Antiquarianism and Documents in

the Age of Literary History Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 By GEORGE H. CALLCOTT1 University of Maryland

N the development of American historical writing the period from 1800 to i860 is remembered principally for the grand I and flowing narratives of men like Bancroft and Prescott. Yet it was also the day of the antiquarian and of an unprecedented con- cern with the publication of documents and the compilation of his- torical minutiae. Avidly men collected, compiled, and read the documents and details of their past; and, what is more, they knew precisely why they did so. Romanticism in history meant love of the specific as well as the grand; it meant documents as well as rhetorical narrative. The quantity of documents and minutiae that appeared in the public's general reading suggests the interest and importance that were attached to this kind of historical publication. Popular maga- zines in the early 19th century featured masses of antiquarian detail that today would terrify the editors of the most specialized journals. These popular magazines would frequently quote 10- or 20-page excerpts from century-old political correspondence or Privy Council minutes "so that the reader might share with us" the pleasures of documentary reading.2 Editors explained that this was what the people wanted, that their public had "a fondness for . . . details" and wanted to read "the unadorned facts" because these details "are of personal interest and come home to the bosom of every indi- vidual." 3 The North American Review, the most prominent journal of the period and in many respects comparable to the modern Satur- day Review of Literature, devoted about 24 percent of its space to essay-reviews of histories in general — many of which were of local 1This paper is a condensation of part of the author's doctoral dissertation, written at the University of North Carolina: "Romantic History; the Idea of History in the , 1800-1860." Dr. Callcott is instructor in history at the University of Maryland and this year is teaching in the university's Overseas Program. 2 Unsigned review in DeBoiifs Review, 3:293 (Apr. 1847). 3 Preface to Collections Topographical, Historical, and Biographical, Relating Principally to New Hampshire, 1:3 (1822; 1831 reprint) ; unsigned review in North American Review, 39:32 (July 1834); also American Quarterly Review, 15:276 (June 1834); and American Quarterly Observer, 3:121 (July 1834). '7 18 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST and antiquarian interest — plus an additional 11 percent to dis- cussions of strictly primary materials, such as collected correspond- ence and reprints of historical documents.* In their eagerness to read the "unadorned facts," the public bought great sets of documentary collections. In 1852 Jared Sparks Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 sold 7,000 sets of his 12-volume Writings of Washington to a na- tion anxious to peruse them, whereas in 1889 an incomparably finer edition by Worthington Chauncey Ford sold but 750 sets, scarcely a tenth as many, in a nation with a population four time as large.5 Even when documents were already in print and available to the research scholar, new collections of the same material continually reappeared simply for the interest they afforded. The first two volumes of the Historical Society Collections went through three editions; Wisconsin published its Collections in German and Norwegian in order to meet public demand; Jonathan Elliot's Debates ... ow ... the Adoption of the Federal Constitution had gone through four editions by 1861; and Francis P. Blair's seven-volume Diplomatic Correspondence of the period 1783-89 and Thomas B. Wait's eight-volume State Papers and Publick Docu- ments went through three editions each. At least a third of the contents of historical journals consisted of primary materials, another third of local history, and the remainder of exotic adventure tales based on history. Seventeen such journals were published in the period, not for the professional historian, for there were practically none, but simply for the public, which wanted for general reading even more history than was available in popular magazines and published volumes. The editors of these journals warned, "nor shall we ... be lavish of labor to our own disad- vantage" ; they were endeavoring to reach the widest possible public; 4 The following sample from the North American Review includes only the kind of material that would have a place in a contemporary historical journal: Pages of Pages of Year Total pages history documents 1815 574 57 ">6 1820 904 84 92 1825 930 96 106 1830 1,100 127 107 1835 i.

