Those grand peri-
ods that will never cease to delight lovers of oratory were many
of them conned at his Marshfield retreat, where he worshiped
the sea and did reverence to the rising sun.
ods that will never cease to delight lovers of oratory were many
of them conned at his Marshfield retreat, where he worshiped
the sea and did reverence to the rising sun.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v21 to v25 - Rab to Tur
"
"Herr Amtshauptmann, I've come to you about a weighty
I'll tell you what it is: I want to be made a bankrupt. ”
matter.
## p. 12202 (#244) ##########################################
12202
FRITZ REUTER
"What, miller! "
"I want to be made a bankrupt, Herr Amtshauptmann. ”
"Hm-hm," muttered the Amtshauptmann, "that's an ugly
business. " And he paced up and down the room scratching his
head. "How long have you been at the bailiwick of Stemhagen? "
"Three-and-thirty years, come midsummer. "
"Hm-hm," again muttered the Amtshauptmann: "and how
old are you, miller? "
"Come peas-harvest five-and-sixty, or maybe six-and-sixty: for
as to our old Pastor Hammerschmidt, he wasn't much given to
writing, and didn't trouble his head about parish registers; and
the Frau Pastor, who made the entries,-i' faith she had a deal
to do besides,-only attended to them every three years, so that
there might be enough to make it worth while, and then some
fine afternoon she would go through the village and write down
the children's ages-but more according to height and size than
to what they really were; and my mother always said she had
cut a year from me because I was small and weakly. But less
than five-and-sixty I'm not. I am sure of that. "
During this speech the Amtshauptmann had kept walking
up and down the room, listening with only one ear; he now
stood still before the miller, looked straight into his eyes, and
said sharply, "Then, Miller Voss, you're much too old for any-
thing of the kind. "
"How so, Herr? " exclaimed the poor miller, quite cast down.
«< Bankruptcy is a hard matter: at your age you could not
carry it through. "
"Do you think so, Herr? »
"Yes, I do. We are both too old for it. We must leave such
things to younger people. What do you think folks would say if
I were to get myself declared bankrupt? Why, they would say,
of course, the old Amtshauptmann up at the Schloss had gone
quite mad! And," added he, laying his hand gently on the
miller's shoulder, "they would be right, Miller Voss.
you, eh? »
What say
The miller looked down at the toes of his boots, and scratched
his head: "It's true, Herr. "
"Tell me," said the old gentleman, patting him kindly on
the shoulder, "where does the shoe pinch? What is troubling
you? "
"Troubling, say you! Herr Amtshauptmann," shouted the
miller, clapping his hand to the side of his head as if a wasp
## p. 12203 (#245) ##########################################
FRITZ REUTER
12203
had stung him, "troubling! torturing, you mean. Torturing!
That Jew! that cursed Jew! and then the lawsuit, Herr Amts-
hauptmann, the cursed lawsuit! "
"Look you, miller, that's another of your follies,―entangling
yourself at your age in a lawsuit. "
"True enough, Herr: but when I began it I was in my
prime, and thought to be able to fight it out; now I see clear
enough that your lawsuit has a longer breath than an honest
miller. "
"But I think it is coming to an end now. "
"Yes, Herr Amtshauptmann, and then I shall be hard up; for
my affairs are in a bad way. The lawyers have muddled them;
and as for my uncle, old Joe Voss,-why, his son, who will soon
get possession of all, is a downright vagabond, and they say he's
sworn a great oath to oust me from the Borcherts Inn at Mal-
chin. But I have the right on my side, Herr Amtshauptmann,
and how I got into this lawsuit I don't know to this day; for
old Frau Borcherts while she was still alive - she was the aunt
of my mother's sister's daughter- and Joe Voss-he was my
cousin — »
"I know the story," interrupted the Amtshauptmann; "and if
you would follow my advice you would make it up. "
"But I can't, Herr: for Joe Voss's rascally son wouldn't be
satisfied with less than half the money; and if I pay that I shall
be a beggar. No, Herr Amtshauptmann, it may go as it will; but
one thing I'm resolved on: I won't give in though I go to prison
for it. Is a ruffian like that, who struts about with his father's
money in his pocket, spending it right and left, and who doesn't
know what it is to have to keep up a house in these hard times,
-and who's never had his cattle carried off by those cursed
French, nor his horses stolen out of the stable, nor his house
plundered, is such a rascal as that to get the better of me?
By your leave, Herr, I could kick the fellow. "
"Miller Voss, gently, Miller Voss," said the old gentleman:
"the lawsuit will come to an end some time or other. It is going
on. "
«<
Going, Herr Amtshauptmann? It's flying, as the Devil said
when he tied the Bible to his whip and swung it around his
head. "
"True, true, Miller Voss; but at present you're not much
pressed. "
## p. 12204 (#246) ##########################################
12204
FRITZ REUTER
"Pressed? Why, I'm fixed in a vise-in a vise- and say!
That Jew, Herr Amtshauptmann, that thrice-cursed Jew! "
"What Jew is it? " asked the Herr Amtshauptmann; and the
miller twirls his hat between his finger and thumb, looks cau-
tiously round to see that no one is listening, draws closer to the
old gentleman, and laying a finger on his lips, whispers, "Itzig,
Herr Amtshauptmann. "
"Whew! " said the old Herr. "How came you to be mixed
up with that fellow ? »
"Herr Amtshauptmann, how came the ass to have long ears?
Some go to gather wild strawberries, and get stung by nettles:
The sexton of Gägelow thought his wheelbarrow was full of holy
angels, and when he had got to the top of the mountain, and
expected to see them fly up to heaven, the Devil's grandmother
was sitting in the wheelbarrow, and she grinned at him and said,
'Neighbor, we shall meet again! ' In my troubles, when the
enemy had taken everything I had, I borrowed two hundred
thalers from him; and for the last two years I have been obliged
to renew the bill from term to term, and the debt has crept up
to five hundred thalers, and the day after to-morrow I shall be
forced to pay it. "
"But, miller, did you sign? »
"Yes, Herr Amtshauptmann. "
"Then you must pay.
What's written is written. "
But, Herr Amtshauptmann, I thought-
>>>>
"It can't be helped, miller. What's written is written. "
"But the Jew—? ”
"Miller, what's written is written. "
"Then, Herr Amtshauptmann, what shall I do? »
The old gentleman began again to walk backwards and for-
wards in the room, tapping his forehead. At last he stopped,
looked earnestly in the miller's face, and said, "Miller, young
people get out of such difficulties better than old ones: send me
one of your boys. "
The old miller looked once more at the toes of his boots, and
then turning his face away, said in a tone which went straight to
the old Amtshauptmann's heart, "Sir, whom shall I send? My
Joe was ground to death in the mill; and Karl was carried off
to Russia by the French last year, and he's not come back. "
"Miller," replied the old Amtshauptmann, patting him on the
back, "have you then no children at all? "
## p. 12205 (#247) ##########################################
FRITZ REUTER
12205
"I have," said he, wiping a tear from his eye, "a little girl
left. "
“Well, miller, I am not particularly fond of girls myself: they
are always fretting and crying. "
"That's true, sir: they are always fretting and crying. "
"And they can be of no use in a matter like this, miller. "
"But what will happen to me then? "
"The Jew will put in an execution, and will take away every-
thing. "
"Well, Herr Amtshauptmann, the French have done that
twice already, so the Jew may as well try it now. At any rate
he will leave the millstone behind; and you think I'm too old to
be made bankrupt? "
"Yes, miller, I fear so. "
"Well then, good day, Herr Amtshauptmann;" and so saying
he went away.
## p. 12206 (#248) ##########################################
12206
JAMES FORD RHODES
(1848-)
HE historical work of James Ford Rhodes proves, what is
oftentimes denied, that it is possible to record fully a con-
temporaneous period, with impartiality and with due regard
to perspective. In his 'History of the United States from the Com-
promise of 1850' he has not only done this: he has treated one of
the most intricate periods in the history of this country, or of any
country, with a degree of insight into its complex forces not always
attained by historians of remoter events, from which the mists of
partisanship have faded. The treatment of
the Civil War, and of the causes which led
to it, requires delicate but firm handling.
It demands of the historian not alone pen-
etrative scholarship: for its satisfactory ac-
complishment, he must be inspired with
that spirit of Americanism which is in no
sense local or partisan. Mr. Rhodes has
performed his difficult task well, because he
is constantly guided by a luminous patriot-
ism. His historical acumen is synonymous
with the American temper.
JAMES FORD RHODES
His early training fostered those quali-
ties by which he was developed into an
American historian. He was born in Cleve-
land, Ohio, on May 1st, 1848, of parents who had come from New
England. His father, who was engaged in the coal and iron business,
was a man of strong character and of decided opinions, a Democrat,
and a kinsman of Stephen A. Douglas, whose printed speeches in
the Congressional Globe were read eagerly by James Ford Rhodes,
then a boy of ten. It was his good fortune to be constantly under
the guidance of those whose interest in public affairs was deep and
vital. When the Civil War broke out, his teacher in the Cleveland
High School accustomed the scholars to read aloud in turn every
morning the political news of the day, explaining to them that they
were living in times fraught with history. In 1865, Mr. Rhodes,
who had already shown his preference for history and literature over
the classics and mathematics, entered as a special student in the
G
## p. 12207 (#249) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12207
University of the City of New York. There he devoted himself to
historical work under Professor Benjamin N. Martin, and to science
under John W. Draper. Under Professor Martin, his enthusiasm for
history was further awakened. His text-books became guide-books;
especially Buckle's great History of Civilization,' which first inspired.
him with the ambition to become himself a historian. The following
year he entered a university in Chicago, where he studied metaphys-
ics and rhetoric, and read largely in the works of Sir William Ham-
ilton, Mill, McCosh, and Herbert Spencer.
In 1867 he went to Paris, with a mind keenly alert, through train-
ing and influence, to political situations and conditions. The spectacle
of the Second Empire reinforced his democracy, and deepened his love
of civil liberty. His studies of the conditions then existing in France
led to his becoming the Paris correspondent of the Chicago Times.
