CHAPTER XXVI.

MRS. CLYMER KETCHUM'S PARTY.

Myrtle Hazard had flowered out as beyond question the handsomest girl of

the season. There were hints from different quarters that she might

possibly be an heiress. Vague stories were about of some contingency

which might possibly throw a fortune into her lap. The young men about

town talked of her at the clubs in their free-and-easy way, but all

agreed that she was the girl of the new crop,--"best filly this grass,"

as Livingston Jenkins put it. The general understanding seemed to be

that the young lawyer who had followed her to the city was going to

capture her. She seemed to favor him certainly as much as anybody. But

Myrtle saw many young men now, and it was not so easy as it would once

have been to make out who was an especial favorite.

There had been times when Murray Bradshaw would have offered his heart

and hand to Myrtle at once, if he had felt sure that she would accept

him. But he preferred playing the safe game now, and only wanted to feel

sure of her. He had done his best to be agreeable, and could hardly

doubt that he had made an impression. He dressed well when in the

city,--even elegantly,--he had many of the lesser social

accomplishments, was a good dancer, and compared favorably in all such

matters with the more dashing young fellows in society. He was a better

talker than most of them, and he knew more about the girl he was dealing

with than they could know. "You have only got to say the word, Murray,"

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum said to her relative, "and you can have her. But

don't be rash. I believe you can get Berengaria if you try; and there's

something better there than possibilities." Murray Bradshaw laughed, and

told Mrs. Clymer Ketchum not to worry about him; he knew what he was

doing.

It so happened that Myrtle met Master Byles Gridley walking with Mr.

Gifted Hopkins the day before the party. She longed to have a talk with

her old friend, and was glad to have a chance of pleasing her poetical

admirer. She therefore begged her hostess to invite them both to her

party to please her, which she promised to do at once. Thus the two

elegant notes were accounted for.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, though her acquaintances were chiefly in the world

of fortune and of fashion, had yet a certain weakness for what she

called clever people. She therefore always variegated her parties with a

streak of young artists and writers, and a literary lady or two; and, if

she could lay hands on a first-class celebrity, was as happy as an

Amazon who had captured a Centaur.

"There's a demonish clever young fellow by the name of Lindsay," Mr.

Livingston Jenkins said to her a little before the day of the party.

"Better ask him. They say he's the rising talent in his line,

architecture mainly, but has done some remarkable things in the way of

sculpture. There's some story about a bust he made that was quite

wonderful. I'll find his address for you." So Mr. Clement Lindsay got

his invitation, and thus Mrs. Clymer Ketchum's party promised to bring

together a number of persons with whom we are acquainted, and who were

acquainted with each other.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum knew how to give a party. Let her only have _carte

blanche_ for flowers, music, and champagne, she used to tell her lord,

and she would see to the rest,--lighting the rooms, tables, and toilet.

He needn't be afraid; all he had to do was to keep out of the way.

Subdivision of labor is one of the triumphs of modern civilization.

Labor was beautifully subdivided in this lady's household. It was old

Ketchum's business to make money, and he understood it. It was Mrs. K.'s

business to spend money, and she knew how to do it. The rooms blazed

with light like a conflagration; the flowers burned like lamps of

many-colored flame; the music throbbed into the hearts of the

promenaders and tingled through all the muscles of the dancers.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum was in her glory. Her _point d'Alençon_ must have

spoiled ever so many French girls' eyes. Her bosom heaved beneath a kind

of breastplate glittering with a heavy dew of diamonds. She glistened

and sparkled with every movement, so that the admirer forgot to question

too closely whether the eyes matched the brilliants, or the cheeks

glowed like the roses. Not far from the great lady stood Myrtle Hazard.

She was dressed as the fashion of the day demanded, but she had added

certain audacious touches of her own, reminiscences of the time when the

dead beauty had flourished, and which first provoked the question and

then the admiration of the young people who had a natural eye for

effect. Over the long white glove on her left arm was clasped a rich

bracelet, of so quaint an antique pattern that nobody had seen anything

like it, and as some one whispered that it was "the last thing out," it

was greatly admired by the fashion-plate multitude, as well as by the

few who had a taste of their own. If the soul of Judith Pride, long

divorced from its once beautifully moulded dust, ever lived in dim

consciousness through any of those who inherited her blood, it was then

and there that she breathed through the lips of Myrtle Hazard. The young

girl almost trembled with the ecstasy of this new mode of being,

soliciting every sense with light, with perfume, with melody,--all that

could make her feel the wonderful complex music of a fresh life when all

its chords first vibrate together in harmony. Miss Rhadamantha Pinnikle,

whose mother was an Apex (of whose race it was said that they always

made an obeisance when the family name was mentioned, and had all their

portraits painted with halos round their heads), found herself

extinguished in this new radiance. Miss Victoria Capsheaf stuck to the

wall as if she had been a fresco on it. The fifty-year-old dynasties

were dismayed and dismounted. Myrtle fossilized them as suddenly as if

she had been a Gorgon, instead of a beauty.

The guests in whom we may have some interest were in the mean time

making ready for the party, which was expected to be a brilliant one;

for 24 Carat Place was well known for the handsome style of its

entertainments.

Clement Lindsay was a little surprised by his invitation. He had,

however, been made a lion of several times of late; and was very willing

to amuse himself once in a while with a peep into the great world. It

was but an empty show to him at best, for his lot was cast, and he

expected to lead a quiet domestic life after his student days were over.

Master Byles Gridley had known what society was in his earlier time, and

understood very well that all a gentleman of his age had to do was to

dress himself in his usual plain way, only taking a little more care in

his arrangements than was needed in the latitude of Oxbow Village. But

Gifted must be looked after, that he should not provoke the unamiable

comments of the city youth by any defect or extravagance of costume. The

young gentleman had bought a light sky-blue neckerchief, and a very

large breastpin containing a gem which he was assured by the vendor was

a genuine stone. He considered that both these would be eminently

effective articles of dress, and Mr. Gridley had some trouble to

convince him that a white tie and plain shirt-buttons would be more

fitted to the occasion.

On the morning of the day of the great party Mr. William Murray Bradshaw

received a brief telegram, which seemed to cause him great emotion, as

he changed color, uttered a forcible exclamation, and began walking up

and down his room in a very nervous kind of way. It was a foreshadowing

of a certain event now pretty sure to happen. Whatever bearing this

telegram may have had upon his plans, he made up his mind that he would

contrive an opportunity somehow that very evening to propose himself as

a suitor to Myrtle Hazard. He could not say that he felt as absolutely

certain of getting the right answer as he had felt at some previous

periods. Myrtle knew her price, he said to himself, a great deal better

than when she was a simple country girl. The flatteries with which she

had been surrounded, and the effect of all the new appliances of beauty,

which had set her off so that she could not help seeing her own

attractions, rendered her harder to please and to satisfy. A little

experience in society teaches a young girl the arts and the phrases

which all the Lotharios have in common. Murray Bradshaw was ready to

land his fish now, but he was not quite sure that she was yet hooked,

and he had a feeling that by this time she knew every fly in his book.

However, as he had made up his mind not to wait another day, he

addressed himself to the trial before him with a determination to

succeed, if any means at his command would insure success. He arrayed

himself with faultless elegance: nothing must be neglected on such an

occasion. He went forth firm and grave as a general going into a battle

where all is to be lost or won. He entered the blazing saloon with the

unfailing smile upon his lips, to which he set them as he set his watch

to a particular hour and minute.

The rooms were pretty well filled when he arrived and made his bow

before the blazing, rustling, glistening, waving, blushing appearance

under which palpitated, with the pleasing excitement of the magic scene

over which its owner presided, the heart of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum. He

turned to Myrtle Hazard, and if he had ever doubted which way his

inclinations led him, he could doubt no longer. How much dress and how

much light can a woman bear? That is the way to measure her beauty. A

plain girl in a simple dress, if she has only a pleasant voice, may seem

almost a beauty in the rosy twilight. The nearer she comes to being

handsome, the more ornament she will bear, and the more she may defy the

sunshine or the chandelier. Murray Bradshaw was fairly dazzled with the

brilliant effect of Myrtle in full dress. He did not know before what

handsome arms she had,--Judith Pride's famous arms, which the

high-colored young men in top-boots used to swear were the handsomest

pair in New England, right over again. He did not know before with what

defiant effect she would light up, standing as she did directly under a

huge lustre, in full flower of flame, like a burning azalea. He was not

a man who intended to let his sentiments carry him away from the serious

interests of his future, yet, as he looked upon Myrtle Hazard, his heart

gave one throb which made him feel in every pulse that this was a woman

who in her own right, simply as a woman, could challenge the homage of

the proudest young man of her time. He hardly knew till this moment how

much of passion mingled with other and calmer motives of admiration. He

could say _I love you_ as truly as such a man could ever speak these

words, meaning that he admired her, that he was attracted to her, that

he should be proud of her as his wife, that he should value himself

always as the proprietor of so rare a person, that no appendage to his

existence would take so high a place in his thoughts. This implied also,

what is of great consequence to a young woman's happiness in the married

state, that she would be treated with uniform politeness, with

satisfactory evidences of affection, and with a degree of confidence

quite equal to what a reasonable woman should expect from a very

superior man, her husband.

If Myrtle could have looked through the window in the breast against

which only authors are privileged to flatten their features, it is for

the reader to judge how far the programme would have satisfied her. Less

than this, a great deal less, does appear to satisfy many young women;

and it may be that the picture just drawn, fairly judged, belongs to a

model lover and husband. Whether it does or not; Myrtle did not see this

picture. There was a beautifully embroidered shirt-bosom in front of

that window through which we have just looked, that intercepted all

sight of what was going on within. She only saw a man, young, handsome,

courtly, with a winning tongue, with an ambitious spirit, whose every

look and tone implied his admiration of herself, and who was associated

with her past life in such a way that they alone appeared like old

friends in the midst of that cold, alien throng. It seemed as if he

could not have chosen a more auspicious hour than this; for she never

looked so captivating, and her presence must inspire his lips with the

eloquence of love. And she--was not this delirious atmosphere of light

and music just the influence to which he would wish to subject her

before trying the last experiment of all which can stir the soul of a

woman? He knew the mechanism of that impressionable state which served

Coleridge so excellently well,--

"All impulses of soul and sense

Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve;

The music, and the doleful tale,

The rich and balmy eve,"--

though he hardly expected such startling results as happened in that

case,--which might be taken as an awful warning not to sing moving

ballads to young ladies of susceptible feelings, unless one is prepared

for very serious consequences. Without expecting that Myrtle would rush

into his arms, he did think that she could not help listening to him in

the intervals of the delicious music, in some recess where the roses and

jasmines and heliotropes made the air heavy with sweetness, and the

crimson curtains drooped in heavy folds that half hid their forms from

the curious eyes all round them. Her heart would swell like Genevieve's

as he told her in simple phrase that she was his life, his love, his

all,--for in some two or three words like these he meant to put his

appeal, and not in fine poetical phrases: that would do for Gifted

Hopkins and rhyming tomtits of that feather.

Full of his purpose, involving the plans of his whole life, implying, as

he saw clearly, a brilliant future or a disastrous disappointment, with

a great unexploded mine of consequences under his feet, and the spark

ready to fall into it, he walked about the gilded saloon with a smile

upon his lips so perfectly natural and pleasant, that one would have

said he was as vacant of any aim, except a sort of superficial

good-natured disposition to be amused, as the blankest-eyed simpleton

who had tied himself up in a white cravat and come to bore and be bored.

