AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.
The second and third parts of "A Grammatical Institute" did not make
Webster's fame or fortune. The first part had in it from the first the
promise of success. It may fairly be called the first book published in
the United States of America, and its publication, under all the
conditions of business then, was a bold venture. Each State was still a
law to itself, and no general act of Congress had yet been passed
conferring copyright. Webster's first business before he had actually
completed his spelling-book was to secure copyright laws in the several
States, and he began a series of journeys to Philadelphia and the state
capitals for this purpose. The history of his travels is the history of
the origin of copyright laws in this country; and inasmuch as Webster
has himself related in detail the steps which he took not only at this
time, but later, I introduce here his statement, including in it a
correspondence with Daniel Webster which has special interest at this
time, when the same considerations have been urged in the renewed
discussion of the subject.
"In the autumn of 1782 I rode to Philadelphia for the purpose of showing
my manuscripts to gentlemen of influence, and obtaining a law for
securing to authors the copyright of their publications. As the
legislatures of New Jersey and Philadelphia were not then in session,
the latter object could not then be accomplished. On my way I called on
Governor Livingston, then in Trenton, and inquired whether it was
probable that a copyright law could be obtained in New Jersey. The
Governor replied that if I would wait till noon he would consult his
council, then in session, and give me an answer. At the time appointed I
called again, when the Governor told me the council gave him very little
encouragement. In Princeton I waited on the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith,
then professor of theology in Nassau Hall, and afterward president of
that institution, who examined my manuscripts, recommended the works,
and expressed his opinion in favor of copyright laws....
"In October following I went to Hartford, with a view to petition the
Legislature of Connecticut, then in session in that place, for a law to
secure to me the copyright of my proposed book. The petition was
presented, but too late in the session to obtain a hearing. I then
returned to Goshen, and devoted the winter to a revision of my
manuscripts, and the introduction of some improvements which had been
suggested by gentlemen in Princeton and Philadelphia. In January, 1783,
I prepared another memorial to be presented to the Legislature of
Connecticut, for the purpose of procuring a copyright law, which
memorial was committed to the care of John Canfield, Esq. But the
necessity of it was superseded by the enactment of a general law upon
the subject. This law was obtained by the petition of several literary
gentlemen in that State.
"In the same winter I went to Kingston, in Ulster County, New York,
where the legislature was in session, with a view to present a petition
for the like purpose. The necessity of such petition was prevented by
the prompt attention of General Schuyler to my request, through whose
influence a bill was introduced into the Senate, which at the next
session became a law. In the same winter the Legislature of
Massachusetts enacted a copyright law, procured, probably, by the agency
of the Rev. Timothy Dwight, then a member of the House of
Representatives.
"As Congress, under the Confederation, had no power to protect literary
property, several gentlemen, among whom was Joel Barlow, presented a
memorial to that body, petitioning them to recommend to the several
States the enactment of such a law. In May, 1783, on the report of Mr.
Williamson, Mr. Izard, and Mr. Madison, Congress passed a resolution,
recommending to the several States to secure to authors or publishers of
new books, not before printed, the copyright of such books for a term
not less than fourteen years. In December, 1783, Governor Livingston
informed me by letter that the Legislature of New Jersey had passed a
law agreeable to the recommendation of Congress.
"In May, 1785, I undertook a journey to the Middle and Southern States,
one object of which was to procure copyright laws to be enacted. I
proceeded to Charleston, but the legislature not being in session, I
returned to Baltimore, where I spent the summer. In November I visited
General Washington at his mansion; he gave me letters to Governor
Harrison in Richmond, and to the speakers of both houses of the
legislature. The law desired was passed for securing copyrights. In
December I visited Annapolis, where the legislature was in session; and
in February I visited Dover, in Delaware, for the same purpose. On
petition, the Legislature of Delaware appointed a committee to prepare a
bill for a copyright law, just at the close of the session, but the
enactment was deferred to the next session. In the year 1790 Congress
enacted their first copyright law, which superseded all the state laws
on the subject.
"When I was in England in 1825 I learned that the British Parliament
had, a few years before, enacted a new law on copyrights, by which the
rights of authors were much extended. This led me to attempt to procure
a new law in the United States, giving a like extension to the rights of
authors. My first attempt appears in the following letter [to the Hon.
Daniel Webster, dated September 30, 1826]:--
"'Since the celebrated decision, respecting copyright, by the highest
British tribunal, it seems to have been generally admitted that an
author has not a permanent and exclusive right to the publication of his
original works at common law; and that he must depend wholly on statutes
for his enjoyment of that right. As I firmly believe this decision to be
contrary to all our best established principles of _right_ and
_property_, and as I have reason to think such a decision would not now
be sanctioned by the authorities of this country, I sincerely desire
that while you are a member of the House of Representatives in Congress
your talents may be exerted in placing this species of property on the
same footing as all property, as to exclusive right and permanence of
possession.
"'Among all modes of acquiring property, or exclusive ownership, the act
or operation of _creating_ or _making_ seems to have the first claim.
If anything can justly give a man an exclusive right to the occupancy
and enjoyment of a thing it must be the fact that he _made_ it. The
right of a farmer and mechanic to the exclusive enjoyment and right of
disposal of what they _make_ or _produce_ is never questioned. What,
then, can make a difference between the produce of _muscular strength_
and the produce of the _intellect_? If it should be said that as the
purchaser of a bushel of wheat has obtained not only the exclusive right
to the use of it for food, but the right to sow it and increase and
profit by it, let it be replied, this is true; but if he sows the wheat
he must sow it on his own ground or soil. The case is different with
respect to the copy of a book, which a purchaser has obtained, for the
copyright is the _author's soil_, which the purchaser cannot legally
occupy.
"'Upon what principles, let me ask, can any fellow-citizens declare that
the production of the farmer and the artisan shall be protected by
common law, or the principles of natural and social rights, without a
special statute, and without paying a premium for the enjoyment of their
property, while they declare that I have only a temporary right to the
fruits of my labor, and even this cannot be enjoyed without giving a
premium? Are such principles as these consistent with the established
doctrines of property, and of moral right and wrong among an enlightened
people? Are such principles consistent with the high and honorable
notions of justice and equal privileges which our citizens claim to
entertain and to cherish, as characteristic of modern improvements in
civil society? How can the _recent origin_ of a particular species of
property vary the principles of ownership? I say nothing of the
inexpedience of such a policy, as it regards the discouragement of
literary exertions. Indeed, I can probably say nothing on this subject
that you have not said or thought; at least I presume you have often
contemplated this subject in all its bearings.