About this time it became evident to him that he was expected to
engage in his father's business, so he put aside for the time his
dream of a literary career; but before returning to the United States
he attended lectures at the Collège de France, going afterwards to
Berlin to study iron metallurgy under Dr. Wedding; he further pre-
pared himself for his new interests by making a tour of the iron and
steel works of Western Germany, and of South Wales, England, and
Scotland. In 1868 he entered into business life. In the following
year he was obliged to travel extensively through the South: he was
thus brought in contact with the fermenting forces of a region strug-
gling out of one stage of its existence into another. His desire to
write history was re-awakened, and he now ordered his life to that
end; accumulating a large historical library, and laboring to render
himself financially independent, that he might have time and oppor-
tunity in the future for the labors of scholarship. After fifteen years
of successful business enterprise, he entered upon his life's work at
the end of the year 1885.
In 1893 the first two volumes of his great work were issued, and
in 1895 the third appeared. It is not yet completed. The period
which it covers extends from the Compromise of 1850 to the election
of President Cleveland. The first volume deals primarily with slay-
ery, its history, its nature, and its effects upon the political and
social development of the United States; there having been, as Mr.
Rhodes states, "no other than a single cause for secession and the
war that ensued,-slavery. " The question of State Rights entered
into it only incidentally, and if slavery had not existed, could never
have precipitated the war; since the unification of the United States
was being constantly effected by the forces of growth. Steam and
electricity, immigration, intermarriage, and the multiplying business
interests, were constantly obliterating sectional differences, and mold-
## p. 12208 (#250) ##########################################
12208
JAMES FORD RHODES
ing the many into the one by a slow, silent, but organic process.
Over the institution of slavery, however, the forces of civilization and
progress had no power. They could not make organic use of it,
because it was a moral evil, and as a moral evil was directly in the
path of honorable national advancement.
Mr. Rhodes's discussion of this subject is in the spirit of the
patriot rather than of the Northerner; at the same time, it is imper-
sonal. He is in the sweep of the historical movement, but no preju-
dice nor blindness disturbs the even course of his record. His book
in a sense has written itself, after the manner of history.
His scholarship is singularly conscientious and painstaking. He
has consulted a vast number of sources, giving special attention to
the utterances of the press; thus recognizing the truth that news-
papers, being obliged to say what the public wishes them to say, are
as fair indices as may be found of the popular temper. He has veri-
fied his statements step by step, with a diligence worthy of Teutonic
scholarship; yet his work is in the best sense popular. It is clear,
straightforward, and inspiriting. The quality of inspiration is most
clearly manifest in his portraits of such men as Daniel Webster and
Henry Clay. His sympathies in every case are not partisan but
human. His history, while of great value to his own generation, will
fulfill perhaps its greatest mission in revealing to later generations
the living spirit of a time farther and farther removed from their
comprehension and their sympathy.
DANIEL WEBSTER
TWO
From History of the United States. ' Copyright 1892, by James Ford Rhodes
wo of the great senatorial triumvirate had spoken; the Senate
and the country had yet to hear the greatest of them all.
Daniel Webster spoke on the compromise resolutions the 7th
of March. In the course of this work, whenever possible, his
precise words have been used, in narration and illustration; for
in intellectual endowment Webster surpassed all of our public.
men. No one understood the fundamental principles of our polity
better; no one approached his wonderful power of expression. It
seemed that the language of the constitutional lawyer who laid
down principles of law that the profound legal mind of Marshall
fixed in an immutable judicial decision, and who at the same
time could make clear abstruse points and carry conviction to the
understanding of men who were untrained in logic or in law,
## p. 12209 (#251) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12209
was best fitted to guide us through the maze of constitutional
interpretation in which our history abounds. Indeed, the politi-
cal history of the country for twenty-seven years preceding 1850
might be written as well and fully from the speeches, State
papers, and letters of Webster, as the story of the latter days of
the Roman republic from the like material of Cicero which has
come down to us.
As an orator, Webster has been compared in simplicity to
Demosthenes and in profundity to Burke. This is the highest
praise. The wonderful effect of his oratory is strikingly told by
George Ticknor, who, fresh from a long intercourse with the
most distinguished men in England and on the Continent, went
to hear Webster deliver his Plymouth oration. Ticknor writes:
"I was never so excited by public speaking before in my life.
Three or four times I thought my temples would burst with the
gush of blood;" and though from his youth an intimate friend of
Webster's, he was so impressed that "when I came out I was
almost afraid to come near him. It seemed to me as if he was
like the mount that might not be touched, and that burned with
fire. " Thomas Marshall, of Kentucky, heard the reply to Hayne;
and when Webster came to the peroration he "listened as to
one inspired, and finally thought he could see a halo around the
orator's head like what one sees in the old pictures of saints and
martyrs. "
He was
The diction of Webster was formed by a grateful study of
Shakespeare and Milton: through his communion with these.
masters, his whole soul was thoroughly attuned to the highest
thinking and purest harmonies of our literature. He is one of
the few orators whose speeches are read as literature.
our greatest lawyer, yet in a bad cause he was not a good
advocate, for he had not the flexibility of mind which made the
worse appear the better reason; but in cases apparently hopeless,
with the right on his side, he won imposing triumphs. He was
our greatest Secretary of State. He had, said Sumner, "by the
successful and masterly negotiation of the treaty of Washington,"
earned the title of "Defender of Peace. "
The Graces presided at his birth. His growth developed the
strong physical constitution with which nature had endowed him,
equally with a massive brain. His was a sound mind in a sound
body. His physical structure was magnificent, his face hand-
some; he had the front of Jove himself. "He is," said Carlyle,
XXI-764
## p. 12210 (#252) ##########################################
12210
JAMES FORD RHODES
"a magnificent specimen.
As a logic-fencer, or parlia-
mentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first sight
against all the extant world. ” "Webster," said Henry Hallam,
"approaches as nearly to the beau ideal of a Republican Senator
as any man that I have ever seen in the course of my life. "
Josiah Quincy speaks of him as a "figure cast in heroic mold,
and which represented the ideal of American manhood. " He
was well described by the bard he loved so well: "How noble
in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in appre-
hension how like a god! " On the basis of this extraordinary
natural ability was built the superstructure of a systematic
education. His devoted father mortgaged the New Hampshire
farm to send him to college, and three years of laborious study
of law followed the regular course at Dartmouth. Years after-
wards he repaid his Alma Mater for her gifts when he pleaded,
and not in vain, for her chartered rights in invincible logic before
the most solemn tribunal of the country. Intellectually, Webster
was a man of slow growth. The zenith of his power was not
reached until he made the celebrated reply to Hayne, and he
was then forty-eight years old.
In union with this grand intellect were social qualities of a
high order. His manners were charming, his nature was gen-
ial, and he had a quick sense of seemly humor. Carlyle speaks
of him as «< a dignified, perfectly bred man. " Harriet Martineau
says "he would illuminate an evening by telling stories, cracking
jokes, or smoothly discoursing to the perfect felicity of the logi-
cal part of one's constitution. " Ticknor, who was so impressed
with the majestic delivery of the orator, speaks of his being
«< as gay and playful as a kitten. " The social intercourse between
Webster and Lord Ashburton, while they were at work on the
Washington treaty, is one of those international amenities that
grace the history of diplomacy. This treaty, by which we gained
substantial advantages and England made honorable concessions,
was not negotiated through stately protocols, but was concluded
through a friendly correspondence, and during the interchange of
refined social civilities. During this transaction, Ashburton was
impressed with "the upright and honorable character » of Web-
ster. As late as 1845, there might be seen engravings which were
an indication of the popular notion that honesty was his cardinal
virtue.
## p. 12211 (#253) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12211
He had strong domestic feelings. He honored his father,
loved his brother, and was devoted to his wife and children; his
affection for his many friends was pure and disinterested. He
had during his life a large share of domestic affliction; and his
deep and sincere grief shows that he had a large heart as well
as a great head. He had a constant belief in revealed as well as
natural religion.
His healthy disposition was displayed even in his recreations.
He was a true disciple of Izaak Walton, and he also delighted in
the chase. Few men have loved nature more.
Those grand peri-
ods that will never cease to delight lovers of oratory were many
of them conned at his Marshfield retreat, where he worshiped
the sea and did reverence to the rising sun. After a winter of
severe work in his declining years, he gets to Marshfield in May,
and writes: "I grow strong every hour. The giants grew strong
again by touching the earth: the same effect is produced on me
by touching the salt sea shore »
The distinctive virtue of Webster was his patriotism. He
loved his country as few men have loved it; he had a profound
reverence for the Constitution and its makers. He spoke truly
when he said, "I am an American, and I know no locality but
America; that is my country;" and he was deeply in earnest
when he gave utterance to the sentiment, "I was bred, indeed I
might almost say I was born, in admiration of our political insti-
tutions. " Webster's great work was to inspire the country with a
strong and enduring national feeling; and he impressed upon the
people everywhere, except in the cotton States, a sacred love for
the Union. How well his life work was done, was seen less than
nine years after he died, in the zealous appeal to arms for the
defense of the nation. In the sleepless nights before his death,
no sight was so welcome to his eyes as the lantern he saw through
the windows, placed at the mast-head of the little shallop, in
order that he might discern, fluttering at the mast, the national
flag, the emblem of that Union to which he had consecrated the
best thoughts and purest efforts of his life.
During the last twenty years of his career, Webster had a
great desire to be President. Three times he was exceedingly
anxious for the Whig nomination, and thought his chances were
good for getting it; but the nomination even never came to
him. Indeed, he always overrated the probabilities of his success.
He was of that class of statesmen who were stronger before the
## p. 12212 (#254) ##########################################
12212
JAMES FORD RHODES
country than before the political convention. Had he ever been
named as his party's choice, he would unquestionably have been
a strong candidate; but he never had the knack of arousing the
enthusiasm of the party, which Clay possessed in so eminent
degree. Nor did his frequent action independent of political
considerations commend him to the men who shaped the action
of the party convention. George Ticknor said in 1831, Webster
"belongs to no party; but he has uniformly contended for the
great and essential principles of our government on all occas-
ions:" and this was to a large extent true of him during his
whole life. His tendency to break away from party trammels
was shown more than once during his long career.
