Fifty Years of American Idealism: the New York Nation, 1865-1915;

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fiftyyearsofamerOOpoll FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM THE NEW YOKK NATION 1865-1915 FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM THE NEW YORK NATION 1865-1915 SELECTIONS AND COMMENTS BY GUSTAV POLLAK BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY @i)t fitoerjride J9ce^ CambribQe 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY GUSTAV POLLAK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published December IQ15 PREFATORY NOTE Part I of this volume embodies, with various addi- tions, the substance of my article on "The Nation and its Contributors" in the Semi-Centennial Number of the Nation (July 8, 1915). Part II reflects the spirit of the Nations comments, from year to year, on impor- tant questions of the day. Part III consists of twenty- four representative essays. Hundreds of contributions of similar value and interest, by men of eminence in widely different pursuits, might easily have been selected. My thanks are due to The Macmillan Company for permission to quote from Rollo Ogden's Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin. GUSTAV POLLAK. ^ New Yobk, November 8, 1915. -*- * <LJ _H Vj^W\ }*£, CONTENTS I. THE NATION: ITS EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS . 1 II. THE NATION'S VIEWS FROM YEAR TO YEAR ... 85 1865. The Dawn of Brighter Days 88 Changes in Population 89 1866. A Counsel of Moderation 92 The Austro-Prussian War and the Rights of Private Property 94 The Atlantic Cable 94 1867. The First Civil Service Reform Bill .... 95 The Meaning of American Naturalization ... 97 1868. American Diplomats Abroad 97 The Result of the Impeachment Trial .... 99 1869. David A. Wells and his Assailants 100 The Way the Income Tax ought to be collected . 101 1870. The Legal-Tender Decision 103 American Sympathies during the Franco-Prussian War 104 1871. The Revolt of the Merchants against the Tyranny of the Railroads 106 1872. The Public Reception of Mr. Greeley's Nomination 109 The Verdict at Geneva Ill "The People" and the Municipal Government . .111 1873. Chief-Justice Chase 114 The "Virginius" 117 1874. President Grant's Veto 121 Alaska Forty Years Ago 123 1875. The Law and the Facts in Louisiana 124 1876. The Centennial Celebration 126 The Hayes-Tilden Campaign 128 1877. The Decision of the Electoral Commission . 130 Civil-Service Reform Near at Hand 132 Our Mexican Troubles 134 1878. The Mind and Manners of the Silver-Man . .136 Resumption 138 1879. Some Noteworthy Facts about the Forty-Fifth Congress 140 1880. General Garfield and the Bosses 143 1881. President Arthur's Problems 145 1882. A "Spirited Foreign Policy" 148 viii CONTENTS 1883. Congressional Fostering of Art 150 1884. The Nation and the "Cleveland Scandal" . 152 1885. Mr. Lowell's Official Career 155 The First Six Months of President Cleveland's Ad- ministration 158 1886. Charles Francis Adams 158 The Lesson of the Railroad Strikes 161 1887. Restricting Immigration 162 1888. The British-Americans 165 The Problems confronting President Harrison . 167 1889. Courage in Politics 168 1890. Party and Other Morality 170 Optimists and Pessimists 172 1891. "Death of the Republican Party" 175 1892. The Proper Work of the City Club 176 Mr. Cleveland and Tammany 178 1893. The Ethics of Campaign Funds 180 1894. A New Era in American Manufacturing .... 183 1895. Jingo Morality 185 1896. Bryan's First Candidacy 187 1897. The Tariff and the City 190 1898. Experience in Governing Colonies 192 1899. A Fresh Phase of the Indian Question .... 195 1900. The Enemies of Civilization 196 1901. Tammany and "Respectability" 198 1902. Rewards of Public Service 200 1903. Growth of the Labor Controversy 203 1904. A Transit of Idealism 205 Mr. Hanna's Public Career 207 1905. John Hay 210 1906. Immigration and the South 213 1907. Working up a War 215 1908. The Despised Moral Issue 218 1909. Republican Tariff Reduction 220 1910. Philosophers and Guides 221 1911. The Lawyer and the Country 223 1912. Leaders in a Democracy 225 1913. Our Duty to Mexico 227 1914. Making Life Insurance do the Most Good . 228 1915. A Momentous Decision 231 III. REPRESENTATIVE ESSAYS 235 Knickerbocker Literature 237 The Tale of the "Ripe Scholar" 245 Natural Boundaries 254 CONTENTS ix Neutrals axd Contraband 259 The Mor\lity of Arms-Dealing 265 Taine's English Literature 270 Morley's Rousseau 281 Charles Sumner 288 Professor Joseph Henry 296 William Lloyd Garrison 303 An English View of American Conservatism .... 