"'The British Parliament, about ten or twelve years ago, passed a new
act on this subject, giving to authors and proprietors of new works an
absolute right to the exclusive use of the copyright for twenty-eight
years, with some other provisions which I do not recollect; but the act
makes or continues the condition that the author or proprietor shall
deposit _eleven copies_ of the work in Stationers' Hall, for the benefit
of certain public libraries. This premium will often amount to _fifty
pounds sterling_, or more. An effort was made by publishers to obtain a
repeal of this provision; but it was opposed by the institutions which
were to receive the benefit, and the attempt failed.
"'I have a great interest in this question, and I think the interest of
science and literature in this question are by no means inconsiderable.
I sincerely wish our legislature would come at once to the line of right
and justice on this subject, and pass a new act, the preamble to which
shall admit the principle that an author has, by common law, or natural
justice, the sole and _permanent_ right to make profit by his own labor,
and that his heirs and assigns shall enjoy the right unclogged with
conditions. The act thus admitting the right would prescribe only the
_mode_ by which it shall be ascertained, secured, and enjoyed, and
violations of the right punished; and perhaps make some provisions for
the case of attempts to elude the statute by slight alterations of books
by mutilations and transpositions.'
"To this letter Mr. Webster returned the following answer:--
"'BOSTON, _October 14, 1826_.
"'DEAR SIR,--I have received yours of the 30th of September, and shall,
with your permission, lay it before the committee of the judiciary next
session, as that committee has in contemplation some important changes
in the law respecting copyright. Your opinion, in the abstract, is
certainly right and uncontrovertible. Authorship is, in its nature,
ground of property. Most people, I think, are as well satisfied (or
better) with the reasoning of Mr. Justice Yates as with that of Lord
Mansfield in the great case of Miller and Taylor. But after all,
property, in the social state, must be the creature of law; and it is a
question of expediency, high and general, not particular expediency, how
and how far the rights of authorship should be protected. I confess
frankly that I see, or think I see, objections to make it perpetual. At
the same time I am willing to extend it further than at present, and am
fully persuaded that it ought to be relieved from all charges, such as
depositing copies, etc.
"'Yours, D. WEBSTER.'
* * * * *
"In the autumn of 1827 I applied to the Hon. Mr. Ingersoll, a
representative from Connecticut, stating to him the facts of an
extension of copyright in Great Britain, as also in France, and
requesting him to use his influence to have a bill for a new law brought
forward in Congress. Mr. Ingersoll very cheerfully complied. On the 17th
December, on the motion of Mr. Ingersoll, the House of Representatives
'_Resolved_, that the committee on the judiciary inquire into the
expediency of extending the time for which copyrights may be hereafter
secured to authors, beyond the period now allowed by law; and also of
affording further protection to authors against the publication of
abridgments or summaries of works, after the copyrights thereof have
been secured.' As the committee delayed several weeks to make a report,
Mr. Ingersoll conversed fully on the subject with one of the members,
and addressed a note to the committee, in which he stated the provision
of the British Statute 34th Geo. III., enlarging the rights of authors,
and the liberal provisions of the French laws on the subject. He stated
some of the defects of the old law of the United States, and urged the
expediency and justice of a more liberal law.
"A petition signed by many respectable literary men was, about this
time, presented to Congress, praying for the same object. Some members
of the committee were opposed to the measure; but at length, on the
first of February, 1828, the committee reported a bill consisting of
three sections only, extending the term of copyrights from fourteen to
twenty-eight years, and securing the benefit of the act to authors who
had previously obtained a copyright under the old law. On the 21st of
February, Mr. Verplanck submitted to the House of Representatives an
amendment to the bill reported by the committee, entitled an 'Amendment
to a Bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting Copyrights.' This
amendment was printed by order of the House. It was intended to embrace
all the material provisions of the two former laws, and those of the
bill reported by the judiciary committee; it contained also some
additional improvements. Nothing further was done, and the bill and
amendment died at the close of the session.
"At the next session (1829-1830) the Hon. Mr. Ellsworth, a member from
Connecticut, was appointed one of the judiciary committee, of which the
Hon. Mr. Buchanan was chairman. Before Mr. Ellsworth left home, I
applied to him to make efforts to procure the enactment of a new
copyright law, and sent a petition to Congress, praying for the renewal
of the copyright of one of my books. This petition, being referred to
the judiciary committee, brought the subject distinctly into
consideration. After consultation, the committee authorized Mr.
Ellsworth to prepare a bill for a general law on the subject. In order
to present the subject in its true light to the committee and to
Congress, Mr. Ellsworth wrote notes to the ministers of the principal
European nations, requesting information from each of them respecting
the state of copyrights in the nations they represented. From their
answers, and an inspection of the laws of some of the governments, Mr.
Ellsworth framed a report, stating the terms of time for which
copyrights are secured to authors in Great Britain, France, Russia,
Sweden, Denmark, and certain states in Germany. He also framed a bill
for a law intended to embrace all the material provisions of the old
laws with those of the bill reported by the former judiciary committee.
"In this bill Mr. Ellsworth introduced some valuable provisions which
had been omitted in the old laws, and in the bill and amendment offered
at the former session. He also obtained from his friends some
suggestions which enabled him to correct some errors and supply defects.
This bill was approved by the judiciary committee, reported by Mr.
Ellsworth, and printed by order of the House. But such was the pressure
of business, and so little interest was felt in the bill, that no
efforts of Mr. Ellsworth could bring it before the House at that
session.
"Finding the efforts of the friends of the bill in Congress to be
unavailing to obtain a hearing, I determined in the winter of 1830-1831
to visit Washington myself, and endeavor to accomplish the object.
Accordingly I took lodgings at the seat of government, where I passed
nine or ten weeks; and during this time read a lecture in the Hall of
the Representatives, which was well attended, and, as my friends
informed me, had no little effect in promoting the object of obtaining a
law for securing copyrights.
"The difficulties which had prevented the bill from being brought
forward now disappeared. The bill, at the second reading in the House of
Representatives, met with some opposition; but it was ably supported by
Mr. Ellsworth, Mr. Verplanck, and Mr. Huntington. It passed to a third
reading by a large majority, and was ordered to be engrossed without
opposition. When the bill came before the Senate, it was referred to the
judiciary committee. Mr. Rowan, the chairman, being absent, the
committee requested the Hon. Daniel Webster to take the bill, examine
it, and report it if he thought proper; he did so, and under all
circumstances deemed it expedient to report it without amendment. On the
second reading Mr. Webster made a few explanatory remarks: no other
person uttered a word on the subject; and it passed to a third reading
by a unanimous vote. On the third reading, the Senate, on motion,
dispensed with the reading, and it passed to be engrossed, without
debate.
