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diff --git a/old/haw7710.txt b/old/haw7710.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..704159d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/haw7710.txt @@ -0,0 +1,938 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, A Book of Autographs, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +From "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches" +#77 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: A Book of Autographs + (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9250] +[This file was first posted on September 25, 2003] +[Last updated on February 6, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A BOOK OF AUTOGRAPHS *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + A BOOK OF AUTOGRAPHS + + + +We have before us a volume of autograph letters, chiefly of soldiers and +statesmen of the Revolution, and addressed to a good and brave man, +General Palmer, who himself drew his sword in the cause. They are +profitable reading in a quiet afternoon, and in a mood withdrawn from +too intimate relation with the present time; so that we can glide +backward some three quarters of a century, and surround ourselves with +the ominous sublimity of circumstances that then frowned upon the +writers. To give them their full effect, we should imagine that these +letters have this moment been brought to town by the splashed and way- +worn postrider, or perhaps by an orderly dragoon, who has ridden in a +perilous hurry to deliver his despatches. They are magic scrolls, if +read in the right spirit. The roll of the drum and the fanfare of the +trumpet is latent in some of them; and in others, an echo of the oratory +that resounded in the old halls of the Continental Congress, at +Philadelphia; or the words may come to us as with the living utterance +of one of those illustrious men, speaking face to face, in friendly +communion. Strange, that the mere identity of paper and ink should be +so powerful. The same thoughts might look cold and ineffectual, in a +printed book. Human nature craves a certain materialism and clings +pertinaciously to what is tangible, as if that were of more importance +than the spirit accidentally involved in it. And, in truth, the +original manuscript has always something which print itself must +inevitably lose. An erasure, even a blot, a casual irregularity of +hand, and all such little imperfections of mechanical execution, bring +us close to the writer, and perhaps convey some of those subtle +intimations for which language has no shape. + +There are several letters from John Adams, written in a small, hasty, +ungraceful hand, but earnest, and with no unnecessary flourish. The +earliest is dated at Philadelphia, September 26, 1774, about twenty days +after the first opening of the Continental Congress. We look at this +old yellow document, scribbled on half a sheet of foolscap, and ask of +it many questions for which words have no response. We would fain know +what were their mutual impressions, when all those venerable faces, that +have since been traced on steel, or chiselled out, of marble, and thus +made familiar to posterity, first met one another's gaze! Did one +spirit harmonize them, in spite of the dissimilitude of manners between +the North and the South, which were now for the first time brought into +political relations? Could the Virginian descendant of the Cavaliers, +and the New-Englander with his hereditary Puritanism,--the aristocratic +Southern planter, and the self-made man from Massachusetts or +Connecticut,--at once feel that they were countrymen and brothers? What +did John Adams think of Jefferson?--and Samuel Adams of Patrick Henry? +Did not North and South combine in their deference for the sage +Franklin, so long the defender of the colonies in England, and whose +scientific renown was already world-wide? And was there yet any +whispered prophecy, any vague conjecture, circulating among the +delegates, as to the destiny which might be in reserve for one stately +man, who sat, for the most part, silent among them?--what station he was +to assume in the world's history?--and how many statues would repeat his +form and countenance, and successively crumble beneath his immortality? + +The letter before us does not answer these inquiries. Its main feature +is the strong expression of the uncertainty and awe that pervaded even +the firm hearts of the Old Congress, while anticipating the struggle +which was to ensue. "The commencement of hostilities," it says, "is +exceedingly dreaded here. It is thought that an attack upon the troops, +even should it prove successful, would certainly involve the whole +continent in a war. It is generally thought that the Ministry would +rejoice at a rupture in Boston, because it would furnish an excuse to +the people at home" [this was the last time, we suspect, that John Adams +spoke of England thus affectionately], "and unite them in an opinion of +the necessity of pushing hostilities against us." + +His next letter bears on the superscription, "Favored by General +Washington." The date is June 20, 1775, three days after the battle of +Bunker Hill, the news of which could