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ENEALOGY 973.005
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JOHN O. WINSHIP Attorney and Counselor at Law
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MAGAZINE
OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
WITH
NOTES AND (QUERIES
ILLUSTRATED
EDITED BY MRS. MARTHA J. LAMB
VOL. XXIII January — June, 1890
743 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY
Copyright, 1890, By historical PUBLICATION CO.
Press of J. J. Little & Co. .■\«.tor Place, New York.
CONTENTS
PAGE
William Cullen Bryant in History Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. i
Rare Picture of Early New York Tho7nas Addis Emmet, M.D. 14
Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mrs. Stovve Florine Thayer McCray. 16
St. Anthony's Face. Hudson River Hon. J. 0. Dykman, 23, 255
Federal and Anti-Federal Hon. Gerry W. Hazleton. 25
Impress of Nationalities upon the City of New York Hon. James W. Gerard. 40
Ralph Izard, the South Carolina Statesman .J. E. Manigault, M.D. 60
American Republics — Their Differences George M. Pavey. 74
The Scotch-Irish in America Rev. D. C. Kelley, D.D. 77
Abraham Lincoln. A Poem ' Rev. George G. Hepburn. 78
Notes, Queries, and Replies 79, 167, 253, 343, 416, 504
Societies 82, 171, 256, 346, 420, 509
Historic and Social Jottings 83, 259, 427
Book Notices 85 , 1 73, 261, 349, 429, 511
America's Congress of Historical Scholars Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 89
Tribute to Mrs. James B. Toler Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 108
Recent Historical Work in the Colleges and Universities of Europe and America.
Charles Kendall A daf?is, 'LL.D. iii
The Spirit of Historical Research .James Schouler. 132
The Fourteenth State .John L. Heaton. 140
Modern State Constitutions . George M. Pavey. 152
Washington's Conception of America's Future Llenry Cabot Lodge. 160
The Uses of History ^&y. John Hall. D.D. 162
Verses on General Washington Retiring from Public Life. Contributed by Henry T. Drowne. 163
General Tarleton's Raid Hon. Horatio King. 165
Life in New York Fifty Years Ago Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 177
The Northern Boundary of Tennessee W. P. Garrett, A.M. 210
Celebrating the Birth of William Bradford Thomas Bradford Drew. 227
Sir John Bowring and American Slavery Hon. Charles K. Tuckerman. 232
Hawthorne's First Printed Article Kate Tannett Woods. 237
Story of a Busy Government Bureau Milton T. Adkins. 241
The Neglected Grave of Seth Pomeroy Frank Sutton. 247
Columbia College and Her Distinguished Sons Hon. Seth Lotv. 249
Ben Hardin as a Wit and Humorist 251
Our South American Neighbors M7-s. Martha J. Lamb. 265
Romance of the Map of the United States H, G. Cutler. 288
Laval. The First Bishop of Quebec John Dimitry. 297
Diplomatic Services of George W' illiam Erving J. L. M. Ctirry, LL.D. 313
Washington at the Columbus Exposition Rev. G. S. Phimley, D. D. 323
An Account of Pennsylvania, 1765 Percy Cross Standing. 326
Anecdote of Lord Chief Justice Holt D. Turner. 330
'^O'^i^C.
IV
CONTENTS
PAGE
Westward to the South Sea Milton T. Adkins. 331
Monument to Governor Bradford Mrs. Lindsay Fairfax. 334
First American Piano made in Philadelphia 334
Origin (^f the Troubles in North America, 1758 335
OHL,Mnal Documents 33S. 413, 502
Extracts from Virginia Records, 1775-177^ 338
Spanish Pioneer Houses of California Charles Hoxi'ard Shinn. 353
Philip Livingston, the Signer Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 361
Constitutional Aspect of Kentucky's Struggle for Autonomy, 17S4-1792.
Ethelbert D. Warjield. 363
The Old Town of Green Bay, Wisconsin John Carter. 376
Colonel William Grayson Roy Singleton. 3S2
The Massachusetts Bay Psalm Book, 1640 Clement Ferguson. 384
A Centur)- of Cabinet Ministers George M. Pavey. 386
Columbus Explaining his Theory of a New World Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 406
Glimpses of the Interior of Africa Prof. Henry Drummond. 410
Work of the Buffalo Historical Society Frank H. Severance. 411
New York and Albany in 1772 ... James E. Coley. 412
Duel of Button Gwinnett, the Signer Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL.D. 413
Letters from Washington's Secretar)-, 1775, Stephen Noylan Charles W. Super. 414
Some Old New Yorkers Hon. Charles K. Tuckerman. 433
Simon Kenton, the Kentucky Pioneer, and His Corn-Patch Annie E. Wilson. 450
Our Northern Neighbors Prosper Bender. 460
American Belles and Brides in England. A Century Ago Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 468
A Study of Political Parties Ftanklin A. Becker. 475
Bishop Jonathan Mayhew W^ainwright, 1792-1S54 Roy Singleton. 481
Disasters on Long Island Sound Samuel Barber. 483
The Capture of New York. 1776 Colonel Kemble. 493
Rod Jacket, Chief of the Senecas 494
The Foraging Expedition Reba Gregory Prelat. 496
Two Unpublished Letters of George W^alton. December 24, 177S, and January 4, 1779 502
Unpublished Letter of Governor John Sevier, November 9, 1S03 503
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Portrait of William Cullen Bryant i
Bryant Homestead, Cummington, Mass 5
Summer Home of Mr. Bryant, Roslyn, Long Island g
View of New York, 1673 : 14
Home of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe 17
Mrs, Harriet Beecher Stowe at Work 20
St. Anthony's Face. Hudson River 23
Portrait of George Bancroft 8g
Home of George Bancroft, Newport, R.I 91
Group of Portraits of Executive Officers of the American Historical Association 95
Section of Photograph of the American Historical Association, Washington, D. C loi
Portrait of Mrs. James B. Toler and Son log
Portrait of Charles Dickens 177
Portrait of Philip Hone 1 79
Residence of Philip Hone in Broadway 181
-St. John's Chapel, New York 183
Portrait of Rev. William Harris, S.T.D 187
Portrait of William Duer, LL.D 189
Portrait of Nathaniel F. Moore, LL.D 191
Portrait of Charles King, LL.D 193
Portrait of Luman Reed 195
Portrait of James G. King 199
Opening of City Hall Park, 1842 20I
Portrait of Columbus 265
Free-Hand Sketching of the Ancient Peruvians 267
Lady's Fringed Mantle. Ancient Peru 269
Feathered Embroidery. Ancient Peruvians 270
Human Figure in old Peruvian Gobelins 271
City of Lima, Peru 273
A House Entrance in Lima 275
A Lima Belle 277
Railroad to Corcovado Peak, Brazil 280
A Cayenne Creole 286
Columbus Explaining his Theory of a New World 353
Spanish Pioneer Houses in California 355, 357, 359
Indian -Huts, California 359
Portrait of Philip Livingston. The Signer 360
vi ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Portrait of Bishop Wainwright 433
Portrait of John W. Francis, M.D 437, 439
Portrait of Stephen Whitney 441
Portrait of John Van Buren 443
Pioneer Home of Simon Kenton 452
Interior of Simon Kenton's Home 455
Portrait of (leneral Simon Kenton 457
Proposed Monument to Red Jacket 495
MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Vol. XXIII JANUARY, 1890 ' No. i
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
1 794- 1 878
THE memory of our great poets is secure so long as holidays come and go — as each rolling twelve-month brings to us the Christmas season and the glad New Year. The gems of poesy recognized as classics are showered annually upon an appreciative community, in every garb of artistic beauty which, taste, sentiment and genius can devise, and they come charged with the expression of hope and fancy as well as with the highest and deepest feeling. They bring pleasure to millions of the human race, like the sunshine which we expect every morning and of which we can never have too much, proving themselves chosen vehicles of love, sympathy, inspiration, and encouragement. The melody of song seems literally to fill the air at the approach of the New Year, coming to our senses and our hearts through a thousand channels.
Among America's poetic treasures of a strictly national character which reappear yearly in new dress and illustrations with the brightness and warmth, the beautiful snows, and the cheerful hospitality of early winter, none occupy a higher place or are more welcome than those of William Cullen Bryant. He once said: "The elements of poetry lie in natural objects, in the vicissitudes of human life, in the emotions of the human heart, and in the relations of man to man. He who can present them in combinations and lights which at once affect the mind with a deep sense of their truth and beauty is the poet for his own age and the ages that succeed it." In this brief passage Mr. Bryant unconsciously describes his own powers. He was practically the poet for his own age, and much more. The oldest of our native poets, he was in a peculiar sense the father of American poetry. And yet Mr. Bryant was, in its fullest meaning, a man of affairs. He was not only a scholar, familiar with many languages and literatures, critically exact in classical kno>vledge, versed in legal lore and in science and finance, but a masterly journalist, and for half a cen- tury an editor perpetually occupied with practical business of national
Vol. XXIIL— No. i. -i
2 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
consequence. His active life extended over the most changeful and pro- gressive period in American history — a period in which steam navigation became a possibility and the Erie canal was built, in which railroads and the telegraph were first projected, the great newspaper system established in which he bore a conspicuous part, and negro slavery abolished from the land ; he was identified with the rise of authorship, and American litera- ture recognizes in him one of its chief founders and builders. Meanwhile he lost no opportunity of turning his glimpses of nature into sweetest verse, of teaching in musical rhythm the magic of human sympathy. He trained his natural gifts with consummate care, and was satisfied with nothing less than the widest and deepest study of poetry in all litera- tures, young and old, in all languages and climes and schools. Thus he kept his verse in perfect finish for sixty successive years. He placed before the reading world his meditations on the flowers and the seasons, the clouds and the stars, the winds and the woods, the seas and the mountains of America. He traveled extensively in foreign countries, visiting Europe on six different occasions (in 1834, in 1845, ^^^ 1849, '^ 1852, in 1857, and in 1867), and was welcomed and feted by the most famous men and women of the age — was everywhere treated with distin- guished consideration ; and, in the language of George William Curtis, " we gratefully remember that this son of New England was always, in the most generous and representative sense, an American. Whoever saw^ Bryant saw America. Whoever talked with him felt the characteristic tone of American life. Whoever knew him comprehended the reason and perceiyed the quality of American greatness." His love for the country of his birth shines through and between every line. of his poetic produc- tions, and he became so well and universally known that it is no new thing to speak of his fame as a part of our national glory.
His familiar "Song for the New Year's Eve" is invested with a fresh charm as we extend our welcome to 1890: *
" Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay —
Stay till the good old year, So long companion of our way,
Shakes liands and leaves us here. Oh stay, oh stay. One little hour, and then away !
The year whose hopes were high and strong
Has now no hopes to wake. Yet one hour more of jest and song, For his familiar sake. * Appletons' HouschoUl Edition of Bryant's poems.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
Oh stay, oh stay, One mirthful hour, and then away !
The kindly year, his hberal hands
Have lavished all his store. And shall we turn from where he stands. Because he gives no more ? Oh stay, oh stay, One grateful hour, and then away !
Days brightly came and calmly went,
While yet he was our guest. How cheerfully the week was spent! How sweet the seventh day's rest ! Oh stay, oh stay, One golden hour, and then away !
Dear friends were with us, some who sleep
Beneath the coffin lid. What pleasant memories we keep Of all they said and did ! Oh stay, oh stay. One tender hour, and then away!
Even while we sing, he smiles his last,
And leaves our sphere behind. The good old year is with the past ; Oh, be the new as kind ! Oh stay, oh stay, One parting strain, and then away ! "
The early life of Mr. Bryant was singularly conducive to his preparation for later usefulness. He was reared in a home notable for its intellectual characteristics and surroundings. His father, Dr. Peter Bryant, was a country physician and surgeon of marked ability, who had, like several other young and energetic men from eastern Massachusetts, penetrated the isolated wilderness in the western part of the state, and planted for himself a permanent home. It was shortly after the establishment of our national government, and when in that particular section of New England there were for some time scarcely a dozen families living within a radius of ten miles. Deacon Ebenezer Snell was there, however, and had brought under cultivation a good farm. He was a strong, unique character, afterwards a member of the state legislature and a judge of the county court of sessions ; his grandmother was Anna Alden the granddaughter of Captain John Alden and the lovely Priscilla — the story of whom is so admirably told in
4 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
Longfellow's poem. Dr. Bryant went naturally to his house and ere long fell in love with his daughter, " sweet Sallie Snell " as he calls her in verses still extant. They were married in 1792, and went to spend their honey- moon in a little frame cottage on the top of a bleak hill — which was the birthplace of William Cullen in 1794. It is an interesting fact that Bryant and Longfellow were both descended from John and Priscilla Alden, and could speak with pride of the voyage of their ancestors in the Mayflajver.
Deacon Snell built the historic house where the poet's boyhood was passed, during the second term of the Presidency of Washington. Dr. Bryant and his family removed to it in 1799, ^^"^^ year of Washington's death. The situation of the dwelling was on one of the most picturesque hillsides in the country. It overlooked a vast extent of high and low land — a perfect landscape, bright with color a part of the year and white with snow the remainder — diversified with trees in generous profusion, but without any sign of human life, not even a steeple, chimney, or roof in sight, forming a scene of awe-inspiring tranquillity. Dr. Bryant was a lover of books, and soon collected a library. He made frequent trips to Boston and the intermediate towns and never returned without bringing home something new, or old, to read. He was a Latin, French, and Greek scholar, and delighted in the important English works of the day and in vol- umes of poetry. He was inclined to versification, and studied it as an art. He also collected the largest medical library in those parts, and wrote fre- quently, as time went on, for medical and other periodicals. His townsmen sent him to the legislature, where he was instrumental in securing the pas- sage of important laws intended to raise the standard of medical education throughout the state — laws that are still in force. As the population in- creased his practice became extensive, and he was obliged to ride long distances over very crude rough roads to visit his patients. It is said that he was so wedded to his books that he always carried some of them in his professional rounds, reading them by the way.
Mrs. Bryart was a woman of strong character and literary taste. Not- withstanding her domestic duties she found time to become familiar with the leading historians, the best essayists, and many of the poets. She was fortunate in living so far from the great towns as to escape the wastes which social affairs involve, and thus was able to aid materially in the education of her children. They were all inclined to reading. An aged lady who resided near by relates that she never passed the Bryant house of a winter evening and looked into the windows without seeing the boys stretched out with their backs on the floor and their heads toward the birch-wood fire — the usual light — each deeply immersed in a book. Pope,
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
Homer, Spenser, Milton, Cowper, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth were de- voured with zest. William Cullen began younger than any of his brothers to reveal an interest in verses. When he was but five years old, says his biographer, Hon. Parke Godwin, '' He used to clamber upon a high chair — formed of a one-leafed round table, which, after having served for meals, was pushed back against the wall as a seat — and preach. This ' preaching,* as he called it, was the declamation of certain of Watts's hymns, which he had learned on his mother's knee or from hearing them repeated in the
6 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
church and at prayer-meetings." He was only six years old at the dawn of the present century. Every school-boy knows what his efforts were in the line of versification before he reached his tenth birthday, and how he found his father a severe critic. By this time there was a considerable number of inhabitants in the neighborhood, with houses at the respectful distance of a mile or two from each other. The families were chiefly well educated, superior in mind and character to the average people of their time. They were not afflicted with luxuries, neither were they idle or overworked ; but they were conscientiously industrious, generally comfort- able in worldly possessions, inclined to meditation, and desirous of follow- ing the prevailing fashion to be wise. The attention paid here to Church worship and the founding of schools will ever challenge the admiration of posterity.
Our readers will remember a paper published in March, 1887, in this magazine, entitled Historic Homes 07t Golden Hills, in which the region about Mr. Bryant's birthplace is described as "■ a nest of hill-tops, where no unmannerly railway ever yet intruded ; " and where " from its historic homes influences have emanated, affecting the destinies of millions of the great human family." The town more specially described in that paper was Plainfield, which adjoins Cummington — indeed, was formerly a part of Cummington — but the fact that Plainfield within one hundred years has sent out into the world for active, important work more educated Christian ministers, authors, and editors, than any other town of its size on the globe, and the fact that very many of these were contemporaries of Mr. Bryant, show that there were varied sources of inspiration to impel the boy onward in the path of learning. In 1808 he was so far advanced in his ^studies that he was sent to Rev. Dr. Thomas Snell, his mother's brother, at North Brookfield, Massachusetts, to be further taught in the classics, and the fol- lowing year entered the famous school of Rev. Moses Hallock at Plainfield, less than three miles distant, to complete his preparation for Williams college. This school f:;r many years furnished nearly half the students who entered Williams at the beginning of each college year. " Mr. Hal- lock," says Charles Dudley Warner, ''was in the best sense the conscience of the town. Scholar, minister, pastor, counselor — who can measure the influence of such a man in his generation?"
Mr. Bryant continued to write tolerably clever amateur verse while in school and college ; but, to the surprise of himself, in his eighteenth year he produced an imperishable poem. Thanatopsis was conceived in the dense forests of the beautiful hills about his Cummington home. This was, in fact, the beginning of America's poetic history. It proved to be a poem
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY 7
marked by fullness and grandeur of thought, breadth of treatment, and an imaginative reach that will ever be a source of wonder to those who remember the youth of its author at the time it was written — an author who lived to see both American literature and poetry burst into abun- dance of blossom, and ripen into substantial fruit. When Mr. Bryant, years afterward, became a prominent and vigorous politician, and was not infrequently styled the poet-politician, he never confounded the two vocations in any way, or allowed either to interfere to any appreciable extent with the other. Poetry and politics formed two distinct currents of his intellectual life, running together without mixing, as the Gulf stream winds its way through the broad Atlantic, while always distinguished from it by its higher temperature. Mr. Stoddard says that ''for five days out of every week during at least forty-two of his fifty-two years of editorial service, Mr. Bryant was at his editorial desk before eight o'clock in the morning, and left the daily impress of his character and talents in some form upon the columns of his journal. When the length of his career as an editor is remembered, it may be assumed that Mr. Bryant was one of the most voluminous prose writers that ever lived. It would be difficult to name a single topic of national importance, or one which has occupied any considerable share of public attention during the half century, upon which he did not find occasion to form and publish an opinion — an opin- ion, too, which always commanded the respect if not the adhesion of his readers."
The marvel is that Mr. Bryant's poems written during the same period bear so little trace of the commotions, excitements, and harassing dis- tractions of thought consequent upon his newspaper conflicts. In a review of his volume of poems issued in 1836, a critical writer in \.\i^ North American Review says: " Mr. Bryant walks forth in the fields and forests, and not a green or rosy tint, not a flower or herb or tree, not a strange or familiar plant escapes his vigilant glance. The naturalist is not keener in searching out the science of nature than he in detecting all its poetical aspects, effects, analogies, and contrasts. To him the landscape is a speaking and teaching page. What exquisite taste ! What fine and piercing sense of the beauties of nature, down to the minutest and most evanescent things ! "
It is interesting to recall the fact that Mr. Bryant, in i82i,then a mod- est, shy young man of twenty-seven, accepted an invitation to deliver a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Harvard college, and for that occasion he wrote The Ages, his first long poem, which still remains, says Mr. Stoddard, '^ the best poem of the kind ever recited before a college
8' WILUAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
society either in this country or in England." The audience was a critical one, such men being present as John Quincy Adams, Timothy Pickering, John Lowell, Drs. Channing and Kirkland, Everett and Dana. Miss Eliza Susan Quincy describes the affair in a letter, saying: "There was a crowded audience in the ancient church. Mr. Bryant's appearance was pleasing, refined, and intellectual; his manner was calm and dignified; and he spoke with ease and clearness of enunciation. There was no attempt at oratorical display ; but, considering the grave and elevated tone of the poem, it excited more repeated tributes of applause than could have been anticipated, and the last stanza rendered these testimo- nies of approbation vehement. A few days afterward, Mr. Isaac P. Davis, a man noted for his very general acquaintance in society, during a visit to Quincy, informed me that Mr. Bryant's poem was generally considered the finest that had ever been spoken before the Phi Beta Society." This poem reminds us of another. No one familiar with the locality and the views from the Bryant homestead in Cummington ever failed to appreci- ate the wonderful series of woodland pictures in A Winter Piece, which for truthfulness and symmetry of expression excels anything in the language, standing out like a distinct crystal in the poetic mine. The following lines
are an example :
. . . "Afar, The village with its spires, the path of streams And dim receding valleys, hid before By interposing trees, lay visible Through the bare grove, and my familiar haunts Seemed new to me. Nor was I slow to come Among them, when the clouds, from their still skirts. Had shaken adown on earth the feathery snow, And all was white." ...