"In my journeys to effect this object, and in my long attendance in
Washington, I expended nearly a year of time. Of my expenses in money I
have no account, but it is a satisfaction to me that a liberal statute
for securing to authors the fruit of their labor has been obtained."
* * * * *
In this summary the whole history of the copyright statutes appears, and
it is interesting to note that the earliest action by the States and
Congress received its impulse from Webster's spelling-book; the later
and final form of the law was adopted in connection with Mr. Webster's
indefatigable efforts, and the first book to take advantage of it was
his "American Dictionary." His keen sense of the business relations of
his literary work is seen in this early and late energy in securing
satisfactory copyright laws. It is noticeable, too, that in his
correspondence with Daniel Webster he took the position which has of
late been held as the only solution of all copyright questions. Noah
Webster may not have been a great man in his generation, but he had a
singular faculty of being the first in time in many departments of
literary industry, and constantly to have anticipated other people.
Wherever he went he showed the rough draft of his book; he assailed
members of Congress and men of eminence generally. He had faith in it,
and he lived at a time when the individual testimony of men was of
greater weight than now. There were no organs of literary or educational
opinion, no academies or bodies of men especially esteemed as juries in
the case of any book on trial, and indorsements were looked for as
essential to the success of any new venture. There was no great public
to show its interest by buying, and there were no publishers of capital
and organization to relieve the author of publishing labor. In the
recently published correspondence of Jeremy Belknap and Ebenezer
Hazard,[5] one may read the difficulties encountered by a scholarly man
in getting his historical work published. The correspondence for two
years between these gentlemen, with reference to the publication of
Belknap's "History of New Hampshire," a volume of five hundred pages,
shows that every detail of paper, print, and binding, and almost all
arrangements for securing subscriptions, fell upon the author and his
friend, acting for and with him. Subscribers were sought with painful
endeavor, one at a time, and all the points at issue were discussed in
letters which seemed sometimes to travel by chance.
Webster, without money, and almost without friends, but with the kind of
faith which works miracles with other people's faith, succeeded at
length in persuading Hudson & Goodwin, printers in Hartford, to issue an
edition of five thousand copies of the spelling-book. John Trumbull and
Joel Barlow were his chief supporters, the latter backing him with a
little money. The printer was the publisher then; and an author, in
making his arrangements, was accustomed to sell the right to print and
publish to various printers in various parts of the country,--a custom
which continued through the first quarter of the century. The isolation
of the several settled communities rendered collision between the
several dealers unlikely; and, in the absence of quick communication, no
place had any advantage except as a dépôt for the neighboring district.
Rights to print were granted for fourteen years. Such a contract was
made in 1818 by Webster with Mr. Hudson, who was to pay $3,000 a year
during the term. The reader will recall similar arrangements in Irving's
ventures. The popularity of the speller rendered it liable to piracy,
especially in the ruder parts of the country, and as late as 1835 Mr.
Webster writes to his son, established as a bookseller in Louisville: "I
would suggest whether it would not be advisable to publish in Kentucky,
or at least in Tennessee, a short note like this: 'The Public are
cautioned against buying "Webster's American Spelling-Book;" the
editions now in the market are pirated, badly printed, and incorrect.
The author expressly disclaims them.'"
The final success of the little book has been quite beyond definite
computation, but a few figures will show something of the course it has
run. In 1814, 1815, the sales averaged 286,000 copies a year; in 1828
the sales were estimated to be 350,000 copies. In 1847 the statement was
made that about twenty-four million copies of the book had been
published up to that time, and that the sale was then averaging a
million of copies a year. It was also then said, that during the twenty
years in which he was employed in compiling his "American Dictionary,"
the entire support of his family was derived from the profits of this
work, at a premium for copyright of five mills a copy. The sales for
eight years following the Civil War, namely, 1866-1873, aggregated
8,196,028; and the fact that the average yearly sale was scarcely
greater than in 1847 may be referred in part to the great enterprise in
the publication of school-books, which has marked the last twenty years,
by which his speller has been one only of a great many, in part, also,
to the impoverishment of the South where Webster's book had been more
generally accepted than at the North.
The great demand that there was for elementary school-books, the real
advance of Webster's over any then existing, the promptness with which
he met the first call, all these causes combined to give a great impetus
to the little book. At first sight there seems something amusing in the
importance which not only Webster but other men of the time attached to
the spelling-book. Timothy Pickering, in camp at Newburgh, waiting for
the final word of disbanding, sat up into the night to read it! "By the
eastern post yesterday," he writes to his wife, "I was lucky enough to
receive the new spelling-book [Webster's] I mentioned in my last, and
instead of sleeping (for I had a waking fit which prevented me), I read
it through last night, except that I only examined a part of the
different tables. I am much pleased with it. The author is ingenious,
and writes from his own experience as a school-master, as well as the
best authorities; and the time will come when no authority, as an
English grammarian, will be superior to his own. It is the very thing I
have so long wished for, being much dissatisfied with any spelling-book
I had seen before. I now send you the book, and request you to let John
take it to his master, with the enclosed letter; for I am determined to
have him instructed upon this new, ingenious, and, at the same time,
easy plan. There are, you will see by the Introduction, two more parts
to come to complete the plan. I am a stranger to Mr. Webster, but I
intend, when I can find leisure, to write him on the subject, using the
liberty (which he requests) to suggest some little matters which may be
altered and improved in his next edition, for I think the work will do
honor to his country, and I wish it may be perfect. Many men of
literature might think it too trifling a subject; but I am of a
different opinion, and am happy that a gentleman of Mr. Webster's genius
and learning has taken it up. All men are pleased with an elegant
pronunciation, and this new Spelling-Book shows children how to acquire
it with ease and certainty."[6]
Pickering's letter helps us to get behind "Webster's Spelling-Book" in
1783, instead of looking at it from this later vantage-ground of an
accumulated American literature. There runs through the correspondence
of that day a tone which we easily call provincial, but is nevertheless
a distinct expression of the consciousness of the young nation. The
instinct of literature is toward self-centring, and the sense of
national being was very strong in men who had been giving their days and
nights to the birth of a new nation. To understand the state of things
in 1783 we should look at the literary ventures, inclusive of
educational, within the boundaries of the Southern States during the War
of 1861-1865. There the interruption of commerce with the North
compelled a resort to home production in school-book literature, and
intensity of feeling upon sectional questions found frequent expression
in spelling-books and arithmetics. "Webster's Elementary" was reprinted
at Macon, without illustrations and some of the diacritical marks,
_mutatis mutandis_ The reader finds the morals of the book and the
earlier patriotism unchanged, but remembers its latitude when he reads:
"The Senate of the Confederate States is sailed the Upper House of
Congress: The President of the Confederate States is elective once
every six years: The Confederate States have a large extent of
sea-coast, and many parts of the Confederate States are noted for the
fertility of the soil." But these are innocent adaptations; one must
look to the arithmetics for sectional feeling.
