Nation, in a Highlylibellous Statement Ltial Number of the Natzon Were Prof

- the Nation, in a highlylibellous statement ltial number of the Natzon were Prof. E. W. if not true, and one whlch, if true, it would The “Nation” and Its Con, Gurney, of Harvard (“Matthew Arnold‘s be practicallyimpossible to get wltnesse: tributors says in Criticism”); the essayist,Charles to prove. It entailed, I remember, a long - AstorBristed, better known by his pseu- litigationand a 1a.rge expense, and in the donym of “Carl Benson” (“Critics and Crit- end it was, I think, settled by a vindication By CUSTAV POLLAK. icism”and ‘‘Club Marsh,the whicheonsisted of whatamounted to an __ philologistand diplomat (“Were the States admission that the Nation had no means of Few periodicals m the history of ~ournal Ever Sovereign?”), and Henry James, father provingthe mine to have been plastered ism can claim, like the Xatzon, to have pre and son, the former of whom, well-known as andingrafted with silver ore. The public GerVed theiroriginal features essemtlall: a Swedenborgianphilosopher and a gifted verdict, however, on theEmma Mine was unchangedduring Efty years of continuour essayist, wrote on “Carlyle’s Frederickthe very different. existence. The Natzon of thepresent da? Great,” the latter on “The Noble School of Anearly article which caused a great maysafely challenge comparison with thl Fiction.” Prof. Gurneyheld the chair of commotion' andwas considered by “hos- numberwhich, on July 6, 1865, was Issue( history at Harvard, and for a timetaught Roman law. AsDean he was President tiles” (critics of the NutLon came to be dl- by EdwinLawrence Godkin, as edltor-in Eliot’sprincipal adviser in the extension vided by theeditors Into “Hostiles” and chief, and Wendell Phillips Garrison, as ht of theelective system. He was for a year “Friend1ies”“thewhite man’s division of eraryeditor. Perhaps not many subsequen editor of the North American Revhew, after - theIndians) as proof positive of the evil issues have surpassed the initial number ir Mr. Lowell and Mr. Nortonwlthdrew from animus of the Nation. Thiswas an artl- solidity,maturity of judgment,and attrac it. Hls contributionsto the early numbers cle describing the United States as a “Para- tiveness of style.Then, as now, thelead of the Natton weremarked by hisexten- dise of Mediocrities.” The author of it was mg editorials and the book reviews appear siveknowledge of the classics, modern as no doubt one of the best friends and stanch- ed anonymously.The imposing list of con well as ancient, and his wide reading in the estand most courageous supporters of the tributors. whlch in the course of time camt fields of philosophy. law, and pohtics. George Nataon, and an Amerlcan who never flinch- to include the foremost names in America Perkins Marsh, for more than twenty years ed. If I remember right, the authorship was literatureand science, wasrepresented ir United States Minister to Italy, was one of not really secret, but the odium entailed by theWst number by half-a-dozen men, tht the foremost American scholars of his time. thepubhcation of the“Paradise of Medi- mostconspicuous of whomwas Charlet EquallyInterested in matters of philology ocrities”fell as usualupon the Nutzon I Eliot Norton. To him, toFrederick Law Olm sted, and to James Miller McKim, the found andthe natural sciences, he published a doubt If American self-esteem, thenfar “Compendious Grammar of theIcelandic more sensitive than now, had ever been more mg of the Nutton is principallydue. Olm sted’s connection with the inclpiency of tht Language” and a remarkable work “The wounded by anything published since “Mar- Earth as Modified byHuman Action.” Be- tin Chuzzlewit” and “Amerlcan Notes” than Nat%on wasthe closest. Hehad elaboratec sides his striking seriesof articles on the sub- by the appearance of thls article. The “muck- with Mr. Godkinthe scheme for a journa. ject of State sovereignty already referred to, is such as actuallyemerged In 1865, and hc rakers”have destroyed sensitiveness. “It hecontributed to the early volumes of the hard to say at, there are very few first- was, until the firm of E. L. Godkin C Go, II ~. a number of papers, entitled “Notes rate.things an America, and scarceZg arvy thefollowing year, assumed control of thc on the New Edition of Webster’sDiction- paper, Its temporaryproprietor. He dm3 first-rate work done here.” The writer of the ary,” and wrote on such subjects as “Pruning article vas willing to admit that the Croton Camons asthe landscape architect of Cen Forest-Trees,” “Agriculture In Italy,” “The :ral Park, In hiseighty-second year, Water Works, CentralPark, and thenew Mont CenisTunnel,” “Physical Science in :ust 28, 1903. Academy of Design at the corner of Twenty- Italy.” and“The Proposed Revision of the thirdStreet and Fourth Avenue, were ex- It Is difficult to overestimate the aid ren Blble.” Atthe age of eighty he still eon- leredto the by CharlesElmt Nor ceptions.Another exception, curiously Natzon tributed to the Natzon a charming “Biogra- in. enough, was the thorougghness expressed ;on duringthe years when the experimeni phy of a Word“and a letter on Lanciani’s of If four years civzl war. Moreover, we were conducting a journal of its character in “Aqueducts of Ancient Rome.” He died in not always to remain as we were. schal- ;hiscountry was “If the paper trial. July, 18x2, at Vallombrosa, in his eighty- arship and learning were mediocre, and we ;ucceeds,” wrote Mr. Godkin, in one of hlE second year. worsh~ppedthe great goddess Mediocritas, .etters to Norton (July 6, 1866), ‘‘I shall al. Other writers wereproba.bly represented in but we had the germs