable, as it was unquestionably owing to their agitation that +he was placed in the high position which he had coveted.</p> + +<p>During the three weeks between Forbach and Sedan, Gambetta had to take +rather exciting precautions to insure his own safety. He was aware +that the Empress-Regent's advisers were urging her to have the leaders +of the opposition arrested, and he felt pretty certain that this +course would be adopted if the news of a victory arrived. He used to +sleep in a different house every night, and never ventured abroad +unattended or without firearms. His position was one of great +difficulty, for agents of the Internationale made overtures to him +with a view to promote an insurrection in Paris, and he forfeited the +confidence of these fanatics by declining to abet their plans. +Gambetta was so little desirous of establishing a republic by +revolution that, even when the tidings arrived on the night of +September 3d of the emperor's surrender at Sedan, his chief concern +was as to how he could get the deposition of Napoleon III. and the +Empress-Regent effected by lawful methods. He hastened to M. Thiers's +house, and asked him whether he would accept the presidency of a +provisional government? Thiers, sitting up in bed, said he was +willing, provided that this office was conferred upon him by the Corps +Législatif.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Gambetta spent all the morning of Sunday, September 4th, +whipping up members of the majority, and trying to persuade them to go +down to the Palais Bourbon and elect a new government. But he found +most of these gentlemen anxious to get off to the different railway +stations as soon as possible in cabs. Going to the Chamber himself +toward one o'clock, he was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368"></a>(p. 368)</span> carried through the doors by the +surging mob which invaded the palace, and in half an hour he shouted +himself quite hoarse in adjuring the crowds from the tribune to let +the Assembly deliberate in peace. But while he was literally croaking +in his attempts to make the people hear reason, news was brought to +him that M. Blanqui and some other adventurous spirits, taking time by +the forelock, had repaired to the Hôtel de Ville, and were setting up +a government of their own. Upon this, Gambetta precipitately left the +palace, jumped into a victoria, and drove to the Hôtel de Ville, amid +a mob of several thousands of persons who escorted him, cheering all +the way. Before five o'clock the deputies for Paris, with the +exception of M. Thiers, had constituted themselves into a government, +which, at the suggestion of M. Rochefort, took the name of Government +of the National Defence; and M. Gambetta received the appointment of +Minister of the Interior. It may be remarked in passing that on the +day after these events, Judge Delesvaux, fearing, perhaps needlessly, +that some of the triumphant Republicans whom he had so often punished +would wreak vengeance upon him, committed suicide. On the other hand, +Gambetta's client in the Baudin affair—L. C. Delescluze—came to him +on the morning of September 5th, and reproached him with much asperity +for not having caused the empress to be arrested. "We want no +rose-water Republicans to rule us," said this honest, but gloomy, +zealot, who was shot a few months later during the extermination of +the Commune.</p> + +<p>The siege of Paris brought M. Gambetta to the most romantic part of +his career. The National Defence Government had delegated two of their +members, MM. Crémieux and Glaiz-Bizoin, to go to Tours and govern the +provinces; but being both elderly men of weak health, they were hardly +up to their work; and early in October M. Gambetta was ordered by his +colleagues to join them. He had to leave Paris in a balloon, and in +going over the German lines nearly met with misadventure, through the +balloon sinking till it came within range of some marksmen's rifles. +He reached Tours in safety, however, and set to work at once with +marvellous activity to organize resistance against the invasion. He +was ably seconded by M. de Freycinet, and between them these two did +all that was humanly possible to perform; but from the first their +task was one of formidable difficulty, and all chances of repelling +the Germans from French soil vanished after the shameful capitulation +of Bazaine at Metz.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, all who saw M. Gambetta during his proconsulate at Tours +will remember with what a splendid energy he worked, how sincerely +hopeful he was, and—this must not be forgotten—how uniformly +generous and genial. Invested with despotic powers, he never once +abused them to molest an opponent.</p> + +<a id="img040" name="img040"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img040.jpg" width="600" height="387" alt="" title=""> +<p>The enrollment of volunteers, 1870.</p></div> + +<p>In his public harangues, both at Tours and Bordeaux (whither the +Provisional Government repaired in December, being driven southward by +the German advance), he somehow always managed to electrify his +hearers. He spoke from balconies, railway carriages, curb-stones; +wherever he went the people demanded a speech of him, and his words +never failed to cheer, while they conquered for him a wide popularity. +Indeed, Gambetta so deluded himself while diffusing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page369" name="page369"></a>(p. 369)</span> hope +and combativeness into others, that when, after a five months' siege, +Paris capitulated, he still persisted in thinking that resistance was +possible, and rather than take any part in the national surrender he +gave in his resignation. He was by that time fairly worn out, and had +to go to St. Sebastian to recruit his health. It was alleged that he +went there so as to avoid taking any side in the civil war between the +Parliament of Versailles and the Commune; but after the Communist +Government had been at work a fortnight, and when the impracticability +of its aims was fully disclosed, he took care to let it be known that +he was on the side of the National Assembly.</p> + +<p>M. Thiers did not understand Gambetta as Gambetta understood him, or +he would not have resigned in 1873, saying that the Republicans were +making his work too difficult. When Marshal MacMahon succeeded to the +Presidency it looked as if the Republic were doomed, and nothing but +M. Gambetta's wonderful suppleness and tact during the sessions of +1874-75 could have saved it. He had to keep himself in the background, +to use an Italian astuteness in explaining away the blunders of his +followers; and when this would not do he had to use violent language, +which should frighten timid doctrinaire Orleanists with prospects of +popular risings in which he would take the lead. His greatest triumphs +were earned when, by dint of superhuman coaxing in the lobbies, he got +the Republic proclaimed as the Government of France (in 1875, on M. +Wallon's motion) by a majority of one vote; and again when, at the +first election for life senators, he concluded a treaty with the +Legitimists, and by giving them a dozen seats, secured fifty for the +Republicans and ousted the Orleanists altogether.</p> + +<p>From this time the Republic was founded with at least temporary +security, and although a coalition of all the reactionary parties +rallied against it in 1877, when M. Jules Simon's ministry was +dismissed, and when the Duc de Broglie was induced to try to destroy +the new form of government by Cæsarist methods, yet there was never +any real danger that the Republic would succumb. From the day when M. +Thiers died, M. Gambetta stood guarding it like a sentinel. Just +before the general election of 1877, an emissary was sent to him from +the De Broglie-Fourtou Ministry, requesting him for his own sake not +to make a speech against Marshal MacMahon. He laughed when he heard +that he would be prosecuted if he made the speech. He was twirling a +cigarette, and laid down a copy of the <span class="italic">Revue des Deux Mondes</span> in +which he had been reading an essay on Mr. Gladstone's speeches about +the Irish Church. "Tell the Prime Minister," he said, "that I will +speak from a pedestal if I can, but if not, from a housetop. In one +way or another, my voice shall reach further than his, and so long as +I have a drop of blood to shed the Republic shall not fall." M. +Gambetta was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for the speech in +which he said that Marshal MacMahon would have to yield to the popular +will or resign, but before he could be put into jail the De Broglie +cabinet had ceased to exist. Marshal MacMahon's resignation in 1879 +was the obviously natural consequence of the complete victory which +the Republicans gained in 1877; but it was greatly to M. Gambetta's +credit that he quietly tolerated during fifteen months the presidency +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page370" name="page370"></a>(p. 370)</span> of the gallant soldier who had never been his friend. When +urged to agitate for the marshal's overthrow, he always said, "It will +do the Republic good if its first president serves his term of office +quietly to the end."</p> + +<p>Had Gambetta lived till 1885 he would probably have been the next +president of the Republic he had established and preserved; but it was +not to be. His work was done. He died December 31, 1882.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>BENJAMIN DISRAELI<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16" title="Go to footnote 16"><span class="smaller">[16]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Harriet Prescott Spofford</span><br> +(1804-1881)</h3> + +<a id="img041" name="img041"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img041.jpg" width="250" height="305" alt="Benjamin Disraeli." title=""> +</div> + +<p>Since the days of Richelieu, there has been no such picturesque figure +in the history of civilization as that of Benjamin Disraeli.</p> + +<p>Although his father, Isaac Disraeli, was in much more than easy +circumstances and had made a literary reputation, he was under the +social disadvantage that was the portion of a Jew, and his mother, +Maria Basevi, was of the same despised race.</p> + +<p>Their son was born in London, December 21, 1804, and his birth was +attended by the usual Jewish ceremonies in the Spanish synagogue. When +he was thirteen years old his father formally withdrew from the Jewish +congregation, and the children were baptized into the Christian faith, +Benjamin's godfather being Sharon Turner. The boy was early seen to +have rare talents, and he was already an immense reader in his +father's vast library. It was decided to give him an exact education +and send him to one of the large schools, where he should have the +advantage of discipline and the opportunity of desirable friendships; +but the prejudice against his birth was an obstacle—life would have +been made impossible by the indelicacy and cruelty of the high-born +and Christian lads. He was finally sent to a school where he found +himself the superior of his masters; even there he was taunted with +his birth; and he was taken home to work with his father and with +tutors, where, conscious of his powers and full of lively ambition, he +studied twelve hours a day, and made himself the master of a vast and +varied information. At seventeen he entered a solicitor's office, and +while working there for three years, entered at Lincoln's Inn, he +evinced an ability that promised him <span class="pagenum"><a id="page371" name="page371"></a>(p. 371)</span> great eminence. It was +not, however, precisely the sort of eminence that he desired, the +strifes and achievements of political life being more to his taste.</p> + +<p>He had the qualities which fitted him for that life, the "taking arts" +and accomplishments; he was a fine linguist; he had a wonderfully +well-stored memory, great self-confidence, self-respect, and +assurance; his manners were easy, and he had all social graces and +refinements; his face was singularly handsome, and remarkable through +its pallor, the depth of its black eyes, and delicacy of its chiselled +features framed in night-dark curls; he was a master of the art of +self-defence, a hard and fine rider, and he was equipped with wit, +sarcasm, poetical perception, keen reason, unbounded ambition, and +undaunted courage.</p> + +<p>He dressed in his early years in a manner that has been described as +extraordinary, but which was the manner of the young men of the +period, of D'Orsay and of Bulwer, at the time when Tennyson called the +latter a band-box. Later his dress was more negligent, although always +neat and fine.</p> + +<p>He was on pleasant terms with the distinguished people whom he met at +his father's table, and was everywhere sought in society, when, at +twenty, he began his career by the publication of "Vivian Grey," a +novel, unlike anything that had been written, bristling with point and +sally, and full of daring portraiture, and which made him immediately +famous.</p> + +<p>His health, however, now gave way, a trouble in his head making it +necessary to suspend work; and after a tour of Europe he remained for +two or three years at Bradenham, near High Wycombe, his father's +country-house, happy in the companionship of his father and mother, +and his thoroughly congenial sister Sarah; passionately fond of +country life, and during the time producing a novel, "The Young Duke," +and three shorter works, "Popanilla," "The Infernal Marriage," and +"Ixion in Heaven," gay and brilliant satires, sparkling with epigram +and with beauty, and destined to live with the English language and +English history.</p> + +<p>In company with Mr. Meredith, to whom his sister was promised in +marriage, he journeyed for the next two years through the south of +Europe and the East. Spain was among the first of his objective +points, in the proud memory of his descent from the Spanish nobles +who, driven out of Spain in the fifteenth century, went over to +Venice, and changed the name belonging to the House of Dara to that of +D'Israeli, the sons of Israel—a cognomen never borne by any other +family—and remained there for two hundred years, going to England +only when, Venice falling into decay, it was necessary to go where +they could live in safety. He wrote the account of his travels to his +sister in a series of affectionate and light-hearted letters, which +charmingly betray his own personality, and which are full of the most +vivid pictures of Malta, Corfu, Albania, the Plains of Troy, +Turkey—which was kind to his race when a cruel and unreasoning world +showed it only malignant hate, and which he regarded with the +gratitude that never forsakes a Jew; Cyprus, the advantage of whose +possession he early recognized; Egypt, whose destinies were afterward +in his hand; and Jerusalem, the holy city of his people, his +impressions of which "Tancred" afterward embodied, together <span class="pagenum"><a id="page372" name="page372"></a>(p. 372)</span> +with a foreshadowing of much of his policy in the East. The journey +made him acquainted with the theatre of his intentions, and with the +prepossessions which it gave or fostered, doubtless had a great +influence upon his life and action. The close of the journey was +darkened by the death of his companion, for whom his sister mourned as +long as she lived.</p> + +<p>After his return home he wrote a new novel, "Contarini Fleming," a +wonderful and poetical study of temperament, which Milman pronounced +the equal of "Childe Harold," which Goethe and Heine and Beckford, the +author of "Vathek," praised with delighted warmth. The "Wondrous Tale +of Alroy," also, published a little later, with "The Rise of +Iskander," Beckford found stirring and full of intensity and charm.</p> + +<p>In 1832 Disraeli offered himself as an independent candidate for the +borough of High Wycombe. The Government of course defeated him; and +not until after several hot contests during the next few years, did he +gain his end, taking his seat, then at the age of thirty-three, in +Queen Victoria's first Parliament. The character of the struggle at +these elections may be inferred from O'Connell's declaration in one of +them, that in all probability this "Disraeli was the heir-at-law of +the blasphemous thief that died on the cross." Disraeli challenged +O'Connell's son, who failed to accept the challenge. But Disraeli +never cherished a grudge; and only three weeks after he entered +Parliament he risked his seat there by a pointed statement of the +misgovernment of Ireland. Neither did O'Connell bear malice, and he +said of one of Disraeli's speeches, somewhat later, that "it was all +excellent except the peroration, and that was matchless." Not only in +O'Connell's case was this impossibility in Disraeli's nature of doing +anything ignoble shown; he secured, when in power, a life-pension to +the widow and children of the artist Leech, who had for half a +lifetime showered him with the cruel ridicule of the caricaturist; and +he offered the Grand Cross of the Bath, and a life-income suitable to +the maintenance of its dignity, to Carlyle, who had pursued him now +with contempt and now with malignity. In the intervals of the +electoral contests a series of letters to <span class="italic">The Times</span>, filled with +biting sarcasm, under the signature of "Runnymede;" a +novel—"Henrietta Temple;" a "Vindication of the British +Constitution," dedicated to Lord Lyndhurst; a contrasting presentation +of the characters of Byron and Shelley, in the form of romance, under +the title of "Venetia," sufficiently occupied Disraeli's time. He was, +meanwhile, in the vortex of gay social life, a member of the Carlton +Club, the friend of Count D'Orsay, Lady Blessington, Mrs. Norton, Lady +Dufferin, Bulwer, Tom Moore, Lady Morgan, of Lyndhurst, of the public +men and of the men of fashion, and he was courted by princes and +pretty women. He had come to Parliament prepared as few or none before +him, with coolness, courage, wit, and eloquence, and with a far-seeing +sagacity that enabled him to make the most of something like the gift +of prophecy. But he was handicapped with the fact of his race, with +his debts, which, although he was not personally extravagant or at all +self-indulgent, had become heavy, with the absence of a constituency +or a popular cause; and having no landed property, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page373" name="page373"></a>(p. 373)</span> nor +belonging even remotely to any great family, he was looked upon both +by Whig and Tory as more or less of an adventurer.