Mr. Bryant purchased the Cummington estate many years before his death, and repaired and enlarged the house, and beautified its grounds. He thereafter visited it every summer, usually in July, staying about two months. He built a broad, smooth road to the village below, planted trees, and improved the land. To the town of his birth he gave a valuable and permanent library.
Mr. Bryant's winter residence in New York city was spacious, comfort- able, and inviting. His country place at Roslyn, Long Island, however, was the most typical home of the three, and seemed to reflect more vividly than the others the fine traits of the poet's character. It was a great, unadorned, square, gabled-roofed house when he bought it in 1841, having been erected by a Quaker in 1787. It stood within a nook of
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
exquisite loveliness, on the hilly shore of Hempstead bay, and it soon assumed an aspect which its former sedate proprietor had never antici- pated, showing how perfectly nature and art may be blended in one har- monious whole. The mansion itself began to blink through modern bay- windows ; attractive new verandas and antique balconies became artis- tically ornamented with honeysuckle, codea, clematis, and other aspiring vines ; and even the stately trees about the old dwelling seemed to grow
SUMMER HOME OF MR. BRYANT, ROSLYN, LONG ISLAND.
higher and become suddenly more leafy. Gardens and grounds were also transformed as if by magic, and for more than three full decades guests of distinction who visited Cedarmere observed that from the house no fences or boundaries could be seen, only vistas of exceeding beauty reach- ing off to where the trees and mountains seemed to come together, or the water dwindled to a point, bridged with overhanging foliage. The com- manding views from the quaint balconies were a perpetual fascination.
10 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
Mr. Bryant cultivated his natural love for trees, plants, and flowers until he became one of the most accomplished horticulturists of his gen- eration. In his travels abroad he never omitted an opportunity of secur- ing rare products from other climes, and experimented upon their culture at Cedarmere. His Quaker predecessor had utilized the hill-side springs for the practical purpose of running a small mill. Mr. Bryant turned the basin of water which had been gathered into an artificial lake, and dressed the mill over so completely with shrubbery and vines that it had the pict- uresque effect outwardly of a choice summer-house. Its location was at the foot of the garden, which covered an acre, or possibly two acres, along the slope between the house and the bay — an arm of the Sound— encir- cled on all sides by grand old trees and miniature-looking shrubs. To walk through this beautiful garden with Mr. Bryant for a companion was more useful than a course of botanical lessons. The brightest and best specimens of flowers nodded on every side, almost as if they had souls. Here and there fruit-trees of gentle birth and foreign lineage — such as the persimmon (two varieties, one of which bore fruit shaped like a plum, the other flat, like a turnip), the Portuguese quince, the Chickasaw plum, and the Chinese sand-pear — trees which decline the associations of a common orchard, flourished in haughty isolation without casting even a grim shadow over the floral treasures; and as many as twenty varieties of grapes, nearly all American, in a prosperous condition, could be seen.
The trees of Cedarmere present a curious combination of natural wild- ness with artificial planting. Not far from the house stands a Turkish oak, brought from Greece. A visitor on one occasion commented to Mr. Bryant upon the shapeliness of a huge European elm standing near by. " Would you believe me," responded the poet with animation, " if I should tell you that I brought that tree, a feeble sapling, from Oyster Bay, in a one-horse wagon, twenty-nine years ago ? " Then springing forward with boyish elas- ticity— he had already passed his eightieth birthday — he ran lightly up the bank and stood by the great trunk of the tree. " See ! " he exclaimed, " how the sapling has outgrown the man ! "
From the private note-book of this same visitor we are permitted to make the following quotation : '* ' How far can you walk? ' Mr. Bryant asked of me. ' As far as you are inclined,' I replied, and I looked as I spoke at the man of eighty, with his snowy hair, my father's schoolboy friend and classmate, and wondered if he thought he could outwalk me ! We went down the lawn to the shore of the little artificial lake with its rustic bridge, and along a narrow footpath on its western edge, pausing here and there to comment on shrubs and dwarf trees growing on the embankment, on
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY II
the mountain laurel with its autumn tints, on the yellow Virginia creepers, the wild grapevines, and the Scotch broom-trees, until we lost sight of the house and reached the extreme southern boundary of the property. Mr. Bryant then conducted me up the hill-side, toward the mansion again, where we crossed the road and ascended the wooded heights to the east. Several pretty cottages are scattered over the estate, all built by Mr. Bryant for friends or relatives. Some of the barns were exceedingly picturesque. The fields were under high cultivation. Long rows of cabbages, turnips, beets, carrots, and potatoes caught my eye in one direction, and in another two or three acres handsomely fenced off for the summer residence of hens and turkeys. Mr. Bryant asked me if I was willing to try scaling the high board fence before us. I promptly replied in the affirmative, and no boy of fifteen could have vaulted over it more gracefully than he did in the next half minute, while I followed, awkwardly, indeed, but without a tumble. We passed into the middle of the lot, greeted by its occupants with much flutter and noise ; presently Mr. Bryant started the turkeys into a confusion of gobbling by a successful imitation of their own lan- guage, until the uproar was deafening, and the scene ludicrous beyond description. Three or four pet lambs ran toward us, and Mr. Bryant tenderly patted their heads and played with them for a few minutes. Then he dismissed the whole party with a ' Go away now, I have done with you,' and each and all obeyed respectfully.
I have no distinct recollection of the number of fences we passed over in our ramble, but I think as many as a dozen, some of which were quite formidable ; others we cleared as nimbly as children reared among fences. Fruit, shade, ornamental, and forest trees were' scattered over every part of the vast domain, some standing singly, others in rows, and then again in clusters, all growing as if they had been distributed by some convulsion q( the elements, without order or method. And yet I could easily discern the most consummate method in their arrangement. We passed the locust and the ash, the elm and the maple, the tulip and the pine. We went through an old apple orchard, the trees of which, Mr. Bryant said, were probably one hundred years old, and we saw at least sixty varieties of the pear. There were hosts of plum and cherry trees, the English wal- nut, and others too numerous to mention. Along the road to Glen Cove Mr. Bryant had formed a sort of belt to his property with several thousand trees planted between two fences built a rod or more apart. These were the European larch, the same as the American hackmatack, a kind of tree that lasts indefinitely. We proceeded to a high point of land, where we could see the Sound seven miles away, and standing there in the October
12 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN HISTORY
sunshine Mr. Bryant told me the whole history of the Methodist camping ground below and how the village had grown up out of a little shrewd private Methodist speculation. Returning to the house we passed through an inclosure in which were many sugar-maple trees, but not of vigorous growth, although planted by Mr. Bryant a long time before many other large trees that we had seen.
Tea was served at six o'clock, after which we adjourned to the parlor. The mail that evening brought a large package to Mr. Bryant. He opened his letters one by one as we sat about the centre-table, dropped some of them into a side-pocket for further examination, and tossed others to his daughter to read aloud to him. One of these was from a young man in Maine, who said he had heard of the fame of Mr. Bryant, and wanted to ask his opinion of himself — to learn what he thought of his (the writer's) promise as a poet. He wanted also to be informed concerning pubHshers — who, for instance, would be glad to pay him for making verses for them. After three full pages of letter, he added four lines of specimen poetry. Ms that all?' asked Mr. Bryant, with an amused face. 'Yes,' replied his daughter. 'That is like sending a brick to show what sort of a house you can build,' dryly remarked Mr. Bryant. ' Ah I here is a postscript,' said Miss Bryant, reading a request for information about obtaining work in a printing-office and asking for the address of Mr. Longfellow. ' What do you do with such letters?' I inquired, curiously. 'I usually answer them,' replied Mr. Bryant, ' but I never advise any one to try making verses for a living.' The conversation during the evening touched upon many themes of current interest and every-day life. I asked my host, incidentally, which part (5f the day he esteemed the most profitable for literary composition? 'The morning, without any doubt,' he said with emphasis. ' No one should retire with any subjects of moment aggravat- ing his brain-rest. The evening should always be spent quietly. Get plenty of sleep, beginning at a proper hour; rise early, if you like, and let your enthusiasm har-e full play in the early portion of the day. I hold,' he continued, after a moment's pause, 'that no writing, either of poetry or prose, is of much account, unless the writer is thoroughly alive in regard to whatever he puts upon paper.'
The following morning we breakfasted early in order to take the steamer for New York. It was but a few moments' walk to the landing, but we descended a steep bluff or hill, and the house we had just left was lost to view. Mr. Bryant stopped to caress a little Scotch terrier as we hurried along, telling me at the same time the romantic story of the dog, which had once belonged to a Massachusetts stage-driver". We had
WILLIAM CULLEX BRYANT IX HISTORY 1 3
almost reached the boat, when IMr. Bryant became aware that a beautiful little pet kitten was trotting proudly along beside us. ' Oh I ' he ex- claimed, ' you cannot go to New York.' Then stooping, he gathered the not unwilling kitten into his arms and started on a run toward the house. I turned and looked after him, wondering if he would risk losing the boat by retracing the whole distance, and if there were many young men who would take so much trouble and display so much energy for a kitten I On he ran, up the sharp steep, never once pausing for breath or slackening his pace, and out of sight through the trees, depositing his burden in the house and closing the door. Then he ran all the way back to the steamer, less disconcerted apparently by the brisk exercise than half the school- boys on the continent might have been. ... At Glen Cove, where the steamer stopped, Mr. Samuel L. ]\L Barlow came aboard, and chatted with Mr. Bryant about a remarkable tree they cultivate in North Holland — a sure preventative against malaria. ]\[r. Barlow had obtained some for himself and Mr. Bryant, and both gentlemen were experimenting on its culture in this climate.
Mr. Br^^ant pointed out several distinguished gentlemen on the boat, commenting on their characteristics in clear, crisp English. He also related many incidents with charming humor. He called my attention in one instance to lines of sunshine mischievously playing upon the plain face of a young woman opposite — which elongated her nose and shortened it according to the motion of the boat. . . . All my preconceived notions about Mr. Bryant are now pleasantly contradicted. I had, like the great general public, supposed him a reticent, cold, unapproachable man ; yet he was genial, winning, hospitable, and so full of anecdote and humor and information that possibly, in the open air among the trees, he had thrown his traditional reserve to the winds — and then forgotten to wrap his cloak about him again."
During the last twenty years of Mr. Bryant's life, no citizen of New York was oftener called upon to preside at public meetings, to welcome hon- ored strangers, or speak at dinners and on other special occasions. Every movement of art and literature, of philanthropy and good citizenship, sought the decoration of his name. His presence was the grace of every festival, and the pride of every social gathering of consequence. He was a short, slender man, yet such was the effect of his figure and his bearing, that few even thought of calling him small. The dicrnitv, beautv, and purity of his private character endeared him to society, and his refined, intellectual face, in its setting of white hair and full beard, was, particu- larly in the metropolis, as well known as his name.
2 :^
.. ^
RARE PICTURE OF EARLY NEW YORK
Editor of Magazine of America7i History:
During the summer of 1888 I visited Amsterdam, and found at Miiller's print-shop the old view of New York which you have decided to reproduce in the Magazine of American History. I was told that an old teak-wood vessel which had formerly been in the Dutch navy, and was one of the squadron which took New York from the English, had been broken up a few weeks before. From this vessel Mr. Miiller secured the picture, painted on a wooden panel which was about thirty inches in length. The panel was situated opposite the stairs of the companionway to the main cabin, and I understood that it could have been painted by the artist standing a few steps below, and within easy reach of it, while with his head above the slide the town of New York would have been in full view. After cleaning the picture, Mr. Miiller fortunately had it photographed, for the painting had been sold a few days before my visit, to a stranger, and to an American, it was believed. I think there can be but little ques- tion that this view was painted while the vessel lay at anchor off the old fort, and just after the surrender of the town, on July 30, 1673. The panel was part of the original woodwork of the ship, and the painting was executed afterwards. We assume that it was done at the time the vessel was in the harbor, as an explanation for its existence. The arms and scroll- work were of a different wood from the panel, and, as an ornament, was evidently put on afterward.
The Dutch squadron consisted of five ships, under the command of Admirals Benckes and Evertsen and Captains Colve, Boes, and Van Zye. I have never seen a record given of the names of these vessels, so that we cannot identify this special one.
The view is particularly valuable as being, probably, the only accurate one of the period ; for that given on the map issued by Reinier & Josua Ottens, of *' Nieuw Amsterdam onlongs Nieuw Jorck," in 1673, resembles more some of the earlier representations of the town. The accuracy with which the details are given in the painting would indicate that the whole was a faithful picture.
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE *
Uncle Touts Cabin was published in book form in March, 1852. The despondency and uncertainty of the author as to whether any one would read her book, was soon dispelled. Ten thousand copies were sold in a few days, and over three hundred thousand within a year. Eight powerful presses running day and night for months were barely able to keep pace with the demand for it. It was read everywhere, by all classes of people. Talk of it filled the atmosphere. Heated discussions occasioned by it resounded in cottage, farm-house, business offices, and palatial resi- dences all over the land. The pity, distress, and soul-felt indignation in which it had been written were by it transferred to the minds and con- sciences of her readers, and the antagonism it everywhere engendered threw the social life of this country and England into angry effervescence through all its strata.
Echoes of its clarion tones came back to its author in her quiet home at Brunswick, returning as they had struck the world, with clashing dis- sonance or loud alarum or low, sweet tones of feeling. Letters, letters of all sizes, colors, directions, and kinds of chirograpiiy, astonished the post- master at Brunswick by their countless numbers, and the author began to feel the nation's pulse. Friends applauded, remonstrated, or vociferously deprecated her course. Literary associates praised the technique of the story, but thought the subject ill-chosen. Abolitionists wrote with irre- pressible enthusiasm, and praised God that she had been raised up to do this thing. Politicians angrily expressed their amazement that her husband should permit her to commit this incendiarism, which might burst into a conflagration that would dissolve the national Union. Slave- holders heaped reproaches and contumely upon her, and badly spelled productions, evincing cowardly ruffianism, were taken with tongs by her husband and dropped almost unread into the fire.
A friend of Mrs. Stowe's favorite brother has recently said that Henry had threatened never to read Uncle Toms Cabin, but couldn't help it, cried over it, and wrote to her: '* If you ever write another such a book I will kill you, if I have to go around the world to find you. You have * Extracts from Mrs. Florine Thayer McCray's Life Work of the Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Through courtesy of its publishers, Funk & Wagnalls, we republish two of the several interesting illustrations in the volume, "The house in which Uncle Toms Cabin was written," and '• Mrs. Stowe at work."
UNCLE TOM S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE
17
taken more out of me than a whole year of preaching. I wish that all fhe slave-holders in the South, and all their Northern sympathizers with them, were shut up for a century, and obliged to read about Uncle Tom.''
In May, 1852, Whittier wrote to Garrison: "What a glorious work Harriet Beecher Stowe has wrought. Thanks for the Fugitive Slave Law. Better for slavery that that law had never been enacted, for it gave occa- sion for Uncle Toms Cabin T
In a letter from Garrison to Mrs. Stowe, he said that he estimated the
HOUSE IN WHICH UNCLE TOM S CABIN WAS WRITTEN.
value of anti-slavery writing by the abuse it brought. " Since Uncle Toins Cabin was published," he adds, *'all the defenders of slavery have let me alone and are spending their strength in abusing you."
Harriet Martineau wrote sententiously, " I am glad to find Mrs. Stowe is held up to execration in the South, along with myself and Mrs. Chap- man." Alternating with and accompanying packages of letters from the illustrious, the celebrated, and the wise of the world, were irate and abusive epistles from the brutal traders and slave-holders of the South. Some of these were a disgusting mixture of blasphemy and obscenity, and
Vol. XXIII.— No. 1.-2
l8 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE
all rang with cruelty and invective. Responses came from over the sea. Mrs. Stowe was informed that Prince Albert and the Queen had read her story with the most intense interest. Charles Dickens wrote from London in July, and while courteously suggesting that she went too far and sought to prove too much — a natural criticism from one who had not seen slavery as it was in America — he closed by saying: ''Your book is worthy of any head and any heart that ever inspired a book. I am your debtor, and thank you most fervently and smcerely." Macaulay wrote, thanking her for the volume, assuring her of his high respect for the talents and for the benevolence of the writer. Four years later, the same illustrious author, essayist, and historian wrote to Mrs. Stowe : *' I have just returned from Italy, where your fame seems to throw that of all other writers into the shade. There is no place where Uncle Tom, transformed into II Zio Torn, is not to be found." From Lord Carlisle she received a long and earnest epistle, in which he says he felt that slavery was by far the '' topping " question of the world and age, and that he returned his ''deep and solemn thanks to Almighty God, who has led and enabled you to write such a book." The Rev. Charles Kingsley, in the midst of illness and anxiety, sent his thanks, saying : " Your book will do more to take away the reproach from your great and growing nation than many platform agitations and speechifyings." Said Lord Palmerston, " I have not read a novel for thirty years ; but I have read that book three times, not only for the story, but for the statesmanship of it." Lord Cockburn declared: " She has done more for humanity than was ever before accomplished by any single book of fiction."
Within a year Uncle Tom's Cabin was scattered all 'over the world. Translations were made into all the principal languages; and into several obscure dialects, in number variously estimated from twenty to forty. The librarian of the British Museum, with an interest and enterprise which might well put our own countrymen to blush, has made a collection which is unique and ver}' remarkable in the history of books. American visitors may see there thirty-five editions {Uncle Tom's Cabin) of the original Eng- lish, and the complete text, and eight of abridgments and adaptations. Of translations into different languages there are nineteen, viz. : Arme- nian, one; Bohemian, one : Danish, two distinct versions; Dutch, one; Flemish, one; French, eight distinct versions, and two dramas; German, five distinct versions, and four abridgments; Hungarian, one complete ver- sion, one for children, and one versified abridgment; Illyrian, two distinct versions; Italian, one; Polish, two distinct versions; Portuguese, one; Ro- man, or modern Greek, one; Russian, two distinct versions; Spanish, six
UNCLE TOM S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE I9
distinct versions ; Swedish, one ; Wallachian, two distinct versions; Welsh, three distinct versions. Of the Key to Uncle Toms Cabin there are seven editions, in different languages. Of works on the subject of Uncle Toms Cabin there are eight separately published. Of reviews of it there are forty-nine — but this list is by no means complete. Many editions and translations have been impossible to procure, but the English-speaking world owes thanks to Mr. Bullen and his coadjutors for their successful collection of so many versions.
It is related, that during the season following the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a kind-hearted gentleman was staying over-night at one of the New York hotels. After retiring to his room his attention was arrested by a sound as of some one in the next apartment, a strong man, sobbing and moaning. With occasional periods of quiet, the sorrowful sounds were prolonged even after he had gone to bed. At last, moved to pity by the evident suffering of a fellow-mortal, he arose, found it past midnight, and, going to the wall, rapped upon it and asked : '' My friend, what is the matter? Are you ill, or in any trouble that I can relieve? Shall I call for medical aid?" After a slight pause, the voice replied, though choked with convulsive sobs: " No, no ; a doctor wouldn't do me any good ; I am reading Uncle To7ns Cabin.''
In the present age of the world and condition of literary criticism, it has sometimes seemed difficult to understand the phenomenal popularity of this work ; but it is only because, in our supposed familiarity with it, we have forgotten its strength, its graphic power, its deep philosophy, its rare humor.
The Minister s Wooing began as a serial in the Atlantic Monthly, at the end of the first year of its brilliant existence under the editorship of James Russell Lowell. The story began in the December number of 1858, and ran quite through the following year, being contemporary with Oliver Wendell Holmes' second series of essays. At the Breakfast Table, under the character of "The Professor." It is probable that few of the literary critics who had acknowledged Mrs. Stowe's power as a writer upon the great subject which found marvelous expression in Uncle Tom's Cabin were prepared for so strong a literary work as The Minister s Wooing. Just here, it may be said that Mrs. Stowe's first great work had been one of the direct causes of the establishment of the Atlantic.
With the interest which naturally centres about one who has done a great good to the race, moral, aesthetic, or intellectual, people at home and abroad began to wish to know something of the personality of the woman who was becoming famous in every land.
