History of American Literature Part 6

WARD'S SIMPLE COBBLER OF AGAWAM.--His view of religious toleration is given in Cairns, 113-118, and T. & W., I., 253-259. For the satiric essay on women's fas.h.i.+ons, see Cairns, 119-124; T. & W., I., 260-266; S. & H. I., 276-280.

SAMUEL SEWALL.--Cairns, 240-243, gives from the _Diary_ the events of a month. Notes on the Witchcraft Persecution and his prayer of repentance for "the blame and shame of it" may be found in T. & W., II., 294-296. The record of his courts.h.i.+p of Madam Winthrop is given in Cairns, 245-249; T. & W., II., 304-319; and S. & H., II., 192-200. For his early anti-slavery tract, see T. & W., II., 320-326; S. & H., II., 189-192.

COTTON MATHER.--His fantastic life of Mr. Ralph Partridge from the _Magnalia_ is given in Cairns, 228, 229. The interesting story of the New England argonaut, Sir William Phips, may be found in T. & W., II., 257-266, and in S. & H., II., 143-149. One of his best biographies is that of Thomas Hooker, S. & H., II., 149-156.

JONATHAN EDWARDS.--For a specimen of an almost poetic exposition of the divine love, read the selection in Cairns, 280, 281; T. & W., III., 148, 149; S. & H., II., 374; and Carpenter, 16, 17, beginning, "I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys." Selections from his _Freedom of the Will_ are given in Cairns. 291-294; T. & W., III., 185-187; and S. & H., II., 404-407 (the best).

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Is Captain John Smith more remarkable for chronicling what pa.s.sed before his senses or for explaining what he saw? How does his account of the Indians (p. 18 of this text) compare with modern accounts? Is he apparently a novice, or somewhat skilled in writing prose? Does he seem to you to be a romancer or a narrator of a plain unvarnished tale?

Compare Strachey's storm at sea with _Act I._ of Shakespeare's _Tempest_.

In what part of this _Act_ and under what circ.u.mstances does he mention "the still-vex'd Bermoothes"?

Compare the ability of the three great early colonizers, Smith, Bradford, and Winthrop, in writing narrative prose. Smith's story of Pocahontas is easily accessible. Those who can find the complete works of Bradford and Winthrop may select from Bradford for comparison his story of Squanto, the Pilgrims' tame Indian. Winthrop's _Journal_ contains many specimens of brief narrative, such as the story of the voyage across the Atlantic from March 29 to June 14, 1630; of Winthrop's losing himself in the wood, October 11, 1631; of s.h.i.+pwreck on the Isle of Shoals, August 16, 1635; of an indentured servant, March 8, 1636; of an adventure with Indians, July 20-30, August 24, and October 8, 1636. Those without opportunity to consult the works of Bradford and Winthrop will find in the books of selections sufficient material for comparison.

Is brevity or prolixity a quality of these early narrators? What English prose written before 1640 is superior to the work of these three men? Why is it especially important for Americans to know something of their writings? What advance in prose narrative do you find in Beverly and Byrd?

What characteristic of a famous English prose writer of the nineteenth century is noticeable in Ward's essay on fas.h.i.+ons?

Why could fine poetry not be reasonably expected in early Virginia and New England? What are some of the Calvinistic tenets expounded in Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom?_ Choose the best two short selections of colonial poetry.

What are some of the qualifications of a good diarist? Which of these do you find in the _Diary_ of Samuel Sewall?

Point out some of the fantastic prose expressions of Cotton Mather. Compare his narrative of Captain Phips with the work of Smith, Bradford, and Winthrop, on the one hand, and of Beverly and Byrd, on the other.

Compare the theology in Edwards's "Rose of Sharon" selection (p. 54) with that in Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom._ Why may this selection from Edwards be called a "poetic exposition of the divine love"? What is his view of the freedom of the will?

CHAPTER II

THE EMERGENCE OF A NATION

PROGRESS TOWARD NATIONALITY.--The French and Indian War, which began in 1754, served its purpose in making the colonists feel that they were one people. At this time most of them were living on the seacoast from Georgia to Maine, and had not yet even crossed the great Appalachian range of mountains. The chief men of one colony knew little of the leaders in the other colonies. This war made George Was.h.i.+ngton known outside of Virginia.

There was not much interchange of literature between the two leading colonies, Virginia and Ma.s.sachusetts. Prior to this time, the other colonies had not produced much that had literary value. No national literature could be written until the colonists were welded together.

The French and Indian War, which decided whether France or England was to be supreme in America, exposed the colonists to a common danger. They fought side by side against the French and Indians, and learned that the defeat of one was the defeat of all. After a desperate struggle France lost, and the Anglo-Saxon race was dominant on the new continent. By the treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, England became the possessor of Canada and the land east of the Mississippi River.

THE REVOLUTION.--All of the colonies had been under English rule, although they had in large part managed in one way or another to govern themselves. At the close of the French and Indian War, the colonists had not thought of breaking away from England, although they had learned the lesson of union against a common foe. George III. came to the throne in 1760. By temperament he was unusually adapted to play his part in changing the New World's history. He was determined to rule according to his own personal inclinations. He dominated his cabinet and controlled Parliament by bribery. He decided that the American colonies should feel the weight of his authority, and in 1763 his prime minister, George Grenville, undertook to execute measures in restraint of colonial trade.

Numbers of commodities, like tobacco, for instance, could not be traded with France or Spain or Holland, but must be sent to England. If there was any profit to be made in selling goods to foreign nations, England would make that profit. He also planned to tax the colonists and to quarter British troops among them. These measures aroused the colonies to armed resistance and led to the Revolutionary War, which began in 1775.