</p> + +<p>Like almost all young men, his first preferences and professions were +for reform. But brought face to face with responsibility he modified +his opinions; and the great power and place that he ultimately won, +were won through the originality, the thought, the force, and the +independence that dared act without reference to his own advantage, +and the splendid courage that was undismayed by any odds. Although he +could have acquired office in the earlier years by withholding open +expression of his opinions, he preferred his freedom; and although +always in want of money, he never made a penny by means of the place +or the power that he won, or even through the legitimate opportunities +which these offered.</p> + +<p>His first speech in Parliament was attended by peculiar circumstances. +A number of the ruder members of the opposition were determined that +he should not be heard, and they drowned every sentence in derisive +cheers and mocking yells. Disraeli bore it with dignity, but as it was +impossible to proceed in the noisy and barbarous din, he closed by +saying that he had begun several times many things, and had succeeded +at last; and then in a tone that resounded even above the clamor, for +he had at all times a sonorous and impressive voice, he cried, "I will +sit down now. But the time will come when you will hear me!" Of this +speech Peel said it was anything but failure; and Sir John Campbell, +the Attorney-General, assured him that there was a lively desire in +the opposing party to hear him, but they were hindered by a coterie +over whom they had no control. In describing the scene, in a letter to +his sister that night, with great frankness, as disastrous, Disraeli +signed himself, "Yours in very good spirits." When he spoke, a week +afterward, he commanded the attention of the House.</p> + +<p>Disraeli had always declared that no government should have his +support which did not seek to improve the condition of the poor; and +as he looked at the British constitution and social construction, he +believed that the Conservatives were the best able to accomplish this +end. Because he was a Jew he was none the less an Englishman, and he +had the true interests of the United Kingdom at heart. He held that +the strength of England lay in the land, and he supported the corn +laws from stern principle. "It will be an exception to the principles +which seem hitherto to have ruled society," he exclaimed, "if you can +maintain the success at which you aim, without the possession of that +permanence and stability which the territorial principle alone can +afford. Although you may for a moment flourish after their +destruction, although your ports may be filled with shipping, your +factories smoke on every plain, and your forges flame in every city, I +see no reason why you should form an exception to that which the page +of history has mournfully recorded, that you should not fade like +Tyrian dye, and moulder like the Venetian palaces."</p> + +<p>He was already, in 1839, to a certain extent, a power in Parliament, +launching the shafts of his sarcasm alike at the Chancellor of the +Exchequer or an Under Secretary; and in this year he published his +tragedy of "Count Alarcos," and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page374" name="page374"></a>(p. 374)</span> married Mrs. Wyndham Lewis, +the wealthy widow of his friend and colleague, several years his +senior, but through thirty years his invaluable friend and +<span class="italic">confidante</span>. In dedicating "Sybil" to her, he said, "I would inscribe +this work to one whose noble spirit and gentle nature ever prompt her +to sympathize with the suffering; to one whose sweet voice has often +encouraged and whose taste and judgment have ever guided its pages, +the most severe of critics, but a perfect wife." Her devotion to him +was illustrated by her behavior one night when, on the eve of an +exciting session, she drove with him to Palace Yard, and her hand +being crushed in the carriage-door, she gave no sign, lest it should +disturb his train of thought and lessen his power in the approaching +debate, and endured her agony without blenching till he had left her. +He rewarded such devotion in kind, his happiest hours were those spent +in her society, and perhaps the proudest moment of his life was that +when, the Queen having offered him a peerage, he declined it for +himself but accepted it for his wife, and made her Viscountess +Beaconsfield in her own right.</p> + +<p>Immediately upon their marriage Mr. Disraeli travelled with his wife +for a couple of months on the continent; and returning to London he +received the congratulations of Peel, Wellington, and others, and +began to entertain the party chiefs; he dined privately with Louis +Philippe in Paris, shook hands with the King of Hanover in London, and +in every way took his social and personal position firmly. In +Parliament he crossed swords with Palmerston, refused his support to +Peel's Coercion Bill in relation to Ireland, characterizing it as one +of those measures which to introduce was degrading, and to oppose +disgraceful; later he maintained that as revolution was the only +remedy for the wrongs of Ireland, and as her connection with England +prevented revolution, therefore it was the duty of England to effect +by policy what revolution would effect by force, and as he had +defended the Chartist petition, so in turn, when the Eastern Question +came up, he defended Turkey; in all this making it supremely plain +that he never was the one to truckle to rank or authority. He was the +head of the small party of Young Englanders; he was feared and +respected by both the larger parties; and the Commons, whose +assemblage he had scornfully proclaimed a thing of past history, if +they did not choose, had presently to accept him for their leader.</p> + +<p>Henry Hope, entertaining a number of their friends at Deepdene, urged +Disraeli to treat the questions of common interest in a literary form, +and the powerful works—rather treatises than novels—"Coningsby" and +"Sybil," appeared; and these were followed by "Tancred," in which the +curious reader will find much of Disraeli's Eastern policy indicated. +These three books the author regarded as a trilogy upon English +politics, principles, and possibilities.</p> + +<p>As a debater, then and always, Disraeli was keen, ready, and +unanswerable; as a satirist, swift, subtle, and finished. His epigrams +were among the "jewels that on the stretched forefinger of all time +sparkle forever." It was he that said "Destiny is our will, and our +will is nature." At another time he said, "The critics—they are those +who have failed in literature and in art." When Prince <span class="pagenum"><a id="page375" name="page375"></a>(p. 375)</span> +Napoleon was slain he exclaimed, "A very remarkable people the Zulus: +they defeat our generals, they convert our bishops, they have settled +the fate of a great European dynasty." Every one remembers the +startling sentence in which he condemned Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy +of 1868: "We have legalized confiscation; we have consecrated +sacrilege; we have condoned treason." And his power of picturesque +mockery appears in a speech made, in 1872, immediately before the +downfall of the Gladstone ministry: "As I sat opposite the Treasury +bench the ministers reminded me of those marine landscapes not unusual +on the coasts of South America. You behold a range of exhausted +volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest. But the +situation is still dangerous. There are occasional earthquakes, and +ever and anon the dark rumbling of the sea." His attacks on Peel have +been pronounced to be among the most remarkable speeches in the annals +of the British Legislature. In 1849, at which period also he wrote the +biography of his father and the memoir of his friend Lord George +Bentinck, he was the recognized leader of the Conservatives. When Peel +was overthrown, Disraeli, who had overthrown him, after a brief +period, succeeded to his place.</p> + +<p>It was not with cordiality that the Conservatives submitted to +Disraeli's direction. He had carried himself in relation to them with +an unsurpassed independence. He was of a people whom they held in +contempt, and whose admission to Parliament he had enforced. In his +speeches he had spared none of them. He had no friend at court, and he +was still very young. But there was no help for it—he was master of +the situation, and master of them. He was now thrice Chancellor of the +Exchequer; and for a quarter of a century he led the opposition in the +House of Commons, except in the brief intervals when he was identified +with the Government. In leading the opposition he was never an +obstructionist; and he lent his aid to every generous measure, such as +the reduction of the hours of labor, the protection of factory +children, the improvement of the homes of the poor, the extension of +the suffrage. He refused English interference on the side of the South +during the Civil War in the United States of America; he hindered +disastrous hostilities with France at the time of Louis Napoleon's +<span class="italic">coup-d'état</span>; he would have prevented the Crimean War had it been +possible; and he would not allow retaliation in kind for the Sepoy +atrocities. He did the most and the best with his opportunities. His +policy was always to develop and sustain English character. "There is +no country," he said in a remarkable warning to the House, "at the +present moment that exists under the same circumstances and under the +same conditions as the people of this realm. You have an ancient, +powerful, and richly endowed Church, and perfect religious liberty. +You have unbroken order and complete freedom. You have landed estates +as large as the Romans, combined with a commercial enterprise such as +Carthage and Venice united never equalled. And you must remember that +this peculiar country, with these strong contrasts, is not governed by +force. It is governed by a most singular series of traditionary +influences, which generation after generation cherishes and preserves, +because it knows that they embalm custom and represent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page376" name="page376"></a>(p. 376)</span> law. +And with this you have created the greatest empire of modern times. +You have amassed a capital of fabulous amount. You have devised and +sustained a system of credit still more marvellous, and you have +established a scheme so vast and complicated of labor and industry +that the history of the world affords no parallel to it. And these +mighty creations are out of all proportion to the essential and +indigenous elements and resources of the country. If you destroy that +state of society, remember this: <span class="italic">England cannot begin again.</span>"</p> + +<p>In religion Disraeli accepted Christianity fully—but as a completion +of the Hebrew revelation. He coupled in thought and word "the sacred +heights of Sinai and of Calvary." He was proud of his great people, +and never hesitated to declare his pride. "All the north of Europe +worship a Jew," he said, "and all the south of Europe worship a Jew's +mother." In spite of the fact that he was an Asiatic by nature, he +despised what he called the pagan ceremonies of the ritualists, and +distrusted what he felt to be the atheistic tendency of science.</p> + +<p>Shortly after his father's death, Mr. Disraeli had purchased with his +paternal inheritance the manor of Hughenden, near Bradenham, in whose +park his wife erected a monument to his father; and there, in the +intervals of public business, he found quiet and enjoyment with his +peacocks and swans and owls, his gardening, his tenantry. His books +brought him in great sums of money; a friend, Mrs. Brydges Willyams, +of Torquay, after twelve years of romantic intimacy with him and his +wife, bequeathed him a fortune, and lies buried by the side of himself +and Lady Beaconsfield at Hughenden. His circumstances were easy, his +fame was assured, and when he went down to Parliament for the first +time after he became Prime Minister, the crowds outside cheered him to +the echo, the crowds within took up the acclaim, and the House that +once had silenced him with derisive mockery, hailed with wild welcome +this man who, without money, without birth, without support, had made +himself, by force of will, courage, genius, loyalty, and truth, the +ruler of the British Empire.</p> + +<p>While he was again in opposition Mr. Disraeli took occasion to write +"Lothair," a precise portraiture of the British aristocracy and a +clear presentation of its relation to the Church, the spirit of +revolution, the intrigues of the ultramontanes, the simplicity of true +religion; every page splendid with wit and with picturesque charm. +During another period of enforced leisure he wrote "Endymion," in +which there are some slight autobiographical features.</p> + +<p>Succeeded by Mr. Gladstone as prime minister, a half-dozen years later +Disraeli was again at the helm. The Eastern question was then one of +passionate interest; and when Russia was dictating terms of peace with +the Ottoman, Mr. Disraeli insisted on their revision at a Conference +of all the Powers, held at Berlin, which he attended in person, and +where he obliged Russia to yield, and won a great diplomatic +victory.<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17" title="Go to footnote 17"><span class="smaller">[17]</span></a> He returned to London, said Mr. Froude, "in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page377" name="page377"></a>(p. 377)</span> +blaze of glory, bearing peace with honor." He was made Earl of +Beaconsfield, and given the Garter; and before he went into retirement +again, after the nation had revived its interest in imperialism, he +had acquired the mastery of the Suez Canal, and he had annexed Cyprus, +and, by giving the queen the additional title of Empress of India, +this child of the Orient had made of Great Britain an Oriental empire. +He had ruled the country for six consecutive years when he next went +into retirement. He died shortly afterward, from the effect of a +severe cold, aggravating an attack of gout, on April 19, 1881.</p> + +<p>In public or in private Disraeli never did a dishonorable action. He +never attacked the weak or the defenceless, but singled out the +proudest adversary. He never held malice. His impulses were always the +most generous, his ideas and his purposes of the largest. He desired +in all things the good of his country, and he sought it by what seemed +to him, whether or not he was mistaken, the surest and loftiest ways.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig012" name="sig012"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig012.jpg" width="250" height="75" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<h3>WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE<br> +By <span class="smcap">Justin McCarthy</span><br> +(Born 1809)</h3> + +<a id="img042" name="img042"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img042.jpg" width="250" height="346" alt="Axes." title=""> +</div> + +<p>William Ewart Gladstone, statesman, orator, and author, was born in +Rodney Street, Liverpool, on December 29, 1809. He is the fourth son +of Sir John Gladstone (1764-1851), a well-known, and it might almost +be said a famous, Liverpool merchant, who sat for some years in +Parliament, and was a devoted friend and supporter of George Canning. +Mr. Gladstone is of Scotch descent, on both sides, and has declared +more than once in a public speech that the blood that runs in his +veins is exclusively Scottish. He was educated at Eton and at Christ +Church, Oxford. He became a student at Oxford in 1829, and graduated +as a double first-class, in 1831. He had distinguished himself greatly +as a speaker in the Oxford Union Debating Society, and had before that +time written much in the <span class="italic">Eton Miscellany</span>, which indeed he helped to +found. He appears to have begun his career as a strong opponent of all +advanced measures of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page378" name="page378"></a>(p. 378)</span> political reform. In the Oxford Union +he proposed a vote of censure on the government of Lord Grey for +introducing the great Reform Bill which was carried in 1832, and on +the Duke of Wellington, because of his having yielded to the claims +for Catholic emancipation. He also opposed a motion in favor of +immediate emancipation of the slaves in the West Indian islands. He +soon became known as a young man of promise, who would be able to +render good service to the Conservative party in the great struggle +which seemed likely to be forced upon them—a struggle, as many +thought, for their very existence. It was a time of intense political +emotion. Passion and panic alike prevailed. The first great "leap in +the dark" had been taken; the Reform Bill was carried, the sceptre of +power had passed away from the aristocracy and the privileged ranks to +the middle and lower middle classes. The Conservative party were +looking eagerly out for young men of promise to stiffen their ranks in +the new parliament, the first elected under the Reform Bill, the first +which the middle class had their due share in creating; the first in +which such cities as Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham were +allowed to have representation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone was invited to contest the burgh of Newark in the +Conservative interest, and he had the support of the great Newcastle +family. He stood for Newark, and he was elected. He delivered his +maiden speech on a subject connected with the great movement for the +emancipation of the West Indian slaves; but he seems to have confined +himself mainly to a defence of the manner in which his father's +estates were managed, the course of the debate having brought out some +charge against the management of the elder Gladstone's possessions in +one of the West Indian islands. The new orator appears to have made a +decided impression on the House of Commons. His manner, his voice, his +diction, his fluency were alike the subject of praise. Mr. Gladstone +evidently continued to impress the House of Commons with a sense of +his great parliamentary capacity. We get at this fact rather +obliquely; for we do not hear of his creating any great sensation in +debate; and to this day some very old members of the House insist that +for a long time he was generally regarded as merely a fluent speaker, +who talked like one reading from a book. But on the other hand, we +find that he is described by Macaulay, in 1839, as "the rising hope" +of the "stern and unbending Tories," and the whole tone of Macaulay's +essay—a criticism of Gladstone's first serious attempt at authorship, +his book on the relations between church and state—shows that the +critic treats the author as a young man of undoubted mark and position +in the House of Commons.