American Ideas For English Readers.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, AFTER THE BUST BY William Ordway Partridge. (TAKEN FROM THE CLAY)

American Ideas For English Readers

By

James Russell Lowell

With Introduction by

Henry Stone

Published by J, G, Cupples Co, 250 Boylston St. Boston

Copyright, 1892, By J. G. CUPPLES.

All rights reserved.

Introduction.

Among his many titles to the special consideration and gratitude of his countrymen, James Russell Lowell had one in pre-eminence—an unyielding loyalty to all that was best in American ideas and aims. It was this quality that gave point to the wit of Hosea Biglow, and loftiness to his imagination in his more serious poems. In the earliest of the Biglow papers, he calls upon Massachusetts to

and the tone is not changed to his very latest utterance. In that Commemoration Ode, which will remain the crown of his literary and poetical work, his passion found its highest expression:

[Pg viii] An impression has prevailed—and has gained credence at some times and in some places, that, in his later years, and in the presence of a society differently organized from that which he found at home, the ardor of his love of country was quenched:—that he became less an American as he saw more of other lands. What is it to be an American? The definition may vary, in different regions. What was it, always, with him? If to be an American means merely to be successful in a large and worldly way—whether in politics, or in business, or in letters; to out-talk, out-spend, out-bid, out-invent others; to drive faster; to travel farther; to push harder; to build bigger houses; to found more richly endowed Universities; to construct greater Observatories; to establish more and larger public libraries:—if to do these and similar things is all that goes to make an American—the charge is true. In such sense, Mr. Lowell was not so good an American as some others. But, in the larger and truer sense:—in striving for all that goes to make a people more

noble in aim, more humane, more intelligent, [Pg ix] more peace-loving, more free, more self-respecting, more artistic, in short more fully men and women of the best type,—Mr. Lowell may well be accepted as the representative American, of whom we should all be proud.

It was his rare fortune to be Minister of the United States to Great Britain during a most interesting period. The serious troubles which had grown out of the wrong we had suffered at her hands during the civil war had been happily ended. The era of reconciliation had begun. In what light should we stand before the world, after winning the great verdict in the Alabama case:—as a community of sharp traders, condoning a great national wrong for a petty sum of money?—or as a people striving chiefly for the maintenance of the true principles of national honor and international comity? Mr. Lowell, perhaps more than any one in America, was the man who, by training, by culture, by scholarship, by attainments in the world of letters, by unsullied character, was fitted to present to the English people an embodiment of Americanism, in its best expression. More than that:—he was eminently [Pg x] fitted to illustrate that idea, and give it weight, dignity and authority. In all his intercourse with the aristocratic representatives of privileged

countries, he—the plain, untitled representative of a democratic government—proud to stand for a people with whom liberty and equality were supreme terms—more than held his own in every trial of intellect, of courtesy, of wit, of all that wins in society and the world. So, at last, no circle was complete without him:—to claim him as guest was matter of emulation.

Some of these things are, in a certain sense, of small account. Yet in a society so largely conventional as all diplomatic society is, and of necessity must be, it is much that an American should, by common consent, stand at the head, even in matters of ceremonial. It reveals a quickness and versatility of mind which is not common. A certain native, spontaneous grace, both of words and manner, characterized all Mr. Lowell’s utterances; and it was so truly genuine that it could not fail to charm, when the mere external imitation was sure to repel.

[Pg xi] The record which this little book gives of his unstudied speeches and letters in England shows how thoroughly imbued he was with the American idea. It also shows how strenuously he used every occasion to try to bring about a higher and truer friendship between the two great countries whose mission it seems to be to uphold and extend regulated liberty throughout the world. Some of these speeches were made while he was still accredited Minister to Great Britain: others, after he had ceased to hold the title, though he remained in reality the true American representative to that people. There is, perhaps, no other instance of a citizen of the United States holding such position, with ever increasing regard, for years after he had ceased to be titular representative. The honors bestowed on him by the Universities were more than out-done by the honor in which he was held by the people. The one was a tribute to scholarship and attainments:—the other, a recognition of manhood and integrity.

In the heroic years which made up so large a part of the experience of all men [Pg xii] in the United States from 1861 to 1865, Mr. Lowell’s part was as efficient as that of many a general on the battle field. When the era of peace and reconciliation came, he maintained the same lofty principles which had prompted all his former actions and words. The spirit which dictated “The Present Crisis” so long ago as 1845, also dictated the “Fourth of July Ode” in 1876. But how different the tone of these two impassioned lyrics! The one a vigorous, manly, resistless protest against the

The other, a sublime thanksgiving for the salvation of

It is in the light of these strenuous outbursts of the unconquered spirit of independence that his words spoken in lighter vein are to be read and considered. Everywhere is the same faith and hope:—only, in these later speeches, they find expression in words fitted for social pleasantry and genial intercourse.