In 1833,
as we have seen, he supported with enthusiasm the Democratic
President, and would not assent to the compromise devised by
the leader of his party. But the crowning act of independence
was when he remained in the cabinet of President Tyler, when
all his colleagues resigned. The motive for this action was the
desire to complete the negotiation of the Ashburton treaty; for
Webster felt that he of all men was best fitted for that work,
and his heart was earnestly enlisted in the effort to remove the
difficulties in the way of a peaceful settlement, and to avert
a war between England and the United States.
His course,
although eminently patriotic, was certain to interfere with his
political advancement. For he resisted the imperious dictation
of Clay, he breasted the popular clamor of his party, and he
pursued his own ideas of right despite the fact that he had to
encounter the tyranny of public opinion which De Tocqueville
has so well described.
The French, who make excuses for men of genius, as the
Athenians were wont to do, have a proverb, "It belongs to great
men to have great defects. " Webster exemplified this maxim.
He was fond of wine and brandy, and at times drank deep; he
was not scrupulous in observing the seventh commandment.
Though born and reared in poverty, he had little idea of the
value of money and of the sacredness of money obligations. He
had no conception of the duty of living within his means, and
he was habitually careless in regard to the payment of his debts.
His friends more than once discharged his obligations; besides
such assistance, he accepted from them at other times presents
of money, but he would have rejected their bounty with scorn
had there gone with it an expectation of influencing his public
## p. 12213 (#255) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12213
action. This failing was the cause of serious charges being pre-
ferred against him. He was accused of being in the pay of the
United States Bank, but this was not true; and he was charged
with a corrupt misuse of the secret-service fund while Secretary
of State under Tyler, but from this accusation he was fully and
fairly exonerated.
Considering that it was only by strenuous effort that the son
of the New Hampshire farmer obtained the highest rank in
political and social life, it is hard to believe that he was consti-
tutionally indolent, as one of his biographers states. When sixty-
seven years old, it was his practice to study from five to eleven
in the morning; he was in the Supreme Court from eleven to
three, and the rest of the day in the Senate until ten in the
evening. When he had the time to devote himself to his legal
practice, his professional income was large.
Such, in the main, if Daniel Webster had died on the morn-
ing of the seventh of March, 1850, would have been the estimate
of his character that would have come down to this generation.
But his speech in the Senate on that day placed a wide gulf
between him and most of the men who were best fitted to trans-
mit his name to posterity. Partisan malignity has magnified his
vices, depreciated his virtues, and distorted his motives.
WEBSTER'S DEATH
From 'History of the United States. Copyright 1892, by James Ford Rhodes
THE
HE election of 1852 gave the death-blow to the Whig party:
it never entered another Presidential contest. Webster, as
well as Clay, died before his party received this crushing
defeat, which indeed he had predicted. His physical frame worn
out, he went, early in September, home to Marshfield to die.
The story of his last days, as told in loving detail by his friend
and biographer, is of intense interest to the hero-worshiper; and
has likewise pointed the moral of many a Christian sermon. The
conversations of great minds that, unimpaired, deliver themselves
at the approach of death to introspection, are, like the most
famous of all, the discourse of Socrates in the Phædo,' a boon
to human-kind. The mind of Webster was perfectly clear; and
when all earthly striving was over, his true nature shone out
## p. 12214 (#256) ##########################################
12214
JAMES FORD RHODES
•
in the expression of thoughts that filled his soul. Speaking of
the love of nature growing stronger with time, he said: "The
man who has not abandoned himself to sensuality feels, as years
advance and old age comes on, a greater love of Mother Earth,
a greater willingness and even desire to return to her bosom,
and mingle with this universal frame of things from which he
sprang. " Two weeks before he died, he wrote that he wished
inscribed on his monument: "Philosophical argument, especially
that drawn from the vastness of the universe in comparison with
the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken.
my reason for the faith that is within me; but my heart has as-
sured and reassured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be
a Divine reality. " The day before his death, he said with perfect
calmness to his physician, "Doctor, you have carried me through
the night, I think you will get me through to-day; I shall die
to-night. " The doctor honestly replied, "You are right, sir. "
His family, friends, and servants having assembled in his
room, he spoke to them "in a strong, full voice, and with his
usual modulation and emphasis: 'No man who is not a brute
can say that he is not afraid of death. No man can come back
from that bourn; no man can comprehend the will or works of
God. That there is a God, all must acknowledge. I see him in
all these wondrous works, himself how wondrous! >»
Eloquent in life, Webster was sublime in death. He took
leave of his household one by one, addressing to each fitting
words of consolation. He wanted to know the gradual steps
towards dissolution; and calmly discussed them with his physi-
cian. At one time, awaking from a partial stupor which pre-
ceded death, he heard repeated the words of the psalm which has
smoothed the death pillow of many a Christian: "Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. " The dying statesman exclaimed, "Yes, 'thy rod-thy staff,'
-but the fact, the fact I want;"
for he was not certain
whether the words that had been repeated to him were intended
as an intimation that he was already in the dark valley. Wak-
ing up again past midnight, and conscious that he was living,
he uttered the well-known words, "I still live. " Later he said
something about poetry, and his son repeated one of the verses
of Gray's Elegy. ' He heard it, and smiled. In the early morn-
ing Webster's soul went out with the tide.
## p. 12215 (#257) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12215
It was a beautiful Sunday morning of an Indian Summer's day
when the sad tidings reached Boston, which came home to nearly
all of her citizens as a personal sorrow. In all the cities of the
land, mourning emblems were displayed and minute-guns were
fired. New York City and Washington grieved for him as for a
friend. During the week there were the usual manifestations of
mourning by the government at Washington; the various depart-
ments were closed, and the public buildings were draped with
emblems of woe. Festal scenes and celebrations were postponed;
and on the day of his funeral, business was suspended in nearly
all the cities during the hours when he was borne to his last
resting-place. "From east to west," said Edward Everett, “and
from north to south, a voice of lamentation has already gone
forth, such as has not echoed through the land since the death of
him who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts
of his countrymen. "
By Webster's own request, he had a modest country funeral.
The services were conducted in his Marshfield home. The coffin
was borne to the tomb by six of the neighboring farmers; and
the multitude followed slowly and reverently. To the Marshfield
farmers and Green Harbor fishermen, Webster was a companion
and a friend; by them he was mourned sincerely as one of their
own fellowship. It could not be said of him that a prophet is
not without honor save in his own country. One man in a plain
and rustic garb paid the most eloquent of all tributes to the
mighty dead: "Daniel Webster, the world without you will seem
lonesome. " A Massachusetts orator of our day has truly said:
"Massachusetts smote and broke the heart of Webster, her idol,
and then broke her own above his grave. "
IMPROVEMENT IN AMERICAN HEALTH
From History of the United States. Copyright 1895, by James Ford
Rhodes
E
NGLISH travelers, with hardly an exception, were struck with
the lack of health of Americans. "An Englishman," wrote
Lyell, “is usually recognized at once in a party by a more
robust look, and greater clearness and ruddiness of complexion. "
He also noted a careworn expression in the countenances of the
## p. 12216 (#258) ##########################################
12216
JAMES FORD RHODES
«<
New-Englanders. " Harriet Martineau said we were distinguished
for "spare forms and pallid complexions"; and that "the feeling
of vigorous health" was almost unknown. Thackeray wrote from
New York, "Most of the ladies are as lean as greyhounds. " Our
shortcomings in this respect were fully appreciated by ourselves.
The Atlantic Monthly pointed out that in the appearance of
health and in bodily vigor we compared very unfavorably with
English men and women. George William Curtis spoke of the
typical American as "sharp-faced, thought-furrowed, hard-handed,"
with anxious eye and sallow complexion, nervous motion, and
concentrated expression "; and he averred that we were "lantern-
jawed, lean, sickly, and serious of aspect. " Emerson mentioned
"that depression of spirits, that furrow of care, said to mark
every American brow"; and on another occasion he referred to
"the invalid habits of this country"; when in England in 1847
he wrote home: "When I see my muscular neighbors day by
day, I say, Had I been born in England, with but one chip of
English oak in my willowy constitution! " The Atlantic Monthly
declared that, "in truth, we are a nation of health-hunters,
betraying the want by the search. " It was admitted that the
young men were coming up badly. Holmes wrote: "I am sat-
isfied that such a set of black-coated, stiff-jointed, soft-muscled,
paste-complexioned youth as we can boast in our Atlantic cities
never before sprang from loins of Anglo-Saxon lineage. " In
the "Easy Chair" Curtis observed, "In the proportion that
the physique of Young America diminishes, its clothes enlarge. "
The students in the colleges were no better than the young
men of the cities. The women sadly lacked physical tone. Dr.
Holmes spoke of the "American female constitution, which col-
lapses just in the middle third of life; and comes out vulcanized
india-rubber if it happen to live through the period when health
and strength are most wanted. "
Curiously enough, we advertised our ailments. The hearty
English salutation of "good-morning" had given way to an
inquiry about one's health, which, instead of being conventional,
like that of the French and Germans, was a question requiring
an answer about one's physical feelings and condition. Pleas of
ill-health in the national Senate and the House of Representatives
were not infrequent.
Our physical degeneracy was attributed to the climate. Yet it
is difficult to reconcile this opinion with the enthusiasm of many
## p. 12217 (#259) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12217
European travelers over certain aspects of nature in America.
The bright sunshine, the blue sky, the golden, Oriental sunsets,
the exhilarating air, were an astonishment and delight. "The
climate of the Union," wrote De Tocqueville, "is upon the whole
preferable to that of Europe. " We have now come to recognize
the fact that a climate to be salubrious need not be moist; that
between the dryness of Colorado and the humidity of England,
there may be a mean such as is found in the larger part of
the Northern States-better adapted to health than either; and
that the greater amount of sunshine compensates for the wider
variations in temperature.