of good in us, and our rays ascribe it to and when the suc. theErst number of the Nation, buttheir democracy wasnot to end in mediocrity. :ess of the Natzon was assured, Mr. Godkin identitycan no longerbe established. A But the stmg of the article was in its title. :oddsay: “Its existence is largelydue to comment, under the heading of Strange Here was a new paper just started, inviting ;he supportand encouragement which Story,” a letter written to the Evening subscriptions of Americans,deliberately :ave me.” writing down America, or rather the United Norton’s contribution to the first number by a chaplain of the First New Pork Volunteers, foreshadowscampaignthe States, as a “Paradise of Mediocrlties.” Was ~f the Nataot~was a review of Richard Grant against Gen. E. F. Butler waged by the pa- this impartiality? thisdisinterested White’s first volume of his edition of Shake. per for so manyyears with extraordinary criticism?Then, for Heaven’s sake,let us ;peare, followed, inthe second issue, by a skill and effectiveness Mr. Godkin’s own ar- have no more of it, nor of the Nation. The nemorable essay on “The Paradise of Medi. ticle on “The Essence of Reconstruction” and outragewas keenly felt. Can it bethat In 1crities”-more hopefullypatriotic, as we his paragraphs in the Weeksounded the that distant day we were “parochial”? Read lowsee, thanwas conceded at the time. keynote of the Nation’s campaign on the tpeseearly numbers to-day andask your- 7rom among Mr. Norton’s contributions dur- Southernquestion. And withthe initial self whether the Natzon was, after all, any- ng the early years of his active connection numberbegan the Nation’s longfight for thing other than it promised to be-a really rith the paper, one recalls a few whose very civil servicereform, in a paragraph on the conscientiousorgan of dislnterestedcrit- .itles showthe variety which his pen lent need of protecting the President against the icism. Later,when it discussed thegreat .o Itscolumns: “Draper’s .Civil Policy of assault of “office-seekers, pardon-seekers, del- “nose-pulling case” in Massaehusetts, it was Imerica,”“Tuscan Sculptors;’ “Waste,” agations and busybodies of both sexes, who accused of supporting an estimable Boston- ’TheAmerican Lectureship at Cambridge, threatened to make an end of him.” - ian who was trying to “establishcaste” in Bngland,” “Sir Alexander Grant’s Ethics of New England From treason and “mcivism” iristotle,” “Mr. Longfellow’s Translation of It IS lamentable [Mr. wrote] that to snobbishness,there was no sin or crime he Divme Comedy,” Emerson’s Poems,” some way cannot be hit on of sifting the of which Godkin did not stand accused. The ?resident‘s business before It comes be- ‘TheHarvard and Yale Memorial Build- lore him. is done to a certain Athenianshad not been toldthat Socrates ngs,” “FemaleSuffrage and Education.” :xtent with his letters,but the men and wasmore wicked. Amongthe other contributors to the in- momen who want to see himreach him, 5s The Nation [Vol. IOI, No. 2610 - chafi and all. The easiest way of doing P. Thompson, contributed to the second num- t merely to justify my name on your list it would be to render access to him more ber of the Nation. Dr. Thompson, in addi- )f contributors. I will send you the maca- difficult. Whether this could be arranged tion to fllllng the pastorate of the Broadway m~ni~s in a day or two, and you may put without raising doubts of his “democracy,” Tabernacle in New York city from 1845 to ;hem in the fire if you like. we must leave it to others to determine. 1871, was, successively, editor of the New Evidently. the “macaronics” referred to It took fifty years and the determina- Englander and the Independent, and was rec- ire identical with the poem printed in the tion of a latter-day President to realize Mr. ognized as a profound student of Oriental lit- Yation of January 25, 1866, under the title Godkin’s prophetic hope. erature. His connection with the Nation If “A Worthy Ditty. Sung before the Presi- The second number of the Nation intro- lasted until his death, in Berlin, in 1879. Dr. lent his Excellency at Washington, to a duced, in a review of Praed’s poems, a new Noah Porter, president of Yale from 1871 to Barrel-Organ Accompaniment.” The “little member of the staff, John Richard Dennett, 1886, also began to write for the Nation with ?oem,” entitled “What Rabbi Jehosha Said,” who for nine years, with the exception of a the second number. tppeared in the previous number. short period spent at Harvard as assistant The name of Arthur G. Sedgwick, whose Mr. Lowell’s poetic contributions to the professor of rhetoric, devoted his rare tal- association with the Nation and Mr. Godkin Nation, though infrequent, were ‘well-timed, ents entirely to the Nation. Like Mr. Garri- was probably closer, and certainly more eon- snd always produced a telling effect. They son, he was only twenty-& when he became tinuous, than that of any other member of its were generally on the political subjects of connected with the paper, and his maturity staff, and whom, fortunately, the paper may the day, such as his caustic “The World’s was as remarkable as that of the literary still claim among its occasional contributors, Fair” and “Tempera Mutantur,” both print- editor. The experience gained by Mr. Den- occurs in the annotated file before me az ed in August, 1875, and his “Campaign Epl- nett, shortly after his graduation from Har- early as the third number. The mere quanti. grams,” in the number of October 12, 1876. vard, on a cotton plantation in South Caro- ty of matter contributed by Mr. Sedgwick to In a different vein were his touching tri- lina, and his