not yet have arrived at +Philadelphia. But the war, so much dreaded, had begun, on the quiet +banks of Concord River; an army of twenty thousand men was beleaguering +Boston; and here was Washington journeying northward to take the +command. It seems to place us in a nearer relation with the hero, to +find him performing the little courtesy of leaving a letter between +friend and friend, and to hold in our hands the very document intrusted +to such a messenger. John Adams says simply, "We send you Generals +Washington and Lee for your comfort"; but adds nothing in regard to the +character of the Commander-in-Chief. This letter displays much of the +writer's ardent temperament; if he had been anywhere but in the hall of +Congress, it would have been in the intrenchment before Boston. + +"I hope," he writes, "a good account will be given of Gage, Haldiman, +Burgoyne, Clinton, and Howe, before winter. Such a wretch as Howe, with +a statue in honor of his family in Westminster Abbey, erected by the +Massachusetts, to come over with the design to cut the throats of the +Massachusetts people, is too much. I most sincerely, coolly, and +devoutly wish that a lucky ball or bayonet may make a signal example of +him, in warning to all such unprincipled, unsentimental miscreants for +the future!" + +He goes on in a strain that smacks somewhat of aristocratic feeling: +"Our camp will be an illustrious school of military virtue, and will be +resorted to and frequented, as such, by gentlemen in great numbers from +the other colonies." The term "gentleman" has seldom been used in this +sense subsequently to the Revolution. Another letter introduces us to +two of these gentlemen, Messrs. Acquilla Hall and Josias Carvill, +volunteers, who are recommended as "of the first families in Maryland, +and possessing independent fortunes." + +After the British had been driven out of Boston, Adams cries out, +"Fortify, fortify; and never let them get in again!" It is agreeable +enough to perceive the filial affection with which John Adams, and the +other delegates from the North, regard New England, and especially the +good old capital of the Puritans. Their love of country was hardly yet +so diluted as to extend over the whole thirteen colonies, which were +rather looked upon as allies than as composing one nation. In truth, +the patriotism of a citizen of the United States is a sentiment by +itself of a peculiar nature, and requiring a lifetime, or at least the +custom of many years, to naturalize it among the other possessions of +the heart. + +The collection is enriched by a letter dated "Cambridge, August 26, +1775" from Washington himself. He wrote it in that house,--now so +venerable with his memory,--in that very room, where his bust now stands +upon a poet's table; from this sheet of paper passed the hand that held +the leading-staff! Nothing can be more perfectly in keeping with all +other manifestations of Washington than the whole visible aspect and +embodiment of this letter. The manuscript is as clear as daylight; the +punctuation exact, to a comma. There is a calm accuracy throughout, +which seems the production of a species of intelligence that cannot err, +and which, if we may so speak, would affect us with a more human warmth, +if we could conceive it capable of some slight human error. The +chirography is characterized by a plain and easy grace, which, in the +signature, is somewhat elaborated, and becomes a type of the personal +manner of a gentleman of the old school, but without detriment to the +truth and clearness that distinguish the rest of the manuscript. The +lines are as straight and equidistant as if ruled; and from beginning to +end, there is no physical symptom--as how should there be?--of a varying +mood, of jets of emotion, or any of those fluctuating feelings that pass +from the hearts into the fingers of common men. The paper itself (like +most of those Revolutionary letters, which are written on fabrics fit to +endure the burden of ponderous and earnest thought) is stout, and of +excellent quality, and bears the water-mark of Britannia, surmounted by +the Crown. The subject of the letter is a statement of reasons for not +taking possession of Point Alderton; a position commanding the entrance +of Boston Harbor. After explaining the difficulties of the case, +arising from his want of men and munitions for the adequate defence of +the lines which he already occupies, Washington proceeds: "To you, sir, +who are a well-wisher to the cause, and can reason upon the effects of +such conduct, I may open myself with freedom, because no improper +disclosures will be made of our situation. But I cannot expose my +weakness to the enemy (though I believe they are pretty well informed of +everything that passes), by telling this and that man, who are daily +pointing out this, and that, and t' other place, of all the motives that +govern my actions; notwithstanding I know what will be the consequence +of not doing it,--namely, that I shall be accused of inattention to the +public service, and perhaps of want of spirit to prosecute it. But this +shall have no effect upon my conduct. I will steadily (as far as my +judgment will assist me) pursue such