1832-61 . • 38 . . . American State Papers . . . 1833-73 . . 109 . . . Congressional Globe (not strictly historical) 1833-34 . 7 . . . Francis P. Blair, ed., Diplomatic Correspondence . . . 1783 to 1789 . . . 1834-56 . • 42 . . . [Annals of Congress] Debates and Proceedings in the Congress . . . 1789-1824. 1834-37 • 12 . . . Jared Sparks, ed., Writings of . . . 1836-46 . 4 . . . Peter Force, ed., Tracts and Papers . . . 1837-53 • 9 . . . Peter Force, ed., American Archives . . . 1840 . . 3 . . . Henry D. Gilpin, ed., Papers of . . . 1850-56 . 10 . . . Charles Francis Adams, ed., Works of John Adams . . . 1853-54 • 9 .... H. A. Washington, ed., Writings of Thomas Jefferson . . . 1857-64 . 7 . . . John Charles Hamilton, ed., History of the Republic . . . as Traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton . . . 14 In the Dictionary of American Biography are listed 142 historians who did most of their work between 1800 and i860. These men produced 625 significant volumes, of which 178 were devoted to local or regional history, 133 consisted of collected docu- ments, 72 treated a national subject, 136 were historical biography, and 107 treated a foreign topic. Of these men, 41 were solely collectors or editors of documents; and hardly a score would be considered, or would have considered themselves, literary artists. The hundreds of other Americans, not listed in the DAB, who made a hobby of the past were far more likely to be chroniclers and compilers with modest interests than these 142 more prominent men. 22 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST to the past to be quite aware of the realities of the present. He looked suspiciously like the cartoons of a modern professor. But the antiquarian, if he appeared odd to some, saw no need to apolo- gize for his addiction. "We permit the entomologist to chase butter- flies interminably," he said; "let us be permitted quietly to spell out Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 inscriptions in old grave yards, to pore over musty books ... to ransack the records of the days of other years, to be transported at the discovery of an ancient manuscript. . . ." " Today the public seldom whiles away its leisure hours reading the ancient minutes of town councils or the letters of a forgotten governor, yet in antebellum America, "to gain the attention of a public desirous only of entertainment" such documents were just the thing.18 "For several years," wrote a reviewer in the Christian Examiner "we have found pleasant material for filling in the gaps between intervals of sterner study in reading from week to week . . . the exact details gathered from the newly opened treasures of the English State Paper Office." 1T Another writer believed that for general reading "The best history ... in Virginia is to be found in 'Henning's Statutes at Large'." 18 Article after article in the contemporary magazines echoed the opinion that reading primary materials was the "most delightful of intellectual recreations," and "cannot fail to afford high gratification." " For pure entertain- ment "nothing can be more satisfactory than original documents," said one writer.20 Such expressions appeared as "exciting," "in- teresting," "tantalizing," "one of the most disinterested pleasures," and "prolific of interest . . . for the casual reader." 21 In acquiring the Jonathan Trumbull papers for publication one editor rejoiced in the thought that "we shall be able to give the public a rich re- past," and reviewers thanked publishers of documents "for the pleasure . . . afforded us." 22

15 Abiel Holmes, "American Antiquarian Society," in Portfolio, 5:470 (May 1815). 16 Unsigned review in North American Review, 91: 354 (Oct. i860). 17 "History and Biography," in Christian Examiner, 70:314 (Mar. 1861). 18 Jonathan Peter Cushing, "Address Before the First Annual Meeting . . .," in Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society, Collections, 1:20 (1833). 19 Unsigned review in North American Review, 80:390 (Apr. 1855); Holmes, in Portfolio, 5:468 (May 1815). 20 "Recent Historical Revelations," in Eclectic Magazine, 44:347 (July 1858). 21 C. P. Cooper, "Materials for History," in Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, 22:229 (Feb. 1833); unsigned review in North American Review, 43:276 (July 1836) ; "Materials for American History," in Christian Examiner, 70:399 (May 1861) ; unsigned reviews in North American Review, 91:354 (Oct. i860) and Southern Literary Messenger, 18:311 (May 1852). 22 Jeremy Belknap to Ebenezer Hazard, Feb. 19, 1791, in Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 5th series, 3:356 (1897); unsigned review in DeBow's Review, 3:293 (Apr. 1847). ANTIQUARIANISM AND DOCUMENTS 23