</p> + +<a id="img043" name="img043"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img043.jpg" width="600" height="382" alt="" title=""> +<p>Hawarden Castle, the home of Gladstone.</p></div> + +<p>In December, 1834, Sir Robert Peel appointed Gladstone to the office +of a Junior Lord of the Treasury. In the next year Peel, who was quick +to appreciate the great abilities and the sound commercial knowledge +of his new recruit, gave to him the more important post of +Under-secretary for the Colonies. Gladstone looked up to Peel with +intense admiration. There was much to draw the two men together. +Knowledge of finance, thorough understanding and firm grasp of the +principles on which a nation's business must be conducted—perhaps, it +may be added, a common origin in the middle class—these points of +resemblance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page379" name="page379"></a>(p. 379)</span> might well have become points of attraction. +But there were other and still higher sympathies to bring them close. +The elder and the younger man were alike earnest, profoundly earnest; +filled with conscience in every movement of their political and +private lives; a good deal too earnest and serious, perhaps, for most +of the parliamentary colleagues by whom they were surrounded. Mr. +Gladstone always remained devoted to Peel, and knew him perhaps more +thoroughly and intimately than any other man was privileged to do. +Peel went out of office very soon after he had made Mr. Gladstone +Under-secretary for the Colonies. Lord John Russell had brought +forward a series of motions on the ominous subject of the Irish +Church, and Peel was defeated and resigned. It is almost needless to +say that Gladstone went with him. Peel came back again in office in +1841, on the fall of the Melbourne administration, and Mr. Gladstone +became Vice-president of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint, +and was at the same time sworn in a member of the Privy Council. In +1843 he became President of the Board of Trade. Early in 1845 he +resigned his office because he could not approve of the policy of the +government with regard to the Maynooth grant.</p> + +<p>The great struggle on the question of the repeal of the Corn Laws was +now coming on. It would be impossible that a man with Mr. Gladstone's +turn of mind and early training could have continued a protectionist, +when once he applied his intellect and his experience to a practical +examination of the subject. Once again he went with his leader. Peel +saw that there was nothing for it but to accept the principles of the +Free Trade party, who had been bearing the fiery cross of their +peaceful and noble agitation all through the country, and were +gathering adherents wherever they went.</p> + +<p>It is a somewhat curious fact that Mr. Gladstone was not in the House +of Commons during the eventful session when the great battle of free +trade was fought and won. In thorough sympathy with Peel, he had +joined the government again as Colonial Secretary. Knowing that he +could no longer be in political sympathy with the Duke of Newcastle, +whose influence had obtained for him the representation of Newark, he +had given up his seat, and did not come into Parliament again until +the struggle was over. At the general elections in 1847, Mr. +Gladstone, still accepted as a Tory, was chosen one of the +representatives for the University of Oxford.</p> + +<p>Up to the time of the abolition of the Corn Laws, or at least of the +movement which led to their abolition, Mr. Gladstone had been a Tory +of a rather old-fashioned school. The corn-law agitation probably +first set him thinking over the possible defects of the social and +legislative system, and showed him the necessity for reform at least +in one direction. The interests of religion itself at one time seemed +to him to be bound up with the principles of the Tory party; and no +doubt there was a period of his career when the principle of +protection would have seemed to him as sacred as any other part of the +creed. With a mind like his, inquiry once started, must go on. There +was always something impetuous in the workings of his intellect, as +well as the rush of his sympathy. He startled <span class="pagenum"><a id="page380" name="page380"></a>(p. 380)</span> Europe, and +indeed the whole civilized world, by the terrible and only too +truthful description which he gave, in 1851, of the condition of the +prisons of Naples under the king who was known by the nickname of +"Bomba," and the cruelties which were inflicted on political prisoners +in particular. Again and again, in Mr. Gladstone's public life we +shall see him carried away by the same generous and passionate emotion +on behalf of the victims of despotic cruelty in any part of the world. +Burke himself could not be more sympathetic, more earnest, or more +strong.</p> + +<p>By the death of Sir Robert Peel, in 1850, Mr. Gladstone had lost a +trusted leader, and a dear friend. But the loss of his leader had +brought Gladstone himself more directly to the front. It was not till +after Peel's death that he compelled the House of Commons and the +country to recognize in him a supreme master of parliamentary debate. +The first really great speech made by Mr. Gladstone in Parliament—the +first speech which would fairly challenge comparison with any of the +finest speeches of a past day—was made in the debate on Mr. +Disraeli's budget in the winter of 1852, the first session of the new +Parliament. Mr. Disraeli knew well that his government was doomed to +fall. He knew that it could not survive that debate. It was always one +of Mr. Disraeli's peculiarities that he could fight most brilliantly +when he knew that his cause was already lost. That which would have +disheartened and disarmed other men, seemed only to animate him with +all Macbeth's wild courage of despair. Never did his gift of satire, +of invective, and of epithet show to more splendid effect than in the +speech with which he closed his part of the debate, and mercilessly +assailed his opponents. Mr. Disraeli sat down at two o'clock in the +morning, and then Mr. Gladstone rose to reply to him. Most men in the +House, even on the opposition side, were filled with the belief that +it would be impossible to make any real impression on the House after +such a speech as that of Mr. Disraeli. Long before Mr. Gladstone had +concluded, everyone admitted that the effect of Mr. Disraeli's speech +had been outdone and outshone. From that hour Mr. Gladstone was +recognized as one of the great historic orators of the English +Parliament—a man to rank with Bolingbroke and Chatham and Pitt and +Fox. With that speech began the long parliamentary duel between these +two great masters of debate, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli, which was +carried on for four and twenty years.</p> + +<p>On the fall of the short-lived Tory administration, Lord Aberdeen came +into office. He formed the famous Coalition Ministry. Lord Palmerston +took what most people would have thought the uncongenial office of +Home Secretary. Lord John Russell became Secretary of Foreign Affairs. +Mr. Gladstone, who with others of the "Peelites," as they were called, +had joined the new administration, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. +His speech on the introduction of his first budget was waited for with +great expectation, but it distanced all expectation. It occupied +several hours in delivery, but none of those who listened to it would +have wished it to be shortened by a sentence. It may be questioned +whether even the younger Pitt, with all his magic of voice, and style, +and phrase, could lend such charm to each successive budget as Mr. +Gladstone was able to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page381" name="page381"></a>(p. 381)</span> do. A budget speech from Mr. Gladstone +came to be expected with the same kind of keen, artistic longing as +waits the first performance of a new opera by some great composer. A +budget speech by Mr. Gladstone was a triumph in the realm of the fine +arts.</p> + +<p>The Crimean War broke up the Coalition Ministry; but the year 1859 saw +Lord Palmerston back again in office, and Mr. Gladstone in his old +place as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The budget of 1860 was +remarkable, as it contained the provisions for the reduction of the +wine duties and the whole simplified system of taxation intended to +apply to the commercial treaty which Mr. Cobden had succeeded in +persuading the Emperor of the French to accept. Mr. Gladstone also +introduced a provision for the abolition of the duty on paper—a duty +which was simply a tax upon reading, a tax upon popular education. The +House of Lords struck out this clause; a somewhat impassioned popular +agitation followed; and in the next session the Lords passed the +measure for the repeal of the duty without offering any further +opposition. The death of Lord Palmerston, in 1865, called Lord Russell +to the position of prime-minister, and made Mr. Gladstone leader of +the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone's mind had long been turning in +the direction of an extension, or rather expansion, of the suffrage. +It was assumed by everyone that Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone being +now at the head of affairs, a reform bill would be sure to come. It +did come; a very moderate and cautious bill, enlarging the area of the +franchise in boroughs and counties. The Conservative party opposed it, +and were supported in their opposition by a considerable section of +the Liberals, who thought the measure was going too far on the road to +universal suffrage and the rule of the democracy. The bill was +defeated, and the Liberal statesman went out of office (1866). Mr. +Gladstone had carried his point, however, for when Mr. Disraeli came +into office he saw that a reform bill was inevitable, and he prepared +his party, or most of them, for the course which would have to be +taken. In the very next session Mr. Disraeli introduced a reform bill +of his own, which was enlarged and expanded until it became +practically a measure of household suffrage for cities and boroughs.</p> + +<p>Somewhere about this time the attention of Mr. Gladstone began to be +attracted to the condition of Ireland. The distressed and distracted +state of Ireland, the unceasing popular agitation and discontent, the +Fenian insurrection, brought under England's very eyes by the schemes +for an attack on Chester Castle—all these evidences of malady in +Ireland's system led Mr. Gladstone to the conviction that the time had +come when statesmanship must seek through Parliament for some process +of remedy. Mr. Gladstone came after a while to the conclusion that the +Protestant State Church in Ireland must be disestablished and +disendowed, that the Irish land tenure system must be reformed, and +that better provision must be made for the higher education of the +Catholics of Ireland. He made short work with the Irish State Church. +He defeated the government on a series of resolutions foreshadowing +his policy; the government appealed to the country, the Liberals +returned to power, and Mr. Gladstone became <span class="pagenum"><a id="page382" name="page382"></a>(p. 382)</span> prime minister +(1868). In his first session of government he disestablished and +disendowed the State Church in Ireland. In the next session he passed +a measure which for the first time recognized the right of the Irish +tenant to the value of the improvements he had himself made at his own +cost and labor. Never probably was there such a period of energetic +reform in almost every direction as that which set in when Mr. +Gladstone became prime-minister. For the first time in English history +a system of national education was established. The Ballot Act was +passed for the protection of voters. The system of purchase in the +army was abolished by something, it must be owned, a little in the +nature of a <span class="italic">coup-d'état</span>. Then Mr. Gladstone introduced a measure to +improve the condition of university education in Ireland. This bill +was intended almost altogether for the benefit of Irish Catholics; but +it did not go far enough to satisfy the demands of the Catholics, and +in some of its provisions was declared incompatible with the +principles of their Church. The Catholic members of the House of +Commons voted against it, and with that help the Conservatives were +able to throw out the bill (1873). Mr. Gladstone tendered his +resignation of office. But Mr. Disraeli declined just then to take any +responsibility, and Mr. Gladstone had to remain at the head of +affairs. The great wave of reforming energy had, however, subsided in +the country. The period of reaction had come. The by-elections began +to tell against the Liberals. Mr. Gladstone suddenly dissolved +Parliament and appealed to the country, and the answer to his appeal +was the election of a Conservative majority. Mr. Disraeli came back to +power, and Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the House of +Commons (1874).</p> + +<p>For a while Mr. Gladstone occupied himself in literary and historical +studies, and he published essays and pamphlets. But even in his +literary career Mr. Gladstone would appear to have always kept +glancing at the House of Commons, as Charles V. in his monastery kept +his eyes on the world of politics outside. The atrocious conduct of +the Turkish officials in Bulgaria aroused his generous anger, and he +flung down his books and rushed out from his study to preach a crusade +against the Ottoman power in Europe. The waters rose and lifted him, +whether he would or no, into power. The Parliament which had gone on +from the spring of 1874 was dissolved in the spring of 1880, and the +Liberals came in with an overwhelming majority. The period of reaction +had gone, and the period of action was come again. Mr. Gladstone had +to become prime-minister once more. His name was, to adopt the +phraseology of continental politics, the only name that had come out +of the voting urns.</p> + +<a id="img044" name="img044"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img044.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="" title=""> +<p>Gladstone's first home rule bill.