measures as I think conducive to +the interest of the cause, and rest satisfied under any obloquy that +shall be thrown, conscious of having discharged my duty to the best of +my abilities." + +The above passage, like every other passage that could be quoted from +his pen, is characteristic of Washington, and entirely in keeping with +the calm elevation of his soul. Yet how imperfect a glimpse do we +obtain of him, through the medium of this, or any of his letters! We +imagine him writing calmly, with a hand that never falters; his majestic +face neither darkens nor gleams with any momentary ebullition of +feeling, or irregularity of thought; and thus flows forth an expression +precisely to the extent of his purpose, no more, no less. Thus much we +may conceive. But still we have not grasped the man; we have caught no +glimpse of his interior; we have not detected his personality. It is +the same with all the recorded traits of his daily life. The collection +of them, by different observers, seems sufficiently abundant, and +strictly harmonizes with itself, yet never brings us into intimate +relationship with the hero, nor makes us feel the warmth and the human +throb of his heart. What can be the reason? Is it, that his great +nature was adapted to stand in relation to his country, as man stands +towards man, but could not individualize itself in brotherhood to an +individual? + +There are two from Franklin, the earliest dated, "London, August 8, +1767," and addressed to "Mrs. Franklin, at Philadelphia." He was then +in England, as agent for the colonies in their resistance to the +oppressive policy of Mr. Grenville's administration. The letter, +however, makes no reference to political or other business. It contains +only ten or twelve lines, beginning, "My dear child," and conveying an +impression of long and venerable matrimony which has lost all its +romance, but retained a familiar and quiet tenderness. He speaks of +making a little excursion into the country for his health; mentions a +larger letter, despatched by another vessel; alludes with homely +affability to "Mrs. Stevenson," "Sally," and "our dear Polly"; desires +to be remembered to "all inquiring friends"; and signs himself, "Your +ever loving husband." In this conjugal epistle, brief and unimportant +as it is, there are the elements that summon up the past, and enable us +to create anew the man, his connections and circumstances. We can see +the sage in his London lodgings,--with his wig cast aside, and replaced +by a velvet cap,--penning this very letter; and then can step across the +Atlantic, and behold its reception by the elderly, but still comely +Madam Franklin, who breaks the seal and begins to read, first +remembering to put on her spectacles. The seal, by the way, is a +pompous one of armorial bearings, rather symbolical of the dignity of +the Colonial Agent, and Postmaster General of America, than of the +humble origin of the Newburyport printer. The writing is in the free, +quick style of a man with great practice of the pen, and is particularly +agreeable to the reader. + +Another letter from the same famous hand is addressed to General Palmer, +and dated, "Passy, October 27, 1779." By an indorsement on the outside +it appears to have been transmitted to the United States through the +medium of Lafayette. Franklin was now the ambassador of his country at +the Court of Versailles, enjoying an immense celebrity, caressed by the +French ladies, and idolized alike by the fashionable and the learned, +who saw something sublime and philosophic even in his blue yarn +stockings. Still, as before, he writes with the homeliness and +simplicity that cause a human face to look forth from the old, yellow +sheet of paper, and in words that make our ears re-echo, as with the +sound of his long-extinct utterance. Yet this brief epistle, like the +former, has so little of tangible matter that we are ashamed to copy it. + +Next, we come to the fragment of a letter by Samuel Adams; an autograph +more utterly devoid of ornament or flourish than any other in the +collection. It would not have been characteristic, had his pen traced +so much as a hair-line in tribute to grace, beauty, or the elaborateness +of manner; for this earnest-hearted man had been produced out of the +past elements of his native land, a real Puritan, with the religion of +his forefathers, and likewise with their principles of government, +taking the aspect of Revolutionary politics. At heart, Samuel Adams was +never so much a citizen of the United States, as he was a New-Englander, +and a son of the old Bay Province. The following passage has much of +the man in it: "I heartily congratulate you," he writes from +Philadelphia, after the British have left Boston, "upon the sudden and +important change in our affairs, in the removal of the barbarians from +the capital. We owe our grateful acknowledgments to Him who is, as he +is frequently styled in Sacred Writ, 'The Lord of Hosts.' We have not +yet been informed with certainty what course the enemy have steered. I +hope we shall be on our guard against future attempts. Will not care be +taken to fortify the harbor, and thereby prevent the entrance of ships- +of-war