thorough familiarity with all the columns of the Nation for more than forty butes to two of his friends-the great physlol- the phases of the Southern question, ena years was prodigious; the style of the youth. ogist, Jeffries Wyman (Nation, September bled him to act as the Nation’s correspondent ful contributor impressed one, in his very 10, 1877), and Edmund Quincy (May 31, in the Cotton States, and he wrote in this first article, as unmistakably the Nation’s 1877), himself a valued contributor to the capacity for the first two volumes of the pa own. What was true of him, was true of Nation from its foundation. Of Mr. Low- per a series of articles on “The South as It the Nation’s contributors in general. It was ell’s prose writings in the Nation only a few Is,” which attracted wide attention. The observed, early in the history of the paper, can now be identified with certainty, such first of these letters appeared in the third that a peculiar literary flavor and a certain as a review of Henry James, jr.%, “Tales number. Through the whole of his short uniform elevation of treatment, no matter and Sketches” (June 24, 1875), two essays career the shadow of the disease to which what the subject, were among its chief char. on “Forster’s Life of Swift” (August 5 and he finally succumbed was upon him. “Of acteristics. Mr. Lowell, in a letter to E. L. 26, 1875), and a review of White’s “Natural what he might have accomplished with a Godkin of September 25, 1866, remarked: History of Selborne” (April 27, 1876). constitution better adapted to his surround, “Every Friday morning, when the Nation The fourth number of the Nation marked ings,” wrote the Nation, “one got an idea, comes, I fill my pipe and read it from be the advent of two writers who were among however faint, from his extraordinary pow ginning to end. Do you do it all yourself? the most important and prolific of all the ers of apprehension, which we have rarely Or are there really so many clever men in contributors to its columns-William Fran- seen equalled and never surpassed.” the country?” cis Allen and Michael Hellprin. Allen was Two other writers, whose connection with With the third number of the Nation, Rus, an historical scholar of rare attainments, the Aration as more or less frequent contribu, sell Sturgis, an authority on architecture who held the chair of ancient languages and tors was lifelong, appeared in the second nistory in the University of Wisconsin from number-Daniel C. Gilman and Octavius B. and kindred subjects, began to write on the fine arts, his contributions continuing until 1867 until his death, in 1889. The Nation Frothingham. It is interesting to notice that said of him, in its obituary notice, that he the future president of John Hopkins, in dis- his death, February 11, 1909. In the same issue appeared the first of three notable pa- was perhaps the most constant, if not the cussing the projected Cornell University, un- most voluminous, contributor in the quar- consciously outlined his own plans for the pers by Henry Villard, entitled “Army Cor- respondence.” :er-century of the journal’s existence. founding of a university, which he was Scarcely a number had appeared without The list of “regular or occasional contrlbu- later to carry into effect at Baltimore. He something from his pen. His first essays tars,” published in that number, contained said in the number of the Nation referred to: were political, and connected with his visit the names of Henry W. Longfellow, John The new university, we presume, will not be to South Carolina in 1865. On that jour- G. Whittier, and James Russell Lowell. fettered by precedents, but will mark out for ney he noted down the old slave songs- Whittier wrote a poem, “To the Thirty-ninth itself a new path, enlightened by the past, but words as well as music-which he after- adapted to the present. . . . It may be Congress,” for the issue of December 7, 1865, wards embodied in a volume (“Slave Songs intrusive for us to offer a suggestion to the but it does not appear that either Long- of the United States”) that has remained managers of the new university, but we can- fellow or Lowell, interested as they were in the best work of its kind. The range of not refrain from doing so when we reflect the new venture, felt moved to contribute his interests was remarkable. He wrote in how constantly in this country one error is to the Arst volume. Lowell, with character- the Nation on minority, personal, or Pro- repeated. It is not bricks and mortar, but istic humor, and with his equally character- men and books, which constitute a university. portional representation, on civil-service re- istic inclination to procrastinate, wrote to We delight in appropriate and decorated ar- form, on city government, village communl- Mr. Godkin under date of January 10, 1866: chitecture. . . . But we trust that a desire for ties, etc., and he reviewed, with competent suitable edifices will not prevent a supply I have got something half written for you knowledge, hooks on ornithology, political of higher wants. Let first-rate teachers be and hope to finish it to-day-some macaronic sconomy, English literature, and ancient and first secured. Let no expense be spared to verses on the editorial sham-fight at Rich- secure the highest educational ability which mond, under some such title as “Kettleo-potto- modern history. His character was in keep- the country will afford. Then, as the scholars machia.” I am not yet sure whether it is Lng with such mental endowments. assemble, as the courses and plans of the not dull. However, I will send it, and you There was a certain intellectual and moral