</p></div> + +<p>It was an unpropitious hour at which to return to office. There were +troubles in Egypt; there was impending war in the Soudan and in South +Africa. There was something very like an agrarian revolution going on +in Ireland; and the Home Rule party in the House of Commons was under +new, resolute, and uncompromising leadership. Mr. Gladstone succeeded, +nevertheless, in carrying what might be called a vast scheme of +parliamentary reform, a scheme which established something very near +to universal suffrage, arranged the constituencies into proportionate +divisions, extinguished several small boroughs, leaving their electors +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page383" name="page383"></a>(p. 383)</span> to vote in their county division, and in general completed +the work begun in 1832, and carried further in 1867. It is to the +credit of the Conservative party that after a while they co-operated +cordially with Mr. Gladstone in his reforming work of 1885. This was a +triumph for Mr. Gladstone of an entirely satisfactory character; but +he had sore trials to counterbalance it. He found himself drawn into a +series of wars in North and South Africa; and he, whose generous +sympathy had of late been so much given to Ireland, and who had +introduced and carried another land bill for Ireland, found that in +endeavoring to pass the measures of coercion, which the authorities in +Dublin Castle deemed advisable, he had to encounter the fiercest +opposition from the Irish members of Parliament and the vast bulk of +the Irish population. That time must have been, for a man of Mr. +Gladstone's nature, a time of darkness and of pain. Lord Frederick +Cavendish and Mr. Burke were assassinated in Dublin; General Gordon +perished at Khartoum. In the end the Irish members coalesced with the +Conservatives in a vote on a clause in the budget, and Mr. Gladstone's +government was defeated. Lord Salisbury came back into office, but not +just then into power. He was in a most precarious position, depending +on the course which might be taken by the Irish members. He was out of +office in a few months, and then the general elections came on. These +elections were to give the first opportunity to the newly made voters +under Mr. Gladstone's latest reform act; and these voters sent him +back into office and apparently into power once again. The use Mr. +Gladstone made of office and of power astonished his enemies, and +startled and shocked not a few of his friends. His government had had, +in the years between 1881 and 1884, to fight a fierce battle against +the policy of obstruction organized by Mr. Parnell, the leader of the +Home Rule party. The obstruction was organized to prevent or delay the +passing of coercion measures, and to force the attention of the +British public to the claims of Ireland. The struggles that were +carried on will be always memorable in the history of Parliament. The +fiercest passions were aroused on both sides, and at one time Ireland +seemed to have come to regard Mr. Gladstone as her worst enemy. Many a +statesman in his place might have allowed himself to be governed by a +feeling of disappointment and resentment. But when the elections under +the new and extended Reform Bill were held, and the Irish Nationalist +party came back 87 members out of the whole Irish representation of +103, Mr. Gladstone made up his mind that the voice of the Irish people +was in favor of Home Rule, and he resolved to stake power and +popularity on an acceptance of their demand. In March, 1886, he +brought in a measure to give a statutory Parliament to Ireland. A +sudden and serious split took place in his party; some of his most +influential colleagues declared against him; the bill was rejected on +the second reading, and Mr. Gladstone appealed to the country, only to +be defeated at the general elections.</p> + +<p>Opinion is still divided—may be divided forever—as to the wisdom of +his policy; but no impartial man can deny him the credit of his +sacrifice and the sincerity of his intentions. Then the Conservative +party came back into office, and with the help of Liberals who had +declined to follow Mr. Gladstone, came back <span class="pagenum"><a id="page384" name="page384"></a>(p. 384)</span> with a powerful +majority, Mr. Gladstone leading the opposition. At the general +election of 1892, his party, including both sections of Irish +Nationalists, secured a majority of above forty over the combined +Conservatives and Liberal Unionists. Under his leadership a home-rule +bill for Ireland was passed by the Commons in spite of the most bitter +opposition. It was rejected almost unanimously by the House of Lords; +and for a time it seemed probable that the Liberals would attack the +very existence of that body. Perhaps this was Mr. Gladstone's +intention for he introduced several popular radical bills. But time +was beginning to tell upon the Grand Old Man; he was now eighty-four +years old, and he felt himself unequal to the gigantic struggle. He +resigned his offices and retired into private life in March, 1894.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone will find his fame as a statesman and an orator. We have +taken little account here of his contributions to literature; his +Homeric studies, his various essays in political and literary, in +ecclesiastical, and even theological, criticism. For another man these +in themselves would have made a not inconsiderable reputation; but to +the world they are interesting chiefly as illustrating a marvellous +mental activity stretching itself out in every direction; unresting in +the best sense of the word; incapable of settling down into even +momentary idleness. "Repos ailleurs" seems to have been the motto of +Mr. Gladstone's career—let rest come elsewhere—this is the world of +activity and of labor. His work as a statesman has been almost unique; +probably there is no other English minister who leaves behind him so +long and so successful a record of practical legislation; and, as we +have seen, some of the best legislation accomplished by his political +opponents was initiated by him, was his own work taken out of his +hands. As a parliamentary debater he never had a superior—it is +doubtful whether he ever had an equal—in the whole of the political +history of the British Empire. There have been, even in our time, +orators who now and then shot their arrows higher; but so ready, so +skilful, and so unerring an archer as he, taken all around, never drew +bow on modern parliamentary battle-ground. Nature had given him an +exquisite voice, sweet, powerful, easily penetrating, capable of +filling without effort any public building however large, vibrating to +every emotion. The incessant training of the House of Commons turned +nature's gifts to their fullest account. He was almost too fluent; his +eloquence sometimes carried him away on its impassioned tide; but his +listeners were seldom inclined to find fault with this magnificent +exuberance. We should be inclined to rank him as one of the greatest +orators, and the very greatest debater, of the House of Commons.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page385" name="page385"></a>(p. 385)</span> PRINCE VON BISMARCK<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18" title="Go to footnote 18"><span class="smaller">[18]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Prince Outisky</span><br> +(1815-1898)</h3> + +<a id="img045" name="img045"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img045.jpg" width="250" height="267" alt="Bismarck." title=""> +</div> + +<p>The "aureole of unpopularity" which encircled Bismarck's brow during +four short years of inaugural premiership has, to all appearance, +vanished under the influence of unbroken success, making room +throughout the world for a confiding deference to his capacity and +forethought, that every year seems to intensify. It is he, in the +belief of most governments, who has preserved to them what never was +more indispensable for their very existence—peace in Europe. With +supreme adroitness, he avoids entanglements for himself and his +country, bears many an affront patiently before retorting, keeps up +the appearance of a good understanding after its substance has long +passed away, but, when fairly engaged in diplomatic contention, lays +out his field in a manner that insures success. People agree, +therefore, that it is best to take him as he is. And it is in the +nature of man when he has once accorded that favor to a +fellow-creature, to "take him as he is," that he ends by liking him. +Thus Bismarck, of all living men the most unlikely to succeed in the +race after a world-wide popularity, is probably at this moment the +best-liked man in either hemisphere.</p> + +<p>His own countrymen have shown a decided indisposition to admit him +among their household gods. To them he was, from the commencement of +his political career, the very embodiment of what had gradually become +the most objectionable type of Teuton existence—the unmitigated +squireen or Junker, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page386" name="page386"></a>(p. 386)</span> his poverty and arrogance, with his +hunger and thirst after position and good living, with his hatred for +the upstart liberal burgher class. "Away with the cities! I hope I may +yet live to see them levelled to the ground." Is there not a ring of +many centuries of social strife, so laboriously kept down by the +reigning dynasty, in these stupendous words, which were pronounced by +Bismarck in 1847, when among the leaders of the conservatives in the +first embryo parliament of the Prussian monarchy? And if uncongenial +to the generation of Prussians among whom he had grown up, how +infinitely greater was the dislike against him of South Germans, more +gifted, as a rule, by nature, to whom the name of Prussian is +synonymous of all that is strait-laced and overweening and unnatural +and—generally inconvenient.</p> + +<p>Little of that sentiment remains among the Germans of the present day. +Such strangers as have had the opportunity of observing the attitude +of the nation during the late celebration of his seventieth birthday, +agree in declaring them to have been spontaneous, enthusiastic, and at +times almost aggressive. Some tell us, to be sure, that the farther +from Berlin the more gushing has been the ecstasy. The electors of +Professor Virchow and of Herr Löwe, in whose electoral districts a +torchlight procession on the eve of Bismarck's birthday had to elbow +its way through immense crowds, must have kept at home. The +municipality of Berlin, a model body of civic administrators, sent a +birthday letter to their "honorary citizen," but abstained, with +proper self-respect, from tendering their congratulations through a +deputation. No Berlin citizen of any importance had a hand in the +management of the procession. Yet, if thousands kept aloof, tens of +thousands shared the national enthusiasm—students of universities +chiefly, but older men too, even in distrustful, radical Berlin. And +as for South Germany, where the gospel of protection seems, perhaps, +to be more firmly believed in than any other, we read of trains to +Berlin taken by storm, banquets, processions, chorus-singing—of real, +heartfelt, rapturous effervescence.</p> + +<p>There cannot be a shadow of doubt that, to numberless non-Prussians at +any rate, the new era of German unity has brought a symbol of +greatness not before known, and that they worship in Bismarck the hero +who has given them a country to love, who has delivered them from the +pettiness and self-satisfaction of Philistinism.</p> + +<p>Now, if this be so—if, indeed, the countries of the world at large, +and Germany in particular, acknowledge him almost affectionately as +the leading statesman of the day, would it not be an interesting study +to examine the degree of merit due to him personally, the character of +the present administration, and what lasting good or lasting evil may +be expected from this new phase of European politics? The subject, +through its weight and its bulk alike, excludes full treatment within +the limits of an essay. Nevertheless, since it intertwines itself with +nearly every other question of moment, a few remarks by an outsider +may be acceptable.</p> + +<a id="img046" name="img046"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img046.jpg" width="500" height="431" alt="" title=""> +<p>Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles.</p></div> + +<p>None but the incorrigibly childish can be inclined to ascribe to good +luck a prosperous career extending over near twenty-three years, spent +under the fiercest <span class="pagenum"><a id="page387" name="page387"></a>(p. 387)</span> glare of the world's sunshine. No +minister of any age was more bitterly assailed or opposed, even at the +court of which he is now the acknowledged major domus in the manner of +the Pepins and other Thum-Meiers of the Frankish monarchy. The king's +brother, Prince Charles, detested the innovator whose opinions on the +necessity of Austria being removed from membership in a remodelled +German confederation, had for years leaked out from the despatch-boxes +of the Foreign Office. Even the Junkers, whose dauntless leader he had +been before and after the revolutionary events of 1848, shrank +instinctively from a man who could not be credited with veneration for +the Holy Alliance. It is remembered in Berlin that, on the nomination +of one of them, well at court, a diplomatist of some standing, to the +post of under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, the new member +of the government confessed to his friends that he accepted the post +<span class="italic">in spite</span> of Bismarck's "foreign" policy, and only in consideration +of his contempt for parliamentarism. The queen, on the other hand, +brought up in principles of constitutional government, and strongly +attached to the English alliance, viewed with horror the bold pugilist +who was daily assailing, not the persons only of the people's +representatives, but some of the very foundations of every +parliamentary edifice. Yet fiercer was the animosity shown him on +every occasion by the Princess Royal of England, whose father had +early taught her that a throne, to be safe, requires absolute solidity +of institutions and agreement with the people, and who seriously +trembled for the preservation of her children's future. Her husband +expressed himself forcibly on a public occasion against some +reactionary measures of the government. As the court, so were the +liberal parties, so the people in general. When a fanatic, of the name +of Kohn, attempted Bismarck's life in May, 1866, there were few +persons who did not regret his failure. It may be said with truth +that, for years, two men only understood a portion at least of his +political views, and shared them. One was King William. Isolated as +Herr von Bismarck was, he learned to rely implicitly on his +sovereign's faithfulness, and has had no reason to regret his trust; +for the king, though greatly his inferior in intellect, and far from +unblest with legitimist predilections, was as firmly convinced as his +minister that the confederation of German states, and Prussia herself, +might be swept away unless placed upon a new footing, in one of those +tornadoes which used periodically to blow across the continent of +Europe. Thus, the new departure was as much his own programme as +Bismarck's, and although he started (in 1861) with a hankering after +"moral" rather than material conquests, he gradually understood the +necessity for war, and has of a certainty "taken kindly," as the +saying is, to material conquests of no inconsiderable magnitude.</p> + +<p>None, even among Bismarck's modern sycophants, would pretend that +their hero was the inventor of German unity. Passionately, though not +over-wisely, had that ideal been striven after and suffered for by the +best patriots in various parts of Fatherland, their vision becoming +hazy just as often as they attempted to combine two opposite claims, +that of a national texture, and that of a headship of Austria, which +is non-German in a majority of its subjects, and alien in nearly +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page388" name="page388"></a>(p. 388)</span> all its interests. The Frankfort Parliament of 1848 marks +the transition to a clear insight, inasmuch as its final performance, +the constitution of 1849, placed the new crown on the King of +Prussia's head. When offered, it was haughtily declined under the +applause of Bismarck and his friends. The king refused because its +origin lay in a popular assembly; in Bismarck's eyes its chief defect +was that Prussia would be dictated to by the minor states. It was not +until later, in 1851, when appointed Prussian ambassador to the +Germanic Diet, chiefly because of his defence of the Treaty of Olmütz, +which placed Prussia at the mercy of Austria, that he recognized the +central point to be the necessity of thrusting Austria out of the +confederation. It is proved now that he was sagacious enough also to +perceive that such a wrench would not lead to a permanent +estrangement, but that Austria, removed once and for all from her +incubus-like and dog-in-the-manger position within the federate body, +would become, in her own interest and that of European peace, New +Germany's permanent ally.</p> + +<p>These, then, became the two purposes of his active life ever since the +day when, at the age of thirty-six, he obtained a share of the +responsibility in the management of affairs as ambassador in +Frankfort; first, to transfer <span class="italic">Austria to a position in the East</span>, and +then to bestow upon the Fatherland <span class="italic">political unity under Prussia, the +royal prerogative in the latter remaining uncurtailed</span>, so far as +circumstances would allow. Thirty-four years have now elapsed. His +opponents, in his own country or out of it, are at liberty to +reiterate that he was born under a lucky star; that he merely took up +the thread of German unification where the Frankfort Parliament of +1849 had let it drop; that anybody could have utilized such mighty +armaments as those of Prussia with the same effect; that, given total +disregard of principle or moral obligations, the result, in the hands +of any political gamester, must have been what it was. There is +something to be set against each of these assertions. For it was not +the goddess of Fortune which pursued Bismarck in the ungainly shape of +his former friend, that spiteful Prince Gortschakoff. The Frankfort +assembly had left the Austrian riddle unsolved, and apparently +insoluble. There was no hand in the country firm or skilful enough, no +brain sufficiently hard or enlightened as to the needs of the day—not +the king's, not Count Arnim's, nor certainly that of any other known +to his contemporaries. And finally, when a public man so deftly gauges +the mental capacities or extent of power of his antagonists—such as +Count Beust, or Napoleon, or Earl Russell—that he knows exactly how +far he can step with safety; then such a "gamester," however terrible +the risks to which he may have exposed his country, is a great man. +Complete unity of aims throughout, power given to carry them out, a +wonderful absence of very serious mistakes, and finally a life +sufficiently prolonged to admit of retrospection; in each of these +respects the career of Bismarck resembles that of Mr. Disraeli.