Oh, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years
To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,
And teach them thine own sorrow! Say. "With me
Died Adonais; till the Future dares
Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be
An echo and a light unto eternity."
[Sidenote: Wilhelm Meister]
[Sidenote: Rise of romantic literature]
[Sidenote: Victor Hugo]
Other literary events of the year were the publication of Goethe's "Wilhelm
Meister's Wander Jahre," and of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin's first long
poem, "Ruslan and Ludmilla." In this epic, written during Pushkin's early
banishment to Bessarabia, an old Russian theme of the heroic times of Kiev
was treated much after the manner of Byron's romantic examples. In France
the romantic period in literature was inaugurated by young Victor Hugo,
who, but the year before, had been crowned as "Maitre des jeux floraux" for
a prize poem on Henri IV. Now Chateaubriand, in his journal "Le
Conservateur," welcomed him as "Un enfant sublime." By his own romantic
followers Hugo was hailed as chief of their poetic "Bataillon Sacre."
During the same year the poet, then barely nineteen, married Mademoiselle
Foucher, a girl of fifteen.
[Sidenote: Death of Napoleon]
The most important event of the year for Frenchmen was the death of
Napoleon Bonaparte at Longwood, in St. Helena. He died on May 5, after
taking the holy sacrament. He left a last will with several codicils. In it
Napoleon made the following declarations:
[Sidenote: Napoleon's will]
"I die in the Apostolical and Roman religion, in the bosom of which I was
born more than fifty years ago. It is my wish that my ashes may repose on
the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have loved
so well. I have always had reason to be pleased with my dearest wife, Maria
Louisa. I retain for her, to the last moment, the most tender sentiments. I
beseech her to watch, in order to preserve my son from the snares which yet
environ his infancy. I recommend to my son never to forget that he was born
a French prince, and never to allow himself to become an instrument in the
hands of the triumvirs who oppress the nations of Europe: he ought never to
fight against France, or to injure her in any manner; he ought to adopt my
motto--_Everything for the French people_. I die prematurely, assassinated
by the English oligarchy and its tool. The English nation will not be slow
in avenging me. The two unfortunate results of the invasions of France,
when she had still so many resources, are to be attributed to the treason
of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and Lafayette. I forgive them--may the
posterity of France forgive them as I do! I pardon Louis for the libel he
published in 1820; it is replete with false assertions and falsified
documents. I disavow the 'Manuscript of St. Helena,' and other works, under
the title of 'Maxims, Sayings,' etc., which persons have been pleased to
publish for the last six years. Such are not the rules which have guided my
life. I caused the Duc d'Enghien to be arrested and tried because that step
was essential to the safety, interest and honor of the French people, when
the Comte d'Artois was maintaining, by his own confession, sixty assassins
at Paris. Under similar circumstances I should act in the same way."
[Sidenote: The bequests]
To his son and immediate relatives, Napoleon left most of his personal
effects. Among his relatives and favorite followers he distributed a sum of
6,000,000 francs, left in the hands of his bankers at the time of his
flight from Paris; likewise the proceeds of a possible sale of his
confiscated crown jewels. Count Lavalette and the children of Labedoyere
were remembered with bequests of 100,000 and 50,000 francs, respectively.
The final clauses were:
"To be distributed among such proscribed persons as wander in foreign
countries, whether they be French, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, Spanish, or
inhabitants of the departments of the Rhine, under the directions of my
executors, one hundred thousand francs. To be distributed among those who
suffered amputation, or were severely wounded at Ligny or Waterloo, who may
be still living, according to lists drawn up by my executors. The Guards
shall be paid double, those of the Island of Elba quadruple, two hundred
thousand francs."