In Webster's time, men whose lives had been spent in the struggle for
independence and autonomy looked upon everything relating to their
country with a concentration of interest which not only attested the
sincerity of their convictions, but made them indifferent to the larger,
more universal standards. They were seeing things with American, not
European eyes. When Dr. Belknap and his friend Mr. Hazard were carefully
arranging for the publication of the "History of New Hampshire," they
made proposals to the Longmans, in London, to take an edition, without
any apparent suspicion that such a book might lack readers in England.
The publishers' polite reply intimates the "apprehension that the
history of one particular province of New England would not be of
sufficient importance to engage the attention of this country, and
particularly as it is at present brought down no lower than the year
1714." Belknap's History is an admirable piece of work, the first
scholarly work of its kind on this side of the water, and Dr. Belknap
respected his book. To him, as to many of that generation, a book was a
serious undertaking, and each new one that came was carefully weighed
and its character measured; a history of New Hampshire was not a mere
piece of local self-complacency, but a dignified adventure into a
portion of American history hitherto unexplored. The work expended upon
it was as careful and grave as if the subject had been the Peloponnesian
War. Indeed, one of the substantial evidences of the historic
justification of the war for independence is to be found in the alacrity
with which the scholarly element in the country busied itself about
themes which were close at hand and connected with the land of their
life.
Literature in its finer forms had but slender encouragement. The absence
of easy communication, the poverty of the people, the dispersion of the
population, gave little chance for bookstores and circulating libraries
and private accumulation. It must not be forgotten, either, that the era
of cheap books had not yet come in England, and that the periodical form
was still in embryo. To look back on one of the rather juiceless
periodicals which sprang up so frequently at the beginning of our
literature because they had no depth of earth, and withered away
rootless and sunstruck, is to be over-taken half with scorn for their
pretense, and half with pity for conductors and readers, who had to make
believe very hard to find them quite nice. "They would bear a little
more seasoning certainly," like the marchioness's orange-peel and water;
yet how strong must have been the passion for literature when money was
expended and pains taken with these hopeless ventures. The change in
popular taste, moreover, must not mislead us into supposing that
writings which are arid to us now were necessarily devoid of interest to
contemporary readers. We take down from the shelf the solitary volume
which contains the "American Magazine," and its reading-matter looks as
faded to our eyes as the leather upon the covers, but it was once the
latest publication of the day. We can with little difficulty imagine
that the monthly report of Warren Hastings' trial, with its plan of the
High Court at Westminster, would have an interest at the time quite as
reasonable in its way as that which held readers of journals, not so
long extinct, over the details of the Tichborne case. It is in the field
of polite literature that our later taste refuses to discover anything
in common with the readers of the "American Magazine." What impresses
one most in such a periodical is the value which the conductors set upon
American historical material. This was offered to the public with all
the assurance which now attends the promise of a great serial story. The
explanation may most reasonably be found in the fact, that the
subscribers to any such magazine at the time must have been sought among
the well educated, and this class had been used chiefly to a serious
view of literature.
The "American Magazine" was Webster's venture, and in the Belknap and
Hazard correspondence one may find some curious incidents in the
struggle for existence which the magazine had. It should be premised
that neither of these gentlemen--and they represented the most
cultivated class of the day--had much confidence in Webster. They
nicknamed him the "Monarch," possibly from some assumption and arrogance
in his tone, and he is rarely mentioned by them except in a slighting
manner. "_I_ think the _Monarch_ a literary puppy, from what little I
have seen of him," writes Hazard to Belknap. "He certainly does not want
understanding, and yet there is a mixture of self-sufficiency,
all-sufficiency, and at the same time a degree of insufficiency about
him, which is (to me) intolerable. I do _not_ believe that _he_ is fit
for a superintendent; that the persons mentioned will be his coadjutors,
or that either the _demand_ or the _profits_ will be any way near equal
to his expectations. His specimens already published [three numbers of
the 'American Magazine'] are below mediocrity, and even in them _he_ is
too much the hero of the tale. His plan of a _Federal_ publication, if
sensible, judicious men could be engaged to execute it, and an editor of
the same stamp could be procured, I think would do well. _Considering
circumstances_, I would not advise you to engage with, him, but I think
you may avail yourself of his application with the Columbians; only take
care to do it in such a way that you may not, between two stools, fall
to the ground."
The "Columbian" was a magazine of a little older standing to which Dr.
Belknap had been contributing (his "Foresters" appeared there), and the
incident of the worldly-wise Hazard, gently encouraging the clergyman to
play the rivals against each other, has at least an approach to modern
literary history. Webster, with his restlessness, had no sooner launched
the "American Magazine" than he began to form other projects, as
intimated in Hazard's letter, and wished to secure not only Belknap's
pen, but his more active partnership. Hazard writes again to his friend,
after being asked for further advice: "I am really at a loss how to
advise you, but think, upon the whole, I would let the Columbians know
that 'my necessities also compelled the making a close bargain;' that I
had been applied to in behalf of the New York magazine, but felt myself
so much interested in their success (having been so long connected with
them) that I did not like to leave them, provided they would stipulate
to allow me, _certainly_, what I deemed a reasonable compensation for my
assistance, which they acknowledge they do not now allow; and that, upon
their doing this, I would continue to aid them. If you can contribute
the stipulated assistance to them in case you accept N. W.'s proposal, I
see no reason why you should not do the latter too; for, if you fulfill
your engagements, you do them no injustice. You may, in this case, as
well have two strings to your bow as not, and I think I would advise to
it, especially as the 'Columbian's' continuance is uncertain.[7] I would
inform N. W. that some consideration was necessary respecting his plan;
but that I was, upon the whole, inclined to think I would join him, if
he could get the other gentlemen he mentioned to me to be concerned. I
think no _cash_ is to be advanced by you, upon his plan. It will be some
months before he can begin, and I would not exclude myself from a
chance."
Dr. Belknap's letters to Webster unfortunately do not appear, but his
friend, through whom he wrote, commends him for his prudence. "I find,"
he writes, "you have not a more exalted idea of the Monarch than I have.
I should not be fond of a connection with him, unless I saw it clearly
to my interest." He praises him also for his exertions in behalf of the
feeble "Columbian," which owed its life to him, in his opinion. Oddly
enough, after all of Hazard's cautions and advice to Belknap, he seems
himself to have been involved in negotiations with Webster, and from
this point the correspondence has more interest as throwing light upon
the estimation in which literary material was held at the time. Mr.