Yet under this pleasant smile his mind was so busy with its thoughts

that he had forgotten all about the guests from Oxbow Village who, as

Myrtle had told him, were to come this evening. His eye was all at once

caught by a familiar figure, and he recognized Master Byles Gridley,

accompanied by Mr. Gifted Hopkins, at the door of the saloon. He stepped

forward at once to meet and to present them.

Mr. Gridley in evening costume made an eminently dignified and

respectable appearance. There was an unusual look of benignity upon his

firmly moulded features, and an air of ease which rather surprised Mr.

Bradshaw, who did not know all the social experiences which had formed a

part of the old Master's history. The greeting between them was

courteous, but somewhat formal, as Mr. Bradshaw was acting as one of the

masters of ceremony. He nodded to Gifted in an easy way, and led them

both into the immediate Presence.

"This is my friend Professor Gridley, Mrs. Ketchum, whom I have the

honor of introducing to you,--a very distinguished scholar, as I have no

doubt you are well aware. And this is my friend Mr. Gifted Hopkins, a

young poet of distinction, whose fame will reach you by and by, if it

has not come to your ears already."

The two gentlemen went through the usual forms, the poet a little

crushed by the Presence, but doing his best. While the lady was making

polite speeches to them, Myrtle Hazard came forward. She was greatly

delighted to meet her old friend, and even looked upon the young poet

with a degree of pleasure she would hardly have expected to receive from

his company. They both brought with them so many reminiscences of

familiar scenes and events, that it was like going back for the moment

to Oxbow Village. But Myrtle did not belong to herself that evening, and

had no opportunity to enter into conversation just then with either of

them. There was to be dancing by and by, and the younger people were

getting impatient that it should begin. At last the music sounded the

well-known summons, and the floors began to ring to the tread of the

dancers. As usual on such occasions there were a large number of

non-combatants, who stood as spectators around those who were engaged in

the campaign of the evening. Mr. Byles Gridley looked on gravely,

thinking of the minuets and the gavots of his younger days. Mr. Gifted

Hopkins, who had never acquired the desirable accomplishment of dancing,

gazed with dazzled and admiring eyes at the wonderful evolutions of the

graceful performers. The music stirred him a good deal; he had also been

introduced to one or two young persons as Mr. Hopkins, the poet, and he

began to feel a kind of excitement, such as was often the prelude of a

lyric burst from his pen. Others might have wealth and beauty, he

thought to himself, but what were these to the gift of genius? In fifty

years the wealth of these people would have passed into other hands. In

fifty years all these beauties would be dead, or wrinkled and

double-wrinkled great-grandmothers. And when they were all gone and

forgotten, the name of Hopkins would be still fresh in the world's

memory. Inspiring thought! A smile of triumph rose to his lips; he felt

that the village boy who could look forward to fame as his inheritance

was richer than all the millionnaires, and that the words he should set

in verse would have a lustre in the world's memory to which the

whiteness of pearls was cloudy, and the sparkle of diamonds dull.

He raised his eyes, which had been cast down in reflection, to look upon

these less favored children of Fortune, to whom she had given nothing

but perishable inheritances. Two or three pairs of eyes, he observed,

were fastened upon him. His mouth perhaps betrayed a little

self-consciousness, but he tried to show his features in an aspect of

dignified self-possession. There seemed to be remarks and questionings

going on, which he supposed to be something like the following:--

Which is it? Which is it?--Why, that one, there,--that young

fellow,--don't you see?--What young fellow are you two looking at? Who

is he? What is he?--Why, that is _Hopkins_, the poet.--Hopkins, the

poet! Let me see him! Let _me_ see him!--Hopkins? What! Gifted Hopkins?

etc., etc.

Gifted Hopkins did not hear these words except in fancy, but he did

unquestionably find a considerable number of eyes concentrated upon him,

which he very naturally interpreted as an evidence that he had already

begun to enjoy a foretaste of the fame of which he should hereafter have

his full allowance. Some seemed to be glancing furtively, some appeared

as if they wished to speak, and all the time the number of those looking

at him seemed to be increasing. A vision came through his fancy of

himself as standing on a platform, and having persons who wished to look

upon him and shake hands with him presented, as he had heard was the way

with great people when going about the country. But this was only a

suggestion, and by no means a serious thought, for that would have

implied infatuation.

Gifted Hopkins was quite right in believing that he attracted many eyes.

At last those of Myrtle Hazard were called to him, and she perceived

that an accident was making him unenviably conspicuous. The bow of his

rather large white neck-tie had slid round and got beneath his left ear.

A not very good-natured or well-bred young fellow had pointed out the

subject of this slight misfortune to one or two others of not much

better taste or breeding, and thus the unusual attention the youthful

poet was receiving explained itself. Myrtle no sooner saw the little

accident of which her rural friend was the victim, than she left her

place in the dance with a simple courage which did her credit. "I want

to speak to you a minute," she said. "Come into this alcove."

And the courageous young lady not only told Gifted what had happened to

him, but found a pin somehow, as women always do on a pinch, and had him

in presentable condition again almost before the bewildered young man

knew what was the matter. On reflection it occurred to him, as it has to

other provincial young persons going to great cities, that he might

perhaps have been hasty in thinking himself an object of general

curiosity as yet. There had hardly been time for his name to have become

very widely known. Still, the feeling had been pleasant for the moment,

and had given him an idea of what the rapture would be, when, wherever

he went, the monster digit (to hint a classical phrase) of the

collective admiring public would be lifted to point him out, and the

whisper would pass from one to another, "That's him! That's Hopkins!"

Mr. Murray Bradshaw had been watching the opportunity for carrying out

his intentions, with his pleasant smile covering up all that was

passing in his mind, and Master Byles Gridley, looking equally

unconcerned, had been watching him. The young man's time came at last.

Some were at the supper-table, some were promenading, some were talking,

when he managed to get Myrtle a little apart from the rest, and led her

towards one of the recesses in the apartment, where two chairs were

invitingly placed. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were

sparkling,--the influences to which he had trusted had not been thrown

away upon her. He had no idea of letting his purpose be seen until he

was fully ready. It required all his self-mastery to avoid betraying

himself by look or tone, but he was so natural that Myrtle was thrown

wholly off her guard. He meant to make her pleased with herself to begin

with, and that not by point-blank flattery, of which she had had more

than enough of late, but rather by suggestion and inference, so that she

should find herself feeling happy without knowing how. It would be easy

to glide from that to the impression she had produced upon him, and get

the two feelings more or less mingled in her mind. And so the simple

confession he meant to make would at length evolve itself logically, and

hold by a natural connection to the first agreeable train of thought

which he had called up. Not the way, certainly, that most young men

would arrange their great trial scene; but Murray Bradshaw was a lawyer

in love as much as in business, and considered himself as pleading a

cause before a jury of Myrtle Hazard's conflicting motives. What would

any lawyer do in a jury case, but begin by giving the twelve honest men

and true to understand, in the first place, that their intelligence and

virtue were conceded by all, and that he himself had perfect confidence

in them, and leave them to shape their verdict in accordance with these

propositions and his own side of the case?

Myrtle had, perhaps, never so seriously inclined her ear to the pleasing

accents of the young pleader. He flattered her with so much tact, that

she thought she heard an unconscious echo through his lips of an

admiration which he only shared with all around him. But in him he made

it seem discriminating, deliberate, not blind, but very real. This it

was which had led him to trust her with his ambitions and his

plans,--they might be delusions, but he could never keep them from her,

and she was the one woman in the world to whom he thought he could

safely give his confidence.

The dread moment was close at hand. Myrtle was listening with an

instinctive premonition of what was coming,--ten thousand mothers and

grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and so on, had passed through it

all in preceding generations until time reached backwards to the sturdy

savage who asked no questions of any kind, but knocked down the great

primeval grandmother of all, and carried her off to his hole in the

rock, or into the tree where he had made his nest. Why should not the

coming question announce itself by stirring in the pulses and thrilling

in the nerves of the descendant of all these grandmothers?

She was leaning imperceptibly towards him, drawn by the mere blind

elemental force, as the plummet was attracted to the side of

Schehallion. Her lips were parted, and she breathed a little faster than

so healthy a girl ought to breathe in a state of repose. The steady

nerves of William Murray Bradshaw felt unwonted thrills and tremors

tingling through them, as he came nearer and nearer the few simple words

with which he was to make Myrtle Hazard the mistress of his destiny. His

tones were becoming lower and more serious; there were slight breaks

once or twice in the conversation; Myrtle had cast down her eyes.

"There is but one word more to add," he murmured softly, as he bent

towards her--

A grave voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, Mr. Bradshaw," said Master

Byles Gridley, "I wish to present a young gentleman to my friend here. I

promised to show him the most charming young person I have the honor to

be acquainted with, and I must redeem my pledge. Miss Hazard, I have the

pleasure of introducing to your acquaintance my distinguished young

friend, Mr. Clement Lindsay."

Once more, for the third time, these two young persons stood face to

face. Myrtle was no longer liable to those nervous seizures which any

sudden impression was liable to produce when she was in her

half-hysteric state of mind and body. She turned to the new-comer, who

found himself unexpectedly submitted to a test which he would never have

risked of his own will. He must go through it, cruel as it was, with the

easy self-command which belongs to a gentleman in the most trying social

exigencies. He addressed her, therefore, in the usual terms of courtesy,

and then turned and greeted Mr. Bradshaw, whom he had never met since

their coming together at Oxbow Village. Myrtle was conscious, the

instant she looked upon Clement Lindsay, of the existence of some

peculiar relation between them; but what, she could not tell. Whatever

it was, it broke the charm that had been weaving between her and Murray

Bradshaw. He was not foolish enough to make a scene. What fault could he

find with Clement Lindsay, who had only done as any gentleman would do

with a lady to whom he had just been introduced,--addressed a few polite

words to her? After saying those words, Clement had turned very

courteously to him, and they had spoken with each other. But Murray

Bradshaw could not help seeing that Myrtle had transferred her

attention, at least for the moment, from him to the new-comer. He folded

his arms and waited,--but he waited in vain. The hidden attraction which

drew Clement to the young girl with whom he had passed into the Valley

of the Shadow of Death overmastered all other feelings, and he gave

himself up to the fascination of her presence.

The inward rage of Murray Bradshaw at being interrupted just at the

moment when he was, as he thought, about to cry checkmate and finish the

first great game he had ever played, may well be imagined. But it could

not be helped. Myrtle had exercised the customary privilege of young

ladies at parties, and had turned from talking with one to talking with

another,--that was all. Fortunately for him the young man who had been

introduced at such a most critical moment was not one from whom he need

apprehend any serious interference. He felt grateful beyond measure to

pretty Susan Posey, who, as he had good reason for believing, retained

her hold upon her early lover, and was looking forward with bashful

interest to the time when she should become Mrs. Lindsay. It was better

to put up quietly with his disappointment; and, if he could get no

favorable opportunity that evening to resume his conversation at the

interesting point where he left it off, he would call the next day and

bring matters to a conclusion.

He called accordingly, the next morning, but was disappointed in not

seeing Myrtle. She had hardly slept that night, and was suffering from a

bad headache, which last reason was her excuse for not seeing company.