university are developed, let such buildings can use it ‘or not, as you like. I had begun kinship between William F. Allen and go up as will best provide for the wants an essay on “Autographs” when I was drawn Michael Hellprin. The extent of Mr. Hell- which have been created. nff by this. Meanwhile, I have raked out of prin’s scholarship, as revealed in his con- Besides Mr. Frothingham, widely known my desk a little ppem which I wrote for an autograph for the St. Louis Fair two years tributions to the Nation, was during his as the head of the First Independent Liberal 2go. (The Muse doesn’t come often to pro- lifetime known to comparatively few. On Church of New York, another clergyman fessors!) I do not know that it has ever his death, in May, 1888, the editors wrote af great scholarly attainments, Dr. Joseph been printed, and don’t think it has. I send of him: How great 1s the loss sustained by Ameri lishPhrases,” and Oliphant‘s Eng- rangedfor a period of fortyyears over canscholarshlg through the death of land.” vast field of Frenchllterature and politl- Michael Heilprin, the general pubhc, owlng t Gradually the foremost American author: cal history. Laugel’s connectionwlth the the man’s invincible modesty, cannot knov lties in many fields gathered to the sur?- UnltedStates dated from the Civil War, To ths ~ournal andits readers it may fart port of theeditors of the Nataon, soliclte during which he accompanied theOrleans be pronounced irreparable, so largely has h d contributed durlnp. the past twentyyears t or unsollclted, most of them to remain tru e princes who served on McClellan’s staE. He whateverreputahon the Natzon mayhav tothe paper throughout life. Amongthes :e died in November, 1914, at Paris, at the age acquired for llteraryaccuracy or breadth o earliest friends-to mentiononly a few- - of eighty-four. Friedrich Kapp, one of the informahon. werethe scientist and philosopher, Chaur1- most prominent of the German patrlots who Fromthe day he furnished in hisfirst a] cey Wright, the phllologlst, William DwighIt sought shoresafter the Revolution of tlcle-on “TheCrisls in Austria”-acon Whitney;the jurist, Francis Wayland; th e 1848, and whose workson early German- prehenslvesketch of thepolltlcal histor diplomatist and student of Russian histor3 T, American history are of lasting value, acted, of the Empire since the revolution of 184f Eugene Schuyler; the philanthropist, CharleS after his return to Berlin in 1870, for many Mr. Heilprin gave the Nataon, in the word Loring Brace, and the art critic, W. J. Stil1- years as the NutLon’s Berlin correspondent. of the editors, “the benefit of his extensiv man, widely known as the United StatesCOI 1- His connectionwith the paper began wlth command of all the leading tongues ofmod sul, during a memorable period, at Crete and the first volume, towhich he contributed ernEurope, besides the Latin and Greel Rome. His relations with Mr. Garrison wer e art.icles on Bismarck and the Prussian con- classics, theHebrew, and other Orlenta of themost intimate. stitutionalcrisis. Dr. Ton Holst,the emi- speech.” And as in hisarticles on Eurc ChaunceyWright gave a course of unjL- nentauthor of the“Constitutional and Po- peanaffairs, so in his critical reviews, MI versitylectures on psychology in Harvari1 liticalHistory of theUnited States,”who Heilprinset an encyclopedic standard fo College in 1871, andthree years later con first began to write for the Natzon in 1869, the Nation to which few literary periodical ducted there a course in mathematical phys becameone of itsforeign correspondents in any language have been able to conform ics. Prof.William James wrote of him il1 after his return to Europe in the seventies. With the appearance of such writers, tht the Nation at the time of his death, in Ser 1. Jessie White Maria, a noble-souled English- work of creating a Natton public was nov tember, 1875, at the early age of forty-five woman, married to one of the Idealist lead- well under way. Fromthe beginning, ant “If power of analyticintellect pure an(P ers of the rasorgamento, was for forty years until they laid down their pens, Mr. Godkil simple could suffice, thename of Chaunce)7 theprincipal Italian correspondent of the and Mr. Garrisonhad, in their conduct o Wright would assuredly be as famous as i t Natzon. Anothervalued writer from Italy thepaper, only one aim in view-to mak is now obscure, for he was not merely thl formany years, after his withdrawalfrom itrepresentative of themost enlightenec greatmind of a village-if Cambridgewil 1 Cornell, wasWillard Fiske, widely known American opinion. That theyfelt it neces pardon the expression-but either in Londor1 for his Petrarchan collections. The polyglot sary,in the beginning, to “educate thei: or Berlinhe would, withequal ease, ham KarlHillebrand wrote occasional letters writers”(as Norton wrote to Lowell), a1 takenthe place of master. . . . As littlc from Florence, outdone in absolute mastery of a foreigg idiom by the Pole, E. Gryzanow- well as theirreaders, merely added zest ti of a reader as an educated man well can theirtask. But the paper was fortunat1 heyet astonished every one by his om ski,whose comments on Italian events and enough tohave among its early contribu niscience, for no specialist could talkwit? 1 philosophic discussions of certain aspects of tors several who possessed something mor1 ChaunceyWright without receiving somt theFranco-German wax (“International Ig- than the art of “weekly journalizing.” Youni sort of instruction in his specialty.” Wright‘ s norance,”“Popular Notions of Prussia,” inyears, but with all the maturity ant 2ontributions to the Nation included articlei3l etc.) are among the most brilliant pages of grace of the master of the craft, James an( on “Speculative Dynamics,” “Sir Charle!3 the Natzon.Conspicuous amongthe corre- Howellswrote sketches and essays for thc Lyell,” “McCosh on Tyndall,” and“GermaI spondence fromthe British Isles were the Nataon whichhave long since passed intc Darwinism.” London letters of Lieut.