But without begging the question of American ill-health by
ascribing it to climate, it may unquestionably be found to be due
to bad diet, bad cooking, fast eating, and insufficient exercise in
the open air. The appetizing forms in which the genius of New
England cookery displayed itself, provoked an inordinate con-
sumption of sweets, hot breads, and cakes. With what surprise
does this generation read that our greatest philosopher always ate
pie for breakfast! The use of the frying-pan in the West and
the South pointed well the quaint remark that "God sends meat,
and the Devil sends cooks. " Men ate too much animal food, and
especially too much pork. The cooking and the service at hotels
and other public places made dinner "the seed-time of dyspep-
sia. " A fashionable tendency prevailing in the cities to live in
hotels and large boarding-houses, promoted unwholesome liv-
ing. The use of wine at table was rare, the drinking of drams
before dinner habitual. Tobacco was used to excess, and chewing
was as common as smoking.
Boys at schools and colleges, young men who were clerks and
salesmen in the cities, and the sons of rich parents, alike formed
these bad habits. Neither men nor women took exercise in the
open air.
No one walked when he could ride. The trotting-
buggy took the place of the horse's back. The Americans were
gregarious, and loved town life, having no taste for healthful
country recreations. Their idea of the country was the veranda
of a large caravansary at Saratoga or Newport. Athletics were
almost unknown. "There is no lack," said Edward Everett in
1856, "of a few tasteless and soulless dissipations which are
called amusements; but noble athletic sports, manly outdoor ex-
ercises, which strengthen the mind by strengthening the body,
and bring man into a generous and exhilarating communion
-
## p. 12218 (#260) ##########################################
12218
JAMES FORD RHODES
with nature, are too little cultivated in town or country. " "We
have a few good boatmen," wrote Holmes in 1858; "no good
horsemen that I hear of; -I cannot speak for cricketing, but as
for any great athletic feat performed by a gentleman in these
latitudes, society would drop a man who should run round the
Common in five minutes. " Athletics were not a prominent feat-
ure even of college life.
The improvement in these respects since the decade of 1850-
60 is marked: and despite the large element of truth in the pre-
cise observations of Emerson, Everett, Holmes, and Curtis, they
do not embrace with scientific breadth the whole subject, for the
experience of our Civil War gave little indication of physical
degeneracy in the Northern people; signs of improvement were
already manifest before this period closed. The gospel of physi-
cal culture had been preached with effect, and "muscular Christ-
ianity" was set up as an ideal worth striving to realize. "Health
is the condition of wisdom," declared Emerson in 1858; and not
long after, the world of fashion, discarding the Parisian model of
life and beginning the imitation of the English, shortened the
city season, acquired a love for the country, for outdoor exer-
cise, and athletic sports. But the French cuisine, almost the
sole outward trace left of the period of French domination, was
a potent and enduring influence. Any one who considers the
difference between the cooking and the service of a dinner at a
hotel or restaurant before the War and now, will appreciate what
a practical apostle of health and decent living has been Delmon-
ico, who deserves canonization in the American calendar. With
better digestion and more robust bodies, the use of stimulants
has decreased. While wine at table is more common, tippling
at bars has come to be frowned upon; lager beer and native
wines have to a considerable extent taken the place of spirituous
liquors; hard drinkers are less numerous, total abstainers are
probably on the increase, and tobacco-chewing is dying out. The
duration of life is now at least as long in America as it is in
Europe.
During the last forty years the American physique has un-
questionably improved. A philosopher now, contrasting English-
men and ourselves, would not make the comparison to our so
great disadvantage as did Emerson from his observations in 1848,
when he wrote: "The English, at the present day, have great
vigor of body and endurance. Other countrymen look slight and
## p. 12219 (#261) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12219
undersized beside them, and invalids. They are bigger men than
the Americans. I suppose a hundred English, taken at random.
out of the street, would weigh a fourth more than so many
Americans. Yet I am told the skeleton is not larger. " "I used
to think myself," said Edward Atkinson, "only an average man
in size, height, and weight at home; but when I made my first
visit to England (in 1877), I was rather surprised to find myself
a tall and large man by comparison with those whom I passed
in the streets. " The American schoolboy and college student
are to-day equal in physical development to the English youth.
This is due in some degree to the growth of athletics. But a
superiority in physique of American to English students was
observed as early as 1877.
AMERICAN MANNERS IN 1850
From History of the United States. Copyright 1895, by James Ford Rhodes
WHE
HEN we come to consider society in the narrower sense
given to the word, we find we must study it as something
distinct from the great throbbing life of the American
people of 1850-60. New York, whose "Upper Ten Thousand »
have been described by N. P. Willis and Charles Astor Bristed,
furnishes the example. Bristed introduces us into what is a
curious world, when we reflect that he writes of the United
States of 1850-52. While his sketches show a touch of caricature,
they represent well enough the life of a fashionable set of New
York City. We see men working hard to get money for their
personal enjoyment; idlers who have come into a fortune; pretty
and stylish girls; women who preside gracefully at table and
converse with wit and intelligence. Bristed takes us among men
whose sole aim in life seemed to be to make a luck hit in
stock speculation; to compound a sherry cobbler; to be apt in
bar-room repartee; to drink the best brands of claret and cham-
pagne, and to expatiate on them in a knowing manner; to drive
a fast horse; to dance well, and to dress in the latest fashion.
We assist at a wedding "above Bleecker Street"; we are taken
to a country-house, and see a family dinner served at four o'clock,
where, although the only guest is a gentleman just from England,
and the viands are not remarkable, " champagne decanted and
## p. 12220 (#262) ##########################################
12220
JAMES FORD RHODES
a
iced to the freezing-point" followed Manzanilla sherry, and “
prime bottle of Latour and a swelling slender-necked decanter
of the old Vanderlyn Madeira" succeeded the champagne.
ted describes the fashionable life at "Oldport Springs," a dis-
guise for Saratoga. He speaks of a huge caravansary, a profuse
American breakfast, a promenade on the wide porticos, cigars
and ten-pins, the bar-room and billiards, lounging and gossip, a
bad dinner at three which the ladies dressed for, a drive after
dinner, dancing until two in the morning for men and women,
and gambling the rest of the night for the men.
The Upper Ten Thousand of 1850-60 lend themselves to
delineation somewhat better than the same class of our own
time. Those who did not go to Europe passed the summer at
Saratoga, Newport, or Sharon; and their watering-place life was
open to the public gaze. N. P. Willis's chapter on Manners at
Watering-Places' would read oddly enough if set forth by a
similar adviser of the fashionable world of our time. People of
reserve, who wished for no other than their city acquaintances,
were termed "absolute exclusives," and counseled to have a sum-
mer resort of their own; for the very purpose of most, in going
to Saratoga and Newport in the gay season, was to make new
acquaintances. Yet care should be taken to avoid too great pro-
miscuity in social intercourse. While young men who happened
to be strangers to the reigning set could of course become ac-
quainted with some of the "dandies" during "a game at billiards
or a chance fraternization over juleps in the bar-room," those
whose pleasure was not found in games or in drink might find
it difficult to get properly introduced; and young ladies who
were strangers would encounter the same obstacle. Therefore, in
order that desirable acquaintances might be easily made, Willis,
an authority whom society held in respect, proposed that a
"committee of introduction" should be named by the landlord of
each large hotel. These should act under a «< code of etiquette,"
which Willis proceeded to outline. Such action, he declared,
would delightfully harmonize and enliven our summer resorts.
It is hardly probable that the plan proposed by the literary
social leader of the day was systematically adopted. There was
little need of it, for entrance into watering-place society was not
difficult. Respectability and fairly good manners were of course
requisite; but these being presupposed, the important qualifica-
tion was wealth. "Wealth," wrote George William Curtis, "will
## p. 12221 (#263) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12221
socially befriend a man at Newport or Saratoga better than at
any similar spot in the world. " Yet all was not garish. At
Newport, the votary of fashion could not be insensible to nature's
charm. At Saratoga, "youth, health, and beauty" reigned; "we
discriminate," the Lotus-Eater said, "the Arctic and Antarctic.
Bostonians, fair, still, and stately, with a vein of scorn in their
Saratoga enjoyment; and the languid, cordial, and careless South-
erners, far from precise in dress or style, but balmy in man-
ner as a bland Southern morning. We mark the crisp courtesy
of the New-Yorker, elegant in dress, exclusive in association, a
pallid ghost of Paris. " After the sectional excitement of 1850,
however, fewer Southerners came North. The repeal of the slave
sojournment laws of Pennsylvania and New York made the
bringing of their slaves with them as body-servants inconvenient.
The excitement about the Fugitive Slave Act, and the passage
of the Personal Liberty Laws, involved the risk of losing their
negroes; and after the most powerful Northern party made, in
1856, a political shibboleth of the declaration that slavery was
a relic of barbarism, it was still more disagreeable for South-
ern gentlemen accompanied by their servants to travel at the
North.
Newport, the leading watering-place in the country, was, in
the opinion of Curtis, the vantage-ground to study the fashionable
world. There he found wealth the touchstone; but he saw money
spent without taste and in vulgar display. We Americans, he
declared, had the money-getting, but not the "money-spending
genius. " If high society was "but the genial intercourse of the
highest intelligences with which we converse-the festival of Wit
and Beauty and Wisdom" — he saw none at Newport. "Fine
society," he moralizes, "is a fruit that ripens slowly. We Ameri-
cans fancy we can buy it. " The peripatetic observer was glad to
get to Nahant.
There he wrote: "You find no village, no dust,
no commotion. You encounter no crowds of carriages or of curi-
ous and gossiping people. No fast men in velvet coats are trot-
ting fast horses;" and in the evenings "there are no balls, no
hops, no concerts, no congregating under any pretense in hotel
parlors. " But by the early part of the decade of 1850-60 the
life in Newport had begun to change. Originally a Southern
resort, New-Yorkers commenced to divide their favors between it
and Saratoga. Cottages became the fashion. The hotel season
declined.
## p. 12222 (#264) ##########################################
12222
JAMES FORD RHODES
The fashionable people of New York generally went to
Europe. When De Tocqueville wrote his last volume on Amer-
ica, the rich American in Europe was characteristic; and between
1850 and 1860 crowds went over the sea for the summer. To
writers of books and writers for the magazines, there seemed
in the high American society much that was meretricious, and
certainly no real enjoyment. The "uncommon splendatiousness"
annoyed Thackeray.