[Sidenote: Cantillon remembered]
A curious bequest was that of 10,000 francs to Cantillon, a French
subaltern, who was tried and acquitted for the attempted assassination of
the Duke of Wellington in Paris on February 11, 1818. Napoleon thus
explained this bequest:
[Sidenote: Last fling at Wellington]
"Cantillon had as much right to assassinate that oligarchist as the latter
had to send me to perish upon the rock of St. Helena. Wellington, who
proposed this outrage, attempted to justify it by pleading the interest of
Great Britain. Cantillon, if he had really assassinated that lord, would
have pleaded the same excuse, and been justified by the same motive--the
interest of France--to get rid of this general, who, moreover, by violating
the capitulation of Paris, had rendered himself responsible for the blood
of the martyrs Ney, Labedoyere, etc., and for the crime of having pillaged
the museums, contrary to the text of the treaties."
This last legacy was not paid until 1855, when Napoleon III. discharged it.
[Sidenote: Fall of Richelieu's Ministry]
[Sidenote: Villele Prime Minister]
Late in the year the Ministry of Duc de Richelieu succumbed to the
machinations of Comte d'Artois. Before his resignation, Richelieu
complained to the Count, reminding him of his promises of support at the
first formation of the Cabinet. "The fact is, my dear Duke," replied
Monsieur, "if you allow me to say so, you have taken my words too
literally. And then the circumstances at that time were so different." The
Prime Minister rose abruptly and sought out the King. "Monsieur has broken
his word of honor," he said, "he has broken his word as a gentleman." "What
would you have me do?" said Louis XVIII. "He conspired against Louis XVI.;
he conspires against me; he will conspire against himself." The explosion
of a barrel of gunpowder in the royal palace raised apprehensions of
another painful scene, like that preceding the fall of the Ministry of
Decazes. Richelieu resigned, and Villele took his place. Chateaubriand was
sent to London as Ambassador. While Parliamentary government in France
labored thus under the onslaughts of the Royalist plotters in the Chambers,
the so-called Era of Good Feeling in America was continued under the second
administration of President Monroe.
[Sidenote: Inauguration of Monroe]
[Sidenote: Missouri admitted to Statehood]
The 4th of March fell on a Sunday, and Monroe was the first President to be
inaugurated on the 5th. Missouri was admitted conditionally, and, on August
10, the President proclaimed its admission as the twenty-fourth State amid
a tempest of political excitement. The contest over the slavery question
was now supposed to be forever settled. In the debates of 1821, the House
stood firmly against Missouri's admission as a slave State, and the Senate
was equally determined that the colored citizens of other States should be
denied citizenship in Missouri if the people so desired. At last it came to
a conference committee. It was decided that the State should be admitted,
as soon as its Legislature would agree that the section of the Constitution
in question should not be construed as authorizing a law excluding any
citizens of other States from the immunities and privileges to which they
were entitled under the Constitution. The Legislature of Missouri gave this
pledge, but it remained open whether free negroes and mulattoes were
citizens in other States, and whether they were to be made citizens in
Missouri. In the admission of Missouri there was for the first time an
unmixed issue on the question of a free government or a slave-holding
government in the United States. Doubtful dealings on the part of the
Senators from Indiana and Illinois were followed by an attempt to make
these States both slave-holding States, in face of the binding law of the
Ordinance of 1787. A popular movement led by Governor Edward Coles of
Illinois defeated this project.
[Sidenote: Liberia]
[Sidenote: Junius Brutus Booth]
On May 5, the territory of Liberia was secured on the west coast of Africa,
and a colony was founded for the repatriation of negro slaves, with
Monrovia for a capital. During this same period Junius Brutus Booth made
his first appearance in America, as Richard III., at Richmond. Late in the
year the remains of Andre, the British officer who was shot as a spy during
the American Revolution, were placed on a British ship for interment in
Westminster Abbey.