20
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE
Distinguished people made pilgrimages to Hartford to see her, and con- gratulate and thank her. Scores of celebrity-hunters came to remark upon her personal appearance and household environment ; many representa- tives of the press, from the larger cities, intruded upon her with the vary-
MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE AT WORK.
ing demonstrations and degrees of enterprising inquisitiveness, which are as many as the shades of their hair or the cut of their clothes. All of these, and many indescribable forms of intrusion, she met with politeness, many of them with real pleasure, which she showed in her cordial smile and shining, soulful eyes; and it was, indeed, an aggressive and extraordinarily obnoxious person whom she did not dismiss with forbearance. Her man-
UNCLE TOM S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE 21
ner was not conventional. No words of trite commonplaces came readily to her lips, nor did any depreciation of her own works seem to be neces- sary to the woman who never employed the doubtful assumption of false modesty which is easy to little natures.
While she seldom refused audience to visitors at hours when she was not engaged upon her work, she always took the privilege of terminating the interview as soon as it ceased to be profitable, and, rising, said " Good- bye," with a clasp of the hand and an honest look into the eyes, which disarmed the possible impatience of one who might have wished a longer conversation.
A neighbor, who once called at an inopportune season, found himself taken through an apartment where he thought he saw the figure of a woman lying upon a lounge. The servant presently returned, saying that Mrs. Stowe was composing and could not be seen. He rose to leave, and again passed through the room, and close by the lounge upon which Mrs. Stowe rested with closed eyes. He passed out in some confusion of mind, which, it may be presumed, was not in the least felt by the great author, who, if she heard the conversation, did not permit it nor the fact of his presence to come into her deep inner consciousness, where ideas were in process of evolution.
A lady from Cincinnati, coming to Hartford, and naturally anxious to see the writer of the works she had found so enjoyable and profitable, called at Mrs. Stowe's house with considerable timidity, just to tell her how much she admired her and longed to touch her hand. Accosting a small woman in a shade hat, who was working among the flowers in the yard, she asked for Mrs. Stowe. The small figure arose, looked search- ingly at her, and said simply, " I am Mrs. Stowe," and waited, half turned toward her flowers, for the visitor to speak again. The lady stammered out a few words, which half expressed her feelings, and Mrs. Stowe, pull- ing off her glove, clasped her hand cordially, saying she was glad if she had been able to suggest anything to her. Then, cutting a few flowers, she gave them to the visitor, and saying ^' Good-bye," in her simple manner, w^ent into the house without another word or look, seeming in an instant to forget the presence of the lady, who stood paralyzed with surprise. She came away, bringing the flowers and a remembrance of Harriet Beecher Stowe, which, when the confusion of the two^minute interview was over, at first deepened into chagrin at her prompt dismissal, but soon merged into pleasure and personal admiration, as she recalled the greeting and the sincerity of her welcome.
Of her characteristic abstraction or absent-mindedness, which was fre-
22 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN AND MRS. STOWE
quently a voluntary self-withdrawal, a power which she naturally possessed and had cultivated during years of mental labor, there are many stories. One summer the Stowe family spent several months at Bethel, Maine, enjoying the delightful air and beautiful scenery of that region. Soon after their advent, numerous residents and summer visitors asked that Mrs. Stowe would give them a reception. To this she acceded, showing, how- ever, some wonderment that they should care to see her. The afternoon designated came, and the proud landlady went to inform her famous guest that many people were already in the parlor. To her surprise Mrs. Stowe was not in her room, nor about the premises, and did not appear until nightfall, when she unconcernedly walked in, after all the guests, tired of waiting, had departed. It appeared that, quite forgetting the reception, she had taken a little girl by the hand (the narrator of the story) and gone for a long tramp up the hillside and into the woods, where they had a delightful day, unmindful of the outraged and disappointed callers who waited in vain.
In Uncle Toms Cabin the author's strength was in her burning earnest- ness of purpose in laying existing facts before the Christian world. In The Minister s Wooing her power was in the practical grasp and forcible presentation of the results of certain theological doctrines. This was a far more difficult task than writing of life under negro slavery. In Uncle Tom s Cabin she had only to go from one section of the United States to another ; only to eliminate distance. In The Minister s Wooing she had to take her readers backward three-quarters of a century, to roll back the years and see and show what had been. In the first it was only necessary to examine an existing institution to prove the truth of her words. But mental and spiritual impressions remam and become hereditary possessions when political and social events are forgotten. The Minister s Wooing was generally accepted as conforming in all essen- tial points to the actual condition of religious thought in New England one hundred years ago. In Old Town Folks she excels most rarely in the admirable depictions of characters peculiar to the locality and time in which the story is laid. . . . When Harriet Beecher Stowe laid down her pen a great mental and spiritual force ceased to act. When she rested from work, an influence, which has proved more pervasive and lasting than that of any other living writer, no longer thrilled upon the questions of the age.
ST. ANTHONY'S FACE
A MASTERPIECE OF NATURAL SCULPTURE
Editor, of Magazine of A merica7i History :
In all the grand and beautiful scenery of the Highlands of the Hudson river no object was formerly more unique and conspicuous than the cel- ebrated face of St. Anthony, of which a representation is here given to the reader, in the fac-simile of an old print which appeared many years ago in a Pictorial History of the American Revolution, published in Boston.
It was a rock formation on the southerly side of Break-Neck mountain, in the shape and form of a man's face, with the forehead, nose, mouth, and chin distinctly defined, and remarkably well proportioned. It was about seven hundred feet above the river, and could be viewed from the water, upon which it seemed to look down as if to observe the ever-returning ebb and flow of the tide, and the ceaseless movement of travel over the smooth surface of the stream.
The stern, rugged, and weather-beaten face of St. Anthony endured
VIEW OF ST. ANTHONY'S FACE ON THE HUDSON RIVER.
{^Facsimile of an old print.']
24 ST. ANTHONY S FACE
the heat and defied the cold and storms of ages upon this lofty and ex- ceedingly picturesque height, until the summer of 1846, when the foreman of the party of workmen who were quarrying the stone from that moun- tain for the construction of the High Bridge over the Harlem river, rended it from its unique and attractive position by an explosion of powder, which threw it into the wave below, where it now lies.
The destruction of this extraordinary piece of natural sculpture seems to have been entirely useless, if not malicious, for no use was or could, possibly be made of the rock so thrown down, and no more work for the purpose in view, the procuring of stone for the building of the bridge, could be performed at such a great elevation.
To the lover of nature, such wanton destruction of her masterpieces is contemplated with profound regret, and the pain is alleviated only by the reflection that we live in a land full of harmonies, beauties, and sub- limities, which impress one with reverence and devotion wherever they are brought under observation.
White Plains, New York.
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
The recent enthusiastic celebration of our first centennial under the federal Constitution has naturally called attention anew to the statesman- ship and foresight of the fathers embodied in this marvelous instrument. It must have occurred to others as well as to the writer, that the occasion should not be suffered to pass without the attempt to strengthen and crystallize public sentiment on the basis of loyalty and devotion to the federal organism.
It seems strange and almost unaccountable in the light of recent demonstrations in honor of the wisdom which conceived and formulated the plan for the national government, and of the marvelous success which has crowned our national career, that a spirit of absolute hostility to the federal scheme should have been persistently cultivated from the days of the fathers, and that the brilliant and inspiring march of the Republic has been in the face of this wide-spread antagonism. Strange, because there has never existed the least rational ground for distrusting or disliking the national government.
Its administration has been pervaded by the most liberal regard for the rights of the states. Its legislation has been molded by popular sentiment, and its courts have almost uniformly commanded the respect and confidence of the people.
If there has been at any time any departure from the spirit of the great Declaration in any branch of the national organism, it has been under the influence of that faction which has claimed that the liberties of the people were safer under the shield of state rights.
Apart from such deflection, the general government has been pre-emi- nently loyal to the principles on which it entered upon its career, and has triumphantly demonstrated that the friends of free institutions were not mistaken in assuming that the rights and liberties of the people could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the federal agencies. Notwith- standing these facts, it is true that throughout our history there has existed such a remarkable undercurrent of sentiment on the subject of state rights, that to refer to a candidate for office as a federalist (that is, a friend of the national government) would in many localities be more fatal than to denounce him as a horse-thief.
It is my purpose to present, within the limits of a magazine article,
26 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
some of the salient facts connected with the history of this anti-national movement. The difficulty of dealing with so large a theme under these limitations is manifest.
It is proper at the outset to discriminate. Opposition to the just and constitutional rights of the states, it is needless to premise, has no part in prompting this article. Such opposition anywhere, in fact, does not exist — never did exist. The amplest rights of the states under the federal system have never been menaced in the slightest degree from 1789 to the present moment. Indeed, in those states where loyalty to the national idea has been the strongest, the powers of the state have been quite as fully and broadly asserted and exercised as in those where this idea has been held in dishonor, and at least as good local government maintained. Antagonism to the rights of the states is not therefore to be inferred from what is said of " state rights."
To so-called state rights allusion is had ; to that creed which originated in narrowness of view and failure to comprehend the objects and aims of the federal system ; to that creed which under a harmless name embodied a real and deep-seated antagonism to the national government.
Of the causes for this sentiment I cannot pause to speak; nor' is it essential. It cropped out early. It antedated the Revolution. It man- aged to hide its head while the struggle for independence was going on, because of the temporary necessity ; but no sooner was the struggle over than it reappeared. It threw itself in the way of the national scheme with such blind and unreasoning zeal as to betray the fact that it sprang rather from feeling than from reason.
In fact, few realize how near it came to wrecking any and every plan for organizing an efficient national government. It presetited itself not as an aid in solving the great problem of the hour, but as an obstacle to be overcome. It was vehement and noisy, but refused to see or to reason. It declined to go farther at the close of the war than the '' Articles of Con- federation." The conception of a great national government with powers and functions of its own, illustrating on a broad national scale the success of free institutions, or of such a government as an indispensable factor to the highest welfare of the states, seems hardly to have been thought of, or, if ever considered at all, to have been wholly subordinated to childish fears and narrow jealousies.
The '' Articles of Confederation," which must be accepted as the reach of the statesmanship of 1783 — that is, of the state-rights champions of that period — rigidly excluded every essential element of national authority.
They made no provision for an executive department or a judicial
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 2/
department, and provided no means for raising revenue except by requisi- tions upon the states.
Think of the statesmanship which should set up a government without an executive, without a court, and without power to command a revenue ! And yet this was precisely what the disciples of state rights did when independence had been achieved, and the colonies were confronted with one of the grandest and most inspiring opportunities which ever challenged human wisdom.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the experience which followed the confederation. It is too dismal a picture to be entertaining. The mar- vel is that anything except disaster should ever have been anticipated under such a childish scheme. It seems to us as we look back upon it that a schoolboy might have foretold its outcome.
Madison writes to Pendleton under date of February 24, 1787: " No money is paid into the treasury ; no respect is paid the federal authority; not a single state complies with the requisitions — some pass them over in silence, some absolutely reject them. It is quite impossible that a gov- ernment so weakened and despised can much longer hold together. The malady has come to a critical stage ; none but the strongest remedies will serve. The patient must be killed or cured."
This communication speaks for itself, and leaves no room for comment. It may be said, without fear of contradiction, that history will be searched in vain for stronger proof of utter incapacity to meet the demands of an important occasion than is furnished by the Articles of Confederation.
The marvel is that one single adherent of so-called state rights should have survived the experiment just referred to. One would naturally infer that such a thing were impossible. The difficulty is that none are so blind as those who will not see.
Such experience was not, however, without its uses. It unquestionably opened the eyes of many and greatly weakened the hostility to an efficient national organization. In fact, it may be said to have prepared the way for something better.
The convention of 1789 grew out of the conceded weakness and worth- lessness of the scheme provided by the champions of state rights, to wit, the Articles of Confederation.
Not only had the power of these champions been greatly impaired, but the people were now looking for other and wiser leaders. Fortunately these were not wanting. It soon became apparent that the convention was to be dominated by broader and more competent men than those whom they had superseded — men who were prepared to grapple with the
28 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
great probleln before them with the real and earnest purpose of devising an adequate and efficient plan for both general and local government.
But it must not be understood that the adversaries of the national scheme had abandoned the field. Many of them were in the convention, throwing such obstacles as they were able in the way of the majority, and making ready to lead the opposition when the question of ratification should come before the people.
How greatly indebted we are to Washington for bringing the conven- tion up to the point of formulating an instrument so marvelously suited to the exact demands of the situation, and securing its ratification by the people, will never be fully understood or appreciated.
Of course valuable lessons were necessarily learned during the brief period between 1783 and 1789. These lessons may be easily discovered by examining the grant of powers in the Constitution.
No one can read section 8 without feeling that the antecedent history under the Articles of Confederation is behind every phrase of the section.
What a ring to the first paragraph ! " The congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."
Between the lines one cannot fail to discover contempt for the states- manship which had made the national exchequer dependent on the caprice of the states.
Observe what follows, touching the powers granted :
To borrow money on the credit of the United States.
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.
To coin money.
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States ; to establish post-offices and post-roads.
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the laws of nations.
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures.
To raise and support armies.
To provide and maintain a navy.
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 29
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
Now turn to the preamble for the objects in the minds of the framers in preparing the Constitution.
^' We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- selves a7id our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America''
No language, it will be perceived, more expressive of great national purposes to be subserved by the scheme for the federal union, could have been chosen.
The source of power, moreover, does not spring from the states. Its origin is higher. It comes from the people. " We, the people of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution."
The reader who has not familiarized himself with the subject will, doubtless, be ready to assume that after such a constitution, ordained and established for such great and beneficent objects, had been actually ratified, the hostility to the national scheme must have disappeared. Not so : it had too little of the reasoning faculty to die. It was too precious a doc- trine in the eye of parties who were more interested in personal ambitions within provincial lines than in any proper plan for a national government, to be surrendered.
It became, it is true, less noisy during the administration of Washing- ton. The signs of prosperity which bloomed on every side under the new conditions were not calculated to help it ; but it was only slumbering, waiting for the opportune occasion to break forth anew with unabated zeal. The occasion came all too soon.
Washington retired from the presidency at the end of his second term, and on the 4th of March, 1797, John Adams took the oath of office and entered upon the duties of President. Mr. Adams was an avowed federal- ist, a statesman of eminent ability, of unquestionable integrity, and of varied and distinguished service, but of reserved and stately manners. These, doubtless, detracted from his popularity and lent a measure of plausibility to the claim of the anti-federalists that he was exclusive and not in cordial sympathy with the people.
His term of office was hardly under way when he began to be assailed and charged by the opposition with an ambition to usurp powers never intended to be conferred upon his office.
The anti-federal sentiment flamed up anew, encouraged and aided by
30 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
all the elements of opposition to the administration now rapidly crystalliz- ing into the so-called Republican party.
The predilections of the new organization were manifestly pointing to Jefferson as standard-bearer in opposition to Adams.
Jefferson was recognized as a shrewd and sagacious politician, an able and experienced statesman, and withal willing to be considered the partic- ular and special champion of popular rights. Indeed, there is reason for affirming that he distrusted without excuse the fidelity of many of his contemporaries to the doctrine of popular government. Not a member of the constitutional convention, he had escaped the heated antagonisms between the friends and the enemies of the federal system, both in and out of the convention.
Madison, on the other hand, had been one of the most prominent dele- gates in the convention, and a leading champion of the Constitution and the federal Union.
He was a Virginian, a warm personal friend of Jefferson, and naturally inclined to ally his own ambitions with those of his distinguished friend.
The federalists had passed the " alien and sedition laws," which were claimed by the opposition to be in flagrant violation of the Constitution.
The policy of Jefferson was to seize upon the opportune occasion to combine and concentrate all the elements of disaffection, and to hurl them against the administration, knowing full well what the result would be if the scheme prevailed.
The champions of state rights had at this time accomplished a com- plete somersault. Not that they had abandoned their narrow and unrea- soning devotion to their favorite creed : they had simply changed their original attitude toward the Constitution.
In the convention and after, when the question of ratification was before the people, they had loudly insisted that the Constitution robbed the states of all sovereignty ; that the central government would ere long absorb the liberties of the people and the rights of the states ; that the whole scheme was a blow at state sovereignty, and for these and other kindred reasons the instrument ought to be rejected.
Now they took the other side, and just as vehemently insisted that the sovereignty of the states remained intact, and the federal government was, as under the Articles of Confederation, the mere creature of the states.
It was deemed essential to the object in view that the ideas of these champions should be skillfully and authoritatively formulated ; in other words, that the Constitution should be construed in harmony with the views of its antagonists. This was the task undertaken by Jefferson.
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 3 1
The alien and sedition laws furnished the pretext, ambition to sup- plant Adams the motive, and sympathy with the views of the State sove- reignty or anti-national party the inspiration.
In pursuance of the plan, Jefferson sought a private interview with the Nicholson brothers of Kentucky, and divulged to them his purpose, and intimated that he would prepare a series of resolutions to be introduced through their agency, and passed by the legislature of that state ; but ex- acting a pledge not to disclose the name of the author — a pledge sacredly kept for some twenty years.
On the loth of November, 1798, these resolutions were presented, and with some slight modifications adopted by that body.
About six weeks thereafter resolutions similar in doctrine, prepared by Madison, were presented and adopted by the Virginia house of delegates, thus furnishing a basis for the inference that these distinguished Virginians were acting upon an understanding previously agreed upon.
Such is the origin of the resolutions which at once assumed a standing, difificult to explain on any rational grounds, and still more difHcult to reconcile with sincere love for the federal Union.
The first criticism which one feels inclined to make upon the Kentucky resolutions is suggested by the spirit which seems to pervade them. It is impossible to find in them, from beginning to end, a breath of loyalty to the national government. Had they been drawn by a British jurist, they could not have been more marked in this particular. In this they differ radically from the Virginia resolutions prepared by Madison. To go from one to the other is like stepping from the atmosphere of an ice-house into the bright sunshine of a summer morning.
The next comment is suggested by current events. The passage of the alien law may have been, probably was, unwise, but it seems hardly less than amusing that it should have been denounced as violently and flagrantly unconstitutional in the light of recent legislation in regard to the Chinese, which received the very pronounced approval of Jefferson's disciples. And it may be doubted whether any but anarchists would to-day question the right to prohibit seditious acts and publications.
But the more serious objections lie to the assault upon just national authority. They attempt to strip the national government of powers which are in and under every part of the Constitution. They are at war with the whole scheme of national authority. They overturn the history out of which the Constitution sprang. They substitute the views and ideas of those who opposed for those who framed and championed that peerless instrument.
32 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
Nor this alone. They obliterate the function of the supreme court. They undertake to affirm that alleged violations of the organic law come within the province of the several states for determination. This is the resolution : " That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government ; but that by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and amendments thereto, they consti- tuted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that govern- ment certain definite powers, reserving each state to itself the residuary mass of rights to their own self-government, and that whenever the gen- eral government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthorita- tive, void, and of no force ; that to this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming as to itself the other party ; and that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion and not the Constitution the measure of its powers, but that, as in all other cases of compacts among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions (of the Constitution) as of the mode and measure of redress."
Another resolution declares : " That when powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy, and every state has a natural rigJit in cases not within the compact to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their own limits."
Thus it will be seen that the authority of the supreme court created by this compact is abrogated by a flourish of high-sounding words, and the states are individually summoned to the front to execute the solemn trust of that ordained tribunal.
This theory destroys the harmony as well as efficiency of the plan of government under the Constitution, and involves an anomaly unknown to every liberal government which has ever existed. The framers of the Constitution cannot by any stretch of the imagination be supposed to have provided a judicial department for the general government, with powers extending to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United Stntes, and treaties made under their authority, with the possible understanding that the functions of such a department should in any contingency devolve upon the states.
At this very moment, indeed, the states were each provided with a judicial department for determining all questions within the province of
FEDERAL AND AXTI-FEDERAL 3$
State authority. Could the framers have contemplated a radical and vital departure from this system with which all were familiar when they made provision for federal courts ?
To suppose, moreover, that the great and wise statesmen who framed the Constitution set up a government with a judicial department, with an executive department, with the agencies for legislation, with great national objects to be subserved, and at the same time left each state the right to determine the constitutionality of the laws which should be enacted, or the policy which should be pursued, is to impeach them of monumental stupidity.
It is to resolve one of the grandest achievements of human wisdom into the petty play-house of children, set up only to be knocked over with a gleeful shout. It is anti-federalism in its worst form, galvanized into life and reinstated after it had been tried and condemned at the bar of public opinion.