"Herr Amtshauptmann, I've come to you about a weighty
I'll tell you what it is: I want to be made a bankrupt. ”
matter.
## p. 12202 (#244) ##########################################
12202
FRITZ REUTER
"What, miller! "
"I want to be made a bankrupt, Herr Amtshauptmann. ”
"Hm-hm," muttered the Amtshauptmann, "that's an ugly
business. " And he paced up and down the room scratching his
head. "How long have you been at the bailiwick of Stemhagen? "
"Three-and-thirty years, come midsummer. "
"Hm-hm," again muttered the Amtshauptmann: "and how
old are you, miller? "
"Come peas-harvest five-and-sixty, or maybe six-and-sixty: for
as to our old Pastor Hammerschmidt, he wasn't much given to
writing, and didn't trouble his head about parish registers; and
the Frau Pastor, who made the entries,-i' faith she had a deal
to do besides,-only attended to them every three years, so that
there might be enough to make it worth while, and then some
fine afternoon she would go through the village and write down
the children's ages-but more according to height and size than
to what they really were; and my mother always said she had
cut a year from me because I was small and weakly. But less
than five-and-sixty I'm not. I am sure of that. "
During this speech the Amtshauptmann had kept walking
up and down the room, listening with only one ear; he now
stood still before the miller, looked straight into his eyes, and
said sharply, "Then, Miller Voss, you're much too old for any-
thing of the kind. "
"How so, Herr? " exclaimed the poor miller, quite cast down.
«< Bankruptcy is a hard matter: at your age you could not
carry it through. "
"Do you think so, Herr? »
"Yes, I do. We are both too old for it. We must leave such
things to younger people. What do you think folks would say if
I were to get myself declared bankrupt? Why, they would say,
of course, the old Amtshauptmann up at the Schloss had gone
quite mad! And," added he, laying his hand gently on the
miller's shoulder, "they would be right, Miller Voss.
you, eh? »
What say
The miller looked down at the toes of his boots, and scratched
his head: "It's true, Herr. "
"Tell me," said the old gentleman, patting him kindly on
the shoulder, "where does the shoe pinch? What is troubling
you? "
"Troubling, say you! Herr Amtshauptmann," shouted the
miller, clapping his hand to the side of his head as if a wasp
## p. 12203 (#245) ##########################################
FRITZ REUTER
12203
had stung him, "troubling! torturing, you mean. Torturing!
That Jew! that cursed Jew! and then the lawsuit, Herr Amts-
hauptmann, the cursed lawsuit! "
"Look you, miller, that's another of your follies,―entangling
yourself at your age in a lawsuit. "
"True enough, Herr: but when I began it I was in my
prime, and thought to be able to fight it out; now I see clear
enough that your lawsuit has a longer breath than an honest
miller. "
"But I think it is coming to an end now. "
"Yes, Herr Amtshauptmann, and then I shall be hard up; for
my affairs are in a bad way. The lawyers have muddled them;
and as for my uncle, old Joe Voss,-why, his son, who will soon
get possession of all, is a downright vagabond, and they say he's
sworn a great oath to oust me from the Borcherts Inn at Mal-
chin. But I have the right on my side, Herr Amtshauptmann,
and how I got into this lawsuit I don't know to this day; for
old Frau Borcherts while she was still alive - she was the aunt
of my mother's sister's daughter- and Joe Voss-he was my
cousin — »
"I know the story," interrupted the Amtshauptmann; "and if
you would follow my advice you would make it up. "
"But I can't, Herr: for Joe Voss's rascally son wouldn't be
satisfied with less than half the money; and if I pay that I shall
be a beggar. No, Herr Amtshauptmann, it may go as it will; but
one thing I'm resolved on: I won't give in though I go to prison
for it. Is a ruffian like that, who struts about with his father's
money in his pocket, spending it right and left, and who doesn't
know what it is to have to keep up a house in these hard times,
-and who's never had his cattle carried off by those cursed
French, nor his horses stolen out of the stable, nor his house
plundered, is such a rascal as that to get the better of me?
By your leave, Herr, I could kick the fellow. "
"Miller Voss, gently, Miller Voss," said the old gentleman:
"the lawsuit will come to an end some time or other. It is going
on. "
«<
Going, Herr Amtshauptmann? It's flying, as the Devil said
when he tied the Bible to his whip and swung it around his
head. "
"True, true, Miller Voss; but at present you're not much
pressed. "
## p. 12204 (#246) ##########################################
12204
FRITZ REUTER
"Pressed? Why, I'm fixed in a vise-in a vise- and say!
That Jew, Herr Amtshauptmann, that thrice-cursed Jew! "
"What Jew is it? " asked the Herr Amtshauptmann; and the
miller twirls his hat between his finger and thumb, looks cau-
tiously round to see that no one is listening, draws closer to the
old gentleman, and laying a finger on his lips, whispers, "Itzig,
Herr Amtshauptmann. "
"Whew! " said the old Herr. "How came you to be mixed
up with that fellow ? »
"Herr Amtshauptmann, how came the ass to have long ears?
Some go to gather wild strawberries, and get stung by nettles:
The sexton of Gägelow thought his wheelbarrow was full of holy
angels, and when he had got to the top of the mountain, and
expected to see them fly up to heaven, the Devil's grandmother
was sitting in the wheelbarrow, and she grinned at him and said,
'Neighbor, we shall meet again! ' In my troubles, when the
enemy had taken everything I had, I borrowed two hundred
thalers from him; and for the last two years I have been obliged
to renew the bill from term to term, and the debt has crept up
to five hundred thalers, and the day after to-morrow I shall be
forced to pay it. "
"But, miller, did you sign? »
"Yes, Herr Amtshauptmann. "
"Then you must pay.
What's written is written. "
But, Herr Amtshauptmann, I thought-
>>>>
"It can't be helped, miller. What's written is written. "
"But the Jew—? ”
"Miller, what's written is written. "
"Then, Herr Amtshauptmann, what shall I do? »
The old gentleman began again to walk backwards and for-
wards in the room, tapping his forehead. At last he stopped,
looked earnestly in the miller's face, and said, "Miller, young
people get out of such difficulties better than old ones: send me
one of your boys. "
The old miller looked once more at the toes of his boots, and
then turning his face away, said in a tone which went straight to
the old Amtshauptmann's heart, "Sir, whom shall I send? My
Joe was ground to death in the mill; and Karl was carried off
to Russia by the French last year, and he's not come back. "
"Miller," replied the old Amtshauptmann, patting him on the
back, "have you then no children at all? "
## p. 12205 (#247) ##########################################
FRITZ REUTER
12205
"I have," said he, wiping a tear from his eye, "a little girl
left. "
“Well, miller, I am not particularly fond of girls myself: they
are always fretting and crying. "
"That's true, sir: they are always fretting and crying. "
"And they can be of no use in a matter like this, miller. "
"But what will happen to me then? "
"The Jew will put in an execution, and will take away every-
thing. "
"Well, Herr Amtshauptmann, the French have done that
twice already, so the Jew may as well try it now. At any rate
he will leave the millstone behind; and you think I'm too old to
be made bankrupt? "
"Yes, miller, I fear so. "
"Well then, good day, Herr Amtshauptmann;" and so saying
he went away.
## p. 12206 (#248) ##########################################
12206
JAMES FORD RHODES
(1848-)
HE historical work of James Ford Rhodes proves, what is
oftentimes denied, that it is possible to record fully a con-
temporaneous period, with impartiality and with due regard
to perspective. In his 'History of the United States from the Com-
promise of 1850' he has not only done this: he has treated one of
the most intricate periods in the history of this country, or of any
country, with a degree of insight into its complex forces not always
attained by historians of remoter events, from which the mists of
partisanship have faded. The treatment of
the Civil War, and of the causes which led
to it, requires delicate but firm handling.
It demands of the historian not alone pen-
etrative scholarship: for its satisfactory ac-
complishment, he must be inspired with
that spirit of Americanism which is in no
sense local or partisan. Mr. Rhodes has
performed his difficult task well, because he
is constantly guided by a luminous patriot-
ism. His historical acumen is synonymous
with the American temper.
JAMES FORD RHODES
His early training fostered those quali-
ties by which he was developed into an
American historian. He was born in Cleve-
land, Ohio, on May 1st, 1848, of parents who had come from New
England. His father, who was engaged in the coal and iron business,
was a man of strong character and of decided opinions, a Democrat,
and a kinsman of Stephen A. Douglas, whose printed speeches in
the Congressional Globe were read eagerly by James Ford Rhodes,
then a boy of ten. It was his good fortune to be constantly under
the guidance of those whose interest in public affairs was deep and
vital. When the Civil War broke out, his teacher in the Cleveland
High School accustomed the scholars to read aloud in turn every
morning the political news of the day, explaining to them that they
were living in times fraught with history. In 1865, Mr. Rhodes,
who had already shown his preference for history and literature over
the classics and mathematics, entered as a special student in the
G
## p. 12207 (#249) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12207
University of the City of New York. There he devoted himself to
historical work under Professor Benjamin N. Martin, and to science
under John W. Draper. Under Professor Martin, his enthusiasm for
history was further awakened. His text-books became guide-books;
especially Buckle's great History of Civilization,' which first inspired.
him with the ambition to become himself a historian. The following
year he entered a university in Chicago, where he studied metaphys-
ics and rhetoric, and read largely in the works of Sir William Ham-
ilton, Mill, McCosh, and Herbert Spencer.
In 1867 he went to Paris, with a mind keenly alert, through train-
ing and influence, to political situations and conditions. The spectacle
of the Second Empire reinforced his democracy, and deepened his love
of civil liberty. His studies of the conditions then existing in France
led to his becoming the Paris correspondent of the Chicago Times.