1822
[Sidenote: Greek independence declared]
[Sidenote: Sack of Chios]
[Sidenote: Kanaris' exploit]
Greek independence was declared on January 27. After the fall of Ali Pasha
in February, the Sultan was able to turn his undivided attention to the
Greek revolt. In March, a body of Samian revolutionists landed in Chios and
incited the islanders to rise against the Turk. They laid siege to the
citadel held by a Turkish garrison. Had the fleet of the Hydriotes helped
them, they might have prevailed. As it was they rendered themselves a prey
to the Turkish troops on the mainland. An army of nearly 10,000 Turks
landed in Chios, and relieved the besieged garrison. Then the fanatical
Moslems were let loose on the gentle inhabitants of the little island.
Thousands were put to the sword. The slave markets of Northern Africa were
glutted with Chian women and children. Within a month the once lovely
island was a ruined waste. All Greece and Europe was filled with horror.
Maurokordatos, now at the head of Greek affairs, was bitterly blamed for
not sending over a fleet to save Chios. One single Greek took it into his
hands to avenge his countrymen. The Turks were celebrating their sacred
month of Ramazan. On the night of June 18, the festival of Biram, the
Turkish fleet, under command of Kara Ali, was illuminated with colored
lanterns. On that night Constantine Kanaris, a sea-captain from Psara,
drove a fire-ship into the midst of the Turkish fleet. Sailing close up to
the admiral's flagship he thrust his bowsprit into one of the portholes.
Then setting fire to the pitch and resin on board his ship, he dropped into
his small boat and pulled away. A breeze fanned the flames, and in a moment
the big Turkish man-of-war was afire. The powder magazine blew up and the
lifeboats went up in flames. The burning rigging fell down upon the doomed
crew, and the admiral was struck down on his poop-deck. The ship was burned
to the water's edge. The Turkish fleet scattered before the shower of
blazing sparks, and was only brought together under the guns of the
Dardanelles. This exploit made Kanaris the hero of Greece. Within the same
year he repeated the feat.
[Sidenote: Morea reinvaded]
[Sidenote: End of Philhellene corps]
[Sidenote: Defence of Argos]
[Sidenote: Turks demoralized]
The Sultan had thrown his whole land force into the Greek mainland.
Khurshid, after his defeat of Ali Pasha, marched to Larissa, in Thessaly.
Thence two armies, 50,000 strong, under Bramali and Homer Brionis converged
upon the Morea. In the face of so formidable an invasion, Maurokordatos
took the field himself. He mismanaged things badly. At Arta he sacrificed
his choicest regiment, the famous corps of Philhellenes, composed of
foreign officers and commanded by men who had won distinction in Napoleon's
campaigns. They were cut down almost to a man. Maurokordatos fell back to
Missolonghi. In the meanwhile Dramalis with 25,000 foot and 6,000 horse
penetrated into the Morea. The Greek Government at Argos dispersed. All
would have been lost for the Greeks had Dramalis not neglected to cover the
mountain passes behind him. While he marched on to Nauplia, the Greek
mountaineers rose behind him. Demetrios Ypsilanti, the acting-president of
Greece, with a few hundred followers threw himself into Argos. There he
held the Acropolis against the Turkish rearguard. Kolokotrones, calling out
the last men from Tripolitza, relieved Ypsilanti at Argos. The mountain
passage was seized. Dramalis had to give up his conquest of the Morea, and
fight his way back to the Isthmus of Corinth. Without supplies and harassed
by hostile peasant forces the Turkish army became badly demoralized.
Thousands were lost on the way. Dramalis himself died from over-exposure.
The remainder of his army melted away at Corinth under the combined effects
of sickness and drought.
[Sidenote: Capodistrias resigns]
A decisive turn in the Greek war for independence was reached. Europe
realized that the revolt had grown to the proportions of a national war.
Popular sympathy in Russia became more clamorous. Capodistrias, the Russian
Prime Minister, rightly measured the force of this long pent-up feeling.
Unable to move the Czar, who still floundered in the toils of the Holy
Alliance, Capodistrias withdrew from public affairs and retired to Geneva.