He called again, the following day, and learned that Miss Hazard had

just left the city, and gone on a visit to Oxbow Village.

PROPHETIC VOICES ABOUT AMERICA: A MONOGRAPH.

The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the greatest event

of all secular history. Besides the potato, the turkey, and maize, which

it introduced at once for the nourishment and comfort of the Old World,

this discovery opened the door to influences infinite in extent and

beneficence. Measure them, describe them, picture them, you cannot.

While this continent was unknown, imagination invested it with

proverbial magnificence. It was the Orient. When afterwards it took its

place in geography, imagination found another field in trying to portray

its future history. If the Golden Age is before, and not behind, as is

now happily the prevailing faith, then indeed must America share at

least, if it does not monopolize, the promised good.

Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, nothing of America was really

known. A few scraps from antiquity, a few rumors from the ocean, and a

few speculations from science, were all that the inspired navigator

found to guide him. Foremost among all these were the well-known verses

of the Spaniard Seneca, in the chorus of his "Medea," which for

generations had been the finger-point to an undiscovered world.

"Venient annis sæcula seris

Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum

Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,

Tethysque novos detegat orbes;

Nec sit terris ultima Thule."[1]

"In tardy years the epoch will come in which the ocean will unloose the

bonds of nature, and the great earth will stretch out, and the sea will

disclose new worlds; nor will Thule be the most remote on the globe."

Two, if not more, different copies of these verses are extant in the

handwriting of Columbus,--precious autographs; one in the sketch of his

work on the Prophecies, another in a letter addressed to Queen Isabella;

and it would seem as if there was still a third entered among his

observations of lunar eclipses at Hayti and Jamaica. By these verses the

great discoverer sailed. But Humboldt, who has illustrated the

enterprise with all that classical or mediæval literature affords,[2]

does not hesitate to declare his conviction, that the discovery of a new

continent was more completely foreshadowed in the simple geographical

statement of the Greek Strabo, who, after a long life of travel, sat

down in the eighty-fourth year of his age, during the reign of Augustus,

to write the geography of the world, including its cosmography. In this

work, where are gathered the results of ancient study and experience,

the venerable author, after alluding to the possibility of passing

direct from Spain to India, and explaining that the inhabited world is

that which we inhabit and know, thus lifts the curtain: "There may be in

the same temperate zone _two and indeed more inhabited lands_,

especially nearest the parallel of Thinæ or Athens, prolonged into the

Atlantic Ocean."[3] This was the voice of ancient science.

Before the voyage of Columbus, Pulci, the Italian poet, in his _Morgante

Maggiore_, sometimes called the last of the romances and the earliest of

the Italian epics, reveals an undiscovered world beyond the Pillars of

Hercules.

"Know that this theory is false; _his bark

The daring mariner shall urge far o'er

The western wave, a smooth and level plain_,

Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel.

Man was in ancient days of grosser mould,

And Hercules might blush to learn how far

_Beyond the limits he had vainly set

The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way_.

"_Men shall descry another hemisphere_,

Since to one common centre all things tend;

So earth, by curious mystery divine

Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.

_At our Antipodes are cities, states,

And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore._

But see, the sun speeds on his western path

To glad the nations with expected light."[4]

This translation is by our own eminent historian, Prescott, who first

called attention to this testimony,[5] which is not mentioned even by

Humboldt. Leigh Hunt referred to it at a later day.[6] Pulci was born in

Florence, 1431, and died there, 1487, five years before Columbus sailed,

so that he was not aided by any rumor of the discovery which he so

distinctly predicts.

Passing from the discovery, it may not be uninteresting to collect some

of the prophetic voices about the future of America, the "All-Hail

Hereafter" of our continent. They will have a lesson also. Seeing what

has been already fulfilled, we may better judge what to expect. I shall

set them forth in the order of time, prefacing each prediction with an

account of the author sufficient to explain its origin and character. If

some are already familiar, others are little known. Brought together

into one body, on the principle of our national Union, _E pluribus

unum_, they must give new confidence in the destinies of the Republic.

Of course I shall embrace only what has been said seriously by those

whose words are important; not an oracular response, which may receive a

double interpretation, like the deceptive replies to Croesus and to

Pyrrhus; and not a saying, such as is described by Sir Thomas Browne

when he remarks, in his "Christian Morals," that "many positions seem

quodlibetically constituted, and, like a Delphian blade, will cut both

ways."[7] Men who have lived much and felt strongly see further than

others. Their vision penetrates the future. Second sight is little more

than clearness of sight. Milton tells us,

"That old experience does attain

To something like prophetic strain."

Sometimes this strain is attained even in youth.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.--1682.

Dr. Johnson called attention to a tract of Sir Thomas Browne entitled,

"A Prophecy concerning the Future State of Several Nations," where the

famous author "plainly discovers his expectation to be the same with

that entertained later with more confidence by Dr. Berkeley, _that

America will be the seat of the fifth empire_."[8] The tract is vague,

but prophetic.

Sir Thomas Browne was born 19th October, 1605, and died 19th October,

1682. His tract was published, two years after his death, in a

collection of Miscellanies, edited by Dr. Tenison. As a much-admired

author, some of whose writings belong to our English classics, his

prophetic prolusions are not unworthy of notice. They are founded on

verses entitled "The Prophecy," purporting to have been sent to him by a

friend. Among these are the following:--

"When New England shall trouble New Spain,

When Jamaica shall be lady of the isles and the main;

When Spain shall be in America hid,

And Mexico shall prove a Madrid;

_When Africa shall no more sell out their blacks

To make slaves and drudges to the American tracts_;

* * * * *

_When America shall cease to send out its treasure,

But employ it at home in American pleasure;

When the New World shall the Old invade,

Nor count them their lords but their fellows in trade_;

* * * * *

Then think strange things have come to light,

Whereof but few have had a foresight."[9]

Some of these words are striking, especially when we consider their

early date. The author of the "Religio Medici" seems in the main to

accept the prophecy. In a commentary on each verse he seeks to explain

it. New England is "that thriving colony which hath so much increased in

his day"; its people are already "industrious," and when they have so

far increased "that the neighboring country will not contain them, they

will range still farther, and be able in time to set forth great

armies, seek for new possessions, or _make considerable and conjoined

migrations_." The verse about Africa will be fulfilled "when African

countries shall no longer make it a common trade to sell away their

people." And this may come to pass "whenever they shall be well

civilized and acquainted with arts and affairs sufficient to employ

people in their countries." It would also come to pass "if they should

be converted to Christianity, but especially into Mahometism; for then

they would never sell those of their religion to be slaves unto

Christians." The verse about America is expounded as follows:--

"That is, when America shall be better civilized, new policied, and

divided between great princes, it may come to pass that they will no

longer suffer their treasure of gold and silver to be sent out to

maintain the luxury of Europe and other ports; but rather employ it to

their own advantages, in great exploits and undertakings, magnificent

structures, wars, or expeditions of their own."[10]

The other verse, on the invasion of the Old World by the New, is thus

explained:--

"That is, when America shall be so well peopled, civilized, and divided

into kingdoms, _they are like to have so little regard of their

originals as to acknowledge no subjection unto them_; they may also have

a distinct commerce themselves, or but independently with those of

Europe, and may hostilely and piratically assault them, even as the

Greek and Roman colonies after a long time dealt with their original

countries."[11]

That these speculations should arrest the attention of Dr. Johnson is

something. They seem to have been in part fulfilled. An editor remarks

that, "To judge from the course of events since Sir Thomas wrote, we may

not unreasonably look forward to their more complete fulfilment."[12]

BISHOP BERKELEY.--1726.

It is pleasant to think that Berkeley, whose beautiful verses predicting

the future of America are so often quoted, was so sweet and charming a

character. Atterbury wrote of him, "So much understanding, knowledge,

innocence, and humility I should have thought confined to angels, had I

never seen this gentleman." Swift said, "He is an absolute philosopher

with regard to money, title, and power." Pope let drop a tribute which

can never die, when he said,

"To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven."

Such a person was naturally a seer.

He is compendiously called an Irish prelate and philosopher; he was born

in Kilkenny, 1684, and died in Oxford, 1753. He began as a philosopher.

While still young, he wrote his famous treatise on "The Principles of

Human Knowledge," in which he denies the existence of matter, insisting

that it is only an impression produced on the mind by Divine power.

After travel for several years on the Continent, and fellowship with the

witty and learned at home, among whom were Addison, Swift, Pope, Garth,

and Arbuthnot, he conceived the project of educating the aborigines of

America, which was set forth in a tract, published in 1725, entitled,

"Scheme for Converting the Savage Americans to Christianity by a College

to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Isles of

Bermuda." Persuaded by his benevolence, the ministers promised twenty

thousand pounds, and there were several private subscriptions to promote

what was called by the king "so pious an undertaking." Berkeley

possessed already a deanery in Ireland, with one thousand pounds a year.

Turning away from this residence, and refusing to be tempted by an

English mitre, offered by the queen, he set sail for Rhode Island,

"which lay nearest Bermuda," where, after a tedious passage of five

months, he arrived, 23d January, 1729. Here he lived on a farm back of

Newport, having been, according to his own report, "at great expense

for land and stock." In familiar letters he has given his impression of

this place, famous since for fashion. "The climate," he says, "is like

that of Italy, and not at all colder in the winter than I have known it

everywhere north of Rome. This island is pleasantly laid out in hills

and vales and rising grounds, hath plenty of excellent springs and fine

rivulets and many delightful landscapes of rocks and promontories and

adjacent lands. The town of Newport contains about six thousand souls,

and is the most thriving, flourishing place in all America for its

bigness. It is very pretty and pleasantly situated. I was never more

agreeably surprised than at the first sight of the town and its

harbor."[13] He seems to have been contented here, and when his

companions went to Boston stayed at home, "preferring," as he wrote,

"quiet and solitude to the noise of a great town, notwithstanding all

the solicitations that have been used to draw us thither."[14]

The money which he had expected, especially from the ministry, failed,

and after waiting in vain expectation two years and a half, he returned

to England, leaving an infant son buried in the yard of Trinity Church,

and bestowing upon Yale College a library of eight hundred and eighty

volumes, as well as his estate in Rhode Island. During his residence at

Newport he had preached every Sunday, and was indefatigable in pastoral

duties, besides meditating, if not composing, "The Minute Philosopher,"

which was published shortly after his return.

He had not been forgotten at home during his absence; and shortly after

his return he became Bishop of Cloyne, in which place he was most

exemplary, devoting himself to his episcopal duties, to the education of

his children, and the pleasures of composition.

It was while occupied with his plan of a college, especially as a

nursery for the Colonial churches, shortly before sailing for America,

that the future seemed to be revealed to him, and he wrote the famous

poem, the only one to be found among his works, entitled, "Verses on the

Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America."[15] The date may be

fixed at 1726. Such a poem was an historic event. I give the first and

last stanzas.

"The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime

Barren of every glorious theme,

_In distant lands now waits a better_,

_Producing subjects worthy fame_.

* * * * *

"_Westward the course of empire takes its way_;

The first four acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day;

Time's noblest offspring is the last."