People in antebellum America recognized the emphasis that their own age placed on original sources. As early as 1782 a magazine editor wrote, "We are happy to find that a spirit of collecting and publishing historical documents begins, at length to discover itself in the united states [sic]." 23 In 1838 a writer said, "New England Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 people . . . have always been a documentary people," 2i and 20 years later another acclaimed the "tendency in our time, daily on the ascendant," to collect, publish, and pore over "all original corre- spondences and documents." 25 As John Spencer Bassett observed, "The reviewers began to talk of a documentary history as the only real way in which history was to be written, having in mind that posterity, if not themselves, would while away its hours of ease poring over collections of laws, state papers, and political corre- spondence." 26 Before i860 almost everyone recognized that documentary his- tory and narrative history were altogether different, a distinction that tended to be lost in the age of scientific history. The words "antiquarian" and "historian" implied distinct professions, and "Historical and Antiquarian Society" did not seem a redundant title.27 It was recognized that a factual chronicle "will not form of itself a history, but will furnish the future historian the materials from which he may work." 2S A writer discussing the aims of the American Antiquarian Society said, "The study of antiquities is an auxiliary to history. . . . [The one] furnishes a few of the valuable materials, with which the other constructs her superb edifice." Z9 Even in a day when literary etiquette demanded self-effacement, writers about the past were often excessively modest about pre- tending to the dignity that the word "historian" implied. Writers variously confessed that they "were aspiring not to the dignified title of history"; that they "aspire here to no more than the humble office of a compiler"; or that they "could not claim to the position of an historian, for that niche in the temple of fame must be occupied by some more worthy person." 80 Repeatedly the compilers spoke 23 Editorial in Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, 7:111 (Feb. 1782). 2* Unsigned review in North American Review, 46:476 (Apr. 1838). 25 "Recent Historical Revelations," in Eclectic Magazine, 44:347 (July 1858); also William Leete Stone, Life of Joseph Brant . . . (New York, 1838), 1:xxvi-xxvii. 26 Bassett, Middle Group of Historians, p. 88. 27 At least nine organizations used both words in their name. Griffin, Bibliography. 28 Cooper in Museum of Foreign Literature, 22:230 (Feb. 1833). 29 Holmes, in Portfolio, 5:471 (May 1815) ; see also unsigned review in North American Review, 73:447 (Oct. 1851). 30 James Thatcher, Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War . . ., p. v (, 1823) ; Francis Lister Hawks, The Monuments of Egypt . . ., p. 13 (New York, 1850) ; John Hill Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina from 1584. to 24 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST of the "future historians" and "abler hands" who would add "the trappings of art" to their work, making it true history.31 But if their task was humble, the antiquarians were acclaimed as all the more worthy of gratitude; and reviewers extolled them for rendering such noble service. "We hardly know of a more im- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 portant service that can be rendered to the cause of useful Knowl- edge," wrote one reviewer, "than the collecting and reprinting of scarce documents." 32 Of Jared Sparks and his many collections of documents a critic declared, "No one in the wide circle of literature . . . has rendered greater benefits" to mankind; and another as- serted, "The American press has produced no work of higher value." 