Hazard had for a long time been making a collection of papers bearing
upon American colonial history, and had not seen his way clear to a
profitable publication of them. Noah Webster suddenly appears as the
agent for a new magazine in which he has a slight interest, and makes
proposals to Mr. Hazard. It is amusing to see how shy Hazard is of any
close connection with Webster, and yet how continually Webster appears
in the foreground in the affair.
"What would you think," writes Hazard to Belknap, "of my collection of
papers coming to light after lying in obscurity so long? It is likely to
be the case. The 'American Magazine' is to appear in a new form,[8] and
on an extensive plan, and to be the property of _a society_ of
gentlemen, among whom N. W. holds but one share; and I am told he is
going to remove from hence [New York] to Connecticut, so that he will
not be the editor. Their plan is to publish one hundred and four pages
monthly, fifty-six of them are to be in the usual magazine style,
twenty-four are to contain State Papers, and twenty-four either
historical _MSS._, such as 'Winthrop's Journal,' or a republication of
ancient, valuable, and scarce American histories, such as Smith's of
Virginia, etc., etc. N. W. called, to know if I would dispose of my
collection for this purpose, informing me that they intended to print in
such a way that the State Papers and histories might be detached from
the magazine and bound by themselves. After considering of the matter, I
concluded to let them have the collection for £500, which they agreed
to give. I don't altogether like this way of publishing the papers; but
when I reflected on the great uncertainty of my being able to publish
them at all, the risque I run by their remaining _in statu quo_, and the
little probability that I should clear £500 by them if I should publish,
I thought it best to say yes. The money is to be paid by installments.
All this is _inter nos_."
Dr. Belknap now had an opportunity to repay his friend's favors in kind,
and in acknowledging the letter just quoted he writes: "I could wish
that you would take off the restriction of secrecy, so far as it relates
to the intended publication of the magazine and its appendage, because I
apprehend it may be in my power to set on foot a similar publication
here; and the knowledge that such a design is on foot elsewhere may
prove a stimulus to the undertaking." He prudently remarks that the sale
made by his friend is good, "provided the purchasers do not fail in the
payment." Hazard returns to the matter in his next letter: "With respect
to the _MSS._ I made a pretty _safe_ bargain, and yet much will depend
on the success of the publication as to the _quickness_ of the pay....
By agreement I am to hand my papers out in monthly portions, and in
chronological order. The January magazine, or rather _Register_, is to
contain twenty-four pages of them, and as many of 'Winthrop's Journal.'
The design of the intended publication is no secret now, having been
advertised in the newspapers; but I write you not to say anything about
what I am to have for my papers.... N. W. had printed six sheets of
Winthrop, but, upon the new plan's striking him, he thought it best to
publish in the new mode; and I am told he will lose his expense so far,
for his paper is not so fine as the new work is to be done upon, _inter
nos_."
Suddenly Hazard writes to Belknap that Webster is likely to call upon
him, and that if he offers him a partnership in the new magazine, he is
not at once to decline. It is not worth while to follow the ins and outs
of the correspondence upon a scheme which finally fell through, but a
full letter from Hazard to Belknap may fairly be drawn from, since it
puts one into tolerably complete possession of the whole story.
"You must know that N. W. has been for some time trying to get my State
Papers published, and he has generally proposed it in such a way as to
have a share in them himself. Several plans were proposed, and at last
the idea of the Register was started. He called on me and told me that
he had been speaking with some other gentlemen about being concerned in
the 'American Magazine,' and that they were to be concerned with him. He
informed me of their plan, and wished me to join them, and that my
papers might be published in the Register. He intimated that he had five
hundred subscribers [to the 'American Magazine'] who would continue to
take the new work, and that the improvement proposed would greatly
increase the number of subscribers. I objected against being a partner,
but had no objection against letting them have my papers for £500. After
a variety of negotiations, I consented to become a partner,--and they
agreed to allow me £500 for my papers, to be paid out of the profits of
the publication,--if they would yield me £50 per annum, at least, clear
of my share of all expenses; if not, the other proprietors were to make
up that sum to me annually; and, should the work be discontinued before
I was paid, they were then to pay me as much as with my profits (all
expenses first deducted) would make £500. Regular written articles were
drawn, and executed by all but one partner, who has not yet signed them,
nor will, 'til he sees such a number of subscribers in this city [New
York] and its vicinity as will defray the actual expense of the work.
The _profits_ he is willing to risque. He is a discreet, sensible man,
and will be what the sailors call our _main stay_. After the articles
were executed, some of the proprietors observed that they had given
their bond to me for £500, which must be paid at all events, and that I
was to run no risque, and, in fact, to pay no expense,--which was not
putting matters on a fair footing with respect to them (before the time
the proposals were published). They came and stated the case to me. I
immediately saw the propriety of their remarks, and without hesitation
agreed to a new article, that their bond for the price of my papers
should not be in force immediately _upon their publishing_ (which was
the case before), but that they might publish for three months; if they
then discontinued the publication, the bond was to be of no effect; if
they continued it after that period, it was to be in full force; and I
agreed to furnish my proportion of the State Papers, _i. e._, that, as
there were four proprietors, the others should pay me but £375,--the
remaining £125 being my proportion of the cost of the papers. Thus
relief was given on equitable principles.
"In the course of our conversations, at different times, _writers_ were
talked of; N. W. mentioned you. I agreed that you would be a very
suitable person, if you could be got to engage in it, but was
apprehensive your situation would not admit of it. N. W. had no doubt
you could be engaged, for he was very confident (or well persuaded, or
something of that kind) that you wrote for the 'Columbian,' and were
paid for it; and he ascribed the biographical pieces, in particular, to
you. Upon my asking the reasons of his opinion, he replied that he did
not know (or believe) that anybody else possessed suitable materials;
but I suspect he has had more particular information in Philadelphia.
