A HIATUS.
His career thus far in life, while generally successful, had also its
portion of failures as well as triumphs. Two, of a marked character,
occurred about the winter of 1851-2. Their ill success seemed rather to
belong to the method pursued in presenting them, than to the capability
of the man to make them meritorious.
He had left Pittsburg for New York to make certain arrangements
necessary for obtaining a _caveat_, preparatory to an application
to the department at Washington for a patent for an invention,
originally his own, for the ascending and descending of a locomotive
on an inclined plane, without the aid of a stationary engine. Had he
succeeded in his first plan, the second would have been satisfactory.
In this piece of mechanism, he was wholly absorbed, and brought it
to completion. At length he made it known to his friend, Dr. James
McLune Smith, of New York. The doctor, being possessed of talents of
high order, and devoted to scientific pursuits, looked favorably upon
the plan, and at once proposed to take him to an extensive machine
establishment in the city for consultation on the subject.
At this establishment much curiosity, if not real interest, was
manifested concerning it. But the reticence which characterizes him in
matters in which concealment is necessary in no wise deserting him, and
as he revealed but little to the proprietor, himself an inventor, the
visit and interview were of no avail.
Not disheartened by this, he applied to a distinguished patent
attorney, who, on application for a _caveat_ after all the arrangements
necessary, abandoned the effort as being unsatisfactory, leaving the
inference to be deduced by Major Delany and his friend Dr. Smith that
the only cause of neglect or refusal to entertain the proposition
at Washington was, that the applicant must be a citizen of the
United States. His own opinion was contrary to the statement of the
attorney,--he believing the right to obtain copyrights or patents as
not being restricted to the citizens alone, but in the reach of any
person, whether American or foreign. He made a subsequent attempt to
have it patented, but finally abandoned it.
His attention and interest were drawn in another direction; for at this
time adventure was at its height, and every vessel leaving the port of
New York bore evidence of it. Many colored men, dissatisfied with their
unrecognized condition, caught this spirit, and some embarked either
for Greytown or San Juan del Norte,--this being the chief point of
attraction, which was like a free city, or independent principality of
Germany, but neither held obligations to the one, nor owed allegiance
to the other. George Frederick, king of the Mosquitos, becoming
dissatisfied with the intrusions and impositions practised by the
former emigrants, Colonel Kearny, of Philadelphia, already on his way,
if not at the point, said to Major Delany, “Every one seemed to breathe
Central America.”
While witnessing these preparations for departure to their El Dorado,
he met a young friend of his, a physician of great promise, Dr. David
J. Peck, _en route_ for California, whom he advised to abandon the
intention of going to that place, where his success would be less
certain among the hundreds of white physicians from all parts, who
could scarcely realize a support from their practice; but to go to
Central America, where his color would be in his favor, and his
advantages superior to those of the physicians there, who are mostly
natives, would be preferable.
Dr. Peck heeded his counsels, and became a prominent practitioner
there. From the first he was nominated for port physician, in
preference to an English physician of eleven years’ standing.
The black adventurers soon affiliated with the natives, and were made
eligible to every civil right among them.
A committee of natives was appointed to draught resolutions for a
municipal council, at the head of which was Dr. Peck as chairman.
Through their influence crowds of adherents were attracted to the new
policy, and a future government was decided upon as certain to organize
speedily.
It was understood that the mayor should be the highest civil municipal
authority, the governor the highest civil state authority, the civil
and military to be united in one person, and the governor must be
commander-in-chief of the military forces.
A convention was held, and a candidate nominated. An election took
place (in what way it was never publicly known), and a steamer brought
the intelligence, officially transmitted, that “Dr. Martin R. Delany
was duly chosen and elected mayor of Greytown, civil governor of the
Mosquito reservation, and commander-in-chief of the military forces of
the province!” This was delivered to him by a bearer of despatches sent
specially for that purpose.
An important instruction to the governor elect was, that he should
bring with him his own _council of state_ as the native material,
although of a country abounding in mahogany and rosewood, was not
suitable for “_cabinet-work_.” This, said he, was the worst feature
of their choice, because such material as would be desirable was
not easily obtained: they would not consent to go, being averse to
emigration.
He held the belief that nothing was well tested without first giving
fair trial to it; and for himself, determined to do so. To this end he
travelled, for nearly eight months, in many states, until worn out,
without finding the desirable material, and was compelled to abandon
his designs.
By the order of Dr. Holland, the American _chargé_, the town was
bombarded by Commodore Ingraham, of the United States squadron, and the
embryo government disappeared from the stage forever.
While travelling on this quest he wrote and published a small work
(originally designed for pamphlet form) on the condition of the colored
race in America. This being published without proper revision, he
having left it to another’s superintendence,--for at this time he
was prosecuting his invention of the inclined plane, and also the
Central American project,--on its appearance it was nearly dashed to
pieces in the storm it encountered. None criticised it so severely as
himself; while some of his friends were disposed to look favorably
upon it, as the errors it contained could not be disguised, and the
author was known to be aware of them. One severe criticism, more of
himself, it appeared, than the book, he seemed to have regarded as “the
unkindest cut of all”--that of Mr. Oliver Johnson, then editor of the
Pennsylvania Freeman. To add to the list of disasters, some person sent
a copy to England to Mr. Armisted, author of the “Negro’s Friend.”
He says, in speaking of Mr. Johnson’s criticism of himself, “I was poor
when I wrote, weary and hungry. This my friend Johnson did not know,
else he would not so severely have criticised me. He thought I wrote as
an author, to be seen and known of men. I wrote not as an author, but
as I travelled about from place to place.
Sometimes I sat, sometimes I stood,
Writing when and where I could,
A little here, a little there;
’Twas here, and there, and everywhere.
I wrote to obtain subsistence. I had travelled and speculated until I
found myself out of means.”
The book was stopped by him in the midst of the first edition of one
thousand.
He always likened himself, concerning that literary undertaking, to
Gumpton Cute, a character in the play of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who, “being
on a filibustering expedition, got a little short of change.” Thus
failing in all that he had designed, with the most laudable motives in
view, and succeeding in that with which he neither desired nor could
be satisfied--making a poor book. While he good-humoredly admits the
fallacy of his moves, yet his friends, mindful of the long, wearisome
months of toil and anxiety, and of high hopes wrecked, regret them, as
making a void useless and unnatural in his life’s history, and consider
it an episode illegitimate in his rôle.