33 And yet another reviewer noted that the compiler "labors for posterity, and, like David, gathers together the gold and silver, the brass and iron, the timber and stone, while another erects the Temple and calls it by his name." 34 The very consciousness that collections were one thing and history another caused historical works that combined and confused the two to be received coolly by the public. Compilations that made no pre- tense of telling a connected story, such as the works of Jared Sparks and Peter Force or the collections of historical societies, met nearly universal praise; and, of course, the fine narratives of men like George Bancroft and William H. Prescott made those men literary idols. But the works of, say, Abiel Holmes, Timothy Pitkin, and especially Richard Hildreth were criticized for being neither good narrative nor unadorned facts.35 Holmes' American Annals, for example, was accepted as "a compilation of facts"; but as a history "in the full import" of that word, it was rejected as "meagre and miserably imperfect." 36 Pitkin's Political and Civil History of the United States was "but an imperfect outline of the picture," and 1851, i:xix (Philadelphia, 1851) ; also Joel Munsell, Typographical Miscellany, p. iii (Albany, 1850) ; and Henry Onderdonk, Jr., Documents and Letters Intended to Illustrate the Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County . . ., p. 7 (New York, 1846). 31 Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina, 1: xvii; David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World, 1:5 (Boston, 1813) ; also preface to Collections Relating to New Hampshire, 1:5; Abiel Holmes, Annals of America . . ., 1: iii (Cambridge, 1829); John Haywood, Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee . . ., 1: iii (Knoxville, 1823). 32 Unsigned reviews in North American Review, 43:274 (July 1836) and 71:34 (July 1850). 33 Unsigned review in North American Review, 47:318 (Oct. 1838). 34 Unsigned review in Southern Quarterly Review, 3:43 (Jan. 1843). 35 For a digest of contemporary reviews, see S. Austin Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature and English and American Authors . . . (Philadelphia, 1899) ; also Michael Kraus, Writing of American History (Norman, Okla., 1953). 36 Unsigned reviews in North American Review, 29:429 (Oct. 1829), and Quarterly Review, 2:319 (Nov. 1809). ANTIQUARIANISM AND DOCUMENTS 25 such men as he were but "collectors of the raw materials out of which . . . history is made." 37 Hildreth's History of the United States was praised as "a fine chronicle, but not history," for the true historian must "not only chronicle the occurrences, but decipher their meaning." S8 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 But more important than the fact that people did like documents is the question why they did. What had documentary history then that it lacks, at least for the general public, today? There was ex- citement and drama hidden in the dusty documents of the early 19th century, which perhaps has been destroyed by the coming of pro- fessional historians. The basic facts of the past were not then so close as the nearest textbook, and history was not a matter of recall- ing childhood school lessons. Untarnished by endless professional commentaries and interpretations, the facts had a dynamic life in 1820 that later generations were to find in magazine articles about Freudian psychology or jet planes. Facts were fresh and exciting. They were hidden in old letters, newspapers, local parish records, and archives in colonial offices. These sources had the mysterious lure of hidden treasure, and the public itself could enjoy the pleasure of new discovery that today, in history, is reserved for the research scholar. The first nuggets were largest and easiest to find. Many men, no doubt, shared the experience of Benjamin L. C. Wailes, a Mississippi planter. Quite accidentally coming across lost facts in forgotten files, he developed a lifelong passion for history and founded the Mississippi Historical Society as a sort of treasure- hunters' club.39 The very fact that material was obscure made it more exciting. It was "especially those minor points . . . which have escaped the notice of historians" that were sought in the docu- ments.40 A reviewer of the Public Records of found them interesting "for the very reason that they relate chiefly to minute and insignificant events," 41 and a reviewer of the American Archives noted how Force's "collection of these small things . . . constitutes . . . the chief historic attraction." 42 The fascination and joy of first discovery made men eager to find more.