It is difficult to exaggerate the value of these verses, which have been

so often quoted as to become one of the commonplaces of literature and

politics. There is nothing from any oracle, there is very little from

any prophecy, which can compare with them. The biographer of Berkeley,

who wrote in the last century, was very cautious, when, after calling

them "a beautiful copy of verses," he says that "another age will,

perhaps, acknowledge the old conjunction of the prophetic character with

that of the poet to have again taken place."[16] The _vates_ of the

Romans was poet and prophet; and such was Berkeley.

The sentiment which prompted the prophetic verses of the good Bishop was

widely diffused; or, perhaps, it was a natural prompting.[17] Of this an

illustration is afforded in the life of Benjamin West. On his visit to

Rome in 1760, the young artist encountered a famous improvvisatore, who,

on learning that he was an American come to study the fine arts in Rome,

at once addressed him with the ardor of inspiration, and to the music of

his guitar. After singing the darkness which for so many ages veiled

America from the eyes of science, and also the fulness of time when the

purposes for which America had been raised from the deep would be

manifest, he hailed the youth before him as an instrument of Heaven to

raise there a taste for those arts which elevate man, and an assurance

of refuge to science and knowledge, when, in the old age of Europe, they

should have forsaken her shores. Then, in the spirit of prophecy, he

sang:--

"_But all things of heavenly origin, like the glorious sun, move

westward_; and truth and art have their periods of shining and of night.

Rejoice then, O venerable Rome, in thy divine destiny; for though

darkness overshadow thy seats, and though thy mitred head must descend

into the dust, _thy spirit immortal and undecayed already spreads

towards a new world_."[18]

John Adams, in his old age; dwelling on the reminiscences of early life,

records that nothing was "more ancient in his memory than the

observation that arts, sciences, and empire had travelled westward, and

in conversation it was always added, since he was a child, that their

next leap would be over the Atlantic into America." With the assistance

of an octogenarian neighbor, he recalled a couplet that had been

repeated with rapture as long as he could remember:--

"The Eastern nations sink, their glory ends,

And empire rises where the sun descends."

It was imagined by his neighbor that these lines came from some of our

early pilgrims,--by whom they had been "inscribed, or rather drilled,

into a rock on the shore of Monument Bay in our old Colony of

Plymouth."[19]

Another illustration of this same sentiment will be found in Burnaby's

"Travels through the Middle Settlements of North America, in 1759 and

1760," a work which was first published in 1775. In his reflections at

the close of his book the traveller thus remarks:--

"An idea, strange as it is visionary, has entered into the minds of the

generality of mankind, _that empire is travelling westward: and every

one is looking forward with eager and impatient expectation to that

destined moment when America is to give the law to the rest of the

world_."[20]

The traveller is none the less an authority for the prevalence of this

sentiment because he declares it "illusory and fallacious," and records

his conviction that "America is formed for happiness, but not for

empire." Happy America! What empire can compare with happiness! But, to

make amends for this admission, the jealous traveller, in his edition of

1796, after the adoption of our Constitution, announces that "the

present union of American States will not be permanent, or last for any

considerable length of time," and "that that extensive country must

necessarily be divided into separate states and kingdoms."[21] Thus far

the Union has stood against all shocks, foreign or domestic; and the

prophecy of Berkeley is more than ever in the popular mind.

TURGOT.--1750.

Among the illustrious names of France there are few equal to that of

Turgot. He was a philosopher among ministers, and a minister among

philosophers. Malesherbes said of him, that he had the heart of

L'Hôpital and the head of Bacon. Such a person in public affairs was an

epoch for his country and for the human race. Had his spirit prevailed,

the bloody drama of the French Revolution would not have occurred, or it

would at least have been postponed. I think it could not have occurred.

He was a good man, who sought to carry into government the rules of

goodness. His career from beginning to end was one continuous

beneficence. Such a nature was essentially prophetic, for he discerned

the natural laws by which the future is governed.

He was of an ancient Norman family, whose name suggests the _god Thor_;

he was born at Paris, 1727, and died, 1781. Being a younger son, he was

destined for the Church, and commenced his studies as an ecclesiastic

at the ancient Sorbonne. Before registering an irrevocable vow, he

announced his repugnance to the profession, and turned aside to other

pursuits. Law, literature, science, humanity, government, now engaged

his attention. He associated himself with the writers of the

Encyclopædia, and became one of its contributors. In other writings he

vindicated especially the virtue of toleration. Not merely a theorist,

he soon arrived at the high post of intendant of Limousin, where he

developed a remarkable talent for administration, and a sympathy with

the people. He introduced the potato into that province. But he

continued to employ his pen, especially on questions of political

economy, which he treated as a master. On the accession of Louis XVI. he

was called to the cabinet as Minister of the Marine, and shortly

afterwards he gave up this place to be the head of the finances. Here he

began a system of rigid economy, founded on a curtailment of expenses

and an enlargement of resources. The latter was obtained especially by a

removal of disabilities from trade, whether at home or abroad, and the

substitution of a single tax on land for a complex multiplicity of

taxes. The enemies of progress were too strong at that time, and the

king dismissed the reformer. Good men in France became anxious for the

future; Voltaire, in his distant retreat, gave a shriek of despair, and

addressed to Turgot some remarkable verses entitled _Épître à un Homme_.

Worse still, the good edicts of the minister were rescinded, and society

was put back.

The discarded minister gave himself to science, literature, and

friendship. He welcomed Franklin to France and to immortality in a Latin

verse of marvellous felicity. He was already the companion of the

liberal spirits who were doing so much for knowledge and for reform. By

writing and by conversation he exercised a constant influence. His

"ideas" seem to illumine the time. We may be content to follow him in

saying, "The glory of arms cannot compare with the happiness of living

in peace." He anticipated our definition of a republic, when he said "it

was formed upon the _equality of all the citizens_,"--good words, not

yet practically verified in all our States. Such a government he, living

under a monarchy, bravely pronounced the best of all; but he added that

he "had never known a constitution truly republican." This was in 1778.

With similar plainness he announced that "the destruction of the Ottoman

empire would be a real good for all the nations of Europe," and--he

added still further--for humanity also, because it would involve the

abolition of negro slavery, and because to strip "our oppressors is not

to attack, but to vindicate, the common rights of humanity." With such

thoughts and aspirations, the prophet died.

But I have no purpose of writing a biography, or even a character. All

that I intend is an introduction to Turgot's prophetic words relating to

America. When only twenty-three years of age, while still an

ecclesiastic at the Sorbonne, the future minister delivered a discourse

on the Progress of the Human Mind, in which, after describing the

commercial triumphs of the ancient Phoenicians, covering the coasts of

Greece and Asia with their colonies, he lets drop these remarkable

words:--

"Les colonies sont comme des fruits qui ne tiennent à l'arbre que

jusqu'à leur maturité; devenues suffisantes à elles-mêmes, elles firent

ce que fit depuis Carthage,--_ce que fera un jour l'Amérique_."[22]

"Colonies are like fruits, which hold to the tree only until their

maturity; when sufficient for themselves, they did that which Carthage

afterwards did,--_that which some day America will do_."

On this most suggestive declaration, Dupont de Nemours, the editor of

Turgot's works, published in 1808, remarks in a note as follows:--

"It was in 1750 that M. Turgot, being then only twenty-three years old,

and devoted in a seminary to the study of theology, divined, foresaw the

revolution which has formed the United States,--which has detached them

from the European power apparently the most capable of retaining its

colonies under its domination."

At the time Turgot wrote, Canada was a French possession; but his words

are as applicable to this colony as to the United States. When will this

fruit be ripe?

JOHN ADAMS.--1755, 1776, 1780, 1785, 1787.

Next in time among the prophets was John Adams, who has left on record

at different dates several predictions which show a second-sight of no

common order. Of his life I need say nothing, except that he was born

19th October, 1735, and died 4th July, 1826. I mention the predictions

in the order of their utterance.

1. While teaching a school at Worcester, and when under twenty years of

age, he wrote a letter to one of his youthful companions, _bearing date

12th October, 1755_, which is a marvel of foresight. Fifty-two years

afterwards, when already much of its prophecy had been fulfilled, the

original was returned to its author by the son of his early comrade and

correspondent, Nathan Webb, who was at the time dead. In this letter,

after remarking gravely on the rise and fall of nations, with

illustrations from Carthage and Rome, he proceeds:--

"England began to increase in power and magnificence, and is now the

greatest nation of the globe. Soon after the Reformation, a few people

came over into this New World for conscience' sake. Perhaps this

apparently trivial incident _may transfer the great seat of empire to

America. It looks likely to me_; for if we can remove the turbulent

Gallics, our people, according to the exactest computations, will, in

another century, become more numerous than England itself. Should this

be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the

nations in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas;

and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us.

The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us.

_Divide et impera._ Keep us in distinct colonies, and then, some great

men in each colony desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy

each others' influence, and keep the country _in equilibrio_."[23]

On this letter his son, John Quincy Adams, remarks:--

"Had the political part of it been written by the minister of state of a

European monarchy, at the close of a long life spent in the government

of nations, it would have been pronounced worthy of the united wisdom of

a Burleigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern.... _In one bold outline he has

exhibited by anticipation a long succession of prophetic history, the

fulfilment of which is barely yet in progress, responding exactly

hitherto to his foresight_, but the full accomplishment of which is

reserved for the development of after ages. The extinction of the power

of France in America, the union of the British North American Colonies,

the achievement of their independence, and the establishment of their

ascendency in the community of civilized nations by the means of their

naval power, are all foreshadowed in this letter, with a clearness of

perception and a distinctness of delineation which time has done little

more than to convert into historical fact."[24]

2. The Declaration of Independence bears date 4th July, 1776, for on

that day it was signed; but the vote which determined it was on the 2d

July. _On the 3d July_, John Adams, in a letter to his wife, wrote as

follows:--

"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in

America, and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among

men.... I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this

revolution. Britain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom.

At least this is my judgment. Time must determine. _It is the will of

Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever_.... The day is

past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in

the history of America. _I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated

by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival._ It ought

to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of

devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and

parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and

illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this

time forward, forevermore. You will think me transported with

enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and

treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support

and defend these States. _Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the ray

of ravishing light and glory; and that posterity will triumph in that

day's transaction_, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God

we shall not."[25]

Here is a comprehensive prophecy, first, that the two countries would be

separated forever; secondly, that the anniversary of Independence would

be celebrated as a great annual festival; and, thirdly, that posterity

would triumph in this transaction, where, through all the gloom, shone

rays of ravishing light and glory; all of which has been fulfilled to

the letter. Recent events give to the Declaration additional importance.

For a long time its great promises that all men are equal, and that

rightful government stands only on the consent of the governed, were

disowned by our country. Now that at last they are beginning to prevail,

there is increased reason to celebrate the day on which the mighty

Declaration was made, and new occasion for triumph in the rays of

ravishing light and glory.

3. Here is another prophetic passage in a letter _dated at Paris, 13th

July, 1780_, and addressed to the Count de Vergennes of France, pleading

the cause of the colonists:--

"The United States of America are a great and powerful people, whatever

European statesmen may think of them. If we take into our estimate the

numbers and the character of her people, the extent, variety, and

fertility of her soil, her commerce, and her skill and materials for

ship-building, and her seamen, excepting France, Spain, England,

Germany, and Russia, there is not a state in Europe so powerful.

Breaking off such a nation as this from the English so suddenly, and

uniting it so closely with France, is one of the most extraordinary

events that ever happened among mankind."[26]

Perhaps this may be considered a statement rather than a prophecy; but

it illustrates the prophetic character of the writer.