It was suggested among the proprietors that Thomas's magazine[9] would
interfere with us in Massachusetts, where we hope for a number of
subscribers; and N. W. afterwards hinted to me the idea of a coalition,
which I was pleased with. He told me he was going to the eastward, and
would talk with Thomas about it. I _supposed_ that he would talk with
_you_ too, and gave you the hint that you might be prepared. It seems he
has done so; and by last post I received proposals for an union, which I
have laid before the proprietors here, and they are disapproved of. Upon
this plan, the _Register_ was to be printed here, and the _Magazine_ in
Boston. One of the proprietors here was to furnish half the matter for
the magazine monthly, and forward it to Boston, where N. W. was to act
as editor, or engage Mr. Belknap, or some person of equal ability, to
act for him; and this editor was to furnish the other half of the
matter. As a compensation for my papers, I was to be a proprietor of a
seventh of both publications, for they were to be separate. All
expenses, bad debts, and other losses were to be divided equally among
the partners. These proposals were signed by Noah Webster and Isaiah
Thomas & Co. In a letter to me, N. W. sent a calculation, by which he
attempted to prove that the value of a share would be near £200 per
annum. Such an hint might have done for a person unacquainted with the
nature of the business, but old birds want a more substantial temptation
than chaff. A principal objection against the plan of union was the
risque and expense of sending materials and publications backwards and
forwards through so great a distance: one failure would be fatal to one
month's magazine, and a repetition of such a disaster would discourage
subscribers. The subscribers here would probably not be satisfied with a
magazine printed elsewhere, and could not be furnished with one so early
in the month; and, for my part, I am not willing to give up my papers on
so precarious a chance of a recompense.
"N. W. (notwithstanding his obligation under hand and seal) confesses
himself unwilling to continue the Magazine and Register on our first
plan; and I am much mistaken if the other proprietors do not disappoint
him by taking him at his word and releasing him from his obligations;
for his being known to be concerned makes the subscription go on heavily
(this _inter nos_). _His_ magazine was a paltry performance, and people
fear a continuation of it. We cannot find his five hundred subscribers
yet. We have but about two hundred in this city, most of whom have been
tempted by my papers, as is said. We agreed among ourselves not to let
the proprietors be known, but N. W. has let the cat quite out of the
bag. I am clear for going on without him, which I think may be done
better than with him; and my plan would be that a sufficient number of
literary characters should be united to make the most, if not the whole,
of the magazine _original_. The profits upon each share (especially at
first) would be but small; but so, on the other hand, would be the
risque. Suppose there should be _no_ profit for a year or two, and that
the work should but barely defray the expense for that time, yet it may
be presumed that, if it was conducted with spirit, the public would
patronize it, being sure of original entertainment, and that at length
the property would become very valuable. What do you think of this
idea?"
Dr. Belknap's reply to this letter is the last reference to the project
which has any interest: "The Monarch called upon me last Monday evening,
when I was abroad, and left word that he should come again next day at
noon, _upon business_. The _real_ business was to fish out what I had
heard from you. I had then received only your short letter, and told him
that I had heard nothing. He talked about the magazine, and about my
being a partner, and about the business of an editor, and about his
being a lawyer (which, by the way, was new to me), and about the value
of a share, which, as he then estimated it, would be from £50 to £100
per annum, etc., etc., but expected to hear from you and the proprietors
more particularly by the next post, and then we were to have a farther
conference. The next post brought me your long letter, and he has not
made his appearance since. I suppose, by what you say in _confidence_
to me, that he finds he cannot be director general, and possibly
suspects that he may have very little to do. I find myself under some
embarrassment with regard to this _personage_. However, as he is going
to marry into a family with some branches of which I have long had a
very agreeable connection, I must suffer myself to be in a degree of
acquaintance with him, especially if (as he _threatens_) he should make
this place [Boston] his future residence. If I cannot esteem him as a
friend, I do not wish to make him an enemy, and I am very awkward in the
art of Chesterfield. Hence arises my embarrassment. What he has told
Thomas I know not, but I must do him the justice to say that he did not
tell me the names of any of the proprietors, excepting yourself and
himself; nor do I know who the others are."
Hazard's papers were finally published by themselves, and the Magazine
and Register never got beyond the proposals point. Before the collection
was published, however, another magazine loomed up, for the regular
failure of each venture never seemed to dampen the ardor of magazine
projectors. The story of the enterprise sketched in these letters may be
taken as the story of all,--sanguine literary men and inert subscribers;
a class of material is reckoned upon which always seems abundant, vastly
interesting to the persons who hold it, but insufficient to beguile
subscribers. Mr. Hazard, with his collection of papers, expects five
hundred pounds, and his associates think him not unreasonable,
especially after he agrees to pay one fourth himself; and with all his
prudence and shrewdness he begins to count on the profits of the
magazine with something of Webster's facile hope.
Webster himself, in spite of the dislike with which Hazard and Belknap
agreed to regard him, appears in an honorable light. No doubt he was
consequential and eager to have a hand in what was going on, but he had
the confidence and courage which seem to have been lacking in his
associates. His impulsive dashes at literature and capricious excursions
into the realms of language were offensive to highly conservative and
orderly scholars like these correspondents, and they sniffed at him
rather contemptuously; but Webster could disregard the criticism of
others when he had such unbounded self-reliance and zeal. He did not
count the cost carefully of what he undertook, but allowed himself the
luxury of seizing at once upon what engaged his interest. The
publication of "Winthrop's Journal," referred to in the correspondence,
was an undertaking which a more scholarly man might have set about with
greater care and deliberation. Webster never read the original. He saw a
copy from it in the possession of Governor Trumbull, and, perceiving the
value of the material, made haste to get it published. He employed a
secretary of the governor, who made a copy of the copy, comparing it
with the original, which Webster had never seen. Mr. Savage, the learned
editor of the Journal in its complete form, sarcastically says: "The
celebrated philologist, _who in his English Dictionary triumphed over
the difficulties_ of derivation in our etymology from Danish, Russian,
Irish, Welsh, German, high or low, Sanscrit, Persian, or Chaldee
fountains, might, after exhausting his patience, have reputably shrunk
from encounter with the manuscript of Winthrop." But it was something
for Webster to have succeeded in securing a publication of the book in
1790, and the credit due him is not lessened by the fact that he risked
his whole property in the enterprise, and lost money.
He was at this time far from being settled in life. For half a dozen
years he had been scrambling along as well as he could, teaching,
lecturing, practicing a little law, working his books, writing for the
newspapers, securing the passage of copyright laws, trying this city and
that with new ventures, none of which gave him a subsistence. Meanwhile,
he had met in Philadelphia a Boston lady, whom his diary shows him to
have followed with the zeal of his ardent nature; and it is not to be
wondered at that he carried his point here, as so often elsewhere, and
settled, as he thought at the time, in Hartford, in 1789, with his wife,
Rebecca, daughter of Mr. William Greenleaf, of Boston. His brief account
of himself at this date was in the summary: "I had an enterprising turn
of mind, was bold, vain, and inexperienced." John Trumbull, writing to
Oliver Wolcott, announces that "Webster has returned, and brought with
him a pretty wife. I wish him success, but I doubt, in the present decay
of business in our profession [the law], whether his profits will enable
him to keep up the style he sets out with. I fear he will breakfast upon
Institutes, dine upon Dissertations, and go to bed supperless." The
breakfast was indeed likely to prove the only substantial meal; how
substantial it proved we have already noticed. No doubt Webster appeared
to his friends, as half to himself, a restless, uneasy man, incapable of
steady application to law, and making hazardous ventures in literature
in that combined character of author and publisher which the
circumstances of the time rendered almost necessary to any one who
undertook to make a profession of letters.