-Col. Robert D. 1born, who had made India and Afghanistan literature.The flrst volumecontains, fro= EugeneSchuyler’s varied diplomatic ca 1his special province, andthe first-hand dis- Mr. Howells’s pen, such reminiscences of hi: reelwas interestingly reflected in thear. Icussion of Irish matters, as keenand far- Italian days as Pilgrimage to Petrarch’: ;icles andreviews furnlshed to the Natzon ;ighted as it was patriotic and humane, sent House at kqu8,” Visitto the Cimbri,’ luring the quarter-century of his connection l1 Alfred Webb from Dublin. Leslie Stephen Day in Pompeii”; and for the second hc aith it as a frequent contributor. He began xlso wrote much, for a number of years, on wrote on “CertainThings in Naples,” or io write for the paper with its ninth num. ?British topics. Thatthe Natzon. is still “Massimo d’ Azeglio,” “Men and Manners on ler,and aweek beforehis death, on Julg 1Drivileged to retain on its list of London theWay from Ferrara to Genoa,” etc. In 16, 1890, as Consul-General of the United (:ontributors the names of LordBryce and addition, Mr. Howellscontributed in 1865 states at Cairo, the Nation had brief con. -1 A. V. Dicey is one of Its chief distino and 1866 editorialarticles to the columns :ributionfrom his pen. Hewrote on “The It:ions. It is more than forty years since the of the Natton. Henry James, was barely ?regress of Russia in Asia” not long before!. twenty-two years of age when he wrote his JVation printedthe first contributions of le was made Consul at Moscow, and during rames Bryce and Professor Dicey. The num- article for the first number. Among his con- 111 his subsequent changes of residence-at :E)er of June 18, 1874, contained the former’s tributions to succeedingvolumes of the St. Petersburg,where he was Secretary of Nataon werecritical papers on Miss Brad- .eview of Cleasby and Vigfusson’s Icelandic Jegation; on histravels in Central Asia; Dictionary-possibly nut the &st of his don, Walt Whitman, Eugenia de Gukin, and tt Constantinople,where he was Consul- (:ontributions to the paper. It is safe Dlckens’s “Our Mutual Friend ” :eneral; whileholding the Consulship at elay thatfew important contemporaneous Until a few monthsago there was still Ermingham,and as Minister-Resident to €!vents in British public life and the deaths among the living one of the most valued of :reece, Servia,and Rumania-he continued! If few British leaders in politics, literhture, thecontributors to the first volume of the o write for the Nation. His most important amd science have been left uncommemorated Nation-Prof. ThomasR. Lounsbury, who vork is his two volumes on Turkestan. in the pages of the Natzon by its distinguish- utilized his experiences in the Civil War in The foreign correspondence of the NutLon f :d English contributors. aneditorial on “TheWest Point Military ssumedfrom the beginning the character Academy” (December 28, 1865). He subse- t has ever sincemaintained. Edward It is not possible, within the space at my quently gave the Natzon thebenefit of his Xcey, for many years editor of the London dlisposal, to domore than allude to insight into military matters, in such papers Uxerwer, sent his fist letter to the Nation aIf the important events in our own country as “Ought Soldiers tu Vote?” and“The n August, 1865, and Auguste Laugel, a not- 0If which the Nation. for fifty years has been MilitiaSystem”; among his contributions d contributorto the Paris Temps and the t he spectator and-as must be conceded-one to literary criticism were reviews of “Dow- Zevue des Deua: Mondes, began in Decem- 0If the most influential of commentators. den’s Shakespeare,” “A Dictionary of Eng- er of thatyear a series of letterswhich ctodkin, in his “Retrospect,” on the twenty- 60 The Nation [Vol. IOI, No. 2610

fifth anniversary of the paper, touched upon too, undertook to expose the pretensions of His expositions of Darwinism and kindred the great political and social changes that Butler to be considered an honest and useful philosophical matters were not the least of had taken place within that quarter of the politician in 1867, or many years before his his great services to science. In his let- party found him out, and while criticism of century. Surely not less remarkable has ters to Sir Joseph Hooker and to Sir Charles him still, in Massachusetts at least, seemed Lyell, Darwin frequently expressed his deep been the transformation since then. It is an expression of indifference to the results appreciation of Gray’s approval and crit- profitable to recall some of Mr. Godkin’s of the war. In fact, it was nearly ten years comments on the events of the earlier pe- in advance of popular opinion about this icism. He wrote to Lye11 in 1860: “No one, riod. The bare facts stated emphasize the particular politician, and has had the satis- I think, understands the whole case better share which the men who spoke through faction of seeing its very earliest diagnoses of than Asa Gray.” the Nation had in promoting political prog- him accepted by all Republicans at last. . . . Several of William James’s brilliant pa- ress. What Mr. Godkin said, as to the pass- The Nation opposed the greenback theory pers on philosophical and physiological sub- ing away of the military spirit, is of pe- from the first moment of its