37 Unsigned reviews in North American Review, 30:2 (Jan. 1830), and 42:452 (Apr. 1836). 38 Unsigned reviews in Living Age, 23:365 (Nov. 1849) ; North American Review, 73:412 (Oct. 1851) ; and DeBow's Review, 11:344 (Sept. 1851). 39 Charles Sydnor, Gentleman of the Old Natchez Region; Benjamin L. C. Wailes, p. 236-239 (Durham, N. C, 1938). 40 Frederick A. Porcher, "Address . . ." in South Carolina Historical Society, Col- lections, 1:10 (1857) ; also George Rainsford Fairbanks, Early History of Florida . . ., p. 24 (St. Augustine, 1857). 41 Unsigned review in North American Review, 71:36 (July 1850). 42 Unsigned review in North American Review, 46:486 (Apr. 1838). 26 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST

There was often a certain intimacy in detail that momentous movements somehow lacked. The reader could identify himself with the story of an individual soldier, while the strategy of armies seemed cold and distant. Skillful authors knew that "it is this minuteness of detail which forms one of the principle charms in Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 books of fiction," 43 and they promised to provide "the smaller mat- ters of individual experience," which more pretentious history "in its stately march could not step aside to notice." 44 "A great variety of details" would "give color and interest to the narrative." *5 Here was "the magic by which we make the dry bones live again." *8 Minutiae offered insight as well as interest; for often the obscure detail would capture the "spirit" of the past, portray atmosphere, and point up the significant in history, as no narrative could do. The history of a town was a microcosm of the history of the entire country; in the letters of Napoleon lay an understanding of the French nation; in the papers of a Revolutionary diplomat lay an understanding of mankind.47 Sometimes, said historians, an un- important document that seemingly "had no claim to being copied," would be just the one "to illustrate the manners and spirit of the times." 4S This "minuteness of detail is indispensable," they said, for often there was more truth in the "impression" conveyed by a well-chosen detail than in a long interpretative analysis.49 Available historical data, at least on America, were not over- whelmingly abundant in antebellum America; and new material, no matter how obscure, was welcomed as adding to the picture rather than confusing it. New facts encouraged men to seek more facts rather than discouraged them with the thought that they could never comprehend it all. Detail seemed essential to thoroughness, to knowing for certain what was the authentic truth about the past; and 43 Lambert Lilly [Francis Lister Hawks], History of the Western States, Illustrated by Tales, Sketches and Anecdotes, p. 4 (Boston, 1835). 44 Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio . . ., p. 3 (Cincinnati, 1848). 45 John Lothrop Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, i:viii (New York, 1856); Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in England, i:viii (Boston, 1855) ; Washington Irving, History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1:20 (New York, 1828). 48 William Leete Stone, Life of Joseph Brant . . ., i:xxvi (New York, 1838). See also unsigned reviews in North American Review, 39:467 (Oct. 1834), and American Quarterly Review, 15:276 (June 1834). 47 "Recent Historical Revelations," in Eclectic Magazine, 44:374 (July 1858) ; and unsigned reviews in North American Review, 42:453 (Apr. 1836), and 43:276 (July 1836), and in Christian Examiner, 40:248 (Mar. 1856). See also Ralph Waldo Emer- son's essay on history. 48 Hugh Williamson, History of North Carolina, i:viii (Philadelphia, 1812) ; and John Marshall, Life of George Washington . . ., i:xv (Philadelphia, 1804). 49 James Thatcher, History of the Town of Plymouth . . ., p. iv (Boston, 1832) ; Joel Tyler Headley, Washington and his Generals, 1: ix (New York, 1848). ANTIQUARIANISM AND DOCUMENTS 27 men were not afraid of the entire truth. Compiling the story of the past for the first time, historians were inclined to suppose that by including all facts they could tell the story for all time. "If one would study history thoroughly he must not despise small things, but condescend to the minutest details . . . the bottom facts." 50 One Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 writer admitted that some of his material was "quite minute and trifling" but insisted that he would "omit nothing," and another believed that any facts at all, if authentic, were "too deeply interest- ing to be consigned to oblivion." 