[Sidenote: Suicide of Castlereagh]
[Sidenote: Canning]
[Sidenote: Iturbide Emperor of Mexico]
[Sidenote: Battle of Pichincha]
[Sidenote: San Martin retires]
[Sidenote: Battle of Junin]
[Sidenote: Ayacucho]
[Sidenote: Independence of Brazil]
In England, the suicide of Castlereagh brought Canning once more into
prominence. Robert Peel was made Home Secretary. Canning's long retirement
after the fiasco of his American policy, and his breach with Castlereagh,
had served to chasten this statesman. As leader of the opposition, he had
learned to reckon with the forces of popular feeling. When he returned to
power in 1822, he was no longer an ultra-conservative, but a liberal. He
now made no disguise of his sympathies with the cause of Greece, and with
the struggle for independence in South and Central America. There the
course of freedom had gathered so much momentum that it was plain to all
that Spain could never prevail without help from others. In Mexico, upon
the refusal of Ferdinand VII. to accept the separate crown of Mexico,
General Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor. On May 19, he assumed the
dignity. As Augustine I., he was crowned in the Cathedral of Mexico in
July. At the same time San Martin and Bolivar met at Guayaquil to dispose
of the destinies of South America. San Martin had just succeeded in
liberating Peru, and had made his triumphal entry into Lima. Bolivar had
brought aid to Ecuador, and established independence there. Jose de Sucre,
whom Bolivar called the "soul of his army," defeated the Spaniards in the
famous battle of Pichincha, fought at a height of 10,200 feet above the
sea. When Bolivar and San Martin met on July 25, San Martin announced his
determination to give a free field to Bolivar. The two men parted at a
great public love-feast at which San Martin toasted Bolivar as the
"liberator of Colombia." In his farewell address he said: "The presence of
a fortunate general in the country which he has conquered is detrimental to
the state. I have won the independence of Peru, and I now cease to be a
public man." Speaking privately of Bolivar, he said: "He is the most
extraordinary character of South America; one to whom difficulties but add
strength." With his daughter Mercedes, San Martin retired to Europe, to
dwell there in obscurity and poverty. Bolivar, with Generals Sucre, Miller
and Cordova, assembled a great liberating army at Juarez. After a
preliminary victory at Junin, Bolivar returned to Lima to assume the reigns
of government, while his generals pushed on against the forces of the
Spanish viceroy. Late in the year a decisive battle was fought at Ayacucho.
The revolutionists charged down the mountain ridges upon the Spaniards in
the plain, and utterly routed them. The viceroy himself was wounded, with
700 of his men, while 1,400 Spaniards were killed outright. In these
casualties the unusual disparity between killed and wounded reveals the
unsparing ferocity of the fight. In Brazil a peaceful revolution was
effected in September. After the return of Juan VI. to Portugal his son Dom
Pedro reigned as regent. On September 7, he yielded to the demands of his
American subjects, and proclaimed the independence of Brazil. He was
declared constitutional emperor of Brazil on October 12, and was crowned as
such shortly afterward at Rio Janeiro.
[Sidenote: Discontent in Spain]
[Sidenote: Foreign aid invoked]
The South American colonies had now in great part secured independence.
Spain was thereby robbed of her best resources. As financial distress
became more widespread, the spirit of discontent rose. The King's plottings
with the extreme Royalists of France lost him the confidence of his
subjects. In the south the triumphant party of the so-called Exaltados
refused obedience to the central administration. The municipal governments
of Cadiz, Cartagena and Seville took the tone of independent republics. In
the north, the Serviles, instigated by French agitators and their money,
broke into open rebellion. After the adjournment of the Cortes, Ferdinand
attempted to make a stroke for himself. The Royal Guards were ordered to
march from Aranjuez to Madrid to place themselves under the King's personal
command. The people took alarm, and several regiments of disaffected
soldiers were induced to head off the guards. A fight ensued in the streets
of Madrid. The guards were scattered. The King found himself a prisoner in
his own palace. He wrote to Louis XVIII. that his crown was in peril. The
Bourbon sympathizers in the north at once seized the town of Seo d'Urgel,
and set up a provisional government. Civil war spread over Spain.