appearance, and jects first saw the light in the columns culiar interest at the present day. In the when it had such very respectable Republican of the Nation. One recalls, among oth- champions as the late Oliver P. Morton; and issue of July 3, 1890, he wrote: ers, his “Moral Medication”-a review of advocated a return to specie p:yments when Liebault’s “Du Sommeil et des Etats Ana- In the year in which the Nation was start- a large number of leading Republicans doubt- logues” (Nation, July, 1868)-his paper on ed there was hardly any political observer ed whether a return would ever be practi- who did not look for the permanent retention cable, and, if practicable, desirable. It was, if Taine’s “Intelligence” (August, 1872)) his among us of the military spirit, for a con- not the first journal to engage in regular and discussion of “Vivisection” (February, siderable increase in the standing army, and persistent advocacy of civil-service reform, 1875)) his “German Pessimism”-a review for an increased disposition to use it either after Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, had of Pfleiderer’s “Der moderne Pessimismus” for purposes of foreign aggression, or for the brought it up in Congress, certdnly the first (October, 1875)-and his article on Mauds- more complete and peremptory assertion of to place it in the front rank of public ques- ley’s, Ferrier’s, and Luys’s treatises on the a strong central authority. All did not go tions. The first foreign complication, its dis- Mind and Brain (June, 1877). as far as Wendell Phillips when he declared cussion of which attracted any attention, was in that year, in a speech in Boston, that our the Alabama case, in which it, from the To the manysidedness of the great mathe old farming and reading republic was at an opening of the negotiations, attacked the matical astronomer, Simon Newcomb, the end, and that a strong military and perhaps theory of consequential damages, then in pages of the Nation bear ample testimony. predatory republic was to take its place. But much favor with the public, and continued The titles of some of his contributions to the certainly few looked for the rapid disappear- to attack it amid some obloquy, until it was earlier volumes speak for themselves: “BOW- ance of the army, and the almost abrupt ban- rejected as an absurdity by the Geneva en’s American Political Economy” (Nation, ishment of military topics from the forum of Tribunal. The silver erase it opposed from May, 1870), “Proctor on the Moon” (Octo- popular interest, and for the eagerness with the beginning, and has had the satisfaction “The District Investigation” which a community which had just been ber, 1873), of seeing the correctness of most of its po- (June, 1874), “Price on Currency and Bank- throwing all its powers into a fierce military sitions as regards the use of silver in the struggle, diverted its energies to the business United States acknowledged by most of its ing” (December, 1875), “Walker on the of money-making. There was something opponents. Wages Question” (July, 1876), “Who Are the very fine, as well as unexpected, about this, Friends of Negro Suffrage?” (January, 1877), and it called forth the admiration, as well as The political course of the Nation, after “The Life-Insurance Failures” (March, 1877)) the surprise, of the civilized world. its consolidation with the Evening Post in an obituary article on Prof. Joseph Henry Mr. Godkin did not have to quote from the 1881, is properly part of the history of the (May, 1878), “Education at the Naval Acad- early columns of the Nation to remind his latter journal. In Mr. Garrison’s hands the emy” (June, 1878), “The Signal-Service SUC- readers what part the paper played in the Nation’s literary reputation was secure, cession” (December, 1880). That even in his dark days of Reconstruction, and what share while Mr. Godkin was engrossed by his later years Professor Newcomb oontinued to it had in ushering in a new era in the daily labors on the Evening Post; and after be stirred by the practical questions of the South, with justice to both the negro and he had laid down his pen, and Mr. Garrison day, was evidenced by such articles in the the whites. Nor did he allude, in his assumed entire editorial control of the Na- Nation as his “Shall We Raise a Statue to “Retrospect,” to the services rendered by t4on, it suffered no loss of prestige. The [Boss] Shepherd?” (October, 1902). “The the Nation during so many years to the men who conferred on the Nation part of Functions of the Senate” (November; 1903), causes of sound money and of civil service their own scientiilc and literary lustre con- “The Cost of Life-Insurance Business” (July, and tariff reform. Five years earlier, on the tinued to. write for it, and a new generation 1905), and “What the Navy Needs” (Decem- completion of its twentieth year, Mr. God- worthily filled the gaps caused by death. ber, 1905). kin had spoken of some of the difeculties Of the giants who have passed away, and Particularly intimate were the Nation’s which beset the Nation at a very early pe- who, with their services to the paper, had relations with Gen. J. D. Cox, Grant’s high- riod, and had dwelt with pardonable pride given their friendship to its editors, during minded aud ill-used Secretary of the Iu- on some of its achievements: the first twenty-five years of its history and terior. “For a generation,” Mr. Garrison Almost in the first number it questioned a good part of the second period, only a few wrote in his obituary article, “we have en- the wisdom and soundness of a plan then in can be commemorated in this place. One joyed with him an intimacy