</p> + +<p>The oft-told story of his diplomatic adventures at Frankfort, at +Vienna, at Petersburg, and at Paris, and still more of his rulership +in Prussia since 1862, and in Germany since 1866, has been uniform +under two aspects. First, as already <span class="pagenum"><a id="page389" name="page389"></a>(p. 389)</span> mentioned, in the stern +continuity of his purposes. And secondly, in the mistaken view +entertained regarding him at each successive period of his public +life. Passing under review the whole career of this political +phenomenon, you naturally pause before its strangest and its most +humorous feature, viz., that, although living under the closest +inspection, he was misunderstood year after year. Who would, +consequently, deny the possibility at least, of Bismarck's being so +misunderstood, by friend and foe, at this present moment?</p> + +<p>While those despatches were written by him from Frankfort which +Poschinger's researches have now exhumed, their writer was thought, by +his partisans just as much as by his enemies, to be occupied solely +with strengthening the "solidarity of conservative interests" and the +supremacy of Austria, or with spinning the rope of steel which was to +strangle all parliaments in Germany. And yet we know positively at +present that, with increasing vigor day by day, did he warn his +government against the scarcely concealed intention of Austria to +"<span class="italic">avilir la Prusse d'abord et puis l'anéantir</span>" (Prince +Schwartzenberg's famous saying in 1851); we observe with surprise how +quickly legitimist leanings disappear behind his own country's +interests; we stand aghast at the iron sway obtained by so young a man +over the self-conceit of a vacillating, yet dogmatic and wilful, king +(Frederick William IV.). It was he whose advice, given in direct +opposition to Bunsen's, led to the refusal by Prussia of the Western +alliance during the Crimean war. But he did not give this advice, as +German liberals then believed, out of subservience to the autocrat of +the North, whose assistance his party humbly solicited in order to +exterminate liberalism. He persistently gave it to thwart Austria and +to preserve Prussia (then in no brilliant military condition) from +having to bear the brunt of Muscovite wrath, which he cunningly judged +to be of more lasting importance in the coming struggles than the +friendship of Western Europe. At a time when European politicians +considered that he was the mouthpiece of schemers for a Russo-French +alliance in his repeated and successful endeavors to gain Napoleon's +good-will, he was adroitly sounding the French emperor's mind and +character. He soon convinced himself that it was shallow and +fantastic, and he built upon this conviction one of the most hazardous +designs which ever originated in a brain observant of realities—that +identical design which eventually led Prussia, some years later, first +to Schleswig and then to Sadowa, with the "arbiter of Europe," as +Napoleon was then called, stolidly looking on! And what is one to say +of the four years of parliamentary conflicts (1862 to 1866), during +which no one doubted but that his object in life and his <span class="italic">raison +d'être</span> consisted in a reinstatement of the Prussian king on the +absolute throne of his ancestors—a reaction from all that was +progressive to the grossest abuses of despotism? All this time he was +fighting a desperate battle against backstairs influences, which with +true instinct were deprecating and counteracting his schemes of +aggrandizement and national reorganization. It is clear, on looking +back to that period which has left such indelible marks on the +judgment of many well-meaning liberals, that his exaggerated tone of +aggressive defence in the Prussian Landtag, the furious onslaught of +his harangues, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page390" name="page390"></a>(p. 390)</span> were intended to silence the tongues at court +which denounced him as a demagogue and a radical. Paradoxical as it +may sound, one may safely assert that nothing more effectually helped +King William in his later foreign policy, than the opinion pervading +all Europe in 1864 and 1866, that, having lost all hold upon the minds +of his people, weakened and crippled in every sense of the word by +Bismarckian folly, his Majesty could never strike a blow.</p> + +<p>There was peace and concord in Germany between 1866 and 1877. Without +becoming a liberal, and while opposing every attempt to outstep +certain limits, Bismarck created and rather enjoyed an alliance with +the majority formed in his favor by the national liberals and a +moderate section of the conservatives. The German Empire, proclaimed +by the German sovereigns at Versailles in January, 1871, was of his +creation; and while established upon somewhat novel principles of +federation by a parliamentary statute, it looked to outsiders like a +home for progress and liberty. There were dangers lurking, it is true, +beneath many a provision of the new constitution, such as the absence +of an upper house, and the substitution in its stead of delegates from +the separate governments, acting in each case according to +instructions received, authorized to speak whenever they chose before +the Reichstag, but deliberating separately and secretly both upon +bills to propose, and upon replies to give to resolutions of the +Reichstag. In fact, this Bundesrath, or federal council, represents +the governing element under the emperor, with functions both +administrative and legislative. By an artificial method of counting, +Prussia, although she would command three-fifths of all the voters by +virtue of her population, has less than one-third. Thus the +possibility of an imbroglio between the governments is ever present, +as well as that of a hasty vote in the popular assembly.</p> + +<a id="img047" name="img047"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img047.jpg" width="400" height="569" alt="" title=""> +<p>Bismarck before Paris.</p></div> + +<p>It will never, probably, be quite understood why Prince Bismarck broke +loose from a political alliance which, it would seem, had given no +trouble whatever. In foreign affairs the house, in its immense +majority, abstained from even the faintest attempt at interference. As +for patronage, it has been said that no appointment was ever solicited +for anyone by a member of the liberal party. From ministerial down to +menial posts no claim was raised, no request preferred. If the section +of moderate conservatives above mentioned has furnished a few +ambassadors like Prince Hohenlohe, Count Münster, Baron Keudell, and +Count Stolberg, that was by the chief's free will. Why, then, it has +been asked, a change so absolute as the one the world has witnessed, +from the saying of the chancellor in 1877, that his ideal was to have +high financial duties on half a dozen objects and free trade on all +others, to one of the most comprehensive tariffs in the world two +years later? His own and his friends' explanations are lamentably +deficient—"growing anæmia and impoverishment of the country," +"drowning of native industry by foreign manufacturers," "corn imported +cheaper than produced," and what not. The present writer, looking from +afar, has always thought two motives to have been paramount in the +chancellor's mind when he separated from the liberals and became, not +a convinced, but a thorough-going protectionist. It is not said that +these were his only motives. Chess-players <span class="pagenum"><a id="page391" name="page391"></a>(p. 391)</span> know that each +important move affects not only the figures primarily attacked, but +changes the whole texture of the play.</p> + +<p>First, then, and foremost, fresh sources of income were wanted to make +the finances of the empire independent from the several exchequers of +the states bound by statute to make up for any deficiency <span class="italic">pro rata +parte</span> of their population. Two or three objects would have provided +the needful, viz., spirits and beetroot sugar, and (with due caution) +tobacco; or an "imperial" income tax, changing according to each +year's necessities; or both systems combined. Tobacco, it is true, was +tried, and the attempt failed. Spirits would bear almost any taxation, +but the chancellor does not choose to tread upon the tender toe of the +great owners of land who are potato-growers, and consequently +distillers on a large scale. And another important class of +agriculturists, the beetroot growers and sugar-producers, were not to +be trifled with either. But how about direct taxation, the manly +sacrifice of free peoples, the plummet by which to sound the +enlightenment of a nation? The chancellor instinctively felt, I +believe, that there he would be going beyond his depth; that under +such a <span class="italic">régime</span> the free will of citizens must have the fullest swing; +the "prerogative" would suffer, if not immediately, yet as a necessary +sequence. And so he deliberately abandoned free trade and espoused +indirect taxation and protection.</p> + +<p>Success, let free traders say what they please on the subject, success +has accompanied Bismarck's genius on this novel field, as well as on +the older fields where all mankind acknowledges his superiority. For +the coffers of the empire are filling. A motley majority in the +Reichstag not only accepts, but improves upon his protectionist +demands. He has become the demigod of the bloated manufacturing, +mining, and landlord interests throughout the country. He is now about +to win the last of the great industries, and the one which withstood +his blandishments the longest, viz., the trans-oceanic carrying trade. +He is credited with having improved the state of certain trades, even +by such as know perfectly well that, like the former depression, the +present improvement in those has been universal. The whole country is +becoming protectionist. All young men, even in Hamburg and Bremen, +believe in protection as "the thing." The Prussian landlord, whose +soul was steeped in free trade so long as Prussia was a +grain-exporting country, cherishes protectionist convictions now that +she must largely import cereals. The bureaucrat who had never sworn by +other economic lawgivers than Adam Smith and his followers, now +accepts Professor Adolphus Wagner's ever-changing sophisms. And as for +the south and the west of Germany, why, they adore the man who had +fulfilled that dream of protection in which they, as disciples of +Friedrich List, had grown up. It is true that all large cities, even +there, are protesting against the lately imposed and quite lately +increased duties upon cereals; but then, "can any good thing come out +of" large cities? Compared to the difficulties that impede the action +of the free trade party in Germany, Mr. Bright's and Mr. Cobden's +up-hill work sinks into insignificance.</p> + +<p>Nothing, to a beginner in the study of Bismarck's character, would +appear so <span class="pagenum"><a id="page392" name="page392"></a>(p. 392)</span> utterly puzzling as his demeanor toward the +communists, socialists, or, as they call themselves in Germany, Social +Democrats. One of his most trusted secretaries is an old ally and +correspondent of Herr Karl Marx, the high-priest of communism, who, +toward the end of his London career, rode the whirlwind and directed +the storm of German socialism. Bismarck himself confesses to having +received in private audience Lassalle, one certainly of the most +capable men of modern Germany, and to whom as its first author, a +retrospective inquiry would trace back the present formidable, closely +ruled organization of socialist operatives of Germany. The first +minister of the Prussian crown was closeted once—people say more than +once, but that does not matter—with the ablest subverter of the +modern fabric of society. He found him "mighty pleasant to talk to." +He liked his predilection for a powerful supreme authority overawing +the organized masses, though "whether he did so in the interest of a +dynasty of Lassalles or of Hohenzollern's" seemed to Herr von Bismarck +an open question. After Lassalle's tragical death in 1864, we observe +how the Prussian government, while watching with Argus-eyes every +excess of speech among liberals, allowed his first successors, +Schweizer and others, a vulgar set of demagogues, such license of +bloody harangue as has of late years got Louise Michel into trouble in +republican France. Then we hear of nothing as between Bismarck and the +socialists for some years—the years I have described above as years +of peace and concord in Germany—till suddenly, on the occasion of two +attempts made in 1878, by Hödel and by Nobiling against the emperor's +life, he came down upon that sect as with a sledge-hammer. His famous +anti-socialist bill was at first rejected. It passed into law only +after a dissolution, the electors having in their affectionate pity +for the wounded emperor unequivocally given their verdict in favor of +suppression. It has since been reaccepted three times by an unwilling +house, and with exertions of the same man who had fostered and +protected the beginnings of socialism, and who had the watchword given +out at the last general elections in 1884, that "His Serene Highness +the Chancellor would prefer the sight of ten Social-Democrats to that +of one Liberal (Deutsch-Freisinige.)"</p> + +<p>Now, what is the clew to this comedy of errors? No mere waywardness or +perversity of character, but some powerful bias and a first-cousinship +in principle must account for one of the strangest anomalies in modern +history. Perhaps the following consideration will render both the +"bias" and the "first-cousinship" at least intelligible. Prince +Bismarck is a good hater. Now, if he has any one antipathy stronger +than another, and that through life, it is that against the burgher +class, the reverse of aristocrats, the born liberals, townsmen mostly +yet not exclusively—the "bourgeois," as the French call them +(although, if I err not, the exact counterpart to the "bourgeois" +species is not found on German soil), a law-abiding set, independent +of government, paying their taxes, and thoroughly happy. When they, +through their representatives, bade him defiance in 1862 to 1865, and +thwarted his measures of coercion, his inmost soul cried, <span class="italic">Acheronta +movebo!</span> He sent for Lassalle, he paid his successors' debts, and +generally assisted the sect. So much for the "bias." And now for the +"first-cousinship." <span class="pagenum"><a id="page393" name="page393"></a>(p. 393)</span> No student of history will deny that +despotism, whenever it has arisen, or been preserved in highly +civilized communities, will extend more of a fatherly care to the +masses than liberalism. This cannot be otherwise; for liberalism sets +itself to educate the masses to self-responsibility, and each +individual to thrift and self-reliance. The sight of an able-bodied +beggar is, to a genuine liberal, a source of anger first, and only on +further contemplation, of pity. He will exert all his energies to +remove every obstacle from out of the way of his poorer brethren; he +will preach wise economy, and facilitate it by personal sacrifices and +legislative inducements; but he will not tempt the government of his +country to act as a second providence for the operative classes. Quite +the reverse is Bismarck's opinion. According to him, the state should +exercise "practical Christianity." With Titanic resolution to drive +out Satan through Beelzebub, he does not shrink from acknowledging and +proclaiming the "right of labor." There is probably nothing left to +say after your lips have spoken these unholy, blood-stained words. If +there was, he would be the man to say it rather than allow himself to +be outbid by mob-leaders of the socialistic feather. <span class="italic">Droit au +travail</span>, forsooth! The phrase has cost thousands their lives in the +Parisian carnage of June, 1848. In the mouth of Karl Marx and other +outspoken champions of his cause, it means absorption by the state of +all the <span class="italic">sources</span> of labor, such as land and factories, because by +such absorption only can the state insure work for the unemployed. In +the mouth of Bismarck it means a lesser thing, of course, in extent, +but not in its essence. As chief minister of Prussia he has ably +brought about the purchase of nearly all lines of railway within that +monarchy. As chancellor of the empire he has tried his very best to +obtain a monopoly on tobacco. All accident insurance companies have +already been ruined and their place taken, so far as accidents to +factory-hands, etc., are concerned, by an imperial office. His mighty +hand is stretched out already to suppress and absorb all other +insurances. The kingdom of the Incas, in ancient Peru, as described in +Prescott's volumes, has probably not done more work for its subjects +than Bismarck's ideal of a German empire would do for its inhabitants. +With every species of occupation or enterprise managed directly by +government, why should the ruler of an empire, or of a socialist +republic, hesitate about proclaiming a right to labor? A critic might +object that its proclamation by Bismarck, in 1884, was premature, +inasmuch as he had failed in carrying his Monopoly bill, and could not +be certain of success regarding other state encroachments. Granted. +But a "first-cousinship" between his views on social reform and those +of Messrs. Bebel and Liebknecht, is an actuality of modern Germany, +and should be seen to by those who desire this central power of Europe +to remain exempt from a social revolution. Cursory as this review of +Bismarck's past life and present policy has of necessity been, some +indulgent reader may perhaps bestow upon me—besides his thanks for +having withstood the temptation to quote the pithy, and at times +impassioned, utterances of the wittiest man in power of the present +day—just enough of his confidence to believe that I have suppressed +no trait of importance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page394" name="page394"></a>(p. 394)</span> However, since there is one thing more important still than a +great man, namely his country, let us not dismiss the interesting +subject of this retrospect without inquiring what that country has +gained and what lost through his agency. Germany possesses a +federation, not constructed after any existing pattern, not made to +please any theory, not the object of anybody's very passionate +admiration, but accepted in order to alter as little as possible the +accustomed territorial and political arrangements. In one sense it has +no army, for the Prussian and the Bavarian armies, although the empire +bears the cost, still exist. In one sense it possesses not the +indirect taxation, for the individual states do the collecting of +custom-house duties, etc. In one sense it has scarcely any organ of +administration, for the whole internal government, the schools, courts +of law, and police, all belong to the single states; and foreign +affairs, the navy, the post-office, and railways in Alsace, are the +only fields of imperial direct administration. Yet, what it has is +valuable enough. The empire rules the army and can legislate over and +control a prodigious amount of national subjects. Its foreign policy +is one. The military command is one. Certain specified sources of +revenue are the empire's. Patriotic aspirations are fulfilled. The +individual sovereigns in Germany possess a guarantee of their status, +the operative classes an opportunity for organization and improvement +on a large scale. Monarchical feeling has gained in depth, both +generally and with personal reference to the emperor and to the crown +prince, both "representative men" in the best sense of the word, and +the crown prince, the most lovable man of his day.