It is a little significant of Webster's relation to literature that he
moved outside of the knot of men known in our literary history as the
Hartford wits. So many recent claimants for the position of democratic
jester have engaged the public attention that the Hartford wits who
amused our grandfathers rest their fame now rather upon tradition than
upon any perennial liveliness. By their solitude in the pages of
American literature their very title has acquired a certain gravity, and
we are apt to regard them with respect rather than to read them for
amusement. Fossil wits seem properly to be classed with the formation
from which they are dug, and not with living types of the same order.
Yet no picture of the times in which Webster lived would be complete
without a slight reminiscence of this coterie, and the fact that Webster
was the neighbor of these men and himself living by letters suggests a
fresh illustration of the truth that kinship in literature is something
finer and closer than mere circumstantial neighborliness. Trumbull,
Hopkins, Alsop, Dwight, and the minor stars in this twinkling galaxy,
were staunch Federalists, and the occasion of their joint efforts was
chiefly political, but Webster's Federalism did not give him a place in
the set.
The "Echo" was the title which the wits gave to a series of satires that
mocked the prose of the day. If an editor published a piece of bloated
writing, the bubble was pricked by the poetical version; if a
politician disclosed his weakness, his words were caught up and made to
turn him into ridicule. The wits were on the lookout for humbug in any
quarter, but they had their pet aversions, Sam Adams and the Jacobins
being oftenest pilloried. A bombastic account of a thunder-storm in
Boston appears to have given occasion for the first skit, and it was
scarcely necessary to do more than parody the grandiloquent newspaper
language. "The clouds soon dissipated, and the appearance of the azure
vault left trivial hopes of further needful supplies from the uncorked
bottles of heaven. In a few moments the horizon was again overshadowed,
and an almost impenetrable gloom mantled the face of the skies.... The
majestic roar of disploded thunders, now bursting with a sudden crash,
and now wasting the rumbling ECHO of their sounds in other lands, added
indescribable grandeur to the sublime scene." The suggestion of the
"Echo" came from this phrase, and the success of the first venture
easily directed the writers into the use of their instrument for lashing
political enemies. Two numbers were given to matters of trivial or
temporary interest, and then there was a shot at a piece of fustian in
the "Boston Argus" on Liberty, followed shortly after by a gibe at some
correspondent of the "Argus," who frantically exclaimed, on the occasion
of a town meeting refusing to hear Sam Adams: "Shall Europe hear, shall
our Southern brethren be told, that Samuel Adams rose to speak in the
midst of his fellow-citizens, and was silenced!" A few lines from this
satire will best illustrate the vigorous treatment which the wits
employed, and the gusto with which they jostled the great Democrat:--
"Shall Europe hear, shall Gallia's king be told,
That Prince so spirited, so wise and bold,
Whose duteous subjects, anxious to improve
On common forms of loyalty and love,
Took from their sovereign's hands the reins of state,
For fear his royal nerves could not support the weight?
And shall our worthy brethren of the South
Be told Sam Adams could not ope his mouth?
That mouth whence streams of elocution flowed,
Like tail of saw-mill, rapid, rough, and loud,
Sweet as the honey-dews that Maia pours
O'er her green forests and her tufts of flowers,--
That potent mouth, whence issued words of force
To stun an ox, or terrify a horse.
Be told that while those brats whose feeble sight
But just had oped on Freedom's dawning light,
Born in the nick of time that bliss to know
Which to his great and mighty toils we owe,
Received applause from Sages, Fools, and Boys,
The mighty Samuel could not make a noise?
Be told that, silenced by their clam'rous din,
He vainly tried one word to dove-tail in;
That though he strove to speak with might and main
His voice and strivings equally were vain?
* * * * *
Hard has he toiled and richly earned his gains,
Ruined his fingers and spun out his brains
To acquire the right to ope his ponderous jaws,
As the great champion of Sedition's cause.
Once his soft words like streams of melted tar
Stuck in our cars and led us on to war;
But now we hear the self-same accents flow
Unmoved as quails when buried up in snow.
Is his voice weak? That dreadful voice, we're told,
Once made King George the Third through fear turn cold,
Europa's kingdoms to their centre shake,
When mighty Samuel bawl'd at Freedom's stake.
* * * * *
Does his hand shake? When Sam cried out for war
His potent hand spread many a coat of tar,
That sinewy hand the feathers scattered o'er
Till Tories' jackets made their bellies sore.
Say, for whose sake has Time, that Barber gruff,
O'er his wise noddle shook his powder puff?
Was the task hard to hear the sage's noise?
Perhaps the awful sound had frightened boys;
But we, the sons of wisdom, fond to hear,
With joy had held the breath and oped the ear.
Did we e'en doubt that Solomon had spoke?
If so, has memory vanished into smoke."
The most of the succeeding numbers had reference to politics, but room
was found for excursions in other fields: "Monier's Advertisement for a
School," and "Newtonian Philosophy," served as pegs from which to hang
rhymed jests, and the writers would very likely have taken a wider range
if there had been a wider range in public interests. But politics
dominated thought, and the wits were as bitter partisans as they were
clever rhymesters. The poetry of the anti-Jacobin supplied them with the
suggestion of form; but there was not the lightness of touch or deft
mimicry which characterized those remarkable political skits. As one
reads the "Echo," and the "Green-house," and Trumbull's "McFingal," he
is constantly reminded of the heaviness of the education which formed
the substance of the writers' preparation for their task. The rudeness
of the satire is the rudeness of a homespun society.