About this time it became evident to him that he was expected to
engage in his father's business, so he put aside for the time his
dream of a literary career; but before returning to the United States
he attended lectures at the Collège de France, going afterwards to
Berlin to study iron metallurgy under Dr. Wedding; he further pre-
pared himself for his new interests by making a tour of the iron and
steel works of Western Germany, and of South Wales, England, and
Scotland. In 1868 he entered into business life. In the following
year he was obliged to travel extensively through the South: he was
thus brought in contact with the fermenting forces of a region strug-
gling out of one stage of its existence into another. His desire to
write history was re-awakened, and he now ordered his life to that
end; accumulating a large historical library, and laboring to render
himself financially independent, that he might have time and oppor-
tunity in the future for the labors of scholarship. After fifteen years
of successful business enterprise, he entered upon his life's work at
the end of the year 1885.
In 1893 the first two volumes of his great work were issued, and
in 1895 the third appeared. It is not yet completed. The period
which it covers extends from the Compromise of 1850 to the election
of President Cleveland. The first volume deals primarily with slay-
ery, its history, its nature, and its effects upon the political and
social development of the United States; there having been, as Mr.
Rhodes states, "no other than a single cause for secession and the
war that ensued,-slavery. " The question of State Rights entered
into it only incidentally, and if slavery had not existed, could never
have precipitated the war; since the unification of the United States
was being constantly effected by the forces of growth. Steam and
electricity, immigration, intermarriage, and the multiplying business
interests, were constantly obliterating sectional differences, and mold-
## p. 12208 (#250) ##########################################
12208
JAMES FORD RHODES
ing the many into the one by a slow, silent, but organic process.
Over the institution of slavery, however, the forces of civilization and
progress had no power. They could not make organic use of it,
because it was a moral evil, and as a moral evil was directly in the
path of honorable national advancement.
Mr. Rhodes's discussion of this subject is in the spirit of the
patriot rather than of the Northerner; at the same time, it is imper-
sonal. He is in the sweep of the historical movement, but no preju-
dice nor blindness disturbs the even course of his record. His book
in a sense has written itself, after the manner of history.
His scholarship is singularly conscientious and painstaking. He
has consulted a vast number of sources, giving special attention to
the utterances of the press; thus recognizing the truth that news-
papers, being obliged to say what the public wishes them to say, are
as fair indices as may be found of the popular temper. He has veri-
fied his statements step by step, with a diligence worthy of Teutonic
scholarship; yet his work is in the best sense popular. It is clear,
straightforward, and inspiriting. The quality of inspiration is most
clearly manifest in his portraits of such men as Daniel Webster and
Henry Clay. His sympathies in every case are not partisan but
human. His history, while of great value to his own generation, will
fulfill perhaps its greatest mission in revealing to later generations
the living spirit of a time farther and farther removed from their
comprehension and their sympathy.
DANIEL WEBSTER
TWO
From History of the United States. ' Copyright 1892, by James Ford Rhodes
wo of the great senatorial triumvirate had spoken; the Senate
and the country had yet to hear the greatest of them all.
Daniel Webster spoke on the compromise resolutions the 7th
of March. In the course of this work, whenever possible, his
precise words have been used, in narration and illustration; for
in intellectual endowment Webster surpassed all of our public.
men. No one understood the fundamental principles of our polity
better; no one approached his wonderful power of expression. It
seemed that the language of the constitutional lawyer who laid
down principles of law that the profound legal mind of Marshall
fixed in an immutable judicial decision, and who at the same
time could make clear abstruse points and carry conviction to the
understanding of men who were untrained in logic or in law,
## p. 12209 (#251) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12209
was best fitted to guide us through the maze of constitutional
interpretation in which our history abounds. Indeed, the politi-
cal history of the country for twenty-seven years preceding 1850
might be written as well and fully from the speeches, State
papers, and letters of Webster, as the story of the latter days of
the Roman republic from the like material of Cicero which has
come down to us.
As an orator, Webster has been compared in simplicity to
Demosthenes and in profundity to Burke. This is the highest
praise. The wonderful effect of his oratory is strikingly told by
George Ticknor, who, fresh from a long intercourse with the
most distinguished men in England and on the Continent, went
to hear Webster deliver his Plymouth oration. Ticknor writes:
"I was never so excited by public speaking before in my life.
Three or four times I thought my temples would burst with the
gush of blood;" and though from his youth an intimate friend of
Webster's, he was so impressed that "when I came out I was
almost afraid to come near him. It seemed to me as if he was
like the mount that might not be touched, and that burned with
fire. " Thomas Marshall, of Kentucky, heard the reply to Hayne;
and when Webster came to the peroration he "listened as to
one inspired, and finally thought he could see a halo around the
orator's head like what one sees in the old pictures of saints and
martyrs. "
He was
The diction of Webster was formed by a grateful study of
Shakespeare and Milton: through his communion with these.
masters, his whole soul was thoroughly attuned to the highest
thinking and purest harmonies of our literature. He is one of
the few orators whose speeches are read as literature.
our greatest lawyer, yet in a bad cause he was not a good
advocate, for he had not the flexibility of mind which made the
worse appear the better reason; but in cases apparently hopeless,
with the right on his side, he won imposing triumphs. He was
our greatest Secretary of State. He had, said Sumner, "by the
successful and masterly negotiation of the treaty of Washington,"
earned the title of "Defender of Peace. "
The Graces presided at his birth. His growth developed the
strong physical constitution with which nature had endowed him,
equally with a massive brain. His was a sound mind in a sound
body. His physical structure was magnificent, his face hand-
some; he had the front of Jove himself. "He is," said Carlyle,
XXI-764
## p. 12210 (#252) ##########################################
12210
JAMES FORD RHODES
"a magnificent specimen.
As a logic-fencer, or parlia-
mentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first sight
against all the extant world. ” "Webster," said Henry Hallam,
"approaches as nearly to the beau ideal of a Republican Senator
as any man that I have ever seen in the course of my life. "
Josiah Quincy speaks of him as a "figure cast in heroic mold,
and which represented the ideal of American manhood. " He
was well described by the bard he loved so well: "How noble
in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in appre-
hension how like a god! " On the basis of this extraordinary
natural ability was built the superstructure of a systematic
education. His devoted father mortgaged the New Hampshire
farm to send him to college, and three years of laborious study
of law followed the regular course at Dartmouth. Years after-
wards he repaid his Alma Mater for her gifts when he pleaded,
and not in vain, for her chartered rights in invincible logic before
the most solemn tribunal of the country. Intellectually, Webster
was a man of slow growth. The zenith of his power was not
reached until he made the celebrated reply to Hayne, and he
was then forty-eight years old.
In union with this grand intellect were social qualities of a
high order. His manners were charming, his nature was gen-
ial, and he had a quick sense of seemly humor. Carlyle speaks
of him as «< a dignified, perfectly bred man. " Harriet Martineau
says "he would illuminate an evening by telling stories, cracking
jokes, or smoothly discoursing to the perfect felicity of the logi-
cal part of one's constitution. " Ticknor, who was so impressed
with the majestic delivery of the orator, speaks of his being
«< as gay and playful as a kitten. " The social intercourse between
Webster and Lord Ashburton, while they were at work on the
Washington treaty, is one of those international amenities that
grace the history of diplomacy. This treaty, by which we gained
substantial advantages and England made honorable concessions,
was not negotiated through stately protocols, but was concluded
through a friendly correspondence, and during the interchange of
refined social civilities. During this transaction, Ashburton was
impressed with "the upright and honorable character » of Web-
ster. As late as 1845, there might be seen engravings which were
an indication of the popular notion that honesty was his cardinal
virtue.
## p. 12211 (#253) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12211
He had strong domestic feelings. He honored his father,
loved his brother, and was devoted to his wife and children; his
affection for his many friends was pure and disinterested. He
had during his life a large share of domestic affliction; and his
deep and sincere grief shows that he had a large heart as well
as a great head. He had a constant belief in revealed as well as
natural religion.
His healthy disposition was displayed even in his recreations.
He was a true disciple of Izaak Walton, and he also delighted in
the chase. Few men have loved nature more.
Those grand peri-
ods that will never cease to delight lovers of oratory were many
of them conned at his Marshfield retreat, where he worshiped
the sea and did reverence to the rising sun. After a winter of
severe work in his declining years, he gets to Marshfield in May,
and writes: "I grow strong every hour. The giants grew strong
again by touching the earth: the same effect is produced on me
by touching the salt sea shore »
The distinctive virtue of Webster was his patriotism. He
loved his country as few men have loved it; he had a profound
reverence for the Constitution and its makers. He spoke truly
when he said, "I am an American, and I know no locality but
America; that is my country;" and he was deeply in earnest
when he gave utterance to the sentiment, "I was bred, indeed I
might almost say I was born, in admiration of our political insti-
tutions. " Webster's great work was to inspire the country with a
strong and enduring national feeling; and he impressed upon the
people everywhere, except in the cotton States, a sacred love for
the Union. How well his life work was done, was seen less than
nine years after he died, in the zealous appeal to arms for the
defense of the nation. In the sleepless nights before his death,
no sight was so welcome to his eyes as the lantern he saw through
the windows, placed at the mast-head of the little shallop, in
order that he might discern, fluttering at the mast, the national
flag, the emblem of that Union to which he had consecrated the
best thoughts and purest efforts of his life.
During the last twenty years of his career, Webster had a
great desire to be President. Three times he was exceedingly
anxious for the Whig nomination, and thought his chances were
good for getting it; but the nomination even never came to
him. Indeed, he always overrated the probabilities of his success.
He was of that class of statesmen who were stronger before the
## p. 12212 (#254) ##########################################
12212
JAMES FORD RHODES
country than before the political convention. Had he ever been
named as his party's choice, he would unquestionably have been
a strong candidate; but he never had the knack of arousing the
enthusiasm of the party, which Clay possessed in so eminent
degree. Nor did his frequent action independent of political
considerations commend him to the men who shaped the action
of the party convention. George Ticknor said in 1831, Webster
"belongs to no party; but he has uniformly contended for the
great and essential principles of our government on all occas-
ions:" and this was to a large extent true of him during his
whole life. His tendency to break away from party trammels
was shown more than once during his long career.