hereafter?" + +From Hancock, we have only the envelope of a document "on public +service," directed to "The Hon. the Assembly, or Council of Safety of +New Hampshire," and with the autograph affixed, that, stands out so +prominently in the Declaration of Independence. As seen in the +engraving of that instrument, the signature looks precisely what we +should expect and desire in the handwriting of a princely merchant, +whose penmanship had been practised in the ledger which he is +represented as holding, in Copley's brilliant picture, but to whom his +native ability, and the circumstances and customs of his country, had +given a place among its rulers. But, on the coarse and dingy paper +before us, the effect is very much inferior; the direction, all except +the signature, is a scrawl, large and heavy, but not forcible; and even +the name itself, while almost identical in its strokes with that of the +Declaration, has a strangely different and more vulgar aspect. Perhaps +it is all right, and typical of the truth. If we may trust tradition, +and unpublished letters, and a few witnesses in print, there was quite +as much difference between the actual man, and his historical aspect, as +between the manuscript signature and the engraved one. One of his +associates, both in political life and permanent renown, is said to have +characterized him as a "man without a head or heart." We, of an after +generation, should hardly be entitled, on whatever evidence, to assume +such ungracious liberty with a name that has occupied a lofty position +until it, has grown almost sacred, and which is associated with memories +more sacred than itself, and has thus become a valuable reality to our +countrymen, by the aged reverence that clusters round about it. +Nevertheless, it may be no impiety to regard Hancock not precisely as a +real personage, but as a majestic figure, useful and necessary in its +way, but producing its effect far more by an ornamental outside than by +any intrinsic force or virtue. The page of all history would be half +unpeopled if all such characters were banished from it. + +From General Warren we have a letter dated January 14, 1775, only a few +months before he attested the sincerity of his patriotism, in his own +blood, on Bunker Hill. His handwriting has many ungraceful flourishes. +All the small d's spout upward in parabolic curves, and descend at a +considerable distance. His pen seems to have had nothing but hair-lines +in it; and the whole letter, though perfectly legible, has a look of +thin and unpleasant irregularity. The subject is a plan for securing to +the colonial party the services of Colonel Gridley the engineer, by an +appeal to his private interests. Though writing to General Palmer, an +intimate friend, Warren signs himself, most ceremoniously, "Your +obedient servant." Indeed, these stately formulas in winding up a +letter were scarcely laid aside, whatever might be the familiarity of +intercourse: husband and wife were occasionally, on paper at least, the +"obedient servants" of one another; and not improbably, among well-bred +people, there was a corresponding ceremonial of bows and courtesies, +even in the deepest interior of domestic life. With all the reality +that filled men's hearts, and which has stamped its impress on so many +of these letters, it was a far more formal age than the present. + +It may be remarked, that Warren was almost the only man eminently +distinguished in the intellectual phase of the Revolution, previous to +the breaking out of the war, who actually uplifted his arm to do battle. +The legislative patriots were a distinct class from the patriots of the +camp, and never laid aside the gown for the sword. It was very +different in the great civil war of England, where the leading minds of +the age, when argument had done its office, or left it undone, put on +their steel breastplates and appeared as leaders in the field. Educated +young men, members of the old colonial families,--gentlemen, as John +Adams terms them,--seem not to have sought employment in the +Revolutionary army, in such numbers as night have been expected. +Respectable as the officers generally were, and great as were the +abilities sometimes elicited, the intellect and cultivation of the +country was inadequately represented in them, as a body. + +Turning another page, we find the frank of a letter from Henry Laurens, +President of Congress,--him whose destiny it was, like so many noblemen +of old, to pass beneath the Traitor's Gate of the Tower of London,--him +whose chivalrous son sacrificed as brilliant a future as any young +American could have looked forward to, in an obscure skirmish. +Likewise, we have the address of a letter to Messrs. Leroy and Bayard, +in the handwriting of Jefferson; too slender a material to serve as a +talisman for summoning up the writer; a most unsatisfactory fragment, +affecting us like a glimpse of the retreating form of the sage of +Monticello, turning the distant corner of a street. There is a scrap +from Robert Morris, the financier; a letter or two from Judge Jay; and +one from General Lincoln, written, apparently, on the gallop, but +without any of those characteristic sparks that sometimes