The authors of the "Echo," when the series came to be reissued in a
volume, provided a somewhat solemn preface, in which they say: "The
principal poems in this volume, under the title of the 'Echo,' owed
their origin to the accidental suggestion of a moment of literary
sportiveness, at a time when pedantry, affectation, and bombast pervaded
most of the pieces published in the gazettes, which were then the
principal vehicles of literary information. Willing to lend their aid to
check the progress of false taste in American literature, the authors
conceived that ridicule would prove a powerful corrective, and that the
mode employed in the 'Echo' was the best suited to this purpose.... But
the ridicule of a vitiated mode of writing was not long the sole object
of the 'Echo.' The important political changes which soon after
occurred, not only in Europe, but in America, produced a corresponding
change in the republic of letters; and some of the principal gazettes of
this country exhibited a disgusting display, not only of a perversion of
taste in composition, but a still greater perversion of principle, in
that hideous morality of revolutionary madness, which, priding itself in
an emancipation from moral obligation, leveled the boundaries of virtue
and vice, while it contemptuously derided the most amiable and sacred
feelings of our nature. Disgusted with the cruelties exhibited by the
French Revolution at a very early stage of its progress, and viewing it
as a consuming fire, which, in the course of its conflagration,
threatened to destroy whatever was most valuable in society, the authors
wished to contribute their efforts in stemming the torrents of
Jacobinism in America, and resolved to render the 'Echo' subservient to
that purpose. They therefore proceeded to attack, as proper objects of
satire, those tenets, as absurd in politics as pernicious in morals, the
visionary scheme of equality, and the baleful doctrine that sanctions
the pursuit of a good end by the most flagitious means."
Webster's judgment of the condition of literature in the country at a
time when he was seeking to live by it is contained in a frank statement
which he makes in one of his letters to Dr. Priestley. That philosopher
had addressed certain letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland, in
which he undertook to lecture them as a philosophical and wise
Englishman might properly lecture the citizens of a young and
inexperienced republic. Webster replied in ten letters and a
postscript, which were collected into a pamphlet and published at New
Haven, in 1800. He contends throughout that Dr. Priestley did not know
his countrymen, and especially that he was ignorant of New England; he
corrects his political judgments, but admits the force in general of his
social and literary criticisms. The picture which Webster draws of the
condition of America at the beginning of the century is instructive, and
explains, indeed, much of his own career:--
"I agree with you fully that our colleges are disgracefully destitute of
books and philosophical apparatus, and that a duty on books without
discrimination is highly impolitic. Very many of the best authors cannot
be printed in the United States for half a century or more; and I am
ashamed to own that scarcely a branch of science can be fully
investigated in America for want of books, especially original works.
This defect of our libraries I have experienced myself in searching for
materials for the history of Epidemic Diseases.
"In regard to the state of learning in general, your remarks are not
sufficiently discriminating. You say there is 'less knowledge in
America than in most of the countries of Europe.' The truth seems to be
that in the Eastern States knowledge is more diffused among the laboring
people than in any country on the globe. The learning of the people
extends to a knowledge of their own tongue, of writing and arithmetic
sufficient to keep their own simple accounts; they read not only the
Bible and newspapers, but almost all read the best English authors, as
the 'Spectator,' 'Rambler,' and the works of Watts, Doddridge, and many
others. If you can find any country in Europe where this is done to the
same extent as in New England, I am very ill informed.
"But in the higher branches of literature our learning is superficial to
a shameful degree. Perhaps I ought to except the science of law, which,
being the road to political life, is probably as well understood as in
Great Britain; and ethics and political science have been greatly
cultivated since the American Revolution. On political subjects I have
no hesitation in saying that I believe the learning of our eminent
statesmen to be superior to that of most European writers, and their
opinions more correct. They have all the authors on these subjects,
united with much experience, which no European country can have had.
This has enabled our statesmen to correct many of the theories which
lead astray European writers.
"But as to classical learning, history, civil and ecclesiastical,
mathematics, astronomy, chymistry, botany, and natural history,
excepting here and there a rare instance of a man who is eminent in some
one of these branches, we may be said to have no learning at all, or a
mere smattering. And what is more distressing to me, I see everywhere a
disposition to decry the ancient and original authors, which I deem far
superior to the modern, and from which the best modern writers have
drawn the finest parts of their productions.
"There is another circumstance still more afflictive to a man who is
attached, as I am, to a republican government, and one that I perceive
has not occurred to you. This is that the equal distribution of estates
and the small property of our citizens, both of which seem connected
with our form of government, if not essential to it, actually tend to
depress the sciences. Science demands leisure and money. Our citizens
have property only to give their sons a four years' education, a time
scarcely sufficient to give them a relish for learning, and far
inadequate to wide and profound researches. As soon as a young man has
closed this period of study, and while he is at the beginning of the
alphabet of science, he must betake himself to a profession, he must
hurry through a few books,--which, by the way, are rarely original
works, but compilations and abridgments,--and then must enter upon
practice, and get his living as well as he can. And as to libraries, we
have no such things. There are not more than three or four tolerable
libraries in America, and these are extremely imperfect. Great numbers
of the most valuable authors have not found their way across the
Atlantic.
"But if our young men had more time to read, their estates will not
enable them to purchase the books requisite to make a learned man. And
this inconvenience, resulting from our government and the state of
society, I know not how to remedy. As this, however, is the government
to which you are attached, you will certainly do us a great service if
you can devise a plan for avoiding its disadvantages. And I can further
inform you that any application to legislatures for money will be
unsuccessful. The utmost we can do is to squeeze a little money
occasionally from the public treasuries to furnish buildings and a
professor or two. But as to libraries, public or private, men who do not
understand their value will be the last to furnish the means of
procuring them. Besides, our rage for gain absorbs all other
considerations; science is a secondary object, and a man who has grown
suddenly from a dunghill, by a fortunate throw of the die, avoids a man
of learning as you would a tiger. There are exceptions to this remark,
and some men of taste, here and there scattered over our country, adorn
the sciences and the moral virtues....
"If the Americans are yet in their leading-strings as to some parts of
literature, there is the more room for improvement; and I am confident
that the genius of my fellow-citizens will not be slack in the
important work. You will please to recollect, sir, that during one
hundred and sixty years of our childhood we were in our nonage;
respecting our parent and looking up to her for books, science, and
improvements. From her we borrowed much learning and some prejudices,
which time alone can remove. And be assured, Dr. Priestley, that the
parent is yet to derive some scientific improvements from the child.
Some false theories, some errors in science, which the British nation
has imbibed from illustrious men, and nourished from an implicit
reliance on their authority, are to be prostrated by the penetrating
genius of America."
It is plain that Webster, aware of the deficiencies of his country in
learning, was not rendered entirely submissive by his knowledge, and was
not at all disposed to accept the relation of pupilage as a permanent
one. He worked with such material as he had, and as a part of the
intellectual movement of the day brought for his contribution both
industry and an elastic hope.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] _Belknap Papers_, v., Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii.
[6] _Life of Timothy Pickering_, i. 479, 480.
[7] Nothing in these periodical ventures seems so certain as their
uncertainty.
[8] It was now in its last number for the year.
[9] The _Massachusetts Magazine_, shortly after commenced by Isaiah
Thomas.