characterized favor among many of its friends for having of the foremost, who did not quite round by entire mutual esteem through all vi&%& the Supreme Court do the work of recon- out the first quarter-century of his im- tudes of opinion; enlivened by constant instruction, by deciding what was or was not portant contributions to the Nation, was tercourse by letter, in connection with that “a republican form of government.” At a Asa Gray, the great botanist, who died in somewhat later period it questioned, amid attached and cordial collaboration which has much obloquy, the necessity and value of the January, 1888. Some of his articles, such lent so much weight to the reviews of this impeachment of Andrew Johnson, on the suc- as “Variation of Animals and Plants under journal.” A few of the subjects treated by cess of which a large proportion of the Re- Domestication” (Nation, March, 1868), “EVO- Gen. Cox in the Nation were: “Genorral JO- publican party had set its heart. It main- lution and Theology” (January 15, 1874), seph E. Johnston’s Narrative” (May, 1874), tained that even if Johnson were impeach- his summing up of the conclusions concern- “General Sherman’s Memoirs” (June, able, his conviction might work mischief by ing insectivorous plants (April 2 and 9, 1875), “The Army of the Cumberland” (De throwing the Government into the hands of 1874)) “What is Darwinism?” (May 28, cember, 1875), “The House of Representa- extremists, among whom Benjamin F. Butler 1874), and his review of “Darwin’s Insec- tives” (an editorial, April, 1878), “Parlia- was the most influential, and that his ac- tivorous and Climbing Plants” (January 6 mentary Procedure” (editorial, September. quittal would simply be the end of a piece of elaborate and expensive folly. In one and 13, 1876), have become permanent parts 1878), “Howard’s Nez-Perc6 War” (August, month after the failure of the trial the whole of the literature on their subjects. Professor 1881), “Van Horne’s Life of General Thom- country, including its chief promoters, was Gray’s last contribution to the Nation was as” (October, 1882). ashamed of the undertaking. The Nation, an exhaustive review of Darwin’s “Life.” Henry C. Lea, the historian of mediseval July 8, 19151 The Nation 61

ElIrOPe, author of the monumental “History witi Mr. Garrison’s ideals, than Thomas speak of SD many more, who ought to find of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages,” often Wentworth Higgineon. With him may be a place in the list of Nation friends and chose the Nation as a medium for express- linked, as holding all his life a message for writers. ing his views on some of the many sub- freedom, in thought and action, John White Some of the earliest contributors, fortu- jects that engaged his attention. Chadwick, for forty years pastor of the nately, remain 7l’ith us, a few still to la- Charles Francis Adams, jr., kept up an ac- Second Unitarian Church of Brooklyn. His bor on in the pursuit of ideals identified the connection with the ilution and its edi- connection with the Nation began in Vol- with them and the X&ion. Charles W.$lliot’s tars during all his life. The first of his con- ume I, with a notice of the life of Edward pen is as tireless to-day as when he began tributions, as nearly as can be traced, was Irving, and his last review was printed to write on scientific subjects for the Nation an article on “The Secret of the Rise in shortly before his death, in 1904. Cal. in 1866, and Basil L. Gildersleeve still graces Steel” (Nation, March, 1870). In subsequent George E. Waring, who by his work as a any subject he touches upon, as in the days issues he treated, among many other sub- sanitary engineer placed New York city when-thirty-four years agehe wrote his jects, “Railroad Subsidies” (October, 1870), and the whole country under deep obliga- inimitable letters in the X&ion on the per- “The ‘Pooling’ of Railroad Receipts” (No- tions, began in the early seventies to write formance of “CEdipus Tyrannus” at Har- vember, 1870), “Railroad Investments” (AU- for the Nation on the subjects which he had vard. One of the most important and most. gust, 1872)) “The Farmers’ Clubs and the so thoroughly mastered. Another special- prolific of the writers for the Nation sur- Railroads” (April, 1873), “The Experience ist of high renown, who for thirty years vives in the person of C. C. Nott, born in of a Great Corporation” (October, X374), gave the Nation the benefit of his exten- 1827, President Lincoln’s appointee as Judge “The Railroad Usury Law” (APriI. 1881), sive knowledge, was Prof. W. W. Goodwin. of the Court of Claims, who enlightened the and “Sewall’s Diary” (a book review, July LThe most notable of his contributions to earlier generation of Nation readers on and August, 1882). the Nation were the articles on Schliemann’s some of the weightiest aspects of Constitu- It would be an interesting task, did space discoveries. One who did much important tional law. It is a pleasure to include with permit, to follow in the pages of the Katioa work far the Notion in its early years hhese living witnesses of a bygone Period the development of American thought dur- shauld be remembered-Earl Shinn, who, contributors like Gen. A. A. WoodhulL who ing the fifty years of the journal’s existence. while studying art in Paris, wrote some has furnished the Nation with so many valu- That the work of the editors and the writ- graphic letters to the paper, and for a num- abIe papers, during SO many Years, on Clima- ers of the Nation-many of whom had so ber of years was its principal art critic. tology, modern theories of infection, and largely aided in the country’s