fly out in a +hurry, when all the leisure in the world would fail to elicit them. +Lincoln was the type of a New England soldier; a man of fair abilities, +not especially of a warlike cast, without much chivalry, but faithful +and bold, and carrying a kind of decency and restraint into the wild and +ruthless business of arms. + +From good old Baron Steuben, we find, not a manuscript essay on the +method of arranging a battle, but a commercial draft, in a small, neat +hand, as plain as print, elegant without flourish, except a very +complicated one on the signature. On the whole, the specimen is +sufficiently characteristic, as well of the Baron's soldier-like and +German simplicity, as of the polish of the Great Frederick's aide-de- +camp, a man of courts and of the world. How singular and picturesque an +effect is produced, in the array of our Revolutionary army, by the +intermingling of these titled personages from the Continent of Europe, +with feudal associations clinging about them,--Steuben, De Kalb, +Pulaski, Lafayette!--the German veteran, who had written from one +famous battle-field to another for thirty years; and the young French +noble, who had come hither, though yet unconscious of his high office, +to light the torch that should set fire to the antiquated trumpery of +his native institutions. Among these autographs, there is one from +Lafayette, written long after our Revolution, but while that of his own +country was in full progress. The note is merely as follows: "Enclosed +you will find, my dear Sir, two tickets for the sittings of this day. +One part of the debate will be on the Honors of the Pantheon, agreeably +to what has been decreed by the Constitutional Assembly." + +It is a pleasant and comfortable thought, that we have no such classic +folly as is here indicated, to lay to the charge of our Revolutionary +fathers. Both in their acts, and in the drapery of those acts, they +were true to their several and simple selves, and thus left nothing +behind them for a fastidious taste to sneer at. But it must be +considered that our Revolution did not, like that of France, go so deep +as to disturb the common-sense of the country. + +General Schuyler writes a letter, under date of February 22, 1780, +relating not to military affairs, from which the prejudices of his +countrymen had almost disconnected him, but to the Salt Springs of +Onondaga. The expression is peculiarly direct, and the hand that of a +man of business, free and flowing. The uncertainty, the vague, hearsay +evidence respecting these springs, then gushing into dim daylight +beneath the shadow of a remote wilderness, is such as might now be +quoted in reference to the quality of the water that supplies the +fountains of the Nile. The following sentence shows us an Indian woman +and her son, practising their simple process in the manufacture of salt, +at a fire of wind-strewn boughs, the flame of which gleams duskily +through the arches of the forest: "From a variety of information, I find +the smallest quantity made by a squaw, with the assistance of one boy, +with a kettle of about ten gallons' capacity, is half a bushel per day; +the greatest with the same kettle, about two bushels." It is +particularly interesting to find out anything as to the embryo, yet +stationary arts of life among the red people, their manufactures, their +agriculture, their domestic labors. It is partly the lack of this +knowledge--the possession of which would establish a ground of sympathy +on the part of civilized men--that makes the Indian race so shadow-like +and unreal to our conception. + +We could not select a greater contrast to the upright and unselfish +patriot whom we have just spoken of, than the traitor Arnold, from whom +there is a brief note, dated, "Crown Point, January 19, 1775," addressed +to an officer under his command. The three lines of which it consists +can prove bad spelling, erroneous grammar, and misplaced and superfluous +punctuation; but, with all this complication of iniquity, the ruffian +General contrives to express his meaning as briefly and clearly as if +the rules of correct composition had been ever so scrupulously observed. +This autograph, impressed with the foulest name in our history, has +somewhat of the interest that would attach to a document on which a +fiend-devoted wretch had signed away his salvation. But there was not +substance enough in the man--a mere cross between the bull-dog and the +fox--to justify much feeling of any sort about him personally. The +interest, such as it is, attaches but little to the man, and far more to +the circumstances amid which he acted, rendering the villainy almost +sublime, which, exercised in petty affairs, would only have been vulgar. + +We turn another leaf, and find a memorial of Hamilton. It is but a +letter of introduction, addressed to Governor Jay in favor of Mr. +Davies, of Kentucky; but it gives an impression of high breeding and +courtesy, as little to be mistaken as if we could see the writer's +manner and hear his cultivated accents, while personally making one +gentleman known to another. There is likewise a rare vigor of +expression and pregnancy of meaning, such as only a man of habitual +energy of thought could have conveyed into so commonplace a thing as an +introductory letter. This autograph is a graceful one, with an easy and +picturesque flourish beneath the signature, symbolical of a courteous +bow at the conclusion of the social ceremony so admirably performed. +Hamilton might well be the leader and idol of the Federalists; for he +was pre-eminent in all the high qualities that characterized the great +men of that party, and which should make even a Democrat feel proud that +his country had produced such a noble old band of aristocrats; and he +shared all the distrust of the people, which so inevitably and so +righteously brought about their ruin. With his autograph we associate +that of another Federalist, his friend in life; a man far narrower than +Hamilton, but endowed with a native vigor, that caused many partisans +to grapple to him for support; upright, sternly inflexible, and of a +simplicity of manner that might have befitted the sturdiest republican +among us. In our boyhood we used to see a thin, severe figure of an +ancient mail, timeworn, but apparently indestructible, moving with a +step of vigorous decay along the street, and knew him as "Old Tim +Pickering." + +Side by side, too, with the autograph of Hamilton, we would place one +from the hand that shed his blood. It is a few lines of Aaron Burr, +written in 1823; when all his ambitious schemes, whatever they once +were, had been so long shattered that even the fragments had crumbled +away, leaving him to exert his withered energies on petty law cases, to +one of which the present note refers. The hand is a little tremulous +with age, yet small and fastidiously elegant, as became a man who was in +the habit of writing billet-doux on scented note-paper, as well as +documents of war and state. This is to us a deeply interesting +autograph. Remembering what has been said of the power of Burr's +personal influence, his art to tempt men, his might to subdue them, and +the fascination that enabled him, though cold at heart, to win the love +of woman, we gaze at this production of his pen as into his own +inscrutable eyes, seeking for the mystery of his nature. How singular +that a character imperfect, ruined, blasted, as this man's was, excites +a stronger interest than if it had reached the highest earthly +perfection of which its original elements would admit! It is by the +diabolical part of Burr's character that he produces his effect on the +imagination. Had he been a better man, we doubt, after all, whether the +present age would not already have suffered him to wax dusty, and fade +out of sight, among the mere respectable mediocrities of his own epoch. +But, certainly, he was a strange, wild offshoot to have sprung from the +united stock of those two singular Christians, President Burr of +Princeton College, and Jonathan Edwards! + +Omitting many, we have come almost to the end of these memorials of +historical men. We observe one other autograph of a distinguished +soldier of the Revolution, Henry Knox, but written in 1791, when he was +Secretary of War. In its physical aspect, it is well worthy to be a +soldier's letter. The hand is large, round, and legible at a glance; +the lines far apart, and accurately equidistant; and the whole affair +looks not unlike a company of regular troops in marching order. The +signature has a point-like firmness and simplicity. It is a curious +observation, sustained by these autographs, though we know not how +generally correct, that Southern gentlemen are more addicted to a +flourish of the pen beneath their names, than those of the North. + +And now we come to the men of a later generation, whose active life +reaches almost within the verge of present affairs; people of dignity, +no doubt, but whose characters have not acquired, either from time or +circumstances, the interest that can make their autographs valuable to +any but the collector. Those whom we have hitherto noticed were the men +of an heroic age. They are departed, and now so utterly departed, as +not even to touch upon the passing generation through the medium of +persons still in life, who can claim to have known them familiarly. +Their letters, therefore, come to us like material things out of the +hands of mighty shadows, long historical, and traditionary, and fit +companions for the sages and warriors of a thousand years ago. In spite +of the proverb, it is not in a single day, or in a very few years, that +a man can be reckoned "as dead as Julius Caesar." We feel little +interest in scraps from the pens of old gentlemen, ambassadors, +governors, senators, heads of departments, even presidents though they +were, who lived lives of praiseworthy respectability, and whose powdered +heads and black knee-breeches have but just vanished out of the drawing- +room. Still less do we value the blotted paper of those whose +reputations are dusty, not with oblivious time, but with present +political turmoil and newspaper vogue. Really great men, however, seem, +as to their effect on the imagination, to take their place amongst past +worthies, even while walking in the very sunshine that illuminates the +autumnal day in which we write. We look, not without