It is unnecessary here to criticise at length the errors in matters of detail contained in the resolutions. But one cannot refrain from surprise at the assumption that the states were integral parties to the constitu- tion in a sense which distinguished them from the people in view of the fact that the states and the people alike had formally assented to the solemn declaration that " we the people do ordain and establish this con- stitution for the United States of America." Entirely unwarranted also is the term " accede." It is employed in utter disregard of the facts. No state w^as required or expected to " accede " to the Constitution. The prop- osition was in every instance for ratification, or for ratification and adoption, and the requisite number of states ratified, or ratified and adopted the instrument.
Still more remarkable is the claim that in " acceding " to the Constitu- tion the states stood relatively as one to twelve, and in this unique atti- tude came up and voted to accept the Constitution.
Where is there a line or a word in the instrument or outside of it, where is there one solitary fact in the histor}^ of the period, or in the circumstances of the case, to furnish a basis for this proposition ?
On what theory can it be said that there was any relation between each individual state and the other twelve states in ratifying the Constitution ? That, for instance, New Hampshire was one party, and New York and the other eleven States were the other party? If it were not disrespectful, one might well say such a proposition defies legal comprehension.
If such an idea ever entered the mind of any one, it certainly ought to be found in the basis on w^hich the Constitution was submitted for accept-
VoL. XXIII.— No. I— t
34 FEDERAL AND ANTI FEDERAL
ance and ratification ; but we shall search in vain for it there. We shall search in vain for the slightest hint that each state was expected to ratify on the basis that all the other co-states constituted the other party to the ratification.
Of course it is not becoming to speak of such an assumption in terms which might well be employed under other circumstances ; but the fact remains that it seems incomprehensible that a great statesman should seriously entertain such a view of the scheme for the national govern- ment. It is safe to say that such an idea was never dreamed of prior to November, 1798.
The movement for the present Constitution emanated from the people, as in the nature of things it must. Delegates, it is true, were elected to the convention from each of the states, but they were elected by the people, and elected for the purpose of framing the basis for a new govern- ment ; elected just as delegates would be elected to-day to a national convention, if occasion existed, to frame a new constitution. When delegates come together and organize, however, the states have no power over them. They cannot even annul their commissions. They cannot in any wise interfere with them. The people of the states may reject the Constitution the delegates frame and submit. This is the extent of their power.
But suppose for the sake of the argument that the states as such were parties to the Constitution, and that the people as such had nothing to do with it, the proposition is not aided in the least.
When the Constitution was adopted, whether by \\v^ people ox \\\^ states, it became necessarily the basis of a new government. By tjie acceptance of that instrument a new authority was created, with powers and functions of its own, and agencies of its own for carrying on and carrying out its work.
The authority which frames and accepts a constitution must at least be bound by its ozvn act, no matter whether the states as such do it, or the people as such do it. When they have formulated the basis of the gov- ernment, and have ratified and indorsed that basis, they have parted with whatever power they have vested in the new organism, and the constitution itself must determine zvhat this power is. The parties have nothing to say about it. They surrender the power to construe the constitution when they " accede to it." This becomes henceforth one of the poivers of the new government. In the very nature of things it must be so. This is one of the functions of the judicial department of the new government.
But the Kentucky resolutions drag the " parties " to the Constitution right through that instrument, and station them on the hither side of it,
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 35
with power to judge for themselves what acts of the general government are unconstitutional and what not, and plant the right to do so on the alleged fact that in "acceding" to that instrument the states are to be understood as having among themselves stood in the relation of contract- ing parties to the compact, one state being one party, and all the other states being the other. "LCJ*^"^^
Comment on such a theory of the Constitution cannot make more apparent the fact that it was a sheer invention, without substance in law or in fact to support it.
But to test this doctrine, let us assume for a moment that each state has the reserved right to judge for itself whether an act of the general govern- ment is constitutional. Let us suppose a case strictly within the terms of the vaunted resolutions.
One of the first things Jefferson did after he became President was to purchase the Louisiana territory of France. Now, suppose the question of the constitutionality of this act to come up for consideration, pursuant to the Jeffersonian plan — that is, by the states and not by the national courts — and all the states but Delaware affirm its constitutionality. In the latter state, however, there is a difference of opinion growing out of objec- tions to more territory to be divided into larger states. A convention of delegates is assembled to consider and "judge" whether there has been an " infraction of the organic law ;" and when the question is submitted twenty-five delegates vote in the affirmative, and twenty-five in the nega- ative, and the sergeant-at-arms is sent out for the absent delegate. The delegate is found and brought in, and although perchance he has never read the Constitution, he " judges " that the government has violated the organic law.
It is very natural to inquire if this settles the question. On the theory of the Kentucky resolutions we are obliged to say, yes, the act is uncon- stitutional— an infraction of the organic law! One of the parties to the " compact " having the reserved right to determine this question, having exercised this right in perfect harmony with the Jefferso,nian plan, it does not require a lawyer to state the legal result.
The next inquiry is whether it is within the range of moral possibilities that the framers prepared, or the people ratified, the Constitution upon the supposition that it could be construed in this manner; and finally, whether, as an ingenious invention, it seems to the average mind to have any advantage over the plan of the federalists, namely, of leaving the Consti- tution to be explained and construed by the supreme court of the United States !
36 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
Space forbids dwelling on this branch of the subject at greater length.
The resolutions draughted by Madison, as already intimated, have the great advantage over the others of avowed loyalty to the federal govern- ment. But Madison's position in regard to the doctrine asserted involved a personal inconsistency, which could not be charged to Jefferson, because the latter had never committed himself to the federal scheme.
The truth is, the Virginia delegation, of which Madison was an influ- ential member, had preconsidered the work to be accomplished by the convention, and formulated a plan to submit as the basis of the Constitu- tion, and had authorized Governor Randolph to present this plan to the convention and submi.t the views of the delegation in regard to it. No one can doubt, who reads his remarks in support of the Virginia plan, what were the views of that delegation on the vital question of the hour.
The spirit as well as the letter of his argument are out and out in advocacy of a strong government.
He proceeded to point out the manifold faults of the confederation, and denounced it as wholly inadequate to the wants of the people, and appealed to the convention to aid in setting up a strong and energetic government.
The plan proposed, he eloquently urged, contemplated a strong, con- solidated Union, in which the idea of distinct states should almost be done away with.
When he had reached the third resolution, which declared that a national government ought to be set up, consisting of supreme, judicial, legislative, and executive powers, the word " supreme " was challenged, and some one inquired if it was intended to destroy the state governments. ** Yes," he answered, " to a limited extent : when the powers of the national government clash with those of the states, the states must give way."
No stronger language could have been employed to convey his mean- ing, and the scope of his argument before the convention could not be questioned or misa}>prehended.
Madison was present and heard what his colleague said, and knew that he was understood to be speaking for the Virginia delegation.
He could not fail to comprehend the spirit of Randolph's remarks, and to know that his appeal was for a government essentially and radically dif- ferent from the confederation — a government which should be entitled to the right of way so long as it kept on the national track.
Madison did not dissent from the views of his distinguished colleague, and was therefore as much bound by them under the circumstances as if uttered by himself.
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 37
A generation later, when the whole country was ringing with plaudits to General Jackson for stamping out the first practical illustration of the absurd doctrine, in the case of South Carolina, Mr. Madison felt called upon to explain that the unfortunate resolutions did not mean what their language indicated, and what they had been understood to mean for a third of a century.
It would have been better had he, even at that late day, repudiated the vicious doctrine entirely, and frankly admitted his error.
Of the baneful influence of these resolutions, and their ultimate fruit- age of treason, space remains only for a cursory glance.
But the query first arises how it could come to pass that these great statesmen, one of whom had taken a leading part in the framing of the federal Constitution, and both of whom were fully aware of the conceded defects of the Articles of Confederation — of their absolute and utter worth- lessness, indeed — could assume an attitude toward the national authority not only so untenable from the standpoint of the jurist, but so at war with the scheme for a national government, and hence so wanting in loyalty to the federal Union.
It must be assumed that the statesmen who grasped the great problem which confronted them in 1789 clearly saw the necessity of a national organism, not only as the basis of working out the theory of popular gov- ernment on a broad and commanding scale, but as absolutely essential to the success of the respective states.
They manifestly entered upon their inspiring task upon this theory : they were aided by the dismal but conclusive experiment of the other plan. It is a part of the logic of the situation, that they must have intended to devise a scheme for a general government with the sovereign powers which naturally belong to such a government. The duty which they expressly laid upon the federal authority of guaranteeing to every state a republican form of government, indicates the service which that authority was expected to render to the cause of popular government.
The vital error which lies at the root of the strange resolutions seems to spring from distrust of the national power. But this does not solve the query, for the fact remains that the national was just as thoroughly the people's government as the government of the states, and it is inexpli- cable that the people could be trusted with self-government in town and county and state, and not in the nation.
The only rational solution of the problem must be found in the political exigencies of the situation, which led these great statesmen to sacrifice consistent loyalty to the national idea to personal ambition, a
38 FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL
proof that human luiturc was much the same a hundred years ago that it is to-day.
Tliat they foresaw the evil results which were to flow from their assault upon national authority cannot be supposed, but history will not hold them guiltless on this account.
Turning now for a moment to glance at the results which flowed from these resolutions, all the more noteworthy because emanating from dis- tinguished leaders who ought to have set their faces against the senseless clamor of blind and noisy partisans, we cannot be surprised to find the sentiment of loyalty to the federal Union betraying the effects of such a fearful blow. If the national government was not sovereign, it could not hope to command the allegiance of the citizen. It must have power to be respected. If the states retained the right to sit in judgment upon the policv and legislation of the federal union — if such was indeed the scheme of the Constitution — no one can wonder that the state should have the first claim to the loyalty and love of the people. The authors of these resolutions ought to have foreseen this. Whether the}' did or did not, the fact remains that the federal Union was gradually robbed of allegiance in all those localities where the baneful doctrine was accepted.
That it should have been dragged forth to serve as a shield for slavery during the years of bitter strife occasioned by the struggle of that "insti- tution" for dominance, ought to occasion no surprise.
It was a fitting use to be made of the doctrine.
The ultimate use, however, came later on. ^^'hen in 1861 the slave power lifted its impious hand against the nation's life, then the full measure of its influence and character were seen. Then^ it was demon- strated that in eVery locality where it had been taught and cherished, loyalty to the Union had been blasted and had virtually disappeared. Allegiance to the Republic had given place to allegiance to the state. The baneful doctrine had not onh' established the right of a state to secede, but had supplied the ed;:cation and training required to make secession natural and easy. No comment upon the Jeffersonian doctrine can be so severe as the facts that history supplies. It led naturallx', logically to national disintegration and destruction. It eventuated in war upon the Republic.
The tleclaration of the secessionists was strictly legitimate. Concede the construction which Jefferson and Madison put.upon the federal scheme, and no one can gainsay the right of secession. It is only a mode of redress placed by the constitution in the hands of the state, to be used at the will and pleasure of the state. The state is made the final judge both of the infraction and the method of redress.
FEDERAL AND ANTI-FEDERAL 39
This only proves how utterly untenable, how flagrantly wrong was this strange notion of the federal compact. Jefferson in 1798 affirming the right of a state to determine for itself when the organic law had been violated, and to choose its own mode of redress for such alleged violation ; and Robert E. Lee in 1861 throwing up his commission in the army, and lifting his hand to destroy the Republic which had educated and honored him, in obedience to the command of his state, stand in complete and unquestionable consistency; one is the blossom, one is the fruit.
It follows, of course, that the struggle for the preservation of the Re- public was a struggle between national sovereignty and state sovereignty — between the friends and the enemies of the federal Union. On the one hand were the champions of an indissoluble union, on the other the champions of secession. The constitution and the resolutions of 1798 confronted each other; the doctrines of Jefferson and Madison in their last analysis.
Ought not every patriotic citizen of the Republic to accept the results of that struggle as the final defeat and death of the direful heresy?
Is it too much to hope that, as we enter upon the second century of our grand and inspiring career, it may be with the common purpose to cultivate and cherish devotion to the national government, which may be justly and proudly spoken of as the greatest and best the world has ever seen. With one tithe the zeal to cultivate sound and loyal views of the federal system which has been heretofore exerted to establish error, the Republic would speedily enjoy the unfeigned love and loyalty of the people, without danger or prejudice to the states.
Milwaukee, November, i88q.
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
There is no more interesting branch of sociological research than the formation of national character.
It is proposed to review such formation as applicable to the ancient city of New York.
New York was termed ancient in the Dongan Charter of 1686; and the Batavian, the Anglo-Saxon, the Celt, the Teuton, the Gaul, and even the sons of Ham and Shem, have been factors, in various degrees, in forming its civic character. It began its life when man was bloodthirsty, when natural rights were little respected, when religion was intolerant, when science was in its cradle, when tyranny made the laws; and when civili- zation herself, still inhumane, enforced her progress by the sword.*
To the nervous energy of races, under various conditions, is due the exodus that — spreading from Central Asia, the cradle of man — has, in progressive migrations, populated the globe. The theory of a number of primordial '* autocJithones " (or polygenisifi) is not substantiated by either tradition or science. Migrations and crossings, and the effects of new latitudes and conditions, have produced, in time, the varied races of a single species. Mixed races cease in time to be mere hybrids^ and when, in a few generations, the new conditions have completed their influence, the new race is formed, with distinctive physical, mental, and even moral features. The force of the strongest parental stock still dominates, however, and gives tone to the other elements that finally harmonize under it.
The causes or conditions that induce the migration of groups are numerous. The hunter seeks new areas for game, the agriculturist fresh and fertile fields, the strong and the warlike march for conquest, the weak for safety, the enterprising and curious for discovery ; the flight from justice, the thirst for gold, the craving for change are also potent motors. And, in later times, the struggle for political rights and religious freedom has driven millions to brave the terrors of the seas and the wilderness. The air breathed, the food eaten, the water drank, the physical requisi- tions, the local surroundings, the stubbornness of Nature or her bounteous
* A portion of the above paper was read before the New York Historical Society a few years since. In view of the coming World's Fair the theme is one of surpassing and timely interest. — Editor. '
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 4I
smiles, the new privations or the new relaxations — all these operate on the migrated man. Energy may be aroused and nerve force stimulated ; or peace and plenty may so prevail that life becomes easier, and the char- acter becomes softened and sublimated.
The migrated race has its period of critical infancy before it acquires the strength of adult existence. The physiological changes at first are gradual ; but soon the subject, under the throes of acclimatization, enters upon a new life that, unless there be suf^cient endurance, may not reach the stage of re-naturalization. A new struggle begins, under conditions foreign to the natural status, which leaves to survive only those who can best stand the contest.
History is full of cases where colonization has seemed impossible. "The character of a people," says Taine, *' is an abridgment of all its pre- ceding actions and sensations. Man, forced to accommodate himself to circumstances, contracts a temperament and a character corresponding to them ; and his character, like his temperament, is so much more stable as the external impression is made upon him by more numerous repeti- tions, and is transmitted to his progeny by a more ancient descent."
The development of the English national character, under successive race infusions, affords suggestions for investigation here. The English field is wider, although less complex ; and time, while extending the area, has condensed the view. The English national character may be con- sidered formed, and its race characteristics defined ; ours is still crystal- lizing under new ingredients.
The Roman occupation of Great Britain left no natural impress. A few mural remains — a road, a tomb, the names of a few towns — are all that survive to tell us that the great Latin race had grasped at conquest there. It came and passed like a sweeping wind.
So, too, the Norsemen, although sovereigns in the realm, contributed nothing to the national life or character. The blood that flowed in tor- rents during their occupation gave no permanent footing, and the rem- nants of them became amalgamated with the dominant race.
The Angles, Jutes, and Saxons — tribes of the great Teutonic race — in the fifth century, fastened themselves upon the land. The native race melted away before them. Not only its former social and political life was obliterated, but the language itself was banished, and no trace of it became mingled in the speech of the conquerors. Although silent the harp, and deposed the club and the spear, the ancient Briton — a hermit in his kingdom of stone — still combats tlie composite language that emblems the successive invaders. Cymric gutturals still cling to the rocks and
42 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
haunt the rugged vales and cluster within the weird recesses of Snowden — a stubborn lingual protest, fit pendant to the Druid monolith, both "•rim monuments of a race.
The composition of the present English language, and the very name of the country, illustrate the tenacious Saxon hold, and its underlying strength in forming the habits, thought, and much of the civil polity and social life of the people.
The Saxon language illustrates the home and natural life, and the infusion of Latin and Norman additions owe their origin, mainly, to the political institutions and ceremonies of the new rulers, to the workings of the courts of law, and to the machinery of ecclesiastical rule. Saxon thought and its lingual expression came forth, after a time, as did those who used it, from their Norman subserviency, and rose into active repre- sentative life. Like one of the native English oaks, the vine is there and parasites are there, and the axe of the conqueror has been wielded for centuries ; but the undying strength from the roots and the soil still pro- duces the Saxon bloom. The amalgamation of the Saxon and Norman elements has formed a language, noble, varied, and strong; and it has established the present English race — hardy, courageous, progressive, and endowed with a nerve force that has caused it to spread over the globe, planting colonies and wielding empires.
The history of the settlement and colonization of this city is doubtless familiar to you. It may be well, however, to recall that it is more than two centuries and a half since a few Dutch adventurers established a trading-post here, for the purpose of obtaining peltry from the Indians.
Soon colonization began under the Dutch West India Company, which governed the colony, as New Netherland, until its surrender, in 1664, to the English fleet of James, then Duke of York, and proprietor of the extensive domain granted to him by his brother, Charles. After regain- ing possession for a year, the Dutch finally ceded the province to Eng- land, in 1674, under the treaty of Westminster. The English thereupon ruled, under successive colonial governors, down to our Revolution.
In 1628, fourteen years after the permanent landing, the infant city of New York, then called New Amsterdam, contained only 270 inhabitants; in 1664, at the time of the first surrender, 1,500; and at the time ot final cession to the English, in 1674, about 3>ooo inhabitants. About eighteen languages were spoken, we are told, at New Amsterdam, show- ing the extent and diversity of its early trade. In 1703 there were about- 4,400 inhabitants; and in 1750 the population had increased to 13,000. The numbers then slowly increased down to the time of the Revolution,
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 43
when it was 22,000, and in 1800 amounted to over 60,000; showing a great increase after the Revolution. Thenceforward the increase has been rapid. In 1810 the population had arrived, in round numbers, at 96,000; in 1820, to over 123,000; in 1830, to 202,500; in 1840, to nearly 313,000; and in 1850, to 515,000. By the census of 1880, there is a population in the city of over 1,206,000; of which 198,600 are Irish born, 163,480 are German born, and 1,860 are Holland born.
Of course, this vast population is due more to immigration than to natural increase. The tide of immigration at first scant has now assumed the proportions of a flood of peoples.
The first Dutch settlers were humble adventurers ; subsequently came those of more wealth ; as the Turkey carpets, pictures, Spanish leather chairs, tapestry, flowered tabby chimney-cloths, silver punch-ladles and tankards, silk petticoats and breeches, damask furred jackets, and em- broidered cloaks, noted in old records of administration, abundantly attest.
Those that settled New Netherland during the Dutch period were attracted by land-grants offered by the government, which were continued under the English. Many of the immigrants were so poor that they could not pay their passage-money. They were sold in servitude for it, after arrival, at public auction. This system was continued during the English period, and even after the Revolution, as late as 1819.
It was not until fifteen or twenty years after the permanent English occupation that Englishmen of means, culture, and position came over, with an idea of settling in the country, and bettering their conditions. Among other processes, they took pains to ally themselves with the daughters of the rich Dutch burghers. There are on record many such marriages between the years 1680 and 1700.
Early in the seventeenth century the little city began to lose its provin- cial aspect and to partake of the character of a metropolis, the seat of vice- regal rule ; tradesmen imported foreign novelties, the residences became separate from the shops, and emulation and display entered into social life. The household of the provincial governors, and the taste and gayety of the French refugees, gave a lively tone to social life. The anniversary of the Restoration, of the Powder Plot, and the royal birthday, vied in display with the old Dutch festivals of Paas and Pmxter^ and the day of the Nieuw Jar and of Santa Glaus or St. Nicholas, which still retained their old-fashioned prominence. The latest English fashions were adopted by the ladies, and the ducks of the place became peruke-wearers and snuff- takers.