</p> + +<p>Another salutary constitutional reform—not of Bismarck's making, for +he gave his consent unwillingly and not without first having marred +its beauty, but yet an effect of his great deeds—is the Prussian +"Kreis" and "Provinzial-Ordnung," first introduced in 1874. No more +logical deduction was possible than this commencement of +decentralization within the Prussian monarchy. Before that date +provincial diets had existed for fifty years, and a kind of assembly +had also managed certain affairs for the Kreis, an administrative unit +smaller than an English county, and averaging about one hundred +thousand inhabitants. In the same proportion as German unity made +progress, it was believed that self-government ought to become more +extensively introduced, and the "tendency of the blood toward the +head" or capital, be obviated. The example of home rule presented by +the "Kreis" and the provinces of Prussia since this reform, is not +assuredly of a nature to frighten weak nerves. But much money is now +usefully spent within and by the provinces independently of any decree +from a central authority; and as regards willingness to work on +provincial and (so to say) county boards, it is said to be beyond all +praise. An English public man of high standing assured me, some years +ago, that these Prussian beginnings of home rule had attracted the +serious notice of Mr. Gladstone. I do not wonder at it.</p> + +<p>Another permanent good for which Germany seems indebted to Bismarck, +and the last I will mention, is of quite modern date—I mean his +colonial policy. Individual Germans have, at all times and in immense +numbers, found their way across the sea. On the Baltic and North Sea +coast, German ports, though few <span class="pagenum"><a id="page395" name="page395"></a>(p. 395)</span> in number, yet command a +very large trade. Next to the English, German traders form the most +numerous community in every place, however remote, where business of +any kind can be transacted. But to convert the inland +Philistines—that vast majority of Germans who have never sniffed +sea-air—into enthusiasts for a colonial empire required all +Bismarck's ability and prestige. No doubt he descried in the movement +a chance for a diversion of the public mind from obnoxious topics. It +was useful to him to produce an impression as if the export trade, +stagnating as it must under the baneful effects of modern protection, +could rally under the influence of colonial enterprise. These +considerations would not, however, suffice to explain his +long-considered, cautious proceedings in this matter. To comprehend +his motives fully, it will be necessary to admit that his prescient +mind would consider the time, apparently not very far distant, when +what are now styled Great Powers will be dwindling fast by the side of +such gigantic empires as seem intent upon dividing the earth's surface +between them, like England with her colonial possessions, and Russia. +The effect upon this country, its foreign policy, and the very +character of its inhabitants, would be alike cramping, unless a way +for expansion was opened for each. When the political schemes of a +considerable man are subjects of speculation, it is wiser to guess at +something exalted if you wish to come near the truth. So probably in +this case. No doubt he, too, has foreseen the reaction which, at no +very remote period of German history, will gain a mastery over +people's minds, when failures and disappointments begin to crowd +around each of the present equatorial enterprises. But he believes in +his countrymen's capacity to overcome failure and disappointment +without recourse to costly warlike expeditions, for which Germany is +unfitted by her institution of universal and short military service.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>CHARLES STEWART PARNELL<br> +By <span class="smcap">Thomas Davidson</span><br> +(1846-1891)</h3> + + +<p>Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish politician, was born at Avondale, +in County Wicklow, June 28, 1846. His father belonged to an old +Cheshire family, which purchased an estate in Ireland under Charles +II., and from which had sprung Thomas Parnell, the poet, and Sir Henry +Brooke Parnell, created Baron Congleton in 1841. His great-grandfather +was that Sir John Parnell who was long Chancellor of the Irish +Exchequer, and an active supporter of Grattan in his struggle against +the Union; his grandfather, William Parnell, sat for County Wicklow, +and published in 1819 a foolish political novel, anything but Irish in +sentiment; his mother, Delia Tudor Stewart, was daughter of Admiral +Charles Stewart, of the United <span class="pagenum"><a id="page396" name="page396"></a>(p. 396)</span> States Navy. He was educated +at Yeovil and elsewhere in England under private masters, and was for +some time a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge, but took no +degree. In 1874 he became High Sheriff of County Wicklow; next year he +contested County Dublin without success, but in April, 1875, was +returned as an avowed Home Ruler for County Meath.</p> + +<p>He attached himself to Joseph Biggar, the member for Cavan, who was +the first to discover the value of deliberate obstruction in +parliamentary tactics, and during 1877 and 1878 he gained great +popularity in Ireland by his audacity in the use of the new engine. +There were many scenes of violence and excitement, and the new horror +of all-night sittings became familiar to the House of Commons. +Throughout the struggle Parnell showed equal audacity and coolness, +and acquired a masterly knowledge of parliamentary forms. Mr. Butt, +the Irish leader, disapproved of this development of the <span class="italic">active</span> or +obstructive policy, but his influence quickly gave way before +Parnell's, and in May, 1879, he died. The year before, Parnell had +been elected president of the English Home Rule Association. He now +threw himself with energy into agrarian agitation, gave it its +watchword: "Keep a firm grip of your homesteads," at Westport in June, +and in October was elected president of the Irish National Land +League, which had been founded by Michael Davitt.</p> + +<p>Mr. Parnell next visited the United States to raise funds for the +cause, was allowed, like Lafayette and Kossuth, to address Congress +itself, and carried home £70,000. At the general election of 1880 he +was returned for the counties of Meath and Mayo and for the city of +Cork, and chose to sit for the last. He was now formally elected +chairman of the Irish parliamentary party by twenty-three votes over +eighteen for Mr. Shaw. Meantime the agrarian agitation grew, and in a +speech at Ennis, September 19, 1880, he formulated the method of +boycotting as an engine for punishing an unpopular individual. Mr. +Gladstone's government now came to the conclusion that the objects of +the Land League were contrary to the law, and in December put Parnell +and several other members of the executive on trial, but the jury +finally failed to agree. Next session the government brought in a +Coercion Bill, which Mr. Parnell opposed vigorously. In the course of +the struggle he was ejected from the House, after a stormy scene, +together with thirty-four of his followers, February 3, 1881. Mr. +Gladstone next carried his famous Land Bill, but this Parnell refused +to accept as a final settlement until the result of certain test cases +before the new Land Court was seen. On October 13th, Mr. Gladstone +sent him to Kilmainham Jail, and there he lay till released on May 2, +1882, after some private negotiations with the government conducted +through the medium of Captain O'Shea. Mr. Forster resigned the Irish +secretaryship in consequence of the release, and next followed the +terrible tragedy of Phœnix Park, of which Parnell, in his place in +the House of Commons, expressed his detestation.</p> + +<a id="img048" name="img048"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img048.jpg" width="400" height="539" alt="" title=""> +<p>Parnell testifying against the "Times."</p></div> + +<p>The Crimes Act was now hurried through Parliament in spite of the +strenuous opposition of the Irish party. Already the Land League had +been proclaimed as an illegal association after the issue of the "No +Rent" manifesto, but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page397" name="page397"></a>(p. 397)</span> early in 1884 the Nationalists +succeeded in reviving it under the name of the National League, and +Mr. Parnell was elected its president. The year before the sum of +£35,000, mostly raised in America, had been presented to him by his +admirers. After an unsuccessful attempt to make terms with the +Conservatives, in the course of which he had a famous interview with +Lord Carnarvon, the viceroy, Parnell flung his vote—now eighty-six +strong since the lowering of the franchise—into the Liberal scale and +so brought about the fall of the short-lived first Salisbury +government. Mr. Parnell nominated the greater number of Nationalist +candidates for the Irish constituencies, and the firm hand with which +he controlled his party was seen in the promptitude with which he +crushed a revolt of Healy and Biggar against his nomination of Captain +O'Shea for Galway.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone's views on the question of Home Rule had by this time +undergone a complete change, and accordingly he introduced a Home Rule +Bill which was defeated owing to the defection of a large number of +Liberal members headed by Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain. The +consequent appeal to the country (July, 1886) gave Lord Salisbury a +Unionist majority of over a hundred votes, and threw Parnell into a +close alliance with Mr. Gladstone and the portion of the Liberal party +that adhered to him. It was at this period that the <span class="italic">Times</span> newspaper +published its series of articles entitled "Parnellism and Crime"—a +tremendous indictment against the chief Nationalist leaders, the most +startling point in which was a series of letters published in +fac-simile, one, signed by Parnell, expressing approval of Mr. Burke's +murder. After an elaborate trial (extending to one hundred and +twenty-eight days), the most sensational event in which was the +breakdown under cross-examination, and the flight and suicide at +Madrid, of Pigott, the wretched Irishman who had imposed upon the +<span class="italic">Times</span> with forgeries, Mr. Parnell was formally cleared of the charge +of having been personally guilty of organizing outrages, but his party +were declared to have been guilty of incitements to intimidation, out +of which had grown crimes which they had failed to denounce. Parnell +now began an action against the <span class="italic">Times</span>, which was quickly compromised +by a payment of £5,000.</p> + +<p>The "uncrowned king" of Ireland had now reached the summit of his +power—the height of the wave was marked by the presentation of the +freedom of Edinburgh, July 30, 1889, and the banquet given him on his +forty-fourth birthday. But his fall in public esteem was quickly to +follow. A few months later his frequent mysterious absences from his +parliamentary duties were explained by his appearance, or rather his +non-appearance, as co-respondent in a divorce case brought by Captain +O'Shea against his wife. After formal evidence was given by the +petitioner, the usual decree was granted with costs against Parnell +(November 17, 1890).</p> + +<p>The Gladstonian party in England now demanded his retirement from the +leadership of the cause, and Mr. Gladstone informed the Irish members +that they must make their choice between Parnell and himself. They met +and reappointed him their chairman, expecting, as the majority +explained later, that after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page398" name="page398"></a>(p. 398)</span> this recognition of his past +services he would voluntarily retire, at least for a time. But they +had not calculated upon the characteristic obstinacy of his nature, +and quickly found that their leader had no mind to efface himself. +After some days of profitless and heated wrangling, the majority ended +the discussion by leaving the room and electing Justin McCarthy as +their chairman. Parnell, with the shattered remnants of his party, now +carried the warfare into Ireland, where his condemnation by the Irish +bishops and the emphatic defeat of his nominees for North Kilkenny and +North Sligo showed that a large number of his fellow-countrymen shared +the judgment of his conduct pronounced by Mr. Gladstone and the party +in England. The career of the man who had forced the issue of Irish +Home Rule upon the English people, and made it the great question of +the day, was drawing rapidly to its close. He died October 6, 1891.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>WILLIAM McKINLEY<br> +By <span class="smcap">Rossiter Johnson</span><br> +(1843-1901)</h3> + +<a id="img049" name="img049"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img049.jpg" width="250" height="345" alt="" title=""> +<p class="smaller"> William McKinley.<br> From a copyrighted photograph by<br> +Courtney, Canton, O.</p></div> + +<p>With all the opportunities that our great Republic offers to native +ability and energy for attaining the highest civic prizes without +extraneous assistance or arbitrary distinction, we have produced no +more perfect example of a happy result than the career of William +McKinley. European critics who are unwilling to see anything good in +democracy are fond of repeating certain disparaging assertions +concerning American life, activities, and government. They represent +us as virtually a plutocracy; but Mr. McKinley never was rich, and +never was under the slightest suspicion of using his great office to +acquire wealth. They say we are rude and vulgar; but Mr. McKinley was +as courteous and as gentle as the most fastidious could wish. They say +we are ignorant of all but the most sordid affairs; but he was +thoroughly educated, and probably there are not half a dozen statesmen +in Europe who know as much of his country as he knew of theirs. They +point with a sneer at the divorce laws of some of our States, and +infer therefrom the direst things with regard to our domestic life; +but Mr. McKinley's devotion to his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page399" name="page399"></a>(p. 399)</span> wife and his home was +known and admired of all. Moreover, there is not a sovereign in +Europe, though some of them command vast armies, that ever has been +within reach of an enemy's guns; but William McKinley carried a musket +in the great Civil War, won promotion by merit, and participated in +hotter battles than Europe has seen since Waterloo.</p> + +<p>This man came of Scottish ancestry, the earliest records of the family +dating from 1547. The crest of the clan was a mailed hand holding an +olive branch, and the motto was "Not too much." William (father of the +President) was born in Mercer County, Penn., in 1807, and two years +later the family removed to Columbiana County, O., where in 1829 he +married Nancy Campbell. Nine children were born of this union, of whom +William, Jr., was the seventh.</p> + +<p>The future President was born in Niles, Trumbull County, O., January +29, 1843. His grandfather and his father were iron manufacturers. His +father was a Whig and a Protectionist. The family were Methodists.</p> + +<p>William McKinley, Jr., was sent to the public school in Niles till +1852, when his father removed to Poland, where he studied at the +seminary. He is said to have excelled in mathematics and languages, +but was specially noted for his activity and ability in the debating +club. Here he was prepared for college, and in 1860 he entered the +junior class at Meadville, Penn. But the boy had worked too hard and +steadily, and in a little while he was obliged to give up his studies +and seek a change. He taught for a time in a public school, and then +became a clerk in the Poland post-office. And here came the +turning-point in his life.