51 A sense of service to society inspired some men to gather and publish historical documents. Believing history to be desirable, they thought that collecting the facts was a necessary task that had to come first, pleasant or not. The desire to serve one's community may not now be so deeply felt as in the 19th century; but to the romantic, as to the Victorian, it was real. Men truly believed, then, that "man subserves the purpose of moral existence when he does what is a real benefit to his Country" ; and compilation seemed to be such a benefit.52 "I looked around in search of some object, in pursuit of which I could benefit my fellow-citizens," explained one compiler; "Public Utility has been the predominant object of my labour," said another; and a third implied that he was not really fond of his task at all but worked "for the pleasure of contributing his mite to the service of the community." 53 Documentary collections, then, would serve as "a store-house of new materials," "for the use of the future historian"; and there seemed no more utilitarian service than "to facilitate the future labors of the historian." B4 Collectors hoped that properly preserved documents would inspire latent scholars, that because of available materials there "may arise . . . literary characters who will one day do honour to the land that gave them their birth." 55 Americans 50 Philip Slaughter, History of Bristol Parish, Virginia . . ., p. xiv (Richmond, 1846). 61 William Read Staples, Annals of the Town of Providence . . ., p. v (Providence, 1843) ; Thatcher, Military Journal, p. vi; also Jared Sparks, ed., Works of . . ., i:xii (Boston, 1844). 52 William Durken Williamson, History of the State of . . ., 1: iv (Hallowell, 1839) ; , American Loyalists . . ., p. iv (Boston, 1847) ; Samuel Greene Arnold, Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia, p. 14 (Auburn and Buffalo, N. Y., 1854). 53 Albert James Pickett, History of Alabama . . ., p. 10 (Sheffield, 1851) ; Humphrey Marshall, History of Kentucky, i:iii (Frankfort, 1824) ; Benjamin Trumbull, Complete History of Connecticut . . ., 1:5 (New Haven, 1818). 54 Unsigned review in North American Review, 33:449 (Oct. 1831) ; "Prospectus," in American Pioneer, 1:3 (Jan. 1842); "Recent Historical Revelations," in Eclectic Magazine, 44:347 (July 1858). 55 Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, Trans- actions, i:xvi (1819) ; also unsigned review in North American Review, 43:276 (July 1836). 28 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST realized that great histories could not be written until the materials were gathered, and wisely and willingly they took the first step first. Closely related to the desire to be of service was a sense of patri- otism that stimulated an interest in antiquarianism. Collections would serve as a monument to the great men and deeds of past Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/21/1/17/2743835/aarc_21_1_x38v42wu74533574.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 generations. The new nation, so painfully conscious of its cultural immaturity, feared "the discredit brought upon our national reputa- tion" by the neglect of documents.66 "Why this ransacking of old cupboards for dusty documents? . . . We . . . make but one reply. Because we love our country." 57 A collection of the papers and an account of the actions of the founders of the country would be the finest memorial to our ancestors, "a monument to those whose memory ought to live forever." 5S "If there were no other considera- tion to recommend it," said one writer, "we owe it to the generation of patriots who achieved our independence, to bring out from the archives in which they are perishing, the monuments of their talent, for their honor and our instruction." 59

Three attitudes combined to produce the interest of this period in pure facts, in documents, and in the minutiae of history. One stemmed from the 18th century, another came to fruition in the era of scientific history, and the third was essentially romantic. From the 18th century came the spirit of inquiry and catholic in- terest of men like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson — a genuine curiosity to know what men had not known before. The plain facts of what had happened — say in medieval Spain, in aboriginal Peru, in mysterious China, and most especially here at home — these facts were simply unknown, and the mystery made knowing them seem all the more important. How hungrily we now read the first-translated documents of the Minoan civilization, how eagerly we would seize upon the first records of men from Mars! To early 19th-century readers each new compilation had the ad- ditional excitement that it revealed their own past.60 The basic facts, as laid down for the first time in the chronicles of Jeremy Belknap or David Ramsay or in the collections of Peter Force and Jared 56 Cooper in Museum of Foreign Literature, 22:229 (Feb. 1833). 57 John Romeyn Brodhead, Address Delivered Before the Ne