The English governors and their wives were mostly people of rank,
44 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
and officers in the English army and navy swelled the social glories of the new regime. Among the prominent men of rank who were governors of the English colony were Sir Edmund Andros, Colonel Dongan, after- wards Earl of Limerick, the Earl of Bellamont, Lord Cornbury, subse- quently Earl of Clarendon — a cousin of Queen Anne, who, like Nero of old, used to amuse himself by dressing in female attire and so perambulat- ing about the fort. Another governor. General Robert Hunter, had been an aid-de-camp to Marlborough. Lord Lovelace, another, was Baron of Hurley. Governor John Montgomerie lived here in great style ; his cel- lars abounded with wines, his table with silver ; he had a score of horses in his stable, and drove his coach with gilded harness, and postillions in gold-laced liveries. Governor Fletcher, who squeezed money out of the province like a Roman praetor, flourished in a coach with six horses. Another governor, Clinton, was a son of the Earl of Lincoln ; Governor Burnet was a son of Bishop Burnet, and took here to wife a lady of the old Dutch stock of Van Horn.
To show the then social impress of the English aristocratic rule, I give an extract from a newspaper slip written by the '' Jenkins " of the day, chronicling the visit of a sprig of nobility in 1732 :
" The Mayor and Aklermen of the City of N. Y. being informed that the Right Hon. the Lord Augustus Fitzroy, Son to his Grace, Charles, Duke of Grafton, was arrived at Fort George, they waited on his Lordship in a full body, attended by the principal offi- cers of the City Regiment; and, being introduced to his Lordship, the Recorder addressed himself to him in the name of the corporation, congratulating his Lordship's safe arrival, and returning the thanks of the City for the Honour they received by his Lordship's Pres- ence, as also for his Lordship's Condescension in being pleased to become a Member thereof. Then the Worshipful, the Mayor, presented his Lordship witl\ the copy of his Freedom, enclosed in a curious gold box with the arms of the City thereon neatly engraved ; which his Lordship was pleased to receive in the greatest goodness and Com- plaisance."
As to the general characteristics of the people in 1750, Mr. Burnaby, who then visited New York, says, " More than half the inhabitants are Dutch, and almost ail traders. They are, therefore, particularly indus- trious, frugal, and parsimonious. Being, however, of different nations, different languages, and different religions, it is almost impossible to give them any determinate character."
Mr. Smith, the historian, says, " The inhabitants are a mixed people, mostly descendants from the original Dutch planters. English is the most prevailing language, but not a little corrupted by the Dutch dialect, which is still so used in some counties that the sheriffs find it difficult to obtain English-speaking jurors to serve in the courts of law." In speaking
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY , 45
of the social life of the city, he remarks upon the honesty and fair dealing of the inhabitants, who are mostly, he says, merchants and traders. He speaks, however, of the general neglect of mental culture, and all arts for the improvement of the mind, especially among the fair sex, who, he says, ** although comely, modest, and well dressed, and characterized by neat- ness and economy, and with no taste for gambling or other vices, neglect nothing so much as reading, and all arts for the improvement of the mind." He further says :
"In the City of New York, through an intercourse with the English, we follow the London fashions, though, by the time we adopt them, they become disused in England. Our affluence during the late war introduced a degree of luxury in tables, chairs, and fur- niture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we are not so gay a people as our neighbors of Boston, and several of the southern colonies."
The descendants of the Dutch settlers, during the English period, kept equal in the race with their English brethren in all matters of political or military action and enterprise ; and their names figure prominently in the state and municipal annals.
No impression has been left by the Indian aborigines upon our national character. They were driven back and away by the axe, the gun, and the diseases of the invaders. A plaintive lament of this appears in a petition of the Mohawk Indians to Governor Clinton, in 1746, against the sale of more of their lands, without their consent.
They say : " This and such like dealings, with the bringing rum to our castles, has made us dwindle away, as the snow does in a warm, sunshiny day." One of the protesting warriors signs himself '' Moses,'* showing the incoming civilization and its effects. The name of another, *' Teg-a-ron- de-ge,'' speaks of the old barbaric race in its pride and power.
The names of some places and a few Indian words alone remain to tell us that the red man once chased the wolf and waged fierce battles over the site of our metropolis.
The French element of our population was early among us.
Under the persecutions of the Protestants in the time of Richelieu, after Rochelle was taken, and the unsuccessful revolts in Normandy, Picardy, and Champagne, the exodus began. Many settled in Holland, and thence emigrated here, between 1650 and 1670. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, also added largely to our population. The Huguenots were eminent for industry, charity, and courtesy, and, in social matters, at least, have left an impress upon our habits and character. Many Hugue- not names are familiar among us. Prominent among them are those of Cosseau, Ray, De la Montaigne, De Lancey, Tourneur, Lozier, Deforest,
46 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
Giraud, Goelet, Guion, Lispenard, Delaplaine, Dubois, Delamater, Jay, Le Roy, Bedell, Bethune, Gallaudet, Lorillard, Desbrosses, and Angevine.
Dongan, in his message to King James, in 1687, speaks of numerous French families coming over from England and St. Christopher. In 1696 there were two hundred French families in the city ; and in 1704 a French Huguenot church was erected, and soon afterwards a French club was established.
Commencing about the year 1793, there arose an extraordinary affec- tion for France, and hostility to everything British. Fugitives arrived from the French West Indies, under the ferocious negro rebellions there. Also, came the French emigres fleeing from the Reign of Terror. Then French cookery, confectionery, cotillions, ragouts, and fricassees were in- troduced, and the city was relieved by them from the frying-pan of the pioneer and much of the heavy horrors of the English cuisine.
The national gayety and courtesy of the French emigr^s^ also, tended much to modify the habits and manners of our people, from the hardness, stiffness, and arrogance which somewhat characterize our Anglo-Saxon prototypes. Under the early Dutch colonial rule also came over many Walloons from Flanders, who settled mostly on Long Island — hence the Wal-about, Waal-boght, or Walloon Bay.
Under the English rule, in 1708 to 1710, also came Swabians and Pal- atines in large numbers, driven away by poverty and the horrors of war. Most of the Palatines were sent over by Queen Anne, and naturalized by royal proclamation. Among the Palatines, then aged thirteen, was little John Peter Zangerin, subsequently known as Zenger, the hero of the great battle for the liberty of the press.
All these Walloons and Palatines have long since been amalgamated into the general formation, and their race individuality has long since ceased.
There is another element here, which, although Anglo-Saxon, and formed into our local life, has, still, distinctive features. I refer to that of New England. The New Englander is more conservative in character, more grave in temperament, and at the same time more enterprising and more persistent in action, than the descendants of the Dutch and English settlers.
There has always been a sort of antagonism between New York and New England. The colonics of the latter region were always jealous of New Nctherland, and continually threatening war. Connecticut sent a request to Cromwell asking him to exterminate the Dutch settlement. And New Englanders came to assist the English fleet, under Colonel Nich- ols, when New York was taken by him, and even proffered Indian auxil-
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 47
iaries. Director Kieft, in a letter responsive to certain complaints of the United Colonies of New England, in 1646, observed that their complaints of ill-usage were the complaints of the wolf against the lamb I We read, also, that Governor Nichols, in 1666, in a dispatch to the Earl of Claren- don, advocating a direct trade between Holland and New York, uses as an argument that " The strength and flourishing condition of this place will bridle the ambitious saints of Boston ! "
In 1688 New York and the New England colonies were consolidated under one provincial dominion, which lasted until the accession of William and Mary. Chroniclers tell us that New York protested against this annexation "As an unmerited state of degradation, which they con- templated with just dissatisfaction, as an abhorred connection."
It seems, therefore, there was no love lost in the olden time. There is good-feeling and fellowship enough now, and a peaceable, quiet invasion of New York in business and professional circles is continually in progress, without murmur. The laudation of New England and its sons, however, is rather too much dinned into our ears by those sons denizened here, and the changes are played on Plymouth Rock until we have become heartily tired of the continual reveille. With all due respect for New England, and admiration for its enterprising and cultured sons and daughters, the queer question arises continually in our minds, why, if it be such a delectable and superior place as is so abundantly lauded, should her sons and daugh- ters desert it in such flocks, and locate themselves in such an inferior place as New York?
As regards the political principles planted among us b}' the various settlers here, although the Dutch possession was comparatively brief, that people left a strong political impress, materially modifying that of the succeeding nationality. The Dutch founders of this state brought with them the same principles and spirit of independence that had characterized their forefathers, and made them, in Europe, the pioneers of civil rights. These principles had become national instincts, and with them they laid the foundations of a state to be as free and tolerant as the fatherland which had been rescued from the tyranny of Spain and the thraldom of the Inquisition.
In Holland oppression had united them and made them self-reliant. Indignant at the outrages inflicted by hereditary rulers, they revolted against their dom.inion, and transferred to these shores not only their industry and their hardihood, but also the seeds of liberty, which, germi- nating in a free field, bore the sturdy plant that in time worked its way into strong life and fruition.
48 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
Our municipal system was founded on the burgher system of the Dutch communities. The declaration of independence of the United Provinces against the Spaniard appears to be the precedent of our own declaration of 1776; and the model of government established by the United Netherlands was the model of our own national system.
Although the Dutch here cheerfully submitted to the English rule, which was, in the main, parental and kindly, a Dutch democratic counter- current against the aristocratic tendency of government and society was obvious. This manifested itself prominently when Rip Van Dam, the President of the Council, in 1735 occupied the gubernatorial chair during an interregnum prior to the arrival of the English Governor Cosby, and who was removed by that governor for disloyalty.
The Dutch and Presbyterian elements of the population were generally in political and even social opposition to those of the Episcopal Church. Of the former were the members of the Whig Club, formed in 1752, who used to drink toasts to the memory of Oliver Cromwell, John Hampden, and Parson Hugh Peters. The actions brought against Trinity Church to oust her from her farm lands bore a semi-political character, and were instigated by the Presbyterian or Whig party as against the Episcopal or administration party.
The first New York Bill of Rights was passed by the first Colonial Assembly in 1683. This assembly was composed mostly of men of Dutch name and descent ; and although it was repealed in 1686, by direction of James, its principles of religious tolerance, and of taxation only by repre- sentation, had taken root, and the violation of its spirit by King James and his governors sowed the seeds that brought fruit in. the vindication of such political rights in 1776 as the Dutch had fought for in 1572.
Prominent among incidents during the English political period was the assumption of the government by Leisler, who claimed to hold the prov- ince for the Prince of Orange on the abdication of James. His action was supported mainly by those of Dutch descent and sympathy. Leisler was supposed to be the leader of the democratic party as opposed to the aristocratic element. Governor Sloughter on his arrival, siding with the latter, had Leisler executed for treason.
Another prominent occurrence, showing the growth of democracy, was the trial of Zenger in 1735. It was the outcome of a struggle of the popular party, which manifested itself in articles in a newspaper published by Zenger, reflecting on Governor Cosby's administration. On the trial of Zenger for libel the patriotic and the aristocratic party took sides, and the jury gave the former a triumph by acquitting Zenger. By this trial
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 49
the principle was established, in New York, that tlie people had a right to criticise and protest against the acts of those in power.
It has been said of this trial, that it gave confidence to infant opinion, which caused it to be regarded as the morning-star of American freedom.
Following down the tide of time the organization called the Sons of Liberty next appears upon the scene, in the momentous period that pre- ceded the Revolution. Both races, Dutch and English, had now become intermingled. A community of dangers and of interests made them united. The principles of the Dutch Declaration of Freedom and of the English Bill of Rights formed a common ground of protest and of resistance. Our local annals are full of the deeds of these Sons of Liberty.
They opposed the Stamp Act passed in 1765 ; they held public meet- ings on the common ; they hung the lieutenant-governor and a figure of the devil in effigy and burned them before the fort. Under their influ- ence leagues were formed with the other colonies against the importation of English goods; homespun became fashionable; ladies refused to be married so long as their licenses had to be on stamped paper ; liberty- poles sprang up around the city ; armed bands paraded the streets, which finally, marching to a vessel newly arrived, captured all the stamped paper that had been sent over. A tea party also took place, similar to the one at Boston, and a body of citizens, calling themselves Mohawks, but acting without Indian disguise, discharged into the river the tea-chests imported by the ship London, in April, 1774.
Resistance to the stamp and other acts of the British Parliament con- tinued here with a spirit and determination quite equal to that of the New Englanders, until the spirit of resistance culminated in the Revolu- tion.
As early as 1744 Governor Clinton had thus written to the Duke of Newcastle, with reference to a proposed stamp duty : '' The people of North America are quite strangers to any duty but such as they raise them- selves, and was such a scheme to take place without their knowledge, it might have a dangerous consequence to his majesty's interest." In July, 1775, Governor Tryon thus wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth, when speaking of the condition of affairs in New York : *' Oceans of blood may be spilt, but, in my opinion, America will never receive parliamentary taxation."
When we consider the principles and origin of the then population of our city, we can well imagine that the men there were not afraid of revolu- tion. There were the descendants of the Dutch patriots, of independents of the English fighting stock under Cromwell, of French Huguenots, of
Vol. XXlII.-No. i.— 4
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IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
banished covenanters from Scotland, of soldiers of Monmouth's rebellion, and of men who had fought under the banner of both of the Pretenders.
A review of the trade of the early Dutch, its development under the West India Company, and its subsequent course under English colonial and subsequent state rule would be interesting; but space will not allow a review of that feature of our municipal life. A spirit of commercial en- terprise seems to have characterized this'city from its origin, when in 1610 Dutch vessels were sent over to open trade with the natives ; and in 1624 four thousand beaver and seven hundred otter skins were exported. The thrift and plodding industry and business sagacity of the Dutch has left its mark to this day, and laid the foundation for the commercial eminence of the metropolis.
During the English period the commercial enterprise and prosperity of the city rapidly developed. The English administration sought in every way to depress and discourage all efforts at manufactures here; but the busy city rose above the jealous policy, and not only had a large com- merce but many manufactures. In 1750 we find the city exporting to England grain, furs, oil, spermaceti, lime-juice, snuff, candles, skins, lum- ber, whale oil, bones, logwood, mahogany, and general West India goods; to the West Indies, lumber and European and East India goods ; also, flour, bread, pease, pork, and horses. From the West Indies were imported mostly rum, sugar, logwood, and molasses. There was also an active coast- ing trade with the New England colonies and Virginia, of grain, lumber, and English goods. There was also an active trade with Madeira, Ten- erifTe, ports on the Bay of Biscay, and with Minorca and Gibraltar. All this shows what a busy city this was even before the Revolution.
The slave-trade was one feature of our municipal life that both Dutch and English were responsible for. Slaves were dealt in as an article of import and export, without any sense of moral wrong. In 1718 there were as many as five hundred and seventeen slaves imported here from Africa and the West Indies. As an instance of the moral darkness even of those days, we find that slaves were kept in ignorance and not tutored in the Christian faith, under either the Dutch or English rule, until 1688, when a law was passed which was generally disregarded. The ignorance in which they were kept was, doubtless, under the moral theory propounded by Lord Coke, that Chr-stians, being servants of Christ, might lawfully hold in bondage pagans, who were bond-holders of Satan. Therefore Satan was not interfered with ; and, under Governor Dongan, some Spanish Indian slaves were ordered to be sent out of the colony if it was found tJiey cou/d say the Lord\s Prayer.
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 5 1
The spirit of toleration which prevailed under the Dutch, and even under the English rule, laid the foundation for the liberal and tolerant principles which have distinguished this state. New Amsterdam was always a refuge for those persecuted for conscience' sake. In Holland religious freedom had been acknowledged as a human right, and the Dutch states became an asylum for the oppressed of all lands.
These principles of toleration were maintained by the Dutch settlers of New Netherland, and not lost under the English rule. Walloon fugitives came there from the Spanish Netherlands, Lutherans from Germany, Puritans from England, Huguenots from France, Waldenses from Pied- mont, harassed Jews from Spain ; also Quakers and Anabaptist refugees from New England.
Francis Doughty, a clergyman, driven from Massachusetts for asserting that Abraham's children should have been baptized ; Lady Deborah Moody, for her views against infant baptism ; Throgmorton and his fol- lowers, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and even old Katy Harryson, the Connecticut witch, and many other religious refugees from New Eng- land, and also Father Jogues, the Jesuit m^issionary, found aid and shelter in New Netherland. In fact, little New England colonies of refugees were planted all about New Amsterdam. There is no stain of blood on New Amsterdam for any condemnation for religious opinion. The witchcraft delusion found no home with the people of this place ; although they had New England for an example, distracting homes and leading protesting innocents to the stake.
By the terms of surrender to Colonel Nichols, in 1664, the Dutch inhabitants were to enjoy liberty of conscience and of church discipline. In 1687 James II. made his proclamation in England and the colonies, declaring liberty of conscience and of worship, and suspending all laws against non-conformity. It was this declaration that the English bishops refused to read from their pulpits, and which precipitated the English revolution of 1689.
Governor Dongan, who was a Catholic, in his report to the Board of Trade in 1687, says:
" New York has, first, a chaplain belonging to the Fort, of the Church of England ; secondly, a Dutch Calvinist ; third, a French Calvinist ; and fourth, a Dutch Lutheran.
"Here bee not many of England; a few Roman Catholics ; abundance of Quaker preachers, men and women especially ; Singing Quakers; Ranting Quakers; Sabbata- rians ; anti-Sabbatarians ; some Anabaptists ; some Independents ; some Jews ; in short, of all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most part of none at all ! ''
Under William and Mary, however, and the subsequent reigns, there
52 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
was great intolerance against Roman Catholics. By the penal laws in force, many were virtually disfranchised, and John Wry, under the main charge of being a priest in disguise, was hung in 1741. By a law passed in 1700, also, Roman Catholic priests found in the colony were subject to imprisonment for life. The English Test Act was also in force here, after the English revolution, and city officials, before qualifying, had to make declaration of their " disbelief in transubstantiation, and that the sacri- fice of the Mass and the worship of the Virgin were idolatrous and superstitious."
In the beginning of this paper reference has been made to the general physiological changes attendant upon colonization in new latitudes.
The Anglo-Saxon has been the dominant type of the colonizing man here, and the deviations from that type, in the course of two centuries, are notable. The original colonizing Dutchman and Frenchman have been absorbed by intermarriage into the more numerous Anglo-Saxon ; and the conditions of mixture, settlement, and acclimatization, acting on that type, have produced, at this time, a new deviating race.
Such deviation is apparent in the physical, mental, and, perhaps, moral attributes of the new race; and also in its lingual expression. Under the conditions of the new life, to a great extent adventurous, nerve force and energy were called upon, and developed rapidly. There was a struggle with Nature and the Savage, a deprivation of luxury, and no repose from toil or care. Hence, the colonist and his offspring became active, restless, industrious, anxious, enterprising, and ingenious. Each colonist stepped out into his individuality and laid the foundation of self-sovereignty. The dependence of his old life was lost, and the energy and self-reliance of his new one began. A spirit of enterprise and restlessness, a disposition to advance, became characteristic of the new race, and have contributed in causing physiological modification.
Climatic changes and local stimuli, therefore, have in time irritated the nervous system into impulses that have caused an abnormal activity, resulting, as it is claimed, in a disturbance of the general physiological balance.
Speaking of the changes induced by increased nervous nutrition. Dr. Verity, an English writer of note on nervous changes, says :
'• Among the changes effected in the course of the physiological ameHoration of the human type, are those of the nervous system at large; where, besides the amplified volume and enhanced temperament of the cerebral masses, the different structures of the body be- come interpenetrated with a more copious interlacement of nervous webbing, whereby all the complicated mechanism of animal and organic life is made to perform its various functions with more energy, more breadth, and more endurance."
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
53
On the other hand, he deprecates the over-development of the nervous system, as tending to physical deterioration, and argues that the proper equipoise of the physical and mental frame must be maintained through a more athletic development, by a return to the muscular activity and in- vigorating habits, pursuits, and regime of the ancestral type. Three local words that have been coined into our language seem to illustrate the effects of the developed nerve force here, and portray the new resulting moral race-characteristics — these are the verbs to '' progress," to " locate," and to '^ realize."
The physical changes produced by nervous action were noticed by early historians and travelers here.
The historian Smith speaks of the inhabitants of New York, about 1760, as being generally healthy and robust, but shorter lived than Euro- peans ; and, both with respect to their minds and bodies, that they arrive sooner to an age of maturity. He says, also : *' Breathing a serene, dry air, they are more sprightly in their natural tempers than the people of England." John Lambert, a traveler who visited New York in 1808, speaks of the general ill-health and debility of the inhabitants, and the prevalence of bilious and nervous diseases. He also speaks of the prema- ture decay of the teeth among the people ; and, although he pays a tribute to the attractions of the New York ladies, he states that they do not " enjoy their beautie for so long a period as Englishwomen, neither do they possess the blooming countenance and rosy tinge of health."
