The Writing of Memoirs—Some Characteristics of Carl Shurz—Sam
Bowles—Horace White and the Mugwumps
I
Talleyrand was so impressed by the world-compelling character of the
memoirs he had prepared for posterity that he fixed an interdict of
more than fifty years upon the date set for their publication, and when
at last the bulky tomes made their appearance, they excited no especial
interest—certainly created no sensation—and lie for the most part dusty
upon the shelves of the libraries that contain them. For a different
reason, Henry Ward Beecher put a time limit upon the volume, or
volumes, which will tell us, among other things, all about one of the
greatest scandals of modern times; and yet how few people now recall it
or care anything about the dramatis personæ and the actual facts!
Metternich, next after Napoleon and Talleyrand, was an important figure
in a stirring epoch. He, too, indicted an autobiography, which is
equally neglected among the books that are sometimes quoted and
extolled, but rarely read. Rousseau, the half insane, and Barras, the
wholly vicious, have twenty readers where Talleyrand and Metternich
have one.
From this point of view, the writing of memoirs, excepting those of the
trivial French School or gossiping letters and diaries of the
Pepys-Walpole variety, would seem an unprofitable task for a great
man’s undertaking. Boswell certainly did for Johnson what the
thunderous old doctor could not have done for himself. Nevertheless,
from the days of Cæsar to the days of Sherman and Lee, the captains of
military and senatorial and literary industry have regaled themselves,
if they have not edified the public, by the narration of their own
stories; and, I dare say, to the end of time, interest in one’s self,
and the mortal desire to linger yet a little longer on the scene—now
and again, as in the case of General Grant, the assurance of honorable
remuneration making needful provision for others—will move those who
have cut some figure in the world to follow the wandering Celt in the
wistful hope—
_Around my fire an evening group to draw, And tell of all I felt and
all I saw._
Something like this occurs to me upon a reperusal of the unfinished
memoirs of my old and dear friend, Carl Schurz. Assuredly few men had
better warrant for writing about themselves or a livelier tale to tell
than the famous German-American, who died leaving that tale unfinished.
No man in life was more misunderstood and maligned. There was nothing
either erratic or conceited about Schurz, nor was he more pragmatic
than is common to the possessor of positive opinions along with the
power to make their expression effectual.
The actual facts of his public life do not anywhere show that his
politics shifted with his own interests. On the contrary, he was
singularly regardless of his interests where his convictions
interposed. Though an alien, and always an alien, he possessed none of
the shifty traits of the soldier of fortune. Never in his career did he
crook the pregnant hinges of the knee before any worldly throne of
grace or flatter any mob that place might follow fawning. His great
talents had only to lend themselves to party uses to get their full
requital. He refused them equally to Grant in the White House and the
multitude in Missouri, going his own gait, which could be called
erratic only by the conventional, to whom regularity is everything and
individuality nothing.
Schurz was first of all and above all an orator. His achievements on
the platform and in the Senate were undeniable. He was unsurpassed in
debate. He had no need to exploit himself. The single chapter in his
life on which light was desirable was the military episode. The cruel
and false saying, “I fight mit Sigel und runs mit Schurz,” obviously
the offspring of malignity, did mislead many people, reënforced by the
knowledge that Schurz was not an educated soldier. How thoroughly he
disposes of this calumny his memoirs attest. Fuller, more convincing
vindication could not be asked of any man; albeit by those familiar
with the man himself it could not be doubted that he had both courage
and aptitude for military employment.