</p> + +<p>The irrepressible conflict, foretold by our poets and dreaded by our +statesmen, broke out in the spring of 1861. The great Civil War, which +lasted four years and cost four hundred lives for every day of its +duration, appealed to the young manhood of the country as nothing else +ever had; and while it sent many to the grave, and changed all the +scheme of life for others, it opened for still others such careers as +without it would have been impossible.</p> + +<p>William McKinley, Jr., then eighteen years of age, was one of the +first in his town to enlist for the defence of the Republic. He became +a private in the Twenty-third Ohio infantry, and in this he was +exceedingly fortunate, as it was one of the best regiments in the +service and numbered among its officers several who became famous. +William S. Rosecrans was the Colonel, Stanley Matthews the +Lieutenant-Colonel, and Rutherford B. Hayes the Major. In the four +years of its service that regiment mustered, first and last, 2,095 +men; it marched hundreds of miles, and was in nineteen battles, and +169 of its men were killed.</p> + +<p>Young McKinley was one of the model soldiers of the regiment. General +Hayes said: "We soon found that in business and executive ability he +was of unusual and surpassing capacity for a boy of his age. When +battles were to be fought, or a service was to be performed in warlike +things, he always took his place." McKinley said in after years that +he looked back with pleasure upon the fourteen months that he carried +a musket in the ranks, for they taught him many things. The regiment +was sent into West Virginia, and its first engagement was at Carnifex +Ferry. In the summer of 1862 it was ordered to Washington, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page400" name="page400"></a>(p. 400)</span> +and a few days after its arrival it joined the Army of the Potomac, +which was then moving northward to head off the Army of Northern +Virginia, which was bent upon an invasion of the Northern States. The +crash of arms came at South Mountain (September 14th) and Antietam +(September 17th). At South Mountain the regiment made three successful +charges, and lost heavily. Antietam was the bloodiest day of the war, +more than 2,000 men on each side were killed on the field, and the +Twenty-third Ohio was in the hottest of the fight, holding its +position from morning till evening unrelieved. Private McKinley, +meanwhile, had been made Commissary Sergeant, and his place was with +the supplies in the rear. He pressed a few stragglers into his service +and got ready a dinner for the regiment, with hot coffee, and loaded +it into two wagons. With these he drove upon the field, under fire. +The enemy's shot struck down the mules of one wagon, but with the +other he reached his comrades on the firing-line, who gave a great +shout of welcome when they saw him. He walked along the line, and fed +every man with his own hand. There is no record that such a thing ever +was done before or since. For this service he was made a second +lieutenant, and in the following February he was promoted to first +lieutenant. The regiment was a part of the force that headed off +Morgan in his raid into Ohio, fought him at Buffington's Ford, and +finally captured him. After that it took part in a series of battles +in the mountains and in the Shenandoah Valley. At Cloyd's Mountain, +after a wonderful march through ravines and dense woods, they burst +into the enemy's camp, McKinley leading his company, which was the +first to leap over the fortifications and silence the guns.</p> + +<p>At Winchester, in July, 1864, General Crook's army of 6,000 men was +attacked by Early's of 20,000 and compelled to retreat. A West +Virginia regiment failed to fall back with the rest, and Lieutenant +McKinley was ordered to bring it off. Major Hastings says: "None of us +expected to see him again as we watched him push his horse through the +open fields. Once he was completely enveloped in the smoke of an +exploding shell." He brought off the regiment and led it to its place +in the marching column. And a little later he found opportunity to +perform another peculiar service. As they continued their retreat down +the valley, they came upon four guns, with caissons, that had been +abandoned. Lieutenant McKinley asked for permission to bring them off, +and received it, though his superior officers would not order the +tired men to undertake the task. "I think the Twenty-third will do +it," said the young lieutenant, and when he called for volunteers +every man in his company came forward and the guns were saved. The +next day he was promoted to captain.</p> + +<p>He again distinguished himself in the battles of Berryville, Fisher's +Hill, and Opequan. He was now on General Crook's staff, and at the +bloody battle of the Opequan occurred an incident that showed the +young officer capable of becoming a successful commander. He was sent +with an order to General Duval to move his brigade to a position on +the right of the Sixth Corps. The General asked, "By what route?" and +the Captain suggested, "I would move up this creek." The General, +ignorant of the ground, refused to move without definite <span class="pagenum"><a id="page401" name="page401"></a>(p. 401)</span> +orders. "Then," said McKinley, who knew that there was urgent need of +the movement, "by command of General Crook, I order you to move your +command up this ravine to a position on the right of the army." The +movement was made at once, and proved successful. McKinley was also in +the fierce fight at Cedar Creek, and afterward served on Hancock's +staff. In March, 1865, he received from President Lincoln a commission +as Major by brevet for gallant services.</p> + +<p>With so much of manly character developed at the age of twenty-two, +and so much experience in the greatest conflict of modern times, he +turned to the study of law—first in an office, and then in the Albany +Law School—and was admitted to the Bar in 1867. He settled in Canton, +which was thenceforth his home, and there in 1871 he married Miss Ida +Saxton, who was cashier in her father's bank. Their devotion for +thirty years, and the tenderness and constancy with which he watched +over her in the latter years when she was an invalid, form a chapter +that never can be mentioned without touching the hearts of their +countrymen.</p> + +<p>Mr. McKinley made his first political speech in 1867, and in 1869, as +a Republican, was elected prosecuting attorney for Stark County. In +1875 he made effective speeches for honest money and the resumption of +specie payments, and in 1876 he was elected to Congress by a large +majority. He was re-elected six times, but in 1890 was defeated by the +gerrymandering of his district. In 1891 he was nominated for Governor +of Ohio, and was elected by a plurality of 21,500. He was re-elected +in 1893 by a plurality of more than 80,000.</p> + +<p>In Congress he had been a prominent debater on many important +questions, but he was chiefly conspicuous as an advocate of +protection, and, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, he +was largely the author of the tariff bill of 1890 which bears his +name. It was slow work getting the bill through Congress, and it did +not become a law till October. The most amazing misrepresentations of +it were set afloat, and it had not time to vindicate itself before the +Congressional elections came on in November, when the party that had +carried it through was overwhelmingly defeated.</p> + +<p>During these years Mr. McKinley was almost constantly in the field as +a political speaker, and he became known as one of the most popular +and effective that our country has produced. It is computed that he +addressed a larger number of men, from the platform, than any other +man that ever lived.</p> + +<p>He was a delegate to several national conventions of his party, and in +1888, and again in 1892, there was a strong movement to give him the +presidential nomination; but he decisively suppressed it each time—on +the first occasion because he had gone there as a friend and supporter +of John Sherman, and on the second because he declared that President +Harrison was entitled to a renomination. In 1896 he was unanimously +nominated on the first ballot. One circumstance that pointed him out +as the logical candidate was the fact that his tariff bill had been +replaced by one that proved a complete failure. The most exciting +question in the canvass was that of free coinage of silver. Mr. +McKinley was on a platform that declared for the gold standard, and +his opponent, William J. Bryan, was on one that declared for free and +unlimited coinage of silver at the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page402" name="page402"></a>(p. 402)</span> ratio of sixteen to one. +Mr. McKinley was elected by a plurality in the popular vote of more +than 600,000, and in the electoral college by 271 to 176. In 1900 he +was renominated, and his opponent as before was Mr. Bryan, the issues +being the same. This time Mr. McKinley had a plurality in the popular +vote of more than 800,000, and in the electoral college had 292 to +155.</p> + +<p>In the canvass of 1896 Mr. McKinley announced that he would make no +electioneering tour. But the people were determined to hear him, and +they went to Canton in large delegations and excursions from all parts +of the country. From his doorstep he made more than three hundred +addresses, speaking thus to three-quarters of a million persons. There +was scarcely any repetition, yet every speech was an admirable +specimen of argument and oratory.</p> + +<p>Immediately after his first inauguration he called a special session +of Congress to revise the tariff, and the new bill was put through in +time to have a fair chance to vindicate itself before new elections +occurred. The other notable event in the first year of his +administration was the treaty for annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, +which he signed in June, but which was not confirmed by the Senate +till a year later. In 1898 occurred the most important event in +American affairs since the Civil War—the war with Spain. This arose +from the intolerable condition of things in Cuba, where the Spanish +authorities, endeavoring to suppress the last of many insurrections, +had resorted to the most cruel measures, which entailed horrible +suffering upon the women and children, and the feeling was intensified +by the blowing up of the battleship Maine in the harbor of Havana, +February 15, 1898. President McKinley did his utmost to prevent actual +war; and when he saw that to be inevitable, he delayed it as long as +possible and pushed on the preparations for it with all practicable +speed. On April 11th he sent to Congress a message on the subject, and +on the 20th he signed a joint resolution declaring that the people of +Cuba ought to be free and independent, and demanding that the +Government of Spain relinquish its authority over that island. +Diplomatic relations were broken off at once, and a state of war was +declared. Ten days later an American fleet commanded by Commodore +George Dewey entered the harbor of Manila, destroyed a Spanish fleet, +and silenced the shore batteries, without losing a vessel or a man. On +July 3d another American fleet destroyed another Spanish fleet that +had run out of the harbor of Santiago, Cuba, and was trying to escape +westward. In this action, again, the Americans lost not a single +vessel, and but one man. Two days earlier than this the American land +forces that had been approaching the defences of Santiago on the east +advanced to the final assault, and after bloody fighting at San Juan +Hill and El Caney they were victorious. The invasion and capture of +the island of Porto Rico, soon afterward, ended the war in the West +Indies. In August the American land forces that had been sent to the +Philippines captured the city of Manila and its garrison. Peace soon +followed, and by the treaty signed in Paris, December 10th, Spain +relinquished her sovereignty over Cuba and ceded to the United States +Porto Rico and the Philippines, receiving $20,000,000 as an indemnity +for her expenditures in the last-named islands.</p> + +<a id="img050" name="img050"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="400" height="644" alt="" title=""> +<p class="italic" style="font-size: 70%;">From Harper's Magazine Copyright, 1897,<br> by Harper & +Brothers.</p> +<p>President Mckinley taking the oath of office.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page403" name="page403"></a>(p. 403)</span> President McKinley travelled extensively during his term of +office, spoke many times in nearly every State, and was probably more +generally beloved by the people than any of his predecessors. He +visited the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, in September, 1901, +and on the 5th delivered a notable speech, which was admired and +commented upon all over the world. The next day, when he was holding a +reception in the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds, he was +treacherously shot by an anarchist and wounded so that, in spite of +the immediate services of the most skilful surgeons, he died on the +14th. His amiable and dignified character was conspicuous to the last. +When he saw the crowd about to kill the assassin on the spot, he +exclaimed: "Let no one hurt him!" To the surgeons he said: "I wish you +to do whatever in your judgment is best." When his last hour came he +was heard softly chanting his favorite hymns—"Nearer, my God, to +Thee" and "Abide with me," and his last words were, "It is God's +way—His will be done. Good-by all—good-by!" Thus passed away this +wonderful man, this model American, worthy of a place in history +beside Washington and Lincoln. He had fought like a hero—he had +wrought like a genius—he had lived like a patriot—he died like a +philosopher.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + + +<h3>GROVER CLEVELAND<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19" title="Go to footnote 19"><span class="smaller">[19]</span></a><br> +By <span class="smcap">Clarence Cook</span><br> +(BORN 1837)</h3> + +<a id="img051" name="img051"></a> +<div class="floatleft"> +<img src="images/img051.jpg" width="250" height="254" alt="Grover Cleveland." title=""> +</div> + +<p>The history of our country discovers so many instances of men who have +risen from humble beginnings to posts of honor and influence by their +own energy, industry, and steadiness of purpose, that a fresh +illustration, while always sure of sympathy, no longer causes +surprise. But one element of interest always remains: the variety of +character which makes each new arrival at the goal an illustration of +human capacity different from all that have preceded it. As no two men +are alike, and as the conditions of life are infinitely various, the +outcome of character and disposition, as affected by circumstances, +will also be infinitely varied; and the discovery that every human +experience puts the possibilities of life in a new light, makes, +perhaps, the greatest charm of biography.</p> + +<p>The life of Grover Cleveland is one that has appealed by its lessons +to a large body of his countrymen, without distinction of party, for +the plain reason that he is not removed from the mass of men by the +profession of extraordinary faculties. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page404" name="page404"></a>(p. 404)</span> He has no genius, +unless we accept Goethe's dictum that genius is only the capacity for +hard work; he has no ornamental accomplishments; in social intercourse +he does not shine by wit, nor charm by humor, and we have too often to +regret that tact seems to have been wanting among his natal gifts. In +these respects he is himself one of the "plain people" in whom he +seems always to be interested, and whose welfare he has always in +view; and as the plain people, fortunately, make up the bulk of the +world, the example of one of our own number rising, unaided by friends +or fortune, to so high a position, has in it a great encouragement. In +spite of political differences, which, after all, are largely fostered +by politicians for their own advantage, the people at large are quick +to recognize the sterling qualities of honesty, industry, and +plain-dealing, and it is by these qualities that Mr. Cleveland's +career has been determined.</p> + +<p>Although we Americans have—rather ostentatiously, it must be +confessed—declared our indifference to ancestry; that</p> + +<p class="poem30"> + "Our boast is not, that we deduce our birth<br> + From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth;"</p> + +<p class="noindent">yet we all have an innate conviction that there is something pleasant +in knowing that we come of good stock; and indeed it would be strange +if we valued that recommendation little for ourselves, as human +beings, which we prize so much in the animals that serve us. And so, +although it has been left for others to make the discovery, the fact +is not without interest that the American branch of the family to +which the president belongs, runs back to 1635, when Moses Cleaveland +came to Massachusetts from Ipswich, in Suffolk County, England. The +spelling Cleaveland is still retained by some of the collateral +branches of the family on this side the water, but the form Cleveland +was in common use in England, and it was so that John Cleveland, the +Royalist poet, wrote the name. It may be said, in passing, that it +would not be without interest to discover, if possible, if there were +any connection between the family of John Cleveland and that of Grover +Cleveland's English ancestors, for the resemblance between the +characters of the two men is striking, and as honorable as it is +striking. As we read John Cleveland's appeals to Cromwell for freedom +and immunity after the death of the king, to whose cause the poet had +so devotedly adhered until that cause was hopelessly lost, we seem to +hear the prophecy of that boldness, that honesty fearless of +consequences, that refusal to withdraw or apologize for sentiments +honestly held and openly maintained, which are so characteristic of +one who may easily be an offshoot of that vigorous stem.