4. In an official letter to the President of Congress, _dated at

Amsterdam, 5th September, 1780_, the same writer, while proposing an

American Academy for refining, improving, and ascertaining the English

language, thus predicts the extension of this language:--

"_English is destined to be in the next and succeeding centuries more

generally the language of the world than Latin was in the last or French

is in the present age._ The reason of this is obvious,--because the

increasing population in America, and their universal connection and

correspondence with all nations, will, aided by the influence of England

in the world, whether great or small, force their language into general

use, in spite of all the obstacles that may be thrown in their way, if

any such there should be."[27]

In another letter of an unofficial character, _dated at Amsterdam, 23d

September, 1780_, he thus repeats his prophecy:--

"You must know _I have undertaken to prophesy that English will be the

most respectable language in the world, and the most universally read

and spoken in the next century, if not before the close of this_.

American population will in the next age produce a greater number of

persons who will speak English than any other language, and these

persons will have more general acquaintance and conversation with all

other nations than any other people."[28]

This prophecy is already accomplished. Of all the European languages,

English is most extensively spoken. Through England and the United

States it has become the language of commerce, which, sooner or later,

must embrace the globe. The German philologist, Grimm, has followed our

American prophet in saying that it "seems chosen, like its people, to

rule in future times in a still greater degree in all the corners of the

earth."[29]

5. There is another prophecy, at once definite and broad, which

proceeded from the same eminent quarter. In a letter _dated London, 17th

October, 1785_, and addressed to John Jay, who was at the time Secretary

for Foreign Affairs under the Confederation, John Adams reveals his

conviction of the importance of France to us, "while England held a

province in America";[30] and then, in another letter, _dated 21st

October, 1785_, reports the saying of people about him, "_that Canada

and Nova Scotia must soon be ours_; there must be war for it; they know

how it will end, but the sooner the better. This done, we shall be

forever at peace; till then, never."[31] These intimations foreshadow

the prophecy which will be found in the Preface to his "Defence of the

American Constitutions," written in London, while he was Minister there,

and _dated at Grosvenor Square, 1st January, 1787_:--

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example

of governments erected on the simple principles of nature.... Thirteen

governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone,

without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and _which are destined to

spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe_, are a

great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind. The experiment is

made, and has completely succeeded."[32]

Here is foretold nothing less than that our system of government is to

embrace the whole continent of North America.

GALIANI.--1776, 1778.

Among the most brilliant persons in this list is the Abbé Galiani, a

Neapolitan, who was born in 1728, and died at Naples in 1787. Although

Italian by birth, yet by the accident of official residence he became

for a while domesticated in France, wrote the French language, and now

enjoys a French reputation. His writings in French and his letters have

the wit and ease of Voltaire.

Galiani was a genius. Whatever he touched shone at once with his

brightness, in which there was originality as well as knowledge. He was

a finished scholar, and very successful in lapidary verses. Early in

life, while in Italy, he wrote a grave essay on Money, which contrasted

with another of rare humor suggested by the death of the public

executioner. Other essays followed, and then came the favor of that

congenial pontiff, Benedict XIV. In 1760 he found himself at Paris, as

Secretary of the Neapolitan Embassy. Here he mingled with the courtiers

officially, according to the duties of his position, but he fraternized

with the liberal and sometimes audacious spirits who exercised such an

influence over society and literature. He was soon recognized as one of

them, and as inferior to none. His petty stature was forgotten, when he

conversed with inexhaustible faculties of all kinds, so that he seemed

an Encyclopædia, Harlequin, and Machiavelli all in one. The atheists at

the Thursday dinner of D'Holbach were confounded, while he enforced the

existence of God. Into the questions of political economy which occupied

attention at the time he entered with a pen which seemed borrowed from

the French Academy. His _Dialogues sur le Commerce des Blés_ had the

success of a romance; ladies carried this book on corn in their

work-baskets. Returning to Naples, he continued to live in Paris through

his correspondence, especially with Madame d'Epinay, the Baron

d'Holbach, Diderot, and Grimm.[33]

Among his later works, after his return to Naples, was a solid

volume--not to be forgotten in the History of International Law--on the

"Rights of Neutrals," where a difficult subject is treated with such

mastery that, half a century later, D'Hautefeuille, in his elaborate

treatise, copies from it at length. Galiani was the predecessor of this

French writer in the extreme assertion of neutral rights. Other works

were left at his death in manuscript, some grave and some humorous; also

letters without number. The letters he had preserved from Italian

_savans_ filled eight large volumes; those from _savans_, ministers, and

sovereigns abroad filled fourteen. His Parisian correspondence did not

see the light till 1818, although some of the letters may be found in

the contemporary correspondence of Grimm.

In his Parisian letters, which are addressed chiefly to that clever

individuality, Madame d'Epinay, the Neapolitan Abbé shows not only the

brilliancy and nimbleness of his talent, but the universality of his

knowledge and the boldness of his speculations. Here are a few words

from a letter dated at Naples, 12th October, 1776, in which he brings

forward the idea of "races," so important in our day, with an

illustration from Russia:--

"_All depends on races._ The first, the most noble of races, comes

naturally from the North of Asia. The Russians are the nearest to it,

and this is the reason why they have made more progress in fifty years

than can be got out of the Portuguese in five hundred."[34]

Belonging to the Latin race, Galiani was entitled to speak thus freely.

1. In another letter to Madame d'Epinay, _dated at Naples, 18th May,

1776_, he had already foretold the success of our Revolution. Few

prophets have been more explicit than he was in the following passage:--

"Livy said of his age, which so much resembled ours, 'Ad hæc tempora

ventum est quibus, nec vitia nostra, nec remedia pati possumus,'--'We

are in an age where the remedies hurt as much as the vices.' Do you know

the reality? _The epoch has come of the total fall of Europe, and of

transmigration into America._ All here turns into rottenness,--religion,

laws, arts, sciences,--and all hastens to renew itself in America. This

is not a jest; nor is it an idea drawn from the English quarrels; I have

said it, announced it, preached it, for more than twenty years, and I

have constantly seen my prophecies come to pass. _Therefore, do not buy

your house in the Chaussée d'Antin; you must buy it in Philadelphia._ My

trouble is that there are no abbeys in America."[35]

This letter was written some months before the Declaration of

Independence was known in Europe.

2. In another letter, _dated at Naples, 7th February, 1778_, the Abbé

alludes to the "quantities" of English men and women who have come to

Naples "for shelter from the American tempest," and adds, "Meanwhile the

Washingtons and Hancocks will be fatal to them."[36] In still another,

_dated at Naples, 25 July, 1778_, he renews his prophecies in language

still more explicit:--

"You will at this time have decided the greatest revolution of the

globe; namely, _if it is America which is to reign over Europe, or if it

is Europe which is to continue to reign over America_. I will wager in

favor of America, for the reason merely physical, that for five thousand

years genius has turned opposite to the diurnal motion, and travelled

from the East to the West."[37]

Here again is the idea of Berkeley which has been so captivating.

ADAM SMITH.--1776.

In contrast with the witty Italian is the illustrious philosopher and

writer of Scotland, Adam Smith, who was born 5th June, 1723, and died

17th July, 1790. His fame is so commanding that any details of his life

or works would be out of place on this occasion. He was a thinker and an

inventor, through whom mankind was advanced in knowledge.

I say nothing of his "Theory of Moral Sentiments," which constitutes an

important contribution to the science of ethics, but come at once to his

great work of political economy, entitled "Inquiry into the Nature and

Sources of the Wealth of Nations," which first appeared in 1776. Its

publication marks an epoch which is described by Mr. Buckle when he

says: "Adam Smith contributed more, by the publication of this single

work, toward the happiness of man, than has been effected by the united

abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has

preserved an authentic account." The work is full of prophetic

knowledge, and especially with regard to the British colonies. Writing

while the debate with the mother country was still pending, Adam Smith

urged that they should be admitted to Parliamentary representation in

proportion to taxation, so that their representation would enlarge with

their growing resources; and here he predicts nothing less than the

transfer of empire.

"The distance of America from the seat of government, the natives of

that country might flatter themselves, with some appearance of reason

too, would not be of very long continuance. Such has hitherto been the

rapid progress of that country in wealth, population, and improvement,

that, in the course of little more than a century, perhaps, the produce

of America might exceed that of British taxation. _The seat of the

empire would then naturally remove itself to that part of the empire

which contributed most to the general defence and support of the

whole._"[38]

In these tranquil words of assured science this great author carries the

seat of government across the Atlantic.

GOVERNOR POWNALL.--1777, 1780, 1785.

Among the best friends of our country abroad during the trials of the

Revolution was Thomas Pownall, called by one biographer "a learned

antiquary and politician," and by another "an English statesman and

author." Latterly he has so far dropped out of sight, that there are few

who recognize in him either of these characters. He was born, 1722, and

died at Bath, 1805. During this long period he held several offices. As

early as 1745 he became secretary to the Commission for Trade and

Plantations. In 1753 he crossed the ocean. In 1755, as Commissioner for

Massachusetts Bay, he negotiated with New York, New Jersey, and

Pennsylvania, in union with New England, the confederated expedition

against Crown Point. He was afterwards Governor of Massachusetts Bay,

New Jersey, and South Carolina, successively. Returning to England, he

was, in 1761, Comptroller-General of the army in Germany, with the

military rank of Colonel. He sat in three successive Parliaments until

1780, when he passed into private life. Hildreth gives a glimpse at his

personal character, when, admitting his frank manners and liberal

politics, he describes his "habits as rather freer than suited the New

England standard."[39]

Pownall stands forth conspicuous for his championship of our national

independence, and especially for his foresight with regard to our

national future. In both these respects his writings are unique. Other

Englishmen were in favor of our independence, and saw our future also;

but I doubt if any one can be named who was his equal in strenuous

action, or in minuteness of foresight. While the war was still

proceeding, as early as 1780, he openly announced, not only that

independence was inevitable, but that the new nation, "founded in nature

and built up in truth," would continually expand; that its population

would increase and multiply; that a civilizing activity beyond what

Europe could ever know would animate it; and that its commercial and

naval power would be found in every quarter of the globe. All this he

set forth at length with argument and illustration, and he called his

prophetic words "the _stating of the simple fact_, so little understood

in the Old World." Treated at first as "unintelligible speculation" and

as "unfashionable," the truth he announced was neglected where it was

not rejected, but generally rejected as inadmissible, and the author,

according to his own language, "was called by the wise men of the

British Cabinet _a Wild Man_, unfit to be employed." But these writings

are a better title now than any office. In manner they are diffuse and

pedantic; but they hardly deserve the cold judgment of John Adams, who

in his old age said of them, that "a reader who has patience to search

for good sense in an uncouth and disgusting style will find in those

writings proofs of a thinking mind."[40]

He seems to have written a good deal. But the works which will be

remembered the longest are not even mentioned by several of his

biographers. Rose, in his Biographical Dictionary, records works by him,

entitled Antiquities of Ancient Greece; Roman Antiquities dug up at

Bath; Observations on the Currents of the Ocean; Intellectual Physics;

and also contributions to the _Archæologia_. Gorton in his Biographical

Dictionary adds some other titles to this list. But neither mentions his

works on America. This is another instance where the stone rejected by

the builders becomes the head of the corner.