309 The "(Edipus Tyr\nnus" at Harvard 325 Responsible Government in Germany 331 General Sherman 335 A Great Example 344 Helmholtz 348 Gladstone 356 Herbert Spencer 374 Daniel Coit Gilman 380 Mark Twain 388 American Scholarship 401 Letters of Charles Eliot Norton 414 Famill^r Quotations 427 The California Expositions 442 INDEX 455 FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM i THE NATION: ITS EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS FIFTY YEAES OF AMERICAN IDEALISM THE NEW YORK NATION 1865-1915 Few periodicals in the history of journalism can claim, like the Nation, to have preserved their original features essentially unchanged during fifty years of continuous existence. The Nation of the present day may safely challenge comparison with the number which, on July 6, 1865, was issued by Edwin Lawrence Godkin, as editor- in-chief, and Wendell Phillips Garrison, as literary editor. The two men who thus stamped their individuality on a journal prized equally by two succeeding generations of thoughtful readers must indeed have possessed rare qualities of mind and character. Godkin and Garrison were as dissimilar in temperament and in their phi- losophy of life as two men of equally high ideals could well be, but they supplemented each other in a way which made their joint editorial work a solid unit. There are two excellent sources from which to recon- struct the lives of these remarkable men as far as their connection with the Nation is concerned, — Rollo Ogden's "Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin," and J. H. McDaniels's "Letters and Memorials of Wendell Phillips Garrison." Striking tributes to their memory, perpetuating their individual traits, were re- cently paid in the Nation itself by Lord Bryce, W. C. Brownell, Professor A. V. Dicey, Judge Charles C. Nott, 4 FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM and others. The brief outlines of Mr. Godkin's life, prior to the founding of the Nation, are as follows: Edwin Lawrence Godkin was born at Moyne, County Wicklow, Ireland, on October 2, 1831, as the first child of his parents. Both were of English ancestry, and his father, the Rev. James Godkin, a Presbyterian minister of literary talents, after being forced from his pulpit on account of his espousal of the cause of Young Ireland, became a journalist of some distinction. Young Godkin received his early education at a pre- paratory school at Armagh, and, at the age of ten was sent as a boarder to Silcoates School, Wakefield, York- shire. At school, he did not particularly distinguish himself, except as editor of a magazine published in boy- fashion. Being rather delicate in health, Godkin, after leaving school, pursued his studies for some time at home under the tuition of an uncle, the Reverend John Edge. He then entered the classical department of the Royal Institution, Belfast, under Dr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas W. Moffett. In 1846 he enrolled in Queen's College, Belfast, where he won a scholarship, although, in the words of his biographer, Mr. Rollo Ogden, "his academic career was rather promising than distinguished." We are told that "he was fond of dancing parties and amuse- ments." After graduating at Queen's College in 1851, he went to London to study for the bar at Lincoln's Inn. Almost immediately, however, he found employment with the Cassells, a house with which his father had been con- nected, and for a time he was sub-editor of their magazine. In 1853, at the age of twenty-one, he published his first book, "A History of Hungary," a work of consider- able merit, of which years later, writing to Charles Eliot Norton, Godkin said characteristically: "I am forced to admit that the philosophical reflections scattered through NATION EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS 5 it are fearfully profound. Indeed, on looking through it, I am surprised that the production of so much wisdom at that early age did not exhaust me more." In the same year in which he published his first book, Godkin began his correspondence from the Crimea to the London Daily News. A connection was thus begun that lasted through many years of Mr. Godkin's life. The Crimean letters and those which he wrote later from the United States attracted, as they deserved, wide attention. Mr. Godkin returned from the Crimea to England in 1855, and for some months of the next year was on the editorial staff of the Belfast Northern Whig. In Novem- ber, 1856, he came to America, as he had long wished to do. After undertaking a tour of the South, which he described in a series of remarkable letters to the Daily News, he settled down in New York to read for the bar, to which he was admitted in 1858. In 1859 he married Miss Frances Elizabeth Foote, of New Haven. After a tour abroad lasting about two years, he returned to America, and was for a short time on the editorial staff of the New York Times. On July 6, 1865, his real career began with the founding of the Nation. The project of establishing a high-grade weekly [says Mr. Ogden] l was in Mr. Godkin's mind long before the day of real- ization. He often talked of it with his friends in New York and Boston, New Haven and Cambridge.

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