</p> + +<p>The President's grandfather, William Cleveland, was a watchmaker doing +business at Westfield, Mass., but on his marriage with Margaret +Falley, of Norwich, Conn., he went there to live, and it was there +that his son, Richard Falley Cleveland, was born. According to the old +system, it was decided by his family to make a clergyman of Richard +Cleveland, and accordingly after making his terms at Yale College, and +studying divinity at Princeton, he entered the ministry; and having +made some preliminary trials, was finally settled in charge of the +Presbyterian <span class="pagenum"><a id="page405" name="page405"></a>(p. 405)</span> Church in the village of Caldwell, Essex +County, N. J., and in this place his son, Stephen Grover Cleveland, +was born, March 18, 1837. The name of Stephen Grover was given out of +respect to the memory of a clergyman, Stephen Grover, who preceded his +father in the charge of his new parish. When the boy was only four +years of age, Richard Cleveland accepted a call to what was then +almost the frontier-settlement of Fayetteville, Onondaga County, N. Y. +Here the Cleveland family remained for eleven years making the most of +life, and winning from the meagre salary of $600 earned by the father, +a harvest of cheerful content, of homely comfort, and of unselfish +mutual affection that might well be envied by many whose means are far +greater. The children were blessed in their parents, and the parents +were rewarded by the love and devotion of their children. Later in +life, on the day of his election to the governorship of New York, in a +letter to his elder brother, the Rev. William N. Cleveland, Grover +Cleveland showed where his heart was, for his first words express a +quiet regret that his mother's recent death had made it impossible to +make her the recipient of his deepest feelings, of his hopes and fears +on this important event in his life; and at the close of the letter he +again recurs to the theme as if the memory of his mother were a part +and parcel of his life.</p> + +<p>In 1851, Richard Cleveland, with his wife and nine children, left +Fayetteville, for Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y., where he was to act +as the agent for the American Home Missionary Society, with a salary +of $1,000 a year. But of more importance than this modest increase of +pay, was the opportunity the new place offered for giving his children +a better education than they had been able to get at Fayetteville. +Grover did not leave Fayetteville with the rest of the family, because +he had engaged himself for a year with the keeper of a grocery store +in the village, where he was to receive the sum of $50 for the first +year and $100 for the second. At the end of the first year, however, +his father, ambitious for his boy's education, sent for him and placed +him at the Academy in Clinton, where he was to be fitted to enter +Hamilton College in due time. But this larger opportunity he was not +to enjoy. His father received a call to take charge of a church at +Holland Patent, a village near Utica, N. Y., and the whole family left +their home in Clinton for this place; but only three weeks after their +arrival the father died, October 1, 1853, and the wife, with so many +of the children as still remained at home, were left to support life +as their scanty means enabled them. The mother, evidently a woman of +much force of character, remained on the rock where the waves of +changing fortune last flung her, and by her own efforts and the +willing hands of her children, kept the family together until, her +loving duty done by all that remained to her, she died in 1882, living +happily long enough to see the beginning of her high hope for her son +Grover, fulfilled in his honorable career as Mayor of Buffalo.</p> + +<p>Grover Cleveland was now to exchange for a short time the quiet life +of a country village for the more stirring experience of life in a +great city. His brother William, after leaving Hamilton College, had +obtained employment as an instructor in the Institution for the Blind +in New York City, where he was the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page406" name="page406"></a>(p. 406)</span> principal of the male +teachers. After the death of his father, he secured for his brother +Grover the place of book-keeper and assistant to the superintendent of +the asylum. The boy came to his new place, not only with the good +character given him by his brother, then as now a man much respected +by his associates, but with the good word of all with whom he had been +connected, whether as school-boy or as work-boy.</p> + +<p>Grover Cleveland left New York in the autumn of 1854, at the end of +his year's engagement at the Institution for the Blind. He returned to +his mother's home for a brief visit, and then, with the hope of making +a beginning in the profession of the law, which he for some time +intended to take up, he visited some of the towns where his family was +known, Syracuse and Utica, in the hope of finding employment; but as +no opening presented itself, he determined to visit Cleveland, a town +named for one of his family. He stopped on his way at Buffalo, to +visit an uncle, Lewis F. Allen, a well-known farmer, who published +each year a compilation made by himself: "The American Short-Horn +Herd-Book." Pleased with his young relative, Mr. Allen persuaded him +to remain in Buffalo and assist him in his work; and thus it happened +that Grover Cleveland found himself planted in a city with which in +time his fortunes and his fame were to become closely associated; +while, on the other hand, the results of that connection to the city +itself were to be far-reaching and of great importance.</p> + +<p>By the recommendation of his uncle he obtained a place as office-boy +in the office of Bowen & Rogers, one of the principal firms of lawyers +in Western New York. It was thus that he began his legal studies, +reading hard in all his odd moments; and in his spare time after +office-hours assisting his uncle, with whom at first he lived, in the +compilation of the "Herd-Book." Mr. Parker tells us that the first +appearance in print of Grover Cleveland's name is in the "Herd-Book" +for 1861, in which Mr. Allen expresses his acknowledgment of "the +kindness, industry, and ability of his young friend and kinsman, in +correcting and arranging the pedigrees for publication." Prompt to +seize every opportunity for increasing his knowledge of the world +about him, and feeling, perhaps, that his uncle's farm in the +outskirts of Buffalo was too much like the village he had left, he +took rooms with an old schoolmate from Fayetteville in the old +Southern Hotel in Buffalo, at that time a resort for drovers and +farmers, where his knowledge of their business, obtained in his +uncle's employ, brought him into closer acquaintance with at least one +division of the "plain people" than could have been gained without +that experience.</p> + +<a id="img052" name="img052"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img052.jpg" width="500" height="338" alt="" title=""> +<p>The ceremony at Grover Cleveland's marriage.</p></div> + +<p>Grover Cleveland was admitted to the bar in 1859. He did not at first +begin the practice of the law on his own account, but remained for +four years longer with his teachers, until he had gained the position +of chief clerk. In 1858, on coming of age, he cast his first vote, +giving it to the Democratic party; but not content with the mere +performance of this part of the citizen's duty, "he took his place at +the polls and throughout the day distributed ballots by the side of +the veterans of his party." "This habit," says Mr. Parker, "he kept up +until his election as governor. He was never a partisan, but he +believed in working <span class="pagenum"><a id="page407" name="page407"></a>(p. 407)</span> for his party, and he not only worked +for it at the polls, but he always marched in the procession whenever +a great Democratic demonstration was made."</p> + +<p>On January 1, 1863, Mr. Cleveland began his first independent work as +a lawyer, and on leaving the office of the firm that had been his +teachers and associates, he accepted the office of assistant district +attorney of Erie County, to which he had been appointed. For this he +give up a salary of $1,000, and took one of $600, but he did this +because he saw that the training and experience of such an office +would be worth more to him than money. It was while he held this +office that he was drafted into the army, and being convinced that he +was more useful in his office than he could be as a soldier, he sent a +substitute, borrowing the money for the bounty from his superior, the +district attorney. This money, says Mr. Parker, he was not able to pay +back until the close of his term as assistant district attorney, and +until the war itself was over. Two of his brothers entered the army in +1861, and served through the war.</p> + +<p>From this time Mr. Cleveland's rise was rapid, and made by great +strides, each new position the result of the satisfactory way in which +he had filled the one previously held. He was indeed defeated in his +first contest, that for district attorney of Erie County. In 1870 he +accepted the nomination of his party for the office of sheriff of Erie +County. It was not usual for lawyers to accept this office, and Mr. +Cleveland did not take it until after much deliberation and +consultation with his party friends. He was finally moved to accept +the nomination for the practical reasons that the place would give him +leisure for much-needed study in his profession, and that it would +also enable him to lay up a little money. He held the office for the +full term, and returned to the practice of the law in 1874, becoming a +member of the firm of Bass, Cleveland, & Bissell. Mr. Bass was the +opponent who had defeated him in the contest for district attorney, +and Mr. Bissell is now the Postmaster-General in the cabinet of his +former law-partner.</p> + +<p>In 1881, Mr. Cleveland was nominated for the office of Mayor of +Buffalo, and was elected by a majority of thirty-five hundred, the +largest which had ever been given in Buffalo for that office. It was a +time of great excitement, for the government of the city had fallen +into very bad hands, and in the election of Mr. Cleveland party lines +were disregarded to an unusual degree. His fearless and energetic +administration of this office; his resolute refusal to give any +support to those fictions of politicians and office-holders by which +the citizens in all our great municipalities are robbed of their +rights and their money; his obstinate vetoing of one proposed law +after another by which these people hoped to gain their ends—vetoes +for which he always gave his reasons in the plainest words, meant to +be understood by the plainest people—his determination, in short, to +be true to his principle declared on taking office, that the affairs +of government were to be managed as a man would manage his private +business—all this fixed the eyes of the people upon him as a man to +be intrusted with still graver responsibilities.</p> + +<p>In 1882, Mr. Cleveland was nominated for the high position of Governor +of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page408" name="page408"></a>(p. 408)</span> New York, in opposition to Charles J. Folger, a man of +high character, formerly chief justice of the Court of Appeals, and at +the time of the contest, secretary of the treasury under President +Arthur. For reasons into which we cannot enter here, but which, though +purely political, gave good cause for public discontent, Mr. Folger's +nomination roused the determined opposition of many of his own party, +and this defection, added to the united enthusiasm of the Democracy, +insured Mr. Cleveland's election by one hundred and ninety-two +thousand eight hundred and fifty-four votes more than were cast for +Mr. Folger.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cleveland administered the office of governor in such a way as +greatly to strengthen the admiration of his party, especially of the +better portion of it, in spite of the fact that partisan advantages +were often lost by Mr. Cleveland's independent and patriotic action. +Nor can it be doubted that his election to the presidency, which +followed, was the fruit of the experience the people had had of his +character while in the governor's chair. That campaign was one of the +most interesting, and we may say, one of the most valuable morally, +that has been waged in our day in this country. So far as mere votes +were concerned, it was not such a victory as that for the +governorship, but in its political meaning, and its influence on the +course of our history, it was of the first importance.</p> + +<p>At the close of his first term of office as president, Mr. Cleveland +was again nominated, but was defeated by his opponent, Mr. Harrison; +yet when the time for choosing a successor to Mr. Harrison came round, +Mr. Cleveland was again nominated, and was elected, defeating Mr. +Harrison in his turn. The vote on this last occasion was so +overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic party as to have amounted +virtually to a political revolution; but the limitation and character +of this sketch do not permit us to go into a discussion of it. Our +purpose has been to show the elements of character that have gone to +make the truly extraordinary success that has marked Mr. Cleveland's +political life. That success has not been due to genius, nor to social +or personal advantages. It has been due to nobler causes; it is the +result of sterling and well-tried honesty, of hard and unremitting +labor applied to the understanding of every question coming before him +for decision, and of a resolute independence; his fixed belief that</p> + +<p class="poem30"> + "Because right is right to follow right<br> + Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<a id="sig013" name="sig013"></a> +<div class="right"> +<img src="images/sig013.jpg" width="250" height="62" alt="Author signature." title=""> +</div> + + +<p><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> +<strong>Footnote 1:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> +<strong>Footnote 2:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> +<strong>Footnote 3:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> +<strong>Footnote 4:</strong> Copied by kind permission of the publishers, Messrs. +Harper & Bros., from Benson Lossing's "Mary and Martha Washington."<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> +<strong>Footnote 5:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> +<strong>Footnote 6:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> +<strong>Footnote 7:</strong> Written at the time of the death of Baron Von Humboldt, +and reprinted, by permission, from "Littell's Living Age."<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> +<strong>Footnote 8:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> +<strong>Footnote 9:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> +<strong>Footnote 10:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a> +<strong>Footnote 11:</strong> Reprinted from Harper's Magazine by permission. +Copyright, 1884, by Harper & Bros.<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a> +<strong>Footnote 12:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a> +<strong>Footnote 13:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a> +<strong>Footnote 14:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a> +<strong>Footnote 15:</strong> Written in 1886, on the publication of "Louis Agassiz, +His Life and Correspondence." Reprinted, by permission of Messrs. +Houghton, Mifflin & Co., from "The Scientific Papers of Asa Gray."<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a> +<strong>Footnote 16:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a> +<strong>Footnote 17:</strong> In the painting of the Berlin Conference by Werner, +Prince Gortschakoff is seated at the left with his hand on Disraeli's +arm. Prince Bismarck in the foreground is shaking hands with Count +Schuvaloff, while Count Andrassy stands beside them. Lord Russell is +seated a little farther to the right; behind him on the other side of +the table is Lord Salisbury. The figure on the extreme right is +Mehemet Ali.<a href="#footnotetag17"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a> +<strong>Footnote 18:</strong> This sketch was written by Prince Outisky in 1885. The +Emperor William I. died in March, 1888, and his son a few months +later. The views of the young Emperor William II., thus advanced to +the throne, did not at all coincide with those of Bismarck, and he +retired into private life in 1890. Four years later a somewhat +ostentatious reconciliation took place between him and the emperor; +but Bismarck did not return to power, his great age perhaps +incapacitating him for active work.</p> + +<p>As regards his early life, he was born at Schönhausen, April 1, 1815, +educated at Göttingen, Berlin, and Griefswald, and at first entered +the army. He became a member of the General Diet in 1847, was +successively ambassador to Austria, Russia, and France, and in 1862 +became Minister of the King's House and Foreign Affairs in Prussia. He +was created a count in 1865; and in 1871, having achieved his great +aim in the coronation of his king as Emperor of United Germany at +Versailles, he became Chancellor of the Empire and Prince von +Bismarck-Schönhausen.<a href="#footnotetag18"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a> +<strong>Footnote 19:</strong> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag19"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. 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