In 1833,
as we have seen, he supported with enthusiasm the Democratic
President, and would not assent to the compromise devised by
the leader of his party. But the crowning act of independence
was when he remained in the cabinet of President Tyler, when
all his colleagues resigned. The motive for this action was the
desire to complete the negotiation of the Ashburton treaty; for
Webster felt that he of all men was best fitted for that work,
and his heart was earnestly enlisted in the effort to remove the
difficulties in the way of a peaceful settlement, and to avert
a war between England and the United States.
His course,
although eminently patriotic, was certain to interfere with his
political advancement. For he resisted the imperious dictation
of Clay, he breasted the popular clamor of his party, and he
pursued his own ideas of right despite the fact that he had to
encounter the tyranny of public opinion which De Tocqueville
has so well described.
The French, who make excuses for men of genius, as the
Athenians were wont to do, have a proverb, "It belongs to great
men to have great defects. " Webster exemplified this maxim.
He was fond of wine and brandy, and at times drank deep; he
was not scrupulous in observing the seventh commandment.
Though born and reared in poverty, he had little idea of the
value of money and of the sacredness of money obligations. He
had no conception of the duty of living within his means, and
he was habitually careless in regard to the payment of his debts.
His friends more than once discharged his obligations; besides
such assistance, he accepted from them at other times presents
of money, but he would have rejected their bounty with scorn
had there gone with it an expectation of influencing his public
## p. 12213 (#255) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12213
action. This failing was the cause of serious charges being pre-
ferred against him. He was accused of being in the pay of the
United States Bank, but this was not true; and he was charged
with a corrupt misuse of the secret-service fund while Secretary
of State under Tyler, but from this accusation he was fully and
fairly exonerated.
Considering that it was only by strenuous effort that the son
of the New Hampshire farmer obtained the highest rank in
political and social life, it is hard to believe that he was consti-
tutionally indolent, as one of his biographers states. When sixty-
seven years old, it was his practice to study from five to eleven
in the morning; he was in the Supreme Court from eleven to
three, and the rest of the day in the Senate until ten in the
evening. When he had the time to devote himself to his legal
practice, his professional income was large.
Such, in the main, if Daniel Webster had died on the morn-
ing of the seventh of March, 1850, would have been the estimate
of his character that would have come down to this generation.
But his speech in the Senate on that day placed a wide gulf
between him and most of the men who were best fitted to trans-
mit his name to posterity. Partisan malignity has magnified his
vices, depreciated his virtues, and distorted his motives.
WEBSTER'S DEATH
From 'History of the United States. Copyright 1892, by James Ford Rhodes
THE
HE election of 1852 gave the death-blow to the Whig party:
it never entered another Presidential contest. Webster, as
well as Clay, died before his party received this crushing
defeat, which indeed he had predicted. His physical frame worn
out, he went, early in September, home to Marshfield to die.
The story of his last days, as told in loving detail by his friend
and biographer, is of intense interest to the hero-worshiper; and
has likewise pointed the moral of many a Christian sermon. The
conversations of great minds that, unimpaired, deliver themselves
at the approach of death to introspection, are, like the most
famous of all, the discourse of Socrates in the Phædo,' a boon
to human-kind. The mind of Webster was perfectly clear; and
when all earthly striving was over, his true nature shone out
## p. 12214 (#256) ##########################################
12214
JAMES FORD RHODES
•
in the expression of thoughts that filled his soul. Speaking of
the love of nature growing stronger with time, he said: "The
man who has not abandoned himself to sensuality feels, as years
advance and old age comes on, a greater love of Mother Earth,
a greater willingness and even desire to return to her bosom,
and mingle with this universal frame of things from which he
sprang. " Two weeks before he died, he wrote that he wished
inscribed on his monument: "Philosophical argument, especially
that drawn from the vastness of the universe in comparison with
the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken.
my reason for the faith that is within me; but my heart has as-
sured and reassured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be
a Divine reality. " The day before his death, he said with perfect
calmness to his physician, "Doctor, you have carried me through
the night, I think you will get me through to-day; I shall die
to-night. " The doctor honestly replied, "You are right, sir. "
His family, friends, and servants having assembled in his
room, he spoke to them "in a strong, full voice, and with his
usual modulation and emphasis: 'No man who is not a brute
can say that he is not afraid of death. No man can come back
from that bourn; no man can comprehend the will or works of
God. That there is a God, all must acknowledge. I see him in
all these wondrous works, himself how wondrous! >»
Eloquent in life, Webster was sublime in death. He took
leave of his household one by one, addressing to each fitting
words of consolation. He wanted to know the gradual steps
towards dissolution; and calmly discussed them with his physi-
cian. At one time, awaking from a partial stupor which pre-
ceded death, he heard repeated the words of the psalm which has
smoothed the death pillow of many a Christian: "Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. " The dying statesman exclaimed, "Yes, 'thy rod-thy staff,'
-but the fact, the fact I want;"
for he was not certain
whether the words that had been repeated to him were intended
as an intimation that he was already in the dark valley. Wak-
ing up again past midnight, and conscious that he was living,
he uttered the well-known words, "I still live. " Later he said
something about poetry, and his son repeated one of the verses
of Gray's Elegy. ' He heard it, and smiled. In the early morn-
ing Webster's soul went out with the tide.
## p. 12215 (#257) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12215
It was a beautiful Sunday morning of an Indian Summer's day
when the sad tidings reached Boston, which came home to nearly
all of her citizens as a personal sorrow. In all the cities of the
land, mourning emblems were displayed and minute-guns were
fired. New York City and Washington grieved for him as for a
friend. During the week there were the usual manifestations of
mourning by the government at Washington; the various depart-
ments were closed, and the public buildings were draped with
emblems of woe. Festal scenes and celebrations were postponed;
and on the day of his funeral, business was suspended in nearly
all the cities during the hours when he was borne to his last
resting-place. "From east to west," said Edward Everett, “and
from north to south, a voice of lamentation has already gone
forth, such as has not echoed through the land since the death of
him who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts
of his countrymen. "
By Webster's own request, he had a modest country funeral.
The services were conducted in his Marshfield home. The coffin
was borne to the tomb by six of the neighboring farmers; and
the multitude followed slowly and reverently. To the Marshfield
farmers and Green Harbor fishermen, Webster was a companion
and a friend; by them he was mourned sincerely as one of their
own fellowship. It could not be said of him that a prophet is
not without honor save in his own country. One man in a plain
and rustic garb paid the most eloquent of all tributes to the
mighty dead: "Daniel Webster, the world without you will seem
lonesome. " A Massachusetts orator of our day has truly said:
"Massachusetts smote and broke the heart of Webster, her idol,
and then broke her own above his grave. "
IMPROVEMENT IN AMERICAN HEALTH
From History of the United States. Copyright 1895, by James Ford
Rhodes
E
NGLISH travelers, with hardly an exception, were struck with
the lack of health of Americans. "An Englishman," wrote
Lyell, “is usually recognized at once in a party by a more
robust look, and greater clearness and ruddiness of complexion. "
He also noted a careworn expression in the countenances of the
## p. 12216 (#258) ##########################################
12216
JAMES FORD RHODES
«<
New-Englanders. " Harriet Martineau said we were distinguished
for "spare forms and pallid complexions"; and that "the feeling
of vigorous health" was almost unknown. Thackeray wrote from
New York, "Most of the ladies are as lean as greyhounds. " Our
shortcomings in this respect were fully appreciated by ourselves.
The Atlantic Monthly pointed out that in the appearance of
health and in bodily vigor we compared very unfavorably with
English men and women. George William Curtis spoke of the
typical American as "sharp-faced, thought-furrowed, hard-handed,"
with anxious eye and sallow complexion, nervous motion, and
concentrated expression "; and he averred that we were "lantern-
jawed, lean, sickly, and serious of aspect. " Emerson mentioned
"that depression of spirits, that furrow of care, said to mark
every American brow"; and on another occasion he referred to
"the invalid habits of this country"; when in England in 1847
he wrote home: "When I see my muscular neighbors day by
day, I say, Had I been born in England, with but one chip of
English oak in my willowy constitution! " The Atlantic Monthly
declared that, "in truth, we are a nation of health-hunters,
betraying the want by the search. " It was admitted that the
young men were coming up badly. Holmes wrote: "I am sat-
isfied that such a set of black-coated, stiff-jointed, soft-muscled,
paste-complexioned youth as we can boast in our Atlantic cities
never before sprang from loins of Anglo-Saxon lineage. " In
the "Easy Chair" Curtis observed, "In the proportion that
the physique of Young America diminishes, its clothes enlarge. "
The students in the colleges were no better than the young
men of the cities. The women sadly lacked physical tone. Dr.
Holmes spoke of the "American female constitution, which col-
lapses just in the middle third of life; and comes out vulcanized
india-rubber if it happen to live through the period when health
and strength are most wanted. "
Curiously enough, we advertised our ailments. The hearty
English salutation of "good-morning" had given way to an
inquiry about one's health, which, instead of being conventional,
like that of the French and Germans, was a question requiring
an answer about one's physical feelings and condition. Pleas of
ill-health in the national Senate and the House of Representatives
were not infrequent.
Our physical degeneracy was attributed to the climate. Yet it
is difficult to reconcile this opinion with the enthusiasm of many
## p. 12217 (#259) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12217
European travelers over certain aspects of nature in America.
The bright sunshine, the blue sky, the golden, Oriental sunsets,
the exhilarating air, were an astonishment and delight. "The
climate of the Union," wrote De Tocqueville, "is upon the whole
preferable to that of Europe. " We have now come to recognize
the fact that a climate to be salubrious need not be moist; that
between the dryness of Colorado and the humidity of England,
there may be a mean such as is found in the larger part of
the Northern States-better adapted to health than either; and
that the greater amount of sunshine compensates for the wider
variations in temperature.