At an early date Pownall comprehended the position of our country,

geographically. He saw the wonderful means of internal communication

supplied by its inland waters, and also the opportunities of external

commerce supplied by the Atlantic Ocean. On the first he dwells, in a

memorial _drawn-up in 1756_ for the Duke of Cumberland.[41] Nobody in

our own day, after the experience of more than a century, has portrayed

more vividly the two masses of waters,--one composed of the great lakes

and their dependencies, and the other of the Mississippi and its

tributaries. The great lakes are described as "a wilderness of waters

spreading over the country by an infinite number and variety of

branchings, bays, and straits." The Mississippi, with its eastern

branch, called the Ohio, is described as having, "so far as we know, but

two falls,--one at a place called, by the French, St. Antoine, high up

on the west or main branch"; and all its waters "run to the ocean with a

still, easy, and gentle current." The picture is completed by exhibiting

the two masses of water in combination:--

"The waters of each respective mass--not only the lesser streams, but

the main general body of each going through this continent in every

course and direction--have by their approach to each other, by their

communication to every quarter and in every direction, an alliance and

unity, and form one mass, or one whole."[42]

Again, depicting the intercommunication among the several waters of the

continent, and how "the watery element claims and holds dominion over

this extent of land," he insists that all shall see these two mighty

masses in their central throne, declaring that "the great lakes which

lie upon its bosom on one hand, and the great river Mississippi and the

multitude of waters which run into it, form there a communication,--an

alliance or dominion of the watery element, that commands throughout the

whole; that these great lakes appear to be the throne, the centre of a

dominion, whose influence, by an infinite number of rivers, creeks, and

streams, extends itself through all and every part of the continent,

supported by the communication of, and alliance with the waters of the

Mississippi."[43]

If these means of internal commerce were vast, those afforded by the

Atlantic Ocean were not less extensive. The latter were developed in the

volume entitled "The Administration of the Colonies," the fourth edition

of which, published in 1768, is now before me. This was after the

differences between the Colonies and the mother country had begun, but

before the idea of independence had shown itself. Pownall insisted that

the Colonies ought to be considered as parts of the realm, entitled to

representation in Parliament. This was a constitutional unity. But he

portrayed a commercial unity also, which he represented in attractive

forms. The British isles, and the British possessions in the Atlantic

and in America, were, according to him, "one grand marine dominion," and

ought, therefore, by policy, to be united into one empire, with one

centre. On this he dwells at length, and the picture is presented

repeatedly.[44] It was incident to the crisis produced in the world by

the predominance of the commercial spirit which already began to rule

the powers of Europe. It was the duty of England to place herself at the

head of this great movement.

"As the rising of this crisis forms precisely the _object_, on which

government should be employed, so the taking leading measures towards

the forming all those Atlantic and American possessions into one empire,

of which Great Britain should be the commercial and political centre, is

the _precise duty_ of government at this crisis."

This was his desire. But he saw clearly the resources as well as the

rights of the Colonies, and was satisfied that, if power were not

consolidated under the constitutional auspices of England, it would be

transferred to the other side of the Atlantic. Here his words are

prophetic:--

"The whole train of events, the whole course of business, must

perpetually bring forward into practice, and necessarily in the end into

establishment, _either an American or a British union_. There is no

other alternative."

The necessity for union is enforced in a manner which foreshadows our

national Union:--

"The Colonial Legislature does not answer all purposes; is incompetent

and inadequate to many purposes. Something more is necessary,--_either a

common union among themselves_, or a common union of subordination under

the one general legislature of the state."[45]

Then, again, in another place of the same work, after representing the

declarations of power over the Colonies as little better than mockery,

he prophesies again:--

"Such is the actual state of the really existing system of our

dominions, that _neither the power of government over these various

parts can long continue under the present mode of administration_, nor

the great interests of commerce extended throughout the whole long

subsist under the present system of the laws of trade."[46]

Recent events may give present interest to his views, in this same work,

on the nature and necessity of a paper curency, where he follows

Franklin. The principal points of his plan were, that bills of credit,

to a certain amount, should be printed in England for the use of the

Colonies; that a loan-office should be established in each Colony to

issue bills, take securities, and receive the payment; that the bills

should be issued for ten years, bearing interest at five per cent,--one

tenth part of the sum borrowed to be paid annually, with interest; and

that they should be a legal tender.

When the differences had flamed forth in war, then the prophet became

more earnest. His utterances deserve to be rescued from oblivion. He was

open, and almost defiant. As early as _2d December, 1777_, some months

before our treaty with France, he declared, from his place in

Parliament, "that the sovereignty of this country over America is

abolished and gone forever"; "that they are determined at all events to

be independent, _and will be so_"; and "that all the treaty this country

can ever expect with America is federal, and that, probably, only

commercial." In this spirit he said to the House:--

"Until you shall be convinced that you are no longer sovereigns over

America, but that the United States are an independent, sovereign

people,--until you are prepared to treat with them as such,--it is of no

consequence at all what schemes or plans of conciliation this side of

the House or that may adopt."[47]

The position taken in Parliament he maintained by writings, and here he

depicted the great destinies of our country. He began with a work

entitled "A Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe," which was published

early in 1780, and was afterwards, through the influence of John Adams,

while at the Hague, abridged and translated into French. In this

remarkable production independence was the least that he claimed for us.

Thus he foretells our future:--

"North America is become a new primary planet in the system of the

world, which, while it takes its own course, must have effect on the

orbit of every other planet, and shift the common centre of gravity of

the whole system of the European world. North America is _de facto_ an

independent power, which has taken its equal station with other powers,

and must be so _de jure_.... The independence of America is fixed as

fate. She is mistress of her own future, knows that she is so, and will

actuate that power which she feels she hath, so as to establish her own

system _and to change the system of Europe_."[48]

Not only is the new power to take an independent place, but it is "to

change the system of Europe." For all this its people are amply

prepared. "Standing on that high ground of improvement up to which the

most enlightened parts of Europe have advanced, like eaglets, they

commence the first efforts of their pinions from a towering

advantage."[49] Then again, giving expression to this same conviction in

another form, he says:--

"North America has advanced, and is every day advancing, to growth of

state, with a steady and continually accelerating motion, of which there

has never yet been any example in Europe."[50] "It is a vitality, liable

to many disorders, many dangerous diseases; but it is young and strong,

and will struggle, by the vigor of internal healing principles of life,

against those evils, and surmount them. Its strength will grow with its

years."[51]

He then dwells in detail on "the progressive population" here; on our

advantage in being "on the other side of the globe, where there is no

enemy"; on the products of the soil, among which is "bread-corn to a

degree that has wrought it to a staple export for the supply of the Old

World"; on the fisheries, which he calls "mines of more solid riches

than all the silver of Potosi"; on the inventive spirit of the people;

and on their commercial activity. Of such a people it is easy to predict

great things; and our prophet announces,--

1. That the new state will be "an active naval power," exercising a

peculiar influence on commerce, and, through commerce, on the political

system of the Old World,--becoming the arbitress of commerce, and,

perhaps, the mediatrix of peace.[52]

2. That ship-building and the science of navigation have made such

progress in America, that her people will be able to build and navigate

cheaper than any country in Europe, even Holland, with all her

economy.[53]

3. That the peculiar articles to be had from America only, and so much

sought in Europe, must give Americans a preference in those markets.[54]

4. That a people "whose empire stands singly predominant on a great

continent" can hardly "suffer in their borders such a monopoly as the

European Hudson Bay Company"; that it cannot be stopped by Cape Horn or

the Cape of Good Hope; that before long they will be found "trading in

the South Sea and in China"; and that the Dutch "will hear of them in

the Spice Islands."[55]

5. That by constant intercommunion of business and correspondence, and

by increased knowledge with regard to the ocean, "America will seem

every day to approach nearer and nearer to Europe"; that the old alarm

at the sea will subside, and "a thousand attractive motives will become

the irresistible cause of _an almost general emigration to the New

World_"; and that "many of the most useful, enterprising spirits, and

much of the active property, will go there also."[56]

6. That "North America will become a _free port_ to all the nations of

the world indiscriminately, and will expect, insist on, and demand, in

fair reciprocity, a _free market_ in all those nations with whom she

trades"; and that, adhering to this principle, "she must be, in the

course of time, the chief carrier of the commerce of the whole

world."[57]

7. That America must avoid complication with European politics, or "the

entanglement of alliances," having no connections with Europe other than

commercial;[58]--all of which at a later day was put forth by Washington

in his Farewell Address, when he said, "The great rule of conduct for

us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial

relations, to have with them as little political concern as possible."

8. That similar modes of living and thinking, the same manners and same

fashions, the same language and old habits of national love, impressed

on the heart and not yet effaced, _the very indentings of the fracture

where North America is broken off from England, all conspire naturally

to a rejuncture by alliance_.[59]

9. That the sovereigns of Europe, "who have despised the unfashioned,

awkward youth of America," and have neglected to interweave their

interests with the rising States, when they find the system of the new

empire not only obstructing, but superseding, the old system of Europe,

and crossing all their settled maxims, will call upon their ministers

and wise men, "Come, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for

me."[60]

This appeal was followed by two other memorials, "drawn up solely for

the king's use, and designed solely for his eye," _dated at Richmond,

January, 1782_, in which the author most persuasively pleads with the

king to treat with the Colonies on the footing of independence, and

with this view to institute a preliminary negotiation "as with free

states _de facto_ under a truce." On the signature of the treaty of

peace, he wrote a private letter to Franklin, dated at _Richmond, 28th

February, 1783_, in which be testifies again to the magnitude of the

event, as follows:--

"My old Friend,--I write this to congratulate you on the establishment

of your country as a free and sovereign power, taking its equal station

amongst the powers of the world. I congratulate you, in particular, as

chosen by Providence to be a principal instrument in this great

Revolution,--_a Revolution that has stranger marks of Divine

interposition, superseding the ordinary course of human affairs, than

any other event which this world has experienced_."

He closes this letter by saying that he thought of making a tour of

America, adding that, "if there ever was an object worth travelling to

see, and worthy of the contemplation of a philosopher, it is that in

which he may see the beginning of a great empire at its foundation."[61]

He communicated this purpose also to John Adams, who answered him, that

"he would be received respectfully in every part of America,--that he

had always been considered friendly to America,--and that his writings

had been useful to our cause."[62]

Then came another work, first published in 1783, entitled, "A Memorial

addressed to the Sovereigns of America, by Governor Pownall," of which

he gave the mistaken judgment to a private friend, that it was "the best

thing he ever wrote." Here for the first time American citizens are

called "sovereigns." At the beginning he explains and indicates the

simplicity with which he addresses them:--

"Having presumed to address to the Sovereigns of Europe a Memorial ...

permit me now to address this Memorial to you, Sovereigns of America. I

shall not address you with the court titles of Gothic Europe, nor with

those of servile Asia. I will neither address your Sublimity or Majesty,

your Grace or Holiness, your Eminence or High-mightiness, your

Excellence or Honors. What are titles, where things themselves are known

and understood? What title did the Republic of Rome take? The state was

known to be sovereign and the citizens to be free. What could add to

this? Therefore, United States and Citizens of America, I address you as

you are."[63]

Here again are the same constant sympathy with liberty, the same

confidence in our national destinies, and the same aspirations for our

prosperity, mingled with warnings against disturbing influences. He

exhorts that all our foundations should be "laid in nature"; that there

should be "no contention for, nor acquisition of, unequal domination in

men"; and that union should be established on the attractive principle

by which all are drawn to a common centre. He fears difficulty, in

making the line of frontier between us and the British Provinces "a line

of peace," as it ought to be; he is anxious lest something may break out

between us and Spain; and he suggests that possibly, "in the cool hours

of unimpassioned reflection," we may learn the danger of our

"alliances,"--referring plainly to that original alliance with France

which, at a later day, was the occasion of such trouble. Two other

warnings occur. One is against Slavery, which is more noteworthy,

because in an earlier memorial he enumerates among articles of commerce

"African slaves carried by a circuitous, trade in American shipping to

the West India market."[64] The other warning is thus strongly

expressed:--"Every inhabitant of America is, _de facto_ as well as _de

jure_, equal, in his essential, inseparable rights of the individual, to

any other individual, and is, in these rights, independent of any power

that any other can assume over him, over his labor, or his property.