progress-was The editors said of him that he employed other medical subjects; Prof Charles H. constructive in the best sense of the word, a vocabulary of remarkable scope and orig- Moore, long identified with American art and will, aftdr the lapse of so many years, be inality, and delighted as much in the strokes art criticism; Prof. C. H. TOY, equally Prom- readily conceded. The story of an impor- of his Pen as of his brush. One of his early inent at Harvard in another domain, that taut epoch in our economic history is told Xation letters from Paris attracted the at- of Hebrew and other Oriental literatures: in such contributions as David A. Wells’s lu- tention of Lowell, who wrote to Mr. Godkin the eminent botanist, Prof. George L. Good- minous comments on matters of internal rev- (July, 1869) : “I haven’t seen a better ale; Horace White, whose important discus- enue and on the enormous discretionary pow- p lece of writing than that French atelkr. sions of economic subjects cover almost the ers of the Secretary of the Treasury (October, It is the very best of its kind. Cherish that entire period of the iVution’s existence, and 1872), and his article on the absurdities in man, whoever he is.” the bearer of a name forever associated with American Iocal taxation (February, 1873) ; Not the least important part of the Na- the founding of the Nation, herself a cher- in Edward Atkinson’s papers on the con- tion’s work was done by men who culti- fshed contributor to its columns, Miss Grace traction of the currency, and in Prof. W. G. vated a restricted specialty with life-long Norton. Sumner’s discussions of the tariff and bi- devotion, content with the appreciation of While thus dwelling, with not unpardon- metallism. To enumerate the most notewor- the discriminating few. There leap to one’s able satisfaction, on its past achievements.. thy articles in the Nation on subjects con- mind two writers on military affairs, Gen. the N&bon faces the new tasks before it with netted with the natural sciences, philosophy, Francis W. Palfrey--“as fine an example of nsw hope. me&y-five years ago, Mr. God- jnrlsprudence, history, Biblical criticism, patriot and ~rita.n stock as this genera- kin, ]o&hg forward as well as backward.. philology, and a large deld of bellea-lettres, tion has seen,” Mr. Garrison said of him-- wrote: is to tell the great names of the last fifty who wrote admirably on Antietam and Fred- The leading colleges of the Country have years. A few may still be added to the list ericksburg and other campaigns of the Civil been almost transformed since the NatCon of the warmest friends of the paper from its War, and John Codman Ropes, an eminent was started, and a class of advanced stu- early years. None, perhaps, was closer to student of military history in general and the dents have come into exlstenco who were Mr. Godkin than Francis Parkman,of whom admirer and authoritative historian of Bona- unknown and unexpected at the CloSo of he said: “He impressed me, of all the men I par&-and yet no imperialist. Robert Trail1 the war. The schools of poliffcal scionoe have ever known, as the most of au Amer- Spence LowelI, the elder brother of James which the principal universities now con- ican.” Parkman was not a frequent con- Russell, enriched the columns of the N&ion t.&n turn out Yearly both writers and tbhrk- tributor to the Nation, but what he with articles, written in a peculiarly racy ers whose contributions to the literature of wrote was generally on the subjects near- style, on hfs favorite subject-Newfound- politicttl philosophy, history, archaeologY, BB- litical economy, and administrative law are est to his heart. One recalls his re- land. The Rev. Samuel Beal, professor of extremely important, and have placed the views of “DCcouvertes et Etablissements Chinese at University College, London, wrote country in the very front rank in Aelds of des FranGals dans 1’Oaest et dans le’ learnedly and. agreeably on Buddhism, inquiry ln which lt was, +x-and-twenty Sud de 1’Amerique Septentrionale” (Sep- and LieutXommander Henry H. Gorringe, years ago, almost wholly unrepresented. Not tember, 1876)) “Montcalm et le Canada remembered for his semi-naval exploit in only have they made the task of conducting FranCais” (May, t 1877)) and “The Chron- bringing to these shores the Alexandrian a critical journal like the Notion increasingly icle of the St. Lawrence” (July, 1878). Fran- obelisk, treated of the Interoceanic Canal, easy, but they carry on periodicals of their cis James Child, author of the classic “Eng- the North African Inland Sea, and other gi- own, in which the best thought of the time lish and Scottish Ballads,” and one of the men gantic projects around which his fertile mind on political and economic questions finds sde- whose achievements in letters and devotion played. And there was the 6tanc.h Amer- I ‘uate express’aR to the highest interests of the muntry have ican, Fitsedward Hall, many years of whose I The history of the twenty-five years now made their university illustrious, was from romantic life were spent in England, teach- closed has borne out Mr. Godkin’s prophecy. the inception of the Nation one of its most ing Sanskrit, Hindustani, and Indian Juris- With its old traditions and the impulses of valued contributors. Few of the literary prudence, who sent to the Nation the fruits a new life stirring throughout the land, the men of New England wrote more constant- of his minute studfes in Englfsb lexi- Nation of the future may hope to be wor- ly for the Nation, or were more in sympathy cography. But I must resist the temptation to thy of the Nation of the past.