Quatrefages, a recent and learned French writer on ethnology, thus writes : »
"Two centuries and a half, twelve generations at the most, separate the English race in America from the epoch of its permanent settlement in the country; and, nevertheless, the Anglo-American (the ' Yankee ') no longer resembles his ancestors. The fact is so striking that the eminent zoologist, Andrew Murray, when endeavoring to account for the formation of animal races, finds that he cannot do better than appeal to the condition of man in the United States. ... At the second generation, the English Creole in North America presents in his features an alteration which approximates him to the native race. Subsequently the skin dries and loses its rosy color, the glandular system is reduced to a minimum, the hair darkens and becomes glossy ; the neck becomes slender, and the size of the head diminishes. In the face the temporal fosses are pronounced, the cheek-bones become prominent, and the orbital cavities become hollow. Lastly, the woman, in her structural proportions, approaches to those of the man."
The anthropologist Knox, and others who think with him, take the ex- treme view that the European immigrant, after several generations, loses the power of perpetuating the race ; and that a continuous stream of immigra- tion from robust European sources is necessary to maintain the white popu-
54 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
lation of the United States ; and, as a corollary to this, they claim that, were it not for the stream of German and Irish immigration, the red skins would again reign in North America, and the descendants of the Montezumas in the South. We can, in this view, picture to ourselves, instead of the New Zealander of the English writer, gazing over the ruins of London, some Pawnee or Flat Head from the West, chasing the cougar or the moose over the tottering arches of the Brooklyn Bridge, or a bevy of squaws pounding corn in the ruined chancel of Trinity Church !
A more recent observer, Miss Beecher, says, in her letter to the people, ** Travelers, when they go to other countries, especially when they visit England, from whence our ancestors came, are struck with the contrast between the appearance of American women and those of other countries, in the matter of health." She also says that the standard of health among American women is so low that few of them have an idea of what a healthy woman is; and that she (Miss Beecher) is not able, ''in her im- mense circle of friends and acquaintances, all over the Union, to find so many as ten married ladies, born in this century and country, who are sound, healthy, and vigorous."
The above and other writers seem to conclude that the effect of the excessive development of the nerve force, not accompanied, as in the early days of pioneer life, with muscular effort, and the deprivation of luxury and other concomitants of civilized life, have, together with the effects of a climate of extremes, caused a fibrous and muscular relaxation, which have induced physical deterioration and diseases that have become almost national.
An argument a posteriori, as to the general changes of health, suggests itself in the fact that the most showy and most numerous of all the shops in our villages and cities is the druggist shop ; and it is the favorite social exchange of the place. In our cities druggists are found at every corner, while at London or Paris it is difficult to find one.
At this day, the physical changes of the average American of the east- ern cities, as distinguishing him from the English progenitor, are the fol- lowing : The neck has become elongated ; the hair has ceased to curl ; the bones are smaller; the foot is shorter and higher in the instep ; the jaws or jowls have become narrower, and cannot maintain the normal amount of teeth ; the normal pulse is quicker; the voice is higher and thinner, with a nasal intonation ; the lungs and chest smaller ; the stature shorter ; the frame less in bulk; the speech is in a monotone, direct and quick, and with- out inflexions; the complexion has become dry and sallow; the expres- sion of the face has become sombre, and the brow corrugated ; and the
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW VORK CITY 55
dryness of the air has darkened the hair and the skin. The curious tendency to expectoration at all times and places has also been much observed as a national distinction. The above changes are not so remarka- ble among the people of the western states and territories, who are nearer the pioneer period, and where muscular life still controls. The above changes, however, in general distinguish the Anglo-American almost as much from the Anglo-Saxon of England as the Anglo-American is dis- tinctive from the American Indian, who, after being so entirely acclimated as to have arrived at the perfection of physical health, is now physically deteriorating under the influences of civilization.
As to the physical advantage or the aesthetic excellence of the above physiological changes, I am not prepared to speak.
There is no doubt that, at this time, we have assumed a distinct normal type and are becoming accustomed to it. Perhaps, even to the distin- terested international observer, the light, graceful Mercury flying to the skies, and waving the magic caduceus that changes everything into gold, will be preferred to the massive, club-wielding Hercules, accomplishing, it is true, great labors, when aroused, but comparatively heavy and passive. The type of the Hebe, too, may charm as much as the stately Juno over the water; and possibly, in time, when the amalgamation of races is com- plete, immigration diminished, and nerve force in better equipoise with the rest of the system, unless a Mongolian ingredient is introduced, new Apollos and Venuses may arise, and Anglo-Americans become a typical race of perfected humanity.
So, evidently, thinks our admirer, Professor Quatrefages, above alluded to. The professor combats the conclusions of Knox, that the changes above enumerated are signs of a degradation already accomplished and of an approaching extinction.
He perorates as follows : " We are sufificiently acquainted with Ameri- can men and women to know that, although modified, the physical type is not lowered, in the scale of races; and the social grandeur of the United States, the marvels they have accomplished, the energy with which they pass through the rudest crises, prove that, from every point of view, the Yankee race has retained its rank. It is simply a new race formed by the American conditions of life, but which remains worthy of its elder sisters in Europe, and will, perhaps, some day, surpass them." Dr. Verity also gives us some comfort, when he lays down the law that the progression of nervous nutrition in the human body is a law of advancing civilization.
The mental and moral changes between Englishmen and the Anglo- American are also sensible.
56 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
As mental activity has been more quickened, the area of intelligence has proportionately been more diffused. Under the influence of common dangers and efforts, and a communion of interests, the disposition has be- come less rigid and selfish and more sympathetic and generous than with the English. There is less individual pride and more general courtesy and cordiality, although less polish. There is also less brutality and blood- thirstiness here, especially among the lower classes. There has disap- peared from the Anglo-American the curious instance of atavism so com- mon in England and the delight of the French caricaturist — the open mouth, elevated nostril, and projecting front teeth — relic of the flesh-tear- ing cave-dweller and flint-sharpener.
As another instance of our changed humanitarianism, there has disap- peared from our Prayer-Book the bloody anathemas and the invocation to the God of battles to destroy and cut off all those who are not English^ which still characterize the religious formula of the European descendants of our Anglo-Saxon progenitors.
We come now down to the period of the great Irish and German im- migration. These nationalities have exercised great influence upon this city and its inhabitants. The general causes of their leaving their native shores have been the inducements of higher wages, cheap land, political freedom, social equality, lighter taxation ; and for the German, above all, exemption from military service. Great periods of famine have sent in- creased numbers ; also great commercial panics, distress in manufacturing districts, and reaction after revolutionary movements.
New York city endures most of the evils and gets least of the advan- tages of immigration : the bulk of those that have money pass through, the pauper and the vicious generally remain.
Our city has been compared to a filter in which the stream of immi- gration is purified before it passes westward. Of immigrants from the continent of Europe, seventy-five per cent., it is estimated, pass westward, and only about tv/enty-five per cent, remain. Of those from Ireland, seventy-five per ccMt. remain, and twenty-five per cent, pass on. In 1789 to 1794, the average arrivals here were only 3,000 per annum; from 1820 to 1826, there was an annual average arrival of 9,500. In 1842 there was 104,565; in 1846 there were 154,400; and in 1847, 234,900. From 1845 until 1854, inclusive, in consequence of signs of revolution, 1,226,392 Ger- mans arrived at New York, and for the same period, 1,512,100 Irish. During the year 1882, nearly half a million alien passengers arrived at this port, of whom the most numerous were Germans, and the next in number Irish. This is an increase over the immigrants arriving ten years previous
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 5/
of 200,000. The first Irish immigrant we hear of was a servant girl be- longing to Isaac AUerton, the English tobacco merchant, in 1655 ; who is recorded to have beaten her for skylarking with his servant man Jonathan.
A letter has come down to us from an early Irish immigrant (one James Murray), written to his old pastor, Rev. Baptist Boyd, in 1737, extolling the advantages of the new land. An extract is as follows :
" Read this letter, Rev. Baptist Boyd, and look and tell aw the poor folk of ye place that God has opened a door for their deliverance. Desire my Fether and my Mether, too, and my three sisters to come here ; and ye may acquaint them there are lads enough here ; and bid my brother come, and I will pay their passage. Desire James Gibson to sell aw he has and come ; for here aw that a man works for is his ane ; and there are ne revenue hunds to rive it frae us here ; but every yen enjoys his ane, and there is ne yen [one] to tak awayerCorn, yer Potatoes, yer Lint or yer Eggs — na, na, — ! blessed be his Name, ne yen gees Bans for his ane here. Ye ken I had but sma' learning when I left ye ; and now, wad ye think of it, I hea 20 pund a year for being a Clark to York Meeting house ; and Keep a Skulle for wee weans — Ah, dear sir, there is braw living in this same York — for big learned men — for, I will tell ye, in short, this is a bonny country and aw things grows here that ever I did see grow in Er eland. '"'
Immigration might well be induced also by such mellifluous descrip- tions of the land as were written by Mr. Charles Wooley, an English traveler here, in 1678. He described the climate in the following highly Latinized English : " The climate is of a sweet and wholesome breath. Nature kindly drains and purgeth it by Fontanels and issues of running waters in its irriguous valleys, and shelters it with the Umbrellas of all sorts of trees from pernicious lakes; which trees do insensibly suck in and digest into their own growth and composition those subterraneous parti- cles and exhalations which would otherwise become matter for infectious clouds and malign atmospheres. I myself, seemingly of a weakly stamen and a valetudinary constitution, was not in the least indisposed in that climate during my residence there."
The early immigrants devoted themselves, if possible, to the obtaining of land for agricultural purposes; and, although the wages of labor were high in the city, as soon as they arrived sought to be proprietors of farms. Governor Moore, writing in 1768, says:
" They quit their masters and get a small tract of land, in settling which, for the first three or four years, they lead miserable lives and in the most abject poverty ; but all this is patiently borne and submitted to with the greatest cheerfulness. The satisfaction of being land-holders smooths every difficulty and makes them prefer this manner of living to that comfortable existence which they could procure for themselves and their families by working at the trades in which they were brought up."
This feeling for agricultural pursuits seems strongly to influence the continental immigrant in his march westward.
58 IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY
The Irish, from their knowledge of the language, have exerted a stronger influence upon our city than the Germans, who keep more apart, and a greater proportion of whom travel westward or settle in districts of the city where they are separated from the rest of the population ; while the Irish mingle more promiscuously with the earlier population.
Indeed, from the number of the Irish and their descendants now estab- lished here, Ireland, instead of England, might now be regarded as the mother country, or, rather, the stepmother country. An ex-state-senator, at a public meeting not long since, said exultingly : " Probably the time will soon come when the Irish wt/l have New York, and elect an Irish mayor." An Irishman, lately, in our house of representatives, where his principal occupation was to assail the British lion, paid America the back- handed compliment of stating that '' Ireland was the nursery of American brains and bravery." He quoted a good deal of poetry to sustain his position.
We have thus briefly reviewed the various elements and nationalities that have united in forming our citizens. The race nucleus with us, as it is in England, is the Anglo-Saxon. The Dutchman and the Frenchman of the early settlement have flowed into the general result, although each has impressed upon it a part of his distinctiveness.
England, however, is still recognized as the mother country. Its race still dominates while the new one is forming. The history of England is ours — its language, its literature, its morals, its modes of thought and principles of action. We still look to English opinion for approbation. We wince under the criticism of its authors and its press, and look up to its learning and culture. Our youth adopt its manners and pursue its sports; and our maidens are willingly cast to the Moloch of English titled grandeur, or look to temporary admission into the spangled arena of a London season as the acme of social delight.
The vast floods of Irish and Germans that make with their descendants a great and useful part of our population have been of too late introduc- tion to be factors in the formation of our general local character. They are still, to a certain extent, apart from each other, and from the descend- ants of the colonial denizens. They still retain their race individualism of temperament and physique. Their robust industry and powers of en- durance have made them mighty agents in building up the city and the nation ; and their great numbers, their active and aggressive spirit, and, above all, their cohesion have made them powerful in our political life.
New York is now indirectly, if not directly, ruled by recent immigrants, or their sons. While New England thrift and pertinacity have made the
IMPRESS OF NATIONALITIES ON NEW YORK CITY 59
New Englander here comparatively at the head of our commercial life, those of Irish blood are practically the controlling political power.
If others murmur at this condition, it may be answered that it is one of their own sufferance. It is natural that the immigrant should seek rule if he has the enterprise to grasp it, and when the door is left wide open ; and those of other thought and nationality must often bear the rule, even, at times, of those not morally fitted for power, if they have not the energy and the public spirit that make thought action, and action success.
Probably there is no city in Christendom where there is such an indif- ference on the part of the enlightened citizen to public affairs, where public spirit is so sluggish, and where political principle is so absorbed and controlled by partisanship. This may, perhaps, arise from the fact that our mixed races, not being yet consolidated, are wanting in that unity of thought and character that forms and harmonizes public sentiment and impels its action.
There is much political effort here, but such efforts made frequently, without political conviction and for private aims, lead to demagogism, and, in time, debase public life and make it odious.
With many drawbacks, however, there is much to praise and love in the ancient city of New York.
There is a wide-spread charity, a liberal and tolerant sentiment toward all men, a general appreciation of what is good and noble, a generous hos- pitality, and a lofty spirit of enterprise and ambition, that impels it onward, in spite of the heavy drags upon it of a great part of the crime and pau- perism of foreign lands, and the evils of political misrule.
As in the days of its Dutch predecessors, it opens arms to all men, and welcomes still the religious exile, the political refugee ; and the oppressed and down-hearted of all lands find sympathy and relief.
Those who leave behind them a depressed condition of existence in the old world find, there, a higher and freer life, where all may aspire and all may succeed.
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
The family of Ralph Izard was one of the oldest in South Carolina, the first of the name having reached there from England in the reign of Queen Anne. The industries of the colony were then exclusively agricul- tural, and the lands which his ancestor purchased were devoted to the cul- ture of rice and indigo. The first of these was well suited to the swamps that abound along the seaboard of that state, and the quality having been soon improved, the shorter water transportation to the northern colonies and to Europe enabled it to compete successfully with the rice product of the East Indies. For at least a century it was a monopoly in the two Carolinas and Georgia, and by its extensive cultivation was the cause of the diffusion of much substantial wealth.
Indigo, on the other hand, required protection, and the British govern- ment gave a bounty for its production. By devoting their lands to these two commodities the Izard family were among the first to acquire wealth in old South Carolina.
The founder of the family was a native of Worcestershire, and traces of the name have been seen among the inscriptions in an old church situ- ated near his landed property, but none other of the name was known to have remained in that neighborhood.
Ralph Izard belonged to the third generation in America. He was born in 1742, and at the age of twelve was sent to one of the celebrated public schools in England, either Harrow or Hackney, and his education was completed at the University of Cambridge. At these two places he acquired a taste for the manly exercises then in vogue, such as cricket and tennis, and he excelled specially in horsemanship.
During a long minority his property was carefully and judiciously ad- ministered, and, up )n attaining his majority, he was in possession of a large income for the period. In a letter to him from his trustee at that date, the amount of annual revenue which he should reasonably expect to receive was stated at ^1,500, with a good prospect of increase from year to year through larger crops and better prices. This was sufficient for Ralph Izard to be considered one of the richest men of the time in Charleston, and he appears to have been the only American who soon afterward owned his own dwelling in London, where he lived for several years with hie family.
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 6l
He did not continue his education after leaving Cambridge by entering one of the law schools, as so many of his contemporaries from South Caro- lina were doing ; but returned home, and for a few years attended to the management of his plantations, with frequent visits to New York, where he married in 1767, at the age of twenty-five, Miss Alice De Lancey, niece of James De Lancey, then lieutenant-governor of the province. Four years after this he moved with his wife and young children to London, where he purchased his dwelling in Berners Street, apparently with the intention of remaining there permanently.
While a boy he had been wisely sent by his guardian to a public school. In this republic, where a knowledge of human nature is acquired at an early age and where every boy soon finds his true level, he was better prepared for the duties of life than if "he had been in charge of a private tutor. His literary tastes were formed early, and in furnishing his London home he provided a valuable library. He was fond of painting and music, and purchased an organ — an instrument then to be found in almost every completely equipped English dwelling, where its music was usually heard at morning and evening family prayers. Ralph Izard was also a performer on the violin, which proves that to play that instrument was a part of polite education in England at an earlier period than is commonly supposed. For some years in London Izard's life was one of unalloyed happiness, and he and his elder children always looked back to it as a most delightful period. South Carolina alone of the thirteen colonies had then reached the point that one of her private citizens, wealthy, educated, and accomplished, was living in elegance and comfort at the British capi- tal, attentive in his hospitalities to his American friends, and on a footing of social equality with many of the distinguished public men of England.
This pleasant state of things soon began to give way to a feeling of uncertainty as to the future, in consequence of the arbitrary measures of the English ministry for obtaining additional revenue from the colonies. Mr. Izard shared with America in the indignation caused by these meas- ures, and when they were being discussed in Parliament he was a frequent attendant upon the debates. His standing in London was such that, although occupying no official position, he was well acquainted with sev- eral of the leading statesmen. Among these were Lords Chatham and Shelburne of the Upper House, and Edmund Burke and Dempster of the Lower. In order to relieve his mind from the anxiety caused by the in- creasing bitterness of the controversy and the evident determination of the party in power to carry out their policy, Izard decided to leave Eng- land for a time and make an extensive tour upon the continent — through
62 RALFH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
France and Switzerland into Italy — and he started on the journey with his wife in the summer of 1774.
The first volume of his correspondence, edited by his daughter, Mrs. Ann Izard Deas of New York city, in 1844, opens at this period, and the journey can be easily traced by the letters which he wrote from the various cities which he visited. While at Geneva and in other parts of Switzer- land he remarked the superior character of the peasantry and the better cultivation of the soil, as compared with what he had noticed in France. This was, he thought, because there was no nobility, no standing army, no custom-houses, light taxation, and, above all, no king, '' the support of whose pride, pomp, and intolerable vanity, by courtiers called necessary expe?tses, inevitably produces these and a thousand other grievances."
His mind continued disturbed during his entire travels by the possi- bilities of a conflict between England and the American colonies, and much of the pleasure of the trip was spoiled by his forebodings of the future. As a result of his observations, he said, in one of his letters: *' If war becomes inevitable, and the colonies are successful in achieving their independence, a form of government which would empower the representa- tives of the people to alone vote the supplies, would be indispensable." He was much impressed by the wretched condition of the people of France and Italy, who were taxed by the princes, without having any voice in limiting the amount, and were, therefore, in a hopeless state of impoverish- ment. Several letters during the journey passed between him and the two Lees, Arthur and William, both then in London, and with whom he was afterwards associated in Paris. He took great pleasure in visiting the pict- ure-galleries of every city in which he stopped. He was not only fond of art, but a patron of it to the extent of his means ; he was always ready to offer encouragement in a substantial way to any of his countrymen who, as artists, were in Europe during his residence there. While at college, there being no American painter in London, he sat for his picture to Zoffani, a noted portrait-painter of his day ; and, shortly after his marriage, he had his wife's portrait painted by Gainsborough. Afterwards, when Ben- jamin West had opened a studio in London, he and three of his friends employed him to paint their portraits on one canvas. They are repre- sented in a tennis court, when the game has been stopped for the purposes of the portraits, and the artist was engaged to paint a duplicate, which was retained in England, while the first was brought to America."
While passing through southern France in 1774, Mr. and Mrs. Izard
* The patronage of art in England in the last century was confined almost exclusively to por- traiture.
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 63
met a young countryman who was traveling in the same direction. An acquaintanceship was formed, and the stranger proved to be John Single- ton Copley, of Boston, on his way to Rome to improve himself in the art of painting. The meeting with such an interesting and intelligent man as Copley resulted in an invitation for him to a seat in the travelers' carriage, and in this way the party proceeded to Rome, via Turin and Florence. Copley had not expected to make any portraits while in the Papal City, but was easily persuaded to represent his two newly made friends on one large canvas for the then large sum of ;{^200. With his accustomed attention to the completion of details, and his fondness for introducing furniture in his paintings, both of which were his strong characteristics, and having, moreover, the entire winter in which to finish this one, he elaborated it to a degree that is a wonder, even at the present day. The painting still exists, and is owned by a descendant living in Charleston, South Carolina."^
Mr. Izard was not only a patron of art, but also a friend and companion of artists. He was particularly so of Copley, there being much congeni- ality between the two, and during the spring of 1775 they made a journey together to the ruins of Paestum. The writer has been told, by a grand- daughter of the painter, living "in Boston, that, in his letters to his family from Italy, he more than once mentioned Mr. Izard in strong terms of friendship and respect.