This is principle in act and deed, and not a mere speculative

theorem."[65]

I close this strange and striking testimony, all from one man, with his

farewell words to Franklin. As Pownall heard that the great philosopher

and negotiator was about to embark for the United States, he wrote to

him from Lausanne, _under date of 3d July, 1785_, as follows:--

"Adieu, my dear friend. You are going to a New World, formed to exhibit

a scene which the Old World never yet saw. You leave me here in the Old

World, which, like myself, begins to feel, as Asia hath felt, that it is

wearing out apace. We shall never meet again on this earth; but there is

another world where we shall, and _where we shall be understood_."

Clearly Pownall was not understood in his time; but it is evident that

he understood our country as few Englishmen since have been able to

understand it.

DAVID HARTLEY.--1775, 1785.

Another friend of our country in England was David Hartley. He was

constant and even pertinacious on our side, although less prophetic than

Pownall, with whom he co-operated in purpose and activity. His father

was Hartley the metaphysician, and author of the ingenious theory of

sensation. The son was born 1729, and died at Bath, 1813, During our

revolution he sat in Parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull. He was also the

British plenipotentiary in negotiating the definitive Treaty of Peace

with the United States. He, too, has dropped out of sight. In the

biographical dictionaries he has only a few lines. But he deserves a

considerable place in the history of our independence.

John Adams was often austere, and sometimes cynical in his judgments.

Evidently he did not like Hartley. In one place he speaks of him as

"talkative and disputatious, and not always intelligible";[66] then, as

"a person of consummate vanity";[67] and then, again, when he was

appointed to sign the definitive Treaty, he says, "it would have been

more agreeable to have finished with Mr. Oswald";[68] and, in still

another place, he records, "Mr. Hartley was as copious as usual."[69]

And yet, when writing most elaborately to Count de Vergennes on the

prospects of the negotiation with England, he introduces opinions of

Hartley at length, saying that he was "more for peace than any man in

the kingdom."[70] Such testimony may well outweigh the other

expressions, especially as nothing of the kind appears in the

correspondence of Franklin, with whom Hartley was much more intimate.

The Parliamentary History is a sufficient monument for Hartley. He was a

frequent speaker, and never missed an opportunity of pleading our cause.

Although without the immortal eloquence of Burke, he was always clear

and full. Many of his speeches seem to have been written out by himself.

He was not a tardy convert. He began as "a new member" by supporting an

amendment favorable to the Colonies, 5th December, 1774. In March, 1775,

he brought forward "propositions for conciliation with America," which

he sustained in an elaborate speech, where he avowed that the American

Question had occupied him already for some time:--

"Though I have so lately had the honor of a seat in this House, yet I

have for many years turned my thoughts and attention to matters of

public concern and national policy. This question of America is now of

many years' standing."[71]

In the course of this speech he thus acknowledges the services of New

England at Louisburg:--

"In that war too, sir, they took Louisburg from the French,

single-handed, without any European assistance,--as mettled an

enterprise as any in our history,--an everlasting memorial of the zeal,

courage, and perseverance of the troops of New England. The men

themselves dragged the cannon over a morass which had always been

thought impassable, where neither horses nor oxen could go, and they

carried the shot upon their backs. And what was their reward for this

forward and spirited enterprise,--for the reduction of this American

Dunkirk? Their reward, sir, you know very well; it was given up for a

barrier to the Dutch."[72]

All his various propositions were negatived; but he was not

disheartened. On every occasion he spoke,--now on the budget, then on

the address, and then on specific propositions. At this time he asserted

the power of Parliament over the Colonies, and he proposed on the 2d

November, 1775, that a test of submission by the Colonists should be the

recognition of an act of Parliament, "enacting that all the slaves in

America should have the trial by jury."[73] Shortly afterwards _on the

5th December, 1775_, he brought forward another set of "propositions for

conciliation with America," where, among other things, he embodied the

test on slavery, which he put forward as a compromise; and here his

language belongs, not only to the history of our Revolution, but to the

history of anti-slavery. While declaring that in his opinion Great

Britain was "the aggressor in everything," he sought to bring the two

countries together on a platform of human rights, which he thus

explained:--

"The act to be proposed to America, _as an auspicious beginning to lay

the first stone of universal liberty to mankind_, should be what no

American could hesitate an instant to comply with, namely, that every

slave in North America should be entitled to his trial by jury in all

criminal cases. America cannot refuse to accept and enroll such an act

as this, and thereby to re-establish peace and harmony with the parent

state. _Let us all be re-united in this, as a foundation to extirpate

slavery from the face of the earth. Let those who seek justice and

liberty for themselves give that justice and liberty to their

fellow-creatures._ With respect to putting a final period to slavery in

North America, it should seem best that, when this country had led the

way by the act for jury, each Colony, knowing their own peculiar

circumstances, should undertake the work in the most practicable way,

and that they should endeavor to establish some system by which slavery

should be in a certain term of years abolished. _Let the only contention

henceforward between Great Britain and America be, which shall exceed

the other in zeal for establishing the fundamental rights of liberty for

all mankind._"[74]

The motion was rejected; but among the twenty-three in its favor were

Fox and Burke. During this same month the unwearied defender of our

country came forward again, declaring that he could not be "an adviser

or a well-wisher to any of the vindictive operations against America,

because the cause is unjust; but at the same time he must be equally

earnest to secure British interests from destruction," and he thus

prophesies:--

"The fate of America is cast. You may bruise its heel; but you cannot

crush its head. It will revive again. _The new world is before them.

Liberty is theirs._ They have possession of a free government, their

birthright and inheritance, derived to them from their parent state,

which the hand of violence cannot wrest from them. If you will cast them

off, my last wish is to them, May they go and prosper!"

Again, on the 10th May, 1776, he vindicated anew his original

proposition, and here again he testifies for peace and against slavery.

"For the sake of peace, therefore, I did propose a test of compromise by

an act of acceptance, on the part of the Colonists, of an act of

Parliament which should lay _the foundation for the extirpation of the

horrid custom of slavery in the New World_. My motion was simply an act

of compromise and reconciliation; and, as far as it was a legislative

act, it was still to have been applied in correcting the laws of slavery

in America, which I considered as repugnant to the laws of the realm of

England and to the fundamentals of our constitution. Such a compromise

would at the same time have saved the national honor."[75]

All gratitude to the hero who at this early day vowed himself to the

abolition of slavery. Hartley is among the first of abolitionists, with

hardly a predecessor except Granville Sharp, and in Parliament

absolutely the first. Clarkson was at this time fifteen years old,

Wilberforce sixteen. It was only in 1787 that Clarkson obtained the

prize for the best Latin essay on the question, "Is it right to make men

slaves against their will?" It was not until 1791 that Wilberforce moved

for leave to bring in a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade.

Surely it is a great honor for one man, that he should have come forward

in Parliament as an avowed abolitionist, while he was at the same time a

vindicator of our independence.

Again, on the 15th May, 1777, Hartley pleaded for us, saying:--

"At sea, which has hitherto been our prerogative element, they rise

against us at a stupendous rate; and if we cannot return to our old

mutual hospitalities towards each other, a very few years will show us a

most formidable hostile marine, ready to join hands with any of our

enemies.... I will venture to prophesy that the principles of a federal

alliance are the only terms of peace that ever will and that ever ought

to obtain between the two countries."[76]

On the 15th June, immediately afterwards, the Parliamentary History

reports briefly:--

"Mr. Hartley went upon the cruelties of slavery, and urged the Board of

Trade to take some means of mitigating it. He produced a pair of

handcuffs, which he said was a manufacture they were now going to

establish."[77]

Thus again the abolitionist reappeared in the vindicator of our

independence. On the 22d June, 1779, he brought forward another formal

motion "for reconciliation with America," and, in the course of a

well-considered speech, denounced the ministers for "headstrong and

inflexible obstinacy in prosecuting a cruel and destructive American

war."[78] On the 3d December, 1779, in what is called "a very long

speech," he returned to his theme, inveighing against ministers for "the

favorite, though wild, Quixotic, and impracticable measure of coercing

America."[79] These are only instances.

During this time he had maintained a correspondence with Franklin, which

appears in the "Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution," and all of

which attests his desire for peace. In 1778 he came to Paris on a

confidential errand, especially to confer with Franklin. It was on this

occasion that John Adams met him and judged him severely. In 1783 he was

appointed a commissioner to sign the definitive Treaty of Peace.

These things belong to history. Though perhaps not generally known, they

are accessible. I have presented them partly for their intrinsic value

and their prophetic character, and partly as an introduction to an

unpublished letter from Hartley which I received some time ago from an

English friend who has since been called away from important labors. The

letter concerns _emigration to our country and the payment of the

national debt_.

The following indorsement will explain its character:--

"_Note._ This is a copy of the material portion of a long letter from D.

Hartley, the British Commissioner in Paris, to Lord Sydenham, January,

1785. The original was sold by C. Robinson, of 21 Bond Street, London,

on the 6th April, 1859, at a sale of Hartley's MSS. and papers chiefly

relating to the United States of America. It was Hartley's copy, in his

own hand.

"The lot was No. 82 in the sale catalogue. It was bought by J. R. Smith,

the London bookseller, for £2 6_s._ 0_d._

"I had a copy made before the sale.

"_Joseph Parkes._

"London, 18 July, '59."

The letter is as follows:--

"MY LORD,--In your Lordship's last letter to me, just before

my leaving Paris, you are pleased to say that any

information which I might have been able to collect of a

nature to promote the mutual and reciprocal interests of

Great Britain and the United States of America would be

extremely acceptable to his Majesty's government.... Annexed

to this letter I have the honor of transmitting to your

Lordship some papers and documents which I have received

from the American Ministers. One of them (No. 5) is a Map of

the Continent of North America, in which the land ceded to

them by the late treaty of peace is divided, by parallels of

latitude and longitude, into fourteen new States. The whole

project, in its full extent, would take many years in its

execution, and therefore it must be far beyond the present

race of men to say, 'This shall be so.' Nevertheless, _those

who have the first care of this New World will probably give

it such directions and inherent influences as may guide and

control its course and revolutions for ages to come_. But

these plans, being beyond the reach of man to predestinate,

are likewise beyond the reach of comment or speculation to

say what may or may not be possible, or to predict what

events may hereafter be produced by time, climates, soils,

adjoining nations, or by the unwieldy magnitude of empire,

and _the future population of millions superadded to

millions_. The sources of the Mississippi may be unknown.