But without begging the question of American ill-health by
ascribing it to climate, it may unquestionably be found to be due
to bad diet, bad cooking, fast eating, and insufficient exercise in
the open air. The appetizing forms in which the genius of New
England cookery displayed itself, provoked an inordinate con-
sumption of sweets, hot breads, and cakes. With what surprise
does this generation read that our greatest philosopher always ate
pie for breakfast! The use of the frying-pan in the West and
the South pointed well the quaint remark that "God sends meat,
and the Devil sends cooks. " Men ate too much animal food, and
especially too much pork. The cooking and the service at hotels
and other public places made dinner "the seed-time of dyspep-
sia. " A fashionable tendency prevailing in the cities to live in
hotels and large boarding-houses, promoted unwholesome liv-
ing. The use of wine at table was rare, the drinking of drams
before dinner habitual. Tobacco was used to excess, and chewing
was as common as smoking.
Boys at schools and colleges, young men who were clerks and
salesmen in the cities, and the sons of rich parents, alike formed
these bad habits. Neither men nor women took exercise in the
open air.
No one walked when he could ride. The trotting-
buggy took the place of the horse's back. The Americans were
gregarious, and loved town life, having no taste for healthful
country recreations. Their idea of the country was the veranda
of a large caravansary at Saratoga or Newport. Athletics were
almost unknown. "There is no lack," said Edward Everett in
1856, "of a few tasteless and soulless dissipations which are
called amusements; but noble athletic sports, manly outdoor ex-
ercises, which strengthen the mind by strengthening the body,
and bring man into a generous and exhilarating communion
-
## p. 12218 (#260) ##########################################
12218
JAMES FORD RHODES
with nature, are too little cultivated in town or country. " "We
have a few good boatmen," wrote Holmes in 1858; "no good
horsemen that I hear of; -I cannot speak for cricketing, but as
for any great athletic feat performed by a gentleman in these
latitudes, society would drop a man who should run round the
Common in five minutes. " Athletics were not a prominent feat-
ure even of college life.
The improvement in these respects since the decade of 1850-
60 is marked: and despite the large element of truth in the pre-
cise observations of Emerson, Everett, Holmes, and Curtis, they
do not embrace with scientific breadth the whole subject, for the
experience of our Civil War gave little indication of physical
degeneracy in the Northern people; signs of improvement were
already manifest before this period closed. The gospel of physi-
cal culture had been preached with effect, and "muscular Christ-
ianity" was set up as an ideal worth striving to realize. "Health
is the condition of wisdom," declared Emerson in 1858; and not
long after, the world of fashion, discarding the Parisian model of
life and beginning the imitation of the English, shortened the
city season, acquired a love for the country, for outdoor exer-
cise, and athletic sports. But the French cuisine, almost the
sole outward trace left of the period of French domination, was
a potent and enduring influence. Any one who considers the
difference between the cooking and the service of a dinner at a
hotel or restaurant before the War and now, will appreciate what
a practical apostle of health and decent living has been Delmon-
ico, who deserves canonization in the American calendar. With
better digestion and more robust bodies, the use of stimulants
has decreased. While wine at table is more common, tippling
at bars has come to be frowned upon; lager beer and native
wines have to a considerable extent taken the place of spirituous
liquors; hard drinkers are less numerous, total abstainers are
probably on the increase, and tobacco-chewing is dying out. The
duration of life is now at least as long in America as it is in
Europe.
During the last forty years the American physique has un-
questionably improved. A philosopher now, contrasting English-
men and ourselves, would not make the comparison to our so
great disadvantage as did Emerson from his observations in 1848,
when he wrote: "The English, at the present day, have great
vigor of body and endurance. Other countrymen look slight and
## p. 12219 (#261) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12219
undersized beside them, and invalids. They are bigger men than
the Americans. I suppose a hundred English, taken at random.
out of the street, would weigh a fourth more than so many
Americans. Yet I am told the skeleton is not larger. " "I used
to think myself," said Edward Atkinson, "only an average man
in size, height, and weight at home; but when I made my first
visit to England (in 1877), I was rather surprised to find myself
a tall and large man by comparison with those whom I passed
in the streets. " The American schoolboy and college student
are to-day equal in physical development to the English youth.
This is due in some degree to the growth of athletics. But a
superiority in physique of American to English students was
observed as early as 1877.
AMERICAN MANNERS IN 1850
From History of the United States. Copyright 1895, by James Ford Rhodes
WHE
HEN we come to consider society in the narrower sense
given to the word, we find we must study it as something
distinct from the great throbbing life of the American
people of 1850-60. New York, whose "Upper Ten Thousand »
have been described by N. P. Willis and Charles Astor Bristed,
furnishes the example. Bristed introduces us into what is a
curious world, when we reflect that he writes of the United
States of 1850-52. While his sketches show a touch of caricature,
they represent well enough the life of a fashionable set of New
York City. We see men working hard to get money for their
personal enjoyment; idlers who have come into a fortune; pretty
and stylish girls; women who preside gracefully at table and
converse with wit and intelligence. Bristed takes us among men
whose sole aim in life seemed to be to make a luck hit in
stock speculation; to compound a sherry cobbler; to be apt in
bar-room repartee; to drink the best brands of claret and cham-
pagne, and to expatiate on them in a knowing manner; to drive
a fast horse; to dance well, and to dress in the latest fashion.
We assist at a wedding "above Bleecker Street"; we are taken
to a country-house, and see a family dinner served at four o'clock,
where, although the only guest is a gentleman just from England,
and the viands are not remarkable, " champagne decanted and
## p. 12220 (#262) ##########################################
12220
JAMES FORD RHODES
a
iced to the freezing-point" followed Manzanilla sherry, and “
prime bottle of Latour and a swelling slender-necked decanter
of the old Vanderlyn Madeira" succeeded the champagne.
ted describes the fashionable life at "Oldport Springs," a dis-
guise for Saratoga. He speaks of a huge caravansary, a profuse
American breakfast, a promenade on the wide porticos, cigars
and ten-pins, the bar-room and billiards, lounging and gossip, a
bad dinner at three which the ladies dressed for, a drive after
dinner, dancing until two in the morning for men and women,
and gambling the rest of the night for the men.
The Upper Ten Thousand of 1850-60 lend themselves to
delineation somewhat better than the same class of our own
time. Those who did not go to Europe passed the summer at
Saratoga, Newport, or Sharon; and their watering-place life was
open to the public gaze. N. P. Willis's chapter on Manners at
Watering-Places' would read oddly enough if set forth by a
similar adviser of the fashionable world of our time. People of
reserve, who wished for no other than their city acquaintances,
were termed "absolute exclusives," and counseled to have a sum-
mer resort of their own; for the very purpose of most, in going
to Saratoga and Newport in the gay season, was to make new
acquaintances. Yet care should be taken to avoid too great pro-
miscuity in social intercourse. While young men who happened
to be strangers to the reigning set could of course become ac-
quainted with some of the "dandies" during "a game at billiards
or a chance fraternization over juleps in the bar-room," those
whose pleasure was not found in games or in drink might find
it difficult to get properly introduced; and young ladies who
were strangers would encounter the same obstacle. Therefore, in
order that desirable acquaintances might be easily made, Willis,
an authority whom society held in respect, proposed that a
"committee of introduction" should be named by the landlord of
each large hotel. These should act under a «< code of etiquette,"
which Willis proceeded to outline. Such action, he declared,
would delightfully harmonize and enliven our summer resorts.
It is hardly probable that the plan proposed by the literary
social leader of the day was systematically adopted. There was
little need of it, for entrance into watering-place society was not
difficult. Respectability and fairly good manners were of course
requisite; but these being presupposed, the important qualifica-
tion was wealth. "Wealth," wrote George William Curtis, "will
## p. 12221 (#263) ##########################################
JAMES FORD RHODES
12221
socially befriend a man at Newport or Saratoga better than at
any similar spot in the world. " Yet all was not garish. At
Newport, the votary of fashion could not be insensible to nature's
charm. At Saratoga, "youth, health, and beauty" reigned; "we
discriminate," the Lotus-Eater said, "the Arctic and Antarctic.
Bostonians, fair, still, and stately, with a vein of scorn in their
Saratoga enjoyment; and the languid, cordial, and careless South-
erners, far from precise in dress or style, but balmy in man-
ner as a bland Southern morning. We mark the crisp courtesy
of the New-Yorker, elegant in dress, exclusive in association, a
pallid ghost of Paris. " After the sectional excitement of 1850,
however, fewer Southerners came North. The repeal of the slave
sojournment laws of Pennsylvania and New York made the
bringing of their slaves with them as body-servants inconvenient.
The excitement about the Fugitive Slave Act, and the passage
of the Personal Liberty Laws, involved the risk of losing their
negroes; and after the most powerful Northern party made, in
1856, a political shibboleth of the declaration that slavery was
a relic of barbarism, it was still more disagreeable for South-
ern gentlemen accompanied by their servants to travel at the
North.
Newport, the leading watering-place in the country, was, in
the opinion of Curtis, the vantage-ground to study the fashionable
world. There he found wealth the touchstone; but he saw money
spent without taste and in vulgar display. We Americans, he
declared, had the money-getting, but not the "money-spending
genius. " If high society was "but the genial intercourse of the
highest intelligences with which we converse-the festival of Wit
and Beauty and Wisdom" — he saw none at Newport. "Fine
society," he moralizes, "is a fruit that ripens slowly. We Ameri-
cans fancy we can buy it. " The peripatetic observer was glad to
get to Nahant.
There he wrote: "You find no village, no dust,
no commotion. You encounter no crowds of carriages or of curi-
ous and gossiping people. No fast men in velvet coats are trot-
ting fast horses;" and in the evenings "there are no balls, no
hops, no concerts, no congregating under any pretense in hotel
parlors. " But by the early part of the decade of 1850-60 the
life in Newport had begun to change. Originally a Southern
resort, New-Yorkers commenced to divide their favors between it
and Saratoga. Cottages became the fashion. The hotel season
declined.
## p. 12222 (#264) ##########################################
12222
JAMES FORD RHODES
The fashionable people of New York generally went to
Europe. When De Tocqueville wrote his last volume on Amer-
ica, the rich American in Europe was characteristic; and between
1850 and 1860 crowds went over the sea for the summer. To
writers of books and writers for the magazines, there seemed
in the high American society much that was meretricious, and
certainly no real enjoyment. The "uncommon splendatiousness"
annoyed Thackeray.