Freneau (p. 96), a poet of the Revolution, thus expresses in verse some of these events:--

"When a certain great king, whose initial is G, Shall force stamps upon paper and folks to drink tea; When these folks burn his tea and stampt paper like stubble, You may guess that this king is then coming to trouble."

THE ESSAYISTS

The pen helped to prepare the way for the sword and to arouse and prolong the enthusiasm of those who had taken arms. Before the battle of Lexington (1775), writers were busy on both sides of the dispute, for no great movement begins without opposition. Many colonists did not favor resistance to England. Even at the time of the first battle, comparatively few wished absolute separation from the mother country.

THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809) was an Englishman who came to America in 1774 and speedily made himself master of colonial thought and feeling. Early in 1776 he published a pamphlet ent.i.tled _Common Sense,_ which advocated complete political independence of England. The sledge hammer blows which he struck hastened the _Declaration of Independence._ Note the energy, the directness, and the employment of the concrete method in the following:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS PAINE]

"But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the a.s.sertion, if true, turns to her reproach.... This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from _every part_ of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still."

In the latter part of 1776 Was.h.i.+ngton wrote, "If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all possible expedition, I think the game is pretty nearly up." In those gloomy days, sharing the privations of the army, Thomas Paine wrote the first number of an irregularly issued periodical, known as the _Crisis_, beginning:--

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the suns.h.i.+ne patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Some have said that the pen of Thomas Paine was worth more to the cause of liberty than twenty thousand men. In the darkest hours he inspired the colonists with hope and enthusiasm. Whenever the times seemed to demand another number of the _Crisis_, it was forthcoming. Sixteen of these appeared during the progress of the struggle for liberty. He had an almost Shakespearean intuition of what would appeal to the exigencies of each case. After the Americans had triumphed, he went abroad to aid the French, saying, "Where Liberty is not, there is my home." He died in America in 1809. He is unfortunately more remembered for his skeptical _Age of Reason_ than for his splendid services to the cause of liberty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826), the third President of the United States, wrote much political prose and many letters, which have been gathered into ten large volumes. Ignoring these, he left directions that the words, "Author of the Declaration of American Independence," should immediately follow his name on his monument. No other American prose writer has, in an equal number of words, yet surpa.s.sed this _Declaration of Independence_.

Its influence has encircled the world and modified the opinions of nations as widely separated as the French and the j.a.panese.

Jefferson may have borrowed some of his ideas from _Magna Charta_ (1215) and the _Pet.i.tion of Right_ (1628); he may have incorporated in this _Declaration_ the yearnings that thousands of human souls had already felt, but he voiced those yearnings so well that his utterances have become cla.s.sic. It has been said that he "poured the soul of the continent" into that _Declaration_, but he did more than that. He poured into it the soul of all freedom-loving humanity, and he was accepted as the spokesman of the dweller on the Seine as enthusiastically as of the revolutionists in America. Those who have misconstrued the meaning of his famous expression, "All men are created equal" have been met with the adequate reply, "No intelligent man has ever misconstrued it except intentionally."

America has no _Beowulf_ celebrating the slaying of land-devastating monsters, but she has in this _Declaration_ a deathless battle song against the monsters that would throttle Liberty. Outside of Holy Writ, what words are more familiar to our ears than these?--

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are inst.i.tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Every student will find his comprehension of American literature aided by a careful study of this _Declaration_. This trumpet-tongued declaration of the fact that every man has an equal right with every other man to his own life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has served as an ideal to inspire some of the best things in our literature. This ideal has not yet been completely reached, but it is finding expression in every effort for the social and moral improvements of our population. Jefferson went a step beyond the old Puritans in maintaining that happiness is a worthy object of pursuit. Modern altruists are also working on this line, demanding a fuller moral and industrial liberty, and endeavoring to develop a more widespread capacity for happiness.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1757-1804), because of his wonderful youthful precocity, reminds us of Jonathan Edwards (p. 50). In 1774, at the age of seventeen, Hamilton wrote in answer to a Tory who maintained that England had given New York no charter of rights, and that she could not complain that her rights had been taken away:--

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]

A profound student of American const.i.tutional history says of Hamilton's pamphlets: "They show great maturity, a more remarkable maturity than has ever been exhibited by any other person, at so early an age, in the same department of thought."

After the Americans were victorious in the war, Hamilton suggested that a const.i.tutional convention be called. For seven years this suggestion was not followed, but in 1787 delegates met from various states and framed a federal const.i.tution to be submitted to the states for ratification.

Hamilton was one of the leading delegates. After the convention had completed its work, it seemed probable that the states would reject the proposed const.i.tution. To win its acceptance, Hamilton, in collaboration with JAMES MADISON (1751-1836) and JOHN JAY (1745-1829), wrote the famous _Federalist_ papers. There were eighty-five of these, but Hamilton wrote more than both of his a.s.sociates together. These papers have been collected into a volume, and to this day they form a standard commentary on our Const.i.tution. This work and Hamilton's eloquence before the New York convention for ratification helped to carry the day for the Const.i.tution and to terminate a period of dissension which was tending toward anarchy.

THE ORATORS

There are times in the history of a nation when there is unusual need for the orator to persuade, to arouse, and to encourage his countrymen. Many influential colonists disapproved of the Revolution; they wrote against it and talked against it. When the war progressed slowly, entailing not only severe pecuniary loss but also actual suffering to the revolutionists, many lost their former enthusiasm and were willing to have peace at any price.

At this period in our history the orator was as necessary as the soldier.

Orators helped to launch the Revolution, to continue the war, and, after it was finished, to give the country united const.i.tutional government. It will be instructive to make the acquaintance of some of these orators and to learn the secret of their power.

JAMES OTIS (1725-1783) was born in Ma.s.sachusetts and educated at Harvard.