One more portrait of Izard was made by Colonel John Trumbull, in Philadelphia, while he was serving as senator from South Carolina, shortly after 1789. The artist was then taking the likenesses of the noted public characters of the day for a collection of his own, and the portrait, minia- ture size, in oil, and on wood, is now in the New Haven gallery. With regard to music, which was also a taste he had liberally cultivated, he remarked, in his letters from Italy, that music in that country was not equal to what he had heard in London, and that the operas especially were inferior. Mr. Izard visited Verona and Venice after Rome and Naples, then passed through the Tyrol into Germany, and reached London again in May, 1775, having been absent about ten months. He had been kept well informed of the progress of events during his absence, and could see, from the temper of the government and the known determination to resist in America, that war was inevitable. In April of the same year the affair at Lexington, Massachusetts, had occurred, and it was his wish to return home without delay. His pecuniary difficulties, however, commenced then, remittances from his agent in South Carolina having ceased, which prevented him from making arrangements for sailing. Later on, the only
* It was exhibited at the Centennial Loan Collection, in New York, in April and May, 1889.
64 RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
way of taking his family was by one of the West India islands belonging to France, with possible risk of capture of the vessel and detention of the passengers, and his wife and children were consequently left in Europe until the war was over. Finding that he would be obliged to stay in Eng- land for an indefinite time, he moved into a smaller house, in the suburbs of London, and, at first, rented his dwelling in Berners Street, but afterwards sold it. During this period of forced detention, and before the declaration of independence, he exerted himself to prevail upon several prominent members of the ministry to forego their determination to send addi- tional troops to America. On the 7th November, 1775, he had an inter- view with Lord North, who " expressed great desire for peace, and wished it to be made upon honorable terms to both parties." Lord North an- nounced that commissioners would be sent to America to treat about a pacification, upon which Mr. Izard insisted " on the absolute necessity of treating with the Congress," to which necessity his lordship appeared to realize that there was no alternative. Lord North was very gracious in manner, but he was found afterwards not to be uniform in his language, for in Parliament he was strongly in favor of coercion. After this, Mr. Izard had an interview with Lord George Germain, a member of the cab- inet and minister for the colonies, who was as pleasant in manner and con- ciliatory in language as Lord North had been ; and Mr. Izard had a confer- ence with the entire ministry, in which he dwelt upon the certainty of resistance to coercion : but all such interviews were without result. It was shortly after proposed by a prominent member of the opposition, the Duke of Richmond, that Mr. Izard should appear at the bar of the House of Lords to be examined on the subject of America. This plan was not, however, carried out — perhaps on account of Mr. Izard wishing to know in advance what the questions would be, so that he might be prepared to answer them. He was troubled, too, from childhood, with an impediment in his speech, and he feared he might be disconcerted before such an audience.
His position in England became more and more embarrassing the longer he remained, and the climax of his discomforts was reached when the revolutionary authorities of South Carolina sequestered the property of all absentees between the ages of sixteen and sixty. This would have reduced him to a condition of positive want, had it not been that certain of his friends, notably a Calcutta merchant who had visited America and had formed a friendship for him, advanced what was necessary for his im- mediate relief. He also, fortunately, obtained just then a sum of money inherited from a deceased English uncle, which had been in the Court of
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 65
Chancery for several years, and with part of which he paid off his London debts. This proceeding in South CaroHna was leveled specially at Mr. Izard, and was altogether premature and unjust.
The reader will have perceived that his ability to remain abroad in the distinguished manner which has been described, enjoying a large income until his return from the trip to Rome, and brought in contact socially with a fashionable and important circle of acquaintances, made him a man of consequence in his native colony ; and under the assumed belief that he took no interest in the impending struggle, his property was taken posses- sion of, so as to force him either into beggary or immediate return. This was uncalled-for, as we have seen ; and he had written fully to Thomas Lynch and Edward Rutledge, both members of the congress of 1776, explaining his reasons for continuing in England. Another cause which detained him there was the birth of a son in October, 1776. But at length, after vainly trying to obtain the consent of the authorities to his leaving openly, he succeeded in crossing over to France with his family early in August, 1777.
When it became known among his English friends that he was prepar- ing for departure, several wrote to him, expressing regret at his feeling it necessary to do so. It was to them a sign that the struggle was already an earnest one, and would be without compromise. The Earl of Shel- burne, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, a good debater in the House of Lords, and in opposition to the ministry, wrote a flattering letter, where he expressed a strong hope that there would not be a final separation be- tween England and her colonies. Another letter from his friend George Dempster, a member of the Lower House, who had voted with the ministry for coercion, while kindly in tone, blamed the Americans for not having ac- cepted Lord North's conciliatory propositions, and assured him that the large ministerial majority in Parliament was undoubted evidence that the government measures were sustained by the country. Still another letter exists, from Edmund Burke, inviting Mr. and Mrs. Izard to spend a few days at his country place before leaving for France.
At this time Mr. Izard was hoping to be appointed by his state an agent to attend to the sales of cargoes of rice and indigo arriving in French ports. There were many such arrivals, and the position was an important one ; but instead of that he was early in September informed of his ap- pointment by congress as commissioner to Tuscany. The grand-duke had made, the year before, overtures to Mr. Silas Deane, indicating a will- ingness to grant certain privileges to American commerce ; and although the country was a small one, and having no influence in European dip-
VoL. XXIII.— No. I.— 5
66 RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
lomacy, it had become prosperous under the reigning duke, and there was a possibility of obtaining a loan from its treasury through the agency of a commissioner — a matter of vital importance to the struggling states.
The French capital was then the headquarters of five American com« missioners, three of whom were accredited to that court. These were Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, Ralph Izard, and William Lee, the latter appointed in September, also, to Vienna and Berlin. The three first had been acting together for some months, and had had several confer- ences with Count de Vergennes, whose feelings were quite partial to the American cause. France had been secretly encouraging the revolt of the American colonies, and her privateers were bringing into her ports fre- quent captures of English merchantmen, when they were condemned and sold as though war actually existed between the two countries. A com- mercial treaty and a treaty of alliance were the objects of these confer- ences, and, after the surrender of Burgoyne toward the close of 1777, the prospects of America achieving her independence were considered so good that they were both concluded early in the following year.
Mr. Izard thought it best before proceeding to Florence to await the execution of these treaties with France, as everything depended upon the action of that court ; and, without such documents acknowledging Ameri- can independence, it would be useless to expect anything decisive from a small maritime state like Tuscany, whose only seaport was liable at any time to reprisals by an English fleet, for venturing upon such a step as recognition. The treaty of commerce, of which he was directed by con- gress to procure a copy before leaving, with " every subsequent alteration that had been proposed on either side," was to be a guide .to him in nego- tiating a similar one with Tuscany, and he therefore obtained a copy of both at an early day.
He had no voice in the deliberations of the commission to the French government, but, after a careful reading of the commercial treaty, and noticing that the eleventh and twelfth articles contained an agreement by which the molasses of the French West India islands would be forever exempted from an export duty, and that, as an equivalent to this, the United States agreed to exempt from a similar duty all merchandise leav- ing America which should be for the use of the islands furnishing molas- ses, he conferred with Arthur Lee, the only member of the commission with whom he was friendly, and the two agreed that much more than an equiva- lent for molasses alone had been inadvertently granted to France. It was also in disregard of the instructions of congress, to the effect that, in these commercial treaties, reciprocal and equal advantages be secured to the
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 67
people of both countries. Mr. Lee then consulted his two colleagues, and they consented to his endeavoring to have the articles changed by seeing M. Gerard, who had in charge the details of the treaty ; but it was too late, as the French king had already approved, and they formed part of the treaty as negotiated at Paris. When, however, the treaties were submitted to congress, the two articles were objected to on the same grounds that Lee and Izard had urged.
The distillation of rum from molasses was an important industry in New England at that time, and the articles were probably inserted by Mr. Deane, so that molasses might have every chance of being free as long as the distilling industry was profitable. Mr. Izard was not sectional in his opposition to the articles, for the distillation was also carried on with profit in South Carolina, but only for local consumption. He was unwilling, if he could avoid it, to take the treaty containing such articles to Florence, as the unequal exemptions therein might tempt the grand-duke to expect some similar favor.
In the treaty of alliance, Mr. Izard considered that the fifth article, referring to Florida, might be so construed by its wording as to make it possible for Spain to again acquire possession of it ; and he was further confirmed in that opinion by letters received by Mr. Arthur Lee, from Madrid, which left no room to doubt what the expectations of that court were on the subject. For a century preceding, the Spaniards in Florida had been a constant cause of uneasiness to Georgia and the two Carolinas. On the ground that the territory of those colonies belonged to Spain, they fitted out several piratical expeditions against these coasts, and, although attempts were made at different times to punish them by invasions of Florida, they all failed of their purpose.
The English, who then held the territory, would be better neighbors than the Spaniards, after a peace, but it was important that it be included in the Union with as little delay as possible, and that no ambiguous word- ing of a treaty should prevent this. Events afterwards proved that these views were correct, for during the war of 1812 it is known that the Span- iards in Florida connived at and even assisted the British in distributing arms, through their port of Pensacola, to the Indian tribes of the territory of Alabama, in anticipation of the revolting massacres of whites along that exposed frontier, which were part of the history of that war.
There was still another matter in the treaty of commerce which en- gaged Mr. Izard's attention. The ninth and tenth articles, referring to the northern fisheries, he thought would prove a source of much uneasiness to the states of New England. England had succeeded in enforcing her
68 RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
interpretation of the Treaty of Paris of 1763, with regard to these fish- eries, although France claimed certain rights which she considered as hav- ing been guaranteed her by the Treaty of Utrecht. At the same time, the tenth article of the American treaty of commerce, based certain fishery privileges for the Americans upon the discarded Treaty of Utrecht. He did not expect that this subject would be discussed until the conclusion of peace, but, in the meanwhile, he wrote to the president of congress about it as well as to Adams and Lee, in Paris.
Shortly after his arrival in Paris, Mr. Izard was introduced to the Abb6 Niccoli, Tuscan minister to the French court. The result of a conference with him was that, although the two treaties had been executed, he was still dissuaded from leaving for Florence. The Tuscan court was entirely under the influence of the Austrian emperor, and dared not take any open steps toward recognizing the revolted subjects of England without his sanction. Moreover, the emperor was too much occupied with the war against Prussia to give the subject immediate consideration, notwith- standing the presence of William Lee in Vienna. After the open recog- nition by France there was no occasion for Mr. Izard to go to a petty state like Tuscany unless as a recognized commissioner. If he had gone without the assurance of being properly received, he would have exposed himself to the risk of having to dance attendance at the back-door of the grand-duke's prime minister, who probably was some Jesuitical priest. He therefore continued in Paris, awaiting developments, and ended by never visiting Florence. His last hope was to obtain a loan in Tuscany, but, in a letter from the Abbe Niccoli, the writer pointed out the useless- ness of attempting this. The industries of the country we,re mainly agri- cultural, and there were no large capitalists who had already amassed money to put out at interest. Therefore, he considered that his govern- ment might be blamed if it permitted a loan to be opened for the United States.
The abb^ then advised that a loan be attempted from the Genoese, a strictly commercial people, having almost all their property in ready money, which they were accustomed to lend to any one who could offer good security, and recommended that Vergennes be interviewed, with the prospect of his advising Louis XVI. to guarantee the repayment of a loan. This advice was acted upon, and the three commissioners promised to speak of the Genoese loan to the French minister. He was also waited upon by Mr. Izard, but gave no encouragement to the project, and the subject was then necessarily dropped.
Mr. Izard was much assisted in his correspondence and necessary per-
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 69
sonal interviews by his secretary, John Julius Pringle. This young gentle- man, from South Carolina, had been studying law at the Middle Temple, but was forced to leave England at about this time. One of his letters, published in the diplomatic correspondence of the period, describing a visit to Dr. Franklin and what was said by both, is remarkably clear in phraseology, and proved him at that early age to be a man of marked ability. . Upon his return to his native state he became eminent in the law, and was offered, by President Jefferson, at the forming of his second cabinet, the position of attorney-general, which he was forced, for reasons, to decline.
Soon after Mr. Izard's arrival in France there were subjects of disa- greement which arose between Dr. Franklin and himself, and many letters acrimonious in character passed between the two. The subject is unwill- ingly approached, as it can serve no purpose to revive the differences of the past ; but it is impossible to pass it by, as, so far, the biographers of Dr. Franklin have alone been heard, and they have labored to prove, not only that Dr. Franklin was right from beginning to end of the controversy, but also that Ralph Izard was nothing more than a shallow pretentious individual, utterly unfit for the duties intrusted to him. He is particu- larly held up to ridicule by James Parton, one of the biographers of Dr. Franklin, on account of hi's objections to the articles about molasses in the commercial treaty, notwithstanding that congress also objected to them for the same reasons, and that they were finally struck out. His criticisms, too, with regard to the future of Florida and the possibilities of complications in the locating of the limits to the eastern fishing-grounds, are altogether ignored, as evidences of thoughtful foresight. He is also accused of having been of uncontrollable temper, and Dr. Franklin is jus- tified in having refused him the payment of his salary, on the ground that it was not intended that his family should likewise be supported.
With reference to this last it will be remembered that Mr. Izard was already in France with his family when his commission arrived, and it could not be in justice expected that he should be so limited in salary as to be unable to defray the expenses of a decent maintenance and of his children's education. Congress, too, had specially enjoined upon the commissioners to live in a sufficiently liberal way as to properly support the dignity of their public character, and, moreover, in the various details which have been published, of the doings of the several commissioners, there is no evidence of extravagant living by Mr. Izard's family. He seems to have practiced the economies in his household which were proper under the circumstances, and in a letter to the Committee on For-
70 RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
eign Affairs, of September 29, 1779, while referring to this matter of his support, he states that his cost of h'ving has been sixteen hundred louis dors (about $8,000) a year.
There seems to be some truth in the accusation that he was of hasty temper, although the paroxysms of ungovernable rage which are described by Mr. Parton are surely gross exaggerations. A writer who has the pub- lished diplomatic correspondence of the commissioners before him, and can see no ability whatever in Izard's letters, can scarcely be depended upon for a truthful statement of his personal defects ; and as far as his incapacity for the negotiation of a treaty is concerned, in consequence of his hasty temper, it is based, by those who deny him the necessary ability, not on his having failed to accomplish this at the grand-ducal court, but upon his having been involved in the network of personal disputes which attended the intercourse with each other of the five commissioners assem- bled in Paris.
The name of Benjamin Franklin stands high in the temple of Ameri- can fame, but his panegyrists so overshoot their mark as to attempt to prove that in him alone was centred all the wisdom of the time. He is justly entitled to the principal credit for the negotiation of the two treaties with France, and for obtaining the money which was afterwards loaned. At the same time, the student of history cannot but see at a glance the eager- ness with which Vergennes signed those treaties, after the surrender of Burgoyne had proved the ability of the Americans to sustain their cause. His policy was to cripple England as much as possible, without openly going to war with her, and having allied France with her revolted colonies, there was no alternative afterwards but to lend them the necessary funds to continue the struggle.
As the year 1778 was drawing to a close Mr. Izard felt that he had exhausted every device for serving congress in Tuscany, and wrote, on January 28, 1779, requesting permission to return. This letter was never received, and he wrote again on the 4th March — which second letter only reached Philadelphia toward the middle of July. The Committee on Foreign Affairs, finding that no communications were received from him, recommended to congress his recall, which was acted upon in the affirmative on June 8. When his second letter, however, was read, the regret that the committee felt at having acted hastily was conveyed to him, and it was understood that no censure could be implied, as the failure to hear from him was due to the loss of his first letter and the loss of time in receiving the second. When he was enabled to make a personal expla- nation to congress of his reasons for not visiting Florence, and of his
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN Jl
efforts to fulfill the objects of his commission, he was absolved of all blame, and his conduct approved of by a resolution adopted on August 9, 1780.
After making his arrangements for returning, he waited two months at Amsterdam for an opportunity to sail, and was finally given passage on board a French frigate. Her commander was Captain de la Perouse, who was afterwards sent by his government on a voyage of discovery from which he never returned. Mr. Izard eventually reached Philadelphia in August, 1780.
He remained but a short time in that city, and then repaired to Wash- ington's headquarters, where he happened to be when Arnold's treachery was discovered. The southern army was then without a capable com- mander, the defeat of Gates at Camden having placed the entire region in the power of the British. General Greene was thought to be a proper person to succeed Gates, and Mr. Izard contributed his influence for the commander-in-chief to issue the order. The tide of disaster was thus turned, and he received the thanks of Governor John Rutledge for his timely advice. Soon after his return from France he was chosen a dele- gate from South Carolina to congress, where he served until peace was established.
His family remained in Europe until 1783, and upon returning they resided in Charleston, where he owned a large dwelling. He took posses- sion of his plantations again, w^hich had been in the hands of the seques- tration agent appointed by the state, and was occupied until 1789 in restoring them to order from the condition of dilapidation in which they were returned to him. At the same time he continued to take an active interest in the politics of South Carolina, and when the new constitution had been adopted he was elected one of the two senators from South Carolina. This caused his removal to New York in the spring of that year, with his entire family.
In the senate, where he remained until 1795, he was not a frequent debater, and when he had occasion to give his opinion it was usually in a few words. He had never practiced as a public speaker, and the impedi- ment in his speech was always fatal to his becoming one. He was a stanch supporter of Washington's administration, and consequently a federalist. He was chairman of the joint committee of arrangements for Washington's inauguration, and during an absence on one occasion of Vice-President Adams he presided over the senate.
The most important question that was discussed during Washington's two terms was whether a commercial treaty should be made with France or with England. It was a subject which excited much public interest,
72 RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN
and when it culminated in the Jay commercial treaty with England, the partisans of a treaty with France were loud in their opposition. Mr. Izard was no longer in the senate when the treaty was before that body for rati- fication, but its discussion had commenced when he was still there. He was in favor of the treaty ; and his views as to its necessity were the same as those of his son-in-law, Wm. L. Smith, the representative from Charles- ton, who spoke at length in its support. Mr. Smith's opinion was that the American people, having been educated to the exclusive use of English manufactures, would not find French goods suitable to their wants ; and that, although a feeling of gratitude for assistance during the war might prompt the United States to extend commercial advantages to the French^ it would produce no result, for already, without any treaty with either nation, the importations from England were largely in excess.
While he was still in the senate his second son graduated at the college of Philadelphia, at the early age of fifteen. Mr. Izard had observed some- what, while in Europe, the military establishments of both France and England, and was much impressed with the greater opportunities in the former country for a thoroughly military education. It can easily be no- ticed in the records of the post-revolutionary period that war in the near future was considered almost certain, and yet no preparations were made for having a body of educated ofificers at hand in case of emergency. Having determined that the youth just graduated should be a soldier, he sent him to Europe, where he remained five years, two of which were passed at the French government school for engineers, at Metz. For at least twenty years after his return he was the only of^cer in the United States army who had been regularly educated in the schools, and although he proved himself to be possessed of correct military judgment throughout his career, and was obliged, when in the highest command on the Canada frontier, in 1814, to confine himself entirely to the defensive — in conse- quence of having almost exclusively raw recruits to command, while the British were receiving on their side Wellington's veterans, in numbers three to his one — he has been unjustly judged by history from having been pronounced incompetent by contemporary chroniclers, who were themselves evidently incapable as military critics.
The War of 181 2 was essentially a foreign war, and was inglorious to the Americans on the Canada frontier, from being conducted according to the obsolete methods of the Revolutionary War. Mr. Parton can scarcely here deny that Mr. Izard was in advance of his time in having realized that the profession of the soldier was distinct from all others, and required a special education.
RALPH IZARD, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATESMAN 73
Mr. Izard's experiences of life had been great, and he had observed the various sides of weak humanity from several standpoints. It was therefore but natural that in the maturity of his years his judgment should be con- sidered sound. His daughter states that Washington had great respect for his opinions, and consulted him on several important matters which she mentions. It is more than probable that this is correct, as he was intimate with Washington, and much in his company while in the senate, from 1789 to 1795.