Napoleon's final prophecy that Bourbon rule would end in the ruin of Spain,
and the loss of all the best colonies was near fulfilment. It was then that
the Continental powers of Europe proposed to interfere on behalf of the
Spanish monarchy. The death of old Minister Hardenberg in Berlin did not
loosen Metternich's hold on Prussia. Emperor Alexander hoped to conciliate
his army, burning to fall upon the Turk, by treating them to a light
campaign in Spain. In France, the Spanish war party likewise had the upper
hand.
[Sidenote: Monroe Doctrine]
Nothing could save Spain; but Spanish South and Central America presented
another issue. The new republics had developed a thriving trade with Great
Britain and the United States of America, which made it impossible for
these countries to ignore their flags. In America, Henry Clay on the floor
of Congress, had already urged the recognition of South American
independence. In his annual message to Congress in 1822 President Monroe
took up the question. On behalf of the United States he declared that, the
American continents were henceforth not to be considered a subject for
further colonization by any European power. "In the war between Spain and
her colonies," said President Monroe, "the United States will continue to
observe the strictest neutrality.... With the existing colonies or
dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not
interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence
and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great considerations
and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition
for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner
their destiny by any European power, in any other light than as the
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."
[Sidenote: Jefferson's indorsement]
[Sidenote: Canning's part]
[Sidenote: Fyffe's comment]
It was the famous Monroe Doctrine, a doctrine that in its substance, if not
in words, had already served as the guiding star of Thomas Jefferson's and
Madison's foreign policy. It is related that President Monroe, applying to
Thomas Jefferson for his opinion on the matter, was surprised at the
positive nature of the reply which he received. "Our first and fundamental
maxim," said Jefferson, "should be never to entangle ourselves in the
broils of Europe; our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with
cis-Atlantic affairs." At the same time that America thus flung down her
gauntlet to Europe, Canning, on behalf of the British Ministry, proposed to
inform the allied Cabinets of England's intention to accredit envoys to the
South American republics. Assured of the support of the United States, and
of Great Britain as well, South America could feel free to work out her own
destiny. This was the master-stroke of Canning's career. When brought to
bay afterward in Parliament, he could proudly boast: "I called the New
World into being, in order to redress the balance of the Old." To Americans
Canning's boast has ever seemed to rest on a flimsy foundation. As Fyffe,
the English historian of modern Europe, has justly said, "The boast, famous
in our Parliamentary history, has left an erroneous impression of the part
really played by Canning at this crisis. He did not call the New World into
existence; he did not even assist it in winning independence, as France had
assisted the United States fifty years before; but when this independence
had been won, he threw over it the aegis of Great Britain, declaring that no
other European power should reimpose the yoke which Spain had not been able
to maintain."
[Sidenote: Death of Shelley]
At the time that Canning made British liberalism respected abroad, literary
England suffered another irreparable loss by the death of Percy Bysshe
Shelley. The last few weeks had been spent by Shelley in Italy in the
company of Trelawney, Williams and Lord Byron. Before this Maurokordatos,
now battling in Greece, had been their constant companion. In June Leigh
Hunt arrived. Shelley and Williams set out in a boat to meet him at
Leghorn. The long parted friends met there. On July 8, Shelley and Williams
set sail for the return voyage to Lerici. Their boat was last seen ten
miles out at sea off Reggio. Then the haze of a summer storm hid it from
view. Ten days later Shelley's body was washed ashore near Reggio. It was
identified by a volume of Sophocles and of Keats's poems found on his
person. In the presence of Byron, Trelawney and Leigh Hunt, Shelley's
remains were cremated on the shore. His ashes were buried in the same
burial ground with Keats, hard by the pyramid of Caius Cestius in Rome.
[Sidenote: Lyric quality of his work]
[Sidenote: Shelley's career]
[Sidenote: Shelley's threnody]