Nowhere do after-dinner speeches—which, with us, are usually momentary [Pg xiii] and evanescent in effect—carry so much weight as in England. There often a public dinner is an event. Questions of peace or war: of party policy: of methods of administration: of national destiny, are often decided or directed by words spoken at the dinner table. Therefore, these speeches of Mr. Lowell have a much greater significance than if made on similar occasions with us. In every one is to be found an earnest endeavor, first to secure a higher appreciation of his country than he found prevailing among that insular and self-contained people:—and next to encourage and stimulate the formation of a real and sincere friendship between the mother country and her over-grown child. He gained these ends by the exercise of unfailing tact, courtesy and courage, which first disarmed criticism; and then by presenting considerations which commanded respect and carried conviction. Even his American humor gained the appreciation of these lovers of Punch.

The first of the speeches which are here given was made in 1880—the last in 1888. One invariable note is struck [Pg xiv] in them all. Beginning with that at Edinburgh, he claims—what we all conceive to be true—that the traditions of English freedom and English civilization have not only been maintained, but also extended, among us: and he refers, with evident and just pride, to the quick and intelligent appreciation of Carlyle in America, long before he won recognition in his own England. And, in his last speech, on the eve of leaving Liverpool to return home, he dwells with great earnestness on the duty laid on English-speaking races everywhere to carry with them the great lessons of liberty combined with order.

In all these evidently unstudied and spontaneous expressions of his permanent feeling and conviction, Mr. Lowell claims our hearty consideration. His voice is everywhere and always loyal to his native land, which he loved and honored: to freedom, which he held above all price: to that liberty and civilization which it is the joint mission of England and America to maintain to the uttermost. Difference of methods between the two countries there may be: but the end to be reached is the same. [Pg xv] To help reach this, Mr. Lowell gave his best energies. His words had a power beyond what he could have thought possible. If there is now, in England, a clearer appreciation of American ideas: less of that condescension which was once so evident in foreigners: more readiness to see and to seek the best rather than the worst in our modes of life and thought: a clearer understanding that, at heart, we are one people—a very large share of that improved condition is due to James Russell Lowell. The method of securing that better understanding was—not by denying or ignoring

certain manifest short-comings or over-doings:—but by constantly holding up to the world the best we had done, or striven to do:—and, more than all, by illustrating it in his own person:—so that even our enemies were compelled to confess that there must be some good in our land, if such men as he were the

“New birth of our new soil.”

Henry Stone.

Boston,

January 1, 1892.

American Ideas for English Readers.

I.

BEFORE THE EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION.

On Saturday evening, November 6, 1880, the directors of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution entertained Mr. James Russell Lowell, American Minister, at dinner in the Balmoral Hotel in that city. Dr. W. Smith, senior vice-president of the institution, occupied the chair, and among others present were the Earl of Rosebery, Lord Reay, Principal Sir Alexander Grant, the Rev. Professor Flint, and Professor Blackie. Mr. Lowell, in returning thanks for the toast of his health, said:

He thought that they in America had done quite their share of work in their short life, although he was[Pg 2] always inclined to question the statement that they were a young people. It was supposed, somehow or other, that they were autochthonic; that they had sprung from the earth of America, as the Athenians were said to have done from the soil of Attica. But it was nothing of the kind. If he might be allowed to say so, they began where those in this country left off. It must be remembered that they took with them all the traditions of English freedom and of English civilization, and that they not only maintained them, but, in his humble judgment, carried them further. (Cheers.)

Mr. Lowell concluded by referring to early association on his part with Edinburgh.

[Pg 3] Afterwards, proposing “The health of Mr. Carlyle and the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh,” Mr. Lowell said that—

America in a certain sense performed the office of posterity to England and Scotland. Their authors were first recognized across the Atlantic. (Cheers.) He would not say it was owing to quicker perception, but rather to their clearness of atmosphere (laughter) that they had this luck sometimes. He remembered particularly a book which was published while he was still at college, and which produced in his young mind as great a ferment as it did among all his contemporaries. That book was “Sartor Resartus.” (Cheers.) It was first collected and published in[Pg 4] the year 1836 in the city of Boston, in the United States of America (cheers); and it there received its first approbation. Their chairman, Dr. Smith, had told him during the course of the evening that when “Sartor Resartus” first began to appear in Fraser’s Magazine the editor received two letters, one from an Irishman, if he was not mistaken, saying that if that particular kind of stuff—describing it with what usually began with a “d” (laughter)—was to be continued he wished his

subscription to be stopped. The other letter was from an American, saying that if the writer of “Sartor Resartus” in Fraser’s Magazine had written anything else he wished it all to[Pg 5] be sent to him. (Laughter.) The second writer was a man he knew well—Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Cheers.) He remembered being very much struck many years ago with something which Thackeray said to him. It was that Carlyle was his master. That was said nearly thirty years ago. The other day he took up a number of the Nineteenth Century, and in an article by Mr. Ruskin he observed that he said Carlyle was his master. This coincidence, the difference between Thackeray and Ruskin being remembered, only showed, he thought, the universality of Carlyle’s influence. (Cheers.) He meant to say that Carlyle approached different men on different sides, which[Pg 6] was one of the strongest marks that could be mentioned of genius. Carlyle had found an approach to their intellects and to their hearts, to the intellects and hearts of a great variety of men of different nations. He had

introduced a new style—a peculiarly English style—of looking at things, quite as much as Sir Walter Scott introduced a new style of novel-writing. Sir Walter Scott, he considered, was the greatest story-teller of the age. (Cheers.) Carlyle had the surprising gift of expressing poetic thought in prose. (Cheers.) It was particularly their gratitude to him on the moral and human side that they would feel in drinking, not only with enthusiasm, but with a sort[Pg 7] of reverence, the health of Mr. Carlyle.