After the expiration of his six years in that body he retired to private life, and became occupied again with the care of his plantations. His prop- erty had suffered much during his many absences, and he was never able to recover the lost ground. He continued, however, to live in comfort, surrounded by his family and cheered by the company of his friends, until death claimed him somewhat prematurely on May 30, 1804, at the age of sixty-two. He lies buried near the parish church of St. James, Goose Creek, sixteen miles from Charleston, and in the vicinity of his country home. On the inner wall of the church is a tablet to his memory, and near by is a hatchment upon which is painted his arms. This, according to an old English custom, was borne in front of the coffin at his burial.
^ 6, €AC cu.i^aAx£^^.
Charleston, S. C.
AMERICAN REPUBLICS— THEIR DIFFERENCES
In the light of recent events, a brief review of the pecuHarities or dif- ferences of governnaent in the American repubHcs is an interesting subject. The centennial of the Constitution of the United States seems at present to be only one of a group of events, tending strongly to prove republican government a very gratifying " experiment." We refer to the new gov- ernment in Brazil, the renewal of effort in Central America to unite its five republics into one state, and the Pan-American congress. The latter may not, of necessity, be a gauge of its own importance. It is a precedent, a union of republics. It is an instance where the idea may prove of greater importance than the acts in which it is enveloped.
The object of this article will be to point out some of the peculiarities in the government of American republics. In the Argentine republic the government is conducted by a ministry: and after the style of the English ministry, whenever congress votes adversely to it, on an important ques- tion, a new ministry is formed.
In Uruguay '^ military despotism " alternates with " anarchy." Often the president is restricted very much in his powers. In Bolivia the execu- tive officer is limited principally to appointments and command of the army. In Ecuador he has no veto power. In Chili the president has no authority to enforce an order relating to a department until such order receives the sanction of the secretary in charge of that department. In reference to impeachments, Chili has a peculiar law. TJie president for one year after the expiration of his authority is not allowed to leave the country without the permission of congress. The inferior government officials are subjected to a similar, shorter period of restraint from travel.
The term of tenure varies in the different republics. In Colombia the president is elected by a majority vote of the states, for a term of two years. In Venezuela he is chosen by the federal council for a term of the same length. In San Domingo and the Argentine republic he holds for six years. In Chili an incumbent holds for five years, but is ineligible for consecutive terms. Likewise in Paraguay he holds for four years, and is then ineligible for eight years. In Bolivia we find a strong monarchical tendency ; the president is elected for life, with power to name his successor.
Two vice-presidents are elected in Peru and Costa Rica. In the Argen- tine republic the president of the senate is ex-officio vice-president of the nation. In Mexico the chief-justice is ex-officio the vice-president.
AMERICAN REPUBLICS — THEIR DIFFERENCES 75
The cabinets are generally limited in the number of their members. In Ecuador the vice-president, acting as home secretary, minister of war, minister of finance, judge of the supreme court, and a member of the clergy, constitute the cabinet.
In Colombia there are four secretaries, whose functions are, respectively, home and foreign affairs, finance and public improvements, treasury, war and marine. Likewise the cabinet of Uruguay consists of four secretaries, viz., of the interior, foreign affairs, finance, and war. In Chili there are five secretaries, one of whom represents the law, church, and education — ministro de Justicia, Culto, e Instuccio.
In addition to, and to some extent overlapping, the functions of cabi- nets, a few of the republics have councils of state. Its duty in Chili is to advise and act as a check upon the president. It is made up of the cabinet, a judge, an ecclesiastic, a general or admiral, a financier, an ex- minister or diplomatic agent, and six councilors. Three of the councilors are elected by the respective houses of congress, and the other members are appointed by the president. Honduras has a council of state com- posed of two members appointed by the president, a senator, and a judge of the supreme court. In Guatemala the council of state consists of twenty-four members who are chosen by the house of deputies. Likewise the federal council in Venezuela, one member's functions having already been mentioned, is chosen by the house of deputies.
The usual form of congress is an upper and lower house, a senate and house of deputies. In Colombia three senators are chosen from each of the nine states. The same number is chosen from each state of Venezuela, while in Paraguay and the Argentine republic the senate is based on population in apportionment for representation.
Naturally the apportionment for representation in the lower house varies greatly in the different republics ; a deputy is allowed in Colombia for every 50,000 inhabitants; in Venezuela for every 35,000; in Paraguay for every 6,000 ; in Peru for every 30,000 ; in Uruguay for every 3,000. In Chili the cumulative system of voting is allowed in deputy districts. In Bolivia the elective system is peculiar: the citizens, in groups of ten, choose electors, who represent them for four years. This body of electors choose three legislative bodies : a chamber of tribunes, the term being four years, half elected every two years ; a senate, term eight years, half elected every four years ; a chamber of censors, elected for life.
Perhaps the most interesting feature in the governments is the standing or permanent committee of congress which is found in a few of the repub- hcs. The congress of Uruguay is in session from February to June, annu-
>j6 AMERICAN REPUBLICS — THEIR DIFFERENCES
ally. During the remainder of the year there is a permanent committee representing congress, composed of two senators and five deputies. In Chili congress is in session for three winter months ; the president can prolong the session for fifty days ; but before adjournment there is a con- servative committee chosen by the senate, which *' replaces congress dur- ing its prorogation, in the duty of observing the conduct of the executive." This committee is composed of seven senators. In Peru when congress is not in session there is a permanent committee, which consists of seven senators and eight deputies. In Chili a decision of the supreme court on questions submitted by the government binds the government. This ex- pression of judicial opinion, aside from the adjudication of a specific case, is quite at variance with the general practice of the courts within the United States. However, in the constitution of four, and by statute in one, of the New England states and in the new constitution of Florida, there is a pro- vision to the effect that the governor may at any time require the written opinion of the justices of the supreme court as to the interpretation of any portion of the constitution upon any question affecting his duties.
A more radical departure from the ordinary judicial function is required in Illinois, where the *' judges of the supreme court, on or before the first day of January of each year, report in writing to the governor such defects and omissions in the constitution and laws as they may find to exist, to- gether with appropriate forms of bills to cure such defects and omissions in the laws." Chili also encourages arbitration, and her law tends towards equity procedure and codification. Although Chili has special courts for ecclesiastical and military matters, persons belonging to those orders are not exempt from trial in the common courts.
Crime is said to be rare in Paraguay. Whether this is due to a high code of morals, or to the lack of laws making certain acts ''crimes," can be guessed to some extent by the fact that ninety-seven per cent, of the births are illegitimate. In Chili suffrage is enjoyed only by those who pay cer- tain annuall)^ assessed taxes, and are able to read or write, with one quali- fication : franchise is allowed at the age of twenty-one years to those who are married, or at the age of twenty-five years to those who are unmarried.
The local divisions of the republics are organized into provinces or de- partments, corresponding, to some extent, to our states. The republic of Colombia is composed of nine states. Chili is divided into fifteen provinces.
New Haven. Connecticut.
^■CA ^ ^-
MINOR TOPICS
THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN TENNESSEE
In the brilliant address of Rev. D. C. Kelley, D.D., before the Scotch-Irish con- gress assembled in May, 1889, at Columbia, Tennessee, the following interesting passages appear : " The names Nashville and Davidson county are testimonials to the blood of the inhabitants, while Montgomery county adds another, and Sumner is dotted with licks and creeks which retain the names of these early Scotch-Irish settlers. The original Maury county is a cluster of Scotch-Irish, with scarcely a drop of alien blood.
At first, emigrants came by a circuitous route through Kentucky or along the dangerous navigation of the Tennessee ; as soon as the settlers could organize, they cut a road more than two hundred miles in length, from Campbell's station in East Tennessee to Nashville, and sent properly officered squads to protect the emigrants en route. The stories of the heroic actions and brave endurance of many of the women on these long journeys, kindled in my boyhood a passionate admira- tion never to be forgotten. The part taken by Mrs. Buchanan in the fort just east of Nashville, molding bullets and carrying them in her apron over an uncovered space to the men as they fired from the port-holes, has been often told. At Camp- bell's station, on occasion of an attack, when the men reached the house from the field, they found the women had already barred the doors, loaded the rifles, and the commander of the fort found his wife, gun in hand, at the port-hole.
While two armies, one under General Harmer and another under General St. Clair, and finally, a third under that thunderbolt of war, General Anthony Wayne, had been sent forward by the general government for the protection of the north- western settlers, the Tennessee settlers were left to work out their own destiny, tempted by Spanish officers, and importuned by French promises. The Indians, incited by the British and Spaniards, constantly harried around the stations, the springs, and the fields, ambushed the paths from station to station, roamed the woods like sleuth-hounds to seize the adventurous hunter, stole their horses, killed their cattle, and drove off the wild game to produce famine. Many of the settlers left in despair; but the Scotch-Irish blood in the veins of Robertson, Ewing, Rains, Buchanan, and Donaldson, after solemn counsel and compact, said. We will stay. The Indians, by a well-planned stratagem, attempted to take the Bluifs, which was considered the Gibraltar of the Cumberland. A decoy party drew the men away from the fort into an ambush. When they dismounted to give battle, their horses dashed off toward the fort, and they were pursued by some Indians, which left a gap in their lines, through which some whites were escaping to the
78 MINOR TOPICS
fort. Just then another large body of Indians was seen from the fort emerging from another ambush, intercepting the whites and making for the fort. All seemed lost. We are ready to shut our eyes upon the horrid scene, and stop our ears against the wail of women and children as they are sinking under the tomahawk and scalping-knife. But no ! the heroic women, headed by Mrs. James Robertson, seized the axes and idle guns, and planted themselves in the gate, resolved to die rather than give up the fort. Just in time she ordered the sentry to turn loose a pack of dogs, selected for their size and courage to encounter bears and panthers, and that were frantic to join in the fray. They dashed off, out-yelling the savages, who recoiled before the fury of their onset, giving the men time to escape into the fort. It is said that Mrs. Robertson /^//<?^ ^z'^ry dog as he cajne into the fort.''
Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Congress
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ADAPTED FROM LINES BY SAMUEL ROGERS ON LORD GREY
Lincoln, thou didst serve well the sacred cause
That Hampden, Sidney, died for. Thou didst stand,
Scorning all thought of self from first to last.
Among the foremost in that glorious field :
From first to last; and, ardent as thou wert.
Held on with equal step as best became
A lofty mind, loftiest when most assailed :
Never, though galled by many a barbed shaft.
By many a bitter taunt from friend and foe,
Swerving or shrinking.
It was thine to earn The gratitude of millions yet unborn ; Thine to conduct, through ways how difficult, A mighty people in their march sublime From good to better.
May we long preserve For our posterity what still we claim as ours — That generous fervor and pure eloquence Thine from thy birth, and Nature's noblest gifts. To guard for aye what thou didst gain !
{Contributed by)
Rev. George G. Hepburn
NOTES
79
NOTES
The first Christmas in new Eng- land— The beautiful song of Hezekiah Butterworth, with this title, has been properly given a permanent place in Stedman's Library of American Litera- ture. Its opening and closing lines are :
" They thought they had come to their port that day , But not yet was their journey done ; And they drifted away from Provincetown bay
In the tireless light of the sun. With rain and sleet were the tall masts iced,
And gloomy and chill was the air ; But they looked from the crystal sails to Christ, And they came to a harbor fair. The white hills silent lay — For there were no ancient bells to ring, No priests to chant, no choirs to sing, No chapel of baron or lord or king. That gray, cold winter day.
Their axes rang through the evergreen trees
Like the bells on the Thames and Tay, And they cheerily sung by the windy seas ;
And they thought of Malabarre bay. On the lonely heights of Burial Hill,
The old Precisioners sleep ; But did ever men with a nobler will A holier Christmas keep
When the sky was cold and gray — And there were no ancient bells to ring, No priests to chant, no choirs to sing, No chapel of baron or lord or king, That gray, cold Christmas day ? "
The minister's salary — In New Jersey a hundred years ago the ministers in the small towns seem to have been to a certain extent charged with the oner- ous duty of collecting their own salary. In his Story of an Old Farm, recently issued, Andrew J.,Mellick, Jr., brings to light a package of receipts given in 1788 and 1789 for salary by Rev. John
Duryea of the Reformed Dutch church of Bedminster. Mr. Mellick says : " This collecting by the minister from ♦ members of the congregation must have ^ been attended by much inconvenience, as his parishioners were widely dis- tributed, and their subscriptions .as shown by the list were often exceed- ingly small. When the invitation to preach was extended to Mr. Duryea, the call was conveyed to him by John Vroom, an explanation being made that there was but little money in the con- gregation, but that all his temporal wants should be provided for. He preached several months without any payment being made, whereupon after a regular morning sermon he thus ad- dressed his people : * You made certain promises to me if I would preach for you. Several sermons have been given, and I have performed my part. A bar- gain thus made becomes a sacred con- tract. If you refuse, you are a congre- gation of story-tellers ; and you, John Vroom, are the biggest liar of them all.'"
First methodist preaching-house
in AMERICA, JOHN STREET, NEW YORK
CITY — It was a very humble place. There was a mighty contrast between it and the noble edifices we have now. Its length was sixty feet, its breadth forty-two, and the walls were built of stone, the face covered over with a blue plaster, exhibiting an appearance of durability, simplicity, and plainness. There were at first no stairs or breast- work to the galleries, and the hearers as- cended by a ladder and listened to the
8o
QUERIES
preacher from the platform. The hum- ble carpenter who built the pulpit with his own hands, ascends the holy place, and consecrates the building to the wor-
ship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It must have been a sub- lime spectacle. — Dr. Wakelefs Early History of Methodism.
QUERIES
Engraving — It is stated in Samuel G. Drake's Book of the Indians (pub- lished in 1833), that "one of the most superb engravings that have appeared in all our annuals is that representing Cho- corua in his last retreat." To what en- graving does Drake refer ? C. W. L,
Boston, Mass.
Robbing peter to pay paul — Edi- tor Magazine of American History : Will you kindly inform me the origin of the remark, " Robbing Peter to pay Paul"? James Holstein
Hartford, Conn.
Newdigate arms — The second Chief- Justice Benjamin Lynde of Massachu- setts gives in a pedigree of the Lynde family, written by himself, an account of Mr. John Newdigate, whose daughter Hannah married Mr. Simon Lynde, the first settler of his family. Chief-Justice Lynde says,.in connection with Mr. New- digate, "See his arms in margent." On his pedigree there are hO arms and not "margent." It is no doubt copied from an earlier pedigree. Mr. Newdigate's son Nathaniel married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Lewis of Ledston, county York. Their son Nathaniel married his cousin, daughter of Mr. Simon Lynde. On her gravestone at Newport, probably set up by her husband, who survived her, it is recorded that she was the wife " of
Nathaniel Newdigate, armigeri." Has any one a copy of these Newdigate arms, or any knowledge of where they can be found ? Other information is requested concerning the Newdigates and their de- scendants. The facts are needed im- mediately for our family histories and genealogies.
DiGBY ARMS — Can any one tell the writers where the combined arms of the early Digby family can be found ?
Queen Elizabeth's cipher — On a linen table-cover, with needlework said to have been wrought by Princess Eliza- beth (afterward queen) when she was in captivity, there is a cipher which can be compared to a flat, nearly square bag, with a handle over most of the top, or to a padlock, as it has what may be a key- hole near the centre , of the square. There is a smaller square inside of the larger one. The table-cloth belonged to Deputy-Governor Francis Willoughby, and has been kept since his time as a precious relic in one line of his descend- ants. It brings with it, through the gen- erations, the tradition referred to, and is said to have been given by Princess Elizabeth to her relative, a Willoughby, who was her maid-of-honor and who shared her captivity, and from her came to the family of Deputy-Governor Wil- loughby. It appears from history that Lady Margaret Willoughby (sister of Sir Francis of Wollaton, whose two daughters
REPLIES
8i
married into the Willoughby D'Eresby family), a cousin of Princess Elizabeth, was her maid-of-honor at the time re- ferred to. This old tradition has another confirmation in the fact that in the in- ventory of Judge Nathaniel Lynde, who married Susannah, only daughter of Deputy-Governor Willoughby, among a large quantity of silver there is men-
tioned "Queen Elizabeth's cup." In writing a genealogical account of our Willoughbys, we are trying to follow every clue by which to trace their his- tory and prove their traditions. Can we learn whether Queen Elizabeth ever lised such a cipher as Jjie one we have tried to describe? Please address Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Salisbury, New Haven, Conn.
REPLIES
Pin-money [xxii. 511] — A lady's al- lowance of money for her own personal expenditure. A witty English judge once said that " women were either kissed out of it or kicked out of it." Long after the invention of pins in the fourteenth century, the maker was al- lowed to sell them in open shop only on the first and second of January. It was then that the court ladies and city dames flocked to the depots to buy them, having been first provided with money by their husbands for the purpose. When pins became cheap and common, the ladies spent their allowances on other fancies, but the term " pin money " remained in vogue. It is purely an English term and provision, and the husband need pay no arrears above a single year ; for the allowance is intended to be fully expended in each current year, and is designed to keep up the family dignity and appearance, and not to furnish the wife with means of accumulation.
David FitzGerald
Washington, D. C.
That's a feather in your cap — An honor to you [xxii. 511] — The allu- sion is to the very general custom in
Vol. XXIII.-No. i.— 6
Asia and among the American Indians of adding a new feather to their head- gear for every enemy slain. The Caufirs of Cabul stick a feather in their turban for every Mussulman slain by them. The Incas and Caciques, the Meunitar- ris and Mandans (of America), the Abys- sinians and Turcomans, etc., etc., follow the same custom. So did the ancient Lycians, and many others. In Scotland and Wales it is still customary for the sportsman who kills the first woodcock to pluck out a feather and stick it in his cap. In fact, the custom, in one form or another, seems to be almost universal. And I find in another place the follow- ing extract, which I give on account of its quaintness and undoubted truthful- ness of description.
In the Lansdowne manuscript, in the British museum, is a description of Hun- gary in 1599, in which the writer says of the inhabitants :
" It hath been an antient custom among them that none should wear a fether but he who had killed a Turk, to whom onlie yt was lawful to shew the number of his slaine enemys by the number of f ethers in his cappe."
David FitzGerald
Washington, D. C.
82
SOCIETIES
SOCIETIES
New YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The eighty-fifth anniversary meeting of thi'. society was nel4 at the Hbrary on the evening of November 21, the Hon. John A. King presiding. An address, enti- tled "The Uses of History," was deHv- ered by the Rev. John Hall, D.D. The thanks of the society were tendered to Dr. Hall, and a copy of the address was requested for publication. At a stated meeting, held December 3, Mr. Eugene Lawrence read a paper on " Bolivar and the South American Republics."
Rhode island historical society — At its meeting on the evening of No- vember 12, George H. Clarke, D.D. of Hartford, read a paper on " Oliver Crom- well." He said it was Cromwell's lot to be painted by historians and biographers in any and every way but the correct one. For thirty years it would have cost anybody his life to have painted Crom- well as he really was. Milton could have done it best, but it would have cost even him his life. During the mal-ad- ministration of James at the beginning of Charles I.'s reign, Cromwell was mind- ing his cattle and sheep. A lively ac- count of the condition of things in Lon- don was given and a graphic picture drawn of the young Cromwell's Puritan home. After his Cambridge studies and his father's death, he went to London in 1620 to gain some knowledge of law. He then became a farmer, and was sent to Parliament. He was appointed a captain in the parliamentary army, when the King went to York to raise an army. Seeing that the parliament-
ary army was not the best, he raised one of religious men. It was called Iron- sides and was never beaten ; and it was feared all over Europe. It was three years after the King was conquered that his death warrant was signed. Upon this appears Cromwell's name. There was still to be more fighting on behalf of Charles IL, supported by the Scotch on condition that he would sign the Presby- terian covenant, which he did. After his defeat of Charles at Worcester, Crom- well wished to retire to private life, but it was impossible. The speaker said there was something touching in Oliver's effort for five years to secure his country a safe and good representative govern- ment. It was not his wish to rule Eng- land ; but not till he was dead should Charles Stuart come to assume royal power. He made all Europe fear Eng- land. In 1658 an unparalleled scene oc- curred in Whitehall, when Cromwell was offered the Crown. He made seven speeches on the proposition, but in not one of them can be found any indication that he wanted the honor.
The ONEIDA historical society held its regular monthly meeting on the evening of the 25th of November, in the city library building. Colonel J. T. Wat- son read a paper on the " Life and Times of Governor Peter Stuyvesant." Of his famous subject the orator said : " He had a clear head and an honest heart, but his quick temper sometimes led him to commit acts of tyranny, which was the result