The lines of longitude and latitude may be extended into

unexplored regions, and the plan of this new creation may be

sketched out by a presumptuous compass, if all its

intermediate uses and functions were to be suspended until

the final and precise accomplishment, without failure or

deviation, of this unbounded plan. But this is not the case;

the immediate objects in view are limited and precise; they

are of prudent thought, and within the scope of human power

to measure out and to execute. The principle indeed is

indefinite, and will be left to the test of future ages to

determine its duration or extent. I take the liberty to

suggest thus much, lest we should be led away to suppose

that the councils which have produced these plans have had

no wiser or more sedate views than merely the amusement of

drawing meridians of ambition and high thoughts. There

appear to me to be two solid and rational objects in view:

the first is, by the sale of lands nearly contiguous to the

present States (receiving Congress paper in payment

according to its scale of depreciation) _to extinguish the

present national debt_, which I understand might be

discharged for about twelve millions sterling.

"If your Lordship will cast your eye upon the map to the

south and east of the Ohio and the Mississippi, you will see

many millions of acres, which, valued at a single dollar per

acre, would discharge many millions sterling. The whole

space within the boundaries lately conceded to the United

States, together with the unoccupied lands eastward of the

great rivers, may perhaps contain near half a million of

square miles (in acres, perhaps three hundred millions, more

or less). A sixth part of this, the nearest parts being

likewise the most valuable, would discharge the whole of

their national debt. It is a new proposition to be offered

to the numerous common rank of mankind in all the countries

of the world, to say that there are in America fertile soils

and temperate climates in which an acre of land may be

purchased for a trifling consideration, which may be

possessed in freedom, together with all the natural and

civil rights of mankind. The Congress have already

proclaimed this, and that no other qualification or name is

necessary but to become settlers, without distinction of

countries or persons. The European peasant, who toils for

his scanty sustenance in penury, wretchedness, and

servitude, will eagerly fly to this asylum for free and

industrious labor. The tide of immigration may set strongly

outward from Scotland, Ireland, and Canada to this new land

of promise. A very great proportion of men in all the

countries of the world are without property, and generally

are subject to governments of which they have no

participation, and over whom they have no control. The

Congress have now opened to all the world a sale of landed

settlements where the liberty and property of each

individual is to be consigned to his own custody and

defence. The first settlers, as the seedlings of a new

State, will be under a temporary government of their own

choice, provided it be similar to some one of the present

American governments. But as soon as their numbers shall

amount to twenty thousand, their temporary government is to

cease, and they are to establish a permanent government for

themselves, and whenever such new State shall have of free

inhabitants as many as shall be in any one the least

numerous of the original States. These are such propositions

of free establishments as have never yet been offered to

mankind, and cannot fail of producing great effects in the

future progress of things. The Congress have arranged their

offers in the most inviting and artful terms, and lest

individual peasants and laborers should not have the means

of removing themselves, they throw out inducements to

moneyed adventurers to purchase and to undertake the

settlement by commission and agency, without personal

residence, by stipulating that the lands of proprietors

being absentees shall not be higher taxed than the lands of

residents. This will quicken the sale of lands, which is

their object. For the explanation of these points, I beg

leave to refer your Lordship to the documents annexed, Nos.

5 and 6, namely, the Map and Resolutions of Congress, dated

April, 1784. There is another circumstance would confirm

that it is the intention of Congress to invite moneyed

adventurers to make purchases and settlements, which is the

precise and mathematical mode of dividing and marking out

for sale the lands in each new proposed State. These new

States are to be divided by parallel lines running north and

south, and by other parallels running east and west. They

are to be divided into hundreds of ten geographical miles

square, and then again into lots of one square mile. The

divisions are laid out as regularly as the squares upon a

chessboard, and all to be formed into a Charter of Compact.

"They may be purchased by purchasers at any distance, and

the titles may be verified by registers of such or such

numbers, north or south, east or west; all this is explained

by the document annexed, No. 7, viz. _The Ordinance for

ascertaining the mode of locating and disposing of lands in

the Western Territory. This is their plan and means for

paying off their national debt, and they seem very intent

upon doing it._ I should observe that their debt consists of

two parts, namely, domestic and foreign. The sale of lands

is to be appropriated to the former.

"The domestic debt may perhaps be nine or ten millions, and

the foreign debt two or three. For payment of the foreign

debt it is proposed to lay a tax of five per cent upon all

imports until discharged, which, I am informed, has already

been agreed to by most of the States, and probably will

soon be confirmed by the rest. Upon the whole, it appears

that this plan is as prudently conceived and as judiciously

arranged, as to the end proposed, as any experienced cabinet

of European ministers could have devised or planned any

similar project. The second point which appears to me to be

deserving of attention, respecting the immense cession of

territory to the United States at the late peace, is a point

_which will perhaps in a few years become an unparalleled

phenomenon in the political world_. As soon as the national

debt of the United States shall be discharged by the sale of

one portion of those lands, we shall then see the

Confederate Republic in a new character, as a proprietor of

lands, either for sale or to let upon rents, while other

nations may be struggling under debts too enormous to be

discharged either by economy or taxation, and while they may

be laboring to raise ordinary and necessary supplies by

burdensome impositions upon their own persons and

properties. _Here will be a nation possessed of a new and

unheard of financial organ of stupendous magnitude, and in

process of time of unmeasured value, thrown into their lap

as a fortuitous superfluity, and almost without being sought

for._

"When such an organ of revenue begins to arise into produce

and exertion, what public uses it may be applicable to, or

to what abuses and perversions it might be rendered

subservient, is far beyond the reach of probable discussion

now. Such discussions would only be visionary speculations.

However, thus far it is obvious and highly deserving of our

attention, that it cannot fail becoming to the American

States a most important instrument of national power, the

progress and operation of which must hereafter be _a most

interesting object of attention to the British American

dominions which are in close vicinity to the territories of

the United States, and I should hope that these

considerations would lead us, inasmuch as we value those

parts of our dominions, to encourage conciliatory and

amicable correspondence between them and their neighbors_.

"I have thus, my Lord, endeavored to comply with your

Lordship's commands to the best of my power, in stating such

information to his Majesty's government as I have been

enabled to collect of such nature as may tend to the mutual

and reciprocal interest of Great Britain and the United

States of America. I do not recollect at present anything

further to trouble your Lordship with. If any of the

foregoing points should require any further elucidation, I

shall always be ready to obey your Lordship's summons, or to

give in any other way the best explanations in my power."

COUNT D'ARANDA.--1783.

The Count d'Aranda was one of the first of Spanish statesmen and

diplomatists, and one of the richest subjects of Spain in his day; born

at Saragossa, 1718, and died 1799. He, too, is one of our prophets.

Originally a soldier, he became ambassador, governor of a province, and

prime minister. In the latter post he displayed character as well as

ability, and was the benefactor of his country. He drove the Jesuits

from Spain and dared to oppose the Inquisition. He was a philosopher,

and, like Pope Benedict XIV., corresponded with Voltaire. Such a liberal

spirit was out of place in Spain. Compelled to resign in 1773, he found

a retreat at Paris as ambassador, where he came into communication with

Franklin, Adams, and Jay, and finally signed the Treaty of Paris, by

which Spain acknowledged our independence. Shortly afterwards he

returned to Spain and took the place of Florida Blanca as prime

minister.

Franklin, on meeting him, records, in his letter to the secret committee

of Congress, that he seemed "well disposed to us."[80] Shortly

afterwards he had another interview with him, which he thus chronicles

in his journal:--

"_Saturday, June 29th_ [1782].--We went together to the Spanish

Ambassador's, who received us with great civility and politeness. He

spoke with Mr. Jay on the subject of the treaty they were to make

together.... On our going out, he took pains himself to open the

folding-doors for us, which is a high compliment here, and told us he

would return our visit (_rendre son devoir_), and then fix a day with us

for dining with him."[81]

Adams, in his journal, describes a Sunday dinner at his house, then a

"new building in the finest situation of Paris,"[82] being a part of the

incomparable palace, with its columnar front, which is still admired as

it looks on the Place de la Concorde. Jay also describes a dinner with

the Count, who was "living in great splendor, with an assortment of

wines the finest in Europe," and was "the ablest Spaniard he had ever

known"; showing by his conversation "that his court is in earnest," and

appearing "frank and candid, as well as sagacious."[83] These

hospitalities have a peculiar interest, when it is known, as it now is,

that Count d'Aranda regarded the acknowledgment of our independence with

"grief and dread." But these sentiments were disguised from our

ministers.

After signing the Treaty of Paris, by which Spain acknowledged our

independence, D'Aranda addressed a memoir secretly to King Charles III.,

in which his opinions on this event are set forth. This prophetic

document slumbered for a long time in the confidential archives of the

Spanish crown. Coxe, in his "Memoirs of the House of Bourbon in Spain,"

which are founded on a rare collection of original documents, makes no

allusion to it. The memoir appears for the first time in a volume

published at Paris in 1837, and entitled _Gouvernement de Charles III.,

Roi d'Espagne, ou Instruction réservée à la Funte d'État par ce

Monarque. Publiée par D. André Muriel_. The editor had already

translated into French the Memoirs of Coxe, and was probably led by this

labor to make the supplementary collection. An abstract of the memoir of

D'Aranda appears in one of the historical dissertations of the Mexican

authority, Alaman, who said of it that it has "a just celebrity, because

results have made it pass for a prophecy."[84] I translate it now from

the French of Muriel.

"_Memoir communicated secretly to the King by his Excellency

the Count d'Aranda, on the Independence of the English

Colonies, after having signed the Treaty of Paris of 1783._

"The independence of the English colonies has been

acknowledged. This is for me an occasion of grief and dread.

France has few possessions in America; but she should have

considered that Spain, her intimate ally, has many, and that

she is left to-day exposed to terrible shocks. From the

beginning, France has acted contrary to her true interests

in encouraging and seconding this independence; I have so

declared often to the ministers of this nation. What could

happen better for France than to see the English and the

colonists destroy each other in a party warfare which could

only augment her power and favor her interests? The

antipathy which reigns between France and England blinded

the French Cabinet; it forgot that its interest consisted in

remaining a tranquil spectator of this conflict; and, once

launched in the arena, it dragged us unhappily, and by

virtue of the family compact, into a war entirely contrary

to our proper interest.

"I will not stop here to examine the opinions of some

statesmen, our own countrymen as well as foreigners, which I

share, on _the difficulty of preserving our power in

America. Never have so extensive possessions, placed at a

great distance from the metropolis, been long preserved_.

To this cause, applicable to all colonies, must be added

others peculiar to the Spanish possessions; namely, the

difficulty of succoring them in case of need; the vexations

to which the unhappy inhabitants have been exposed from some

of the governors; the distance of the supreme authority to

which they must have recourse for the redress of grievances,

which causes years to pass before justice is done to their

complaints; the vengeance of the local authorities to which

they continue exposed while waiting; the difficulty of

knowing the truth at so great a distance; finally, the means

which the viceroys and governors, from being Spaniards,

cannot fail to have for obtaining favorable judgments in

Spain; all these different circumstances will render the

inhabitants of America discontented, and make them attempt

efforts to obtain independence as soon as they shall have a

propitious occasion.