AMERICAN LITERATURE AND SOCIAL CRISIS, 1837-1QU2 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ctiio State University By John William Nichol, A.E., M.A. The Ohio siate University 1953 Approved by: Adviser Preface A phenomenon in the history of literature like that popularly known as the “American Renaissance" is certain to inspire conjectures as to its causes. Why did there happen to appear in America, in one concentrated moment of expression at the middle of the nineteenth cen­ tury, a wealth of literary masterpieces such as has never been dupli­ cated in any similar period? Emerson's Essays, Thoreau's Walden, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables, Melville's Moby Dick, Whitman's Leaves of Grass are but a few of the mid-century classics. Many explanations have been advanced. However, believing that what a man thinks and writes is not entirely independent of the life he leads as a social and economic animal, I felt that there might be some general relation between the peculiar social conditions of the time and the extraordinary production. Such a study had not yet been adequately made, so it was along this line that my investigation began. In the two decades preceding the outburst of literary produc­ tivity in the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States had undergone a period of sharp social and economic change, recognised by historians as constituting a crisis in the development of the nation. The change was from the predominantly patrician culture of the beginning of the century to the democratic culture signaled by the rise of the common man. By 1837> after two terms of Jacksonian rule, the new political and social democratic enthusiasm was at its height. Also the ii A 1 6 9 0 1 ill year 1837 marked the beginning of the worst panic the United States had yet experienced. Furthermore, in this year most of the writers who were to make up the Renaissance were in the process of developing the atti­ tudes and philosophies which were to inform their later writings* Thus I chose this year, and the five years of depression following it, as the ideal period in which to concentrate a study of the relationship of a social crisis to the literary mind. The results of this study were two, first, although the ideal­ istic writers favored the freedom and the high place promised the individual in the new ideal social order, it was evident that they were dissatisfied with the way in which democracy was actually being imple­ mented, with the way in which the bourgeoise and vulgar equalitarian social and economic standards were being forced upon even the artistic genius. Thus they were in conflict with their society, and the re­ sulting tensions between the ideal and the actual were instrumental in bringing out much of the literary expression of the time. This was my first conclusion. The second followed almost directly, and involved the setting up of a relatively new critical position from which to view the mid-century writings themselves. Thus, in addition to studying these writings as examples of the new-found interest in romantic, demo­ cratic, liberal individualism (as they have usually been studied), one must always be aware of the minor but ever prevalent aristocratic, reactionary feeling, either begun or strengthened in these years of crisis, which contributed to the complexity of the finished products. From this viewpoint Hester, or Ahab, or even the American "scholar* Iv becomes more fully understandable. In order to make clear this bias of conservative reaction, in the literary mind, to the excesses and the vulgarities of the day, I have outlined the specific social changes themselves and then studied the reactions to them as exhibited by three authors who were relatively sure of their contempt for the democratic society of these years and who were overt in the expression of their criticism— Ft. H. Dana, Sr., Poe, and Cooper. Having established the point, I then have selected, from among the authors of the Renaissance, Emerson and Hawthorne as examples of the way in which more complex social tensions called forth in an author his best creative and imaginative work. Ehierson and Hawthorne were already writing during the years I have selected for study5 some others of the mid-century groi^p were not. But a critical position similar to the one I have arrived at is inqportant to an understanding of the whole group of Renaissance writers who had lived under, and reacted to, the same conditions of a raw and uncouth leveling democratic society. J. W. N. Contents Preface ii I The Nature of the Change: Social and Economic 1 II The Nature of the Change: Intellectual Trends 22 111 The Nature of the Change: The Literary and Publishing Scene J±7 IV The Overt Reaction: R. H. Dana, Sr., Poe, Cooper 70 V The Sublimated Reaction: Ehierson 172 VI The Sublimated Reaction: Hawthorne 208 Bibliography of Works Cited 255 v Chapter I The Nature of the Change: Social and Economic Any generation within the short history of America might be pointed out as a period of major and sweeping change, but the years comprising the second quarter of the nineteenth century saw changes and social crises which were of great significance to the development of American society. As the interest and very center of this study lie in an analysis of the reactions of various authors to the economic and social changes of these years--especially of the years 1 8 3 7 -1 8 U2 — it is well that we have in mind some picture of just what was happening, what some of the phenomena were that gave this era its peculiar quality of change and crisis. These phenomena were not only social and economic in character, but intellectual and philosophical as well, so that any sur­ vey of the changes in this period must take both these trends into consideration. In general, the change in American society during these years was one from an essentially "aristocratic” to an essentially "democratic" domination. This is stated much too simply to be altogether true, as we shall see in the later refinement of the terms, but it may stand as an introduction. The cultural heritage of the American people in the first quarter of the century was an aristocratic one. The framers of the Constitution were well-educated and well-bred holders of property and wealth and were dominated still by the English standards of society and behavior. The social aristocracy of Federalism ruled in terms of politics, manners, education, literature and all else which goes to make 1 a civilized community. Even with the extension of suffrage about 1800 and the election of Jefferson— "an atheist in religion and a fanatic in politics” — the founding fathers still controlled the instruments which "^In a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Governor Jay of New York, 1800, quoted in Dixon Kyan Fox, The Decline of Aristocracy in the Politics of New York, Columbia U. Studies in Hist., Econ., and Public Law, Vol. 8 6 (New York, 1919), p. 3. gave society its character. Madison, Monroe, and J. Q. Adams carried on the aristocratic tone which began with Washington. But after 1800 the extension of the universal suffrage theory and its adoption in state after state, the population growth, the philosophies of industrial pioneering working hand in hand with those of frontier pioneering, and the expansions in technology, manufacturing and education all worked toward the undermining of the old established farms of society. It was slow and laborious work to oust a system which had been building far centuries and had tradition to support it. The first manifestation of the rising power of the demos did not come until 1 8 2 8 when it showed itself politically with the election of Andrew Jackson. In the wake of its political appearance came its evidences in economic and social structures, so that by the depression period 1 8 3 7 -1 8 1 *2 , democracy was upon the nation in its most rampant and raw forms. This was the period of crisis in the trying out of a new social philosophy, the period of inevitable "cheap and nasty Journalism,” "get-rich-quick speculations," unscrupulous party politics, social climbing, riots, and lawlessness which resulted when a meagerly educated and enthusiastic class of people were suddenly "told from all sides that the country was in their hands* Leveling democracy was at the helm and guiding the destiny of society. The change, of course, was not all for the worse, as is well pointed out in corrective studies of the period. It was probably ^For example, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (Boston, 191*5) > C. it* Fish, The Rise of the Common Man, American Life Series (New York, 1927). inevitable that such a gross exaggeration of principles should be necessary to uproot some of the well-founded aristocratic traditions. The grossness was a step in the establishing of the principles of democ­ racy, and, fortunately, in most respects, the excesses have been out­ grown with time and maturity. But the important fact for this study is that, at the moment of change, thinking men with genteel backgrounds — a classification which includes many of the mid-century authors— were dismayed at the conditions and at the degradation taking place. The new generation "blithely undertook the task of spreading the good things, even the choice things, of life over the whole face of society...