curiosity, at the +small, neat hand of Henry Clay, who, as he remarks with his habitual +deference to the wishes of the fair, responds to a young lady's request +for his seal; and we dwell longer over the torn-off conclusion of a note +from Mr. Calhoun, whose words are strangely dashed off without letters, +and whose name, were it less illustrious, would be unrecognizable in his +own autograph. But of all hands that can still grasp a pen, we know not +the one, belonging to a soldier or a statesman, which could interest us +more than the hand that wrote the following: + +"Sir, your note of the 6th inst. is received. I hasten to answer that +there was no man 'in the station of colonel, by the name of J. T. +Smith,' under my command, at the battle of New Orleans; and am, +respectfully, + +"Yours, ANDREW JACKSON. +"OCT. 19th, 1833." + + +The old general, we suspect, has been insnared by a pardonable little +stratagem on the part of the autograph collector. The battle of New +Orleans would hardly have been won, without better aid than this +problematical Colonel J. T. Smith. + +Intermixed with and appended to these historical autographs, there are a +few literary ones. Timothy Dwight--the "old Timotheus" who sang the +Conquest of Cancan, instead of choosing a more popular subject, in the +British Conquest of Canada--is of eldest date. Colonel Trumbull, whose +hand, at various epochs of his life, was familiar with sword, pen, and +pencil, contributes two letters, which lack the picturesqueness of +execution that should distinguish the chirography of an artist. The +value of Trumbull's pictures is of the same nature with that of +daguerreotypes, depending not upon the ideal but the actual. The +beautiful signature of Washington Irving appears as the indorsement of a +draft, dated in 1814, when, if we may take this document as evidence, +his individuality seems to have been merged into the firm of "P. E. +Irving & Co." Never was anything less mercantile than this autograph, +though as legible as the writing of a bank-clerk. Without apparently +aiming at artistic beauty, it has all the Sketch Book in it. We find +the signature and seal of Pierpont, the latter stamped with the poet's +almost living countenance. What a pleasant device for a seal is one's +own face, which he may thus multiply at pleasure, and send letters to +his friends,--the Head without, and the Heart within! There are a few +lines in the school-girl hand of Margaret Davidson, at nine years old; +and a scrap of a letter from Washington Allston, a gentle and delicate +autograph, in which we catch a glimpse of thanks to his correspondent +for the loan of a volume of poetry. Nothing remains, save a letter from +Noah Webster, whose early toils were manifested in a spelling-book, and +those of his later age in a ponderous dictionary. Under date of +February 10, 1843, he writes in a sturdy, awkward hand, very fit for a +lexicographer, an epistle of old man's reminiscences, from which we +extract the following anecdote of Washington, presenting the patriot in +a festive light:-- + +"When I was travelling to the South, in the year 1783, I called on +General Washington at Mount Vernon. At dinner, the last course of +dishes was a species of pancakes, which were handed round to each guest, +accompanied with a bowl of sugar and another of molasses for seasoning +them, that each guest might suit himself. When the dish came to me, I +pushed by me the bowl of molasses, observing to the gentlemen present, +that I had enough of that in my own country. The General burst out with +a loud laugh, a thing very unusual with him. 'Ah,' said he, 'there is +nothing in that story about your eating molasses in New England.' There +was a gentleman from Maryland at the table; and the General immediately +told a story, stating that, during the Revolution, a hogshead of +molasses was stove in, in West Chester, by the oversetting of a wagon; +and a body of Maryland troops being near, the soldiers ran hastily, and +saved all they could by filling their hats or caps with molasses." + +There are said to be temperaments endowed with sympathies so exquisite, +that, by merely handling an autograph, they can detect the writer's +character with unerring accuracy, and read his inmost heart as easily as +a less-gifted eye would peruse the written page. Our faith in this +power, be it a spiritual one, or only a refinement of the physical +nature, is not unlimited, in spite of evidence. God has imparted to the +human soul a marvellous strength in guarding its secrets, and he keeps +at least the deepest and most inward record for his own perusal. But if +there be such sympathies as we have alluded to, in how many instances +would History be put to the blush by a volume of autograph letters, like +this which we now close! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A BOOK OF AUTOGRAPHS *** +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +***** This file should be named haw7710.txt or haw7710.zip ***** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw7711.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw7710a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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