The toast was received with much enthusiasm. Other toasts followed.

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[Pg 9]

II.

BEFORE THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The second annual dinner of the London Chamber of Commerce, which was incorporated in 1881, was held on the evening of January 29, 1883, in the Cannon-street Hotel, the Right Hon. H. C. E. Childers, M. P., Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the chair. The company, which numbered about 180, included representatives not only of the great commercial communities of London and all the most important of our colonies, but of the English-speaking race in every part of the world.

On the chairman’s left sat the Hon. J. Russell Lowell, D. C. L., United States Minister.

In proposing “The Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom and of the Whole World,” he said:

Mr. Chairman, my Lords and Gentlemen,—I was a few moments ago discussing with my excellent[Pg 10] friend upon the left what a diplomatist might be permitted to say, and I think the result of the discussion was that he was left to his choice between saying nothing that had any meaning or saying something that had several—(laughter); and as one of those diplomatists to whom the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs alluded a short time ago I should rather choose the latter course, because it gives one afterwards a selection when the time for explanation comes round. (Laughter.) I shall not detain you long, for I know that there are speakers both on the right and on the left of me who are impatient to burst the bud; and I know that I have not[Pg 11] been selected for the pleasant duty that has been assigned to me for any merits of my own. (Cries of dissent.) You will allow me to choose my own reason, gentlemen. I repeat, I have not been chosen so much for my own merits as for the opportunity afforded you of giving expression to your kindness and good feeling

towards the country I represent—(cheers)—a country which exemplifies what the colonies of England may come to if they are not wisely treated. (Laughter and cheers.) Speaking for myself and for one or two of my compatriots whom I see here present, I should certainly say that that was no unpleasant destiny in itself. But I do not, nor do my countrymen, desire[Pg 12] that those great commonwealths which are now joined to England by so many filial ties should ever be separated from her.

I am asked to-night to propose the “Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom and of the World,” and I might, if the clock did not warn me against it—(“Go on”)—if my own temperament did not stand a little in the way—I might say to you something very solemn on the subject of commerce. I might say how commerce, if not a great civilizer in itself, had always been a great intermediary and vehicle of civilization. I might say that all the great commercial States have been centres of civilization, and centres of those[Pg 13] forces which keep civilization from becoming stupid. I do not say which is the post and which the propter in this inference; but I do say that the two things have been almost invariably associated.

One word as to commerce in another relation which touches me more nearly. Commerce and the rights and advantages of commerce, ill understood and ignorantly interpreted, have often been the cause of animosities between nations. But commerce rightly understood is a great pacificator; it brings men face to face for barter. It is the great corrector of the eccentricities and enormities of nature and of the seasons, so that a bad harvest and a bad season in England[Pg 14] is a good season for Minnesota, Kansas and Manitoba.

But, gentlemen, I will not detain you longer. It gives me great pleasure to propose, as the representative of the United States, the toast of “The Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom and of the Whole World,” with which I associate the names of Mr. C. M. Norwood, M. P., vice-president of the Associated Chambers of the United Kingdom, and the Hon. F. Strutt, president of the Derby Chamber. (Cheers.)

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[Pg 15]

III.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

The University of Cambridge having under comparatively recent regulations given archæology a definitely-recognized position among the subjects for the Classical Tripos examination, has now advanced another important step by establishing a suitable home for classical studies, and under the same roof has provided a home for the antiquarian and ethnological collections of the University. For the past eleven years classical archæology has been systematically taught, but what was previously carried on under difficulties has been since 1884 pursued under advantageous circumstances. New buildings were formally opened May 6, 1884, by the Vice-Chancellor. Brief addresses were made by the Vice-Chancellor and Prof. Colvin. Mr. Lowell then said:

He also regretted with the Vice-Chancellor, both on his own account and on theirs, the absence of the[Pg 16] French Ambassador, who could have spoken on archæological subjects from the position of a master. He had been asked to say a few words, and with sincerity he could say that it always gave him great pleasure to be the herald that brought to the old home a message from the new. That scarlet gown, which had suddenly converted him into a flaming minister (laughter), reminded him that Cambridge had adopted him as one of her children. (Cheers.) He therefore felt charged to bring a message from the new Cambridge in the New World—a message of filial respect—to the old Cambridge in the Old World. There was also a propriety in his being there, from the fact that[Pg 17] a great deal of the interest which had been felt in this undertaking had been stimulated by the lectures and the labors of a countryman of his own. Having said this, he might naturally be expected to take his seat, but he knew he was not expected to do so. He was compelled, like the Ancient